A Story.

[Kella]

((So, while oftentimes I have places to post, sometimes I have nowhere. And that's the point of this thread. I have some stories and characters knocking around in my head that I just want to get written out, so I figured I'd start myself a thread here, so I always have a place to post. :3 I would LOVE LOVE LOVE any feedback, any at all, no matter how rude you think it may be. I'm always looking for ways to improve. :3 Herewego.))

Adelie's heart thudded, her feet pounding against the pavement.

"You know..." The voice growled behind her. "You know what I want..."

"I don't!" she yelled back, breathless. Her footfalls echoed back from the walls of the alley. A dead end.

No, no...

"You may not have eyes, girl," the voice said, taking its time in getting closer. "But fingernails will always do."

Adelie spun to face the voice. Her hands reached behind, and she felt the slick wall. She pressed herself to it, as if it could somehow protect her. It couldn't.

The grey shadow grew closer.

"You know," It growled. More ghosts appeared behind him. "Don't play with me girl. Either you talk..."

He was so close she could feel his hot breath on her forehead.

"Or you'll wish that I was threatening death."

Suddenly, a wet rag smothered her mouth, and Adelie's head began to pound. One last thought made its way through the silence.

Remembering. Everything counted on remembering.

[Kella]

---~ Six Months Earlier... ~---


"You, are lying," she said. The sun was warm on her neck, the sound of cart wheels, speeder engines, and footsteps forming the backdrop of the market.

"Oh really?" he asked, "How so?"

"You do not, in fact, have one hundred and fifty credits; You are trying to cheat a blind girl."

"I assure you, I have--"

"Fifty, right?"

The simple sound of breathing.

"That's what I thought," she said, sweeping here wares closer to herself. "Get the kriff off, you Barve. Go hassle someone else."

She glared in the direction of his footsteps until he disappeared. She began setting her wares out again, arranging them just so.

"How did you know he was lying?" another voice asked. The man had been standing, leaning against the support post of a neighboring tent for ten minutes now.

"I 'see with the Force'," she wiggled her fingers in the air, "It's magic."

"No it's not," he replied, matter-of-factly.

"How do you know?"

"Because I've worked with Miraluka before, and that ain't part of the package."

Adelie focused on the silhouette of the man. She saw everything in ghostly grey outlines, the result of the Force as it moved in and around everything. It sounded a lot more poetic than it was. He was tall. Didn't slouch. She mulled over his question.

"A magician never reveals her secrets."

"What if I make it worth your while?" he said. She waited. "Seventy-five credits worth?"

She licked her lips. He wasn't lying. "I listen," she said, continuing to arrange her wares. "People tend to give themselves away in how they speak."

Adelie held out her hand in the man's direction. He filled her palm with credits. She slid them between her fingers, but didn't bother counting. It was free money, anyway.

"So," he said, "What if I told you I used to have a pet Meduza named Chip?"

"Then I'd tell you his name wasn't Chip."

He didn't say anything. Was he smiling? Scowling? Laughing to himself? Rolling his eyes? Adelie tried not to care, but she did.

"Well," he sounded pleased, "Can I buy one more question?"

"Sure."

"What's your name?"

"Adelie Nash."

"Well, it was very nice to meet you, Adelie."

And then he was gone.

Adelie sighed.

Another customer came up, and she smiled, lifting one of the baubles. "I think you will like this one!" she said. "It matches your eyes!"

I so need a new job...


---~~---

[Kella]

"Welcome to you new job," he said.

"So... what exactly is my job, again?" She trailed her fingers on the wall. The metal sheeting had been pressed into a pattern that felt odd beneath her fingertips. The ship's hall was narrow, and Phillip could barely stand up straight. At least she'd caught that. His name was Phillip.

"You just keep doing what you were doing. We're going to compensate you very well for being our living-lie-detector."

"Right." The hall opened into a narrow room, with a thin table at its center. The galley?

"You looked like you were really enjoying your job at the market, so I can understand if you'd want to go back..." She could hear the grin in his voice.

She flashed a smile. "No, you know, I think this is going to work out just fine."

"Well, then time for you to meet the rest of the crew. I've told them aaaaaaaaall about you." That grin again.

"Lovely." Beyond Phillip, and through the closest wall she could see what could only be the bridge, and three silhouettes.

She heard the door whisk open, and followed Phillip through.

"Announcing Miss Adelie Nash," he said, flourishing.

If she had eyes she would have rolled them. Instead, she waved wryly. She knew that in that moment, three sets of eyes were sizing her up. A quick sweeping glance to her body, then to scrutinizing the face. She sighed. Apparently, people tend to look straight to the eyes, but all they'd see was her silk blindfold.

"Well hello there." The voice was rich, and deep, and warm, and the sort that Adelie could listen to for hours. She hoped this guy liked to talk. He extended a hand, which she shook. A very large, very scaly hand. So he was some sort of Reptile. "Rex Buxley." Adelie nodded.

