Ask Synthetic Release

[Altair Din]

He couldn’t get the picture out of his mind. The saber standing there plunged through the Jedi’s heart. He never saw his face and he almost felt like a coward for it. Altair had no real sense of direction, his footsteps taking him wherever they pleased. It was late at night and there was light drizzle. Altair was adorned in a black jacket and some loose pants with his tail swishing side to side behind him. His hands were stuffed in his pockets as he walked through a mostly empty street.

The district was known for being shady, the site of prostitution, gambling, drugs and everything else illegal in other areas. Altair was wandering around hoping to score some substances to help curb his Wildfire cravings. The withdrawals were significantly worse following his actions on the battlefield, and he wanted nothing more than to drink that purple liquid again. However, he valued the Force too much so he opted instead to look for morphine or other drugs to curb the pangs.

He could hear bass and music booming from nearby as drunk clubgoers stumbled out into the streets, cheering and laughing. Altair kept to himself, keeping a low profile as he ducked into a dark alley. He was intent on meeting with a Rodian that supposedly had some ‘merchandise’ to display a block or two away. The rain began to pick up a bit, but he remained unbothered for now.

@Lilith

 

[Emilia Vuth]

It was starting to feel like most of her life was spent in the armpits of planets. Was it a bad thing that she was starting to feel comfortable striding down dark alleyways? Either way, she was here because of her agreement with the Prime Minster of the Free World Alliance. Emilia needed a name, and there was no reason for her not to do this alone while the IIA agents worked on other aspects of the case.

Because she switched between outfits, Emilia was wearing the most recent outfit she put together from the various armor she'd collected in her travels. It was form-fitting and light, and wouldn't make her stick out much from the regular underworld riff-raff. And she'd tied up her platinum locks of hair into a tight bun on her head.

She'd been leaning up against the same dark, damp spot beside a garbage can for hours now, waiting to catch Prwilo when he showed up. The man owed her, and she had enough faith, despite how sketchy his job was, that he'd repay her. But instead of Prwilo, a Tiefling showed up where the Rodian usually did business.

Emilia paused for a second, but decided to step out from the cover of the garbage can. The man would probably assume she was some crackhead or something, but Emilia didn't really care about what some crackhead or something thought about her, "Are you looking for Prwilo too?" she asked. If Prwilo wasn't going to show up here, maybe someone knew where he was.

@Sreeya

 

[Altair Din]

“Fuck!” Altair yelped as he jumped and almost tripped backwards over some trash as the girl practically materialized out of thin air. Who the hell just popped out from behind a dumpster like that?! He had similar experiences when overly religious people popped out of the blue and handed him a tiny bible because he looked like a demon. This vaguely reminded him of that. Of course, Altair quickly brushed it off, clearing his throat and pretending he wasn’t just spooked.

“Who’s askin’?” He quipped back, “You a narc or somethin’?” Altair crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing her suspiciously, "You got a banana peel stuck to you.." He pointed out casually. She looked a little out of place, but he was curious she knew about the Rodian. Altair failed spectacularly at saying the name so he simply jotted the name down as ‘Pillow’.

The tiefling glanced down at his commlink and realized Pillow was late. Instead, this chick was waiting around here. Something seemed off. Altair glanced around himself, wondering if he was about to be jumped for money.

@Lilith

 

[Emilia Vuth]

Narc? Actually, surprisingly even to herself, no. Prwilo was too small-time to give enough shits about shutting down. At least, in her opinion. Emilia preferred to go after much bigger targets, because it was much more effective and impactful if she managed to do something.

"No, I'm not a narc," she answered, though before she had the ability to keep talking he pointed out.... a banana peel on her.

Emilia looked at her right shoulder which... well, had the offending item. She grunted and plucked it from her shoulder, tossing it away. Great, now she needed to wash her glove. When she looked back at the man she tried to pretend the banana peel incident never happened.

"Prwilo-" which she pronounced as "prill-low" despite knowing it wasn't correct, but she didn't have Rodian lips. The fucked up lips-muzzle-thing-whatever they had. You know, that looked like the carboard thing inside of a toilet paper roll but flattened out. She probably needed them to pronounce the name correctly. "- is my long time pal. I haven't seen him for awhile and I'm worried because I can't find him."

@Sreeya

 

[Altair Din]

Altair wasn’t convinced he bought into her story, but she didn’t seem like she was lying. His face scrunched up a bit when she pronounced the name and he was pretty damn sure she was pronouncing it incorrectly. Why would Pillow’s friend not know how to say his name? Whatever, he was a bit too high to put that much thought behind it.

“Well I gotta find him cuz I’m uh…buying some shit from him,” He mumbled unconvincingly. Altair was about to shrug and wander off when two Trandoshans stepped into the alley. The tiefling grimaced at the sight at once - he could tell they were furious for whatever reason. One of them pointed to the girl in the alley.

