PHD #346: Crackers and Tea
PHD #346: Crackers and Tea
Summary: Wade comes to talk to Khloe about her latest physical bullying of Shiner. Vandenberg breezes through.
Date: 07 Feb 2042 AE
Related Logs: Shiner's "Flight", Painful Fraternization
Players:
Khloe Vandenberg Wade 
Naval Offices - Deck 10 - Battlestar Cerberus
This area is set-up much like any standard office building. Cubicles have been constructed using cheap waist-high walls, their contents left neutral for whoever needs to use them. Inside each cubicle is a desk with a laptop and chair. Simple overhead lights bring dull illumination to the room except over the back wall where each one of the colonies twelve flags hangs from its own pole. Fake, potted plants dot the room and seem to be standard issue along with the water cooler and coffee machines. Off the main room are a few private offices such as that of the JAG or CAG.
Post-Holocaust Day: #346

It's midday, around the time where most folks are heading down to the galley to get a bite or are using their lunch break away from their desk. Captain Vakos, still on light duty from her short bout with food poisoning, has a small thermos of what appears to be tea, and a package of dry crackers she's munching on. Probably recovered enough to be on full duties today, she's taking no chances - after all, the deckies don't appreciate pilots yacking in their cockpits. She's got the usual assortment of paperwork in front of her, keeping her attention. Munch, munch - they're dry ration crackers that are probably more sawdust than nutritional content. But she seems to like them enough.

Wade makes his appearance a little after his conversation with Shiner at the Galley. He peers inside the office and knocks on the metal door. Regardless, he steps inside the room and looks around for a brief moment to see if someone else is there. Now, he offers a salute and says "Captain." he nods and asks "Do you have a minute?" It seems that he got time to change actually, because right now he is wearing his officer blues, with the new shiny LT pins proudly presented there. For the moment, he says nothing else, he just waits for her reply.

"Have a seat, Drips," Khloe calls out, not looking up from the form she's finishing filling out. She adds her signature to the bottom and then deposits it into her 'out' bin; both bins seem equally full, meaning the Captain's been taking her 'light duty' very seriously. Even her desk screams of obsessive-compulsive neatness, with pens and papers and everything positioned precisely where it neads to be. She turns in her seat to face the one which Wade will no doubt sit in. There's a faint hint of a smile as the corner of her mouth turns upward. "Those wings look good on you, Duncan."

Wade takes the offered seat and then smiles a little when she mentions the pins "Thank you Captain, I do like them quite a bit" The smile doesn't fade while he looks at her desk. Yeah, he is a bit messy but he does find what he is looking for while doing desk work. Not that he has a desk on the Battlestar or anything. He clears his throat a little and says "Well, I'm here…maybe for not the most usual thing your squadron pilots would come to but, alas." His smile fades a little and he rubs his fingers over his chin. "I had a conversation with Midshipman Wright, a while ago at the Galley." He clears his throat, clearly not all that comfortable with the topic at hand. "Well, he wanted to know how the Fraternization rules worked, at first." He presses his lips together "Basically I got to find out that you, apparently got into his bunk and tried to choke him and knee him in the balls?" He clears his throat and then he shakes his head "Captain, in reality I don't mind what you do with…anyone, for that matter. But there's something I do want to say and it that. If such thing happened, you gotta be careful with your level of violence towards Mr. Wright because, who knows, he might even go to the CAG and say you assaulted him. You've been in the brig once and you got out without any major setbacks, don't let it happen again, Captain" And now, he goes quiet.

Khloe leans back in her seat, crossing her legs with an ankle on knee. Her small smile is quickly replaced by her usual stoic frown - not that she's frowning more than usual, but when Wade goes straight to unpleasant business, she's quick to follow. "Well, the first thing you need to learn about Midshipman Wright, Lieutenant, is that when it comes to topics of fraternization, he already knows the rules. You also need to understand that I don't deal well with threats, and you best be sure you have all your information before you use that word again. And thirdly -" The Captain removes a solitary cracker crumb off her her desk by pressing her index finger down on it, then dusting it off in her trash bin. "Whatever incident that Mister Wright may or may have not reported to you, in an official or unofficial capacity, there were no witnesses. I can just as quickly counter with a stack of infractions of demeanor towards a superior officer." Apparently, she's been giving a great bit of thought to the inevitable confrontation regarding how she manhandled Shiner.

