Remnants of the Earth
OUTER SPACE => Solar System => Topic started by: Anonymous on June 25, 2008, 11:52:59 am
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It had been two days of hell. The disturbing scientists, as if they deserved to be called that, of TRIM had been trying day and night to get a better look at their newest specimen. So far though all their attempts to get him to remove his exo-suit had failed, and none of them could figure out how to get it off him. They even tried to force it off to no avail, it was much more durable than any of them would have thought.
Tetroneaque dared not take his only protective item off either. He had not used the restroom, showered, or even eaten in two days. With his enormous appetite, that last bit was pure torture to him. He was pretty sure he'd die within days if he didn't eat soon. He wasn't about to take off his exo-suit for any reason though, preferring to die than to let these perverse bastards poke and prod him for twisted experiments.
Since he was being so uncooperative to their efforts, they had decided to ship him to the main TRIM facility where they were better equipped to deal with such a specimen. Tetroneaque didn't put up any fight whatsoever when they came for him in his cell, not that he had the energy to really do anything at this point anyway. They picked him up easily enough though, even with his armored suit he weighed surprisingly little. He merely growled a little at them but otherwise did nothing. He lost consciousness soon after from exhaustion and lack of nourishment.
He awoke later to find himself inside some sort of containment cell in a dark room. There was really no light at all, except that which his own eyes produced. His chamber was a clear cube made of some hard plastic, surrounded by an energy field. He firgured it was probably some sort of psionic repressor to keep him from trying to manipulate people with his thoughts, not that he could do that. He could only talk to others with his mind, and he hadn't felt inclined to do that lately.
He simply sat in the center of the holding cell and hugged his tails around himself. He let out that mournful howl as he simply cried.
"I want to go home... I didn't do anything wrong... I can't help who I am..." He simply spoke to himself as he continued to cry. He was still too scared to take his suit off, he was absolutely certain as soon as he did that something horrible would get him. He didn't know it yet, but he was already on a ship traveling to the main TRIM facility even then. He was already off Mars, not that he could tell due to the cargo hold he was stuffed in.
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Nastusia switched the ship’s autopilot on and learnt back in the pilot’s chair. She had been very lucky to get this ship. She’d been ready to stowaway aboard one if necessary but as it happened someone was selling one at a very reasonable price. And her artefacts shop had been enough to buy it. So now instead of her own shop, she had her own ship.
It was only a small one, only being able to handle a crew of about 5 but it was a pretty little thing and surprisingly reliable and durable. And it even had 5 separate cabins even though they were small.
She glanced out at the expanse that was space and fondly remembered the first time she had seen it. It was when Connaloth, now Edanith, had been fleeing Earth. She had been with Keir at the time posing as his daughter so as not to create a fuss. But that was a long time ago… Nastusia was not sure exactly how old she was but she knew it was thousands of years old. She could remember the Roman invasion and that was not the limit of her memory. Sometimes she felt her age, despite only looking about 12.
As her gaze raked across the billions of stars she stopped when she saw a ship in the distance.
“Identify,” she said to the ship’s onboard computer, it was voice-activated.
“Transport ship, Class unknown. TRIM registered.”
A TRIM ship? Just the people she was running from. But if it was a transport ship it was doubtful they were after her. Mars wasn’t too far away so it was probably taking specimens to the main headquarters. She couldn’t allow that. It had been her good fortune to stumble upon a TRIM ship. She could let them know she wasn’t scared, she might be running from them but that was for the safety of others. There was no way they could ever catch her. She was immune to all psychic attacks, she could easily close her mind off the psychics and she had enough magic to destroy a planet.
Turning the auto pilot off, she began heading towards the TRIM ship. It didn’t take them long to notice her.
“Unidentified craft state your name and business.”
She giggled and picked up the received, “The name’s Nastusia Manasa. And my business…well I want whatever unfortunate souls you have on board. You have 5 minutes to comply before I punch a nice big hole in your ship.”
Smiling she waited for their response. They’d probably laugh and then say she was wanted and threaten to take her on board. Wasn’t happening. And just for good measure she used her magic to create an impenetrable barrier around her ship.
“Wanted Criminal 01261897 Nastusia Manasa, you are wanted for the unauthorised sale of TRIM secrets. You will surrender and your ship be brought into custody.”
Sighing, she picked up the receiver again, “Too bad…Oh well I did warn you.”
She focused her energy into a beam and shot a whole straight through where she knew the ship’s bridge to be. Bye bye, you torturing TRIM bastards.
She then quickly formed a bubble over where the subjects would be so they didn’t suffocate. From her information trading business she knew the layouts of TRIM ships, very handy at this moment in time.
She set a course for the airlock of the ship and readied the ship for entry. Meanwhile she retrieved a medical pack from under the command console, some of the subjects might be injured and it was good to be prepared. Healing them with her magic was an option but why waste her magic if normal first aid would do? As well as the medical pack she pulled out a miniature computer she used for hacking.
When the ship locked in place she pressed the button to release the ramp and gracefully stepped inside. It smelt of blood, as every TRIM ship and building did. And it was actually quite cold; the heaters had probably gone offline. Well, nothing she could do about that except get the subjects out quickly.
As she strolled down the corridor, she constantly searched for a computer terminal. Then she’d be able to see how many specimens were on board with actually searching the whole ship…Not that all of it was there, she blasted half of it into oblivion.
Eventually she found one and plugged the mini computer into it. She hacked through and it gave her a map of the detainment area. Just one; that made things easier. And he was too far from her current position. In fact he was in the door exactly opposite the computer terminal.
She went over, knocked three times then pressed the button to open it.
“Hello there,” she said cheerfully, “I thought you could use some help.”
He was a strange looking thing as well; purple fur and he looked like an armour wearing fox. Maybe he was a kistune.
She laughed, “My you certainly are unusual looking aren’t you. Don’t worry I’m friendly or as friendly as someone who blasted the front end of this ship off could be.”
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Tetroneaque was busy being sad when he suddenly felt himself hurtling forward. He slammed into the wall of his cell with an "OOF!" as the wind was knocked out of him.
"What the hell was that?! What's going on!?!" He cried, though there was no one to hear him. He figured that since he had just flew forward he must be inside a vehicle of some kind, and that it had suddenly stopped for some reason. Anything that would cause whatever he was in to screech to a halt was most likely not planned for by whomever was piloting, so that meant it would mess with his captors some. A small comfort but it still brought a small smile to his face knowing they were having some sort of difficulty.
He sat there in his clear cube in the dark room for awhile. Nothing to do really.
Then, the door leading to the room suddenly opened. He cringed instinctively, not wanting them to try and get his suit open again or taunt him with food. Then he heard someone talk, again in that alien speech he couldn't understand. However it was a new voice, not the brisk commands of some scientist or pissed off guard but a feminine voice that sounded almost... gentle?
He looked up and saw her. She was the same height as he and looked nothing like any of his cruel tormentors.
"You're not going to hurt me are you?" He spoke aloud, then realized she probably wouldn't know what he was saying. He couldn't very well try to form a mental link with her either as the energy field on his containment cube was still active. He knocked on the door of the clear cube surrounding him, hoping she'd open it and let him out. He was willing to try anything to escape now.
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It obviously didn’t understand human speech, but the language he did speak sounded familiar and she had understood. One of her long dead friends from a couple of hundred years ago always travelled with a fox like creature, a sandy coloured one rather than a purple one, but the language was very similar. The poor thing in front of her was probably sick of being around nasty humans who he couldn’t understand. So she’d talk to him…or at least try to…in his own language.
“No, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m a friend. I hate TRIM as well.”
The language probably sounded off from her not being fox-like but hopefully he’d get the gist.
For now she had to get him out of the cube. If there was one of those around him it meant he was a psychic. Well if that was the case it was clear why TRIM wanted him, he wasn’t human and he was psychic. And if he was a Kitsune he could probably use fox-fire as well.
She focused her energy and shattered the cube into a several pieces. It was quicker than hacking it open.
“What’s your name then?” she asked in the fox language, “Mine’s Nastusia, nice to meet you.”
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Tetroneaque's ears perked straight up when he heard some somewhat familiar speech. It was a little off, like an accent, but still understandable.
"Oh thank the Divine Nine! Someone who speaks my tongue!" Tetroneaque blurted out in a happy tone. It was the best thing he'd heard in days. Then what she had said sunk in after a moment. She wasn't going to hurt him, and she hated his captors too!
He was about to ask her if she could open his containment cell when she simply caused it to shatter. Several large shards hit him, but didn't do anything thanks to his exo-suit, and now he was free... mostly.
"Thank you Natusia! My name is Tetroneaque Swiftpaw Tailchaser. I've never been happier to meet someone in my life." He said, nearly bursting into tears of joy. He did run up and hug her though, simply craving some contact that wouldn't result in him being slapped around. He backed off after a moment though, releasing her from his embrace.
"Sorry... I'm just really happy to see someone who doesn't want to slice me into tiny pieces to study under a microscope." He said with a weak chuckle. Then he collapsed to his hands and knees.
"Sorry again... I'm simply exhausted and starving... they wouldn't feed me because I refused to take my suit off." He explained as he pushed himself back to a standing position.
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“That’s okay,” Nastusia laughed when he ran and hugged her, it was nice to be appreciated.
His name was certainly a mouthful though, maybe she’d ask him later if she could just call him ‘Tetro’. Then again ‘Nastusia’ was long as well…
She frowned when he said about being cut up and studied and that they wouldn’t feed him. The bastards, but it wasn’t really anything new. She knew what happened at TRIM and she could only imagine what had happened to Zenobia, she dreaded to think.
“Well don’t worry; I have food on my ship. It isn’t too far. Think you can make it?”
She could levitate him with her magic if need be.
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"I can make it...I think." Tetroneaque said, cheering up. His tails even started to wag back and forth a bit as his mood improved. The thought of food only helped him along. He started thinking of all the things he would love then, a hot shower, a nice meal, and just a night of sleep without his exo-suit on. But he was getting ahead of himself, he still needed to escape with his new friend.
"Please lead the way Nastusia. Wait... did you say ship? They were taking me off planet already!?!" That was certainly a surprise. He didn't know much about these people or their ways, but he hadn't thought they'd send him off planet yet. That did explain the slight chill in the air though, which probably meant his friend had really messed up this TRIM ship if it's heating was failing. That was one of the most important parts of life support on a ship!
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“Look like it,” Nastusia replied, “They were probably moving you because you weren’t co-operating.”
They usually did that, sent you to the main branch where the really sadistic doctors were if you wouldn’t listen to the on-planet ones.
