Aggressive Negotiations (Wookiee Style)

[Greybok]

Genko Bibb's shop in Achorhead was a dumpheap. The Toydarian spent all of his money betting on swoop races and gladiatorial matches, while spending next to nothing on upgrading his shop. The overweight fairy specialized in selling used ship modifications. He had a whole junkyard full of them. During the recent Alliance missions on Tatooine, the shop had caught the eye of Greybok. In particular, he had seen a ground-sweeper light cannon that would significantly upgrade the combat specs of the Starbird. There was just one problem: Bibb refused to sell to both Mandalorians and Wookiees.

Unfortunately for the obese shopkeep, Greybok was not in the least bit deterred by these restrictions and walked right up to the shop with his newest companion intent on getting the cannons he needed one way or another. He had credits to do it the nice way. But, if that wasn't enough, he was more than willing to choke the shopkeep out. However, with Alys with him, he was hopeful that maybe they could get out of the shop without incurring any violence. Twobee was, however, convinced that violence was inevitable and was already complaining.

"And now, apparently, this is happening," the droid head complained. "I thought we were above petty crimes like this, Greybok? Theft and/or intimidation?!" Greybok uttered a hushed bark. "No, the ends do not justify the means! Talk some sense into him, Alys!" @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

"What?!" Alys visibly jumped as Twobee called out to her, she had spotted a tiny folded droid outside the entrance to the Toydarian's shop and having stepped up to it had lost track of the last bit of the conversation between Grey and Twobee. She had been about to reach out and touch it when Twobee pulled her into the conversation and the young rebel's hand jerked instinctively as she jumped and touched the tip of the droid's nose, that suddenly jumped to life, sending Alys sprawling back to the ground.

As a few bystanders began laughing at her little encounter, Alys joined in as well, suddenly intent on acquiring one of those cute little droids. For all the maturity she showed at times, she was still a young girl and at times like these her age really showed. Getting back to her feet as the droid jumped back to its perch, she turned to Grey with a grin on her face as she patted the dust from her clothes.

"I'm sorry, what's she complaining about now? I still think you should get her a oil bath, that might improve her mood." During her brief few encounters with the Wookiee pilot and his droid translator, Alys had just enough about the two to begin teasing the droid, and it was slowly turning into one of her favorite things to do. Still grinning, she turned to glance at the entrance to the store, thinking for a moment about the droid. "She's right you know, we can't just stroll in and steal one thing. We have to take that droid as well, the more we take the harder it will be for them to track us!"

She had no idea if that was true, but she had her eyes on that droid now, so it didn't really matter.

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

Greybok liked this girl. She was like Eisa—they thought like him. Of course, that meant Twobee was going to lose what few processors she had left. "Steal a droid t—" Greybok was already bending down to scoop up the droid Alys had motioned towards. "GREYBOK! YOU CAN'T—" And then he kicked down the door of the shop and waltzed in. The noise was definitely enough to warrant the attempt of the shopkeeper, who flew out from behind the counter to attempt to stop them from entering.

"Who are you to just watlz in here carryin' one of my droids, eh?" the Toydarian shrieked. "I don't serve Wookiees! And now you owe me for the door you just broke down!"

"I'm terribly sorry, sir," whined Twobee. "I tried to stop him! Wookiees are such brutish animals, you see."

"We'll see what the local Hutt authorities have to say about this! You both will be sorry for breaking in here!" Genko Bibb threatened as he pulled out his comlink.

He indeed dialed the authorities and began to ask for help when Greybok suddenly grabbed him around his thin neck and began to squeeze with all of his Wookiee-like strength. The Wookiee barked angrily and a frantic Twobee translated as quickly as she could. "He says, if you don't call off the authorities now, he'll— Well, he'll— Please don't make me be graphic. Just do what the Wookiee says. I implore you!"

The Toydarian squeaked, unable to get much passed his closed esophagus. "Let him go, Greybok. He can't speak like that!" Reluctantly, the Wookiee obliged, causing Genko Bibb to cough hysterically for a few moments as he regained his breath. He then wheezily used his comm to call off the authorities.

"There. It's done. Now what do you want?!" Genko rasped while rubbing his throat.

Before Greybok could speak, Twobee chimed in, "Why don't you tell him, Mistress Alys? We've seen how Greybok has 'negotiated.' I'd rather avoid being implicated in homicide and burglary. Oh, breaking-and-entering too! You big dumb rug!" @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

There was a literal skip to her step as Alys followed Greybok into the Toydarian's shop, excited at the prospect of figuring out what the little droid was capable of once they were done with the Toydarian. Everyone liked new toys, and if you were as young as she was then sometimes they were literal toys.

