Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

They cleared orbit of the Alderaan some time ago and were streaming along to the point where he was sure they wouldn't be hassled. With that, he got off from his seat and started to walk along the cabin, putting it on autopilot in the meantime. Here he was, taking some Jedi to Delaya. Again. To deal with some apparent House business. Again.

More wonderful coincidences. Though, with Layne asking him to do it and him needing to go there anyways, it wasn't too much of a problem. She did sort of help him the other day, helping him understanding swimsuits. Maybe she knew some more things about Lana as well. Not that he would jeopardize the mission to probe about it. And not that he particularly wanted to know more about her, just trying to understand what to do when he went up and thanked her for the date. Likely she would know what gift to give for it. He gave flowers at the ceremony, so that seemed like a good idea, but apparently flower colors had meaning, or something. Too much to be bothered with. Something else had to do.

The princess, however, was incredibly easy to figure out.

He stepped into the cabin with those who came along with him and nodded.

"Looks like we're not being bothered on this trip this time. I assume you Jedi are comfortable?" It didn't sound like he cared too much about what the answer was to the question. Though, it was a nicer cabin than most of the standard models of the Freighter, plus it had quite the nice custom paintjob within it.

If you had to stuck in a ship with a Chiss for a few hours, it could be in worse conditions.

Layne had brought a young angry teenager with her. Armed and armored. Not unlike Layne herself! Well, Layne didn't seem as angry now at least. But she always had that aura of 'fuck around and find out' about her wherever she went so it was kind of hard to tell.

"Why couldn't we just go with our ship?" Tyche would've probably asked at some point.

"Because," Layne explained helpfully, "...Baesal said we shouldn't."

Neither of them knew much about ships despite owning one. Layne had no idea how to compare between the two. She assumed there were no real differences, anyway. Surely her ship was just as capable as any other. Maintenance? Upgrades? What were *those*?

"Jedi don't need to be comfortable," she said when asked the question. Then somewhat awkwardly was forced to add "But we are, thanks" in order to avoid being thought of as impolite.

"That is good to know, in case I need the space on the way back." He said with a nod. "I'm unsure of what it is I will need, after all, and I cannot stick everything in the cargo hold. Passengers would probably be a wiser move, if need be."

"We *do* need air to breathe, though," she replied, genuinely unsure if the man would've realized on his own, "So we can't just hold on to the outside hull while you load every available space with cargo."

Layne Hoshin wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 04, 2021 7:00 pm

"We *do* need air to breathe, though," she replied, genuinely unsure if the man would've realized on his own, "So we can't just hold on to the outside hull while you load every available space with cargo."

"Of course you do." He looked genuinely confused about why she would mention such a obvious thing to him. "Well, I wouldn't need you out in suits anyways. That would be a terrible situation for you in hyperspace. Not to mention I don't think we have enough of them for all of you. Just using the seats in the cargo hold would suffice, maybe. I don't know yet, as I said, I'll figure it after I assess what is needed, but so far it is still very likely you can all still remain inside of the lounge area."

A floor panel unscrewed itself seemingly by magic and moved to the side.

A togruta jedi came out of it before putting the tile back

''The Turtle sure is doing better then the last time I saw it'' she says with a wide smile ''Still is seems some damage was done recently. Pirates?''

"We had a misunderstanding with the Alderaanian defense forces. Thankfully, it was sorted out and no one got hurt." Nudimsu shrugged. "Though some of the panels were shortened out from the ion blast. I know Hacha will want to get to fixing it at some point. But yes, we've put quite a number of things into this ship over the years. Quite the sturdy thing, really." He beats on the side to put emphasis on his words.

A part of him did want to ask about why all the secrecy was necessary. They did not pay him for this trip, so they were not under the same terms of his contract. The other part of him thought it on wise, given that a Jedi had to hide themselves leaving a somewhat friendly planet. Ignorance could be the best course of action.

Just had to get a feel for it.

"The Turtle?"

She'd heard the name before maybe, somewhere. Not just before coming onboard today. But it was a distant memory at best, and not easily picked out from all the other names; ship ones or otherwise; that had entered and left her brain in the years since.

"Just... the 'Turtle'? Nothing else to the name? Not like, an alloy or something in front of it or anything like that?"

She completely glossed over the 'misunderstanding' that had been mentioned.

"No." He said plainly. Again, looking confused. "Well, originally it was the Tortoise, but everyone kept calling it the Turtle instead, so we just changed the name to that officially."

