🔫 Get the Governor!

"Well Rik, I'm not sure. Racing is my game and I drive EVERYwhere. That's why I hitched a ride this time. But I am a quick learner. How hard can it be? Just point and shoot?"

The truth was her ship was only happy going super fast. It wasn't the type of vessel you took for shopping trips. She'd arrive at the destination an hour before everyone else and twiddle her thumbs waiting. Going together in a group seemed like it would be more fun.

You all fly off your separate ways, and do what you need to do to set up for the governor's party, or research the manor from watching the Trivids, or pass the time in a drunken haze betting on wild geese juggling, or looking into any of the morsels of information you've gleened.

Tell us how you spend the three days. Embellish and go hog wild.

Damak leans mighty heavily on Mina for choices and Rik for How fantabulous do I look?

She did have a great if narrow wardrobe. The problem was it was all racing outfits in every color of the galaxy. Not only had she never worn any kind of gown, she had no idea how to walk in those shoes. But boy did she enjoy this shopping trip. As much as it wasn't her bag, what was her bag was teasing the hell out of the two love birds who were very obviously into each other yet too shy to make a move. Being the opportunist she was whenever Rik got too close to Mina, Damak somehow managed to trip and push them into each other. And so it went for the entirety of the shopping trip.

Rik tries to show off some cool piloting maneuvers while flying to the Mega Bazaar. When they get to the shops, he quickly realizes that Damak and Mina can talk endlessly about clothing. And besides that, Damak keeps bumping into him, and making kissy faces when Mina isn't looking. What a weirdo. "I think you may need to go see a doctor, Damak. You seem to be stumbling a lot. And yes, you look fantabulous." He says with an annoyed eyeroll, realizing what she's trying to do. Although, Rik has to admit, he's enjoying the company of someone who's not Rhugo for a change. No offence to Rhugo, he's the best co-pilot one could wish for, but he feels pretty suave taking two babes shopping.

Luckily, Rik has to PHONE his contact to get some fake ID's, so he uses that excuse to go and do his own thing for a little bit.After dealing with that, he meets up with the ladies again. He'd never say it, but he's having a good time. In return they help him pick out a good outfit too. After a few hours, Rik has been promoted to their personal mule. Barely able to see through the many bags and boxes stacked on top of his arms, he tries to follow Mina and Damak back to the White Wyvern.

"I'm not sure we can fit all this in the ship." He says half joking, half honestly worried.

"I suppose we can wear as much as can fit. Would that help?" Damak giggles and realizes she hasn't had this much fine since her last race.

Grego and Ash land by the gardens, and begin their tour. Over the next three days Grego points out good potential ambush sites, as well as some carnivorous plants that can be used as traps. He and Ash get to know all the ways in and out of the gardens, including a vine covered hole in the fence that no one's bothered to repair.

Despite her worries about Damak's cybernetics and the "void", Mina dove into the task of picking out gowns and dresses for Damak.

** Cut to a scene with Mina instructing Damak how to "sway those hips" in high heels and a datapad balanced on her head. **

Mina also picks out some cute outfits for herself, thankful for the few creds she stashed back from previous jobs to foot her part of the bill.

Damak's teasing about her fascination with Rik makes Mina blush from time to time, but nothing is quite as fun as watching Rik tongue-tied. Mina snickers and giggles as Rik carries all of their stuff to the Wyvern. "We should probably get these gowns retrofit for weapons... since we'll actually need to do something along with the dancing and drinking, right?"

"Yeah. It won't be all fun and games although this job might actually be fun. We'd need to find a really good cyber-seamer to make our weapons blend in perfectly, you know? I'd probably leave my rifle behind and bring my pistol. No one can see my built-in taser and targeting device so I'm good there at least.

Damak laughs as Rik struggles with all their purchases. "He is cute. You could do worse, Mina"

Rhugo's restrained demeanor left him alone with the ships while the rest went for... shopping they said? And someone mentioned something about getting IDs... That must have been Rik.
"I hope he remembers that he still owes a bunch of credits to that forger... His tentacles appeared to mean serious business... "

Rhugo sighed and grabbed the closest punks he could see faking being unconscious.
"You! Make sure the ships stay at one piece. Or I'll find you. And you will be wishing I'd just shoot you in the face."
He growled, letting some drool leave his mouth to his absolute embarrassment - but hey, whatever works, right?
He threw the two punks down and took off. His appearance often made people be wary of him - which was great at times like this, but usually it required some extra effort from him to stop people from shooting him or from just running away screaming.

