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"The likes of you stand to benefit from the likes of me."

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Hey. Enver, right?

Not sure if you saw the earlier announcement what with everything going on, but I'll be your warden for the month. Well, what's left of it. Name's Kylar.

You up for meeting somewhere? Maybe getting a drink?

Gortash, if you please.

[ Surrounded by the utter carnage his quarters have been left in, he has mostly just been in shock. Then angry. Then planning. So when this comes in, his planned answer is immediate. ]

A drink would be perfect, actually.

[Finally, someone who wants a drink.]

Good. Meet you at the Lounge in 5?

...Very well.

[In exactly 5 minutes Kylar is outside the Lounge with his hands in his pockets.]

[ Gortash is along very shortly after. Punctual. Largely unreadable, save that a little shadow setting jis eyes back suggests tiredness. ]

[The punctuality says a lot, to Kylar at least. He easily extends a hand. Kylar is quite short, unassuming. His clothes are as "modern" as he thinks they can be without understanding the concept and purely basing it off of other Bargizen styles and as casual as possible.]

Gortash, right? Good to meet you. Shall we?

[ Gortash picked a style that is fairly neutral across many barge cultures and times here, but still with some class. Clean lines, well, constructed, dark. He stands about six feet in height and despite not working at a forge for years, one can still see there is muscle to him. ]

The very same. And Kylar?

[ He gestures. ]

After you.

[ It is not as though he can open the door himself. ]

[He waves a hand over the censor and the door unclicks. He grabs the handle and offers Gortash to go through first with a grin.]

No, you. I insist.

[It's ridiculous. But he'll easily lean into it.]

I'd say drinks are on me, but that might be a poor joke around here.

[He's already met 2 people with 0 sense of humor.]

[ he's not unaware of how money is not really a thing here ]

Appreciated just the same.

[ He accepts the invitation and steps in with a deferential nod. He's been in here maybe twice in the year he's been here. ]

Have you been here long? Forgive me, but I tend to keep my focus very tightly on my work.

[He follows in after but takes a minute to observe the room.]

Yes and no. [He shrugs once he pays attention again, satisfied with whatever he was looking over.]

Been here... a month or so but I was here about eleven years ago for over a year as an Inmate.

[He'll gesture to a seat.]

So what's your work?

Cybernetics. [ Blink. ] You're a graduate, then.

Yep, I'm a graduate. [He says it with an unenthusiastic sigh.]

And I'm afraid I know nothing of cybernetics. This place is a bit... advanced compared to where I'm from. We don't even have these things where I'm from. Word travels by foot, horse, maybe a bird now and then. Ship, if you have to. But not this.

[He says as he shakes at his device before settling it back into a pocket.]

Likewise, but as an artificer, barred from magic I'll learn what additional technology is available to me.

[He can appreciate resourcefulness, if nothing else.]

So you usually have some magic capability?

All artificers do.

[ Now seems the time to settle at a table. ]

We need to understand it fundamentally to work with enchanted materials, and having it can mean the difference between mortally dire accidents and mendable ones.

Huh...

[He'll follow and take his own seat.]

I suppose that goes with any field of expertise. Knowing the limits and understanding the consequences of pushing beyond those limits.

[Which brings him to another thought.]

You asked how long I'd been here, but I didn't ask you. You seem pretty settled.

[ Something cold settles at the pitbof hos stomach. ]

This is my second winter here.

Wait. Two years? Seriously?

What happened to—

[He stops, thinks a moment. These temporary things are still kind of new to him but they aren't new for everyone else here so he shifts the question.]

Did you have a warden before? I mean, a permanent one.

...A little over one. I arrived a couple minths before, I think.

[ He glowers. ]

Not one. I have not been keeping count but I've run out of fingers for how many times I've been through this dance.

Damn. That's [He takes just a moment to calculate his words.] rough.

[Might be lackluster, but his other idea was 'shite' and considering Gortash doesn't even like first-name basis.. Kylar guesses he probably wouldn't care for guttershite talk either.]

You know, they didn't used to do these temporary setups. You used to get paired and that was that. Of course, that came with other problems.

[Ugh. He sounds old. 'Back in my day'... He'll shift topics.]

That said, you don't technically need a warden to get out of here. You could just manage it all on your own. But, wanting to get out is a different issue. I know not everyone wants to.

If my views were all that I needed to leave, I would be gone.

[ He's just willing to put up with an alternative perspective from someone obligated to keep his secrets and advocate for him. ]

I'm interested in using this place but only if it does what it claims to do.

Speaking from experience, it does and doesn't. I think it depends on the person. For me it was more...

[He holds out open hands, like weighing options.]

setting limits. Rules. The barge is safer than where I'm from. It took me a while to figure out how the safety here—the lack of need for my professional skills, let's say—would translate when I got back home. I'd say I'm still working on that part and it's.. had some costs. [There is the briefest bitter frown.]

All to say, this place can't help with everything, if that's what you're expecting.

[A short shrug.]

So what do you want to get out of this? If anything.