AWD #355: Saturnalia Surreal
Saturnalia Surreal
Summary: Military folks of all branches and all forms of life (cough death) gather without rank or division to celebrate their existence, the memory of loved ones, and the promise of a bright future. The ghosts from the Pireaus ruins and the ghost Captain's touch leaves a few blessed or cursed? Enlightened or confused?
Date: 11/06/2016
Related Logs: None
Bennett thecaptain Endymion Fairfax Fischer Halena Kapali Kelsey Randy 
Sheridan - Pireaus

Despite the number of civilians, it is impossible to forget that this is a military mission given the surroundings. At all hours there are Marine patrols moving in and out of the area and there are tracked anti-aircraft guns at several locations inside the fenced town, guns pointed high into the sky.

With power flowing freely from the reactor, the lights illuminate the gates and main area all night and during the day if the clouds become thick. Pathways and roads lead all over the town and to various locations within. A tall sign has been erected to point in the direction of some of the sites with one arrow pointing vertical that reads,

HOME: Classified

AWD #355

Saturnalia. The frat rules have been suspended for about six hours now and the whole fleet is on minimal watch for the 24 hours from noon today until noon tomorrow. There's already been plenty of drinking going on and the fact that nobody has any sort of rank off duty for the whole time means that everyone gets to be on a first name basis. Mostly. Some people you don't want to have to talk to tomorrow and salute after getting on a first name basis. But the day is meant for a celebration of the terra they stand on and the harvest. It is a day for revelry, merriment, gift-giving, drinking, and eating. July Fourth meets Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is a day when Naval Tradition dictates that no man or woman will own a rank outside of their uniform and the fraternization policies take a back seat.

Sheridan has spent the last few days decorating with what they could for the festival. The market stalls some people have set up have been turned into serving areas. The mess on the ship even tossed in to help out. Everyone is dressed casually for the day, wearing whatever they desire for their hopes for the night like their id is worn on their proverbial sleeve. Drinks flow easily and most of the free stuff is the cheap homebrew kegs from Charlies. The more expensive drinks are going to require trade - which may come in the form of a trick, joke, or favor. Or even the most typical, goods for goods. With the music already being piped through the alert speakers, the crowd already seems to be enjoying themselves. Especially when fleet members notice that the Admiral is slinging chili while the rest of the command staff are on the BBQ's with hamburgers, brats, and hotdogs - serving the people that serve the fleet every day.

Trade is something Halena can do. The first few hours of Saturnalia have the redheaded ChEng on her ass underneath one of the shop-stalls' kilns, fussing with tools this way and that. It's not the easiest job, or at least not the quickest, and certainly not the cleanest. By the time she crawls out again, her once-clean jumpsuite is now smudged with black, as is her face and her hands. At least this jumpsuit doesn't have any rank insignia on it, she must have pulled one of the unused ones out of whatever surplus the ship has for the event. See? No rank! Wiping her hands as best she can, the shopkeepers clap her shoulder and thank her heartily as the kiln begins to put out heat soon enough. A small drink of brown liquid in what used to be a jam jar is pushed into her hands. Halena nods and speaks with them a little further before

"Holy crap," Kapali says in a low voice as she elbows Randy, "command staff is working the chow line," she says this is a tone that is somewhat reverent and shocked as shit at the same time. "My eyes," she slaps one hand over her eyes, comically, the sight of the admiral slinging chili blinds her in shock. "Be still my heart!"

Randy is dressed more in Kapali's hopes for her tonight than her own, but whose to say those aren't aligned in some bizarre way, especially during Saturnalia. Randy's decked out a white satin button down shirt with an embroidered collar and cuffs to her elbows with a black knee length skirt and some ankle-high boots that are adding a good two inches to her five feet. Her hair is down, parted to the side and kept natural and wavy. "This doesn't even have pockets." She shakes her head as if just discovering this fact and presses her lips together into a thin line. At the news of the command staff's role, Randy pokes her head to the side to look. "Brilliant."

Kelsey isn't afraid of tonight. She's on a mission to make this night better than last Saturnalia. Dressed in a V-scoop halter and denim shorts, she seems all about today. She wanders up with Kapali, trailing just a bit as she tries to scope out all the different food selections. When she catches up, though, and spots what Randy pointed out, she grins. "That's precious." She then moves off to the side. "Need alcohol! Stat!"

Halena seems content to quietly watch from the edges, one hand delicately holding the jam-jar of booze in one hand, the fingers on her other hand lightly drawing along the lip of the glass. She moves in the direction of the bonfire, which is set up near to the festivities and inside the gate but far enough away so as not to cause any of the shop-stall-keeps too much concern. Her limp is a bit more pronounced at this slow saunter, but she idly moves herself to an overturned crate being used as a seat. Beside it is another crate, being shared by two young people in the process of necking or what have you. Surely every colony has different terms for the activity, but it's universally understood. Halena politely glances away, back to the festivities or toward the fire, and settles down.

"You don't need pockets," Kapali counters with a grin as she elbows Randy ever so lightly again. "You don't need keys or money or your ID or anything. So why would you need pockets," see, ever so logical. "I don't have pockets either, for that matter," she adds and performs a quick pivot around to enjoy her clothing and the fancy boots she's wearing too. "I agree, alcohol, stat!" echoing Kelsey's words as she hooks one arm through Randy's and tows her along.
Fischer has partially disconnected.

"I brough-" but before Randy can get out what she brought, Kapali has thankfully looped the smaller woman into her mission and Randy has to scurry slightly to catch up with her. She's palming something in her offhand, keeping it angled towards her body. "Who unleashed you?" she asks with a good-natured grin, eyes crinkling up with mirth as she allows herself to be led along.

Kelsey wanders towards a stall. Turkey-frakking-legs. O. M. G. She no longer wanders, she moves double-quick. She slides in front of the table and requests a turkeyleg and beer. Payment? The guy running the stall wants a kiss on the cheek. The girl in the halter is already a bit drunk so she laughs and moves around the table. She puts her arms around the old Tauran refugee and hugs him before planting a big kiss on the cheek. MWAAAHHHH. They both get a laugh and she wanders away, about to eat when she notices something. Someone. Egads! Someone dressed for work and they look like they're dirty?! Kelsey's eyes narrow on Helena and she marches that direction. "You!" she addresses. "I think you're ChEng. Doesn't matter. Eat and drink. That's an order." She presents the wrapped leg and cheap beer over to Helena, one in each hand, with outstretched arms. It's quite an insistant gesture. "Not leaving you alone until you drink half the beer and eat two bites." It's worded like a threat. A good-natured one.

