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[Leon Baudelaire]

Leon landed in a booth at the back of a seedy bar. He’d managed to fool the bartender by keeping his Ubses alias of Neon Montoya alive. Facing away from the service industry professional, Leon relished the first sip of his Corellian Bourbon. The mask he’d used to fool the bartender was pulled back from his face, keeping his hair out of his eyes. As he waited for the newbie to show up.

He’d managed to con a new padawan into pulling this job when he’d heard a couple of Knights talking about a loan shark that had stolen a Uneti Tree from a museum on Corellia. This shark operated on Ord Mantell, a planet Leon was becoming intimately familiar with, and was known for making people that missed a payment disappear. Hera had been busy with something and it had been easy to slip away. He was sure at some point his “initiative” would be discovered, but until then he’d take whatever liberties he could.

Baudelaire signed… what was he doing? What did he have to prove? Why was he obsessed with slighting every criminal he came across? Did he have a death wish? That was a question he wasn’t ready to acknowledge. He took a breath. As he inhaled he believed the air would be there, and it was. Just like the force. As long as he could feel the light the darkness couldn’t win.

His fingers drummed impatiently on the table, where was this chick? he thought, taking another sip of his whisky. If she didn’t hurry up, he’d have to get another drink.

@GABA

 

[Mariel Deery]

Did he con her into this little adventure or was she the one that tricked him. Mariel also heard about this tree, but she also did some extra searching and was able to find some more about the things this loan shark and what they liked to collect. It was a fascinating read, though she was uncertain about going far from the temple, especially since this wasn't official jedi business. She had not done anything similar since she had arrived here and was uncertain how the masters would react to her decision to do this if...or more like when they find out.

The dry, dusty climate was harsh, Mariel felt as though she was almost eating the dirt that blew through the air as she made her way across the town to the watering hole that Leon said to meet him. She was dressed to not look suspiciously like a jedi and wore her braided bracelets made from different dried plants. Mariel also carried her small pack over her shoulders with her supplies and a blaster on her hip, just in case.

Entering the bar, she felt eyes lay on her for a moment before its guests returned to their business and Mariel felt she could enter without confrontation. The entire bar smelled terrible, probably bad enough to challenge the smells of Taris' sewers. Snaking her way between tables, she found the booth where Leon said to meet him, and she was taken by surprise to his gear. Mariel sat down beside him in the booth despite the whole other side was unoccupied.

"This place smells horrid." she whispered to Leon.

 

[Leon Baudelaire]

Leon’s hand drummed the table of the booth while house music played. He peeked over his shoulder toward the door wondering if he’d been wrong about Mariel. When they initially met she’d been so gung-ho to join his little job that he’d been worried she might be a little crazy, but hey, if you were gonna be a Jedi, he supposed a little crazy was necessary. His mind flicked to the other members of the Scrub Squad, and he chuckled. Okay so maybe you had to be full crazy.

He took another look over his shoulder just as the automatic door slid open revealing an attractive young woman dressed in clothes similar to the ones he wore under his poncho/helm combo. As she stepped into the cozy glow of the bar, Leon smiled and turned back to his whisky. If there was anything the Order wasn’t short of, it was cute girls.

“Yeah, well, it’s a dive bar on a criminal planet, what did you expect,” he teased as she slid in next to him.

He took a sip of his whiskey and angled to face her so they could talk. He eased an arm up on to the back of the booth and crossed one leg under the other sitting on his foot, but facing her all the same. He noticed her bracelets as he moved and said, “Oh, those are cool, did you make them?”

That could explain why she’d been so eager, but he had a hard time believing anyone could be obsessed with foliage, but people were into super weird shit in this galaxy, and he figured being into plants was better than well… a lot of stuff.

“So, just exactly how rare is the tree we’re rescuing?”

@GABA

 

[Mariel Deery]

She didn't frequent dive bars on different planets, but it seemed like they were the places to go when you're a jedi and you're looking to stir up trouble. The girl glanced down to her braided bracelets that Leon took notice and she nodded in agreement, "Yes, each one have an intention, protection, focus, accomplishment..." she explained pointing to each one, "When they fall off, it means the charm is completed." Mariel glanced at Leon, realizing she may had been making herself sound crazy; she especially decided not to mention the witch's ladder tied around her waist. She gave a nervous laugh and then diverted her gaze back to her bracelets, letting Leon continue to speak.

"How rare?" she felt appalled by such a question, "There may be enough to count on a single hand. Master Skywalker attempted to replant saplings throughout the galaxy, but nothing more is known if any survived. They're special trees, they are force sensitive and I think it would be a good idea to have one back with the Order and find a way to preserve and prevent the species from going extinct."

She sounded like an absolute nerd about this, but she didn't care, she wanted to see this through.

@Zay