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Thread: The White Phoenix

  1. #181
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    "jI would not darre eat jyourr tookass."

    Rai replied in an innocent tone as she took the foreign eating implements and napkins and found a seat. As if on cue, one of the well-fed felines bounded up to the table, obviously intent on plying a practiced trade of looking affectionate in exchange for scraps. The heiress glanced to Dage, winked, then back again to her host.

    "jI'm cerrtajin thejy'rre loussjy wjith fleass."

    A purple-furred paw encroached at the boundary of her plate, and Rai exposed her teeth to the fuzzy thief, letting out a small hiss, which was more than enough to convince this particular bandit that it was unwise to challenge the larger cat. It quickly vacated the table in a skittering of paws, as Rai grinned, breaking her first rasher.

  2. #182
    The girl had become a bit more personable, and Krale found himself taken by the same affliction. He gave a light henh at the interaction between Rai'faani and Katu, and continued to watch as The Cizerack woman chased the hopeful Tooka from the table.

    "Even the Tooka are bound by the laws of mealtime," he chuckled.

    Finding no goodwill from one, Katu and her gaggle of compatriots began to crowd around the Besalisk's legs, tails perked, heads cast upward to show off a small gathering of sharp-toothed 'smiles'.

    Of course he could not refuse them, and with a grumble, Krale speared a few globs of egg before tapped it off the fork onto the countertop.

    What followed was a careful dance of jumping, four-legged bodies that all vied for space atop the counter.

  3. #183
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    She kept up her wary vigil for another moment until she was certain the tookas were committed to begging for Krale's scraps only. Then, Rai attended her own breakfast. Aside from the thing she knew was bacon from what her T'yeellaa had said, nothing on her plate looked recognizable in the slightest, and the heiress didn't particularly want to open the seal and ask what any of it was. It smelled agreeable - well, the bacon did. The rest was a mix of grease, and something that smelled not burned but close to that smell.

    Rai'faani turned the fork over in her hand briefly, before figuring out the why of it. She awkwardly speared a hash brown, frowning as she hoisted it by this strange prosthetic metal paw until she took a tentative, crunchy bite. Initially confused, Rai felt eyes on her to her right, and dispelled the look in a moment, hunching her shoulders forward as she leaned over her plate.

    Samus's eyes weren't the only adjacent distraction. Even through the olfactory onslaught of breakfast smells, Rai could smell the closeness of him. Her mouth dry, she reached for her water and quaffed.

  4. #184
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    His own plate had been taken with damn-near glee, and the blonde let it clatter to the table as he sat heavily. Fork in one hand, Samus placed a guarding arm around his plate as he speared a forkful of tuber hash. Dredging it through the eggs to pick up some of the seasoned bits of yellow blobs. He brought it up to his mouth, and without hesitation shoved the whole thing past his teeth.

    Chewing, he cast a quick look to Krale and his gang of hooligan Tookas.

    A swallow, and he abandoned his fork in favor of plucking up a strip of bacon with two fingers. Another hungry bite, and he finally let his eyes switch from the Besalisk to Rai'fa.

    "Good, yeah?"

  5. #185
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    "Hm." she replied, which combined with a shrug into a positive, if ambivalent reply.

    "Cerrtajinljy betterrr than the rratjionss." Rai crunched into the salty bacon, taking a moment for the jeeta to further enrich the epicurean moment. Her tail moved in a contented sway until brushing against Samus's back. Finding the resistance pleasing, Rai swayed again, this time returning and lingering a beat longer.

    Chores and food. Chores and food. That was life as she knew it in this bleak little outpost. Up until this moment of small enjoyment, the experience had been some kind of austerity pornography. Lessons sifted out of small doses of suffering, she was beginning to understand that to an extent. But she'd be lying if the deprivations weren't weighing on her.

  6. #186
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    His chewing stopped in that moment, and giving her a long stare, Samus finally swallowed before slowly latching onto his plate and deliberately sliding away from her.

    The fork was taken up once more, and he gave a cautionary wave with it at her.

    "Manners, Rai'fa. Don't forget why we're here."

  7. #187
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    Manners! The absurdity! Speaking of austerity pornography, Quentin Samus Dage closing up like a tundra flower in a blizzard. She gave him a blank look, momentarily dispelling her presently-overactive imagination.

    "Two dajyss ago jyou werre sstealjing food off mjy plate, and jyou talk about mannerrss?"

    Dining on ashes and frustration was less desirable than her breakfast, and Rai took out her deprivations on a heaping bite of eggs.

    "jIt'ss jusst a touch. Nothjing morre."

  8. #188
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    It was a slightly unimpressed stare that he settled upon her at that. Presently, his attentions returned to his food, and he took up another forkful of egg and hash.

    "Let me guess," he halfway grumbled, remembering something T'yeellaa had once said, "... your tail has got a mind of its own."

    Of course, when the eldest Meorrrei sister had said it, it'd been sweet and cute and completely endearing. With Rai'fa, it was different.

