Memories.

[Laeonas Tannaras]

Cormond
Y131
Late at night...​

"Oi Laeo! How aboutcha hand ova that lil blaster after yer stunt, and maybe we won't put a hole between yer eyes?"

The shout came from the green Twi'lek, and Laeo wasn't really in the mood to argue- but he wasn't in the mood to supplicate either. A young weequay pulled out a blaster rifle, grinning wide as he pointed it at the human boy.

He was fifteen, and these guys were mad at him. He and a couple of his friends in a gang had decided they'd do a bit of a speed-by, shooting at them on the street before getting away. But Laeo had been a bit to cocky, hanging off the edge of the speeder and getting knocked off by a lampost. He probably had a couple broken ribs, which was why he wasn't able to run quick enough for him to escape.

"Ta heel with ani of ya, maybay oll!" He grunted, pointing his blaster pistol at them, anger in his eyes. The Rodian, who seemed like the leader, laughed a bit. "What is it with you and that accent, humie?!" She asked in a mocking tone, twirling a knife in her hand. "Tis'ow I talk! Mum and everywan ilse in me block, 'ell, the entire CITY, spoke like I do! Stop actin' like I'm weird, it's BASIC, ain't it?!" the boy shouted back, before doubling over in pain. "Kriff..."

The small gang laughed, the Twi'lek shaking his head. "You're a kriffin' idiot, ya know that? Movin' in on our territory, firing a couple of shots to act tough. How old is your gang boss? Twenty? How many people do you even have?" the gangster asked, and his weequay ally fired in between Laeonas' legs.

"C'mon Laeo, don't make us kill ya. We might old shootcha in the left nut or somethin if you just tell us what we want t'know!" The weequay said in a familiarly raspy tone. The human boy stood up, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes.

Without warning, the entire left panel of the wall suddenly came off, slamming into the Rodian girl. The weequay barely had time to scream before he was pulled up into the air, dropping his rifle.

The Twi'lek stared in absolute horror at what he witnessed, but before he could run away, he'd find himself on the ground, throat closing up like an angry hand was choking him.

Laeonas, both arms outstretched and hands clenched into fists, was glaring with eyes full of hate at the both of them. "Skani, Guelphesh, don't go and til me THAT'S how yer gonna fight back. Clutchin' at yer throats laike blue milk went down yer windpipes?~" The boy would say in a mocking tone. Skani, the Twi'lek, outstretched his arms in a pleading gesture, but he would sooner hit the ground before he could finish, still unable to move. Guelphesh, the weequay, was still in the air, barely able to breathe. "Idon't s'pose ya can shoot me anywhere now? Maybe I'll just have to shoot tha both of ya?" He'd muse, the weequay's eyes filling with even more terror.

"...nah."

The two of their struggles would suddenly be cut short as their bodies went limp. They fell, eyes closed, with labored breathes.

He had forced their minds to sleep. Laeonas didn't want them remembering much, and he hoped his desire had been communicated through his manipulations on their minds- he couldn't force it, he knew that much from previous attempts. But his will could be communicated through his power, and he knew that.

Hobbling out of the alley, Laeonas would make his way back to the hideout. No doubt he'd have some explaining to do to the boss.

 

[Laeonas Tannaras]

CORMOND
Y128
The Early Morning​

Laeonas was leaning against a wall. The scrawny young child wore an oversized old coat, and his boney back pressed against the durasteel uncomfortably. The crowded streets stank of industrial fumes and backed up sewage-- so, pretty standard.

The boy hadn't cut his hair in ages, so between his shoulder length hair, scrawny stature, and probably higher than normal pitched voice, Laeonas might have been mistaken for a girl. It didn't really matter though, all children were treated the same-- terribly.

He eyed up the passerbye, trying to not look to conspicuous. He slipped into the crowd after a few minutes, walking a bit quicker than most. It was when he finally saw what he was looking for that he slowed down.

Across the street, a young man was handling a handful of credits. He'd learned to discern the value of chips just from looking at them, and from the short distance, he could tell that out of the five chips, three were single credit, and two were five credit chips. Thirteen standard credits-- enough for breakfast and lunch.

