D
Dumont
>IN, Pumpkin Eater, Over Freehold 03
The entire ship shook and pitched from the ongoing battle outside... Or at least it was maybe a battle outside. With no atmosphere, there was no real transfer of sound, and with only distant impacts of heavy warheads on the planet below; most of the impacts were absorbed by the shields of the Pumpkin eater. Not much this deep in the ship's guts other than a gentle rocking. Almost peaceful considering what's going on elsewhere.
And in consideration of what's going on elsewhere, if this awkward reunion was to be the worst thing to happen between Ronin and Rubi, perhaps this was a really good day?
"So," the grounded mecha pilot said to finally cut that serious tension in the air, "I heard I called you... uh... Booby."
Ronin rubbed his still fading black-eye from one of the multiple blows he'd taken from Rubi during his drunken state. It was part of the reason he wasn't participating for once, not wanting to risk piloting and agitating any of the injuries he had already suffered. It did, however, get him stuck in the same room of the ship as the not-so-pleased Rubi. Or at least the not-very-close-to-Ronin Rubi. Either way, the man coughed to clear his throat quickly after mentioning the name.
"Sorry about that. Not my... normal self when I get that drunk."
Rubi on the other hand seemed beyond agitated. After nearly falling to her death a few days earlier with Raph, the last person she wanted to be near was the man who threw up on her. Her desire to beat him over the the head with the first thing she got her hand on was more than tempting, it seemed like common sense...
But now it seemed like some restraint was winning over the violence option. Perhaps she would wait to figure out what to pummel him with for now.
"You can fuck right off with your apologetic bull."
"You know, I'm just trying to be sensible. You beat me while I was drunk and probably couldn't even fight back if I tried."
The man pulled free one of his cigarettes, grumbling as he leaned back against one of the interior's walls. Lighting it and quickly stashing it in the corner of his mouth, he couldn't help but feel annoyed with this local. Sure, the first impression sucked and this wasn't exactly the best time to speak again... but it didn't earn her the right to bark out that he was bullshitting her.
"Now might be a different story... so why not at least try to hear me out, you backworld hic? I mean, what's so bad about at least giving a guy who won't puke on you a chance to at least be heard?"
"Well obviously there's the chance of being called a 'backworld hic' by some third rate drunk who couldn't fight worth a damn. Sorry I didn't get the privilege of being born in one of your fancy spaceships."
She folded her arms across the somewhat polished armor, the same one that had been thrown up on by him. She seemed to take some good pride in keeping it clean, despite the planet she was on.
"Now I could make you take your words back one pistol whip at a time or you could start making your case real quick and real polite."
"Third rate drunk... pft... I'm a first rate drunk. But to be brutally serious... fine. I wanted to get the chance to at least teach you how lucky you and your world are. Not to know me, but to not be wiped out."
Closing his eyes with a sigh, Ronin set to rubbing his forehead with two fingers.
"In a polite way of putting it, your world and you could have been burned alive, based on what I've learned. Everyone I grew up knowing died on my homeworld, so I understand not trusting outsiders or even people you live with... but I also know that you're smarter than the rest of your world's populace on the majority. It's why 'backwater hic', that you're here and they're not up here. You're being given the chance that most of my homeworld's people had as a birthright... the only difference being that you're using it to be a grumpy ass because I threw up on you instead of realizing I'm probably one of the few genetically similar people out of all these offworlders to relate to you in your situation."
Rubi paused for a moment before loosening her stance. She could feel something witty trying to work its way out but she held herself. "Well... That's... A damn shame, really. Can't quite say everyone I knew died. Though I can't say they're alive either... Still, quit fucking calling me a backworld hic. The whole reason I'm up here isn't to torment your ass, sadly."
Well, he figured it was at least a better spot than they had been in moments before. Not like Ronin was emotional over the death of everyone he grew up on Khorsovarolor with, after eight years of more or less coming to terms with it. But she wasn't immediately lashing out and being so anti-social now, so why not just take the opportunity to not spiel out more about himself?
