A week had passed since Cynthia had come to stay with the crew at what had developed into a rather nice camp. Cheshik had insisted on hauling over as many items as he possible could from the mansion to make the Harpoon a more comfortable place. Comfortable as in extravagant in the most out of place sort of way. Beds, couches, paintings, chairs, tables, armoirs, cookery, anything that struck his fancy. Despite the protests from most of the crew he must have made nearly a dozen trips. However he had been forbidden from doing so until more food was hunted as they had already burned through the first kill. 

As Iisska slowly pulled himself out of his sudden need for more than fourteen hours of sleep everyday to a more reasonable amount and began to calm down and regain energy, he was more help to Cheshik in that regard. However whenever he wasn't helping to hunt or gather other kinds of food, water and supplies, or working away on vital ship systems, he seemed to disappear for hours into the forest or into hidden areas of the ship. Quin caught him leaving Zen's room after one such disappearance, but all she got out of him was, "Still not awake."

Cynthia had been busying herself tailing random members of the crew and proved nearly impossible to be rid of once she had made her pick for the day. She had also picked up a rather unsettling habit of mimicking, actions, speech patterns, gestures, manerisms and other such behaviors of everyone in the group. It was like looking at a very unappealing photograph of oneself.

At the moment she had latched herself onto Quin, and for the time being she didn't care as she needed her advice. Cynthia had told them of a settlement that was reletively close by. They should be able to reach it in just over a day or two at a good pace. Quin had busied herself picking out things that could possibly be worth something to sell or trade. They needed supplies and badly. As much as Cheshik loved the hunt, she and Nyrette wouldn't last long on the all meat and meager forest roots and berries diet. They would also need medical supplies and information. Mainly they needed to know if there was another way off this planet. Cynthia had been of little help when she had asked that question of her.

"What about the paintings, would we be able to sell those? I know Cheshik will have words to say about getting rid of them, but they really aren't necessary and I'm not fond of them," Quin asked Cynthia.

"They would sell for quite a bit, Pike. More than enough for a good amount of food." She said confidently.

"Excellent!" Quin said, "They should be easy to carry... And 'Pike?' Who have you been following around this time?"

"Your life mate, Nyrette, calls you Pike'ire. I took the initiative and shortened it to pike. Is that alright?" She said, a little worried.

"Life mate? What n-- Never mind. That's fine with me," Quin blushed.

__

Over the past week, Marquis' temper and attitude had only gotten worse. He was secluding himself a lot more and spending much of his time in the still-heavily-radiated A.I. core. He distanced himself from the others and when the Haemonculus tried to shadow him for a day, he nearly threw her out of the ship and locked it. It wasn't that he wasn't incompatible or intolerant of the others. He loved them as family. His mechanical heart ached for the woman that had sacrificed every bit of power in the ship to save them and he was under so much worry about if she'll wake back up that he couldn't stand to be around anything. He was devastatingly alone and hurting.

Cheshik however had been thriving. Making multiple trips with Cynthia back and forth to the mansion to replace the rapidly aging or damaged furniture in the ship. Though he had been banned from it for two days until more food could be found, so he had disappeared for a day and a half straight, coming back with several bags of meat on his little makeshift wagon and threw it into the freezer. There was enough meat to last them a week. Plus, the puppy was happy with a hunk of lamb meat.

Zen has been in a coma for a week. Not much has happened. He soiled himself once and giggled for some reason while Iisska was walking out of the room. Strange slap marks appeared on his skin one day and Quin's hand was red as well. What a coincidence.