Chance Encounters

Posted on Mon Jun 17th, 2024 @ 4:58am by Lieutenant Cassian Maritz & Ensign Eekit Drol

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Debbie's Diner
Timeline: Mission Day 5 at 0710

[Debbie's Diner]
[MD 5]
[0710]

Debbie's had an ebb and flow of patronage throughout the day same as any establishment, revolving around the various shift changes and mealtimes that suited said shifts. Today's particular flow was especially strong; apparently everyone had had the same idea as Eekit and come in to Debbie's for breakfast.

Actually, it was Eekit's dinner, coming off-shift and thinking about her bed as she was, but she was more than happy to eat what Debbie considered breakfast at any time of day. So, it seemed, would everyone else. The diner-- done up in 1950s earth style-- was packed; all of the tables were taken and there were only a few seats left at the bar, now that Eekit had taken one of them. Debbie's volunteers were just about run off their wheeled feet as they skated around the diner, taking orders and delivering food, all quite as though there weren't replicators in every living space.

The flamboyant matron herself was nowhere to be seen, perhaps overseeing something in the actual kitchen, but a gaunt-looking Andorian was taking orders at the other end of the bar, and Eekit took the opportunity to flick through her own menu, as though she was going to order something different. She knew she wouldn't, but she made the pretense anyway. Finally, she gave up and shoved back in her chair, muttering, “Who am I kidding anyway?” Using the back of the seat as a prop, she pressed her back into it and laced her fingers, stretching her arms over head and feeling the joints in her shoulders shift and pop. That had been a long enough shift, for sure. She wasn't sure how much more 'tactical surveillance' footage she could scroll through without screaming. How had that damn Kelpian known what exactly was going to drive her nuts? Stifling a yawn, her hands separated and she stretched them wide-- until she hit something soft with her hand and immediately snatched it back. “Oh, I'm sorry,” she began, twisting in her seat to see who she had clocked.

Cassian's hand flew to his nose as he registered the pain from being smacked in it. It definitely wasn't the first time this had happened, on purpose or otherwise, and he knew for sure that it definitely wouldn't be the last time. One could guess that he was purely in the wrong place and wrong time for that to have happened just then.

"Ow!" He said in a hurt tone, "What'd ya do that for? If you're looking for an introduction, I guess you could say you've made your point." Wrinkling his nose a bit to try and clear anything in there, Cassian also blinked a couple of times to clear the ever persistent spots from his vision too.

Pure habit made Eekit's eyes flick to the man's collar, and noting the pair of pips, she scowled. Of course he was a lieutenant. Of course she smacked a lieutenant. Of all the people on the ship, she had to smack a-- wait a minute. Her eyes had registered his face, and her brain had finally caught up to her eyes. This ship was not so large that she didn't know every lieutenant on board, and this man was not someone she knew. Although everyone was aware the Sojourner had dropped out of warp to rendezvous with the Pathfinder's shuttle bringing some relief crew, Eekit had been in a windowless security room when it had actually happened, and the reality that there would be fresh faces on board had not yet sunk in, obviously. She had half-slid out of her tall bar seat, perhaps with the intention of coming to Cassian's aid, but she stalled now, entirely unsure of what to do now she was faced with someone she didn't know. "Are... you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm all good." Cassian drew out as he took a now vacant seat next to her and shook his head to rid himself of the last of the pain, "I mean, it's not what I expected to have happen first thing in the morning, especially before I've had breakfast too, but here we are and I'm sure I'll be fine."

He managed to get the attention of the Andorian and ordered a plate of bacon and eggs with toast, along with a black coffee to go before turning back to the woman, "By the way, if you've got backhand that good, I'd hate to be on the receiving end of a normal punch from you." He gave a smile and a bit of a laugh. "I'm Cassian, by the way."

Eekit grimaced, watching him closely as he shook off the last of the pain and took a seat, as though to be sure he wasn't about to keel over. She added her order to his: eggs and something called 'hash.' Before she could order a drink, Cassian was complimenting her backhand and she turned back to him, grinning fiercely-- which on her Cardassian features was quite fierce indeed. "If you're on the receiving end of a normal punch from me," she posited, "something has gone horribly wrong. Eekit," she returned the introduction-- at least, it was probably her name and not a weird hiccup. The Andorian moved on, busy with orders from the little barcounter, and Eekit let him go. The less she drank now, the less she would have to pee while she was trying to sleep through her off shift. In any case, Cassian was much more interesting than any beverage, even tired as she was. Fresh blood was always welcome on a small vessel like the Sojourner. "You came in on the Xiliao, right? Welcome aboard-- I promise we don't usually greet newcomers with physical violence. Any good news from Pathfinder they haven't seen fit to pass on to us?"

