Private Cards on the Table

[Rafe Laroque]

A Week Ago, Fondor

The two struggled in the dark. One, clearly larger than the other, shoved the smaller away until they tripped over a table, fell to the floor, and backed away. They grabbed a chair leg, stood, and held it out menacingly towards the taller one, who stopped and and held out their arms wide as if to say they weren’t impressed by the choice of weapon. In that persons hand appeared a metal sabaac card with sharp edges. It glinted in the minute light that penetrated through the blacked out windows of the apartment. The smaller figure stared at it for a moment, and turned to try to run, only for the card to end up embedded in the back of their neck, a perfect shot, unmistakably intentional.

The next morning, Senator Joren Falkane, a human from Hosnian Prime, was found dead by his staff, slain in his apartment, and the only clue left by the assassin was the sabaac card found embedded in the back of his neck. No fingerprints, no lost hairs, no shoe prints, no DNA, just a card, a dead senator, and lots of questions.

Present Day, Ord Mantell

An aide to Senator Varis Deyra entered the home of the Senator on the world, intending to spend the morning going over schedules and reading through proposed legislation. Instead, she stumbled into a crime scene.

The door was secured, and she had an access key, so there was no reason for the aide not to enter her Senators home as planned. But what she found was a disheveled wreck that started in the bedroom and ended in the living room where a glass coffee table lay shattered on the floor with a pool of blood in the middle. Bits of hair were smashed into the carpet and caught on the glass. It was obvious that something terrible had happened, and even though there was no body, given the previous assassination of the Hosnian Prime senator, the aide assumed the worst and informed authorities.

There was no body, no card like the last time, but the connection was too hard not to assume, and the authorities needed help, so they called for a Jedi.

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

The Rust Heap was better than its name implied. On the outside it fit the bill, but that was intentional. Mimetic architecture. If you were going to call yourself a rust heap, you might as well look like a rust heap. Plus it fit the atmosphere of Ord Mantell which was, itself a rust heap. Couldn’t go ten feet without stubbing your toe on some old piece of a droid, ship, speeder, or whatever else was made out of metal. The place was a galactic junkyard.

Rafe liked it.

Seedy atmosphere. Lots of scrap workers looking to spend their money in ways that helped them forget about their toil. Easy pickings for someone like him, though he only played honest with those guys unless they cheated. Ain’t no reason to be fleecing the pockets of those just trying to make themselves feel better. No, he was more into those games for making sure the house wasn’t trying to pull one over on the guys. Was fine if the house won too, after all the place has to make money, but not when they did it by fixing the game. That he just couldn’t abide.

“Come on, pretty boy. Play your cards,” the grizzled up scrapper across from him said.

Rafe carefully slid the cards back and forth in his hand, and let his eyes drift up to the man across from him, a smile slowly growing on his face. “Come now, friend. Ain’t no sense rushing the hand. Sabaac is like love-making: half the fun is in the foreplay.”

“I’m not here for foreplay and I ain’t your friend. Play your damn cards.”

A cluck of the tongue and Rafe lowered the cards, facedown, in front of him as he looked across at the talkative one. He was at a nearly full table, the inside of the Rust Heap wafting with a light smoke that obscured the lighting. Intentional. Harsh light made it easier to spot that the house wasn’t playing fair. And from what he’d figured out, the guy that was talking, even though he wasn’t the house dealer, was playing for the house. The cards themselves betrayed that to him. A touch of his played cards had carried it, as had his attitude. See most of the others had been having fun and winning, but not this guy. He was winning a few, but losing many, and losing more money than he gained when he won. And he didn’t like it.

“Friend, if you hurry me again, I just might make a point of taking those last few credits you have left on the table, and then you’ll have to play tiddly-winks with the kids out back instead of playing hands.”

The man stood up, drew a blaster, and set it down on the table, his hand atop it.

“Play. Your. Cards.”

Rafe’s smile didn’t waver, though his eyes narrowed.

“Takes a special kind to bring a blaster to a card game. Tells me two things: one, you don’t like losing, and two, you know you’re gonna.”

Rafe picked up his cards and plucked one of them from the group, turning it around to reveal the idiot. Yeah, he’d been cheating a bit to get to this guy. The card crackled with a white energy at the same time as his eyes did, eliciting gasps from the others at the table.

“Way I see it you got one option to save your hide,” he said, knowing the man would catch on that he knew he worked for the house. “You fold now, or I shuffle you back into the deck myself.”

The man was busy staring at the glowing card in Rafe’s hand, somewhat awestruck, but largely fearful of this unmistakably abnormal vision. When the man regained himself, he looked at Rafe with anger, tossed his cards down, put his gun away, and stormed off. Rafe sat back and flipped over his cards to reveal the Idiots Array, a guaranteed win for him anyway.

