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Thread: Float On

  1. #21
    She had a mouthfull of Cheez-O and shaak ham sandwich, but that didn't seem to stop her from answering Shuvin.

    "Sheems li' iff."

    Another few chews, and Cerie swallowed, angling up to look at the young Togruta.

  2. #22
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    Ben looked at the two warily while the slender Nichavara stepped out of the ship and handed Shuvin a rebreather.

    "Mind showing me how to use these?" he asked. Shuvin rolled her eyes and put the mask on, and flipped up the protective eye-plates. Nichavara aped her, and was handed a thick large rag.

    "We'll figure out cabins when it comes to it. Price'll be one thousand," Ben said. "In advance. Alderaan's not a pleasure yacht, but she's got water showers, real food, and individual cabins. And this is the old corporate sector we're talking about here. Not the safest place to travel."

  3. #23
    At the words "water showers", Karin's eyes lit up. She spun and began signing at "Ox" with furious speed. I was gonna haggle, but - water showers! Can we skip ahead to just paying the man? Because I would kill for a water shower.

    "Ox" lifted his eyebrows and made a few signs back. It's not really our money you know. We're only supposed to spend what we need.

    I mean, can't we just pay a little extra ourselves to cover the difference? Please?

    You can pay a little extra yourself. I don't care whether the showers are water or not.


    Karin bit her lip. I can't afford the full bump myself. Pleeeease?

    If you can't afford it, don't buy it.

    I know we usually offer some mechanic work as a trade to cut our pricing, but I'd prefer to use the extra time to get into character. An impish grin crossed Karin's features and she lightly slapped Pierce's chest. 'sides, we'll have to shower together anyway. I promise I'll make it worth your while.

    Do I look like a Zeltron ambassador to you?

    Yes! A big, strong, sexy, generous Zeltron ambassador.

    I'd rather be a Gungan, and that's saying something.

    You can be whatever you want, as long as it's naked in the shower with me.

    'Milwa'-

    Listen, I haven't seen you since Dac. I don't know when I'll see you again. The showers are fun but really I just don't want to be fixing or cleaning a ship when we could be, I dunno, training, or learning, or planning, or doing something together. If you think it's not appropriate, I understand. I just-

    Pierce's hands closed around hers, interrupting her. You win, he signed. We can chip in for this.

    Karin smiled a slow smile back. Thank you.

    "You got a deal, Captain Merasska," she said, turning back to Ben. "A thou's out of our usual spending range, but agriwork seasons take a bite out of folk and me and Dref could use the downtime. Long as we can get a bit of privacy together, we'll make do on the price."

    She stuck out her hand for another shake, as folk do when they have an agreement. Pierce, meanwhile, fished out a credit chit and debited enough to cover the costs of their travel and stuck that out.

  4. #24
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    Ben's eyebrows rose, but he shook her hand.

    "Well, let's introduce you to the crew and get you situated. We got some cleaning to do and then we'll be off."

    He led the two over to Shuvin, Nichavara, and Cerie.

    "Everyone, these are..." Ben paused and realized he'd forgotten their names. "...our passengers."

    He gestured to the two Togruta, and Cerie.

    "This is everyone." He finished lamely.

  5. #25
    Finishing off the last of her sandwich abomination, Cerie rose up to her feet, and dusted her hands along the sides of her pants while sending a silly look to Ben. Her eyes shifted then, to their new passengers before one hand came up to offer a shake to the woman.

    "Name's Cerie."

  6. #26
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    "Hi!" Shuvin said, pulling down her mask and waving at the woman and man. They looked nice and normal. "I'm Shuvin, Ben's mechanic. I do the maintenance on the Alderaan, anything from hyperspace booster coils to oiling the seats in the galley. This here's my uncle Neesh. He's new to this whole thing."

    Nichavara smiled and nodded politely to them, though he seemed guarded.

    "It's funny he's not saying anything now, since he was talking my montrals off earlier," Shuvin said, staring at the male pointedly. He grinned.

    "Just needed to get you to open up to me," he answered with a smooth voice. "Can't have my niece hating me for not being there for her after all."

  7. #27
    "Milwa Tinnfostle," Karin took the proffered hand from the blonde and gave it a firm shake. "Daaaang, girl. You look like- Dreffy, who's that famous Alliance lady?"

    'Dreffy' made a series of hand gestures, including a vertical slash across his right eye. "Yeah, her." More gestures. "Captain s'Ilancy, right. That's who it is. Guess what they say really is true: everyone's got a double out there somewhere. Must get ya a lotta free beers, am I right?"

    Karin offered Cerie a friendly elbow nudge, then turned to the Togruta who'd spoken first. "Hiya, Miss! Nice to meet a friendly face out at this end of the galaxy. I've done some maintenance a time or two myself - maybe we can swap some stories during the flight."

