<strong>Name:</strong>Kayda Vendar. (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=228412.msg11209736#msg11209736)<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Rogue Shadow, Hangar<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Open.<br/><hr/><div class="floatright">(http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/ninjabreadman1993/Negotiations/Staite/Jewel-Staite-Avy_zpsnsvqe0ra.jpg)</div><br/>It might not sound like the words of an "elite pilot," but Kayda is absolutely shattered. Her breath's coming in short, sharp pants and even now she can feel small droplets of sweat trickling down her forehead from the exertion of having to run half the length of the ship in what feels like five-minutes-too-slow. Oh, she made good time - of that she's certain - but she almost blew out her lungs doing so! Seriously, her respiratory system feels like the the patchy fuel cells of a twenty-year-old Junker after exiting a protracted bout in Hyperspace....that is, empty, straining and ready to implode from the pressure. Yes, she's a member of Rogue Squadron, and yes this is supposed to be the home of the brightest and best pilots and support crew in the entire New Republic, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can run for what feels like miles at top-speed and not feel exhausted afterwards. She's good enough to get by, but extended cardio was never her strong point; on the streets, you needed to have a quick enough burst of speed to get ahead of your pursuers, and then it turned into a grand game of Hide And Go Seek as you sought to slip into anonymity in the crowds and back alleys...a running youth would just attract attention, after all, so after breaking line of sight, you had to be clever about where you hid yourself. So, she learned to be a good sprinter rather than a long distance runner, and whilst they're kind of similar...they utilise very different techniques and muscles. It's like comparing flying an X-Wing to piloting a HWK. One is faster and more agile but meant for short journeys, whereas a HWK is bulkier and slower but better for long distance flights. You can kind of see the connection - an X-Wing pilot might still be a better HWK pilot than somebody who's never flown anything before - but they're still two entirely different things.<br/><br/>Of course, she can't complain<em>too</em>much, since her need to sprint the length of several sports fields (or at least, that's what it feels like right now with her doubled over trying to catch her breath) is pretty much entirely her own rottin' fault. See, she<em>knew</em>that they had an official function today - of<em>course</em>she did; they only reminded her, like, fifty times in the past week - and she still ended up being late. She can't even blame it on her alarm clock going off late, since she doesn't even know if it did or not; it frequently does, of course - a side effect of Kayda's constant tampering, probably - but there is absolutely no way to know right now whether that was the case this morning since...well, she wasn't<em>in</em>her own quarters this morning, which is part one of why she's so late. See, there's this kinda cute Technician she met a few months back when he was tuning up one of the other Squadron Members A-Wing when she was in the Hangar tinkering with Scrappy - her B-Wing - to see if she could squeeze just a little more juice out of the engines. Nothing major, she just wanted to know if she<em>could.</em>Well, she must have crossed some wires wrong or something - not difficult, considering just how many wires are tangled up in Scrappy at this point in time - because it gave her a pretty nasty shock and caused her to jump to her feet....which resulted in her smacking her head against the underside of Scrappy. Yeah, she knows...how "Elite" of her, right? Well, this Technician - Kyran, his name is - heard the yelp (followed by the loud bang and the even<em>louder</em>yelp) and came rushing over to help. He was sweet, kinda cute and they got on well, so ended up as fast friends, as these things generally go.<br/><br/>Of course, he gets extremely flustered around pretty young ladies, so Kayda has had a lot of fun teasing and flirting with him over the past couple of months...which eventually culminated in last night. Nothing specific set it off, it had just been a long day (Kayda had procrastinated reading the dossiers on the new recruits, so had had to try and cram them all into her day off) and she needed some stress relief. So when she bumped into him in the Common Room during one of her breaks to rest her eyes...she thought "why the hell not," and ended up in his quarters. Kyran knows that it isn't anything "serious" - by this point, her somewhat unique views on sex have probably made the rounds of the ship; sex is a good stress relief and wonderful exercise, so why not treat it as the pleasurable passtime it is? - but that didn't stop him from giving her a rather wonderful night. Nothing rough - he's not that kinda guy - but hey, soft and slow is enjoyable too, right? But the side effect was that...well, they ended up sleeping in. He, being an absolute gentleman, allowed her to get a shower first so she could rush off to her room to get her formal wear ready and, after an agreement to meet up for drinks later, she did just that. Their quarters aren't that far apart - just a short walk - but she was already pretty late so she ended up half-pulling on her uniform before sprinting down to the Hangar to try and pretend like she<em>wasn't</em>completely and totally late. She had looked a little guiltily at the small pile of unread Dossiers - it would be awkward if she had to use knowledge from those few little folders - but she just didn't have the time to skim them properly. She had a twenty minute walk (ish) to make in five, so....she just told Joe to follow her and legged it. Hm? Who's Joe? Oh, it's her little R5-J03 Astromech. She found him when she was a lot younger, before she joined the New Republic, and he has been with her ever since...and, of course, she's been tinkering with him for a long time. The R5's were never as good as their descendants - the R7 series in particular was fantastic - but the R5's were always good for Modders and Tinkerers, and her little Joe could - with the upgrades she's given him - easily match even the last generation of Astromechs. Of course, she might be a little bias on that conclusion.