[ open | action ]

[tempredmental]

WHO: Keith, OPEN
WHERE: Out and about Temba
WHAT: Doin' things
WHEN: Early July
WARNINGS: None, yet?

[Keith had kind of been keeping to himself recently. There wasn't a particular reason for it. He'd just been feeling like being a bit of a hermit. Not that Lance seemed to mind since that meant they were spending more time together in their current residence... which was something they were working on changing with some of the exploring he'd been doing. But, still... Sometimes, introverts needed to introvert, and Keith had been in that kind of mood.

Either way, he was doing more things outside again. Checking some of the buildings to see if he could find a good one for him and Lance to use for a home. Poking at the ships in the hangar again, even if they hadn't really been going much of anywhere unless someone wanted to move between the cities without using the train. Keeping up his workout and training with Kosmo.

It wasn't a whole lot, but it kept him busy, and it kept him from backsliding too much...]

Comments

Nice Ruin You See There. Be A Shame If Someone Wanted To Fix It Up For You

[plate_builder]

[Keith isn't the only one looking around at the buildings in Temba. With all the plant growth this summer, Reeve has had little option but to return to and reperform his evaluations of structural stability of different structures. The vines are getting bad, and vines can do horrible things to structures.

So he's been strolling around in the day, a notebook in his hand, Mini-C trailing after him, evaluating for new structural damage.

And he was shocked to see another person reviewing buildings with what seems like intent.]

Good morning.

[out_of_order]

[Cal's doing some light tune-ups to the ships, more of a general check than anything else. With what little use they see, he figures it never hurts to at least make sure they're ready for any impromptu trips. The last ones were certainly sudden enough, anyway.

He can be found elbow deep in a side panel, checking lubrication and connections. His droid BD-1 is perched on a nearby crate, beaming a helpful light.]

Spaceships!

[quark_assassin]

[As Keith wanders past the Palm Cottage, the bay doors open and a slightly damp-looking teenager stumbles out of them into the hangar proper. Dustin has gotten in the habit of making weekly trips to this ship to take care of basic personal maintenance - predominantly laundry and showers. Just because he lives in a pile of blankets in an abandoned store doesn't mean he has to smell like it, not when he has access to soap and hot water. Although, he's not terribly pleased with how the Palm Cottage's cleaning supplies are all inexplicably pine-scented; he always comes out of there feeling like a car air freshener.

Never mind that, there's someone poking around the ship. Like almost everyone else he's met, Dustin recognizes Keith instantly from his 'Dictionary' entry, though recognition does not absolve him of the boy's immediate and intense suspicion. He freezes in place at the base of the ship while the door folds closed behind him, eyes narrowed, a hand half-pulled through his hair in some vague attempt to comb it.]

What are you doing here?

[Probably minding his own business. But apparently that's Dustin's business now, too.]

Hey, if someone else wants to do all the work... >.>

[tempredmental]

[Keith hadn't been expecting anyone else to be out there, either, but sure enough. He was a little bit surprised, but he nodded all the same.]

Ah, morning.

[A beat. Keith wasn't much of a conversationalist.]

You uh... looking for a place to stay?

[tempredmental]

[That was actually the main reason Keith was in the hangar. He tended to do the same with his own ship. Lack of use was known to create issues of another kind on mechanical things, and they needed a special kind of storage maintenance to make sure they'd still run properly when it came time to use them again.

Keith spotted the other person, but with them buried in the side panel, it was hard to identify them right away. Kosmo perked an ear in that direction, though, and then headed over to sniff at the droid.]

Kosmo... [Keith sighed and followed to make sure he didn't damage the little robot. It was rare the wolf acted on his own without a command, but he still did on occasion.]

[tempredmental]

[Sorry, Dustin, but Keith looked less than impressed with the image you were presenting at the moment. Next to him, a large blue wolf was also looking somewhat unimpressed.]

I came to check on the status of my ship.

[And, even though it was kind of obvious by the state this person was in...]

What are you doing here?

[Keith would toss that right back at him.]

[out_of_order]

[BD-1's light shifts as he senses something's approach, beeping curiously as he turns his head towards the wolf, accidentally beaming his light over at Kosmo in the process.]

