He was more than a little surprised that someone beckoned him over. Nobody ever really talks to him if they can help it. A tiny bit of hope springs up in his chest. Maybe this won’t be so bad?
He shuffles over to the young woman and points at the spot beside her. “Um. C-can I sit h-here?” As he says this to her one of his bags slip out of his grip and lands on his foot. Techie bites the inside of his cheek and tries to smile at her.
Great. First social interaction of the trip and he’s already screwing up!
“Absolutely”, she replied, returning his obviously forced smile. Amile didn’t pity him, but she understood how he felt in that moment.
“How did you end up here”, she questioned, taking in the rest of the crew. He would be perceived as the ‘weak link’, but she was determined to know him before making judgements. She understood what that felt like too.
Relieved that she didn’t seem to mind his obvious discomfort, Techie sat down next to her after placing his things carefully between them. “Assigned h-here, l-like everyone else I g-guess,” he said. “I’m good w-with tech stuff so that’s probably wh-what I’m here f-for,” he explains and ducks his head a little, unwilling to meet her eyes.
Maybe if she doesn’t look at my face too closely she won’t notice the resemblance, Techie thinks. Spending this trip as “the other Hux” would majorly suck.
It suddenly occurs to him that he should introduce himself. “I go b-by Techie.” He holds out his hand for her to shake. At the same time, he pleads silently to himself, “Please please please don’t ask for my last name!”
TechieHux 