003 The Scrapyard

(1:18:22 AM) Joka: At the scrap yard, there was piles and piles of endless junk. Huge rusted up pieces of metal. Derelict abandoned ships. Not much even looked remotely useful. Joka enjoyed sifting through old antiques, but this was almost crazy. She rubbed the back of her head after shoving a big hunk of steel of out the way. "…and this is supposed to be -easier-?"
(1:21:03 AM) Ferro: "Much," Ferro said with a small nod of his head. He was in his element now. There truly was little here that was useless. All you had to do was know what you needed for your project. He was currently climbing to the top of a pile to get a good look of the place.
(1:27:21 AM) Joka: Joka didn’t hide the doubt on her face, but she was going to at least -try- to give him the benefit of the doubt. What did she have to lose other than time? She dug out a chair, something had been ripped from from some other ship and plopped herself in to the seat. She immediately popped back up to her feet when a spring poked her in the ass. "I’ve got the feeling this is going to take hours. Now I remember why I stick to selling the damn ships."
(1:31:58 AM) Ferro: "You want to maximize your profit, right?" Ferro looked down at her for a moment, then grinned. "Well hello there." With a controlled slide he got off the mound and walked to Joka. "Beautiful." and he picked up a broken piece of equipment at her feet.
(1:38:53 AM) Joka: And here she thought he was talking to her. Smirking at her own conceit, she rest her hands on her hips regarding him with curiosity. "A fine piece of left over machinery. …And what is it going to do exactly? I hate to find out we’re jerry-rigging that ship and it’s going to explode three months after someone buys it."
(1:42:23 AM) Ferro: Ferro frowned at her. "My repairs do not break," the way he said it almost sounded like a proclamation of doom. He tossed the piece in the air once, then rattled it near his ear. "Just as I thought, it’s just the casing. Everything inside is intact."
(1:48:47 AM) Joka: "They don’t, hmm? I look forward to see proof. Lots of really good proof." If he DID do a really good job, Joka might be able to use him for all future job as well. Having an in-house mechanic would lower her reburshing costs quite a bit. …Which meant paying off those loans so much faster! Reminded of Jonny again she glanced around the scrapyard warily. "So where is ‘home’ for you anyway?"
(1:52:46 AM) Ferro: Ferro had been in the middle of digging for something and had to push his torso out to look at Joka. "No offense, but I don’t know you well enough to tell you that. Not that anyone spends too much time there." He started to put his head back in the hole then stopped. "I’m not trying to be cryptic. We just don’t like being harassed by outsiders.
(1:56:15 AM) Joka: "One of those crazy reclusive peoples, are you? Not a problem. I the last in a long line of thieves and dumbasses, so I can get the need for… uh… discretion?" He knew what he was looking for in this place, but Joka sure didn’t. Although halfway across the scrap she DID spot a very nice looking skeleton for a small singleman craft. Hmm! Possibilities here could be good if he delivered what he promised!
(2:02:26 AM) Ferro: Ferro chuckled lightly at the dumbasses comment and went back to ferreting out components. He didn’t tell Joka but he was grabbing a few things that were not for the landing gear, but they wouldn’t add any noticeable addition to the overall cost and were going to make life a lot nicer on the ship once he added them. Plus she’d see the added profit to, so she’d have no reason to complain. The largest pieces were actually the hardest to find. Not because there were none for the style of ship, but many of them were a lot more work then Ferro wanted to do unless he had no other choice. He liked fixing things, but he’d rather have free time to improve things then dealing with something just for busy work.
(2:06:41 AM) Joka: At least Joka made herself useful instead of following him around like a lost puppy. She was strong enough to help carry things without breaking a sweat, and didn’t seem to mind the long process of nitpicking for ‘just the right thing’. Joka -did- seem to have a problem with silence, however, and liked to make good use of her voice. "So how did you wind up in that lifepod anyway? Since you weren’t shoved in there for nefarious reasons."
(2:13:51 AM) Ferro: "No, I was shoved in there. Just not because of any sort of malice," his voice was dull and there was a very far away look in his eyes. He recalled the rocking of the ship, of the yelling of orders and reports. He thought he was staying out of the way but was ready to help when they were going to need his skills. He didn’t expect his own cousins to try to protect him! He never asked for special treatment! A slight crunching sound brought Ferro back to the moment, his hand crushing a delicate metal pipe. "Hmm, too weak." He tossed the piping piece over his shoulder.
(2:17:51 AM) Joka: "A moment of glancing back mysteriously at the past, Ferro?" she joked lightly, even though she could see that distant look on his face. At least Joka was observant, even if she was a little blunt about things. "I don’t think I have any of those moments. Though. I’m pretty self suffiecient so, it’s not like there’s a lot of up and downs in my life." That might’ve been an understatement considering she almost had to pay off a debt with her own organs, but Joka clearly didn’t seem to consider that a big deal.