He passed by the man slowly, and as he did, he tugged with the force. The man's arm, appearing to on it's own, flung itself forward a bit-- and the credits scattered across the ground.

Like lightning, Laeonas sprang into action. He bolted, snatching up each individual chip quickly. The man shouted behind him, yelling obscenities and trying to pursue-- but a benefit of being so scrawny and lanky was that there wasn't much meat on Laeonas' bones to slow him down.

He ran around a corner, and then, another. He just kept running and running, and running.

It was what he did.

 

[Laeonas Tannaras]

CORMOND
Y134
The Late Evening

How Many times had he done this? 15? 30? It didn't really matter, and Laeo wasn't really in much of a hurry.

Standing outside were two of the boys boss Nell had assigned with him. Their jobs were comparatively easy when it came to what they were about to do.

Going through some of the things on the shelves, Laeo slipped some of them into his bags. Basic medical supplies, some chemicals that could be refined into all sorts of stimulants. You wouldn't think that he was planning to start holding up the place in just a few minutes.

Walking to the front register, the cashier, a droid, began scanning the individual items. "That will be 38.65 credits. How do you wish to pay?" It asked, an unblinking expression in both of the square photoreceptors sitting on either side of the pipe of a head it had.

In response, Laeonas reached under his coat, pulling out a blaster rifle he'd had concealed-- and would smoke the droid in an instant. Alarms started sounding, and Laeonas moved quickly.

Hopping over the counter, he pulled the droid's deactivated arm out of it's socket and shoved it into the port on the side of the register, opening it and frantically grabbing credit chips by the fistful.

Just than, one of the boys-- a slightly older twi'lek, came bursting into the shop, an angry grimace painted across his face. "What the hell are you doing?! You were supposed to hold the droid up, not empty your blaster's plasma pack!" He began, clearly pissed off.

"Ai-" the boy began, but his words were interrupted by blaster fire. Grabbing the last fistful of credits, Laeo would duck under the counter in time to avoid the harry of bolts that shattered the windows and ripped right through the store-- unfortunately, his angered partner wasn't as lucky.

Frantically, Laeonas looked for another possible exit-- and spotted it in the form of an "employees only" marked door to his left.

Not wasting the escape opportunity, he bolted into action, grabbing his rifle and the bag of credits and running out the back. He made his way through piped hallways and supply closets, until he found himself in a back alley...

...faced with five men in brightly colored clothes, all with various blasters and melee weapons. "Ayy, boys and girls, looks like we caught a rat." One would say, prompting a couple of chuckles-- before opening fire.

Acting as quick as he could, Laeonas' arm outstretched-- and a metal panel came flying off the nearest wall and into his hands. Placing it in front of him, Laeonas quickly pointed his blaster out one side and began firing, tilting it in specific directions.

All the "law enforcement," or more accurately, enforcers of the mob boss who collected protection fees from the business in this area, could do in response, was look shocked before desperately trying to find cover. As the initial surprise of seeing what looked to be magic died down, they all began firing again.

Frantically, Laeonas looked for escape-- and he found it, conveniently enough, next to him.

An escape ladder.

Slinging the rifle over his back, he'd throw himself a few feet off the ground with as strong of a push as he could muster-- and than he began climbing like mad.

As he found his way to the top, Laeo huffed, panting heavily as he made his way across the roof.

Peering over, Laeo would see the two broken bodies of his partners pulled out into the streets. He didn't watch anymore-- the gangs loved to parade around the corpses of dead rivals. Looking around, Laeonas was almost ready to leave-- until he realized that he was only carrying his blaster.

The credits had been left down in the alley during his escape attempt.

Blinking, the boy looked down at himself. Getting two partners killed was bad enough-- he probably wouldn't have gotten a cut of the shares for that failure alone. But failing to get the credits meant that the gang would take his payment in blood.

He waited for the commotion to die down, and he made his way across a few rooftops before finding his way down to a cab.

He went through the halls of the tenement quickly, knocking on the door to their apartment. "Lae-" His mother began, before he stopped her. "Pack up, Ma. We gotta go."​