Private Start at the very beginning

[Sera Rosh]

SPARROW
TEMPLE RUINS | DENEBA
TAG: Senari Gravis

SO IT BEGINS​

"Try it again. Still no life."

Sera leaned back on her heels from the dead Gonk-droid they were trying to salvage while Dobby attempted another jumpstart with his scomp link.

After a few more tries, the little droid whistled at her.
"Yeah, I'm guessing he's way past expiration. Let's see what else we can find. We'll grab him on the way back. Some parts can still be reused by someone." she said before getting to her feet. Dobby rolled out from behind the Gonk and to her side, warbling at her.
"Good question." Sera said, hands going to her hips as she looked around. "We haven't been to the ruins for a minute Maybe we'll get lucky this time. What you think?"
Dobby gave an excited whistle before he started leading the way to the ruins of the Jedi Temple.
"Hey, wait up!" Sera laughed as she jogged after him.

Aside from breeze whipping up some dust as they struggled over the crumbled steps, everything is eerily quiet. Dobby gave a soft whine as they moved their way through the rubble of what used to be an entryway.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Can't remember it being this creepy when we were last here." Sera answered him. "Let's see what's over there then get heck out of here." She didn't want to admit out loud that there were far off voices breathing at her that creeped her out.

Were ghosts still a thing?

 

[Senari Gravis]

What were heard as voices may well have been snores that were reverberating through the otherwise-silent halls.

Deserts rarely attracted much life, and mountaintops were the same way—combine both, add in a desolated temple that should have been completely empty, and eerie silence was almost guaranteed. Every sound that punctuated such a silence could easily be cause for alarm, no matter how innocuous the source. A pebble sliding down a collapsed section of wall, the creak of dry and dirty floorboards, or, perhaps...

A lone man, too drunk even to stand or be properly awake, lying slumped next to a broken column that he'd been sitting against when he was still awake. Empty bottles of liquor surrounded him, and had he not been out for a while, himself and his trash would be obvious signs of life in an otherwise-lifeless locale. As it was, however, the bottles had fallen and rolled around, quickly being covered in the dust that filled the broken temple.

And Senari, wrapped in his cloak and curled up to the point that he no longer even resembled an obvious human form, had been covered in much the same way. Breathing barely visible in the mound he made, and the light snores that emanated from his form yet had their source obscured as they echoed around.

It was no great surprise, then, when the intrepid explorer roused him from his slumber, as she tripped over him, he droid whistling out in alarm. Senari's eyes shot open instantly, as he rolled backwards away from both, trying to shoot to his feet—

Only to immediately loose his footing again, falling backwards into a pile of hard rubble where part of the ceiling had collapsed in. He rolled off again, muttering out a litany of curses, before pushing himself back to his feet and trying to focus on whoever had just fallen over him as one hand dropped to his lightsaber, before he realized that whoever she was, she was just a kid.

"What in the Force are you doing poking around here?" he demanded, furiously blinking dust and bleary tears from his eyes, crossing his arms rather than actually drawing his weapon. "This is no place for some girl. Shouldn't you be in school?"

Sera Rosh

 

[Sera Rosh]

SPARROW
TEMPLE RUINS | DENEBA
TAG: Senari Gravis

SO IT BEGINS​

"Oh jeez!"

Sera nearly took a nosedive as she tripped over something that wasn't exactly rubble. Dobby, on the otherhand, let out an alarmed whistle before his plasma cutter shot out from it's socket and at the ready while Sera regained her footing.

Crahses and curses came from behind her while Dobby whirred a warning. She spun around, eyes wide as she took a few steps back.

A man was glare-blinking at her from a few feet away.

"What in the Force are you doing poking around here?"

Sera gaped at him for a heartbeat or two, trying to comprehend what the heck was going on. There was a strange feeling in the alcohol-drenched air. Dobby looked at her briefly coupled with a warble before looking back at the strange man.
"Uh...sorry. Didn't know someone was living here now." she stammered while Dobby's plasma cutter still hissed in front of him.

"This is no place for some girl. Shouldn't you be in school?"

Sera crossed her hands behind her back as she looked at her feet.
"Can't afford school anymore. Just tryna sell stuff to buy food for me and my mum." she mumbled before looking at him again.

It was then that she noticed the hilt on his belt and her eyes perked up.
"Wait is that....are you a...," she hesitated slightly, her excitement trailing off some. "Nevermind." she ended with as the red of self-consciousness crept into her collar. For all she knew, he was just a charlatan.

