Calm Before The 'Storm'?

[Teru Air]

How long can a man spend on Drifter's Paradise before it is considered too long? To say that Teru felt as though he had wasted enough time on the station, he was growing a little impatient that he had to stay a little longer. He just wanted to receive clearance on this bounty so he could set off and find the poor scoundrel. He wasn't even a particularly impressive hit, just a small fry in comparison to what he would rake in with Black Sun, but it seemed he was charged with lesser jobs until he had earned the trust of the Hutt.

So he waited, gulping from a glass of whisky and ice and puffing on another cigarette as he sat in silence at the bar of Aya's Cantina, the venue's loudspeakers playing back yerk classics from the last decade. He would rather be out in the cold of space than here; at least there he was on the way to making money. Having said that, he couldn't complain about his current circumstance too greatly. The menkooro was a fine enough malt, he had access to enough cigarettes to last him plenty, and nobody seemed to favour the idea of talking to him.

[Lily Darksun]

They were supposed to meet, but it seemed Aliya was running late. Lily pursed her lips as she scanned the room. The young adult red-head noted "the lone gunman" dude as she decided to mentally label him drinking and puffing up a haze. Wrinkling his nose only because he exuded more cool than she knew how to, Lily sat at the other end of the bar to wait for her friend.

She checked her silenced comlink and saw another volley of friendly-if-concerned messages from her family. Lily sighed and replied to mother, father, and brother with the same swift, one-or-two word answers about how "great" her Jedi training was going. Rolling her eyes, she pocketed the device again, and set to drumming her fingers on the bar top while she waited...

[Teru Air]

"You know, you probably shouldn't be flashing a gadget like that around in a place like the Drifter's Paradise cantina," remarked Teru, his gaze not raising from the neutral hanging it had adopted towards the drinks fridge opposite his seat. His deep voice resonated with a seeming casual indifference yet he spoke with a subtle warmth he could never shake. "It is full of drifters, after all." The bounty hunter's words bounced on a small chuckle as he turned his head to the girl. There was a calm silence for a few moments as he assessed her, until finally he broke it once more. "Anyway, are you even old enough to be in here?" The question had no malice or spite behind it, and the same was to be said of most of which he said. Rather, it could have been perceived as genuine intrigue laced with gentle sarcasm.

[Lily Darksun]

Lily smirked, then rolled her eyes. "Hardly top of the line. Know what I'm saying? Doubt anybody would try to take it from me. Or, heh, they'd give it back."

She chuckled at the truth of that, then glanced toward the door. Lily was playing it cool and telling herself that Aliya would show up. She must've just gotten held up by something...

"Pfft, what are you? Undercover cop, looking to bust illegal teens?" she snarked good-naturedly at the smoker.

[Teru Air]

"You'd be surprised of the level of desperation that can turn up here," Teru jested as he turned back to face behind the bar. He didn't like Drifter's Paradise - the people were unthreatening scum-suckers and cowards, the work was cheap and the entertainment unsavoury, and yet he often found himself coming back to it. He would admit that there was an air of attraction, of appeal about it, yet that appeal was limited at best, but given his most recent employment he supposed he would have to suck it up and learn to enjoy it for what it was; a hub to advance a little further in the world, and an additional step towards finding information on his brother. The bounty hunter gave a small, half-concealed grin at the girl's comment, but kept his voice low and with a shimmer of bravado and jest that so often adorned it.
"If I were a cop, I'd be dead before you could call for mother."

[Lily Darksun]

Lily wasn't sure what smoker-guy said just then made sense. Or at least, it didn't make sense to her. But, it was just small-talk anyway so what did it matter?

"Yeah, well, I'm not either. So don't worry," she replied, looking dorkily amused.

Now what do I say? Do I say anything?

"Hang out here often?"

