Atrivis Sector

[Trax]

"Hmph." Trax huffed out.

"There goes that idea." he mumbled before taking a bigger swig at his drink.

"Any chance that despite hostilities there's might be enough respect that if we can convince a few factions to play nice the others might see reason and decide to play nice as well..."  Trax paused.

"Sorry," he began.

"Don't mean to be grilling you on this.  Just tryin' to find an angle, any angle to help bring everyone together.  The Imps may be gone right now, but they are coming back.  And your people's chances of keeping them off long term improve dramatically if we can actually all work together."

[GM Craig]

He shrugs. "Like I said, people are people. Most of the miners aren't part of the militias, and weren't part of the corporate structures that gave rise to them. Miners needed to mine, so they didn't fight. The militias are on top of the structure, and they have the military power, so you're going to have to deal with them if you want to do anything here. I don't think there's a way to get the miners together without going through the militias."

[Nim Naja]

Nim smirked a little at all the celebratory kisses Trax obtained. She knew him well enough to know at least one of them was probably unwanted but grinned even harder at that.

To the banter she sat back quietly, listening intently although appearing to be simply enjoying all of the company… and a lot of the ale.

But eventually all good things come to an end. Slowly the agent rose from the table and tapped her mug with a utensil to get everyone's attention. Trax had played the good guy well enough, now it was her turn to be the bad one. It probably helped that she was in uniform.

She cleared her throat and waited.

[GM Craig]

The crowd gradually grows silent. All eyes are on Nim, but the crowd is restless, anxious to return to their revelry.

[Trax]

Trax looked up at Nim.

I hope you're sure about this.

[Nim Naja]

She threw back a healthy swig and gave Trax a smile and wide-eyed look that clearly said, “Nope!”

Turning back to the crowd Nim held up a hand. She was never one to be outdone, so why stop now? Now she just felt challenged. “Ladies, ladies. And gentlemen. And randy rascals among us,” she waggled a finger at the crowd with an amused smirk. “Watch and learn from a pro. This is how to properly kiss a man.”

Nim leaned down and lifted Trax’s chin with the waggly finger and planted a big, almost drunkenly smooch. She stood back up after sending him a coy wink.

“And this is how to properly kiss a woman.”

She leaned down to her other side and lifted Maris’s chin before planting a long, sultry kiss on the female's dark lips. It seemed to go on forever. It was long enough and distracting enough to spill her mug at the side.

Finally the woman stepped back, albeit a little wobbly, cocked her hip a little before seductively running her free hand through her very short hair and down her neck and side.

“And end it with a little hip action, leaving them wanting more..”

Nim grinned one hell of a devilish grin at her companions. She also remained standing, clearly commanding the room now, with something further to say.

[GM Craig]

The look of horror on Maris' face almost gives you pause, but you were committed by this point and you went ahead with it anyway. It is like kissing a stone statue - she does not react at all.

When you finish kissing Maris, the crowd erupts into cheers again, a little more bawdy this time, and Nim finds herself the focus of a good deal of attention as well. Nothing forced, but certainly her cup is never empty, and many several people ask for lessons or tips on their technique.

For a moment, there is a lull if you wanted to yell at Trax or vice versa, but it does not look like you are getting out of this bar any time soon.

You both also notice that, in the confusion, Maris seems to have gone somewhere, though neither of you actually saw her get up and leave.

[Trax]

Trax couldn't help the big smile on his face when Nim leaned in and kissed him.  This is going to be a fun night, he thought.

And then Nim continued and she moved to kiss Maris.  Seeing the look on the jedi's face, the smile quickly faded from his.

Don't do it...don't... Trax let out a heavy sigh, but his attention was quickly drawn back to Nim and the boisterous patrons that had been drawn to her from her display.  The man chuckled and went to take a sip from his own drink when he noticed Maris was gone.  Turning back to Nim, he saw immediately that she had noticed the jedi was missing as well.

The man knew getting out of the bar was going to be a challenge, but with more attention on Nim right now, it'd likely be easier for him than her.

"Is there a back way out?" he asked the lieutenant, as he stood up taking his drink with him.

I'll go check, he said to Nim before trying to make his way outside.

[OOC: Trax is hoping that by keeping his drink with him it'll look less like he's trying to leave as he tries to make his way out.]

[GM Craig]

Lieutenant Carver raises an eyebrow, as if he wondered why anyone would want to leave. But he nods and points a thumb over his left shoulder.

Trax, however, does not have much luck extracting himself from the situation in the cantina. The moment he gets to his feet, someone grabs him in a hug while someone else slaps him on his back, and numerous others crowd around him. If he's going out, he's going to have to force his way and / or make a scene.

Nim is faced with a similar situation. This crowd is ready to party, and the two of you have made yourselves the focus of that mood. It'll probably be a couple of hours of revelry before the crowd winds down enough for either of you to slip away.

In the meantime, your glasses are kept full, and there is no end of willing partners for dancing, or whatever else you might have in mind.

