Ask A Shard In Exchange

[Arr Senn]

Location: Byblos

A human female was sitting all alone on one side of an otherwise empty noodle bar. She seemed to enjoy the noodles and its creamy chicken flavor, gulping and slurping them down as if her life depended on it. In truth she wasn't eating as fast as she appeared to be, but merely used her slightly exaggerated motions to periodically peek into a nearby mirror to see who was walking passed or standing still behind her. You see, she was meant to meet someone at this very noodle place...

Quite innocent, right? Perhaps so, but less if you consider the fact that the woman wasn't actually a woman. Or human. This was Arr Senn the Clawdite. Thief by trade, usually, but more often than not employed by the Troig Eccle'Baal to handle offworld deals that it didn't want to trace back to its headquarters on Taris. Today was such a deal. A sale of a -to some- priceless Sith artefact. Arr only knew it to be a rather pretty Shard, but it was in fact one of the much coveted Shards of Palpatine. Precautions had been made to ensure he couldn't be ripped by the potential buyer and the Troig wasn't shorting him on his commission for this inconvenience either.

Just good business. A good Exchange. Credits for a Shard. A whole lot of credits.


@Braden

 

[Malerion]

Byblos was at least cleaner than some of the other worlds Malerion had been forced to visit on his extended travels throughout the Galaxy. The Sith was becoming more fond of space travel recently only due to the fact he could control the cleanliness and smell of the craft in question. He wore a simple outfit of black’s and brown, a branded t-shirt he picked up at the local spaceport. Like most he carried weapons not trusting the planet’s law enforcement to keep him safe. Although he was not stupid enough to wear an exposed lightsaber due to the amount of attention those things brought now. Instead he had a short seax at his hip and a blaster in a shoulder holster. The latter was for decoration, he hated blasters, but the threat of the weapon allowed him to walk freely.

He fiddled with a credit chip in his pocket as he reached the noodle bar. He smirked at the lack of pomp and circumstance of the location considering the amount of money about to be moved between the two parties. He was informed his contact was a brown haired human woman, there were two such individuals in the bar, but one sat with an overly loved up blue Twi’lek, the pair staring into eachothers eyes, drool almost falling out of their faces as they said how much they loved each other. So Malerion guessed it was the other woman who sat alone.

Stepping up next to the woman he gave her a small nod. “Can I sit?”

@Eccles

 

[Arr Senn]

In his line of work it was a valuable thing to be able to recognize who is 'part of it' and who isn't. One mirrored look at the newcomer and expression in his cold grey eyes and Arr Senn knew immediately that this was his contact.

"I don't think they want you to sit without ordering something," he smirked, not letting the vision of the human woman slip for a second. Discretion was his livelihood, after all. Luckily this human seemed to understand, for he hadn't simply brought two large bags filled with credits chips along with him.

Arr Senn motioned for the noodle bar owner that he had a new customer and nodded his head towards Malerion. "I'm Ara," he said, "The chicken cream noodles are ex-shardedly good."


@Braden

 

[Malerion]

Malerion smiled at the woman, it was a forced smile even she could see that. The Sith rarely played nice with his comrades and part of him hated the fact he was dealing with such low hanging scum. But if what these thieves and cutthroats had was the real deal he would pay them the credits, swallow the sickly feeling in his throats and quickly put the day behind him.

“The chicken cream noodles.” He called towards the bar owner before he took his seat opposite Ara. “Malerion.” He replied, never understanding why everyone wanted to use codenames, there were trillions of human’s in the galaxy, so his appearance wouldn’t be unique nor his name and even the combination of the two was likely repeated at least once out there in the vastness of space.

Whilst waiting for the noodles to appear he looked directly into the woman’s eyes. “I would like to see the Shard.”

@Eccles

 

[Arr Senn]

"Hahahaha-" the woman suddenly burst out in laughter, forcing the duo and their exchange to become the center of attention for a moment. She didn't stop laughing until the proprietor placed the package of noodles in front of Malerion. It was a takeaway pack, which should tell him something, but the scent of cream chicken did find its way out of the package.

"How to tell me you're new to this, without-" she turned towards him on her stool and showed him a picture on her personav of a shard that was unmistakingly one of Palpatine's old crown. It seemed like the Dark Side of the Force even radiated from the picture, as if the Shard itself was closer than Malerion thought. Such was the way of the Force, though someone like Arr Senn -I mean, Ara- would never know.

