Do You Wanna Build A Spacelane? (Brat Pack)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

Whoever's interested out of:

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Micah Talith"] [member="Kaili Talith"] [member="Alnice D'Lessio"] [member="Daria Cavill"] [member="Hylocereus"] [member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"] [member="Liam Quez "][member="Laura Na'Varro"] [member="Baz Bralor"] [member="Mira Gyndar"]

KARKIN' RIBS
ADJACENT TO DINGO DARR'S CHOP SHOP
ORD MANTELL

Drowsy and full, Mara slurped the last of her ruby bliel and licked tomo-spiced barbecue sauce off her fingers. She settled into the upholstery, squidging comfortably against the other brats crammed into the booth. Some were too uptight to get in on the crush: for them, there were chairs and a nearby table. Presumably their ribs had been less delicious, their bliels less ruby, their joy less full.

"So I was thinking," she said, scrutinizing her well-sauced fingernails. "Like, I grew up on instinctive astrogation and piloting and stuff. If any of you wanna learn any of that, I say there's like three point two billion habitable planets out there, and only one billion of'em have sentient life. So let's go find ourselves a clubhouse where nobody's been. Maybe someone's mom can spot us a prefab hangar or something."

 

[Liam Quez]

I couldn’t believe it. I sat there and watched this girl just devour a plate of ribs and then some. Hell I think she took some off my plate. I hang out with Ibaris, but even she can’t put it away like this one. I couldn’t talk or even take a bite out of my own plate, mostly because I feel like I’d look like some loliboy if I tried to eat them with utensils. I could just hear my dad yelling at me, You’re a Mandalorian! EAT LIKE A MAN NOT SOME GIRL. Well Father, I’m sorry I dislike having blood and guts all over my hands. Its why I pilot. The girl finally stopped and I was able to get myself a bit of food. Looking around I found a napkin and kept it close. Using the most tip part of my fingertips I grabbed the rib and gnawed on it in the manliest way I possibly could.

I even grunted now and then. Dad would be proud.

Waving a very gnawed bone around, my other hand wiped away the sauce. “Well, the Princess I mean Ibaris her mom could probably spot us something. They gave her a ship or something like that. I’m just a silly Mando boy, who grew up on a farm.” Sucking the end of the bone I went for what I really wanted - a bit of that marrow. “I can grow food and get crops going - bout it”


[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

They had survived a ship crash, their food break on Telti had been interrupted by a rude Sith Lord who mysteriously disappeared and to add to the list they had even had spars between one another that seemed to have gone on for weeks at an end. Without doubt the pack of kids had done quite a great deal of things that would terrify even some of the most hardened of people.

Yet here they were, the tightest crew in the galaxy and all Kaili could think of was how much Ord Mantell caused her to kind of want to not-be-here. She couldn’t really figure what it was, but it was there and it was annoying her all to hell. Even more so than watching her friend gulp down ribs like it was none of the others’ business. It made the young Talith look to her own tray of food. Fries and a drink. She liked to keep it simple and the slightly smaller amount of grease that got stuck on her hand was an added bonus.

Cheek resting on her hand Kaili put her elbow on the table and munched away at the food she had been provided. Part of her quietly laughing inside as Mara kept on talking about whatever it was that she was talking about. Really, the licking of fingers as well as continued stuffing of her face had Kaili looking to Micah and slowly shake her head before faking interest again.

At least it was fake until they talked about instinctive astrogation and finding a planet to build a hideout on.

Kai propped up in her seat. Her hands planted firmly on the table. This better not be a joke! A chance to explore uncharted territory? Find a neat planet of their own? A planet of the Brats? Oh heck yes!

“We must go!” She burst out excitedly. “Now! Just, like, right now. We should just go and find that planet right away.”

No plans, just go. It couldn’t go wrong in any way at all!

“You can fly, Liam can handle crops. We have everything we need!”

