Private At the Ledge

[Suri Loré]

Suri was amused, and in no small part delighted, by just how much the situation felt like she was being led off the dance for at a club. The touch, the words.

"Good moves."

"Eh, don't worry, he wasn't gonna shoot me."

As they were nearing their table again, Suri put her arm around Sira's shoulders to give her a squeeze in return, then let go. She picked a piece of crisproot off the plate and ate it even before sitting down.

She seemed momentarily agitated and not quite to know what to do with herself.

She finished the rest of her drink and attacked the skewers, as if the incident had left her hungry. It was really shaping up to be a second dinner after the stew she had had, but the Zeltron had no compunctions about that. It had been quite the shock to her when she had learnt, many years ago, that humans, if they lived as Zeltrons, quickly became fat and repulsive, rather than healthy and energetic. And most of them had it happen to them anyway as they grew older. Later again, she had come to realise those people weren't as unhappy as she would have thought, but it still struck her as a bit sad. It meant, for example, that the amount of sex a human could have in her life was quite severely limited—because at some point, they just had to stop, surely? It seemed physical impediments would arise. Questions of reach.

She looked at Sira for a moment, who was, after all, human. Then her attention returned finally to the room at large. It was better now, the shadow of the bounty hunters was no longer looming so heavily over everyone. After their bump-in with Suri and Sira, they had somehow become part of the community of guests, such as it was, who were hunkering down in this place tonight. Not that anyone here was really very much out of their shell, but at least they all knew they had nothing to fear from each other—or, for that matter, to hope for. Which again was a bit sad. Maybe it was getting time to leave.

Suri looked over to the window past the veteran. It had become dark now and the light above the door barely reached as far as the window off to its side in the continuous heavy rain.

"So what did you wanna show me?" she asked suddenly as if she had only now remembered.

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira watched Suri go at the food like she’d just won a bet with the galaxy. Zeltrons and their bottomless energy. She found herself half-smiling, half-marveling at how Suri could wear a scare, a standoff, and a second dinner like layers of the same coat. She heard a lot about their ilk-but she hasn't met many of them. They always seemed to occupy a side role in her quests, dancing on the sidelines.

She stepped up to the table quietly and slid into her seat beside her, close enough for elbows to brush. Her motion was smooth, measured. Like someone easing out of tension rather than collapsing into comfort, like always.

“I did say I had something to show you, didn’t I?” Her voice carried the hint of a smirk, though her eyes still held that thread of thoughtfulness.

"This might not be the place. Don't worry, it's nothing urgent."-she picked up a small bite from the diminishing tray, chucking lightly.

Suri Loré

 

[Suri Loré]

"Hmm, 'kay." Suri picked up the last piece of crisproot and devoured it.

At some point, she would just shut down and fall into bed, but that point wasn't yet. And until then, she had to find something to occupy herself with. Just sitting here and soaking in the vibe of the place wasn't going to cut it. The music wasn't that good, the interior design was nothing special, and the clientele was, while a bit quirky, ultimately uninspiring.

There was only one obvious thing left to do. She was going to find out who she had just partnered up with.

She turned to the side, putting one arm on the backrest of the seat "So... Where'd you learn to sneak up on people like that? Gotta be another story there."

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira turned her glass in her hand once before setting it down, her gaze ticking to the window as if the rain might offer her a better answer. Then, with a half-smile and a shrug, she leaned into the corner of the booth, resting her elbow on the backrest to mirror Suri’s posture.

“Occupational hazard.” she said, voice low, a bit dry. “You spend enough time around people who don’t want to be found, you either get good at moving quiet, or you stop showing up for dinner altogether. You'd be shocked how nasty surveying gets.”

She leaned in just slightly, elbows on the table now. “You always make a habit of teaming up with strangers, or was I just special?”

Suri Loré

 

[Suri Loré]

Suri looked a bit disappointed that no story seemed to be forthcoming. Her gaze briefly wandered past Sira, but returned presently.

"You always make a habit of teaming up with strangers, or was I just special?"

"Yeah, of course I do!" Oddly enough, she sounded quite sincere. It was not just some kind of self-deprecating joke. She seemed to take it quite seriously. "How else are strangers supposed to become friends? Might as well not even go out in public if you want your strangers to stay strangers."

She smiled warmly at Sira. "Come on, don't be cagey", she said encouragingly.

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira smirked faintly, letting her gloved fingers trace the rim of her glass.

"Let's just say I used to work for people who preferred results over questions- and disappearing over explaining."
She tilted her head, eyes locking with Suri's as she continued on, pressing the obvious implication.

