katya brighton-finch

Quino’s frown soured, lips curling up a bit like he just tasted something nasty. Not a threatening look, by any means, he wasn’t really all that mad. Not that Katya needed to know that. “You’re so insubordinate, I liked you better when you didn’t act like Nila,” he huffed, rubbing his open palm over his face to shrug off some of the tiredness. “Besides, I stayed up late planning for that oh-so-lovely bank heist so you won’t get yourself killed, so excuse me for being tired.” Still, despite his annoyance and contradicting words, he sat down on his bed and started putting on his shoes lazily, almost clumsy in his movements. “Why can’t you just do your job without bribing me, Katya? It’s like you don’t get I can just kick you off if you don’t do it.” But he wouldn’t and she knew that. That was the power she held over his head. Katya was one of Quino’s favorites, so he always gave into her plans. With one last final sigh, he stood up, grabbed his gun, cigarettes, jacket and personal belongings and walked out of the room, locking it behind him. “Alright, let’s go.”

Katya snorted and set about pulling her hair into a loose braid as Quino got ready. “Who’s to say Nila’s not acting like me? They’re our token con-artist, after all.” She said, raising an eyebrow. And when the captain took a seat on his bed and pulled his boots over, Katya gave a bright smile and would likely pumped a fist into the air if she didn’t have her fingers halfway through a braid she didn’t quite feel like starting over.  

One coffee and a cup of tea were clutched in both hands as Katya made her way from the mess to the flight deck. Katya could feel a headache coming on with the task that Quino had set for Noa and herself. Not only were they back within reach of Dionysus, a prospect that set a string of anxiety and excitement coursing through her, but they had to make the cargo hold look like an aboveboard merchant vessel. It was a daunting thought, especially considering the sheer amounts of questionable and downright illegal things they had below. On just her end alone, there was a fair amount of explosive components that weren’t exactly safe to keep in living quarters, and over the years of the Erebus crew cycling through the galaxy, she could only imagine just else may need hiding away. Cleaning. It was a prospect that brought a disgruntled pout to her lips as she elbowed the button to open the door to the flight deck. 

 “You know,” she started, approaching Noa and setting the mug of tea beside her, “for all my time growing up drinking wine at family meals and the like, I’ve no clue what a merchant transporter specifically catered to wine might look like.” She sunk into an empty chair. 

It was true that those stops didn’t sound the most appealing, but it wasn’t like she had anything better to do and she did want to get to know Katya better. Truly a win-win for Jinx. “Hmmmm that’s ok! I’m sure it will be plenty entertaining nonetheless.” Going to the more shady parts of town had her ears perking up; maybe she could practice her graffiti while Katya was shopping for electronics or whatever. Ever since Quino banned spray painting in the ship, it had been ages since Jinx had been able to practice her preferred medium for art. With a duh expression, Jinx playfully added, “I live with a group of criminals, I think I can handle shady areas of town, thank you very much!” 

“One second!” With light footsteps, she dashed back onto the ship, snaking her way into her cabin before retrieving a bag of spray paints that she kept under her bed, before dashing back to Katya with a triumphant grin. The bag was one of her first “acquisitions” ever. She had embroidered it when she first stole it, but over the years the cheerful flowers and rainbows that dotted it had faded into muted tones, overshadowed by bright spray paint stains. It was an ugly, ratty old thing, and Jinx loved it with all her heart. 

“Ok, now I’m ready to go. You said clothing first?” That was something she could get down with. Normally she just stole what she liked or looted it during missions, but going to an actual clothes shop seemed like a fun change of pace from her regular shenanigans. Merrily, Jinx skipped along next to Katya, grinning at her the entire time as the walked into the city.

As Jinx dashed off towards the ship, Katya couldn’t help but roll her eyes, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. If there was one thing Katya adored about Jinx, it was her stupidly bright disposition. It wasn’t long before Jinx came rambling down the dock with a hop in her step and the soft clink of metal somethings in a new bag (well, it certainly didn’t look new but she hadn’t had it before) slung across her shoulder. 

