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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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May 18, 2018 20:47:29 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on May 18, 2018 20:47:29 GMT -5
The sweep of the Eye was going well, all things considered. Locke—Tyrvast, as all but a few people there knew him—had finished his portion of the work. Despite his offers to continue helping inspect the rest of the casino, but the other workers insisted that things were well in hand.
Besides, Lidah, had apparently allowed clearance for him to join her. In her bathroom.
If he wasn’t being allowed to work, Locke was hardly one to say no.
He entered her private quarters, where the air was thick with the fragrance of whatever soap it was she was using in her bath. Locke grinned as he took of his coat and hung it on a peg on the wall.
“Where are my bath bombs?!” He demanded as he abruptly swung the bathroom door open.
A short time later found Locke, with a towel wrapped around his waist, drying his hair in Lidah’s quarters. It felt good be clean of the morning’s dirt and grit and grime, much of which had been unexpected.
“So tell me straight,” he said, head popping through the towel with a wry smile on his face, “did you guys know that was going to happen when you recommended the Fork?”
He laughed as he dried his head further, then let the towel fall around his bare shoulders. “I mean, the food was good, don’t get me wrong, but the battle in broad daylight,” Locke kissed his fingers, imitating a holonet chef, “really nailed the ambiance.”
He ran his fingers through his hair, neatening the wet strands as he watched Lidah with a smile. It was hard not to watch her, now that appearances of employer and employee didn’t have to be maintained. “Still, I am glad you made it out of there alright.”
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Neology
Damsel out of Distress
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May 19, 2018 2:04:24 GMT -5
Post by Neology on May 19, 2018 2:04:24 GMT -5
[googlefont="News Cycle"]
Lidah glanced away from her closet for a moment to watch Locke, bemused expression on her face. Despite the attack, unusual both in its intensity and in its utter failure, she thought he might want to talk about Jazen first. Or Forte, as the young man now preferred to be called. At least that was one less secret to keep buried next to her heart like cancer. She stepped into a pair of knit cotton pajama shorts and slid on the matching jacket. Her fingers trailed the hem for a moment and finally elected to leave it unbuttoned.
”No. This one caught me blind.” Though disinclined to be amused with the situation herself, she thought he might appreciate that. ”But they missed this time, so we go on.” Her fingers captured his in a brief squeeze. When she let go, it was only to sink down behind him on the bed, somewhat gracelessly with one leg tucked beneath her. Those – she checked the chronometer on the end table – twenty-two standard hours awake were starting to hit all at once, a loathsome bone deep tired. Biology always won in the end but she wasn’t quite ready to surrender yet.
”I wasn’t sure you’d come up after that.” There. That was a vague enough place to begin. By necessity, Locke touched down so lightly in her life … He might as well have been allergic to big scenes like the one at Fork. Her fingers drew little circles up his back, across his shoulders, searching out tension by feel.
”Did you already know? About Jazen, I mean.”
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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May 21, 2018 16:44:08 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on May 21, 2018 16:44:08 GMT -5
“Well I could hardly leave.” Locke smiled warmly as Novus sat behind him. True, he tried to keep his head down, but sometimes there wasn’t much other choice. The Battle of the Fork, or whatever it’d go down in history as, was such an occasion. “Besides, I came here to see you to start with.” He laughed. “And not just for that stupid data chip in my pocket.”
True, work had brought him to Nar Shaddaa itself. But the Eye? Locke had grown fond of the casino, and its owner. And those in her employ.
It wasn’t the Temple, but it was a home away from home, of sorts. A quiet place—refuge from the chaos that blew incessantly through the rest of the Galaxy.
Or at least it was normally. The morning had proved an exception.
“Ah, the kid,” Locke said. There wasn’t any avoiding that forever. No point in hiding from something they both knew now.
He stretched, subconsciously, at the feeling of her fingers along his back, finding little knots of tension he hadn’t noticed were there. She was good at that.
“Yes and no,” he said after a long moment to consider his words. “I...” his voice trailed off as he made an empty motion, grasping for right words, “knew something was off. That wasn’t surprising, after what happened. But he went radio silent on me, and I thought some time alone, away from contact with the Order might help him.
