A Most Auspicious Event [Day 3, Late Evening]

[Yara Suhr]

"Providencetown... it's the most architecturally compelling town I've ever seen, without question." Yara lets her hand settle lightly on Mulgin's arm. "In other respects, not so different from other towns. The residential stratification, for example--like a little Coruscant in miniature, or thousands of other places on thousands of worlds where the wealthy live high above and the rest struggle to get by."

Her lips quirk wryly, small lines framing the corners of her mouth for a few moments. "And this establishment? In its usual line, not my choice of recreation." Nor anybody's who has a professional knowledge of infectious-disease containment protocols, she thinks, but decides not to say. "I can't deny the appeal of a good party, though."

"I will change your mind, Dr. Suhr," he said, leading her into the room with confidence. Those of the staff gently guiding their conversation partners to make room for his passing without outright declaring his presence among them. "Providencetown, under my care, has grown from a pile of rubble and debris into a settlement rivaling that of the planets current government. Rapidly rising as we are it is only natural that others sought to flock to us. Those are the poor masses you see on your way into this city, every time. However, because they are not often seen up here do not think that I have forgotten them. My attention may be on a great many things but you can see, through those connected with me, I have not forgotten the most redeemable of the lot that surrounds themselves at my ankles, the children. You have your method of saving lives, and I have mine," he said as he collected a glass for Dr. Suhr, offering it to her from the plate carrying them that had produced itself. A small droid carrying the plate that seemed to blend in within the crowd.

"As for your views of this establishment..." he continued, fingers curled around the glass. "This place offers to those who cannot or do not normally attain it something that is inherent to the needs of an individual. Something that no one, despite their fallacious beliefs, can live without."

"Hierarchy of needs, Mr. Mulgin." Yara accepts the glass with a polite smile, lifting it a little to salute the gentleman. Or 'gentleman.' Whichever. "Reproduction is a fundamental drive, but I rather doubt that happens here. Intimacy is at a higher level--desirable, but not life-or-death. And highly subjective. For some beings, for example, it cannot coexist with the exchange of credits."

She begins to lift the glass to her lips, but pauses before it quite gets there as another thought occurs. "Pardon me. This is why medical professionals so often socialize together. We too frequently forget ourselves and get... excessively biological." She shakes her head slightly, and then really does take a sip of the drink.

"But I understood you were a businessman, Mr. Mulgin." Businessman being a generally accepted sort of euphemism, at least. "I had no idea you thought of yourself as some sort of public servant."

[Honorordeath]

Kor followed the woman into the party proper honestly only half listening to Aubade talk about music or mornings or something along those lines.

"Its not such a bad name, has a certain ring to it." His eyes scanned the party again now that he was closer looking for anyone of note, surely at a party for movers and shakers there would be a few big names. He looked back to the mirilan as she asked a question "been planetside for about 4 months. Just stopped by thought it seemed nice enough to settle down for a bit."

"Oh? So you jump from planet to planet often? What kinda work is it that you do bringing you all over, and then not all over, the galaxy like that?" she asked.

[Rullarc Mulgin]

"Hierarchy of needs, Mr. Mulgin." Yara accepts the glass with a polite smile, lifting it a little to salute the gentleman. Or 'gentleman.' Whichever. "Reproduction is a fundamental drive, but I rather doubt that happens here. Intimacy is at a higher level--desirable, but not life-or-death. And highly subjective. For some beings, for example, it cannot coexist with the exchange of credits."

She begins to lift the glass to her lips, but pauses before it quite gets there as another thought occurs. "Pardon me. This is why medical professionals so often socialize together. We too frequently forget ourselves and get... excessively biological." She shakes her head slightly, and then really does take a sip of the drink.

"But I understood you were a businessman, Mr. Mulgin." Businessman being a generally accepted sort of euphemism, at least. "I had no idea you thought of yourself as some sort of public servant."

"Ah!" he said with an amused rise to his voice. "But that is just the sort of misconceptions I expected many to have that I thought this party might do well to quell. You see, while that act of which you claim is the commodity being traded here it is much more complex than that. Here people find companionship. Someone who is willing to devote their time to them. Often it is that men, women, they come here to find a friend. Some may say there is something wrong with paying for such a... honest thing, but have you ever lived in a world without a friend? Someone you can rely on to care for you? For a few hours the patrons here can experience that for themselves for but a small cost compared to what it is they receive."

