Hi there I dunno if you're still open from wolf 359 prompts, but if you are how about Lovelace, eiffle, and hera teasing minkowski about musicals or her husband (or both!) oor the crew in a prank war? Thanks for your consideration!
I am absolutely still open for prompts! Thank you for giving me one :)
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"I just cannot believe it," Eiffel said, for what felt like the twentieth time. He waved the wire-strippers around wildly to empahsise his point. "You really haven't watched Independence Day? But it's about space! Space is your jam!"
"Eiffel, ridiculous alien invasions are not my jam." Minkowski had already run out of different ways to roll her eyes. "You know what is my jam, though? Finding this electrical fault before it fries us all."
"Buzzkill."
"Yes, that's indeed what we are actually attempting here."
Eiffel was in a refusing-to-be-squashed move. "Captain! You've seen Independence Day, haven't you?"
"Obviously," Lovelace drawled. She kept her eyes on the monitor as Minkowski unclipped a wire. "It's a classic. That circuit's fine."
"Ugh." Minkowski twisted it back in place. "Hera, are you sure you can't help?"
"It's a hardware problem," Hera said. "You're on your own. Also, how do the aliens get their independence?"
"No, you've got it backwards!" Eiffel sounded genuinely scandalised. "It's our bold all-American heroes who overthrow the vicious invaders!"
"If the aliens were only just invading, doesn't that mean the Americans were already independent from them?" Hera asked.
"You're missing the point! It's about, like, general independence. No obligations to any nation, Earthly or interstellar! Also, it happens on literal Independence Day. You know, July 4th: fireworks, barbecues, awkward neighbourhood get-togethers?"
"Not… really?"
"I'm surrounded by philistines," Eiffel said. "Apart from our good Captain, of course."
"Well, I'm surrounded by people who aren't doing any work," Minkowski said. "Could we maybe get back to that?"
Eiffel ignored her. "Hera, you aren't a lost cause. We need to broaden your cultural knowledge before you get to Earth. Movie night on the Urania? They've got a huge bank of entertainment files."
"Hmm," Hera said. "If you don't mind, I'm taking up Minkowski's offer first."
"Hera!" Minkowski hissed.
"What?"
"What offer is this?" Lovelace asked, a blood-in-the-water smile beginning to appear on her face.
"Well, we were going to wa…" Hera trailed off as Minkowski made several increasingly irritated chopping motions across her throat.
"You can't stop there!" Eiffel complained. "Wait, have you and Minkowski been planning your own movie nights? That you didn't invite us to?"
"You wouldn't be interested!" Minkowski protested. Unfortunately, she could already feel the heat rising on her cheeks.
Eiffel didn't fail to spot it. "You're blushing. What are you trying to hide?"
"Nothing."
"Don't listen to Eiffel," Hera said. "This musical theatre production you've been telling me about sounds far more interesting than his movie."
A snort came from Lovelace's direction. When Minkowski looked around, however, Lovelace was staring stone-faced at the monitor.
"Oh yeah?" Eiffel said. "What's it about?"
"Can we please get back to checking the circuits?" Minkowski asked, loudly.
There was another suspicious noise from Lovelace's direction, this time covered badly by a cough.
"C'mon," Eiffel wheedled. "You're blowing me off to hang with the Commander instead, you can at least tell me which bit of singalong you think sounds superior to the classic, timeless struggle of Man vs. Alien."
"You're being very juvenile," Hera said, stiffly. "And based on my assessment of the metadata, a majority of the American population considers The Phantom of the Opera to be superior to —"
Lovelace began laughing, not even making a token effort to disguise it this time. "Wow," she said. "Lieutenant, you really do have hidden depths." She cracked up again.
Minkowski was pretty sure her whole face was about to catch fire. "It's not funny!"
"No, no, you're right." Eiffel tried to compose himself. "We shouldn't be laughing at all the romance in your soul —" Hysterically cackling, on the other hand, was apparently fair game.
Minkowski let herself float forward so that she could (gently) bang her head against the metal wall. "Hera, any approaching ion storms? Solar flares? Any emergency at all? Please?"
"I'm afraid not, Lieutenant," Hera said. "However —" she raised her voice slightly, so as to be heard over the ridiculous giggling — "I do seem to recall that you're not technically on shift right now. You're helping with this task out of courtesy, correct?"
It was suddenly Minkowski's turn to grin. "Oh, right. I'd forgotten."
Eiffel had already switched to panicked. "Commander, please. We're sorry. You can't just leave us with — How many circuits left to check?"
"Thirty two," Hera provided.
"We're really sorry?"
"I'm afraid," Minkowski said, savouring the moment, "something urgent has come up. And since I'm off-duty and you two aren't — well, good luck."
"Are you accepting plea bargaining?" Lovelace asked, not hopefully.
"Nope. Hera, meet you in the Urania in ten?"
"Looking forward to it, Lieutenant!"
"Really, Hera?" Eiffel said. "This is the side you're coming down on?"
"Who knows?" Minkowski said, brightly. "Maybe it'll end up being her jam. She could even pipe some of the songs through the station's speakers to entertain us while we work."
The horrified silence that followed gave her ample opportunity to flee.
