revivalproject | Party at the Blue Bantha!

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Party at the Blue Bantha!

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: The Blue Bantha in Coruscant's entertainment district
WHAT: A party!
WHEN: The last day before they leave.
WARNINGS: Fun times? Probably drunkenness.

After having found this place on an outing with Echo, Obi-Wan had decided he rather liked this one particular establishment they stopped at. So for their last evening on Coruscant, the Jedi had the place rented out. A network post also going up inviting everyone for one last hurrah before they have to go back to Temba.

Welcome to the Blue Bantha Bar and Grill!

Everything is very blue. A bright blue neon sign advertises the joint in the entertainment district. Its letters in Aurebesh with a little bantha head shaped neon light next to it as well. The lighting inside is distinctly blue as well. There is a mounted bantha head placed on the far wall above the bar, its fur having been dyed blue. Clearly it is the mascot of this place.

There are tables and booths in varying locations for people to sit. With the tables having bantha hide rugs under them that look reminiscent of shag carpet, while the booth seats have bantha hide upholstery as well. There's a band playing in one corner with space for people to dance. While on another side there are screens broadcasting sporting events from across the galaxy. Feel free to place bets on who you think will win!

Even the staff are either blue, or are wearing blue. It won't be uncommon to have a blue scantily clad Twi'lek waitress serving you. The long bar also has blue neon lighting with several stools to sit at, in which you can order whatever drink your heart desires on their menu.

Speaking of the menu, everything is made with bantha products. That is what they specialize in. Several types of Jawa Juice, a kind of beer made from fermented grains mashed in bantha hides, can be found here. As well as Bantha Blood Fizz, a sparkling drink made from purified bantha blood in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties. And of course they serve several drinks featuring blue milk, from just the plain stuff to several alcoholic concoctions. There is also food of course! Bantha steak, bantha burgers, bantha stew, and other meat dishes are served as it's pretty much this galaxy's equivalent of beef. You can even get desserts made from blue milk such as cheesecake and ice cream.

Have fun! The Temba group have this establishment all to themselves for the night!

((OOC: This is a mingle log so go nuts!))

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What may be less fascinating may be Jon returning from their little gathering some time later that night, not quite drunk as he could have been but still in a somewhat more social mood than usual.

He spots the unfamiliar woman while crossing through the hangar and for a moment is confused by her presence. Said confusion lifts at the sight of her Ghost, yet is replaced by a new one.

“Another Guardian?” He asks before thinking about what he is doing and his words tingle slightly with a bout of being faintly compelling.

A sensation not unlike the crackle of static tickled at the back of Ikora's mind at the man's question. She cocked her head and frowned for a fraction of a second before she pushed it into the same corner of her mind where the Darkness lurked.

"Yes, another Guardian. You must know Cayde." And considering the way he had asked he question she imagined it was a very memorable experience. "Ikora Rey, Vanguard of the Warlock order. A different sort of Guardian from Cayde-6."

She set the data pad aside. "You are?"

Jon actually considers Cayde a friend. Though it's true that quite literally all their encounters so far have been memorable for one reason or another. And Jon tries not to count the times he accidentally shot at the Exo.

"I, ah- J-Jonathan Sims. The Archivist. Jon is fine..." He stumbles over his words a moment, but manages to catch himself and nod. "Right. He said he's a Hunter." Not that Jon knows what the exact differences are. Both of them at least have Ghosts...

"Cayde is... A friend of yours." This time he is ore mindful to not ask another question.

"A pleasure, Jon the Archivist." Ikora tilted her head slightly. "It means the Light gifted him with different abilities than what I have. We use the same power but in different ways."

He might be a little intoxicated. He seemed to be stumbling over his words quite a bit. She didn't think she was that intimidating unless Cayde had been telling stories.

"We've worked together for a few hundred years." The span of time could be difficult for people to wrap their heads around. "And have been friends for a few hundred more."

"Yes, that- Makes sense. Different people show different skills when handed a laptop as well after all." Maybe not the best allegory, but those have never been Jon's forte to begin with.

The sheer length of time these guardians seem to be able to live is astounding to Jon. Sure, he has heard of and potentially met avatars that were hundreds of years old, but those beings sustained themselves by subjecting innocent people to their worst fears and in Jon's opinion have no right to be as long-lived as they are. But hearing about Ikora and Cayde having been friends for centuries? That's actually really nice.

Jon smiles.

"It's nice to meet someone else from his Earth. He... He gave me a book for the library with his story in it." Written around the actual content of the book.

It's not the cleanest allegory but clearly Jon's trying. It works.

"Hopefully it's mostly truthful." Ikora had heard a few different stories about Cayde's past. He liked to tell stories about himself. She suspected some of those stories were simply the holes in his memory. All Exos had them.

She gestured to one of the nearby crates. "You're welcome to sit if you'd like. I was only doing a little reading."

Nodding once, Jon accepts the offer to take a seat.

"I can show you the book once we are back in Temba, if you like. Obviously you are the better judge for its accuracy. " He offers along with a smile. "As of now I can only claim very vague knowledge about the Earth you two call home, but- It appears very different from the one I know myself."

