You won't find me looking back

[demjiin]

WHO: Kaz, Ezra, Tony
WHERE: Near a Hangar Bay on Coruscant
WHAT: A holocron is seen as a gag since it refers to Agra-10, which obviously doesn't exist. But Kaz is still buying it
WHEN: During the Coruscant event
WARNINGS: None anticipated, TBD



The merchant Kaz was meeting with was a ferrety little man. Like he literally looked like a ferret with a tool belt and some sort of hoodlike hat. It was through a couple of different people Kaz had met that he had been told that Agra-10 was only mentioned once, supposedly in this 'Holocron thing. He had been warned that he wouldn't be able to open it, but since Kaz has been on Coruscant for a few days now he had already heard of the Jedi. And if the one he had spoken to was any indication, they were pretty similar to the grisha where he was from. Which is to say he already knew he'd need to cajole or manipulate a Jedi into opening it.

"Is just a glowing brick." The ferrety man insisted.

"All the same." replied Kaz in his rocksalt rasp.

The ferrety man squinted at Kaz, sensing a possible way to get more money.

"Is junk. But you want junk? Then 50."

Kaz tilted his head to one side. Then while saying nothing he used his cane as a hook and took hold of a sliding hoist. If grabbed from the end with the handles it was possible to slide freight weighing hundreds of pounds into spacecraft. At the moment the hoist slams the ferrety man's tale. The ferrety man squeals in pain and immediately drops the Holocron to grab his trapped tale.

"You're going to want to rethink that." Kaz says, still completely calm.

"4-40!" The ferrety man says quickly. Apparently, Kaz leaned on the hoist because the ferrety man squeals again.

"30! Take for 30!

Kaz says nothing, just unhooks his cane from the hoist's handles and puts it back at his side. The ferrety man whimpers and removes his injured tale to cradle it. Kaz takes one step forward and removes a small bag from the inner pocket of his suit jacket and tosses it to the ground. It clinks with (stolen) credits. He picks up the fallen Holocron. He would need to find a way to disguise it as soon as possible.

"I would say it's been a pleasure doing business with you, but I'm not that good of a liar."

Comments

[in_extremis]

"It's a game," Tony corrected, turning to face them once he had his glass of water and leaned against the counter. "One that something far more powerful than us has been playing for a very long time. That little lady in there," he gestured toward Kaz and the concealed holocron, "is trying to warn you. Dollars to donuts, you are supposed to have that thing right now, and they're hoping you do something stupid with it."

Were they following yet? It wasn't like they were all that enthusiastic the last time Tony tried to tell them how to handle this. He nodded slowly, waiting for either of them to join him and let him know they were on board now, only to quickly grow impatient with a frown and elaborate for them, "You start making noise about pursuing this and get a little careless, either you're going to spook off the only lead we have right now to get our hands around the throats of the people who brought us here, or they're going to put you down for knowing too much."

[ezra_of_lothal]

He tilts his head back and thinks for a moment. Ok, a game. Taking the message at face value, possibly played by the Atroma, or whatever they were a stand in for. Sure. He'll go with that for the moment.

"I can also look up Taren Jid. I can't know if the Archives have been altered, obviously, but if she was a real Jedi Master, she should have a record in the Archives."

[demjiin]

This time Tony was making more sense. Kaz could see that he was still trying to control the situation but Tony wasn't being overt about it.

"Alright. You find out about this 'Taren Jid' person. Tony and I will do what we can to backtrack where this thing came from."

It might seem like a compromise on the surface but cooperating would mean Kaz would be able to keep an eye on what Tony was doing. He at least trusted that Ezra wouldn't have time to talk in a library, so that should keep him distracted for a little bit. Kaz had acquired the Holocron because he listened to another 'junk-trader'(read smuggler) who was complaining that he'd gotten stiffed. And as a result, he had a fancy box that held a glowing brick. Even the message, which still took a Jedi to open it, was just a lot of unknown names and places. It refers to the planet 'Agra-10' but it's on no star chart he could find.

Needless to say, it was a long night of bar-hopping for Kaz, as he eventually found a way to obtain the Holocron. Money helps with that, too. But aside from that first link, Kaz had no idea how long or short the rest was going to be.

[in_extremis]

Now, that sounded like a good place to start from Ezra, earning him a grin of appreciation that rapidly froze in rictus with Tony's eyebrows climbing in surprise and some distress at the revelation that he had done something to get on Kaz's good side. After his cold response to Ezra, Tony was no longer sure the Jedi was the one that deserved the sympathy and tried to will some of that Force-communication into being to beg Ezra's help with this revealed personality defect.

