Rockin' on Ryloth

[Armand Temi]

Location: The Floating Rock Garden, Ryloth

After the battle on Geonesis, Agent Khloe Sparrow of the Rebel Alliance spent a couple days in a bacta tank in order to heal her injuries, the worst of which was a concussion and severe frost-bite from a chemical grenade which also caused her entire body to go into mild hypothermia. But after emerging from the tank she also took a couple weeks to get over the lingering melancholia from losing nearly all of her squad, The Rebel Anarchists. They were not only soldiers, which she herself had trained, most of them were close friends who she had gotten to know over many games of Pazaak during her short time with the Rebels.

Her beloved Mobquet Overracer was also totaled in that skirmish. So instead of waiting around, pestering the swoop bike mechanics who were building her another custom model, she decided to focus on cultivating the Force powers which had lay dormant in her for so many years. When she was a Swoop Bike Champion Racer, there were rumors that she used the Force to help give her an advantage over her competition and for the most part those rumors were false. Okay, she had used it a couple of times, but when half of the other racers were all on stim-roids, who could blame her?

So she found herself on the brightest part of Ryloth in the Floating Rock Gardens, waiting to meet a Jedi Knight who had agreed to take her on as an apprentice. She really knew nothing about the man except that he was a Valkyri from Midvinter. Agent Sparrow was eager to train today, having been cooped up recovering for so long. She only hoped her old and new injuries didn't cause her too much pain today.

[member="Lok Jorunn"]

 

[Lok Jorunn]

Spiraling downwards in the little freighter of theirs, dubbed Misfortune, Lok Jorunn sat a little too rigidly within the cockpit. His gloved hands were caked with sweat on the interior and the constant warbling and chirping from the little damnable astromech droid seated to his right didn't help matters either. The little bucket of bolts was a gnarly dark green shade, the same model of droid that old R2-D2 was albeit much more feisty and less prone to actually doing things that helped his master.

"Shut up, man." Lok growled, "I'ma tryin' to freakin' concentrate, and I can't do that when you're over there lookin' up somethin' about naked Twi'leks on the HoloNet." The old Jedi cleared his throat in the most manly way possible before snatching up a spent shotgun shell from the console and chucked it at the little piece of crap. "I said shut up!"

The droid whirred and beeped all the louder, seemingly taking pleasure in tormenting his owner while he attempted to navigate through a garden full of floating freakin' boulders. The pirate didn't see the point in why people came to see these things, but the shapes they made looked pretty wicked and the fine Twi'lek babes he spotted on the ride downwards didn't look too shabby either.

Oh right, babes.

He was a-meetin' one today. Her name was Khloe Birdlady or somethin', he didn't really know. All he cared for was the fact that she was a Lorrdian, y'know, one of those people who were good with their bodies - real good. And, as always, the fact that she had been seeking out someone to teach her about the ways of the Force and all about that mumbo-jumbo the Jedi had fed him years ago.

The Misfortune drifted swiftly through the gardens until it came across the designated coordinates. Lok was a bit hesitant about leaving his ship on some rock that might float away, but there was no other choice lest he wanted to land on the ground and get all the way back up here. "Stay with the ship, bolts. You can watch yer HoloNet videos if ya want, just keep an eye on the old gal." An affirmative beep caused a few doubts to subside.

He patted the jerry-rigged hull lovingly before making his way to the armory, stowing some more ammo into the various pouches on his person before clipping 'ol reliable to his sling and jamming a sidearm into his hip holster. A quick glance in the mirror made him double take to run sweaty fingers through greasy hair and pick something out from between his teeth, and then he was out into the air with gusto. Lok quickly spotted the fine gal and made his way on over to 'er.

[member="Khloe Sparrow"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Hoo-boy he was a grizzled looking fella this Jedi Knight, Khloe thought as he headed her way. Did using the Force automatically age you fifteen years? Feth with all of time spent in the sun and her injuries from swoop bike races, she already looked more weathered than most women of twenty-four.

