[WS] In The Saga's Canteen (Open RP)

[Alys]

(I thought we should get some pre-Nexus RP in while we're all on the same ship, and folks seemed interested in some forum RP, so here we go.) 

A redhead in a stained jumpsuit stomped into the room that served as the social center of the Exile support ship The Saga, muttering incomprehensible curses. She almost slammed her rifle down on the bar before settling herself on the end stool. She managed coherence long enough to bark "Two drinks, Emil." in a Cassian accent before resuming her quiet tirade.

She'd made the 'bartender' herself out of a gutted Mechari frame, though she wasn't the one who dubbed it 'Emil Johnson'. It wasn't very complex, but since there was only one form of alcohol readily available in the fleet, it didn't have to be. When Emil rattled back over with two tumblers of clear liquid, she downed the first one immediately, grimacing at the taste. She'd heard that the moonshine used to be even worse before the Aurin joined the fleet and used their talents to improve the ingredients, but she found it hard to believe. Still, it was the only booze she'd ever known, and she'd come to like it. Well, at least respect it.

"I have had it with that little rat, Emil." She'd raised her voice to the point of clarity again, not that the bartender cared one way or the other. "This time she stole a whole bot from me. And I'd almost finished it. I swear, the next time she shows her tail in my lab again I am opening fire!" She slammed her fist down on the bar, just barely between the empty tumbler and the rifle, then winced at the pain.

She put down her second drink to rub her sore hand, calming down somewhat. "I don't know if she blames me for what happened to her planet, or if she's just... evil. Either way, it has got to stop."  Picking her tumbler back up, she took a sip, then sighed. "You're not the best at making drinks, Emil, but at least I managed to make you a good list-..."

Her voice cut off and she turned to face the rest of the room, the light falling on her face, revealing the blindfold across her eyes, which partially explained her next question. "Is... anyone else here?"


(Actually, I guess this would belong in the Saga Family Tavern forum. Could someone please move it?)

[Gith]

Tecta (see character portrait to the left) happens to be sitting at the bar beside the rather loud human complaining about Aurin. Given that the Aurin are about the only completely innocent species involved in this whole war thing, Tecta took it personally that any exile ever actually had the gall to get mad at an Aurin. They were the reason why Arboria was getting raped for resources by the Dominion after all. All because they were nice enough to take in strangers at their doorstep...

"What's wrong with tails?" Tecta said from the woman's left, lifting her extremely long tail up and around the woman's body to her right side and brushing it by her shoulder to check if the lady was actually blind for shits and giggles. "They come in handy if you know how to use them. Who doesn't want a third arm?"

Tecta debated about messing with this particular human, maybe void jumping around her to confuse her, but thought better of it. She was bitter about Arboria but she was still a good sentient. She just shrugged and pulled her tail back to herself and wrapped it around her waist to keep it out of the way of passing boots. She REALLY hated it when ignorant humans, or worse, Granok (heavy!), stepped on her tail because they were not paying attention. She couldn't wait to get down on Nexus and have room to stretch out all five of her limbs.

Speaking of enormous Granok who step on my tail all the time Tecta thought to herself, where is (Adewale?) She had been waiting a while for the lug to show up so she could have some food. She never ate her entire ration so she gave the rest of it to him.

[Lunarin]

Peeking through the doorway, Lunarin breathed a sigh of relief. No Mordesh in sight, thank goodness. Or the Weave. Or whatever- whoever? was up there.

The place was oddly quiet for what was supposed to be the 'social center' of the tiny ship (as compared to the Gambler's Ruin) winging its way down to planet Nexus. Odd. She was quite certain that the person who directed her this way had said that The Saga was the ship to be on. But- wait a minute. She never did get the reason why this was the ship to be on out of that fellow, did she?

Silly. Then again, it wasn't like she'd had the time to be asking answers to questions she'd not had at that point.

Moving further into the room, she turned right and- who was that, and was she looking at her?

"Is... anyone else here?"

What? Can't she- Lunarin thought, wondering why the red-haired lady was even bothering to ask when she was in the lady's line of sight, and there was what was obviously an Aurin sitting beside her. It's not even particularly dark in here.

Then, squinting again, she noticed the blindfold.

Oh.

"Uh- um, yes, I'm here. I mean, there's someone here. Me, that is. Hi?" she stutters, utterly embarrassed at her blindness- no, bad word choice- her obliviousness to anything more than ten meters beyond her nose.

Damn it, she should have brought her bots. Or at least Scanbot. Scanbot was good at defusing these situations, or, even better, letting her know when she was about to put her foot in her mouth, 99% of the time.

[Alys]

Alys turns testily to her left while raising her finger to hold off the 'person' poking her on the right. "I have nothing against tails, nor those who bear them, unless those people keep stealing from me... or unless they're Chua. Do Chua have tails?"

