The blue hues contrasted the warm rush that comes from traveling through a teleporter. Shaylene still had trouble adjusting to it despite having to deal with it for the years she was stuck on the Gambler's Ruin, traveling between her various jobs on the ship and her barracks. This time was different; she had only just walked into the teleporter by the Protostar Housing Society under the invitation of her new friend Fawkes. Rather than the old dread she used to feel on the ship, this time she felt nothing but calm as the matter that made up who she was was being relocated to its designation.
Before she could even see where she was, her body forced itself to double down and make her place her hands on her knees and take deep breaths. The moment of rematerializing was one that everyone handled differently. Some felt fine having their body scrambled then reassembled, but Shaylene's insides felt scrambled and pulsed in a way akin to something like being hit by a cargo sled at full speed.
"In through the nose..... out through the mouth...." She said, reciting the mantra her Commanding Officer taught her on how to overcome teleportation sickness.
Thankfully what she breathed in smelled sweet and pleasant, which was teasing her because she wanted to see what was generating the smells. She took one more deep breath and shot her upper body back up to its upright position to see what was in front of her.
No sooner had Shaylene stood back up than an open palm started slapping against her back several times.
"Hey hey, Shaylene! Ya showed up!"
Fawkes gave her a few more hearty back-slaps as he moved around to her side from seemingly nowhere. He offered her a huge, toothy grin with his eyes closed while his auburn-colored tail swished back and forth rapidly, conveying his excitement.
She didn't even get a moment to enjoy the view of the Protostar housing plot before the slap on the back jostled her caused her to take a step forward of stumble onto the metal platform at their feet. Her soldier instinct kicked in for a moment and urged her to grab at the surprise attacker, but when seeing Fawkes grin, that feeling melted away. She took another deep breath and stood back up again with a calm smile despite the now odd mixed feeling of her body recovering from the teleporting and the sudden jolt of adrenaline.
"Well yeah, you told me to so I couldn't say no. Now what did you want to show..." She drifted off and looked over his shoulder to see the vast sky and the plot of green land behind him. Her eyes widen in amazement as she leans to one side to get a better view past him.
Fawkes turned to follow Shaylene's gaze, wondering if something interesting has sprung up since he last looked, which would be indeed surprising to him.
The floating chunk of land wasn't all that much to look at. The grass was green enough and, despite the protective force field engulfing the area, a pleasant breeze rolled over it. There were some sparse trees strewn about- rather sporadic and unnatural looking against the background of endless sky. There were some prickly-looking bushes and some other random vegetation that looked hastily planted to the trained horticulturist's eye.
"What? What's the matter?" he asked, removing his hand from her back to scratch his head.
Fawkes then realized that she might be glaring at the rusty-looking small cargo ship that was unceremoniously lodged into the dead center of the floating island.
She stared at the same spot for a moment then looked back to him.
"N... nothing. This is all yours? Like... all of it?" She responded with a some what shocked expression.
Fawkes' fur on his tail ruffled slightly and his jovial expression dropped suddenly; he appeared rather offended by the comment. "Of course it is!" Then, too quickly, he adopted a far more embarrassed look about him as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, I mean... now it is."
He took a few steps forward across the grass and stood with his back to her, tail swishing much slower now, with his hands on his hips. He turned his head back to her and motioned to everything with one hand. "I sort of inherited it."
Her neutral expression slow mrphed into a wide eyed open mouthed smile of excitement.
"That's so amazing! I mean... you can do so much with this!" Her voice matched the look on her face.
She walked past his gesture and down the ramp leading to the patch of grass with a few quick steps and stoped, briefly looking around before turning back at him with that same huge smile.
"I mean, the possibilities are endless! You can build a..." She started pointing to random locations and giving off random suggestions both great and down right crazy unless stopped. Her tail emulating her excitement by swishing around with all of the turns her body makes.
Fawkes followed her down the ramp and tried to keep up with her pointing and general excitement. He forced a smile but just crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat.
"Yeah yeah, those are all really great ideas but... well... my dad had certain plans for it and I'd like to follow those. Ya know... if I can."
He drummed his clawed fingers on his crossed arms and pretended that he spotted something fascinating in the distance.
Shaylene started to slow down and stop as he walked by, turning her head to the side. Her face went grim and she looked down, the brim of her hat hiding her face.
"Is he... you know.... Sorry, that's sort of rude to ask..." The complete change of tone in her voice was drastic as it went from upbeat and chipper a moment past, to now matching the down expression.
Fawked turned to her and shrugged his shoulders dramatically, then played with the drawstrings of his hooded sweatshirt. "He wasn't one of my real dads, so... ya know. No big deal." He tone couldn't have be anymore insincere, further illustrated by the quick, agitated flicks of his fuzzy tail, but he continued to play off his disinterest.
