Public When in Strange Bars

[Rook]

Location: Nar Shaddaa

Rook took a moment to look around the Short Rancor as she made her way inside. The bar was relatively crowded for being early in the evening but it being cool for the season had moved people indoors, insomuch as weather ever changed on the hutt moon. She made her way to the bar and inspected it before she ordered, as was her habit. Less out of concern for her personal safety and more out of the knowledge that these sort of places very rarely bothered to stick health codes such as they were in hutt space. Rook wasn't entirely there by her own preference she had some time to kill between flights and the spaceport had been far too crowded for her tastes.

To the end, she had found the bar that seemed to be staffed by a male abednedo who seemed to know his business she placed her order. " Tarkenian Nightflower." Placing her credits on the counter for him to take and a tip for the bartender himself. Not that Rook was a generous woman as a general rule nor did she have an endless amount of credits to her name but anyone willing to work in this sector of the city deserved to have some sort of tip, maybe they would even make sure she had a clean glass if ever she found her way back to the place. Although, the likelihood of such a thing happening was fairly low.

Rook pulled her black jacket around her and moved towards a table in the corner. For the most part, the crowd was happy enough to mind their own business and no one really bothered her as she settled herself in. Propping her feet up in the chair across from her, she pulled out a datapad and began to casually scroll through it letting her awareness drop for a moment as everything seemed quiet enough, although being in hutt space the woman should have known better none the less here she was.

 

[Dara Naevo]

Dara sat in a booth a few steps from where Rook had settled down. She watched the credits - plus extra - pass hands. Must be behind on her tab or something.
The booth Dara sat in was decorated with empty glasses, some hers, others that had been ignored by the bar staff and left to stew for a few hours. Dara was tinkering a commlink, but her unskinned cybernetic hand shook as she did. She cursed under her breath and it sparked, like it was shouting back. This caught the attention of some short Ugnaught patrons who mistook it for a weapon. Dara quickly gestured her twitching hand to ease them. They didn't seem impressed, nor was she sure they even understood.

Dara's metal hand knocked repeatedly against the table while she tried to work and simultaneously steady it with her right hand to stifle the sound.

 

[Rook]

Rook who had been minding her business more or less in her corner, had her musing interrupted by the sound of what seemed to be metal knocking against the table. It wasn't followed by the sound of blasters being fired, at least not yet. This fact alone made her debate if it was worth her time to lift her head up and see what was going on. After a few moments, she looked up despite herself.

What she finally settled on being the cause of the issue was a woman and an angry ugnaught who seemed to be off-put with what was a cybernetic hand. The entire species of ugnaughts tended to amuse Rook on principle, they were so cranky for something as small as they were. After a minute or two she pushed herself off the chair and casually wondered over for a better look. She took a position behind the smaller alien and peered over his shoulder a little curious as to what he was going to do.

"I don't think he speaks basic." She spoke in a slightly amused sounding lazy draw as she looked down on the enraged little alien. "Maybe he speaks huttesse, most of them don't really care if their slaves understand anyone outside of hutt space or not." She wasn't sure if he was a slave or not but the lack of skills in basic would make her lean that way, or if not that a local who never really bothered to interact with anyone outside of his local neighborhood.

 

[Dara Naevo]

The two little Ugnaughts seemed perplexed at Rook's unintelligible rambling. She was right, basic was irrelevant to them.

Dara looked up from her work, the left hand still rattled on.

"Huttese...doesn't," her voice was labored and raspy "look go...s-sound good, on me."

The Twi'lek hadn't spoken to anybody all day long, which was enough time for the vocabulator to start feeling uncomfortable again inside her larynx.

"Too many...vowels. It gets...all mixed up. Better not to s-say anything," Dara said.

Dara had considered pickpocketing the woman before she approached. After a quick mental assessment, she decided firmly against it. It had been a long while since she heard another who spoke basic and looked reasonably approachable. Except for the facial tattoos, Dara tended to associate that sort of thing with danger and mystery.

"Are you...some sort of, priestess?" she forced a smile, "come to sell me...a trinket?"

 

[Sentiri]

More leads. More dead ends.

Sentiri was tired of getting dragged across the galaxy. First Terminus. Then through the outer reaches of Wild Space to the edge of the Unknown Regions. Then back Coreward to Alderaan. Then Bilbringi. Now Nar Shaddaa. Each time, she had stuck around longer than her other engagements had required, just to be sure that no further trace of her quarry made itself known. And each time, the information that brought the Chiss woman to the world came up bad. Her former lieutenant had learned to hide her tracks well. Using subsidiaries to conduct business in her name, appearing as a lifelike hologram to unsuspecting business associates, or simply paying someone to seed falsified records. Rhéala was throwing the whole book out there to try and hide her whereabouts. Having followed the woman as long as Sentiri had, the former intelligence operative was beginning to wonder if her one-time associate was specifically trying to throw off Sentiri or if Rhé had picked up some other bad business on Terminus before the woman folded Sentiri's old operation and disappeared.