Nastusia led the fox down the corridors and to her ship. It didn’t have a name yet, she’d have to think of one. That would come later though. They had to get away as soon as possible. No doubt the TRIM ship had sent off a distress signal and had probably requested backup the moment they realised it was Nastusia Manasa they were dealing with…right before she blasted them.
She headed up the ramp and into the ship.
“Well this is my ships. She’s small but homely,” she then span on her heel and turned to Tetro smiling, “Well you have a choice. If you want to wash up the bathroom’s over there.”
She pointed towards it then to the kitchen, “Or you can have food. That again leads to two choices, quick or prepared. I’m a pretty good cook so I could make you something decent. Or you could just have some protein bars and raw food now.”
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Tetroneaque was smiling happily now.
"I think I'd like to wash up first. I'm afraid I stink rather badly inside this suit, since I haven't taken it off in over two days now for fear of those barbarians cutting me up. I think my scent would prove too foul to eat around." He said with a self-depreciating chuckle. His stomach let out another loud growl, sounding almost like an entity all it's own.
"I think my stomach disagrees with my decision...but it will simply have to wait a little longer." He made a courteous bow toward Nastusia, hugging all three tails of his against his chest as he did so. It was a sign of great thanks and trust, usually reserved for family members. He still didn't think it adequately showed his gratitude though.
He went to the bathroom and manipulated the green crystal on the back of his left hand's gauntlet. The suit receded in on itself until it was just the glove again. He then proceeded to remove the glove as well, setting it on the counter by the sink. The bathroom was small, but quite tidy and it had a nice smell to it... like flowers. At least it had that pleasant smell to it until his own musky scent overpowered the room.
He stripped off his clothes and then relieved himself in the toilet. Never had he needed to go so bad before, but he had been holding it in for over two days now. After that was taken care of he looked at himself in the mirror. He was a mess. His fur was all matted and tangled, he looked terrible!
He ran the water and hopped into the shower before it was properly warm. He didn't care though, the water felt wonderful on his fur. He opened his mouth a moment and drank of gulp of the shower water as it came out, simply craving nourishment. He stopped himself after one gulp though knowing that food awaited after this.
He scrubbed himself with a large soft brush he found next to the shower, using a bottle of cleanser that smelled like lilacs. It was a scent he'd never known on his own world but he really really liked that smell.
I hope she doesn't mind me using her brush and cleaner... He thought to himself a bit late. Since he'd already used both he shrugged his shoulders and continued to scrub himself down until he smelled like flowers too. He finally felt clean!
He shut off the water and hopped out of the shower. As soon as he did he was greeted with a pleasant blast of warm air from the tiny holes in the floor. He was dry in short order, though his fur was all puffed out. He hoped his rescuer wouldn't mind him using the small brush on the counter. Tetroneaque grabbed the brush and started to brush the tangles and knots out of his fur, paying special attention to his three large, fluffy, tails. It took a little longer than he thought it would, but soon he he looked like a respectable Kitsune again... albeit a nude one.
Tetroneaque looked over at his discarded clothes. They were all grimy and in need of a good washing and he didn't want to slip his exo-suit back on either. He simply shrugged his shoulders and left the bathroom.
"Thank you for the hospitality!" He called, letting her know he was done with the bathroom. It didn't occur to him that she might be offended by his nakedness, as his fur hid pretty much everything of interest. His fuzzy paws hit the cold metal floor and he grinned. It was nice to actually feel something under him that wasn't his exo-suit.
"Can we eat now?" He asked as he entered the kitchen, tails wagging rapidly.
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Since he had chosen to wash up first that would give her time to cook something. And she could always cheat and use her magic to speed things up; first things, first however. She slipped into the control room. They had to get away but putting it on autopilot should be fine. The question was where to direct it. Going to somewhere like Aedolis or Edanith was a bad idea and she doubted Tetro would want to go back to Edanith. She couldn’t go back to the Cancer and the Libra was a bad idea…It needed to be somewhere fairly remote but in easy access of supplies…Maybe Teinar, but she wasn’t sure how’d they react to Tetro. Then she had an idea, Ipollius, it was abandoned but she could easily teleport to Haviah for supplies if necessary. And whilst they were there they could come up with a plan, besides they could always change course before they got there if they thought of something sooner.
“Auto-Pilot On, destination Ipollius Central Area.”
She then went back into the living area of the ship and into the kitchen. Now what food did she have, come to think of it what did kitsune’s eat? Did they eat the same things as foxes? Then again Tetro seemed so hungry he probably wouldn’t care at this point.
“Let’s see,” she said as she opened one of the cupboards, “Rice…artificial chicken …some spices…Maybe chicken and rice in a sauce then. I just hope Tetro’s okay with it…”
She retrieved the ingredients and began setting them out. The rice she placed in a pan of water to boil and the chicken into the automatic grill. Then she made a start on the sauce. She poured some water into another pan with a thickening agent and some of the spices before leaving it to boil. A lot of the food she had was artificial but actually more wholesome than its real counterparts.
Once everything was cooked she put them in a pan together and left them to simmer until Tetro emerged. It was a quick, fairly simple meal and hopefully it wouldn’t conflict with Tetro’s usual diet.
Whilst she was waiting she called up a map of Ipollius on the main computer so she could find a decent landing spot for the ship which didn’t have too much wildlife nearby.
When Tetro finally came out he certainly looked a lot cleaner and had taken his suit off. She was a little surprised that he was in terms of his race ‘naked’ but his clothes were probably filthy so she didn’t mention it. Besides she was thousands of years old, a little thing like nudity wasn’t going to embarrass her. And she had the body of a twelve year old and he was a Kitsune. She had no sexual interest in him whatsoever. He was rather cute though, but in an ‘aww puppies’ kind of way.
“There’s a shoot just inside the bathroom door to put you clothes into, then they’ll be clean in half an hour.”
No doubt he would appreciate clean clothes and since her’s were all girl’s clothes she couldn’t lend him any. But why bother when they could be cleaned that quickly. Advances in technology were very handy. She remembered when clothes had to be washed with a bucket and washboard and took hours to try.
“I decided to cook something whilst you were in there,” she said cheerfully, “It’s rice so hopefully you aren’t like birds and swell up when you eat it.”
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Tetroneaque nodded when she told him about the laundry shoot for his clothes. He popped out of the kitchen just long enough to toss his clothes into it as she suggested he do and then was back. His nose was picking up all the different smells and causing his mouth to water at this point, not to mention he was practically starving.
He had no idea what rice was, but he had never found food to be a problem for himself. He could digest practically any organic compound, and was actually immune to poisons like all of his kind. A good thing considering that many of his favorite spices on his home world were in fact exceedingly deadly to most species. Thoughts of seasonings and such though were far from his mind now, he simply needed to eat.
"Oh it all smells wonderful! Thank you so much!" He exclaimed in a delighted tone that bordered on giddy. He was at the table quick as a flash and was already gobbling down the food in large gulps, barely chewing. His plate was cleaned in mere seconds.
"Oh, that's good..." He commented, making a contented murring noise at this point.
"Is there any more?" He asked happily, his tails were swinging back and forth so rapidly now that it was actually generating a rather pleasant breeze.
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[OOC Short >.<]
Nastusia couldn’t help laughing at how appreciative he was of the food. But then again the starving would eat anything.
“Sorry Tetroneaque but if you haven’t eaten in a while it’s not a good idea to eat too much right away. You’ll be sick.”
She felt bad depriving him but like she said he might make himself ill.
“You can have some more later, I made too much anyway.”
She closed the map she had been looking at down, “So where are you from? I’ve seen fox-humanoids before but not a purple one.
Being purple it was possible he was Lanaerian but he didn’t speak common making it unlikely.
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"Get sick? But I've hardly had any at all! I usually eat three times my own body weight in a single sitting." He said, his ears drooping a little at not getting more food right away. He didn't hesitate to answer his rescuer's questions though. Maybe if she knew a little more about him she'd be more inclined to feed him right away. The notion that she'd seen others similar to him was also interesting.
"Well, as far as I can tell my home planet is in an entirely different galaxy. I've no real idea how far it is, but the people at Edanith had never heard of any of the places I mentioned and seemed to have never dealt with my kind before. None of them could speak Kitsune, and they seemed totally unprepared to deal with the gravity cannons on my Fury scout craft... not that there are many things that can take a hit from a gravity cannon." He added that last bit just a tad quieter than normal. He didn't like the fact that his creation had killed some technicians, even if he had warned them and those same people had hated him for being different than they.
"My home planet is called Vulpes Prime. It's the capital of the Kitsune Empire and home to the Council of Nine, our leaders of government and religious affairs. The Empire spans several systems, containing many planets and even more space stations. Surprisingly we've never run across any other sentient beings... well except for that incident with the bugs." He added that last comment almost as an after thought.
"I'm surprised you've seen any others similar to myself, though them not being purple isn't a surprise. My fur color is rather rare among my kind. Usually we have a more subdued tone to our fur, mostly tans, whites, and greys. We do have the occasional one born with a rather odd color like me though. Neon green, bright orange, even silver are a few I've seen. As far as I know our fur can be any color." He shrugged as he finished. It was all true enough. His eyes kept glancing toward the rest of the food, though talking to someone in his native tongue was helping to distract him a bit.
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She hadn’t heard of the Kitsune Empire, the kitsune she had met had been born in Teinar if she recalled correctly. Which considering how long ago it was might be wrong. They definitely weren’t from the Kitsune Empire though. From the way he spoke of it, it sounded as if the fox missed it. That wasn’t really surprising considering what he had experienced of the galaxy so far. And it sounded as if the gravity cannons on his ship had caused some kind of accident; she wasn’t going to pry into that however.
She couldn’t help but notice his eyes dart towards the remaining food though.
“Oh alright then.”
She spooned the remaining rice onto a plate and if he got sick it was his own fault.
Sitting down again she thought it was maybe a bit rude to just ask him where he came from without giving any information about herself, hopefully immortals didn’t scare him.
“I come from a planet called Earth, it’s the third planet from this system’s sun, Mars, where Edanith is, is the fourth from the sun. Earth’s changed a lot since I was born though,” she laughed, “Oh yeah I’m immortal by the way. Hope that doesn’t scare you, I’m not the blood-sucking variety though.”
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Tetroneaque's ear perked back up from their droop as he saw his gracious host spoon out the remainder of the food she had prepared. It was a rather large helping... for humans anyway. To him, it was simply another drop in the bucket so to speak. He wolfed it down with great gusto, though not quite as ravenously as before, actually bothering to chew his food this time and taste it a bit more. It was still delicious to him.
