POOHEAD189

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

"Well, I'd say your hot pilot boyfriend approves." Neil said, placing his hands on his hips and gazing around the comfortable room. The carpet was well cleaned, and even the ceiling fan seemed like it had been dusted recently. A smile crept onto his face as he looked around the room, oddly interested in Junebug's life before she had been thrust into her self-inflicted baptism by fire. It was a bit neater than his room on Fortus, if his old room was even the same. Damn, he hadn't thought about it in awhile.

"I mean, I wouldn't want to live here, but it's a nice place all things considered. It's a bit too quaint for me, even before I was in the military. But then again, I was a bit more of a delinquent than you." He gave her a grin that showed his teeth.

Normally when they were alone, he would enact 'getting into his superior's pants' protocol, but honestly the locale was so...plain, and her family so swell, he almost felt like it was kicking a wounded kitten. The accompanying stomps of Madge's little feet banging on the hallway floor also made him feel more trepidation. Yeah, maybe later.

"So, you ok here or do you feel like going out? You can show me your favorite hangouts from way back when. You had to have some place that served a good milkshake or something," Neil said, wondering what a small town on the planet would look like, or a city for that matter. It's true Terran architecture was often uniform on idyllic planets, but there was always something new if one knew where to look. "Unless you have some outstanding parking tickets or some jealous ex boyfriends I should know about."

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

"Taya and I can head back to the Highlander if..."

"Nonsense!" Her mother exclaimed while her father simultaneously spouted. "We have plenty of room!"

Neil held his hands up as if to go 'alright alright!' but in truth he was smiling. It was just beginning to dawn on him how strange it was meeting Junebug's family, now that the surprise had worn off. He would never change her no matter what, but he wondered how she had gotten such a different temperament than everyone else. Then again, Neil was the black sheep of his family too, in a sense. His sisters were far better behave than him, and neither of his parents had encouraged him (too much) to be the way he turned out.

"Have you killed people too?" Madge asked, pointing at Neil with supreme confidence.

"Margaret!" Miranda called, her eyes blazing. It looked like Madge had finally caught the hint from the look, and she sunk down into her chair and pouted, crossing her arms.

"It's alright," Neil assured Miranda and Tomaz, though a look from Miranda showed he misread the situation. She was not mad that Madge was annoying him, except out of principal. She was mostly wanting to spare her daughter the details of anything morbid. Unfortunately, the entirety of the table except Junebug were looking his way. Sayeeda plucked a grape from the fruit bowl and chewed as if she hadn't a care in the world.

"I was a soldier for awhile, so I've seen some action. But I mostly fly nowadays." He said flippantly. Taya sipped some water gingerly, hoping no one asked her any pressing questions. Neil sympathized.

"Foot soldier? No wonder she likes you." Her father said.

"Mech division, actually." He professed, drawing some curious looks. It was rare to find actual mecha pilots in the galaxy. They were mostly used for spec ops, unless one was on a planet where the equipment was readily available, like Fortus. He cleared his throat. "But I did do some ground work. Now I'm just a pilot and engineer. I fix, I fly, I follow orders...mostly." Neil winked.

"Orders?" Her mother asked.

"Yeah, Sayeeda's the captain." Neil replied, pointing at Junebug.

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

This almost felt like a whirlwind to Neil, he wondered how concussed Sayeeda must feel. The landscape was trully idyllic, the temperature modestly warm, and the flowery scent of the outer gardens refreshing. He fancied he might have even smelled it prior, as if they had bottled up the smell and put a light fragrance in the air car. Neil knew Sayeeda was the center of attention, but somehow he felt put on the spot in some measure. He had been 'the boyfriend' before, and often times that brought more glares than happy smiles, and on this occasion, somehow he almost missed the scowls. At least then he could share Junebug's opinion, but now he felt stuck between being fancied over like an object to being secretly scrutinized.

Of course the pilot didn't show it. He smiled with Taya and gave quiet chuckles, and he did not expect her mother to compliment him so highly, nor given the title of 'master' by her father.

Well, there were worse problems to have.

"Ah, yeah. Well Junebug-" Neil started, but saw the look of incredulity twist her father's face. "Sorry, Sayeeda and I met a few years ago on Hodierna, in the Volantis system."

"Junebug?" Her mother piped in, shimmying her way to the table to move aside a small assortment of papers and a plate that looked unused but ill fitting for a dinner. "Sayeeda, do you go by another name?"

