Following the excitement of the afternoon, Brad and Jayusmagnus are in the bar having some drinks. Brad is doing bourbon shots but Jay has been trying to cut back so he has diet Dr. Pepper shots. The stage in the lounge is empty since DarStar’s act hasn’t started yet and no one else is in the bar at the moment except Zoltan. After a few rounds, Brad smiles and shakes his head “You know, you have to hand it to Hakeedohn. He really pulled one over on us”. “What are you talking about?” Jay asks confused. “Did you start drinking before we went to the ballroom earlier?” “No, no, no” Brad corrects him. “I mean, isn’t it obvious he’s responsible for us being on this cruise?” says Brad, downing another shot. “He knows both of us since he was your former business partner and I’ve worked for the two of you”. Jay cuts him off, “You haven’t told anyone here about that, have you?” he demands. “You promised you were going to keep it a secret. No one is supposed to know we know each other”. Brad sets his drink down and puts his hands in the air “Hey! Nobody’s going to find out from me. If anything, people are going to figure it out because you keep dropping hints”. “Oh, come on!” Jay protests. “Pffft. Dropping hints…like what?” “Like last night when I was talking about the grout incident and you had to interject with your opinion. How would you know I was making up a story if you didn’t know me?” explains Brad. “I hadn’t thought of it that way” Jay says sheepishly. “I guess I will need to be more careful. My competitive nature gets the best of me sometimes. When I heard you talking to those lovely ladies and it looked like they were falling for your act, I couldn’t sit by and watch you get lucky before me”. Brad laughs and slaps Jay on the back “Well, perhaps if you weren’t so busy escorting schizophrenic captains to their rooms or going to tea parties, you’d get some action, too”. Jay smiles at Brad but says nothing more about his tea party with Her Grace. “Anyway,” he says diverting Brad from that topic “we were discussing your suspicions about Hak”. “Yes” Brad continues. “He showed me an ad for a cruise when I got my settlement and said he knew someone who could give me a good deal on tickets for a cruise. He must have known about the reality show connection when he told me about it. I’m wondering how he hooked you into going on the same cruise and why he didn’t go himself”. Their conversation is cut short by DarStar’s arrival. She takes the stage dressed in a glittery crimson gown with a plunging neckline that hugs every curve on her shapely body. Jay whistles and says appreciatively “She’s sensational!” “What do you mean? She hasn’t even started singing yet” Brad replies. “I know that” Jay smirked. “I mean she’s sensational.” He gets up and claps Brad on the shoulder. “Wish me luck. If things go my way, I’ll be with her when she’s singing in the shower tomorrow morning” he says, raising his eyebrows. With that, Jay leaves to get a table closer to the stage. Brad has already been shot down by DarStar so he doesn’t think Jay has much of a chance. Kitri enters the lounge and Brad is about to ask her to have a drink with him but James comes in behind Kitri and beats him to it. Brad is about to leave when he hears a husky voice behind him order the same thing he’s drinking and turns around to find Bookie sitting beside him. “Mind if I join you?” she says, giving him a wink. “Not at all!” Brad smiles and indicates to Zoltan that he wants another round. DarStar continues crooning, Jay watches her intently, James and Kitri play darts in the corner, Bookie and Brad continue their conversation, and on another part of the ship, a pair of eyes is on Smurfy. To be continued...

Brad and Jay are such sluts!