He listened to her as he ate. It was nice to actually have a chat with someone about this new strange galaxy populated by these odd mostly hairless bipeds.
Earth and Mars eh? So they only have two planets... and Mars was still being terraformed. Interesting. He thought to himself, swallowing another mouthful of food.
At the mention of her being immortal his eyes went a bit wider from surprise. He quickly swallowed the food in his mouth so he could speak.
"Immortal? Like you can't be killed and you never age? That's incredible! You must have seen many amazing things throughout the ages! Pardon me if this next question seems rude, as I mean no disrespect but... how old are you exactly?" He was quite curious now. He himself was only 23 years old, at least 23 standard Kitsune years. One orbit of Vulpes Prime around their star took roughly 3700 days, with each day being roughly 25 hours long. So in reality Tetroneaque himself was a bit older than 233 years old by Earth standards. None of this really registered to him though, as he had no idea how long an Earth year was yet.
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Nastusia was happy when he was more intrigued and curious by her immortality rather than scared like some people were.
“Yes, I have seen quite a few amazing things; I’ve lived through quite a few disasters to though.”
She had seen many terrible things in her life as well as the good things. She remembered the destruction of earth and the escape of many into space, she remembered Connaloth’s purges of mages, and hell she even remembered the holocaust when ‘Europe’ still existed as well the witch hunts of the medieval era. And obviously they thought her a witch, they were never able to catch her though, heheh.
“I’m not sure how old I am. I can’t remember the first part of my life much like I’m sure you can remember your early years. I am almost certainly older than 10,000 though. In human years anyway.”
The calendars were always changing but she knew that she had met Keir about 5,000 human years ago. She had been alive a long while before that. But as she said she was definitely older than 10,000.
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"Over ten thousand years old?! That's amazing!" He said, wide eyed and in awe. He'd never met an immortal before. The thought that she was that old was simply astounding, and she looked so young too! This galaxy truly did have wonders in it. Tetroneaque's stomach let out another growl, demanding more food but he ignored it. He didn't want to seem rude to the person who had just saved his tails from a life of misery and woe.
"Thank you again for saving me. I just wish I had someone to repay your kindness... unfortunately everything of value I had was either in my lab or in my Fury." His ears drooping again as he spoke. He really wanted to do something nice for his new friend, at least he hoped she'd become a new friend. His ears perked back up though as a sudden idea came to him.
"Oh! I couldn't help but notice you're alone on this ship... at least I didn't smell any other beings' scents so correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I could help keep this ship in good repair for you if you like. I'm quite good with mechanical devices, fixing, inventing, all that stuff. That is if you need anyone to help with that sort of thing... I'm not really familiar with the technology around here yet but I'm sure I can be of help." He said, almost pleading. While he did want to help, and already felt a sense of loyalty to Nastusia, he also wanted to feel useful again to someone.
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Nastusia felt a little guilty when he virtually pleaded at her to let him keep the ship in repair. She would have never have bought a ship if she couldn’t do it herself. This needed a diplomatic answer…One that would spare his feelings. Eve if she were to say yes, he wasn’t familiar with the technology and she would have to explain it to him. He would then see he wasn’t needed and it was obvious he wanted to be.
“…Surely you want to try and get home though,” Nastusia said, “Not that I’m trying to get rid of you, company’s nice. It’s just in this universe kitsune’s aren’t really safe, as I’m sure you’re aware of already.”
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"Well yes I do want to get home. Unfortunately I don't know if I'll be able to rebuild the Matter Transporter. It sort of melted down after it sent me here. Plus all the data from my lab was on the data crystal I took with me... and left on my Fury." He said becoming quite dejected. If he was ever to have any chance of getting home within the next five hundred years he'd need to at least recapture his data crystal.
"But there must be something I can do to help! I don't want to be a burden to you..." He said trying to think of something he might be able to do.
"I was a technomancer among my kind... I guess scientist would be the closest thing to compare to. I'm really good at inventing things. I'm also a good cook, though I'll need to study your diet a bit more to make sure I don't accidentally poison you or something... There has to be something I can do!" He didn't realize it, but he was giving her his 'big sad puppy dog eyes' look. He just wanted to find some way to repay Nastusia's kindness toward him.
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Damn, he was giving her puppy dog eyes as well…She was pretty sure she invented that look all those thousands of years ago. And she the body of a child so could do it just as well. Though Tetro probably didn’t know she looked like a human child in comparison to other humans.
She could suggest they try and get his Fury back and it was within her ability but he probably wouldn’t want to burden her anymore. Well it was worth suggesting.
“Very well, you can be my mechanic,” she said, “On one condition; you let me help get your ship back. And trust me it’ll be easy for me.”
[OOC Short >.<]
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Tetroneaque looked so happy at what she said it was almost comical. His tails immediately went to wagging at hyper speed, and had he been a few years younger he may have very well pounced upon her and licked her on the face. He did manage to restrain himself though, simply hugging her again.
"Oh thank you! You won't regret this, I promise! But how do you intend to get my Fury back? It's not really a ship, more of an all-terrain exploratory vehicle with self defense systems. Plus, when I last saw it the technicians of Edanith were trying, and failing, to get inside it. If they have any brains at all they'll have surrounded the area with armed guards to prevent anyone else from getting near it and accidentally hurting themselves." Tetroneaque stated.
"But I'll trust in your judgment on this matter. If you say you can reacquire my vehicle then I believe you. You did rescue me from those awful TRIM people... how did you manage that anyway?" He asked, not curious on that subject. It was possible this ship had some impressive weapons on it or something, but since it was so much smaller than the TRIM vessel he wondered why they hadn't had the weapons to disable her ship first. Of course he was still thinking in terms of his own race's ships and it hadn't even occurred to him that she may have simply blasted the ship with her magic.
Tetroneaque suddenly realized that he was hugging her... and he was still technically nude. He back off a step and looked down at his feet.
"S-sorry about that." He said apologetically.
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“It’s alright,” Nastusia said laughing when he let go.
He certainly was an excitable fellow but rather sweet as well.
“As for how I took down the TRIM ship, I just used my magic, it wasn’t that hard really,” she explained, “That’s how I’ll get the Fury back for you, I’ll probably be a little less violent about this time.”
She rose from her seat and stuck her head into the control room, “Auto pilot, new course, Planet Mars, Location Tynova.”
There, all sorted. She’d stop it just before they reached it however. Letting the auto-pilot take them straight into danger was a bad idea she’d pilot it herself to avoid all of their ships in the atmosphere. Her ship only had a very weak cannon as weapon but it didn’t matter when she was one herself.
-
Tetroneaque was even more in awe of her when she stated that she had simply disabled the enemy ship with her magic. Only the Council of Nine were that powerful back where he had come from, surely someone like that must be some great leader here! He followed her toward the cockpit when she left the kitchen and then listened to her speak some more. He didn't understand what she told the ship's computer, as she switched back to the language the human's used, but he kind of got the gist that she was going to get his Fury back.
"It occurs to me that I'll need to learn the language used in this galaxy." Tetroneaque stated rather bluntly. He knew it would probably take some time, but maybe if Nastusia was as powerful as she claimed to be (which he believed) and willing to, she could probably teach him easily.
"Since the Fury is more of a ground only vehicle," Tetroneaque began, though this wasn't really the case as the Fury was capable of traveling underground oversea and beneath the waves just as easily, "I might be able to cannibalize many of the parts on it for your ship. I really won't have need of the vehicle itself except for parts anyway, as the data crystal is the only thing of real value in it to me, thus I could modify the weapons a bit... maybe convert the generator and sheilding..." Tetroneaque seemed to be lost in his own little world now figuring how he would upgrade Nastusia's ship for her with his own tech. It was a very fun idea to the little Kitsune, now he simply couldn't wait for the chance to do so.
"Oh, I'll soup this thing up for you and make it one of, if not THE greatest ship in this galaxy! With your permission of course Captain Nastusia." He added a bit sheepishly. He knew if he was going to be her mechanic that she was the captain, he might as well start calling her captain. Unless she didn't want him to. Well, he'd do it till she said otherwise. He let out a barking laugh then.
"I just realized this, but I think I just became your ships first mate as well as mechanic." He said laughing.
-
“Captain?” she laughed, “I must say I like the sound of that. You don’t have to call me it if you don’t want to though.”
She liked the sound of him upgrading the ship, sure she had enough magic to be the weapons and create shields herself but if the ship could do it anyway it would save some hassle.
“Very well then, you can make the ship the best if the galaxy is you so desire, it will certainly give me a lot bragging rights, First Mate Tetro!...Oh sorry you don’t mind if I call you Tetro do you, it’s just Tetroneaque is a bit of a mouthful especially in human speech.”
It sounded as though he wanted her to teach him some common but she’d never taught another language to someone before. She could pick them up easily enough but teaching them was another matter. Perhaps she could use her psychic abilities to help a little though.
“Do you know any human words yet?” she asked, “My name sounds like ‘Nastusia’ in human speech.”
She doubted it could be said as it actually sounded by a kitsune ‘Nastusia’ didn’t really lend itself to barks and growls.
-
"Tetro is fine!" Tetroneaque said, not minding it at all. He was smiling still, even wider now that she had pretty much given him free reign to tinker with the ship. He was already toying with the various ways he might integrate his own technology with that of this ship. It would be a totally new experience, and probably a lot of fun as long as he didn't blow himself up. He snapped out of his little daydream when Nastusia started to talk again.
"Well I learned two people's names back at Edanith. Neve and Eve... though I don't think I pronounce them quite right in their language." He admitted his ignorance about the human tongue, but it seemed Captain Nastusia was willing to help him learn.
When she said her own name in the human tongue he listened closely, watching her mouth form the word and judging the pitch and tone. He gave it a try but it came out sounding more like a sneeze than anything else. His mouth was just too differently shaped to properly form the word correctly.
"I don't know if my kind can master this language..." He said with a little frustrated frown but was willing to keep trying at it. He repeated her name over and over, each time improving just a little bit. He looked hilarious the way he was screwing up his face in an attempt to form the word properly, almost like a dog with peanut butter stuck on it's gums. After about the fiftieth try though the managed to say something that sounded like her name.
"Nastusiar." It had a little growling 'r' sound at the end but other than that it was nearly perfect. His face lit up with a grin at his small accomplishment.
-
“Neve and Eve,” she laughed, “Oh my, that is awesome. That would be even funnier if it was a mage and mordecai duo.”
