#casper yaewn

[spacelingart]

A Casps for @saljamka :)

[araneoluslegacy]

A Business Proposal

@saljamka‘s Casps goes to meet @lisjonok‘s Djonwi about a business proposal.

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The doorbell to Djonwi’s office rang and the cyborg pushed himself up from his desk. After asking his toddler Feen to please stay at the desk for a moment while he sees to his customer three times he finally makes it to the door. “I come, be patient!” He says as he steps over and around all the boxes, and crates, and wires that littered his work and storage space.

The Twi’lek opens the door and smiles brightly at the Mirialan that had been waiting behind it, greeting him quite loudly with, “Allo, mah dai pateessa!” Without any warning he shot a hand out at the man to shake his hand too strongly and then beckoned him instead.

Casps stood still, not quite inside, for a couple of seconds while the aftershocks of the handshake subsided. The small child craned her head towards the doorway and him, her bottom lip pushed out as if trying to appraise him from across the room. He gave her a small wink and walked in, hefting a case under one arm, big enough for the child to sit in, if she wanted. Not that that was what it was for.

"Morning?" It was very much meant to be a question.

“Mmm-yep, be still morning!” Djonwi says, grinning, after glancing at the chrono in his goggles. He shuts the door behind Casps, after double-checking that nobody else was snooping around outside, and then turns on his heels. “What bring you all ze way down ‘ere, ah? Somesing you look to buy, pateessa? Or...” He cranes to take a peek at the case Casps was holding, and then stepped around him to lead the way through the obstacle course that was his storeroom to the table in the back. “Or you are ‘ere to sell somesing?”

"Both, if you're up for it." Casps kept his line of sight down towards the floor with the very real threat of some odd or end being in the perfect place to trip him over. He lifted his free hand, running it along the closest set of shelves for just an extra touch of security, hopefully not knocking anything off them in the process. The contents of the box rattled, or more properly, clinked as he walked. "But I wouldn't think less of you if you weren't."

Feen, who had been watching them both the entire time, noticed something long and swishy from the corner of her eye. She stood up quickly, both hands planted firmly on the desk as she stared up towards the top of shelves.

“Both be ree luto wis me,” Djonwi said with a smile. He patted Feen on the head and then moved some of the mugs and datapad and comlink parts from the table, but leaving a space for Feen’s cup and toys. The table wasn’t small, it was just organised exceptionally poorly. Djonwi then patted the cleared part of the table for Casps to set his case down. “Ah, zis mah little girl Feen. She be mah assistant today,” he chuckled. “I send Zel off to do some errand.”

"A very observant assistant, too." Casps said, glancing up towards where Feen was still staring. He set the case down on the desk with no real ceremony, apparently nothing inside was that breakable or explodable. "I bet she's the real brains behind all this." He said, gesturing around the room.

“Oh, tagwa, she keep all ze sing running!” Djonwi laughs and pats Casps on the back. “So what all you got ‘ere, hmm? Somesing break?”

Above them on the upper shelves someone was waking up. There was a squeaky yawn and then a long red leg stretched out over the edge of the shelf, ending with its toes curling up with a little shiver. After a moment the red Kowakian monkey-lizard Camawee sat upright and peered over the edge of the shelf at his handler, the miniature handler, and a walking green thing.

With a sudden and loud cackle Camawee announced his new waking state and leapt swiftly down the shelves before hopping and landing quite lightly onto Djonwi’s shoulder. He gave a squawk of a hello at Feen and dropped his tufted tail down, and then eyed Casps with incredible suspicion, making small chittering noises as if he were grumbling in displeasure.

Feen gasped and bounced in place with a wide grin, hands still planted on the desk which only helped her jump higher. Nearly jumping right onto the table when Camawee decided to grace them with his presence, Feen reached up and grasped the end of Camawee's tail. Of course the best thing to do with a monkey-lizard's tail is to tickle your own face with it. So that's exactly what she did.

"Technically, but not how you mean." Casps gave the monkey-lizard the barest of side-glances and nodded towards the case, before checking it was safe to lean back against the nearest shelf without the entire thing collapsing. "It's just datachips. They're taking up space and I want to use this case for something else."