Having interrupted herself, she seems to calm down again, straightening up on her seat and primly crossing her legs with both hands on one knee. "In any case, I do apologize. I assumed I was alone, and that was rude of me." She turns on her stool and passes her 'gaze' over the room, giving Lunarin a smile and a nod in response to her greeting. "Thank you. Hello."

[Tys]

"Oops. Sorry. Watch out. Comin' through."

A deep voice reverberated through the narrow halls of The Saga. The Exile support ship was so small that it felt like a fish can. Confined spaces were never fun for those on the larger side of the rag-tag alliance. Mordesh were tall, but their lanky limbs allowed for them to squeeze into tight areas with a simple hunch of their science-infused skeletons. That luxury was not available to the mighty Granok passengers on the craft barreling through space towards Nexus. Several people on the ship were whispering about them being ready to pop out of hyperspace and start the descent to the Eldan homeworld. Adewale was much more considered about not stepping on anyone who were not rock-based or undying science projects.

A sigh of relief flowed from the concerned, glacial blue giant. He made it to the tavern without smashing anyone into a wall or stepping on any tails. Aurin were very skittish when it came to large objects near their tails -- understandable but hard to prevent with their tiny stature -- which made Adewale even more concerned about injuring future comrades. The first Aurin he ever stepped on was sitting down already with plans to eat a meal. A few frost blue footfalls marched him across the way of the tavern towards Tecta. The massive Granok's smile was as good of a mood lifter as his scowl struck terror into those that fell under its gaze.

"Tecta!" boomed his jovial voice, always glad to see a friend that was not going to steer clear of him. Adewale could be seen as clumsy due to his size -- most people who did not know Granok well assumed they were big buffoons made of rocks -- but that was until they saw him brandish a blade. The Saga was a weapons free ship in most areas, which was smart, and left him without most of his gear. Even armed to the teeth there were supposed to get new equipment once they got to Nexus.

"Hurry up and order! I'm starved," he announced, filling the room with his vocals without much thought that some people might be having more private conversations. Ade had given up on being private on the small support craft. He was so large that everything he did, said, or thought -- thanks to the invasive Espers -- ended up becoming public so why hold back?

"And toss in a few beers. You still owe me for the last round of poker I won," he said, pointing his wide index finger at his friend.

[Zemnari]

Zemm, a tall and thin Mordesh sat in a corner booth, the lights above him had burnt out long ago and so his face was masked in shadows. Perfect for him, he did not want people to see his face. Once a brilliant plastic surgeon to Cassians and Mordesh a like. Obsessed with beauty and perfecting the body through any means necessary. His craft was his gift and his passion but now he would be lucky to perform surgery on some space pirate wanting a new face to hide from the dominion.

As he sat in contemplation, thinking about his past life and how everything had been ripped from him he was rudely interrupted by some big buffoon made of rocks yelling at everything. He heard something about poker which peaked his interest.

Zemm stood up and walked over to the clumsy piece of granite who was stationed next to some fuzzy animal. I'm stuck with a bunch of freaks he thought. Just then he got a glimpse of his reflection in a mirror lining the back of the bar which made him stop in his tracks. Im a freak too he thought, bringing a hand up and touching his rotting face. He stood there for a moment too long, basking in his hideous deformed body. Sadness overwhelmed him and he wanted to just leave. But clearly people had noticed him standing there. So he cleared his throat and gave a quick charming grin.

"Poker eh? Whens the next game?"

[Gith]

Tecta looked over her shoulder as the massive mass of Adewale walked toward her. The guy was literally 8 times her weight at least and she came up to about his belly button but she liked having him around. Now that he learned tails feel intense pain, just like anything else a living boulder steps on.

"Already ordered. I figured you would be roughly on time as per usual." She smiles up at him. "I saved the extra strong stool on the end for you" She motioned with a long fingered hand, keeping her tail wrapped up around herself until he sat down. "Food should be here in a few ... and I guess I can afford a few drinks. But I am gonna buy you three Aurin sized drinks so that is only about half a cup for you! Hah!" She waved at the robotic bartender to bring some of the ships moonshine poison stuff.

Tecta started to bob her head around in a somewhat energetic manner, rocking back and forth on her stool as she looked at Adewale. "Shouldn't be too long until we are finally on Nexus!" She started to dance in her seat a bit. "Finally get off of this cramped piece of rust and be able to stretch out a bit. I wonder if they will have forests on Nexus or if it is going to be an industrial waste from the Eldan society? I hope everything isn't rockcrete. I need something I can actually sink my nails into. How is anyone supposed to get proper grip walking around on metal and rockcrete all the time?" Tecta made a pfffttttt sound at Adewale.