"Fine, I'll call you Rubi like you asked me to. Why are you up here then, Rubi? Surely growing up in the time and culture your world seemed locked in didn't make you curious... you don't seem the eccentric type, after all."
"Why thank you, I strive not be like those Osmani freaks. They really scare the hell out of me sometimes. Or bore me the hell out of me. Anyways, the whole reason is just for some simple pratical reason, no need to worry about it at all hopefully. Though we have been off the ground for quite a while..."
Rubi seemed to relax a bit more, leaning up the against the wall as they talked. Despite her relaxed pose, she seemed to feeling the wall too with her arm, trying to see if there was any reverberation or something on if the ship hand landed yet.
The only feeling in the hull of the ship was the faint vibrations caused by the engines. Nothing had touched down, but the ship was still. Seemed that whatever ruckus outside had started to die down somewhat...
Watching the native woman, it was clear at least that she wasn't exactly comfortable. Thinking it was because of him was likely a stretch, Ronin figured while taking hold of his cigarette, but it did give him some gain when he noticed that she was seemingly focused on the wall as much as their conversation.
"Yeah, when you get into the thick battles and such, things can get shaky. You're not scared of tight spaces or anything, are you? That'd be a natural fear, based on the type of world I see your people living on. Or, at least, a fear that makes sense... couldn't be something silly like a fear of heights or metal..."
Rubi's relaxation seemed to die instantly at the mention of heights. She tried to keep calm but it was obvious just the word caused some unease. "Y-Yeah, tight spaces. Just not used to being caged in like this, wild vast wastes of nothingness and all is what I've had most of my life... We're still close to the planet, right? I haven't really found any windows here."
The initial jump had caught his attention, but when Rubi quickly covered with tight spaces, it made him temporarily write it off as just some common jitters.
"Well, there are some viewing ports in some ships... not sure about this one. We can probably find a display, too... but I doubt we're close to the planet. I imagine we're probably some degrees higher than you've ever been regardless. Not that we're in any form of danger. We're probably safer in this ship than you'd ever be in anything your world could have produced. Hell, I could probably jury-rig some basic ship that could be safer than that..."
The thought of things being much further away seemed to increase her unease. This was not part of the plan.
"Well yeah, we've barely mastered the concept of traveling across the sea, let alone the sky... Speaking of the sky, how far from the ground do you think we are? About a couple hundred feet? Maybe a thousand or something?"
And just like that, Ronin smirked as he realized what exactly the woman was scared of. It wasn't in him to seek out revenge on anyone, save for the tentacle-monster bastards. However, the woman before him had very much beaten him while he was drunk and defenseless... so why not have a little bit of fun? Pulling free another cigarette, he'd make his way over to her and offer the deathstick to the woman with a very poorly-acted 'casual shrug'.
"Oh, I'd say we're about... in your atmosphere or in space. Probably the latter... so we're so high that you wouldn't be capable of reaching your planet even if you were to somehow get out of the ship. You'd just be falling... forever... to explain it simply. You smoke at all? Never a bad time to start, since one tiny rupture can send you venting out the side of this tin-can so fast you'd not have time to realize it..."
Rubi declined the stick at first, being more of a drinker than a smoker herself. But then all calm quickly left her...
"So... What? No. Isn't there supposed to be something bringing us towards the ground? Gravity or something? If I was to step out of the ship, wouldn't I just head to where the nearest ground is...? But wait, where is the nearest ground? How do we know where the ground is right now? This is.... wrong. THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO TRAVEL. HOW ARE WE MOVING IF THERE'S NOTHING TO PUSH OFF OF AND WHY AREN'T WE ON THE CEILING?"
Pushing the offered cigarette into her hand, he'd quickly moved the now emptied hand to cover her mouth and stop the rambling of a madwoman. It was very clear she lacked an understanding of even basic space travel sciences, especially if she knew how gravity worked but didn't consider gravity was why they weren't on the ceiling.