Every person dealt with death and grief in different ways. For some, the grief was an outward expression of uncontrollable emotion, for others, they took to their vices. For Katya, she threw herself into her work. After her assignment with Lux on Hemera, she needed to replenish her supplies of incendiary devices that could be triggered remotely. It was a delicate process, required her full attention and was not something that could be rushed nor stopped midway. It was a perfect distraction from dragging the emotions that welled within her to the surface. It had been a while since she had lost someone close to her, and she knew how painful it was. Losing a crew member? It was hard and it hurt and if she could ignore it all for a while by diving into the precise art of explosives that allowed for no error? Katya had no objections. 

But then there was the slide of the door opening, a sound foreign to her task and she was so engrossed she almost missed it. Perhaps she should have had the foresight of truly securing the door before diving into her work, she couldn’t exactly stop now without rendering the components of the device she was working on completely inert. ...As it was, she’d already botched one due to shaky hands. Katya took a breathe and carefully continued the task of wiring the components just so, not turning to acknowledge the visitor. 

“Your presence here is the equivalent of walking into a kitchen with a souffle baking and a dog running around your feet while you attempt to balance a precarious stack of metal pans,” she said, keeping her voice only just loud enough to be heard as she focused on the task at hand. “If you can just continue being quiet for two more minutes I’d be eternally grateful for you not inadvertently adding hole in the ship to the list of terrible things to occur lately.” Well, that was a gross exaggeration, but the chances of whoever it was behind her knowing that? Pretty slim and she liked it that way. 

“How boring for you,” Lux hummed out as Katya recapped her efforts. Though she wouldn’t let on, she was pleased to hear about the visibility and the timing. It would make her life so much easier if she could just focus on the transfer and then drop the footage in, without having to fight off any security. The distraction of the explosions and a physical threat would be enough – as long as everything went to plan.

“Should do,” she replied as Katya checked in. Lux was briefly distracted by the appearance of a lollipop. Envy touched at her taste-buds before she remembered her ice cream. With something that might have been performative, she took an overflowing spoonful into her mouth. 

With spoon still in her mouth, Lux tapped a few more commands, and then nodded. Around the spoon, she said, “Let’s get this party started.” Once Katya set things in motion, Lux sunk into the deepest, darkest corners of the bank’s code. Filtering through several different servers and providers, she set about acquiring a neat pile of credits. There were a number of accounts, mostly dummies, that a good number of credits were going to be skimmed into. From there, she had a system to run that would deposit each account into the crew’s account over the span of a week. Neat and almost completely undetectable.

With Lux’s say so, Katya grinned around the lollypop, and kicked a foot up onto the seat of her chair, resting her datapad against her knee. All it took was a short sequence of simple taps, and the show would begin. Once the buttons were pressed, she switched back to the feed that Lux had sent her, and managed to catch the sight of one of the sites she had planted a device at blow outwards into a neighboring alleyway. Judging by the plume of smoke from the rooftop, that one had also gone off without a hitch. 

While Lux did her thing, Katya watched the screen with rapt attention... which over the minutes that followed slowly waned. Only one or two people had fled the front doors, and well, it was particularly underwhelming. There wasn’t even a sign of security and appropriate response rushing to stop the would be robbers. Katya decided she didn’t like hitting small towns. They were so boring. An honest to god cake walk compared to a big city bank -- there would have been serious words with the public if any public service took this long to respond to something like this. Her posture deflated, and her dad probably would have scolded her for slouching so in the chair. 

While keeping her eyes on the feed, Katya shifted slightly towards Lux, “Well, this is spectacularly underwhelming. Anything exciting on your end?” 

Loud, too loud banging on his door made Quino wake up with a start and a gasp. He could feel the adrenaline, the anxiousness of too many years, too many times being woken up with screams and orders and fear. It took a moment for his brain to catch up; he was on his ship, with his dumb crew and their not so urgent needs and not so terrible bounties on their heads. He padded over to the door, Katya’s voice barely carrying through it and opened it, eyes narrowed and expression tight. Staying up last night writing logs were a bad idea, but he wasn’t expecting to be woken up so rudely either. Clearly, nothing was beyond Katya’s limits. 

“I’m going to throw you out the airlock,” he said as a greeting, fulminating Katya with his narrowed eyes for a few more seconds before walking back inside, leaving the door open for her to follow. Rubbing the sleep off his eyes he moved over to his desk chair and picked up an old, well-worn shirt to throw it on quickly. As proud as he was of his tattoos and scars, he wasn’t about to have an official conversation with a crew member in just sweatpants. “Now tell me, what could be so important that you had to wake me up at the asscrack of down for? This better be good, Katya. I mean it.” 

