Futuristic HyperLane - Main RP Page

[JesseMarshall]

Page for the main RP. If you are interested in background, the 'other' link at the top of the page will take you to the interest check. A Lore page will be built once some plot has gone on. Thank you!

 

[Burning_Heart]

Onyx Lauristen sighed as she sat at the desk in her room, running a hand through the long black curls on her head. She was doing her best to focus on the screen in front of her, but her mind was elsewhere. A place she really didn't want to be. Leaning back in her chair, she placed her hands over her face, letting out a frustrated groan. Almost ten years and her mind still wandered back to those stupid hazel eyes. Take a deep breath and concentrate, she told herself, finally moving her hands away so she could look up at the ceiling. How could one person make such an impact? No, she didn't need to ask that question. She knew the answer.

Shaking her head, green eyes went back to the screen, running through the most recent bounties that had been posted. They had just finished with another mission, and though she had given the crew a few days to rest and take a break, she knew they wouldn't be able to afford the luxury much longer. Stuff wasn't cheap anymore, and if they were going to stay fed, keep the ship up to date, etc, etc, then they had to get back in gear. One particular bounty quickly caught her attention as she scrolled past and she quickly had to bring the list back up so she could check it out. "TerraFirma...Murder..." Onyx mumbled as she read through it, deciding to sign The Siren's name onto it a moment later. It was a simple job, or so she hoped, and one that sounded like it would pay fairly well. She knew, however, with it being a government official, that they were going to have to tread lightly.

Shutting down the futuristic display, she stood, stretching her arms over her head, before pressing a small green button beside the keyboard. It was a nice little intercom system, which let her address all of the crew members without having to go to each of them individually. If she had to explain a situation nine or ten times, she'd probably lose her mind. "Alright, crew, we've got another job. Fairly simple this time: bring Annette Kaylo in for the murder of Marigold Zhao. Yiru, if you'll set a course for TerraFirma, I'd like to start there and talk to a man named Peter Gardner. He might be the best lead we have in finding the woman. If you have any questions, you know where to find me." With that, she closed the channel, letting out another sigh. Something was nagging at the back of her mind, though she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Maybe the job was too easy. Luck had never been on her side, at least for the most part, which meant that there was probably going to be something that made what seemed like a simple task harder than it needed to be. She pushed the doubts from her mind, moving towards the bathroom to splash some water on her face. She was paranoid about the smallest things and she knew it. It didn't matter what happened. Her crew was a good one and would work with whatever was thrown at them. She would have to do the same.

 

[JesseMarshall]

Carson Ho
Time: Mid-Afternoon
Location: Central Continent, ParDune, Cat's Eye

“No, I’ll pay you fifty markta for it and not a penny more,” Carson said.

The open-air marketplace oozed with heat from the three suns burning brightly overhead. Dust swirled through the streets, searing wind brushing it off the cobblestones. ParDune, a planetary hell-hole with a grand total of one million cubic miles of water on its entire surface, rested at the far side of the western arm. Why the locals still lived here could keep a man awake at night with contemplation if they cared enough.

Carson Ho stood engaged with a squishy-looking lifeform that carried a paunch belly physique. The naturally evolved species of this planet adapted to its conditions through sheer stubbornness. Apparently, they siphoned what little water floated in the air through the gelatinous membrane of their porous skin. It sealed the life-giving liquid away under its slimy exterior so that they only were required to imbibe water once a planetary year.

If that weren’t enough to put anyone off their lunch, they also happened to be blue—Carson’s least favorite color.

The creature started squelching at the Korean man, gesticulating wildly with an appendage stuck to the front of its face that reminded Carson of a slightly smaller, bluish version of his ex’s only decent attribute. Carson listened carefully, picking up the reply as best he could. When the creature finished, Carson narrowed his eyes at him, pointed at the sunsear fruit they were haggling over, and lowered his voice dangerously.

“That entire lot is bruised beyond imagining, and if you think anyone else on this side of the system will pay you more than twenty-five markta for the crate, then your sadly mistaken,” he said with a sharp tone. “You’re lucky that I’m some idiot from Kannalo station who doesn’t know any better and is offering you twice that. Take it or leave it.”

He paused, and the creature raised his sjarma (the previously mentioned appendage) to begin arguing once more when Carson quickly added, “Oh, and don’t give me that shit about not knowing what a penny is. You’ve been dealing with ‘Milkers’ for long enough to know what that is, you overgrown amphibian.”

The ParDunian lowered his sjarma, raised it as if wanting to say something, but after a moment, simply extended it forward. Carson grimaced but stuck out his right hand anyway, watching as the slippery protuberance wrapped itself around his hand and give it a firm shake. Carson drew back after the pleasantries were concluded and casually wiped his hand off on the back of his faded jeans.

“Thanks much,” he said, dropping a sizeable green chip onto the wooden countertop.

He lifted the crate up onto his left shoulder, a good fifty-five pounds, and started to walk away. Instead of turning right to go back to The Siren, he marched forward into the common area where several blue-skinned slime children sat in rags on the cobbles. The whole lot of them were pathetically sweet-looking orphans. The adults of this alien species might be gelatinous blobs, but the kids were enchantingly adorable.

Too bad about what they grow into, Carson thought, dropping the palate of sunsear fruit in front of them.

“Alright, kiddos,” he said with a warm smile, “Enjoy.”

They trumpeted their thanks, looking and sounding like a bunch of cornflower-colored baby elephants.

They’re more adorable than that species on Antillicatia we met a week ago, Carson conceded.

He arrived back at the ship about thirty minutes later, walking up through the open bay door to the cargo hold. He directed his paid assistance on where to stash the rest of his food purchases when the captain’s voice rang out across the PA system. He listened closely, nodded to himself when it finished, and paid double what he promised the young men helping him load the supplies.

He grinned at them, “That’s it, boys. Thanks for all your help!”

The two creatures waggled their sjarma at him, and Carson couldn’t help but laugh at how that gesture would be taken entirely differently back on Earth. Personally, he would have demanded dinner first, at least. That thought made him laugh even more.

He waved goodbye to the two and started off to the captain’s office. He’d get sup started in a moment, but Onyx always wanted to talk about their newest mission with him as the oldest member of the crew. The gods only knew why. It wasn’t as if Carson carried any special skills under his belt. He knew a slew of Korean proverbs that he spouted out that once belonged to his mother, but honestly, what else could there be?

As he passed the kitchen, a small golden boy yipped at him from the open door. Carson reached down and scratched the little guy behind the ears. Roscoe wore a bright blue color with the words ‘Bestest Boy’ engraved on a small gold plaque. The ship’s mascot and possibly the only corgi in The Cat’s Eye Galaxy.

“Heya, handsome boy,” Carson said. “Wanna snack?”

The little guy yipped twice, spun in a circle, and then stopped to wiggle his hind end in excitement.

Carson laughed, “Alright, I got some genuine beef-heart bites back here somewhere.”

Roscoe made an inquisitive whine, cocking his head to the left.

“Don’t start with me, Roscoe. You won’t be able to tell the difference, and you know it,” Carson challenged. “Spoiled rotten is what you are.”

Turns out that Carson’s most significant soft spot was for dogs, and unfortunately, the captain would have to wait. Honestly, she’d probably want to come down to the galley to talk anyway. She usually did. After all, that’s where the liquor cabinet rested on its oak legs.

 

[WI_]

"He says this has gone on long enough. No more. He sees your twelve, and increases the bidding to... all-in, as your kind says. Seventy-five bars in total." A bold move to increase by so much but it was born from an increasingly self-confident attitude. Indeed it was against the spirit of the game to increase the standing bet by so much, but this wasn't an establishment with much integrity to begin with - literally. Sat in a junk-yard not far from the landing pads, the remnants of a scavenged ship's cargo-bay offered a poor venue for illicit gambling. It gave little protection from the several suns nor was it a very comfortable place to sit within. Four hours sat in the humid, musty, confined space would leave anyone a little delirious, and perhaps that was playing to the advantage of one of the two beings left playing at the makeshift table.

One of them, an amorphous blob of blue-goo, was waving about it's sjarma as if mocking his opponent in some primitive humanoid manner; swinging dicks and all that. Stood over it's... shoulder? Did ParDunians have shoulders? Either way, stood behind it with arms crossed over their chest was a gloating Alvaarian. Crude little things, they could pass for small reptilian humans given their orange, scaly skin, short, sharp teeth, and prehensile tails. They were not a rare site in more primitive worlds like this, natural hustlers by trade, and this one, Daar'vaan, had managed to swing a job as a translator. It wasn't entirely required here given Tau's understanding of ParDunian. He was having to listen to the same sentence only given in a very smug, very crude form of human. And right now, those bright arctic-blue eyes stared at the little amber man with contempt.

He knew what the man's game was. He understood the gravity of the bet and just how serious this had become. This wasn't some game of pennies. This was a serious bet with serious consequences and he licked his lips nervously. He looked like a man locked in-between reason and possibility, each as tempting as the other. But it was a game of winner takes all, and with a low groan of discomfort he slapped the edge of the table.

"Fuck it, fine, all in it is." A tanned hand pushed across the remainder of his markers. This was it, the final play of the game.

As Daar'vaan began to radiate delight, a wave of the sjarma and squelch of gas within the ParDunian signalled displeasure. Before Daar'vaan could say anything in translation the hand atop the table retracted down to Tau's side and his head nodded slowly with understanding. Lifted out of a bag beside him on the floor, he lay a long metallic cylinder down beside their cheap plastic tokens atop the table. The centre was made of glass and within was a viscous black liquid.

"I understand, it's not fair to bet so little against so much." He gestured from his pile to the ParDunians. "So... I'll add in this container of bio-memetic gel to even the deal. Thats fair, right?" He sounded defeated, his free hand coming up to brush back his damp hair, letting out a fatigued sigh as he sat back into his seat to await their response.

They had been playing this final game alone for some time now, five other players having left empty handed as their money trickled across slowly to the ParDunian who now sought to bring the killing blow to his final opponent. Right now, Tau was in a bad position, and it showed in the trickle of sweat that ran along his jawline to drip from his chin. For a few painful seconds he watched as the translator explained just what was being offered up. A little explanation went a long way it seemed and at the insistence of the scaly-man that he take the deal, a squelch of agreement was made.

It brought another weighted sigh from Tau. Not long after followed a sloshing sound. A sly smile quickly tugged at the rosé lips of the human. His demeanour changed at once, though the translation reaffirmed his understanding;

"Do you have any.. eight's?"

To Tau's credit, he managed to withhold the laugh he wanted to give. The consequence of this was the smile only grew further, especially on seeing the realisation come to those beady reptilian eyes.

"Go. Fish. I will take those three nines you have though."

When the translation was made, admittedly slowly and quietly, a wild flurry of sjarma and orange limbs proceeded between the duo as blame was levelled and denied accordingly. Meanwhile, Tau was standing up in triumph, casting down his cards onto the table revealing his six full sets in hand. Within moments his hands were busy collecting his winnings, delighting in the feel of the cold metal on warm skin as the argument across the table continued unabated. For Tau, they clinked pleasantly in his ear as the small rectangular metal plates were stored into the bag he had brought.

It took a little time to store the one-hundred bars but it allowed the duo time to cease their argument. As Tau reached for the cylinder of bio-memetic gel, so too did Daar'vaan, the former reaching it first though he paused and his other hand rose to his hip where his blaster pistol sat, fingers hovering against it.

"We aren't going to have a problem now... are we Daar'vaan?" The tone had shifted swiftly. It was very assured now, cold and unforgiving. The playfulness was wiped from his face as he glared across at the other being. For a few seconds there was a tense stare-down and complete silence between them as each played our theoretical ways this could go down. Thankfully, before too long, the orange hand slid away. Tau waited a few seconds more before his hand left his hip.

"Good choice. Very good choice." He moved the cylinder off the table and into his bag."Until next time gentlemen; que la paix soit avec toi." He touched his forehead in farewell to both individuals as he hefted the full bag up, grabbing his jacket off the back of his seat and strolling out of the derelict ship with all the arrogance of a man who'd lied and schemed his way to over one-hundred bars of iridium.


About thirty minutes later he made it back to the ship just as the captain's message relayed in his earpiece. He didn't pay much heed to the news of another mission at that moment, too caught up in his jubilation and having to wait as two ParDunian's made their way down. He raised a brow in curiosity at their being on the ship in the first place, though he saw they carried nothing away and there was some squishing sound akin to 'payment'. It wasn't his ship to pull rank aboard so he let it go without further consideration.

