(D2 MA) The Nickel Tour

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

(expecting)

Without putting a whole lot of thought into how they managed to coordinate this, Dhel waits at the corner of the Alley, idly flipping through a rack of actual paper flyers, mostly coupons and advertisements for the shops on the row--her flyer is in one of the slots--but also for other attractions around this part of the city. In this heat, she's wearing a very light sundress of cheap yellow fabric and using a handful of pulled flyers as a fan.

[Nara Phln]

(expecting)

Without putting a whole lot of thought into how they managed to coordinate this, Dhel waits at the corner of the Alley, idly flipping through a rack of actual paper flyers, mostly coupons and advertisements for the shops on the row--her flyer is in one of the slots--but also for other attractions around this part of the city. In this heat, she's wearing a very light sundress of cheap yellow fabric and using a handful of pulled flyers as a fan.

"Yo Dhelih!"
Nara is hardly subtle as she hustles up to Nara wearing.....the same clothes as yesterday. Hopefully she'd washed them.
"Ready to show me around? Do you have any carpet shops which your cousins own? That's always a staple."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Ha, no...umm...no cousins, here actually. Not to speak of anyway." She holds up the handful of flyers. "So, honestly there's very little hidden entertainment. Everyone wants offworld credits to stick around, y'know? But..." peeling off the back half of the collection. "This bunch are all pretty trash."

To be fair, she'd heard that "Three Stars and Farewell," was pretty good if you liked emotional tearjerkers. But damned if she was going to drive any traffic to watch Stannis chew scenery.

Instead she tugs one out of the pile. "You don't need me to tag along, but if you're a theater type, "Corellian Kate's Last Run" is great. They've got the place rigged with plenty of wire for the leaping and some really well done explosions that only set the place on fire once during rehearsal. Their effects being is supposed to be fantastic. Thrilling adventure and time travel in Rakuan ruins." Somehow she just figured that one would be Nara's speed.

I'm taking you to the dino show. Sar Teryth, multi media, old megafauna dropped into the modern city...all the layers. I really like the one that's just a painting of a pack of stone sloths devouring the Uppers. He really captures the slow motion horror of a 20 well-armored giant sloths gnawing a building to the ground.

[Nara Phln]

"Ha, no...umm...no cousins, here actually. Not to speak of anyway." She holds up the handful of flyers. "So, honestly there's very little hidden entertainment. Everyone wants offworld credits to stick around, y'know? But..." peeling off the back half of the collection. "This bunch are all pretty trash."

To be fair, she'd heard that "Three Stars and Farewell," was pretty good if you liked emotional tearjerkers. But damned if she was going to drive any traffic to watch Stannis chew scenery.

Instead she tugs one out of the pile. "You don't need me to tag along, but if you're a theater type, "Corellian Kate's Last Run" is great. They've got the place rigged with plenty of wire for the leaping and some really well done explosions that only set the place on fire once during rehearsal. Their effects being is supposed to be fantastic. Thrilling adventure and time travel in Rakuan ruins." Somehow she just figured that one would be Nara's speed.

I'm taking you to the dino show. Sar Teryth, multi media, old megafauna dropped into the modern city...all the layers. I really like the one that's just a painting of a pack of stone sloths devouring the Uppers. He really captures the slow motion horror of a 20 well-armored giant sloths gnawing a building to the ground.

It looked like Dehlih had it spot on as Nara had followed her descriptions with rapt attention
"So if I go to the Corellian one I might get set on fire? Finally, some theatre that really speaks to me, definitely going to that one."
And who didn't like time travel? The plot-holes solved themselves

Starting off towards said dino show with a jaunty step
"You know, I've never fought a well-armoured giant sloth. Well, unless you count chain mail as 'well armoured'" she snorts "But that sounds perfect. You have man vs nature, nature vs man...giant animals. What more could you want?"
The bounty hunter starts to humm...it's....how do you even hum discordantly

"So how'd you end up a tour guide come performer come spruiker anyway?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Leading the way, she considers the last word*, decides it doesn't really matter as far as answering the question, and only barely matters if it's insulting.

"I guess it just worked out that way? Working as a server here," she gestures down the aromatic street of eateries, "is a pretty common first job for a lot of kids. Turned out I sang well enough to work the stage too. But that's kind of uneven money to eat on, so you do what you can." She shrugs. "Beats working almost anything I'd be qualified to do at the port."

"How'd you end up....doing whatever it is you do that involves people in the hospital?"



**************
*I used Google, Dhel did not.

[Nara Phln]

Leading the way, she considers the last word*, decides it doesn't really matter as far as answering the question, and only barely matters if it's insulting.