She stood by in silence as Greybok dealt with the Toydarian, managing to stop him from calling in the authorities, smiling politely through the whole incident. Though the Wookiee could be positively terrifying if he wanted to, Twobee's commentary through it all kept the younger rebel well entertained. The Toydarian though, if he had taken notice of Alys through it all, would have thought her a crackpot for finding amusement in what was a good old shakedown.

"We have a proposition for you Master Bibb." Alys stepped up when Twobee asked her to negotiate with the Troydarina, trying to put on her most intimidating face, not sure how good of a job she was doing. But short as she was, even she towered over the Toydarian, and with Greybok besides her she was sure they were doing really well as a group on the intimidation front. "Tatooine isn't as safe as it used to be, thugs abound." Her smile deepened as she noticed the Toydarian glance at Greybok, so far so good. "We offer our protection, in exchange of a small payment."

The Toydorian didn't seem entirely convinced, but neither did it look like he was rejecting the proposition out of the bat. He probably still felt Greybok's hands on his throat, and when he finally spoke up he sounded cautious, but possibly amiable.

"Payment? What sort of payment?" Alys smiled as she glanced at Greybok, gesturing with a slight tilt of the head, asking him to ask for his upgrades. She hadn't really expected her stupid plan to work, but now that it had she hoped that Grey would play along. Conning the Toydarian did feel a little wrong to her, but there was also an odd rush in the lie, and for now she wanted to focus on that.

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

Greybok was still quiet angry and made it known with his excessive bleeting. Twobee made up for this by translating as best she could. "The Wookiee says that he heard you have a groundsweeper light cannon," she explained. "He wishes to acquire that from you in exchange for not crushing your trachea again." Greybok added something in his native tongue and Twobee repeated in Basic: "He also says 'what the girl said.' Though, if I were you, sir, I would trust neither of them with your security."

"I concur with the droid. I don't need your protection." His voice was still hoarse and he was still rubbing his throat. He turned to Alys. "I work for the Hutts, girl. Even Mandalorians wouldn't dare cross me on this planet. Now, get out of my shop!"

Greybok reached into a pouch on his armor and produced some credits. He then howled at Genko as Twobee translated. "He also says he can pay you the legal way," she explained. "Though why he didn't say that before escapes me... He has enough credits."

But Genko was adamant. "I don't want his credits, either! The credits of a Wookiee are useless to me! Now... GET OUT!"

Moments later, Greybok was fuming outside of the shop. Granted, he was lucky Genko hadn't called the security forces, but they still didn't have their ship part and night was fast falling on Anchorhead. There was only one plan he could think of that would suffice. He bleated at Alys and Twobee sighed. "He says he wants to wait until after the suns set and steal the part." She said it hushed, for once, so that no one overheard. "He claims to be strong enough to haul it out on his own, he just needs you for backup. Honestly, Mistress Alys, don't go along with this. We're going to end up in a Hutt jail!" @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

"No," replied Alys as Twobee voiced her concerns about ending up in Hutt prison, "no we're not!"

There was a smile on her face as Alys followed Grey out of the Toydarian's shop, a content, self-satisfied smile. Once they were far enough away from the shop, she fished something out of her pocket and handed a small datacard to Grey. "I swiped that when that xenophobic moron wasn't looking, we can just stroll into his shop, disable all his alarms, and be in and out without anyone being the wiser."

The Toydarian had been so caught up in shouting and asking them to leave, he hadn't noticed when Alys had picked up the datacard, and now thy had the keys to his shop to come back and take whatever they wanted. She would have liked it if the Toydarian had been willing to sell to them, but seeing him treat Grey the way he did she was more than happy to steal from him. Some people just deserved the things that came their way, and the vile little dung fairy most definitely deserve this.

"Come on, we need to pass some time till we can come back, right? You can buy me a meal for being so awesome, and Twobee can berate me for acting in this unseemly manner." With that she would start leading the way towards one of the nearby cantinas, one whose deserts she favored.

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

Yep. Greybok really liked this girl. Twobee, not so much. She reminded the droid too much of the Wookiee she was strapped to—only smaller and not as hairy. But, no matter what Twobee thought, Greybok agreed. The girl had done good and he was going to treat her to a meal before their big heist later in the night. Barking loudly, he motioned for her to follow him so that Twobee didn't even need to translate; then, he began to lead her towards the cantina of his choice.

