Hundred dollar bills under our sleeve

[demjiin]

WHO: Kaz Brekker and you (yes you)
WHERE: Lots of places around Temba
WHAT: Kaz is learning about literally everything (catch-all for April)
WHEN: April
WARNINGS: Blanket warning that Kaz is a dick


Inn (Public Kitchen)

Kaz was already curious about this place, though he hadn't been here before. For lunch he did stop in to see who ran it, and more importantly, what was served as meals. Less important but still interesting, was how it was laid out and how it worked.

Hangar

With the ships already being docked here, it wasn't long before Kaz found his way out of the Bloodsport and into the hangar bay. It was very interesting to see many more machines but he had no idea what they were used for or what they did on their own. More interesting to see the other ships, and as expected, none would even unlock the door for him. Still interested, Kaz made a slow perusal around the hull of each ship.

Library

As expected for a library it was quiet here. Kaz simply adjusted his grip on his cane and with sound-absorbing felt on the tip, his steps were now soundless. Being here reminded him of the bookshop on Kaufmannstraße. It had the same sense of quiet with random dust motes flickering in and out of sunbeams. The only real difference was the lack of books on the shelves. While that was something of a disappointment, it wasn't a big surprise to Kaz. Kaz wasn't often surprised by the worst since that was usually what he expected. It was only the nicer parts of life that would surprise him at unexpected times.

The Deep End (Cayde's tavern)

Kaz had been exploring the tower when he came across the bar by accident. There appeared to be no bartender, though. That seemed to be true of many places in Temba; they were mostly what you would expect with one or two major differences to set expectations on their ear.

The greenish-blue light shining in drew Kaz's attention enough that he did look out the windows. He could see some sort of odd combination between a frog and a crab swim by. So this was part of the flooded area? Interesting.


Factory

As this area was largely derelict there was little of interest here for Kaz. He passed rusted pipes without seeming to notice much of his surroundings. He had come here with a singular purpose, though. Or perhaps it would be better to say he was looking for a singular person.

Gateway

Because Kaz used a cane to walk, it was surprising that he would even be able to navigate the overgrowth to begin with. But he picked up the cane and though he had a lopsided gait, he was agile enough that he could use the cane's handle as a hook and use the assisted jump to go over some clumped branches, or just side-step other obstacles. It was a maze to get through and more than once Kaz debated going back. But he persevered and eventually came to be standing before where the path sloped to continue underground.

Comments

The Deep End (of course)

[deal_me_in]

With not even two score people in town the Hunter was not about to spend his time keeping regular hours at his own tap waiting for the possibility of a someone to come along. It's why he'd made the sign he left on the bar counter, penned all nice and fancy:

𝒢ℴ𝓃ℯ ℴ𝓊𝓉. ℋℯ𝓁𝓅 𝓎ℴ𝓊𝓇𝓈ℯ𝓁𝓋ℯ𝓈, 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓎 𝓃𝒾𝒸ℯ, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒹ℴ𝓃'𝓉 𝓌𝓇ℯ𝒸𝓀 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝒶𝓇.

There was no telling when Cayde would be in again, but it was a fair enough bet to think that he'd make an appearance at his own bar sooner or later. The later became sooner, and that sooner became now as out in the hall, the Hunter hopped on through the open window and strolled on in through the door of the bar like this was a natural occurrence. It probably was for him. He was carrying a large, flat bundle, which he set to the side of doorway after he'd noted that he had company.

It wasn't too much of a surprise having people drop in- it was a bar, after all, and people more often than not tended to gravitate towards those kinds of places, which was precisely why Cayde had decided to make one up. Still, he was a little surprised to see who was standing there admiring the watery view.

"How's your fishing skills?"

[demjiin]

"Non-existent."

Fishing would generally require long periods of time of being still. If he had a goal in mind that called for patience then he could wait for hours, but otherwise, Kaz had no patience for it if it involved just sitting and doing nothing. He did not look away from the frog-crab as he spoke.

"Odd place to find a bar. And there appears to be no bartender."

Kaz looked over at Cayde now.

"Do you hide out here often?"

[deal_me_in]

Just imagining the overly serious young man sitting at the waterside with a fishing pole and one of those floppy hats that he'd seen old drawings of made the Exo grin to himself as he turned and wandered towards the bar.

