5 Star Review

Posted on Thursday January 24th, 2019 @ 14:24 hours by Colt McCormick & Ares Onasis & M'erah
Edited on on Wednesday February 20th, 2019 @ 12:25 hours

Mission: Pixie Dust
Location: Mess Hall, S.S. Fawkes
Timeline: MD01 - 0900 hours
1831 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

With the back of his paw M'erah pushed some of the hairs back behind his ear. Then his paw folded into a fist and knocked on the door to the Quartermaster's cabin. "Miss Onasis." He knocked once more for good measure.

Ares put in the final touches to her room, though she didn't really have much stuff to begin with. It was more getting used to the idea of having a semi-permanent bed again. It was... nice. The knock on her door broke her gaze that had been settling on the rifle she had put back together. She looked at the door, then back to her rifle. Should probably put this away for now, she decided quickly, and placed it swiftly in the storage area above her bed and away from view. "Come in!" She called to her guest waiting patiently outside.

The door opened but there wasn't really someone immediately behind it. Which confused M'erah, "Hello, miss Onasis? The Captain asked me to intrrroduce you to the passengerrrs." He hesitantly stepped into the room and looked around. "I like what you've done with the place." He remarked on the spartan state of the quarters.

Ares looked around her meager room and, finding the humor in the comment, twitched her lips up a bit. She hadn't done anything to it, just stored the few pieces of clothing, PADDs, and small collection of weapons she owned that had been placed out of view. "Thanks." Her eyes moved back over to the Caitian. "What's your name?"

Putting out a paw to shake her hand he introduced himself, "M'errrah." He stepped slightly back in the direction of the exit to allow her some room to manoeuvre. "I know you've only just arrrived, but Captain Drrroz rrreally wants to make surrre the passengerrrs are comforrrtable. Something about five starrrs."

Ares let out another warm chuckle at the straightforward Caitian. "It's an old Earth rating system for hotels and resorts. It tells you what types of amenities are at the hotel. The higher the ranking, the more expensive the rates. I appreciate Droz's efforts to force us all to socialize. I normally keep to myself but, apparently that won't be the case."

"The Captain seems stand off'ish, but she seems to know what it takes to rrrun a ship." M'erah remarked, "how long have you been in the frrreighting business?"

"An hour," Ares stated dryly. Well, it was the truth. No use lying since everyone would probably find out she had no practical experience in this line of work. She just had skills that could more than likely be translated into this line of work. "What do you do around here? Besides being a tour guide."

The Caitian's furry brow furrowed, "I'm an able deck hand. Make sure the little ones stay on task. Help out specialists where needed." he kind of realised why the captain sent him, yet another first timer.

Ares nodded slowly. He was very straight-forward, albeit a little literal with his interpretations. It was endearing. "Have you been working here for long?"

"The Fawkes? I'm surrre you rrread the news. Everrryone but the Captain was put away on smuggling charrrges." M'erah responded as they headed out of the room and in the direction of the mess hall which was on the same level, "I was not a memberrr of the forrrmerrr crrrew."

“Have you worked for other ships before this one?” Ares continued her questioning, pushing the spotlight away from her and onto M’erah. Typical cop, and criminal, habit. She was also genuinely curious about the people she was going to be working and living with. She rather impulsively went with this job. She very well could regret the decision in the not so distant future.

"Just been a lowly Deck Hand for the past eight years, miss." Subconsciously M'erah scratched the scar on his face, reminding him of why he needed a break before taking on this assignment. "Herrre we arrre." The big Caitian came to a stop in front of the mess hall, "Yourrr firrrst big test." Another toothy grin before he turned to open the door.

Guess I’m not the only one with baggage… Ares briefly thought. She then pushed it to the side while she looked around with her eyebrows raised. They fell back down when her eyes landed onto the Caitian’s slightly awkward grin. “Umm, M’erah… is my first test stating what this room is or proving my skills in this room?” She wouldn’t be surprised with any answer that would come purring out of his mouth.

Before M'erah could answer the doors parted and showed a couple of people around the room. Most of them were still eating their breakfast. The passage on a freighter was usually cheap and easy, though that meant nothing was done in regards to entertainment during the time on board. It landed on the crew and the passengers themselves to keep them all entertained. He motioned for Ares to step inside first, the toothy grin not wavering.

