Log:The Irregulars: Deeper Cuts 1 - The Knack of Naq

The Irregulars: Deeper Cuts 1 - The Knack of Naq

OOC Date: June 26, 2019
Location: Batuu
Participants: Dyannah Nerus, Rial Het, Rhysio Ando

The contact had been difficult to trace, an expert had hidden the address that he had used to reach the group. Shells within shells within shells. It spoke well of him that he was able to hide so well.

The last message directed them to Batuu. A surprise? Perhaps not. Batuu, green, temperate and inviting, had once been the crossroads of the Galaxy until hyperspace travel had established itself. Hyperdrives knocked it off the map as a final destination. It thrives again in a minor way as home to those who wish to hide and pass on goods and information that wouldn't be welcome on First Order worlds or in the democratic republics - what was left of them.

The meet would take place at a famous restaurant in one of its private rooms. The restaurant, on the outskirts of the City of Batuu, is housed in one of the celebrated spires, remnants of the enormous petrified trees from the planet's past where giant trees grew troposphere high and cold blooded creatures flew and nested in them. Quaint. Private and supposedly safe.

"Truth be told, I'm pleasantly surprised," Rial muses as he regards the scenery, en route to their appointed meeting place. "The lad's usually not so discreet as this. Something got him spooked, I wonder? Whatever the reason, good to see old Naq keeping a low profile, for once, innit? Normally, he'd be up to his eyeballs in all manner of unsavory nonsense."

Dyannah hums a questioning sound and raises her head from the tracking device, "Sloppy is he usually? That's a worry though he gave our slicers a nice runaround didn't he?" They are in a speeder zipping along at a nice clip through a stand of trees, the last kilometer of the national park protecting the giant trees.

"I know I have asked before but do you trust him?"

"Not.. sloppy, no," Rial answers after a moment of trying to choose a better word. "And he's smart, that much is never in doubt. As for trust... Luv, I make a habit of not trusting anyone but family. And as reliable as Naq's leads are, and as much as he's no friend of the Order, or the Hutts.. He's not family, is he?" A short exhale.

"Family, indeed," she turns to look at him with a quick mental touch as warm as her smile. "Smart is good. But," she shrugs and let's him see her discomfort. She unconsciously pats the side of her black jacket where her gun is holstered - a newly acquired habit that their time on Zeltron resurrected. Dressed all in black down to her steel tipped boots, she is not the classic Zeltron in electric colors. Nar Shaddaa and subsequent passes with life outside the established law had taught her a love for passing as unnoticed as her pink features and blue hair allowed her.

From the backseat of a speeder, a sleeping Rhysio has started to stir. He lifts his head first, looking left and right before shifting up to a seated position. He lifts a hand to stifle a yawn, looking out over the edge of the speeder again, "Are we there yet?"

Without waiting, he begins a quick gear check. Stylish swoop suit, check! Deadly blaster, check! Cunning Satchel, double-check!

"Just about there Rhysio, me lad," Rial returns with a jovial tone as their partner wakes up and the speeder hums along toward the destination. "Now, when we meet him, Naq can be a bit.. clownish, I suppose? But he's sharp as the pointy end of a vibrodagger, so just- well, try not t'insult him, aye? Not that I'm worried, really. If anything, I'm afraid ye and him might get along a bit *too* well."

Dyannah stares straight ahead, the deep breath and eye roll only reflected in the windshield of their speeder. "Lovely. Tell me why are we going to meet this...this clown again?" The question is rhetorical as they arrive at the restaurant; a surprising number of speeders are parked on the platform cut into the side of the enormous spire that houses the restaurant. Conservationists put a stop to building in the spires but this one was built before the end of the pioneering days and stays grandfathered in.

"We are here!" She turns to Rhysio, "That should make you happy. We have reserved a back private dining room for ourselves. Shall we?" Not waiting for an answer she opens the gull wing door of the speeder and climbs out to all appearance nonchalant and at ease. Another zeltron would feel her push her senses outward in a wary search for threats.

Rhysio Ando looks up towards Rial, an eyebrow raising quizzically as he still blinks the sleep out of his eyes. Finally he shrugs his shoulders and adds, "Sure. No problem. I can handle that."

As the speeder comes to a stop and the gull wings open, Rhysio is the last to exit the speeder, sliding his satchel a little higher on his shoulder. He pauses to look around, his eyes stopping on Dyannah for a moment just long enough to shrug and reply, "I'm kind of ambivalent about it. You have a very comfortable back seat." He blinks, looking away for a moment, opening his mouth and then closing it again. He then shakes his head and adds, "Your speeder does, I mean." He then asks, "How about this weather, huh?"

