Girl Talk!

Girl Talk!

Arc:	None
Summary:	Two naughty surfer girls converse about their pasts.
Date:	2658.088
Related Logs:	None
Participants:	Kanani Paz

First and Last Deck 7
119CE System, Humboldt Quadrant — 2037 Hours 2658.088

Though a single space, the ship's lounge is divided into three sections by a pair of heavily tinted glass panes, painted with the logos of the six squadrons which serve aboard the Majestic. Blue carpeting runs through all three, and the only entrance and exit is located through the center section.
The center space sports a scattering of metal tables and matching chairs, all bare silver to contrast with blue carpet. A small bar is located along the aft bulkhead, with a wide selection of beverages located in the cabinets behind and a few bar stools set in front. Flanking the bar are a pair of large vidscreens, to keep the crew up to date on the latest in news or entertainment.
The side rooms are configured identically, each with a small vidscreen mounted above a shelf that runs along the bulkhead, giving occupants a place to rest drinks or possessions. The room to port has been set up with a pool table, while the room to starboard sports a pair of poker tables.

Paz sits at the bar, avidly watching the latest round of sports scores while slurping thirstily at a pint of dark brown British lager. "Oh come on! The damn Jayhawks won?" she growls to the vidscreen. "In what alternative universe have I found myself, barkeep? The Jayhawks won a football game? It can't be!"

Kanani slips into the lounge and grabs herself a beer of some sort from the bar, and then proceeds to glance first at Paz and then towards the screen, before asking with a bit of confusion. "Who won what, where now?" She lifts her mug to her lips and takes a long pull at it, before she slides onto one of the stools, and chuckles.

"The Capitoline City Jayhawks, they're on some backwater colony in this sector, can't even remember which, that's how memorable they are." Paz snerks. "Only remember the damn town's name 'cause its so unusual. They're probably the worst football team in this Sector. Betting against them used to be a safe bet." she sighs, taking another pull from her beer. "And now I owe PO 1st Lebowski twenty bucks."

"Oooh, I see. Never heard of them… Hell, I didn't realize they even had other sports in this sector other than gambling." Kanani snickers and takes another sip from her mug. She scratches her head thoughtfully, and brushes a few annoying strands of hair out of her eyes, and shrugs. "Almost as strange of news though, as me hearing that one of the people I knew back home won a pro surfing competition over the weekend. Was thinking about sending him something asking if he'd suddenly started using performance enhancing drugs." She grins some and takes another drink of beer.

"You mean your family back in Havaii?" Paz asks, cocking her head interestedly as she inadvertently mispronounces the name of the state. Hey, it's not like it's very relevant to someone who hadn't even been _near_ Terra since before Flight Academy. "That's good news, Tsunami." she grins, moving to clunk glasses with the other pilot. "And yeah, we play pretty much the same sports out here as they do everywhere. Football's the biggest, of course, then basketball, baseball on just about every colony's got an American or two present, some Cricket, which….don't get me started." she giggles. "But yeah, if they do it on Terra, we do it out here."

Kanani snickers and clunks her glass against Paz's, and then takes another swallow of beer from it. "Not quite family, a friend who I went to high school with though. I can't figure out any drugs that'd help with surfing though, so he musta quit college instead, and did lots of practicing to get that good at it." She nods to herself, and then chuckles at the instructions on sports in the Gemini Sector. "I see. I suppose that makes sense though. They don't." She pauses and looks around the lounge with a faux suspicious glare around her, before continuing. "Play any of those fake Canadian sports though, do they? Like curling and moose rodeos?"

Paz laughs! "Eh, I dunno. You'd have to ask my CO about that. She's from the frozen tundra, or so she claims." Paz giggles softly. "Me, I'm skeptical. If she really were the Abominable Snow Woman, she'd've melted by now." she grins and takes another pull. "Heh, yeah, surfing and education are almost contradictions in terms. I had a dollar for every time my teachers bitched at me for having sand on my ankles in class.." she sighs, shaking her head a little.

Kanani giggles and shakes her head. "Yeah, not melting like that, would be enough to make anyone suspicious I figure." She takes a sip from her glass, and grins at the reminiscings of school days of yore. "Oh, if I had a dollar for that sort of treatment from teachers, I'd be rich right now, I'm almost sure. If I wouldn't have spent it all right away, at least. And I swear that it's seriously like being tortured going to school, when you can literally see the beach and ocean from some of the classroom windows."

