Now we can talk about it

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

Xin gave a tired chuckle. "When yuh ran naked round de hangar dere was a bit of a commotion." The way she had asked made him wonder if she had often done things she regretted. He wasn't very good at judging human she but she looked quite young.

"Where had you been staying before all dis?" He asked. The nautolan showed no sign of getting up just yet. In fact as she vacated space he slid down to fill it.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

"WHAT." Lips parted and a pink color tinted her pale cheeks. Pools of blue widened as she turned slowly in the doorway. Eyes caught that half smirk on Xin's lips. His twitching head tails.

"I did not. Haha very funny." At least it was getting a bit easier to read him. When she was 18 she certainly would've done something like that. Feth, even 19. But now? Not so much. Not after Sage and prison. And all the rest.

Fingers gingerly ran over the bandage along her arm, trying to pluck up the edges and see how bad the stitching was. Shoulder leaned against the doorway. "Was part of a smuggling crew. They disbanded and I picked up a used niathal shuttle, which, unfortunately was ditched back on crucified people planet."

Easing out of the doorway, she meandered the short distance into the small shared common area. Bee-lining it to the mini fridge box, she opened it up, rummaging through the few items there. She grimaced, seeing a jar of what looked like floating eyeballs.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

She didn't even have a ship. That struck him slightly. It hammered home a reality he has refused to let through his perceptions. Despite the cloak and lightsaber she was just a vagabond like the rest of them.

He sighed. He'd only just managed to fall asleep.

"Look let me get some more rest an I'll help yuh wid dat ship. Oh and don't go drinking any beer! Tablets said no alcohol," he added when he heard the mini fridge rattle.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

"Yeah, yeah. Just stop talking and get some rest already." Rolled eyes leveled back to normal. She'd seen the Corellian ale there but she tried to avoid alcohol for the past two years. Ever since her head got cleared. Since she served her time and got out. Since Master Eden purged her of the darkness that had been oiled like tar to her being.

Hand plucked a foggy-green colored bottle. With a twist, she peered inside and was met with a chorus of tiny, gurgling screeches from a bunch of bugs that looked like Nabooian roaches. Fingers fumbled and with a wince, she quickly sealed the top.

Gross.

Rocking back on her heels, she stood and settled for a glass of water. Index finger tapped a beat to an almost forgotten tune on the glass. Stomach grumbled. Leaning against the kitchenette counter, she waited until she heard that heavy breathing come from the nautolan's open mouth in the other room before she went to sneak out and explore a little.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"Those aren't ripe yet!" came a call after the jar was sealed. Xin turned himself around the occupy the bed properly. The pillow smelled of her now. He took a deep sigh and slipped back into sleep.

The vessel was quite spartan and clean as Vagrant vessels went. It was a military frigate originally and that could still be felt even with the mixed crew of ex military and civilians. But the hand of the ithorians was still felt here. Rows of plants were suspended and kept just above head height down the sides of the main corridors.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

She strolled leisurely down the corridors. Luckily, no one was staring and laughing at her. Or whispering. The streaking thing had actually been a lie. She was supposed to be resting but she figured a little walk wouldn't do any harm. Arm was beginning to throb a bit but the space explorer was a little too leery to dive back into those drugs.

She didn't like not being in control, especially after everything that happened with Sage and the sith.

Smells of fresh vegetation reached her nose. Pools of blue lingered on the plants. Should've seemed more out of place but it actually...worked. Huh. Maybe she could talk to some of the local stationers and get some for the U-wing she was fixing up. Would probably boost the oxygen levels and help filter out that stale, ship smell.

Finding her way to the lift, she pressed the down button.

"Huh. Seems familiar."

Sometime later she found herself in the cantina, staring at multiple food options beyond screeching jars of bugs and things that looked like floating eyeballs. Stomach grumbled and her hands went to her pockets only to come up empty.

Kark me.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"Short of change?" Came a rumble from above her. A claw the size of her head, covered in black scales, reached out and turned over. It revealed a handful of credit chits.

"Look like you could do with a meal," Brak continued. He stepped past her and starting eyeing some food for himself. "Squid face didn't try anything did he? Been a pest since he got out of prison."

---

"Kinsey?" His voice echoed around the shell of the U-Wing. A second glance revealed that the ship was in even more need of repairs than he had noticed before. If she'd got on board in her state and started it up it could have been disastrous. It wasn't always he made the right choice.

"Looking for the girl you karked on the Champion?" Came a call from a mechanic. Apparently the guards on the other ship hadn't been entirely convinced by the excuses. That, or Wesseq had started the rumour to cover the artefact. Xin swore under his breath.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

Pools of blue narrowed, trying to remember past the fog of last night. Bruk. "Brak?" Head shook. Hand came up to tuck sandy-brown hair behind one ear. "No. He kept his webbed appendages to himself."

