fandomtownies | Syndulla Scrap, Thursday

Entry tags:

Syndulla Scrap, Thursday

Vette had some very important setup to do in the scrapyard today.

Super important.

Sure, she had all the electronic bits that she'd sorted out last week that she wasn't quite done with, and sure, she was still working on restoring that droid processor that she'd salvaged from that corroded miniprobe casing a while back, but today's project was so much more pressing than that.

Inspired by yesterday's field trip class, she was absolutely setting up a zipline from one side of the scrapyard to the other, starting at one wall, zipping over the chompy metal bits, and then coming to a rest just shy of the starship parking. She didn't have a proper harness, but some of the straps used for securing heavier scrap worked in a pinch, and there was plenty of metal cable to run, so the line itself was totally secure.

Was it a good idea? Nah, probably not.

But was it a fun idea?

Absolutely. And hey, if this worked, maybe she'd start trying to figure out how to run one from the top of the dorms down the hill to the beach or something. A girl could dream, anyway.

[OOC: Open!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Even though Sidon knew he'd be seeing Vette tomorrow for the two (two!) classes they actually shared this semester, he was feeling as though he'd been terribly remiss in his position as boyfriend since they got back from Hyrule, wrapped up as they were in the new semester. And though he had no intention of moving about in the chilled weather any more than necessary, he still wanted to do something nice to remind her that he was thinking about her and that he wanted to make her day just a little bit better.

He was sure she'd be hard at work on something since it was her scrapyard day, but he also didn't imagine she'd be too bothered by a small interruption that afternoon as he'd called Sushi Station from the shelter and arranged for them to deliver to her some food, requesting them to make the spiciest roll they could manage. Then he went back to his work of tending to the animals, content in the idea that the small gesture would, at the very least, be appreciated.

And if he'd only have known, he'd have been faintly dismayed that he couldn't have arranged for it to be delivered by zipline as well.

Hey, hey Sidon?

Your phone was getting a text message sent to it. One that had no text at all.

But it did have about thirty blue heart emojis, so that was good too, right?

Mae would be all over that dorm-to-beach zipline idea.

All. Over.

In the meantime, she was out and wandering around again, this time balancing along the walls and stair-railings near the scrapyard, and eyeing the junk curiously.

"So, is this stuff, like, for sale? Or can anyone use it?"

"It's for sale," Vette replied easily, glancing up at the girl on the wall with a grin.

Eh. There were weirder things than a totally normal (possibly Cathar?) kid chilling out on a wall.

"If you can find something worth buying, anyway. The ships are off-limits, that's just rental parking space. The bitey things..." She paused. "You know, I don't actually know if those are for sale or not. I'm gonna go with not, you'd have to talk to Hera about that one."

". . . There are bitey things?"

"Yeah," Vette replied, gesturing toward the pen that Hera had corralled the things into. They were basically just big chunks of metal that chomped their way around, kind of chain-chomp-meets-Fizzgig.

Vette adored them.

"A whole bunch of them. They're not tame or anything, though."

Mae looked where she pointed. Her eyes went wide, and she slipped from the wall to the ground without moving more than her feet.

"Those are. . . ."

A beat.

". . . I can't tell if they're amazing or terrifying."

"Both," Vette supplied. "I kind of like 'em. So long as they stay on that side of the corral."

She considered them for a moment, and then grinned.

"Wanna play with 'em?"

". . ."

Mae stared at the chompy things a moment longer.

". . . Yes. I absolutely want to do that."

"There's a pole with a chain on the end," Vette said, happy to direct the new kid toward the pole in question. "You can just kinda hook a tire or whatever on the end, and then run them around the pen with it. They'll chase and try to catch the prize."

You know, like cats!

"I am very down for that kind of playing," Mae decided. She went to grab the pole, stumbling a little with it, what with being so very wee. "I am going fishing for chompy things!"

"Right! Give 'em that exercise," Vette agreed, ambling along behind Mae, ready to grab the pole to help stabilize it if it looked like the chompies were going to just haul it in there, Mae and all. Not that Vette was particularly large herself, but... she had a bit of height on Mae, at least. "They don't get played with nearly often enough."

"That is a damn shame," Mae said. "People always forget about the not-cute animals and . . . whatever these things are."

Were they animals? It was hard to tell. And possibly a philosophical debate for those better educated than Mae was.

"Chompy things," Vette supplied. "They aren't droids, either. I thought they were at first, but nope. No processors, no wires. At least, not as far as I can tell. They just kind of hang out and chew on stuff."

"Chompy things," Mae said. "I like it. Very descriptive." She hefted the pole again and looked for something good to hook.

Vette said a tire, and that sounded reasonable (and hopefully not too heavy), so Mae went for it.

"I guess asking where they come from won't do any good, huh?"

"I mean, you can ask," Vette mused, "but I don't have any answers. I've only been working here a few weeks, and Hera, she's the one who owns the place, doesn't know, either. Knowing this island, though, they probably come from right here. Like maybe some of the scrap got bored one way or something, I don't know."

"The scrap. Gets bored."

That was going to make her habit of smashing things way more ethically dubious, wasn't it.

"It's running around a pen chomping on things, right?"

Yeah, probably a little bit.

Mae watched the chompy things a bit longer, the tire swaying gently on the end of the chain.

". . . Yeah, I think I will not think too hard about that."

Then she swung the tire out over the pen, laughing maniacally.

"Way easier that way," Vette agreed, leaning forward to watch, elbows resting on the edge of the pen, lekku carefully tucked behind her as she watched the chompy things chase the tire around the pen. "Hey, you're a natural. It's like you've been playing with chompy things your whole life or something."

"If you count, like, rats and possums and feral cats," Mae said. "I kind of have."

Mae liked the chompy wildlife. They usually only chomped when provoked, unlike the neighbor's dog that tore up her ear when she was a kid.

"Hey, rats and cats, I know," Vette mused. "What's a possum and where can I get one?"

She liked feisty stuff, so sue her.

"Possums are, like . . . really big rats with extra sharp teeth," Mae said. "They're all over back where I grew up --" to the point the town was named after them "-- but the bus driver guy says they don't live around here."

She really wanted him to be wrong on that, because possums! But she hadn't seen any yet. Or any raccoons, either.

Just squirrels.

So many squirrels.

So. Many. Squirrels.

"Huh," Vette mused, picturing that. "Now I really want to see one. "Bus driver guy is full of it most of the time. But I don't think I've seen anything like that here."

"I'd show you a picture, but I don't have a phone." Mae shrugged. "I guess they might be hiding deeper in the woods. In my town, they like to kind of hover around the edges."

The raccoons would stroll through town center any time. The possums were more discreet.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject