The Lost Treasure of Babba-Yama [Fluffy / Seiji]

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Zayin squinted at the petulant girl and took a seat in the lounge-seating for the holochess table. At the center of it sat both of the golden trinkets: his Hutt statue and her... whatever it was. They seemed to come from the same hunk of metal, he realized, as they reflected with the same lustre and hue. He tilted his head and scratched at his beard, staring a bit longer than he should have when he turned his attention back to the girl.

She sat cross-legged from him, and enough paces that he could give a shot off on his blaster before she kneed him in the chest, or kicked him in the face. An Echani warrior doing either of those moves would put him outright. He was no slouch in combat, but he didn't want to chance it.

So... distance. For now. He shook his head so he wouldn't be enchanted by those statues again.

"Okay, so a little simple bit of math here says you stole away on this here ship of mine to get my little Hutt thing. Why?!"
 
Feeling his eyes on her, Keelu's body twisted so he was staring at the back of her head instead. She was behaving much like an immature child, pouting at the wall so she wouldn't have to look the grownup in the eyes. Whenever she was chained up in some way, it had a tendency to make her bitter.

Head perched up from its sunken state when he talked, her lips pressing tight together to keep laughter from coming out. One of the many ways she was unable to make friends was this right here; thinking someone's fit of anger was cute rather than take it seriously. However, in this case, she was doing her best to be good. This guy was an armed pirate, with the ability to throw her off the ship if he wanted to.

Letting out a dramatic sigh, she twisted herself again, deciding to grace the man with her eye contact for the moment. "I'm broke, and homeless," she answered bluntly, giving a shrug and a grimace. "I saw the shiny thing, I went after it. And this was a way to get off that awful planet! So, I got desperate, okay!?" As anger started to surface with her words, she expressed a frustrated growl and bit at the air as if there was something there to chomp. Which there wasn't, obviously. Then she let out a breath, keeping calm as possible. "So just do whatever, man." Giving a dismissive gesture as best she could with her cuffed hands, she turned her body yet a third time.
 
Zayin stared at her for a long moment, before sniffing and making a face. "Eugh," he grunted quietly, and then out of nowhere on the ship's onboard announcement system, the droid spoke up.

"That's what I said, berk!"

"Shuddup, droid, you can't smell!"

With a sigh, he stood over the girl and, hands on hips he asked her, "You clean up the ship, after washing your dirty ass, and we can talk about... Uh... Getting you to another port, at the very least.

Whaddya say?"
 
Keelu didn't appreciate him towering over her the way he was, but she gave a respectful glance nonetheless. She arched a thin white brow, clearly sizing him up for various reasons. A light giggle escaped her though as he openly insulted the obnoxious droid at his side. The stare on her face suggested she was looking for something that might be out of place; was he crazy? Clean up the ship? She was mostly expecting to get tossed in a brig.

Cautiously, she backed away from him, waiting until she was a certain distance before standing up. Not because she didn't trust him; he didn't trust herself. To not hurt him. "Okay, yeah. That's fine." She made a stubborn grunt while briefly looking over one of the messes she'd be tending to. After cleaning up the mess that was her body, of course.
 
"Yeah, just... Stop being so stanky."


-----​


He helped her clean up, for the most part. The cargo hold was fine; everything was sealed and locked in. His own quarters, as well as the crew/passenger quarters, were fine as well. But the common area, which had been decorated with the accoutrement one might a home or office, was completely wrecked! Holopicts, news slates, medals, trophies, trinkets of all kind had been scattered about. The foodstuffs as well, that had not been locked into cabinetry, had made a huge mess as well. He was thankful that only one blue milk container had exploded inside, making a mess of a big furry chair that he had really once liked.

He wasn't sure he'd like it anymore.

Not a lot of time passed, thankfully, and the time that did pass he cast furtive glances at the Echani. He hadn't even known her name!

Well, time to fix that.

"So, stowaway, what's your name? Or should I call you 'rat'?" he asked her with a grin.
 
Privately, she was grateful for the opportunity to clean herself up. All the grime she wiped off was worse than she thought, and now she had a much more appealing scent to her. As she kept to her word about tidying the messes in the ship, she had time to think. He was going to drop her off somewhere, right? Whether she was here or there, she was homeless with no direction to go in. An optimistic voice assured she'd find work. Maybe someone could pay her to punch their enemies to death.

Items were moved to their proper places with minimal effort. She was way overqualified for these simple tasks, considering the plentiful muscle and stamina she had. But, she had no complaints. The situation could be worse.

She chortled with amusement at the idea of being called 'rat'. "Only if I'm allowed to call you dumbdumb," she teased back with mock sweetness, showing a grin of her own while her finger made a flick in the air to remind him of what she did to his nose in the cockpit. With a coquettish batting of her lashes, she turned away, snickering to herself like a juvenile. "But nah, my name is Keelu." She made a hop forward, humming curiously as she returned to the mess she was partially responsible for.
 