“An’ that, ladies and gentlemen… is why they call me the Jack of Blades.”

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

With the house almost effectively removed from the game, Rafe had discretely removed the dealer’s hidden cards and already removed their player, luck was turning in the favor of the locals. Several of them started getting good hands, many even got the magical 23 or -23 needed to win. Nobody else seemed to acquire the rare Idiot’s Array, but honestly that wasn’t surprising. The only reason that Rafe had managed to get it was because he cheated. Well, more to the point, the dealer was cheating and he stole the guys cards and used them for himself, but nobody really needed to know that, did they? The dealer did, but he wasn’t going to say anything because it would out the house, and himself, and people didn’t tend to like fixed games.

He wasn’t there to make money, just to play. Didn’t much matter to him that he was losing. Normally he would bluff well enough that the bad hands were actually better than the good hands. But he played until he ran out of chips and then folded in his hand and decided he’d call it for the night. While he made it appear to those at the table that he was just having bad luck, and one of them even tossed him a credit because of what he’d done earlier, he was actually quite happy. It had been a good night of seeing some honest folk win and the dirty house get what was coming to them. Couldn’t ask for much better.

Starting towards the door, he started whistling to himself and letting a normal playing card flit around between his fingers and between hands to keep them occupied. Though he caught sight of the pretty redhead at the bar and his whistle got a bit drawn out and sharp as he studied her.

There’s a dime if I’ve ever seen one. Probably trouble, too.

He winked at her, if she looked, but then continued on towards the door, just whistling to himself and deftly letting the card run through his fingers. No doubt the man who was called Jack of Blades was pretty slick with his fingers. But he didn’t stop as he headed out the door. Nor did he intend to stop until he made it back to the Double Down and decided to sleep the night away in the comfort of his ship.

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

There wasn't just one person following him, but two. The first was probably an employee of the lounge, set to get their revenge because they thought they could beat him. That amused him enough that he was still smiling as he walked along the street, his card still flitting between his fingers. He did love it when people ignored his reputation. A lot of people thought it was false, the things he's done. Many knew it wasn't, especially the ones that had thought it false before.

The second person following him was that absolute hottie that had been at the bar. As he'd suspected, she was trouble. Jedi trouble, if he felt right. There was always one of them that thought they could get to him. Either she wanted to straighten him out, or she wanted to arrest him.

Good luck, sugar. Deck is stacked against you.

He rounded a corner, and as soon as he was out of their sight, he used the Force to spring up onto a balcony above, where he perched calmly while pocketing the regular card. His left hand flicked and a metal card slid out of the device on his wrist and into his hand. He drew on the Force and started charging the card in anticipation of having to use it on one of them.

Hopefully just the Lounge's enforcer. He didn't relish the idea of having to fight the woman.

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

The big lug went strolling on by like he was chasing a the river but had no idea what he needed to get. Clearly no sense of his surroundings, but then they rarely did. Most of the hired muscle types were usually meatheads with big arms. They could fire a gun and beat someone up, but they were utterly incompetent if they had do anything else. It was almost offensive that they'd sent someone like that after him.

The woman, though, she was something else. She'd figured out where he was without even rounding the corner. Granted, he wasn't really trying to hide where he was.

"Hold on a second, darlin'," he said, waving a hand back at her.

Mostly he just wanted to make sure the guy was out of sight before he stepped away from the edge. Didn't want any surprises while he was chatting with trouble. When he was satisfied, he turned around and smiled at her, discharging the metal card in his hand and letting it slide back up into his sleeve and right into the holster from which it had come.

"Don't mind talkin', just didn't want that hamfist sneaking up on us." He opened his hands out wide, showing they were empty. "So what can I do for you, darlin'? A pretty gal like you sure ain't likely to be wantin' for company."

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

"Dead men play no cards," he said, pretending to offer up a prayer.

She walked to the edge and looked down. He looked down too, but not over the edge. He was admiring the view in front of him. Not like he would pass up that chance. And when she turned back to him? He was looking at her eyes, still smiling as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, duster tucked back behind his arms. It was a comfortable way to stand.

"Darlin' I ain't know nothin' about the dead except they're terrible card players, and I prefer to play with good ones. Games ain't fun if the deck is stacked in your favor."

Of course he knew what she was talking about, but he was well-practiced in lying. Very well-practiced. He knew the typical body language tells and had spent years perfecting his own body control to keep from doing them himself. No looking left, tapping the foot, change in heart rhythm or breathing. None of it. Even for a Jedi Master it would be difficult to trace anything on him.

He may not have stuck around the Order after training, but he was no slouch.

"Playing cards belong on the table, not dead bodies." He shrugged. "I'm sure there's someone out there who disagrees with me though. It's a big galaxy."

