Faction Catch'Tra Me If You Can! [Darkwire, Slice of Life]

[Kadora'Tra]

​

Kadora'Tra found herself missing things today.

She missed the thrill and freedom of Altier.
She missed the naiveté of childish things.
She missed having her own personal quarters.
She missed the days when she had her own unique identity.

But most importantly, right now, she was missing her badge.

"Get back here you runt!" Kadora'Tra roared as she pressed through the crowd of people, chasing after a petty thief that stuck his hands into the wrong pockets. She was out of uniform, wearing her street jacket when she felt someone rustle into her. She remembered snapping at them briefly with a slightly involuntary hiss. Then she stuck her hands back into her pockets and noticed the missing cash... and her badge! In all likelihood it was probably the thief ( Cartri Keswoll ) had no idea that was in her pocket, and started running as soon as he realized the loot he just picked up and that she noticed.

"Ugh, I don't have time for this!" She growled, her hair standing on end and her claws sticking out. Running like a civil person was taking too long, she leapt super-humanly (or just regular Farghul-ly) to grab onto low hanging rain covers, neon signs, overhead lights, anything that was in reach and climbable. "I'm CorpSec, you idiot! Stop!"

This was going to be a long day...

OOC/This is a Slice of Life thread, just throw in a moment anywhere in CAD space. Grab a friend, tell a low-key sort of story, or join someone else's (ask first!).

Spoiler: Tag List

Airal Thamne
Anakin Stormrunner
Aren D'Shade
"Bloody" Bill Renfroe
Brie Jaxx
Cartri Keswoll
Cassus Akovin
Chelara "Chel" DuCote
Chloe Santhe
Daiya
Deryn Kaaldos
Elkin "Big Cheese" Magor
Gray Venasir
Haden Del
Helena
Jerec Asyr
Kole Eckttor
Kimiko Taiyou
QEMD-15 Echo
Saija Kwann
Spark
5-WCH (Switchblade)
Subject 648 Slipknot
Xan Deesa
Yula Perl

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Kadora'Tra​

"Excuse me! out the way! thank you!" Cartri shouted as he pushed past the wall of people in his way, intent on getting far away as possible from the enraged cat lady. It had been an average day business up until this point, where he made the mistake of taking some credits and some kind of shiny object from a feline taking a walk. He looked back behind him and heard her roaring protests that we're getting closer and made a beeline for a space in the crowd, swiftly jumping forwards until he was able to separate himself into a clear side alley. Cartri sprinted with haste down the clear alley but saw in the corner of his eye a more than familiar person. It was the woman, who was showing off her athletic abilities and swinging towards him using the various neon signs and vents that were readily available. All the boy could do was grunt with frustration from her persistence, before turning around making ground to the far end of the alley

"CorpSec? well this is my lucky day!" he shouted back to her with confidence before turning a corner and running into a large fence that blocked off his chances of escape "Crap..." he mumbled to himself as he snapped his head to the woman who has yet to make an appearance. Cartri smirked slightly and opened his hands to two bags full of rubbish, ones of which smelled like rotten milk and other unfavorable oddities. Hovering them off the ground using the force he swung them forcefully at the cat lady in the hopes of keeping her occupied for a few brief moments.

Not wanting to stick around he ran swiftly towards a dormant dumpster that was just in front of the metal fence and used one leg to launch him at a hanging ladder, just about managing to hang from the bottom step with two hands firmly grasping it. In a hurry, he struggled to pull himself up and climb the ladder to the very top of the roof, where a mixture of rubbish scattered the worn-down surface. Cartri slid behind one of the many vents that littered the area and leaned up against the cold, metallic surface, panting quickly from the chase that was unfolding. He had no clue where the mad woman was at this point but it seemed like he was in the clear for now. The teen lifted his head up and chuckled to himself with relief from the situation, almost as if he enjoyed the rush and danger that went along with it. Looking down to his pocket he slowly took out the credits and the shiny object that seemed to come along with the prize, what he took was a CorpSec badge.

Cartri used his sleeve to rub some dust away from the aluminum section in the middle and made it shine slightly in the sun glaring down on denon, forcing a small grin to appear on the corner of his lips "Now... you might come in handy" the teen said proudly, who seemed to be unaware of his surroundings.