Fairfax is manning a BBQ. He's obviously having a good time doing it, too, grilling food and exchanging joking comments with some of the other cooks. He's in civilian attire that's so painfully new it squeaks. A nice button down shirt, and some black slacks. There's an awkwardness to it that suggests this may be the first time he's worn civvies in a long time

Yes, Halena is dirty. A strange dirty — a clean dirty. Like she's fresh washed, even her jumpsuit, but then someone smeared her face and clothes in a few places with that soot. She remains sitting on the overturned crate next to the necking couple, staring into the fire absentmindedly. But then someone's yelling at her, and she sits up straight in an absentminded kneejerk response. Her hazel eyes turn, ponytail swinging. And she's staring at a chicken leg and a beer. "Oh," she says, blinking and then looking up at the woman. Right. Saturnalia. Everyone behaves … differently. So she gives a slight, polite smile to the turkey-waving maniac and lifts her own jam-jar of brown liquid (a whiskey maybe?) in Kelsey's direction, almost like a 'cheers'. "I'm covered, thank you.'

"It's Saturnalia," Kapali reminds Randy with a grin as she tugs her friend along, practically marching her along at her side. "I'm on vacation. You're on vacation. So what if it's for only twelve hours. So what," she emphasizes this and makes a happy little groan of sound at the smell of food. "OMIGOD there's BBQ, do you smell that. BBQ. Real food. not just MIDRATS, real food," she turns toward Randy with a grin that is almost manic. "WE are going to eat until we're sick, then drink until we're worse, and have the most wretched of hangovers. And it will be worth it."

Being on duty can mean many things. In some cases it means doing your normal job, in other cases it means certain other things. One of those other things is what Fischer has been doing up to now. Stepping in from the direction of the living complex, he looks around, shaking his head momentarily before he makes his way towards somewhere there's the chance of getting something to drink. By the looks of it, he's spent a bit of today outdoors, as he's dressed in offduty clothing, which some people might recognize as the stuff he prefers to wear while going fishing.

Compared to Kapali, Randy looks downright laid back, nearly like she or both might be drugged in opposite directions. She blinks back at Kapali and smiles widely, "Of course. It's Saturnalia." She tugs Kapali to get them into the little line forming for the food. This thing works both ways! "First thing's first. I want a frakking bratwurst…Oi Alastor, you got any brats for me?" Randy calls out to the Major with a friendly smile.

Kelsey looks at Halena's drink. She eyes it suspiciously. "Okay. You won that round." The beer is sipped. "But you're not eating. Take the turkeyleg. If you don't, I'm going to spend the evening telling people that I met the most beautiful and intelligent member of Engineering and she looked so lonely. She could probably use some company." Uh huh. The turkeyleg gets waggled. Kelsey might do it anyway. Appeasing her might be the easiest route.

There's a stage set up towards the center of the main drag with a microphone and the DJ up there. Most of the time people just pass by it without much attention but as people have started to fill in, some have started dancing up closer to it. Buuut the music starts to fade as a man dressed in jeans and a faded red t-shirt, complete with trucker hat and aviators, moves up the steps towards the stage. When he gets there he moves right to the microphone and the music fades to nothing. "Good evenin," he drawls out slowly. That's the Admiral's voice. "Can I get your attention off each other and your drinks for a few minutes?" It gets a laugh from a few. He waits and fumbles to get the mic out and chuckles. "I'm used to addressing you all through a different kind of mic. Damned high end civilian bullshit," he chuckles as an aside. "Alright, so! Happy Saturnalia!" He claps with it and nods. "One year ago today we stood here with a much smaller crowd and there was a lot of cause for joy. Ass end of the known galaxy and we were building a thirteenth colony in secret. Today, a year later, we're fighting a war. I make no apologies about what we have done and the choices we have had to make. Sometimes they've been damned hard. We're missing some faces that we'll see again in the afterlife. But we will. All of us." He takes a few steps forward to the edge. "What we celebrate here, though, isn't just for ourselves. It's the celebration of life. Saturn grants us the food and drink that enables us to make light of this holiday. We celebrate Saturnalia as free people. All of us. Back on the colonies they don't get today. So we, once again, we do it for them. Today is not a day of mourning for them or anyone else, it is a day of celebration of the human spirit and the Gods that watch over us. Remember your friends, present and not, and drink to them." He smiles a little. "Maybe drink to them a lot. I know I will." He chuckles. He lifts his other hand that has a glass. "A toast, one we lifted during the first war on this day." The man waits for glasses to come up. "To our bread. To our wine. To our friends and family. To our freedom to lift our glasses and drink to them as we so choose." A sly grin crosses his face. "Go get 'em, people. I expect to see you all on duty tomorrow at noon. Cheers." He lifts the drink and tosses back the rest. The guy fits the mic back into the stand and walks off to the side.

Oh she wouldn't! The look on Halena's face is one that might be seen of a person who just swallowed a huge bug. It's in there, nothing you can do now but force it the rest of the way down, disgusted as you are by it and angry as you are for keeping your trap open in the first place. Halena swallows. "I … won't deprive you of your meal. I'm sure they have some more over on the barbeque," the Caprican redhead says, moving to rise. Her face hardens just a touch into the near-constant stiffness that comes from standing or moving slowly on that bum leg of hers. But she moves. Or is about to, but then the Admiral is speaking. She turns her eyes respectfully toward him, listening in silence with little expression on her features. When he calls for a toast, she lifts her glass, and then lowers it back between her hands. That done, she looks to Kelsey again. Is that a touch of a polite smile upon her features. "So … which way is it to this turkey?"

"Who are you kidding, I want a bit of everything, pile it up on a plate, we're going to tour the colonies until we're queasy," Kapali carols out this intention as she waves at the Major. And, while she isn't drunk YET, that's also on the menu, on the schedule, on the dance card! "Get the lady a bratwurst and one of everything else!" before she shuts her yap and turns toward the sound of the Admirals' voice. listening intently for a moment until he calls out cheers, and raises her voice in a cheer, shoulder-bumping Randy with her enthusiasm!

"Of course I do! How many do you need?" Fairfax calls back to Randy, and then Kapali answers for the other marine. There's a pause, as the Admiral speaks, and then it's right back to business. They see me grillin', they hatin'…etc. "One of everything, here it is." Stuff is flipped off the grill and into buns. "You want anything with these?"