Whatever the case was, Nar Shaddaa was just another bust. Made all the worse due to the fact that she was on Nar Shaddaa. Calling the moon the armpit of the galaxy was giving the world far too much credit. Nar Shaddaa was a ball of slime floating through a slime filled sector. She would spend no more time on the world than absolutely necessary. Still, she could use a drink after another failure. The Chiss woman wasn't used to such a string of frustrations and moping over some alcohol seemed a good salve to her ego.

There were certainly more than enough seedy establishments from which to choose. She settled on one called the "Short Rancor." Sentiri had brought nothing more than enough credits to buy a drink and a fingerprint-keyed blaster pistol. The savvy woman wasn't about to give someone reason to attempt a pick.

Entering the cantina, she made straight for the bar and ordered whatever was in the least grimy-looking bottle. Already expecting something that tasted like bantha sweat, she wasn't put off when something vaguely putrid passed her lips. There was a sweet aftertaste that was somehow more off-putting. She sat at a stool and occasionally swiveled in the seat, surveying the other patrons.

 

[Dezik Agorr]

Location: Nar Shaada
Objective: Grab a drink
Tags: Open to interaction

Dezik was not known for his subtlety. Whether it was the armoury that he carried around with him or the Sith-Imperial Storm Armor Mk. III helmet which made him stick out like a sore thumb, he never stopped to think of others around him noticing him. This was the case when he threw a Torguta man through the cantina's doors before walking in and pummelling the man with his fists. "Miner scum." he said as he punched him. "Did you really think you could get away with stealing a tank." he continued until the man remained unresponsive and bloodied. Dezik let out a small sigh and opened up his holocommunicator, sending a transmission to Kizar Okins , his employer. "Jobs done, the Alien's dead, send the credits through." The Torguta had been part of a group resisting Okins Industries strip mining operation on astroids near Myomar and made the foolish move to try and steal experimental technology to which the company replied by hiring an assortment of nasty bounty hunters and mercs to hunt him down. Dezik was the one to claim the bounty.

Once he was done sending through a holoimage of the Torguta to Kizar he looked up to the rest of the Cantina, many of the patrons now staring at the stormtrooper with bloody fists. He simply ignored them, heading strait for the bar. "Gimme a Spotchka. Been chasing that bloody Torguta for far too long." he said to the bartender who slid the drink to him. "Next time you leave a dead body in my cantina you'll be joining him." he replied before ordering two of the servant droids to dump the body in a nearby dumpster. "I'd like to see you try." he said with a grin, patting his DLT-29 holstered on his back. The bartender simply scowled at him before moving to attend other patrons. He removed his helmet, revealing his scarred and shaved head and stormtrooper corps tattoo above his eyebrow. He sipped on his spotchka, breifly glancing at other patrons from time to time.

 

[Dara Naevo]

Dara saw the bloodied Togruta rammed through the cantina doors. She held her hand still to stop the noise and mouthed various curses without activating her vocabulator.

When Dara saw the stormtrooper, she stood up immediately. Whatever the Vahla wanted to peddle could wait. Although Dara's time with the Alliance was a closed chapter, she might still be on the lips of some information broker or in outdated records. Her mind raced with dozens of possibilities. This wasn't your typical trooper, but it was a trooper. While the other patrons watched the trooper, Dara made an attempt to sneak out towards the back door. The place was dead anyway, metaphorically speaking. Dara had hoped to trick a drunk out of a few credits with a round of cards and maybe get herself a bed to sleep in that night.

 

[Venku Bralor]

Shouting reached Venku’s ears as he passed by the Short Rancor. Pausing, the mando watched as a storm trooper murdered a togruta. Frowning beneath his helm, Venku approached the bar, slipping past the corpse on his way in.

The place looked shady enough, not surprising considering no one blinked an eye at the murder. What was surprising was how crowded it was, considering the time of day. But then again, maybe that was just some odd culture thing he didn't know about.

Sliding up to the bar a few seats away from the trooper, Venku flagged down the bartender, ordering a relatively weak alcohol - not for want of alcohol tolerance, he was mandalorian after all, and they were known for several very strong drinks - and paying the man when he received his glass.

As he nursed the cup, Venku's ears twisted this way and that, flicking from conversation to conversation for the hint of a new job.

