Extreme Makeover: Home Episodes

[Quietus]

I - what?

So very, very strong had those pheromones been, Qui did not even recall falling into their stupor of having a full mental conversation with the Zeltron. But the fog had left behind a budding headache that felt all too similar to Spice relapse. Qui rubbed at her eyes, gaze pulled towards the front by the sound of another giggle.

No.

Fuck no.

Red returned to the ex-Beastia's face but for all different reasons.

She was going to kill that impetuous little grape.

Greens shifted back up to the grinning helmet and narrowed. With slow, purposeful movements, Quietus leaned to place her untouched drink on the coffee table and stood up. Her free hand lifted and planted squarely on Aver's chest, pressing the leering woman back despite the instantaneous pain of fire spreading across her palm.

"No," came the low, spoken reply that sounded more like a growl than a word.

 

[Aver Brand]

That rumbling growl might’ve instilled a healthy fear in someone else. In Aver, Qui’s voice instilled… anything but. Fear didn’t even warrant an afterthought.

She worried her bottom lip with her teeth at the heady cocktail of arousal and anger flaring across their connection. And as delightful as it would’ve been to watch—

Des, she resorted to a softer warning in the stead of a restraining hand. If you want to bash her pink head in, there’s more private places we can go.

For the trespass of invading another mind, Aver had often doled out bullets as punishment. Lena had misjudged her latest target, and now she would pay the price.

It was the way of Nadir.

 

[Quietus]

The mute relented from her initial wave of anger, pulling her hand back from the forbidden metal armor and rolling her fingers into a fist against the pain. The skin had turned a deep red, blistering as though she'd grabbed a hot coal and held it - the reaction so strong she could already smell it on the air. Better than the smell of those fucking pheromones.

Retribution was the way of Nadir, but Quietus wasn't a native here nor did she think bashing the girl's head in would amount to anything more than alleviating her mood. Aver knew Qui well enough to know that needless violence wasn't her thing. She was just a child and one that had not inflicted any harm. Zeltrons couldn't often be trusted, but she didn't sense mal-intent coming from the bubbly little thing. A warning would suffice, for now.

No, she forcefully shrugged the tide of fury away, opting to return to calm and cool center, not necessary.

Quietus turned to Phabess, brows raised expectantly.

"Well, it's been a pleasure as always Miss Brand," Phabess said to Aver before turning to Qui and handing back her credit pin, "and you, Miss. I have everything in for your order, we'll have it delivered to your ship in 24 hours. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any further needs."

She tucked the pin away in her bag before pulling the strap over her shoulder, signing a [thank you] to Phabess, and heading towards the front.

"This one."

Lena was standing at the front desk holding up a new tie of black, silver, and faint stripes of pale blue. Leaning up to loop it over Emryc's head, the Zeltron began the task of fastening the tie for him only to find herself grabbed by the arm and pulled off to the side by a very strong and very serious looking Quietus.

Alarmed didn't quite describe the look on Lena's face over the few moments that followed. Emryc, to his credit, barely batted an eye at the exchange and assumed to take over the process of tying his tie without any fuss. By the time he finished Quietus had released his companion and stalked out of the shop, leaving the Zeltron in the palest shade of pink she could possibly be.

"Huh-" Lena breathed, wide eyes fast blinking away the shock of the interaction, "I like her. She's got moxy." She rubbed absently at her bare upper arm where Quietus had left a hand-print-shaped bruise.

"Where to," Emryc asked casually after Aver, seeing as how lunch was Brand's choice.

 

[Aver Brand]

A long sigh was her only outward show of disappointment. It would’ve been good to rid Qosta of this fuchsia distraction. Karking on the job – with the job – was never a good idea. And Force knew that if he went through with his task, he’d need all the focus he could get.

She resigned to looking for solutions later and was halfway to offering Qui her elbow before she remembered the inconvenience of her armor.

Oh kark me.

