Crashing

[Helly Reyne]

"It's like... You're not afraid to go against the herd, you know? When the flock migrates, you stay where you are, just dancing to your own tune."

"Well... which is it?" Helly asked, lying on her back as her lover, a Zeltron with vibrant blue hair strewn over the covers that kept their bare bodies warm, had her arms and even one leg wrapped around the musician. At the sight of the Zeltron woman simply looking at her with a blank face, she sighed. "A flock or a herd? Which don't I follow?"

"Oh..." she replied, clearly taken aback. "They're just metaphors, you know?"

"Right," Helly said, feeling the spices starting to wear off already. She was still in her hotel room on Zeltros a few days after her show, wanting to stay if only for the atmosphere doing a well enough job at distracting her thoughts from the important things on her mind. "Hey, you don't mind staying with me for the night, do you? I've still gotta be on my way tomorrow, but I think I could use the company."

The pink-skinned girl's eyes lit up as she exclaimed, "Aww! Of course, Helly!" She gave her a kiss on her shoulder and snuggled in closer. "To be honest, I was super afraid that I was gonna come off as annoying when I approached you at the restaurant. I just knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't at least try and talk to my favorite band. But this turned out to be way more special than I ever imagined."

Helly allowed a smirk out of the corner of her lips. It wasn't the first time she had heard that exact sentiment, and it likely wouldn't be the last. "You're beautiful," she told her. "I couldn't let that slip through my fingers."

"Aww, babe..." Helly didn't like the sound of that. "Hey, um... I know this is asking a lot, and it's super okay if you say no, but could I come along with you when you leave? I don't have much here keeping me tied down, so I could always keep you company for longer..."

Pursing her lips, Helly took a deep breath through her nose. "I don't know about that. You're amazing, trust me, but I feel like... maybe... this could just be remembered as one special night for us both? I wouldn't wanna ruin that."

"It could be longer than just one night. However long you like, I won't turn it into a thing, I promise."

"It's just that you're a fan," she said outright. "We met because you're a fan. I can be Hartlite Helly Reyne for a night, but you don't want to get to know the Helly Reyne that crawls back underneath the floorboards after she's done putting on a show. Trust me, you don't."

The Zeltron girl nodded solemnly, kissing her one last time closer to the neck. "I get it. At least I'll have this, right?"

Helly turned to her lover, raising a hand to her cheek. "I can still give you more," she whispered, giving her a kiss on her lips before raising herself to be on top of her. "The night is young, after all..."

---

As the cold rain continued to hit her mercilessly as she walked down the streets of Metellos, Helly strayed in her step more than once. Balancing proved to be more difficult after a certain mix of spices and alcohol, and even though she had been on that street a number of times, everything seemed to be different. It felt as if she could pass through people as she walked, and she felt and heard nothing when her shoulder ran into another.

She had to do a show the next day, but just like her previous concert on Zeltros, she wasn't ready for it. There were days when she would be too stricken with anxiety to do much of anything on the day before getting up on stage, but she wasn't that same person anymore. The magic of making music and sharing it with the world had dulled, the thrill of traveling the galaxy had been extinguished, and all she had left was the artificial highs of substances. Even then, it would always feel as though she was dying in the slowest way imaginable.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw herself. Not in a vision, not in a metaphor, but rather on a square screen. It was definitely her, she could tell as much despite her impairment. She was performing, a microphone in her hand, sunglasses shielding her eyes from the harsh overhead lights. Her silvery hair was whipping around as she got into the music and into the atmosphere, soaking it all up. The screen was under a canopy, protruding from atop the door to a music shop.

She felt herself walking closer, her eyes glued to herself. That was the person she was on stage. Even though she had seen Hartlite perform more times than she could count, she was somehow entranced this time. That wasn't her. It wasn't even close to her. When did she change the color of her hair? When did she start drinking during shows? When did she start insulting a part of her audience?

The image of herself became all she could see, all she could think of. The screen was bursting out at her, barely containing something behind it all. She contemplated on whether or not the force itself was reaching out to her behind the myriad of screens like prison walls.

---

​

The rain hadn't ended by the time the concert was starting, but it was rain or shine, and it just so happened to be rain on that particular day. There wasn't as much of a turnout because of it, but she still gazed out at an audience regardless, most under the covered areas of carrying their own forms of cover. Some, however, were out in front in the rain and mud shouting out at them.

