Ask Mustafar Next Level

[Maeve]

Maeve hated Mustafar already. Behind the facade her insides were definitely boiling, which was perhaps a little ironic, given that they were surrounded by lava. The job was well-paid, but the unpleasant, hot, dry air made her question whether it was paid well enough. She did everything for money - at least usually, but as she had been given more details, she had questioned her decision.

It was one thing to roam a planet ruled by Sith, but it was another to rummage through a library. Well, to be fair getting around unnoticed and stealing stuff was her forte, but she wasn't exactly fond of Force-User and she knew it better than to actively mess with a Sith...

But here she was, leaned against the ship that had transported her over, arms crossed and waiting for her 'associate'. She had absolutely no idea who was about to assist her, and she hadn't decided which face of her she'd meet, but as always, she'd adapt accordingly. For now, she suppressed a scowl and rather passively studying the architecture in front of her where they were expected to enter the ancient library...

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

Books? He had to find books? It sounded like the most bogus mission ever. That was until he found out that the big, big, big boss may actually be interested in the ‘siphoning dagger’. This mission was only to find directions to the dagger, not the dagger itself. Once he had a heading, he could ditch his associate and take the information straight to his main employer..and hopefully not get eaten in return. On second thought, maybe it was best if he kept the info to himself..

He was already annoyed because the tip of his tail was slightly singed from an unfortunate encounter with a geyser. Nevertheless, he plodded along and found his accomplice for the job. She was small and easy on the eyes, unassuming like he was. On the other hand, he looked nice and fluffy, with huge ears that had multiple piercings and a big, bushy fox tail with the tip slightly charred. He wore an eyepatch over his missing eye, but otherwise was dressed like a maintenance worker.

“Kodi,” He said as he introduced himself with a nod of his head. He looked over towards the building, “Any Sith actively guarding it?” He asked. His little mishap earlier meant he didn’t have the chance to scope out the premise.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Maeve looked around and no one came into sight- at least no one she hadn't seen earlier. She let out a short sigh before she fumbled with her datapad, deciding she'd give her company two more minutes before she'd go by herself, but right after she had pulled it out, she noticed something fluffy in the corner of her eyes.

Storing the datapad into the front pocket of her, she glanced up - just to meet the eye of a fluffy, somehow adorable looking fox boy. She suppressed a scoffed 'cute' and gave him a light smirk instead, internally studying him closely to match the quick input she received. So that was her associate? Fun. But perhaps as unassuming as his looks, the two wouldn't make a bad duo.

She had received a similar cover to his from the contractor and thus had a vest on. She had learned that dressing up as maintenance often helped, yet she had a back up story of her sleeve as always if they would be discovered somehow. She still wasn't thrilled for this trip, but her company at least looked fun.

"Hey. I'm Sapphire", she replied, flashing him a quick smile. "I've been watching it for a while, so not that I can tell. Intel suggested droids inside, but we might find our way around it". She pushed herself of the ship, re-ensuring her equipment was well concealed as she started moving.

"Do you have any prior experience with handling Sith?", she asked, wondering whether he was useful behind his cute looks. She had met Sith, she had killed two, but it definitely hadn't been easy at all. She knew the Sith had some background knowledge on their endeavor here, but was convinced they wouldn't be too pleased if they found them.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

“Sapphire?” He repeated with a visible smirk, “Going with a stripper name?” He couldn’t help it. If there was one thing he missed from losing an eye, it was the ability to wink. He would have done just that with the remark if he could. He moved with her, light on his feet and agile. He wasn’t the biggest guy around, but he knew how to adapt to any scenario.

Her question got another smirk from him. He could practically smell the skepticism, “Enough experience to survive,” He flashed her a look before he kept going. Kai’s clothing meant he could slip into a worker role as they arrived at the building, “Do you know how to slice? That’d help a lot,” He queried as he looked for side exits. If he had his way, they wouldn’t run into any confrontations at all.

