Trapped in Space [Firehead]

[Tes]

Marius didn't seem to be in the best mood either, a colder than usual look going first to Dulane and then you. Did he notice? It was hard to tell, but the way he looked at you two definitly showed that some thought were running through his head that couldn't be placed quite right.

"Ah...Thanks." he replies, turning his head to the counter with his plate and his listless voice only proving further how bad his mood was thanks to the work he had done in the engine room and however much he saw going on between the two of you. As he makes his way over to the counter and tries the food, he sighs at your statement, his shoulders sinking and the fork clattering on the plate.

"Nope...." he says with a bit of annyance in his voice as he grabs the plate, turns back towards the two of you and walks over to the nearest table to where the two of you were sitting, digging into his meal. "But at least the temperatures seem to be stabalizing. I guess you must have noticed how hot it's been getting, too." he continues between bites, not caring in the least about the way his broad legged seating positions pointed in your direction, presented you with a clear view and left little to the imagination.

[Firehead]

I sighed when I noticed Marius's mood. Apparently, things hadn't gone well. Hopefully, he didn't see my hand slipping out from Dulane's lap. "So I take it things didn't go well, did they?" I let out a sigh. "Well, we'll just have to make do for now. Is there any chance you can figure it out with more time, or is it a lost cause?" It wasn't like we could do anything better, so I kept my voice more sympathetic trying not to seem like I was accusing him of anything.

I nodded when he thanked us for making him food which didn't seem to help him too much with his mood, but I hoped he would start feeling better. I shivered at the thought that he might have seen us, but we'd been so careful that he couldn't have, weren't we? I dismissed the thought moving back to the conversation.

"Yeah, we started noticing the temperature rising a few minutes ago. It's probably too much to hope one of these rinky-dink transports has a shower, isn't it?" I moved my eyes to the side when I noticed the way Marius just seemed to spread his legs like that. Was it just my imagination, or did he seem a bit too comfortable with the two of us? It almost seemed like he was turned toward me on purpose, but I pushed that thought away. Why would he do such a thing to a woman he'd only just met and knew was married? "Well, let's not let it get us down. We'll get through this and reach our destination, and then it'll all be water under the bridge."

[Tes]

Markus didn't seem as talkitive anymore and stared an awful lot at both of you in thought, though your couldn't help but notice something else more menacing in his eyes. "Well." he finally began to reply to your questions, his facial expressions relaxing a bit from their tense state. "MAYBE I can get somewhere with my work on making our lives more comfortable here if I pour in more hours in the engine room." he continued sounding a bit sarcastic. As if the comfort he had to work so hard for only really benefitted you and Dulane.

Before you or your husband could say anything though he put the half empty plate down on the table in front of him and calmly said. "But first we need to talk about something I did in the meantime." You hadn't felt something much like it before, but his imposing figure now combined with his speech sent a shiver down your spine and Dulane seemed to freeze up similarly.

"You see, I'm really worried about your animosity towards me Dulane. I've been nothing but accommodating to both of you in these trying circumstances and yet you have nothing better to do than to antagonize me all the time." Markus then said, finally letting out the frustration he felt towards your husband.

"Yeah rig-" Dulane wanted to reply to that accusation, but a single raised finger and unapproving groan from Markus stopped him dead hin his tracks. "I'm not done." Markus boomed, his nose flaring in anger. "I'm sure you are aware that I'm a much bigger guy than you since that seems to be the source of the problem. So I'm not worried about you getting into a fight with me. But then as I sat there alone in the engine room I thought about what would happen once we're asleep. The bottom line is: I can't trust you."

"Which is exactly why I put in a little life insurance. Not to bore you with the details, but if I don't get to that control panel and put in my code ever single day from now on, the oxigen will run out real fast around here." By that point Dulane was shaking from his seething anger, but his words failed him as he processed what Markus had just explained.

