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Post by yosticaltari on Jun 27, 2011 18:35:26 GMT -5
“And so do you, it would seem…” He grinned, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’ve had you on your feet all day, and now I’ve teased you for the past hour or so… I must apologise, and give you… A slight raise, if this is going to be an increasingly common sight.” Chanda opened the trunk she had opened and reached into the bag and placed two of the coins in her hand. “They aren’t worth much here, but when you go home, if you go home, they’ll be worth at least two years pay. Think of it as thanks for being here for so long.” He smiled.
“Wake me up when you do… We’ll talk then… Show yourself out, the doors will lock after you.” Chanda smiled, walking back to the door way. He was fast this time, like is wound wasn’t even bothering him anymore. The pain had faded, and if he was swift and careful, it wouldn’t start again. He made his way back over to the bed, and kept his back to the doorway into the hanger, as he took off his shirt. There were bruises from the fight across his back and his stomach, not to mention the ones on his biceps. The scar above his right hip could be seen as it was in the exact same place on his back, than it was on his abdomen. It was large and rather unique for a bullet wound, and seemingly had gone all the way through. He lay down on the bed. His leg ached, but it was barely noticeable. He just stared up at the ceiling, waiting for the sound of footsteps, then the sound of locking, before he could sleep.
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Post by Dragonflower on Jun 28, 2011 5:43:02 GMT -5
Tali smiled at him. Her feet had been aching for hours, but she had become too good at ignoring them to really have noticed before then. She looked at the coins as he placed them in her hand and shifted them around a bit. He didn’t have to tell her what they were worth. She pushed one of the coins in between fingers and starting rolling it along her fingers, back and forth. Another useless skill from her childhood.
Tali watched Chanda as he made his way back and was rather surprised to see him move so easily. When he was out of site, she gathered herself and followed him. She looked abit as his bruises, but didn’t linger ”Sleep tight” she said with a tired smile before starting her accent.
It took the better part of an hour before she was back in her own bed, but when she finally lied down, she couldn’t sleep. Her mind kept spinning around the night events, and what the morning would bring. Would he keep his word, or just pretend it never happened? Even thought it took her a while, when she finally fell asleep, she slept like a stone.
The next morning, Tali woke up late. She quickly washed her face and head-tails before getting dressed. When she reached Chandas door she stopped a moment to catch her breath, before she knocked ”Morning Chanda”
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Post by yosticaltari on Jun 28, 2011 7:20:28 GMT -5
The night hadn’t been a good one. Chanda had gotten sleep, but not much. He kept waking up every so often. Part way through the night, he had woken up with a sore leg. He took the chance to remove the cloth Tali had given him and then with an almost professional fashion, dressed his wound with fabric gauze, disinfectant soaked cotton, and a bandage. With that tended to, Chanda lay in his bed for quite a while, before deciding enough was enough.
He got up; it was easier than the night before. His leg wasn’t bleeding and all he had to do was heal. He decided to occupy his mind by cleaning the ship. He spent hours removing the dust that had culminated on the ship, and polished out the surface so that every reflection glimmered on the surface of the ship. Chanda looked at himself in the reflection. He stared into his own eyes and took a hand to his face, to feel the black eye that had formed during the night. “… I won’t be working behind the bar for a while. You can’t charm someone with a black eye, unless you want to get the sympathy vote. I’m not playing that game.” He muttered, as he polished the surface, bringing out a shine.
It was then he heard a knock echo down the stairs. Tali was up, awake and raring to go. It was a little later than she should’ve been, but Chanda could forgive her. He walked over to a console and tapped in the unlock command, causing the door to open by itself. “Tali!” He yelled. “Down here!” He then tapped in the command to cover up the weaponry, he knew she didn’t like the look of all those guns.
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Post by Dragonflower on Jun 29, 2011 3:57:01 GMT -5
Tali stepped abit back as the door swung open before her, then walked inside. She expected to find him in bed, but his voice was clearly coming from another room, properly the hanger. She descended the stairs rather quickly, astonished by the fact that it only the night before had felt so long.
