betterthanaplan | Deck of the Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Sunday afternoon

So after yesterday's picnic, Duke had seriously considered raising anchor and just getting the hell back out of Fandom while the going was still good. Unfortunately, he still needed supplies and at least a little more socialization before he was ready to hit the seas again, and an island so small it didn't even show up on any maps was the best damn hiding spot he was going to get from the various and sundry people who either wanted to arrest or kill him.

He was definitely not going to teach a class at the high school though. Certainly not one about piracy. That was just -- people hadn't trusted him around kids when he was a kid. It was clearly nonsense.

Having spent the morning on various repairs and maintenance around his ship, he headed into town for groceries around noon, then set up his small grill on deck to make some lamb shashlik and vegetables. After a couple weeks of living on fish and jerky, kebabs were right up his alley.

[open! Duke's boat's deck is visible and easily accessible from land. Think of it like someone's front patio or driveway, only furnished with crates and random thrifted benches and things.]

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Congratulations, he had met someone who wouldn't have asked, and found the fact that he had to explain a little weird.

"...Okay," she said. "I'm Rey. Sounds like you're having an interesting time of it so far."

"Well, I got in, was sent to a picnic up at the school, and informed I'm expected to teach a class on piracy of all things. So . . . yeah. 'Interesting' is a good way to put it."

"Do you... know anything about piracy?" she had to ask.

"That depends. Is your job in town with the cops?"

Well that answered that.

"I repair mechanics."

Yeah, Duke had never really put much effort into pretending not to be a criminal.

"That is a very excellent skill. I do some mechanic work myself."

Running and maintaining an industrial fishing boat by himself meant picking up a thing or two.

"You get a lot of work around here? There aren't even any cars."

"Small things, mostly. At least on my shifts," Rey answered. "They may bring in bigger stuff now, I haven't been back long enough to know for sure."

She would love a bigger project.

"Where's your shop? I've probably got some stuff around here that could use fine-tuning."

He'd been at sea for weeks. There was plenty that could use work.

"Stark Industries? It's down the street, across from the park," she said, nodding in that direction. "I'm there on Sundays."

"I'll have to check that out," Duke said. "So . . . what do you do with the rest of your week?"

"Different kinds of training, mostly," she said, and added, "Not much happens here most days, you find ways to keep yourself busy."

"There's a castle-school that randomly picks adults to be their teachers and a giant shark-prince," Duke said. "And 'not much happens'?"

"You get used to that stuff, mostly," Rey shrugged.

"I suppose you'd have to," Duke said. "So are you from here, or . . . ?"

"Jakku. It's a desert world, most people don't seem to know it." Not even people from the GFFA! "Where are you from?"

"Is that near the UAE?" Oh Duke. "I grew up in Maine. Been . . . pretty much anywhere but lately."

"Maine's... north, right?" She'd looked up geography, but hadn't had reason to be sure of her memory of it. "What's the UAE?"

"Maine is north," Duke agreed. "United Arab Emerates. It's in the middle east. Lots of desert."

"Oh, no, Jakku is a planet. It's all desert," she told him.

"Ah, right, of course. I always forget about desert planets."

Admittedly he'd spent most of his high school science classes either flirting or sleeping, but he was pretty sure a planet that was entirely desert couldn't support life.

This one barely did!

"Heard a lot about desert planets in Maine, did you?"

"Oh sure, there's . . . Pustynia. Woestyn. Gurun. . . ." He shook his head and smiled. "Yeah, so that's just the word 'desert' in a bunch of different languages. But I think Mars is supposed to be pretty dry."

"I'm a little impressed you had that many words for 'desert' ready," Rey admitted.

She did, too, but she didn't hear much of that on this planet.

Duke shrugged. "I have an ear for languages. It's handy when you run a global business."

If nothing else, you always wanted to be able to tell when the people you were working with decided to kill you.

"All the piracy?" Rey guessed.

(no subject)

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