Chapter 6: Company
Marinette banged on the cabin door. "CAN YOU TURN THAT DOWN PLEASE!" She screamed. Jared only turned his music up in response, so that Shoot to Thrill could be heard throughout the majority of the ship. Marinette sighed and stormed off. Of all the people they could have had on board, Fu just had to grab a metalhead. She was so frustrated with Jared that she didn't notice Chloe when she turned the corner, slamming into the older girl.
"What's wrong," The blonde asked.
"Jared won't turn his music down and it's making it difficult to focus on anything. What about you? I mean, no offense, but you smell like death."
"I had to dig something out of the waste room for Fu. It smells awful, and Zoe's hogging the shower. Does the girl realize that we have a limited amount of hot water?" At that moment, a loud screech could be heard from further down the corridor.
"She does now," Marinette chuckled. "I'm gonna grab a bite to eat. Want to join?"
"Yeah, let me get cleaned up first," Chloe sighed. "Cold shower it is."
Zoe swung a fist at the punching bag. She realized that she probably should have showered after working out, but it was a little late now. She continued swinging, letting all of her frustration unload on the bag of sand. She thought about Gabriel and the dick that he was, and how she had left Adrien alone with him after she had just recovered from him trying to kill her. She thought about Eden, who was stuck alone with her bitch of a mother. She thought about Fu and the suicide mission he had kidnapped them to perform. She continued swinging, even after she felt her knuckles begin to bleed. She kept swinging, and then, when fatigue finally caught up with her, dropped to her knees and let out a powerful scream. A slow clapping echoed through the small gym as she sat there panting. "Sounds like you needed that," Jared said.
"You have no idea," Zoe said.
"Honestly, it looked like you were holding back."
"I wanted to make sure I still had something to punch. Besides, I really want to preserve this punching bag. I taped Gabes face to it. This way, I can freely punch him, even while we're worlds apart."
"Interesting. I honestly would have put Ladybug up there."
"Well, Gabe's a dick and Ladybug is my friend going on sister in-law, so you work that one out."
"On your world maybe. For me, Ladybug is a schoolgirl who inherited a crime syndicate from her father. While they were originally based in Paris, her ruthlessness has caused them to spread to the US. Then there's her go-to hitman, Viperion. Never gotten a good look at him. But, needless to say, I don't care how old she is, I wanna kill the bitch."
"Dark much?"
"Ha, look who's talking."
"Point taken. By the way, I honestly considered putting your face on the punching bag."
"I'm flattered, care for some music?" And before Zoe could answer, Jared switched the boombox on and began blaring Carry On Wayward Son.
"Who took the last shower?" Fu asked as he stepped into the dining hall.
"That would be Chloe," Marinette said.
"Well, Ms. Bourgeois, you used up all of the hot water. Hot water is necessary for certain aspects of the ship to function, so we can't be using all up in our showers."
"Actually, I had a cold shower," Chloe said, still shivering from said shower. "If you want to blame anyone, blame Zoe."
"Zoe. I should've known." Fu stormed off, cursing the fire breathing bitch.
"Do you think he'll actually do anything to reprimand her?" Marinette asked.
"I doubt it," Chloe told her. "Honestly, I think he's scared of Zoe. And rightfully so, the girl's sanity is questionable at best. Kind of reminds me of Malediktator, dear old dad."
A few hours after the shower incident, there was a problem in the engine room. Unfortunately for her, Marinette was the only one small enough to fit in the small space to repair the damage. Fu made Zoe go and help her as punishment for using up all of the hot water and causing this mess. Jared and Chloe sat together in the dining hall, waiting for the others. "You hungry?" Jared asked after a few awkward minutes of silence.
"No, I at a couple of hours ago," Chloe said, clearly still nervous around Jared.
"Well, I'm gonna get somethin'. Let's see what we've got."
"There's avocado toast in there." Jared looked back at her with a questioning expression.
"Are you trying to kill me?" He jokingly asked.
"What, are you allergic to avocado? Please tell me I didn't just tell you to eat something that could cause you to die!"
"No, I'm not allergic," Jared chuckled. "I just completely despise avocados. And as far as allergies, only maple pollen and poison ivy."
"Isn't everyone allergic to poison ivy?"
"Not to the degree I am. I get massive welts the diameter of quarters and half an inch tall."
"That's disgusting!"
"Oh look, yogurt, wait, salted caramel, nevermind. What kind of dick keeps salted caramel as the only yogurt and is that a barbie in the microwave?"
"I think Zoe was planning something with is."
"Damnit, that girl's going to get us all killed one day."
"How so?"
"Knowing her, she'd likely blowtorch it and feed it to us as a prank. Or just microwave it, releasing a bunch of toxic fumes." Chloe looked at the barbie in horror, suddenly seeing it as a deadly weapon. "I'm gonna take these," Jared grabbed the barbie and salted caramel yogurt. "And fire them out of the nearest airlock." And with that, he walked off.
"I said three quarters, not five eighths. Stay focused!" Zoe barked at Fu as she passed tools to Marinette.
"First of all, you asked for nine sixteenths. Second, that's nine sixteenths," Fu said, incredibly frustrated.
"Jeez, it's a reference. Have you never seen Jim Carrey's Grinch movie?" Fu just sighed in response as Zoe passed the wrench to Marinette, who passed a screwdriver back. "What, I've always wanted to say that
"You do know that we wouldn't be down here if you had shown a little restraint with your shower."
"Let's call it a design flaw, so piss off."
"Language," Marinette called from the alcove. "Also, I need a phillips head screwdriver. The smaller one. Although, I'm with Zoe on this one. What kind of ship requires hot water specifically to function? And with that being the case, why not have two hot water systems? You know, one for the ship, one for daily activities."
"She has a point," Zoe said with a smirk.
"Just don't use all the hot water in your showers," Fu groaned, clearly fed up with the situation.
"Done," Marinette said cheerfully as she slipped out of the alcove.
"How did you finish that fast?" Fu and Zoe asked at the same time. This caused Marinette to giggle.
"I've been memorizing the ships layout, blueprints, and owners manual since we boarded a month ago. I was quite the engineer back home, and I guess it just comes naturally."
"Well, of all the random shit you could be, at least it's useful random shit," Zoe said.
"Again, language."
"Yeah, fuck that. I need a shower." Marinette sighed, realizing that she was never going to cure Zoe's foul mouth.
"No, no showers for you," Fu interjected. "You already had one today, and it was because of it that you're down here sweaty."
"I call next shower!" Marinette piped up. And with that, she raced out of the engine room.
This chapter was supposed to be a chapter that let you see the daily life of the characters as well as develop them further, but it basically turned into everyone dealing with Zoe's shower, go figure. I'm also having trouble deciding on the next world, but I'll get there eventually. I honestly don't have much to say this time around, so, au revoir.
