Coruscant Grit 1.0

Posted on Sun Dec 23rd, 2012 @ 9:42am by Kip Hoddai

1,656 words; about a 8 minute read

Chapter: Chapter II: Era's Dawn
Location: Coruscant Spaceport, Berth 1012
Timeline: The day of arrival

Kip had left the Raptor and moved away, cloak up and cloth pulled over the lower part of his face and covering his neck and the rest of his body covered. He even wore eye-shields to prevent others from making out what his eyes looked like and his head was covered in a deep cowl on his black cloak.

He knew the J'tai and Beria had things to do; certainly there was mischief aplenty for that one to land in. Thane, well, while Kip didn't agree with either of the extreme philosophies he felt Thane was being fool entered the Temple after being tainted by the holocron already. That was like smoking a death stick and then trying to deny the stench on you to a Faaz.

He made it through customs with practiced alacrity and showed one of his many identichips, getting him past the guards and into the general populace. From the spaceport he took a public transport to a market area not too far away where he could shop and began to build his menu of stores for the Raptor, making contact with old friends and allies along the way and renewing news with many beings.

At the p'krai vendor another cowled and cloaked figure that looked identical came up and stepped up next to him where they examined the odd fruit, looking at them and then putting them back, handing them back and forth to one another and then after several minutes, they parted, Kip headed to another stall while the other figure disappeared into an alley and down an access ladder.

Business done there, Kip wandered to his favorite cafe nearby. Oh he had several favorite cafe but this one was in this region and close to the spaceport. A short walk and he was at Rejmajevik's, aka Rej's Place. It was a hole int he wall with a wide open wall on an atmos-vent to the lower levels and opened onto the 'street' at this level.

He walked into the place, with it's low ceiling and smoky spice-redolent interior. Supports ran through the length of it regularly and the kitchen was located in the center and open for everyone to see what was going on. The kitchen populated by three Dev and one Corellian, all working to make food and drinks.

Flames shot up on the cookers as various ingredients and oils ignited into colorful dancing energy, the smoke vented slowly and filled the restaurant with the odors of Dev cuisine.

Kip entered and pulled down his lower-face scarf and pushed the upper-face mask off, revealing himself as a Dev. The patrons, who hadn't been curious before, watching him and several nodded pleasantly, getting the same back. He took a seat at the bar, right up against the kitchen area and the bartender came up and caught sight of him and grinned, gold-etched sharp teeth gleaming in his mouth.

"Kip'ke! Isk'tak'ran'megeh?!" he demanded loudly and clasped both of Kip's hands in his own. (Kip my friend! How the hell have you been!?)

"Good Bek, good," Kip replied in the Dev common language. It was a mutually-agreed upon dialect all Dev learned so they could all speak to one another. But there were dozens of dialects and each individual religious, cultural or ethnic group spoke their own version and they all different extensively. So, thousands of years ago, they had created a central language they would all learn to speak to one another. "How's the wife and the kids?" he asked.

Bek winced. "She tried to shoot me the last time I went home," he replied and then grinned, "but the makeup sex was great. Still unmarried?" Bek asked with a cocked head.

"Been awhile since you were home hmm?" Kip asked and at Bek's smirk, Kip nodded back. "You hosting?"

"I can," Bek affirmed and then added, "I'm out of here at six."

"I'll be at your place by seven," Kip told him and Bek gave him a firmer squeeze of their clasped hands and then they let go at the same time, a 'deal' having been struck.

"So what can I get ya?" Bek asked.

"What's the special?" Kip asked.

"Your favorite," Bek replied with a mischievous grin.

"I've got a lot of favorites Bek," Kip gave his friend a mock-warning glare.

"Trust me," the other Dev told him and with a wink, popped out his terminal and using his thumbs, entered in the order quickly. He went down the line and pulled out a mug and filled it with something hot and brought it back, placing it in front of Kip and then watching with a quirked eyebrow.

