Just whistle while you work! (Open! 8D)

[Anonymous]

He watched as the little magical hand blob thing retreated then scurried, if that was the correct way of describing the movement of a blob, onto the roof above him. Weird little jibber that was. Oh well, not like it could do anything. Except maybe break his ship, which was exactly why he didn’t like mages onboard. Not unless they were paying of course.

His attention was pulled back down by the sudden movement of Terra falling. He reacted, as anyone would, by catching her. Being side on as he was made it a little less simple, making him bend his knees and try to catch her bridal style. His right hand went to catch her knees, while his left the small of her back. Both didn’t quite do that.

He found himself standing there supporting the girl, right hand holding her bum and his left arm supporting her back. His left hand, instead of supporting her back as he’d meant it too, had overshot and was curled around to rest on her left breast. It was an accident, a happy accident, but an accident nonetheless.

“Sorry ‘bout that kitten,” he said, setting her down carefully, “I didn’t mean anything, just didn’t want you cracking that pretty little head open.” Honourable intentions aside, his hand did ‘accidentally’ get a little more acquainted with that boob before his arms swung back to his sides.

Still smiling (it was hard not to smile when there was nudity) he slipped past her, running his hand along the end of her tail as he did. It was a curious thing, swishing about like that. Hypnotic, even.

He picked up the towel she’d brought in, having neglected to bring one himself, and wrapped it around his waist. He didn’t think about the fast that that left the girl with nothing to dry herself with or wear.

Bending to his discarded belt, Riker pulled out his trusty pistol, aimed it at the door, then hit the button to slide it open.

Pointing the gun at the other girls head he said, in quite a cheerful manner, “Did you think I was kidding or something?”

The gun was set to stun of course, but she didn’t know that.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Terra 'oofed' when she was caught and swept up and for a moment all she could do was blink rapidly as she stared up into Riker's face, her own face red and blushing and her drenched ears laid flat. Her body was tense all over, like a rubber band pulled too tight and ready to snap, and save for her chest rising and falling with her quick, frantic breaths she was completely still. At first, she didn't notice anything but the fact that he was holding her, and that alone was enough to send her into a mild panic. Caught, by the naked psychotic man that turned into a werewolf and tried to eat her and killed her gun.

That was until she wiggled uncomfortably in an attempt to slide free and, with a hiss of sucked in breath, realized he was groping her, one hand on her ass and one on her breast. While she was naked, and being held naked, against a naked man.

Terra could have died right then and there, and not from happiness, and if her face could have gotten any redder it would have as she stared down in horror at his hand. The only thing that saved Riker from getting a painful, claw-filled slap full across the face was that he was fairly quick to set her down and apologize, and the moment her feet touched the ground she jerked away from him and covered her chest, shoulders hunched defensively. She turned her back to him and faced the shower wall, watching him cautiously over her shoulder, eyes narrowed into a glare. But she was also shivering lightly, mainly because she was out from under the spray now and the water droplets were cooling on her skin but also because, goddammit, she was out of her element here.

Running from mindless, murderous beasts she could do. Even running from mindless, murderous beasts that she couldn't kill she could do. It was other people that scared her the most, way more than some Teinari mutation.

She jumped then when she felt someone touch her tail, and she quickly flicked it out of the way and tried to slap Riker's hand, but he had already moved past her. Her tail curled around her right leg as though trying to hide, but he stepped out of the stall.

And Terra could only watch as he did the unthinkable.

He took her towel!

So there she was left, dripping wet and standing there foolishly naked without clothes or anything to dry her off with in the shower, and it wasn't like she could shout after him or anything, either. Terra heaved a sigh and let her forehead thunk against the wall, eyes closed. Ugh, that bastard. Fucking great... Her ears swiveled when she heard the door open, though, and she turned her head to look, just in time to see him aim his pistol at the girl that had passed out earlier when she'd been held up.

Erk...

Great...the guy really was insane and dangerous, regardless of what he'd said to her...

Turning slowly, she stooped to pick up her discarded blaster, turned off the shower, and tilted the gun to let the water run out. Then she backed up against the wall again and tried in vain to get it to work. Even she knew it wouldn't, though.

It was totally fried, and she was stuck here with a psycho. Maybe two. She just had to stay calm. Maybe he was serious about not hurting her and stuff, he'd had plenty of opportunities to do damage, but all things considered she had a right to be jumpy and she was never one to take chances.

[Anonymous]

Lyuba hid for a while longer until she heard the door slide open...fast. She was about to react when she felt something metal go up against her head.

“Did you think I was kidding or something?”

Oh. Shit. The werewolf. And he was aiming some sort of gun at her head. Fuck. Then, in an instant, an image shot in her head. It seemed to be chaos at first, filled with white and black lights, but then the image righted itself. Men in armor. Each holding guns similar to that the werewolf was holding now, plus heavier attack forms. Her tribe dying. Falling into darkness. Then she snapped back to reality.

This image took one second in real time. But to her, it seemed longer than that. The image was now burned into her mind. And now she made up her mind. She must have been kept alive for a reason, and she refused to die without finding out what that reason was. She wasn't going down without a fight. She certainly wouldn't die in a cheap manner like that.