As she stepped into the hanger she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the ship. ”You’ve been busy!” she said with badly hidden surprise. She slowly walked up to the ship and placed her hand on it, watching her reflection. ”Couldn’t sleep?” she asked as she turned to him with a little smile.
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Post by yosticaltari on Jun 30, 2011 11:55:36 GMT -5
“Oh, no, I slept; I just didn’t sleep for very long.” Chanda smiled, looking over at her. He tapped in some more controls before walking over to the ship and inside it. “If I find finger prints, I’ll be charging you for the polish!” He joked, looking at her from inside the cockpit. He bent over the seat, placing one of his knees on it as he did. He tapped into the controls, and waited a moment, before moving into the back. The engine room hatch opened, and Chanda lowered himself into it. “Tali, get in here, you can hand me some tools.”
Chanda reached up and grabbed the biggest book ever and sat down in the engineer’s seat. The engines were computerized, so it didn’t need much from him. He just needed to know what to press. “I need an assistant for all this.” He sighed, beeping and several other computer noises echoed out of the ship. “Oh, okay, I don’t need those tools. Nevermind!” Chanda climbed back up and then dusted himself off. “She should run now… I was going to test her out last night, but I didn’t want you to think I ran away.” Chanda casually dusted himself off. “So… You want to start or what?”
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Post by Dragonflower on Jun 30, 2011 13:46:43 GMT -5
Tali shook her head abit at Chanda. He needed to rest, and what had he done? Cleaned his ship… She would never get to understand men she thought to herself, or maybe it was just Chanda she would never understand. She started to walk around the ship and grinned as he teased her. Even thought he hadn’t gotten much sleep, he seemed fresh enough. But again, maybe he was just hiding it as he had done the night before.
Tali followed Chandas voice into the ship as he called for her. ”Where are you Chanda?” she called back though the ship, but then found the open hatch, with him inside. ”Well until you find one, you gotta settle with me” she said with a laugh. She didn’t know how a ship worked, but she could properly help out in some way anyways. Tali lend him her hand as he climbed back up. ”Now why would I think that?” she said sarcastic and dusted a part of his shoulder off that he had missed. She smiled at him ”Now is as good a time as ever I guess”
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Post by yosticaltari on Jun 30, 2011 15:31:16 GMT -5
“Ohhh being around you isn’t settling…” Chanda smiled at her, as he placed his rough hands in hers. “It’s more like you’re settling for me!” He grinned, as she dusted off his shoulder. Then he squeezed past her to go down the ship’s steps and out into the hangar. He waited for her to follow him out before heading towards the trunks again.
He eyed the most important ones, knowing it would be a while before she found out anything that would satisfy her curiosity. It was nice to share is life with someone though, even if it was his past. He took the trunk for his first year alive. The trunk contained his birth and everything up until the age of two. There wasn’t much in the box. His birth certificate and government registration forms were in envelopes, there was tribal wear alongside what people would call ‘more civilised’ clothing. Pictures in frames, showing his mother, father, his father’s other wife, his grandfather, his grandmother, some other children, the tribe elder. There was an old rattle, and a bottle. There was also a heart monitor. Chanda decided to open trunk number two and three, all of which containing pretty much the same thing, until trunk number three, which contained no pictures of his father.
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Post by Dragonflower on Jun 30, 2011 16:39:56 GMT -5
Tali didn’t say anything, but just moved to the side so he could get past a slight blush hiding under her dark skin. As he headed for the exit she followed him out and over to the trunks. Tali knelt down by the first trunk. She gently ran a finger along the pattern of the old tribal clothing. Like staring into a window back in time. She picked up the photos and watched them closely, but didn’t linger too long with any of them. When she had been thought it all, she went on to the next trunk. She didn’t expect him to say much, not yet at least. She went through, and it wasn’t till she reached the third that she stopped, the late picture in her hand. ”He died?” she asked in a low clam voice.
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Post by yosticaltari on Jun 30, 2011 17:33:58 GMT -5
“Yeah, he worked for the government, back in the day” Chanda smiled, reaching into the trunk and pulling out a box and opening it to reveal about six medals. “Navy I think. Although these medals are loooonnggg out of circulation. Anywho, he got called up to serve in some rebellion, seemed to happen a lot back then. He got killed fighting on some nameless skirmish, and well, here we are.” Chanda smiled, his eyes a little sad, but there wasn’t any depth of the emotion. It was like he was sad because of the idea, rather than the loss.