"Of course, I think you will discover I too am just as much more complicated under the surface of what many expect of me. You understand that I take some pains to making sure that this little home of mine is held together? Have you ever looked into the potential profits of running a town?" he smiled, shook his head slightly. "I can assure you Dr. Suhr, they are costs that had I been a good businessman I would cut out entirely. There is no money to be made in maintaining a town like I am, yet I do it. You must ask yourself this question when you think of this, but why else would I put myself through trials like this?"

[Korvalus Dunbri]

"Oh? So you jump from planet to planet often? What kinda work is it that you do bringing you all over, and then not all over, the galaxy like that?" she asked.

"Nothing exciting, mostly freelance work, security, bodyguard, enforcer, prize fighter for a bit on Tatooine, right now I'm a doorman at the 12 Parsecs from Nowhere. I pick up work where I can."

[Honorordeath]

"Nothing exciting, mostly freelance work, security, bodyguard, enforcer, prize fighter for a bit on Tatooine, right now I'm a doorman at the 12 Parsecs from Nowhere. I pick up work where I can."

"Sounds like a boring job," she said honestly, "Can't pay as well as those other ones. Prize fighter, freelancer? Sounds like exciting work. Compared to just standing around, watching a bar and all."

[Korvalus Dunbri]

Kor chuckles, it's a deep and throaty sound as he looks at the mirilan "excitement is overrated young one, trust me on this." He looks back to the party and grabs a drink from a wandering tray. Kor takes a long drink "besides I have plenty of mementos from my days of 'excitement,' I don't need too many more. The work at 12 Parsecs isn't exciting most nights but it's honest work and I get to meet some pretty interesting people."

[Yara Suhr]

"Hierarchy of needs, Mr. Mulgin." Yara accepts the glass with a polite smile, lifting it a little to salute the gentleman. Or 'gentleman.' Whichever. "Reproduction is a fundamental drive, but I rather doubt that happens here. Intimacy is at a higher level--desirable, but not life-or-death. And highly subjective. For some beings, for example, it cannot coexist with the exchange of credits."

She begins to lift the glass to her lips, but pauses before it quite gets there as another thought occurs. "Pardon me. This is why medical professionals so often socialize together. We too frequently forget ourselves and get... excessively biological." She shakes her head slightly, and then really does take a sip of the drink.

"But I understood you were a businessman, Mr. Mulgin." Businessman being a generally accepted sort of euphemism, at least. "I had no idea you thought of yourself as some sort of public servant."

"Ah!" he said with an amused rise to his voice. "But that is just the sort of misconceptions I expected many to have that I thought this party might do well to quell. You see, while that act of which you claim is the commodity being traded here it is much more complex than that. Here people find companionship. Someone who is willing to devote their time to them. Often it is that men, women, they come here to find a friend. Some may say there is something wrong with paying for such a... honest thing, but have you ever lived in a world without a friend? Someone you can rely on to care for you? For a few hours the patrons here can experience that for themselves for but a small cost compared to what it is they receive."

"Of course, I think you will discover I too am just as much more complicated under the surface of what many expect of me. You understand that I take some pains to making sure that this little home of mine is held together? Have you ever looked into the potential profits of running a town?" he smiled, shook his head slightly. "I can assure you Dr. Suhr, they are costs that had I been a good businessman I would cut out entirely. There is no money to be made in maintaining a town like I am, yet I do it. You must ask yourself this question when you think of this, but why else would I put myself through trials like this?"

"Intimacy can take all sorts of forms. An act, but also a conversation, attention from a friend--a feeling. Subjective, as I said." Yara shrugs. "I did my residency in neurology. It's easy to measure all sorts of arousal--the basic physical stuff. But there isn't any reliable way to test or induce that feeling on a chemical level, even in a well-studied species like Humans." This train of thought seems to make her more animated, gesticulating--carefully--with the hand holding her glass.

"Beings who can experience it by paying for it are welcome to, for all I care. If your ambition is to make every person here into a customer, though, I think you'll be disappointed." She glances around the room, taking in the party guests in their various states of ease (or lack thereof). "Might as well try to sell juri juice to, well, a Devaronian." Over the rim of her glass, Yara's lips quirk. The Devaronian species' capacity to filter most toxic substances--including intoxicants--before they have a chance of taking effect is well known to galactic medical professionals (and occasionally envied by galactic medical students.)

"Why maintain a town...? For the comforts of civilization?" she suggests, to all appearances taking the question seriously. "There may be some beings who would enjoy living in a cave on top of a hoard of credits, like a krull-dragon. But most of us prefer to experience some tangible benefit from having wealth, I should think. Once you've got wealth, you need an Upper Town to enjoy it in. Once you've got an Upper Town, you need a Lower Town to do its cooking and cleaning and hauling... and so on outwards. Right?" A circular gesture with her glass stands as a symbol for this room, the ship, and the town beyond.

