[Exalted Space Opera] A Billion Lights in the Heavens

[MrPrim]

The Galaxy is a vast thing.

From afar, if you could see it that way, it would resemble a swirl of stars, a tiny cluster of light in a sea of darkness. It would look almost like a solid thing made of light, a four-limbed spiral of glowing hydrogen. Those lights, they must be so close together, you’d think from your different vantage point. It’s only natural to think that way. But you’d be wrong.

There are more stars in the Gaiana Galaxia than grains of sand on a beach. The spaces between them are so far apart that by the time one planetary culture finds evidence of another, that original culture has been dead for millennia.

The Galaxy is big. This is what I’m getting at.

That’s what makes what happens next so very very unlikely.

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They call this place Grayweather’s Ring, an asteroid system deep in the middle-third of Hesieh Arm. On Imperial rosters it is categorized as an Asteroid Belt; Major Earth, Minor Fire; Uncleared; Ungodded; Involved; Jade-rich; Bubble; and a whole number of other signifiers. Of course, to the Empire, “Jade-rich” is the only adjective on that list to justify any sort of interest in this backwater. The refineries and asteroid mining facilities in the Grayweather Ring supply dozens of nearby (relatively; see above) worlds with the raw materials needed for all of the perks of modern existence.

The excitingly named Jade City is the hub of all of that activity. Located on Greyweather’s Rock, the largest of the rocks in the ring, Jade City is the primary organization point for the dozens of independent mining operations in the ring. It is here where the massive refinery ships come to refuel and regroup, delivering their spoils to the shuttles and cargo craft licensed to traverse the system’s Dragon Gate and carry their precious metals to the hungry galaxy.

A ship draws towards the ring; an amazing, misfit craft. Onboard that vessel is a similarly amazing, misfit crew.

They need supplies.

We’ll let them introduce themselves.

[Monkipi]

As the ship enters the belt, Walker of Worlds sits at the table in his room, drumming his fingers, and looking out the window at the approaching hunk of rock. "This is silly, stopping off on this boring rock. When we're so close to the beautiful, interesting planets. Guess I can't do much about it, not if we need to re-supply,"
Walker stands from the table and stretches, not because his artificial body needs it, but because he picked up the habit in watching people, and has an almost sentimental attachment to the activity. Running over his database, Walker finds nothing personally noteworthy about Jade City, but he has yet to collect any cultural data on the place. Stepping into the corridor of the ship, Walker begins a search for someone who might know something about the culture of this godforsaken rock. This cosmic truck stop. This trade stop. Walker needs to find Thad.

[Odd_Canuck]

Thad is lounging in his customary place, the captain's chair for a ship that needs no captain. Legs swung over one chair arm, blaster dangling freely on his hip, a glass of wine dangles carelessly from his hand as he reads a datapad in the other. The others will all turn up soon enough, they always do when it's time to make port.

Taking a brief sip his gaze briefly turns to Walker as he enters the bridge to acknowledge that he is aware of Walker.

"This is going to be a difficult port in some ways Walker. This place, it most dreadfully likes to pretend to be part of the Empire and to have at least a sliver of it's own culture, but in truth it is little more than a truck stop outside of a strip mine. It is about as unique and deep as an ice cube tray in a Thalaxian galley."

Glancing again at the cargo lists, supply lists and most importantly his little black book he adds "Unfortunately this is going to present some problems. We will ALL have to keep something of a low profile here. There is a person of some influence that I would rather not encounter if at all possible. There was a few.... incidents... between us several years ago." That was an understatement. Thad still had nightmares about Muffy's relentless pursuit of him in college. If she still thought that getting him into her bed would win his favor... this would be a difficult stop.

"So I shall be keeping a low profile, attempting to sell off the reactor housing shielding, the hydroponic dispersion systems and so forth that we have "acquired" at the docks while the rest of you go into the heart of the station to obtain supplies. This means that we need ALL of you to keep a low profile. No bar fights. No shooting up courier ships because the captain insults you. No accessing strange computer systems directly... even if they are nice to you... We can't afford any slip ups." ... Again.

Presented almost as an afterthought, but in truth one personally significant he adds "Oh, there is one thing while you're out getting supplies, while I stay at the docks. There is ONE thing somewhat unique to the station. It's not terribly special, but they are supposed to make a wine here with a strong earthy and nutty bouquet. If you would arrange for 3 cases for my private stocks to be delivered, I would quite appreciate it."