"Here here!" Randy shouts in response to the speech. She doesn't have a glass of anything in hand yet, so she just lifts it to show Fairfax two fingers in answer to his question. She elbows Kapali a little after the shoulder bump, frowning no longer. "She gets none of it," Randy points to Kapali with a thumb as she shakes her head and reaches out with her empty plate for the food-treasure. "Thanks." Zoom! Randy moves on to see if there's anything sweet or yummy pronto. "I'm getting dessert!…If there is any!" she calls out over her back.

Kelsey eyes the ChEng carefully, seeing she might be about to escape. When the Admiral calls for a cheers, though, she lifts her glass with the others and grins. Yep! She downs the rest and looks back to Halena. "C'monnnn. You're comin with me, sister." Turning, she smiles over her shoulder and leads her back to the turkeylegs. It isn't far. Ten or fifteen yards. She walks Halena right up before stepping around and repeating the squeeze and kiss. "More please, for my friend!" He's happy to oblige. But Kelsey is taking the drink, damnit.

Laughing, Kapali grins after Randy then tips her head in a nod at the Major, "Nah, never mess with the seasoning after it comes off the grill. Bad mojo, sir!" she takes her plate and waves again before ambling after Randy. "There had better be chocolate. If there isn't chocolate, then life as we know it must come to an end. What's the point of the universe if there's no chocolate left!"

A few minutes pass after Jameson speaks and something seems to be happening. People look towards the sky and smile. Some before others. The ones who have clearly had more to drink lag behind, but they all feel it. It's like a heavy pall that settles over the whole town. Those who have been to the ruins may know it. That feeling of the air settling as the breeze stops on the warm Fall evening. It might be cause for concern for but a moment before feeling of joy and contentment settle into the soul. As it falls within, there's the feeling of something spiritual. Something Else. Like they are in the presence of love and warmth. Like a little piece of Elysium were right there with them. As it dwells inside each person it becomes more powerful, as if each and everyone had been kissed on the cheek by Aphrodite herself. Not a single person seems to panic, though. Something indescribable has happened and there seems no immediate explanation. The music even seems to get a bit louder as people dance a little bit more and laugh a little louder. But those who have been to the ruins know it. They can feel it. Something has arrived.

Well good thing that Halena wasn't asked to kiss anyone for any particular turkey legs. She might have exploded at the mere thought, and with that stick so far up her bum, the pressure likely would have blown her head clean off. So while Kelsey sees to the kiss and the man sees to the turkey, Halena takes a few steps away, eyes scanning the tables. "Are there utensils?" she begins to ask, before lifting her eyes to the barbeque and the man behind it. Her brows lift slightly. "Oh, Major Fairfax. Good evening…." but she trails off again, hand absently holding that still half-full jam jar. Her hazel eyes flit over the crowd once, and back again, scanning thoughtfully. Distracted, this particular one is.

Stepping up behind Halena is someone that Fairfax will recognize on sight. Instantly. She's standing just behind and to the left of the ChEng. Captain Kha'lila al Yamoha, in her full battle gear and that unique camo that seems to blend into everything seamlessly. There's a smile on her face as she watches the crowd and as he follows her gaze, he can see more of them. They've arrived. A few moments pass and she looks back to him, her smile bright against her dark skin.

"No Sirs right now." Fairfax points out to Kapali with a grin as the food is handed over. "Just plain old Alastor Fairfax, who apparently is a half-decent grill hand. I'd forgotten that." It's said as if Alastor Fairfax is some place that Major Fairfax very occasionally goes on holiday. "Not Major…" He begins to explain again to Halena, and then he trails off. And finally, a beaming smile as he recognises the visitor. "Captain al Yamoha. So good to see you!"

Having gotten hold of a drink by the time of the Admiral's speech, he lifts the glass in a toast, taking a long, thoughtful sip. After a few more moments, he turns, pausing momentarily at what he sees, smiling and raising his glass in a silent toast.

Randy is one of the first to look up, her quickened steps slowing to a dragging halt before she makes it to her destination. She's come to a stop between two serving tables, just holding her plate, for a moment distracted and unaware of any possible connections, but first in, first out so to speak, it's hard for Randy not to notice the incoming strange.

Kapali keeps the plate level as she piles more food on to it and nearly collides with Randy as she adds cookies to the mix. "What are you looking at, is there booze?" she wonders, eyeing Randy then with a frown glances upward. "Millions of years of evolution and humans hardly ever look up.." she begins, quoting something very old as she glances up then to Randy and back again.

The Captain dips her head politely to Fairfax and holds her smile. "Given your traditions, I don't think it may be appropriate to call me by rank. Lila will be find, it's what my friends and family call me. My father was a bit overzealous with my name." There's a very gentle laugh with it. "So good to see you again, Mister Fairfax. Miss Tremaine." She nods easily to Halena. Her rifle dangles by her side on her right hip, completely ignored. Her gloved hands simply rest, holding lightly to the top of her plate carrier. Her whole stance is very casual. "Doctor Thanos invited us on behalf of the Admiral. We were going to simply watch from the shadows but the assurance that this was religious was a bit too much to resist. I feared an outright mutiny if I'd said no." All in good humor.

Halena looks at Fairfax for a moment, brows furrowed slightly in confusion. But then the turns fully around and sees Captain al Yamoha again, and it becomes clear. As clear as she is, and as close besides. She's just a touch wider-eyed than normal, but then the Captain begins to speak and so Halena chooses to listen, nodding her head in a gentle display of respect toward … Lila. "You're most welcome, I'm sure," Halena says, seeming just a bit more charming and standing up a bit more straight in true debutante fashion. A smeared debutante, but a debutante none the less. "There's quite a selection of food and drink for the evening. You and your people are welcome to explore it all, if it's to your taste." A classy way of asking: Do you eat? DO YOU EAT? Because if they eat and Thanos isn't here to witness that, the good doctor is likely going to vomit in anger.

Randy just shakes her head, "Nothing. Feel kind of strange, good strange. Come on." ONWARD TO THE DESSERTS. Where Randy has to turn her head downwards to try and hear her native tongue. She stares down the line at Fairfax and the two women while starting to absently pile five napkins on top of her food instead of anything sweet. She detects the disruption between the woman's lips and what she's saying as something slightly off at this distance.

"Hey, for you, that's almost like you're admitting to being HAPPY," Kapali teases from where she's debating on the last bit of food to crown the pile of it on the plate that really isn't rated for this sort of stress. She is humming under her breath, a tune she recalls from her own childhood, practically singing under her breath, though not exactly on key precisely but close. Mostly.

In keeping with the tradition of Saturnalia, Captain St. Clair arrives without her ever-present sidearm holstered at her thigh. She's also forgone military uniform in favour of civilian attire: sleek leather pants and a faded grey hoodie over top, she's almost unrecognisable with her long hair worn down, instead of pulled back into its usual braid. She keeps to the periphery of the gathering initially, mostly so she can scope out the mysterious Al Yamoha from afar, while trying to track down where the libations are.

