Private Junk Love

[Dagon Kaze]

Yula & Dagon
Tales from the Outer Rim
Vol I​

"What in the galaxy is that smell?"
​

The jolly alien flipped something on that grill and gave the Jedi the friendliest of grins. Dagon could've sworn he'd never seen someone, ever, look that happy grilling whatever that piece of meat was. But the beaming chef and the nostril-burning stench of his pièce de résistance was just one of the many, many colors that shaped this vibrant palette of life that was the junk market of Terminus.

This world was nothing he'd ever seen before. A junction between two of the galaxy's most vital trade routes - the Hydian Way and the Corellian Spine - meeting at the very edge of charted space. It was no ecumenopolis, far from it, but its urbanization made it a prime star shining over the often forgotten and underdeveloped Outer Rim. And yet, it, too, was as mysterious and foreign in its nature to anyone from the Core or its Inner and Mid Rim.

And while there were no secrets between the couple about their backgrounds and familial history, Dagon always looked flabbergasted when Yula felt so at home in the Outer Rim. He always wondered how come the elusive figure of her grandfather, a man whose name he still couldn't remember, had played such a key part in Yula's growing up when her mother had been, for most of her life, a Jedi just like him. That was, what he believed, a mystery even his investigative nature could never solve.

The two meandered about in the junk market on Terminus, far, far from the existential troubles of the war. So far that even Dagon had stripped away the New Jedi leather jacket he almost always wore for the comfort of a spacer's vest and a light shirt. Less rebel with a lightsaber, more spacer who was still getting used to the zero-G life. His blade's hilt remained tucked away inside the vest, invisible to any prying eyes.

"You know what - never mind. I don't want to know."​

Yula Perl

 

[Yula Perl]

"That's underworld stink, babe!"

Yula delighted in introducing Dagon to Terminus. Partially because this was where she'd come into her own among the Outer Rim Judges, and partially because she knew it would make him uncomfortable. They were far, far from the core and Yula couldn't be happier.

"Oh-wait." Leaning in a bit closer to the Gotal that was busy charring unidentified meats, Yula inhaled. Turning away so that the vendor could not see, her nose crinkled and she pulled Dagon with her by the arm. "Stay away from that."

Never buy what Georg was grilling on Taungsday. She'd learned that one the hard way.

Sweeping them back into the Chaos at the junk market, they narrowly dodged a herd of bloggins being shepherded by a shrouded trader. Basic and Huttese dominated this sphere, but you'd hear dialects from all over the galaxy.

"Maybe later I'll show you where I used to live. If it's still around…" Yula hummed, energized by her surroundings. Sidling up to Dagon, she looped her hands around his arm. "You doing okay?" She teased, but really, she was glad he'd joined her on this trip.

"Believe it or not, I used to be something of a vigilante here myself." She announced with a grandiose flourish. "Back when the First Order was on our borders."

Those days seemed so, so far away now. The powerhouse of an empire hadn't really seen the ragtag group of Judges and assorted others as a threat, but united spacer trash had proven to be crafty when poked.

"A vigilante with a lightsaber." She smirked.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"Stay away from that."

"Yeaaaah, don't need to tell me twice." he murmured under his breath as they ambled away from Georg's Hell's Kitchen into the traffic of the junk market. There were more alien species here than he could name. As vast as the Outer Rim was, it always seemed represented as this desolate place. A failed attempt at colonization by the civilizations of the Core but it was nothing like that. It was as vibrant as Coruscant. Maybe even more. The seat of the galaxy, as diverse and infinite, as it was still carried a singular theme. Something that was easily identifiable, but Terminus was completely the opposite. It had its own feel but without it being its own, if that made sense.

It was almost surreal. As surreal as it was learning that Yula had lived here in the past. The world looked more like one giant transit space station than an end destination. But if that was a surprise, wait till you hear what came next:

"...a vigilante with a lightsaber."

"Really now?" Dagon snorted, "What name did you go by with -- Pinkapalooza?" an ancient quip at that one time Yula was fixing shock boxing matches on Denon. Personally. Like, literally.

Yula Perl ​

 

[Yula Perl]

The mention of her shockboxing alias—which she hadn't chosen herself—earned Dagon a sneer. "Yeah, yeah." She grumbled. "It was about as bad as you'd expect. There are parts of the 'rim where you wouldn't want to be waving a lightsaber around, let's put it that way."

A brief reflection on her time as Judge brought the revelation that she and Dagon really weren't that different. That thought was swiftly whisked away.

"Anyway, keep that mouth of yours shut about pinkapalooza 'else you'll be Georg's next mystery meat barbecue."

Something caught her eye, and she'd dragged him over to a carpet covered in various metallic parts. Yula picked up a rectangular piece of metal, holding it up to the dusty air for inspection. A Jawa manning the makeshift booth hurried over, arms waving and speaking sternly yet energetically. He'd wanted her to put it down.