Cassian grinned as he committed her name to memory, as weird as it sounded when it was pronounced... like a hiccup, that should be easy enough to remember. Right? "Yeah, I did come over on that shuttle." He rubbed his eyes and yawned a bit, thanking the gods above that the light wasn't too bright at this hour of the morning. "It was a long week on it, but at least I had some company with Blue and I know she's a lot happier being on the ship in our quarters instead of a carrier." He looked to see that the coffee was being made and he felt grateful for caffeine being a thing, "Unfortunately, I mostly kept things to myself on the trip so I can't really say there's much news to give out at this stage. And you're fine, by the way, I have a brother and cousins who are the experts at the physical violence at family get togethers, I'm more the lover not the fighter."

"Blue?" Eekit asked, intrigued by the odd name, and the immediately confused. "...is some kind of pet?" she inquired cautiously, either unfamiliar with the idea of pets, or guessing about the identity of the companion. Her lips quirked to the side at the mental image of Cassian's familial get-togethers. It actually sounded like someplace she might fit in. "Oh?" she asked, as the Andorian returned with a steaming mug which he casually set on the bartop and slid toward Cassian as he continued on with several other plates of food for other patrons further down the bar. "I think you've found the right ship, then. We don't tend to get in many fights--" frowning, she added in an undertone, "usually."

He sipped the deliciousness that was the coffee in front of him and felt part of his soul come back to life before putting the mug down and giving her an explanation, "Ah. I'm sorry, Blue Chai is my cat. She's been my travel and ship buddy for a number of years now, and I'm pretty sure we'd be absolutely lost without each other." It was true that he loved that cat more than anything in the world. Cassian then laughed, "I've had some mates say that I love her more than any woman I've ever been with, and that's saying something." He didn't want that to come across a flirtatious or anything, "I didn't mean that in any specific way either, sorry."

Eekit's browridges arched with interest as he explained, and then lowered as her lips stretched into a smirk. "I hope they didn't tell the women that," she offered archly, waving off his apology. The Andorian arrived with their meals, on round, earth-style plates that he spun across the barcounter to them. Eekit caught hers with a movement that suggested she'd done it a time or two, and she swallowed the saliva that had suddenly filled her mouth at the sight of the breakfast. "Hello beautiful," she cooed, and without further ado shoved an enormous bite of egg, potato, and meatstuffs into her mouth. Chewing just enough so she could speak around the mouthful, she said, "Sorry," without seeming particularly contrite, "long shift."

Cassian caught his own food and looked at it with just as much love as Eekit did with hers and laughed, "Yeah, one of my mates actually told a girl that if the cat doesn't approve, they and I don't approve. She was mortified and safe to say, it didn't last long at all. Mostly because of me though, I'm surprised I'm even having this conversation with you at all." He then started tucking into his own food, and boy was it delicious, he'd be coming here again for sure! "I feel ya on the long shift though, I haven't even started mine yet."

"She sounds like a discerning feline," Eekit said around her hash with a surprising clarity given the amount of food in her mouth. Practice must, indeed, make perfect. She swallowed the mouthful and gestured with her fork, encompassing their surroundings. "Don't blame yourself. It's Debbie's. It makes you... what is the word humans use? Slosh? No, no, that's the drinking thing. Spill. It makes you spill. Does Blue pass judgement on your non-romantic relationships too?"

"Ah, she's one of those rather judgemental cats that you'd have to meet to find out whether or not she likes you, to be honest." Cassian took another mouthful of food and savouring the greasiness of it. "I mean, you're always more than welcome to come back and meet her if you want. She even looks like the judgemental type, and you seem fairly confident in yourself as well, so should be a good match." He laughed and started to cough a bit as a result, so he banged his fist on his chest to clear it.

Though Eekit felt a glow of pleasure at the words, her skin did not betray her with any kind of blushing-- yet another advantage to her Cardassian complexion. "I've never met a feline before," she admitted, "How does she--" Eekit broke off as he began to cough, and without a second thought, reached out and thumped him solidly on the back in tandem with his own chest-thumping. "You okay?" she asked solicitously. She knew human bones broke more easily than her own, but she wasn't sure about their breathing system-- she wasn't an anatomist, after all.

"Ooh yep, that's clear now. I'm good." Cassian replied as he straightened back upright and once again shook his head to clear himself. Damn, she was good at this! "Must've been a bit of food or something. Sorry, you were saying about Blue? How does she...?"