Mood soured still more, the merc stalked straight past the bubbly ray of sunshine and out into the bustling street. Naturally, a speeder was already hovering in the (illegal) parking spot, waiting for its precious cargo. They filed in. Aver punched in their destination with more force than strictly necessary.

They flew across the Arcade in silence.

Or, more accurately, the slicer did the talking for all four of them. In return, Aver took special delight in swerving wildly through traffic. The hard corners sometimes even managed to shut her up.

By the time they finally clawed their way out of the busiest section and stood on solid ground again, the merc was aching for a tall glass of something strong. Punch-a-Wookiee strong.

Naturally, it was a steakhouse she marched them into. Poetically enough, it was named Hot Pink. Only slightly less poetically, its proprietor was a zeltron. He was bald. His name was Galen, and he was scrambling for the selection of cigarras as soon as Aver’s boot-tip peeked through the door.

“Your room is ready for you, ma’am,” he hurried to direct the prickly group towards the back of the spacious restaurant. Sound-proofed and reinforced against high-yield explosives of the military variety.

Aver Brand liked to eat in peace.

 

[Quietus]

While Aver lead the party in, Quietus took some time to survey the restaurant, curious to see what sort of places Aver liked to frequent on this weird little asteroid she called home.

Emryc hung back, ensuring he had a handle on Lena to keep her distance from Qui. He made a quiet suggested for her to go check out the wine selection and pick one she liked then took the opportunity to catch up with the mute woman. Rather than risk physical harm from attempting to grab her arm before she walked into the room after Aver, he cleared his throat to grab her attention instead.

She turned with a snap, poised to deflect yet another unwanted attempt.

"Take one of these," the man's voice, though deep, was strangely quiet. He held out his hand with the two vials containing a light blue liquid, "it's a SilaStim. Blocks pheromones for 24 hours."

Qui eyed them dubiously and reached out to take one from his palm, holding it up to scrutinize the contents and the man.

"Thought you might prefer a clear mind for lunch," Emryc curled his fingers around the remaining stim, lifted it to his neck and injected it. If the events in the clothing store had told him anything, it was that yesterday's dose had started wearing off. Taking a moment to show her the empty vile and that there was no trickery afoot, he turned and strode off towards the wine racks where Lena currently had four bottles selected.

Brow furrowed, Qui stepped into the private room, hung her bag on the back of her chair and took a seat. She turned the stim over in her fingers before holding it up for Aver to see, Your minion out there - is he trustworthy?

 

[Aver Brand]

While the rest of the bunch were picking their feet outside, Aver had already occupied the large table in the backroom, disposed of her helmet, and chosen her dish.

Predictably: steak.

Her eyes only left the drink selection for a moment as Qui walked in before settling on the menu again. Whyren’s looked mighty inviting from where she was sitting.

A red brow arched across a pale – silver – forehead. No. She puffed out an amused breath. He hates my guts.

The safer option is to kick out the pink queen, Aver eyed the vial with icy eyes, but I ain’t the boss of you. Anyway...

“Galen, bring those smokes over here.”

“And the—”

“Yes, the special ones too.”

 

[Quietus]

Shocking.

The mute popped her lips, fingers continuing to turn the stim in contemplation. Qui really wasn't one for using drugs of any kind, especially stims of dubious and questionable nature. Even if she had seen the man take it himself, it could have been any sort of narcotic - something he'd built up a tolerance to. Didn't make a lick of sense though ... he seemed high profile considering the suit he wore and the company he kept.

Even had a private audience with Aver back at the shop, which meant one of two things:

Either he'd pissed her off real good (unlikely this option, he was still breathing and didn't have a mark on him)

Or he held a high enough rank to warrant her undivided attention, a glimpse of her actual face, and lunch in a fancy restaurant.