The further she walked into the Mess Hall, the more Ares's heart continued beating. She kept her face neutral and cold, but inside she could feel her stomach twisting up in knots. It was all too surreal. The room was set up similarly to her parents' restaurant back in Greece and she was having a hard time deciding if this was a good sign or a bad sign. In color the two places were dissimilar, with the Mess Hall’s more muted colors being overpowered by her parents’ brightly painted walls and tables and wall decor, but in everything else in the room had brought her past back to her present.

Her young heart clung onto the faint memories of the love and laughter she felt sitting at the counter while her mom poured her a soda and her dad singing in his rough and off-tune Opera voice. And this room, just like a mirrored version of the restaurant, brought them flooding back all at once. "Pretty basic." She quickly stated to shove everything back down into her depths and lock them away for now. "Kitchen is open to use whenever?"

"We serrrve meals thrrree times a day. Most of those arrre supposed to come from the rrreplicatorrr though." M'erah remarked looking around the room, the type of people that were attracted to freighter travel were very diverse. All with their particular reasons to choose the less conventional travel option. "We'rrre at half capacity, passengerrr wise."

Suck it up, Buttercup, Ares internally demanded her memories. Get over it... "We should probably go check out where you keep the supplies and all that. Since I'm in charge of that." Her body had dealt with her memories long enough. The only way for the tide to calm was leaving and grabbing something from the Infirmary to be rid of everything.

M'erah leaned in a bit to whisper, "Nothing you want to say to ourrr passengerrrs?" He cocked and eyebrown and gave a crooked grin to the newly minted Quartermaster.

Ares raised her eyebrows slightly at him. She really didn’t want to, but the Caitian was going out of his way to be polite and give her an obviously forced smile. She couldn’t lose out on this opportunity. She had sold most of her personal items, including her beloved guitar, to get to the base. With only a small amount of funds to her name, she couldn’t afford to be the usual biting bitch. She looked back over at the two passengers, both males, and made her way quickly over to them. “Hi, my name is Ares…” Her voice trailed off as they both turned to look at her.

It was like she had seen a ghost.

The color drained from her face and her mouth and throat suddenly became dry. The man on her right, with his bright blue eyes, strong jaw, broad shoulders, and slightly disjointed nose from one too many fist fights was the spitting image of Adam. She felt the air being sucked out of her lungs as she froze for a moment before shaking her head quickly. “Uhh…” she tried to play off the fact that she probably looked like an idiot in front of the two strangers. “I’m the Quartermaster here,” she forced with a dry tongue.

The Adam look-alike gave her a smirk, the same smirk Adam always gave her when she ran her mouth off too much. It was also the same one he gave her every morning they woke up next to each other. “I’m Colt. It’s nice to meet you, Sweetheart.” His blue eyes gave her a once over, the pupils dilating in piqued interest. It made Ares’s skin crawl. He even sounded like Adam.

"If therrre's anything we can help you with, orrr something you need don't be afrrraid to rrreach out." M'erah wondered what had come over the woman but she seemed to be struggling and he hoped she'd appreciate the bail out. "Miss Onasis herrre and myself arrre always happy to help. Forrr now we'll be occupied with otherrr tasks and hope you can enter retain yourrrselves Forrr the day." He tapped Ares' shoulder to hopely midge her into action.

Colt didn’t even look at M’erah. He kept his eyes steady on the mysterious Ares. She was quite a knockout, with an exotic look with an equally exotic tongue. She had to at least have been 15 years younger than him, but her spirit seemed far older than her physical self. “I hope to see you around, Ares…” he drew out her name softly and sweetly. He was definitely going to be seeing her later.

Ares, who had finally come back to her senses thanks to M’erah, gave him a slight nod in acknowledgement but gave no answer. She was still too freaked out by the entire Mess Hall. She had told May in their first meeting that she knew how to cook but she didn’t know if she could face the Mess Hall again. She then turned awkwardly to head out out the Mess Hall and into the hallway.

M'erah looked over his shoulder to check on the people in the mess hall one last time before the doors closed behind them, "Bit overrrwhelming?" he put his furry hand on her shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze, "We all need to get used ourrr new lives."

Ares looked over at M'erah. "There's a whole lot I'm still getting used to." 'New lives' was an interesting choice of words. Ares was not the only one trying to start over, maybe even trying to run from something.

[END]

Ares Onasis
Quartermaster

&

M'erah (NPC)
Deck Hand (Able)

"The House of Hades would stir their worst memories, make them see things and hear things from the past Their ghosts would become restless."