[Firehead]

I felt a little nervous as how quiet he was, and the way he stared. Did he somehow know what was happening in here while he was gone? Maybe he had a suspicion, but I guess I couldn't deny that this room might have security cameras, but would he have been spying on us if there were? I nodded when he mentioned having to do more work. I was about to thank him and ask him if there was anything we could do to help, he continued, and I felt my blood grow cold.

Hearing of his 'insurance policy' I was mortified though given how rude a complete stranger had been and how isolated we were, I guess it made sense he might feel threatened even though I personally knew Dulane wouldn't hurt anyone as suspicious and protective he could be. I put a hand on my husband. Dulane had certainly been out of line, but this move by Markus was definitely a step too far. My efforts to garner peace between the two had clearly failed, and with how far Markus had taken this, I doubted there was any way to hit the reset button. Even if Dulane was more civil, Markus would probably chalk it up to fear of him rather than an honest effort to make up.

As nervous as I was, I tried to keep my voice level though I couldn't entirely hold back the fear and concern I was feeling. "You didn't have to do this, Markus. I'd really hoped we could just get along, but it's probably best you two keep separate now lest something be said we all regret. I don't want you to feel like you have to do everything on your own though. Please, if there's anything that we could manage to help things along, make sure to let us know. C'mon Dulane, let's take a walk." Taking my husband's hand, I tried to lead him out of the room hoping to get him out not entirely certain what he might say once his words stopped failing him.

[Tes]

"Lest something be said we all regret?" Markus spat back and raised his brows. "And who do you think would utter such words, huh? Me or your dear husband?" Much to your dismay Dulane had enough now and pulled his hand from your grasp, turning to Markus and pointing angrily at him.

"You fucking prick just told us that you compromised this entire ships life support system just because you're scared I would kill you in your fucking sleep! Like there's nothing better to do! And what if we tell this to the authorities once we get to our destination, huh? Do you think they'd find that idea funny?!"

Markus then stood up, towering over Dulane as he shouted back, jabbing in finger into his chest. "Nothing better to do?! Says the guy that needs to blow off some steam in the bathroom and get a handy from his wife just to cope with his crippling jealosy! Yeah! The ship has fucking comms and I wanted to see if they still work. Surprise! They do! And I'm not blind! I saw her hand earlier."

Dulane moved further and further back at this assault, but burst once more as Markus explained that he had heard them when they were in the bathroom and caught them on the couch. "Oh, I bet you just loved that, right?! Jerking off while you listened in on us. Jealous? You're just projecting your own because you're pissed that you are left here for weeks with nothing but your hand!"

[Firehead]

I was shocked to hear Markus say such a thing. I had hoped we could just walk away and cool off, but things appeared to be even worse than I'd thought they were, and Dulane wasn't willing to just walk away from such provocation.

It wasn't that I wasn't upset about Markus's insurance policy, but I didn't see the point of escalating things either. At the very least, he wouldn't purposely let it go off as he couldn't deprive us of oxygen without doing it to himself too, so we didn't have much fear as long as he could input the password.

I was even more shocked to hear that Markus was aware of the things we'd been doing when we thought we had a private moment to ourselves, and even my attempt to hide our indiscretion with a pillow had not escaped his notice, but then Dulane accused him of masturbating as he spied on us while being jealous.

I knew this had to stop. I pushed myself between both of them hoping to talk some sense into both of them. "Both of you stop this. Like it or not, we're stuck just the three of us until we make it to our destination. You don't have to like each other, but can you at least tolerate each other enough to not make this more intolerable than it's already going to be?"

[Tes]

With how close they were to each other, it was a tight squeeze getting between the two and you instinctively put up both of your hands to push ethem apart. They pressed into each of the mens chest and you instantly felt the difference between your husbands scrawny figure and the sculpted muscles that adorned Markus. But that wasn't the worst as your hip came into contact with his crotch and for the first time you felt what your eyes had been drawn to in his underwear.

