Aint Love Grand (Xel-Naga)

[Bambi Maddox]

Maddox slid her palm along the bar as she walked down its length. Business was slow tonight, which suited her just fine. She, and her companion whom she'd left seated over in a dark corner, were not really the inconspicuous types and the less eyes that took notice of their presence, the better. She stopped in front of the curly-topped proprietor who was doing his darndest not to stare at her eye patch.

"You got an envelope here for me, shorty" Bambi adressed him with her distinctive, lilting voice. "Be a pal and hand that over to me, would'ya"

[Mirko Spendrim]

"Does this look like a post office to you?" Mirko dared to say.

"I'm getting really tired of people like you just coming in here and treating Cloud 9 like it's some Cobb & Co pitstop for your own personal correspondence" He grudgingly pulled out a clipboard and thumbed down its roster for any recent deliveries.

"You atleast should order a drink.."

[Bambi Maddox]

"Gonna be kinda hard to tell me whats on your wine list when I slice your lips off" Maddox replied.

She lent forward, trying to read Mirko's sheet upside-down.

"Look for Mrs Whent" she instructed, "And dont worry, my friend over there is a thirsty fella. My guess is you'll be more than glad we stopped in."

[Mirko Spendrim]

Mirko stretched his neck in an effort to see who Maddox was referring to, but the dark interior of the bar and the position of the booth made the person in question difficult to identify.

"We have nerf-steak on special if you're hungry" he said, indignately pulling his clipboard closer to himself to thwart the woman's prying eyes. Eye.

[Bambi Maddox]

"Sure, yeah, send us over a couple. Both well-done." Maddox was fine lookin' at blood just as long as it wasnt in the meat she was forking into her mouth.

"There" she stabbed a thin finger to the paper. "Should just be a letter, no drama, right little man?"

[Mirko Spendrim]

Again Mirko pulled the clipboard toward himself. This woman was really quite annoying.

"Of course it's just a letter. You think we accept parcels or whatever else from unknown sources and hold them for other unnamed sources?
A business could get in to deep trouble playing that game."

"We provide a courtesy for travellers passing through Cloud City who often dont stay in one place long enough to call home. That will be 25 creds"

First rule, get the fee paid before delivering. Spendrim was insistant on that.

[Bambi Maddox]

Maddox fished out 25 creds from her pocket and slapped them on the table and Mirko immediately turned to head into the back office to get the letter.

Snatching it from his hairy little fist upon his return, Bambi gave Spendrim a "Thankyou darlin'" and crossed the distance to join her companion who was slouched, sipping a drink in a booth shrouded in shadow.

"We got mail" she said brightly, waving the envelope like it was a winning lottery ticket.

[Xel-Naga]

"Hopes its better than the last thing I got in the mail." Nathaniel replied as he eyed the parcel Maddox was waving back and forth in front of him like it was the nicest thing in the world. It would not take much to top what he had received last in the galactic mailing system, if you could even call it that. Being that this was a digital age coupled with how his job kept him moving he did not really have a mailing address for people to send him things, but someone managed to leave a compact box for him at one of his favorite bars on Ord Mantell and there he received a severed head of a previous business partner left lying among the packing peanuts. It might have been a good threat that sent a message if it was not for the bar tender being able to point out who delivered the box, whom was drinking in the bar. A few harsh words and broken fingers in the bathroom gave him names, which led to a few corpses and no one threat from that direction. Good times.

"Wonder if it'll be something fun this time. Tracking down Rodians and roughing up teenagers ain't exactly my idea of a good time. A good time usually involves more drinking and less clothing." And with that said he took another sip of his drink. The Corellian Whiskey was a favorite, one he usually drank straight in shots, but today he had it mixed with Fizzcola. No sense in getting hammered when they were getting job information. Xel liked his alcohol, but he liked getting paid even more.

"So What'll it be today, Maddox?"

[Bambi Maddox]

Maddox's pirate grin deepened as she listened to Naga. What a trip. If she'd had to lay money that they'd be working together, her and Xel of their own volition, even six months ago, she'd have laughed herself senseless. Admittedly, they weren't what the average skywalker would call friends but, they were a good match in an oddly square-peg round hole universe.

