A Slaver's Stupidity (open to all)

[Ashi]

Lee Ru Bass loved being a slaver. In fact, he probably loved it too much. The sight of a well armed and armored gungan walking thru the Momument Plaza is certainly enough to get second looks. Worse, he was extorting various rich people in the hopes to gain money.

A man in very fancy clothes walked past him, obviously with a very bloated ego. Ders anoder target. Lee Ru thought. He walked up behind the man and tapped him on the shoulder politely. "Exqueeze mesa, but haven yousa been payin yousa health insurance lately?" Lee Ru crossed his arms in over his chest and leaned forward looking hard into the man's eyes, "My bein tinkin yousa hasen't. 10,000 credits please." His hand slid away from his chest smoothly, palm upward.

The man looked at him incredulously and started to protest. "Do you know who I am? I am a senator for the Republic! You can't just walk up to me and expect me to pay you money for my safety!"

"My not bein caren who yousa is. My bein workin for da Exchange. Yousa can bein payin me mula, or mesa can bein taken yousa to Nar Shardaa." Lee Ru's other hand moved down to grip the pistol on his hip. At hearing the name Exchange the man's eyes got wide. "You.... You wouldn't....." Lee Ru slowly drew the pistol, keeping the movements hidden from the rest of the crowd, but very, very obvious to the man in question.

That cemented Lee Ru's motives very well in the man's eyes. He slowly withdrew a large wallet and handed Lee Ru a large wad of bills. "My bein tanken yousa." Lee Ru stated pleasantly as he pocketed the bills and holstered his blaster as subtly as he'd drawn it. Lee Ru turned and walked away, leaving a deflated senator to continue on his way.

Lee Ru continued back to the portion of the building he had started from, hidden by the crowd from the holocams. Hmm.... It bein about time for mesa to bein leavin. He thought to himself as he noticed a guard glancing in his direction. My not bein liken dis feelin at all. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the senator headed towards the guard. "Sith bein Spitten!" he cursed to himself.

Lee Ru began walking towards the exit, his charade changing from obvious and threatening to mild, relaxed, and melancholy. My bein hoping mesa not gonna have to bein callin Kojii. Shesa always bein haten dis part.

[Ashi]

"Nutsen!" Lee Ru cursed to himself quietly Now mesa bein havin to call Kojii. He thought as the guard started talking into his comlink. He too pulled out his comlink, as if he'd gotten a message, and pushed a button. Appearing unconcerned, he put the comlink back into his belt and kept walking.

Anybody who has spent time in a crowded space will tell you that the fastest way to move is with the crowd. The movement of a crowd always has certain currents and eddies. Places where the movement flows and stops. Moving with the crowd means finding one of those 'currents' and getting in it. Those who think about it, also know that it's the most subtle means of moving thru a crowd. This is how Lee Ru moved. Effortlessly getting into the currents, swapping currents as one hit an eddy and so on. Up until he neared the exit.

Exits and entrances are always a different story. The same rules apply, but because of the natural choke point they're easy to monitor. For once, Lee Ru didn't bother trying to hide, but then, that was hiding. He had almost made it out the door when he was approached by a guard and taken aside.

Here it comin. My bein wonderin what tac mesa should bein takin? He considered several options, most of them being aggressive and problematic, before he settled on taking the concerned citizen approach. "My bein sorry, Officer, bein der somedin mesa can help yousa with?" His tone was slightly too barbed, but only slightly so. Nutsen! My bein knowin better dan dis. Mentally he beat himself over the head.

"We've heard reports of a man of about your height, with long ears and a billed mouth, wearing black body armor, mugging people in the marketplace." Lee Ru, his skill not-withstanding, looked concerned. "Well dat bein rather conspicous, sir. What can mesa bein doin to help?" He'd hit it perfectly. The tone and body language worked together nicely. The concern would certainly help his case some too. "Well, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me. We'll perform a search on your person, and if we anything I'm afraid we're going to have to...." Lee Ru caught the direction of the man's distracted gaze and turned an eye that direction.

Kojii had appeared, heading straight for the guard in question. There are ways to make yourself noticed in a crowd that work almost all of the time. Standing in one spot for ten minutes, tends to make guards a little curious. Stopping in the middle of a crowded intersection, then moving against traffic to head towards a guard, is a really, really good way to get that guard's attention. But once you have it, you've got to keep it. Towards this end, Kojii was clad in a somewhat conservative dress and handbag in a navy blue hue that subtly contrasted with her warm pink skin. To counter the conservative cut, the dress clung to every curve, leaving very, very little to the imagination. With a little bit of help from body language, she not only looked like she was on the hunt, but rather lost as well.

"Excuse me, sir, but I seem to be lost." Kojii said in a voice that, unlike Lee Ru, was perfectly sultry the first time, "Can you please direct me to the nearest space port? I was going to meet some friends were going to meet there." She put a subtle emphasis on 'friends'; not so much that it would be noticed by most people, but enough that his subconscious caught the drift and started his mind working double time.

"uuh...." the man tugged at his collar and started again, "uum.... it's.... it's north of here... you'll..." He swallowed hard. "You'll want to take a cab... it's too.... too far to walk..." Kojii smiled warmly. "Thank you, Officer!" she leaned in close and glanced, quite noticably, downwards. "Too bad you're married. I love a man in uniform." With that, she slowly walked past him, seemingly completely oblivious to the stare he sent at her swaying hips.

It took several seconds, but the guard's mind slowly began to recover from his encounter. He looked away from Kojii and back towards Lee Ru. He was gone. Undoubtedly, the guard and his wife, not to mention his boss, would be having a long chat that evening.

. . . . . . . . . . .