But he hated her guts? Quietus lofted a brow at this, eyeing her mate while she busied herself with her drink selection. Couldn't imagine why... Knowing the type of person Aver was, she could hardly blame someone who Aver considered her lesser for having a strong distaste towards her. Aver Brand, Not Vrag, Former Hand of the Dark Lord and Master of Making Friends. The smirk that appeared on her face couldn't be helped.

Well, she wasn't Aver and he didn't hate her. What sense could he possibly have in poisoning her with something other than exactly what he said? Quietus watched as he stepped in, tailed by his rosy companion, and took the seat at the other side of Aver. Likely with the purpose of putting himself between her and the Zeltron, which left Pinky sitting across from Qui.

Lena eyed the stim curiously, catching it just before Qui pocketed the thing. She was, at the very least, fully aware of the Zeltron now and would not be caught off guard. She'd take her chances and see how things went.

"Your wine selection, Madame," another waiter stepped in with the selected wine bottle and poured Lena a healthy measure, "for you Madame?"
Quietus waved him off and indicated her water glass.
"Water then? Yes. And you Sir?"
"Deros Arroq, in the bottle."
"Very good, Miss Brand? Whyrens perhaps?"

Galen returned with the smokes; a box for Aver and another smaller box for Qui containing Stens.

Well, well, well.

Qui plucked one from the case and ran it under her nose, testing the purity. These weren't easy to get unless you had a direct supplier from Garhall - the plants they were derived from only grew there. She lit up, inhaled deeply, and sunk into the habit like a boulder into a lake. Lena began to talk about the wine, mostly to Emryc it seemed as there appeared to be some semblance of control over the volume of her voice. Quietus watched the two closely, namely the man, and began the process of trying to scope him out based on her knowledge of kinetic communication and her ability to glean such things over empathy.

Trouble was ... she couldn't get a damn reading on him. His mind presented like a slab of beskar - cold, gritty, impenetrable. A bit like Aver when they first met, to be frank. As a matter of fact, her eyes skirted over towards her mate and slowly began going back and forth between the two.

Fuck if they didn't look alike.

He looks like you.

 

[Aver Brand]

Contentment slowly settled on her steely features as the blue and purple plumes slowly veiled them from the pair on the other side of the table. She dragged another mouthful of aromatic smoke into her mouth–

and nearly spat it back out.

What.

Icy eyes flicked from a distant point on the wall to the blonde beside her. He’s a little uppity shet. And he’s hot, which, yes, so am I, but then so’s karking Kana Truden, y’know?

She shook her head at the absurdity and took a generous sip of Whyren’s to wash it down. You sure that queen ain’t karking with your pheromones again?

At this point there was no doubt anymore in Aver’s mind what would happen to bubbly, pink little Lana once this disaster of a day was over. She would find a sorry end on her way home – a gang shootout with tragic collateral damage.

Nothing to be done, alas.

 

[Quietus]

Well, sure, the man was attractive, but that's not what Quietus was looking at. She squinted, watching the lines of his face and the cut of his jaw. The carved pitch of his brow over a gaze of piercing, unmistakable ice-cold blue. He didn't talk much and even when he did he didn't talk loud at all, but she was certain she could see pointed teeth behind his lips.

Quietus tilted her head and looked back to Aver.

How strange.

Who was Kana Truden? No matter.

I'm perfectly coherent, lips pulled another lungful of smoke, it expelled from her nostrils in purplish plumes all around her. She wasn't feeling any effect of the Zeltron, but she was making sure to keep a good, thick wall of fog about her.

He looks. Like. You. He's trained, too. I can't get a read on his mind. Locked up tighter than a phrik-plated beskar safe.

 

[Aver Brand]

It was only her steely willpower that stopped her from pinching her frustrated brow. And some-karking-how, that still proved Qui’s point.

Unbelievable.

Trained? Who the kark would’ve trained him, Des? He grew up a karking soldier on these streets, not under some mysterious mentor.

She ashed her cigarra so violently the cherry went with it. With a low ‘kark it’ the cigarra followed, and The merc settled back with her hands wrapped around her precious drink.

