Ask Nar Shaddaa A Spicy Encounter

[Willa Kanz]

-Theme-​

This place was literally the pits, wasn't it?

I mean, she wasn't stupid or anythin'; she'd heard the news, somethin' about some zombs showing up and taking down the lower levels. But she also heard there were many ways to turn a quick cred around here, and since the rest of the party was being lame and going all goody two-shoes, Willa found her chance to find more creds. If she became a pop icon, she wouldn't have to use spacey woo-woo magic to prove herself. Hell, she could do it herself. Crix was gonna catch up to her eventually; he always did.

But she shut off her comm and pulled her hood tighter over her head. This is for the good of the party, ya moron, she was tempted to text back... but couldn't. No, she knew she was bein' kinda cowardly, but whatev.

So spice guys. Hadta be somewhere on these levels, right? If holovids had anything to say about it, they lived in crappy places like these, skulking in the dark. Just in case, she kept a hand over her blaster, conscious of her outfit. It was so friggin' quiet.

Where would I be if I were a dealer...?

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

He was sent to Nar Shaddaa to help out on a spice shipment. He had no real affiliation to the syndicates and served as a neutral party that could travel into the Core. He could distribute black market goods and spices in the undercities without ever setting off alarms. It was all part of the Sith trying to forge an alliance with the Hutts.

Emryc was leaning against a wall outside of a warehouse. He was supposed to meet his contact any time now. He had discovered spice that could be rolled up into cigarra blunt and smoked. He had one such thing between his fingers, and he drew from it, blowing out a thick cloud of smoke that left him with a nice and cozy feeling.

Everything was legal on this planet, and he was just following the rules. His other hand held a comlink, and he scrolled through his list of music. He had grown to like the underground night scene at Nar Shaddaa, and he could do whatever he pleased.

Smoke plumed from his nostrils when there was the lightest prickle against the back of his neck. He wouldn’t have reacted if he hadn’t felt the presence before. He tilted his head up to see a lone figure walking this way. Was she lost? The alley was dimly lit, and there was no one else out in the open.

Emryc lowered the blunt to his side and strode towards the figure. As he approached closer, he could make out the girl’s face under the hood. She would remember him as the obnoxious and rather rude intruder from not too long ago. Emryc’s face held the faintest glint of amusement.

“A bit far from home, aren’t you?” He brought up the blunt and drew in the spice before blowing out a cloud of smoke.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

A feeling. A touch of awareness as there was someone else there. She sucked in a breath at the voice, and brown eyes widened in the hood. That silvery hair. The lanky frame. Her back stiffened, lips thinned. Back on Coruscant, the kid seemed older, somehow, in this place. More confident. "Yeah well, girl's gotta get her freedom sometime, right?" she snapped back, eyes flicking over him once.

"At least you're no longer bleedin'. You look pretty damn fine to me; what's a cutie like you doin' in a place like this?" Hip popped to one side, her free hand on her hip. Once again, eyes flicked to the cigara and she sighed. "I'm... looking for work. Was told this was the place to be. Now excuse me," she clipped at him, attempting to walk past.

Surely there was someone skulkin' here, yeah?

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Freedom. What could she possibly need freedom from? A nice cozy home with loving parents? He had to fight not to roll his eyes, drawing in from the blunt again and holding the smoke in his lungs. It was a few moments before he exhaled again, feeling the effects of spice. It made him more mellow and took off the edge he normally had to him.

When she spoke next, he couldn’t help but flash a lopsided grin. He took a moment to take her in, not having really noticed her before as he simply bumped into her. There was something to be said for her coming all this way alone, and he certainly couldn't deny she was rather easy on the eyes. These streets were not welcoming, and the potential to get stabbed was quite high and she still braved it.

As she mentioned she was ‘looking for work’, he wrinkled an eyebrow. Did she seriously wander over into this sketchy, empty lot and warehouse area to find a job? He opened his mouth to say something, but she shoved past him and walked towards the warehouse.

Emryc spun to watch her but didn’t say anything. He quietly observed as she would walk up to….well, nothing. It was pitch black and there was no one in sight. Crickets chirped.

After a moment, three Rodians were walking around the corner - no doubt to score some spice. They were Syndicate from the tattoos they had on their wrists. One of them paused when he spotted the girl.

