Log:Mandalorian Revivers: Detective Kryze And Captain Gann

Detective Kryze and Captain Gann

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Navi Kryze, Adhar Gann

The Little Secret is as warm and as intimate as always, and Adhar is enjoying himself there at the bar. Actually enjoying, as in not grim, actually smiling, and sipping drinks and whatnot. From the door, of course, it's his unmarred side that can be seen, but there is the occasional glint of gold from the other side as he sits and chats with the bartender. He also has a sword on his hip, of all things, a heavy, cleaving blade akin to a curved falchion. Not a lot of reach, but a whole lot of damage.

Navi enters in full armor, datapad in hand and water dripping from her apparel, and approaches the bar. Noticing Adhar already there, she changes direction to join him. "Hello, Captain. I hope you are well," she says softly through her vocoder, waving to get the barkeep's attention.

"Hallo, Navi." Adhar turns to look at you, smiling as he does. His prosthetic has been replaced, it seems, with a much sleeker design. The lens is smaller, coated with polarizing film to give it a murky rainbow sheen - its bezel, along with the housing that wraps the side of his head over his ear, is joined with a pair of other, smaller lenses set next into its face. Whatever metal it's made from, it's currently plated in burnished gold, and heavily engraved with vine-like designs around its borders. Pretty, really.

"I like the new look. More... urbane. Stylish. Less poke-in-the-eye obvious, too," Navi observes, head tilting a bit to one side as she studies the prosthetic faceplate. "I'm glad to see you're doing better, too. How have you been, besides the facelift?"

"It's flash," Adhar says with a faint grin. "You can say it. And I'm all right, just doing the work that I do. Looks like we're branching out into pirate-slaying, at least in conjunction with smuggling. Gott aclearout the pirates if you want to make things safe for honest, hard-working criminals.

"Why would I say it's flash? I think it looks very nice, especially compared to what it replaced," Navi replies. "And it sounds like you're keeping very busy. Not that I'll complain about someone clearing out pirate scum in this system and beyond."

"Well, good," Adhar says with a smile. "I get a lot of crap for my...shall we say, lavish approach to things." He shrugs. "Sorry that I made the assumption. Otherwise, things are good, really. Ship's working out, and all of that. Need to raise a few hundred thousand to get ourselves some more fighters, looks like."

"I wish I could help you there. I'm not much more than a merc, and I never had a head for business," Navi says, shaking her head. "But I do hope you get the money, and soon. If you need any help with internal security for your ships, I could help. I have some experience with counterboarding work."

"We'll have to see about that," Adhar says with a nod. "I mean, if Mandalore allows it. Can you even /hire/ one fighter at a time? Don't you have to hire more at once?"

"It may depend on the job," Navi muses, taking a seat on one of the stools at last and setting down her datapad. As the barkeep arrives, she points to a kera-mint fizz on the menu and then at the datapad. "Have you seen this woman? No, she's not going to be hurt or anything... she didn't come home a few days ago and her family's got people like me out looking for her."

"I could ask around for you if you want," says Adhar, nodding at the datapad and its image. "I mean what's the point of a network of informants if you can't make use of them?"

"Actually, I didn't even think of that. Thank you, Captain. I'd be very grateful," Navi says, glancing at Adhar with a little nod. "I'm sure her family would be, too, if we can find her."

"All right," Adhar says, gesturing for you to hand the datapad over. "Mind if I make some cursory inquiries from here?"

"Not one bit, Captain. Not if it helps get her home safe and sound," Navi replies, with a little shake of her head. "It'll likely save a lot of time and boot leather, and seconds can equal life when it comes to missing persons."

"Right, then." Adhar takes the pad from the bar, examining it thoughtfully. "All right, he says. "Tallha Zino, age twenty-two, near-human, but of no meaningful difference short of the eyes. You saw the eye color, right? I haven't seen eyes tht re metallic gold like that in near-human species before. Should scale things down a bit. All right...let's see..." His fingers begin playing across the datapad's little keyboard, accessing the datanet and, we assume, making queries of people. This takes some time, of course. He passes it by drinking from his glass of sparkly blue stuff and humming lightly.

"I've seen it once... but only once," Navi muses, unlatching and removing her helmet as her drink arrives, complete with sealed straw. Unsealing the straw wrapper and dropping it into her drink, she takes an almost dainty sip, her posture less merc and more girl in a soda shop. "Mmmmm, /that/ hit the spot..."

"Cute," he says, grinning at you faintly as he taps away at the keys. After about twenty, thirty minutes of scowling at the datapad, Adhar finally puts the datapad down. "All right," he says. "Got a little bit of news for ya."

