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Post by The Conman on Jun 4, 2016 21:57:50 GMT -5
"Heh..." The teen responded, wiggling out from under the console and gesturing to the other, sliding the seat back with a thunk and sitting on it for a moment, shaking his hand a bit, blood dripping off it.
"Yeah, I heard about this place, they're open till like 4, I'll give 'em a shout once we're back to the hole." Enarin retorted with a smirk, getting down on his front and wiggling under the other console, his shirt sticking to him from sweat as he rolled over, looking up at the mess of cabling before him, sighing, bringing his hands up and starting to disconnect the second display.
Jada seemed a bit more talkative, much to Enarin's relief. Even if he'd really pissed her off, the fact that she was joining in on the joke made him, at least, feel better. The situation they'd found themselves in wouldn't be made any better if he and Jada couldn't be in the same room...or hole, all he wanted was to make things as painless as possible. Mentally, anyway, he thought, balling his right hand into a fist a few times with a grunt, and wiping the sweat off his brow....The ship really was boiling, how the planet had any atmosphere was beyond him.
"fuck it's hot..." he complained, unscrewing a connector, his sweaty hands making the work slower than it'd normally take.
His hand was starting to bug him, he paused and looked at his knuckle, and it was starting to turn blue. He'd bruised it, the teen not really aware of just how hard he'd whacked it off the inside of the other console. He hoped he hadn't broken his knuckle, though he'd never broken anything before...Enarin probably wouldn't know until somebody told him. He wiggled a bit to get more comfy, his head between the rudder pedals, rather uncomfortably. The teen went back to his disconnecting, nearly finished, working on releasing the actual display from it's housing.
"You're good to go." Enarin said, wiggling out from under the second console, finally coming up for air, drenched.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jun 24, 2016 16:12:28 GMT -5
Enarin was definitely his mother's kid, he had a mouth that lacked an off-switch. Jada, on the other hand, walked back with the heavy pieces of equipment in relative silence. Relative meant she had grunts and monosyllabic replies if necessary. That wasn't unusual for her, but out in the hot sun on a desert, that was normal. That was safe. They could talk more in the dugout. She left the equipment to him when they arrived, and she opted to check on the bladder in their absence. It hadn't filled much. That was something of a shame, because if they'd crashed on some more hospitable world it'd be full already. Instead... It'd take more measurements, but it might mean one per day. Not ideal.
Solar still it was then. Bring out the spare parts.
Jada found her corner of the dugout and began to fiddle with assembled items.
"Hey kid," Jada said abruptly. "Sorry. About earlier, wasn't your fault."
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Post by The Conman on Jun 24, 2016 16:57:20 GMT -5
Enarin babbled on to Jada about his favourite pizza toppings, and how with the Boska it tended to be a bit random what you'd get. How he'd one time gotten something called "anchovies" and found them incredible. The teen wasn't really paying attention to Jada's responses, or lackthereof, a series of grunts or a nod here, or there, a yes.
It really was quite a one sided conversation.
He was nervous, unsure his plan would even work. It was a longshot, even with the right gear to do what he was thinking...but in a desert, with a multi-tool and some bits of tape...The teen wanted to take his mind off their situation. The reality hadn't quite set in to Enarin quite yet, that getting off the planet really was a mathematical absurdity, he was more nervous about failing and seeing Jada disappointed in him. If he was stuck there alone, and failed, it was only his ass on the line, but Jada was relying on him to figure out how to get a signal off. That was the deal, it seemed.
She'd keep him alive on the planet, He'd get them off said planet. Enarin hadn't had anyone relying on his brain before. Not directly, at least.
He was in mid sentence about how Gira had somehow managed to get her hands on a swoop and was trying to hawk it for almonds when he saw the bladder hooked upto the water machine, depressingly empty. He stopped talking, staring at the device, silently cursing his awful luck, Jada simply walking towards their hole, Enarin looking back at the device, then back over to Jada, then with a glance back to the device, jogged over to catch up, silently.
