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

[brave_heart_verity]

These things can take time. Better to wait for the right one, she thinks anyway.

She considers that, then admits, "I don't think you're the only one who feels that way. Maybe I will too, if I'm ever in that kind of situation."

Cheating death hasn't made her feel great so far. She doesn't have high hopes that it'll change. But something's got to give.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Well, she'll at least know that he means what he said. That in his eyes, it's the truth. Certainly, youth plays a part in this attitude too.

A Han Solo who had spent, even a few years, fighting the Empire and burying friends might have a different perspective.

"I guess that the thing we should hope for is not finding out."

[brave_heart_verity]

Sincerity is one of her favorite things, it's true. But she's learned to be cautious. Loki was charming and very sincere, and look where that got them...

"That would be the responsible thing, yeah. But if the choice is between being your friend and not finding out, I'm choosing you every time." Hell of a time for her to make eye contact again. Like she's being serious or something.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Hrm.

He finds himself looking for the subtext of what Verity says a lot more than with other people. Half the time he thinks he's reading too deeply into what she's trying to say. Putting meaning and feelings where they didn't belong. The rest of the time he feels like he's missing the point entirely.

"Well." He says, his brown eyes looking perhaps a bit softer than usual. "I can promise that you'll have someone watching your back who would hate the thought of a blaster pointed at you."

[brave_heart_verity]

She's had a lifetime of practice making herself hard to read. She can't blame him for finding her difficult. But she is trying to be clear.

"That makes all the difference." She gives him a smile, one of the ones she doesn't let out much in public. "And I suppose I don't actually have to kill someone to make them regret having met me. I've been doing that for years."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

She's pretty when she smiles. He would tell her so directly, but by his count, he feels like he might have hit a threshold on unsolicited compliments for the day; so instead he says, "I wish I could get you to smile more."

Make of that what you will, Ver.

As it is, he's gonna finish off this orange that's been getting warm in his hand. It's pretty good. He likes the tartness that accompanies the sweet.

[brave_heart_verity]

There's a point at which it starts getting a little weird, yeah. Especially for a girl so unused to compliments. She keeps smiling after the roundabout compliment, but it's a little sadder now. "I smile more now than I used to."

Now she's feeling a little self-conscious about it and a little guilty for smiling at all, considering what happened. But that's not a burden he's offered to share, so she'll save it for later, or (ugh) therapy.

At least the oranges are winning.

"So, are there any good stories about how you got all those guns?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

So much insecurity around here. So many feelings.

On some level he's aware of the paradoxes that seem to surround him. The way he feels most alive when he's inches from death. A crowded bar will make him yern for the quiet of space. How his confidence shields him from his insecurities. The sweet of dessert counterbalanced with black coffee.

So the sense of a sadness behind a smile isn't entirely lost upon him, but this pilot does know, most of the time, when to let off the throttle. Now is a good time.

"All those guns." He says with a smile. "There's only four of them over there." There's about ten more stored in strategic places around the ship. You know, for reasons.

"Most of them we're acquired from persons who no longer needed them." And by that, he means taken off of bodies. Let's face it. Han doesn't have a lot of disposable income to buy things that he can often just pick up for free.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's relieved he's backing off. Some stories are better told in pieces. The sorrow will sink back into its place behind the other feelings in time.

"That's four times as many as I have, and twice as many as you have hands." This seems like a perfectly reasonable point to make, to her. But he might say something similar about 'all her books' and get the same kind of reaction. Sure, she can only read so many at a time, but she needs them. For reasons.

"Ah." She can guess what that means. "Generous of them."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Maybe someday, when I've made the fortune I'm clearly destined to have, I'll be buying nice pieces." He says with a shrug. Then again, when you get really rich, you start buying the guys to hold the guns for you. There's also the outside chance, as small as it is, that maybe someday he won't need a gun within arms reach at all times.

"One time I did do a job where someone wanted me to run some blasters and they paid me with a crate of them, I turned around and sold most of those. I've also won two from draws." He feels like when it's one on one and you've beaten your opposition in a quickdraw, you've earned that gun.

"You can buy them pretty cheap in certain markets if you know where to look."

[brave_heart_verity]

"The fancy ones, or the reliable ones?" She knows enough to know they won't always coincide.

"Draws?" C'mon, Han, she's not a gun person. Now there need to be explanations. Everyone knows he hates having to sound smart and be the expert on things.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Ones that are of good quality." He says without hesitation. "I don't think I could ever be the kind of guy who buys ornate weapons."

He just went to bed hungry too many times to blow a lot of credits on something meant to keep on display.

"They don't happen very often, but, sometimes people will use them to settle a dispute. Two men with guns stand a certain distance apart and when someone indicates it's time to draw, they shoot at each other."

[brave_heart_verity]

"And here I thought you liked pretty things." That was teasing again. The clue is in the way the corner of her mouth quirks up when she's talking. When she thinks it's particularly funny, her eyes crinkle up slightly.

