Street Life

[Rugs]

Io’an shuffled briskly along the streets. It was the middle of the night, though you could hardly tell in the particular entertainment district he wandered through. It was lively as ever — even more so than before the sun set, hours ago.

After giving the Blind Eye group their invitations to the Blind Auction — my, it was hard to believe it was almost time for that — he’d gone home, changed into less formal attire in favor of his usual clothing and gone out into the district for a night out. After grabbing his lightsaber and blaster and hiding them away in his jacket, of course.

He’d stuck to the fringes of things, though. A nice dinner for himself, a drink or two, but not enough to feel anything. It was good to relax every now and then, even for a quiet soul like himself. Still, the big crowds in the more popular haunts were noisy places in the Force, and Io’an didn’t feel like dealing with that particular headache tonight.

Around the time Io’an planned to head back home and call it a night, he got an unusual message from a friend. ‘Reflex,’ a fellow slicer in Memento’s collective, had sent a text message warning to Io’an’s comm that was at once alarming and frustratingly vague.

”Heard someone’s askin’ ‘round after you. Keep an eye open.”

The message, heavily encrypted, self-destructed after being open for thirty seconds, erasing any trace that it’d been sent or received.

That wasn’t normal.

Io’an, despite his reservations, had reached to the Force as he traveled the district, and it wasn’t long before he sensed... something in the area.

It was dark and sinister. But it wasn’t actively so, the way someone felt before they harmed another. No, the darkness in this presence simply was part of the presence, as much as his lavender crystal was part of his lightsaber.

Initially, Io’an avoided the presence by a wide berth, until he found out that it was following him. Not so brazenly as to make a line for him, but as he disguised his fleeing by drifting aimlessly from place to place, so too did this person come after him. Meanderingly. Slowly. Inevitably.

It sent chills down his spine.

He looked around at the top of the flight of stairs he’d ducked into from the main alley. He was in a large plaza, lit only by street lights, instead of the countless neon signs and holo-screens that lit the pavilion down below. An office loomed on the plaza’s far side, closed for the night, and this open space largely empty. Io’an walked to the plaza’s edge, where some railing offered a pleasant view of the crush of night life down below.

Against his better judgement, he released his active hold on the Force. He needed to steady his nerves, not rattle them further--and he could still feel that dark something coming.

If they were truly after him, let them find him here. He just hoped they could talk, rather than fight.

[Deleted]

Wuggitu was very useful as an informant...He would have to make sure that he kept him around for a very long time as he had proven useful. Especially know that he knew that she was on this planet. A smile formed on his lips as he began his hunt, like a predatory cat he found his prey, and made sure to stalk them from a distance. Where ever the man went he followed in a roundabout way making sure that he remained as inconspicuous as possible. Though he did feel a slight presence of the force reaching out, but he did nothing to hide himself. It didn't matter if they knew he was coming or not, they were his prey, and he would get what he wanted.

After a while of cat, and mouse his target led him to a rather large plaza. Everything was winding down for the night, and it was mostly empty a few stragglers were meandering around, but no one who was a real threat to him. He was slightly taller than the man who was leaning over the railing taking in the sights of the place around him. It was nice to see that someone here enjoyed a nice view almost as much as he did. Walking up behind the man he gave a small sigh before leaning against the railing next to them. Tapping the metal bar with his gauntleted finger he let the slight clang of metal echo through the air.

"You know usually people try much harder to escape me when they feel me coming...However you stopped, and waited for me...That means you are either stronger than me, have confidence in your abilities to defend yourself, or have just accepted the inevitable. Either way it is curious...And it saves me time." the words floated from his lips almost musically as he looked down at the night life of the city. "So tell me...Do you know why I am here?" the question was simple, and he made no other comment, or movements other than his rhythmic tapping of the railing.

[Rugs]

The shadowy presence drew incessantly nearer. Io’an closed his eyes, steeling himself for whatever was to come when this stalker finally found him. There’s no reason to fight, he told himself — an unsure assurance at the malevolence that followed him. What could they want from me anyway?

If the darkness spreading through the Force like oil across water’s surface hadn’t given the stranger away, the footsteps did next. Io’an’s pointed ears twitched slightly at the first sound, but he didn’t move. He swallowed grip tightening on the rail for a moment as his stomach twisted into knots.