"This wasn't what we had planned," Helly stated into the mic, "but we think it's only appropriate to start with Hell's Rain on this lovely evening!"

As the audience cheered over the sound of the downpour, she couldn't help but think back on what she saw of herself during her last set. Was that what she wanted? Was that Hartlite's Helly Reyne? Was there even a difference between her two lives anymore?

The music began and she nearly jumped at the sudden start to the song, late for her cue to start singing.

---

"You need to learn some self-control," her manager, Trayt, said to her as Helly paced back and forth in her hotel on Metellos. "You're slipping and it's costing us. I don't want to have to intrude like this on your personal life, but I might have to if it involves your own safety."

"It's my band, isn't it?" Helly said, refusing to look at him. "I started it, I can end it if I want to. It's not my fault the rest of you decided to get so attached to it! I'm not your employer! I'm just a singer! Please just get off my back!"

"You're not listening to yourself," Trayt pointed out. "It's the spice talking, not Helicent Reyne-"

"Don't you DARE call me that!" Helly screamed, pointing a stiff finger at the Chagrian man. "That is NOT my name!"

"I apologize, Helly, but that's hardly what you need to focus on at the moment. Your career may be slipping unless you seize it once more. If you need time, you'll have it. If you need space, you'll have it. But if you want substances, I'm afraid you're going to have to live without. If you're going to choose to act like a child, then you're going to be dealt with as such."

"You know what? Maybe I do need some space. And a lot of it. Don't worry, no spice, no alcohol, I'll make real good sure that I come back with a smile on my face. If I come back."

"Helly, just take some time to think about where you are mentally. Take your time, please!"

By the time he had finished, Helly had already slammed the door, equipped with what she had on her. She was going to do something she would regret, she knew, but it didn't matter what she did anymore, it would all result in the same regrets. Tears were streaming across her face as she picked up her pace down the hallway and out of the hotel.

---

It had been a day without any contact whatsoever. A pilot was something she had never been, but she had taken her shuttle off its course and found herself lost in space. Instead of letting the fear set in, she felt relieved. The distress beacon hadn't once been turned on, and she had taken the time to sleep and paint to the sound of her favorite songs. It was serene, even freeing to an extent.

Maybe she didn't need to come back. Maybe she would let her own momentum take her wherever she needed to be. Riding the wave was nothing new to her, and neither was starting over. She made something out of herself with nothing after being abandoned by her own father, and she could do it again. She would do it again.

Letting go came naturally.

Emergency landings didn't.

She had been sleeping when she realized that her shuttle was being approached by another ship, probably assuming that there was nobody inside. It would be impossible for her to know what kind of ship it was, but she wasn't about to test her fate quite that much in case they were pirates.

Scrambling to her seat, she hesitated as she stared at everything at her disposal. She at least knew what made her go and what made her go in different directions, but she was hopeless beyond that. Maneuvers would be left up to her pilots, not her.

As soon as she started speeding up, a sizable distance was formed between her and the ship. She was too afraid to fire up the hyperdrive, if only because she had no idea if there was a route anywhere nearby. Speeding towards the nearest star system, she felt the pull of one of its planets, one that looked at the very least inhabitable. Green and blue, always good signs... she hoped.

The shuttle held up against its atmosphere even at the speed she was entering it, angling itself correctly for landing. As she looked down at the forest-covered land beneath her, she began to wonder when the chute would open up only to realize that it already had. The ground approached fast, and all she could do was brace herself for when she inevitably hit hard, the front of the shuttle getting bent and mangled it practically bounced off trees along the way.

Finally, she hit a tree head-on and came to an immediate stop.

She didn't know how long it had been, but she knew it had to have been quite a long time if the smoke had already cleared from the wreckage. She wasn't bleeding somehow, but there wasn't a single place on her body that didn't feel sore or bruised.

When she opened the airlocked door to her side, she had to kick it mercilessly for it to budge in its warped state. She painfully threw her pack of belongings out the door, then crawled out herself. The sounds around her were more akin to a jungle than a forest, but at the very least, she could breathe without issue. With any luck, the crash would have scared off any wildlife.

On that day, she hadn't been the luckiest person in the galaxy.

