Star Wars OPEN Star Wars: Black Sheep (Always Accepting New Players)

IC: Jocelyn "Joy" Sunwalker
Location: on-board the Intrepid

Jocelyn woke up the next morning. For the first time in a while she felt… contentment. Happiness even. A pang of guilt soured it when her thoughts trailed towards her parents. Joy was sure that they would want her to be happy, but she could not help feeling guilty about it.

She was going to find them and save them. Joy pursed her lips and stretched. It was too early for emotional thoughts. She sat on the edge of her cot and scratched her arm, the massaged her neck.

If only Feral had not left during the night… He could have helped her with the massage part. That made her smile a bit at the thought.

She reached for her datapad and saw that there was an unread message. ’You are getting sloppy Jocelyn’ she chastised herself and opened it. Her eyes widened in shock at the contents.

Lou was getting married!

That was pretty quick. Her friend deserved the happiness, so given what she had to go through it was a good idea to tie the knot, you never knew what might happen.

Smiling to herself she keyed a message to Feral Want to be my Plus One for a wedding? XOXOXO, yes it was cheesy, but one thing she liked that no one even suspected she did was cheesiness.

And she preferred that to remain a secret, after all she had a reputation to maintain. Joy read Lou’s message again. Karaoke, that meant singing. It was another secret that she kept to herself. She loved singing…

The reason Jocelyn preferred to keep these things to herself was because as an Imperial Officer those were traits that had to be uprooted if she was to advance through the ranks. Essentially they needed droids made of flesh and blood.

No jokes, no laugh, no love, no singing, no joy (pun not intended)... nothing.

Maybe she needed to open up a little? Jocelyn did not feel comfortable with that idea… yet. Besides, she wanted to have something for herself, something that she did not share with anyone. A private little secret.

“Oh blast!” she cringed and typed a message to Lou ‘Of course I will come, I hope you don’t mind me bringing a Plus One? Also if you need any help, you can count on me.’ only when she pressed SEND she realized what she had just revealed.

Well they were going to find out sooner or later…

TAG: @Vehn @darthbernael Anyone?

 

Combo with Mistress_Renata. She posts in dark blue. Cool.

IC: Kayn & Max
Pilots' Lounge, Later

Kayn wandered into the pilots' lounge. Most of the usual suspects were in their usual spots. No signs of trouble brewing, which was good, if disappointing. He spotted Max sitting by herself with her nose in a datapad.

"Maxie! What's new? You had a chance to review that new, uh, cover sheet?"

Max blinked. She'd been deep in the mission reports of the other squadrons, those she had access to anyway, looking for a pattern in the Skulls' attacks. "Which one?" she asked cautiously. And then she did a double take. "What in the Nine Hells are you wearing?!! Why are you dressed like an Imp?"

"We're BLACK Sheep, remember? Uniform shop is making these in squadron colors, hence, the Sheep are getting issued black shipsuits." Thinking of her superstitious response to the black(ish) markings painted on her X-wing, he winked and said, "Wouldn't it be unfortunate if a pen filled with dark blue ink just happened to break and spill into your washing machine on laundry day?"

Max shook her head. "No way. I'm not wearing that. Uniform shop wants to pass off old Imp tech coveralls, but I'm not going along with it. All the ink in the world isn't going to make that not-black. It's...against my religion." Which was sort of true.

He shrugged. "Your choice, but they're wicked comfy and have lots of pockets. Anyway, somebody was talking about that thing in HR, so I got a copy. Thought it might interest you." Nobody seemed to be watching them, so he met her eyes and twitched an eyebrow significantly.

Max was confused. He was making faces at her, but trying to tell her something? "Okay," she said cautiously. "Well, what have you got?"

"That what-do-you-call-it thing we were talking about before. It's a bigger file than I thought. Do you have a hard connection I could download it to? That would probably be faster than trying to broadcast it on wireless." Not to mention that I don't know who is monitoring wireless comms. C'mon, Max, you've done undercover intel stuff, you know about comm security, put two an two together...

Her eyes widened. "Oh...yeah, come with me. I've got a datapad in my quarters...it's...a bit different from the standard. Lots more memory. Worst case scenario, we can use Digger." They walked out of the pilot's lounge, noted by a few. In the corridor, Max glanced at Kayn. "I'm worried about Zara," she said. "She's been drinking an awful lot, and she's really withdrawn."

Kayn hesitated. He agreed with Max that Zara was pulling away from people, and he didn't doubt Max wanted to help. But to share the details of their last conversation seemed like it would be a violation of Zara's trust and privacy. He decided on a kind of vague compromise. "Last time we talked, she shut me out. I guess I need to work on my people skills, too." He glanced at Max with an apologetic look for his unkind words the other day. "If she gives you a chance, just be a friend, okay?"

"Once a wingman, always a wingman," said Max. She glanced at him. "I think she may be hitting the bottle before missions. Just...keep an eye on her? I'll do what I can." She led the way into her quarters and offered him the chair at the small desk, then rummaged in a container in the tiny wardrobe to retrieve a datapad. It took her moments to open it up, and place it on the desk. She reached into a drawer, pulled out a small round object, and activated it. "There. That should block our conversations from any unfriendly ears."

"Have I ever told you I'm glad you're on our side? Yeah, that sounds like white noise jamming, I ought to shut down my RF receptors for a while anyway." He pulled an input/output jack out of his horn and handed it to her. "Careful of the cord, it's monomolecular. Plug in and I'll download what I grabbed. Took me an hour forty-five to take it in, but I'm giving it to you as a compressed file and not worrying about setting off alarms, so this should go a lot faster. Cross your fingers that it's the polygraph biometric analyzer thingy. If it's incomplete, or the wrong program, and I have to go back in there... Listen to me, complaining about sensitivity training when we've got people who just got out of SonTay. Maybe I do need another dose of sensitivity. Plugged in? Here it comes."

"Sensitivity training!" Max could only shake her head in wonder. "It's a long way from the Rebellion I grew up in." She glanced at him. "Any thoughts on the mole?"

"I'm sure Wallings is involved. Have you ever talked to her? All the warmth of a Hutt with none of the sincerity. Is she acting alone, though? CAG has it out for us, but that makes him too obvious, unless it's a double bluff. Or the captain, XO, comms officers, I won't rule out any of them. I hate to say it after he led us to SonTay and back, but I still can't rule out Flagg either. He's got lots of cybernetics which makes him vulnerable to reprogramming, and he might not even know it."

"I wonder about him, too," said Max. "I hate to think it. Taab is a more likely candidate. A merc for the Imps and then suddenly decides to cross over to our side after Hoth? I don't buy it. Wallings... I dunno. She created the squadron, it's an unnecessarily complicated way to get rid of us. The Skulls are the elite of the entire Imperial Starfighter corps, and those Defenders they're flying are the last of the lot, they're not being manufactured anymore. I just can't believe that someone is coming after the Sheep for some grand scheme. We're the rejects, the bottom of the barrel. By rights, they should be going up against Skywalker and the Rogues. It makes no sense."

"Have you heard the grapevine about Taab and that B-wing he flies? Supposedly, that was his son's ship, and he died at Hoth. According to the records, he had the same name, it'd explain a lot . As for why we get the special attention... That kind of political plotting and scheming isn't my forte. I like front line tactics a whole lot better than high-level strategy; give me a problem I can get my hands on. Hey, did you ever get a chance to poke into that homing beacon?"

During the first encounter between the Skulls and the Sheep, a Defender had launched a homing beacon that latched onto Kayn's A-wing. He had accessed the Defender specifications transmitted by Joy's droid to figure out how to deactivate the homing signal. Bringing it back to Intrepid, he removed the power supply to keep it safe and quietly passed it to Max so she could analyze it and maybe make use of it.

"Fretz, no, we've been so busy...where did I put...? Hang on, 'scuse me, let me just..." She squeezed past Kayn to the other side of the desk, turning carefully and bumping into him. "Here..." She dug it out and put it on the desk, nudging the datapad to one side. "It's not transmitting, so it's safe..."

"I ought to get Lughdyt to improvise a launcher on my ship so I can use this thing. Maybe you should have one on your X-wing too, so we can keep our options open. Let's keep the batteries charged and separate; we might decide we need it in a hurry, but I don't want to risk it accidentally activating. Unless... Picture this, we've got this polygraph lie detector rig working through my cybernetics, I'm watching a mole suspect at the comms station, and suddenly this beacon goes off. When he hears it, how does he react? Probably a mole will react differently from an innocent crewman."

Max considered. "Possibly. I was thinking of just re-jiggering it and launching it at one of those Defenders, so we can figure out where they're based. If Flagg lets us go off-book again, and if we can get some dirt from Joy, we might be able to do some damage."

"Yeah, we're good at doing damage, we just need to know which way to aim. Has that file downloaded yet? I haven't tried to open it, figured you'd know better than me if there's any kind of copy protection on it."

Max looked at the datapad. "Almost...oh, hold it." She reached across Kayn. "Stars, I wish we had someplace else we could do this. Yeah, hang on..." There was a flashing message. Max studied it and grimaced. "Hang on, we've got to bypass this. If you just move back so I can get into this drawer..." It was a small, delicate dataspike and she plugged it in to the datapad. "It's an ex-Imp ship, but whoever fixed it up for us was pretty good about securing the systems. All the usual Imp backdoors were sealed up, and the few left open have small traps left open, triggers to let anyone know if someone's trying to get in."

Kayn gave her as much space as he could without unplugging himself. He bit back the questions he wanted to ask about what she was doing and how long it would take; this stuff was obviously out of his league. He was glad he'd recognized his limitations and turned to Max for help.

She sat back, watching the readout scroll across the screen. From time to time, she punched in a command. Finally, she sat back. "Got it! Now, what did you want to do with it, again?"

"Can we run the program on your datapad? Or mine? I don't want to experiment with it inside my head until we make sure we didn't corrupt it or something. If it works..." He held up a data chip. "... I've got the scans I made of Wallings when we talked, and maybe we can figure out what kind of reactions she was trying to hide from me. And then, we're halfway to turning me into a walking lie detector."

"Run it on mine. If there's corruption or spyware, the defense program will protect it."

Kayn disconnected from the datapad. He wanted to be sure that if things went wrong nothing would transmit viruses into his grey matter. Is paranoia contagious? Tapping at the datapad manually, he opened the file and activated it. "Biometrics analyzer running... so far so good, as far as I can tell... Input not detected." He inserted the data chip with the recording of Wallings and transferred the data to the analyzer. "Processing..." A graphic display appeared, indicating a variety of parameters that seemed to indicate Wallings was a superconducting android breathing vacuum in the vicinity of a pulsar. "Oy. This program is calibrated for sensors that are a lot more specialized than the ones in my head. But that, I can fix myself. I've got lots of practice at calibrating sensors for neural interfaces; I do it every time I fly." The program seemed safe enough, so he reinserted the jack and began to mentally reset the sensor parameters. "I should have this ready for another try in a minute or two."

Numbers and symbols blurred across the datapad as he adjusted the constants and modifiers in the program. In short order, he had the display tweaked to recognize her as a human being. "You seen any of Wallings' records? I'm assuming that she's a human being, but is she really? Or am I just being paranoid?"

"I think she's human," said Max. "I couldn't learn much about her. I think she may be former ISB. My father says she's very ambitious, and that she doesn't worry much about collateral damage when she's after an objective. I think he may have known her--or known of her--from before the Rebellion."