He paused. "Are you saying we should have specified a species of Turtle to name it after?"

''Turtle is a nice name. It takes strength in it's simplicity.'' she says with a nod then she remembered

''Hey Layne did'nt you want to mod your armor on the way there?''

"I mean, I was just saying maybe you could call it like the, Bauxite Turtle or something. Iridium Tortoise. Or... oh, yeah, I... is that a thing we can do?"

She looked at Baesal.

''I don't have my bench but I got all the tools I need'' she replied

"Oh well... I mean, if you wouldn't mind taking a look I guess?"

She would move to detach the plasma shield's power core from her armor; and show Baesal what she'd been hoping to achieve with it earlier; which was a pretty straight forward enough idea; make it defend... harder. better?

Layne was not good at explaining it; but Baesal was an engineering genius so it wasn't hard to figure out. There really were only two pathways for the shield to be modded anyhow; one which would be better suited for the melee sort of encounters that Layne tended to engage in; which it had already been finetuned for a little. The other path would make it more resistant to blaster fire.

She'd been trying to amplify the melee potential of the shield; but was starting to come around on the other pathway.

((I believe errata says you can't have more than defense 4, so I'm thinking maybe add Deflection +1 to it instead. Either way, it already has one mod in it, so i *think* it's 4 purple?)

"You can use Hacha's, just be sure to put it back when you are done. He's very particular about his bench." He nodded at them and looked around. Wasn't really sure if he was here or not, to be honest. Or that he would mind, for that matter.

One way to find out.

''Oh, thank you'' she gave a nod to Nudismu, grabbed the power core and moved to the bench ''This should not take too long''

She laid the piece down and move a hand over it. As she does streams of silver light passes from her hand into the piece. Soon the generator reshapes itself almost like a living heart and fuses with the modding materials...and in an instant it is done and she returns to Layne

''A circuit as been fried but it is fixed''

Upgrading Layne's power core, +1 deflection, Master artisan, inventor, manipilate: 2eA+3eP+3eD+1eB+2eF 7 successes, 2 threat, 3 Dark Side
2 strains taken
(cost 10 extra creds)

Layne lingered nearby in that awkward sort of way when someone wasn't sure if they should leave someone to do their work in peace or hover nearby in order to 'learn' or seem involved and grateful.

She did not in fact, learn much at all. She just wasn't that good at this sort of stuff, after all, and Baesal on the other hand was so good at it that it just made it harder to follow along with what she was doing.

"...oh, man. You really are something."

She reinstalled it into the slot in her armor; then activated it just as a little test run.

"...I still can't believe I'm actually using a shield like you tried to get me to use back on Bankor. Although... not the same thing I guess."

Of course, she also had a shield remote, so she was doubling up on the shields in a manner of speaking.

He watched the two work, since there was nothing better to do. He was swift enough to run to his station, if need be. It was almost like clockwork at this point. Still interesting to watch them work on their weapons. He wasn't very familar with a lighsaber and did his best to ensure that few were near him; he had no means to counter them at this point.

"Since the two of you are women, though only one a human..." He paused and stared. "I have a question I must ask, about this festival and your understanding of this process of gift giving." Though he had no clue what rituals were involved with Togrutas, and really did not care that much, either. Maybe if he were on a planet of Togrutas, the interest would change.

"Why must you give gifts to someone to speak to someone again? I assume that it is a part of this social manipulation game that you all seem to enjoy and a means to show your financial worth as a potential mate, but even at the early stages, it just seems like you're throwing money at something with little chance of a return. It just seems rather unfrugal."

"Uhh..." She looked super confused at the question. Part of that might've been from the way he asked it though. Maybe. "...I don't... think that's a thing? I mean. Maybe for nobles, I guess."

"I have perceived it for everyone. Starting from the tradition of flowers, to jewelry, to dresses. Gifts are used quite often, in fact, not just thru nobility. Nobility I can understand, as it is a means to display their importance and sate ego, but the commoners is where I am confused at. Limited resources, but most of the time, they expect much to be thrown at them to be interested instead of intentions and words."

He paused and shrugged. "Then again, you may be the wrong people to ask, as you are both Jedi. Your ilk hardly ever need to worry about this subject."

"This is..." she held a hand up her forehead, not really sure how to respond to the alien and his inability to understand how...

"...wait a minute. This isn't... okay, *who* is this for?"