Dean awakes, and plays mental hangman

Dean awoke, groggily in his quarters. A word sprung into his head.
 
Hang...
 
'Ok, that's a good start.' thought Dean, 4 letters, verb, "hang". It was pretty maudlin for.. for... 12:somethingorother in the morning. Or evening. Dean really needed to get a hang of the waking up thing.
 
'Anyway, hang...hanger?' Dean's conscious mind fired the request over to the short-term memory, only to find it currently in one hell of a state. The minister for short-term memory returned the memo to the prime-mind requesting a further consultation period. The prime-mind decided to find out for itself.
 
Dean moved his head, and groaning at the pain, struggled to focus his eyes. Ok. He wasn't in a hanger. He had a suspicion that all the letters were right though. What the smeg was "hanger" in his mind for then? As Dean got up off his bunk, knocking aside some Glen Fujiama bottles, his mind inserted the final two letters. "Hang-ov-er." Having completed this mental game of hangman, Dean decided that drinking his sorrows away really wasn't a good plan. He needed to get his life back on track after Jasmine's death. He grabbed a drink of water from the sink and took his uniforms and clothing down to the laundrette, where we watched them go round on a slow wash for a while.
 
He'd decided what he'd do. He'd shave for the first time in about 3 months. He'd get himself cleaned up and he'd report to Jay and apologise for being a drunken, depressed asshole for the last few months, and also apologise for rarely turning up to do duty <<OOC: read "post">>. After his uniforms had been washed, dried and even pressed in the laundrette, he got into one of them, took the rest back to his quarters before tidying up the pigsty he'd been living in. Sighing, Dean even got on to his exercise machine, although, much to his surprise, he was still in pretty smegging good physical shape. He guessed he must have been an incredibly hyperactive drunk if he'd maintained his fitness levels.
 
Thus it was that Dean left his quarters, cleanshaven, in a clean uniform and reported, on time, to Jay's office.
 
Only Jay wasn't there.
 
'Bastard.' thought Dean, 'probably off after a night out.'
 
Dean decided to be cruel. If Jay was hungover, the last thing Jay would want, would be for his comm to go off.
 
Dean called his comm, and putting on an incredibly loud cheery persona, yelled, "MORNING JAY! RISE AND SHINE! THIS IS YOUR 12 O'CLOCK ALARM CALL!"
"Dean?""The one and only."
"I thought <BANG> that you were off <WHIZZ> being depressed?"
"Not anymore sir. Back on the game. Where are you?"
"In hell."
"Well, I know hangovers are pretty terrible but..."
"Not a hangover you smegging <THUD, SCREAM> but a planet that is OH MY GOD! JASMINE PUT HIM DOWN!!!!"
Dean shook his head.
"Sorry, what sir?"
"Sorry, a zombie that looks like Jasmine just tried to eat Phil."
"Oh. So no different from usual then."
"Not really no."
"Well, I take it you'll want a hand?" asked Dean
"No. You stay there, if you're awake and sober enough nowadays, report to Alota, she'll need a pilot for something, even if it's just maintaining the cohesion of the ship's command structure."
"We have a command structure?"
"Exactly <BANG>"
Over the comm, Dean heard a ""MOVE OUT!" and then it went dead.
"Well," said Dean. "Seems like things are pretty normal on the 'Dwarf." and with that he reported smartly to the command deck where he promptly did his usual duty. He sat in front of the pilot's station with a coffee and a copy of "My god these ships are INSANE!" magazine.
 
<TAG>
 
Dean "He's Back, and Sober" Thomas
 
<OOC: No, I mean it this time. I'm back and I'm here to stay. Nothing should drag me away from the 'dwarf this time>
 
----- Original Message -----

From: Andy Longman
To: Blue Dwarf
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2004 10:34 PM
Subject: [JMC_Blue_Dwarf] *ACTION* Saving Ensign Lomaz
Who:- ThemWhere:- ThereWhen:- Then<Snip>Phil crawled back down the ridge. "Thanks to Seymour, they've seenus. They're coming right for us."They all looked at Seymour. "Tit!"<End snip>KA-CLICK! Said Jay's rifle, as did several other peoples."Only one thing for it..." said Jay"Run and hide like little girls?!" Suggested McJohn"No...""Die?!" offered Smith"Not if we can help it...""Surf?!" recommended Seymour"Shut up" said Jay "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!""How about making paper mache faces?!" asked Callum "I've always loved thosethings....""I was gonna save all my rounds for the fecking zombie-brigade" said Jay"BUT I THINK ID ENJOY SHOOTING YOU LOT MORE!!!""What 'ave I done?" asked Phil"DID I MENTION YOU?!""Well...no...I feel left out!""Look just shut up and lets go" said Jay "We've got a crewmember torescue!!""We cant fight our way through all of them!" said Jack "Theres bloodyhundreds!!""We just need to clear a path through the middle!" said JayRunning at the oncoming horde of zombies, letting off a few rounds at ahandful of them at the front, the rounds burned through the heads of thedeceased, knocking them backwards, and in turn sending those behind themreeling, each one knocking the one behind over like a domino rally. Jayhappily sprinted across their bellies as they each tried to grab his ankles.He actually reached the hatch to the starbug, and entered, the rest of thecrew following suit and surprisingly they all made it. Even McJohn, whichsurprised  everyone."Whoa!" said Seymour "Gnarly!""THANK GOD!!" said Lomaz as the crew entered "I thought I'd never get out ofhere!" she threw herself at Jay and rested her head on his shoulder, heplaced a reassuring arm around her. "It's OK Rio, were here, and weregetting out of here" Rio had begun sobbing into Jay's shoulder."Callum, Chris, McJohn, get fixing this bucket and get her airborne again,we'll abandon the other bug"They nodded and pulled out thier toolkits, except Callum, who had been drunkand forgotten it.Rio stepped away from Jay towards the control panel, her back to theviewscreen. "It's terrible Jay, the simulants explained it to me apparentlythis planet is a prison...to...." she was interrupted by the shattering ofglass, and a handful of zombies burst through the cockpit glass, grabbingRio as they did so."HOLY CRAP ITS EVE RIMMER!" Jay yelled, as one of the Zombies, thereanimated body of the dead Eve Rimmer grabbed Rios head"JAY!! HELP ME PLEASE!!!!" begged Rio as he and Phil raised their weapons.They were too late, Eve twisted her arms, snapping Lomaz' neck and let go,she glanced at the crew. "YOU LET ME DIE!!!" she hissed "YOU BROUGHT THIS ONYOURSELVES!!!!!" she dived into the shuttle, but Jay and Phil, weapons stillarmed opened fire.Round after round of high energy plasma ripped into Eve's body, tearing itapart piece by piece."This is crazy!" said Phil, looking across at Jay "Theres no way we canfight all of them!""At least they can be taken down..." said Jay "OR NOT!" he said this as hecaught a glimpse of Eve's body pulling itslef back together and rising toits feet, even worse, Rio's limp body also began to get up."CALLUM! MCJOHN! CHRIS!" Jay yelled "FUCK THE REPAIRS WERE GETTING OUTTAHERE!!!"<tag!>...Protecting the universe from the scum of the Earth...www.BlueDwarf.co.uk-View the Blue Dwarf guide to the galaxy!Your number one resource in all things Blue Dwarf related!