By instinct, she willed the black pool to move silently closer to the door. When it was near the opening, two black hands shot out and lunged for the human werewolf. One grabbed the gun forcefully from his hand and went back into the bathroom, while the other shot in between Lyuba and the man, defending her.

Perhaps the gun would be much safer in the other girl's hands. The hand stretched out into the bathroom and held the gun up to the girl, butt-end pointing at her and the barrel end in the opposite direction, expecting her to take it.

[Anonymous]

Gah, why did everything have to be a goddamn battle? Just once he wanted to have some company that wasn’t trying to kill him, or hunt him, or run away from him.

As soon as he saw the hand thing go for his gun, Riker pushed the trigger. At point blank range, he didn’t care how fast her magic little blobs were, there was no way she was avoiding that.

The gun whipped out of his hand as the girl crumpled, plunged into a temporary unconscious state by the energy blast. Her magic lingered for a while, and then fizzled out of existence. No mage could control their magic unconscious.

He winced at the clatter behind him as his pistol hit the tile. She was a good pistol, waterproof, internal generator. Top military spec, very hard to find.

He glanced back at the naked girl in the shower. “She’s fine, just stunned. She’ll be awake again in fifteen minutes or so.” Probably best not to make her think that he was a killer, what with the chasing and all. He left his gun with her, not like it could kill him or anything. Besides, she’d probably feel safer with a working weapon.

With a sly wink to the naked girl, and a quick look at her body, he stepped over the body of the mage in the doorway he walked down the passage to the small laundry room. It was more of an alcove really.

In a metal bin he found a pair of pants and a black wife beater. That was all there was down here from his last washing load, other that what he could only assume was the girls clothes in the washer. They’d be another half hour at least, by the time they were dried. Once he pulled the clothes on, Riker headed back to the bathroom, silently glad he’d only left one pair of clothing down there.

He tossed the towel to the naked girl.

“There yah go love, wouldn’t want you to get any colder than you obviously are.” He looked at her breasts, which were either indicating that she was aroused or cold. The latter seemed more likely.

Nudging the little form at his feet he sighed. Why did nothing ever just go right?

[Rhi-Rhi]

The gun went off, and the dead blaster fell from Terra's slack fingers and clattered on the shower floor. He'd shot her. Point blank. He'd killed her. Even if she apparently exploded, even if she didn't know her, even if she was potentially dangerous (she couldn't help but keep flipping back and forth on the issue, thinking she was either trying to help her or just nuts; she was tired, shook up, and her nerves were frayed, so she just didn't know who to trust right now) it didn't really matter. It wasn't like it was the first time she'd seen someone get killed, it wasn't like she hadn't killed anyone before either, but it was still in cold blood. And now she was alone with him.

That was more terrifying than the black hands that had gone to grab the pistol from him and that had managed to fling it out of his hands to slide across the floor toward her. She had no time to focus on either those hands or the death, though, not yet when she had to worry about her own safety.

As soon as the pistol hit the floor, she lunged for it and snatched it up off the ground, nudity be damned, though she nearly slipped and fell again as she stepped out of the shower and onto the tile. She gripped the pistol tightly in both hands--she didn't want it to get knocked away as had so far happened with everyone else--and aimed it at the werewolf, eyes focused and mouth set in a grim line. Her tail whipped angrily behind her, sending water droplets flying. She meant business, and she would pull the trigger if she had to.

Of course, she also didn't realize it was on stun, nor that the guy couldn't be killed with it.

Then the guy spoke, and she blinked, her ears perking forward and head tilting to one side. Cautiously, she looked from him to the girl on the ground...and she would have groaned if she could.

No blood.

No blood on the floor, no blood on the walls where it should have splattered, and her chest was still rising and falling. Terra had just been too stunned and freaked to realize the obvious until he'd pointed it out to her.

Panting lightly--she was quickly running out of energy here--she slowly lowered the pistol, then studied it briefly, one eyebrow raised. It was on stun? She didn't even realize it had other settings. With a frown, she flipped a small switch on the left of the gun from stun to kill, then pointed the barrel at the guy yet again. He didn't seem bothered, though.

In fact, he even had the nerve to wink at her and look her over quite obviously.

Terra twitched, once again reminded that she was bare, and the blush returned again full force. Rrgh...god damn him. She wanted to lower the gun and cover up again, but she steeled herself against the urge and stood strong, gritting her teeth against the embarrassment. Survival before shame. She kept her eyes on him as he left the room, and momentarily debated trying to slip out so she could at least grab a goddamn towel or something, but then the guy returned, clothed, and tossed her the towel.

Which was wet, but she was not going to complain. Terra caught it gratefully and quickly started to wrap it around her body, and that was when the guy made his comment.

Terra's eyes widened, she looked down, and then she hissed and pulled the towel closed around her, hating that it didn't come as far down on her thighs as she would have liked. While she held the towel closed with one hand, she held the pistol in the other and glowered at him. It was a bit difficult to look intimidating, though, when you looked like a drowned cat and were wearing nothing but a towel while blushing.

