A Grifter & a Gundhand walked into a galley (Gunn)

[Deleted]

Mai had been aboard the Peerless for a few hours and so far so good. Her initial introduction to the crew had been short and sweet which was fine by her. Mai didn't expect her period with this crew to be long and the original plan was to do her part, pay her debt and leave. That took in account that she was indeed surviving this mission. She was planning to, Mai had a strong survival instinct but she was realistic and knew that one day she was going to run out of lives.

In the meantime, she was going to make the best out of this deal. There would be no strings attached that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy her time aboard. The crew seemed colorful enough which was always fun and Mai was curious to learn a few of their secrets. It was only a matter of putting the crew in a position to share their secrets but it had to feel natural and it would take a little more of time.

Right now Mai had other things in mind for the rest of her day. After settling in on her cabin - that she found on the small side but adequate - Mai decided to explore the Peerless. She wanted to make sure she was familiar with the layout of the vessel in case she needed a hiding spot or to make a quick exit.

Mai changed into a traditional cheongsam dress, short heeled cloth shoes and let her hair loose. She left her cabin and began to wander around the ship casually with apparent no real direction. She had a ready smile to anyone who came her way. It facilitated her movement when one looked friendly and nonthreatening. Mai assumed the Captain had alerted everyone about her, though. She would have if she were him.

She found cabinets and storage rooms she had no access to. Nothing she couldn't handle if she actually wanted access. How up to date would their security systems be? Mai pursed her lips and hand her fingertips over the access panel. She would have to test the system...for the crew's sake of course.

Mai smirked and followed down a corridor until she reached galley. It wasn't so bad and she stepped further into the room. Time to check the food supply. Only now Mai realized she was actually hungry and was certain the captain wouldn't mind if she explored the contents of his galley. She was part of the crew now, wasn't she?

[Abigail Gunn]

Buying commodities in bulk meant that it was food that hadn't gone bad yet, but was beyond its prime and nearing that not-so-fresh feeling. That was how the Alliance fed its men, buying cheap stock from farmers whose wares would spoil before they made it to another venue or even back home. That didn't say anything as to the taste---the food was fine. It just... wouldn't be fine for very long unless it was cooked. With a crew this size, it would get used up before it went bad. Keller had borrowed a few green apples and a mix of vegetables to blend into a shake that was good for her. What use did she have for something healthy? She was gonna add drugs to it.

What Captain Davis didn't know wouldn't hurt him. The fact was that Gunn was adjusting to the absence of a certain drug extremely common to Onas's crew. She had referred to it as magic dust, and it was how his rippers had worked impossible hours everyday for weeks at a time. It wasn't addictive, just... a stimulant in every sense of the word. Even as an Enforcer, she'd gotten so used to cramming so much in her day that she'd kept it up. It wasn't really a big deal, as far as drugs went, but she wanted to come off of the stuff without sleeping for a week straight. She used to spend a lot of excess time people-watching at bars, or even screwing somebody from the aforementioned bar. She was selective in her own right, and shallow. Long story short, basically, this flying can was boring as hell, and she wanted to forfeit hours of consciousness so she wouldn't go stir crazy.

Simple.

She had an unmarked plastic jar with a screw-on lid that contained the white powder. She figured she'd lie and say it was protein powder, if anyone asked. Luckily, she seemed to have the facility to herself. When she had mixed the powder into the blender top itself, she poured a glass and started drinking it. The powder didn't have a smell, and it was imperceptible in taste. The texture would be enough to keep someone from just taking a mouthful of it, though, unless they wanted to chew at the grittiness of sand and dry out the mouth.

Keller didn't look inconspicuous, dressed in jeans and a plain black tank with boots about halfway up her shins. She was leaning against the counter when Mai walked in. Their introduction had been brief. Mai had seemed pleasant enough, and the authentic pleasant, not just the pleasantness some people mustered for the three minutes of meeting each other that deteriorated into bitch.

”Hey there.” She called it, nodding toward the woman. She was a little tense, not because she'd been caught, but because she had no intention of letting anyone in on what she was drinking, and she highly doubted Mai had ever tried it before. Her first experience... she'd had to actively try to talk more slowly for the first few hours.

She wasn't going to do that to Mai. Unless she asked for it.

[Deleted]

Mai's lips curled up into a smile when she saw the redhead woman she had met earlier. Rachel Keller was her name and she was a gunhand. It suited her. There was an intensity about Keller that seemed to make her a good for that line of work. Rachel Keller used to work - or maybe she still worked - for Onas Knox. That was what Mai managed to gather in the few hours she had been aboard. It could be dated intel. It seemed Captain Davis crew was made up of Onas people and Mai wondered how wise it was to hire people who were loyal to a different master?