Katya smirked and followed the captain into his cabin, looking down at her watch. “Oh come on, ‘dawn’?” she gave a laugh and shook her head. “Sure thing, sleeping beauty, if you want to believe that 10am is the asscrack of dawn, keep on believing that, but it is never too early for a candy run. Did you think I forgot that you mentioned you got that last bunch of candy from Hemera? Cause I sure as hell didn’t and that is a delightful way to start the day, grumpy. And, well, if you want me to be productive with this lovely bank heist you gave to me and Lux I’m gonna need me some hard candy to ensure I really look at the blue prints, etcetera and minimize civilian damage.”

Bless whoever switched banks to full digital storage. You used to have to make a plan and hire people and wear all black and worry about cameras. There was none of that stress and work any longer. Oh, it would still take work, of course. The First Celestial Bank of Ourea surely had better networking than most of the other places that Lux had hacked. But it still wouldn’t be good enough to keep her out.

It was Katya’s ideas to add on to the simple hack. Misdirection – they turn right, we go left. Plus, of course Katya wanted there to be bombs. Not that Lux minded. She was subtler herself, of course. The nature of dealing with code and keystrokes. But she never minded a little spectacle and showmanship. That’s where Katya was currently – doing whatever was required to set up the explosives. Meanwhile, a bit away and far from any cameras or digital traces, Lux was idly scrolling through the code on her datapad. She reached one hand out, eyes set on the screen, and scooped up a bite of her confection – ice cream topped with spun-sugar and a constellation of glittering sprinkles.

When Katya dropped into her orbit, Lux spared her just a glance. She liked the other woman, a lot, but she didn’t have to let her know that. At the question, Lux just raised one eyebrow (of course, she could get that feed). A few tabs at her own screen and the requested video showed up on Katya’s.

Lux moved her own ice cream further from Katya, protectively, and then got back to the job at hand. It wasn’t easy by any means, but Lux had been studying the code and methods since the assignments were announced. She was fairly certain of what she would have to do. Clearing her throat once, she asked Katya, “Everything go off without a hitch on your end?” She assumed that was the case, as Katya hadn’t led with the mention of any trouble. But it couldn’t hurt to ask – always better to be aware of the environment.

Katya gave the screen of her datapad a delightful grin as the feed she’d requested from Lux appeared. She reached into her pocket for a lollipop, courtesy of a visit into the city for a much needed restock of her personal candy stores, “Mhm, went with some particularly low-damage little devices for today,” Well, low damage for Katya’s tastes, as long as the few employees stuck to their usual routes, nobody would get hurt, as their dear old captain requested. If they did deviate, well, a couple injuries were likely to happen but nobody would die unless their luck happened to be particularly dismal.

“Planted them along the multiple point of entry and a couple within -- made a mix that’s particularly smokey so the low visibility and the footage you mentioned shouldn’t get realized too quickly -- over all though, if they all go off the order they’re supposed to and if the employees of the bank are indeed the sheep they seem to be, they’ll be too panicked to really realize what’s actually going on -- which, I figure should probably give you enough time to do your thing?” Katya asked, taking the wrapper off the candy and popping the lolli into her mouth--mango today, she noted pleasantly, one of Katya’s favorites.

A kindred spirit at last. Someone who could understand and appreciate exactly what Na was doing here. They were relieved, to see Katya, whose own academic ambitions – if thwarted – had once rivaled their own. And it was true, the one thing they were missing from their ideal afternoon of academic bliss was an equally busy companion to distract. They could picture it now, both of their work spread out across a large table, trading jokes back and forth to pass the time between thinking. 

     “Well, I suppose, if you promise to uphold the ancient academic tradition…” they answered, going for a serious voice, but a quirk at the corner of their lips betrayed them. There wasn’t much better company on the ship for a thing like this than Katya, and they’d never complain about someone buying them a coffee, even if the cred they’d earned in their time on this ship, having nothing but the basics to spend it on, wasn’t more than enough to make up for what they’d lost when they were arrested. 

“Excellent, cause even if you said no you know I’d badger my way into your company anyways, so good choice,” The young woman said with a grin, and gave a little hop to her step as she fell in beside the professor. All too often she fell to the quiet solitude of her work, completely absorbed in her tasks, and it was nice to break that up a little bit and simply be in the company of one of her crewmates while she worked, even if perhaps only a few words were exchanged. 