“Hmm,” Djonwi leaned on the table a bit and picked up a couple of the datachips to briefly inspect them. There wasn’t anything interesting or peculiar about them — at least not on the outside. “So I assume since you bring zem to me zey no blank, yes? Or I misunderstand? Because erasing or encrypting zem more, well…”

Camawee meanwhile had simply been observing both the two men and the case. He leaned over dangerously to sniff at the datachips in Djonwi’s hand and then somewhat grinned at Casps and made a gesture for “money” with his long-fingered hands. The monkey-lizard gave another cackle, a quieter one this time, and then hopped down onto the table closer to Feen as she was giving him positive attentionanyway but initially acted as though he was looking for food.

"I do all my own erasing and encrypting." Casps said simply, waving one hand in a dismissive gesture. "Probably won't get a lot for them here, but someone on Coruscant might be interested." Casps continued, keeping things vague for now. "The hard part is finding the right person, but I feel like you're good at finding the right buyers for niche products. You can check one if you like, though it might not make a lot of sense without a context."

Feen let go of the tail and leaned over to wrap both arms around Camawee gently, he was her friend and friends needed hugs. She set her chin on top of the monkey-lizard's head and looked up at the others. "Watcha got?" she asked.

“Tchoo-gat! Tchoo-gat!” Camawee squawks and cackles, the tuft of blue-black hair on his head tickling the tike’s face.

“Little chip wis much-much information,” Djonwi says to Feen with a smile. He then nods and puts the datachips back, turning to Casps again. “Yes, yes, I can find you buyer for zis for small percentage,” he says with a little somewhat mischievous smile. “Just let me know—” He stops and glances back at Feen before looking at Casps again, continuing, “Let me know in private what be on zem. I check zat none empty later. I no need very detail but I cannot find buyer without know general idea of information, yes?”

Feen squealed, rubbing her chin on Camawee's head, half to stop the tickles and half as awkward pats. Casps, on the other hand, squinted very slightly, almost too slight to see. What could be seen was the nodding. "The fewer the better. I'm painfully aware of where we are but I figure you'd want to hold off on her seeing or hearing some things until about..." he gave Feen a quick look over then back to Djonwi, "a good decade from now."

“Mm-hmm. No best for ‘er to learn mah business right now,” Djonwi said, and then reached down to pat Feen’s head again. “I try to keep more quiet now-days, too. After accident on Hutta an now baby an nonna I got more sing to be careful for!” He gave a little laugh and closed the case for now, partly so that a certain monkey-lizard didn’t pilfer from it. “Anysing else, Caspee?”

"A new lock for the case would be good. I want to be able to throw this out of a window above the smog-line and find it intact wherever it lands, y'know, if that's something you can do." Casps was at least eighty percent sure that it was something Djonwi could do, the other twenty percent was always the naysayer no matter what was happening.

The borgified Twi’lek gave a sudden loud laugh and then patted Casps on the arm — again, a little too hard. “I got much reinforced lock mechanism. I find you somesing!” With that Djonwi stepped past Casps in however little space there was to manoeuvre there and then ducked between some more shelves to rummage through some boxes. “I know zat I got case wis all kind of lock in it… Somewhere ‘ere, I know!”

Camawee juts his head out from under Feen’s for a moment as he watches his handler run off and then listens as a few things fall off the shelf or are shoved around. He makes a mental note what aisle it is so that he could go later and find the fallen and likely forgotten products. The monkey-lizard chitters and squawks apologetically to Feen for his sudden movements and then tucked his head back under hers; his beady little eyes, however, fall on Casps and stay on him fixated.

"Take your time." Casps said, though with the clattering racket that Djonwi was in the midst of it might not have been heard. The Mirialan ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face, the monkey-lizard's gaze not going unnoticed. He stared back for a second, then took a credit chip out of his pocket and flicked it towards Camawee, already looking back towards where his pink Twi'lek friend had went before it landed.

It only took a split second before he realised it was taking just a little too long actually do so. He turned his head back to the two at the desk and scanned the area for the fallen chip, brows raising slowly when he spotted it. Spinning slowly in mid air, wending it's leisurely path towards the desk. The tiny Twi'lek sat with both her hands out, as if grabbing for it. Her tongue sticking out in concentration.

She flicked her gaze back to Casps and audibly gasped, both hands clasped over her mouth soon after as the chip started to fall again. Once more, it didn't reach the ground. Casps leaned forward quickly and caught it in mid air, this time setting it down onto the desk quietly in front of her and Camawee.

