Public Lost Way

[Vincello De'Cadera]

Harelti Station - Somewhere in the Galaxy

"You better fucking get back here in two hours, yeah? You hear me, Vin!" It would have been nice to think the Captain cared, or even to think that the latter was a question and not an Order. But in Vin's experience there were only a few things that someone in charge actually cared about.

He tended not to be one of them.

Not that he really blamed them for that fact. To most crews he'd been a part of Vin was little more than the problematic gremlin lighting up in the corner. Occasionally he'd offer a remarkable insight into which unknown hyperlane presented the least opportunity of getting shot at, and that alone kept him from being thrown into the nearest airlock. Though that hadn't always been enough. More than once he'd been threatened with death because of his habits, a few other times because he couldn't keep his mouth shut around the inbred members of the crew who thought they knew the stars better than he did.

Still, Captain Qurellia wasn't the worst. The man paid him more than most, maybe because most of his crew was half as bad as Vin himself.

He'd managed to scrape up more than one vial of Ryl aboard the Feathered Fawn. A fact which told more than a little bit of a story about the ships crew.

Maybe that was why he offered the good Captain a wave as he began to head out of the Hangar bay and into Harelti Station. A small assurance that he would do his best to find his way back to the Fawn. An unspoken promise that after he sought out his next high that he'd stumble his way 'home'. Not that the choice was really one at all. Harelti wasn't exactly pleasant on it's best of days, it's slow degradation turning into a labyrinth of unseemly vendors, boxed off hallways, and blockaded hangar bays laying open to the confines of space.

The station was old enough that even it's outer-paneling had begun to fall away. Stripped by the vestiges of time and the infrequent meteoric impacts so common in the outer reaches of system space. The sad fact of the station's existence might have made it a derelict, save for it's more than reasonable governors. Men of enchanting business acumen, the leaders of Heralti had long established their boon lay within those who were less than lawful. Pirates, smugglers, murderers and cutthroats flocked here from all the ethos of the outer-rim. The station was no destination, but a stopping-point. A place to fuel up, grab what you needed, and maybe off-load a few goods that were otherwise too burdensome to carry forward.

Which was why it had some incredible drugs for purchase. A fact which Vin intended to take full advantage of.

Remaining remarkably upright, The Cartrographer stumbled his way through the outer hangar bays. Eyes half-glazed over, and blissfully unaware of the trouble already brewing deep within the station.

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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​

Days had become weeks at this point, time seemed to speed up when you were high, when you weren't sleeping and you yourself drifting toward your peephole to make sure there wasn't anyone waiting for you on the otherside. It wasn't the fun part of the high anymore, no, that had been gone days ago, Juniper was in a downward spiral that could only be defined as meteoric. She knew better than to go back on the stuff, but it was in front of her, and she hated saying no to free drugs. That didn't account for the thousands of credits she proceeded to spend over the next weeks. Between hotel rooms, booze, travel, and the occasional room service charge for food to pick at so they didn't wither away, she had blown through anything she could have considered a nest egg.

The half-alive huntress looked to her right, at the man who had been laying next to her, cutting up lines of the Ryll before he went to the bathroom to inject it. Juniper refused to watch him do it so she made him go to the bathroom, there were lines she hadn't crossed, even if they were beginning to blur. She wasn't really sure what the guy's name was, but he had been nice enough to share his drugs with her. Maybe Jack? He was likely expecting some sort of repayment from Juniper, monetary or otherwise. It was nearing time for her to move on anyways. She lazily reached across him as he finished cutting to grab a deathstick and light it. "Jack" got up and took his stash to the bathroom with him. Juniper figured this was a good a time as any to leave.

She waited for the sound of him getting settled, knowing he wouldn't be getting up for at least fifteen minutes, she grabbed her stuff- and some of his- and hit the door. She didn't know her way around Harelti Station, but she figured her ship couldn't be too far. She'd sleep it off there and leave in the morning- after she finished whatever she stole from the hotel room. Hopefully he didn't have the means to track her down, Juniper's magic was very unstable when she was using.

