Miss Mayla's damn milk cow and that rowdy rowdy Bespin ruckus!

OOC: This thread is an unofficial kickstart to the Cloud City bar, so I figured this would be a good way to break it in. All are welcome.

I'd pocketed more than a bit of scratch from the last few fares. Fortunately, some of them actually brought cargo and paid well for me to bring it along. After making fares at Malastare, Bothauwi, and Nllkon, I was a good bit in the black, but unfortunately the general armpit area of the galaxy. Considering that I could fuel my ship, fuel my crew's stomachs, and fuel just about anything else I needed fueling, this was a minor bellyache. I was in good spirits as I hopped down the pilothouse ladder rungs to the main deck.

"This is your Captain speaking. We've just touched down on Cloud City. Weather looks...partly cloudy with a chance of clouds later in the evening."

The gangplank in the cargo hold lowered, bathing me and the rest of the crew in a pinkish-orange afternoon hue. There was just enough sun poking through the fluffy stuff for me to put my shades on. The spires ahead in the business district of the city were colored a spartan cream color, which contrasted with some of the earthy and rust colored hues of the industrial and production sectors.

MOO!

I whirled around on the deck, nearly falling over as a big, mean-eyed dewback huffed at me.

"I don't get it."

I looked as s'Il came walking down from the Black Cat.

"Who brings a milk cow to a floating city with less grass than a tee-totaller's convention?"

After admonishing Daani to stay glued to Tak at all times, I slid down the ladder into the cargo hold. Stepping over a pile of dung, I walked towards the entrance and past our unhappy cargo just in time to hear Sanis' latest rant. I rubbed the dewback's flank with an open palm as I passed it, and noted, "Sanis, you do realize that dewbacks live in the desert, right?"

Pushing past him I walked out onto the landing pad. "No one here to greet us? That's sorta rude." I breathed in the air as deeply as I could, and walked as close to the edge as I dared and looked down.

Meanwhile elsewhere in the city...

Mu sat in a smoky filled back room. Various ugly looking critters eye'd her as she looked at the cards in her hand. Calmly she laid them down face up. Silence clung to the air. "I do believe," she spoke quietly as she leaned back, digging out a cigar from her vest pocket, "I win."

She lit the cigar and a wide smile broke out across her face at the gentle-thing sitting across the table from her. It's lips snarled revealing yellowed pointing teeth, "You damn dirty theif! You cheated!"

Mr. Thing stood up on all three of his legs and loomed over the table. More hulking lurking things in the corners of the room began to finger weapons nervously.

"You are mistaken... I shower daily."

Giving the dewback a sidelong look as she carefully followed James, s'Il let just the smallest of perplexed looks cross her features. Some of the jobs Sanis took...

She stopped beside him, watching James as the other woman continued off the ship, and let her eye glance over the towers that stretched out before them. Pulling in a breath, the Lupine dusted the front of her trousers for any unseen dust it may have picked up as she passed the animal. One hands thrust into her jacket pocket, s'Il gave Prent a teasing smile.

"Maybe your buyer wanted to see if you'd actually do it."

"Hey, the up-front pay on this was more than the total sums we got for our last two jobs."

I reminded s'il with a wide grin.

"I'll manage a few dewback pies for that. You'd think this thing was full of krayt stones.

Anyway, I'm ready to get paid. Our contact should be at the pad any minute, and after that we'll all have some bank in our pockets."

My eyes stuck on the skyline a bit, watching some cloud cars zip about.

"Never been to Bespin, but I heard it used to be an outlaw Tibanna boom town a few years back."

My stomach leapt into my throat as I looked down... into clouds. Of course there was no bottom - Bespin is a gas giant and Cloud City floats in the middle of the air.

Or, the edge of the air.

Either way - no ground. Looking over the edge of the landing platform gave me a severe case of vertigo, and when someone grabbed me by the arms from behind while I was looking down I screamed.

"Hey! Easy, easy!"

Cirr gently deposited James safely away from the edge, and waggled his ears as he grinned.

