Good morning, good morning!

[Quietus]

The door to the main dorm had long since lost function. It was wedged 2/3's of the way open by a scrap bar of metal at the bottom. Halfway down the door a very large indentation prevented it from closing or opening all the way. Dark inside, but the origins of the stench was definitely wafting from there.

The clanking and banging of the child could be heard further down the hall, up towards the bridge.

He wouldn't have to lean in very far to know that there was a body in the dorm laid out on the bed in the back corner. A clean blanket had been put over it, as if sleeping, and vaguely tucked in around the edges but the stain of blood clear as day had saturated the middle and dried. Blaster bolt wound, maybe a stabbing, whatever it was the death had been slow and most likely agonizing. Hard to tell by corpse's face - a clawdite. Their beastly facades had never been very good at conveying emotions, probably why they always looked like someone else.

Nothing of value to be found except perhaps a few cases of unopened alcohol and several boxes of cigarettes.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Leaning against the door Sam peered through the crack.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Ah. [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]He had wondered and now the answer was there. Had Samael been twenty years younger the sight of the corpse might have done something to him, but now? It only made him more aware on how damn [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]tired[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] he was all the time. Age was catching up to him, 42 wasn’t that old they said, but do half the things he had done… and you’d be an old man at the age of thirty.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Fennec, I guess.[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] The size matched up, two arms though.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The Mandalorian wondered what it would have done to the kid, to live in a ship with the festering corpse of your… friend? Sam didn’t know who this woman had been to the urchin, but the details were all there to be picked up.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]His knee ached a bit, he grunted and pulled himself up on the wall. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Sam was fairly sure that the crew would be coming in soon to scrap the ship. Probably later than the guard indicated - mostly because crews were [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]never[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] on time, if they could help it. Definitely not on a station at the ass-end of the Galaxy.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Time to find the kid.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Fennec"][/SIZE]

 

[Quietus]

He needn't look far.

Fennec stood at the end of the hall watching the man with frightful intensity. Seemed he'd wandered into somewhere she wasn't comfortable him wandering. She was hunched, her spindly figure swallowed by the oversized jacket and a backpack nearly as big as she on her back.

A pause, the urchin shortly glanced at the half-open doorway as though he'd entered the Master's chambers without the Master's permission.

You never do that. There were always repercussions. Always consequences. And they weren't always what you expected.

A blink, the girl set her jaw and stalked down the hall, brushing past him with her eyes adamantly to the ground. She trudged off back towards the cargo hold, clattering down the short stair and across the open grate floor, her feet kicking at the rubble of her dropped box of oddities from earlier on. When she reached the bottom of the cargo ramp she stopped and simply looked out into the open docking bay. No fear to be found in her gaze, nor seemingly any regret or pain, simply the look of someone content with the latest twist of the fates.

Someone who maybe had fought these things before but found by now it was simply easier to roll with the punches.

The sort of look one distinctly should not see on a child.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“You are a strange one, girl.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Sam said as he stepped up next to her. It would be a slightly comical view from the outside, one tall, one short. One gruff, old and weathered, the other still young, but scruffy and rough - they were a duo of parallels and yet contrasting. He looked up, his eyes wandering across the scene as to pass some time while pondering on what he had seen.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“But I think I like ya. Let’s go, seen enough for one day.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]How would the salvage crew react to that corpse? Would questions be asked? Almost certainly. This might have been the butt-end of the Galaxy, but it wasn’t Nar Shaddaa, a corpse meant- well, it also meant a lot of paperwork for all of them involved.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Never underestimate the lengths Mid Rimmers will go to avoid paperwork.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Might be they would be just fine, but why take the risk? Sam shrugged to himself and then started walking, assuming that [member="Fennec"] would be right behind him. [/SIZE]

 

[Quietus]

Fennec followed, no backward glance given.

The old man didn't seem to be in a hurry but he wasn't taking a leisurely stroll. Urchin did not complain and did not dash ahead this time. Those grey eyes were alert, watching faces and the movement of the crowd as they walked. Twice she drew close to his side, using the man's bulk to keep herself out of sight. It was good to be small, even if she was that way for all the wrong reasons.

On their way back through the vendor lane, kid on the left and old man on the right, a sudden commotion broke out back towards the detention center.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU RELEASED HER?!"

Suddenly the kid was gone from Sam's left, appearing just as quickly on his right, her only arm lifted to catch his sleeve. She didn't seek out his hand or seem to need any sort of comforting - simply having that sleeve was enough. His stride seemed to quicken in response, or at the very least the remaining walk to his ship went faster than anticipated.

