Beep Beep we're going to Sparby's

[airlockedmods]

Once everyone's in the dick limo and they've watched the Fantasy Sweet burn down behind them (dodging the flaming debris once the pressure builds up enough inside to make the whole thing go nuclear), it's off to the nearest fast food planet.

Which...is about five lightdays away.

Luckily for you, you have your very own Personal Artistic License to keep you entertained. So PAL bounces around the back of the limo, sitting in every lap that will have him, as he tells the story of Kip from the day he hatched as a tiny, impressionable smeet to present.

Sparing absolutely no detail.

Especially about the part where Kip failed his navigator's exam because he stopped at Then-Foodcourtia and crashed the ship into one of the greasy pustules that had sprouted on the planet's surface, destroying the aircraft and boiling his instructor alive in the fiery grease of hell.

So now there's a dick limo parked in the Sparby's parking lot. For anyone who had Arby's or Arby's-adjacent restaurants on their home planet... The menu's not much different. Everything meat-based is 100% beef, the milkshakes look delicious, and of course there are turnovers (apple, cherry, and chocolate).

Which... well, catch Kip and PAL in the corner shoving milkshakes and turnovers in their faces tbh.]

Welcome to Sparby's, Survivors.
You earned it.

Comments

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika bows and looks sadly at Yuuri.]

You are the real ones, aren't you?

[serrata]

... I...

[ She swallows hard. She doesn't want to say yes because this could so easily be a trap. How could they possibly know it's not? ]

I think.. if you're going to ask a question like that, then you already know the answer, don't you?

[ratherdoweddings]

...If you're not cosplayers, you might be in danger. We've been hiding out for months now.

[She pulls up her sleeve. That sure is a real PIP grafted onto her skin.]

I'm Misumaru Yurika. Ca-- Champion Peacekeeper, and helmswoman of the Starship Temerity.

[myocordial]

...To think we'd just run into your group here.

[What are the odds, right?]

[ratherdoweddings]

All the product placement your show did sort of made us hungry for Sparby's.

[myocordial]

[He chuckles, because... okay.]

Well. It makes things significantly easier for us all, doesn't it? I suppose fortune is smiling upon us.

[ratherdoweddings]

I really hope so! We don't have much, but we're doing our best.

[stitch_in_time]

That's still a hell of a coincidence.

[He'd be more worried if he could think of a way the studio could've possibly engineered this.]

[serrata]

[ There's a long, long moment of Yuuri staring down at the woman's arm before she does anything in response. She wants so badly to believe their lucky streak is holding and for Yurika to just show her PIP like that demonstrates a certain level of trust. Willingness to believe.

Yuuri detaches herself from Junpei, steps forward and holds out her arm like she's offering a handshake. But the way she does so makes her sleeve ride up just enough to show the PIP grafted to her skin under it. ]

... Wakasa Yuuri. Champion Green Thumb.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Even as she does so, Junpei moves to protect the sight of Yuuri's arm from anyone else who might be looking.

If he's a cosplayer, he's really damn committed to the ship.]

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika nods to Junpei. They've been having to stay hidden all that time, after all.]

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika pulls down her sleeve again and offers her other hand to shake. Yuuri's left-handed anyway, so her PIP hand would be easier to shake with that.]

Kurumi-chan's friend... I'm so sorry.

[serrata]

[ She takes the offered hand in both of hers and instead of shaking it, she gives a squeeze. ]

I... n--no, I should be thanking all of you. Whoever hurt her like that... if you're here, that means you found them. I'm sorry you had to do it at all.

[ She swallows hard. She doesn't want to ask. But she needs to know. ]

What... happened to her...? I--I only... I only saw you finding her under the tree and I... I couldn't watch any more than that.

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika swallows hard. She hesitates and looks around at the group.]

I... It's.

[Still hard to talk about, even after months, especially to her friend. But Yurika is-- was a captain, had deaths on her record, next of kin she'd had to tell people to call and performed hundreds of funerals for. She lowers her voice again and it cracks as she talks.]

She. She wanted to save you, we had an awful motive that week -- and the person who found her wanted to save her. Wanted to be the one thrown out that airlock instead. I wish it hadn't happened at all.

[cyan_maid]

[I only saw you finding her under the tree

Jane suddenly can't breathe because she's known, known all these two months, who Yuuri Wakasa is. Who she was to Kurumi. And oh God. Oh God, how did she...]

H-How did you...how did you see...who showed that to you?! That's...that's no way to...

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna, meanwhile, trusts everyone immediately and doubts nothing.]

Arianna of--ahem. Arianna Wakasa of Caledonia, Champion Sovereign.

[ratherdoweddings]

It's nice to meet you! I mean, it's not nice at all that we're here in the first place...

[daughterofthemark]

It is my pleasure to meet you as well, Dame Yurika. Better here, at least, than as prisoners.

[ratherdoweddings]

If we're not careful, we might be prisoners again. I'm glad it was us who found you instead.

[desperateprayer]

...Clarith, Champion Bystander and I guess... I guess a princess consort now?

[ratherdoweddings]

Really? You two got married?

[desperateprayer]

Y-Yeah. I was wanting to do a wedding for others because I was tired of funerals, but...

[ ...It ended up being her wedding. ]

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna quietly takes her hand.]

[stitch_in_time]

Oh really? Well then, congratulations to th' happy couple. I'm the Doctor.

I'd pop some champagne, but I don't think this Sparby's has a liquor license.

[scourgingstars]

We could always do that once we leave, we took the entire bar with us.