Chanda closed the trunks, one by one, giving her the chance to slip the last photo in. He then opened the next four trunks. She had seen nine, so he would show her trunk ten after these few boxes. Every box up to age eight contained a heart monitor. Each of the pictures, as they went through the years, brought Chanda’s mother closer to the Q’Sik wife of his father. Eventually they would be stood behind Chanda together, with their hands on either shoulder. Chanda was also noticeably developing his ‘dashing’ smile, and his intense stare. Along with trunk number eight, was something dark, something from tribes of old, something that belonged in a burial site. It was an urn of sorts, but for organs. It was smaller than usual urns, the markings of it was of the heart. Chanda looked at her a bit, and then at the urn, nervous to see how she would react to it.
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Post by Dragonflower on Jul 1, 2011 16:41:40 GMT -5
Tali nodded slowly. ”May he never be forgotten” she whispered. As long as his memory lived, so did he, in spirit. One of the things from Vetusolum that Tali had never left behind was the tribal ways of death. It was something people lived closer with than other places.
Tali lingered a bit at the pictures from the next trunks, mostly at Chandas other mother, the Q’Sik. It made her wonder how her own mother had looked. ”Seems like you did okay though” she added as she went to the 8th trunk. Her eyes fixed on the urn. She hadn’t been sure what to make of the monitors, but the urn didn’t help much. ”You.. got a transplant?” she asked unsure. She had heard it was possible to change a man’s heart, but hadn’t really believed it possible, and defiantly not on Vetusolum. She feared though, that it was something much darker.
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Post by yosticaltari on Jul 2, 2011 6:04:04 GMT -5
“I would say so yes…” Chanda smiled, looking down into the trunk. “My, uh, mothers still remember him at least. I was too young to remember him, unfortunately.” Chanda didn’t mind, he had no emotional investment in the man, his human mother had always been straight with him about his father. Chanda knew he wasn’t the purest of men.
Chanda smiled and nodded. “They did well, and they grew closer for it. They had a dislike of each other when my father was around; I think he used to play them off against each other or something. But without him they became the best of friends and more.” Chanda smiled. He then noticed her eyes on the urn and nodded a little. “Yes, I guess that’s what you’d call it. That contains my human heart. See I had a heart problem as a child, and when I turned eight, it started to fail me. I would’ve died had it not been for my Q’sik mother. She could tell what was going to happen, and found the best doctor around.” Chanda knew what was coming, something not even his wife knew, something that should have been impossible. Chanda placed his hand over his chest. “There had been an accident in the tribe around that time; at least I think it was. A boy around my age, a Q’sik boy suffered massive trauma to the head. I think he fell from the top of a building or something. I don’t know. Anyway, they took his heart and soon realised he was a compatible match. Making me uh… part uhm, Q’sik, I’m human, born human anyway, but I have the heart of a Q’sik.”
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Post by Dragonflower on Jul 2, 2011 6:53:27 GMT -5
”Incredible” Tali said with simple surprise. It seemed so impossible, and yet it made sense. She had always felt strangely close to Chanda like they had some sort of connection, even though they hadn’t been very close at all before. Now she knew why – He was quite literally a Q’Sik at heart. She smiled at him ”You must have had an incredible will to live” she commented slowly. Some higher power must have smiled at him, she was sure. One boy died, another lived. Fair trade.
Tali straighten up. ”It seems like you had a quite interesting childhood” she said with a slight smile. Except from the last trunk, nothing out of the ordinary either it would seem. So far Tali wasn’t sure what he had been afraid of people find out but she was quite sure it would get a lot more interesting as they worked their way through the trunks, and that he would get a lot more to tell.
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Post by yosticaltari on Jul 2, 2011 7:54:54 GMT -5
“Uhm, I wouldn’t say that, I’d just say I was lucky.” He smiled, looking a little embarrassed. “If it was for my second mother, I doubt I’d be here today. I owe her everything.” There was a moment of silence, as he gazed off in remembrance.