As she traveled just a few meters away from the crash, she was faced with some kind of wolf. Then another, and one more for good measure. She froze in place as they seemed to size her up, probably coming to the conclusion that she was absolutely hopeless. Which would be the correct conclusion to make.

Helly dropped her pack and bolted back to the shuttle, practically diving into it and turning around only to pull the hatch with all the might she had available, shutting it tight only to jump at the sound of a wolf colliding with the other side of it.

She was panting as she looked around at her surroundings, backing away from the windshield as a wolf passed by, fangs bared and eyes hungrily focusing on her through the cracked glass.

"Good," she said to herself under her breath, tilting her head back in mock surrender once she realized she was at least safe for the time being. "Great. Perfect. Exactly what I had in mind..." She banged a fist against the side of the shuttle in pure frustration, feeling the tears begin to well up in her eyes once again.

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsP-MjIueL4[/media]​

[member="Helly Reyne"]

The ship flashed from hyperspace nothing at first appeared on sensors. It was just empty space and a world below. The hyper drive would be down for a little while allowing Cynthia some time to eat and freshen up as the ship stayed idle. The pink haired woman pushed herself up from the seat and made her way to the kitchen. There was left overs from her last meal. She wasn't fond of eating the same stuff over and over, but the costs of running such a large ship came at the cost of cutting down on everything else. Still having food was a good thing and the contract offered was in the six digits. It was an opportunity not easily passed. Search and rescue was something the woman had become good at.

Taking the tray from out the refrigerator and into the microwave Cynthia set the time for it to heat up. It would humm as the plate spun around slowly inside. The wait was torture as her stomach grumbled like a wookie and it felt like it was tying knots. A small low sigh left the woman's lips watching the tray spin around till it finally bleeped. Once again silence was all that was left. "Ca play playlist seven." She said as music began to fill the ship. Sound of another voice was somewhat soothing even if that voice was not in the room. It was a sure way not to go crazy from the silence.

The pink haired mandalorian girl walked back to the cockpit with the hot tray in her hands. Although she couldn't feel the heat so much through the tea towel as she held it firm. Sitting back into her seat she'd set the tray on her lap and began to eat.

Hours passed and Cynthia had fell asleep in her seat, arms dangling over the side of her chair. Her dreams was unpleasant and for most would wrench them awake at the images that flashed. Her dream consisted of a battlefield that had ended. Bodies laid on the floor thick clouds of smoke emerging from burning ruins. Yet she kept walking, searching, hoping that her vod was still alive. Bleep bleep, bleep bleep. Her eyes snapped open as she lent up quickly knocking the empty tray to the floor. "KARK!" she shouted to herself. Bleep bleep, bleep bleep. Her eyes looked on the small screen showing it had picked up something. A small shuttle. "Who the hell is this?"

Her foot knocked away the tray as her hand reached under the seat to pull it closer in. She tried to get in contact with the pilot but there was no response. With a small nudge of the controls the ship made a small short burst to take the large ship closer towards the shuttle. Her thoughts was stuck to the ship was stolen, or they was running. Once she had gotten close the small shuttle shot off towards the planet. "Running it is." Her hands began to move around performing checks to prepare for atmospheric entry.

Following the ship from a distance she kept track of its location as it dived recklessly into the atmosphere. Cynthia was surprised that the small craft didn't burn up on its way down. Who ever was that was flying clearly had it in good with lady luck. Her ship over passed the now crashed ship as she took the ship to a large clearing.

Cynthia walked down the ramp to be met with lush green grass and a clear lake. She knew what direction to go and there was only a few hours of daylight left. Upon her exit Cynthia made sure to pick up the basics of medical supplies, bandages, sprays and the one thing she was allergic to, Kolto shots. Something that she'd never use herself. The jetpack would roar as it ignited and lifting her into the sky above the canopy of the trees. She could see there was no fire, that was at least a good sign. Even with her speed it would take time to get there. As the mandalorian shot over the canopy she couldn't but help taking in the fauna below. The mixtures of greens, blues, reds and all other shades blossomed.

Almost a half hour passed before she had to set down and make the rest of the way on foot. "Ca enable life form scanner." she said to the voice recognition software installed inside her buy’ce. She wasn't sure if who ever was inside was alive, dead or even hostile. Either way she was cautious. Cynthia kept a steady jog with her SABR Hœnir held tight against her chest. It was not long until she got to the beginning of the crash trail. Branches littered the floor getting thicker until it was just a dirt trench.

