Lunch (finished)

[nixnight]

Nix walked into the cafeteria with her hands deep in the pockets of her black combats and her leather coat tucked over one arm. Her t-shirt was loosen and unturned and she was grinning, she loved being one of the only people on the ship who choose not to wear her uniform when she was off shift and she loved her nearly all black outfit and how is clashed brilliantly wih her hair. She gave a small laughed and wandered slowly over to the table closest to the window and sat down on a chair and then twisted round and hung her coat over the chair back and then slid her hands into her pockets again to look for something

[Shaight Sabyce]

Some might wonder, if they spared a second thought, why some people seemed to deliberately bypass the other perfectly good(?) servers to get their food from the rather unwholesome-looking Garar on the end. Yes, if they bothered to pay attention. But who would look twice at a good-for-nothing cafeteria worker serving good-for-nothing crew? Shaight's long blond ponytail was conspicuously hairnetless, giving rise to the suspicion that a lot of people were about to find long silky hairs in their soup. At least Shaight wasn't as bad as the slime being to his left.

He stood there, his Garar fangs giving him a perpetual grin as he scooped out portions of various glop on trays. "What'll it be?" he asked the next person in line, with a wink. The skinny blonde darted her eyes around the room and half-whispered, "I'll take some of... that, please." She pointed at an unidentifiable gelatinous mass. She leaned in closer. "And 50mL of the usual, please."A small vial of mysterious red fluid appeared on the tray for a split second, immediately covered by the requested meal. "Enjoy, sweetheart." Shaight licked his teeth. "And I'll see you in my room later for your payment." The girl's ghostly skin colored slightly, took her tray at the end, and quickly left the counter. If anyone bothered to watch her progress, they would have seen her stick her fingers in the food briefly to retrieve the prize before dumping the entire contents in the trash. Shaight wasn't surprised - one side effect of the crazy shit she was taking was loss of appetite. Not that the kind of food he was serving particularly inspired a healthy appetite to begin with. He made a face at the glop. The scoop he had just taken had left a spoon-shaped hole in the mass which was now beginning to ooze back into its former shape.

The next one up was boring, just a regular crew member with no 'special requests'. Slop on tray, done, next person in line please. It's funny, you might think most of his customers would be the ex-cons, but it seemed an almost equal split with the actual crew members. Even a few guards. His thoughts were interrupted: "Hey! Get that hairnet on, Sabyce! Nobody wants to find a little reminder of you in their food!" Shaight grinned (though it was difficult to tell) and slipped it on. Sometimes life was just too funny.

There was a lull in the serving, and he leaned forward to rest on his elbows as his eyes trailed a petite redhead dressed in black. Would she be coming up? Maybe he could interest her in a little something extra...

[nixnight]

Nix tapped her head against the window and looked over the queue for the "food" and ran her eyes over the people qeueing up to have some food or rather have slop dropped on a plate. She rolled her eyes and shifted round on the window sill and ran her hand through her hair and tucked it behind her pointed ears and then touched her bare feet down on the floor and then leaned over to behind where she had been sitting and picked up her black army boots and then tucked the red pair of socks beside them in the top of them and then walked over to one of the tables and dropped her shoes on one of the seats and then shrugged off her cost and hung it over the seats back and then stuck her hands in her pockets and looked around and considered getting some "food"

Nix looked over the other people around her or rather around at the lack of people around and nodded to herself ,"if I die I'm so haunting some people here" she said with a small smirk and then walked to the end of the now tiny queue and grabbed a plate and walked along and then paused. She'd only ever eaten Hora meat and ghostweed all her life and knew that people from Crenna had a little habit of accidentally blasting shadows when they had what the human called gas, she paused across from one of the workers and looked over the food again ,"I kinda have a little food related issue" she said with a grin

[Shaight Sabyce]

Shaight's judgment about the redhead proved to be correct: she was on her way over. The man made a little show of spiffing himself up for her; running his claws backward through his hair, brushing a spot on his apron, running his tongue over his teeth. One eyebrow was raised as she approached his station. "An issue, hmm? And what might that be, darling?" He looked at the selection in surprise. "This doesn't appetize you? Look, we have green slop, brown slop, pinkish slop, more brown slop, and brown soup. What could go wrong?" He laughed to himself, a rather insane sound. At this point he couldn't even remember what he was coming down off of.