"Let's give this thing a shot. I'll play back the audio-visual recording I got and we'll see that the analyzer comes up with." Wallings' face appeared on the datapad screen, seen in close-up from the point of view of Kayn's cyber eye, and she spoke. "Savior, hardly, You were all the saviors of SonTay. I merely handled the paperwork." Her thin, cold smile broadened slightly between sentences. Kayn paused the playback to see what the analyzer program came up with. Subtitles scrolled across the bottom of the screen. SUBJECT EXHIBITS ABNORMALLY LOW LEVEL OF EMPATHY. POLITE PHRASES SPOKEN OUT OF SOCIAL OBLIGATION, NOT SINCERITY.

He shrugged. "Seems accurate enough, but plenty obvious. Continuing... "

Wallings' eyes narrowed at Kayn's blunt question about the backdoor planning and authorization of the rescue mission. "The simple things are never quite that easy, Lieutenant." SUBJECT EXHIBITS SURPRISE AND LOW LEVEL OF ALARM. INCREASED LEVEL OF ALERTNESS. Her eyes wandered the hangar. EVASIVENESS. "Your squadron has proven itself to me and them, expect for things to not be quite so simple from now on." INCREASED LEVEL OF SINCERITY. CONTINUED LOW LEVEL OF EMPATHY. She smiled again. "Enjoy the party." She walked away. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS INCONGRUENT WITH WORDS. BODY LANGUAGE AMBIGUOUS, POSSIBLY TENSION, EVADING THREAT, OR MOVING PURPOSEFULLY TOWARD GOAL.

The recording ended and the program displayed a report that detailed how it had come to its conclusions. Facial tics, eye movements, pupil dilation, skin temperature, pulse, perspiration, vocal stresses, body language and more all figured into the equations. Each parameter also indicated a probability of accuracy; most of them were low. Kayn queried the low accuracy numbers and the program responded HIGHER ACCURACY REQUIRES MORE BASELINE READINGS.

"I think that means I have to spend more time talking to the subject. And I still need to learn to use this thing on the fly. Let me upload it into my head and we'll see how that works. If I asked nicely, would you lie to me, Max?"

"Um, sure." She sat back on the bunk, pondering the results of the analysis. Wallings might have made it back on to her suspects list.

"I'm activating my scanners and focusing on you now. Let me know if you get any sign I'm doing anything unusual; we need this to be covert. Aaaannnd... as far as I can tell, you are as human as Wallings. After meeting her, you're undoubtedly more human. Anyway, let the lies begin. How old are you?"

Max considered her answer. Too obvious would make the reading meaningless. So, some truth, some lies, but plausible ones. "26."

Kayn cocked an eyebrow at her. "Women always lie about their age, so we'll let that one slide. Besides, a gentleman shouldn't ask a lady her age, and I should apologize for that one. So... how much do you weigh?"

"That's a good question,..." Max looked down at herself. "I'd have to look at my medical records. I don't pay much attention, as long as my clothes still fit."

"All right... Tell me your life story. You were born a poor Rodian child?"

Max frowned. This was a lie detector test, right? "I'm the missing Princess of Corellia, had to go into hiding when the Emperor tried to marry me off to someone." She hesitated. "I still have family back home," she said. "I don't talk about my past because the less people know about me, the safer they'll be."

"Truth, truth, and truth? I didn't even know they had princesses on Corellia, Your Highness. Or do I need to recalibrate?"

Max raised an eyebrow. "Do I look like a Princess?" she said. "Corellian Royal family stepped down 300 years ago! Recalibrate. The last part is true, though. I do still have family back home. If we can ever bring down the Empire, I can go back to them."

"Recalibrating. I'm definitely going to need to practice to get this right. Okay, let's keep it simple and obvious while I get the hang of it. Is your name Max Pallas?"

She hesitated. "Yes, of course."

"Dammit, I'm still getting..." His voice trailed off. He made the 'air quotes' sign with his fingers as he looked at her suspiciously. "'Max?'"

"What?" It can't be that well calibrated!

"Tell me your real name."

Max froze. "Kriff, that program works better than it should," she said. Then, louder, she said, "I can't. Max is my nom de guerre. The fourth one I've had. I told you, I can't put my family back home at risk. I already...I already lost my mother to the Imps. I won't lose the rest." She sat heavily back on her bunk. "If Max Pallas is captured or killed, they can't connect her to the people I care about."

"Hey, relax, that's fine. It's smart. I doubt you're the only rebel in the ranks with an assumed name. And your reason is probably better than most. I admit, that does make me curious what your real name is, but now isn't the time. Tell me after the war, all right?"

Just then Kayn's datapad pinged with an incoming message. He glanced at it just to see if it was urgent, and it wasn't, but it was certainly unexpected. An invitation to Lou and Airen's wedding. Now this might get an interesting reaction out of her! He kept the sensors focused on 'Max' and said, "This is interesting. Did you get it too?"

"Who is Lou Kolvaard?" wondered Max.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that would be Lou's real name. Maybe you aren't the only one who signed up under false colors. Lou and Airen... Good for them."

"Good luck to them, they'll need it. We all will. So..." Max sat back, and eyed Kayn. "So? Satisfied? Ready to run with this?"

Her reaction to the wedding news was less than he'd expected. Was she beginning to accept Lou as a rebel, or did his polygraph system need more calibration? "I think we've done all we can here, I just need to practice and establish some baseline readings. This rig won't light up a big holographic sign that says 'this is the mole' but it might point us in the right direction. Thanks for all the help, Max, I couldn't have done it without you."

"I hope you catch something," said Max. "Keep me posted." She looked at the invite again. "What am I gonna wear?"

"They don't pay me enough to advise women on fashion. You're on your own." Pointing at his horn, he said, "The fewer people know about this, the better, so keep it under your hat." Whatever it's made out of. He saluted casually on his way out. "See you there, and thanks again."


TAG: @Mistress_Renata @Rebecca_Daniels @Vehn And all the secret squirrels trying to sniff out the mole(s)

 

OOC: Many thanks to @Adalia-Durron for all the help with this!

IC: Airen Vehn/Jeen Talgana
Intrepid Hangar

Airen needed time to think. Time to process. He was getting married. Soon. In just a few days. To a woman with a vindictive ex husband who still hadn't died. Still wasn't out of the picture. He pushed the thoughts of Dietryk Gray aside and entered the hangar. He prowled past the small lineup of existing craft with plane captains and other mechanics flitting about. Everyone was busy keeping the existing craft spaceworthy.

If only I had something to work on Airen thought as he stumbled past the project N-1.

He heard a voice. Low and quiet. He knelt down and saw Jeen Talgana, Amber's plane captain, tinkering around on the N-1.

"Despite popular opinion talking to a piece of starfighter hull is not the most therapeutic thing to do," Airen said, "but I'm all ears if you have a problem."

Jeen was startled at the voice and spun before bending and look under the craft. "My problems shouldn't be yours. You're welcome to help, with the ship, we're pretty redundant right now."

"Well when you're talking to yourself your problems become all of ours. Whether you like it or not," Airen replied as he squatted underneath the N1 ready to assist Jeen, "and besides this project has been taking forever. Maybe its time we got to know one another. One wrench turner to another."

"I'll start," Airen said as he used a flashlight to poke his head into a service panel, "I'm originally from Ord Mantell. Grew up in the scrap yards. Still have some family back there. Joined the Empire because, well, that was the thing to do. Served on Jedha as an Imperial officer and fought against the insurgency. It was a hard war. That's where I met Lou's older brother, Myn. We were best friends. He and I were transferred to the Death Star and managed to escape during the Battle of Yavin when it became clear all was lost. Unfortunately Myn was fatally wounded in the attack and died on Lou's family property on Roon. His dying wish was that I inherit the property. Let's just say Lou wasn't happy about that at all. She was pretty mad."

He paused realizing he might be telling too much but Jeen seemed to have a listening ear.

Jeen straightened up and listened and a smile grew. "Nar Shaddaa for me, no family left. And she's probably got a good reason to be angry, shouldn't it be hers?" He asked passing the crimper over, "and you're right, it should be done, but she's proving to be a lady of leisure."

Airen chuckled as he took the crimper, "I should have clarified. We're co-owners. She owns half, I own half. She just didn't like it at the time that I owned the other half. I think I've got her won over now, to some extent. Relationships are challenging at times even in the best of times. You have to be honest with one another. Even if it risks hurting the other person. More importantly, you have to be honest with yourself."

"I tried that." Jeen said with a touch of bitterness as he tossed the rag at the tool tray. "I honestly believed I was doing the right thing, she honestly believed I wasn't." He turned back, "She won, I lost that one."

Airen wasn't quite sure who Jeen was referring to but then remembered the incident with Ianna. The struggle in the hangar. Suddenly it all became clear to him. He had noticed something between them. Something that was broken by Jeen's caring acts. He frowned slightly as he fumbled for the right words.

"You're looking at it the wrong way," Airen corrected, "it's not about winning. Not even about being right. Just be real with her. Tell her why you did what you did. Even if you aren't able to fix things at least you've done all you can. I mean look at the Black Sheep, this N-1, life. It's a work in progress. If we gave up at the first sign of trouble we'd all be dead."

Jeen frowned. "It'd help if she'd even talk to me, but has made a very clear point of avoiding me." He glanced to where he'd seen her. "I don't want to win a battle, or a war even. I just want her to understand why I did what I did, not even forgive me if she can't, just hear it." He turned back to the wires, "this mess, this is my lovelife, tangled and messed up and not making any sense!"

"The best way to untangle a mess," Airen said helping with the wires, "is to slow down and untangle them one at a time. Before long you'll find why they're all snagged up and twisted around one another. Go slow with her, Jeen. Maybe it was too much, too soon."

He gave a slow nod. "Thank you Airen, I'll try." His data pad nearby chimed again, that was the fourth time. "I have a message, been ignoring it, can't do that forever." He moved to pick it up and open the message, he read it, read it again before spinning. "You're getting married!?!? That's amazing!" He exclaimed as he tossed the data pad back to his tool trolley and extended his hand. "Congratulations friend, I could not be happier for you both!"

"Thank you," Airen replied sheepishly, "and I have another favor. I don't many people on this ship. I don't suppose you'd be willing to be my best man? I know we haven't known one another long but we have definitely been up to our elbows in some really hard projects."

Jeen grinned. "I'd be honoured! " He couldn't help his enthusiasm and surged forward to hug the man. "This is going to be just what the Black Sheep need, something good!"

Airen returned the hug and smiled. Things were lining up well.

Tag: @Adalia-Durron; @galactic-vagabond422 et al

 

IC: Corporal Lawrence "Law" Clark/Louise "Lou" Gray
Intrepid Corridors

Corporal Lawrence Clark, nephew of deceased Marine Gunnary Sergeant Tyrone Clark, grunted and cursed has he hit the deck after tripping over a hatch entrance. He couldn't believe it. He'd been down this corridor so many times on his way back from the firing range. He quickly picked himself up off the floor and came face to face with a pilot.

"Nice fall, Marine," Lou said, "been practicing that one?"

"Gravity must be off," Lawrence replied as he tried to sidestep past Lou.

"Not so fast," Lou said gently shoving Lawrence back.