"Odd? What's so odd about it?" he asked as he dug around the shelf behind the counter, pulling up a small box of odds and ends. He removed a sheet of paper and a pencil, snickering at Kaz's question.

"Do I hide... Well I wouldn't call it hiding," he clarified as he put the box away and methodically went about setting out a pair of glasses on the counter-top before turning to the bottles on the shelf behind him, selecting one from their most recent space trip.

"You come for a drink or just to admire the fish?" Or whatever they were that swam out in that strange little makeshift pool framed between buildings.

[demjiin]

"Odd that there would be a bar at random in mostly abandoned and certainly flooded buildings. It then follows that if you are spending time here, then you must be using it as a hideout."

Kaz limped to the bar and picked up the shot with a dubious look at it.

"Since I'm not mechanical, I'm not going to risk drinking what I don't recognize. Is there any way you might have whiskey?

[deal_me_in]

"It's not random. It's atmospheric!" Cayde scowled. "What point would a hideout be if people could just walk on up for a drink? Like they're supposed to?"

He swept up his own drink in hand, leaning against the counter. "Eh, if you'd been hanging around bars as much as I had back on Coruscant then you might've come across this one. It's an ale from Corellia. Still haven't found anything particularly Exo-grade so no worries there, otherwise."

Still, he wasn't going to force a drink on the kid if he wasn't interested, already turning to peruse the ever-growing collection of bottles. "Ah, here we go!" he said as he pulled out another glass to fill.

[demjiin]

Kaz could point out that using a bar as a hideout was fairly common but Cayde behaved as though it wasn't a subject, or an intimation, that he enjoyed talking about.

"Technically I wasn't looking to find anywhere at all when I stumbled across this place."

Whiskey glass in hand, Kaz drank half of it the first time.

"Since you're already here, I do have a question; have you heard of the Atroma?"

[deal_me_in]

The Hunter wasn't unfamiliar with such places being used as hideouts, but he was being rather truthful in his claims that this was not the intent here. He wasn't going to push too hard if Kaz wanted to believe otherwise. The Exo had plenty of actual hiding places.

"Yeah, the lack of signs does make it a trick to find," he admitted. "I needa figure out how to wire up some things, then it'll be a lot easier." He glanced over at the bundle he'd left by the door, one of the definite must-haves that he'd splurged on back on Coruscant.

Knocking back his own drink, Cayde swiveled his gaze back towards the young man, optics narrowing. "Uh-oh, what're they up to now?"

Library

[beholding_archivist]

The quiet is a treacherous one. And not one meant to last. And the first indication for that is a soft rustling noise from somewhere high up the shelves. The rustling is followed by silence, then a couple of soft tapping noises of something moving from the same direction. Then silence again.

If Kaz is inclined to look up, however, he will find a green-furred feline head peer down at him from the top of one of the shelves. The mothcat makes no move to come down or approach. She simply observes Kaz closely. But further noises are picking up from further places around the library. Among them perhaps the sound of regular human footsteps.

[demjiin]

It's the feeling of being watched that makes Kaz look up. It's probably for the best that she doesn't come closer to Kaz since he doesn't call to her or offer to pet her. Just wary watching from either side.

He does register the sound of footsteps but he does not look away from the creature to see who those footsteps belong to.

[beholding_archivist]

Countess is quite willing to uphold this little staring contest. She doesn't know this stranger, but doesn't feel particularly drawn by the way he carries himself and stares back at her.

"Mr. Brekker." The Archivist's voice cuts through what remains of the previous silence and Jon can be seen standing at the end of the shelf the mothcat is perched on. His voice isn't an accusatory one, but one of mild irritation upon seeing this particular young man here of all places. "Can I help you?"

[demjiin]

At the voice, which is one of the first he heard when he came here, Kaz looked away from Countess. He was mildly surprised to see Jonathan, but no expression showed on his face.

"I had intended to look for any possible history on Agra-10, but that appears to be unlikely."

Kaz glanced at the empty shelves for illustration.

[beholding_archivist]

"What the Agrii had gathered here has been lost to the energy storms." Jon explains simply. "The large data point at the fountain is what recorded history of this place remains."

And he is certain none of the information stored on that data point is any news to his visitor.

[demjiin]

Kaz pursed his lips for a moment. Storm damage was likely, but Kaz had a very different theory for why there was so little history available on Agra-10.

"Did you repair storm damage yourself?"

Jonathan had been the one to tell Kaz that Agra-10 was an experiment in rebuilding a functioning society.