"Gotta watch out forr that fjirrst step!"

Truthfully, Cirr was glad to be out of the ship. That dewback stank, and stank delicious! He'd imposed exile on himself during the trip and kept to his quarters, except for the moments when Sanis tried to kick the door in because something in the engine was amiss.

high-rise penthouse apartment attached to Cloud 9

Lili slept dead center in her over-sized over-stuff over-fluffed bed. A mountain of pillows propped her upper body at what was rumored to be the perfect angle to help reduce wrinkles and dark circles under the eyes. To that end, she also had a series of contraptions and gels covering her face. In fact, if it wasn't for the numerous holo-photo's of herself scattered and promenently displayed in her bedroom, one wouldn't be certain it was a living human underneath the mechanisms multi-colored goo.

A protocol droid entered the room silently and set down a tray of food near the bed then began picking up Lili's garments she had thrown about the room the night before.

"Mistress" the voice chimed. Lili remained motionless. "Mistress" it tried again, "mistress, oh my... mistress I do wish you would wake up."

Lili began to stir a bit. The droid was about to panic, "Oh mistress pleeease wake up." The droid stood by the bed and gently tapped Lili's shoulder.

A loud backfiring snort escaped Lili's mouth as she jerked awake, "Wha?" Blind from the mask on her face her head snapped back and forth, "Whaaat's going on?"

"Oh thank heavens, you are awake." the droid quickly moved away from the bed out of Lili's reach.

Lili reached up and pryed up a corner of the eye mask and tilted her head back to look around the room. "Oh zod... it's you again. I'm trying to get some fahwiggin sweep here! Haven't I told you a thousand times to NevaH to wake me up this early after a shaow?"

"But ma'dam... you specifically told me that if I didn't wake you up this morning you'd send me to be dismantled in the recycling center."

"I did?" Lili pauses a moment and tilts her head to one side then suspiciously looks at the droid, "Why?"

"Your package is arriving today, and if they were on time, it's most likely already here."

back room

"I've had enough of you're crap!"

Mu stood up and put her face directly infront of Mr. Thing and snarled, "You're just pissed because you thought you had an easy mark on your hands. Now either you pay up or you and all your fuzzy friends will die..."

With a glance to Sanis before she herself looked out to the sprawling floating city, s'Il blinked. She'd never been here either; only heard of it through Dan and whatever stories he told her of his travels. Looking bck on it, the Lupine surmised that while she had certainly been to many of the galaxy's more remote and sometimes exotic planets, she had never really experienced the more mainstream veins that civilization offered. Oh, she'd lived on Coruscant long ago, but that was ages past - and as much as she suspected it'd stayed the same, she also knew that it had changed dramatically.

"Well," she started while taking a step down the ramp, "the feeling is mutual. I've never been here either; only heard about it from Dan."

I thumped Cirr in the arm as hard as I could, which was harder than he thought it would be. The Cizerack flinched back and fended off any more blows with one big paw. "Let's go explore. Before Daani can follow us."

I grabbed his shirt and tugged him along behind me as the doors into the City opened.

"Of course."

I replied to s'Il with an edge of sarcasm on my tongue.

"Where hasn't he been, anyway?"

I scanned the crowds milling about at the tarmac's edge for my contact. She was late.

"Dammit. Punctuality's a lost art these days."

Inwardly, I wondered if the deal went sideways. That was no good. A live dewback in a place like this? Its not exactly a commodity market. If she split, I had no buyer.

Looking back at s'Il, I sighed.

"I don't wanna make a habit out of it, what are you feeling about all this?"

"My package?" Lili thought for a moment, "OH yes, yes... send the girl to go pick it up then."

The droid figitted, "Girl? Ma'dam?"

"Yes, the servant girl, what'sherface... the one with brown, purple hair who's been hanging around here lately. Her, send her."

"I'm afraid I can't."

"You know, there's not a whole lot you can do is dere." Lili flopped back in the pillows on her bed and heaved a melodramatic sigh. "Ok, WHAY can't you send the girl."

