Aneira laughs, light and easy
'With' is a strong word, let's just say for the moment I've got my eye on the furry guy and the short guy, and leave it at that!
She does exactly that, sitting at the bar with a vantage point to cover both Proc's table and the three by the door.
Juviest slowly pulls out a cigar, lighting it up. He puffs out a trail of smoke, the cloud scintillating in the everchanging glow of the club. He takes a look around, on the faces of gangers high and low. I don't know or care if the man's serious or just trying to scam us because he thinks he's got a strong hand to play. Deal's a deal.
"We're not paying double. But you and Aristi here can surely work something out.", says Juviest, exhaling once again and nodding at Aristi. Well, kiddo, now let's see how good you are at dealing. Would hurt losing the job, but it'd be this poodoo's fault, not mine.
He bites the cigar in the other side of his mouth, showily moving his hands away from the blasters.
<looks menacing standing at door>
Aristi's starting to sweat, his fur rippling. He glances across the room at the Lieutenant, who looks ready to stuff someone out an airlock. He turns back to Proc. "We're sorry that you've had extra expense, but the payment's already been agreed. We've had our own troubles too. But maybe we can work something out that'll benefit both parties, eh? After all, your efforts haven't gone unnoticed; show yourself to be a trusted business partner and I'm sure we can send plenty of work your way, keep you living the life of luxury I see you have here." A sweeping gesture takes gestures round the club.
"Go on, I am listening." As Proc leans back into his chair.
One of the humans at the table of three gets up and approaches the door to the bar. Either he is leaving or about to start something...
"Heh, well our employers are still a small organisation but are expanding rapidly. Rapid growth means business opportunities, eh? Personnel, resources, transport, if you can provide it then I foresee exciting times ahead for you. But then, if we're not going to stick to the deal, maybe we should just take our business elsewhere." Aristi glances over at the cigar-chomping Sullustan. "Juviest, is that contact of yours still on Nar Shadaa? He wasn't our preferred choice, but he did deal straight and did seem able to get the goods." Aristi's fur ripples again, as hopes Juviest plays along. I'd say most of that's the truth, as long as he doesn't ask too many questions about this competitor.
Kara keeps an eye on the human approaching the door. She didn't really want to stop him from leaving - no sense in getting violent if the guy just needs to go home - but she knew better than to ignore him.
She didn't want this to turn into a gunfight, but even so, she looked for the closest cover to get behind just in case. If the guy wanted a fight, he'd get it. And either guns or fists, this wasn't going to go well for him.
Proc turns to the sullustan waiting a response. After a few seconds of silence he turns back to Aristi, "Lets deal, I can let the whole shipment go for 35k credits."
The human approaching the door eyes Thrask up then shifts his gaze to Kara. Just he reaches the door he gives the LT a smile and slips out the door.
Kara's face is ice cold as the man goes by. She shifts her position so that her back is not entirely to the door.
Seeing that Aristi isn't responding well to the changed offer, Djebelle steps in with a sweet smile, one finger twirling artlessly through her purple hair.
"Hmmm... are you sure that's your best offer? 'Cos I don't see a lot of other traders lined up for what you got, kapish? Why don't you have a pause, give it another shot, hmmm? Think on it while I refill my drink." She gives him a wink and a flash of her dimples. "Don't make me walk away from this empty handed, ok? Bad for business."
Heading for the bar, she hopes the others are covering her as she turns her back on the mark.
Don't-look-at-them-don't-look-at-them-don't-look- DAMMIT!
It's the fleetingest of fleeting glances, but her brown eyes momentarily hold Kara's red ones, before hastily sliding away. Stupid. Worse - unprofessional. She hopes she isn't losing her nerve.
Juviest takes the cigar and starts cutting the edge. "Kid's right, there. What you're getting with us is security, too. Whatever it is you're shipping, be it now or later. And I'd be the first to tell you, we're just having a bit of a trade disagreement. Money's money, loyalty's loyalty.", he relays, lighting the cut cigar up.
Aneira continues to sip her drink as her gaze shifts across the whole room, alert for any trouble.