Kai looked ahead and could spot a guard, “That’s our ticket in,” He said, “Keep a lookout for now while I try and talk my way in” He said, pointing to a boulder for her to hide behind. Since he looked like a worker, he could simply look as if he were reporting for duty.

“Good evening, sir,” He greeted the guard. The man looked less than pleased.

“I’m reporting for my first day as a janitor, can you point me in the right direction? I’m supposed to be working in the archives.”

“The archives are classified space,” The man said gruffly.

Shit. Well this was a complication. Externally he remained unfazed, “Well there was probably a mix up. Perhaps you can point me to the lobby?”

The guard rolled his eyes and did just that. As Kai passed by him, he accidentally bumped into him, muttering an apology. However, the Fiani had a keycard in his hand by the time he passed the guard. The good news was that he had a way into classified space. The bad news was that another guard walked out and Sapphire would have to find a way to meet him inside the building without raising any alarms.

Roll: 9/20

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

"Wow" she let out a scoff, acting offended. "My dad had given me the name when he sold me". Well, how many names had he handed out to strangers? She had her stories straight though. For as long as he sticked to her name for now, they were fine regardless. He didn't fully have to buy it, he didn't look like a Kodi either.

"Good". She kept the cards to her chest, preferring not to share what she was capable of doing just now. He'd probably see at some point anyway, at least the parts she'd needed him to see. "I'm decent", she replied, which was exactly the truth. She usually needed slicing for her business, but it was not like she had attending any slicing seminars. It was all self-taught, but she was hoping they wouldn't need it anyway.

Kodi confidently began marching right towards the entrance and internally, Maeve cursed him. She would have prefered to be in first, but alas, the fox boy had taken the initiative. It was still fine as this meant she could seem more passive than she actually was and perhaps it wasn't too bad if they entered separately anyway.

She patiently waited her turn, watching from her position, but after he slipped in, she narrowed her eyes at the second approaching guard. His trick seemed to have worked, but this meant she had to go for plan B. Slipping out of her vest and shirt, she switfly fumbled around with the clothes underneath, adjusting her dark top a little and buried both, her blaster and the vest beneath a pile of ash and dirt. It was a stolen blaster anyway, so she didn't care whether she'd have time to retrieve it, but what mattered was that she found her way inside and at least the rest of her equipment was still well concealed.

With the dark pants and the black crop top, all she had to do was to was open hee hair before she switched into a totally different role. She walked briskly, her gaze directed to the ground before she carefully slowed down, only hesitantly looking the guard info the eyes. "I uhm...", she cleared her throat, her cheeks blushing.

"Salvos Roo'ha requested my...presence", a Sith Champion, very unpleasant company, she had met him a while ago and sold him spice. She had played the innocent, he had enjoyed her company and joked about having her visit him on Mustafar. It was no actual appointment, but she was convinced the guards here were just guards, no Sith, thus possibly not questioning their requests.

The guard raised a brow at her, looking her up and down. She nervously played with her fingers, biting the inside of her cheek. "Here?", he earnestly asked and she pulled out her phone, pretended to read something and slowly nodded. "Don't disappoint then", he scoffed but let her through so that Maeve could enter with quick steps. 'What an idiot'.

So they were both in, but where was her fluffy eared companion? Once inside, Maeve drew her datapad for the outline of this complex and found a stairway to her left that would get her to the levels they needed to find, but assuming Kodi knew where to go, too, she decided to take the shortcut and try finding away inside without getting spotted.

She purposely stayed clear of lifts because she did not only hate them, but wanted to take the less frequented paths anyway. She had to descend a whole bunch of flights, but when she finally found herself in a dimly lit corridor, she was hoping it would lead her to the archives entrance.

@Sreeya

Roll: 16/20

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai wasn’t sure if ‘Sapphire’ found a way in or not, but he would wait briefly before he walked in by himself. She had the power to jeopardize the operation for him and he wanted to get paid. He was beginning to lose his patience when he heard someone approaching. His ears swiveled and pointed towards her and he turned to regard her. His brow visibly rose at the sight of her change of attire. Damn, she was clearly hiding a rather nice figure under her getup. However, it also clued him into how she managed to get in and he gave her a sly, fanged grin, “Sapphire worked her magic I see.”

