<div class="floatleft">(https://image.ibb.co/mqJ8Xb/Future_Female_Warrior.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Ve'tralla Kurzen (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=277640.msg13647172#msg13647172)<br/><br/><strong>Species:</strong>Arkanian Offshoot (Human Half-breed)<br/><br/><strong>Profession:</strong>Mercenary, Gambler, Arms Tech<br/><br/><strong>Location|Date:</strong>Day 145 3BBY, The Claxon Club<br/><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Chia Luaneth<br/><br/><strong>Mentioning:</strong>Zebrin, Raa Shaa<br/><br/><hr/>The Claxton Club was a rather recent addition to Skip 1. A golden goose to some and a place to experience the finer things in life to others whom rarely got to indulge in such things. Ve'tralla wasn't here for the food, the women, the men, or the drink readily available in this place. Even though the atmosphere was to her liking she had come to experience one of her favorite vices. The frequent gambling events the upscale establishment hosted. Hell, even the serving droid seemed to hesitate when she'd requested a simple glass of H2O. It was a lower stakes pazaak tournament that had really drawn her in. 2,000 credit buy in with a reasonable take for victory. She'd already done the math in her head. It was one hell of a take for the house. 32 players, 1,500 per player to the house, 500 per player to the pot, and whatever raises each player chose to sweeten it with. Thing is she knew she'd be lucky to walk away 15k up after her buy in. Unless it was high stakes the average player didn't often realize how much the house dipped into your pocket. They'd take nearly every credit added to every pot and walk away somewhere between 50k and 75k up just for organizing the game in an upscale clusterfuck with some reasonable security. The take in Bentzal was higher, the house skimmed a lot less but you were a lot more likely to take a blaster in the back sitting at your table, but she was in the mood to be a bit more relaxed than usual. Still, somehow, things tended to work out the way they wished rather than the way she'd planned.<br/><br/>She now sat in on the final round at a small squared table, her hand face down on the classy red felt table and tucked away in her memory of course, with the runners up on either side of her. The male Trandoshian whom was a decent strategist and a female Kajain'sa'Nikto who she was quite certain only got so far as she did was luck. Both of whom were knocked out in the semi-finals, respectively, by herself and a male Devaronian named Korba. Not for a moment did she believe Korba was above cheating but she also found it very unlikely he was in this particular event. When it came time to draw a card she glanced at it's corner, assessing what she'd come across, and pressed it down beside the others. Without so much as a flinch in her expression she eyed Korba across the table, leaned up some, and picked up her glass to take a sip. Following the sip she kept one eye locked to his face, the other covered by the fall of her hair cut, before she set her glass down and tapped the table with the index finger of the same hand. The sip was more of a timely distraction, taking his mind out of focus for a moment, as her left hand slipped beneath the table and rest upon the hilt of one of her vibro daggers.<strong>"Stand"</strong>She uttered plainly.<br/><br/>Korba wasn't exactly always on the up and up but there was little he could do to rig this game. The system was far too new for him to have worked any bugs into their machinery. He kept his eyes locked to her as he drew his own card, only glancing down for a short moment to peel the corner back and give it a look, before he considered his next move. She stood, he sat at 18, thus the options left very little to be desired. With a two or more he was out his 2k buy in with nothing to show for it. No point in holding out to lose it all. Best to draw and perhaps land 20 so as to play another hand rather than resort to plan b in the middle of the club with quite a few eyes on them. Either way he planned to catch up with Ve'tralla later once she left the club but worst case scenario he lost the game, drew his blaster, and collected her bounty only to keep the winning cred chip himself. He drew once more and as he did he smirked, confident his evening was going to end exactly how he intended for it to one way or another, he turned up the corner of his card. 9, a hard bust. As he set the corner of the card down his free hand moved to the edge of the table and the one adjusting his card took hold of his own mug.<strong>"Seems like my lucky day."</strong>His nasily voice pierced the air.<br/><br/>Not so much as a faint smirk pressed into her lips when he bit. She picked up a single card and used it to flip her hand one by one. Without having revealed the card she used to flip them she sat at 13. Her eyes, though one was mostly concealed by her hair, never left those of Korba. His stupid grin told her the entire story yet the other two seemed not to have caught on as of yet. The Trandoshian say with a drink in one hand and a half eaten, raw, Klatooine paddy frog in the other. The Nikto simply sat with both hands under her chin intently watching to see whom the winner would be.