Otto’s Grotto bar Kar Alabrek, Sepros system 42 ABY
“Give me another.” The heavy cup clacked loudly on the bar’s top.
The Selonian bartender looked the man over, arching an eyebrow. “Did you get stood up by your date?” He, she, they? Cimozjen honestly was not entirely sure, and didn’t care to get an offended look by guessing. It could be the drink, or it could be his mood, but he was raring for a fight. At least the sauce helped, a bit.
“I can’t say I am particularly looking. Most dames I run into are trouble, and my wife would roll over in her grave if I started seeking out wild fruit.” The cloaked man gave a clearly-forced smile and tilted his cup. “Now, would you mind please filling my glass while I await my friend? The poor guy has been running around doing the business of those Sadowans, but he should get here soon enough.”
The music here sucked. The atmosphere was as close as one could get to non-existent. The food sucked, and the drinks were comparable to anything that he could get elsewhere. He wondered again why the chap had chosen this place to meet up. Maybe it is something about being a Sephie? Or was he a Zeltron. Maybe he was a hybrid? Hell if I can figure it.
Now that could have been the alcohol talking. Vance was nice enough. He had taken more of a shine to Cimozjen was comfortable with, but that was far from the chap’s fault. With any sort of romance, there came the threat of pain. Cimozjen had encountered more than his share of pain over the years.
He did have one big point of interest, Cimozjen considered as he ran a finger over his slugthrower. He was obviously keeping some things to himself. He was a bit of an enigma, and the self-styled detective found that more interesting than anything. He had detected double-meaning in the former slave’s words.
Perhaps he would be more forthcoming away from the prying ears of the Sadowan’s, or his admittedly lovely Twi'leki mistress. The call of the unanswered question, that itched at him more than he felt comfortable admitting. He considered popping out of the bar to light up a cigarette, but he squashed the idea after considering the rain outside of the Grotto.
“You are getting pretty deep friend.” The Selonian’s voice pulled the human from his thoughts. “I will give you another, but if you start acting up, I am going to have to cut you off.”
Cimozjen Kurios shook his head, and put his hands up in a half-mocking gesture. “I swear, I shall not be causing any trouble, officer.” He gave a genuine smile. “It is bad for business to cause trouble. I am usually trying to look into trouble, to keep others out of it.” Reaching into his cloak, Cimozjen watched the bartender flinch. Both men froze for a moment, before the Force Disciple slowly pulled his hand, showing something clenched between two fingers. “Easy.” He extended the hand, and placed the thin object on the bar. “I just figured I would leave this, in case you needed help.”
The Selonian leaned over, squinting at the grubby-looking business card as he read the text. “Wait, you are a ‘Private Detective’? What are you needed for when the Sadowans keep the peace?”
This question caused the human patron to pause. He didn’t dare to voice his words. But his thoughts posed the same question regularly. He hadn’t had regular work. He hadn’t even had regular food, and he was surprised that he was scraping together enough to not get kicked out of his cramped little apartment. He was sure that the Sadowans could help him with that in some capacity, but he was no leech.
“Not everyone wants to go through official channels. I don’t imagine that most people want to call the powers that be just because of a cheating spouse or the like.” Cimozjen tried to shake off his unease. Too many things were forcing him into thoughts he didn’t like. It might take a lot of booze to rectify that.
Hopefully Vance got there soon.
It was late, Vance finally had found the place and walked in. Looking about he saw Cimozjen at the bar and smiled. “Ah, there you are, quite a lovely little place, think I will have a drink perhaps.” He sauntered up and sat himself down at the bar next to Cimozjen. “So my friend, nice to catch you here.”
The human looked over the Sephie, raising an eyebrow. “Weren’t you the one that chose this spot?” He studied Vance, with a feeling of growing unease. “Please don’t tell me that I am being led on like a Jawa’s ronto again.”
He shuddered. “I still got a few wounds from my last scuffle in a back alley. Bacta gets expensive if you want to keep things low key.”
“No, no not leading you on, just trying to figure out some of my family history. See thing is I don’t really know my family, if I even have any. All I can remeber is growing up as a slave for a long time. I know I am Half Sephi and Zeltron so my parents are probably Zeltron and Sephi just not sure which one of them is male, female, hell they could even be both male or both female. I have no idea and it was always something that crosses my mind at least once a day.”
Cimozjen blinked. “Aren’t there resources you have that you can tap into? I mean, the Sadowans are a small group but they are by no means without some influence. ” He looked at his drink. “Surely you have to have some sort of lead or clue to go off of.”
“I mean I suppose so, just never really asked them to help me with finding any sort of relations to anyone."He replied as he leaned against the bar. "I just never figured my stuff was really big enough to worry about.”
Cimozjen took a drink, considering the situation. “Well, I mean I have an inordinate amount of free time myself. I could help you out with that if you like. Do you have any credits set aside that you can tap into?”
Vance smiled as he slid over a credit chip to Cimozjen. On it, was a very hefty amount of credits at least for 5months of rent and food.“Yeah I would appreciate that, hope that is enough to get you started. Guess I should start going over files and getting analyzed.”
Cimozjen gave the credit chip a wary look. He wasn’t used to being paid so easily in advance.
“Sure, but do you have any leads that we can tap right now?” He shrugged. “Or did you just want to keep drinking here for now?”
“I dont have any leads quite yet, but I dont mind drinking something.” He ordered a tall glass of beer and started drinking. “I figure I can go look through some databases later.”