Log:The Sarlacc Job: Part One

The Sarlacc Job: Part One

Location: Death Star
Participants: Rey, Chewbacca, C-3P0, R2-D2

TIME: 1161 - Shortly After the Battle of Exegol

PLACE: Tatooine

"Listen, Chewbacca, you know I love you the way a farmer loves moisture... but what you're asking me is just ridiculous..."

The usual crowd of scum and villainy have assembled in their wretched hive for the evening. Thieves, cutthroats, and bounty hunters of all ages, species, and levels of facial mutilation can be seen milling about the Cantina. Credits change hands, secrets change ears, and earlier someone got stabbed for looking the wrong way at another guy's drink. But worst of all, among this collection of the worst of the Galaxy's worst, are the smugglers. Greedy, sneaky, covetous and yes, scruffy-lookin' wasters of time. Unfortunately, it's to one of these creatures that the Wookiee in the fashionable bandolier has the misfortune of being engaged in conversation with.

A portly gentleman, if you call 'morbidly obese' portly. His blue complexion and yellow eyes mark him as a potential Pantoran, while his clean-shaven head and ill-fitting business suit mark him as the Tatooine equivalent of a well-dressed gentleman of leisure. A smuggler who put down roots, and turned gangster.

He seems to be a good friend of Chewbacca's.

Answering the blue man's logical protestation, the Wookiee uses his own considerable rhetorical skills to make an excellent counterpoint. It's a counterpoint that can be heard through most of the Cantina, temporarily interrupting the repetitive music.

"HrRr-AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAH"

The blue man taps his chin, as if in thought. But ultimately, shakes his head sadly.

"Sorry, my hirsute friend, but it's not MY fault that the engines on that old rust bucket finally crapped out. If you need the parts to repair them... I'm afraid that the best I can do is the Friends and Family discount... Six Hundred Thousand Wupiupi."

"GRrRrRrRrRrROoOoOoOoORrR!"

"Well then, I'm afraid you're stranded for the time being."

Though Tatooine had many similarities to Jakku, it was still vastly different in an uncountable number of other ways. Rey felt odd upon it, sometimes seeing things that remind her of that blasted dust ball where she grew up... but then something radically different brings her back to reality. Reality of Tatooine is that it is a thriving melting pot of all manner of life, and all types of danger.

Rey had come with Chewie, as he knew this place well, convincing him that she needed to learn it too and experience was the best teacher. Dressed in white garments, with a shoddy quality hooded poncho thrown over her clothing, she looked quite a bit like your average Tatooine citizen right now, the sandy hued hood up over her head, and her expressive brown eyes looking around the interior of the shifty shady filled room.

Chewie's protestations drew Rey's eyes, her right hand coming up to keep her hood situated properly upon her head, as she wasn't looking to catch the eyes of anyone for very long. When her drink was set down, she did spare a smile to the gruff bartender, before she reached out to accept it.

Ice water...

Raising the glass up to her lips, Rey used her left hand to rapidly finger stroke some dust off of the cup's edge, then she indulged in a sip of the icy cold beverage. She might be the only person in here not drinking something alcohol based, but it's not like ice water wasn't a hot commodity on this cursed desert world...

After taking that sip, she sent her eyes back over to where Chewie was, trying to over hear the content of their conversation.

There are protestations, there are threats, there are appeals to one's better angels. Eventually, there is a fair amount of haggling. But in the end, the simple market forces of supply and demand win out, as they usually do. Sure, demand for vintage YT-1300 parts might be waning now that so many of them have been scrapped, but here on Tatooine there's only one place to get the exact pieces that Chewbacca needs, unless one wishes to try and make a deal with the Jawas. Under those sorts of strictures, Six Hundred Thousand Wupiupi might not seem like such an unfair price.

Eventually, a price is agreed upon that is lower than six hundred thousand, but much much higher than zero. With an expression of both itching disappointment and stoic resignation, a somewhat deflated-looking Wookiee eventually joins his latest human partner back at the bar. Where she's displaying almost vulgar levels of affluence by casually sipping a beverage made up of an entire day's water ration for most settlers on this Sun-blasted planetoid.

Nodding his head back in the direction of the corpulent dealer of engine parts, Chewbacca explains the situation in great detail.

"RrRr-OoOoOoOOOOaaaaaRRRRrRrRrRr!"