Robbing a bank was no small feat -- especially not for a two person team. But when it came to the crew aboard the Erebus, well, they were a creative bunch who didn’t take the ‘odds’ at face value. Besides, a little flare and glare and sparkle and they’d be none the wiser.

She and one of her crewmates, Lux were tasked with taking on the First Celestial Bank of Ourea - a lovely little target in a small shipping port, little law enforcement in the area, and the honeypot of two big time oil refineries. A lovely little spot on the map with the Erebus’ sights firmly set upon it.

The first step had been blueprints -- after the briefing with the rest of the crew, Katya had a brief chat with Lux about whether or not the hacker could get them. Katya had received an offended look at that, as if any question utilising the word ‘if’ should ever be used in conjunction with the name Lux Levesque. Stars forbid. Regardless however, Katya had barely gone five minutes when she’d received a file on her datapad. Having someone who spoke the language of computers better than any actual computer was a wondrous asset to have at your disposal. Honestly. The most awesome.

After an afternoon of pouring over the blueprints over some coffee, Katya had isolated a few exterior weaknesses within the structure of the bank -- not necessarily architectural weaknesses, the building was actually rather nice and Katya was loath to ruin some of the hard work, but hey, they needed the money. In any case it was short work to plant a couple of remotely activated explosives -- two entry points on the roof, some along ground floor and second floor fire escapes-- places where someone would could break in (and, to Quino’s wishes, had typically light foottraffic) -- and she and Lux were going to go through all of them.

Well, theoretically at least. In order to rob a bank swiftly one surely needed a whole team to successfully do so, right? The two of them were going to give into those expectations with full certainty. Nothing a little smoke and mirrors couldn’t handle. These days most currency was in fact, digital, but there were just some things that couldn’t be turned into ones and ohs. The type of stuff you’d think to put in a safety deposit box. That of which this lovely little bank did have. The gig was simple really, make them think you were after one thing when in fact you were after another.

Katya pressed the last of the devices to the underside of a windowsill in the public restrooms and paused to wash her hands in the sink. A quick fix of her hair, a light reapplication of chap stick, and a little tug to the wide brimmed black hat. There, perfect. She glanced at the window sill in the mirror -- the security here really was shit. Most of the plants had been exterior, but honestly. She’d been able to simply walk in with it. She grinned, what an absolute delight of an easy target this place was.

She left the bank, placing perhaps one more wee device in the rubbish bin outside on the sidewalk, and made her way to a rendezvous point she’d arranged to meet Lux at, taking care to take a pre-established route that would allow for minimal sightings on visual feeds -- an ice cream shop a few blocks down. “Lo’ darlin’,” she said, pulling a chair up for herself next to Lux. She pulled out her data pad and kicked her feet up onto the seat of an empty chair. 

“Do you think you could get me the feed from the pawn shop across the way from the bank before we start the show? If you do, I'll totally forgive you for not getting me any ice cream.”

The sun was shining (better than it did when they were among the stars, at any rate), the ship at a quiet, momentary rest, and the jar of hard-candies and lollipops that Katya kept on her desk was near empty. She’d always liked them on Dionysus, a mindless thing to keep her focus while she worked on her coursework. It was always the same sweets from the same little confectionery a few miles from campus, but when she’d had to abruptly leave the planet, well, she forgot about the sweets for a while until one day a small stop-over at a small space station a small stash of them had caught her eye. She’d promptly bought the vendor out. Some months later, when she’d been running low, Quino managed to acquire a small amount from a shop on Hemera -- and now that those were running low and they were conveniently on Hemera. Well. 

The morning found her rapping on the captain’s quarters at a steadily incessant and annoying rate. “C’mon, oh captain my captain, I know you’re in there. Might as well answer the door lest I blow the circuitry on your door panel--again,” she said with a mild tone of humor -- she had sweets to acquire and she wasn’t about to let some closed door stop her. If it meant blowing the door open, she absolutely would do it -- mind, the fact that they were at port being the primary reason she’d consider it. If she made a mess ship side, she’d certainly fix it. And at least at port she had access to more parts and wouldn’t have to resort to some jerry-rigged monstrosity involving a blender motor and a can-opener to fix it -- no, no, the Erebus deserved better than that. But again, sweets were on the line and Quino was the one who knew where to get them. Katya really wanted those candies.