"I guess it just worked out that way? Working as a server here," she gestures down the aromatic street of eateries, "is a pretty common first job for a lot of kids. Turned out I sang well enough to work the stage too. But that's kind of uneven money to eat on, so you do what you can." She shrugs. "Beats working almost anything I'd be qualified to do at the port."

"How'd you end up....doing whatever it is you do that involves people in the hospital?"



**************
*I used Google, Dhel did not.

"So kind of like a rags to lower middle class thing? I can get behind that. Everyone has a side hustle these days."
Nara gives two thumbs that go all the way up
"I ended up where I am because of a phrase that rhymes with...rhymes with...Stars, this is actually hard. Uh 'Tolerable by and large'. I didn't see eye to eye with some folks back home because I'm shorter than most people, and that led to insubordination and anger issues."
One day she'd buy leg extensions, and then the galaxy's top shelves would tremble
"So I figured I'd travel waaaay out from home and here I am."
Looking around
"Kinda annoyed your part of the galaxy is also ruled by a xenophobic totalitarian regime, was hoping for a change."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel sighs. "Yeah, my brother's fosters headed even farther out, hoping to find that kind of change. No idea if they found it. I've only been as far as Kamda, and they've got 'em too...sooo..." She shrugs, heading farther in to the shop.

The shop she heads for has a bright mural on the door dimmed with years of grime, that looked like the painter had been tripping on some really good hallucinogens. There were recognizable almost-faces and distorted buildings with warped, rainbowed windows. The sign over the door just read "Rali's"

It was more of an oddment shop than a gallery, though the lighting was well done to display various pieces of art among the racks of less expensive oddments related to the current art, other famous pieces, and others that possibly represented past pieces that had been displayed here.

With no subtlety at all, Dhel weaves around a Lower city diorama swarming with rotund, fuzzy balls whos giant mouths were all teeth, and a shimmering holopiece where upper city buildings and images of people going about their business flickered on to overlay a scene of migrating lizards the size of busses, like ghosts from the future. She headed straight to her favorite giant sloth painting.

Their armor was definitely the natural sort, scaley-looking, and apparently deflecting blaster fire.

[Nara Phln]

Snip

"People just got no respect for blue, you know? Hope your folks found something nice, like a planet of wampas."
Nara coos at the presented conflict and stretches 'look but don't touch' to its absolute limits as she eyeballs it all

"The detail here is pretty good! It's really cool how he used blood to link all the dismemberments together. Pinning that all must have taken forever."
Indeed, she spends a chuck of time examining the various bits and pieces behind the models before making her way over to the giant sloth painting
"Nice, it absolutely lives up to your hype. Not only do we have a commentary on time catching up on us all with undertones of class commentary but we've still got badass sloth action."

Then another painting catches her eyes and she darts off to peer at a Cubist depiction of a rancor being conscripted during the Clone Wars, apparently with electrified netting.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel lets the exhibit take center stage, leaving any further speculation about her parents' fates to the imagination.

"Definitely badass sloth action." That's the only part Dhel feels she can comment on particularly well. At the rancor piece, she grins, tapping one of those little red 'interact here!!' buttons to make the fibers laced into the paint of the netting light up. "We had a taxidermied rancor here once. Or at least I've heard we did. It was before my time, and back when this was Festin's Curiosities before Festin retired."

"Rali's said the rancor was fake, just other bits of things stitched together. But even she's admitted it looked pretty cool." A few more pieces that seem to be by the same artist are all similar in style with a very obvious theme of capturing dangerous creatures in ways that lend themselves to audience button-pushing participation.

[Nara Phln]

Dhel lets the exhibit take center stage, leaving any further speculation about her parents' fates to the imagination.

"Definitely badass sloth action." That's the only part Dhel feels she can comment on particularly well. At the rancor piece, she grins, tapping one of those little red 'interact here!!' buttons to make the fibers laced into the paint of the netting light up. "We had a taxidermied rancor here once. Or at least I've heard we did. It was before my time, and back when this was Festin's Curiosities before Festin retired."

"Rali's said the rancor was fake, just other bits of things stitched together. But even she's admitted it looked pretty cool." A few more pieces that seem to be by the same artist are all similar in style with a very obvious theme of capturing dangerous creatures in ways that lend themselves to audience button-pushing participation.

Button press

Button press

Button press

Nara seems determined to interact with every exhibit here.
"Even if it wasn't real, a giant stitched together monster that looked like a rancor would be awesome. I was never good enough at medicine to make convincing monsters."