There was only momentary pause when they reached it. Urchin gave the ship a cursory glance, eyes lingering over patches of damage and wear, before heading straight in as the gangway lowered. No invite necessary. Her bag was dropped to the floor once inside and without too much ado she began to poke around.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The voice could be heard from blocks away. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Fatman.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Samael quickened his pace. Urchin moved about, he was worried for a moment, until he noticed her popping up on his other side; holding his sleeve. His eyes softened a little bit, but he didn’t say anything, was no need for that right now. What they needed right now was him paying good attention to his surroundings and making sure they wouldn't get ambushed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]They arrived at the ship with little trouble, which is also when the danger passed mostly. The fatman wouldn’t have known where his ship was, because he had arrived quite… [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]randomly. [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]And he doubted the friendly guard would tip him off.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]The fatty was only interested in revenge.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Fennec"] ran aboard, immediately started rummaging around and exploring. Which was fine by him, he walked up the loading ramp, punched the switch - the ramp started rolling up behind him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]He reached out, saying hello to her: the ship, not the urchin. A soft rumbling through the metal came as his answer.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Ahw, she had missed him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Next stop was the cockpit.[/SIZE]

 

[Quietus]

A minor pause, a curious glance, Fennec caught the man's exchange with his ship. The rumbling a result of some spherical metallic object she'd knocked off a counter and sent rolling down a short hall. Little mind was paid - too many things to poke through. Like a mouse droid on a mission to seek out the tiniest of hidey holes and secret panels she made herself busy.


Several hours later...

They were somewhere in space, skating through stars unknown. Fennec had made herself a nest of sorts high up in a crawlspace through a missing panel. Silent, unimpeding on the man's time or space, she whiled away her hours picking at frayed wiring.

Suddenly a lamp within the cockpit that hadn't worked for Force-knew-how-long blinked on, emitting a sleepy metallic wine.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Sam was sitting in the pilot seat - it used to be made out of leather, but years of wear and tear really made it resemble anything but leather. Cracks all over the surface, huge portions simply cut away and showing the yellowish foam underneath it: just as everything else in the ship, the seat was a representation of this Rekali’s way of life. He didn’t worry too much, liked his things a little bit rough around the edges and [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]change[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] was irrelevant to him. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]Except when a light went on that had stopped working… feth. He couldn’t even remember the last time it had worked, but he [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]did[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] remember crawling around the space, trying to fiddle around with the wires here and there in an effort to make it work.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]No such luck.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]But apparently the girl he picked up from that station had more luck than him in the engineering department.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Thanks!” Sam shouted, he could feintly hear her shuffle around somewhere left and above his head, some crawl space she found? [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Think it’s time for some food. You hungry?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px][member="Fennec"][/SIZE]

 

[Quietus]

Bang.

BANG.

Through the open doorway of the bridge that lead out into the hall a ceiling panel very suddenly committed sepuku and crashed to the floor. Dust of a hundred years powdered the air as something smaller than the Urchin but larger than melon fell with a resounding thunk.

It smelled horrendously, deathly stale.

Two untied, booted feet dangling by spindle-legs dropped down next followed by the scrawny form of the one-armed girl. She hung for a second, feet kicking, before hitting the floor and landing on her bottom in a second avalanche of dust and ...some very unsanitary looking debris. She gave several choking coughs, shaking mold from her hair, and kicked the first thing over towards Sam.
Very. Dead. Possibly petrified. Womprat.

Fennec was a mess, but she looked hungry from her heap on the floor.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Fennec"]

He looked at the bag. Back at her. Then at the bag again. One of his eyebrows raised itself, before he carefully touched the back with the point of his shoe... it was squishy. Sam wasn't sure he really wanted to know where that came from or why he hadn't noticed it being somewhere on his ship before, some things... were better left unknown, he thought. And this was definitely one of them. He coughed softly, before shaking his head.

"We ain't eating that, girl." not that he actually thought she wanted to eat it. But better make light of the situation, before it turned into some kind of thing.

Sam started walking. Either brushing past her or following her - depending on how much of the ship she had already explored on her own while he was setting course away from the station. The kitchen was nearby either way. Ship wasn't too big, so they were there in no time.

It was... homely. Dirty too, but mostly homely.

"Ya got any preferences?" he'd ask while rummaging about, seeing if he could scavange something to eat for them.

 

[Quietus]

Clearly unphased by dirt, covered in it as she was, Fen got to her feet and padded after him. She'd not been in the kitchen area yet.

Curious poking about: engage.

Every cabinet door. Every drawer. Every nook and cranny. She was silent and quick, like a cat mouse. By the time [member="Samael Rekali"] had turned to look over his shoulder at her he'd find her standing there peering at a package of freeze-dried noodlesomething, every single door and drawer left gaping open around her.