Stepping through into the cargo-hold he took a moment to put the bag down, stamp his feet and shake off some of the dust and sand that had accumulated on him. He missed planets with rain. Hell, just water in general would be nice. With his jacket back over one shoulder he carried his winnings through into the kitchen area, eyeing a particularly fluffy and snow-white butt shaking at him. Stepping inside he too was greeted by a 'yip', though perhaps not as happy as the one he had given his food-bringer.

"Ah, hello little Roscoe, look what Uncle Tau won!" He jiggled the bag at the canine as if he would understand what the clinking within meant. Pausing and throwing his jacket over his arm though he crouched down and scratched under the chin of the well behaved pooch for a few seconds in further greeting. Soon he brought his hand back despite the pleading eyes and, once back upright, Tau crossed over towards the liquor cabinet, throwing his jacket down onto his seat and placing the bag down beside it. It was then that he saw the ships cook.

"Carson! Care to share in my celebrations?" He called out as he fished into the bag, coming out with a small bottle of a golden liquid he had taken to calling 'honey', on account of its golden colour and rich sweetness - though the kick was ten times that of a whiskey of similar volume. Without need of a reply, he went to the liquor cabinet, fishing out two small shot glasses which he proceeded to fill near to the brim atop a nearby table. Pushing his sleeves up to the elbow, he collected the glasses and turned back towards Carson and the kitchen.

"This," he held aloft one glass,"this is to my incredible talent of lying!" With that, he sunk the shot in one and his face screwed up tighter than a puckered backside. He let out a wheeze and smiled as he shook his head, opening his eyes and looking to the moustached gentleman as the effects subsided. The first was always a kick.

"And this," now the second glass rose,"is to winning ten times my shitty cut from our last bounty in just one mornings gambling! Here, here!" He downed the second shot, clearly never having intended to share his expensive alcohol with someone else. The glasses clinked together as this time he took the hit much better though he let out a loud 'woo!' when he was done.

What was that old saying on Earth? It's five o'clock somewhere, right?

 

[Moldie]

The place was... grotty. A little corner bar obscured by most everything around it, a place marked on no map on a street with no name. What little light got in only highlighted the generations of dust stagnant in the air. It wasn't glamorous, but did it really need to be? A drink’s a drink after all, right? Eva wasn't picky, but something was off about whatever it was she had ordered. The planet was mostly devoid of water so whatever the goopy make-do brew she had been presented with consisted of she could only guess. Twirling her finger around the top off the glass she kicked back, her hat firmly making sure her eyes were covered from any unwanted disturbances. Thinking about it, ParDune wasn’t all too different from her home world, an aspect she loathed about it. That tangible emptiness, somehow worse than inconceivable proportions of outer space.

She glanced over at the droopy barkeep tending to their menagerie of trinkets and bottles containing various creepy crawlies from across the planet that adorned the back wall. Interesting decor, she had to admit. Slipping a cigarette out her pocket and into the corner of her mouth she gestured towards the almost abstract being for a light. They complied, using their gluey appendage to bring forth a nice steel lighter perhaps a bit too close for comfort in order to kindle the woman's well needed smoke. First waft was coarse, the second less so. Certainly wasn’t no tobacco from earth. Puffing away she studied the lighter sloppily thrown onto the countertop. It had some form of engraving on it but modern art was a bitch and she couldn’t even begin to decipher what exactly it depicted. All in all, shitty drink, shitty smoke, shitty bar, shitty planet. Just couldn’t get much better.

Her peace was suddenly interrupted by a message over the intercom. She listened carefully, still sunken into her seat with her boots kicked up high on the counter. Not as if the keep could afford to tell her off right? In any case, as much as she enjoyed doing nothing, the prospect of a new job was a relief, and it couldn’t have come sooner. In a sleek sweeping motion she slipped a small chip across the counter and bid her farewells with a swift hand gesture. Emerging outside she felt as if she hadn’t seen the sun in a hundred years, and it was searing. Once again the visor of her hat was there to rescue her sight but the heat was all encompassing and most certainly unforgiving. Trudging along she entered the main street, if you could even call it that. There wasn’t much to see out here and even less to do, their departure would be a well needed repose from this dull world.

Approaching the ship it was obvious she was not the first to have acted on the call. Entering through the cargo hold she quickly oversaw some of the stocked supplies before her ears caught some faint chitter chatter, perhaps a bit cheerier than usual? Wandering into the ship she made out the voice to be that of Tau and Carson, engaging in some form of celebration. Treading through the ship she of course couldn’t slip by the ever vigilant Roscoe, who approached her in something of a waddly sprint, yelping all along. She gave the ships darling a mild smile, one of the few who so effortlessly could bring one out of her. “Carson. Tau.” She quickly addressed her buoyant crewmates as she leaned back onto the wall behind her. Making herself comfortable Eva pulled a small steel box out her pocket and with a janky motion watched a firm teal tinted flame rise. It really was a nice lighter.

 

[The Prophet]

Giovante Rose

Spoiler: Appearance

If there was one thing he enjoyed about his room besides the computer he himself brought aboard, it would be the bathroom. More specifically, the shower. Hygiene was important, and the life of a glorified space freelancer left many in the way to impede that. Grimy aliens, cesspool planets, and general disposition of most that a regular shower was less important than good alcohol made him all too glad that he had the facilities to make sure none of that stuck for long. Fresh out of the shower in question, Giovante stood in front of his bathroom's mirror as he did his hair. "Sometimes I wish I had straight hair. It'd be so much easier to manage." He mumbled, an empty threat to his curly hair as he stood there applying product and whatnot. Not that he would ever straighten his hair of course. Gods no, curls were superior.

When he finished, Giovante wrapped a towel around his waist and left the private bathroom into his actual room. The inside of Giovante Rose's quarters were dreadfully bare, lacking any real character or even designation it was his own. A bed, desk, closet, storage chest, and computer were all that stood between a meticulously clean, though empty room. And if Giovante was honest, he liked it that way. The recent addition to the crew leaned forward into his desk, typing away at a large keyboard in casual pursuit of trends and recent news. Was it boring in between jobs? Very much so, but he certainly wouldn't complain for fear of a reduction in freetime. These times were when he was afforded the rare and exciting opportunity to study human made physics documents and watch old documentaries. Speaking of, it seemed his favorite channel was airing a classic in just a few minut-

"Alright, crew, we've got another job. Fairly simple this time: bring Annette Kaylo in for the murder of Marigold Zhao. Yiru, if you'll set a course for TerraFirma, I'd like to start there and talk to a man named Peter Gardner. He might be the best lead we have in finding the woman. If you have any questions, you know where to find me."

…. Nevermind. With the press of a button the monitor flickered off, and the sharpshooter was greeted with the reflection of his own face staring back at himself. "Whew, okay. Information? Information." Tearing his gaze from his hazel-eyed mirror image, Giovante stood and made to get dressed quickly and grab a tablet on top of his bed. His old workplace would have begun this mission with a full briefing in five minutes and all suspects properly profiled before the mission even started, but nowadays he'd have to settle for doing it himself. And as the now dressed man left his quarters, that was exactly what he did. Eyes glued to the illuminated screen of the tablet as he pulled up all search results for each individual. Social media presence, public records, anything he didn't have to actually breach that would give an idea of what this person was like and what their life was involved in. His previous career had taught him a lot, one of which being to know everything you can about any individual involved with a case. Giovante began to sort through the information quickly on his way to his destination. "Their private records would be a way better start... I should ask if I'm good to breach any networks just yet. Though, If it's actually as simple as she says, it shouldn't be necessary."

Giovante paused suddenly in the corridor, recalling the comm. "Did she say Marigold Zhao?! Ugh, this is going to take so much longer now that the government is involved."

It seemed that some of the crew was back already, if the sounds of conversation and boxes were any indication. Well, that and the subtle bits of sand on the floor from outside. He saw the ship mascot first, the corgi staring him down as the young man contemplated whether or not to head in. It was answered with the synchronous nod of both dog and man, followed by the bark of the former. And to think Giovante was a cat person. Well, who couldn't like Roscoe? Giovante entered the room with a small wave to the occupants and a petting of Roscoe before taking a seat at a chair he made sure was nobody else's. "Celebrating with alcohol? Well, I suppose it would be five o'clock in….. New York right about now." He shrugged, before going back to profiling the three names given over the intercom earlier.

 

[JesseMarshall]

Carson Ho
Time: 3:33 PM Ship's Time
Location: Kitchen, The Siren, ParDune, Cat's Eye

Carson grabbed a large pot under the sink and began filling it from the tap. He cupped his hand under the steady flow, binging the water trapped there to his lips. That first sip cooled his dry mouth and forced him into the realization of how dehydrated the environment outside made him.

He turned, grabbing a glass out of the cupboard above, and filled it to the brim as Tau walked into the kitchen. Carson watched him with an amused expression, already knowing that the second shot of ‘honey’ would go straight into Tau’s bloodstream. It took all of two seconds for the latter to drag down the shooters, sputtering a little as he finished them.

“You should drink some water, you know,” Carson remarked. “Hwa-yakeul ji-go bool sok-euro deoreo-kanda. That’s what you’re in store for.”

At first impression, Tau seemed obnoxious and rude. Yet, the man could smile for a political guest and essential clients, charming them with kind words and subtle glances. It used to piss Carson off knowing that he possessed the ability to be a gentleman but never used it around them.

His mother used to say, the river is far more complex than what you find on its surface. That appeared to ring true with Tau. Carson didn’t know if the rest of the crew quite realized it, but Tau acted in a way that rang true to who he really was around them. His energy and mask he reserved for those he couldn’t trust. Those he truly despised.

Nowadays, Carson simply humored the blue-eyed man with the biting tongue. After all, everyone wanted to be loved for who they were—not who they pretended to be.

“Congratulations on your overwhelming success,” Carson replied with a toothsome grin.

Eva followed shortly after Carson refilled his glass with water, pressing it into Tau’s hands. She propped herself against the wall directly inside the door frame but moved no closer. This woman voiced few words but always lingered. He smiled at her short greeting, pulling another glass out of the cupboard and filling it with water.

“Come, Miss Eva. This is the key to healthy skin and bright eyes,” he said, passing the cup brimming with cool water over to her. “Besides, you must be dying of thirst after wandering outside in that fucking desert.”

When Giovani arrived, Carson reached to grab another glass but stopped when he noticed his hair still wet from a recent shower. So instead, he picked up a clean kitchen towel from a magno-drawer and tossed it at the man. The cook smiled as it landed neatly on top of his head.

“You’ll catch a cold,” he said with a shrug.

He pulled the stew-pot from the sink and placed it on a burner. The stovetop chimed, “Water—fifteen point five ounces. The estimated time to boil is five-point-three seconds. Would you like to begin?”

Carson groaned, “No, there’s a perfectly good button that I can press to-”

“Thank you for choosing Maltec Kitchen Appliances. Now heating,” the cooktop interrupted.

“No, I—Maltec cancel.”

“Command not recognized,” the devil machine chimed. “Try again.”

“Cancel,” Carson shouted.

“Command not recognized. Try again.”

Carson threw his hands up in defeat, “Boil the damn water, then!”

“Cancelling.”

Carson’s eyes narrowed, “I’m throwing you out the airlock as soon as we hit deep space.”

“A friendly reminder that removal of Maltec Kitchen Appliances from their installed station will result in a void to your warranty,” the cooktop informed him.

“And a friendly reminder to you,” Carson quipped, “Your warranty expired two years ago. I remember because you hounded me for an entire week about extending it.”

The display lights on the range blinked off with a sad little chime. Once Carson felt optimistic that it wouldn’t turn back on again, he leaned against the sink station, sighing exasperatedly.

 

[Impius]

D.U.K.E

Cats Eye Galaxy
Docked in ParDune: Salvage Yard

Intoxicated

Hungry

Disdain for the environment

​

A couple days off, Captain said. Sure, perhaps for most of the crew members. Go out and enjoy this sweaty goo planet. Sure. The previous days Duke had spent changing smaller parts out that needed attention and could only be accessed from a small crawl space panel located on the outside of the ship. It was dirty work but it paid off, ultimately. He could complain all he wanted but in all truth, he enjoyed his dirty work. Dukes stomach grumbled as he made his way toward the salvage yard to see what parts hadn't been ruined from the constant exposure to the grains of sand and its wet, slimy, grotesque local life forms. There was a particular personal grudge Duke held against the natives since The Siren first docked here. Not to be too dramatic, but how can you plan on running a function salvage yard when you are on a planet over-ran with dust and the creatures themselves walking snot bubbles?