Navi smiles faintly at the one-word compliment. Falling silent, she is content to wait and occasionally sip at her drink until Adhar speaks up again. "Oh? Good. Please, tell me what you have," she says, interest instantly piqued.

"Well," he says, clucking his tongue, "The good thing is that she's likely still alive, and not murdered or eaten or anything. Guy I know works as a flesh broker - not a slaver, jut someone who places prostitutes and wanna-be prostitutes with brothes and such - says that he's had a client looking for girls like this one. You know, dark skin, golden eyes, pretty, young. Want 'em for his own personal little studio. Likely holographic pornography, or so my source thinks. Doesn't have any real information about the guy, short of that he's big, pale, probably near-human himself from the fact his eyes are all black. That's all he's got, though. Probably could go down below and get someinformation, if you wanted to look."

"I want to look, definitely. Thank you again, Captain... you've been a tremendous help," Navi says softly, reaching for her helmet and finishing the last of her mint fizz. "Feel free to come with me if you want. I thought you might want to see how this shakes out," she adds, standing, as she begins to don and reseal her helmet.

"Oh, absolutely," Adhar says with nod. "You wanna give me a few minutes to slip into something a little more comfortable? Meet me at the taxi stop?"

"I'll make the time. Meet you there," Navi replies, nodding. Setting her helmet seals with a muted hiss, she turns toward the door.

Navi waits at the taxi stop, water creating miniature rivers down her armor as the rain pours down in heavy sheets. "Thank the Force for climate-controlled body gloves," she murmurs, almost sure she can feel the chill through her armor plating. "I just hope Captain Gann has something this good or better..."

As thick as Bes'kar, no - however, the figure that descends the ramp in blue and gold is, most likely, perfectly defended against whatever is coming. Dressed in the armor of the most elite of the Imperial inner circle, the Emperor's own guards, Adhar has put his own spin on the formerly crimson mail, as per always.

"Hello," the figure that is Adhar says, voice tinny though its hidden speakers. "Ready to go?"

"Whenever you are, Captain. Please, lead on," Navi says, glancing up at Adhar as he approaches and falling into near-step beside him. "Were you able to find out anything else, or are we still following the same trail as when we left the cantina?"

"We are going down to the underlevels," Adhar says. "My trail stops at the night market, the bars around there. We can meet my guy, see if he can tell us anything else. Force knows he has no interest in telling us anything else over the datanet." A beat. "Might have to be more compelling. You ready?"

"I was only waiting for you," Navi teases gently. "Let's find this 'guy' you're talking about and see what he knows about our girl. Which is hopefully a lot more than we do right now."

"I'll introduce you," Adhar says, possibly nodding but who can tell under that helmet? "But this is your operation. I'll be there for support, though. Just ask if you need me." He proceeds to wave down a taxi, then.

The taxi drops you off at Ko Hentota, where, of course, just getting out seems like a bad move - but you two are gorgeous, gilded badasses, so ain't nobody likely to step up and cause any problems for you in the short term. Having tuned your commlinks to talk over the air, Adhar is the first to speak.

< There, the Sweatshop. That's where he hangs out. You lead. >

Navi leads, as bidden. She doesn't draw her pistols, but rests her hands casually at her belt, close to the grips of the guns. "Please keep your eyes open for this friend of yours... and I use the term loosely. I won't know what he looks like," she advises softly, stepping inside the building.

Inside, she tries not to look around like a tourist, but the place is so strange and crowded that she can't help but feel like danger could come from anywhere. "I hope we find him quickly," she says softly to Adhar. "I really don't like this place..."

The Sweatshop is as it always is - people drinking, shenanigans going on in the dark corners, that sort of thing. Fighting cages down in the lower level, sentients going at it bare-knuckle till the bones show. < This place isn't as bad as you might think,> he says. < We're not even in the Undercity. > The two of you move along the throngs of the grim and nasty here, though it's clear from the looks on the faces of those you pass that you both make a real impression and it's not really clear who shows out more.

<Maybe not, but I don't think I'll make it a regular stop on my weekends,> Navi replies, still softly. <At least nobody seems to be bothering us. I can live with that trend.> She keeps her eyes open for a large, pale human with black eyes, to say nothing of the sort of trouble that might leap at them from the crowd.

No sign of said giant pale man, but Adhar does speak up after a few minutes spent sanning. < Got him, > Adhar says, pointing slightly down a level. At a Jubilee wheel, apparently winning, a squat Toydarian sits on a tall stool laughing along with a number of beautiful - well, one assumes beautiful - Nautolans, all in various elegant dresses. The Toydarian himself is a blue-skinned fellow in what could be best described as a quilted robe made of some kind of shimmering red velvet. < Down there. Little guy with the beauties down here. >

This calls into question, of course, what he's into himself.

