Ask Bountiful

[Soraya Ayres]

The money had been running dry for a while now since jobs were scarce so Soraya took what work she could and this time it had led her to someone's ship on Dantooine where she and two others had captured a teen for a bounty. She didn't know much about the target, only that he was Force sensitive so that made him dangerous, she had managed to stun him and bring him here without much issue, although it was almost as though he predicted the attack as she attacked from behind but he turned and their gazes met the moment she stunned him; shame he didn't act quickly enough because soon he'd find himself in a lot of trouble.

"I want 50%." Soraya told the pair with her calmly as she leaned against a wall, inspecting her nails. "No way! 40 or nothing." The man exclaimed. "I did most of the work." She retorted. "Anyone can shoot a blaster." The woman with the man shot back. "50 and I'll take him." Soraya offered. "He's hardly going to cause any issues." The man told her as he reached for his blaster and Soraya could feel a sense of dread creep up her spine.

"Wait! I though this was a no-kill bounty." She said as she approached the man and stood in front of Jey on the ground. "Move aside, I have no issue taking out you and collecting your portion of the money. No one would even realise you were gone." The man scowled and roughly shoved Soraya aside. She quickly reached into her holster and drew her blaster, still set to stun from earlier, and shot at the man but then was immediately disarmed by the woman with a swift kick and then taken to the ground.

Admittedly, she didn't think her actions through before going through with them but now if she didn't get out of here then it was likely that both of them would lose their lives. She wrestled with the woman until she was pinned underneath has and grabbed her fallen blaster, pointing it at the woman and smirking. "Goodnight." She said before firing. Soraya put the weapon back in her holster and moved over to Jey, shaking him by the shoulder in attempt to rouse him.

"Jey, can you hear me?" She asked, hoping for a response out of the teen so they could get out of there before the others woke up. She expected to be met with an unpleasant response, after all, she had knocked him out minutes before but he would quickly need to grasp an understanding of the situation if they were to cooperate and escape.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

Since attaining his father's journal on Devaron, Jey had been practising, refining and learning new Force techniques from the journal. Cayne's journals was filled with information - such as his research on ancient Jedi temples, the Force and their techniques, how to build a lightsaber as well as lightsaber combat. It was as if Cayne had some sort of contingency for his son, just in case he had decided not to live the life of a Jedi. Regardless, Jey was appreciative of the information stored in the journal.

After a lot of research and deliberation, the Force-sensitive teen decided he was finally ready to repair his ancestor's lightsaber - but first he needed to find a Kyber crystal. Which was exactly why he was on Dantooine. However, during the journey and his time on the planet, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being followed and to confirm these feelings, Jey decided to head into an alley way on his own in order to suss out this threat. His suspicions were correct, sensing the presence of other people Jey swiftly turned around and prepared to pull out his dual blasters and locked eyes with a woman before everything went black...

Jey was woken up by the woman he had seen just a second ago... wait, was it a second go? Coming to, he felt dizzy and his body ached - side effects of being stunned. She stunned him?! Annoyed and angered, Jey pushed her away from him and held his arm out and tensed his fingers in the direction of her neck, he began choking her through the Force. "You stunned me, you kriffin' schutta!" he yelled out, as he stared into her eyes she would see that they were cold and completely devoid of care as he had the full intent of killing her.

However, the memory of Astra appeared in his mind. No... he was better than this now, he wouldn't stoop so low again. Calming down slightly, he released her from his grip and let out a long exhale, as if he was also ridding himself of the anger he had felt a second ago. Strangely... after all of that, the feeling of using the Force to nearly kill someone was invigorating in a sense but after reading from his father's journal, he knew what it was. It was the pull of the Dark side, and he had to be careful. As he locked eyes with the woman he had just nearly killed, his face was apologetic but he didn't utter the words "What the hell is going on?"

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

It was to be expected that he would act with aggression, after all he was probably running very high on emotions but Soraya never expected what came next. She could feel something tighten around her neck and her hands immediately reached to pry away whatever was there but there was nothing to grasp and with a panicked look, her eyes fell on Jey whose gaze was cold and unyielding. She had been expecting repercussions for stunning him but she had not been expecting to fear for her life, now she was starting to regret saving his.

