Title: What is a Seven?
Authors: Ewok Poet
Canonicity: Canon
Genre: I don't know?!
Characters: Tanva Q'iik (OC), Dhugg "Dhuggy" Chaar (OC), Lady Proxima
Timeframe: 5 ABY
Rating: G
Length: Short

Summary: A Jawa smuggler stands her ground against notorious Lady Proxima.

A/N: This is a response to the Create a New OC in 500–1500 Words! challenge.

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Coronet City, 5 ABY

“Ubanya! Etee uwanna waa!” A voice came from above. Nobody responded and, some fifteen seconds later, the shadowy figure spoke again. “Ubanya!”

The guard reluctantly opened the passage to the sewers. The female Jawa was taller than most due to wearing a strange pair of counterfeit platform shoes, but nothing else about her was unusual. And this was certainly not the first time that she came around. He knew that holster and the strange blaster on her hip – or whatever Jawas had – all too well.

“Not her again!” he thought. “The last time she was here, one of our Human girls mysteriously disappeared and it ended pretty bad.”

Nevertheless, he caught a breath and greeted the stranger back. “Ubanya, Tanva Q’iik! She is waiting for you in her pool.”

“Ibana.” Tanva seemed uninterested in chatting with crime boss’ minion. That was not what she was there for. She quickened her pace and her guide found it hard to keep up with her.

Minutes later, she stood opposite Lady Proxima, the intimidating mistress of the darkest corners of Coronet City’s industrial zone, surrounded by her White Worm goons and a bunch of dirty, smug-faced, young street rats. The crime lord seemed intrigued by her.

“Tanva Q’iik, Tanva Q’iik. Haven’t seen you since around the Battle of Hoth. What are you bringing me?” She stopped for a moment. “It’d better be something good, I don’t want you to waste my time!”

The Jawa shrugged, her eyes flashing. Whatever she said, it didn’t make sense to anybody present and one of the guards shook his head and called a protocol droid. The shiny metal bettybot that has clearly seen better days shook her head and started translating. At some point, she exclaimed, “Opakwa!” which got a couple of patrons’ heads turning.

“She has a large metal scrap salvaged from somewhere in the Abrion Sector. Says that the Rebels appear to have access to some powerful Mon Calamari technology. It’s waiting outside and she says that…”

“Enough of that, Sparks. Smugglers are no missionaries and a Jawa certainly does not give whatever was salvaged for free.” Proxima leaned to the droid, who then took a step back.

“Ra'ti!” Tanva exclaimed in her high-pitched voice.

Sparks put her hand over her mouth. “I dare not translate that. I’m a lady!” She showed the smuggler to go on.

“Yukusu kenza keena…”

“Mistress Proxima, she is interested in a handful of dosages of Gamma green…and appears to be well-aware that you have them. Apparently, they disappeared from the Coronet Medcenter a couple of weeks ago and it was a robbery.”

“How does she know?” Proxima splashed against the water, the resulting ripple spilling over the edge of her pool. “I am lost for words. But if this alloy she’s talking about is what we could use for our speeders to be explosion-proof in case we do manage to raid the Factory District and break into Meatlumps’ territory. I mean…if our beautiful children do manage it.”

“Oh, they will manage, Mistress Proxima!” One of the guards said sheepishly. “Your plans are the best.”

“Silence!” Proxima leaned towards the one who spoke, in a threatening manner. “So, Jawa, how many of these do you procur?”

“Utinni!” she exclaimed, looking at a single bottle. "Po, ko, kyo, yo, dyo, lyo...ho!"

Sparks counted. Something didn’t seem right there, but she had no choice but to translate.

“Mistress, she wants eight of them.”

“She just counted to seven!” one of the nearby street urchins pointed out, desperate to please the still-reigning queen of the underworld.

More babble.

“Mistress Proxima, Tanva is confused by your remark. She doesn’t know what ‘seven’ means. But she says that it would be a pity if you missed on such a bargain. She knows how much you want Garth Denilson, dead or alive.”

“I said seven!” The Grindalid leaned towards the smuggler.

The Jawa shook her head. “Nyeta.”

“That means no…”

“Even I know that much, Sparks!” Proxima splashed again. “So, consider this your lucky day, you…Outer Rim rodent. But if this alloy cannot be reproduced through our sources in the ship yards of Saberhing…I swear that there will be a pretty bounty on your head.” She leaned closer.

