Business As Usual

S

Sarloch

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Original poster
Mos Eisley Spaceport, a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The twin suns beat down on the bustling trade hub as all manner of creature went about their day to day activities. Street vendors peddled their shoddy wares and spoiled food while masses of drunks poured in and out of bars like the drinks they were imbibing. Somewhere there was the sounds of murder being masked by the music of one of the many seedy clubs that dotted the city-scape, and no one stopped to do anything for fear of ending up as the next nameless victim to be found laying face down in the dust.

In the past few years things have only become more corrupt as the Empire's grasp has tightened on the backwater planet. Imperial troops patrol the streets, and are worse than the Hutt thugs they replaced. Not that the thugs are gone, they've just moved from shaking people down for money, to spreading Death-Sticks around the streets like candy.

Corruption, greed, and death... Business as usual in Tatooine's trade hub.
 
Jorya Zione stepped off her shoddy tin-can of a space craft and put her left hand on the head of her R2 unit. She took a minute to fumble around her personage as a cover for what she was really doing. The eyeless woman was scoping out her surroundings, feeling out with the force and looking at her surroundings. "Shitty as we left it, huh?" She asked her droid, who beeped in response. She smirked, shook her head, and started walking farther into the hustle and bustle of the port. She had a pick-up to make, but maybe a drink first.

As the crowd closed in around her, she almost made a point of bumping into people, muttering apologies in different languages, rarely matching the language to the creature or person she bumped into. If she needed to cross the street, she did it without hesitation and seemingly without stopping to look both ways. Occasionally, her droid would send out a panicked beep and she'd stop, heave a sigh, and go when the little 'seeing-eye-droid' said it was safe.

But really, Mos Eisley was her comfort zone. She was there often enough she knew the Hutts by name and exactly how to avoid each and every one of them. Which drug dealer to buy from and which one to turn around and sell to if she needed a quick credit or two. She had her droid keep a list of which bars she had been thrown out of and which ones gave her a free round now and then, and which places she was still welcome to stay a night. Not to mention she could make her way to her favorite cantina with her figurative eyes closed. That place had a male Twi'lek that she could stare at all night long...
 
Nalan `Ayehe swung her head around at one of the wolf-whistles that was destined for her and she resisted the urge to whip out her lightsaber and cut off the Trandoshan's lizard-like head -Her lekku's swinging as she ran up to the Trandoshan. "Watch your tongue," she insisted to him. The lizard man backed up as far as he could in his bar stool and she narrowed her hairless brows at him. She relinquished her gaze on him, and mosied on up through the throng of species so she could meet up with her latest client: a drug-smuggler from Tatooine.
 
The Trandoshan, a slaver by the name of Glax, apparently did not like the way the curvy little Jedi-in-exile looked at him. Once the shock of being called out wore off he snarled softly and stood, reaching a hand up to pick idly at a scale on his chin that had never quite healed right after a fight in his youth. He narrowed his eyes at her and watched her walk off, his tongue slipping out of his mouth to taste the air as he started to slowly and methodically plod after her. Almost as an after thought he turned around and tossed a stolen credit stick on the bar to cover his tab, then returned to his hunt, grinning wickedly as he though of the price that little thing would fetch for him.
 
As she approached the Duros to seal the deal on her lastest cartel of drugs, she tucked her lightsaber back in its holster for safe keeping, but always accessible. Being a slave, and being a Twi'lek, she had the priviledge of learning and picking up certain languages that others did not know, or could not master. Switching to the male Duros' native language of Durese, she sat across from him and prattled about the cartel. "Do you have it?" she asked. The Duros nodded his massive head, and she nodded as well.

She ad built up a reputation in Mos Eisley, and she intended on keeping it. This drug-smuggling would bring me a lot of money, and she would be getting her good name out there of being a Rogue Jedi willing to do most anything for the right amount of cash.
 
One thing The Force did for Jorya was give her what she called her Mischief Sense. As she felt around for something to occupy her time, the sense of someone on the hunt peaked her curiosity. She spun on her heel suddenly and walked across the busy street, ignoring the frantic beeps and blips from her droid who chased after her in a panic.

"Relax! I'm fine!" She said, right before running into someone. "Ah. Sorry." She grinned and put her hand on her droid's head, pointing him in the direction of the hunt. It wasn't until she got closer that she noticed the female Twi'lek. Slavers? Trying to go after a Jedi? This just became her lucky day.

Not so lucky for her droid, who was now being pushed along towards the Twi'lek. She bellied up to the bar and ordered a drink, turning her ear towards the bartender as if she really was blind. She was focusing, instead, on the Jedi and the Duros, and the Trandoshan.
 
"Yes, that amount will do nicely." Nalan appraised the sack of narcotics under their table in her hand. She gave a smirk of satisfaction and she nodded at the Duros, who returned it. "How much is my cut to be?" asked the Duros. Nalan tossed him a look, though not one of disdain but of thought. "The usual, my friend. I get sixty-five for the trouble, and you get thirty-five for sitting on your ass." This time she gives a smirk of disdain and sarcasm as she uses the table to stand up and she saunters off towards the bar to order a drink. Her lightsaber bounces along her hip as she sways and swivles through the throng of beings.
 