Aristi is grateful for Djebelle's sudden appearance. He turns back to Proc Shmo while clapping a paw on Djebelle's arm. "Proc, this is Djebelle. She's one of our fixer's, one of our best. I'd listen to her." He gives the Twi'lek a winning smile, all the while thinking in his head thinking we may just have to pay this guy what he thinks we owe.
Kara's face is a mask of...nothing, as Djebelle looks her way. But inside...
...'emperor's balls, kid! hold it together!'...
Proc eyes the group up and down with a stern look, after a moment his eyes fix on Aristi. His face lightens as a file comes to lips, "All right all right. Lets make it 22k to pay for my fees and we can all walk away happy."
A drink - and the calm mellow feeling that comes with the soothing powers of the Force that is suddenly accessible to her once more - steadies Djebelle's nerves.
Sashaying up to the table, she leans into Proc. "22K?! C'mon, why not take the clothes off my back, too? You want Green and Scaly there -" she points at Thrask "- to starve? Look at Aristi's fur, how can you possibly expect him to keep it that lustrous if you're gonna snatch everything from him?"
She looks doleful. "I can't give you that price, OK? Girls have expenses to cover. Meet me halfway. 15K and we'll say no more about it."
Juviest brightens up as Djebelle gets her hand on the negotiation. "And I've got my own bills.", he takes a sip from his drink. "Medical ones.", he gestures. "If you ask me, we're just arguing the numbers just now. We're not looking to scam you, and you shouldn't look into scamming us." He stands up from the table, nodding at Aristi and Djebelle. "Gotta go stretch. You limp up quickly when you're lucky enough to be my age.", he says, opening his coat, which accidentally shows his blasters.
As he moves towards the door, he taps his ear. "Kid, I'd be careful if I were you. Don't push it, the man probably has a reputation to keep. I'd advise to agree on anything at 20 or below, otherwise we might get into a lot more trouble when we come back here next time.", he whispers quickly, turning around quickly to make another glance around the room.
Still watching.
If Proc Shmo agrees to any price 20K or below, Aristi grows effusive and claps a paw on the Twi'lek's shoulder. "You won't regret this, Proc Shmo! We will put in a good word for you, I'm sure we'll get more contracts coming your way. Now, where do we collect the cargo? We'll collect the materials and arrange transfer of payment. Pardon us for not sticking around, some of our colleagues have twitchy trigger fingers so are keen to get out of here."
"Ok, Ok 20k will work. It is for a good cause and I am ready to get of this rock. I will have the cargo at your ship when the transfer is complete. Where are you docked?"
Aristi keeps a paw draped around Proc Shmo like they are old friends, as he goes through the process of transferring payment and arranging collection of the cargo. "Well, it's been great working with you Proc. I'll keep my word and tell our employers how helpful you've been. Hopefully we'll be able to work together again soon."
The deal done, Aristi explains through his ear piece to the rest of the team what's gone down, and that we can return to the Kessel's Folly. He heads out with Juviest and Djebelle, as they've obviously been seen together. He's not sure how the others will follow suit, but he's tempted to give a positive thumbs up to the Lieutenant.
Nar Shadaa is still creeping him out something terrible, so he's keen to head back to the ship before trouble finds them.
"Great. Our ship's the Kessel's Folly." Djebelle gives the details of where they are landed, and beams a big smile at Proc, before hurrying out. Much like Aristi, she's got a bad vibe from this place and wants to leave asap. Sooner than that, even.
Thrask snorts and looks at Kara. He let's out a low hiss as the other start to head towards the door "You want to watch the kids or should we watch the merchandise... " he said, his voice trailing off as the others came close to the door.
Her shoulders easing almost imperceptibly as the deal is completed without any blaster fire, Aneira finishes her drink and tipe the bartender a wink.
She follows the others back to the Folly, shadowing Djebelle if she seems to be making her way back on her own.
Shortly after your arrival back at the Folly some droids arrive with the cargo as well as more festive box. One of the more advanced of the droids says that it is a gift from Master Shmo. It contains a few exotic food packs for your enjoyment. The astromech droid with its faulty motivator you traded for is already on board.
at the bar...
