Ask Campus Orientation Module 1

[Rowan Allaird]

He stifled a yawn as he waited for the students to arrive. Apparently today’s group was a mix of incoming freshmen and online students that had never visited campus before. Ever since Thyferra switched to ISC, all online students had a mandatory on campus block. Though there had been lots of complaints about it initially, it actually resulted in a lot of happier students that closely got to mingle with their fellow classmates.

It was bright and early and Rowan was waiting in front of the main capitol building by the quad. The Quad was an open field where students sat around on the grass and studied or played music. It was also the site of debates or protests.

Rowan picked up campus guide activities among other things to help round out his student profile. As always, he looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. He was dressed in a full sleeve sweater and some jeans, a lanyard hanging from his hips with his student ID and a bunch of key cards.

“All right, is that everyone?” He called out, glancing up at the gathering students and then back down at his datapad, “Hmm.. looks like one is still missing.”


@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Actual classroom learning?

Crix had been dreading the day that it wandered back into his life like it owned all of his lovely, wonderful, free time between lectures and Jedi training. Yep, all that lovely free time that was totally real and not just something he imagined to try and give himself some measure of escape. He had avoided most of it recently because he'd been recovering from a mission gone wrong with a Ranger but being laid up hadn't been any better.

At least when he was doing the learning over the net, no one looked at him and whispered to their friends. He hadn't come dressed as a Jedi, opting for his more casual leather jacket over the robes. His lightsaber was, embarrassingly enough, hidden in the backpack he was wearing.

Beauty of the Force, though, was that he kind of had a sense as to where he should be going. Not because the Force was a compass (because he'd made that mistake around Hans precisely once before receiving a rare lecture) but because it warned him about uncomfortable situations sometimes. And right now? Well he knew he was late and he was rushing through a campus he had be to exactly one time before.

The fact that people were already looking at him as he arrived at the group of assembled students didn't help his nerves much. Him, the last person to arrive and the one Zabrak there with the horns on the left side of his head cracked and broken. Thankfully his jacket was high enough to cover some of the many surgical scars across the back of his head.

Still... best to bite the lightsaber.

He moved up slightly when someone called out if everyone was there before confirming that Crix was late. Of course spotting the man immediately brought up another problem.

Because of course he was hot and he got to see Crix as a bundle of nerves and not his usual oh-so-sexy self.

Kark his life.

Still, he waved a hand.

"Hi yeah that's probably me." he admitted sheepishly, grinning wide despite that, "Should be down under Aran, yeah? Been Net-based mostly..."

@Sreeya

 

[Rowan Allaird]

Rowan took off his glasses to clean them while he waited, checking the chrono on his wrist one more time. He popped the glasses back on and saw someone quickly shuffling over. The students were all looking at him, all having introduced themselves already.

“Hey,” One of the girls called out, “Aren’t you Crix Aran? The kid that cried on Holonet?”

The other students quickly turned to get a better look. Rowan glanced over and could find some similarities. A glance down at the name and some details revealed that he was the son of infamous Ranger Trys Aran. There was a lot of chatter as the other kids turned to look at Crix and some began to giggle.

“Knock it off,” He called out to them, and their attention turned back on him, “Over half of you have biochem with Professor Durzo,” He was a notorious Vratix professor with a mean streak, “So rest assured, Becky, you and the others will be sobbing like babies in your dorms before the end of the first week.”

There was nothing but silence as the freshmen looked at him with pure panic. Rowan adjusted his glasses again before putting the datapad away. He flashed them a smile then.

“I’m Rowan Allaird and welcome to Zalxuc University,” He gestured all around him, “All of this is the main campus and accessible until sundown,” He pointed to the capitol building next to them, “This is the main administrative building. We’re going to go in there to pick up all your schedules, syllabus and keys. After that I’ll show you all where the different buildings and dorms are.”

