Want some adventure with that? ((Emma and any one else))

[Anonymous]

Ahhh so this was the Red District that he had heard so much about. Captain Tito looked about the exciting place as he carefully navigated through the crowed streets. His left hand rested lightly against the seath of his cutlass. He didn't want it flopping around too much, some one might lose an eye...or two that way. Even though the air here was artificial...it still smelled sweet, perhaps the air on Earth once smelled this way, though it had not been in his life time. Phft Earth, not much reason to go there anymore....space was the place to be now a days..that is where one had the best chance to make a living. Honest or other wise. His lips spliced apart in a smile, he was defiantly the other wise. The sweet aroma of a street side food cart caught his attention, so he casually strode over there.

"What would you like Sir?" Asked the young girl tending the cart, even through all the dirt and grease she was quite attractive. And it wouldn't be a large guess to assume that this is her main source of income.

Tito flashed her his most charming smile as he looked over the mouth watering selection, that she had on display. "My dear young lady, I would gladly like to try some of your mixed meat pies." He said giving her a gentlemanly bow.

She nodded and quickly fetched a fresh pie from one of the many shelves of the cart, carefully handing it to the man. "There you are sir."

Tito smiled as he took the pie, wasting no time in sampling it right in front of her. He made a soft moan of delight. "Simply delicious my dear!" And it was not a lie, the mixed meat pie was extremely tasty. Why this young girl had not applied for an apprenticeship at a bakery or opened one of her own perplexed him greatly.  

Her eyes light up from his complement, and she nodded. "Thank you sir!"

Tito smiled and nodded back. "In fact if you would be so kind to give me three more, in a to go case? I will gladly pay you extra for the trouble."

The girl smiled even more as she quickly placed three more into a small bag for him, handing them to him carefully. "Here you are Sir, and if they happen to get cold, just gently warm them over a slow burning flame and they'll taste as if they were just made."

Captain Tito took the bag, and true to his word he handed the girl more than what she charged for the meat pies, including the one he had eaten in front of her. "There you are my dear, a hefty fee for a wondrous job. I do suggest that you look into getting a bakery. You have great promise. Have a good day." He nodded kindly to her and walked back into the crowd.

"Thank you so much sir!" She happily shouted out to him. She looked down at the fee she had been given, she could hardly believe it. She quickly placed it in a hidden compartment behind her cart, she knew all to well that not everyone in this place were as kind as some.

He had carefully tied the bag to his belt. Normally, given his nature and his not so honest way of making a living, he would have swiped some of that sweet girl's hard earned money. But there was just something about her that he would never have forgiven himself for if he had done so. Perhaps it was the look on her face, he could see signs of a hard and sad life etched on that pretty face. It reminded him of his hard life when he was younger, how he had always wished some one had given him a break. It was the least he could do for her, besides this place was full of people that he could easily swindle out of their earnings. That sweet girl had been through enough.

Tito walked across the street, there had to be some place he could go...to earn a few bucks.

[Anonymous]

Svindri wrapped her fingers tightly around the money she had and stiffened the muscles. She'd stretched them sideways a little so her fist looked like it had one unbroken covering of skin over a bulbous mass. People would find it difficult to steal anything from that hand, unless they worked out what she was and broke her fingers. Bellinese were fairly rare outside their territory in the Wastelands on Earth so the number of people who knew what she was would be small.

Her stomach thundered at her delicate ears and she grinned. "Yeah yeah," she replied with mock-exasperation. "Calm down. We're getting there." Talking to her own stomach was weird but hey, this was space. People walked around with separate beings in their abdomens instead of stomachs. Nobody noticed unless they were from a secluded place.

She saw the place she had been searching for and abruptly adjusted her bearing to make a bee-line for it. She could smell the delicious scents wafting out of the food cart. They had been what she was searching for and now that she'd found them they were just as she remembered them (of course - her nose would never forgot that smell).

On her way there she brushed past a young man holding a pie and smiled and nodded at him but kept going. Food was far more important that anything else, even the loud, unfamiliar noise off to her left somewhere; normally she would've been off like a shot, ears twitching, in order to catalogue a new sound. Soon she was at the cart and stood in front of it, her stomach rumbling louder than ever, though most people wouldn't hear it unless they had their ear to her abdomen.