Lila laughs a bit with the question from Halena and shakes her head. "It absolutely smells wonderful here. You popped in and it was just an assault of the senses you can't ignore. But, ah," there's another low laugh. "We don't get to eat or drink. Issue of being what we are." She looks to the BBQ, then back. "I don't mind saying that I miss food. I was always a horrid foodie. I spent a lot of my leave going plaes just to try different foods made locally. It drove my physical trainer nuts. But? He kicked my ass, kept me ready for kicking butt." She upnods ot Halena. "How about yourself? Enjoying the food and drink? I'd give anything for a bit of liver abuse."

"Who said that I'm not happy?" Randy finishes collecting her 'desserts' as she's brought out of her daze by Kapali's comment. "Now if I had a smoke tonight, some good whiskey or Aquarian vodka, I'd be truly happy." She closes her eyes to imagine it for a moment. "Alright so we need some mead or something. Oh and stories, a good story by the bonfire," she relishes unusually.

Such a normal conversation. With a ghost. Or her own imagination. Thank goodness for several years of society training, none of that shock shows on Halena's face anymore. At least until her own drink is mentioned, and she glances down at the yet-untouched jam jar of beverage she's been carrying around. She looks down at it, pausing in her response just a moment before lifting her face once again, smiling politely and warmly. As one does. The fingers of her free hand lay across the top of the jar, as thouhg to keep bugs out or something. "I am, yes. As you say, it's been an assault to the senses." She pauses a moment. "If you would like, we may explore what the sellers have to offer a bit further. I know when I am longing for a taste or a smell, it's usually the taste or smell of home that I wish for the most. Perhaps we might find something here that might be a pleasant reminder, for you?"

Bennett spots the lineup for grilled food, and marks a path that way, hands stuffed into the pockets of her hoodie. An ear is kept on Halena's conversation with the supposed 'ghost' of Piraeus while she waits, eyes squinted into the woodsmoke wafting into the milling crowds.

Lila glances to the jar and shakes her head. "Drink for me. Wish I could." She takes a step to the side and turns her head to look around, considering. "I won't turn that down. Others are welcome to join us, though. I'm sure there will be questions with this group. I'm aware we bring a certain…feeling." An understatement she smiles with. To look around, some of her grunts are talking and mingling with the crowd. Nothing with shocked faces or people panicking. Everything seems to have carried on without a worry.

"Mead is a good option, or maybe…" and Kapali makes a hum of sound, "Peach brandywine," she says with a sigh of sound. "Or beer. Really really good beer, a nice dark bitter, cold. It has to be cold. Cold enough to almost make your tongue numb, in fact. Because I hate the way it smells when it's warm." She elbows Randy subtly, "Lets go say hi to the chief," nodding toward Halena.

"Oh, I'm sure there'll be quite enough drinking done this evening to satisfy those livers that partake and for those whom partake in spirit," Halena admits easily. She begins to turn to move to the next stall, to see and smell what there is to see and smell, but her steps are slow and unsure, even despite her limp. "I very much hope someone would join us," the redhead admits. "I'm not really the one to do much showing around. I've been in this settlement for oh…" she lifts her free hand, glancing at the watch. "An hour now? Most of it is quite new to me. So long as you do not mind questions, I won't try to keep anyone else away. There is a great deal of curiosity, and I'm sure whatever answers you might be willing to provide to those brave enough to ask would be greatly apprecaited."

"I feel like I don't have to say anything. You're already voicing my thoughts." Randy smirks as she listens to Kapali go on. "Alright then." She follows after Kapali, a half step behind by sheer physics and frame, but still she takes her time, even 'drive-by' kissing an officer on the cheek for a pint of lager. "Yep. Ready now, lead onward," she points with her beer.

Lila looks over at Halena and chuckles. "Now, now. That wasn't what I meant." It's all said in good humor. She moves slowly, at the same pace of the limp, and looks to the stall and what's offered. "We've been here most of the day. We've listened to a lot of conversations. We've heard a lot of discussion about this holiday you all cherish so well. But no, questions are fine. I cannot promise ideal answers." She looks back over. "Some things you are not ready for. In time, maybe. But you may ask." She looks over to the Scorpian stall again and peers at a tray of food. "This looks similar to a dish I know. The seasoning is different on the meat, though." It looks a bit like thin sliced Brazillian steak with alfredo sauce and noodles. "This is very good. Or was. Maybe. This is very weird, not just for all of you," she laughs. But the Captain seems to note people gesturing their direction and she looks to them, holding her friendly expression.

"That's because I know how to drink," Kapali says with a broad grin, like it's a genuine skill. "Trust me, work construction crews and you will know how to drink, swear, piss standing up, fire a nail gun at a target and not miss, and how to clean ANYTHING," she adds with a chuckle. She snags a drink of her own and moseys on over to where the chief is standing in conversation with some others. Juggling her food into one hand so that everything is somewhat balanced, "Happy Saturnalia to all of you," she says as she offers her free hand forward, wearing that cheeky 'there's food there's booze and I'm not on duty' grin. Her hand offered toward the captain and, in order, the chief and anyone else nearby. "I'm Penny, this is Randy," she is saying as her hand is extended.

"Then perhaps it is you who ought to give me the tour," Halena suggests easily. She pauses to look over the food thoughtfully, but is distracted by Lila. Just her very presence is distracting. So eventually Halena gives up and looks back to the ghostly woman. "I hope I do not give offense but … I'm rather glad it's strange for you as well as for us. I think, for many of us, our fear was that this was all something known and understood and accepted by you and your people, and ours were the only ones having difficulty finding our footing." She herself doesn't seem interested in prying, however, and asks no questions. Rather she pauses to look over where Randy and Kapali are making their way over. She takes the offered hand with a firm shake and a slight lowering of her head. "Halena Tremaine, and this is Captain Lila al Yamoha."

"I drank with miners," Randy says as if this should explain everything. "Spent some time doing some mining as well, with explosives," she cracks a smile and shoots a wink Kapali's way. "My father, well we used to make vodka and other stuff. I miss it," she suddenly realizes, for once remembering it with a fondness instead of just overwhelming sadness. She smiles warmly as they approach the ghost and the Chief Engineer. "Happy Saturnalia," she steps up beside Kapali, her hands full of a beer and a plate of food topped with napkins. "Nice to meet you both," she offers her hand in turn, a firm shake behind her.

