Name: Lance Daniels<br/>Position: Engineer<br/>Location: Galley<br/>Tagged: Braxton, Open<br/>Mentioned: Sue, Serenity, Mya, Keri, Elfi, Phil<br/><br/>Lance had shaken his head as Sue flexed, not overly surprised.<strong>"Good talk, Sue."</strong><br/><br/>Sitting down, Lance smiled back at Serenity, a bit of amusement in his eyes at the mutual bristling between her and the Braxton.  He knew they got under each other's skin pretty well, and Lance never failed to enjoy it.<strong>"The clash of social titans has begun."</strong>he said with a chuckle, and he meant it.  No one would question the abilities of a beautiful and skilled companion to get under one's skin, but their exchanges were never one-sided.  Braxton had the advantage in other ways, and could get Serenity to lose her composure without even seeming to notice her.<em>That's probably part of what does it</em>thought Lance.  After all, Serenity was not used to being disregarded in any way, and Braxton somehow had the willpower to act as though she was insignificant to him.  He made a point to ask/tease her about that later.<br/><br/>Lance raised his glass extra high for the toast, smiling at Sue for the emphasis.<strong>"Good man"</strong>he said, grateful for the recognition, then took a slow sip.  He noticed Phil emptying the glass in a single shot, and made a mental note of something else the man didn't know how to do: drink a glass of champagne.  He looked at Braxton, making a sweeping gesture around the crew.<strong>"Savages, the lot of them,"</strong>but the remark was more to the table than just the captain.  After all, Braxton seemed to have plenty on his mind at the moment as it was.  Not only had he been toying with Serenity, but he had a hand under the table.  Having a pretty good idea what that meant, he shifted his gaze over to Mya, who seemed to be grinding slightly against the seat, clearly enjoying the attention from Braxton.<em>And she's looking right at me.</em>And she was, her eyes right on his as Braxton worked her under the table.  Lance stared back for a moment until a bit after she looked down at her plate and then finally back at Braxton.<br/><br/>He took a deep breath and turned to Keri, a bit red in the face.<strong>"It's like her has one slave for public and one for private."</strong>Sure enough, as soon as he broke his unspoken rule of not talking about Elfi, she came to the foreground of the scene in a big way, spilling some soup on the only passenger they had.  He had no witty response for this.<em>Shit</em>he thought.<br/><br/>He was grateful when Braxton addressed the situation fairly peacefully, relieved that there wouldn't be a huge altercation.  He was completely happy to move on to the subject of maintenance.  When Braxton mentioned the thrusters, he looked over to Keri, surprised she hadn't already nagged him about it, but Keri was already pushing her bowl away.  Serenity walked out, Keri not far behind, and Phil followed Serenity.<br/><br/>Lance tapped his bowl nervously.<strong>"Yeah, I'll get to that later tonight."</strong>