Keeping Busy

It’s been a long time since I’ve written any updates for this place. I have no real excuse, though I have been busy at times. When the 12th Air Cavalry disbanded, I flew back to my Chapter House on the core world of Bellerophon to resume my work as a Companion, but found my interest wavering. I took care of my usual clients but after a while, I just started going out sailing again since being out on the open ocean can just free my mind of so many memories and worries that plague my conscience at times.

One day while I had stopped in a port to re-supply I saw a notice about fishing tournaments that are routinely held, and the purse money impressed me. So I entered a few tournaments, but found that as usual the people weren’t all that friendly with a registered Companion being around. After checking my funds, I decide to enlarge my property holdings and build an official tournament fishing camp as you can fish these tournaments from any “Official” camp. This way I can fish from my own land without any adverse reactions from the other contestants. Also, if any of my old friends wished to try their luck in a tourney, they’ll feel right at ease with the quiet relaxing atmosphere of the Chapter House property.

One of my friends General Parkin joined me fishing a few times though I guess he just didn’t find the enjoyment that I get out of it. I noticed that quite a few times while he was casting that his hook kept getting tangled up on his weapon that he always keeps strapped on his back. I repeatedly reassured him that he was safe here, as no Alliance patrols ever try to hassle my lands, so I guess it pays in more ways than one to keep some of my higher echelon clientele. General also would constantly wash his hands after each fish, stating that he had to always be sure he could have a good grip on his weapons, just in case ….. I certainly hope that was the case, and not that he was a bit squeamish with the fish slime and scales. I guess I’ll never know the truth though because whenever I’ve seen him at the Firefly’s Bar and try to engage him in a fishing conversation, he immediately changes the subject.

So, these last five months I’ve been entering these tourneys and winning my share of them. I have no idea how many I’ve entered, but I do know how many times I’ve won a trophy with a cash purse. So far in these five months I’ve won 91 trophies and I had to build a storeroom just to house them all. In the tournament standings for this year I’m currently placed in 11th best, so I’m doing better than average. Far worse is all these fish I’ve caught, as it really isn’t worth it to try to sell them here on Bellerophon since our market is always flooded with fish. I wonder … is there any Captain of a cargo ship that might find a market and profit for these fish out on any of the rim worlds? If any Captain wants to give it a try, all they’d have to do is make me an offer over the cortex.

Maybe another time I'll update you to my newest venture and headache, the movie business.

Always Keep Your Typist Occupied

It all started Saturday afternoon while Imrhien, Belize and I were doing a little weapons training amongst ourselves on Hale’s Moon. Podwangler Zapedzki joined us in conversation, mentioning that he had found what he thought was a pirate stash built into an asteroid and was looking for a small crew to salvage whatever we can find there, and we agreed.

We suit up because of the lack of an atmosphere in the asteroid, fly up to the coordinates that Podwangler had provided to us, find it, and board. While scouting we run into one of those warbots which had an Alliance ship. A firefight ensues and Belize has something else to do besides salvage medical supplies. Tdstraitjacket and Duncan come as reinforcements and when the warbot tries to escape, Podwangler shows up in the stolen Alliance Destroyer and blasts that warbot’s ship.

We re-board our ships when the asteroid starts coming apart on us, taking whatever salvage we had found. We all fly off and meet Podwangler at the coordinates that he had suggested. Once there, we all board the destroyer and meet in the crew debriefing room to discuss several things.

Ok, so far, everything has been going along fairly normally, but I now need to step back a little bit and explain a few things. Immy’s typist had come and visited my typist this day and so they were sitting in chairs side by side. This had been working well, as not only could Immy and I talk and discuss the situations during the day, but so could our respective typists, which really improved our teamwork, kind of like four heads were better than two, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I was adding a few things into the conversation in the debriefing room, but for the most part was keeping quiet, which resulted in my typist getting a bit bored. When she gets bored, she starts wandering around because the silly bitch is just nosey. I should have known better and kept her occupied more, but it had slipped my mind with all the recent events. Now, don’t get me wrong. I allow my typist this latitude because she can be very helpful at times.