 

[Rook]

Rook took a second when the woman asked her if she was priestess, she had been called a lot of things, the clergy was rarely one of them. She could agree that she was but the downside was she had no trinkets to sell and that story might fall through rather quickly, she could try and spin it though. "Priestess? I don't have any trinkets at the moment, I'm afraid." She used her most calm "I'm a priestess, believe me voice." Or as close as she could come without actually being one. "Were you looking for a certain type?" She asked curious as to what the twi'lek did want.

She paused and looked over as something seemed to be going down, in this case, it looked to Rook at least to be some sort of bounty going down, not that such a thing would be uncommon here. She noted Dara trying to make herself scarce something else not out of place on Nar Shaddaa, Rook at least had no bounties on her at least none that she knew of anyway. She noted the chiss woman at that point as well both struck her as professional in some form or the other and it would benefit her to see how they would react to the other woman deciding to head for the door if they noticed her at all.

"Someone is about to get shot." She'd muse to no one person as she watched the bartender get a little tense. If a firefight broke out shortly then it might be worth her time to stick around if for entertainment value at least. She had to admit to herself she was a little curious who would win most of the people in her line of sight seemed like the could handle themselves if something did break out.

 

[Sentiri]

A body slammed through the door followed closely by a man wearing the unmistakable helmet of a Stormtrooper. Sentiri, facing the cantina as she leaned back on the bar, didn't spend much time gawking as the trooper put his fists to work on the Togruta's face. Bounty hunters all had their own style. And Stormtroopers were specifically trained to detach themselves from especially brutal situations for the sake of efficiency. On Nar Shaddaa, the sight of someone getting beaten to death was common. The sight wasn't shocking to her and she felt a little bad about that. Still, a bounty was a bounty. If the Togruta had a price on their head, then the being would run or die. This case, the hunter chose the latter.

The Chiss woman was far more interested in the reactions of the other patrons in the bar, mostly just out of idle curiosity. She was still planning on leaving Nar Shaddaa without much further delay, but she enjoyed the challenge of cold-reading people and creating a profile of them in her mind. The exercise kept her investigative mind sharp, and she couldn't afford to let her senses dull.

First was the trooper. Judging by the rest of the bounty hunter's gear, the being was no longer in the Corps, but held on to the helmet out of pride or contempt, the former judging by the polish. That made the hunter/trooper a curiosity. The Corps wasn't known for letting their troopers leave their service unless their exit was via a casket. And since the trooper wore the helmet with pride, he wasn't likely AWOL. A Togorian came in just after the trooper made their entrance and more or less ignored the situation. The large feline being was looking around just as expectantly as Sentiri was. Among there more nondescript patrons among the tables and booths were a Vahla and a jumpy Twi'Lek. Sentiri had met other Vahla as part of her time with the Ascendancy and their relations with the Sith Empire. Sentiri knew better than to antagonize the Vahla woman, and this one seemed just as capable as any other she'd met. The Twi'Lek on the other hand looked like she was coming to pieces, literally. Burn marks and scars and a poor excuse for a cybernetic arm replacement were all Sentiri could make out. But the jumpiness which started after the trooper entered meant this Twi'Lek was unsure of whether or not she had a price on her head.

What to do? The trooper had seemed content to ignore everyone else, but if he picked up on the same tension in the room that Sentiri did, there might be more than one corpse on the floor by the end of the Short Rancor's day. She wasn't a bounty hunter, and she didn't adhere to their code, but the Guild was pretty strict about interference and she wasn't one to stir the pot unless absolutely necessary. Then again, Sentiri could use some new associates, maybe even a partner. Her list of reliable contacts was drying up with each failed lead on her former lieutenant. And having someone owe her was incentive for an associate to stick around.

Sentiri saw a move and decided to take it. She left the bar, drink in hand, and approached the Twi'Lek and Vahla. She stood in front of their booth in between them and the bounty hunter. "Your arm," Sentiri said to the Twi'Lek girl, giving the other woman a respectful amount of distance but turning just enough to open herself up to the Vahla, hoping that the slight vulnerability made Sentiri seem intentionally trusting. "The cybernetic one. Needs some work, maybe a whole replacement. I know of some people who might be able to help."

Rook | Dara Naevo | Dezik Agorr | Venku Bralor​

 

[Mazrim Caide/Taim]

Tags: Anyone who would like to rp or hire this merc is welcome!

Taim enters the bar in a photo-collar to obscure and pixelate his face as well as modulate his voice, his battle armor otherwise in place except for the helmet. His slug-thrower carbine is slung on his back, the matching pistol and combat knife on his legs as he strolls over to the bar-top and taps the counter with two fingers.

