twelve_not_fourteen | Walking the earth with eyes turned skywards ...

Good god, she was bad at small talk. Like, really bad at small talk. It had been much easier gushing over ships and planes. Carol wanted to know more about him but she just had a knack for not bringing up the best topics.

"Guess so. You two seem to be a good team." And that was all she felt like she could say on the subject. It seemed like most of the things she asked Han struck at a chord he wasn't ready to share yet, and that was okay. The last thing Carol wanted to do was make him uncomfortable.

So instead, she decided to stop asking questions until they got to his ship. That, at least, she should be able to talk about without making things any more awkward.

If she had been ... well, virtually anyone else, he would have been suspicious or maybe annoyed by the choice of topics. That was because just about everyone Han had ever known was trying to squeeze something out of somebody else. And, of course, the better you knew someone, the easier it was to steal from them.

He was reasonably sure that Carol wasn’t trying to take something from him, though. She had perfectly good leverage to do so after helping him home from the bar yesterday, but she hadn’t asked for a single thing. Besides that, he couldn’t explain why he felt this way, but she just didn’t seem like the type that was going stab him in the back later on, either.

Now, he had an awful track record of putting his trust in the wrong people, but that didn’t seem like a good reason to be unfriendly. So ... he figures he should at least try to cover some of the awkward silence.

“Are you out here traveling by yourself? Harrison seems like an awfully big ship for one person.”

And on the flip side, Carol belonged to a group of essentially altruistic people. People (or synthezoids) who had gifts and used them to make the world a better place. Sure, she would occasionally come up against a deluded crazy who wanted to take over the world, but in general she was surrounded by good people.

That, and the fact that she had really everything she needed. She was even going to get some local data that she hadn't been expecting to get but was happy to take. There would be no reason to stab him in the back especially since he had so kindly offered up information that she needed.

"I am. Dropped some people off on the way, but I'm out here scouting alone. Harrison is a little big for one person, but he's a good ship and I kind of insisted. Also the room for more fuel and supplies means I don't have to stop as often."

“Makes sense.”

She didn’t seem to need anyone else to run the ship. She didn’t need anybody to protect her. There wasn’t a reason that she needed to have other people accompanying her. It probably says something about Carol that she was willing to travel through space that was unknown to her alone.

The pair of them round another corner and Han brings them to a halt in front of a massive security door. Captain Solo didn’t typically spring for the cost of having his ship fully enclosed when it was docked somewhere, but in this case he hadn’t had much of a choice. All the open spaces that were anywhere near the civilized parts of the planet were occupied and he knew that he was going to be stuck doing some repair work.

He starts thumbing an access code into the hanger style door. A green indicator light blinks and the door recedes into the floor slowly. A modest freighter comes into view. It’s not the kind of ship that you could use to take large shipments of ... well, anything on board. It was the color of various shades of silvery metals and not very sleak looking. The cresent shaped vessel was powered down at the moment, but the ramp was lowered in anticipation of visitors.

It might say something about her. It probably says even more that she hasn't thought of it like that. It's more the fact that she can fly out into space on a great ship and just explore. It's about as much freedom as a person like her can get without starting to feel guilty that they aren't at home defending their planet.

Carol waits a respectable few steps away from Han as he keys in the code to the hanger. When the door comes down she spies a ship that, admittedly, as not as fine looking as Harrison, but you can tell has some character. And besides, it's his.

"I like the shape," is the first thing that comes to mind. Hopefully it doesn't come off as condescending. Truth is she's never flown something crescent-shaped so she's kind of intrigued by the design.

The Bria is objectively not as fine as Harrison. You didn’t need to be deeply familiar with the tech from their different ends of the galaxy to see it. You didn’t even really need to be much of a ship person, either.

Han’s ship had the look of a ship that was nearing the end of a lifespan of usefulness, though not especially old. More like ... it had been pushed to its limits for about fifteen or twenty standard years and it was showing its wear. There was a lot of fresh carbon scoring from laserblasts where it hadn’t been cleaned. It’s Corellian made, like the young captain himself, who still smiles a little bit at the sight of seeing his own ship docked somewhere.

