Boys With Toys [For twelve_not_fourteen]

[brother_alone]

Josh is making a real effort to try and get his life in order.

He's leaving his shanty more and more often, clean cut and wearing fresh clothes rather than the grimy tattered mess he'd arrived in months before. A few odd jobs around the Nexus have allowed him that much at least. They never last too long though. Partially because they're just that: odd jobs. But also, because one Bad Day or episode is all it takes to get him let go.

It's discouraging because Josh is trying so hard.

Not for himself, really. There's enough self loathing within him to bury him several times over. He hates himself. Hates what he's done. What he is. What he sees. But there are people he cares about, people who see something else that Josh doesn't.

People like Chris, like Dia. And like Han.

So when Josh's phone buzzes, he assumes it's one of the only people in this place who gives a shit about him, or the newest place he works at occasionally with some hours for him. He isn't wrong. Han wants to know if Josh is up for fixing up that rust heap he'd picked up a few weeks back. The memory makes Joshua smile as he unlocks his phone to reply.

Sure thing. Meet at your ship I'm assuming?

He doesn't wait for a reply when he leaves his shack. Josh figures he has plenty of time to change direction if need be. It's not half bad outside today anyway, and the walk will do him some good.

Comments

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Texting is a glorious thing. Amazing that he can just hit a few keys on a phone device and his message gets where it needs to go.

[Yes. At the Falcon.]

In some ways, it's like what they're trying to do with the Holonet in his universe, but they're not quite there with it yet. Someday it will be. Now that he knows how convenient this tech is, hell, he might become an early adopter. Though not as early as Lando. That guy has everything.

At this point, Han as been scrubbing over the overracer with tinfoil for the better part of a week. Knocking off the top layer of rust has shown him that, a lot of what was once beautiful and metallic about this bike has lost all its luster.

Many of the parts are pitted. If he wants to restore it like it was coming off the factory line it's gonna need a lot of work. He'll have to decide if he wants it to gleem or if he'll be satisfied to paint over it.

[brother_alone]

Josh is no stranger to elbow grease and chores. He's done more than his fair share back at the Lodge before...well. Before. His interests may mainly be in video editing and digital work, but he's fairly dexterous with his hands when the need arises. It takes him a little over a half hour to make the trek from his shack on the edge of the wilds all the way out to where Han keeps his ship, but he looks to be in good spirits when he heads up the ramp.

Kind of hard not to be when he sees the Falcon, really. Or gets to go in.

"Yo. Sorry about the wait, decided I didn't want to work up a sweat before we even got to work."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Josh will have to walk by the overracer, which is still outside and will remain there until he's confident that the bike is not going to make a huge mess, to meet Han on the ship. Which is perfectly fine. He wanted and expected the kid to come in when he got here.

"Hope you didn't wear anything nice." Captain Solo calls out. Mostly to give his friend a direction to follow to find him.

Currently, he's regarding what is essentially a cabinet fixed into one of the walls of the ship filled with tools.

[brother_alone]

"Are you kidding, bro? I only own one nice set of clothes and I'm sure as hell not wrecking them to do manual labor with you."

Yeah, no. Josh will stick to the ratty clothes he arrived in for this kind of work, thanks a bunch. He's still grinning when he makes his way onset to the sound of the captain's voice, leaning into the doorway when he finds Han.

"She's looking marginally better out there. How long did that take? "

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Uhh." It's not as if he was keeping track, but that Josh is asking, he's trying to comb through wich days he was working on it and for how long in his mind. "Five or six hours."

And all that time invested with the result being only 'marginally' better, too. If you haven't gotten the idea of what you were in for before, Joshua, you are now. This is going to take a long time.

"So, to start with, I'm going to be handing you some tools to carry and telling you what they are." Which he does for about half a dozen pieces of equipment that he anticipates they'll be using today. Many of them will have an earth equivalent that he'll be familiar with. Notably the spanners as wrenches and drivers as screwdrivers.

"You go carry those out and I'll be right behind you."

