Watermelon Slushie's page

Perhaps an old habit from his hired guard days, Gus's eyes were fixed on the new agents, eager to guage their interest in the tour. His gaze shifted between the four of them, each one taking a turn under his watch with perhaps the shobhad taking up the slightest bit more time as the dwarf yearned to connect more with someone from his homeworld. Still, he bit his tongue, waiting until it was his turn to tour around the complex. When the group did turn towards the Training Facilities, Gus stretched a bit to relax himself before he began his segment. "Now we get to my favorite part of the Lorespire Complex..." he commented, guiding the group through the entrance doors.

"The Lorespire Complex boasts state-of-the art physical training facilities to keep our agents in tip-top shape! The gym
features exercise equipment for creatures from tiny to huge, and the instructors offer private coaching and group classes.
We also offer virtual reality training to experience real combat simulations and review recorded performances."

Gus motioned to the no doubt in-use machines and floors as he expounded his script, pointing out the other Starfinders enjoying a good workout through whatever means. He paused at the end, whirling a finger to bring up his next point. "Heck, last week they had a course designed for 'gunning on tricky terrain' as they put it. They put you in a VR room designed to mimic some really hazardous environment, like an icy slick mountain top, or a really decayed space freighter about to come apart, all with a lil' plastic rifle replica controller. They put you there and run you through a little marksman game, try to hit as many shots while staying on the move as you can. Go until you either reach the finish, or you suffer a blunder too big to walk away from. I loved it, good way to keep your aim good while staying limber when you're not on a mission." The small disclosure was enough to get Gus moving, as he seemed to bounce about like a featherweight boxer, going through the motions absentmindedly as he just described.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Once he was out of that headspace, he gestured to the Sarcesian. "You mentioned you wanted to get in the thick of it, yeah? Well this here's a good place to learn. The bug here speaks the truth, things got pretty hairy in that cave back there." he admits, pointing to Jekcedo. "Even if you're not the burliest fighter, it never hurts to put in some hours here to make sure your body's well prepared to climb, swim, or flip your way out of whatever crisis this big ol' universe throws at you."

Pausing a moment to let his recommendation stick, he realizes he should throw in something else. "And if you're the type who might get a bit shy about working out, the staff here are really big on non-judgmental treatment. Besides, some of your fellow agents might be able to give you some pointers themselves." He nods to the shobhad. "I'm from Akiton too, and every other shobhad I've met was dead set on keeping their bodies as hard as their holy mountain Ka, and that's something I can't help but respect." He then points at the Pahtra. "And from what I hear, Pulonis-ah, er Vesk-6, er whatever y'all call it-is a tough marble to live on. Something about no good tech there and everything wants to eat you? Makes it so that doing just the basics can be difficult. Rishir might have some tips to keep you lean enough to stay on your toes."

"Correct me if'n I'm wrong about any of that."

The latest Data Scourge events have the normally collected Gus on edge. Waves of comm service blackouts makes it hard for him to keep up with his scrapper friends on Akiton, and the news cycle being filled with train closings and service drone accidents has him worried about many things. The possibility of Abadarcorp's blockchain failing never ceases to scare him out of his sleep with visions of erased funds on his account, and while his nanite coins remain so far unaffected, he protects them much like a dragon and keeps them locked away in a secure safe while off duty.

Nevertheless, the dwarf has not kept well, researching as much as he could on Doomsday prepping should all the tech infrastructure go down. Everyday, he runs through programming exercises with his coins to make sure they can still assemble themselves appropriately, before locking them away again. Were it not for the incessant comm blackouts, his paranoid questions to his buddy Chiggerbite about tech security would draw endless amounts of schadenfreude from his ysoki friend back to him in supreme irony.

When the messenger arrives, he does his best to hurriedly tame his beard and don the proper wardrobe for a mission before scooting for Lorespire. His mind is put at ease when he sees more functional tech of the complex working fine despite the mysterious corrupting glitch plaguing other systems.

