Not-So-Serious [Z]

[Josh Dragovalor]

Mandalore

Josh had received a little bit of information, a lead to some kind of "Serious information about your background you might like to know" from an anonymous informant. Unfortunately, that was all he'd been given. He'd been told he'd find his answers in Mandalore. So the Jedi Master, curious, and knowing full well it could be a trap, headed to Mandalore.

Unfortunately, this was where the leads ended.

He'd found no more leads to go on, besides the idea that a bit of his family history could very well be uncovered. But nothing. The blonde, admittedly, was starting to think this was a waste of time.

Feeling dejected and admittedly a little bit irritated about how this whole thing had ended up, he decided to just drink his problems away at the nearest cantina. Since he wasn't with the Republic anymore, he didn't have to deal with randomly being attacked by Mandalorian forces anymore, which was the reason he hadn't been on Mandalore before this. He had heard stories about their strong drinks and he was curious about how he could handle it with his tolerance...

The Mandalore cantina was loud, with its population of Mandalorians being quite the loud drinking warriors. Josh didn't bother wearing a hood this time, he had been out of the spotlight for so long, he doubted anyone would bother with him. So there he was, long blonde hair, brimming brown eyes, 6'2 and wearing a blue t-shirt, black leather jacket, black pants and black boots, sipping a drink casually at the table in the corner of the cantina. The stuff was strong, just how he liked it.

Though the fact he couldn't find what he had came for was still bugging him.

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Rawnie and Corrin were doing well, or so she was told. Honestly, Zandra couldn't really bring herself to visit her children. Not until she had answers for them. They asked about their Father every time they exchanged messages. She told 'em she was still looking. Rawnie would say not to bother. Corrin would cry. Zandra would stop returning their messages for a while, claiming that her ship had issues with long distance transmissions sometimes and that she'd send credits soon. And she did. She was always sending a steady stream of financial support for the Clan. At least she could be a parent in that way, even if she was too much of a coward to face them otherwise.

Here she was now. 'Home' on Mandalore. She remembered this Cantina. It was where she met up with the other Clan leaders when the mass disappearances started happening. She'd been so angry at the lack of response from the Mandalore himself. He just told 'em to keep calm and wait. Wait? Wait for what? She made herself a good few enemies that day.

Now she sat at a table of armored men and women, sticking out like a bantha in an Aklay nest.

"Sabaac."
Zandra raised an eyebrow as the armored dark haired female across from her laid her hand out on the table. Not a bad hand at all. Not the best either. Zandra took a long draw of her cigarette as one by one the mandos groaned and threw their cards down. All eyes were on Zandra, who was now grinning with her cig lightly clenched between her teeth.

"Idiots Array," she announced, laying her hand out for all to see, "Looks like I win again."

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Answers, answers, where oh where would he find answers? Honestly, this whole thing was frustrating him to no end. A Jedi shouldn't be frustrated, but here he was. Frustrated as could be. He was following a false lead, he knew it. A trap, most likely. But Josh knew better, he should have anyway. Still, he'd trusted this information network before, and they had never lied to him with false leads before. It was why he'd taken it. It had led him to many ventures, including an attempt to stop the assassination of Feena at one point. But for once... Were they wrong? He couldn't fathom that. It was so uncharacteristic. But he knew something was off when they'd had so little information to give him besides a location. Hopefully, it was just a coincidence. He had been less trusting as of late after a few backstabbings. But he'd been getting backstabbed since the Jedi Order.

His attention was grabbed though when a woman would announce something pertaining to the card game she was playing with a rather irritable looking chap. Not that he could tell visually, but he was sensing an emotion or two that might come off as a trigger warning... A literal trigger warning. The Jedi Master casually sipped his drink, watching the game with a sudden interest. If things went wrong... Well, he'd be there.

He always was, after all.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

"Kriffin' cheat!"

At the word 'cheat', Zandra stopped scooping the credit chips into her rucksack. Piercing blue eyes snapped up to meet the female Mandalorian sitting across from her.

