Private Butting Heads over Bounties

[Bohatei Chorva]

Bohatei tugged on his jacket lightly as they stepped out into the morning light, a few stray rays hitting his jacket and warming the fabric slightly. Having been used to the colder and sterile environments of a starship on his previous voyages, he often thought of warmth like this as a luxury. It was a pleasant sensation, and one he enjoyed the more he was bundled up.

"Well, they pretty much ruined my way of life. I'd say wrong is a bit of an understatement." Bohatei replied, shrugging his shoulders as they walked. His footsteps are slightly quicker, managing to keep up with the larger Human's stride. "Royally pissed, more like." A small chuckle escapes his lips at the addition, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"As for how long, about a couple weeks. Mainly tracking our hefty-headed friend here. But now that I've got all this info, I'll get to spend even longer picking apart places and figurin' out what's next."

His eye once again wandered to the weapons as Saff's side, a thoughtful hum escaping him. "What about you, though? I'd imagine if you're not a Jedi, you must have been at this for a while."

 

[Saff]

Glancing back at her companion, she snorted her own chuckle, "a while? it depends on your species i suppose. I've done it for a decade, little shy of half my life, but for others that may be nothing at all. But i can safely say i do not see many other force users in the field."

Stopping shy of a main thoroughfare, she turned their path down a string of side alleys, a row of buildings flanked them now, each side filled with shuttered windows. Either too early to be open or they knew what the alley was for, and as such left the privacy of the travellers to them. The bounty office wasn't far from here, and light as her charge was, she didn't find it comfortable to carry the unconscious man.

"How about you? Have you found yourself in contact with many like me?" She asked, quickly chuckling, "or at least a force user," she continued.

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

Bohatei shrugged his shoulders. "Time's just time. Don't matter much on lifetimes, in my opinion. Think we're about matched for Humans. Save the extra heart I guess." He hummed. "You must have plenty of experience. Bein' one of the few Force users in your profession must have some perks, too."

As they crossed from the cleaner streets into the alley, the Zabrak's hands rested closer to his belt. A cautious thumb held close to the handle of his Vibroknuckler. He was no stranger to the dangers of cramped alleys, having seen and experienced the kind of things that tend to go down in places like this once the sun sets. And usually, when it hangs above as well.

He would shake his question at Saff's question. "Nope. First time meeting a full fledged Jedi, if I'm bein' honest." Bohatei explained. "I met another Force user one time, but only really managed to get one lesson from 'em before we went out own ways."

"Know any others outside of your old master?"

 

[Saff]

"Suppose you're right," she huffed, walking along with a lighter step as they moved through the cramped alley, aiming to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention on their path. It was the best way to reach the bounty office when hoisting the bounty over your shoulder, but it still sent tendrils of anxiety gripping their way up her spine. Luckily she could ignore it for the most part, the alley was clean despite its dereliction, and unoccupied, for now.

"Oh, you got them to teach you something?" she piped up, the idea of someone having a master any better than hers was the exact thing to spike her intrigue.

"Any luck with the tricks they gave you? Always found my other fellow apprentices to be my best sources of training... or i did, back when i was in training alongside them, but that is a sad story for a time where sadness doesn't get a grip on my mind."

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

Bohatei noticed the woman's cautious steps, lightening his own steps and slowing his pace just a little. He had been taught to keep his head down, a frustrated expression falsely displayed. Lessons to avoid attention in sketchy places were practically etched into his mind at this point, instilled by many familiar experiences and encounters. Head down, look pissed, never seem lost. Walk with purpose, but not desperation or haste.

Now, if only he could replicate his aunt's sharpshooting skills...

"Yeah." Bohatei nodded his head. "Pretty much taught me all I know so far, although that ain't much." He explained. "It's... weird. Not what I'm used so, so I've just been practicing." To the Zabrak, the Force had been a source of equal parts comfort and confusion. It helped him steady his mind, to focus and see what he normally couldn't. But at the same time, it's warmth was constantly slipping, like a hand dipped in a running stream he just couldn't hold onto it.