“Taa baa, Proxima!” Taa Baa!” The yellow eyes flashed again.

Proxima hissed to the nearest goon. “Get her eight dosages."

Minutes later, having climbed out of the sewer, escorted by a couple of street urchins, Tanva was about to start her speeder bike. She looked around, solely to realise that her favourite ornament, a dried womp rat paw was gone. Her source was right. They do steal everything here – worse than back in the Blue Sector.

“Nekkel juuvar obwegadada…” she quietly said to herself. Those Tatooine curses were the best, weren’t they?

…​

Hours later, she met her friend close to the holostatues of Revan and his peers at the Axial Park.

“Do you have what we need?” He asked.

“Yes.” She pointed to her backpack, now speaking in heavy West Corellian Subsector accent. “Progressive business as usual. I got one more than we were told to get, so I guess we can forward it to…”

“Proxima gave you a Hypermart offer? Buy seven, get one free?”

“Remember what number doesn’t exist in Jawa arithmetic. Everything is done for a reason.”

“Yes, yes, yes! I mean, as you say, ibana! That’s great. Say, want to go to Crystal Moon before we go back to cram our hearts out?” the Human asked.

The Jawa woman was more than delighted. “Why not? But it’s your turn to pay, Dhuggy.”

“I have a name, you know?”

“Okay, young comrade Dhugg Chaar. Utinni! You are a gentleman, I’m a lady. It’s on you.”

Dhugg smiled, showing his awkward gap teeth. “Ever told you that I love your perfect Mos Espa accent?”

Tanva made a dismissive gesture. “Mos Espa, SoSacc…whatever. It works, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does!”

 

Ooh, very mysterious! I'm fascinated by what in the name of fluffy hoojibs Tanva is up to, since it seems like the bottles of whatever are for some other person or organization. And her friend is in on this, too.

Proxima is definitely creepy, even for a criminal mastermind. (These "beautiful children" that are apparently breaking into places for her organization... that doesn't sound sinister at all, nope.)

Anyway, I really enjoyed trying to glean clues about Tanva. She clearly has a lot of intrigue in her life. (A girl disappearing in time with her last visit -- rescue, or something less benign? I'm so curious!)

 

Tanva is indeed one unusual Jawa! I don't think I've ever come across a Jawa who can speak Basic before. She obviously has a gift for languages--a perfect Mos Espa accent in Jawese but uses Sacorrian parlance like "progressive" and "young comrade" when she speaks Basic. That, combined with her unusual height (and maybe the disappearance of Proxima's street girl) make s me wonder if she really is a Jawa or is just in disguise.

She's pretty clever to exploit the Jawa number system's lack of the number seven to get a free dose. (I wonder why they don't have it? Seems pretty random and odd, a little bit like there being no number higher than five in Richard Adams' lapine language, except that there's an eight so...huh?) Proxima is as nasty a piece of work here as she was in Solo, exploiting her "beautiful children" to steal and raid rivals' territory. Whatever gamma green is, I'm sure it's bad news... So what exactly are Tanva and Dhuggy going to do with that extra dose?

Lots of questions in this twisty little story. Will we be seeing more of Tanva in the future?

 

Quite a good read.

Nice to see you expanding your horizons

 

Well done, EP! I could totally see the scene at Proxima's pool. I enjoyed learning about Tavna. She is an excellent negotiator. The Gamma Green is mysterious and I would like know more of how they will use the extra dose.

 

Well, color me intrigued, very intrigued! This Jawa bounty hunter Tanva Q’iik definitely is much more than she seems; she’s got the Sacorrian lingo down just as well as she’s got the Jawa and Mos Espa lingo down, and that says something. The Jawas' lack of a number (or concept of) seven is an immensely cool and creative piece of fanon and a very EP touch, and Tanva truly uses it to her advantage here; go her for standing up to Proxima with such gumption. Of course, I too wonder what exactly Gamma Green is: is it like Rokna Blue, or more like Green River? And who is being forwarded the extra dose? Should I even try to guess? In any case, thanks so much for sharing this with the minichallenge, and I would be very eager to see Tanva and Dhugg's adventures continue!

 

Fascinating... a Jawa smuggler and a culture with no #7 but 8? Proxima is indeed intimidating but Tanva is unfazed!