  9. #189
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    She slightly smiled at the joke without laughing, but the smile soon drifted away. Rai thoughtfully chewed a bite of bacon, deciding whether to evade this conversation or to entertain it, and whether or not it would come to any good or not.

    "No, jI'm fajirrljy cerrtajin that jI and mjy tajil arre of the ssame mjind."

    Keeping her eyes forward, she took another bite.

    "Call jit a fleetjing moment of weaknesss."

  10. #190
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    * * *


    They'd gone out in the CUC-S that was still serviceable, a load of supplies packed into the back bed. The cab was toasty enough, as Samus had made sure to start the thing ten minutes before they'd left to allow the defrosting unit to work away the frost and the internal heater to warm up the rest of the interior. It was an old model, with a bench seat, overly-large control yoke, and a long shaft that ended in a leather-wrapped knob, belonging to an ancient manual repulser-clutch. Where Krale had managed to find such an old model was beyond Samus' mental grasp, but he didn't question it too awful much since he'd missed the feel of a shifter knob in his right palm. It was like being back home, on Myomar.

    Cresting the last hillock, there was nothing but white that stretched out for miles in all directions, broken only by a string of fenceposts that marked the border of the Besalisk's pasture land. Snowswept desert was a more appropriate label, but he wasn't keeping score.

    Up ahead, there was a break in the fence, and Samus slowly pulled up alongside the fence, traveling down its length until fillay slowing to a full stop just before the break.

    Looked like something had gotten in a tussle with the wood slats and fiberwire, tearing a sizable portion away. Broken planks and twisted metal could be seen strewn about.

    The shifter was thrown into neutral, and pulling up on the handbrake, he let his left thumb release the clutch pad on the yoke. The vehicle idled then, as he surveyed the damage from the comfort of the cab.

    "Well."

    A sideways look was sent to Rai'faani, who was firmly planted in the passenger side of the bench seat. At least this old speeder model had a fold-down console, with two steaming cups of caf currently occupying the drinkholders. Samus took the pause in his estimations to take up his own beverage, carefully bringing it up for a tentative sip.

    "Looks like we're going to have a bit of fun. Gonna patch this up the same way we used to do back home, I think."

  11. #191
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    "Onljy jyou could fjind fun jin ssomethjing ljike mendjing a brroken fence."

    Rai's barb was only half-hearted, her attention diverted completely to the damage in the fence. She frowned slightly, leaning forward on the bench seat.

    "What do jyou thjink caussed that?"

    By her estimation, there were enough life forms on this ice ball to fill a medium freighter at best.

  12. #192
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    "Honestly? I couldn't tell you."

    Replacing his cup back into the holder, Samus leaned back in his seat as he continued to survey the damage. A few moments passed before he moved once more, and even then it was to simply pull a small flimsi notepad from the inside pocket of his thick, canvas overcoat. An oldstyle stylus was removed as well, and he flipped the pad open to a blank page. Numbers and equations were scrawled on the small slip of flimsi, along with a few notations of the supplies that they both needed and had nestled in the back of the speeder.

    It was mostly to doublecheck what he already well-enough suspected, and Samus furrowed his brow as he lifted his eyes to once again stare at the damaged section of fence. Murmurs to himself, mutterings of numbers as he sent his eyes to the broken portion of fence before them. All the while his stylus was writing out those very same numbers on his pad.

    "Not terribly big," he mumbled as his attention returned to his notes.

    "Probably just put in a loop and lever gate. Make it easier."

  13. #193
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    Her curiosity drifted from the damaged fence to Samus's scribblings, and Rai shifted in her seat to get a better vantage over what he was writing. Her eyes danced over the equations jotted in the margins, bringing her to a quick bit of observation.

    "jYou can do that wjith a meterr and a quarrterr lesss materrjial, and jit sshould be sstrrongerr."

    It was take-it-or-leave-it, and the heiress did nothing to push the issue more than to gesture for his stylus.

    "Majy jI?"
    Last edited by Rai'faani Meorrrei; Feb 16th, 2021 at 10:55:00 PM. Reason: bump

  14. #194
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    * * *

    Mending the fence had been an easy enough affair; nothing a strong grip, locking clamps, and some elbow grease couldn't fix. The two had worked largely in unison, and Samus had to give his young charge credit - she thought on her feet when the right conditions were met. Of course, being in such cold temperatures tended to make any and all determined to finish a job that much faster.

    The tools had been returned to the bed, and the blonde shuffled his way back to the driver's side, his hand coming down on the doorpad.

    He hesitated then, a sudden thought coming to him.

    Rai'fa was still doing... something... at the newly-repaired fence, and he called out to her.

    "You ever driven an old manual repulser speeder?"

  15. #195
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    With her back turned to Samus, Rai allowed herself the indulgence of a smile as she looked over the result of their work. It was one thing to know the answer to something, but seeing it put to practical effect was another matter. Before she could become too self-satisfied, his voice called from behind, causing her ears to briefly plane.

    Rather than giving him the satisfaction of her explaining that she'd spent her entire life with servants handling the matter of driving speeders, the heiress simply pivoted on a heel, the tension in her ears easing.