Ugh...right...now what...? So she had the pistol, the other girl was stunned, and maybe he wasn't the crazy psycho she had suspected he was (he hadn't hurt anyone, he'd caught her, only accidentally groped her, and okay so maybe he was slyly oggling her but he was a man, that was nothing abnormal...), but she still felt so damned edgy. She nibbled on her bottom lip. Right. She couldn't just hold him at gunpoint forever, but she also couldn't exactly ask him any questions...

She shifted her towel so she could fold it enough that it would stay on her without her having to hold it shut, and then, carefully, she flipped on the safety and tucked the pistol under her arm. Holding her left hand out flat, palm up, she used her right hand to pantomime writing and looked at him questioningly.

Right now, that would be the only way she could "speak".

[Anonymous]

Lyuba was too late. She heard the guy pull the trigger before the black hand could intercept him. Not even her newly primed reflexes could dodge a gun at point-blank range. She felt a surge of pain go through her body, and she fell to the floor as everything once again faded to black. She thought she would be dead, and she would join her fallen tribe in the afterlife.

Hold on.

If she was dead, then why was she breathing? Could it be that the werewolf was merciful enough to spare her life? What was that strange weapon? Its blast held her stunned, unconscious, but already she felt it wear off. She could feel it resisting her strength, though, but it was losing the battle.

Just how strong was she? She didn't remember acquiring this much physical strength and strength of will through her training. Was this also part of the twisted experiments that the scientists performed on her? She felt her anger rise. It wasn't like she asked for this strength, this endurance, this strange power that lurked within her. It was all those scientists' fault! She wanted so dearly to murder them all to avenge herself, then go after whoever killed her tribe and avenge them.

She never thought of it this way, but perhaps she was taking her anger out on the wrong guy.

Three minutes passed before the field disappeared, crushed under her strength. But the after-effects of the field almost drained her of her strength, and she had a splitting headache. Tears once again began to form in her eyes as she attempted to stand, but she couldn't. She could only manage a kneeling position with her hands to the floor. She breathed heavily. She shook her head, feeling it throb. There was a look of confusion and fear in her eyes. "What...what...h-happened?" she said, her voice cracked and broken. She'd forgotten the last time words left her mouth.

[Anonymous]

The towel managed to, just barely, cover all of the naughty parts on the girl, but it didn’t diminish the general air of nakedness. In fact, if anything the fact that those areas of interest were covered only made Riker’s eyes linger more of the rest of her, her thighs, he legs, that strangely alluring scar. He had a bit of a weakness for scars, maybe due to…er…’dating’ a lot of military women. Scars could be highly erogenous.

She tied up the towel, and already an idea for another little ‘accident’ formed in his mind. This was going to be a good day, he could feel it. If he could ever get that damn mage off his ship anyway.

She mimed writing. Right. That made sense with his mute theory, so did the scar come to think of it. He glanced down at the girl, who was still stunned of course. Even a Satedan runner stayed down for at least ten minutes, though they did take a few shots to stun.

“Right, come with me love,” he said to the now only mostly naked girl, gesturing to follow.

The short corridor led back to the cargo hold, a wide floor stacked with plastic crates full of various supplies and illegal merchandise. He searched through the crates, reading the little screen on each one and humming softly to himself.

He found the one he was looking for, labelled “Orphans Supplies”. That wasn’t exactly a lie, the merchandise had been going to an Aedolian school when he intercepted it.

Flicking open the latches and lifting the lid revealed piles of paper writing pads, pens, pencils, and four data pads. The data pads were the money maker, each one would sell for a pretty penny.  He lifted out a writing pad and a pen. He would have given her one of the data pads, really he would, but they didn’t have an operating system loaded yet.

Closing the lid and clipping it again, Riker handed the writing tools to the girl.

“Now,” he said firmly, “What’s your name, for starters. Also, would you mind giving me my gun back?” He held out a hand for the gun, hearing at the same moment the rasping voice coming from the bathroom. He had no idea what the girl had said, his ears weren’t that good, but it was the fact that she was speaking at all that bothered him. No one should be able to get up that quickly after being stunned, no one.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Terra shifted uncomfortably when he continued to stare at her, and even with the towel around her she felt exposed and vulnerable under his stare. It was only by some miracle that she was able to keep from squirming, and she was proud of herself for keeping her expression steely and stoic. It probably helped a lot that she had a gun and he didn't; that was the quickest way to make her feel empowered, just hand her a weapon or a tool.

Not that kind of tool.

This time, the guy actually understood her gestures, or at least that's what she assumed since he agreed, and she couldn't help but grin, sharp teeth flashing. Finally. Pet names aside, she followed after him, tail hanging low so as not to lift the towel up in the back accidentally, and she grimaced a little when she had to step around the stunned girl. Today--tonight--had been just one disturbing blur. Soon enough they were back in the cargo hold, and Terra waited near the stairs for the guy to do his thing and find what he was looking for, pistol still out though she wasn't pointing it at him anymore. There didn't seem to be a need for that right now; maybe she'd just assumed too much about him.

Sure he'd tried to eat her when he'd transformed, but...he'd been a werewolf. And maybe he'd held a gun at her at first, but what was she doing to him now? It was a sort of natural reaction when it came to strangers, though she believed she had more of a reason to aim a gun at him right now than he'd had when they first 'met'. That was in the past, however, and when the guy brought out a pad of paper and a pen, Terra forgave him for it on some level.

