[Day 2 - Early Afternoon] Crash Course

[Soleene Stryss]

Soleene thought it was a bit amusing that there was still a standing museum in Bellionas as she thought the Imperial typically did a good job of getting rid of those. However, she wouldn't doubt if there was some heavily censored bit here and there. Even if she wasn't the scholarly type, she still thought it was better to see things than just needing to listen at length about history. She just didn't have the time for it. Maybe she'll be lucky and there will be some of those exhibits where she can press buttons and interesting things will appear.

She strolled in with some peculiar glances given in her direction. The armour wasn't casual wear, that's for sure but that wasn't going to stop her from taking the crash course into the history of Bellionas.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Handing out flyers once more, Dhel approaches the fashionably armored woman easily recognizable from the evening before. "So there's droid guides, but you probably just want the weaponry exhibit, right?" The cheap goldenrod yellow sundress is very short, but does coordinate well with blue-grey fur. The latter is probably pretty intolerable in this heat wearing anything heavier than the former.

[Soleene Stryss]

Soleene cocked her helmet upwards when she was approached by Dhelih. There was a familiar face from the other night and it was good that acquaintances paid off eventually. It was far too easy to lose track of some people and never see them again. This was quaint, actually. "Oh, hey. Dhel, right?"

Her gaze seemingly then went down and looked at the flyers that she was holding. That was pretty curious, did acts often did their own advertisements around here? She supposed that was probably a necessity around here.

"Really," she chuckled at that thought, "I was hoping to learn about the history of Bellionas in general. But hey, if there is a weaponry exhibit, it might spice up the tour a little! Anything to brush up on my culture would be fine. I don't want to just pass through and forget about this place."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Oh! You're actually into the history? That's just...kind of uncommon. I mean, we're pretty forgettable. Not seedy enough to draw the criminal crowd like Hutt-space worlds, not productive enough for a busy trade Empire, no really outstanding art to draw folks from the jaded Core..."

"Just another rough little Outer world. At least that what I gather from the folks who stick around long enough to chat. And yeah..it's Dhel--Dhelish. You remembered! Um..." She ran the previous night through her memory a moment, "Soleene, right?" Pause..."Aren't you dying in that armor? Or did they build in a cooling system?"

[Soleene Stryss]

Soleene held up a wobbling hand at the question referring to history. She was interested but she wouldn't go as far as to say that she was into history. It was one thing to hear about something unusual that happened and its side effects, it was another to hear about business as usual for several decades. She was probably into the outliers than the whole deal.

She gave a few nods at the explained history. "Well, there's got to be something in this museum. Something, something, about a shipyard with a foundry, right? There must be a few oddities here."

"Dhelish, all right," she repeated the name with some amusement in her tone. It might have been the third person she had heard with a similar sounding name admittedly. "That's right, and also right. I have a few cool patches slapped in for good measure and I'm hoping that'll last me until sundown. I don't really get to complain, however, compared to everything else the rest are wearing. Don't let the trims fool you, what I'm wearing is far lighter than the others typically wear."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Just Dhel's fine," she grins, leaning in with a conspiratorial whisper. "Unless you're implying more with Dhelish--Deelish...I usually say pet names are for the second date, but I'm not arguing too hard with all that armor!"

"The purple's a really nice choice, by the way. I don't know one piece from another, but that's got a really fashionable flair." One finger traces along, but about a centimeter away from, one of the bits of trim. "You might like some of the weapon collection from this rich guy who liked collecting them. There's some very fancy looking supposedly royal blasters from other places that have royalty."

"But sure, there's a whole section on the founding of the foundry," Dhel adds with a nod. "It looks like it was a pretty unpleasant thing to build, and a bunch of people died in construction accidents. Some of the folks who've worked there, but don't anymore, talk about ghosts when they're good and drunk."