    "No."

    Of course, being Samus, he never asked an idle question. From the expecting stance at the threshold of the door, it didn't take much to take a guess. The snow crunched beneath her boots as she approached.

    "But jit lookss ljike jyou'rre gojing to sshow me how."

  16. #196
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    He gave a slightly lop-sided grin then, stepping to the side just a small bit to partially lean on the old speeder's door. She approached, and he watched as she closed the distance between them. Finally, he inhaled deeply, feeling as the cold air chilled his lungs, only to be expelled once more in a puff of steam.

    "It'll be a good first try, I'd wager," he went on.

    A full step back then, and he pushed the door more fully open before turning on a heel so that he could skirt around the front and open up the passenger side door. Hefting himself up and in, Samus rolled his shoulders just a little bit, and reaching up over his shoulder, brought down the safety straps, securing himself snuggly.

    "Just so long as you don't burn up the motivator box in this old bird, you should be fine."

  17. #197
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    Oh, so we're learning by doing...in a vehicle that could careen into something and explode. Rai'faani could feel the incredulousness rising into her expression.

    "Jusst ljike that, then?"

    Samus's winsome half-grin - the one he always wore when he was about to cut loose with some nerf-poke parable - was unmissable. Rai's slightly-aghast look subsided, replaced by a serious face as she quickly took a look at all of the controls that she'd never paid attention to before.

    The controls in front of the seat had two hand-grips, and some buttons on each side. No idea what any of those did. Between the two seats there were two levers? Toggle sticks? No idea there either. In front of that was the comms and environmental control suite. She knew about those. Below the driver controls, there were four foot pedals, which seemed problematic, since most sentient species had only two feet.

    "...jusst ljike that." she muttered.

    She eased into the seat, her nose again picking up that strange combination of musty closeness of bodies combined with the sharp unnaturalness of inert coaxium suspension. Well, Samus was right about one thing - this thing was old.

    Since they were probably about to die or get seriously hurt, Rai took a moment to make extra certain that her crash webbing was secured.

  18. #198
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    A lean toward her, and he propped himself up with a casual elbow on the center console divider. His free hand came around, and he gestured to each no-doubt foreign looking control that he was guessing she might not be all that familiar with.

    "There," a finger pointed to the starter switch, "... that'll turn us on, but be sure you have one foot on that second-from-the-left pedal. You gotta push it all the way in and hold it there, then it'll start when you hit the ignition button."

    A bit of thought, and he gave a quick shake to one of the levers between them to make sure it was out of gear. Good. Craning his neck to make sure that the far left pedal was still fully depressed, he nodded to himself.

    "Now, that pedal that's all the way down is your emergence brake, and you can disengage it with that little pull-handle under the steering column. Wait until we start though before releasing that brake. Got it?"

  19. #199
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    She didn't even glance in his direction. Instead, Rai's eyes caromed from control to control, mentally compartmentalizing Samus's familiar-if-slightly-meandering instructions.

    Her hands paused just above the controls, fingers lightly kneading air as she walked the process out again in her head as Samus explained it. Jaw tight, she committed to the act. Okay, second-from-left petal first, but farthest-left pedal second. Shifting in her seat slightly, Rai pressed down with her full weight on her right foot until she could feel the second-from-left petal find resistance at the floorboard. Okay, find the start button - there it is! Rai jammed her thumb into the prominent toggle, feeling the affirming shimmy and rumble as the speeder's active powerplant came online, intensifying the otherwise subtle cavitations in the repulsorlift. Okay, next...

    Rai's grip tightened at the controls. Pressing the tip of her tongue slightly between her lips, she reached below, fingertips finding what had to be the switch he'd described. There was a slight resistance, then a break as some ratcheted tension somewhere in the vehicle released with a loud creak. That, and the sudden shift of movement on the repulsor cushion elicited a brief gasp, which she regretted. She'd ridden in this jalopy almost a dozen times now. Why was this now surprising to her?

    There was now the tricky part of her right foot standing on the second-left pedal. She wasn't sure if she would need to brake again. Carefully, Rai allowed the toe of her left boot to edge onto the petal occupied by her right, slowly shifting it out of the way so that her left foot was applying pressure.

  20. #200
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    "Good so far," he rumbled in encouragement, "... now. The second-from-the-right pedal is your normal brake. You'll use that anytime you want to stop. That e-brake is just for when you're parked and leaving the speeder alone for a while."

    She sat stiffly, but he couldn't entirely hold that against her. He was much the same when his own Da had taught him. Then again, he'd been about 7 years old when that happened.

    "You've got your clutch pushed in, so now you can shift into first gear, ok?"

    The blonde took hold of one of the levers, and with a little shake, he jammed it over and forward. The speeder gave a little shudder as the gear engaged, and a moment later he took it back to neutral. His hand lifted to trace an pattern in the air between them.

    "Furthest toward you and up, that's first. Straight back is second. Over and up is third, and straight back from third is fourth. Make sense?"

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