With an excited smile, she snatched both items up and tucked the pistol away down the front of her towel. The safety was on, after all. When he asked her name, Terra wasted no time in responding now that she finally had a voice.

She propped the pad on her arm, flipped to the first page, and wrote out the answer in a neat, rounded script that could have been called stereotypical girl handwriting: Terra

Turning the pad around, she held it up for Riker to see and gave a little smile and a nod, as if to say, that's me, before she turned it back around so she could write out her own question on the next line. Or rather, questions. She had a lot of them, and her handwriting got messier toward the end as she tried to hurry, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she focused. It didn't take long at all, but when she was done, she held it up again and raised an eyebrow inquisitively: What is your name?

What do you want?

No you can't have your gun back.

Who is the girl?

My eyes are up HERE.

She tapped a finger on the last one and twisted her mouth into a disapproving frown, then pointed at her narrowed eyes with two fingers. The way he kept oggling her, you'd think he'd never seen a naked girl. Whatever the case was, it was making her uncomfortable and she couldn't wait until she got her clothes back.

Her ears swiveled back toward the bathroom when she heard a raspy voice, sensitive hearing able to pick up the words. The other girl was already awake, even after getting stunned. Terra kept her eyes on Riker, though, and tapped a finger on the second-to-last question while jerking her head toward the bathroom pointedly.

[Anonymous]

While waiting for her strength to come back, Lyuba realized just how dry her voice was, even after having two oranges. She cleared her throat and whispered a few words in her native language to make sure that she was fully capable of speaking without the dry roughness in her voice.

Just how long was she unconscious for before she escaped from that ship?

Next, as soon as she was sure that she got back her strength, she tried standing up. Her knees were a little wobbly at first, but she soon found her balance and stood erect. Then she tried kicking, and she found that her kicks were a lot faster than they should be. Curious, she tried rapid jabs, which were like a blur. She stopped. What in the hell did those guys do to her? But more importantly, why?

Well, she wasn't going to get any answers by lamenting. In fact, Lyuba felt that could wait a little bit. For now, she had to focus on the task at hand, which was to find out what happened with the other two.

She heard the werewolf's voice down a short corridor:

“Now, what’s your name, for starters. Also, would you mind giving me my gun back?”

Interesting. First the werewolf was trying to kill her, and now he was interrogating someone? Possibly the other catgirl? This she had to see for herself, just to make sure she was safe.

Lyuba walked down the corridor into a large room with many crates lying around. She saw the werewolf with the catgirl.

Then she remembered she wasn't exactly hiding.

[Anonymous]

He couldn’t help but smile at where she chose to stow his pistol.

Very nice.

He looked at the offered pad and the girly writing. Right, Terra. Nice name. Not the nicest he’d ever heard, but nice enough. He tiled his head as she scribbled furiously. Good thing he hadn’t given her one of the tablets, she’d likely have broken it going at that pace. He smiled at her and then looked down at the paper again.

“Uh, right. Ok. My name is Riker. What do I want? Uh…well nothing really. I guess I want to get my ship flying again, but that’s not really something I want from you. I’d love to get to know you better, Terra.” He winked at her. “Hmm, alright, fair enough. Just be careful you don’t shoot yourself in the tit. Even if it’s only set to stun that’ll still sting like buggery and knock you cold. The girl….I have no idea who the girl is. I thought she was with you. All I know is I want her off, right now, before she does damage.”

He scowled over in the girls direction. Damn mages, always busting up the Indy.

He grinned at Terra’s last comment, then replied with a rueful grin and a wink, “Mine too sweetheart. Don't think I didn't see you take a peek.”

The other girl came into view, and Riker shook his head at Terra. “I told you, I have no idea.”

“Hey, you!” he called to the other one, “Look, I’m sorry about the shooting, but you did come after me first. If you’ll just leave quietly there’ll be no more fuss. Hell, it’s almost morning, I can give yah a ride into Teinar if you’d like.”

There, that was being diplomatic. He scratched the back of his head. This was just too difficult.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Terra relaxed visibly as Riker answered all her questions to her satisfaction, but of course there was still the issue of him being a big, scary, hulking monster. Not anymore of course, but when she'd first 'met' him. While she was now finally assured that he wasn't going to kill her or rape her or eat her or something (sure, his behavior had proven it but it was nice to have it in words, too) she still wasn't very comfortable with the fact that he apparently had the tendency to go psycho and turn into a big scary dog thing.

She shuddered. Big scary dog thing that couldn't be taken down, that is. Stereotypical as it was, Terra wasn't all too fond of canines.

When he finally commented on the whole "eyes up here" thing, though, a light blush sprang to Terra's cheeks and her yellow-green eyes narrowed, lips twisting into a scowl. The expression wasn't very effective, though, not when her skin was all flushed. I was not, she thought sullenly, quite aware that she was lying to herself. Alright. So she had. It was kind of hard not to look though when there was a grown man prancing around naked and you didn't trust them enough not to look away! And fine, maybe she'd been curious on some level, too. She was a woman, what could she say?