"Deep breathing, calm down. I'll light that for you once I'm done explaining... but no yelling like that or I'll personally see to it that you learn through seeing. Gravity is only when you're close to a planet... so when you get far enough from it by going up high, gravity weakens. Long story short, once we reached space there was nothing but small amounts of it. You'd be pulled really slowly toward the planet at best. The nearest ground is... probably not far away. I can't say for sure without a terminal to know where we are right now."
Reaching to his pocket, the man pulled free the lighter and lit it before offering the flame out to the woman and continuing.
"Ships like this can make artificial gravity... gravity that's made by machines. Either through generators or plates, there's many ways to do it... but it allows you to feel like you're still on a world, rather than floating around and bumping into things. One day, I'll take you out if you want and show you... but consider yourself lucky that you're not having to adapt to zero gravity. Most species and planets had to learn to cope without the stuff before getting the luxury we have right now. As for how we're traveling... it's like firing a gun. Fire and propulsion... zoom. Get it?"
Rubi tried taking in everything Ronin said as he lit the cigarette before she tried to take a drag from it. She never smoked before but had seen enough people smoking in saloons to still fuck up trying to smoke. At most she ended up inhaling some smoke before dropping the cigarette in the middle of a coughing fit.
"But wait, wait," She said inbetween coughs and gasps. "If we're flying through space like a bullet, how are we going to stop? Are we just going to keep to going till we hit something? ARE TELLING ME YOU GUYS JUST SHOT YOURSELVES INTO SPACE AND SOMEHOW MANAGED TO HIT OUR PLANET AND NOT DIE?"
"Well... not really as literal, I guess. Imagine we're firing blanks or just firing smoke. It's the force that matters, not the projectile."
Grumbling and lowering to recover the cigarette, he rose back up and held the still-lit stick back out to her. She at least could hold her own if she had enough to still speak after failing at her first hit of something like his brand of smokes. But the man wasn't trying to hook her on it, simply give her something to focus on and split her nerves to avoid making her hyperventilate. Not like she could possibly lose it while coughing and having bodily reactions to confuse her... admittedly, it was still a terrible idea.
"Imagine for a moment that tons of guns are all over this thing... and they're just firing off to help us move. I guess. It's a lot harder to explain since you don't know about the terminology... remind me to show you once we get back to your planet's surface to let you see my Tengu. That will make explaining things a lot easier, since I can show you more properly than I could inside of a ship like this. But the biggest thing to consider is that this isn't like a train or some junky wagon on your world... you're one-hundred percent safe in this thing. Things can go wrong, certainly, but not anymore than if you were riding through a desert and a snake crawled in your boot or something..."
The attempt to simplify the basics of interstellar travel didn't really leave Rubi conifdence but was enough to calm her down for the moment.
"Okay so whatever works as the recoil for let's say our mass amount of guns that are surrouding the ship is what's moving us forward. And I'm assuming when it stops or maybe shoots a different direction, we slow down and stop moving. Let's just work with that metaphor for right... Also I've found lots of snakes in my boot and that scared the hell out of me and did you just try to ask me out on a date?"
With the calming, but still admittedly fast-talking, Rubi before him it was at least somewhat easier to not have to keep explaining things. It seemed that Rubi at least understood his image somewhat to understand how the ship moved and that was what he'd wanted.
"A date? I said I was going to let you see the Tengu to understand how all this propulsion stuff works. A date would be me putting you in a dress or something and taking you out on the town... or... saloon. Whatever your world has to offer, I guess. If you want to do that instead, I suppose we could. But aren't you the woman who hated my guts until I came over here to reassure you that you're not going to fall miles upon miles to the ground and splat like a bug under a heel?"
"I'll be damned if anyone ever tries to get me in a dress." Rubi quickly shot back before the rigidness returned to her stance. "Are you trying to pull something over on me? Trying to get me to make it a date or something?" She start to back away carefully from Ronin. "Because you better stop before I start getting uncomfortable."
"Damn if you're not hard to talk to... no, I'm not trying to make it a date."