Towering over nearly everything else in the cantina, aside from the ceiling, it's almost comical to see him hang his head in so dejected a fashion. But surely this isn't his first time encountering a setback.

Seeing the big Wookiee lumbering back over toward her with a high level of dejected emotion touching his features, causes Rey to show a faint smirk. She's disappointed by it as well, but she doesn't want to play that up too much toward her co-pilot less he feel worse for it. Her right hand goes up to lay against the side of his furry left arm, conveying a sense of understanding toward the Wookiee who's helped her an untold amount of times since they first met.

"You did your best." She tells him. "We're not done yet though. This is a big star port. I am sure there are other options. We just have to keep our eyes and ears alert, and perhaps do a bit of strolling. Maybe we can find a parts dealer near the Jawa Trade area. I'm told they have all manner of random items for bartering there." She quietly tells the Wookiee, trying to keep their conversation only for them, even if they're in a well populated establishment.

Rey draws in a light breath through her pert nose then, her eyes dropping back down to the bar top as she raises the drink up for another refreshing sip of its cold contents. With the condensation building up around the cup, it trickles on to her fingertips, and as she sets the cup down again she presses her hands together to spread the droplets across her fingers.

Meanwhile, her eyes go up to dart around the interior of the room, once more giving a scan for eyes that might be on them, as her paranoia levels have been up for awhile. The Force is her ally, however, and this is something she reminds herself many times internally. Leia's teachings... they were all about such things. 'Things' that were designed to keep her safe and alert in places like this, quite frankly.

"Are you ready to go?" Rey asks Chewie softly then.

The idea of interacting with the Jawas does not seem to appeal to Chewbacca. They are, after all, nearly as bad as smugglers, but more obnoxious. If anything, the very suggestion seems to make the allegedly mighty Wookiee deflate even more. But he is nothing if not resolute, and there's every reason to suspect that he'll continue to live up to his reputation for grim determination. Of course, he also has a reputation for rampant complaining, prodigious bellyaching, and downright magnificent wailing. People can have more than one defining character attribute.

Nodding his assent, somewhat reluctantly, the Wookiee steps aside to give the young Jedi plenty of room to dismount her bar stool. Not that she needs an inordinate amount of room, but who knows what sort of behaviors pass for chivalry on Kashyyyk? Looking around at the shady-looking patrons, Chewbacca seems to sense that the atmosphere within the cantina is getting a little too... curious. She's right, it's best that they be moving on soon, before someone starts poking around or asking questions. Nobody ever likes Chewbacca's answers, after all.

"AaRrRrWwwwwHhhhRRRR!"

It's a small enough structure, basically an igloo made out of dirt and filled with booze. But that doesn't mean there aren't places that threats could hide. Gallantly taking the position to the woman's seven o'clock, he does his best impersonation of a mindless, neckless enforcer as they make their exit. It doesn't take a lot of effort on his part, as it's a role he's been practicing for about two hundred years, give or take a few decades.

Rey didn't see any impending dangers with her look around the cantina. She didn't feel anything through the flow of the Force either. But there were under currents of curiosity about she and the Wookiee. Wookiees were not normally prone to hang around on a world like this, and though it has been decades since Han and Chewie contributed to exploits of notoriety around here, there was still the chance some might be curious as to why a Human female was traveling with a male Wookiee. It was indeed best to make like dust on the wind...

She slipped off her stool, and left a half full glass of water behind.

Once outside, Rey adjusted her hood and poncho over her shoulders, her eyes glancing over to Chewie. "You did good." She tells him, further reassuring him. "Those people are opportunists. They're going to ask for way more than a product is worth, because they know we need it. If we found something /they/ needed, we could get them to bring the price down. But, that might take a lot longer than simply going to see what the Jawas had..." Her last few words reduced in volume down to nearly a whisper as she lead them through the streets of Tatooine back toward where the starport docking bays were, and where the Jawa tents were setup on the main market street.

With a pause taken to let a Dewback lumber by, Rey looked across the street toward the Jawa arrangement of market tents. She raised her right hand to point toward one, before looking back to her left, and up at Chewie. "That one seems to have similar parts." She indicates a tent where a handful of Jawa were scuttling about, some of them holding ship parts up to peddle them to passer-bys. "Would you like me to do the talking this time?" She asks, casting the Wookiee a lopsided smirk before she starts across the sandy street, her ankle boots crunching on the sun baked sand beneath her soles.

