open Cowboy Bebop RP

[Sphinx-Ara 3,569]

@@Commander Tangent,

 

Clockwork l reached the Vega just as everybody else did, he didn't hear what Skyhopper said, but he could tell something was up. He waves to his other crew members as he goes over to Skyhopper's chambers and knocks on the door before poking his head in "Hey champ, everything alright?" he asks with a soft smile. He then walks over to the bed and sits on the edge "Geeze mate, you really ought to upgrade this thing, it's hard as rocks" he says then a mischevious grin crosses his face and he chuckles slightly.

[Jack Baker 698]

@Driz

Raze nodded at Trinket in response, then continued towards the bridge. Making his way to the pilot seat, he powered up the engines and navigation systems, which he made his way toward to next. He then set the ship's autopilot on a direct course to Jupiter's warp gate, and confirmed the route. He walked away from the bridge as he felt the ship slowly rise and move. He made his way towards the lounge, deciding to join Trinket, sitting next to her a few inches apart. He noticed she was periodically checking her leg, and sighed.

 

"You know, checking it like that isn't gonna magically make it better," he said to her with a smile. "Just relax, the doc patched you up just fine. He took the bullet out and everything. Wasn't in that deep, either. It'll get better in time, trust me; be glad it was your leg and not that pretty face of yours. Besides... with the bounty we just scored, you'll have all the time you need to recover." He propped his bandaged arm on the back of the couch.

Edited December 25, 2016 by Detective Adachi

[Commander Tangent 861]

@@Orange Sparks,

 

Skyhop didn't notice the other stallion enter the room until he spoke to him directly. In that time, he had pulled out a small photograph of his farm. In it, him and his Pa stood out in front of the homestead, with row after row of various crops stretching out behind them in a seemingly endless expanse. When Clockwork spoke, he jumped a bit.

 

" It serves it's purpose when I need to rest. Though I will admit some nights it gets really cold in it" He smiles, looking back down at the picture.

[Sphinx-Ara 3,569]

@@Commander Tangent, 

 

Clockwork smiles and nods as he looks at the picture "Your family? Reminds me of mine before that bastard murdered them" he says with a slight sigh then chuckles "Aye, it may serve its purpose, but how well? It's hard as rocks, it's no wonder you're so grumpy in the morning.." he then smiles wider as he wraps his arms around the younger stallion and nuzzles him "Mm, you know, I could easily help with the comfort, and the warmth" he murrs softly

 

(USS Skywork lifting off...don't worry, this was sort of a plan between Tangent and myself anyway)

[Driz 1,552]

@

 

"I know, I know. It's not that. It's just..." She sighed. "I've never been... well... shot before, y'know? Our bounties usually go so smoothly, and most of the times I barely have to do any of the hard work at all since you guys are so amazing at it... I don't know. It's really weird how I worry about our safety over everything else all the time, and yet, I often forget about my own mortality... I don't know." Trinket stealthily scanned the area around the lounge. Upon verifying that there was no one else near enough to listen, she slid a tad closer towards Raze on the couch, as if she had a secret to tell, and began speaking in a low voice.

 

"About a year ago, when I lived on Mars with my parents, I used to work at the family's toy store, right? Dad is an incredible craftsman and I learned a lot about toy-making from him and all... but... as it turns out, toys aren't as popular as they used to be before the Gate accident. I don't know, they probably were pretty popular back then, who knows. Nowadays everyone just thinks about exploring the galaxy, colonizing planets and stuff and my parents refuse to evolve... But anyway, we were struggling to afford to live on that expensive piece of space rock because we just didn't have enough costumers. When I told my parents I would become a bounty hunter, they... they just flipped, y'know? They freaked out." She stared up at the ship's ceiling, reminiscing. She then brought both of her legs up on the couch and hugged them into a fetal position.