Rial Het asides to Dy's rhetorical question with a knowing smile. "Because he can tell us where the First Order is sourcing *ninety percent* of the repulsorlift coils for their hovertanks. Makes the bad jokes more tolerable, that." Rhysio is answered "The speeder does have a very comfortable back seat, at that."

Eyes narrowed, Dyannah shines a luscious zeltron smile at Rhysio that might cut like a razor edge. "I have a long memory, Rhysio." She shakes an admonishing finger at the man and turns to walk into the restaurant with a little sway to her hips.

Blinking, Rhysio looks impressed as he asks, "Ninety percent?" He then nods his head slowly, "Not too shabby."

He looks towards Dyannah just long enough to have a finger waved at him and smirk, "Let's go." He sets off at a walk to trail not too far behind Dyannah and Rial, his head on a swivel.

Rial Het admires the sway of Dyannah's walk for a moment, before exhaling, clearing his throat and getting back to the business ahead. "Ninety, aye. If Naq's source is accurate." Into the back room they go. The moment the doors to the private room slide open, exuberant laughter, bizarre music, and the strong smell of burning incense compete for attention. A tall, skinny Neimoidian dressed in garish red reclines at a table full of expensive food and drink. Alien women in various types of dancing attire sit on either side of the bombastic smuggler, each cozied up with an arm around their shoulders. "Ah... my friends! Sit... sit.." Naq Muura invites, languidly.

Pausing a moment, Rial mutters half to himself, "Believe it or not, this is still pretty low key, for him."

"I'll let you do the introductions then, Rial." She sweeps the room with her senses extended and murmurs for Rial and Rhysio's ears only. "Greed, of course. Goddess! Your friend is a case, Rial. Muscle over in the corners, one of the working girls might do more than you would expect. Watch her hands." She looks the scantily dressed women over with a smile and walks towards their host's table chin high with the faint smile playing around her lips.

As he steps into the back room, a small smile begins to form on his face as he takes in the sights, sounds, and smells of this little hidey hole on Batuu, "Wow, I didn't think this planet had something like this going." He follows along to the table of their hosts, taking a seat as he's offered to do so. He then looks towards Naq and smiles, "Thanks! Pleasure to be making the acquaintence of one so obviously brave."

"This planet *doesn't*," Rial notes to Rhysio, sounding even parts puzzled and grudgingly impressed. Moving on with business, he enters the room with an easy smile, greeting, "Naq Muura, it does me heart good to see you looking so well, and with all your extremities still attached. This here is Captain Dyannah, and this lad to me right is Xim the Despot, in the flesh. May we join you, aye?"

Naq Muura smiles a wide, eerie Neimoidian smile at Rhysio. "You are.. *very* observant, Mister Despot. The great and cunning Naq Muura likes you already." An instruction in his native language leads to one of the dancing girls giving Rhysio a measuring look. After a look around, "Ah.. I must.. apologize, lovely captain- I did not think to have pretty boys waiting.. unless?"

"Why how thoughtful!" Dyannah gestures to the 'Despot' and Rial with a melting look for Naq. "But as you can see - I came with my own. Thank you for having us."

Rhysio Ando glances towards Dyannah as the 'unless' is dropped, his eyebrow raising just a fraction of an inch as he awaits the reply. At the indication that he and Rial are, in fact, the pretty boys brought along, he looks back to the Neimoidian, grins, and shrugs his shoulders just slightly.

He then waves his hand, "I'm not observant at all, my new friend. It's simply everyone who has been in the vicinity of Sullust knows the story of Hiyh Noon, who was renowned for waring such bright red robes that they interfered with infrared landing lights and caused several very large ships to crash upon landing. Such was the economic blight brought on that they bombed him from orbit at their first available opportunity."

He raises a hand, gesturing to the robes Naq wheres, "And here you are, flaunting such adversity and wearing even brighter red robes that are surely shorting out low-light and thermographic vision systems on armor for a least a kilometer, and that's only because you're inside with this amazing light show." He then tilts his head to the side, sighing, "I have to say, I'm very impressed."

Naq Muura follows Dyannah's gesture to Rial and the Despot, and looks back to her with an unconvinced hand wavering. A trilling laugh meets 'Xim's' story. "Yes, I *am* very impressive.. This is true. Tell me more about how brave I am," he invites, only to be cut off.

"Naq?" Rial interjects with a knowing smile and raised brow. "If'n it wouldn't be a bother, can we hear of the repulsor coils, first? Double the flattery after, I promise."

