Log:Just a Flesh Wound?

Just a Flesh Wound?

OOC Date: April 12, 2017
Location: Defiance Hangarr
Participants: Hex, Naelyn, Kasia Ciph, Rheisa Dirleel

Time is up. Rheisa's attempts to recruit 'expert' help in hunting have failed and Kasia's likely got the exterminator on speed-dial. So, get it while you can! She's gettin' it. Umak is, too. Sort of. The pair is /quietly/ laying on their bellies in front of a stack of crates'n'junk.

Stalking vokolings, are we? Well, likely a few of them will get scared back into their hidey holes now, as the large, peen-shaped (it IS) YZ-775 Stavros named the Aristocrat comes in for a landing. It's a long, loud ship, and makes a lot of scary noise if you're a crab-beetle-thing. Or probably if you're a semi-feral Togruta. After a few minutes however, the engines power down, the ramp lowers, and Hex comes striding out, hands in the pockets of his evil red flowered coat, smoking, lekku swinging cheerfully back and forth as he strides into his kingdom.

A relatively small man, Naelyn makes deals in his unique way...showing up at the hangar, dragging behind him a large metal canister filled with god knows what. He's wearing clothing, his hood pulled up and he's tugging the canister on a small wooden dolly. His satchel hangs from a shoulder and balanced on the large sealed metal barrel is a wooden chest, (Hex would recognize it as the one he keeps his prayer candles and incense and shit in). This is taking more effort than it would say, someone like Hex, but he is determined.

It IS loud, but in a world of heavy air traffic, this forest native has learned to cope. As have the vokolings - or maybe they are simply too disoriented by the sound to emerge from their hiding place. The fact that they've gone still isn't even an issue until Aristocrat powers down and shuts up. Umak's fused to her side now, clinging there under her arm because /he/ is not quite so accustomed to incoming ships. His skull isn't formed yet to be as attuned to the sensory overload as his mother's, but the vibrations are intense nevertheless and it's big. One of the most prominent memories in his wee brain remains that fateful day on Carnovia, when he was pulled from the sea, into the air whilst his first mother was devoured alive by eels to the tune of anxious repuslor thrusts. So, it's a little scary.

Rheisa's headtails flatten just a tad, eyes cutting a /look/ to the cheerful and potentially loud Hex. Then the other way, at Wheely McDancer over there with his - hey is that another mystery container of edible creatures? Man, wouldn't that be great. Nae though, so unless it's snakes....she blinks her stare forward again to the space between crates where just minutes ago she'd tracked a quiet scritching sound. "prrishk'ti," she murmurs into Umak's cheek.

"Kassurra, Rheisa. Umak!" Hex is delighted to see both of them from the sound of it, then looks around. "Weren't you getting some other Togruta up in here to eat vokolings? I thought you were organizing a hunt of some sort, ka?" No amount of flattened head-tails can dampen his good mood, and he strides toward Nae next. "Lia'ra! Are you planning an exorcism? Let me carry that for you!"

Naelyn looks up a bit, eyes flicking over to where Rheisa and Umak are and he nods politely before looking over to where Hex is and he just stares for a moment. "We will need something to open it. It is actually very challenging to drag 10 gallons of cooking oil through Nar...streets..." He hesitates. "Possibly. Just to let the stragglers know you mean business however, you will pray to the Goddess for forgiveness for whatever dickish thing somebody within Defiance did recenetly and then threaten them with frying if they do not vacate the premises..."

The headtail stripes loose some of their boldness. The bug hunter's mouth forms a disappointed line and she refrains from answering Hex's query. Instead, Rheisa rises up into a very low plank. Bare toes flatten against the duracrete as her heels lift up. Fingertips likewise are supporting the weight of her upper half before she creeps soundlessly forward just a few more inches and hovers there. Umak is less focused and instead of mimicking her method, he twists around to detach and stare after Hex. His two favorite uncles have converged in one place! Groovy. But mom's saying something. Torn, the three year old glances between his /studies/ and his potential playmates.

Forget bugs that do not move or become visible. As Rheisa is aligning her left arm to make the strike between crates, Umak goes galloping off on all fours. Umak of the Defiance clan is no longer here. He has transformed into Anooba and clumsily charges along until he's within reason distance to "BOOF!" Attack the sweeping hem of Hex's atrocious duster.