Lila looks to Kapali as she approaches and she dips her head. "Happy Saturnalia to you all, as well." Those lips don't match what she says. The words are so perfectly heard inside their heads, though. Like a mother speaking to her child. When the hand is outstretched, though, she looks at it curiously. No, this is not a recognized greeting. She tilts her head a bit, considering. There's a glance to Halena before her gloved hand drops from her gear and reaches out. She takes the hand in a firm grip. "I am Lila. It is good to meet you, Pen-nee." A pause. "This is a normal greeting for you?" is asked before the hand drops away. before looking to Halena again. "We know a lot about you all. Very much. Initially we were very wary because of Zachary, but Doctor Thanos has proven that we can show you some trust. We know a lot, but we cannot see the future. Actions prove all, a common saying among my people." Her attention then goes back to the greeting. "Good to meet you, Randy." Her hand rests out, imitating the gesture from Kapali.

Kapali's expression of slightly goofy slightly triumphant intent to go into a food and booze coma in short order, if not in tandem, fades to something that goes from the slightly comical expression to something this is at first somewhat confused and then something else entirely. She sways subtly, startled, the brief hand clasp doesn't entirely last all that long and she is offering a nod in return, her name drawn out so that it sounds the same that she'd pronounced it as before Lila turns her attention toward Randy. "Whoa," not the most terribly eloquent but thankfully she says it very very quietly.

"Wha-?" Randy barely has time to register Kapali's shift before the Captain is introducing herself. "Lila, nice to meet you," Randy notices the imitation for what it is and gently reaches out to take the Captain's hand in both of hers for a two handed shake. Her eyes fall to the Captain's dress with a sigh. So out of her element, feeling so alive again, impulse drives the wheel, and for a moment it's perfectly natural to try and shake this … thing's hand?

Your character touches that gloved and and they can feel the leather like al Yamoha is a real person. The leather feels a bit foreign, but fairly normal to a degree. But after half a second, something else happens. It feels like a rush of emotions and memories. It's a whirlwind of visions. A husband. A child. In between it all, combat training. Then a very visceral vision where she can even smell the gunsmoke. A shootout at a structure at the top of a hill with very weird looking centurions approaching. The scream for air support and the crushing delivery that it won't be coming. The adrenaline rush of the high that comes with rallying the troops and a Last Stand at a place she feels personally connected to. Explosions, gunfire, its a flash that feels like an eternity but only lasts a few seconds. It's a profoundly religious experience, the feeling of belief. But it leaves your character completely unsure of which deity is right, only that there is a higher power at work. There are no questions, only the assurity of faith. Your character just touched the border of Elysium. Or somewhere like it.

Lila looks over to Halena as she moves off to take care of something, then looks back to Kapali. She seems intruiged by what just took place and the reaction. Turning a few degrees away, she looks dubious about what just happened. There's nothing to be said for the moment but she takes Randy's hand and shakes it. "Good to meet you, Randy." She comes off the shake and stands taller. "With my people, we greet each other with this:" She lifts her gloved hand and beats her heart twice, casually. "One beat of the heart felt, one to another."

Sharing a brief, sidelong, speaking, glance with Randy, the pint sized EOD destruction duo standing in front of Lila after exchanging a handshake with her. She carefully observes the demonstrated gesture before lifting her own hand to repeat the gesture in turn, "One beat of the heart felt, one to another," she offers, very politely, in return.

The sergeant leaves her plate and drink by the wayside, eyes suddenly trapped in a fugue like state as she stares at a downward angle. Randy doesn't let go of the Captain's hand immediately. In fact, she holds on harder, clasped hands pressing down as if holding on. She breathes deeper for a moment and then suddenly her eyes come back into focus on the Captain. "Thank you." Her eyes seem to have collected a bit of water, not quite yet forming tears, though it's unclear whether it all springs from joy or sorrow. She smiles finally and repeats the gesture back to Lila. "One beat of the heart felt, one to another."

al Yamoha looks pleased at the returned gesture. "We don't usually say that, but it is the intent behind the gesture. That was very strange, though." She furrows her brow a bit and looks at Kapali. "You are from a proud family on something called 'Cap-rica'? Yes?" And she looks to Randy, "A cold place. Ack- Ac- Aquaria? Is this correct?" She looks a bit confused. "Perhaps I should not grab hands anymore." Nothing that she says matches her lips except for how she pronounces the names of the colonies. But they hear it perfectly in their heads from their mother tongue.

"Yes, Caprica," Kapali answer in return, nodding slowly as she says this. Her lips curve then, a small upward twitch, "Proud..and stubborn and hard working and .. yes," she tips her head again in a slow nod as she juggles the food back in place so that she doesn't drop any of it. Really needing that drink right about now. She glances sidelong toward Randy again, "You're ok?" asked quietly in turn before turning back to Lila. "Shake, actually, or hand clasp, but not so much as it's considered grabbing, which is a sort of different gesture. Grabbing implies haste, I think, and a handshake is usually an offering between individuals, culturally so that each party symbolically demonstrates that their hands are free of weaponry. It's a gesture that's supposed to imply good will," she turns a sudden purply shade of beet red. "My grandfather was a history buff. cultural stuff, etymology, that sort of thing. Now I'm babbling," and up comes the drink and she takes several healthy swallows of the beer to shut herself up.

"That's what they tell me." Randy grins. "With volcanos too. Your accent is good in the…headspeak or…," she just can't bring herself to say the word telepathy. "Proud is understated. I've heard her drop her family's business a bajillion times already and I hardly know the little Terror," Randy looks up at Kapali and smirks. "Yeah. I think I'm more than okay." Though the woman doesn't sound entirely sure of herself, she does sound like she's alright with the fact for the time being. She redirects her attention to Lila. "What was that, when you touched me, I saw things." . She hesitates, "-things," unable to bring herself to say whether they are horrible or not, in conflict. She reaches up to swipe at her eyes before they get blurry, tucking her head down a touch in the process.

The Captain seems to take it all in slowly, trying to absorb it into something. Not her mind, right? Isn't she supposed to be dead? "This is interesting. To grab a hand. Or take it. And shake it. It would loosen any hidden items in the sleeve." There's very careful consideration. "Yes, I understand this. You history of it does bring some appreciation. It is like our salute to the temple. We have noticed you all do the same as we." She does a casual gesture, her forefinger and middle tapping the edge of her brow like any member of the colonial fleet. "Our history with that goes back to knights that would lift their visors in order to see the eyes and identify an approaching knight." A disturbingly perfect description of how it was developed on the Twelve Colonies. She then looks back to Randy and listens carefully. "I do not know what that was when I touched you. I felt… memories. I saw things. Very strange. I think it may be best if I refrain from touching others." She looks between the two. "If I am affecting you, this may provoke concern among your fleet, especilly upon your," and the words come out strange, "war-star."