"Come on, Lou," Lawrence replied exasperated, "we aren't back on Roon. You can't push me around any longer."

Lawrence and Louise had grown up just a few klicks from one another on Roon. Despite their age gap their families knew one another and supported one another in the ranching world. Their bond was strong as well because they were from the same planet. Same culture. Same society.

"I'm not here to push you around, Law," Lou replied, "I'm here to ask you a favor."

"Ok," Lawrence said not sure what was going on.

"I am getting married. Real soon. Fortunately a few of the ladies in my squadron agreed to be my maid of honor and bridesmaids respectively. My soon to be husband has his groomsmen and best man picked out. We've got someone to do the catering and entertainment and the location is getting prepared as we speak. Everything is coming together except for one thing," Lou said.

"What's that?" Law asked.

"I need someone to give me away," Lou replied, "I don't have anyone, Law. My family is deceased. I wish for all that the Maker can do that my father was still alive. He's not. I have nobody. My last marriage I had nobody there either as we were away on Carida."

Law nodded quietly and said, "I'll do it. We're practically family, Lou. Just give me a date and time and I'll be there."

"Thank you," Lou said exhaling. She leaned forward and embraced Lawrence in a fierce hug, "You don't know what this means to me."

"My pleasure," Lawrence replied as he pulled away from Lou.

"Oh, one last favor," Lou said.

"Anything," Law replied.

"Get your Marine buddies together. I want them to be part of the ceremony," Lou instructed, "tradition, all that."

Lawrence caught her meaning. Knew what she wanted and nodded. He would do that and much more for the woman who always had his back.

Tag: No one....

 

IC: Zara & Kayn - with the inimitable @Sarge
Preparing for a wedding

In the furthest corner of the lounge, boots up on a second chair, Zara had her head buried in the same novel she'd been reading over the past few days. Never a quick reader, it filled her time and kept her head down-- literally-- when she didn't want to talk to anyone, which was pretty much always. Close at hand was a drink, glass sweating but still cold, and she sipped at it absent-mindedly as she scrolled through the text. Nothing to do, no responsibilities but to wait for whatever pointless mission the Sheep would be sent on next, though a part of her had been hoping to catch a glimpse of the Separatist after Hollymander had mentioned him. No luck so far.

Kayn found her sitting by herself, absorbed in a datapad. She was looking far more peaceful than the last time he saw her, closing herself off in her quarters. He wondered if he should leave her to it; he seemed to have a gift for setting people off. At least he could console himself that she hadn't blown up at him the way Amber usually did... yet. She might be in a good mood, so maybe this is the right time. Feeling strangely diffident, he approached quietly and coughed. "I hope I'm not interrupting during the best part of the story?"

She glanced up only when Kayn coughed, resisting a roll of the eyes since he apparently couldn't take a hint. But it was a lounge, at the end of the day, and apparently hogging two chairs was rude. "Something like that," she said, marking her place on the screen and swapping the datapad for a swig of her drink.

Clearly, his timing was sub-optimal, but he had already begun. He sat awkwardly, not wanting to draw attention by standing and talking to her. "Zara, the last time we talked, I was out of line. I invaded your privacy, and I'm sorry." He bit his tongue to keep himself from offering excuses; his mother used to say it wasn't a real apology if it included the word 'but'.

What was he on about? No one had privacy in the rebellion, which was why she had to work at it. No one could help but get in each others' business. "It's fine," Zara sighed. This wasn't going to a short conversation, she was realising that much.

"There's more to it than me prying into your private business." He scanned the room and lowered his voice. "This new eye has a medical diagnosis package. I thought it was just really good resolution, but since the last time we talked I did more research on it and now I know what it does. Basically, I was doing an inadvertent physiological scan, without your permission, which is a lot more serious than me just being nosy. That's an actual invasion of privacy and I need to apologize for it. I figured out how to deactivate it and I'm not scanning you now." He glanced around for eavesdroppers again and leaned a little closer. "What's more, I've upgraded the system since then. Now I have a polygraph system, a lie detector, hooked into my eye and all my other sensors. Maybe it will help point us toward the mole. Obviously I don't want people to know about this while I'm playing undercover spy, but it's important to me that I'm honest with you. Eventually the truth will come out, and if you found out that I'd been walking around detecting lies without telling people, how much could you trust me? Would you have any reason to believe me when I said I never scanned you for lies? We're wingmates and I depend on you, if you can't trust me, we don't stand a chance. So I'm doing my best to be trustworthy." He sat back in his chair with a self-deprecating grimace. "And, that's the end of the speech that I had all prepared."

That was... a lot of information. Too much. Certainly more than Zara wanted to know. He still talked too much. "That's... fine," she repeated, slower, a little more hesitant. It wasn't her business what was stuck in Kayn's head, and she believed what he said about not knowing, at least. "But you're wasting your time on a mole hunt." She'd said as much to Max, once, but it seemed everyone wanted to spend their time and energy jumping at shadows.

"Maybe so. But I feel like we're being targeted, and you know how it is, fighter pilots can't just sit there when that happens, we're hard-wired to take evasive action or shoot back or something. This is my something. And I want you to understand if I seem to be acting more strange than usual around people; I'm not going crazier, I do have a plan.

"Speaking of plans, Lou asked for my help with music for her wedding." He hesitated, remembering what she had told him about never again singing in front of crowds. "Have you ever been to a human wedding? Usually, the bride doesn't appear until the ceremony is beginning. She's dressed in the most elegant dress she's ever worn, and everyone is turning to look at how beautiful she looks as she walks down the aisle. That's the moment when we need some beautiful music. You've heard me sing, I'll happily belt out bar tunes for the fun of it, but my voice is all wrong for Lou's special moment. Your voice is the one we need. And that's the moment everyone will be looking at Lou, not the singer. It would mean the world to Lou and Airen. She's been through hell, and we have a chance to make a tiny bit of her dream wedding come true. That's something I want to do. And I need help. Please, Zara?"

Zara shook her head. She'd gotten the invitation, but hadn't intended to go. It was better off if she wasn't there. "Lou doesn't really want me there, she's just being nice. We're not friends." And more than that, Lou wouldn't want her there if she'd knew. She was trying very hard not to think about the other thing, because she could already feel her heart picking up speed. "You can download something better on your box anyway." But there was a point, it could... make it up to Lou. Even if she didn't know there was anything to make up for. "You know what happened last time."

"I know. But this time can be different. This time, you can have someone on your wing, someone who wants to be there for you. You and I have gotten each other through a lot of horrible situations. I bet we can do this too. You like to bet, right?"

"Not exactly my kind of gambling." Pushing boundaries was not her idea of fun. Zara sighed, resigned. There wasn't going to be a way out of this. "I don't have anything to wear."

"Don't you still have the gold dress? That one's beautiful, when you wore it you looked like a princess."

Zara grimaced. Not exactly what she'd go for, but she didn't see the point in fancy dress anyway. "It got ripped during the escape, traded it to someone." It was probably still on the ship, but she wasn't exactly in a rush to get the dress back. Impractical. Had to be something else on this ship, just a matter of finding the right person.

"You know I'd loan you my favorite dress if I had one and if it would fit, but... here's something." He opened a cargo pocket, carefully pulled something out, and handed it to her.

Spoiler

"And here's a pin if you want to wear it. The droid down in hydroponics promised it will stay fresh and not wilt for at least a week, more if you put it in water. I would have gotten you a bouquet, but they don't have that many flowers, and most of them are going for wedding decorations."

It took her a moment before she accepted the flower. Plants were still strange to her, especially those that were pleasant to look at; her knowledge of plants was of the creepers that lived in the duracrete depths, but those were dangerous. "Thanks," she frowned. "I'll figure... something out." Ideally something that wouldn't give away the inevitable nervous sweat that she could already feel forming.

Kayn didn't need sensors to see that she was tensing up. He reached out to her, giving her hand a gentle reassuring squeeze before relaxing his grip completely, just a light touch that she could withdraw from naturally if she wanted, hoping that she wouldn't, knowing that she would. "You're a beautiful singer, Zara, you're going to be great. Just remember you've been in way worse places. I know that for a fact because I'm usually the one leading you into them."

"I'd rather be shooting things. I know what do to there." Didn't have to think about social cues and body language. Shooting Imps in the face didn't require being polite. Zara looked down at Kayn's hand on hers for a moment, then pulled it away to take her drink and drain it. Maybe Amber would have an idea where to get something to wear, she'd been the one to find the gold dress. "I guess I should try to find... an appropriate outfit."

"I'm sure I wouldn't be much help there. Don't worry, we've got some creative people around here, they'll get you something. Let me know what you choose for music, assuming you want accompaniment."

Blast. She would have to choose the music too. What did one even play at weddings? She'd borrowed from her parents' repertoire on Naboo, but she wasn't sure that was what Lou would want. "I'll think of... something." Sooner rather than later too, at that. "I should... get going."

"Right, good hunting, message me if you need me. Thank you, Zara, we owe you, again." Why do I feel like I owe her more for agreeing to sing a song than for saving my life repeatedly? Trying to relate to people is weird.


TAG: All you nosy eavesdroppers in the pilots' lounge. Don't you have anything better to do?

 

Ianna Mcear
Intrepid

I'd been an eventful day for the little morale officer. Limmie, new friends and now...there was a wedding, for Lou. She couldn't help but feel so energetic. Her friend was getting married, there was love and happiness even in the middle of a war. She wasn't going to let this moment slip past her. Bouncing around her room she read the message again and again beaming with a smile of genuine excitement. When the call came in from Lou she couldn't answer fast enough.

"Yes…" she said before Lou could even get a word out. "Yes yes yes, whatever it is yes." She had just agreed to be a bridesmaid, the fact that she'd done this didn't really sink in until she ended the call.

As she dove into her bunk and clutched her pillow rolling around a little to burn off her energy, she finally stopped and thought.

"Wait, I'm going to need to get dressed up aren't I." She said aloud, "I don't have anything like that…" Rolling onto her back she looked the ceiling, "Wait, I have the 'Dress'." The 'Dress' a green and white ensemble that she wore to the party that the Sheep blew up. She still had very, very conflicted feelings about that. She didn't like it but, she couldn't change what happened, they blew up a wedding party. At least she got a nice dress out of the deal...not that it makes up for the pain she felt in her heart, the way everyone dismissed her, just went along with the plan, but silver linings, that was what she was all about. She got out of bed and moved to the simple footlocker she had at the end of her bunk. Underneath all her other clothes one of them being her bright green and white pat's jersey, she found the dress, put away in a vacuum sealed bag. Pulling it out and breaking the seal she let out a breath. It felt like it had been an age since she'd worn it. Holding it up against her form in the reflector she saw it still fit her short frame, she hadn't really changed since that time, physically, or mentally.

She was still the same happy smiling being she always was. Though it was hard to fight the wish to have everything go back to the way it was before that party, or go back to before her friends were taken. But, there was no going back, only forward. There was a wedding.

Oh, she would need a date, sure she was a bridesmaid but she still should have a date. That would have been easier in the past, she would have Jeen to go with. Thinking about him made her heart go a little cold, the feeling of betrayal. She trusted him and he betrayed her. Yes she was upset but his hug, his touch it was taking away the anger, she could feel it leaving her. Then the drugs that sickly cold feeling that ran down her back and made her world go all fuzzy. It still sent shivers up her spine.