Finally satisfied with the art pieces Nara turns to a selection of dusty cabinets holding wildly impractical weapons. A 3 pronged reverse grip sword sits nestled next to a muzzle loading slugthrower with 'Besty' engraved on the stock
"Huh, where'd they get all of these?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Well the art's here to sell on commission, I'm told." She gestures back to a display of sculptures made from obviously scavenged junk, many appearing to have useful functions as well like 'candleholder' or 'many-armed thing to hang small shit off of.' "Dated the gal who does those for a bit and she said it had one of the better rates around. Though if you can get your stuff to sell in the fancy places in the Upper, you make a lot more per piece."

She laughs a little at the weapons, "Pretty sure those are art projects too, actually."

[Nara Phln]

"Well the art's here to sell on commission, I'm told." She gestures back to a display of sculptures made from obviously scavenged junk, many appearing to have useful functions as well like 'candleholder' or 'many-armed thing to hang small shit off of.' "Dated the gal who does those for a bit and she said it had one of the better rates around. Though if you can get your stuff to sell in the fancy places in the Upper, you make a lot more per piece."

She laughs a little at the weapons, "Pretty sure those are art projects too, actually."

"Man, I wish I had the kind of money to have people make weapons for me. Did she ever give you any of them? A holdout blaster can be pretty romantic."
Once she's satisfied that all the weapons, even the paper mache vibro-axe had been thoroughly examined, Nara cast her gaze about to see if there was anything they'd missed.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Man, I wish I had the kind of money to have people make weapons for me. Did she ever give you any of them? A holdout blaster can be pretty romantic."
Once she's satisfied that all the weapons, even the paper mache vibro-axe had been thoroughly examined, Nara cast her gaze about to see if there was anything they'd missed.

"Nah...I bought my blaster on my own. Got a teeeny vibroknife from her though. Fits in a lipstick case." Dhel grins, glancing over the display. The designs had only continued to grow more elaborate over the years, and Elliya made a decent, but not posh living off of them these days. She gestures at one of the merch racks near the register. "Postcards if you want a cheap way to collect some of the art to take with."

"Otherwise, there's a weapons shop around the corner, but it's pretty basic stuff...I hear Sinclair's in the Upper is where you want to go for fancy stuff. And there's lunch at the Fried Swamp Rat, which has never actually fried a swamp rat, though I would not place bets as to where any have made it into the house stew. But they do have solid food for a decent price and the best hard lemonade on the alley."

[Nara Phln]

"Nah...I bought my blaster on my own. Got a teeeny vibroknife from her though. Fits in a lipstick case." Dhel grins, glancing over the display. The designs had only continued to grow more elaborate over the years, and Elliya made a decent, but not posh living off of them these days. She gestures at one of the merch racks near the register. "Postcards if you want a cheap way to collect some of the art to take with."

"Otherwise, there's a weapons shop around the corner, but it's pretty basic stuff...I hear Sinclair's in the Upper is where you want to go for fancy stuff. And there's lunch at the Fried Swamp Rat, which has never actually fried a swamp rat, though I would not place bets as to where any have made it into the house stew. But they do have solid food for a decent price and the best hard lemonade on the alley."

"Oh that's classy. You know I've never got to use a lipstick knife before, but I kinda hope I will one day."
Nara picks out a postcard saying 'Sar Teryth, Weaponised Boredom on Bellionas' which has a series of photos of the weapons from the displays with the diorama taking centre stage

"Love your tourism campaign by the way. So Sinclair's is the go to place? I'll put it on the list once I make a little cash. You reckon they sell the good illegal stuff to?"

And without waiting for a reply
"Absolutely down for hard lemonade and swamp rat real, substitute or otherwise."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel leads the way from the shop. "I guess? Sinclair's is what the folks who spend a lot of time talking about tweaking blaster power cells and phase modulation talk about when they have 'if I found a million credits in a sack' chats." She doesn't really bother answering the zoomed by question about illegal weapons. Place with that kind of clientele? If you have the credits, they'll find the goods.

Even with the shade of the Upper City, it was steamy out. The smells of cooking food warred with whiffs of warm trash wafting out of the alleys as they head to one hole in the wall joint among a strip of them. "The stew's pretty much always good. The fried stuff is..well it's fried stuff, avoid the white sauce, it goes off on days this hot. The green and brown ones are great. If you like spicy, try the red sauce. They use some kind of native seed pod that will burn all the way down."

Inside, the place smells greasy, and the lights are dim, no doubt because the walls would look pretty scuzzy with years of fry oil residue sticking almost everywhere. The decor was minimal, with walls painted a dingy off-white and plain seating. A taxididermied creature crouched beside the register, fur dull with layers of dust stuck to grease, cobwebs strung between yellow teeth.

