Wander, Wonder... Whatever.

[thegreatbeyonder]

Evening winds bellowed over the arid world, bustling citizens dotted the streets and moved from building-to-building as they always did. It was how you knew a place was alive, civilized, and easy to get lost in. That is exactly why Arian found himself here of all places. He needed to lay low for a while; it wasn't like he committed a crime or anything but being a member of the Couriers had always led to numerous adventures. Some unwanted.

The spacer approached a small cart where a local was selling alien fruit. Amber eyes looked from each one to the next, trying to pluck the ripest from the batch. A hand wandered into the pile, pulling from it a plump specimen. "How much?" He inquired on the price. Unfortunately the local did not speak galactic basic, and the way he raised his arm with the fruit in hand managed to reveal his holstered blaster. Frightened, the local merchant spoke rapidly in his negative tongue, making an assortment of hand gestures attempting to appease Arian.

"No, no! I to -buy- this," he moved the fruit closer to the local, causing him to recoil and pull his cart away, shouting further in fear and causing a scene on the streets.

It didn't take too long for what went as law enforcement arrived. A bunch of well-armed, and angry looking bruisers drew their assortment of weapons and shouted in the same tongue.

Maybe Arian should research local languages before taking his chances on another backwater world. "You've gotta be karkin' kidding me! I just want to buy the damn fruit." The tone of his voice, and the fact he spoke in basic, only furthered the aggressiveness of those who surrounded him.

Arian wasn't interested in a fight, and he certainly wasn't going to win one in this scenario.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Nomad life was’t too bad. It was hardly any different from what Kana expected. Preserved foods, rations of low quality, showers that tended to be far colder than anyone would like to endure and beds the softness of a concrete block. In short it wasn’t a life of comfort, but Kana had grown used to it over the last few twenty years or so. Keeping to bare necessities when it came to these things hadn’t bothered her yet. In fact, if anything it made her appreciate the good stuff a whole lot more. The bed she’d gotten on Coruscant and the one she’d had in her suite aboard the cruise liner with Damien had been one of the greatest comforts she had ever afforded herself.

Now here she was on... Some planet. Really, the name escaped her but it was dusty and people smelled weird. Hardly anyone spoke her language and when it came to the locals, well, they weren’t the most hospitable bunch. Fights happened at enough of a frequency for the former Jedi of it as a former (or current) prison world.

Which, speaking of fights, was happening right now. Or rather, the extermination of an unwanted thief. Kana approached the site and watched it all go down. A grin grew on her lips as she looked back and forth between the man who had been looking at fruit and the others who did not understand him.

She should have done something, but in the end it wasn’t her fight. What did she have to gain from it, right?

Not a lot.

“Maybe they’re expecting you to pay with blood?” Kana quipped as the others looked at her too. “Or... Something... Like that...”

Yep. She done messed up now.

[member="Arian Lenar"]

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

Finally someone spoke his language. She didn't look like a local, she didn't walk like a local, and as far as he was concerned she didn't talk line one either; and that was great. Despite the fact it meant nothing as far as getting himself out of trouble, it did somewhat alleviate that feeling of being completely alone on this remote, backwater world.

Of course, it could also simply mean that somehow things that could've been worse just became slightly less bad. What a lovely galaxy we live in. Nothing ever seemed to work out the way we intend it to, and when we try our hardest to correct a mistake--or a misunderstanding--it seemed to only dig your feet deeper in the mud. And he wasn't ready to let his shoes go just yet.

Arian scraped his tongue against the back of his lower set of teeth, keeping his mouth shut. What did she just say? Did he really come all this way, and find out the only one who knew basic decided the best course of action was sarcasm? Then he realized the fact she spoke the same language as him didn't really bode to well with the locals. Taking advantage of this, Arian tossed the small fruit towards the blonde. "Catch!" He shouted, the volume of his exclamation caused the guards to recoil much the same way it had been with the merchant.

Despite being armed to the teeth, they seemed more afraid of him in this situation than he did of them. Perhaps he could use that fear to his advantage and figure a way out of this that didn't require anyone to die. Then again, it might've been wishful thinking. Only time would tell.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

The thugs approached her too as if she had upset them with something. Basic was a language, surely that wasn’t it? Actually, maybe it was. They got closer and closer when suddenly the man called out for Kana’s attention. The thugs recoiled and Kana reached out on instinct to catch the incoming fruit. It only really made the mob angrier.

“Look, you don’t want to do this.” Kana began backing off as she put the fruit in one of the nearby baskets. “There is no way for you to beat me in this fight. Just back off, before things get real ugly.”

The others began laughing. Had she told a joke? Hell no.

“You woman.” One of the brutes laughed back at her. “What you do?”

“I do bad things. Dead things. You die you mess with woman.” Kana mocked them.

Once more laughter. The man poked at her.

“What do?”

“Last warning, back off.”