Ok, so you're a well-groomed horndog. I stand corrected. :lol:

But Jayby! I have a soft spot for male sluts. I mean, you were willing to go that extra mile to de-stigmatize me. I owe you :wink:

Smurfy is lying on a blanket next to the pool making notes about her fellow passengers in a small notebook she brought along on the cruise. She's pretty sure her sister, Brinna, isn't the Mole because Smurfy has ways of making her talk but she hasn't gotten to know the other passengers well enough to know when they're lying. Any little clue could end up being important so she's keeping track of her observations. At the moment, Brinna is in her room writing postcards and most of the others are in the bar and lounge but Smurfy senses she's not alone. She occasionally hears scuffling or sees movement out of the corner of her eye but when she turns to look she doesn't see anything. Finally, Smurfy sets her notebook on the ground and gets up to look around. As she approaches a lounge chair near the diving board, a cat leaps out from under the chair, dives on her notebook, and starts wrestling with the pen she left next to it. Smurfy laughs and scoops Simba up. All of the passengers know Pepette was the only person who brought a pet on the cruise and Smurfy saw pictures of Simba that Pepette showed around so she knows who to return him to. In the meantime, a flustered Pepette is frantically searching her room with the help of La Belle and Rubini. "Simba is always into things and very clever about getting into places he's not supposed to be but I'm sure he can't open a door by himself" Pepette fumes. "Are you sure one of you didn't leave the door open or let him get out when you were in my room earlier doing housekeeping?" she demands. "I'm certain" La Belle responds confidently. "In fact, he did get out when I opened the door to leave after we were done. I had to chase after him and push him back in the room before closing the door so he was definitely in there when we left". Smurfy arrives, hears the uproar and calls out to them "Don't worry, Pepette. I found your kitty. Or rather, he found me. I was out by the pool and found him stalking me". Smurfy hands Simba over to Pepette, who smiles gratefully at her. "Thank you for catching him and bringing him to me. I might have to put my little stinker on a leash and take him for walks around the ship so he doesn't get cabin fever and keep trying to escape" she says, cuddling Simba and petting his head. "I still can't figure out how he got away from my room. If I didn't let him out, and La Belle and Rubini didn't let him out, there must have been someone else in my room". "Someone with a key" Smurfy points out. "If I were you, I would report this to the captain or whoever is in charge of security on the ship". "I will" Pepette nods. "I'd like to know who has access to our rooms, besides housekeeping. Even if I do agree to participate in a game, I'm not agreeing to let just anybody go in and out of my room when I'm not there". Pepette puts Simba in her room, placing him in the bathroom so he can't slip out again, and La Belle, Rubini, and Smurfy go. Pepette checks the room to make sure nothing is missing or damaged before leaving. Remembering her conversation with Brad about Tara returning her room key to Bookie, Pepette decides to talk to her first. Brad and Bookie have just gotten to Bookie's room when Pepette arrives. Brad looks annoyed that he has to leave but Bookie gives him a brief kiss on the lips and tells him she'll see him later and that puts a grin on his face. After he's gone, Pepette explains what happened in her room earlier and asks who has access to her room. Bookie tells Pepette that there are four master keys to the guest rooms. Housekeeping, maintenance, and other crew members have access to the keys but must get them from and return them to her, signing their name and the times in and out. Checking her records, Bookie finds that besides La Belle, the only one who has signed out a copy of the key that afternoon was Hottie Phil. "Was anything taken from your room?" Bookie asks with concern. "Do you want to make a report to the captain?" Pepette isn't thrilled with the idea of talking to Idolfan so she replies "No. Everything I brought on the cruise has been accounted for, nothing is missing, so I'll handle it from here. Thank you for the information". With that, Pepette leaves and heads for the engine room to get some answers from Phil about his whereabouts a few hours earlier. To be continued...

