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To Boldly Go | RPG Community (boldlygomod) wrote in toboldlyrpg,
@ 2017-03-18 15:50:00

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Deck Five Lounge

Welcome to the Deck 5 Lounge

Each Saturday, join the Enterprise crew and your fellow travelers in the Deck Five Lounge to meet new arrivals, catch up with those you haven't seen in a few days, try a new drink, or just enjoy the spectacular view.

OOC Information

These weekly posts are IC third-person threading opportunities. Threads that extend to 10 total good-sized comments can be counted as a log for activity check. If you have any questions, please let me know. The hope is that you will use this opportunity for random character interactions and development.

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Hawke and OTA

shovekirkwall
2017-03-18 05:23 pm UTC (link)

As social gatherings went, this was far from Marian's first rodeo. She'd been to and ruined may perfectly good parties, though ruining them was hardly ever her intent. It was simply part and parcel of being Hawke, apparently.

But here aboard the ship Trouble didn't seem to be hounding her heels nearly as often. Which gave her hope, as she found a chair and sipped some Tequila, that she'd finally get through one of these things without it ending in bloodshed, blood mages, or anything else crazy. Hopefully some people would approach her and she could get on with making a few friends. Otherwise, it was a perfect night for people watching.

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Hawke and Beckett

katebex
2017-03-19 12:14 am UTC (link)

Thanks to the database, Kate recognized her when she walked into the lounge. Marian, the woman who had also known a writer and had quite the tumultuous relationship with her husband. Stepping through the crowd, Kate first made her way to the bar and ordered her own drink, going for something simple and not as likely to give her a hangover the next day. Tequila was the sort of drink that she'd choose on a night where she wanted to get hammered, and while she had given into that temptation early on in her arrival on the Enterprise, Kate was doing her best to steer clear.

No matter where or when she was, the shadow of her father's slow fall into alcoholism and the years and extremes it took to pull himself out of that addiction was always there, reminding her of how easy it would be to fall into the same pattern.

With her scotch, poured neat, in hand, she crossed the room again, picking the seat opposite Marian and raising her glass in a toast, giving the other woman a smile. Now that she was closer, she could see the tequila in her glass. Another reminder of their earlier conversation. "We haven't formally met, but I'm Kate. Kate Beckett."

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Hawke and Beckett

shovekirkwall
2017-03-20 07:39 am UTC (link)

There probably was a disease much like alcoholism in Thedas, and one had to look no further than Marian's Uncle to see where too much indulgence in drink and gambling could lead.

But she was still gunning that Tequila as if it were made from the lowly hop and served in gigantic mugs instead of small glasses. Marian flashed a grin at Kate as she took the seat, and then waved a hand. "Hello! Wonderful to finally meet in person, isn't it? Look, I've even got some Tequila in my hand. Do you prefer Kate, or Beckett? Please feel free to call me Hawke."

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Hawke and Beckett

katebex
2017-03-21 03:02 pm UTC (link)

Kate watched her drink the tequila with a bit of amusement. She wasn't really concerned about Marian's pace because she knew that there were other people on the ship who weren't bothered by the effects of alcohol. For all she knew, this woman could be another one of those.

But if she wasn't, Kate was already sorry for how she might feel in the morning.

"It is," she agreed, raising her own glass to her lips for a brief sip as she considered the question Marian - now Hawke, she told herself - had asked. She answered to both and some of her closest friends almost exclusively called her Beckett. And then there was her mother-in-law who almost always called her Katherine and her dad still used her childhood nickname Katie. But did she really have a preference? "It doesn't matter to me," she said truthfully, "Back home people called me both. Even my husband referred to me as Beckett as much as he would use Kate. You can choose which you want to use."

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Hawke and Beckett

shovekirkwall
2017-03-21 07:37 pm UTC (link)

Marian toasted Kate with her drink and took a sip before setting it down and nodding her head. It really did seem like there was no preference either way, especially if her own husband used them interchangeably.

Which amused her. She chuckled, "You know, I don't think Fenris ever once called me Marian. Not even during more intimate times. Wherein he preferred to remain silent rather than be vulnerable for longer than three minutes."

Then she added, "I'll probably end up calling you Beckett. We can be the 'surname' twins."

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Hawke and Beckett

katebex
2017-03-21 11:10 pm UTC (link)

Kate had to grin at that, tapping her fingers against the edge of her glass as Hawke spoke. With Castle, it was more of the same, he used her first name about as much as her last name, no matter what they were doing. "There was a time early in our partnership where Castle never called me anything but Beckett. I still remember the first time he used my given name."

It'd hadn't been a good moment for her. She'd been in trouble with her precinct captain and benched from the most important case of her police career - working on finding a contract killer who was also suspected of killing her mother. He'd used it to get her attention, to stop her from leaving and to try and encourage her to talk to him.

None of it had worked. She had still left. Stormed through the precinct and back to her apartment to lick her wounds and nurse her pride, but she remembered the sound of her first name passing through his lips for the first time.