Neve and Eve, it sounded like an unfortunate pair of twins. She found it funny that he made the effort to pronounce her name, she hadn’t intended him to, she would have probably got him to say ‘Nas’ or ‘Naz’ or something like that. But if he wanted to try she wasn’t going to stop him, and he actually got quite close.
“I imagine human language is quite difficult to learn for Kitsunes, you just can’t produce the right sounds. It’s the same the other round though; I imagine my kitsune has a very strong accent to it.”
[OOC For reference Nastusia is pronounced 'nas-stu-zha' my brother tried to pronounce it and said 'nas-stu-see-ah' which is wrong >.<]
-
"They were a mage and mordecai pair though..." Tetroneaque said, not really finding the humor behind it. It was kind of hard to laugh at something like slavery of another sentient being, and to have someone forcing another to use their magic against their will seemed close to rape in his opinion.
"Eve was the one being used, the mage of the pair. She seemed nice enough... Neve was rather mean though. How can any society prosper under such barbaric customs? Why punish someone for being different? It's the differences that make beings special in their own way." Tetroneaque stated. He shook his head, he just didn't understand why a civilization would do such a thing but there had to be some reason they would. People didn't usually just do evil for the sake of evil, in fact people rarely did things they considered to be evil themselves. Yet those that did evil in the name of good were the most dangerous of all, and that's what Tetroneaque thought of the people of Edanith.
-
“Ah, I see,” Nastusia replied.
She felt a little bad at laughing at their names but what were the chances of a mage and their mordecai’s name rhyming?
“People are afraid of what is different. Edanith doesn’t have slavery in its military like it does because it hates the mages, but because the people fear them.”
She sat back down at the table, “Edanith was once a country called Connlaoth, and they feared mages as well. The Mordecai then were slightly different, instead of controlling magic they just blocked it. There wasn’t government endorsed slavery of mages then. Instead they were just killed. Make your own judgement as to which is worse.”
Sighing, she continued, “On Earth, in Aedolis specifically, psychics are forced into the military, they are enslaved as well. It’s just the way of things. I have lived a long time and things rarely change as much as they appear to…I’m sorry if I seem a little insensitive towards it all, I have seen a lot after all. I’m just a grumbling old woman at times complaining about the ‘youth of today’.”
-
Tetroneaque cocked his head to one side for a moment and thought about what Nastusia had said. Back where he came from every Kitsune had psychic and mage like powers, and they only got stronger with age. Yet since everyone had those powers, no one thought about them that much because there was really no way one might abuse them.
"It kind of makes sense in a morbid sort of way. I guess that means I can't go to either side for help. On one hand I have magic, thus Edanith will hate and fear me as I've already witnessed first hand... even though I didn't do anything to them... Then on the other hand these Aedolis people would want me because of my pyschic abilities, even if they're not particularly strong abilities." Tetroneaque let out a sigh at that thought. It seemed this galaxy was utterly insane, with a few glimmers of hope floating about like Nastusia.
"I guess I'm even more fortunate than I thought that I met you then. You seem like the only person that won't turn me over to be dissected and studied." He said, managing a small shy smile at that.
"All the more reason to do anything I can to help you then." He said perking back up.
"I don't know if this matters to you or anything, but one such as you would be highly respected among my kind." He stated and meant every word of it. Not just because she had lots of experience and knowledge she might share, but also because she was compassionate toward others in need and could see the injustice of what Edanith and Aedolis were doing. They may have tried to justify their enslavement of those with magical or psychic gifts, but in the end he was sure they were wrong no matter the reason why.
-
Nastusia sighed, “I have some psychic ability and magic as well. And on top of that I caused a lot of trouble for TRIM. I am wanted by the world’s three major powers. They haven’t caught me yet though and I don’t intend them to.”
“I’m not the only good person in the galaxy, in this area of the universe we have a saying ‘The stars shine brightest when the night is darkest’. Yes there is evil but there is also good, there are many who fight against the injustices. In Aedolis some of its psychics are spies working within the government to stop the oppression of its people. And there are many groups in Edanith that are fighting for the mages’ freedom.”
She had ties to all the major countries and settlements in the galaxy and she often saw people who would certainly count as stars shining amongst the darkness. There was Keir for one as well as her Gospel contact and Dier who had once worked for TRIM but realised the wrong they were doing.
“If you stay in this galaxy long enough I’m sure you will find more people like me.”
Tetro had suggested amongst his kind that she would be respected. When she had been an information dealer, she traded to pirates but they did respect her for her knowledge and experience. With governments and law abiding people in general however she wasn’t often taken seriously.
“In human terms I look physically age 12, still a child. Not many people take me seriously because of that. And immortals tend to have a bad reputation, they’re generally considered eccentric…”
[OOC Yay I used RotE's motto!]
-
"I see how that might be a problem. Among my kind we sprout new tails as we grow older so we are always quite sure around how old one of our own is. I guess I just took that for granted..." He said musing over what she said. Of course he didn't care how old she looked or if she was immortal.
"Anyway, you're probably right. I've only been in this galaxy a few days. I suppose I just let my terrible experiences with Edanith and TRIM sour my outlook a bit, though what she told me certainly doesn't make this area seem like a great place to live if you excuse me saying so." He added with a wry chuckle. It was good that she knew others who weren't helping to enslave the magical and physic population.
"So after we reacquire the Fury, what are our plans Captain?" He really wanted to know, as the way things sounded they may have to spend quite some time on the little ship. Earth and Mars both certainly sounded dangerous to him, but he had a feeling the Captain had many tricks up her sleeve to help them. After all, one didn't live for eternity without learning a thing or two, right?
Tetroneaque's ears perked as he heard a little ringing sound near the bathroom. He quickly padded over to investigate the sound, after all a mechanic needed to know a ship inside and out if they wanted to be any good at their job. He discovered his garments cleaned and neatly folded on a shelf near the shoot he had placed them in earlier. He quickly dressed, putting his shirt, lab coat, and pants back on. They smelled nice now, like a warm summer day. He also took the time to go into the bathroom and grab his exo-suit control glove and put it on his left hand once again.
That done he went back to the cockpit to speak some more with the Captain.
"So Captain," he liked saying it to be truthful, "what's the plan? I don't really want to hurt anyone if we can avoid it."
-
“After we get the Fury back? Hmm…don’t know,” she said shrugging, “I tend to work on the spur of the moment. As for plans in regard to getting the Fury back, well you can come with me I suppose, and won’t have to hurt anyone. I was just going to stun people anyway. I think I’ve caused enough destruction for today.”
After they retrieved it, then it would be get the hell away and then probably sleep, it would be late by then. But plans for the next day, she’d think about later.
“We’ve probably got a couple of hours before we enter Mars’ atmosphere so until then, you’re free to do whatever you wish. I need to work out a landing area for the ship and a route to take to get to your vehicle.”
-
"Well the vehicle should be easy enough to find. I doubt they've managed to find a way to move it without triggering it's defense mechanisms, so it should be right where I parked it... at the main entrance of Edanith's capital city. I think they called it Tynova?" He started feeling a bit nervous about heading back to the place that had arrested him for simply being a Kitsune. Though he would have loved to see the look on Neve's face when they came and took back the Fury.
"I guess I'll leave you to your work and explore the ship a bit if that's all right." She didn't say no so he left the cockpit and started to explore a bit. He'd already seen the kitchen and the bathroom so he skipped those. He found a door that didn't seem to have any warning on it so he opened it. Inside was a small room that was mostly empty except for some bare furnishings which seemed like a bed of sorts and a few other pieces. Nothing of real interest there so he went to the next door.
Inside was another room much the same as the first. He guessed these were where the ship's crew would sleep... if it had a larger crew. There seemed to be five such doors. He entered one and it was actually rather nicely furnished.
This must be the Captain's room. He quickly closed the door without disturbing anything in there.
I guess I should pick myself out a room since I'm part of the crew now...right? He mentally questioned himself. It seemed a logical thing to do. With a shrug he opened the door next to the Captain's. It was much the same as the earlier barely furnished rooms. He closed the door behind him then.
"I hereby claim this room in the name of first-mate Tetroneaque, chief mechanic of the... the... wait a sec. Does this ship even have a name? I better ask the Captain." He left his newly claimed room and padded back toward the cockpit.
"Excuse me Captain. What is the name of this ship?" It seemed like a stupid question, but he really wanted to know.
-
When Tetro went off to explore the rest of the ship, Nastusia brought up a map of Edanith on the ship’s computer than zoomed in to the Tynova area. And low and behold an unusual looking craft, which she could only assume to be the Fury, was parked as Tetro had said not far from the entrance to the city. The map she was using was updated regularly by hacking into Edanith’s satellites. The map she was looking at was only a couple of hours old.
Hmm…there was a cliff off sorts not too far away, they could park a ways back from its edge, float down then it was a straight run to the craft. Getting back would be the tricky part but that was what the auto-pilot and the remote controls were for. She could call the ship to them when they were ready.
Alternatively she could park the ship right next to the Fury and use her magic to block it. That would be bolder…Well she always liked bold.
“Excuse me Captain. What is the name of this ship?”
“Huh?” Nastusia said, broken from her musings, “Oh it’s…”
A ship needed a name…but what to call it? Maybe she should name it something meaningful to her and her new first mate…Wait! She had the perfect name!
“It’s called the Vulpecula.”
[OOC Wiki 'Vulpecula' to discover my genius ^^]
-
Tetroneaque's smile dominated his face at the mention of the ship's name. He found it oddly reassuring somehow, and it had a really nice ring to it even in his language.
"I love it!" He declared with a happy yip and much wagging of tails. If he had any doubts about how well he'd get along with the Captain, they pretty much vanished at that point...not that he had any doubts to begin with.
"By the way, I'll be sleeping in the room next to yours if that's okay with you Captain." He stated and went to take a little nap before they arrived. He had been in and out of consiousness the whole time with TRIM's scientists, but he had not had anything near what one might call 'a good night's sleep'.
"Just wake me when we get there. I want to make sure the sonic disruptors or gravity cannons don't accidentally go off while we load the Fury. While you might be immortal I don't have such luck." He added with a chuckle which turned into a yawn. He padded down the hall and toward his room and went inside.
This room could really use a few homey touches... oh well, at least it has a bed. He thought and plopped down on the bed. He disrobed and placed his garments on the one chair in the room, placing the chair next to his bed. His glove he set on top of the little side table by the bed. It seemed an odd sleeping arrangement with the way the bed was shaped, but it would do for now.
