Renegade Reunion

[Dessh Ekwesh]

As Jalek took his turn in the booth, Diego roughed up the Duros a bit more until he finally knocked the man unconscious. The glitterstim had heightened all of the young thug's senses in a way that was certain to be hazardous to those in his immediate vicinity. As his Morrellian slicer friend stepped out of the spice booth he would see a couple of bouncers dragging off the alien's body. He rushed up to Jalek clapped his friend on the back as if he hadn't just seen him a few minutes ago. Diego looked lit.

"Ok, what should we do now? Shots, then hookers? Or hookers then shots? I can't decide." He pointed at a couple of scantily-clad Twi'lek working girls at the bar. "How about those two? I don't see any cold sores on 'em so I think they're fair game."

Then he suddenly grabbed Jalek by the arms and roughly shook him. "No wait! I have an even better idea! Come to Ossus with me. Let's crash the Jedi Academy!"

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

A slow blink was all Jalek could manage in answer to the man's question for a long moment. "First of all, it's always shots first, then hookers. Secondly," He glanced to the Twi'lek girls, "You might be a ladies' man, but I'm not. Or at least, not when it comes to women." A slow grin this time. "And finally, that's the best idea you've had all night. I'm assuming that means you have a transport rigged up." Jalek himself wasn't one to pilot, at least if it wasn't necessary. Instead of being in the cockpit, he preferred to be the one fidgeting with the machines. That was exactly why he made such a good slicer.

As if just noticing he glanced around. "Took care of our friend, then. Too bad he didn't have anyone else with him, otherwise we would have been able to really show them all how it's done." The glitterstim had heightened his senses yet dulled them in an odd way at the same time, but the sensation wasn't entirely all that bad to the slicer. "I don't see any other Renegades here, either. Must have gotten booted, or they haven't showed up yet. And no one who's looking for a bike has shown up.

There was a pause in which he did his best to gather his thoughts. "You going to introduce me to this master of yours if we do ever end up heading to Ossus? She sounds like one of those stuffy Jedi types. As if the regulars didn't know how to have any fun..."

[member="Diego Ticon"]

 

[Dessh Ekwesh]

As his friend talked, Diego leaned against the bar and spent the next few moments giving the two Twi'leks who had now noticed him from across the bar his best seductive gaze and a couple of obscene gestures for good measure. He then picked up the Duros's drink and downed the rest of it. "Yeah you can meet my Master." He said the word with a mocking tone and a chuckle. "She's pretty stuffy alright, although fun to rile up." He shrugged and gestured towards his lightsaber hilt. "She knows her stuff though."

Then Diego suddenly narrowed his eyes at his friend. "Hold up. Let me get this straight, Orange. Since when weren't you a ladies man anyway?" He could have sworn he'd seen Jalek with some beautiful girls on his arm, but it was also possible his memories were hazy from those booze and drug-filled nights.

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

At Diego's last question all Jalek had to say in response was a shrug and a sheepish sort of grin. "Oh, I dunno, probably since we first met, or maybe since I was old enough to really know about much of anything." And by 'anything' he was referring to anything concerning relationships. Which had come quickly for him, living amongst the gang. They certainly hadn't been the best at sugarcoating things, but then again, none of them had any experience raising adolescents, which was all he'd been when the group had found him. Among the swoop gangs of Taris, learning quickly was the only favorable option. The other was death, either at the hands of a rival gang or by your own hand during the accidents that were all too common among the young racers. But he'd chosen adaptation.

When he spoke of the Jedi, he nodded his agreement. "They're all too easy to set off, really. Peace this, tranquility that, toss in something about how the Force regulates all life in the galaxy, and you've got it in the mix for your average Jedi. Which is what makes not being one all the more fun. None of their rules, but all of the tricks that come with being able to use the Force. Maybe not things quite like what you managed earlier, but still an edge. And I'm not stuck at a Temple either. All in all, doesn't sound like a bad deal to me."

The Morellian studied his friend for a moment. "How is it you happened upon them anyway? I can't imagine you had a sudden change of heart and leapt at the idea."

From what he could remember of their days with the Renegades, Diego had never been a man for any sort of organized society, just as he himself was. But maybe there was something else in the man that he hadn't quite been aware of that was brought to light upon him meeting the Jedi that supposedly took him in. That was all fine and dandy, as long as they weren't trying to recruit him.

[member="Diego Ticon"]

 

[Dessh Ekwesh]

Diego nodded and sent a couple of drinks over to the two whispering Twi'leks who seemed to be mildly interested in the two men. He gestured towards the two women with a grin. "Well, maybe tonight's gonna be your lucky night, my friend. I think the blue one likes you. Unless." He looked Jalek up and down. "You, uh, don't swing that way?" Diego didn't care either way. He was happy to have a wingman no matter who his friend happened to sleep with.