[Soleene Stryss]

Soleene let out an amused chuckle from underneath the helmet and then gave a small shake of her head afterwards. "I'm perfectly willing to start at just Dhel, then we'll just see where it goes from there. And thank you, regarding the armour. It's the first time someone has commented about the fashionableness of it. Here I thought that Mandalorians were commonplace around here, at least that was my initial impression. Always wondered if the purple was too much but sometimes I wonder if it's not enough. It was going to be that or probably teal. Purple just seems more...serious and dynamic at the same time."

"Hey, royal weapons can be entertaining. I can already bet they're all sorts of not really useable in combat, adorned with jewels and engravings and such. Stories of hardship are interesting, although I'm sure we get plenty of those now..." She said with a few nods and then after a beat. "Do you want to head in with me and show me around? Unless you're considered kind of a celebrity around here."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Oh? You are Mandalorian then? I mean the helmet...but I wasn't sure..." she shifts back just a bit. Manalorians do have kind of a reputation and all. "Can't say I've met many here, we're kind of not really their space I guess? I don't really know where they settle, honestly, but mostly not here."

She relaxes, laughing at the idea of being remotely famous. "Celebrity?! Me?!" Dhel shakes her head sharply. 'Not nearly. I mean, I've got a few fans, I guess, but there I'm not even a local celebrity, and I don't think Bellionas *has* any real celebrities. But yeah, I can show you around if you don't mind me ducking off to pass flyers at people here and there. Lots of folks hit the museum when they get off their ships so it's a good chance to try getting some customers"

[Soleene Stryss]

There was a beat after the question before she nodded. "That's right, I am a Mandalorian. Admittedly, I'm still following the lead of my brothers and sisters but they are my family. We tend to move around and keep a low profile. Obviously, for the best considering, we seem to have a felt impact whenever we're seen. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. From what I've been told, it seems the neighbourhoods here have a share of trouble."

"Eh, of course not, you have to eat too," she said with a nod of acceptance regarding the flyers and led the way forward in the museum.

"Well, I had to check about the celebrity thing. Everyone local has a part in this city. I guess you have a gig, right? In another lifetime, I've seen some celebrities. Many of those come with adorning fans, some won't leave them alone and some are more than attached," she nodded.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Oh, I don't know much about Mandalorians except ah...a reputation for violence and heavy armor. Nothing in those rumors about _stylish_ armor though, so obviously they're not telling the whole story." Dhel says as she follows into the museum.

Trying to offer a bit of tour guide value, she gestures to the early exhibits, which are things like an armored ground sloth tooth (very large), an example of the damage done to structures before the colonists moved the city underground in the years before the Wall went up...stuff like that. "Early days...fighting monsters....more or less."

"Oh yeah, there's that kind of thing with fans or just...I don't know what you'd call them. The Cave is pretty tame as far as the crowd response to stage shows goes. the fights are pretty rough when they break out. But some places, folks get grabby, especially with the dancers. So yeah, you kind of want to start removing fingers until they take a hint."

[Soleene Stryss]

"That reputation is something of a two-way street. I don't think we are entirely blood-thirty. Unprovoked, anyway. After several centuries, history just has a way of working out checks and balances. We Mandalorians just have a list longer than most, I admit," she gave a shrug on the matter. "It's as complex as it sounds."

She meandered through the museum with Dhelih and the exhibits managed to snag her interest. The long gaze from the helmet seemed to indicate that at the very least. The tooth was pretty interesting, she would probably call it 'gnarly'. While she wasn't a hunter herself, she had to imagine how it would have been like to wrestling those creatures. Even she had to conclude that it wouldn't have gone well for her. "Good things to remember. Some settlements have been up long enough that pre-history isn't even a thing anymore."

"The Cave...should check that place out. So it goes from good to bad like a mood swing? Sounds like a place that could really benefit from a few minders...you do have those there, right?" she asked as she turned her head at Dhel with that question.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Minders?" Dhel considers..."like...there's the bouncers at the door? But mostly folks just kick the fights on stage so everyone can enjoy it and the tables stay in one piece." She shrugs, "and it's not like flipping a switch, unless you were focused on other stuff and didn't notice the voices getting loud by that one table or whatever."

