Centrality Meeting

[Hask Jen]

Oseon/Centrality Astroyards​

13:10 local time​

As always, Hask wasn't sure what he signed up for. Of course that came with being a mercenary. He wasn't paid to ask questions, he was paid to get the designated job done. Usually that meant killing this guy or blowing that place up. But every once in a while he had to take a more diplomatic approach.

This was one such time.

He was tasked to negotiate a deal with one of the big fish at Centrality Astroyards. It should be simple enough. Walk in, flash some charm, use a mind trick or two on the guy, secure the deal, get paid. Easy peasy. What was interesting, though, was the fact that his compatriot for this mission was a Jedi. Though he had a bit of a bad experience with Jedi recently on Mandalore, he was well past that. Unlike then, he was relaxed and not in a raging, bloodthirsty rampage. He could roll with a Jedi on this one. Besides, they were usually a lot more diplomatic than him.

He disembarked his ship, locked it up and made his way to the entrance of the building by the landing pad. Once there he rested against the wall and waited for his companion to arrive.

@Algarus

OOC: Dice thread

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

When Tycho had asked her for a favor, Ash thought it would just be something like 'can you mention this to the flight crew' or 'hey, can you help me move the couch in my quarters.' If she'd have known she'd b flying out to a shipyard to help with a 'favor', she might have reconsidered agreeing to it. Still, she had no choice in the matter now, as her shuttle touched down on the landing pad, as she calmly collected her gear and strode down the ramp. She wondered what Tycho had meant by telling her to 'play nice'. She never had issues with anyone, if anything people had issues with her; what with the whole 'jedi exile incident' and what have you. She soon realized what he meant, when she found a pureblood waiting for her.

At that, she froze and tilted her head, though she showed no sign of aggression; rather a great deal of confusion. Her attire made her look to be more befitting of a smuggler or mechanic. After overcoming her confusion, she would approach Hask, hydrospanner on her belt, blaster pistol on her hip holster; with a lightsaber no where in sight. "You wouldn't happen to be 'Hask' would you?" She asked, approaching him with only a hint of skepticism, which would soon dissipate once he affirmed who he was. To Hask, the jedi before him would bare a strange familiarity to a friend of his, though it was very clear this wasn't her. Ashlyna offered him her hand, offering to shake it. She didn't care what the man looked like, if he was doing this sort of work he was probably an exile just like her. "Ashlyna Talmount, at your service."

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

Hask looked up when he felt the girl's presence and had to do a double take. She looked eerily similar to Arial, but he knew at least she wasn't. It would be funny, though, if they were related. But after a few seconds he figured out where else he had seen this Jedi.

"Yeah, that's me." he answered casually. "Pleasure to meet you." he said as he shook her hand. "Come on, let's go." he said, nodding towards the door. He led the way into the building, looking around a bit. "You know, we met before, you and I." he commented as he walked. "Many years ago on some backwater planet. Bunch of Mandalorians were shooting up the place." he explained, giving a slight chuckle.

They arrived at the reception desk and were quickly escorted to the office of the person they needed to talk to. In the office they were told to have a seat. Hask made himself comfortable as he waited patiently for the arrival of the representative. He had no idea what to expect, so he figured it would be best to wait and see what they were working with before trying to work out a strategy. At least he was good at improvising.

After a few minutes a man dressed in a suit walked in with a datapad in hand. "Alright, let's get down to business. Deals like this aren't exactly what we're known for." he commented, taking a seat behind his desk. It was only after paying attention to who his clients were that he tensed up. "...Isn't the idea to do this without the Sith Empire catching on to you?" he asked Ashlyna, eyeing the Pureblood.

"I can promise you, they're the last people I'd be telling about all this." Hask said honestly. Though unfortunately it wasn't good enough for the representative. "Uh huh? Sure. I'm gonna have to ask you to wait outside while I'm talking to your friend here." he said flatly. Hask sighed and cast a look to Ashlyna, hoping she could do something to keep him around. If not, he was going to need to find another way of helping her out.

