How much for that puppy in the window?

[Anonymous]

"Oh, what? Whatever man. Pay me what ya thinks it's like worth and stuff." Alexis shrugged, not really all that interested in the money talk. Money didn't mean much and when people didn't pay him enough to live on, he just didn't fix their ships. Simple really.

"Oh, well, I mean, like, it's a couple thou for the parts." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a well folded and slightly grease stained receipt for parts that he held out to Nathan, "It's all here. I got 'um like totally cheap brah. No worries there." He beamed, rather childishly happy at what he had done with the ship, "Like, wait until ya fly her man. It's gonna be amazing."

[Tally]

Nathan sighed. He considered himself a good haggler but Alexis took all the fun out of it. At least he was finally getting a solid figure.  He ran his eyes over the list of parts on the receipt.  Two grand was manageable.  More than, with his recent good fortune.  He was still suspicious of that.

"Looks like you did a good job.  I'll come up with something for the labor cost."  It would be a...reasonable figure.  He'd feel like an ass if he cheated Alexis.

Nathan's eyes slid away from the receipt to look at Alexis sidewise.  "We've got take off in four hours.  You coming?"

[Anonymous]

"What? Really! Seriously!" Alexis stared at Nathan, then let out a whoop of joy, hugging the other man and practically jumping up and down, "I am totally coming brah! I can't wait!"

He was finally gonna be moving again! On a sweet ship with a nice Captain! This was beyond perfect! He had actually already packed his stuff and just had to say a few words to a few people and he was ready to go.

"Ya like, totally wont regret this man!"

[Tally]

Alexis nearly knocked him over in his excitement.

"Yes, seriously!" Nathan said, grinning.  "You did great with the ship.  I think it'll work out well."

Nathan straightened his coat and tucked the receipt away.  He would use those four hours to, among other things, get the two grand to cover Alexis's costs. And try to figure out how to introduce the new mechanic to the rest of the crew.

"All right.  You've got four hours to get your affairs in order.  And we'll uh...get you acquainted with your...crewmates."  Nathan coughed and lead the way out of Diva.  "Send me a text if you need anything."

[Anonymous]

"This will be so awesome brah! Like totally great!" He had chips and a job and he hugged Nathan! Today was the best day ever! "I wont even need that long! I was, uh, kinnda hopin' I could still, like, be on yer crew and stuff."

He trotted after Nathan, the smile never leaving his face, "What're the others like?" He wasn't really worried about meeting people. He got along well with most people, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

[Tally]

Nathan faltered in his step a bit.  Such a simple question on the surface and yet so very, very difficult to answer.

"Well...it's a small crew.  We still don't have a medic, or a first mate.  Or technically a pilot, though Papillion does most of the flying.  She's...friendly.  And enthusiastic!"

He left out the part about her walking around the ship in her underwear most of the time, though Alexis probably wouldn't mind that.  Who didn't want to see a cute girl in their underwear?  "Then there's Cian.  He...he works...he's a consultant?  He's a fire mage.  Also enthusiastic.  Mostly about fire and things that can be set on fire.  And Willow I just hired.  She's our defense and weapons specialist. I expect you'll be working together a bit on some of Diva's defensive arrays."

Working together and then sleeping together.  You couldn't get two gorgeous people like Alexis and Willow together and not expect them to hook up.  Even Nathan had to admit, with a narrow-eyed frown at Alexis's broad shoulders and sculpted arms, that he wouldn't begrudge anyone for gravitating to the man.  Not that Nathan would ever have expected Willow to look at him that way, or really wanted her to in the first place seeing as how he couldn't get involved with crew anyway.  He was used to being invisible, found it advantageous most of the time in fact, but—much like everyone else, he figured—there were times he was just unhappy with his lot.

[Anonymous]

The fire thing tripped Alexis up a little, but not much. He couldn't be that dangerous or he wouldn't be on the ship. And they rest sounded nice! "Sounds awesome man! And they got some cool names! I should warn ya though."

He didn't really want to have to bring this up, in case it was a deal breaker. But better to not get to go then get fired after getting to attached, "I'm like, not the best with weapons systems. I mean, like, I can hook 'um up and maintain um a bit, but I never, like got the hang of making them totally awesome."

Mostly because he didn't like guns. They made him uncomfortable. All...shooty and whatnot. But he could do the bare minimum on them, he just didn't know if Nathan was going to need him to do special or real custom work.

He fidgeted slightly, expression nervous, "I'm totally rad with everything else though. I wont let ya down or nothin'."

