For this section, I am posting some 'lead ins' below.  I'm not assigning them to any of your PCs specifically.  You can decide which PC wanders into each scene and have them react.

Thanks

"The stars are stretching like taffy..."

In a way, the stars do seem to stretch out like long strands of sucrose boiled to a soft candy stage when Tia is in Jump.

You left Resting earlier today.  Things have been pretty quiet.  Coming out of the common area, you find that actress Calliope.  She's leaning against the door to the airlock, looking out through the window, with her arms crossed.  She mutters the bit about taffy, apparently not aware anyone is watching or listening to her.

---

So I just found a subroutine for this game called 'Twenty Questions'  Fritz sounds like he'd be bouncing up and down on his toes, staring up at you with puppy dog eyes if he had toes or eyes, puppy dog or otherwise.  And I'd really, really, reeeeeeeallly like to try it out.  Sort of as an experiment.  Yeah.  An experiment.  Just to see if I can relate to a human.

So...you...uh...you wanna play Twenty Questions with me?

---

"Ooooooooh

You can't go back to Tarkine...

Cos that woman'll do you wroooong...

She's all kids of temptation...

And you ain't very strong...."

Sister Maribel is singing.  An old shipper's song.  Very old.  And, if you remember it right, not something you'd expect a nun to be singing.  You're pretty sure there's a word that rhymes with shunt somewhere in that song.

She straightens up, putting aside the trowel and wiping her forehead.  The garden looks pretty good all things being equal.  She's weeded, planted rows of what will proably be flowers, herbs, and...best of the best...a watermelon vine.  At least that's what she said it was.

She reaches for her water bottle and sees you.  She nods.  "Top of the morning.  Or is it morning?  Can't really tell my time without a sun to orbit ya know?"

---

beeeep....beeep...

You first heard it upstairs.  Passing by the lift, you heard it, faintly coming up from below.

A quick ride down the lift, and you could hear it more clearly.  Coming from somewhere in the cargo hold.  It's not coming from the low berths, thank goodness.  It's more from the baggage area.

You find it with a little searching.

One of the androids the film crew brought aboad is laying on its side on the floor.  Maybe it came undone and fell over during the fighting in Resting.

It's laying there, light pouring out of it's eyes.  The light comes from random symbols which seem to be flashing from it's optic display.  The light forms a picture on the flooring.  You can see what looks like that actress Calliope and one of the actors talking.  There's no sound though.

As you study the scene, the android suddenly speaks.

Should I film this?

Calliope
Nero was in an ecstatic mood. He had finally gotten his battle stuff uploaded before they had hit the jump and before they had lost contact with the universe his numbers were climbing. Why not, right? In the past couple of weeks he had been at ground zero for a terrorist attack, a daring save of an entire hab, and not one but TWO pirate skirmishes. Sure the footage was mostly him talking excitedly over the sound of the ship firing thrusters and weapons but it was still exciting!

He was going for a stroll when he saw Calliope leaning against the airlock. Always with his eye on the ball he wondered if he could get close enough to her to do some kind of interview. Thinking it through he figured out his plan of approach.

"I'm just happy we got this far. That was a lot of battle for some po-dunk little backwater sector."

Fritz
Tepha was in the cockpit handling routine maintenance and system work. As soon as she finished that it was back to inventory to make sure their manifest was up to code. When Fritz piped up she rolled her eyes but pushed away from the console and tilted back to glance up at the camera that they had collectively agreed was Frtiz's "face".

"Sure. Twenty questions, huh? You know it has to be something that I have a chance to guess. I don't want to find out the answer was the 3,000th digit of pi."

Rig was passing through the garden when he heard the nun singing. He paused because he knew that song. He hadn't been in the merchant marines for decades and not pick up a large collection of bawdy songs but to hear it coming from Sister Maribel gave Rig pause. He knew he had a million things to take care of (what else was new) but even the master engineer needed a break every now and then.

He was reluctant to interrupt but he didn't know of any other way to get her attention. Hanging by the threshold he cleared his voice.

"The...uh...the garden looks really nice. Everyone's excited to see if that watermelon vine will sprout or not. Do they sprout? Is that what it's called?"

Silver was handling the cargo hold when the android got loose. She cocked her head to the side and just stared right back.

