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Post by aardvarklord on Jul 19, 2015 22:14:18 GMT -5
It was everything Shona could do to keep from chewing his own nails off with fear and anxiety. Throughout the trip, throughout his smuggling attempt to save this one slave, Shona had to summon every last scrap of self control to keep himself from shaking like they were in the middle of an earthquake. Thank the Force that he was already well-known for his timid demeanor amongst the hutt's staff, otherwise they probably would have figured out something was up. This plan had been the work of a week of thought, and damn near three times as long of work, but something compelled him--something told him that he needed to do this. Every time he looked at the misery that this woman endured, every time he was allowed into her chambers and she expressed just what life was like for her, he felt compelled to do something about it. So far he had been living only for his own sorry skin... now he saw a chance to do something, to make life better for just one person. When he finally hit on the lunacy that was this crazy protocol droid smuggling plan, even he thought it was crazy, and for anyone else it probably wouldn't have worked. But Viharra was small, reasonably quiet, and Shona himself had a droid that was practically falling apart, so it would make sense that he would want to get a new droid to replace it. Getting it to work out had been tricky, as while he was a skilled mechanic this was more costume design than anything. Still, he managed to cover up all the important bits and got her into a size and shape that she could move around. He couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it would be, but they agreed that it would be better than letting her rot under that loathesome beast's tender 'affections,' or letting him get caught trying to help her escape. Despite being offered the slave as a 'reward' for some of the (loathesome) work he was doing for the hutt, he never dreamed of touching her in any other manner than friendly or helpful... to force himself on her was utterly horrifying to her. No all that time was spent helping her escape. He didn't pay much attention to the amount of credits he was putting into this, but it was basic stuff; the only expensive thing he needed to get her was the way to view the droid's vision--the voice changer was actually the one he used for his usual work. Everything looked perfect, and so long as neither of them did anything stupid, that meant that they could at least get a head start before someone waylaid them.
That didn't mean that they wouldn't have to get a move on. He had no intention of finding out how far Zonna would go to get his property back, not to mention Shona's own head. His intent was to run as hard and heavy as they could for Republic space, preferably something heavily-populated, before boarding a ship, preferably a cargo ship, headed for Cathar. At that point... well he'd cross that far off mythical bridge when they got to it. First steps first. They needed off of Nar Shadaa, IMMEDIATELY. The moment they were into his shoddy hotel, he was immediately looking for bugs, as was his tendency, doubly so considering the death sentence following behind him. The moment he finished and let out a relieved sigh, he gave Viharra a thumbs-up and she spoke her mind, wondering if this was some mad dream. "Save it when we're actually clear!" he begged with wide eyes, his fur standing on edge now that they were out of the public eye. He wandered the apartment in a frenzy, struggling to think past his thundering heart and utter panic, "Okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay... think think think..." Eventually his brain kicked into gear and he went looking for his actual droid. "Hey! EV! EV, where'd you get off to?" When he found the droid, it was powered down in the corner... though the fact it wasn't responding to his request meant it wasn't a typical shut-down but rather another case of a system failure. "Wake-up!" he snapped as he smacked the droid lightly on the face.
Immediately the machine woke up. "Oh! Apologies Master Shona!" the droid stammered out as he woke up, straightening up as his lights lit up, "I apricot to have darked-off mid-"
"Don't worry about it right now," he told the droid sternly as he started looking around for his suitcase, completely ignoring the failing in the vocabulator, "Start checking our contacts for a ship we can take off Nar Shadaa"
"Where to, Master--"
"Off-world, so long as it's not something like kriffing Kessel! As soon as possible too!"
As the droid started the search, he stopped and took a deep breath, trying to get his panic under control, pulling at his mane as he stalked the room. As he stopped to think about it, he finally remembered Viharra's words, specifically the heat stroke bit. "Shoot, I'm sorry," he said quickly, looking around for his tools, "Let me get that mask off you so we can get you some water."