Kara grins at Thrask. "The kids for sure," she chuckles, "got to make sure they find their way."
on the Folly...
Kara makes sure to supervise the loading of the cargo. If nothing seems amiss, it's back to the routine: breakdown gear, clean gear, reassemble gear, stow gear.
"Where now?" she says to no one and everyone.
Juviest chuckles at Kara's question. "I'd usually say the bar, but we just went. I picked up a couple of bottles, and a nice big sack of java juice, so whenever you give me the go, I'll get this rust bucket flying.", he replies, sitting on the ship's ramp, lighting up a cigar.
"Great going, kids. All of you working together, you just might sell a pair of boots to a Hutt.", he chuckles. "I'd check what Shmo sent for poison, first, though.", he says, lifting his flask with a smile.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but since when do merchants dispense free gifts?
muses Aneira out loud
Vendors will do 'loss leaders', Fixers will often 'wine and dine', but a free product? Hmmm
Aneira puts the 'exotic food packs' through any number of scans to check for anything unusual, and whether there are any bugs or trackers hidden.
Djebelle grins at Juviest, giving him a dimpled smile, before shrugging off Aneira's suspicions. "So he liked us - that's not exactly unheard of, you know! Not to me, anyway. C'mon, let's see what he's given us."
It's noteable that she stays away from the droids, though. Can't read them, or influence them, and they're not susceptible to her smile, either. She'd rather that they weren't on board, but life is full of compromises.
"Thanks for the encouragement Juviest. It was a team effort. Let's set course. For this Hoth place and get this cargo delivered. Doesn't sound like any of us want to stick around here."
Aristi looks the new astromech over, giving it a pat. "Hi there, little guy. What's your designation?" With the cursory glance he starts mentally tallying the parts needed to get the droid up to spec.
Kara watches Aneira closely. She had the right idea. No one gives you anything for free...
"Might as well check that droid too, Reb." She says casually to the Devaronian. "Make sure all the 'gifts' are clean."
...'reb'. heh. old habits die hard, Kara girl. but she needs to know I'm still watching...
The R2 unit makes some beeps and bops with a slight head spin at Aristi's question.
The collection of rare foods come from all over the universe includes packages of: Fambaa Delight, Nuna Gumbo, Tonitran jerky, and Andorian jelly. They all test as safe.
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'...wait...what? Tonitran jerky???'
Kara's ears perk up at the mention of the Tonitran jerky. One of the things every soldier knew was a good jerky, and Tonitran was the best. Once in a while someone would get some, usually on the sly, and shared it with the rest of the unit. It was one of the rare moments of joy when you were in theater on an Op.
She ambles over and grabs a packet of the jerky. She pulls her knife from its sheathe on her shoulder and slices the top off of the vac-sealed bag. The smile on her face is as broad as her ears as she moves back over to her bunk while pulling a long piece of the jerky and tearing off a piece in her teeth. Kara stretches out, feet up on her helmet, eyes closed and savoring the stuff.
It's a long time before anyone can get anything out of her....
"Oh man, Andorian jelly! Awesomesauce!" Djebelle's eyes light up like a kid whose birthday has come early. "Here, watch this..." Pulling out what's left of the bottle of Q-spice that she and Kara nearly demolished some time ago, she puts some of the jelly in a bowl and adds the liquor.
"Wait for it...ah!" The potent - and illegal - ingredients in the Q-spice react with the jelly, making it sublimate into smoke with a hiss. Breathing in deeply will give you a combined sugar-alcohol vape hit straight into your bloodstream that sends you into the stratosphere.
"Mmmffff..."
Eyes rolled up, Djebelle collapses into a ball, hugging herself with glee. The trickle of blood from her nose doesn't seem to impinge on her consciousness one iota.
Thrask made his way back onto the ship and got a quick look around seeing two of the crew incapacitated by the extra package they received. He shook his head and walked over to the box and gave it a once over. He was not surprised that Trandoshan delicacies were not in the box, after all it was hard to keep worms fresh and wriggling after all.
He stepped over and looked down at the smaller female who appeared to be having a seizure and simply slipped a clawed hand down and picked her up like a sack of potatoes to go throw her drooling and bleeding self into a bed to get over whatever it was humans did.