    Lastly, Karin turned to the final crewmember and his visage gave her immediate pause. "Them scars," she said, her voice dropping from 'friendly' to 'soft', though the surprise of seeing their quarry didn't quite knock her from character. "They look mighty fresh. Fella, you all right?"

    What she wanted to ask of him was: are they holding you against your will?

  8. #28
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    "Something seems a bit off about these passengers Cerie," Ben whispered to her after pulling her off to the ramp out of earshot of Milwa and Dreffy. "Or is it just me? Please tell me it's just me."

    He paused and sniffed a couple times, before looking at Cerie in confusion. He leaned forward and sniffed her hair.

    "Them scars. They look mighty fresh. Fella, you all right?"

    Ben tensed and froze, cursing that he'd once again be cursed with a curious and talkative passenger. He listened intently for his cue to scramble up the ramp, forgetting for a moment he was still nose-deep in Cerie's hair.

  9. #29
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    Nichavara ducked his head in embarrassment, while Shuvin's smiled dimmed a bit. The older Togruta put a calming hand on her shoulder.

    "It's the montrals," he answered. "If they get dinged up in adulthood, after growth has stopped, they tend to heal slowly or not at all. But these are just old testaments to an old life I've left behind for good now that I'm with Captain Merasska. Actually, I owe him quite a bit for taking me on in the first place."

    He, as well as every eye around, turned to see Ben looking at them wide eyed, his nose in Cerie's blonde locks. Shuvin and Nichavara, in unison, raised one brow at the sight.

  10. #30
    She stood frozen, like an eopie in speederlights. With Ben's nose shoved as far into her hair as she'd often enough said Vader's had been up the Emperor's backside, the blonde wasn't exactly sure how to act. And so she simply stared back with wide eyes and blinked.

    Another few blinks, and she opened her mouth to speak. Nothing came out in that exact moment, and she snapped her jaws shut.

    With Ben's nose still in her hair, she finally opted to give a weak smile and a nervous laugh at their would-be passengers while ever so slowly stepping away from Ben.

    "He does this all the time," she reassured in a decidedly not very reassuring tone of voice.

  11. #31
    “Awww, that's sweet,” Karin nudged Pierce. “Look at 'im, Dreffy. He's trying to sneak a kiss all bashful-like.”

    “Thing is though, fella,” Karin told Ben, taking a few steps towards him and the blonde. “If you want to kiss a girl, you gotta put aside all the shy and go for it. Like this.”

    And at the end of her sentence, Karin turned and kissed Cerie full on the mouth.

    When she finished, Karin gave Cerie a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Gotta show 'em how it's done or they'll never learn, am I right?"

  12. #32
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    Ben just stared at Karin and Cerie with his mouth open for a moment, before turning to look at 'Dreffy' and Nichavara. Neesh at least was looking as bemused by the turn of events as the Captain, but he also looked intrigued.

    "I... I just saw that right?" he asked. "She just up and put her lips..."

    He turned back to Karin and Cerie.

    "Could you do that again, perhaps? I'm not quite sure I got that the first time."

  13. #33
    Karin crossed her arms. "Do it again?" she said, taking a few dangerous steps towards Ben. "Y'mean, like on you?"

    A quick hand darted out and deftly, gently cupped Ben's chin. Her face drew closer, her eyes locked onto his and peering into him, her lips parted oh-so-slightly...

    And then she playfully shoved his face away. "Nawp," she grinned. "Not interested."

    Turning back to the boarding ramp, Karin approached Shuvin. "Y'mind showing me 'round the ship? I'd love to get to know her before we get settled in for the trip."

  14. #34
    Cerie Moreau could only stand and stare, the shock of the woman kissing her a difficult one to shake off. It certainly wasn't exactly an experience that she'd intended on having when she'd woken up in the morning. Hell, getting out of her bunk had been a feat in and of itself! Not to mention making herself a sandwich and actually slipping her boots on (but not finding a need to actually tie them).

    Out of her peripheral vision she barely registered the woman feigning a kiss to Ben himself.

    This woman was insane! She was banthashit crazy! And then she was off again, moving to Shuvin with a request for a tour.

    And then the spell was broken, and the blonde blinked, eyes narrowing as she roughly grabbed a hold of Ben's arm, pulling him in close for an angry and hushed 'conference'.

    "I thought we were trying to stay away from the crazy," she hissed so that only he could hear, "... and this... this... "

    She trailed off then, fully digesting the look on her Captain's face. And in the very next moment she shoved him away with an exasperated growl.

    Clomping her way back up the boarding ramp, Cerie yelled at no one in particular just before disappearing inside.