Cantina Music​

The cantina was bustling when Greybok entered. The bartender took one look at the Wookiee (who had an odd nose deformity), then down at the droid strapped to his chest. "We don't serve their kind here!" the bartender shouted out. Greybok shouted back something that equated to "I don't either" in his native tongue. Then, before Twobee could protest, he unstrapped her and tossed her head over his shoulder so that she landed in a corner near the door.

"GREYBOK!" the droid shrieked. "Come back for me this instant! What if somebody steals me?!"

Greybok chuckled at the thought of that. Anyone who stole Twobee would give her back or smash her. Either way, Grey didn't exactly care. He ushered Alys towards a seat and waved over a waiter. He barked his order to the waiter in his native tongue and, miraculously, the waiter understood him. More beings understood Wookiees the further out in the Outer Rim you got. He then gestured for Alys to order whatever she liked. @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Settling into a seat, trying to understand what Greybok had just ordered, Alys ordered her favorite desert when the waiter turned to her. It was the middle of the day, this was effectively her lunch, but what was the point of being alive if you couldn't have a huge-ass ice-cream sundae when you wanted to?

With Twobee deposited at the entrance, she wasn't sure how much of a conversation the two of them could have, as limited as her Shyriiwook was, and she actually felt a moment of worry for the droid. "Are you sure Twobee will be safe there? I've heard all sorts of stories about Tatooine."

Of course that was when their waitered returned with their food, setting their plates down and giving her a particularly dirty look. She was glad of the fact that she had pissed him off after he had brought out her food. She had heard all sorts of stories about that as well.

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

Greybok chuckled in his deep Wookiee voice. He had spent the last several weeks on Tatooine with all the Alliance operations going on in the sector and had heard a number of stories about the planet before then. It was rough—not as rough as some of the planets he had seen in his day, but rough nonetheless. And, yeah, there were droid-snatchers on Tatooine. Jawas, mainly, but anyone looking to sell droids for spare parts to local junkers were known to pluck them where they could. Thing was, Greybok didn't necessarily care about Twobee, nor did Twobee care about him.

Their relationship was... complicated. It was symbiotic, in some sense, in that she was his voice and he was her, well... he was her ride. But she had served the slavers that had kept Greybok and his family in chains. She was party to the same people who had separated him from his mate—the mate he had not seen since the slave revolt. So, while he was certain no one would steal her (and would likely give her back if they did), he didn't particularly care if they did. Protocol droids were easy to come by, after all. Especially in the parts.

But the Wookiee didn't tell her any of this. In Shyriiwook, he simply barked back something to the effect of "Don't worry, she'll be fine," and left it at that. His food arrived shortly thereafter, and he was glad to see it. He was famished and he rarely got to sit down and enjoy a good meal. But it didn't take long for his mind to wander back to the task at hand.

The Starbird needed a lot of modifications and he was only one Wookiee—a good Wookiee, and a good mechanic at that, but one nonetheless. One of the astrodroids he had seen at the shop would probably be generic enough to work. He made a mental note to snatch one tonight (which was fast approaching) as they ate. The meal was relatively quick. Greybok scarfed his food and drink down, and then simply sat back and waited for Alys to finish so that they could get to work.

In the meantime, he glanced over at the door where he had dropped his droid's head. The droid was screaming uncontrollably. "Greybock! Greybok, come get me you big, mangey oaf!" A Kowakian monkey-lizard, likely a pet of another patron, had taken an interest in the droid's head. It was busy trying to pick one of Twobee's photoreceptors out of its socket. The monkey laughed maliciously as it did the deed. "My eye! Oh, the horror!"

Greybok sighed. He supposed he'd better go rescue her. Hauling himself up, he motioned and told Alys he'd be right back, then lumbered off after the droid. @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Seeing Grey attack his food, Alys was reminded of how hungry she was and began wolfing spoonfuls of the sundae into her mouth. She was tempted to ask Grey if he was sure about Twobee, but she had literally bitten off too much of her meal too quickly, and found herself in the midst of a brain freeze. Taking a break from her meal, she squinted her eyes and shook her head as she waited for the pain behind her eyes to subside, but the moment it was gone she was once more attacking the sundae, though this time she was a little more measure with her pace.

She was about to finish off her meal when Twobee finished her meal, and Aly looked over a spoonful of ice cream to see her being manhandled by a kowakian monkey-lizard. She physically cringed, the ice cream suddenly losing its flavor in her mouth. She had had a bad encounter with one of those creatures as a child, and it had left her with a lifelong dislike of the little beasts. As Grey went off to rescue Twobee, a part of her almost wished that he would toss the monkey-lizard out of the cantina.