---

As he enters the room, the lesser kept beard on his face only accentuates his high-strung state. The sight of familiar faces does bring much needed joy & relief to him though. "Guys! By the Vaultkeeper, it's been a while. Hope y'all have been doing okay despite all the bugs infesting the station's tech." he boisterously greets, pausing before realizing the faux pas.

"The programming bugs, not the... you type bugs. Heh, don't mean to offend." Gus corrects himself to Jekcedo, scratching the back of his head bashfully.

Gus would probably urge Naitier to translate them a message. "By the way, if y'all're sifting around this cave-in, watch out for those big ferret things. They seem to be nesting here." he'll warn, pointing backwards in the direction of the room where the beasts were encountered.

Adding to the party's debriefing with Guidance, Gus gestures around himself as he describes the creatures in more detail. "The natives looked kinda like bats, honestly. Tall, purple fellas with a membrane like wing-thingy under both of their arms. Had four eyes, big ears and a bit of a snoot too. Also blinked a lot when they talked." the dwarf explains, pausing to remember. "'least I think they were fellas. What'd they call themselves again?" he hazily recalls, looking back to the elf & copaxi.

"They had some neat tech there too. Their datapads folded up into a Cubix Rube thing, good for rough travel." Gus remarked.

Seeing Jekcedo get to working invigorates the dwarf as he accepts the manuals from Cakes. "Sure thing, I know my way around a rivet gun. Besides, I'd hate to let the new guy have all the fun~" he blustered, slipping out coins for his gold gloves & boots as he strolls off to the Wanderstar.

Engineering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Slipping underneath the landing gear, Gus hums as he works laid back on the roller bed, occasionally glancing back at the instructions. His head bobs as he hums one of the Bugspace's hits he heard back on Songbird.

Gus leans back on the wall, wearing his Station Buzz sunglasses. "T'wern't nothin'. I'm just glad I'm useful around here." the dwarf drawled. "Hope there's more missions in the pipeline for us newbies, cause its easy for a guy to get used to this kind of travel work."

Glancing to the party, he commented, "You guys are fun too. If we don't do more of this together, I hope you guys have a nice time here." Gus tips his hat at each of the party members.

Gus steps up next to Naitier, dissolving the lantern back into coins and placing the battery in his hand. At the snap of a finger, they meld back around the battery and form a laser pistol that he casually spins on a finger. "I'd listen to them, unless you'd rather meet our big, hammer-swinging friend. I'm sure they'd love to meet you~." he warns, a huge smirk slithering across his face at the idea of Nuva'gek getting involved.

Intimidate: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (19) - 1 = 18

Triage speaks up. "We recently discovered that Astral Extractions was knowingly withholding vital information on a recently discovered asteroid that housed microbial life. Despite the clear directives on what to do in such a situation, they tried to hide the discovery so that they can directly profit from the minerals found within the asteroid's surface." He does his best to give only the facts and to keep his temper under control, but losses it for just a moment near the end.

"Yeah and before that, we poked around a bunch of smuggler's ship. Turns out they had some Akata's on there that we had to take care of. And by we, I mean the big guy." He follows up, pointing a thumb to Nuva-gek. "It's okay, hopefully those cred-launderers will get prosecuted out their butts."

Gus will consent to be part of Triage's demonstration on...well, triage. He'll also translate Grognard's quote about his life before, giving him a confused look at the end of it.

Turning to Veefa, Gus asks boastfully, "Oh hoh, you want to see some skills, eh?" Slinging out coins like ninja stars between his fingers, he whispered a dwarven command to them, "Some assembly required mode." before throwing them skyward.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Engineering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

As they fall, he begins to juggle them back into the air, craning his neck to look up as he does his impromptu performance. Admittedly, he struggles to stay in one place as the coins seem to fly outside of his reach, causing him to have to shift considerably as he flips them back up.

"So y'all have heard of nanites, yes? Tiny, microscopic robots used for precision surgery or engineering?" he begins, his voice faltering as he jukes in various directions. As he flips the coins back up, some come back as small parts that he flings back up. As more parts get flung up, some fuse into bigger parts.