Juniper waded her way through the station, the bright neon lights fracturing and expanding rapidly. The psychedelic side effects of Ryll made it extra fun to take at a night club, but not so fun to be walking through a sea of people. She avoided looking at them too closely, noting some of their skin appeared to be moving. She recognized where she was briefly, Jack's dealer was around here somewhere....maybe she could run into him one last time before she left tomorrow....before she got off the stuff for good.

When using drugs, you can feel so alone even on a station full of people, little did she know she was in such close proximity to Vincello De'Cadera who might have been feeling the exact same way.

 

[Vincello De'Cadera]

Any number of peddlers called out as he passed them by, a dozen different voices shouting over each other as they tried to sell whatever wares they could hock. Vin paid none of them any mind, their voices a distant blur as he flickered his gaze over the more distant parts of the station. He knew that was where he would find what he was looking for.

On Heralti, the refuse tended to congregate in one place.

Trouble was, everyone else knew it too. The smell got worse the closer you got, and the peddlers didn't necessarily stop. They just changed faces. A few called out to him with some recognition, their words echoing with the sound of his name. Head turning, Vin even offered a wave to one of them, disinterest flickering into his gaze as he recognized the face which came with the voice.

It wasn't that he meant to be rude, but it was hard to care about people who had done their best to scam you. Not that he could really blame them. Things on Heralti weren't exactly easy. Everyone here was running some sort of scam. Doing their best to eek out whatever living they could. That was where the danger lay. That was why you had to watch yourself.

That was why, beneath their very feet, a crew of absolute idiots were currently digging their way through a set of power-conduits. Their scam was a simple one. Heralti didn't have banks, but it did have a few vaults for those doing their best to gather whatever valuables they could. Secure enough for a station such as this, tucked beneath plates of heavy durasteel and nestled near the main power generator. It should have been perfectly safe, save for the fools digging through high-voltage lines to reach it's point of vulnerability.

Shame, really, considering they were about to blow-up half the station in pursuit of very little money.

Vin let his eyes drag back to the main thoroughfare, his heavy boots tromping right passed Juniper Le Fey . A strange rumble striking beneath the hull as some fool misplaced his pick-axe.

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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​

The station shifted under her boots. At first she didn't react, it wasn't exactly new for her, things had been shifting for a while. From the walls breathing to lights streaming down from their bulbs, the station had been alive for quite some time. Then it happened again, this time there was some weight to it, kicking up from her toes to her shoulders. She wasn't the only one who noticed either, people stopped in their tracks, looking back and forth at each other for some kind of confirmation that they had all just felt the same thing.

Juniper used that break in the motion to slip into a more shaded part of the congested alleyway. She doubted Jack had come to yet, but she had no real grip on time and it could have easily been fifteen minutes already. Her saucer-like eyes scanned the carts and the people passing by her. She felt like dissolving into the ether right then and there, disappearing forever without saying anything to anyone. It felt infinitely easier than living in the slightly itchy skin she was currently residing in. But Juniper Le Fey didn't have that luxury. She wasn't able to turn away from her problems, and she sure as hell wasn't lucky enough to give up. She had to keep going, to get off this station.

She was always on the lookout for people who caught her eye, but when she was strung out like this she wasn't looking for other criminals as much as she was spotting other users. It wasn't as easy as seeing someone slumped over in the middle of the street, or looking down at those asking for help. It was the businessman who couldn't face his family without five drinks and a few lines of spice, the tortured artist whose reach was only ever overshadowed by their consumption. It was a beast that fed off itself, and you got good at seeing the beast in others.

Her eyes finally landed on a man who, to most, would appear as just nervous. Fidgety, but in an almost endearing way. He was unkempt, but not compared to some on the station. He still took the time to clean himself up- a vanity not seen in those who had given up. She wasn't sure what she was going to do when she caught up to him, but she figured he would probably know where to score. Her heeled boots sloppily fell into step behind Vincello De'Cadera , not quite prowling, but not wanting to give herself away too easily either. She wasn't going to rob him afterall- probably.