He walked with them as they began to walk up the stairs to the building. Rowan purposely walked slowly and hung back to glance at Crix, “Hey, you all right?” He despised seeing others get bullied in any way.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Kark that holonet broadcast was going to outlive him by a factor of centuries. He'd gotten a few comments about it at the time and he'd heard more. That this randomer was bringing it up more than a year on wasn't exactly appreciated. Rather than shy away from the laughs and giggles she managed to get from her little gaggle of friends, Crix actually kind of stood up a little bit straighter.

Making fun of him for his actions and history? Hells he felt like that was old territory at this point. Probably said something about him that he was less nervous facing down opposition than he was about a lecture at a campus. He raised an eyebrow at the girl who had spoken and just kind of looked at her with the same expression his mom had taught him.

It was the slightly raised eyebrow and quirk of the lips that was the non-verbal equivalent of "you used your one brain cell today for that?". He'd have actually said it too but the white-haired cute guy decided that he was going to come in at that stage. He dropped the look and just grinned a little bit, happy that someone seemed to have his back even so early on.

He listened attentively to the little introduction, shifting his backpack only a little bit. Dorms though? That might... be a little bit tricky. Kark, his mom was going to try and say he needed to stay on site if she knew that was an option. Double-kark, it was his mom - she probably already knew.

No thinking about his mom when the dude rocking the sweater and jeans combo comes calling though. He grinned back.

"I'm fine - got used to that kind of thing awhile back. You handled them with much less sass than I was getting ready to sling back." he assured the guy with a quick wink, "Still; thanks for having my back like that. Already kinda got outed but I'm Crix - you've been the best thing about this campus visit so far Rowan."

Half truth and half flirt - all Him doing his damned best to get past his combination of different nerves.

@Sreeya

 

[Jasper Holliday]

There'd been a lot of grumpy staring at the news he'd have to actually fly to the physical campus for and the benefits paperwork that'd be needed to be filed for him to have that time off duty, but then again he supposed it was a sort of opportunity and all that. Wouldn't be able to go at all if he'd stayed where he was so, off he went with only minimal complaint.

Jasper was immediately off to a damn 'great' start. A young lady at the entrance gate told him to just go to the main admin building instead to catch up to the rest of the group and he jogged his way over, half-open sweatshirt dangling behind him. By the time he got there the group of other incoming students had already arrived.

Bunch of freshmen? Great.

Jasper's sneakers thumped against the stairs as he jogged up behind them, moving past a young Zabrak and a pale-haired pretty boy to get to the little in-wall kiosk. "Don't mind me, my bad, coming through," he warned as he expertly edged around the crowd, swaggering right up to the desk. He pulled a datapad from an ISC Ranger-marked duffel slung over his shoulder and slapped it on the desk, leaning casually against it with the gleam of sweat dripping down his neck. Mixed tattoos were barely visible edging up under the collar of his sweatshirt.

"Hey there, Jasper Holliday, need someone to sign off on this." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the gathered folks, "Or wait. Bet it's one of them, isn't it?" His head came up and turned to look at the pile of people to see if any them looked important or authoritative.

@Sreeya @Nefieslab

 

[Rowan Allaird]

Rowan heard Crix out, though his gaze was back on the steps by then. He didn’t think anyone should get used to anything, but they had no time for a philosophical debate right now. The Arakanian glanced back at Crix’s compliment, a lighthearted chuckle escaping him, “Well your day can only go up from here, I hope!” He said cheerfully before turning forward again.

That was when someone rushed past them, knocking into Rowan and sending him crashing towards Crix. The Arkanian dropped his datapad in the process, a large crack forming on the screen of it. Rowan had to grab onto Crix’s shoulder to keep from toppling over, mumbling several apologies as he pulled back to pick up the datapad.

When he looked up with a glare he expected to see an obnoxious freshman. Instead he saw someone that looked old enough to be a teaching assistant at least. Rowan gave a frosty look as he looked down at his cracked screen and then back up.

“That’s right,” He said flatly as he walked up towards the older man. Jasper Holliday acted as if he owned the place and Rowan had seen enough of his type. The Arkanian eyed him for a second, catching the vibrant eyes especially, before he spoke again.