With a shake of her head she let out another breath that was in the past she had to leave it there. She had to put that moment behind her. That was when a thought occurred to her.

"He'll be good...he could use some cheering up…"

Putting the dress to the side she left her quarters beaming with a smile.

Yep nothing bad could come from this, nothing at all.

After some searching she found Liam and without a second thought she ran up to him wrapping her arms around him.

"How's it going Liam…" she said squeezing just a little. "Have you heard about the wedding yet? Do you have a date, because if you don't I know someone who could use one…"

TAG: @Kato Sai @Adalia-Durron @Vehn

 

OOC: Many thanks to all who helped. Moving Lou along here to get this party started....Kicking off the festivities in three, two, one.....also character mentions in post approved by their respective creators.

​

IC: Louise "Lou" Kolvaard
Personal Quarters
The Day of the Wedding

Been a long time coming, Lou, and today your friends have helped you look like the most beautiful woman in the galaxy.

Lou spun slowly as she examined her wedding dress in the full length mirror borrowed from the gym. It fit well. It was strange seeing her in a wedding dress. The entire idea seemed so foreign, so remote. So surreal. She still couldn't believe Ianna, Joy, and Amber had found this thing on the Intrepid. She'd have to ask them later how they managed to do all this in such a short amount of time.

Her nerves were getting to her a bit. She loved Airen. That wasn't in question. Just the act of marriage, the formality, the oaths, the rings, the seriousness of the ceremony, weighed heavily on her shoulders. Not out of any prior obligation to a certain ex husband but because when she set her mind to doing something she intended to do it right. Intended for this marriage to last a lifetime.

Lou missed her family. She missed her brother's laughter. Her mother's smile. Her father's support. They were all gone now. Gone to the stars. Most of all she missed the beautiful fields of her family ranch of Tesserone. The views from the house were incredible. Even moreso from the fields. She longed to feel the warmth of the Roonian sun on her shoulders. To cast her eyes upon the dying light of a hard earned day. To catch a glimpse of the mists that surrounded the planet just before the stars came out in all their brilliance.

A knock at the door broke her reverie.

Lou knew who was on the other side as she opened the door to her quarters. She took a step back as Corporate Lawrence Clark, in full Marine dress uniform, entered the room. He was to be her escort for today. The one person to give her away to Airen.

"Lookin good, Lawrence," Lou said with a smile.

"Same to you," Lawrence replied with a grin, "Airen is one lucky guy."

Lou blushed.

"You ready?" Lawrence asked extending his gloved hand.

Lou inhaled sharply and exhaled and nodded her head in the affirmative.

"Ready," Lou replied.

She gently took Lawrence's outstretched hand and was guided in front of him down the narrow corridors of the Intrepid. A few of the other pilots from other squadrons poked their heads out of their quarters and gave Lou a look of approval. Some clapped. Others whistled. She pulled her emotions together. They were everywhere today. This was the moment. The long walk toward a new life. A new adventure.

The pair reached the entrance to the observation deck. She squeezed Lawrence Clark's hand. He remained steady for her. It was time. Slowly, carefully, Lou placed one foot in front of the other as the observation deck doors opened before her. She tried not to let the size of the crowd overwhelm her. It was hard, difficult. All who were in attendance stood. She immediately felt put on on the spot as all eyes turned to her.

You can do this, Lou. Pull yourself together. This is your day. Your wedding. The one that will last forever.

Lou flashed a smile at Joy, her maid of honor, looking quite nice along with Ianna, who cleaned up very well, and Amber, her red mane flowing beautifully all around. Her eyes tracked to Airen who looked upon her as if he was seeing the most beautiful person in the galaxy. Beyond Airen was Jeen and Lughdyt who despite his size could still pull off a good look. Her droid, Blue, was nearby as well and warbled a bit back and forth as it waited impatiently off to one side.

She nearly broke down as she stood in the doorway of the observation deck. Not because she was frightened or scared or nervous but because she realized in this moment how many friends she had made since coming to the Black Sheep as a reject, a misfit, a nobody.

It's time, Lou. Let go and trust love.

Tag: @Adalia-Durron; @TheAdmiral; @Rebecca_Daniels; @galactic-vagabond422; @Bardan_Jusik; @darthbernael (anyone else I probably missed ha ha)

 

OOC: Flashback

IC: Kayn & Lughdyt
Black Sheep Hangar, Meeting the Newbs Off the Shuttle

Kayn entered the hangar and saw that the new arrivals were dispersing. He checked his datapad and raised his voice. "Flight Officers Liam Qel-Droma and Dug Masterson, front and center!"

Liam having received the mark of joy from Ianna heard his name called out. He turned and walked up to Kayn, “I am Liam Qel-Droma, reporting for duty.”

Kayn looked at the young man - boy? - in front of him. They're sending us children. I was never that young. Just then another youngster hurried up to them and said, "Dug Masterson, also reporting for duty, sir."

"I'm Lieutenant Kayn Balzroth, leader of B Flight, Black Sheep Squadron. That makes me responsible for you, and I take that responsibility seriously. I am sure you are both aware that this is an active fighting unit on the front lines, and all of us may be called into real battle at any moment. You're both trained pilots or you wouldn't be here, but you haven't yet trained with me or the Sheep, so our first priority is to get you used to working with us. Your files show that you're both qualified in A-wings, which is what we fly in B Flight, so let's start there."

Kayn led the newbies across the hangar toward a pair of A-wings, talking all the way. "Over here is where B Flight usually parks, so when your new ships get delivered, you should find them here. The ship with standard black markings and the Sheep emblem on the fins is mine, the all-black one belongs to my wingmate, Zara Yaren. She's not here right now, so don't touch her ship without her permission, well, not unless lives are at stake, just use some common sense and respect other people's property. Last time I checked, Zara was the only purple Twi'lek on board, so you should recognize her if you see her."

By that time they had reached the ships under discussion. A decrepit old Ugnaught crawled out from under Kayn's fighter. "Fresh meat, LT?"

"Be nice, Lug. Guys, that's Petty Officer 3rd Class Lughdyt, best hydrospanner in the sector, and he's working on his ship, he just lets me fly it sometimes. If he decides to talk to you about our fighters, pay attention to him, he's forgotten more about engines and systems than any sane man knows, and something he explains to you about how they work just might save your life someday. Lug, we need to practice some cockpit familiarity drills, no need for power right now. Any issues?"

"Nah, still workin' th' struct'r'l over G 'nspection, nuthin' bent outta tol'rance... yet." Lughdyt crawled back out of sight under the fighter, muttering something about pilots bending his precious plane every time it flew. Kayn gestured the newbies on top of the ship.

"Hop on up, it's blindfold cockpit drill time. You two don't talk much, do you? That's a joke, sons, there's a rumor that I get paid by the word." He gestured toward the open canopy. "Who wants to go first?"

Liam raised his hand. “I will sir.” The young flight officer stepped up the yellow stair ladder and took his seat in the cockpit.

Kayn squatted on top of the hull next to the open canopy and gestured for Dug to position himself to watch from the other side.

"Adjust the seat to where you like it. Strap in, just to keep the straps out of the way. Looks good. Close your eyes. Hands on the controls. I'll name something in the cockpit, you touch it, then put your hands right back on the controls. Everything is powered down, so no worries about pushing buttons. Ready? Multi-function display." That was the large screen right in the middle of the instrument panel, one of the easiest things to find. "Hyperdrive lever." Another easy one, right next to the sublight throttle. "Chaff dispenser. Flare dispenser." Those were buttons on the joystick, Liam only had to twitch his fingers for them. Kayn picked up the pace gradually. "Switch comm channels. Change your IFF code. Reset the jammer frequency. Number two engine fire extinguisher. Shields double front. Power core shut down... All right, pause there, you fumbled a little for that one. Open your eyes, do it again until you get it into your muscle memory, then close your eyes and do it again."

He stood up from the squatted position and stretched his back. "You're not too bad, kid, just keep practicing. Dug, you and Liam take turns testing each other on this drill until Lug kicks you out. Lug, give them an hour or so, unless you really need to power up the cockpit. I've got some flight leadery stuff to do, so I'll leave you two to practice. Remember, amateurs practice until they get it right, pros practice until they can't get it wrong. Your datapads have the ship's deck plans and will show you to your quarters. Anything you need to ask me, you've got my contact info on your datapads too, and my office door will always be open to you, as soon as I have an office. Any questions now? Get it? Got it? Good."

Standing back from the A-wings, Kayn looked up to the ceiling hangar. There were still a few TIE fighter racks up there; not all of them had been cannibalized for materials and parts. He activated the range finder in his cyber-eye and made some careful measurements.

The reclamation and recycling room was adjacent to the hangar. It was a loosely organized space cluttered with junk and broken pieces, many of them too large to fit into the trash compactors until they could be cut up into manageable sizes. Prominent among those big parts was a dust-covered standard TIE wing panel which no one had taken the time to slice up yet. A power surge had fused all the interior components; it was useless as a space ship part, but still structurally sound. He took some measurements and nodded, it would fit. What he needed next was a binary load lifter.

After requisitioning that, he brought it back to the TIE panel and directed it to carefully lift the part and move it out into the hangar. He almost missed the meter-wide spool that had been hidden behind the panel. Was it what he thought it might be? Yes! A full spool of super-conducting filament, enough to make a set of thrust boosters for an A-wing. He already had his set up, but now there was enough to modify Zara's ship the same way, with enough left over for repairs. Leaving the panel for the moment, he rolled the spool over to the all-black A-wing and left it with instructions for Kio Daume to consult Lughdyt on how the upgrade was done. He hoped Zara would use the extra speed to keep out of trouble... which was pretty much the opposite of what he usually used it for.

The load lifter carried the TIE panel near the A-wing parking area. Kayn attached a hoist to the center point of the panel and guide lines to its edges. Summoning the newbie pilots away from the cockpit drills, they hoisted the panel up into the overhead TIE launch racks and rotated it to horizontal. With some careful maneuvering, they soon had it resting flat on the racks about three metres below the ceiling and next to a ladder running up the hangar wall. Lughdyt scaled the ladder and welded the panel in place. After jumping on all areas of it, he pronounced it stable and disconnected the hoist.

Floor finished, time for furnishings. There were burned out ejection seats awaiting reclamation, one each from X, Y, and B-wing cockpits, and a spare TIE pilot seat made four for the flight. Lughdyt scrounged a full TIE viewport marred with scorch marks on the transparisteel. He flattened it, turning it into a table. The hoist easily lifted the assorted furniture up to the panel.

"Why no A-wing seats, sir?" asked Dug.

"Because there hasn't been an A-wing crash in this hangar. None of the other types can claim that, so we're taking their ejection seats as a reminder that we're still Best Flight. And that we'll have to work at staying that way."

Lastly, Kayn climbed up with a holoprojector sign and mounted it beneath the TIE wing panel. The sign had been part of the wreckage swept up from the remains of the Trade Federation ship turned trading post that the Empire destroyed shortly after the Naboo mission. It flashed BAR & GRILL in big purple letters, with a menu scrolling by underneath. That color was fine with Kayn; he liked purple. The sign's programming was very simple. He linked into it and changed it to read BEST FLIGHT OFFICE. The scrolling subtitles changed to AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. Humming an old tune, he added, YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE A MEMBERSHIP CARD TO GET INSIDE. Then he set it up so that once a minute, for about two seconds, the scroll changed to read FORMER BALZROTH'S BABES ALSO WELCOME.

