In Plain Sight

[Jak Skirata]

Chasin City was a bustling hub on the planet Commenor, known for its eateries and night life. It was a place that a Mandalorian would stick out like a sore thumb. Then again strills weren't a common sight either, and even without his armor his strill stood out. Sitting at an outdoor tapcaf with dark shades and bantha leather armored clothing. Hunting people, killing and protecting. These were his arts...

And now he waited, to paint his client a masterpiece.

A Jedi, an odd client. He had received only a place and minor details on his target and now he waited for his client...

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Hello," came the quiet voice of the Jedi Order's Chief Healer.

She was taking a gamble here, approaching the man without any certainty it was, in fact, the man she was looking for. But he was right about one thing: he didn't blend well, and if Avalore said she was being a bit judgmental it wouldn't be far from the truth.

"Mr. Skirata?" it was him, but this came as no relief. There would be no relief until the day [member="Hal Terrano"] was deposited into her arms safe and sound, "I'm Master Eden. Thank you for coming," Avalore took a seat across from him. She wasn't wearing her typical blue Jedi Healer robes today. On the contrary she looked positively civilian. For her this was a normal thing, especially as of late. It helped cut down on the clutter of attention - which wasn't anything she needed given her current state of mind.

The young woman settled a careworn but intense gaze of brown upon the Merc, her lips drawn into a thin line. She was nervous, but Avalore couldn't figure if that was from meeting with the strange and likely dangerous man, or simply from the nerves of finally gaining some sort of footing on the case of the missing Terrano.

"Thank you for your interest in the job. I'll try to be as helpful as I can, but I'm afraid it might not be much to go off."

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

The Mandalorian's brown eyes glittered with surprise and interest behind his shades. The Jedi actually showed? A sly smirk inched its way across his lips. A tug at the leather leash the planet insisted he keep on his strill strained as his animal companion shifted below him as he tried to get a whiff of the strange woman whom had just sat opposite of his human friend.

"I'm surprised you showed...Then again, it seems the Jedi as of late have finally begun to understand the rules of war," he paused, taking a sip of his caf. "Did you bring what I asked? A picture and...something of the target?" A picture would help when deciphering the visions that were to come through his psychometry, though he could probably figure out who the man was without her help...This would be a test for his Jedi employer though. Could she do what was necessary to find her friend?

The strill growled at a bird that had taken perch on the table beside them. Davin sent a firm but light reminder was sent through the Force to behave.

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"I'm surprised you showed..."

So am I... Avalore frowned, noticing the leashed animal only moments after taking her seat. She startled at the movement of shadow by her feet and quickly moved them off to the side, away from the beast. The distraction kept her from his comment on Jedi and war, luckily enough.

"Did you bring what I asked?"

"Yes," the Chief Healer responded, reaching into the pocket of her jacket she produced a datachip, "there's some pictures of him on there and his physical stats taken a few days before I last saw him. And this..." from another pocket she withdrew ...a spoon? and set it on the table.

"Sorry. He's your traditional Jedi. Not much for worldly possessions but that's the same spoon he ate porridge with every morning. Everything else he owned is what he carried with him every day." Avalore hadn't really noticed just how little Hal had until she had to go looking for something of his. It had been an infuriating task - finding something she could hand over to the Merc. She couldn't give him anything from the Archives, but a spoon? A spoon she could part with.

Maybe.

The Jedi frowned at the spoon, her brow growing tight, "What do you need it for?"

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

His brow arched and furrowed in thought. A spoon? He would definitely need more than a spoon to go off of...But his image and physical data should be helpful, but this was going to take a lot of digging. A lot more than he thought he was going to have to do just to get started.

"What do you need it for?"

Really? She was getting defensive over a spoon? Who was this man she was so interested in...It only made him more curious. Hopefully, his curiosity wouldn't be the end of him. Then again, as long as it was death from a stab in the back, he felt he could make peace with his death. With a sigh he leaned back in his chair and reached up to remove his shades, setting them on the table.

"For a Master Jedi, I'm surprised you couldn't feel it in the Force," he leaned onto the table and clasped her spoon holding hand in his, his thumb resting on the cool metal. Her hand was warm, even without the Force he could tell how tense she was, nervous about meeting such a 'seedy' man for a task such as this. But there was something else...A taste of fear, but not the fear that drove many a Mandalorian to fight with all they had, but a fear of loss. Before he could finish his analysis on the Jedi a series of vivid images, sounds, and smells filled his senses, especially that of the Jedi's daily porridge. The rather unenthusiastic scent of the Jedi gruel was true to its taste. Bland, often warm, not always, and unusually thick.

"You really feed your Jedi that stuff?" He scoffed, "It's a wonder how you lot get up in the morning and do half the things you do with that kind of carby slop," he paused, a look of disgust contorting his scruffy features interrupting his short distaste for Jedi food choices. "And bland too..."

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"Master Healer," Avalore corrected, brow knitting slightly as she watched the man take hold of her hand and the spoon. Uncertain and feeling more than a little strange at that particular moment, the Chief Healer looked off to the side, "my particular skillset is limited to a very specific niche of powers."