“I always knew he was ok, in some ways. You know how it is with a student, I'm sure. It's hard to really hide when you're connected like that.” Locke looked back to smile at Novus, but this one didn’t reach his eyes. “I didn’t expect to find him here, though.” There were many questions Locke could’ve asked about how that happened, and he barely even knew where to start.
Then again, how many of them really mattered now?
“I am concerned, though.” His brow knit and worry colored the edge of his words. “He’s not normally so cold. Or the Jazen I knew wasn’t, anyway.”
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Neology
Damsel out of Distress
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May 21, 2018 19:02:03 GMT -5
Post by Neology on May 21, 2018 19:02:03 GMT -5
Locke Nemsee momentarily out of words? A rare sight and one that Lidah, in a more adventurous mood, might take as a personal challenge in creative distraction. But she was not and this was nothing but a shot aimed a little too well. Some self-destructive part of her had a need to catalog and measure the damage, to know exactly what Solari’s insistence on those years of secrecy had cost her.
Lidah listened quietly until Locke ran down. Her fingers matched the cadence of his voice, at the last merely tracing the long scar across his back. Tactile variance, old and distorted.
”I don’t see cold. Angry maybe, or hurt. Wounded animal like.” Five years was a long time to let something like that alone. She wanted to believe that she could see a bit of both sides but the idea of Vance cut out of her life like that was abhorrent. He was family. ”I think his aim is bitched all to hell, but … He saw you here today. Could he take that for freedom?” An endless spiral: who abandoned who here?
Locke hadn’t quite asked what had happened, way back at the beginning of this. She pulled the towel off his shoulders, very slowly.
”I’ve always kept an ear out, ever since … You know. Had to figure out where to send all those Life Day cards.” A great game, at first. Less so later when the war was nearing its bloody, doomed apex. Jedi casualty reports were not easy to get her hands on, even these days. ”The bombing, that dead Republic scion or princeling or whatever, it made the news a lot. And I know it’s hard to get on without the Order’s support structure.” Either Order, in this case.
”So I offered him work. I’d keep an eye on him and … And lay it at your feet, someday. A mistake, maybe. I’m sorry for not telling you.”
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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May 24, 2018 16:33:09 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on May 24, 2018 16:33:09 GMT -5
Locke smiled in spite of himself at Lidah’s mention of the Life Day cards. “You know, when I said that, hopped up on drugs as I was, I didn’t think you’d actually follow through.” He laughed a little, despite the heavy nature of the conversation. But that faded quickly.
That bombing. Messay affair, and a reckless decision by the Council to punish Jazen for something that wasn’t his fault. Locke had fought, demanded that he be allowed to look into the situation, but had been denied.
Even years later, that didn’t sit right with him. Something stunk about the whole affair.
“Honestly,” Locke said, “I can’t say for sure that knowing would have done any better for me or him.” He sat beside Lidah, gaze distant and thoughtful. “I don’t know that I wouldn’t have run out here trying to find him and convince him that all of those things he was — still is — feeling. Maybe it would’ve pushed him further away. Maybe not.”
Locke shrugged. “At least someone kept an eye on him so he didn’t run off and get himself killed.”
More morbid than he might have liked, but a thanks of sorts. “I’m gonna have to talk to him though. Before I leave.” Whenever that was, sucked into this affair with Botto as he now was. “I got the sense that he and Vance don’t get along particularly well. But maybe that was just what happened this morning. That could get to anyone.”
He looked at Lidah, searching for any sort of information Jazen he could find. Even with a strained relationship, Locke still hoped to know know that Jazen was at least doing well for himself.
“He hasn’t been a problem, has he?”
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Neology
Damsel out of Distress
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May 24, 2018 19:30:10 GMT -5
Post by Neology on May 24, 2018 19:30:10 GMT -5
Lidah found herself braced for something else – something perhaps unlike Locke – but of no relation to this weary sort of acceptance, either. She blew out a long breath, suddenly ill-equipped for comfort. Close quarters, dagger-distance, strangely out of focus. She’d always had a better head for the aerial view, thousands of feet up and all around.
At least he was still alive. That was too a cold place to leave things with Jazen and she’d won no thanks or glory for the effort. The thwarted ambition stung her, perhaps spoiling the good deed after all. Will I ever seem a hero in your eyes, love?