"You don't spend a decade in 'logistics and field coordination' without learning to step quietly." A beat. Not even that look could het the full truth from her.

"But you? You’re the kind of trouble they never trained us for."

Suri Loré

 

[Suri Loré]

Suri raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Alright. Have it your way." Her disappointment was nevertheless palpable. If she recognised Sira's last remark as a compliment, then right now she wasn't receptive to it.

She looked to the window again, then to the door, calculatingly. There really was no point in running. She would end up soaked again no matter what. But at least she would be able to dry herself properly right away and get a change of clothes.

"Let's go?"

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira watched Suri’s expression shift, the weight of unspoken things settling between them like fog. She knew that look—guarded, retreating. It was familiar. It was hers, once.

She deserves more than this brittle version of me, Sira thought bitterly. But the past wasn’t hers to give. Not the missions. Not the betrayals. Not the girl she used to be before secrets became survival.

Suri's openness stung in contrast—so effortless, so brave. I don’t know how to be that unarmored anymore.

Sira’s voice was soft, almost lost under the hum of the rain.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Suri Loré

 

[Suri Loré]

Suri lost no time to get up and turned to wave at Varnak. "So long! See you tomorrow!" she cried, smiling. She didn't have a definitive, reflected intention to come back the next day, but it was what you said. Any in any event, chances were she would. The forecast had said they'd have to wait two days for the weather to clear up, and Suri doubted she would want to spend the whole day on her ship and eat her own cooking.

With that, she walked up to the door and reached into her trouser pocket for the remote to open the ramp. Then she just stood there for a second and breached, as if to steel herself. Finally, she touched the panel to open the door and strode out into the rain with determined steps, but without breaking into a run.

The raindrops were so large and heavy that she felt their individual impacts as they splashed onto her scalp. She was somehow reminded of the time that Kiros bird had soiled her mid-flight. She had later taken her revenge of sorts by devouring one of its conspecifics. It turned out they were delicious when grilled.

At the press of a button, two lights came to life on the underside of the ship and the access ramp began to open. The familiar groan of the hydraulics was barely audible next to the noise of the rain as it impacted the metal hull. By the time she reached it, the ramp had already lowered enough for Suri to hop on.

When she reached the top of the ramp and the actual floor of the ship's corridor, she turned around and stood there, very much the drowned tooka from before. She was clearly uncomfortable in her skin, but nevertheless awaited Sira with a wry smile.

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira rose fluidly, slipping her poncho over one shoulder with silent precision. She took a moment to reach into an inner fold and retrieve a slim chit: untraceable, old, and chipped with use. She placed it gently on the bartop, flashing the bartender a brief, knowing smile. It would more then cover their expense and their discretion, should the push come to shove.

The rain outside hit like supressive fire with thick, heavy drops ricocheting off the durasteel. Sira stepped into it without hesitation.

As the chill soaked into her bodyglove, her mind similarly travelled back.
Another mission, another world.

She’d been embedded in a spice ring on Nar Kanji, barely nineteen, running messages laced with intel codes to a double agent who wouldn’t live to see the next week. She had no way of knowing that back then, but now that she thought back on it, she always felt like he knew. The safehouse had been compromised, and she’d fled into the industrial rain with a head full of ciphers and blood in her boots.

That poor Balosar wasn't that lucky.

Sira looked up, lips twitching at the corner into something between affection and irony as she saw the Zeltron waiting for her. The grime and blood, just like the one on her boots that day just washed away.

“Remind me...”-she called as she ascended the ramp- “why we is it never the Mid Rim?”

 

[Suri Loré]

"They have rain there, too, you know?" quipped Suri. "Well... Welcome to the Barely Legal." The reality was, of course, that Suri had no idea about the ship's legality in various systems, and no interest in the question. But the name might just have been apt—the vessel was barely maintained in working order, and while it wasn't outfitted with any military-grade systems like a pirate vessel, it had undergone the odd modification here and there that nobody had inspected or approved.

Soon enough, the two women had dried themselves off and got a change of clothes. Suri had changed the life support settings to increase the temperature and accelerate the drying of everything. They were now sitting in the lounge and galley area. The ship was anything but new and distinctly lived-in. The upholstery was, or at least had once been, a garish pink, and there were also yellow and turquoise colour elements in the space.

"So, you wanted to see the guy from the story", said Suri, manipulating a datapad. "Behold—Kel in all his magnificence. Suri giggled at her own joke. The datapad showed the portrait of a man with a furrowed face, a large, bent nose, and large ears. Yet there was a strange thoughtfulness in his eyes. "He's drowning in p*ssy, of course, because the chicks who are into him are really into him. She laughed in a way that seemed somehow innocent despite the utter shamelessness of her words.