[brother_alone]

Josh gives a two fingered salute and gets to the all important task of 'hold thing', 'name thing', and 'carry thing'. These are Things he can do. And he even recognizes most of the tools so that's a headache avoided already.

"I think I might even know how to use some of these."

The bike at least looks less likely to kill you with a bump due to Epic Tetanus. Josh considers that progress. Plus having a hobby might end up being a good use of his time.

No matter how many times Josh circles the remains of the swoop bike He can't make out how much damage has been done, or what besides the most obvious and ultimately unimportant things needs fixing.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

That's good that he can handle the hold and grab. As Josh is carrying out the tools, Han is grabbing the other thing they'll need. Beer. If he was fixing the Falcon, no, but since this is hobbyist mechanic work. Yes.

He comes out with a package of Ryll beer when he walks down the ramp to find Josh. He really needs to have this kid teach him the difference between good beers of the Nexus and the bad ones, because the quality varies so wildly. Especially in the ones from Earth.

This is actually the last of the beer he has from his galaxy. This sixer. Still got plenty of liquor though, so, that's something.

"So" He murmurs, as he snaps one apart from the package and offers to Josh. "You're at something of a disadvantage in learning on a restoration project. There's going to be so much replaced that we'll never determine the principal cause of why it wasn't running."

[brother_alone]

"I'm gonna go with 'Because Nature Hates It' as to the cause of it not working. 'Universal Karma', maybe."

Josh gets up from where he was bent over inspecting the bike, giving Han a shrug because yeah, he hasn't got a goddamned clue as to why or why not the thing was ever broken in the first place.

"Oh hell yes." Joshua Washington never turns down a drink, especially one given from a friend before manual labor is to be done. He feels suddenly like this is some kind of family project. Not sure why 'family' comes to mind since his own Father has spoken to him less than Han has already. Just feels right. He's okay with this.

"Other than that though...What're we going to tackle today?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han snaps off a drink for himself and sets the other four beverages aside. He wastes no time in opening the bottle. The top doesn't fit the classic mold of earth beer caps, but if Josh watches the Captain open his, he'll see that it justs twists off just the same.

"Fuel line work is what we're doing today." Solo brings the burgundy colored glassine bottle to his lips and takes the first draw from the beer. He's started being a little more mindful of refrigerating the drinks now that he's getting used to them being widely served that way around here.

"It's one of the few things we can do without any replacement parts."

[brother_alone]

It's a strange design to the bottle but beer is beer and Josh doesn't even say no to terrible beer he gets from shady tiny green aliens. No way he's turning down booze Solo offers him. It's not bad either, which Josh enunciates with a pleased hum and pulling the bottle away from his face to study it.

"This is pretty good." Once Joshua remembers to use his words properly.

Fuel line work. Josh nods along, expression blank because he hasn't the faintest idea of what that entails. One hand slips into his pocket to pull out his phone. The internet must know what that is, even if the details are different on a swoop bike than they are on a motorcycle or whatever the equivalent is. He taps with his hand holding the phone, while the other clutches at the beer.

"Please tell me we're not sucking fuel out of the lines."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Last of my beer from home." He murmurs. "It's called Ryll and they use it for all kinds of things at home, but making beer out of it is one of the best ways."

The alcohol itself compares to a pale ale. Subtle with notes of grains that taste mostly like wheat, but not completely. Pleasantly carbonated. It's not got the richest favor around, but not every beer needs to wow you. Sometimes simple is good.

"Our work stands to be awfully messy if we dont, kid." He says with that sarcastic smile of his starting to creep in. "You didn't think I'd do all the fun jobs without you, I hope."

[brother_alone]

"I like it. S'fresh."

It's the best way Josh can think of to describe the bright flavor he's experiencing. Since there's work to be done, though, Josh merely sips at the beer before setting it aside to look at the bike again. He's not drinking to get drunk. He's enjoying a project. Han probably wants him steady enough to hold a wrench--spanner, sorry. Spanner.