He turned and used the keycard to open the door, leading them towards the archives. The Fiani looked around for any security cameras and only spotted a stationary one way in the corner. He pointed it out to Sapphire so she knew to avoid it.

As he passed by the camera, he made a show of sweeping the floors and looking like any other worker. With the focus on him, Sapphire was free to go through rows of books to find something related to their objective.

Meanwhile, Salvor Roo’ha just so happened to be in an adjacent building. He got a call about someone coming up to meet him. Naturally, he angrily told them he had no such meeting. This left the guard on the other line perplexed. Then who was that woman?

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

So when Maeve actually made it down, she quickly figured she wasn't alone. Her furry-eared company was already waiting, immediately shooting her a cheeky remark. Her ocean eyes settled on him, her head slightly tilted and a sly smirk on her lips as she replied, "I haven't even gotten started".

He swiped a key card and she immediately remembered the moment he had accidentally bumped into the guard, knowing the trick too well. "Quick fingers, I see", she moved in right after him and followed swiftly, skillfully avoiding both the camera and making any unnecessary noises anyway.

They then quickly split up as Kodi had his roll to play, but this allowed Maeve to actually make a move on the shelves. It was relatively hot in the archives, given the close proximity to the lava underneath, but her outfit change fortunately made it much more pleasant than it probably was for her fox companion.

She pulled out her datapad and ran scans across the rows of books and translating whatever could be translated, knowing that it went much quicker like that, but this also meant she had to stay vigilant to avoid cameras and watch for guards and droids both. She made good progress, at least until Kodi's sensitive ears would be the first to pick up steps from the outside before the door would slide open again.

Maeve spun at the sound, her eyes immediately widening as she realized hiding probably wasn't a great option. Hoping Kodi would keep the incoming droid guard somewhat occupied for a moment while she was still busy between shelves in the back part of the archives, Maeve hectically continued to search through the section that held accounts of the Consiliul de Sapte - their very target.

Never having been in such an ancient library before, it was hard to tell whether locations of artifacts were even to be found here, but she tried. Meanwhile her EzPhone buzzed against her thigh, a message of a certain "wizard jerk" popped up, saying "where are you right now?", as, unbeknownst for them, the still somewhat curious Salvor had made his way over and searched the building a few levels above from them. Meanwhile the droid guard would be checking the area around Kai, searching for any suspicious activity regardless of whether the Fiani had chosen to hide himself or not.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai heard the droid shuffling over and he kept sweeping. He did an excellent job playing the role, mainly because he worked very menial jobs to make quick cash. He had to pick up low level jobs to have a place where he could peddle spice. The droid walked over and he scowled at it, “You’re dirtying the floor,” He quipped icily at the droid. The droid huffed and placed its hands on its hips.

“I have not seen you here before.”

“Please,” Kai rolled his eye, “The attrition rate here is garbage. There’s no hazard pay and you expect to keep loyal employees? You'll get a new person every week.”

The droid clearly didn’t expect to be pulled into an ethical debate on worker treatment, but it worked like magic, “I would disagree. Employees are paid a competitive hourly rate-”

“Yeah okay, droids are treated better than people here,” He pointed at his singed tail tip, “That happened to me just on the way here. No one here is taking any measures to protect employees or making even the route to get to work safe.”

“Why sir-”

If Sapphire overheard any of this, she would hear an all out bickering session that stalled the droid perfectly. She had ample time to do her thing, but of course Kai had no idea Salvos was walking over.

I love a cat and mouse game, He texted her, I will find you, my little minx! He said with delighted emojis including several eggplants. He was now only a single level away and the two still had to find a quick exit with Kai having no clue that they had another problem about to happen.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

While Maeve kept looking her thigh kept vibrating. She ignored the phone for a bit, her eyes scanning while her ears were dedicated to the admittedly amusing bickering about labor rights and working conditions on Mustafar. She was mildly impressed by Kodi then, which drew a smirk from her, however as she did finally check her phone, it immediately faded.

