Yo Ho Yo Ho (Dragon's Thorn Crew)

[Judah Lesan]

He was a free bird. Rathe found his new found freedom exhilarating. Too many times he'd been beaten by the guards, or mistreated by other inmates. Piracy was a life which followed one around even in jail. Thorn took the time to network though, and found he was leaving better connected than he went in. The first order of business was to find a ship to steal, and a crew to man it. What better place to go than Ord Mantell.

Booted feet touched down on the ground of the spaceport in Worlport. The area was busy, full of prospective members. All Thorn had to do was find the right group. His nose led him to the source of engines burning, hot oil spilling over, and more grinding sounds than an engine should make. This was the repair district and more shops than one could count littered the streets. Now, where was a bar?

Rathe moved along the streets, the duracrete cracked and broken. Eyes peered around looking for the familiar neon lights of the bar scene, and when he found one, Rathe walked in. He took to a corner booth alone, and paid a few people to start spreading the word about a new crew being formed. He'd see how people reacted. Though Rathe had a feeling he'd have to find them.

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Damn. First Zandra lost her crew. Then she lost her hand. Now she was on the verge of losing her ship too. Her poor baby had a hyperdrive leak. Very bad news for the old rust bucket, ZaxTheBeautiful. She was assured it was fixable, of course, but it was gunna take nearly everything she had left just to get the repairs done, then she just MIGHT have enough for fuel. Forget living until she found a new crew.

Only one possible way to get by. Gambling.

She sat at a table surrounded by all sorts. Criminals of every size, shape and color. Not the best people to gamble with, but Z had very little choice here. The crowded cantina roared with life all around her, but all she could see or hear was her own instincts speaking to her. Zandra had a certain play style. She had skill. Cards spoke to her. Lady luck kissed her cheek as she drew her next card.

"Sabaac."

The table went silent. Zandra knew what that meant. She won. She usually won. It was why she wasn't welcome back into half the casinos on Coruscant. Lady Z knew her way around a card table. Cheating wasn't even a word in her dictionary. It was all luck.

[member="Thorn"]

 

[Nyx]

One advantage to her freakish height was that Kath Thrinn could go places other teenagers couldn't without adult scrutiny; like this cantina, for instance. She could go here as much as she wanted, and the Epicanthix supposed that was a pretty good thing, in the long run. Sometimes being a half-breed paid off, she supposed.​

Kath entered the establishment, and had left her large wrench at her garage. She didn't think she'd need it, tonight.​

She was tired of repairing old ships and speeders for almost no pay, and sought to forget just how much her back and arms ached for a night.​

​

She sat down at the counter, and asked for something strong.​

Time to see just how well this Epicanthix could handle her alcohol.​

​

[member="Thorn"]​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Detorin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBYLZ5Q0CGk​

​

The Old Pirate Lord, Introduced​

​

Long ago there had been a legend along the hyperlanes, that of the Black Cape. His crew were notorious for sacking the ships of many traders and leaving nothing but wreckage. How was it that their captain, the Black Cape himself, ended up in the corner of a cantina like this? Mutiny. Straight up betrayal. The Black Cape was no more, there was just the story, long forgotten by most. Those who knew him now saw only the Steel Hand, his trademark feature which was the result of his first mate's jealousy. Now, with his metal arm resting on the table infront of him, he drank alone. Rarely was he approached, and mostly then to tell him the place was closed. However, today he was approached by one of the regulars who liked to share the stories brought in by smugglers and explorers.

"Detorin," He spoke, causing the old man's head to rise. "Somethin' you want to listen to. There's talk of a crew formin'. The kinda crew you'd be interested in." The man then gulped, his composure hunched as if preparing to run should Detorin react violently. Placing his drink down, the old pirate lord spoke in his deep, croaky voice.
"Where do I find the captain?" He stared up from under his hat at the man, who began nodding and pointing subtly over to the other corner of the cantina.
"H-him, over there..."
Detorin merely nodded in reply, his eyes now fixed on the man across the room. The angle of his hat allowed shadows to creep over his eyes, so that the man might not notice the attention. Taking the hint that he was no longer welcome, his informer left his sight.

No one else had approached the captain yet, so Detorin would wait. He wanted to see who else, if anyone, would take the chance.

[member="Thorn"] [member="Zandra Tal'verda"] [member="Kath"]

 

[Judas Wayne]

Raphael d'Assad would walk into a Cantina on Ord Mantell, and surveyed the area for the bar's owner. He had been hired to take him out by a minor Hutt on Tatooine. It was by far his biggest job so far, and the slug had even paid his travel expenses. After killing the man, he was to deliver the body to a Rodian contact working as a grocer in a nearby store.