"One pie, please," she asked the girl, beaming hugely. The girl matched her grin with a massive one of her own.

"Sure can!"

She didn't ask Svindri what sort of pie she wanted because Svindri had been a customer there for a while now and the girl knew that Svindri would eat any of her pies with the same gusto and appreciation. She handed Svindri her pie and Svindri quickly reworked her hand so that the money for the pie dropped into the other girl's hand. "Thanks, love," she said with a smile and walked off back towards the crowd,  nibbling on the pie.

Without realising it she was following the footsteps of the man she'd brushed against before. She chewed on her pie happily and closed her eyes, oblivious to the sights, smells and tastes around her. She relied on sounds to guide her.

Unfortunately the person she hit wasn't making any noise and her arm was suddenly bent back at an insane angle and the pie went flying from her fingers before she could react. She leapt after it, nearly knocking someone over, but it was gone.

"Nooo!" She wailed, falling to her knees. She didn't have the money to afford another pie and it was gone!

[Anonymous]

He had just finished the first pie he had bought from the food cart, when he heard a loud cry. Naturally the sound had frightened him, and so he spun around to face it.  His hand clasping the handle of his cutlass...ready to do battle. His eyes fell on a woman kneeling in the middle of the street. She seemed to be crying, or sobbing might be the more correct term. Unacceptable! He might not be an overly honest person, but it was never right for a woman...no matter her race....to be crying. Not on his watch, not if he could do anything about it.

Tito let go of his weapon, and quickly made his way over to her. He warmly held out his hand to her. "Dear lady, tell me what it is that you cry for?" Smiling sweetly, he patiently waited for her to take hold of his hand. "Tell me, and I shall make it right again."

[Anonymous]

Someone talking alerted the distraught Svindri to the presence above her. She snorted a few times in quick succession and looked up. "Tell me, and I shall make it right again. I'm not crying," she huffed after repeating his sentence, her mood darkened by losing her pie. I'm just annoyed because I lost my pie and I can't afford another.

She waved aside his hand and got up under her own power, rising from the ground in a manner which utilised only small muscles in her legs and would be completely impossible for any race but hers. Svindri snorted again and looked around for her pie desolately.

[Anonymous]

Tito reached into the bag , the kind woman from the bakery stand had given him, taking out one of the mixed meat pies. "Here my dear lady, have one of mine." He offered the pie to her waiting for some sort of reply. "I'm sure you would not want the one that you lost, it has most likely been stepped on and dirtied up by the ground. But you may have one of mine, and do not worry...I still have two more for myself."  He watched her. She seemed, for what ever reason, to not trust others quite so easily. He smiled as he thought about that observation, it was most likely a good thing. Especially in this time and age, not every one was worthy of another's trust. However there were some people that were very trust worthy, Tito liked to think of himself as such a person. Regardless of his chosen profession, he believed himself to be a good person. Certainly swiping treasure every now and then didn't make one entirely a bad person....did it? He had to make a living some how, and he wasn't cut out for an honest kind of work....he had tried it before after all. He loved being his own boss way too much...being able to chose his own hours and work days. Plus he got to keep all the take for himself, well when he didn't have a crew to pay that is.

He smiled at her again. "Please, I promise you that I won't bite." Tito was trying his best to make this lovely woman feel as comfortable as possible. He would never harm a lady, well not unless she attacked him first that is. In this case, he just wanted to help...he could only imagine how much she had been looking forward to that meat pie. Heavens know he had been looking forward to it as well.

[Anonymous]

Svindri gaped as the man offered her his pie and snatched it straight away without a thought of manners in case he was joking or decided he didn't want to give it away after all. As she nibbled on the pie she closed her eyes and shut out as much noise as possible by folding her ears flat against her head. The emotions she was getting from this strange man who would offer someone he didn't know something of his were not ones she could readily identify but didn't sound hostile in any way. One of them may have been superiority touched with a hint of amusement and the other self-pride, but Svindri had not studied them enough to be sure. They could have easily been anything else along those lines.

