Aint no Auction Like a Spice Auction! (Sun Dominion of Kessel) (Open)

[Velok the Younger]

Two significant surprises presented themselves. One, her brother was here to watch her buy drugs. Wonderful. Two, he was bidding on something that wasn't a shotgun shell or an ugly starship. Something Force-related. Rave had little interest in the Theran arts -- not enough to cross a Huttese Dark Lord on his home turf, anyway. Jorus, apparently, was a different story. It wasn't like he could use the Force, at all, in any serious or applicable way. Maybe he was trying to branch out? Maybe he'd heard about her latest projects, the smokestone she was carving, the genetic strains she was blending...

She held her peace. They could talk later.

Oh feth, that's Deagan Hunt...

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"],

In response to the Lord of Hyperlanes deciding to flip off a Hutt, who also happened to be a Dark Lord and a Vapaad master, Siobhan burst out into genuine, good-natured laughter. "Now you're just being a troll. No wonder we get on so well," she exclaimed jovially. Getting between a Hutt Vapaad master and the scrolls he wanted was a heavy risk...but the trolling was a win in itself!

She took out a packet from her jacket pocket and removed a cigarette, lighting it to take a deep drag as the auction concluded. "Well, looks like I got some shiny sonic shotguns," she said happily. Something to celebrate once she got back to Kaeshana. Tegaea should be happy with the acquisition, Siobhan would be even happier once she got to test them out and produce a big bang.

 

[Aedan Miles]

Aedan Miles grinned and verified the transfer of the credits as he stood up looking around lightly blinking in shock as he caught sight of @[member="Jorus Merrill"] and @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]. HE chuckled to himself truly surprised as he pulled his hood over his head lightly and moved over to the bar to await @[member="Domino"] to finish her meeting so he could meet with her about possible business deals in the future.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO."

Hugely pleased described Rasho at most times, including callipygian situations. It almost fell short of describing him now. His laughter distilled down to a merely window-rattling chuckle. There was no shame in being outbidden by a planet -- especially not when the other human, the arrogant blondish one, had not succeeded either. Defeat was, in its own way, victory.

Chortling to himself, he went off to check his ryll kor investment accounts. And dreamdust. And that blue stuff.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

"I'm not the trollingest of trolls," he said, watching the Hutt slither away, "but I have my Spencer Jacobs moments. Some say I've been known to approach Moira Skaldi levels of trollitude. Nice catch on the shotguns, by the way. I love mine."

He grinned. "See, I can only spend so much time in hyperspace before I start going a little nuts. I hear static all the time, but from what I hear, Theran Force-listening lets you pull true meanings outta the aether, translate stuff...and I'm pretty sure I hear hypercomms. So we'll see how that goes."

 

[Velok the Younger]

She'd debated, in the last minutes of the auction, whether to try and bilk the Shell Hutt out of that research ship, but in the end it probably wasn't worth irking a Hutt in Black Sun space. Besides, it wasn't like she couldn't buy a used Gehenna-class off the fleet the Black Suns had so thoughtfully donated to Fringe.

Maybe, just maybe, that fleet would be coming back. Maybe with interest. Depends, she thought, on whether this momentum sticks around.

She went and collected her glitterstim happily.

 

[Domino]

There was a lull in the proceedings, people thinking over options or, like Domino, waiting for others to think. After sliding out from under Myunnah's head, Domino strolled to the window overlooking the proceedings breaking up below. The winners mostly looked happy with maybe a little regret of overspending or not nabbing up the low-hanging fruit they thought would jump up in price, those who lost out were mostly consolidate, Rasho actually looked downright happy, but then he had always been a hard one to figure. No idea what he even wanted with Theran listening. All in all this auction had been a success for her, made back some money and got a little advertising out too, that and she'd finally got a hold of a way to work on her project after every other attempt had been snatched away at the last minute. Which had been extremely frustrating. Five thousand kilograms of phrik, nabbed away by a gun company for a set of guns... Likewise some songsteel, she'd straight up missed the beskar at another one she hadn't attended. Now though, Rave had saved her and would possibly help her make things better than they would without her help. All for a few crates of the glitterstim they'd seized just this morning. That brought a smile to her face as she watched those below.

