Terra - New Paris

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Yeah

"Winning is its own reward," Ellie said, "But let's take our pick of the seats too."

Kooshie wrote:"Winning is its own reward," Ellie said, "But let's take our pick of the seats too."

Starr chuckled again and chose her seatm glancing around to see if anyone else had arrived yet. "Very true Ellie."

“How can you say this place isn't great, everything's shiny, nobody's shooting at us and even the birds are holographic!” The dark haired, pointy eared male grinned ear to ear at his red headed companion, who just rolled his eyes.

“Yeah yeah, I know it defeats the point, but you gotta admit, it's a lot tidier.” He continued, scanning the crowds with a trained eye for any easy marks.

The redhead watched his brother's gaze, putting a hand up to catch his attention.
He shook his head and glared a warning. Not here.

“Awww come on, we haven't got any cash. We haven't eaten in days.” The taller male frowned at his own stomach. “Just admit it, the job search isn't going well. Nobody wants to hire a medic who won't talk to his patients.”

The redhead glared. His brother raised his hands defensively.

“Not that i'm criticizing you, it's just... you know.. until you can find a job why don't you just let me do mine?”

The redhead exhaled, shrugged his shoulders and waved his brother away.

Delighted, the dark haired one disappeared into the crowd.

“Don't get myself shot..” He muttered to himself, “Who does he think I am? No faith, he's never got any faith.”

And there it was, the mark. A young woman looking a little lost...

A few minutes later he was running, and there were drones on his tail.

Swearing profusely he ducked and dove through the crowd. Damnit, how was he supposed to know she had a robotic entourage? Curse these micro drones!
Thankfully, he knew they had limited vision, and he was pretty sure he could outmaneuver them. Now he just had to blend into the crowd and they'd go away.

The redhead noticed the commotion, rolled his eyes and very slowly rose from his seat on the edge of a fountain. Idiot, his brother was always an idiot.

The failed thief rushed past. “It's all under control! I swear!” He yelled as he continued to flee, these drones were fast.

He couldn't lose them out here, they had the advantage of an aerial view. He had to get inside.
And that's when he noticed the restaurant, and a small group starting to gather, say their hellos and take seats.
He dashed toward them, slowed to a jog and then a purposeful walk as he ducked under the awning and wove himself between a waiter and a table full of customers and straight into Ellie and Star.

He smiled broadly, attempted to grab one of them by the hand to shake and declared loudly “oh there you are, great to see you, shall we?” and slid into a seat with the pair, glancing warily up at the drones hovering outside, trying to pick him out of the customers. He pulled his menu up to cover his face and whispered “Don't say.. or do anything okay? Act natural, it's all cool. Just... chill.”

Ellie yanked her hand away and glared at the intruder. "Who are you, and why are you hiding?" She muttered to him, tempted to point him out to the drones, but also curious enough to not do so immediately.
She looked to Starr for guidance; she probably knew how to deal with sketchy individuals who hid behind menus and strangers, and Ellie wasn't quite sure where to start.

Starr took her seat and raised an eyebrow at the intruder, frowning but waiting for him to answer Ellie. She was prepared to put him in a bubble if he tried anything with them.

"Matt" He declared, peering around the menu and offering a hand to shake. The drones were moving on, so he slowly lowered the menu. "Just avoiding a lady, no big deal." He wasn't strictly lying.

Avoiding a lady doesn't usually involve drones." Starr said, not believeing his words right off the bat.

"Well she was a very special lady" Matt shrugged, still smiling.

He hesitated, catching sight of a familiar mop of red hair barging rudely through the crowd.

"Hide me!" Matt pleaded.

Ellie sighed. "Are you a scammer looking for a free lunch?"

Starr glanced around to see what he was hiding from as welk as looking for Heny and the others. "From what, or who?" She asked, taking note of the redhead coming towards them

"Awww man.. he's seen us." Matt complained, then perked up "oo, lunch?"

Perhaps thankfully at this point the redhead reached the table, raised one hand and slapped his brother hard across the back of the head.

"Oh come on, I didn't get shot at least." Matt protested.

The other man glared, then noticed the girls and his expression softened. He bowed his head in polite greeting.

"My brother.. " Matt grumbled, rubbing at his painful head. "Kay."

Kay signed something with one hand, tugging at Matt's arm with the other.

"Aww come on, they were about to invite us to lunch. I am seriously about to consider hunting rats in the sewers, but I bet they're all holographic too. I can't live like this! "

Kay rolled his eyes and looked apologetically to the girls.

"I was not inviting you," grumbled Ellie. But she pushed the complimentary basket of bread toward the strangers, inviting them to eat.

Starr frowned a little but waved at Kay. "Eating rats from the sewers?" That did not sound good. She sighed and motioned to the chair beside Matt. "What is your story?"

Kay eyed the bread longingly, but he hesitated, casting the girl's a quizzical "are you sure" sort of look.

"Don't question them" Matt hissed, pulling his brother into a seat.

"Story? Well... "

Kay nudged him in the ribs.

Matt coughed. "We're just two travelers... looking for work. " He smiled again. "What about you lovely ladies?"

Kay tentatively helped himself to the bread, it was obvious from the way he ate that he was starving.

Starr was watching them as they ate. "Don't eat too fast, if you haven't eaten in a whilem it'll make you sick." She said in warning then glanced to Ellie and back to him "We are travelers on vacation right now." She replied.

Matt didn't touch the bread, though he did cast his brother a resentful look.

"Vacation? That's gotta be nice. Where's home usually then?"

"I travel all over, my ship is my home." Starr said with a shrug. She was used to that.

"Once you go into space, you can never settle down again," Ellie said with a grin. "Well, maybe Earth is an exception. This place is amazing. But traveling is great."

Matt nodded. "You got that right. It's a big universe, so much to see. " He smiled to his brother.

"Better than home anyway right?"

Kay shrugged and licked butter off his fingers.

"Much better." Matt nodded. "but uh.. don't suppose you girls know anyone looking for someone to employ right?"

"Well what do you do?" Asked Ellie.

Kay stared at his brother, clearly curious what he'd describe his career as. Somehow he doubted admitting he was a petty thief would go down well.

"Well uh.. He's a medic" Matt pointed to Kay who just stared back at him with a faint smirk on his face.
"And uh.. well.. I don't really.. "

Kay scribbled something on a napkin and slid it toward Ellie. It read, in very neat handwriting "He's good at heavy lifting and anything nobody else wants to do. Make him clean your sanitation tanks."

"Hey, what are you telling them?!" Matt demanded, trying to get a look at the napkin.

Kay just smiled at him.

"A medic that can't speak, I can see thw difficulty of getting a job like that." Starr said thoughtfully then leaned over to read the napkin also. She chuckled and sat back, nodding. "Jack of all trades, master of none as the saying goes."

The human laughed. "I can't speak for the ship, but our medic is a fish out of water," she gave Starr an apologetic look, knowing that the Star Dragon might not like that she was talking about Asher that way. It was true though; the android was often overwhelmed by the strange health needs of the many species on the ship. "And Matt sounds useful. Enough said."

"But you know the final say would be up to Vestia and Heny, we are just passengers officially." Starr said gently

"Yes," agreed Ellie, "there is that detail." She ordered some more bread from the waiter, paying immediately so he wouldn't think they were freeloaders.

(Due to life I will be power playing Sara carries)

Heny and Merith entered with little Syren, heading to the table with the others.

"Hey!" Ellie waved cheerfully to the Keepers. "Check out our new friends, Matt and Kay!" She pointed to each brother in turn, introducing them.