There's plenty of not-terribly-exciting news holos and the like of the later stages of building the underground colony, and the Wall, and the Upper city (the Middle is just kind of mentioned at some point if you're reading all the information plaques). They're full of construction machinery and droids, sturdy sapients, and colonial optimism.

"As to your folks...it's not like I know much of anything. I think that's true for a lot of people. So you hear about fighting, and almost always see the armor." Dhel pauses. "I mean...is there any way to know you're a Mandolorian if you're not in armor? It's kind of distinctive, right? So all the unarmored folks just get lumped in as plain old tourists from someplace fancier than here and not as a moment of 'wow, that Mandalorian is just like a normal tourist.'

[Soleene Stryss]

"Yeah, bouncers and the like," she nodded to confirm that's what she was getting at. There were probably different names for them and she wasn't sure if they had a different approach over the matter. "Sometimes you get a good enough crowd that you can manage them and avoid them from managing you instead. Most people should understand that the show only goes on so long as there isn't a ruckus but when you have alcohol and substances floating around, everyone is trapped in a box called a venue...that sometimes goes out the window once the show starts. Same thing here?"

The holos were enough to keep Soleene's attention at the very least. She generally avoided any plaques or slates that had a long block of text attached to them, as she was here to be edutained and not study. "Huh, really mean stuff...kind of hard to forget how some places need to be literally turned upside down before you can till the land or building foundations."

"Armour is generally fashionable in anywhere there's fighting. I saw a local dressed up in the lower city at least. Is it bad there, typically?" she asked momentarily before continuing. "There is far more to being Mandalorian than just the helmet. We have a few who don't throw the whole thing on. It's only one of a few tenants that we follow and many of us are still working up to taking up all of them. But I don't know if a Mandalorian can ever be a normal tourist, even here. We admitted end up taking much of ourselves wherever we go, including business."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Oh, yeah. Armor's a good idea in the Lower. It gets rough down there. Like, if you possibly can afford it, you live farther up. The Gonks are down there, and not a ton of protection from them." She shakes her head, "I guess having armor as kind of...regular wear...makes it a bit less dangerous. At least one of the folks I met yesterday was planning to head there for fun. Not my idea of fun, but I'm not flying around the galaxy looking for that kind of trouble, so...I guess other folks can have other ideas of fun."

They drift on through the exhibits. Given how recent it all was, the display about the War Years is surprisingly large, and unsurprisingly pro-Imperial. Dhel pays it little attention on the way to the weapons collection most people drop in for, which includes the giant javelin-casters and energy canons that were jury-rigged off of ship-armaments to be used for defense on the ground in those early days.

"Eh, the bouncers'll step in for some stuff. But yeah, it can get kind of wild. In the Lower, you just expect a fight's got to burn itself out or the hired muscle takes care of it. Middle has more law to step in. And you just don't do bar brawls in the Upper."

[Soleene Stryss]

"Hm. I had a good idea of the lower city but probably not a full image. Just as much armour provided protection, I'm sure it also paints a target on your back too when it comes to trouble." She gave a shake of her head on that note. Desperation can make people do some terrible things, regardless of how many deterrents the target may have on them.

"I can see why they keep this place running now." She nodded at the material on display that likely aided with Imperial propaganda. "Pretty neat stuff but I get the feeling that many of these are spoils of war rather than some willingly donated material. I wonder how much work they had to do to scrub these things down."

She nodded soundly regarding the matter of the brawls and move on to something more interesting. "If you're not a celebrity yet, how long have you been going about your gig then?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Oh, the really big weapons from the founding are real donations. Most of them probably don't work anymore. But yeah..." she nods toward one that was obviously once mounted on a droid. "some are from the war too. I don't really study weapons much, but the folks who do, are usually most interested in this stuff."

