fulfilling a promised lesson on the fine art of blasting things ...

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Walking back to the Millennium Falcon through the Nexus has gotten a little bit easier each time.  The first time, it took him more than an hour to get back despite the fact that his ship has always been parked about a thousand yards away from a path that leads to the forum.  The shiftable nature of this place makes no walk to and from anywhere as straightforward as it seems, but you can get used to it.

 

For a while, he cleans up the areas that he thinks both he and Verity are likely to be in for a while - the cockpit and the lounge especially, but also near the entry ramp and the living quarters.

 

He did promise lessons on how to fly and in due course, he will get her into the sky with him ... but he's still doesn't have a ton of fuel yet and the priority was always teaching her how to use the blasters.  So he's pulled four weapons out of the storage lockers, completely disassembled them and cleaned them.  He also discharges all, but one, of the plasma magazines.

 

They get placed them on top of the holochess board, which, sadly, is among one of the biggest flat surfaces available to him on the YT-1300 and then, he takes a shower and slips into a light weight pair of pants.  It seems to take a long time for him to drift off in the small bunk that he's claimed for himself.  The sound of the winter wind skips across the surface of his ship and makes a low howling sort of sound.

 

This is one of the reasons it's always preferable to put your ship in a proper hanger, but, when you're Han Solo, you work with what you got.  After a few hours he wakes up, not knowing what time it is, until he opens the entry ramp and looks outside.

 

It seems too early for her to arrive.  The sun hasn't even reached the apex of it's path yet, so he decides to lay back down.  Leaving the ramp down for her to facilitate her letting herself in. 

Comments

Could have easily been me not getting it. It's been known to happen. ;)

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He does like sweet with a counterbalance - especially bitter. Sweet on it's own gets cloying for him very quickly. He never got a lot of dessert growing up, so, Han never quite grew the fondness that other people have.

When he chews enough to make sounds again, which, by the way is after he's inhaled the sandwich. He sort of laughs that laugh of self amusement people do from time to time. Not entirely sure if she's teasing him, he volunteers the following admission, "believe or not, I'm sorta known for coming up with things on the fly."

Also, there's beer and he's thirsty. Gonna help himself to a can of that after unconsciously licking his thumb and forefinger clean.

So long as it's all cool now.

[brave_heart_verity]

She might be teasing a little, but she's also sincere. Excess had caused a lot of problems where she's from; she truly does love seeing people recycling and farming organically and all those kinds of things. It's smart and it's practical, two of her favorite traits.

"An excellent talent to have." Another one she envies. She doesn't want to hope for a crisis in which to prove herself, but she does secretly hope someday she'll believe she's getting better. While he's getting a drink she slides half of the pork and onion sandwich over to him. "This one has stronger flavors and is a little spicy."

A good pulled pork is always a little spicy, but she kept it to a low heat this time. Not everyone likes it and not every culture values it. The sourdough and onion relish help cut the heat nicely.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

One of the things he'll have a hard time readjusting to back home is drinking (especially alcohol) at room temperature again. He's noticed a lot of the beverages here are chilled or straight up cold. Makes it a little nicer going down, he has to admit. It become more like refreshment and less like the cure to soberness or thirstiness as applicable.

A curious thing happens when he eats the pork sandwich though. He looks really surpised by it, rather than musing. He bites again. The spices remind him of home. Not just, something from somewhere in his galaxy. His actual home. Corellia. Savory and spicy.

He chews as fast as he can so he can put down the sandwich and tell her so. "This is kinda what food from my planet tastes like. Though, a bit hotter." There is a distinct tone of fondness in the message.

[brave_heart_verity]

Room-temperature drinks are going to take some getting used to for her, too. She's been spoiled by convenient refrigeration.

His surprise rouses her own, and once she finishes the bite she was on she waits to hear what's up. Then she smiles the biggest smile he's seen from her yet. It practically screams 'ah ha!' for her. "Oh yeah? I'll keep that in mind. Food where I'm from was often spicy too, sometimes much much hotter than this."

New list: spicy foods to try with Han.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

The struggle will be real. No doubt. You don't know what you take for granted till it's suddenly not there.

There's a balance for Han. He's not the guy who wants his food so spicy he can't taste anything else but burning anymore, but, he does like heat. It's comforting to him.

He'll pick up the sandwich half and finish that off too. A little bit slower than the last one, but with even more appreciation.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's noticed.

It's a balance she wants to learn about. She's not going to be taking him to Arizona chili cook-offs anytime soon; she might not even let Clint try cooking for him. (And yes, her brother can cook. A few things.) But there'll be barbecue and maybe some curry in their future.

When they've finished their sandwiches she nudges one of the containers of salad his way. Hawaiian macaroni salad usually goes over well. "So where did you learn to pilot?" She thinks this will be a safe and pleasant topic during their meal.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Yeah, suppose that she would, wouldn't she?

