RISING HOPE (5)

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((27 - Mu-Chu))

April 21st, 802 AT

Jaz knocked on the apartment doorway with a knuckle. "Hey, Spider, is it?" She leaned a shoulder against the wall. "I heard you taught our Kasby a lesson or two about guarding his, hm, openings, earlier. Not saying he didn't deserve it, but did you have to punish me, too? I didn't punch you in the face, after all."

Inside the apartment she was occupying for the time being, Spider stepped from the wall back to the ground, and turned to Jaz. "Jaz... right?" She smirked. "Don't worry, I'm sure his family crystals will be just fine."

" 'Least it was you and not that Skunk, all made of metal." Jaz came in and looked at the mess of strewn medical supplies. "Need help?"

The place was a mess-- she'd obviously been through most of it, cluelessly. "I'll say... Yeah. Is there anything here for headaches?"

Jaz kicked through a pile of packets, pulling out one marked with an orange strip. "Here," she said. "Make tea out of this, there's a boiler over there, just pull the nozzle out from the wall when it beeps." She began to reorganize the rest of the stuff. "Have you always had headaches?"

Spider nodded at her as she took the packet, mumbling thanks. She started to prepare the tea, a little uncertainly. "No... just since this whole super-powers fiasco thing happened. It's hard to keep... upright."

Jaz picked up a packet with no strip and took the boiler-nozzle from Spider, pressing a button to raise two cups out of the counter. "Y'know, you may hate Kasby now, but I think he's going about it the right way. Where we're going, you have to be ready at any -" Without a pause, she turned, swept Spider's legs out from under her and placed a foot on her throat, lightly. "Moment." She took a sip of her tea and removed the foot.

Spider let out a flailing curse. When Jaz released her foot, she went sliding down the floor, and stood up on the door frame with her back on the floor. "Fucking..." she said, but her anger was weak now. After a moment of confusion, she sat up on the floor, and stood up. "You don't know me," she said pointedly. "I'm freakin' sharp. You should see me at hook ball. "But not with this... when I knew which up was..." she sways a bit. "HEADACHE."

"Sorry." Jaz shrugged, and held out the headache-tea. "And you're right. I don't know you, which is really why I came to find you. I'd like to, if we're going to be saving the universe."

Spider accepted the tea, and groaned. "Right. Saving the universe..." She almost rolled her eyes, but was too distracted by the tea. "Wait, I was meaning to find you!" she remembered suddenly. "Well, I was an architect back on Face. And acrobat, really, but I could get places other people couldn't." She takes a sip. "Point is... I know how structures work, a lot. I was wondering if I could help with ship repairs, or something."

Jaz let out a long sigh. "It's about time one of your Facer's had some useful skills." She sat down at the table and gestured for Spider to do the same. "Sorry. I didn't really mean that. Well, okay, I did, but that doesn't make it fair. I just have to wonder...What sort of luxurious life did you all live, that you have so few survival skills?"

Spider let out a snort, and a half-grin. "No, believe me, I know what you mean. I basically had to drag most of them through the caves myself." She sat down, and took another sip. Already, her head was feeling better. "But it wasn't at all luxurious. A few people fell each year, and anyone who disobeyed the law got the only punishment." She pointed her finger at the table, for effect. "Down. But don't ask me 'bout the others. I hardly know them, really." She shrugged.

"Down?" Jaz raised her eyebrows. "They threw people into the Void?"

"Yeah..." Spider stares at her tea. "It's the fucking stupidest thing ever, but it kept people under control. I guess."

"That's awful." Jaz seemsed truly shocked. "To die like that, just falling, until a bit of space-junk or a demon catches you...Shadows, what a fate." She shook her head, pensive. "I'd rather die fighting with all I have, saving people or at least making a last ditch effort to save myself. Let a demon have my life, I've killed so many of them, suppose eventually it'll be their turn."

"Yeah... I used to have nightmares about it..." she mumbled. "Well," she quickly changed the subject. "If I master this.... thing... then I'll never have to fall again! Or, I'll always be falling." She laughed a bit.

"You'll get it." Jaz said, easy confidence in her words, and took a gulp of her tea. "But in your spare time, we really could use your help on the ship, as long as you don't mind working under conditions that include being drop-kicked into space every few minutes."

"Well, it'd be good practice. I could probably climb all over this thing anyway." There was a hint of pride in her voice. "What can I help with?"

"Well, Kasby and I are mechanics both, having to fix our respective ships in the middle of flying them. The structural aspects, though...those escape us, for the most part. Never had to do that part, before, really."

"Well, that's an important bit. One crack in the wrong place and... well, you're screwed!" She finished her tea, and smiled a bit. "It'd be nice to get busy with something on this boring-as-fuck base."