[ [member="Liam Quez "]/ [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] / [member="Micah Talith"] ]​

 

[Laura Na'Varro]

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong with that? Unfortunately, Laura was one of those kids that knew better. During her time in the tank, the Holonet had showed her just about everything that could go wrong with hyperspace exploration. Back in the ancient days before the Great Hyperspace War, it wasn't uncommon for explorers to make a jump through a sun and end up a collection of well-crisped atoms on the other side. But then again, Mara had talent when it came to piloting and navigation. She always seemed to be in the right place at the right time ... and if you couldn't have faith in your friends, then what kind of friend were you?

Hoeing into her ribs with the gusto only a child could have, Laura piped up after the others had finished speaking. Sweet Mantellian hickory sauce covered her cheeks.

"I can fix things," she said. "No way Dad's gonna give me a hangar, though."

Well, she was in. Anything to get off Ord Mantell.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] [member="Kaili Talith"] [member="Liam"] Quez

 

[Daria Cavill]

Daria watched all the younger kids get excited, then grinned and wiped her hands off. She'd been enjoying the heck out of some ribs, true, and trying not to make a mess of herself. Mara's appetite impressed her. But she could rival the raw intake of a literal outer rim farmgirl, Daria thought that was pretty dang awesome. "I snoop around a bit at work, see if my boss left anyplace unattended." She offered casually. Yeah, Daria had a job. No big deal. Just assisting a big time CEO, getting paid enough to get classes on her own. NBD. She'd only brought it up twice since she got here.

"I think we should try and find an asteroid base, though." She confessed with a broad grin, pointing around the table with a picked clean rib. "They're the safest and most secret places there are, and we can move it if we have to." Daria explained, delicately setting aside the bone to whipe her hands off. "I heard that the Old Empire left all kinds of places like that unattended." Sure, a planetary clubhouse would mean lots of room to wander around whatever wilderness they were hiding in, but still. Asteroid installments were awesome, and anyone who thought otherwise was a damn fool.

 

[Liam Quez]

"I agree with the chick with the glasses, she's smart." Of course I was being stereotypical, but really I believed she was smart! I finished up my plate of ribs and stacked the bones neatly on top of each other. I pushed the plate away and leaned on my elbows. I smiled softly and looked back towards the living garbage disposal Mara.

"An asteroid base shouldn't be hard to find right? " m

[member="Daria Cavill"] [member="Laura Na'Varro"] [member="Kaili Talith"] [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Micah Talith]

Micah loved food.

Like really, really loved food.

Much like Mara, he had been heartily enjoying his own full rack of ribs. His lips and the corner of his mouth were covered in crumbly dry rub bbq - he preferred dry over the wet sauce -- and eating with gusto.

He gave half an ear to Mara, but when Nohei started jumping up and down like his mother did when she was excited, it warranted a glance at her direction.

"Huh... a prefab hanger?" he would mull. Great great Oma was.. well, the Queen of Kuat and had several shipyards. Just no one was supposed to know that.

Buuuuuutt... That didn't mean he couldn't ask his dad for ideas.

"I can probably ask my dad if he has ideas for that." Reused or in need of retrofitting didn't matter.

OR

"Or we can go get one ourselves." there was that look of devilry. Of course he meant salvaging one... maybe...

 

[Daria Cavill]

Daria gave Micah a nod of agreement, wiping her hands with a napkin. "Short stack has it right." She decided with a smirk. "What's the point in a secret base, if we're just getting it from someone else? If we really want this place to ourselves, we'll find something abandoned or something." She took a sip from her drink and leaned forward, plucking a fry from her basket. Even leaning forward, she was still taller than the rest of the group - it came with age, though.

