The Crown Affair

[Azaria]

The Scarlet Rose Thorn.

It was eerily similar to the casino she'd worked in once upon a time... except there was a pleasantly notable lack of Hutts and their sycophants hanging around and harassing the staff. It was actually rather nice.

Spotting an empty table near the balcony's edge, the green Twi'lek grabbed the two Soggies nearest to her, Boomer and Sayana, and hauled them over. "Lets get some drinks on and 'conduct a recce' before getting to work, shall we?" She called over the din. "We should take a good look at what we're dealing with, eh?"

tags Boomer, Sayana

She grinned and flagged down a red robed waiter. "Three Corellian Twisters, extra twisty please!"

The drinks came quickly and just in time, the bell sounded for the prize fight to begin.

Azaria nearly missed the fight, if you could call it that, as it was over in a blink of an eye.

She whistled lowly and leaned towards the two women next to her.
"Damn, I don't know if I should be impressed, scared, or alarmingly turned on by that..." She nudged Boomer jokingly, "is is strange that I'm feeling all three?"

tags Boomer, Sayana

Azaria shook her lekku and looked down musingly at the ring. "I wonder if anyone in our merry crew could take him..."

tags everyone

[KendleRJ]

The Scarlet Rose Thorn.

It was eerily similar to the casino she'd worked in once upon a time... except there was a pleasantly notable lack of Hutts and their sycophants hanging around and harassing the staff. It was actually rather nice.

Spotting an empty table near the balcony's edge, the green Twi'lek grabbed the two Soggies nearest to her, Boomer and Sayana, and hauled them over. "Lets get some drinks on and 'conduct a recce' before getting to work, shall we?" She called over the din. "We should take a good look at what we're dealing with, eh?"

Boomer had been observing 'how the other half lived' so to speak. Most of these people would have been in the back of her vehicle, and the only time she might have entered one of these establishments was to grab her client, or extricate him or her from a situation that they had invariably brought upon themselves. She wasn't new to moving in these circles, just usually not in quite the same situation. She had felt a little uneasy about the whole place and turned her thoughts inward, scanning the patrons with an air of remote aloofness.

Turning to Azaria from their newly esconced table, she nodded. "We should," she said and stared down a group of three vapid looking people that had taken over a table. She was about to ask them to vacate.

tags Sayana

She grinned and flagged down a red robed waiter. "Three Corellian Twisters, extra twisty please!"

The drinks came quickly and just in time, the bell sounded for the prize fight to begin.

Azaria nearly missed the fight, if you could call it that, as it was over in a blink of an eye.

She whistled lowly and leaned towards the two women next to her.

"Damn, I don't know if I should be impressed, scared, or alarmingly turned on by that..." She nudged Boomer jokingly, "is is strange that I'm feeling all three?"

Her lips crooked into a lopsidedly grin and she shrugged. "Not at all," she said, voice low. "That was most impressive." She eyed the fighter up and down, staring at her drink with some interest and sniffed it gingerly. It bit the inside of her nostrils with an acrid air and she smiled. "Perfect," she said and downed it in three large gulps.

tags Sayana

Azaria shook her lekku and looked down musingly at the ring. "I wonder if anyone in our merry crew could take him..."

"I was wondering the same myself," Boomer said and turned to Sayana pointedly before looking over to the rest. "Or even if it was limited to only one opponent..."

Her smile took on a menacing air and the three at the table stood in unison and vacated the chairs, one forgetting their belongings in their haste. "Hm... looks like a table's opened up," she said to the others and slid herself onto the still warm seat, carefully placing an arm on top of what was left behind. Who knew what treasures they might glean? Or what they might be able to use?

tags everyone

[Melissa Richards]

[Azaria]

[KendleRJ]

Boomer almost snorted her drink and coughed it out, caught a little by surprise. "Seriously?" she asked in a dead pan voice. "I can think of no one off hand..." and this time pointedly looked at Stalker, looked at Azaria, rolled her eyes and then looked back at the light saber wielding woman.