Huffing a breath, she tucked the notepad under her left arm and placed the pen behind an ear. It would have been nice to have clothes right about now; she was running out of hands and didn't have any pockets, and after his comment about the gun she wasn't so sure she was comfortable with it sitting tucked between her breasts.

Her own weapon's safety worked differently; it didn't fire at all in safety mode.

Retrieving the weapon and holding it in one hand, she stood there awkwardly, tail hanging low so she didn't accidentally lift the towel up in the back and resisting the urge to fidget with her towel. It didn't feel secure enough to her. She turned and watched Riker talk to the other catgirl that had found her way into the room--after being stunned no less! That was crazy!--and then blinked several times when Riker announced that it was almost morning.

With all the adrenaline rushing through her, with her nerves all frayed, she didn't even feel tired. Jeez.

Well...it looked like he was busy negotiating with the other lady, so she should probably occupy herself with getting into proper clothes that...weren't a towel.

Taking a few quiet steps forward, Terra tapped lightly on Riker's shoulder and held out the gun for him to take. He'd proven himself and let's face it, if he wanted to, he could have shot her a long time ago and it wouldn't take much for him to overpower her, either. He'd attempted no such thing and here he was, making nice with the other girl, so she supposed it was only fair. Besides, she was getting tired of holding onto the thing.

Once it was out of her hands, she took up the notebook again and wrote in a quick note before holding it up with one hand for him to see: My clothes are still washing. Do you have spares?

To the other girl she flashed a somewhat sheepish smile, clinging to her towel with her free hand.

This was so incredibly awkward and even covered she felt like she might as well be naked.

[Anonymous]

Lyuba slowly took in what the werewolf-now-in-human-form had just said. He had sounded very smug when he was talking to the other cat-woman, but when he directed his voice towards Lyuba, he sounded serious and stern. Honestly, this guy was something else. She still remembered that only a few hours ago, he was a rampaging, blood-frenzied, foaming-at-the-mouth werewolf chasing after the other cat-woman.

The other cat-woman who happened to be wrapped up in only a towel and blushing very furiously; it seemed that she didn't like the fact of being nearly naked.

The fact didn't seem to bother Lyuba too much. Back when she had a tribe, the female hunter-gatherers were what others would call "scantily clad," chiefly because that too much coverage hindered movement. Of course, both top and bottom were covered...just the breasts and the lower hips were covered. The females who stayed in the village wore the same tops, but wore full-length skirts with an exposed hip instead. And all females of her tribe slept naked.

But that was her tribe. They were all gone now, killed or assimilated by whatever force attacked them.

The other cat-woman gave a sheepish smile in Lyuba's direction. That, in Lyuba's perspective, signaled that the other cat-woman had settled things between her and the werewolf...well, human...oh, whatever! But Lyuba earlier noticed that she was scribbling in a notebook to communicate with the guy. Why? That was answered when she caught a glance of a scar that ran across the cat-woman's throat. Oh, so she was a mute. She felt sorry for the poor girl. Well, at least it wasn't the werewolf's fault, since the scar looked old...otherwise, Lyuba would tear him to pieces if she could.

In response to what he said to Lyuba, she cleared her throat before saying, "Apology accepted, but let me explain. When you turned werewolf, you were chasing her." She paused to avert her eyes towards the cat-woman, then back at the man before continuing, "So I was just trying to save her from you. I just didn't know it would turn into a misunderstanding when you turned human again. So it seems I owe you an apology as well for the...exploding...t hing...if you can really call it that...as well as the black-hand thing."

Her accent was very much outlandish. It had a heavy yet childish lilt to it, due to the fact that the Common tongue wasn't her native tongue. She had picked up Common when she was younger. She could still be learning.

Wait, just how long had she been in a coma?

[Anonymous]

He wasn’t quite sure if today, or tonight rather, had been a good night or a bad night. On the one hand he’d run into a cute girl, and been in the shower with her, but on the other he had tried to kill her a little bit and there was a stun resistant ticking time bomb of magic standing on his ship. Edanith always boasted the most impressive technology in the known universe, and standing there with his precious ship at the mercy of some random mage, Riker could understand why the Edani hated mages so much.

When the mage just stood there stupidly, Riker looked back down at Terra. She was so darn cute trying to be angry while her face had turned into a tomato. He glanced back to the dangerous one, but his attention was quickly pulled back as Terra’s little hand touched his shoulder.

Blinking he took back his pistol. That was quick. Usually when half naked chicks stole his gun they shot him a few times before giving it back, so he guessed this one was crazy. Or perhaps she was just crazier.

With a twirl for flare Riker holstered his pistol….and almost dropped it when there was no holster in which to holster it. He blinked dumbly and looked down, realising he’d left his belt and little gauntlet in the bathroom. That was silly, but in his defence, naked girly had distracted him.

Riker quickly read her note, after gleefully watching her write it, the towel just on the verge of slipping away as she wrote. There was just a little jiggle there too. “I uh…yeah. We should be able to find you something.” He couldn’t help running his eyes over her again, especially her legs, which were nicely on display. Riker felt she might as well be naked too, but the thought carried a different meaning than when Terra thought it.

“Wait here a sec.”