Actually, as far as food went, he knew that ridiculous captain had a special stock in the back for herself. Though of course what was to stop him from helping himself? Nothing whatsoever. And it looked like that crazy staff sergeant had also gotten in on it. He'd seen her recently grabbing some of the precious candy. But Shaight wasn't a food dealer. Oh no, his fare was of a rather different sort.

He leaned in, up close and personal like. His breath was sweet and metallic - surprisingly inoffensive - an effect of whatever upper he was taking to get through his shift. "Food isn't all I serve here though. If you're interested in a little something to make your journey through space a little easier, I can help with that." His baggy sleeves which covered his hands were twitched back, providing the girl with an exclusive view of a sample collection of various vials, tablets, and baggies within his claws. All behind glass, of course, with no way she could get her hands on them. They vanished back beneath the sleeves, and when his hand was revealed again, they were gone. He straightened up once more. "Anyway. We can discuss that later. Tell me about your little issue. But start with your name. I'm Shaight."

[nixnight]

Nix listened and didn't say anything or move as the worker spoke to her and twitched her eyes down as he shifted his sleves and then looked back up at him and nodded ,"Nix, trained shadow mite" she said and then looked over the food and then rolled her eyes and ran a gloved hand through her messy red hair making it yet more messy again and then flicked her fingers and a small bubble of shadow flickered into shape above her hand a little. "I kinda take in people negative energy as I just walk around or what not and then my body converts it in to shadows that I can make in to just about anything as I want to" she explained simply and then flicked her wrist and the shadow disappeared like smoke and she rested her hand back on her food plate

"the issue is that where I come from, our food is very limited and always has been, so we have evolved to only eat Hora meat which is a deer like creature on the planet and then veg and fruit" she said and then looked over he other food again ,"and we know that when we try other foods its generally rejected by our bodies and our shadows are expelled out from us with out our control to try and balance the mis-match out. As a result, shadows escape us and do uncontrollable things and we don't ever actually digest the food and so we starve" she said and then titled her head to one side and gave a small grin. "it's not a big thing, just a matter of life and death for me any one to come near me" she sniggered

[Shaight Sabyce]

Shaight's brows remained high on his forehead as he listened to the rather longer speech than he had been expecting. A shadow what? was all he had time to think. When she was done with her explanation, he only commented, "You'll have a lot to 'absorb' around here. Or have you noticed already?" His ringed eyes swept the room full of unsavory characters. "Wouldn't want to get in the way of that." Those shadows rather unnerved him. They seemed unnatural to him. His race was firmly grounded in logic, and anything he didn't know how to explain was bad news.

He listened to her issue, wondering if he'd even be able to do anything for her. First of all, what was a 'deer'? After a moment he recalled a short stint in an Earth restaurant. It was tasty; reminded him of the Hama on his own planet. With the exception that Hama were equipped with fangs much like his own. "Wellllll now hon, I don't think venison is even on Ms Holt's menu." He clicked his claws on the counter as he stood in thought. Luckily, it was getting late for lunch and nobody else was in line, giving him time to converse. "Well, certain meats are similar in composition. This one here -" he gestured to a certain brown dish "is made with meat from that sort of creature... originally, anyway. It may be offensive to the senses, but it may not cause you to uh... 'reject'." He retrieved a tray for her and dumped it on. "And this one here used to be some sort of vegetable..." He piled that on as well. "My pleasure."

"So how about that other matter I mentioned? Can I tempt you?" The sample array made another appearance. "One hundred percent shadow free... Haven't had any complaints yet." He was sure there must be at least one other person from her planet aboard, and the chances that he or she would be one of his customers was pretty good. Nix didn't look like she was 18, but unlike many of his brethren, he had no qualms about dealing to minors. "First time's on me," he added to sweeten the deal. He leered closer. "If you'd like to test some out, we can go back to my room after my shift... What do you say?"

[nixnight]

Nix paused and titled her head to the other side and then thought for a moment and then nodded ,"tell me about it, my fingers have been buzzing since I came on board pretty much, and I havent ran dry once, normally I have to stop after a few hours and find somewhere depressing and scary to power up again" she said with a roll of her bright eyes and then a thought hit her.

She held out her hand over the food that had been put on her plate and twitched her fingers, hora naturally took in enegry from plants around them like shadow mites did to other creatures so they had a certain power. If the other guy was right and the food had been over processed she would be able to pick up all and and enegry faster, her hand relaxed after a moment and she tried to twist her head to look under it but couldn't and muttered darkly.