Raising a hand to recover his cigarette, now a small stub, the man would drop it and put it beneath the front half of his booted foot. A quick side-to-side motion to ensure it was put out was all it took before the man stepped back and lowered to recover the small butt.
"All I'm offering was the chance for you to figure some shit out. If you whip out a taser on me, though, I can promise it won't go as smoothly as last time. I spent more than my fair share of years in one of the best militaries in the sector... hell, probably the best. I might be a human like you, but I'm not letting you shock me with that damn thing again."
Rubi started feeling somewhat threatened by Ronin. She didn't what the hell he was prattling on about, or if he was even being truthful about what he saying. She felt her hand drift towards the taser on her side but forced herself to keep some sembalance of calm for right now. She didn't have the element of suprise right now and didn't have a 40oz with him either.
"Sounds fancy, I'll take you up on your educational not-date, and don't threaten me again or I will tase you till you piss yourself. We clear?"
"Yeah, we're clear... see? Not that hard being civil with me. I didn't shove you out and let you fall to the ground, now did I?"
The man pocketed the spent cigarette, taking a few moments before motioning to the one he'd given her.
"You can finish that... or not. Just make sure you put it out. A fire in ships like this, even small ones, can be a bad thing. I'm going to grab a bite to eat, if you want to tag along. I'm sure you'd love to get a bite of space-grub... Something not grown on your planet is probably going to taste... better."
He saved the pun of saying 'otherworldly', knowing full well it'd detract from the conversation. Turning and putting a safe distance between the duo for now, he made his way down one of the Pumpkin Eater's halls to try and find himself a snack. Maybe he could get updated on what he had missed during the uneventful wait and following talk. Either way, it was better than letting the air between them sour further than her seemingly distrustful manner had allowed it to. One moment she had been panicking and the next she was getting on his nerves... so avoiding it was simply best to avoid the next instance involving them likely fighting it out.
Rubi watched him walk off before dropping the cigarette and stomping it out before turning on her heel and heading off in the opposite it direction to keep from tazing him.
The entire ship shook and pitched from the ongoing battle outside... Or at least it was maybe a battle outside. With no atmosphere, there was no real transfer of sound, and with only distant impacts of heavy warheads on the planet below; most of the impacts were absorbed by the shields of the Pumpkin eater. Not much this deep in the ship's guts other than a gentle rocking. Almost peaceful considering what's going on elsewhere.
And in consideration of what's going on elsewhere, if this awkward reunion was to be the worst thing to happen between Ronin and Rubi, perhaps this was a really good day?
"So," the grounded mecha pilot said to finally cut that serious tension in the air, "I heard I called you... uh... Booby."
Ronin rubbed his still fading black-eye from one of the multiple blows he'd taken from Rubi during his drunken state. It was part of the reason he wasn't participating for once, not wanting to risk piloting and agitating any of the injuries he had already suffered. It did, however, get him stuck in the same room of the ship as the not-so-pleased Rubi. Or at least the not-very-close-to-Ronin Rubi. Either way, the man coughed to clear his throat quickly after mentioning the name.
"Sorry about that. Not my... normal self when I get that drunk."
Rubi on the other hand seemed beyond agitated. After nearly falling to her death a few days earlier with Raph, the last person she wanted to be near was the man who threw up on her. Her desire to beat him over the the head with the first thing she got her hand on was more than tempting, it seemed like common sense...
But now it seemed like some restraint was winning over the violence option. Perhaps she would wait to figure out what to pummel him with for now.
"You can fuck right off with your apologetic bull."
"You know, I'm just trying to be sensible. You beat me while I was drunk and probably couldn't even fight back if I tried."
The man pulled free one of his cigarettes, grumbling as he leaned back against one of the interior's walls. Lighting it and quickly stashing it in the corner of his mouth, he couldn't help but feel annoyed with this local. Sure, the first impression sucked and this wasn't exactly the best time to speak again... but it didn't earn her the right to bark out that he was bullshitting her.
