I Write Sins, Not Tragedies

[Arage Bao]

Space & Bar - Where else? [member="Fennec"]

One could basically sum up my days with ‘work, work, work, screw, drink, work and screw more.’. Probably a huge overestimation over how much screwing I get done when the week is over, but a guy’s gotta have some kind of top-ceiling mark to aim for, no? Honestly, I am just jacking off here at nondescript delusions, truth to say is that I haven’t been getting any for a while now, ain’t in the mood for it either - ‘least, that’s what I keep telling myself everytime I pass a pretty girl on my way to Jimmy’s.

All about the creds and the reputation, I tell myself. Might be I am doing right by myself and my organization. Might be I am simply stalling and the Netherworld left me more shaken that I care to admit. Which ever it is, I am currently sitting in some kind of dump; not that it’s an unfamiliar scene for me, last couple of years- hell who am I kidding here, my whole life is moving from one dump to a bigger dump, mixed up with some casual downgrading here and there.

Bartender brings me a drink, take it, chuck it and ask for another one. Yeah, it’s one of those days, the days that ya simply wanna get a few good drinks in ya self and call it in for the night. Music is good though, crowd was cheery for today and the atmosphere was relaxed. Might stay for a while, took out my cigarettes for a smoking session with myself.

Guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do.

 

[Quietus]

She'd been here all night drowning in a cloud of smoke, wetting her lips on whiskey, playing her luck on cards.

Large group tonight. Some regulars, some new faces. Few of the guys she knew to be good for a spot of cash if she played her cards right. Some were just hard-up for a game of chance. Suppose you take what you can get when all life throws at you is a 9-5 and a stuffy hole for a home. She wasn't complaining. Matter of fact, she wasn't saying much of anything.

Quiet type, the bartender would say if one ever cared to ask, here few times a month. Sits in the same seat, same drink, same story. Deals in trinkets and chits - not your novel bolts and screws. Sometimes she'll pull out some rare tech or parts. Never says where she finds 'em, but damn if she isn't good on her word for 'em.

Sometimes she picks up job - fixes things. Ships, droids - she's put the server droid back into commission handful of times. Good work, fixes somethin' out of nothin'. Ingenuitive sort. No trouble, just takes her pay and goes. Name? They call her Fennec. Hell if I know it's her real name or not. Never asked.

Tonight Fennec had a bargaining chip with her. Few pieces of mando armor. Battered and useless now, likely snatched off a battlefield. Scorch marks were telling. Weren't much you could do with them if you couldn't work the metal, but if you knew someone who could, likely they'd pay a pretty penny for it. She lumped it on the table with the current building pot to a few surprised murmurs from her tablemates.

"Where'd you even..." grumbled one, eyeballing the pauldron. He didn't bother finishing the question as she drew another card and sank back into her chair.

Stakes were up.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Fennec"]

The bartender probably didn’t have a lot to say about Mister Malvern, a fellow bartender, just look at the way he handles the glass given. Look at the way his eyes circle and follow the mixing techniques, dissecting the order one by one and adding it all up in his head for future reference. Not exactly a man of ill repute, well-mannered even after his twelfth drink going in - yet there was always something in those eyes that made you wonder, wary maybe even. It were the eyes of a man who had seen much, yet was perfectly calm and acceptive of that which came before. Curious, no?

I drank up my drink and got off the bench, nodded to the ‘tender and was about to take my leave for the night. Then I noticed it. Nah, not the girl, not even the armor she casually put on the table like it was nothing; wasn’t even the guys that sat it either, it was the simple and playful nature of the card dancing in her hands. That was one and possibly only thing that got me, instead of leaving for the night I tilted my head slightly and pondered for a second.

Was a very short second in the grand scheme of things, next thing I knew my feet were carrying me towards that ill-fated table. Took it nice and easy, didn’t want to spook nobody.

‘Got a seat for one more?’ was a question with a larger meaning, there was a seat free, two actually. But that wasn’t what I was asking, we all knew that.

 

[Quietus]

The eyes that met the man were understandably hairy and suspicious. You didn't exactly invite just anyone into a table of regulars, but as luck would have it two of their number was missing tonight and the pot wasn't as big as they'd normally like.

A grunt, a glance, a shrug, a nod - Fennec watched and offered the last.

"Take a seat," said one of the men, indicating the empty chair beside Fennec.

"Five-hundret credit buy-in," she said to him over a cigarette pinched in her lips, odd accent thick, "if you kan't do it then don' sit down."

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

A lifetime ago fife-hundred creds had been a fortune to him. More money then he would know what to do with, shet changes though and ever since he had taken over Jimmy's and decided to take on that fancy term called 'responsibilities'... well things had gone from bad to worse.

Or from good to better, depending on your perspective and outlook on life. Creds were not a problem anymore though, well maybe on a fundamental level, but they weren't here to discuss semantics. A chet worth the creds was dropped on the table without ceremony.

Khal wasn't in the mood for ceremony.

After that was done he simply sat down in the chair next to the woman - strange accent, he would probably spend the entire night trying to figure out where it hailed from - and rubbed his jaw.

'Deal.'

[member="Fennec"]

 

[Quietus]

The same man gave a grunt of approval and dealt [member="Khaleel Malvern"] his cards, "Sabacc," he said, waiting for an indication of whether or not Khaleel knew it. Not as though the game weren't popular and played galaxy-wide, and not as though any man who willingly sat down at a gambling table had never heard of it–unlikely, in fact–but it was all part of the routine.

"Three card deal here-"

"We're missing some cards...." the man to Khaleel's right muttered.

"-rules are same as usual, cept for the shift. Old cards are glitchy, no shift. Instead you go straight to draw, if ye need to. At any time dealer can call for a shuffle-left or shuffle-right where you have to give up the card either to the left or right in your hand for a new one."

"We really gatta get a new deck."

"Den you'd havf to play by the real rules," Fennec commented.

"Feth that."