When he released her, she gasped for air and collapsed on the floor, breathing rapidly. No wonder the others wanted to kill him, he was dangerous, it seemed like all these Force-sensitive types were. When she had recovered enough to string a sentence together, she pushed herself off the ground into a sitting position, still breathing heavily. "And I saved your life, dotkohu." She snapped back as she glared at him before glancing at her fallen blaster on the floor, considering stunning him and running away since he seemed to have no qualms killing her then why should she care what happened to him?

She decided to give him one more chance since he was probably confused and afraid but if he attacked her again then she wouldn't hesitate to take him out, she didn't trust him yet. Soraya sighed before starting the story of how they had come to be where they were. "I captured you for a bounty and was going to split the money with these guys-" She gestured to the two unconscious people beside them. "-but they were going to shoot you and I didn't agree to killing anyone." She told him, though she didn't apologise, she knew what she had to do to survive and if he didn't want a bounty on him then he should've been more careful.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

Jey chuckled "Saved my life? E chu ta I wouldn't even be in this situation if it weren't for you, stupa!" he hollered as he flailed his arms about in the air. He proceeded to get up, body still aching like crazy and listened as she explained the situation to him - it had been so long that he had almost forgotten about the Hutt's bounty on him, at this rate they probably didn't even want him for his Force-sensitivity anymore, their fragile egos were wounded that Jey had managed to avoid capture for so long.

The teen didn't bother thanking her for not shooting him as she was the reason he was almost killed in the first place. However, as he examined her features he found her and her freckles cute and uttered the words while scowling at her "You'd be pretty attractive if you weren't such a sleemo." as he said that, he also noticed something else... he sensed something else. This girl had a hint of the Force within her, untrained, wild and untamed like how his used to be. Although he kept it to himself, it wasn't his place to drop that bomb on her and he didn't like her enough yet to tell her.

Noticing the two other captors unconscious on the ground, his hand hovered over his blaster holster as he contemplated ending their lives. Not out of self-defence, but out of revenge... he quickly pushed those thoughts back and moved his hand away, not allowing the Dark side to influence his actions anymore today. Jey quickly glanced at the woman who got him in this situation in the first place and turned to leave without a word.

"Just wanted to repair my family's stupid lightsaber but I gotta get stunned and then kidnapped. Can I just for once have a normal day where someone isn't trying to kill me!" he mumbled to himself in a harsh tone. Jey placed his palm on a wall panel, the ship's loading ramp that he had been taken to opened and he stepped off of it - only to reveal it was docked in a barren field. He let out an annoyed growl at not knowing where the hell he was or how to get back to his own ship, head hung low "... where are we?" he called out to the brown haired woman who had stunned him.

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

"These two still would have still found you!" Soraya shouted back at him. Granted, she had been the one to take him down but even if she hadn't then one of the others would have. "Don't call me stupid, you're the one that got a bounty put on you!" She scowled at him as she became increasingly annoyed with him. She hadn't expected gratitude but at least hoped to be spared the insults, especially after he had just attacked her but she never intended to harm him. He was fine so what was all the fuss about?

"Men." She scoffed. "Always thinking with their heads and not the one on their shoulders." She muttered to herself before pushing herself off the floor and onto her feet, still a little shaken by what had just happened though she tried to play it off cool. "Save the choking for the bedroom, mkay?" She told Jey. Undeniably, she was afraid of Jey and what he could do, she didn't know much about the Force but from what she had seen it had the potential to cause great damage, even kill a man with bare hands.

Soraya rolled her eyes when Jey started to leave and followed him, knowing he wouldn't have a clue where they were. She stood on the loading ramp and watched him stare at the landscape in confusion with her arms folded before approaching him. He didn't seem so tough and scary now. "We're a couple of miles out of a town which is-" She looked around to get her bearings before pointing. "-that way." She knew they had to be hasty because any moment now and the two bounty hunters on the ship could come looking for them.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

The brown haired woman revealed where the nearest town but before making his way, he pondered for a moment. Jey looked around the fields, connecting to the Force and attempted to sense if the Kyber crystal cave was located anywhere around here. After some time he felt it... a strong concentration of the Force not too far from here - he came to Dantooine for a reason, and he had everything he needed with him. He'd be damned if he let some stupa bounty hunters ruin his plans.

