Hoth: Blood and Ice

Zeno sits in an observation deck with a book by Jerri Organa and a glass of whiskey. He slowly flips through the pages, taking a sip every once in a while. His expression does not betray his opinion on the book currently.

Walking the corridors of the Valorian, Pipka comes across a familiar sight, another man of culture. "Is that One Jedi, Six Sith? That one is a classic, but have you read his newest one, Dangerous Shades of Black? He really takes his writing to the next level."

"Yes, I am catching up on some of the older books, but I have read the latest few already," Zeno replies with a nod.

"He's definitely been improving, but I still prefer Lord Salace personally. Not sure how easily you can their work on this side of space, but I get them from an old wing woman."

He takes a sip of whiskey, "I don't think we've been introduced."

Looking up to actually take note of the reader's features rather than the title of his book, Pipka bows reverently,

[Sith] "My apologies. This one is Pipka. I did not expect to meet a noble Sith aboard a Republic ship."

"Yeah, I think it's probably a surprise to most. Probably more than a few are probably wondering why I'm not in the brig," he says with a shrug. "I am Duke-consort Zeno Thul of Alderaan. Are you here with the senate or for support?"

Hearing this response, Pipka lifts his head with a smile on his face instead of the conditioned, placid face he had adopted while bowing.

"Oh hey, I've heard of your family. I'm here with my friends on the Turtle, they were on Alderaan a few years back during the coup attempt. I'm so jealous, they could've met Jerri Organa. I heard he was instrumental in stopping that old Duke, so brave... Wait, have you met the maestro?"

"I've seen him around, but I avoid conversation. I wouldn't trust myself not to try and peek in his mind, and I like surprises in my stories."

He sets the book aside with a bookmark in it. It's not that common, having physical or analog media like that anymore.

"How is Prirnu'dim'suazzo?" Perhaps surprisingly, Zeno's pronunciation in the Chiss language was as good as any non Chiss could hope for.

"Lucky," he says with more than a hint of jealousy, "but, that's a good point, I do hate spoilers."

Pipka does a little circle to look around and sniffs at the air, as if expecting to find the Chiss hiding nearby (a distinct possibility in his experience). "Nudimsu is doing well, he should be around here somewhere... I may have bolted once we docked with the Valorian." he adds sheepishly.

"Small freighters can make most folks temporarily claustrophobic. Nothing wrong with stretching your legs. Not everyone was born to live in a cockpit like I was," he says with an understanding nod.

"And he's an interesting man. Worth knowing and keeping in mind for external work. How long have you been on the Turtle?"

Arsele wasn't claustrophobic... but she was restless. Finding herself wandering the ship yet again, she spotted a familiar face. One that almost made her want to walk the other way; She wasn't here for House Thul, and she wasn't sure she wanted the entanglements. But still... a friendly familiar face... maybe he was here on his own.

Walking over to Zeno, she saw he was talking with a Chandra-Fan on all things; Interesting. For now she just looked out the observation deck windows, the thrill of hyperspace no stranger to her sensibilities.

"Wow, so you're a pilot like Nudimsu? That's really cool. I haven't tried flying much, since we have Nudimsu. Mostly I shoot the guns, I like shooting the big guns and I aim pretty good.

But no, the Turtle's plenty spacious for me, I've even got my own bunk. Back when I was a slave, it was one or two dozen of us to a room... I do kind of miss it though, it can be lonely sleeping alone. Small spaces don't bother me, it was always my job to crawl through the ducts and conduits to clean and to check for listening or assassination devices, things like that you know.

I've been on the Turtle for about three years now. Like I said, I was a slave before and when the Turtle raided the place, everyone else went home, but I stayed with the Turtle. Sometime I think about going back to Chad, but the Turtle's my clan now.

No, I got excited because we were meeting up with so many new people. I mean, I really like being on the Turtle with Nudimsu, Hacha, Durasay, and the occasional passenger, but like I said, I'm used to having lots of people around and I don't get many chances to meet a lot of new people."

