Ask Corellia Thingamajig Required

[Crix Aran]

Getting a line on a ship was one thing but actually making sure that the thing could fly was something else entirely. The ship had all the basics already but the trouble was it didn't have the parts that acted as connectors between the basics. So they had an engine and a control for it in the cockpit, sure, but they didn't have strong enough power cabling to actually use the controls for the engine. To say nothing of the need for new coolant systems and the wiring he was going to need to do to make sure that the navicomputer didn't try and kill them all.

There were scrap dealers aplenty around Corellia but the trouble was that they didn't really have much in the way of credits at the moment. In terms of money... they didn't really have any money.

But they had the location of several scrap dens and he, and some of his friends, had some flexible morals. Well, flexible enough that stealing parts from a scrap yard that was known to deal in stolen goods didn't make him feel bad about his life. He wanted to get a couple of droids for the ship as well to cut down on how much work he would have to do himself but that was just a wish-list dream for now.

Picking his way down the alleyway, Crix paused when he saw the mound of scrap just kind of... thrown around. He looked around, spotting a few things that might have been useful before they were just tossed around. He sighed a little bit.

"Do these people not know how much more fecking easy it'd be just to nick their shite from the street? Did they have te smash it?" he rolled his eyes at Willa, "Vandals they are, proper vandals."

They weren't too far from the scrap den he'd been told about before so he was being more cautious, his stun pistol out in his hand already.

"What you reckon Willa - we gonna need to stun someone 'fore the end of the day? Five credits says no."

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She smirked at Crix's expression. Already he was dropping the Coruscant accent it sounded like, starting to blend in. Honestly people didn't give two glances to a pair of hoodlums stalking the streets. Especially if said hoodlums were hella dusty. And though she convinced herself it was part of the 'aesthetic', she hoped that 'aesthetic' would wash off soon. It was Corellia, true, and they weren't so far from home that they would escape possible 'rents's wrath, but still.

They needed parts, and she had a keen eye with Crix' skills.

"Five creds bets against," she shot back, smirking. She already had a flash grenade prepped in one hand; if any adult tried to do anythin' stupid, she'd have zero karks deployin' it and stealin' what they needed to hightail it outta there.

Sector Rangers still had a foothold in this place, after all. She wasn't gonna sit around gettin' old.

Some of the peeps movin' piles were startin' to move on; she glanced over to Crix again, brown eyes thoughtful. "You'd think they have some way to keep the stolen parts from not gettin' stolen again..." she muttered, mostly to herself. "But we got limited time. Ready to rock?" She cracked at him, giving a sly grin.

"'Cuz I'm already ready to blow this stand and hightail it with our stuff."

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Trust Willa to be a-okay with robbing robbers to make sure they didn't crap out their hyperdrive and end up stuck halfway through an asteroid. He liked that she was both a moral person and a little bit flexible in how much those morals applied to people who were likely to deserve a little bit of punishment. If karma existed then these guys had it coming and if it existed then they were just pawns of karma, doing the good work by stealing stolen scrap from their scrapyard!

Or something like that, Crix wasn't really too fussed.

He might have been raised in a household that upheld the law but he had also been raised in a household that held to the belief that criminals deserved punishment that fit their crimes. A thief finding that he had been stolen from seemed like proportionate retribution in his eyes.

Reaching the perimeter of the actual scrapyard itself, he quickly pulled out a pair of wire cutters and cut a hole in the mesh of a fence. It had warning signs saying that it was monitored for any break ins but he just pointed to one of them.

"These signs are fake - the mesh isn't monitored." he told her with a grin as he squeezed through, "The real signs are red. Those are yellow. Freaking noobs."

Once they were both inside he pointed to a large pile to their right.

"You check that pile and give us a shout if you find any of the scrap we need. Need them in fairly good nick so try grabbing shite you reckon I can fix."

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She smirked at Crix' ballsy confidence. Kid was cute when he got a little cocky, she had to admit privately. Though couldn't linger staring at him; they needed goodies, and she needed a way to get their new baby hot an' running. Especially if they wanted to outrun their folks.

"Lookit you, being all bad boy," she teased, squeezing past him with a sly smirk. "Suits ya." But at his comment of finding equipment, she merely gave a cocky two-finger salute, swaggering out. "Yessir. Cadet Willa's gonna find the goods. But gotta be careful, some of this stuff is pretty gnarly shape."

