First Reply Downtime Downtown

[Tohu]

Club Vertica,
Nar Shadaa

Cantina Rocks sounded off from the next door hall where a small-time crime lord, affiliated with the Syndicate, was throwing a party. Here, in the game chambers, those too sick with the gambling malady treated themselves with the cure of… more gambling.

“Don’t lose your courage till the next draw’s flourish.”— everyone who had been to Nar Shadaa knew the slogan by heart and many took it up as a life mantra.

But Tohu? He just stubbornly misdiagnosed it as boredom.

With his head resting on his palm, he sat at an empty game table waiting for the next patient to come in and test their luck. Beside him, Looming over the table was a nosy Duros croupier who craved to ask clients questions.​

 

[Jonath Kago]

He had purpose to be mixed in with all scum and villainy surrounding him. Not for the credits or for some street fame, but to be be a loose vigilante to prick the Syndicates and their immoral affiliates. A way to do some good in this Galaxy, and it helped to give some sense of peace to himself. Enough to be able to sleep at night.

The Club Vertica presented a ripe opportunity to make a mark on crime.

Jon offered a nod to Tohu as he pulled a chair and sat at the table, no longer a table of one.

“What’s with the noise next door?” as if not already knowing the gossip of the party being thrown by his target.

Tohu​

 

[Tohu]

Dark eyes lit up when a man, as unruly looking as Tohu, finally sat at the game table. It takes two to gamble. One to win and one to lose. Pulling several betting chips out from his pocket, Tohu set them neatly on his side of the table.

"What's with the noise next door?"

"Huh?" he raised an eyebrow. So drowned was he in the prospect of gambling that his surroundings had blurred into background noise and color. "Oh, Mellyn Qorm's throwing a party." shrugging, uninterested in the details, he averted his gaze back to the table.

"Yes, big party. Dozen more spice corners for Black Sun. Big work Mellyn Qorm done." the croupier chimed in, red eyes swirling in a vortex of impudent gossip... and probably a little bit of spice.

"Yeah, yeah." Tohu said, "Put the Beast Wars game on."

Without shifting his prying gaze from the newcomer, the Duros tapped on his console several times. Several holoprojections of various beasts of the galaxy materialized from the table in blue-hue light. Tohu picked the Nexu and waited for his opponent to choose his own.

"1k, right?" he asked, the Duros nodded, and he set aside a chip.

"Why ask you, Mister ....?" the croupier inquired, staring at Tohu's opponent.​

Jonath Kago

 

[Jonath Kago]

"Why ask you, Mister ....?"

“Hamid,” giving his false name at the ready to the inquiring Duros. “Trent Hamid,” the very name Jon had been using for a while, having a list of false names ready in case he had to retire one of his monikers. The holoprojector presented a variety of beasts for the game, the vigilante picking a Vornskr right after his opponent.

“I think it’s pretty normal to ask why there’s a loud ruckus, or no?” staring back at the croupier and then presented a a chip of exactly one thousand credits worth. “Would you say a guy like Qorm could use some more muscles for the shit he’s running?” inquiring more about this crime lord, masking his true intents as a matter of finding employment.

“All you,” nodding at Tohu , waiting for the first move to be made.

 

[Tohu]

Duros said, "Hamid. Mr. Hamid." he was dotting down the name at the back of his head for later, forever; someone was going to ask for it, they always did. "Yes, very normal, very."

Cheek still resting on his palm, Tohu gently drummed the table's surface, watching Hamid talk with the croupier. He had a dirty, curly blonde hair and a cold glint to his eyes. He looked the kind of guy who had a long shadow he was running from. Not unusual on Shaddaa -- everyone here was running from something, most the times from themselves. Just the kindda guy who'd end up muscling out corners for Qorm.

Duro paused, looked up at the ceiling with his finger tapping on his chin, then said, "Mr. Qorm always look for more muscle. Yes. Now more than before."

"All you," Hamid nodded at him.

Tohu said, "Finally," and tapped the red, glowing button on the screen that said fight. The small, hologram of the Nexu hurled itself at the Vornskr, tiny white pixels sharpened into fangs, playfully cutting into the canine's neck. It was supposed to be a child's game --some educational holobook his mother once scrounged up enough money to gift him for Life Day -- and Nar Shaddaa said "why not?" and turned into a sugar-coated slot machine, spewing money, like everything else.

Duros asked, "Both you in muscle business, yes?", his eyes appraising them like he was going to catch 'em in some lie.

"Nope. Bounty hunting." Tohu said, believing it. He felt like he'd done enough already to not mop floors for a fish like a Qorm. Now he was a Syndicate man and soon as he'd got them to sponsor his license, thugging for small hotshots like Qorm would be a thing of the past.

Jonath Kago ​

 

[Jonath Kago]

The information was more than enough for him. A crime lord rising through the underworld’s hierarchy and expanding more with a demand of more thugs to run his operations. It would long, yet easy work for Jon as his preferred method in getting rid of scum like Qorm was executing them. Today’s conventional law agencies were inefficient in cleaning up the streets. Vigilantism provided the means to the end people hoped for.

