Timonese Tales

Aadzrian is sitting at the weapons console, staring out through the viewscreen in an oddly fixed and distant manner, as if he sees nothing before him.

Rillitan moves into the bridge and clears his throat edgily.

Aadzrian startles more than slightly- he's out of his chair and a hand on his stun gun in a single motion. He blinks at the sight of who it is, and grins sheepishly. "Ah," he notes, slipping into Timonese. "Sorry. What's up?"

Raising an eyebrow, Rillitan leans back and shrugs, "You tell me, bein' that we've been sat here waitin' on yer word."

"Not my word," Aadzrian says simply. "We're waiting on Tanks. He told me not to go until he transmits coordinates to us, and as of yet? I've gotten nothing."

"Did he say he'd do it soon?" Rillitan murmurs.

"He wasn't clear," Aadzrian sighs. "Well, I didn't have anywhere in particular to be. We don't need to be on complete alert, though, I think. Might as well just go about business as normal until he tells me what the -fuck-'s going on."

"Fair, but what the hell is normal business?" Rillitan asks, "What the fuck do you actually do? Ain't thinking it's freight, and you ain't got no passengers.."

Aadzrian laughs a little at that, tilting his head back. "Let's see," he muses. "Investigating a derelict freighter. Rescuing civilians from New Luna while under Phyrrian siege. Kicking the shit out of child slavers on Tomin Kora. Finding Krushnik's missing daughter..."

"Sounds like a busy life, when you have jobs..." Rillitan grunts, "And you just hang about the rest of the time?"

"Well. I've only just inherited this boat when her former captain retired," Aadzrian confesses. "And it coincided with Tir saying he wanted us to take a month off so he could get his head on straight. Usually we're a bit busier than this, but I've got to reforge some connections and find us some jobs."

"Right.." Rillitan says, looking down thoughtfully, "Well, yer boy's been up with this thing but he don't last long before he wants to come down again, s'a bit much for him all at once, perhaps?" he shrugs, "Ain't done nothing all time since."

"I don't care how you entertain yourself so long as you're not breaking local law, when you're not teaching him," Aadzrian murmurs with a grin. "Wander, run, exercise, read, spar, whatever. You need anything, you can ask any time."

"Right-o capt'n." Rillitan grunts.

"If you're bored I could tell you a story," Aadzrian volunteers, stretching his arms over his head. "I've got a -lot- of stories."

"About what now?" Rillitan asks with a smirk.

"Anything you like! I've had a pretty full life- though I guess I'm not much older than you- so I got stories about damn nigh everything." Aadzrian's smile is relaxed as he glances down at the weapons console.

Rillitan snorts, "You look older, I can tell you that." he shrugs, "I've got stories myself, I ain't met one like us who don't have 'em. I got stories I wish I don't remember."

"Don't we all," Aadzrian chuckles softly. "Tell me one you're happy to remember, huh? ...ah, and I'm thirty-seven."

"I'm about 30, I think." Rillitan says with a grunt, "Couple of stories that are pretty funny, from huntin'.

"Go on then," Aadzrian waves a hand, smiling. "Tell me one of 'em!"

"Ogh." Rillitan manages, frowning thoughtfully, "There was this one mark..." he begins, "Stupid chap, thought it'd be a good idea to avoid being caught by any law agencies by parking this hulkin' ship in the middle of an old war minefield... Think he was Ungstiri, can never remember now... Anyway, bein' the bunch of complete idiots the crew I was with, we decided to fly into it."

Aadzrian snorts softly, folding his arms over his chest with a grin. "Sounds like a whole ship of Timonae to me!"

"Yeah, well some of 'em were." Rillitan grins, "Anyway, our ship was fairly sized, so we needed a way to get through this minefield. We're all sittin' there on the bridge, lookin' out at this fuckin' great big spattering of explosives ain't none of us want to set off... An' the captain? He's just sat there with a smirk on his face, staring out of them. Turns out I was stupid enough to ask him what he was thinkin'."

Snowstreak enters from the ship's airlock. Snowstreak has arrived.

Aadzrian is sitting at the weapons console, speaking to Rillitan in animated Timonese. "Ohh, man," the older Timonae grins, clapping his hands together. "What'd he say?"

