Private Oil, Water, and Their Similarities

[Yula Perl]

Denon….../
District 7….../
Baker's Row….../

Despite Denon's chaotic atmosphere, the planet kept on spinning.

Yula had counted it nothing short of a miracle that her garage hadn't become the victim of some Seccer goons by now. They'd already smashed up Parma's Bakery across the street, and the little pharmacy a few blocks over.

Business hadn't been great since the lock down. Positioned beneath a jacked up speeder bike, Yula grimaced as she tried to undo the drain plug. The reputation of a Shadowrunner wasn't as beneficial as it used to be. Nearly everything was intertwined with some criminal element on Denon, but since Corpsec had started gunning them down, people stayed away.

It had been months since Dagon disappeared, too. He'd never been away for this long without some sort of contact, even a ping to let her know that he was alive. Nothing. She'd wake up in the middle of the night, grasping the empty space beside her for his form. Had dreams at least twice a week about some cop showing up at her door, here to deliver the news.

The stuck drain plug finally started to give way to her spanner.

"Emily-" She grunted through gritted teeth. "Grab the pan."

The little spider droid skittered to one end of the garage, noisily rifling through a series of junk piles before dragging a wide, flat plastoid bowl towards the Zeltron.

Hands tightening on the spanner, Yula eased the plug slowly from its treads. All at once, it came loose, spilling oil onto the mechanic before Emily could rush the pan into place.

"Shit!" Yula snarled, pushing herself out from under the speeder, arms spread as she looked to the oily mess her clothes had become. "What took you so long?!" She hissed at the droid, who argued back in a series of twitters and chirps.

"I told ya, that's where it belongs!" Yula gestured wildly to one of the scrap heaps in the corner of the shop. Emily let out a long whistle and a few staccato beeps in response.

"Okay, well, what's your solution? You think you got a better organizational style than me?"

A lot had changed. Some things, however, stayed exactly the same.

Thayne Tameron​

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Location: Baker's Row, Denon
Tags: Yula Perl
Soundtrack: Affliction

"You could start with a broom," Thayne said coyly from outside the garage.

"Maybe a storage bin."

The oil-soaked Zeltron was a sharp contrast to 'Denon's best engineer,' but with the Corners under lockdown and the dreams getting... worse, the Kaasian had few other options. Certainly, none as pink.

And certainly not on a list of recommendations straight from brass.

Thayne stepped through the bay door, offering his hand for a shake. He spotted the spider droid skittering about the garage and nodded to it with interest.

"I heard from a friend that you're handy with droids," he said.

"I'm in the market, if you can make it happen."

 

[Yula Perl]

"Whaddya mean?" Yula grimaced at the man who stood at the threshold of her garage.

"Can't you see I've got everything here just the way I like it?"

Retrieving a proffered towel from Emily, Yula began sponging down the worst of the spill over her shirt. The Zeltron didn't seem to care that she had an audience.

"You heard right." There was an unmistakable note of pride in her voice. "Droids, speeders—even certain classes of cybernetics."

With an almost maniacal grin, Yula tapped the glass of her cybernetic eye with her nail. She'd ended up sneaking into the University of Denon in order to use their bionics lab for that one.

While the spider droid skittered about cleaning up the spill, Yula placed a freshly de-oiled hand into Thayne's own for a firm shake.

"You already know who I am, then.” One corner of her lips flicked upward in a half-smile.

"Who're you and what are ya lookin for?"

Thayne Tameron

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Location: Baker's Row, Denon
Tags: Yula Perl
Soundtrack: Affliction

"I don't do names," he said curtly, pulling a thin metallic Credit chip from his back pocket.

"This should suffice."

An embossed skull flashed with a glint beneath the overhead light. If Yula knew as much about the Family as they did about her, she'd recognize it as the sigil of the Hellmakers. If she didn't, well... the near-bottomless account linked to the chip would vouch for his identity nicely.

Thayne's silver eyes peered around the shop, trying to parse the projects from the scrap piles. He saw very little at first that even resembled a droid; The occasional arm or leg here, maybe a tread or a chassis there. He sighed, realizing that this would be more than simply walking into a shop and stepping out with a new droid companion.

But on the other hand, there are certain undeniable advantaged to having a custom-built bot outfitted with all the bells and whistles.

"I'm looking for something small," Thayne said matter-of-factly.

When he 'commandeered' the Nomad, it came with a standard-issue R4 unit - - one that squealed and bleeped the entire time, threatening to report the stolen craft to the pilot's handlers in the GA. That simply wouldn't do, and neither would an empty droid compartment. Thayne retrofitted it into an exterior cargo hold for smuggled goods. A perfect use at the time that unfortunately rendered the ship incapable of an on-board droid.

He smirked to himself, humored at the memory of droid's screeching protests when he sold it to a band of Jawas he met on Mek-Sha.

"Something small, but capable of helping me keep my ship in working order. And... under the radar," he said, flashing her a knowing look.