[Teru Air]

"Only when I'm desperate for work," Teru told the girl truthfully. "Though I prefer not to be here. There's too much..." He stopped for a moment mid-sentence as the Duros barkeep, who apparently had something against the bounty hunter, stared him out as he 'cleaned' a glass with a filthy rag on the other side of the bar. Teru stared him down in return. "...trash." He swigged the last of his drink and placed the glass down on the bar. "Another," he ordered as he stubbed out his current cigarette and lit up his next. "What about you," he muffled as he struggled with his busted lighter. "Waiting for your parents to pick you up? Or maybe you had your glamorous dreams of being a bar dancer shattered by the grimy reality of Hutt hospitality." His voice, as always, was riddled with nonchalance.

[Lily Darksun]

"You're rude," Lily blurted.

But, she then laughed to show she didn't exactly mean that statement in a bad way. Her gaze shifted back to her wrist chrono and she sighed.

"Nah... waiting for a... friend. She's running late though, I guess."

Too bad I don't know her well enough to know what that means. Is she normally an on-time sort? Normally late? Who knows!

"Just passing through, and... ya know, using the fine hospitality here to figure out life."

[Teru Air]

Up until this moment, Teru's expression had been rather subdued, impartial, but now he grinned from her comment. He probably was rude, but at least she was smart enough to realise it wasn't malicious in any way. That, or she just didn't care, but either suited him fine in anybody.
"There are better places than Drifter's to figure out life, kid," he told her honestly, almost as if he had a shade of genuine concern for her wellbeing. "Things must be tough, huh."

((OOC: Stupid late, sorry about that! Back on track ))

[Lily Darksun]

Lily shrugged. She wasn't looking for a therapist in the tavern of all places.

"Well, this is where the ship took me, so here I am," she replied. "And 'things' are what they are. No sense throwing adjectives at them."

Because, truthfully, even Lily realized that life could be a lot worse. This was just about making her way, which was looking to be along a different path from what her folks wanted for her. It was what it was; everyone went through that, right?

[Teru Air]

Teru made a slight sound of amusement, half a chuckle. The girl was to the point enough, a quality that the bounty hunter relished in anyone. But from the sounds of things she just required time to figure things out, which was fine. At the end of the day, he didn't really care, though she had managed to provide some company, albeit quite curious company, to distract from the boredom and solitude of bounty hunter life.
"Fair enough." He returned to his new drink, stubbing his cigarette and, in routine fashion, sparking up another.

[Lily Darksun]

Lily grinned, happy to be on pretty equal footing with this guy. He seemed cool, after all.

"So, what do you do, Mr. Wisdom, who'd rather not see fair maidens pondering life at Drifter's Paradise?" she asked, deciding on his nickname on the fly.

[Teru Air]

Mr. Wisdom? He liked that, but it wasn't particularly accurate. He liked to think it was accurate, but he was probably much less wise than he hoped he was. He was good at his job, at least he thought he was. But then, if were so good, why was his so desperate for credits? He took another gulp of his whiskey to get the thoughts away and grinned, turning back to the girl.
"I'm just a humble bounty hunter, ma'am." Though his voice showed anything but humility, but that wasn't to say he sounded arrogant, just insincere in his own charming way. "But work is slow at the moment, so I'm stuck here until the hutt throws me a bone."

[Lily Darksun]

"Might be a problem with your business plan if you wait for bones," Lily observed with a smirk.

She said it like she hadn't a clue what he was talking about, even though Lily was pretty shrewd that way.

"Maybe you oughta go for scraps or something instead, huh?"

[Teru Air]

"Yeah," agreed Teru, quietly laughing air through his nose. "That's just the way this industry works. You have to jump through a lot of loopholes before you can get anywhere." The tone of the conversation was turning grim. He gulped down more his drink before firing a wide smile.
"But I'm one of the best in the business so don't you worry, I'll be raking in credits in no time!" The smile became a brazen grin. He was confident, it was true, he just needed to remind himself of his skill every so often.