“Are you that little bitch that keeps meddling around our operations?”

The other drew out a knife. Altair’s eyes narrowed and he instinctively stepped in front of the girl, obviously having no clue she was Force sensitive.

“Hey, that ain’t no way to speak to a lady,” He held his hands up, “Why don’t y’all calm down and, ya know, fuck right off?”

The Trandoshans were clearly not thrilled with the answer as they both rushed at Altair. The tiefling wasn’t too fazed, and he sprang into action at once. He blocked and incoming swing by grabbing the fist and physically yanking the Trandoshan down as the second went to stab. As a result, the second man stabbed the first in the shoulder. Altair ignored the man’s screaming, using his elbow to slam into the nose of the second man. The tiefling was caught up fighting both thugs, but he was clearly holding his own. It was immediately apparent Altair was specialized in unarmed combat. Though both Trandoshans were much bigger than him, he made short work of disarming them and dropping them to the ground. By the end of it, they were lying in a heap and groaning on the ground, one of them bleeding from a stab wound.

Altair could hear footsteps approaching and he looked back at the girl, “Go!” He shouted at her, quickly breaking into a run and motioning for her to lead. The tiefling looked over his shoulder and then at the girl, “The fuck kinda shit you get tangled up in, man?!”

@Lilith

 

[Emilia Vuth]

Buying some shit, the tiefling said. Emilia gave him a side look. She was pretty sure she knew exactly what he was wanting to buy. To be fair, she'd tried some of the Rodian's spice before and it wasn't bad, just dangerous, especially to non-FS or FS not trained to move chemicals through their body quickly with the Force. Something she was, very luckily, trained to do because of her master and line of work.

She was about to answer him, until a deeper voice from behind her caught her attention.

Before Emilia could say anything else, the tiefling jumped in front of her and defended her. Usually it was the other way around; usually she was defending the stranger, so Emilia was taken aback for a few moments when the tiefling decided to protect her. Her heart beat a little faster at the scene. She watched the tiefling expertly take down the two men, another surprise. Obviously, he was not a beginner in hand-to-hand combat.

Then her defender shouted GO and it snapped the sephi out of her stupor. She turned on her heels and ran ahead. There was no reason to get caught up in a fight with however many other men there were -- but she did want to know more about her attackers. That was why while she ran, she decided to go towards an old hiding spot that Prwilo and her used once.

She lead the tiefling around a few corners, before stopping abruptly. If the tiefling stranger didn't pull away, she'd grab his hand and yank him suddenly through the doorway of an abandoned building. She'd keep her grip on his hand to tug him with her (using the Force if she had to) to a doorway in the building. Once at the doorway, Emilia quickly took out her datapad, slicing through the old security panel and forcing the door to open. It opened to reveal a stairwell.

That would be when Emilia grabbed at the tiefling's hand again, to drag him up the stairwell to the roof. From the roof she was hoping to see where the thugs would go after giving up on finding her, if they gave up. "I need to follow these guys, they might know where Prwilo is," she said, without answering the man's question in what she was caught up in.

@Sreeya

 

[Altair Din]

Altair had little trouble keeping up with the girl as they ran. However, he bodily collided into her when she abruptly stopped. It was almost enough to send them both crashing, but he used his tail to regain balance. He scowled at her, but she was entirely too focused on what she was doing. Before he could say anything, she grabbed his hand and yanked him around.

“Where-” He began, but gave up and just focused on keeping up. Altair arrived on the roof and barely began to process what was happening when she spoke again. The tiefling gave her a quizzical look. She wanted to follow those goons that were dead set on killing them??? He was going to scoff, but then he recalled how they got on this roof. She knew where to go, knew how to maneuver herself around and even sliced her way in. There was more to her than what he originally guessed.

“Look,” He said as he turned to face her, “You’re affiliated with Pillow. Those dudes were about to kill you. Chances are Pillow’s already dead,” Altair said. He cleared his throat as he realized she probably was actually his friend, “I mean… I wouldn’t get my hopes up,” The tiefling stared at the alleys that cut through like mazes below.

“I really didn’t wanna get tied up in some new bullshit,” He said, running his fingers through his hair. He felt the familiar withdrawals creeping in again, his skin lined with sweat. This was on top of being soaked from the rain already. Altair was about to decline and wander off, but he had this morbid curiosity to learn what was going on. He and Cairo were infamous for always pulling dumb moves, and this sounded like one.

“There!” He pointed as he spotted two Rodian duck into another alley. Altair took a headstart and leapt from the roof to another roof. He looked back, eyes widening as he realized he had used the Force to close the distance. Altair opened his mouth to say something, but the thugs were actively getting away. He looked back at her, looked to the thugs, and then back at her, “I’ll track them down!” He said as he bolted and jumped again. He had no idea she was a Force user, of course.

