Jihon Mogg smiles, as best as his species does. The effect is more noticeably by their own kind than aliens. He nods his appreciation of the other's subtle hint while pondering the bottom of his glass. Barely enough greenish liquid barely skims the bottom that he knows he'll have to order a new one soon enough, a reminder of how scant his credits are.

He leans conspiratoriously close to the other again and speaks, making a small gesture in the alien's general direction during the speech.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:21, Thu 29 July 2010.

From her place near the door, Shard tips her glass toward their captain when he looks to her and her reptilian companion.  A good sort, that one.  Does she owe him a drink?  In exchange for his story, right.  Better remember that.

It's good to know the people with whom one works.

It seems like everyone is doing quite well garnering information except her and Shisskurr, the two of them concentrating on holding up the wall.  Taking another mouthful of the ale, Shard squints around the room for a moment.  "We're lookout," she mumurs.  "Keep your eyes peeled for someone moving in our ours - either for listening, or trouble."  Taking her own advice, she breathes out a long, slightly ale-scented sigh, and relaxes, struggling to find a harmonic flow between tension and peace.

Middle ground - something she has been forgetting of late.

Shiss merely hiss-growled an acknowlegement to Shard, his ochre eyes scanning the cantina for any sort of threat.

Despite the position of his current partner, Shiss himself believed that an image was just as powerful as an act in certain situations. Those who had been paying attention when his group walked in would have certainly noted himself and Shard setting themselves apart from the group. That simple fact would cause a twofold reaction if anything untoward happened to their companions.

First, he and Shard might become primary targets. In Shiss' experience, that wasn't necessarilly a bad thing. A bodyguard is called such for a reason. He had learned to identify priority targets more by who wasn't shooting at him than who was.

Secondly, the two of them might actually be postponing something from happening simply by acting aloof. He and Shard were an unknown quantity in the problem of a potential conflict. Shiss enjoyed having an advantage, even if it was simply a psychological one. He hoped that Shard would be reinforced by it, even if she wasn't necessarilly paying attention to that as a factor.

He would define himself as a bedrock of control and calm, in the waiting thrumm of potential conflict.

When things go to pieces in this place, it seems to happen fast...

The wookiee gives an enraged howl, and points directly at Shisskurr, then starts towards him, shoving people out of the way.  The man that Neary is talking to, and his leering companion, are among the first to be pushed aside.

Mark Jacobs darts forward to intercept the wookiee...

The bartender screams, and ducks out of sight again.  From the other side of the counter, Jihon can clearly hear him promising not to allow wookiees in the place again.

Reldan has the drinks, and is turning back towards Shard and Shis when the wookiee explodes and goes on a rampage.  Correction, judging by the comments of some of the other patrons in the cantina, that should be another rampage.

"Oh, Sith spit!"

He places the drinks carefully on the bar, and loosens his blaster in its holster.  Not to shoot the wookiee, but just in case he needs to use it to encourage the wookiee's friends to consider their plan of action carefully.

There are many options, but one question needs to be answered immediately.  Outside, or in?  Neither seems particularly paletable to Shard; inside, it could erupt into a full-out war, outside would bring the attention of Imperials.  Crunch time - her mind works furiously, despite the haze of alcohol, calculating the percentages of each.

In the end, there's no contest.  Stick to the mission.  Don't get the Impies looking our way.

They have seconds, no more.  Her eyes snap open, only just having closed, and she glances at her tall, powerfully built companion.  "Can you take him?" Shard hisses.  "Without blades or blasters?"  He might be capable at that, and there's nothing wrong with hitting a walking, furry wall with a table.  It might establish Shisskurr as a presence to reckon with in the doing.  If he can't...well, then it's on to option B.  Whatever that is, she grimly considers.

That headache is coming back already.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Thu 29 July 2010.

Rhijans huddled closer to the table, trying to avoid becoming collateral damage in the Wookiee rampage.  He'd been about to look around to see what had set the creature off when the alien commented on the regularity of these outbursts...since it was a regular occurrence, the bounty hunter didn't bother with checking on the target.  Someone else's problem, and he was getting some helpful information right now.

Using the chaos as an excuse, he slid around the table, closer to the alien (figuring this would allow him to keep the quiet exchange going, without looking suspicious or upsetting the woman who was muttering what was either a shopping list of repair parts or a considerable stream of invective--Rhijans couldn't tell which, for sure.)

Ducking back when the slightly annoyed Wookie blazes a trail through the cantina Neary can not help but pity whoever is the target of its wrath.

She focuses on helping her tablemates back on their feet or at least back on the behinds.

"You okay fellows?"

Not that she really cares about them but she has no wish to see them hurt either. She throws a glance after the Wookie to see if she can discern its target or whatever upset it this time around.