"GgAAaaAAaaAArrRRgg!"

Holding his massive paw up to protect his sensitive eyes, the Wookiee finds plenty to complain about on the way toward that trader tents. So busy is he in listing his various complaints, that he nearly steps into the path of the passing Dewback before noticing that his traveling companion has stopped short of the walkway. Odds are, he would have survived, but since there's nobody here to tell them the odds it's probably better to avoid taking too many risks. Even a Wookiee would have his entire day ruined by getting stepped on by such a creature. He'd probably get his entire week ruined, come to think of it.

Still holding his hand up above his eyes, Chewbacca looks almost as if he's in the middle of giving a salute as he walks down the sandy thoroughfare. When the Suns are near their zenith, it's better to be wearing a hood. Chewie looks longingly at the wide-brimmed basket-like hat a passing Wayuning wears, though everyone knows he really can't pull off hats.

Looking at the parts offered by the Jawas, Chewbacca seems pretty dismissive. And that's a fair attitude, given that most of what the junk-dealers are trying to deal is... junk. They seem to think that the Wookiee's bestial appearance is an excuse to offer all sorts of random pieces of trash, with ludicrous disclaimers like "Cheap! Cheap" or "Wooka motta chee-sah!", whatever that means.

It is with no reluctance at all that the Wookiee nods to the young woman, growling his agreement. Sure, he might be the more charismatic one, but the language barrier can occasionally prove to be a handicap that even his rugged good looks can't surmount.

It wasn't too long in to the shopping at the market tent that Rey realized the Jawa were more focused on the Wookiee, than they were on her. She assumed they believed he was the one with the money of the two of them, and her shoddy poncho might have something to do with that. All the same, it left her with a bit of time to view what was on offer... and she soon found herself moving a tarp aside, and locating the very piece that Chewie had been asking for in the cantina. She felt her heart skip for a moment, until she saw the price scribbled on it...

A breath was taken in slow, and calmly released. She devised a plan. If the Jawa knew that they wanted this piece, they'd hike the rate up, and it'd result in it costing far more than the asked price from the cantina dealers...

"Oh, I found it!" Rey's voice suddenly says with a level of elation that Chewie has likely never heard come from the young woman. When the Jawas all stop looking at Chewie, and shoot their eyes over to Rey, she's clutching a wire-intersection cap. A small piece, where a junction of wires can split between power supply conduits. It's a super common piece, and costs next to nothing.

"Chewie, look!" She says, turning to face him, and the Jawas, holding the piece up. She has a big smile on her visage beneath the hood, and gives the junction piece a little shake in her hand. With a laugh that bubbles out of her with happiness, Rey regards the Jawa. "How much for this? We /really/ need it." She says in her Core accented Basic. Her eyes drop back down to it as she turns it over in her hands.

But they have a box of those on the Falcon, in the store room, why would they want it?

"We'll pay top price for it." She states, as she offers a handful of credits toward the nearest Jawa. Before the little scavenger could take them though, her hand recoiled. "Oh, and would it be possible if we combined the purchase with that?" She asked, pointing to the larger part that Chewie was actually in need of. "We have a surplus of them, but we like to keep our cargo hold well stocked... This, though... My word... we've been looking all /over/ for this..." She says, once more indicating her most desired piece was the intersection juncture part...

"Oka noota wonkee?"

"Zeeto mucha neek!"

Conferring amongst themselves, two of the Jawas seem to be in a state of deliberation. Clearly, they are not strangers to exotic haggling attempts, as the planet seems to host a nearly endless parade of con men and crooks. But this simple-looking woman in a shabby poncho certainly couldn't be anything more than another slack-jawed yokel to milk for all the Wupiupi she's got. Right?

Literally putting their heads together, the Jawas begin whispering. It's as if they don't even bother to make it seem like they're not planning to rip their customers off. But since they control most of the junk market on this dustball, it's probably better to play nice. In short, it's a good thing that Rey is the one doing the talking.

Wisely playing along, the Wookiee growls a few token protestations. Something to the effect of "HRrrhhRRaaAaAaAaARrRR!" and "GWAAAaaaAAAaaaWWWrrr!". This seems to make the Jawas laugh. Sneaky, high-pitched squeaks that sound both merry and sinister simultaneously.

