Music to ease the pain. (ZombieCzarian)

[Anonymous]

Ashley settled into his usual corner of the bar. It seemed for whatever reason, captains liked to try to recruit from the bars. For Ashley, it was a a good place to attempt to find a ship to sign onto, and he had a gig once in a while, playing music to help keep things fresh. Normally he played flutes, dressed in full drag. He was tall for a human woman, but in a place like Cancer, with all the different species that wandered through, height was not a good indicator of gender. His voice was melodic, smooth and not much of a hint for his gender either.

He advertised himself as a mechanic, leaving his other, less average skill unmentioned until some level of trust or absolute necessity brought it to light. His flutes went with him everywhere. They were relaxing, he practiced on his spare time, whenever he had a spare moment, plus, they did come in handy from time to time, despite what anyone else might think about it.

Taking a break from his playing, Ashley tucked his flute into his bag and wandered up towards the bar for a drink and information. He wandered around, drink in hand. His sandy blond hair hung in loose waves around his face and as usual, he was wearing leggings, boots and a skirt with his sweater, though he was about ready to peel the sweater off. All those drinking men in the bar made the temperature in the room feel rather warm.

[Anonymous]

Bars were fun. Exciting things often happened to cars, and Papillion always seemed to meet the most interesting people in bars. The tiny female moved through the crowd, pushing her way through the much larger crowd, looking for a place to enjoy her vividly colored drink.

Adjusting the goggle that covered her left eye, Papillion scanned the room and sighed. Everyone here was always so rough and ugly. Papillion liked interesting, attractive people. She was bored and was hoping the bar would fix that.

Papillion was dressed in her normal, flamboyant clothes and very large shoes. She might as well hang a sign around her neck that said Space Pirate. Subtlety was not one of the girl's strong points.

While not specifically looking for a crew, it was something Papillion was always open too. Then she could get to wear the hat. Her sweet, sweet hat. She couldn't wait until she had a crew. Though Papillion wanted an attractive crew. One should always look stylish. That was important to the pirate. What was the point of being a Space Pirate if you weren't going to look awesome while doing it?

There seemed to be some space at the bar and Papillion headed that way, brushing against a woman. A rather pretty woman, or so she seemed. Papillion gave her a bright smile, "Sorry about that." The short girl gave a small whistle, "Wow. Did you know you're really tall?"

[Anonymous]

Ashley smiled "I've been told that from time to time" He stated sweetly, offering a rather calloused and scared hand. It was not a manly hand exactly, the fingers were slender, they were not overly hairy, but they were definitely well used. They proclaimed he was a person who worked with his hands-- despite being a musician.

Casually, he glanced her over. Space Pirate hmm. Pirates were touchy subjects, not only were they somewhat illegal, they were not known for their trustworthiness. But on the other hand, he was desperate to get off of Cancer. He'd been stuck here for months and the rent was killing him.

"So what brings you to Cancer?" He asked, taking a sip from his drink. He always went light on the booze if he had any at all. The last thing he needed was for some drunk man to come through, think he was hot stuff and with better Judgement impaired, Ashley let himself be whisked off, only to give the man an unpleasant surprise-- which would probably get the tar kicked out of Ashley. He didn't want that. He didn't really want trouble in general, but if a pirate ship was his ticket off, then so be it.

[Anonymous]

Even if Papillion had gotten Ashley drunk enough to be whisked off by a woman, she looked like she would have a hard time beating up Ashley's kneecap, let alone the rest of him. But she smiled happily up at him, "You have nice hands."

The girl took another sip of her drink, making a happy noise at the taste, "I'm here to see if I can trade or sell off some salvage and to stretch my legs. My ship ain't as big as I would like."

Papillion tilted her head back, looking up at the girl, "What about you? You don't seem the normal icky smelly type that normally hangs around here."

[Anonymous]

Ashley looked at his hands "Thank you" and then settled back so he could observe her as they talked. She was interesting. "Me? Oh I play music for the bartender there once in a while. I am taking my break for the time being. Other than that, I'm looking for a mechanic's position on a ship. I've been on cancer way too long for my liking." He could be a medic too if he wanted, but it was a little unconventional in his method of healing. "Things have been a little slow with the recruiting recently" But she was a lady pilot, not too many of those around. Maybe he stood half a chance if she was looking for a mechanic. She wouldn't discard him simply becase he was assumed to be female and therefore, not good with machines.

[Anonymous]

At first, Papillion just politely nodded, not really caring about a musician job. Then she seemed to realize what he had just said. A mechanic. Papillion's ship needed one. And having one meant having a crew. And a crew meant she could wear the hat!

Grinning like the cat who had just ate the canary and beat up the milkman for all his cream, the tiny girl moved a little closer to Ashley, "So, you're looking for a job on a ship then? And you're good at fixin' um?"

[Anonymous]

Ashley smiled a sweet smile "Yep, I am looking for a job and I am pretty good at fixing them." There'd been a few times he hadn't been able to fix them, but that was mostly because either a vital part broke and he hadn't been able to rig something to work in its place, or because whatever numskull who designed the engine room failed to leave a space big enough for him to reach the far side of the engine from the inside on a ship that was not equipped to allow access from the outside while in space.