“Whoa whoa,” He growled, “What do we have here?” A grin spread across his face, “You look lost, little girl.”

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

Yeah, she caught the look the guy was slanting her, but... she was desperate! She couldn't exactly just go to some cred thing and spit out a couple hundred from her Daddy's account; he'd only hunt her down to get the credits back in the first place! Not that her life mattered anyhow... and deep down, there was a gnawing pit in her stomach.

I gotta do this for Crix, she thought to herself defiantly, gritting her teeth. It's what friends do.

At the voice, however, she wheeled around. Emryc would see it before it was masked. A flash of anger, brown eyes flashing hard before she coated on a sugary smile, lips pulled in a pout and wide eyes.

"Oh, sure..." she simpered, a hand fluttering over her chest. "I'm so lost... thank goodness you found me." She would wait a beat, before lashing forward. It was almost without thought. Pure instinct. But a hand shoved forward, a tremor of the Force behind it as she shoved the closest one by the shoulders, forcing him off his feet when he got close enough.

"Now get lost, creeps," she sneered, face tight with anger. "Y'all're in my way."

Her blood was rising to her cheeks, her heart pounding hard in her chest. She was fully prepared to leap into the fray if she had to. But that guy was likely to either keep smoking and watching or walking off to leave her to her fate. He seemed that kind of guy.

Whatever, she was sick and tired of being treated like some child or toy! She was a woman, Force damn it!

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

The Rodian she pushed went clear off his feet and landed on the ground. His buddies looked at him, and then whirled around to face the girl.

“You bitch!” One of the Rodians yelled. He moved to launch himself at her and subdue her. The other one moved at the same time, swinging in with a punch to her side. They had no intention of going easy on her after seeing their buddy get thrown back like that.

The third Rodian coughed and slowly got to his feet, still confused at how a girl that size managed to take him off his feet.

“Hold her down!” He barked at the others, “Is she Syndicate?”

The Rodians had no qualms with attempting to rough her up and look for any tattoos.

Meanwhile, Emryc remained standing where he was. He watched the scene play out for a second or two while blowing smoke rings before stepping back towards the wall and leaning against it. He pulled up his comlink and began to scroll through StarTube videos, continuing to puff on his blunt. She had made it pretty clear she wanted nothing to do with him, and he was going to respect that. She was right about him, after all.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

One thing she learned from being around Crix and the gang was, if you got caught in a scuffle, speed was far better than pure brawn. Like she suspected though, the silver-haired cutie wasn't really runnin' off, but watching the show. Which was kinda expected, but... also kinda weird. Maybe these guys were friends of his. Or perhaps these people...

Wait.

Syndicate?!

Aw kriff, there went her chances for an easy score. Always karkin' things up, Wiz, she could almost hear Crix laughing. Never out of meanness, no. But dang, she was denser than durasteel sometimes. She skittered back as one of them launched himself at her, attempting to duck the grabbing hands, when the fist made a good connection to her ribs, and she barked out a cough.

Ugh. That kriffin' did it.

She could take wolf whistles, stares, even all the lewd comments strung her way. But she was alone. There were three to one. They were in her way for her helping Crix the only way she knew how, and she felt an angry edge of desperation seeping into her focus. Anger, pulsing with raw aggression and desperation, lashed from her hands as she attempted to force the other two gangsters away from her. Space. She needed kriffin' space. And these three sleemos were takin' it all up! She just wanted to punch them out until they stopped, because being alone in an alleyway was a stupid idea but kriff she was all outta good ones and she needed the credits bad.

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc was perfectly okay with entirely ignoring what was going on. He even chuckled as he saw some funny videos on his phone, giving it a like as he drew in a bit more of the spice. He turned up the volume to drown out the annoying scuffle going on in the background.

The Rodians were shoved back, and this made them angrier. One of them grabbed her by the arms and they physically tried to drag her off. A lot of horrible threats were made, and they all worked in concert to try and subdue her.

Emryc only looked up when they began to make their way towards a nearby warehouse with the rolling shutter door open. He sighed and switched off the music videos then, putting his phone away as he began to walk over.

“Hey, take her somewhere else, I’m about to meet some Crymos in there,” There was a tone of irritation in his voice.