"Cooking oil?" Hex's interest is piqued for sure. As he comes closer, for some reason he smells like barn yard. Like he's recently been somewhere shitty, and farm shit has a particular smell to it. "Ka, well, you know I'm always down. We're on borrowed time though. Kasia's likely to call an exterminator pretty soon now that we're back on... tcha!" And, there's a kid attacking his duster. "Ahaha, mo'cridh, ensnared in my trap," he declares, and then bends to scoop up Umak.

Naelyn glances back over to Rheisa and bows politely, nodding towards Umak. "He will be ready to start on the slightly higher rope soon I think." Then back to Hex. "Well we have to hurry, and THEN we also have to find a way for you to make this shit up to Kasia..." He is deadly serious. "Also, you're going to have to bathe...we have so much work to do." A look over to Rheisa. "Mistress Rheisa, can you track them for us, the stragglers?"

Hex's duster is extra smelly and tasty today and he's going to have a rough time extracting it from Umak's mouth. Or it just all comes along for the ride. A tinny growl menaces playfully back at the green guy and for a brief moment it looks like Hex might be left holding nothing but miniature trousers the way he squirms, but once distance from ground reaches beyond the three foot mark, he concedes into limp status and just gnaws.

Rheisa's hand darts forth to snatch at whatever's hiding between the crates she's been laying in front of for who knows how long. Her patience is rewarded with not one but TWO little vokolings! One sorta gets skewered on fingernail in the process. The victorious arm uplifts to display the tiny trophies on high while the rest of her just lays there. "Am trying," she mumbles and zips the crabeetles into a little pouch on her waist. Bedtime snacks for Umak.

"Mo'cridh, you are quickly becoming enormous," Hex praises Umak, though he still manages to disentangle the kid from his hem and pick him up, his tattooed lekku flicking over his shoulders and down his back. Out of biting range, as they always have been. But sooner or later, he's going to slip up, it is known. "Why's everyone think the vokolings are my fault," he then proceeds to complain. "Tarion's the one who opened the damn crate, /I/ told him not to. Anyway, we've had a good run of it. Rheisa and I got to eat a bunch of them... whatever's left, we'll have one final cookout and then call the exterminators so that Sapphira can move back home and I can stay married."

Naelyn points to the vat and then reaches to take his meditation box off the time and he looks between the three. "I will return, we need a welding torch and something to open the vat..." He takes a deep breath. "I will be back..." He murmurs softly and heads off towards his ship with his box.

"So small a creature for so big a power, yes?" Rheisa's peeling herself off the floor, only to then sit back down atop one of the crates. "To force people ahway." One side of her lip curls up in amusement at both the squeamish bug thing (still) and at Umak's flop against Hex's shoulder. He heaves a big boy sigh, like he's got much to be that exhausted about. "Voko," he adds his two cents to the conversation and resumes searching for the prey...up his nose.

"I think that I figured it out," Hex offers to Rheisa. "I think that sometime in their history... wherever they are from, which, who knows... I think that humans were from a world where they were greatly harmed by invertebrates." There you go, two aliens speculating about human behavior and evolution. Bound to be accurate, especially since neither of them have any sort of formal education. "And even now it's deep in them, ka, this dislike of anything like a bug." He's distracted and he misses Ila, who's gone home to his family ages ago, and a lek curls around the toddler he's holding. No, Hex, danger!

HEX NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING. Kasia doesn't notice the lek in danger as she steps off the ship, nose crinkling. "I think we need to get it cleaned," she announces to whoever is in the hangar with Hex. "It still smells like a barn, and I've been running the air in there and looking for signs of any mess left behind, and it just /smells/. I hate farms." And nature, and bugs. All of it. Ugh.

Teeth and beads bob'n'rattle together as Rheisa nods her head thoughtfully. "This is making sense," she agrees softly, only to then pretend like she wasn't talking/thinking about that very woman who emerges from Aristocrat. And then it dawns on her that smell she'd caught as Hex wafted on by earlier smells like "Groat?" Because she met one, once, on a wasteland of a composting farm on Jakku. She wasn't allowed to eat it, either. Figures.

Ah, the object of Umak's desire, at last not only within reach, but offering itself up for the sacrifice. Budding fangs flash for a moment as the boy yawns and twists around to lazily hug an arm over that careless lek. Half-closed eyes regard the tattoos and he pokes at one. Examination of his finger shows that no, it isn't messy like paint. Does it have a flavor though? Maybe.

And then the tiny teeth go in - just a little bit, moreso because they're in the way of his slurping attempt.

