Private Opus for Two

[Evara Lysén]

OPUS FOR TWO
A Story of New Beginnings​

EVARA LYSÉN
Upcity, District 19, Denon

Whether from candles or cigarras, smoke arose from tables around the lounge. Quiet chatter filled the room, accompanied by the gentle clinking of glasses and quiet tapping of cutlery. Staff maneuvered around the dark lounge with expertise, delivering food and drink to its numerous wealthy patrons.

On the other side of the lounge sat a bar, dimly-lit but well stocked; Similarly adorned in the lounges black, white & golden aesthetic. A number of individuals lined the stools at the bar: A well-dressed Rodian, a young Human couple, and an older Zeltron man attempting to woo two young ladies over drinks.

In the middle, a raised dais with a standing piano- a well-maintained relic of a time gone by. Its master? An older Twi'lek lady, with hands like silk- a master of her musical craft.

Evara eyed the old Twi'lek woman up and down from a distance, away from view. She was due on stage within a few moments. Eva' had come a long way since she started- she had now risen to perform for high society, and without the help of the numerous corporations who had attempted to sign her on- much to their chagrin.

A few more moments passed, "Breathe..." she muttered to herself, slowing herself down before she walked out. Every performance was validation- open defiance to the Denonite corporations who so desperately work to own her. The night also marked the anniversary of her fathers disappearance all those years ago- orchestrated by the same hands who threaten to strangle her career for all its worth...

The lights dimmed across the lounge, and Evara was brought back to reality. Taking a moment, she made her way onto the dais.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Eva's heels tapped across the hard floors, the room quietened down. She stepped up to the microphone with a sense of performative confidence- well rehearsed. She was calm. She was in her element.

The two performers nodded to one another, beginning their performance. Eyes across the room moved away from their companions & conversations and turned towards the duo. Staff dimmed the lights, leaving the dais' still nicely lit- not too bright, not too dark.

Evara's dress sparkled gently, smoky violet and smooth. Her pure-brown eyes scanning the crowd. Her posture comfortable and relaxed.

After a deep breath, she began to sing: "You'd be surprised, girl..."

'In Another Time'​

Ragos Terrek

 

[Ragos Terrek]

He'd been to ten clubs in half as many nights. This was the eleventh.

Ragos Terrek would go to these places, spend a few hours and a few credits, Have a few drinks, maybe a dance or two depending on his options for partners.

Ragos was Korunai. He was tall, more than six feet, his dark skin was lined with muscles, he wasn't a body builder but Ragos cut a damn imposing figure like he stepped right out of a holovid for those skimpy swimming shorts they wore on resort planets. His lips were full and soft and when they parted they revealed a dazzling smile.

It wasn't difficult to find a partner. Tonight though he was on his own and like two-hundred levels higher up on Denon's cityscape than he had any right to be.

Ragos was an undercity kid, always was and likely always would be, but every once in a while, he was drawn to the surface. That's how it had been everywhere else he'd called home since leaving Haruun Kal. That's how it was on Nar Shaddaa where he'd grown up mostly on the two-hundred and twenty-second level. That's how it was on Coruscant when he moved out there and never made it about level three-hundred, not in any real way. Who knew where he would end up on Denon? He'd only been here like a week maybe, living out of a hotel for now until he could find a place that suited him.

That's what had him going from club to club, night after night. Ragos did need a place to sleep but first he needed a place to work and he only knew how to do a couple things in this life. One of those things was clubs. His pops had been a barman. Well, he'd managed a nightclub for some sleemo Hutt on Nar Shaddaa but he ran the hell out that joint, pops really turned it into a place to be on the moon.

Ragos had his own place once on Coruscant before he was run off that world. The Butterscotch Rancor was nothing like the joint he was in now and this place was a far cry from The Starving Sarlacc(his pop's place) or any of the other places Ragos had been poking his head into.

Those places were exhibitions in excess. Too loud, too bright, too hot, too crowded. There was so much vying for your sensory attention that it blinded you to the fact that there just weren't chit going on. The air was stale, the drinks watered down and expensive? The food if there was any was cheaply made but priced like it was cooked in gold.

This place was something else entirely.

The aesthetic had an elegance thanks to the simplicity of the black and white coloring ever so deftly accented with touches of gold.

From the moment he'd found his way here, it was like stepping into another world or like a dream. His pop's dream, this was the exact kinda spot he always talked about owning one day.

Smoke swirled softly across the space, settling amongst, not the silence in the room for there was none, but amongst the stillness. As if the room itself and everyone in it held their breath.

Ragos subtly moistened his full lips with his tongue before rolling a Fiora brand red cigarra over his lips which tingled from the effect of the mild amount of spice wrapped inside the thin paper.

Ragos lit the cigarra, his smoke mixing with the rest in the room and ordered a drink from the bar.

So occupied by memories of his dad, and thoughts of the future, Ragos was hardly paying attention to the tap tap tap of heels across the stage. Ragos scanned the hazy lounge, maybe a partner for the end of the night wouldn't be so bad after all. There was a couple bunnies here at the bar but they were at present being pheromoneally assault by the Zeltron man near them. The guy was laying it on so thick Ragos almost wanted to buy him a drink.

Speaking of drinks, Ragos lifted his half way to his mouth to drink when he heard it.

"You'd be surprised girl,"

Ragos attention landed fully on the stage and the woman at the microphone. His hand grew numb from the cold of his drink, its existence gone completely from his mind at it hovered in his hand half way from the table and to his mouth.

Who are you?

He thought as he resolved to stick around and find out.

Evara Lysén

 

[Evara Lysén]

​

EVARA LYSÉN
Upcity, District 19, Denon

Her voice lingered in the air, curling like smoke into the far corners of the room. Each note had its place- unhurried, deliberate, letting the silences between them breathe.

Evara's gaze swept the lounge with the measured calm of someone surveying a chessboard mid-game. The usual faces were there: the regular patrons with their jeweled fingers, the city officials whose presence was all posture, the lovers who came for the music but stayed for each other.

And then- a pause.

She caught him in the periphery. Not a patron she recognized, not dressed in the sleek, muted precision of the Upcity regulars. He had a presence that didn't try to belong here, and in doing so, almost did. The kind of figure who might have a story that smelled faintly of smoke and danger.

Her lips curved- not into a smile, exactly, but into the faint suggestion of one. She let her eyes rest on him for the space of a single phrase before they slid away again, as if he were no more or less than another listener.

Still, the smallest thread of awareness stretched between them now.

She sang the next line softer, almost as if she'd leaned in across the room.

"You're so tired, for something to change-"

And somewhere, beneath the poise and the practiced calm, she wondered if he might be the kind of man who changed things himself.

Ragos Terrek