Syndulla Scrap, Tuesday Afternoon

[chirpchirpchirp]

Hera had left a message for Vette, probably yesterday while she'd been blowing off steam with her blasters in the shooting range at the gym. She'd killed the better part of a day in there; it was no wonder she'd missed the call. And now she had no ammunition for her guns, no idea where to go in order to get more, and she was still feeling lost and angry and, if she was being honest, a little violated that the island had gone and dragged Ce'na out for the entire world to see.

Even if possibly the only person to really understand why she'd been that way was Hera.

And that was why, after listening to the message that had been left for about the fifth time just so that she could hear the sound of Ryl being spoken without having to actually answer back to it, Vette was making her way to the scrapyard, hoping maybe she'd be able to find Hera there.

"Hey... anybody home?"

She didn't want to have this conversation. But maybe she needed to.

[OOC: For she what owns the place, but Vette can be caught on her way in!]

Comments

[futurespacemom]

Hera dusted off her hands and took a deep breath before stepping out of the office.

She smiled at Vette a bit ruefully. "Hey. Want a Coke?"

[chirpchirpchirp]

No. Not at all. She didn't have an appetite. She was going to be sick.

"Yeah, thanks," Vette replied, returning that smile with... something a little less rueful. Something maybe a little more carefully calm. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

[futurespacemom]

"Never," Hera said. "Well, just about never, and definitely not now. Come on in." She headed back to the office and got them both Cokes, plus a bag of jalapeno potato chips she'd found.

"These are local, but pretty good." She offered them to Vette.

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Local is fine," Vette replied, considering the chips. "I mean, I've been living on local for... Three months now? Something like that? I can handle it."

Ugh, it had been that long, hadn't it?

[futurespacemom]

"Well, I did promise fruit from back home," Hera said. "Which is in the Ghost, if you want to head over there? Or these are good." She shrugged. She was good with either.

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette bit her lip, trying not to look too excited at the prospect of having anything from home.

She failed at that, pretty badly.

"Can we head over there?" That sounded a little softer than she would have liked. "I don't want to use the word 'homesick,' that's stupid, but..."

Yeah. 'Homesick.'

[futurespacemom]

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Hera just started over for the Ghost. Chopper met them halfway, bleeping and grumping about how she'd better not take him for granted! The things he did for Hera, honestly.

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette turned a little smile Chopper's way, keeping easy pace with Hera as she went.

"Hey," she mused, "I've never seen an astromech like this guy before. He looks fancy."

He was a few thousand years more advanced than anything she'd seen before, after all.

[futurespacemom]

Hera grinned at him. "Chopper? He's actually a bit old-fashioned for the current astromechs, but he's great. I rebuilt him when his fighter crashed, and he's been with me for years."

Chopper's retort said what he thought of those other astromechs.

"Don't worry, Chop, you're still the best," Hera reassured him.

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette smiled vaguely, giving Chopper a curious look anyway. If that was old-fashioned...

"We must be from way off," she murmured, shaking her head. "There's nothing nearly as advanced as he is back home. I mean, the aesthetic hasn't changed much, but... look! He's got arms!"

Was her fixation on his arms every bit as much about avoiding more serious conversation as it was about her being genuinely impressed by Hera's droid?

You betcha.

[futurespacemom]

Hey, there was nothing wrong with that. And Hera didn't mind gushing over her droid.

Chopper certainly didn't mind.

"I think you're his new favorite person," Hera confided.

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette smiled a little, winking and throwing a thumbs-up at Chopper.

"Then he's a droid with great taste, too."

And now she was overcompensating for any dings to her already questionable self-esteem, you betcha.

[futurespacemom]

Hera grinned. "He doesn't like a lot of people, so you're definitely in rare company."

[chirpchirpchirp]

"It takes a lot of work to be this lovable," Vette declared. And then cast a sideways sort of smile at Hera. "And, I mean, I've put in the time."

[futurespacemom]

"Yeah," Hera agreed. "Although you were pretty adorable as a kid, too."

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette scoffed and shook her head, and now, wow, Hera's ship was really interesting, what make was that even supposed to be, huh?

"I was definitely... something... as a kid, anyway."

[futurespacemom]

"Probably a lot of things," Hera said. "Mostly just twi'lek." With all that went with that.

[chirpchirpchirp]

With so, so much that went with that.

"And sometimes, barely that," she murmured, slipping into Ryl. "You seemed to be doing pretty okay, though."

[futurespacemom]

Hera sighed and answered the same way. "Not as good as I thought." She shrugged. "Turns out, my father can't solve everything." That might have come out just a little bitter, yes. "Better than you were, though. Free and on Ryloth. Hutts?" she guessed. It was usually the hutts.

[chirpchirpchirp]

"The mines first," Vette replied. "Then a Rodian. THEN a Hutt. And then after him, a... I don't know what. Three-eyes. He was the last of them."

He'd been a Gran. Not that it had mattered all that much to Vette. He'd been her personal hell, first and foremost.

[futurespacemom]

"How old were you?" Hera asked.

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Too young to be sure," Vette replied. "Old enough to remember when they grabbed us."

[futurespacemom]

"Your family?" Hera asked. "Your village?" That was usually how it went.

[chirpchirpchirp]

"Never knew my father. We never knew what had happened to him." But she was sure they could both guess. "My mother and sister were grabbed at the same time I was. We were separated when I was sold to the Rodian."

[futurespacemom]

There was no point in asking what had happened to them. Vette wouldn't have any way of knowing.

"I...don't go to Ryloth much these days, but if you want to go, maybe find your village and see if there's any clan still there...we could," Hera offered. It wouldn't be the same, she knew, but it might be something.