NOTE: brackets indicate another language being spoken
Kaki bends to pick up the crates again and then walks ahead to lead the way to the entrance. Before they enter, though, she pauses to look at Seventeen from over her shoulder.
"Um, not to imply that I think you're the type... But don't touch anything that doesn't have a price," she says. "He hates that."
Then, she pushes the door open with her foot, sounding off a bell chime. Spare parts and unfinished projects were strung about the place, covering the floor and walls, several even hanging from the ceiling - the work of a disorganized genius.
Then, someone emerges from the back, wearing gloves and a protective face shield. He seemed to have been doing some welding work, by the layer of sweat on his lean arms.
{ Welcome to the technician shop, if you've got something broken, just- }
He stops, before lifting the visor and revealing his face - a rather human-looking man, if not for the naturally toxic green mullet of his, about Kaki's age. His brows raise at the sight of Kaki, before grinning fully.
"Hey, pinkie pie!"
Kaki groans at the nickname.
"Y'know, I almost thought you weren't interested with how fast you hung up on me the last time we talked," he says. "What took so long?"
"I got side-tracked," she explains simply, leaning onto the crates. "Besides, you know very well that I don't like to talk on those public communication channels."
"Okay, fair. That was my bad. I just get 'em confused sometimes! Anyway, why don't you bring the merch on the back so I can take a look?" He jerks his gloved thumb in the direction he meant but then does a double-take when he finally notices Seventeen standing just behind Kaki. He quirks a brow at her. "You've got friends now? So much for your edgy loner look, huh.
"Very funny," Kaki deadpans. "Seventeen, this is Loquat. Loquat, Seventeen."
Seventeen stands awkwardly and raises his hand in greeting.
"Hi."
He really can't come up with anything better to say to the attractive man. This place seems kind of off the books, just adding to the growing list of questions he needs to ask Kaki when they are alone again.
Loquat gives Seventeen a lop-sided smile in silent greeting, before motioning for the both of them to follow.
They're led to what seems to be a personal workspace, which is just as messy and cluttered as the entrance of the shop.
Kaki sets the crates beside his desk, where he'd casually stick his hand in the top-most and messily feel around before pulling out something rod-shaped.
"Oh, shit," he says in genuine surprise as he inspects it. "Hold on."
Loquat pulls out a drawer and retrieves a deadly-looking pistol-adjacent weapon, then skillfully attaches the rod to the barrel - a silencer.
"Nice. Our buddies could really use some goodies like these. You said you also had attachments for automatics?"
"Mhm. Snagged them off of some goons in my last expedition." Kaki tells him, leaning a hand on his desk. "You can just take them, if that's what they're going to be used for."
"Aw, c'mon, you can't just give stuff like this away for free," Loquat says, giving her a wink. "I'll make it worth your while."
"Oh! Before I forget." Kaki turns to Seventeen, motioning for him to come over. "You should show him your gun."
"Oh...yeah. I forgot about that."
He pulls the pistol out of the holster and puts it on the workbench. "This is the gun I was issued at my - former job," he says, his sentence hitching as he almost said his current job. "Do you have any ammo for its model?"
He waits for Loquat to pick it up and study it for a moment before continuing. "I don't have anything to trade but you're an engineer, right? I'll let you do some analysis on my body in exchange."
Seventeen pauses when Loquat looks at him with a puzzled yet intrigued expression. "I'm a biomechanical android, infinite energy model - meaning, I have no stamina limit, and no issues generating my own energy to manipulate freely. Any interest in things like that?"
The ranger grins for the first time since they entered the shop, being able to tell very clearly that Loquat was not going to pass something like that up.
Loquat couldn't help the borderline mischievous grin crawling across his lips.
"Infinite energy, eh-?"
He's interrupted by Kaki leaning in front of him to force eye contact, where she would frown at him disapprovingly, blocking him almost protectively from Seventeen.
"I do not think that is what I would call a fair trade," she suggests and harshens her glare. "Wouldn't you say?"
Loquat stares at her for a second. His amber gaze flicks back to Seventeen, then back to her, before his grin returns and his brows waggle in realization.
He quickly drops out the magazine to inspect the bullets.
"Oh. Okay, yeah. She's right, I couldn't take something like that just to make some ammo for this pea-shooter," Loquat agrees, clanking the gun and magazine onto the workbench. "It'll be easy-peasy. Just buy me lunch or something next time you come around."
Looking at Kaki, he smirks. He wouldn't have minded letting a quack engineer like this gather data from his cybernetic makeup, as he was always looking for ways to make all of Gero's effort keeping his work proprietary in vain, but making Kaki jealous was just as good.
