Destination: Tropical

[runningscams]

“I’ve been thinking a little about this place lately.”

Roaming around with no place in mind isn’t all that unfamiliar to him these days. If he’s behind honest, the first few months of being the Captain of his own ship had been fun. He appreciated being able to go wherever he wanted, see whatever it was that he wanted to see, play in any sabacc game he heard about, drink the booze of many worlds and meet some new people. In some ways, it was everything he ever wanted and exactly what he’d hoped for.

Something was missing, though. A feeling that gnawed at him regularly without knowing exactly what it was.

”I’m heading to a warm, tropical climate and I think I’m gonna be on the planet for a couple of days. I’m wondering what what everybody in the nexus would pack, if they were going somewhere sunny.”

Comments

[silverseamariner]

"Sesid? I haven't heard of such of a place, but it sounds beautiful. I sail the Silver Sea of Thra."

skekSa is even more impressed by the other captain's travels. Skeksis cannot journey from world to world, which even she is secretly glad of. The last thing she wants is Emperor skekSo's influence and his pollution spreading outside Thra.

"It's part of what I do - when you are on the sea as often and for as long as I am, choosing what to bring with you is important."

[runningscams]

“Possibly more important than almost any of the other choices you make along the way. Yeah. I had a little bit of trouble with that when I started.”

He’s almost sheepishly admitting that. Truth be told, it still wasn’t something he was great at. It involved far more careful planning than her realized. And budgeting. Especially when your ship was as finicky, and prone to breaking down, as his was.

“What’s your ship like?”

[silverseamariner]

"I command a living ship, Vassa. I have no crew - it's easier that way." The Mariner sometimes works with her Sifa Gelfling to maintain the vessel and gather supplies, but she sails alone. She's fiercely independent.

skekSa figures Han is a lot younger and less experienced than she is - she is almost a thousand trine old (and, if you cound her time as an UrSkek, even older). Mistakes come with youth. He'll learn given time, and from the sound of things he's a quick learner.

"I've never met your kind before in all my travels. Can you tell an old lass what kind of creature you are? You're much too big to be a Gelfling."

[runningscams]

“Your ship is alive? How do you know it is, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Han wondered about his own ship sometimes. The Millennium Falcon had far more personality than any other ship he’d been on and there was a (questionably sentient) droid consciousness inhabiting the vessel now. It wasn’t enough for him to definitively decide that his ship was alive, though. Mostly, he suspected, because he still wasn’t that sure if a droid could be sentient.

“Me?” Han pointed at his chest. A little surprised that he got to introduce his kind to someone else. “They call my kind Human and there are more of us than any other species in the galaxy where I come from. You’ll see a lot of us here in the Nexus too.”

[silverseamariner]

"Vassa is a sea monster who I brought under my command many, many trine ago. So yes, my ship is very much alive."

Humans are strange creatures, but there's something admirable about them. skekSa approves - they are alien to her world, but she has a general respect for all who sail, on sea or sky, and for all who blaze their own paths. She's quickly taking a liking to this human sky sailor.

"I noticed your people are common here. Humans remind me of my own Sifa Gelflings, though they aren't nearly as large as your kind." skekSa points a clawed hand at her own feathery chest. "As for myself, I am a Skeksis, though I do not follow our Emperor skekSo's rule. He's a tyrant. I left the Castle to sail the seas of Thra and be free of him."

[runningscams]

“I can definitely empathize with wanting to run away from a tyrant.” He had done it himself a couple of times, though his ‘tyrant’ was a different kind of figure each time. The human shook his head, but didn’t really venture anything more.

“So it seems like you’ve been sailing for a while. Does it still make you feel as free now as it did when you started? Do you still find fun in it after years of doing it?”

[silverseamariner]

"The Skeksis Emperor is a wretched creature. I may stay here for a while to put more space between us, though I have to return for the Sifa." The Mariner also thinks the Nexus could be a good place for collecting supplies in the future.

"The Silver Sea offers me a freedom that the land does not," skekSa says in reply. "Thra is a vast planet, and there are always new places to explore. But you have an entire galaxy." She tips her hat slightly.

[runningscams]

“I’m not going to say it isn’t fun to travel through space.” Han says with a smile. “I’ve only learned to fly a few years ago and only just got to scratch the surface of all the things I wanted to see.”

The feeling of being free to go where he wanted to go, do what he wanted to do and see what he wanted to see is something he didn’t take lightly. He’d never been a slave per se, but having his choices limited by one thing or another had been a constant till very recently.