Music to ease the pain. (ZombieCzarian)

[Anonymous]

The ship was definately smaller than Ashley had been expecting. "What's her name?" He asked as he gazed up at her. Maybe he could be the one to stay with the ship when they went scavenging. He was scared of even the most innocent animals. A rabbit could send him climbing a tree, he wasn't sure what would happen if he met up with some vicious mutant creature.

[Anonymous]

It was obvious that Papillion was immensely proud of her ship. She radiated pleasure at getting to show it off, "Her name is Ibis Minuet." The pirate had heard the phrase once and had liked it. So that was what she named her ship.

She didn't seem aware of any of Ashley's discomfort at the idea of having to deal with large, dangerous animals, "Well, what do you think?"

[Anonymous]

"I like her. She's got character." Ashley stated with a nod. "Where's the rest of your crew?" That was an important point for Ashley, meeting the other crew before signing on. A little needling was normal, but some people were downright mean and if he was going to have to live, work and deal with them constantly for who knows how long, he didn't want to have to deal with anyone overtly cruel.

"And what kind of engine do you have in there?" With all the matched up parts, he couldn't really hazard a guess. He knew which engine would have originally been in the ship, and he knew which engines went to the spare parts, but which one had ended up in this ship was unknown to him. Some were more prone to falling apart than others.

[Anonymous]

"She's got the original engine in there." Papillion positively beamed at the praise to her ship. She grabbed the taller man's hand and started dragging him toward the ship, "Come one. I'll show you inside!"

Opening the hatch the pirate glanced to the side, looking slightly embarrassed, "Currently this is the crew. I haven't really....found anyone I had liked."

Which meant the ship had to run on autopilot a lot and Papillion just had to hope things didn't go wrong.

[Anonymous]

"Oh, well that makes things easier" Except for the whole planet thing. Eeesh. Mutant animals? He shuddered slightly before he stepped in behind her. "Well, you've got your mechanic now." He stated positively. "But I really don't think I'll be much use on your earth scavenging missions" He stated. She could ignore what he said all she wanted, but it wouldn't change the fact that if something appeared out of the brush, mutant or not, he froze in terror and sometimes managed to climb a tree. But running back to the ship and leaving her out there alone was not a good mission strategy, but it would happen if she forced him-- with of course the full on panic attack in there somewhere.

[Anonymous]

"Yay!" Papillion threw her arms around Ashley's waist, hugging him tightly, "That makes me happy! Now I have a crew!"

The girl's arms pulled away from Ashley as her hands flew to her mouth. She gave a small gasp as her eyes went huge, "That...that means I can wear the hat! A crew of one totally counts, right?"

[Anonymous]

Ashley was surprised by the hug and 'oomphed' softly as she compressed his middle, but he lightly put his arms around her in return. He didn't hug people often, mostly because he didn't know anyone that well and in all honesty, hugging could get him in trouble. "Counts as crew? Well, yeah, if you have one crewman, it's still crew" He said, looking a little confused "What's this about a hat?"

[Anonymous]

Papillion clapped her hands, "It's the hat! The captains hat!" Her huge smile just got a little wider, "And I finally get to wear it!"

Often, it was best to just not try and makes sense of Papillion's world, just go along with it.

The pirate bounced happily for a few moments then skipped over the the back hatch of her ship, punching the code into the keypad that lowered it, "Come! You should see the inside!"

[Anonymous]

"Ah" Ashley breathed quietly. He was definately getting the feeling that his Captain was not someone to try to understand-- your head would explode if you did. "Inside it is" He said, following her and taking note of the hight of the doorway. He was not so tall he hit his head on the typical, human of earth sized doorways, but he'd hit his head on doors more than once. Each species seemed ot have its own idea of what a good size would be and it was sometimes not tall enough for him. "Do you cook?" Food was important.

[Anonymous]

The doors were tall enough that Ashley wasn't going to his his head, but close enough to make him feel like he might. The captain was still grinning that huge smile as she pulled a neon green cigarette pack out of her pocket and smacking it against her palm, "I can cook alright. It's simple but it's not bad. Just might get a wee bit boring. What about you?"

The inside of the cargo area was pretty basic for the most part. Though Papillion seemed to like Pinup girls. And some boys. Paintings of various skill level covered the walls. And the scantly clad people weren't just limited to humans either. Papillion had broad tastes. And she didn't like things to be boring.

[Anonymous]

Ashley placed his hand against the tops of the doorjams as he ducked under them. He was distracted by the pictures though and paused to glance around before shaking out of it and replying. "I cook alright. Never cooked on a ship though. Did you paint these?" He had never imagined a Captain being into pinups, but then, every person did have their tastes. He himself had not limited himself to a 'taste'. He tried to appriciate everything on its own merrit and was actually really good about not objectifying people. He liked to get to know people a little before daring to judge them even a little. He'd met some odd looking folks who turned out to be far nicer than the normal looking ones he often encountered in those bars where he played. "When are you scheduled to fly out of here?"