On her way to see Hottie Phil, Pepette is stopped by realitysista, who informs her that passengers aren’t allowed where the crew is working. Pepette argues with her, insisting on talking to Phil, and realitysista asks Pepette to wait in his room while she goes to tell Phil a passenger needs to speak with him. Brad is in Phil’s room and when he sees that Pepette is done talking to Bookie, he rushes out to return to Bookie’s room. After a few minutes, Phil comes in, looking puzzled to find Pepette waiting for him. “We don’t usually get visitors down here. What did you want to talk to me about?” he asks. Pepette looks him straight in the eyes and says “I want to know why you were in my room earlier today”. “What are you talking about? I haven’t been in your room!” Phil protests. “Where did you get that idea?” “Somebody was in my room this afternoon, after the meeting in the ballroom and after housekeeping had been to my room. I wouldn’t have noticed except that whoever it was let my cat out. Bookie told me you’re the only one besides La Belle who had the key today” Pepette explained. “Then I suggest you follow up with La Belle about what she did with the key after leaving your room” Phil said hotly. “I borrowed a guest room key but retuned it after I finished my business”. “And what business was that?” Pepette asked curiously. “You work in the engine room and stay in the crew’s quarters. Why would you need to be in the guest rooms?” she demanded. “I don’t have to explain myself to you!” Phil answered, struggling not to lose his temper. “What, do you think I broke into your room so I could play with your cat? Well, let me tell you. My mom has plenty of cats and when I was at home with her we had cats on top of and underneath every piece of furniture in every room of the house. It actually was a nice change to be on this cruiseship away from all those cats so I wouldn’t go seeking them out”. “Look, there’s no need to get hostile. I’m just trying to get some answers” Pepette said calmly. “You sure aren’t in the bright, chipper mood you were earlier when you got selected for the game”. “No, I’m not” Phil confessed, with a sheepish smile. “I thought I was going to be a passenger for the rest of the trip but I still have to work between challenges and don’t have time to chit-chat with the other players, which puts me at a disadvantage”. “I won’t keep you any longer, then” Pepette said as she headed to the door. “I would think you would understand my suspicions when you can’t tell me what you were doing in the guest rooms. It makes me think you have something to hide”. “Maybe I do,” Phil confessed “But it has nothing to do with you, Pepette. Privacy is as important to me as it is to you so I would think you would respect my decision not to explain it”. “Fair enough” Pepette nodded. “I’ll see you at tomorrow’s challenge, Phil”. With their discussion over, Phil returned to his duties and Pepette went back to her room to change for dinner, not satisfied with the answers she got but accepting that she wasn’t going to learn anything more at the moment. To be continued...

In the dining galley, Her Grace is seated with Kitri and Matt, who is still in Jedi robes, although he now has dress pants and a white shirt under his robes instead of black jeans and a black t-shirt. Pinkcat has whipped up Tuscan chicken Panini for them to snack on, using the latest kitchen gadget she ordered, and they have a pitcher of pink lemonade to go with it. Her Grace can’t help giggling at Matt’s attire and finally he has to ask her what’s so funny. “I’m sorry, Matt, but I keep wondering how you ended up on this cruise. You seem more like the type that would go to Wild Waves to ride the Timberhawk fifty times in a row than the type to go on a cruise and play shuffleboard with little old ladies or sunbathe on the deck with the young jet-set crowd. Obviously, I consider myself part of the latter group so don’t even go lumping me in with the old ladies” Her Grace teased, playfully poking him on the shoulder. “Is this the first cruise you’ve been on?” she questioned. “What do you do for a living?” “I’ll answer your questions if you answer one for me” Matt countered. “Is Her Grace really your name or do you have a nickname we can call you? Her Grace is too long to say throughout a conversation and I thought about calling you HG but that made me think of HGTV and I can’t see you wearing a tool belt. Then I thought of calling you HRG but that’s what they call Claire’s father on the Heroes messageboards so that was confusing. You probably don’t even wear horn-rimmed glasses, do you?” Kitri and Her Grace roared with laughter at Matt’s ramblings. “Hey, Mr. Obi-Wannabe! I’ll have you know I’m very handy with a glue gun” Her Grace retorted. “I actually do own a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. Johnny Depp wears them and he looks sexy in them so I knew I could carry it off. Plus I thought they might make me look more intellectual. Being a cosmetics queen, people tend to look at me and think I’m just a pretty face but I have a brain, too”. “As for your original question”, she continued, “Her Grace is a nickname--a title, if you will, befitting my royal status in my profession. My real name is Tiffany, like the jeweler, but you can call me Tif, with one f”. “Cool!” Matt replied