As he tried to explain to Jalek how he'd ended up with the Jedi, Diego realized that even though the Force had made it seem like fate, it was more chance than anything. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time as the Jedi were hauling in another gang for some reason or another. I never did get the details. Anyway, my master was my interrogator." Here he chuckled at the memory. "I grabbed her lightsaber right off her hip and when I flicked it on, the karking thing actually worked for me. And get this. It only works for lightsiders. After that I dunno, she just kind of talked me into joining them." Diego studied his hands with his icy blue eyes. "I guess I just didn't want my powers to go to waste."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

"Now you've got it." Jalek grinned and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "But I'll play wingman anyway, if you need it. It's the least I can do as a friend, but I don't think you'll need it." He nodded towards the two women who were making eyes at them from across the bar. "They seem to be plenty interested as it is. Maybe it's something about you being a Jedi, huh?" With another smile he put his cigarette out in a nearby ashtray, or what was left of it from before his fight with the other gang member.

After listening to his friend's story he nodded slowly, giving a quiet chuckle of amusement. "Too bad I wasn't there too, otherwise we might have really given her a run for her money. But it seems like you did plenty of that by yourself, just by talking to her." He raised an eyebrow. "Lightsiders only, is it? I've never put much stock into the entire sides of the Force thing myself, but whatever helps the Jedi sleep at night is fine, I guess." He shrugged, not lumping his friend into the group. They'd been friends since he could remember, and he never had and would never see him as a member of the Order. "I don't put much stock into it, myself. Light side, dark side, it's all one in the same to me."

At the last sentence he spoke the slicer shrugged. "Going to waste just depends on how you view it. If you want to use your powers for something other than surviving, then yeah, it was probably a good choice. Me, I'm just content living day-to-day, as it happens to be plenty interesting in my profession. Unless one of your Master's friends decides to try and convert me while we're at the Academy."

[member="Diego Ticon"]

 

[Dessh Ekwesh]

At Jalek's revelation, Diego simply looked his friend up and down and said, "Huh." Then he shrugged, and glanced back at the Twi'leks. He figured the ladies would probably be into a threesome, but he didn't want to leave his friend in the dust especially since it had been so long since he'd seen the Morellian. Blood came first in the Renegade world.

As his friend admitted skepticism over the schisms of the Force, Diego nodded. It was easy to agree with him on all of his points about the Jedi. In fact, the more time he spent with his friend, the more he felt like joining the Order was a mistake. Did he really need the Jedi to teach him the ways of the Force? His master aside, there had to be a less annoying bunch of people to learn the tricks of the trade from. At Jalek's last statement, he chuckled.

"Oh she'd try and convert you alright. She made a damn convincing argument to me at the time. Although I have to admit right now, I don't remember much of what she said. The woman talks non-stop and to be honest, I'm only half-listening to her." He grinned.

"Honestly, man, I'm not sure I'm cut out for the place much longer, but I don't know if I can come back here either."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

The slicer simply shrugged. "Stick on for as long as you want, or don't. But I wouldn't recommend coming back here. Nobody does these days, unless it's for something like this. If you ever do decide to leave, find me on the HoloNet and we can figure something out. I owe you one, and besides, living day-to-day would be a lot more interesting with you around, something tells me. Finding jobs would probably be a lot easier, and keeping up on credits wouldn't be so difficult if there was somebody else around."

This time he grinned, nudging his friend playfully. "Or, stay on with them, and live life like you are now. It doesn't sound like too bad of a deal to me. But if you were serious about the Ossus idea, you know where to find me. I'm always up for a road trip. Especially when it involves terrorizing Jedi on a planet I've hardly ever heard of, much less been on. The idea just keeps sounding better and better the more I talk about it. If you can manage to convince your Master, or not, it'd at least be amusing."

Things hadn't changed much since he'd last caught wind of the Order, if they were still trying to convert people. "More power to her. If she feels like it's necessary, go for it. But I'm betting that she'll take one look at me and already have a long list of stereotypes built up, most of them being related somehow to all of this business with the Renegades. But as long as you haven't been talking about me, I should be in the clear, huh?" He grinned again, glancing around the bar for a moment.

"What do you say? Trip to Ossus, yay or nay?"

[member="Diego Ticon"]

 

[Dessh Ekwesh]

A pensive gaze crossed Diego's face as he thought about his master. "I think you'd be surprised at how nonjudgmental Corvus can be. She puts up with an insane amount of my crap. Much more than I expected her to." He grinned and wondered just how patient she would be around the both of them. Diego supposed he'd soon find out.

At Jalek's last question, Diego gave him an enormous grin. "Oh we're going to Ossus, my friend. I was thinking maybe we could catch a shuttle tonight. I don't have the credits, but you can do that techie stuff that you can do to get us on some ship's passenger list right?" It then struck the young man just how much he'd missed his friend. He realized that he'd been so obsessed at finding his blood relatives after his parents' deaths, that he'd forgotten he had family right here on Taris.

"Oh and before we go, let's do another round of shots." He opened up his pockets to show the slicer where he had a few bottles of whiskey and some packets of spice stashed. "Then we're going to bring the party to them."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]