Private Fishing Trip

[Vren Rook]

TAG: Reeve Bralor

IN GOOD COMPANY​

It was an early, sunny morning on Roon.

Vren stood on the beach with his hands on his hips, looking out over the waters while chewing the inside of his cheek. It was a laid back day - a break in all the running around after fugly Vong and Sith. He wanted to go do some deep water fishing. What better way to spend an off day?

He needed a minion to lug around the equipment, though.

A good natured but sly smile spread on his face. Why not abuse the new kid? He was curious to see how the young man would do with a fishing rod. Vren already knew the kid was quite all right with a blaster. But what about some leisure time? Chuckling, he sent a comms text to Bralor.
Want to go fishing? I'll pick you up at the hall.

With a whistle, Vren turned around and walked back to his little apartment next to Siv Dragr 's encampment.

After scratching around like a tip-yip for a bit to find all his equipment - why on earth did he have to bury them into trunks so deeply? - he lugged all of them outside and started packing the speeder. Ducking back inside, he stood for a few seconds looking at the holsters hanging next to his bed. After some more chewing, he walked over and grabbed the belt. He just can't get himself that far to ever leave his pistols behind for an hour or two.

Jumping onto his speeder, he made his way over to the Enclave's main building. He sincerely hoped the kid would not be late. There were only so many hours in a day to be able to catch some good fish. With a scoff, he dismounted in front of the building. He sounded like an old man. Next thing you know, he'll be screaming at the kids to get off his lawn. Hoth knew, if that day ever came, he would rather go face that Vong monstrosity on Kestri again and go out the honourable way.

 

[Reeve Bralor]

The Workshop

TAG: Vren Rook

“Just a half turn with the spanner annnnnnnd…”

With a careful application of pressure, Reeve twisted the spanner slowly. Each gear on the spanner clicking as it neared his desired point.

Click, click, click.

He released his grip on the spanner and slowly backed away to examine his work.

“Zig. Give it a go. Run system diagnostics and mobility test.”

The onboard VI for his armor beeped an acknowledgement and the antennae that he’d just attached to his helmet whirred and rotated back and forth on its axis. When the diagnostic was completed, he looked down at his vambrace monitor and flicked through the data.

“Perfect!” He exclaimed happily, “One project down buddy.”

Reeve was just about to reach for his completed bucket when his vambrace beeped again. Someone had sent him a message. With a frown, he opened the message. Who was awake at this hour? It was really early in the morning.

Why, Vren Rook was awake, apparently.

“Fishing? What am I supposed to do with a fish? And who the heck has time to go fishing?” He asked the air as he glanced over at the crates of projects he had piling up by the door. He was in the middle of putting designs together for his shop back on Kestri since the place had been liberated. That, mixed with the work the Enclave was sending his way for custom gear orders had seen him buried for the last few weeks.

“Actually you know what? Getting away might be good for a while. Just a little bit.” With a sigh he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Alright Ziggy, reply to Vren: I’ll meet you out front in 20.”

With that, Reeve gathered his right thigh holster and blaster and left most of his kit in his quarters. He highly doubted he would need det cord and thermal detonators to go fishing.

That thought crossed his mind and stopped him in his tracks.

This was Vren Rook. When was anything normal around that man?

After chewing on his lip for a moment, Reeve backtracked and grabbed his left thigh blaster too, then headed out front to meet up with Rook.
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[Vren Rook]

TAG: Reeve Bralor

THE RIVER​

Vren was leaning against the speeder when Bralor finally made his appearance.

Shooting away the toothpick he had started chewing, he stood up straight and rested his hands on his hips.
"You sure took your sweet time." he said with a joking smile.

His eyes caught the blasters strapped to the young mando'ade. A chuckle escaped his throat.
"Am I that dangerous, huh?" he laughed. He then motioned with his head at the speeder behind him. "Come on, let's get out of here. I have a little speeder boat moored at the lagoon." he said before swinging onto the speeder himself.

He sped them to the little wharf that was built a little while ago - mostly for his own extra-curricular activities. There weren't a lot of Enclave members that enjoyed leisure as much as he did. Dismounting, he grabbed some of the gear.
"Grab what you can and let's load that lady up." he told Reeve, motioning over to the rust bucket that was his speed boat. "She ain't much, but she's reliable." he added.

With a few false starts, the engines finally roared to life.
"Hm. She needs a service." Vren looked over at Bralor. "You think you can squeeze her in for one some time?" he asked before moving them out of the lagoon and into the open waters of the ocean.
"I hope you don't get queasy on the water. It takes some getting used to." he said over the din of the wind and waves.

After a while, Vren slowed them to a stop and activated the gravity pull to keep them in one spot. Turning around, he motion at a container.
"There's some Behot shig in there as well as some Tihaar. Help yourself. Just....don't fall off the boat after a few. There's a few uh...unfriendly creatures in these waters as well." he said, before grabbing a rod and casting the line into the depths before settling in on one of the worn benches on the side.