This more than your plea to stop this caught Markus attention as he looked down at your face, his crotch and then back at you. "Well then, take him and go on your little walk." he finally said after a tense moment, his voice even more intimidationg and commanding now that you were so close to him.

He didn't move away a inch from your touch and made you and Dulane make the first steps away from this mess. You had some trouble doing this as Dulane was still very much pissed, but you managed to seperate them and leave the cafeteria as your husband continued to throw small insults over your shoulder in Markus direction.

"What a fucking prick!" he hissed as you both were left alone in the corridor. "I swear I was like this close to punching that bastard in his smug face."

[Firehead]

I shivered as I got in close between the men and felt their chests. Why was I even thinking about how much stronger Markus was than Dulane or how big the bulge in his pants were? I was a married woman. I shouldn't even be thinking about other men in that way.

Finally able to pull Dulane away before any kind of fight could break out, I tried to calm myself down from everything that had happened. Hearing Dulane talk about punching Markus, I was glad I'd gotten him out of there. With what I had felt, there was no question what would happen if Markus decided to hit back, but I didn't want to admit to him that I felt a physical altercation was a forgone conclusion against him. "Don't talk like that. What if you knocked him out, and he couldn't reenter his passcode? We'd all end up dead like that." I kept my voice down worried again about the comm system. "And keep your voice down. You don't want him to hear you."

If only Dulane had been able to remain calm, or I'd been able to keep him calm. We could have just gone on without any fights, without any threats of oxygen deprivation hanging over our heads. It wouldn't have been great, but this was so much worse than anything I could have imagined it would be.

[Tes]

Your comment about the comms system made Dulane look around, but of course he couldn't see any direct indication for it and by now you had walked far enough that Markus hopefully couldn't hear you directly. Nevertheless he stopped yelling and instead more or less hissed with poison on his tungue. To him the idea of knocking out Markus didn't seem far fetched at all. "Fuck! You're right...But then what are we supposed to do about him?"

He punched the wall to let out some of his anger on it with a thud. "He's the only one with access to the controls and the chances of someone else miraculously waking up that can sort out this mess are next to zero. He's holding all the fucking cards." He then laments, clearly frustrated by his inability to do anything about Markus, which brought him right back to his percieved image of Markus as the jealous one about you. "What if he just decides to rape you? I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I'd rather die suffocating then that!"

[Firehead]

I put a sympathetic hand on my husband's shoulder understanding his frustration even though part of this was his own fault. If he hadn't been so antagonistic, this probably wouldn't have happened. "I don't think we need to worry that much. All he has over us is the oxygen system which would kill him too. As long as he still has something to lost, he won't pull that trigger so just calm down. We'll just need to avoid upsetting him even if it means politely avoiding him."

I was taken aback by Dulan's next words. "Don't talk like that. Why are you just assuming the worst in him when we only barely know him?" I lean in close putting my arm around him affectionately to whisper this next part. "Just calm down. There's no reason to believe something like that will happen, and he has to realize anything he does out here will get reported to the proper authorities once we reach the resort. I doubt he'd do anything that would risk jail time just because this trip's a little boring."

[Tes]

Dulane sunk more and more as you walked and talked. He went from being angry to just about ready to cry, resigned to suck it up and stop messing with Markus after realising that that man wasn't in the least playing along with his stupid games. Of course Makus on the other hand took this lessen way too far, but at least there was hope that this would be the worst of it.

All the while the heat now really started getting to you as the last bits of water evaporated from your clothes, hair and skin and sweat started pouring out instead. Especially when you got closer to the engine room. The door was still open and Dulane threw in a last ditch effort to maybe see if Markus was bluffing or not.

Going in and tapping on the screen he got into a menu, but was promply asked for a password, which of course he didn't have. "Dammit!" he cursed, hammering his fist against the cabinet. "I don't know about the oxigen system, but he definitly told the truth about the password..." he grumbled, fleeing from the heat inside that room.