"Almost there." She said lightly panting. Her HUD showed multiple Life signature's. One inside the shuttle, alive the rest was canine circling the downed craft. Dropping low Cynthia swapped out the shotgun for SABR Hécate. Lining up the shot with the mutt on the other side of the craft she squeezed the trigger. The shot left the barrel silently only making a ting as it passed through the hull of the shuttle and into the chest of the wolf. The echolocation picked up the yelp. Quickly raising to her feat she once again swapped her guns around and charged. Already the wolfs was panicked by its vod's chest turned into crimson hole. In her charge she began to hear the growls and aggressive snarls and barks. Two of the mutts charged towards her although she was not shying away from the challenge. The first came withing a meter of the woman before the Razor sharp flechlets spread into the wolf the second covered the ground to pounce her.

It's fangs tried to bite through the helmet only scratching the paintwork. Her wrist came up to the side of the wolf stood above her. A pulse from the repulsor knocked the beast from off her. She reached for the shot gun and rolled onto her side to take the shot. The others soon realised that she was top of the food chain and quickly bolted back into the woods. Cynthia leaned up with and rolled her shoulders and neck around. "YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!" she shouted still sat on the floor for a moment before pushing her self back up and walked to the bent hatch. Both hands slid into the small gap as her foot pressed against the side as the woman pried open the door. "I took care of the canines."

 

[Helly Reyne]

The fighting outside the shuttle left her in a state of confusion. Had she been followed the entire time or was it merely a native of the planet? When the hatch was being forced open, she backed against the opposite side of the shuttle just in case this person didn't have the best intentions. A Mandalorian helmet left her with even more questions.

"Am I in the Mandalorian Empire?" Helly asked, still shaken from the whole ordeal but no longer huddled in fear. "Please tell me you're here to take me back to Coruscant. You'll be rewarded- heavily- I can promise you that." She flattened a palm against her forehead with a slight groan. "I still need to make arrangements with Embuhr and finish recording for Post-Pressure." Technically, she wasn't yet allowed to talk too much about her upcoming album, which would be Hartlite's third, but given the circumstances, she didn't exactly mind dropping the name of the album to her potential savior. "Why am I so *stupid?"*

---

[member="Cynthia Raxis"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

Cynthia looked upon the woman reared up to the front of the shuttle. Nothing could be seen through the blacked T'visor that was common to be seem amongst the mandalorian people. "Not quite. Actually pretty far outside of mandalorian space." She said backing away from the hatch and taking her helmet off. Cynthia's pink hair fell down from the grip of her buy'ce, the two longer strands would immediately catch the wind flailing in its current. The woman rolled her head back feeling the breeze run across her face with a light smile and a deep breath. "No thank you huh?" She said sarcastically and rhetorically with the same smile. "But yeah. You look like the person on my contract. Helly Reyne right?, I'm Cynthia Garon."

Helly soon rambled about something the mandalorian girl didn't understand. Record what, post-pressure? It had nothing to do with her so she chose to ignore it. The contract its self had very little detail's about the woman anyway. It mostly consisted of what she looked like and a name. The fact the woman was some well known celebrity was beyond her. She was just another person in the galaxy to Cynthia, there would be no special treatment. "Look we all make mistakes, longs as you own it you'll be fine. Anyway we wont make it back to my ship before nightfall the sun is dropping fast. With predators that lurk in it I don't fancy your chances. So we are gonna have to make camp here. We can use the shuttle to sleep in and it's a good job your reckless flying got us plenty of firewood. We have something to eat." She said looking at the wolf she shot with the sniper rifle. "That is unless you have much food remaining in here?" The fact the animals where killers it didn't bother her so much at the thought of cooking them. Although two was filled with flechlets only one of them was partially edible and that was if it didn't carry disease. That alone was a risk she that was best not taken. "On the upside it is just one night, then you will be in the comfort of my ship."

 

[Helly Reyne]

Helly cleared her throat, saying, "Yeah... Helly Reyne... And for not being a pilot, I'd say I did a pretty good job at an emergency landing. There was some pirate ship or something on my tail." She made her way out of the shuttle as she continued, "I've got food in my bag. I uh... kinda dropped it when there were rabid beasts cornering me."

Before she reached her bag, she turned around and added, "Thank you, by the way..."