Perhaps, if anyone did at all in a thoroughly blood drenched galaxy. To have such ambitions at all ... Surely she’d lost her edge somewhere along the way, in a strange land. It was better not to go digging.
”Yes. Do that.” And how long will that be? Lidah pressed a kiss onto Locke’s shoulder and crawled away, pulling the comforter down and making a nest of her pillows.
”A problem? No. ’Forte’ has been a perfectly acceptable employee. Talented, though I’m not sure of him like I am of Vance. He has been unduly interested in his birth family – hence the costume.” She wrinkled her nose at that, though she understood the impulse well enough. Replace one foundation with another, whatever you could get to keep the temple of self standing. Still, that armor seemed likely to get the exiled young Jedi in trouble some day.
”How long are you going to be here, really?” A few hours – that deadline must be creeping up by now, and he didn’t seem in a terrible hurry to leave. And she didn’t want him to, either. At least until this somber mood that they’d called down was mutually dispelled.
”There’s a particular event scheduled for next week. The Blind Auction. Formal dress, masks. I need a date.” Lidah smiled and made a beckoning motion with her hand.
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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May 26, 2018 21:36:00 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on May 26, 2018 21:36:00 GMT -5
‘Perfectly acceptable’ was acceptable enough for Locke. Jazen’s work independently was, indirectly, a reflection of Locke’s teaching, and while he didn’t necessarily agree with the tact his former student had chosen for himself, it was at least a sort of relief to know he was fairing well.
Or well, enough.
“Hope you didn’t have to pay too much for that suit,” he said dryly, cracking a smile as Novus settled herself into the pillows.
Her question provoked thought and the ever uncomfortable sensation that Locke had no idea as to the answer. “I’m not sure, now,” he said. “This situation with the Hutt. Botto or whatever the hell his name is. Bears looking into, and I feel we’ve got some ground to cover if we’re gonna take care of it.”
‘We.’ It felt as natural as talking about his own decision, these days. Who could’ve seen that, those years ago?
Locke answered Lidah’s smile with a grin and approached at her beckon, giving a quick kiss to her forehead and a second, lingering one to her lips before he settled on his side next to her, head propped up on his hand.
“A date?” Locke’s voice suddenly turned severe, in imitation of some imaginary Jedi instructor in the halls of Coruscant’s temple. “Jedi do not date, Lidah. It is forbidden.” So were any number of things they’d shared over the years, but who was counting?
“But,” he went on, keeping the voice going, “were a Jedi to do such a thing, it would only be appropriate that he dress well for the occasion.”
The Blind Auction, eh? Name didn’t ring any bells, but Locke was adaptable. “A week. Hm.” His eyes turned up as he thought. Time to go over what happened at the Fork, with some further investigation into this Botto. Not to mention Mooney’s own investigation, and that bombing at a hotel he’d heard something about.
Nevermind the briefing on Ylesia he still owed Lidah.
“I think it’s safe to assume I’ll be around that long. At least that long,” he added with a laugh. “Though, I didn’t expect to attend a masquerade, so you may have to help me out there, dear.”
He was certain she’d be more than willing.
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Neology
Damsel out of Distress
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May 27, 2018 17:46:07 GMT -5
Post by Neology on May 27, 2018 17:46:07 GMT -5
Basking, Lidah returned that unhurried kiss. The reminder about the events at Fork was less welcome, sending her thoughts wheeling for that longed-for aerial view of the game board entire. While Botto the Hutt had no reason to love the Exchange, she’d hardly done anything to inspire this sudden and suicidal rush to bankruptcy. His species had the lifespan to play the long game.
Ground to cover was putting it mildly. None of it made any sense yet. Worse, what little information she possessed at this time had come from Forte. Could he have been mistaken? Incompetent wide-net security or deliberately traitorous? Those were not fears to put to Locke or anyone else, but that nervy paranoia remained an inextricable passenger in her body.
… It is forbidden. Lidah screwed up her face at that, finding Locke's dreadfully serious tone much too familiar for her liking. She curled onto her side to face him, trying to match that mock-gravity and failing at the last with a poorly smothered snort.
