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Aug 30th, 2004, 10:55:29 PM
#41
"I wouldn't say I was worried." Arya half smiled. "It really isn't my business." She finished off her drink and waved off a refill. "However, should we check on Dan?"
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Aug 30th, 2004, 11:04:49 PM
#42
Vittorio shook his head emphatically.
"Leave him be. When the time comesse, he will come back on hisse own."
The hacienda owner's eyes looked beyond Arya for a moment, staring off into space. He eventually returned his attention to her.
"Until then, I will be a most graciousse host."
He rose from his seat, unbuttoning his jacket.
"Do you dance, Misse Ravenwing? You look like a dancer."
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Aug 30th, 2004, 11:10:20 PM
#43
The smuggler was glad she'd finished her drink already, to save her from choking on it. "Dance? Ah... not especially."
She allowed Vittorio to draw her up off her barstool, however, and used her free hand to adjust her long black dress. "I really don't dance..." To her surprise she found herself blushing.
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Aug 30th, 2004, 11:15:12 PM
#44
"Neither do I. Bad for you that I'm supposed to lead, I guesse."
Vittorio smiled knowingly, and took his position across from Arya as a small band played in the corner of the room. Other well-wishers in the room in turn stood to dance, and the room was soon buzzing with rhythmic energy. The dancers moved with the acousting stringbox, and the singer belted out a melodic song in a language Arya did not know.
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Sep 3rd, 2004, 12:44:35 AM
#45
Her dress looked like it was made for standing in, and perhaps walking, if one was careful. But Arya would never get herself trapped in a useless piece of fashion, and the skirt was actually fairly full, allowing a lot of movement should the need arise. The fabric was thin, and pleated carefully so that when it draped it seemed to hug her curves.
Now, however, she stood opposite a man she barely knew as dancers whirled around them, and wished there was a way to get out of it. She smiled at Vittorio, however, even as her eyes picked out the exits.
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Sep 7th, 2004, 09:15:15 PM
#46
He'd walked away to get air.
His feet led the way by muscle memory; his mind was already a million lightyears away. With her.
Occasionally, he ran a hand across a tapestry, or a wooden stairwell. He set his life to rewind, and prepared to live again vicariously. The piano was in the far corner of the study. In thirty years, it hadn't moved. He made his way to its ebony contours with genuine familiarity, and took a seat on its ornate bench. His age-wrinkled fingers appeared deceptively decrepit, but the gunslinger was nimble across the ivory, working out a ballad he half-remembered. He paused, hitting a wrong note.
A woman's hand appeared next to his, righting his error.
"That was her favorite song." She said, from over Dan's shoulder.
"I know." He closed his eyes, resuming the notes softly.
The woman watched as he played. When he erred again, she did not correct him.
"She taught me that when I was little. My father would not play it for her."
Dan opened his eyes, and turned to look into hers.
"Rosa."
He stopped playing, and placed his hands in his lap to steady them. She, in turn, took the seat adjacent to him, and resumed where he left off.
"It was always hard to hear a full story about you. My mother loved you and my father still does. They told me to call you Uncle. I can't bring myself to call you that, and I don't know why."
He nodded in understanding. "You can always call me Dan."
She met his eyes, and her music stopped. The old gunslinger saw Apolonia's smile on her daughter's face. He reached out to touch her cheek, and stopped himself.
"You look so much like your mother."
She smiled sweetly, but with a twinge of uncertainty. "Is that how you want to see me?"
He pondered her question for what seemed an eternity. When no answer came, he began to play again.
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Sep 7th, 2004, 09:32:46 PM
#47
The dance was short, and pleasant. Vittorio was modest in his dancing appraisal, and he discovered Arya was as well.
Once the music ended, he kissed her hand in a genteel fashion, and led her back to her seat.
"Misse Ravenwing, you are too generous."
He nodded to her.
"I am indebted to you for the pleasant distraction. Isse there anything I can do to accomodate you? Perhaps a tour of the Hacienda?"
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Sep 7th, 2004, 09:37:28 PM
#48
The dancing was easy enough once she'd seen the steps, and she smiled almost happily as Vittorio Patron kissed her hand. "No, the pleasure was mine, Mr. Patron. But a tour of your lovely home sounds wonderful."
Inwardly she grimaced at the flowery words she was using, but the smile only faded a little as he led her back to the bar. "Certainly, Miss Ravenwing. Please, call me Vittorio." His smile was pleasant, but sad, as though he were remembering the wake, and his dead wife.
Arya slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, and smiled and nodded in the appropriate places as Vittorio showed her the dewback stables, with his creatures that had been bred for endurance and water retention, even here on the plantation where water seemed abundant. As he pointed out the attributes of his stud male, she let her mind focus on the reason she was here.
The Hammer of Martugg. Where was it? More importantly, how was she going to get the information out of the grief stricken Dan? Damn it I need to get paid!