[Anonymous]

Shrugging, the girl lite her cigarette, taking a long drag. The smoke smelled just a little off as she exhaled, "We shall take turns with the cooking then. Cooking on a ship is like normal cooking. With less space and worse ingredients."

Papillion looked around at the pinups and grinned, "A few. Most are done by other people. Like them?"

[Anonymous]

"They're definately interesting" He'd never seen a ship that was so decorated. Most of them were quite sparce, blank even, hardly even a splash of color in the entire thing. "Will I have a berth of my own?" If he had his own little closet of a room to make his own, he could put up with almost any decor-- just as long as he had a respite of somekind. "Yep, we can take turns cooking though, see what I can do with our less than lovely ingredients. The other ships I've been on, I only helped with like...dishes and such."

[Anonymous]

Papillion nodded, smiling as she led Ashley deeper into the ship. Everything seemed pretty standard, though the kitchen area was a bit cluttered and the bridge was somewhat of a chaotic mess.

"You'll have your own berth, never fear. And you can pretty much do what ya like in there." The girl stuck her hand out again, "Welcome aboard. I'm glad to have ya."

[Anonymous]

Ashley smiled and shook her hand. Hopefully she was a better pilot than she was a housekeeper. "Do you mind if I run down to the blue district and get my gear real quick?" He after all didn't even have his purse. He only had his flute-- which would keep him happy enough, but having a change of clothes would be nice as well. It wasn't like he could borrow Papillion's clothes. "You can come with me if you like" He offered with a shrug.

[Anonymous]

"Alright!" Papillion reached up and clapped Ashley on the shoulder, "Let us get your things. And then you can pick out your room." The tiny girl grinned, still clutching the cigarette between her teeth.

She headed back toward the hatch, "I don't really have any set plans for when I was heading out. So if there's anything you wanted to do first, let me know."

[Anonymous]

"I just need to make a couple calls to let people know I won't be able to play for their events, let my contacts know that I won't be in the station for awhile. Shouldn't take me more than a couple minutes" He stated, forgetting to shorten his long stride for her. "I don't have much as far as things, should be able to get them all in one trip if you wouldn't mind carrying a couple things" If she didn't want to carry things, she was a captain and all, he would find a way to manage, or he'd make another trip.

[Anonymous]

Taking a sort of hopping skip, Papillion managed to keep up with Ashley's long stride, "I can help you carry things, no problem. I'm much stronger then I look."

Which really didn't say much. Papillion had a bit of muscle tone, but mostly she just looked tiny. She didn't really work out much in space and it showed.

[Anonymous]

Ashley smiled a little. He was not exactly buff himself, but then if a buff man puts on women's clothes, it just looks weird. Muscle toned and not whithered was good enough for him. He opened the door to his little room. There were a lot of musical instruments, mostly a variety of flutes, fifes and the like, but there was also a harmonica, a small harp, a guitar and a couple of contraptions that looked like they had not originated with the human species. Aside from the instruments, there was a closet of clothes and a short series of drawers. However, his shoe collection was quite impressive. He'd been blessed with smallish feet. Finding good women's boots in size 13 or something would have been a nightmare.

He hesitated only a moment before he swung through the room, gathering all the instruments and putting them in a couple surprisingly compact cases, aside from the guitar, which had a different case. He set those aside and dumped the drawers into his duffel bag. Moving on to the closet, he pulled a sheet of plastic that had been hanging against the back of the clothes and zipped it around his collection so it was all in its own bag of sorts before he rolled up his collection of shoes. He'd fixed his room so it was easy to pack everything up very quickly. He knew when Captains started looking for crew, most of them weren't very patient or willing to wait for a man to get his make up bag...speaking of which.

He vanished into the bathroom for a moment before returning with a shoulder bag. "Alright then. Think you can carry the guitar and the shoes?" He asked as he started strapping varying bags to himself. Maybe there was a bit much here for one trip, but maybe not.

[Anonymous]

"Oh yes." The captain gave a dismissive wave of her hand and clenched the cigarette between her teeth before starting to gather the bundles. It was a little awkward for Papillion, more just trying to situate everything carefully and get a grip on it then it was to actually lift it.

But after a few attempts, the woman seemed to manage, "Well shit. Let's get going before I drop this all over the place."

Without waiting for Ashley, Papillion was off again, heading back to her ship, rather silly looking trying to hold onto the case and the boy of shoes.