He walked past the mage as he listened to her very slow reply, turning and walking backwards to give his own response. “Look, I really don’t care about your reasons. I want you off my ship, so you can either leave, or I’ll throw you out, it’s as simple as that.” He threw up his hands and shrugged before turning around again and disappearing into the bathroom.

Once his belt was securely fastened, his pistol stowed and his gauntlet once again wrapped around his left forearm Riker re-emerged into the cargo hold. “Right,” he said, clapping his hands on his thighs, “You need clothes, follow me.” He hooked a finger and gestured for her to follow, then turned to the mage to say, “Stay here if you want that lift, or leave before I’m back.”

The stairs leading up to the metal catwalk were made of that steel where a piece was scored and then stretched, forming a grid pattern. It was great for gripping with shoes on, but not too comfortable barefoot. Riker’s first instinct was to scoop up Terra and carry her, but given the circumstances he felt the less physical contact the better. The last thing he wanted was to make her more uncomfortable. Along the catwalk was the bulkhead door that sealed off the cargo hold from the upper deck in case of hull breach, which had been locked, shut by a fleeing Terra earlier and opened again by the mage, or so Riker assumed since it was open again. He scowled at the hole he’d put in the ceiling getting down into the hold, which effectively make the bulkhead useless anyway. That’d have to be repaired before he took off, because he’d gone straight through the primary air filter, without which anyone, other than Riker, would quickly suffocate to death.

Turning left once through the bulkhead lead to the engine room, but Riker went right, heading past the kitchen and living rooms, into the ‘neck’ of the ship. Before the small flight of stairs leading to the cockpit was a corridor with four slanted doors. He walked up to the farthest on the right and pushed the base of it in with his foot, so it became horizontal. Ladder steps protruded from each door and met up with a ladder leading down into each room, which Riker descended. Once at the bottom he called up to Terra, “Come on down.”

While she did he couldn’t help but look up at the view, but turned away before she could notice, hopefully. It was a very good view. The room itself was small, with only a bed sticking out of one corner and a screen on another wall. Everything came out of the walls, the drawers, a closet, a table, even a wash basin. The whole thing was designed to best make use of limited space, since this had been a military vessel originally.

Hooking his finger into a notch, Riker pulled open a closet full of various button up shirts and long coats, all in very earthy colours. For himself he took out a maroon shirt which he slipped on over his singlet and buttoned up. Fishing a pair of leather boots from the bottom of the closet, Riker sat down and yanked them on. He gestured to the closet and drawers. “Help yourself kitten.” There was definitely no indication in his voice of on his face that he had any intention of looking away as she dressed, in fact the small smile that tugged at his lips and the look in his eyes seemed to say, ‘I’ve seen it all already, so what’s the harm?’

[Rhi-Rhi]

Terra's shoulders shook with silent laughter when Riker tried to show off and failed so epically. Grinning for what may have been the first time since she'd met Riker and showing off teeth that looked quite sharp, Terra flashed the man a thumbs up and snorted as though to say, "Very smooth." It was nice seeing him make a fool of himself. It made him seem more...human and not quite as scary, though she still didn't appreciate the way he was oggling her.

Still, she now saw that as just a typical male thing as opposed to a scary monster-murderer-rapist thing. It was annoying, it made her blush, but she no longer feared for her safety.

It also helped that now that the adrenaline rush was gone she was just tired. Her life was no longer in jeopardy so really, all she wanted right then and there was warm clothes on her body and a corner of the room to herself so she could curl up and sleep for a few hours. She'd been awake now since 9 AM the previous morning and it looked like before long she'd be going on twenty-four hours without sleep. What time was it now, even? She watched and listened as Riker addressed the other cat-woman, and she directed a small smile at the woman as though to say, "Thank you." She'd tried to help, after all, though Terra had been far too distracted during it all for obvious reasons.

Riker returned from the bathroom and beckoned Terra to follow, and she did, wincing and wishing she'd put her boots on no matter how ridiculous she'd look with them on and a towel. Would have beat walking along the gridded floor barefoot; that hurt, and her breath hissed softly as she walked as quickly as she could over it. To take her mind off it, she examined the ship more closely as they passed through it, finally having the luxury to do so since she wasn't being chased, and when they got to a ladder...

Oh boy.

Terra watched Riker descend and shifted uncomfortably when he told her to follow. She was all too aware of how...tricky it would be climbing down in a towel, and it wasn't like she had underwear on. She bit her bottom lip and frowned down at him, an accusatory look as though to say, "I should have gone first." Ugh! He probably planned that!

Well, there was nothing to be done about it. She needed the clothes. So after quickly checking that her towel was secure and dropping the notebook down ahead of her, she stuck the pen between her teeth and climbed down.

However, she wasn't naive enough to assume Riker wasn't looking so, to be on the safe side, she tucked her tail up between her legs to act as a sort of shield and did her best not to think about it. If she pretended it didn't happen, it didn't. She hopped off the ladder to drop down the remaining few feet, cursed mentally when she just about lost her towel in the process, and she quickly tugged it back up before her breasts could be exposed. Who cared if he'd already seen? She did!

Scooping the notebook off the floor, she looked about the room they'd entered--and sighed longingly when her eyes landed on the bed. Ohh...that looked so nice...