“Since I can no longer sign anyone in with my datapad, why don’t you do us all a favor and print off copies of the forms of the entire cohort,” He gestured to the group of Freshmen, “We’ll wait here while you get the papers and then we can wait while I individually sign each form by hand.”

One of the Freshmen couldn’t help but snicker, “Damn, uncle getting told by a Junior.”

@Nefieslab @Mr. Teatime

 

[Crix Aran]

Crix was just about getting his flirt on when someone decided that he wasn't going to get that chance. Namely because someone barged passed - said excuse me, kinda, so it wasn't too bad but it was enough to disrupt the flow of conversation and that alone had Crix frowning a little bit. Seriously man, he was in the middle of talking to someone and he got cut off out of nowhere!

Of course he was able to turn it into something nice - he made sure to grab Rowan to steady him. One hand on his upper arm and the other a bit close to his hip for it to be entirely innocent. He smiled a little bit wider but took a half-step back and let go of Rowan as soon as he was sure the other man was steady on his feet.

"It's alright Rowan - sorry about your 'pad."

He got his own look at the other man, finding him to be an older man with darker hair. Flashing some skin and tattoos without meaning to as well. Crix could admit that despite being rude as hell he didn't look half bad - now if he turned out to have a less than shitty personality, that might actually count for something.

"... isn't older student reg in a different place anyway?" he asked, raising his hands a little bit in a placating gesture, "Sure you're in the right place, dude?"

As much as Crix appreciated the unexpected touch-time with Rowan, he wasn't really sure why the older guy was here. Sure he looked young enough but there were bags under his eyes - either than or bad makeup. Was he some kind of teaching assistant who got lost or something? Hell he could be an older student rep for all Crix knew.

@Mr. Teatime @Sreeya

 

[Jasper Holliday]

Jasper stood up from the desk and gave pretty boy and his spikey-headed companion a casually appraising look, eyebrows raising a little at their paired balanced act. Oops. White-hair walked on up and Jazz's hands slipped into his sweatshirt's side pockets, looking vaguely apologetic about the broken pad for all of two seconds. Right up until some random Freshman had a comment to make.

"No shit, I knocked into him. What's he supposed to do, just sit there with a broken pad?" Jazz gave the background character an annoyed look and then turned back to tired-eyes and his sidekick. He was pretty sure the Zabrak was someone he recognized from somewhere or other.

"You trying to pick this poor tired fellow's pockets, kid? Shame." It wasn't immediately obvious if it was a joke or not from his deadpan tone, but the amused look that manifested a moment later it was probably just teasing. "If I'm in the wrong spot that'd be the gate lady's doing." He shrugged, unperturbed. Whatever got these extra steps over with.

Then there was the tired young man himself. Not that Jasper could judge too hard, given his own evidence of living a sleep deprived life. Jasper flashed him a little smirk and his eyes briefly flicked to the ID he had on him, shrugging a shoulder to adjust how the duffel sat on it.

"Sorry about the hit and run. How about you two join me? Get done quicker that way, make sure I'm in the right place, got the right stuff," he suggested in a smooth, eminently casual baritone. A hand left his pocket to gesture vaguely at the admin building, a glance sent Crix's way. "I'd wager I owe you two some vend drinks too for the trouble, right?"

@Sreeya @Nefieslab

 

[Rowan Allaird]

An old lady sitting behind the desk across from Jasper gasped at his casual dropping of profanity.

“Language!” She hissed, “This is a prestigious university, not a frat house!”

Rowan rubbed the bridge of his nose, questioning why campus guiding wasn’t a paid gig.

“No, he’s in the right spot,” The Arkanian cut in to address Crix, keeping his gaze on the older man, “This cohort is for both Freshmen and online students.”

While Rowan wasn’t impressed by the man’s casual recovery of the situation, he had to admit it was pretty damn smooth. The Arkanian crossed his arms over his chest for a moment, almost suggesting that only Crix go along. However, with them both being online students, it would be the blind leading the blind. One look at Jasper suggested that he was more likely the type to buy alcohol for the underaged kids.

With a sigh, he turned to the rest of the group, “Go pick up your syllabi, schedules and book lists from over there. We'll be right back,” He pointed to one of the counters that had the old lady that was still glaring daggers at Jasper.