Fuck. So he was here right now. Assuming Salvos expected her at his quarters or whatever, she exhaled slowly, focusing on the job, but as her gaze fell upon a very antique, rough looking book and finding the name of a certain Darth Adivit in the table of contents, the realization about how the guards could have informed Salvos nagged her.

"Rrr...don't let we wait for long". She air gagged while hitting sent, but she was dearly hoping his excitement would slow him down a little. He wouldn't find them in the archives though...why would he check down here? Unless...

Cursing herself under her breath, she went through a few pages before she figured it did seem to hold quite a few secrets about Sith artifacts, but without a translation, they were screwed. She thus stuffed the book and the other transcript of artifacts she had found earlier into her bag and moved closer to Kodi, who would have finally won the debate and left the droid feeling something that came close to human shame and disgrace.

He went his way, using a different door, but as Maeve finally reached Kodi again, beginning a brief "I've got-", the door they had used to enter opened and her ocean eyes immediately settled on the smirking Salvos. Fuck. "Oh no...I was about to find just the best hiding spot, yet you've spoiled the surprise". Kodi would be able to tell that while her voice was suddenly higher than before, her whole demeanor changed. From one second to the next, she appeared different, perhaps a tad insufferable.

Salvos approached in a way that appeared as thought he tried to be somewhat imposing, but Maeve couldn't break character with laughter. Also, she knew she fully had to keep it together to avoid having him notice that something was up. "Why are you talking to this lowly worker?", he asked darkly, a hint of suspicion in his voice, the smirk fading. "This is not a worker", without thinking, she grinned at him, turned and unzipped Kodi's top part of his uniform.

"This is a gift for you", she then proudly told him with a wink, needing Kodi to play along. They had go get out quickly. "Isn't he cute? I knew I couldn't show up empty handed...so what about a fox, my lion? I thought it would be fun..", oh how much she hated it...but she knew he couldn't turn down a free present.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai caught on what was happening right away, but he was beyond irritated. She clearly expected this Sith asshat to arrive and didn’t feel the need to communicate with Kai about it. While he stewed in rage internally, his face betrayed nothing. His ears began to flatten as she nonchalantly unzipped the front of his jumper, revealing a masculine necklace with a tattoo on his upper pecs.

He still had his broom and he playfully swept it against the floor, “Oh, I’m here to sweep you off your feet,” Kai told the man with a sweet, fanged grin. Without warning, the end of the broom swung up and slammed right into the man’s nuts. It didn’t matter if he was a Sith, Emryc Thorne or Raze himself, any man that took a blow like that to the nads would buckle immediately.

At the same time, his tail, which he knew Sapphire would forget about, came up from behind her to trip her where she stood. The Fiani shoved her back, using the tail trip to make her topple her on her ass. Kai yanked her bag off her and sprang past her at lightning speeds to bolt out of there. She would be left in a pile with her Sith lover.

Naturally during his ‘conversation’ with the droid, Kai managed to swipe his access card. The Fiani exited the room and punched the door closed, locking them in the archives as he ran up the stairs. Once there was a bit of distance, he zipped up his jumper again, slowing his walk and blending right in as a worker among the crowds again.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Maeve completely avoided eye contact with Kodi as she turned the scoundrel into a gift. She was amusedly studying the puffy ears instead, noting that he wasn't too pleased, but it still didn't prepare her for what came next. Within a split second, she was suddenly on the ground and so was the insufferable Champion, but while irritating flared up inside her, from the outside she looked shocked.

Oh the fucking fox boy. "Oh no...he's got my purse! Babe, we have to find him!". Maeve wasn't worried about them finding out about her theft, but she was absolutely worried about not getting paid, so declaring the crooked Fiani a fugitive seemed a valid option and well, regardless of how much Salvos grossed her out, he wasn't too happy with his minx having been robbed and his present having escaped.