"I've heard that a girl who looks about my age should be worried if an old male asks them somewhere closed and quiet" she said with a smirk as she twitched her fingers again and then grinned, her fingers buzzed slightly with energy and she felt dizzy for a moment she felt her legs shake but shook herself and it was gone ,"and this will be fine, I think" she said and looked up at the other guy again ,"should I be worried at all?" she asked with another smirk

[Shaight Sabyce]

Shaight watched interestedly as she did... something... with the food he had given her. He was relieved to hear it would be okay - it wouldn't do to have a potential client starving to death on his watch. "Now you be sure and ask for me any time you're feeling peckish, right? I'll hook you up with some of that." He nodded toward the particular meatish substance.

She questioned his offer, and Shaight was offended. "Old man? How dare you?" He sized her up. "I'm sure I'm not even twice your age." Here he cleared his throat. "And of course, it would be strictly a business meeting. Unless you'd like to make it something else, of course..?" his already grinning mouth seemed to stretch wider with the implication.

He didn't get to elaborate on his point, because a voice from behind interrupted him. "Slacking as usual, Sabyce?" asked his supervisor, placing a heavy paw on Shaight's shoulder and grinding it down. The Garar winced slightly and gave a shifty smile. "Just educating the young lady on our quality meals." The supervisor grunted and removed his hand. "Sure you are. Anyway, I came over to tell you to get out of here. Nobody's left for lunch and we've got to start preparing dinner." He cast a glance at the redhead. "He's not trying to sell you anything, is he?" Shaight shook his head immediately. "Of course not. What do you take me for?" Besides, it's true. I was offering it for free. Not selling anything at all.

But in any case he wasn't eager to stick around for more questions. He shed his apron, revealing the baggy uniform beneath. He unzipped the shirt to expose the white undershirt beneath, sighing with relief even at the ship's stale air on his neck. He swiped the hairnet off as well and pulled out the ponytail so that his long blond hair tumbled around his face and down his shoulders and hung there. The hairnet was stuffed in his pocket, and his claws went through his hair to get out the kink from the elastic. He was on the other side of the counter in a flash, offering his arm to the young lady and getting ready to head out of there with her. As he watched, his outstretched hand began to tremble. He shook it off and held it out again. Obviously it was time for another fix. "Come along now, sweetheart. Let's have some fun."

[nixnight]

Nix watched the senior worker come over and grinned and then as Shaight turned his back for a moment she grabbed her tray and ran back over to the table she had put her things down on, with one hand she grabbed mouth of food and shoved it in her mouth and then bent over and picked up her boots and then took another mouthful and then grabbed her coat from the back of the chair and then jogged over to the bin and dropped the rest of the food in the bin and dropped the plate on the pile beside t and then stood at the end of the queuing line and waited on Shaight so come over again ,she was lonely normally any way and massivly bored so she was beginning to consider what she had been offered ,"lead the way" she said with a small smile and hen she ran a gloved hand through her messy red hair again ,"and so you know, by my planets standards ,I'm over 30, the humans just have smaller aging messures ,but I can see your point" she said with a dip of her head

[Shaight Sabyce]

Shaight was always happy to corrupt an innocent, and boy did this girl take the cake when it came to innocent faces. His skeletal tail undulated behind him. He waited for Nix to grab her things, and then began to lead the way out of the cafeteria. "Over thirty, huh? That's okay, I like older women," he drawled. He supposed he was around 27, himself, though they didn't exactly measure age on his home planet.

As they headed down the hallway, Shaight figured he might as well make conversation. He walked close beside her, so that his freely swinging tail would occasionally brush the backs of her legs. Another advantage was that it would be harder for anyone else to overhear. "So what did you do to end up here?" he asked. "I can't picture you in prison. Would have thought you'd be snapped in half in a week, especially in some of these intergalactic prisons with the stronger non-humanoids."

The shaking of his hands was getting more annoying. He clenched and unclenched them to give him some more control. It was nearly impossible for him now to go for long without a fix of some sort. It barely even counted as 'getting high' anymore - the drugs were just to feel normal at this point. His mind on this topic, he turned to Nix again. "I guess you don't need to ask what I was arrested for."