Tecta fell backwards out of her seat and void slipped up onto Adewale's shoulder. Given her extremely petite stature compared to the massive rock man she found it amusing to do this from time to time. Adewale wouldn't swat her off for fear of breaking her so she sorta had free reign, which was amusing. "How's it going big fella? Step on anyone important today?" Tecta smiled a sharp toothed smile.

From her perch on Adewale's shoulder, holding onto his head in a hugging motion, she looked down at the Mordesh who came over. "Poker? Ade here always has a deck on him somewhere. And we do still have a while to wait until we drop warp so ..." Tecta looked down at Adewale's person searching for a deck of cards somewhere. "What are we gonna use for chips though?"

Tecta didn't mind Mordesh but she found them hypocritical since they were only part of the exile fleet due to their arrogance causing them to be in the state they are in now. If they hadn't screwed themselves up they would still be happy members of Dominion society. But hey, maybe it took a rude awakening for someone to see their faults.

[Tys]

Adewale turned to address the new voice that commented about the possibility of playing poker. A crimson Aurin tail was blocking his vision and made the glacial blue mass of boulder look like he had a very comical mustache. Tecta had the habit of using Ade as a personal transportation device when she got bored. He was never going to try to harm her or flick her off of his shoulder, but it was always a reminder than she was a cat that liked to climb up objects larger than her. It was fortunate for Adewale that he did not feel the scratch of the Aurin's claws whenever she clamored around on his shoulders or his smooth skull. The Granok was careful when he adjusted the furry tail out of his line of sight so he could see the new arrival.

"Always gotta deck on me. Keeps me from going stir crazy on this tin can," Adewale replied, reaching into his jacket pocket with a blue hand. A full deck of fifty-two was produced with some images of different weapons on each card. He dragged his thumb over the top of the deck, producing a crisp fffffsssstt! sound. For chips they would have to use some coasters that were left on the edge of the bar. He grabbed a large stack of the drink circles and pointed over to a nice round table underneath one of the few working lights in the bar. His free hand grabbed the 'extra sturdy' stool that Tecta reserved for him and carried both the seat and the red-headed Aurin over to the table.

"Alright," he said, plopping down onto the stool hard enough to make the steel groan in protest. Adewale began to shuffle the deck of cards with a level of dexterity that was not associated with the large creatures of stone. Each shuffle was performed with a flawless flip of the fingers across the cards with a smooth bridge afterwards to collect the stack back into fifty-two again.

"What's your game, newbie?" he asked, turning his attention to the Mordesh. Back when Ade was with his mercenary group the newest addition to the poker table got to choose what game was played first. It was common courtesy and it allowed the others to see how much the newcomer played the classic gambler's game. There was still plenty of time for others to join in if they did not mind dealing with a boisterous mountain of stone, a restless feral, and one depressed space zombie.

[GutsMcGurt]

(Gonna throw in my planned alt since I had Shaylene set up to be on the Gambler's Ruin.)
A faint sound of metal hitting metal at a rapid pace can be heard outside the bar and growing louder as something seems to be approaching.  As the sound becomes becomes rather annoying and rightoutside the doorway, a male human appears with a huge grin smacked in the middle of a blonde goatee.  The human is about average height and a firm build with short slick back hair that is the same color as his facial hair. 

He waves briefly with a "Howdy!". 

The odd thing about this is that most of the crew knows him to be the very very reclusive engineer that mostly keeps himself locked away in his work shop.  He is generally known to be rather nice and socialable if you happen to go to his shop to need him for something, but he rarely steps out and usually declines all invitations to do anything. 

He turns to something in the hallway next to him and looks down, mummbling to himself about needing to put pads on something.  Then he grins once more and seems to lean over and pat someone. "Alright Topper, you best stay out here, the others won't care much for a huge bot your size taken up all the room."  A few beeps follow and then he nods. "That's a good boy.  Now stay put." 

He slowly makes his way inside and over to the bar, not seeming too interested in the poker game.

[Gith]

Compared to human sized limbs Aurin looked more like monkeys than humans. Their arms were longer in comparison to their bodies than human arms. As Adewale dropped himself into his chair Tecta snaked her long tail up to an overhanging pipe and used it to swing herself off of the Granok's shoulder and over the chair beside him, dropping down lightly into the chair.

Being an Aurin was perfectly normal to her but she had heard the comparisons to human planet mammals so she had done some reading and looked at some holos of these creatures. Most people called Aurin cat people but she couldn't decide which human mammal the Aurin most resembled. Aurin are more diverse than human mammals so depending on who you looked at you could consider them to be feline, simian, cervine, noctilionine, avian, lapine, vulpine, lupine, murine, etc. Personally, Tecta felt more like a mix of a monkey and a fox than anything else. She was a good climber and was an explorer at heart but she was also light on her feet and quick as a fox. Also, oddly, coloured like one as well. So she liked to consider herself foxy.

