So We Missed The Raising. Can We Still Have a Barn Party?

[flunkingspanish]

Hah, he'd been right. There was a barn down here.

Paco began circling the hopeful site of Team Have Some Freaking Fun's next party, looking for signs that it was some kind of house of worship or something without going inside. It sure didn't look like it from the outside, but it did seem to be related to the house nearby, and that looked lived in

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[mynameis_jake]

Jake was already on his way out, so he wasn't actually expecting to see anyone when he opened the door. His eyes widened as instinctively he tried to come up with the worst case scenario, so he could prepare for it. Let's see: ahh, Stacy decided to bring Visser Three along, and...

A shout from inside brought Jake back to reality. Right, of all the timing... Hastily he ducked out onto the porch, pulling the door closed behind him as casually as he could. Nothing to see here, nope. Leaning back against the house, he studied the visitor warily, sizing up the solid build, the mussed up hair, the big smile on his face.

"...Hi," he finally allowed. If this guy had found them here, one of the others must have given him directions. "Are you looking for someone?"

[flunkingspanish]

Being a brawny, tattooed Latino dude, Paco wasn't a stranger to be subtly sized up. It didn't bother him much though, so he kept right on smiling.

"Kinda," he he answered, jerking his thumb back of his shoulder. "I was wondering if the barn came with the house. I was thinking about throwing a party and wanted to ask around and make sure it was cool before I started putting up decorations or anything." He held out his cyborg hand for a handshake. "I'm Paco, by the way, head of the Have Some Freaking Fun department."

Okay, so it's not an official department like Engineering or Magic, but at least it lets people know that he's not just screwing around for the sake of screwing around.

[mynameis_jake]

The thing about weird was that no matter how many types of it you'd seen, it never got less weird. You only got better at pretending to take it in stride. Jake didn't miss a beat as he shook the offered hand, barely glancing down at it before forcing his gaze back up.

"I didn't know we had that department," he deadpanned, as he tried to figure out why someone wanted to party in a barn. Had Paco wandered around the whole city looking for one?? "I think - did we talk over the comms once? My name is Jake, I - yeah, it was a while back."

As for the barn, all his instincts urged him to refuse. It just wasn't safe, having so many people so close to what was starting to feel like their one safe haven on this ship. But he'd save blunt for when diplomacy failed. "Cassie's barn - our barn - it's probably not the greatest place for a party. I mean, there's no animals now, but it's kind of... full of stalls. And hay. How about the park instead? I saw one over that way. Could have a barbecue or something."

[flunkingspanish]

No, you never did get used to the weird. You just learned to roll with it and with the occasional "WTF is my life" moments you have when you find yourself saying things like "and then my best friend in alien power armor turned into a dentist and I walloped him with a stick". Not that Paco had those moments.

"Yeah, I founded it way back when, 'cause God knows some people on board need to be hunted down and forced to relax sometimes," he said. "Oh. Oh yeah, we did. How's your brother doing?" Paco had been actively avoiding reading Tom's posts since the urge to find him and shake the damn slug out of his head was near-overwhelming if he thought about it too much.

Paco waved off Jake's nervous explanations. "Don't worry about it, dude, I'm not gonna protest your 'no'. It's cool, that's why I asked first."