MrPrim is welcome to use this as an example for tagging aspects to cause us trouble. For example, both "I know the important people there"
"My Reputation Precedes Me" could justifiably be used to make it far more likely that Muffy learn of the ship's arrival and the important cargo that it carries (Thad) resulting in ADDITIONAL complications on top of whatever else he had planned. The Eclipse could soon be kidnapped!

[AmberVael]

"Low profiles are not part of my skill set." Interjects Sanzuwu, a nearby console shifting to show her countenance. "I believe I have reminded you before that the Ascendant has a reputation. Even if there is no one here who knows it, its appearance is distinct. I doubt it will pass without attracting notice. But perhaps were you intending for me to stop here and let the others walk the rest of the way?" The goddess asks, raising an eyebrow.

[Monkipi]

"You mean to say that Progress and I are to leave, purchase supplies and head back to the ship in as timely a fashion as possible, while limiting potential interaction with other sentient beings or AIs and under no circumstance mention what is universally a marker of personal identity and social class, our associations? You're also saying that there's nothing here of not for me to observe, watch or interact with except for maybe someone that Thad has a less than personable history with? Walker sets one hand on his pocket and the other rests on his hip. He begins impatiently tapping his foot, again a learned trait, "If we do this for you, you must promise to take us somewhere interesting next. Somewhere very interesting."

[Odd_Canuck]

With a slight smile Thad adds "My dear Sanzuwu, no-one could see your beautiful lines and vast militaristic level assets and not be blown away figuratively or literally. Even if we should have the desire to make some giant burka to cover you, your potent turrets would point through quite apparently. I have no desire to keep those that admire you from their drooling, but I would like us to avoid any additional, preventable attention."

Pausing he added "Ideally, we could indeed hide on the edge of the system and merely send the cargo launch in to shuttle the supplies back and forth, but regrettably it was lost along with the spare combat launch in the last engagement, having been converted into a improvised combat munition. Indeed, if you look replacements are in fact on the request list."

Twisting his head slightly to address Walker, "My good Walker, nothing of the sort. Simply walking on station and charging around to the various merchants at hyperspeeds is certain to attract attention, the very thing we want to avoid. No, you must be relaxed but focused. Browse the shops, buy a knick-knack talk to a paddywhack, give a dog a bone... whatever you wish within reason. Just be on guard, don't let anyone know the details of us and get to the merchants in a reasonable time. Don't be drawn into detailed sociological discussions, or one of those Dragons and Dungeons games that take most of the day."

Turning to look at the ceiling he adds "As for where we go? That is now and always has been up to dear Sanzuwu, with our just and reasonable input. Now if you want places that are fascinating to study, and all of us are willing, I could recommend Berkeley station for it's vast educational archives, diverse collection of student based personal viewpoints and the finest pepper fields in the Galaxy. or Nexus station, for it's justly famous streets of a thousand and one surprises. Or if you're quite up for an adventure there's is always Port Hentai in the Silver cluster, where something is certain to grab your interest."

[MrPrim]

When most planet-bound imagine an asteroid belt, they envision a ring of impenetrable debris. In actuality, once the Ascendant was moving in the proper reference frame, the region around Greyweather’s Rock was fairly clear, any asteroidlets that might have once been nearby having long ago been consumed by the Rock’s fairly strong gravity field. As they approached, the asteroid could have been easily mistaken for a small, fairly irregular planetoid.

As the ship left the outer system and approached its destination, the Ascendant found itself in an extremely high traffic zone. Sanzuwu’s sensors spotted fifteen hundred ships within near orbital range of Greyweather’s Rock, and another ten times that pinging in from further out in the system. While it may have been a backwater, Greyweather’s Ring was a bustling place. Of course, a high traffic zone in space means that there might be another ship somewhere within the ten-million yards, and the Ascendant met smooth sailing all the way up to the Rock.

The Ascendant brought itself closer to the planetoid, the pocked surface of the asteroid rotating to reveal the massive “bubble” of Jade City on the horizon.

After crossing some invisible comms line, Sanzuwu felt a presence on the sensors. The simple, feminine, and, overall, polite voice of the transit control device chimed in, ”Hello, previously unregistered ship, welcome to the Grayweather System. I am Transit Control Yegg-Alta 15B. Please transmit your identification, in order to be given docking authorization.”