He was thirsty as hell, the cool dugout was a nice change from the oppressive heat and sun, the teen took solace in the fact that it could be worse, as he picked up one of the MFDs and dragged it across from Jada, flopping down, back against the cool wall. Jada was fiddling with something, Enarin wasn't entirely sure what she was upto, but knowing the woman, it'd be something useful. He flipped out his multitool and dragged the MFD into his lap, and flipped it over, starting to work on getting the back off.
Out of the blue, Jada broke the silence, Enarin looking over at her as she spoke, hands on autopilot still fiddling with the device.
" 'preciate it, and don't worry about it, you don't gotta apologize to me for anything...well, except for bringing up Pizza, now I want some and that's all on you." He said, with a smirk, looking back down at his work, the back nearly ready to come off.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jul 5, 2016 22:16:15 GMT -5
Admittedly Jada frequently didn't pay attention to Enarin. His mouth moved on and on again, and he babbled away. It was... Well frankly like Gira, except she- Well. Neither of them made that much sense actually. Gira just sounded like a lobotomy patient who watched too much pornography, but Enarin was... Weirder. Weirder in a normal way, he ranted on about pizza toppings and anchovies and she blinked in response to the whole monologue, unsure how to process. When he finally concluded hi serious statement about her bringing up pizza, she blinked once more as punctuation.
"What was all that pizza monologue for? I-" She was about to deny it, then she realized she'd made an offhand comment significantly earlier. "That was like forever ago."
She leaned heavily against the sandy wall of their pit and chuckled hysterically.
"You're like Gira, but... I dunno, weirder because you're not a drunk lower-decks grain hobo with an almond fetish. You're important. And it's weird."
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Post by The Conman on Jul 11, 2016 20:02:38 GMT -5
"...weird lower decks grain-" is about as far as the lanky teen got before just degenerating into laughter. Enarin used his good hand to cover the side of his face and wipe some of the sand off it while he guffawed at what Jada had just said. She had a way with words, that was for sure, he thought, though he wasn't sure if he was at all like Gira...or important.
He did tend to babble though, that was true. When there was dead air, and another warm body, Enarin did tend to go on in a stream of consciousness sort of way, about whatever was on his mind. Jada seemed not to have minded terribly, laughing at him ( and Gira ) more than being annoyed.
After a few moments, his brain started to compute Jada's remarks, and a few things stood out. One, he'd been compared to Gira, though somehow it sounded like a backhanded compliment. Two, he was somehow, at least to Jada's mind, important. Which, Enarin was well aware, he truly wasn't. Niri...was...sort of? Though with her being 3/5ths a Twi'lek made them somewhat equal. Enarin wouldn't pass his name onto his kids, if he had any...or wanted any...and Niri, well, so far as he knew, his sister couldn't even have kids. Though if she did adopt, she'd be able to pass on the Oaknaada name, thus making her more important than Enarin.
She was also a pilot, better looking, and a better shot than him. If the management had a favourite, it definitely was sharkbait.
He used his injured right hand to steady the mfd as he brought his left down from his face and winced, blood still oozing from the cut on his knuckles.
"Ow...heh...I am totally not like-" He moved his right hand and used it to help shove his bum back towards the wall, to sit up more straight.
"Ow- Gira, C'mon Jada, hehe, when I go on about something its usually awesome, like Pizza-" Enarin looked at his hand for a moment, balled it into a fist then let it relax, and shook it to get the pain to subside a bit.
"-Fuck this hurts- Niri's the important one, I'm some guy who's mom's a fleet commander." He said with a smirk, shaking his hand, droplets of blood sprinkling the ground.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jul 15, 2016 20:29:47 GMT -5
Enarin was laughing. He was a good laugher, that was fortunate because he did it a lot. They had a happy family, to Jada's eye it seemed pretty great. Nobody was stabbing anybody, nobody had pregnant kids. It didn't smell like nicotine stains and crippling poverty. Maybe he didn't really think much of it, but he could laugh, and that was good. Also he kept bleeding, which he seemed decently good at it. He did insist Niri was the important one, which Jada almost saw. Yeah their heredity focus was mostly just matrilineal, but Niri was also constantly getting smacked for being a little shit.
She liked to act out, maybe it was expectations or something.
