An Inauspicious Beginning: Part 3

One of the waitresses walks by, headed into the crew quarters. As the doors slide open, a greeting can be heard from within. "Morning, Krystal, how are... oh, hell, Patches, no!" The second part is significantly more dismayed than the first, and it heralds the arrival of a little calico cat. The feline tears out into the hallway at top speed, followed a few moments after by the Masque's silver-haired bartender. "Dammit, cat, get back here!"

Larin is just stepping out from the games room as the commotion ensues down the hallway. He spots the little calico cat bounding away from the silver-haired bartendress, reaches out, and much like the billiard ball of the previous night, plucks it up from the ground in one graceful sweep. Soon enough the small animal is held to his chest and he is scratching behind its ears. "Eh now where did you come from?", Larin asks with a smirk, his eyes glancing up to Rish. "Running away from Rish, ay?". Rish gets a grin.

"Yes, running away from Rish," the woman replies, followed by an exasperated sigh. "She only gets like this when I'm late for work or something. I swear to God she does it on purpose." She pauses, fixing the cat with a steely glare before shifting her eyes back up to Larin. "Her name's Patches, if you didn't hear that part when I screamed it from inside the crew quarters. She's not a very good kitty most of the time, but I love her to pieces despite that. There's a sort of an understanding there. We're two of a kind, I think." Rish smirks wryly, one brow quirked upward. The cat, for her part, simply closes her eyes and purrs.

"Cats aren't meant to be well-behaved.", Larin remarks with a wry grin of his owner. "They do say that pets often become a lot like their owners ... or is their owners becoming more like their pets?". He takes a bit longer to scratch behind Patches' ears before offering her back to Rish. "Late for work then?"

Arizhel sighs. "Yes, because she got out of my cabin about an hour ago. She was contained until Krystal came back from her walk. I'd catch holy hell if she got loose in the ship." The bartendress pales slightly at the thought, and takes the now-docile cat from Larin. "You," she addresses the calico, "Are a pain in the ass." The cat responds with a miaow and an annoyed flick of her tail as she's taken back into the crew quarters. Rish reappears after a few moments, shaking her head. "Sorry about that. Ah... thanks for catching her, though. I'd have had the devil's own time doing it in these," she notes, indicating her heeled boots.

"Ah well. My pleasure. I've got a certain thing for cats. In fact I'll be getting one from Mischa's litter. Supposed to be calico too though I'll be hard pressed for a name", Larin remarks with the typical smirk. He crosses his arms over his chest as he regards Rish. "You look like you got a fair deal of sleep..."

Arizhel shifts her weight to her left foot and puts her hands on her hips. She blinks somewhat incredulously, then smiles just a bit. "I do? Well, good. I didn't, but you can do some amazing things with makeup these days. Good to know it's convincing, though." She smirks wryly, eyeing the Lunite. "You don't exactly look well-rested yourself, hon. I take it you did some thinking?"

"Well I never get much sleep to begin with. I'm really lucky if I can pull off an hour or two each night ...", Larin begins but is then forced to stifle a yawn. "... but I did." He offers a light nod before repeating with a grin. "Amazing things."

"Ay, Dios nos ayuda," she murmurs, shaking her head and chuckling. "Mind if I ask you what your thoughts were, if they were such amazing ones?" She reaches up and pats his arm affectionately, flashing a brief smile. "Cmon, you can tell me while you walk me to work. If I'm -too- late, Lydia will skin me. Besides, it's slow this time of morning, we can talk upstairs."

Larin chuckles just a bit. "I meant your makeup but I'll roll with it. It's more the obvious things and I'm afraid I came up with more questions than answers but ... at least I can say I tried.", Larin responds, shaking his head slightly with a bemused expression. He moves to fall in to stride with Rish. "The Captain may just chew me out if I'm responsible for preventing her crew from performing their duties."

"Where is she, anyway?" Rish inquires, brow furrowing faintly. "I haven't seen her since two nights ago. Ordinarly that wouldn't worry me but... well, she yelled at me. Like, literally. She's working herself way too hard." She sighs and shakes her head as she waits for the lift leading to the next floor up.

"Oh you didn't know? She was at the local hospital. Passed out and whacked her head on a table or some such. Exhaustion I think. Anyway I paid her a visit. You can bet she yelled at me when I suggested that it wasn't just a duty to herself to take it easy but to her crew.", Larin explains with a slight wince at the end, his foot tapping lightly as he waits for the lift. He then looks to Rish with a slightly guilty expression. "I uhm ... needed an excuse to get off the ship lest I run into you again." He smiles lightly at that. "You had me running scared for a bit."

Arizhel blushes faintly, offering a sheepish smile. "I know the feeling. I... uh... spent most of the evening yesterday in the crew quarters just to avoid you, actually," she says, chuckling. "Damn, though... I -told- her the other night she's got to let up on herself or she'd end up dead from exhaustion or something. She makes me so mad sometimes when she won't listen to a damned thing I say. Stubborn as hell, that woman is." The lift arrives and Rish steps onto it, looking back over her shoulder at Larin briefly.