Chanda couldn’t help but smile at what she said. “I bet your childhood was more interesting than mine… I spent most of it in bed, not that you’d be able to tell from the pictures. I was good at uh… Faking it, for lack of a better term.” He chuckled, pushing the trunks aside and moving trunk ten in front of her. “So, here we are, the start of my adult life. I know a little young for a human, but I was an early bloomer, perhaps because my body was finally used to the Q’sik heart.” Chanda opened the trunk. It was full of things, an old pistol, a knife, clothes, pictures, more gold, some treasures, a necklace made with precious stones, and a silver ring. The pictures showed a much older looking Chanda, he had his first growth spurt and looked mature for his age. There was a twinkle in his eyes, mischief, charm and life lingered in the Chanda of the pictures. As the pictures went on, an older Q’sik female began to appear next to him, wearing the necklace and the ring that lay in the box. This was quite clearly the Q’Sik girl he had mentioned the day before. Chanda looked at the picture for a while, brushing the dust off one of the pictures. He stared at the girl for a moment and huffed. “Sometimes I wonder whether I made a mistake of setting her free, not that I want to make her live a life of slavery, but I could’ve made her happy.” Chanda gently placed the picture down.
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Post by Dragonflower on Jul 27, 2011 14:05:48 GMT -5
Tali laughed abit with him. She had always been an active girl so it was hard for her to imagien what it would have been like, just lying around all day. Properly a lot less fun than hard-working people would tend to think. Tali curiously followed his movements as he moved and opened the 10th trunk for her. Her eyes instantly found the gun. It reminded her of her fathers, only newer. My gun. She quietly reminded herself. She had been so bold as to bring it with her when she left. Tali had never really thought of it as theft, since she knew her father would appreciate her looking out for herself. Tali grinned at the pictures ”I knew that little sweetheart on the other pictures were too good to be true!” she said picking up one of the pictures with him and the Q’Sik girl and the ring. She stared at it for a moment trying to see herself in the Q’Sik but to no avail. She had never been much of a lady at that age.
”I think you did the right thing setting her free… But letting her go? One can only guess. But I honestly think you could make any women you choose happy, if you wanted to” she said slowly and sent him a little smile. Chanda was good at reading people and knowing what a woman wanted, and when she wanted it was one of the easiest ways of making her happy. ”You know what happened to them? The girl and your mothers?” she asked, putting the things back in the trunk.
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Post by yosticaltari on Jul 28, 2011 10:31:55 GMT -5
Chanda smiled with sadness in his eyes. She was right, par one woman, or girl. Chanda could charm a lot of women, if he wanted to, and sometimes he did. But the one woman he couldn’t make happy, was his daughter. She was too far from him, and he was stuck on the planet. He eyed the ship in thought, wondering if it would make the journey back to the capital planet, Patria. It could, with a little work, but that would possibly mean leaving Tali behind, as she wouldn’t want to go with him. He couldn’t do that to her, not yet at least. He turned back to the boxes and then smiled at her.
“I do know what happened to them… Besides the girl. I never saw her again, unfortunately. I didn’t try looking for her; she could be long since dead for all I know. But eh, that’s life. As for my mothers…” Chanda smirked. “Perhaps we’ll see what happens to them soon.” He locked up box number ten and moved on. Box eleven contained much of the things box ten had. Pictures of Chanda looking a bit more mature. It wasn’t much different, Chanda smiled, there wasn’t much to see. He pushed the box away. The twelfth box came full to the brim with things. There was a formal suit, made from the silken fabrics Chanda sometimes wore when behind the bar. There was a band of gold and silver, with an engraving on the inside. There were pictures of a ceremony, specifically a marriage ceremony. It wasn’t Chanda’s marriage, but his mothers. They had gotten married, with a splice of both species ceremonies. Chanda had the rings, and all the jewels, hinting at what had finally become of the couple. There was a picture of Chanda with a girl his age, one of Chanda’s teenaged, but meaningful romances. Chanda spent a moment, looking at the girl, almost as if he had trouble remembering her. “Ahhh, here we go. They got married , and they were happy for quite some time, still are possibly, although I wouldn’t know.”
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