 

"We had a huge argument. They told me I was gonna get myself killed. That I wasn't thinking straight. They despised Cowboys for doing the dirty work no one else had the courage to do... I mean, it is a pretty dangerous job. They had every right to be worried about me. But I figured I had to do something - anything in my power to not let my family be expelled from home into the emptiness of space... So I ran away... Then I met you guys and joined the Vega. It's one of the best things that ever happened to me, but... but I just can't go back." The mare curled up into a ball. "If they see me like this... If they see what I've become, risking my life every single day... They wouldn't be able to look at me in the eye. This bullet wound just serves as a grim reminder of that... Every time we have to go to Mars to do the shopping, I don't even get out of the ship. That's why you guys can go wild and waste our earnings on a bunch of junk food. 'cause I'm not there to supervise." She sent him a cutting glare.

 

"Anyway, I'm getting off-topic... To sum up, I just have no idea how to approach Mom and Dad anymore... That's just not the life they wanted for me. They would be... disappointed, to say the very least. They're just gonna rub on my nose the fact that I was shot. They're either gonna lock me up, or just straight up disown me."

Edited December 26, 2016 by Driz

[Jack Baker 698]

@Driz

Raze silently stared directly ahead of him while listening to Trinket's story, a serious look on his face. He exhaled through his nose.

 

"I understand you're only trying to do the right thing," he said to her. "But you can't just keep avoiding your family and living a facade your entire life. You've gotta own up to this lifestyle you've chosen, and you need to get your family to acknowledge this is something you've decided for yourself and there's nothing that they can do to stop you. Cuz when the time comes..." He stood up and got in front of Trinket, squatting down so he was at eye level with her. He got close to her face.

 

"When the time comes... you're gonna have to face them and you won't be able to run away from it anymore. When that happens... What are you gonna do about it?" He looked at her carefully, then gently put a hand to her face. He smiled.

 

"...The melancholy look doesn't suit you very well," he said to her. "Never has. That's not the Trinket I know... alright then." He got back up and sat next to her, putting one arm around her and getting close.

 

"C'mon, lighten up!" he said with a grin. "We hit the big one, 9.5 million. We can get some well deserved R & R cuz of this. What more could you ask for?"

[Hazard Time 1,127]

@ @@Driz @@Orange Sparks @@Commander Tangent

 

By the time Bronze had returned to the Vega, she was spent.  After a two hour nap, she was back in the shower, and then off to the armory.  She was starving, and desperately needed something to take her mind off her stomach.  What better way than to focus on her inadequacies?

 

She pulled the bolt of her L85A2 back and let it snap forward, slowly shouldering it and aiming down the scope.  She centered her crosshair on the target and held her breath, bringing her finger to the trigger and sharply jerking.  The 5.56 cartridge shot out of the barrel and downrange, impacting the target to the lower right of the bullseye.  Bronze frowned and jerked again.  Low again, though this time to the bottom left.  She grit her teeth in frustration and jerked several more shots downrange, more inaccurate than the last.  Finally, she switched on to full automatic and just held down the trigger, emptying the rest of her magazine downrange.  At least most of the bullets hit the target.

 

Bronze set the rifle down on the bench, even more bothered than before.  It might have been the hunger, it might have been the shame, but not even full auto could calm her down.  Dammit, she was useless!  Not even her rifle could have helped her out there.  Idiot.

[Driz 1,552]

@, 

 

"...That really is a lot of money, huh?" Trinket reluctantly grew a trembling smile from underneath the sorrowful expression. Eventually, she gave up on trying to resist Raze's attempts at cheering her up and let out a groan whilst playfully pushing him away. "Alright, fine! I get it, I'll lighten up!... Boy, you can be so cheesy at times, I tell ya." She laughed, before slightly lowering her head back down. "I guess I just need some time to sort out my thoughts... I'll figure out what to do when the time comes. Not now, though. Right now, I need to relax... At least until we arrive at Mars." She closed her eyes, remaining pensive for a few seconds, before clasping her hands together.

 

"So! Should we order takeout? Aren't there some drive-through canteens near the warp gate? We didn't even have a proper breakfast this morning, I'm starting to smell colors."