He sure smelt like one.

 

[Senari Gravis]

Easily catching the movement of her eyes with his own rapidly clearing, Senari quickly pulled the edge of his cloak back over the gleaming metal dangling at his hips. The droid went ignored—it could point its plasma cutter at him all it wanted, so long as it didn't try to actually attack him with it—while he focused in on the girl. A bit grimy after wandering around in the temple ruins, fairly tall, not likely as young as he first thought she was...but still young enough that she shouldn't be out and about in a place like this, and what she said confirmed it.

Helped explain why she seemed so thin, too.

"No public school, or anything like that? Isn't that supposed to be..."

Free? Maybe in the Core, where there was wealth enough for the taxation to cover such things, or worlds under the purview of galactic governments willing to spread the wealth out for things like education and healthcare. Deneba had always been sparsely populated, save for the Jedi presence and what settlements grew up around their; with the Jedi gone, and without what they were offering to the community.

Hell. Dammit, Veiere.

Now there were people on the planet forced to scavenge and salvage just to get by. Not many, though, because the temple's ruin hadn't been picked through as much as would be expected if there were a host of salvagers ready to start going through it, he'd already made note of that much. He rubbed at one eye, before cursing when he realized he'd just rubbed more dust into it.

At least it would clear out in time. "Alright, hold that thought," he muttered, before she continued on with her question or started to talk about the education situation on the planet. "Food, right? The sublevels here should still be sealed up, last I checked, unless someone came along with really heavy gear to bust it open...and I don't see any of the tell-tale signs of that sort of salvage operation. Non-perishables, ration packs, stuff like that, and maybe a way to get you and your mother some credits. Come on."

It might not entirely be within his purview to go unlocking the sublevel and sharing out the stores within, but he was going to do it anyways; Romi, Veiere, even Veiere's kids had had more than enough time to come back and start cleaning out the old temple, or to start fixing it up if they'd wanted to, and they never had. Senari might as well make sure that something good was done with what was left.

Sera Rosh

 

[Sera Rosh]

SPARROW
TEMPLE RUINS | DENEBA
TAG: Senari Gravis

SO IT BEGINS​

He seemed as frazzled as she was.

Trailing off on a sentence just as she did. She couldn't blame him though, groggy as he seemed after his nap. Until he interrupted her.

"Food, right? The sublevels here should still be sealed up, last I checked, unless someone came along with really heavy gear to bust it open...and I don't see any of the tell-tale signs of that sort of salvage operation. Non-perishables, ration packs, stuff like that, and maybe a way to get you and your mother some credits. Come on."

"Wait, what?" It took her a minute to realise what he was saying.

She may not be used to much that wasn't routine, but she was sharp enough to not trust just anyone - lightsaber or not.
"Who are you? And why is me and my mother's situation any of your concern?" She was actually sincere in her question, still candid. Dobby, on the other hand, let out a much more hostile warble.
"Hush, Dobby." she told the droid before looking back at the strange man. "Sorry. I just don't go around following strangers into a basement. If you get my meaning, Sir."

She still had some presence of mind, at least.

 

[Senari Gravis]

"That's smart, at least. Even if poking around in a place like this alone generally isn't."

So the droid was Dobby. One name down, at least. He glanced at the aggressive little utility ball for a moment, the droid just starting to levitate harmlessly into the air—alongside some of the broken bits of stone and duracrete around them, and the girl herself, if she and the droid didn't quickly grab something to stop their momentary floating. "If I'd wanted to hurt you, it would've already happened. Basement level or anything higher up wouldn't make a difference, when you're already alone up here." Senari was already looking far less addled than he had in the moments after waking up, and he could easily sense just how alone they were in the temple; a lifetime of training in the Force included how to deal with poisons and toxins in his system, and when there was something that actually needed done, he'd gotten very good at quickly sobering himself back up.

Never quite had figured out how to keep the headache from coming on, though.

"And as one of the people that used to live here, I've got a bit of an obligation in the direction of 'Do no harm,' and if some kid and her droid are having to come scavenge a ruined temple to get money for food that her mother doesn't have, then just walking off and letting you do as you will doesn't fulfill that. You're the one that knows what you have storage for, what you need, and what you're able to carry, and I'm not just going to start dragging stuff out for you to peruse when it's already organized nicely down there. Come on."

Without waiting for a response, he stepped on past the girl and her droid, walking to the stairs that led below and waving for them to follow, now that they were no longer at any risk of starting to float up in the air.