Podracer Tailgate Party, Brought To You By ORC (Open for Hijinks)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

With the Harvest Day Invitational race right around the corner, you couldn't afford to stay home. The galaxy was broken -- everyone knew this -- so you had to take opportunities for fellowship and fun. And since the CIS had liberated Tatooine, there might even be more opportunities on the horizon.

The tailgate party was just kicking off in a most auspicious way. Folks were comparing the gear under the hoods of their speeders and swoops, other folks were grilling, a few more had been tasked with the beverages. Mos Espa offered a tasteful selection of drinks and speeders and grillable meats, but plenty of the above was coming from offworld too. Lounging in the shade of a Bantha, Mara found the atmosphere most pleasant.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

"Keep up Jay you sloven wretch!" a peculiar little human in a khaki vest and shorts shouted over his shoulder at the Hologlide J57 cam droid hovering not far behind him.

Mynock had been pregaming all the way from Corellia, his beat up old Calrissian-class just barely chugging into Mos Espa Spaceport and now filling up its hangar with thick clouds of troubling black smoke. He wore an elaborate visored cap which wobbled with each step as the Galaxy Beacon journalist swayed and stumbled blindly out under the baleful gaze of Tatooine's twin desert suns.

"Would you look at this glorious wasteland!" Dubrillion shouted to no one in particular, drawing more than a few strange looks as he dragged a case of luggage along the sands behind him, "Surely there must be at least one kind hearted pharmacist on this rock willing to replenish our supplies."

Heedless of this very public venue, he began openly smoking a death stick while he trundled right through the tailgate.

[member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"]​

 

[Coren Starchaser]

It was going to be one of those days, and Coren knew it. He had a few days leave coming up and with Sykkla working with a newly minted Commodore, the Alliance in Exile was doing ok. Well, for the short term. Him taking a day or two leave? Not going to stop the wheels. Probably. He knew that [member="Mishel Noren"] was out visiting. She had bonded with a few in the Confederacy following the Fall of Coruscant. And that was fine, it made sense to latch onto people. Coren himself did it, just with other Jedi. But he wasn’t ever truly going to be hardlined on Jedi only. But light side? Or light intentioned? Sure.

The trick was the Princess Leia had to take a detour to pick up some more liquor. He didn’t want to run Starbird Cantina out of business. And one of the other things was he was meeting with [member="Julius Sedaire"], because word was that [member="Jorus Merrill"] was piloting a pod. And well, Starchaser Enterprises was entering their pod, who raced it was up to his daughter, though.

Landing the ship around the others, Starchaser began to unload a few grills and coolers, with the help of Mishel before she scampered off to do… Force knew what. Maybe her Mando. Still, the set up was nice and Coren had tossed a few messages out, [member="Romi Jade"], [member="Rekha Kaarde"], hell, he even reached out to [member="Kinsey Starchaser"], just to see if she was even still alive.

Cracking opening a bottle, he found his lawn chair, at the foot of the boarding ramp, and took a long sip.

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

She landed the punch just as he went to sweep her leg taking her down and landing her on her butt. "FETH!"

His hand was offered she shook her head grabbing it he pulled her to her feet. "You let your emotions get the better of you. Be smart fighter Rekha otherwise you will get your arse kicked every time." He offered her a towel which she happily took.

Her droid starting making all kinds of noises, "R3?" As she wiped the sweat from brow R3 let her know about tail gating...

"Oooo drinks and food.my favorite. R3, send a message, we will be there with bantha burgers, potato sticks, ooo and an ice corellian sausage." She looked back to Jason.

"I'll be back taking a few days break." She smiled she was getting stronger she wouldn't be taken out so easily again.

Jason nodded, "Be careful stick to the lanes you know don't go wandering.have fun." Jason was a friend someone who was helping her keep from getting in trouble.

"I will, R3 let's go.." Rekha headed off for a shower and to get The Midnight Star in the air.

Races, how long had it been since she had gone to the races.well race fans.let's get ready to rumble!

Coordinates set, and she was off

Hours later she showed up fresh as a daisy setting the Star in around the Leia.she kept some distance to keep the dust to a minimum. She walked down the ramp smiling alcohol in tow, R3 toting the food - "HEY I heard there was some kind of party that required drinks and food.."
Coren laid out and resting.he looked good with a drink in his hand.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Romi Jade"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | and anyone else coming to party with us

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Aeshi strode down off the boarding ramp of her ship and into the area populated by other Coalition and Underground folks. It had been a while since had appeared at one of these shindigs. But, with her pushing for the family to sponsor the race, she thought it best for her to make an appearance. She was an official representative of Tillian Family Enterprises in this moment, but more importantly, she needed to strengthen her Underground connections.

She had seen the memo from the First Order. They were annexing massive amounts of space and assigning others to the Sith Empire. That concerned her immensely. Shipping would be impacted. Markets would be harmed. More government red tape would cause problems. Aeshi loathed governments. They caused far more trouble than they were worth. In this case, she would not be at all opposed to dismantling a few more governments.

Especially Sith ones. She'd grown up in one of those and had no desire to live within one ever again. No, she would flee beyond the galactic rim if that was what it took to escape them.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aeshi Tillian"] [member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="Mynock Dubrillion"]

The bantha, it turned out, had better places to be. Mara found herself doused in sand-spray when the big critter heaved itself out of the dune. Sand had sloshed into her bottle and left it, well, mud. As the bantha trundled away, Mara shook sand out of her hair and headed for the Heckler's Veto.

Instead of another drink...a game. Wrong atmosphere for sabacc, wrong day for shockboxing. How about...

She emerged with a bunch of knives.

"Knife tricks, folks. Best stunt wins a bottle of Rhywen's Reserve."