“...” her reaction makes him pause, briefly. Not because Han thinks she’s being disingenuous, but because people are typically writing off the Bria instantly based upon her looks alone. He has to take a second to think past his usual defenses of his vessel and come up with something to say.

“It’s great for tilts and rolls. Someone in their sights sees a fat looking target one second, but a little tug on the controls and they’re missing you left and right.” Then he adds, “you can fit into some tight places too, if you know how to handle her.”

A beat. The young flyboy then notices the double entendre and almost bashfully glances away, scratching at the waves of his hair.

Sure, the ship has certainly seen better days, but Carol would've been much more surprised to see a pristine ship. It doesn't matter what corner of the galaxy you go to - smuggling will give your ship a beating.

Carol catches the double entendre and can't help the small smirk that appears on her lips. He's proven that he can handle a woman and he's welcome to that one. She glances over at Han before taking a step closer and making a path to look under the wings. "That makes sense. How does she handle?"

The smuggler’s hazel eyes seem to flick back just in time to catch her glance. She doesn’t seem uncomfortable by the inuendo and it looks to him like she might even be amused by it. That’s a good sign, right? The kind of reaction that says she’s comfortable by the idea of being with him.

His still pondering that for a couple of seconds when he moves with Carol toward underbelly of the ship. There’s a particularly large hose on the ground that they’ll need to step over. “She’s very responsive, but not as fast as I’d like.”

Carol is definitely amused. Innuendo and jokes are things she's better at emotionally processing than, say, if they should hold hands or not. But yes, definitely a good sign. She's discovering that she likes his company even outside the bedroom.

The hose is no big deal and she steps over it as such. Her eyes are busy roaming over the underbelly of the ship and taking in the technical details. She really can't help herself around a ship, especially when it's one she's personally unfamiliar with. "Mmmm. From age? Wear? Or just the design of the ship?"

“The design.” Han murmurs. “She just wasn’t meant to outrun the latest military starfighters.”

Which is a problem for a smuggler. You always hope for a well planned route and no run-ins with imperials or pirates, but sometimes it happens. If you can escape, then you don’t have to drop cargo,

“Oh. I just remembered.” Solo scampers back over the hose and starts climbing up one of the ‘legs’ of the ship. It’s a little dicey when he has to cling to the belly of the ship, but Han is surprisingly good at climbing across the Bria. A brief grunt escapes his lips when he pulls himself up the side. “If you wanted to see the droid brains, you need to come up here ...”

"What if you got her a better engine?" she muses as she keeps her eyes on the ship. It was a hypothetical question because she figures that if he could afford one, he'd have it already. But it was out of curiosity that she asked it, not to make him feel bad.

Thankfully he's bringing up the droid brains and that's something that she really wants to see. Maybe there'd be something to that technically that could help back home. Or maybe the AI that Tony wrote was already better. She didn't know. But the more data the better.

"I definitely want to see those. Gimme a sec." Since they're alone and he's already kinda seen her fly, Carol simply floats out from under the ship and up the side. Why climb when you can fly?

“Might help.” Han said. “Kind of an undertaking to replace a sub-light engine, though. Most of the time you’re better off just getting a new ship.”

With unlimited time and unlimited resources, you could do something like that. Han doesn’t really have an abundance of time or resources, much less both. As she had guessed already, if Captain Solo could have done something like that, he would have.

Alone is ... not exactly true, but there’s a good chance that Chewbacca didn’t see her while he was inside of the Bria. Han, meanwhile, has a very clear view of her effortlessly ignoring the pull of gravity as she rises up to meet him. Maybe he’d be mad about it, if he didn’t think it was such a cool thing to see. Plus if Han could have just flown to the roof of the ship, he certainly would have.

“Show off.” He says with a smile, before gesturing with a tip of his head where he wants her to walk.