Swiftly, he lets one strap of his backpack slip off his shoulder and swings the bag around to his chest. Rummaging around for a second he pulls out a rolled-up tube of drafting papers and hands it to loquat.
"Here, you can make a copy of this, we'll be back I assume?" he says, looking over to Kaki for confirmation. "You can give it back to me then. But you owe me something cool, I don't hand out my blueprints to just anyone."
Kaki meets Seventeen's eyes. She hadn't planned on returning so soon, but if he really wanted to share those blueprints…
"That's fine, I suppose."
"Sweet. Thanks, man. I'll make sure to wash my hands before I handle 'em," Loquat says, setting the roll aside for later.
Then, he slides back in his chair, away from the workbench, to address them both-Kaki in particular.
"Just to ask…" he starts, rubbing his chin. "How well do you speak Tatinarte's common tongue?"
"Well, enough," Kaki answers, furrowing a brow at the question.
"Mkay, so you'd have no problem understanding the northern dialect…" Loquat turns to Seventeen. "And considering what you told me… You can handle yourself pretty good in a fight, right?"
Seventeen lets out a brief and sort of arrogant laugh. "Better than you most likely."
"Ha! This guy's funny, too," Loquat says to Kaki, jabbing a thumb towards Seventeen.
Kaki leans back onto the workbench and crosses her arms expectantly. "Why are you asking such things?"
"Well, it's because I have a favor to ask," Loquat says, and then glances at Seventeen. "And also because I know she tends to do things out of the goodness of her heart. Am I right?"
Kaki rolls her eyes a little but doesn't dispute it. "What is it, then?"
"Well, I've been hearing a word about this village some miles up north that's been having some problems. Y'know, like, 'a lot of people going missing in a short amount of time,' type of problems,'' Loquat explains. He intertwined his gloved hands together, looking a lot more serious than before. "A couple of guys I know went up there a while back to check it out, but they haven't come back. I'm really hoping they haven't added to the body count..."
"You think the armies are starting to get bold again?" Kaki asks, her expression turning a bit grave.
"I dunno. Wouldn't put it past them, though. I would check it out myself, but clearly, there isn't much someone like me could do, even with state-of-the-art weaponry."
Seventeen stares at Loquat when he comments on Kaki's morality. It does give validity to the initial read he had on her character. Maybe he was doing that thing Eighteen got on to him for: being too analytical and distrusting for his own good.
Listening to the exchange, Seventeen notes Kaki's casual mention of "armies" as if that's something the two of them have personal experience with.
"Well, if you can get me that ammo, Kaki's my ride - so I go where she goes," he says, idly brushing his hand through his hair.
Kaki seems to think about it for a moment, and then sighs. She really couldn't let something like this happen, especially if there was a potentiality that the Planetary Trade Organization was involved.
"You're going to have to give us some coordinates," she tells Loquat. Her mind was settled on the matter. "Either now or tomorrow when we come back before we leave."
"Yeah, sure, no problem." Loquat winks and clicks his tongue, making a finger-gun. "I think we're done here, then. You want your money now?"
"Please." Kaki stands back up straight. "We'll be needing to buy supplies for this mission you're sending us on, anyway."
"Gotcha. Cash comin' right up."
Loquat paid them and supplied them with the promised bullets, and they went to get supplies for the mission. Seventeen wasn't particularly excited about this, but he didn't have anything better to do.
They bought a new backpack for Seventeen, as his was getting cramped halfway through shopping, and a fair bit of non-perishable food as well as some basic naturalist supplies. The village was located in a very remote part of the jungle that was only accessible by a dirt road with an automobile. So they rented a truck from a weird guy on the edge of town and paid the parking for Kaki's ship before getting ready to leave.
"I'll drive, and you navigate?"
Kaki blinks in the middle of heaving the last of the luggage when he suggests he should drive.
"Sure," she responds without protest, setting the last bit of supplies into the back of the truck.
The one thing Kaki did in preparation was switch her bulky battle armor for one she still had from when she first got the ship - an older model that the previous owner must have forgotten inside, which lacked the intimidating shoulder pauldrons. She also decided to wearactual pants, instead of the battle briefs she was so accustomed to.
Getting into the passenger's seat, she procures a device from the belt slung about her waist - a handheld map of Tatinarte, purchased from the marketplace the day before in preparation for their journey.
"Here, let me just put in the coordinates..."
It takes her several seconds, on account of her double-checking she didn't accidentally skip any numbers, before finally setting the destination.
She nearly makes a face at the sight of the digital map - the grid coupled with numbers and a flashing trail just looks too busy to her - before she looks to Seventeen and gives him a nod.
"Okay."