<strong>"Before you go for your blaster let me tell you a story..."</strong>End over end she flipped her card then tapped it to the table, shifting her fingertips to the bottom before flipping again, never once revealing it to Korba in the process.<strong>"A Trandoshian, a Nikto, a Devaronian, and a Human sat and played a nice tournament of Pazaak. Then suddenly the Devaronian got this cute idea rattling around in his brain to stir up trouble when he was out played and lost his good sense. He reached for his blaster and before it left the holster his head fell to the beautiful table they were playing on."</strong>It was now that she dropped her card face up, revealing her bluff at a lowly 16, and finished her "story".<br/><br/><strong>"Sadly, the Nikto, whom was better prepared, followed closely in suit having picked up on the very same adorable idea. By the time the Trandoshian knew enough to stop stuffing his face did the human have a blaster on him. The battle droids on guard duty came over, settled the issue, and the human still walked away with her credits."</strong>With her palm now pressed to the felt table beside her cards she was already leaned forward and prepped to push up from her chair.<strong>"See, the other way that story ends Korba.. is that when you pick your hands up from the table you take a nice, firm, grip of those horns on your head, stand up, turn around nice and slow, and walk your happy ass right out of the club. Then.. my two friends on either side will be giving you a 2 minute head start before they try to recoup part of their buy in with that 3k bounty on your head."</strong><br/><br/>She quietly observed the reactions of all three other players for a moment, the fingers resting on the hilt of her vibro blade parted some and slipped down enough that when they came together they took a grasp of what would be it's pommel, drawing her weapon halfway from it's sheath to the point which the hilt could be seen.<strong>"So, Korba, What'll it be? Still feeling lucky?"</strong>She offered with a wink of her visible eye. The Nikto seemed a bit preturbed by the story, as she expected, Korba was of course rather infuriated and perhaps a bit embarrassed by Ve'tralla's words but Devaronian's were famously cowardly when they didn't feel the odds were stacked in their favor. The Trandoshian was a different story. While he'd heard the proposed situations he didn't seem as though he had much interest in anything beyond his drink and what was left of the paddy frog. Likely because he survived either scenario and could profit from either.<br/><br/>With a long, drawn out, glance over the half drawn weapon before bringing his eyes back to that of Ve'tralla's cold gaze. His fingertips drummed the table pinky to index, one after the other, feigning an internal struggle while already having made up his mind.<strong><em>"You're gonna regret this.. sooner than later."</em></strong>He responded with a grimace while raising his hands up to settle upon his horns. He stood up slowly, turning around, and gave her one last glance before working his way out of the club hesitantly. Leaving the felt of the table her free hand once more took hold of her glass of water, finishing it in a single large gulp, as she kept her eyes trained to the Nikto whilst listening to the Trandoshian noisily finish his food and drink. They sat quietly until about two minutes had passed and she gave a nod toward the exit.<strong>"Anytime now."</strong>The Nikto female didn't seem entirely amused but she'd take her consolation prize. The Trandoshian on the other hand was more than pleased with making back most of his buy in and the hunt that would now ensue.<br/><br/>Once the two were gone from the Claxon Club she withdrew her chip card and gazed upon the display. 10,000 credits.<em>"What in the hell?"</em>She thought to herself upon witnessing what damage the house had done to her pocket. She grit her teeth angrily and flagged down a serving droid, maintaining her calm with a great deal of struggle, and upon it's arrival at her side immediately bore down upon it.<br/><br/><strong>"What in the hell is this?"</strong>She proclaimed quite pointedly while holding up cred chip.<br/><br/>As per what she should have expected the droid replied in a buzzing tone with the typical flat they'd been programmed with.<strong><em>"Why that is the credit stick containing your winnings." </em></strong><br/><br/>The clattering droid clearly wasn't amusing her in the slightest. Still as she pushed up from her seat her vibro blade finally snapped back into it's sheath. There was little sense in destroying a droid unless it was trying to kill her.<strong>"Don't patronize me droid. Where is the rest? The take should've been no less than 25,000 credits."