Ignoring the warnings provided by the woman, he began making his way in the opposite direction of the nearest town and headed toward the crystal caves. Jey shook his head at himself for not bringing 4EY along, knowing that the little scout droid would've probably been a big help in these caves... right now he was stuck with this woman who's name he didn't even know yet. "Thanks for the directions, lady. Make your own way back, I've got somewhere to be." he revealed while waving her off with his hand.

The walk there was about ten minutes, and with every step he took, the presence he felt grew stronger. "You feel that?" he asked, trying to hint at the woman's Force-sensitivity as well as suss out if she had some form of training or not. If she would answer the question or not, he would ask her another question "So... what's your name?" completely and intentionally glossing over the fact that he tried to choke her to death earlier.

Eventually, they would find themselves at the entrance of the cave - from what he could see, it was dark inside and was only illuminated by the glow of the kyber crystal formations inside. He made a sideways glance at the woman before taking the first step to enter the cave...

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

Soraya watched Jey with folded arms, it seemed like he was trying to make a decision based off his hesitation and when he started wandering off in the other direction she looked confused and ran after him. "Hey!" She called as she approached him. "Where are you going?! You're just going to stay on Dantooine where they can find you? I just risked my life to save you, if I had known you were stupid enough to get yourself killed I needn't have bothered." She said, clearly annoyed and even more annoyed that she felt she had to follow him as she didn't exactly have another option to get off the planet now she had betrayed the people she came with.

"Feel what? The wind?" She asked incredulously. "What are you on about?" She huffed. If he tried to attack her again then she would shoot him and this time she would know what to expect so she followed with caution but when he asked for her name she seemed surprised, it seemed like he was trying to build a rapport, though he still hadn't apologised for trying to kill her. "Soraya." She replied. "I know who you are." He was Jeyton Dres, a very wanted man and a very stupid one from what she had seen so far as he was willingly walking into potential danger, it seemed.

"Why have you brought us to some random cave? No wonder you were so easy to capture, you're clueless!" She remarked as they entered the cave but soon shut up when she saw the kyber crystals lining the cave, it was remarkable. She walked in slowly, looking all around at the different colours and reaching out to touch one of the formations, completely entranced by the cave and its beauty. "Why have you come here?" She asked a lot more calmly. She felt something but couldn't quite put her finger on what. "Ugh, what was that?" She said with a shiver as she glanced behind her, fearful that the two bounty hunters had found them.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

Knowing she was mainly untrained and didn't know how to use the Force, he partly knew she wouldn't sense it. Although he got a name out of her, "Soraya" the name did not match her personality at all - Soraya was a pretty and soft name, while the person it belonged to was anything but. "I'd say it's nice to meet you, but..." he confessed, but held off on finishing his sentence as she knew what Jey meant.

***​

Jey rolled his eyes at Soraya's complaining "Wow, you whine a lot." he groaned as he tilted his head toward the sky, growing irritated at the brown haired woman "No one told you to follow me, you had an out. In fact, you still have one." Jey shrugged. As he entered the cave alongside her - Soraya's tone immediately changed. He knew why. The crystals were beautiful, Soraya then asked why he was here "I guess you'll see." he said cryptically as he closed his eyes, trying to sense any crystals calling out to him.

Then he felt something... and drew closer to it, was it the crystal calling to him? Soraya must have sensed it too, being in a place like this is bound to activate some latent Force abilities. "It's the Kyber crystals in this cave... they're sort of sentient. They're trying to communicate with us." he answered, recalling the information from his father's journal "Only Force-sensitives can hear them." hinting at Soraya's connection to the Force. Finally, Jey found it... the crystal that called out to him - it was a large, white formation, Jey pulled a piece of it off of the top of it. Holding the kyber crystal, Jey allowed it to attune itself to him and the uncoloured crystal slowly began to turn yellow.