It felt like she needed to be rescued more and more those days, something she didn't want her fans fully aware of. She was supposed to be a badass, not some damsel in distress.

---

[member="Cynthia Raxis"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

Cynthia smirked as the girl used her manners. It was something that didn't take five seconds and well the words was always nice to hear. "You're welcome, and besides that ship you flew away from, that was mine. Really this whole situation could have been avoided if you had your comms turned on. Then again, it has been a while since I've camped outside. I assume this is your first time right?" Cynthia asked as she began to make two piles of broken branches. One with larger branches and one with more twigs. "Also I guess any landing you can walk away from is a good one. Although I prefer the ones I can also fly away from too. I mean on the off chance that wasn't me up there you could have been stranded here without a way to communicate. To me you don't look like the type of person who can survive in the wilderness. I was thirteen the first time I was made to survive It was my Verd'goten. Buir dropped me on Dxun with just a knife and water. I was there for a month Every skill I learnt was pushed to it's limits. You learn fast that the sure way to survive well is don't eat the plant life." She said with a chuckle remembering about the time she was caught in a Crasna's vine's.

"Then again the wild life was no better. Those canines was nothing on a Maalraas. Those Karkers can go invisible and hunt in packs, hell don't get me started on the time I saw my first Zakkeg. I'll tell ya, that thing had me shaking in my boots." The mandalorian culture wasn't for everyone. You was either born to live that life style or just blended into the rest of the galaxy. She knew people who never passed their Verd'goten and left and the day they left. People she used to call vod and friends. Even the ones who stayed she soon distanced herself from. Cynthia became the definition of alone no matter how many vod had her back. Getting the smaller pile ready she crouched down besides it and tucked in dry leafs inside. "So Helly, Whats your story? Why you out here?" She asked as she pulled out a lighter and light the leaf's on fire.

 

[Helly Reyne]

While listening to her rescuer go on and on about her time surviving, Helly was focused on the contents of the bag she brought with her. There was still enough food and water to last a few nights, she at least had the wherewithal to make sure of that much. There was also a small blaster tucked away in one of the deep pockets on the inside that only she was to know about. It wasn't a powerful one, but it would certainly stop someone or something from pursuing her.

"I didn't have my comms on because I didn't want to hear anything from anyone," she admitted once she walked back to the crash site with her bag in tow. "I was running. I don't know what I was running from, maybe fame or responsibility or myself or some sappy chit like that." She pulled out a bottle of pre-mixed rum and offered it to [member="Cynthia Garon"] while retrieving another for herself. "Maybe you already know all about me from tabloids and interviews, or maybe you don't even know what Hartlite is, but I've gotta tell ya... Being a public figure is terrifying. The whole balancing act of keeping your image just consumer-friendly enough without coming across as a sellout is a never-ending ordeal. You learn how to keep secrets, but you learn even more how the fear of letting those secrets slip feels. It never gets any easier being in the spotlight."

She took a few long sips of rum before continuing any further. "I just wanna sing and paint in peace."

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

The woman sat back as the fire began to get going. It would crackle and pop as the wood turned to charcoal, the smell kicking out was strong and the smoke was white as the ash that it kicked up. Cynthia listened to Helly and reached out her hand accepting the tihaar. "Must be tough. We rarely get anything like that in mandalorian space. Our news bulletins often keep us up to date on the real need to know things. Anything else we have to research ourselves. Although people like me often end up in places where we cant access the holo net for long periods. So yeah, other than what is in the contract I have no idea about your life." She said then took a sip of the rum that went down smoothly. "Remind me when we get back to give you some real mandalorian gal... Ale. Sorry I often slip between my birth language and basic. Anyway If it's to much been in the spotlight why not take a step back."

Cynthia placed the bottle down and stood up and began taking parts of her armor off till she was just wearing the shot sleeved armor weave, breastplate, her boots and vambraces on. "Some times it's good to just get a different perspective and look at things from all angles. If you can't handle the stress then to me you need something to change. Just think when you get back, chances are you're possibly gonna get swarmed. I think people forget that everyone has secrets, and they are secrets for a reason. Maybe they are personal... or just private, but they are not anyone's business than the person that holds them." The mandalorian woman sat back down and began to put her armor closer together next to her.