Rowan strode past both Crix and Jasper, leading the way downstairs to the copy rooms. He was way too tired for this nonsense, and had to actively remind himself to be the nice friendly campus guide.

“Noticed your bag,” He said as he tilted his head slightly to address Jasper, “Ranger? Don’t see too many of those here.”

He used his keycard to get into the terminal room. He handed his datapad over to Jasper and pointed to the main terminal, “The display is cracked, but the hardware still works. Just plug it in and print the forms.”

Rowan couldn’t remember the last time he had to use a printer. He walked over to stare at the machine, prodding at it tentatively. He blinked at it before blowing off some dust and staring at the ancient relic. How the hell did this work?

@Mr. Teatime @Nefieslab

 

[Jasper Holliday]

He gave the old lady something of a casual look that said 'Oops, my bad' but didn't actually say anything, turning right back to the folks at hand. Namely Rowan, from what his ID said, and uh. Other guy. He couldn't see his ID wherever it was.

A brow rose at Rowan's crossed arms and general demeanor. He seemed very serious and, by contrast, Jazz seemed very not, his weight leaning on one leg over the other as the white-haired young man spoke. The old lady with the sharp looks and tone were basically ignored for the moment, water off a duck's back for the Ranger.

Jasper only had a lazy grin for Crix and Rowan when the latter walked on past and the Ranger turned around to follow right on behind, hands firmly in pockets. He looked over the inside area of the campus with mild interest for a bit until he was spoken to again, looking down for a sec at his duffel.

"Ranger Holliday, medic," he confirmed. "Apparently have a knack for patching people up so this seemed like the place to go." Jasper chuckled a little. "Exams were a bastard and half just to get in the holonet classes." Especially with the spotty education on Llanic. Good thing he tried real hard, he supposed.

As they got into the terminal room his hand came out of his pocket again to take the datapad, give it a little once-over, shrug, and approach the device. He waved the pad through the air to ward off blown-off dust that approached his face and gave the alleged printer an apprehensive look. This thing was old as all hell.

"This thing is old as all hell," he grumbled, looking around for an input cable and swiping away some dust in place in the process. Eventually he found a port, pulled the cable from the datapad, and plugged it in. A light turned on, so that was good.

"... Alright now what?"

@Sreeya @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Crix had spent enough time around people with impressive deadpan deliveries to recognize one on sight so he didn’t waste any time when the new guy decided to joke around with him. Instead he matched the deadpan with his own and shot back quickly.

“Trying to slip my com-digits into his pocket so I can give him my number without alerting the peanut gallery.” He deadpanned back before grinning, “Alright so if we’re all in the right spot guess it’s time we get a move on, yeah? Think if we hold up traffic anymore with our flirting they’ll have issues.”

Going along with the two of them to print off the syllabi, he blinked once before checking out the old guy’s bag. A Ranger huh? Well nothing wrong with a Ranger getting themselves an education he supposed, it couldn’t all be chasing down the bad guys. He was glad that it was harder to tell that he was a Jedi on sight, given where they were.

College was supposed to be a bit more forgiving but he wasn’t going to say there was no chance of the rampant Force racism that the ISC was quickly becoming known for.

Too depressing a thought for the current company, moving swiftly on!

… moving onto the printer.

“This thing looks like it predates the Empire.” He agreed bluntly with the Ranger’s assessment, “Does it… does it have voice recognition or something? Printer, activate!”

He poked the screen of the printer, stepping back and blinking away spots in his vision when the screen lit up with the brightness setting so far up that it damn near broke the damn sliding scale it was supposed to be on.

“Kark, who last used this, a half-blind Hapan?” he muttered, glaring at the screen before kind of just helplessly shrugging, “I’m droid engineering… the machines I fix talk back and tell me what’s wrong. Hang on…”

Reaching underneath the printer, Crix relied upon his knowledge of old people as he groped around blindly for a few seconds before pulling a card off of the bottom of the printer. The instructions panel! He raised them up triumphantly before dropping it to the printer and trying desperately to wipe his hand of the mess of ink and something that had covered half the instruction panel.