The ship needed to have a couple of things switched and changed out still, bigger parts he didn't have stored away somewhere. He couldn't let the heart of his precious baby be the reason for any kind of free drifting in space. The ships plasma reactor chambers were in desperate need of being replaced as the current ones were... neglected needless to say. Being an item towards the bottom of Duke's monthly check-up list, it was often one of the forgotten checkmarks after a couple trips to one of his private liquor stashes. It was time to get to the bottom items this time around. As much as he could anyway.

Duke flicked his cigarette out of irritation as the Pardurnian quickly waved its sjarma around with visible agitation. "I swear to stars, I ain't got all day ye' sssh-ticky sslime ball." The overly relaxed speech indicated his level of intoxication, not that the smell coming off his breath was a dead give away in the first place. Duke waved his hand toward a couple of scrapped ships lazily dumped off to the side of the bartering life forms.

"I'll pull it m-my" he hiccuped and let out a loud burp that made the Pardunian curl its sjarma into itself, either in disgust or because it grew tired from dealing with this persistent drunk,. "Myself. Don't need your slime getting on the coils and fucking shit up." Duke stood a little straighter, it was clear he needed the pressure released off his stomach. He had yet to eat that day, despite his early liquid breakfast.

"I'll pay ya.." He lifted his left hand, showing the four remaining fingers. "Twice as much, just no touchy-touchy." The native inhabitant pondered for a moment and finally reached its sjarma back out to seal the deal with the drunk human. Better to have him off and off the property as soon as possible. Duke stuffed the cigarette between his lips and proceeded to rip the parts he needed after slapping a hefty Marka in the creatures appendage. Maybe a couple extra spare parts made their way out of the gate that the boss Pardunian was unaware of. Maybe, maybe not. The plasma chambers were secured to a hoovering cart and taken to the ship.

Back on the ship, Duke had just secured the new parts in place when the PA system signaled the voice of their trusty captain's voice announcing a new job. He gave a couple bolts quick last second tighten and lazily tossed the wrench into his trusty tool bag. His hands were covered in various fluids and smeared black from greasing the new bearings. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand as sweat poured down his face like he went for wild ride with a Pardunian. A new black smudge stretched across his forehead. Grabbing his tool bag, Duke made his way carefully out of the depths of the engine room, carefully avoiding pipes spewing scolding hot steam every couple of seconds or massive coils of wires crazily crossing the narrow "walkway" as we will call it.

Once into the mini foyer that held some basic protective equipment that appeared unused and all the tools and spare parts Duke could get his grubby paws on, the tool bag was dropped off to the side of the doorway next to a pile of what an unknowing eye would see as junk. The small foyer had a simple workbench shoved against the wall with tools and little pieces of machines strewn across the top. It looked messy, chaotic, and like it would take a couple of hours just to make the room look clean and organized. Any unauthorized hands touching his precious den would be answered with a spiteful drunkard ready to throw hands.

He quickly began making his way straight for the kitchen, his stomach a searing hot sun within his abdomen. 'Perhaps it was a mistake drinking this early?' The daily thought buzzed across his mind like a fly on a hot summer day. His head swirled and his steps swayed and staggered along the halls, slightly oblivious to the chatter coming from his destination, the cool halls drying the sweat that previously dripped off him.

Duke swayed through the doors, pausing once they slide shut behind him with their signature shhh noise of air pressure being released, he glanced around with glazed eyes to everyone. It was apparent he was hoping to have made it first, his stomach giving out a vicious growl of hatred for being left unfed. He gave Eva a short nod as he walked by her to his favorite spot by the window to sit, instead of sneaking off with something from the cabinets of fridge. He hiked his leg up, ankle resting on knee, and patted his four fingered hand on the table a couple times.
"Carssson! Cars-shon, my beloved friend. My lovely," Dukes left hand touched over his heart as his head cocked to the side slightly, "companion, beautiful angel," the right hand was added over the left, "what have you got planned for todays glorious feast?" His eyes flicked down to The Sirens mascot, a coy, sarcastic smile crept across his dirty face as he lit the cigarette that had been resting between his lips.

 

[Moldie]

Eva, grey eyed and sunburned to a crisp, wasn't sure if Carson had pulled another saying on her or simply made a sly remark towards her sorry state. In any case she appreciated the gesture and gave Carson a confirming nod, “Thanks…”. She respected his good-natured demeanor, but it just wasn’t her to try and reflect it in some arbitrary way. Tau was another story however. As she observed his near ritualistic gloating she couldn’t help but to raise an eyebrow at the spectacle. She found it obnoxious, yes, but somehow sufferable in a twisted way. Charisma can really be a person's saving grace, perhaps even in cases of hubris as fiery as this.

As Giovante arrived Eva paid him little but an acknowledging glance, she barely found herself really socializing with the senior members of the group let alone the new guy. She wasn’t bothered by him but certainly in no rush to rub shoulders. Stumbling in came the fifth part of the equation, their ever so graceful engineer, drunk and dirty as can be. The nod was offered back as Duke stuttered into position, Evas eyebrow working overtime as it was still firmly raised at the assembly forming before her. She shouldn’t have been surprised, and she wasn’t really, but the whole situation was simply too typical. The whole debacle had even managed to drag her lips into the very slightest of amused expressions.

The matter of food did pique her interest though, as what she’d consumed throughout the day boiled down to a few cigarettes and half a glass of unidentified goop. Far from a balanced diet, but for the most part Eva found the local cuisine far from alluring. For the immediate moment well needed water would have to suffice...

...And damn, seldom had water been this good.

 

[Ambiloquous]

PARDUNE PANDEMONIUM
COLLAB WITH AI10100 ​

YIRU & HUAN

The three suns above ParDune beat down upon two dehydrated earthlings doing their best to dodge direct light and mosey their way through the little shade that existed on the sizzling streets. The scene was like a toddler smashing square blocks into triangle holes; it was obvious that the newcomers didn’t fit in the shadows at the edges of the cobbled roads, yet they tried anyway out of seemingly sheer pigheaded insistence — or sheer desire to alleviate the torridity.

Pausing to rest against a sturdy stall made of stone and ignoring the stink eye the ParDunian vendor gave them them, Yiru considered their current choices with a near-fried brain: they could a) leave and go back to the ship with temperature control or b) deal with the sunburn so they could attempt to enjoy their short stop on this planet, inhospitable for humans though it may be. While the observation deck had a multitude of diversions to keep the crew occupied, they were always on the lookout for something fresh — not that ParDune would be anywhere near their definition of “fresh” if they were choosing.

Flapping their flowered shirt to start a breeze even knowing it would make them hotter than they were already, they glanced at their brother out of the corner of their eye. “Di, got the last bottle?” They gestured at him. “C’mon, I saw that flash.”

Even Huan couldn’t bear to wear his usual fit outside, opting for a more concealing shirt and pants. He raised his arm to wipe off the sweat that was dripping down his forehead. This was triple the summer heat on Earth… then again, they did have three suns. It would make sense. He stared out blankly at the street.

Only to be snapped out of it by his sibling’s question. He looked up, narrowing his eyes at her before reaching down to grab the water bottle strapped to his thigh and threw it at her. “Go wild.” He muttered and grabbed his cap to start fanning himself. “Why is it so hot in this place anyway?” He looked up, glaring at one of the suns for a second before averting his eyes to the ground. “Why did we get off the ship again? The ship with amazing air conditioning that would definitely be colder than this place?”

Catching the item mid-arc, Yiru twisted the lid off with a skillful yank and downed half the water in it before focusing on Huan’s words. “‘Cause we’ve done everything to be done in the observation deck at least twice, and everyone else is out but Captain — and it’s not like we can help her with her work, yeah?” They gave the other a look. “Unless you want to.”

Huan flinched. He respected the captain for doing her work but there was no way he would be willing to touch any of her responsibilities. There was a very good reason why he stuck with weaponry and never any office duties. A very good and valid reason. "Yeah, that's fair. I really need a new update on Space Frontier, then we'd have something better to do." He had played and finished, or however much you can finish a slice of life game, the aforementioned game at least five times. It was fun but not that fun.

“Honestly.” Tossing the bottle back, Yiru peeled themselves off the dusty walls, revealing a smudge of grey-brown on their back. The pilot didn’t notice the grime. “I hear they play a sort of sand sport here though. Want to try it out?”

Yiru swore they weren’t suicidal. There was a difference between doing something entertaining on a fiery planet closer to hell than it was Earth and doing what basically amounted to a snail-speed hike on a fiery planet closer to hell than it was Earth — while the former was more likely to give them heatstroke, mentally, it felt a lot better than being slowly roasted as one stood. They’d be fine; Anya would patch them back up if they ended up dying — dying? What? They shook their head. The temperatures were really getting to them.

He caught the bottle and made a face as he saw the grime that stuck to Yiru's clothing. "Gross." He muttered before making a move to wipe it off but quickly retreating his hand back. He'd really rather not touch it. "Mei, you got something on your back." He called out first before tilting his head, eyes sparking with curiosity.

"Oh? Sports are always nice, and maybe we can get our thoughts away from the blazing heat." Once more, Huan glared at a point of nothingness in front of them, the heat distorting his sight ever so slightly and he raised his hand to rub his eyes. He suddenly missed the snowy planets they'd been on. At least he can wear layers to combat the cold. He couldn't take anything else off unless he wanted to rip off his skin to feel some momentary relief… he wondered if Anya would be able to patch that back up. Probably not.

“I have a what — “ Turning their head awkwardly to catch a glimpse of whatever it was on their shirt, they grimaced. Swiping at it with a palm, their action only made the smear ever bigger. “Oh, that’s not gonna come out, is it.” They sighed a little ruefully. Yiru had liked that shirt — never mind that they had five others with the same pattern sitting in their closet.

"Probably not." He shrugged in response. "Anyway, let's go find some locals who'd be willing to teach us," Huan suggested.

“‘Course, ‘course.” And of course, the moment Yiru said the affirmation out loud, the world coincidentally happened to toss a handful of red sand at them — well, not at them exactly, but a poof of red became visible in their immediate vicinity, and they took it as a sign. “Up ahead at two o’clock.”

Starting up a speedier walk that moved to a slow jog, they motioned to the direction they were talking about. “I think that’s our ticket.”

Huan grinned, spotting the group of ParDunians playing the sport and increased his pace to match with his sibling's pace. It wasn't long before they finally got within earshot of the players and he had to duck to avoid a ball of sand colliding with his face when he turned the corner to where the main battleground was.

Yiru openly grinned when the blue orb shedding grains barely missed colliding with their brother. It wasn’t often that they could find them caught off guard, even if this wasn’t truly one of those cases.

"Looks fun." Huan admitted, looking down at Yiru to watch their reaction.

Their first reaction to the sight of the sports grounds was to squint at the brightness. The pilot whistled when their pupils adjusted to the light. “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?”

The streets had abruptly ended around the turn, fading into a vast stretch of land the colour of varnished yellow pine. Structures made of sandy rock were scattered here and there, splotches of kaleidoscopic sand decorating their surfaces. At surprisingly fast speeds for their squishy bodies, ParDunians flung spheres of sand at their competition, and sometimes even more unexpectedly, their competition dodged them.

“Yo!” cupping hands around their mouth, Yiru hollered at the ParDunian players. “How do we join?”

It was as if the pilot had pressed a pause button. All of the players, even the ones that weren’t playing and were standing off by the side, turned to stare at them. There was an uncomfortable few minutes while the ParDunians congregated by a sidelined player to discuss something in trumpeting voices, before the sidelined player was pushed out to seemingly translate for the rest.

“You play with us?” The ParDunian raised a tentative sjarma forward.

"Yeah!" Huan responded with all of the enthusiasm he could muster, undeterred by the silence earlier. Wasn't the first time they rendered people speechless. "We docked here for a few and we thought we should, you know, get in touch with the local culture."

"Besides, it looks like really fun." He said, turning back to the explosion of colors on the sand before them. Huan belatedly noticed that there were more ParDunians than he had originally counted. A small part of him cursed his mistake before a larger part told him that they weren't in any immediate danger. "So, so? Can we play?"