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Post by aardvarklord on Jul 20, 2015 0:11:26 GMT -5
While encouraging, Viharra's words of faith didn't lessen his panic by very much. He was glad that she trusted him enough to get her out of here, but that just meant that he needed to follow through on her dreams all the more. And that meant getting out of here! Honestly, he still had no idea what had finally spurred him to this drastic and damn-near suicidal action. But he had to admit, even as he went through a mental breakdown trying to remember something as simple as getting her water, he couldn't help but find some strange encouragement in hearing her voice no longer utterly down-cast. Once he had the mask off and he had gotten her several helpings of water, he began to pace again, continuing to tug at his fur... fortunately his favorite Cathar was able to talk him out of it. "Right right right right right..." he jabbered as he finally stopped, looking for another cup he could use, "Sorry, I'm just... kriffing hell, I can't believe we're doing this!" Eventually he got his own water and, seeing her offer him a spot next to her, decided with a somewhat broken smile to join her. His hands were still shaking wildly as he tried not to spill any on them, mostly succeeding, though he did get a little onto himself. Her thanks got both himself and EV to look up at her (though the droid might have been responding to the broken vocabulator comment), and in that expression on his face he found his heart calm a little, remembering why he was doing this. Her constant apologies weren't really annoying to him--he understood it well enough and while it might have gotten repetitive, at this point he was just happy she understood the danger. Her talk of payment was silly--between the timing and the likelihood of them actually being able to recoop him for this, it was kind of a moot point. Taking a big gulp of the water, he sighed and leaned forward a little. "Eh... just give me a place where I can disappear to and maybe a job--I'll call it even." He wasn't entirely being facetious either--that was probably the best he was going to be able to hope for without calling bounty hunters down on his tail.
Once the glass was empty, he set it down on the bed beside him (not near her), and leaned back on his hands, looking up at the ceiling... then looked over at her. For a brief moment he found himself gazing into those golden eyes which had so often looked at him with pain and depression over these weeks... and he saw hope in them. Despite his reservations, he actually did find the Cathar attractive--supremely so. She was beautiful, kind, gentle, and... well... kind of exotic, as funny as that seemed coming from a Selonian. And as strange as it was, he actually found her hope contagious, and he suddenly let out a strange, amused laugh as he realized what he'd done. "Ahaha! I've lost my mind! I can't believe we're doing this!" Chuckling to himself, he gave her a somewhat fragile, but genuine smile, "We'll get out of this, Kitten. You know what Corellians say right? When the odds are impossible, you always win." Letting out a long sigh, he let himself close his eyes and flop back on the bed. Well, there went his plans, his hopes, his dreams... and the funny thing was that, if this worked out, he didn't care. He was glad to help Viharra out, and perhaps he'll finally be able to force himself to have a quasi-normal life... well not by Selonian male standards, but that was for the best.
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Post by aardvarklord on Jul 20, 2015 22:32:51 GMT -5
Shona chuckled a little at her comment about the Corellian saying--actually he was kind of paraphrasing their view on odds. He'd never heard one say that. Still, he liked the saying and was sticking to it... it would at least make him feel better about the chances of them not getting fed to Zonna's rancor. Does Zonna have a rancor? He'd rather not find out the hard way, in any case. "Here's hoping," he responded as he tried to just catch his breath and let his mind wind down for a few moments. He was grateful to have a little company during this... even if he was doing it for her, there was some comfort in having the Cathar near him.
Eventually though, she reminded him that they needed to get going soon, and he was on his feet before she finished the statement, stretching with a few cracks as he nodded. "Yep yep yep. Can't risk worst case scenarios. I don't have much, so it shouldn't take too long," he said as he pulled out his bag and started sorting through all he had. It was nice to have a few extra hands in the process, though there wasn't all that much to put away. She might have noticed a few odd things in his bag, in particular a partially corroded datapad and the droid core, his dragon pearl kept in a secret compartment just so that nobody would be compelled to steal it. Not in her case, but it was his habit and he didn't exactly have reason to take it out often. It was a shame she could move so poorly, but for the sake of the disguise it needed to be done. Midway through he assured her with a slim smile, "We'll get rid of that thing once we're out of Hutt Space." And hopefully to a shower by then. She wasn't smelling now, but he was positive that a few days stuck in that thing would change that little number. Actually, he'd have to figure out some way to tend to that... One more thing to get on the way out.