 

[Saija Kwann]

I can't believe I'm doing this. But I was desperate to get this special program. I've been trying to get a copy of it for years. Recently, there was a surprise online auction on the darkweb. I scraped up a lot of funds and electronic barter, both hardware and software. There was a huge bidding war...me and another shadowrunner were tied for the top bid. But then the seller asked if I would be willing to throw in a personal dance. I was loathe to do so, but in the end I was willing to stop at nothing because this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Now I'm in this dancer's outfit and waiting for the seller to meet me at a place of my choosing, that was not negotiable. I wasn't about to be kidnapped back into a live of slavery. It's not like I'm trying to sound off my own alarm, but I know I'm a hot commodity to certain groups of people. I had made a reputation before I had become a shadowrunner, but it was something I was never able to completely shake off.

The door chime to the safehouse rings, and I look at the security monitor. "Fark," I cursed to myself. "I wasn't expecting this."

The seller was a Hutt. I only knew him by his online handle, Payload. He was an independent slicer and credit-hacker, who held alliegiance only to his own greed. The financial end of the cyber-rackets was his specialty and he was one of the best at moving credits, cooking the books and polishing up ledgers. He could clean the dirtiest bit-currency and turn it into anything, all without a trace.

~ speaks in huttese ~ "I can't wait for you to dance for me."

"Let's get this over with." I step aside as he slithers into the safehouse, leaving a trail of slick goo behind him. It's a combination of his own bodily secretions and perfumed oil. The kind of stuff that a Hutt would wear to attract a mate. I'd rather be huffing the scent of Orbak patties right now...

 

[Subject 648 Slipknot]

The masked figure stood over the man, curled up on the ground. The man coughed up blood onto the ground beneath them. This could have gone so much easier, but the man just had to be stubborn.

Slip crouched down to the man. He wore his mask, as usual. He also wore his balaclava, all black jumpsuit, and dark gloves and combat boots, as usual. There was no skin or hair showing on Slip, nothing that could even remotely identify him. And he preferred it that way. He wanted to be the unknown terror for those he needed to be against. The fear of the unknown was a powerful thing.

"Ready to talk now?" Slip asked, his voice was distorted, and it had strange echo effect, as if someone were repeating his words the second after he said them.

The man coughed again. "Is that... all you got?"

Slip tilted his head. "Temper, temper. This could be so much easier for you. Alas..." Then, Slip pulled out his knife, and stick it under the man's chin. He used it to push the man's face up to look at him.

Then, suddenly, two people, apparently in a chase, went past him. Slip looked up at him, one, a young boy, ran past him, running like mad, obviously guilty of something. Soon after, a strange looking girl followed, searching for the boy intensely. Slip pointed down the direction that the boy had gone. "He went that way." Slip told her, before returning his attention back to the man.

"You get one chance before the hurt starts, what's the code?" Slip asked the man.

He would get what he wanted, one way or another.

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

Suffice to say Kadora'Tra wasn't pleased by this development of events. It felt like it was taking forever to catch up to a simple human. If all these other clods would just get out of her way! She had no idea how they managed to get in the way so much when she was literally leaping up and over them. Every time they tried to avoid her, they stumbled around like idiots and ended up directly in her path.

She stopped caring after like, person two, and just started using their heads or shoulders as springboards, where ever her opened toed clawed feet managed to land. If they got hurt it was their fault for Obstruction of Judgement in her pursuit of a petty thief - no, a grand thief. Sure her badge wasn't literally worth that much in the traditional sense, but its symbolic weight was a vehicle in its own right in the social world she was so woefully ill-equipped for. Without her badge, bashing people with batons magically no longer became socially acceptable, and she craved the power of that kind of freedom more than any drug-addled addict.

"Yeah well your luck just ran out you-!" Turning into the alleyway feet landing on the wet ground, she was rudely interrupted by flying trash. "Eep!" She shrilled with fur on end as she leapt to one wall of the alleyway and narrowly avoided the smelly bags of refuse. Springing off the wall she landed once again further into the alleyway past the freshly spread garbage before looking around and didn't see the kid. She looked around frantically, her ears twitching as metallic jangling filled her head farther up ahead.