A safe and pleasant topic it is not, though, with how much he seems to love talking about being a pilot, she'd have every reason to think that it was. Thought of it seems to bring him down a peg or two from and he looks at the container of macaroni like it would somehow tell him what to say.

Han takes a somewhat turbulent breath in to try to steady himself. "... my earliest memories of any significance are of living as street trash." There are a few feelings and he thinks he remembers an image of his mother, too, but they're not fully realized. In fact, after all this time, he could just be imagining the life before the Trader's Luck.

Anyway, he takes a sip of beer and continues. "I think I was four or so, eventually, I got adopted by a real mean bastard who ran his own ship. He had a small crew and a couple other kids he took under his wing besides me."

"Everybody had to pull their weight. Small children had to be able to beg or steal and Captain Shrike had a quota for each of us, the bigger ones had to be able to do manual labor. I always knew that, if I could learn how to fly ... eventually I'd be able to finally live my own life."

He doesn't know why he's telling her all this and, of course, there is more to the story, but that's the abridged version anyway. Every word of it true. Doesn't really tell her the where, but, he might get to that part in time.

[brave_heart_verity]

The macaroni has nothing to say on the subject. But it is creamy and full of carrots, so that's something. The macaroni's really got it all figured out.

Verity's just going to be over here internally kicking herself for bringing it up. This is going on the 'do not discuss' list. She listens without comment, watching him from beneath her lashes for clues about what to do. A hand on the table between them, palm up and open, is a good invitation without pushing.

"I'm sorry. I'm lousy at small talk. But I'm real glad you got out."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"How could you have known?" He says with a shrug, though he does settle his hardened hand in hers. The touch is at least a little bit comforting and he finds that's wanting of that right now.

He swallows. At this point, there's not much more that get's her to the 'how' part of it.

"I read as many books as I could get my hands on about flying. I think there was a somewhat permissive attitude of it because it might have made me a more useful crew member."

There's a slight improvement in his mood when he gets to this part of the tale. "Turned out, I had a gift for piloting the land speeder bikes where I come from and at that point, they stopped making me steal. We'd move from planet to planet and I would work the young amateurs racing divisions under several different names. I'd rack up prize money, while they were betting on me. Ended up making a good chunk of change, for a while."

"What my talent in racing bought me was a lot of unsupervised time away from my Captain's watchful eye. I needed time to scout the other racers and tracks that they would run the races on. Needed time to practice. Time I spent learning what I could about flying a real ship."

Han, with his free hand, finishes his beer and replaces it back on their makeshift table.

"I still hardly knew what I was doing when I finally did get a way. I wouldn't say I really was much of a pilot for the first year or two."

[brave_heart_verity]

It's a good and fair question for which she does not have any non-crazy-sounding answers. Trying to explain the immense societal pressure she grew up under to apologize for everything because emotional stuff is 'women's work', a prejudice of which she's aware and to which she is none the less vulnerable, seems inappropriate at this point and also really depressing.

Holding his hand is nice. She'll focus on that.

"You've done marvelously for yourself. You survived long enough to learn what you need to know and some of what you want to know. That sounds like a good life."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

His hand isn't expecially nice. It suits him, though. Han works all the time. Even when he seems to be just slinking around in a bar, it's usually to earn him some funds (often in the form of a contract or at a gambling table), or he's creating the conditions he wants to make credits later.

In some respects, getting stuck in the Nexus is sort of a vacation for him.

He knows with her words, she's trying to encourage him and even without lying proof senses, he can tell she's being earnest. Captain Solo at least appreciates that she's trying to be kind to him, though, he wouldn't say he feels terribly better right now.

Holding her hand is nice, though. He agrees at that sentiment.

"You know," he begins, trying to sort out his feelings into words. That's not always a strong point for him. "I'm not known for being a good person where I'm from. Just being around someone like me is going to make people think of you in a certain light."

He doesn't feel as though he's completely misrepresented himself, but, she should be aware that he tends to hang out in dirty places and piss off mean people before she ends up traveling somewhere with him.

[brave_heart_verity]

His hand is his. That makes it nice enough for her. If she's given him the impression that she thinks less of him because he works hard, she'll have to remedy that. It was never a classist thing that keeps her at a distance; an overdeveloped sense of stranger danger doesn't care what someone does for a living.

Comforting people isn't really in her wheelhouse. She's trying to get better at it, but oddly, people don't want to be her study buddy/test subject for this sort of thing.

She considers the confession for a moment before she shrugs. "My first and only friend where I'm from was the second reincarnation of a god of evil. He was trying to work off his predecessor's karmic debt. It got me kidnapped once by a would-be world-conquering tyrant. I had to lie to a four-year-old in order to get her help getting out."

And she wouldn't change any of it for the world. So, in other words: it's fine. She's used to having dangerous friends.

(Okay, she'd change the part about lying to a kid if she could.)

[twelve_not_fourteen]

In his case, it's a insecurity of being of low status. He's literally and metaphorically corse compared to the people that were born into a good place in life. It's one of those things that you wouldn't figure out from knowing Han on only a superficial level. The idea of being lesser bothers him.