The player abashedly took their limb back after it was certain the foreigners wouldn’t be shaking it. “Yes. Culture good, game fun.” They nodded for emphasis.

Yiru gave them a thumbs up. “Perfect.” Their shirt was ruined anyway, so they may as well send their shorts along with it. It would be for a good cause.

It was a bit of poking and prodding and all around confusion as the group swarmed around the siblings and tried to prepare them for their first game of… something. It was something. The translation didn’t come out quite right and neither of the two were an expert on ParDunian, so they just left it be. They were handed a small pouch of coloured sand — purple for Yiru and green for Huan — that they would be throwing at the other players. Whoever got the most of their own colour onto the others and had the least of anyone else’s won the match. There was a bit of math going on in the background too, to determine who exactly won, but Yiru certainly didn’t care to parse the badly translated summary, so it went in one ear and out the other.

Huan tried to understand the rules as best as he could from all the horribly translated mess. At least they were nice! And what he understood was that they were going to be throwing colored sand at each other. Simple. Straightforward. Straight up his alley. He gave Yiru a cheery wave as he walked over to his position and grabbed a handful of sand.

Yiru gave him a beam in exchange, pulling themselves into a loose running stance.

Once they were in position and equal distances away from each other, a referee trumpeted thrice and the game began.

He looked around to gauge his distance to everyone. The ParDunians were surprisingly fast on the sand and had good aim too. They also didn't seem like they were too affected by the heat. As far as Huan was concerned, he and Yiru were at a strict disadvantage. But hey, that's what made games fun and interesting.

As soon as the last note of the trumpet was played, Huan quickly ducked down and rushed to the side, avoiding a steak of red sand. He cocked his arm back and threw it at the direction of a ParDunian but didn't check to see if it made contact as he moved positions again.

Yiru dropped immediately after the sound, missing a turquoise throw and getting smacked in the head by a white one. Ignoring the sting and scrambling behind a boulder, they rummaged for a fist-sized bunch of sand before poking a head out and lobbing it at a distant ParDunian and hunkering down again. Already they were gasping, due to both the heat and the exertion — they weren’t much of an exercising person, and in situations like this, they regretted it. They’d always relied on Huan when it mattered… on Huan. That was it.

“Bro!” the pilot yelled, squatting in the shade of the rock. It had been less than ten fifteen seconds, and already they were planning to creatively swerve around the rules. “Want to team up?”

By the time he was able to get to cover, he already had smears of pink and blue on his shirt. He lamented about it only for a moment but rejoiced when he peeked out and saw green on some of the ParDunians. At least he was scoring some points. Or he assumed that counted as points. He'd find out when the game's over, he guessed.

Huan's head whipped to the side to see that Yiru had made for cover as well. "Sure?" He responded unsurely. He didn't know if the rules stated that teaming up was against it. He just knew that this was a free for all so technically it should be okay for a temporary truce… right?

"Just tell me where the ParDunians are and I'll handle the shooting!" Typical routine really. He grabbed another handful of sand and peeked out, managing to nail someone who had their back turned to him.

Yiru conveyed the okay sign to their brother by poking their hand above their nice rock hideaway, and got an orange splatter on their fingers for the trouble. Jerking their hand back, they hissed. The ParDunians didn’t go weak on their pitches, that was for sure.

The rest of the game went by fast, with Yiru popping up above their stone habitat to call out positions. A “three o’clock” here, a “ten o’clock” there, and sometimes the odd “eight thirty two”. The pilot didn’t try to hit anything, knowing that they were going to miss like their first — even as others hit them in the face a couple times. Instead, they lobbed their pouch of sand at their brother. “Catch! Help out a sib, would you?”

Huan had grabbed Yiru's pouch and shackled it to his belt before vaulting over his cover and immediately got punished by it with white and orange sand hitting him on the face and on the chest. He quickly shook it off and rushed to another spot and took advantage of Yiru's occasional callouts. He wasn't exactly sure which pouch he was grabbing his ammunition from but at this rate, he didn't care.

When the game had ended, he was pretty well off compared to the others. He let out a huge sigh of relief when he heard the trumpets go off again but he was grinning. Now that was some good exercise! Sure, he felt a bit woozy from the heat that was creeping back to his mind but the momentary feeling of exhilaration was worth it.

"That was great!" Huan called out, completely oblivious to the rising tension in the group. "I should join games like this more often." Better than being shot at by actual bullets, that's for sure.

Hopping out of the shade, Yiru carefully eyed the ParDunians who were speaking louder and much more aggressively at the translator. Grabbing Huan’s arm, they tugged on the limb before sidling towards the cobbled streets. “I don’t think they liked our tactics, bro.” As they were shuffling backwards, they added, “I might’ve… distorted a few rules, y’see.”

By now the ParDunian players were glaring angrily at them. One of them menacingly lifted a sjarma-full of pink sand and shook it at the siblings.

He crossed his arms and looked at his sibling curiously. “Distorted a few ru—” Huan raised his gaze to their fellow participants who were very much glaring at them. Slowly, he understood what it meant. He lowered his gaze back to his sibling and let out another heavy sigh. “Well, I take back when I said I should play more games like this then… especially with you.” He delivered a swift but soft blow to his sibling’s head.

Huan cleared his throat, opened his mouth and said. “Well, that was a nice game guys thank you!” He grabbed his sibling’s wrist and began bolting back to the ship as some of the ParDunians began chucking more bags of sand at them and shouting some things he couldn’t understand. Still, the intention wasn’t lost to him. They sounded like really mean words.

“Ouch, ow, my head.” Yiru winced. They took back their former words; the ParDunians had been going light on them in the game. Letting themselves be dragged by their brother, they were soon coated in hues more obnoxious than the ones in their floral shirt. The cobblestone beneath their feet dragged a trail of polychromatic sand as one extra energetic player chased them all the way to the end of the street before shouting what was surely a lengthy string of curse words at the two.

Once they were far enough that the other’s projectiles couldn’t land, the pilot bellowed a cheery “It was fun!” and waved a gleeful goodbye. Just as Yiru was going to whoop at their successful escape, their intercom crackled on in Captain’s voice. The crew had a job to do at TerraFirma, it seemed. Murder of a Marigold — what a name.

···​

After a period of rushing through the heat, the siblings were finally back at the familiar class-2 freighter. They were covered in enough sand that if someone shook the two, they would get a bathtub full of the grains and more. Yiru took a moment to gulp in air at the doorway — they were barely still standing — before entering the open bay doors. People might be irate at the tracking of sand through the hallways, but the pilot couldn’t be bothered to brush it off as they moved sluggishly toward the galley.

“Never…” Huan panted, blinking away the blurriness of his eyes and pressing himself against the wall from the exertion they had just gone through. “Never do that again.” He continued. Normally, he would have no trouble running from place to place. In fact, it could be considered child’s play for him. But basking in that blistering heat for far too long plus the game made him extra susceptible to the heat.

The cool interior of the ship gave him reprieve and he shook off the dust near the entrance for later disposal. He wasn’t able to take off a lot of the dust and even as he moved behind his sibling, he was sure that he was trailing some like Yiru was. He would grimace at the idea of having to clean the ship from their dust if he wasn’t so tired.

“Can you even fly in that condition?” He muttered the question. He remembered something about drunk flying… did that still apply to their condition? He was definitely seeing double and he was sure that the heat was fully getting to him even in the cool environment that they were in. “Shit… I should ask the captain if we need a game plan but ugh.” He groaned, bringing his shirt up to wipe away the leftover sweat and belatedly realizing he spread sand onto his face. He dropped his hold on his shirt and just used his hand to shake it off.

“I’m… hardier than… you think.” The fact that Yiru wobbled and placed a hand on the wall immediately after saying so did not help their case. “Get some water… and we’ll be fine.”

At the entrance of the galley, the pilot stumbled inside and landed with a thump on the nearest empty seat. “Need water.” They gazed dazedly around the room and caught Carson by the sink station. “Carson, please.”

Their mind noticed and immediately tossed away the fact that both Tau and Duke had been drinking due to their antics and slurred speech, as well as the fact that Gigi was the only one properly doing his job — such a stickler for responsibility, the man was. A few more seconds of reorienting themselves later, they caught Eva in the corner, being cool and aloof as she always was.

“Dying… dehydrating…” Huan added, leaning onto the wall on his back, soaking in the cool metal. “Never… cheat in a game… that includes physical exertion in a desert… with three suns.” Surely, that was something everyone in the current area already knew but he provided the information anyway. He closed his eyes and fumbled for the water bottle he had brought in earlier only to realize that he had left it with the ParDunians when they were being dressed for the game.

“Oh.” He raised his head to look at them. “Might be some angry ParDunians out there… who might want to dust everyone here.” Huan waved his hand dismissively. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Tell Captain… it was only 60% my fault,” Yiru chimed in after a wheeze.

 

[WI_]

No sooner had his 'woo!' left his lips than Tau could feel the disapproving glare of the ships dour gunslinger upon him. His dopamine high was shattered by her muted greeting and she tucked herself as usual against one of the far walls where there was little chance to approach her for conversation without her seeing the approaching danger. Heaven forbid someone try. Then again she fit in well with the ever growing population of introverts the the captain seemed determined to collect like little trinkets. Speaking of which, in came the next one, carrying his tablet like an additional appendage as usual and seating himself with a quiet remark in regards to the empty glasses in Tau's hands.

"Yeah, yeah. We get it Gio. You, like everyone else, disapprove of me having fun. Go join Eva in her corner of misery will ya?" Despite being a group, a team, a family as Captain Onyx was fond of saying, there was still room for petty bickering and sly comments. Tau, being the oldest, took alot of jabs in his direction from alot of his crewmates. That didn't mean he wouldn't back them in a fight or argue their corner. Just, maybe he'd let them take a through-and-through to the arm... maybe.

The glasses were stacked together and brought to the sink, though Carson felt need to thrust a glass of water into his hands whilst offering his own congratulations that sounded far too sickly sweet to be genuine. There was no time to respond to that though as their bibulous engineer staggered in and caught himself from falling to the floor by falling into a seat. His slurred speech showed how much he'd had. As usual; too much.

Couldn't anyone on this ship handle a little liquor without getting drunk? Whatever happened to social drinking?

Luckily Duke was Carson's mess to control, as Tau returned over to his seat and his bag. He hadn't had time to truly settle in his seat before the inseperable siblings staggered in, a spectacle of colour and demanding water immediately. Having not specifically been asked for assistance Tau didn't offer any, and only took a sip of his cool refreshing agua in hand as he watched Yiru collapse into a seat opposite his with mild interest. His focus travelled across her figure and to anyone watching it may have looked like he was oggling her. In truth he was looking at the splashes of colour that dotted her being; the oggling was just a fun bonus. When her brother however mentioned ParDunians wanting to 'dust' them, his browline rose.

"Dust us? Wait. Don't tell me, you played a game with them didn't you?!" He asked rhetorically as his head swivelled from girl to boy and back again, bright eyes lighting up even more now."It was called... dammit... it was called..." He fished his translations for a moment, having to first remember and then try to make the translation himself. He clicked his fingers repeatedly until it came to him, pointing at Yiru as he proceeded to offer a single long trumpeting sound, followed by two short and concise trumpets."Similar to that right? In the game you throw coloured sand at one another and theres some weird totalling where they decide a winner after the fact. Yes?" Bright blue eyes looked over to the male sibling."Yes? I'm right aren't I?!" He seemed very delighted to have come to the right conclusion as he threw his head back with a bark of laughter. The glass of water had to be put down on the floor beside his feet given how much it trembled in hand.

"Wasn't this in the debrief Gio made for us?" Oh. Wait. No. No, Tau had forgotten to complete the species draft on ParDunians in time. In fact, he hadn't started."You know how they take in moisture from the air right? That's like, the main way they remain gellatinous and such. Well, not everything taken out of the air is a liquid." By now he could almost hear the 'get to the point' plea from Yiru."We're on an arid planet? Lots of sand? Sand is light? See what I'm saying?" Really, he couldn't be too much more blunt could he? Well, seemingly he could as he only got a blank and somewhat annoyed glare in return.