Finally done and quadruple-checking that they had taken everything of worth and not left anything to give any idea of where he had gone, he turned to her with his hands on his hips, considering the disguise, making sure that nothing had come apart. "Yep, we probably should," he responded as he grabbed his tools again. However, as he grabbed the mask and went to put it into position, he paused and realized something. "Hold on, let's get some food in your belly first," he suggested quickly, setting it down on the bed and moving over to a cabinet, sniffing around there for a moment, adding as he did so, "Don't know if you're hungry now, but let's minimize the need so nobody sees me taking a droid's face off to feed it." That would be a silly reason to fail. Eventually he found a nutrient bar for her... it'd probably taste like a bulkhead, but it'd do the job. If she needed water, he'd provide it, then once that was done he went ahead and put the mask back on. "Should've figured out a quick release system for this..." he muttered to himself as he did so.
Eventually they were ready and he grabbed his bag, leading the 'two' droids towards the veranda where they landed, commenting to the side, "Okay... okay we're going. We've left no trace. We've got everything. EV, any luck on that ride?"
"I have sent multiple m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m--" Shona paused to smack the droid quickly on the chest to jolt its vocabulator, "messages. Apologies master. There are multiple ships androgynous at the Fethra Me-me-me-me-memorial Spaceport, still awaiting responses."
It'd have to do. "That's where we're headed then. Expand the search for freight-only ships if you haven't already." A few moments later he had flagged down a taxi and loaded them all up, and they were off to Fethra Memorial. Funny that hutts would still have places named for people... must've been one heck of an inspiration to somebody.
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Post by Zenios on Jul 27, 2015 11:00:58 GMT -5
The thing Tyrral Naran hated about Nar Shaddaa—and oh, was that a lengthy list—above most else had to be the fact that nothing was ever cheap, let alone free. When he’d landed here to drop off a bounty, it had cost him something like two-thirds of that blood price to secure a landing berth for the day. Not that the take would have been especially rewarding; he owed quite a few hundred thousand credits to the wrong Hutt, and they were as probably liable to charge you absurdly high interest on everything you ever made—as this one did—as they were to just have you killed if they weren’t looking for a little easily-retained, zero-cost muscle.
At this precise moment, though, he wasn’t lamenting his current financial situation quite as much as he was just looking for a kriffing place to sit before he wound up back in the docking bay. He did love the Trailblazer dearly, but hours and days cooped up in the relatively cramped Firespray’s cockpit often left him looking for a place to stretch his legs or just relax for a bit without sitting in the pilot’s seat. Not that he had much luck; that was in shorter supply than it had ever been these days.
Then again, maybe looking too terribly hard wasn’t worth it – he certainly wasn’t interested in spending much longer on this accursed planet. He had a little free time before he got dragged back into the Hutt underworld, and he intended to take advantage of it – whether by finding a way to make easy credits shuttling something offworld or by just not being here. There were days when he honestly preferred the cold, empty vacuum of space to the Smuggler’s Moon. He fit in well with the other spacers and lowlifes that gave Nar Shaddaa its moniker, but the Hutts’ influence frustrated him too much – as did the feeling that he was living under one of their slimy thumbs, accurate though it might have been.
Tyrr sighed in unison with the door to Bay Nineteen as it opened to reveal the Trailblazer in all its glory. It definitely wasn’t in the best shape--mostly because he had a hard enough time feeding himself, let alone keeping the ship’s outer hull as clean as he would have liked--but his baby still flew just fine. He glanced around as he strode towards it. A couple of Ugnaughts had been in the bay doing some maintenance or something when he had landed a few hours ago, but it seemed they were nowhere to be found now. Hm.
He input the security code to lower the Firespray’s landing ramp, then turned around and sat down on it once it had lowered. Adjusting the S-5 at his hip to allow himself to sit more comfortably, Tyrr pulled his datapad and began browsing the ((Star Wars version of Craigslist)) HoloNet for anything that might pass as a job he would allow himself to accept.
The first few results called for someone to hunt down a murderer or a thief or something of that nature, and while the pay was pretty consistently good and he was definitely qualified as a bounty hunter, jobs like those would have required him to stay on the planet for longer. So those were out. Most of the rest that stuck out to him were similar in tone and task, so he adjusted the search parameters slightly to look for some kind of courier or small-scale transportation job. There wasn’t much there, either.
