Ghin and Tonic (Smiley and Kitsy!)

[Anonymous]

In the old days, ships could be described as 'lumbering along at the speed of slow.'

Not such the case anymore. Ships zipped by at faster than light, faster than sound, despite there being no sound in space of course, so what were they travelling faster than at that point? Right now that 'lumbering' line would have been nice to describe the ship. Instead they were more or less just...stopped. They floated there, like a leaf on a calm lake. The once powerful engines stuck into the wing of the ship had gone all but dead. He just had to install a sublight engine that utilized inertial forces to propel the ship around didn't he? It had been the safest way of travelling, it didn't pollute, but the only problem was it was finicky. Second hand really.

He knew it had been too cheap to be real.

"Work damn you." A growling hiss as his once clean white hands were now stained with oil and grease as he tried to wedge himself into part of the engine more, getting at the one key spot that could start the chain reaction once more. It was the energy flow diverters, and to replace them, meant to take the engines apart and then put them back together. That took time and money, both of which they had very little of on this ship. Sure they got by nicely, but only because when they were chartered for a delivery, it was on time.

This shipment might be a little late.

With one last hammer from the large wrench he heard the satisfying hiss from the engine and promptly unstuck himself. Good. They had sublight engines again. The man didn't look like a mechanic, oh no, he looked...much too dignified. He wore a long black coat with two rows of silver buttons running up the front of it. Tied around the waist was a rather elaborate belt with a buckle that resembled a phoenix with its wings spread out. His shoulders only looked broad from the design of the jacket, to give it pointed wings with shoulder mark spots for epaulets, which he didn't have on. One could see fine leather shoes with a single worn silver buckle on the front poking out from beneath the long coat, and no doubt one could make out the black loose pants as well.

He was the captain, not the mechanic, and yet here he was down here trying to get the damned engines to work.

This was insufferable.

A quick visit to a wash station and a bit of hard work and his hands were finally back to their pale white. If he was going to be the captain, he was going to try and look the part at least. "Captain Ghin, working in the back of the ship instead of the front. S'almost like I bloody live down here." He cursed to himself as he strode quickly from the somewhat dark engine rooms to find himself back on the bridge. It had been a brisk walk, passing the cargo hold, through crew and passenger quarters, up a flight of stairs and finally in his cockpit. Finally. Bloody hell that had taken just a while hadn't it?

Ghin sank down into the navigation control chair, his hands running along a few buttons as he tried to figure out just where the hell they were headed off to once more. They had a shipment to deliver, at least, he knew they had to meet up with a ship to drop off seven rather large crates.

His hands went to the console and he found the communication broadcaster, he decided if people were sleeping, it was about damn time they woke up, he needed help up here on the bridge. "Alright everyone." His voice carried over internal systems to every room, to every comm device they had installed to a wall or to a computer. "I'm going to need some help on the bridge after I fixed the damned engine all on my own for the umpteenth time. Somebody please get up here and help me pilot this damn ship."

[Anonymous]

A clunking sound was heard in the dark of a room then a set of digital green eyes opened in the dark, they lit the room in a weird way. Taros grunted as he rolled away from the wall.

Ghin.
Loud and angry.
Again.
For the...millionth time maybe.

Taros rubbed his eyes to try and wake up more, an old habit from having human eyes. He leaned and slid his vest off of the chair in front of the desk that was next to his bed. The lights of a computer were shining in it. He buckled the gold buckles of the front of the gray vest. Then he grabbed his cigarettes sliding them into his pocket, then his guns which slid into holsters on the vest, and last but not least a flask. He figured with the way Ghin sounded he might need some...

He went to his door sliding it open with a metal sound. He looked down one end of the hall to the other and smiled a little. He stepped out of his room closing the door behind him. Time to face the music.

It was strange to know someone enough to know when you were gonna get yelled at, and they weren't a women that is. They always seems to get mad at the same things...you won't stop smoking, you won't stop drinkin' and you're in bed with another woman...

Women.

