Private Matchmaking: Some Assembly Required

[Braze]

Tags: Corin Vale Rayne Lo'to ​

Braze had felt bad for poor Rayne Lo'to and her boy troubles. But Braze had met just the man he thought could turn things around… or at least be a fun distraction for a while. Corin Vale used junk to make miracles happen on starships that had no right to be running with how old they were. And Rayne Lo'to sold all sorts of neat junk.

It was a match made in heaven… at least as far as Braze was concerned.

He'd found a gorgeous spot out on the cape, along the shoreline a few miles out from one of the many fishing villages. It would serve as a perfect place for this idyllic retreat. The white sandy shores bore a beautiful vista of crystal-clear sapphire waters, with a colorful reef teeming with fish just beneath the tide. Seashells littered the clean beach, far away from the grimy hustle and bustle of the Core Worlds' industry.

It was high tide, and a beautiful day besides, with a fresh clean sea breeze sweeping across the beach and shaking loose colorful flower petals from the trees perched above the cliffsides.

It was here, in a nice shaded alcove, that Braze had set out a large blanket and a picnic basket filled to the brim with all sorts of goodies, as well as a child's throwing disk to encourage more playful activities if they didn't wish to partake in the locally sourced champagne.

Braze led Rayne here with a blindfold on before taking it off and letting her see the pretty setup.

"Don't worry, your Adonis will be here shortly, if he hasn't gotten lost yet."

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Refuge
Tags: Braze , Corin Vale

Rayne Runner | Trash Mobile Home
​

"I don't know what an Adonis is," Rayne's vocoder answered. "Is the blindfold really necessary?"

Rayne let out an exhale. She appreciated Braze's concern, but she didn't know if this was the right time to be looking for romance. And blind dates never went well. There was a slim chance you even got along with the other person, and even slimmer you'd walk away wanting to at least be friends. Even so, she couldn't really say no. He was being so thoughtful.

It was a rather humorous site to see such a tall person being led blindly by someone much shorter.

"So... when can I take this thing off?"

 

[Corin Vale]

What did he get himself into?

Corin’s life used to be so, so simple. All he did was wake up, fix ships, go out into space and fix ships, then go home and sleep. It was simple, mundane. Repetitive and somewhat boring, sure. But predictable. Ever since that one girl used him and he got a bounty on his head? It’s been one thing after another.

Then he met Braze. Eccentricity incarnate. Everything Corin wasn’t. Corin found him endearing, if at times a bit much. But the young man helped Corin when he needed it and offered Corin employment. So it cost Corin nothing to entertain Braze when he suggested Corin go on a blind date.

Part of him wondered if it was a trap. Some devious machination meant to lure Corin out and ensnare him. If that were true though, he was screwed already. Still, he kept his head forward, eyes looking straight ahead and trying not to wander. Practicing that manufactured anonymity he’d worked so hard to maintain as he approached the spot Braze told him to go.

Corin had decided to walk the miles to the spot. It wasn’t often he was treated to a view like the one he had. It wasn't often he’d seen water at all, so he decided to enjoy it. Nature out in the galaxy was much more rewarding than on Corellia, and the calm scenery brought a semi-permanent half-smile to Corin’s mouth.

Maybe it wasn’t all bad, he thought to himself.

Then, after trekking the miles from the nearest inhabited settlement, he saw the bend in the coast Braze had told him about.

“Just beyond it,” he repeated the instruction he’d received from the Jedi. He steeled himself, took in a breath of fresh sea air, and double checked his outfit. It wasn’t anything special, but it was the best clothing he had. A dark green long sleeved fleece shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and tan work pants with his dark work boots.

Sunday best, he thought. Only thing that’d get him into something fancier was a funeral.

He looked good. Or good enough. Looked like him at his best, which is all he ever thought he should be. Taking one more deep breath, Corin rounded the corner and saw Braze and who he assumed was his date. A tall cute YELLOW-skinned Twi-lek.