Pipka notices the newcomer to the observation deck and waves enthusiastically and starts to shift towards her while still speaking to Duke-consort Zeno Thul of Alderaan, "What about you, I heard your family left the Empire and went back to Alderaan, how's that going?"

"Not quite, but almost. I married into the Thul for a political alliance while Thul was exiled. I still have my Deathwright family in the Empire." Zeno smiles at the thought of them.

"You must have joined right after I last saw the Turtle?"

He likewise waved Arsele over.

Arsele sees the waving and sighs lightly under her breath before walking over, giving a slight smile, "Zeno... fancy seeing you here, of all places."

She inclines her head to Pipka, "Name's Arsele. Here with the Jedi as... logistics."

"I'm here to do my part to resolve a pirate crisis. Granted my part would likely not happen until the arguing started. So lets hope it doesn't get to my part."

"And this is Pipka," he says to introduce the two.

"Hi, I'm Pipka." He repeats with more enthusiastic waving.

"Logistics? So you're here to steal things? Well, that's what we usually mean when we say we're there for 'logisitics'. If you need some backup, we can talk fees."

Looking back to Zeno, "Yeah, I feel you, I don't get to do much until the fighting starts."

Arsele arched an eyebrow, at Pipka, "I mean... from what I hear we're going to a frozen ball of death and snow. Is there actually stuff to steal in a place like that?"

Pipka looks perplexed for a moment, "So you're here for... actual 'logistics'?" he says with half-hearted air quotes. "I don't think I actually know what that really means. But hey, if it's worth it for the pirates to be here, there must be something worth something to someone, right? At the very least, the Republic is paying us to be here, I assume we're getting paid for this?"

After looking concerned for a moment, he brightens up again, "I don't know what I was thinking, we wouldn't be here if we weren't getting paid. You almost had me there for a moment."

"There's always something to steal. Not saying it's always smart to do so, but there is always something." Zeno says, shrugging. He takes another sip from his whiskey before sliding the bottle over to offer a drink. There was a tumbler set in a nearby cupboard.

Pipka half walks, half skips over to the cupboard to collect two more glasses. After leaving them at the table, he scurries across the deck in search of another chair. After testing a few (even though they are of identical construction), he chooses the most comfortable, hoists it up, and waddles back with it. To an outside observer, it might appear as though the chair were walking on its own, or perhaps more likely that a nearby Force-user or two was lazily dragging it around.

Sliding the chair up to the table, Pipka bows in a gentlemanly manner as he offers the it to Arsele.

This is just like that scene from Lady and the Sith he thinks, except for the extra company, that's more like his later books. Also there's no noodles here... wait, the noodle scene. Such brilliance, Pipka would need to read through Dangerous Shades of Black again for any other references to his older works.

"In this case? Logistics means providing previously stolen goods. As well as infiltration."

Arsele sits smoothly before pouring herself a drink, leaning back in the chair and crossing her legs.

"I have my obligations, so it's not really a matter of what I'm doing being "smart" or not in this case, unfortunately. Besides, I'm the last person to ask about whether what I do is 'smart' or not; I'm more the sort that acts on instinct."

"Instinct is often the best guide in tense situations. At least in my opinion," he says with a nod. "I still lean on it even for things I have been trained for."

Pipka takes small sips from his whiskey glass and nods along sagely.

Arsele chuckles.

"I've found it's no better than the roll of a die. No worse though either. Suppose then it just depends on how lucky you feel. Me? If I felt lucky I'd become a gambler. And I'd not be here."

"But that instinct tells you that gambling really isn't your thing, no? It tries to keep us out of danger and trouble, but sometimes there's just no avoiding it when it comes looking for you."

He sips his drink again, refilling a splash in everyone's glass.

"And you have good survival instincts from what I have seen."