Without further ado, her throwing knife parted [member="Coren Starchaser"] 's hair.

 

[Julius Sedaire]

One-two-three. Weighted combat knife made for throwing hummed as it spun on his fingertips and then flew and passed over and under [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"]'s hand, going through her fingers as the hand dropped. At that point he flopped next to Coren, sunblock on his nose, a Haiwaiian shirt from his brother Cal open all the way down, sandals, and board shorts. A smirk parted his face as he threw a beer at [member="Coren Starchaser"].

"Drink up, flyboy"

 

[Kat Decoria]

Kat grabbed her tools and went to work on a pod racer, the chance to race one was an opportunity she would never surrender. Adjusting a few bolts and chevk the fuel lines, Kat nodded to herself. All systems were green, looked good. Hopefully it now had the speed as well as the 'tlc'.

Wiping her forehead with some grease, she could feel the twin suns bake her. Tatooine was a scorching planet, not a favourite weather type of hers. She preferred cool planets over desert or tropical kinds. Placing her hydrospanner away, Kat checked out the competition.

 

[Sebastian Thel]

The twin suns bore down on all the manner of refute who gathered in Mos Espa. Among them was Sebastian, who had come to work on podracers for a few extra credits. Wiping a layer of sweat from his forehead, he carried his toolkit through the main street of the town. Storekeepers pinched his sleeves and haggled him in alien tongues. Picking up his pace, he brushed away the unwelcome hands and turned off the street to the racetrack.

Sebastian stopped at the end of the street and tilted his head to one side in curiosity. Listening to the myriad of whispers strewn together throughout the track, he struggled to make out any discernible basic. He caught the site of a young woman working on a podracer. Whether the craft belonged to her, or if she had only been employed as a mechanic, Sebastian did not know. The girl did not appear much younger than Sebastian himself, who worked on the ground with her back turned.

Leaving the town, the engineer walked towards the edge of the track and approached the young woman. He stopped a few meters away and looked around, avoiding her gaze, before raising his hand in a slight wave. The ends of his mouth parted into a smile as he walked up to the craft and knelt down.

"Hey, that's some nice work on the energy binders, you build this yourself?" Sebastian inquired as he sat down in the sand. Wearing a plain, grey T-shirt beneath trousers with suspenders and boots, he appeared indistinguishable from the mechanics who worked on the podracers. His only discerning features being his thin frame and soft features, which were smudged with grease.

"Why don't you hop in and fire up the engines?" He offered as he inspected every crevice and angle. Running a hand over the side of the engine, he had to admire the woman's work. "Better check and see if everything's working properly." As much as he would have liked to delve into all the bits and pieces of the podracer and look for anything he could fix, Bas figured that the young woman wouldn't appreciated him just removing plates as he liked.

[member="Kat Decoria"]

 

[Kat Decoria]

Her hair was in a tight, high ponytail and pulled away from her face to let the sweat drip freely and avoid bangs from getting sweaty and sticky to her face. She gave one of the engines a firm kick, it was acting up again, luckily the kick got it back in line and it started behaving once more. Now she needed to check the engine systems, it wouldn't be tricky and she wanted check revving and ensure the engines could cope with the adjustments she had made.

Kat was wiping her hands with a dirty rag when she heard a voice call out to her. She turned around sharply and faced the man, older than herself by his looks but skinny and with grease stains too, possibly another mechanic, but Kat never assumed to know another's profession. "Yep, worked on this pile of trash from when I collected it from a junkyard." Kat figured it wouldn't be against the Jedi Code to partake in some podracing, she wasn't gambling her money!

His offer was one that made her roll her eyes, she heard made many times by other male mechanics who thought her not as obsessed with the tech as they were. "How bout you hop in, do the simple job of revving the engine and I'll do my job of ensuring nothing needs adjusting." Kat suggested with a sharp cool tone. She wasn't gunna let some stranger touch her engines, Kat heard of the foul play that occurred in podraces and she wasn't going to sacrifice her chances of a victory by being stupid.

[member="Sebastian Thel"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Good, this was going to be a good time. And he was excited to see that his message got out to a number of people. Ships were arriving and his crew was showing up. Looking up at [member="Rekha Kaarde"] from behind his sunglasses, the Jedi Master smiled. It was nice to finally be able to relax, and having part of his crew here? That made it even better. A race was going to be going on, his company’s pod was going to be in, and people were going to be drinking and enjoying themselves. Something the galaxy needed. “You made it! Get a chair, and a drink!”

Shaking his head, he looked at the rest of the goings ons. Mara was being… well, what he assumed a youngish person was supposed to do, goof around. “Whoa whoa… knife tricks? No… I dunno, Bantha Shoes?” That was like a horse, right? Sure.

“Hey Jul, ready for the race?” Coren raised his glass and laughed.

[member="Julius Sedaire"]
[member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"]
[member="Rekha Kaarde"]

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Julius Sedaire"] | [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"]

"I did make it and I brought food and drink." She stopped long enough to have a knife land in the sand between her feet..."well now that's an interesting welcome, am I allowed to throw it back" She smiled broadly at Mara as she bent over and plucked it from its landing place. Then she tossed it back aiming for the ground by Mara, "well balanced, light weight perfect"

She looked and saw everyone had a drink , "R3 let's cook" She put her cargo with the others and headed to the grill she needed 300 degrees as R3 opened the container. Within moments the smell of cooking proteins filled the air..."mmm" she winked at R# who sat with his internal timer counting down. She hated to burn anything all condiments and things were in the box...everyone should help themselves.

She popped out a chair and slid into it, "racing ...so do they just like continue go in a circle yelling, LOOK ITS A LEFT TURN!!!" She smiled broadly. They'd either get the joke or not...she was odd enough that as long as she got it she was good.