He made the covers into a sort of nest and curled up in the middle, propping his chin on the pillow. His tails curled around him like an over sized cat, and in no time at all he was snoring quite contentedly.
-
Nastusia was glad Tetro liked the name, it just seemed fitting what with their talk of stars earlier and Tetro being a fox. No-one really cared for constellations any more but the medieval world certainly had.
Nastusia went to the room Tetro had chosen and knocked, “I’m going to turn off the auto-pilot in a minute because we’re almost there.”
If he didn’t hear, she’d have to use the intercom but hopefully he would. She headed into the control room and sat in the pilots chair before turning the auto-pilot off. Space travel had been around a while now and being immortal she had had plenty of practice and was a pretty good pilot. There had been space travel around when she was a lot younger but they didn’t let children into space then.
She headed straight towards Mars, through an area she knew didn’t have any ships to stop her. They’d fly across the surface to the Tynova area.
-
Tetroneaque's ears shot up to attention as he heard the knock on his door and the Captain informing him they were near their destination. He let out a yawn and rubbed his eyes a little as he sat up.
"A nice nap, I just wish it could have been a bit longer." He said to himself as he stretched a little and hopped out of bed. He dressed quickly, placing his very special glove on last. Within the minute he was awake and ready, and already going toward the control room to find the Captain.
"I'm ready for whatever you're planning Captain." He stated happily. Though he really wasn't one for action most of the time it was going to feel good to be able to get his property back from those that would use it for evil. He watched in fascination as Nastusia expertly piloted the Vulpecula toward Mars. For some reason the planet reminded him of nothing so much as a giant mote of rust.
"How long have they been on Mars? It seems like they have a lot of terraforming left to do. Odd... we usually have the planet totally terraformed before we move any significant population to a planet." He mentioned, just thinking out loud.
-
“There have been people on Mars a few hundred years now, but as you said they’re still terra forming. Humans originate from Earth but it started dying, some remained but most chose to leave. They didn’t have time to wait till it was completely habitable.
She piloted the ship over the barren surface until Tynova was on the horizon.
“Since you’re my first mate Tetro, what do you want to do? I could land the ship on the nearby cliff and we climb or float down or I could just park it next to the Fury and place a barrier on it. What do you think?”
-
"They've been there a few hundred years and that's all they've done??? It usually only takes three or four standard Kitsune years to totally turn a barren chunk of rock into a lush hospitable planet... why does it take them so long?" He wondered out loud and then turned his attention toward the Captain's question.
Tetroneaque thought about the choices for a moment, looking at the display of the area that the Captain was showing him. He took the lay of the terrain into account, his average running speed, and several other factors added to the equation. After pondering on it for a few moments the best plan easily presented itself.
"Well, if you're sure you can create a barrier large enough to cover the Vulpecula and the Fury simultaneously then I would suggest we get in as close as possible so I can simply board the Fury and take it into the Vulpecula's cargo hold. Even if they have soldiers near the Fury my exo-suit will protect me quite well until I can board it. Don't worry about the size of the Fury, it's legs are capable of retracting into themselves a bit to help it fit into tight spaces." Tetroneaque paused a moment considering the plan.
"Once I'm inside the Fury you won't need to worry about it as I can then activate all of it's shielding. From what I've seen the Edanith weapons and mages will have little effect on it once the shields are up and running. Once it's secure in the cargo hold we simply take off as fast as we can and no one need take even a bruise." It was a sound plan but it all hinged on the Captain being as powerful a magic user as she claimed to be. He didn't have any doubts about that though. After all, he had no reason to doubt her.
"This plan is the most likely to succeed even though it brings us into direct confrontation with the enemy as we are exposed the least amount of time. If we landed and went on foot we might run across unsuspected patrols, sensor arrays, or accidentally trip an alarm allowing them time to muster a larger force to confront us or perhaps even destroy the Fury. Needless to say this would most likely cause us, well you, to harm them in some way to keep us safe. I currently have no weapons and my magic is not really something I could use for combat." While Tetroneaque may have had difficulty in social situations and with knowing when people were telling him the truth or not, he was however an excellent strategist when given the opportunity. As back on his home world he had spent a lot of time studying history and battles so he could create better weapons and defenses for the different tasks. Not to mention all the war games he'd played over the years.
-
“I think you’re being a little unfair on them,” Nastusia replied in regard to the years that Mars had been terra-forming, “Kitsune years probably differ from humans years and it seems as if you race has much more advanced technology. Humanity has a tendency of destroying itself and ending back at square one.”
“Creating a big enough barrier should be easy though; I could create one to cover the entire planet if I wanted. That sound’s like a good plan though. Let’s go.”
She accelerated and began descending so they roughly land a few feet away from the Fury. As she expected they were spotted and immediately the Edanithis began firing at them. That was easily taken care of, she put a barrier up and the bullets and spells simply turned to dust on impact.
Then she began the descent causing many of the scientists around the Fury to flee in terror. As the ship hit the ground she turned it, placing it exactly 2 metres away from the Fury. Then she expanded the barrier.
“Okay then, Tetro,” she laughed, “Ready?
[OOC Suckage and Fail >.<]
-
Tetroneaque was very impressed with the sheer amount of magic the Captain was using. She was easily the equal of any member of the Council of Nine back in his galaxy. His fur was starting to stand on end just from the magic being used by Nastusia, giving him a puffy look. He quickly smoothed down some of his fur and activated his exo-suit.
"Ready Captain Nastusia!" He said with surprisingly good cheer considering they were landing in what basically amounted to a war zone now.
As soon as the ship's doors opened he hopped out and started to run toward the Fury. Luckily for him no one seemed to be around it, the technicians and such having fled at the sight of the seemingly invincible Vulpecula. He stood directly beneath the Fury's 'body' and then manipulated the green crystal on his exo-suit's glove.
"Activate transport beam." He stated loudly.
"Voice recognition confirmed. Bioscan complete. Identity confirmed. Activating transport beam." The Fury replied in the same series of barks, yips, and growls. The fact that the giant, mechanical, ten legged spider spoke by barking might have been viewed as quite comical by some if the situation was different. The beam of light appeared and enveloped Tetroneaque, instantly sending him into the piloting pod of the Fury.
Tetroneaque's hands flew across the controls, which consisted mainly of various crystals of different shapes, sizes, and colors. They began to hum at his touch and more than a few began to glow. The shimmering around the Fury increased in intensity as it's shields went to full power. Then the Fury's legs began to retract into themselves, effectively shrinking the vehicle down to a much shorter version. Within a few more seconds the legs had totally vanished and the craft was hovering mere inches above the ground. It would easily fit into the cargo hold of the Vulpecula now and he maneuvered it to do just that. Less than a minute had passed since the landing, and already the Fury was secure inside the Vulpecula. He activated the communications of the craft then, again overpowering all communication devices within miles. His face appeared on screens and his voice came over radios and the like.
"Fury secured Captain, let's get out of here!" He stated, knowing that only Nastusia would be able to understand him. Then another thought came to him and made him smile, though his helmet blocked that from anyone seeing.
I hope Neve and Eve saw all this. He thought and then broke into barking laughter.
-
Neve leant on the edge of the window sill staring out at nothing in particular. Since he’d taken Tetroneaque to TRIM, life had been boring thankfully. A few technicians had been killed and some injured but it was their own fault really. Other than that they’d been a couple of mages come in and that was it.
He pushed off the window and stretched, maybe he’d go find Eve to do some training with her magic. As he began to step away however he noticed something sparkling in the distance, then as it came closer he was able to see it was a ship.
Whoever was piloting that must be crazy, they were being shot at and it was tiny! …But wait…the bullets and magic were disintegrating, the shields on it must be amazing. Then it landed right next to the Fury.
He continued to watch with interest as none other than the purple Kitsune himself ran out of the small ship and into the other vehicle. He didn’t recognise the other person who came out of it but they looked like just a child. There was a barrier of magic surrounding both ships, but as far as he was aware Tetroneaque didn’t have that kind of power…the child must be a mage, an insanely powerful one.
There were a couple of beeps from behind him, obviously from the communicators of other Mordecai. His hadn’t thankfully; instead he’d just enjoy the show. It seemed that the fox had found quite a powerful friend, heheh. Neve didn’t usually find things funny but the unfolding events certainly were. Then the fox’s face appeared on the room’s screen. Yep, it was definitely Tetroneaque…
Then there was an offending beep from his communicator…Great…He stepped away from the window and began casually walking down, why rush if that mage’s barrier was strong enough there was no way that Edanith’s weapon were getting through it.
/////////////
Nastusia sat on the ramp whilst Tetro ran into the Fury. She dangled her legs over the side and swung them back and forth, whilst the mages beyond the barrier pelted it with magic. They were not going to break it anytime soon. Any mage powerful enough to manage it would not have gotten caught by Edanith.
The Fury shrunk in size then and Tetro began loading it into the Vulpecula. She mean while ran back into the ship and into the control room. Then when she got the all clear, started the flight sequence.
The Vulpecula shot up into the atmosphere. They had attracted some attention now and a lot of ships were moving to intercept them.
“This is going to be a bit bumpy,” she said over the intercom to Tetro, “I’d advise you secure yourself to something.”
-
Tetroneaque simply stayed inside the Fury. If she wanted him in a secure area, then it wouldn't get much more secure than where he was currently. He activated the restraining harness on the Fury, basically it was just a fancy seat belt of sorts.
Well we got the Fury back, and no one has been hurt... yet. I wish there was something more I could do help. Tetroneaque thought to himself. He some weapons on the Fury, but no way to use them from inside the Vulpecula.
Maybe after I've had some time to outfit the Vulpecula with the Fury's weaponry and shields. I guess I can help next time we get into trouble. That thought made him chuckle a little. He activated his communications systems again to ask the Captain if he could do anything, though he doubted it.
"Captain, is there anything I can do to assist in our escape?" He asked. Unknowingly to him, his communications was overriding the com-systems of the pursuing spacecraft and making it quite difficult for them to coordinate with each other. The incessant barking and yipping of Tetroneaque's speech blasting over their own systems.
-
Nastusia was surprised when the ships started backing away…that was strange. But then again Tetro’s face was on her computer screen as well. His signal must be broadcasting on every frequency. That would have to be amended later.
Now clear of ships, she pushed the ships forward into space; leaving the red planet behind.
“Okay, all clear now,” Nastusia said over the intercom, “You can come back into the living area now.”
She headed back into the main part of ship and collapsed into one of the comfy chairs. The magic she used hadn’t been a lot but she was just generally tired. It had been kind of a long day.