"Just a call sign for the business. We work in logistics." Neil explained with perfect nonchalance. "We take contracts, haul goods across the galaxy. It's safe, but the days are long."

Neil was surprised he did not hear Taya laugh at the half-lie.

"She always did want to play the soldier," Miranda said, not deigning to look up as she helped her mother clear the table. Neil noticed Sayeeda cast a look at her sister, but he decided not to notice the atmosphere in the room shift slightly. Miranda's husband placed his hands on her shoulders, whispering something about their daughter to her. She nodded and spoke back softly.

"So that's how you two met? Well you're a small crew, don't mind me saying. Sayeeda could always pull her weight though." Ibram said, beaming with pride. He was clearly pleased she was home, and Neil could tell at least he would be a safe haven from anything that might explode on this visit. "And you two just hit it off?"

Neil laughed, draping an arm over the back of a chair as he reminisced. Everyone always marveled at his easy manner and charming, addicting smile. Luckily it came easily, and her father gave a knowing chuckle. Farah looked fascinated, however. "Oh did she put you through the ringer? I can't imagine her with...well, let's just say it's a surprise to see you." She breathed pleasantly.

"Can I help?" Taya offered, her hands out to take a plate. Miranda pushed past her, shaking her head and giving a dismissive 'no thank you.'

"I had my eye on her for awhile, but she played hard to get," Neil explained in what was perhaps the most concise retelling of the first year of their partnership in the entire galaxy. Sayeeda's mother seemed like she was placing a marker in the folder of her mind to ask Neil more about it later, in private. Neil was making a mental note to never be caught alone at the exact moment. He gave a shrug. "Luckily she realized how much of a catch I was and the rest is history."

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

"How did she know we were here?" Neil asked Taya in a whisper, cloaking his mouth with his hand.

Before Taya could answer, Sayeeda's mother brushed past the guards and hugged her daughter. Junebug reciprocated, albeit mechanically. Neil bit his lip so as not to laugh. He could tell he was going to have some fun on this trip, even though Junebug was going to likely hate it. He had some small sympathy for her, at least.

"We got the notification you were en route. Your father had it so whenever you flashed your ID with the security, we would be notified." She said, and then noticed Neil and Taya blink at that. She gave a smile. "If you know my daughter, you know how flighty and secretive she can be. But she won't slip by us that easily."

"She's just so impetuous." Neil said with a certainty only a gossip could have, shaking his head and giving a 'tsk tsk tsk' with his tongue. Junebug shot him a glare, and he decided not to lay it on too thick. To alleve the situation he decided to save her, raising his hand to shake, hoping her mother would take the bait. She finally let Junebug out of the embrace and shook Neil's hand gingerly.

"Are you friends of hers?" She asked, smoothing some loose hairs out of her eyes, fitting it back into her fashionable bun.

"Er, yes. Friends and business partners. I'm Neil Edwards, pilot, and this is Taya-"

"Medical officer." Taya pipped in, smiling politely.

Security approached, SMK2 assault rifles held in their hands. Even with their face helms, it was plain to everyone their patience was running thin. The man at check-in had evidently called them to reel Junebug's overzealous mother back in. When the one on the left spoke, his voice was amplified by a vox. "You can't stand around here. Move along please."

Tricksters and Theives: A Warhammer RP

"I know I said I was going to give her the imperial palace and Ghal Maraz, but I didn't expect her to start acting like an empress already," he said to himself as she made her way up the stairs. Watching her backside sway, maybe she had a point staying here a night was not a bad idea. He glanced at the hallway where the corpse lay, and sighed when he realized what he was going to do.

Minutes later, after finding a shovel and making sure the fencing was secured and the timber doors encircling the garden were closed, he started digging a hole. Up above, he heard porcelain shattering and a curse from Emmaline through an open window. He smiled to himself, but kept his mouth shut and kept digging. The rhythmic noise of iron crunching into soil set his mind at ease, and despite the labor, he felt it was the first time he had actually relaxed in days. Other than the night they had shared engorging on chocolate and alcohol, but even then the siege was never very far from his mind.

He shoved the spade into the dirt to keep it steady, and turned to grip the corpse by its feet, slowly dragging it into the hole.

"You don't show it often, but I knew you were the sentimental type," Emmaline said from above, drawing Neil's gaze upwards. She just watched him, her chin resting on her hand. Neil couldn't tell if she was amused or appreciative.

"Nice try, but I already picked his pockets."

"Anything good?" She asked.

