About thirty minutes go by. BB hears no screams or loud thuds. Then...
Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Jun 07, 2025 11:44 pm
{Headstone}
He peaks around the corner, trying to spot BB. If he spots her, he will say loudly enough for both to hear: ''I was very tempted to yell out to you, urgently calling for a medkit because the conversation went sour. But I don't want to deal with the backlash you would inflict on me after.
We're all frosty in here BB'' he says with a smile, giving her a little wink.
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OOC: I moved Jura's post from his private channel to hear since Headstone came out of the cockpit to talk to BB.
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Peace,
Charybdis Richelle Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist - RW Emerson
Baby Blue jerks out of her doze, and rolls underneath the troll seat. She glances around, processes what she heard, takes a few deep breaths. She crawls out from under the seat. "Mostly I'd just stare at you."
’’We had a proper chat, chummer. Cleared the air and we’re on the same page on things.
We discussed a few other stuff as well, that I think the crew needs to hear. Would you like a quick rundown in advance or want to wait for the others to return first?’’ Headstone says to BB. ’’I don’t want to keep you from getting your well deserved rest’’
Baby Blue waves her hand dismissively in reaction to Headstone's desire to let her rest. "Tell me, while it's still fresh in your mind. I'll make sure you don't miss anything tomorrow."
’’Wouldn’t be the first time’’ Headstone chuckles. ’’First up is a practical point. Basil is letting us use the cockpit to strip search Ace once he returns. I specifically did not mention this earlier, as I did not want to warn him in advance of it.
I would like Tears to do the body search and you going over his clothes. Anything external is all I care about at this time.
There is definitely a chance that he has some weapon or something else hidden inside his body, but we don’t have to go that far.
He would be foolish to use it on us, as he can only use a hidden surprise like that once. So if he does, it is my guess that he would save it for someone else.
Second point is FF or fast-forward I believe.
I don’t know where they keep coming from, but it’s yet another drek we will have to deal with.
Another fancy player in the shadowworld that can drek with our travels using his airport.
Apparently he isn’t completely right in the head and if we are unlucky and will bother us with his delusions. Basil will try to handle him for us, if that doesn’t work, that driver we hired seems to know how to deal with him. If that fails, we will handle it ourselves.
Let him babble on, keep our own responses short and to the point and above all, don’t tell him drek about the run.
Next up is the storm.
I did not care about the entire storm until I heard it might not be a natural storm.
Instead, we might be dealing with an actual spirit throwing a major hissy fit.
I wanted to ask Skye about it, but don’t want her to take any risks. It could be extremely dangerous even observing it on the other plane. Still, I only trust in our shaman’s expertise on spirits of air over all those magically inclined dreks having their own opinions on it.
So I would like her advice before we go airborne again.
Basil guesses it will pass late tomorrow afternoon to early Friday morning.’’
"We should have the others pick up some Duct Tape tomorrow," says Baby Blue, completely deadpan. "We can tape their mouths shut when dealing with FF."
Baby Blue leads another few rounds of "Drekker than Yours," until dinner, such as it is, and then sets up a movie on Headstone's tablet. Feeling a little mischievous, she abuses her status as his defacto secretary to find the sappiest fragging romcom she can (and, it just so happens, one she made her father sit through with her before her stint in prison). She then uses her perfect memory of the movie to mess with Headstone's expectations. She randomly quotes major lines right before they're spoken onscreen, she spoils the drek out of it, sets up misleading expectations of the movie with him, all sorts of minor mischief.
Her eyes sparkle with mirth through it all, and she wears a small, but full, smile the entire time.
“Movie time!” Headstone declares with the enthusiasm of a child who is about to open it's birthday present.
He drops into his seat, snags a piece of meat from the plate to snack upon and settles in.
Movies aren’t usually his thing, too many words, not enough explosions, but when he does watch one, he’s all in. Fists clenched, shoulders tensed, he’s the kind of guy who throws ghost punches along with the protagonist during every brawl on the screen.