One of the Rodians paused and glared at him, “Piss off, kid!”

Emryc sighed and dropped the joint then stamping it out. In the next moment, the Force coiled around the throat of one of the Rodians. Emryc kept walking forward, not casting him a glance as he drew out a saber. He glanced at the girl the Rodian tried to hold onto.

“Duck,” He said calmly to her. It didn’t matter if she followed the command or not, the saber sailed directly where her head had been. It would pierce directly through the face of the Rodian behind her.

By now, the choked Rodian was on the ground and twitching. The third Rodian began to run away. Emryc walked over to glance down at the choked Rodian gasping for breath. He leaned down to pull the Rodian’s blaster and aimed and shot the escaping Rodian in the back. He then turned back to finish the job with the choking Rodian, the life being sapped from him. After the deed was done, Emryc put the blaster into his open palm. When he stepped back, the entire thing would look like a typical gangster scuffle.

Emryc glanced down at his phone to check out the time, “I got a job here so you may wanna find another alley to creep around in,” He glanced up at her then, his saber whizzing by inches from her face and back into his hand.

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

Okay, so.

Maybe she was supposed to be a little scared. Maybe she was supposed to, dunno, shout for help. But the only person who could possibly help her was busy doing whatever. Her heart was thundering hard in her chest as one of them grabbed her arms, and she snarled in frustration, feeling something sick and dark coiling in her bones. She wasn't scared, she was pissed.

But hearing the word duck, she didn't need to be told twice. She kriffin' ducked.

The kid offed all of them like it was no big deal, and for two seconds, she stared at Emryc, brown eyes wide. She shoulda been scared, but...

"That was so cool!" she found herself saying, getting up from the ground. But he mentioned something.. a job? "Hey wait--" but with the lightsaber whizzing past she winced. It was red. Red like in the holovids.. and the smile dropped, and a sickness welled in the pit of her stomach. She needed to do this. She couldn't turn to nobody else; the rest of the planet was sick.

N-not that it had anything to do with him being cute or anything.

"You said a job. Where can I get some creds?" she asked him. "Please. I..." she hesitated, features crumbling slightly in defeat.

"I'm desperate."

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc expected, and hoped, that the girl would simply jump up and hightail it. To his dismay, she was instead excited by the scene that played out. His attempts at laying out just how terrible this place was obviously failed. When she spoke, he simply stared at her blankly. He stood there staring at her question for a few seconds before he simply looked away and began to walk into the warehouse.

It wasn’t until he realized she wasn’t leaving that he stopped again. Emryc blinked at her for a moment, “If you want cash, go ask your parents for an allowance,” He barked out. She even smelled too nice for him to take her seriously. The worst she ever had to deal with before tonight was likely a broken nail.

“Or you can loosen your top a little and go stand in that corner right there,” He jutted his chin towards the aforementioned corner where speeders and random shady looking aliens were passing by. Emryc had a job to do, and he didn’t want to get distracted.

That was when there was some noise and a few figures showed up. It consisted of a tall, scrawny man and two Gamorrean. The pigs were rolling over two large crates over. The tall man looked over at Emryc and then over at the girl.

“I wasn’t told there would be two of you. What is this, a trip to the shopping mall?”

“How about we get this over with before I tear your throat out and skullkriff both your pigs?” Emryc said with a deadpan voice.

The Gamorrean began to roar and thunder over. The man in between them held up his arms to stop them, “I don’t want trouble with the Sith!” He hissed at them before turning back to glare at Emryc.

“Have them roll it over to the cargo speeder I brought over,” Emryc pointed a thumb over at the vehicle parked nearby. He looked over at the girl, “And Pixie here will help,” He muttered, quickly pulling a name out of the hat based on her hair.

 

[Willa Kanz]

Did he really think she had the luxury of going back to Coruscant? Was he deaf? She couldn't go back. Hell, her old man was likely relieved he'd no longer have a mouth to feed. She scowled, but he was already moving away. He just judged her because she showered regularly! And so what? Oughta girl keep up her standards?!

Sheesh, everybody was such a critic.

Wow. Yeah, these guys were totally discreet in an alleyway in the dark, rolling two crates with big pigs.