"Heh, tell me about it." Paz sighs wistfully. "But, at least my school was smart about it. We had a nice _loong_ recess mid-day before lunch and a nap after. I'm talking all the way through high school." she grins happily. "Had to, it was so hot where we were most of the time and no air con in the school, so…" she shrugs. "You ever have sex in school?" she asks with a naughty wink.

Kanani laughs. "Hah, no, I never did anything like that in school myself. Why did you?" She asks with a wink of her own. "I've probably done plenty of crazy things, though. Just not that." She gives a smirk and shrugs slightly.

"Heh, how do you think I passed my senior Chem class?" Paz grins and gives a _very_ saucy wink. "Mister Fincher….What a guy." she sighs, draining the last of her pint and signaling for another. "I know, I know..I'm rotten….being good's just not that much fun's all."

Kanani laughs some more, and winks back, before she takes a long pull on her glass of beer. "I shoulda guessed it was a teacher, I suppose. I do remember having one teacher try and proposition me for something like that, but he was sorta creepy and not so good looking so I sorta maneuvered my way out of it, and then managed to blackmail my way into getting a good grade." She chuckles and shakes her head. "Oh, yeah. Being good is -way- to boring most the time. Though… It can be fun to be bad, and try an convince people that you're really good, instead." She smirks slightly and shrugs.

"Damn…now why didn't I think of that?" Paz muses playfully, accepting her replacement pint with a grateful nod. "Ah, Pete was cool, though. Not so much in the 'looks' department, but he made me laugh like hell. Means something, ya know?" she says, sipping at her pint. "So how'd you hook your mark?" she asks, all a-gog for details

Kanani nods some towards the other pilot, as she finishes off her mug, and calls for another beer. "Oh yeah, looks ain't everything, this teacher though didn't have a whole lot in the personality department either though. Least not the type that I prefer. But as for hooking him, it ended up being a lot easier to do than I would have thought. For one thing, he apparently really liked having his job, and the school was getting close to firing him anyways if he'd caused any more trouble, so the threat of telling his superiors was good incentive for him letting me fly through the class. And if that hadn't of worked, there was always threatening to tell his wife about how he was acting. And compared to him she was sort of a monster when it came to tempers." As her new glass arrives she takes a drink, and then, grins some, towards the other pilot.

"Bravo, Tsunami." Paz beams approvingly, clinking glasses again. "You can always spot the pervs somehow..It's like a survival instinct or something." she sighs. "Ever find out what happened with him after you graduated? Or did you do the honorable thing and lower the boom anyway?" she winks.

Kanani grins as she clinks her glass with the other, and then grins even more at the question. "Oh, I decided that the best course of action would be to send an anonymous note to his wife. Just to let her know the sort of things her husband was trying to do at work. And after I'd finished up the class, of course." She winks and nods quietly, brushing her hand through her hair. "Yeah, the pervs tend to be easy to spot. To bad though that all the teachers who -would- have been fun to have fun with, were all gentlemen as far as their students go, though." She snickers and grins once more.

"Heh, you should've had Mr Fincher for senior chemistry." Paz giggles, slapping the bar with her right hand and wincing a little as it stings more than she'd expected. "But that's awesome. I hope she sliced him into pukka bait." she grins nastily.

"Yeah, I imagine that coulda been fun. I'm sure it would have made school a lot more interesting at the least." Kanani giggles and takes another drink from her mug. "I still haven't the slightest idea what she ever did to get back at him. But since I've never seen anything big in the news about it, I figure she either didn't, or hasn't gotten found out for murdering him or anything." She smirks slightly, and gives a nasty grin of her own. "Though I -do- know that not to long afterwards, he'd lost his teaching job, at least. She might have had something to do with that, since as far as I know, I didn't."

"Serves the bastard right." Paz nods firmly, pausing to take another swig from her mug. "Me and Petey were 100% consensual. just sort of happened. But a lot of teachers get…creepy about it. Had one in college. Told him what to go do with himself in front of the entire class."