She hesitated only a second before following the barabel in line. Hunger was enough to get over her pride. Mouth watered as the smell of food hit the tip of her nose as they passed closer. There were some sort of roasted vegetables and roots. A gravy with potatoes and some grilled, charred nuna. That was just the human food. All sorts of other things that resembled the stuff she'd seen in the mini-fridge.

"I'll pay you back. Don't worry." She looked up, a half smile wound its way over her mouth. "Those eyeball things in the fridge, those yours or Xin?" She took a tray with her good arm, keeping the bandaged one cradled against her side. "And how'd you end up bunking with Xin? D'you join the fleet before him?"

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"It's just one meal, don't worry about it," Brak rumbled. He had to bend over quite far to reach the food and dish something up onto his plate.

"Hey!"

"Sorry." Brak had extended his tail for balance to reach over and nearly tripped someone over. He held a struck of credit chits neatly between two claws and handed them over to a droid.

"And those aren't for sale. So hard to get delicacies out here. Xin would probably let you have a couple of jellied preeds if you smile nice. They're not ripe though."

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

"I'd just need to bounce my hips around a bit and I'm sure he'd give me a bite." She smirked but her face screwed up into something sour. "Luckily I never want to try those. And thanks." If she wasn't careful, she'd lose her appetite thinking about those jarred creatures.

Tray was piled with some roasted nuna and vegetables. She'd had frozen rations for the past months. All this stuff? A delicacy. Frex. She hadn't eaten this well since her time at the Edens. She still meant to pay Brak back, somehow.

And she didn't press him further about the question he didn't answer. She got the message. Was none of her business.

Walking over to an open table, she plopped down, immediately digging in.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"Well I wouldn't go that far for a preed..." Brak chuckled. "But no, I don't think they would agree with a human stomach."

Brak followed and sat down beside her. The chair barely permitted him to sit comfortably and the others in the canteen has to take care to step over or around the tail coiled behind him on the floor.

For all Xin's jokes about him being slow minded he did like to take his time thinking. But he was a kind soul for such a big lizard. Especially when one considered how most of his people still formed their colonies. Their people were often seen as simple, aggressive hunters. But they were also loyal to family and Brak saw the entire refugee fleet as his.

"That looks like it hurt," he said, pointing to the exposed arm where the sleeve had been torn free.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

She swallowed a bite of food, trying to savor it over gulping it down. Corners of her lips turned upward briefly in momentary bliss. Sandy-brown brows arched along alabaster skin. "Mmfff," she sighed contentedly, unable to keep the verbal exclamation in.

Brak was saying something over the creaking of his chair.

"Oh," blues traveled away from the lizard's face and her own food, flickering down to the bandage arm she rested gingerly on the table. "First time I've gotten stitches, though it's not so bad. Was submerged in a bacta tank before." Fork pointed in the air between them. "Now that wasn't fun."

Leaning forward slightly, her tone changed to something more of a confiding whisper. "But dang. Whatever pain meds you guys use here. They kark you up." It was clear she didn't like them.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"Ah. Squidly wasn't all that specific about what was going on. Just made me carry you. Looked like you were having a good time. You should keep those and sell them on at the next station. You should try regrowing a tail. That's not fun."

Brak had meat that looked like it might have cried out after kissing a frying pan. He cut a chunk that dripped pale crimson and swallowed it. There was no chewing involved. Up to his maw and down in one.

"Did they get your appetite too?" He asked.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

"Maybe I will," she smirked and took another bite, trying not to stare as Brak took a mouthful. Smelled quite foul. Still. In all her travels before she was in her twenties, when she was getting drunk at clubs, she'd been exposed to what much of the rest of the galaxy's population ate besides human food. Well, the bits she could remember.

"Only if...Squidly?" She laughed, nearly losing some water from her nose. "Doesn't mother me to take them." Mouth wiped on the one sleeve she still had. "I know he's just worried," she said quickly and a bit more seriously. "And yeah. Felt pretty high and food wasn't exactly on my mind. Not till now."

Chewing thoughtfully, she tried not to scrunch up her nose as she caught a whiff of blood and meat from Brak's food. Something nudged her foot. Looking down, Blue's zeroed in on a salvaged mouse droid. It let off a high beep and then bumped into her foot again, sending a spark into the air.

Leaning beneath the table, she snatched it up and turned it upside down so the little wheels flailed in the air, setting it topside up. Bandaged arm moved a bit too much and she winced as she dug a hydro spanner from her tool belt.

Slept with it on, one of the tools must've been what she felt poking in her back last night.

"Could you keep this guy from shaking so much? I think I can fix its sensors." Tongue ran over the front of her top teeth, licking up any stray seasoning from the Nuna.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

One hand fell upon the mouse droid despite its complaints and held it stock still. The other skewered another chunk of meat on a claw.

"I didn't even know we had these," Brak remarked.

