Arlington looked up at Mary when she spoke to her and shrugged, she didn't know what the term artist meant, not really. She doodled, scribbled and most of the time that was her only means of communication. She did have an artist's heart, an artist's soul but she wasn't familiar with the term itself. Her long lashes dipped down and she offered Mary her crayon.
She looked from Mary then to Simon as Simon was having issues with Nova. She knew what Nova's job was and she wasn't going to interfere because who knows, maybe that's what Simon wants but it doesn't look like it is. She took a deep breath then shifted and scooted towards Mary a bit more so that she could reach out and touch Simon's hand, then gave Nova a look and a shy smile. It seemed she was trying to convince Nova not to go after Simon because she liked it. Nova grinned and gave the girl a wink. "Twenty Caps then for the bath."
Arlington smiled and shifted so she was paying more attention to Mary again, then she lifted another crayon, a blue one and started to draw a river beside the green.
Jericho grimaced and a considerable amount of his good cheer faded. He poured himself a few more drinks in the meantime. Well, fuck, so much for the moratorium on problems. They were probably going to have to do another talk back in the shack. Whatever he had been meant to remind her about later was probably a no-go now. Part of him understood why she was upset - he was looking at another woman, fair enough. But come on, he'd only been fucking her for four years, couldn't he still appreciate the scenery? It wasn't like he had any intentions beyond that, and it'd been a few days since he and Ceara had done anything other than lie in the same bed together, her injuries and their recent altercation putting something of a stop to that.
He raised an eyebrow when Simon declined the Nova-option for his bath. What the hell was wrong with him? Maybe Arlington had some sort of claim on the guy. Shit, he'd drink to that. Good luck, brother. That shit wasn't easy, as he had been discovering over the past few weeks.
Chain yanked, he went quiet, listening in on what Ceara was asking Mary and Simon instead. Opening his mouth just got him into exponentially worse trouble.
"Build?" Mary blinked, half-distracted by Arlington, politely waving off the crayon, "No, I was never allowed to do much aside from read."
She fidgeted her fingers on the hem of the coat Simon had draped on her, nervous, intensely disliking any subject that reminded her of the vault. Which was a lot of things at the moment, so avoiding it was rather difficult. Mary liked watching Arlington color, however, finding the simplicity of it soothing. There were no ulterior motives or dark, looming threats in what she was doing. It simply was what it was.
Whether or not they were going to be having a talk later was one of those things that wasn't the business of everyone else at the table. Either way though, what he was supposed to remind her of was still on the table. She wasn't giving up on her plans just because Jericho did things that hurt or irritated her. Maybe she'd explain to him what it was that had irritated her so he'd understand but maybe she'd just let him try to figure it out on his own if he cared enough.
She hadn't yanked Jericho's chain though, she hadn't done anything but look at him and turn pink.
Mary had answered her but Simon looked too distracted to answer her so she let it go. Okay, she'd just have to figure it out on her own, no big deal, she's sure there was something for that too. She could do this, she could and she would. "Pity, ah well, guess I'll figure it out. Listen, Megaton's a good enough place, but it's a hard life here, hard to make end's meet."