Kanani grins and nods as well, as she takes another pull of beer from her glass. She brushes some more hair out of her eyes, and sighs slightly. "Ah college. I think I lost track of how many teachers tried to hit on me there at one point or another. Though I doubt at the time they realized I was a student, and some of the time I didn't realize they were professors until later on." She chuckles some. "Always embarrassing for them when they do find out… 'Er hey… What are you doing around here?' 'I'm a student. You know the people who are here to learn?' 'You're what?!'" She mimics a fake conversation, with deeper voices for the profs of course, and then starts to laugh.

Paz laughs! "Oh my! That must've gotten their attention! What'd they say?" she asks, taking another sip of beer and adjusting her position on the bar stool. "There were a few profs at Nowhere U I would've loved to bag, but I was ROTC, and in Cap City on Erewhon, _everybody_ knows _everybody_ else. Hadda be on my best behavior."

Kanani giggles, and nods in agreement. "Oh yeah, it really got their attention, yeah. Usually, they'd give me some sort of bullshit speech about how it would be detrimental for both our military careers, if word got out that they were trying to hit on me. I never believed them for a second, since it was easy to guess who'd be likely to take the blame anyways. And quite a few of them tried to do impersonations of motorboats when they found out. Good laughs all around though, except for them." She winks and giggles again. "I suppose it's a lot harder for the professors to keep track of who's a student though, when your talking a place as big as the Academy though."

Paz nodders. "Yeah, it was. Alas, again, I was mostly on my best behavior. Didn't help that none of my instructors were particularly do-able, well…there was this one…but it was a 'she' and I've got strict rules about such as that." she grins, blushing and reaching for her pint. "Pranks, on the other hand…" she grins and shrugs. "That's a different story."

Kanani grins and giggles, taking another drink from her mug. "Yeah, I tried to stay on good behavior at the Academy myself, for the most part." She chews lightly on her lip in thought, before she snickers. "Except for the few times people had bad enough manners to not invite me to their parties. Then I felt is was my solemn duty to gatecrash them, and switch whatever music they had been playing for the party, with the loudest and worst music I could find. That way I was hardly the only person getting into trouble at least." She gives a nasty grin and winks.

"Ha!" Paz scoffs, "I got you beat!" she declares, slapping the bar again. "Spent my first Christmas in the Brig. Almost got kicked out."

Kanani grins and nods. "Yeah, that beats me by a lot. I don't think I've ever even spent a night in the brig. Yet anyways." She smirks slightly and chuckles. "At least you didn't get kicked out though. That woulda sucked." She nods some more, and takes a drink from her mug.

You say, "Would have, if the instructor I was playing the prank on hadn't owed me a lot of money on sports bets." Paz grins malevolently. "I convinced him to tell the Board it was an accident in lieu of payment.""

Kanani laughs and slaps the bar, grinning at the other pilot. "Oh, that's great! So did that instructor learn to not take up bets with you anymore?" She asks, chuckling more, and shaking her head as she downs some more of her beer. "Sure wish I'd have thought of the betting thing as a hedge to keep out of trouble myself."

"Heh, of course he did!" Paz giggles tipsily, taking another big draw from her pint. "I was the most honest bookie on the damn campus! "Had the lowest vig, best handicapping, especially in basketball, and was _really_ cool about people who couldn't pay up in a lump sum." she grins proudly. "It's all about customer service, you see. Keep 'em coming back."

"So… Exactly how honest is the most honest bookie, just out of curiosity?" Kanani giggles and takes a big gulp from her mug. She gives a bit of a tipsy nod to the points that are made on the art of bookkeeping, and chuckles. "I'll have to remember all that, just in case I ever find myself somehow sent back in time, and having to go through college again!" She states with a grin, and shakes her head.

"You deal honest with your clients. Let them know up front what the vig is, and keep it low. You're not tryin' to be a billionaire, you're running a little business." Paz begins her reply, sipping at her beer. "Always keep your clients in the know of any information you have. If you've got an inside man at say, a TCSF League Basketball Championship, let your clients in on the data. I mean, don't tell 'em you have one, for obvious reasons, but let your clients know the stats as you get them." she says, drinking more. "Also, this is important, don't let anyone bet too much they'll break themselves."

Kanani hmms to herself, and nods thoughtfully, as she listens. "Yeah… That all seems to make sense. Though it all sounds like things that could be easily overlooked too, if you weren't careful about how you were doing business." She takes another drink of beer, and chuckles. "Though honestly, I'm not sure I could stand putting up with all that extra paperwork for running something like that."