They looked over at [member="Arian Lenar"] and grinned. “What do you?”

“Woman stupid. You stupid. What do?”

It was incomprehensible. What were they even asking? Kana certainly had no idea.

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

"Me? I'm a tourist. My folks decided to buy me a fancy vacation to this fine world you have you," whether or not they understand the joke, it didn't seem like they were happy.

Maybe sarcasm wasn't the best course of action considering how many blasters were being pointed at him. Although he did manage to drag the woman in to this mess, after all she's been a big help so far. Arian couldn't help but glance to her everytime one of the locals wasn't shouting in their foreign tongue, or bastardized basic. "I think he's asking us who the kark we are, stranger. Say, if you need an alibi I could always use a girlfriend." Somehow he felt winking would be cliche, so he resisted the urge to do so.

Unfortunately it didn't seem like he'd have much of a chance. Marching down the road were soldiers who seemed too well-dressed to be petty enforcers. Although somewhat crude, they had matching uniforms and carried electrified pikes in what could only be described as a proper formation. Despite being in the navy, he saw discipline anywhere--these guys were the real deal.

Perhaps they could get him out of this mess...

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“Yeah? No.” Kana glowered. “Don’t think I’m your type, stranger.”

The soldiers approached them and for a moment the thugs would back away. A quiet sigh of relief parted Kana’s lips. As much as she knew how to defend herself there still was that small part of a Jedi in her. She knew how to settle this peacefully, right? Sure she did, she hadn’t lost all of her faculties yet. Reason was something she saw herself as a pretty good practitioner of.

“I mean, we were supposed to meet here. Why are you making up fake stories about us, Damien? Just go along with what the officer is saying and we’ll see about it.”

The officers walked up to the thugs and a brief exchange of words were had. Except it wasn’t in basic, it was in the local tongue. The thugs all chuckled and grinned before backing off completely. Grabbing a fruit each they gave the officers one last glance before resting their backs against a dusty wall.

The officers set their eyes on the two foreigners. Kana let her eyes dart back and forth between the cops.

“So uh, don’t cops usually have badges?” Kana looked over at [member="Arian Lenar"]. “Because I don’t- I don’t see any badges.”

She slowly backed off. Closer to her new friend.

“Have any escape plans, bud?”

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

Arian didn't expect there to be two strangers out of place on this world.

The dusty soil beneath their feet belonged to a planet hidden away outside of what most people would refer to as civilized space.

Hardly any travelers stopped here, and those that did either ran into problems such as this one or were careful enough to land somewhere away from the local populace, such as a smuggler's compound or pirate's outpost.

So to answer her question; "I have no karkin' clue. Cops or not, I don't think going in peacefully is the best option." Quickly he eyed the scenery, taking mental note of a few alleys and streets. Several of them were busy or led towards marketplaces and cantinas. Others were void of all life and seemed to have no particular end--or perhaps just led to nowhere at all.

The one thing he did know, however, is getting lost in a crowd wouldn't work for them. They stood out and had no idea how others would react.

With that in mind he pinpointed a particularly empty alley just between the thugs, but now he needed a distraction. If either of them bolted for it there was a likelihood of getting shot on the spot, and there were two many of them for him to take on with his pistol.

So far he was stuck and had few options to think of. "I have an idea, but it won't work so long as they're fixed on us." He turned to Kana.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

No escape plan, no worries. Kana had her ways too, of course, but ultimately even those could prove far too desperate or even dangerous to use. There was no telling how the people would react to having a force user toss a dozen fruits at a couple of officers. There also wasn’t any telling how they would be able to get out of it. Kana’s lightsaber hilt rested awkwardly against the side of her ribs. A jacket hadn’t ever been the easy way to conceal these things, but when you wanted to pass for a regular human-being and not a self-righteous space-monk there were certainly sacrifices to be made.

“Okay, so what do you propose?” She asked while backing further away from the officers. “Any last few tricks before things get... You know, desperate?”

An idle hand grabbed a hold of a close-by fruit, and then another, and then another. The officers didn’t seem to enjoy such blatant acts of theft in the slightest, but what was Kana to do when they insisted on getting all hot and bothered up in her face?

“Got a handful of apples.” She gleefully announced to her temporary companion. “Should I do it?”

Toss them at the cops that is. It seemed as good of an idea as any other!

[member="Arian Lenar"]

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

"Maker... You--Kark it," he sighed, "do it and then we're running in that alley," he nodded his head in the direction of their only viable escape route.

From there, perhaps they'd be able to find the man's ship. How the hell did he lose it so much anyway?

No matter, really, she had no idea that the only reason he was wandering around town is because he didn't realize how all the buildings looked the same and totally forgot to take mental notes of familiar landmarks... However; everything is a familiar landmark to him. Even the cart full of melons is something he's seen perhaps a dozen times in one day.

If her trick worked, he'd have time to think about that elsewhere.

[member="Kana Truden"]