"Sorry, friend. Don' think I heard that right."
Her voice was soft and sweet as warm bantha fur, but sharp as a knife with the warning it carried.

"I said," the woman growled standing up, "You're a cheat!"

Zandra sighed, scooped the rest of the credits into her bag and stood up with a sad smile.
"Yeah, I was afraid that was what you said..."
Then like lightning, she had kicked her stool up from behind her and was hurling it across the table at the Mando woman. That was about when all hell broke loose.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"Kriffin cheat!"

That was the words that Joshua was expecting to hear at any moment. It always seemed to happen, no matter the cantina, but the noise before had already warned him of the inevitable. His gaze turned toward the table again. It seemed that either the blonde one had cheated the Mandalorian woman, or the Mandalorian was just making assumptions. It was very likely it was the former when the blonde one would toss a chair at the Mandalorian.

He didn't want to show he was a Force user in here... But he needed to intervene before someone got hurt. As if by instinct, he would quickly wave his hand, and the chair would fly the other way, crashing into the wall.

Unfortunately, he was too late to stop all hell from breaking loose. While he'd saved the Mandalorian woman, it wouldn't be long before the others in the bar would start fighting. Mistakening him for one of their own most likely, one of the bargoers would throw a swing toward the Jedi Master, who would block it with excellent reflexes before reeling back and whapping them with a blow straight to the jaw. Helmet or not, they went down with that blow.

Great, now he was involved in the bar fight. Not what he had intended. But everyone was drunk and unruly, it was bound to happen eventually. Someone JUST had to trigger it.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

It was one thing to be pissed that you lost. It was something all together different to call a girl a cheat. She just... ugh, she hated that! The stool hit the Mando woman with a loud clunk. Not enough to bring her down of course, but it was a good distraction. Zandra dove across the table right after, sliding. The second she reached the edge of the table, she aimed a heavy punch to the womans stomach. Zandra heard the breath leave her at once.

And she'd been prepared to leave it there. Take the offending Mandalorians breathlessness as apology, take her credits and go. Zandra may be a dirty pirate scum, but she didn't kill when she didn't need to. No point. But alas, the cantina then erupted, even after the Mando woman fell to her knees.

"Kark."

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

It didn't matter to the Jedi Master what had started the fight. What mattered to him was stopping it before someone got seriously hurt. Unnecessary injury and death wasn't something that went on his watch if he could stop it. This wasn't his first barfight. Sadly, he was sort of hoping the last one would indeed have been his last. But things had a funny way of happening, know what I mean?

The moment that Josh had punched the first guy, it made him a bigger target. The ones that dealt the hardest blows usually attracted the most attention, and Mandalorian bars were no exception, hell, it was likely encouraged. And so he found more people on his case. While he was a hell of a hand-to-hand fighter, Josh didn't enjoy it. Far from it. At the same time, there was an adrenaline to it... That adrenaline was something that he feared, because getting carried away could lead to unpredictable results.

He tried to keep calm, keep himself under control. Then he had to throw a punch when one of the ones who's attention he had caught drew too close. Attack or be attacked. An elbow rocked the side of the temple, and that was enough to stun them in order to give Josh room to duck the punch from another, leaving him an opportunity to counterattack with a kick to the gut before launching a roundhouse kick square to the temple, knocking them flat. Josh wouldn't wait for the stunned one to get up, and he'd step onto their knee, using it as momentum to land a mid-air kick to the temple to knock them down for the count.

The adrenaline was there, he could feel it... He didn't enjoy the fight, but at the same time, he did. It was... A strange instinct. The same one he had during the battles he had faced for the Republic. But why? He couldn't fathom it... He moved like a whirlwind, responding to a kick thrown at his head by using the body of his aggressor to launch himself over their head, kicking them in the head and landing just behind a woman. Instinctively, he nearly threw a punch her way, expecting an attack, but stopped when he recognized her.

"Oh! You must be the one who started this mess, aye? Hi!" He would chirp, standing back to back with her again, just waiting for whoever might come along to try again. He was a little too chipper for someone involved in a bar fight, no?

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]