[Anonymous]

Liam’s dark purple eyes gazed a bit tiredly up at the intercom as the captain’s voice rang out into the empty dining room. With a small sigh he stood, dark brown hair falling into his eyes a bit as his lanky form moved. He could already feel the pricking of  Ghin’s annoyance from here, and of course it had been yet another night without any sleep. It wasn’t so bad if he could get an hour or two in but tonight rest had eluded him. Oh well, his body would drain eventually and sweet unconsciousness would find him. At least for a little while.

As he moved away from the table, the chair he had occupied began to push its self back into place. At least, that’s what it seemed to be doing. However if one where to look closely they would see a jet black tail wrapped around the chair that was attached to Liam. He put his hands into the pockets of his black jeans while the tail unwrapped it’s self and began to walk toward the bridge. He started to yawn, but was interrupted by a flash of green rushing past him and a warning hit his ears.

“Avert your virgin eyes, my friend!”

A smile crept onto Liam’s face as he watched his friend run past him. Will. A familiar weight settled on Liam’s head and a squeaky voice giggled maliciously and spoke.

“Avert the innocent opticals!”

Purple eyes rolled.  “Tika get off my head.”

A long skinny face appeared in front of Liam’s face and tiny orange eyes peered into his.

“Remove thyself?”

“Yes remove thyself, I wanna see what he’s doing.”

“Oooooh, something baaaaad.”

Will had made it to Taros’ room before the big lug had roused himself. Perfect! The green haired menace rubbed his hands over his dark green t-shirt, and his fingers moved quickly to his belt buckle, working the clasp. Bending over he spoke loud enough for Taros to hear him behind the door, sniggering inwardly.

“Taros! Quick get out here, you have to see this moon!”

[Anonymous]

Taros stopped and heard the echo of three voices and footsteps. This wasn't going to end well. It was three voices that normally caused trouble. Will, Liam, and Tika. Then suddenly as if he just appeared there was Will, with his pants pulled down and his butt in the air. Taros just sighed heavily.

"You better pull your pants back up before I decide to smack you in the ass with this metal hand." He raised the hand up with a very serious expression on his face. His mouth broke into a smirk shortly after and he started to walk towards where Ghin was. He grumbled in his mind remembering that Ghin was grumpy, weren't these things Inali's job anyway?

Inali moved her black and orange hair out of her face tucking it behind her ears. Her Kitsune ears twitched on her head at Ghin's angry voice coming over the intercom. He needed to chill, always so tense. Her tails were hidden at the moment as she was working on the engine and she didn't want them to get sucked into any of the random moving pieces.

She was working on one of the many pieces that just needed some messing with. She looked at the black grease on her hands and looked around for a towel for a second then giving up she wiped in on her pair of jeans that were obviously her work pants. They had holes in the knees and were pretty worn. She wore a white wife beater that had grease on it as well. She stood up and stretched out her arms listening to some of the popping in her joints.

Time to go see what the big guy wanted.

[Anonymous]

Sons of...All of them were lazy, and all of them never jumped when he barked.

That was the most irksome thing about all of this. At least they were all friends. That was the good part about this crew. There was very little in the way of issues between everyone. The cohesion between them was nice. When he could get them all to work. It was hard to rouse the bunch into a working crew when he really...really needed it. The money alone they made usually went to either new food or ship parts. But now the ship was in good condition really, and their food stores could last them for, as he saw it, two and a half months. That's without rationing too.

If he rationed the food, they could survive for at least four months.

Though the crew would just become even more lazy and would probably bitch him out for...who knew how long? No, it was much better to just keep them happy. This job would give them just what he wanted to do though. Take the crew on a little vacation, just a little one. He liked them but he didn't like them that much. He didn't even know why he bothered yelling at them at sometimes, they would never rush up to him.

"You know, any time you people want to join me, that'd be just great." His button was on the comm system again. "Unless you people don't want to hear the big news about our vacation." That would get the ball rolling. Offer a little incentive for them. That irked him at times. Having to light a fire under their arses to get them to work faster. If he had to do that all the time, no don't this whole ship would go up in flames. Or he'd go broke. They were his crew damn it. He paid them, and he paid them to work.

