eastbound | ( audio ) un: jd

Hey. Hi, I'm new, I guess.

[ Water can be heard sloshing the sides of the boat around him. Of course, maybe you're on his boat, in which case you get to see him in person, huddled with the device in his hands and his lit candle between his knees. ]

Uh, I don't...fully understand what's going on here. I mean, I read the short version. Taravast, Sa-Hareth. I get it, I'm not in Kansas anymore.

I don't get what we're supposed to be doing. Does anyone know where we're sailing to? And they said keep the candles lit. What happens if we don't, does anyone know? It sounds like magic, and fairytales, and nothing that makes any sense to me. And why can't we sail during the day, is something after us?

[ Something's always after him. This is...well it's a new kind of horror, and it reads like something out of a nightmare, honestly, but he's taken unbelievable horror in stride before. It's just normally the product of science fiction and not fantasy.

But he can deal. Probably.

Also, he should establish allies if he can. Without drawing potential threats to himself. There's a reason this is audio and not video. ]

Name's John Dixon. Uh, for all that this is new to me, I'm a pretty good handyman, so. Let me know if there's somewhere I can pitch in.

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[ John looks up. He doesn't know anyone else, either in this boat or out of it, and he figures they must all be from different places. Even so, that white armour is a surprise. Not very camouflage.

He turns up a slight smile, though. ]

Yeah. Uh, Kansas. [ His John Baum identity had been blown, and he'd needed to come up with another on the spot. Names are a lot easier than fine details. His mom always drummed it into him. Until he comes up with a new story, he's going to borrow from Baum's. ] Nothing in the water there. At least so far as I know. Magic stuff is new to me.

Where are you from?

[Slick's got no idea what a Kansas is. A place? A people? A swear word? He'll roll with it, though.]

Kamino, technically. [He wouldn't go so far as to call it home.] This place is completely insane, but I can confirm, the magic stuff's real. I've picked up a couple bits of it from one of our crew here. [Which was honestly the biggest deal about this planet, and another reason to get back home. Force stuff wasn't just for the Jedi after all. They'd lied about that.

But heading back was going to have to wait, apparently. And it sounded like John here didn't know about that whole disaster either. Seriously, did no one bother to give the newbies anything? This is getting tiring. Not the kid's fault, but still.] We've got confirmation local tech can provide a viable way off-world too, but the first window we got was too brief. Only a few people made it away before we lost power. We're relocating to give it another shot.

[ John straightens a little, staring at him. ]

I didn't think the tech here was anything to shout about. So we're looking for what, a...portal, some kind of vehicle?

[ A ship? As in, a spaceship? That's the kind of image that gets conjured at the term 'off-world'.

It's not an image that sits very well with the rest of what John's seen here. ]

Portal. [He guesses that's what you'd call it, he'd never seen anything like it.] Probably more magic stuff. I tried getting a look at how it functioned, but I couldn't get my hands on the specs before the city went to hell.

[Slick sighs, trying to relax a bit of irritable tension from his jaw.] Until we find another one, we're stuck here. You'll find some more English-speakers about, plus Chinese and Korean. We've got a bunch of Earthers here. [No clue why. But that brings up another thing.] If you don't trust the comms or translator [like him], I've been collecting emergency operational vocabulary from everybody's language that I can get my hands on. We can get you sorted on that.

I...probably trust a translator to translate another planet's language better than I could.

[ All the same, John takes the device out again to look at it, turning it over in his hands. ]

Is there a reason why you don't like them? Do they glitch out a lot?

They're not secure. They're always on, we're using them for all of our local and long-distance communications, and we don't know how they were made or who's got access overrides. These ones came from Taravast, and a portion of their magical products were being used to bribe forces hostile to... everything that isn't them, basically.

[Possibly it's more complicated than that, but after what happened to him in Taravast, Slick's not feeling charitable.] We've already pissed them off a few times. If they've got the specs or network access, they've got reason to listen in.

[He pivots from the heavy subject with a smirk.] Anyway, what's the fun of getting out and seeing the galaxy if you don't get to learn everybody's swear words? That's the really important part here.

[ John sighs. Of course, it could never be that simple. ]

I don't know anyone here well enough to trust them, anyway, but I don't like the idea of anyone else hooking on our network.

Do we have any idea how they transmit, what carries the signal? Or is the answer just, magic?

[ They look electronic; they look like pocketwatches, with gears, making them mechanical at the very least. But as to anything else, it's difficult to tell. ]

[Fair enough sentiment there. A lot of the offworlders seemed decent, but frankly, they weren't really a group. Just... people traveling in the same direction. He didn't really know most of them, when it came down to it.]

Probably magic, but that stuff's got its own rules, yeah? [The stuff Fox had taught him definitely did. Rules that made sense, once you got the hang of it. None of that Jedi arrogance, treating the Force as some mystical, unknowable thing only they'd ever understand. This stuff was practical, and you could learn it.]

It's all crazy banthashit, but it's still a purpose-made device. Magical or not, it's made by humans, for human use. That's where people like us can get involved. You said you're a handyman? [Every engineer he'd met loved the idea of taking something apart just so they could put it back together again.]

[ John looks up at him. ]

Yeah. What I'm really good at is machines, like computers and mechanical systems, and that kind of thing. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of that here. I'd love to crack this open and take a look.

[ He lifts the device. ]

But ultimately I don't know if it's running off gears and wires and batteries, or if it's just...magic.

I can manage a hammer and tools, though, if that ends up being all we need. It's kind of weird to think that those skills maybe just don't matter at all.

[ He's used to them being the main thing that matters. It's a whole new world. ]

We could get one of the trained magical types in on this--I know a couple who'd be up for it. [They had a study group that one time--whenever they're on dry land long enough to dig into this stuff, they could do it again.]

[But magic didn't make hands-on work useless, not in the slightest.] Nah. That stuff still counts here. There's magic, sure, but that doesn't mean it's getting applied practically. [Or deviously.]

When I showed up, we were hiding out on an old farmstead. Nobody had bothered to put up any defenses, so it was just me boarding up windows and constructing barricades. Probably saved our asses when the place got attacked.

[He gestures to the other boats around them.] I have training, but anybody could've messed about in the woodshed and done a halfway decent job of it. They didn't, though. Thinking about the practicalities still counts for something here.

[ John has to hide a smile. ]

And no one else thought about that? I guess they've never been on the run before.

[ Some things are second nature, when you know that life. Security is top of that list. Keeping yourself safe, keeping your group safe, being ready to move, knowing your exits. Knowing how to defend your own camp. ]

What weapons do you use, and how do you keep them stocked? These little boats don't seem like they'd carry a lot in the way of ammo. Doesn't give me a good feeling.

[Slick makes no attempt to hide a smirk.] Not a one. No real military backgrounds either. If you ever feel like swapping skills, I'd be up for it. [Because he'd be on the run as well, once he got off this planet. And the way things went on Christophsis, he definitely needed to learn how to survive when the Republic itself was out to get him.]

It's all primitive stuff. Haven't even seen any slugthrowers yet, but there might be some kicking around here. [Certainly no blasters.] You got any CQC training? [That was something he could help out with. And...] We're not one hundred percent locked out of the magic stuff, either. We can learn some of it. I've been picking up bits from a guy.

( audio ) un: jd

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