"She quit."

"WHAT?!?" Lili sat straight up and tore off the miracle mask.

"I... I... I... think that's what she did. She packed up all her bags and vacated the premises late last night uttering a string of vulgarities I can't quite comphrehend. Oh she did leave such a dreadful mess."

"Ah frwiggin wrat bastards all of them. Whay does this always happen to me?" Lili looked to the heavens the perfect pose of a saint bearing a terrible burden. "Well, lay out a suitable traveling outfit you rusting tin can of uselessness, the shaow must go on... and I need that package for the shaow."

The Lupine headed down the ramp, leaving Sanis in her wake.

"Don't get snappy at me, son. I've not the mind for it right now."

Slowing to a stop as she felt her boots hit the landing tarmac, s'Il breathed in deeply. The air was a strange mix; not quite urban yet also not quite open.

At Prent's last inquiry, she squared her shoulders. What limited abilities she could call on regarding Sanis' request hinted at nothing particularly harmful, and she turned on her heel to look up at him as he'd not followed her.

"I would recommend patience. Whoever wants a dewback on Cloud City, whether it was a joke or not, will make an appearence.

"If nothing else, then to see if you had actually herded the thing onto your boat.

"Which even I can't quite believe you did - regardless of the credits you were offered."

She turned back away from him, remarking, "Do you even realize how long it will take me to get the stench of that thing out of the Cat?"

Goon number one's finger quietly clicked his blaster's safety off.
Goon number two cracked his neck.
Goon number three silently moved to block the only exit.
Goon number four stared directly at Mu from the shadows.

The other players sat around the table leaning as far back in their chairs as possible. Their eye's nervously flicking from one to another while sweat mixed with fear ran down the sides of their faces.

Silence clung to them like a hot suffocating blanket. Mu's eye's did not leave her target in front of her. Mr. Thing gritted his teeth and growled. Mu kissed the air between them.

"GET HER!" he commanded.

Cirr followed James' lead, eyeying the local architecture up and down. The city, while certainly not as large as many he'd frequented, had a uniformity of style about it that looked very appealing.

He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should stick close to Layla and help with the transaction, but he figured that Sanis wouldn't mind him being out of sight from the dewback, who seemed to spook at the sight of the Cizerack.

Pedestrians and speeders moved about in a throng around busy thoroughfares and buildings. Cirr stood still for a bit, trying to get a sense of direction.

"Wherre do you want to go?"

"I dunno - away from the ship!" I stood in Cirr's shadow, trying not to gape at our surroundings. "I signed on so I could see more of the worlds, and we've only just gotten to one worth lookin' at."

I watched a squad of stormtroopers march down a walkway, and then saw another sign. "What's Cloud 9? Is it a bar? Can we go get a drink?"

Quote:

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Originally posted by Loklorien s'Ilancy
The Lupine headed down the ramp, leaving Sanis in her wake.

"Don't get snappy at me, son. I've not the mind for it right now."

Slowing to a stop as she felt her boots hit the landing tarmac, s'Il breathed in deeply. The air was a strange mix; not quite urban yet also not quite open.

At Prent's last inquiry, she squared her shoulders. What limited abilities she could call on regarding Sanis' request hinted at nothing particularly harmful, and she turned on her heel to look up at him as he'd not followed her.

"I would recommend patience. Whoever wants a dewback on Cloud City, whether it was a joke or not, will make an appearence.

"If nothing else, then to see if you had actually herded the thing onto your boat.

"Which even I can't quite believe you did - regardless of the credits you were offered."

She turned back away from him, remarking, "Do you even realize how long it will take me to get the stench of that thing out of the Cat?"

---

"We live 24/7 with a nose full of engine grease and Cirr's cooking, and its the Dewback crap that you call shenanigans on? At least you've got insence."

I paced a bit, and drummed my fingers along the bulkhead.

"You know, you really should go on ahead with the others. This ship will make you stir crazy. Get some of the local flavor. If I'm stuck cow-sitting all day I can at least live vicariously through you."