A message, however, popped up in the corner of the datapad’s screen – he maximized it to read a request for transportation for a Selonian and two droids, destination “off Nar Shaddaa”. Something about that just screamed Hello, I’m running from someone, so I can’t post directly on the HoloNet like everyone else because I want to be subtle about it, but my droids and I would like to borrow your ship to get offworld before that someone sends their hired muscle after us. Well, offering a hand with that kind of thing was just right up his hyperlane. And the three passengers would fit in the Firespray somehow, so that wasn’t a concern – as long as the droids didn’t mind sitting next to a pile of blasters or something.
A brief moment’s hesitation kept him from immediately messaging the post’s creator as he looked up and around idly, considered the implications. He would likely be flying in the face of a Hutt – was that worth it given his current situation? For that matter, how did the sender acquire his contact information?
Yeah, it definitely was worth it, and he judged it probably didn’t matter how they’d found him. Any excuse to stick it to a Hutt was a good one, in his humble estimation.
He thumbed the REPLY button, assuming as he did that a similar or identical message had been sent to a number of other spacers. I’m headed offworld and wouldn’t mind a bit of company, he wrote, more or less cutting right to the chase. Find your way to Fethra Memorial Spaceport, landing bay 19. I assume you’re in a hurry, so I’ll prep the ship and we can work something out regarding payment while we’re in transit. Might be a bit cramped, though.
Tyrr hit SEND without giving it much more thought. He didn’t move too quickly, though – he figured he would give them a moment to respond before he started rushing. There wasn't much point in cold-starting the Firespray’s engines and getting in a hurry if they’d already signed on with someone else, not when there were other delivery jobs to find.
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Post by aardvarklord on Jul 27, 2015 16:22:19 GMT -5
(Already spoke with Jackie--we're swapping orders for now)
The trip to the starport was mostly silent, Shona staring out the window in thought, trying to plan out their moves, both in case they couldn't get a ride right away and for once they were on the next patch of dirt. It felt as if he was going to short-circuit at this rate--he was trying to come up with every scenario, every little thing that could go wrong and some way to get around it. Only about half the things he came up with were actually fixable with what he had on hand... though how likely they were to happen was irrelevant. Right now he was just a bundle of nerves, still shaking as he watched the endless city race by.
So engulfed was he in his thoughts that when EV spoke up, he jolted like someone had just fired a blaster. "Master Shona--oh sorry master." He recovered as well as he could, rubbing his hands a little and nodding the droid on. "An-n-nyways, received a manuscript... manuscript... manuscript..." The droid smacked its own chest to reset the vocabulator. "Message. Sent to your datap--" And just like that the machine slumped over and "passed out."
Sighing and shaking his head with exasperation, Shona grabbed his datapad and started looking for the message... and saw to his delight an offer from the captain of the vessel, his anxiousness turning to a relieved smile. "Oookay..." he said quietly to himself, "Sounds like we've got ourselves a ride." From the way it read, it was probably something on the smaller side that they would be riding in. No bigger than a YT-1300, probably smaller than that. Maybe some kind of scout vessel or large fighter. Hopefully its interior was sealed. Actually, a small ship like that would probably be for the best, less likely to get picked out as something that someone was smuggling themselves out on it. Everyone suspects freighters, not fighters and shuttles.
Taking a deep breath, he went ahead and typed up a response, his fingers flying across the letters at breakneck speed. Cramped is fine so long as hull is sealed. Should be arriving in ten to fifteen minutes. The message was probably away within two minutes of it being delivered to the droid, and while Shona didn't want to give off the desperate vibe in case of someone taking advantage of the two of them, he couldn't help his nerves. Because they were desperate. Letting out a long, exhausted sigh. "Okay... okay I think we'll be okay. At least for this part. Hopefully... maybe." He rubbed his temples and leaned over, sparing a look over at Viharra, "Hope I'm not stressing you too much."
Eventually they made it to the spaceport, and Shona was quick to get them out of the taxi, of course paying the fellow before helping his droids at. Forecefully restarting one of them. Bay 19 wasn't too far from where they came off, and after a solid five minutes of walking, they made it to the bay. For a brief moment, images of numerous armed mercs waiting for them filled his mind, and he hesitated briefly on opening the door, his nerves spiking once more and his hands shaking wildly. No, no, they couldn't have made it this quickly. Okay, all would be good. It had to be good. Taking a few deep breaths and wiping his face briefly, he turned partially to Viharra and asked, "Ready?" He was kind of asking himself rather than her, but he wanted to make sure all was good to go. Assuming all was positive (or at least enough), he opened the door.