"For a long time, I was only Kate if something serious was happening. Life or death situations, heavy emotional moments; that sort of thing. But when we got together he used it more and more. At home, I was mostly Kate after we got married, unless he was mad at me and then he'd revert back to Beckett." And at that memory, she grinned. A bright and full smile that showed two even rows of white teeth and put a sparkle of joy into her eyes. "But I mostly called him Castle, mostly as a habit thanks to work. I'd use Rick if I needed to get his attention or if I were talking to someone that might think it odd that I called him by his last name."

Shrugging her shoulders, Kate took another sip of her drink. "I am fine with that. Beckett and Hawke. We sound like we should be fighting crime. Or maybe lawyers."

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Hawke and Beckett

shovekirkwall
2017-03-24 04:58 pm UTC (link)

Watching the expressions shift across Kate's face as she spoke, Marian could tell that whoever this Rick Castle was, he must have been one hell of a man. They were clearly unbelievable levels of in love with each other and there was probably a complicated history there. It sounded like it, anyway. Which just made her miss Fenris all the more.

But it was hard not to smile, in spite of what her inner emotions might be doing. Then she scowled in that manner that was more like teasing than serious, and shook her head, "Goodness, Maker No. I've hung up my crime fighting shoes, and no one loves a lawyer. Especially me. All of that snotty legal jargon and 'holier than thou' attitude. You wouldn't believe the level of paperwork that was involved in reclaiming my family's estate. I was certain I was going to kill someone."

And with her, it was definitely a possibility that 'killing someone' was a literal threat, and not just a joke. "Fenris never had a last name that I knew of, so I suppose it's only fair that we ever only had one word for each other. Usually I knew I was in trouble when he came in drunk and more scowl-y than usual. Like the darkest rain cloud had flown in over his head. And then he'd glare at me like daggers and growl the word 'Hawke', and... I'd just say 'What have I done now?'."

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Hawke and Beckett

katebex
2017-03-25 11:17 pm UTC (link)

"My parents were lawyers," Kate said with a chuckle, swirling the contents of her glass around with a slight twist of her wrist. "But you're right about the legal jargon. They'd use it sometimes around the dinner table when I was a kid and it drove me crazy until I was old enough to ask them what they meant. But they were good people, both of them started careers in law in help others, which I've always been absurdly proud of."

Mostly because Marian did have a point. There were plenty of lawyers out there who were only in it to get rich or flash around how much smarter they were than everyone else, so for Kate to know that she had two parents in the profession who truly wanted to do good had always been a happy thought.

And part of the reason she had considered going to law school herself. "I thought about going to law school, too," she said after a moment, figuring there was no reason not to finish the story for her companion, "Became a cop instead. But I am sorry you went through that, it sounds awful."

Kate meant it, too. Just from the way Marian's voice changed it was obvious that there was a history in the story, and not a happy one.

Pushing that thought away, she grinned at her description of Fenris, imagining some burly looking guy with dark hair and a perpetual scowl, stomping around annoyed at his wife. "If that were me, I'd have probably played innocent, just to annoy him more." In fact, Kate couldn't even count the number of times she'd done just that. Winding Castle up was one of her favorite pastimes.

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Hawke and Beckett

shovekirkwall
2017-03-25 11:36 pm UTC (link)

Though Kate didn't seem overly put out by Marian's negative comments about Lawyers, she still winced a bit at herself as she learned what it was Kate's parents did for a living. "Well, I guess I've gone and stepped in it," she said, by way of apology. "I suppose the need to do good things for others compels people to all sorts of walks of life, and I'm rather jaded about the whole thing. Glad yours were the upstanding type."

That put aside, Marian spun her own glass around on the table a bit, thinking about Fenris. Fenris and his angry porcupine armor, and his tiny elven scowl, and that shock of white hair of his. And how he always sounded furious even when he was giving a compliment to someone. "Oh I did. And it only made that scowl of his deepen."

A thought popped into her mind then and straight out of her mouth. "Do you think they know we're gone?"

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Hawke and Beckett

katebex
2017-03-26 01:27 am UTC (link)

"I wouldn't say that," Kate replied, giving her a smile to hopefully soothe any worries Marian might have. "Most lawyers are horrible, but my parents were some of the exceptions, so I don't take it personally. Neither would they."

While she talked about her husband, Kate found herself chewing idly on her bottom lip, genuinely amused at how similar their marriages seemed to be in some ways. "It's really the best part, I think," she admitted with a light laugh, "And for us, it was a bit of a callback to when we started working together and I couldn't stand Castle. I was always being surly and moody with him. How did you meet Fenris?"

Marian's thought was also one that Kate had had in her time on the ship, though not one she'd yet found the courage to voice. The fact Marian had was a mark in the other woman's book, another reason for Kate to like her. "I don't know," she replied honestly, frowning into the depths of her drink for a moment before she lifted her head to meet Marian's gaze head on. "I hope not. It's bad enough knowing that I'm here and can't get back, I can't stand the thought that everyone at home thinks I'm missing and has been trying to find me for months."