< Lead on. He knows we're coming and what you look like. >

<Nice dresses,> Navi observes softly, stepping closer to the Jubilee wheel and the Toydarian player in red. "Greetings to you, good sir, and to your lovely companions as well. I am told that you can help me find a certain missing girl," she says softly, getting right to the point.

< Thano likes his girls dressed well. > Thano, apparently, is the name of the player - who looks at you for a long moment before looking past you to the looming figure that is Adhar.

"I'm going to assume for a second that your name is Navi - since you didn't introduce yourself - and that I didn't show up underdressed for a costume party. That is also in a museum." One of the Nautolan girls titters. "That about right?"

"I'm not sure I'd call red velvoid underdressed for /anything/... but I take your point. It is, and you didn't," Navi replies. "Now... can you?"

"I can do a lot of things," says Thano, his wings fluttering faintly. "I can sit here and play Jubilee, at which I am very good, and continue to make money. I can think about why my good friend Adhar would send someone along to ask me questions without so much as showing the sligest it of manners." He flaps his wings again, taking a sip of his drink. "I can only assume that it's a practical joke. Do alleviate me of that misrepresentation, eh? Take off your helmet and sit down at the table. I never talk to women behind a helmet when I can do so face to face."

< Well, he's in a mood. > Adhar coughs faintly. < Sorry about that. >

<Not your fault.> Navi shakes her head subtly before replying to the Toydarian. "And I never take my helmet off for strange men... but since the life and limb of a girl may hinge upon breaking that tradition? I break it gladly." She reaches up and releases the seals of her helmet with a soft but sharp hiss, then lifts it over her head, giving her hair a casual shake to spill her silky blonde pigtails down around her shoulders before seating herself at the table. "As you can see, it is no practical joke, or any other kind. I apologize if I gave offense. I hadn't meant to," she adds, bowing her head respectfully to the Toydarian.

"Good thing that I am Toydarian," says Thano, chuckling faintly. "And not a human man." Once she takes off her helmet, the little flying bastard let ous a sound of pleasure. "Ah! There you are. And beautiful, as I expected. Humans are not my chosen fetish, of course, but I know a beauty when I see one. Funny thing, lot of people seem to think you Mandalorians are all green and scaly underneath that armor." Thano chuckles, then looks past you at Adhar's armored form, his trunklike nose curling faintly at the end. "Well, your bodyguard there need not worry in any case. I mean you no harm, and I am here to cooperate."

Navi feels a faint blush rising in her pale cheeks at the compliment, but forces the discomfort to the back of her mind. "I'm glad. But while I might have time to chat of fetishes and the nature of my people, that girl's time may be running out," she says softly, with conviction. "She is also a beauty, even if she isn't quite to your taste, and I'm sure we'd both rather have her home safe, and still beautiful. Please, let us talk of where we may find her, and what dangers we might need to deal with between us and her safe rescue."

His mission seemingly accomplished, Thano goes from a frosty gangster to a warm friend in an eyeblink. "Of course," he says pleasantly, smiling. His eyes, red-orange, bulge agreeably in their sockets. Because Toydarians are kriffing weird.

"Well," he says after a moment, "Like I told my good friend Adhar, there was some big fellow looking for girls like her. I get the idea that he had very specific tastes for a very specific reason, you see? Can't say what reason that was, of course, but it wasn't the kind of business that /I'm/ into. As Adhar will tell you, I don't press people into service, I facilitate contracts between willing talent and decent employers." The Toydarian's wings flutter again, and after a moment he's in the air, having forgotten about Jubilee, hovering a foot off te stool so that he can match you at eye level. "He hasn't come back, either...but I can see what I can dig up for you, since you're such a pretty girl. It won't be cheap, but I'm sure that Adhar can settle the bill, eh? That's what he likes to do." A flicker of a glance past you at the figure in gilded blue armor. "Give me a day or so, eh? Then we will see what we can see."

"Thank you." Navi doesn't miss that glance aside at Adhar. "I am very grateful for any help you can give me. We may both hope we aren't too late. He mentioned the sort of business this man was likely into. While I think he would try not to harm her, I doubt he's the kind of person known for self-control."

"Neither is Adhar, from what I hear," Thano says with a shrug. "You be careful who you work with, pretty girl. My friend Adhar is a fantastic smuggler, and he's got good intentions, but if you heard the kind of things that I heard? Maybe you want to get to the bottom of things on your own."