Wade listens to all the points that Khloe places on the table and he nods in acceptance to all, but one minor, minor thing she said. "Um, Captain…this is not a threat." he shakes his head at that and arches both eyebrows and just says "Not a threat sir, but a comment made by one of your Squadron that, doesn't want to see you thrown in a brig again." He clears his throat and nods his head. "It's not about facts, nor about details. I told Shiner that if something like that happened to him, it's because he probably did something to deserve it. Because I want to believe that a woman doesn't do that, for nothing after all." There is a faint smile there and he takes a deep breath ""Not a threat, sir."

There's a shadow wandering the office. Or is that just a blacks-clad Marine? Oh - its her. Vandenberg has a bandaged left hand but otherwise looks fine. Her rifle slung over her shoulder, she awaits an answer to her knock at the CAG's door. Nothing. She heads over to the desks to look for a piece of paper to scribble on while failing to not overhead what is being said. She glances to Wade and then Khloe before finding her paper. Scribble scribble.

Khloe nods slightly, although the muscles in her jaw flex as she presses her teeth together. Clearly her temper is rising but she's keeping it appropriately under control. "It has less to do with what a woman would do, and more to do with what I will do. He… sets me off, Drips, but it's not about me. I won't have him creating complications between himself and other female members of the training wing." She runs a hand down across her forehead, rubbing lightly.

At this point in the race, Wade already can tell when Khloe is holding some anger back to avoid explosion. The man listens to her words in silence and he nods before saying "Ok, I stand corrected. And yes, I do know he posses the skill to quickly set you off, I've seen that" First hand at that." It is when she mentions complications between himself and females from the Nugget squadron. "What? What did he do?" Is he bugging one of his Nuggets? At this he narrows his eyes and presses his lips together. For a moment, his attention drifts towards Vandenberg as he sees her writing some stuff but, by the way things ended with her during the last time they spoke, his attention on what she is doing doesn't remain there for a long time and, the man looks back at Khloe.

Vandenberg continues scribbling the note before tearing it off. She then goes about writing another one. This one is just a little bit longer. Not by much. Brevity is key. This one is torn off as well but folded in half. The unfolded one is dropped in the CAG's box. Vandenberg steps over towards the tense-looking pair and she nods to Khloe. "Sir." A glance to Wade: "Duncan." Her eyes move back to the Knight's Squad LEader and she extends the folded note. "Excuse me, Captain. Just wanted to drop this to you, sir. Its not urgent." All pretenses dropped, Vandenberg's Cancerian accent isn't even suppressed anymore. It seems to just be her normal even tone now.

"Lyon told me he gave her a callsign, 'Snowjob.' It's more of a nickname I suppose, but it's already spreading," Khloe explains to Wade. "I've also got the feeling that they're frakking, which no doubt skews her perspective and her priorities. Now, when it was Decoy and Bubbles going at it, before they were married, I only transfered at the tail-end of that nonsense and really couldn't do anything about it." She sits straighter now, perhaps leaning a little forward, anger in her eyes. Not directed at Wade, of course, but it's the topic of conversation. "But I'll be damned if I'm going to let a potentially superb officer and pilot get her mind frakked by that pervert."

As Vandenberg approaches, greets, and drops her documents off, it's probably unavoidable that she got the end of that diatribe. Khloe glances up as Vandenberg enters the area of her cubicle. "Thank you, Lieutenant," she says, short and clipped.

"Yes, Snowjob" repeats Wade at the mention of Sonja's nickname. "She mentioned that during one of our classes. We even used it for testing purposes given that we were working on Radio Communications." He nods to this and adds "Of course this is not her callsign, that should be assigned at some point. Tho I'll admit that I have no idea how to call her yet." Another nod and then, there's the 'frakking' part "Oh?" asks the man, arching both eyebrows "I didn't know that, nor I suspected." He takes a deep breath and says "Well, you know how Fraternization rules are, they say a lot about Romance and relationship but when it comes to frakking…they basically say 'It's ok to do it if you find a secluded place where you don't bother other people AND while the philosophy behind fraternization is respected." He rubs his fingers over his chin now and nods "But, I guess I see your point if Lyon's judgement is frakked up by it" He presses his lips together and looks up at the Marine "Vandenberg"

Yep, that was most certainly caught. Vandenberg glances between the two but makes no comment. Not even to Wade's greeting. Thank the Gods she's not Air Wing. The note given, she offers a simple nod to Khloe and moves off without another word. Nope, Van has no personal or professional interest in sticking around for the rest of that conversation.