"It's a bitch! That's why I stopped!" Paz chuckles. "Flight training started and there was no time for anything.." she sighs, but enough about me….Tell me more about you? I wanna learn more about Ha-vaii..sounds like a nice place." she grins semi-drunkenly.

Kanani snickers and grins slightly. "Oh it's a pretty nice place yeah, if you don't mind all the tourists anyways.. Doesn't usually get all that cold, and it's fairly rare that it gets really hot either. Plenty of good places to surf too. Assuming you can find places that aren't over crowded with tourists again." She winks and takes another drink from her mug. "And of course, all the tourists can have it's good side as well. Since there's plenty of hot guys around on vacation and stuff too."

"Tourists…wow." Paz sighs, shaking her head a little. "That must feel so _weird_, having strangers come into your islands and wandering all over." she adds, frowning a little. "I mean, _really_….Seems kinda rude to me in a way, especially on islands. On Geminga, it's different, there was a big mainland and all…but on islands? Strain on everything."

Kanani nods and chuckles softly. "Yeah, but it's the main way the islands bring in money I guess. Since most businesses don't normally set up major shops that far out of the way." She shakes her head and shrugs slightly. "It probably seems less weird to me, since I've grown up with it, and it's been going on there, for like hundreds of years I think. Something odd about Terrans and liking to go to islands for vacation I guess."

"We got a few in New Illyricum. Not many. Most of them left pretty quick when they realized we didn't care how much cash they had." she smirks nastily. "Different world, there. It's all families and fisheries, ya know?" she sighs, seeming homesick. "It's weird, we're all in each others hip pockets, but we could keep secrets like a frickin' bank vault. Probably the same on Ha-vaii…really. Only more outsiders." she says, reflexively shuddering at the thought.

Kanani grins and nods some. "Oh, there's plenty of tourists I've ran into who I'd wish I'd never met or anything. People that think they run the place or are the most important people ever." She snickers and takes another drink of her beer. "I imagine that most of the islands are like that. Though Honolulu is more or less… If not a big city, at least a medium sized one, it's hard to be that close with everyone around you. But at least it's a lot more laid back for a large city in general, than normal." She finishes with a smirk, and giggles.

Paz nods. "Yeah…At least the people who came to visit our home had the good sense and decency to bring cash with them." she smiles, sipping at her beer again. "And give us work."

Kanani snickers. "That's something at least. I seem to remember running into one tourist that seemed to think that since we lived on an island 'in the middle of nowhere' who seemed to think that we didn't have much experience with technology and where poor and deprived or something like that. Then when he was having trouble taking pictures, and was trying to get help, I was all like. 'Me'd like to help you, but me no know how to work magical soul stealing device, and it would be wrong to steal other peoples souls anyways." She peers around herself and takes a large drink of her mug, finishing it off, before she erupts in a fit of giggles.

Paz laughs! "Oh that's just _mean_!" Paz replies, beaming her approval. "Serves the bastard right, once again." she adds. "Ya know, I think I like you, Tsunami. We have a similar sense of justice." she says, clunking her mug hard against the other pilot's.

Kanani grins widely, clunking her glass as well. "Hah! A few other people told me that to. After he'd left. Not that any of them tried to stop me. But then they were busy laughing at the time." She grins some more and giggles. "Aww, thanks! I think I like you too! Anyone that can appreciate a joke like that's gotta be good, in my book."

"Eh, good, dunno about that." Paz grins, polishing off her pint in a pair of lusty swallows. "Mmmh…Damn stuff flows down like cough syrup, but once you get used to it it's amazing." she says in reference to her pint. "But yeah…you've heard my back story…not so much good in there. Like to think of it as being 'Good' _AT_ it., ya know."" she giggles.

Kanani laughs, and glances at her mug for a moment, before turning to the other pilot and pointing a vaguely shaky finger at her. "That. Is still a form of good, y'know." She states with a giggle. "Besides, it's not like I'm exactly all that good either, I figure. Way to much time spent on beaches wasting time, instead of being a productive member of society." she giggles and shakes her head some.