[Rullarc Mulgin]

Ah, but how I wonder does this theory of myself hold up to your potential understanding if I was to tell you that the place surrounding us, Lower Providencetown as many refer to it as, was not by my design. No, they are those who wished to come here but could not find their place among the areas I have tamed for myself and instead of going elsewhere chose to make for themselves a place to live just underneath me. I could have chased them away, like one might do to an animal upon their law but these people were not animals. No, I chose to embrace their efforts to create a life for themselves and allowed them to call themselves members of Providencetown."

[Yara Suhr]

"That's how nearly all towns happen, Mr. Mulgin," Yara says with all the confident ease a galactic education can furnish. "Demand for labor attracts workers, who all need somewhere to live and more people to provide services to them. Are you telling me Upper Providencetown could really function without all the rest of it?" She shakes her head, lips quirking, a red curl falling over her shoulder. "You could have built a walled fortress and staffed it entirely with droids, I suppose. But that certainly wouldn't be cheaper." Cocking her head a little, she asks, "In any case, wasn't there already a settlement here before the Providence crashed? I remember hearing something about that."

"I don't mean to diminish your work." Yara makes an apologetic sort of gesture, lifting her glass a bit. "Rather the opposite. Governing is harder than doing business, and from the sound of it you've set yourself up to do both." She sips from the glass again with a thoughtful expression. "When you're considering a new sort of business venture I expect you do a certain amount of research, find out how your competitors approach it and what works for them. Did you do the same when you decided to become a town governor?"

[Honorordeath]

Kor chuckles, it's a deep and throaty sound as he looks at the mirilan "excitement is overrated young one, trust me on this." He looks back to the party and grabs a drink from a wandering tray. Kor takes a long drink "besides I have plenty of mementos from my days of 'excitement,' I don't need too many more. The work at 12 Parsecs isn't exciting most nights but it's honest work and I get to meet some pretty interesting people."

"You must have plenty of stories to talk about from those days of excitement too?" she said.

[Honorordeath]

"That's how nearly all towns happen, Mr. Mulgin," Yara says with all the confident ease a galactic education can furnish. "Demand for labor attracts workers, who all need somewhere to live and more people to provide services to them. Are you telling me Upper Providencetown could really function without all the rest of it?" She shakes her head, lips quirking, a red curl falling over her shoulder. "You could have built a walled fortress and staffed it entirely with droids, I suppose. But that certainly wouldn't be cheaper." Cocking her head a little, she asks, "In any case, wasn't there already a settlement here before the Providence crashed? I remember hearing something about that."

"I don't mean to diminish your work." Yara makes an apologetic sort of gesture, lifting her glass a bit. "Rather the opposite. Governing is harder than doing business, and from the sound of it you've set yourself up to do both." She sips from the glass again with a thoughtful expression. "When you're considering a new sort of business venture I expect you do a certain amount of research, find out how your competitors approach it and what works for them. Did you do the same when you decided to become a town governor?"

"It would function differently, I admit, but yes. Providencetown would be no lesser an achievement had I not allowed the rest of them to build themselves up around my success. I decided to accept the role that was given to me by the people who surrounded me, and I have not sent this town into ruin yet. They have not flocked to their own pastures. So I would say that in fact I have done rather admirably for myself. These sheep that surround me could have been herded together by any other in my position, sold off to slaughter. Instead, I allow wolves to rise out of them. And the sheep that remain are allowed the ability to carry out there lives as they would anywhere else. With the protection that I can afford," he says as he leads her over toward a small booth. One that was cleared when his coming was noticed by the staff. Offering an indication for the woman to sit before him.

"As for the settlement that was here before. They left. Whoever might have still remained from that town gave up on their old lives. Only the scavengers were here when I arrived and I chased them off that they might find their prize elsewhere. Some remained, found new lives that are far more stable, and the town has flourished into something far greater than it ever was."

[Yara Suhr]

"What you consider magnanimity, I think most political theorists would simply call 'the social contract.'"

A wry smile pulls at Yara's mouth as she slides into the booth at his invitation, smoothing her skirt. Checking sightlines to the exits, too, since her conversation partner has been at some pains to remind her that there's no real law in this town apart from his own personal power. If something bad were going to happen to her here, it probably would have happened already, but she's never really lost the habit of looking over her shoulders.