A smile forming on his face, Jey took the yellow kyber crystal to a slab of rock located to where Soraya was currently standing - "Give me a minute, and we'll go." he said as he laid out his father's journal, his ancestor's damaged lightsaber, the yellow kyber crystal and the components and tools he needed to repair it on the slab. Reading the notes, Jey used the tools to dismantle the lightsaber and replaced all the damaged parts with new components and a new kyber crystal. After about five minutes, Jey successfully managed to repair the lightsaber and activated its amber blade, forming a huge grin as a response.

"Alright. Let's get outta here. You want this?" offering his ancestor's cracked green kyber crystal to Soraya. Although, he sensed something outside of the cave - something dangerous. Jey took the lead, intentionally standing in front of her as to protect her but he refused to mention it to her. Outside the cave were the two unconscious bounty hunters from earlier... they had actually managed to track them here...

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

"You'd whine a lot too if you had to put up with this nonsense!" She snapped back. "I don't have a way back, I came here with those two." She gestured to the general direction they had just come from and frowned. "And I don't think they'll let me hitchike back to Coruscant now." She groaned and reluctantly followed Jey in the hopes that he could help provide some way off the planet... eventually.

There was a sort of calming aura when they entered the cave but Soraya just wanted to touch all the pretty shiny things and she couldn't help but wonder if they were worth anything. "It's... beautiful." She said idly as she gently touched a formation of kyber crystals. She spent a few moments absorbing the scenery and calming down from the anger of being irritated by Jey before turning to face Jey as he spoke. "Sentient? But it's just some shiny rock." She said, tapping one of the formations as if to prove her point.

"Us? What do you mean us?" She asked, trying to get more information out of Jey than the cryptic messages she had been given. "Are you calling me Force sensitive?" She asked, frowning as she went deep into thought, thinking about all the times in her life when something had happened that she couldn't explain; memories of times when she had felt deeply empathetic without meaning to or could sense when there was something different about a person just by being near them.

Soraya spent some time digesting the information, unsure what it truly meant and if it even made any difference at all. She had never considered being force sensitive, after all her mother wasn't so she had minimal knowledge of the subject but if it was hereditary then maybe it was from her father, whoever he was. Her attention was drawn back to Jey when he ignited a golden lightsaber, the light bouncing off the cave walls and crystalline formations.

"Are you a Jedi?!" Soraya asked in shock, staring wide-eyed at the teen. She had never met a Jedi before but knew of them and the laser swords they carried and she knew they were not to be crossed. Still, Jey showed no intention of attacking so she approached him and took the crystal he offered her. "Is it worth anything?" She asked as she inspected the crystal in attempt to determine its value.

"Is something wrong?" She asked as she followed behind Jey, a hand on her blaster as she was on edge. When they got to the opening of the cave it became apparent what was wrong. "Ah." Soraya said as they came face-to-face with the bounty hunters. She quickly drew her blaster and pointed it at the pair, set to kill.




@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

"If we survive this, I promise I'll answer all of your questions." Jey whispered while glancing at Soraya and winked to add extra flair. He was just being lighthearted to ease any nerves, although, with his new lightsaber he felt fairly confident - in spirit, it would always belong to his ancestor but after the modifications made to it, Jey felt as if it truly was his own now. The black haired teen had his lightsaber ready in his left hand and hovered his right over his DL-18 blaster, meanwhile Soraya had her own blaster pointed at them. What could go wrong?

The female bounty hunter scowled at Soraya and had her own blaster aimed at her - "Can't wait to kill you and take your cut, you schutta." she snapped at the brown haired girl. With his connection to the Force stronger than it had ever been now, he felt an overwhelming level of confidence and smirked as he sensed the fear emanating from the bounty hunters. "You're scared aren't you? Reason why you ain't shot us yet, right?" he rhetorically queried in an arrogant tone "You're not sure at what I'll do to you in case you miss."

