[D3LM] Dueling Hammers

[Garen Saxon]

Garen didn't do all his hammer maintenance in the forge or the repair bay. In fact, most of it was done in the armory. Besides, he wasn't currently hitting his hammer with another hammer. This called more more precision work, tightening and filing. Sometimes people forgot that it wasn't all about banging away.

He wasn't alone, either. He cast a curious glance at his work partner, such as she was, at an adjacent bench. He worked with small hand tools on a hammer; hardly advanced technology anywhere. How was she performing her equipment maintenance?

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

Mayrelli is holding a battered hydrospanner nearly half her size. There's the occasional grunt as she loosens the casing around her scattergun barrel. The pilot's face is a mask of concentration before there's a clang and the casing is free.

"' Non-removable' my ass! Ha! Now where did I put that accelerator..."
May falls silent as she rummages across her workbench, eventually extracting a small red rectangle and beginning to pore over its various connectors.
"Sooooooo. How you been?" She doesn't look over as she holds up the accelerator for inspection.

[Garen Saxon]

Garen smiled gently. Well. That seemed about right.

He shrugged in response. "Not bad. It's been a quiet few days, actually." He frowned as he considered that. "Or... maybe not any more quiet than usual. It just feels that way."

He looked at May. "How about you?"

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Fought some stormtroopers, won of course. Super easy. And then we found a Jedi who was like, super traumatised."
She frowns slightly.
"But we didn't fight her, which was good! She did almost cut me in half though. Anyway, hoping we can help her out a bit since it's not safe for her to be around where the empire is. I know all about trauma, but I don't know anything about healing it, so I think I'm about half qualified?"
She wipes some grease off her cheek and glances over.

"Any tips on how to help someone feel safe and all that?"

[Garen Saxon]

"A Jedi? Really?" Garen lowered his hydrodriver, his eyebrows going up. "I thought they were all gone... the Empire certainly did it's best to see to that."

His gaze grew a bit sharper at the mention of trauma, then he looked back at his work with a gentle shrug. "Maybe. I don't know that words can help. Or at least, not always." He was silent for a few moments. "Just be there. Don't press. But be there, be open. Let her talk if she wants, on her terms."

He looked back to May. "How does that sound?" He asked gently.

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Right? It's like meeting a unicorn or an honest Rodian. Once in a lifetime sort of deal."
She nods along at his suggestion. "Okay, so just be comforting but don't like, be actively comforting. Just smile and look helpful?...That's gonna be hard, I'm pretty active about everything that I do. But I can try! I might bring some colouring books to keep me busy. Colouring books are super calming."

The accelerator starts beeping worryingly and May has to turn her attention to plugging in its various cables.
"Ah shizz. Anyway, yeah, I bet that'll work. Why'd the empire want to wipe them out anyway? Something about the Jedi trying to stop them?...Guess that didn't work out."
Which, worryingly, didn't bode well for them.

[Garen Saxon]

"You don't say." Garen said, dryly amused. He looked at her again. "I've noticed you're a high-activity sort of person. Well, that's good. Low-activity people like me need those around to keep us going." He shrugged. "I think you'll do fine."

Another moment, and he picked up his hydrodriver, making more minute adjustments, tightening and loosening as appropriate. "I don't know exactly. The official line is that they tried to take over the government. Given how the Empire turned out, I'm guessing they were just trying to stop it." He shrugged. "I suppose you could ask her. But... perhaps gently."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Low-activity is slow. You know what a low-activity engine is doing? Idling. And there's no point in idling; well, unless you're waiting at a traffic stop or something."
She shoot Garen a thumbs up at his support. "Yeah, maybe I could...gentle like. Kinda lead up to it, ask her about herself, favourite foods, then once she's comfortable...bang! Or a soft 'bang'. Just a gentle bang. If she's mad she can just try to cut me in half again and that should let me know pretty easy how she's feeling."

Still fiddling with her weapon, apparently trying to create a space for the accelerator through sheer will.
"Everything was better before the stupid empire. Well, barring the devastating civil war. Also maybe the corruption and bureaucratic inertia. But at least we didn't have the empire going around trying to stomp on everyone!"

[Garen Saxon]

"Right. If she cuts you in half, ease back a bit." Garen said, nodding. Smiling, he raised his free hand. "A soft bang, yeah. At best. Or let her make the bang might be even better."

"Yeah..." Once more, Garen set aside his tool for a moment, frowning thoughtfully. "I've met people who say they don't see much difference between the Empire and the Republic. I don't know if they're not paying attention, or maybe they don't want to see. But it's there." He nodded. "It's why I'm glad to be with the Rebuilders. We'll push back."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Either way, we'll bang, okay?"
May looks content now that a way forward has been set, which means she can return to the big questions, that and trying to put her gun back together against the protests of its stuffed case.

