Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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If you're giving credit to someone for an idea, who or what are you debiting?

After a sortie on Barataria, where pirates launched a distress call, it was understandable that a few of the participants of this engagement were pretty weary and would want a stay at her hotel to recover morale. Or, at least what can be recuperated. It was now time for her to get the fourth floor built, now that the third floor was paid off. She prepared the layout of which of the 24 bays would be used for which purpose, and she decided to have another Imperial Suite built, as well as a resto-bar worth 10 bays total, and five Executive Suites, for a new total of 58 rooms. Maybe the fourth floow won't bring in as much revenue as the other three, but I have had complaints about lack of vacancies in the suite segment, especially with the corporate account being opened recently, she thought. Today's guest of the day would be called [member="Seo Linn"] and, as usual, she is more often at the front desk than she is in her personal office, which is used only between check-out and check-in hours. Said time is a very important time to get stuff done that do not involve the guests. It often seem that Silvers prefer to book more after the major stuff, she thought, while being herself a part of that major stuff, too, thinking that Barataria was large enough to trigger some Silvers booking in there. Most of the time, the next tier below were instead about restaurant bookings. Once the guest arrived:

"Welcome to the Crown Nebula Hotel. What can I do for you today?"
 
The knight may not have been involved in the sortie on Barataria, but she did not have a place to stay when she visited Silver territory. Seo was a wanderer and not one to set roots down in any one place for long. An investigator for the most part, she did help with some recovery on Alderaan not long ago.

Here she found herself on Trandosha, in need of room and maybe board if that was something offered. If it wasn't then she would need to get her own food. That really was not an issue.

Walking into one of the hotels on the planet, it was a very nice and calm place. Might even be beyond her meager pay she had saved up. To actually stay in a nice place would be wonderful though. Something might be arranged though and she could stay.

Being greeted by somebody so quickly after walking in while not unexpected in such a place did surprise her slightly. Not one to speak as much as others, she took a moment to observe Varindar and get her words together.

"I need a room."

Simple.

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"The last room available for tonight is the Golden Chances on the third floor, and it is available for one night. As for payment, the Order will reimburse you for your stay, given your services on Alderaan"

[member="Seo Linn"] was one lucky girl: it wasn't often that there were vacancies at the hotel for walk-in guests, but she input the information at the Golden Chances in the room tracking system, and her front desk duties end on any given evening when the last guest has checked in. As with any requests for reimbursement, she starts with the guest name, the number of nights, and the guest expenses. May Seo cherish that one night at that hotel, she thought, while handing her the key to the Golden Chances room. She had access to a number of luxuries at her fingertips; video-on-demand, room service, unlimited HoloNet access, and maybe even a pool if she wanted to have a swim. She knew it was a whole new world of luxury to tonight's guest and clearly the guest was not used to this. And she will soon realize exactly what five-star hospitality really means. The Dathomirian Jedi prepared a baggage cart and even to guide her personally to the Golden Chances room up the third floor and also take the elevator to that room if she requested it.

"Here are the keys to the Golden Chances; do you want me to carry the luggage to your room, in whole or in part?"
 
The knight was used to travelling light and had very few personal belongings. Hardly more than that what was on her back. A simple change of clothes and that was about it. Not counting the few hygiene items that were packed. Choosing to remain silent when it offered to have any additional services with carrying her bag, she did shake her head.

Minor changes in body language were words of their own to her. Subtle clues to how a person felt or thought about something. Most of the time they were done without the person ever thinking about them. What she could tell from Varindar was she was almost fully business focused and that was where her attention went. It wasn't bad, but that was where her mind was.

Accepting the key held out by Varindar, Seo paused for just a moment.

"The Silver's will pay for my room because I helped with the recovery efforts of Alderaan? I must thank them. More is there food to have here? I just need a simple dinner."

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"Now that you asked about food, there is the restaurant called Bumba's Eatery on the first floor, that you can choose to eat from in two ways: either through room service or at the table, although room service is recommended at peak hours in the dining room"

So [member="Seo Linn"] traveled lightly. She couldn't exactly blame a Jedi for that, and today's guest would probably not know about how five-star hospitality worked either, restaurant or hotel. May you cherish that one night: may that night prove a beacon of hope for your future as a Jedi, she thought. True, nobody that had but a sliver of familiarity with luxury hospitality would even think of a luxury hotel devoid of any restaurant, although how the quality of a hotel's restaurant related to that of the hotel it depended on the species that designed and ran one. For example, Polydroxol hotel managers tended to be content with the restaurant being of a lower standard than the hotel, because they tended to think of meals as something one did prior to sleeping, and the last Polydroxol guest she had slept through the bill because that guest overate. On the other hand, Firrerreos tended to do the opposite, especially with their protein-rich cuisines being a sacrosanct item of their hospitality. Seo would also realize that the room service menu is exactly the same as that of the restaurant.
 
