Ask Starting Somewhere

[Barrington]

"Climbing?" Barrington pondered the question as he ate the last of his horrible croissant. Wasting food is a crime in his books. "It depends; if it's a cliff, I can climb them quite easily. I used to do a lot of free climbing to work out..." He knows the lad would cringe at this, but Barrington doesn't care. He hasn't shown off in a while, so he flexes his arms at Yvon as if he couldn't already tell he was strong. "But if we're talking about poles or actual buildings, I wouldn't know since I've never climbed any. So if I had to get to the upper ground, I would always take the easy way upstairs or elevators." Barrington relaxes a little. He doesn't know what to expect from Yvon but there's a high chance he won't like it either way. He just came here to buy a new ship and some new toys. Maybe he could even land a date with the Tunroth he saw earlier. But knowing Barrington's luck, that guy is long gone by now.

He doesn't really need the extra credits right now. He sold a bunch of the designer clothes he kept from past seasons, now in demand at various re-sellers across the galaxy. The extra credits from this would be a waste. Barrington eyed Yvon's nalphone. He's never gotten one before, and the way Yvon is using it has piqued Barrington's interest. "Are those things worth getting?" He points to the nalphone and pulls the chair across from him with his feet closer to the table to use as a footrest. Barrington picks the data pad off the table, sweeping some of the croissant's crumbs off it as he searches for the nearest nalphone seller.

@Arcangel @Stormtrooper @Nor'baal

 

[Yvon]

Yvon chewed at their croissant for a moment as Barrington spoke on his free climbing experience, taking a sip of their coffee to wash down the crumbs. Yvon observed the man's flex without much in the way of expression beyond a slight widening of the eyes before considering his words.

"The whole cities carved out of stone right? So really every wall is a cliff." Yvon pointed out. They gave a small laugh as Barrington voiced a preference for stairs and elevators over climbing. "Me too." Yvon voiced as they turned back to the screen, clickity clack pulling up a map of the street they had been on. Yvon plugged their signal tracer into their port scanner, migrating files with a few swift taps to display the camera locations overlaid on the screens map.

"Might be an elevator here." Yvon pointed at a building on screen, highlighted with a marker that indicated a security camera. "Or at least some stairs..." Yvon continued, mostly speaking to themselves. Barrington asked a question and Yvon continued typing for a moment, saving all the relevant info onto their scanner before wiping the user account and unplugging.

"Oh this. Yeah Nal-phones are great." Yvon held up their pink screened nalphone that had been sitting on the counter. "You can like take pictures and stuff." Yvon turned away from Barrington and held up the phone to snap a picture, giving a peace sign and sticking a tongue out to the side, Barrington clueless in the background. "They've even got filters." Yvon switched on a filter that turned the both of them into porgs, locking the phone in camera mode before gently tossing it to Barrington to play around with the filters as Yvon put away their slicing gear.

Bitten croissant and half drank coffee left on the table, Yvon started to walk towards the door to leave before realizing Barrington hadn't actually agreed to anything. "Should make more than enough to get a nalphone or three... And maybe some real food." Yvon finished with a glare at the stale bread.

@Resonance

 

[Barrington]

"Well...yeah." Barrington should've realized that. He is in a city built into the side of a damn cliff, after all. But instead, he watched Yvon as he worked his magic, switching from device to device. Barrington observes him in quiet awe of his skills. One that he should take time to understand himself. He needs to be better versed in some of the technicalities of his datapad. He knows its simple ins and outs, but when it comes to things that Yvon does with his data pads, Nal-phones, Signal Tracers and the like, it's far out of his knowledge.

Pictures and stuff? Barrington knew Nal-phones had cameras built into them. But he thought there would be more to it than just taking pictures. He had hoped Yvon would provide more specifics with what Nal-phones could do since he was well-versed in using them. He observes Yvon as he pulls a sudden pose and snaps a picture of them both. Barrington raises his eyebrows at him. "They've even got filters." Yvon says before throwing Barrington his Nal-phone. He easily catches it and spends a few seconds flickering through the filters. "Hm." He pauses before throwing it back to Yvon after he's finished packing up.

Barrington scratches his head as he gets up to follow Yvon. "I mean, you can have all the credits. You need them more than I do, in all honesty. But better food would be ideal; that croissant was heinously bad." He could probably do with a food shop too. Once he has a new ship of course. He followed Yvon out of the holonet cafe. "Where to then?"

@Arcangel

 

[Yvon]

Yvon caught the Nalphone as Barrington passed it back to them. Their eyebrows rose as Barrington declared that they could have all the credits. Score. "So generous." Yvon mumbled to themselves, wondering just who this person was that seemed entirely unconcerned with credits. Credits were everything.

"There is a building with roof access across the street from where those peacekeepers stopped me." Yvon explained as they walked, glancing sideways at Barrington, trying to figure out their angle. "I should be able to access the camera's directly from their, patch into the server and pull whatever video I need." And then sell it on the darknet to the highest bidding media outlet, that went unsaid. Sure they could eventually get access through official channels, government requests, paperwork and bureaucracy. News outlets rarely wanted to wait when time was money and getting the first scoop meant the most views.