"Look if you want this contract has no time limit. Longs as Trayt knows I've got you and is safe I can maybe persuade her that It will take a while getting to Coruscant. If you want me to do that I can, but when we get there what ever you decide to do that's your choice, because no matter what others make out to be, you're your own person." Cynthia swung her arm as the yellow energy beam extended out wrapping around a branch from the pile. Tugging hard it would slide across the dirt ground towards her. Her hand wrapped around it to stop it from moving and them pushed herself up picking the tihaar up at the same time and took a small mouth full and put it back down again.

 

[Helly Reyne]

Taking a seat against her shuttle, Helly reached her arms around her curled knees and gazed up at the quickly darkening sky.

"I don't know if I can take a step back," she said, her tone becoming much more tiresome. "I think I've forgotten how to do anything besides this. I'll get into relationships with an excuse already in mind because I know I wouldn't be able to juggle a girlfriend on top of all this, or even just a simple friend. It's weird, isn't it? The more popular I get, the fewer friends I have. I've got fame and even a bit of a fortune, at least from the cut that the record company allows me to have. And yet here I am, running away from the very thing I longed for my whole life." She held the bottle to her lips and said, "It's messed up," before downing a sizable portion of rum.

"I've got a new album coming out soon. After the album comes out, I'll have about a month before I go on tour. Know of any ways to waste away a month? I'm not talking vacations, either. Back on Coruscant, the way we had fun was to sit off the side of a bridge and see if we could piss on the right window. Usually some nerf herder we didn't like. Sometimes we'd get in trouble for stealing, but we'd be lucky if it was just with the authority. I got beat up more than once. Beaten up my fair share of other teens, as well. Only training I ever got was in street brawling, taught to me by the streets, and street brawling doesn't help you much against martial artists or people who are bigger than you are."

She snapped herself back to reality, turning her attention back to [member="Cynthia Garon"] and adding, "Hope you aren't bothered by rambling."

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

Cynthia smiled slightly as she listened and broke the branch into bits with the repulsor. "No, not at all. I don't mind listening." She said adding to the fire. Embers rose as the bits of wood landed on top, her eyes would watch them rise up before quickly dying out. Cynthia turned to face the woman and walked closer. Her hands would reach to the floor as she sat next to Helly to gaze out towards the forrest. "And not really. Its common for people who are socially idolised to become detached from everything that makes them a person. It make it harder to let people in and it makes it harder for people to approach you. Thus in the end you just feel alone in a galaxy filled with an infinite amount of people. Fame and fortune is a nice thing but it's also a heavy burden, and it only gets heavier. It's only natural to run from things that hurt us, a survival instinct everyone is born and bread with."

Cynthia looked at Helly. "As for wasting a month, I usually just relax and wind down before the next chit storm I'm tossed into. Although I find it harder and harder to relax these days. I seem to always find myself been alone and it gets to me. Guess I guess that is why I toss myself into work. People I feel myself getting close to in the end push me away. Even when I give my all to pursue someone it always end badly." Her voice became softer as she kept speaking with almost a tinge of sadness hanging from the words. Cynthia stood up once more and moved over to her rifle and pulled the bi-pod out. Setting it down on the ground she would grab the small bottle and guzzle the rest of it back. "Wait here a second." She said moving into the woods. The woman had walked a fair distance in but still in sight of the downed shuttle and Helly. She climbed up a tree to the first branch resting the glass bottle on it before dropping back down and making her way back.

Collecting her helmet from the pile of the armor she had taken off Cynthia would put it on a second. "Ca activate Guest Range training." Cynthia looked towars the bottle zooming in to the bottle and selecting it as a target. She then took the helmet off. "Come here." she said holding her helmet out to her. "Put this on."

 

[Helly Reyne]

Helly couldn't help but laugh incredulously with a single raised brow as she was offered the helmet. "What, are you serious? I don't know how any of this works, you've gotta realize."

Even still, she hesitantly grabbed the helmet and looked at it for a brief moment. She could have sworn there was some kind of Mandalorian rule that prohibited people like her from wearing a Mandalorian helmet, but it could have just been her imagination. Cautiously, she began fitting it over her head until all she could see was the interior of it.

