Ask Two Knights Walk into a Caf Shop

[Zathria]

Per my new OP template, thread is death enabled​

Zathria and Ezra had come a long way out from any stronghold of the Jedi. Once again, she found herself glad that she didn't spend most of her "down time" at Jedi temples because they seemed like a prime place to end up getting killed.

She had been beyond relieved that Ezra wasn't on Ithor and that he had been safe after his disappearance. And no longer her Padawan. She couldn't have been more proud of him and all he had done. He had come a long way from where she had first met him, and she knew that great things still lay ahead of him.

They met on Batuu, toward the far edge of the Outer Rim and the Unknown Region. He had told her that he wanted to look into unusual technologies, and while she was smart enough to know that she knew almost nothing about that, she also knew that an extra body watching his back would be critical.

Especially if they were looking for signs of the Grysk. A technologically advanced race that was rarely seen in the galaxy was worked almost strictly by proxy, they were a whispered fear throughout this whole region of space. Although it had been many years, it was not unheared of for the Grysk to poke around this area.

No pressure for the Knightly duo.

Zathria had ordered herself a coldbrew caf and waited for Ezra with a breve, 3 shots, spritz of cinnamon with half blue and half coconut milk. At the entire outpost, she had picked out the best caf shop as a meeting point for the two of them.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

It was very difficult for anyone to invoke excitement in Ezra that actually visibly showed on his face. Zathria managed just that when he walked in and saw her, a glint in his usually icy gaze and a smile tugging at his lips, “You been doing the Thorne routine too?” He asked with a grin, noticing some newly defined muscles he hadn’t seen on her before.

He was delighted to learn she got one of his specialty caf orders, his ears twitching as he took a sip, “I’ll be honest..I didn’t think you were going to let me do this,” He admitted. There was a big chance of the two of them ending up as prisoners of the war-like Grysk. Even if she wasn’t technically his master anymore, he still listened to her.

There were a lot of things he kept pent up. He hadn’t exactly talked to anyone about Ithor, what he discovered about his past, what all of it meant. A part of him wasn’t sure he wanted to continue the Jedi path the traditional way and he partly worried it would break her heart. Ezra kept all that bottled up for now.

“So.. are any of these guys just going to waltz into this caf shop?” He asked curiously.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria sipped from her caf as Ezra made his way in, a smile pulling at her mouth when she saw him. She had always been something of a loner within the Order, but Ezra was always more than a welcome face.

Oh, you know, maybe a little, she said, holding up her hand with her fingers just slightly spaced apart to indicate a small amount. It felt good when someone noticed the changes and hard work she had put in.

Well, I can't really stop you anymore, Knight Thorne, she said with a smirk. Perhaps if she had put herself forward for Mastery, she would have been in a position to have more official influence, but there was a part of her filled with hesitation and maybe even fear at the thought of the rank. Not to mention the fact, that she had no need or desire to boss him around. Even when she had been his actual master, that had never been their relationship. She'd always tried to be more of an older sister and mentor than a mother or even a true teacher.

And if I can't stop you, then I certainly can't let you go alone, she said. She knew him well enough to notice the way his ears twitched as he took a sip of her caf, and she was, of course, quite pleased with herself for getting it right.

Unfortunately, no, she said. Or probably fortunately. It would have been bad if the Grysk were so bold as to just waltz into planets.

She lowered her voice as she spoke again. But "client species" as they're called are known to work in and around planets like this one, she said. At the far fringes of the Outer Rim, no one asked questions. No one wanted to and there weren't enough Jedi - or enough organization in the Jedi - to police every backwater world in the area.

As it happens, one of the shops around the corner - a scrapper yard - has been selling some weird materials recently. Pieces and parts more pristine and advanced compared to what should have been out here, she said. It seemed like a good thing to look into, she said. Had they found a Grysk ship? Traded with the Grysk? Or was it just happy coincidence for the dealer's part? She didn't know, but that was why they were here.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

“Really?” Ezra asked, excitement bleeding into his tone at the prospect of seeing exotic parts. He sprang to his feet, practically bolting out of the caf shop with his specialty caf still in his hand. He slowed down when he remembered that Zathria was the one that scoped out this place. He sheepishly followed behind her to the location, coming across a warehouse. Right away, he spotted a grumpy Toydarian. He perked up instantly when he saw the, eyes gleaming with greed.

“You look like you have a lot of credits you can afford to part with,” The Toydarian greeted them cheerfully, eyeing Ezra’s designer clothing, “What can Rasta do for you?”

“Can we look at your wares? Especially anything non-standard,” Ezra said. The shopkeeper gave a curious look. There was a bit of hesitation.

“Some of my merchandise is off limits… but you can look at everything else,” Rasta said, gesturing to a wide assortment of ship and vehicle parts. None of it looked out of the ordinary. Ezra could see a separate closed off section at the back of the shop. Ezra gave Zathria a look but said nothing. There was no tricking a Toydarian, so they'd have to find out some legitimate way to become clients for the exotic materials.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria smirked as he raced off to the dealer, practically oozing excitement in contrast to his normally more subdued way of reacting to things. When he seemed to realize he didn't know where he was going, Zathria wasn't far behind.

They made it to the shop shortly thereafter and Zathria immediately found herself... not exactly loving the shop owner. Honestly, maybe someone had spread rumors about him just out of spite. She didn't know what it was, but something about him rubbed her the wrong way.

