Stellar Legionnaires (Private)

[Altissa]

This is a private roleplay between PerroCarne and Altissa! Unless you are either of them, please don't post here!

[Altissa]

"Observation: Varista certainly is a diverse planet." Arizona commented absently as she glanced across the wide street. All sorts of races gathered here, and with good reason. The planet was in the center of the trading market, with every ship across the galaxy docking on it to import their products. With so many people on this world, it was also a pretty good place to get a job, legal or not. People here tended to overlook who you'd been before in favor of whether or not you were an asset to them now. This made it the perfect place for the mercenaries to find new work and a ship to get away on. After that last botched job, Arizona and her companion needed a decent amount of anonymity.

"Query: Have you been here recently? I don't remember where anything is." The black-and-white haired woman looked back to her companion with a blank expression. In the brief time since she'd joined the recently-decimated group, her strange verbal tic of classifying her sentences had never been explained. In a large world like this, even her strange clothing wasn't looked at twice. Even with bandages wrapped around her chest, belted dark pants and a red sash around her waist, she still didn't compare to some of the other fashions passing them.

Arizona was unable to keep her eyes from wandering back to the foot traffic passing the opposite way. The harsh glares that she got in response from the strangers she was staring at admonished her enough that she ducked her head in apology, but still the woman did not look away. Sure, she'd seen a lot of the other species that inhabited the worlds in the Anschluss, their trade union, but never so many at once, or with so many different styles...And certainly not with so many glares directed at her. "Commentary: There seems to be a lot of hostility directed at us, moreso than previously observed in past circumstances."

Arizona caught the eye of a pupil-less man passing by them. He grinned widely at her to reveal pointed teeth, at which Arizona quickly crossed to put her companion in between herself and the stranger, who simply strolled off. "S-supplication: Please allow for me to continue traveling with you." Personally, she was a little surprised that she hadn't been left behind before this when the group 'disbanded' - not that she'd complain about it, for certain. Having any sort of guidance for herself was good, especially considering that she didn't count interpersonal communication a part of her skillset. She was much more useful in a fight, where the only talking was the occasional taunt. Because of this, she was always tagging along after someone...Exactly like she was now.

[PerroCarne]

Calhoun glanced over his shoulder. He guessed the reason they kept getting looks was the two who walked next to each other were in stark juxtaposition. His eyes were an ice blue and his skin was milky white. As he walked a long thin tail flicked behind him, it moved like that of a cat, flicking back and forth with agitation at being stared at, but it was furred along the top of it and at the tip, hiding a barb. The black fur would run up his back and onto his head to look like hair, which was rather short and obsessively groomed.

He was one of the few left of his species; a civil war had not been kind to their planet. His eyes flicked over to look at her, as he straightened his coat and smoothed it over his stomach. If a human had looked at him, he would have looked more like a gentleman than a mercenary, even the swords at his sides made him look like one who should be respected not hired for a hit. "I remember." He answered, "Keep walking and don't make eye contact with them if possible, Arizona. We need a ship -- which means we need a mechanic. And we need more hands. Better ones than before." He snorted.

"What do you think? A cargo ship? An old war ship?" He was glancing up at the ships that were docking, each landing near them but he couldn't focus on any. "A transport ship?" As he moved towards a bar he took Arizona's arm. His thirty-some years and, more-so, his time in the military had caused him to become obsessive about other's safety. He sat her in a booth and moved up to the bartender himself to tell him that they were looking for some shipmates.

When he moved back over to Arizona he had a water for her and a muddy grey-colored equivalent, graz, for himself. "We ought to keep sober for this. I'm sure the number of people whom we will have to reject will be far higher than those we think might be worth our time." He ran a clawed hand through his hair and leaned backwards. "Now we wait for them to hear of it."

[Altissa]

Arizona listened to his explanation and nodded when he said that they'd need a mechanic. "Statement: If that means that we will soon get to fight again, then I do not mind in the slightest." She told him mildly. The woman did enjoy the fights that they were hired for; she didn't, however, show any particular interest in the money that they were paid.

"...Information: The faster the ship that we pick goes, the sooner that we can leave and get away from problematic instances." She reasoned. "Addition: Perhaps we should look for a ship on the darker side of town? A craft intended for smuggling would be large enough to carry the group but would be fast enough to escape trouble." Arizona, for one, certainly didn't care if they obtained their vehicle legally. In fact, if there was a fight and they got to kill the original owner of the ship, the woman would end up being much happier by the end of the day. She followed him without any disagreement, but did glanced back at the pupil-less man they had passed. Arizona couldn't find him, though, and frowned but did not comment to Calhoun.