[Tally]

Nathan laughed a little.  "I don't think that'll be a problem.  I'm sure you noticed, but Diva has no weapons systems, and I don't plan on adding any.  They'd drain too much from the jump drive, or else I'd have to have a dedicated source drive installed for them and I'm not weighing her down with that."

Nathan pulled out his datapad and sent an update to the rest of the crew to let them know they had better see to their business now, because he was on a schedule.  He'd ended up taking on three jobs and had half a dozen more lined up next time he docked. "I had most of the custom arrays installed years ago. None of them weapons, all defense and evasion.  There's the lock scramblers, and I actually have two of those.  One for the nav locks and one for the EM hooks.  Don't like the idea of anyone trying to hold my ship from going where I want it to go. There's the stealth arrays, which we've boosted over the years.  We've got triple layer stealth now and I want to make it quad eventually.  And above everything else I wanna keep the jump drive lean.  We can make jump in roughly seven seconds right now.  I'd like to push that down to five. Lower if we can swing it."

[Anonymous]

"Oh. Sure. I can probably get ya way lower brah. Just depends on how much ya wanna sink in." Alexis was relaxing again, now that he knew he wasn't going to be expected to install weapons systems. He could handle the defense stuff a lot better, though not quite as well as he might like.

"You want her fast? I can make her blow your mind brah. But, like, for you budget, or, like, what I'm guessing it is," Most set ups like this didn't have the most impressive budgets and Nathan didn't seem the type to have lots of extra money around, "I can totally do some sweet work. If ya, like, want some extra speed, replace her fuel injector and I can like, get her set up so she can shirt burst turbo man. People never expect that, cause it looks like a jump on their sensors, but it ain't. And it's instantaneous, for like a chase or somethin'. And wait until ya fly her man. Ya gotta feel how she handles now brah."

[Tally]

"As much as I can," he said.  He didn't hold back funds when it came to Diva's parts and upgrades.  He paid her first, his crew second, and himself last.  "You just get me the cost estimates and I'll worry about the rest.  We may not be able to cover it all in one go, but we can buy the parts as we get the money and get the upgrades started."

Nathan still had his datapad out.  He was online with Cancer's flight control, getting Diva's take off clearance and double checking all his deliveries were on time.  "That I like the sound of.  Anything to fake out the scavengers.  I want Diva uncatchable.  Start with the prep work for that and when we swing by Libra we'll pick up whatever parts you need."

[Anonymous]

"Totally!" Alexis was excited. Nothing really made him happier than getting to play with a ship. And a Swift class too. Given enough time and money, Alexis could work some real magic. "Untouchable? Fuck yeah brah. I can do that. Nothin's gonna outrun her and I can make her invisible."

His hand slid along the metal wall of the ship, already thinking about what he wanted to do. Probably rip out some of the stuff Nathan had in already. Amateur work. He could get way more out of the stealth.

"I can do some sweet stuff with the defensive. I think I can rock, like some stuff that will fry a ship if it tries to lock on. Maybe not like, a serious Aedolian or Edani ship, but a private one, for sure. And the like, little ones. Yeah, I can totally make that work. And I can make her totally invisible if she gets put into low power. They would have ta like, totally look out their windows and use their eyes. Sensors wont see us."

[Tally]

Alexis sure was confident. Nathan had to remind himself not to get too optimistic.  It was still very early in their business relationship.  They didn't even know how well it would work out yet.  Best not to start putting all his faith into plans that might end up only getting half done. Unexpected things could happen, they could part ways, Cian could set Alexis on fire...never really knew what the future might hold.

"I want the locking defense rig prioritized.  Her stealth's good enough to pass within spitting distance of any pirate scrappers, but I want to make sure they can't keep a hold on us.  We'll have to fly through a hornet's nest to get out of here, so boost whatever you can."

[Anonymous]

"Yeah. Yeah, totally man." Alexis nodded. He could set that up so problem, give who ever tried to lock on a nasty surprise. The Diva would be a sweet, untouchable ghost by the time he was finished with her.

Nathan had some bad taste in mechanics though. There was some shit on her that was just slowin' her down. Too much of the wrong type of stealth. Better than nothing, but not by a lot. This girl needed more.

Slowing down and thinking things out wasn't really Alexis's strong suit. He was a more live in the moment kind of guy, so his brain was already working out what he wanted to do next.