[nixnight]

Nix sniggered at Shaight's comment and rolled her eyes ,"I was trained by the kings guards, then sent back to guard the village I grew up" she said and then curled her hands in to tight fists and her voice grew hard as she remembered her childhood,"my aunt and uncle weren't nice people, they didnt raise me nicely or care about me so I had ran away at what is 11 to humans, upon coming back I was told about my parents, and then told I was useless". Her voice grew into a slight hiss and she could feel pressure against the back of her combats as her shadows tried to balance out her anger. "I have anger issues you see, and they only worked that out after they had annoyed me and I had cut them in to small bits" she said and then shook her head and uncurled her hands to calm herself down

"fighing is normal on our planet because the humans got there ages back, but normally the mites themselves don't fight because all negative feelings are taken away by guards simply being around, so what I did was unheard of to both, murder just didnt happen. Of course once i was in prison everyone just thought ,"she's a kid, easy pickings" ,and the first guy who acted on those thoughts, lost an arm and a leg and something more he'll miss" she said with slight glee in her voice. She had to admit that hurting people and using her powers made her feel good and she liked how people came fear her and step back if she came past, she liked that feeling of power over them. "but I can't imagine how you could have been caught, you seem very...practised" she said with a slightly tilted head again as she remembered the pressure on the top of her combats and closed her eyes for a moment.

There was a brief sound of ripping skin and nix bit down on her lip in pain but it was gone in a few moments. A long and thin tail thst was the same colour as nix's shadows dropped down from the top of her combats and brushed against the back of her legs. nix whipped the blood from the bottom of her back with one hand and then brushed it on her combats as her black forked tail flicked from side to side behind her ,"I didn't metion, I can grow extra body parts, for example a tail or wings. it takes a lot of energy normarlly and I'm normally left weak for a fair while ,but since ive been here it's been a lot easier" she said with a snigger as her tail flicked back and forth. "yours looks much better though" she said with a grin and then ran her hand through her messy hair again

[Shaight Sabyce]

Shaight hadn't been expecting the chick's life story, but there it was. He could only listen, looking as serious as possible with his array of teeth constantly on display, nodding with what seemed like understanding when it was necessary. He was quite surprised to hear of her ripping people to shreds so casually, but he supposed with a power like that you had to watch your step. Sounded like it was more or less revenge and self-defense rather than the enjoyment of killing itself, though he thought he heard something of pride behind the words. He shrugged it off, knowing that if he wanted to remain professional with her, his potential client, he should not inquire further.

He laughed rather sheepishly at her next point. "Yes, well... unfortunately, the years of practice came after the initial incarceration." He thought back to his early years, when he had no concept of subtlety or circumspection. "I guess you could say I learned to make and acquire the drugs before prison, and learned to sell them when I got there." This thought made him laugh again. Did he have any regrets? No. And he never gave a second thought to his parents or tribe back on Casuso. They weren't exactly a loving, family-oriented species, and it wasn't in his genes or his nature to miss them. He thought it a reasonable assumption that they were still back on that dry planet running around in the forest like primitive savages. Possibly already dead, knowing the harsh climate and fierce predators there.

He was shocked at the slight ripping sound and scent of blood, and he looked over to see his female companion now sported a tail of her own. This, much like her seemingly magical powers, creeped him out a little. Not that it didn't look good on her - it was just the manner of its appearance. He listened to her explanation warily, wondering what other surprises were in store. "Nonsense, yours suits you just as well as mine suits me," he managed to say.

They were almost at his room, and he pointed to one of the doors as they approached it. "This one's me," he informed her, stopping before it. He pressed the button and it slid open, revealing a rather plainly-decorated room like all the others. It was practically indistinguishable from the one next to it - just the regulation bed, desk, and one chair. Once they were closer to the desk, a few certain photos and magazines could be seen in the spot between it and the bed. Shaight's perpetual grin widened as he spotted them, and he kicked them under the bed with no sign of embarrassment. "A man's little comforts, you know," he explained, watching for her reaction.

He took the only chair, meaning if she wished to sit, she would be forced to take the bed. "So, ever tried any of these before?" He had busily begun removing various packages from his sleeves, pockets, between his mattresses, the lining of his pillow, and several other incomprehensible spots, laying them out on the bed and desk for her perusal. "And any you're curious about?"

((OOC: You should start a new thread for the next post, in the Quarters board))