"I think part of the reason it has taken me so long to find a job is because there are a lot of people that think someone in a skirt can't fix anything. You need me to demonstrate my skill or something?" He hadn't had much opportunity to even prove himself to the skeptics, but he had not been pushed to a place where he was required to conform to survive. He was still able to be stubborn and wear his skirts if he darn well pleased.

[Anonymous]

Papillion snorted, "People are often dumb." She then drained the last of her drink, setting the glass on a random table, "Let's go see what you can do." Then the girl started off, not bothering to look back to see if Ashely was following. It was just a given in Papillion's mind.

Once put of the crowded bar, the pirate suddenly turned and thrust her hand out, "I am Papillion d'Alllemagne. Who are you?"

[Anonymous]

Ashley murmured something to the bartender before downing the rest of her drink and scurrying after Papillian, nearly tripping over her boots and then ignoring the laughter and making sure to step hard on the foot paired up with the fresh hand that reached out to give her a smack. It was a peril of working in the bar and she had learned to deal with it.

"I'm Ashley" He replied, shaking her hand with a firm handshake. "Where are we going?"

[Anonymous]

"To my ship. Where else?" Papillion gave Ashley another huge grin, "Must make sure you two get along. Come along Ashley."

Despite her short legs, Papillion strode quickly down the hall, heading toward the area where her ship was docked, "We shall have to get you better clothes. You don't look quite....piraty in those."

She had pretty much decided that Ashely was going to become her first crew member. Asking Ashley about it was rather inconsequential to the pirate.

[Anonymous]

Ashley's long legs made it easy for him to keep up with the smaller woman, but when she mentioned new clothes, he hesitated and then had to hurry to catch up to her again. "What kind of new clothes exactly are you talking about?" He had his own style and if he had been willing to simply change how he was to get on a ship, he could have been gone a long time ago-- dressed as a greese monkey of a man.

He hadn't expected someone so small to be so pushy, but then again, it was probably the only way to get anything done when you didn't have much to use intimidation wise.

[Anonymous]

"Clothes that look more pirate like." Papillion beamed up at Ashely, "Like mine!" Papillion tended to ignore people when they tried to tell her no and just went about things how ever she wanted too.

She wrapped her arms around Ashley's, pressing against his, "And do you have a good outfit for scavenging planet side? Skirts are not so good for that. But Papillion can find you cute pants!"

[Anonymous]

"Well, I have a lovely pirate costume I could wear if you'd rather, and I'm sure I can find something to wear when we scavenge. No point in trying to look cute while I'm crawling through rubbish I suppose. Coveralls would work, wouldn't they?" He grinned, thinking of his pirate costume. It was a fun little outfit, red and white leggings, boots, bandana, black dress. Really, it was more a cross between a bar wench and a pirate, but it could be tweaked as needed. He could even wear it with a cute pair of shorts if he started climbing stairs again.

[Anonymous]

The tiny girl grinned up at him, "That will work for a start." Tugging the much taller man along, Papillion moved quickly down the space station. She was excited to have Ashley meet her ship.

"I recommend something that covers as much skin as possible. The atmosphere on Earth is quite bad. And they have the best shit."

[Anonymous]

"Ah, well that I can manage" He assured. "You haven't built suits or anything for scavenging on earth yet?" If their atmosphere was so terrible, then it made sense to have an earth suit if possible. "Is it terribly hot on earth like it is on Mars?"

[Anonymous]

"I have my outfit." Papillion just grinned up at Ashley. She never seemed to stop smiling that huge Cheshire Cat smile, "And you don't need a full suit. You can where one of you want. If you have a mask, eye protection and some thick clothes, you'll be fine. It's never a great idea to spend too much time on the planet."

She tilted her head way back to look up at Ashley. It was much harder to see his face when she was pressed against him, "You've never been to Earth?"

[Anonymous]

"I was born on earth" He replied lightly "but I've been hearing rumors that it's pretty much dying and falling apart and so who knows how it has changed since I've been there. For all I know, it's like mars now, but more toxic. Or, those rumors could be complete poppycock and earth isn't dying nearly as fast as they've made it out to be."

[Anonymous]

"Oh no. It's dead, just taking some time to finish her death rattle." Papillion's mile didn't even waver, "And it's pretty bad, wouldn't want to live there and all that. But if you wear a mask and cover up, you'll be fine."

The smile disappeared for a moment as she wrinkled her nose, thinking, "And bring a big gun. There are some fucked up mutants down there." Then the smile was back.

[Anonymous]

Ashley stiffened a little "Mutant whats?" He asked. If she thought he was setting down on a planet inhabited by animals, let alone mutant attack animals, she was crazy.

[Anonymous]

"Mutants...you know...things." Papillion waved her hand dismissively, "I'm sure they were animals once upon a time." She beamed up at Ashley, "Don't look so worried!"

They had managed to get to Papillion's ship by then. The ship was an older model that had seen some better days. It was a smallish, looked like it would hold a crew of 4, maybe 5 comfortably. The ship was a little mismatched, parts from different ships had been used to repair it in a few places, though the repair jobs looked good.

"Well, what do you think?"