driftfleet | [ Open ] Catch-All: My Kind of Party

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[ Open ] Catch-All: My Kind of Party

Who: Jim Kirk & You!
Broadcast: Nope
Action: Yes, planet!
When: All Month Long

Turns out that they might have gotten a break this time around. Kirk is suspicious, but willing to let himself indulge while they can. When the breaks come, they should be enjoyed. He was quick to sign up with the Starstrikers, even tough the mascot was a little... meh. But hey, he wasn't here for mascots.

He was here to have some fun - and maybe take a few championship belts if he could, or some records. He would be okay with either.

a: spaceship races
Every kind of competition imaginable is available here, and that's never been more true than with the space ship races. Kirk hadn't been sure what to expect, but oh did his heart race when he saw what it really meant. Small passenger ships, meant for maybe four total crew, ranging in shape and color and size and all primed and geared to go as fast as possible through the designated course.

So much easier than trying to get the Enterprise to push past her mach limits and beat out Klingon war birds. And more fun.

He raced alone just fine, but if someone wanted to partner up in the cockpit he was for. For the observers and tag-a-longs, they would find that the captain was quite daring when it came to fitting through tight places or pulling maneuvers. Like rushing through an asteroid field and trying to edge out a lead by dodging through some tightly closing rocks...

"It'll fit! It'll fit!"

b: motorbike races
If he couldn't be racing past stars, racing motorbikes was the next best thing. It was certainly a lot more fun than the last time he had been on a motorbike. A lot less on the line, that was for sure. It took him a bit to get used to the mechanics of these machines, but once he figured it out, it wasn't to very different from back on Earth. The tracks were way more advanced, but hey, that wasn't so bad. He found the natural tracks better though, the ones that sent you racing through trees and over cliffs and dunes. He was at least relatively successful, winning more than he lost.

He was happy to have less official matches with anyone who wanted one, or take a drive just to enjoy the scenery. Just don't laugh at him in the official match suits. He only, kind of, chose these colors and it was better for the suits not to be to baggy. As proven when he crashed a few times. Even good racers have bad days, okay?

c: gambling
Everything can't be an adrenaline rush all the time, right? Or at least, not the same kind of rush. So Kirk whiles away some of the hours gambling. It's not often, but he participates now and then - usually in black jack or poker. He can't quite count cards, but he has good luck which could be just as useful when it came down to it.

He switches between tables and games at intervals when he is there, never sticking to any one thing for to long. Maybe he bumps you on the way to a new table or game, nodding his head in that direction.

"You in?"

d: hand-to-hand combat
Star Fleet might push for peace, but that didn't mean that its people didn't know how to hold their own in a fight. The universe wasn't always a very kind place, after all, and Kirk had never been a stranger to a fight or two. Usually in bars, but hey, he had been smoothed around the edges. The truth was that he liked the challenge, the unpredictability of close-up combat with another person, and it took off some of the edge. That, and he was always interested in new techniques from new cultures.

He avoided the gladiator style rings and kept to the smaller matches. The upgrades from Atroma came in handy - he could take a hit a lot better now, and give one back. He would almost call it cheating it some of his opponents didn't have an even bigger weight advantage on him. Free-for-all and round-robin styles literally meant just that, it seemed. More often than not he came out of the ring with bruises, and a cut here or there, but nothing very serious that a bandaid and a shot of whiskey couldn't fix.

And if he's fighting someone from the Fleet? Well, don't expect him to hold back.

"Hit me with your best shot."

e: smile for the camera
Kirk is used to being one of two things - the golden boy, or the pain in the neck. It tends to waver between the two, but given the number of feats he has under his belt, he's more used to the latter than the former. He seemed to have a fairly even balance here on the planet, decked in his Starstrikers jacket - all he would allow himself of the branding so long as he could manage it. He was not going to be a walking advertisement, thank you.

If someone wanted a picture, or an autograph, he would give it, though he honestly seemed a little taken aback and flustered by that. But hey, whatever the people want, right? Of course the opposite could be true. Opposing teams or just fans who didn't like he had beaten out their favorite player could get in his face, which Kirk wasn't to afraid to get back into either. Definitely Starstriker material.