It might or not be surprising she travelled lightly, but it was how Seo grew up. While she was not a poor person, there were reasons to keep a hold of what she had. Times when those credits could go to the aid of others rather than herself. If that didn't happen, then she was saving up to make larger purchases for herself. Upgrades for her ship, weapons or maybe even an actual home at some point. Right now though, she wandered, saved and helped as she could.

An answer was provided about food and a nod of thanks was given to Varindar.

"When is peak hours?"

The more people saw her, her face would become known and she might be needed.

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"There are usually three sets of restaurant peak hours here: for breakfast, it's typically between 7:00 and 9:00 hours, for lunch it's usually between 12:00 and 14:00 hours, and for dinner i's usually between 18:00 and 20:00. Also, do you want me to go with you at the restaurant? Or you're OK with being alone at a restaurant table?"

True, [member="Seo Linn"] seemed to have good reason to want a restaurant table at peak hours, but it's not easy to get people to see one's face, much less identify said face with a specific name in a fine dining kind of outfit. Can't fault her though, but there is usually limited interaction between guests at the resto. She would probably want to go for a swim... although, from experience, night swims in that pool would usually result in guests staring at her, much the same as would be the case at nearly every beach at that level of crowding and higher. Would the same hold true of Seo as well? Most of the regulars of the pool were also regulars at the restaurant. The hotelier began to wonder whether or not she would even want to eat at Seo's table in that restaurant, knowing that it would be her seventh meal on that loyalty card, and the second time in a week she'd actually eat at that five-star restaurant. Or perhaps Seo would like to learn psychometry after the meal is over? I want to make sure that the Order is getting its money's worth, she thought, before commenting on the relationship between the pool's regulars and the restaurant's.

"Also, you may wish to go to the hotel's pool after your meal is over: most of the pool's regulars are also restaurant regulars"
 
Listening to the answer provided, Seo gave a brief nod at each time stated. She would keep that in mind when she wanted to eat. At the offer of company, she lifted the corners of her mouth slightly.

"That would be nice, if you are able to join me. Better to eat with company than alone."

Varindar would also be able to point out maybe some people Seo should know. Her host mentioned going to the swimming pool after dinner in saying the people that ate in the restaurant also used the pool. Seo found this very interesting and would probably go swimming either before or after eating.

"Is the pool open any specific hours?"

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"The pool is open all day. One thing however: the restaurant guests that are also going at the pool are often at the pool for more exhibistionistic reasons, so you may, in fact, come across wealthy Trandoshan playboys, as well as some other high-heeled figures of Trandoshan society. Sure Trandoshans will always tell human ladies your age they're pretty so long as there are no serious deformities, it's just something to think about"

Although, of course, she wouldn't pretend to know that much about guests as people, even regulars, except that they were, well, regulars and that they filled out several loyalty cards in the time it took Varindar to fill one. She knew that Trandoshans were often prompt to find human/Near-Human ladies pretty with few exceptions (said exceptions usually feature morbid deformities) since the day the Ta'jars took her as a slave on Dathomir. If [member="Seo Linn"] wanted to go for a swim now, the pool wasn't that crowded, and the gutter lane for lap swimming was, in fact, available. But if she wanted to go for a swim after the dinner rush hour, the lap swimming lane would not be an option then. She could say that, from midnight to 18:00 the lap swimming lane is available. But is she one for lap swimming? Or she would prefer to butter up some high-heeled figures of Trando-land? She was ready to do either with Seo, just that it was best to ask first. Poor Varindar! Would Seo object to exhibitionism if that's how she would obtain what she wants out of this stay?
 
"I see..."

The fact Seo did not finish what she was saying was very telling on it's own. ​She was not one to be flamboyant or show off. In fact, she was more the reverse. One to be more of an observer and read people. That was more or less the job she had appointed to herself when she wasn't providing aid. An investigator for the Jedi, somebody to probe into the various unsolved crimes caused by other Force users that could not be figured out by mundane means.

"More I am one to actually swim and not partake of the more vulgar business. Which is best though?"

Lifting an eyebrow to show curiosity, she waited for the answer.