Pixie. Huh. She had to suppress a smile at that. But... what had the guy said earlier. The word sparked a thought in the back of her mind. But... she glanced at Emryc. Perhaps best not to say anything for now. She didn't even know the kid's name, just that he was cute in a creepy way.

Oh wait.

Closer to the pigs.

She felt herself grimace, but subdued it. "Yea, sure. I'll help."

Who knew. She had a feeling he wasn't the grateful type... but it was too late to turn away now. Time to keep quiet.

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc lit himself a cigarra and smoked from it, standing by idly and letting Pixie and the pigs get to work. He didn’t even bother hiding the fact that his gaze lingered on her for longer than necessary. It wasn’t a lewd look, however, but something deeper. He asked a thousand questions with his eyes that would never pass his lips. They materialized for only a moment before disappearing behind a cloud of smoke from his cigarra.

“First half of the payment should be in your account,” The scrawny man grumbled. Emryc glanced down at his datapad and confirmed it, walking over to lift up the ramp to the speeder. He walked past the two Gamorrean that complained to their boss about him. The man nervously argued back, mentioning something about Sith.

Emryc popped into the speeder and beckoned for Pixie to do the same. Emryc revved up the engine and began to drive. For a long moment, he said nothing, his gaze trained ahead. He wasn’t exactly a talkative individual, but he also didn’t want the girl to start asking a ton of questions.

“I’m going into the Core Worlds to ship this. If you’re useful, I may even give you a cut of the profits,” He explained as smoke plumed from his nostrils. His gaze remained trained ahead, “I will make a stop on Coruscant to drop you off. Then you’re going to go home and never pull this kind of stupid shit again.”

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

She slid into the speeder, and exhaled quietly, sinking into the seat a moment. Her own eyes remained ahead. However, her jaw gritted at his mentioning of Coruscant... and dropping her off. Anger, resentment, and bitterness pulsed out of her with every word he spoke, features hardened and brown eyes went flinty.

"I ain't the brightest bulb in the box," came her slow reply. "But you think I'd be here if I had a home to come back to?" Hard words, but simple ones. Her old man didn't care; hell, he was likely relieved to have his neat little world of peace and order without her there to wreck it. "You can just drop me off at Coru, but I ain't goin' to any home anymore. I'll help ya," her eyes cut to his features in a side glance, "but I need creds. If you can't help with that, then drop me off at the corner, I'll figure my own stuff out."

However, she seethed at his assumption she would just follow along with whatever he wanted. She'd been bossed around enough, she wasn't gonna just roll over and play his cards.

She had more to consider than just herself, there were still her friends as well.

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc simply chuckled to himself as she mentioned she wasn’t the brightest bulb. At least she had some sense of self awareness there. As she described that she had no home to get back to, Emryc remained quiet. He exhaled and watched the smoke drift out into the air from the window. He had no intention of taking her home. He wasn’t the hero of this story.

He just needed to draw out from her answers on her living situation. He knew his little jab would spark rage and make her blurt about her home. From the sounds of it, he had nothing to worry about if at the end of this she was murdered and dumped in a ditch. She wouldn’t be a huge problem for him to bury.

None of this was betrayed on his face, smoke pluming out of his nostrils as he kept looking ahead. It wasn’t long before he parked near a spaceport. He had been given a ship to transport the goods. Emryc walked over to the ship and lowered the ramp.

“Move the cargo into the ship,” He barked. He walked into the ship and switched everything on, leaving her to push the heavy cargo up by herself. He finally put out the cigarra, plugging in some music to enjoy along the way.

He began to rev up the engines, tilting his head back to call out at her, “Get in here, I’m about to lift off.”

@Killa Ree

 

[Willa Kanz]

He didn't promise credits. He didn't say anything. She scowled, but said nothing, instead loading up the heavy cargo. However, just before she was about to step up the ramp to enter and get leaving, her comm beeped. Scowling, she glanced down at it... and he would perhaps sense it.

A spark of fear. Of anger. And strongest of all... resentment.

"I can't! Sorry kid, stupid people to save!"

She turned and sprinted off, melting into the crowd. Crix was doin' something stupid without her, and she needed to get back to the ship. Was he really so hard-headed that he was just gonna leave her and the gang behind? Kriff that. Time to fire up their junker and wake the kid crew, they were gonna need to skip ahead of that moron.

@Sreeya