"Your girl is..." He started, Feen almost whined behind her hands. "Very well behaved." Casps continued, giving her a small smile and a wink, before a gentle pat on the head.

The monkey-lizard’s ears sprang up and he was just about ready to launch out at the Mirialan, but upon his friendly reaction to his miniature-handler he let his ears drop down again; he did, however, gently curl his long tail around Feen’s arm and didn’t take his eyes off Casps for even a second.

“Yes-yes, Feen be ze little angel!” Djonwi says proudly from behind some shelves and smiling to himself. “I sink I be little monster at ‘er age— A-ha! I find!” The Twi’lek, who had managed to climb up a few shelves with the aid of a few precariously stacked boxes, returned to ground level with a thump and the clinking of contents of the box. He brought it over the table, and set it down, and opened the latches.

Inside the box was an array of different locks for various purposes such as doors, cases, windows, even modifications for existing security keypads. Djonwi removed the top tray of top-of-the-line products and set it aside to reveal his most-toppest-of-the-line products that were hidden underneath. These looked heavy-duty; they were new, carefully packed, and obviously would cost one a pretty penny.

“Zis like somesing you look for, pateessa?” Djonwi asked and took a couple locks out of the box, holding them out to Casps.

He nodded slowly, taking one in each hand to look them over. "The creds on the desk are for your girl and her little friend, by the way. Not that I think you'd pocket them for yourself, just get them something nice." Casps turned both locks over, he knew what he was looking for at least. "Ice cream or some fizzy pop."

"Ice pop! Fizzy cream!" Feen said with a wide smile, too excited to get the words in the right order.

Camawee didn’t bother to even try to parrot Feen this time and just squawked loudly in his excitement for treats, although he hoped his treats were more alcoholic in nature.

“Oh? Of course, zat be nice-nice of you, Caspee,” Djonwi said with some surprise and turned to Feen. “Put creeda in your pocket, baby. I get you an Camawee somesing nice when Zel be back,” he said and smiled at his daughter. He then tapped the box and nodded at his Mirialan customer. “More anozer kind in ‘ere an I got more on shelf for more specific sing— Er, like size, if one ‘ere no fit your case, yes?”

Feen stamped both her feet quickly in place and squeaked, thrilled by just about everything her daddy just said and already imagining a nice afternoon out with everyone. Everyone and ice cream. She held her hand out for a split second then slammed it on top of the money and slid it over towards her, stuffing her hand and the chip into her pocket, patting it in place now that it was safe.

"Right, yeah." Casps allowed himself a small smile towards Feen, before turning back to Djonwi, still half-leaning against the nearest shelf. "Can I try this one on it? Or would that make it was 'second hand' if I didn't take it?" Casps nodded towards the one in his right hand, then at the case.

Djonwi laughed and shook his head. “No, no, go ahead! Be silly to buy product zat no fit. Look like standard case, yes? I sink zese be fit wis no problem.”

"I've dealt with a lot of traders who'd disagree." Casps said, carefully pushing away from the shelf to take the two or three short steps over to the case. Setting the second lock down, he went about trying the other. "Looks like, yes." he nodded, humming under his breath. "What would it take to break this?"

Feen reached past Camawee and picked up a toy. A little action figure. Now that the topic of conversation was more on the business side she'd lost a good bit of interest. She held the little Nautolan in front of Camawee and made quiet pew pew pew, psshhooo, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta noises as she shook it, obviously fighting the giant monkey-lizard it found before it.

Djonwi smiled at Feen before turning his attention back to Casp. He canted his head to the side a bit and thought on that, and then tapped some buttons on the side of his goggles, which brought a menu down in his HUD. “Okay, from mah info ‘ere… It depend what kind force or damage, but it look like unless somebody go to repeatingly knock at it wis heavy mallot, zat it ‘old well for much. Even mallot take over five swing, so I sing dropping it…” Djonwi pauses for a moment as he seems to calculate. “I give it ree good chance zat it stay closed, but I recommend if you know you will throw it to seal case wis adhesive.”

"Hm, is the other one similar?"

“Hmm, I sink zey about equal? Zis one,” Djonwi points to the one in Casps’ hand, “I sink be little better. It can withstand almost five-hundred more pound of pressure.”

"Which would you choose to lock the door to your home?" Casps asked, lifting his head to look Djowni straight in the cybernetic eye.

