[D3LM] Lonely Man

[Manny Donos]

Sighing, Manny closed his vest. He'd figured as much.

"Yeah... well, sorta." He shrugged. "I mean, those are what I do to get by. Really, I work for Vex. Or I try to, anyway." He gave her a sheepish smile. "It's possible that when we first met, I might have slightly maybe overstated the amount that I work for her. But hey, it all worked out, right?"

The waiter came over to stand next to them, looking bored.

[Raven Cadera]

Raven curtly ordered the spicy classic and a large soda. She wouldn't admit that she chose the soda because she saw on the menu that it came in a plastic cup with a picture of a cute little green creature with big ears.

"True. It worked out. Your plan was to get more on her good side I take it? Maybe she'll help you out now?"

[Manny Donos]

Manny got the classic and large soda... also in part because of the plastic cup.

"Yeah." Another sheepish grin. "I mean, I'm just trying to make it big, you know? And Vex is how to get big around here. I think. Get to be in a real crew, a good one. Get a cool speeder, one to pick up really hot..." He cleared his throat, giving the young woman a sidelong look, "-takeout in. So, uh, thermal seating, I guess." Totally smooth, Manny. He smiled.

[Raven Cadera]

"I suppose some take-out likes the speeders to be cool and fast," she smirked, having caught up on what he was actually going to say.

"What is making it 'big', exactly? I've heard lots of other people like you talk about 'making it big'."

[Manny Donos]

Manny laughed. "What, it's not universal? I thought it was." What did ladies who didn't like cool fast speeders like?

He paused, blinking, at her question. "Well... it's making it big. Like Vex. Having your own place. Having a crew. Being able to just take off whenever you want, kick back... but your crew would stick with you, and you'd stick with them." Manny chuckled. "I guess... I don't really know, when I really try to think about it."

The waiter brought the sodas, setting them down with a grunt. Manny took a long sip from his straw.

[Raven Cadera]

Raven smiled a little to herself as she saw the cute picture on the cup, and stirred the ice cubes around some with her straw before taking a sip.

"Shouldn't you figure out what exactly it is you want before you try to get it?" Despite their age differences, Raven's rough life had made her mature a lot more than others her age or older. "Otherwise, you're just wasting your time."

[Manny Donos]

"Uh... maybe." Manny said, shrugging. "I don't know, I think it's one of those things where you know it if you've got it, but otherwise... you have to experience it to know it, if that makes sense."

He shrugged again. "I mean, ever since I was a kid, I'd always see these crime bosses with all this stuff, being all cool with all their friends. I knew that's what I wanted."

[Raven Cadera]

"Ok, so you wanna be a leader. Call the shots, take responsibility for your folks, get people to follow you as their leader." She looked up him up and down, clearly judging his leader-material.

"You do know why those that are crime bosses are at the top, right?"

[Manny Donos]

"Uh... maybe..." Manny said, blinking. "I mean, we'd all look out for each other, obviously. And I'd... pick the jobs, I guess." The way Raven phrased it, it sounded a little intimidating.

His brow furrowed. "Because they made enough money, right? Got a big score, enough to invest..." Manny frowned. "But I'm guessing you've got something else in mind?"

The waiter brought over two platters of wings, generously slathered with sauce, and with more sauce on the side. Manny didn't start eating yet though.

[Raven Cadera]

The food actually smelled really good, already tempting her senses. But it did look messy, so she rolled up her sleeves.

"Because they're the strongest predators on their street, or in their part of the city or the city itself, or... well, you get the idea. If you wanna rise to the top from the bottom, you can't let people push you around or get the better of you. You gotta be tougher than them."

Raven had a very might-makes-right view on leadership, and most in the world.

[Manny Donos]

"Huh." Manny said. "But they seem so cool..." He drooped as he considered some of the nastier aspects of crime. "I sorta figured it'd be more like those heist movies. One big score, and then I... just own a club, or something. I guess the other stuff, I don't really want that."