Igniting his yellow blade, the fear rose within the two at the sight of his lightsaber and he even noticed the female's blaster begin shaking ever so slightly. While Jey's knowledge on lightsaber combat was purely theoretical, he was confident he would be successful practically as well - thanks to the melee training he received from his father as a kid. With a swift wave of his hand, Jey used the Force and swiped the female bounty hunter's arm out of the way thus giving Soraya the perfect opportunity to take her out.

With the male bounty hunter distracted by what just happened, the black haired teen proceeded to close the gap between them and jabbed his lightsaber straight through his torso, killing him instantly. He felt that rush again, the rush of power that made him invincible - Jey so desperately wanted to give into the Dark side... just a taste. But he shook his head, fighting off the pull. "You okay?" he asked Soraya without even as much as a glance in her direction. His confidence had completely disappeared as fighting off that brief pull to the Dark side had completely drained his emotions.

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

"Fair enough." Soraya shrugged. They had a lightsaber on their side now so she was fairly confident of their chances, almost at ease with the situation although she tensed when the woman spoke to her and trained her blaster directly at her. "Don't bite off more than you can chew." She warned the woman. They had been given a chance to leave, to escape with their lives, but now they were intent on killing both of them and Soraya had no issues with killing in self-defence.

Soraya stood slightly further back than Jey, hoping for some protection from his lightsaber. The level of confidence radiated from him in his tone and words, it was certainly reassuring, maybe things had worked out for the best after all. She saw the fear that a lightsaber could produce and wondered what it would be like to be so revered, confident and powerful.

When she saw the opportunity, she shot the woman twice, causing her downfall. Jey seemed more than capable of taking on the other bounty hunter and did so with ease and in that moment Soraya felt fear. This could've just as easily been her fate, it still could be if he decided to turn on her and kill her too now, she would not be able to counter the attack, not against a lightsaber. She turned her blaster on Jey, aiming at his back, afraid of what he could do after seeing what he could do.

When he spoke to her seconds later, she lowered her weapon and came out of the trance that had her so set to kill, realising that it was probably unlikely he would ask if she was okay if he was about to kill her. "Yeah." She replied hesitantly.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

Jey had expected to hear some kind of lecture for killing in self-defence but upon hearing nothing but an affirming "Yeah." from Soraya and seeing the body of her own aggressor, he was surprised he didn't get one. Then again, Soraya seemed like him - a survivor who wouldn't hesitate to take a life to save their own.

Deactivating his lightsaber, Jey hooked its chromium hilt to his belt "We should get outta here." and began making his way toward the nearest town she had pointed out earlier. If she would follow him, he would slow down to walk beside her and remembered that he had promised to answer the questions she had asked in the crystal cave - "I'll answer the simple questions first; no, I'm not a Jedi. The kyber crystal I gave you should be worth a lot, although it's cracked."

He then paused and took a breath, formulating how he'd answer her more complicated questions. "And yeah, it's hard to believe but... they're almost sentient, they can non-verbally communicate with each other and with Force-sensitives. Believe me, I thought it was all poodoo at first too until I actually witnessed it today." he revealed, this next part however, would be a bit more difficult - although he had mixed feelings about Soraya, she had a right to know what she was. Jey stopped and turned to face her, seeing as this probably would be quite the bombshell it'd be best if they stayed still.

"And to answer that other question earlier-" he paused and rubbed the back of his neck "-yeah, you're Force-sensitive." he stated in a blunt but hard hitting manner.

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

For a few moments, Soraya stood staring after Jey, trying to gather some thoughts, any thoughts but she couldn't even wonder where to begin compiling everything she had just seen. She quickly jogged to catch up to him and walked beside him, feeling a bit awkward for considering killing him moments before, but listened to the answers he offered in response to her questions.

"You've only answered my question to give me another question." She frowned when he told her he wasn't a Jedi, claiming it was a simple question. "If you're not a Jedi why do you have that." She gestured to the lightsaber hilt at his belt, only Jedi had those as far as she was aware. "Cool." She said, inspecting the crystal in her hand, wondering how much it would be worth. "But they're just crystals..." She repeated in disbelief, shaking her head. "How can you communicate with something that doesn't have thoughts or feelings?" There were a lot of marvels and wonders that she had seen in this galaxy but a sentient crystal was among one of the most unbelievable.