But though seeing the creature had somewhat affected her appetite, it hadn't really killed it, so she picked up the sundae and went after Grey. Bowl full of ice=cream in one hand, spoon in the other, she navigated through the crowd towards Twobee, and quickly caught up to Grey. "Just so you know, I hate monkey-lizards. If that thing's done anything to Twobee then I'm gonna make it pay." She didn't really feel that strongly about Twobee being harmed, but she did feel strongly about monkey-lizards being harmed, and the sugar-high from eating an entire sundae was making it hard for her to just sit around and do nothing when she could be finally getting her revenge on a monkey-lizard.

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

But Alys had no need to make the monkey pay. Greybok did it for her. He managed to reach Twobee before the monkey-lizard could pull the photoreceptor from the socket and picked the little cretin up around the neck. He then casually flicked it against the adobe wall of the cantina, where it shrieked and then began to laugh maniacally once again.

"Oh, thank the Maker!" Twobee whined as Greybok hoisted her back up onto his bandolier. But she immediately began complaining again. "What took you so long, Greybok?! You were over there stuffing your big, hairy face while I was being dissected and—" Greybok howled at her to shut up and motioned for Alys to follow him. He headed straight for the door, all while Twobee screeched, "But, wait, Greybok! You didn't pay!"

* * *​

When they got outside, night was falling on Tatooine. It was time to put their plan into action. But, they didn't exactly have a plan, so Greybok came up with one as they walked back towards the shop. He barked his orders to Alys, while Twobee translated in the closest thing to a whisper as a droid was capable. "He says it should be simple. We'll use the key to get in and then, since the Wookiee is the strongest one here, he'll carry the gun-mod out while you act as lookout." Greybok added something in Shyriiwook and Twobee sighed. "He also claims to have seen a B-series astro-droid in that shop and wants you to remove its restraining bolt and convince it to come with us. Honestly, this plan is sounding worse by the second! What do you need an astro-droid for, Greybok!"

Greybok barked loudly and angrily at the droid's head. "A co-pilot?! You have me, you big, dumb ape!" The Wookiee wouldn't budge and kept arguing with the droid loudly in his native language. "I don't see what my inability to make ship-repairs has to do with anything, frankly! It's your fault I don't have arms!"

The trio of rebels reached the junkyard shop by the time the moon had risen high over the desert sky and Anchorhead had become both still and quiet. Well, quiet except for Twobee, who didn't seem to know the meaning of the word. Greybok quietly yelped an order to Twobee who relayed it to Alys. "He says: 'You know what to do.' And, just for me, please don't mess this up." @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

As Grey walked out after rescuing Twobee, Alys finished the last of her sundae and dropping the bowl on a nearby table, threw the spoon at the monkey-lizard as she ran out after Grey. She really did hate the creepy little things.

She heard Twobee spell out Grey's plan as they walked towards the store, nodding along as she tried to avoid stepping on anything sticky and stinky on the ground in the darkness. At one point she did burst out laughing rather loudly when Twobee started complaining about Grey being responsible for her limblessness, but it didn't look like that attracted any attention so they continued making their way towards the store.

Once they were at the store, she slipped the access card across the control panel next to the store's entrance and stepped back as the locks holding the door slicked open. She smiled at Grey and Twobee as the door swung open noiselessly, despite his other faults, the Toydarian did maintain a clean and well oiled shop. "B-series droid, restraining bolt, no noise. Got it! I'll even keep the restraining bolt if you wanna test it on Twobee!" With that she let out a mischevious chuckle as she ran into the store, looking for the droid Grey wanted.

It didn't take quiet as long as she wanted, as the astromech was fairly easy to spot, so while Grey went looking for the canon he wanted, she stepped up to the droid and removing a knife from her pouch, slid it under the restraining bolt and began trying to pry it off. That was when the droid woke up and started ritating its head to figure out what was happening. But the moment Alys managed to get the restraining bolt off it began chattering. "Bleep brrro Bwa-woop?"

Alys glanced out instinctively, scared that someone might have heard the droid, even though she knew that there was no one else in the store besides her, Grey, and Twobee. Months of hiding and running away at the slightest risk of discovery had made her more than a little jumpy. "Quiet down little one, you've been freed, you're coming with us." The droid beeped and booped once more, and she guessed he wanted to know who was freeing her, or maybe it was asking about the Toydarian being its rightful master, Alys wasn't really good at droidspeak. Well, she knew noting of the language. But she didn't really leave the droid much choice as she started ushering him towards the entrance. "You'll get to fly an amazing ship, no more sitting around in a dingy little store, you'll love it!" That got it beeping excitedly, which Alys hoped was a sign that her mention of flying had won it over, though it was just as likely that it was scared of flying and she had just scared him out of his sockets!