After looking over the area, Raphael did not see the man anywhere. He didn't want to go hunting for him, as it might attract unwanted attention. So therefore, he would just have to wait. The mercenary would sit down at the bar, and looked at the girl to his left. After watching her ask for the strongest thing they had, he looked her up and down. She was certainly pretty tall, but the spoke with the maturity of someone slightly younger than she looked. He always noticed these little things, it's what made him good at what he did. After waiting a minute, he spoke to her, "You look a little young to be drinking, eh?"

[member="Kath"]

 

[Llkt'tudrin'wyshd]

Gliding towards the exit ramp of his hired ship with long, confident strides, Ydrin shouted over his shoulder. "Y8, I swear to all that is holy, if you Kark up again by leaving the ship and letting something be stolen, I'm replacing you're restraining bolt. Understood?" The young man's voice was sharp and whipped through the air, muffled as it was by the cloth covering his mouth. Behind him a silver coloured shadow stirred and leant out of a doorway. "Statement: Acknowledged Master. Query: Does this mean that I'm not to leave even if you command me to, Master?" Ignoring Y8, Ydrin continued on his way, securing the clothe over his mouth as he did so, toning out the panicked tones of his droid as it shouted after him.

Ydrin ran a hand through his mop of golden hair on top of his head. Strands of which fell down to partially cover his sharp purple eyes, the left of which had the white coloured a milky black. He was rather tall for his age and thin with an angular face and high cheek bones. His clothing consisted of a brown waistcoat that stretched down to his knees and which had covered his mouth, below which was a tan shirt. Over the top of both them was a short tan coat that only reach to the male's waist. On his legs, he wore brown, leather trousers and round his waist, above the waistcoat, he wore a leather belt. Around his neck hung a silver hourglass necklace that glinted in the sun. On the inside of the coat rested a silver timepiece on a chain.

Sighing, the partial human thought back to why he had been forced to land on Ord Mantell. When he had last stopped, Y8 had ended up wandering off from the ship, attempting to seek him out so as to report some miscellaneous information that could of easily waited until he had returned. The result of the droid's adventure had been someone or someones gaining access to the ship he had hired and making off with a good majority of all of the money he had collected upon leaving his parent's estate and Naboo in general. Ydrin had continued on for as long as possible, not wishing to delve into social interaction as it was a facet of life that he had no understanding of, however he had gone as far as he could now and had landed on the closest planet with a generous population looking to peddle his skills as a doctor of medicine to the people in return for money.

Weaving his way through people, Ydrin stepped into a near by cantina, intent on sitting in their and listening in on people's conversation in the attempt to learn if there was any major illness running rampant through any near by area on Ord Mantell. Striding straight to the bar in a short amount of confident strides, Ydrin settled down into his chosen seat.

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Another win under her belt. A few more credits to go towards fuel. Unfortunately, the crowd was starting to disperse. Getting wise to this Echani. They must have seen her, The good Lady of Luck, hanging over the Echani's shoulders, whispering in her ear, encouraging her on. They must have. Zandra saw her.

Of course, Zandra was still coming down from a rather fantastic high. 'Stardust' was a great substance. Made her see people. Lots of people. Sometimes she saw Calico. Sometimes she saw Lady Luck. Sometimes she saw little gold glittering threads hanging in the air in front of her like Life Day decorations.

"How about one more round? Double the bet?" she asked, grinning around at the table as Lady luck in all her beautiful, glowing haired glory nodded encouragingly, "Come on. I don't think I could possibly win a fourth time in a row!"

Yet, despite this insistence, the table cleared pretty quickly. People with empty pockets left the cantina, grumbling to themselves and making vague threats. The lady of luck vanished. Zandra felt herself snap to reality once more.

"Kark..." she sighed, shuffling her lucky deck.

[member="Ydrin"] [member="Raphael d'Assad"] [member="Detorin"] [member="Kath"] [member="Thorn"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane had been sitting in this bar for most of the day. The Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters here were fucking awful, but at least they were alcoholic enough. Slowly, he was seeing some interesting people trickle into the place, but he mostly kept his eyes on Zandra for now. It was very likely that he'd be the only one who could repair any damage to the prosthetic hand he'd made for her without totally dismantling the damn thing. So, he was following her around a little bit. She probably knew he was there, but he couldn't tell with all the spice and cards so far. He walked over to the blonde Echani and sat down at the card table next to her.​

​

"You getting my money's worth out of that hand, Zandra? Those metal fingers fast enough for your cards?"​

​

[member="Thorn"] [member="Zandra Tal'verda"] [member="Kath"] [member="Ydrin"] [member="Raphael d'Assad"] [member="Detorin"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

The Echani looked up, totally bummed that her beautiful high had run its course. Damn. That was a really good trip. Shame to have it end so abruptly. Well, at least she had doc here to make sure she didn't overdose.