“Oh,” he said to himself, blinking in surprise before approaching.

“Hey,” he said simply, nodding at Braze and smiling softly at the woman. He went back and forth in his mind about whether or not to offer his hand to shake, and to his horror he looked down and saw his hand shoot out slightly, then fall back at his side.

Am I nervous? he asked himself and chuckled, “Uh..hello. I’m Corinthia-...Corin. I’m Corin. Call me Corin.”

No, it wasn’t all bad after all.

Rayne Lo'to
Braze

 

[Braze]

Tags: Corin Vale Rayne Lo'to ​

Braze brightened as Corin Vale approached.

"Hey there, hot stuff. Took you long enough to get all spiffy…"

He shifted with a pleased little flourish, turning Rayne Lo'to about so she could face Corin properly.

"I present to you the glorious, magnificent Miss Rayne."

With that, Braze carefully removed the blindfold so she could see him. Then he stepped back, clasping his hands together as if admiring some grand work of art.

"I made you two a nice meal to share. Hope you two kids have fun~"

He teased the last part with obvious delight, already scampering away before either of them could properly protest. One hand lifted in an overtly dramatic wave, his whole body leaning into the mischief of it.

"I'll be back later to check on you two! Have funnnnn~!"

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Refuge
Tags: Braze , Corin Vale

Rayne Runner | Trash Mobile Home
​

Rayne blinked as the blindfold came off, her heterochromatic eyes adjusting to the light. He seemed... a bit on the scruffy side, but not in a bad way. Scruffy certainly had an appeal to it. She was a bit awkward herself, so she totally missed the handshake that he began and quickly retracted. Rayne was close to standing a full foot over him, she reasoned, but that wasn't usually a deal breaker for her. She was taller than most of the people she had been interested in in the past.

She moved to grab her vocoder box, clipping it to the chest of her jumpsuit so it was in an area where it could project better. A voice emerged from it, with some inflection that was limited by the presets of the female protocol programming it used.

"I'm Rayne... but I guess he said that..." the device spoke. "Hope this isn't weird at all. I... do not have a voice. Most people don't know sign. It's... nice to meet you."

After a moment of sort of just standing there, she sat herself down on one of the edges of the blanket that had been laid out on the ground for them. Her eyes gazed over everything that had been prepared.

"That boy has too much freetime," she noted aloud through her vocoder.

 

[Corin Vale]

Corin nodded at Braze as he decided to take his leave of the pair, "Alright Braze I'll do my very best, have a good'un," he said to the Jedi before returning his attention to the Twi'lek. He was just as unsure about what to do next as she seemed to be, and breathed a sigh of relief nodded his head as if to say 'of course' as she sat down on the picnic blanket, deciding to join her.

He did cock his head in surprise as the robotic voice came out of the small vocoder before he shook his head, offering a small smile.

"Not at all, miss," he answered, dismissively waving his hand, "Who'm I to say somethin's weird or not. S'just the way y'are. And it's nice ta meet'cha too, Rayne." He nodded his head and followed her eyes down to the wide array of food Braze had prepared.

"Y'know I always thought people like him just ate hardtack an' that's it. This looks," he whistled appreciatively, "wow. Yeah I can't...imagine how long this took."

He leaned back on his hands and looked back at Rayne, "But I'd rather talk about you," he said with a smile, and decided to avoid the obvious question in favor for a perhaps just as obvious but less potentially offensive one, "So, when Braze told me he set this up he said we had some things in common...so uh- waddaya do? I uh, I work on ships. Braze keeps callin' me a meknek. His idea of a joke or somethin'? I dunno. How about you though? You work on ships too or fix things or collect things?" He tried to keep his eyes on hers, but found himself pulling away every few seconds from nerves.

Braze Rayne Lo'to

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Refuge
Tags: Braze , Corin Vale

Rayne Runner | Trash Mobile Home
​

How about you though? You work on ships too or fix things or collect things?