Taking in the entirety of the situation in an instant, Shiss blinked once at Shard's question, then did the one thing he felt was the best idea, to limit the threat posed to his comrades.

He left.

He'd had a feeling that Wookie was going to be trouble. Hopefully, he would not only defuse the situation in the cantina, but maybe even get rid of the Wookie problem as a whole. He slid out of the doorway, his eyes on the Wookie the entire time.

Shiss personally had nothing against Wookies, and he didn't put a whole lot of stock in his race's infinite hatred for them, but he'd had to deal with the consequences of it numerous times. You couldn't help how you were born.

He slid into the alley by the cantina, crouched there in the shadows, and waited to see what the results would be. He felt the comforting weight of his vibroaxe sitting behind him, and wondered what it would be like to have a knock-down drag-out fight with that Wookie. It had been a long time since his last one.

Jihon does his best to mask his irritation at the Wookie. He plants a pleasant smile on his face and half-turns to watch the spectacle along with the alien near him. He doesn't want to push the issue and make the alien irritable and less willing to negotiate.

Mark had moved the moment he saw the wookiee head towards Neary. However, the wookiee passed by the table and continued towards... Shisskurr, who had ducked out the cantina.

He found himself dangerously close to a wookiee that may have been gearing for a fight.

One eyebrow shoots up as Shisskurr bolts out the door.  "Not exactly the answer I expected," Shard mutters.  Nor the one for which she hoped.  The thin, aging woman turned back to face the onrushing Wookie, not moving from her place on the floor.  One hand reaches inside her cloak, fingers closing over a very familiar piece of metal, thumb finding the button as she relaxes.

If he chooses to run past her, well and good.  If not, she can't show weakness, even in the face of such a mighty beast.  Might as well put up a neon sign in this sort of place, one stating 'Pick On Me and My Friends'.

Releasing a breath, she struggles to relax; not an easy thing with a giant, fanged, furry wall barrelling down on her.

Everybody moves to get away from the wookiee, except Mark Jacobs.  He moves closer, and speaks to it, though his voice doesn't carry far over the noise.  Shard readies herself for action as the large, furry alien pauses and glances at Mark, and leans forward to howl straight in his face.  Then it straightens up and turns towards its target again, only to find that the trandoshan object of its rage has disappeared.  The wookiee looks about, puzzled for a moment.

The bellow which follows sounds less angry, and fades away into a definite snicker, as the wookiee's companion's cheer.  Then the wookiee slaps Mark on the back, almost knocking him over, and smiles at him.  "Woooaaargh raarrrrr huurrff rhuuur." 

As things quieten down a little, Neary helps her two new acquaintances up, and Mr. Leery takes the opportunity to get a little too familiar, and put his hand somewhere he really shouldn't.

Rhijans shifts around the table slightly and focuses his attention on the alien, not the human woman. 

Sitting next to Jihon Mogg, the alien he is talking to seems momentarily disappointed as the wookiee calms down.  Then it cheers up again, "Will not be long before the wookiee will start again.  No no."

Rhijans gave a tight, thin-lipped grin at the alien's response, and nodded.  The background noise of the angry Wookiee faded, and he shot a glance over his shoulder to see it walking back to its friends...and Mark Jacobs standing in its wake.  He quirked an eyebrow at that, but filed it away for future reference.  He turned back to his table-mates.

Mark Jacobs tried to not wince too hard as the wookiee slapped his back. He got the bartender's attention and pointed to the table. Mark held up a few fingers counting all those seated at the table and ordered a round of drinks.

He walked to the table where the wookiee's sat. "Why don't I buy us all a round of drinks as well."

"Guess our wookiee friend here can even scare off folks without the use of fists." Mark said as he pointed toward the exit.

Behind him was a roar, and then another, softer this time. Shisskurr narrowed his eyes in thought, but felt better for having left the Cantina. Sometimes, when you had to accomplish a particular goal, removing obstacles was the best thing to do - even if the obstacle was yourself.

So he remained quiescent in the dark outside the Cantina, leaning against a wall shadowed by the bar's overhanging roof lining. He would not enter the Cantina again unless the Wookie left first. It wasn't the first time he'd had to leave a party unannounced.

Shisskurr had to remind himself that, for the duration of this particular job, he wasn't a bodyguard. The group he'd been assigned to could certainly take care of themselves. So he waited, once more keeping an eye out for anything interesting.

Well.  That worked out better than she expected.  Almost, she had jumped in when Jacobs made his brave - foolhardy? - attempt at an interception, figuring she would have to pick him up off the floor.  In several bags.  And with a mop.  But the man had carried it off with aplomb, suffering only a minor bruising from a friendly wookie-pat.  Breathing out a sigh of relief, Shard pulls out the metal object and pressed the catch.  The flask pops open and she took a long pull of the foul drink.