Then the stranger was beside him.

Io’an pointedly ignored him for a few moments, focusing instead on the crowds of people below. The rail vibrated dully beneath his arm in time with the gentle clang, clang, clang of the stranger’s tapping.

The taint surrounding the man was nearly sickening. Try as he might, Io’an couldn’t stop from feeling it in the Force — they were too close and his own senses too honed to ignore it.

Finally, the man spoke, and Io’an turned his head slightly to regard the figure beside him. He was a Zeltron, by the looks of it. A hair taller than he, slender in build. Handsome, truly, but oddly pale. Io’an might have been enamored were he not so focused on keeping his cool.

And were it not for the man’s words.

Stronger than you? Io’an looked back at the nightlife below. That was a hard thing to say. The stranger’s presence reverberated with power, but was was strength on its own? Physically, Io’an was more capable than most, and he — as any other trained Force user — held the capability to kill without laying a finger on someone, if he wanted.

But Io’an detested violence.

He could steal away information that others desperately wished to hide without them knowing it. With a few strokes of his fingers, he could knock out an entire power grid or send a transit system crashing to its knees, if he wanted. Was that strength more than the ability to simply defeat someone in man-to-man combat?

What is your strength? he wondered silently. The Sephi resisted touching the lightsaber hidden in his coat. No need to act hostile.

Accepted the inevitable? Io’an frowned slightly. What does that mean?

In the end, he ignored all of the stranger’s comments, and focused on the final question. “No, I honestly don’t,” he said slowly, choosing his words carefully. He tried to lend confidence to his voice, but a waver at the edges betrayed his nerves. “But if you wanted company for a night out, you could’ve just asked, you know."

[Deleted]

Zexva treated the man with a cold indifference as he enjoyed the scenery below him. Still tapping the metal railing lightly, allowing it to echo out into the empty air. Zexva had learned that despite how strong everyone wished to be, on the inside they were always weak. Everyone harbored some sort of inner light, something that kept them grounded, the thing that kept them from going over the deep end into the abyss. Zexva didn't have that, he had no family, no real support system, and the woman that he seemed to harbor some sort of feelings for was on the opposite side of the battlefield from him. Whatever light he had within him, he had given to her when he was just a boy, and asked her to protect it for him. What a foolish notion, something like him had no light.

Smiling absently at the mans words he turned a lazy gaze towards him, contemplating how he should attempt to approach what he wanted to get out of him. There was the tried, and true method of just torture, but he had to handle this with a bit more finesse, like this man was something precious to him. Then when he got what he wanted, he could maim him if he felt like it.

"Make no mistake...I already someone that I would rather have for company...It's just sort of complicated at the moment." he said to the man simply, his lazy golden gaze piercing into the mans eyes. "I don't understand why others are always so afraid of me, especially if I am being civil. There is no need to be afraid of me...Yet." he said the words simply, drawing himself up to his full height, and shifting his body so that he was fully facing Io'an.

"Well you see the reason I have been tracking you down, is that you have something I want...I have it on good authority you are the one to go to for an invitation to a certain auction. I would like said invitation." the words came out smoothly, almost like honey as he spoke. "And understand...I won't accept no as an answer..."

[Rugs]

Io’an clicked his tongue and looked out over the rail again. So there was someone else then. Too bad. Then why aren’t you with them? he wondered.

But then again, he understood such ‘complicated’ situations. He smiled subtly, thinking about a flash of blonde hair, seen through a crowd. Ducking through a transit system speeder’s door on a hazy morning. A promise to someday return, but how long? He’d acknowledged receiving his invitation, at least...

It’s not always so easy. Io’an sighed wistfully.

He turned back to his current company, who’d turned to face him fully. Now the stranger stood up fully. Io’an felt another wave of worry creep along his spine, but still, he stayed as he was, leaning against the railing.

“Well, I can’t speak for others, but I particularly am not overly fond of being stalked,” he said. “Not in that way, anyway.” Io’an stood up now, but kept his hands on the railing, to steady his nerves as much as anything. Though the stranger was a touch taller than him, he could meet his eyes easily enough — when he wasn’t breaking eye contact to look elsewhere and ease his nerves — as he gave his full attention, while this man came to the reason for his ‘visit.’