Finally, the tallest of the Jawas pipes up, taking the piece from Rey's hand and setting it on top of the other that she indicated. Then, he gets a SECOND wire-intersection cap, and places it next to it. Then a THIRD wire-intersection cap. The engine part that they actually want now decorated with additional detritus, the tallest Jawa speaks up.

"These! No money charge! No Wupiupi!"

The way he says it sounds very enthusiastic. But there's always a but...

After Rey hands the intersection juncture part over, she watches what the other Jawa do as a warm wind rolls across the market street. Rey glances down the street toward a Ronto lumbering down the thoroughfare at its far end. When she looks back, it is when the Jawa make that declaration. With her arms folding across her stomach, rumpling the fabric of her dusty poncho, and her clothing beneath it, Rey exchanges a look between the Jawa, and the Wookiee on her left.

Her dark eyelashes flutter in confusion at Chewie, before she looks back to the Jawa. "Free?" She asks, a smirk gliding across her naturally pink hued lips. She was a scavenger for somewhere around fifteen years of her young life, she knew nothing came for free.

"We're fully happy to pay for the junction connector. And the extra parts all... half their marked values? It's a package deal, you can't often find those in places like this, right? A whole bundle package, it's a good deal." She further states, as she shifts her weight from her right foot upon the sand, to her left.

"You have a good store here, and we're scouting a new trade route that will bring us by here quite a lot. If we can make good deals, you'll have two new regular customers... Imagine the profit." She smiles sweetly to the trio of short hooded desert rats.

By now, two other Jawas have joined the haggling duo, and all four of the creepy little critters form a circle and, once all of their heads are together, begin loudly whispering in their creepy language. Occasionally words can be pieced out, as their Trade Language has more than a few cognates with both Basic and Huttese. But they talk far too fast for most people to follow them fully, making it difficult to get much more than the most general gist of the conversation. Someone says something about "Wonkey!" another mentions something about a "Fakkin!" and yet another asks the group "Goza?"

This last question is quickly shouted down by the rest of the group.

Finally, just as Chewbacca is reaching the very end of his patience and his throat is beginning to rumble with a faint growl, the group of Jawas turn around, and allow their tallest to dictate their terms.

"Choobagga wonkey! Smuggo smuggo! Mummuhnum fakkin! Smuggo!"

Pointing excitedly at one of the other Jawas, the Tallest Jawa then gesticulates to their nearby tent. Making lots of high pitched noises, the smaller Jawa rushes to the tent, and returns shortly after pushing a very crude-looking hoverbarrow that's missing one of its handles. Inside the hoverbarrow is a wooden crate, with a fine grate placed over the top as if to allow in air.

"Smuggo box! Nar Shaddaa!" His voice gets lower, more conspiratorial "No Hutt!"

The chittering whispers of the Jawa in their huddle, of course, keeps Rey's eyes upon them. she can only pick up bits and pieces of it, and as they converse she leans toward Chewie's right arm. "What is 'goza'?" Rey asks in her own hushed tone, her eyes glancing up at the taller Wookiee.

The Jawa break up then, and motion toward that tent. Rey's eyes trail over toward it, and watch them head inside it. "Honestly. We're just looking for the parts, and nothing more..." She assumes they want them to add more to the pile of items which are still technically much cheaper than what the cantina dealer was asking for.

Rey shifts on her feet when the wheel barrow is pushed out in to the market street. She shifts her feet, and steps to the side to peer at the contents of the barrow. She exchanges another look with Chewie then, before she looks back to the Jawa who spoke of Smuggo.

"You want us to take this to Nar Shaddaa? Keep it out of prying eyes too?" She asks, her slim pointed chin rising up a little, as the fabric of her sandy colored hood flutters around her face in the hot Tatooine wind.

"Fifty percent off our entire bundle.." The Human woman declares to the smaller Jawa, her right hand going down to rest on her hip, with her poncho gently moving in waves across her body in the same blistering breezes.

"If we're putting our necks on the line, then that's a pretty sweet deal, for you..." She reminds the Jawa with a bit of a stern edge to her facial expression for them now.

The cautious tone of Chewbacca's response makes it sound more like a plaintive wail than an actual agreement. After all, he is familiar with the Jawas both personally and by reputation, and smuggling anything past the Hutts is usually not worth the trouble involved. But... they really DO need to get off of this rock. Sure, Chewbacca might not look busy, but he has hobbies. Hobbies that nobody ever asks him about. Hobbies he'd prefer to do... not on Tatooine.