"Water, in a tumbler with ice."

His voice comes out robotic and strange even to him, but he couldn't risk anyone recognizing it. He calmly waits for his drink, sitting at the bar-top and seemingly not even watching the door at his back, rather unprofessional of a mercenary...

 

[Dara Naevo]

Sentiri saw a move and decided to take it. She left the bar, drink in hand, and approached the Twi'Lek and Vahla. She stood in front of their booth in between them and the bounty hunter. "Your arm," Sentiri said to the Twi'Lek girl, giving the other woman a respectful amount of distance but turning just enough to open herself up to the Vahla, hoping that the slight vulnerability made Sentiri seem intentionally trusting. "The cybernetic one. Needs some work, maybe a whole replacement. I know of some people who might be able to help."

Dara slowed down. Was it this obvious that her botched cybernetics were the bane of her existence? She noticed that people either considered her to be useless, or exploitable because of it.

She rolled her eyes at the offer, "there is...always a price. What is...in it for...you."

Her vocabulator monotone managed to mask her nervous disposition. Dara recalled the last time people 'helped' her, back in her Alliance days when they took her to a backwater planet (not quite as bad as Nar Shaddaa, though) and fitted her with a shoddy, clunky cybernetic left forearm and hand. Whatever funds the Alliance had would be funnelled straight back into their arsenal or intelligence.

"I..." Dara began again, her vocabulator starting to get a little smoother, "I...just need some parts."

 

[Rook]

Rook had trailed behind Dara more out of an idle sense of curiosity, clearly, the woman felt the need to get away from the storm trooper, but that could be simply out of a dislike of them rather than any thing as dramatic as an arrest warrent. It wouldn't have been that unusual Rook wasn't overly fond of them herself. She had, had some interaction with them it had taught her that they tended to be fairly by the book a trait that tended to be as useful as much as it got in the way of what needed to be done.

Keeping this in mind she kept him and the rest of the folk gathered at the bar in her line of sight, just in case they did anything that would require sudden action on her part, for now, though they, for the most part, seemed to be like normal bar-goers if not of the more violently inclined sort. This fact did warrant some sort of professional politeness. This did mean she got close enough to hear the twi'lek talking about new parts, and note anyone keeping an eye on them from the bar.

"I wouldn't say that too loudly there are people who would take you up on that offer and then charge you for it later." She raised some poor partons glass from the bar in a cheers motion but she didn't drink from it, who knew where the owner of the drink had been or even what they had ordered. But it seemed to be the thing to do, she would see what kind of attention it would attract. There after all was a good deal that could be learned about people by how they reacted to such things.

"It is hutt space, and you my dear are twi'lek. There are plenty of people who would be happy to sell you to the local slug in charge." She wasn't being hostile and despite appearances Rook was giving out friendly advice. While Vahla were not in high demand with people who might want entertainers from the hutts twi'leks most certainly were, even those with cybernetic parts.

 

[Dezik Agorr]

Location: Nar Shaada
Objective: Grab a drink
Tags: Mazrim Caide/Taim

Dezik wiped off the Torguta's blood onto the table, leaving a red smear, much to the bartenders discontent. Normally anyone would try and fight back but it seemed the four thermal detonator's sitting on his bandoliers and his lack of restraint when it came to violence. But if the bartender had tried to do anything, Dezik would not have hesitated to turn the Short Rancor into a crater. Or at least try. It wouldn't have been the first 'bar turned warzone' he would've been part of but Dezik wasn't a man who'd go around starting trouble and he'd much rather drink than get killed.

He swivelled his bar stool around and leaned back on the counter, continuing to drink his Spotchka and watched as Mazrim Caide/Taim ordered water. "Mate, you're not in a garrison mess hall. They serve more interesting drinks than water, especially on Nar Shaada." he said with a chuckle. Dezik had spent most a good portion of his adulthood in the Sith Empire and his speech showed it. From constant references to the Stormtrooper Corps and to the way he dressed.

 

[Dara Naevo]

"I wouldn't say that too loudly there are people who would take you up on that offer and then charge you for it later." She raised some poor partons glass from the bar in a cheers motion but she didn't drink from it, who knew where the owner of the drink had been or even what they had ordered.

Apparently unnoticed to Rook, the drink was the property of a Dug. The little Malastarian looked up in alarm when Rook swiped it.

"Chuba!" he yapped, then left the scene, disappointed but not caring quite enough to defend his beverage.

"It is hutt space, and you my dear are twi'lek. There are plenty of people who would be happy to sell you to the local slug in charge." She wasn't being hostile and despite appearances Rook was giving out friendly advice. While Vahla were not in high demand with people who might want entertainers from the hutts twi'leks most certainly were, even those with cybernetic parts.