Seeing all the opulence around her, there on Tattooine, of all places, was reminding her of all the ship repairs she needed, and the upgrade on the engines she was hoping for. Had to be able to outrun fightergrapplers, otherwise she was dead meat the next time she met up with a Cizerack battlegalleon. Arya stared a bit blankly at the gorgeous dining area she and her host had ended up in, and then blinked and smiled at Vittorio.
"Your home is indeed beautiful, Vittorio. Thank you for the tour." She nodded graciously, and then perked up a bit as she heard piano music in the next room, and the rasp of Dan's voice.
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Sep 7th, 2004, 09:57:55 PM
#49
"Welcome back, Smuggler."
Dan rose from the piano's bench, and Rosa followed suit. He nodded to Vittorio.
"I guess you figured out the finer points of taking a prize Dewback out to stud? Vittorio's always kept a good herd."
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Sep 7th, 2004, 10:05:27 PM
#50
Arya released Patron's arm as Dan came up off the piano bench, a winsome girl of about nineteen smoothing her black skirts as she got to her feet as well. Her dark hair, thick lashes, tinted skin and good looks pointed to her being a Patron, most likely Vittorio and Apolonia's daughter.
"His stables were... informative." She allowed half of her lips to smile, a little wryly.
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Sep 7th, 2004, 10:11:46 PM
#51
"They're a hell of a lot more than that. Be glad you didn't stick around to shovel manure."
Dan smiled at Vittorio, who laughed in return. He parted Rosa's side with a warm smile, which was returned. He then looked back to her father, and clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"If you'll excuse us, we've got some pressing matters to attend to."
Vittorio nodded in agreement, and escorted his daughter out of the study with him. When they were alone, Dan allowed the smile to die from his face.
He looked back to Arya.
"I suppose you're still wanting to get paid."
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Sep 7th, 2004, 11:53:09 PM
#52
She watched the way Vittorio put his arm around his daughter, and fleetingly wondered how her own father would have treated her. If only she'd ever been able to ask the right questions of her mother - somehow found out what planet they were from. Whichever one it was, Arya had yet to find it. Not that finding the place of her birth would bring her father back from the assassins who had killed him.
Arya focused back on Dan as he let the smile fade from his face. All business again. "I suppose you're still wanting to get paid."
She snorted. "Do dewbacks crap in the desert?"
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Sep 9th, 2004, 10:22:28 PM
#53
He shot her a look.
"You want the technical answer?"
Letting the deadpan humor of his statement fade, he continued.
"I take it he showed you around quite a bit. What did you see?"
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Sep 15th, 2004, 12:37:55 AM
#54
"Just about everything. No Hammers, if that's what you're getting at."
Dan just looked at her. Arya sighed. "Okay, okay, I saw the stables, the bar in the back of the hacienda, the dining room, the kitchens, the informal dining room, the front entryway, the back doors (both of 'em), four bathrooms, the new model of vaporator that he unveiled last month, and the library. Everything but the bedrooms, and I think I recall seeing a guest one of those, actually." Her hands were on her hips as she recited. "I saw nearly everything."
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Sep 15th, 2004, 12:47:55 AM
#55
Dan nodded, running the tip of his tongue lightly between his lips to moisten them.
"I'm going to tell you, because I'm not at all sure I'll be alive by tomorrow afternoon. If I'm not, I want you to steal it, and skip planet before I'm cold."
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Sep 15th, 2004, 12:55:52 AM
#56
And if you're not dead? "Wait, so if you kick the bucket, I just get the Hammer, but if you live, I get paid as well? Let me tell you, this is getting better and better all the time -"
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Sep 15th, 2004, 01:07:02 AM
#57
Dan placed his index finger to his lips in a subtle suggestion for Arya's next course of action.
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Sep 15th, 2004, 01:11:40 AM
#58
She took the not-so-subtle hint, and closed her mouth in the middle of her sentance. Arya looked down for a moment, removed her hands from her hips, and then looked back at her employer.
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Sep 15th, 2004, 01:22:11 AM
#59
"Don't worry about payment. Even if I'm dead, you'll get what's due you. My associates wouldn't trust me to stay dead long enough to reneg on a promise I made."
He stepped close to her, pressing a cloth into the soft flesh of her hand.
"The second marble column in the dining room. Read the kerchief and take it from there."
He stepped away.
"Only if I don't survive. Otherwise, we'll do the job the easy way."
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Sep 15th, 2004, 01:25:01 AM
#60
She inhaled slowly and tensed as he moved closer, but gamely closed her hand around the cloth he pressed into it. "Well, I'm all for the hard way, as you probably know, but if we must do it the easy way, then we must."
Arya raised the kerchief and discretely tucked it into the bosom of her dress. "Jokes aside, where are we staying tonight?"
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