So why is that he looks so confused when he gets off his phone one day, fresh coffee in hand (oh god, fresh, delicious coffee).

"When did I get an agent?"

f: wild card!
You can find Jim enjoying the other pleasures the planets have to offers besides rousing competition such as:
- a sunny day at the beach
- shopping for new clothes or books
- trying out the local foods and bars
- spectating at sports
- probably getting into bar fights somewhere
- anything you can think of!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"We get to come to this type now and then. Usually just after we've experienced the planets like the last one. Like Atroma knows we need it to keep our own sanity," he frowned into his coffee cup. "If you believe the whole tv show theory, it's the filler episodes while viewers recover from the drama."

"Is that the theory behind the order of the planets? I've only seen three systems so I'm curious to see if that order proves correct with more systems." He took a sip of his coffee. "The only shows I am aware of that some races watched were romantic dramas."

Soap opera.

"One ally of the Empire was apparently very fond of them."

"The rough order, yes. Sometimes they come in pairs or long stretches, but I've noticed that usually, after planets that leave us all a bit raw, we get something like this to calm us down. Usually."

He took a large sip of his coffee - even the cup branded, because why would it not be? Even the coffee's name was a brand, but hell if he could actually remember it.

"Did you not have things like television in your planet?"

"Interesting. How thoughtful of the people who brought us here without asking to do something like that." There was some definite sarcasm to that.

"Most planets have some entertainment like that. However, most Galra have a position within the Empire, but not all of them. Last I knew, Galra who were classified as 'civilians' had options available from what other races created if they wanted. I did not watch it."

The look he gives Ulaz suggests he feels that sarcasm to very hard. He's right there with you buddy. But what could they do? They had no control over where they went, so sad as it was, he was grateful for these sort of breathers.

"To be honest I can't remember the last time I actually watched TV. Back home we would get packages for the entertainment room on the ship, but it was mostly movies and stuff, and I didn't spend much time in there either," he rolled his neck, cracking it as he did. "Kind of feels like life has enough drama in it without needing to watch fake drama on top of it."

He knows there is nothing that can be done and he should be grateful for both that down time but also for the chance to get to know the paladins and these other humans, but he still doesn't like it on general principle.

"I think I saw some when I was very young, but then the desire to watch it stopped. Then there was no time. The Empire has a bit more barbaric ideas of fun that I didn't agree with, but had to support. Besides, there's more than enough drama in the Galra ranks to be entertaining if you could keep from showing your amusement."

"If I might ask - are the Galra a militaristic race?"

The question does not sound as if he is bothered by it on its face. And the idea of a society being based strongly on military is not in and of itself distasteful to him. What they do with that might, though, can be. He had respect for the Klingon, their abilities, but he had no respect for the way in which they used their might, conquering planets and bending races to their will. From the way Ulaz spoke, he could guess at the ways in which the Empire used their might by Ulaz's tone, but he did not wish to outright assume either.

Now there was a loaded question if Ulaz had ever heard one. Were the Galra militaristic. But there was really no point in hiding it.

"It is too much to say all Galra are militaristic. The Empire is militaristic, fueled by Emperor Zarkon and his witch."

Since she is here, he will be nice and not mention her name... You're welcome, Haggar.

"The generals fight with each other, always trying to one up each other to get on the Emperor's good side. The Empire seeks to conquer the entire known universe, how much freedom each planet gets depends on how valuable they are, how much they cooperate, or how compassionate the commanders in their sector happen to be.

There are Galra though who wish to stop the Empire, to bring it back to what it was before it was controlled by a tyrant."

He wonders if Witch is the literal sense or not. He wasn't sure what to believe anymore, especially since apparantley the heroes of the place Ulaz and the others come from fly around in giant robot lions which still make no logical sense.

"Huh. Sounds a lot like the Klingon Empire," he mused, and that wasn't much of a lie. It certainly made things easier to picture. His eyes watched Ulaz for a moment. "You're one of the ones trying to make it better." He couldn't recall Ulaz saying it specifically, but it didn't take a genius to pick apart his choice of words up to that point and figure out he wasn't very in love with the way his people were doing things at the moment.