Perfect. Coolest office ever.


OOC: Whattaya mean, safety rails? Have you never seen Star Wars? We don't need no stinking safety rails!

TAG: @Rebecca_Daniels @Mistress_Renata @TheAdmiral and all you people with office envy.

 

OOC: The music was left up to me, so a choice was made...

IC: Zara Yaren
In green this time, just for fun

The green dress was set and the purple flower pinned neatly to the front. Amber had done a magnificent job fixing the rip into something lovely, and while it still felt wrong it she could put up with the feeling for long enough to get Lou's wedding going. And then leave, ideally, when everyone was distracted.

There was a spot set up for the music, a mic, she knew that much, and she intended to show up as late as she could to the event so as to avoid any conversation. That would lead to a mess she was trying to avoid, and she couldn't risk a couple days of psyching herself up for this being ruined by a stray comment. Late but not late, slide in just on time.

And she did, hurrying and then slowing down as she entered Observation, head down and avoiding any eyes. Would it have been better to be early, before the crowd? Hide in a corner until it was time rather than draw attention slipping in? Don't look.

Zara kept her head down as she adjusted the mic; it was the right height but she needed something to do before the entrance. She knew the song well, something else her father had left with her, and had messaged it to Kayn once she'd made the decision. Now she could only hope that Lou would like it. Or at least that it wouldn't ruin the night.

The cue was given, and Zara needed to look away from the floor, but she couldn't. She really shouldn't have agreed to this. Why had she let herself get talked into this when it was clearly going to be spectacularly terrible?

But the background music carried on, and she had just a moment to collect herself before she had to start, and Zara took a risk, looking up and silently counting the bars to when the doors would open, and she would have to sing. And she could see the faces assembled, looking amongst themselves and turning towards the door, not a single face that she could make out turned towards her. So she sang.



TAG: @Vehn @Sarge @Bardan_Jusik @Mistress_Renata @Adalia-Durron @galactic-vagabond422 @TheAdmiral @Anedon @Mitth_Fisto @Corellian_Outrider @darthbernael @adaml83 @The Real Kyp Durron @Sinrebirth and anyone else I may have missed who is at the wedding

 

OOC: Bit of a catch up, though I wanted to run some of this by someone before I posted it. Hope you guys like lots of references.

IC: Baniss Vermillion

Baniss woke up from his sleep, he didn’t know how long it had been, didn’t bother to look at a chrono, though some work had been done. There were plenty of AI-on-AI battles between Rebel Alliance starfighters and the TIE Defender. Some people-vs-AI in the same situation. Looking through the records apparently one of the Intruder Squadron pilots, Maverick, had shot down a Defender with the AI of, Baniss sighed, Goose.

Probably that smart-ass tech Watney. Though funny in a sick sort of way.

His bosses were now wanting pilots flying against each other, which sort of led to the next couple of messages. There was a wedding, Lou’s wedding, which meant some people needed to scrounge a suit, or tux together. Baniss started an order for himself, and then after a message from Holly, a shirt to his specifications.

Then there was the fever dream...maybe.

Baniss knew it was a dream, that of Kayn wearing a nice purple tux. Why? Baniss didn’t entirely know, but it was like something told him. Looking around he found a rentable one that was meant for a holiday. Baniss normally makes sure that he encrypts his searchings, and the result of the Mace Windu Appreciation Festival made him doubly sure that he was encrypted.

Heart attack averted, he looked at the holo of his wife, and he imagined her evil grin and gleam in her eyes and her saying, “Do it.” He sent a quick request to one of Intrepid’s lower-level people in the personnel department politely asking for Kayn’s dimensions. Receiving such dimensions, with the promise of owing them a favor, sent that all off.

He decided to add a message for Kayn

Kayn,

I wanted to let you know that the suit you’ll receive may not be the color you’d like, however you may appreciate it for two reasons. One, you’ll be quite distinctive, and two it’s a high-quality suit. That said, it is a rental generally used for a little-known holiday that I can tell you later at the reception, so please don’t damage it.

If you do as I wish, we’ll talk and maybe do some things to enhance yourself within the squadron and maybe this command. That and you’ll be assisting the Rebellion.

If you don’t, well you’ll be depriving a festival of a nice suit, and two I’m not above pranks and I understand some of the other Sheep think the same way.

Besides, not all spies make big shows, it’s the quiet ones you should watch out for.

The quiet spy

Baniss finished typing out the message and placing it on a datapad before sending it off to a supply officer with instructions on deliveries to particular people and that this datapad should go with the purple tux.

Baniss just received a new message from Watney, apparently Dug was doing some routine evaluations when they placed him in a 2v1 Rebel starfighters vs a lone Defender. Dug had an AI wingman and apparently, it was shot down. According to Watney, Dug yelled, “Chappie! Noooooo!” whimpered a little bit and then played a speech from this Chappie guy.

Baniss shook his head, it was a weird day already.

Later

Baniss waited for the wedding to begin in Observation, on his way he’d asked someone in Personnel if there was anyone with the skills to take a very good holo and send them to Observation ASAP. He was happy in his black suit, it was very nice and unlikely to show up the bride when he knew would be a very bad idea.

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik, @Sarge

 

OOC: Many thanks to all who helped make this wedding possible. Also many thanks to those who allowed me to mention their characters. Even if you didn't do anything just having your character here is great . And if your character isn't here well that's cool too....

IC: Louise "Lou" Gray/Airen Vehn

​

Lou proceeded down the aisle with Lawrence Clark escorting her. Zara's song was beautiful and she couldn't help but smile as she made her way past her friends toward the alter. There was so much to take in. She felt slightly overwhelmed as she was passed off to Airen.

Kayn saw Airen's gesture as the music faded. With a gentle smile on his face, he left his omnibox and stepped forward to face the couple and the guests.

Lou couldn't believe what she was seeing. Kayn was officiating their wedding. The thought rolled around in her head like a wobbly inertial compensator. Recovering from her surprise she shot a scathing look at Airen who acted like he didn't know anything. The look was given as if to say, You found HIM of all people to officiate?

Kayn took a moment to gaze warmly on the bride and groom, then looked to the guests. All of them had been through so much in so little time. If he looked closely, he could see the strain behind their eyes even during this brief moment of relaxation. Surely just a little levity was in order. He took a deep breath and spoke out clearly to the people in the back of the room.

"Mawwiage."

As reactions faded, he winked at Lou and whispered, "Sorry, couldn't resist. I'll play it straight now."

Lou flicked a glance to the audience, partially out of embarrassment, and they seemed to be enjoying Kayn's speech. She allowed herself a moment to settle and relax. Perhaps this wasn't so bad after all. She could live with this. Time to carry on. Adapt and overcome.

"In every culture I know of, marriage is an event to celebrate. On Devaron, it is also a time to give thanks. Although this is a time of struggle, we still have much to be thankful for. We have food in our bellies. We have a place to sleep. We have our freedom. We have companions we know and trust. We have true friends. And a few very lucky ones have true love. Let us be thankful for all that we have had, all that we have now, and all that we will have. And let us have faith that these two will have all the joy we can wish them.

"Marriage is what brings us together today. Marriage, and hope. What is marriage but the bravest and truest expression of hope for the future? These two have chosen to pledge their lives to a future of love and togetherness, each committed to the happiness of the other. Let the hope of their future be replete with all prosperity and joy, fertility and life. Let these two souls become one in thoughts, words, and deeds, from now until eternity."

"Have you the rings?"

Airen motioned for Blue, Lou's astromech, to venture forth toward her. The droid happily complied and when it got close a small tray protruded near its dome and on the tray were a pair of rings. They'd been hastily assembled, by Blue, and forged out of spare craft parts from the hangar. Airen gave Lou a sheepish look, hoping, praying, that she found some semblance of beauty in them.



"Lou," Airen said as he picked up her ring and gently began to slide it on the appropriate hand and finger, " I've loved you from the moment I first laid eyes on you all those years ago on your family's estate on Tesserone. I swear to you before friends and all present that I shall always take care of you, respect you, reach out to you with love, tenderness, and kindness, and be your shelter from any storm that may come your way. Now until the end of time you have my heart, my soul, and all my love. Where you go I will go and nothing will ever drive us apart. You are my wingman, my soul mate, my one true love. In your hands I give you everything I have to offer and more."

Lou fought back a few tears as Airen slid the ring completely on her finger. They hadn't gone over their vows ahead of time preferring to surprise one another. She, truly, had been surprised at the depth and magnitude of the love this man in front of her had for all that she was.

She reached down toward Blue and delicately picked up Airen's ring. She began to slide his ring on his finger as she stated her own vows. Vows that came from a deep part of her soul. A part she had kept hidden all these years and could now come out and be free.

"Airen," Lou said having to clear her throat a bit, "you of all people know the journey that I have gone through to get to this point. To be here today. To make this decision. You've seen me at my worst and my best. You've stood by me during my failures and successes. For that I am immeasurably appreciative and thankful."

Lou paused as she struggled to keep herself from breaking down completely.

"You are the light of my life. The beacon in darkness. The way home. In you I have found peace, safety, and most importantly, unconditional love. I never knew kindness, respect, or true love until I met you. You have shown me that the galaxy can be a beautiful place filled with beautiful moments. I want to share every one of those moments with you now until the end of time. In you I know that all good things are possible. I love you, Airen, more than you can possibly know. Our love is eternal from this day forth until my final days."

Lou slid the ring on Airen's finger. Somewhere, somehow, she thought she heard Kayn say something about kissing the bride. It was all a blur. A good blur. She drew close to Airen and brought his lips to meet hers in a kiss for the ages.

Lou pulled away and felt nothing but love, contentment, and peace.

"You may now kiss the bride, again... but try to keep it classy, so no tongue, please."

Lou giggled and laughed at Kayn's comment and drew Airen in for another kiss. She heard the cheers of those assembled. Applause, whoops, hollering. Her cheeks flushed red slightly as she pulled away and turned to face those assembled hand in hand with the love of her life. She had done it. Finally done it. The impossible leap had been scaled and overcome.

Louise Gray was dead.

Long live Louise Vehn.

Tag: @Bardan_Jusik et al....

 

(OOC: A combo post between @Anedon and myself.)

IC Ianna Mcear, Alec Fenton
Intrepid

That did not go as planned. Liam politely declined her sudden proposal. It shouldn't have been surprising, she had just met him a day ago, and yet it still left her a little stung in her chest. It wasn't like she was serious with him, but the feeling of rejection was something that was had to ignore. Still she had her smile, though she was walking aimlessly through the halls. She wasn't sure where she was going but, her mind was elsewhere. Who would she take to the wedding? Jeen? No that wound was still sore. Ethan? Maybe, he was like an older brother to her, he'd go along with it. Her mind kept looking for others, maybe that other new guy, not the grumpy one, Dug, though she didn't really know about him either. But, what was the harm really? She'd already been told no once...

Without her really knowing it, she'd ended up close to the hangar. She didn't know why, maybe her heart was guiding her feet, the hangar was where Jeen was, it was where they had their first date, where she always saw him when she imagined him. Not that her conscious mind was aware of this.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she found herself bumping into someone. She looked up...

"Oh sorry..."