While Maeve scrambled to her feet, he was already up, barking commands into his comms for his guards. An angry Sith was indeed slightly terrifying to watch, and while he furiously stormed towards the exit, he soon realized that the Fiana had even locked the door he had used to exit. "The other side!", Maeve called out as she started to run, but even with Salvos' clearance it took a while until they were finally sprinting upwards, too.

With Salvos on full rage mode, he quickly mobilized a whole bunch of guards that starting searching for the fox in disguise, which even allowed Maeve to slip away unnoticed. She was soon headed for the nearest exit, knowing that their contractor was their only way off the planet, so she contacted them, telling them they had what they needed and that they should sent them both the coordinates for pick up as they had unfortunately gotten separated.

This fox was not getting away, so while he was busy trying to find a way out of the complex, she'd wait for him at the ship in cover...now she was indeed more than pissed, but she was still waiting for their rendezvous.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

He knew had a nice lead time while the two were locked in the archives. Even though he made an exit, he couldn’t hide out too easily with his prominent features. It would only be a matter of time before his fox tail was caught. He stuck to the regular paths out, walking normal so it didn’t rouse suspicion. He could tell several guards were looking around for someone fitting his profile and he had to get out ASAP.

Thankfully, between the outside guard and the droid, he had two badges that could get him through doors. Soon enough, there was a message on the intercom about a robbery and his description was announced. With a grimace, he dipped into the bathrooms, springing up to climb into a vent. His lithe frame was perfect for squeezing into small spaces, and he expertly crawled through it until he found an external vent. He dropped down outside, dangerously close to a lava pit.

The ping on his EZPhone suggested their ride was here, which meant Sapphire called it. Kai grimaced at it, but it was their only way out. He could waste time in finding another way off, or he could deal with Sapphire when he arrived. The latter sounded more manageable. However, before he went there, he rifled through the books, finding pictures of what he sought. Kai tore out the relevant pages and pocketed them for himself, leaving the books otherwise intact and stashing it back in the bag.

After a while, he found himself back on the ship, smirking as he spotted her, “At least take me out to dinner before you start undressing me,” He said as he tossed her bag to her. She would find all the books were safe and sound.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Maeve didn't have to wait long for their transport to arrive and she decided to wait on board so that he'd have to walk up the rank first before running back into her. Dutifully, he came up after a little while, surprisingly no guards on his tail. She was internally fuming, but her angelic features betrayed no emotions when she walked up to him, her palm slamming against the button that put the ramp back up.

Before she'd confront him though, she wanted to leave Mustafar's burning soil and so once they were both inside, their ship departed and he tossed over her bag. If she hadn't been in this scene forever, she would have left the bag unchecked, but as she now knew he was even more twisted than she had first assumed, she began ruffling through the pages of the books that were at least still inside.

"Taking you out? Oh please, I'm a classy lady", she replied, not bothering veiling her harsh implication. He was terrible, he had tried to cross her and she would not forget. For now though, her eyes eagerly scanned the pages, a faked smirk crossing her lips. He didn't need to know he had messed with the wrong woman.

"Did you have fun running though? I thank you kindly for having given me some privacy with the gentleman down there", she scoffed, attentively scanning for anything out of the ordinary. She was at least a little relieved about having acquired the books and thus having fulfilled their main objective, but she wouldn't be truly happy until she'd see the credits.

@Sreeya

 

[Z'Kair]

Kai actually chuckled at her obvious displeasure. Was she truly surprised he conned her back when she tried to throw him under the speeder? Having spent a very long time being a shady individual and working in the Outer Rim, he saw right through her bullshit. There was a hint of internal concern as she took the bag and began to start checking the books. That was when he decided he had to act quick. As she started moving closer to the chapters where he removed the pages, he abruptly drew out his blaster and stunned her point blank.

Once she hit the ground, he would move her to the crew quarters and once again lock her in for the remainder of the trip. By the time she made her way out, he was long gone, along with the prize…

/End