"Well fun fact, because they're so small, they can be programmed to assemble themselves into any shape! And without a detailed inspection, most would pass them off as real things instead of nanite forgeries."

As the parts get bigger and more recognizable, he finds himself juggling fewer objects, until finally, he throws two up together. As they meet in the air, they fuse to form a portable lantern which he barely catches by tip-toeing forward on one leg. Standing back up right, he pulls out a battery from his pocket and plugs it into the lantern, turning it on. "Voila! The miracle of technology!" Gus finishes, flashing a big toothy grin.

"Lookie here! Guess they packed so fast, they forgot some stuff." he observed.

Engineering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

"Bunch'a reeaally clean science-y tools here. Wonder why they never used 'em?" Gus shrugged, oblivious.

Relieved that nothing attacked them while they searched, Gus would attempt to learn about the artists performing at the Songbird Station. He likes music, but tends to stick to Dwarven or Akitonian classics, so he hasn't really tried to learn about the newer generation that's been taking over the airwaves & saloons. Though to the really observant or nosy, one might notice every now & then a curious site open on his datapad. One of the windows on his infosphere browser is an anonymous forum for legal advice.

As he removes the bolts and slides the pipe out, he fretted, "Of course. Expect nothing less from them." He turns to the rest of the party and continues walking on...

"Watch where you step, y'all. Whatever's here, they were worried about other people finding, so they got a little creative with tra-APH!"

...straight into the locked door. "...traps." he finished warning. Looking it over, he sighs and dismisses his nanite tools, fishing out his thieves' tools once more.

Engineering + Thieves' Tools: 1d20 + 5 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 5 + 4 = 16

Gus walks up and tries his best to pat the vesk on his shoulder, though his height would only allow him to reach his middle back.

He turns his head to hear Grognard's dwarven sitrep. With a sigh, he turns to the Steward officers and recounts his assessment in a more coherent tongue. He also adds, "No idea what their game is other than cred scrubbing with the phony sticks, but have fun sifting through their transactions."

Running his fingers through his beard, he also thinks aloud, "Wonder if one of my old buddies would look into it?" before shrugging.

"As for what attacked us? Big, four-legged, tentacled big cat thing that had blue skin like an eel." he gestures many times with his hands to further his description. "Creepy li'l buggers."

Seeing the beasts rip into his party members, he quickly dashes the idea of ranged combat, shucking the rounds out of his rifle and tossing it to the side. "Sorry guys, this might feel weird!" he warns. As the rifle hits the ground, it explodes into a swarm of frenzied nanites that gather around Gus, Naitier & Triage, as well as in front of the dwarf.
Swift action to burn a nanite surge to call up a Cloud array around us, forming a tetris J piece on its side, giving us a 10% miss chance through concealment against attacks.

Almost as fast, he draws his shotgun from his back. Taking aim, he shouts a command in dwarvish, "Midas: target that one!" before pulling the trigger and blasting it.
Move action to target green with seeking strike.
Scattergun+Seeking Strike: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Piercing Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4
The cloud of nanites somehow pings most of the pellets from his shotgun, ricocheting them into the beasts hide.

As the crew searches through the ship room by room, Gus lingers by the walls of the meeting room. Squinting, his face hovers closer to the scrawlings on the wall.
Engineering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

Running a hand through his beard, he groans, "Why do these look familiar...?" The dwarf grumbled and pondered for a moment, thinking back to his days as a hired guard, before it struck him. "Looks like they were trying to upgrade their fake credsticks too. Buncha' cred-launderin' cheats!" He grips his scattergun tight, with a hint of anger.

Gus can't help but chuckle at Kirkath. "Naw, just had a scuffle with some bumbling pirates. Nothing as cool as what you said." he answered, righting the brim of his hat. "Even brought some back with us, in case any of 'em need a good questioning." he adds further.

Slipping his thumb into one of his metallic suspenders, he adjusts them as he watches Sashkri deal with the bevy of chaos from the kids. Leaning over to Triage & Nuva'gek, he tip toes a bit so he can whisper to them. "If we do more of this together in the future, remind me to never have kids." he jests in hushed tones.