"Just a handkershief and like two brass pennies." Neil shrugged, beginning to fill the hole back in. To preserve the dead man's dignity (and Emmaline's view) he tossed the dirt on the shattered head first. The thought of money brought Emmaline's previous statement back to his mind. He glanced her way. "Find anything good up there?"

Money signs practically popped into Emmaline's brightening face. "They cleaned the place out well, but I found a few gold coins, and a great necklace!" She ducked back into the manor, before popping back out with a thick cord of ringed copper where small gold bars hung, the largest at the center, growing smaller and smaller up the thong. She placed it against her chest as if letting Neil visualize it on her from the stand point of a mirror, fluttering her lashes.

Neil grinned widely. It looked like that alone made this whole trip worthwhile. "I bet it looks great on you without the top." He said lecherously.

"Maybe if you finish up out here and put a fire on," She said with a playful smile, and slid back into the manor, closing the window. Neil had to admit that despite her getting him to do more of the chores, she had a point. It wasn't freezing, but it still was not spring just yet. The day was waning and it was getting colder. Neil finished filling in the grave, before making the sign of the twin tailed comet for a brief moment.

"Whoever you are, may your soul rest in peace." He whispered, before hurrying back in doors with some of the garden cellar's stacked kindling in his arms.

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

Alcander kept himself busy while the others spoke, checking the cadaver's weight of limb, the skin texture, and he performed a small spell to determine if any vile spirits still dwelled around the corpse. Unfortunately, he received no reply when he attempted to summon the spirit of the deceased. But that was not the most disconcerting part. When he pulled out the mandrake and performed the rite, he not only felt as if there was no one at home. He felt as if there was a vacuum where a soul might have been. For a brief moment, Alcander felt a tinge of fear as he felt the pull of his own soul. A less experienced mage might have stepped in to search, but that would have spelled the end of him. He suppressed a shudder and closed the summoning.

By this point, the others had arrived and made quite the spectacle, as they often did. By the time they had decided to acknowledge him, he had run out of ideas without further assistance from Jo, Alcander was merely standing there as if waiting for an elevator, hands in his jacket.

"Good idea." Alcander said, the toothpick in his mouth undulating as he spoke. "I'm not the best at sweet talking the security guards."

If Alcander was alone, he might have done a larger summoning, perhaps asking a stone spirit for aid. They were rife in the city, all the concrete and imported stone for the more exotic buildings attracted them like. However, they were far more volatile than the spirits locked in natural mountains. In modern terms, you'd call the rock spirits that fled to the city as 'bums,' exiled from the true stone to fraternize with a low class, made-man mixture. In fact, cities often had the worst or least honorable of the old powers. Anything that trucked with humanity tended to be pretty seedy, as far as the ancients were concerned. Except the Black Dogs of Britain, and he lamented they weren't in London. That would have been cased closed almost immediately.

Unfortunately, he was not alone. Most members of his 'team' if you could call it that, had spirits or heavenly beings already residing in them. Summoning more to congregate with a spell was just asking for trouble.

He fished in his jacket, and produced an old box camera in his left hand, letting the group get a good look at it. He then lazily tossed it to Adri. "Here, catch." The contraption was solid and as heavy as a rock, made from industrial grade, small form iron, but the make of it gave it an edge in capturing the supernatural on film. Even if it hit the ground, it would take a fall from a real height to break it.

Old was gold, as they say.

"Just take a few photos of the body and the surrounding area. Alright, Teajay. Let's go move that shit." The detective sighed, turning his back to the group and meandering that way. He nonchalantly spit the toothpick into a refuse pile he passed.

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

“Have you seen the kitchen of a McDonald’s? Or—Satan forbid—a KFC?”

@Atalanta

He makes a valid point

At The Edge of The World

The water was now a step above tepid, but we both cared very little at that moment. The day's heat was falling on the land, and we kept each other warm. I never understood couples earlier, where they would laugh and kiss and whisper all at once, but I found I was doing it with Emmaline, and I realized, for the first time in awhile, I was as comfortable around her as I was by myself. I never thought I would feel that way again.

The two of us kissed and snuggled, before Emmaline announced she was hungry and she climbed out of the pool, shimmying into a towel and drying her hair with a smaller one. I dunked myself in the water one last time before surfacing and whipping my head back and forth. I opened my eyes to see a rolled up towel flying at me, which I caught at the last moment before it plunged into the bath. I dried my hair as I stepped out, and then toweled the rest of myself.

"Can't wait to get more clothes," Emmaline murmured, putting her traveling garb back on.

