mayfield_rpg | Episode V: My ride

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Episode V: My ride

{A: Action - Open to all}
-- location: John Doe Park
-- time: Midday

[A 40 foot long X-wing starfighter doesn't really fit in the average suburban driveway, let alone a two-car garage, so Luke's landed it in the park to tinker with it. He's brought some tools with him and laid them out on the grass, some made by other people in town, some made by himself, and others from the hardware store that he thought looked semi useful. The severe lack of technology here has been a bit frustrating to say the least.

Luke's sitting cross-legged on top of the craft near the astromech droid port with a couple tools, hunched over an open panel. There's a sudden spark and he quickly pulls his hand away.] Ow!

{B: Phone - Open to Kaylee Frye}
-- time: Early evening

Hey, it's me. You want to be spontaneous with me? Let's do something tonight.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Luke grins wide when he hears Picky's excited voice and he peers over the wing at him.]

Hey, Picky! Yeah, this is my spaceship.

[He scoots down onto the wing.]

Do you want to come up here and sit in the cockpit?

That's so COOL! You're so lucky, having a spaceship!

[At the offer of getting to sit in the cockpit, he just grows even more excited. He bolts to the wing and starts to jump... and jump... and REACH... in a rather futile effort to get on up there.]

Yeah... haah, yeah! I wanna! I really wanna! Can I? Can I?!

[Luke laughs as he climbs down from the wing.]

Hold on, hold on, let me help or you're going to fall.

[He hoists Picky up under the arms and holds him up just high enough that he can use the double wings as footholds.]

Climb up!

Oh... okay. Hey, thanks! Yeah!

[The boost is enough to do it. Once Picky has a good grip on the edge of the wing, he can easily get himself atop it. And there he stands for a few moments, looking around with a sense of wonder. He's on the wing of a spaceship...]

Wow...

So... so I can go in the cockpit? Yeah?

[Luke climbs up after him, a bit slower as he's on his own, and nods encouragingly.]

Yes. Go! Go!

[He briefly imagines little Picky hopping into the cockpit and accidentally knocking a switch and realizes that urging him in without supervision was probably a bad idea. He clambers a little more quickly up the wing.]

I'm going! I'm going!

[And go he does, running along the wing, over any other surface that needs to be cleared, and dropping right into the cockpit.]

Woah! It's... wow, it's got a ton of buttons and switches and stuff!

[That may well give Luke a twinge of panic, but if he gets there, he'll see that Picky is keeping his hands to himself. The kid's got a sense of not just hammering away randomly at controls. Kind of like in a video game. He was always the sort to read the manual from end to end, first...]

It sure does. [Luke watches Picky closely as he climbs up the rest of the way, nervous but reassured that the child seems to be able to control himself. That's far better than Luke himself ever behaved at that age, he recalls with some amusement.]

Alright. [He climbs onto the edge of the cockpit, crouching beside the pilot's seat. It's a precarious perch but he manages.] There are a lot of buttons and switches but I don't even touch most of them.

[He points a finger at the joystick situated directly in front of Picky.] Do you know what that is?

Really? You don't? But don't you need all of them?

[This was a surprise! This was also the first space ship pilot that he's ever had a serious space ship piloting discussing with. He felt quite inclined to believe Luke.

When shown the joystick, he nods.]

Yeah, that's a joystick! You have to use that, right? To steer!

That's right. That one's very important.

[Luke fidgets with one of the environment controls near the back of the cockpit, trying to figure out how to explain it.]

Well sure I need all of them, I just use some more than others. A lot of them are just for emergencies or for doing repairs and things like that, and I hardly ever have to do any of that. Someone else usually fixes my ship for me.

Or like this one. [He points to a panel over on the pilot's left-hand side.] This whole screen and all these buttons help me calculate a jump into hyperspace which means I'm going really, really fast, and I have to make sure I don't run into anything. But my robot that sits in the back of the ship usually does that for me, so I hardly ever use it.

Make sense?

Ohhh... so you don't need all the controls at the same time. I get it, yeah! Have you got anyone here to fix your ship, though? Can you fix it yourself?

[He's right on to another part of the ship and more questions.] Ohhhh... hyperspace! Yeah, so that's so you can get anywhere! Because space is REALLY HUGE, right? I read that in a book.