"Oh no," s'Il said with a very light laugh, "I want to see this thing through to the end."

Lifting her face skyward, the Lupine took in another breath of the strange-smelling air. It perplexed her only mildly, the scents that seemed to appear and disappear through her olfactory senses.

"Not to mention; living vicariously through me isn't what you'd think. I'm willing to bet you'd die of boredom if nothing else."

"You're saying you're more boring than babysitting a dewback? Come on. Jedi knights?"

I shrugged my shoulders and made a face.

"If you were as boring as you tried to be, I'd have kicked out off this ship months ago."

Quote:

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Originally posted by James Tau
"What's Cloud 9? Is it a bar? Can we go get a drink?"

---

Finally, an idea Cirr could go for.

"Well, that sounds ljike a grreat jidea. jI could use a few to flush all the engjine grrease out of my system!"

I made a face at the unfortunate mental image his words gave me, and shook my head. "How many times d' I have t' tell you not to eat the grease! But really, Sanis' cookin' isn't that bad."

We were already moving towards the sign and hopefully a waterin' hole.

"As much as jI love my worrk, jit rreally does seep jinto yourr porres down therre."

Cirr paused in front of the door, stretching elaborately to relieve himself of the cooped-up tension of being aboard ship, before strolling with James inside for a drink.

The bar was a cosmopolitan affair. Lots of spacers and aliens. Not too posh, but not a total dive. The right amount of dim ambiance, and hardwood finishings. Cirr found a pair of empty seats by a statue of a wooden Bith playing some sort of flute.

"Whacha want? jI can BS a ljittle spendjing change frrom the Cap, so don't worry."

I grinned. "Somethin' strong enough to make me forget that damn cow. That thing kept me awake at nights with those awful sounds it was makin' and I hope I never see another dewback. Ever."

He was still looking at me expectantly so I added, "Er, surprise me."

Cracking his big knuckles, Cirr flagged down the bartender.

"We'll both have Mai'Me' jif you sell jit herre."

The lady bartender eyed Cirr and half laughed. It was an unusual request.

"Sure thing big guy." And with that, she went to the back of the establishment.

I raised an eyebrow. "A what was that? No, never mind, I don't want to know."

The bartender returned with a dark green bottle and rattled two large looking shot glasses onto the bar. The shots were poured and were placed in front of us. I eyed mine warily as Cirr grabbed his, but put it to my lips and downed it.

And spluttered a bit as I swallowed incorrectly, but I managed to get it down without making too much of a fool of myself. "Gah! What's in that?"

"Ahhhh," he sighed as he entered the room stretching out his arms. The white skinned twilek dressed in full sleek black leather pirate outfit. A red bandanna covered his head wrapping around his lekku, a matching cape flowed behind him. He smiled at the female dancer leaving her a few pirated creds a gift. Telixx then turned towards the bar, finally a place where he could have a decent drink after many months on the fringe. He walked with a slight limp which was replaced with a biomechanical prosthesis. Evidence of an encounter with his bestest of friends, imperial stormtroopers. At that hip was a fine silver customized Weststar-34 blaster pistol. Hanging from the opposite hip was a wicked Drayan dagger, a gift from his longtime friend and captain Trax.

He sat down dropping several creds down on the bar letting a cough out to gain attention.

Two bodies crash through the upper deck of Cloud 9 above the bar; one yellow skinned and one clad in black. Mr. Thing's henchmen stood at the edge of the broken window and fire wildly after Mu as she arches her body through the air. Her blue lightsaber flashes deflecting and reflecting the bolts back to their source taking out the henchmen.

Mr. Thing hits the bar with a back breaking thud. His eyes bulge and he gasps for air. Mu's booted heels land on the bar beside him. She pauses for a moment with her lightsaber raised, ready and quickly surveys the now silent lounge. A slight flick of her thumb, and the saber hushes to silence. Looking down she places her boot on the neck of Mr. Thing. "Pay."

"The only thing I have is this bar." he gurgles. Mu fishes in her other vest pocket.