"HA! You look at it that way, we've both gone the high road." Paz chuckles, shaking her head. "I mean, here we are, playing soldier and all that." she giggles. "_Fighter pilots_, no less….I mean…..Could we have picked a _better_ job? We went from riding waves to skipping the light fantastic, _literally_." she sighs happily. "There is _nothing_ in this world like that second before you take the cat-shot." she muses in her best semi-drunken, poetic form. "You're all nervous inside, big fight's about to go down, the Fit's Gonna Hit the Shan…..and then….." she pauses to draw a breath. "_VOOOOOOOOOOM!_ From zero to full military in about zero point zero…Awesome..Can't get anything better than that, even surfing."

Kanani giggles and grins as she listens to the poetic turn of the conversation, nodding along. "Oh, definitely. It really is great. But then again, I don't think there's many other places in the military where I'd be able to make it. Probably end up getting tossed out or spending lots and lots of time in the brig more than likely." She chuckles and lifts her mug up, and stares at it for a few moments before remembering in disappointment that it's empty. "Y'know, I just remembered how my dad reacted when I told him I wanted to be a fighter pilot. He went off on a tangent for a good ten minutes about how he thought pilots were all a bunch of lazy deadbeats and why I shouldn't be one. As I recall when he was finished listing reasons, I was all like, 'Hey… sounds good, sign me up for reals!'" She starts to laugh, and makes a grab at the bar to keep from falling off her seat.

Paz moves to help steady her fellow Aviator, bracing her legs against the deck. "Whoa…..careful there." she snickers. "Don't wanna kill yourself before the Kilrathi have a go at it." she grins wolfishly. "Not sporting that way. Can't kill none of them back."

Kanani giggles, and nods some, helping to steady herself as best as she can. "Thank's, and yeah… That really would suck. Just not the right way for a fighter pilot to go, after all." She grins and sets her mug back down, not bothering to order another, since it's slightly obvious even to her, that she's probably had enough for the day. "It really was pretty funny at the time though. Dad never did have much love for fighter pilots. Navy guys, who can figure them out?" She chuckles and shrugs slightly as she finishes speaking.

"Navy's _spoooky_" Paz replies, dropping her tone to conspiracy levels. "They're all closet polytheists. They've got all manner of strange rituals, rites, and superstitions that don't make a lick of sense to anyone but them." she explains. "They claim most of it's technical stuff, but don't believe 'em…somewhere on this ship, you dig deep enough, you'll find an altar to Poseidon or something…" she giggles.

Kanani giggles and nods in agreement. "That. Doesn't surprise me. Not one bit. In fact, I'd be willing to bet the only reason you have to dig so deep on a ship like this to find that altar, is cause of all the pilots and Marines on board. If you ever find yourself on a cruiser or something, they've probably got the thing all set up prominently up on the bridge." She smirks and nods solemnly at her addition to the theory.

Paz makes sure Kanani's back in her seat properly before half hopping, half falling onto her own. "Oh, no doubt. Probably lots more besides…Mars Invictus…Hercules Invictus…Diana…Neptune…..Maybe even Jupiter himself." she chuckles. "Me, I'll stick with the saints." she says, pulling her dog tags and the medallion of St. Joseph of Cupertino from beneath her t-shirt and giving it a kiss. "Those, at least, I can keep straight."

Kanani chuckles softly. "Ah, so you're sensible at least. I could never keep track of all those ancient type gods back in school, other than the really, really famous ones. And it's more practical than one surfer I knew, who liked to consider surfing to be a religion and had a list of ancient surfers who he claimed were like a pantheon… I'm still not sure weather that guy was totally crazy, or joking about it all…"

"Oh, I know 'em. I got my degree in Ancient History." Paz replies with a chuckle. "Just can't imagine what it would be like to have to puzzle out who to pray for for what, ya know?" she says, kissing her medallion again before tucking it back into her shirt. "Oh man…that is kinda crazy…" she sighs. "Heh, Rhyme of the Ancient Surfer'

Kanani nods and shakes her head. "Yeah, it all sounds like it would have been a major hassle to keep track of. No wonder they went on to other things eventually." She chuckles softly. "And yes, crazy is one way to describe that guy. Wasn't all that bad of a guy really, but certainly weird. Ancient History was your thing, hmm? Sounds interesting at least. Me I tended towards a bit more artistic lines in general I guess."

"Yeah, I read this book in school, way, way back, about a dude named Gaius Julius Caesar. Some client of my Pop's left it behind by accident." she replies. "Anyhow, it was all about how Caesar was captured by a bunch of pirates and ransomed off." she shrugs. "Great story. But what kind of art were you or are you into?"