And you don’t have to get a damn read. I can tell you exactly what you’d find in that pretty head of his. Aver grinned – all teeth and malice – and polished off a good half of her tumbler.

He’s afraid, which makes him nothing like me. Karking scaredy cat.

 

[Quietus]

My specialty is infiltrating minds, Quietus reminded Aver, not that she really needed to, if he was just a soldier then I should be able to look through that brain like a goddamn suit catalog.

She couldn't. Not without actually putting some effort into it and causing him some excruciating metaphysical pain, but now was neither the time or place and she certainly had no motive to do so. The days of breaking into people's minds just because she could were long, long over.

Somebody trained him, scaredy cat or not.

Quietus picked up the menu and browsed the entrees.

"So, Miss Quietus," Lena spoke up over her glass of wine, having spent the last few moments watching the expressions change on the faces of the women across from her, "how did someone like you end up in a place like this?"

Qui did not put down her menu or look up, her response broadcast openly to those at the table, not that Emryc would hear it, You first.

Lena's smile turned sanguine, "Fair. I met Emryc a couple years ago while I was taking a vacation here on Nadir, spending some Jubilant credit," she was referring to something Aver might be familiar with: the Jubilant Job - another high stakes criminal casino ring that had its baseline stolen right out from underneath them. They went under and never managed to make a comeback. Apparently the perpetrator had been caught and subsequently murdered ... but rumors had it there were multiples working the job. Seemed there was some truth to that.

"Had some fun, then off to the next job. Then I make another swing through a month back cause I hear through the dark web someone's looking for a good Slicer - then I find myself working with Qosta, so here I am. Now you."

Without missing a beat Quietus folded her menu and put it on the table, My home was eaten by a mountain.

Way oversimplified.

 

[Aver Brand]

And Aver’s specialty was apathy, joyfully and liberally applied to the echo of her mate’s comments.

Galen’s arrival with her steak (and the others’ food) couldn’t have been better timed if she’d asked him to do it. With the pink horror serving as a suitable diversion, the merc dug into her plate without another word.

Whether it was the delectable meat or the sparkling conversation, a semblance of amusement seeped back into her features once she’d scarfed down most of the sirloin.

She tipped her glass towards the girl, swirling the amber liquid about with lazy twists of her wrist. “Working with Qosta… under Qosta… above Qosta, too?” Eyebrows raised, Aver finally met Lena’s gaze. Smiled.

“And it’s only taken you a single month.” Her teeth were showing now, sharp as razors. “Color me impressed.”

 

[Quietus]

Emryc was keeping to himself, eating his meal in peace very much so on purpose.

Quietus noted this with some amusement but was also content to simply eat. With utensils and a plate. What a novelty.

"Well a girl has to be prepared to work within all manner of situations and positions," Lena responded to Aver with a shameless smile, "pays to be flexible." She apparently was playing the Merc's game quite willingly.

She's not wrong... Qui intoned to Aver only, leaning back from her plate with a short guzzle of water. A faint smirk pulled at the corner of her lip as she rested her arm along the top of the booth bench around the back of Aver's shoulders. That same hand snuck over the rim of her mate's armor where her fingers began dandling along the back of her neck and in her hair.

Was it warm in here? It was warm in here.

 

[Aver Brand]

“And you know who pays you?”

Her voice was flat as she leveled the Slicer with a dead gaze. Across the table her flinty disposition was mirrored down to the glacial eyes and pointed teeth. They were both made from stone it seemed.

And then suddenly, Aver wasn’t.

A swift gulp of the whiskey saved her from an embarrassing noise. Her nostrils flared. Her fingers squeezed slightly harder around the glass.

What are you doing.

 

[Quietus]

"The highest bidder, usually," Lena responded, taking a sip from her wine, "I suppose right now that's Pa."