[Odd_Canuck]

Taking a small sip before going back to dangling his wineglass perilously close to spilling on the clean floor Thad comments "Your call of course dear Sanzuwu, but I would suggest we use one of the fake papers we have."

Pulling out the icosohedronic decision randomizer from a small pocket he activates it, compares the result to a table on the datapad and offers "Looks like the randomizer suggests we are the "ISSD Lusankya, registered out of the port of Coco Town on the planet Coruscant... I believe that's a backwater farming planet. Shall we use it?"

[AmberVael]

When you're the soul of an ancient warship that has drifted aimlessly through space for countless years while you were usurping the role of your architects, no should be surprised that you've developed a few quirks along the way.

Right now, Sanzuwu is feeling the effects of some of these quirks. Thad is sitting in the captain's chair, being rather bossy (and implying some very irritating things), and the twisted circuits she uses as her mind suggest that she should remind him of his lack of authority in some way. Now, a normal person might yell at him, or bluntly remind him of his place, but Sanzuwu is quite far from a normal person. An alarming number of the options that come to her mind involve gratuitous quantities of lasers.

Luckily, she does not choose one of those options.

Unfortunately, the option she does choose may in fact be a great deal more dangerous. She speaks as the warship in reply, a vast and threatening voice that may very well overwhelm the Grayweather Control.
"You are addressing the warship Ascendant. No harm need come to you so long as you comply with our requests. Continue your standard docking procedures."

[Odd_Canuck]

With an almost unnoticeable smirk and a dramatic flourish with the wine glass, Thad offers a toast to the bridge "Dear Sanzuwu, I do so understand how my ancestor found you so delightful. Without you, things might become... dull. To the Warship Ascendant!"

Downing the remaining wine with a slightly feral (but quite happy) grin on his face, Thad makes ready to follow tradition and smash the glass down... pauses for a moment upon seeing the sad look on the face of one of the maintenance and cleaning scutter drones and instead tosses the empty glass to it for cleaning.

"Now we find out just how far this laser-drilled rabbit hole goes down."

[Monkipi]

"Well, now Sanwuzu. Wasn't that a bit rash? What, with Thad's nemesis on this rock, and our unsavory cargo. Oh, I can't pretend to be mad at you, you're so unpredictable that I can hardly contain my excitement. Believe me, this is going to teach me a lot about the way you people work!" A smile breaks out across Walker's face many stilted, awkward "heh" sounds proceed to come out of Walker's mouth. "I apologize, I'm trying to express my gratitude with laughter, but I am afraid I am not quite capable of such yet. Does this mean that all bets are off once we enter port? Or do I still have to keep up the "good subservient errand unit" charade? Oh, pleaaaaase? It's very hard to collect data while maintaining a ruse like that, you know.

[Odd_Canuck]

"I fear calling her a Nemesis grants her far more... glory... than she is due. But I am fairly confident that should she attack me, both you and dear Sanwuzu will stand with me on her chosen field of battle and assist me in meeting her challenge as a team. Am I mistaken in such confidence?"

Standing up straight and squaring away his outfit Thad adds "I suspect we had best plan for trouble irregardless. That it would not find us anyway is inconceivable."

[MrPrim]

There was a short pause, the sort of delay designed into such systems to properly imitate a biological’s inability to near-instantly process information.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In a well-furnished office, a woman looks over a sprawling city of manufactories. She has paperwork to do, so much paperwork. The last seventeen cycles have been unbelievably routine.

For a moment, she wishes that something interesting would happen on her watch, for once.

She gets a message on her datapad, something from Docking-Hub. She ignores it for the moment. Probably just more paperwork.

She sighs.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

”Greetings, Warship Ascendant. I must say, that I have not, personally, encountered a vessel of your design before. Your hull is quite impressive. You are clear to dock at strut-lock c87av. I will transmit precise coordinates and course bearings at this time.”

“Please note that, by docking and utilizing the facilities of the Greyweather Docking Hub, you are agreeing to the Moorage and Personal Responsibility Agreement and Terms of Use.” There was a quick surge of information containing said agreements all of their clauses and regulations Imperial standard in every way, ”Is there anything else I can assist you with at this time, Warship Ascendant?”


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Elsewhere, a man stands in a featureless white room.

A glowing holographic ring floating around his wrist begins to flash rhythmically. The man touches the ring and it expands into a semi-transparent screen, showing an image.