"Quit bleeding all over the shelter damn it," Jada ordered him. She fished into the emergency kit, and produced one of the bottles of grain alcohol. She poured some out onto a clean rag and gently, if extremely firmly, took a hold of his injured hand.
She held the alcohol to the injury, with the full knowledge it was going to sting pretty good.
"Don't be a pussy about it either," She cautioned, wiping it clear and wrapping it with a bandage. "Just a little cut."
She took the open bottle and took a hefty gulp of it.
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Post by The Conman on Jul 17, 2016 22:57:18 GMT -5
Enarin tried to respond, but only got out a "hurk" as Jada practically pulled him across the shelter and arm-barred him while she decided to deal with his knuckles. It wasn't rough, but more of a firm sort of "you don't have a choice" thing. Not that Enarin could do anything even if he wanted too, his face smooshed up against the woman's shoulder, his other palm flat on the top of her back while he tried to reorient himself to see what she was actually doing to him, the womans lekku in the way.
Try as he might, he really couldn't see anything, though he had a pretty good idea given what she was on about, there was a medkit he hadn't seen, and as soon as she picked up the bottle of booze. He'd seen movies where people used alcohol to disinfect things, and Alanka had poured wine on some of his cuts at one point a few weeks prior...but he was entirely unprepared for how much it actually hurt, and inadvertently...
Grabbed Jada's right Lekku, while he gritted his teeth and grunted,
"Gghhhhhaaaaooowwwwwfuck" Was what he managed to get out, as it felt like Jada shoved her whole hand into his wound and moved a cloth made solely out of sandpaper around inside it.
After a few moments, he realized what he'd done and let go, as Jada finished wrapping his hand up, and took a swig of the booze, and let him go. The teen scrambled back to his "side" of the shelter, holding his hand close to his chest, looking at the bandage, a small redspot on it where he'd cut himself, pain still radiating from it and up his arm.
"Jada...we need to work on your communication skills..." He said, gesturing with his good hand for the bottle the dark woman had in her hand.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jul 18, 2016 1:52:21 GMT -5
It was a good thing that Enarin didn't have a lot of hand strength when it came to sudden surprise movements. If he'd actually clamped down on her lekku she'd have probably broken his nose and felt guilty about it. It wouldn't have been personal, just reflex. Luckily the hand wasn't bad, though his pained sounds were about what she'd expect if say, she'd just set a broken wrist. He was still a squishy little one, but on the other hand she wasn't about to rebuke him for it. Desert planet, poor chances of rescue, limited supplies. She had to figure their lifespan amounted to maybe a week. He needed his spirits up.
What was more... He had a point about her communication skills. She was from the lower decks, where 'go fucking fix it before I shove my foot up your ass' was acceptable instruction. A gentler approach was probably better.
Maybe she could learn from his family's example...
Worth a shot, she mused, and decided to try a foreign half-smile.
"Probably right. Easy on the lekku, if you're going to pull them, at least buy me dinner first."
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Post by The Conman on Jul 19, 2016 23:30:02 GMT -5
"Yeah, sorry about that, it was there, and I was kinda surprised how much that hurt, felt like you stuck your whole arm up in there..." Enarin said, leaning over and rummaging in the survival bag for a second, looking for a ration pack. He, finally, was feeling a bit hungry. Ideally he and Jada could share it, so the packs, of which there were 9, would last longer.
If the teen's memory served, he dimly recalled them having something insane, 5000 or so calories each. It'd be rough, but they could probably make the things last nearly 2 weeks if they each ate half of one a day. It'd be enough to keep them alive, if only just...the upshot was the little MRE like emergency ration packs came with some pretty decent candies, and cigarettes. Not that Enarin needed them, he'd managed to recover his pipe and most of his weed, if worse came to worse he'd just get really baked and follow the smoke toward the riff filled land, journeying through the desert like some kind of delirious weed priest looking for the promised land, finding groundation through the blessed herb.
The teen looked at the pack he'd pulled out, chuckling. Number 9, it had a picture of a bantha on the front of it and directions for use on the back that were entirely pictures. Probably for people like Taryn who didn't read so well.