He smiled wryly. "I'm not stupid. I could be selling drugs instead of watches. But I'm not a drug dealer." He paused, then took a fierce bite of bantha wing instead.

[Raven Cadera]

"That's good. Selling spice and the like is a pretty bad line of work, and a way of living life." She gave him a small smile. "But true, I suppose it could be like in the holo-flicks where you do one huge score and don't have to do anything more. Though, even in those movies, the, uh, heisters... they've done a lot of stuff before that big hit."

Dipping one of the wings in some of the extra sauce, she tore into the first piece of meat. It tasted good. Pretty good. Spicy, and... oh, that was burning the tongue. And the sides of her mouth. Wooboi, her throat was burning now that she swallowed. Raven breathed in deeply through her nose and quickly took a long sip of her soda.

[Manny Donos]

Watching, Manny grinned at her. "The spicy ones are a bit spicy, huh? Here, try one of mine." He passed one of his onto her plate... snatching a spicy wing on the way, of course.

"Good point. In the vids, it's always one last job, huh?" He sighed. "Yeah, I guess it's getting there that's the hard part. I've tried to pay my dues. Seems like this is what I have to show for it." He thumped his backpack with his hand. "Now, this bag does have a pretty awesome collection of martial arts vids, but still..." Manny chuckled as he shrugged.

[Raven Cadera]

She coughed into the back of her hand. "Thanks..." And another sip of soda.

How embarrassing! She was loosing her cool over some stupid wings and hot sauce.

"Well," another small cough, "you could always try bounty hunting, if you think you got the mindset for it?"

[Manny Donos]

Manny passed her a napkin. "Maybe." He said. "I mean, I've got the things I'm good at..." Pulling out another napkin, he held it with both hands in front of his sauce tray, concealing it from her vision. Then, he snapped the napkin, and the sauce tray was gone! "I don't know if I could do other stuff."

"Anyway..." Manny winced, trying to discreetly wipe away the sauce he'd gotten on his wrist; this was why he shouldn't improvise. "What does it take to be a bounty hunter?"

[Raven Cadera]

Napkin accepted, and it was put to good use on her fingers.

This time Manny got to see the surprise on her face that the helmet had robbed him of earlier as the sauce tray magically vanished! "Kriff! How'd you do that?" She looked him over, trying to see where it had gone.

She picked up the less spicy wing he had given her. "Uh... you know, knowing how to fight, knowing how to talk to people to track down clues, knowing what to look for... eh, kind of investigative work sometimes. Sometimes more like going on a hunt."

[Manny Donos]

Manny grinned, holding up both hands. "Magic!" He said, waving his fingers. A few droplets of sauce sprinkled off of them.

He cleared his throat. "Well... I'm good at some of that, I guess. I can shoot a bit. And I can read people. You have to be able to tell if someone wants to buy your watches, or if they're actually an undercover cop." He chuckled. "Basically, if they act really interested in your watches, they're definitely an undercover cop."

[Raven Cadera]

Raven snorted a laugh at that. "Yeah, that sounds accurate."

Biting into the wing, she nodded approvingly at the taste. Which didn't burn this time around.

"So... uh... how do you do those magic tricks? Did someone teach you how to do that?"

[Manny Donos]

Manny chuckled, smiling as he bit into another wing.

"Mmm. Geez, the sauce really gets all over, doesn't it?" He said, wiping his hands on a fresh napkin. "But nope, not really. I mean, you pick things up here and there, some from other magicians, some from datafiles, some from vids, but mostly you've just gotta practice."

He frowned suddenly. "Wait, that's not quite true. There was an older kid who showed me some stuff, back at the orphanage. What was his name? Dacen? Jacen? Da... ja... rick?" Chuckling, Manny shook his head. "I don't remember. But yeah, I guess he showed me a few things before I got moved to another home."

[Raven Cadera]

Raven silently ate the wing, her expression set into stoic mode, but it was obvious she was deep in thought.

"Didn't know you were an orphan too..." she murmured, picking up her cup of soda, "... mind if I ask what happened?"