Twi'leks are so obsessed with their lekku that they named their entire species after them, they're a big deal. Lekku language is very special and important. They're very sensitive, and touch is generally reserved for immediate family, or little ones... and they are not, NOT meant to get bit by baby Togruta fangs. Hex cannot answer Kasia with an opinion on farms or explain to Rheisa why he smells like one. "ARRGHGHGHKKKKK," he says, to his credit does not drop the child, and makes a desperate attempt to yank his appendage away and out of reach again.

"I don't know, I never saw the animals," Kasia replies as she continues toward the pair, but she comes to a startled stop as Hex is suddenly making loud noises. Her eyes go wide with uncertainty, because she hasn't noticed that there is a little one biting his lek yet. "What?" she asks in a slightly higher pitch than is her normal, hurrying over to her husband. "What's wrong?" Flail, flail.

Hex's roar startles Umak outright and his own hiccuping cry of alarm is just the opportunity the abused appendage needs to retract far, far away. A strand of drool connects the two for an impossible 11-inch stretch before it snaps and clings to the bottom of the toddler's quivering chin.

Rheisa's also on the move, just not so fast as Kasia. She knows that sound. Probably made the same once or twice while trying to wean the little shit. "Nahnahnahnahnah..." she scolds all too late and already has her arms out to receive the deceptive bundle of cute.

Hex draws a breath, and carefully sets Umak down. No scolding or spanking from jiru (uncle) Hex at the moment, because Hex sort of looks the way men of other species might when you kick them in the nuts. He's a little pale and has eyes closed for a second, the bitten lek still and the other one twitching in agitation. He needs a second just to breathe. He hasn't said anything... but it's pretty clear that hurt, and he feels sorry for himself.

While Umak is taken away, Kaisa hurries to Hex's side, eeeever so tentatively laying a hand against his back to let him know she's there. She doesn't say anything, or push to know if he's okay, she knows the answer to that right now. Instead she just stands there waiting, seeing if he'll fall over, or throw up, or need something from her.

"Nah, dunga!" 'gruta momma has the scolding bit covered as she swoops in to snatch Umak back up before Hex can recover and more articulately give the biter a piece of his mind. "Adu'ku!?" Then to Hex "So sorry..." There there? Her own lek set aren't exactly /that/ sensitive, or perhaps just thicker skinned, but she doesn't have to /know/ the feeling to empathize with the agonal exhibition he's putting on.

Did he bite? Umak doesn't even know anymore. One second he was cuddled into Jiru Hekka's cradling lek and then - oh yeah! He did. Wielding his best 'im a baby gotta love me' eyes, the tot utters a quiet "ku," and then because maybe it'll help his case to make her understand his frame of mind at time of the offense, he "boof"s meekly.

"No 'boof'!" Rheisa's lips puff with the imitated Anooba huff. "No is Crona. Is Umak. Umak do not bite. What khos say?"

Raim's scary anger eyes come to mind and Umak lets out a tiny whimper of self pity.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," Hex tells Kasia, and also Hex. "Ryma'at. That hurt." Umak gets a baleful look but no additional scolding, as Rheisa's already taken the situation in hand. The abused lek creeps over Hex's shoulder again, where he takes it in hand and looks for signs of horrifying and irreparable damage. "I forgot he isn't Ila. I forgot he bites."

It's only when he speaks that Kasia rubs a hand against Hex's back, slow, gentle, and still concerned. She remembers the last time he got a lek injury. "You poor thing," she says softly. "Do you need anything? Ice? Heat? I don't know what's best for injuries like that."

"His teeth grow in strong," Rheisa boasts just a little under her breath, eyeing what she can of the lek from this safe distance. "BeeBee drrroids and him play mean sometimes. Is hard for him, with no brothers and sisters." (to bite) "I want to take him home to Shili, where maybe he learn better." She's nervously rambling now, uneasily wondering if Umak DID do more damage than a little skin knick.

"So'cha ka, yes they do," Hex dryly remarks about strong teeth. "I'm gonna go get some ice." He's not bleeding and probably won't forget anything important with a chomp all the way down there near the tip, but, ow. "Catch the vokolings while you can, ka, the all-at-once bug catchers are gonna come tomorrow." The tone isn't punitive, just matter of fact; somewhere in whatever decision making process the Ashkuris use to not kill each other, this was decided, and so it will be. "Gentle next time, mo'cridh. No biting," he scolds Umak with less force than Rheisa did. Then one corner of his mouth crooks into a smile and he gives Kasia an ass-pat that invites her either to follow or that he'll see her at home later, and he strides on out to head home.