First Reply Freezing Slow Time Away From The World

[Jerec Asyr]

A PRISON
THE OUTER RIM​

<<Item 8675309, place your hands against the back wall. You have five seconds to comply.>>

After this long in lockup, Jerec knew the drill. By the end of the first sentence, he went from fully asleep to sprawling on the floor halfway to the wall in question. By the end of the second, he was standing with his hands flat against the wall. He flinched as the cell door hissed open behind him.

In the corner of his eye, he glimpsed two guard droids reflected in the unbreakable, corroded, firmly anchored mirror above the sink. The droids shoved a third figure into the cell, and that seemed the extent of their business.

Once the door slid firmly shut, Jerec ungrabbed the wall and turned to size up his new cellmate.

 

[Tela Uolmi]

A string of curses not at all ladylike came so bereft of volume that most were just mouthed, and she slung a feigned spit when their backs were turned. A barfight is a barfight is a barfight, but not when you unintentionally force-slap an off-duty lawman into the bar counter, gifting him a concussion, even by mistake.

"Kriffing, good-for-nothing..."

Slurred curses. She turned around, and some whoever was lookin' back, and she blinked, rubbed hands over her face, scratched at her nape, and took another take. The world jittered, swam, this way and that.

"What're you starin' at?" Leveled a hand at him... ish. Yeah, the whole thing. "You gotta stop moving...."

She recoiled, as he seemed to divide like a cell.

"Aw, feth, now there're two of ya? How the..."

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

For the first time in many months, Jerec found himself lost for words. He also found himself estimating the new arrival's risk of puking all over their shared cell. This backwater prison hosted everything from lifers to drunk-tank overnighters. Apparently he'd drawn the short straw.

"Balls. Uh..." He rubbed his eyes. "Balls. Okay, ground rules: the bottom bunk is MINE no matter how bad your spotchka-marinated ass wants to flop in it. If you need to puke, use the toilet and don't miss."

Tela Uolmi

 

[Tela Uolmi]

She paused, as if what he said was in Ubese or something, laughed, and then continued to laugh, stumbling to come to rest against the adjacent wall. Tela crossed her arms as if she'd meant to do that, eyeing him with drunk scepticism.

"Ha, lucky for you," she let out a laborious burp, "I can hold my liquor."

Her face listed against the cool wall.

"An' whate'er ya say, sweet'art," words mushed by wallface, "s'not like I 'aven't climbed things after a few... fifty rounds."

Things. People. Same diff. She lifted her face from the wall.

"What're you in for?"

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Smuggling illegal ship components, military-grade, across the wrong system border after the Outer Rim Coalition collapsed-

"Terrible crimes. Gorram inhumane." She didn't seem about to barf, so he slouched onto the bottom bunk, where he'd been sound asleep less than two minutes ago.

"You get tossed in here to dry out, or is this gonna be a long-term arrangement? Oh, and watch out for the middle of the top bunk. Last celly was a Trandoshan with a really pronounced, uh, spinal ridge. Pretty sure there's not much left of the middle of the mattress."
Tela Uolmi

 

[Tela Uolmi]

Something between a groan and a grunt was all the noise she made in reply to his not-admission. Bit of a light lock-up for 'gorram inhumane', this?

"Hnnnn," long-term? "dunno."

Tela pushed off the wall, turned unsteadily, and started wobbling towards the bunks.

"I dun know how..." she stopped and started every couple steps, balance precarious in any kind of movement, "...how long they give ya for smackin' the laws, 'specially when ya don't mean it."

She reached for a ladder bar and just missed, her brow creasing, the second attempt a success. Her head listed down to look at Jerec.

"Thanks forra warnin, but not worry'n abou' it, prob'ly more comfy than a nap inna fighter."

Testing her hold, Tela began to climb, and was soon crawling onto the nearly split mattress, settling with very little adjustment for comfort, on account of being blitzed. In this position, the world ceased to swim, but sleep wasn't going to come too quickly.

