~ Chapel Perilous ~

[Zukeenee]

Charlie put down his mug and scratched at his beard, not sure how to word his thoughts properly. He'd considered Mal to be a reliable friend for several years now, and knew him as an understanding and generally accepting old fella'. But good Goddess was he moody! Charlie had seen the E-prime get pretty pissy in the past over some of the most mundane issues, and he wasn't too keen on setting Mal off again.

Of course, Charlie realized that he was over-thinking the entire problem, anyway. His reservations were pretty minor, and he didn't think Mal would get too upset over them. After all, Mal knew that Charlie had left TAZ ages ago, so it shouldn't have been all that hard to figure out that Charlie'd had some sort of stink with the flock in the first place.

"Mal," Charlie said, "you've built up quite a few cabals with us chimps during your time here in Sirius. It's hard to count, really, what with the shifted reality tunnels, the false starts, and even what may have been just plain-old 'dreams'. But every time you start something, it brings something new to the table. None of these gatherings have been quite like the ones before 'em. I know that whatever comes of our little Gaggle o' Goons here in the Chapel isn't gonna be the same as what's come before, but for some reason, I'm still worrying.

"The Temporary Autonomous Zoners may have been one of your greatest accomplishments, depending on how you measure 'success', I suppose. TAZ is it's own superpower now, with a substantial foothold in the Zoner 'government', or whatever we had that passed for one. TAZ has trade and diplomatic vessels flyin' all around the place, wheelin' and dealin' with some of the most important men and women in Sirius. Hell, they own and operate out of an entire damn star system filled to the brim with cosmic wonders! Frankly, I'm surprised you left all that to Doc and the crew and just set off for Goddess-knows-where with a bunch of strangers. But that's beside the point.

"The thing is, I don't want to become another TAZ. TAZ started to take itself too seriously, and got tied up in all that political and diplomatic bull-jargon. I didn't want any part of it. Life was just gettin' too complicated as a 'Temporary Autonomous' Zoner, so I figured I could settle for being a Reg'lur Zoner instead. And hey, that happened for a while. Wasn't overly amazing, really, living out of a renovated broom closet, but it was sure as hell less complicated. And now... this. We hardly know where we're going or what we're doin', and I've got absolutely no problem with that. Sailing without a compass is only natural to me. I just hope we don't do a one-eighty and head back for more 'serious business', if you know what I mean."

Charlie took another swig of coffee and reached across Cid to grab another scone from the tray. "Anyway," he said, after taking a rather large bite, "Any other information on what this medical-checkup thing is gonna be about?"

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