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

Once inside, it didn't take the Wookiee long to locate the gun mod he had eyed earlier in the day. There was some computer panels and wiring that went with it—likely the components he needed to allow the gun to be operated from the cockpit. And, with the little astromech's help and his own ship repair knowledge, he could easily install the weapon himself. Now, it was just a matter of getting it out of there quietly.

First, he put the panels and wiring he needed in the many large pouches on his armor. Then, using his considerable Wookiee strength, he began to hoist the gun attachment itself up out of a junkpile. He was careful not to cause too much noise, but, there was some clanking as smaller parts fell away. Mercifully, though, the noise was inconsequential and the streets were too empty, so nobody heard. Once he was sure of it, he headed back inside the main shop.

He spotted Alys right away with the B-series he had requested; and, while he loathed to add another droid to his little crew, at least this one wasn't an Imperial model who helped slavers. He softly hooted something to the girl to indicate to her that it was time to go, then began to make his way towards the door. There was only one hurdle left: making it to the spaceport.

Fortunately, Tatooine wasn't a very law-abiding place. If there was any security, they could be paid off or scared away by Wookiee fists. But Greybok didn't think there would be any at this time of night. So, sticking his head out the door to check if the cost was clear, he began to make his way towards their intended destination with all of his motley crew in toe. @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alsy was still trying to talk with the droid when Grey returned, now weighed down by the cannon they had come for. As he called out to let he know that it was time to leave, she began ushering the droid towards the entrance, which it did with more beeps and doots.

Coming to a stop at the entrance, waiting for Grey to make sure that it was safe to leave, having gone through all this trouble, they wouldn't want it all to go to waste by attacking unwanted attention while making their escape. As they waited she tried to keep the droid quiet, the little thing seemed to be getting more excited by the minute on being caught up in so much activity.

As they made for the spaceport, Greybok in the lead, the droid had finally had enough and began making even more of a ruckus, and Alys had simply no idea what it was saying, Desperate to get the droid to shut up before anyone heard them, she didn't even realize that Twobee could probably understand what the droid was saying and could have calmed it down, instead pushing her hand back into her pouch and pulling out the restraining bolt she had removed from the droid. "You better shut up or I'm slapping this on again and pulling out all your wires."

She had no intention of doing either, but the droid didn't know that, and though she couldn't understand it, it could understand her perfectly. The thread did the trick and the droid fell silent at once. "Sorry," she said to Grey as she began pushing the droid to move again, "I think that's the worst of it."

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

Greybok was fairly sure that their troubles were over until they actually reached the spaceport and were almost immediately confronted by thugs. These thugs, most of them large, burly Rodians, were the closest thing to "spaceport security" that Anchorhead had.

<<Where do you think you're going with that, sleemo?>> the lead Rodian thug said. <<That doesn't look like something that belongs to you. I'll bet my sister's mechanical right-arm on that.>>

Greybok sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was choke a couple of Rodians out right here in the threshold to the spaceport. He carefully hoisted the gun mod down and sat it on the ground. He then used one hairy hand to re-activate Twobee's vocabulator and barked orders at the droid-head before she could begin to ramble. She grumbled to herself, but translated as promised.

<<Good evening, gentlemen,>> she said in the Rodian tongue. <<You appear to be in our way. Please remove yourself from our path. I'm quite certain you don't want any of the trouble my furry friend here could cause you.>>

The Rodian cocked his head. <<There are six of us. What are you? A couple of droids, a little girl, and a giant teddy bear? I don't know.>> He brandished a blaster pistol. <<I think I like our odds better.>>

Now it was Twobee's turn to sigh. <<Sir or ma'am, have you ever seen what a Wookiee's ryyk blade does to flesh and bone? Or what a Wookiee is able to do to an arm-still-in-its-socket with his bare hands? I assure you it's not pretty.>> Greybok snarled and, for emphasis, put a hand on the hilt of his blade. <<You have six. That is not enough. Come back with four more and Greybok here might break a sweat.>>

One of the other Rodians leaned in and whispered, <<The droid tells the truth. I've heard stories about a Wookiee's strength. I'm not about to be carved up over a rusted gun modification.>>

<<I... I see your point.>> The Rodian began to back up. <<We'll pretend we didn't see anything... this time. But come around here again and there will be more than just six of us you have to deal with.>>

"There, see, Greybok? Everything turned out well." Greybok barked at Twobee to shut up and picked up his gun attachment again, then motioned to Alys. "Fine. Ungrateful brute. Come, Mistress Alys. I could use an oil bath."

And they were on their way.

The End​