Dara shuddered at the prospect of slavery, "you...aren't wrong."

"Do you...think I am...here by choice?" she lowered her voice, "I can b-barely wire a commlink anymore, I'm n-no use to the h-hutts."

 

[Venku Bralor]

From his spot beside the water drinking merc, Venku continued to nurse his drink, whiskers twitching to flick off drops of alcohol. His ears twisted, one focusing on the twi'lek and the conversations around her, and the other focusing on the two mercenaries beside him.

He could feel the tensions escalating in the bar, making his hackles raise and his tail brush instinctively against the blaster at his thigh. Just to make sure it was still in place.

 

[Sentiri]

She rolled her eyes at the offer, "there is...always a price. What is...in it for...you."

...

"I..." Dara began again, her vocabulator starting to get a little smoother, "I...just need some parts."

Sentiri looked over the work that the Twi'Lek had been doing on the table. Components were scattered about coordinating with the commlink. Despite the difficulty that the Twi'Lek was having, there was an organization there that spoke to the young woman's knowledge. But the way her hands moved spoke to a lack of coordination. Whether from trauma, faulty parts, or both, the girl obviously couldn't do something that she used to do frequently. To top that off, the girl wasn't trusting. She had no reason to be. Obviously, whoever had outfitted her with her cybernetics in the first place had either been poor at it, or intentionally botched the job, or only had terrible components at hand. Whatever the case, Sentiri could tell the subject bothered the Twi'lek.

Sentiri sat down, attempting to make herself less threatening. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the trooper engaged in conversation with another patron and hoped that would be enough distraction. "I'll be blunt. I was recently contacted about a job. Not a one time thing, a long term contract. But it involves a trial run. I can bring with me whatever resources I deem necessary. That includes associates."

The Chiss paused to let the information sink in. She picked her words carefully. At the end of the day, being hired for a service while indebted to the person who hired you was just another form of extortion. The only difference was that the extortion was in writing. That was just how corporate types worked. They liked to legalize their underhandedness. But when the benefits outweighed the risks? Those were offers that were difficult to refuse.

"The employer is one of the best cyberneticists in the galaxy. You come with me as my associate, provide me with adequate technical expertise, and I'll put you on the contract. Trial run isn't paid. But I can add a cybernetic component to the resources needed for the run. I get approved for the position? You get hired alongside. You get pay, housing, whatever you need. You can take the parts out of your pay if you want to install them yourself. Or you can take more out if you want someone else to do the service. You won't get everything you need overnight. More like bits and pieces here and there. And the job itself isn't without risk." Sentiri left: But the job'll get both of us what we want. No matter the risk, it would be worth it.

"Whatever the consequences, it has to be better than... this."

Dara Naevo​

 

[Dara Naevo]

Dara's headtails twitched at the offer, whether that was out of intruige or anxiety wasn't so clear. She had been scraping to make ends meet, she couldn't remember the last time she ate food that wasn't in a self preserving portion packet.

She folded her arms, hoping it might make her look less desperate and a little more business. For now, her cybernetics had stopped rattling. She felt calm and she wasn't even drunk this time.

"Adequate...technical expertise," she said dryly "don't be too kind."

Dara took a good look at the Chiss. She didn't look like the kind of scum that was out to get anyone - not her anyway. Her clothes looked fresh, maybe even laundered. She didn't smell like chemicals like the other street rats that promised her empty credits for running spice. Something told her to take the leap. Call it fate, or a neural implant about to short circuit.

"I will...bite," she nodded in agreement, "sounds like you need me...and maybe, I need you. You have...a plan?"

 

[Mazrim Caide/Taim]

Tags: Dezik Agorr
Taim looks the man over. Soldier. A well trained one, but undisciplined. Quick to violence. He shrugs.

"I'm here on business, not pleasure." he sips his water calmly.

"And you are neither my client or one of my bounties. So. Who are you?"

 

[Rook]

She was distracted by the conversation going over to her side, having no cybernetic parts, at least not yet Rook found her attention waning from that conversation a bit back to other ones that were in earshot. She too had no idea who either of them were, but listening in might prove to be useful if she found out why someone was away from the barracks. She wouldn't think there would be any base close enough to Nar Shaddaa or that the hutts would tolerate patrols, at not many of them, of course, a hutt could have been paid to look the other way, which was the most likely case.

To that end, she put the drink back down where it was quickly reclaimed by its owner. She leaned her back on the bar, to keep her line of sight to the room a habit she found useful more than once. If they were going to fight over bounties life might get interesting.