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[Zhaan Duran]

Duran sipped a drink colored neon green, ice clanking around a poorly cleaned whiskey glass. In the other hand lay a cigar, smoke idly burning out from beneath a well-aged leather hat. It was busy today in the club on Brandy Street, the smells of old fry oil, cooking meats, and old cigar smoke filling the air outside. Inside it was all body glitter, sharp-sweet alcohol, and powerful musk. Scantily clad beings of all genders danced around poles, cages, and patrons' laps while music thumped and thrummed.

Bliss, really. Much of his work lately was rote goods-moving and smuggling with the occasional chase of a bail jumper in corporate space. Some part of him missed the thrill of a good fight, tricking Republic border patrols, or charging down a corvette with little more than an old X-wing and balls of brass. But it made money, he supposed, and money paid for his drink and his dancing.

Again he went to sip and found his glass was empty. Exhaling breath from his nose and exfiltrated himself from a corner booth and, habitually checking his blasters were still in their place on his belt, strode to the bar. Then there he slipped into a well-worn seat, drink-empty glass clacking and clattering with the sound of ice with nothing to cool.

"Pardon me. A Green Galaxy?" he asked the bartender in accented Basic, a triangle-eared young man with hair arranged low on his left side.The cost and a 50% tip were already on the table as he said it.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai was in between smuggling jobs, and he always had to fork over credits for his debt. When he wasn’t running anything big, he found moonlighting gigs. Tonight, he was working as a bartender at a skeezy strip club. Because of where he was from, Kai didn’t mind grungy and filthy establishments. They never did background checks, and it was always paid in cash with little record of it. The only thing he didn’t like was dealing with wads of cash some of the strippers handed over from their hoo-hahs when they wanted drinks.

Business was booming tonight, and he was looking forward to crashing in bed after closing time at 2 am. Kai looked up when a blue patron asked for a drink. The Fiani couldn’t help the way his gaze lingered briefly. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw a Chiss in person. In fact, he wasn’t sure he ever had. He recovered quickly, giving the man a nod before his dexterous hands got to work, even doing a few tricks with the glasses before pouring him his drink and sliding it over.

“How’s your night going?” Kai asked, making the standard polite conversation as he cleaned a glass with a dirty rag that didn’t improve things much. But no one batted an eye.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Zhaan Duran]

Ah, yeah, he recognized that look. 'That a tatted-up Pantoran or something else?' was just one of those silent question that constantly got thrown Zhaan's way. Was a lot easier to answer when he hadn't donned his sunglasses. When the bartender's gaze lingered, blood-red eyes answered for him. Nothing he wasn't used to by now.

He slid the payment and tip over in exchange for the drink, which was immediately sipped. "Better than before I came in," the Chiss replied. Unintentionally, he stared a little. Were those ears real? Some people on the holonet put on those headbands and talked in uwu speak. It was probably rude to ask, right?

"You work here long? Good bottle work on ya," he asked instead with the air of a man who never took such talk too seriously. Plus one of the ears just moved, so he was pretty sure it was real.

Somewhere behind him, the club was getting real crowded. A large group of people with shifty eyes flooded in, bullying people out of seats and booths and away from dancers.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai didn’t miss the guy looking at his ears, and he made a point of swiveling them, a knowing smirk on his face. He would always talk to a customer that tipped well, and this Chiss was generous, “Nah, just a temp gig to get me back on my feet,” He said. He was tired of never getting a break. He couldn’t remember the time he had several days off in order to just do nothing.

His gaze flicked up past the Chiss towards the commotion starting to brew. Kai grimaced at the sight, hoping he wouldn’t have to get involved. A barfight was terrible for business. Before long, a heavy Feeorin lumbered over, practically elbowing Zhaan out of his seat to sit down.

“10 whiskeys,” He growled as he glared at Kai, “And they will be on the house.”

Kai looked around himself and promptly realized he was somehow the only one left manning the bar. When did the other workers bail?! The Fiani’s ears flattened slightly, but he wasn’t exactly passionate about this job and felt no loyalty.

“Comin’ right up, chief,” He announced as he started pouring those drinks.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Zhaan Duran]

Zhaan brought his cigar up to his teeth, puffing strong and peppery smoke to join the rest mingling together in the club. He smirked sympathetically at Kai. "Whatever pays the bills, right?" The Chiss was either unaware of what was going on of behind him or didn't care, content to sip his drink and puff his cigar. 'Course, that got interrupted by a big Feoorin nearly toppling him over for a bar seat.

Duran stumbled a bit and slid to the next seat over, hands raised non-threatening before pulling his drink over to himself. "No trouble," he said breezily when the Feeorin glared at him as if challenging him to do anything about- unprompted, Duran would like to add- shoving him around and muscling drinks from the bar. No manners, these folks.

As if the Feeorin could read minds- or maybe he just took offense to other life forms in his vicinity- he took offense to the Chiss' placating gesture. Duran was unceremoniously grabbed, lifted from his seat, and chucked behind the bar to crash into the bottom shelf spotchka and the ice bin. He flopped to the filthy ground, groaning.

"Hurry up, fuck's wrong with you?" the Feeorin barked at the Fiani. "U𝓰ₕ, ₛₘₑₗₗₛ ₜₑᵣᵣᵢᵦₗₑ 𝒹ₒ𝓌ₙ ₕₑᵣₑ," Duran slurred vaguely from somewhere on the floor, which the Feeorin either didn't hear or didn't care about. Eventually the Feeorin went off with the drinks- and the entire tip jar, for good measure.

By this point Duran was trying to find something to pull himself back up that wasn't a bottle or just coated in indiscernible slime.

