Noventa - A Star Wars Story

There are signs of last night's jizz party all over the floor when Kaneesa makes his way up, to some dismay. He hadn't been watching too carefully after inviting all of the others down to plan, so he hadn't paid too close attention to how the night staff cleaned up. "I'mma have to have words with them." Kaneesa mutters to himself as he swings open the bar door and grabs a broom, starting to sweep up. Typically, this was a quiet part of the morning, and that suited him just fine. Cleanup needed to happen, a rough inventory would have to be taken, but while the bar was in operation he might as well make it open to any early alcoholics in order to make a bit extra coin.

When the doors opened it was not long before a patron entered inside. This was one patron that Kaneesa would not remember specifically, but would still bring him back to days long since past. Moving with determined steps he found a seat in the corner of the bar. Facing himself inward over the establishment as he sat. There he remained in silence.

Kaneesa is surprised to see another Gungan out here, and the reasons for seeing another one do not give him happy thoughts. When the Gungan seats himself, Kaneesa leans his broom against the bar counter and reaches under it with a practiced hand, pulling out a heavy looking bottle and a pair of glasses. He sways over to the corner, putting down the glasses and giving a long pour into each of them.

"I don' see a lotta Gunga out this way. What brings you to my bar brudda?" Kaneesa does his best to seem, nonchalant, attempting to get a read on the newcomer.

The other Gungan takes the glass offered him, holds it high in his hand and looks across the table to Kaneesa. Silent, watching, appraising. Flicking his eyes away he takes a long, drawn out, swig.

Oh, so he's a tough nut to crack. Kaneesa quiets his mind for a moment, trying to tap into a...feeling, he gets when he talks to people, getting a read on them. Now, he's turning it on the newcomer.

"I've drank far and wide, and I think that's the one which reminds me the most of home." Kaneesa drains his and pours himself another. "At least the good times. Plenty a' bad ones to go with 'em. Wotcher name friend?" Kaneesa reaches the bottle over, as if to tip in for a top off, but waits on the answer.

Charm check-Average Difficulty with Challenge upgrade-Sense Emotions Boost-Influence power: 3eA+1eP+1eB+1eF+1eD+1eC 3 successes, 2 advantage, 1 Light Side

(Flipping light side to Advantage, will try to make the Gungan trust Kaneesa with Advantage)

"Soss," he replied gruffly, shifting his position before downing the drink that he had to the bottom of the glass. Looking directly at Kaneesa with an intensity with his good eye the Gungan sized him up. Putting his drink down on the table, more than close enough that Kaneesa might top it off. "That is where you find home then? A bottom of a glass? Kaneesa you have fallen farther than I thought was possible."

The name didn't ring a bell, but it clearly seemed that Soss knew exactly who Kaneesa was. Maybe it wasn't too surprising: the details about how Kaneesa left had placed him with a somewhat dubious honor. If the Gungan had come right as Kaneesa had been opening up, that almost clinched it was of a certain type of Gungan

"Can't you tell?" Kaneesa gestures to the bar around him. "This is my home now. I know it is a bit of a step down, but it's mine." Kaneesa put the bottle back down and sips his own drink, with a lot more care than before.

"If you wanna talk about fallin' low, how is Otoh Gunga a doin'? Have they arisen up in arms, demanded a seat at the table of this New Republic? Last I heard, they were content to be the slaves of their colonialist oppressas. To be ohhhh sa' happy that their human leader that stole their home is finally dead that they refuse to take their due? I consida' that a deeper dive brudda."

"I see already you've not changed your ways, your tune," he shook his head in disapproval. "If only you cared more about your home, your people, your family, than you did your righteous stand in the mud. Maybe den you'd see how you might actually change something. Instead of wasting away out here, with your.. morals," he shuddered.

"Tradin' one set of opressa for another, not doin' you'sa any good," he shook his head once more, "and no one else any either."

Kaneesa looks over the Gungan, a little dumbstruck for a moment. Then, Kaneesa tilts his head back and lets out a braying laugh.

"Yous thinks that I ain't there because of my morals? That I'm not there, trying to save our people because I'mma too morally inclined?"

Kaneesa's face snaps back. For a moment, the friendly bartender demeanor is gone, replaced by a quiet, burning intensity. "You wanna know what exile taught me brudda? It was that pretty words mean nuffin' till you can put it into action. I trekked all over the 'verse, and I saw the way the huuu-man let's the Xeno take power." Kaneesa clenches a fist. "They take it. And they don' let go."

Kaneesa lets out a deep breath. " If we gonna trade on opressa for another, we become da opressa. Others have done it here, in this town. When I know how to do what they did, when I can do it myself...that's when I can come home."