A Firespray. He... wasn't kidding about the cramped. Well, regardless. Once the door behind them was closed, he approached the man going about the ship. "Hello!" he called as he walked up, nervously rubbing his hands and looking around feverishly, "I assume you're our pilot?"
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Post by Zenios on Aug 3, 2015 13:30:37 GMT -5
((Sorry about the delay. Really struggled getting this post started for some reason))
Tyrr waited long enough to receive and read the response from his passenger-to-be before he set into motion. Ten or fifteen minutes was plenty of time to get the Trailblazer’s engines warmed up. He probably could have slipped off to grab a quick cup of caf or maybe do some actual, minor maintenance in that time, but that would have been cutting things much more closely than he liked to when he was working – and working he was, as of about ten seconds ago. He pushed himself to his feet, slipped the slim datapad into a pocket as he made his way towards the Firespray’s cockpit with the intention to skip all the fluff and start his preflight.
It certainly hadn’t gotten much roomier in the last couple of years, but it did look quite a bit more lived-in now that Jarren wasn’t around to reprimand him for treating it as much like a home as a vehicle. Tyrr smiled a little bit at that thought as he clambered into the pilot’s seat, looking at the interface in front of him. He hit some buttons and checked some stuff and I’m gonna gloss over this part because shit, I ain’t a pilot, and before too long the ship was humming beneath him and most everything was in the green. One of the port stabilizers was showing as having shaken a bit loose from its mounting, so maybe he’d lock that down quick while he had the chance – before it could break loose.
Satisfied with the way things looked in the cockpit, he swung out of the chair and headed aft. The weapons locker would need to be locked to avoid any issues there, the force cage deactivated, and he’d probably need a hydrospanner to tune that stabilizer up. All of those were in the same storage compartment, so he ducked into it. Sealing the weapons locker and inventing a security code for it took all of thirty seconds; doing the same for the force cage took about the same; and grabbing his hydrospanner was pretty much instantaneous, once he spotted it. He checked his chrono – it had been seven or eight minutes. It was time to look presentable and be outside to greet his guests in case they were a little early.
Not that “looking presentable” meant anything more than glancing at his reflection in his datapad’s screen as he walked back down the Firespray’s boarding ramp – he usually kept his beard and hair too short for them to really become problems. Satisfied with the way he looked, he pocketed the datapad again and moved to inspect the stabilizer. He reached up, pulled on it a few times, and sure enough, the thing wiggled a little bit more than it should have. Well, that probably wasn’t the result of anything more than a little wear and tear, a few atmospheric entries and exits: nothing a couple of rotations with the hydrospanner wouldn’t fix.
So Tyrr did exactly that, ratcheting the bolts keeping the stabilizer in its housing until they were in a state he would have described as ‘pretty kriffing tight.’ The sound of a door opening interrupted him briefly as he finished up the last one, inspired him to look under the ship and spot a couple of pairs of feet. Well, talk about timing.
He pocketed the hydrospanner and walked around to greet the newcomers – an extremely nervous-looking Selonian and a couple of droids, as promised. It was fairly reassuring to see that he hadn’t been duped by somebody, but it did worry him a bit that the Selonian’s poker face was this bad. Somebody this fidgety was bound to have a (metaphorical) tail or something, right?
The spacer had to fight the temptation to make joke about the fact that his name wasn’t Our Pilot. “And I guess that makes you my passengers. You can call me Tyrr.” He paused briefly, regarding the Selonian and his artificial companions with a practiced eye. He usually had a pretty hard time identifying the facial expressions of members of other species, but the fidgeting and looking around nervously did a pretty good job of clueing Tyrr in. “That look you’ve got tells me you’re in a little bit of a hurry here, so why don’t we save most of the formalities until we’re starside?” He gestured towards the Trailblazer’s boarding ramp as if it were a much more grandiose ship than it were. “You can take the copilot’s seat for the time being. We’ll find a space for your droids somewhere – I can think of a few spaces they might fit.”