She couldn't possiby be that dense, could she?

Tags all

Boomer... Queen of Sarcastic Bitchery and all around Statement of the Obvious

[Melissa Richards]

Sayana caught the looks, but said nothing at first. She observed the activities around her then said quietly. "If you're hinting on the fact that I should get in there and fight, I'm not a brawler. When I'm not with this group I collect bounties. However, I have some skills that might be useful."

She looked at the two then back at the competition. "I don't see anyone here that could be a problem for me."

tag

[Amanda Rose]

[Azaria]

Azaria scratched at her Lekku - a sure sign she was trying to hide her irritation. Sayana wasn’t getting the hint - it was a great idea to have her fight the muscle… but if she wasn’t willing to stick her neck out… the green Twi’lek smiled at the other females and downed her drink.

She needed to find Dexon.

She craned her neck and looked around the bar, spying Dex and Jarion skulking together near a scantily clad waitress they appeared to be pestering.

“Its called a Bespin Fizz.” Dexon said, stressing the first word with a drunken slur and waggle of fingers. Coruscanti social gestures were part and parcel of high born life on the city world, but here in the fighting pits hey just looked pretentious. If he was aiming for ‘danger tourist’ he had hit his mark. “You’ve never heard of it? Well I am shocked, shocked I tell you! The travel droid told me that civilisation could be found here, and what is civilisation without Bespin Fizzes? Look I’ll list it for you, you have data pad? It’s Corellian whisky, caf liqueur and-”

“Sith spit.” Azaria quipped, grabbed Dex by the scruff of the neck. “Pure, undiluted sith spit. Makes him feel like a little girl again.”

“Oh, and for her a bucket of your finest ale run off, whatever pooled on the floor last night. Her unrefined palate won’t be able to tell the difference.” Dexon growled. At this point the waitress took her leave, running for the metaphorical hills from the pushy customer. That didn’t stop Dexon from continuing his glare. “Is this how they taught you to gather intelligence? Interrupting a master at hs craft?”

“Eh.” Jarion injected his two-credits, “Never did consider people to be great sources of accurate information. Now if I could find the right terminal to slice we'd be outta here in no time, but these people didn't get to where they are by being sloppy.”

He tipped his head to Azaria.

“Now what's got you all in a spin?”

Azaria snorted, “besides the bounty hunters and assorted bullshit on our tail, a criminal network to infiltrate, a coup to conduct… no idea, cheeky.”

She grabbed one of the drinks the bartender had poured out in front of Dex and tossed it back, grimacing at the sweetness, before jerking her head back towards the fighting pit.

“I has an idea, or rather, I had an idea, but I don’t think Miss Broodypants is going to play ball, so I has a backup plan.” She sighed. “I think I’m going to regret it.”

“You imply that there may be things since being press-ganged into this nonsense that you do not regret.” Jarion observed as he sipped his beverage.

“Well, volunteering for this gig now seems to be something I’d rather I hadn’t done,” she sighed, shaking her head for a moment before jerking a thumb towards the fighting pit. “But I think the best way to get in with this guild is to beat the shit out of THAT guy.”

Jarion’s eyes flicked between Azaria and the gladiator.

“Have fun with that.” He mocked lightheartedly.

She poked at him with a green finger, “you’re part of my plan, gizmodo.”

TBC!!!

OOC: sorry this has taken so long, things have been extra ridiculous lately

A JP by Azaria, Dexon & Jarion

OOC pt 2: mwa ha ha ha

[Azaria]

****

Azaria really didn’t like the way the large Houk grinned when the ringmaster brought them out onto the stage with a flourish. Neither did she care for the hoots and hollers of laughter from the crowds. Her fingers itched to grab for her blaster, but she’d been stripped of her sidearms before entering the ring. And boy, were they thorough about the search. Determined not to look like a complete idiot, she sneered back at the ugly bastard that - she really really hoped - she and Dex were about to beat into a bloody pulp.