The two met up sometime later aboard the Xijulba. "Do you really have to wonder why I hate doing that?" Kojii asked when she first saw Lee Ru. "You've got no tac, no skill. You just walk up to people and point a gun at them." Lee Ru looked incredulous. "My doin no such ding. My bein usin smarts! My bein tellin dem dat mesa bein workin for da exchange before mesa pullin out da wangzapper. Dat way my not bein taken da credit." Kojii set her forehead on her palm. "You stupid, stupid animal. You realize the kind of bounty the Exchange is going to put on your head!?! Especially since that was a bloody senator you stood up!"

Lee Ru looked dumbfounded. "My was bein tinkin dat yousa had more faith in mesa. My know dey bein puttin a bounty on mesa. My bein wantin da bounty, it bein givin mesa credit in certain circles. Circles which wesa now bein needin to search out." He looked hard at her, something akin to pain showing in his eyes for a minute, the depth being shown would have shocked anyone but her. To Kojii this just reinforced how much he was pained by her lack of trust.

When she finally seemed to understand, Lee Ru changed the subject, now back to his normal self. "So, how much mula did yousa be gettin? My got 12 thousand credits." Kojii's mind was still reeling, trying to process the emotional depth that had been presented just a minute before. She laughed. At first it was just a short giggle. But that was short-lived. Soon it turned into more, the giggle became guffaws and the next thing she knew she was leaning on Lee Ru and coughing for breath. She would never admit it, being the ball-breaker she was, but she needed the release. Lee Ru just looked at her with a quizzical expression; he was curious, be he was also smart enough not to ask questions.

After she had taken a few minutes to recover, she sat up again and started pulling wallets and coin purses out of her hand-bag. She had nine in all, resulting in just under three thousand credits. "See? Mesa way bein workin better. My gots more mula!" He said as he nudged Kojii in the ribs. Had he looked, the glare she sent his way would have peeled paint.

[jiral]

Coruscant was as busy as always... Nothing here seemed to stay still at all. The bustling cities and the rugged inner workings housed so many crime syndicates and loyalist that Tirius found this place to be an easy target for some Black market dealings.

working out of a fairly large port on the eastern most side of the planet next to a military outpost Tirius set up shop out of his newly 'acquired' ship the X- 211 Freighter. This ship wasn't so bad seeing that it managed to survive a series of charged particle blast from his fighter the Bhanta fang

"This is very grim indeed." Tirius saw that everything was taken up. People everywhere and doing things, he was glad that the ship he took was headed here. Taking off his cloak so not to cause any unwanted attention that could be negative in any way he casually walked out and leaving what few possessions he had behind.

Blasters, viroblades, robes and all from all areas of the galaxy had been stored in the cargo hold. Tirius held none of these items as value before slipping past the numerous guards and into the thicket of a crowd that never seemed to end.

"This I have to check into..." Tirius rubbed his eyes when he saw the vastness of this planet. "Not a standard country planet is it?" He shoved his way through the crowd abandoning his vessel and the stolen freighter for now to seek some 'information'.

His break was a short lived one for soon military guardians and personnel boarded his vessel from failed attempts to contact the people within. The sight they saw was grim and a high alert was sounded but by that time Tirius was long gone. He hadn't worried about it too much. He activated a depth charger mine in his own fighter vessel encase they inspected it for identification.

Tirius wandered in his thoughts a little bit, the city being as multi leveled as imagined, he needed guidance to get around this odd place. After walking a few more feet he was bumped into by a burly looking human.

"Die..."

Before the human could respond he fell on the walkway dead. Tirius as well as others kept moving. One life is good to lose as long as it's not your own.

Tirius looked for a pub to center himself at, listening for whistles and the sound of an explosion from a certain vessel a ways away. He had everything planned out.

"This planet is nothing to me. I need a way off of this rock without being checked.. I would say that I would fight my way out if needed but judging by the people here that is a very unwise choice indeed.."

[Ashi]

Lee Ru tapped his fingers on the console. "Wesa bein flyin yet?" Kojii sighed, on her back under the console, that's about all she could do; and not even Lee Ru's accent could get a grin out of her."No. We're not going anywhere for at least six hours. More, if you keep interrupting me." Lee Ru's turn to sigh. "Fine." The gungan spat suddenly "What can my bein doin to help yousa?" A muttered curse, muffled to the point of being indistinguishable, was uttered with the sound of an electronic circuit shorting. "Scratch that, now we're looking at eight hours. Didn't I just tell you to shut up?"

"My not bein havin time for dis." Lee Ru spoke harshly. "Fix da ship. My bein havin a meetin to be gettin to." Kojii sighed. "Meet you there then, Boss. Just don't get into too much trouble before I can get there. Please." He smiled, having finally broken her from her gloomy mood, even if it was to make things more problematic. Lee Ru puttered around, making it clear to anyone who knew him that he was just killing time, while Kojii slid out from under the console and looked him in the eye. "I'm serious." Kojii said, looking at his smile. "You get yourself into too many problems even with me to bail your ass out. You think you're going to do better without me?"

Lee Ru's smile changed; it was no longer bright and cheerful. His expression was now bland, almost a poker face, but the slightest tinge of sadness crept into his eyes. "Mesa will be bein okeeday. It only bein a meetin for nowsa. It might be bein moresa, but not before yousa bein gettin dere. My just bein interviewed." Kojii frowned. "You know how these fringe interviews go..." Lee Ru's poker face broke into what could have been mistaken for a genuine grin. "Aye, dat mesa do. And my not going widdout some back'em up either." He winked, a somewhat awkward guesture for a gungan, and was gone before she could protest.

With fifteen thousand credits available, it was easy enough to obtain transport to Farrfin. But even as he left Coruscant, his mind was still caught up in Kojii and her concern for him.