<div align="center"><strong>-=Vincent - in the cockpit with Mei Mei - en route to Persephone=-</strong></div><br/>There was an instant where gravity shifted and Vincent felt himself in freefall.  The sensation startled him enough into consciousness as he lifted his drooping head with a sudden jerk and sharp intake of breath.  His eyes blinked blearily and he realized he had begun to doze for the umpteenth time.  Just to be safe, he wiped his chin upon his plain dark green t-shirt.  Once again, he looked over the navigation display while adjusting his position in his chair so that he wouldn’t be leaning back as much.  It wasn’t surprising when he noticed that the monitors remained devoid of anything interesting.<br/><br/>Vincent understood the captain’s orders and the logic behind him, but it didn’t make the situation any less boring.  There had been moments where he hoped Mei Mei would give in to her impulses and give The Gamble more throttle.  Sure, it wouldn’t be the safest or wisest move, but if something didn’t happen soon Vincent was confident he would expire from sheer boredom.  “So boooored.”  Vincent spoke through a yawn.  Movement in his peripheries drew his attention to Mae who was stirring in her seat.<br/><br/><em> "That  gorram mutt smell is still sticking to the air.  Ugh! It's on my skin...I need a shower, you need a shower!  If we were thoughtful we could conserve our water reserves and shower together.” </em>Vincent returned her flirtatious wink with a wolfish grin.  The idea certainly was appealing.<br/><br/>“It is imperative that we conserve all the resources we can; we’ve got another decade of flying at this speed before we reach Persephone.  At least that’s what it feels like.  Even if we did run into anything while we were preoccupied by a nice long shower, any damage we take from it would easily be buffed out at this speed.”  Vincent looked down at his monitors once more and let out a groan.  “Ai ya.  I’m half tempted to get out and walk the rest of the way.  I could probably make it there in half the time.”<br/><br/>He lounged back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head as he returned his gaze to Mae who had just finished picking the last fragments of gum from her face.  An amused grin spread across his face in response to the first joke.  Vincent genuinely loved Mei Mei’s puns and corny jokes.  The second managed to get a brief chuckle out of him.  He listened to the set up for the third and was about to hazard a guess, but knew that it was going to be bad.  The punchline provoked a sigh rather than a laugh, his standard response to a joke that was especially corny.  They had had these exchanges enough where she would know that such a response wasn’t negative in the least, rather that Vincent found it humorous because it was so cheesy.  A broad smile remained in his face as he listened to her last one for this volley and the punchline provoked several hearty laughs.<br/><br/>Vincent promptly returned fire with his own puns.  “That was a good one, I found it very amoosing.  It was difficult to recover from that third joke, but I knew you cud do it.  If I wasn’t stuck in this chair, I would cowtow to you for being so dairyng with your cheesy humor.  Though at this point, I think I might just be milking this joke.”