Which...not a lot of them did.

He was still trying to figure out how he let them do that.

[Anonymous]

"VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC ATIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON NNNNN!!!!!!!"

Liam shut his eyes tightly against the surprisingly loud and shrill screech that came from the top of his head. God she was an excitable little creature. Tika pulled on his hair as she spoke. "Go Liam go!" Her face shot into his eyeline and she grinned widely, her voice soft. "We must be hearing of the vacations. Go."

He debated trying to reach up and remove her, but Liam shrugged and began to walk toward the bridge. Will followed, doing up his pants as he walked. "Oh Taros you keep promising, but I never do seem to get that spanking."

Liam turned to look at him, Tika still bouncing around on his head. "Why do you like showing off your backside so much?"

"What's the point of having such an amazing ass if I can't show it to people?" Will smirked as they entered the bridge. He gave a sort of half hearted salute to Ghin. "Captain, forgive our tardiness. It's all Taros' fault."

[Anonymous]

Taros rolled his eyes and let the two boys and their sprite walk ahead of him. They certainly kept the ship lively if nothing else. Though it seemed they picked on the big scary cyborg more than anyone else. Maybe he had a death wish. Sometimes that group just made him feel far too old. Made him feel far too old for this business sometimes.

Then he heard a lighter set of footsteps that barely made a sound. Now this was someone who was far more interesting and much more his style. Inali made him feel a lot less cold and work centered, perhaps because she was just as focused as he was. He stopped walking and turned around his hands still in his pockets as he dug around for a cigarette and waited for her. He gave a grin to her.

Inali gave a small grin back and slid a case out of her back pocket. She slid a cigarette out of the small silver case and handed it to Taros then pulled one out for herself.

"So Ghin has a stick up his ass again eh? Seems you and I never warrant the scolding." Taros laughed and lit his cigarette then hers then they continued walking. Taros gave a sarcastic chuckle in response.

"We just sometimes do it on our own time." They walked to the bridge and Taros opened the door stepping out of the way letting Inali go first into the room. He followed her in. She stopped looking at Will, Liam, Tika then Ghin. She crossed her arms and tilted her hips the cigarette making little smoke trails into the air.

"A vacation huh?" She bit her lip a bit. She hated vacations most of the time. She loved the work, it gave her something to do. She almost felt like she was born for Bounty Hunting. Her parents would probably agree.

Taros looked towards Inali then Ghin. He just cared about vacations if they were in a place worth actually taking one. A place with bars...women...fun. ..those sorts of things. A place where he could pick up new guns...classy type things.

[Anonymous]

Ghin tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for his crew to hurry up. It was like pouring out a thick engine oil. It just took forever. Sometimes he thought about just calling them to the airlock and opening it. THWUMP! Sucked right out and into the cold vaccuum of space. That was the Wraith in him speaking though. That always spoke about cleansing everything that wasn't wraith and then using the corpses to turn it into a wraith. However, there was the rest of him, taught to him by his father, who had a much better idea. He was supposed to be nicer. So he was going to be patient. After all, they were...doing everything they could.

First came Will and Liam, with that little creature Tika on Liam's head. He smirked slightly as he returned the salute to Will. That was alright, he didn't much mind. They were always tardy, but at least they were apologizing right?

"Yes. A vacation. Just for all the hard work that you do around here. A thank you if you will." He told them as he looked to each one. He had an idea for a good one actually. One that would have probably made them all leave. He was going to really drop them on a snowy planet and then hunt them each down like animals. Making them survive while he hunted them. Each time killing one off, or so they would think. Then at the very end, they would find out it was all just a big fun game. That was such a bad idea though, he had decided not to go with that in the end.

That was his wraith side talking.

Or maybe it was his father's side.

"Well, I've decided that we should go to a mountain resort. Natural hot sprins, skiing, relaxing, everything. And I'm going to be locking the ship. No one goes in once we land." He told them, looking toward Inali for that last bit. If he was going to try and relax and get away from the ship, she would too, no matter what. However, he focused on Taros and Inali, their cigarettes annoying him. The tips suddenly became very cold, so much so that ice covered the area that once was burning. He hated the smoke. It messed with his fog, which though it wasn't here right now, it was still annoying really.