 

[Yula Perl]

"You don't, huh?" Yula met his brusque response with raised brows. "I suggest you give me something to work with, or else you'll be getting an unflattering nickname."

The sigil on his credit chip was unmistakable—and one that she hadn't seen in a while. This situation made a little more sense now, given the context of her previous contracting work for The Family. She'd provided droids and the occasional piece of tech to Ivory's organization, but Yula wasn't nearly as involved—or as trusted—as a Hellmaker would be.

A beat passed and she was reminded of the time where Ivory and Xan had smashed their way through the grate one night, and Yula popped a few stun bolts in them. They'd made up over conversation and the worst caf in the galaxy.

Her half smile stretched into a smarmy grin.

"And how is The Donna?"

Waving him further into the bay, Yula retrieved a wall mounted datapad and started tapping.

"Small, capable, and skirting the law. Got it."

A few more swipes, and a schematic of the GH05-T SPARK droid projected from the device's lens.

"This little guy's solid. Compact, a good translator, stealthy in all the right ways for a…pilot."

"Drawback is that he takes on damage easy. But they're a snap to customize, so I miiiiight be able to mitigate some of the…occupational harm…he could come across."

She gave Thayne a pointed look, not exactly asking what he did, and not expecting him to be candid about it. Not from a guy who doesn't do names.

"I've got a few busted ones somewhere around here." Yula waved absently to the junk piles she would swear were sorted by…her own personal criteria. "So it'll take me a bit, but not too long."

Given his connections, his order would be pushed to the front of her task list.

Thayne Tameron

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Location: Baker's Row, Denon
Tags: Yula Perl
Soundtrack: Affliction

Thayne eyed the hologram skeptically, at first a bit offput by the SPARK’s diminutive appearance and apparent aversion to staying alive. But the more he looked over the little bot, the more it seemed to grow on him.

Who says it has to tote a blaster and chuck grenades? He wasn’t looking for an IG series. What he needed was a copilot. A purveyor of data for his missions. A seasoned little droid who wouldn’t get in the way.

But what he wanted was a companion.

Outside the garage, the quiet that had befallen them was marred by the distant wailing of sirens. CorpSec must be having a field day under the lockdown protocols.

Thayne gestured to the noise, a humored smile on his face.

“Not that I’m leaving the Corners anytime soon, but how long would ‘a bit’ translate to?”

He flashed her a devilish grin.

“It’s best to not stick around one place for too long, if you catch my meaning.”

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula's attention shifted to the bleating sirens in the distance. Her gaze tightened a smidge, not as amused by the lockdown.

With business slowing down and Dag gone, part of her wanted to leave Denon at her first chance. Maybe visit family on Zeltros, or head towards the rim and setup shop on her old stomping ground, Terminus.

"I'll be building it mostly from scratch so…a few weeks? Maybe more. Could be longer depending on-"

The corner of her lip shifted upwards in a knowing smirk this time, head tilting in the direction of the noise. Yula placed the datapad back on the wall, securing it with the magnetic contacts.

Emily skittered towards the pair, clasping a small, round bot between her front legs. Holding her prize aloft, she chittered excitedly as she deposited the carcass of a broken SPARK droid in Yula's palms.

"Ahh, right, right. Picked this little guy up at a scrapyard on Bracca." She lifted the battered droid up for him to see, and hold if he'd wanted. "He's too damaged worth restoring, so I was gonna strip him for parts. Probably needs a new men mory core, and the sensors are shot to shit. Will have to replace the servos too, tiny as they are."

"So yeah, that's what this model looks like. I'd be happy to throw on anything extra you need. Maybe some micro shielding, or a baffler."

Yula's head tilted to one side and she grinned, the gears in her mind turning as she imagined how much crap she could shove onto this little bot before he overheated.

"If price is no object, of course."

She figured that it wasn't, if Ivory was footing the bill.

Thayne Tameron

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Location: Baker's Row, Denon
Tags: Yula Perl
Soundtrack: Affliction

With a markedly softer demeanor than what he’d shown since arriving, Thayne gingerly scooped the droid from the spider’s forceps. He held it’s broken frame in his palms, looking over it with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

It was broken, damaged, just like him. He cut his silvery eyes from the GH05-T to Yula.

The assassin didn’t believe in fate or destiny, but he did place value in karmic superposition; If he could give this little SPARK a second chance, maybe one day the favor would be returned when he needs it most.

“I’ll take him,” Thayne said matter-of-factly.

To Yula’s quip about the financial burden of retrofitting the droid with enhanced systems, he replied with an ominous, “My benefactor knows no bounds.”

“It’s in both of our best interest if I’m working optimally. This little thing may just give me the special touch I’m looking for.”

‘Especially,’ he thought to himself, ‘if it can keep my mind straight.’

A bitter recall of flames and smoke struck his memory, sending a chill down his spine. The dreams had to stop, one way or another.

With care, Thayne deposited the droid into Yula’s hands. Another pair of sirens wailed in the distance, a bit closer this time by the sound of it.

“Sounds like CorpSec’s got its hands full,” Thayne said with a grin.