"Dinner-" The teen said, pulling the bag open with a minor amount of flourish, placing it between the two.
"-Is served. Eeet eez ze banza wiz ze-" He paused, pulling out a packet of some kind of brown goo, which had instructions on it to put on the off white, vaguely cookie-looking bar that was included with the pack.
"-zac full of graveeee and ze-" He paused, and pulled out a small green candy in a clear wrapper, complete with instructions on it how to unwrap it and eat it.
"-petit ahhh....zliver of a meent." He finished, chuckling at the end, at the hilariously small amount of stuff in the pack.
"I'm thinkin' we split...uhh...this fine spread...you can have the candy, I'll take the lekku, everyone's happy." He said in his usual voice, flipping the candy back into the pile of stuff, leaning back on the wall with a small "oof".
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jul 20, 2016 0:04:09 GMT -5
Jada shrugged. According to the boldest interpretations of his family conduct, yelling 'phrasing' would be the next suitable action. On the other hand her attempt at their humor'd been met... Quietly? There'd been no laughter or comment, on the other hand she didn't have the context to tell if she'd flubbed it, if it wasn't noteworthy enough to comment, or if he was just distracted by impending death by dehydration on this dustball. The horrible thing, she realized as he was puttering in a ration pack, was that it was even shitty as deserts went. No sage brush or juniper or anything, no interesting rocks. Just a bunch of damned sand everywhere. She'd heard a rumor once the Impies hated sand, that it was a type of terrain they chose to operate in as little as possible.
By that metric, this was a great desert. The odds of the Empire killing them were incredibly low.
The ration on the other hand...
She had to give Enarin and his snooty accent a solid A for effort, but the meatloaf thing looked like it was from the Mandalorian Wars, and about all that appealed was the poptart. Or more likely 'Deconstructed Toast Pastry M1' since the naming assholes were awful at their jobs. The ration packs weren't known for being great. The other danger in the Boska was that it'd be half-assed in some manner. Like you'd open up a ration pack and there'd be an IOU instead of the chili-mac. Or something. Boska had an innate ability to touch things and make them erratic and jumbled. If not for the fact they did a few things stunningly well they'd have probably died off and gone the way of the Republic.
She produced a spork and cut off part of the meaty-loaf. It was meatlike substance. Probably like Bantha Extract and Protein Starch Number Four.
Jada suddenly caught his last comment about her lekku.
"Yeah hope you're not that hungry, I'm attached to them," She added, before popping the meaty-thing into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully.
Her face didn't give any cues about it, she looked as neutral as a Sluissi in the Department of Boredom, but finally she swallowed and ventured an opinion.
"I'd say it tastes like brown, with hints of salt. Your opinion Chef?"
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Post by The Conman on Jul 20, 2016 0:28:30 GMT -5
The teen chuckled at her quip about the lekku, he was staring to appreciate her sense of humor. Despite some missteps, him making a joke and getting a blank stare, or her saying something and it going over his head...her quip didn't. The fact they could joke and laugh was good, if only to keep the realization of their impending doom at bay.
Enarin didn't have a spork on hand, hiding somehwere in a pocket like Jada did...he'd never thought about it until that moment, and realized it've been pretty handy as he fumbled with the plastic packaging around the brown plastic spork that'd been included. The bandage on his hand made getting a grip on it more challenging than he'd thought it'd be, and as Jada tried a bite, he just used the bottom of the handle to poke a hole through the packaging from the inside out and pulled it out that way.
Jada chewed it without any hint of what it tasted like on her features, making Enarin hopeful, it seemed like it didn't taste too bad, he hoped at least. Her asertation that it tasted like "brown", not "shit" or "poop" or "tshi", which was some other language's way of saying "unsatisfied with the cooking of the duck.".
"Wellp...here goes..." He said, using his spork to break off a mouthfull and bring it to his face.
The teen sniffed it, getting nothing but a vague aroma of almonds off it. He shrugged, and ate the bite.