Larin steps onto the lift with an agreeing nod. "You said it but I'm not exactly the best person to be telling her that. I'm afraid I worry too much about things ... but in a way thats my job.", Larin remarks with a shrug, reaching forward to indicate the level the lift should proceed to. The doors close and he looks back to Rish, his eyes not betraying the hint of tiredness the rest of his features may. "So yeah ... I was thinking."

"So... penny for your thoughts?" she replies, head tilting to the side. "Not that we've got pennies anymore, and even if we did, they'd be worth far more than they used to be, I would think. Priceless collectibles or some such." Arizhel chuckles, and shakes her head. "I've wandered off topic, though. If you don't want to share yet, I'd understand completely."

"How about a credit instead?", Larin jokes, before he clears his throat. "Anyway ... I realized that we can't really change how we feel even if we don't know exactly what that is and well.../I/ suppose I am willing to see how far down the rabbit hole this leads. But I was the easy part." He looks to Rish, his voice dropping to a low murmur as they approach the entrance to the Harlequin. "In the end it really comes down to what /you/ want to do. We can try to ignore each other and just be good friends or ...". He leaves the rest of the statement to Rish's imagination.

"I'm the easy part, if you ask Jens," Rish quips, snickering. "But all joking aside... I don't think we could ignore each other on one level, and still interact on another. It's going to be an either/or thing, I think." She smirks, shaking her head. "All it would take is one drunken night, or one of us feeling a bit lonely, and then things would be a -real- mess." The bartendress stops outside the entrance to the Harlequin, and looks straight at the Lunite. "In all fairness, I -should- talk to Karlan and see what he wants. It's... well, it's only fair to him. I do believe you'd probably think less of me if I didn't, anyhow."

Larin sighs slightly, stuffing his hands into the pocket of his jacket and nodding. "Yeah. That was going to be the next thing I mentioned.", Larin admits. "I mean we're all adults here and we have choices but ... it isn't really fair to him if he hasn't done anything wrong." He doesn't seem to like the idea much in context and bites at his lip. "There isn't an easy answer for this and if it turns out its easier the other way ..." A shrug. "I'm used to it anyway."

"Well, I'm expecting one of two reactions," Rish says, chewing absently at her lip. "We'd talked at one point about having an open type of relationship. I mean... I dunno. I just wonder how serious things can be with him, always knowing that it's not a 'forever' thing, you know? Forever for me is hardly half his lifespan. I'd like to think it doesn't bother me, but it does, in a way." She shrugs and shifts her eyes away, down to the floor. "If he reacts badly though... I don't know what I'll do. I guess I'll burn that bridge when I get to it, no?"

"Like I said, we can't really change how we feel right?", Larin asks, taking a step closer to her with his head tipped slightly. "I mean I dunno how you really feel besides 'that roguish Lunite with the green eyes'..." He pauses. "I guess this is the point where I'm supposed to be all noble and say it won't hurt all that much but I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't sting just a bit. But maybe it might just hurt a bit /less/ in my case." He sighs. "Karlan seems like a nice guy. Better catch than I am by a long shot."

Arizhel sighs, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face. "He is a nice guy. But... I dunno. I guess, on some level, I still harbor this irrational fear that he'll get bored with me. I mean, in fifty years, I'll be a hag. He'll be... middle aged." She crosses her arms across her chest, shrugging vaguely. "Mmm, I think if we start getting into how I feel right now, I'll never get to work, yes?" The end of the sentence is punctuated with a chuckle, and a faintly mischeivous smile.

"Yeah. You're right.", Larin agrees. "I mean I guess what it comes down to is that I'm somewhat lonely and waiting in the wings. I wouldn't mind seeing where things went and well ... its up to you." He works on a charming smile though there is still some reservation in his face. "I don't have much business anyway with this romance stuff. Twice failed and still a glutton for punishment." One step closer, and a quick chaste peck on the cheek. "And that's all there is to be until we resolve whether or not this is to be friendship or ... something more."

"I didn't mean it to come out sounding that way," Rish protests, her smile fading. "It sounds so... selfish." A sigh, and she looks away again, apparently inspecting the far wall listlessly. "And the last thing I want to do is hurt anyone, but I think I've managed to get myself into a situation where I don't have any choice. Mom always did say that I had a penchant for making trouble..." Her lips twist in a wry smirk, and she turns to go into the restaurant. "Cmon, before someone actually wants a drink. I'm already really late as it is."

"Sorry. Sorry. Coming.", Larin replies, following behind Rish as they enter the restaurant. "I'll be nursing a bit of coffee and saving the liquor for some other time."

"Good, cause I can't kiss you when I'm on duty," Rish retorts, smirking as she ducks into the Harlequin.