At the confirmation of her Force-sensitivity, Soraya's first thought was wondering just what that meant for her. She had lived her whole life so far without such information and without using the the gifts bestowed upon her so she didn't think it was all that big of a deal until her face lit up when she came to a realisation. "So I can choke people with the Force?" She asked. "In self-defence, of course." She added. The revelation made her mind return to her father and wondering who he was since there was likely a hereditary aspect to the sensitivity. What if my father had been a Jedi? She pondered.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

His answer didn't seem to satisfy Soraya, so he simply shrugged and explained more thoroughly about his past - after all, it was unlikely he'd ever see her again... and he was beginning to grow past his contempt for his lineage. "I'm not a Jedi, but this-" he pointed at his family's lightsaber "-was my ancestor's, I come from a Force-sensitive bloodline that started back in the Clone Wars." he stated bluntly.

Jey sighed and rolled his head back, growing impatient at her questions - at least now he knew he'd make for a terrible teacher. "Look, I don't make the rules. I don't know how it works, why it works, but it does. They do have thoughts and feelings that border on sentient... they're alive, like plants." he then exhaled and calmed down slightly, it wasn't her fault. He was in her shoes not just a few weeks ago, he needed to go easy on her... but the memories of being stunned and kidnapped were still hot and fresh in his mind.

Soraya's reaction to the revelation of her Force-sensitivity was jarring. Jey raised his brow, expecting her to be more... surprised at the confirmation, but then again, it was a big galaxy filled with different kinds of people - maybe she was processing it in a different way. Then she asked another question could she choke people with the Force. Jey laughed "I guess you could. But I'm not teaching you." he stated quickly after as he began walking again.

Things went silent again, his face fell into an apologetic expression - "Hey, uh... I'm sorry about that by the way." it took a lot for him to swallow his pride but he was trying to better himself as a person and this was one of the steps "I know a simple apology doesn't excuse what I did, it's just... I get really, really angry sometimes..." he paused, treading on his next words carefully as to not come off as an even bigger dotkohu "But thanks for trying to help me out, you didn't have to." he paused again for a few moments and let a grin creep up his face "Beside from almost selling me to the Hutts. You're alright." they were now beginning to come up closer the town as he could see the structures slightly over the horizon.

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

"Oh wow." She replied, clearly surpsised. It seemed that he was important after all, more so than her anyway, and even if she had wanted to capture him now she wouldn't be stupid enough to try but thankfully, she was happy for the pair to go separate ways at the end of their encounter, although she was beginning to think of the benefits of having someone so much more powerful and important than her as an ally...

"Oh, like plants." She seemed content with his answer. "Why didn't you just say so?" She smiled and jabbed his arm playfully as if she hadn't just stunned him not half an hour ago and he hadn't then subsequently tried to Force choke her to death. Soraya shrugged when he told her he wouldn't teach her how to Force choke, she had managed thus far herself, she didn't need him.

If she could learn how to use the Force then she would never have to back down from anyone who tried to steal from her or take advantage of her as the more experienced criminals could and no doubt the two she was with earlier would've likely tried to. "Ugh, I'm so stupid!" She exclaimed, thinking aloud. "They were never going to let me leave with the money." She laughed humorlessly and shook her head.

Soraya was surprised when Jey began apologising, she wasn't going to apologise to him but now he had she felt like she had to. "I'm.. sorry too." She replied, unsure of what else there was to say, she had to do what she could to survive and like she told him, he shouldn't have gotten a bounty on him in the first place. Still, the experience had thoroughly put her off collecting bounties, this would likely be her first and last. "No point in people dying for nothing." She shrugged, trying to detach emotion from the situation since it seemed things were getting far too emotional for her liking.

"Yeaah, I think I'm going to stick to cargo that doesn't talk back. I'm a smuggler really, I'd be a pretty sorry excuse for a bounty hunter - clearly." She told him. "Beside from almost Force choking me to death... You're alright." She replied with a smile. "How come there's a bounty on you anyways?" She asked.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

Jey would have expected someone like Soraya to not have accepted his apology - in all honesty, who would? Well, maybe she didn't but she acknowledged it with her own apology which seemed like an acceptance in his own mind. Jey formed a small smile and nodded at her, showing her that he had at least accepted her apology. Either through the Force or simple body language, the teen could tell she was trying to move on from this conversation getting overly emotional - which he didn't blame in the slightest.