Grey eyes met the man's own tired gaze, glancing back to to the package once. Fennec gave a one-armed shrug and turned to find a pot.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Fennec"]

Sam blinked. One moment every single door and drawer closed, the next when he looked up... everything was open, explored and in the middle of the chaos was a little urchin with a hungry look and a pack of noodles.

"I like your taste." not knowing yet that the little woman was a vegetarian and would force him to eat veggies for an entire week with her spending habits down the road. But that was a story for a different time, and mattered little at this time. He let her do his thing, himself looking around for something else of substance.

Maybe some bread... Sam did have a taste for a peanut butter sandwich. He didn't try to help her with the cooking, it wasn't that he didn't want to, but Fennec wasn't helpless. And he wouldn't give her the sense that he thought she was. Let her try to figure it out on her own. If she needs help, he would hear it.

 

[Quietus]

She seemed to figure it out pretty quick or was, otherwise, already ship-broken to care for herself.

Pot, water, stove, heat, she pinched the package of noodles between the small stump of her left arm and her rigcage as she walked around closing drawers and cabinets when they offered no further value to her. A bit more snooping was done while the water came to a boil - salt, but no oil. Hrm. Oh well.

Water ready, Fennec grabbed the package and opened it with teeth and hand, dumping the contents in. Some time scouting for something to stir with that wasn't metal turned up a wooden spoke from...something. Another one-armed shrug, she cleaned it off and stuck it in the pot. No sense in being picky when you're hungry.

~~~

A short while later she was sitting at the small table area, forking noodle-something into her mouth while hunched over a datapad she'd found sitting somewhere abandoned on the ship. It looked as though it'd been dropped at some point and wasn't working, so the Space Mouse had begun deconstructing the thing amidst her meal.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6667px]While [member="Fennec"] was doing her thing Sam was pondering. He did that often these days, the older he got the more he found himself pondering about the strangest things, but this time it wasn’t strange at all. He was making himself a sandwich and pondering about how to make things [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px]easier[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6667px] for Fen in the long run. Only having one arm couldn’t be exactly easy - she was doing alright, but it was clear that having something to act as a replacement would probably be beneficial.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]His mind was already working on possible solutions. After paying off Fen’s debts he didn’t really have any spare credits to throw around on expensive hardware: otherwise that would have had his preference, but c’est la vie.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]His plate on his lap, he settled down next to the girl with a sheet of paper and a pen. Between bites he sketched a few things here and there, his gaze wandered off towards her dimensions every so often before scribbling something next to the drawing.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6667px]“Ya don’t talk much, do ya?” Sam would mumble. [/SIZE]

 

[Quietus]

The question illicited no response from the Urchin. Had she even heard him? Probably, but it seemed an answer was not on her list of priorities, engrossed in her current project and noodlesomething as she was.

She did, however, take a passing curiosity in his doodling. Grey eyes followed the procession of pen across paper, though it might not have been apparent what was actually catching her interest: the subject of the doodle or the doodle itself? Did she understand what it was he was drawing?

Eyes shifted back to the datapad. Perhaps not.

A forkful of noodles entered her mouth and she bit down, chewing the noodles over the fork as her single hand moved back to the datapad. Her fingers were curiously dexterous and able, given the practice over the years, but there also seemed to be something else at play here. Things, pieces, seemed to move off their own accord in small, subtle fractions. An extra spin here, a slight shift there. She never dropped anything and despite the large array of things layout about they never rolled off the table or moved out of reach.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Fennec"]

His doodling didn't halt. Not even for a moment's notice. But his attention, that did shift from the dimensions in his head towards the manipulation of the datapad through the Force. Because it was the Force - any resemblence of consideration or doubt was thrown out of the bus the moment she started to tweak and turn things with her mind alone.

Sam chewed on the inside of his cheek about that one. How was it that he picked up the one Urchin who turned out to be a dang force sensitive? That was... yeah, chance of one at a million at the least.

They shouldn't ask him how he got those numbers though.

"Ember's gonna be besides himself." he mumbled softly. At this point Samuel wasn't expecting any answer anymore. It was clear that Fennec wasn't the talkative type, and if Sam was one thing... it was respective about people's habits - he had a fair bit of those himself, so he could sympathize.

Taking another bite from his sandwhich he pondered about it, before shrugging. Wasn't important at the moment.

"We are traveling alongside the Mara Corridor right now." again this was more for his benefit. Keeping his thoughts sorted while pondering outloud about what they were doing next. "Buying up your debt took out most of my on-hand money, we still got a few jumps to make, but I have a friend who still owes me... on the way, too."

