Please Hold your Applause

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Zandra. Her mother. Rawnie makes a face. He was so much younger than her Mother. Why did she assume they had some romance? The only man Zandra had ever loved was her Father, and that was unlikely to ever change. Sometimes, Rawnie kind of resented her for being so stubborn in that sense. Maybe things would be better if the woman could just... move on?

"Do you.... want to be friends?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled faintly, and looked at Rawnie again.​

​

"Sure, Ice Cream Girl... We can be friends who go out and shoot things together."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The blonde raised a pale eyebrow, but managed a smile. A friend. Would he be a real one? Was she making a mistake by accepting him as one? Mom had friends. She said they were immeasurably valuable. Mom and dad started out as friends.

"Ice cream girl? Okay then, Azure, godlike creator," she teased, "Friends. Now. When do you wanna help me take this one in?"

She gestured at their bounty, still slumped over in the corner of the room.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane laughed at the mention of the name he'd given himself on the security locks. Well, he might've found a friend. And a partner. At least he and Rawnie both had somebody to listen to each other talk, he supposed. He took a look at the unconscious Chiss on the floor, and picked him up, slinging him over his back.​

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"Well, let's get going, then. Feel like looking at anything other than ice cream before we go?"​

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He stepped back into his boots, and they locked snugly before he looked at the blonde girl again.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The blonde shook her head, still smiling like an idiot.

"Nah. I'll look later," she said with a shrug, "I have a feeling I'll be crashing at your place a lot."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane reached out a hand to ruffle Rawnie's hair quickly, and then grinned teasingly as he very quickly walked away from her, towards the hangar.​

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"As long as you don't crash my ship here, you can crash here whenever you want."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie picked up the icecream, nearly gone at this point between the two of them and had to strongly debate. Was she going to put it back, or bring it with her. Save it for next time? Or finish it off now with Azure?

Patience. A good hunter knows how to be patient, she reminded herself, putting the lid back on and putting it back into the freezer.

She then snatched up her helmet, double checked her supply pouch to make sure she had everything she needed in there, and walked after him.

"So, let's see this ship of yours. Can't possibly be worse than moms."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane practically snorted as Rawnie followed him to the hangar.​

​

"Zax makes my Bluebird look like a luxury cruiser. Besides, nothing either of us could do would make that crew look like anything but a bunch of rats clamped onto whoever'll take them."​

​

He gestured broadly and grinned as he saw his beautiful blue-painted Firespray sitting in front of the bay doors.​

​

"Ah, my birdy... Haven't flown you in a while."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The half echani stopped dead in her tracks. She nearly dropped her helmet. It was...

"Beautiful!" she gasped, "Look at that color!"

Blue. It was always Rawnies favorite color. Made her think of the icy pond outside behind the cabin. She liked to go ice fishing with her father when she was young. They'd always catch something good. Mom made the best fish stew. Of course, most of the time it was dad who cooked and mom who went out hunting with her. Mom was like her. Light on her feet. The animals in the forest never heard the crunching footsteps in the snow, or the sound of her stringing her bow. Mom would get right up behind an Uxi and with her knife she'd cut so cleanly and so deep that it would be dead before it hit the ground. Before it even knew it was about to be dinner.

That was then. That was a time she'd never get back. Her hand instinctively went to the knife at her side, with it's handle of carved Uxi horn. She remembered the Uxi it came from. The rare black horned beast, a genetic abnomality. They usually didn't have that color, but this one had giant horns, blacker than the night sky. Her first kill. Ever.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled at Rawnie, and then back at his ship. The color had always made him happy, too. It reminded him of the icy mountains that surrounded the city he'd grown up in on Csilla. One of the very few happy memories he had of the Chiss homeworld was staring at those mountains early in the morning, watching the sun burn over them and make their color change to the exact shade he'd had Bluebird painted.​

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"Yeah. The color's a little sentimental. So is the birdy herself. Just... old memories..."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

She felt like a kid again. It had been so long. She'd once been so... pleasant. A 'sweet' child. Clan Tal'verdas little snow angel. But something had hardened her. She'd grown cold, distant. Why? What had happened? She was struggling to remember. Until dad disappeared, clan life was great.
So what...?

She walked up to the ship, lifting a hand to carefully run along the perfect hull of the ship.

"She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," she whispered, "Bluebird, eh? Nice to meet you, Bluebird. I'm Rawnie."