Edited December 28, 2016 by Driz

[Hazard Time 1,127]

@@Driz @ @@Commander Tangent @@Orange Sparks

 

After cleaning her rifle, Bronze finally emerged into the living space, plopping herself down on the couch and staring up at the ceiling.  She had come to the conclusion that it was better to focus on her hunger than the alternative.

 

"So we going to eat soon or what?" she grumbled.  "I don't give a damn what, just something close."

Edited December 27, 2016 by Hazard Time

[Jack Baker 698]

@Driz @Hazard Time

Raze looked at the both of them.

"Well, we should be approaching the warp gate now," he said to them, standing up. "As soon as we enter hyperspace, it's pretty much a five minute trip to Mars. I mean, we could stop by Tijuana, that asteroid colony near the Mars gate... food there's pretty good, I heard. What do you guys think?"

 

((Sorry for the delay, I was on the road for a good 14 hours, so I had no connection)).

[Driz 1,552]

@@Hazard Time, @ 

 

Trinket performed a distasteful groan. "Sure, sure... Whatever brings us food the fastest." She couldn't conceal it: she was starving, and she could only assume the rest of the crew shared the same feeling. Going into the mission on Ganymede with an empty stomach had already been a hassle - one of which she wondered whether it influenced in half of the crew getting injured or not. Either way, they now had the means necessary to get food, so that should become one of their priorities at that moment. Five minutes shouldn't take too long anyway. The blue mare then got back up from the couch and spun around in place in order to face Bronze.

 

"I mean, we could always resort to cannibalism... Or just try and learn some photosynthesis from the plants and stare at the sun for a while." She joked while slowly walking around the lounge in circles - something to divert her attention from the hunger.

[Commander Tangent 861]

@@Orange Sparks,

 

Skyhop looked over his shoulder at Clockwork and shrugged a bit. "Yeah, that's my Pa there in the picture. We ran a farm together after my mother passed. It was fun and a pretty good life while it lasted. Place burned down after a gang shootout took place in our field. I escaped the blaze, but my Pa is still missing to this day. Makes me wonder if he is still out there" He shrugs and gives a faint smile to the older stallion, " And you are welcome to help with that if you want" He responds to his other question before drifting his gaze back to the picture.

[Sphinx-Ara 3,569]

@@Commander Tangent, 

 

Clockwork chuckles and smiles "You know how long I've waited to hear those sort of words from you my dear Skyhop?" he asks as he soon wraps his arms around the younger colt "I know I've flirted with the girls on board, but honestly..I've felt something towards you for a while now, and it isn't just that we've lost loved ones to a gang or two, there's some sort of..connection between us" he says as he nuzzles his neck "well my vengeance has mostly been satiated, so maybe I could help gather some intel on your pa"

[Jack Baker 698]

@Driz

Raze stared at Trinket with a raised brow, then shrugged, getting off the couch. He left the lounge and made his way towards the bridge, getting in the pilot's seat. The autopilot had taken them all the way to the front of the warp gate, where Raze deactivated it and switched to manual control. Taking hold of the throttle, he slowly eased the ship towards the gate, and soon they were in hyperspace. From there they would end up in Mars gate within five minutes, as he had said.

 

Raze sat back on the chair and sighed.

 

Everyone's getting impatient... he thought. Though I can definitely say the same thing for myself... I need to hurry this up; before it starts to get out of hand.

 

Eventually, they exited hyperspace and made it to Mars. Raze carefully navigated the ship out of the gate, where there was a metal tunnel-like structure floating a short ways away: a toll booth. From the ship's console, there was a slot where Raze inserted his card into. The booth scanned the ship and deducted 7500 woolongs from the card. Raze ejected the card and kept the ship moving towards Mars.

[Hazard Time 1,127]

@

 

Bored and agitated, Bronze stood up from the couch and made her way to the bridge, finding an unoccupied chair and slouching it.  As the red planet drew closer, she chewed on her tongue.

