Nar Shaddaa

Leaving the Red Light District, Cole had thanked and dismissed Private Yongo. When the spirit of the law didn’t work in your favour, sometimes the letter of it did, and Captain Organa had said that he had to take a bodyguard into the Red Light District. He hadn’t said anything about Shadow Town. Besides, what’s the worst they could do to him now? Accept his resignation?

He ripped one of the Lost Cat posters down from a nearby wall and started into the squalor that passed for lower-than-slums on Nar Shaddaa.

Shaisha passed through Shadow Town with the practiced ease of avoiding observation, wearing a concealing robe over her usual getup and the cowl of the cloak underneath raised enough to obscure some of her features.

She paused as she saw something catch her eye. Someone had... actually placed a bounty on a missing cat. Or rather, offered a finder's reward for locating a missing cat. The female Sith stopped to look at the notice for a long time, noting the details.

I just don't have the heart...

Tearing down one of the paper notices, she hurriedly turned around to go look, and nearly bumped into the Petty Officer. "Oh...! Oh, it's you, angel-hair."

Smiling, Cole ran a hand through his hair, "well, aren't you a tall drink of water at second sunrise, deviless?"

Her chuckle was a pleasant tune. "Shadow Town is a small place if I'm bumping into you here. What brings you do the shady part of Nar Shaddaa?... I mean, shadier."

She had forgotten that she was holding that Missing Cat-poster in her hands still. Sleep-deprivation did weird things like that.

He displayed the hand-drawn poster he was holding in one hand, "there's something so... normal about a kid looking for their lost cat. I don't think I actually believe it." He half-shrugs, "but with all the important types planetside for the wedding, I have time. Thought I'd ask about and see if the cat is real."

"Hm, seems like we are of similar mind then," she realised she was holding a similar poster and held it up too. "Weddings aren't my kind of thing, to be honest..."

"... And I figured I could use a break from my diabolical schemes to find a lost kitty. Just hope it's not actually a nexu or something." Shaisha laughed a little. "How'bout we team up and make someone's day a bit brigher on this shitty moon, eh?"

Cole chuckles, "sounds like a plan."

He takes his cues from the pureblood, but it's mostly easier for the one attracting attention in Republic colours to ask the questions, since people are already looking his way. To his surprise, they're mostly forthcoming. That might have something to do with the cloaked Sith playing the part of the hidden dagger.

After an injury like his, it was crucial to be walking as soon as possible. That didn't mean it wouldn't hurt like hell, though.


---
[D6 MA] Missing: Cat (Know: Underworld): 1eP+3eA+1eB+2eD 3 successes, 1 threat


Cole takes +1 strain

"Still hurting?" she comment as they walked away from another helpful group.

Cole grunts, "yeah. The femoral bone is tough, it takes a lot to crack the damn thing. If it weren't for Ashla's new-found skills, I'd have a pin and a pair of screws holding my leg together."

"Ah... she's been learning to use the Force to heal now? Recall she said on the first day here she hadn't done that yet," she nodded slightly. "It's been only a few times I've been healed in such a manner and... well, it was not a pleasant experience. Made me want to opt for the bed-rest instead in hindsight."

"Huh," he grunts thoughtfully, but matters of the Force were decidedly above his pay grade, "she'll put me out of business, if she hasn't yet. Why visit a surgeon when you can have a surgeon and Jedi rolled into one?" Cole sounds almost proud of the young woman, though he hardly knows her.

"And here I thought you were doing this to help people, not for the business," she shoots him a teasing smile. "Or have this moon corrupted you as well?"

"There comes a point when you can't even give it away," he replies, but there's a hint of seriousness about his tone.

She looked at him with a perked eyebrow, silently seeming to consider something.

"You're not going to stop doing what you think is right. Doesn't seem to be your style. We can't change the entire galaxy with our actions, Cole, but we can change a day or a life."

Running a hand through his hair, "lucky thing I was never any good at taking advice. Just yesterday a Sith was telling me that my efforts were as useful as pissing in the ocean." He pauses, and peers at the woman for a moment, before exhaling sharply and continuing on.

"Oh? And here I thought I was the only Sith you talked to... though I doubt it was Jo'ren giving that advice, seeing as you already know him," she smirks. "Some of our peers are just sticks-in-the-mud sadly."

"Follow your passion and do what you want to do."

Cole waves a hand dismissively, "if I thought a little more of myself, I'd say she was recruiting. What can I say? Five days on Nar Shaddaa and everyone from the Hutts to the Sith are talking about me. I make waves."

"It must be the hair," she retorts with a chuckle.

"A skilled medic makes a valuable asset to any team. So I can't say I fault this Sith for trying to recruit you. Did she give you a name?"

Cole runs a hand through his hair, self-consciously, making waves in all the wrong ways, the Group Commander would be so... unsurprised. "A Lord Haydriss, I think she said. She was amenable to my skills, but didn't like the idea of letting a member of the Republic peek into her secrets."

"Ah, I am familiar with her," she nods. "She does a lot of... research, so I understand her hesitation. We're a notoriously paranoid lot."

Shaisha seemed rather amused by that fact.

Shrugging, "even if she was interested in luring me away, if I cut ties with the Republic, I won't be in any hurry to sign myself up to a whole new master."

"There are many other options than serving a Dark Lord, of course," she smiles pleasantly. "And if you were to cut ties with the Republic, what would you want to achieve with that newfound freedom?"

"I'm thinking of heading to the Outer Rim once the talks here are done. I can trade doctoring for passage, so long as my supplies hold out."

"So you want to become a travelling medicine man in the Outer Rim?" she looked somewhat surprised.

He half-shrugged, "something like that."