Eekit eyed him suspiciously for another long moment as though he might spontaneously keel over, and when he did not, she took him at his word and turned back to her breakfast-for-dinner, scraping the last of the egg yolk with the side of her fork while she corralled the last of the hash. This she popped into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, frowning in thought. Finally, she swallowed and said, "I can't remember what I was going to ask. I was trying to come up with something clever, but my brain is tapped out. Staring at screens does that to me." She shoved her plate forward toward the Andorian's side of the bar and leaned her elbow on the bar's surface, cradling her head against the back of her hand, looking pleasantly satiated and just a little bit sleepy. "I hope they're not planning to make you work today? Not after a trip from Pathfinder?"

Cassian shook his head, "Thankfully, no I'm not." He finished the last of his own meal and the coffee that was just starting to go to luke-warm, and was beginning to feel like she looked, "I've got the luxury of having today off to get situated into my quarters and take a good look around the ship before I get to dive straight into work." They hadn't discussed the topic yet of what department they were in, and he was having a bit of a time trying to figure it out on his own. Little did he know that he'd find out tomorrow exactly what department she was in, "Something witty, aye?" Cassian mimicked her and leaned his own elbow on the bars surface, "Come on then, say the first thing that comes to mind then."

"Lucky," she groused, "I've probably got another week of the mid shift before I can do anything fun." Eekit blew out a petulant puff of air, which caught at a few strands of black hair and lifted them briefly before letting them settle back to her skull. "Work?" she asked, then scoffed, flicking her eyes ostentatiously to his collar pips and then back up to his face, a smirk curling her lips. "I didn't think lieutenants were supposed to work. Isn't that what underlings are for? 'Lift with your ensigns, not with your back,'" she quoted in a voice not her own, clearly mimicking someone giving advice to newly-minted lieutenants.

"To be completely honest, I'm brand spanking new to being a department head." Cassian admitted as he watched her hair flutter around her face, "Up until two weeks ago, I was just a plain old regular officer. I do, however, believe that even though I now have more authority than the rest of my department, I'm not going to be setting myself up on a pedestal with the rest of the department below me. I'm a firm believer in being on the same level and that respect is extremely important, it makes the team work." Her mimicry was funny and the corner of his mouth pulled up into a grin.

Eekit lifted one finger of her free hand and corrected him, "A plain ol' lieutenant. Which isn't plain at all. Which dep--" She was forced to pause as a yawn stretched her mouth wide. She rolled the back of the hand she was leaning on over to cover the yawn, straightening up as she did so. It was the kind of yawn that almost seemed to need her whole body, eyes scrunching closed. "Sorry," she said, although she didn't sound particularly apologetic. "Which department is getting a newly minted department head?" she asked, then lifted a finger, "No wait, lemme guess." She peered at him, narrowing her eyes with consideration. "Hmmm... you've got a tan, so maybe science?" Eekit frowned then, drumming her fingers on the bar's surface and peering more closely at Cassian, catching just the glimpse of mustard under his dark jersey, "but I didn't see Lieutenant Durand on the crewing off roster, so it can't be science. Oh!" her face lit with triumph, "I know. You're human pretty, so you're the new helmsman! I mean," and she rolled her eyes, parroting something she's obviously been corrected for before, "Chief Flight Controller." She dropped her voice a few notches, "Ours is still in recovery."

Cassian fought everything in his body to not yawn after Eekit did but simply did a long blink and raised an eyebrow as he continued listening to what she was saying. His mind got caught on the 'human pretty' part and he almost didn't listen to the rest of it, it was the first time he'd ever been called pretty. Then when his mind did manage to catch up, Cassian realised why she was guessing what department he was in: he was wearing his uniform but there was a black jersey over the top of it and anyone looking could see the pips on his collar and a bit of the mustard colour of the Security department, "For the record, I think you should go get some sleep before your head falls out of your hand and smacks on the bar. I don't want you getting hurt or anything."

Eekit straightened off her hand, puffing out her chest as she affected affront. "I am not falling asleep," she said, and then immediately nearly unhinged her jaw in a massive yawn. Quite aware of how this looked, she faded the yawn into a smirk. "But you're not wrong. I will be soon. My sleep cycle still hasn't caught up with the mid shift." Without further ado, she slid bonelessly down out of the high seat, stifling another yawn on the back of her hand. "Don't think I've forgotten about meeting the feline. I'm still curious what she'd think of me."

Shuffling out from between the seats, Eekit stood awkwardly for a moment, looking unsure what to do with her hands. "Sorry again about your face. Glad I got to meet you though. Welcome to the Sojo."

Cassian watched as she was awkward about it and nodded his head in response, "Thank you, I'm sure I'll see you around somewhere." And as she walked off, he picked up his now cold coffee and drunk the rest of it as he watched her go and hoped she made it back to her quarters in one piece.