“Basic side is ruined, gotta use Old Corellian… Uhl Cirmilo… the hells is that?”

 

[Rowan Allaird]

Bemusement crossed Rowan’s face at Crix’s words before they headed downstairs. Flirting? He tilted his head to look over at the half Zabrak, pointing at the folder in his hand, “My contact information is at the bottom there for everyone in the cohort,” He muttered quietly before they began to walk. The Arkanian wasn’t the flirty type whatsoever, and it didn’t help that he was still a closeted case.

Rowan gave Jasper a blank look as he asked what to do next. This was a scenario he hadn’t anticipated facing, and he truly had no clue how to operate this old technology. He glanced at the terminal Jasper plugged the datapad into. The display showed the forms that needed to be printed, but Rowan wasn’t quite sure how the linking to the printer worked.

Crix helpfully found some instruction manuals and Rowan walked over to inspect.

“Old Corellian?” He asked incredulously. He moved over to stand next to Crix, tilting his head to look at the words - none of which he understood. He pulled out his personal datapad and looked up a translator app. Hovering the datapad over the text translated the words on his end. Even this yielded minimal results from half of the words being covered in gunk.

“Right, so… the red flashing light means it needs paper,” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “And…” He looked over at Jasper, “Can you pull up the menu and see if you spot BASEMENT PRINT 2 in the list?” Rowan felt around the side of the printer for a cable, “Let’s just try to connect this to the terminal and see if that works..”

Rowan struggled a bit to push the entire table with multiple printers on it closer towards where Jasper was. Sneezing a few times from the dust, he then walked off for a moment to get some paper, leaving the other two to fiddle with setting up a connection. This was all wasting a tremendous amount of time and Rowan was convinced half his cohort would wander off.

@Mr. Teatime @Nefieslab

 

[Jasper Holliday]

The deadpan reply from the Zabrak got a short chuckle out of Jasper, as did the muttering from Rowan afterward. The kid wasn't shy about flirting, that was for damn sure, and he couldn't tell if white-hair was just awkward or didn't really get the concept of overt flirtation. Or maybe he was just too serious?

Whatever, they had other troubles at the moment. Like this bullshit printer.

Not voice activated, a suspiciously sticky manual only readable in antiquated Old Correllian, blinking lights, no goddamn paper. Why do they even have this thing if they never use it?

The overly bright display showed the files and everything, so that was a start. "Kriffing paper," the Ranger grumbled. Jasper leaned down a little to help Rowan move the table over from the other side. A puff of dust older than he was hit him in the face and resulted in a bout of coughing to join Rowan's sneezing

His eyes blinked open and he cleared his throat. "I'd just like to reiterate how sorry I am about knocking you over," Jazz said as Rowan went off to get more paper. He pulled the cable from the printer to plug into the wall terminal, the console taking a hot minute to actually turn on and load drivers. His unused left hand returned to a hoodie pocket.

"So. Droid engineering, huh? Where you from kid?" the Ranger asked conversationally, leaning against the wall. He gave the terminal a bit of an annoyed tap, finding it was going far too slow. The man stared daggers at it.

"Finally." The terminal beeped, then came up with a "Refill Paper" message. Jasper rolled his eyes.

"How the hell does a 'prestigious university' not have a flimsiplast writer? Going to have to up what I owe at this rate."

@Sreeya @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Oh for real, his private com number was on the bottom of the folder? He'd just been messing around chatting shrak with the Ranger but that worked to. Crix wasn't above using such luck to his advantage and what could having his number be if not an advantage? Luck was finally starting to turn... would have been his thinking if the printer was seemingly designed by The Eternal themselves just to torment the poor, unsuspecting, Galaxy.

With one hand covered in sticky ink, Crix didn't physically help with the moving but hey if it was slightly lighter than it should be because he waved his free hand slightly to use the Force... who was to know, right? It had barely lifted itself slightly off the ground, just enough to make it easier for the both of them. And easy enough to deny because getting the ink off had actually taken a hot minute.