"Hoo~ yeah, found us some neat planets and busted up some pirates." the dwarf commented, feeling satisfied, "I'm sure those Xeno-whatsits will love gettin' a look at those critters, too~!" Gus did a quick freestyle finger snap routine out of excitement, causing the gold on his boots & hands to congeal into coins that he snatched out of the air.

A lot of Gus's time is spent carousing or conversing with the crew if they let him. Being the diligent scrapper he is, the travel time serves him as vacation after a job well done before the hunt for another job begins. He'd love to share & compare stories from fellow dwarf Grognard, having had so little contact with his own race outside his small immediate family. He'd also like to catch up and hear tales from Yarsox, another Akitonian native. He'd also probably let slip some details of his nanites, if any would want to look into their abilities. Outside of that all, Gus would take some time to chatter with their pirate captives a bit while on guard duty, torturing or consoling them (depending on their outlook) with some of his music.

When Sashkri puts forward the question of planet names, he pauses a moment in thought. "Well... huh. I'm not good with names, but Huberon comes to mind for that first one. Full of minerals and stuff that'd be good for mining, but you'd have to wear some pretty big britches to think you'd walk away from that hostile environment with a profit." He points to Grognard. "Naming something after Torag would be nice too!"

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

With a quick flip, he fixes the breaker he just popped and slips up to another. With one hand on a valve release and another on a second circuit breaker, he says his legs and turns both at the same time! "Got it!" One last swing, and he bounds down the panel, sticking the dismount.

"When you see Besmara, tell her 'Abadar sends his billings.'" Gus boasts to the doomed pirate, smearing the soot off his gloved thumb on his nose, allowing the gold to glitter once more.

"By the Vault, I love you, elf~" Gus praised the elf as he hung off a valve.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

Leaping to another lever, he accidentally tripped it, causing it to pop and blacken his golden glove. "Wa-AK! Hoo~ that stings. Sorry guys, no extra oomph for the guns!" he apologized, his hand still smoking a bit.

"Come on, come on. Work with me here." the dwarf mutters as he works, "Slide this, throw the charge here, don't melt the wires..." His hands a shiny blur stop as he locks something into place, the hum of diverted power sounding to the guns. "There we go! Give these slag-munchers The Vault Keeper's Justice!" Gus shouts eagerly.
Engineering+Ship bonus: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 5 + 1 = 25 Got it! All weapons on the ship now treat all 1s on damage rolls as 2s for the round!

Disembarking, Gus tips his hat back so his eyes can get a more open view of the ship. He whistles, trying to stifle his awe, having never been on any similar city ships, let alone any of the dwarven citadels. When the ysoki kids gather and get roped up by their chaperone, a grin crosses his face as he remembers a snippet of life in the frontier outpost he called home.

As the ysoki escorts them around, he can't resist taking a gander at him and his curious nature.
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

When a question comes to him, he divulged as they walked, "Actually yes, though you might call it more of a fool's gold. Wasn't worth any creds, but I found a use for it. People make a nickname for you if'n you stop a couple of bandits with golden guns. I liked the way it sounded." Gus's fingers fidgeted with the coins on his belt, slipping them out & back in the dispenser as he responded.

If he had time to panic shop before setting out, he'd probably get a consumer backpack and a few snacks. He wasn't expecting to be away from the Pact Worlds for so long. He would also bring a drive to listen to some tunes from his favorite Maro artist Pretty Lights. Oh, and he can't forget a spare hat in case something happens!

Distracted from looking at his datapad correspondence, the dwarf's eyes dart between the holographic lashunta and the other dwarf, feeling put on the spot. "Um, I guess? I-I'll be honest, I have a hard time understanding his common too. His dwarvish is easier to get though, which is weird. Maybe some of them word crunchers could get an idea of where that dialect comes from, but I'm just a child of Angradd & Akiton." he admitted. He swivels to Grognard and muttered in dwarvish, "No offense or nothin'."

Wow, that's a very interesting block of lore for Nakotre! Wonder if I should've thought about Asla's backstory a bit more...