"The Shiv is where he lives these days. Nasty place of business, lots a shady stuff. But he owes me big. We will cash in on him, that will pay for the rest of the trip."

Samuel eyed Fennec. Still playing with the datapad.... right. "Have fun, kid. I am gonna punch in the new coordinates."

 

[Quietus]

Ember.

Mara Corridor.

The Shiv.

Debt. Friend.

Words. Important words no less. Fennec paused in her efforts as the man stood from his seat and wandered out of the room, watching him with a wondering gaze of steely grey, brow slightly knitted upwards. Might've been a silent apology for all the trouble she wasn't worth. Might've been concern at the way he described their next destination. Might've been a desire to no longer be alone.

Whatever it might've been he'd never know. Probably never see either.

The doodle sat abandoned on the table, calling to the Urchin with a crinkled of paper in the current of stale space air pumping through the ship. She leaned to take a closer look, eyes curiously roving across the lines over towards the pencil. One hand reached to pick it up and she turned from the datapad to add a few notes, make a few adjustments. Suggestions. Improvements. Mousedroids. Stick bantha.

Noodlesomething dribble.

It was a work of art, after all.

When sufficiently pleased with her addition she returned to her previous project, eventually uncovering a fried chip in the circuitry.

Cue Urchin rummaging through the ship for replacement parts. She fell asleep curled up in some random compartment high up off the floor, booted feet sticking out into the hall.

[member="Samael Rekali"]

 

[Arage Bao]

Part of youth's folly was the need for recognition. To hear words of love, acceptance, need and comparable nouns, without realizing that it was there all along. But the old Rekali had been through a lot, wars, broken hearts, taken care of his brother's children just to find out that they died in a different war... no, Sam didn't need Fennec to tell him anything. He knew.

Had seen the decaying body of a paternal-figure, had felt the desperation of living a life alone and the firm grip of her hand on his when she heard the booming voice of the fat man back on the station. Only the young or the blind needed verbal confirmation of what was in front of their eyes already.

That this little girl needed help. She needed a friend, a mentor, a guiding hand and a protector, a father. And whilst Sam would probably act publically more like her warden, in the farthest reaches of his heart... he would do his best to take care of her as best as he could.

It wouldn't make up for a lifetime of sin, but maybe... just maybe it would give him a few good counter-arguments at judgement.

Hours later the ship dropped out of Hyperspace. Once [member="Fennec"] woke up she would notice a scratchy blanket draped around her, the piece of paper with her additional notes was also gone.

A few more moments passed and a voice rang out through the corridors.

"Gonna be parking into the Shiv's bays in a few minutes, kid. Get yourself ready to leave the ship."

 

[Quietus]

Scritch scratch.

Beneath closed lids grey eyes roved slowly back and forth, watching an unknown vision of some far away place. Face pressed into the crook of her arm, the Urchin slept soundly for the first time in a long time. Soundly enough not to notice the man laying the blanket over her or to wake at the sounds of him moving around or alert at the wafting of his scent when he loomed near. The feeling of safety did a lot for the mind.

Scritch scratch.

Didn't wake even at the shuddering of the ship exiting hyperspace or the sway of motion as he piloted through the space lanes into the Shiv.

That voice of his, however, cut through every layer of subconscious like a beskar blade through sithspawn flesh. Grey eyes flashed open.

She was waiting in the hall by the time his ship settled down, wearing her oversized jacket and her backpack - though it was considerably less full now. Watching out through the nearest viewport was a steely gaze of tense curiosity. When [member="Samael Rekali"] appeared he garnered a wayward glance from his charge but not a single peep otherwise. Fennec followed him down the ramp and out into the open docks of The Shiv, shadowing him with wide eyes.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Fennec"]

They halted, or rather Sam halted his step right after he walked off the ramp. It closed behind them, a soft but insistent whine piercing through the immediate area - not that it would gather much attention. It was a bustling crowd of scum and villainy moving about without much regard for what was happening, as long as it wasn't pertaining directly to them. The Shiv. It was madness wrapped around in insanity mixed with that distinct sensation of not-belonging.

Only a few people could survive out here without being irrevocably changed by its very nature. This wasn't anything Force related, there was no malignant arcane force affecting this people: this was simple sentient nature. Anger and resentment piled up until it was reaching its boiling point, but without that satisfying freedom to actually do anything with it.

They were living under the thumb of strict regulations when the codes of the Outlaw had promised them a life free of the law. No wonder these people were pissed off and ready to start murdering.

"Fen, this ain't no safe place for us to be. I want you to hold my hand or at least stay very close, no matter what happens." the older Mandalorian said, adressing the little girl next to him. He didn't meet her eyes, didn't stare at her, his own gaze was too busy studying the crowd. Getting a feel of what was happening and how much risk they would be taking by walking into the depths of the Shiv. It was necessary, yes, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"Can you do that for me?" he extended his arm to her. There was no expectation of a verbal answer, as long as she took his hand or stayed close he would be content.