His hand then pressed the button, his own pixel beast fighting against Tohu’s. Cartoonish, but the beasts were also gnarly looking.

"Both you in muscle business, yes?"

“I’m in the money business,” he answered after Tohu. Translation: a criminal handyman for any job. Akin to a mercenary. He’d let the Duros try to decipher his broad answer. “How many bounties you’ve landed?” a way to gauge how notorious his opponent was. At the end of his question his beast was defeated by Tohu’s, but there was one last roll. The button glowed red and he pressed it…

Tohu

 

[Tohu]

Hamid asked, ““How many bounties you’ve landed?” and now Duros’ stare was prying Tohu open. He gave both a glance, thinking, then said, “Don’t count them.”, not lying, but if he put a moment’s thought into it, he’d not count any more than the fingers on his hands; wetwork didn’t really count as hunting, and without a license, the few fish he fried for a bounty remained ambiguous in definition whether they were a hunt or a sugar-coataed hitman’s job, “Who counts, right?”

“Big gundarks don’t, yes,” Duros said, now he was leaning slightly forward, “but big gundarks don’t sit here.” Then, before Tohu could retort – of which he was struggling to find – Duros was already onto Hamid, “Money business, yes, much money to be made for the Black Sun.”

“Maybe you want to take boss Qorm place, be big boss, boss Hamid, make more money, yes?”

The question came so out of left field, Tohu had forgotten he’d hit the fight button for the second round and sat fixed on Duros and Hamid.

Jonath Kago ​

 

[Jonath Kago]

And he lost.

Feth.

It was annoying to lose when sober, not to imply he was a drunk. He couldn’t afford that distraction when surrounded by scum and villainy. One mistake and it could be fatal out in these streets.

“Me? A gang boss?” replying back to the Duros. He could deduce he was under the influence by his speech. “Nah, that’s a hassle. I enjoy sleeping with both eyes closed,” despite how ludicrous the money it could be, bosses always lived their lives with anxiety and skepticism.

“Let’s change the game. Liar’s dice.”

At once the holoprojector showed each player their own set of dice, five exact. He presented another chip of one thousand credits worth.

“So I guess you’re not at all famous like a certain Mandalorian, huh?” pushing his luck and confidence when he exchanged words again with Tohu .

“Two twos.”

 

[Tohu]

Duros either wasn't convinced by Hamid's words or didn't want to be; it was much more interesting when he could weave some gossip, some intrigue on the streets and see how far the dominos fall. He never admitted it to himself, but he was far more a spiced-up nihilist than a slick info broker.

Hamid said, "Let's change the game. Liar's dice." And Duros had to pause his scheming, focus on his job or incur the wrath of the game hall's master - the Quarren Torak Torak. Tohu nodded - sure, why not - ever the gambler and Duros set the game up from his master control console, dice lighting up in front of both participants, their backs opaque to one another.

"So I guess you're not at all famous like a certain Mandalorian, huh?", Hamid said,"Two twos."

Tohu said, "Fett? Not yet.", and looked at his dice, then looked at Duros for clues but the croupier's red orbs told nothing except death sticks. "Four twos."

"First time here?" he gave the man a quizzical smirk, making small talk moreso to tilt Hamid's thinking of the game than out of any particular interest.​

Jonath Kago

 

[Jonath Kago]

Not an infamous bounty hunter then. Probably average or subpar. He looked at the man again, and his hair betrayed him to not seem so dangerous.

“Hmm?” his attention drawn from the game, registering the question. “Oh, first time here in this casino but not my first rodeo in Nar Shaddaa.”

“Four threes,” upping up the bid.

“Ya know, if you wanna be more…serious, you should start with cutting that hair,” a jibe at Tohu .

 

[Tohu]

Tohu scoffed, then shook his head - take a look at this guy. "Been to Shaddaa before but we never heard of you? Yeah, not looking to take advice from a nobody," he said, grinning now at the man, "'specially a liar."

He looked at Duros, waiting to see the result.

Jonath Kago ​

 

[Jonath Kago]

The holo dice revealed themselves at the word of Tohu , and were tallied up by the Duros.

“Ah, four threes. Nice, nice…not a liar after all,” and then resetting the board, presenting new dice to the players.

“Your bid,” red eyes looking at Tohu to start off this round.

“Tell me, how much to hire a ‘big gundark’ bounty hunter like yourself,” again, Jon prodding at the man with the information he had from the croupier.

 

[Tohu]

Tohu clicked his tongue, watching his screen fill up in red with the letters: ROUND LOST. He said to Hamid, "Depends on the target, doesn't it?" The new round started, and the display on the screen shifted with his latest set of dice.

"Two sixes." he said, then looked back up at Hamid,"Why? Got a job for me?"

Jonath Kago ​

 

[Jonath Kago]

“Something in the works, yeah,” he answered back to the Bounty Hunter. “Off the books, don’t want anything traced back.”

“Three sixes.”

“Pay depends on skill and reputation, sounds fair?”

Tohu ​