But, Han's doing alright with her so far?

The two of them have thus far managed to not push each other away, anyhow. Maybe that's a small, sad victory, but since neither of them are especially good at making friends, perhaps they should celebrate it anyway.

Her smuggler friend takes a moment to process what she said. He thinks he gets the gist of it, but, that is pretty far removed from anything he can relate to. He contemplates and says finally, "the place your from seems a little weird."

[brave_heart_verity]

From what she's seen of people born in a 'good place' in life, she's pretty sure it sucks. The things they're insecure about and the things they go without might be different, but they're no happier.

Han's doing brilliantly with her so far. She's here, she's cooking for him, she's willing to hold his hand--she even felt safe enough to fall asleep. That's huge. The sort of thing to be celebrated, if it weren't likely to make them both embarrassed and uncomfortable to talk about it.

"Yeah," she admits with a little laugh, "everyone says so. It was just. That's all I knew for so long, sometimes I forget other people don't come from places with superpowers and things like that." But behind the laugh there's a little prick of pain. It isn't nice to speak ill of the dead.

"My point is, I'm not going to run away because someone else wants to label you as 'bad'."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

If she had pointed out that everyone she's ever known had died and maybe that wasn't the most sensitive of things to say, he probably would have felt a little bad.

As it is, he doesn't really know how to deal with reincarnated gods and people with magic powers, though. He just said the only thing he could think to say.

"When they inevitably want to shoot at me, it might be more of a concern."

[brave_heart_verity]

It's a tricky line to walk, wanting people to understand where she's fragile but not wanting to make them feel bad about it. Nobody's life prepares them for this sort of thing on such a scale.

"That's why you're going to teach me to shoot back, isn't it?" She gives his hand a gentle squeeze. It's hard to scare her away. It's very easy to scare her in general, but not into ditching a friend.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han's fingers squeeze back against hers. Not hard, just enough to let her know he noticed what she did and to return the gesture in kind.

"That's the idea." He says with a nod and a half smile. "It just seems like the kind of thing you wanna be up front with people about."

That's all he means by it. He certainly would be dissapointed if she were to change her mind, but, rather it be now than later if it was going to happen.

[brave_heart_verity]

"I appreciate that." She withdraws her hand after another squeeze so they can get back to the important business of their meal. "I'll be careful who I mention you around."

She knows those equations well, the ones people like them are always working through in their heads, trying to find the least painful path in life. The ones that say to push hard and fast against anyone trying to get close to weed out the unworthy. The ones that say it's easier if you never get attached.

"So what did you do?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Part of the problem is that he likes her. If he could bring himself not to care about her well being, there would be no dilemma at all. When the Falcon is ready to fly again, he already knows he's not going to want to leave her behind, but, he doesn't know if she'll be ready to go with him either.

Then what?

A question he'll figure out the answer to later, he supposes.

"What did I do when?" He's not exactly sure what she's asking him.

[brave_heart_verity]

A question they could figure out together, she hopes. He's not the only one who'll be wrestling with it.

"That lead to people saying these things about you." Carefully side-stepping any suggestion it's his own fault until she knows whether or not it is, in fact, his fault. "Did you say mean things about their mamas?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Ahh. The why do people want to shoot him question. It's a fair thing to ask.

"I think most of them are jealous of my charm and good looks, personally, but some of it is the work. You end up taking jobs for a lot of people who break laws and are easy to offend."

He starts opening the mac salad because it's still not giving him any answers and, because he thinks he should have some, even if his appetite started to leave him when his Trader's Luck days came up.

"Sometimes they expect the impossible."

[brave_heart_verity]

She hums thoughtfully and idly stirs her own cup of salad while he talks. "You'd think they'd have thicker skins, given the work they do. But I guess that's another thing that's multiversal. Jealousy and insecurity."

Yes, she'll totally buy that there are people who dislike him for being a bit of a smug bastard. Not everyone's going to find it as cute as she does.

"I'm glad they're lousy shots."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han was sort of kidding and sort of not about the charm and good looks. He does have a certain presence about him and it tends to draw people in more than it sets people off, but it's been known to do that too. It's kind of nice that it didn't seem to make her uncomfortable the way a lie would.

"That's something I'm glad for too." He says with a laugh. "If they all shot like me I'd be in trouble."

[brave_heart_verity]

She's been working on her sense of humor, and understanding the motives for the lie before reacting to it. Life is never going to be fair to her, but that doesn't mean she has to be a bitch to everybody all the time. People she likes get a pass.

"If they all shot like you, there'd be fewer of them to piss off in the first place, probably." And less of him to aim at, but she doesn't like to think about it.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Now that remark? Seems to catch him by surprise. She's not teasing, he doesn't think, just confident that he's as good as he says he is. Which takes him a little by surprise considering he hasn't had the chance to prove it yet.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you had confidence in me."