It wasn't long before she donned her gloves, and a smudge of grease marked a cheek, some more of the dust powdering her shirt. Giving a glance over at Crix, she didn't wanna admit most of this was useless junk. No matter they didn't care about this---

Oho. What was this?

Leaning in, she began pushing stuff aside, face screwed into an intense frown.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Bad boy?

He wasn't trying to be a bad boy but he'd take that - just like he was gonna take whatever they actually had that wasn't absolute trash. Crix smirked a little bit at the compliment though even as his cheeks reddened a little bit and he felt the urge to scratch at one of his horns slightly self consciously.

Crix pulled it back quick enough to cough and shoot back a retort.

"I'll be inspectin ya work later, Cadet." he teased her back, "Make sure ye in tip top shape."

Moving over to another pile of scrap, he mentally started sorting through it. Most of it was absolutely trash, none of it really worth mentioning. Scowling a little bit, he moved onto the next pile and pulled at a large piece of scrap metal. Moving to the side, he dodged the steel as it fell to the ground, revealing an old shuttle with half of it's side opened.

"Shuttle over here Willa." he called out to her, "Shout out if you gettin' spotted."

He moved into the shuttle's shell to search for it's hyperdrive.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

The navicomputer board that was right here was top notch, and not only that, it was barely dinged! She had to hold back a crow of delight, but nearly gave a celebratory dance; but some movement was coming a few piles away. She froze mid-dance, then whistled over to Crix. A quick warning.

They had to hurry up, time was almost out. But she just had to find some more wire before they left...

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

A whistle?

Warning him, now, while he was in the middle of taking a length of wire three times his own height in length out delicately from the internals of the shuttle? He'd have made a comment about it being really awkward but he knew Willa enough to know that she wasn't about to give him a bogus warning.

... bogus? Did he have to take some time to educate his own internal monologue on how to NOT sound at least three hundred years out of date?

Still, he was just distracting himself even as he continued to harvest the wiring. The kind of wiring that was strong enough to carry the currents that would be created by the engine of a freighter. The kind of wiring that he was likely not going to find for anything less than a couple hundred credits if he wasn't able to tear it out carefully.

He paused when he felt the barrel of a blaster pressed up against the back of his neck. Crix froze in place and swallowed thickly.

"N-now I know what you're thinking... should I blast the kid... right?" he chuckled nervously, "Well the answer may surprise you!"

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

Ugh, boys.

That grubby adult just right up and sauntered past her. And did Crix just ignore her?!

Hell to the naw he just didn't.

Scowling, her eyes narrowed. She saw the man duck in, and swallowed back a bit of fear. He had a blaster. Kriff. She'd never had to fire a blaster before. She'd only ever handled one with her Daddy on the firing range, and even then she struggled with using it. Kark, kark, kark. Think girl, damn. You gonna let some ugly grownup snatch yo bestie?

She scowled, squaring her shoulders. Nope. But she wasn't gonna be stupid either. She checked around first; no one yet. But she pulled out her blaster, still holding the flash in the other hand. Flicked off the safety, and ducked her way over, checking for any others. Coast was clear so far. She was right outside the entrance when she heard Crix talking, and almost rolled her eyes.

Seriously?

The guy in turn would feel the stun pressed against her back. She swallowed hard, but forced her shaking hand to steady. However, her voice still squeaked slightly when she spoke up, seeing the grownup stiffen.

"I won the bet. Mitts off my pal, moron," she managed out, feeling her other hand shake. "O-or I'm gonna blast us all to smithereens!"

A totes lie, but the dumb grownup didn't need to know that, right? But she was totally gonna stun the dude if he didn't move off. "Drop your blaster," she growled, and he started to move. Had her threat worked?

And then the butt of their blaster smashed into her jaw, and she staggered back with a choked gasp, stars sparking behind her lids as blood bloomed in her mouth. It was the first time she'd been really hit... ever. Tears sparked in her eyes with the hit, and she stared up at the human with a scowl as she thumped against the wall.

Ow ow OW.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Oh HELLS no.

Trying to defend his junkyard from scavengers? Crix could accept that, even though it meant that someone was holding him at blaster point. Stand and defend was a stance he could 100% get behind and he wouldn’t even say that the dude was doing anything illegal with it. But then the dude went and hit Willa.

Sure, sure, Willa had tried to hold him up just like he was doing to Crix but that didn’t really matter because the stupid bugger had decided it was in his best interest to hit Willa. How the little shite got up in the morning with such stupid ideas in his head was beyond him.