"So, we finish up this job with these people, we can head straight for the planet. So everyone to your stations. Inali I want the faster than light travel up and ready for the jump to the destination. I want us actively scanning, and try to be professional when unloading the cargo. " With a clap of his hands now though he turned to go to his captains chair and console, entering a few commands. "Let's get to work people."

[Anonymous]

Inali felt a glare coming on. Everyone but her would probably love a vacation, even Taros. Couldn't Ghin just leave the ship with her? She'd bring it back...eventually. Then the glare did fully manifest itself when her cigarette tip froze over.

"You know Ghin, being in space and all sometimes I run out these. I hope that doesn't happen." She said pointing at him. Taros grumbled next to her but grinned at Ghin, that was just a small little reminder to Taros that Ghin was a little different and probably more powerful than he was. Plus the little displays of magic were cool to him.

His grin did have more to do with the idea of the vacation however. He just hoped the bar would be open most of the time, and that there would be plenty of women in the hot springs, in the bar, skiing, all of that. He thought of what it could be like and gave a little mental sigh. It had been so long since they had had a real vacation. It was good that Ghin recognized their work once in awhile instead of riding their asses all the time. Taros thought he certainly worked hard enough for a vacation. He looked at Liam and Will and shook his head.

"Some of us may not have worked hard enough for this vacation, unless you count showing off your backside." Inali gave a wide smile looking at the two boys and Tika. Taros smiled at the boys as well. He certainly did enjoy having them around it spiced things up.

Inali lost her glare and nodded giving a smile to Ghin to show she wasn't completely unappreciative.  She slid the cigarette behind her human ear as she spoke.

"I'll go get on that right away sir." She moved to exit the room pulling another cigarette out and lighting it as she hit the hallway.

[Anonymous]

The sprite flew off of Liam's head at top speed and glued herself to Ghin's. She was squealing excitedly and hugging the Wraith at full force.

"Tika LOVE Cap'n Ghin! So much love for the vacations! We go skiing and Ghin buys Tika nice shiny things to bite on and play with and give her hot cocoa!"

Liam's eyes went wide as he quickly ran over and grabbed Tika, probably just in time to save her little life. Most likely Ghin would turn her into a giant ice cube for this one...
He nodded at the captian and tucked a squirming Tika to his chest as he blurted out a thanks and rushed past everyone, trying to put as much distance as possible between Ghin and the sprite.

A vacation would be wonderful for all of them, he could finally be by himself for once, no one else's emotions spurring Liam into a sudden fit of rage or depression. The more he thought about it the more excited he got. Or maybe that was Tika...

Will shook his head as his counterparts flew past him, and he caught up with Inali after a quick nod to Ghin. A vacation. The human's mind was only on one thing. A vacation meant being planetside and that usually meant ladies. Oh he loved the ladies.

 His eyes roamed over Inali and a smirk played on his lips. Of course, there was also going to be the one lady he was most interested in going on the vacation with them.

 "So Inali, I'm thinking you, me, and a hot spring..." He stepped in front of her, running his hand through his hair and raising a brow at her. "And if you conveniently forget your bathing suit after Ghin locks this hunk of junk up, you are still welcome to join me..."

[Anonymous]

"You'll survive. I'm sure you can...er...find some during our vacation." He had almost been really rude, but he was trying his best to be nice to them. Still, it had been the perfect set up but at the same time could have been his downfall. They all knew that Ghin had anger problems, he was very short tempered and when he flew off the handle he put holes in the walls and tended to ice a lot of things up. He didn't tell them why he was that way, even though he knew. It was the trouble with half wraiths.

"Whether you have all earned it is GUH!" There was a sudden force which knocked his hat from his head. This force was Tika. Tika was a very bad force. Anyone could see that his hands clenched so tightly his knuckles were ready to break skin and join the outside world. It wasn't that he hated Tika all that much, he had in his day, with his father, met some very small, very annoying creatures. Hell his father sometimes had nothing better to do than make those creatures. However, Tika was just...