"Ugh." His nose wrinkles at the idea of having to breathe in gas fumes or if it got in his mouth, but a moment's hesitation reminds him he's done worse on a dare before. "We got some kinda tubing then or what?" Tan fingers fold his flannel shirt sleeves up to his elbows. He's ready to get to work.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Yes. Spanner, kid. It's a spanner. Call it a wrench and he's gonna give you the wicked side eye.

"Well, I let most of the fuel that had been sitting in it drip into a collector yesterday. I expected the fuel to be staler than it was." Which means it was sitting around for a lot less time than he initially thought.

"I'd love to flush it with some running water, but I don't know what my options are in the Nexus for that. Otherwise, we can make do gravity and water we can carry from off the ship."

[brother_alone]

"So this thing hasn't been a wreck for all that long." Looks like Josh is quick on the uptake, too. He's arrived at the same conclusion. "What did someone douse it in salt water and then laugh while it was left outside? Jesus."

There would be a lot more options for running water if they weren't this far removed from the main areas of the Nexus, Josh thinks. He gives a cursory look around all the same though, before reaching for his beer and taking a sip of it.

"Well, and here I thought we were gonna siphon it out. That's a much less disgusting idea." The kid nods and moves back toward the ramp of the ship. "You want me to fill up a bucket or something?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Your guess is as good as mine." He says with a shrug. "Only thing I can figure is maybe someone pulled it out of a stream or a lake at some point." Though that's ultimately not where Han found it, he found it at a scrapyard. Something weird happened to it though, no doubt about that.

Han takes another slug of the Ryll and then sets it down somewhere he thinks that he'll remember where it was later.

"They tend to design these things to drip where I come from. You never know what planet they're going to ship these to and what resources are going to be on hand." Siphons, yeah, those are pretty common on any planet sure, but water isn't always. That's why flushing he sees more as a bonus than a critical step.

The Captain starts heading toward the Falcon, expecting Josh to follow. "I've got a few stashed under the sink. We'll go together. It might take a few passes even with both of us."

[brother_alone]

"I'd imagine they're made with varying species buying them in mind too. Just because it's probably safe for us to tube and suck that shit out, doesn't mean it would be for something else."

Whatever else the day has in store for them, Josh didn't have to learn what rusty Corellian oil tastes like. His day is already a win. Plus, beer. Josh trots up the ramp after Han and follows him to the kitchen. Depending on how big the buckets are, he'll definitely be able to carry one full, possibly two if they're not quite so full.

He's still thinner than he was before coming to the Nexus, but he's starting to look more like his old self again, and with it comes some increased stamina for physical activities.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He's a smart kid, this Josh. That's one of several reasons that Han likes him and wants to keep him around. The little things he'll pick up on without Han needing to explain everything to death.

It's not occurred to him that Josh is different than he used to be. He hasn't known the kid all that long, though, living on your own with the kind of problems the kid has ... well, they kind of lead you to being underfed and not having the same stamina as a person of healthy weight does.

In any case, Captain Han has never been the kind of guy that orders someone to do something he isn't willing to do himself. He would have to hope that he seems like that kind of leader and that kind of man. They walk into the lounge, where the Falcon's makeshift kitchen is, and he grabs the buckets out from under the sink. Four of them.

It's one of those scenarios where the buckets are kind of big and the sink is kind of small, so each one has to get wedged into there under the faucet and they can only get about half filled. He gets two ready to go for Josh and sends him on his way. He'll be right behind with two more.

[brother_alone]

Half full buckets are the best kind of buckets for Josh's noodle arms. Kid scowls at the work it takes to lift them either way, but at least he can manage without too much trouble. This would have been no big deal Before.

Before the Nexus is quickly becoming it's own catchall time period for Josh. Before his sister's deaths and after were their own times too. It's easier for him to compartmentalize that way. Shut himself off from periods he doesn't want to face.

The Falcon's too small to get lost on so Josh wastes no time in heading back outside and over to the swoop bike. An excited smile flits across his face as he imagines it up and running, making that THRMTHRMTHRMMMMMM noise they did in the movies. COurse that was all special effects. This.

This is the real deal.