"Bit of luck so far. Tapping into it's gotten easier the more I do it so it's just sort of become a habit of mine." The way Saff mentioned her previous colleagues caused his expression to soften just lightly, in an almost pitying look for a moment before furrowing. "Another time, then. Must be hard to think about, I get it." Bohatei could only try to relate. He didn't know too many people his age, and was often the only one learning.

"Maybe over some lessons of our own, if you're not against the idea." He tosses the idea out there for her to think on as they walked closer and closer to the office.

 

[Saff]

With their pace bringing them only a minute or so from the bounty office, she could only sigh and nod. Anything else, she wagered, would give her companion an eye into her world that she simply didn't have the interest, patience, nor willpower to go into, not now anyway. So she forced her smile back out and straightened her back, letting her tower over the space once more. The smaller Zabrak seemed friendly enough though, and his offers felt genuine, just as his ideas for training and his thought seemed.

"Tapping in is a good way to start," she began, letting herself dip into the power of the force, offering some clarity and a moment of freedom from the recesses of her mind.

"But if i teach you anything, you're gonna need yourself a lightsaber, or at least a vibroblade. It's what i'm best at, not so much the whole close your eyes and count to ten to focus stuff," she explained with a genuine smile now, a small chuckle even sneaking in.

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

As they got closer to the building, Bohatei's lips pursed slightly at the curt response of the woman to his right. Try as he might, Saff was not exactly a very easy person to read to him. She seemed to be quite secretive of her past, so the Zabrak kept himself from prying too hard. Instead, he chose to speak with a open and careful tone towards the huntress.

"Yeah. Just have to get used to it, is all." He agreed, doing the same. Unlike her more practiced efforts, his method was careful and slow. His fingers flexed slightly, feeling where he was before reaching into the Force. It's energies flowed over him as he reached in, submerging himself within it's energies. After a few moments to get his connection started, Bohatei would exhale slowly and let his focus return to other things. "Still feels kinda funny."

"Can't say I've exactly got either. Never even used a sword. Although I do have a Vibroknuckler, if that counts as a really short one." Bohatei laughed softly at his own comparison, sharing the smirk between them.

 

[Saff]

Saffron paused in her steps, a grin splitting her lips, how had she never even considered this? How had she missed such a good idea to fit to her methods and her strengths? Damn saber knuckles? that would be the ultimate trick.

"You reckon they could fit a kyber crystal into a set of knuckles?" She asked, then she started walking, reaching the door with the idea rolling through her mind over and over. It wasn't the time to be thinking over such an odd query, that was for when she was back on her ship where she had a workshop to mess with such utterly stupid ideas.

"But don't you worry, long as you're good with your hands, the force will suit you. If not, I'm sure there's room to be the first Jedi sniper," she continued with a giggle, pushing open the bounty-guilds door and stepping into the open floorspace beyond. One might have expected a guild to have some form of organised office, but no, not for bounty hunters. The office was essentially a cantina, filled with other heavily armed and mainly angry fellows, each creak and crack dragging their focus to the source, hands over weapons. Most were older and more experienced than her, she had on occasion had someone try snipe her bounty in the doorway, but one look tot he sabers she wore on her hip kept their probing gaze away.

"Tell you what, find somewhere to sit or wait, i'll drop him off. While you wait, maybe go look into who might know something about your friends," she said before hauling her quarry off to the collection station.

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

As they walked, Bohatei would unclip the Vibroknuckler from his belt and look at it at her query. The crescent-like blade attached to the handle is familiar within his hand, the vibro-motor stored within the small handle operated solely by the small red switch beside his thumb. He tried to imagine just where a 'kyber crystal' would go, but to no avail.

"Maybe not these." Bohatei shrugged. "A gauntlet, you could probably do. But I don't really know much about those sabers of yours, so you might!" He hummed, returning the weapon to his belt and clipping it back into place.