Io’an huffed a laugh, a small smile tugging at his lips. “You’d like an invitation,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “You and a thousand other people.” The Blind Auction was a seedy affair of questionable morals behind the veneer of opulence. It was only natural that it’d take off on Nar Shaddaa.

And it was only natural that someone like this man would want entry.

True, Io’an generally oversaw the dispersing of invitations. It was also in this one area that he’d learned to grow a backbone when needed; he didn’t have much choice not to.

Still, the man’s voice was so tempting, and his golden eyes were equal parts captivating and alarming.

But his presence stank of darkness that shook Io’an to the core.

“Why should you be any different than the hundred other people who have asked me for one this week?” Io’an asked. “No one gets into the Blind Auction unless we allow it.” He turned again to the crowd below them, watching it flow through the streets. “And no one who’s not invited gets an invitation without giving something in return.”

[Deleted]

Zexva listened to the man speak half amused, half serious. It was a fair point that the other person made, if you wanted something in this world you had to give something back. Still tapping rhythmically as the man asked him, what made him different than the others, and why he should get an invitation when they didn't. It was an amusing question to say the least, and Zexva had to do his best to keep his heartbeat in check. Adrenaline began flooding through his veins as excitement permeated every fiber of his being all of a sudden, and a small chuckle broke through his lips. He felt himself closing in on his prey, like the rancor he had killed when he was a boy.

It was the sense he got before someone tried to fight him, and he wondered if this man would try to fight him. Would he put up as good of a fight as Darmid did? Or would he pale in comparison to so many other enemies. His eyes brightened at the thoughts as he kept his gaze on Io'an never looking away for a second.

"What makes me different?" he asked again more to himself than to the other man. "Well...I guess they all accepted no. I mean if you refuse me here make no mistake I will find my way into that place regardless, and it will be far more violent than if you had just given me the invitation. I have no issue with slaughtering everyone to get what I want, but I am doing my best to be on good behavior for the moment." he said a tinge of excitement in his voice as spoke, and stopped tapping the railing.

"So whether I get in nicely, or violently is entirely dependent on you. If I have to pay you, that is no issue, so let's not escalate the matter further, yes? You have something I want, and if you try to bait me with it, like a predator it will cost you an arm..." he said the words coolly with not even a hint of malice in his tone.

The way he spoke made the words seem like fact, and nothing else.

[Rugs]

”What makes me different?”

In this, nothing, Io’an thought. But he couldn’t say that, not yet. Perhaps the stranger would have something to offer to get into the Auction. If not, he wouldn’t get in.

Plain as that.

Yet the man continued to talk, and Io’an continued to have to resist the allure of his voice. The horror of his words, though, that made it easy. For the first time in the encounter so far, Io’an felt himself growing irritated with the man’s idle threats.

It wasn’t the subtle give-me-what-I-want-or-else threats toward his person that began to grate on him. Those were worrying, yes, but he could disengage and try to get away from the man and let him try to flaunt his proverbial junk to someone else, were that all there was to it.

But the threats against the Auction itself — those, he could not ignore. They were, in a way, threats to his employer, his boss, his friend. This wasn’t a situation that weak submission to the whims of another party would see him through.

Io’an sighed. Why did this person have to come to him? Why did such a handsome man have to be such a belicose pain in the ass?

“Listen,” he said, trying for a firm voice but finding one that wavered, “you show up to the Auction and try to get in uninvited, and you’ll get turned to a pile of ashes before you can say ‘Oh shit.’”

Now he met the taller man’s eyes. For the first time, his look was almost firm, challenging. “You want an invitation? Fine. 20,000 credits, and a name, and don’t try to lie to me with the last one.” He let his presence stretch out a bit, silently emphasizing his point. Io’an hated to flaunt with the Force, but if that was what it took. “Your real name.”

“If you can’t give me those, you’re not getting an invitation.” He set his jaw firmly, and his pointed ears pressed back sligtly, stubbornly. “So you can stop with the threats.”