Ikora's knowledge of Cayde's past before they worked together was more accurate but she wouldn't say she knew the whole truth. Cayde kept parts of himself away from everyone even those he was close to. Even as a Warlock, driven for knowledge, she never asked Cayde for those secrets.

"Yes, Cayde mentioned there were other Earths here. All of them before the Golden Age." If these other Earths would ever have a Golden Age. There must be thousands in the multiverse that never did.

"What is yours like?"

And in a way every person is keeping some secrets to themselves. Smaller as well as bigger ones.

The question is an unexpected one to Jon at least and he blinks twice before attempting his response with a shrug.

"Golden Age, huh... Ah... Well. We have no superheroes, I suppose. No sophisticated space travels, no contact to alien races, no sentient robots... In fact, the only real sentient species we know are humans and our wars are among ourselves. We have roughly 200 countries and... I guess we have those dread entities that... I'm not sure if these are unique to my Earth or not. People may simply not know they exist in their world. I hadn't known about them until roughly two years ago. Most people aren't aware of them, so... They could exist in other worlds."

"It does sound very similar to my Earth pre-Golden Age. It wasn't until we discovered the Traveler that we began to explore the stars and meet other races." Other races that were now dreaded enemies and some cautious allies. Ikora was cautious about the Awoken's promises of help.

"What are dreaded entities?" They sounded... well... dreadful. There was an ominous note to that name. It made her think of Hive and their Gods. The Darkness.

Ophiuchus circles closer to Jon, studying him with one large eye.

Jon's attention is drawn towards the curious Ghost and he raises a brow in the little machine's direction. This one looks different from Cayde's Sundance, but in all likelihood shares the same abilities.

"They are... Fears." He answers without taking his own eyes off Ophiuchus. "Manifestations of the fears felt by living beings. They dwell at the edge of reality, waiting for the day they can manifest in my world and reshape it according to their needs and turn it into a fear factory..."

And finally he addresses the Ghost as well: "I assume you are familiar with Sundance."

"We have enemies that lurk on the edges of reality as well. We call them the Hive." Ikora clearly disliked them by her tone. "They live to cause the destruction of other races. That destruction feeds their Worm Gods and gives them paracausal abilities."

Ophiuchus bobs in a yes. "We've worked together for a long time."

They were somewhat friends.

"It sounds like you've spent a lot of time with Cayde." Jon knew the name of his Ghost, not information every Guardian shared easily.

"We did some exploring together." Jon says. "In Temba. He also taught me how to fire a gun, though I... I prefer not having to use one. I'm still dreadful at it despite his lessons." And he accidentally shot at the Exo twice already. Which he won't necessarily mention.

"He mentioned the Hive as well. Though they were just one group of enemies the Guardians of your world are facing. I wonder..." He trails off for a moment, looking around them and towards the nearby ships. "...if the Agrii send us to your home world... It won't be an easy stay as being here has been."

"Ace has quite the kickback. You could be better with a different weapon." But Ikora didn't offer to teach him. She had the sense that he didn't want to learn another weapon or any really. And she favored shotguns which had more kick.

She hummed for a moment, considering his comment. "It would depend on when. Our Golden Age is much like this place. Comfortable, thriving, and alive. In the Collapse? No, it would not be easy. But our time isn't terrible at the moment. We're struggling but the Last City is holding strong. We're growing."

There was hope for the future if they could keep the Darkness at bay and protect the Traveler.

Jon simply shakes his head. "I'm fine with leaving the use of actual weapons to those properly trained in their use." He hasn't even used Cayde's gun but rather one of the weapons provided by the Agrii, which their hosts have referred to as death sticks. And those have been powerful enough for his taste.

Her description of this Golden Age of her planet, however, has him look up and towards the exit of the hangar with a small frown. "...well. According to those of us familiar with this planet, the Agrii have brought us here hundreds of years to what they would perceive as their present. Time somehow hardly appears to be an obstacle for the technology the Agrii are using." Which is yet another small thing to possibly worry about.

"That is a fair choice." Some people were not cut out to be fighters. Jon was clearly not comfortable with weapons and sometimes, no amount of practice could make that happen. There were others willing to fight instead.

"I find it interesting that this race has master space travel and the ability to reach into the multiverse but these storms they can't seem to solve on their own." Ikora wondered how that was possible. Space travel was not simple and inter-dimensional travel was even harder. She had been to Hive throne worlds but those were pockets. Not fully realized worlds.

"It makes you wonder what can be that powerful."

There are indeed plenty of others very willing to fight. Jon will be fine watching.

He sighs slowly and tilts his head from one side to the other a few times as he considers his next words. "The Agrii... May not actually have n´mastered space travel as it stands. The ship they are using along with the technology that came with it was given to them by the Atroma. And they have proven to have even more powerful technology at their disposal. The switched out the power core of the ship used by the Agrii without being in any way near the ship. In fact, we were all on the ship while it happened."

"So, are we helping these Agrii or the Atroma?" She asks because it sounds like there's an important distinction. If the Atroma were truly the ones responsible why act through the Agrii?