"Please, I promise you that I won't bite." Svindri repeated the man's sentence almost as soon as he'd said it, no doubt confusing him. She caught a hint of wistfulness and she glanced at the pie she'd been eating almost without noticing as she concentrated on the man. "Oh, I'm sorry for being so rude. Thank you very much for this. It was very nice of you, especially since I didn't treat you very well." Svindri snorted once, twice and took a bite of her pie, loving the taste. The wary part of her asked if it was poisoned and her lips split in a smile because it didn't matter.

[Anonymous]

Tito smiled as he watched her happily eat the pie. "There is no need to appolgise my dear. I can understand, how one might respond with rudeness, espically to a person they have never met before." He ran a hand through his hair not taking his eyes off of her. "I promise that I am in no way offended. My only goal was to end your suffering." He held out his hand. "I am Captain Tito, and who might you be my lady?"

[Anonymous]

"I promise that I am in no way offended. My only goal was to end your suffering," Svindri mumbled through a mouthful of pie, annoyed that she couldn't suppress the urge long enough to swallow. She was not usually embarrassed by her condition, as most people didn't point it out (they did give her strange looks) and those who did were usually rude, allowing her to get angry rather than embarrassed. Those who were polite, however, and when she became rude because of it, caused her a great deal of bother. Maybe when she was older she'd be used to it. Most of her people didn't have a problem with this sort of thing, as few were travellers.

She dusted one of her hands off and extended it to the Captain, realising as she did so that she'd done the wrong hand. Rather than swapping hands, she rearranged her muscles so that she could grip the man's hand with the 'back' of hers. Actually, having no bones or fingernails and having quite elastic skin, she didn't have any distinguishing features on her hands, so her hand looked exactly the same when the muscles were reversed, except that if Tito looked up he'd see that her hand was facing the wrong way.

"I am Svindri Iseult, of the Bellinese," she replied formally, trying not to spray crumbs. She didn't expect him to have heard of her people, as they were rare even on Earth and only one in a hundred years or so left to explore. She had brought her family a fair amount of trepidation when she announced she was leaving, for an explorer brought great honour, but were also worried about a lot.

She waved her pie hand around, careful to watch it in case she lost this one too. "What brings you to Cancer, Captain?" A snort and she took another bite of the pie.

[Anonymous]

Tito smiled and lightly shook the woman's hand. He thought it was rather interesting the way she could rearrange her muscles like that. He couldn't help but think, of all the times a talent such as that would have come in handy for him. He had also noticed, what seemed like an uncontrollable habit of her's to repeat things he had said. He didn't think too much of it however, he had been drifting about in space for some time. So he wasn't easily put off by the strange habits of people...whether they be human or otherwise.  Though he had never really heard of her race before...and couldn't really remember ever having come across them before. What a delight it was to meet a person of a race he hadn't ever seen before. Tito suddenly remembered that she had asked him a question, oh my he didn't want to seem rude at all...his mind just had the habit of wondering every once in a while.

"Oh forgive me, my mind was wondering. It does that from time to time. I have come to Cancer, to take a slight break from my travels...and to search for a crew." He smiled sweetly at her lightly scratching his nose with one finger.  "You see, my last crew suddenly grew tired of traveling...and wished to return to their loved ones." He sighed softly. "And its such a large ship, that it gets quite lonely. So I figured I would stop over on Cancer, take in some sights...and perhaps pick up a new crew at the same time." He flashed her a smile again, his eyes sparkling. "So Ms. Svindri Iseult, what brings you here to this fine place?"

[Anonymous]

Svindri nodded gravely, having no idea about the trials of crews or ships, as she had none. Something struck her as odd and she commented on it after repeating a few of his words. "You can pilot a large ship all by yourself? Or did they leave when you came to Cancer?"

She shook her head a little (which, she'd come to realise, was just a personal habit and had nothing to do with her 'problem') and took a breath as she considered Captain Tito's question. "I'm a wanderer, I guess you'd say. I come from Earth and I've been on Cancer for a while now, just looking around and working."

[Anonymous]

He smiled. "Well its a little of both. You see some of the crew left at our last stop before this, and the remainder left once we docked here at cancer." Tito scratched at the back of his neck sighing softly. "You wouldn't by any chance be interested in joining up with me on my ship would you? Or do you perhaps know any place around here that I might find some new crew...as well as a place that I might be able to get some work at?"