(Untitled)

[corsec_jedi]

And the people spaketh to the Mun, and asked the Mun for entertainment

Comments

[nodistresshere]

WHUMP goes the enormous stack of files on the bar, right in front of Corran's face.

[corsec_jedi]

And back falls Corran. To the floor.

And tragedy strikes.

The Whyren's spills.

Horror evident on his face, Corran leaps to his feet, stares at the puddle... and slowly, sadly salutes.

[nodistresshere]

"Your reflexes need work," says Iella Wessiri, ignoring all of this Engrossing Drama to take a seat on the next stool over. "So do your paperwork skills."

[corsec_jedi]

Corran looks mournfully at the stack. "Yeah, but... paperwork's scary. It frightened the Whyren's."

Corran eyes Iella reproachfully, at last meeting her Gaze of Resigned Amusement*. Which, by the way, seems to sometimes be reserved explicitly for her partners, especially those with the surname 'Horn'. "So I come here for the first time in months. We just finished the Bantha Stomp bombing case. We know it was Thyne, just as we knew at the beginning."

"So explain to me why there is paperwork now where I'm--where I was sitting at the Bar." The look begs for mercy.

*Copyright Wessiri Family, Forever and Ever.

[nodistresshere]

"Because," she says, "it's due with Gil and Loor by the end of the day, and I've already done my share of it, along with half of yours."

Corran's look is met with a merciless one.

[corsec_jedi]

He points to his chronometer. "Yes, but time here doesn't move, remember? We've got all kinds of time to do this."

He looks around for the bottle Bar gave him--"Iella? Did you take the Whyren's?"

[nodistresshere]

"What Whyren's?" Iella asks. "I don't see any Whyren's, but somehow, whiskey and paperwork don't seem to be the best possible combination, to me."

[corsec_jedi]

Corran gives his partner a Look. "The reason you never saw the Whyren's was because you were too busy 'thwumping' the paperwork down between you and it. I was even gonna offer you some. But now you've hidden it. So I can't."

Corran plops back onto the barstool. "And Dad always said, 'A glassful of Whyren's helps the paperwork get done.' Whether or not my mother believed it, I certainly second his opinion."

[nodistresshere]

"One," she holds up a brisk finger, "I didn't touch any Whyren's, besides what splashed on my boots. And two," a second finger, "the sooner we get this done, the sooner I'll stop bothering you about it, and the sooner I can go home to my husband."

Realizing fully well that that possibly isn't the best motivation ever for the other member of this partnership: "Buy you a drink when we finish." There's a half-smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

[corsec_jedi]

Corran stares for a moment. He is STOIC. He looks at his empty glass. He looks at the files. He looks at Iella.

And then, it starts. The same damn grin starts creeping back across his face. "Tell you what. You buy me one when we get done, and the files buy me one for ruining the first Whyren's. Deal?"

[nodistresshere]

Iella can do the math. That's two drinks.

But when she rolls her eyes, it's light and tolerant. "Deal." She halves the pile of files and pushes one half in front of Corran. "You drive a hard bargain."

[corsec_jedi]

"Not really. You're just being nice." Corran shivers involuntarily and sobers. Briefly. "I seem to recall that you weren't quite so lenient with Rev Zenas when he tried to strike a bargain with you in that spice warehouse..."

He grins again, after a moment's thought. "Glad you're my partner. I can only guess what Gaden woulda done." He grabs a datapad and slips in the first datacard. After several long moments searching for a stylus, checking each pocket of his uniform twice, Bar is kind enough to provide one.

[nodistresshere]

"Zenas was a puddle of Huttslime," she says matter-of-factly, flipping open a flimsi file. "He looked better with his nose like that, anyway."

She glances over at Corran; there's amusement in her face, even if there's a hint of steeliness to be found, too.

"I don't think Zenas would have given Gaden the same charming terms that he gave me."

[corsec_jedi]

Corran buries his head in his arms. And laughs.

After several long moments, Corran straightens back up and eyes her. "Really. That's interesting. We managed to somehow subdue all his thugs and survive without backup, and you think the bribe and snide remark he offered wouldn't have been what Gaden got."

The amused look sits on his face for a moment, and then he snorts. "Then again, Gaden's got a bad habit of getting hit in big busts like that. Twenty creds says all Zenas would have offered him is a blaster bolt between the eyes."

[nodistresshere]

"Gaden doesn't have these legs," she says wryly, patting her thigh. (It's a joke; Iella isn't that narcissistic. Gaden's main problem would have been that he was lacking several key points of anatomy.)

"So yes, I think the offer Zenas made would have been along different lines, and that he probably would have just shot Gaden instead of getting in close enough that Gaden could knee him in the groin and break his nose."

She shakes her head lightly, paging through the file. "You'd have to find a sucker to take that bet, Corran."

[corsec_jedi]

"I'll find Pinckney. He'll bite." Corran grins and winks. "And honestly, Iella, nobody's got legs like yours."

Corran ejects the first datacard. "One down... looks like... 14 to go."