Well, she figured that Chewie might still be out getting the data pads. And if he wasn't, well, she had the sense that she would be seeing Han often enough that the Wookie would find out soon enough.

Carol sets down next to him, acknowledges the jab with a smile, and then starts walking in the direction he indicated. "Yeah, that makes sense. Might as well just hold off for that ship you're going to get off your friend." She did happen to remember some of their conversation from last night.

Han walks them over to a portion of the hull that is recessed by an inch or so. Getting onto his knees, he gets to work on some very heavy duty latching mechanisms and after a moment, rolls back the panel to reveal three rectangular pieces of hardware that are as lifeless as the rest of the ship. Or they seem to be, anyway ...

“Hey guys. Say hello to Carol, will ya?”

At Captain Solo’s prompting, the brains begin to wake up. Parts of the mechanisms begin to pulse and glow in response - one blue, one green, and one orange. These are the same brains that power many of the astromech droids that she’s seen on this planet, though, the distinctive bodies of the droids are nowhere to be found.

As they wake, they immediately begin trying to talk over each other. The voice of blue is a cheerful whistle, the voice of green a sort of chittering type noise and the voice of orange is almost a kind of hum.

Carol gives Han room to work, but she has to admit that she's a little curious and can't help peeking over his shoulder.

And at the first sight of the brains...well, it's a little underwhelming. Perhaps she was expecting them to actually look like brains. Perhaps she was expecting colors. It seems like Tony always makes the circuit boards of his robots fun.

But then, they start to wake up and light up and talk and Carol can't help the grin on her face. How is it possible that three pieces of metal are so...cute?

"Hi guys," she says, feeling a little weird talking to a stack of brains instead of the bodies they usually inhabit. Then to Han, "So they help make your ship fly better?"

They are awfully cute for little pieces of technology and surprising how much personality something with no body, that’s interfaced into the interior of a starship can have. It only takes a few seconds to pick up on the fact that blue is the most pleasant, orange has a lot to say and green is more reserved than his two partners.

“One at a time.” Han grumps, frowning down at the ‘droids’ without a particularly good cause.

The voice of green replies by imitating the sound of a blowing a raspberry at Captain Solo the best that it can.

“I heard that.” He says, his lips almost settling into a frown before he gets distracted by a voice that he likes much better. “Yeah, they do. They’re good for interpreting data from the systems on the ship quickly and alterting you to what’s important ... most of the time. Sometimes these three distract each other, though.”

She can't help but laugh out loud when the green one blows a raspberry at Han. Carol didn't come to this section of the galaxy to pick up a droid, but it's feeling very tempting to leave with one. It'd probably drive her cat crazy, but how can she resist?

Carol leans down next to Han to get a closer look. "Interesting. And you just hook 'em up? Or do you need special programming?"

It's a good thing she's so engrossed in the droid brains or she'd be thinking about how close she was to him and if it would be okay to just kinda make out a little on top of his ship.

“It’s more like plug them in and let them learn.”

Droid brains have an advantage over an organic brain by being able to directly connect to various networks of data, but they don’t come off the factory line knowing everything. Experience makes them better thinkers too. It’s another way that those little droids end up being a lot like people.

Orange hums a question to the pair of them. Han, having a passable understanding of basic, takes it upon himself to answer.

“No. She’s not part of the crew. She’s ... my friend.”

The word friend seems to come out of Han’s mouth like he isn’t used to saying it. It isn’t until he flicks his gaze over to her, wondering if ‘friend’ was an apt enough description for them, that Han realizes how close they are.

"Wow. That's really impressive. I may have to pick one up before I leave this section of the galaxy."

She still totally fascinated by the different Droid brains and their personalities and how they can just plug in and start leaning when he looks over at her. Carol glances back and it's enough to pull her attention away from the brains.

"Yeah, a friend. Hopefully one he'll get to know a little better." Her smile widens and she gently bumps his shoulder with her own. Hopefully that passes as flirting in these parts. Just in case it doesn't, she leans in a little closer. Now she's definitely thinking about kissing him on top of his ship, and you know what? She's going to.