”Good thing I’m not asking a Jedi. You should probably be Tyrvast that night. In light of what happened today, I’m inclined to bring lots of extra security. Jayec included.” Hopefully that would be little more than posturing for the survivors – Botto the Hutt would be dead by then if she had her way. In any case, a simple mask wouldn’t fool the high-tech equipment built into the mandalorian’s helmet.
”Still. We can’t have the Generalissimo looking shabby.” Lidah looked him over with an air of appraisal, an arch grin turning up her mouth. ”There’s not much time to commission anything, but you’re easy to size. Use my comconsle to order -- something off the rack from the usual place, alterations as you see fit.” This last point was not one of pure vanity. Lidah rather expected everyone in her party to be armed, though some more subtly than others. She kicked her legs under the sheets and dimmed the main lights with a light telekinetic push on the concealed switch.
”What was the information you wanted to tell me about earlier? Before ill-fated breakfast.”
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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May 30, 2018 17:32:22 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on May 30, 2018 17:32:22 GMT -5
“Tyrvast would be appalled in his past life to look anything less than magnificent at this auction,” Locke said. A wry smile answered Lidah’s appraising grin. “We must ensure that he looks his best.”
That was a matter for later, though not too much later. A week was a tight timeline to find some formal attire, but Locke had experience in such situations. Just couldn’t procrastinate about it.
“Ah, that?” Locke turned to his jacket, which still hunt on a hook on the wall from when he’d entered. The data disk inside the pocket floated free with some nudging from the Force and drifted lazily through the air to his outstretched hand.
Locke held the disk for a moment, turning it over with his fingers like a coin as he considered the information within.
“How involved in the spice trade is the Exchange these days?” he asked, allowing curiosity to shade his voice. “And how fond are you of Ylesia?” Locke smiled, holding the disk over to Lidah between the ends of his fore and middle finger. “Should you decide act on the information on this disk, you’ll find yourself having to deal with both. There’s a Hutt, Dova, who’s caused some... problems, we’ll say. It’s letting some unsavory types get involved that we’d rather didn’t, if we can help it.”
Stopping the flow of spice, or any drug that was popular enough — especially beyond Republic Space — was about like trying to stop time. Better to control it and try to keep moving through avenues that weren’t outright hostile, as Dova was proving to be.
“Way I see it, situation’s ripe to be taken advantage of by the right enterprising businesswoman,” Locke smiled coyly. “With help, of course. But it’ll take some time to prepare if you’re interested. That’s all just preliminary info.”
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Neology
Damsel out of Distress
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May 30, 2018 21:09:22 GMT -5
Post by Neology on May 30, 2018 21:09:22 GMT -5
She was putting up a valiant fight against sleep, all things considered. This mattress was indisputably the best thing Lidah had ever spent money on, replacing the previous tenant’s null-gee bubble. That had been a hard pass after a few minutes of experimentation, dizzy and somewhat beyond her appetite for adventure. The cotton sateen sheets, though – imported from some glittering Republic world that she would never be able to visit under her own name – were perfectly crisp and cool against her skin. Rolling onto her belly, Lidah thrust one arm under her pillow and stole a single glance to track the disc’s progress.
Hardcopy, delivered by hand via an unassuming but quite formidable courier. That made this probably one of the most secure data transfers on the Smuggler’s Moon, owing only a little to the Eye itself. Locke’s questions put a bit of a shutter up, behind her eyes.
Spice made up as much as forty percent of the Exchange’s profits every quarter. Of all sins cast in that wide net, it was far from the worst in her mind. Still, with bits ancient history summoned up by association with the speaker ... Lidah merely made an encouraging I’m-Listening noise and watched from below heavy lids.
Locke painted an interesting scheme, perhaps complicated by that morning’s events. Botto the Hutt’s clan was unlikely to protect him from any repercussions she chose to press after such a very public screw up. Stealing this Dova’s trade out from under the Besadii would be much harder to get away with, even with the Republic’s de facto backing - apparently in form of Locke Nemsee. The ‘with help’ inferred.
”Alright. Of course.” She took the disc gingerly from his fingers, set it on her end table beside the chrono. The afternoon was ticking away, a dragon’s hoard of minutes slipping out of her hands. ”I need to get back to work. Maybe just a little catnap, first.” Resting her cheek down, Lidah muffled a yawn with her fingers.
”See you again soon, yeah?”
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