"Dumbdumb is good!" came the voice over the intercom.

"Shuddup!" roared out Zayin, more irritated than angry. The droid chortled over the intercom, but a static-buzz cut off the laughter, letting the two know he wasn't speaking. But, of course, always listening, it seemed.

"You got my name, so you can call me that: Zayin. Or Captain. Or Captain Zayin. Whichever floats your boat," he said with a smile. He stopped working long enough to offer his hand, the recent past forgotten. He could feel for her immediate history. His was a history filled with similar tales in his youth. He had stowed away on his own barge, more than once. Maybe she was young for an Echani? Stupid weird alien biologies...

"So, we fence your trinket, you give me a nominal fee, and we part ways on decent terms. How does that sound?" he offered.
 
The droid's voice might have been obnoxious, but she admired the wit. Keelu hid a genuine smile behind her hand as she let out a giggle, not quite being a fan of others seeing her emote anything related to happiness.

Zayin turned around then, prompting the Echani to adjust her posture and mask her face with a more neutral expression. Air then filled her cheeks as she looked him up and down with knit eyebrows, not trusting at first that he was being so... Nice. Her cheeks then blew the air sloppily out her lips, sending a section of her hair flying up, only to land on her face again.

Keelu inched closer with utmost caution, staring at his hand like a critter who might be willing to bite his fingers if he made a wrong move. With a curious hum, she dipped her hand into his so they could shake like regular people would. She demonstrated a powerful grip as her digits wrapped around his, the urge to suddenly throw him over her shoulder interrupted by his voice.

"That's fine," she agreed simply, dropping her hand from his so it could hit against her side. Silver orbits shifted to where their weird looking treasures were, both of which she walked to for a closer look. She looked at the rectangular shape that was hers, trimmed with a gold similarly colored to the Hutt idol. There was also a topaz colored gem at the center of one side. Tilting her head, she knocked them both together a few times like a child trying to fit together puzzle pieces that didn't belong.

"Y'know what I noticed? These two things are so--ah!" There was a clicking sound and the two pieces were suddenly united, scaring the Echani enough to dash behind a pile of items she was still working on cleaning up. The Hutt was now seated on the shape; it looked like it was on a fancy platform. Rather cutely, her head poked up, glaring at the gadget like she was about to pounce and beat it to death.
 
"What'd you do?!" Zayin asked excitedly, staring curiously at the holochess table and the Hutt idol-turned puzzle treasure piece?

Wait, what?!

"What the heck is that?" came the droid's voice over the intercom. He was nowhere near as excited or surprised as the rogue Captain, but his tone was inquisitive. Obviously, he had been watching.

"What.. What'd you do?!" Zayin asked again as he approached the idol and lifted it. The Hutt idol was heavy alone, but now it was... really heavy. Not even doubled in weight with the little square-box-topaz piece. There was something more going on. He turned it in his hands and his hand fell on a little section that suddenly pressed down. It was a button, that wasn't a button. An invisible switch.

A starmap shot forward, a huge sphere that filled the creche they were in. It was solidly gridded, showing off all number of planets, star systems and nebula. A few things were named. A few weren't.

In the corner was the image of a Hutt, laughing, with a little bit of speech bubble beneath it...
 
"I don't know, I don't know!" Keelu was still somewhat frightened, desperate to get the message across that she had no clue what she'd done. She was hopeful he wasn't getting mad at her, else they'd have more temper tantrums. The two pieces suddenly were just... Together. Zayin didn't seem angry, she then realized. More like, intrigued. So was his droid.

Though, it didn't take terribly long for her to bulk up. With caution, she rose to her feet, her muscles tensing when the room was suddenly lit up with a grid that resembled outer space. Mouth agape, Keelu rotated so she could get more of an eyeful. Was this supposed to be a map?

A quizzical look was cast to the image of the Hutt, who used a language she did not understand. She wondered if Zayin's robot might be able to translate, unless the human himself knew more than the common tongue. "Well this is just weird," she said dryly, however her eyes were as starry as the images before them. Right then, a grin split across her face. "What do you think all this means?" She had no idea that the unusual object she'd been carrying around, would unlock a secret like this...
 
"It's talkin' about a treasure, berk!" came the droid's voice over the intercom. "The text is talkin' about some ol' Hutt named Babba-Yama. I.. I dunno if that's a she-Hutt or not, but I can cross ref--"

"Get to the important parts, dumbdumb," Zayin hissed aloud, looking upward as if he was talking to the ship itself.