@Algarus

Spoiler: dice

Roll to convince the rep that Hask isn't a spy. Using level 3 modifier (Mild fail)

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

Ash tilted her head at the Sith, not recalling what he was on about. It took a moment of staring, but eventually the memory clicked. "Ohhhh, right! That was you? You must have lost weight or something, hardly recognized you!" She said, finding only a tiny bit awkward that they had this second meeting. The pair went inside only to be escorted to some other room. It was a decent office, she had certainly seen better, but Hask already plopped down in a chair, waiting for their representative to arrive. Once he had, she was starting to wish he hadn't. The man made a comment about the Sith, almost intentionally trying to insult Hask. Well that's just rude, she thought, before sharing her thoughts on this.

"Well you're in luck, my partner isn't working for them." Ashlyna affirmed, tilting her head for maximum attitude. It was unusual to have a pureblood be present, especially one that wasn't with the Sith, but still it was insanely rude for this man to pull this. Hask tried to defend himself as well, but the man wasn't having it. When he suggested Hask wait outside, Ash had had enough. Standing up, Ash glared down at the man behind the desk. She didn't play like that, and it was time to let this suit wearing Square to get with the program. "If he goes I go. Put your garbage opinions to the side, or we are both walking." Ash pointed to Hask, her voice raising in tone as she channeled her inner sass. "This man right here is your client, as am I. If you can't show him the same manner of respect as me, then we have no buisness here. We clear?" She reaffirmed, glaring into the mans soul, wanting an awnser, with full intention to leave this room without a deal. The man seemed a little taken aback, as he looked between Hask and Ash, before clearing his throat. "Oh, well, we certainly don't want that now do we? Say we try and put that behind us? Now, um....where were we, erm...sir?" Ash rolled her eyes, it wasn't much but it was a start, as she took her seat, letting Hask get the talks opened now that things were kinda back to normal.

Roll

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

Hask had to hide his smile as he watched Ashlyna fly into the man. She gave her ultimatum which seemed to get the message through quite clearly to the pompous businessman. He quickly withdrew his order and Hask relaxed, casting a thanking glance at Ashlyna. Now they could get down to business.

The man asked where they were and Hask eyed him for a second. "We're here over the shipment of fighters. You have the details that we sent you. All we have to discuss now is the price." he explained calmly and professionally.

He shifted in his seat, dribbling his fingers lightly on his leg. "Now, how about we talk discount? Given it's a very large order you won't be losing out on much. I'd imagine this order will be bringing in some very nice profit for your company. So a slight drop in margin won't hurt that badly." he explained as he looked at the man. While he dribbled his fingers, he focused the force. He reached out with the action into the man's head, trying to make him more susceptible to the idea.

It worked like a charm, as he knew it would. "Uhhh...yeah. Sure. You definitely have a point. I guess we can work something out, no problem." he said with a smile, looking between the merc and the Jedi. Hask decided to leave the specifics to Ashlyna. Since this was for her people, she could take it further.

@Algarus

Spoiler: dice

Roll to use a mind trick on the man to make him more susceptible for a discount. (success)

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

This meeting seemed to be going better than she thought, as they seemed to finally be making ground. Her companion turned the details of the deal over to Ash, and she froze for a split second, her mind trying to think of what exactly she was supposed to tell the man. She was a mechanic, not a buisness woman. "Right, so..." She stumbled into an amazing start, as she looked around room, trying to find a clue on what the hell she needed to say. Then it clicked with her. Use percentages! Buisness guys loved that! "As my associate said, we just need to increase the production of your facility by about 15% for the quarter, with an annual 20% boost as the year goes on. You'll more than make up for your losses. In fact, you'll make so much more there's next to no lost income!" She remarked, leaning back in the chair, smile ablaze as she felt like she owned it. She did not.

The man tilted his head back, tilted his head and shook it with a clear sign of disapproval. "I'm sorry, but I'd need to actually see those figures you are suggesting to me. What exactly are you wanting to do with my facilities?" He asked softly, as the jedi knight sunk just a tad in her chair. Alright, maybe she went a little hard on the percentages.

Roll

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

Suddenly Hask dematerialized and in his place materialized the armoured form of Sumas. What happened, nobody would know. All that mattered now was that they needed to secure this deal.

Ashlyna kind of butchered the attempt of getting a discount. Sumas, his helmet in his lap, sat and gave the Jedi a look. He looked back to the businessman and cleared his throat. "What my friend meant to say is that we'd like whatever discount works best for you. If those rates are way too steep for you, feel free to adjust." Sumas explained calmly. "As for your facility, we'd like to have you supply the Galactic Alliance with starfighters. This first batch with a steady stream of more as the need for them arises. Of course that might be changing depending on how things go for them." he continued, sitting forward a bit.