The positive reinforcement lights up the Zabrak's features, a smirk crossing his lips. "I'd consider myself pretty good with my hands. They are mine after all!" He spoke with confidence. "If worse comes to worse, I'm sure I could just throw somethin' really hard!" A small laugh escaped him as they stepped inside of the building. He had been expecting a seedy establishment as the front for the business, and wasn't exactly surprised to see all the different armed and frustrated people in the office.

His eyes scan the room as Saffron talks, eventually finding somewhere to sit. "Alright. I'll just be over there." He replied with a small smile, nodding in the direction of a small table off to the side of the main bar. The Zabrak would break away from the taller Human, sitting at the table. His Datapad would soon find it's way into his hands, deciding to take this chance to go over his findings.

Bohatei would spend his time on his own going over the various different coordinates and notes, finding a pleasantly surprising amount of meeting places in Coronet. After all, they came here to stock up on droids. Why not make it a full blown grocery run?

All he had to do not was figure out what to do next...

 

[Saff]

The handoff was decidedly easy today. No one probed her about if she had the right guy, no one tried to give her the usual backhanded remark of letting them take the trouble off her hands. No, it was a simple matter of throwing the man down from her shoulder and onto the table where the col.ection officer jumped in his seat. Seemed there wasn't much being handed in today, so she was given her credits in quick order before she strode back into the main area, finding her new companion in his corner.

"What's new? Found anyone who seems like they kick orphans or buy droid parts?" She probed, pushing back the itch to get something to drink - she was meant to appear like a respectable mentor after all. That left no time to simply fester in alcohol today, no, she had to be somewhat lucid and respectable... somewhat.

"I can always go politely ask some of the droids or droid hunters if they've seen anything. I'm sure they'll happily tell me something, just gotta ask politely."

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

An idle hand dancing across his datapad's screen, Bohatei's brow furrowed slightly. Coronet only seemed to really be meeting places and the now defunct storefront they collected droids from. Most of them seemed to be within various cantinas, alleys and even the odd street corner. Each of them weren't exactly labelled either, being some mix of codes and symbols.

While he had gotten a list of said codes from the droid's memory banks, it would take time for the Zabrak to cross reference everything and put together something to connect the many meanings that he now had in his possession. His lips purse in thought, contemplating his next course of action.

That was until the bright-haired woman returned, her inquisitive tones bringing Bohatei out of his thoughts and back into the moment. He looked up to her, returning the gaze. "Not yet, no. Got quite alot to sift through." He explained, turning his Datapad to show her the various sets of coordinates for the planet.

"See? It looks to be all meeting points to me. Still tryin' to figure out these codes. Think I might keep this to myself for the time being though. Don't need to be drawing attention to me investigatin' these schmucks." Bohatei hummed. "Present company excluded, of course." A small smile is added with his correction.

"How'd the handover go?" The Zabrak inquired right back.

 

[Saff]

Saff offered a shrug to the question and a hum of interest to the data. It wasn't too much to figure out, but there seemed to be a whole damn lot of it, enough to keep someone busy for a good long while.

"It went as well as any of these can go i suppose. No one tried to rob me or stab me, no one even seemed to know the guy enough to want to stop me," she said with a wide grin, jiggling the pouch of credit sticks she'd been given. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep her ship fuelled and her belly full for the forseeable future. Or until one of her other open bounties popped up and she got a much bigger payout.

"But what's the plan? Just going to sit there and wait for the first coordinate you recognize?"

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

"Looks to be more than just locations, too. Security codes, communicator frequencies... I've got a whole lot of ground to cover." Bohatei replied, a finger scrolling down the various different pieces of information pulled from the droid. "It wasn't just for navigation and Hyperspace routes. Must've been very useful to them."

"And now me." The Zabrak added, a smug grin on his features as he looked up to the jingling sounds of the chits Saffron had gotten for her work. "Excellent! All's well that ends well, eh?"

When she asked about his plans now that he had what he needed, Bohatei's lips tighten in thought. He would lock the datapad, setting it back down on the table. "Well, figured I'd go over it tonight and work out a plan from there. 'Course, we still got daylight. So I was wondering if you had any plans. And if not, when you'd like to show me a trick or two."