"Now might be a different story... so why not at least try to hear me out, you backworld hic? I mean, what's so bad about at least giving a guy who won't puke on you a chance to at least be heard?"
"Well obviously there's the chance of being called a 'backworld hic' by some third rate drunk who couldn't fight worth a damn. Sorry I didn't get the privilege of being born in one of your fancy spaceships."
She folded her arms across the somewhat polished armor, the same one that had been thrown up on by him. She seemed to take some good pride in keeping it clean, despite the planet she was on.
"Now I could make you take your words back one pistol whip at a time or you could start making your case real quick and real polite."
"Third rate drunk... pft... I'm a first rate drunk. But to be brutally serious... fine. I wanted to get the chance to at least teach you how lucky you and your world are. Not to know me, but to not be wiped out."
Closing his eyes with a sigh, Ronin set to rubbing his forehead with two fingers.
"In a polite way of putting it, your world and you could have been burned alive, based on what I've learned. Everyone I grew up knowing died on my homeworld, so I understand not trusting outsiders or even people you live with... but I also know that you're smarter than the rest of your world's populace on the majority. It's why 'backwater hic', that you're here and they're not up here. You're being given the chance that most of my homeworld's people had as a birthright... the only difference being that you're using it to be a grumpy ass because I threw up on you instead of realizing I'm probably one of the few genetically similar people out of all these offworlders to relate to you in your situation."
Rubi paused for a moment before loosening her stance. She could feel something witty trying to work its way out but she held herself. "Well... That's... A damn shame, really. Can't quite say everyone I knew died. Though I can't say they're alive either... Still, quit fucking calling me a backworld hic. The whole reason I'm up here isn't to torment your ass, sadly."
Well, he figured it was at least a better spot than they had been in moments before. Not like Ronin was emotional over the death of everyone he grew up on Khorsovarolor with, after eight years of more or less coming to terms with it. But she wasn't immediately lashing out and being so anti-social now, so why not just take the opportunity to not spiel out more about himself?
"Fine, I'll call you Rubi like you asked me to. Why are you up here then, Rubi? Surely growing up in the time and culture your world seemed locked in didn't make you curious... you don't seem the eccentric type, after all."
"Why thank you, I strive not be like those Osmani freaks. They really scare the hell out of me sometimes. Or bore me the hell out of me. Anyways, the whole reason is just for some simple pratical reason, no need to worry about it at all hopefully. Though we have been off the ground for quite a while..."
Rubi seemed to relax a bit more, leaning up the against the wall as they talked. Despite her relaxed pose, she seemed to feeling the wall too with her arm, trying to see if there was any reverberation or something on if the ship hand landed yet.
The only feeling in the hull of the ship was the faint vibrations caused by the engines. Nothing had touched down, but the ship was still. Seemed that whatever ruckus outside had started to die down somewhat...
Watching the native woman, it was clear at least that she wasn't exactly comfortable. Thinking it was because of him was likely a stretch, Ronin figured while taking hold of his cigarette, but it did give him some gain when he noticed that she was seemingly focused on the wall as much as their conversation.
"Yeah, when you get into the thick battles and such, things can get shaky. You're not scared of tight spaces or anything, are you? That'd be a natural fear, based on the type of world I see your people living on. Or, at least, a fear that makes sense... couldn't be something silly like a fear of heights or metal..."
Rubi's relaxation seemed to die instantly at the mention of heights. She tried to keep calm but it was obvious just the word caused some unease. "Y-Yeah, tight spaces. Just not used to being caged in like this, wild vast wastes of nothingness and all is what I've had most of my life... We're still close to the planet, right? I haven't really found any windows here."
The initial jump had caught his attention, but when Rubi quickly covered with tight spaces, it made him temporarily write it off as just some common jitters.
"Well, there are some viewing ports in some ships... not sure about this one. We can probably find a display, too... but I doubt we're close to the planet. I imagine we're probably some degrees higher than you've ever been regardless. Not that we're in any form of danger. We're probably safer in this ship than you'd ever be in anything your world could have produced. Hell, I could probably jury-rig some basic ship that could be safer than that..."
