Beach Planet

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Scott's probably around here somewhere, trying to recover from James.

The water's pretty nice.

Perfect place to dump slavers.

"Sure, might as well. Let's try and avoid being mugged though," Ethan said, getting up. "Who knows what sort of people hide on the outskirts of a place like this."

"What are muggers going to do? Shoot me?" Hewitt scoffed. He rose slowly, leaning on his cane.

"Who knows. I'm not a mugger," Ethan said. He watched Hewitt get up. "You don't need help, do you?" He'd rather not. Having someone lean on him was never comfortable, and it'd be even worse without his thick leather jacket to dull the sensation. Still, he wanted to be sure Hewitt wouldn't fall or something.

Hewitt waved a hand. "I'm fine, not completely useless yet." He was only feeble when it suited him it seemed, or only admitted to being feeble at least.

"Oh good. I'm not that keen on being useful," Ethan said. He started ambling toward the more ramshackle looking streets. He sure hoped this wasn't a bad idea.

Hewitt snickered. "That's why I like you, most robots are just so awfully tediously polite. It's exhausting. Yes sir, no sir, may I get that for you sir. " He rolled his eyes. "Amity learned fast that such crap wasn't going to slide. " Oh sure he liked being waited on, he just didn't like boot licking. He hobbled along at his slow pace. Aketi didn't move very fast apparently, especially not old ones.

Ethan snickered. "But if Amity's just being disrespectful because he thinks that's your idea of polite, than don't you think that kind of ruins it? What's the point of rudeness if it's just good manners in disguise?" He measured his pace carefully so he wouldn't leave Hewitt behind.

Hewitt shrugged. "It's close enough." He smirked at Ethan. "At least with the terran androids I know your contempt is real yes?"

"Mostly real," Ethan said. "You're not that horrible though." His odd smile edged its way into his face.

The less busy streets seemed to be much less catered toward tourists. There were still bars and shops and restaurants, but they were more faded looking, and the streets weren't well swept. There were also car repair shops, a small grocery market that looked like it might smell like fish, a vintage bookstore, and a small shop with peeling paint that said [Robots].

Hewitt snickered. "Well well, could it be that the android is getting sentimental?" He looked pretty smug. he looked around and noticed the shop. "Robots hmm?" He pointed with his cane.

"I'm not sentimental, you're just better to talk to than a brick wall," Ethan protested. He wasn't getting soft, really! He looked where Hewitt was pointing. "Wonder if they have any host drones there, could give Amity some competition."

Hewitt snorted. "Doubt it, terrans wouldn't know the first thing about what to do with a host drone." Even if they did manage to salvage one. He headed toward the shop out of curiosity though.

Ethan followed along, curious in spite of himself. It couldn't be as gross and disturbing as the mirrorverse slave markets, at least. Might as well look.

The shop was old and shabby looking, with cracking paint. It was clean though, and the sign on the door said [open].

"Who knows, maybe we can buy a few more androids to help out." Hewitt chuckled. "The felid would like that wouldn't he?"
He wandered into the shop, peering around with a look of staged disinterest.

"He does love collecting new androids," Ethan agreed dryly. "He's probably already bought out the shop." He followed Hewitt in.

The shop was a single, large-ish room, with shelves of small service bots and boxes of parts. A vacuum bot scuttled around near a wall. Some androids were sitting at tables at the back wall, reading books or talking together. They looked up as the visitors came in though.

The blond Terran behind the desk looked up as well, and his eyes flashed with recognition when he saw Ethan. He addressed Hewitt when he spoke though. "Hello, how can I help you today?"

---From Vestia---
Skye walked beside James and shook her head "You do realize that the sky literally surrounds the planet, right?"

"Ew, don't remind me," James said. "You're mean. Do you want me to start thinking I'm about to float away like a balloon?"

Skye smirked and shook her head "You are way heavier than a balloon. I can't even fly you away alone. Trust me, if you started to float off and I'm around, I would catch you.'

"If I started floating away, you would float away too," James pointed out. "And I don't think you're trained to fly in zero-g." He looked out at the beach. "Oh hey, look at all the people down there, probably not even wearing sunscreen. They're gonna burn!"

"At least I have wings to help though" Skye said with a shrug, glancing to the beach again. "Yeah, they will burn in this light if they didn't put any sunscreen on."

James laughed. "I feel like flying without gravity would be a lot like a fish flopping on dry land. Not super effective." He headed toward the water. Hey, he'd spent a fair bit of time on this beach before Acus had bought him.

Skye chuckled and walked with him "Well, we did have that program on Vestia to float around."

"Yeah. It's probably different when there's no walls though. Nothing to catch yourself on if you mess up," James said. He liked having a limit on the space he was moving around in, it was comforting.

Skye shrugged again "It's the same theory." She said softly.

"If you say so," James said. He yelped suddenly. "Oh my gosh, I forgot to put on my badge! People probably know me here!"

Skye looked to him and frowned a little "Ok, so do we go back to Vestia or go to the shop and buy a new one?" She asked curiously

Hewitt regarded the man skeptically. "You're terran?" He demanded. "the owner of this... place?" He waved a hand around vaguely.