A little song and dance [ME, The Cave]

[Manny Donos]

Manny sighed acceptance as three plates were delivered to his table. "You win this round, Dhel..." He said with a chuckle. Shaking his head, he took a big drink of the local brew, pausing only to pass over another credit chit (not an egg!) to the server that came by. And to whistle appreciatively at the acrobatic display.

"Ayyyy!" Manny greeted the dancer with a grin as she approached. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Manny! Manny Donos. Magician." He raised his hand for a fist bump.

"As for eggy surprises, well..." He grinned, producing an egg from nowhere with a flourish. He held it out, and then clapped his hands together, making it vanish. "I know better than to make promises I can't keep. Usually, that's more like 'no, I won't eat the rest of that cake', but it's a good lesson." He nodded earnestly.

[Sholua Tempes]

"A magician? Well that's certainly better than a poultry farmer for style, Cutey."

The fist bump was returned with probably more force than he expected. She then slipped into the seat at the table which probably made Manny very aware that her performing clothes amounted to little more than sequined triangles and the connecting 'strings'.

"Our Bothan Honey will be over soon, but I like a headstart on things. Where'ya from Cutey?"

[Manny Donos]

Manny's eyes widened in mild surprise, but he was quick on his feet. Which in this case meant pulling his fist back with an explosion noise. His eyes stayed wide as he took in her outfit. Or rather, her lack of outfit.

After a few moments, his jaw shut. "Ah, I bet you call all the cool talented magicians cutey." He said, waving a hand, blushing a bit. "Speaking of, wow, you really have some MOVES! That was awesome!" He nodded back up towards the pole, grinning, any shyness forgotten.

"Me? I'm from Kamda. Go Manka Cats!" He raised a fist to cheer. "It's gonna be weird, not seeing them in person." Manny sighed. "But I always wanted to travel. See the galaxy, maybe visit the Cor worlds." He looked at her, his expression affably simple. "What about you? It must not be here, or Dhel wouldn't have said 'welcome'." Manny picked up on things sometimes.

[Sholua Tempes]

"Well our Bothan Honey didn't get everything quite right. I'm new to The Cave, but far from new to this planet. Been here a long, long time now, Cutey."

She leaned back and crossed her legs, nursing the beer glass with both hands.

"Kamda eh? I hear there's been lots of trouble there lately. Come here to escape it all, neh?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel follows after retrieving music, tips, and cleaning supplies. Close enough to catch a bit of conversation. "Yeah, 'New' is just good to pull more tips...patter. And there's a lot of new folks in town as won't know any better right now."

New means, maybe naive, maybe not onto you, maybe easy to get more than you paid for out of. Dhel glances Manny up and down. But maybe magicians didn't make those kinds of calculations in their patter.

She shakes the tips, nice rattle..then the cup with the eggy ones that kind of jiggle in the clear glass. "Decent take...minus the egg."

Beyond that, she holds her own questions in favor of listening, and digging into her own plate of the house hash...starchy groundnuts, some kind of egg, sprinkles of smoked meat too small to properly ID beyond 'not-fish'.

[Manny Donos]

"Kamda eh? I hear there's been lots of trouble there lately. Come here to escape it all, neh?"

"Well... not exactly." Manny glanced at Dhel as she sat down. Was Sholua in on things? "Besides," He smirked, "-trouble is my middle name!" After a moment, he cleared his throat. "Actually, I don't have a middle name. And if I did, it would be Danger. Or Awesome. I'd better think about it."

He flashed each of them an apologetic smile. "Yeah, uh, sorry about that. I got all my pockets mixed up when I had to move out, uh, two apartments ago. I thought I had it all right, but I think I mixed up my shiny vest and my really shiny vest."

He smirked again. "Besides, it's still cool. Most ladies are just as happy when you produce an egg as... a beautiful flower!" And with a flourish he made... another egg appear. Manny frowned at it a moment, then shrugged and offered it to Sholua, then Dhelih, back and forth.

[Sholua Tempes]

"Just put it on the table, Cutey. I'm sure we can get someone in the kitchen to give it the attention it deserves later on."

She took another pull on the beer before starting on the food. She'd had far too many 'no food today' days to miss out on a free dinner. Even though technically she might have earned it just by sitting at the table in this outfit.

"So not running from trouble . . . hmm. Come to cause trouble then?"

[Manny Donos]

"Uhhhh... maybe? At least a little? But don't worry." He winked. "Wink. Only the good kind of trouble. You know. Helping, and stuff." Which meant fighting oppression, but Manny knew better than to bring that up unless he knew it was safe.

He set the egg spinning on the table, even as he took another long drink of beer, leaving his food mostly untouched. "Maybe I'll get my magic show going, though. That's fun." He looked back and forth between the two performers. "I bet the two of you know what's up here. Is this the best place for shows? Or are there others? I can do all sorts of scenes. Fancy, obviously." He gestured to his vest, sparking with every motion. "I mean, right? Eh, eh?"

[Sholua Tempes]

Sholua looked at him over her spoon . . . fork . . . spork. Down at his clothes and them up again.

"Just how fancy do you want, Cutey?"

She glanced at Dhel, seeing if the Bothan had spotted the opportunity here.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel, polishing off her plate, sets her spoon down. "This is the easiest place in the Middle to just set up. But you want the Upper for fancy." She catches Sholua's glance. "Might want to have dinner someplace there, scope it out, see if they've got room for a performance..."