Once he was done he checked the cargo bay to make sure that everything was situated and that his portion of the bay was untouched. Once satisfied that everything was in it's place he picked up a few weighted items and began his routine for the day, going through the swinging motions of saber play.
Aristi observes Kara and Djebelle's manic glee over the food with good humor. Humans, they sure knew how to have fun. He longed to join them, but his fur was still crawling - time to get out of here.
Turning back to the droid, he leads it over to a place where it can be made secure for lift-off. "My Binary's a bit rusty, but we'll get there. We'll be glad to have your help with navigation, you can help me plot our course once we get going in a few minutes."
The Bothan makes one last check that the cargo is secure, everyone seems happy, and he joins Juviest beside the ramp. "We're all set to go when you are. If you're flying this leg, I'll help with the astrogation. They delivered that navigation droid, I think it may need some work but hopefully it'll help us where we're going. Once we're in hyperspace I'll sit down to see what kind of work it's going to need."
Once the Folly is underway, Aristi works with Juviest and R2 to plot a course.
Juviest harumphs, with a tone of disappointment in his voice. "Well, enjoy the food, kids. If you feel like sharing, I'll be in the cargo bay, fiddling with this old sack of bolts.", he says, patting the droid, which whistles and whirrs in an insulted manner. "Nah, not apologising for that. Tell you what though, I'll give you an oil bath.", he says, giving a gentle nudge to the droid with his foot.
He harumphs once more when Aristi reminds him of Hoth. "You know, I bet the guy who named that place had a reaaal sense of humour. Or no knowledge of Basic. A nerf-herder, anyway...", he shares, making his way towards the Nav-Computer. "Right. Unless anyone forgot to pick up groceries, we're leaving in 30 standard minutes. Don't know how long's that in military minutes, LT, so help yourself.", he chuckles, putting his legs on the console. Should probably get a new captain's chair. This one smells, too..
The cargo droids leave the ship, everyone and everything now fed and stowed. The Folly heaves into the sky and slips out of the gravity well of Nar Shadda. With a course set the view outside the ship suddenly pauses and streaks as you enter hyperspace on the two week long journey to Hoth.
Kara's daily ritual goes on with little deviation: Zero-dark 30 workout, light breakfast, gear maintenance, light lunch, weapon training (mostly combat knife - there's no place for target practice on the Folly), light dinner, another workout, shower, sleep. It sets a common rhythm, and it makes the time pass.
It's a long way to Hoth. Aristi spends the time mucking in with Juviest to try to get the droid up to spec. He also asks Kara and Thrask for help with combat training. "I know I'm not much of a fighter, but if I'm going to fit in with this outfit I'd better try to improve my combat skills. More to the point, we seem to attract trouble. I don't want to end up dead. Will you help?"
Thrask when asked to help with combat training for the bothan walks around him for a few moments and takes a clawed hand easily wrapping it around the bothan's bicep. He looks at Kara "He would not survive any training I could give him." he states simply before moving to the side and seeing what she makes of the furball.
Kara watches Thrask size up Aristi with amusement. The ending is predictable. "He doesn't fit your style of fighting anyway." She retorts to the big Transdoshan from where she lays on her bunk. "Missing all those claws and attitude."
The Chiss commando swings her legs down and stands up stretching her lithe frame. Certainly not as physically imposing as Thrask, Kara nonetheless has the aura and attitude of a trained killer. She circles Aristi much like Thrask did, looking him up and down. But she focuses on the light blaster pistol at his side.
"I could train you," she begins, "but it can't be done here on the ship. We don't have the facilities for that. Until then, my suggestion is: stay under cover. Don't cower and hide, that's not what I'm saying. Just keep your head down and never give them a clean shot. Heroes end up dead, and I don't plan on dying any time soon trying to save someone that can't keep themselves out the line of fire."
This last comes with a glance at Djebelle, sending a clear message: '...i might not be there next time...'
"Duck, and cover. I guess I can do that." Aristi still wishes he could contribute something more...substantial to the group. He heads back to his quarters and starts doing press-ups.