[Tally]

"She's in your hands then.  I'll leave the maintenance up to your discretion, but you install any new arrays you ask me first."  Nathan ticked off the points on his fingers.  "I pay for our rations—standard compressed in bulk.  Anything else you want comes out of your own pocket. You've got your own room with it's own amenities. We don't fly to Edanith or Aedolis, and we make exploration runs out to the edge frequently, so make sure you can keep her going with the long jumps."

What else, what else.  He wanted to make sure he covered everything.  "When you're on this ship, you're not a part of a democracy.  We're pretty laid back, but my word is final and if you can't abide that, no hard feelings."

His datapad chirped at him again.  He was needed at the shipment.  "Gotta go.  I'll see you back here in a few hours."

Nathan only had a few things left undone and was back at the ship half an hour before takeoff.  He approached with some caution, kind of hoping he'd beaten the rest of the crew there.

[Anonymous]

He had not. Papillion was already on the ship, and pantless. Though she at least had a tank top on, which was more covering than normal. She had spend a chunk of her pay on food and was happily fussing about the kitchen, putting it all way, humming to herself as she worked.

[hr:19pxyxsv][/hr:19pxyxsv]

Alexis shouldered his gear. His tools he had already moved on the ship. First thing actually. He had spent the rest of his time being a bundle of excited energy, wrapping up the last of his buisness and now he just had the duffel bag stuffed to the brim with clothes and another bag with the rest of his non-clothing things.

He always loved meeting new people and new crews meant new adventure! Hopefully they would be as awesome as Nathan was! He already liked the Captain, so that was one down!

"Brah! Hey!" He beamed when he saw Nathan. Looked like he was on time, "This is gonna be totally rad!"

[Tally]

"Hey."  Nathan gave Alexis a smile and paused outside the entrance to the ship.  Everything was in order and they were ready to go.  The cargo and supplies had been loaded up earlier and she was all fueled up.  All that was left was to go through the take off sequence and wait for clearance from control.

"Say your goodbyes?"

[Anonymous]

"Totally. I'm ready ta fly. Can't wait ta meet the crew brah." Alexis swung his arm around Nathan's shoulder, "This is gonna be totally rad."

While he was normally rather physically affectionate, he was feeling a little more so than normal with Nathan. He liked him and wanted to show it. Grinning, he started up the ship, awkwardly carrying his bags while still holding onto Nathan, "We all set? Like, what's everyone like?"

[Tally]

"Ahaha, so you haven't met them yet."  He hoped his relief wasn't too apparent in his voice.  He loved his crew, he would just prefer to be there as a buffer when they met new people.  Just in case.  And someone had to keep Cian informed as to who was and was not acceptable for setting on fire.

He was swiftly learning that Alexis was one of those physically demonstrative types.  All huggy and touchy with other people.  If that was the strangest thing about him, it would make him the most normal person on the ship. It wouldn't hurt to have someone so chipper on board either, someone to counter Nathan's cynicism a little.

"Yeah!" he said, catching some of Alexis's enthusiasm.  "It'll be great! Rad."

Nathan glanced up at his new mechanic.  He was finding it difficult to maintain his apprehension, even in the face of all this good fortune.  They had money and work now, the ship was in good shape again, and he'd signed on two new crew members, one of them a mechanic he was really coming to like for more than just his skill, and that was odd for him.  He liked to keep a certain professional distance with most people.

[Anonymous]

"Nope. But don't worry brah. I'm a people person! I get along with most people." He winked at Nathan, grinning again. He tended to smile a lot, not seeing much reason to be sad. Life was too short for that!

"Totally! See, ya just gotta relax a little. Yer to pretty ta be so grumpy. Come on, ya can show me to my room brah!" The idea of Nathan in his bedroom appealed to him, but so far, Nathan didn't seem interested. Alexis always went with his instincts, and his instincts liked Nathan, so he wasn't giving up just yet.

[Tally]

"Yeah, I can believe that." Heck, Alexis even had Nathan feeling okay with hugs and random physical contact and kisses on the cheek, and that was something Nathan never went for with anybody he wasn't sleeping with...which pretty much included everyone ever.

"C'mon I'll show you to your totally rad room."  It was the third one down, and it looked pretty bare at the moment.  There was nothing left of the previous occupant.  "You'll have to give the place some personality.  There's clean sheets on the bed, though, and you've got a pillow already."

He wandered over and absently smoothed some of the wrinkles out.  "Oh! And we've got some weights.  Just the basics, nothing fancy, but you'll still be able to work out at least."