---

[member="Cynthia Garon"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

Cynthia looked at the woman with a slight smirk. "Don't worry it's straight forward. The helmet has the bottle locked as an enemy target. When it is on use the voice recognition to tell it what you want the helmet to do. So to change the language say Ca galactic basic." As soon as Helly placed the helmet she would see a lot of information that is in the mandalorian text. She would also notice a red arrow that directed her vision to the bottle. if she was to look at the bottle a red diamond would be around it to display where it was. "Lay down, Stock firm against your shoulder. Now when you are aiming you can either say Ca display scope feed. That will change the hud to show you only what can be seen through the scope, but I don't want you to do the easy way. There is no fun in that." As Helly laid prone Cynthia would lay next to her on the right side of the woman almost touching her shoulder.

"Now cheek to the stock and as you aim you need both eyes open, this way you don't loose depth perception. Weird to get the hand of." Cynthia's hand would slide over Helly's positioning the woman's hand and then placed the stock right. "When you are ready release the safety by command and take a shot at the bottle." She knew the scope was only set to its normal setting of zoom, meaning even looking through the bottle would appear small. Although all the woman had to do was hold the centre on the bottle as she squeezed and breathed. The bi-pod would help keep it steady but there would still be up and down movements, and breath control was needed to make the shot.

 

[Helly Reyne]

As the safety was released, Helly took a moment before squeezing the trigger to take in her surroundings, that being a Mandalorian girl with a hand over hers. While she had fired a gun in the past, never had she been trained for... tactical warfare, or whatever people called this. Her mind was stuck between appreciation and discomfort.

"Normally a girl has to take me out before getting this far," she muttered right before taking the shot, shattering the glass and giving her a bit of a thrill in the process. "Hoo-hoo! So I've pretty much mastered ranged combat now, right?" she joked through the helmet. "Beats pissing on windows, I'll say that much."

---

[member="Cynthia Garon"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

Cynthia laughed at the remark Helly made and shook her head. "Yeah well, I think saving your ass counts too." She said trying to contain her laughter. As the woman took the shot there was no sound to the bullet leaving the barrel, just the slight hum of the rail system working. Cynthia could make out that the bottle had been hit along with the echo of it shattering. "Well colour me impressed, hécate doesn't like been handled by most, but no you ain't a master yet. Give it a few years of practice, maybe you'll be on my level when I'm on a bad day, and yeah does beat doing that and you get to keep your pants up too." She said with the biggest smile.

"Here watch." Cynthia said as she shifted her rifle across. Her hand pressed a small button on the vambrace, "Ca Focus on hécate's scope at times five zoom." She said cheekily smiling."You able to see what the scope can?" she asked as she bought the stock firm to her shoulder, finger around the trigger and cheek against the gun. As she aimed carefully bought the cross-hair's over a bundled group of pine cones each looked like the size of the tip of a finger. Then she lifted up a tiny bit and felt for the wind she'd not know the speed but she could judge. That was information she could have asked for. It would have been displayed inside. "wind left to right." Taking her aim a little notch to the left Cynthia breathed in deeply and sharply before slowly releasing her breath, finally releasing the trigger. The bullet took no time reaching the bundle and as it hit one the rest scattered in different directions.

"Static targets are to easy." She said with a smile.

Darkness was soon upon them, the only light source been the dancing flame of the fire and the brightly light sky. It was kinda chilly so Cynthia had huddled close to the fire to keep warm. "Beautiful ain't it." She said looking up.

 

[Helly Reyne]

"Trust me," Helly said to her before getting up. "Give me a moving target and I'll impress you with just how much I can't hit it. Probably just dumb luck that I hit the bottle, but if it looked impressive, hey, I'll take it."

She sat on the opposite end of the fire, rubbing her hands together for further warmth before leaning in closer. It made her wonder just how things would have turned out had Cynthia not shown up to her rescue. The wolves may have stayed there for as long as it took for her to come out, and her bag would have still been left outside, leaving her to starve. Granted, she wouldn't have even crash landed in the first place had she not approached her from her own ship.

At the mention of how beautiful the fire was, Helly smirked slyly, her eyes comfortably narrowing. "It really is, though I haven't the slightest clue why you're talking about yourself in third-person." She would always test the waters before diving in.

---

[member="Cynthia Garon"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

Cynthia huffed and smirked as her eyes dropped from the lightly lit starry sky to to woman who was sat across. "Ohhh? something to say huh?" She said laying onto her side with an arm under her to prop her self up. "You are far more beautiful that I anyway. Out of all these stars I'd say your beauty is the most radiant." Her words seemed cheesy after she had said them but Helly did look attractive in her eyes. As she thought about it most anyone who knew who this woman was bathed in her fame and a reputation that was built on hundreds or thousands maybe even millions. Yet Cynthia hadn't been exposed to any of that.