"Oh, like cowboys." There's that reference again. "I didn't figure you meant a raffle, but, you never know."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He knows that was to make fun and she got him pretty good. He knows he's called her that a few times already, but has been hesitant to offer any compliments of greater substance because they so easily and throughly get her out of her comfort zone. To call someone pretty is fairly benign.

"This Captain gets busy." He says, after a few moments of trying to come up with the right response. "I can't stop to chase every pretty thing I see. I have to find the things that are worthy of my attention."

He's pretty pleased at himself for arriving at that reply.

As for cowboy, yeah, he' noticed that whatever they are, he seems to have things in common with them. They don't have cows where he comes from, though, ranching exists in it's equivalences out there. At minimum, pistol duels of speed are stupid and dangerous; an older Han would know better not to let it come to that if he had any say in it.

"No. None of them were door prizes or party favors either."

[brave_heart_verity]

Ah, to live in a galaxy free from the politics that make every compliment a battle zone and every kindness suspect.

It's a good answer and gets another smile. She manages to clamp down on the urge to say something self-deprecating, especially since it might only give him the idea she wants more compliments. (Not that she dislikes them, but she's not going fishing for them.) "It's good to be discerning."

Someday she'll have to show him a cowboy movie or two so he knows what she's talking about. But that would require watching a movie. Hmm. "No? What kinds of party favors do smugglers give out, then? All sorts of scandalous things, right?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

In general, we'd agree that Han's world is a lot less concerned with political correctness, but, considering Leia, it's not as if the idea that compliments as munitions in a war between two persons doesn't exist there too.

"A smuggler's party." He muses with a snort. "Vibroblades in the back for every guest and a spirited game of whose wearing a comlink."

The tone of his voice clearly projects a sarcasm there.

[brave_heart_verity]

Han is less concerned with it, and since he's all she really knows of his world... well, assumptions are frowned on for a reason.

"Sounds like fun," she tries to joke. It'd go better if she didn't sound so amused. "You're gonna invite me next time, right?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Every experience and detail he can offer her is through the viewpoint of the world as he sees it. Which should make for when she does get to see these things for herself and make her own opinions on them an interesting experence. Han sees things very much in his own way, for better or for worse.

"If picturing a whole room full of people like me seems like fun to you, sure. I'll be your date to the Smuggler's Ball, Ver."

[brave_heart_verity]

But isn't that always the way of things? Every experience is colored by those with whom it is shared. First impressions are colored by what's expected and what's been learned secondhand. Someone with a strong sense of self is more interesting.

"Aw, thank you. I promise to wear something that'll conceal lots of things."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He has to admit he's glad that he contributed to this appearence of good cheer. Seeing her amused makes him feel good, in a way that he can't fully grasp why.

"That's very paragmatic of you." He says with a thoughtful nod. "You would make a lot of friends in a room like that if you, instead, wore something revealing."

There's something to be said for the power of distraction.

[brave_heart_verity]

It's good to be able to make friends laugh. It's one of the most delightful reasons to have them.

"Mm, probably. But would they be friends worth having?" Distractions are all well and good, but sometimes it's very distracting to be the distraction.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"It an old con to go social event as a couple and one person act as the distraction while the other acts as the thief." He elaborates. The implication being that she could be his distraction and he could then work the room.

But. It's been a while since he's tried to lift things from people and he wouldn't necessarily, in this hypothetical, want his first time back in the saddle to be robbing other thieves.

"Though, if this is already a gathering of crooks, at least two other people would be trying that."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Yes, I've heard of it." It's not a con Loki ever asked her to help with, but he had stories. So many stories.

And, she has to admit: it does appeal to her mischievous nature, to help him with something like this. Steal from the thieves to give... well, to thieves. She's not so good a girl all the time as people might think.

"So it might be more of a distraction to bring a pretty girl who doesn't want their attention. Make them work for it."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han starts to lean in closer to Verity. It's subtle. He's a little more interested in this all of a sudden. And he's a bit surpised that she's willing to entertain and even encourage this behavior, though, it seems a shame that is no smugglers ball to speak of.

"Allow to speak from experience that sometimes that does work." He purses his lips thoughtfully. "Do you think you could pull it off?"

In fact, making someone work for attention feels like it's happening to him right now, on some level.

Also, not that he's apt to say this aloud, but he kinda struggles with the idea of Verity commanding a room, with her being on the withdrawn side around him.

[brave_heart_verity]

It really is a shame. She secretly loves that kind of thing. Especially if there's dancing. But really, any excuse to get dressed up and take her mind off things is welcome.

"No con is guaranteed success, and anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to pull one over on you." She smirks and leans forward, casting him a glance over the top of her glasses that's both playful and challenging. "Can I get dolled up and then spend an evening not being interested in boring people? Gee. That sounds tough."

She knows how to flirt, she just rarely chooses to.