<br/><br/>Hence....the run, and why she is now doubled over, leaning heavily on the wall just next to the small pair of doors - usually meant for Technician Access - that will lead her quietly into the Hangar. From the general hubbub coming from the other side, she can guess with at least reasonable certainty that they're still in the "mingling phase," and haven't yet been called to attention to formally welcome the new recruits. That, for the recruits, will be absolutely terrifying. She still remembers her first day, just over a year ago, when she was led onto this imposing starship filled with legendary names that she had heard hundreds of stories about in her time in the rank and file of the Republic Navy, and she had no idea what to expect. Each one of these people could fill the room with their reputation, even the lowest of support staff having massive amounts of kudos simply by being in Rogue Squadron. And what did she have? A beaten up B-Wing and an old, modded Astromech with a patchy history with the law. Hell, as much as she likes to tinker, she's never been formally trained as a Mechanic or an Engineer, so the people working on the ships here likely know more than she ever will. And she somehow got the attention necessary to get transferred? It was daunting. Terrifying. Awe-inspiring. She can still remember just how hard her heart had beat in her chest at the prospect of meeting and having to impress these legends, these almost mythical characters in Navy lore. It isn't a feeling she particularly misses, she'll say that much...and now? Now she IS one of the legends. She hasn't done much in her year to warrant many stories about<em>her</em>specifically - though Kyran claims that there are a few circulating the ranks, she doesn't believe him; it could just be him trying to wind her up - but she's still a member of Rogue Squadron, and that gives her at least some of that legendary atmosphere. She isn't sure how she feels about that.<br/><br/>A bump on her leg tells her that Joe has caught up with her - which probably means that she has been standing there procrastinating for way too long - and she looks down at the battered, faded little droid. He lets out a small whirr, quiet and soft, and she smiles. "I know," she says, "I should really stop dithering 'n head in." Joe lets out an affirmative series of beeps, then pauses as if thinking about something. After a moment, a small compartment in his side slides open and a battered, slightly dented tray slides out towards Kayda, who looks at it and grins. Joe always did know what she needed...even though she knows that he's just an AI program, she can't help but think of him as a real person most of the time. He's her oldest and most loyal friend, and he often seems just like a living creature....and maybe he is. After all, what are humans but complex biological machines? Why can't an AI be capable of the same things a Human is? She reaches down and pats Joe's dome affectionately. "Thank you kindly, good sir," she giggles, before moving to take the items on the tray. The first one is just a simple hand towel, which she uses to dab the sweat off of her brow and arms before replacing it on the tray and taking the second one. This one is a simple handmirror, a frame of simple unadorned wood with reflective glass set into the medium-sized square that the slim handle spreads out into to become. She runs it quickly over herself - using it to fix her hair, catch any bits of sweat that she missed and to sort out her outfit - before placing that, too, on the tray which dutifully disappears back into Joe's cylindrical body.<br/><br/>She dusts herself down, straightening her top as she does so and adjusts her jumpsuit. The standard flightsuit of a Rogue Squadron pilot is generally a bright orange jumpsuit, with the other fanfare - helmets, gloves, support straps, the white breastplate, etc - being collected and added in the event that you are required to fly your bird. No point in wearing flight helmets when walking around the Cruiser, now is there? It would just get in the way, and you'd look pretty silly. Now the jumpsuits on their own are fine - they're not particularly baggy, instead being very tight-fitting to avoid snagging on anything or restricting movement and are, once you get used to them, fairly comfortable if a little stuffy at times (and tight-fitting on Kayda tends to look pretty good, so she's not about to complain) - but the act of walking around in them all day every day tends to get Kayda, at least, a little heated up. And the colour, DAMN is it hideous. Bright orange and white? Who came up with that colour scheme? It is perhaps the most hideously unflattering colour combination that Kayda has ever had the misfortune of wearing, and that - if you saw some of the clothes she had to wear when she was living on the streets - is saying something. Thankfully, Rogue Squadron is allowed to get away with personalising it a little; Kayda deliberately got the suit in a half-size too small so that instead of it being half-baggy, it instead hugs her figure rather nicely and instead of wearing it zipped up all the time, she wears a small, tight white vest underneath the jumpsuit itself (it has to be small and tight, or it wouldn't fit underneath the uniform) and, when she can get away with it (which is most of the time), she tends to only half-wear the suit with the top half lying pooled around her waist, the arms hanging down by her legs.