"Ah, you know... a scrapper mostly," she stated. "Not very glamorous... and usually people don't have much use for the rural tech. But it has a niche market here on Refuge. I guess there are a lot of rural villages that will make use of any tech they get their hands on. And bartering is way simpler than credits."

Rayne awkwardly began running both her hands over her left Lekku. After a moment of nervous fidgeting, she finally decided to brave the picnic basket and open it up. Her face scrunched up as she drew out a bottle of champagne. After that came an abnormally large assortment of sweets, which made her stomach turn. Rayne knew that all that sugar was bad for her, and she knew that all the fat would go to her head... literally. The Lekku stored nutrients after all, and she hardly needed any more sugar.

Even so, her sweet tooth was a raging monster in the back of her head.

"It sure is a lot of... sugar," the scrapper noted. "I'll... have to be conservative... So... from the Core? You seem about a stranger to this place as I am."

 

[Corin Vale]

Corin's eyes lit up at the word 'Scrapper'.

"Oh?!" He responded, a smile on his face, "I love that! Findin' somethin' and lookin' past how it might look 'cuz you know it's worth somethin' to someone."

Corin unconsciously and excitedly scooted closer, his interest now piqued in the tall woman. Braze was right after all, there was something in common for them, "I'm the same. I don't like to count somethin' out just 'cause it's a bit rough to look at. Somewhere there's someone who needs it, even if they don't know it yet." He gestured excitedly with his hands, "An' you help people out too! Givin' them somethin' they need and takin' somethin' they don't."

He was absolutely beaming, "What's your favorite find?" He asked, before allowing the conversation a reluctant moment of quiet and looked down into the basket of sweets and goodies. "Oooh, champagne," he noted and grabbed the bottle, not noticing her reaction at first. "That boy knows his drinks. Wow," he said quietly, observing the label on the bottle, then gestured it to her, "You drink at all or no?" he asked, "I'm not much a sweets guy, tend to like my spicy food...but if you're in danger a'eatin' all of it I could always be a gentleman and help whittle the pile down. Don't ask me to tell ya 'no' though. I'm a terrible enabler." He chuckled and leaned back on his hand, studying the champagne bottle again.

"An' yeah. I'm from Corellia, born and raised. This is uh...this the longest I been away from there," he clicked his tongue and looked down, "Don't suppose I'll be back any time soon." He sighed and shrugged, "But yeah, Never been out this way before, usually I stay within the Core Worlds. But things have gotten a bit...dicey since the Alliance fell. How about you?"

Braze Rayne Lo'to

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Refuge
Tags: Corin Vale

Rayne Runner | Trash Mobile Home
​

Rayne blinked a few times as Corin seemed to open up out of nowhere. It seemed that talking about tech seemed to make him open up. Well, at least that was something. She wanted to at least walk away as friends, so that was something in common.

"I'm not much a sweets guy, tend to like my spicy food...but if you're in danger a'eatin' all of it I could always be a gentleman and help whittle the pile down. Don't ask me to tell ya 'no' though. I'm a terrible enabler."

"I have been... trying to watch my sugar intake," Rayne admitted, rubbing at her shoulder. "I... will do my best to have self control though."

She had spent to many long nights in her pajamas in bed eating snacks while listening to lame holonovels to mostly laugh at them. It felt good to do that after a long day of trying and failing to sell her wares. Stress eating was really too easy...

"I'm from Nar Shaddaa," the scrapper answered. "Never did stay there long... not a great place to grow up, and I knew that well enough. I'm... really good with tech. So I stole a ship and never looked back. Been jumping from place to place ever since, collecting scrap and getting by on my own."

Rayne shrugged as she carefully unwrapped a small tart-like pastry and popped it into her mouth.

"I prefer it in places away from the core," her vocoder spoke. "Business is better. More places to scrap, more places that need scrap. No up-tight law enforcement weirdos who try to convince you you're actually smuggling contraband..."

So much less problems.