"The empire is all sorts of bad. They hate non-humans, they hate democracy, they hate drinks with the little umbrella in them. They're just bad people!" She bangs her spanner to emphasise this with a loud 'clang!'. "And I like those things. So yeah, we'll push them back...eventually, we might need more guys."

As if more to herself than Garen. "I'm sure Mandalore will recruit a bunch more, then we can start having an impact."

[Garen Saxon]

Garen chuckled softly. "I'll admit, I'm not sure how I feel about drinks with little umbrellas in them. But I'd like to think that I arrived there because of careful consideration." He flashed her a smile, watching as she pounded on her equipment.

His smile faded, and he turned back to make the last few adjustments on his hammer before hefting it up. "Maybe." He said. "Or maybe we'll just do our part. Don't need to take on the whole Empire. Just the bits of it that come after us."

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D3LM, Mod, damage to weighted head, 1st mod, toolkit: 2eP+2eA+3eD+1eB 6 successes, 2 threat

Mod added successfully, +20 credits to cost

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

Day 3 LM modding roll, enhanced exciter +1 pierce, 3rd modding: 3eA+5eB+5eD 3 successes


May's scattergun makes an incredibly deep 'cha-chunk' as she racks the slide.
"Oh baby, and I am feeling ready for those bits. I mean, this much power shouldn't even be contained in one gun. Check it out."
She proudly shows off the weapon...with her other hand open. Clearly, she also really wanted to test the hammer too.

"They all said I was mad to use a wildly impractical gun that you have to reload after each shot and which also has no range. But they forgot about the sheer importance of style."

[Garen Saxon]

Garen looked at her a moment, and then, smirking just a little, he took the shotgun as he handed over the hammer. "Make sure to use both... two hands." He said.

In the meantime, he carefully checked over the shotgun, turning it this way and that, although always mindful of which direction it was pointed. "You've done quite a lot of work on this, I see." He said approvingly. "I'm not sure I could even follow it all without taking it apart. Which I won't do, of course."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

Mayrelli belated puts a second hand onto the hammer's shaft as it wobbles dangerously.
"Dang, you've really put a lot into this, the balance is wild." There is much shadow swinging as she fights off a force of invisible but very vulnerable to blunt damage stormtroopers.
"Yeah, that's awesome. Love it. Maybe I'll get a hammer one day."

With one last test swing she rests the weapon over her shoulder as she looks over to Garen.
"New accelerator, new barrel, forearm grip so it's perfect for CQC. She's turned out quite well I reckon. Next I gotta go mod the butt of my rifle. Nobody will be expecting that! They're all waiting to get shot and then you just bop them on the head."
She mimes a pommel strike.

"Haters gonna hate. Anyway, what's new with you? You met any force users? Maybe nice people who also use hammers?"

[Garen Saxon]

"Huh!" Interested, Garen gave the butt of it an experimental thrust, then nodded. "Yeah, that'll work. I like it." He said. Carefully turning the weapon in his hands, he offered it back to her.

The question made him blink. "Both, actually. At least I think so." He frowned. "Met some sort of Force user yesterday, at least I think. She gave me a bad feeling. Said she was like a Jedi, but wasn't one. She helped us, but she wanted something." The frown deepened.

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Hmmmm, so she didn't pass the vibe check?" May frowns deeply. "Well that ain't good. You gotta trust the vibes. I dunno what's like a Jedi but isn't one, maybe that's some kind of riddle, like when a door isn't a door. What did she want in return for helping you out?"

[Garen Saxon]

"Definitely did not pass the vibe check." Garen chuckled. "And I don't know if I'd recognize a Jedi unless they pulled out one of their lightsabers. But whatever she was, I didn't like it much."

He grimaced deeply. "She said that something in the vault belonged to her, some armor. She said she expected us to not hinder her in trying to get it. I told her that we're not in charge of the vault so there's only so much promise we can make. She was fine with that." He shook his head. "I'll admit, I'd have been happier if we'd have all walked away."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Belongs to her?"
May scratches her head.
"Man, she must be real old. Isn't that vault like, ancient? Weird. Although I guess there could be some special not-Jedi relic in it. And I suppose we can't really be poo-pooing grave robbers ourselves."

She's silent for a few moments before adding.
"Well, I get we can burn to that bridge when we come to it."

[Garen Saxon]

Garen was silent for a moment. "I took the meaning that she had inherited the rights to it. I certainly hope that's it, and that she's not however old she'd have to be."

He snorted softly. "Right. Exactly my thought. Although I wonder if we ought to prepare a bit." He held out his hand for his hammer back. "Do you suppose your Jedi might know what a not-Jedi is?"