"Then it's a good thing for you I have the deed transfer ready." She pulles out a datapad and drops it on the bar within his reach. "Sssign it," she snarles. Mr. Thing struggles but manages to sign the form. Mu smiles and kickes him off the bar. Then announces, "As of now, Cloud 9 is under new ownership." She smiles brightly and jumps off the bar. The noise level of the establishment resumes.

"You there," Mu barks at a female barkeeper. "Get someone to fix that." She motions to the above broken windows. The female barkeep hovers for a moment, looking at the figure of her former boss crawling away. "NOW!" Mu's deep voice causes the woman to jump. "Or leave with him." The woman nods and begins carrying out Mu's orders.

Grabbing a bottle of something handy and vile, Mu pours herself a shot then turns to the customers at the bar, "So, who's thirsty?"

Lili's long tapered white gloved fingers gripped the controls of her craft as she speed through the corridors of Cloud City. A large white hat sat poised at just the right angle so that the shadow from the brim carved an elegant arc on her face. A long black feathered boa hung off the back and drapped itself around her shoulders in sharp contrast to the rest of her white suit.

The silver droid shook and exclaimed at every narrow miss. Horns, angry faces and shouted vulgarities followed them around every corner. "I just love dwiving." Lili breathed deeply and smiled to herself. "We shoud take a dwiving holiday soon. Go somewhare no one knows me. And just," lost in a day dream Lili's mind wandered and with it the vehicle into the oncoming path of a heavy convoy driven by a young Lutrillian. Seeing the swerving hover car coming directly at him the driver screamed yanked on his controls and pounded on his horn pulling Lili back to where she was.

"GAH!" Lili pulled up sharply. The vehicles passed one another with the upper transmission antanea of the convoy scrapping Lili's under carriage. "Learn to DWIVE!" Lili shouted back as she continued on towards the cargo landing bay. Readjusting her hat she spoke to the droid, "Now, what landing bay are de at?"

"According to the invoice, the Black Cat should landing bay 42, which is right down there." the droid motioned slightly.

Lili manuvered the vehicle around and circled the platform. "WHAT in Zod's name is that thing?!?!"

"That is your package ma'dam, the dewback you ordered from Tatooine."

"THAAT's a dewback?" Lili looked at the droid horrified. "I thought a dewback was a wittle fuwwy thing that woad awound on your back with big adorwable eyes."

The droid decided to not to remind Lili that on several occations it had tried to discourage the order. "No ma'dam. A dewback is that huge hulking lizard beast down there."

Lili sighed and began landing, "Denny's not gonna wike this."

She only rolled her eyes at Sanis, turning from him to look out across the tarmac in the direction that James and Cirr had skipped off in.

A commotion caught her eye then, and the Lupine tilted her gaze upwards. Confusion descending upon her features, s'Il shifted her weight to one leg as she continued to watch with a growing curiosity. The speeder she was watching was coming closer, and her curiosity turned to concern.

"That can't be the buyer," she murmured to herself, still watching the erratic movements of the craft as it neared.

"Why not?"

I shrugged. Sure, the driving was less than stellar, but then again, not everybody was a good driver in the first place. I mean...who payed all this money to get a dewback? Probably the same person who couldn't steer in a straight line.

"As long as we get paid, it doesn't confront me either way."

I paused, and looked back.

"Still, uh, lemme know if I'm about to get shot or something."

A buzz whimpered over the cantina. Sounds of blabber and converse intertwined with the ruckus of combat at the counter. The bar was over flourished with the accentuated features of diverse array of beings. Wooden furnish, polished floors and windows scatter about in an elegant merge, but was well hidden behind the cluster of foreigners.

Spacers came far and wide, abroad, to share their tales to kin. The place was a hall of venture. Explorers of many kind took to the rooms with comfort that could only be compared to the buildings of Corellia and Nar Shaddaa. It was a fine establishment to say the least.

Modest aliens scamper about at the bar, gathering for drinks while others enter to take seats. An array of unique waitress and waiters splashed through the crowds in drop-offs of orders and gathers. Although the place was bustling with life, solitude still resonated. Some folks took to seats a lone, filled in a empty void occasionally invaded by waiters.