She tore open the envelope.

"Its an address in Coruscant" she said putting the paper on the table then flicking it across to Naga with her thumb and forefinger. "It'll be where we'll find a data card with the details for the contract."

She sat back in her seat, sighing loudly, and motioned with a whirling hand for another round of drinks to be brought.

"Why dont anybody just pick up the comm and call in a good old fashioned hit?" she tsked. "Sure it was more easily traced that way, but gawds what a waste of time this cloak and frelling galactic easter egg hunt is"

She added as she remembered, "Oh, and half the money will be wired over to us when we get the data card"

[Xel-Naga]

Xel theorized the answer to Bambi's rhetoric was that if things were done simpler, if they just picked up the comm as she said and called them to tell them where to go, then their jobs would be much shorter and they would have more time on their hands to do, well, anything. There would be more infighting and competition if the process was faster, and they would be making credits at least twice as fast. That could destabilize the entire profession of bounty hunting and private military contracting. There was probably a secret society of men and women, likely ones that met in the shadows while sitting in a circle, that decided that things would be better if they beat around the bush instead of letting the entire galaxy, and their lucrative trade, unravel like an old sweater that's passed down the family too many times.

"At least we're going to Coruscant. It's my kind of planet. Reminds me of my home world to boot." Although he did not elaborate further as to what his home planet was. Not that it would be too hard for her to guess. There were not many planets like Coruscant, but the one he was from came very close. It was even called Little Coruscant to boot. He did not remember much of it, what with the accident and his cryo sentence damaging his brain. What he did remember was a whole lot of corruption and crime, and that somehow his parents had stood up above it all. Till they died, of course. Shame was he could not remember if he was the one that killed them or not. That memory was hazy.

"Unless we have a deadline to get it we should relax a little." Xel started as he picked up his Corellian Hard Fizzy, as some called the drink, and drained the rest of the half empty glass and set it down hard, causing the ice to swirl around the glass. "Seems like all we do is run around the galaxy, usually just threatening people or finding someone. When was the last time we actually killed someone on a job? It's been a frelling long time. I'll need plenty 'o drink 'fore I'm ready for another goose chase." And with that said he picked up the freshly delivered Hard Fizzy and started to throw it back, emptying half the glass in one go, setting it down and making a face as the alcohol and taste finally registered, a bit delayed.

"Can I get a few shots of the Cor Whiskey?" He asked the waitress that had just dropped of their fresh round. His question came out more as a cough than anything. Never underestimate Corellian alcohol. It always kicks you in the teeth. Only thing stronger was Scumple.

[Bambi Maddox]

"We got time," Bambi said in answer to Xel's desire to live the life un-hurried. He sure was chill compared to most the times they'd ever spent together. Usually, he was in a break-neck hurry to, well, break her neck as a matter of fact, but tonight he appeared to want to unwind, "But dont get too loose on me Naga. I wont be pickin' up your sorry ass if you find you cant walk after few too many shots" she grinned a taunt for his benefit, "Even them new fancy legs of yours cant out last too much indulging in the fire water"

[Xel-Naga]

"You'd be surprised what these fancy new legs 'o mine can do." He said, with the required smirk, as he finished off the rest of his drink. The shots were brought over but he did not start on them yet. He was already feeling a little too buzzed. He was going to relax a moment, enjoy the sensation. Getting bare ass drunk was probably not the best idea, now with Maddox here. She'd be likely to either leave without him or do something nasty to him while he was not all together there. It was a fact that Xel-Naga did not want to come out of his drunken stupor with marker doodles all over his face and several tattoos that he did not remember getting. And probably a missing finger or something.

"I'll nurse my hangover on the way to Coruscant. Hope you don't mind holding my hair while I puke tomorrow." he continued, pausing only to run a hand over the hair stubble that covered his head. "Besides, this isn't very much. Where I come from alcohol pours out of the tap and they serve booze in the school cafeteria. Though, that was a simpler time then this new fangled, technology driven age you youngins are living."