Company?

[Cal extracts himself from the panel, glancing over. He's a bit surprised to see the wolf, but at least he's not sensing any hostility. Hearing Keith, he looks towards the man, a smile touching his face.]

Friend of yours?

[tempredmental]

[Keith nods to Cal now that he can see him. He knew the face, even if they hadn't talked much.]

Yeah. That's Kosmo.

[At the sound of his name, the wolf wagged his tail a little, and then went back to sniffing at the droid.]

[out_of_order]

[BD-1 at least shuts off his light, instead switching over to scan Kosmo. Cal can't help but chuckle at that. Likely the little guy's updating his database.]

Kosmo, huh?

[He grins.]

Pretty sure I haven't seen anything like him around here. He come with you?

[tempredmental]

Yeah. [Keith nodded.] I found him back home as a pup. He'd been attacked by some large bug creature thing, so I took care of him and trained him. He's pretty calm and friendly around most people. He's got a real strong intuition about things.

[Really. It was like he understood things that Earth wolves wouldn't. Then again, Keith was a little like that sometimes, too. Not necessarily when it came to people, but more like just an intuition about things in general (bad feelings, good feelings, 'oh no I'm going to get hit from behind and should dodge'...). And sensing strong sources of quintessence.]

I'm Keith. [He held out his hand.]

[out_of_order]

Ah, I see. Well, he seems pretty smart.

[The Jedi nods at Keith then, reaching over to shake his hand.]

I know. You've been here a pretty long time, right?

[He's seen him about for as long as he can remember since being here, anyway.]

I'm Cal. And that's BeeDee-One.

[The droid hops down from the shuttle, scuttling around Kosmo in a big circle.]

[tempredmental]

Yeah, I have. [Keith watched the droid for a moment.] I've seen a few of them around... different kinds. Man, Pidge would have loved to have met one. [He chuckled a little.] But, yeah... I think I was one of the first people to show up. I've seen pretty much almost everyone around here, but... [He shrugged a bit sheepishly.] I tend to not be great at 'peopling'. Still... good to put a name to the face.

[out_of_order]

[Cal nods. He can understand that.]

There's only so many who've been here as long now. A lot of the people I first met when I got here, aren't here anymore.

[He shrugs, holding a hand out towards Kosmo then.]

It takes a bit, getting used to people. I think it's too easy to isolate yourself around here though.

[tempredmental]

Yeah. I've noticed. There's always been a shift as to who's here. Some people are definitely more long term than others, though.

[Himself and Lance included.]

It is, honestly. Between one town or the other... or even the beach. Lance is definitely the more social of us two.

So, uh... are you assigned to this ship?

[out_of_order]

[Cal smiles crookedly at that.]

I think the first time I met him was when we were wandering around on that planet, Risa. Definitely more social.

[Given that he'd come across the guy between bars and club hopping.]

This? No, not anymore. Used to be. I've been reassigned to the uh...Cake Dance. [He tries not to grimace as he says it.] But I figure since it's one of the newer ships it can wait a little longer than the others for an inspection.

[tempredmental]

[While the Lance comment got Keith to chuckle, Cal's way of saying 'cake dance' got him to outright laugh a little.]

I remember seeing that one. The one that really freaked me out, though, was the Fly Good. It uh... kind of reminded me of a stalker's room.

But that happens... shuffling around ships. I'm on the Bloodsport right now. It was one of the ones that came from the Drift Fleet. [Keith was still a bit sore about losing the Huntress.] I'm the pilot.

[buildingitsir]

_{[York spots a stranger looking over one of the 'buildings'. A little judgemental about it, as it looks like the one being looked over is crumbling more on the backside than the front.]}

Yeah, wouldn't fucking pick that one. Looks a bit drafty in the back unless that section's closed off.

_{[For a teenager looking guy, he looks awfully smug. Like he knows he's right about something he's only looking at from almost the same angle at the stranger.]}

[quark_assassin]

[That's fair enough. Dustin purses his lips in a scowl.]

Cleaning.