Dex was much, MUCH less certain about the recipient of the pulping. His profession was more geared towards spinning rope bridges of pure fabrication that bridged fantasy from reality. He had sold shares in a colony resort that didn’t exist to the wealthy elites of Corellia. He had talked his way around the corpse of an Imperial Baron for four days, convincing his household staff and wife that he was hale and hearty right up until ‘the terrible fire’. But actual physical violence was something he was not well versed in.

But cheating...well he could do that for days.

“If we get out of this,” Dex said under his breath, just loud enough for Azaria to hear over the cheering. “I’m braiding your brain tail’s.”

Azaria arched her brow, quipping “you know you need three strands to braid, right?”

She shook her head and glanced surreptitiously into the crowd above the ring. She could see most of the crew, but a few faces were missing. There was no sign of Jarion.

“Somehow I’ll make do.” Dex said happily, his own eyes looking to the opposite side of the crowd. A healthy round of gambling was taking place, with most - let's be honest, all - of the punters pointing at the Houk and waving fistfuls of credits. The odds did not appear to be in their favor.

Jarion stood not far from Azaria. His stealth field generator jack up just short of overload.
He was not a fan of this idea. Far too many things could go wrong. But most of those tragic scenarios ended poorly for Azaria and Dex while Jarion snuck calmly away. Always good to have a scapegoat/distraction. Of course the safest bet would have been not to come down at all, but of all his current companions he distrusted these two the least. So he played along, as long as the personal risk stayed low.

A gong sounded and the crowd roared as the match began.

Azaria muttered a curse and dropped into a fighting stance… hoping beyond hope her hand to hand combat training with the Rebels, pirates, and years of bar fighting would be enough to not end up as a smush on the floor of the fighting pit.

The Houk howled a war cry and ran at our stalwart and scared heroes.

Dex's shouted a battle cry. Yes, it sounded like a shriek a choir girl from Vortex would have been proud of, but it was a mighty battle cry. It also hid the muttered curses and oaths he was letting out in a rush. He let out a under arm punch into the Houks gut and-

Crack.

What an interesting new pain Caleb Dexon had discovered. His knuckles throbbed, and his fingers were less than pleased with the current status quo. The Houk just looked down and smiled, before shouldering Dex aside without even the decency of knocking his head off.

Jarion winced in sympathy for Dex’s mangled knuckles. He should have known that brute force wasn’t going to win this. Trickery and cheating were the keys to victory here.

The Houk knew he had this fight in the bag, as it were, there was no way these puny would-be pugilists could do him any harm, especially after the human had proven himself to be totally inept.

He advanced slowly, savouring the fear he assumed the little Twi’lek girl was feeling.

Jarion very subtly tapped the big man’s foot as he lifted it from the ground. His right foot hooked behind his left and physics, the merciless tyrant that she was, sent the over confident brute into a tumble.

Thanking the Gods for her durasteel reinforced boots, Azaria aimed for the Houk’s occipital ridge and kicked with all her strength. The Houk - whom she seemed to think was named Bert - made a strange sort of grunt before crumbling to the floor.

The silence was deafening.

Everyone watched the Houk in shocked silence, including Azaria, Dex, and Jarion.

When Bert shook his head and began to rise, both Twi’lek and recovering Human ran to kick him again.

The crowd roared in anger and disbelief as the Houk dropped once more and lay still, and the judges waved him out of the fight.

An angry human appeared from the side of the pits and grabbed their arms amid the chorus of boos and drinks flung from above.

“With me, now” the stranger growled, dragging the two stunned victors out of the pit, with the still cloaked Jarion following close behind.

*** Okay folks, come save us! We're going to be having a talking to down in the basements… Tags all

[T-Prime]

Jarion followed at what he felt was a safe distance. He thanked a handful of gods that he, at leaset, was still armed; he had a feeling that this was about to go way south.