</strong><br/><br/>The droid paused for a moment and appeared as though it were either taking orders or making calculations.<strong><em>"Correct."</em></strong>He replied directly and to the point. All it had to offer her were logic and facts.<strong><em>"Following the house take your remaining take stood at 25,000 credits. With the addition of the surcharge of the galactic bounty placed upon yourself, Ms. Kurzen, levied as collateral for your safety within the establishment you are left with 10,000 credits and garnered a profit of 8,000 credits following your buy in."</em></strong>There was a slight hesitation as though the droid were waiting for an appreciative reply before it's metallic voice rang out one last time.<strong><em>"Was there to be anything else?"</em></strong><br/><br/>If one were close enough you could hear the groaning complaints of the leathers gloves she wore as she clenched her fist in a simmering rage. Life wasn't fair anywhere, least of all in smuggler's run, and despite the fact that most of that money was more or less promised away she hadn't much choice but to accept her rather significant losses and walk away. She picked her helmet up from the table and glanced around the club to assess the strategic strong points should Korba evade his pursuers well enough to return and trouble her further. Directly across from the door was a poor choice of course which would leave her open to a long ranged blaster attack. To one side there was of course the bar but she witnessed one of her business associates conversing with her personal mechanic for a few moments before leaving the club himself. Shaa Raa was likely on her own level so far as his talents with rare and exotic arms, the two occasionally swapped or sought parts from one another, but as expected the conversation she attempted to have with Zebrin fell rather flat. She was very partial to Zebrin. His talents and dedication to his work were second to none and he had an odd way with machines. She wouldn't put him on the spot or risk that he take a stray blaster shot. Hell, half of her take on the day would be going toward parts he requested she order to replace and bolster her personal defenses.<br/><br/>Opposite them, directly west of the door, did she spy the perfect booth for a vantage point but there was still a slight problem. The booth was currently occupied by one Chia Luaneth. She recognized her as one of the more prominent gamblers like herself though wasn't surprised she hadn't partaken in the pazaak tournament. It was small, rather impromptu, and the stakes were too low to attract a player of Chia's interests. Ve'tralla had also had the experience of working for a few pirates whom were under contract with Chia and thus worked for her indirectly on more than one occasion. Chia's reputation was of the sort that if Korba returned blasters raging she was less concerned for the Hapan's survival than she would be if it were Zebrin in the line of fire. There was little to no relationship between herself and the "business woman" of sorts as of yet. Still, she would make a kind gesture toward the woman for intruding and even offer her warning should she be unable to dissuade her from perhaps selecting less opportune seating.<br/><br/>Just as the droid began to leave her did Ve'tralla's hand snap out and catch him on the shoulder which caused him to spin around to face her a moment.<strong>"Duplicate whatever Ms. Luaneth is drinking and a non-descriptive glass of H2O."</strong>She paused a moment before her hand fell from the droid's shoulder<strong>"On the house.."</strong>Her words were pointed and a bit less than a request.<br/><br/>There was a slight hesitation in the droid's movement before it offered a faint nod, short reply after having clearly accepted a remote command pending the query, and strolled off to carry out it's commands.<strong><em>"One... One drink on the house has been cleared."</em></strong><br/><br/>She sauntered over to the seat directly across from Chia and set her head upon the floor beneath her chair as she lowered down to occupy it. The serving droid wasn't far behind and she made short work of taking both glasses so as to keep up her preference not to inform entirely too many people that she most often drank water even in a place like this. She would lean forward in her chair, raising her visible eyebrow, and offering the other glass with Chia's chosen drink to the Hapan with an inquiry.<strong>"Mind if I take this seat Ms. Luaneth?"</strong>The question had a slight double meaning but not one so easily picked up on. She had made a point not to ask if she could join her. She wondered if Chia knew her name, likely she did, but whether she could put a face to it was the question. Most often she wore her helmet apart from when gambling wherein such things were prohibited. Her eyes shifted, taking in the hypnotic movements of the dancer for a moment, before settling back to Chia's while respectfully waiting to see what she had to say about her uninvited guest.