[Nara Phln]

Dhel leads the way from the shop. "I guess? Sinclair's is what the folks who spend a lot of time talking about tweaking blaster power cells and phase modulation talk about when they have 'if I found a million credits in a sack' chats." She doesn't really bother answering the zoomed by question about illegal weapons. Place with that kind of clientele? If you have the credits, they'll find the goods.

Even with the shade of the Upper City, it was steamy out. The smells of cooking food warred with whiffs of warm trash wafting out of the alleys as they head to one hole in the wall joint among a strip of them. "The stew's pretty much always good. The fried stuff is..well it's fried stuff, avoid the white sauce, it goes off on days this hot. The green and brown ones are great. If you like spicy, try the red sauce. They use some kind of native seed pod that will burn all the way down."

Inside, the place smells greasy, and the lights are dim, no doubt because the walls would look pretty scuzzy with years of fry oil residue sticking almost everywhere. The decor was minimal, with walls painted a dingy off-white and plain seating. A taxididermied creature crouched beside the register, fur dull with layers of dust stuck to grease, cobwebs strung between yellow teeth.

Nara's nose twitches as she sniffs the eclectic collection of scents present with interest.
"Right! Spicy fried stuff in a stew with the red sauce."
She pats the taxidermist mascot as she passes before pulling out a rickety chair out from a table for Dhelih
"I always like eating at places like this. You get all the best gossip here. Sometimes food poisoning as well, but that's the price you pay."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel laughs, taking the offered seat. "I don't think i've heard of too much food poisoning. Plenty of eating way too much grease poisoning though."

Her own order is meat stew with the fried vegetable of the day on the side, green sauce all around. The red sauce is intense. Whatever those seed pods are trying to protect themselves against though...it hasn't worked on the sapient population of the galaxy, since it seems pretty popular.

"Yeah, the places here are the best for gossip, everyone grabs lunch in the alley. The drinks are generously sized, mildly alcoholic and refreshing on such a sticky hot day. So there's a reasonable stream of folks just dropping in to grab those to go.

[Nara Phln]

Dhel laughs, taking the offered seat. "I don't think i've heard of too much food poisoning. Plenty of eating way too much grease poisoning though."

Her own order is meat stew with the fried vegetable of the day on the side, green sauce all around. The red sauce is intense. Whatever those seed pods are trying to protect themselves against though...it hasn't worked on the sapient population of the galaxy, since it seems pretty popular.

"Yeah, the places here are the best for gossip, everyone grabs lunch in the alley. The drinks are generously sized, mildly alcoholic and refreshing on such a sticky hot day. So there's a reasonable stream of folks just dropping in to grab those to go.

"Ahum!" Nara mumbles around her straw as she started trying to down a hard lemonade in one go, possibly related to a large amount of red sauce encountered.

Wherever the blue alien was from, it was probably colder there because she was looking a little overheated by this point.
"Ah, yeah, generously sized is right. That was perfect." She immediately flags down a waiter for another
"Don't see a lot of upper city folks though. What's the deal on this planet anyway? Informal class system or something like that?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel nods "Sorta. I mean, when I stopped on Kamda, they had like...good and bad parts of town, and there wasn't a lot of folks from the better ones who were eager to go wandering to the worse ones. Same thing, but in actual layers, so the trash literally rains down. So folks from lower down might come up for work, or if they have the credits to afford something. But you don't tend to go any lower than you have to." She sips her lemonade and grins. "Sorry...said it was hot, but people do get surprised."

"Some of the older folks say it wasn't split up quite so much before the War," she says with a shrug. "But it's been this way as long as I've been able to notice."

[Nara Phln]

Dhel nods "Sorta. I mean, when I stopped on Kamda, they had like...good and bad parts of town, and there wasn't a lot of folks from the better ones who were eager to go wandering to the worse ones. Same thing, but in actual layers, so the trash literally rains down. So folks from lower down might come up for work, or if they have the credits to afford something. But you don't tend to go any lower than you have to." She sips her lemonade and grins. "Sorry...said it was hot, but people do get surprised."

"Some of the older folks say it wasn't split up quite so much before the War," she says with a shrug. "But it's been this way as long as I've been able to notice."

“Yeah that’s a kick alright. Feels like the food is fighting back which I always like.”
the second drink is consumed nearly as fast as the first.

“I guess it’s a pretty direct way to let everyone literally know where they stand. Rich Imps on top, is fine upper lower middle class folks and then the guys who have to dodge actual trash monsters.”

Still even if the food was hot Nara went right back in for more, still sweating profusely.

“Wouldn’t want to be in the upper city though come the revolution. If there is one. Worst comes to worst we get a peaceful exchange of power which would be so dull.”