-
Tetroneaque was surprised that things seemed to conclude so quickly.
I wonder what happened... He turned off the Fury's systems, deactivating all of it's security measures just to be safe. He didn't want something accidentally setting it off while it was inside the Vulpecula. He exited the Fury and made his way toward the living area and was glad to see Nastusia there. He deactivated his exo-suit, causing it to retract to a mere glove once again. Then with a happy yip he plopped down into the free chair across from the Captain. He was sitting in such a way that his tails were free to swish around.
"That was easier than I thought it would be. What happened to the pursuit there at the end? They just kind of gave up." He commented. The Kitsune didn't seem to know that he had been the one to drive them off.
-
“Oh, I think your communication frequency of the Fury interfered with their onboard computers and communication,” she replied, “It did the Vulpecula as well I didn’t have to worry about keeping in contact with other ships though.
Not that was over with she’d have to think of a destination. But wherever she went TRIM, would be there, and going back to the Cancer was a bad idea. It’d have to be the Libra then. Maybe she could kind some way of disguising Tetro.
Nastusia leant back in her chair a bit, “We’ll probably head to Libra next. There aren’t many places I can go for a while and you’ll attract a fair bit of attention. The Libra’s a space station a little ways from here. It’ll probably take a couple of days to get there.”
-
"Oh, I hadn't really thought about that..." Tetroneaque muttered, thinking about his Fury's communication system. "I think I'll install the Fury's communication system into the Vulpecula later, if I modify it a bit I might be able to turn it into a high powered jamming device against other ships." He stated as he moved around in the chair a bit, trying to get more comfortable. It was kind of hard as there wasn't a hole near the back for his tails to slip through. Eventually he settled for curling up like an over sized cat, so as not to crush his tails. He listened to what the Captain had to say the entire time he was fidgeting though.
"A space station eh? That sounds interesting." The tips of his tails twitched a tiny bit as he thought.
"Is there any chance that they like Kitsune there?" He asked, not really expecting a favorable answer.
-
“They probably won’t hate you,” Nastusia replied, “You’ll just find you a little unusual…”
She liked his suggestion of some kind of jamming device, not that she had much of a use for one but still it might come in handy.
As she had said, the Libra was fairly friendly; the Cancer would be better to head to what with Tetro’s unusual appearance but shouldn’t go back there. The Libra was the next best thing.
She yawned; she was kind of tired what with amount of magic she used. She rose from her seat and stood up.
“Sorry if I seem rude Tetro but it’s late and I have used more magic than usual today,” she said, “So I think I’m going to turn in. You may explore the ship if you wish and make yourself at home.”
-
"As long as they don't want to ship me off to TRIM or enslave me I'll be fine with them." Tetroneaque commented about the people they might run across at the space station. He simply smiled at the Captain as she got up to leave for her bed.
"I understand Captain. I hope you sleep well." He waved at her with his three tails, continuing to smile his foxy little grin at her as he did so right up till she left the room. He let out a yawn of his own and was thinking of simply going to bed too, then his stomach growled at him to fill it.
"Well, I do need to keep my strength up..." He said to himself and got up from the chair and padded into the kitchen.
He wasn't sure what everything was in the cupboard, as he still couldn't read anything written in the human language. He decided to simply rely on his nose to tell him what would be tasty.
He opened one jar full of a gummy tan substance. He sniffed at it for a moment, decided he liked the smell, and thus dipped a finger into the substance so he could taste the stuff.
"Mmmm. That's pretty good!" He decided to simply consume the jar of peanut butter then and there as his stomach took over. He forced his muzzle into the jar and started to gobble the stuff down. It was kind of hard to eat it rapidly though as it kept getting stuck to the roof of his mouth, causing him to pull his muzzle out of the jar and make some loud smacking sounds as he licked at the inside of his own mouth.
It took longer than expected but he finished off the whole jar.
"That was a nice substance... I wonder what else there is to eat though." His stomach still wasn't satisfied. Soon he went to work in earnest on the pantry's contents. Chips, jams, jellies, junk food of all kinds, it all met the same fate. The fridge was next in the Kitsune's assault against all things edible. All those salty snacks had made him rather thirsty. He found a large pitcher of some sort of clear yellowish liquid that smelled faintly acidic. He gave it a try, decided he liked it, and drained the remainder of the lemonade.
After a few more minutes the fridge was nearly as empty as the pantry now was. He stopped himself and gave out a burp.
"Much better..." He murred happily and pat his stomach, which was surprisingly the same size as before he had started. He cleaned up the mess he'd made and then went to his room to sleep. Lucky for Nastusia he hadn't gotten into the frozen storage for the rest of the food.
Tetroneaque stripped out of his garments, curled up on his bed, and quickly dozed off. He finally felt safe since his arrival in this galaxy.
-
Nastusia entered her bedroom and kicked off her boots. Her room was very well decorated as she had transferred a lot of things to it from her apartment on the Cancer. On one wall was a large cork board and pinned to it were various photographs. Nastusia was visible in some of them and there were even some brown tinted ones with her looking considerably younger. Keir was on some of them as well with varying hair lengths. There were also pictures of the Pent Family who ran the Songbird Bar on the Cancer. In some of them the two children were just that, children.
As well as humanoid creatures there were lots of clearly non-humans too, including the Kitsune she had learnt the language from. How long ago had he died…a long time certainly.
On the opposite wall was Nastusia’s bed on which was a gold and red duvet. Above her bed was a gold and white dream catcher and on the bedside table was a vase of fake white flowers.
Nastusia sat down on her bed a moment and glanced at the wall of pictures. Then she stood up and unzipped her dress letting it fall to the floor. Next she retrieved a nightshirt from the closet and pulled it on after removing her underwear.
After shoving her clothes in the laundry shoot, she finally she got into bed and allowed herself to drift off to sleep.
[OOC Tetro's going to have to wake her up, Nastusia is a VERY heavy sleeper and not a morning person lol]
-
Tetroneaque slept for several hours, how long exactly he couldn't say. It was rather hard to determine time when none of the clocks had characters he could understand and there was no sunrise of sunset in space. The Kitsune felt rested though so that was all that really mattered to him. He stretched out a bit with a yawn, using the claws on his foot to scratch behind one of his ears. It was a bad habit he'd had ever since he was a kit, but there was no one around to lecture him on it.
He yawned again and finally got out of bed. The pads on the bottom of his feet hit the cold floor and he let out surprised yelp and jumped up in the air.
"Got to get some carpeting in here..." He made a mental note of that. He quickly dressed in his usual white garb, leaving his exo-suit control glove on the small table by his bed. He didn't see any need for the protection as long as he was on board the Vulpecula.
He left his room and made his way to the living area. No one there. He went over to the cockpit. Nope, no one in there either. The kitchen, bathroom, and cargo holds were all devoid of life as well. Which meant the Captain was still asleep. He didn't know how long a normal human slept, let alone an immortal. If she was sleeping, she wake when she was ready. At least that was Tetroneaque's theory.
Since he dared not mess with the controls of the ship, and was still satiated by his little snack before he slept, he decided to do something constructive.
Tetroneaque went to the cargo hold where the Fury was and went into the vehicle. He grabbed a load of his tools and items from inside and carried them to his room. He made several such trips, getting a good many of his belongings out of the craft and stowed in his room. The most important of all these was the large data crystal, which he handled with the utmost care. He set that on the center of his bed, by itself.
The Fury finally cleaned out he decided to start taking it apart with some of the tools he had brought.
"I think I'll start by making a couple things to make the Captain's life easier." He said with a grin. He removed one of the crystals from the Fury's control console and cut it into about a dozen smaller crystals with a fusion cutter. He smiled at his work and then began removing some of the wires and metal panels from the Fury, making sure to cut all power first.
He was busy working with the metal, wires, and crystals. It took him quite some time, as he lost track of how long he worked, but eventually he stood up and wiped some sweat from his brow. He simply stood there and admired his work for a few moments. Where there had simply been some parts, there now stood a dozen miniature versions of the Fury.
"Activate." He stated. The little Furies all stood up and seemed to be awaiting further orders.
Tetroneaque began to laugh as he thought how happy the Captain would be. These little creations would be able to maintain the ship, as well as each other. Not only would they take care of repairs but they'd also do any cleaning that wasn't already automated. He'd had many of these things in his lab, and they had always proved invaluable there. So having some to help maintain the Vulpecula was the only logical thing to do.
"As soon as I can download the Vulpecula's blueprints and other technical readouts into yall, you can all get to work. Let's go show the Captain, shall we?" Tetroneaque said in a delighted tone. The twelve tiny, ten-legged spider like robots fell into line behind Tetroneaque as he led the way toward the Captain's quarters.
He stood outside her door for a moment, not sure if he should wake her yet. After all she had used a lot of magic... then again she had been sleeping an awful long time by his reckoning. Tetroneaque finally decided to simply knock and wake her up.
He rapped on her door a few times.
"Hello? Captain? Are you up yet? I have something I want to show you!" He called cheerfully.
-
Nastusia was woken abruptly when she heard a knocking at her door.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, she’d been found, she shouldn’t have fallen asleep.
In her surprise she fell out of bed and very ungracefully onto the floor along with the bed clothes.
Wait…the person on the other side was barking…Okay that was weird…
Then it started to come back to her, rescuing the Kitsune Tetro, making him her first mate and getting his ship back. She hated mornings…
Pulling herself up from the floor, she untangled herself from the sheets.
“Okay, Tetro I’ll be out in a minute.”
She stretched and threw the remains of the bed clothes onto her bed, she’d make it later. Then she pulled her nightshirt off and threw it to the laundry shoot. It missed and she grumbled as she went across to put it in properly.
Next she opened her closet and pulled out a floaty white dress with red embroidery around the collar, as well as some under wear and shoes. After dressing she brushed her hair then entered the living area. She knew she probably still looked like the living dead though.
“Morning,” she said as she entered.
Then she spotted the little spiders behind Tetro, “Aaah!”
[OOC Heheh, you can live for thousands of years, be incredibly wise and intelligent, have enough power to blow up a planet but if you're not a morning person, you're not a morning person XD]
-
Tetroneaque simply grinned at the Captain as she came out, then jumped as she let out a surprised noise. He hurried to assure her that his little creations were not dangerous, before she decided to melt them or something with her magic. He held up his hands in a placating gesture.
"Oh don't worry! I made these little guys to help out around the ship. They're totally harmless! As soon as we download the ship's schematics into them they can keep the place neat and tidy, as well as perform repairs on the go." He hurriedly explained.