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[Reeve Bralor]

Gone Fishin

TAG: Vren Rook

The bland tone that came out of the helmet speakers would have said enough about how Reeve felt, regardless of his actual words.

“Are you that dangerous?” He mimed back to Vren in response to his extra hardware, “Every time I hang out with you, people try to shoot me. I’m not sure what that says about my life choices, that I keep doing it. But I feel like it speaks more about you than it does about me.”

Of course, Vren couldn’t see the eye roll that accompanied such a statement. Mandalorian buckets were excellent for hiding facial expressions.

Regardless, Reeve mounted up with Rook and enjoyed a rather peaceful ride out to the wharf. The open air rushing past his bucket was soothing in that it let him tune out his own thoughts on what project would come next or where he had to go with it. Eventually, he was going to open a shop on Kestri. He had a spot picked out and everything. But that was a ways off down the road. For now, he was focused on building up his reputation so that the shop wouldn’t fail outright for lack of customers.

When they arrived, Reeve helped with unloading the speeder and winced grumpily as he realized Vren left the heaviest containers for him to transfer over.

“What is this, a bunch of cases of raw durasteel?! I thought we were fishing, not setting depth charges! I swear to the stars, I’m going to build you a butler droid one day. Feel like it will save my back when I’m older if I just get it out of the way now…”

He didn’t hear the response. Reeve was too busy muttering under his breath and lugging the cases over the boat. Rustbucket it may be, but engineering and tech came to Reeve Bralor like breathing. He didn’t see the ways the little vessel would fail. He saw the potential of what it could be.

Immediately upon stepping onto the craft, Ziggy was scanning it for model number. So as he was loading crates into their places and securing them, Reeve was going over the schematics of the boat and shaking his head while having a conversation with himself on how flawed the design was.

Engine is too small for a boat this size. Model-21, HA! Should have dropped a model-19 supercharger in this pig, they were a better design. More fuel efficient and had more power… Overdesigned piece o’ crap 21’s…

But instead of saying that out loud, Bralor instead responded to Vren with, “No, I don’t get seasick. I’ve had a few concussions in my day. Walking around wobbly is kind of old hat.”

Vren took a couple of tries before the junk 21 decided to kick over. The sound of the motor stalling was something Reeve keyed into immediately. Sounded like a stuck valve somewhere, likely due to a lack of upkeep. Not that he blamed Rook for it honestly. The man was a gunslinger, not a gearhead like Reeve. Vren likely purchased the boat for fun but never understood what equipment needed maintenance or how often.

Truth be told, by the time Vren had asked if Reeve could find some time to give the boat a tune up, Reeve had already tasked Ziggy with compiling a list of potential replacement parts and tools that would be needed to make the old girl sing like new again.

“Yeah, I’ll uh, do it next week. I have a free day in the middle of the week. Probably going to need some new parts but I’ll just put it on your tab.”

Vren was an arrogant, pompous, narcissist sometimes. But Reeve still saw him as a friend. Under it all, he knew Vren was good people, and because of that fact, he wanted to do what he could to keep his friends safe and happy. Turning a few wrenches to keep a boat floating was nothing compared to that.

“Oh, unfriendly creatures! Out here. With you? Why I never even considered the possibility. Not once. Oh shoot, hang on one second, Ziggy is having a stroke. I think I overloaded his sarcasm sensors.”

To make the point, Reeve made a show of checking his vambrace computer and tapping a few commands, then looked pointedly through his T-visor at Vren and folded his arms over his chest as the little ship pulled away from dock.


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[Vren Rook]

TAG: Reeve Bralor

A good chuckle escaped Vren's belly at Bralor's sarcastic response.

With his helmet resting next to him on the bench, the mischievous glint was quite evident in his brown eyes.
"You'll be making snarky comments like that until a Camray takes you from the side." he teased as he settled in good while the arm that held the rod rested leisurely on the side of the boat. "I'd like to see you get out of that one in a pinch."

His teasing smile faltered very slightly at his own words. He might enjoy taking the mickey out of Bralor, but Vren still awoke with a start in the middle of the night, drenched in cold sweat as he relived how close he had come to death in the depths of Kestri's freezing waters due to some freakish fish.

He cleared his throat quickly, stretching his grin once more.
"Get yourself a cup of caff, Bralor. Get some personality. Then get a damn rod in the water. See if you can do it without whats-his-face..." Vren motioned at Reeve's head. "...Ziggy? See if you can do it without the computer giving you shortcuts." he said with a sly smirk.

He had just started to relax with his rod in the water as he watched the sun rise properly, when he felt a tug on the line.
"Oh boy! That was fast!" he said excitedly as he jumped up to start reeling whatever it was, in. "What I'd do for a nice Mee." he grunted.

And then the rod was stripped right from his hands and down into the depths.

"Oh kark."