She cleared her throat and looked away, instead heading to the closet and selecting a beige shirt at random. From the drawers she pulled out a pair of breeches. She wasn't going to wear his underwear. Terra looked both over, knowing they would both be huge on her, but she'd make it work and it was only until her clothes were done. Laying both out on the bed, her hands went for her towel and for a moment she forgot Riker was there as she'd been about to just whip the thing off.

Unfortunately for him, she wasn't quite tired enough to forget about modesty and she fixed him with a scowl when she found him staring. Oh, come on...

Baring her teeth at him in irritation, tail fluffing up, she turned her back to him and, just to spite him, decided to get dressed without even taking the towel off. She slipped the shirt on and pulled it down, glad it was so big on her so as to reach the tops of her thighs and then, carefully, she let the towel drop and pulled on the pants. For the most part her method was a success, though in pulling the pants up around her hips she did momentarily flash him a bit of her bottom, but only for a second. Soon the pants were up, zipped and buttoned, and Terra turned to face him again.

She had to hold the pants up so they didn't fall down, and with her free hand she pointed to his belt and then to her own belt loops. I need a belt.

[Anonymous]

Ah damn it. So close, yet so far. He’d seen it, seen her go for the towel, practically seen her whip it off in his minds eye. She’d been facing him too, not even looking away. Oh well, looked like she’d decided just because he’d seen it all once didn’t mean he’d get a repeat performance. Well, not yet anyway. Hopefully he’d find some way to lure her into staying aboard for a while rather than just going their separate ways in Teinar. That would certainly be disappointing.

She chose to dress in that way that girls somehow all knew how to do. He’d never been able to figure it out, how they all knew it. Probably through a lifetime of hiding their assets from guys like him. Well….not guys like him, there weren’t many space bandit werewolves around, but guys in general. Riker had tried it once, dressing without exposing his chest of his junk, but he’d just gotten all caught up. Maybe only girls could do it, with their narrow shoulders.

He caught a little flash of soft looking flesh as the yanked his pants up, which got him wondering about that tail. She must have to wear pants that sat below it, he supposed, which was pretty hot.

When she turned back he brightened, certainly not going to pout because she’d outsmarted him. This time he understood the signs. Right, yes a belt, that was going to be a problem. Aside from the gun belt he was currently wearing, which didn’t go through the belt loops at all, Riker didn’t actually own any belts. Standing up he went over to rummage through a drawer quickly, producing a pair of adjustable leather suspenders.

He almost went to put them on her too, but then decided even that might be a little too much contact for her at the moment. Riker tended to move too quickly for most people’s comfort, and this girl seemed a bit jittery. Handing her the suspenders with a small smile, he turned back to rummaging through the drawers.

“So Terra,” he said, back still to her, “What do you do with yourself? Got family in Teinar? A boyfriend?” He said it all very casually, just making small talk, while in actual fact those three things would tell him if he had a change of convincing her to come along. If she had any kind of useful skill he could offer her a job, if she had no family that meant she wasn’t tied down, and if she had a boyfriend…well that just meant he’d have to work a little bit harder is all. He’d wooed married women before, women who’d sworn off men too. A boyfriend was certainly no great obstacle in his mind.

Finding what he was hunting for, Riker turned back around and offered the small brush to her. “It’s clean and all that, might have a few grey hairs in it.” He chuckled through a slightly screwed up face, his free hand raking his grey hair self consciously. It was the only aspect of himself he didn’t really like, a fair trade off for the strength and….other assets lycanthropy had given him, but still he thought it made him look old. It was odd talking to her, having to wait for her to write down the responses, but he patiently waited to be handed the notebook.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Terra wrinkled her nose at the suspenders, but that was about the only complaint that was getting. Dorky or not, they would hold her pants up, and goodness knows she needed that right now. All of her own breeches had a hole cut in the back that she could thread her tail through, but since these didn't, she had to wear them low on her hips, just below her tail. It wasn't something she was too happy about--she felt like a plumber, thank goodness the shirt was long--and she gratefully took the suspenders, snapped them on, and worked on adjusting them while he spoke.

Oh boy, that was a lot to answer.

The second two questions were easy enough to answer with simple body language.

Terra shook her head when he asked if she had family, then snorted and shook her head again, an amused grin tugging at her lips, when he inquired about any boyfriends. The first question, though, couldn't really be answered with pantomimes, nods, or head-shaking. Flashing Riker a knowing look and holding up a finger in a 'Just a sec!' sort of way, she took up the notebook again and flipped to the back of the page she'd already written on. Didn't want to waste any precious space, after all. After scribbling furiously for a few minutes, she held out the notebook for him to take, exchanging it for the brush he'd found, and smiled rather proudly, tail whipping out behind her.

I'm finishing off an apprenticeship in Teinar, to be a mechanic.

Then, probably because she'd just felt like elaborating more on the other two questions, she had written, My family is gone; I'm not from Teinar, but I live there now. I don't have an S.O. Don't get too excited. :)

Smiling sardonically, Terra sat down on the edge of the bed and, after picking the brush free of a few gray hairs, began to brush her hair while Riker read what she'd written. When that was done, she flicked her tail into her lap and brushed that, too, more carefully and thoroughly since the fur there tangled the easiest--and hurt the most when it got caught in a brush's bristles. When she was done, she set the brush aside on the bed and smoothed out her tail-fur with her fingers.