Djonwi smiles and picks a reinforced door lock from the box. “Zis, because you got lock for case, no door.”

"I walked right into that one, but you do know what I meant." Casps tone sounded a touch exasperated but if he truly was, it didn't make it's way to his face which stayed calm and amiable.

“Ze one you ‘old zat stand more pressure an damage,” Djonwi said with a light shrug. “No can be hundred percent zat it ‘old, but you can buy multiple an do own test.”

He tapped his fingers against the desk while he thought over his options. Raising the lock in his hand, he said, "If you have two of these I'll take them."

Djonwi tries not to smile too much at hearing that Casps would buy more than one. He looks over at the lock the Mirialan was holding, catching the model number, and then fishes out a matching one from the box. “Forty creeda for bot. Zis be fair for you, pateessa?”

"Sounds very fair." Casps said, and held out the credits with no objection. "Now the only thing left to discuss at the current contents, yes?" he looked down to Feen and Camawee. "Are they fine on their own?"

Feen seemed more than content, especially since her little figurine had learned how to fly, firmly secured in her hand as it was.

“Tagwa, zey be luto,” Djonwi said and nodded. He stepped around the table and knelt down to kiss Feen on the head. “Daddy an pateessa go to office for few minute, baby. Camawee watch you. Front door locked, but if somebody knock, tell me, yes?” Camawee looked up between Casps and Djonwi and gave his handler a salute. Feen grinned and took the opportunity to throw her arms around her daddy's neck and squeeze a hug from him.

"Mmkay!" she said, mimicking Camawee's action this time. Casps picked up the case and waited for the go ahead.

Djonwi gave Feen a hug in return and then patted her head. “Good girl! Now be good, we come out in few minute,” he says and stands back up, giving her and Camawee a casual little salute, too. He steps over to the door to his office, opens the door, and then showed Casps inside.

There was a long desk that took up nearly the entire far side of the wall with various computer monitors, supposedly organised piles of flimsi, datapads — some of which were obviously broken — and a few comlink devices. Along with all that were too many mugs for one person to feasibly use at once, an electric tea kettle, and a caf pot. So it was about fifty percent electronics and fifty percent caffeine induction techniques. The light was dim but the monitors seemed to compensate for it.

"Nice little set-up. Pull many all-nighters?" Casps asked after quickly surveying the room. He could have easily seen himself working in a room like this, though the choice of beverage would've been different. He set down the case on the closest and clearest flat surface and opened it up again. He pointed one arm towards it. "Would you like to choose, or shall I?"

Djonwi took another look out at Feen and Camawee, and then closed the door. “Hmm? Oh no, you can pick. An take seat, pateessa!" He said, patting the back of a chair and then going and plopping down in another, which squeaked a little under his weight. "Zis information you gather yourself?"

Casps sat down as heavily as he was able, but being mostly limbs and not much substance, the chair hardly seemed to complain at all. He twisted in place to reach into the case, rummaging through the chips like he was picking the winner of a raffle. "Mhmm, never was in the habit of buying information if I could help it." Finally, he held an unassuming datachip out towards Djonwi. "Nothing against you or your fellow business owners, of course, just a personal preference."

“No offence taken; I no buy information either,” Djonwi grinned and took the datachip off Casps. “Generally, what all zis be, hmm?” He meanwhile took the chip and inserted it into a reader.

"The dirtiest word in the galaxy," he started, leaning back in the chair, elbow rested on the desk. It might have been a bit melodramatic, but he had to admit he did enjoy the overdramatic on occasion. "Politics." Casps raised his other hand before Djonwi could protest. "Technically. You know that one phrase? 'What happens on Nar Shaddaa stays on Nar Shaddaa'? Or was that Zeltron...?" He shook his head, it hardly mattered in this situation. "I'm rambling, excuse me. Generally it's the 'great and the good' not being so great or so good."

“Mm-hmm, I no get mahself wrap up in politics, zat can get you killed.” The Twi’lek tapped a few buttons at the side of his goggles and then looked over the data on his computer screen. “Zer someone you will like me to reach wis zis information?”

"Anyone who'll take it, honestly. Rivals, hunters for some of them, family members, the offending parties themselves." He shrugged. "But like you said, risky business, I won't hold it against you if you don't want part of it. You've got more to consider than I do."