"I know a good place to go," I told her, and she looked at me with wide eyes. I winked just before my shirt fell back over my torso, hugging my broad chest. "Grab something to eat and then go shopping?"

She nodded vigorously, looking at me in a way that had my heart speed up. We had just made love and already I was shy again. If I wasn't so enamored, I would be confused. But now that the adrenaline was off from the road, it felt like everything was falling into place. The two of us meandered into the rest of our clothes and then lazily walked out, though in the front room a few eyes turned our way, staring without inhibition. I gave a guilty smile and ushered Emmaline on, who seemed more giggly than anything. The sun flooded into our vision, and the warmth felt great on our newly washed bodies and moist hair.

We entered the tavern again, the lunch rush just starting. I saw Olly for a split second, surrounded by a crowd haranguing him at length for their orders. With sympathy, I led Emmaline past a rushing waitress and headed upstairs. As we found our room, there was a slip of paper at the foot of the door. Emmaline bent down to grab it, pulling it up to her face and reading through it, pleased. I poked my head around her to see, though with my height it wasn't hard to look over her shoulder. Emmaline gave a sly smile, and tossed her hair coquettishly to ruin my view. I blinked, rearing back and acting put off, before we were interrupted by a curious sound.

The two of us looked from one another to the door of our room. Emmaline opened her mouth to whisper, but I clamped my hand on her and gave her a look of understanding. I backed her up for a moment, and slowly I stepped forward, reaching for the doorknob to the room, gingerly turning it.

Swiftly I shoved the door open, the wood hitting the wall audibly. Our room was comfortable but not entirely large. Mostly a moderately sized bedroom with a half kitchen and a small balcony. The sunlight streamed in, the curtains billowing from the breeze. Amidst our meager belongings was a figure, hooded and cloaked. As soon as the door swung open, its head shot in our direction. It moved erratically, it's body and hand movements were both languid yet sharp. I heard a low sound, not unlike a buzzing hiss, but lower, as if I felt the very vibrations in my chest and neck.

I couldn't see who or what it was under the cowl, but it wasn't human. Or not fully human.

I leaped forward, my legs pivoting into a kick. But the thing was too fast, sliding to the left with an eerie speed and scuttling away, grasping cupboards and bed posts with gloved hands and sprinting out onto the balcony. I followed, easily leaping over the bed, stepping down lightly before I launched myself again onto the balcony after it, and with one foot on the balustrade, I noticed the cloaked figure had somehow found its way down and was speeding away through the crowd.

"I'll be back!" I called to Emmaline, and I heard her cry out in alarm as I leaped the fifteen feet to the ground, narrowly missing a couple who gasped as I landed in a roll in front of them. I was on my feet in a flash, sprinting after the figure.

A Song Of Ice And Fire : The Swords And Stars

Kian Cran'Darak

---

Well, he felt slightly deflated.

Perhaps the men and women of his homeland were far more rustic than he recalled. Kian had thought the nobility might know his turn of phrase and his manner, but perhaps there was hope yet. He merely needed to spend a bit of time with the woman, and there was always something interesting to learn in a foreign land. Plus, it was either go with them or stay here, and a horseback ride to a destination with a delectable woman was more inviting than the hard road.

He took her hand with a gracious smile of thanks, careful not to stumble despite half his form having been strangled to sleep. Kian stepped past the corpses and looters, and chuckled at lady Vittoria's statement.

"I think I can vouche for that, my lady."

A horse was presented to him, brought by another servant. Or squire, he supposed. They seemed like battle-servants to him, but evidently if they had sufficient valor, and their liege felt particularly nice, they could be uplifted to the gentry. He wondered how often that happened? "Thank you," he said to the lad, though truthfully the 'lad' looked big and scarred enough to be labeled a 'battle-hardened man' in his mind. Or maybe it was that obtuse looking armor.

"We're playthings for the gods, so I hear." Kian said to no one in particular as he mounted the horse. A grin slowly spread across his handsome features. "If that's the case, let's at least give them a good show."

He kicked his horse forward with a shift of his hips and pressure on the beast's flanks, following after Vittoria. Kian was not the best rider in the world, and he doubted it was a feat to beat him in most scenarios one might race. But he was experienced, at least. He would not be left in the dust, and already he was hoping to impress his new 'host,' or at least not make a fool of himself. He would find out once they reached their base of operations.

Or R'hllor saw fit to throw another bit of wildfire into the mix that was his life...

Picky eater always takes the forbidden fruit (introduction)

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