Keep calm and carry on! [Rina and Tali!]

[Rhi-Rhi]

Gabriel had come unarmed, having heard that was the safest way to enter this place, and he had poked Alaric to do the same. However, the whole 'leave your weapons behind' thing did raise some interesting questions like what counted as a weapon? When you a Pilot, your entire body was essentially a weapon and what's more, some Pilots' minds were even more lethal than any weapon they could carry. And what about Alaric? He had that wicked, clawed hand, not to mention his fangs. Did that count? Or was it only stuff that wasn't attached to you?

...Yeah, probably wasn't a good idea to think too deeply about this.

"Huh. This place is weird," Gabriel said as he nudged the grass beneath his feet with the toe of his canvas shoe. Real grass, and everything smelled so...earthy and strange. Sure it wasn't the first time he'd seen grass or anything, but it took some getting used to after being cooped up in the concrete jungle that was Aedolis, where the plants were usually in a pot or perfectly manicured and strategically and purposefully placed.

"Pretty, but weird. I wonder where this even is." Looking around, he absently plucked a leaf from a freestanding tree that was in full bloom within the protected haven. Beyond and into the distance, only warped, skeletal trees stood. This had probably once been a woods, but only the plants within this area had survived. "Well, anyway, huh! I saw it, it's nice, but don't really see what's the draw. And jeesh, there's so many bugs," he added, swatting away gnats and turning to Alaric, making a face.

"Whatcha think? You good? We came, we saw, we...haven't conquered yet, but it's just trees and stuff. I'm cool with the bugs keeping it." Alright, so admittedly, Gabriel wasn't much of a nature buff. Nature was just...kind of dirty. And he felt way out of his element.

Besides, he'd just bought a new WoW expansion the other day that he hadn't yet gotten to try out!

[Anonymous]

This place was absolutely perfect to conduct business, Kai decided. It was essentially neutral ground, meaning that no fucker could shiv him mid transaction. Or attempt to, like the last guy he'd dealt with. in fact, Kai liked this place so much that he might come here more often.

A small part of him was reminded of home. His real home. Not Haviah or Aedolis, the trashy, overly sexed city which he was forced to live in when his mother died, but one where the government didn't rule all and you weren't expected to sleep around at the drop of a hat. He missed home far too much as of late. Sometimes he wondered if anyone would recognize him if he went back, but the planet of Haloa was too far away for his small ship to travel to and he'd either run out of fuel or get picked up by pirates or slavers or whatever the fuck they were calling themselves these days. For now at least, he was better biding his time and staying low like he had done for the past several years. He didn't doubt that he'd be arrested if people knew he were alive.

A small blip in his ear reminded him he was currently in the middle of a call. He rolled his eyes, "Look it's fine, just...tell him the price went up because of uhh...hazards in the field. Like a-a....code 54. Uh huh. Thats a bad code." Kai rolled off the excuse as he inspected the tip of his boot, the leather scuffed and worn. He needed new ones. "Look, deal with it man, I've done my part okay? Besides, I'm a little busy right now okay? Kay, bye." he pressed the com's button once, cutting off the person on the other end and turned, arms open as he gave a warm smile, "Okay gentlemen, I'm sure we can come to a suitable agreement, one that suits us all." he said, sounding business like.

The large scaled alien look at him, raising a scaly brow, "And how do you propose we do that?" he said, voice a deep baritone, sharp teeth flashing and reminding Kai how bad of an idea it was to piss this guy off, "Well...Since I found it first, how about I sell you both some of it before I pass it on to the trader? You know, discounted. This stuff is rare guys, wont get a better offer." Kai folded his arms and shrugged, looking at his nails as if it didn't matter to him.

The second lizard like alien hissed, "Or we could always pry it out of your cold hands when I slice your guts up." he went to draw a weapon, before stopping short, knowing he had none. A large scaly hand had moved to stop him either way and Kai was momentarily glad that one of them wasn't as dumb as he looked, "Fine, meat suit, we'll deal. But only because we need this. Don't think we're going to forget." The larger of the two aliens handed over a transparent looking card to Kai, who inspected it before nodding and pocketing it, "Excellent!" He pulled out a small data pad and pressed several buttons, "It's being sent to your ship...now. Have a good day gentlemen..uh lizards. Gentlelizards?" Kai gave a mock bow as the pair glowered at him and stomped through the grassland, muttering as they did so.

"Suckers.." Kai grinned to himself and pulled out several of the thin plastic cards. Not bad for a few days work. He'd put the credits into his account later. Right now though, it was much safer to stick around here, no one could attack him while in here. Least he hoped anyway. Never knew when you'd get that one really determined person who'd try anything. Kai stuffed the cards back into his pocket in time for his com to blip in his ear. "Oh for fucks sake...What!?" he groaned as the voice on the other end began ranting at him.

He might be here for a while. He was vaguely aware of a few people popping in and out, and turned toward the nearest batch of people out of habit, though not really looking at them. So long as they didn't look like they had a grudge with him it was cool. For a brief moment Kai stopped, cocking his head at a pair in the distance. He couldn't be sure, but they looked familiar and for a brief moment Kai wondered if he'd traded with them. Or possibly scammed them. It was the blueish skin that he remembered, but he'd dealt with so many different races and people that they were all starting to blend together. Still, something about them made the hair on his neck stand up and he frowned and turned away, mumbling into the com to the other person on the line, a furtive glance cast over his shoulder. He couldn't place them, but then again, he couldn't place most people, he'd seen too many. He didn't have much time to dwell on it however, as the voice in his ear began ranting again, causing him to loose focus on the pair, "Woah woah woah, back up. Whaddaya mean the shipment is gone? It can't be gone!" Kai's voice rose slightly, before he dropped it to a  harsh whisper, "You were supposed to keep an eye on it! I just told those two scaly freaks that some of it was being sent to their ship and you're telling me it's gone!? What if they come back here?? Whaddaya mean 'deal with it'? Soon as I step out of here I'm screwed!" Kai shot another glance at the pair in the field, frowning once more.

[Anonymous]

"It's not that bad..." Alaric was mostly saying that out of an odd need to defend the place. Not that he really liked it, it hadn't even been his idea, but the place couldn't talk back and Gabe was bitching about it. It was an odd sensation for Alaric. He wasn't really used to it and it made his conscious brain rather uncomfortable. But the instinctual part of him, the barely domesticated part of his mind wanted to run through it.

"There aren't that many bugs, but, uh, yeah. I'm cool if you wanna go." There wasn't really much to do here, and it wasn't like he could actually go hunt anything, which was what all this open wilderness made him want to do.

Someone was talking with giant lizard aliens a little while away, something undoubtedly shady going on, but they couldn't exactly do anything about it. Something about the human tickled his mind, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"I'm fine with lea--hey." Gabriel blinked, following Alaric's gaze and catching sight of the creatures--and the person talking to them. It made him a little uneasy, considering he was unarmed, and he didn't have any experience to prove that the things he'd heard were true, that they'd really be protected. And those things looked pretty brutal; he'd never seen anything like them before and it put him on edge.

Yet it was also kind of fascinating. The only giant, talking lizards he'd ever encountered were dragons.

He nudged Alaric in the side. "What do you think's going on over there?"