Dex chuckles lightly and smiles, sharing the humor the other patrons of the bar are enjoying, then replies, "For starters, two ales, my good sir."

“Hold on,” Leem scowls condescendingly, maintaining his impressively low level of customer service. “Neera came in just before you two.”

“What’ll it be?” he calls in a helpful, doe-eyed voice, distinctly different than the one he was using with Dex and Ian, to the booth with the unknown green Twi’lek.

“The usual,” replies an alluring female voice.

As the Rodian busies himself concocting an electric blue drink for the Twi’lek, Ian makes his way to the booth where he sat before, two down from the Twi’lek, but still very near to Dex at the bar. On the way, he cocks his head quickly to different angles, waves one hand around, and mumbles absently as part of his newly adopted idiot act, pausing to laugh at some invisible phantom. The nearby Devaronian glances up from his datapad, baring his teeth unconsciously at Ian and creaks his chair into a slightly different postion away from the hairy human before focusing again on the datapad. Ian is actually pleased that his act seems to be working as he slides into the maroon-seated bench.

Leem shields his snout with his suction-cupped fingers and half-whispers to Dex. “What’s wrong with him? He seemed alright yesterday.”

Dex swirls his finger next to his mohawked head in the universal gesture of “He’s crazy.”

Leem shakes his head in comprehension, and Dex gets the sense that he believes him for the most part, although he sensed some hesitation.

“Here you go Neera,” calls the bartender, sliding the semi-clear blue drink onto the counter. Turning back to Dex and pulling down a glass from overhead, he says, “Now, what was it? Two ales right?”

Dex nods.

The Twi’lek gets up from the booth letting Ian and Dex get a look at her for the first time. Immediately it’s obvious why Leem is being so nice. She’s striking. Not only that, but her presence seems to fill the room as if she were some important politician or celebrity. She is about the same height as an average human female, but with sage-green skin and the trademark tentacles of the Twi’lek race. A decorative rust-colored headband, popular with the females of Ryloth, frames her face. Purple pants with a green stripe, a golden half-top, and sturdy, dust-covered boots complete her ensemble. Unselfconsciously, she steps up to the bar next to Dex and sips the foam off the top of her drink.

Dex could swear he heard Leem sigh as she takes her drink, but can’t be sure. The Rodian does finish pouring the two ales for Ian and Dex however, and slides them onto the counter.

“22 credits,” states Leem.

Dex doesn’t really pay attention to the amount at first, assuming that the ales would be six credits each as before. With that in mind he hands Leem his credit stick with the remaining 20 credits on it before realizing that Leem is either trying to scam him out of a few extra credits or the price of ale went up overnight.

“Hey. I need two more credits there,” the snorkeled alien says.

Before Dex can protest, the Twi’lek, Neera, pipes up. “I’ve got it covered, Leem,” she says and hands over a credit stick. Smiling at Dex, she adds, “Put mine on there too, and give yourself a nice tip.”

“Thanks Neera,” replies Leem, smiling like a schoolboy who’s just been told it’s ok after getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Dex winces at the thought of Leem as a boy.

“Thanks… Neera is it?” asks Dex. She nods. Dex extends his hand and shakes hers, hiding his discomfort of being bailed out by an alien. “Dex Willit.”

Neera smiles at Dex and nods toward Ian, who’s muttering about something in his booth, before swooping her drink up off the counter and marching back to her booth to relax. Dex takes the moment to bring Ian his ale before returning to the bar and taking up residence on one of the many stools.

It’s hard to say how much time passes by as Dex cajoles with Leem, nursing his ale to make it last as long as possible since he can’t afford another. Dex regales the bartender with stories, true and false alike, designed to ingratiate himself. Ian, on the other hand, continues his act, sometimes growing in volume, although never loudly enough to disrupt the communications device from being able to eavesdrop on the conversation Dex is carrying with Leem. The horned Devaronian eventually takes off as well, leaving only the Twi’lek, Dex, Ian, Dersh, Leem, and the large blue cook in the kitchen.

Dex decides after a sufficient amount of time that he’s pretty much won the Rodian over. Even the tough guy Dersh started grunting in mirth at a few of the punchlines of Dex’s stories and jokes. No time like the present, Dex thinks, crossing his fingers that this plan is going to work out. He steps inconspicuously away from Dersh and motions Leem over, leaning in.

"No doubt, you are aware we are looking for Joko. You see my none-to-bright friend there does not have a very good head for tact," nodding toward Ian, "We had heard tell that you are a friend of his. We were kind of hoping that you might be able to set up a meeting between him and us. We understand that he is one to talk to in town, and we might have something he would be interested in."

“Oh, really?” asks Leem inquisitively.