"Then it's really ours. Force knows there's enough abandoned junk around from centuries ago, and people just keep building new stuff instead of using what they've got around." She explained with a wicked grin. "If we find a good spot, I'll put in cash to get it running - but I think that we keep this plan..." Daria made a circular gesture with a fry, pointing around the table. "...on the downlow. That way, nobody can try and take it from us, or try and cause trouble by wrecking our stuff."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Daria Cavill"] [member="Micah Talith"] [member="Liam Quez "][member="Kaili Talith"] [member="Laura Na'Varro"]

"I'm down for all of the above, 'cept that anything we use on or in an asteroid has to be safe as feth, safer than most salvaged stuff. I'm rated on space suits, salvage rigs, wiring an' welding, but one full-spec spacer won't do the job if we're all having to be careful around decompression risks. And anything in space is one big decompression risk, an' that goes double for anything with asteroids. "She engaged in negotiations with a much-abused napkin and managed to remove most of the sauce from under her fingernails. "So I'm down, but we gotta do due diligence on this if we're not going planetside. I'm sure we can find some old asteroid mining base to fix up, but hard vacuum'll kill us deader than a bad jump if we break the wrong seal or hit the wrong button."

She squidged her way out of the booth and cast an eye over the holomenu. Nope, no room. Pity. Maybe something for the road...? But no, that would take time and she wanted out of here. "I've got my Tachyon where we can look over some of my dad's maps. Who wants a ride an' who else has a ship worth bringing along?"

 

[Aela Talith]

“I have a ship.” Aela said quietly.

She had gotten a ship for her birthday. It was a big vessel, a Strix class transport ship. It wasn't a military vessel, but ti was big enough to carry all of them and then some. The Rising Tide was a ship that she loved, though she had so far only used it twice. Once to visit Oma on Onderon and the other with Father to go visit the Voss.

This was perhaps another opportunity to use her ship.

A sheepish smile pulled at her lips, an extremely rare sight as the others would know by now.

“Though...I can't fly it.” That should also have been obvious. “So We'll have to take Felix.”

Orange eyes looked at Micah for a second, then looked towards Kaili. She gave Micah a look of disapproval as he suggested stealing, but she decided not to say anything. Their relationship was already strained enough, and she wasn't about to embarrass him in front of their friends.

 

[Kaili Talith]

What?! An asteroid wasn’t full of trees and other things that were interesting to climb and conquer! In fact an asteroid was full of nothing but rocks, heck it was a rock! In space! There was no air in space, no natural waters or mountains! It was a solid rock floating around somewhere looking real pretty.

“No. Asteroids are easier to move, but it’s not the same as a planet.” Kaili shook her head. “There is more to be seen if we go planetside and with Aela or Maleah around we shouldn’t have too much of a worry with any local wildlife.”

Animal empathy and all that. It still felt weird to Kai that she didn’t really have an affinity for animals as her siblings. Instead most of the others would most likely have noticed that she just like the others seemed better than her siblings when it came to droids. In a sense it made her the weird one but what did that matter when in the Talith family the weird one was seemingly also the cool one. No, droids were superior to animals. It was just fact.

A fact that she quietly kept to herself, but a fact none the less.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"] [member="Aela Talith"] [member="Daria Cavill"] [member="Micah Talith"] [member="Liam Quez "][member="Laura Na'Varro"]

Mara shrugged. "Well, let's keep our eyes open for both and see what we find. Who knows: maybe we'll get lucky and find a liddle asteroid base near a planet with nothing on it. Stranger things have happened. If you do it right, instinctive astrogation generally lets you find something, there's just no guarantee as to what that something's gonna be." She offered a grin.

"I happen to know where we can get some miniature hypercapable probes-" Next door, in fact, in Dingo Darr's Chop Shop, where her Tachyon was parked. The Underground had used them for testing the .357 Calrissian hyperdrives. She could proooobably wrangle some binary load lifters into shifting the probes aboard. "-so what we'll do is, take a real good look at a map and get all meditationy, and I'll show you how to do instinctive astrogation, and you can each pick the coordinates for a probe, and we'll see how it goes. That way you all get a shot at it, but we don't, like, die."