Growling, Crix jumped on the man as he struck Willa, wrapping one arm around the man’s neck from behind as he jumped on his back. The other arm he managed to pull away with his other arm to restrict the man’s options when it came to using his blaster.

Unknown to the man, Crix was tapping into the Force. And because he was angry there was a chill in the air that both Crix and Willa could feel as the man reached for his throat, which was suddenly far more constricted than it should be from Crix’s arm alone.

The worst part was that Crix knew it was his doing and he hated the feeling sinking into his gut but… but the bugger had hit Willa.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She felt a chill go down her spine.

Her head rang and her jaw kriffin' hurt, but something about Crix... man. She wheezed in a breath and coughed hard, then wiped off her mouth and winced as her lip dragged sorely. The guy was absolutely bein' dominated by Crix... and for a moment, she just had to stare. But she couldn't stare for long. Bringing up her blaster, she let off three shots in the grown-up's chest and stomach before his body slumped.

Her heart was thundering in her chest, her breathing ragged. She felt sick to her stomach at how close it was they coulda gotten shot. Swallowing back bile, she glanced up at Crix with huge eyes, hands still shakily holding onto the stun blaster as her voice finally squeaked back in to reality. "I did it," she managed out, then exhaled shakily. "Hey, Crix, you alright?" she glanced over at Crix, concern mixing with fear and... something else.

Holy crap, she'd actually shot someone. With a stun, but she did it.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Well having the guy be stunned kind of pulled Crix out of his funk - there wasn't any need to feck the guy up for hitting Willa now that he was out cold after all. He released the man both physically and with the Force, letting him slump to the floor and leaving Crix free to actually check on Willa. He walked over to her quickly, reaching up with a hand to touch just away from where she had been hit by the guy.

"You alright Willa?" he asked her, serious now that his friend had been hurt, "Head still screwed on tight? Nothing rattling loose in that big empty head of yours?"

He was serious for a second or two at least.

Crix patted her hand, pushing the blaster down slightly as he did so. The fact that this was her first time shooting someone was probably why she was like this. That her's hadn't been as violently brutal as his first one was something he was glad about.

"There there Wiz, you'll get used to it." he assured her with a genuine smile, "Least you didn't turn yours to paste like I did the first time I shot someone."

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She flinched for a moment at Crix moving towards her, golden eyes huge for a second. His words didn't register at first with what he said, instead she slowly, shakily lowered the gun, and exhaled noisily. Wincing as his hand drew close to her lip, she felt oddly like blushing as his hand was seriously that close. Like... wow, when did he suddenly get so tall? It was only when his words registered that she snorted, aiming a weak jab at his midsection with her off hand, empty for the time being.

"Speak for yourself, ya moron," she managed out, face screwed up slightly at the sore jaw. "Didn't ya hear me whistling?" Some of her sass returned, and she scowled. She felt a little queasy at the idea of turning someone into goo with a blaster, but hey, ya had to have a first sometime?

Nope, she wasn't gonna make that joke around him. For some reason, just having him that close felt... weird. Like he was suddenly this tall, cute guy, and she wanted him to come closer.

Flushing, she cleared her throat and turned away.

"Enough about me; let's scrap and scram before more goons show up."

Some distance to push away the sudden want to close distance. Because hell naw, that was wrong. He was just a friend, for cryin' out loud.

...Right?

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Ah she was so cute when she was playing the tough girl role – probably because she honestly didn’t think it was a role, that she was that tough. But Crix knew Willa well enough to know that beneath the crunchy outer shell, she was soft and warm. Probably why he liked her so much actually, kind of reminded him of his mom with how she put up the tough front. He could tell that she was flustered about something and it naturally made sense she was flustered about what she had just done.

Right? Not like she was going to be flustered by anything else.

That she came back to herself and went right back to trying to sass him was a good sign even if the sass thrown was kind of weak – he’d have to give her some time to recover fully if he wanted full sass. He smirked back at her and gave her a quick wink.

“I heard ya heart hammerin from over here.” He teased her right back, “Figured I best help keep you breathing, you know?”

But she wanted to get back to scrapping? He held up the wiring that he had managed to grab from the shuttle before he had been held up by the goon who was now counting banthas in his sleep.

“Got the high power cable we need.” He told her, “Jus’ gotta get ourselves a power regulator worth a damn and we’re good to go.”

He pointed to the hull of a mostly intact X-Wing.

“I’ll boost you up into the cockpit and you get it out from under the steering, yeah?”