< That's enough, > Adhar mutters over the link. < He's not going to give us anything else tonight. Shall we go? >

"By then it may be too late," Navi replies. "Thank you for your advice, Thano. I'll think it over with the gravity it deserves. Until we meet again," she continues, rising and drawing her hair back up before re-donning her helmet and closing its seals.

Once the helmet is sealed, she takes up her half of the conversation once more. <Let's go. And hope his sources are as good as you believed. Maybe he'll work quickly once we're gone.>

"Oh," says Thano, "I never got that he intended any /harm/ to the girls he's looking for. He's intense, but those black eyes, I think, give people more of a bad impression than maybe is fair, eh?" He gives you a nod as you begin to pull on your helmet, settling down on his stool and nodding to one of the ladies, who begins to set up his chips...

< All right, > says Adhar, leading you up toward the top level again. < I'll keep digging in the meantime. Thano usually doesn't lie about things, though. He's too arrogant for that, likes people to know exactly what he's capable of doing. >

<He seemed more interested in what /you/ were capable of doing... and I'm sure he knew you were under that armor the whole time. The way he looked at you confirmed it. What was he talking about?> Navi asks softly as she follows Adhar upward once more.

< I'll tell you in a few minutes, > says Adhar. < Let's go to my ship. >

Adhar brings you on board Voidwing, which is, as ever, still a tiny death-yacht. "Come on up," he says as he takes the one-being elevator up into the living area which descends again to await you. "I'll pour us some drinks. I've got Ne'tra gal if you want it."

Navi follows Adhar aboard, blushing under her helmet as she remembers that her armor is dripping onto the floor from the sheeting rain. "Thank you," she says, just loud enough to be heard from above, in the living area. "Sorry for dripping on your decks. It's a horrible day to be out." At the suggested Ne'tra gal, she smiles faintly, which can be heard in her voice, even through the vocoder. "I'd like that. Thank you."

Well, Adhar's is too, but he doesn't seem to mind. "They're metal," he says with a shrug. "And heated, so there's no worry. It'll all get handled by the climate system in a few minutes. Go up to the refresher, if you want to, stand in the booth and turn on the body dryer. Otherwise you're fine." Removing his helmet, Adhar goes to what looks like part of the superstructure, a curved rib with wood paneling, but this proves to be an equipment locker. He touches a concealed button and it swings open, letting him put away his helmet and hang up the armorweave cloak, leaving him just in body armor as he closes it again. "I'll get you that drink," he says, and heads to fore where the autochef and apparently a liquor cabinet awaits.

"I may just do that. Thank you for the drink, and for the idea," Navi replies, and moves toward the refresher. A few moments after the door closes, the hushed roar of the drying jets is heard. It's several minutes before she emerges, helmetless and more or less dry. "Such a long day... I'd take advantage of your wonderful sheets, but it's awfully rude to undress in front of your host. And drinking in bed is an awkward affair anyway," she adds wryly, though it's not clear if she's joking or not.

"Oh, don't worry," Adhar says, having brought down the table from the ceiling and set out a glass of dark ale for you. "I gotta head back up to my ship soon enough. But you wanna make a sleep appointment, I'll make it happen for you." He smiles faintly. "I am a tired, tired man. Still not used to running a boat with a couple thousand people on it, but we're making it happen."

"I couldn't get in the way of your schedule," Navi says, shaking her head slowly. "You've got so much to do, and you've already taken enough time for me for a whole month, let alone a day or two. Which I definitely owe you for, by the way. I'll make sure the reward comes to you, to offset the money you've spent to help find the girl," she adds softly, moving to take a seat at the table. She takes a dainty sniff of the ale as she takes up the glass, savoring its aroma. "This smells like good stuff. Where'd you ever find it?"

He stretches out in his seat, waving off your statement. "I'm just helping you," Adhar say. "Keep your money. And I got it from a guy, same as always. I know Mandalore isn't exactly in the best shape these days, but the beer apparently thrives, like, everywhere ever. Lots of sealed bottles in people's collections." He pauses. "Speaking of. What the hell is going on with that planet? You all need some help with that, or what? I mean we could literally park the Business over it and turbolaser whatever's causing trouble, and airdrop supplies to positive factions at the same time. The Business is literally a warship. It's able to do stuff like that."

