MSNPC Charn - ordering by chance

[Azura Ada]

(( Valhalla, Forward Observation Lounge )) 

Charn: Look, fresh food is a luxury where I come from. And so is tasty food. Kid, I lived in squalor and you are a real nobody here--no offense--well, maybe a little--and you live better than anyone I've ever even heard of.

He didn't mean it as a slight, or at least not entirely. It was just a fact that the kid was a nobody. Charn liked nobodies, and he'd been one himself his whole life.

Strathmore: Well, there’s more where that came from then. Try your drink.

Charn: Kid, that's a hell of an act to follow. But this industrial solvent stuff is really that good, huh?

Strathmore: It’s Aldebaran whiskey, I believe.

Charn: You believe? What, do you order from a slot machine? Never heard of the place.

He threw the drink back like a double shot, unaccustomed to ever drinking a spirit that was meant for pleasure. The harsh burn he anticipated was instead a smooth, balanced, and delicate culinary experience. He stifled a surprised look, but held the now empty glass in front of his face and slowly turned it, watching the traces of the whiskey swirl in the bottom of the glass.

Strathmore: Aldebaran is about… seventy or so light years away from Earth or Terra as you’d know it. So, from here that’s… apologies, I was never the best stellar cartographer and a starship is always moving. This is why I prefer stations.

Charn heard him, but his mind was elsewhere.

Charn: ::sotto voce:: I gotta stay on this ship.

Strathmore: ?

Charn: I said I gotta stay on this ship. ::He set the glass down and looked Arthur in the eye, any pretense finally dissolved between them:: Kid--Arthur, I... Look, this is a lot for me to take in. I know you probably don't need someone like me around here but if I'm going to adjust to living with you people, then I'm going to need help. Sorry to say, kid, but that's going to be you.

Something that resembled a smile fighting a sneer while pushing back tears twisted across the contours of Charn's face. The man was beaten, tired, and afraid; and feeling every minute of his age. It had been a long, hard road to get to the present.

Strathmore: ?

-- 
MSNPC Charn
by
Lt Commander Azura Ada
Chief Science Officer
USS Valkyrie-A

Newsies Co-facilitator
PODcast team member
ASDB team member

C239510LD0

(she/her, character)
(she/her, writer)
 
 
“For the wise person looks into space and knows there are no limited dimensions." --Zhuangzi