Please Hold your Applause

[Doctor Azure]

"If I came here to flirt, there would've been somebody with me. I came here to get stinking drunk. Still isn't working."​

​

Lorane took another deep draught of his drink, enjoying the burn tracking down his throat. Even he had wanted to hit on her, knowing her mom didn't reassure him whatsoever about his continued physical health if he decided to.​

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"Besides, you could be completely insane, judging from the last few minutes. Sick of insane people."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie would have been insulted, but he had a point. Knowing her mom, who knew when Rawnie would completely lose it too? The teenager shrugged and simply raised her glass.

"To insanity then," she suggested as a toast, "May it always keep the creepers away."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Doesn't do jack chit for me, but I'll drink to it anyway."​

​

Yeah, judging by the women who tended to approach Lorane, being very probably insane and addicted to making tech was not as big of a turn-off as he'd hoped. He snorted a little bit and smirked at Rawnie.​

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"So, habitually threatening to stab people isn't enough?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The girl took a drink and nearly choked. Sweet stars! What the- what was IN this thing!?

"Hey, now!" she snapped, "I was just trying to do my job. You looked like my bounty, so I was trying to take you in."

She shrugged.

"It was an honest mistake!"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane managed not to laugh when Rawnie took a drink of Gargle Blaster, but he lost it at her reaction to his little jab. He looked at her with an expression of mock-disbelief.​

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"Oh, whoops! Got the wrong blue guy!"​

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He kept on laughing as he took another gulp of his drink.​

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"Bet whoever the guy is, he's not half as fast as me."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Another cautious sip was taken. Better than the first.

"I'll find him," she said, swishing her drink around in the glass, "I'm a good tracker. I just made a small error somewhere."

Small. Microscopic. That was how easily she could lose someone if she made even a tiny mistake. She could end up hunting the wrong target entirely. She was a great tracker... in the forest. In the snow. Back home. She could track an Uxi ten miles. But this wasn't home and this wasn't an uxi she was hunting. If only dad had been around to teach her more...

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"So... ending up in a bar in the worst town on Chroma Zed, chasing a doctor who patched your mom up once, and almost getting a hole blown in your neck... That's a small error?"​

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Lorane was being mean, now, and he knew it. Chalk it up to being a somewhat meticulous guy when it came to work, or chalk it up to him being a total nerf herder, but her error bugged him a lot more than it should've. He took a breath, and then looked at her again.​

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"Okay, look, who is this guy? There are only a few Chiss here in Coast."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Geez. Couldn't he give her a break? She'd said she was sorry. He was making it hard for her to still feel like clan Tal'verdas greatest hunter.

"A small error can lead to big mistakes," she snapped, "I know what I'm doing. I just miscalculated. I am, after all, mostly human."

She downed the rest of her drink and slammed it on the table.

"He's a smuggler," she practically snarled, "I don't ask my clients too many questions. None of my business what he did."

Wow. She'd just about lost her temper. This guy was something else, making the cold, ice princess lose her cool. (pun intended)

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Errors for me usually end in pretty bad situations. Like nearly blowing my hand off kind of situations."

Lorane grinned easily, and looked around the room. Another Chiss was sitting across the room, nervously staring at Rawnie's back. The doctor drew his gun and raised an eyebrow.

"A smuggler, huh? Maybe like the guy who's currently staring at you in that booth across from me? The opne who's... about to be down a kneecap?"

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The angry Mandalorian instantly perked up at his words. He was.... right there. She caught a reflection in the glasses behind the counter.

She snatched her blaster out of the holster at her thigh, whirled around and aimed a careful shot at her targets foot. Dead or alive, the bounty had said, but she'd get way more alive.

The target let out a wail and Zandra leapt to her feet to grab him before he could... what? Crawl out of here? Best of luck to him with the whole escaping thing with a nice hole through his foot.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane laughed as Rawnie got off her shot at the same time as he got his. Damn, she was fast. The poor smuggler was now dragging himself across the floor with a bullet in his knee and a blaster shot through his foot. There was no sympathy for him from anybody.​

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The doctor grinned at the Mandalorian girl, picked the bounty target up, and dropped him on the bar.​

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"Here. Found you a present. Happy birthday, or whatever."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Of course Rawnie was fast. She'd been fast since she was six. Dad taught her. Taking aim was the hardest part, but pulling the trigger? That was easy.