"I'd expect this density from Duke but you two? Wow." He pushed on ahead as he raised one hand, playing out his words with gestures."Okay. The ParDunians cannot filter out everything. Sometimes, not only the moisture in the air sinks into the membrane." One hand moved across to the other and they combined together."But, ParDunians do not digest sand, go figure. And what do you and I and everyone here do with stuff we cannot digest?" One hand moved below the other and he blew a raspberry as it descended. The raspberry faltered as he broke into laughter again, though managed to bite back on it a little longer."Said secretions vary in colour depending on when the ParDunian last took in substantial fluid. All sorts of colours. Blue. Orange. White. Purple. Green." With each colour he would gesture across either her figure or her brothers to the appropriate patch.

"Yeah? Understanding? Yeah thats right. You two were scooping up and throwing ParDunian shit at one another." Now the laughter came back, and he could only just about manage to find one final sentence."The best part, the game roughly translates to 'bad-sand'." He chuckled inconsoleably as he leaned down to grab his water, raising it up on high in a toast."So here, is a toast, to our 'bad-sand' champions!" Clearly Tau found this amusing, though his initial humour simmered swiftly as he brought the glass to his lips to drink once more.

 

[Burning_Heart]

Once Onyx had dried off her face, she'd sat down on her bed, burying her face in her hands. She had let her mind wander too much about the past earlier and now it was coming back to bite her in the ass. The paranoia and PTSD were something she did her best to hide from the rest of the crew since she didn't want to seem weak or unable to do her job, but it was hard most days. It seemed today would be one of those days. She had thought about sitting down and talking it out with one of, possibly Carson since he'd been on the ship the longest, but she'd never wanted to throw her problems onto someone else. She was sure she could rely on someone. The guilt of trying would be too much, though. She was used to dealing with things on her own.

The sound of chatter and laughter soon reached her ears, snapping her out of whatever mental fog she had let herself slip into. While she couldn't make out specifically what was being said or who was saying it, she could tell that it was leading to something interesting. Deciding she needed a drink, she finally stood, running a hand through her hair before leaving her room, quietly making her way to the kitchen. The closer she got, the more clear the words became, and she couldn't help but smile when she heard Tau talking about some kind of game, made evident by the different colors that seemed tracked on the floor. She'd make sure whoever did it cleaned it up once the excitement died down.

Appearing in the doorway, she leaned against the frame, watching the interesting group of characters that made up most of the crew, though she did notice that a few still weren't present. By the sounds of it, a majority of them had taken an interesting break. Crossing her arms over her chest, she eyes the two siblings, not at all surprised to find that it was them that tracked all the mess on board. "I can't take you guys anywhere, can I?" The accented voice was laced with amusement, accompanied by the shake of her head and the small smile that crept across her face. "I hope you two plan on cleaning up? You're making a mess." Pushing away from the frame, she walked towards the liquor cabinet, stopping to pet the "most adorable good boy," as she said to him, before grabbing a shot glass of her own, eyeing the bottle Tau had pulled out. "I hope you're sharing that?" she asked. She didn't drink often, but with her crew, the need to seemed to grow more and more each day.

"Besides the siblings, did anyone else do anything interesting? Or does throwing...well, shit, top the list?" They had a mission, sure, but she wasn't about to talk about that now. They still had some time to let loose and relax, something she hadn't actually had a chance to do since they docked on the God-forsaken planet. There would be plenty of time for debriefing and questions on the way to TerraFirma.

 

[JesseMarshall]

Carson Ho
Time: Supplemental
Location: Kitchen, The Siren, ParDune, Cat's Eye

When Duke entered the galley-style kitchen, Carson frowned. The man was covered in grime and staggered like a Pulovixxian on oxygen. He swayed momentarily but managed to find a stable seat at the island by the viewport. He drummed a hand against the table to get Carson’s attention as if the occupants in the room weren’t already fixated on his wretched state.

Carson reached behind himself on the counter, removed a bell-bottomed glass pot off a hotplate, and poured a thick measure of viscous black ooze into a mug. He crossed the flexolium floor to set the cup directly in front of the grungy engineer. Carson’s arm passed Duke’s face as he leaned over the man to reach for something in the cabinet behind him.

The smell of whisky wafted off the engineer, causing Carson’s eyes to water under the bottom lid. The man’s state came as an absolute shame to the Korean man. He often thought Duke would be his type, if not for the constant need to take care of him in these frequently occurring states. Carson was not a gardener, longing to take responsibility for delicate plants, and Duke was certainly no flower.

Acutely aware of their proximity, Carson couldn’t help but glance down at him. For a second, his eyes met emerald green, and heat rushed up the cook’s neck and into his cheeks. A vivid memory surfaced of last year’s Christmas party. Cargo hold two decorated from head to toe in tinsel and holly, and Tau secretly spiking the eggnog with a bottle of liquor he picked up at some backwater planet. Having one too many glasses, Carson found himself wrapped around the engineer under a twig of faux mistletoe with his lips pressed soundly against Duke’s. In front of everyone. For a little less than half an hour.

Oh, gods, Carson thought, averting his eyes, Just let me die right here.

At least he knew how to kiss, the thought continued. I mean, really well.

The ship’s cook pulled out a freshly baked loaf of sourdough. It came from the oven about an hour or two ago, and a beautiful crusty top formed while it was resting in its wicker basket. He tore off a chunk and placed it directly on the tabletop of the kitchen island. He could see a tantrum rising behind those sharp, verdant eyes. Carson narrowed his back at him.

“You’re not getting sick in my kitchen,” Carson said flatly. “Drink your Tansta and eat your bread.”

He turned back to the door just in time to see Yiru and their brother Huan come panting into the kitchen. They were covered in colorful splotches of dust, out of breath, and carried the beginnings of a nasty suns-burn across their faces. Carson reached forward to fill up two more glasses of water before Huan even finished begging for it. He made sure it was room temperature instead of cold. It could easily be seen that they were both dehydrated, and nothing good would come out of a cramped stomach.

“Slow sips,” Carson warned, handing over the two tall glasses. “Don’t make yourselves sick.”

Tau started in on his rant, and Carson knew it would end in someone else’s embarrassment by his tone of voice. It reminded Carson of the same manner that people used as a set up to a joke. When the punchline finally came, Carson felt a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Nothing too bad—this time, at least.

“Tau,” Carson began, “Never judge the man with a bowl full of dongchimi at Sambok while your own hunger gnaws. In other words... don’t knock it till you try it.” He turned back to the siblings, “It sounds like you’ve had a lot of fun today. You’re going to need some aloe for the burns you’ve got starting, though.”

Carson's attention snapped to the doorway of the galley. He could hear the captain’s approaching footsteps before she wandered into view. They sounded down the hall outside.

Out of all the crew, he knew her the longest and probably best. Her steps were heavy from heel to toe, carrying the weight of—not only—the responsibility of leadership that pressed firmly on her shoulders, but regrets of the past. She kept her secrets, secrets that Carson wished she wouldn’t, close to her heart. There were some things that even the bartender wasn’t privy to, despite their long-time friendship.

Heavy steps echo the beating of a heavy heart, Jun-myeon, his mother told him once.

“Captain,” the cook nodded in welcome.

He listened to the laughter of the crew as they hung onto her every word. Reaching into the liquor cabinet, Carson grabbed a bottle of Beef Eaters London Dry Gin, a bottle of dry vermouth, a jar of olives, and a cocktail glass. He loaded ice into the high-stemmed cone glass while he set about one of his favorite tasks.

A half-ounce of vermouth, shaken in a Boston tin on tin shaker. Hawthorn strainer added to the top to drain off the excess that didn’t cling to the ice itself leaving a teardrop. Add two ounces of dry gin, a splash of olive juice, and shake again for fifteen seconds vigorously. Dump out the ice in the cocktail glass and strain the liquid with the Hawthorn to the brim. Pierce three olives onto a toothpick and drop into the center, allowing the garnish to fall whichever direction in may. Serve...

The drink came to completion just as Tau’s face began to morph into an expression of horror at having to surrender any of his precious ‘honey.’ Carson felt confident that Tau would pour a shot for her, but it would cause him a considerable amount of pain. The cook felt more than happy to be the hero of this situation.

“Captain,” Carson said, setting the glass before her, “You’ll have an easier time pulling the teeth out of a hyena than getting a drink from Tau. Here. Your usual.”

Family felt hard to come by in such a strange and foreign place as the Cat’s Eye, but Carson somehow managed to find one. He glanced at the faces surrounding him. Tau, meticulous and immaculate, pouring another drink of that cloyingly sweet liquid. Eva, fearless and calculating, still not daring to get any closer to the group. Giovante, analytical and mysterious, nose glued to the thin piece of glass that gave him the details for their next mission. Duke, chaotic and charming when sober, grimacing with each swallow of his Tansta. The twins, loyal and filled with laughter, brushing sand from their shoulders and joking about things that could have happened.

Finally, the captain, sipping on a dirty martini, appearing to listen with rapt attention to the conversations around her. Carson knew better. Her eyes drifted from one face to another without ever really latching on. Her ears pricked at inflections in tone, and her expressions matched them accordingly. In truth, she lost herself in thought—worry...

Despite the flaws that ran on the surface, despite what some refused to admit, this crew acted like a family, and Carson would gladly put himself in death’s icy grasp to save them.

Roscoe barked from somewhere around his shins, jerking Carson out of his reverie. He glanced down with a warm smile and gave the little guy a few scratches behind the ears, “Yeah, even you, tiny buddy.”

 

[BuggaBoo]

DA1-513-07 / "Daisie"
The Shadow ​

---

Location: Central Continent, ParDune, Cat's Eye. Hangar 44-2B

---

"Aye, Captain," as always just before she spoke either out loud or through comms, there was that subtle noise that sounded like a cross between someone clicking their tongue and the staticky sound an ancient CB radio device made when one pressed on the send button. She paused a moment longer scanning for her opportunity to move. A single curt nod she gave once she saw it, and pulled her cowl tighter around her shoulders and visor. "Returning to ship once Operation complete."

DA1-513-07 held her pose a heartbeat longer. As soon as the transport skiff moved, she moved. The humming sound of the open topped vehicle drowned out her sound, and the sand worn metallic hide of the beastly skiff blocked her position from the array of cameras. Such a grand parking space deserved that much security at least. One more synchronized movement together and she was now behind a pile of dusty faded blue palates. Although still at least 200m away, she was nonetheless facing the front of the main retaining doors to the Hangar. Through the windows she finally saw her quarry. Dark intent flashed beyond that midnight tinted visor of the cyborg symbiote. She had a visual on the Solar Raizer.

Was it coincidence that this boat was here at the same time as the Siren now that the Siren was on the hunt of a new bounty? And did it just so happen that the Raizer was keeping a low profile from other spacers by hiding out in a posh and pampered facility like the 44 set of hangars? Oh, DA1-513-07 had an inkling of how they could afford such luxuries. The Solar Raizer had pulled a skunter move on Captain Onyx's boat and crew. And yes, they had gotten away with it. Until today.

DA1-513-07 slid up to the rear of the skiff and leapt aboard, sliding tummy first underneath the tarpaulin. Her tail reached up and pulled the tarp down, closing her in. Lowlight vision sparked on as she began to crawl around the flatbed looking for the tags of certain packages. The skiff whirred into life and began to make its way towards the opening of hangar 44-2B. She had until they were at the checkpoint to complete what she had to do to get the Raizer crew back for skunting the Siren crew.

~​

On Vatarri-05 there is a winged creature known as a Doomer that will stalk its prey for a season. Normally the prey is a Poosha or a Kinix; a rodent that will store up a cache of food to tide it over for the winter on the planet. But the sneaky winged creature will keep tabs of the rodent and its lair until such time the rodent was ready to call it for the season and hunker down. The winged creature will then sneak into the lair, paralyze the rodent, eat its food over the winter and lay its eggs in the paralyzed rodent.

And that is what the Raizer had pretty much done to the Siren in the Yallegian System. The crew of the Siren had done all the work; blood, sweat and tears to get the mark. And swooping in came the cloaked Solar Raizer, paralyzing the Siren, stealing the mark, fleeing and collecting the lucrative bounty. The Siren had no idea who took them out. But that was shortlived due to their skunter message.

Now the reason it is called a skunter move is because that is the sound the newborns make when they burst from the warm body of the rodent. "Ssssskuntah! Ssssskuntah!" And that is what the crew that pulled the skunter move will say to the skunted crew via a message either left behind or otherwise delivered in a clever, clever manner. Yes, they had dropped the message on the Siren but failed to put an encryption on it that was Giovanni-proof. The hacker revealed who the skunters were clear as day. Yes, there would be retribution.