Found amidst the mixture was single man...well boy really. He looked no older than seventeen, eyes filled with intent and youth. Although quite human, his ebony strands waterfall over the exotic birthmarks at his hairline. Underneath his oblique eyes sat similar patterns, but the tan of his ginger, ecru dipped complexion contorted into near invisible freckles.

Raven flap over his slanted spec. Threads of hair swung in the clump of gust that blew from the open door. The window had gather all the necessary air to throw the fuzz of numerous aliens about him in a whoosh. Smells crinkled his round, yet leanly bridged nose into a bunch before he let out a pained sneeze.

Something had to be done about his allergies.

"Just a Zeltros Ju-Juice, please," the youth stifled in a murmur as the droid waitress sped past. The creak of the old engine that fueled the robotic employee's maneuvers could be heard in a hum, and it eased the boys mind. Despite the rather loud bustle of the clusters in the bar, he escaped from it with ease. Sounds did not get to his kind like humans.

After the droid had marked the order down and merged back into the profusion toward the back room, the teen linger into a recline in his booth. Relax was a necessary commodity for the many affairs he had taken up. Leaps and bound stressed his body into pull, and swinging about the pool of people wouldn't be decent alternative to space or Spira.

Elijawn was the kid's name, and with nothing more than a juice to gain he had nothing to restrain. Before he knew it, his eyes fell into oblivion.

Lili landed the vehicle and popped out with an exagerated flourish.

"Hello," she waited for them to recognize her poised and ready for adoration.

Somewhat at a loss for words, the Lupine found that she could only stare at the woman who'd stepped fro the once wildly driven speeder. She blinked; maybe her eye was playing tricks on her.

This can't be the buyer...

"Madame Von Wolfson?"

I quirked an eyebrow, doing my best to at least be semi-formal. Even the title seemed frilly and ridiculous.

I took a step forward, bowing my head somewhere between a nonchalant and ingratiating level.

"Sanis Prent, captain of the freighter Layla. I'm here with your merchandise."

Quote:

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Originally posted by James Prent
I raised an eyebrow. "A what was that? No, never mind, I don't want to know."

The bartender returned with a dark green bottle and rattled two large looking shot glasses onto the bar. The shots were poured and were placed in front of us. I eyed mine warily as Cirr grabbed his, but put it to my lips and downed it.

And spluttered a bit as I swallowed incorrectly, but I managed to get it down without making too much of a fool of myself. "Gah! What's in that?"

---

"Thjirrty seven herrbs and spjices, a pjinch of sugarr, and some eopjie blood."

About that time, all hell broke loose from above, as one angry-looking lady dealt with some rabble-rousers. Cirr eyed the scene, fluttered his ears, and took another drink.

"My kjind of barr!" He proclaimed cheerily.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by UrunSaiShun
"Ahhhh," he sighed as he entered the room stretching out his arms. The white skinned twilek dressed in full sleek black leather pirate outfit. A red bandanna covered his head wrapping around his lekku, a matching cape flowed behind him. He smiled at the female dancer leaving her a few pirated creds a gift. Telixx then turned towards the bar, finally a place where he could have a decent drink after many months on the fringe. He walked with a slight limp which was replaced with a biomechanical prosthesis. Evidence of an encounter with his bestest of friends, imperial stormtroopers. At that hip was a fine silver customized Weststar-34 blaster pistol. Hanging from the opposite hip was a wicked Drayan dagger, a gift from his longtime friend and captain Trax.

He sat down dropping several creds down on the bar letting a cough out to gain attention.

---

Mu swallowed her drink and then noticed a pile of credits on the other end of the bar, and more importantly no whiskey in sight near it. She grabbed a clean glass off the wall and sauntered down to the gentleman.

"I need someone to celebrate my new business venture with," She eye'd his red bandanna while pouring him a drink. "this is one is on the house." She slid the drink towards the twilek.