[PM sent to Nim.]

[Nim Naja]

In a thick haze of alcohol it took Nim a good moment to realize that she had royally karked up with Maris. It was rash, impulsive, potentially stupid - or in this case incredibly stupid - and most of all it was old Nim. Loud, drunk, center of attention. Having a good time… with consequences. Seeing Maris’ empty chair just made the woman profoundly sad. It reminded her of the hole in her heart, the one Maris helped her work through.

Reluctantly she looked to Trax who valiantly tried to escape, but after scanning the crowd Nim had a very bad feeling about leaving the people alone now. She mouthed a curse and shook her head. She turned to the Lieutenant and leaned in close.

“I karked up and need to find my assistant. How do I leave without pissing everyone off? I'm afraid they'll also leave and I'll have ruined the fun."

[Trax]

Trax gave the lieutenant a 'that's why one of us needs to leave' look.  The man looked around and took a big swig from his drink before wrapping each arm around the two nearest locals.

"Okay!" he yelled out as he started to do his best to guide the two a short ways away so that if all eyes were on him, the crowd would be less likely to see Nim slip out the back.

"I think it's time," he continued  loudly as they maneuvered through the crowd.  "That someone teaches me a song!" getting to what he hoped would be a good spot, he let go of the two locals he'd had in tow and climbed up on a chair.

"Someone in here has to have a song they can teach me!" he said, using his mug to point around the crowd.

[GM Craig]

In réponse to Nim's question, Lt. Carver just shrugs with a smile. Then Trax gets to his feet and asks someone to teach him a song. This is greeted with enthusiasm from the crowd, and a heated but good-natured debate starts over which song to start with.

For someone who generally solves problems with stubbornness and blasters, it was pretty subtle of Trax.

There's still some risk, but the crowd does seem mostly distracted. If Nim wanted to slip away, this is probably the best time.

Noting the door the Lieutenant had indicated earlier, Nim notes it is next to the 'fresher. Smiling good-naturedly to the obviously (to Nim) interested patrons that are paying attention to the Llordian, Nim heads for the fresher, but ducks through the door at the last moment.

As she heads down the short corridor, several new patrols enter, speaking excitedly about the Rebels in the bar. They ignore Nim and enter. The way is clear.

Outside, the frozen wind hits Nim like a slap, but it is also refreshing.

[Actions?]

[Trax]

OOC: I guess Trax will do what he can to keep the crowd happy and inside the bar.  Any questions regarding Nim's location will likely get a response along the lines of 'If she's not here then she's missing the fun.' and then he'll direct the discussion to how to move between territories while bypassing militias.  If anyone asks why, he'll jokingly say he wants to see if the miners there are as fun to drink with as the current crowd.

He will continue to talk up their accomplishment of beating the Imperials, but add that they have intel that they are on their way back and the Alliance could use their help to convince the faction leaders to work together.  He'll also ask around to find out if anyone knows the one persecutor that Maris said was selling black market goods to the Empire.

If necessary, he'll continue to buy rounds, he's got about 1600 credits on the one cred stick.

[Nim Naja]

Oh my nips it's cold she thought. Nim didn't like it, but wondered whether it was colder on this rock than it was on that deadly mountaintop of death where she had nothing to wear but cutesy fashion items while being chased by stormies. Ugh let's not think about that place. Like, ever.

She looked around, stumbling a little in the snow. Definitely would have been better for Trax to find Maris. Cuz of my stupidity and how the frak am I going to find her without screaming across the planet... Okay. Deep breath. What would Trax do?

Then she shivered.. not entirely sure if it was the thought or the cold...

Ohh Trax. Er.. wait. Tracks.. haha.. she'd have left those, right? And nobody else left this party.

And so she looked for tracks that relatively matched Maris' size and were clearly going away from the building.

[GM Craig]

Nim does find tracks in the snow. It seems the Force invisibility only goes so far. Nim starts to follow the tracks, but quickly finds herself thwarted. The tracks in the snow lead to a busy thoroughfare, and all trace of her elusive quarry vanishes in the press of people.

On an intuition, Nim decides to head for the ship. Maris has to return there at some point, right? Replaying the events in the makeshift cantina, she's not sure exactly what was going on. Maris is a messed up bundle of issues, so it's hard to know what exactly triggered her. As Nim's mind rolls over those events, as has become her habit since the new hardware was installed, she idly browses the local newsnet looking for patterns. It is usually a dead end, but by the time Nim has reached the ship, pattern recognition software in her encryption suite is triggering. Several incidents of public net traffic seems to have something else embedded. Intrigued, she does a little digging. The source of the signal is a subtle noise on typical Imperial signals, but this is not normal. Digging further, she manages to decrypt a small plaintext message. It looks like a comlink code and encryption key.

Curious, she punches in the settings and makes the call.

"Hello?" a tentative.voice answers. "Who is this, and where are you?"