"Workin' on it, Doc," she answered with a shrug, "Still getting used to it. B'fore I lost my hand, I could even do tricks when I shuffled. Now I just kinda..."

Struggle.
And it was her sword hand she lost too. Not that she couldn't fight with her left, but everyone had a dominate hand. Zandra's had been the right hand. She sighed, put her cards back into her sack and fumbled with a cigara and her lighter. Kark, she still wasn't used to it.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"For a rush job like that, I'm a little surprised it functions more than the fingers simply curling. I doubt it'll fully synch to your nervous system anytime soon, though. Even if I had the insane sort of skill that some engineers have, I didn't make all the parts to fit you, specifically."​

​

Thinking about that made him feel a bit bad. Even if he hadn't had any warning before taking in Zandra and her crewmate, he still felt like the hand he'd been building wasn't good work. It'd taken him three or four weeks to build most of it, and then he'd tried to finish it in a couple of days. That was his fault.​

​

"I'll try and build you a better one soon. Don't even have to be sober for it... Just gotta get more wires and metal. You'll be fine, eventually. It's my job."​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

The Echani puffed gently at her cigara once she finally managed to get it lit. She'd manage. She always did. But then, she always had her entire body in one piece. She looked down at the rough metal poking through her glove. She used to wear a ring on that finger for a while. Wouldn't fit now. The 'fingers' were the wrong size. Her entire hand was just wrong.

If she ever did find him, what would he think of this?

The Echani shrugged, blowing a smoke ring at the ceiling.

"Ya did what ya could, Doc," she replied, "Not like I gave ya much time ta work. I ain't ungrateful."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane grinned crookedly at Zandra and felt himself grab some sabbacc chips off the table and click them together like a small child playing with bits of plastic. In his mind, he supposed, he was a bit of a child. Always playing with scraps and trying to figure how things worked. And then how they didn't work. Like how his tech didn't work when other people needed it.​

​

"That's 'xactly why I feel bad, Cap... You're being too damn nice to me about the whole problem, in the first place. I frakked up just by letting you out of the clinic after three days. Shoulda made you dry out longer, too. I'll be damned if you aren't spiced right now."​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

The Echani waved her cigara, watching the smoke trails it made. Beautiful. If she couldn't have golden confetti in her vision, smoke trails were an alright substitute.

"Eh, When am I not spiced?" she asked, lips pulling back into a tiny smirk, "Weren't yer fault. I screwed up. Lost a hand fer it. Didn' think I needed ta be careful. Damn space wizards are sneaky."

She flexed her new fingers, listening to the slight creak as they reluctantly obeyed her command. It made her wince. Not a pretty sight.

"Really. If I blamed you fer a second, you'd be dead, Doc."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"You're not spiced when you're sleeping, right? Just like I'm not drunk when I pass out at the workbench. We'll both be seeing space wizards when we wake up."​

​

Lorane laughed at his own joke and went on playing with the sabbacc chips, absently wondering why the chips were so colorful at this particular bar. It made it hard for him to tell what denominations belonged to what color, especially with how small the numbers printed on them were. Eventually, he decided to just shrug it off and grin drunkenly at Zandra.​

​

"That's not a fight I'd bet on. And I've got no doubt that between us, anybody else standing close enough to bet on it would get mowed down."​

​

He rested his head on his hands and smiled a bit more gently.​

​

"But I'm not worried about you blaming me. I'm worried about me blaming me. Coming here and making sure you don't glitter yourself into a coma is just an extension of the rehab process."​

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[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

The Echani rolled her eyes, took a puff of her cigara and blew a smoke ring up towards the ceiling.

"Yeah, thanks mom."

How annoying. If not for that damn space wizard, she'd be rolling in credits right now. She'd have credits, spice, and a new ship to boot. But no. Some damn jeedai just had to be traveling on board that smugglers ship.

For a second, she thought she spotted her golden haired Lady of Luck. Zandra made a face at the apparition, who promptly vanished. So much for Lady luck on that day. Why did she choose to abandon her right then?

"So, you gunna be followin' me until I can use my hand again, or what? Or do you got a crush, Doc? Fallen for my feminine beauty yet?"