(2:21:09 AM) Ferro: Ferro looked at her confused. Joka was a very odd woman. "Sounds boring," he finally said. He wasn’t even sure if boring was such a bad thing. "I think I found the set we want to have taken to the ship, is there anything else you want to grab while we’re here?"
(2:27:07 AM) Joka: "Boring? Ha! Boring is the last thing I have to deal with. boring would be a blessing." Joka looked around. Staring at piles of scrap really weren’t helping her think of anything useful. She shook her head, hefting one of the boxes under her arm. "Nope. We’ll see how this works out, make sure we’re fly ready and roll on to the next planet. We’ll need some new wiring to replace a lot of the burned out and melting ones in the control consol."
(2:31:15 AM) Ferro: Ferro nodded. "Seems like she’s been through a lot." He was happy that he was going to have a chance to work on a big project. It had been a while since he got to be really creative. Besides a nice large project would keep his mind off other things.
(3:01:32 AM) Joka: "Uh huh. I like hearing the stories behind ships. kinda explains all the weird stuff I find in them when I’m clearing them out." Joka had to step around some debris as they made their way back to the gatekeeper’s shack. Had she bought all the pieces brand new, or even used it would have been a mini fortune, so she was definitely going to save an assload of money if he pulled it all off.
(3:06:04 AM) Ferro: The haggling of the price went very well both Joka and the yard man seemed pleased with the final price and transporting everything to the ship was considered part of the service. As they headed back to the ship Ferro asked a question of his own. "Why do you do this?"
(3:08:56 AM) Joka: "Reburbing ships? Always done it. Kinda the family business, and it’s mine now. Never really done anything else." Joka shrugged her shoulder, not seeming to care one way or the other. Not that she didn’t occasionally thinking about doing something different. But most of her daydreams involving winning it big at the races or a casino and living the rest of her days owning her own planet and being Queen of the world.
(3:11:21 AM) Ferro: "So it’s tradition." This seemed to make sense to Ferro and he nodded his head. "Family businesses are tricky. At least you seem suited to yours though."
(3:16:36 AM) Joka: "I guess you could call it tradition? Not like anyone else is alive to run it!" Joka shuffled her box again as they walked down the street. She was warily keeping an eye out on the area again. Now that the subject had come up, it was good to not forget she couldn’t exactly go walking up and down the street without paying attention.
(3:22:09 AM) Ferro: Ferro glanced at Joka. Ferro couldn’t quite imagine there was no one else for her to rely on. It was quite an alien concept. He was glad though that the street seemed ease enough to navigate. "How soon do we need to leave once we’ve boarded the ship?"
(3:24:12 AM) Joka: "I guess as soon as it’s air worthy. Refill the oxygen supply, make sure the landing gear is solid. Uuum…. I better check the navigation again too. I’d hate to end up on the other side of the galaxy again by accident." Boy, that was always unpleasant. She nearly collided with a sun once thanks to shoddy navigation work.
(3:27:02 AM) Ferro: "And dinner." Ferro was starting to be reminded that he hadn’t eaten in a long time, not counting the time in stasis. In fact there was serious desire for home cooking. Something he knew he wasn’t going to experience in a very long time. "We defiantly need to deal with dinner."
(3:29:41 AM) Joka: "Damn, I haven’t even checked the kitchenette in that thing yet." Eating out was fine and dandy when you were in a city that had good food. Helsiki’s cities weren’t exactly known for their great estbalishments. And her food supply hadn’t been purchased with a crew mate in mind. It was all food cubes and frozen burritoes. "I’m guessing after who knows how long in stasis, you’re not gonna want to skip dinner, huh."
(3:31:46 AM) Ferro: "No!" his serious expression then cracked into a smirk. "Besides, who knows what sorts of mistakes I might make if I’m famished. You might get to experience the first time a repair of mine explodes."
(3:49:23 AM) Joka: "Okay, okay!" she exclaimed. Casting a bit of a sideglance at his smirk. That was a nice look. She really did like those expressions he made! "So you got any food finding super powers, then? I can cook all right, but Helsiki doesn’t exactly have good markets. There’s some eateries and stuff thought. I’m sure there’s gotta be at least one with edible food in it."
(3:52:31 AM) Ferro: "You fill me with less than confidence," Ferro considered it for a moment. "I think I’d still rather risk the market. At least we can see the raw ingredients. Who knows what some of the places here might try to serve us." Not that he wanted to wait for dinner, but the options sounded limited. "Unless you have a place you know is safe."
(3:54:10 AM) Joka: "Experimental market food it is. I’ve got not future plans!" She said it like she was sure there was a fifty-fifty chance for survival. The worst part was that she didn’t seem to mind it! Thus, Joka took a small detour, nodding her head in the direction they were headed so we’d know where they were going.
(3:57:55 AM) Ferro: Instead of finding her statement more worrisome, Ferro grinned. There was something comforting in her carefree style. Though he didn’t have much contact himself with Outsiders, Ferro felt she wasn’t like most of them. The change in the businesses started to become more and more obvious as they went into this newer part of town.