"He just turned to me, right? Grin big as you like, he says, 'Rill boy? Go get yer space suit... and a really big stick..." Rillitan says, holding back a snort, "A /really/ big stick! We all just stared at him, proper /stared/."

Aadzrian chortles loudly with unrestrained glee. "Did you get a really big stick?"

Rillitan appears to be telling a story, "That's the thing, there weren't one on board we could fit into the damn airlock!" he laughs, "Damn captain was stubborn as a rock, though, we tried tellin' him ain't worth it and there he was stormin' on about how if some mark could do it, so could we. Again, he pulls out this fuckin' crazy grin and turns to me... TO ME, again. I figure he's trying to kill me by this point, cause he just points to the airlock an says, "Coolant pipe. Starboard."

Aadzrian tilts his head, still grinning although now he starts looking quizzical. "Wait... he wanted you to take the pipe -off-?"

Snowstreak makes his way in quietly, the Demarian a little dusty and sweaty but he is wearing a bit of a smile. He looks between Rillatin and then to

Aadz before offering in bouncy Timonese "Gooey armadillo! Bitten the left sports bag into a garnished trickle. They should shopping cart in a few waffles."

Suns has arrived.

"Swear he did." Rillitan replies with a nod, turning to look across to the Demarian as he pauses in his story before turning back to Aadzrian in an effort to completley disregard whatever Snowstreak is attempting to communicate, "I did, too. I went out and pulled the god damn pipe out of it's place. Weren't exactly a barge length, but it did the trick. So here we are floating towards this minefield and I got to be standin' at the front of the ship makin' sure none of the mines could get near the ship. Scared shitless, 'course, cause we all din't know shit about the mines anyway. As if they were even motion activated!" he snorts.

Aadzrian can't help but stare blankly at Snow for a moment, a laugh escaping despite his best efforts. "Repeat in Terran?" he asks of the Demarian in that language, laughter increasing at Rillitan's tale. In Timonese, he notes, "I'm gonna assume they're not, since you're here today!"

Snowstreak twingesh is ears slowly before sighing out softly "Alright... um... been working in the cargo bay, trying to make it into a temporary triage center..." He looks to Aadz then lightly slides his paws into his pockets

Suns walks through the hatchway onto the bridge and looks down from the raised platform curiously. "Good evening," he yarps, noticing the darkness outside the ship. "Are we having a meeting?"

"Turns out half the mine field ain't activated at all, due to some kind of EMP pulse back when it was first laid... Course, only person that knew that was the mark... so there I am in my space suit, stuck outside of the ship, pokin' these mines away from the hull and sayin' my last words cause I'm pretty dead cert one of these mines will blow up and kill the lot of us, hunters, mark an' all when the ship stops edging forward, my radio cuts out an' the lights in the bridge all go off." Rillitan continues with his story without a second look towards the newcomer, seemingly in the flow of it.

"No, story-tel," Aadzrian tells Suns lightly, then smiles reassuringly Snow's way. "Good, good! I t'ank you for te effort, Snow. I am sure it wil be of use to us in future!" He does fall silent again then, sucked right back into Rillitan's story- and his Timonese speech. "Shit, man. And you were stuck out there?"

Snowstreak settles quietly in a seat behind Aadz, his tail slowly sifting behind him. He draws in a light breath then lets his tail sift against his feet.

Suns curls his toes and nods silently in response to Aadzrian. Climbing down the steps, he stands on his hind feet to inspect the consoles while the story is going on.

"For a couple of minutes, I'm just standing there with this pole, still poking at mines... After a while of static, though, I just hear my captain again. Ryoleli, what pipe did you take?" Rillitan snorts, leaving pause for a response.

Aadzrian bursts out in loud, full laughter at this point, clapping.

Snowstreak remains quiet, ears flitted lightly forward.

Suns freezes in the middle of his inspection, they Ydahri's eyes turning to look behind him curiously, "Your story seems very funny, it is a shame I have missed most of it!" he offers.