<br/><br/>The effect is that it looks like she's wearing skintight orange trousers and a tight white vest (still maintaining the colour scheme, just in a less offensive-to-the-eyes way) with an orange jumper of some kind wrapped around her waist...though of course, the 'suit isn't pulled down<em>too</em>far. The inherent tightness of the 'suit means that wearing anything beneath it on the lower body is difficult if it's too bulky and the excellent heat insulation the suits are designed with makes it very easy to "overheat...." so beyond the obvious undergarments, Kayda very rarely wears anything more than a pair of fairly short shorts beneath the suit to at least give her some covering if she has to take the suit off for any reason. Of course, she doesn't feel like showing the rest of the crew her shorts-that-are-just-a-bit-too-long-to-class-as-underwear in the middle of the hangar, so she tends to keep the bottom half of her suit on, when on duty. The vest's size, on the other hand, varies from day to day - she has some that bare her midriff rather brazenly - but today she's gone with a longer one that extends the length of her upper body. Wearing anything too revealing would be inappropriate. Of course, that doesn't stop the vest from being fairly low-cut - not like "plunging neckline on a Twi'lek Escort" bad, but enough to clearly expose her collar and the top of her chest - which leads into her second "personalisation." When she<em>has</em>to wear the top of her uniform properly, she never - unless she's in the cockpit of Scrappy - does it up all the way, instead having the front of the uniform unzipped about halfway to give her upper body some breathing room. It gets<em>really</em>stuffy in that outfit, and that way, at least, it lets some air get to her body to help cool her down a bit. Plus, it helps make the uniform look at least a little good because<em>damn,</em>tight fitting clothing suits her (in her opinion, of course, but apparently in many of the males opinions as well). And hey, if you have to wear a hideous uniform, why not at least make it a little pleasing to the eye, eh? She'll pull up the jumpsuit properly when the Function starts in earnest, but for the "mingling," she doesn't see why she can't wear her usual "style." It could at least make her seem more approachable to the new recruits, and if not...well, it would make<em>her</em>feel more comfortable. She's never been able to stand still without fidgeting for any length of time with any ease before, so...every little helps, y'know?<br/><br/>Another bump on the leg and a louder, slightly more insistent whirr comes from Joe and she sighs. "Yes yes, I know." Taking a few deep breaths to steady her breathing - she's at least managed to get her breath back now, and somehow doesn't look like she's just run half the length of the ship - she turns and pushes the door to the Hangar open, stepping inside as quietly as she can. She closes the door behind her, then scans the room; most of the recruits are already here, including the few that she didn't get to read the Dossiers of (she'll have to do that tonight, alas), along with if not all then the majority of the Rogue Squadron "veterans." Some are chatting to the recruits (who, perhaps unsurprisingly, look like they have stars in their eyes) and others are relaxing at the edge of the groups and along the walls, evidently scanning the crowd to assess the calibre of the new pilots. Some are more serious than others, of course, so perhaps it's best that the rookies get to know the more friendly Vets before they get introduced and subsequently terrified by the more stern, serious ones. Rogue Squadron is kinda like a family, after all, and the purpose for this "mingling" is to get the Rookies comfortable and welcomed into the group. Break the ice, as it were. She pauses for a moment, then feels Joe bump into the back of her leg. She looks back at him and rolls her eyes dramatically...but he is right. She needs to get involved. She remembers what it was like for her, so the least she can do is represent the fun-loving females, right? Already the chance to slip back out unnoticed has gone as a few people catch sight of her. A couple of recruits glance at her and look away nervously, and a few Vets notice and wave. Well...here goes nothing! She grins her natural, bright smile - not hard, since she's a naturally cheerful, friendly person - and strides over to the large group in the middle of the hangar to "mingle." She says hi to a few Vets she passes, but makes a beeline for the recruits, who all seem to be gravitating towards each other, as if for safety, even as some of them are chatting shyly to the Vets. Mingle and make them feel welcome, like the Vets did for her on her first day. Shouldn't be too hard; they seem like a polite bunch, and she's a naturally friendly person; time to make some friends! Maybe this Ceremony won't be as mind-numbingly dull as she had worried. at the very least, nobody has commented on how casually she's wearing her uniform yet....maybe they're just used to it. She sincerely hopes so; she likes wearing the outfit this way. Less stuffy, y'know? She grins at the pair of recruits who she spotted noticing her a few moments ago, and steps up to them.<br/><br/>"Hey there, Rook's!" she beams, and holds her hand out for them to shake, which they each do in turn. "The name's Kayda, but y' can call me Kay." She smiles at the pair. "Feelin' nervous?" They nod, and one of them even flushes. She lets out a warm chuckle. "Don't be. It's all jus' pomp and ceremony, it'll be over b'fore you know it." Just...be friendly. Be herself. That's all she needs to do, and these fine young rookies will feel at home in no time.*<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>*These two are NPC's to get Kayda into the main group, but if any "New Guys" want to be one of the pair, PM me or let me know in the OOC and I can edit it to reflect the change. :-) Otherwise, Kayda will likely leave the pair to their own devices in her next post.<br/>Also, posts this length shouldn't be too common...this was just my intro post, which - for me - tends to be very long, haha.</em>