But this one’s… different.
He stares, slightly confused, waiting for the first explosion. Or at least a chair to get thrown. Ten minutes pass. People are still talking. About feelings of all things. His fists slowly unclench. A confused squint but he tries to hide it from BB.
BB on the other hand, watching from beside him, would notice the moment it clicks with the old Ork: this is the movie. There’s no hidden warehouse full of dreks about to get roundhouse kicked. The talking is the plot.
Any other day, any other person and Headstone would’ve been cursing the screen six ways from Sunday, ranting about how the world doesn’t need another film about people “figuring themselves out”.
But tonight, here on the plane. He just… doesn’t.
He does his best to fake a smile. Whenever BB spoils something about the film, he nods along faking his interest. It’s the kind of smile that screams “I’m fine with this” in the same way a man bleeding out in the back of a DocWagon van might fake to a loved one: It’s just a scratch wound.
He stays quiet. Silently suffering. If BB likes it, he’ll sit through it. Even if it’s killing him.
Halfway through, the real battle begins.
Headstone, the man who appears to never sleep, starts bobbing his head. Not to background music moments in the movie, but in that slow, inevitable rhythm of a man losing the war against sleep. Even drugs never really managed to do the trick, making him accustomed to a life at night spent praying graffiti to get through the hours, unable to get proper rest until the final few hours of the night.
He fights it, not wanting to anger BB who he believes is loving each very second of the film.
At least for a while. Eventually, his eyes close shut. His hand automatically rests on his slivergun. Just in case he needs to shoot any assailants coming at him.
His eyes turn wild, while his shoulders tense up. His finger twitching just above the holster, but due to experience with sudden tense situations, keeps him from going trigger-happy. “Who’s gonna blow whose what?!” he blurts out while taking in his surroundings.
Noticing the never-ending movie is still on, he tries to focus on what is happening on the screen. Headstone slowly retracts his hand from his weapon. Leaning back, acting comfortably as if he was never on edge in the first place.
A horribly acted, forced chuckle escapes his throat. “Yeah, she cracks me up. Totally saw that coming. Loving it” he lies, trying to fake he has any clue what the movie is about.
Baby Blue rolls her eyes and smirks. "You're so full of drek."
"Alright, I suppose I've tortured you enough." Baby Blue stops the movie, and flips through a few other options. "Ah! Here's one. Two secretly married Shadowrunners are each hired by a separate corp to kidnap their own child. Should be lots of explosions and gunfire here. Some roundhouse kicks. Lovers spats mid-punch."
’’Yeah uhm, sure, if you want to watch that’’ he responds with his usual horrible acting, while very visibly relieved she wants to change it to something that is actually fun to watch. He decides to sit upright, rubbing his eyes trying to wake himself up.
Once the movie starts and notices there will be actual action in it, he grabs the plate of food he ate from an hour earlier. Since suffering no strange side effects, he decides to offer it to BB. ''I don't think the drek poisoned it, I'm still alive and it tastes pretty damn good. If you don't trust it, it's gone''
Baby Blue licks her lips, her expression taking that of a starving street kid scrounging for food. But then she shakes her head. "No."
She reaches over Headstone, and fishes a nutrition bar wedged between the wall and his seat. She checks it a moment to make sure it's sealed, then opens it. "This will be fine. Who you rooting for? The Dad or the Mom?"
''Neither, chummer. I want the kid to grow up and blow them both up. Now that's what you should do to parents failing to raise you'' he grins as his eyes stay glued to the screen.
"Hey now, maybe they were good parents until--" Baby Blue cuts off as, not even five minutes into the movie, the house gets blown up and the child goes running off into the city, chased by both parents as they alternate between shooting at, yelling at, and kissing each other. "Yeah. Good call."
Headstone goes through an entire workout as he is fully invested in the movie. Either by excessive cheering or yelling at them on what they should do.
The only few moments he breaks away is by mentioning to BB what a great idea this was of hers.