He laughed lightly as Soraya stated she would stick to smuggling, dissing her own skills as a bounty hunter. Jey gritted his teeth and inhaled, "Yeeeeeeah, probably the least dangerous too" he added with his own shrug before humorously patting her back "Supposed to bring your bounties back to your employer, not free them." he lightly jabbed at her. He respected her hustle though, as someone who used to be in her shoes - or, maybe still was, he could empathise with her a lot... despite the rocky start to whatever their relationship was.

Jey took a moment to answer her next question, in the time that they were talking a strand of hair fell to the front of his head. He pushed it back and answered her question "You'd think it was my own fault I got the bounty on me, huh?" he chuckled "Nah, back when I was living on Nar Shaddaa - the Hutts found out what I was and figured I would fetch a good price or at least be a good asset to them." he revealed "So, it took off and I've been on the run ever since." maybe one day, when he was more powerful he could go back to Nar Shaddaa and scare the Hutts so bad that they'd withdraw his bounty... but it definitely wouldn't be today.

"Ah, I don't feel comfortable that you know all this stuff about me and I don't know a lot about you." he groaned, slouching his shoulders "What's your story? I noticed you can speak Huttese too."

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

Soraya nodded in agreement with Jey. Although bounty hunting had the potential to earn a lot more than smuggling, depending on the bounty of course, it was certainly far more dangerous, as had been proven today. Smuggling always came with the threat of arrest but there wasn't usually much risk of death, well... depended how reckless you were but Soraya was calculated and skilful, she had been taught as much from the best, or at least the best in her eyes - her mother.

Although, her lack of risk-taking did mean she wasn't exactly in abundance of money and clearly when she had chosen to take a risk today it had backfired so she was back to where she had always been. "Yeah well... live cargo is a lot more troublesome. I know that now." She smirked.

"Oh." She said before falling silent. She had assumed it had been Jey's own fault that he had a bounty placed on him but it seemed that it was more the Hutts' issue than his and she began to genuinely feel remorseful for capturing him, it didn't seem like he deserved it, it could've happened to anyone. "Sorry, that sucks." She gave him an apologetic look and spoke with sincerity, realising that she had only made his life harder and through no fault of his own.

Soraya had no issue talking about her past, as far as she knew it was a good and happy upbringing, at least until the time her mother was arrested, after that things got difficult but she still loved her mother dearly and spoke of her fondly, hoping to see her again one day. "Well... I was born on Coruscant, as was my mother, but my mother was a smuggler and she lived with her crew on a ship where I was raised and one of the other smugglers was from Nar Shaddaa, I spent a lot of time with her when my mother was working and she taught me Huttese, she was like a second mother to me." She smiled at the memory before turning her attention back to Jey.

"How did a Jedi descendant come to end up in a place such as Nar Shaddaa?" She asked, reading into what he had said about his bloodline. Although he hadn't mentioned the role of the Jedi in his past, she inferred from what he said. For a moment, she wondered if there had been any Jedi in her past if she was Force sensitive.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

Soraya seemed surprised when she heard the truth behind Jey's bounty - she'd probably thought that the bounty being placed on him was his own fault. He shrugged and feigned a careless smile "Ah, don't worry about it. It keeps me on my toes." he lied, being unable to settle in one place for too long takes a toll on person, he continued "Besides, I get to meet new, exciting and pretty faces." flashing a wink at her with his last sentence, attempting to see if his old 'charm' worked.

As the brown haired smuggler began going into her own past, Jey's hazel eyes remained on hers as he listened intently to what she had to tell. Soraya's childhood seemed unconventional... but, it seemed... happy? She was surrounded by many different people and got to experience many different walks of life and she didn't have to worry about her own Force-sensitivity, she got to have a childhood. Soraya's smile at the memory only reinforced Jey's convictions. He smiled back at her "Seems like an exciting life." he envied her almost.

