trans_9 | That deserves a drink

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That deserves a drink

A couple months in Glados' mazes are enough to make anyone miss Stacy. Samus is no exception to that. Whether she liked it or not, Stacy was where her life was now. She had obligations there. She had responsibilities there. And damn, she actually cared about the crew here. She was genuinely glad when the AI spit her out of the mazes.

So for her own private celebration, Samus went to the tavern. She managed to avoid running into anyone on her way here. As much as she did care about the crew, her own mental health and peaceful alone time are important too. Opportunities to do absolutely nothing didn't come along too often for her, and Samus was not going to waste this. She sat down with a drink in the tavern to enjoy a couple more hours of solitude before going back to being a proper crew member. Sure, someone was bound to realize she was back eventually, but until one stumbled into to Drunken Dragon and found her, she could go on not-existing to the rest of Stacy's residents.

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A tremendous... well, it can loosely be called a man, if men are 8 feet tall, and clad in powered armor with pauldrons that are pretty crazy large even by Varia suit standards, sits in the Tavern with a scowl on his face, taking a long pull of his drink. Stood up on the table by his tankard is an elaborate helm with red eye slits, apparently removed to allow him his (unsuccessful) attempt at getting inebriated. He will meet the eyes of the human, and nod his bald, scarred head at her.

"That's some armor," she comments, accompanied a nod back in his general direction and a sip of her drink. Clearly life on the ship had not stood still while she was gone. Even if she was trying to lay low at the moment, this was as good an opportunity as any to start meeting some of the new crew.

"Indeed. It was given to me upon my ascension to the role of Emperor's Champion of the fighting Company I was assigned to." He lays a hand on the helm for a moment, and says,

"It is called the Armor of Faith, and I am the last Templar to wear it now, it would seem. The Last Templar entirely, if what we have been told is true."

He will look up, meeting Samus' eyes with brown ones that show little emotion, almost like biological targeters. "I... greet you." He says, awkwardly, clearly unsure how to address a human female outside of gruff mentoring in a battle situation.

How... formal. Samus had dealt with her share of soldiers in her life, but this man definitely was closer to the top of 'most-socially-awkward' people she had met. Well, she supposed she can take comfort in the fact that there was someone even less comfortable than her in small-talk situations (which, admittedly, was a little sad).

She picks up her glass and moves to the table, uninvited. If she was going to continue this conversation, she might as well not speak across half the tavern.

"Are you new here?" It occurred to Samus she didn't know how long she had been gone, or when the last pod release had happened.

"I am indeed. I have only been here for a little less than 2 months."

He finally remembers to introduce himself. "I am Erhart Ritter, of the Eternal Crusade... the Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes known as the Black Templars." He touches a closed fist to his tabard-covered breastplate in the old salute of Unity.

He holds her eyes as he asks, "And who are you?"

"Samus Aran, of..." uh, how to introduce herself now, "Transmigration 9 Ship Security."

Not the fanciest of titles but it did the job. She added, "Was a bounty hunter before that in my home universe. Been here awhile though." It seemed strange to her how her ship position had become her default, but ultimately wasn't very surprising when she thought about how long she'd been here.

"A bounty hunter? You... fought for money? Or you were a thief-taker?"

He looks vaguely disgusted by the concept.

Samus decided she should proceed with caution on this topic. While she had the safety of being able to summon her armor at any moment and could certainly handle herself in a fight, she still thought angering a clearly well armored 8 foot tall man in a bar might not be the best of ideas.

"Bounty hunters in my universe were hired for a range of missions from recon and exploration to taking down criminals. The Galactic Federation, the central government, used bounty hunters extensively. They were my main employers," she explained. She didn't particularly like having to justify her line of work. To her, she performed an essential service in the universe, and through it, she got to further her own goals and settle a few more personal disputes.

And honestly, Samus could have cared less about the money she got at the end of each mission. She just generally liked having the government behind her, as it made it hard to charge her for some of her more extreme actions. And even their disapproval wasn't enough to stop her sometimes... But that wasn't a problem now.

"Met a few people that have had issues with bounty hunters in their own universe. Bounty hunting really has no stigma where I'm from like it seems to in other places."

"I am just surprised. The Imperium of Man has no mercenaries. We are bound by loyalty, honor, and duty to fight. Monetary awards..." He shakes his head. More than anything else, it just feels unseemly to him.

"I suppose there are probably bounty hunters amongst the hive-worlds or some of the civilized worlds, but they don't range across the galaxy."

He dismisses this with a shrug of his shoulders, meeting her eyes again. "So, what do you think of this present undertaking, then? The battle against the Ohm."

Well, that was a question to think about.