Talking to ships. Mom had always treated Zax like a member of the family. Just a rusted old ship and all, but it had been around for her entire life. In a way, some ships really did have a personality all their own.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Heh. She likes it when people talk to her... Makes my little bluebird sing..."​

​

Lorane found himself leaning his head against the boarding ramp. He hadn't flown Bluebird in a while... Since that time Roxy had decided to steal his other ship for a joyride. But even that memory wasn't a bad one. Flying this ship had always meant good things, even when he'd used to be a horrible pilot. He smiled as he began to almost inaudibly talk to her, too.​

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"Well, m'lady blue... I brought you a friend, and found myself one, too..."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie had never been a bad pilot, Even when dad took her up the first time. It was in her blood, mom had always said. Like firing a bow. She said she was a lot like her aunt, Janira, mom's twin. Janira had been a brilliant pilot. She'd been good at everything, the way mom told it. Rawnie had never met her. She died. And mom had hated her.

"Can we... go in?" She asked awkwardly, cheeks flushed, "I wanna see what she's got hidden inside."

She left her hands on the hull, reluctant to let go. This ship. It felt like...
home.


[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane nodded, pulling himself away from the ship's hull and gently doing the same to Rawnie. He felt happier than he thought he could describe at the fact that she already liked his Bluebird, and she seemed almost as happy as he was. Figuring out why would probably take some time, but that was okay.​

​

"'Course. A little bit of showing off wouldn't hurt either, right?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

She was grinning. The moment she realized it, she had to force the grin off her face, even so, there was a smile that she just couldn't control. Her cheeks were starting to hurt from it. She did not smile often. The muscles were out of shape.

"Can't wait."

And she really couldn't. Her heart thumped in her chest. She was already in love with this ship. Was this how mom felt when she found Zax? She just saw a ship and knew she'd found a life companion? Did ships work like that? Like soul mates?
She glanced at the chiss. Soul mates, huh? Guess this chiss was stuck with her then, if that was true. She was pretty certain now. She'd found a ship she was in love with, and she wasn't going to let it go.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane took another look at Rawnie and grinned.​

​

"Well, you're impressed. Cool."​

​

He couldn't help but smile at the girl. She'd been colder than the ice cream they'd eaten, maybe a little less so while they were eating the stuff, but now she seemed completely different, and he vaguely wondered which side of her was closer to the real thing. The Chiss mentally shrugged, and then collapsed into a couch in what he'd converted into a small living room, with a holonet transceiver and another fridge/freezer full of... you guessed it!... Ice cream and Gargle Blaster.​

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"Lucky I fixed up a cabin in here. S'all yours."​

​

Lorane gestured vaguely towards the door to another room that was furnished more like a bedroom, with a bed and a couple of desks and chairs. One could very easily live inside Bluebird, but the doctor had never tried for more than a week. He guessed he'd have the opportunity and an excuse to do so with Rawnie around.​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

If she thought it was a beauty outside, the inside was absolutely breathtaking. Almost literally. She had to admit, Doc didn't do half bad. And honestly, Rawnie was no interior decorator. She'd probably think it was perfect no matter what it looked like.

"Bedroom. Got it," she said, not bothering to hide the fact that she really didn't much care where she slept, "What's the bridge like though?"

That was the real question. She wanted to see the important bits. The bridge and the engine room. She had a feeling she'd spend most of her free time in one of those two places.

It became clearer by the second that, while she might be a little short tempered, Rawnie was hardly the heartless ice queen she liked to pretend to be. Loraine was hardly the first person to discover that, of course. With a little time, she could open up to anybody. The thing, of course, being that it had hardly taken much time at all for this one. Really, just a few drinks, a captured bounty, some icecream and a beautiful ship.

Rawnie was an easy girl to please. She didn't really pretend to be otherwise.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled a little bit wider as he pointed up a short flight of stairs to where the gravity-shift was to get into the cockpit. It was something that he'd always found strange about his lovely Bird, but not something necessarily bad.​

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"A little strange if you've never been in a Firespray before... The gravity shifts kind of like the big gun wells on a freighter."​

​

He was kind of glad that Rawnie seemed to be interested in how the ship worked... That could possibly call attention away from him snoring the nights away at his workbench, especially if she enjoyed messing with the mechanical bits of the ship.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

She took his warning and was up light lightning. Of course, she'd been too eager and the dramatic shift of gravity caught her off guard. She almost tumbled. When she finally did regain control of herself she paused, frozen. This was... strange. So unlike anything she'd ever seen. She ran her fingers along the back of the pilots seat. This was absolutely nothing like Zax. Nothing like any ship she'd been in.

She gripped the seat and broke into a grin.

"This is incredible!" she shouted back at him, then broke into a laugh, "I can't even- just look! I wonder how she flies? She must be smooth as shimmersilk!"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane laughed as he watched Rawnie climb up into the cockpit too quickly... He'd made the same mistake, a few times. He took a couple of minutes to drag their bounty into a cell, and then climbed up next to the blonde girl and gestured towards the controls.​

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"Not like I'm gonna hog all the fun. Just don't scratch the paint, Icy."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​