The Common Room

If the garden is the ship's heart, the common room is its kitchen table. Concord laid Deck B as narrow human corridors and modest headroom; the crew has been here long enough that the space reads wider than it is — mismatched leather couches, a wood galley with open spice shelves, fairy lights strung along exposed pipes because overhead panels were never replaced after a belt strike.

The viewport on the starboard wall is the luxury: a slanted pane of actual sky, ledge lined with pots that steal light from the void. Talyra claimed the reinforced chair on that wall — slightly cooler microclimate from hull bleed, and the only seat on Deck B where human thermostat settings don't make her fur feel twice as thick. Her cool-weave throw lives on the chair back. The dining table still holds a card game frozen mid-hand — nobody agrees who was winning. An acoustic guitar leans in the corner (Ivan plays badly; Talyra hums Karthun work songs; Elias uses it as spell focus when he thinks no one's watching).

This is where weekly burn feels human: food, light, heat (Elias and Ivan want it; Talyra tolerates it), the comms tablet charging beside the kettle. Talyra runs the galley — real meals when credits allow, garden spice, coffee nobody else gets wrong. Bounty briefings get read here. Fixer calls get taken on speaker. The first beer after a mark goes into cuffs tastes better with the ramp vibration through the deck plate.

Left: deep brown leather sofa buried in throws and pillows, low wood coffee table with mugs and books, guitar against the wall, potted greens. Center: curved galley counter with kettle, jars, two wood stools. Right: heavy dining table, four metal chairs, scattered cards/chits, cloak on a chair back. Background: open door to a bunk nook, iris bulkhead toward lower decks, lockers. Starboard viewport — dense starfield, plants on the sill. Ceiling: pipes, ducts, warm string lights.

₡1,020/week shared — ₡900 food (₡300/person, ramen weeks and one good meal) + ₡120 galley consumables (filters, propane analog, detergent). Fairy lights: negligible; Ivan replaces bulbs from salvage.

Ivan — plays cards, viewport ledge rifle cleaning (controversial), eats what Talyra puts in front of him. Talyra — chef, spice blends from garden cuttings, viewport chair with cool-weave. Elias — mug rings on conspiracy printouts; banned from stove during "volatile week" — engineering calls pull him mid-meal. Jarvis — ship steward; charging alcove beside galley lockers; inventory clipboard, nutrient manifests, pre-flight checklist copies for Ivan; speaks French to the kettle; performs AI deference at the table while the card game stays frozen mid-hand.