”Oh hell.”


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

At this range, the Ascendant and her motley, motley crew could just start to make out the docking hub. A single stalk rose from the planet’s gravity well and at it’s top split a massive mechanical assemblage of piers, turrets, sensors, docking bays, and bridges. From far away, it resembled nothing more than a flower the size of a small country, rising from a stalk as tall as a small moon.

The Ascendant navigates around the massive bulk of a refinery ship towards the locking mechanism. While the Ascendant is not designed to precisely interface with Imperial technology, the Empire’s lock systems are quite adaptable and it will be simplicity itself for Sanzuwu to connect herself to the strut-lock.

When you all post next, please give a physical description of your character. Thanks!

[AmberVael]

"My reputation is such that we will almost certainly see some form of trouble." Sanzuwu states in a dispassionate tone. "Though again, given my reputation, it may well be that direct confrontation is avoided. None have conquered the Ascendant thus far, and certain tactical lessons may be derived from that."

The Ascendant docks in a routine manner, despite Sanzuwu's aggressive address. She is quite ready to take off at any moment, however, and keeps tabs on the ship's situation- particularly whether or not it can still take off. It will take a particularly cunning and stealthy trick to lock the ship down without her knowing, as she focuses her awareness on such details, her ship presence spreading itself to watch warily.

Meanwhile, her avatar prepares to debark from the ship with the others. Tall and humanoid, possessed of a stern and sharp featured face framed by long black hair, Sanzuwu is clad in an archaic, full body suit of armor that mirrors the design of the ship. Formed of a material like dark and pitted iron and emblazoned with a small symbol of a golden sun, each plate of the armor is thin and precisely curved to fit onto her body without hampering her agility. In truth, the design is such because it is as much a part of Sanzuwu as her skin; the armor is an exoskeleton intrinsically tied to her body.

[MorkaisChosen]

There's a skittering noise and a small furry shape rounds the corner. About two feet long, and reminiscent of a capybara, if capybara were a beautiful golden-brown and wore earpieces, microphones, and toolbelts. Shining black eyes and a twitching coffee-coloured nose over prominent incisors make up a surprisingly impatient-looking face.

"We off out for a minute? Good, I was running out of wire. Oh, and I suppose you'll want me to look over whatever hunk of junk you want to replace the cargo launch with, unless you want another one with a leak plugged with engine grease." The voice is caustic, and- if you really pay attention- is actually coming from the headset, not Sparkchaser himself.

[Monkipi]

Walker stands and turns to exit the ship. As he turns, he brushes a dark shoulder-length, somewhat shaggy lock of hair out of his face. His eyes, a deep emerald green, they almost glow naturally and literally do so when he accesses the deeper parts of his data banks. His nose is fine and somewhat pointed and his lips are nothing of note. Physically he is tall, slender and humanoid. Between porcelain-esque plates that cover large parts of his body, are black cords, meant to simulate muscle and sinew. Resting atop several plates are glowing nodes the same deep green color as his eyes. All of Walker's clothes are black with an emerald trim. A short jacket that cuts off at chest-level, a plain shirt, and pants that fit loosely such as to provide flexibility and mobility.

As he disembarks the ship, he turns to ask, "So, what exactly do we need again?"

[Odd_Canuck]

Many people have described Thaddeus Reginald Ulysses Sylvester Trenton Merryweather-Emmeris over the years. The descriptions tend to feature the words irreverent, irrelevant, ivy league and invariably includes a detailed description of his immaculately tailored suits he favors. But they rarely describe him in terms more accurate than "about" 5'6" or his blond hair with dramatic natural dark highlights, lovable puppy-dog eyes or with "an impish smile".

Many people have also described Bloodfist Thad. They invariably focus on his eye as dark and heartless as the depths of space, the eyepatch that covers one eye and wraps around his dirty blonde hair, his frequently bloodstained clothing, towering 6 foot height and the feral snarl upon his face constantly, most prominently when he is slaughtering people.

Few people have made a connection between them, and fewer still realize that when you have a bland face, hair color and are an average 5'8" tall, everything about the way people remember you is in how you dress and how you carry yourself. It doesn't matter if you are short, as long as you carry yourself as if you are tall. It doesn't matter if you have both a Thassian Ripper for a blaster and the will to use it, as long as you look like a defenseless snob, dress like a snob and act like one people assume you are useless and defenseless. It doesn't matter if you genuinely care about your friends and shipmates and enjoy pressing flowers, if you look and act like a badlands raider with less morals and hygiene than a hive rate, people will treat you as such and fill in all the details that never were.

