[hr][h3][i][b]D O W N I N T H E D E P T H S A [colour=0080ff] J A X[/colour] A N D [colour=40826D] V I N N Y[/colour] P R O D U C T I O N[/b][/i][/h3][hr][indent][indent][justify] The hiss came first, then the air vanished. One second Jax was breathing smoke and fumes; the next, the room inhaled. A hollow [i]whump[/i] that yanked the breath straight out of his chest and sent papers and dust swirling upward like startled ghosts, scattering tools on the floor. His lungs clenched on instinct; his hands clawed for balance as equilibrium slipped. [colour=0080ff]“—the fuck?!”[/colour] The words came out thin and ragged. His chest burned, his ears popped. Panic hit before thought, that primal fear of vacuum, of hull breach, of death. He staggered toward the wall, coughing, eyes darting. The extinguisher’s roar filled the small room, dragging the smoke toward its nozzle in a long, spiraling ribbon until the air settled again. As the smoke cleared, its source became apparent. It was some apparently malfunctioning device on Jax’s desk. Vĩnh progressed slowly into the room, inching closer. The extinguisher pulled the device in. Vĩnh shut it off. The room was silent, save for the low hum of the Dullahan’s life-support catching up and the faint rattle of tools rolling on the deck. Jax gasped for air and finally turned to the source of the noise, ready to curse whatever idiot had triggered — and froze. Vĩnh stood at his desk, extinguisher still in hand, her chrome catching the flickering light. For a moment he just stared, jaw slack, disbelief flickering into fury. [colour=0080ff]“[i]You[/i]—”[/colour] His voice cracked. [colour=0080ff]“[i]You[/i] did this?! You just—walked in here and—”[/colour] He choked mid-sentence, coughed again, half from smoke, half from rage. [colour=0080ff]“You can’t— you don’t—”[/colour] His hand jerked toward her, trembling. [colour=0080ff]“[i]You[/i] don’t come in here!”[/colour] The words tumbled over each other now, spit and breath fighting for the same space. [colour=0080ff]“You don’t— you can’t! [i]You[/i]!”[/colour] His voice rose, frayed and hoarse. [colour=0080ff]“You trying to [i]kill me[/i] now? [i]huh!?[/i] Don’t need air yourself, so who gives [i]a damn[/i] if the rest of us choke!?”[/colour] He took a staggering step towards her, eyes wild. [colour=0080ff]“Any excuse to sneak in again, that it? Spy on me, check my work, see what the meatbag’s building?”[/colour] His tone cracked between mockery and venom. [colour=0080ff]“Just couldn’t resist, could you?”[/colour] He kicked a crate aside; it clanged off the wall and rolled into the corner. [colour=0080ff]“I had it handled! You— Y’think I’d torch my own room?! You think I don’t know what I’m doing?!”[/colour] He gestured violently toward the corridor, chest heaving, voice raw. [colour=0080ff]“Get. [i]Out![/i]”[/colour] The last echo of his shout lingered. His hand stayed outstretched a moment longer — shaking — before he realized how hard he was breathing, and how hard he had kicked that crate. He looked away, jaw tight, pulse hammering against his throat, and his toes. Vĩnh stepped back and held up the extinguisher emphatically. She exclaimed, [colour=40826D]“I’m just doing my job! Smoke is dangerous in small spaces.”[/colour] She shook her head in a mixture of indignation and confusion, and added, [colour=40826D]“You think I should know psychically that your room is not on fire, huh?”[/colour] If the smoke hadn’t made Jax’s hair already look like he was physically fuming, his shaking from the audacity Vĩnh showed him definitely completed the look. His fists clenched at his sides and his shoulders slowly raised up to mirror his ears. [colour=0080ff]“Get out! Getout, getout, getout! GET. OOOOUT!!”[/colour] Vĩnh stood firm. Her expression tensed as she looked past Jax at the rest of his room. She shook her head. [colour=40826D]“Either way, I’ll need to clean your room soon.” [/colour]She gestured around the room with her free hand, [colour=40826D]“It’s filthy already.” [/colour] How could she just [i]stand there[/i] and talk so nonchalantly after almost killing a guy? It must have been, quite obviously, one of those damn cybernetic thingamabobs. [colour=0080ff]“There is absolutely no way in this damn hell of a pocket of space I’m letting you in here to get your hands all up in my [i]stuff[/i].”[/colour] Vĩnh put her free hand on her hip and sighed. [colour=40826D]“Then, you need to put them away when I need to clean here. You understand, it’s my [i]job[/i] to clean the whole ship, right?”