 

[Saff]

Saff nodded with his words, musing along with the man's voice and finally stopping to think when he posed a thought back to her.

"You're the type to go out and get what it is you want, you're the kind of go-getter I like to work with," she mused, her singsong voice carrying calmly as she rasped her knuckles against the tabletop. Giving a moment more to think, she leaned back, "if you wish to learn some tricks, we can start right now, it even works best to practice some tricks with people around. Helps you to learn to block out distractions," she continued.

The men and women about them were constant and busily moving about, their eyes and ears perked for everything, their glances were those of people in the middle of a hunt, or those just at the end. Like predators they milled about, no weakness allowed among them. They were the perfect happless fools to prey upon.

"How about it?" She mused.

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

"Well, that's good to hear. Maybe we'll work together more in the future? Could always use an extra hand or two." Bohatei replied, his arms crossing over eachother on the table and resting on the surface. "Besides, I just like taking opportunities when they come up, y'know? Ain't no sense in sittin' around all the time when ya' could be doin' somethin'."

A curious gaze around the bar follows Bohatei's words, noticing the collective guard of the various people. It was a high stress environment no doubt, with tension thick enough that even a Lightsaber might have trouble cleaving through it. Some of their hands spent more time thumbing a holster than anywhere else, ready to draw at a moment's notice.

Her offer is met with a smirk from the Zabrak, who nodded his head.

"Sounds good to me. What's the plan?"

 

[Saff]

Saffron smiled in a thin way, the type of look one had about them when they were ready to do something stupid, or something fun - perhaps both at once.

"Y'see the old Bothan by the bar? Seems like he's been kicked more times than he's blinked today?" She asked, pointing out a particularly dazed, but undoubtedly grizzled man at the corner of the space, he seemed half-asleep and half-alive. "If you're game for it, I want you to convince him to buy me a drink," she said with the same thin smile, taking a moment to brush her hair from her face, letting her lone good eye peer over at the Bothan. He'd looked to her a handful of times before, but she had ignored it. Now it seemed a good time to incorporate it.

"It's a simple trick i want you to use. Old Jedi mind trick - you essentially push their mind with a bit of energy, not too much to overwrite what they're doing or thinking, but enough that you get them to think a bit differently. You want to nudge them with your mind and the force, the same way you'd push a pen across a table, by hand or force."

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

Bohatei could recognize a mischevious grin when he saw one.

He would follow her gaze and gesture across the room to a Bothan, whose frizzled mane only gave away that he wasn't entirely there. With droopy eyes and an occasional blink that seemed a few seconds too long, it was clear that the older man was not exactly entirely there. "Yeah." The Zabrak nodded at the idea. When he had first realized his Force sensitivity, he had done something similar.

Although, it was only a nudge. There was no command underneath his will and the feeling had long since faded away. The concept of a Mind Trick right off the bat seemed a bit harsh. He could only just tap into the Force, so Bohatei figured this wasn't exactly going to go well.

Oh well, that's why he brings his knuckler.

"Gotcha. Let's see what I can do." Bohatei nodded to Saffron, standing up and going to join the Bothan at the table. His hand glides along the bench, a slow and deep breath focusing the Zabrak's connection to the Force. It took a bit of conscious effort for him to get into the right mind space, but he got there.

"Huh? Whaddaya want..?"

The bit was all the elder Bothan needed to notice, his reflexes not entirely shot as he met the Zabrak's emerald gaze. The both of them look at each other for a time, before Bohatei spoke up. "Saw you eyin' the girl over there, figured I'd drop by and see what you think."

"What ah' think? Whyssat matter to you?" A mangy brow is raised, a low rumble in his tone as an idle hand runs along his belt as if feeling for a holster.

"Well, you don't look too confident. Figured you could use some tips." Bohatei speaks, deciding to try for softening up before making his own pass at a Mind Trick. The Bothan's slitted eyes narrow slightly toward Bohatei, an amused huff leaving his lips.