@Sreeya

Spoiler: Dice Roll

Feeorin Patience Level 1d20 = 1/20 Basically None

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai watched as the blue guy just dropped like an anvil and out of sight. The Fiani rolled his eye and let the Feeorin take what he wanted. It wasn’t like Kai was getting paid extra to defend the place. The big thug went back to his friends and started throwing back the drinks, the rest of the patrons clearing out. Kai ignored the Chiss and decided to book it as well, shuffling towards the exit.

That was when the door practically flew off its hinges, a massive Trandoshan and a huge group behind him appearing. The reptile pointed a clawed finger at the Feeorin, “Stay in your own lane,” He hissed, picking up a chair and promptly throwing it at the lumbering man. The Feeorin punched it out of the way, the two groups rushing at one another to start a new fight. This effectively cut off the exit as furniture began to fly everywhere.

Kai was on the floor, actually trying to crawl to freedom in the middle of the chaos. On his journey, he began to pass the Chiss on the floor.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Zhaan Duran]

Music​

Duran pawed around on the gross, sticky floor for his hat. Had he even been wearin' the damn hat? Somewhere or other there was the sound of breaking furniture and faces, yelling, all that mess. The Chiss looked up to get a gander at whatever the hell that was. There was a Trandoshan, that angry Feorin, and a whole group of others just goin' at it. And not in the more fun way, either.

A moment later his view of the chaos was obstructed by a thick section of fluff, which Duran followed to its source: the bartender, crawling away from the bar. The Chiss crawled to keep up with him. "Where we goin'?" Zhaan asked like he'd been part of some master escape plan this entire time. A whole package deal of a chair and some guy sitting in that chair flew overhead the two of them.

"What's thisss?" A Trandoshan in the midst of the chaos reached down toward Kai. Instead, though, the Fiani was yanked away by his bartender's jacket and the Trandoshan ended up pulling up the Chiss by his hand, instead. "Duran, pleasure," "What- hrrgblgklw!?" "Nah, it's Duran, Duran," the Chiss emphasized while his activated shock glove gave the reptile a good- well, shock.

He then kicked them in the shin with his metal-tipped boot and whipped around the other way, looking up for an escape angle. Big, heavy, shitty-looking chandelier-thing over the dance floor, that'd do. And now a bit of extra swing weight, whatever was closest should work. Didn't even really have to think about it too hard.

Duran drew and fired his one of his pistols, skimming the thick chain holding the chandelier-thing in place. It started to buckle, but not before the Chiss leaned over, grabbed Kai for the extra weight, and fired his whipcord thrower at the chain. As it cracked and the chandelier fell, Kai and Duran would launch up into the around, swinging in a semicircle while the chandelier dropped. The heavy metal circle bowled through a chunk of brawled and scattered them like pins

Meanwhile, the two would-be escapees flew up toward the second-story VIP lounge balcony with alarming accuracy.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai did a double take when Blue shimmied up next to him and asked about their exit plan. What? There was no deal! The Fiani ignored him at first and kept scrambling away. However, that was right when a Trando started to reach for him. Blue actually yanked Kai out of the way and pulled out some epic combat moves, “Where was all that five seconds ago?” He yelped in exasperation back to when Blue took a nap on the floor.

He felt like a glorified stuffed animal as the Chiss shot the chandelier and randomly grabbed him. The makeshift pulley worked beautifully, hoisting them both up to the second story. Kai landed deeper into the balcony and saw the Chiss on the edge teetering and flailing. Kai grabbed the front of his clothing to yank him properly onto the level before slamming some doors open.

Screams erupted as several naked women scattered away from an obese man that was oiled up and nude. He started flailing and cursing, but Kai ignored it, spotting a window nearby. He grabbed a nearby stool and slammed the window, shattering the glass. However, instead of quickly jumping out, Kai was completely distracted by a nearby safe that was open. The oily man was starting to make his way towards it, but slipping along the way.

Kai was entirely too greedy to let this pass and he leapt towards the man, using his tail to make him trip face down. Meanwhile, he grabbed a bag and started looting the hell out of the box.

“You get me outta here and I give you a cut!” He called out to Blue.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Zhaan Duran]

"All in the past!" Duran had deflected right before taking the two of them on a magic chandelier ride. He stumbled forward when Kai yanked him onto the balcony and righted himself with a bit of wall hanging metal someone else might call a sconce. He got himself up but the metal broke off the wall. Duran stuffed it into a vase full of canes and moved along.

Around then's when he got an eyeful of the naked ladies, then suffered for his greed immediately afterward. He refused to watch the oily man jiggle and jive his way toward the safe and turned around to check for crazy gangsters with guns. Duran only turned back around when he heard a window shatter.

First thing he saw was the greaseball again, followed by Kai collecting shiny stuff from the safe. How'd he get that thing open so damn fast? "Talkin' a good cut or a couple pegats?" he felt the need to ask, leaning over to see what all was being stuffed into Foxy Santa's goody bag.

Ignoring the fact that turn of phrase went a direction the Chiss hadn't intended, he whipped back around toward the stairs. Oh hey, it was the Feeorin again, trudging up the inconveniently long spiral staircase to the second floor. Aw, fuck, it was the Feeorin again. "Yeah sure whatever, let's get gone!" It was time for another of Duran's genius plans.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed a cane and used it to drag the lubed-up obese guy and drag him toward the stairs, squeaking loudly all the while across the tiled floor. Then he unceremoniously kicked him down the stairs. Where he got stuck, instead of cinematically bowling the Feeorin over. Duran decided he should drink less during downtime.

He drew a pistol and fired- the Feeorin ducked the bolt while still climbing. The fuck?

@Sreeya