Kip looked down into the steaming beverage and knew it was tea but the odor was unmistakeable. "Ijk?" he asked, to confirm.

Bek nodded. "We got a supplier who brings it in for us, just enough so we can have it every day but we have to limit how much we use and ration it and it ain't cheap. This is on the house."

Kip gave him a 'nothing's free' look to which Bek replied with 'don't look at me, just following orders' response.

Amused, Kip picked up the mug and sipped the rare tea, found only on their homeworld and usually only available there. It did... things... to the Dev metabolism so its pharmacology was kept off the books in the Republic to prevent it being turned into a drug and used against them. At the first taste, his eyes dilated slightly and he flushed, deepening to a darker red.

"You're torturing me aren't you?" Kip asked as he lowered the mug.

"A little," Bek replied and then motioned he had work to do and went off to do it.

Kip looked around idly and as typical, there were nearly a hundred Dev in the place and with two notable exceptions, they were all male. In their culture, women did everything administrative from running the government to commanding their 'military'. Men, who outnumbered women six-to-one, were tied to their family groups until and unless they attracted a mate and stayed away from home, making money and sending it home to their families. Kip's money went to his family and his Order but as he had no mate, he was still sending his funds to his mother.

Male Dev's came home infrequently and when they did it was usually because their wives were sexually receptive and that meant they were willing to have their mates around. That feeling lasted only as long as she wasn't pregnant and as soon as she was, a female Dev got aggressive towards her mate pretty quickly. Some males protracted their trips home by using contraceptives so they could spend more time with their families and communities, while most males simple went home, had a good time and the fled when things got tough.

Dev males out in the Republic took advantage of whatever sexual opportunities presented themselves and as their inclinations allowed or indicated, with whomever they preferred.

Kip was a Ulix, one of a tight-knit ethnicity with strong social bonds. Not all males left home when their wives got proddy, they simply got some distance but stuck around. Usually they lived in the same compound, saw their children every day and kept their distance from their wives until they were receptive again.

But Kip was also of the Order and that meant that while he was not forbidden to take a mate, it was very difficult to do so. That suited him just fine though, for he was "Kam'jen" or "Not Driven". Essentially it meant he didn't respond to a female's mating urges like other males. Her calls did nothing to him, her scents were not arousing, her fur could never be lustrous enough to entice him.

That didn't make him an outcast in his society at all but it did mean that he would, in all likelihood, never father a Dev child and would always be sending funds back to his mother's and when she died, eldest sister's, household.

Sometimes Kam'jen took mates outside of their species and had children, though few species were compatible, Corellians seemed to have the capability. These families were honored by the Ulix as long as they accepted the orthodoxy and the secrets that the Ulix kept.

And then some Kam'jen were only excited by their own sex and the Ulix treated them the same as an unmated Kam'jen, even if they found a mate to be with, as there were usually no offspring. In the rare cases of offspring, the entire social dynamic changed. In the meantime, Kip fulfilled an interesting office for males who were so inclined but distant from their wives and families between mating sojourns. As a Flamewalker, he had been trained in various techniques and some of them had to do with this particular duty. As Kam'Jen, he was expected to offer solace to his fellows when they were in isolation, if they were so inclined and Kip, when such an option was available with his busy schedule, had a fairly regular rotation.

Of course, his thoughts were on this subject while his food was being prepared because he was drinking this tea and had such a 'duty' that evening. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have been thinking about it too much because it would have been a distraction but here, he was pretty safe, even from legitimate authority figures.

But then, a gigantic bowl of a steaming stew filled with meat and herbs accompanied by a smaller plate of thick porous bread made to sop up the flame-hot broth. A large spoon was provided to work with the three large, thick, fish fillets sitting in the bowl flaking apart on their own, the natural fish oils swirling across the steaming red broth.

Kip dug in without saying another thing; the business of eating was serious and took all of one's attention.

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