She raised an eyebrow at the water and pointedly pushed it across the table rather than drinking any. "Complication: How will we know if they are being sincere? Any person requesting passage with us may simply be putting up a front in order to trick us, or double-cross us at the last minute." Arizona pointed out practically. Though the words themselves were full of suspicion, her tone remained calm and somewhat detached.

[PerroCarne]

Calhoun downed the graz rather quickly and rubbed his head. "If we get a mechanic and our own ship, we'll definitely be able to travel around faster -- get more jobs and more money, assuming our mechanic can keep her running. And that will mean more fights, of course." He glanced at Arizona and smiled slightly. He found her obsession with fighting endearing.

"As for the ship itself, that's a good point. I've never been in a 'smuggling' ship, but we certainly could use one for our purposes -- maybe even take on a job or two for transport if we're headed that way on a mission." He flicked the empty glass, looking up as a man walked up to them, eyed the Vishe's white skin and black fur and walked away.

Slowly, he formulated an answer to Arizona's last statement. She was more than likely right, but he hoped that his appearance would run off most of the ne'er-do-wells. The Vishe, as Calhoun was, had a tendency towards ruthless punishment for treachery - it was, in fact, what their civil war had been over. "I suppose... the only consultation," he finally replied, " is that if they start to become too much trouble, we'll strip them naked and blow them out the airlock." He glanced up again as a creature moved through the crowds.

Most everyone steered clear of him, not because he was doing anything particularly uproarious, but because he was a black insectoid, who must have measured six feet at his head not including antennae. Almost like a praying mantis from Old Earth, the vast majority of his body laid low, held by four strong but thin legs. His head was held high and appeared much more like an ant's, but with a more flexible mouth and mandible. He set the front-most set of his six legs onto the bar, letting out a group of hisses, purrs, and clicks. The bar tender was quiet for a moment before he nodded. As he waited, the creature tapped the four finger-like parts of its pincer on the bar. The other "hand" reached for a napkin.

[Altissa]

Arizona smiled widely at the indication that, yes, she would get more fights. "Statement: Then I hope that we find a good mechanic." She took a new interest in looking around now that there was something in it for her. What she found, though, didn't make her too happy. The pupil-less man was sitting at a table across the room, chatting amiably with someone. Arizona immediately stopped searching the room, instead trying to focus on what it looked like Calhoun was looking at. There was no way that the pupil-less man was following them. It was just a coincidence that he'd turned around and ended up in the same place at the same time.

Though she didn't drink it, Arizona took the water in her hands and tilted it back and forth slightly. It was a nervous habit with her hands. If she'd had a weapon out, she'd have probably been tossing it around instead. "Warning: It should be noted that choosing that sort of craft may get us on the improper side of the authorities, therefore we or our pilot would have to be particularly cautious when choosing a docking station." She noted.

The woman watched the man walk up, then leave, and frowned. "Statement: You would think that people on a world like this would be more tolerant or used to other species." She observed. At least she had the excuse of never seeing most of these races...Well, she couldn't remember seeing any of them.

The insectoid was also a curious thing to her, but what interested her far more was that Calhoun was studying it. "Query: Is this lifeform of use to us?" She asked simply. Surely they needed another team to fight with them, but Arizona found that distasteful; less kills for her, as it were. Still, she'd follow Calhoun's directions to the letter.

[PerroCarne]

The man nodded to her. "Believe me, Arizona..." he murmured, "I do too. I'm tired of riding ships with captains who put themselves above their crew." Slowly his eyes moved towards her when she started to play with the water, not drinking it.

"More exposure doesn't always breed more acceptance. Sometimes exactly the opposite." Calhoun responded, flicking his tail behind him and then glancing at the insectoid whose long tongue slipped out of his mouth to move into the juice that he had been brought. "Being around people breeds a notice of differences... as well as similarities..."

To her last statement he slowly nodded. "Do you see the etching near his second leg?" he asked. It would have been rather hard to see for a human, but the blue eyes of the Vishe translated light differently and forged the pictures they received more exactly. The symbol on his shell was a tribal symbol, looking like mix between a star and an eye. "That means he's a pilot... or was. The two jagged lines beneath it... means he's been discharged..." Calhoun was quite sure it was an honorable discharge, but he wouldn't risk saying it aloud to be proven wrong.

"Why don't you go see if he's interested in flying a ship for a good cause, Arizona?" Calhoun asked, raising a brow at her.

[Altissa]

Arizona looked down, then frowned slightly at the water before setting it down and sliding it far away from her. She certainly didn't want to slosh any onto herself, or it wouldn't end so well for her.