Earlier today in fact my typist had been helpful twice, ok, maybe only once, the other time ended up being a bit embarrassing to me, but let me show you why I try to accept her behavior. While Immy was trying to land first on the asteroid, and also later to dock with the destroyer, my typist was helpful by adjusting her view screen to the exterior ship hull’s so that Immy’s typist could see and relay the information to Immy making both landings much smoother. I guess I’ll have to tell you the other time, now that I’ve brought it up. When it was mentioned that there were 4 turrets, my typist again adjusted her view to outside the hull, counted the turrets, and told Immy’s typist that there were indeed 5, one also being aft.

Now, I should have had forewarning in that, let’s face it, when two girls are together, and if one gets a bit silly, it is contagious, and I had already heard both typists going into giggling fits earlier through my comlink. Now after my typist had helped me by counting the ship’s seating, and so knew the minimum crew to run her, I had again added to the debriefing conversation that it would need a crew of 7 minimum. After Belize had asked me if I was putting in an application, without thinking, I allowed my typist to reply; “Of all positions ... I’d want to man the aft cannon ... covering our asses.” This made me the butt of several jokes.

Podwangler smiles
Imrhien: The rear admiral?
AlisonLynn giggles
Podwangler chuckles
Imrhien smirks. "That just sounds dirty."
Podwangler: *chuckles
Duncan: *laughs*
AlisonLynn shakes her head
Belize whispers to Immi and grins.
Imrhien’s typist falls out of her chair and dies from laughter.
AlisonLynn overhears the whisper, shaking her head again at Belize
Belize chuckles as she looks all innocent.
Podwangler raises an eyebrow
Belize smiles. "Um... I just asked if that was the name of a Sly Club."
Podwangler bursts out laughing
AlisonLynn: As one of my bosses always said, 1. Safety First 2. Production second 3. Cover Your Ass
Imrhien’s typist snorts with laughter and tries to climb back up into her chair.
Belize smiles as she hunkers down in her seat.
Imrhien covers her ass with her hands.

So later, while we are again deep in conversation, and Immy is keeping her typist busy with plenty of input, she doesn’t see that mine had decided to wander around the ship. I realize what motivation my typist had, since the current conversation had been about modifying the destroyer to suit our purposes more, my typist had thought that if she saw the layout she might be better able to inform me of any changes that she came up with, and so keep me more engaged in the conversation.

So off my typist goes, back out into the main corridor, sees the doors to the engine room and the “High Voltage” warning sign, and of course since my typist’s main profession is being an electrician, down into the engine room she wanders. After the engine room tour, my typist wonders, and then finds her way topside towards the control rooms, and she is looking over the displays in one room.

All this time, I am deep into listening to the briefing room conversations and fail to notice how quiet my typist has gotten which should have warned me that trouble is brewing, when next we all hear through the ships main intercom blaring all throughout the ship:
MOO Cannon: FIRING SEQUENCE INITIATED...
MOO Cannon: Main generators coming online...
My typist turns to Immy’s typist and says: “Umm, is AlisonLynn still in her briefing room seat?”
MOO Cannon: Pod-03 coming online...
Immy’s typist looks closely at her viewscreen and replies: “No, where the hell did she go?”
MOO Cannon: Pod-02 coming online...
My typist replies: “Oh shit, where am I?”
My typist panics and starts pounding on her ESC key punctuating it by saying: “Oh shit! … OH Shit!! … OH SHIT!!! *while bouncing in her seat*
MOO Cannon: Pod-01 coming online...
Both Immy’s typist and mine now are looking on my typist’s viewscreen and see me frozen in horror sitting at the main plasma cannon’s control console
Podwangler Zapedzki: What the hell?
MOO Cannon: Generators online ready to engage charging sequence...
My typist tries to yell at me through the viewscreen: “Ummm, HIDE!!!”
Belize Carver blinks.
MOO Cannon: Generators now charging...
Somehow, I hear her yelling though it is really distorted coming through the comlink, and jump up out of the seat, and start running down a ramp while thinking: “What a silly bitch, where the hell am I supposed to hide … I’m in a fucking spaceship!”
MOO Cannon: Pod-03 charging...
I can hear through my comlink that Immy’s typist is laughing so hard she is snorting, and mine sounds like she is laughing so hard she is crying and realize that I’m on my own now, as they’ll be of no further help to me …
MOO Cannon: Pod-02 charging...
MOO Cannon: Pod-01 charging...
MOO Cannon: Generators fully charged, engage auxiliary units...
I continue to run, not knowing which way to go, except down, and when I finally reach the main passageway I run into Podwangler running towards the control room
Podwangler Zapedzki: What happened?
AlisonLynn Haystack: what happened to what? *at a loss for words, I try to act like I have no idea anything is happening …*
AlisonLynn Haystack: i was looking for the...umm, … powder room *first excuse that came into my mind*
Podwangler Zapedzki: The ship just started charging to fire the cannon
Duncan Cooperstone: Looks like we're firing
AlisonLynn Haystack: oh, didn’t I flush the toilet right?
Duncan Cooperstone: let’s hope there's no one out there to catch it