"Hah." He replied, dryly. "And what, supposed to get confidence from a spry young scrapper like you? Used to be quite a ladies man back in my day, y'know."

"And these ain't your days, I'm afraid. Tell you what, why don't you try buying her a drink? I'll say it's from you, introduce 'em if you like." Bohatei replies. "You just sit tight." He puts a bit of accent on the words, leaning into the chair as an idle wave of his hand gestures towards the Bothan. His will takes form, brushing against the tired feline's mind. Although the gesture and the trick itself were weak, a few kind words and convincing went a long way to make up for it.

The Bothan would raise a hand, ordering for a glass of Corellian Brandy towards Saffron's table. The bartender droid sets the drink down, a clinking of ice and glass following.

A light pat on the shoulder is given to the Bothan, the Zabrak standing from his chair and returning to the table.

Sitting down, Bohatei let out a long exhale. The sensation of the Force slips away from him, his inner glow dimming slightly in it's absence.

"How was that?"

 

[Saff]

Saffron suppressed a wave of intrigue over the lad. He seemed to have if not a mind for the force, an aptitude in his link. She hadn't expected much, perhaps a fight would break out, perhaps not, but she was more than capable of breaking apart any undesirable interactions that might have occured. After all, she pointed him to the old and somewhat feeble man in the hopes he'd be an easy nut to crack. It seemed she wasn't far off.

"You seemed worried for a second," she mused, thinking back to his exit from the table, the nerves written on his face for but a second before he straightened out.

"Then you handled it so cleanly. Took a bit, but you managed it. Go as far to say you even did well," she said, the compliment genuine as she sipped at the lip of her glass, the smooth textured drink clearing her throat with ease.

"How many times have you done that before, if you don't mind the ask." Something was unique to the younger hunter, though not so much as to say he was special, but he was certainly something worth keeping an eye on.

 

[Bohatei Chorva]

"Yeah." Bohatei confirmed her musing, visibly relaxing into the cheap fabric and cushions underneath him. "Using the Force is... tiring. I've not gotten used to actually using it, is the thing." It didn't help that his method was flawed, either. Whenever he reached into the Force, his attention only expanded outward. He reached out, almost entirely ignoring his own inner reserves.

Which would explain his exhaustion, no doubt.

The compliment elicits a smile to appear on the Zabrak's features, a small hum escaping his lips. "Thanks. I don't think the first try worked, had to put some more pressure on it, if it makes sense. It feels weird, nudging other people's thoughts with my own. Think a fair bit of it came down to warmin' the guy up to the idea."

"And y'know, the fact he was half asleep." Bohatei laughed softly, her question after a short drink causing his lips to purse slightly. "Only once, I think? Back when I didn't know I was Force sensitive. Some person infront of me was, and somethin' sorta... clicked while I was lookin' at them."

"..I can't really explain it. But I tried to do somethin' similar, and it worked." He shrugged his shoulders lightly, merely happy his effort had paid off. "How's the brandy?"

 

[Saff]

Saffron's lips were curled into a feline smile, curious and predatory in equal measure. It was a fine line between beign a creep and being alluring, not that she put it on by choice, it was naught but her natural response to something or in this case someone, that intrigued her.

"It's an exhaustive thing to do until it becomes second nature i find," Saffron began. The sip of brandy she took a careful method to punctuate her words, and wet her lips.

"yet after a while, it's as simple as breathing, like the world simply wants you to use it, and you'd be a fool to deny its use," she said, accenting her words by drawing in her connection with the force and pushing it to her hand as she let go of her glass and throught he force, she held it suspended in the air, drifting halfway between her fingers and her mouth.

Finally, she took a breath and let the glass drift down tot he tabletop and she nudged it across the table with the same soft touch of the force, pushing it up to Bohatei, "give it a try yourself, see how your hard work tastes," she commented with a wink... though she supposed it would be hard to distinguish from a blink in her case.