 

[Amarant]

Mr. Ash looked to them both as Rayl and Popo negotiated the stakes, and smiled weakly as the auction finalized, and he got the shuttle. He nodded cheerily and waited for Popo's response while doing some numbers in his head. "Miss Arceneau, I can't promise anythign on Popo's end until he's had his say, but I'm more than happy to sign over an exclusive distribution deal. I'll be taking roughly 2 percent of all produced spice for research purposes, and the remainder you can handle via a standard rate. Adjusting for manpower--which I'll pull from our own reserves, I should be able to get shipping up in one and one half standard months."

His floating holographic head smiled and nodded. "So, then, that's the plan?"

--Coming 'round the mountain while we drill, yeehah--

The construction of this set-up was great. The living spaces, and docking system were finished. Tomorrow he coudl get a landing pad up. He nodded. "get some rest. Tomorrow, we start the heavy stuff!" He sighed. Which planet to pull extra labor from? He needed to think this through, carefully. Where could he get a few thousand laborers quickly? Then an idea hit him.

He set up a comm array, long distance. Da Soocha was the best place to go with this. Mengara the Hutt had a Huttlet, Genza, who already had a knack at the slave trade, despite being a mere 134 years of age. He could definitely spare some strong workhorses from his stalls.

 

[Velok the Younger]

Later, with a hundred kilos of photosensitive spice -- carefully wrapped in opaque paper, then packaged in foil, then boxed, for a total weight of about a hundred twenty kilos -- Rave retreated to her Galaar-class shuttle. The pretty ship had plenty of room to work.

And right now, apart from lab gear, its work area held a carefully secured block of Nihil smokestone. Rave had her load lifter set aside the glitterstim. She settled into a meditative trance, freed her mind of the situation, and picked up hammer and chisel.

She continued carving, her alchemist's senses telling her the best way to shape the glossy stone. The plan here was to combine the antenna-like properties of the smokestone with the comparable properties of glitterstim, and make an amplifier for someone deserving, someone capable, someone who already had a very long range...

 

[Domino]

"A month and a half? I'd expect a week at the most, there's a viable operation already mining Mr. Ash, with spice already waiting to be shipped. Offer their workers a week's bonus pay to re-up with us and most of them will stay on. Use them, they've got the experience here and know how to prevent spice depletion. I don't mind you wanting to expand and set up 'your' spot, but don't be doing so to the distraction of the overall goals of this operation." Hearing Ash speak brought Domino out of contemplation and she didn't like what she was hearing. Perhaps motivation was in order. "You were bidding on the Gahenna yes? I'll get you any lab-time you need for whatever you wanted one for once this place is producing again. How does that sound?"

 

[Seris Vant]

@Mr. Ash @[member="Domino"]

"Whats this lab business you two are on about"? Cypher stepped away from Popo who was obviously in thought over his proposal. Mr. Ash didn't seem the scientist type to him. More the knee breaking thug with plenty of management skills. Its always best to know what one of his top men were up to anyways. Besides what he was supposed to be doing.

 

[Velok the Younger]

Greed is good, they say. Black Sun, stock traders, Nightsisters all agree.

So while an entire planet changed hands, Rave Merrill did what every other power player on Kessel was doing: Looking out for number one.

Carving the smokestone throne had been her primary project for at least two weeks, though she'd kept her associates and employees busy with alchemical blades and leatherwork and suchlike things. The throne was everything. Tap, tap, tap went the hammer, and chips of stone clinked to the shuttle deck, and stone dust wafted away into air recirculators. The form was simple, in its way, and blocky, and she'd never be a great sculptor.

Greed was good. Regardless of scope and scale.

 

[Amarant]

Ash tried not to be too annoyed. His "pet project" needed a bit more time and resources, but they were right.

"Alright," the floating head said with a nod. "I'll stick to focusing on retrofitting. Building the new sites will be knocked down in priority."