She had also recently found out what "foxy" meant in human dialogue and thought it was funny.

She sat there, impossibly flexible by human standards, crouching in a way that would have made a human being fall over. Her huge eyes surveyed the table in a mocking impression of seriousness. "No fair if we hustle just one newbie Ade. The deck has enough cards for at least 6-12 players if we are playing hold'em."

"What's your game, newbie?"

"Oh, right. Newbie gets to pick the game." Tecta clasped her hands in a Mr. Burns style and tapped her retractable claws together. "What'll it be, eh?"

Tecta looked up as the noise of metal on metal made her powerful ears perk up. Sounding like heavy boots hitting the hallway Tecta drew her tail in toward herself for fear of another clumsy human stepping on it.

[Alys]

Alys listened in silence as more and more people came in. She had not spent much time among the Exiles, but between the sound of a voice and its height off the ground, she'd learned to identify the various races. The sound of Tecta's void slip made her flinch a little, but she reassured herself that it was the Aurin who had first greeted her.

The sound of a familiar voice made her smile a little, and she gave a wave in the direction of the blond newcomer. Their labs were in the same part of the ship and though they both kept to themselves, there was the occasional polite encounter in the halls. "Oh, you're..." She reached for his name but realized that their relationship had not reached that stage.

To cover her embarrassment, she picked up her drink and carefully made her way over to the table the rest were gathering around. "Poker, you said? I've never played that before. Is it hard to learn?"

[GutsMcGurt]

The human reaches the bar, making sure to stay clear of the poker table and it's inhabitants and sits on a bar stool not too far from the other human he met.  He never seemed bothered by the Cassian accent, even when contrast to his slight yokal accent.

"Howdy."  He smiles and nods then remembers about the blindfold and the uselessness of his nodding.  He scratches the back of his head and looks down some in embrassment.  "Sorry, reckon I never gave you my identification.  Name's Joseph, but everyone calls me Milner.  Milner bein my family name and all."  His voice more upbeat as he approached his name.

His green eyes follow her as she goes over to the other table and looks like he was going to say something else but shrugs seeing her address the other table.  He gestures for the bar tender and quitely asks for a drink.

[GypsyGirl]

Etiania glanced nervously around the room, feeling completely out of her element.  To say she was new at this was an understatement.  Sighing a characteristically dramatic sigh, she double-checked her lugnuts on her scalp to make sure she had no leaks again after the previous embarrassment at the last tavern she was in, unconsciously shifted her gun belt while she consciously wiped her face of the worried and nervous expression she could feel between her brows, and stepped up to a barstool. To no one in particular and everyone in general, she said,  "I apologize in advance for anything I say while I'm hungry." And silently added to herself, "Oh, Goddess of Wires and LED Lights, please let there be chocolate somewhere in this tin can." 

[Astralmancer]

-the aurin Gunslinger enters his scanbot whirring above his head.  he takes a seat at a nearby table looking at the various folk around him. his green eyes become visible when he pulls back his hood his furry tail slipping out of the back of his robe he grabs a hip flask from underneath his robes downing a drink as he smiles a bit cheerfuly around dispite the smile, his eyes hold sorrow the same pain all aurins have from losing there homeworld to the dominion.-

(still fleshing out...and lets call him Areles for now)

[Slogh]

Throughout the blinded query of the redhead Cassian, and the mobile Granok-Aurin jungle-gym, a brooding lanky figure sat in a quiet corner of the ship's bar.  Fidgety and nervous, his index finger tapped in a staccato rhythm on the uneven table, forcing the table top to wobble regularly, and his moonshine swill to sway dangerously in a dirty glass.

His gaze shifted throughout the room, fixating on each resident of the bar, watching them cautiously, and moving on to the next. Glancing at a fellow Mordesh uneasily asking about poker, Slogh stared at the gathered crew.  The Granok-Aurin jungle-gym separated and settled into seats near the Mordesh, prompting Slogh to rise and slowly amble towards the assembled table.

Uneasily shifting around the periphery of the table, almost pretending to walk past the table before doubling back and watching the cards being shuffled, the Mordesh gave up all sense of decorum and chicanery.  "Yes.. umm.. hello.  I'm Slogh. Do you mind if I simply watch.  I appreciate enjoying how different subjects... I mean.. umm.. different people play."

The Mordesh chuckles quietly and bows his head, half part conciliatory regret, and half condescending amusement. "What form of poker are you playing?  I have heard there are some particularly raucous games played by lowborn mercenaries and mechanics that are rather interesting."