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Post by aardvarklord on Aug 3, 2015 17:54:53 GMT -5
Despite Viharra's calm demeanor, Shona still felt like he was going to fall apart as the ship's owner popped out from behind the machine. It wasn't so much a matter of the man being intimidating, because almost everyone in Hutt Space was intimidating to the wiry Selonian, what with being a solid sixty pounds heavier than him, usually taller, and actually being capable in a fight. Though... that didn't help. No, it was just that this situation fraying his nerves was a literal life-or-death scenario and he was at the mercy of this man, whether he realized it or not. Shona had been in a few close shaves, quite literally he realized considering the hole in his ear, but every time it had been small-time individuals who weren't specifically targeting him. He was about to have a hutt crawling up his ass unless he could get off-planet... and he was still horrified at the prospect of this man being on said hutt's payroll.
So hopefully the fellow could excuse him for being a little fidgety. Not that the guy seemed to be doing anything in particular to earn it, in fact as they approached him he seemed quite welcoming considering the situation. Shona was grateful for the lack of jokes, and instead responded to the introduction with a cautious look around before saying awkwardly, "It's a pleasure. I'm... uh... I'll introduce myself aboard." He really didn't like that he was acting so shifty, but right now it was all he could do to keep his thoughts coherent, much less hiding them. Thankfully, the guy seemed to understand that he wanted to get moving ASAP and he earned a grateful nod in response, saying, "Yes, let's do that. EV, Threepio, let's move." Heading up the ramp, he didn't quite smile at the somewhat theatrical welcome to the small vessel, but he definitely appreciated the thought and it definitely got him to stop pulling his hand fur off. The mention of sitting in the co-pilots' seat was nice and it spoke well of the man's good intentions that he was willing to trust his passenger to be there with him. "Thank you. And if need be I'll see about getting EV a little more compact."
The droid picked up what he meant by that and seemed to stammer briefly, "B-b-b-but master! I don't like being disassembled!"
"Better than your leg warping because something fell on it. Besides, I'll shut you down first." The droid went quiet at that point, clearly not happy but not about to question his master. Inside the ship was... well... it was about what it was expecting it to be. Obviously not the cleanest since it seemed to be less a transport and more a residence, though a little tight to walk through, not a whole heck of a lot of room to lay down for himself or Viharra. However, there was enough to work with and the ship wasn't crawling with rodents, and it wasn't like they had a chance to be picky. His big worry was that his Cathar friend would be bumping her head constantly. At least she had a helmet. Once they were out of obvious earshot and Tyrr was aboard, he finally turned to him, still looking just as nervous as sheepish as before, "S-sorry about my mannerisms. I'm high-strung at the best of times, just ask the droids."
"It's true, Mister Tyrr," EV confirmed blithely, "He once urinated his trousers because of a mouse droid."
Of course, Shona immediately shot a glare at the machine before letting out an embarrassed sigh and running a hand through his "hair," shaking his head. For a protocol droid, he had no idea what the word 'tact' meant. Looking back up at their human host, he finally said with a clearly forced but friendly smile and an outstretched hand, "I'm Shona. And, I can't thank you enough for your quick response."
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Post by Zenios on Aug 18, 2015 20:21:44 GMT -5
((Seriously, guys, start bugging the crap out of me if I take more than a day or two to post. You deserve better than this and I WILL forget I'm up if I don't reply right away. Sorry this one is a little short and probably kinda disjointed as well, but I wanted to get something posted before I held you up any longer))
Tyrr raised an eyebrow as the Selonian hurried aboard. He hadn’t exactly meant ‘let’s dispense with introducing ourselves, too’ when he’d proposed they wait until after they launched to discuss business or a destination. Not that he wanted to know the Selonian’s life story or anything, but he certainly wouldn’t have minded at least knowing the names and designations of the individual and droids he was most likely going to be ferrying halfway across the galaxy before they ran and hid somewhere aboard the Trailblazer. There was definitely something fishy about the Selonian’s need to get offworld as quickly as possible – and with two protocol droids, no less. One was annoying, but maybe necessary at times. Two was just redundant.