Khloe wasn’t really the kind of person who kept her thoughts to herself unless she was on assignment. She rose from the rock she had been sitting on, one that wasn’t floating and said, “You don’t really look like a Jedi. Where are your robes?” He resembled a mercenary honestly, and Agent Sparrow hoped she hadn't been duped by her contact at the Jedi Academy and he was sent here her to kill her. After Geonosis, she knew she had a few enemies now and not just one or two. Probably needed to watch her back a little more. Still, there were tourists milling about the Rock Gardens, both human and Twi’lek alike so he couldn’t kill her here in cold blood without attracting attention. And speaking of attention, the Jedi’s gaze kept wandering off to the beautiful, scantily-dressed Twi’lek tour guides who wandered around the Garden with holomaps to help visitors find their way.

“Eyes over here, Chief,” she said, trying to get his attention with her hands. This one stared at the Twi’leks like he had never seen a member of the female race before. Weren’t most Jedis celibate or something?

Needless to say Khloe had a lot of misconceptions about Jedi Knights…

[member="Lok Jorunn"]

 

[Lok Jorunn]

Oh sweet mercy! It was sure his lucky day with such a fine specimen of a woman requesting for his special "training." While Lok, by all intents and purposes, did actually plan to possibly train the lass, the toe-curling thoughts of having a little fun while he did so were by no means suppressed within his mind. The traditional Jedi back from the order would have sentenced him with about forty laps around the entire temple along with a whole week spent to meditatin' or somethin'.

"Jedi?" The pirate's lips curled back into a scowl, "I ain't none of them no more. Used to be, though, used to be one of the best in the whole damned order." He gave her a grin, with remarkably well-kept teeth being shone as a lion would bare its fangs. Golden eyes skimmed over both her body and that of the fine hostesses of the tourist business here. Lok's business was finding fine women, and it sure looked like this business was a-boomin'.

Her cursory warning about his eyes only made that big 'ol smile of his broaden. Lazily, the pirate ran another set of fingers through his hair before nonchalantly scratching at the scruff outlining his jaw. "So, whatcha want, lass? Trainin' or somethin' along those lines?"

[member="Khloe Sparrow"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Was there a discount option at the Jedi Academy? Because Khloe felt like she got the bottom of the barrel here as far as Jedi's were concerned. Agent Sparrow thought the Jedi were a noble bunch but here he was scanning over her body in the most unnoble like fashion as well as any other creature who moved be they human or alien.

"Yes I want training," Khloe said hesitantly watching his roaming eyes not paying attention to her at all. "I thought you were a Jedi Knight but maybe I'm mistaken." She approached him but not too close because she wasn't sure where he had been. A couple days in a disinfectant chamber would do this Jedi some good.

"If you were the best in the order, then show me something impressive," she said with a tilt of her chin.

[member="Lok Jorunn"]

 

[Lok Jorunn]

Oh this girl was a feisty one, and she was already wanting to look at "something impressive" on their first date. If Lok had been drunk, high, and hyped up about the floating rocks on the way in, the pirate might have just taken her up on that offer. But currently, she seemed a bit pressed on actually learning something about this whole Force deal and she had offered payment should anyone help her. That money could be used to weapons, ammo, more ships, upgrades, deathsticks, girls, other girls, and more girls.

"Somethin' impressive," He repeated, scratching the scruff on his chin once again. "I don't suppose you want me to drop my pants or anythin' along those lines, so I guess I could do somethin' else."

Golden eyes gleaming with mirth, he pulled the shotgun from the sling across his back. Ryloth didn't exactly have the most stringent firearm regulations in the galaxy, but Lok doubted they allowed people to tote military-grade weapons in tourist areas. Whether they liked it or not, he had one and was going to use it right this instant.

