“Oh, I like her already. Her excuses to avoid work are almost as good as mine, if a little more grounded in reality.” Astrid commented once the AI joined the conversation, “Not to worry, we’ll teach you to swear and lie and you’ll be one of us in no time.” She was about to add something when ‘the coffee guy’ said something tech-related that made sense. “Good. You are correct, BUT you are assuming they hadn’t simply prettied up the hull, fixed the basics and towed it here. Half of the ship’s guts could be fried. You have no idea how many times I’ve heard [i]‘just make it look presentable, I’m selling it anyway.’[/i] back in the day. I’d stay away from the Angel Dust regardless, Party ships have more advanced tech in them, which means more work for me. Unless there’s some hidden problem with the Lucy, I’d go with that. Small, jack of all trades, master of none, and — as Cake pointed out — will be the easiest to modify.” [i]Or kitbash back into working order once something goes wrong[/i], she thought to herself, but didn’t say out loud.

When the Puppet left, she took a deep, theatrical breath. “Ah, clean air, at last. Shall we move on with the selection? You’ll excuse me if I don’t take the word of a party lackey at face value and the more time to double check everything, the easier — or longer — we’ll be able to breathe.” That’s when a big hand landed on her shoulder. She didn’t even have to look to know who it was and her nervous tic returned. Fortunately, his words were friendly and not even directed at her, but at the group as a whole. Still gave her quite a scare though. “Can you not, please?” she turned her head to look at least in the general direction of the mountain’s eyes.