Spaceship Parking (and Beyond!), Sunday

[firstofitskind]

The weekend, Liam felt, had been a pretty good success so far. Sure, Sarah hadn't really been up to anything involving crowds, but that was fine. There were plenty of things they could do that didn't involve lots of people.

Like go flying in Liam's shuttle. Sure, for three out of the four of them it was not actually a new experience, but Liam never got tired of flying and besides, this time it would be Verity behind the controls for the majority of the flight.

(And okay, he genuinely liked Antimony, but he had to admit that picturing her face when she found out that not only did Sarah get to go to space but she did so in a ship that Verity was piloting was pretty damn funny.)

Of course, just out of habit he headed right for the pilot's seat, but then stopped, shook his head, and settled in to the front passenger seat instead, twisting around to grin at Sarah and Renee. "I promise she's a more patient pilot than she is a driver," he said, mostly for Sarah's benefit since it wasn't like Renee had ever had to experience Verity on the road.

[ooc: for two blondes and a cuckoo! posted early for SP purposes.]

Comments

[thejourneysend]

"So was Liam, once upon a time," Renee shared. "He didn't see the point in cooking anything. I see you've changed his mind on that front as well."

[firstofitskind]

"Where would I have cooked anything?" Liam pointed out. "I didn't have a kitchen."

"You had the entire Flat Planet kitchen after hours," Renee corrected.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Maybe he just needed to be properly motivated," Verity said, giving Liam a teasing look through her lashes.

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

"By 'leftover fettuccine omelettes,'" Sarah said, under her breath.

At a volume loud enough to be heard by everybody, yes.

[thejourneysend]

"I'm sorry, leftover what?"

[firstofitskind]

"Fettucine omelettes," Liam repeated. "Among the worst but certainly not the only of her crimes against food."

He loved you dearly, Verity, but your idea of 'edible' was frankly concerning.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hey!" Verity complained. "I thought we wanted Renee to like me!"

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

"You know what Grandma Alice always used to tell me," Sarah said. "Relationships founded on lies only work if you're willing to continue to with the effort of keeping up with them."

Okay, technically she'd told Verity that, but close enough.

[thejourneysend]

Well, the bark of laughter that burst forth was a genuine one, if that counted for anything, Verity.

"Sound advice," she managed, nodding at Sarah. "Especially for those of us for whom lies are something of a way of life." Yeah, unlike Liam, she'd had relationships, but they'd been hard, and most of them hadn't ended well.

(Though at least two of those bad endings had been because of direct Taelon interference.)

[firstofitskind]

"Hm," Liam grumbled. "You say that now," he rolled his eyes.

There was absolutely a story there.

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

"Something you wanted to share with the class, Liam?" Sarah asked.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Shh," Verity teased. "You know I love it when he gets all monosyllabic and cryptic. Like he's about to tell us our fortunes or something."

[thejourneysend]

"Well, sometimes he does," Renee had to point out.

Moreso since he'd come back than in the first couple years she'd known him. He'd been fighting the alien side of his heritage so much back then, but now... seemed more at peace with it.

[firstofitskind]

"You're all the worst and I hate you," Liam grumbled.

And then a second later, glancing at the readout on the virtual glass in front of them. "Verity-"

A minor shift in air currents that would have them in for a couple minutes of turbulence if she didn't adjust, but he wasn't going to give her all of that.

[arboreal_priestess]

Besides, she'd already moved to begin those adjustments, even as he'd started to say her name. "Hush, Mr. Backseat Pilot," she said, batting at him with her free hand. "I got this."

From her grin, she looked like she was loving this.

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

Sarah looked to Renee. "So, our introduction was rather obvious--" cousin to his wife and all, "--but how do you know Liam?"

[thejourneysend]

"I pulled him out of a tight spot," Renee said, grinning. "And he was ever so thankful."

[firstofitskind]

Another snort of disbelief from Liam.

"The President had just declared a State of Emergency due to an assassination attempt," Liam said. "I was holed up in a Resistance safehouse with the opposing Presidential candidate, when the door was kicked in and a swarm of Volunteers in full riot gear raided the place. One of them recognized me and was about to place me under arrest when his partner turned around and shot him. Told me to follow her out of there." And of course he had, because what was the alternative? Wait for another Volunteer to recognize him and try and drag him back up to the Mothership?

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

Sarah nodded thoughtfully, gleaning several more details from what people were thinking and not saying.

And then looked at Liam. "Oooooh," she said, eyes wide with sudden understanding.

So that's where that stress had been coming from.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Sarah," Verity said softly, more as a reminder than to reprove. Sarah ducked her head a bit and blushed.

[thejourneysend]

Liam had told her, of course, about the telepathy. Because that wasn't the kind of thing he'd felt comfortable not sharing with her, considering they were all going to be on a small space ship together.

(And, you know, presumably a part of each others' lives on and off as the years went on.)

But hearing about it and seeing what she presumed was it in action were two different things entirely.

"He left out the part where I planted a virus that took all of Augur's computers offline the second his facial recognition program found a match," she smirked.

[firstofitskind]

"Which happened way quicker than you thought it would," Liam pointed out with a smirk of his own.

Because ribbing her about that was much preferable to dwelling on that particular hellish-in-general experience.

[arboreal_priestess]

"It's such a good face," Verity teased as the ship broke through the last of the Earth's atmosphere and into starlight.

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

And there went Sarah, losing the thread of the conversation as she gasped, staring out into the void of ever-night.

"Artie is never going to believe this," she breathed.

[thejourneysend]

Renee grinned at the expression on Sarah's face, remembering the first time she'd been this high up. Yes, it was as mundane as taking a taxi now, but she'd never forgotten how thrilling it had been in the beginning.

"Artie... that's another cousin?" she checked, because of course she'd been given the basic rundown on the Price family. Going into a situation without intelligence was just foolish.