@Lilith

 

[Emilia Vuth]

Emilia was, well, pretty sure the tiefling was right. For some reason, the idea that Prwilo was dead hadn't crossed her mind until now. Kark, she thought to herself. Without Prwilo, she'd have to do her own digging to get the name. Things would take ten times longer that way.

Though the small sephi's look remained neutral even after the tiefling pointed out that Prwilo was probably laying lifeless somewhere on the streets. Her and him weren't actually close. And she looked away when he said he didn't want to be caught up in shit, since it was understandable. Instead the sephi's stoic gaze scanned the alleys, until the tiefling yelled "There!". The shout snapped her gaze to him again.

That was when Emilia's eyes widened slightly, because when she turned the man cleared the gap between rooftops with a jump. Maybe it was just his race, but it didn't seem possible without the Force. Emilia stared for a few heartbeats as he bolted off to jump to another roof. She hesitated to follow, but she couldn't let the tiefling go on his own, or lose the men. They were her only lead to Prwilo at this point.

"Kark," Emilia cursed, out loud this time. She made up her mind at that point, picking up speed and using the Force to jump to the other roof, to catch up with the tiefling. She jumped from roof to roof with him, until coming to a stop beside the tiefling when the group of men went into a shady looking cantina. Music drifted out of the building, and rough looking men were grouped up outside it. A gang hangout?

She tried to avoid the tiefling's gaze, because she wasn't sure what he'd think about her being able to keep up with him. Instead she spotted one of the possible gang members leave the building alone, turning down an empty alleyway. "He looks like someone worth talking to," Emilia said in her usual stoic voice, pointing out the man.

She wasn't sure if the tiefling would keep helping and following, but, well, she wouldn't refuse help as long as the help was kept in the dark. It was the usual way she operated, anyway. She leapt to another roof, carefully creeping along the edge until the man was far away from the cantina and isolated enough for her taste. The small sephi became a blur as she jumped off the rooftop and landed in front of the lone thug.

@Sreeya

 

[Altair Din]

Altair did a double take and almost faceplanted when he realized the girl was abruptly keeping up with him. Wait a minute, she was a Force user too?! Were they really that common? Between running into Clove and now this, he began to wonder how many Sith and Jedi were really out there in the galaxy. He said nothing for now, spotting the cantina as he followed her line of sight.

“What? That dude looks-” Altair watched as the girl took off, “...like a truck..” He finished his sentence after she was already gone. The tiefling sighed and followed her, watching her creep along before dropping down in front of the thug. Altair felt a lot more confident about her abilities and capacity to handle herself now. He dropped silently behind the man, sticking to the shadows for now.

The man was a giant, muscly Trandoshan that yelped in surprise and took a few steps back. However, he was thoroughly pissed and immediately took out a blaster and attempted to shoot the girl in the chest.

“SHE’S HERE!” He would cry out at the top of his lungs unless he was interrupted. Altair didn’t interject for now, looking back to see if any of his buddies were going to show up.

@Lilith

 

[Emilia Vuth]

When the Trandoshan went for his blaster, Emilia wrapped the Force around the weapon and tugged it to the right side to face it away from her. With that in motion, she moved quickly the opposite way, to the left, just in case he managed to get the shot off before she pulled it fully to the side. She was right to do so, as the blaster bolt flew only inches past her, off to the side. It would've been a bad night if that bolt had made contact with her.

"BITCH!" the giant mass of muscles, the Trandoshan, shouted between clenched teeth. He wasn't heard by his buddies, again, because Emilia had made sure not to jump him too early.

Emilia didn't stop there. She grabbed her DC-17 blaster from her belt, switch it to stun mode and fired at the man's arm that had the blaster, while he was still struggling to get out of her Force's grip. He yelped again and then finally Emilia let go of his arm. The man knew he was in trouble and charged her, but the small sephi's pale hand swept across the air. She created a wall of Force beside him and violently slammed it into the side of the big bulky man, sending him flying against one of the dirty alleyway walls.

With that, the man collided hard with the wall, his arm making a CRUNCH noise. Emilia walked closer to the Trandoshan while he was trying to get his wits back from his sudden, unexpected date with the wall. With another CLICK, Emilia turned the blaster back to its regular mode. She had no intention of killing the man, but he didn't know that.

Her blaster leveled with the Trandoshan's head, so when he turned he'd see up the barrel of the gun. "Kark you, you ain't getting anything from me!"

"Shut up," the small sephi said plainly. Both her voice and eyes cold, emotionless. The man hissed but stayed quiet. Emilia reached into one of her pockets with her free hand, grabbing her credit purse. She turned the purse upside down in front of the thug, allowing the credits to fall to the ground with multiple clinks until there was a decent pile in front of him. It was probably more credits than the man had seen in a long time.

His eyes looked down at the credits and Emilia spoke, "Tell me where Prwilo is and these are yours."

@Sreeya