"Thanks for coming along you two," Raven smiled sheepishly to the others under her hood as she look at them, her helmet at her hip underneath the cloak. "I guess books isn't something that's easy to find, and I didn't have much luck trying to look around on my own."

Dhel had seemed like an obvious choice to ask if she knew of any place on Bellionas that sold actual books. The good old dead-tree format of reading. Manny tagging along though was... unexpected, but not unwelcome.


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OOC: Roll is Streetwise against Hard difficulty with one Setback. Setback is ignored for locals. Raven is only 2 green for that roll, so will at best just provide a Boost to a roll.

Even Dhel has a cloak and hood today, of a bright and synthetic fuschia--the hood lined with purple. Hoods are not really the best raingear for Bothans since her muzzle's still out catching the rain. But it's early enough in the season for that to be rather refreshing.

"Yeah, they're kind of weird aren't they? When you can just put things out on the holonet and folks watch the vid. I don't think I've known anyone that owned one, but I've seen one shop down under the speedway interchange next to the worst secondhand shop on this level. I think they just go picking through trash for the stuff they sell there, honestly."

There's a chill down her neck and a sense that she maybe should look into a raincloak in dimmer colors. She reaches for Manny's hand out of an instinct for the grounding comfort of just hanging on to someone.

___________
D9: looking for books Hard w/setbak Streetwise, minus setback because local: 2eP+1eA+3eD 1 success, 1 advantage

Manny was always happy to wear a rainproof cloak. More garments meant more pockets, which meant more fun things to hide! Okay, it was mostly eggs.

He gave Dhel a smile, squeezing her hand reassuringly. Then he looked back to Raven. "Yeah, what sort of book are you looking for, anyway? You know that if you want to borrow one of my kickass martial arts movies, you just have to ask." He waggled his eyebrows at her. "I have Wookie Teras Kasi Master Three, you know."

"Some people like the feel of traditional books," Raven said with a shrug, hiding that she was being a little excited and flustered at the same time "... It's not for me. I'm not much of a reader. Praxton is though... and he has some real books."

That probably explained her mood.

Manny's suggestion of borrowing one of those movies. "... I don't think I have the stomach for it. What even is Teras Kasi anyway? They never said anything about that in the movie we saw yesterday!"

"It's a legendary Wookiee martial art." Manny shrugged. "I don't really know. I'm not a Wookiee. But I know that sometimes stuff that's in movies isn't how it actually is in real life." He nodded sagely.

He shook his head. "But hey, how's Praxton doing, anyway? Tell him hi for me. You think he'd like if I came and did a magic show for him? You could bring me next time you visit, maybe." He nodded again. It was a great idea.

"I think that was kind of explained in the first movie, but..." Dhel laughs, "that doesn't make me any less confused."

"Aww, bringing him back a gift is really sweet. And it isn't as if Bellionas is the kind of place you get souvenirs from" She returns Manny's squeeze, gratefully, glancing around. Literally nothing to make her jumpy. Maybe someone staring down from the Upper or something.

"What sort of stuff does he read? There's some really fun serials on the holo by local authors, but I don't think any are the kind of thing that would be in a paper book."

"He's much better," there was a great sense of relief to her voice. "Much better. Strict orders of no heroics, which I am fully enforcing and reminding him off every day now. He's on Bellionas now, actually, helping me coordinate matters with the other Mandalorians here. Maybe tomorrow or the day after, once Petra is safe, we should all sit down for a meal or something."

He still owed her, after all. And she was going to pocket that for just an occassion like that.

Raven shifted her hood slightly as she considered her response to Dhel. "History, mostly. Like, not fictional, but about real people, real things that happened in the past. He reads fiction too, but history is his favorite. I've never found a shop that sells real books, so... yeah, I'm just excited to see what they might have."

"Left here," Dhel points as they go splashing along the streets. "I can't even say what they'll have. I went in like once when I was a lot younger and I knew I wouldn't see anyone I knew in there. It smells odd in there. I mean, I guess that's just what books small like?

This is definitely not the nicest part of the Middle City, with the shadows cast by the structures above, it might be the sort of place where businesses that are in danger of vanishing or slipping Lower exist.

"Yeah..I'd like to meet him and just...hanging out would be nice once she's safe..." she squeezes Manny's hand harder before noticing what she's doing and letting go. Shoving her hands deep into the cloak's admittedly wet pockets, she walks a bit faster, to get ahead of her longer-legged companions to lead instead of pointing the way.

"The Precious Page" reads the very faded sign above a gray and weathered door.

"Soon." Manny said cheerfully, pushing over his own worries. "Yeah, maybe we can do a big dinner or something, just like last time. And with just a bit of magic. Who doesn't like magic, eh?" He nudged Dhel with his elbow, grinning at her, just for good cheer.

He looked up at the sign, his expression curious. "So... this is the place? They have books here? About history? Gotta say, it's not what I would have guessed for a present for a Mandalorian. If I was shopping for you, I'd have gotten a blaster or a knife. Or a recipe collection... hey, so maybe I would get you a book!" He looked at Raven, smiling cheerfully.

Turning left at Dhel's direction, Raven kept a watchful eye around them. Not that she suspected anyone would try mugging them, but some idiots had more guts than wits.

"Recipe book?" she mused a bit at the idea, then glanced back at Manny with an amused expression. "We care very much about history, you know. But hey, I never turn down a good blaster, or a good knife."