And so it comes to pass that the Mighty Chewbacca acquired a very large, very boxy-looking engine part roughly the size of the average refrigerator. An engine part which he carries over his shoulder as he trudges down the dirty streets, getting occasional pieces of sand in his eyes from the frequent wind gusts of Mos Eisley. Faithful, considerate companion that he is, he has left the piloting of the hoverbarrow to his less sturdy human friend. Hoisting it with her mind would probably be a little too conspicuous for their current situation. After all, she's wearing her dirtiest poncho.

The crate within the hoverbarrow has been covered by a tarp, making it look not terribly conspicuous. This is Tatooine, where one can get all sorts of interesting and illegal things, and there are plenty of other people moving loads around the street either on hoverbarrows, on the backs of beats of burden, or via droid labor.

Off in the distance, the silhouette of the Millenium Falcon can be seen, in all of its shabby, rusty glory. Too bad someone didn't keep up with the regular maintenance while it was rusting away on Jakku. The sight of it still fills the Wookiee's heart with nostalgia and warmth, all of the feelings of home. But all that he has to say about their current situation is:

"AAAAAAARRRrrrrrAAaaaaaarrrrRRRRR!"

Rey's relatively short legs move rapidly, the tabards that hang from beneath her poncho flowing wildly around her knees and shins, as she pushes the hover barrow with a seasoned level of practice. If Jakku had given her anything, it was a life of hardened exercise, and skills related to everything Junk Trader. She felt upbeat about the transaction, and the smile on her lips proved it. Did Chewie think it was a good deal? That was debatable. It certainly had cost them less credits than outright buying from the people in the cantina though, and Rey was confident that they could make the delivery that the Jawa had asked them for.

Her hood fell back in the wind, hooked on the back of one her twisted-up hairbunss, her eyes traveled over to him. She smiled at him. "You look less than pleased." She tells him. "I promise, we'll be fine. We need to speak with a number of contacts on Nar Shaddaa anyway. So it was already on our to-do-list." She states as they pass under the archway and enter in to the circular landing pad that the less than impressive looking Millennium Falcon waits on.

"We saved some money too. That means better food rations." Appeal to Chewie's stomach, that'll work.

From inside the ship, R2-D2 rolls down the ramp, having picked their approach up on his sensor scope, it falls back inside his shiny dome, as he lets out a welcoming whistle to the arriving duo, the astro droid rolling out across the dusty pad toward them to look over what they were bringing back.

Rey parks the barrow beside the gangplank, and reaches up to pull the poncho off of her shoulders, rolling it up and dropping it on to one of the hover cart's handles, she smiles to Artoo. "We did it, the part was acquired... and then some." She states with self-satisfaction, as her eyes cast back over to the taller Wookiee, who may or may not look less happy about it all.

Though he's fairly even-tempered by Wookiee standards, it's only on fairly rare occasions that he 'looks happy' about much of anything. And this is certainly no exception. That might have as much to do with the sand in his eyes and the weight on his shoulder as it does with anything related to the excellent deal that they've apparently made. How could haggling with Jawas in the street possibly produce anything other than a positive outcome?

Slowly hauling the very heavy load up the ramp, Chewbacca will probably be busy with R2-D2 for several hours installing the new capacitor bank. Or rather, the extremely old capacitor bank that is still nevertheless slightly newer than the one that recently went bad in the Falcon's engine bay. Here's hoping it has at least a few lightyears of life left in it. Failing that, here's hoping it has at least enough life to make to Nar Shaddaa.

At the top of the ramp, Chewbacca nearly bumps into yet another droid passenger. One who he regards with slightly more respect than Han Solo ever did, but who he can't help occasionally getting annoyed by. C-3PO is definitely an acquired taste, with a well-documented capacity to grate. Which is why it might be forgivable when the Wookiee is a bit brusque when the golden droid waves hello and questions him about the success of their errand. Responding only with a "HrRrRrRrRAaAURGH!"

Taken aback, C-3PO shuffles away, and heads down the hallway muttering "Oh dear, oh dear!" mostly to himself. It's only when he's out of earshot that he muses. "I wonder what Chewbacca meant... 'A bad feeling about this'? Indeed!"

Underneath the tarp, the load inside the crate shuffles briefly, and then falls silent.