It would have been wasted anyway, thrown into the Wookie's sensitive eyes and nose.

A pity about Shisskurr, though.  Even so, her companions have certainly made the point of their capacity to take care of themselves, and likely it is better to have a lookout on the outside as well as the inside.  So she raises the flask to Jacobs in salute, taking another drink before capping it and replacing it in her cloak.

"Okay, now I'm really curious," she mutters to herself.  "Enough to pay for his damn drinks."

Jihon nods, his eyes darting at the Wookie. He wished the alien would calm down and stop distracting his 'friend.' He leans in again and says, "Perhaps, yes. We shall see. Now, we were talking about Ker Aldas...."

Sensing she has outstayed her welcome with roughly half of her tablemates she headbutts the owner of the errant hand square on the nose and strokes back her hair with one hand as she looks at the other fellow.

"It was a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for the information."

Then she turns to walk over to the bar and looks up at the wookie. Leaning in she whispers something and points to the man with the now slightly less protruding nose.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:21, Thu 05 Aug 2010.

Things seem to be settling down again, apart from a brief scuffle which sees one of Neary's tablemates sitting on the floor again, as Neary herself makes her way over to the wookiee.  The other man helps his fallen companion up again, and this time he makes it back to his chair without incident.

Around them, other patrons in the crowded cantina point and smile, or even laugh out loud.

Mark's decision to buy drinks for the wookiee's companions too, as well as his joke at the expense of the vanished trandoshan makes him very popular with his new friends.  All are happy to accept another drink, even though most of them appear to have had quite enough already.

Then Neary joins them, and says something to the wookiee.

The wookie howls, and its companions cheer and finish their drinks in record time, starting immediately on the ones mark just bought them.

Still at the bar, Jihon Mogg and his companion return to their conversation...

Rhijans Thanus is still talking to the alien, while the woman appears to have dozed off.  At least Rhijans hopes that the odd sounds coming from her general vicinity are snores...   

Reldan Jalt picks up the drinks again and makes his way over where Shard waits.  He hands her her cosen beverage.

After a brief lull in the excitement in the room, an argument flares up between two of the more human-looking patrons at the bar, but quickly quietens down as their companions intervene.  There certainly does seem to be a lot of tension in the air.

Rhijans glanced over at the hopefully-snoring woman, finally free of the need to seem to include her in the conversation to prevent an angry outburst.  He nodded at something the alien said to him, and muttered a brief comment to the alien.


He nodded briefly to the dozing woman, and looked back at the alien, expectantly.

Mark cheers along with the others at the table. He sips his drink. The human intended to nurse his drink as long as possible.

After the Wookiee left the table for the promised drink, Mark turned to the others at the table. "You guys seem to be celebrating. I can use some of that."

"The Imperials always seems to find a way to make things difficult these days. Don't you think?"

The older woman accepts the drink - fermented and distilled cactus juice - and takes a sip, wincing slightly at the taste.  It certainly hadn't been aged any more than necessary, carrying both bite and oily slickness, but then...one doesn't expect any better in a place like this.  And I'm not exactly drinking for the flavour.

"Thanks." She tips the glass toward Jalt, then takes another sip.  "What d'you make of that little dustup?"  It would be interesting to get a second opinion.  She does keep an eye on Jacobs, though - he's done a wonderful job calming the problem down, but now he's skating on thin ice.  The wookie and his buddies are a bellicose lot, and they've had more than enough juice to turn on a friendly stranger if he says the wrong thing.

Thing is, she doesn't figure Jacobs will.

At the bar, Jihon Mogg seems to be deep in discussion with his new alien friend...

Rhijans continues his own conversation with the other alien, while the human woman suddenly tilts forward and hits the table with her face.  She doesn't wake up any more than it takes her to get a little more comfortable. 

The wookiee's companions are nearly as loud as he is.  "Oh, yeah, they mess everythin' up for us, all the time.  But there's no point mopin' 'bout it, though."

"Nah, mopin' don't make time go no faster."

"We ain't celebratin', exac'ly.  We came in 'ere to try an' forget our troubles.  So we drink until we forget."

"Then we drink some more, just in case we might try to remember again!"  The laughter which follows is probably the loudest since the Rebel group entered the cantina.  Neary joins in, laughing as loud as anybody.

And near the door, Shard and Reldan Jalt observe, in case of trouble.

Rhijans gave a knowing nod to some comment that the alien made, and muttered a response.


He got up, walked to the bar, exchanged a few words and credits with the bartender, and then turned to exit the bar.  As he passed Shard, he gave a barely noticeable nod and just a hint of a smile, trying to convey having good news but not wanting to give away her status in case anyone moved to follow him.  Having an unsuspected pair of eyes watching his back could prove very helpful.