"Ah, well," the droid spoke, "the important part here is, is a thousand years ago, this-here Hutt had some shenanigans with all sorts of. Um. You know what, I'll skip the History lesson 'cause it ain't important. The big part is, the Hutt says there's millions in credits of treasure hidden somewhere!"

"M-Millions?" Zayin asked, eyes wide. He stared at the holo-image, looking at each star point and piece of text that he couldn't decipher. He would have thought it was an old spacer's tale if-- Wait a second...

"Did you say Babba-Yama?!" he asked, looking back up with a hint of recognition.

"Yeap, berk. Babba-Yama. Mean anything?"

"Yeah, it does," Zayin said, pacing back and forth. "It's an old Spacer's tale. My da told me about her. Yep, Her! She was a Hutt crime lord that carved out more of an empire for herself than any legit empire-- Or Republic!-- could ever hope to claim.

The actual Republic got a bit... Well, they didn't like it. So they started taking planets back. But she would raze her worlds for them, stealing away her riches with her. Her Empire shrank, slowly, but she stayed rich-- even got richer!

But the noose tied around her neck eventually. She just laughed and blew up her own flag ship in a battle, whilst sending off a big message about her wealth being found... someplace. Somewhere. Said she left clues on where to get it."

He paused for effect, and grinned.

"I think, my friend... We found the clues.
 
Keelu was moving back and forth in the room, her body spinning slowly the entire time as she tried to get the full view of everything. All the while, she was listening closely to the words Zayin and his droid were exchanging. The story about this she-Hutt was not something she'd ever heard before. The Captain might have to tell her the story in full, sometime. She was sure there was more to it. Admittedly, Keelu had intrigue akin to a child's. She most likely hadn't explored as much as this fellow has. Not when she's always getting stranded on planets...

Feeling the nauseating dizziness set in, the Echani paused. She was quick to right herself with a near perfect posture, not keen on showing any sort of weakness. There was a slight wobble as she stood, otherwise her discipline was speaking very strongly in her efforts to hide her temporary sickness caused by the twirling. "Muhhh--Millions..." she mumbled, scratching at her head in disbelief with a quiet whistle to match.

Her eyes darted right to him; did he just call her friend? Was that a true sentiment, or was he like everyone else who threw the word around even to strangers? She dismissed the thought fairly quickly, though. That shouldn't be important. "What are the odds..." Keelu commented with a shake of her head, still digesting the fact that she happened to run into this guy who had a puzzle piece to a treasure map of some kind. One that fit with a piece of valuable junk she'd been carrying around for who knows how long!

"Obviously, we have to find it!" she then brought up, covering her mouth with her right hand while her awe stricken eyes looked around once more. This was so exciting. It took all of her willpower to not burst with enthusiasm.
 
Zayin had his arms crossed, blinking rapidly as he thought to himself.

Millions in credits were out there, possibly. Probably more like billions. That is, if any of the old legends were true. And they weren't just any old legends, either. They were old spacer tales, which usually benefitted from old drunkards passing tales to young drunkards in bars and bounty cages. The stories got mixed up, mis-matched, and went from something-close to fact to nothing even resembling.

Still, this was a fairly stable tale he had heard more than once in his life-time. The details changed, but there were always the framework was always the same: she-Hutt; Babba-Yama; a mountain's pile of credits in a lost treasure; clues scattered through the galaxy.

The spacer inspected the two pieces again, and this time tried taking them apart. At first they wouldn't budge, and he visibly struggled with the two off-gold pieces of statue before they came apart. When they did, the hologram disappeared. Zayin blinked before putting them back together, and the image came back up with the same bit of audio.

"Huh," he muttered.

He finally brought his attention back to Keelu and shrugged, a sheepish little grin on his face hiding his natural curiousity. He pointed at the hologram, asking, "Where do we start?!"

"Try there," the droid's voice came up over the intercom.

"That doesn't help, bolt-head," Zayin said roughly, gazing up.

"Well, there, as-in, the Kortolo System. It's got some highlights on that-there star map."

"No it doesn't," Zayin said, approaching it and squinting. He practically had his face going through the hologram, he was so close. To his eye, there was nothing to differentiate it from the several star system surrounding it.

"Well, I see it, berk. It's a different shade of white than the rest." The droid sounded a little smug.

Zayin stared long and hard before turning to Keelu.

"Well, I guess Kortolo is better than nothing. What do you think?" He asked, jabbing his finger into the hologram display and fuzzing it up.
 
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Upon the vague mention of 'there', Keelu's eyes darted around as if she were expecting something to suddenly point her in the right direction. Until Zayin snapped at the droid, that is. Pausing, she sent a frustrated look to the ceiling whether or not it could be seen by that sassy droid. That aside, she almost laughed at 'bolt-head'. One wouldn't guess that the simple act of name calling would tickle her so much. Her personality really was immature, her parents just didn't really approve.