"Oh c'mon." Yula tried to reason "You can't expect me to— hey, Zeltrons are a lot of things, but we ain't pickpockets! No, you're the one with a stick up-"

The fast talking Jawa cut her off at every turn, but that was no problem for Yula. She simply got louder. They garnered a few glances, but two aliens screaming at eachother in Jawaese was hardly a rare sight at the junk market.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

x

Dagon's mouth curled into a frown at Yula's threat, the smell of Georg's barbecue flaring his nostrils. But the ominous threat fell short, paled even in comparison to what happened next. The true horror found in the furthest reaches of the Outer Rim, the nightmare that haunts the black stars of the infinite cosmos, the terror no man should face alone.

Yula arguing.

A hundred scars of war may have aged the Knight but it was the reverberations of her shrill that would bury him. The migraine crashed like a steam-powered hammer and banged and banged and banged with every accusation she levied back at her foe - the three-foot-tall Jawa. They say it's darkest before dawn but with Yula... it just gets darker; she was arguing in Jawaese.

The squabble should've been nothing new to any of the market's patrons, everyone haggled and everyone was loud. But not everyone was Yula. The dispute grew into a spectacle as a hundred eyes turned at the war of Zeltros and Tatooine. Dagon was unsure whether the whole market dwindled into a theater's silence or whether it was Yula and the Jawa's bickering drowning every little noise under the rumbling of canons they had for mouths. The Force couldn't tell either.

And in no time a pair of Devaronian look-alikes snickered, shuffling through the crowd as they gathered bets from each and every living being and droid. What was an audience in a theater became a rowdy crowd of kulaks cheering for one or the other verbal gladiator. The sound of cannons became the beatings of war drums and the march of planetary armies headed for a clash to decide the fate of the galaxy.

In the midst - a raven-haired victim to it all stood with his face in his hands. Every few seconds he would pull away the curtains of his palms from his eyes dreaming that it would all go away. That it was just a nightmare of shame, that they were still somewhere in hyperspace and the red color of his cheek was merely the product of long-distance travel fever.

It was not.

And if he couldn't solve it, then the Force just had enough of it all.

Duty called, to serve the Force was the oath he had pledged so long ago, and with a bold, dauntless even, step he lunged to pick Yula up and storm through the crowd who wanted his head for interrupting the much anticipated crescendo of Yula's falsetto. As the passions directed towards every female family member of Dagon's faded away behind them, the Jedi finally brought Yula back down on her feet. His shoulders slumped as if he had climbed a thousand mountains and some more and blew a breath of relief so deep the oceans of Mon Cal may very well have shrunk to rain puddles on Jedha.

Only one word escaped the martyr's lips, "...Why?" and then a surge of sanctified energy surged through his veins, a blessing rewarded from the heavens above, "Why does every, literally, no like, literally, every shopping run with you turn into a planetary diplomatic crisis, pink?" he glanced behind to witness his point dangerously proven. The crowd of everything marched with little less than torches and pitchforks to demand the money they had betted from the man who had ruined it all. Naturally -- the Devaronians had evaporated in thin air. "Uhhh, how, uh, amenable are the folks out here?" he sheepishly chuckled realizing his own mistake to take the people's bread and circus.

Yula Perl ​

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula wasn't about to be ripped off, Dagon's embarrassment be damned.

When the Jawa brandished an ion blaster, the crowd gasped. Some peeled away from the crowd while other edged closer. More than a few reached for their own weapons, just in case.

Yula was one of them, hand traveling steadily into her jacket and then—

—then suddenly, she was being whisked away over Dagon's shoulder. Hissing, spitting and cursing at both him and the Jawa vendor, hurling insults in Jawaese and Basic. There were even a few Huttese slurs thrown in there as well. Fortunately, being physically removed from the immediate situation caused her full-throttle anger to shift back down to a simmer.

Dagon looked haggard, like he did after most of their shopping trips. Yula blinked owlishly at him.

"Whaddya mean, Dag? This is how you haggle at the junk market." She patted him on the shoulder with a reassuring smile. Not every place could be as civilized as the core. "This is normal."

Whether that was Terminus normal or Yula normal was not clarified.

Yula was only vaguely aware that they'd attracted a crowd, and now she could feel their anger broiling while peering over Dagon's shoulder. It was just like the shockboxing incident all over again. A wicked grin snaked onto her face at the recollection of just how they'd gotten out of that one.

"You think we should give 'em a show?" Again, the hand reached inside of her jacket for the blaster.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"This is normal."
​

Huh?

"You said vacation, Yula. A break, y'know—the one you go for hike or sightseeing or even a five-star resort with a jacuzzi in the room." he protested, the sighed conceding the fact no such option seemed available right now as the crowd advanced from all sides.

"You think we should give 'em a show?"

Not like they had another way out. But, silver linings, Dag -- you, her, getting rowdy together against a violent crowd? With the scene on Denon drawing lines in the sand between the two? Yeah, been a while.

Silver linings, Dagon Kaze.

Silver linings.

The stupid, goofy smirk emerging on his face could not be hidden even when he strained to pull a straight face and remind her. "Stun setting." he said, glancing at her hand reaching for the blaster inside her jacket.

He cracked his knuckles and raised his guard. Back to back with her. Like always. Even when worse comes to worst.