Always with the mindset of a vanguard, Raven approached the weathered door first... it wasn't often you saw old-styled doors with actual door handles on them, but it opens up just the same. A soft ringing chirps from a tiny bell above the door as they step inside.

And oh boy, it did smell musty and... booky? Certainly a book kind of smell. It wasn't a big shop at all, and was rather cramped by books double-stacked in the shelves and in piles on the floor. The quality certainly varying, but mostly on the lower end of the scale. At the far end of the shop (which wasn't very far), there was a colorful shelf with old comics.

Dhel smiles back at Manny, focusing on the company at hand. "Tch. Why would Raven need a book of recipes? Her food is great already."

Following Raven in, Dhel inhales, and then sneezes noisily at the musty, dusty book smells. Yep, that was definitely unchanged. She pushes her hood back, and shivers a bit to speed the rain down her cloak while she was still on the mat, before looking for the currently ubiquitous umbrella urn and hooks for wet outerwear. With all the books on the floor, she didn't want to be the one soaking them.

"How did Praxton come by a habit of reading actual books?" she asks, looking around. It all feels smaller and more cramped than she remembers. Of course, she was a good bit smaller then.

"But I could learn more... that I could then teach to others..." she seemed a bit intrigued with the idea, completely forgetting that the holonet already had all the recipes she could imagine and more.

They find something that seems to be a coatrack and a holder for umbrellas. Not that either seemed to have seen any use in a while.

"He had one when he was younger, a gift from a relative. Found it to be just more... hm, special? Like the difference between that purple gem you got and a polished glass bead. Both can look pretty and decorate, but one feels different than the other."

It was hardly a surprise to see Raven wearing armor underneath her cloak. "A book is also like... physical proof of a story's existence. Even more so then when he reads historical books, he feels like he finds a connect to these people that once existed, and in part by reading their story, they are remembered."

Manny sniffed. "At one of my homes, when I got in trouble, they'd make me sleep in an attic that smelled kinda like this." He said.

Shaking off his cloak, he hesitated a moment, and then hung it up. Well, if anyone went through it, they'd get some eggs. He wandered about frowning at the shelves, until he finally reached out and poked a book. "How do you read them without breaking them?" He asked. "They don't feel very tough."

Dhel nods. "Yeah, I can get that. A little indulgence, honestly." The proprietor might be surprised by the armor...then again, maybe not in this part of town. "But I will definitely point you at any books that look to have food information...or point Manny at them for gifting?" she glances between the two, more than happy to facilitate Raven's cooking experiments.

Picking up a book very carefully, Dhel looks quizzically at Manny. "What's an attic?"

Manny tilted his head. "It's like the upper part of a home, where they store stuff. There was a bunch of old junk in there, stuff that kids weren't using any more."

He shrugged. "It wasn't so bad, except that I'd miss the other kids. At least I could practice magic. And it wasn't the basement. The basement was weird."

OK, basements were reasonably common in the Middle City, held over from the days when safety was all belowground. But..."why was it weird? Aren't they also just kind of storage spaces?" The ones she was familiar with were not storage spaces since every bit of space tended to be lived in, with people renting couches rather than falling that little bit farther into squatting in the Lower.

Not bringing herself into the discussion on attics and basements, Raven started looking through the books. Dhel had been right that a lot of it had probably been salvaged trash, so her eyes were locking in those that seemed to be in better conditions.

Thinking of Manny's remark on how one could read them without breaking them, she also was of the mind to remove her gloves, just to be a bit more cautious.

"I thought some people lived in basements, and some in attics?" she added in to the conversation, taking a book out of the shelf to look it over.

Dhel nods. "Maybe they have attics in the Upper. A whole top floor for storing stuff sounds odd. But with everything here built as people started being able to even live above ground, there's a lot of buildings with an underground floor. Some are things that were like...top level int the old days and just got build on top of. Here, a lot of people live in those spaces still, because if you own a place, you rent out every inch to keep afloat in a lot of cases."

She freezes as the spine makes a faint cracking noise when she opens one book, glancing toward the back before looking at the book, which honestly seems undamaged, just creaky. "Didn't used to be that way. Even as a kid, my room was like part of the basement blocked off, but the rest was storage and supplies."

Reading a bit, she adds, "not sure how to tell if this is fiction or actual history, to be honest. Not set on Bellionas, anyway."

Manny shook his head. "No, this was dark and weird. And that was where they'd take care of sick kids. And some of the older kids said there were ghosts in it! Like, they said that a kid died down there, and if you were alone down there, you could hear him asking you to come play with you, and then if you went and looked in the closet, he'd grab you and pull you in!"

He chuckled nervously. "But now I know that ghosts aren't real..." For a moment it looked as though he were about to ask a question, but then he chewed his lip and went back to looking at books.

...

"Right???" He said suddenly.

"I... you mean if ghosts are real, Manny?" Raven looked up from the shelf she was checking out. "Hmmm... I don't know, to be honest. I've heard stories of ancient warriors of old guiding my people in battle, but I've never really believed that it's like ghosts. Phroth might have some other stories? You know with the whole... uh.... special stuff?"

"Lady Chatterley's Lover: a riveting story of scandal and eroticism on Alderaan..." no. Placing the book back, she looked to Dhel. "Some books have a little blurb on the inside of the cover that usually summarizes what kind it is. But yeah, it's hard to figure it out."