Endymion never really celebrated Saturnalia growing up. Observed it, of course, but it's not considered one of the more important holidays in the particular cult in which he was raised, eclipsed almost entirely by the Tmetic Days which follow. But he went to public school, saw the hype, played in the Saturnalia pageants, the works, so he can get into the spirit of the event even so, quick with an understated but cheersome enough 'Io' of greeting to those he meets, hands jammed in pockets and shoulders lifted almost to his ears as though in conservation of heat, or else simply to keep all his limbs close in toward himself while winding along through the crowd, the less likely to bump into anyone or knock his or her drink.

Kapali exhales a laugh as Randy calls her the 'Little Terror', "Pipe down, Tiny," she teases Randy in return. "Not a bajillion, not even close." She tips her head slightly while listening to Randy then shifts her attention toward Lila and slowly nods along as the captain speaks. "Perhaps," she finally agrees, hesitantly. "Some people don't react well when they're startled. We're trained not to let stuff startle us so much," a half glimpse of a smile there, but her expression is all open curiosity. "And that is a very good name, yes. War-Star. Yes. It's not a ship of peaceful exploration, not now. Hmm."

"I agree. I do not know how everyone could react to that," Randy's words are strange, but carefully considered. Each one has a reason held captive to her state. "Is this something that concerns you? Provoking concern into your…affairs?" It's the best way to explain the almost breaching experience, but Randy sticks to language that draw obvious formal paralells with what terms the Captain uses. "Have you ever had this happen before?" Randy seems interested particularly in the fact that the ghost experienced something too. There's a genuine curiosity with a bit of concern hanging on the words. "She's right. We're trained to stay…able," because calm isn't always the best word to describe it. Adrenaline can sharpen the mind and heighten the senses.

Yamoha nods slowly. "Oh, of course it concerns us. Me. Us. We have no desire to cause friction with the fleet as it is. What you do here makes a profound difference to what and who we are. And no, we've never had something like this happen before. We've been alone for a very long time…" The words fade out as she looks across the crowd at a pair of her own people. "Excuse me. Need to talk to a couple of my soldiers." No Marine officer would ever call their people 'soldiers'. Or is it just that different. She steps away suddenly and needs to push past Endy, which has him step in fornt of Randy. As she does, her thumb of her glove touches the bare skin for an instant on his clavicle. The woman moves off and seems to approach a group of people talking.

Endymion hardly thinks anything about it, contact within a crowd this dense is par for the course, albeit not usually with one so long deceased. His fingers crawl from inside his pocket to his collarbone and he watches her pass, then his eyes go all dead for an instant, and when he looks back in the direction the ghost had come from, he's clutched at his chest as if it were a thing of surprise for his heart to still be beating in there somewhere. In that instant he looks like he might not know exactly where he is, and he looks to this person, then to that person, making eye contact as though to get his bearings again.

The reference to 'soldiers' does get a little tilt of the head from Randy. It's a term she only used to hear in her youth as an affectation from her father. It sticks out enough to leave her looking puzzled and nearly bumps into Endymion, reaching out to put her hands just above his elbows just in case. "Hey, hey, down here," the five foot squirt urges. It takes her a moment to catch on before she says, "You're okay. What did you see?"

Endymion is bumped into a second time, and his chin tips up, a breath of air taken and held for a moment as if expecting something similar at the second brush of contact. But then there are hands on his arms and he's really actually alive, and he lets the breath out in a half-vocalized huff, almost a laugh, his mouth spreading into a wide, goofy grin that takes up more of his face than it really needs to. "I'm okay," he repeats back to her. "I died for a second, that's all." Eyes still a little dazed, but he seems mostly coherent. He looks over his shoulder, looking for the ghost in the crowd. "Wow."

"I wonder if it's because of Saturnalia," Randy says aloud idly as she lets her hands drop. She looks over her shoulder at the ghost Captain consorting with her fellow ghosts and then looks back to Endymion. "Name's Randy," no rank or branch today, as is the custom, only a hand is offered to the man. "I'm sure you'll be alright."

"She touched me," Endy seems to be convinced that was the cause of the event, either due to his lack of consideration for the holiday's import or by sheer force of post hoc ergo propter hoc. "She just… tapped me, and it hit me," he goes on. "Did she touch you, too? Did you see it?" he asks her, almost too excited to return the introduction. Almost. "I'm Endy. Hey, we rhyme. Sorta," he appends, his vowels all round and too-cheerful sounding, even though his accent is hardly half as thick as it was when he first joined up.

"What I mean is she said this hasn't happened before and I wonder if she hasn't been able to touch people yet," Randy clarifies in her melodica Aquarian accent. There's a smattering of Virgon these days muddling it here and there, at least to the discerned ear. "Yes, I shook her hand. I had-more than visions," she doesn't seem hesitant at all to say it, just what to really call the experience, the ghost's 'affairs' as she had referred to them earlier. "Just enough," Randy agrees to the rhyming scheme. "I feel like I need to write everything I saw down before I forget it," if she can forget it.

Endymion resists the suggestion, balking instinctively from it at first brush with a wince of his eyes, as though to commit such a thing to paper might be to degrade it with the violent carelessness of human language. But he doesn't actually object, finally coming 'round to it. "Maybe that would be a good idea," he moderates his reaction. "I could write down what happened to me, and you could write down what happened to you, and we could compare after." Though who knows whether it would be more interesting for them to have been the same or different. Endy glances about frenetically from face to face about the gathering— is anyone else listening? "Did she touch anyone else? Did any of the others touch anyone?"

"One of my colleagues, but I haven't had a chance to speak with her about what she experienced," Randy says in a lowered voice to Endymion. They stand in the general area that the ghost Captain, Lila, was last scene speaking to Flynn and Kapali. Captain Lila is now speaking with her own kind, keeping to her own. Randy's meal has gone untouched, the pile of 'everything' still shrouded in a small pile of napkins. She reaches to grab her beer and the plate. "We should sit down, see if we can get something to write with. I'll get something to write on." She walks over to grab two extra plates when she thinks no one is paying too much attention, tucking them under her own plate of food while her eyes scan for the stranger she just met.

Fairfax is still grilling. Grill all the things. Feed all the people. If he notices certain Marines (Randolph Kae Flynn) are not eating, he doesn't comment or seem particularly hurt by this. He came here to kick ass and grill things, and fortunately there is endless grilling to be done.