He bent down and picked one up with both hands to better show it to Nastusia.
"See? Just little service drones to help out around the ship." He offered the little spider like droid to Nastusia for her to inspect.
-
Nastusia’s brain could not register his hurried explanation having only just woken up, but she got the gist that they were harmless.
“Alright, but next time you wake me up, please do not have mechanical spiders outside my door…”
She headed into the kitchen and pressed the button on the coffee maker to start it. Children shouldn’t drink coffee really but meh, she wasn’t really a child. Whilst it was pouring she went into the refrigerator for an apple. Putting them in there was the only way to keep fruit fresh in space and fruit was one of her favourite foods. Being immortal meant that she didn’t have to eat anywhere near as much as a human but still, she liked food, it tasted nice. As she was about to shut the door she noticed that it looked considerably emptier than it had yesterday.
“Geez, how much do you eat, Tetro,” she asked as she poured the coffee into the mug, “Not that I mind I just need some warning so I know how much to buy.”
With her coffee she sat down at her computer again and checked her emails.
“One,” she thought, “Probably junk.”
She clicked on it and let out a squeal of delight at the name of the sender.
-
Tetroneaque's ears drooped down at how she reacted to his little creations. He had wanted to surprise her. She didn't seem upset though, just kind of cranky so he recovered quite quickly from his disappointment. The twelve little things followed Tetroneaque as he trailed after Nastusia toward the kitchen.
When she started brewing some strange dark liquid he became curious as to what it was. It smelled quite bitter, but Nastusia seemed to enjoy it from what he could tell. His investigation of the drink was interrupted as she commented on his eating habits. His ears drooped again like a scolded puppy, until he was certain she wasn't upset with him.
"I told you I usually eat about three times my own body weight per day... and all that stuff smelled so interesting that I just had to sample it all." He explained, knowing it was a weak excuse. He waited for her to leave the kitchen before going over toward the coffee and pouring a small amount into a bowl. He lapped up some of the coffee and let out a "Blech!" noise as he his face screwed up.
"That stuff is so bitter! What does she find so appealing about it?" He asked aloud. He looked around and found some sugar, he poured a hefty amount into the bowl of coffee he had and tasted it again. It was actually pretty good now.
"That's better." He commented with a smile and lapped up the rest of the coffee. He felt an odd buzz down his spine, like he had limitless energy suddenly. Tetroneaque had never had anything like caffeine before, but he kind of liked the feeling. His tails swished back and forth quite rapidly as he got more of a caffeine high. He heard a high pitched squeal from the Captain, causing his ears to slam down flat against his skull.
"Ow ow ow!" He said as he came into the room with the Captain.
"Something exciting happen Captain?" He asked as he rubbed at his ears.
-
“Oh? Sorry Tetro,” she said sheepishly when she noticed that he had his ears flapped down, probably to block out her squeal, “It’s just I got an email from Keir. I haven’t heard from him in nearly three years.”
Keir was an immortal like her and she had met him over 5,000 years ago when he still thought he was mortal. It became clear when he reached age 50 but still looked 30 that there was something definitely wrong. By the time he reached 100 and hadn’t aged since then it was pretty clear, he was immortal too. Unlike Nastusia he hadn’t become eccentric over the years, he had become a bit more bitter and grumpy but certainly not eccentric. Still Nastusia loved him like a brother, even though she looked 12 and he looked 30.
“He’s an old friend,” she continued, “A really old friend; I’ve known him 5,000 years. We tend to drift apart then join up again every hundred years or so.”
They usually kept in contact though and not hearing from him in a while was rare, she had begun to worry. But it seemed he was still alive and well.
“Heard you were still alive Nastusia, more specifically about your little stunt with TRIM and getting that ship off Edanith. I’ve recently left the ship I was working on, got the urge to wander again. I’m currently at the Meteor 307 Service Station, why don’t you pay me a visit if you’re in the area. Keir.”
Nastusia stood up and ran into the control room excitably, “Auto-Pilot set course to Meteor 307.”
She then turned back to Tetro, “You don’t mind if we make a little detour do you?”
-
Tetroneaque merely smiled at Nastusia as his tails continued to swish back and forth at hyper sonic speed. That caffeine certainly seemed to be reacting with his over the top metabolism already.
"It's your ship and your the Captain. I'm just happy to be along for the ride. Plus it will be nice to meet another of your friends. Do you think he'll like me? I'll probably like him if he's anything like you. Does he know Kitsune too or will you have to translate for the both of us?" Tetroneaque was speaking really fast now, and his left eye was twitching just a tiny bit.
"Hey, what do you call that bitter drink you made? I tried some too but it was way to bitter for me so I dumped a bunch of little sweet white crystals into it, and that made it a lot better. I can see why you might like this stuff. It makes me feel a bit funny though. Does it make you feel funny? I feel like I'm talking fast, am I talking fast?" He continued to speak faster and faster as his tails became a blur. His smile was huge and goofy now, and his pink tongue was lolling out of the side of his mouth just a tiny bit.
-
…Okay…The fox was hyper…Had he drunk some of the coffee?
“Yes I think Keir will like you, no he isn’t like me, he’s a little…grumpier but not a totally cold bastard. He knows Kitsune as well, yes.”
His tails were practically a blur…Even if he hadn’t drunk any coffee; caffeine was definitely off limits to him.
Then Tetro said about a ‘bitter drink’ he’d had and about putting some white crystals in. So he’d had coffee and lots of sugar. Oh this was going to be fun…She might have to sedate him…
“It’s called coffee and the white crystals are sugar, you put them in to make it sweeter but I just have it without. I drink it to wake up in the morning or if I need to stay awake. And yes you are talking fast.”
This was going to hurt her a lot more than it would him, “As captain I forbid from drinking coffee again. If you do then I will be forced to sedate you.”
Sighing, she then slumped down into one of the comfy chairs, “We’ll be there in about half an hour, Meteor 307 isn’t too far from our current position.”
-
"Coffee eh? That's kind of fun to say. Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee." Tetroneaque said and then burst into a fit of giggling. He continued to laugh until she forbid him to drink the stuff ever again. His tails stopped cold in their tracks and simply hung there like limp noodles.
"Forbidden? But this stuff is fun!" He practically whined. Then he thought about what she said. It was true this stuff was making him feel all weird and tingly. She was a lot older than him too, so she most likely knew what she was talking about. Also, she was the Captain of the ship and outranked him. Not to mention all the help she'd given him so far. So she obviously wanted what was best for him.
"Alright, if you say so I won't drink any more coffee... no matter how tingly it makes me feel." He stated and nodded his head. He did however start to emit a contented murring noise as his tails started to swing back and forth once more. He couldn't seem to sit still though and sort of paced back and forth for a few moments, the twelve little droids he had built following him like a tiny metal conga line.
"Oh, I know something we can do before we meet your friend! We could go ahead and download the schematics of the Vulpecula into the droids so they can stop following me. Maybe that will help burn off a bit of this energy too." He said. It seemed he was still in a surprisingly good mood even if coffee was now off limits to him now.
-
“Sure,” Nastusia said shrugging and rising from her seat, “Do they use a wireless connection? And can they pick up the frequency from’ the ships computer directly or will I have to convert it?”
They were made from a different technology so for all she knew it might not work. She said about converting it but she wasn’t really sure what to.
“Actually it’s probably better if you come have a look.”
She headed into the control room again and sat down in the pilot’s seat before indicating for Tetro to sit in the co-pilots one. The Vulpecula didn’t have a co-pilot yet and it didn’t really need one but it might come in useful. Maybe she’d invite Keir to come with them, he was just as good a pilot as she as, maybe better. He was a good mechanic too. Actually Keir could pretty much do any role on a ship and had done at various points in his life, mechanic, pilot, co-pilot, navigator, janitor, chef, medic. Like her he was indeed a man of many talents.
She turned the ship’s main computer on and brought up the schematics for the Vulpecula.
“So, how shall we download it to the…mini-Fury…things…”
-
Tetroneaque sat down where she indicated, but couldn't help but fidget a bit as the caffeine worked it's way through his system. He waited while Nastusia brought up a display of the ship's schematics and smiled that goofy grin of his again. He bent down and picked up the first of the twelve of his little creations and held it up toward the screen.
"Assimilate." He commanded the droid. It crawled out of his hands and a small beam of light emitted from the one 'eye' on the device. It went up and down the display a few times and one of it's legs extended a small wire which hooked into the control console itself. If one looked closely they would notice the wire changing shape to fit into the console. After a about thirty seconds the droid let out a beep, the 'eye' changed from orange to green, and it detached itself from the console and walked away.
"That was easy enough." Tetroneaque said happily and then repeated the process for the remaining eleven.
"Well, that killed six minutes." He stated as the last of the twelve scurried off to do it's duties with the others.
"They'll be using wireless communication with each other to coordinate their duties. They'll keep everything clean that isn't already automated by the ship, and do repairs as well. If something should go very wrong they can also exit through the airlock and perform repairs on the exterior of the ship as well." He stated quite happy with his little creations.
"So, now what do you want to do now?" He asked, since they still had a little over twenty minutes before they arrived at their destination.
-
Nastusia was impressed when the cable moulded itself to fit the port in the computer and also at Tetro’s explanation of what the…mini-fury…things could do.
What should they do now though? The mini-furys would tidy things up and the ship was in pretty good repair. Besides taking the panels off, moving things inside around and putting the panels back on again would take more than half an hour.
“Hmm…well…you could tell me what you want in your room and I can make a list. Then when we get to the Libra we can buy anything we need.”
Keir always carried everything he kept in his room on the various ships with him. The usual things such as clothes, photos, tools, his guitar. Even when she first met him he had a guitar, it wasn’t the same one now, that had been an acoustic one and his current one was electric. It even had a little computer on it to make it sound like any instrument. Tetro might not like human music but if she did invite Keir to come onboard and he agreed then the fox would have to get used to it.
“If there specific you’d like in it? The majority of my room is boxes; I have a lot of magical artefacts and things like that. I haven’t gotten round to unpacking them all yet but it will probably look like a ancient treasury in there once I’ve finished,” she laughed.
[OOC Think Howl's room in Howl's Moving Castle ^^]
-
Tetroneaque thought for a few moments and then started to list things off that he'd like for his room.
"Well, some rugs or carpet would be nice. It's a bit of a surprise to wake up and have my pads hit that cold metal floor in the morning. Also a traditional Kitsune bed would be a plus, I doubt we'll find one of those though but we might be able to make one. It's sort of a circular version of the bed you have, except more pillows to nestle down in." Tetroneaque explained, making the bed sound like an over sized doggy bed with his explanation.