~​

Alloy plates began to reconfigure, clicking and clacking as she thinned out her form to fit between packages. Reaching one last time for a tag, she found what she was looking for. The digits on her right hand reshaped into several tools and began working on the panel on the side of the refrigeration unit. A twist and a click later and she had pulled one of the battery cylinders out. The cylinder went from hand, to tail, then Into her hip cavity she deposited it and pulled out the 'replacement cell.' A click and a twist later, the replacement cell was in place and she had completed what she had to do. With the panel in place, she slid back towards the end of the flatbed, plates reconfiguring back to her normal frame size. And just in time; the skiff stopped at the checkpoint. The cyborg went from flatbed to underneath the skiff like a snake finding a cool resting spot away from the sun.

As soon as the skiff moved out, DA1-513-07 rolled out from underneath it and hunkered down at the hollow just underneath the checkpoint booth. From that blindspot she waited until the next skiff made its way out from the checkpoint and timed it just right to roll underneath it, grabbed on tight and punched her ticket out of there.

---

Roscoe and she greeted each other as they always did; a sniff at her heels, a scoff at his presence. DA1-513-07 did not feel the necessity for such a stunted-legged, lower lifeform onboard. Yes, she understood its value as a morale booster for the rest of the crew, but it was such a waste of efficient use of resources, time and energy and using up the Oxygen doing whatever inane things inane squat spacer dogs do. No she was not mean to it and neither was he to her but do not even bother to ask her to clean up its poop. The both of them seemed to give each other a shrug as they walked side by each down the corridor towards the rest of the crew.

Into the galley she strut rather quietly for one who was made up of mostly alloys and metal. She paused near the glitching stovetop and nodded at each crew member in turn. To the Captain she bestowed a curt and crisp salute. Noting the drinks that some had held in their hands, she understood some kind of celebration was taking place. This pleased her for it meant a member of their crew had done something worthy of praise. Perhaps her news was worthy of such praise too.

"Perhaps throwing shit may be cause for 'toasting,' Captain, but I have some interesting news," once more that familiar click sounded out before she spoke, "the Solar Raizer's position has been confirmed and measures have been taken."

Once again, her hand reformed, this time to interface with the computer terminal. A high-res recording of what she had seen and done replayed on the overhead monitor. "The explosive charge in the refrigeration unit is has a gravity trigger. Once they are off planet, it will go off in their cargo hold. They will lose their precious cargo into space and have to return to surface to repair. They will not have the chance to follow us and steal our mark this time. They will be too busy chasing after the Vanguard; they have been skunted by the Raizer crew previously and the explosive is of their signature design.

"Operation: Payback-is-a-Bitch completed, Captain."

 

[Impius]

D.U.K.E

Cats Eye Galaxy
On Board The Siren, Galley
Intoxicated
Hunger: Moderate
​

As Duke patiently waited for the cook, he took a look around the room at the crew members that had gathered so far. His head lolled around and dropped a few times. His gazed passed over Eva, has he had motioned toward her a minute previously. A seemingly quiet woman, and one hell of a gunman...woman..man..? He finally noticed Giovante, sitting on his computer, being a nerd as usual. The man was such a stickler. Duke didn't care for him too much, as he had nothing in common with the pretty looking man. However he did his job, and he did it well. For that, Duke respected him. 'It wouldn't hurt if he got his hands dirty once in a while...' The thought passed by in a blur as his heavy eyes shifted to the twins walking through the doors. "Ya'll look like a-uuhhh rainbow took 'uh shit on ya'zz." He leaned forward, amused by the colorful display, oblivious to their dehydrated state.

Duke was about to make a couple comments about the twins rainbow decorations, and toss a couple Tau's way especially after he informed them, with a small jab at Duke, whose ears had perked when his name was mentioned, that the pretty sand confetti was the results of bowel movements from the squishy Pardunians. 'Another gross thing to add to his list of hatred for this planet.' Carson had appeared in front of Duke with a mug of Tansta, and an offering of some bread. His eyes peered up at Carsons earthly brown speckles. He closed his parted lips, as words were on the cusp of spewing out like the heat from the 3 suns of Pardune. For the hundredth time that day, he reflected back upon his morning binge. He cast his eyes away after an intense second locked with the cooks, almost as if suddenly aware of his belligerent behavior.

Duke fell silent, taking the mug in between his hands, and Carson was already off on his duties. It was always nice to watch him go. He nibbled on the piece of bread before him, silently watching the impressive yet intimidating robotic woman stroll in, Captain having also arrived to the galley. The announcement of payback brought a small chuckle out of the engineer, as he silently finished off his bread and dropped his head against the table, enjoying its cooling touch on his forehead. and unable to respond much to the swirling world around him. The Tansta and bread were much needed. At least he was done working for the day, right? Everything was done... Right?

 

[Moldie]

As the siblings stumbled in Eva scrunched up at the sight of such a conflict of color. It was a mess really. She'd always had a keen taste for the sleek and muted, this was just warfare directly waged against her rhetenas. As much as the jumble bothered her it almost stood as a metaphor for the twins lively personalities. And idiocy. She had to admit that they were an amusing pair though, and the situation itself was made only more amusing as the two were informed about the scatalogical twist of their adventure.

It now seemed Tau had paid notice to her judgement. Good. He should know how ridiculous he had a tendency to sound. Sure the man had his moments but he really was as humble as a gold lacquered urinal. All in all she rewarded Tau's precious time and energy with an impish shrug and half baked counterfeit smile, making off like a bandit with his precious dopamine. As her focus shifted towards Carson tending to the floored engineer she felt a weight of disappointment, followed by an awkward few seconds of tension. She wasn't one to pry, or care for that matter, but there was something there.

Onyx sneaking into the mix had been a pleasant surprise. Not only could she steer up the situation but her presence was perhaps the clearest sign that they were actually leaving the glorified sandbox that was ParDune. The arrival of Daisie maybe even more so. Judging by the symbiotes explanation it seemed she'd kept herself busy over the last few days. Sure she was effective, but as a grade A loafer herself Eva found the beings relentlessness somewhat disturbing. In any case it seemed Daisie had conjured up a plan to make away with some parasites, something Eva had absolutely no quarrel with. More than anything she just hoped it would warrant an early daparture.

 

[AI10100]

Huan Ou
Location: Kitchen, The Siren​

"Thanks Carson." He muttered gratefully as he reached out for the glass and sat down on the floor, taking Carson's advice and taking slow sips from the lukewarm water. There was nothing better than finally getting some water in his system after the trip. Huan turned to Duke and chuckled. "Reminds me of the festivals back at Earth." He'd only heard about them though and he always wanted to try it out.

Huan stared at Tau as he began explaining what the game was about before finally coming to the conclusion that they were throwing literal ParDunian excrement. "Ohhh, yeah that makes sense." Huan shrugged at Tau's explanation. For someone who's covered in sand poop, Huan definitely didn't look as bothered as he should be. He'd been placed in much worse situations than being covered in colorful shit sand— most notably were the ones where he was covered in smelly shit water in one mission back when he was still running with the IDA. He'd often find himself in these unfortunate situations more than he would care to admit. At least this time, it came with at least some momentary fun. "Guess I gotta throw these in the washers for at least three times or throw it away, shame." He muttered, careful not to drop any more shit sand onto the ground than he already did.

The Captain walked into the room and he raised his hand in a slackened salute before collapsing back onto the wall. He groaned at the idea of having to clean up. Considering Yiru was going to pilot them to another place, it would fall upon him to do all the cleaning from the entrance to the kitchen to wherever else the dirt will get into. And he was fairly sure that Yiru wouldn't do it anyway. "I will Cap, after a shower and a change of clothes." He paused. "All those after this cup of water." Huan raised his glass and began sipping through it once again.

Huan waited patiently for any other stories when Daisie came in and he knew that he would be hearing some amazing thing. He watched the events of what Daisie did and chuckled. "Man you're really cool Daisie!" He remembered when the bastards came down and took their prize from right under their noses. And apparently, they weren't the only crew the Solar Raizer decided to cross. Ah, all is well. Revenge is a dish best served cold... and with explosives most of the time.

He closed his eyes for a moment before remembering something. "Oh, right, Captain. Do we need a full prep of guns for this contact or is it in a more casual setting?" Granted, casual meet ups with contacts sometimes ended with a full on fire fight but it wasn't always a good idea to come in armed to the teeth and set the contact on edge... or so he heard from the others. Huan wasn't sure why it mattered so much to be prepared for any eventuality but peace talks were never his forte.

 

[Zat]

Ix was buried deep in the bowels of the secondary coolant system when the Captain's message came through their comm. The Captain had found them a job!
A shiver of excitement ran through their servos, causing a bit of racket in the enclosed space. They then took a moment to adjust the shiver parameters, it was probably better to not have it trigger in tightly enclosed spaces. Still, they were happy the script had worked. That was a good, spontaneous shiver! Too bad no one was around to see it. Not that they'd even notice, probably, but still.

Ix was a little disappointed that it was a bounty hunting job, hunting a murderer of all things. That meant it would probably be dangerous. Not that the crew couldn't handle it, but Ix preferred it when the chances of someone getting shot were as close to zero as possible. Well, they needed to report, and extracting themselves would probably take some time. Duke had told them to clean "as much of the coolant system as you can reach" and had said he'd come to grab them in a little while. That had been about 6 hours ago, and Ix was pretty sure Duke had forgotten about them. He sometimes forgot things when he was drunk. Things like the cleaning robot he'd tasked with power washing the coolant system while the ship was planetside.

Still, Ix had gotten an awful lot of the coolant system washed in that time, which they were feeling rather proud about. A person can reach quite a lot if they're determined enough. It seemed a good time to leave, though. They shut off their power washing attachment, and began the arduous process of inching themselves out of the pipe by the tips of their graspers.

By the time Ix made it out, they heard conversation coming from the mess hall. They made a quick detour to put back the powerwasher and reattach their fourth grasper, before trotting over, noting what seemed to be a trail of rainbow-sand leading towards the ship's entrance. Hmm. Was that... intentional? Should they clean it up?

Best to ask first. They wouldn't want to mess up somebody's impromptu art installation.

They rounded the corner, coming face to face with Roscoe. The corgi gave them a friendly bark.

"Hi, Rosco," they whispered to the canine in their child-like voice, reaching out a grasper and gently petting the fluffy creature.
After a good 30 seconds of petting, they finished and looked up at the rest of the room. Most of the crew was gathered, and it seemed they'd found their aspiring artists. Huan and Yiru were covered in rainbow particles.

Ix sighed in relief (Yes! Another scripting success!), and stepped over to the black-haired man, tapping him gently on the side of his thigh with a grasper. The laid-back man was less intimidating to talk to than most, despite his passion for firearms. He also sometimes drew in his free time, which made him the prime art candidate. Yiru would probably go along with it if he asked.

"Huan, are you making art in the corridor?" they said softly, just loud enough for the man to hear. "I didn't want to clean it up by accident if you're working on an abstract piece."

 

[N0rthernw0lves]

She didn't mind staying onboard the ship. Anya, despite all this time, was still afraid of walking by herself. Even when accompanied by someone else, nervous shivers filled Anya when she lost sight of whoever had accepted her request of a walking partner. Besides, that pirate side-quest had been enough in being trafficked and used. She did not want another experience of disappearing without anyone knowing.

Letting out a sigh, Anya carefully deposited each of the four notebooks into a drawer that made up her working space. While electronic records made sorting all the information easier, Anya kept backup hard copies in case of the ship's electricity shutting down, or even data being corrupted. That last one had happened once or twice, and having the physical hard-copies made all the difference in saving a hefty amount of credits on medicinal stocks that were still there.

While Anya could be submissive, she could still be fiercely protective. No one on the crew could walk in and simply take anything medicinal related, tools or aid. Well, the crew could actually walk-in and swipe something. But Anya would have a word with them, no matter when or where on the ship, inquiring for why that particular item had been swiped. Now, Anya's definition of swiped was loose. It did not necessarily mean theft, especially as they all were a family onboard this ship. The only reason for such callous questioning was budgeting. Since Anya did not participate in most of the missions besides her doctoring duty, which meant her cut of the bounty pay was relatively lower than those who did. While she did make sure in saving some for herself, most of the pay went into paying for replacement tools and medicine.