Something to write with. Endy goes shuffling through the crowd, making very polite noises about borrowing a pen, or borrowing a pencil, all very deferential, with those wide eyes that lend some hope that these people will get their writing utensils back from them. But then by the time he's procured two of them, he's completely lost track of where Randy has gone off to, and he turns about slowly in circles, scanning for her while she's scanning for him. Finally he lifts the two pens up into the air to see if that'll catch her attention in some direction.

Two pens in the air is something Randy can see through the milling crowd. She pushes her way through the flow of people to get to Endy, squeezing through two groups chatting, saying, "Excuse me," instead of going around. "Alright, I got us some paper, of a sort," She lifts her plate to reveal more plates beneath. "Let's grab a seat." Her entire night has been diverted, but it doesn't seem to faze the woman. "Can you see a spot?" relying on his natural height advantage for this part of their impromptu mission.

Endymion must be a Raptor driver. When lost, sit still and send up a signal that will only be picked up as significant to the people you want to find you. "Oh, great!" he says when she comes to find him, with writing tablets, too, such as they are. "Ya, over here," he tips his head toward a table with yet two empty spots at it, and starts to make his way there. He hasn't eaten, yet. But who can eat when confronted with edge of oblivion? Instead he's excusing himself politely ans squeezing himself into a seat across from a similarly only vaguely empty area where Randy might sit across from him.

Fairfax grills some things. He may also be consuming a beer. He's watching the ghosts, or whatever they may be, closely. Fascinated. But not so fascinated as to let anything burn.

"Brilliant," Randy follows Endymion to the free table they find in record time. Diverse teamwork for the win. She pushes her hair back away from her face as she slips into the seat across from the pilot. An empty plate is slid his way and she slaps some utensils down on it without a second's hesitation. "For you." She slides another plate his way and then separates her plates, writing and eating. "It's better when it's still warm," she says with a little quirk of her lips. After she removes a pile of napkins from the pile of food, she reveals bratwursts and a little bit of everything from all the different colonies.

Lila, as she's introduced herself, steps back from the two soldiers she was talking to. They stepped off in their own direction while she moves back. The others she had been talking to seem to have moved since she last saw them so she heads to Fairfax. "Excuse me, Mister Fairfax? Could I get one of those hot dogs?" Two words, unfamiliar with the term. But she asks anyway. Even is she can't eat it. Maybe she just enjoys the smell. "And one of your beer? It seems I have misplaced my travel partners. Apologies, though. Some of my men were engaging too enthusiastically. They should not be lining up dates for the night," she laughs. "That would prove poorly in the result."

"Alastor, please." Fairfax tells Lila, hand over the hot dog and the beer. "Of course you can." There's a cant of his head then, at her latter words. "Well, that /is/ part of the festivities. May I ask what would prove poorly about it?"

"Eh?" Endy's very close to baffles by the question before, "Thank you," he finishes up, "What is, the food?" He spares it a glance, but he's right in the midst of writing out his remembrances on the plate, so that takes up most of his attention.

Randy doesn't wait for any sort of particular response from the pilot sitting across from her. She grabs a pen that Endymion happened to have borrowed from the crowd and starts to write down a free association of words, a stream of vision and feeling at once, unable to express them happening simultaneously with such an inferior medium. Still, she doesn't seem deterred, words, strokes, and generally anything that reminds her of the experience, she enmeshes.

"Some sausages and a little bit of everything, or so I was told," Randy mumbles absently with a flick of her writing hand.

Lila takes the plate and beer and lifts them to her face, taking in the scents. She grins happily with it. "Oh this smells amazing." Still, the words don't match up with her lips but the human reaction is there. "Step away from your grill, come, I think I see the other I was talking to. Randy? …And no, you don't want to know. This is not a frat party for my men and women. That was pretty clear before we came to visit." She moves off, gesturing for him to join. She lifts her hand towards Randy, gesturing up before she taps her hert twice. The gun still danges by her side like something forgotten but unable to be tossed aside.

"Well, I do want to know but I will accept that you don't think I should." Fairfax counters, though his tone is non argumentative. "Randy, yes." He agrees, putting down the tools and letting one of the other cooks know he's stepping away. "Lead on." He's ready to follow Lila.

As Lila and Fairfax approach, Randy glances up from her scribbling affair. She pauses to rise and returns the greeting to Lila, tapping her heart twice as well. "Please, take a seat. I know you at least have probably been standing for hours," she points to Fairfax and then breaks away to pull together an extension and chairs to the small two-seater table her and Endy have already.

Endymion is also sort of abandoning the conversation, as much as it goes against his Leonine upbringing, and sending his soul down into writing on the empty plate that takes up the only table space in front of him. Others approach the table and he lifts up his head, wide blue eyes taking a moment to re-focus. "Oh, hey-a."

Lila leads Fairfax over to the table. Those two items, the hot dog and beer, are kept close to her face while she moves. The smile on her face seems to indicate that, yes, she's savoring every breath. Sitting down by Randy, she laughs and looks over at him. "Hours?" There's some humor with it and she settles in, sounding happy. The dog and beer are put down right in front of her and she hunches her shoulders while she leans forward, leaving the scent close to her face. Her eyes look to Endy, then Randy, and their scribblings. "It must be important to work on it with a night like this." She looks over to Fairfax, then, "Alastor, I thought this was a night where work was pretty much outlawed. Everyone seems to be drinking and having fun." Still, not a word matches her lips except for the name.

"You would be entirely correct." Fairfax nods agreement to Lila, also casting an eye over the scribbling. "But I can't actually make her stop. I'm not her superior officer tonight, you see. So if she will insist on scribbling the night away…well, I can't stop her."

"Just some art. I assure you," Randy arches her brow towards Fairfax gently, "My diagrams have way more color than this." She latches onto Fairfax's point without shame and what might be described as a shit-eating grin, "Exactly." She spreads her fingers over what she's already drawn and written, not allowing more than the peek she's already given. "He'd just ask to ask me nicely."

Endymion's eyes catch a spark of mischief from the way Fairfax and Lila are assuming they're doing work, and he chuckles. "Yah, submitting flight reports written on paper plates is probably frowned upon anyhow," he jokes gamely, but then Randy's being all surreptitious with her description, calling it a work of art, covering it with her hand. Endy's not being shy with his own document, in his bubbly handwriting, uninterrupted by any images though it is and not exactly eye-catching. He naturally wishes to share what happened, but Randy's cagey attitude about it all is giving him pause. Finally, "Are you ready to share?" he asks her.