He headed to a vape den, where he could have some peace while thinking about the ten different possible ways their crew would get in trouble and how he'd get them out of said trouble.

Mina glances over at Damak. "I could do worse? He could do so much better." She chews on the inside of her cheek for a moment, then adds, "Give me some bounty on the run or a shootout, I'm your girl... but is a handsome guy like him even interested in a... nerf-herder like me?"

"That's not for me to say and for you to find out how interested he really is, Mina. You'll just have to get to know him better. That's part of the fun too! Ha! Listen to me the expert. I've had a few groupie boyfriends but what they really wanted was a ride in my ship."

Damak chuckles, her eyes glowing mischeviously. She's enoyed watching the awkwardness between Mina and Rik and the shopping trip turned out to be way more fun than she could have ever imagined, so much so that she's sorry to see it end.

"Hey, can you two stop yapping and help me with getting these in the trunk?" Rik calls from over by the back of his ship. He seems to be struggling with fitting everything in. "Maybe if I cut up this bag, I can fit one half here and the other there..." He says mostly to himself, then raises his voice to talk to Mina and Damak again " What are you talking about anyway?" Rik now has an elbow firmly pushing down on some of the cargo.

"We're talking about all of Damak's groupie boyfriends who lusted after her ship!" Mina calls back loudly. She glances over at Damak and gives her a sly wink.

Damak laughs uproariously at Mina's remarks again.

"Yeah," she says dreamily, playing up the drama. "There was a trail of hot bodies coming and going from my quarters after every race. It's what comes of being at the pinnacle of your sport.

Mina gives out a low whistle of appreciation and tries to hide her grin. "Rik, could you even imagine?" She calls back towards Rik as he finishes up with stowing gear. "It must be nice to have all those boy toys," she continues loudly, playfully trying to make Rik a little jealous, to tease him to see how he reacts. Then, a little more seriously, she says to her friend, "Not that I blame those boys, Damak, you're an incredible racer. I'm not sure why you hunt bounties on the side. I'd think you'd be rich from those trophies and sponsorships."

" Aww thank you. Damak almost blushes. I'm an adrenaline junkie. When I'm not racing I need that fix ... ya know? It's more for the excitement of the chase."

Damak's answer surprises Mina a bit. She glances down the hall towards Rik to see if she can see him, then turns back to her ally. "It can be exciting. For me, well, I started hunting bounties in hopes of finding justice for people. But now? I realize there really isn't justice in this galaxy, so I might as well try to get rich."

"Huh? What?" Rik pretends not to have heard the question, but a bit of a blush gives him away. He walks to the cockpit and starts to get in. "Well, we're good to go. We should go and meet up with Rhugo. He's probably in some vape den by now." It's become second nature to Rik to know where Rhugo would be. And vice versa of course. The two have been spending a lot of time together, after all.

During their tour of the gardens, Ash takes note of a service door for the palace behind a gorgeous Daanoshian hedge pointed out by Grego. He smiles and says, "There's no way to open that from the outside, well without explosives, but if someone on the inside leaves it ajar ... that's our ticket to the party!"
Ash and Grego, get a message from the White Wyvern and head to the vape bar to rendezvous with the others after their recon.

"Alright folks, Grego found an out of sight service entrance into the palace. If one of you can open that at some point during the party, Rhugo, Grego and I can get in to add support. It's big enough to bring in any heavy equipment we might need, including any weapons you might not be able to hide in those fancy outfits," he gestures to Damak's rifle and Rik's crossbow. He looks at Mina's fighting stick, but realizes staves are in style at the moment among the aristocrats, so she'll probably be able to get away with it. "There's some great spots in the garden to cache things, so we won't look suspicious the night of the party carrying loads of equipment into the gardens. We can make a few visits to drop things off over the next few days."

"How did the shopping go? Do we get a fashion show or what?"

"Rhugo, did you discover anything useful in those Trivids?"

"Is there anything else we need to prepare? Otherwise, what's fun in town? I don't just want to sit around vaping for the next three days!"

"Oh, I won't vape. It takes away my competitive edge and I take that very seriously," she says very seriously. As if a mood switch was flipped she enthusiastically recounts the shopping trip. "It was way more fun than I expected but not because of the shopping," she giggles and smiles at Mina. "But we got what we needed for party infiltration. I can cache my rifle somewhere on the grounds, yeah. It won't be the right accent for my gown," she says holding back a laugh.

"When did you want to start stashing stuff in the garden?"