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

Rafe actually laughed at that.

"Darlin' I know you're a Jedi. You don't need me to show you around the city. Not that I'd really be any good at it unless you want to know everywhere in the city you can play a hand of sabaac."

Which, maybe she did want that based on what she'd said. Normally he'd be happy to help her out, but honestly he had the feeling she'd just make things harder on him. Especially since he needed to be leaving Ord Mantell soon to get to his next target. Wasn't as if they were going to off themselves, after all.

He stepped over to her and bumped her lightly as he toes the edge of the roof.

"Kinda late to find any good games, anyway. Might want to wait for tomorrow. Even us sabaac players gotta sleep."

He looked like he might jump, but he stopped and looked back at her.

"You have somewhere to stay right? Ord Mantell ain't too forgiving towards beautiful women at night, even Jedi."

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

Well, that gave him pause. She thought he was the one who killed the senator on Fondor? Hmm. Maybe she wasn't as top notch as she thought she was. Or, perhaps, she was playing a con game to try and get him to cop to a murder so she could use an admission to get him in cuffs because she had no actual evidence to tie him to what had happened there.

"Almost sounds like you got Pure Sabaac and think you can't be beat," he said, offering her a wink. "But there's a better hand to be played yet, so don't bet too high."

She had it all wrong, and he was hinting as much, but he wasn't just going to tell her that outright, not out there in the middle of the city where someone opening a window could overhear them talking.

"But darlin' if you want stay with me, I'd be delighted. The best bar in the city isn't in a building, it's in my ship, and I'd be happy to make you whatever you want."

And perhaps more than that if she was the type for it, but considering she fingered him as a murderer, he kinda doubted it.

"Choice is yours, sugar. Follow if you want."

With that, he jumped down from the roof and landed easily on his feet; his hands never even left his pockets. He started moseying on down the road in the opposite direction of where he had been going earlier, because he had been intentionally leading the muscle head the wrong way. Meant now he didn't have to worry about running into him on his way back. And once again, he started whistling as he walked.

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

He kept whistling until she caught up to him and started talking. No sense in drowning out the words, considering he wanted to hear what she had to say. He was almost a little disappointed in it. She needed to dig deeper, go beyond the obvious, stop looking at things like they were black and white. That was what the regular cops did and it was why good people often went to jail just as often as the bad ones. They didn't care as long as someone got punished for the crime.

But he cared.

"Sugar, I'm not settin' foot anywhere near the Cage in a place like this. Liable to have us both playing single sabaac the rest of our days."

Glancing aside at her, he smirked and jerked his head towards where a ship was rising in the distance.

"I'm heading there. To my ship. I'm going to have a nice glass of a Cantonian wine, maybe Moonveil Noir. Hints of plum, clove, and a dash of smoke. A true delight. You should join me, and we can talk somewhere that the only ears to hear are yours and mine."

Of course he kept walking regardless of what her answer was. If she wanted him to go down to the station with her, she was going to have to force him, and that wasn't going to go well for either of them, he was certain of that. Honestly, he didn't care to have to do anything to harm such a pretty gal; least of all one who at least espoused some interest in determining what she'd stepped in rather than just scraping it off on the curb and going back to her business. Maybe there was hope for the Jedi yet.

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD

 

[Rafe Laroque]

He smiled and nodded at what she said. Regardless of his charming efforts, he couldn't seem to break through that exterior of hers. Perhaps it was the tough outer shell of someone who had been on the grind for so long that it just couldn't be gotten past. Perhaps she was just jaded and didn't like him. Maybe she was one of those people who hated it when people tried to romance them with words. He knew they were out there. They always left a sour taste in his mouth like bad whiskey.

Either way, he led her to the starport and the private berth where his yacht, Double Down, was parked. The black and purple ship was a real beaut, even in her old age, but it was the inside that stole the show. He spared no expense in upping the luxury, especially in the central hub where several gaming tables and a fully stocked bar were located.

"Seat yourself wherever you like. Guarantee it'll be cleaner than anywhere else on this world," he said as he walked over to one of the cabinets and unlocked it with a code.

Inside of the cabinet he perused until he found the bottle of wine, and two glasses. She'd probably decline, but it was best to offer all the same. Closing the cabinet again, he grabbed a cork puller and walked over to one of the tables where there were seats arranged. He set down the two glasses, popped the cork, and pulled himself one.

"Drink?" he asked, offering to her. "It's the real deal and you'll be hard pressed to try this vintage anywhere else. Especially one this old."

ATTIRE: Brown Pants and Duster w/ a Purple Shirt | WEAPONS: Purple Lightsaber, Metal Playing Cards

TAGS: Katarine Ryiah​

 

[54361]

TBD