Chaos NaNo: 161 Words

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

'Smackin' the laws' probably meant 'assaulting an officer.' Depending on the planet, that could mean anything from a night in the drunk tank to execution. For good and ill, this particular Outer Rim world seemed...civilized. The drunk girl meandering up the ladder would probably be out of here in a few days, a couple of weeks. And Jerec would stay.

"Ugh." Sleep refused to come. He stared at the back of her head through the Trandoshan's old mattress. "I'm Jerec Asyr. Corellian, part Umbaran. Ship mechanic, modder. Rust, grease, power tools. I'm in for serious smuggling."

Tela Uolmi

 

[Tela Uolmi]

Eyes closed, a moment, she tried to grok how bad this whole thing was. Consequences seemed less solid when inhibitions took a vacation, and she was mouthy to begin with, and it was that which tended to get her in trouble. Tela's eyes opened, and she absently, unintentionally started to take stock of what stains she could discern on the ceiling until Mr. Bottom Bunk put a name to his face and detailed himself.

"Hmmmm," she seemed to think about what he said he did; nothing that involved time in a lava cell, way back when, "Tela Uolmi," given in kind, "whole human, and... from... ugh, Kessel."

How did the inside of a cell not bother her? That's part of it.

"Pilot, medic, an' former 'insubordinate pain in the ass'."

That was the other part. Not her words.

Chaos NaNo: 138 words

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Tela Uolmi

Jerec's drowsy reply took a minute. "Heh. Never met anyone from Kessel - I thought everyone was just passing through. Used to spend all kinds of time there until the Jedi murdered my first mate on a Kessel run."

He wiped away a silent, sleepy tear for Quekko the Apokka.

 

[Tela Uolmi]

Tela threw an arm over her eyes, but didn't stifle the yawn that overtook the rest of her face. Yep, that sounded like the Kessel she remembered, the Kessel she couldn't wait to escape as a kid. What man gets married and then decides that starting and raising a family in such a dusty, humid place is a good idea?

"Believe me," she groused, "I wish I was from somewhere else."

A man with loyalties to the wrong people, that's who. Mom got smart and left that, but it was many years before Tela found out why she was left behind, amongst finding other things out... like having a half-sib who was blue. Literally.

"Yeah, Jedi kinda suck."

Saying no to Jedi recruitment was a pasttime. She was fading fast. Another yawn.

"Sorry 'bout your mate."

Jerec Asyr

Chaos NaNo: 136 words

 

[Jerec Asyr]

"Yeah," said Jerec fuzzily, as the comfortless prison pillow lulled him to sleep. "Frack'em."

***

The door slid open at 0700 and the lights went from dull to painfully bright - the usual daytime shift.

<Items 8675309 and 9227462, proceed to nutrition centre in general population.>

Jerec clawed at his eyes as he woke up from a blissful dream involving power tools. "Balls that's loud. Up and at'em. Breakfast time, Kessel. Hope you like half portions."

Tela Uolmi

 

[Tela Uolmi]

The lights flickered on, and Tela groaned, a long, plaintive noise coupled with her rolling to one side and curling into a ball, the brightness and numerical designations and directions assaulting her physical senses, making her throbbing head feel worse. Since when did she get hangovers?

"What in the karking hell did I drink last night?" she moaned, flopping onto her back again, shielding her eyes a moment before rubbing the sleep out, "Somebody turn off the frakkin' sun."

Managing to sit up, eyes squeezed shut, she quit the moaning, replacing it with a disgusted groan.

"Long as it isn't eggs," she replied, "usually love 'em, but frak, they sound gross right now."

Her stomach gargled. Blearily, Tela crawled to the ladder and made her way down, careful as could be done. Feet solidly on the floor, she licked her lips, her mouth dry.

"Lead the way, Greenie," she said flatly, groggily, a nod to his Corellian heritage - she more or less remembered at least the part of the night that involved her getting tossed in this cell, and the reason why, "they gotta have water, right?"

Chaos NaNo: 188 words

Jerec Asyr