Arizona peered over at the alien, then narrowed her eyes to try and make out the mark that her companion had pointed out. "...Statement: Err, sort of. My opticals aren't honed for long-range at the current time. I could switch to my sniper mechanisms, though I would not suggest it without a target." Her mouth twitched with some amusement at the last statement. It faded quickly when Calhoun suggested that she speak to the stranger, however. "Query: Are you sure that is a good idea? I am not terribly good at persuading people without, ah, alternative means." She drummed her fingers on the table, disappointed that she couldn't just beat what she wanted out of people. Arizona sighed, though, and slid out of the booth. "Concession: I will try. I only hope that I do not offend him."

She walked over to the bar in a direct line, trying to ignore the fact that the pupil-less man was watching curiously. She thought about the alien's earlier request for his juice and did her best to find a match for it. She was relatively certain that she had it correctly, so she gave it her best shot. "Request: Pardon me," The dialect was a bit off, giving her a strange accent in the clicks, hisses and purr, but the words came through clearly nonetheless. Honestly, the words shouldn't have been able to form in the human's mouth, but they did. "But my companion and I would like to request your piloting services." Arizona bowed her head slightly in a universally polite gesture. She paused, not wanting to give too many details if the stranger was uninterested.

In the corner, the pupil-less man was greeted by two burly men. The man gestured casually in the general direction of Calhoun, then bolted as soon as the two men looked away. Arizona glanced over to see what had scared the man away and crossed her arms, carefully maneuvering her left hand to cover the winged tattoo on her right arm. She returned her attention to the creature with a sweet smile.

[PerroCarne]

Calhoun laughed, "Don't worry. If you offend him, I'll just cover our track and he won't even know who we are. Plus, you'll do fine. You've got some quirky charms." He brushed his pant leg as he crossed his legs, watching her move over the the insectoid.

The insect looked over at her. His compound eyes studying her. Despite the color of his body, the eyes themselves were a deep red with a single black dot in each one that appeared to be an ever gazing pupil. Slowly the tongue that was in the juice retreated back into his mouth and he slowly nodded. To anyone who could hear the intricacies of the language, he would sound slightly uneducated. "Uh... what kind of boat you got?" he asked, tapping his fingers on the bar as he glanced at the empty glass of juice. "Why don't you take a seat and we'll figure out what kind of services I'd be running for? I could use some more juice too, if ya don't mind?"

Calhoun raised a browless ridge and slowly got out of his seat, tail flicking with irritation as he noticed someone gesture at him. Living up to the short tempered reputation of his people, he sat down beside the pupil-less man and smiled. "Did your friends have a question they didn't think I'd be willing to answer?" As his anger boiled, his lip raised slightly to reveal long canine teeth.

[Altissa]

Arizona tilted her head to meet the insect's gaze unfailingly. She wasn't the type to be intimidated, which wasn't necessarily a good thing all of the time. She eyed his empty glass when he did, then sighed and signaled the bartender for a refill with a polite smile before she returned her attention to the insect. "Statement: I would prefer to remain standing. We are not currently in possession of a 'boat', but I am certain that we will be able to...Procure one within a decent amount of time." Her smile had an edge to it now, one that hinted at the viciousness beneath her friendly exterior.

"Query: Pardon me, but what sort of vehicles are you particularly skilled in operating? It may help us choose what kind we get....Alternative Query: Can you fight?" The latter was clearly more out of personal interest, though it certainly wouldn't hurt if everyone on board could hold their own, particularly if they were boarded and needed to defend themselves.

The man stared at Calhoun for a long moment before he attempted to respond, "'Ello, there. You''ll have to excuse me, I'm afraid." His words were smooth and came out to give him a gentleman's tone. "I was simply convincing them that this was, well...A dangerous place to pick a fight." He smiled and added, "After all, there certainly seem to be a fair amount of people all too eager to join into the fight - and win it, as well." It was clearly supposed to be a compliment to Calhoun. He continued with a slight nod to Arizona, "You are looking for a crew, are you not? Would you happen to have a ship already, then? If not, I'm sure that I have one in mind that would serve you well."

[PerroCarne]

The insect let out a quiet click that would have been an equivalent of a "yay" as she motioned for the barkeep to get him another drink. He listened quietly to what the woman asked him. The lack of muscles in his face made him entirely impossible to read.

"Everything." he answered. "I can fly everything. Anything with an engine." He sounded like he was about to jump out of his skin with excitement. "I've always wanted to fly a Vishe Dragon." he answered. When she asked about fighting he let out a chuckle. "Yeah. You know what this means?" he asked, "Means I lived to fight when I was young."