[Bambi Maddox]

Maddox circled her glass, the amber liquid swirlling correspondingly within it and she eyed Naga speculatively. "You speak fondly of your old haunts - we could stop by after the job if you like, look up some old friends, or family"

She was being sly, or so she thought. She didn't know a great deal about Naga's background, apart that it had been violent, but there had been rumors..

A server delivered the nerf-steaks, setting the plates down with a plonk before each of the Nebula assassins. Bambi kept fishing, if Xel was like any other mug on the planet, the generous application of liquor would incline him to confidences, "Any one you'd like to see back home?"

[Xel-Naga]

"Huh," Was all Xel said at first, his attention stole away by the arrival of the piping how Nerf stakes. Maddox had boasted about the quality of their nerf meat all the way here, so it was about damn time he found out just how good it was. Without waiting for it to cool he selected a knife and cut off an edge, forked it, blew on it gently and stuck it in his mouth. Once he got past the burning sensation on his tongue he was able to actually taste the meat. It was good.

But he'd had better.

"No one live in th'verse that I want to see. No friends and certainly no family. You have to have a heart and a soul for those sorts of things." And with that said he took another bite from his steak, tossed in a few of the steak fries that came as a side, and then washed it all down with one of his shots. "Since we're already digging up the past, I have to say I've been dying to know how you lost that eye of yours. I'd offer you a leg to know but I'm afraid you already took my first pair from me."

[Bambi Maddox]

Maddox tapped the steak knife thoughtfully against her lips before she answered Xel, building up the moment, then she responded in a low, serious voice.

"It was an ex-lover. He said how my eyes were like the ocean on a stormy day. The bastard took it for a keepsake when he left me."

She cut a square of steak and popped it into her mouth, chewing and grinning, "...Nah, I'm just kidding. I lost it during my first assassination attempt. I screwed the thing up and blew myself halfway to Dagobah and back. Was laid up for about 6 months because of it. But the ex-lover makes a better story dont you think?" Another square of meat was popped into her mouth.

"It really wrecked all my plans though. I lost my mentor out of it too" she said, all humor evaporated from her now. "He was someone who meant a lot. Oh, he didnt die or nothin' - we just thought the other had been toasted in the explosion and well, a lotta time past before we knew otherwise and each of us had moved on by then, made other committements.." She trailed off and shrugged, shaking off the mood.

"The eye patch is cool though, right?"

[Xel-Naga]

Xel ran a worn hand up and across the nasty scar that ran from just behind and above his ear and wrapped around half the side of his skull. "Sexy even." It was not from his first operation, as had been her's when she lost her eye, but it was probably his nastiest looking scar. There was no guts or glory behind it either. It had been from a bar fight that went bad and he got a broken glass bottle scrapped across the side of his head. He had been drunk, it had bled really bad, but he beat that sonuvaschutta to a bloody pulp for it. Hell, he might have killed the guy but he couldn't remember. He had been really, really drunk. Hard to remember the little details.

"What's life without a few scars, or a lost eye?" Xel mused before eating more of his steak. "Builds character, it does." or he hoped so. He had a lot of scars, and a lot of digits that had been sewn back on. Blaster burns that had been filled in and patched over, cuts stitched and shattered legs that had to be repaired rather then mended. He had taken a lot of punishment in life, but he took joy knowing he had given out ten times the sorrow he had received.

It kept him warm at night.

[Bambi Maddox]

"Yep" she agreed, skewering herself some fries off of Xel's plate, even though she had fries of her own...some of his looked better than hers..and ferried them into her mouth with her fork. She washed them down with a gulp of her beer.

"The thing is, they remind you of the bad risks, the stupid mistakes you've made and that, somehow, you're still alive. Scars aint fatal. Scars I can live with" she finished simply. "I like that one wrapped round your head. Bet that bled like a pig, eh?"

Her tone was a little envious. She had yet to put her own scars on Naga. He blamed her for his legs, she knew, but in all fairness it was Sorsha that tossed him out the Tower window and she, Maddox, got to play nurse maid to the cripple as a result of it. Bambi eyed him speculatively. A "B" carved into him would like quite nice, maybe on his neck some where. Her lips drew back in a curiously feral smile. Boy, he'd really kill her for that.