When has he ever steered you wrong? Though the comment about witch might make sense knowing she was more a sorceress and not the Earth version that flew around on a broom stick.

He had never actually told Kirk about it, but he could tell he was certain about the answer because it wasn't a question when he asked. He already knew.

"I am a member of the Blade of Marmora. We are working to take down Zarkon's Empire. We thought initially the expansion would bring stability, but a tyrant doesn't care about stability."

Well, not once so far, which is a bonus really.

"I wish you luck," Kirk said with all sincerity, and then something seemed to occur to him. "Would Shiro and Lance and the others be helping you?" he inquired. He knew they had come from the same world, but in all honesty they had never expanded much on what they did besides Lance bragging about piloting a lion that combined with others into a large robot in a completely ridiculous bit of engineering he still didn't quite get how that all worked.

But he digressed.

"From what I have been told, yes, they are working with the Blade of Marmora to try and accomplish their goals. As for myself, my time fighting that war has ended but it allowed the paladins to continue their fight."

Read: he sacrificed himself to allow the paladins to live. He has no regrets about that. It was the only option possible.

He could read, and very well. It was a hard admission to miss, subtle though it was, and for a moment his chest pinched tightly. He had come to enjoy Ulaz's company, and he had to admit a sadness at the knowledge that, back in his own world, Ulaz's time had come to an end.

His only acknowledgement of the weight behind those words was to reach up and squeeze Ulaz's shoulder briefly.

"Fighting's done and now you get to consume all the team branded coffee you want," he waved his hand around them and the altars to consumerism all around. "Not bad coffee either, actually."

Ulaz glanced over as Kirk reached over to squeeze his shoulder. So he understood what he had said there. Not that it had been very hard for someone with some intelligence to figure out. It was also curious to him because it had been a duty on his part. If he hadn't done it, the paladins may not have made it and Voltron would have been destroyed or fallen into the wrong hands.

"Yes, that I do. No, it isn't too bad. I suppose I will have to pick some up before we depart from this system."

Duty or not, Kirk at least mourned. He had laid to rest more than a few of his own, in their line of duty, and he mourned for them. He knew not every race felt the same, viewed it the same, and that was all right. But he couldn't help but have the human reaction, if one tempered by his own experience in sacrificing all - the needs of the many before the needs of the one, and all that.

"It will make the storage holds smell good, at least. Suppose I should put together a shopping list and stock up soon too. What do your people usually eat?" he inquired curiously.

Death was always mourned, but a long time ago, Ulaz had decided it was a duty rather than something to fear. It would come for him eventually. If he could do something useful with it, then he had left the world better than it had been.

"It will. I'm sure there will be others on the Blameless who would like some of it. Several are more tea drinkers than coffee drinkers." But he doesn't really get the difference?

"Various different meats and plates that the ships were stocked with. Over the years, it had become a combination of Galra food and local food from whatever region we were in. At least it wasn't nunville or the Altean's green goo."

"Do I even want to know what those two things are?" Kirk laughed, trying to imagine the too and only managing to conjure up the image of dripping green slime plopping into a bowl off a spoon.

"On a scale of 1-10, how edible are they?"

“Galran food tends to be a lot of meat. There are other things like plants and things that require being baked, but only the upper rank in the military get things that are more elaborate. Altean food goo is, by definition, edible and it will keep you alive, but it is not the most appetizing thing. I wouldn’t starve on a ship with Altean food goo, but I wouldn’t pick it if there were other options available.”

"Ah, I get you. It sounds like protein packs we're given for survival on the Enterprise. Not exactly the best when it comes to flavor, but they'll keep you alive in a pinch," he wrinkled his nose.

"I would say its exactly like that. It has everything one needs to survive and that's really its main point. For long space travel, it is intended to be the main food source. The Alteans seem to like the flavor of it. I'm not Altean though."

There's a sound that might be an amused scoff from Ulaz. "I guess no matter where you go, it's always the same."

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[ Open ] Catch-All: My Kind of Party

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