The thought of things being much further away seemed to increase her unease. This was not part of the plan.
"Well yeah, we've barely mastered the concept of traveling across the sea, let alone the sky... Speaking of the sky, how far from the ground do you think we are? About a couple hundred feet? Maybe a thousand or something?"
And just like that, Ronin smirked as he realized what exactly the woman was scared of. It wasn't in him to seek out revenge on anyone, save for the tentacle-monster bastards. However, the woman before him had very much beaten him while he was drunk and defenseless... so why not have a little bit of fun? Pulling free another cigarette, he'd make his way over to her and offer the deathstick to the woman with a very poorly-acted 'casual shrug'.
"Oh, I'd say we're about... in your atmosphere or in space. Probably the latter... so we're so high that you wouldn't be capable of reaching your planet even if you were to somehow get out of the ship. You'd just be falling... forever... to explain it simply. You smoke at all? Never a bad time to start, since one tiny rupture can send you venting out the side of this tin-can so fast you'd not have time to realize it..."
Rubi declined the stick at first, being more of a drinker than a smoker herself. But then all calm quickly left her...
"So... What? No. Isn't there supposed to be something bringing us towards the ground? Gravity or something? If I was to step out of the ship, wouldn't I just head to where the nearest ground is...? But wait, where is the nearest ground? How do we know where the ground is right now? This is.... wrong. THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO TRAVEL. HOW ARE WE MOVING IF THERE'S NOTHING TO PUSH OFF OF AND WHY AREN'T WE ON THE CEILING?"
Pushing the offered cigarette into her hand, he'd quickly moved the now emptied hand to cover her mouth and stop the rambling of a madwoman. It was very clear she lacked an understanding of even basic space travel sciences, especially if she knew how gravity worked but didn't consider gravity was why they weren't on the ceiling.
"Deep breathing, calm down. I'll light that for you once I'm done explaining... but no yelling like that or I'll personally see to it that you learn through seeing. Gravity is only when you're close to a planet... so when you get far enough from it by going up high, gravity weakens. Long story short, once we reached space there was nothing but small amounts of it. You'd be pulled really slowly toward the planet at best. The nearest ground is... probably not far away. I can't say for sure without a terminal to know where we are right now."
Reaching to his pocket, the man pulled free the lighter and lit it before offering the flame out to the woman and continuing.
"Ships like this can make artificial gravity... gravity that's made by machines. Either through generators or plates, there's many ways to do it... but it allows you to feel like you're still on a world, rather than floating around and bumping into things. One day, I'll take you out if you want and show you... but consider yourself lucky that you're not having to adapt to zero gravity. Most species and planets had to learn to cope without the stuff before getting the luxury we have right now. As for how we're traveling... it's like firing a gun. Fire and propulsion... zoom. Get it?"
Rubi tried taking in everything Ronin said as he lit the cigarette before she tried to take a drag from it. She never smoked before but had seen enough people smoking in saloons to still fuck up trying to smoke. At most she ended up inhaling some smoke before dropping the cigarette in the middle of a coughing fit.
"But wait, wait," She said inbetween coughs and gasps. "If we're flying through space like a bullet, how are we going to stop? Are we just going to keep to going till we hit something? ARE TELLING ME YOU GUYS JUST SHOT YOURSELVES INTO SPACE AND SOMEHOW MANAGED TO HIT OUR PLANET AND NOT DIE?"
"Well... not really as literal, I guess. Imagine we're firing blanks or just firing smoke. It's the force that matters, not the projectile."
Grumbling and lowering to recover the cigarette, he rose back up and held the still-lit stick back out to her. She at least could hold her own if she had enough to still speak after failing at her first hit of something like his brand of smokes. But the man wasn't trying to hook her on it, simply give her something to focus on and split her nerves to avoid making her hyperventilate. Not like she could possibly lose it while coughing and having bodily reactions to confuse her... admittedly, it was still a terrible idea.