PLACE IN SOCIETY

♦ Financial : wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty.  

♦ Medical : fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged. (artificial ear drums / hearing aides)

♦ Class or Caste : upper / middle / working / slave / unsure.

♦ Education : qualified / unqualified / studying. (smart as hell but alas, no degrees)

♦ Criminal Record : yes / yes, for minor crimes  / no / has aided / committed

(major) crimes but not caught yet.

FAMILY

♦ Marital status : married - happily / married - unhappily / engaged or betrothed /

partnered / single / divorced / separated / widowed or widower / verse dependent.

♦ Children : has a child or children / has no children / wants children.  

♦ Relationship with Family : close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased.

♦ Affiliation : orphaned / adopted / disowned / raised by birth parent(s).

TRAITS + TENDENCIES

♦ extroverted / introverted / in between. (extroverted with occasional introverted tendencies)

♦ disorganized / organized / in between. (probably makes an organized mess when she’s working on a project but always tidies up inbetween/after working)

♦ close-minded / open-minded / in between.

♦ calm / anxious / in between.

♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in between.

♦ cautious / reckless / in between.

♦ patient / impatient / in between.

♦ outspoken / reserved / in between.

♦ leader / follower / in between.

♦ empathetic / apathetic / in between.

♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in between.

♦ traditional / modern / in between.

♦ hard-working / lazy / in between.

♦ cultured / uncultured / in between.

♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown.

♦ faithful / unfaithful / in between.

BELIEFS

♦ Faith : monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic / nontheistic. (believes that something is out there perhaps, but not fussed to pick one and stick with it)

♦ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits : yes / no / don’t know / don’t care.

♦ Belief in an Afterlife : yes / no / don’t know / don’t care.

♦ Belief in Reincarnation : yes / no / don’t know / don’t care.

♦ Belief in Aliens : yes / no / don’t know / don’t care.

♦ Philosophical : yes / no.

SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION

♦ Sexuality : heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual / demisexual.

♦ Sex : sex repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable.

♦ Romance : romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable.

♦ Sexually : adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious. (has yet to have a ‘relationship’ and isn’t particularly fussed about getting into one, but she’s not a blushing virgin)

♦ Potential Sexual Partners : male / female / agender / other / none / all.

♦ Potential Romantic Partners : male / female / agender / other / none / all.

ABILITIES

♦ Combat Skills : excellent / good / moderate / poor / none. (absolutely fights dirty)

♦ Literacy Skills : excellent / good / moderate / poor / none.

♦ Artistic Skills : excellent / good / moderate / poor / none.

♦ Technical Skills : excellent / good / moderate / poor / none.

HABITS

♦ Drinking Alcohol : never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

♦ Smoking : trying to quit / never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

♦ Other Narcotics : never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

♦ Medicinal Drugs : never / sometimes ( marijuana ) / frequently / to excess.

♦ Indulgent Food : never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

♦ Splurge Spending : never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

Life- Do you have any tattoos/piercings? 

Answered.

Raisin Bran- How do you show affection? 

“Gifts, hugs, insults and breaking people out of jail and/or making sure they stay out -- the like, of course.” 

Captain Crunch- What are some fears you have? 

“And have those all out in the open for others to use? No way, Josie.” 

Corn Flakes- Do you have any nicknames? Which ones? Which is your favorite?

“Katya itself is a nick name, so I guess you know which one’s my favorite. Katerina is the long of it, but Dad always called me Katya. It stuck. There’s also the standard deviations: Kat, Katy, Kit Kat, etc. Tova always called me Kit or Kitten. And he’s probably one of the only ones to get away with it, so don’t go getting any clever ideas!” 

Life- Do you have any tattoos/piercings? 

“Several ear piercings, and speaking of Tova, my lovely cousin is my tattoo artist. I’ve got a load of them on my left arm, and a couple half finished pieces on my right -- the problem being its not exactly easy to see family when you’re on the run and well, I’m not going to let some rando finish up his art, am I? Not to mention let them touch the ever growing stack of ideas that’s becoming more of a pain than not, these days. ...Stars, I’ve got to visit him soon.”