He made a mental note not to pry too much as he followed his passengers aboard. Tyrr wasn’t in the information business; he was just a pilot, and he certainly didn’t need to know anything more than where he was going and how much he was getting paid. Maintaining that detachment from clientele had always been a weakness of his. Tyrr had always wanted to sympathize, to help out of the goodness of his heart rather than for the credits, but the truth of the matter was, he couldn’t really afford to anymore. Seven digits of debt combined with the least forgiving of debt collectors tended to do that to you, tended to demand that you exchange your altruism for a more capitalistic outlook.
The boarding ramp raised itself with a steady pneumatic hiss as Tyrr pressed the appropriate button. Well, at least he hadn’t had to shoot at anybody on his way up the ramp like Han Solo supposedly had once upon a time. Maybe the Selonian’s paranoia was getting to him, but it was oddly relieving to see things to as they usually did. “I don’t think you’ll have to take him apart,” he answered with at least a hint of a smile, trying to calm both the panicky droid and its master. His first idea was to remove the combination on the force cage and seal the droid in there, but he discarded that just as quickly. Tyrr had a feeling the droid wasn’t going to do much but get on his nerves, but the mere idea of putting something in the cage probably would have gotten the droid’s owner to back out on this deal entirely. "We can stow it in my quarters. There isn’t much room in there, but you shouldn't have to disassemble him, at least."
He ignored the urination comment, but laughed a bit out of courtesy. Doing much more wasn't terribly professional, and Tyrr at least had to try. "Pleasure's mine, Shona. Now, what do you say we, uh, see about taking off here? Might be enough room for your 3PO droid to crowd in with us in the cockpit." A translator might have proved handy on their little journey, and this particular droid didn't seem quite as annoying or high-strung as the EV model did.
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Post by aardvarklord on Aug 19, 2015 15:04:42 GMT -5
Shona picked up that the other man was a little nervous thanks to Shona, and honestly he couldn't blame him, but to be perfectly honest he was struggling to keep himself under control. The Selonian tried, he really did, but the thought of someone being out to get him had him in full fight-or-flight mode, and to be honest his pazaak face had never been particularly good. There was a reason that he didn't conduct his proper business in person. Fortunately, the man didn't seem interested in prying into why he was rather clearly on the run, or at least for the time being, and was even willing to provide a place for EV to stay without being taken apart. The droid almost immediately responded to the offer with a cheerful, "Oh thank you, Mister Tyrr. You're too kind."
Shona nodded approvingly to that, giving a "Thanks" of his own. As for the urination thing... well he was glad that there wasn't any raucous laughter about it if nothing else, and while he kind of wanted to disassemble the droid for that, he was all too happy to let it go and focus on the job at hand. At the man's suggestion that they take off, he gladly clapped his hands together and responded eagerly, "Yes, let's do that. And... that would be most convenient," he added in response to the suggestion that '3PO' join them in the cockpit. His mind had definitely crossed the consideration that things would get pretty complex for them with her personal needs and he wasn't entirely certain what they would do for that, but he intended to at least keep her in the loop. If he needed to inform this man of the situation in order to earn his trust and get them out of here, then so be it. He suspected he might have to explain why he was taking his droid apart to take it to the bathroom if nothing else. And he fully intended to keep her fed and get her water. Especially the last one.
Once they had EV stowed away (thankfully, it was a pretty compact droid to begin with once his limbs folded up) he and, presumably, Viharra joined the man in heading for the ship's cockpit. He'd always found the Firespray interesting, mostly for its vertical design, and had often wondered what the ship would be like on the inside; turned out that he was right in being intrigued, as it was actually a rather peculiar set-up. He wasn't an engineer per se, but he enjoyed unique machinery and unusual equipment, and the Firespray definitely was one. As he got into the co-pilot's seat, he couldn't help but feel like he needed to patch things up a little with their pilot, or at least try and get into his better graces. "I apologize if I seem a little... antsy. I don't think I'm being hunted or anything, but I used to be a treasure hunter and a few too many close calls have made me a little... jumpy," he pointed to his tattered ear as a demonstration of his half-truth, "That's why I have two droids also. I kind of hope to get some of EV's old interfacing software into Threepio here so I can finally only have one around." Now that was a blatant lie, though one grounded in truth. He only kept EV around because he was able to interface with older computers. There was some good stuff to be found, but a lot of newer droids didn't keep the old software, so he had to get creative most of the time. EV was a big help in that regard. That all said though, he really did find that droid a bit annoying, especially with his malfunctions. Looking over at the human, he added with a slightly forced smile, "That all said, I think anyone would be eager to get off this hellish moon. Even Coruscant's lower levels seem like a vacation home now."