Distracted, or perhaps exceptionally content with a full belly and a fresh sten, Quietus' hand continued doing whatever it was doing with Aver's neck.

She looked up after lighting the sten pinched in her lips and gave the woman a confused sort of look, What?

Your hand.

A blond brow raised, eyes glancing to her right hand which presently held her habit while smoke poured from her lips. Nope, not that one. They moved to find the other up quietly twirling locks of red hair at the back of her head - a subtle play not readily obvious to those seated across from.

Hm, came the mute's mental response, would you look at that.

Hand had a mind of its own.

It looks like I'm thinking about all the things I'd rather be doing right now.

Like burrowing her face into the heartbeat of Aver's nape, sinking her fangs into her neck, wallowing in the scent of that red hair. Images of such freely filtered across her thoughts.

 

[Aver Brand]

Qui…

There was a warning in there, somewhere. It got lost in the onslaught of crimson imagery that seeped freely from her mate like blood from an open wound. Aver closed her eyes against the thoughts, against the warmth of another heartbeat echoing down her spine.

The taste of copper bloomed on her tongue before she’d realized she’d bitten the inside of her cheek.

“And the best way to get a raise is on your knees?”

She knew what was coming. Could feel an urge that wasn’t quite her own curling in her gut like hot iron.

Karking pheromones.

 

[Quietus]

Aver...

Qui casually ashed the sten before taking another drag, her mind wandering to all the other places it could possibly go when started on the path of devouring Aver Brand body, mind, and soul.

"I don't generally work on my knees when I'm trawling the dark web for information," Lena replied.

Qui barely heard her and certainly didn't feel Emryc's gaze on her. She wasn't feeling much at all aside from the blush of warmth slowly spreading throughout her body and the coiling sensation of want growing steadily stronger.

Emryc's brow twitched upwards imperceptibly, cold gaze picking up on the nature of the stray hand at Aver's neck. He said nothing and instead opted for a cigarra. Well, if she didn't want to take his offered help that was on her, not him. The man sat back on his side of the booth, crossing one leg over the other, silently filling the space around him with smoke and finishing his beer. If he unfocused his gaze just right it almost appeared as if he were here by himself, surrounded by clouds, the soft tune of music playing in the background.

Qui very suddenly withdrew her hand and stood from her seat. Time to find the ladies room. The purple smoke trailed after her as a Waiter indicated the proper direction.

 

[Aver Brand]

The meager distance separating them from the bathrooms did little for Aver’s prickled senses. The damn woman had practically draped herself over her lap. Even in her absence, the familiar smell lingered.

“Maybe you should start,” she directed offhand at the pink menace as she waved down her bald kinsman, “some people like that. Galen, get me a refill. Actually, get everyone another drink.”

It was that kinda day.

He collected their glasses, as was proper for any manner of expensive restaurant, and returned them brimming with three different species of alcohol. Whyren’s for the proprietor, beer for the sole gentleman, and wine for the sole lady.

Too bad it came back laced with poison.

 

[Quietus]

Qui was taking her good old time in the ladies room.

Lena found it an appropriate time to expand on what her skills as a Slicer entailed, because it didn't seem to her that Aver quite understood exactly what it was she was hired to do.

 

[Aver Brand]

It was a pity too, Qui taking her time – she would’ve witnessed the greatest imitation of her put-upon grimace the galaxy had ever seen.

Though it was of course Galen for whom Aver reserved most of her pity. He’d be the one relegated to cleaning the results of her displeasure.

“Lena.”

Aver set down her glass and looked the Slicer squarely in the eye.

“Shut up.”

What followed was the click of a hammer, the sigh of a trigger, the deafening roar of a slug leaving the barrel, and the wet, gravelly sound a skull makes when caved in at point-blank by a shotgun round.

And splat, of course, as Qosta’s suit went from black to pinstripe in a split-second.

“Now,” Aver said, once more poised with drink in hand, “that’s much better, isn’t it?”