A little song and dance [ME, The Cave]

[Manny Donos]

Manny's expression doesn't change, but there is a thunk, table rattling as his other knee jerks up and hits it. "Yeah. That makes sense."

He looked at Sholua. "Ummm... cargo. Fast and quiet, that's my specialty!" He looked back and forth between them. "Uh... both of you?"

[Sholua Tempes]

Sholua stared at him and smiled.

"Fast and quiet . . . and without any . . . Imperial entanglements, eh?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel notices that Sholua didn't really answer, but she meets the Mirialan woman's gaze with laughing eyes. "Sounds like there's space."

"I don't even have any pets. You're not allergic to Bothans or anything, right?" She asks from close enough to make his eyes itch for sure if he were.

[Manny Donos]

Sholua stared at him and smiled.

"Fast and quiet . . . and without any . . . Imperial entanglements, eh?"

"Wink." Manny said, winking at her. "That's the tricky part. But... yeah, pretty much."

Dhel notices that Sholua didn't really answer, but she meets the Mirialan woman's gaze with laughing eyes. "Sounds like there's space."

"I don't even have any pets. You're not allergic to Bothans or anything, right?" She asks from close enough to make his eyes itch for sure if he were.

"Pretty sure I'm not." Manny scratched at the back of his head. "But... yeah, totally. We've got space. If you wanna bunk there, hey, fine by me." He frowned a moment, then brightened. "Yeah, it'll be great! We can all hang out and stuff. I've got a big vid player, y'know."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel can't help it, one hand covers her muzzle as she giggles, sitting back again. "Ahh well...a vid player makes all the difference."

"Oh. What's the ship's name?" That would be important to getting onto the right one. Some folks were just not very nice when you let yourself onto their ship.

[Manny Donos]

Manny grinned. "It's called the Manka Cats Rule! Because they do rule!"

He clapped his hands together. "Oh yeah! Have you guys ever seen a Manka Cats game? You'll see. Once you've seen a few games, you'll understand why I pretty much had to name the ship that."

[Sholua Tempes]

Did he just say 'wink' out loud . . . and then wink?

Sholua was stunned to silence for a moment at Manny . . . being Manny.

"Big gravball fan then?"

[Manny Donos]

"Only the biggest!" Manny grinned at her. "I have so many giant foam fingers you wouldn't believe it. I thought about getting a room on my ship just for that. Wouldn't that be something? A giant foam finger room?"

He looked at her, eyebrows going up. "You into gravball? I feel like you could get a pretty good cheer going." Manny couldn't say why he had that feeling about the scantily-clad Miralian, but he did.

[Sholua Tempes]

"I bet I could. Not something I've seen played here. Well the sports bars and dives have recorded matches on sometimes, but I think the only place to get live games is going to be a tad too Imperial for my tastes. Or the casino."

She thought for a moment.

"The Manka Cats have cheerleaders?"

[Manny Donos]

"They do!" Manny said exuberantly. "They're really good. They have all kinds of Manka Cats cheers. I could show you sometime, if you wanted. And the uniforms are great, too. I like 'em because they're so shorrrrrt..." Manny cleared his throat, "uh, short on bad stuff. Yeah." Good cover.

He smiled again. "I actually tried out one time. They said my dancing was pretty good, but they threw me out when I lit the practice mat on fire. Why would you even have a flammable practice mat? That's just asking for trouble!"

[Sholua Tempes]

OK can be distracted with shorts . . . well short anything it appears, but a little fixated on the fire. We can work with this.

"You have any recorded games?"

And thus, Sholua unknowingly walked head first into a FAN.

[Manny Donos]

"Do I?!?!" Manny answered, his exuberance reaching new heights. "Yes!" He added, just in case she was confused by him responding to her question with another question.

He went on. "Only every game in the last five years. Even the one where they got robbed of their championship because the ref and there was a foul and the other team probably cheated." Manny smiled proudly. "I even have three copies of the one where they won the championship! Just in case two of them get lost or stolen or broken or something."

He looked at her, eyes wide. "You wanna watch it sometime?"

[Sholua Tempes]

How can someone be so oblivious . . . ?

Realising this was probably exactly what he'd said and not an ulterior motive whatsoever, Sholua felt able to reply.

"So you want movie night as well as as swanky dinner night. You move fast, Cutey."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel is well practiced at feigning interest while absorbing just enough to make "of course I was listening" responses as needed. But the foam fingers thing has her trying to figure out just what, exactly, that is. It sounds macabre.

But she catches that last bit. "Movie night? That should be fun too." Did Sholua just talk Manny into a theater trip as well? Time to pay actual attention.

[Manny Donos]

Manny grinned. "Fast and quiet, like I said, babe. Wink." He winked again.

He looked back and forth between them. "But yeah, movie night, totally! Or, you know, Manka Cats night. Whatever you guys want to do." Manny shrugged. "Leah and I take turns picking what we watch. I'm sure she wouldn't have a problem adding something else to the mix."

[Sholua Tempes]

"Just you and Leah? No picks for the almost mysterious Jyr, or does she not bother with the Manka Cats?"

He just said wink again . . .

[Manny Donos]

"Jyr..." Manny chewed on his tongue a few moments, considering. "Jyr is a very serious sort of person. She'll join us, sometimes, but I think it's because she wants to be a part of the team than because she thinks its fun, you know?" He sighed. "And I never could get her to wear one of the foam fingers. Or jerseys."

Casually, he stirred his meal around with his fork. "She doesn't much care for Imperials, either." He said.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Ah." Dhel pauses, considering how to word things, then giggles. "I mean, they're lousy tippers! Makes 'em not super popular here and all. Are we tipping some kind of balance in the crew if we're kind of meh on that score?"

[Sholua Tempes]

"Think I already made my opinion of the Imperials clear."

She nursed the last bit of beer in her glass for a moment.

"Jyr sounds like someone with their head in the right place."

[Manny Donos]

Again, Manny looked at Sholua. "She's probably the smartest person I know. If you'd like, you could meet her." He smiled. "And I don't just mean at movie night. But... I also mean at movie night."

Looking back to Dhel, Manny shrugged. "But hey, don't sweat it. Just so long as we're all friends, and we all have each others' backs, that's good enough for me!"