"Hey Rachel," Mai said in greeting as she slowly made her way towards the other woman."Do you mind if I call you Rachel?" she asked lightly as her eyes flicked around the room. Keller had prepared some kind of shake but the smell didn't stand out and Mai didn't know what was it. "Or do you prefer to be called something else?" Mai added. It was polite to ask these kind of questions. Mai didn't have any interest in starting on the wrong foot with any of the crew.

"I'd call you Miss Keller but it seems so formal," the former companion commented with a genuine smile. She walked over to check the kitchen cabinets and proceeded to open them unceremoniously. "Do you think the Captain will mind if I help myself?" Mai glanced at Keller and motioned cabinets. "I'm hungry but I don't want to eat Captain Davis' favorite crackers or Vitale's secret stash of protein made marshmallows by accident," she added playfully. She had no idea what the men favorite food were.

Mai found a box of something that wasn't past its expiration date and it looked like biscuits. She opened it and pulled a biscuit out. Mai took a small bite and chewed slowly. It didn't taste so badly. "So," Mai went on with a little grin across her lips. "What do you all do for fun here when you aren't buying guns or brawling with feds?"

[Abigail Gunn]

Mai made it difficult to want to be coarse around her, and that was saying a lot. Rachel found a lot of humor in what others found distasteful. If Mai had in any way seemed haughty or condescending, Rachel would have been out to turn her whatever shade of red was the equivalent of blushing critical mass to her. She wasn't one for delicate sensibilities, but there was something in the other woman's demeanor and genuine-seeming pacifism that diffused the obvious manners of high society---which most who had started as any kind of grunt-level worker either idolized or despised.

”You can call me Rachel. You go by Mai, right?”

She knew why Mai was hired, but she couldn't help but think the woman was askew from her vocation. When she thought of a hacker, she thought of someone with little consideration for reality and who dealt with it as little as was humanly possible without dying of starvation or self-neglect. Mai... didn't look like that person. She had a glamorous edge to her, a very polished and meticulously-maintained appearance. She didn't look like Rachel's idea of a hacker.

”I don't think the captain will mind at all. So much so, in fact, that I didn't bother asking him and I won't be telling.” She winked toward Mai, taking another sip of the juice. One person's worth of food wouldn't be damaging the menu at all, and Mai looked like she probably wouldn't eat even an average serving size. ”As far as I know, no one has staked any claim. It's just—bulk food at its finest.”

When Mai asked her about fun, she couldn't help but grin. ”That's... a very good question. It's going to be a long trip with a lot of nothing-to-do for---we'll call it, someone with my specialty. I think I may just start pranking Lewis.” It was a candid admission, but it was true. She hadn't considered pranking Mai, though. Vitale was a consideration, and Sassy (Desmond) might well make the list, but she hadn't quite built up the rapport to know who would get pissy about it or not. Lewis was kind of used to being the butt of jokes.

[Deleted]

"Rachel it is then," Mai muttered and with a cheeky grin she added. "Yes...these day I go by Mai." Mai Ling was the real name but Mai almost never used her real identity when she was involved in cons. This time she was more or less forced to retain her birth name for this enterprise due to the Onas Knox's connection otherwise she had used one of her many fake identities. Disappearing at the end of a job worked a lot better when the people left behind didn't knew her real name. This time aruond Mai would have to part with the Peerless in good terms. Tricky? Yes. Doable? Probably.

"Alright," Mai said and took a second bite of the biscuit. It was nice to know this particular crew wasn't too attached to their food. That wasn't the norm when it came crew. Mai had been aboard a couple ships when the crew would reach new levels of rage if a piece of a poorly made protein cake went missing from the galley. "Pranks, uh?" Mai didn't take Rachel for the time who enjoyed pranks. She looked so serious but it was a nice discovery. Mai wasn't the prankster type but she had a sense of humor. Her concept of fun usually involved crime. What she could do? It was in her nature.

"I've meet Lewis...does he take pranks well?" she asked out of genuine curiously. The guy was a mountain and looked like he good rip someone's heart out the chest with one hand. Mai liked to thread carefully around people twice her size and physically intimidating. Mai had her talents but she wasn't strong physically.

"And speaking of someone with your specialty," Mai went on softly, head slightly tilted and eyes on the redhead. "Have you been with this crew long?" Mai still had to look this crew up on Cortex and found out what they all were hiding or were trying to hide. She knew Davis and Vitale had pissed off the feds but she didn't know why yet. It wasn't wise of her to get involved with a crew without an extensive background check but this wasn't exactly her choice. "I've been told Vitale is a gift from Onas Knox," Mai commented with apparent casualty. "It made me wonder how many more in this crew came with Onas' recommendation."