Keelu walked closer to the area that the Captain was examining, trying to understand what made it so special. Neither of their eyes could spot the significance, but he seemed to trust the droid's advice. That was better than what she had in mind; which was absolutely nothing. It was safe to assume that she had a base sense of direction. Technically, she's been lost for a good portion of her life.

Her head snapped to the man's direction when his voice broke her concentration on the hologram. "Works for me," she answered, lifting her shoulders and dropping them. She agreed it was better than nothing.

Now she was realizing how different her life suddenly was. On this ship, with this person she barely knew. They had no choice but to work together. Obviously she would refuse to leave here without her half of the map, which would ruin their chances of finding any of this treasure. Unless one of them managed to kill the other... Hopefully that wouldn't happen.

"Um, I'm sorry, by the way. That I tried to steal your ship," Keelu brought up suddenly, rubbing the side of her neck bashfully. She actually was beginning to feel bad. He'd been nice to her even after all the trouble she caused, something she wasn't used to trusting. Most of the time, kindness lured her into traps.
 
"Eh, don't worry about it," Zayin said with a smile and a flippant gesture. He was still a bit ticked off at the entire concept of stealing his ship, but what was done was done, and there was no going back, and no harm no foul, and all that other business. He was fine, she was fine, and he was now on his way to an actual payoff.

He thought, momentarily, of going back to the spaceport they were just at and kicking the door in on Grin's operation. But that was muscley work, and he didn't like muscley work. He liked talky work, or shooty work. Not punchy stuff. He was good at the punching, and he had seen more than his fair share of it since the Sith had moved in and started a whole mess of things-- but he hated it. He had too many scars already, and wanted no more of them.

"Uh, the ship still need a good going over, but there's room for you in the passenger cabins. And we can get you that shower you need, while we're at it."

He flashed her an award-winning grin at that one.

Elsewhere, in the Kortolo System...​

A Rodian flashed what he would call an award-winning grin at the human that was now at his feet, dead and steaming with the ozone-burn from several blaster-bolts to the chest. At either side of the Rodian were a menagerie of aliens and several humans, all holding the blasters used to gun down the luckless man.

The Rodian took several steps forward and picked up what was hidden by the man's corpse: a golden treasure chest, the size of a man's fist.

"So happy to finally find you," the Rodian spoke in it's native language. He turned, and an Ithorian lumbered over to offer up something to him. It was a golden twi'lek girl, her breasts bared while posing erotically. A few of the aliens stared at it as the Rodian took it and effortlessly slid it and the treasure chest together. The pieces clicked together, the girl now straddling the treasure chest luridly, and when they did it hummed with power. Her eyes lit a light blue, and gems inside the treasure chest glowed a menagerie of colours before shooting up a mess of coloured lights.

The Rodian turned and pointed the lights to a nearby wall. He snapped his fingers and pointed, and quickly a human stumbled forward to set a holopad underneath the wall display. A map shot out from underneath, showing a planetary system. The Rodian studied, then shook his head. The human pressed a button, and the system changed. The Rodian shook his head again after a moment, and the human pressed the button again, showing another display.

This followed for several more moments before, finally, something seemed to lock in place for the Rodian and he held his hand up flat, pausing the human from pre-emptively hitting the 'Next' button.

"There," the Rodian said, satisfied. "Kortolo."
 
Cleaning became a quite the theme for Keelu. She would complain if it wasn't all her fault, but sadly... It was. From beginning to end, her misfortune had been a result of her many poor decisions. She brooded on this while she got herself into a fresher condition. While soothing, it also was a bit uncomfortable. The Echani cringed as she moved a hand along the left side of her waist, where there was a massive bruise. Just two days ago, she angered a burly shopkeeper who didn't take kindly to thieves. She was starving, what else was she supposed to do? Keelu could kill a beast in the wilderness when she needed food, but stealing a mere snack at the shopping district seemed impossible.

The wet length of hair was tied back into a low hanging ponytail, then she went to fetch her one remaining outfit. It was identical to the clothes she was previously wearing. Obviously, fashion wasn't her priority. Her form showed that it was built for speed, with shapely muscles that promised deadly impact. Of course, no fight went without consequence. Several marks of battle vanished beneath the shirt she pulled on, the largest of them a large gash that stretched diagonally across her back. The final pieces were her pants, and the wraps she always wore around her wrists. Her hands, of all areas, showed the most damage. She was more than happy to hide it all so as to spark no memories.

Keelu smoothed out her clothes just once before leaving her comfortable solitude. She was on her way to tidy some more of the mess she caused, rather than seek out Zayin. He'd dealt with her enough as it was. She was fooling herself into believing that was her reason. The truth was, she was feeling out of place. Again. Cleaning his ship was her best chance at not taking her frustrations out more violently.
 
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