"Josephine Osaro," her voice was smooth, with an exotic accent -- the 'j' sounded more like a 'y'. She stood, and Adelie shook her hand too. Adelie suspected that Josephine was one of those women that girls would kill to look like. Unfortunately, even Adelie couldn't dismiss looks as much as she'd like.

Then, the silhouette in the Captain's char stood, and was the last to shake her hand. "And I'm Nathan, Monroe. Did my little brother fill you in?"

Phillip crossed his arms and huffed. Adelie had to stifle a snicker. "Sort of," she said, "but hearing it all again would probably be good."

"Wait a moment," Josephine lilted, "How do we know that Phillip is not just pulling our legs? You sound too good to be true, dear," she said to Adelie, apologetically.

"Only one way to be sure," Nathan said. Adelie heard a quiet shuffle, as Nathan pulled something out of his pocket. Were those... Hold 'em cards?

"You tell me when I'm lying," he said. Adelie nodded. He drew a card, and hid it behind his hand. Granted, she was blind, but that way no one else could give her clues.

"I'm holding the green five."

She paused. Savored his words. Swallowed hard -- on 'verse, why did she always second-guess herself when it counted? Finally, she nodded. "That's true."

The deck shuffled again. "I'm holding the blue seven."

Another pause. "That's a lie."

And on they went, through fifty-one cards. She was hardly counting, but she knew only one of the Jawas had been pulled, so that's what this had to be.

"I'm holding a Jawa," he said.

"Th--" her tongue froze against her teeth. No, something hadn't been right. Her brow furrowed, and she angled her head. She imagined she looked suspicious. "You..." she paused, "Are not holding anything."

"Yes he is," Josephine said, pulling back Nathan's hand. But he gestured openly, and Adelie didn't hear a card fall.

"Well I'll be a faerie princess," Rex said. "Phillip did somethin' right!" He gave the man a hearty slap to the back, which nearly sent him sprawling on the floor.

Adelie couldn't help but beam, just a little bit.

"Now, you can fill her in," Josephine said. She sounded resigned, not bitter.

"Sit down," Nathan said, and Adelie did, on one of the passenger seats at the back of the bridge. Phillip sat next to her, and kicked his feet up.

"Welcome," he said, in a very official-sounding voice, "to the Libraphone company. What we do is simple. On behalf of our clients, we buy and sell merchandise. No one can be everywhere at once, but Libraphone can. We perform our work with the same dedication, persistence, and savvy as our clients would themselves."

"He only had to say that a hundred times for the holo-vid advertising spot," Josephine said, amused.

"Anyway," Nathan continued, much more casually, "As you can imagine, we do a lot of negotiating."

"So," Adelie cut in, "You think it would be handy to have someone like me, who can tell you if an ultimatum really is an ultimatum?"

"Exactly," he said. "And hopefully, you'll see fit to stay with us longer than six months." She could swear she heard him wink, Was he winking? He was, wasn't he.

"How--" she started.

"Background check. That's quite the employment record."

"Yeah, well," she crossed her arms, "Things just didn't work out. A lot."

"Well," Josephine cut in, "I hope this job works out. Could use some more estrogen around this place. C'mon," she said, standing, "I'll show you to your room."

---~~---

[Kella]

Adelie awoke to someone swinging a sledgehammer against her skull... That's what it felt like, anyway.

She was alone in the small, wet room. A pungent smell burned its way through her nostrils, making her gag. She breathed through her sleeve, and slowly, the headache eased. Droplets of water made fat plop noises near the barred door. One thing at a time.

Vague shadows outlined the stone, but Adelie could see nothing beyond them. She was used to tuning out interference, since the nature of her vision made everything translucent. But there was... nothing. Just an odd... fuzz. At least she could still feel the earth below; it wasn't like being in space. Her knees were wet, but she rested her chin on them anyway.

Remembering. Right.

It hadn't taken her long to figure out how things operated on the Marlin. Phillip was the pilot, but surprisingly, he hadn't need Nathan as his brother to land the position. He could fly a starship, and well. Josephine was the negotiator. She did something much harder than coming up with solutions -- she made other people think they had come up with the solution.

Rex, he... lifted heavy stuff. And since he was something like 300 pounds of muscle, he served as a pretty effective theft deterrent. They ought to get a great big sign for the Marlin, 'BEWARE OF NIKTO'. Not that that would happen now...

And then there was the boss, the captain, or as he always insisted on being called, Nate. If there was anyone whose past would get her locked up in the dungeon of someone infamous for gouging peoples' eyes out, it was Nate.

Instead of making her angry, it just made her want to cry. Some people thought that, because Miralukas didn't have eyes, they couldn't cry. That was bull. Adelie could sob and sob.

But getting what you wanted was overrated.

There had to be a something in there. Something would tell her what this was all about. She pounded her palms on her temples in frustration. There were clues, somewhere in her brain, tiny ones. Adelie had to find them, and put them together.

Adelie hoped that they intended to starve her for a while, because what she needed more than anything else, was time.