"You outdo my own people and that, is no mean feat," Dyannah croons, flirting with unabashed fervor. Another zeltron would catch the laughter that lights her eyes, good natured and mocking the lavish flattery that Naq so obviously gorges himself on. Fortunately flattery is zero calories or the man would be as fat as a Hutt. A languid flip of her wrist towards Rial, an apology for his crassness but avowing to her interest in the coils.

Nodding his head emphatically, Rhysio adds, looking to Dyannah and then to Rial, "We should recognize that we were only able to safely land because of Naq Murra's largesse." He then looks back to Naq, "A sentient who has achieved so much with such asymetrical--" He blinks, looking towards Rial and then nodding his head, looking back towards Naq with a reassuring nod, "Yes, he's right. More later."

Naq Muura groans with exaggerated misery when Rial brings up the reason for meeting. "Uuuuuuuugh. Where is the red head? *She* knew how to enjoy espionage. Bah! Fine." When the Neimoiduan snaps his fingers, one of the dancing girls (the one Dy had marked as more than she seemed) produces a code cylinder and offers it to 'Xim the Despot' with a wink. "Some.. old Imperial planet in Wild Space. A human colony, well developed, heavy industry. The wars never touch it. Bakura, have you heard of Bakura?" he asks Rial, interrupting when the human starts to answer, "Of course you haven't. It's still a real planet, though."

"You have a wide knowledge of the planets, Naq." The zeltron's violet eyes never leave the man's noseless face but she nods for 'the Despot' to take it. "Such generosity! Not many in the Galaxy know about Bakura and their hatred of droids. Formidable." She bows her head as though she was in the presence of royalty knowing that he would never feel the irony in her curtesy.

Rhysio Ando reaches out to take the code cylinder, his eyes lingering on it for a moment before he palms it on just this side of badly. He slips it away into a pocket on his swoopsuit before he shakes his head, "I've never heard of Bakura. Sounds like a bad desert..." He then adds, "But I believe you!" He looks Dyannah, raising an eyebrow, "You know this place?"

"Hatred of droids?" the Neimoidian echoes, blankly. "Ah.. yes! They.. certainly hate droids, there," Naq agrees, in a poor attempt to pretend he knew that. "The usual fee transferred to my account.. half now, half when you verify the data Mister Despot carries..." a long finger lazily points at Xim. "The usual arrangement."

"I read a lot," she says offhandedly with a twist to her lips and a shrug at Rhysio. "Some people read one cred romances, I read planet guides." She shoots him a don't-frak-with-me look about her habits. "Please pay the man for his beneficence, dear Rial and we will be on our way."

Rhysio Ando smiles wanly towards Dyannah before he looks back towards Naq, "Not for nothing, but I prefer Mister the Despot. My father was fine with Mr. Despot, but then again, daddy wasn't an ambitious man." He turns his head, looking towards Rial with a raised eyebrow.

"Consider it done, Captain," Rial lilts, drawing out his datapad, sending the all clear back to their Irregular fellows, and authorizing the credit transfer, all while Naq Muura sways and begs like an egotistical tower built with wet noodles. "Mister THE Despot, then.. I think I met your father once.. Do not be offended? Unpleasant fellow. Hated red, for.. some reason."

Mystified and suddenly wary, the zeltron captain lifts an eyebrow at 'the Despot'. She opens her mouth to ask a question and thinks better of broaching the subject of red. "Well, then," she says with a tad too much brightness, "time for us to be getting on. You should have your first payment on record, sir. It has been a pleasure doing business with you. I hope that when we have more time we can indulge ourselves with your generosity." With a nod towards the door she looks at her crew mates and takes a step backwards.

Rhysio Ando stands from his seat, smiling towards Naq as he nods his head, "That's my father. Hated the color red." He leans slightly towards Naq, stage whisper, "It's the color of rash, you see. Think about that..." He then straightens up, offering a jaunty salute to the Neimoidian before heading towards the door.

"Next time, I will bring pretty boys, too!" Naq Muura promises brightly at the Zeltron as she declares the intention to leave. "And bring the red haired woman, next time! Wonderful company. We sipped wine and watched a bar fight, then went shopping. Highly entertaining exchange of intelligence." Rhysio gets a sad sigh and shake of his head. "Ohhh, son of a rash," he exclaims in.. understanding?

Rial also rises, and bids a, "Until next time, Naq. Ladies," he adds in brief acknowledgement of the others present before turning to follow Dy.