pour me a drink [dion]

    Fortunately, yet at the same time possibly unfortunately for Kabe, the new blood at the bar knew a little bit more than just how to mix that specialty drink on his mind.

    Dion Haddock, having finally returned to the place of his birth once more, was raring to get his hands dirty right off the spaceship. Considering Carro continued hard at work on their own return ship back home to Earth, the two would need someone to start going around and earning enough for whatever they may need to purchase and live off of in the meantime. Taking it upon himself as big brother, of course, to provide for his younger sibling, Dion was all too ready to oblige to his responsibility, and it didn't at all take him very long to track down a promising looking pub for him to offer his services to behind the counter. Decent foot traffic, agreeable locale, and a not entirely hostile environment checked off most of the boxes on the young man's mental list, and it took him even less time to get in good with the staffing once he had showed them exactly what he was able to do.
    
    Which was, hard, at first, seeing as his sociability was still a sore spot of his, but after getting over the initial road bumps, Dion was welcomed into the fold with open arms. The bartender that he'd be taking over for on certain shifts was getting up there in years as is, so the establishment was more than happy to have someone with more vigor and attentiveness at the helm of their operation. Plus, underneath the seemingly innocent intentions of the bartender with the boyish good (yet exceedingly average to some) looks, was hidden the other reason behind Dion's look for work. That reason, of course, being the need to gather information on the man who had fought his little sister Zhalla to, seemingly, a standstill- Captain Kabe, space pirate extraordinaire. Or so he's been told, at least.

    If he were to be honest with himself, much of the information that he had at the moment was limited to what Zhalla begrudgingly told him during and a little after their mid-space sparring session, and as such only fueled the need in Dion to do some background checking of his own amidst an atmosphere that might be willing to give him what he needed.

    Apparently, he couldn't have been more spot on. As on his very first day as honorary bartender of the Rustbucket Cantina, fate seemed to slide toward him exactly what he was looking for on a silver platter.

    He was in the middle of cleaning off another glass mug for a separate customer at the worktop when movement at the front most part of the cantina caught his eye. Lo and behold, a man who seemed to fit the description of Captain Kabe walked in with what appeared to be- a kid in tow? That, was a bit confusing, considering the kind of reputation the space traversing ne'er do well had built himself up with. Was this some sort of cruel twist of fate, and the child in question was actually someone forced into cruel servitude just as he once was as a child himself?!

    Trying to push the paranoia downward somewhere deep inside, reassuring himself that if Kabe were that villainous Zhalla would have ended him without little regret upon their first meeting, Dion kept his eyes on the mug in his hand as he turned his back to the duo as they approached the bar, turning only his head behind him to meet their gazes as Kabe made his unique request of drink.

    "Comin' right up, Cap'n,"  came the low yet decently respectful response from the young man as his hands danced across the shelves of bottles directly in front of him as he combined the flurry of ingredients within a seasoned sense of speed (which was aided by the fact that he was taught how to mix this drink from the senior bartender just in case of this very situation occurring). 

    Grinning slightly as he attempted to make a show out of what would normally be a much simpler process, Dion turned his head behind him to lock eyes with Kabe as he worked on the duos' drinks, saying in a bit of a sly yet all the more questioning voice, "I've heard quite a number on you, Captain Kabe. Mind if I check if a few hits of hearsay is correct with the source..?"

    On the outside, Dion appeared cool, calm, and collected- but on the inside, he was cringing at the words that now left his mouth, praying that Kabe wouldn't be too turned away from the bartender's choice in vernacular. He was still relatively a novice in the more smoother element of small talk in a social setting, but, despite his antisocial adherences, Dion was more than willing to learn.

    Though, maybe using an opportunity as important as this one to practice wasn't exactly the smartest of moves.
    
PL: 22,000 - WC: 850 - TWC: 850

    While Kabe's innermost thoughts remained unspoken, Dion could at least feel the notion that the space pirate was probably giving him a bit more credit than the young man currently deserved. He had barely gotten through the introductory phase of this whole pseudo operation, and that was looking to be the easiest part in his relatively small hindsight. Still, if the prevailing wisdom was true, and Kabe already seemed to be buying into (or at least humoring) Dion's somewhat fabricated charisma, the bartender still had a slight shot at actually making this encounter worth while for the both of them. Well, more for him than for Kabe.

    Doing a mental once over of the bare bones knowledge that he was able to scrounge up from the intensive, but not so intensive, searching that he had done a week or so prior, Dion watched with a gleam of interest in his eyes as Kabe and the kid in his company seemed to share what looked to be a stress-free set of interactions- and, considering how the now confused Saiyan thought the kid to be potentially an aftereffect of a successful kidnapping (he didn't know what space pirates got up to doing, just kinda assumed the worst), it was quite the sight to see.

    And a relieving one at that as well, knowing that at least on the surface the two seemed to be on near familial feeling terms. His train of thoughts were suddenly halted though by the kid choosing to address Dion directly, an amused yet all the more adoring expression took ahold of the originally suspect Saiyan's face as he replied with a pat on the child's head, "No need to thank me friend, it is my job after all! Definitely been raised the right way though, and that is something I can appreciate."