 

"Raze," she inquired.  "I just want to apologize for the way I snapped at you.  I'm 'ungry, but there's also a lot of over stuff going on.  As the unofficia'w captain, you're the only pony I can trust with this, so please don't te'w anyone else, ye?"  She locked eyes with him for a moment to try and read his expression before continuing.  "It's pe'y of me, but I can't stop bea'ing meself up about leaving me rif'w behind when we went out, today.  I fee'w like I brought our collective effectiveness down because of this, and a few of us were wounded because of it.  I'm sorry."

[Driz 1,552]

@, @@Hazard Time

 

Trinket stretched out her limbs. From the looks of it, the ship was slowly but surely arriving by the red planet's orbit. The mare could already smell the freshly-cooked food from the many renowned Mars restaurants - some of which she kept fond memories of from her childhood. Along with nostalgia, however, came the feeling of melancholy. She'd have to be prepared to face whatever ghosts she left behind on that planet. Shaking herself awake, she briefly peeked through the bridge's doorway.

 

"I'll be in my room if you guys need me... I'll be ready to disembark." And she left towards her living quarters, leaving the door to her room half-open behind her and sitting down on the bed.

[Jack Baker 698]

@Hazard Time

Raze stared back at Bronze with a confused look on his face, trying to process what she had just said.

 

"Hold on, hold on... first off, I am the captain of this ship, I just don't act like a hardass captain. And second, you're telling me I got shot in the arm--and here's the thing I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around--because you got all bothered that you didn't bring your preferred weapon of choice?" He squinted his eyes. "You know how dumb that sounds?" He stood up, unholstering his Berreta, showing it to her.

 

"A gun... is a gun. You pull the trigger and the bullet comes out the barrel. All guns do that! So why should you give a damn about what type of weapon you're pointing at your target? Might as well worry about if the bullets you're using are your favorite too, at that point."

 

He holstered the gun. "We're Cowboys. Bounty hunters living paycheck to paycheck; we don't have time to worry about the weapons we're using to capture our target. Adapt to whatever's around you and on you. If you can't do that... you shouldn't be in this line of work in the first place." He turned around and sat back down in the pilot's chair, facing the view outside as they were nearing Mars.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Detective Adachi

[Hazard Time 1,127]

@

 

The mare grit her teeth and glared.  What was so hard for this stallion to understand about the situation?  They were in a firefight, outnumbered five to one, and she only had a pistol with three magazines.  That had to be the very definition of a handicap, especially when fire superiority was essential to winning a firefight.  This went against everything she had been taught in basic, and she was about ready to stand up and give him a piece of her mind.

 

And then it occurred to her.  Why was she mad at Raze?  Was it truly because he didn't understand...or was it because he was right?  That she was being a total bitch right now?  In spite of everything her training taught her, she did exactly what Raze said; she adapted and survived, even when outgunned.

 

Bronze quickly stood up and stormed out, trying to hide the blush on her face as she made her way back to her room.  She was not about to risk humiliating herself even more than she already had with her current mood.

[Jack Baker 698]

Raze sighed as he heard Bronze left the room. She couldn't even bring herself to verbally admit she was wrong.

 

That pride of hers might get her killed one of these days... he thought. Geez, wonder how the ISSP put up with her on a daily basis... must have been rough. Ah, well... she'll lighten up eventually.

 

As last, Raze brought the ship into Mars, carefully making his way towards the planet's surface. He looked around. Only so much of the planet could have been terraformed; most of it would have been blown away by the harsh solar winds of the red planet, caused by the lack of a magentosphere. As such, majority of the planet was left unchanged; the only parts of Mars that had been adjusted to fit ponykind were various large craters in the planet's surface, in which city colonies had been built inside. Every city had a metal barrier surrounding it, which had machines that produced an artificial atmosphere. From the perspective of one living in a Mars colony, it was almost akin to living a life back on Equestria, before the  warp-gate accident, that is.