Ikora knew her mind was racing ahead, probably farther than Jon could tell her but that was how her mind worked. It jump in leaps and bounds, one question leading to the next and the next.

"But I suppose the real questions should be about the storms. Cayde told me about them." And she was eager to experience one but that was what happened when death was a suggestion instead of a definite. "They want us to solve them, don't they?"

"We have all reason to believe the Agrii are being used just as much as we are. A while back when we followed a distress signal we came upon a curious setup. The ship the Agrii are using, but empty of any life but a group of armed invaders with two smaller ships nearby. We found the Agrii unconscious on those ships just as both ships start their self-destruct sequence." He pauses for a moment to look down towards the ground before him, hands gripping onto his tights. "...you need to know here that... Just a few hours before any of us entered one of those other ships we were considering to fire at them. Blow them up since the ships have fired at us. We... We nearly killed all of the Agrii save for Ga Re."

Jon pauses again, then takes a deep breath. "The invaders? Were the Graq. A primitive species native to a planet nearby. They have never even heard of space travel and had no understanding that the items they were carrying were weapons. They were merely brought there as set pieces for us to fire at. I am... Glad. That we didn't accidentally killed one of them."

"We managed to save the Agrii and take the Graq back to their home planet and Ga Re promised to send us all back home - Which apparently they had the technology for on the ship, yet weren't quite sure how to use it. When we got there, however, the room was changed entirely and we received a transmission from the Atroma calling our efforts very entertaining." Jon sighs. "The storms remain a problem, yes. But they appear to be only a means for the Atroma to mess with Agra 10 and make our lives more difficult from time to time. The tower Cayde, Tony and I, ah..... disabled.... It may have been linked to the storms."

Cayde had explained some of this to her. It wasn't as detailed and thorough but that was to be expected of Cayde. He picked out the important details and reported on those. Ikora liked having this information. It painted a much fuller picture of the situation around them.

"The storms aren't the only way," she countered rather quickly after his explanation. "They set you up to possibly kill the Agrii. They changed your only means of escape and communicated with you. The storms aren't the only way they can effect you and others."

It was an important detail to her. The Agrii had taken them, perhaps to help with these Atroma but there were other powerful forces at work. No detail or distinction was too small to overlook.

"I wonder if it's a test," she murmured mostly to herself. It felt like a test. That comment 'very entertaining' circled around in her mind as well. "They're watching."

"Has Cayde told you of the Cabal?" Ikora asked when she emerged from her thoughts. "They're a race of aliens in our universe. Their culture is very focused on war and conquest. They enslaved another race, the Psions, because their psionic powers are very useful. Perhaps... that's what we're facing here."

Jon nods in agreement. For the storms not being the only way the Atroma are messing with them, but also to them watching. "They are watching. It's a goddamn reality show for them. They have done so before Agra 10. And I'll be damned if the Atroma weren't the ones bringing the energy storms to that planet in the first place!"

Those last words are bitter as well as angry. Because they are still not any closer to knowing how to even reach these Atroma.

He then sighs, shaking his head. "I don't believe this is about war. At least... I hope it's not. But... I have seen some of the episodes of Drift Fleet. The... Series that a few of our group were part of before already. Most of them are gone now, unfortunately." Which feels like a loss of information even though Jon has tried to get as much information on the Atroma from those that already had experience with them in the past.

"We're entertainment?" That was not a scenario Ikora had considered.

Kidnapping them for a reality show like from before the Golden Age. It sounds like insanity. An alien race so powerful it kidnapped people to entertain themselves. It sounded like the Romans with the Coliseum.

"That's... more concerning. In some ways it is easier to negotiate a peace than it is to convince people to give up their favorite entertainment." Ikora frowned as she considered an entirely new avenue of thought. They couldn't simply be boring. They had to survive and do things with their time.

"And storms to stir up drama," she murmured, again mostly to herself.

And again, the Archivist nods. "It's... Messed up." It is. It simply is and there is little more to add to that conclusion.

"What most of us do at the moment is to simply try and make the best of the situation. Try to rebuild Temba to have a functional and remotely secure base and deal with what is being tossed at us while trying to figure out... More." He would love to solve the mystery as much as everyone else, but it's true. hey also need to make sure they survive.

It was certainly a strange situation. She was used to the ever watchful presence of the Traveler so being observed by a strange alien race was not that unusual for her. Being a reality show was different though.

"Yes, that's a good first step. A stable, safe place to live does put people at ease." She had some experience rebuilding but she had not been part of the actual rebuilding. Ikora had defended and protected the Last City as it was rebuilt. Only Zavala had actually put down his weapons to help build occasionally.

"My Earth was in ruins when I was raised as a Guardian. We spent a very long time rebuilding to the city was have now."

Meanwhile, Jon is perfectly aware that the Eye is always watching him. Even here he can sense its presence. The Institute has only ever been a place where it is particularly powerful.

"Do you..." Jon starts, but then alters his approach to avoid any compulsion. "I... Something dreadful must have happened to your Earth. I don't suppose many records of that events survived if it was left in such a state. Hardly any records beside the data points survived on Agra 10."

Party at the Blue Bantha!

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This took a while...

info dumps are a warlock's favorite thing

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