[/colour] Her tone remained firm, yet grew gentler, in a way which approached condescension. [colour=40826D]“I have to clean here eventually. And I have to do a routine cleaning regularly. If I don’t clean in here, I’m not doing my job.”[/colour] [colour=0080ff]“No!”[/colour] he spouted like it countered the whole conversation. [colour=0080ff]“I don’t want you in here! I don’t want it [i]“cleaned”[/i].”[/colour] which he made to emphasis with actual air-quotes. [colour=0080ff]“I just don’t want— you… Just no! Clean the rest of the ship but leave me be!”[/colour] Vĩnh shook her head again. [colour=40826D]“No. I can work with your schedule and your preferences. But right now, you get to choose [i]when[/i] I clean this room. Not if. If you want me to not clean here, I need an order from Captain MacLaine telling me so. Otherwise, I am not doing my job in here. Do you see the problem, Jack?”[/colour] Jax’s chest rose and fell in a quickening rhythm. [colour=0080ff]“It’s. JAX! With an X! And if [i]you[/i] want to clean in [i]here[/i], [i]you[/i] get ol’ Cap’n to tell me himself! As far as I’m concerned, my space, my choice!”[/colour] [colour=40826D]“Ja…x. Jax,”[/colour] she repeated to herself, clearly chewing on the word to get a feel for pronouncing it. [colour=40826D]“Okay, Jax. Did Captain MacLaine tell you that your room was exempt from cleaning? Or, you know, this looks like a storage room. Did he give you explicit permission to use this room as a work area and quarters?”[/colour] Vĩnh cocked her head expectantly. He nodded along with it. Mouthing it out as she spoke the words in big movements, but when she moved on to the questions.. [colour=0080ff]“Well. He didn’t exactly express that I wasn’t not [i]not[/i] allowed to not stay in here…?”[/colour] Confused, he shook his head slightly [colour=0080ff]“I’m allowed!”[/colour] He paused, from the looks on his face, he was obviously thinking incredibly hard, both to untangle that last sentence and also on his current predicament. His shoulders dropped, as did his volume. [colour=0080ff]“But… I don’t want to not be allowed…”[/colour] Vĩnh nodded sympathetically. [colour=40826D]“Then, you should be careful. Captain MacLaine comes from a corporate background, you know. I don’t know how your background is, but corpos are rigid with us working people. I have to do my job. You have to do yours. We both have to minimize our liability in the case of malfunction or accident, you understand?”[/colour] She spoke slowly, making a clear effort to enunciate each word such that there would be no ambiguity. [colour=40826D]“If I don’t clean, I’m liable for damage caused by what I don’t clean up. If there’s something on your floor that causes rust, anything flammable that could get tracked around, and so on. If I don’t clean, I’m not doing my job, and [i]I[/i] get in trouble for that. And I don’t know or understand much about your work, and I want to respect it and respect your space within the confines of what I am able to do according to my duty, but in order for me to do that, you have to work with me. And you know, I can’t tell you what to do, but looking around here—”[/colour] She gestured around the room, towards the myriad loose parts and compounds. [colour=40826D]“—and knowing you work with explosives, I can tell you that I see liability issues for you as well. If you want, I can look up the Jovian standard for what constitutes safe practice around volatile substances.”[/colour] Jax jolted at the mention of ‘looking up standards.’ Whether it was due to the fact he had never actually realised there were standards, or whether he chose to ignore them, or that he simply didn’t even know what Vinny meant. Still, the reaction was clearly visible. [colour=0080ff]“I—ah… I guess you could clean up just a [i]little[/i] bit. Just—.. Er… Don’t move stuff? And I want to be here when it happens!”[/colour] Vĩnh offered a polite smile. [colour=40826D]“Give me a day this week, and I will come do that. Believe me, I don’t want to have an accident with explosives. We’ll work together, you’ll have a clean work area and room, and everything will go back exactly as it was before, just cleaned.”[/colour] After pausing a moment, she cleared her throat and concluded, [colour=40826D]“Anyway, I don’t want to keep you. Let me know if there is anything you need!”[/colour] [/justify][/indent][/indent] [@enmuni]