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She snorted and rolled her eyes, then propped a fist on a hip, giving him a played-up smirk. "Yeah? So what? Gonna give me a big ol' hug and tell me that I did good?" she was partially teasing, partially trying to bring back levity to... whatever he did to that guy earlier. The dude was just... choking. Like, far worse than Crix was doing himself.

Was kinda weird, but whatever.

She glanced up at the X-wing and perked a brow, frowning. "I guess. But next time there's any whistling, scoot it, yeah? Don't even wait on me," she commented, all serious over her shoulder.

...Then gave him a wink. "I shot my first man, I'm a tough gal now."

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

The idea of giving Willa a big hug was what, oddly enough, caused him to blush a little bit. Probably said something about him that something as simple and mundane as a hug made him blush when actual flirting and dirty suggestions just kind of rolled off him. Probably said something about how he was raised on some such bullshit. But he was nothing if not adaptable, scoffing a little bit and fixing her with his best smirk.

"That's where your mind went? Hugs?" he tutted knowingly, "How lewd."

He chuckled a little bit and mimed a talking mouth with his hand before waving it in her direction as they moved over to the X-Wing. Crix was playing around but he was still feeling a bit of adrenaline. It didn't take long for him to know that this was serious and he would treat it that way on the inside even if he was still messing around on the outside.

She'd get that, he was sure.

Reaching the side of the X-Wing he cupped his hands together.

"Come on then twinkle-toes."

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

Her brows waggled at him when he smirked back, brown eyes glimmering. "Baby you know it!" she grinned, but it was for show. All of it was for show, really. The self-loathing, the doubts, the anxieties, those always came later, when she wouldn't be able to sleep or properly rest... when everyone else was asleep.

"Make one comment about my weight and I'll kick," she joked, then stepped into his hands, gripping the frame of the X-wing entrance cockpit.

Time to get the parts and scram. This place was giving her bad vibes. And she had a feeling the guy that blaster-whipped her wasn't the only goon lurking around here.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

A comment about her weight?

Did she truly think he would? Nah, he might want to tease her and be sassy but there was "Sass" and there was "suicidal". He'd spent enough time around Willa and Enby to know that joking about a woman's weight was a fine line. Sometimes it worked really well and the other time it would completely go wrong and he would end up trying to apologize for... literally for months.

High school had been a learning experience in the ways that women worked when you were an ass to them.

Hoisting her up, he leaned back against the side of the X-Wing and he decided that just because he wasn't going to mention her weight, didn't mean he couldn't bring in some sass. He smirked a little bit.

"I was just going to mention something else..."

He pushed her up higher, basically tipping her into the cockpit entirely so he didn't need to hold onto her any longer.

"... nice ass."

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She wiggled her way into the cockpit, only barely catching his words as she slid in, and shot him a smirk down over her shoulder.

"Babe, don't I know it," she shot back, winking with a sly smirk. Ah, there it was again, that funny feeling. Brushing it off as a simple case of nerves after nearly karking up, she slid into the dusty pilot's seat, grimacing. After this she was gettin' a long, hot shower. Power regulators weren't the easiest to pry out, but she set to work, absently humming the first few bars of her latest music idea under her breath.

What? It helped her chill a smidge.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Of course she managed to find the time, and the wiggle room, to wink down at him about the comment he'd made about her ass because of course she did! If she hadn't he would have likely called her out for her continued bad mood though so he did his best to just ignore it, especially how it kept making him think about her wiggling her ass.

That was a thought he was gonna be keeping private for a long old time.

"Maybe we'd be sneakier if you didn't hum all the time?" he teased her even as he checked his blaster pistol was still at the ready, "I mean I'm not saying it's bad but like... venue needs improving, Wiz."

Seriously.

The acoustics were terrible! All wrong!

He paused for a moment, feeling a chill run down his spine. Crix hadn't messed with 'The Force' much but it did it's best to warn him when things were about to go down.

"Hide!" he hissed to Willa, "Stay in the cockpit and I'll be back!"

With his warning hissed he moved away from the ship in case he got caught, ducking behind a small mound of trash to see an old-as hell B1 droid stumbling around, acting as a security guard. Despite what the media said, they were still armed with rifles and they weren't actually bad shots.

Feck.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She chuckled at his sassy comments, but she did stop humming to focus, brown eyes narrowing as sparks scattered harmlessly away. His comments mostly slid past her, but paused at his comment. "Huh? Oh!" Sucking in a breath, she slid down further, and gritted her jaw.

He better not try and do something brainless, like try to fight a droid alone. But he might just. She wouldn't put it past him.

@Nefieslab