[Firehead]

I was glad to see that the lesson of being so antagonistic had finally settled in though I wished it could have been in a less stressful situation. I let out a breath as we neared the engine room. This place really was too hot, but Dulane clearly wanted to make one last check in the hope that Markus had been lying about the password only to be asked for it himself.

I put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "It'll be alright, but let's not hang around here for too long. It's way too hot right here." I was getting to the point where I'd need to open my shirt if we remained here much longer. One idea did cross my mind. "Let's head back near our sleep pods. Even if we can't put ourselves under again, I'm sure that area of the ship probably needs to be kept cool. Maybe there's some kind of insulation between the pods and the engines." It was a vague hope, and I guess the shock that messed everything up could have damaged the insulation, but it was worth a shot, wasn't it?

[Tes]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Hi...Sorry for my long abscence. I hope you're doing good. End of the year was rough, but it's been better now. If you're still interested in some or all of our games I'm ready to continue where we left off ^^

Dulane sighed heavily, turning his head towards your hand on his shoulders without looking directly into your eyes. "Okay..." he mumbled, the whole situation really weighing on him like he failed to protect you as your man. The heat in the air around you dropped considerably as you two left the vicinity of the engine room, but even as you got to the hybernation pods it didn't drop perceivably lower than the lounge.

"Maybe it's the pods that are insulated rather than the room itself." Dulane idly wondered as the two of you walked through the room, looking at the other people peacefully sleeping in their respective pods while the three you two and Markus had occupied where open and still flashing their warning lights, sticking out like a sore thumb in the otherwise calm room. The control panels where glitching an unresponsive, so putting yourself to sleep again in them was definitly out of question.

Dulane looked drained and could problably use at least some form of sleep. After all, every passenger of these kind of ships gets advised that fatigue was a normal side effect of these hybernation pods, which should go away after once or two nights of regular sleep similar to a jet lag. And it looked like he pondered about the practicalities of it. "Do you think we should sleep here in our pods?" He asked, sounding rather unconvinced himself at the prospect of sleeping with the constant blinking lights right next to you. But on the other hand he probably detested the idea of having to share the couch with Markus even more.

[Firehead]

I smiled as we moved taking his mind off our current situation. I was disappointed to find that the pods themselves must have all the insulation, and the room wasn't that quiet. Looking over our options for sleep, there really wasn't a good one. We were supposed to sleep in the pods, but they were glitched out, and the savings of using this kind of ship meant there was little space in the budget for accommodations when they failed.

"I'm not tired just yet, but it's either our pods or the sofa." The sofa wasn't large enough for three sleeping people anyway, so we'd either need to sleep in shifts, so no two of us slept at the same time, or rely on the pods. "Maybe we can find a way to hang your shirt over the screen to block some of the light?"

[Tes]

Dulane looked a bit troubled when you said you weren't ready to sleep just yet, searching your face for something. But it was brushed aside when you suggested covering the screen. "I...guess that could work." He replied, hesitating for a bit like he wanted to say something else, but stopping himself. It was most likely for the best though as he probably just would have reiterated on things he already said. And he could trust you to not do anything stupid while he slept, right?

Covering the blinking source of light somewhat helped, but of course he also had to cover two screens and decided to use his pants, too. He really was tired, almost tumbling to the floor when he stood on one leg to take them off. But at last he layed down in one of the pods and his heavy eyelids began to fall, a big yawn escaping his mouth.

Looking back at you one last time he told you "It's not perfect, but I think I'll give it a shot. Wake me up if anything happens, ok?", falling asleep soon after he got the answer he wanted. And so you were left to do as you pleased with the time alone on hand.

[Firehead]

I did my best to help him cover the screens realizing I wouldn't have the same luxury since I doubted he would be comfortable with me sleeping in nothing but my bra and panties. "Of course, I wouldn't want you to miss out on anything." Once he was all situated and asleep, I figured I would hang around for a bit. I wasn't sure if it was better to sleep when he was awake, so he could watch over me or sleep when he did, so he could be sure I wasn't getting up to anything while he was asleep.