Ah, well, that was her luck, wasn't it? The Twi'lek managed to come up right beside the woman. She smirked, feeling her up with The Force a bit. She brought her glass to her lips. "You shouldn't carry that around." She said matter-of-factly, as if the other woman would completely understand what she was talking about. "It's dangerous out here for people like you."

She turned her head towards Nalan as if looking at her, though she could see her just fine no matter which way she was facing. "They hunt your kind, you know..." She was being vague on purpose. This blind woman couldn't possibly know Nalan was a Jedi...could she?
 
Nalan looked over at the Miraluka with a bored look. "And to what are you mentioning, exactly?" Nalan placed her blue hand over the hilt of her lightsaber protectively without any thought. If she needed to wield her blade against the new blind stranger, the Twi'lek would have no problem with that. And was this new woman to think that she could just be so vague and not give a real question
 
She smiled and turned back to her drink. "That shiny little piece of weaponry you're carrying. You should be careful." The sly smile flickered to a frown as memories flooded the woman's mind. She pushed them back and forced the smile back to her lips. She took a drink and waved for another.

"And being what you are, all eyes are on you already, aren't they?"

She spun on her barstool to fully face the woman suddenly. "There's a bar right down the corner with a really attractive Twi'lek male you might be interested in." She jumped up off her stool. "Come on. Lets go there. It's a bit more savory than this place, too. And if ya tip well enough, you get a bit more than just a very handsome man serving you drinks." She laughed and put her hand on her droid's head as if she needed him to help her navigate her way out. "Come on, friend. Lets talk."
 
Nalan was naturally suspicious of everyone, so of course she predicted their might be an ulterior motive to this new "friend" of hers. But Nalan followed the blind woman and thought about what she had said. The Twi'lek placed her hand on her lightsaber again and curled her lip at the thought of having to hide it. And, yes, the men and even women had been staring at her, but Nalan had learned to ignore it over the years
 
Seeing that the Twi'lek was following her, she smirked a bit to herself. Her droid beeped at her, quite annoyed at the whole situation. She stopped just outside the cantina and tilted her head. "Hey, where's my favorite bar?"

Her droid let his annoyance be known with some beeps and swoops, roughly translating to you know damn well where it is! I honestly don't understand why you keep insisting on this facade! All the same, he turned and wheeled her in the direction of her favorite bar.


"So! What brings someone like you to such a wretched hive of scum and villainy?" She asked, turning around to just walk backwards, keeping a hand on her droid as if she needed to.
 
"Why do you want to know?" Nalan was not rude by nature, but years of living on the precarious side of life tends to leave one with an indirect attitude. Se kept following the woman and her droid though the streets until they would reach their destination. Nalan took comfort in the knowledge that nothing would stop her from drawing her blade if the situation should present itself
 
"Simple curiosity, my friend." She said, turning deftly and walking into the bar. She face-planted into the wall first, felt along it, then walked through the doorway with a bright grin on her face. She had really perfected the blind act. She found a corner booth and slid into it, leaving her droid to stay out beside it. She searched the bar as she sat there, drumming her fingers idly on the table.

"Me, I'm a smuggler. Waiting for later in the day when I have a meeting with someone. You know you're being followed by a slaver, right?" She asked, siding a finger up under the cloth around her eyes to scratch an itch without revealing anything.
 
Nalan reflexively whippet her head around. How had she not noticed a Slaver? Then she turned back towards the Miraluka with a suspicious look. What if Nalan's new "friend" was the Slaver and she was just being an asshole by trying to get Nalan all riled up. "Where did you see this 'Slaver?'"
 
"Oh, I didn't see him, friend. I smelled him." She tapped the side of her nose. "He smelled bad...like a Trandoshan." She put her elbow on the table and put her chin on her fist. "And he smelled like he was hunting down something pretty. You smell like you're something to look at." She said, shifting a bit in her seat.

Being weird and awkward was one of Jorya's strong points. "I'm Jorya, by the way." She brought her right hand up and over the table, presenting it to the Twi'lek. "Jorry's fine. I answer to a lot of things, honestly..."
 
For some reason, Nalan decided to give the Miraluka the benefit of the doubt and trust her -for now. She shook the woman's hand and sit down across from her. Had the Trandoshan really been staring at her that way? The type of way where he was calculating how many pretty pennies he would get from selling her to God knows who. She shivered.
 
"This is the point in the conversation, Twi'lek, where you grace me with your name." She said, taking her hand back. "That's how introductions work." She stretched her 'gaze' out a bit farther then pulled it back in so she was just 'looking' at the booth they were in. No sense in reaching one's force powers out where others could catch whiff of them.
 
Nalan pursed her lips with an almost scowl. She liked Jorya, she decided. She liked that she had spunk and a fire about her. And that she was not intimidated by the Twi'lek. "My name is Nalan. The last name, not important."
 
"Oh, neither is mine, but I feel you would know it if I told it to you." She let her thoughts wander, very briefly, to her Jedi parents. She reached up to scratch under her eye-covering again. "So, what makes a Jedi turn into a drug-smuggler?" She asked with surprising honesty and...well...knowledge for someone that was supposed to be blind...

Of course, Nalan may have put two-and-two together by that point....