He then turned to Cypher. "Long Story short, I've been doing some research into neurotoxins ever since our operation on Nar Bo Shalla went Sheb up," he said calmly. "There a was a cult of assassins over there, they were using the scorpion venom as a type of crude sensory trip," he said flatly. "I've still got some samples. Combine that with the native spider's here, who literally refine spice in their lymphatic systems, and we might be able to cut some of our product into a new designer supply. But it's an experiment, one of many. And Domino's got a point--my research, ground-breaking or not, can wait until after we've managed to get production up to full scale."

He smirked. "But I promise, if my little research project--or any of the other ones I undertake--bear fruit, you'll be the first to know." He smirked. Honestly, he had a few plots in mind. Designer drugs, retrograde stims, good old fashioned clinical research--all part of keeping the Black suns at the top of the Spice game. After all, building unique product would keep the rest of the galaxy looking to them.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

He had tried and, to a large extent, failed to secure glitterstim investments. His involvement in the spice trade generally ran to things like ryll and dextrophetamine -- the hard stuff. Granted, glitterstim was interesting, but the other Black Sun bosses had that trade somewhat locked down.

But in high orbit, around the terminal station of the HALCYON skyhook, dwelt a melange of run-down stations and shipping whatnots. It was to those stations that Rasho went, for he had associates there, interests, even a few employees. The Garden of Unending Delights slid into a docking port, and now -- and only now -- did business begin in earnest.

 

[Domino]

"I'm glad to hear it Mr. Ash and I appreciate it too, but all this costs money, I know you can understand my wanting to get this place running quickly." Domino had always supported pet projects and lending a hand let their employees know that the upper echelon appreciated them and took an interest. "How soon will the ATC be able to provide us shipping? Even if it's only to places we've already got a presence, we can start handling distribution and begin making back some of our expenses here."

With things back on track and people off their personal projects, Domino turned to one of her own, a small project. It took her just a few seconds to type out the message. 'Rasho, are you still interested were you in the scroll you bid on? I do keep copies of such things you know.'

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Domino"]

The obese Dark Lord paused from micromanaging his masseuse, and examined Domino's message.

I would expect nothing less. Words are, after all, words. I am still very interested in acquiring the knowledge in your possession.

In regards to my bid, the spell in question is one which creates entangling tendrils of corrosive darkness. It's something of a specialty of mine. A fair trade, to my mind.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"]

"Hypercoms, huh? Nice. Do shoot me a line about how that works out." For just a moment Siobhan wondered she could not learn that, whether there were doors she had been silly to close or rather never try to open. But in her heart of hearts she knew that she did not have the focus, that she was the sort who chucked rocks rather than heard the ripples and was very happy with that. The unrelenting desire for destruction and flashy displays of power that suffused her obviated anything else.

"Well, I got some guns to take home. Was nice meeting you again. Say hi from me to Alna."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], blunt as ever, but a great friend to have at your back. "Give my regards to the redhead," Jorus said with a two-fingered salute. "But yeah. Bailing from here is starting to seem like a fething good idea. The way I'm gettin' the news, Black Sun's takin' over everything, takin' back its old territory. Whole planet's been quietly sold out from under us. Somethin' to watch...but better them than some, y'know what I mean? Have a good one, Sio."

He ducked out the back. Now wasn't the time to make things go boom.

 

[Domino]

That brought out another smile, the quarter million would have been nice too but, well there was no reason to be greedy, knowledge was itself a reward well sought. 'Excellent, once this meeting wraps up I will join you in orbit.' This would work out nicely, after all why cash a prize once when you could cash it several times, three so far in the case of this scroll. Nice of an investment to continue paying off time and again like this. Down below her people continued to leave either bodily or in spirit as they drank or drugged themselves into oblivion. Horrific to think that she'd once slammed back the alcohol just as hard growing up.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Domino"]

The spell was a really nasty piece of work. Like many emanations of Sith magic, the version Rasho knew required a bloody introductory ritual, a full visualization workup, and a complex incantation. He had the whole thing memorized and written down, and copying the latter took only moments.

The perfect accessory for someone who liked owning shiny things and dominating a world or two.

Domino would find an accurate copy available to her in trade for the Theran account. Simple simple.