Yeah, well, he likes his designer stuff, but don't let it fool you, I'm broke, she said, motioning down at her own clothes. They were not shabby, but let's just say they weren't designer anything.

You want to show us your off limits mechandise, she said, reaching out and touching the mind of the Toydarian. Evidently, Zathria had forgotten that Toydarians were immune to mind tricks.

What are you doing? Are you trying to mind trick me? Jedi!? Sith?! Get the kriff out of my shop! the Toydarian screamed at the top of his lungs, grabbing a scatter blaster from behind the counter and shoving it in their direction.

On the bright side, he hadn't actually shot at them, but Zathria was fairly certain he would do so at the slightest provocation. Zathria threw up her hands in as nonconfrontational a manner as she could.

No, we're not, I was just... was all the more she got out before he was screaming again.

I said get the kriff out of my shop or I swear I'll blow your head off!!

Okay, well, Zathria backed up toward the door and kept her attention up just in case he decided to start firing.

OOC: Roll 20/20 for how angry he is about her attempted mind trick

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra was about to calmly bullshit something when he felt a pulse in the Force. He looked over and realized too late that Zathria was trying to use mindtrick on a Toydarian. How the hell did she forget that?! There was no recovering from this. The alien was so furious that it was a wonder he didn’t start shooting. Ezra grabbed Zathria by the hand and dragged her out of the shop. He could hear the Toydarian calling the local authorities.

He ducked into an alley, staring wide eyed at Zathria, “What the hell was that?!” He hissed, “We have a few minutes before we have local rangers chasing after us!” Ezra looked around frantically, realizing that they needed to lay low to get the heat off.

A sprint down the alley revealed what looked like a senior citizen home. He could already hear distant sirens and he couldn’t think of anywhere else they’d search less. Grumbling to himself, he walked into the lobby. Inside there was a big hall where rows of tables were lined up and an intense session of Bingo was taking place. A few old ladies looked over to regard them curiously. One of them pointed at Zathria, not having seen her race before, “What are you supposed to be?” She asked rudely.

 

[Zathria]

Well, that wasn't Zathria's finest moment, and off they raced down the alley and away from the area. Technically she hadn't done anything illegal, and what was the Toydarian going to say? "She tried to mindtrick me into showing her my illegal hardware?" She couldn't imagine that would go over very well. Still... she'd rather not have to deal with that and blow their cover further (not that there was much cover left).

Ezra yanked her into a senior citizen home, and the excitement - or lack thereof - on her face told the whole story. Her lips pulled into a thin line that wasn't improved by the rude comment from one of the old ladies.

Thyrsian Echani, she said. That was a patient answer.

Never heard of it. You're not old enough to be living here. Why are you here? This bingo game is for residents only, she said.

Oh Agnes, stop it. Maybe this strapping boy would like to join the game as my guest, another woman said, giving a smile to Ezra that was really more than just "friendly."

Come here, young man. What's your name? she asked, motioning for him to take a seat next to her that just happened to be real close to her all of a sudden.

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Why were old ladies always so creepy with him? He stared at the old woman. Zathria likely expected him to play along, but he crossed his arms over his chest.

“No, Betty,” He stated as he looked at her nametag, “I will not join you for bingo. You smell like old cabbage, and I’m just not interested,” He added icily, Agnes and Betty both staring with shocked faces. Agnes’ jaw dropped so much that her dentures slipped out.

Ezra rolled his eyes and walked from the center and into a hallway. He shut the door behind them, already hearing Agnes and Betty complaining to the staff. Thankfully, the staff didn’t take them seriously and informed them that they were hallucinating about seeing the ‘cute but rude junior ISC President’.

“What’s option two?” He asked Zathria quietly, knowing there was no use in grilling her about what happened. The only path to go was forward.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria touched a hand to the side of her head as she watched Ezra roast "Betty" so hard that Agnes' dentures fell out. Okay, so next place on the list, then. She started backing away, heading toward the upper floors of the facility just to avoid being immediately notable on ground level if someone did come looking. They probably wouldn't, though. "Someone woman talked to me and waved her hand around" wasn't exactly a lot of proof of anything.

Zathria thought about what they could do next and found herself rubbing her temple again.

If we really think that he's trading with the Grysk, that's a serious issue to investigate, she said. Part of her - a very big part - wanted to suggest breaking in to have a look around, but as she thought about that she had visuals in her head of headlines: "Jedi leads President's son into illegal property search." It was just the kind of bad publicity that the Jedi didn't need... but then, this was such a backwater it would probably never even make it out into main continuity.

Maybe we just sit on his place. We've spooked him so maybe he'll try to make contact with whoever his supplier is. There's no way he's meeting directly with Grysk, so that means one of the client species. Either they'll have to come to him or he'll have to go to them, she said.

Or we convince a local to help us, which probably means paying lots of money to someone, she said. Both had their pros and cons, but the latter was probably the better option since the former seemed like it was just "hoping" for results.

Either way, we need to start heading back in the direction of the market. One of his competitors probably knows something, she said, heading out onto the rooftop speeder parking and looking around. It was relatively clear, and she headed over to a set of stairs leading down, popping out into an alley a short distance away.

As they made it back, it seemed that everything had quieted down again. Near the scrapper were several options of people to talk to. Directly across the street was a droid shop, while next door was a loan and pawn shop, and on the other side was another scrapper yard selling a mixture of pieces. All of them were options to pursue for questioning and potentially conspiracy.