"Just you wait, baby. We'll have you up and running in no time."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

The Falcon seems huge from the outside, but in reality, no. It's not all that big at all. It also helps that its layout is circular. Keep going around and eventually, you'll find the place you're looking for. It's only when you start to look for the stuff that you're not supposed to find that you'll have any trouble.

Besides, the daylight streaming through the ramp is a good indicator of where 'outside' is.

Han sets down his own buckets about two minutes behind his friend with an unceremonious plop. The water shifts around in the bucket and a small amount splashes around the side.

"I'll show you what we have to take apart to make the bike ready to flush. We'll need the spanner. Do you want to do the pouring too or not?"

[brother_alone]

Wrench. They need the--

"What size?" Josh holds up both spanners Han gave him to carry outside, eyebrow raised. He's not sure if this is supposed to be obvious and he's just not getting it, but he at least remembered which one was the spanner.

"Out of the buckets? Sure. Sounds kind of hard to fuck up."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"The fifteen millimeter."

Han is prepared to point out which spanner is the one he wants, but he's got this feeling that his friend is just going to know. Still, he's observing. Just in case.

When they get beyond the matter of which tool is the right tool, Han will position himself on the ground, but off to the side so the kid can get to where the bolts they need to remove are. He'll point out each one and he takes it upon himself to hold each one when Josh removes it.

"Okay, that's the last going to be the last one, so take it off, but hold the inner panel in place for a second and get out from underneath it. Otherwise, that shit is going to drip on you." He's drained it. There wouldn't be a lot of junk to come out of there at this point, but it's likely that he would have got a little bit surprise if not for the warning.

Also, Han's taking this opportunity to get out from under the bike now. Thanks.

[brother_alone]

The little one. Got it. Josh chucks the larger one behind him over his shoulder (gently, he might need it in a minute) without so much as a backward glance and drops down onto the ground to get under the bike.

"Been under a lot of things, this is definitely the rustiest." Josh mutters while he gets himself lined up for the job at hand. He doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about the dirt they're laying in or anything else, trusting Han will warn him if there's any kind of danger he needs to be aware of. "You got a...here. Take this would you?" Josh hands Han the spanner and then shimmies out from under the bike, one hand still holding the panel in place as firmly as he can so as not to drip anything until he's well clear of it.

Once he's out, Josh looks around before letting go, raising an eyebrow Han's way.

"Anything we can collect this into or are we just gonna say 'fuck the planet' and let it seep into the ground?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

There are a couple of answers that comes to Han's mind and because it's Han we're talking about, they're mostly sarcastic ones. He has to believe that the eyebrow and the comment has to do with the fact that little brother does give a crap about what they may or may not be dumping into the ground.

Han reaches for his beer and purposefully kicks over one of their water buckets so that it tips over. He takes a sip of his drink and gives the water a chance to run out onto the ground. Then he picks it up and places it underneath the about to be open port that Josh is still holding.

"I question the 'planetness' of the Nexus, for the record."

[brother_alone]

"Objection has been noted and added to the record." Josh quips back, letting the panel fall away so that the fluid can drip safely in containment for the time being. He's not some hippy tree hugger, but he does do his best not to go dicking around throwing mother nature the double bird if he can help it.

He's seen some of the scarier things Nature produces. Best stay on Mother Nature's good side. Everything else is real here, why shouldn't she be? And she's probably one cold bitch, too.

There's a grease stain on his forehead from where a drop had fallen on him, and he's starting to look dirty. Kid's finally starting to look like he belongs among Han's peers if he ignores the odd fabric to his clothes.

"So okay, that's where it comes out of. Where do we pour the water in?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

An essential part of flushing is to know where to put the water in. He's not wrong about that.

The overracer should feel similarly to a motorcycle for Josh, because that is what they take the place of in his galaxy. Not unlike what is custom to the bikes of Earth, he points out that the tank for the fuel sits in a position just ahead of the seat.

"This is the spot here." He murmurs, unscrewing the cap and adding it to the things he's juggling in his grip. He supposes he should go put the beer down again. "Slow and steady with the pour, kid."