Calhoun raised a brow and then nodded. "I am looking for a crew and a ship." he answered, glancing towards the insectoid and Arizona. They seemed to be hitting it off fairly well. "Would you like to attempt to impress me with your skills? I need someone who is willing to fight but will listen to direction."

[Altissa]

Arizona's mouth twitched at the alien's joy for getting another drink, and moved back into a lingering smile when he spoke about the ship, this Dragon. His passion for driving them reminded her of her own fervor or fighting. "Exclamation: Wonderful! I am certain that you will be a lovely addition to the team. My designation is..." She hesitated, unsure of how to say it in his language. Instead, she switched back to the more common one that she used to speak with Calhoun. "Arizona." Her head tilted slightly when she added, "Query: What is your name? I would like to know what to call you."

The man listened to Calhoun, though he kept his eyes on the table rather than directly on the Vishe's. It had to either be boredom or shame driving that..."I can shoot a plasma gun, but I won't make any promise in regards to knives and the like. Your partner over there, though, seems to have that covered." He gestured with his hands to indicate the paper-thin lines crossing Arizona's hands. The lines were black rather than red, though that was most likely just a testament to the age of the cuts. If she hadn't nicked herself practicing recently, she had to have some sort of skill, the pupil-less man figured.

"If you guys are the sort of people that you appear to be, then I am certain that I will be able to find a ship you would enjoy." He paused, then added dryly, "Of course, it could be difficult to get a hold of, if you aren't skilled enough to...Get to it." He smiled slightly, "I doubt that it will be too much of a problem for you...And the ship is probably the best on this planet. Varista is a big place, you know."

[PerroCarne]

The bug cocked his head slightly, hearing the name in her tongue and then translated it into his own. "Arizona? Like the colony from Old Earth?" he repeated and paused for a moment when she asked him his name. It was obvious, like her, he was trying to make it something she could pronounce. Finally he let out a string of hisses, purrs, chirps, and clicks that could not be translated. "Humans call me Cartwright though..."

Calhoun nodded slowly, his tail was weaving back and forth behind him as he listened to the man speak. "Can you hit a moving target? How about ten in a military situation?" He asked, "I'm not looking for those along for the ride, but I will take your assistance in finding this... 'best' ship."

Slowly the Vishe got onto his feet, straightening the coat again over his stomach and then over his hair to try to keep it perfectly straight. "Let me retrieve my associate and you'll see us to this ship?" It didn't sound like a request in anything but tone, since the cold blue eyes that rested on him seemed to glare. It would be a day in heaven to be in the sky again.

[Altissa]

She nodded slightly in agreement about her namesake That place had been abandoned for years, and from what few hints of stories about it that she'd heard, it had been a barren desert anyway. She'd initially taken some amusement in the fact that both she and her namesake drew the life out of other forms, but there were only so many times that a joke could be funny. "Comment: Cartwright is an interesting name....Observation: You said that they call you that, but not what you think of it. Do you accept this designation? I could repeat the name that you said earlier if you like; I should be able to say it in your language without butchering it, though I can not promise the same for my companions."

The man grinned, "Moving target, flying target, a coin at one hundred feet. I can hit them all." He bragged. "It has even won me more than a few bets, as well. I've been in some fights, too. Not that they were my fault, mind you!" He stood and bowed eloquently with a little flourish to boot. "It would be a pleasure to escort you to and your partner." His grin would have been mocking on anyone else, but on this man it simply seemed to be pride.

Arizona glanced back for Calhoun, then blinked when she realized he wasn't at the table. When she did find him, however, her fists clenched. That pupil-less guy, again?! He was really starting to get on her nerves! It seemed like Calhoun had it under control, though...She'd just have to trust his judgement. Her fist unclenched and she sighed, a little frustrated.

[PerroCarne]

Cartwright would have smiled if he had had the capability. "Cartwright is fine. You get used to being called what people call you, right? Not a reason in the world to dislike a name. They could have called me something far worse." he answered, flicking the empty cup with irritation.

Calhoun smiled slightly as the man told him what he could do. "Good." he answered after a long while, "You looking for a job?" he asked, "Once I got this ship, I'll need a crew. Good with guns and happy to see nothing but black and stars for a few weeks at a time." Slowly he got onto his feet, "Calhoun, by the way." He extended the smooth white hand towards the man. There was a myth that the Vishe were, to the touch, exactly the same as an eel or a catfish - and it wouldn't be inaccurate. Though not wet or slimy, the Vishe's skin was smooth and completely hairless.

Calhoun glanced towards Arizona and motioned for her to come back over. He always seemed to be a military man, even in the least militaristic of moments. Maybe that was why he got along with the girl so well.