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"May as well swim before dinner, but before then, follow me to the dressing room; I have something to teach you in a dressing room cabin"

[member="Seo Linn"] not wanting to perform the more vulgar business was understandable, just that she could feel the Lorrdian had a clear reason to want a new skill. For that psychometry was just the thing for her to perform. And also the tech suit that she mostly seems to keep for sting operations, a.k.a. meets; for normal swims she would instead be wearing this training bikini. That training bikini was rather new... she discarded the old training bikini she used under the Ta'jar Blood Gang for both because it started to show signs of discoloration and other signs of it being unusable - then again any swimmer at Varindar's level would find that their swimwear wears down fast, much faster than normal people would. So every three or four months she purchases a bikini to buy for her own personal use. She then placed the tech suit on the bench, after taking Seo to a dressing room cabin large enough for two, which typically meant dressing in a cabin for people with disabilities, before delivering what explanations she can about psychometry, the subtleties, legal issues and liabilities.

"With psychometry, you have to realize that you are, in fact, reading the object's usage history using the Force, and that the Force-history of an item is stored in tactile imprints, with the more recent events usually coming first, but if the last significant event was much older than any subsequent use, it's possible the more significant event comes out first in a psychometric scan. The more skilled you are at psychometry, the deeper you can dig and the more information you can get. If something happened to the item, or its user thereof, that was charged with negative emotions, may taint you with the dark side. For this reason, using it on dead bodies, while useful for policing purposes, is to be done at your own risk, and not the least because psychometric evidence is treated the same as one would any other forensic evidence"
 
Taking the advice into consideration, Seo was curious as to what Varindar had in mind when she said she wanted to teach something to her. In one of the dressing rooms provided. Following her, if she were to turn and look, she would see the confusion on Seo's face. The reason soon became clear to the knight though as she listened to what her host had to say.

"This skill will certainly come in handy."

Listening​ what was said, it was clear Varindar gave very little away through her body language. She wanted to really pass on a little knowledge to Seo before they might go swimming.

"As an investigator, I can put this to use when I'm working."

Accepting one of the suits from her new companion, Seo would reach out with the Force. Sending in gentle probes she waited to learn what she could from the item in question.

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
The ball is now in Seo's court, although I know what happened to me when I last wore it, it's Seo's turn to learn what she can about it. Now, I don't expect Seo to learn anything I don't already know but that's just a training item for psychometry. Thank the Force I made proper disclosures to the hotel staff when I started training Zeet, she thought, while [member="Seo Linn"] was, in fact, gently poring her hand over the tech suit. As for Zeet, she was wondering what happened to Zeet: did he realize that there was very limited use to a diplomat Jedi? Or was he just learning more about public policy as is relevant to deal with policy disputes, on his own? Nevermind what happened to Zeet, but she was nervously watching Seo because any mistake on Seo's part that could cause damage to the suit would likely mean the tech suit would be unusable for the next sting operation that required a swim on her part. Not that she would expect sting operations to come with meets in short order, just that she'd rather not wear the tech suit until absolutely required because she wanted her Race-O-Rama to last, as would most swimmers at her level.

"Did you find anything?"
 
Based of her physical observation of the swimsuit, Seo could tell it was still pretty new. Had only a few wears in it and not near enough to need repairing or replaced in anyway. It was something more than simple swim wear though.

"You wore this last. I am unable to pick up a location, but the emotional imprints on it indicate many people were watching. Some with ulterior motives behind the looks. Probably similar to looks one might get here after dinner."

Her touch was light and hopefully no damage had been done to the gear.

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"You have learned your lesson regarding psychometry. Now, go in another cabin while we are getting dressed for the swim"

[member="Seo Linn"] was lucky that Varindar didn't strip in front of her; although she was used to getting stared at when at any location she could reasonably expect people to go swim in there in public, she seriously doubted anybody but the lewdest of Sith Lords or Hutts would even want to watch a Jedi take clothes off. Even on Dathomir she knew that there were limits on how little women were allowed to wear, and nobody could go fully naked in the pool premises for good reason. But once Varindar was ready, Seo would realize that the hotel's pool was, in fact, a regulation short-course hippodrome pool, 25m long, with the markings for eight lanes at the bottom of the pool. And the shallow end was 2.13m deep, which is a rarity among hotel pools, since she knew that most hotel pools tended to be more shallow at the shallow end, and also not to be shaped nor sized appropriately for hippodrome swimming races. The Violet Spectrum was one of the rare exceptions she has seen in person, having swum in its long-course pool in her very first sting operation, in hopes of catching Ta'jar Blood Gang members. Now that she was on the pool deck...

"Can you swim?" she asked Seo.
 