"From all the dust I'm surprised this thing hasn't been figuratively mothballed to go with the literal ones." he joked, shaking his head, "There's probably a lesson about relying on tech too much from someone old but I probably didn't hear it while I was busy on a datapad at the time."

Seriously, if there was a real adult here (some instinct was telling him that the Ranger didn't count as a Real Adult for some reason) that was probably the spiel they'd start. Tapping at some of the icons on the screen while Rowan fetched some paper, Crix tossed a grin over his shoulder at the Ranger.

"Arsehole of the Galaxy itself - Coruscant." he shot back, raising an eyebrow ridge at the Ranger, "What about you? What areas you covering as a Ranger, dude?"

Not that Rangers really had strict patterns but some of them liked to stick in certain areas. A high-pitched beeping caught his attention and Crix turned to stare at the error message. Thankfully the error message was in Basic so it might have been updated at some point.

"... okay no. What the hell is Toner and why do I care about it's mood?"

He gestured to the screen and the error message.

Toner low.

@Sreeya @Mr. Teatime

 

[Rowan Allaird]

Rowan returned with a stack of papers and struggled a bit to find where to stash them. Right when he thought he had everything they needed, Crix mentioned something about a toner. What? The Arkanian shrugged vaguely before he went back to the instruction manual. He gave up and just looked on his datapad to search what it was and how to install it.

His gaze flicked up towards Jasper, “I’m surprised you don’t know how to work this either,” He quirked an eyebrow at the older man before glancing back at his datapad. After looking at some pictures, he finally saw enough to fiddle with the toner. Looking through some cabinets revealed some cartridges and he managed to pop one in.

After some more fiddling and attempts with different wires, they clicked the print button. Nothing happened for a moment. All three men stood there staring intently. But then the machine started making weird noises that suggested it was finally working, and all three collectively expressed relief.

Rowan’s face visibly lit up as the antique churned and screeched while spitting out the forms in very faded ink. By the time the last few forms printed, the text was bright yellow. Oh well, it was still done.

“And now we know never to break our datapads,” He said quietly before his eyes flicked back over to Jasper with a grin. Rowan said nothing else, graceful fingers neatly stacking the forms into a pile. He grabbed the copies and began to make his way back upstairs.

The students, thankfully, were still waiting. Rowan signed the forms individually and handed them back before the tour resumed. Next stop was to point out the engineering building. He tilted his head to look at Crix.

"You'll be spending a lot of time in there."

@Nefieslab @Mr. Teatime

 

[Jasper Holliday]

Jasper just stared irritably at the printer while Crix made his comments about how old it was, not bothering to actually respond to it. That subject had been covered enough already and it didn't help his frustration with the obstinate device.

Mention of Coruscant did get his attention, though. Named after the shine on gemstones, only shiny on the surface from everything Jasper heard through the proverbial grapevine back home. Green eyes gave the Zabrak something of an appraising look.

"Around Christophsis. Anywhere ISC South, really." He shrugged. "Me though? Llanic, born and raised." There wasn't exactly any sense of pride in the way he said it, just smoothly matter-of-fact. Llanic was an important trade world and everything but it also wasn't exactly known for being on the level, lawfully speaking. Outer Rim worlds tended toward the more rough and independent places.

And then the printer asked for 'toner'. What, like those weird electric ab workout things that don't actually do anything? That can't be right.

"Why should I know about it?" he asked Rowan, smirking and raising an eyebrow and watching the younger, white-haired man fiddle about the a toner cartridge. Eventually it shook to life and actually managed to print some pages, at last. Jasper went to gather them up but Rowan had done it already. "You seem to know how to work these older types just fine," he joked, stuffing his hands back in his pockets and shrugging with a growing grin.

"Yeah, my bad. I'll get lunch too, how's that?" The students were still waiting, but for a couple moment it would seem like Jasper had completely vanished from behind Rowan and Crix on the way back. If they hadn't already noticed, they would when when the engineering building was pointed out.

