Reprise before Repisal (D2 ME The Cave)

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

With a reasonably large crop of new folks in town, Dhel is definitely joining the local economy's efforts to separate them from some of their credits. Once again, she's at the Cave...after all, she'd told a few folks she would be, maybe they'd show up with some ready credits to spend.

Lots of people are out and about this evening. It's still warm out, but compared to the temperature when the sun is still beating down? Much better, and rather good for business, so the place was humming along.

Dhel had a reasonably varied set lined up, with some good starting energy and several songs that she'd picked up during her month out of town.

[The SCaT Droid]

A familiar droid comes in, but wearing a rather snazzy new coat of gold circles on the chest and head. Such a fashion statement in droids hasn't been made since the Siege of Naboo. SCaT doesn't know why, those droids had the fatal flaw of being uniformly slaved to a single computer, but they more than made up for it in their advanced resilience and absolutely powerful voices. Ah well, that kind of thinking can be canned for now, it came here to make some credits gambling and maybe when everyone else is drunk enough sing in a dialect that no one else would even be able to fully comprehend.

[Raven Cadera]

Having heard of this 'Cave' the previous day at the meeting, Raven finds a moment in the day to herself to just... go somewhere and relax.

Dressed with a cloak covering her armor, and a headwrap covering her face, the tall woman finds a place to sit down a bit out of the way, with a cold refreshment. Probably a few eyes in her direction for getting something non-alcohol, but she considered being here to be part of being in the field - wouldn't help anyone if she got drunk, after all.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

After a slow, sultry piece that took great advantage of the low lighting, the Bothan wrapped out her set with something high energy, long legs taking her back and forth across the stage, plumed tail brushing out across the stage's edge. With a glance at the schedule beside the mic...which showed empty space after her set (which explained why nobody was offering dirty glares from the wings as she ran right up against her alloted minutes)...Dhel crouches next to the tip bucket, chatting at the audience as she scoops out a lot fewer credits than last night.

"Open mic for the next 20 folks, if you've got an itch to come on up here and entertain your friends and neighbors." Spotting the droid from yesterday, she tips the mic toward them, recalling something about binary performance. There's a questioning tilt to her eyebrows as she moves to tuck the mic back onto its stand, leaving it to whomever decided to brave the stage.

Grabbing the remains of her own drink from the side of the stage, she scanned the crowd for new faces...not a ton. She needed to plaster around more flyers, perhaps. But the hooded one caught attention...trying to be mysterious was a mixed bag for Dhel's purposes, but looked like a better bet than the regulars.

She slid into a seat across the table, leaning low onto the sticky tabletop to peer up into the hood. "Hellllooo, tall, dark, and _mysterious_ stranger! Like the show so far?"

[The SCaT Droid]

SCaT may not know much about human emotion, but even it knows not to follow a sultry piece with a piece in binary. Binary music played for the masses is about exploiting the range of things a machine could do that organics could only dream of. So it takes the handful of credits it brought (10) and tries to find a gambling partner that would be willing to take the offer for a game of pazzak.

[Raven Cadera]

After a slow, sultry piece that took great advantage of the low lighting, the Bothan wrapped out her set with something high energy, long legs taking her back and forth across the stage, plumed tail brushing out across the stage's edge. With a glance at the schedule beside the mic...which showed empty space after her set (which explained why nobody was offering dirty glares from the wings as she ran right up against her alloted minutes)...Dhel crouches next to the tip bucket, chatting at the audience as she scoops out a lot fewer credits than last night.

"Open mic for the next 20 folks, if you've got an itch to come on up here and entertain your friends and neighbors." Spotting the droid from yesterday, she tips the mic toward them, recalling something about binary performance. There's a questioning tilt to her eyebrows as she moves to tuck the mic back onto its stand, leaving it to whomever decided to brave the stage.

Grabbing the remains of her own drink from the side of the stage, she scanned the crowd for new faces...not a ton. She needed to plaster around more flyers, perhaps. But the hooded one caught attention...trying to be mysterious was a mixed bag for Dhel's purposes, but looked like a better bet than the regulars.

She slid into a seat across the table, leaning low onto the sticky tabletop to peer up into the hood. "Hellllooo, tall, dark, and _mysterious_ stranger! Like the show so far?"

The 'mysterious stranger' had at least been an attentive audience during Dhel's performance, perhaps paying more attention to the music than the singer as such.

Her covering had been pulled down to underneath her chin to accomodate for the drink she was slowly going at, judging by how the ice had begun to melt into the liquid.

"... Ah, yes," she seemed rather surprised by the approach, but nodded with appriciation. "You're a very good singer. Ah, hmm... is it customary to tip for a good performance?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel lifts and shakes her little pouch of credits suggestively. "In fact, it is! Better tips sometimes attract more _personal_ attention. But you've got that for free just now, so that's sort of up to you." The toothy Bothan grin is friendly...or maybe menacing, or just plain confusing if one has trouble reading non-human facial expressions.