There was an odd symmetry to this meeting, very reminiscent of another meeting...a meeting that felt like a lifetime ago.

Alec had been looking at a datapad and been completly in his thoughts so he didn't react fast enough as Ianna bumped into him.

For a second he lost his balance and had almost fallen but then his hand found the wall and he stabilized himself.

"Oh, okay, no problem," he said friendly as Ianna appologized. "Nothing bad happened," he shut down his datapad as to not give the impression of being utterly unattentive.

"Oh, good," She smiled again seeing that she hadn't caused too much trouble. "You weren't working on anything important were you?" she asked pointing at the datapad... "Oh where are my manners, Ianna Mcear..." Before the words had left her mouth she wrapped her arms around him in a close hug. "I don't think we've met."

Alec was too suprised to return the hugg. What was it lately with people trying to touch him? Yet the smile on Iannas face was so happy and genuine that he couldn't bring himself to push her away.

Instead he stepped back once she loosened her grip again and returned her smile. "Oh I'm Alec Fenton, I'm Ethan Malek's tech."

Was this the same Ianna who had been Jeens girlfriend? He wasn't sure. But as far as he knew that relationship was over so it was probably best not to ask.

"No, didn't have much to do," his smile grew a bit. "Ethan is rather skilled at getting his ship back without too much damage."

"Oh, that's good." she replied still not letting go of the hug yet. "I know my Y-Wing has been through a lot. I know my tech and my droid go through a lot to keep it up. So, thanks for what you do." There was that unmistakable scent of grease and sweat, a warm comforting reminder of what she had before, a memory of happier times, though there was a tinge of sadness. "Ethan's a good guy, he was my wingmate when we first got put in this squadron."

So she already knew Ethan, that was something. He could probably trust her.

"He has been very kind to me, more than pilots I took care of before."

The woman was definitely several years younger than him but her grip was as tight as Alec would have imagined a Rancor's.

"Yeah, that sounds like him." As she held on a thought buzzed through her mind, and once it was there it wouldn't leave. She tried to push it away but, it hung there, like a cloud on a still day. Her grip tightened a little bit as she tried to push back but, it stuck around. "Heyyy...um...so have you heard about the wedding?" She asked trying to play it cool...and failing.

"I have," Alec said and wondered if he had ever been hugged so long and tight. But he couldn't remember a single instance that came even close.

"Will admit I've never been at a wedding before." There hadn't been any in his family until he had left.

"What?" The young woman looked up entirely shocked. She'd been to one, a friend of the family back home on Chandrila. "How...Well, um...would you like to go...um...with me?" She was stammering, trying to find her words. "I'm kinda in the wedding party but, I haven't found anyone to go with me so..."

"With.. with you?" Alec asked and raised an eyebrow as his recent meeting with Trear flashed through his mind. Better not say anything wrong now.

"I.. I mean sure, we could go there, if.. if you want."

His thoughts began to race. What kind of behavior would be expected of him. Should be bring a present? At least he probably needed a good shower and some fresh clothes first.

"I mean...if you want. I know this is out of nowhere?" She said slightly backing away verbally, but not physically.

"No we can do it," Alec said, more firmly now. "Might be a lot of fun."

"Great, awesome, amazing." She said squeezing very hard not pressing her face into his chest. "This is going to be fun, I promise." His warm soaked into her and she couldn't get enough of it. "Pick you up 30mins before the wedding?"

"Sure," Alec agreed. "Looking forward to it." Now the question was, what to wear?

----------

Ianna walked onto the observation deck arm in arm with Alec, in her nice green dress. It felt nice to wear it again, to been seen in it. It also helped that one of her bestfriends was getting married. Looking around one could tell that it was thrown together last minute. Lou just grabbed her and pulled her towards the front.

"Oh sorry...got bridesmaid stuff to do...catch up with you later?"

"Sure," Alec gave her a smile. In the time he had he had chosen the best clothes he had found. An elegant blue shirt and black pants.

It wasn't the best but at least better than his work clothes.

The young woman felt bad for just showing up and then ditching her date but, duty called. After getting the information about where to stand and what time everything would be going down she was allowed to return to what she was doing at least for a little bit.

"So Alec..." she paused for a moment remembering the last time she tried small talk. "Um...what got you into fixing things?" She didn't want to start off with 'where you from' given what happened with Liam.

"My parents own a ship repair businesses on Correllia, picked a few things up over the year," he said but his voice gave away his work was far from his being his passion.

"You are looking good by the way," he added a compliment as he beamed a bit being here with her.

Ianna smiled at the compliment tucking a loose bit of hair behind her ear. It wasn't often she got them, compliments, most of the time she was just kinda there. It made her feel all fuzzy. Looking him over the smile deepened. It wasn't the fanciest clothes her date was wearing but, the blue shirt and dark pants, an elegant and stately look.

"You look good too...I'm not just saying that..." She fidgetted with her hands a little before looking back up. "Got other things you do when not turning bolts? I mean besides going on dates with girls you just met in a hallway."

"Well I tend to read a lot, miss having free acess to the holonet to be entirely honest." Alec admitted to her. "Its the things you thought were a natural part of your life that you miss the most. The holo library aboard this ship isn't too fancy." He made a pause. "Also keeping a diary, in the absurd believe I might one day publish it." He gave her a twinkle.

"I'm sad to say I don't read much, I was an outdoor kid, grew up on a farm." Her gaze fell to the floor again slightly embarrassed. "I don't think it's absurd, I mean, I watched some old holos...you know ones made before the Empire. A lot of them were Based on a True Story. I think people would love to read a real account of someone in a war." She moved over towards the bar and got a drink, non-alcoholic for now. "Though I'll wait for the holo," she giggled a little. "Wonder if they'll keep the scene where you get dragged away to a party by a young woman...our would that be too 'Unbelievable'."

"No need to feel ashamed for growing up outdoors, sounds a bit like my cousin." For a momemt sadness filled his gaze. "Sometimes I wonder if I wasted my childhood, spending more time with books than other kids..." He stopped himself. "Sorry not a topic for a day like this." He remembered what she had said as well. "I would get very angry if the producers if they left that scene out."

"Well, good to know...and I can say I remember when..." she swayed a bit leaning up against him a little. "And it's ok that you read books. Everyone has their thing. And if it made you happy then that's a good thing."

"It did, still wish I had more friends out there," he muttered. "Or at least know how those I have are doing. Wish I could talk to them."

"I know it can be a little difficult to get in touch." Ianna answered, "But, I'm sure they're ok. And you have friends here...like me." She took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"True," he smiled a bit again. "Its the thing that differnciates us from the empire. Where did you grow up?" He had heard her accent before but couldn´t quite place it.

"Oh, I'm from Chandrila," She giggled again, "Just a simple farmgirl. It was peaceful, sort of, I miss watching the wind blowing through the wheat, or just running the harvesters. I just miss home I guess. Sometimes."

"Guess we all do," Alec agreed. "Same with a hot bath or a real hand cooked meal. Or just breathing fresh air, not the filtered one on this ship."

"Uhggg," Ianna gumbled, "I miss my grandmother's pies, I miss when we had Foodie, they could really make good food with what we had." She remembered the time the droid had some issues. "You weren't there when they went trigger happy with the frosting were you?"

"I was," Alec responded as he remembered the incident. "Right you were there as well. Though covered all in flour when I recall correctly."

"Yeah, I was covered in flour and frosting, I even got in Meanie's face about being mean to Foodie." She could laugh about it now, but in the moment she was the angriest she'd ever been. "I got so mad at him." Shaking her head she looked to Alec again, "I hope you didn't get too covered in pink sugar."

"No, I got away mostly unscathed. Though Jeen and I had to clean up the mess afterwards, when they confined you pilots to your rooms." Alec explained.

"Well that's good at least." She looked away for a moment remembering Jeen and his role in the wedding, and their...break up. "Jeen...Is Jeen doing alright? We um...well...ah...I...haven't spoken to him in a bit..." She was stammering, not sure if Alec knew of their relationship before hand and not really sure how to broch it in polite conversation.

"He seemed a bit sad last I saw him," Alec admitted. "Though its been a while since we had the time to properly talk to one another."

Her heart was pained hearing that. Part of her hoped he would have moved on, maybe go back to his philandering ways. She hoped he was happy, though to hear this it made her just a little sad.

"He'll bounce back I'm sure." She smiled again. "But, see more friends. Even when this war keeps us busy we can still find time to be with our friends." Her hand wrapped around his giving it a warm squeeze.

"Yeah," he patted Ianna a bit akwardly on her head. "That´s true. But how is it being part of the squadron? Be there in the action?" He had talked about this with Ethan before but Ianna was around his own age, so he was intrested to hear what she had to say.

"It is great and also kinda scary." Letting another laugh leave her as Alect patted her head. "Flying is fun and exciting but, sometimes it can get scary when things get dicey. And...well, then there's the losses. Losing friends is the worst. That's why I hug everyone. I don't know who I'm going to lose next."

"I understand," Alec said. Then, returning her hugg he whispered, "I wouldn´t have the courge for that. To go out there."

"You're plenty brave." She said tightening the hug. "You're helping the fight against the Empire, that's dangerous enough."

"Guess so, never thought a few little short stories could get me here," he responded.

"Wait...You've actually written stories?" She looked up surprised.

"I have," Alec said, smiling. "Nothing big, just bits I posted on the holonet. Problem was that some of them, well the empire might have considered them subversive, treacherous even. Enough to put me into a prison camp or something like that."

"Ooh," Ianna smiled deeply, "A revolutionary writer. They aren't too long right? I could maybe...maybe read them. Though it is weird that they would try and hunt you down for some stories."

"If the stories are anti imperial, guess that´s enough for them. Not sure what they would have done, good thing is rebel hackers found me first and made the stories disappear." He felt how his heart began to race at her request. "Of course you can read them, not sure what you call lengthy, they aren´t the lenght of actual novels or something like that."

"Well, I'll see if they're too long when I see them I guess." She giggled again, "Sounds like some holo, the writer smuggled out by intrepid rebels now works to fight against the Empire and one day be free to write again." She tried to deepen her voice, to sound like the voice over for some important holo coming soon.

"If you say it like that it makes me sound far more awesome than I actually am. But thanks," Alec replied, as he couldn´t help to chuckle a bit. "As I said, I´m still writing. I want to tell the true story of the rebellion."

"Well, I hope you find time to write it...." Towards the front she could see some beings moving towards the 'altar' ."Oh I think I have to go do bridesmaid stuff again." She let go and started making her own way. "I'll see you later?"

"See you later," Alec agreed, giving her an encouraging smile.

TAG: @Anedon @Bardan_Jusik @Vehn @Adalia-Durron (For Jeen Mentions)

 

A long-time in coming joint post with @Sinrebirth and @Anedon! Always a pleasure, my friends! Takes place after the mission but a while before the wedding...

IC: Maxime "Max" Pallas, Traer "Seppie" Lin, PO Alec Fenton
Leaving the hangar

Traer followed Fenton along, trying to keep his attention focused and not wavering, to the point if the younger man stopped, Traer would likely bump into him from behind.

Alec wasn´t sure how to start this, he generally avoided alcohol if he wasn´t with people he trusted one hundret percent but he was also worried being seen as a weakling if he wouldn´t take a drink. So when they entered the pilots' lounge he stepped aside to allow Traer to take the lead, deciding to first see what he would do.