"We don't seem to have much of the choice in the matter, to be honest," Not that she didn't think it was a noble cause. She just appreciated being free to do her own things, "But assuming all of the information I have about the Ohm is still accurate, I am willing to fight."

She still wasn't sure how long she was away for. The crew's knowledge and perception of the Ohm might have changed in her absence.

"I have not yet crossed blades with them, to my regret. I was made for war, not carousing in this... place."

He scowls, staring deep into his cup for a moment.

"Things tend to pick up pretty quickly around you. If there's been a dryspell in the action department, we'll probably have some issues soon enough."

She'd been around enough to watch it happen. Every time. Without fail.

"Unwise to go wishing for a fight, though," She meant that with all seriousness. As much as it was exciting, it usually caused much strife for the ship. "Not all are quite as prepared for a war."

"You have a point. But even so, I am a blade of Humanity, a blade of the Emperor. If I am not unsheathed and used, I will rust and be useless, ere long."

He shakes his head, "The Sensoriums, for all their technological prowess, are still just ephemeral simulacrums of real war."

Ashley had been sipping her own beer, when she had noticed someone walking in to the tavern. Noticing it was Samus but not wanting to bother her, Ashley just continued on her own drink. Even though her back was turned it was very apparent that Ashley was grinning.

Samus settled in with her own drink before catching a look at one of the few other patrons in the bar. She may have been gone for awhile, but she still recognized the other woman. She finally acknowledges her with "Williams."

It was one of the warmer greetings Samus would give.

"Samus." It had taken Ashley a great deal of control not to add the ma'am part of her speech. But she had thought that she was doing better as Ashley was not used to commanding officers that wanted tpo be called by their first name. Ashley relaxes as she finished her beer.

"The ship stayed in one piece while I was away, I see." It was a joke. Kind of. In a Samus sort of way.

Despite Kaylee's insistence on socializing, Mal had found himself spending most of his time split between the tavern and Serenity, with breaks only to do odd jobs or explore more of the ship.

It was on the way back from one of those odd jobs, that had ended with a close call with some weird energy sucking bat things flying around he depths of Stacy, that he'd managed to find himself into the tavern, only to find a few other night owls scattered about, and a tough looking woman sitting by the bar with the look of someone who'd had a rough time of it.

"S'cuse me ma'am. Got a mighty dissatisfying evening to forget."

Another new face. Samus nodded her head, indicating that she didn't mind the intrusion.

"Had my fair share of those," probably several months worth actually.

That earned Samus a second glance. Given how she looked like she'd been through a few rough patches of late and still managed to talk so casually about them, well it said this woman was an interesting character. Normally he tried to avoid interesting characters, but adrift as he was, more information couldn't hurt.

"Suppose I best make getting pestered by a nameless stranger in a bar ain't one of them then." He offered a hand over the one holding his drink. "Captain Reynolds, at your service."

She shook his hand, and even that was a testament to her lifestyle as a close observer might notice the healed burn scars from so many years with an arm cannon peaking out from under her sleeve. She nodded and added, "Samus Aran."

She paused and took a sip of her drink before asking, "Captain, huh. Of what?"

She was being unusually chatty tonight. Making small talk about half as much as other people was simply loquacious for her.

He did catch the scarring, though given he had plenty of those himself from catching that bullet and grabbing that razor sharp rock and being just far away enough from that explosion, her own battle scars didn't seem out of place beyond reinforcing that there was a story to tell here.

"Pleasure." Never hurt to be polite to a lady, especially one who seemed capable of taking care of herself. "Serenity. She's a Firefly, though I suppose that don't mean much here. Basically she's as sturdy as they come, get you from one side of the 'Verse to the other. Even got here with me."

Mal could be terse or conversational depending on how the mood took him, but one thing he always loved talking about was his ship.

"You're lucky you found her in the hangar. Not sure if anyone's really been missing a ship, yet, but still, it's one of the nicer things to have from home." She remembered the sense of relief when she found her own ship in the vehicle bay.

"What sort of work do you do, then?" That was mostly just her being ~~nosy~~ curious about the new crew.

"Luck ain't usually something that's on my side," he replied, half amused, before taking a drink. "Makes me wonder what price it's asking this time."

Curious, though, that he could handle. "Any kind you need. Got all sorts on her, and you give us a job, we do it, long as we get paid. Mostly our bread and butter is shipping, but we've got alternative sources of revenue."

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That deserves a drink

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Ridiculously late tag backs ftw!

That's okay! Just glad to have 'em.

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I am the failiest fail tag backer ever sorry!

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Sorry for taking so long to tag back!

No problem

\o/ thanks

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