"Now ain't that something. I thought Rig had buried you guys in the middle of the hold. Huh."

Then it spoke and Silver gave a sidelong glance this way and that. An empty cargo hold and one scarred salvager wasn't exactly anything worth filming.

"No, nothing to film. Let's just get you back in your...package."

Calliope blinks rapidly. Like you've surprised her.

She uncrosses her arms and looks over at you.  "Oh.  Sorry.  I was woolgathering.  Yeah.  I mean...I didn't see much as I stayed in my cabin.  Sorry.  I don't think we've met.  Weird seeing how small this ship is.  My name's Calliope.  You are..?"

She extends a hand.

In reply to Tepha Pezal (msg # 3):

Come on how Tepha. It wouldn't be much of a game if you didn't have a chance.  I promise it's something you can guess.  Just to make sure...how about something in this room?

Since you're sitting on the bridge and can see everything from the sensors display, it should be fair.

Okay.  So it's a thing.  And it's in this room.  Hmm.  Is that too much of a handicap?  Anyway.  Go ahead. Ask me your first question.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 4):

She laughs and wipes her brow.  Some sweat has stained the front of her surprisingly tight shirt.

"Yeah.  Sprout's as good a word as any.  You get the ship all fixed up?  I was pretty worried about all that shaking.  Do you guys get in a lot of fights like that?"

She giggles.

"This will probably sound weird.  But I've never seen cannon fire before.  Not like...right outside my window like that.  It was almost pretty in a way. Oh!"

She turns excitedly and points at a bucket.  "You guys had some honeysuckle! Some real old fashioned honeysuckle!  Did you know that?  C'mere!  Try some!"

She picks out a small pale flower.  "You ever had it?  See...you pull on this part of the tube and...you get this little drip of sweetness...then you..."

You watch her gently hold the long tube at the end of the flower and pull on a small string.  A small drop of nectar forms at the end.  She holds the tube towards her mouth and, gently with the tip of her tongue, licks it up.

She holds out one for you.  "Try it!"
This message was last updated by the GM at 05:13, Mon 26 Apr 2021.

In reply to Silver (msg # 5):

Understood

The android rights itself, but the projection continues.  It flashes across your sight, blinding you a second.

107 turns his head.  The picture of Calliope and that Wisco guy doing some scene projects on a crate of spare parts.

My apologies.  My camera seems to be malfunctioning.  I cannot switch it off.  Can you manually deactivate it?  My control panel is on my back.

He turns around presenting you the control panel door.

Nero grins and takes it in hand.

"Nero. Maybe you've heard of me? Probably not. Nero Madigan? I'm a streamer and I'm currently doing a tour of the galaxy to show to my fans. I didn't get out much when you first came on board. After Wyltz I was kind of in rough shape but...as you know...the show must go on."

He gave out an awkward giggle as he realized he was kibitzing with a movie star but then he quickly shut that thought down and flushed as he realized he was embarassing himself. Trying to cover he looked around before glancing at the stars.

"So have you been in combat before? It's...uh...it's starting to get like a second nature to me and my bodyguard. Pirates. Terrorists. Cybernetic assassins. It's all old news by now."

He gave a slight laugh to let her know he was being sarcastic, but only kind of sarcastic. They had seen a lot of combat recently.

Tepha looked around, tapping her chin thoughtfully. She grinned and looked back up at the camera.

"Alright first question: does it run on electricity?"

Part of Rig's mind was thinking there was probably a special place in hell for people who lusted after nuns but at that moment he didn't care. Something snapped inside of him. Weeks of flirting, the rush of combat, the stress of nearly losing all their passengers, it all kind of broke him and without thinking he just grabbed Sister Maribel and planted a big kiss right on her, right on the lips. It likely lasted only a split second but to him it felt like an eternity.

Then reality snapped back and he realized he just sexually assaulted a nun. He quickly broke away, flushing brighter red than the emergency lighting.

"I'm...uh...I'm so sorry. I don't...I didn't...uhhhh..."

Rig's heart dropped into his stomach as he could only wait for her reaction. Would she scream? Curse at him? Kick him in the goolies? Probably worse than any of that was he had just spoiled a friendship that had been blossoming like the garden around them.