Frowning slightly, Khloe says to Wade, "There's a reason why there were relationship rules at the Academy, Drips, because you're supposed to learn the chain of command and how to take and execute orders. It's not just about Lyon, although she's the first that's been brought to my attention. How many other Nuggets is he frakking?" She reaches for her tea mug, but sets it right back down; ranty Khloe is ranty. "I mean, frak, how many times did we all hear that his reasoning for wanting to fly was so that he could get laid more? Unacceptable. Nuggets should be thinking about training and not be muddled with worrying about finding a storage locker so they can get their jollies. It's unimportant. What's frakking important is learning your damned role and respecting the uniform and… frak!" There's a crackle and crunch as the Captain smashes her half-eaten hard tack lunch with her fist.

Angry Poppy is Angry. "How many?" asks Wade moving a little forward in his chair "That's, not something I know, Captain." About how many times did he hear making the comment of getting more tail because of the pilot uniform, he makes no comment, he has heard it at least once. "Well, I think my Viper Nuggets are coming along rather nicely, if I may say so myself, sir." offers Wade now, moving back again when she smashes her poor food. "They do have to respect the role and the Uniform, and that is one of the things I'm trying to do for them, this is true. Some of them are civilians with no military background but they are learning fast enough" He nods again and takes a deep breath and offers "Captain, if this is a topic of concern, maybe it would be good to have a conversation with Lieutenant Bell and Major Hahn?" Now about the Sandwich "It's not your lunch's fault, Captain" offers the man with a very faint smile.

Vandenberg leaves, heading towards the Deck 10 [Out].
Vandenberg has left.

"And now we've come full circle. Drips, why don't you let me handle it?" Khloe says to Wade, as she proceeds to unceremoniously dump her ration and its assorted crumbs carefully into the small trash bin under her desk. "The only thing he responds to - takes seriously - is the threat of physical harm and reprimand. He's a frakking child and needs to be treated like one." Well, not everyone would agree that children need physical disciplining, but that's a discussion for another time… and perhaps her psychiatrist. "If he wants to file a complaint of assault, I'll be glad to drop a folder-full of logged inappropriate behavior on Bell's desk. I'll get him flushed out and back to driving a shit truck so fast he'll bounce on the deck. Or, you can educate him as to why his current lifestyle choices do not mesh well with serving in the air wing aboard this battlestar."

Wade considers a few things while they are being said and he finally nods to Khloe "Sure, Captain. Do what you gotta do." He nods to this and takes a deep breath "I'm not sure if he'll file a complaint or not, but like you said, if you have enough material to counter that…" Now he shrugs and looks around her desk again "Anyway. I take you are feeling better? You know, stomach problems and all that"

Khloe leans back in her seat, resting a hand on her midsection. "I think I ate some kind of curious meat by accident at the galley. Normally I react poorly to meat, and if it was dubious… yeah." She shakes her head, sighing. "I'm sorry he had to whine to you, Drips. If it was possible for him to rate even lower than I already think he does, it would for him to start whining to everyone he meets, now."

Wade nods "Ah, yes…curious meat is usually very bad meat." says the man about Khloe's encounter with, something. "Well, to be honest sir, it's not like he whined or anything. He first wanted to know about the entire Fraternization rules and all that and then he asked what would happen if, you know, a superior officer slides into his bunk and tries to choke him and knee his balls. What would happen to /that/ superior officer" He shrugs at that "I only learned about that in the end when she mentioned you." He is not really defending Shiner but, the truth is the truth.

Khloe shrugs lightly, and moves to stand, capping her thermos. "I'm not trying to call him a liar, Drips, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let him threaten my career because he's crying that a girl beat him up." On that note, the Captain takes up the contents of her 'out' box. "If you don't mind, Lieutenant, I've got to file these and get through some inspections. You'll tell me how your next conversation goes with him?"

Wade nods in silence and then stands up "Of course." Now, he salutes Khloe and offers "Thank you for your time, Captain." Now, as for the last and before he turns around he says "Well, would that be an order, Captain? If it's not an order, I will have to say that I don't enjoy the game of he said/she said." There is a faint smile on his lips and adds "Like I mentioned in the first place, this visit was to advise against violent actions, to avoid getting brig time" He smiles a little and then nods, taking a step back to turn around.

"Actually," Khloe says in that 'I have an idea' voice. "No, it's not. As far as I'm concerned, this conversation wasn't on the record, unless you feel the need for it to be." Her voice softens a little. "But what is an order, is to continue to keep my ass out of the fire, and to keep me from killing him. Sound good?" Him, of course, meaning Shiner.

Wade shows another faint smile at her last words and then he nods in acceptance "That'll work." He nods again and offers "Clear eyes and steady hands, Poppy" offers Wade now before offering another quick salute. Now, he turns around and leaves the Naval Offices. Into Nugget Kingdom he goes, to train more Viper pilots.

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