Pants Are Unnecessary For Piloting [Vaudin]

[Alnice D'Lessio]

West Lochan Spaceport, Auratera
The cracking sound as Alnice pushed her way through a screen of branches and underbrush was audible from the outer walls of the West Lochan spaceport. Frontier worlds often weren't terribly concerned with keeping things neat or tidy, and while soft and cuddly compared to its contemporaries, Auratera was exactly as "frontier" as the rest. The walls of the largest city Alnice had known for the last five years were rusty durasteel, decorated by occasional floodlights. There was no "road" to speak of from this approach - she was pretty sure she remembered one on the far side, but it wasn't terribly important to her right now. What she wanted was in the walls.

As a demonstrably sapient biped, the guard droids didn't even so much as blink as she walked in. They were likely programmed (and not very well at that) to scare critters getting too curious and open fire at bigger predators to deter them. They had roughly as much interest in Alnice as she had in them. Droids were always weirdly quiet to her. No mannerisms, no expressions, no twitches or emotions. It was unnatural for something to be that mute. She passed by without trying to give too much thought to it.

West Lochan was "bustling," by Alnice's current definition. She'd seen much busier, much more crowded places in the past, but right now, this was the closest thing to a thriving urban area that she could remember. Dozens of people moved to and from the docking bays and into outfitters, junk shops, and cantinas. There was some local color, but altogether it was peaceful. People laughed, smiled... it all felt so warm and welcoming. She needed a few things before she could leave, so it'd likely be a few days here. Might as well get comfortable, right?

First things first, though, she was very hungry, extremely strong, and utterly broke. And, since it'd taken a good twelve hours to get here from Regan's cabin, she had plenty of time to figure out a plan to use all of those things. Alnice D'Lessio wandered the docking bays for a few minutes until she found someone loading cargo. A Toydarian crew. Good. They were normally pretty well-off and didn't handle heavy weights well. Putting on her best smile, the young Lorrdian approached the cargo hauler with a rucksack over one shoulder and combed through her wild, undisciplined hair with the other.

"Heya! You look like you could use a hand!"

-

Within ten minutes, Alnice was hefting a crate of power converters over either shoulder and marching them up the Toydarians' boarding ramp, just as she'd done with the last half-dozen crates and like she'd probably do with a couple more. As she worked, she spoke to (as she understood it) the first mate. "...So Dad decided the best place for me to learn was a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Of course, it totally worked, but it's left me a little low on cash."

The flying blue man rubbed his snout and nodded. "I can see where that'd be a problem, yeah. It's pretty drek of them to leave you stranded out here, though. What's your plan for getting off-world?"

Alnice grinned and shrugged, leaning over one of the two heavy crates she'd just lugged around. Her skin was covered in sweat, her heart rate was up, and her eyes had a little sparkle to them. She was swimming in her own powers, letting loose a little now that Regan wasn't around to tell her not to push too hard. "I'm gonna earn my way. This is for food and supplies. When I've got enough to pay for passage, I'll find a hauler that'll book me and go from there. Don't worry, I'm fine."

The middle-aged Toydarian nodded and marked a couple of things off his datapad before handing her a credit chit and tapping his screen a few times. "There you go then. One hour's heavy lifting, less the cost of that chit. Be frugal and it should last you a day or two. Good luck, kid."

"Thanks!" Alnice's voice was practically a chime as she ran off back towards the city. "You too!"
[member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Vaudin Miir]

The TL-1800 freighter sat down on it's heavy struts. Steam from decompressing systems hissed into the air in streams of white mist as the wayward son of Iktotch began his landing checks. His too large hands flipped switches to begin cooldown and turned off nonessential systems. He grabbed his datapad and pulled up his checklist and began going down the list checking boxes. He hated for his ship to go uncared for and the check list helped to keep his baby in top shape.

He stood up and pulled on his pants before he grabbed his twin blasters and buckled them around his narrow hips. Henhad gotten thin lately with the republic gone and the need for him to play hotshot senator went with it. The Republic had been a mess, but that government teet had fed him well, he could say that. He bent down and fastened the holsters to his thighs to make for a quicker draw and jammed his big feet into the same old boots he had worn for years.

"Nothin' better than good blasters and good boots." He told himself as he straightened up and turned to leave the cockpit. "Cept maybe good booze."

With that in mind he grabbed his flask from a low table in the galley and hit the palm pad to lower the boarding ramp. His boots thumped on the durasteel ramp as he ducked beneath the ship's belly and rode the lowering ramp to the ground. What met him at the bottom was not expected however.

"Miir!" Said a pretty human woman with a little hybrid child in tow. "We need to talk!"

Vaudin looked at the woman and fished in his memory for a name. Henna? Allana? No those weren't it. He looked her up and down pausing slightly below her neck line as the name slapped him in the face and immediately made him smile.

"Anna!" He said in a voice as smooth as piston grease and just as oily, "Long time no see."

"Save the chit, Vaudin." She said not even trying to buy his act, "Meet your daughter, Vausa. You owe five years of care mister Senator and you better pay."