She nods back toward the bar. "We get non-alcoholic drinks and the house meal for bringing in business, but actual earnings are pretty much what folks feel like tossing on the stage." Her head tilts a bit. "You're new here, but...are you like from the Core? Or just never much leave places like the Upper here? I know shows there mostly sell tickets instead of collecting tips...whole different flavor of performance."

[Raven Cadera]

"I see," she eyed the Bothan with some curiosity, taking a sip from her cooling beverage. It was one of those refreshing ones, popular on a hot day like this, with lime and mint. "As for me, I am new here. To the planet and this place. Not from a fancy place like the Core worlds, no." She offered a smile at that while she fished out a credit chip with a heavily gloved hand. No that was more than just a glove, that was an armored glove.

The tip probably wasn't the greatest, but it was something. [20 credits]

"The Upper city seems much too fancy for me. Do you put on shows there too, or just down here with us regular folks?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel grimaces slightly. "I stay down here. Folks in the Upper don't _do_ nonhuman shows. Well, not ones I'd want to do. I've heard some ugly stuff about the work you can get on stage if you don't mind being humiliated." Her grin returns after a second though. "But it takes all sorts of entertainment, and they get paid well for it, so who am I to complain?"

You never knew who might take things the wrong way up to someone who didn't like any kind of negative talk about how things ran up there...or down here. The way Dhel's eyes widen at the credits makes it obvious that it's a pretty good tip. It's usually small change pinging into the bucket here.

Shaking her head slightly, "pheww! You don't play around, where-ever you're from, lady." She waves a server over, sets the coins on their tray and orders the meat stew and side roast. "That and a safe place to bunk for the night'll get you as private a performance as you want here, y'know?" She offers a hand across the table, blunt almost-claws painted a glittery violet catch the light. "Name's Dhel, in case you missed that part of the show."

[Raven Cadera]

Eyebrows rose at the talk of 'private performances'. "... Raven. Name's Raven. And... no," she shook her head, an amused smile featuring on her face, "no need for private performances for me. That would take you away from your work here, from others hearing you sing."

Raven knew the hard labor of being a working gal. Hers had just involved fists and blood a lot more in the past. "... I've heard of that kind of entertainment. Back on Nar Shaddaa, the common cesspool of the galaxy. Wouldn't think they'd have something like that here too, but I suppose all planets have their own dirt that isn't the earthy-kind." The way her lips quirked indicated she didn't think too highly of that kind of stuff.

"You sing too well to humiliate yourself like that."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel takes a moment to think about this, sipping her lemony drink...compliments and no expectation of personal attention is downright *strange*.

She gestures to the stage, "Sets are pretty flexible. I'm taking another in just a bit, but if I don't...someone might step up, or not, and folks'll just drink and gamble a bit." Just in case it's really all about not interfering with her schedule.

"But yeah, nothing wrong with selling yourself. That's just work. But it's harder to recover from selling your dignity like that," she says with a sad shake of her head. "I'd sooner go slave at the spaceport or Foundry. Probably die in some nasty accident, but at least it's honest work."

She shakes the drink, rattling the ice a bit, "So, you're Raven from not-here, and noplace fancy like the core. Am I gonna piss you off asking what brings you Bellionas and what you might be looking to do here?"

[Raven Cadera]

"No, not at all," she chuckled, giving a shake of her head. Then as she considered her response, the good humor seemed to fade for a moment. Her blue eyes cast down at her drink in her hand, and she gave the glass a gentle swirl to stir the melting ice cubes. "Just here on work. Some... personal business too."

Raven was a terrible liar, so it wasn't hard to tell that there was more to what she was saying. "Suppose you could say I'm a bodyguard of sorts here. Helping out some friends. Found a flyer to this place yesterday at a meeting I was at, figured I'd unwind a bit with some music - not a whole lot of live performances like this back home. At least not with good singers," she snorted a small laugh. Her brothers and sisters might sing, but none of them were actual singers.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"At a meeting? Where was it? Always good to know where dropping those flyers has worked out. Like, I'm not sure they stand out enough at the boards full of them for newcomers getting off the ships." Dhel looks quite interested in that, while avoiding pressing on the type of work. No reason for her to pry at what folks want to keep to themselves.

"Anyway, any singing is good. There's a lot of families singing, and stuff that's not on a stage. It's...it's like home cooking. Might not be as fancy, but it's pretty satisfying." Dhel grins as her also not very fancy food arrives.

[Raven Cadera]

"Hmmm..." now how to explain that bit. Just picked it up at a meeting for rebels and resistance-members. Are you a part of them too, wink-wink-nudge-nudge? No, no, that wouldn't work. Stirring the drink once more, she chewed her lip thoughtfully. "A... business meeting, you could probably call it. Like, uh... some young and inspirational folks I'm working for. I think they're going to have some kind of radio show or local newspaper... I'm just the hired muscle, really."