Immediatley it became obvious Jada was trolling him, that or she didn't have tastebuds. The teen made a somewhat disgusted face, somewhere between a frown and the face you make when trying to take a difficult poop, as his eyes immediately began to water at the not entirely, but nearly so, offensive flavour currently invading his mouth-hole. He put a hand over his mouth, and swallowed hard, coughing afterwards.
"Wow-" He started, coughing again and spitting off to the corner, rubbing his eye to clear the built up tears from the bite.
"-You're a total ass, you know that?" He said, while propping himself up with his good hand, and laughing heartily, Jada's expression as unreadable as ever, Enarin's mouth tasting vaguely of aluminium and shit.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jul 20, 2016 0:41:44 GMT -5
Jada kept a straight face for about ten second after Enarin's outburst. Then she abruptly let out a loud laugh. It was actually the first that she'd had in the posting. In fact it was probably the first of the year. She gave him a look that could be effectively subtitled 'oh poor baby' and then casually took another bite, while shaking her head. The fact was that she'd eaten worse. It tasted like weird artificial combinations of crap because it probably was, but she'd eaten worse in slavery, and even in the lower decks of the Boska.
"Oh he wants flavor does he?" She said, with tongue-in-cheek patronizing.
She followed it up with a chuckle as she remembered the 'non-flavored algae bar' they'd effectively refused to eat in the military, it had gotten kicked down the line to be free food for the poorest Boska. The operative point was that she'd seen some shit, and she'd eaten it.
"Honestly the Boska suck at food, you're lucky Mama's got a great autochef and you have groceries. I had to eat this kind of shit for years in the military, worse even. So this one-" She poked it with the spork, "It's not that bad. It's got flavor. I think it's aiming for Bantha, maybe a hint of almond and botulism, but it's trying. There this unflavored one we had to eat, I think we had it for two weeks before we got it shitcanned, but it literally tasted like pondscum and chlorine. This one, they drown it out with Bantha Number Five."
She slid the liquor bottle over to him.
"Just wash it down with shots Chubbs, you'll be fine."
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Post by The Conman on Jul 26, 2016 21:05:41 GMT -5
For a moment Enarin thought Jada was going to shove her Spork into his eye, then, after a beat, she erupted into laughter, the teen realizing he hadn't heard Jada actually laugh since he'd met her. Her raspy voice made it come out more like a hearty cackle, and it made Enarin laugh along with her, the teen stifling his laughter as she explained how bad the food had been.
It was very true, the Boska were magnificently awful at food. It'd keep you alive, but not a whole lot else, the Boska philosophy on food seemed to be more of a tool to stay alive rather than something to be enjoyed. He hadn't had Jada's experience, that was for sure, when he was young his grandparents had decent connections, being procurers and all, and he ate well. Jada was correct, too, despite his mother's inability to make anything more complicated than water, Var did a very good job ( somehow...he'd never seen her as the trader type...) of finding spices and various things to eat that weren't awful, or making the regular boska food taste pretty good.
He snerked at the woman when she asked him if he wanted flavour, in a patronizing voice. She had a point, it didn't have to taste good, it just had to keep them alive. He did make a mental note to mention the food situation to his mother if they got back, the teen hadn't realized they ate so badly...
"Heh, booze will help, that's for sure-" He said, picking up the bottle and taking a swig, gulping hard to get the moonshine down.
He gasped after, and shook his head, the booze being in excess of 90% to Enarin's pallette.
"-Goddamn...wow-" He held the bottle out, looked at it, then back to Jada, shrugged, and took another swig, gulping hard again to get it down, feeling the burn all the way down his throat, letting out a small burp.
"-I guess I can just burn off my tastebuds...gods, Gira migh've actually made things better for once..." He said, sliding the bottle over to Jada, and taking a bite, the overwhelming flavour of shit and aluminum being abated somewhat by the booze still burning his tongue.
"It's not so bad once you're used to it...like syphilis...or children." He said with a chuckle.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jul 28, 2016 23:39:01 GMT -5
Enarin's comment about the drinkability of the liquor was met with a solid nod. His joke about it, that got a laugh. Jada did indeed have a bit of a cackle, the kind that suggested if they ever planned to reboot Rambo as a movie about a Witch, she'd be high on the casting list. Ironically he had a point about Gira, as much as Jada shittalked the yellow nutcase, it was from a position of friendly affection. If somebody she disliked leveled that critique at Gira, they'd probably get punched in the face. Truth was that she knew her grains, and her stills, and she did quality work. Dealing with her weird personality was just the price you paid for quality.