    Hoping that the indirect- and simultaneously unintended- attempt at flattery would help bolster his chances at getting into the nitty gritty with Kabe without seeming too pushy, Dion returned his focus on the person of interest in question as he spoke once more to the bartender. He chuckled a bit at the rumor remark- it was incredibly hard anyways to separate fact from fiction when it came to someone as notorious as Kabe, and the sheer amount of information claiming to be either or made it doubly as hard to do. But, seeing as he had the source straight for the pickings now, Dion was willing to bet he'd illuminate him on what he really needed to know.

    Starting off simple, Dion aimed to ask something that would not only get him pointed in the right direction in regards to the topic he wanted to actually talk about, that of course being his seemingly consistent conflict with his little sister dearest, but also shed a bit of light in regards to his character. It hadn't been overly difficult to find records of Kabe's innumerable escapades across the cosmos, and so it felt organically right to lead their dance of twenty or more questions with-

    "Well, for one, I've heard quite a bit about all the plunderous life style that you and your crewmates lead on a daily basis, but I've heard from a few little birdies here and there that you seem to have frequented Plant most recently in your travels. Why's that? Something, or someone keeping you coming back? Or is the drink that hard to resist~?"

    Now the bartender really wanted to find himself a nice, damp hole to crawl deep into. Birdies? The drink?! Inner Dion would've loved nothing less than to die right there and then.

    But, outer Dion, surprisingly enough, persisted in his façade of fortuitous manner. For the desire of answers outweighed the backbreaking cringe fest this was becoming for the amateur small talker in the making.

    '...Okay, this is gonna take longer than I thought.'

    Initially, Dion believed that this was going to be a much more straightforward situation to work through with the fellow Saiyan, but after the plain-as-day pirate began to relay the whole truth to the awaiting bartender, something told him that this was going to be much harder than he originally thought. So, as Kabe started to tell the entirety of the tale that sent him here in the first place, Dion simultaneously grabbed from the mini-fridge underneath the bar counter a special brew that he saved for singular circumstances such as these, and soon enough had poured himself a shot as the story got into the nitty gritty.

    And boy was he glad he did, as even with two shots now settling into him this story was one of remarkable variety. Dion thought his life was crazy, and perhaps in a way it was much crazier. But his was a more somber brand of insanity, whilst Kabe's life, at least in the past few months or so, was absolutely cuckoo for cocoa puffs type of crazy. In fact, it really took the bartender a few moments of just pure silence to actually allow most of the information to settle in fully. 

    The most surprising part really of the whole ordeal being that he'd be so willing to spill all of what he thought would be considered precious information to some random, boyish charmed bartender who just so happened to be serving at the cantina he frequented now and again. Was he really that charming of an individual? Or had he accidentally spiked Kabe's drink with something extra strong?
    
    Either way, it was quite the illuminating set of events that he got to know more about, and Dion actually did find a bit of sympathy in there for the fellow Saiyan warrior. It also helped that, along with being quite the riveting (yet at times incredibly confusing) story, halfway through, the young man got the information that he was looking for in the first place.

    Though, all things considered, Dion somewhat understood now why Zhalla herself asked her older brother not to go picking a fight with the guy who left the bruises on her in the first place. Their shared circumstances were really quite unfortunate, and if the "best buddy" term by Kabe was anything at all actually accurate, then really, Dion had literally nothing to worry about!

    It, did sort of imply that this entire venture was for naught though, and that all the effort put in to trying to end up in some "final showdown" type situation with Kabe was completely wasted as there was no reason for them to end up in one in the first place now, but hey, at least he could sleep soundly knowing that, despite being a wanted pirate, Kabe wasn't necessarily a bad guy.
    
    The realization did beg the question though- why be a pirate of all things? Yes, his, family really didn't leave him much choice in lucrative careers, but, the connotations of such a title had to be obvious, right?

    Knowing that moral parading was not something Dion had the right to do, however, nor was it something that he wanted to try and push onto the surprisingly chivalrous corsair, he instead took a few more moments just, staring into Kabe's gaze, before saying as he took another shot of his chosen poison, "I've heard plenty of stories but that one takes the cake and the rest of the buffet table with it- I, I don't even know where to start, really!"

    "I-I suppose if I could, start with anything though, it'd be, good on you for taking, well, you, under your wing then? I know that my little sister actually takes a lot of kids under her care on a daily basis as well, and something tells me you might know her almost as well as I do."

    If it wasn't already obvious by his poorly hidden hinting, Dion would eventually just cut to the chase, seeing as Kabe appeared to appreciate a straightforward means of approach, and say, "..Zhalla's, uh, kinda my adopted little sister, heh. She told me about the scuffle herself actually, and, out of brotherly concern, I wanted to meet the guy responsible for it all."
    
    "D-don't worry though! I-I won't cause you any grief, especially after hearing all of the complicated context that came with the circumstances. Really just, hoping everything gets at least a little sorted out for the both of you. Ain't right for a dad to do that to his own kid..."