“Is it OK to talk here?” responds Dex.

Leem looks around. “Uh, yeah.”

Dex looks around as well, hiding his mild nervousness. The Twi’lek is fairly close and might be able to overhear them, but in his judgement, he doesn’t think she will be able to. He decides to continue. “I have a couple of holos that Joko may have a market for.”

“What kind of holos?”

Dex raises his eyebrows and nods knowingly.

“Ahhh, those kinds of holos, hee hee. Do you have one?”

A moment later after rummaging through his cargo pocket, Dex produces a copy of “Secrets of Twi’light” and slides it slyly across the counter to the bartender.

“How many do you have?”

“Ten,” answers Dex immediately.

The Rodian laughs and slides it back to Dex, dissatisfied that the human is turning out to be some small-time peddler.

“…but I can get more,” adds Dex, expertly reading the situation.

“How many more?” retorts the Rodian more loudly than Dex would have liked.

“I can get a couple thousand,” discloses the human, hushing him. Dex almost has pangs of regret upon revealing this information to Joko’s lackey. He worries that they may try to somehow find their stash and take the holos by force. However, as he knows from experience, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It’s a calculated risk.

Leem taps the holo case with a blue finger. “Are they all the same?”

Dex nods affirmative.

Leem thinks for a minute before responding, his obsidian eyes unreadable. Finally he speaks, low and quiet. “Well, Joko’s in Mos Espa, but he’ll be back tonight. I’ll set up a meeting. Be here at Second Twilight. Can I keep this sample?” he asks of the holo Dex provided.

“Of course,” Dex answers, hiding his satisfaction at having set up a meeting with Joko.

Leem, glances at the holo and over toward the booth with Neera in it grinning lecherously. He puts the holo under the counter and rubs his hands together, no doubt in anticipation of some later event.

“One other thing,” adds Leem. “Is the Wookiee in on this?” He motions subtly to Ian’s booth where Ian is busily picking his nose.

“Yeah. He’s with me.”

15 MINUTES EARLIER
-----------------------------------------------------

(These events take place immediately after Dex and Ian go into the cantina)

Outside, Jarren walks down the street a bit to look for some shade. The best place he can find is between a nondescript building and the Mos Taike Farming Supply Co., but even that spot doesn’t provide any shade other than the smallest sliver. Even though he told the other two that he would wait outside for them in case his help was needed, he’s beginning to feel as though if he stays outside any longer that his capacity to react and survive may be diminished. Besides, Ian is just talking gibberish into the comlink. Therefore, he decides to step into the Farming Supply building for shelter and to cool off, and perhaps the proprietor will have some information about Force users that he can use.

Like most of the other buildings in town, the Supply building is partially sunk into the sandy Tatooine soil to help keep a more stable, cooler temperature. Jarren walks down the couple steps to the door and goes in, closing it behind him. A wave of coolness washes over him. A after being in the direct sunlight, anything below 116 feels cool and refreshing.

Inside, there is a wide variety of moisture farming supply equipment, including several small scale demo units of various vaporator models, filters, weather vanes, tanks, and many more items that Jarren is unable to identify. The whole place has the feeling of casual negligence, as if the effort involved to keep the place spotless or tidy would not be worth the effort. A waist-high counter divides the rectangular interior into the showroom where Jarren is standing and the storage or warehouse portion of the building beyond. The counter has one break in it to allow employees to travel to and from the different areas without having to straddle the counter. Two squid-headed Quarrren dressed in earth-tone robes [OOC: Think Mindflayers] are sitting on stools, manning the computer terminals at the counter discussing something in Quarrenese. They look up as the Omwati enters.

In Basic the one on the left says, “Good day. Let us know if you can use any help or have any questions.”

Jarren nods crisply adding that he is fine will let them know if he needs anything. Jarren can’t tell because of their alien physiology, but they smile at him in their own way and return to their conversation in their native tongue.

[ OOC: Rick: In your email you say the following: “After about 15 - 20 minutes Jarren will ask the owner if knows of anyone in town or farmers around the town that might be considered a wizard or be able to see the future or other strange abilities.” I’m going to stop here and not answer this, because 15-20 min. is after “present” time. You have been in the store for 10 min. now and you are caught up to where Dex, Ian, and Neera are chronologically. To restate, when this episode started, Ian and Dex had just gone into the bar. Since then, 15 min. have passed. The first 5 min. Jarren spent looking for shade and walking down the main street. The last 10 have been spent in the Farming Supply store. Jarren is not down any VP, and is feeling refreshed. Rick, take it from here.

Amy, Travis, and Mal: Your story hasn’t changed. Neera’s reply is also fine (and really good too!), so there’s no need to change it.]