Noventa - A Star Wars Story

Banks Lason walked down the stairs from the second floor with a bag over his shoulder. He had come to collect the rest of his things which he kept here for emergencies before setting off into the bush.

His footsteps made a methodical thump down each step he traversed. Reaching the bottom step, he looked around the room for a moment seeing the group of Cal's associates spread out across the room.

Quinn was there, bright and early... well, as early and bright as circumstances allowed. Truth was, she was feeling antsy for a whole bunch of reasons. But that seemed to be going around, what with a star destroyer hanging over their heads. She looked up from a bland breakfast to see 'Banks' come down from the second floor...

...it was still odd to her. And she had kind of wanted to ask a lot of questions about it, but not only might that seem rude, time and circumstances had been against such things.

"Uh, morning," she said, looking at the bag over his shoulder. "You leavin'?"

Banks nodded, "Probably seems like the best idea for the time being."

"Sure," she said, "seems smart."

She took a gulp from her blue milk.

"Or not. People are stronger together, not separated. I know, it sounds like a stupid cliche."

A young man entered the Twelve Parsecs establishment. Dressed in spartan attire, hair cut short, the young man held himself with a predatory aura, one that exhumed confidence. Stepping into the establishment he looked around then settled his gaze in on the two speaking, "This place open?" he asked, a strong and thick accent.

She looked up at the man with a raised brow.

"I guess?"

Then looked toward the bar, to see if the usual bartender was working.

Banks looked skeptically at the newcomer. It couldn't mean anything good, whoever this was...

Cal came down, rubbing his face with one hand. Despite giving the impression of having just woken up, he was fully and neatly dressed, neckcloth, gunbelt, and everything.

His gaze swept the room, taking in the scene, narrowing once they spotted the young man. "Sorry, son. We're not open. If I can get you somethin' fast, that'll be fine, but otherwise I'll have to ask you to come back in a few hours."

The man looked between those there, Quinn, Banks, Cal, and then Quinn once more. "Alright," he said to Cal, turning toward the door as he did.

"I'll be sure to come back later then," the man said, as he exited without another word.

With that done, Cal moved to the door, shutting it, and flipping the sign. "Well, that's that."

He turned back to the others, smiling wryly. "Suppose we've got a fair bit to talk about. Did the two of you get started on that when I was in the refresher? I miss anything?"

"Not much..." Soren replied with a shrug. "I'm just on my way out."

"And I was just saying we need to stick together now more than ever."

Soren tilted his head, "I mean... I get the concept, but I think the conditions surrounding this particular set-up... would compel me to leave."

Cal looked at Soren a long moment, and nodded. "I see. I understand."

After a moment, he smiled. "Don't suppose I can change your mind? A lot of people could use your help right now. Not just us." He chuckled. "Although definitely us, too."

"I bring more complications than help now Cal. There'll always be someone who wants to use my abilities... sometimes those folks are nice... and sometimes they aren't. Having my skills out there for gangsters like Ribmat to see... or worse the Imperials.... only draws the type of attention that none of us want."

Runi arrived late to the meeting, but she did show up, at least. She entered from the outside, flopping down into one of the chairs. "Wait, you're going? That sucks. I like you."

Cal grimaced. "I wish to hell things had gone differently with Ribmatt."

He shook his head. "But against the Imperials... Soren, you've seen this before, same as I have. They may be down to a fraction of their former power, but we know how they are. No one on this planet is safe until they're gone." He sighed. "I feel everyone has to choose their own path, but I plan to be askin' everyone I think can help. And you can help a lot."

He flashed Runi a quick smile as she appeared.

He nodded, "I don't dislike any of you. Some I know better than others... even like you as much as someone like me can. But... truly what is it that you all know about me? I observe you all... but you all have no reference to anything that would make you want to trust me."

He looked at Cal, "And yeah... I do know the imperials. I know what they did to my homeworld... what they did to me. And I know the only way I survived with any level of freedom is because I kept my head down and out of sight when they were around."

He shook his head, "I didn't once.... I got discovered once a long time ago. And the only person who ever looked out for me ended up paying for it. There's no way I want that to happen again."

"We don't with most people," she pointed out. "Ultimately, you can't really trust anyone. You aren't any less trustworthy than most people. Any trust is ultimately about taking a leap of faith and hoping you don't end up on the ground in a heap of broken bones."

"Being friends is accepting what the consequences might be for being around someone." She sighed. "There's plenty of risk for those who are attached to me it turns out. People will make their own decisions about that. If they think you're worth the risk... That part's their decision."

"But whether you're willing to take that risk, of something happening to them is your decision, too. So... However you feel you need to do. It must be lonely, though."

"I'm a Jedi!" Quinn shouted as she stood up suddenly, likely surprising and stunning people into a moment of confused silence.

"I mean..." She looked around, realizing that blurting such things out suddenly wasn't really the best way of joining the conversation. "...I mean, in training. Kind of. Look, what I'm saying is we *can* trust each other. We *should* trust each other. And I haven't been doing that with some of you. And then you guys don't trust me, and then people want to leave because it's safer that way. And then the bad guys win because good guys aren't teaming up to stop them and stuff!"

She paused for a moment, hoping people weren't about to burst out laughing.

"So, I'm a Jedi. And uh, a mobster's daughter. And I cheated like 2000 credits off of Ribmat when playing Sabaac."