Pleased with herself and the praise given to her by Varindar after performing Psychometry she took what was said about going to a different fitting room to change. Grabbing her single pack, she did just that. It didn't take the knight long and came out in just a few minutes after placing her clothes into her bag.

Picking up one of the towels offered, they walked together to the swimming pool. It was a beautiful setting and pool. Something relaxing and yet a place where one could swim with ease.

"Will my bag be safe here while we swim?"

Setting it down, Seo was ready to pick it back up if given a negative answer. From how things looked right now, it would be safe to be left alone for a time. A little later in the day that answer would be different. By then she hoped to be changed back into clean clothes and eating though.

"Yes, I can swim. Certainly not on a professional level such as yourself though."

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"I hope that you know what your bag number is at the locker room" she told Seo before the swim proper began.

The hotel's pool had a locker room just next to the shower rooms, where guests could store their clothing bags, each given a number associated with their names. Of course, males and females were on separate sides of the locker room and had their own windows for the attendant to store their bags as safely as was possible. Presumably [member="Seo Linn"] stored her bag at that locker room, knowing Varindar did so at every swim she took. And, while the hotelier knew that her fame as a swimmer was probably a sector-wide thing, she knew that meets were scarce these days, and any athletics-based fame would be, in fact, limited in time. Thus she started to get herself into position to swim backstroke, in the gutter lane earmarked for lap swimming, wondering how fast could Seo swim, even though the blonde made it clear that she was nowhere near her level as a swimmer. Because going from the shallow end to the deep end was empty at this point, in fact, the whole gutter lane, it took less than 15 seconds for Varindar to swim the whole length of the pool, expecting Seo to take at least half again as much to swim one backstroke lap.
 
"Right. Thank you."

Of ​course. Not being used to something of this quality, Seo hadn't thought of the safe keeping of a locker for her bag. Handing the bag over, she waited for the number to be told to her and once that was given to her, she moved to the formal pool area.

Seeing Varindar ​was already in there, she set the towel down on one of the chairs and jumped in herself. The water was actually warm, not at all chilled, but not hot enough to be a bother to those swimming. Unless that individual was cold blooded, if that were the case, the water would be hot most likely.

Seo took a few moments only to get into a position to push off from the wall and soon followed her companion to the other end. Not here to swim in a competitive manner, it did take her a little longer to reach the other side of the pool. It didn't take her quite as long as Varindar thought it would be her guess wasn't much off.

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 
"There is one thing I ought to tell you about my past as a swimmer: before the hotel was seized from the Ta'jar Blood Gang, the hotel had its own swimming team. While I anchored it, and was the star of the team, you are perhaps as fast as the second-fastest female on that team as far as backstroke is concerned, well, in the late days of the team; there may have been someone else between our respective speeds that left the team and the hotel's staff before I was enslaved by the Ta'jars"

That [member="Seo Linn"] did, in fact, swim as fast as some of the faster guests that didn't swim competitively, never mind at Varindar's level, was one thing. In fact, that was more or less the speed of the second-fastest backstroker in the hotel team when the hotel still ran a swimming team among its staff. Yes, Varindar knew that Seo knew about her level as a swimmer, but the other seven members of the hotel's team that were with her, how many of them are still working there? Maybe she came across Varindar's teammates under the Ta'jars without knowing it: none of them achieved anywhere near Varindar's level of fame as a swimmer. And yet, there may have been a guest or two looking at Seo during the ~20 seconds it took the blonde to cross the full length of the pool. Probably to get a feel for the newcomer's speed, since Seo's frame was otherwise very similar to Varindar's. Maybe... maybe I could teach her how to transition from Force-speed in a land context to a water context, she thought, while realizing that a faster metabolism would perhaps lead her to slim down somewhat, or to improve her physiological performances.

"You have some talent, at least as far as backstroke is concerned. Adapting Force-speed from a land use to a swimming use is not that hard, so long that you remember that accelerating metabolism is the key ingredient unerlying Force-speed, and tapas, too"
 
"Did you use Force Speed when you were just swimming?"

They were treading the water at the deeper end of the pool, but it was not a stress or bother for Seo to accomplish this. She listened to what Varindar said about incorporating it into swimming. The way to accomplish it was to speed up her metabolism, but that wasn't how Seo viewed using it on land. Perhaps they thought about it differently, but accomplished the same thing. How they got to the finished product did not really matter, the fact they accomplished the same thing did.

"What is tapas?"

She understood the rest of it, but not that. A word she had never heard before.

[member="Varindar Asyt"]
 

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