But This is Not Black and White

[out_of_order]

WHO: Cal Kestis, BD-1 and you
WHERE: Sh'Ka
WHAT: Totally avoiding Certain People while trying to recenter himself
WHEN: Mid-July
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTE: Will match tag format/preference!


"I will find you, Cal Kestis."

While the sentiment in those words is nothing new, the real concern that haunts the young Jedi is the fact that the threat is new and most importantly, here on this planet. Worse yet, within a confined area of a planet that they really had no great means to travel to, much less any knowledge of any possible places beyond the two cities they currently have access to.

Cal had thought that being on the run would have been over for him. He'd finally come out of hiding, fearlessly faced the Empire and the Inquisitors it sent relentlessly after him and his friends. He'd infiltrated the Fortress Inquisitorious and somehow made it back out alive. Being able to stay alive after everything is always a positive outcome. Being brought back to Agra 10 was considerably a vacation in comparison.

Once again, he finds himself in a defensive mode. At least he has the Force to rely on, and the one who might seek him out does not, but Cal had learned early on to be wary of Albert Wesker. Those concerns had only been further underlined once he'd found himself in the man's dreamspace.

If nothing else, Sh'Ka proves to be at least much more bearable for the weather. Cal had had BD-1 shoot off a few messages to Tony, Jon and Echo to tell them where he'd be if they needed him, an abrupt enough message to leave without seeing them, but the last thing he wanted was to draw attention to them if Wesker was on the prowl. He decides to revisit the power plant where he'd last set up camp, back when he'd led a small team on the repair work for the power grid. If he's going to be here, he may as well make himself useful and see if he can pick up on what was being done about the water.

It's been easier to find focus here too, for some reason. Calmer. Quieter. When he's not working on the water treatment equipment or tracing water lines, he's up on the roof of the hotel, meditating. It's not an easy spot to get to but it's peaceful, and the view's pretty nice.

Comments

[out_of_order]

Now that he had options, it was something Cal would definitely explore. No sense in being alone if he didn't feel like it, and if the Soldier wasn't going to complain for the company, then why not?

"Yeah. Took a pretty long hiatus from any work here," he admitted. A lot of things had happened in the interim. "Sounds like a good idea though. Should be some things we can use for it around here, left over from when we were tracing power lines."

That was probably the most he'd ever heard from the Soldier all at once. At least Cal knew better than to point it out, although he couldn't help but look a little amused. He turned his head to watch BD as the little droid beeped and bounded off to go looking for said supplies. The little guy just liked jumping into supply crates to see what he found; that behavior hadn't changed from their explorations of the galaxy back home.

"I'm not exactly an expert in plumbing myself, but that sounds...more or less about right. I think we have the general idea anyway."

[sinistral]

"It's not just on you." Fixing the city up shouldn't fall on the shoulders of one person. And truly, all the ability the Agrii demonstrated in bringing people in, and they couldn't grab a plumber? A city planner? Heck, even building supplies? Dump a handful of trailer homes and that would have done a world of good to house people.

Speculation aside, two people and a droid hardly constituted a workforce but they could probably at least come up with a plan. And between the Soldier and Cal, maybe even handle a good deal of the heavy lifting.

Studiously ignoring the amusement on Cal's face, the Soldier tracked BD's movements with his eyes. If one didn't mind being creative, all kinds of supplies were scattered across the city. Everything had a potential use, even if just for firewood.

"Figure we can't do much harm at least. Might not know how to fix the problems but finding them is the first step."

[out_of_order]

"It's not," Cal agreed. "But I'm here and I figure I may a well be doing something. I'd put out a formal request to see if anyone else might be interested but..." That'd just let Wesker know exactly where he was.

He looked back where BD-1 was when he heard the droid beeping excitedly. "What'd you find, buddy?" he asked as he got up to walk over to the storage crate. The droid hopped up onto its edge, one foot clamped around some piece of material, part of what might've been a tarp or something. Cal blinked as he took it in his hands, grinning. "I completely forgot about this. That'll sure save us some trouble."

BD-1 jumped onto his back as the Jedi headed back over to where he'd been sitting, holding out the roughly cut square of cloth. "We already have a map traced out from the last project. It's marked with where repairs were needed for the power, but we can just use different markings for the water."

[sinistral]

"There's always cleanup if you're bored." A lot of rubble littered a lot of buildings. It was boring, sweaty, exhausting work to clear it, but good for when thoughts got to be too much. But Cal's words were telling, and the Soldier nodded in understanding. "You have me," he replied; he meant it for the work but also for backup should Cal need it. Maybe there would come a time to talk about what exactly had brought Cal here, but he wasn't going to push.

He pulled himself out of his half recline at the sound of BD's excitement, watching Cal retrieve the droid's discovery. The Soldier hadn't been much involved in the power restoration efforts, so finding out that a map existed came as a welcome surprise. It might not be perfect, but it would help them get started at the least.

"This is a big help," he agreed as Cal came back. "We should probably take a picture of it in case something happens to this copy, but having this will save us some time."

[out_of_order]

The Jedi was more than grateful for that, offering a faint smile before he nodded. All the same, he didn't want to pull people in if he could avoid it. But the Soldier was certainly among those he trusted.

Stooping down, Cal set the map on the ground, nodding. "There is the map on the tablet, and BeeDee has his own map he's made," he said as the droid poked his head over Cal's shoulder. "But something like this will definitely be easier to mark up."

[sinistral]

If nothing else, they'd proved that the Soldier knew his way around bandaging wounds. That was a useful skill to have, though they hopefully wouldn't need it.

"Agreed," he replied, studying the sketch. "The tablet is helpful, but this will be better for marking up as we encounter things." Especially if they could come up with a key for types of issues and severity. That way should others join in the future, the workforce could be better directed depending on available skills. "But might not be a bad idea for BD to annotate his map similarly, just in case."

[out_of_order]

BD-1 chirped in what might be confirmation to the Soldier's suggestion, further clarified by Cal as the Jedi grinned at his little droid buddy.

"That he can do," he nodded. "You want to take that one then? And then after we do some investigating, we can exchange notes and update our maps accordingly. -not that we have to go and do that right now, of course."

[sinistral]

"It's a good plan," he agreed, carefully rolling the cloth map to protect the writing. He'd copy it to his own notebook as well, just in case. Paranoia could be tiring but sometimes it was useful.

Settling back into a comfortable sprawl with legs stretched out and propped up on elbows, the Soldier remained quiet for a few moments. "Might be some generally useful supplies in some of these buildings," he eventually mentioned. "Not just for plumbing. Don't know what people would typically use so I don't really have an idea of what to search for." He shrugged. "Not exactly an instruction manual in this place."

Half a joke, but it rankled that the Agrii wanted things fixed and couldn't provide any instructions or materials for the broken equipment.

[out_of_order]

"Not exactly much by way of instruction manuals in general," Cal quipped, smiling crookedly. "But that's true. I think most people coming to search for supplies usually hit the department store, so there might be some interesting things in other places.

Although some form of a maintenance supply and planning facility would have made sense around here. But that was only if the residents were expected to and knew how to handle such things themselves.