The man's gaze turned to him and didn't look too pleased at all. "So you're telling me you want a discount...then boss my workers around as you see fit?" he asked rather harshly. Sumas' confidence flew out the window with that. He wasn't a talker! He was a Mandalorian! He blew stuff up for a living, not this nonsense.

If things were going to keep going downhill, he might need to step up his persuasion.

@Algarus

Spoiler: dice

Roll to rectify the horrible discount percentages and hopefully win the guy over. Using level 2 modifier (Mild fail)

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

Ash didn't bat an eye as she looked to Sumas, watching as the man single handedly destroyed every single ounce of good will they had been building up to that point. She mentally screamed to herself as the idiot came off with the wrong tone, sending the buisness man off the deep end as he would think they were aiming to steal his buisness from him.

Grabbing the bridge of her nose, Ash let out a small sigh, maybe digging into the force a tad to sooth a headache that was starting to come on. "Absolutely not sir, you see." Ash held out her palm towards Sumas, as if commanding him to keep his ass in that chair. "We are looking to buy in bulk, as such we are asking if we can settle on a lower cost per fighter, given we will be sharing a great deal of buisness with you. An incentive to continue the buisness with you." "You are asking me to devalue my product for your benefit." "Well yes, but actually no. We can handle some aspects of the production, such as delivery and what have you, but we are asking to have a discount from the fact we are looking to make a long term contract, with permission to moderate the outflow of ships. Essentially asking you to keep your lines of production in shift for a mere minute of the quarter. Minuscule honestly." Ash had used up every big fancy corporate term she knew, and hoped it would be enough. As luck would have it, it was. The man still seemed reluctant, but the chance he was going to throw them out of the office seemed less likely. "I understand the need for your group, but I'm less keen on carrying this out of I'm being frank." Ash took in a little breath, feeling she just saved the talks. If Sumas kept this up though they were screwed. "Hence why it was just a suggestion, this is a meeting after all, so we're working towards a middle ground." Ash hated this crap, why did she get stuck with the corporate talks again?

Roll: success

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

Sumas sat frozen in place, watching as Ashlyna solved the problem and diffused the situation. He almost ruined it but thankfully she was a persuasive woman. She managed to win the man over and save Sumas' backside again.

He breathed a sigh of relief then shifted in his seat. "So like she said. We can take care of all the rest. We just need the fighters built and a bit of a discount on the order." he explained again, hoping he could wrap this mess up. The man eyed him and Ashlyna for a long time before he finally sighed. "Fine. You got a deal." he said miserably. He pointed to Sumas then at her. "However, I never want to see your faces here again. Now leave. I have a contract to set up." he said with venom in his words. With that he turned to his datapad and got to work.

Without any more questions, Sumas took his helmet and left the building. Outside he waited for Ashlyna. "Could have gone worse." he admitted with a nervous chuckle.

@Algarus

Spoiler: dice

Roll to try and seal the deal. (Barely a success)

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

Ash sunk into her chair as Sumas did the one thing she didn't want him to do; open his mouth. Maybe her words had talked the man into just taking the deal, or maybe he just wanted to get rid of the pair as quick as possible, but thank the force the man agreed. Given the ultimatum about never being seen again, Ash was more than fine with that, this guy was an ass anyways. Standing up, she gave the man a two finger salute and practically skipped out of the meeting room. "Were you sent here to screw up the talks, or are you just that hard headed?" Ash asked, more with a teasing tone than aiming to be offensive; though given how thin skinned Mandos were, she expected him to take offense.

"Well, the important thing is, that it's over, so good job. You didn't blow the office up, and still got the job done." Which to a Mandalorian, must have been an alien concept. Standing outside of the building, Ash put her hands on her hips, glad she didn't have to whip out a lightsaber to solve this issue. She gripped Sumas' hand, shaking it. "Well, it was mighty fine working with you sire. Just try and pull your head out of your helmet every now and then." From all the things Ash heard about Mandos, they didn't seem that bad. Heck, maybe they could get along after all.

/end thread

@KinkyPrawn