gleefully. “Tiffany is one of my favorite singers of all time! I love redheads. Have you ever had your hair red?” “No, but I bet I’ve appeared in as many malls as the other Tiffany” Tif quipped. “Now it’s your turn to answer my question” she added sweetly. Matt set his half-eaten Panino down and took a sip of lemonade before responding. “I have a store on eBay where I buy, sell and trade comic books, trading cards, action figures, that kind of thing. I go by the name comicbookguy online. Look me up sometime if you’re interested in comic books or Star Wars collectibles!” “This is the first cruise I’ve been on. One of the dealers I deal with regularly bounced a check for some Danger Girl comics and asked if he could settle up what he owed me by giving me a ticket for this cruise. I decided what the heck so here I am”, Matt finished. “How about you, Kitri?” Tif inquired. “How did you end up on this cruise?” “I own a chain of theaters” Kitri began “and I was looking to make a deal with a cruise ship to open theaters in some of the larger ships. My husband gave me the idea when we were brainstorming ways to expand my business. I booked this cruise so I could get a feel for the type of people who take cruises and whether they would be interested in watching movies while onboard. During the day they’d probably prefer to be on the deck lounging, swimming or doing activities but maybe in the evening they would like to see a movie”. “Neato!” Matt enthused. “What kind of movies would you show? If you’re going to show action and superhero movies, you could sell movie collectibles at the concession stand. Maybe you and I could work out some kind of deal”. “And I could sell comfy slippers and pillows to them as part of my new bedroom boutique line",” Tif added. Kitri laughed at them “I haven’t even decided if I’m going to do it yet or gotten a cruise line to back me and you two are already trying to get in on it!” Tif giggled “That shows it’s a good idea! We’re with you 100% so I’m sure you’ll find an interested backer to put your plan in action. I think you should show nothing but Johnny Depp movies at your cruise theaters”, Tif sighed dreamily. “Ugh, I’d rather see “Attack of the 40-Foot Blob” than anything with Johnny Depp in it” Matt said, making a face. “Aww, how can you not like Johnny?” Kitri said between giggles. “If nothing else, I would think you would have liked his pirate movies”. “Yeah, but he totally ruined “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory” for me” complained Matt. “Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory” with Gene Wilder was awesome but now when I think of Willy Wonka I picture Johnny looking like Michael Jackson and it creeps me out”. The Frog stops by to ask if they need anything else and they indicate they’re fine so he begins clearing their table. On the way out, they see Pepette and Jayusmagnus dining at a private table. They go to the lounge, only to find that they’ve just missed James’ comedy routine. Brinna is having blueberry martinis with Smurfy at the bar, glaring at Chaos when James goes to her table after his act. Princess Poopy is admiring Zoltan’s biceps as he shakes the martinis. Rufus and Tara are discussing books they’ve read and how much they’ve spent at Amazon.com ordering books. “So that’s where everyone was!” Tif exclaimed. “I thought the dining galley was pretty empty so I was wondering where the other passengers were”. “As far as I’m concerned, they missed all the fun” Kitri smiled. “I enjoyed our conversation and look forward to getting to know you both better when we start the challenges tomorrow”. “You’re not going to bed already, are you?” said Tif. “Come have a drink with us before hitting the sack” she cajoled. “No, thanks” Kitri declined. “Not tonight. I want to go through the pictures I’ve taken so far and start writing letters to people back home, although I suppose we won’t be able to send them until after the cruise because they won’t want us revealing anything about the show we’re filming. Nothing this exciting has ever happened to me. I can’t wait to tell all my family and friends!” With that, Kitri waved good night and left. Not for her room, though. She went to look for Oliviasmommy and find out if the Pinochle game was on for the night. “Guess it’s just you and me, then, Matt” Tif said, turning her attention to him. “Sorry, but I’m not much of a drinker” he replied. "I prefer a glass of chocolate milk to a beer or cocktail any day”. “Hmm, well, I regularly drink milk to keep healthy and I haven’t had any since breakfast so I’ll join you for chocolate milk. I’ll even ask Zoltan for the curly Q straws to sip it with” Tif offered. “You’re too cool, Tif” Matt grinned, jumping onto a barstool and whirling around. “We’re going to be good friends”. So Tif placed their order and they talked for a while over chocolate milk. In the meantime, James said good night to Chaos and made his way to Brinna to ask if he could walk her back to her room, bringing a smile to her face, The Frog and Zoltan finished with their duties so they could get to the Pinochle game with Kitri and Oliviasmommy, Jay asked to be invited into Pepette’s room under the pretense of getting to pet Simba, and Brad left bookie’s room to return to his own room after a stimulating evening. To be continued...