Dhel thinks about that "I've been singing on actual stages for eating money for about the past 3 years, I guess? Before that just like...occasional things here and there. But, like...this gig won't be that long before I'm singing someplace else. People like variety, so going and singing in front of a different batch of regular usually improves the tips you can get."

Looking the armored woman up and down she asks, "so...what do you do? I mean, the armor say something that involves fighting...but that's a big field."

[Soleene Stryss]

"There's some neat stuff here but admittedly, I'm not a huge gun-girl, really," she gave a shrug at that. Sure, she owned a sidearm but everyone who was looking to defend themselves in the galaxy owned a blaster pistol in some form. "It is amusing to see some of the droid stuff since they don't build those to be exactly ergonomic or comfortable. Strange exhaust vents and meant to work if you have a hand with two large fingers. Some of them look like plumbing pipes that blast people."

"It would really help if you could get yourself on a tour of some sort but that's probably somewhere else down the line. Does this planet have much of an entertainment industry?" She asked curiously as she turned to look at Dhel. Her assumption is no as it would have made itself obvious but she didn't exactly have an ear around here to know for sure.

"Me?" She said with a bit of mirth in her tone. "Anything the Enclave needs me to do, really. Well, I'm not much of a frontline fighter or any sort of commando, that's for sure. But, if they need me anywhere...I think I can do decently okay anywhere they can slot me. Sorry if that doesn't really answer it, I guess maybe I need to find my niche still, so to speak."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Looking over the weapons Soleene points out, Dhel nods. "I mean, some of them might actually be plumbing rigged to aim explosives or energy or whatever. The bit I got in school sounded like they were kinda ragtag. They make it sound like using droids was kind of the budget option. Depending on who's talking, it sounds like they consider it downright tacky." She shrugs, checking that none of the tour droids are nearby. She's not at all invested in that particular version of the War, but she doesn't want to risk hurting their feelings, just in case they have some.

"Oh vague is fine. Though I don't really know what the Enclave is. A lot of folks don't want to talk too much about what they do. Unless you work up here, almost everyone's got something a little...ehhh, not as respectable? ...they do to get by." Dhel unobtrusively slips a flyer in someone's bag as they walk by. "Speaking of which, the entertainment industry in my neck of the woods is pretty much just this kind of thing. Groups that perform where they can, holotheaters doing their thing. There's fancier stuff up here. Might be places to do actual recordings? Never asked around. I mean...the only people usually telling me I'm good enough to be trying to get heard anywhere else are just being flattering so they can get under my skirts."

[Soleene Stryss]

"Everyone is disposable in a war, some are just more disposable than others," she gave a shrug before shaking her head. "Hm, that's probably not right coming from me. I've never been in a war myself, admittedly. But, I've never met a war veteran who was a ball of sunshine after serving. Kind of takes years out of you, from what I heard, and people should consider themselves lucky if that's the only thing that's taken."

"I'd say what we do is as Mandalorians is very respectable but probably not the sort of trouble that non-Mandalorians would want to find themselves in. People's lives are already complicated without being involved in Clan affairs," she said before her gaze followed where the flyer ended up, wondering if anyone's been enticed by a surprise flyer.

She sighed and shook her head. "That's a pain...Especially, when you're looking for something constructive. I wish I could give you my opinion even if I'm not much of an expert. So you said you perform at the Cave? Maybe I should drop by there sometimes."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Of course you should! The drinks are about the least watered on the alley, and the stew's usually pretty good, even if it's a slow night on stage." She grins, grabbing a complementary mint from the droid near the exit...though they haven't quite left yet "And if you're looking for a hookup, it's a decent enough spot for it. Let me know, and I'll sing something mood-setting for you!" Shoving back the hair that's slowly shifted over one eye, Dhel grins sincerely.

"Oh, unless you're kinda the opposite and just want to be left alone to watch stuff. Don't think you'll have a problem there. Folks'll hear a no real clear when it's accompanied by that much armor."