Looking up she saw the two feet of the kid climbing to a rooftop via a metal ladder. There was a moments hesitation before she continued her pursuit, weighing the options of calling in CorpSec officers to assist her... but thought better of it. Her reputation was on the line here. Having her badge stolen wasn't just a little mistake, it was ripping out a piece of who she was. This was a punishment she'd have to dole out herself. No one helped her get it but her own ruthlessness, so no one was going to help her get it back now.

Bolting with agile grace, easily replicating the thief's acrobatics with feline quietness, she barely disturbed the metal clanging until she reached the top. Once she reached it, she was welcomed with more of the typical Denon trash. Her nose wrinkled at the sight of it all, more so than the actual smell. She had gotten used to being away from it all, at least the worst parts of it. It brought back memories she had forgotten, of a childhood spent napping in vents to keep the rain out or eating small creatures stuck in gutters because it was the easiest thing to grab to keep her going. While reminiscing these unpleasant memories, her ears perked up again.

""Now... you might come in handy" A voice echoed softly from one of the vents, a sound soft enough a normal person probably wouldn't have picked up on it, and maybe Kadora'Tra wouldn't have either if she hadn't been actively seeking something on the rooftop. With an angry smile, she stalked the voice careful to conceal her presence before she came across an oddly smelling vent.

"Hey kid." She whispered before ripping the grate off, sending it clattering noisily off the roof down to the ground below the building.

"I've got your scent now twerp, no sense in running, hand it over!" She roared with an outstretched hand.

Cartri Keswoll

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Kadora'Tra​

Surely, he had escaped the cat lady and her increasingly aggravated taunts for now. Although, Cartri soon found that wasn't the case by any means. The gaps in the vent that had once seeped sunlight were slowly filled by a figure kneeling before it, as well as a pair of bright yellow and green eyes that stared into his soul "Hey kid" the feline whispered to the surprise of Cartri who almost jumped out of his skin when she forcefully ripped off the grate. Her outstretched reached over to him while Cartri did his best to scramble backward on the slippy metal below "I've got your scent now twerp, no sense in running, hand it over!" she roared at him in determination, her sharp claws almost getting a grip of his clothing "H-hey! I'd rather take the chance than getting ripped to shreds thank you!" he shouted back to her bravely while managing to push himself backward from her sharp clutches.

The good news was that he had got some distance away from the cat, the bad news was the sharp slide behind him. Falling backward suddenly, the boy slid down the dusty vent with a multitude and bangs and crashes. Soon enough, Cartri came to the end of his bumpy ride and flew out of the open vent onto the rooftop once more, covered in a layer of dust that had been gathering for years. He rolled the cold, littered, floor roughly and released a groan of pain when he stopped. Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time he had experienced a bad experience in a vent "I need to stop doing this..." he grunted to himself as he groggily got to his hands and knees. Cartri was quick to notice that he was on the safe roof but on a lower level, one of which was still quite high above the streets below.

His sharp blue eyes caught a glint of something metal close to a neon sign to the right of him. Somehow, the badge had managed to fling itself out of his hands and land close to the edge. With a grunt of annoyance, he got to his feet and limped over to his prize and held it in his hands. Luckily it was still in a good condition to use, else this whole thing would have been a complete waste of time. Suddenly, a clattering sound came from behind, forcing him to snap his body to the source. Worryingly nothing was there, only a ghostly silence and the mild sound of the crowd of people that roamed the streets. Even though his face didn't show it, inside he was getting a bit nervous about this whole ideal. There was no way to get off this roof other than going back from where he came, back to where the feral woman was. Nonetheless, it seemed she had already found him.

"I'm not going to lie... you've got me trapped here" he shouted into the open, knowing somewhere she would hear it "Considering how mad you are with all this, the badge means a lot to you doesn't it?" he said as he scanned the rooftop, his body shuffling himself away from the edge "If you come out, we can talk things over okay? but don't get any funny idea's else I can’t help be tempted to fling your priceless badge off the building!" Cartri said confidently this time, assured that he had a safety net just in case she tried anything "So, what do you say feline?"

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

The nasty bugger slipped away from her claws and noisily banged down the ventilation shaft, with a surprised gasp followed by an annoyed growl she peeked her head down the overly loud ventilation shaft. Eventually, the sound stopped.