 

Raze carefully flew the ship into one of the crater cities, passing the metal barrier surrounding it. Once inside the artificial atmosphere, the red sky changed to a bright blue, and he flew the ship near a landing bay, carefully setting it down. He turned off the ship's engines and stood up,gently rubbing his wounded arm.

 

"Alright..." he said to himself. "Let's get some grub..." He leaned over the pilot's seat and into a microphone connected to the ship's intercom. 

 

"Hey guys, we're here," he said. "Meet me outside the ship and give you all your cut to do whatever you please with it. Just... please don't spend it on anything extravagant; we need to make this last until the next bounty, got it? Geez, I sound like a nagging poor mother talking to her kids..." He turned off the intercom and proceeded to make his way outside.

[Driz 1,552]

@, 

 

Trinket had her face buried inside a pillow for some time. She was at a loss. For some unknown reason, being back at Mars after so much had happened in her life felt rather unreal. She didn't want to abandon her family, or her home. But still, she was afraid of what could happen between her and her parents, if she were to approach them after so long. The talk with Raze a few minutes earlier had assisted with enlightening her thoughts a bit, but yet. It was a crippling fear. Soon, the blue mare heard the captain's announcement through the intercom.

 

Seemed like it was time to eat at last. With a light, gleeful chuckle, she jumped out from her bed, picked up her backpack and left her room, towards the Vega's entrance. She stepped outside, hopping towards Raze and giving him a light, playful punch to the arm.

 

"Quite the announcement there... Did some of my bossy nature finally rub off on ya?"

[Jack Baker 698]

@Driz

Raze rolled his eyes, but smiled.

 

"Don't get your hopes up," he said to her, returning the punch. "I'm still the same old captain that I always am. Besides, I like the fact that I don't have to do all the commanding on the ship. That's one less thing I have to worry about." He laughed slightly to himself at his own comment.

[Hazard Time 1,127]

@ @@Driz

 

Bronze had barely had any time to really sulk before they touched down.  Then again, alone time wasn't going to help this mood; only food could do that, and her mouth was already watering at the mention of spending money.

 

Her angst-filled mind focused on the prospect of actually eating something, she did her best to keep to a leisurely pace as she made her way outside to where the others were beginning to gather.  She wrung her hands in impatience, hopping from one hoof to the other.

 

'urry up and fork over me lunch money!

Edited January 10, 2017 by Hazard Time

[Jack Baker 698]

@Hazard Time

Raze glanced over at Bronze with an annoyed look on his face noting her impatient and irritated behavior.

 

The least you could do is try to feign appreciation... he thought to himself. That settled it: he needed to do something about her pride... and put her stubborn attitude in place. He smirked mischievously to himself.

 

"Oh, I almost forgot to mention... Sweet Bronzie over here told me she feels responsible for us being injured on today's mission, since she forgot to bring her most cherished rifle with her to the field," he said out loud to everyone else. "Since that happens to be the case... maybe she won't feel so bad if I take away her cut out of the kindness of her own heart?" He glanced over at her without moving his head a, clever smirk on his face.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Detective Adachi

[Hazard Time 1,127]

@

 

She couldn't believe it.  Her blood ran cold and her cheeks flushed as her hands curled into fists.  Bronze's teeth ground together as she stormed up to Raze, bringing her muzzle close to his.

 

"You bastard!" she bellowed.  "After all that 'appened, you kick me when I'm down?!  You feaver plucker!  I trusted you!"  Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes as she tried in vain to hold them back.  She was tired, she was hungry, but worst of all, she was emotionally compromised.

[Driz 1,552]

@, @@Hazard Time 

 

Confused, Trinket kept switching her vision between the both of them. Her expression grew worried as she witnessed the situation unfolding before her, and the somewhat relieving atmosphere breaking down.

 

"Woah, woah, hold on a second! Calm down! What is this all about?" She asked, stern. "Nobody was responsible for us getting injured in Ganymede, and nobody's gonna have their cut taken away for any reason at all!" She moves closer to Bronze and throws an arm over her shoulder in order to comfort her. Then, she sends a glare towards Raze. "...You're joking, right?"