Lila looks over Fairfax with the response and shrugs. "I was mostly teasing. I guess I have an idea of what Randy is writing, but not the other one." she looks curiously to Endymion for a moment, then back to Fairfax. "I feel I should just put this out there now. When your Zachary Sheperd stumbled onto our ruins, he tried to shout at us. He begged for help. But we could see right through his words. We saw the person he was and what he had and had not done." She lifts the cup to her nose ans sniffs at it a few tips, savoring the smell. The expresion on her face is warm, and more playful than anything else. Her eyes flit between them. "Like this we cannot see through your curtain. But we will. And we have. Wriiiiite what you must," she laughs. "And yes of course I will answer. But like I said earlier, your answers may not be what you wish. Only what I will tell you."

The caginess seems to be in half-play, only revealed when Endymion finally asks her if she's ready to share. Randy pulls up her hands while listening to the ghost, glancing in the shadows cast to check that she's not missing anything. It's when Lila /keeps/ /speaking/ that she catches the engineer's attention. "Joke's on you. I've done nothing," unable to think of anything else to say. She smiles with a tinge of reluctancy in her eyes. "How much have you sniffed tonight?"

Fairfax nods understanding at the comment about Shepherd. "I remember Captain al Yamoha telling me about that, yes. The ability to see inside us, I mean." There's a laugh then, in answer to Lila's. "Come. As you said, tonight is supposed to be a day from all this seriousness. Let us enjoy it. You got the hot dogs, and the beer. Have you ever had…a funnel cake?" Perhaps he's getting into the spirit of the thing. Perhaps he's trying to save Randy and Endymion from an awkward interaction.

Endymion tries to listen to what the ghost is talking about, but without some sort of context clue as to why she's saying what she's saying— well, he's a little bit lost. Or maybe he's just sitting there thinking about what might happen if he touched her. No, Endy. No poking the ghosts. Even if it could possibly bring him back to the face of death in a moment of religious awe like he'd never experienced before. So he's just sitting there staring, for the most part, the conversation growing a bit cottony all in his ears. "Huh?" he finally asks, snapping out of it. "I like funnel cake." Yeah, it took funnel cake to lure him back to the real world.

Lila looks over at Randy with a mischievious look. "Not enough. Your cooking is amazing. I'm sure my soldiers will not stop speaking of it for millenia," she laughs, lifting the beer to smell it once more. But Fairfax's remarks have her look back and quirk a brow. "Funnel cake? Not sure that I would know if I have. Times have changed, Alastor." She winks at him before looking back. But she's noticed Endy being silent. "What? You're sitting there scribbling on a plate. What has you caught up, Endy?" Did he tell her his name? No, he didn't. Definitely not a nickname.

The Aquarian slips into her native tongue at first, but stops herself and repeats in Colonial Standard, "There's a little bit of everything here from everywhere I think," though Randy hasn't been to all of the colonies, she's been to melting pots big enough to give her a access to a wide range of cuisine before the war. She lifts her beer for a gulpsworth and squints at the ghost, giving herself a chance to process Lila's interaction with Endymion. She drinks again for extra brain power. "She knows all your secrets man."

"Just the brute blood of the air, that's all," Endy answers Lila, and since she knows all his secrets she'll probably understand what he means by that. And if not, well, he has no other way to phrase it off of the top of his head, so she'll just have to endure it. "I thought that I had a husband, and gave birth to a child. That I went to war and died. I touched the river, and I've never… you read about the sort of thing, but to be there and feel it. I'm caught up a little. Would it be OK if I touched you?" He's tasted death and wants more. Should we be concerned?

The last from Randy gets a laugh from Lila and she leans away just a smidge with it. "Oh, as much as I would love to, there's only so much we can glean with a quick pass. Even if I did know all of his secrets, would that be appropriate to speak to? No. I have mine. As much as we know, we also know that we are not granted judgement. That's given to us by the light. Your secrets, his secrets, even my own, those are the things we are judged upon. The moments we do not talk about." She has a solemn smile. "Do you not judge yourself when you lie in bed at night before falling asleep?" Her eyes then look back to Endy and she tilts her head, not quite understanding it - and that's clear. But when he speaks, the smile fades a little. Endy struck a chord. He hit home a little on her. How could he know something like that? It's her turn to be hesitant. That gloved hand slips away from her and rests out on the table, but she glances nervously at them. No, she isn't sure she wants to do this. …This is certainly not a hologram. Not some weird technology. Or is it.

"He speaks of what I saw too, I was," Randy corrects herself, eyes drifting towards the Captain. "Only when I am falling asleep," Randy admits, answerring what quite possibly could have been a rhetorical question. Her eyes are drawn downward to Lila's hand. "Exactly the same. I felt all of this and more, something at work."

The light. Those words have Endy's ears metaphorically pricking up, his whole form rising slightly at his seat as he angles on leg under him on the chair to sit a little bit higher. He remembers the light, and the words spoken aloud resonate through his person. As for secrets, his are few but tightly kept, those secret teachings of the cult of Aphrodite among the Ashwoods which it is unholy to share with outsiders. "Before sleep and sleep's brother," he goes on, still entranced. His brow furrows when her smile fades. She's hesitating, he can see that, and even if her hand is somewhat on offer, he senses she doesn't want it, and he won't touch her unless she's comfortable with it, because that's just manners on the most commonplace of days, much less when a touch could mean so very much. He does set his hand on the table near to hers, there for her to touch if she feels emboldened to do so. "It's OK if you don't want to. I don't want to hurt you," he assures her.

Lila clearly does not look comfortable with what Randy says. They saw the same things. "That isn't-" And for the first time, The Captain doesn't look confident of something. She who knows All. And then she notices Endy straightening towards something she said. The words from him don't seem to effect her so much as his interest. Even with those hands placed side by side, she seems suddenly uncomfortable. "No. You've not-" There's a movment from her before the hand is withdrawn and she begins to stand. "No. Your light has not been found yet. Your darkness is still coming. You've not seen it yet. You cannot share in our own. Some things are.." and it was on the cusp of her lips, 'allowed'. But she doesn't say it. "I'll be here to help guide you, I have been told. But your light is your own to find, in your own time. I'm sorry, but I should not touch many more without caution. You all are too important." The Captain dips her head to each before beginning her turn to move away.

Every little hair, fiber, and being of Randy seems to tune in towards the Captain. She looks like an eager child, somewhat lost as she relives the echoes of her experience in the cheap fascimilles worming through her thoughts and the backs of her eyelids when they flutter closed through stolen moments. An indignance sweeps over Randy's features, disappointment. "What do you mean?"