[Xel-Naga]

"Glass cuts like any knife. Broken glass cuts like a tangle of barbed wire, all irregular and random. It was chaos laid across my flesh. And yes, it bled like a pig. Guy cut right to the bone and tried to force it straight through my skull. I was picking out bits of glass for a week." Xel said, weaving the story of the cut and trying not to stray into poetics. It was strange the kind of things your mind dreamed up while your "asleep" in cryo. Not sleep. You dream when your asleep. In cryo he was still awake, just trapped inside his head. He had a lot of time to look over the thing he had done, rationalize with the demons in his head. Perhaps his warden had thought the time on ice would have given him time to feel bad about the things he had done, but it had quite the opposite effect. There was no change, it just made him impatient to get out and start his next reign of crime.

Not that he would call his time since then a reign of anything, but he was working on it.

"I'd show you the rest of my scars, but it would take all day and some of them are in my no no areas. Guess you luck out." He chewed a piece of nerf thoughtfully as he contemplated the many scars. Some of them had significance but most were just nicks and scratches that had healed up. His body was a network of them. His crimes had led him into close range combat, more fisticuffs and knives than blasters. He had so many cuts and scrapes, a few burn marks, but overall he was still in one piece. Someone had once called him a lucky bullet dodger, but it had been experience and skill that had kept him alive. And he proved it by killing that sonuvaschutta in his own home while he was indulging his many sins.

"So what do you expect we'll find on Coruscant?" Now he ate a few of his own fries. Might as well before she took them all.

[Bambi Maddox]

"What'll we find?" she repeated a little needlessly, "A walking dead man" she surmised darkly and her grinned broadened wolfishly. "More instructions, no doubt" she continued, " ..the who, the when, the how much we get"

A forkfull more of fries disappeared into her mouth and she chomped them down with enjoyment.

"I like you Naga," she said brightly, "and I'll tell you why -- your'e a messed up sonofabitch - all angry and violent and such, but you're not bitter, and I like that. Life's too short for bitterness dont you agree?" She didn't wait for his answer. "It eats you all up at night, makes your back all crooked and (she pointed her reloaded, fry-laden fork at him for emphasis) it can add ten years, easy, to a woman's face. Its ironic if you think about it."

But Maddox gave Xel no time to dwell on her observations, flipping back to the purpose of their journey once again.

"We could use a bomb if its a high-profile hit, although, that gets messy and I dont have such a good history with explosives" she touched her eye patch absently. "Besides, a good "murder him in his bed" always sends a much stronger message, if you ask me"

[Xel-Naga]

He had no time to reply, but he had time to think. So while she was flapping her lips he was slipping inside himself again. No bitterness she said. He had a lot of bitterness. He just knew how to hide it really well. His entire life had been one mistake or punishment after another, the result of a unjust God taking out his wrath on him because even God needs a stress ball. His life would have been a much nicer, cleaner, not to mention richer life if he had not been struck in the head by that truck in his childhood, if his brain had not been scrambled like eggs and then pieced back together. From there it had been the falling in with the wrong people and, getting put on ice, and getting released in an alien galaxy. If he could do it all over again he would not change a thing. All those hardships had made him who he was and he liked what he had become. He liked being a monster that killed people for money, usually. It was fun. He was still a butterball of bitterness, but he buried it under all the fun he was having.

"Bombs are dangerous, to both sides. I avoid anything more volatile than a grenade. No sense in blowing my legs off. The direct approach has usually worked for me. Too big to be a ninja and too small to be a tank. However, I haven't done a good killing them in their sleep in awhile. I like to gag them and cut off bits. Make a mess for the crime scene guys to clean up." Unless their women or children, Xel added in his head. Those get a quick, clean death. Men get butchered, children are laid to rest looking like sleeping angels, and women only occasionally get roughed up depending on how much he had to drink and what they were wearing.

"I have to say I am really itchin' got some action through. Feels like I've been sitting around too much lately. My gun belt is starting to cut into my backside."