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula had busied herself with the caf machine in the corner, glancing with measured curiosity towards her customer as he observed the little bot.

His sharper demeanor had eased a bit during his appraisal of the busted droid. The old caf machine sputtered noisily to life, and Yula accepted the SPARK's broken body with both hands, mirroring the assassin's ginger handling.

"This one? You sure?"

Dark brows arched upward as she looked from her client to the bot's carcass. He was dented and a bit rusted in some places, but she could appreciate the scrappy charm. The Outer Rim tech she produced wasn't typically pretty, but it was uniquely functional.

"Alriiiiiight then."

With a gentle shrug of her shoulders, Yula placed the SPARK onto her workbench. She turned heel, heading to retrieve the datapad, but changed course and stepped closer to the mouth of the garage. Her face crinkled into a distasteful sneer at the shriek of sirens, an increasingly common occurrence in this neighborhood.

"Fethers," She spat. "Been getting worse every day an' I aint going back to prison."

Stalking back inside, she grabbed the datapad and began jotting down details for this order.

"You gonna give me a name, alias, anything? Or am I just gonna call you Scowl?"

Yula waved a lazy hand to the caf machine percolating away. "There's a cup of the galaxy's worst caf in it for you. Unless you got places to be, Scowl."

Thayne Tameron

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Location: Baker's Row, Denon
Tags: Yula Perl
Soundtrack: Affliction

Thayne - apparently Scowl, now - huffed as he stepped over to the caf machine and poured two cups of the bitter black liquid.

Did she like cream or sugar?

‘Why do you care?’ his internal monologue intruded.

Thayne shrugged, sipping a bit of the “galaxy’s worst caf” off the top before replenishing it with another splash. As far as coffee went, you could have pissed in it and it’d taste delightful compared to the swill he drank during a recent hit job on Kestri.

Appalling, what Mandalorians consider to be decent drink.

Scowl rejoined Yula, passing her the second cup. The corner of his mouth betrayed his steely gaze, curling into what could have been a genuine smile had he not spent so much time… well, scowling.

He played it into a humored look as he remarked on her quip about prison.

“Again?” he echoed.

Was that before Ivory, or after? Thayne had only made the mistake of getting caught once, and the Donna pulled more strings than a Hapan coat has thread to keep him out of an Alliance cell. It was a debt he’d never pay back, but one he hoped to chip away as a Hellmaker.

He eyed the Zeltron with interest, speaking with a devious tone.

“What’d you do?”

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula accepted the cup with a tilt of her head in thanks. One sip of the bitter black liquid and she winced. Pacing over to the machine, the Zeltron fumbled behind it.

"Most recently? I think the charge was for...what's that one Seccers use where they want to arrest you but don't exactly have a reason to?"

She chewed the inside of her cheek thoughtfully, then brightened.

"Ah! Disturbing the peace. That was it." She clicked her fingers in recognition. "It was during one of the peaceful riots, if memory serves."

Peaceful and riot being antonyms, but Yula didn't seem to sweat that glaring distinction. She retrieved a canister of what would appear to be granulated sugar from somewhere behind the ancient caf machine, and poured a steady stream of it into her caf while she continued speaking.

"A few years ago I did some time for selling counterfeit Fell Stars on the black market. Some kind of Force artifact. That was back on Terminus though."

Yula threw her head back and cackled violently at the memory. She seemed almost too amused by it.

Another sip of her sugar with a spash of caf, and she nodded in appreciation. Much better.

"Sugar?" She offered Scowl the canister.

Thayne Tameron

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Location: Baker's Row, Denon | Soundtrack: Affliction

"'Disturbing the peace?'" Thayne echoed, taking the sugar from her hand and spooning a bit into his cup. He gave it a halfhearted stir, clearly more interested in Yula than the drink. She wasn't as sweet as the stimcaf, but she was certainly... robust.

"So they can just lock you up for... what, interrupting the ambience? Throwing off the acoustics?" He chuckled.

"Those fethers get so riled up over the smallest inconvenience. It's too damn easy to piss them off. But surprisingly," he paused, sipping the sweetened caf, "I've never served hard time, myself."

He placed the cup on the workbench, then turned to lean against it with his arms folded. His eyes skimmed over the scrap heaps, looking idly as he spoke.

"I'm a runner. I keep moving, try not to work in the same place twice unless the pay is good."

Denon paid exceptionally well. Thayne suspected Yula knew that for herself already. Why else would such a forest fire stay hemmed up in Baker's Row? She'd found her goldmine, in one way or another, just as he did. He wondered what exactly it was. Probably not the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, like his. It was naive to think she was content with tinkering, but maybe the monotony of wires and servos was exactly what she wanted.

There was beauty in simplicity.

"Does every droid in here have a story, or do they all start blending together after they... pile up?" He turned to face her, his expression a bit softer now that he was starting to feel comfortable. Thayne wasn't sure he liked that, but the absence of paranoia was certainly a warmth he couldn't afford to decline.

---

Tags: Yula Perl ​

---