A wedding? This was a hell of a time to decide to get married! Max shook her head. But Lou admitted her head wasn't in the game. Maybe she was the sort of woman who couldn't live unless she was attached to a man? There were a lot of romances, it seemed. A lot of the Sheep had been making eyes at each other. It would be fine, as long as it wasn't in the chain of command, and as long as it stayed light. This was a war. Attachments were dangerous in wartime. Max had learned that the hard way, back on Sharan, watching a piece of her heart be destroyed in an explosion, so that the rest of the Bandits could get away. Would this just distract Gray --wait, no, Kolvaard was what she was calling herself-- again?

She was still pondering love and war as she approached the door of the pilots' lounge. It was blocked by two men standing in the doorway, staring around. One was in a tech coverall, someone she vaguely recognized from the hangar. The other guy must be the pilot, this lounge was pilot territory and plane crew didn't venture here alone. Not that the Sheep would care, but the pilots in the other squadrons had different standards. The other guy she didn't recognize, especially from the back. One of the new guys from SonTay?

She waited for them to go in, but they continued to stand there. Max cleared her throat. "Make a hole?" she asked, politely.

"Oh, sorry," Alec said as he almost jumped out of the way, embarrassed by having blocked the door. Then he recognized Max and looked away. She and Ethan hated each other and he guessed she would treat him with the same disdain.

Max cocked her head. His accent was familiar. She looked at the other guy, who had a Black Sheep patch on his uniform. "Sheep? You a new guy?"

Traer smiled uncertainly. "I am a new guy." He held out a hand. "Traer Lin. Callsign Seppie."

"I'm Alec," he introduced himself as he was unsure whether Max knew him or not. So to keep the situation from going bad he didn't mention being Ethan's tech.

He caught the gist of something, and looked at Alec, quizzically, trying to communicate whether he was supposed to be gracious or rude.

"Max Pallas." She shook Traer's hand, wondering at the callsign, and looked at Alec. "You have a last name?"

"Fenton," Alec said a bit more confident. "No callsign though, just a lowly tech."

“Nothing lowly about being a tech,” Traer said, drily. “If my ship doesn’t work properly, then I crash and burn and die.”
He squeezed the man’s shoulder. “Your call-sign Max Pallas?” He took the same tone as her that she had taken when demanding Alec’s surname.

He was already predisposed to dislike her.

"I'm just Max," she said. "Name and callsign." She looked at Alec. "Fenton? You're Malek's tech? You're from Corellia, aren't you?"

"I am, both things." Alec said trying to continue to be polite. He tore himself from Traer's grip maybe a bit harsher than what was necessary but being touched without permission made him very uncomfortable. "You are from there as well aren't you?" he asked Max while praying she was too stereotypical.

Traer didn’t add anything. He’d been rebuked by Alec and that was that. He waited to see what Max said back.

"Yes, though I've been gone a long time." She smiled. "It's always to see someone from home." She looked at Traer, who had mostly been glowering at her. "Welcome to the Sheep, maybe. Come have a drink. It's not the best stuff, but we're working on it." She glanced quickly at Fenton. Techs normally didn't venture into pilot country, but he was with her and the new guy, no one should give him much trouble. "So, um, Traer, right? Where are you from originally? And what are you flying?"

Traer hesitated as she said maybe.

He looked at Alec. A little bit sore from the obvious rejection, he wondered as to why he was consorting with a tech when he needed to get on-side with his squad. But then again, as long as he had Feral to hand he’d never be in that much fear of isolation. Feral was too much of a goody two shoes to let him hang, especially in a battle.

So while he didn’t need Max, it didn’t follow to isolate himself from the other Sheep, not if it was going to be complicated with Alec.

This is why he was an island of isolation usually. It was easier. And droids didn’t have these issues he loathed.

But nonetheless he replied to Max, smiling slightly. “Seswenna here, I’m an orphan actually, and I’m assigned to an Incom Traitor-Wing.” He pulled a face. “I loath anything built by Incom, especially the ARC-170, which the X-Wing essentially is.” He shrugged. “I’d much rather have my old Bellabub-22.”
"Bellabub? I've only ever seen one in museums!" Max gave him a sidelong look. "What's your issue with Incom?" They found a table and Max signaled a serving droid. Chiff's people wouldn't have anything yet, so she went with a version of cider that wasn't too bad, and the others placed their own orders.

Alec decided not to go with something alcoholic, the risk of it causing him a problem later on was just too great. Instead he leaned back and listened at the conversation even if he didn't understand everything.

Traer paused, enjoying far less the implication that he was old than when Alec did it.

“Because I’m a Separatist, Max. It was Incom who propped up Palpatine and helped him defang the galaxy. The Empire would never have happened if we hadn’t lost the Clone Wars.” He sniffed, but didn’t order. “Only when the Empire nationalised Incom did they care that they’d supported a dictatorship for twenty years."

"You think other corporations are that different?" Alec said, reentering the conversation. "The Muun at least now make their deals with the empire. Seems both groups forgot on which side they where during the Clone Wars. In the end they are all the same, just interested in their own profits."

“I’m not happy about that, either. But I can’t control that. I can however control what I fly and support.” He shrugged. “I don’t need you to follow my views, of course, but I’m not going to keep them to myself either."

He smiled softly.

"Isn´t it exactly what we are fighting for?" Alec said, his voice turning serious. "A galaxy where everyone can freely express their thoughts and opinions?"

“Not the Old Republic I know about,” Traer said with a shrug.

Max listened to both in disbelief, and then laughed. "Seriously? You were never going to win the Clone Wars! Palpatine was running both sides. The whole thing was a false flag operation designed to bring him to power. That's why the Separatists collapsed so quickly. Once he got what he wanted, there was no point pretending anymore."

"That's what I hear peddled by the Rebels, sure, but that doesn't mean Dooku wouldn't have done what was right if Skywalker hadn't cut him down." A shrug. "And we carried on fighting for two more years after Dooku died. We may have lost, but we didn't give up." He had been there, in the Outer Rim, even though the Separatists were gutted by the shut-down of most of the droid army, they had kept fighting. Some Separatists carried on for years even after that, such as Gizor Dellso, who rebuilt a fleet and army at Mustafar before the 501st struck him down too.

Max shook her head. "No," she said. "Palpatine is a Dark Jedi. He's behind everything. Once he had himself declared Emperor, he didn't need any of it. The ones who kept fighting were fighting a lost cause. Terrible that there was so much loss just because of one evil man." She turned to Alex, who looked uncomfortable. Political debate could do that. Time to change the subject. People skills. "So what brought you from the homeworld?"

"Got myself in trouble with the empire," Alec admitted. "Wrote a few things I shouldn't have, didn't even realize the danger. Thankfully rebel hackers found it and myself first." He made a pause, "Joke is, I could have ended up on the other side, but the conscription officers found me lacking..." What he didn't say was the fact that his cousin had been taken.

Ignoring Max at this point, Traer narrowed his eyes a little. "Lacking?"

"At pretty much everything," Alec explained. "Bad eyesight, not muscular or persistent enough. Been always been a bit sickly, plus they probably realized I don't have the nerves for it. Was never so scared in my life than that day. To make it short they reckoned I would make a terrible soldier and so I was let go."

“Soldiers don’t have to be the fittest specimens in the galaxy, but the Empire can afford to be picky. We can’t, and won’t,” Traer said with some certainty. He wheeled on Max. “Do you mind if I speak privately to Alec for a moment?”

Max shrugged. "Go ahead," she said.

Alec looked from one to the other, unsure what to say or do, but he noticed any animosity was growing here. So he stood up and followed Traer a few steps away to see what he wanted to tell him.

"Look, I don't want to get entangled with someone who clearly doesn't care for me," he whispered, "but you clearly have something to sort through with Max. I'm just gonna apologise for misinterpreting the signs and touching you like that, and go. Alright?"

"Oh," Alec said as he only now truly realized what was going on. "Then I'm sorry for sending out the wrong signals. If you want we could just be friends at least."

Traer shrugged. "It's okay, I'm rusty with the whole talking to people thing. I'll wind my head back in and move on. I'm old, remember." He smiled slightly, forcing some amusement.

Definitely gonna kill Feral for this.

"They say with men its like with wine, the older the better," Alec said with a grin, but it died seconds later as he realized it too could be misinterpreted. "Ah sorry again." He said as he made his way back to Max.

“A shameless flirt, I see,” Traer quirked a genuine grin. “We’ll see where our friendship goes, I guess.” The latter he whispered to himself and turned away to find someone else to humiliate himself in-front of.

“Come on, OOM.”

The little astromech tootled.

Sitting down with Max again, Alec was unsure what to say or how to even feel. "So where on Corellia did you live?" he asked her just to get the conversation going again.

Max watched the odd new pilot stalking away, with an astromech joining him. "Corvenna. It's a small town, in the foothills of the Nomad Mountains. I left about ten years ago. You?"

"A small town in the outskirts of the capital," Alec explained. "You got there rather quickly but it still had some nature surrounding it."

Max smiled. "I've only been to Coronet once, on a school field trip." She hesitated, switching to their native language. <<I'm glad I can talk to you about this. I get so homesick, sometimes. I've been away so long, I was telling Skipper that I almost feel as if I'm not Corellian anymore.>>

<<I will admit>> Alec responded in the same language <<I miss it less than I thought I would. Like I miss my family and friends, but Corellia itself? Not as much I thought I would.>> He made a pause. <<Maybe because at home I was sick on how many of our people act like the living breath clichee>>

Max raised an eyebrow. <<It depends on the cliche,>> she pointed out. <<There are plenty of people who are quiet and reserved. You just don't hear them as much, because they ARE quiet. But I miss it...The smell of the corley fields after a summer rainstorm, and the sound of the pellmi at sunrise... The food! What I wouldn't give for my grandmother's nerf sausage pie...>>

<<Yeah a real handcooked meal would be nice,>> Alec agreed as he thought of his own grandparents. What would they think if they could see him now?

And for a while, thoughts of war, fear, and strife were forgotten in warm memories of loved ones and places far away.

TAG: Anyone

 

IC: Kayn "Lounge Lizard" Balzroth
Kayn's Gotta Kayn

The ceremony had gone off far more smoothly than any other Sheep operation to date. Maybe we should rethink how we plan our missions. Before newlyweds Lou and Airen Vehn were even halfway down the aisle together, Kayn quietly slipped over to Zara's side, touched her arm, and whispered, "That was so beautiful! Thank you!"

The 'receiving line' to congratulate the newlyweds was more of a shapeless blob of random well-wishers making their way toward the happy couple, each on their own trajectory with little regard for organized formations or traffic avoidance. Now it's looking like a Sheep op. As guests milled about, uncertain as to what was coming next, Lou caught Kayn's eye and pointed toward the karaoke box. Kayn acknowledged with a salute and thumbs up. "Zara, I have to go master a ceremony again. I'll be right back on your wing in a minute, promise. You could grab us a table if you don't feel like mingling."

In the area designated as the karaoke stage, he picked up the microphone. "Ladies, Gentlebeings, aaaand Sheep, it's time to celebrate! We're going to loosen things up and mix karaoke and dancing all evening, so if you want that special tune to dance with that special someone, just say so and we will make it happen. But first, let the karaoke-ing begin! In case anyone hadn't noticed, we're celebrating a wedding here, so it's only right to start with a love song. Everybody say, 'Aaawww.'"