The pirate cocked back the lever, aimed the thing with a single hand and fired it somewhere in the air, away from most of the rocks. His eyes narrowed and his heart seemed to stop beating, his free hand inching forward just as he pulled the trigger. A loud ka-thoom sound cascaded in the area with a blast of smoke wafting away from the barrel. The other hand shot forward almost as soon as the heavy armor piercing slugs left the barrel, the Force being summoned to the palm of his hand.

A second or two passed with dozens of little slugs drifting towards them. Lok had used the Force to catch and levitate the slugs before they could even reach their maximum velocity and hit something or escape into the vast blue skies.

"There," He said, "And I'm holdin' these things up, not that magic that's keepin' these here rocks in the sky."

[member="Khloe Sparrow"]

 

[Armand Temi]

The Valkyri wasn’t a bad looking guy at all. In fact he was exactly the type of bad boy that Khloe was normally attracted to. But his pickup lines could use some work, the padawan thought as he offered to drop his trousers right then and there. And since he mentioned his pants, her gaze was drawn there and she took a moment to inspect what he may have under them. If he was allowed to have a good look so was she.

Khloe instinctively held her ears when Lok drew out the shot gun. And when he fired into the sky there was a collective gasp from the surrounding tourists and some of them hustled out of the Gardens, dragging along fascinated children who of course wanted to stay and watch the big man with the gun.

As he floated the bullets around him, Khloe smiled. It was a very convincing display of his Force powers and she was suitably impressed. But rather than feed his ego, which appeared to have been well fed to begin with, she shrugged her shoulders and said. “Yeah, that’s pretty good.” Actually it was fething fantastic! Agent Sparrow couldn’t wait to get started if the Force could stop bullets in mid air.

She cracked her knuckles, getting ready to use some Force powers of her own. “What are you going to teach me first?”

[member="Lok Jorunn"]

 

[Lok Jorunn]

Pretty good?! Maybe Lok should have just dropped his pants right then and there. This little lass was gonna be somethin' of a hassle to impress and her curt, short compliment wasn't enough for Lok. While the pirate kept those slugs floating in the air for a few more seconds, he grew tired of being stared at by children, their parents, their pets, and even those fine-behind Twi'lek hostesses. The spent rounds dropped all the way to the ground without another thought as the golden-maned man turned back to his new "apprentice."

Khloe Birdlady's question was a bit too... abstract for his own thinking. He liked having women come to him with what they wanted in mind. "What exactly do ya wanna learn, lady?" Lok sure didn't specialize in the lightsaber techniques anymore. Though he used to be the best swordsman in the entire academy and possessed the fighting prowess of a master, it had been almost an entire decade since he truly touched the thing. The cylindrical hilt hung upon his belt, unused, untouched. After all, he liked guns now.

"I ain't gonna teach ya nun 'o that meditation stuff either. I'm pretty sure that you ain't one 'o those hippy or space-monk types," He scoffed at the thought. "The Force knows I used to be one and it was alright I reckon'. I just don't really see a of of it anymore, y'know?"

[member="Khloe Sparrow"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Khloe furrowed her brow as she watched the Jedi Knight release his Force hold on the bullets. They dropped from the air like lead pellets.

"What exactly do ya wanna learn, lady?" he asked.

Was he going to need that spelled out for him, she thought? Did he need her to write her training curriculum as well?

Subtlety did not appear to be this rugged man’s strong point as his eyes took another wander over to a couple of nearby female Twi’lek tour guides. She cringed to think of what his idea of foreplay was.

Agent Sparrow knew that the bullets floated by using telekinesis. And she almost began to suggest that Lok Jorunn would start her training there. But what she really wanted to learn was how to go fast. Being a former swoop bike racer Khloe loved nothing more than to feel the wind in her hair and hear the whoosh of the engine beneath her as she crouched atop her bike, becoming one with the machine as it rushed along, faster than any winged creature or land speeder.

The padawan put her hands on her hips and said, “I want to learn how to move really fast. Is that something you can show me how to do?"

[member="Lok Jorunn"]