Djonwi nodded and looked over the data further, drumming a couple fingers on his desk. After a moment he pulled up another window to look through potential contacts. “You be right, zis tricky-tricky work. Subject matter no somesing I ree want to be tie up in. ‘Owever…” He swivelled his chair to face Casps again. “I sink I got somebody who can use zis information.”

"Hm," Casps sucked some air in past his teeth, taking just a moment or two to think. "Fair. They're just taking up room anyway."

“Luto, luto…” The Twi’lek looked over at the case again and nodded towards it. “So ‘ow many chip zer be and zey all carry zis much data on zem?”

"Little over a couple dozen, some are more lengthy than others. Shouldn't be any blanks."

Djonwi nodded. “An ‘ow much you look to sell zem to me for?”

"Would you believe me if I said I hadn't really thought that far ahead?" Casps asked, smiling.

“Mm, no. I no believe zis.”

"I'd take that as an insult, but I know better. How about enough for a nice meal and a good drink per chip? Too much?" Casps honestly didn't have much of a clue on how much this kind of information was selling for, and didn't really care a great deal. Nothing about this endeavour was to make himself rich.

Djonwi shrugged and looked back at his monitor again and then ejected the datachip. “Luto, ‘ow seventy-creeda for all zis sound to you?”

"One-twenty."

“Ninety.”

Casps scrunched up his face. "One-ten."

Djonwi paused briefly. “Ninety-five.”

"One hundred and I'll shake your hand." Casps said, already holding his hand out towards him.

“Hmm,” the Twi’lek grumbled a little but ultimately held his hand out to Casps and shook it. “Deal. Cash or transfer?” He asked as he got up to transfer the datachips from Casps’ case into another container.

"Cash, if you have it." Casps sat up in the chair and stretched, lazily watching Djonwi move the chips. "I know you have at least forty of it, since I paid for the locks."

“I got, no worry,” Djonwi said and finished putting the datachips into a new box and then closing it. He took a sticky note, messily scribbled the vague idea of its contents in Huttese, and then stuck it on the top. The Twi’lek stepped to another drawer in his desk, and opened another container, and fished out some credit chips, and included the ones Casps had paid him earlier. “Zer, one-hundred creeda for you for ze datachip,” he said and held them out to him.

The lanky, but not over-tall Mirialan stood to take the credits and stow them loosely and not very safely in one of his pockets. "I'll pay for a round next time we bump into each other."

“I will remember zis offer, pateessa!” Djonwi grinned and went and opened the door, stepping out to check on his kid and Camawee. “Anysing interesting ‘appen while daddy work, baby?” He asked, kneeling down to Feen.

"Only I miss you!" She replied, brightening one more as soon as he was in her line of sight, and again taking the chance to give him the biggest hug she could muster.

Casps leaned in the doorway having picked up the case on the way, which now only housed the locks. He ran his hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face. He really should cut it again soon. He took in the details of the room and it's occupants and nodded to himself.

"Welp, I should get out of your metaphorical hair."

Djonwi just picked Feen up in her hug, groaning as if she were the heaviest four-year-old ever. Camawee meanwhile hopped on his handler’s shoulder opposite of Feen.

“You get so big while mi in office!” Djonwi laughed, and then turned to smile mischievously at Casps. “Oh, you sure you no find somesing ‘ere for sixty creeda?”

Feen giggled and set her head on her daddy's shoulder while Casps rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Some other time, maybe." he said, inclining his head towards one of the shelves. "If I ever need a -- whatever one of those is, I'll let you know."

“Self-sealing stembolt? Tagwa, I got plenty! I can never seem to get rid of zem!” Djonwi laughed and walked Casps to the door to unlock it and see him out. “Nice to do business wis you, Caspee.”

"Always a pleasure." Casps said, following. "Your little assistant is especially charming. Very good addition to the team."

“Maybe I should ‘ave ‘er to do ze sale next time,” Djonwi smiled. “Take care of yourself, okay?”

"I bet she'd be savvy enough to." He said, backing out of the door. "And as much as I always do, that's all I can promise." He tilted his head to Feen, "You look after your papa, little miss, papas and dads need watching over."

"Okay, bye bye!" Feen replied, cheerfully as always.

"Till next time, then." Casps said, waving at the trio and again hefting the case under one arm. It felt a lot lighter.