Because that's around the direction Jazz reappeared from, three little drink cans tucked between his sleeved forearm and his torso as he emerged from a little side area where vending machines were. He offered Rowan the can of light-sweet caf and Crix a canned tea, with a black caf for himself.

"Didn't know what you like, so I guessed. Any good?"

@Sreeya @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Thank the Force and every one of the Corellian hells that the machine managed to work. Seriously, Crix was beginning to think it might have ended up being easier to just buy a new datapad and... transfer the... data... huh.

Okay he was keeping that idea to himself since he actually had a datapad in his backpack and he really didn't want to admit to either of the others that he had entirely forgotten it existed. The entire quest to get the printer working could have been avoided but, well, he wasn't going to complain.

He was having fun spending time with someone cute his own age - and the Ranger too of course, he was something of a looker himself. College truly was a dangerous place if he was going to be accompanied by these guys.

"Quiet neighborhood." Crix joked with a quick wink, "You wear a uniform and everything?"

Toying with Jasper wasn't fun in the same way that flirting with Rowan was but it was fun anyway. Just a different kind of fun since he was beginning to think that Rowan didn't actually, like, know that the two of them were flirting with him.

"You're delivery needs work but sure, it's a date." he agreed to Jasper buying lunch with a grin, "So long as our guide is still interested in our company for that long."

Jasper kind of faded back as Crix focused on the tour that Rowan had resumed. When he pointed out the engineering block to him, Crix took the chance to give it a look over. It wasn't as small as he had feared it might be which was good - he had some rather ambitious plans droids wise after all.

"Well now you know where I'll be spending much of my time you've got no excuse not to visit regularly." he teased Rowan with a smirk, "Where can I find you? You mentioned a Biochem professor before but I didn't wanna assume."

Oh... Jasper left?

Kark he was really letting himself get distracted if he hadn't noticed a Ranger (a potentially armed person) leaving. Hans better not hear about that or he was in for remeadial training. Accepting the tea with a nod, he popped the tab and took a drink.

"You know your tea, Ranger. Everybody needs some good tea in their life."

@Sreeya @Mr. Teatime

 

[Rowan Allaird]

A free lunch was something even Rowan couldn’t turn down. He was working on top of doing his brutal course load just to get by. He was adamantly against his parents paying for his college, so he got in with scholarships and worked to pay for his books and other costs. He longed to live in an apartment, but for now he lived a dorm room with three other roommates.

Rowan noticed Jasper casually disappearing from the group, but he didn’t think too much of it. He was an older man and likely wasn’t too thrilled to be wandering around with a bunch of freshmen. Rowan didn’t miss the banter back and forth between Jasper and Crix, finding it mildly fascinating.

He glanced over at Crix when he spoke. A smile touched his lips, “I live at the library,” He said, rolling his eyes, “There’s also a great coffee shop by the student union building. I hang out there with my buddies,” He shrugged, looking over towards the engineering building.

When Jasper emerged again with the cans, Rowan was visibly surprised. He took the can and tilted it to look at the label, “Thanks, man,” He said with a grin, actually favoring the flavor he picked.

The rest of the tour progressed smoothly with Rowan stopping and explaining the purpose of each building. Pretty soon it was lunchtime and the group headed over to the cafeteria. Rowan sat down with a tray, but as soon as Jasper and Crix did the same, two other girls joined.

“Hey, is it true you’re a Ranger?” One of the girls sat directly next to Jasper and grinned, “Isn’t that, like, so dangerous? Do you shoot people and stuff?”

Another sat close by Crix, “Are you actually a Jedi? Do you have a saber? Can I see it?”

Rowan grinned to himself as he prepared to eat his salad. He was curious about these questions himself, so he listened intently.

@Mr. Teatime @Nefieslab

 

[Jasper Holliday]

"Wouldn't call it quiet. But yeah, uniform and all on duty. Most of the time." Quite a different situation than the very casual way he was dressed just then, dark jeans, shirt, and unzipped hoodie and all that. Frankly the only reason he wasn't wearing the hat stuffed into a pocket was the lady up front giving him crap about it.