He’s glad that the droid brains ended up impressing her. Han would have hated to have the one thing she seemed to be really looking forward to seeing on his ship be a big dissapointment. Not that he isn’t used to letting people down at this point, but ... he really didn’t want to let Carol down.

Since the smuggler has seen droids around since he was old enough to crawl around, they don’t seem all that impressive to him. Moreover, he’s had a bad enough experience with a stubborn droid in the past that he’s carried around a silent grudge for the last couple of years. He thinks most people would feel the same in his place. So, for a moment, he doesn’t really know what to say. He doesn’t want to spoil her fun, but he doesn’t have a lot of nice things to say either.

Then the kiss comes and he thankfully doesn’t need to say anything. He finds himself drawing into her and holding when his hands feel near enough to do it. Orange hums something kindly in the background while their lips press together.

“If you keep making me feel so welcome, you’re never gonna get rid of me, sweetheart.” He murmurs when their kiss finally breaks. Han’s is smiling that lopsided smile that is distinctly his.

Had she known this was all going through his head she would tell him that he really doesn't have to try and impress her. That even if the droid brains hadn't impressed her that she wouldn't have felt let down. The fact that he's so willing to show her what he has is the point.

During the kiss Carol shifts in closer to him. Because despite how independent she is, Carol finds herself really liking the feeling of Han's hands on her and his arms around her. Also that crooked grin of his. And the thought of him sticking around for a while is very pleasing. "If anything, you're going to get sick of me," she counters. And that's not just her trying to be cute - that's generally how things go with her and men.

"So, ah, should we see if Chewie's back with those data pads?" Because talking about ships with a handsome guy who just showed off cool droid brains is kind of ticking all of her boxes. His friend will be a good distraction from the fact that the one kiss wasn't really enough.

“Yeah.” He draws the word out like he needs an extra second or two to convince himself. “We should check in with Chewie.”

There’s reluctance in his eyes when he pulls back from her, but he does ultimately ease back. It does mean the droids will have to be shut back in and all three voices make a short protest at virtually the same time - apparently the idea of being closed back in doesn’t entirely win over the droids.

“Guys, we’ll come back later.”

She nudges him lightly with her shoulder. “There’s more where that came from, handsome.” Because honestly, if they continued, it was going to escalate to the point where clothes were going to come off. On top of his ship.

Then, to the droids, “Yeah, we’ll talk again.” She has to leave this quadrant with a droid. She’s decided.

But she slowly straightens into a standing position and then offers him a hand to get up.

Getting busy on top of ones own spaceship is really one of those things that should stay a fantasy anyway. Unless he somehow ended up as durable a Carol is ... then it wouldn’t be advisable because it’s lewd, not because he was likely to get bruised or cut on something.

The thing of it is, Captain Danvers stokes his fire in just the right way. A way that makes you need to remind yourself that certain ideas are bad ones.

“See, she promises.” Han murmurs to the brightly colored brains. “Go back to sleep for a while.”

Before there can be any bargaining for more company from the think machines Han starts to shut them back in. If he was the type of person that liked droids, he supposed he’d feel more guilty about waking them up only to shut them back in a few minutes later. Then again, who knows, maybe being able to have even a brief chat was the thrill of a droid brains life and the promise of another visit later was enough to satisfy them.

“Chewie should be back by now.” The words that finally break the short silence. “Probably loading the data onto the one right now.”

With that, Captain Solo begins to climb back down the side of the ship so they can get onboard.

Yeah, yeah. Social protocol, safety...they might be important but they're kind of a buzzkill when she'd like to do more than share a heated kiss with Han on top of his ship. Honestly she's all about safety and good ideas most of the time, but then there are times when she can't help being a little impulsive.

"All right. Let's go find out," she agrees and waits as he moves past her to start climbing down the edge of his ship. Once again she takes the easy and fancy way by floating up and over the edge. But she still respects that it's his ship and waits for him to take the lead on heading inside.

Walking the earth with eyes turned skywards ...

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