She starts cleaning the credits as she talks, grimacing occasionally at the egg dripping off. "Most of 'em need some convincing to let non-humans waltz in, but with a human in front? Well...doors open."

[Manny Donos]

Manny shrugged. "I mean, fancy, not fancy, I just need to know how shiny my vest should be." Looking around, Manny frowned. "I think maybe I shoulda done... medium-shiny here. But hey, you only get one chance to make a first impression, right?"

He polished off the rest of his drink. "So hey, yeah, I'm good at getting people in to see people. That's how I finally made it in with Vex back on Kamda. I was like, 'hey Vex'," Manny gave a thumbs-up to the imagined crime boss, "-check it out, two Mandos. And it worked!" He beamed at his two dinner partners. "So yeah, if you've got a plan, count me in!"

[Sholua Tempes]

Was there a sudden glint in Sholua's eye at mention of Vex? Nah, must have been a light reflecting from the stage set.

"Well I can think of a couple of places that Cutey here could face us in to. If his pockets are deep enough."

She smiled ever so sweetly at him.

"And not full of eggs."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"They're deep enough for eggs." Dhel grins, and flicks a bit of watery egg white at the shiny vest.

"Think Sinclair's a shiny, extra shiny, or 'for goodness sake, just get something sharp in a gray that matches your skin tone,' sort of vibe?" she asks Sholua, looking around Manny as she does so.

[Sholua Tempes]

"Extra shiny, or sharp, or even sharp and extra shiny I would say Honey."

Her turn to finish her meal while they waited to see if Manny would have the dosh for a real good time.

[Manny Donos]

"Hey, don't worry," Manny smiled at them. "I've got more than just eggs in here."

He reached into his vest, frowning as he felt around. "Somewhere... did I accidentally load double-eggs? Not again..."

He sighed. "Anyway... hey, no problem. Just let me know where and when. So... we'd all go together?" Manny looked back and forth between the two of them, trying to figure out if he was somehow going on a date with two girls at once. I knew making that egg disappear would work.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel's eyebrows lift, and she leans in to assist in patting pockets. "Sun's death, how many eggs did you put in here?" She's even avoiding crushing the eggs, but also absolutely aiming to remember where all the pockets are located. "Do you raise chickens on that ship of yours?"

She pauses, hands at the vest edges. "All together, yes, way easier to look like we're actually, you know, with you if we're hanging on your arms instead of trying to convince the humorless dorks at the door to let us in after you're there."

[Manny Donos]

"Haha... hey, careful." Manny let her pat at him a bit, but angled his left hip, with the concealed blaster, away from her. "Usually if I'm patting someone like that, it's because I'm planting cards on them. Or eggs." Or lifting stuff from them, of course.

A pretty girl on each arm... Manny tilted his head, considering. One thing that he found helped make him decisions in situations like this was to think of the pros and cons...

In his mind, a tiny Manny wearing a shiny vest appeared on his left shoulder "Bro. Two girls. And they're both pretty! You gotta say yes!" Manny (the real one) pursed his lips considering...

A tiny imaginary Manny wearing a really shiny vest appeared on his right shoulder. There was a short pause. "Yeah, I got nothing. Go for it, bro!" Both tiny Mannys gave him a thumbs-up.

"Alright!" Manny grinned. "Let's do it! What kind of place is Sinclair's, anyway? Do they serve wings there?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Casino. And...I'm sure they serve some kind of fancy bird dish that might include the wings. I've only been in there once, and was mostly drinking." Dhel's pats linger a bit more than a simple examination warrants. "You been there to sample the menu before, Sholua?"

"Anyway, I'm definitely not planting eggs, you have like two dozen in here already. This is such a mess if you trip on the stairs. Why don't you at least boil them?"

She pauses with an odd, somewhat confused look on her face, hand squeezing once at the oddly bulky texture. With a rather severe lack of respect for personal space or other people's clothing, she takes a second to find the edge of this, not exactly concealed pocket and lift out... "Also, why are you carrying socks around?"

[Sholua Tempes]

Ignoring the 'socks' comment for now, Sholua finished off what food was left for her and took up the beer glass again.

"Been once, some time ago. A private performance for a big spender. Turned out to be an Imperial so it wasn't much fun and I didn't even get a look at the menu."

She shook her head dispelling unpleasant memories.

"The place itself is very fancy though. All the games you'd expect and sports betting too." She remembered Manny's unusual greeting. "Gravball as well, with big screens."

[Manny Donos]

"Oh, uh..." Manny cleared his throat. "So yeah. One time the imps closed up my workplace slash home, and I had to sneak in and grab as much stuff as I could. Since then, I always made sure to carry a few socks on me. You know, just in case." Manny was always prepared!

And then Sholua said the magic words. Manny turned to look at her, eyes going wide. "Gravball? We gotta go there! I wonder if they get Manka Cat games! Antilles is gonna be hot this year!" Again, Manny pumped a fist in enthusiasm.

He leaned back in his chair, the front legs off the ground. "And we'd get food, of course." He made a face. "Who would take someone to a place like that and not get them food. That is not a bro move." He looked at Shoula again. "Imperial, huh?" He looked over to Dhel, raising his eyebrows significantly.