"Yeah, Gira's pretty good at what she does. This stuff, it's just swill. Probably great for starting fires, probably runs an internal combustion engine all right."
Jada took the offered bottle and slid back a bit more. It did burn. It burned pretty bad in fact, but she didn't like to show that kind of thing. You earned a reputation for being the baddest mother in the Operations Group, you didn't wince over hooch. Ever. Even if it was just rubbing alcohol in a glass.
"Syphilis, maybe. Pills for that. Children? Nah. Don't know how your parents handled it, they seem insanely well-adjusted. How did they even.. You know?"
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Post by The Conman on Jul 29, 2016 0:54:38 GMT -5
Enarin smirked at Jada as she asked her question, finishing her question for her, a somewhat innocent expression on his face.
"Procreate? Meet?" He stated more than asked, with a small chuckle, realizing Jada probably had no idea how he and Niri had come to be.
It wasn't really something he liked to think about, the thought of his moms going at it made the teen shudder internally....that thought passed, the notion of his mom, a month or two after she'd turned 16, high on chems and in heat, at a grancha hasa, did as well. Enarin wasn't sure if it was the two thoughts that had just flown through his head, the food, or the booze, were turning his stomach. The teen decided to just tickle the dragon's tail, and took a bite of the "matter" they were eating with his spork, and gestured for the booze, Jada shuffling it over to him.
Enarin covered his mouth with his hand and grunted as he swallowed, then popped the cork out of the bottle, and raised it slightly as a bit of a toast, and took a swig, the booze burning as it went down, but taking the vague flavour of shit and metal down with it, replacing it with...alcohol.
It was an improvement, he figured, putting the bottle down and replacing the cork, and shuffling it over to Jada, spitting off towards the entrance of the shelter, leaning back and letting one of his legs uncross, his foot about a foot away from Jada's hips.
"Wellp...whole thing's a bit of a story...How I happened, Niri happened, and The Moms met, is actually all intertwined...heh, Probably not surprising, but I mean-" He looked off towards the entrance to the shelter, the sunlight starting to fade from blistering white to orange.
"-We've got the time I guess-" Enarin stated, rubbing his chin with his good hand, waiting a bit, Jada giving him an quizacious look.
"Y'ah know, that picture, up on the shelf, beside the TV, in the living room? The one with Momma D in it, some really light skinned nurse, and a darker skinned man?" He asked, Jada giving him a nod, but still an unsure look.
"Wellp, I'm obviously the little bundle of Joy Momma Dee's holding there, the guy is my grandfather, Alask, and the light skinned woman's Var's mom...I'll come to her later....Anywho, so I donno if you've noticed yet...or not...but Momma Dee isn't just into girls. She's kinda, into, uh...everything. I mean, she likes women, I'd wager even prefers them-" Enarin paused, trying to figure out how to explain what he knew, which wasn't much, about Donnie's sexuality, rubbing his chin thoughtfully for a moment before just generalizing.
"- To guys, I guess...but she still likes guys. I happened because she was 16, dumb, and on a lot of, as she said-" Enarin switched to a hauntingly good impression of Donnie's voice.
"-A shitload of fucking amazing pills I got from some smuggler friend of mine!" He finished, chuckling, gesturing for the booze.
"Anyway, You can probably put two and two together, she was in heat, high as fuck...apparently my dad was a bright orange, but I dunno, never met him." He finished, taking a swig and recorking the bottle, coughing a bit as the burning liquid went down, then passing it back to Jada.
"Or..." Enarin started, suddenly feeling like a doofus.
"Were you just curious 'bout how they-" He burped suddenly, not managing to get his hand up in time to cover his mouth.
"-Heh, burpsarefunny...how they met?" Enarin asked, a sideways smirk on his face, his good hand nervously playing with a lekku, the teen figuring he'd basically durped and misinterpreted the question entirely.
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