"

"Yousa think yousa gonna learn how to lead Gungan from these people, the scum that live in this city. Den you gonna come back as some hero, lead Gungan against all others. Yousa have a lot more to learn, and wesa not gonna be lettin' you come back so easily. Yousa have to learn what it is yousa are even doing!" he said, excitedly as he raised his voice. Speaking with a condescending like he was speaking with an unruly child.

Kaneesa lets out a laugh and then gives a rueful, yet somehow amused sigh. "And why should I care what ya' think? I have me path, and I'm a goin' to walk it slow and steady. What does it matter what an ol' exile is doing way out in the Rim? If you won't have me, then why are ye botherin' to darken my doorstep?"

"I thought you might not be so lost," he said woefully. "That mesa might be able to push you back onto a good path, but no. Yousa only want to have the Gungan that yousa think should be, not the Gungan that is. Yousa only ready to fight with your heart where yousa brain is needed. Mesa hopin' mesa could steer you back before it was too late."

Kaneesa gives the Gungan a bewildered expression.

"But...I told ya' how I'm working with my brain." Kaneesa starts to count off on his fingers. "Get da' credits and the connections to move an operation to the human part of Naboo. Take control a 'nough a da plasma that we got invaded for, pushing until we control enough. With that, we control the market from the harvesting we can do for our craft, and their refining it on the surface. We cut off enough to bring dem greedy bastards in the Republic to the table. Money talks to 'em, in a way that common decency don't."

Kaneesa shakes his head. "All yous talked to be is 'bout how I ain't doing it your way...which I don' know what it is by the by. You haven't been offrin an option of what ya think I should do, just a shootin' down every bright idea I come up with. So...come on then." Kaneesa gestures to the older Gungan. "What's the grand masta plan? What "puts me back onto the good path"?" Kaneesa offers a set of air quotes. "Because all I see if to keep doing the same things that have kept us oppressed for century after century."

"Yousa are young, yousa are brash," he said, bolstering up his confidence. Shoring up his defenses. "Yousa were exiled for a reason, and you haven't thought on that at all. Haven't thought about what you mighta changed to make this better. No, yousa only fell to furthering your own argument another way cause yousa can only see how your plan will work and not how it might fail. Mesa leave the plannin' to the ones with the plans, but mesa see when a youngster is too bold too fast. Yousa don't have the respect for any of the others who might see things differently, who might find the flaws in your plan. Yousa are not ready to learn from others and that means yousa are not ready to lead."

"Yousa dangerous Kaneesa, that is why when mesa return, for your own good, mesa gonna suggest you remain in exile. Yousa need more time to understand yousa own failings."

Kaneesa pauses, and then shakes his head and gives a soft laugh. "Why didn' cha lead with that? Of course I'm not ready to come back. I'm not ready to lead. What do you think I'm doin' here?"

Kaneesa clears his throat. "Noventa. Outer Rim Planet. With the fall of the Empire, planetary authority is gone, an the Republic hasn't picked her up yet. Formerly marshalled by Imp SEO, the old Rangers are back. Either the Republic comes 'round soon to annex her, or the Empire comes back to take control. In the meanwhile, supply lines have to come up to keep alsa people fed and content." Kaneesa pats his table. "What I'mma doin' is what the Republic called "barstool politics". I figure out who needs something, what they need and where it's comin' from." Kaneesa shrugs. "It's not much, but I figure that if I can actually figure out how ta' run the basics, maybe I'll have learned something. But I ain't ready yet."

Kaneesa keeps a level look at the newcomer. "I stan' by what I said: one day, we gonna have to stand on our own. I've seen how the Republic treated those who they don't think can "be trusted to look after themselves". But if I'm ever coming back, it's with a way to help us prepare for da future...and I don' have that lined up yet."

"Wesa will see Kaneesa, mesa only hope that you also learn to temper the spirits that got you pushed out from our home in the first place," he said, shifting back into his seat.

"We'll see...but I have plenty to keep me busy in the meanwhile." Kaneesa pushes the bottle over. "If you want to see something, stay for jizz tonight. Let me tell you, that music was worth seein' the galaxy for."

Kaneesa gets up to continue cleaning and preparing, a little perturbed by this turn of events.

Soss takes the bottle, nods his appreciation to Kaneesa and then pours one out for a memory. Toasting to this memory he was content to be forgotten in his corner for a while. Certain, as he was, to make this a haunt for the remainder of his stay.

[Soss will return to the bar, right in this seat, every day for the next three days [Day 1-3] until he returns home on the third day.]