He did get what he wanted, though, didn't he? Tony effortlessly transformed the teasing toward Ezra back into an easy smile for Kaz, what, he wasn't doing anything. "Anything comes up, send a raven," he instructed. "Consider everyone that approaches you now suspect, but don't, you know, be weird about it. Where to first, big guy?" See, Tony didn't have to control everything. Just where they ended up and how they did it.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"You think you're being funny, but I bet I could get one of the sparrow from around the temple to track you down," Ezra murmurs.

[demjiin]

Big guy? Kaz wasn't even particularly tall.

"The one I bought it off of was just a low-level crook who was trying to make easy money and the smuggler he bought it from said it was a part of the valuable scrap that he was running to avoid paying taxes on it. But where did the scrap come from? There have to be records somewhere. But because this place -" he waves vaguely to include all of Coruscant "- doesn't use paper, I've got no idea how to find it."

Of course, when Ezra makes that comment, Kaz's attention goes back to him.

"Could you do that to any bird?"

[in_extremis]

A bird was far more subtle than Tony was capable of being, though that wasn't a high bar to cross, never mind Tony and Kaz trying to charm their way through a paperless trail. Over the rim of his glass, Tony narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at Ezra, not sure if this was big talk for a kid having a sulk or if he might come around to the same realization on his own. It was hard to tell; animal communication was a new one yet for the Jedi power array as Tony understood it.

"We can pay," Tony added, prompting Ezra along to reveal his hand. Not that he knew what a bird would expect as reasonable compensation. He could probably find some seeds.

[ezra_of_lothal]

'Pay' Ezra mouths in bemusement.

"Doing something for them always helps, sure. And it's not a bird only thing, or all birds, it's just...animals. Or living beings, really. I'm good at making connections with them through the Force. How useful that is depends on how friendly the creature is, and intelligent, and a little bit how much of a connection they innately have to the Force, too. The Temple sparrows live where the Force is strong, and they're used to Jedi. If I ask nicely, I'm sure they'd track someone for a reasonable amount of time or carry a message."

He can simply...command animals, too. But that trends close to the Dark Side, at the very least. So he's not going to even give anyone ideas along those lines - much less that he's taken forceful control of the minds of humans.

[demjiin]

Kaz raised an eyebrow at that. He also has no idea what a bird might take as compensation. But the second joined it when Ezra admitted he could 'talk' to any animal. Apparently, all he had to do was ask nicely. He almost always had the same calm, cool expression but this is amazing to Kaz and could be a very valuable skill in the future.

"Is this any animal or just the ones here?"

By 'here' he meant Coruscant and this galaxy in particular.

[in_extremis]

Being able to communicate with animals at all wasn't as much of a novelty for Tony, so the exact details and limitations of Ezra's abilities were not as interesting as solving their immediate problem. He wandered closer again to pass a hand briefly over Kaz's elbow to get him to focus, he could play with his friend later when it wasn't taking up Tony's time, and asked, "Do you think they can find out where the video came from?"

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Works fine on the glownies around Temba," Ezra replies. "They're just not very complicated. Project the feeling of happiness and safety and maybe promise some food, and they'll go where you want, but that's about it."

He eyes Tony. "I'll be honest; I'm not sure we can find out where it came from. Holocrons last a long time; that recording could be centuries old. We don't have great leads. A way to carry a non-Agrii network message is probably about the right level of task for birds."

[demjiin]

Kaz's expression of interest froze into ice like a lake in winter. While saying nothing he changed his grip on his cane then flipped it so it was inverted. He hooked the handle (which is weighted) around Tony's wrist and yanked the hand off his elbow. All of it was as smooth as oiled silk and happened in seconds.

"Don't ever touch me."

He didn't look at Tony or raise his voice, but he didn't have to. The warning was there in the dark menace of his tone. In Kettterdam it was already understood that patting Kaz Brekker on the back was a good way to lose a finger.

"I agree, Ezra. It will mean needing to get used to handwriting messages, and reminding people to burn them when they've finished reading them."

[in_extremis]

It might have been true that finding the original source would be near impossible, but that was assuming it was a genuine artifact; Ezra still wasn't thinking laterally enough, and Tony started, "Even if it is--" That was as far as he got when he was surprised by the cane, and was left holding his wrist defensively while Kaz delivered his cold warning. The cane wouldn't be surprising him again; this kid had a lot of buttons to push, all out there in the open for Tony to consider.

Slower, eye still lingering on Kaz for a beat, Tony started again, "If the thing is genuine and a billion years old, we'd lose the trail, sure, but then we could make that educated guess. If it isn't, which is why we're checking, then someone deliberately got it into Mr. Brekker's delicate little hands, and we haven't been here that long. That machine can only have so many parts."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Sure." But...it feels like a real holocron to him. He's pretty sure the construction would take a real Force user, at a minimum. "We have step one of tasks. When you do want to compare notes next, and how?"

[demjiin]

"On Temba. Find out what you can and we'll talk again after we've left this planet." Deciding where and when to actually meet again could be put on the network, at least.