Episode 1d - Setting Up Shop

"I would like nothing better!"

"Great! Lets go!" Tionne grabs the droid's hand and leads him off to a nearby scrap yard she found. She's after the parts she needs to mock up the tech shells, as well as any "furniture" pieces she can bring back to the shop for cheap.

Zen wanders around the scrap yard, touching pieces with his oversized arms and generally acting like a kid in a candy shop.

"Is this why you brought me along?" asks Zen as he lugs the toolbench out of the scrapyard.

"No! I was gonna do this alone, we just met! I just," Tionne averts her eyes shyly, "I just like you is all."

When we get back to the workshop and get the workbench in place, Tionne pulls out her datapad and begins looking into other scrap yards around the city. Once she finds a few, she gets distracted and begins researching cybernetic droid-human linkup devices and their implantation.

"What do you think XN? Do you want to try linking into my datapad? You said you gain knowledge from whatever droid you link up with, maybe you can link to the holonet and learn some things permanently. I dunno though, your neural net is really small and limited. Hmm, I think what we need to do is figure out why you blow the brains out of these droids when you detach. Imagine if you could just droid hop all the time, and leave no trace behind.

"I also burrow into their cranium, which they might notice."

"Well XN, I'm less worried about them 'noticing' than I am about their entire personality getting wiped out. Although...that droid shop upstairs said they wipe all their refurbished droids before sale. I guess if a droid has already been wiped, its not quite so bad. Although you're still destroying them. I think we need to talk about finding you a semi-permanent 'host'. Shell-hopping isn't really cool, nor is it a good idea. Where did you come from by the way? Were you left here after a battle or something?"

"I am afraid I do not have that information."

"It is an ASP series loading droid, built for moving cargo."

"I'm getting nowhere here. I need to call a friend." Far away, Dalla's comms chirp.

What's up, buttercup? Did you find the stuff I needed?, you hear back in a distinctly non modularized way. Wait..., you hear some more clicking and noise and suddenly the sound warbles as it should. There. When did these things get so complex.

"No, not yet. But I think we can kill two mynocks with one blast here. I need to find some parts for our next, uh, "party". Legitimate avenues have failed me, and my former contacts all want me dead. Think we could make something happens with your new contacts?"

Maybe, what's on the shopping list?, I say. You hear quietly in the background rhodian speech and then a small voice respond to it.

"I'll send you a list of the parts I need. While we're at it, we can find what you need for your meth lab. I've set up a little workspace-oh! I just remembered, I need a power converter too! I'm pretty short on credits, so maybe we can strike a deal for tech services or something. I'll send you a list and the address of the workshop."

Tionne's tone suddenly changes and she sounds like a giddy teenager, "Yeah! You can see my place and meet my new friend XN-8!"

Tionne sends a list to your comm.