"Some shelves would also be appreciated, and a work desk. I brought in my belongings from the Fury already, but I don't really have anywhere to store most of it. So I guess some storage containers of various sizes would be quite handy as well. I would like to continue my inventing while on board if that's alright." He had most of those supplies so he was set in that way, he just needed a workstation of sorts.
Another thought came to Tetroneaque then but he felt a little ashamed to ask for it, but decided why not?
"A mini-fridge would be pleasant as well so I could have a few snacks without having to go all the way to the kitchen." He looked down and away from Nastusia at that comment.
"I just know I"m forgetting something though. Any suggestions?" He asked sheepishly as his tails slowly started to wag a little.
-
“There’s some spare carpet in one of cargo hold’s closets, you can have that if you don’t mind red. I think the bed will have to be made though…”
The traditional Kitsune bed sounded like a dog’s bed though she suspected he might be offended at the implication. Dogs had gotten as big as people nowadays so maybe she could point a dog-bed out to him to see if it was okay. And just not tell him what it was…
“As for a desk, there should be one that pulls out for the wall, the same with shelves. I’ll use the ones in my room eventually once I unpack all my boxes. Containers…are you sure you’ll fill all the closets? They are a lot bigger than they look on the outside...”
The closest were built into the walls so unless you knew they were there you probably wouldn’t notice. His suggestion at a mini-fridge so was surprising, he was certainly lazy…Was he going to shut himself in his room inventing all day? She didn’t mind him doing it as long as he at least surfaced sometimes…
“Sure, you can continue to invent just make sure there isn’t bits of machines lying around the living area and the control room. And if you’re doing something which requires there to be, ask me first okay.”
She neglected to mention the fridge but if he outright asked her again she would just say no. Locking himself in his room was rude and unhealthy.
“I can’t think of anything else though…do you want some more homely touches though? Pictures and posters, that sort of thing, maybe a vase of flowers…Or you could get a map of the system to look at if you want, I could convert it into Kitsune for you.”
-
"Oh yes! Some flowers would be nice, I've always enjoyed the scent of fresh flowers and I must admit that I'm curious to know what the one's in the galaxy smell like." He said with a grin.
"A map of the system would be quite nice too now that you mention it. I need to know my way around this place since it seems I'm going to be here for quite some time." He sounded quite happy with the prospect of staying in this galaxy. Not that he didn't miss his home, it was just that he really didn't get to do much besides invent day in and day out for his government. Here he could make whatever he wanted and actually use his inventions to help his friend.
"And I promise not to leave any mess around the living area. Even if I did our little helpers would put the pieces where they belonged." He added with a barking laugh. As if to punctuate his comment one of the little spider like devices scurried through the room on some errand.
"Thank you so much for all of this." He said and simply hugged her, as she hadn't seemed to mind his hugs the previous times.
-
[OOC Time-skip ^^]
“People shouldn’t stare at you here,” Nastusia said to Tetro as she descended the ramp of the Vulpecula, “You get some funny sorts here. They won’t bat an eyelid at you.”
She couldn’t wait to see Keir again and it was just like him to meet up with her in a place like this. He was certainly an odd one, but so was she. They were like two peas in a pod, and Tetro was just as strange…maybe stranger. Ah what a crew they’d make, if Keir agreed that is. Maybe if it worked out she’d add another two people completing the crew.
She headed towards the café and pushed the glass doors open. As she expected Keir was sat facing away from the door at a table nearby. Smiling evilly she ran up to him and hugged him behind.
“Why didn’t you call me? I was on the Cancer for 3 years! It would have been nice to know you weren’t dead!”
Keir turned to face her, not looking impressed, “I’m not as reckless as you, and 3 years? That has to be a record. You went that long without causing an uproar?”
At first glance, he looked fairly normal unlike his white-haired, red-eyed friend. He had long brown hair and one of his eyes at least was a normal green, the other however was red like Nastusia’s.
He then seemed to notice Tetro, “Okay…is this a new pet or something?”
-
Tetroneaque followed beside Nastusia closely, not wanting to risk getting separated from her. Plus, she was the only one around that could understand his speech if something went wrong and he got into trouble. With his track record for the past few days it seemed trouble was gunning for the fuzzy little guy.
"What did he say? I don't like being left out of the conversation." Tetroneaque commented and just barely avoiding making a huff sound. He waited patiently for Nastusia to formally introduce him.
[ OOC: Blerg, short and crappy... sorry. ]
-
“In was an in-joke,” Nastusia replied to Tetro, “Don’t worry about it.”
“Kitsune, huh…” Keir said in the Kitsune language.
Being male, his accent was much better than her’s it sounded more like a Kitsune and not a yapping puppy.
“This is Tetroneaque, my first mate,” she said cheerfully, “I just call him Tetro. And Tetro this is Keir, a really old friend of mine. He’s only about half my age even though he looks twice it.”
“Nice to meet you,” Keir said.
Nastusia slid into the seat opposite Keir and indicated for Tetro to do the same.
“So, did you just to want to reminisce or what?” Nastusia said.
“No, I figured since you were on the road again as it were, and space called me we might as well stick together like we usually do.”
Nastusia smiled, “That’s good, I was thinking of inviting you to be part of the crew.”
Keir laughed, “With you as a captain? I think I’d be safer with a dog driving.”
“Hey! I taught you remember!”
“Yeah, but you didn’t know how ships worked until I explained it to you,” he said smirking.
“Well I already have a mechanic, but Tetro doesn’t really know much about ships from this galaxy yet so I’m sure you can teach him. I was thinking more of the co-pilot position for you. And maybe navigator, you have travelled much farther a field than me and you travel the system itself more too.”
He looked thoughtful for a minute, “Alright then. I accept.”
-
Tetroneaque sat down along with the two immortals. He was glad that they could all converse in Kitsune, as that made matters so much easier for himself.
"Nice to meet you Keir. Any friend of Nastusia's is a friend of mine." He stated with a grin. He simply contented himself with sitting back and listening to the two old friends talk a bit. He couldn't help but sniff the air, as it was full of unusual scents and each one seemed to demand his attention. He could make out the smell of coffee though and it set his tails to wagging, until he recalled that the drink was forbidden to him. Something else caught his attention though, another somewhat familiar scent.
He looked around the cafe for a moment, his ears twitching around at various noises, as he searched for the scent.
Then he saw it, just an average looking fellow sitting at another table seemingly minding his own business.
Tetroneaque tugged on Nastusia's sleeve to get her attention.
"That guy over at that table... I don't like him. He smells wrong. He has the same smell as that TRIM building in Edanith and the TRIM ship too... though he seems to be trying to mask it with some flowery scent." Tetroneaque explained.
"The mix of scents is making me nauseous." He added after a moment of sniffing the air. He wasn't worried about being overheard, as the only two people who could understand him were sitting at the table with him anyway. Plus he doubted anyone would try to mess with him as long as he was near Nastusia.
-
[OOC This post sucks so badly >.<]
Nastusia frowned when Tetro said about the mix of smells making him nauseous.
Keir however in his usually blunt way just said, “If that bothers you any of the stations or planets will pose a problem. They are a lot worse.”
There was no changing Keir. She glanced towards the man Tetro mentioned. He wasn’t watching them and he wasn’t dressed like a TRIM worker. Even if he was he didn’t seem interested in them, he probably didn’t realise who Nastusia was.
“We might as well go,” Keir said, “It probably isn’t wise for you stay in one place too long. And if he is a TRIM scientist he might spot Tetroneaque in a moment.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Nastusia said.
Keir started heading off, “I’ve got to get my stuff from my room, then I’ll come join you. You go back to the ship for now.”
Nastusia stood up as well, “Come on Tetro.”
[OOC Wanna timeskip to Keir coming aboard?]
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"Aye aye Captain!" Tetroneaque said, throwing out an old fashioned Kitsune salute. The salute consisted of his tails basically standing at attention, and putting his clenched right hand over his heart. It would have passed as a military maneuver if he hadn't suddenly let a giggle slip out.
"Sorry, I just always wanted to do that. I guess I watched too many old holo-vids back at my lab." He explained as he followed Nastusia back toward the ship.
"I actually like all the different scents on the station. They're interesting. That man though... he smelled like blood, fear, and death masked by some sort of perfume. It was not a pleasant combination." The little Kitsune added, simply wanting to clarify that he'd be fine around so many diverse smells. It was just that particular combination that made him queasy, and probably only because he'd been a 'guest' of TRIM for a few days.
"I like your friend. He seems nice enough."
-
“Yeah, Keir’s a sweetie really, he just seems a bit grumpy,” Nastusia said as they exited the café, Keir had gone off to wherever he was staying.
“He was lot more cheerful when I first met him though, a little strange, but cheerful. He was a bard then, now he works on various ships.”
She had only looked about six when she first met Keir. People used to love their bard duo of Keir and what they saw as a sweet little girl.
Nastusia led Tetro back to the Vulpecula and up the ramp to enter it.
“I shouldn’t think Keir will too long so I’ll start making preparations for take-off.”
-
Tetroneaque nodded and followed Nastusia back on board the ship, glad to be away from the odd smelling man. He pushed that from his mind and settled down into one of the big comfy chairs in the living area, curling up on it like an over sized cat. He rested his chin on his tails, using the giant bushy things like a pillow.
"Any idea where we'll head next Captain?" He asked curiously as he watched one of his mini-furies go rushing by carrying a small load of metal bits.
-
[OOC Craptacular]
Keir came up the ramp then, on his back was a rucksack, in his left hand he was carrying a toolbox and in his right a guitar case. He dropped them a minute and glanced around the ship.
“So this is your ship, huh Nastusia,” Keir said, “Not amazingly big but it seems stable enough. How much did it cost you?”
Nastusia came through to answer his question, “Oh my shop was more than enough to pay for it. It’s called the Vulpecula by the way.”
“The Little Fox? Like the old constellation?”
She smiled and nodded, “Yeah, it seemed appropriate.”
He glanced at Tetro, “Guess it is…”
Nastusia giggled, “As for where next, it was going to be the Libra. But I’m in the mood to recruit more crew. So let’s go to the Cancer instead. We can get supplies from there too.”
“The Cancer?” Keir said sceptically, “You sure? Aren’t TRIM after you? They’ll expect you to be there.”
She nodded, “Yep, I’m sure. I can deal with TRIM.”
Laughing she hurried into the control room, “Auto-Pilot set a course for the Cancer!”