"That can't have been comfortable," She laments as she braces herself for what she was about to repeat. With a final groan, she follows down the rabbit hole, trying desperately to use her claws to ease her descent more comfortably, leaving long streaks of broken ventilation marking her descent. It was pleasant doing so, and she gritted her teeth until she reached the bottom. There was going to be some damage to reckon with later for that.

She stood there a moment at the bottom, still clinging to the ventilation, with a desperate look to her as what little bits of light reflected in her eyes. Her breathing was slow and controlled, not a single muscle twitching on her body. Perfect control. The only thing she craved more desperately than the badge at this moment. Carefully, and quietly, she re-orientated her body so that she could duck her head in to see where the boy had gone, and she could see him briefly inspecting her badge at an open ledge. Bringing her head quickly back in, sure she went otherwise unnoticed.

He began to talk. Talk is for the weak without leverage to find power. She thought as she looked out again, seeing a moment where he was looking away while searching for her to slink down behind some debris. On all fours, to an outside observer, it felt less like an enforcer's pursuit of a petty thief, and more like a fawn trapped in the den of a vicious prowling lioness.

Finally, the boy made a credible and confident-sounding threat, and for a moment... she was briefly taken out of her feral mood to think over the consequences. Then the fog of rage bubbled under the waves of her focus and clouded those consequences from her view, allowing her to see only her own reflection. Captain Kadora'Tra. Authority. Powerful.

She dispelled her pretense of stealth and stood like a civil person would only three arm-lengths away from Cartri, with a look of narrow determination, her pupils were thin strands of darkness in near-glowing pools of green and yellow, her face set in a frown. She took small measured steps towards him, almost as if she were concerned about sudden movement startling her prey before the pounce.

"I say, do it." She said faintly, not ceasing her approach. "Give me a reason to show you why they took a feral off the streets and put her in an office cube. You wanna know what a kid like me does when something small gets caught in a gutter it can't get out of?" She lets a moment go by to ponder.

"She eats it." She bares her teeth as if to emphasize the point.

"Take me off that damn leash, I dare you..." Only an arms-length away now, she stops. Then waits.

Cartri Keswoll

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Kadora'Tra
​

Cartri was starting to wonder where the cat had gone since his comment lay on death ears for a few seconds. But all of a sudden, a familiar figure stood up calmly from the rubble not so far away from him. The teen almost jumped from the sudden appearance and quickly made sure to extend his arm towards the edge, using it as leverage for her to not attack. Without a care in the world, she began to approach with purpose, while at the same time trying to burrow a way into his mind.

She urged him to do it, dared him by that fact. Something had changed inside the feline, her whole demeanor was one of cold and dark viciousness that desperately wanted to come out. Cartri could only stand in silence from the first question, awkward and unsure of how to answer it before she finished it off for him. Her words seemed to be getting to him as he slowly shuffled back, his expression looking stressed and scared of what the feline was claiming.

"I-I don't want no trouble alright?" he said in a defeated tone, his eyes lowered and scared to look the corpo in the eye. The teen cautiously looked behind him and saw the busy streets below, one of which was a long way to be uncomfortable with. With a slow shake of his head, he slowly began to withdraw his arm from the edge and lift it up towards the feline "Please don't hurt me..." his voice trembled as he waiting for the girl to take it.

If only she was able to...

Suddenly, his hand would let go of the badge allowing it to hover for a brief second before it was flung high into the air using the force. Hoping the feline would be distracted he quickly goes to one knee and swings his leg into hers. Knowing her, she probably thought him to be a petty thief who knew nothing but pick pocket for a living. But in reality, she was up against a smart kid who knew a thing or two in looking after himself. Cartri knew if she did fall the feline wouldn't be down for long, and he wasn't going to get far the way he was. Backing away from her he managed to find a small metal pipe in a pile and lowered it beside him, hoping it would even the odds against her sharp claws "Believe it or not we might be more similar than you think... you were an orphan too correct?" he said with a small smile, picking out some of the words she said in the hopes of using his own mind games "What's a furball like yourself working for them for?" he questioned, bracing himself in preparation for an attack.