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira kept quiet as the other discussed ship options, maps and other things that at the moment weren’t on her mind – for the moment. She held onto the rib for a moment before taking a bite and staring at the ancient diary before her. Mira had smuggled it out of the Yavin IV Praxeum before she tossed the box underneath her bed. The diary had a lot of tidbits of historical information – and generally provided to her a good read.
She’d look up when [member="Liam Quez"] spoke and offer a smile before looking back down at the document and taking another bite, the smile fading as if nothing happened and she had forgotten why she had smiled in the first place. Her brows would furrow as she’d skip a few pages that were distorted and needed recovery – more work essentially. Before she realized it, she was chewing on a bone and staring at the document – deep in thought.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] | [member="Kaili Talith"] | [member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Daria Cavill"] | [member="Micah Talith"] | [member="Laura Na'Varro"]

 

[Liam Quez]

Taking a sip of the water I had in front of me, I watched as the girl garbage disposal looked through the menu again. I put my glass down and glanced towards the stuffy girl who spoke of her ship. Her brother seemed to have the money like Princess’ parents did. So here I was surrounded by rich kids who had more time on their hands than not. I frowned and took another sip of water. Remarking quickly I reminded the group that there were two very capable pilots in the group. “I know Mara is a pilot and I pilot a ship for Ibaris. The less people that know where our hideout is the better in my opinion.”

I take in the faces of those around us and I stop, catching a pair of garnet eyes. A smile followed and then she looked down quickly. I blinked wondering why she didn’t say anything or stay smiling at me. I was curious, so I quickly remarked as she buried her nose in a book. Grinning, I slide the water glass from in front of me and I call out to her. “What are you reading about Mesh’la?”

[member="Aela Talith"] [member="Mira Gyndar"] [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira would quickly close the diary before setting down the remains of the rib and placing a hand securely over the worn cover of the book. Her black gloved hand concealed most of the markings on the front but was apparent were the markings of the New Jedi Order and the worn down grey-blue color. She shook her head softly before looking up at Liam with a soft smile and shaking her head. "Nothing in particular, just some old tattered book you couldn't possibly be interested in." Of course, it was more than that but anything to throw him off the scent of what her true intentions were for her journey - she didn't want anyone to know. It wasn't about trust but about this was her journey in life - no one elses.

She'd gently push the ribs away and bring her other hand down ontop of the book before her gaze fell to Mara and the others and then back to Liam. Her garnet eyes locked with his azure orbs with curiousity as she tilted her head slightly. "So, uhm, what brings you to the anti-social end of the table?" She smirked as she gave [member="Micah Talith"] a brief glance and a brief narrowing of the eyes before her attention shifted back to the guy who saved her life back on Ambria.

[member="Liam Quez"]

 

[Aela Talith]

(We should totally all just follow our threads so we don't have to mention 213512351235 people)

Aela looked confused for a moment, wondering what the boy was talking about with not telling people.

Then she realized the odd mistake that had been made, though truthfully it had been her own. She frowned slightly, then looked around at each of them. Felix was of course not a person, he was a pilot droid that Soliael Talith had purchased over ten years ago. The droid had been loyal and had taken her father across the galaxy half a dozen times.

“Felix is a droid.” Aela said simply, though she was far more interested in what Mara was talking about.

She had never been good with sensory aspects of the force, and she assumed that was what astrogation was connected to. After all it required one to sense a far and distant location, plotting a course to it. She doubted she had much of a shot at actually taking them anywhere.

Though she would love trying.

 

[Ibaris Varanin]

She'd been sitting somewhat quietly, sharing a significant portioning of ribs with Adas. Ibaris had settled into some manner of living aboard the Peregrine with Liam that involved only talking to him as little as possible and only as much as necessary. Yeah, she should be happy that he'd found somewhere to direct the (mostly) unwanted parts of his attention, he was supposed to be her pilot and that was all she'd really roped him in for, but damn it all if it wasn't working that way, and she hated that it bothered her at all. She scritched Adas behind his ears and gnawed distractedly at the end of a rib-bone where some stubborn meat resided, looking at pretty much everyone but the aforementioned farmboy and the newest subject of his lust... or whatever it was. Nope, she didn't care.