"My mom." he stated bluntly, before elaborating more "My dad met my mom on Nar Shaddaa, she couldn't move because of the life she had built so my dad decided to live with her instead. So, I was born in Hutta Town." he shrugged, it didn't seem so crazy to him regardless. Coming from a bloodline that stretches 150 odd years, he could have ended up anywhere - Jey paused for a moment, "I have Corellian heritage, seeing as my dad was born there." he added as an interesting tidbit.

The two began to draw closer to the Dantooine town as it was now clearly in view, turning to look at Soraya, he queried "What about your dad? You didn't mention him." in the time it would take Soraya to answer, they would have arrived at the Dantooine town.

@Sunfrog

 

[Soraya Ayres]

This bounty hunting business was far too complicated, as were people. She had always known there was no such thing as good and bad but now Jey had made her feel like the lines were blurred even further. He was just someone like her, trying to get by in the world but ended up getting a bounty on him for doing so. The encounter had changed her perspective of him and the bounty hunting profession. Soraya smirked at Jey's comment and playfully nudged him in the side with her elbow. "I could say the same." She replied.

The only painful part of her past was when her mother was arrested and the immediate years following but she had hope that one day things would change and she would be with her mother again so she didn't dwell on it too much. "Yeah, it was all I could've wanted." She smiled sadly. Somewhere out in the galaxy were two other members of the crew who had managed to escape that day but they hadn't managed to find each other since.

"Nar Shaddaa?" She sucked in a breath. "That's rough, man." She had tried to avoid Nar Shaddaa as much as possible, its reputation preceded it and it was certainly not a place you wanted to live. "Corellia..." She repeated, scrunching her nose at the thought, she didn't have fond memories of Corellia. "I lived on Corellia for three years, it's not my favourite place." She told him, unwilling to elaborate on that part of her past to someone she had just met.

"That's because I have no idea who he is." She shrugged, not bothered by it, although she was interested to learn about her lineage. "My mother was a very... independent woman. It's entirely possible she doesn't know who my father is either and I can't exactly ask her, I don't know where she is." Soraya replied. She had everything she could've needed from her mother and crew who acted as family, she had never cared for some guy who shared some DNA similarities.

Upon reaching the town, she turned to Jey. "Do you have a ship?" She asked. "I have one but not here, I came with those guys." She said, although she knew that Jey had every right to abandon her here.



@AfroBandit20

 

[Jeyten Dres]

Jey could tell Soraya's memories of Corellia weren't exactly positive, both from her facial expression, delivery as well as her shift in emotion through the Force. Probably not wanting to talk about it, he let the topic be as he wasn't in the mood to open up an emotional can of worms.

Soraya didn't seem bothered about the fact her father wasn't in the picture, which was lucky on his part seeing as he took a gamble in asking about her father. "Must be nice." he responded glumly, although he had partially learned the reasons of his father's disappearance some time ago, he still harboured some negative feelings towards him. Jey thought Soraya was lucky in a way, not knowing who her father was and not having the burden of a father's past on her back.

Arriving at the town, the hazel eyed girl asked Jey if he had a ship for them to leave on. A smile formed on his face as she asked the question "Heh, you really are a bad bounty hunter." he teased at the fact that she hadn't come in her own ship and relied on strangers, dangerous ones at that, for transport. The black haired teen then nodded and motioned for her to follow "But yeah, I got a ship. Follow me." Jey placed his palms behind his head and lead the smuggler back to The Kath Hound.

As the open docking ramp opened, Jey lead Soraya inside and to the cockpit where his little scout droid companion 4EY-18 was waiting for him - the droid excitedly bounced in place and climbed onto Jey's shoulder. Patting the droid, he laughed "Soraya, meet my buddy 4EY-18..." he paused for a moment, "Uh, I'm still thinking of a nickname for him." he laughed awkwardly before settling in his pilot chair and starting up the freighter's engines. Turning to the smuggler, he gave her a mischievous grin and asked "So, where do you wanna go?"

@Sunfrog