Deep End

[the_child]

A small green child dressed in Jedi robes comes wandering into the bar. As if that wasn't strange enough, he makes his way over to the smaller single fish tank set up along one wall with a chair in front of it. A sign above the tank reads "Mind the Kid." Could this be that kid?

Given that he's climbing up on the chair to stare at the fish? Probably. He notices the stranger and gives him a wave. Hi!

[demjiin]

Grogu did not strike Kaz immediately as 'child'. At the moment he seemed to be staring at some sort of fish tank, so Kaz assumed Grogu was some sort of short species that liked to stare at fish. It wasn't more than a step or two from where Kaz stood and once he was waved at, Kaz decided Grogu must be friendly.

"Considering the range of fish life, I wonder if you come here often?"

[the_child]

Wow, someone who didn't immediately think he was a kid? That was a rarity.

Technically he was still a kid... In terms of his own species, at least. But to his knowledge only Din and the Jedi knew that.

He smiled and nodded in response to the question. Yes, in fact. He did come there often. Why do you ask?

[demjiin]

Kaz did not live in a culture where seeing another species was common. All he had seen of Grogu was him walking on his own (albeit a bit unsteadily) pulling a chair over to a fish tank and looking at it. He took note of the sign, though.

"Odd to go to a bar to look at fish. There must be better places for that."

[the_child]

Oh... he doesn't come to look at the fish. With a mischievous smile, Grogu turns back to the tank to watch the fish for a moment. After making his choice, he pulls himself up higher on the tank and reaches out a hand. One of the fish seems to swim in place for a moment before zipping backwards into his hand.

Dropping back down to his feet, he stuffs the fish into his mouth and swallows it whole.

[demjiin]

Kaz says nothing to the mischievous smile, or the fish zipping backward (though that part was very interesting) but on Grogu swallowing the fish whole he raised both eyebrows and regarded the (apparent) kid with surprise.

"...but what about bones?"

That couldn't be good for the digestion.

Hangar

[on_repeat]

Until one of the doors did.

At least, it initially appeared that way. It was the door to the Bishop that opened moments later, the ARC Trooper stepping down into the hangar proper with his helmet tucked under one arm.

Echo eventually noticed Kaz examining the hull since there was no one else in the immediate area, pausing as the door closed behind him. "Find anything interesting?" he asked, "or are there any problems that need to be addressed?"

[demjiin]

Kaz had already moved past the door when it opened, and the man who had apparently opened it had some sort of armor on, and the blue handprint stood out against the gray. He had the same ramrod straight posture of an officer or military man anyway, which meant he was currently, or had very recently been one. Kaz gave his best 'poor, trusting cripple' smile.

"Oh I wouldn't know if there were any problems, all of these ships are new to me."

When Kaz spoke his voice sounded like he gargled with whiskey and broken glass. Like an old man was speaking from a teenager's mouth.

[on_repeat]

The vocal dissonance was jarring, but Echo ultimately appeared to accept that was just how Kaz sounded. His own brothers had different vocal pitches and nuances – maybe not to that extreme, but they were distinct enough to know who was speaking.

And he also appeared to believe the young man. A faint smile crossed his features as his eyes look at the panels of the ship. "They've been through a lot," he said, his voice clear and lacking any roughness around the edges. Traces of an accent was still present, but not as strong in the moment. "We're fortunate to have Engineers maintaining them. Looks like their work is still holding up."

[demjiin]

There was a definite interest in Echo's reply but Kaz was careful to keep that interest out of his voice.

"You mean there are people on Agra-10 that can repair them?"

Or build them. Or even know the schematics of them.

[on_repeat]

This clearly stayed off the radar as Echo nodded in response. "Yeah. Everyone here came with whatever they knew."

He was sure they weren't hard to pick out, anyway; their little Temba population fluctuated a bit, but it didn't seem too big of a change.

"Although I don't know how different these ships are from anything some of us are familiar with."

[demjiin]

Well, it certainly wasn't a ship meant for the high seas, which was why it was enclosed. Space flight was a new concept for Kaz to begin with so it hadn't yet occurred to him to ask others about it.

"It seems like only people that have the Datapoints directly in their brains know how to fly these ships."

Kaz was continuing to limp around the outside of the ship, not looking directly at Echo. Starting with the process of elimination then;

"Are you able to fly it?"