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Hawke and Beckett

shovekirkwall
2017-03-27 08:20 pm UTC (link)

"It really is an unpleasant thought, isn't it?" Marian replied, while giving the tequila in her glass a very dark look. She wasn't really the type of person to dwell on these sorts of thoughts or emotions for too long, especially in public, but Kate seemed like the type of person who wouldn't judge her for it.

She swirled the liquor around in her glass again, before picking it up and slamming back the rest of the contents of it. Then she set the empty glass back down, and snorted. "Better not to dwell, though, so we're back to Fenris. Which... was actually a bait and switch. I recall at the time being extremely cross with him."

"I received a letter from an old employer asking to meet with a contact, there was some 'missing property' that this contact wanted recovered. We arrived at the location to find a group of slavers which of course ended in battle. Not a good day for them. Fenris was the... property in question, but he'd lead us there with a fake note specifically to take care of his problem for him."

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Hawke and Beckett

katebex
2017-03-28 01:08 am UTC (link)

"Very much so." Kate agreed softly, hoping with every part of herself that somehow, someway her life kept right on going and Castle never knew she was gone. If he did -- well, that was just another layer of guilt, but it was also one that she wasn't sure she could stand. She had spent a few weeks once unsure of where he was or if he was alive and the last thing Kate would ever want for Rick was to go through that himself.

Shoving the thought away, she instead focused on Marian's face as she talked about Fenris. Even if the story wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, it was clear that the other woman enjoyed their history and everything that came with it. So Kate just lost herself in it, sipping at her drink and listening until Marian came to a stop.

"He contacted you to take care of the slavers," she repeated, "That's.....bold. I'm guessing you set him free then?"

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Hawke and Beckett

shovekirkwall
2017-03-28 01:18 am UTC (link)

"He wasn't really mine to set free, and I didn't appreciate being lead there under false pretenses, but..." Marian sighed, and then shook her head. It was the fond sort of head shaking, one that people in love often did when they were at a loss for how to deal with their loved one's antics. "I wasn't about to let them take him back. Everything in me is against slavery. It's not legal in Ferelden where I grew up, and it's technically not legal in Kirkwall, either, though everything seedy you can imagine still happens there regardless. He was from Tevinter, which is a realm to the North that lacks in principles."

Hawke leaned back in her chair and waved a hand through the air, dashing her commentary aside, "In any case he was at that point an extremely grumpy and lying little porcupine and I didn't trust him. But I have a soft spot for pathetic creatures and he won me over. I destroyed his Master's mansion and ran them out of town, and he took over the estate. So... yes, he did end up more or less free."

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Hawke and Beckett

katebex
2017-03-28 04:32 pm UTC (link)

"You know what all of that tells me?" Kate asked, though it was a hypothetical question and one that she was going to answer for her even if Marian didn't want to hear it. "That you're a damn good person, Hawke. A lot of people would just be angry that they had been lied to and leave without bothering to help, but you didn't. And that's impressive."

A soft spot for pathetic creatures? She had to grin at that, hiding most of her smile behind the glass that Kate again took a sip from. "We weren't quite that adventurous," she replied. "Not in the beginning. The first time I met Castle, he was a suspect in a murder investigation and once I cleared him of any involvement he wanted to hang around and help us solve the case. That turned into his using friendship with the mayor to follow me around while he "researched" a character for a book he was writing." Kate rolled her eyes, barely able to contain her smile. "And I hated him for a long time. But he kept coming back, no matter what I said or did, he never left me alone."

And from the soft, loving tone in her voice, she was thankful that he hadn't. Richard Castle's persistence was a large part of why they had eventually gotten together.

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Hawke and Beckett

shovekirkwall
2017-03-28 10:34 pm UTC (link)

Beckett's complimentary assessment of Hawke's nature was flattering, the kind of flattery she usually dodged or deflected with words. Instead she ducked her head for a moment and shrugged one of her shoulders.

Far more interesting to her was the story of how her new friend had met her husband, and Marian couldn't help but let out a chuckle, "Maker, do you know - I have friend back on Thedas named Varric and while I didn't have to clear him from any sort of murder charges, he really DID follow me around from the moment he met me onward, simply so he could write his book. 'The Tale of the Champion' is famous across Thedas now. That little dward owes me, but I suppose I don't really mind."

Varric was her best friend, part of that family that you choose, and she thought there could have even been something between him if he hadn't been clearly in love with someone else. "Oddly, Fenris and I had that sort of persistent thing going on, too. Though usually it was him hating me and me showing up at his estate to poke him into doing this or that. I'm a Mage, you see. And so was his former Master, so even though he needed me and was grudgingly grateful for my assistance, there were a lot of issues there."

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