As the accompaniment began, Kayn casually snapped his fingers in time with the music and left the stage area, wandering among the audience, casting insincere flirty looks at the ladies, reaching out to press the flesh of any available hand as he sang. Lughdyt had set up a spotlight and programmed it to follow the remote mike; Kayn liked the effect and the attention. In front of Zara, he paused for a moment as he sang,

"I'm with you once more under the stars..."

Turning reluctantly from her, he made his way toward the bridal party and smiled warmly at Lou and Airen.

"And there we are, swearing to love forever,
And promising never, ever to part..."

Ianna's blonde hair was elegantly braided; he winked at her and reached out as if to tousle it. She smacked his hand away before he could touch a single hair. He made a show of wincing and shaking his hand in mock pain.

Kayn wiggled an eyebrow suggestively as he sang to Joy,

"Till clouds came along to disperse the joys we had tasted..."

He eased his way toward Amber's flaming locks with a mischievous look.

"Let the love that was once a fire remain an ember..."

His eyes rolled at the awful pun. Then he moved on, working his way back toward Zara, voice rising as the song crescendoed.

"Oh yes, let them begin the beguine, make them play
Till the stars that were there before return above you..."

His voice dropped dramatically as he took her hand and sang,

"Till you whisper to me once more,
"Darling, I love you!"

He raised her hand and softly kissed her wrist, winked, then released her as he sang his way back to the stage, taking the spotlight with him and away from her as he sang out passionately,

"Then we'll suddenly know, what heaven we're in,
When they begin the beguine
When they begin the beguiiiiiine"

The music ended as he waved and laughed, "THANK YOU! Thank you very much! Who wants to go next?" He handed the mike off to the next singer and made a beeline back toward Zara.


TAG: @Vehn @Rebecca_Daniels @galactic-vagabond422 @TheAdmiral @Adalia-Durron and all the Sheep who think they know how to karaoke

 

(OOC: Everyone's favorite hugger returns for another match. A combo post between @TheAdmiral and myself)

Ianna Mcear and Tala Ashe
Intrepid (When the new pilots arrived)

She'd found her targets, and had taken them out one by one. The older man that likely didn't want a hug but got one anyway, the young man that might also not have wanted a hug, but was going to get one anyway. Then she came to the towering woman, metal covering most of her. Not knowing if it was cybernetics or just armor she wrapped her arms around the new member and squeezed tightly, trying to transmit her love through the thick armor.

"Welcome to the Black Sheep..."

Merc arrived on the vessel that she had been assigned to. She grimaced as she could not bring her StarViper, Alliance Command could be such killjoys sometimes. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they could not come up with spare parts and it swallowed fuel like a sarlacc. But still, it packed a punch and could be useful against the Empire.

Hopefully the guy with whom she left it would take good care of her. Tala looked around, she had been on Alliance vessels before, so what she saw was nothing new to her. The usual hustle and bustle. The Rebels have been turning the usual pristine Imperial vessel into the traditional Rebel grimy and dilapidated state.

Before she could move any further something assailed her! Tala's eyes widened and was ready to strike when she looked down and saw a young girl... woman, h-huggin her!? Merc laughed out loud as she had not expected such a welcome and wrapped her bear arms around the girl trying not to strangle or sever her spine "You the Squadron's mascot little lady?" she asked with her rather soft voice.

Ianna was nearly giddy with all the hugs she was handing out, and this one felt like a real strong one. The arms wrapped around her and applied pressure. It was a little cold but she was determined to fight through. Everyone needed a hug, everyone. She gave a little squeeze before looking up at the towering form of the other woman.

"Not really, I'm a pilot, Ianna Mcear, Charlie Flight, my Y-Wing is over there." She gestured with her head towards Serica her pride and joy. "This is just your mandatory hug," She pressed herself closer to the new Sheep holding just a little tighter.

"You tryin to break my back little pilot?" Tala asked amused, but she had to admit that girl was stronger than she looked like "I can teach you how to do that, though am not sure if command would like me to demonstrate it on the crew." she chuckled and squeezed a little harder. No one challenged the Great Merc to a hug battle!

"Nope I just think you need a big hug." Ianna replied holding even tighter. There was so much metal on her, she had to make sure that she felt how much Ianna wanted to be her friend. How much Ianna cared about her. Though defending her crown as the Champion of Hugs was floating in the back of her mind. "I'm pretty tough..." she said holding on, though the squeeze was starting to get to her.

Tala laughed again "I am sure you are little pilot." she said amused "Does your command officer approve of you trying to injure the new recruits?" looking around at the amused looks that the crew were giving them Merc could surmise that it was a common occurrence.

"I don't try to injure them..." Ianna squirmed as much as she could in the crushing grip. "I just want to make sure they know I care about them. And hugs are fun." She kept her hold not relinquishing it. "I mean if they told me to stop I would..."

"That they are!" Tala nodded "Let's call this a draw?" she smirked still amused "We let each other go on three?"

Ianna squeezed just a little tighter almost wringing all the hug she could out of these last thee seconds. "1..."

Tala squeezed tighter too and grinning "2..."

Ianna squeezed just a little harder, though she could feel a few bruises under her shirt. "...3."

And nothing happened. "Kid, if we keep this up we will end up fusing together." Tala laughed heartily, though she had to admit, the young woman had a very tight grip "Were you raised in a farm?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Uh huh..." She squeaked out still holding on. "On Chandrila."

"Go figure, I am from Alderaan." Merc smirked "Two peaceful worlds..." she winced as she remembered what happened to her homeworld "So you must have wrestled with pigs and other farm animals? You have a very strong grip for someone so small." though to be honest most people were small compared to Tala. Once she got compared to a Wookie in that regard, the person who claimed that did not last long.

"Once, wrestled a bull Staga down." Ianna replied, "It was rampaging and we had to get it off it's feet. I came up along side it, wrapped my arm around it's head grabbed it's horns. Then I dropped off the speeder I was in and dragged it to the ground." She smiled back squeezing just a little more. "I'm sorry about what happened to...to Alderaan..."

Tala chuckled "That explains a lot!" she grinned "I like you kid!" and gave her a squeeze. She did not allow the memories of Alderaan to get to her "Yeah..." she said "Anyway, you win this round." Merc sighed and let go of the young pilot.

Ianna let out a breath finally released. It didn't feel like she won, wore that Tala had let her win, that she had other things to do than get in a hug war with a little girl. Though that didn't stop her from feeling just a little proud that she'd made the big tough merc...get bored more that give up really.

"Yay..." she said slightly raising her arms in victory though they were a little sore. "I like you too..."

Tala ruffled her hair "Keep that up." she smirked "Also if you ever need someone to teach you how to fight, I mean martial arts, you can call me." she grinned "I can teach you some Teras Kasi."

"I'll uh..." Ianna started sharing Tala's smile. "I'll think about it..." With a little wave she started to move away the hug war officially over, and the young woman couldn't be happier. So many new friends, and one of them a fantastic hugger. "Catch you around..." As the pilot walked away she though about the offer, learning how to fight, hand to hand. It was an interesting prospect, a fascinating one. She'd never really considered it...but now that she was...maybe? If she had time of course, the Rebellion was busy and kept their pilots on the go, but...maybe.

TAG: @Bardan_Jusik @TheAdmiral

 

OOC: Had way too much fun doing this one with @Sarge. I think it shows....for better or worse


IC: Louise "Lou" Vehn/Lughdyt
Reception

The party was well underway and the Sheep truly seemed to be enjoying themselves. Those that wanted to dance were up on the dance floor having a good time. The booze was flowing and the food was plentiful. Lou smiled as she watched Airen chatting with the other mechanics about some technical problem. Probably about that project N-1. That was her husband and that felt good to say that. The pair had just wrapped up their first dance together and now it was open game.

Lughdyt took a deep breath as the first dance ended, then he stood as tall as he could and stepped up to the newlyweds and nodded at the groom. "If'n y' don't mind, Airen... " He bowed from the waist at the bride, who towered over the Ugnaught like a vision of ethereal beauty. "L'tenant... er mebbe I should say Mrs Vehn t'day... would y' do me th' honor o' dancin' wit' one o' yer humble admirers?"

Lou returned Lughdyt's bow with with a gentle curtsy. She appreciated his polite manners and paid no attention to his diminutive size. Today was her day and all would have favor.

"Certainly, my good fellow, lead the way" Lou replied as she was gently lead out to the center of the dance floor.

Lughdyt bowed again, face lowered so she couldn't see that he was clenching his teeth to keep himself from victoriously exclaiming YES!!! "Yer entirely too kind t' me, Mrs Vehn, 'n' y' have no idea just how happy this makes me. No idea at all," he chuckled and glanced up at her with mischief gleaming in his eyes.



Lou giggled as Lughdyt got all excited to dance with her. She nodded to the DJ who put on a special song.

"You're gonna remember this for a long time, aren't ya?" Lou teased.

She spun Lughdyt around as the song kicked off. The pair putting on some moves the likes of which had never been seen before. She was surprised at the Ugnaught's agility on the dance floor. Either he'd been practicing or he deserved a try out on the next episode of The Galaxy's Got Talent. She could tell he was serious about this and avoided the entire creepiness of the way he stared at her. She personally thought it was adorable. The Ugnaught had a heart.

"I'll tell you what," Lou said to the beat of the music, "you pull off a killer finishing move on this dance and I'll give you a kiss."

A kiss? Lou what the frak! How much have you had to drink?

"They calls it a 'lift', Mrs Vehn, but th' trick is t' not think of it as liftin', I'm here to help y' fly!" With the hardened muscles developed in decades of mechanic work, his hands pressed her up, up to all the height his limbs could reach (which really wasn't much, after all, he was an Ugnaught) and she soared, arms outstretched, all the way across the dance floor, finally allowing her to gently alight in a graceful two-point landing.

"Whew!" Lou exhaled as she landed on her feet, "That was incredible! You really know your stuff, Lug! Hope you don't mind me calling you that. Now that we're on a first name basis."

The place was really rocking now. She and Lughdyt were on an entirely new level. The others seemed to fade away for her.

Lou spun away with a flourish and when she returned she leaned over and whispered in Lughdyt's ear, "Now its my turn!"

She grunted as she grabbed Lughdyt's arms. She spun with all her strength. All of her power. Around and around. She was smiling and laughing. This was the best party ever. When she let go she could see Lughdyt zoom through the air.



"I don't fly! I'm just a mechani-- OOF!" Lughdyt lay prone on the deck and laughed at the little cartoon mynocks flying in circles around his head. I wonder who spiked the punch. And what they spiked it with.

Lou gently leaned over in her wedding dress and helped Lughdyt to his feet. The music faded away replaced by another song.

"I believe you've earned this," Lou said as she came in close to Lughdyt and kissed him affectionately on the cheek.

Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs Vehn? he thought, but kept it to himself. Airen might not think that was funny. He couldn't resist a quick peck on her cheek. "Thank y', Mrs Vehn, yer quite th' dancer. Mebbe we'll do it ag'n sometime." His eyes gleamed with mischief again. "An' th' best part is still t' come. Ye'll know it when y' sees it." He bowed formally and took his leave, chuckling gleefully.

Tag: No one in particular...well maybe some of you that really, really, like Airplane!