The following is Immy’s typist’s testimony:
[2009/03/07 15:32] Imrhien Fargis: ((*is laughing so hard she's crying*))
[2009/03/07 15:32] Imrhien Fargis: ((and then every time one of us starts laughing, the other one starts, and it doesn't stop))
[2009/03/07 15:34] Imrhien Fargis: ((*will never forget Alison going "Oh shit, where am I?" as she gets moved up to the gun console... then she's all "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT" as it started up the firing sequence, then she gets up and walks away very quickly going "Um, HIDE!"))
[2009/03/07 15:35] Imrhien Fargis: ((and she was HOPPING around in her seat))
[2009/03/07 15:35] Imrhien Fargis: ((ohdeargod, funniest shit EVER!))
[2009/03/07 15:35] AlisonLynn Haystack had to hand out the tissues...
[2009/03/07 15:35] Imrhien Fargis: ((she totally did. I snorted like 10 times, too))

So, the moral of the story is to always keep your typist busy and then she won’t get you in trouble, nor into embarrassing situations.

My Mind Wanders and Ponders

I took the last three days away from work. I didn’t even to bother to browse the cortex to go through the clients that have been petitioning for me. There just are some days when I need to retreat from work, to step back and resurvey the ‘Verse, and make a few plans on how to build my life and business further.

To occupy my mind during these last three days, I went and attended a few classes to expand my knowledge, to broaden my fields of expertise, to become more versatile in this ‘Verse. Yes, even a Companion House Priestess will still go to train further as our training is never done. I also spent some time doing yard work around the house, working on the boat pier and my garden, though a lot more work is still needed in the garden. That seems like a never ending project, but I figure if I work a little at a time, someday it too will help make me, and others, happy.

I did respond to a few distress calls, fighting reavers both on Hale’s Moon Monday evening, and then Tuesday evening in Blackburne, though I ended up taking a few serious injuries during each time. Wednesday, I did work my shift at Firefly’s, and after tipping my co-workers, I think I might have broke even *shrugs*, though I’m not worried about that.

What I do worry about is that one of my favorite girls, an outstanding pupil, quick to learn, and quick to mold her instructions into building her own life and business, has gone missing for a while. Hudson, where have you gone? Have you gone out and started your own House? Have you decided to forgo any further dealings as a Companion? This I do search the cortex for, but it’s like she has dropped out of the ‘Verse.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, Imrhien had suggested that I join with her and others to crew the ship Full Burn, and so I signed on, but have yet to hear when the Capt’n next plans on taking her out. Matter of fact, I haven’t even seen the whole crew together yet, but of course now Imrhien takes off by herself somewhere, so I don’t know if the crew is awaiting her return or even some word on her before we next shove off. Well, I guess I’ll just wait patiently to hear from the Captain or crew.

Sharing Some of My Memories

I love taking photos, trying to capture memories forever, whether it was fun times with friends, or beautiful and breathtaking scenery, or something I saw that amused me at the moment. No one ever sees or hears my camera, as it is the high end spy type camera, small and concealing, quiet as a mouse, yet takes very high quality photos. Being a Companion on an inner world does have many advantages. *smiles* I never know what I plan on doing with them. Will they collect dust in an old album, or will I manipulate them for my own purposes, only time will tell. Who knows, … if … I am ever in need of some quick cash … I even have some that I could profit from selling, … or … not selling, if you catch my drift. *smirks*

Anyway, I just wanted to share some with my friends and family, maybe to help them relive a fond memory of their own, or to further their insights into my own life and soul. So, if it strikes your mood to learn more about me, or to see some interesting photos, please feel free to browse through my photostream.

As one of the bartenders at Firefly's I am growing concerned for one of our frequent and favorite patrons, Neutrino, as his drinking might be becoming excessive.

I can understand the need and desire for a drink after a hard day, relaxing and listening to the music at the bar, but when does it become abusive? Does our friend have a problem, and can we help?