"Oh gud," came Xin's voice from behind them. He pulled up another chair on the table and plonked himself down. Really he managed to seem as if he had draped himself over the chair in the most casual way possible. He had changed since early. Different trousers with a blue stripe down the outside. A gray sleeveless shirt that might have spotted a band logo at some point but it was faded beyond recognition. In his headtails were now several leather bands of reds and browns with intricate patterns etched into them.

"Did nah wake up properly earlier and thought yuh might ave been wandering on a drugs high."

A whisper from the table behind them was slightly too loud: "apparently they could hear them growling and rutting from the deck below..."

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

She shrugged at Brak's comment, tip of her tongue sticking out just at the corner of her mouth. Tip of her tool sent a stray spark or two up in the air as she worked at the droid's inner circuitry panel. Bright blues lifted for a moment at the familiar voice, resting on Xin.

"No, I save wandering around high for when someone'll be there to carry me back to a room."

Eyes narrowed as she caught the comment from a table over. For the most part, she ignored it, as the droid let off a series of beeps. "Almost there little guy."

A razzle.

"No, the people behind me are NOT distracting me," she grumbled, twisting her hydrospanner a little to the right. Lips pursed and nose crinkled. The spacer shot Xin a look over her finished plate of food and the razzle-beeping mouse droid that looked like it was coupled together from five different models.

"Did you just have a meeting with Wesseq or something?"

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"No, he looks a lot more stressed if he needs to see Wesseq," Brak chuckled.

Xin shrugged. He turned towards the group and waited until they realised he was looking. They looked at him, then they looked up at Brak. They fell silent.

He did need to talk to Wesseq though. Find out if this spat of whispers behind his back was his doing. By the end of the day Kinsey might want to let the Nexu story out instead.

"Wah yuh doing to de little guy?" Xin asked.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

"Just fixing its..," a small spark nipped into her fingertips. She winced, tensing up in her seat for a second. "Sensors. Seems to be off." They were and it was. But really working on something was a distraction. A distraction to her healing and throbbing arm. A distraction to what those whispers and looks from the others stirred up.

Shame.

Reminded her of what Sage had done. What she'd done with Sage. She'd been told it hadn't been her fault and that he'd been mentally influencing her. But she didn't buy that chit. She blamed herself for being so....stupid. Naive. And all that happened to her. Maybe she deserved it? Maybe she deserved all this now too.

Easier to ignore it all. Put all that rough and protective 'don't-care' shell. It was safer and easier not to get attached.

Didn't mean her emotions didn't win from time to time. And this was one of those times.

With one final twist of the hydrospanner, the wiring re-routed into place. "There," she whispered and looked up, giving a short nod at Brak, the smile she wanted to push on her face didn't quite get there and the burning in the back of her eyes was getting stronger. Once Brak lifted his massive clawed hand, she took the mouse droid and placed it back on the floor.

Brown hair with highlights of lighter tawny tones shifted along her face as she looked down. The droid chirped once, then sped off. "Right. I'm going to work on my ship some more." With a sudden screech, the chair she was in was pushed back as she stood.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

She was a difficult person to read. Emotional, yet guarded. Xin hadn't grown close to many people over the last ten years. He'd been burned too many times to draw close to the warmth of the fire again. It had all started with his parents. One promise made that had never been fulfilled. People shouldn't promise things they couldn't follow through on. Especially not children.

The problem was that his headtails and Force sensitivity made him quite empathetic. When she felt a wash if shame it hit him too. Body language conveyed her feelings quite clearly as she left the mess. Xin looked to Brak and then with disgust at the pile of raw meat chunks on his plate.

“Want one?” He asked.

"Nuh, nuh thank you.”

“She has a ship to fix? That a good idea if she still shaking off the tablets?” Beak’s typically impassive face manages to convey that it was an important question.

“Nuh, probably not,” Xin replied as he stood up.

“And let me have a look before she flies. You're a mediocre mechanic,” Brak called after him. Xin threw a particular gesture over his shoulder.



He caught up to Kinsey just as she was approaching the U-Wing. He picked up his pace as he follows across the hangar floor.

“Right den, wah needs fixing?” He asked.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"]

She gulped but didn't turn around as she heard that nautolan's voice. Hard to stop that stinging from spreading in the back of her eyes and she could already feel them begin to well-up. She did NOT want to cry in front of Xin much less anyone else.

She didn't want to seem weak.

Lower-lip trembled. Good thing her back was still to him. Without turning around, she stepped on up the ramp, pace not slowing down. "Why're you following me? It's not like you owe me anything." There was the smallest tremor to her voice. "And don't cheat and use your tentacles right now."

She realized it was like asking someone not to do something as natural as breathing.

Well inside the ship, she hovered over the tool box still on the bench from the previous day. Hard to see what was in the box with her vision getting watery and blurry.