[Vague, but not incorrect. His eyes flicker to Kosmo the wolf once, then again before staying there. He...does not recognize what this is, which is concerning. I mean, 'blue wolf' would be an accurate descriptor, but not only is that far from sufficient for Dustin's tastes, but also he suspects that there's more to it than just a common Earth animal that's been artfully dyed blue. The creature is easily taller at the shoulder than he is, for one. It also seems entirely too observant, but that could be Dustin needlessly anthropomorphizing it. Stick to what's in front of you, he chides himself.]

Does the dog help you do status reports, or are you just taking them out for a walk while you're here?

[out_of_order]

Oh? I haven't been aboard that one... And I thought the Cake Dance was bad. BeeDee found the glitter dispenser there.

[The droid hoots at that, glancing over at the two from where he's been inching closer to Kosmo and then hopping back away, like some weird stationary game of tag.]

Yes, you. You know what you did.

[Cal chuckles.]

...yeah, I heard some things about the Fleet, from Wanda and the Soldier. But the ships aren't quite the same as the ones from the Fleet?

[tempredmental]

[Keith side-eyed the kid for a second, and then quirked an eyebrow.]

Right. Thanks for the tip.

[His tone was a bit flat as he really wasn't in the mood to deal with someone being smug at him when they'd never even said 'hi' to each other before. He took a breath and turned, intending to move on.

The big blue wolf that had been standing with Keith, on the other hand, was a bit more curious, and remained in place with a curious tilt to his head.]

[tempredmental]

Right.

[Cleaning. Well, considering the damp hair and all, it wasn't necessarily wrong.

Kosmo's nose twitched as he took in the scents around them. That definitely wasn't dye in his fur.]

A little of both, I guess. He's good back up in case some weird creature comes wandering into town and starts rampaging all over the place.

[It could happen... Keith had long since learned that just about anything was possible.]

[tempredmental]

[During one of BD's hops, Kosmo reached out a paw to tap it.]

Yeah... Well, Fly Good, Cake Dance, and uh... the wooden one... They're all new. They were over in Sh'Ka's hangar. The rest were originally from the Fleet, but yeah. Not exactly like what we knew.

Back in the Fleet, we got the chance to upgrade some of them, and even custom fit some extra parts to them. But, when we got here and found them, they'd all been stripped back down to their original basic builds, like we'd never used them before.

Also, there's even less autonomy and control over what we can do with them. Not that we had a lot to begin with back in the Fleet. There was a limit to how far we could push them away from the main guiding ship, but here, they sometimes don't even take off unless it's for something the Agrii want us to do.

That's why I come in and do maintenance on it when I can. Pilots have enough knowledge if your ship doesn't have an engineer, and having them sitting around doing nothing isn't exactly good for them, you know?

[out_of_order]

[The droid gives something of a surprised squawk, shaking his head out as he skitters back. Cautiously he steps back towards Kosmo, two steps forward, one step back, repeat until he inches close enough to tap a foot at Kosmo's paw before retreating.]

I think I'd heard something about that, how the ships should have been upgraded? But then given all this time shifting between even people being brought here, I guess having ships that aren't the same as what you'd remembered them to be aren't much of a stretch.

[Cal frowns a little then, nodding.]

Impractical having people be only able to have skillsets focused on certain things. I'm not sure what the point is there, other than forced teamwork, but it gets kind of lopsided when there's only so many with corresponding information that's useful at the time, and others are just paranoid about using the data points in general. Which I can hardly blame...

But that was my thought here. I try to check in on them every now and then. It feels like forever since we'd actually been able to go out on them. Might do some good to have the pilots do some Sh'Ka runs just to make sure things are running smoothly too.

Not all the work, kiddo

[plate_builder]

No, I already have a home. I'm just doing evaluations of structural stability. If I don't keep track of this stuff, then it's harder to work on these things later.

[buildingitsir]

_{[York doesn't seem perturbed by the reaction. He knows what he's good at, and architecture was part of his baseline directive. He does make a face as the human turns to head on, and that's when York actually notices the large, blue wolf with him.]}

Whoa. I didn't know wolves could be blue. Are they native for this... city? Planet?