Raven, you are not a smooth operator. Stop it.

Stopping she did by taking a big gulp of the cool drink.

"Yes. It's more family-singing back home," that at least made her grin. "Satisfying, and I do like it. Really. Just... it's different to hear a real pro do it." A part of her wondered what it would sound like if Dhel would sing a Mandalorian song. "Is that how you learned to sing so well? With family-songs?"

[The SCaT Droid]

After a few songs, it became clear that SCaT wasn't going to find anyone who would be willing to play a game of chance with it. So it got on stage and performed a little tune in a language that few organics would know, but the instrumentals gave a pretty good idea of what it was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNxFloM ... %C5%BCniak

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Oh...by the loading dock, yeah? Petra dragged me over there the other night. There were cookies, and yeah, not sure they really need someone who can sing. But radio? so maybe?" Dhel shrugs, apparently not too concerned about the meeting. Though her cool is way more due to not paying quite as much attention at the meeting as might be optimal rather than any deliberate effort.

"Anyway, I'm not a pro, or I'd be making recordings or something, right?" The chuckle is plenty rueful. "But yeah, I sang at home, and around friends and turned out to be decent. Pretty good at mimicking a style, but no proper training. So I'm right out for some of the wild opera and the xeno tunes that come from species that don't do the whole lungs and voicebox combo."

She scoops at her stew, pausing the spoon halfway and gestures toward Raven's gloved hand. "We do get some really solid brawls in here, so that's maybe a good idea. But most of the Middle isn't that rough if you want to dress down in this heat any"

The new performance offers a great chance to stop talking and shovel down the meal. She silently offers some of the end roast to Raven. Only fair after enough credits to afford it came from her. Dhel 'claps' by pounding the table with the hand not holding a spoon, and tosses a few credits to the stage out of professional courtesy, and to encourage others to follow suit. It definitely was different.

[Raven Cadera]

"Yeah, Petra," she nodded. Wow. That was kind of a relief. "Well, there was someone named Petra there. I didn't speak to her..." there were cookies there?! Baked goods had escaped her notice, or had probably been devoured by the time she got there. The latter most likely.

The remark regarding her armor, specifically armored glove, earns a curious look first directed at her, then at her own hand. Turning it over, flexing and unflexing the fingers. As if to remind herself that yes she was in fact wearing armor. "I'll manage the heat, but good to know about the occassional brawl." Lips quirked in an amused half-smile. "I've worn this armor for a while now, it's practically a second skin to me... feels naked to go without, you know."

With the new performer taking the stage, she graciously accepted the bit of roast offered. All things considered, the food was better here than it had been on Kamda. It lacked a bit in spices for what she liked, but it was tasty and filling nonetheless. Joining in with the applause by clapping her hands together, Raven seemed more puzzled by the rather unique piece. "... Is that kind common? I've never heard that before."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Oh man..Petra kept hanging out there? Was she climbing the walls with boredom by then?. And yeah, Twi'lek with these honey cookie things. Kind of sticky, but really tasty." Dehl wonders how much more time Petra spent trying to clean up over there today. After breaking that window, she'd looked around a bit, but slipped away for other pursuits pretty early on. "Looks like a lot of interest in radio and such at least. Many hands...light work...someithing like that."

She shakes her head at the woman's question. "No, don't get a lot of musical droids here. They're all...medical and construction mostly, I think. And those lot are pretty focused on their work it seems like. But I ran into that one at the museum the other day, so they're traveling." She lowers her voice. "Though...they look a lot like the ones I see in vids from the War. So...I don't know if that means they had musical droids for some reason, or that's a fighting one that picked up music? If they, or you," she glances at the armored hand again, "want fighing, just keep it on stage. They don't like getting the tables wrecked. And folks usually tip pretty well to watch a brawl break out."

[The SCaT Droid]

SCaT heads off stage after its performance and heads over to the ladies. It then whispers to Dhelih "soldiers burst out into song a lot more often than you think." It then takes a second to look between the two before stating "this unit would most definitely not wish to brawl, terrible idea when your limbs can just be pulled off. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I might find a guy who wants to gamble."

D2 ME: Deception/Cunning, gambling unfairly, unknown difficulty, -1 setback Unconvincing Demeanor: 2eP+1eA 2 successes, 4 advantage


(gonna go ahead and post this and a GM could tell me the difficulty later)

[Flession]

Couple people come over and sit down next to you at the motion of some sabbac. Maybe it's because of the booze or a feeling of bravery, but they seem eager to want to beat a droid at a card game. Especially since it's only 10 credits to start.

Let's see what the Force Brings Reprise before Repisal (D2 ME The Cave): 1eF 1 Dark Side


((Easy Difficulty. Don't forget to upgrade a difficulty die.))