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Post by Zenios on Oct 5, 2015 17:58:56 GMT -5
Tyrr glanced up from the diagnostic readout as Shona went about apologizing to him for some imagined slight. Real or not, Shona's apology and explanation certainly confirmed that the human needed to avoid mentioning his most frequent line of work - at least for the time being. If a 'treasure hunter' had encountered his fair share of close calls, it stood to reason that he also had a few bounties on his head. Even given his financial situation, Tyrr was hardly the type to up and turn in his employers for a little more scratch, but Shona didn't--couldn't--know that. They'd only just met.
He played off that realization with a bit of a smile and a shrug as he looked back towards the readout. "It's nothing to worry about. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get jumpy at times, too. Paranoia keeps you alive." Tyrr glanced back at the 3PO droid, standing in the cranny behind the copilot's seat--behind Shona. It was a shame the Firespray's cockpit was as cramped as it was; there just wasn't really room for three individuals in here. They could disperse again once they hit hyperspace, though. Shona and the droid could retire to his quarters to rest or whatever and he could keep them out of places they didn't need to be.
"I won't pretend to know a lot about droids, but I woulda thought transferring software like that was easier," Tyrr continued offhandedly as he fired up the repulsors. "Just visit a droid tech, ask 'em to do a little digging, move around what you want them to, right? But what do I know. I'm just a pilot." Among other things, of course. "But what do you say we get out of here, already?"
With that, the human nudged the throttle just ever so slightly. The Trailblazer creaked a bit as the ship's weight shifted off the landing gears, and then they were airborne, spinning around, and floating out of the landing bay. "Hey, will you go ahead and comm the starport authority, let 'em know bay nineteen's open?" Tyrr would have done it himself on any other planet or situation, but Nar Shaddaa's traffic was just a little too... chaotic for him to be comfortable looking away from the sensors and viewport. It shouldn't have been that hard of a job for Shona to complete, in any case - the copilot's station's comm board was pretty much right in front of the Selonian.
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Post by aardvarklord on Oct 16, 2015 16:28:32 GMT -5
Really, Shona wasn't really thinking about his old job when he made that explanation, because most of the time when he got into trouble for treasure hunting it didn't involve bounties. Heck, more often he got approached by bounty hunters trying to find his crew after he was forced to abandon ship. Hrmm... in hindsight, he was probably too nice to manage that kind of job, or too much of a spineless wimp anyways. Still, it was nice that he was at least given some measure of understanding from the human as he settled in, nodding his agreement to the man's statement about paranoia. That said, when the man looked to the 'droid,' he also looked over to make sure that his Cathar friend seemed to be doing alright. The man's question about the transferring software was actually an interesting story and one that he was prepared to share, though Shona was interrupted in thought briefly as he suggested they get moving, which made Shona pause long enough to comment, "Agreed, let's bug out." However, as they started moving, he started to explain, though with some difficulty due to being distracted to the Firespray's unique take-off method. "But anyways; normally a droid is easy to... woah... that's... gah, sorry. It's easy to do that normally, but that thing is actually too old. I can't find a droid with compatible hardware."
When asked to take care of the traffic authority, he was a bit confused as to why the man wanted him to handle it, but gladly did as asked. It took him a moment to find all the parts of the comm. board and trace down the proper channel before finally telling the authority, "Firespray (insert last two digits of serial number) to tower, Bay 19's open." As he did that, he couldn't help but look up at the traffic outside the window, and had to admit that he understood the situation. How was he even able to fly in that? It looked like the sort of thing that would be better suited for someone with the reflexes of an insect or a jedi or something of the like.
"Yeah, yeah, thanks for the notice. Now buzz off," the tower operator said grumpily; sounded like one of those little flappy bastards... what were they called? Toydarians?
Shaking his head, Shona cut the conversation and turned back Tyrr with a slightly amused expression, "Well, he seems like a ball of sunshine."
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