And this chiss, this... doctor, he wasn;t half bad either. In fact, he was rather... impressive. The Mandalorian girl cocked her blonde head to the side, examining him as he half dragged her bounty to the bar.

"Not bad. In fact, I'd say you could be a decent hunter yourself. Ever think about it, Lorane?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled at the thought of taking up bounty hunting. It wasn't like he didn't do mercenary work more than he was in the office, anyway. And having another person around who wasn't trying to grift money or gear off of him would be... different.​

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"I do a lot of mercenary work. Bounties on my head, bounties on my friends, bounties on my property. I piss off all sorts of people for fun and profit, anyway."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The Mandalorian woman raised a thin eyebrow as she pulled out cuffs from a pouch at her waist. Wordlesly, she shoved them onto her bounties wrist, giving him a sharp kick to keep him from struggling.

"Really now? Well, if you ever think ya might want help, let me know. You're good. Make my job easy."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane raised an eyebrow, drinking the rest of the Gargle Blaster on the bar as he strapped his gun back into his coat.​

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"So long as being your partner entails you asking before stealing my ship, I've got no problem leaving now."​

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He realized what he'd just said, and made an exasperated noise in his throat.​

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"Don't ask about that condition unless you see I'm visibly about to collapse from intoxication. I've had some weird friends."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The blonde blinked. What was he talking about? Why would he think she'd steal his ship? She wasn't mom. Stealing wasn't exactly her thing. She was about to ask when he went on to ask her not to. Well, she'd probably hear the story later, since on one hell of a whim, they'd both agreed to partner up.
Rawnie was hardly the trusting type. Why? Why did she feel inclined to run off with someone she just met?

why else? She was bored out of her mind. She was tired of home. Tired of going back after every mission. Tired of her big brother, the great new clan leader, telling her what to do all the time. She was eighteen years old now, and she hardly knew what the Galaxy was like. All she knew was ice and snow. And she was getting sick of it.

"You can trust that I won't be taking your ship, unless you're so drunk you can't even say your own name."

Corrin could wait. Rawnie had a bounty to cash in. She gripped her bounty roughly by his mane of black hair, forcing his head up.

"Come on. Let's cash this one in."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane shrugged as he got up from his chair and not-so-gently hauled the other Chiss onto his shoulder.​

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"Never hurts to say it out loud, though."​

​

He had to admit, joining up with Rawnie promised to be a bit better than lone-wolfing it. Chroma Zed was starting to bore him again, and his friends didn't come around at all. He was either patching up random criminals or shooting up his on bar, most of the time. It got monotonous.​

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"You can keep the money, by the way. Don't need it."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Keep the money? The Madalorian was stunned. He was, what? going to work for free? That was practically slavery, and Rawnie would have none of that.

"You're getting a cut, even if it's just for the cost of you bullet," she insisted, "I don't let people work for me for free."

She hated to feel indebted to someone.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane reached under his glasses to rub his eyes. He didn't know if he should feel annoyed or gratified by the insistence.​

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"Rawnie, I can run my clinic almost on autopilot, and I'd still be making a few thousand creds a week. I'm not gonna take money for a bullet off of you."​

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He hated taking money from people for something he enjoyed doing... except when it was hazard pay. Corporate morons could give him a year's worth of salary in hazard pay, and he'd just smile and nod happily.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Alright. So she'd have to sneak the credits onto his person somehow. She could do that. Rawnie was crafty. She shrugged in response, set a few credits on the bar to pay the tab and started walking out.

"Alright. So, you say you have a ship?" she asked, "Not going to turn into a creeper on me, are you? Nah. I doubt it, if mom let you treat her hand."

[member="Doctor Azure"]