There was only a specific type of mission Anya was suited for outside her doctoring skills: needing a quiet, socially awkward, tending to submissiveness person. Anya wouldn't divulge any of the details obviously. If you truly wanted to be nosy, just go asking the Mudak who called himself a diplomatist. Nothing wrong with him calling himself a diplomatist, as he was the ship's diplomatist. With him she managed in purchasing items for much lower prices than by herself, but he did creep her out with his sly way with words. She was afraid of ever being on his bad side. All because he'd probably, and could, without trying, convince her in doing something against her conscious will.

She had heard the captain's message of another bounty. Anya didn't follow the news, aside from medical, so she had no idea who any of the targets were. All she did know, was she wanted to find the engineer and ask him to test out any of her equipment with mechanical or electrical parts before departing this planet for the mission. It was something she always did, not letting neglect interfering with her primary duty onboard the Siren.

Anya pulled out a pair of black, aged boots from under her desk, her feet lifting off the slippers and descending into the boots. She was already wearing black socks, so all that was left was tying the boots and walking out of the medical bay.

It was a slightly comedic sight, there was no doubt about that. Bright orange hair tied into a slightly off centered ponytail, a black t-shirt with a ghostly syringe on the front and a bright-red medical, not religious, cross on the back. But the true coemdic sight came from wearing green cargo shorts with pockets slightly bulging from emergency first aid equipment, followed by the bare skin of the legs before reaching the grey socks, ending with the black boots.

Hearing many people down in the kitchen area, Anya assumed she'd have a good chance of finding the engineer there, or someone who knew of his whereabouts.

Her stomach growled, which didn't cover up the talking, the closer she was to the kitchen. The cook was cooking, and he had this magic with making excellent food. Even things she normally didn't enjoy transformed into a filling meal.

Walking into the kitchen, "Where is our beloved, blyatiful engineer?". Anya was still working on the whole idea of putting emotion into her speaking voice. While she had gotten better at it, it was not always the case. As with now. She thought her tone had a joking playfulness to it, but it still came out bluntly callous. And the somewhat thick Russian accent didn't help in playing down the seriousness.

And that was when she spoke normally. Her pirate talk made her sounds crazy for milk from the Milky Way itself.

 

[Ambiloquous]

YIRU

Yiru wasn’t as polite as their brother — but neither were they as enduring as their brother, they would also argue — so they only gave a quick, grateful nod to the one true saviour of the Siren’s crew before immediately ignoring the man’s advice and taking the fastest slow sips they were able. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to do as he said; it was simply hard to stop drinking the delicious, delicious H₂0 after their self-control was shot under the sun.

Coincidentally enough, it seemed Duke’s garbled declaration of “rainbow shit” and their subsequent feeling of regret at the mention of Earth festivals was a warning for the exchange that would soon come. Promptly after the siblings were handed their much-needed water, Tau struck up a conversation about the game they’d joined — and oh, what a game it was. The so-called diplomat dragged out the explanation and paused at opportune moments as if to watch their dawning realizations on their recent experience, but it was foolish to expect new revelations to appear in two brains baked hotter than the sourdough Carson pulled out. In the end, the man just came out and said they were throwing excrement and toasted the cheating champions.

Yiru scrunched up their face behind their glass for a moment — their default reaction to shit, literal or otherwise — until they remembered that the ParDunian digestive system was nowhere near similar to theirs. They wouldn’t be getting any human-transferable diseases from the “bad sand” anytime soon, and even if they were, they had at least 68% confidence Anya would be able to fix them up. It made for a great boast though, so the pilot took a break from their water to say, “Sounds like a story to tell at a party, yeah?”

Nodding at Huan as they grieved about their clothing, they sighed dramatically and patted their brother on the shoulder. “We’ll survive the loss, bro. There are plenty more shirts in the sea.”

Hearing Captain speak up behind them, the pilot turned to catch a small smile on her face while feeling a tad hopeful that there wouldn’t be cleaning to do. Of course, that delusional hope was dashed and thrown out of the airlock. They tried not to grimace and piped up following their brother. “Captain, I swear I’ll do it after I program the flight path. Pilot’s honour.” They saluted half-solemnly for emphasis.

It was then that DAISIE strode in with the effortless grace of a machine built for stealth. It was shortly apparent that the Raizer’s had been dealt with, damn their target-stealing, bounty-snatching asses whose pilot couldn’t shoot a mark at ten meters, nevermind the distance for the one they’d swiped. Yiru grinned delightedly at the conclusion of the cyborg symbiote's report and cheered, “You go, DAISIE! Oh, what wouldn’t I give to see their faces when their ship blows up.”

Though using another crew’s name to send them on a wild goose chase wasn’t their preferred mode of revenge, it did offer a sort of dark satisfaction from sending pieces of trash in circles without knowing who the ones pulling the strings were.

When Ix, the tiny thing, came over and asked Huan about the “art installation”, the pilot almost let out a breath of relief. There might be no scrubbing to be done in their future, if this continued the way they anticipated. Before Captain could say otherwise and tell the AI they were the ones to be scouring their own mess, they gave a quick thumbs up to Ix and nudged their brother. “Have fun talking, I’ll be off to pilot us outta here.”

Setting their now empty glass on the table, they stood up less shakily than before and swept past Anya walking into the galley with a possibly rhetorical inquiry for Duke’s location. Unwilling to ignore their sole doctor onboard even if there were eight others plus the one in question to answer it, they pointed at the now-quietly resting engineer by the window. “Drunk off his ass,” Yiru whispered and slipped away.

A quick dip into the decontam chambers and a lightspeed shower later, Yiru was in the bridge and ready to get the Siren moving. Typing their location into the auto-pilot and waiting for the system to calculate the best route and any projected delays, they sent a statement of their leaving and their predicted path to Planetary Security on ParDune to notify them of the departure.

Pressing the intercom button and clearing their throat, Yiru announced, “Attention, all crew members. Be ready for liftoff. If you brought a ParDunian aboard, toss them out. If you made one angry, be glad you’re getting out scot free — for now.” There was a sham seriousness in their voice that only emerged on shipwide proclamations, never mind that they just called themselves out. Lift off was their second favourite part of piloting, beaten only by the empty vastness as the Siren travelled through space. There honestly wasn’t much else to like since there wasn’t a lot for a pilot to do nowadays, not unless the ship got into trouble in-flight — then it was time to start the astrobatics and set the laser weaponry on that trouble.

INTERACTIONS

JesseMarshall WI_ AI10100 Burning_Heart BuggaBoo Zat N0rthernw0lves

MENTIONS

Impius​

 

[WI_]

Ah yes, the 'don't judge the shit-covered man for you have not experienced the feeling of being covered in shit' life lesson. How philosophical. Carson was full of one liners just like it, as if he were auditioning for the role of Confucius in a the local high school play. It sounded wise at first but for Tau, after so many years, it only grated on him. Regardless of that however the twins seemed delighted to hear they were walking faecal displays. Of course they were delighted. Tau supposed all things worked out for the best in the end, eh? So long as everyone was happy and the universe could keep smiling then far be it for him to spoil their party. Oh he could feel the warmth in his heart at that very moment.

A curious eyebrow rose however when his eyeline to Yiru was broken, glancing up to the captain looking down at his bag with a request for some of his very expensive alcohol. His immediate reaction was to offer her a middle finger instead, but he supressed that urge swiftly. To anyone else in that room, sharing their drink would be nothing. It wasn't his bottle after all, it belonged to the collective, to The Siren. Right? But this bottle was a small treat to himself. He rarely bought himself something like this, and so he left it in his bag. Instead, he leaned forward and put the glass of water down on a table in front of him, watching as the infallible Carson swept in to save the day by bringing her a drink, no, 'her usual', within moments of her being denied. And it came with a complimentary remark at Tau's detriment, fan-fucking-tastic.

By now Ix and Anya had come in and distracted him from the alcohol, one conversing with Huan and the other seeking the ship drunkard who now lay across his table. Yiru was quick to scurry off, passing by the captains personal servant, Daisie, who had finished giving some kind of presentation? In truth, Tau had not paid enough attention to know but caught something along the lines of explosives and payback. Probably just heard her wrong. Having come into the room to drink and enjoy his winnings, and with that small amount of dopamine taken away, any desire to remain in the room had now vanished. Tau was beginning to remember why he liked being planet side in the first place.

One hand grabbing his jacket off his seat, the other his bag of winnings, he offered no farewells just beelined for the doorway. He did however slow down near to Anya, quickly fishing into his bag and hauling out the cylinder of black liquid from earlier.

"Here, that bio-mimetic gel you ordered." He commented simply as he handed it off. She didn't need to know he had used it in his gambling earlier."And I'll transfer the remainder of your markta back into your account later on." It was very concise and he didn't await a response. With the gel dropped off he left the group to do whatever they would do. No doubt captain would want to discuss the mission, Giovante would pop up with information as and where needed, and Huan would want to set a security plan in motion. Tau could not care any less at that moment in time. They could forward him their notes to read another time.

Slinking off to his quarters not far from the recreation deck, he entered and immediately hit the button to close his door and lock it behind him. His room was longer than the others but narrowed as a consequence. He had a wall to the right for three or four feet that then opened into his bedroom. It offered him some privacy, rather than the door opening directly into the room. As he stepped through to the bedroom he accidentally kicked an empty bottle that skittered off into several empty ones like a bowling ball and pins. He thought of how he would be a recyclers dream as he eyed last nights drinking pile, stacked alongside the previous few nights worth. He'd clear them out sooner or later.

The bag of iridium bars clinked against one another as he dropped it onto his bed, landing amongst discarded pieces of clothing and several food cartons. He sat down beside it on the edge of the bed, hands covering his face, eyes closing over as he let out a deep sigh. He remained sitting like so for a minute or two before running them up and through his hair, interlocking his fingers atop his head. His eyes opened to glare across at his mirror. It was cracked, of course it was, radiating from a point in the centre where he vaguely recalled striking it. His broken reflection stared back with unamused eyes and in total silence.

Something was ticking away in his mind. There was definitely some deeper thought process that was going on. Whatever it was on his mind pushed his hand to move down toward his hip. The backs of his fingers brushed against the side of the bag, and turning his gaze to it as if confused why it was even there, he paused momentarily before reaching in to take out the bottle of honey-liqueur. He wasted little time glancing around for a glass but found nothing too near so he worked the cap of the bottle free. Lifting it to his lips he threw back a pretty heavy shot. It clawed at his throat as he swallowed and the kickback was particularly brutal this time, covering his mouth as if to force the drink to stay down.

He threw the cap aside, falling back into the bed and he knocked against one of the food cartons left on the bed. Flicking the lid open he saw a small pile of his usual order; lina-cubes. Scooping up a handful he dropped a few into his mouth to chew at absent-mindedly whilst he stared up at his ceiling. He fed more into his mouth, his chewing only occasionally interrupted by smaller swigs of his drink, and also for the moment where he reached to the shelf beside his bed and turned off the lights to his quarters. That would be Tau for the rest of the night, just chewing and drinking in the dark with his thoughts.

 

[Burning_Heart]

Onyx had noticed the look on Tau's face at her question, causing her stomach to drop a little. She had meant to ask politely, but perhaps it had come out a little harsher than intended? If so, she hadn't noticed. Then again, she was good at that. She had never been good with people, her crew being the real only exception, and even then it was difficult to communicate with them. Thank you, Blades, she thought to herself bitterly. Hearing Carson address her, she turned her emerald gaze to the cook, taking the glass that he'd set before her. "A hyena?" she mumbled under her breath, tilting her head slightly. Was it another Earthling thing she didn't understand? She made a mental note to look it up once she got the chance. Leaning back against the wall, she took small sips of the drink, letting out a sigh. "Perfect as always, Carson. Thank you." With that, she grew quiet once more, watching the crew more than anything. It still amazed her how far the ship had come from the day she'd first bought it. She'd worked damn hard to acquire it and had come fairly close to losing the bet on it. She'd gotten lucky with the last job beforehand. Had it not been for the target practically falling in her lap, she probably wouldn't have landed in such a cozy little place, despite the mess that it could be.

