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[heypartner]

[ Cobb's voice comes off camera because the image in the video is a speeder. He has yet to wash the Agrii symbol off it. The pink clashes with the yellow a little bit. It's parked outside the hangar, engine off so it's not spinning. Just hovering a few inches off the ground like speeder do. ]

Well. It seems the Agrii left me a gift. This beauty is mine from back home. Gonna clean that graffitti off. I built her myself. She's a modified 620C podracing engine I found in a junkyard in Mos Espa years ago and she's served me well. Don't know why she's here but I don't really care.

[ Finally, he turns the camera back to himself. Cobb's a little beat up. His face has healing bruises and cuts. Something happened but it hasn't dampened his joy any. ]

Those of you who wanted to build your own speeder, I'll let you take a look at mine. I can tell you how I built her. Not sure how technical I can get but I'll do my best.

Those of you who might need to get somewhere fast and far, riding with two is not comfortable but I've done it before. Might be possible to take folks around town. Don't think I can get her to the new town but maybe. Gotta be careful with fuel around here, you know. Might be worth trying.

If you hear me riding around later today, don't worry about it. Just stretching her legs.

Comments

Video

[happybeeps]

[Poe's in love.]

You couldn't be convinced to loan her out eventually, could you?

[heypartner]

If I can find a way to keep her fueled. Maybe. She's got a kick some folks can't handle.

[happybeeps]

[Oh. Hand to heart, Cobb, you've wounded him.]

I can handle anything.

[heypartner]

Uh huh.

[ He's skeptical. A speeder is not a star fighter. ]

You helped with the homemade speeder build, didn't you?

[happybeeps]

There's nothing I can't pilot, Cobb.

I was one of the people asking for one. And I still don't know if that was a build problem.

[heypartner]

So you keep sayin'. Don't worry, I'll let you have a ride.

Well, they'll have a good model to work off of now. Will probably help them make something reliable.

video;

[kyley_b]

Duuuuuuude, that's SO cool!

[heypartner]

Yeah, she's a good one.

[kyley_b]

Well, I'm glad you got her.

[heypartner]

Gonna be real hard to keep her fueled. Gotta figure that out before having a speeder is really useful again but I'll think of something.

Video

[silenziobruno]

That's the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time. [ Alberto practically has stars in his eyes while looking at your speeder, Cobb. It looks so cool, like a Vespa but better. ]

How fast can it go? Can you teach me how to build one? How come it doesn't have any wheels? Shouldn't it fall? Could you take me for a ride?

[ Sorry man, this kid likes speed. ]

[heypartner]

I can try and teach you. Not sure we've got the parts for one though. [ There's no junkyards here with spare pod racer parts, after all. ] We can see about a ride. I've only got so much fuel.

[ And he's reluctant to "waste" it with no fuel source around to fill the tank. ]

[silenziobruno]

Perhaps we can use parts of the old tech that's lying around all over the city, we could find something that works the same way. I've done it before.

[ Because building makeshifts scooters out of scraps is the same thing as making a futuristic speeder, why not. Point for enthusiasm? ]

What does it use as fuel?

[heypartner]

Spaceship fuel. Which we don't have here.

[ The ships in the hangar were always fueled. He didn't have access to that though. He had whatever was in the tank and then he had to figure out something else.

He might have to look into converting it to crystals if it came down to it. Not his favorite idea though. He wanted to keep her as is. ]

And if the Agrii have the parts, I guess we could try.

[silenziobruno]

[ 'Spaceship fuel' tells Alberto absolutely nothing about what the speeder needs. Cobb might as well have told him the thing runs on will power alone.

It seems like the problem here is that they don't have whatever Spaceship fuel is, and so the solution should be erasing the necessity in the first place. ]

Why not change the inner workings of the speeder, so it can run on something else? [ Alberto knows that human vehicles like boats and trains work with things found on earth, not space, so there must be something they can use. Like wood or carbon. ]

It never hurts to try!

video

[noch]

[ There's a very distinct look of consternation on her face, her mouth turned down with a frown. ]

What happened to you?

[ No hellos or anything. ]

[heypartner]

Because it's real complicated.

[ It sounds easy enough but a pod racer engine is a delicate machine even though it's a beast. If the weight is thrown off even slightly it could easily spin the whole thing out of control.

The kid clearly doesn't know that though and is just trying to help. Enthusiasm is a double edged lightsaber sometimes. ]

And I'm not gonna start hacking her to pieces just because.

[heypartner]

Just a few rocks fell on my face in the mine. Don't worry.

[ It was a cave in and he had been trapped for a few hours but he was fine. Everything was just fine. ]

Still got my good looks.

[silenziobruno]

Things that are worth anything are often complicated. [ Children and their simple truths, hm? Alberto figures this is just a matter of trial and error, like when Luca and he were trying to build a Vespa, except ten times more difficult. ]

Do you have anything better to do? [ Honest question here, he's not being sarcastic. The city is mostly in ruins and Alberto hasn't seen anybody working on shops or occupying their full time with an specific activity like fishing. He relents at those last words, though, because it's clear that the speeder means a lot to Cobb. ]

Ah well... it's a really pretty floating bike, so I can understand the reluctance.

[noch]

[ Don't worry? Don't worry???? ]

That looks like more than a few rocks.

[heypartner]

[ To be fair, Din hadn't worried and he was probably the other person who cared about Cobb the most. He wasn't expecting her to be so upset. ]

They were kind of big but no permanent harm done. It's healing up nicely, Merrin. I promise.

[noch]

[ Look, she also wasn't expecting herself to be so upset either, though it's probably mostly because she's only finding out about this now. But she believes him when he says no permanent harm done, so. ]

So you say. [ She presses her lips together—it's not a pout. Just concern. ] This happened in the mines?

[heypartner]

Yeah. I think the vibrations from the train traveled through the ground and loosened up a few things.

[ It's his best guess as to why some stuff is falling in now instead of before. ]

Just gotta be more aware of the roof for now. Maybe find some way to get lights down there to really see the weak spots are.

[heypartner]

[ There is some sort of wisdom to the words. The hard things are often worth it in the end but with limited resources changing up the speeder wasn't something to take lightly. ]

I do, actually. I've got houses to finish fixing up and a mine to keep figuring out. [ But he wouldn't let the speeder sit around like a pretty ornament. It could be real useful if he got a reliable fuel source. ] And with everyone exploring back and forth someone's got to keep this place in order.

But I'm going to make sure she can keep running.

Video

[hisfathersimage]

[ What a thing to see on your first day here. ]

Oh, man. I can only imagine the kick you get with a podracer engine, my aunt and uncle would never let me near the things, said I was a menace enough with the T-16, my father raced using custom 620Cs, but I think if you could tweak the intake, using something like a TIE intake valve, you could get more performance out of it.

[ Introductions are for people who aren't excited about custom speeders. ]