He had a personal bubble, and Tika was very much loving being in any personal bubble.

However he was very good at simply retrieving his hat and clearing his throat. "Yes, we'll see won't we?" If anything he hoped she fell into a lake and became some new delicacy. Frozen pixie rat or whatever the hell she was.

"Thank you Inali." The woman was gone and Ghin was back to setting the ship into motion. The money spent on this vacation made his Wraith side scream. Wraiths were efficient creatures after all. They used their magic in such a way they couldn't waste a lot of it, they always got the job done as quick as possible, and they always tried to make sure the next job would be done just the same. The vacation money could have been used for new engine parts. Or stashed away, kept, and when he had enough, bought brand new engines with less moving parts.

The lethargic, more whimsical part of him, the Vampire side, told him to just relax and enjoy immortality. Maybe even abuse it a little bit. Then there was the rage all mixed in there. Unable to do what both sides of his life told him. It would drive any man to be short tempered really.

_ _ _ _ _ _

It was a good while later, Ghin was just finishing up getting the other captain to sign off a few things to him. Now, granted there was a bit of...trouble. More or less the fact that the other captain basically paid Ghin extra to take one of his crew mates. Ghin was wary of accepting new crew, more so since he was uh...well he wasn't much for new people but, the money was generous.

And the Wraith side was screaming to take the deal.

It was a very strange woman, or what Ghin assumed might have been a woman. Definitely an alien too. The woman was a strange blue colour, which seemed to glow. He could note that there were swirling reds and yellows beneath the surface of her skin, and even electricity as well! She looked...like a generic female shape. Ghin could see on her that she had facial features but they were really...undefined? At least she was wearing clothes of some sort.

A simple jacket with one button done up, and a pair of black trousers that were tucked into overly large boots. She even seemed to have a form of hair, swept back into a pony tail. "Zzzzt. Pleasure to meet you Captain Ghin. I am Kazzt. Before you ask, I am a Plasmin. Zzzzt." Her voice was strange. It was electric at first, then it was smooth, then it broke off into more electricity. And the name Plasmin. That didn't...he didn't know that race. However, he could have guessed she was some sort of electrical/silicon base perhaps.

"Ah...right...well ahem. Crew! Line up to meet the new member of this band of merry misfits!" He barked as he turned to assemble his crew. When they finally assembled he turned to them, gesturing to the woman beside him. "This is Kazzt. She's  going to be joining us for a little while. Try to be nice and don't scare her alright? She's going to help with...well I'll find some job for her to do. Probably working communications or electronics, since she is...made of electricity or...some electrical plasma."

[Anonymous]

Inali gave Will a look as he caught up next to her in the hallway. He was such a strange human who just was so interested in her. However he was interested in almost anything that was woman shaped so she questioned the attraction. She didn't dabble much in emotions anymore, her age hadn't made them grow it had caused them to fizzle a little. Sex was different of course, but she really only dealt with emotions and sex when something in the other person made her spark. He did a little, but being stuck in close quarters with someone when you wasn't sure what the relationship will be was too daunting of a risk for her, for now anyway.

"I have a feeling you'll just hide them from me, but we'll see." She sped up and walked back towards the engine room again. She had to get this heap going.

Taros walked up behind Will and put a metal hand on his shoulder.

"Don't give up, maybe the fiftieth time you ask she'll say yes."

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Taros tilted his head at the woman. Interesting and weird. More towards the latter. He had never heard of a Plasmin, but they picked up weird people all the time, he knew from experience the weirder ones normally looked more normal. So there was no point in being rude.

"Taros." he said leaning forward a little towards the woman. He nodded at her a cigarette stuck behind his ear.

Inali was staring at the Plasmin, probably very obviously. She didn't care either way though. This person gave her really strange vibes.Not really bad just someone you have to figure out more, but there was this weird air of something else i n there.

"I'm Inali." She said it quietly and not even really meeting the Plasmin's eyes. She wasn't sure, maybe it was just her trust issues.