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Originally posted by SameErtia:

"Just ignore him, Guy. That's what we all do most of the time!"

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"So, is Mr Pistol-Pants over there still out?" Mal asks down the table.

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Originally posted by SameErtia:
"Just ignore him, Guy. That's what we all do most of the time!" Ertia piles food on her plate.

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"Speakin' of ignorin'," Mal says quietly, "Maybe you two aughta find a way we can do a bit more ignorin' of you?"

Ertia glances at Pain. She means to be contrite, but she's just too gorram happy right now to apologize. Plus, she figured they'd get be getting a strong lecture on how shipboard romances screwed things up. This was getting off easy. "Uh huh. Sure thing, Captain."

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Shepherd Book comes in, guiding a still very bewildered looking Mystery Man. He fills them each a plate and gets them settled at the table.

"So, is Mr Pistol-Pants over there still out?" Mal asks down the table.

Zoe leans over 13, who seems to be in some kind of trance, a wierd smile on his face. "Seems so, Sir."

"Right then. Seems we got some sortin' out to do. Shepherd? You wanna start?"

Mystery Man is looking around the table, his blue eyes lost, but he digs into the food with a satisfied smile.

"Seems this young man here is a member of a secret society. Some of you may have run across them during the war. They call themselves the Qin Shi Warriors, after an old Earth That Was legend about an emperor with an invincible army."

"I know of them." Zoe swallows down a bite of chicken and points her fork. "They did secret mercenary stuff during the war. They didn't join the Independents, but they were anti- Alliance."

JR frowns. "The Qin Shi thing? I thought that was some kind of 'verse legend. A secret society of warrior monks fighting injustice? It always sounded..."

"A bit like a fantasy novel." The Mystery Man spoke up, his voice almost as cultured and smooth as Simon's, but tentative and unsure. "I hardly believe it myself."

Then he holds up his hand and rolls back his sleeve, showing the Chinese symbols tattooed on his arm.

There's a collective murmur.

Shepherd turns to Fly, "That book he had when he came onboard...do you still have it?"

"Sure. It's in my bunk." Fly grabs her roll and munches on it as she hurries to her bunk to retrieve it.

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Suddenly, 13 starts singing in his trance, "Here's a llama, there's a llama, and another LITTLE llama! Funny Llama...fuzzy Llama! Llama llama, DUCK!"

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We about ready for a new thread and a new adventure? Did Dayve ever make it on board?

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