Vaudin blinked and looked at the child. His mouth worked a moment as he put together just what the hybrid child was besides human.

"Not my kid." He said hiding a mix of anger and amusement.

"How dare you!" The woman said as she fired a small fist at his face. The petite ball of bone and flesh collided with his nose and snapped his head back faster than a Sith to a murderer convention.

"Kark, Anna!" He said as he held his now bloody nose, "We aren't even DNA compatible!"

"Twi'leks and human are compatible Miir!" She said anger flashing in her eyes. "You piece of chit!"

"Twi'lek!?" He yelled, "Do these beautiful pieces of art look like Lekku to you!? I HAVE HORNS! LOVE HANDLEBARS! Not fatty squid legs! Damn it!"

He shook his head and flung blood from his hand onto the ground.

"You're....not a Twi'lek?" The woman replied taken back.

"I'm Iktotchi!" He said still angry, "Senator of Iktotch, happily retired thank you very much."

Vaudin cursed again and looked at the kid. He wasn't a soft hearted man but he felt bad for the kid. Being dragged here like this. Luckily another thing The Republic had given him over the years of skimming intelligence department funds was credits. He took a chip from his back pocket and put it into the child's hand without looking and walked away.

He knew of only one way to make this trip better. He needed to get well and truly drunk. He ambled out of the frontier starport and headed out into the city. All he needed to do was find a seady hole in the wall pub and wait for refuel, oh and see if Jorus' kin were still about. Better not forget that.

[member="Alnice D'Lessio"]

 

[Alnice D'Lessio]

Seeing a man get punched in the street wasn't exactly the top of Alnice's list for the day. He seemed to be fine, if not happy about it, so she made a conscious effort to pay it no mind. If she made a habit of getting involved in everyone's domestic disputes she'd either wind up a relationship counselor or a homewrecker, and neither one of those sounded like fun. Instead, she was hungry and needed real clothes, so she wandered off into the town to find an outfitter for simple, cheap clothes, basic kit, and a couple of bags to hold it in. Nothing fancy. Also maybe some street food if she could find some...

Judging by the rumble of her stomach, though, Alnice's priorities were backwards. With a sigh, she spun on her heel and trudged off towards the first gross cantina she found. Hopefully their food was better than their- ...Actually, this wasn't so bad. Well-lit, relatively clean, and it didn't smell like desperation and misery. Even the people inside weren't nearly as off-putting as she'd feared, but then they were quite drunk. Alcohol had a habit of throwing one's ability to emote properly way out of whack. She sat down away from the bar and waited with a smile for the serving droid.

Eventually, one wheeled over. This one was old enough and had a personality chip, so it wasn't even super creepy to be around. Difficult to read, like someone was yelling through a waterfall, but still there. Much better than the automatons at the gates. "What can I get for ya, hon?"

Alnice didn't even look at the menu. She could smell the kitchen from here. "Um...grilled poultry sandwich, please. And green tea, if you have it." The droid gave a quick beep and whirred off, leaving Alnice with her thoughts and an empty booth.

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Alnice D'Lessio"]

It didn't take long to find a bar, it never did not for Vaudin 'not a twi'lek' Miir. He wiped the dried blood off his face with his shirt sleave and paused as his vision blurred and his head began to swim. He hadn't drank enough yet and his pesky clairvoyance flaired up in that way things did when you failed to drink them quiet.

He saw a woman. A young woman with honey brown eyes, medium brown skin and frizzy hair sitting on his ship with dizzying optimism oozing from her excited smile.

He shook his head and moved with extra speed toward the bar/eatery. He saw drunk people, very drunk people, that was an excellent sign. He moved past the tables and took a seat at the bar. His grey eyes took not a second glance at the selection as he tossed his credit chip on the bar.

"Scotch, neat." He said as he leaned his elbows on the bar, "better leave the bottle."

"That's a 120 credit bottle, Sir." The serving droid said with a hint of polite warning.

"Well, you better take my credits before I change my mind then, huh?" Vaudin responded as the droid took a glass from behind the counter and poured a tumbler of rich brown liquid love.

Vaudin drank the tumbler in one shot and poured another for himself as he finally turned to note who else was in the eatery. He noted spacers and locals of various shapes and sizes. As he took another sip his eyes settled on a pretty girl, with an admittedly amazing physique, and spit his scotch out all over himself.

He turned back to the bar and wiped his mouth. It was the girl from the vision. He didn't look back but he knew he was about to be sucked into the forces plans once again. He looked at the serving droid and drank the rest of his scotch before pouring some more.

"That girl over at the table alone." Vaudin whispered, "You know her?"

"No, sir." The droid replied, "but I think you're a little old for her and possibly the wrong species, not accounting for individual taste of course."

"Oh, your a funny one, huh?" Miir replied dryly, "What did she order? Nevermind, put it on my tab."

Vaudin glanced back and groaned internally, at least drunk he wouldn't have to know when the force was screwing with him.