If Riker had been worried about handing her a brush with a few stray hairs in it, Terra sure wasn't shy about handing him back a brush that was now officially filled with a massive amount of soft white cat fur. In her defense, she didn't see a trash can anywhere and she didn't know if Riker wanted a hairball rolling around on the floor.

[Anonymous]

Taking the notepad, Riker looked down in search of the reason behind her smugness. He quirked an eyebrow as he read. So she was a mechanic, that was oddly fortunate, seeing as he’d managed to tear a good sized hole in his already broken ship.

“Don’t get too excited,” he muttered, chuckling softly, “I’ll try, but no promises.” Tossing the pad onto the bed beside her he took the brush, noting just how much hair she’d managed to get in it. And he was worried about losing his hair…

His boot tapped against the wall once, causing a little chute to pop open. Plucking the majority of the hair out in one great ball he tossed it down the chute, sending it into a compartment where it would be fed into the engines, burnt up and expelled into space. The brush he tossed back into the drawer, sliding it back into the wall cavity.

“So!” he explained, clapping his hands together and rubbing them, “Mechanic eh? Ever worked on a bird like this before?”

She’d said she was an apprentice, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Meant she’d had less time to pick up bad habits. “I need a mechanic to fix her up and keep her flying. The pays good, you get your own room and stuff. Interested at all?”

There, get straight to the point, that was the best way. He wasn’t much one for subtlety. If he liked a girl, he pursued her openly. If he wanted you on his crew, he asked. If he wanted you on his staff he’d ask too, but that was an entirely different matter….

[Rhi-Rhi]

[AIM log postage.]

Terra tilted her head to the side a little, ears laying back against her head as she looked first at Riker and then at the floor, as though trying to see through it and into its inner mechanical workings. She'd worked on ships before, small ones. Personal craft. But mostly she'd worked on smaller vehicles, like motorbikes and cars, and never without supervision. She was still in training and, while she was a quick learner and felt pretty confident in her skills, the idea of working on a ship like this was a little intimidating.

There was also the fact that he was offering her a room here. Which meant she'd be traveling with him? Raising her eyes, she looked him over from head to toe and tilted her head to the other side. But she didn't know him. What she did know of him was him chasing her down as a werewolf and then getting in the shower naked with her--though he hadn't tried anything, but still! She liked her boundaries. And then there was the question of how long they'd be gone and where they would go.

But it paid well, he said...

She needed the money.

And it wasn't like she had many connections here. Besides, he certainly was blunt about it. So far, he hadn't tried to hide a thing from her--even his perving had been out in the open. It was annoying, sure, but it was the ones who were sneaky about it that you had to worry about.

Terra paused a long moment, then picked up the notebook and pen again, scribbling furiously. Once again, when she was done she flipped it around for him to see.

Where would we go? Will we come back here? How much does it pay? I have some experience with smaller crafts but I haven't worked on something this big before.

She frowned a little, skeptical. Not skeptical of his offer, but skeptical that he'd want a mechanic as inexperienced as she was.

------------

Riker waited patiently as she considered it, a lopsided grin plastered to his face and his hands hanging loosely. This wasn’t the first time he’d offered someone a job on the spur of the moment, and if she refused it wouldn’t be the first time for that either.
 
It took him a moment to read what she’d written, some of the words being a bit hard to make out. After reading it a few times over to make sure he’s gotten it correctly, he looked her in the eye again and took a deep breath. It was a lot to explain.
 
“Alright. I’ll be honest with you, this, is a smuggling ship. I do honest trade too, transporting cargo and passengers and the like, but mostly it’s illegal stuff. I have limits, I don’t do narcotics or anything, only medicinal drugs. No heavy weapons either. Generally it’s either medicine that isn’t approved yet for use on the Libra or in Edanith or wherever it’s goin, or it’s stolen goods I’m transporting to a fence.” He paused to give her a moment to soak that in, then went on.
 
“Right now I’ve got some cargo in the hold that I’ve got a buyer for in Haviah, and I’ve got a contact ready to give me a lucrative shipment of stuff called Hydroximaen V, which is a new bone regrowth drug, that I’ll be taking to the Libra. I think I’ll hit the Libra first, but if you’re part of the crew you do get a say in where we go. As for comin back, well, Teinar is a pretty big smugglers port, so I’m here pretty regularly. You’d see Teinar again in two months time, tops. That might seem like a while, but routes can be long when you’re avoiding government patrol routes and staying below the scanner.
 
“Your cut is ten percent right off the top, so whatever we make. The rest goes to me, which I’ll use to maintain the ship and buy supplies, so you don’t have to buy food or tools or anything with your cut. The Libra job, for example, will take us about two weeks to get there and is going to bring in 40,000 credits. And if you’re interested, I’m buying them on this end for 20,000, so my personal gain isn’t that much when you factor in food, fuel and repair costs, so it’s all fair.
 
“Now, as for experience. It’s alright if you haven’t worked on a big boat like this before, I’ve had a few apprentices work on her and they usually do just fine. I can do most of it myself, so between us we should be right.”
 
He took a breath. “Anything else?”