[Deleted]

Zexva laughed a bit at the mans words, and felt him flex his force presence. Immediately his body language shifted, as golden eyes narrowed dangerously at the one in front of him. There was but a second between the two personas, as the taunting vibe he was originally giving off gave way to the cold, and machine like disposition. He was being civil with this man, he had not threatened him, or even harmed him, and yet he felt the need to attempt to intimidate him. Rage rolled off him in waves, and he flaunted it, grasping the emotion as his master had taught him, and he squeezed it for every ounce of power that he could garner from it. Glowering at the man, when he spoke his voice was emotionless, and flat.

"Don't presume to threaten me...Ever. I have been civil up to this point, but do not trample on my good will. Especially when I am using words, and not actions. Understood?" his body was wound up tightly like a coiled spring, that was ready to explode at the slightest provocation.

Reaching into one of the pockets of his attire he produced a small electronic card. Typing something into it he held it out to the man opposite of him.

"There is your money, and my name is Zexva." he said the words still emotionless as he waited for Io'an to take the credits from him, and present him with an invitation.

He was all business now, his playful verbiage was gone, and he was being direct, and straight to the point. This person had irritated him, but he was still being civilized. The first rule of killing your target was to make sure that they even if they knew you, they had no clue that you were coming after them.

[Rugs]

Finally, something struck a nerve. They stood not two paces apart and the changes in the stranger’s body language were obvious. Narrowed eyes, a subtle change of the turn of his lips, a quiet tension that crept into his posture. Further away, Io’an might have missed some of it, but so close, it was impossible to not to.

He couldn’t have missed the changes in the Force, even if he wanted to, and he very much wished he could. Thus far, the man’s presence had been dark, surely, but that was a cold, controlled thing. The anger that came roiling up now that Io’an finally had pressed back was hot, though, like a furnace opening in front of him.

Io’an’s stomach tied itself in knots. Had he gone too far? Was he provoking a fight?

No, or at least not yet. The stranger berated him of threatening him — of all things — before pulling out a digital credit card and presenting it to Io’an. While the man — Zexva, he named himself and Io’an could sense no lie — fiddled with the card, Io’an’s grip on the bar tightened. As did his jaw.

Anger, rare for the docile Sephi, pricked at him. This man had stalked him for Force only knew how long, compared himself to a predator while demanding an invitation and got mad at Io’an for threatening him?

Io’an snatched, more than took, the credit chip from Zexva’s hand. He took a moment to check it with a small device from one of his coat pockets. The credits were good — he’d only had to get a mouthful from Memento once for falling for that trick, a few years ago.

He opened his coat, and in an unusual move, made a point of making sure Zexva could see the lightsaber hilt tucked inside as he retrieved an invitation in a black envelope.

“Maybe you should follow your own advice when it comes to threats, Zexva,” he said through gritted teeth. Some part of him still wanted to fall to the allure of Zexva’s physical features, but Io’an was now too angry to care. “But that was a promise. You cause trouble at the Auction and I’ll deal with you myself.”

He held the invitation out stiffly. “Here’s your damn invitation. Don’t get thrown out on your ass.”

Another moment of tense silence. “Are we done here? Because I’ve had about enough of you and you’ve got what you want.”

[Deleted]

Zexva smiled very politely at the man standing in front of him, and nodded at him. Taking the invitation he turned his back to the man behind him, and regarded him for a moment. His golden eyes predatory in their gaze, like this man was just another piece of meat for him to devour, but that look disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. A simple eyebrow quirk was all left on his face before he began to leave.

"My apologies if I seemed rude...I just have to be at this auction, and you didn't seem like you were gonna make it easy for me. Have a good night Io'an it was a pleasure to meet you, and this transaction has been very helpful." another polite nod, and then he walked off. There was no need to bring further threat to this man, he had what he needed, and as his Master would probably tell him. It's always better to quit while you're on top.

Turning the invitation around his hand as he made his way back into the crowded streets, and began to contemplate his method of acquiring what he wanted. Hopefully there would be no hitches in his plan, but knowing himself, and others. Everything would more than likely go horribly wrong regardless, and he would probably have to make it all up on the fly. It would be a huge pain in the rear, but he had a mission to accomplish.