"Credits first, as agreed with the Troig." No one on Taris would ever think to question the validity of Eccle'Baal's claims when it came to the items it had in its possession and the price he wanted for it. He wasn't one to double-cross, for it was his livelihood to run an Exchange of illicit goods. An Exchange where the buyer never got to meet the real seller and the other way around. It kept Eccle'baal safe as a reliable operator, selling items and sometimes information, while also keeping the other partners' identities unknown to each other. Something that someone whose buying Sith Artefacts could better appreciate.

@Braden

 

[Malerion]

A deep frown and sneer appeared on the Sith’s face as the woman began laughing and it took great effort not to grab the woman’s neck and snap it like a twig. His knuckles cracked as he clenched his fist, biting his bottom lip he took a deep breath in as the image was shown. It was indeed what the seller claimed it was, even without deep knowledge of the Artefact in question or its history he could sense the evil radiating from the object through the image.

Putting his hand into his pocket he pulled out a credit chip, on it was half the wired funds. The other half was on another chip he also had in his possession but for now he wanted to get eyes on the actual object, he wasn’t going to be made the fool. “Half the funds now. Once I see the object in question you can have the other half.” He replied.

@Eccles

 

[Arr Senn]

The woman sighed and shook her head before taking the credit chip from Malerion's hand and plugging it into a little datapad-esque device. There was an exorbinant amount of credits on there, but it really was only half of the agreed upon amount. "You're already in possession of it, Malerion-" she shook her head as she gestured towards the takeaway package of chicken cream noodles on the bar. There was a reason it was takeaway, for underneath the noodles and between the false bottom and the real one, was the object of the Exchange. The proprietor had been paid to give him that exact package and it sure did help that Malerion had chosen to order the very thing that was already in there. Funny thing how suggestions worked.

"-see for yourself, but hand over the second credit chip." she unplugged the first one and pocketed it before holding out her hand for the second one to get the full agreed-upon price.

So far nothing out of the ordinary had happened. No one seemed any the wiser of what they were doing, but still, Arr Senn wasn't too inclined to wait for the obvious Sith to get his Sith Artefact and decide he doesn't want to honor the deal he had brokered with the Troig. The Exchange didn't take lightly to those that went back on their deals, but then you couldn't always could on the impulsiveness and wickedness of one's character. Especially when it concerned underworld types and.. well, and Sith.

@Braden

 

[Malerion]

When the woman gestured to the noodle box his brow furrowed, confused, he could sense so easily the darkness of the Shard through the digital image. But now with it just in front of him he couldn’t feel a thing. Taking the empty credit chip, one hand slid onto the container as the other held onto the remaining credit chip. It was there to prove he would pay but he wasn’t going to hand it over until he saw the Shard properly.

With The Force he gripped the container and ripped the thing in two, small amounts of creamy noodles dripping onto the table. But there it was and in that moment as the Shard felt The Force around it began to paplate with Dark Energy and it was glorious.

A smile crept over the Sith’s face as he knew what he had in his position was something truly a wonder of the Galaxy. Even though Malerion wanted nothing to do with the scum in the Exchange, so enthralled by the power of the object any thought of him double crossing them went out of the window. As The Force gripped tightly around the Shard, his fingers on the other hand extended offering the chip to the woman. “We are finished here.” He said.

@Eccles

 

[Arr Senn]

Arr Senn looked on in surprise and shock how the client just flat out ripped the package of noodles apart with the Force instead of simply opening it from the bottom. What a waste of good noodles, but more importantly they now had a crowd looking at them. The proprietor, the lovers at the bar and several passerby's had noticed the violent display and stopped to look at Malerian and Ara. Kriff, the clawdite quickly accepted the second credit chip, confirmed that this one, too, held a exorbidant amount of credits and stuffed it in her pocket with the other one.

"Ple-" kark the pleasantries when it came to the crazy power-hungry Sith. Arr Senn wanted nothing more than to put considerable distance between himself and the person the Republic Rangers would no doubt soon be after. Public displays of the Force? Without finishing her sentence, the woman slid off her stool and quickly made her way through the crowded market street.

Somewhere among the crowd her facial features would change, then when passing a shadow her skincolor became darker and finally Arr Senn turn the jacket around so that the different colored inside was on the outside. All of this to make sure that this Malerion wouldn't be able to follow him.

Eventually he would signal the Troig Eccle'baal that the deal was made. Then he'd deliver the credits to Taris where he would receive his commission and spend a good portion of it trying to forget he had ever met a Sith,

/end thread
@Braden