"So is that your next ambition, Mr. Mulgin? Political power? Humanitarian ventures? "

A man who's developed a taste for ruling, but still has the conscience of a gang boss... Worrisome thought.

[Honorordeath]

"Perhaps I am just the type of man that wishes to relish in his accomplishments, for a time," he teased the idea with a grin. Watching to see that the woman was properly settled before taking to the seat opposite her. "I am not as young as I once was, back when I scraped my way out of the depths of Coruscant. Back before the time of the Empire. Politics never remember the little guy. Right underneath the noses of the Senate people were allowed to suffer. Just because you see that here, now, it will not always be like this. My aim is to turn Providencetown into something unlike anywhere else. People across the galaxy will know it's name because of what I have accomplished here and will continue to do so."

"You are no doubt more learned than I am, Doctor Suhr, so I will leave that definition to as you see fit. However, for tonight, I aim to enjoy my evening," he said, signalling for something.

When Yara checked her exits all she would be reminded of is the absolute power he controlled here in Providencetown, especially the upper parts of the city. Where guests still filtered in for the nights event there were a line of guards and bouncers making sure that no one who wasn't supposed to be there got through without paying their dues. Outside that line she would remember the security forces, or at least those that were likely crooks pretending to be security forces, dotted the streets forged from the craft they now called a town but was growing more akin to a city.

[Yara Suhr]

"Perfectly reasonable. It's your party." Yara laces her fingers on the tabletop, leans back a little into the corner of the booth with the smile still playing at the corners of her lips.

Yes, pretend you're talking with a vice-chancellor...maybe that one vice-chancellor, the one everyone whispered about. Well, I used to do it just fine.

"I take it you have something in mind?" Her eyes follow his gesture, as he'd no doubt intended.

[Rullarc Mulgin]

One of the staff joined the table, leaning against it cheerfully as she looked between the two but settled in and waited for Rullarc's guidance. "I intend," he began, "to share the rest of this evening discussing topics that interest me with an individual that doesn't allow fear to change their response to me. I would like to enjoy a conversation with a stranger of merit. One such person that I can admire for the work they put into this world. As such," he said, glancing then to the woman who had approached, "make any request that you might, Dr. Suhr. You will receive anything you require to be made comfortable for this evening and that you remain here and speak with me longer is all that I ask of you in return."

"A..mutually beneficial arrangement I am sure to which you can agree?"

[Lena Arcturus]

"Rullarc Mulgin," said the Twi'lek circling behind her. Looking over her shoulder to the other who looked back at her. "Rullarc Mulgin is the mayor of Providencetown. There is nothing that happens here that he does not hear of. He's a very... powerful man. Many friends. Lots of friends. He's the one hosting this party tonight, the one you can thank for having all of this... for free," she said. Then, they both spoke in unison, "We want to know, what brings you here?"

Lena nodded and listened. She smirked at the creepy unified speech. "I'm new here, and so is my crew." She glanced at Jelna briefly. "We're looking for opportunities, you know. Establishing a little nest egg, perhaps." She turned from the man before it turned into ogling, her gaze settling onto the pair around her. "I will be sure to thank him for this opportunity if we meet." She titled her head, her eyes moving from one girl to the other. "I am sure you the pair of you are fairly popular in the town, aren't you?"

[Honorordeath]

"There are many who prefer our type of..." one drifted on the thought and the other picked up where she left off, "companionship. Why have only one friend when you can have two?" she said cheerfully.

"Why do you ask?"

[Korvalus Dunbri]

"You must have plenty of stories to talk about from those days of excitement too?" she said.

Massive shoulders shifted up and then back down again "I have stories some consider interesting. But I rarely talk of the past. Dead men are stuck in the past, us living folk should stick to the present and occasionally look to the future."

"Besides I wish to know more of you, are you a native of Noventa?"

[Lena Arcturus]

"There are many who prefer our type of..." one drifted on the thought and the other picked up where she left off, "companionship. Why have only one friend when you can have two?" she said cheerfully.

"Why do you ask?"

Lena chuckled lightly, then shrugged. "I am just hoping that you might know someone who would be interested in offering some work." She frowned. "On the... whiter side of the law."

[Honorordeath]

Lena chuckled lightly, then shrugged. "I am just hoping that you might know someone who would be interested in offering some work." She frowned. "On the... whiter side of the law."

"Honey," said the blue Twi'lek condescendingly. Prompting the green Twi'lek to jump in, "What law are you most concerned with? The Law of Providencetown, the New Republic, Noventa City?" she rattled off the few that were most important. "Maybe the old laws of the Empire?" added the other with a shrug. "So many laws to keep track of."