Kanani ponders and chews on her lip thoughtfully. "You know… I'm pretty sure I've heard that name before on some holovid documentary once. And I'm mostly into drawing things myself, really. Though for some reason, most of my art teachers always seemed to have a major problem with the sort of subject matter that I preferred to draw. Seemed to think it wasn't really art." She chuckles and shrugs.

"HAHA..Okay.. so what do you draw?" Paz asks, setting her right elbow on the bar and resting her head on the attached hand. "Cause this, I gotta hear."

Kanani giggles, and grins slightly. "Well hopefully you won't be to disappointed, but my favorite stuff to draw are old cartoon characters. Mostly stuff from ancient earth cartoons. You know, things like Bugs Bunny, the Roadrunner. That coyote, and others like them."

"Wait…wait….those names are familiar to me……Can you gimme more to work from?" Paz asks, tilting her head curiously, kind of drunk, but not to the point where a tidbit of information like this can be overlooked. "Of of them hadda …oh…right! the Bunny had a carrot like a cigar or something, right?"

Kanani nods several times and gives a goofy grin. "Yeah! That's right. I think he likes leaning on people and calling them doctors, too. And the Roadrunner's supposed to be a big ostrich like bird, that runs real fast. And the only thing he ever says is beep beep. And he's always being chased by the coyote."

"We had a class on that stuff in college…It was like, Classic Terran Slapstick of the 20th or something.." Paz nodders. "I can't remember anything about it, though, sad to say. Is it really funny?" she asks,

"Some of it's pretty funny." Kanani answers with a small chuckle. "Particularly the coyote chasing the bird. They never say anything, and the coyote always tries to come up with new ways to catch the bird, but they always fail. Like if he tries to drop a giant rock where the bird is going to be running in a moment, the rock will roll over a bit, but won't drop down off the cliff, despite there being nothing to hold it up. Until the coyote jumps on the rock trying to get it to fall. Which it does, with him on it."

"HEh sounds awesome…got any ids to lend?" Paz asks. "Always looking for something new to look at."

Kanani giggles, and hmms thoughtfully. "I'll have to see if I've got anything stashed away. If I can find them, though, of course I'd lend them to you, gotta share the classics. Or at least I'm told they're classics anyways." She grins slightly and chuckles.

"Awesome." Paz grins in reply, giggling as she suddenly wobbles on her feet. "Whoa…okay…hehe…that means one of two things…another drink, or off to bed." she sighs. "Let's let Mr. Schedule decide." she says, fishing a bit of print out from her pocket. "_No Paz_….you've got the CAP at 0900." she says in an affected, nasal 'Pee Wee Herman' type voice as she squints her eyes to read the thing. "_You're gonna have to go to be now…hahahaha…" she continues, then rips the bit of paper apart. "Asshole!"

Kanani grins at the antics of the other pilot, and shakes her head. "Yeah… I think my body's trying to tell me it's just about time to get some sleep myself, actually. And unfortunately, I can't rip that up like I could a piece of paper." She giggles some as she turns around on her stool somewhat shakily.

"Damn you, Mr. Schedule…" Paz growls at the bits of paper she's tossing away into the air. "Hey, you gonna be okay?" Paz asks, moving in to collect her fellow aviator if she should fall. "Need any help? Don't be shy now, all of us Minutemen have walked Illuminati back to their bunks." she giggles teasingly. "You guys just don't seem to be cut out for heavy drinking."

Kanani chuckles and grins faintly. "I think I'll be fine. Thanks though for being so concerned over my lack of fortitude." She winks and gets up off the stool, wobbling slightly, but apparently not in any real danger of falling over. "It's just been awhile since I've done any serious drinking, you know." She nods some, and grins.

"Ha! Coolness!" Paz laughs, nodding. "Strength and honor, sister." she says, going to full attention and giving a Roman salute.

Kanani grins and goes to full attention herself, and saluting back. "Strength and honor! And goodnight, it was fun drinkin with you."

Paz giggles and nods. "Night, Tsunami! Thanks for the company and the girl talk. You're in my prayers." she grins.

Kanani grins at that. "Night Tizona. Thanks, I need all the help I can get!" She winks again, before she starts to make her way towards the lift.