Today in an effort to avoid attention of any sort Thad is donning a different outfit. Using a hair growth stimulator, he adds a goatee and pencil thin mustache to his face, and a quick dip in some simple Stay-Goo slicks back his hair as well as darkens it slightly. Donning his form-fitting body armor, he quickly straps down a heavily modified Blastech 44-DL blaster in a cross draw holster... it's not his beloved Thassian Ripper, but weapons that are banned in civilized space are generally not good things to carry around all the time. Tucking a pair of tiny hold out blasters in places best not mentioned, and Thad feels as if he can defend himself if the need arises. Finally he digs out an oversized ship suit in a dark tan and green color and dons it, hiding the blaster. Elastic bands at the ankles and wrists suggest someone who is used to working in freefall, the many giant poofy pockets all over confirms it. A standard ship nametag bearing the game "Sylvester" renders the look almost complete.

Looking himself over in the mirror of his cabin, he certainly looks the part of a slightly down at the heels merchant that's trying to hide it, but one thing was missing. Ah yes. Opening a case on his dresser he adds a handful of the cigars his fifth cousin seven times removed gave him as a gift to his front pocket, adding one between his lips. Now the look is complete.

Departing his cabin for the main deck, he directs the scutters to move the goods to be sold to the dock area... people will be coming to the ship to see what she has for sale, and they had best all be ready.

With a declaration of "Quite a lot I'm afraid, and a lot that needs the advice and inspection of Wise Sparkchaser", Thad hands out datapads containing the manifests of what is needed and desired in a ranked scale... Cargo Launch, Combat launch, Food, water, fuels, trade goods, highly illegal armor penetrating antiparticle beam cannon capable of being attached to the single and multi-seat combat launches... The list is quite extensive... and in some aspects, questionable.

Changing up his accent slightly from the high class to a more common one he adds "An' while you are off buying what we need, I shall be here trying to sell off this perfectly legitimate salvage at a fair price so we can take care o' the bills. I'm thinking we can probably get at least 70,000 credits for the lot if we can move it... 'course at that price I'm cuttin' my own throat."

[MrPrim]

The Ascendant’s hatch opened with the sort of gentle hiss required in these circumstances, releasing its occupants (and, oddly, itself) into Greyweather Docking Hub.

Imagine an airport. Now, cross that with a subway station. Now, cross it with an industrial wharf. Now, stick it in space. Well… that wasn’t very helpful. ANYWAYS, the Docking Hub was like that but bigger. A clear bridge with gentle moving floors connected the Ascendant’s air lock to the main branch of the ship. As they step out of the Ascendant, they find walking to be as simple and natural as they expect it to be. Imperial constructions such as Jade City and its environs are, generally, kept at Imperial Standard gravity. At the end of bridge was a blast door of impressive size and, as the crew approached the door, its surface became a pleasant woman’s face. The voice of the Hub AI spoke once more,”Please press your hand or other equivalent appendage against the screen below. If you’d like for me to provide a list of equivalent and satisfactory appendages by species, please let me know.”

Now, let’s see, does everyone press their hands against door, as they must have expected to have to do as it is the standard Imperial situation? THE DRAMA!

On the other hand, let’s work with our pacing a bit. Let’s make some assumptions. For instance, let’s assume that the crew gains entrance to the facility (any identity-masking hijinks can be easily retconned in) and assume that they make their way towards the space elevator. Leading down to the planet.

The central hub of the Docking Platform resembles little more than a bazaar. Merchants and traders have set up stalls, cubicles, shacks, carts, and even cardboard boxes to cater to the needs of the mining-set, those members of the Greyweather community that spend more of their time in space than asteroid-bound. Mostly the wares are simple: clothing, food, books, games, and other entertainment. Of course, Jade City limits the sorts of trade and activity than occur in the market and vessels, large quantities of supplies, and weaponry aren’t going to be found in the hub; not without some amount of illegality becoming involved, at least.