Yvon eyed the alley they had cut through, deciding to go a different route however and continuing down the street. "I could do this all on my own, but their is the uhh." Security. Turning the corner, the street where things had gone down was swarming with police. Barricades placed. Holo tape spanned the street declaring the zone a crime scene. Repulsor ambulances idled as medics were bodybagging corpses for identification. Those New Republic peacekeepers had sure made a mess of things. "Theres all that." Yvon stated simply as they stared at the scene, trying to figure out where they could go from there.

@Resonance

 

[Barrington]

Barrington rolled his eyes at Yvon's sarcasm. He scanned the shops they were going past as he listened to Yvon's plan, nodding along. One shop, in particular, caught Barrington's eyes. A techwear shop. He'd heard about it in one of the digital-zine's he had been reading. Supposedly a more practical take on streetwear. Lots of pockets. That alone appealed to Barrington. He made a note of the store on his data pad. He knew he had to come back here later.

He followed Yvon's eyes as they passed the alley they had come through earlier. But clearly, they weren't returning the way they came as Yvon continued down the street. Barrington noticed a small crowd had begun to gather at the bottom of the street where the incident occurred. They gossiped between themselves, but Barrington couldn't make out what they were saying. "Do you think the building you need has a back door? If not, I'll have to climb it; we're not getting in from this side of the street. You're not that heavy by the looks of it, so I could probably try and carry you with me on my back if you're up for that." He smiled at Yvon. When Barrington used to free climb, he would often carry heavy bags on his back. The highest he ever got was 75kg, climbing up a steep cliff in Kashyyk. He could probably go even higher since that was a few years ago. He stared at the chaos that was ensuing on the street. Medics and Police scrambling about, figuring out what the hell they should do. It amused him, but only by a little bit.

@Arcangel

 

[Yvon]

Yvon surveyed the scene ahead for a moment as Barrington talked, taking in the general chaos of the local authorities. They glanced over at Barrington for a moment, thinking.

"We'll look for an back entrance." Yvon stated. Technically, they were more than capable of making the climb themselves. Their eyes scanned the faces of the buildings, relatively smooth but still cracked here and there with age. Did Yvon want to make the climb? Not particularly. They would probably take Barrington up on their offer if only to save themselves the effort.

Backtracking, Yvon found an alley that should lead to the building they needed. Unfortunately there were a few individual's, local toughs, loitering near the entrance to the alleyway, smoking tobac and looking tough. Yvon started to walk past them, fairly oblivious to their occupation of the space but they didn't take too kindly to their presence, standing up and blocking off the path.

"Watcha think you're doin walkin' through our turf." One of the toughs said.

@Resonance

 

[Barrington]

Fucksakes. Why, oh, why do they have to pick on us? Of all people?? Barrington thought about the stun grenade he put in his bag. It would make it easier for them to knock them out. He wasn't sure if Yvon could fight, but he assumed he could hold his own. "You wouldn't mind letting us through, lads?" The one who spoke first glared at him; it felt like being pierced with a thousand daggers. A genuine death stare. "I guess that would be a no, then."

He tried to reach out for Yvon, but one of the other thugs slapped his hand away, placing himself in between him and Yvon. Separating the two of them. A knee to the stomach or a foot in the dick, then a hard strike to the temple. No...that would aggravate the others, and he didn't particularly feel like fighting right now. A few steps back, go for the blaster pistol in my bag, then shoot them all? He could do that, he was quick and a good aim too. Yvon was short, so he could easily aim for the guy in front of him. Alternatively, go for the stun grenade. But that would have a chance of blinding Yvon. Shit. Barrington was losing his patience and running out of ideas. He reached for his bag and began to unzip it. The thug in front of him clearly didn't like that, and he readied himself. As soon as he finished unzipping the bag, in one swift movement, he kicked the thug hard in the dick. Barrington sidestepped, and with his palm, he hit him in the temple. He fell to the floor with a soft thump.

He dug out his pistol in his bag and pulled Yvon back, pointing the pistol at the other three. The surprise attack seemed to have worked. He looked at Yvon "I know you said hands off, but..." He reached his left arm around Yvon's neck and held a firm but gentle grip on his shoulder. Barrington swapped his pistol over to his left hand from his right. With his now-empty right hand, he dug back into his bag and pulled out the stun grenade, and held it against Yvon's chest, making sure Yvon was the only one who could see the writing on it. He let the chain dangle out from the top of the stun grenade, and they started to back away. Not knowing what it was, seemed to scare them. "So, how are we going to do this, boys? Are you going to let us through, or am I going to have to kill all three of you?" He pointed his blaster pistol at each of them. They looked at one another with panicked expressions. The three thugs stood there in silence. One of them then pointed towards the alley. He let go of Yvon and pushed him gently towards the alley.

@Arcangel