"Just blast us a way out, pink. I'll keep 'em off your back." Dagon said as the first punches flew in.​

Yula Perl

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula tsked as she subtly clicked the notch of her blaster down to something less lethal.

"No fun," She chided, pressing her shoulder blades playfully against Dagon's back. She wouldn't readily admit that he was right, and that she hadn't planned on their outing getting rough. Well, not this rough. She'd take him by her favorite takeout joint later to make up for it.

The Devaronian twins seemed all too eager to start something, given that they were among the first to start throwing punches. Yula ducked on reflex, leaving them in Dag's capable hands. In the meantime, she took aim at the little Jawa Jerk who'd somehow skittered his way towards the front of the crowd. Suddenly staring down the barrel of the junker's ion blaster and a string of Jawaese curses, Yula dove dramatically out of the way before a bolt singed her into nothingness. "Sunnuva-" Muttering to herself, she and the Jawa exchanged fire for about half a minute. The little bastard was an impossibly nimble target, so the frustrated Zeltron switched tactics.

"Enough of this," Narrowly dodging a bolt that had come from the side, she retrieved a handful of small beads from inside her jacket pocket. Stun pearls—itty bitty stun grenades, each with a radius of a few meters. Chucking them into the immediate vicinity of the crowd had the desired effect, felling the first few rows of rioters and clearing the way to a narrow space between two stalls.

"Dag!" She called out, gesturing with her blaster. It would be easier to lose the angry crowd in another part of the market.

Then she was tacked to the ground by a third Devaronian.

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Where Yula had her own bane of existence in the elusive form of a Jawa, Dagon was deadlocked with a towering Herglic, far above the average of the species. The whale-man had steel for flesh as the Jedi's force-enhanced blows seemed to be a mere inconvenience for Geoff the Dolphin. See, Geoff had a gambling problem and he was finally about to solve it with that one last time - the forever anticipated big hit which, in his mind, should've been the Yula-Jaw bout.

Until this raven-haired dolt had come up into the scene.

And now Geoff was furious. Gills fuming with anger.

"Dag!"

"Huh?"

And off he goes tumbling a dozen feet away when Geoff's punch caught him vulnerable. A punch was an understatement, thing felt like a steam power hammer that had pounded his very existence into another dimension. What little remained to his senses, the Jedi deducted what Yula had been pointing at -- a way out. And what did she get for it? Tackled by yet another Devaronian.

Dagon picked himself up and with a stagger darted towards his partner, wrestling the two-horned man off her back and urging her to--

"Go!" he followed after her towards a far more cramped-up part of the market. They steamrolled through petty vendors and space Karens, their wares crashing in the wake of the duo as they escaped the long hand of the people's 'love and affection'.

Hands placed on his knees, the Knight heaved from the exhaustion of mostly trying to gather his senses from Geoff's vengeful blow. The tiny alley was damp in the cool shadow of tent canopies spread out on the rooftops of the small huts around them.

"You know I love you, Yula, but--" a stupid grin curved his lips. "--are you sure you weren't a vigilante for the First Order?" he quipped, questioning why in the galaxy would these liberated Outer Rim denizens be out to smack her to death if she had been on their side back in the day.

Yula Perl ​

 

[Yula Perl]

"And you know I love you, Dagon Kaze." Yula huffed through a lack of air. "—So are you sure you want to ruin it with just one comment?" She poked him in the chest, pointedly, with one finger. This gave way to her hand pressing against his chest in concern. "He hit you pretty hard back there, huh? You alright? I've got a few medstims on me." Her brow creased in gathered concentration—if she couldn't heal him, then she could diffuse some of the pain.

They'd found a cramped, grimy reprieve in one of Terminus' many identical alleys. Yula leaned against the damp duracrete wall, sliding down it as she caught her breath. The hustle and bustle of the market was further away now, fading into the background with the sound of busy skylanes. Now that the oxygen was flowing to her brain again, Yula's eyes lingered on the shapes and colors of the makeshifts awnings above them. They came into focus, and suddenly this alley didn't seem so identical to the others anymore.

"Wait a tic- I know where we are!" Brightening, Yula scrambled to her feet. "C'mon, I've got an idea. You know how you like rooftops so much?" Dag always found the most breathtaking views no matter where they were, and he'd ushered her up buildings countless times to view the skyline. "We'll need a snack first."

Grabbing his wrist, she pulled him through the tiny, winding paths at the edge of the market. Fortunately, their pursuers had either lost interest or were too far off their trail to cause a fuss. She came to a halt only a short distance away from the alley, rooted in front of a modest folding table covered with a dirty cloth and a handmade sign scrawled with "Outpost Mix".

"Here it is- used to get this stuff alllll the time back when I, ahem, patrolled the streets." Yula threw him a cheesy grin over her shoulder. "One please." The humanoid woman working the counter handed over a paper bag filled with some type of popped grains covered in aromatic spices. "Try it!" Yula pushed the bag towards Dagon eagerly, shaking it in an attempt to make the snack seem more tantalizing. "It kind of tastes like the spicy stun nuna wings from Huttaburger, only better."

Dagon Kaze