...you've got a robot, too?!

[He nods to confirm that it makes sense, but OH WOW. Luke, how do you keep getting cooler and cooler?]

I can fix the ship myself if I have to but I have mechanics who do that for me so I can go do other things.

[Picky's excitement just makes Luke grin wider and wider. He's never spent much time around children and he can see now that he's been missing out.]

Yup, a robot! Back home we call them droids. They have artificial intelligence so you can talk to them like people. Mine helps me fly my ship.

Ohhh... it's a good thing you can fix it yourself, though... I don't think there are any mechanics around. Right?

[Picky is taking every word in with wonder and joy and excitement. Robot talk is just as good as spaceship talk! ]

Cool! Is your robot here? Is he somewhere nearby? My big brother gave me one of his robots! He's kind of clumsy... and I guess he sometimes understands me, so I guess he has artificial intelligence, too?

No, he's not here. Maybe someday.

Sounds like you've a little droid of your own.

[The word "mechanics" catches Luke's attention the way most other words don't. Maybe just words like "Kaylee" and "strawberries" and "froofy pink dress".]

Sure there are mechanics around. I, uh, I'm actually dating one.

Ohh... okay. I kind of hope your droid comes here soon! And... and I kind of don't, because sometimes it gets pretty bad, here....

I'll have to show you Clumsy sometime! He's pretty cool.

[And then... talk about girls. His nose wrinkles and his smile falters.]

Ew, you're dating a mechanic?

[Luke laughs at Picky's reaction.]

I know, I know. When you think of a mechanic you're not exactly imagining a beautiful young woman... but that's exactly what Kaylee is.

[That stuns him into scrunchy-faced silence for a few moments. He's... what... that's....]

Kaylee?! You can't be dating Kaylee! That's my Mayfield mom!

[And now he's kind of shouty.]

[Luke's smile fades slightly.]

She is?

[He then snerks at Picky's reaction to the whole thing.] Why can't I date her?

Because... because...

[He's struggling to come up with a good reason, here. This is all about gut reactions and immediate feelings, not logic.]

I dunno, because of reasons!

[Luke shifts a bit where he's sitting to keep from falling off his perch.]

Well, Picky... Kaylee and I like each other a lot. I mean a lot. And if I couldn't date her I'd be very sad.

But.... it's weird! And won't that make us related or something?

[He is all kinds of awkward and unsure, here. He squirms in the seat, eyes roving away while he tries to think of some kind of reasonable argument.]

You guys're probably gonna start kissing all over the place, I bet... ew.

We already kiss-

[Luke stops himself. Maybe that's not the best way to handle this. Picky already looks relatively uncomfortable.]

I promise we won't kiss when you're around, okay?

[Yeah, this perch is officially uncomfortable now. He peers into the cockpit. Picky is little and Luke is pretty slim. That seat is plenty big enough for the both of them.]

Here, scoot over.

[No. No, it's not. Picky's already making a very "DO NOT WANT" kind of face. But he's somewhat pacified by Luke's promise.]

Okay. Fine...

[And he doesn't hesitate to scoot over. It's a little close in there, but not uncomfortably so.]

...you sure the town isn't MAKING you guys want to date? Cuz it does that sometimes.

[Luke lowers himself fairly easily into the cockpit, careful not to crowd Picky.]

The town does a lot really mean things but I don't think it would want us to be this happy. Usually it does things to make us scared or angry or uncomfortable.

Even if the town were making us date, it wouldn't be any different from the town making Kaylee your mother. She's not your real mom, she's just a stranger that the town decided should live in your house.

..you've been dating how long, again...?

[The kid was still skeptical. Highly skeptical.]

She's a pretty good not-real mom, though. And way better than a drone mom. And better than...

...She's really nice! Really, really nice! So you'd better be really nice to her, okay?

Since, uh... [Blast! Luke's had trouble learning the names of the months in the calendar that is used around here. Oh well, forget that.] About six months ago, I think.

But don't worry. I love Kaylee. I'm in love with her. And when you love somebody like that, well... I couldn't dream of doing anything to hurt her. When she's hurting I'm hurting, and when she's happy I'm happy. That's just how it works.

[Though it is quite adorable how protective over Kaylee Picky is.]

Episode V: My ride

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