"Yep, the Peregrine's available for our purposes, except when it's not," and dragged her eyes to look pointedly at the blonde pilot, leaning forward and shaking the utterly-cleaned-off bone at him, "the beasts aren't gonna come to me, farmboy."

She tossed the bone on a plate that was just there for collecting clean bones, and plunked her elbows down on the arms of the chair she sat in at the open end of the booth, hands hanging over her lap.

"Of course, should any of you be interested in joining me in my 'fun' at any point, I'm certain I could accommodate," ...except if there's going to be face-sucking and Force-only-knows what else - that was left unsaid. She wasn't sure she could stand feeling like a third wheel on her own damn ship, yet being outright rude to the garnet-eyed Mandalorian girl was uncalled for no matter how she felt, "even better if you aren't going to piss yourself in the process."

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira blinked a few times as a sensation passed through her via the Force - one that was met with an unusual glance upwards and directed at none other than [member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"]. She simply stared at the other girl for a moment, a slender eyebrow raising in question as she looked to [member="Liam Quez "]and then back to Ibaris and then back to Liam. She'd lean closer to him and whisper softly. "Uhm, a bit off the subject but are you her bodyguard or boyfriend or something?" She said with a mischievous smile on her face.

 

[Liam Quez]

Blinking, it was all I could do. Ibaris came out of no where with her comments and I wished I was able to read minds or something. Though I'm sure she fantasizes about me so maybe not. Either way, I was worried how she reacted. Before I could say anything, Mira caught my attention once again with a whisper. I really didn't know what I was to Ibaris. The girl kind of picked me up and I've been piloting with her ever since. Looking back towards the fiesty blonde I smiled. "She's my partner in crime. Sometimes, I'm even above the dog. She's a good person don't let her comments get to you."


Leaning back I looked towards Ibaris and smirked. "Oh Princess I know that look on your face. Don't worry I'll take you to the ends of the world and back. You'll always be number one. No need to be jealous. I'll give you a kiss too" I tease her and pucker my lips towards her making the squeaky noises along with them. I laughed and gave Mira a smirk. I cared about Ibaris, if I didn't I wouldn't follow her to the pits of hell.


[member="Ibaris Varanin-Jacobs"][member="Mira Gyndar"]

 

[Ibaris Varanin]

Her face returned a look of disgust at his puckered lips aimed in her direction, distracting her from the staring-not-staring scrutiny of the chatter she couldn't hear between Liam and Mira. She tipped her head to one side, scrunched her nose, stuck her tongue out at him, then plucked another section of her waning ribs off of the plate in front of her and returned her attention to the rest of the group.

"Otherwise, I can benefit from this whole thing, and probably benefit all of us in turn just by putting what I know to use around the base. It'd be great practice, even if a little tedious."

Her grasp of alchemy was limited to inorganic matter so far, and only in enhancing existing constructs. She'd yet to create anything more useful, yet to create anything at all, but life hadn't done her many favours in recent years to that end, and the loss of her only instructor in this particular art was a deep blow to her progress. Circumstances were only starting to get to the point where she could begin trying to make strides under her own willpower. Sure, it worried her to do it alone and there would likely be a great deal of trial and error, but she felt strongly that there was much more to it than she had accomplished in the almost seven years since she'd begun with those beads under that table.

The accident of having alchemized a good deal of the contents of her parents' kitchen during that time when the Force was more dangerous and unpredictable to use than it had ever been only served to tell her that she was capable of so much more... and gained her a few choice words from her parents on the matter of having alchemized dull knives. Like it could have been helped!