Before Cynthia was a woman who made certain choices that led her to a dream, and that dream been something that wasn't all she hoped for. Like anyone, humans have a tendency to strive for more, to strive for what they want. It's what let them improve and grow. Cynthia nor Helly was any different. Cynthia dreamt of someone she could be with, of a clan she felt comfortable, of a home she could be proud of. She wanted a life that when she went to see Manda at the end of this life she could look back and say, it was a rough start, but over all... it was a good life. "If you're cold then feel free to come cuddle up."

 

[Helly Reyne]

Helly marveled at the remark for a moment, holding her jaw open in fake shock. "Free cuddles, oh my..." She slowly crept closer to the Mandalorian girl, making her way around the fire on all fours. "Must be my prize for hitting the bottle on my first try."

Once she was comfortably situated behind Cynthia, one of her hands made its way over the warrior's arm as her other arm came underneath her pink hair, cradling her head there. Being the same height, she found a spot near the back of Cynthia's neck to rest her own head, nuzzling against her just a little to find a comfortable resting place.

"Do they teach all Mandalorians to do this on cold nights?" she teased. "If so, then maybe I've misjudged them all this time."

---

[member="Cynthia Garon"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

Cynthia's eyes tracked Helly as she moved around the fire. She made no response other than the smile and lustful look she had. As the woman got comfortable behind her Cynthia relaxed into Helly's arms, letting tension slip away in the embrace. "No but this mandalorian doesn't mind been touched by cute ones like you, and you seem like the type that likes to touch." she said teasing her back but mostly just enjoying some contact that was not from pity or something similar.

It bugged her that this embrace couldn't keep up all night, some point shed have to move to keep the fire going. For now though, for now this moment was something of a blessing. "Shereshoy, It means a lust for life and much more. Mandalorian people find the enjoyment of each day and the determination to seek and grab every possible experience, as well as surviving to see the next day, hanging onto life and relishing it." Cynthia said explaining a certain word that fit the moment. Her people we're nomads running towards each new experience for the betterment of her vod. How ever this was an experience just for her. "Helly, i'll say that I enjoy this and its an experience that I'm glad to have."

"Tell me am I the first Mandalorian you have met? not one that is dar'manda or some drunk in a bar, but a true Mandalorian."

 

[Helly Reyne]

"I've met all kinds," Helly said truthfully. "I've slept with a Mandalorian if that's what you're asking. I hardly knew her, but I thought we might have had something for a short time. As it turns out, her beliefs... didn't exactly line up with my own. We had a pretty severe breakup, to say the least. Seems to be a trend."

She couldn't help but think back on her most infamous breakup, the one that nearly wrecked her. Mona was a fan, and that was her first mistake.

"That's all behind me now, anyway," she continued, stroking Cynthia's arm up and down as gently as she could. "Done a lot of growing since making it big with Hartlite. Gotten a lot of experience performing... Ever been with a singer by chance?"

---

[member="Cynthia Garon"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

[member="Helly Reyne"]

"Yeah, I can see that. Our people lead Adventurous lives and these past many decades we have been in a state of war. I try to steer clear of war, if our Mand'alor calls for us though we have no choice but to go. It is part of the Resol'nare. In basic its called the six actions, they consisted of wearing armor, speaking the language, defending oneself and family, raising your children as Mandalorians, contributing to the clan's welfare, and when called upon by the Mand'alor, rallying to her cause." Although under Mand'alor the preserver the code has yet to be enticed. In a way Cynthia felt thankful for that, It meant she could choose when to fight and always be available to defend her vod.

Cynthia looped her foot around Helly's calf pulling it till it was between her legs. "No, never been with a singer, although... if I'm lucky I might be soon." She said playfully flirting as she shuffled back pressing firmly against Helly's body "But yeah I have not been with many at all. Well no technically I was used by two people. So I've never really been in a relationship. So I guess I've been pretty lonely most my life. I remain hopeful though." Her actual smile withered as her mind drifted to the though and what loneliness had almost cost her. "I'd like to think there is someone that will love me for me as I love them with everything I have."