And that's how you become a Master Healer in less than two years of practice - because it's all you ever do.

The man's next comments managed to draw a raised brow. Had she not already told him the spoon had been used for the consumption of porridge she might've awed over his ability to glean that information from it. For now, because he hadn't bothered to explain himself or why he was holding her hand, she sighed.

"He eats it by choice. It's what he was raised on I suppose - he grew up with the Jedi. I, however," she shifted in her seat a little, still very aware of the beast sitting beneath their table, "didn't and I don't touch the stuff. Big ol' bowl of snot, if you ask me."

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

Releasing his hold of the woman's hands and spoon he leaned back in the chair and ran his rough hands over his beard in thought, causing the metal contraption he sat in to lean back on two legs ominously. Processing these things fully could take hours, but he only needed a little hint, anything at something other than the Jedi's apparent love of bland glop. Inhaling sharply he let the chair slam back into place, he leaned forward, allowing his chin to rest on his hands. His gaze became hard, staring off to the left.

"He wasn't much for friendly conversation was he? He was wounded, his knee...allergic to bacta...I guess I could start there..."

At this point all he could do was allow for things to slowly come to him. Jedi were trouble, especially missing Jedi. That was never a good sign...Especially considering how easily they could twist minds and hearts, they being the Sith. It was always in the back of his mind, Ordo's betrayal...But he couldn't allow that to taint his feelings on this job. Looking back up at her he spoke again,

"I'll track him down Master Eden. Nothing gets away from this nose," he said lightheartedly, tapping his nose. "I'll need 50,000 credits sent here before I can start." Standing he reached into his pocket and tossed a datachip onto the table holding pertinent banking information to deposit the credits and picked his jacket from the chair. "Any objections?"

[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

"You're a Token Object Reader," Avalore said, rubbing lightly at her hand as she withdrew it to her lap. Psychometry. Once upon a time she, too, had that gift. Unhoned and unpracticed, it had never been something she was able to control, but that particular gift had been the catalyst that sent her into the life she lived today.

I wouldn't be sitting here right now if it weren't for that...

Strangely, it had left her the day she gave birth to her daughter. Avalore wasn't complaining, it had only ever caused her trouble anyway. The gift, not the baby.

The Healer looked up as the man stood, glancing to the chip tossed her way, "Well, yes. This is a bounty Mr. Skirata. You'll be paid when the bounty is fullfilled. That's how bounties work. Besides, the money is backed by my benefactor. It's not mine to pay."

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

"The 50,000 is to start poking a few hornet's nests given how little information is held," his eyes narrowed, "Or being withheld. I'll find the kid, but I need to start somewhere-"

He paused, his thought interrupted by a stream of backlogged memories from the spoon he had held. Voices, difficult to decipher. A planet, core worlds.

"-off for research"

A man's voice, the small bit of his face that is visible through the fog of the Force matching curve for curve the image he had been given. His mouth was left agape as the vision flashed through his mind and as he came back he blinked twice and looked down to the young Jedi Master.

"What was on New Plympto."
[member="Avalore Eden"]

 

[Avalore Eden]

The Jedi's face fell as the man before her persisted in his need for money.

"I'm sorry but-"

"Or being withheld. I'll find the kid, but I need to start somewhere-"

Avalore blinked. Withheld? Withheld? What in the spinning shipyards of Kuat did he mean withheld? It wasn't as if he'd asked a question she'd refused to answer.

Then ... Did he just call Hal a kid? Well, there were days when Avalore would agree with that statement, but on the whole the words drew a frowning line across her face. Hal was not a child. Not a kid. She wasn't withholding information. Simply there was little to go on, that was why she had opened the bounty. If the Jedi Shadows couldn't find him, then maybe some men or women who tracked down people to make a living might be the ticket. Brow knitting ever tighter, the Healer's lips drew as thin as her waning patience.

"What was on New Plympto?"

"A Jedi Temple," she answered over a sigh, lifting a hand to rub at her forehead where a fresh headache was brewing, "an ancient temple that he was on his way to find for some research. He's an Archivist and he's been gathering information on the old Orders. Usually I go with him, but this time I was needed elsewhere..."

If only I had gone with him...

"...I don't have 50,000 credits to give you. I don't have 50 credits to my name. I'm a Jedi. If that means you're dropping the bounty then I'm sorry we've wasted our time here today."

[member="Davin Skirata"]

 

[Jak Skirata]

It was disappointing, not that the Jedi didn't have the credits, to be honest he didn't direly need them to begin his man-hunt, though it would would have been helpful. Mandalorians were often frugal when it came to credits and Davin was no exception and having where this next pay check would go when it came to maintenance, food, and bills etc. Exhaling from his nose harshly and nodded, folding his arms. It was good that there wouldn't be any unexpected surprises, then again if it was who he thought was up to this then she may not find the answers she was looking for.

"Alright," he said suddenly after what seemed like a pause deep in thought, "I'll find this Hal of yours. Just be prepared for anything." He felt a darkness in the Force, one buried in the ebb and flow of time. He couldn't put his finger on it...But something about this job just didn't seem right.

[member="Avalore Eden"]