"So anyway, this was his place. He just finally bought it not too long ago. Been savin' up to get it for as long as I can remember. He kept sayin' that we could be livin' the dream on Nexus after a few more jobs. Sooo..." He lifted his hands up to the domed sky. "I guess this is the dream!"
Shaylene glanced back up at him when she heard his tone and wasn't very sure what what to say exactly. A smile played across her face as she decided to just roll with it.
"That's great! That you did your dream that is... or his dream... both?" She ended the sentence still feeling a little at tense about if she said the right thing, only briefly knowing him.
She quickly turned around and looked out over the plot of land with her hands on her hips and her mannerisms go back to excited, just a more toned down version. "So... what do you plan on doing then with all this space? I'm jealous, I would do so much with it."
Fawkes slipped his hands into the pockets of his over-sized shirt and walked next to Shaylene. "Well... first of all, I've gotta get that ship fixed." He nodded towards the rusty clunker of a transport ship that looked like it'd been through hell and back. The hull appeared to have sustained a fair amount of damage and by the way the landing gear sort of sunk into the ground suggested it hadn't moved in quite a while.
Fawkes rubbed his hair as he stared at it, growing silent for a spell. "It was my dad's delivery ship. He made a living moving stuff from arkships to other vessels in the Exile fleet. Supplies n' junk. Stuff that people really wanted but wasn't important enough for official cargo transport. He taught me how pilot it. Isn't that awesome?" Fawkes grinned ear to ear and looked to Shaylene for affirmation.
And she gave it by turning to him and nodding with a smile.
"It is!" She glanced back to the ship and tilted her head to the side slightly. "I wish I could help though, I don't know much of anything about ships. Wasn't part of my training."
She turned back to him sharply, her mouth wide open with a smile, and her hands clasped infront of her in an excited fashion. "Think you can teach me how to fly when it's up and flying!?..." Before he can even answer her whole body shifted quickly, her tail now in her hands and she was stroking it while looking down again. The brim of her cap covered her eyes. "Though if you do, we need to keep it between us, otherwise my CO will have me flying the jump ship or something... the ship I use has auto pilot..."
Fawkes cracked a confident smile and crossed his arms again, one of his fox-like ears flicking involuntarily at the proposal. "Yeah sure! I could show ya how. My dad was a good teacher... uh... although..." He moved his hand around to the back of his neck and rubbed it before letting out a short chuckle. "Flying in space and flying down here are totally different experiences. He didn't really... have time to teach me how to fly it really well in this atmosphere."
He shook his head once and then suddenly closed his fists tightly. A look of sheer determination engulfed his wild facial features. "But that doesn't matter. I'm gonna learn to fly it right and I'm gonna open his business like he woulda wanted." Fawkes stood stark straight and put one hand on his chest, lifting the index figure of his opposite hand into the air matter-of-factly. He tried to mimic an Exile human accent to the best of his ability. "Folks on Nexus done be needin' goods an' services, Fawkes, an' we aim ta give it to 'em." He smiled and glanced over to Shaylene, seeing if his impression, well, impressed her. "That's what my dad was always tellin' me."
She listened to him intently and snickered at the accent until her face got that confused narrowed eyed expression again at his last statement.
"Wait... your dad talked like a human?" She asked, trying not to sound insulting.
Whether or not Shaylene sounded insulting didn't really matter-- Fawkes was quick to defensiveness and even quicker to doing a 180 in mood. His ears turned backward and lay close to his head, his tail fur frizzing up again. "My dad WAS a human," he said between his teeth.
He stood there a beat, considering only for a moment that it was absurd for him to take offense to Shaylene's comment. In the next instant, he turned to her with a big, embarrassed smile. "Oh, I guess I didn't mention that."
Her face quickly contorted to an expression that could best be described as an "eep!" face at his snap. Her head hung low again and her tail instictively ended up in her hands once more followed by the usual stroking.
"I'm sorry, I... just wasn't expecting that..." She said lowly but then her head snapped up once more and she waved her hands infront of her face in a frantic manner. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing! It's perfectly ok if he's a human! I got nothing against humans!"
Fawkes tried to quickly defuse the tense situation by walking up to Shaylene and placing his hand on her back. This time he didn't forcefully slap it, but gently patted instead. "No, no, it's OK. Obviously like I said, he wasn't one of my real dads but... he took care of me for the past few years. Taught me a bunch of stuff and brought me here." He puts on a big smile for her. "No worries. This place is mine now and I'm gonna make it awesome! You're welcomed to come visit any time!"
Her lips curled into a smile once more as his words got her attention and helped ease away any feeling panic she felt a moment ago. She nodded in agreement.
"He sounds nice. And thanks! I intend to." After a very brief moment, her eyes blink and she realized what she said and how it sounded. Thankfully, she didn't responde quite as before and instead her eyes drifted back to the ship, the smile not gone but her expression was a thoughtful one. "I mean, my....house... isn't exactly the most comfortable and it's nice to know I got some place I can go that seems a bit more... open."