Navi shakes her head. "Mandalore has its own problems, and I doubt anybody but Mandalorians are going to be able to solve them all... and that won't happen until they figure out they've got a problem. Or maybe that they /are/ the problem," she murmurs, shaking her head slowly. "The Clans don't get along well at all, honestly. Maybe they never will. It's one of the reasons our Mandalore is so adamant about reuniting everyone under one banner. And in spite of the words of some people to the contrary, I don't think he really wanted to be the next Mandalore... but it takes a Mandalore to bring Mandalorians together. Nothing else can, or will."

She takes a long sip of her ale, savoring its flavor as it drains down her throat. "Definitely the good stuff. Anyway, I'm still wondering what Thano was talking about. If it's none of my damned business, feel free to tell me so."

"Well, whatever works," Adhar says with a shrug. "I'm just saying, you know. You all end up needing spport, I'm sure we can help in some way."

He pauses a moment, considering the other question. "Well," Adhar says, "I have a reputation, especially lately. I might have mentioned we'd been warring with a much larger syndicate, based in the south part of the Outer Rim. Now I got a policy, and that's not to let a bully get the best of me or mine. This group, they decided to play bully, on account of our star was rising, and we weren't shipping their kind of spice. So they tried to buy us out. Cheap." Adhar scoffs. "I said no, which they didn't take kindly to. So they tried to pinch off our spice smuggling contacts, which at the time was all we were running. Would've killed us off in no time."

"If I think of anything at all, I'll tell you. Might never happen, but if it does? I'll definitely be in touch," Navi says softly, her tone wry. As he tells the story, she begins to get an idea of where it may be going. "And you weren't about to let them do that. So you found a way to stop them. I get the feeling that the 'how' part of that is the most interesting."

"Well." Adhar purses his lips. "Smuggler groups are usually sneaky, you know, or they'd rather work around the issue rather than face it outright - smugglers tend not to be fighters, being creatures of wits before brawn. So, I dug up a lot of information, laid out targets, and since we already had starfighters and a military corvette at the time, we hit a bunch of their facilities and some of their bigger ships, liberated a bunch of their slaves - they use slave labor almost entirely in their spice operations - and generally played merry hell with their operation. They can't sell that spice anymore, now. We just...wiped out their means of production." He shrugs. "Scorched earth, you might say. So now we have this reputation of being foaming beasts if you try us. Which isn't bad, buuuut..."

"It's got a hiccup or two. And one of them is that people like Thano talk about what they think you're capable of," Navi replies, getting something of the idea, if not the whole idea.

"People think you might be a mad dog, they get real nervous," Adhar says with a nod. "Some people are afraid of my anti-slavery views, some people don't like that I resorted to violence at all, much less the scale of it, and a /lot/ of people think I'm strange as Hell for being a smuggler who captains a warship. Doesn't matter that the Business is a fantastic basecraft for a smuggling operation, especially one that likes to be mobile when it needs to be, it's the optics."

He adds, "It doesn't help that I got a /lot/ of blood in my ledger the last eight months. I went from being known as this really nice, really diplomatic guy, to a guy who's really nice, really diplomatic, and will burn your house down and kill your family if you cross him. Which...isn't entirely fair, but that's how it's turned out."

"And /are/ you that person they think you are?" Navi asks thoughtfully. "Really nice, really diplomatic, ready to burn down houses and kill families if those people cross you?"

"Depends on the day." Adhar grunts. "Former Captain in my group used to say I'm not dangerous until someone makes me so, and then I'm very much a threat. I don't know about that. Me, I just know that when you hit, you have to hit hard. You can't bloody someone's nose, especially if you're small. You have to /break/ it." That said, he adds, "But you don't hurt innocent people, or at least not willfully or knowingly."

"I understand. My own people are in a similar position. Just because you have to prove you've got the teeth to back up your argument, doesn't mean you have to be a monster to do it. It sounds like we both follow that philosophy," Navi observes, nodding.

"More or less." Adhar smiles. "Anyway, I'm a weird bird now, and most people don't know how to handle it. So we'll just...see what goes. And on that note..." Adhar gets to his feet. "I'm gonna need to head out. I'll let you know as soon as I hear something from Thano, or if we can dig something up. Meanwhile, I assume you'll be looking too, yeah?"

"Good assumption." Navi drains the last of her ale. Setting the glass down, she reaches for her helmet and stands. "Take care of yourself, Captain Gann. I have a feeling I'll be in your debt for the rest of my life at this rate... and please, don't tell me it doesn't matter. It does to me. But since I doubt I'll ever truly be able to repay you, I'm glad you're so forgiving. Take care, and try to get more sleep, too."

"Enh, I get it," he says, reaching to collect the glass and touch a control to retract the table into the ceiling. "Well, take care, lady. We'll talk soon."