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira took one look at the datapad and tilted her head slightly, considering the image like a strategist evaluating terrain. A long pause. Then, with the solemnity of someone confirming a universal truth, she gave a slow, sagely nod.

"I get it." she murmured, folding her arms.

"Ugly bastards are all the rage in the Cyrillia Cluster right now. Something about asymmetry being...authentic." Her tone was placid, but the corner of her mouth twitched in the direction of amusement.


She moved to the sunken seat across from Suri, the upholstery letting out a faint wheeze beneath her. The deep purple robe she'd borrowed swirled around her like dyed smoke, plush but clearly secondhand, a far cry from her usual sterile bodyglove. She drew her knapsack to her side, fingers brushing over a hidden clasp before sliding it open.

"This is what I wanted to show you."-she said simply. Pointedly.

From within, she withdrew a compact holopad, its edges dulled from long use. With a tap, a dim projection flickered to life—dozens of pinpoints glowing blue and red, each labeled with coded Aurebesh strings. She perused them with her eyes with the same enthusiasm an average person would switch between different pod-races channels before leaning back and tucking one arm behind her head.

"Two little bugs, hoping around. One is the hunter, the other prey. One of them moved." She tapped the glowing icon and let her lips draw out in a thin scowl, eyes narrowing in grim realization. "Either the twi'leks are sloppy... or very, very close to being caught."

She glanced over to Suri, checking if she understood the sight-gauging her feelings on the matter. Shouldn't be hard with someone who wears their sabbac hand on their sleeve.

Suri Loré

 

[Suri Loré]

Suri leaned forward, hand folded in her lap, and followed Sira's manipulations of her equipment expectantly. Her eyes widened when she understood what the display meant. "You put trackers on all of them? How? And when?" she asked in disbelief.

"Either the twi'leks are sloppy... or very, very close to being caught."

She grew pensive. "Hmm... Okay..." She said hesitantly. "And you... wanna do something about that?" She wasn't asking for confirmation of her own wish here, she was genuinely trying to figure out what Sira's angle was.

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira exhaled through her nose and set the holopad down between them. Her fingers lingered on the edge for a moment before she pulled them back and folded her arms. “Back in the cantina, when I said I was did intel recovery…” She hesitated, then tilted her head slightly. “That wasn’t a metaphor. I'm an...agent. Y'know, corporate interests, hostile takeovers...blackmail. Some of the ugly stuff." Never the full truth.

Then, after a pause, she looked up at Suri. “And no, I don’t want to do something. I have to. That’s different. That story those two told us at the cantina? Banta crap.” Her smile faded into something quieter, more resigned, maybe. “I just haven’t decided what yet. I don't have a ship...”

Suri Loré

 

[Suri Loré]

"Oh." Suri's posture slumped. The disappointment was audible. "So the bit about the survey—that's also just a story, then?" She asked skeptically, and sadly. There was a tinge of hope in her voice that it wasn't what she thought.

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

The agent gave a small, almost sheepish smile. "It is a real job, Suri. I know it might not seem like much, but I wasn't lying."

She glanced down for a second, then back up. "Yeah, it's not exciting. At least it wasn't before I got some backup. But it's legit work. The survey was real. The data mattered to someone. And for me… it's the kind of job I take when I want to stay on the right side of things."

This was a thin lie. Your worst one yet. You'll be lucky if she just leaves and doesn't blow you full of blaster holes.

Her voice grew quieter. "I don't always get choices like that. So when I do, I take them."

Suri Loré

 

[Suri Loré]

"So the survey is a job, and the twi'leks are a job? And both require a ship, and you ain't got one? Someone told me about being prepared..." scoffed Suri incredulously.

"Look. I'm not equipped for a firefight with bounty hunters." She straightened up again and crossed her arms. "I'm not getting into this."

Sira Veyne​

 

[Sira Veyne]

Sira let out a short, breathy laugh and crossed her arms to match Suri’s, her smirk tight and a little tired. “The whole Twi’lek thing? Yeah, that wasn’t part of the plan. That's what you need to prepare for...the unexpected." As she spoke, she glanced down at the purple robe she was wearing with a chuckle. "And packing a spare set of clothes."

She looked off to the side, then back at Suri with a hint of something softer in her eyes. “I was fine playing sabacc, waiting out the storm, maybe grabbing a drink or two until the weather cleared. This mess...”
She shrugged a shoulder.

“Just landed in my lap. I'm more then fine just letting it roll downhill. We can just keep tabs on it as it plays out-maybe something changes our minds.”

Suri Loré