"Imagine for a moment that tons of guns are all over this thing... and they're just firing off to help us move. I guess. It's a lot harder to explain since you don't know about the terminology... remind me to show you once we get back to your planet's surface to let you see my Tengu. That will make explaining things a lot easier, since I can show you more properly than I could inside of a ship like this. But the biggest thing to consider is that this isn't like a train or some junky wagon on your world... you're one-hundred percent safe in this thing. Things can go wrong, certainly, but not anymore than if you were riding through a desert and a snake crawled in your boot or something..."
The attempt to simplify the basics of interstellar travel didn't really leave Rubi conifdence but was enough to calm her down for the moment.
"Okay so whatever works as the recoil for let's say our mass amount of guns that are surrouding the ship is what's moving us forward. And I'm assuming when it stops or maybe shoots a different direction, we slow down and stop moving. Let's just work with that metaphor for right... Also I've found lots of snakes in my boot and that scared the hell out of me and did you just try to ask me out on a date?"
With the calming, but still admittedly fast-talking, Rubi before him it was at least somewhat easier to not have to keep explaining things. It seemed that Rubi at least understood his image somewhat to understand how the ship moved and that was what he'd wanted.
"A date? I said I was going to let you see the Tengu to understand how all this propulsion stuff works. A date would be me putting you in a dress or something and taking you out on the town... or... saloon. Whatever your world has to offer, I guess. If you want to do that instead, I suppose we could. But aren't you the woman who hated my guts until I came over here to reassure you that you're not going to fall miles upon miles to the ground and splat like a bug under a heel?"
"I'll be damned if anyone ever tries to get me in a dress." Rubi quickly shot back before the rigidness returned to her stance. "Are you trying to pull something over on me? Trying to get me to make it a date or something?" She start to back away carefully from Ronin. "Because you better stop before I start getting uncomfortable."
"Damn if you're not hard to talk to... no, I'm not trying to make it a date."
Raising a hand to recover his cigarette, now a small stub, the man would drop it and put it beneath the front half of his booted foot. A quick side-to-side motion to ensure it was put out was all it took before the man stepped back and lowered to recover the small butt.
"All I'm offering was the chance for you to figure some shit out. If you whip out a taser on me, though, I can promise it won't go as smoothly as last time. I spent more than my fair share of years in one of the best militaries in the sector... hell, probably the best. I might be a human like you, but I'm not letting you shock me with that damn thing again."
Rubi started feeling somewhat threatened by Ronin. She didn't what the hell he was prattling on about, or if he was even being truthful about what he saying. She felt her hand drift towards the taser on her side but forced herself to keep some sembalance of calm for right now. She didn't have the element of suprise right now and didn't have a 40oz with him either.
"Sounds fancy, I'll take you up on your educational not-date, and don't threaten me again or I will tase you till you piss yourself. We clear?"
"Yeah, we're clear... see? Not that hard being civil with me. I didn't shove you out and let you fall to the ground, now did I?"
The man pocketed the spent cigarette, taking a few moments before motioning to the one he'd given her.
"You can finish that... or not. Just make sure you put it out. A fire in ships like this, even small ones, can be a bad thing. I'm going to grab a bite to eat, if you want to tag along. I'm sure you'd love to get a bite of space-grub... Something not grown on your planet is probably going to taste... better."
He saved the pun of saying 'otherworldly', knowing full well it'd detract from the conversation. Turning and putting a safe distance between the duo for now, he made his way down one of the Pumpkin Eater's halls to try and find himself a snack. Maybe he could get updated on what he had missed during the uneventful wait and following talk. Either way, it was better than letting the air between them sour further than her seemingly distrustful manner had allowed it to. One moment she had been panicking and the next she was getting on his nerves... so avoiding it was simply best to avoid the next instance involving them likely fighting it out.
Rubi watched him walk off before dropping the cigarette and stomping it out before turning on her heel and heading off in the opposite it direction to keep from tazing him.