---~~---

[Kella]

They were all gathered around a circular table. Adelie figured it was wood, because it was incredibly smooth, and warm. She’d been surreptitiously rubbing her fingers along it for the past half hour.

They’d been talking for at least three. To be honest, Adelie found it interesting. Most of the time. Now, her mind was wandering through her fingertips, wondering which way the grain ran under the smooth polish...

She felt a food nudge her ankle. Nathan had noticed her drifting off. She straightened and tried to catch up with the conversation.

“I understand the wishes of your client,” the woman said, “But we simply cannot go below seventeen hundred a share.”

“Stock in zees business,” said the man who sounded like bees, “Eeet, ‘ow you say... does not come cheap.”

“I should remind you,” Nathan said gently, “that there are other maize companies that my client is willing to look into. I was simply giving you the opportunity to take advantage of such a large sale.” Wood creaked as Nathan rocked his chair forward.

So what was all the fuss about, right? It was just grain, wasn’t it? Wrong. That’s what Adelie loved about these meetings. Grain was power. And if that sounded like propaganda, one needed only to consider the sheer number of things that could be made out of grain. Fuel, plastic, sweetener, stabilizer, animal feed, chemical insulation, the list went on and on.

Adelie’s mind was satisfied again. She considered carefully the tone of the woman and the man. The way she’d said ‘simply cannot go’... there was no stress. It was, in fact, oozing with confidence -- the vocal equivalent of a smirk. Adelie had a gut feeling that they very well could go below seventeen hundred a share -- and not only that, they had.

So, she inclined her head and ran her finger along the back of her jaw. Nathan tilted his head, meaning he’d received the signal. They’d decided early on that the fewer people who knew about Adelie’s role in the negotiations, the better.

“I tell you what,” Nathan said, “I’m getting hungry, you’re getting hungry -- let’s get out of here. Sixteen-fifty a piece, for all ten thousand shares. That’s my only and final offer.”

The woman and bee-man whispered between themselves, lowly enough that even Adelie couldn’t hear them. Their chairs shifted and creaked under their weight, as they readjusted a bit nervously.

They broke off, and bee-man reached across the table to shake Nathan’s hand. “Eet ees a deal. A, eh, ‘ow you say, win-win situation.”

Adelie grinned to herself, passing the woman the data-pad to sign, already cued up to the contract screen. At least, she thought it was... she hadn’t hit any buttons, and no one was complaining, so it must have been right. It was impractical, putting a blind woman in charge of the paperwork, but she was, after all, the ‘secretary’. Though, considering how Josephine had dressed her today, she wondered if she came across as a little bit more than that.

The woman and bee-man signed their contracts, and hurried out of the little conference room. Nathan heaved a grand sigh, and stretched.

“Another round of good work, Adelie.” It was sincere enough, but stiff. Rehearsed. In fact, the only time Nathan’s words didn’t have a touch of stiff reservation was when he was closing a deal.

Adelie nodded her thanks, and stretched the stiffness out of her limbs. The little room had grown stuffy, and when they stepped into the hall a cool breeze enveloped her. Interesting though it had been, she was glad it was over. Not sensing the two business-people anywhere near, she also stretched out her tongue.

“Hm, glad that ended well. That man, he was starting to bug me. Did’y’ know, every time he said, ‘ow you say?’” she mocked, “He didn’t really mean it at all. He knew exactly what he was going to say.

Well, that got a chuckle out of the captain.

“That was very nice, what you did with the numbers, there.” Adelie forced awkward conversation with Nathan. That’s just what she did. She imagined silence was to her what running around with a blindfold on was to seeing people. “You started at, what’d you start at?”

“Eleven-hundred.”

“Mm-hmm, and they ‘got you up to’ sixteen-fifty, so they were so clever, but the client really asked for, what?”

“Sixteen-sixty.”

Adelie smiled. “Mm-hmm. We really do run a very smooth operation, you know. Very slick. Miracle workers.” She nodded emphatically. “That’s what we are, miracle workers.”

It had taken her a month to stop worrying and wondering what the Captain thought of her when he decided to go all stoic and quiet. But she got over it. Now, she really didn’t care.

“Very clever negotiating, there, Cap’n.” It had taken him just as long to stop telling her to stop calling him ‘cap’n’. To be honest, she’d only done it because it got him to talk. Now, it was habit.

“Thank you,” he said. Adelie’s eyebrows rose. He’d never actually accepted a compliment before. And he actually sounded very self-satisfied. Well, they were making progress.

Now, it was her turn to be quiet. The bubbly noise of a crowd echoed down the hall, and Adelie saw the shifty fog of a thousand bodies ahead. She did not particularly enjoy crowds. The hall broke out into the atrium, and Adelie felt the warmth of the sun break across her skin. She walked a little closer to Nathan.

“I hope Josephine was able to find some really good coupler links. If we’d had her in there, It would’ve taken half the time.” Adelie said.

Nathan lead the way through the crowd. Earlier, he’d mentioned they were going to go somewhere special after meeting up with Rex and Josephine. She wondered where...