"My favorite bit comes up now." Rillitan says with a grin, "Captain seemed pretty mad, due to my having removed part of the ship that made the engine run properly. Would be a while to fix it, was a good thing we were running on silent. Emergency lights came up an' everything, could see his angry red face shoutin' at me through the glass." the Timonae smirks, shaking his head with a sigh, "Only I was giving him one of his grins. The crazy grin. I'd just noticed something pretty funny, see? I could see the damn mark."

"-See- him?" Aadzrian inquires, brow rising. "What, he was out of his ship, or was the ship -that- close?" His laughter's slow to die, intermittent bursts of it escaping him.

Suns returns his attention back to the consoles, keeping one eye on Aadzrian's expression while the animated conversation goes on.

"His ship was about 100 meters from ours." Rillitan laughs, "Our navigation consoles had latched onto a fake beacon the guy had planted! We were heading straight into part of the minefield that was still active, and the mark was sitting right next to us! He thought he'd got it sussed, smug bastard was just watchin' it all! I could see him plain as day, floatin' there. Main ship's down, course, but yer sharp enough to guess what happens next, right?"

A slow grin almost wicked in its glee curls Aadzrian's lips. "I think I can guess," he concurs, "but I'd love to hear it anyway."

"I jumped, bloody jumped off the ship. Captain ain't got a clue what's going on. He just sees me float off out of the cockpit vision an' shouts down the comms at me. I can't stop laughing all the way!" Rillitan continues to laugh as he tells the story, "Okay, okay, that's a complete LIE, I manage to stop laughing the moment I realize I ain't going to hit the spaceship!"

"Haaa!" Aadzrian shakes his head, grinning. "Please tell me you went pole-vaulting in a space minefield. Please."

"I look down and yup. Whaddya know? I still got this damn pole in my hands!" Rillitan nods with a expression of humoured pain, "Start trying to control myself as I float past the ship, poking at a few mines... Course, I /still/ think they're active, so I don't want to set any of these bastards off! I still ain't gonna hit the damn ship, I'm fucked right? Is the pole long enough, I'm just thinking... shit, it ain't... no way is it long enough!"

Aadzrian shakes his head, grinning helplessly as he watches Rillitan with raptly amused attention. "But it was!" he declares hopefully. "Right?"

"Nope, I just floated right past the damn mark helplessly." Rillitan grins, "Complete idiot, right?"

"No way!" Aadzrian shakes his head. "I can't believe it ended like that!"

"It didn't, cause I was a complete idiot." Rillitan says with a snort, "Thankfully so, I guess, cause I didn't detach myself from the safety line on the captain's ship. Line reaches maximum length and goes taut."

"Haaa! That's a good kind of idiocy, though," Aadzrian notes with a twinkle in his eye. "Did you catch him on the way back?"

"Damn right I did. There's the captain sayin' all this gibberish in my ear about how I ain't gonna float off into space and avoid the ass-kickin' he's gonna give me, an' me detaching myself from the line and floating onto the fucking ship he still don't know about!" Rillitan gufaws, "I'm holding myself back from laughing, cause the mark ain't even got a safety code on his upper access airlock!"

"Pretty shitty criminal," Aadzrian snorts, shaking his head, grinning away. "And he had no clue you were there either?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he knew by the way he was running about when I got into his ship, looking for his pulse pistol!" Rillitan says with a chuckle, "I even stood there and watched as he searched through all this junk in his ship for something to attack me with... Cocky bastard didn't think we'd get anywhere near him, 'course, so the fact that a Timonae just entered through his airlock had 'im a bit startled."

"Just -watched-?" Aadzrian laughs. "Waiting for him to have a weapon, too?"

"Didn't really cross my mind he knew what the fuck to do with it." Rillitan says with a chuckle, "The guy was running from some nerd hacker law shit... Closest thing he came to combat experience was whatever video game he was plugged into..."

"Ohhh," Aadzrian confirms cluelessly. "Guess you took him right in, then?"

"Well, we had a bit of a chat first... Well, I used to chat with knives y'see!" Rillitan snorts, "By the end of it, he piloted us back out and all the way to Ungstir. Didn't hear from the captain again... Never will forget 'is grin, though... Had some good times with that grin..."