Hell, she could still remember when she first met Carson. It had been about a week or so after the ship had been in her possession and she'd just so happened to end up in the same market as him on some remote planet. She couldn't remember the name off the top of her head, but she could distinctly remember the smell of street food and smoke in the air. She'd been minding her own business, focused on what kind of vegetable she could pick up for a simple stew she'd been trying to make, and failing miserably. She had a small bit of knowledge when it came to cooking, but she was no genius. She didn't know what food complimented what dish and so on. It was just her luck that he had been standing right next to her. He'd offered her his advice and she'd hesitantly taken it. He'd been extremely knowledgable and before she'd known it, she'd made a friend and had her first crew member. She almost smiled at the memory.

She looked up when Daisie stepped into the room, her lips resting on her glass as she listened to her speak about the Solar Raizer. A smirk crept across her lips before swallowing the liquid. "Perfect. Thank you for that, Daisie." Though it wasn't a lot, it definitely felt like some weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. The Solar Raizen problem had been something nagging her for some time. "I'm glad we can finally teach those thieving bastards a lesson," she said with a smile. Onyx didn't like being made a fool of, that was for sure. Hopefully, they would think twice before stealing from them or anyone else after this little setback.

Or maybe they would just get pissed and lash out at someone. She wouldn't be surprised either way.

She glanced at Duke, raising a brow as he rested against the table. She worried about the man sometimes. She was honestly amazed that he could do his job at all. It was also scary to think that she put the ship's care in his hands at times. She turned her attention to the siblings for a moment, hoping they kept their word about cleaning the place up. She wasn't a clean freak by any stretch, but she liked her home to be somewhat neat. She especially didn't want shit tracked all over the place. Looking to Huan, she shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I'd like to go in and just talk to the man about where this Annette could be, but with the government involved, we'll have to be careful. Either way, I expect everyone who steps off the ship to behave and keep their eyes and ears open. Don't go overboard with the guns, but have one or two on your person just in case anything goes wrong." That was what she was always afraid of: that something would backfire and lead to someone getting hurt or worse. Her only intention as of now was to get in, speak with Peter, and carry out the mission as planned. Simple.

Her head snapped over when Ix entered. She gave them a nod before looking away so they could speak with Huan. She had to admit, she liked their custodian friend. She had to admit, she was grateful for the companion. She wasn't sure how anyone else felt about them, but she certainly thought they were a nice little addition to the group. Hearing another familiar voice, she glanced over to see Anya. Blunt and straight to the point in what she needed. Onyx finished her drink before letting out a small chuckle. She knew she probably didn't mean for it to come out the way it had, but knew she was at least trying to open up to everyone some. Hopefully, the engineer could be of some help to her.

Relief filled her once Yiru announced that they were finally leaving ParDune. She'd grown tired of being docked for so long, but that was only because she was a restless person. She could work as long as she needed to, or at least as long as her body would allow, yet she knew the crew couldn't and didn't deserve to do that, so taking breaks was necessary, even if they made Onyx nervous and uneasy. "Let's take a note to not come back here for a long time," she mumbled.

Tau's exit was quick to grab the captain's attention. She had been hoping that she could finally give a small debriefing over the mission with most of the crew present. It seemed that, for the time being, however, her plans had changed. She didn't like to see anyone on the ship on edge or upset. Setting her glass down, she glanced at Carson. "Thanks again for the drink. If you can, will you stop by my quarters later? I'd like to get your opinion on something..." She let her voice trail off as she quickly left the kitchen, making her way towards the older man's room. When she arrived at the door, she gave three hard knocks with her knuckles, leaning against the door so that he could hopefully hear her. "Tau, if you can hear me, are you alright? We didn't upset you, did we?" Maybe it wasn't any of her business to come after him the way she had, but he was on her ship, which meant she gave a damn if something was wrong. She waited a moment or so but received no response. She let out a small sigh. She couldn't force him to come out or open his door, and she damn sure wasn't about to barge in. Everyone had their own private space for a reason, and she knew she wouldn't appreciate it if someone just entered her room without permission. She wasn't about to do that to him.

"If you're listening, I just want to let you know that you don't have to talk to me, but at least know that I'm here if something's bothering you, okay? Whether you think so or not, I like to consider you a part of this dysfunctional little family of ours, which means if you need anything, you can come to me without hesitation, even if it's just to vent or...something." She let out a sigh. She didn't know the first thing about letting your thoughts and feelings out, much less how to rely on someone when you needed a shoulder to cry on. It was for that reason that she liked to lend her shoulder to everyone. She was used to dealing with problems on her own and knew how much it could suck. "You know where to find me," she finally said, putting her hands in her pockets before walking away.

 

[Impius]

Duke Olson​

​

After Duke's head fell to the table, the chatter turned to a droning white noise, only to lift it once as Haun addressed his comment. His face looked lost, as if trying to scrape together some memories of Earthly things. He failed and his head went back to the table, unware he just awkwardly looked up at Haun like Duke himself was a sick dog in need of euthanizing. His consciousness drifted off and on every few seconds, his mind trying to shut down for the day, his sweaty forehead was a good clue he severely over did it that morning. Definitely going to be feeling this one the next day. He lifted his heavy head and finished off the caffeine-on-steroids drink Carson had given him. It was definitely stronger than any kind of Earth coffee. Absolutely thicker too, however it was a nice filler on the stomach. Sometimes he missed the watery bean juice form Earth. However the tansta did it's job with the help of the sourdough bread added to his empty stomach. He quietly grabbed another piece of the bread as little Ix came in.

"Aw shit, sorry there little buddy." He waved his hand heavily, letting it land heavily back onto the table, as if the motion somehow was an addition to the apology. He forgot about the little cleaner bot more often than he would have cared to admit, or even really noticed of despite the handy capabilities it possessed. He tried to look at the quadrupedal machine as he would with one like Daisie, sentient and very alive. He was positive the coolant system was now spotless with how long he had Ix working in the pipes. Needless, it could receive a little reward Duke had found and snagged from one of the ship in Pardunes Salvage Yard.

Captain Onyx and Huan's interaction was really all Duke needed, and wanted, to hear about the mission. He didn't find himself too handy outside of the ship. He did come in handy when it came down to a little hand to hand combat, something he would like to test out against Huan one day. He was confidant in his ability to tackle down the intensively trained former IDA militant. A battle that would be similar to a kitten standing against a lion. Not that it detoured the prideful alcoholic. The mission sounded simple enough, talk to some guy, find the lady. Make the arrest and cash in. Another paycheck, another trip to the liquor shelves.

Duke was on his third piece of sourdough, having eaten almost half the loaf to himself, when he noticed their redheaded doctor, Anya. He had to admit she wasn't a sore sight by any means, his simple mind completely oblivious of her word choice prior to Captains quick briefing. He stood from his seat and made his way toward the doctor, his stride still woozy and staggered, however quieted down from the punch of caffeine rushing through his system now. " 'Ere I am, whatch'ya need?" Duke gave her a sly smile and held up a finger. "Give me one second," he turned on his heels, swaying a little farther than he meant too, waving his arms like a drunk Jack Sparrow to regain his balance. He slipped his hand into his pocket and approached the cleaning bot, Ix. Giving Huan an awkward, smoke stained toothy grin, he knelt down and gave Ix a pat on the head and held out his hand. "Thanks for cleaning for me today little bud," in the palm of his hand there was a series of metal rings, a couple squares, and a triangle interlocked together. He held it up by the triangle. "All you gotta do is get the triangle out." He gave the machine another pat on the head, also handing Ix the remaining piece of sourdough he had been working on. He promptly returned to Anya, affirming she had his full attention.

 

[Zat]

Ix lifted a leg and gave a small wave back to the departing pilot after they gave Ix a thumbs up. Ix wasn't quite sure what they had done to warrant a thumbs up from Yiru, but they certainly weren't complaining. It was good to be appreciated! For things. Mysterious, unknown things.

'Maybe they were happy I asked about the art installation before cleaning it up? It's a good thing I decided to check!' they thought with a nod, starting to turn back to Huan, only to get distracted again when Duke walked up.

"Thanks for cleaning for me today little bud," the man said as they kneeled in front of them and gave them a pat on the head. Ix felt a thrill of happiness, letting it show on their face, and remembered to push their head into the affectionate gesture. They'd been gleaning tips from Roscoe ever since people had started petting them.
Ix was about to respond when they noticed the man was holding out some sort of contraption of oddly shaped metal rings in the palm of his other hand. He shifted his grip, holding it up by a triangle shape that seemed all tangled up in the middle of the mess.
"All you gotta do is get the triangle out," he finished, handing the small pile of metal over.

Ix cocked their head and blinked in confusion, processors whirring for a moment before it dawned on them. It was a puzzle! It... it was a gift! Duke had gotten them a gift! That was a puzzle! They gave the man a wide-eyed, happy look, practically vibrating with elation.
"Oh! I... thank you! I was happy to help!" they managed to squeak out as the bleary-eyed man patted them on the head again, handing over the rest of his slice of sourdough before he turned around to talk to Anya.

Ix was standing on their back legs by this point, the graspers on their forelegs occupied holding the... objects? Gifts? They looked down at their newly acquired bread. Was the bread a gift too? The puzzle was definitely a gift. A wonderful, fun gift that they were going to solve consciously, without relying on a solver subroutine. The bread... Duke was probably just done with it and wanted them to throw it away. That made sense. Ix moved to put it in the small waste bin compartment it kept slotted in its chassis for just these types of scenarios, but stopped. What.... what if it was a gift, though? If Ix threw it away, that'd be incredibly rude! Ix looked back over at Duke, but he was already involved with Anya, and Ix didn't want to interrupt. They stared down at the bread again, before finally turning back to Huan, looking decidedly more distressed than they had before. The rainbow-speckled man still hadn't had a chance to respond, but Ix decided to ask a new question first.

"Umm... also, would you like some bread?" they queried, nervous and hopeful, offering up the half-eaten piece of sourdough. Regifting. Regifting was the correct solution here.

 

[AI10100]

Huan Ou
Location: Kitchen, The Siren
Interactions: Zat The Prophet ​

"Hm, yeah, take care." He automatically responded to his sibling as they departed for the cockpit... or the shower, depends on how much they wanted to clean. Huan looked up from his now empty cup to see that Ix, their cute little four legged custodian, and Anya had entered the kitchen. The entire group in one room! Now that's pretty rare to see. Still, he gave them both a wave. He didn't want to be too overbearing to their doctor. Huan has made one too many trips to the infirmary bay and knew that the doctor liked keeping to herself, even through the harsh reminders she told him. Huan smiled at the memory. It might come off as a little cold but Huan always made sure to try and keep to her suggestions as best he could when he gets himself into dangerous situations.

Ix inquired about the colorful sand now painting the corridor and that's when he realized that he had zoned out a bit as the robot managed to finish a conversation with Duke. He looked at the bread that Ix was now offering and he shrugged, looking down at his poop sand covered hands. "Er, I'd love to eat right now but I need to get a shower first." He mentioned while shrugging. "As for the sand outside, it's... uh, not an art installation. I wish it was. Actually... that sounds like a great next project to do. Like, expand from drawing and go into other art forms. Maybe I could..." Huan's muttering turned into grumbling before he shook his head and blinked, pulling himself out of his own rant. "Oh, it's kind of poop sand apparently but don't worry, I'll clean it up later." He finally finished and made a move to pat Ix's head but decided against it upon the grim reminder that his hands were still dirty.

He kept the captain's words in mind as he stood up and disposed of the glass onto the sink. "Roger that Captain! If you guys will excuse me, I'll go take a shower now." Before he could leave, however, Tau had already made his way out of the area. He looked a little bleak, a little miserable, for someone who was just joking around earlier. It wasn't any of Huan's business though. He wasn't that great in internal affairs when it comes to that. Sometimes, there are things he can't just butt his way into and hope that it works out. Something he realized very early on in life.

Before following the diplomat out, Huan snapped his fingers. "Oh, right, Giovante can I have a word with you later? It'd be great if you could pull up a general layout of the area we're going to. I want to see if there are any bases we need to cover up on, just in case." Maybe it was a bit paranoid of him to keep on creating these failsafe plans for diplomatic situations but it was better safe than sorry. Before he could ask the captain if he could go over some plans later, she had already left and he shrugged. He could probably get in touch with both Daisie and Eva later too after showering and the quick clean up of the halls.

With that, he gave them all an idle two fingered salute and hurried out to the showers. Normally, he'd head over to the bridge to keep his sibling company while they piloted the ship to wherever they needed to go but he did make a promise. So he immediately went on to start cleaning up the sandy mess in the halls, trying to distract himself with the fact that he could look over plans later which would be much better than this.