”Hot Barlenian Sausages! Hot Barlenian sausages! How about you, pretty lady?” a fairly large, blue-skinned merchant clad in a brilliant orange jumpsuit shouted from a nearby stall. He cast Sanzuwu a wide grin, the grin of a man who wants to sell a sausage (one they’d all seen on Thad many a time). And then his eyes flicked down at Sparkchaser, ”A snack for your lovely pet, perhaps? Make his coat big! Shiny! Delicious!”

[MorkaisChosen]

Faced with the usual docking situation, Sparkchaser lets out the usual torrent of invective and scrambles up Thad's overalls- the pockets provide a useful amount of surface for him to get his claws into- and presses one paw into the scanner.

So he's in the usual bad mood when the sausage seller starts his pitch. Coat standing up slightly in an unconscious display of aggression, he scampers forwards and snaps "Call me a pet one more time and I'll give you a guided tour of the inside of an active plasma drive. I hear the sight of it's almost worth the excruciating death."

[Monkipi]

Walker slowly approaches Sparkchaser and stands between him and the sausage vendor. First, he turns to the sausage vendor and says, "Now, sir, this is no pet. He is a comrade and friend. I would appreciate if you were to acknowledge him as such."

He then turns back round to face Sparkchaser and says, "You, we need to keep a low profile still. We needn't draw the attention of Thad's scorned lover. While I understand your... sensitivity on the matter, we all need to control our impulses today. "

[MorkaisChosen]

He turns is back and waddles irascibly in the direction they were heading. "Fine, whatever." His voice subsides to a low mutter, from which occasional things like "idiot" and "couldn't think his way out of a paper bag" are audible.

[MrPrim]

The sausage seller blinked wildly, staring dumbfounded at the group as they passed. What was his story? Why was his accent so ridiculously over the top? We may never know. Soon he was lost in the press of people behind them; never to be heard from again.

It took only a short tram ride to reach the space elevator that was the stalk of the hub flower. Joining the line of other spacers, the group acted in their usual manners. Walker probably made confused faces, asking what lamps were. Sparkchaser certainly shouted and Napoleoned his way around. Heck, he probably bit some poor miner for looking at him funny. Sanzuwu was surly and silent. And Thad was just Thad as much and just as hard as possible. Like always. And then it’s their turn and the doors of the little pod open, waiting to carry them down into the asteroid’s surface.

Fast forward. The doors of the space elevator open, depositing them on the surface. ”Welcome to Jade City,” read the terminal displays as they disembark into the massive transit building on the very edge of the city’s atmospheric bubble.

Welcome to the Rock.

[Odd_Canuck]

Sylvester (aka Thad aka you're-not-going-to-make-me-list-the-rest-of-these-are-you?) looks around and makes note of the layout. Yep. This is a standard Imperial layout alright. Looks like it was originally set up as an Imperial Corporate Store that expanded and allowed branching out centuries ago.

Still, it makes it easier. Imperial Store. Store never changes.

Swaggering* up to an available merchandise management terminal, keyed in the cargo transfer request moving the crates of salvage to one of the many cargo bays in the station and sent out a statement of public offer, with an initial bid of what the cargo is actually worth plus 10%, with a short sale time notice. Such an abnormally low initial offer is certain to attract the attention of most of the salvage and recovery dealers on the station, and the bidding can begin. It's smooth and quick, and seems to be running on an older version of the Electronic Buying And Yearning system. Not the most secure, but at least it's easy.

The first step taken in mere moments, he turns back to his companions who are still gathered together in a confused lump. Addressing the group he declares "Okay boss, first step is done, I'm gonna get workin' on th' rest o' it. Here's them lists o' places whut you wanted to go look 'n shop at."

Datapads with destinations and points of interest (and ones to avoid) are hauled out of pockets along with random objects that are shoved into other pockets... small mice, pens, a read-e-heat brand sausage inna bun. The pads are handed out, and "Sylvester" starts swaggering off in the direction of a sign reading "The Stone Rose Brewpub".




*-A merchant named Sylvester can never just walk anywhere, he has to look like he's compensating for something.

[Monkipi]

Walker takes the datapads that "Sylvester" has handed him, and scans over the needed supplies. "I'm going to procure supplies. Should anyone like to form a party with me towards this end, please step forward now." Walker waits a moment, then turns taking notice of who has or has not opted to follow him. Walker moves on until he happens upon a general food supply store. Walker loves to shop for food because foods are the largest, most accessible windows to culture. Walker enters the store, glances at the list, and decides that before he makes any purchases, he may as well get a taste for this culture's food.