Fawkes laughed and started shuffling toward the spaceship with his hands folded behind his head. "Open. Yeah. It's pretty open... I uh..." He stopped next to the grounded vessel and placed one of his palms on it and gave it an affectionate pat. "My dad... uh... James... he was sorta in debt after buyin' this place. So we kinda just... lived in the ship." He turned around quickly and pointed behind him with his thumb. "He started buildin' a house, though!" He tried to keep up a positive tone to his voice but the corners of his mouth twitched, belaying a hidden nervousness.
As he mentioned living in the ship, Shaylene let her shoulders slump and sigh as he basically described her own living conditions. The moment he mentioned the house though her body snapped back to it's proper place and she swiftly stepped past him to where his thumb pointed, completely missing his nervousness.
"I wanna see!" She exclaimed.
Fawkes grabbed Shaylene's arm and scurried off behind the cargo ship. "It's this way!"
A few long strides brought them to a stretch of clear land, interrupted only by a structure, if worthy to be called that, sitting in the corner of the floating dome. It was comprised of a stone slab foundation on which a wooden floor rested. There were some struts and the suggestion of walls... but nothing that could really be called a house.
Fawkes let go of Shaylene's arm and crossed his arms proudly over his chest, admiring the very did-it-ourselves mess that stood before them. "There it is! What d'ya think?"
When he grabbed her arm, her face went blank but still let herself be dragged to the structure. Mostly due to her own living conditions, the sight before her was still enough to make her mouth and eyes open side in excitement. She turned swiftly to him.
"This is what I'm talking about! You can do so much with this!" She walked brisky from side to side of the structure, admiring the simple little things about it rather than how rag tag it looks. The gears in her brain were obivously turning.
"I mean, this is amazing! A whole let better than living in a ship where you're stuck and can't really do much of anything with it." The sound of remorse on that last sentence was more than apparent.
Fawkes blinked his blue eyes while she spoke of living in a ship, and carefully watched her as she moved around the unfinished building. "My dad wanted to like... build a place where people could come talk to him about stuff. Ya know, like jobs they wanted him to do or supplies they wanted to order. Maybe a place where they could eat or drink something before they left, to make them feel cozy. He always did that from the ship before but it's really small and stuffy in there."
Fawkes pointed his thumb behind him toward the teleporter in the corner of the island. "People were always askin' for rocks and shiny stones and stuff so we dug up part of the ground over there and found some! 'Struck it easy!' That's what dad said." Fawkes cracked a small smile and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Now I don't really know where to pick up... I mean... I'm no good at buildin' stuff. And I dunno how my dad got people to come buy stuff from him..."
Fawkes shuffled his big brown boots in the dirt and looked up to the domed sky. "I shoulda been paying more attention. I never thought he'd leave me... ya know?"
At first she continued to walk around the front of the house, listening to him, but when he gets to the end she glances back at him with a raised eyebrow. Walking slowly over to him, her hands behind her back.
"Well it's simple, he had help and learned. A squad helps one another. I count you as part of my squad so count me in. I can see about getting you some military contracts for deliveries." She leans to one side some, looking slightly up to the side in thought. "Yeah I think I have access to that, or atleast have the clearance to recommend people someone." She glances back towards him with a reassuring smile.
"Once the money comes in, you can hire people to help build. In the mean time I can check with some contractors that FCON uses and see if any of them owe my unit any favors. Granted these aren't sure things or will even be easy, but it's a start." She smiles still, keeping it to herself that in a way, she is living and experiencing her freedom away from FCON through him.
Fawkes looked back down at her and made a few faces denoting his difficulty in following what she'd been saying. To cover for this, he smiled wide and shook his head briskly, his big ears bobbing along wit the motion as they perked up. "Ah, OK! Sounds great! Wow, Shaylene, you sure are smart and resourceful. I'm glad you're my friend!"
She grins wide and rubs the back of her ear in embrassment. She really had no idea if all of that was something she could pull off and is glad this sort of thing was just explained to her the night before otherwise she wouldn't have remembered all of that.
"Ok, ok, no promises though! I can only get things started, it's up to you to follow through with them." She grins sheepishly again, not believing she literally just quoted her Commanding Officer word for word. After a moment what he said really sinked in and her grin faded a bit though the sheepishness remained.
"Listen, Fawkes, I'm glad and everything for all the time we spent doing my missions and jobs, and I can never thank you enough for all the help you gave me...." She trailed off some and started to rub her own shoulder while glancing off to the side some. "But you saw what I do is pretty dangerous, and... well... I don't let myself have too many friends... if anyway... because of that." Her hand continues rubbing the oppisite shoulder, unclear of what to say or how to say it.