Jasper gave the Zabrak a friendly pat on the shoulder and a vaguely apologetic smirk, chuckling a little. "Good try, but it's just lunch, kid." Just in case the guy got the wrong idea. He wasn't sorry enough about the whole pad and printer ordeal to call it a date.

After the Ranger returned and handed off the drinks a slick grin crossed Jasper's face, popping his own can open with a thumb and sipping it. The bitter but smooth taste of chilled cold-brew. Perfect.

"Nah. You just seem like a tea kinda guy," he answered, raising his dew-glistening can in a lazy toast to the other two. Jazz indicated Rowan the same way. "No problem. Said I owed drinks, didn't I?" He'd successfully guessed the tired, hardworking looking fellow liked caf. Better than other habits he'd seen, at least.

Over in the lunch room he got himself a soup and stacked sandwich for himself and a bottle of water, figuring he'd sit down with the other two. He'd literally just started unwrapping the sandwich when some girls showed up with questions, including something about the Zabrak being a Jedi. His eyebrows rose at that new tidbit of information.

"Bit dangerous, yeah. Avoid the shooting if I can help it." He turned partly to face the one speaking to him, that lazy grin returning to his face and speaking in his casual baritone. He drew her eye's attention with a languid finger-guns motion off in some direction. "More of a medic. Someone's hurt or in trouble?," he made a smooth sweeping up motion, as lifting someone off their feet, eyes following his hand and then going back to look at her. "I carry them away."

His sweeping gesture "accidentally" tapped the other girl's shoulder between him and Crix after their exchange, drawing her attention toward Jasper. "Whoops, my bad, little lady. And I just got in trouble for not watching out earlier with this guy."

Jazz turned his gesture around to point at Rowan and his eyes followed, flashing an incredibly quick, sly wink his way. The girl's attention would follow as well, to varying degrees. "Now Rowan's a guy who's going places, I can tell. He's got things in order, dotted I's, all that. What's your major, man?"

And then with the attention off him he finished unwrapping his sandwich. It looked tasty.

@Sreeya @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Library and coffee shop - both places Crix was going to make sure he found an excuse to visit. Well, an excuse that was more than just "Rowan" himself, an excuse that could be used in polite conversation. He wasn't so much of a flirt that he would make a complete ass out of himself around the person he was trying to flirt with after all.

Still couldn't resist laughing with the Ranger though.

"Ha, realized you're out of your league old man?" he joked with a wink, "Don't worry, I would have let you down easy."

Went down easy on a hot day like today that was for damned sure, though he wasn't sure what Jasper meant by him being a tea kinda guy. How did a guy look like he was a Tea Guy after all? Tea drinkers probably looked like everyone else, right? Ah whatever, put that one down as Ranger intuition.

The rest of the tour went fairly well and Crix grabbed himself some food at the same time as the other two did. He'd gone for a rather meaty snack wrap, his nature as a Zabrak meaning he rather enjoyed the meatier side of the menu when given a choice. Of course before he could strike up a conversation with Rowan or Jasper, a couple of college girls wandered over.

... well attention was attention and Crix enjoyed being paid attention but the questions were a little bit awkward. He hadn't outed himself to either of the other two at the table at this point and although he hadn't been hiding it, he knew some people liked to think that not mentioning something was the same as lying about it. Wasn't his fault that "Oh by the way I'm a magic space warrior monk" didn't naturally slide into conversation.

But he wasn't going to lie and she was nice enough to ask...

"In order?" he asked with a cheeky grin, "Yes. Yes. And... no. I'm afraid I don't just whip out my saber every time someone asks. Just rude to bring it out like that, you know? It's a lot to take in for most people."

He wasn't really interested in the college girl sat beside him but he had been in a flirty mood for most of the day and it wasn't something he just turned off and on. That the Ranger managed to get her attention was just as well - sometimes people thought flirting meant he was more interested than he actually was after all. Crix could kind of see what Jasper was doing and he piped up himself.

"Rowan's got that Responsible vibe down too, really knows how to hold a group's attention, you know?"

Sorry Rowan but it was a bbq pulled bantha snack wrap.

@Sreeya @Mr. Teatime