The Echani laughed at her own joke. Beauty. A face full of scars and burns, one hand, and a hair style that she'd cut herself. Oh yes. She was a damn model.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Ha, ha, ha, no. I'm followin' you because nobody else would care or be motivated to fix that hand if it breaks, or make you a new one. Concern, crush, call it whatever your smoke-filled heart desires. I'd call it 'nobody else apparently gives a damn'."​

​

He picked up his drink off the table and shook his head as he drank what was left of the Gargle Blaster. Not strong enough. Not at all. He put it down in disgust and left it on the table before ordering another.​

​

"Besides, I have no doubt that the first person to comment on your feminine beauty will win the fine prize of a blaster bolt in his head, while I just sit back and laugh. I'm not the guy to fall into that trap."​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Judah Lesan]

The Hapan pirate would only wait so long before he figured this port was a bust. He could kidnap a crew, but they were always less loyal when taken. No, Rathe wanted a crew which wanted to be there. Aside from drinking and sex, Rathe had one guilty pleasure one liked or hated. Reaching into his coat, he retrieved his pipe from the inside pocket. A packet of pipe tobacco was taken with it, and the pirate lit up. A few short puffs on the pipe helped to pull the flame through, and the sweet fragrance and aroma of smoke filled the area near him.

He observed an Echani run out all the gamblers. He almost went himself, but some Chiss doctor sat across from her. Maybe she'd be the kind to join. A mechanic, a taller one, female, entered the bar. She looked as though she'd never had a drink a day in her life. The thought made Rathe wonder what else she hadn't done before. A couple of men were at the bar too, but so far, none had approached him.

Rathe flagged down a server, and asked for a bottle of rum and water. The run was for him, the water was to help prevent hangover. It worked, sometimes. Having spent near seven years is prison, Rathe was also certain to enjoy all of the things he called a vice. Before the next morning he'd be drunk, and find a woman to share his bed with for the night. All of that while still acquiring a crew. It was going to be a busy day.

[member="Doctor Azure"] [member="Zandra Tal'verda"] [member="Ydrin"] [member="Raphael d'Assad"] [member="Detorin"] [member="Kath"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Zandra grinned, flicking ash off the end of her shrinking cig. The white, slightly smoking powder landed right on her lap, burning her leather pants. The Echani pretended not to notice. A little burn was the least of her concern now.

"Smart," Zandra commented, "No wonder ya went into medicine."

She flicked the smouldering embers off her trousers as soon as it started to feel just a little too hot with a smile. Nothing was wrong. Everything was fine. She was a one handed freak, but it was all fine.

"So, about when do you think I can hold a blade again? Girls gatta make credits some how, ya know."



[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"That's what I'm trying to say, Zandra. I honestly don't think you should ever trust that hand to be fast enough for a real fight. Look how much trouble you're having with just using a lighter! Would you honestly like to try and use your sword in your current condition."​

​

Lorane thought about how else to explain it, but even just thinking about it made him want to drink himself into oblivion. He'd always made tech that worked just fine for him. And he'd failed, here. The fact that his failure was both literally and metaphorically attached to somebody he'd already felt bad for when he met made it way worse. He felt more miserable than ever.​

​

"I dunno. Maybe you should ask somebody who's not a miserable gunslinging drunk to make you a hand."​

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[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Detorin]

"Well ain't this just tiresome.." The old pirate lord growled to himself, downing the last of his drink. If no one else was going to this man, then he'd bloody well do it. Pushing himself up from his seat, he made his way casually over to [member="Thorn"] with a slight limp in his walk. Whether that limp was from injury or alcohol, one couldn't truly tell. His hand stopped the server who was on his way to fetch the drinks, and with his usual croaky voice he spoke. "Another bottle o' rum on top of whatever he ordered." The server nodded, and was let past by the dropping of Detorin's hand. Turning his head to Thorn, he took a seat by him and resting his metal hand on the table. He leaned in, his hat tilted upwards so that only Thorn could see his face.

"I hear yer be lookin' for a crew?" His left eyebrow rose up in question, bringing most of that side with it, bearing his ugly teeth. The exaggerated pronunciation on the end of his sentences added to the odd character, but he was not around to provide laughs. "I once had a crew, back in my prime. Now look at me, wastin' away here. I'll join yer crew, and I'll help yer find others. On one golden condition," He leaned in slightly more, conviction filling his voice. "I get me own ship someday. Doesn't 'ave to be soon, just 'as to be someday." Detorin then pulled himself back, awaiting the man's reply. He was a straight-to-the-point man, no messing about. Hopefully Thorn would realize this, and give him a straight answer...

[member="Doctor Azure"]
[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]
[member="Thorn"]
[member="Ydrin"]
[member="Raphael d'Assad"]
[member="Kath"]