"Well done," Aadzrian concludes, laughing softly and shaking his head. "I never did much bounty hunting, but that sounds like a hell of a time." "All of the best stories I know come from huntin'." Rillitan says with a snort, "Best time of my life, when I'm on a good hunt."

"I like bounties, when you're dealing with a real criminal that needs to be brought to justice," Aadzrian agrees, sobering slightly. "But, well, I ain't so much for the dubious ones. I used to be a cop."

Rillitan shrugs, "I ain't met a bounty yet who didn't deserve the price on his head, an' I've been handed in for money myself.." this comes across rather sorely, "Still, in some cases you don't want to empathise.. A bad decision can be made by anyone, really, what separates good from bad? Morality or bad luck?" the Timonae snorts indignantly.

"I can't help but feel that..." Aadzrian pauses a minute, weighing his words. "The difference between a good man and a bad man is that the good man, knowing he's done wrong, stands up and takes his punishment. Then tries to make it better, whatever the price required."

"Ain't as simple as that..." Rillitan shrugs, "But it can be, an' that makes sense."

Aadzrian offers Rillitan a lopsided grin, shrugging his broad shoulders. "It works for me, nowadays. Part of why I hired you."

"Damn well hired me cause I ain't incompetant." Rillitan murmurs with a grin of his own.

"That's part of it," Aadzrian laughs. "It was kinda serendipity, since Tir needs to learn. And part of it is... just paying back what I thought about doing. What I -was- gonna do. Technically, this ship is mine because of that."

Rillitan merely shrugs once more.

"Yeah, sorry, doubt you wanna hear about that," Aadzrian apologizes with a crooked grin. "Your story was -great-, though, y'know."

Rillitan shrugs, "One of the better ones I know. You'll have to tell me one to match, right?"

"I don't think most of mine are that good. People like the one with the horse but really it's just kind of creepy," Aadzrian ponders aloud, stroking his beard. "I tend to crash and burn a lot more than succeed spectacularly!"

"Got a couple of them, too. Like this one time when me and three other hunters all went after a bounty at the same time, in the same damn place. We ended up fighting between ourselves so much the bounty just walked off." Rillitan snorts, "But the horse one sounds good, I'll bug you to tell it later."

"Once I did shoot the hover right out of a speeding armored hovertank coming at me," Aadzrian murmurs, "but that was way cooler to -watch- than retell."

"Moments like that make me wish I was being filmed at all times." Rillitan says with a nod and a grin, "Like when I punched a guy who fell back against a wall, which then fell over along with the house it was connected to. Fucking weirdest thing you've ever saw, thought I'd punched him a bit too hard..."

"Awesome," Aadzrian cackles with glee. "I love that kind of thing. Oh, man, a few weeks ago on Vollista a Vollistan tried to kill me with his mind, but my head's so hard he actually put himself into a -coma- just trying it. One minute he was lunging at me, the next dead out on the ground!"

"Wow..." Rillitan murmurs, "That just sounds horrible... actually..."

"Eh? Lots of people try to kill me," Aadzrian remarks, tone rather blase. "It's okay, I'm used to it."

"Oh the killing ain't so bad, but when you think about how fucked up your head has to be to kill someone who tries to get into it, well?" Rillitan just snorts.

"Well, that's okay." Aadzrian smiles, a little sheepishly. "I mean... I know I'm crazy, I just do my best, right?"

"Said like a good guy, then?" Rillitan snorts, "Right, I'm gonna go find some food."

"There's some leftovers in the fridge, go on," Aadzrian invites cheerily. "I did some dribgib in a creamy curry over saffron rice, if you like it."

"Nah, I'll get something myself." Rillitan says plainly, moving to leave, "I ain't often eat normal crap."

"Tell me what you like and I'll cook it sometime," Aadzrian calls after Rill, smiling away.

Suns's eyes leave the navigation console to watch Rillitan leave, "Oh, is the story over?"

"Maybe I might." Rillian says back to Aadz, unconvincingly, before he's gone.

"Hope he does," Aadzrian muses, then turns a smile to Suns and slips back into Terran. "Oh, yes, story is over. It was very good story!"