Starting to feel a little drowsy myself, I moved over to my pod, but I just couldn't imagine sleeping with that light in my face, and I wasn't comfortable sleeping mostly undressed nor would Dulane appreciate that either. In the end, I decided to take a seat beside Dualne's pod sitting against the wall. It wasn't comfortable, but I figured sleep would overtake me if I waited long enough.

[Tes]

You don't exactly know how long you were sitting there as you slump more and more against the wall. You repeatedly feel yourself slip into sleep only to shock awake in the last moment with another random flash of light drawing your attention.

But then it happens again, though this time it isn't light hindering your ability to fall asleep, but a voice coming from your side. "Pssst..." It's Markus who had walked up to you without you noticing and crouched beside you close enough to startle you quite a bit when he finally spoke in a hushed tone as to not wake your husband, still in nothing but his underwear much like Dulane now.

"Hey Aria...I wanted to to ask if you want to have a 1-on-1 talk, since you seem to be the more reasonable one out of the two of you. Can you spare me a couple of minutes?" he asks, sounding quite sincere and with no ill intentions to be made out in his facial expressions.

[Firehead]

My awareness drifted in and out as I tried to fall asleep only for sleep to frustratingly evade me over and over again. Finally, I realized Markus was trying to get my attention. I had to stop myself from speaking too loudly as I wondered what he could want. He seemed very serious right now which gave me pause. I realized Dulane wouldn't like me talking to him while he slept, but what if it was something important? As long as we were quick, there shouldn't be a problem.

Getting to my feet, I made to follow him speaking up almost as soon as we were out of earshot. "What's this about Markus? I was trying to get some sleep back there." I hoped this would be quick, so I could get back to Dulane and trying to sleep.

[Tes]

Markus sighs and looks a bit disappointed at how on edge you were. "Well I'm sorry, but as you may have noticed your husband and I don't really get along. And with him around you at all time but you also being the only other person I could interact with for the forseeable future, I didn't see many opportunities like this arising." he explains calmly, with a hint of annoyance in his tone mirroring yours.

Taking a moment to think about how he wanted to say the next part he looks away from you towards the side. "So Look..." He then starts with enough conviction gathered. "I don't know much of anything about you two but for me this is a one way ride. You see, the doctors said I have about six months to live and I spend about half that rotting in my flat. Alone. More or less trying to drink myself to death before the cancer could seal the deal."

The way he grimaced at recalling that period alone lended credence to his story. Thougt it wasn't clear just yet why he chose to tell you this. "Then one day I decided I'm not gonna go out like that, sold most of my things, got the ticket for cheap thanks to my mechanics education and put all the rest of my money into a nice and cozy stay at the resort until the end of my days...And now I'm stuck here...Once again alone and rotting away. It's kind of ironic if you think about it."

"Anyways...I just wanted to offer a truce and hoped you could act as a sort of mediator since I really...really don't want to spend weeks going out of each others way like this. I sure me and your husband won't get along great by the end of this either way, but I hope at least the two of us could talk from time to time."

[Firehead]

I sigh as he was clearly upset that I wasn't completely interested in speaking with him behind my husband's back. "Well, the two of you will be getting along much worse if he find out we were talking in private while he slept." My face fell a little when he came clean to me about his condition not really sure why he would share something so private with a complete stranger. It made me feel a bit worse about the way Dulane had treated him. This wasn't the way any of us wanted to spend our time, but at least Dulan and I had a full life ahead of us to get over the inconvenience.

I sigh as he asks me to mediate between the two of them. I'd already been trying that and wasn't sure what more I could do to assure my husband I wasn't on another man's side or something. One idea did come to me though. "Alright, I can give it another try, but it would be really helpful if you didn't react to everything he said..." I wasn't sure if this next part was asking a little much, but it was hard to argue that it would be harder to smooth things over with that hanging over our head. "...and maybe you could consider not leaving your insurance hanging over all of our heads."