    "No encores!"

  15. #35
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    Ben's face went slack as he realized what she was thinking, and followed her up the ramp.

    "Well, excuse me," Ben hissed in return, "but you do recall that they've been here for all of five minutes, right? And it's not like I got a line out there waiting for passage; I can't just take the time to screen people. No one would fly with us then! And I'm sorry, but that whole kiss thing just broke me a little bit. You know, being here for five minutes before full on lip on lip action."

  16. #36
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    Shuvin looked at Karin blandly.

    "You didn't make many friends with that, even if it was pretty funny," the teen warned. "And I've got to keep Uncle Neesh from killing himself cleaning this out."

    She gestured to the still open piece of the hull where a slight white vapor still slightly drifted down and hung in the air malevolently. Nichavara made to say something but Shuvin merely shot him a look which made him quiet with a sense of muted frustration.

    "Sorry, but this stuff is dangerous. If you want to wait for a minute or so, then I'll be able to show you around a bit."

  17. #37
    "Sure," Karin replied, thinking as she did that if people weren't such damned prudes about fun or pleasurable things, everyone would be a lot happier. Besides, she knew she was a good kisser and that was that. "Like I said, I've tinkered in the maintenance hangar my share. I know the drill."

    "Anyways, I don't guess we'll be much burden or bustle from here," she continued. "Dreffy 'n me tend to keep to ourselves. We don't upset but so many applecarts." Except the Empire's.

    At the mention of her 'beau', Karin looked Pierce's way intent on catching his eye. Unfortunately, he was busy offering his hand in greeting to Nichevarra and didn't notice her Pierceward glance. She decided to let him do whatever he was up to - which was probably gauging the Togruta's condition as surreptitiously as possible - and focus on making friends with what seemed like the friendliest member of this crew.

    "That's a Ghtroc model, right? She give you grief often?" Karin asked of Shuvin as she eyed the ship.

  18. #38
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    "Actually, no," Shuvin answered, her voice muffled by the mask. "She's one of the most stable platforms I've ever worked on. Not as modular as a CEC ship so after market additions are more difficult to install and get to work correctly, though."

    She glanced back at 'Milwa' with her head cocked to the side.

    "Kinda strange to see a farmhand recognizing a Ghtroc so quickly. Not an uncommon ship, but it's not your run of the mill freighter."

    Off to the side, Nichavara was introducing himself to 'Dreffy'.

    "Nichavara Undhi," he said, looking at the scar on the human's face before going over the rest of his features. "Pleasure to meet you."

  19. #39
    Karin scoffed. "Farmhand? Aw, hon, we're not farmhands. Me and Dref? We're agriworkers. Big diff'rence."

    An expansive gesture encompassed the Alderaan and the space beyond the sky in which it flew. "Farmhands stick it out in the same spot year after year. Ain't no staying in one place for an agriworker. We spend as much time in spaceports as we do in fields and if you want to get anywhere, you know your ships."

    "Here in the Outer Rim, the word is that all the haulers love themselves a Ghtroc. Couldn't tell you why. Just know that the local agriwork circles talk about catching rides in 'em constantly." Karin paused, considering. "Not that I know 'em that well. We used to work the Core through the Mid Rim circles ourselves. 'course, that was before the Truce. These days, we gotta make do on the Alliance side of the Line."

    Realizing how this sounded, Karin held up a hand. "Got nothin' against the Alliance, mind ya. We just had a thing for a couple planets Coreward. Before the Salliche Ag restricted their agriwork to droids, me and Dref worked an eleven-month stint for them. On their dime, we went up and down the Perelman, from Salliche all the way out to Orron III, and back again to Ruan. After the Empire forced 'em to close up contracts to agriworkers, we went to Chandrila..."

    Her voice failed her.

    Why did the walk down memory lane have to lead to Chandrila?

    Why did it have to be on the wrong side of the Line?

    Why couldn't he have just stayed?

    "Sorry," Karin said, drawing her emotions back with a sniffle. "We just- Chandrila was our favorite. We had friends- were thinking of staying- calling it home-"

    And then, despite her best efforts, a pair of tears spilled down Karin's face. Others threatened to follow, and so she did the only thing she could think of to do: grabbed one of Pierce's shoulders, spun him around, and burrowed herself into it to cry.

  20. #40
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    Despite herself Shuvin looked sympathetic. While she couldn't quite find it in herself to feel all that horrible about the situation on Chandrila and their passengers' inability to stay there, the woman sparked some old emotional fears of the girl's own, and sympathy won out over bitterness.

    Nichavara on the other hand simply watched them intently, though 'Milwa' and her tears pushed him to look away politely.

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