Pinball Wizard

[Dashal Vance]

Christophsis​

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Chaleydonia City​

The Eclipse Festival​

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Annually held on the Crystalline world of Christophsis, a gathering of the young and young at heart flocked to the gemological world to celebrate a magnificent show of light when the planet's orbit would come into a dazzling line of sight with three major stars in their neck of the Galaxy. Their own central star eclipsed by their moon's shadows. Crystal city, as it was so dubbed, built out of the massive formations that protruded from the ground to kiss the teal and blue hued sky, played host to this event every year. The entire scene though was most alive at night, when the lights of the three stars shown down and ricocheted through the gem like spires, and lit up the atmosphere with a light show that put all space operas to shame. Through various filters, and the angles of the gems themselves, it was quite a treat to see. Hundreds of sentients that knew about this annual festival to witness the lights and enjoy in the revelry. Among many of the attractions was the midnight raves. Dancing happened everywhere; in the streets, the shopping plazas, on the roofs of various structures. Every attraction catering to young adults was also open throughout each of the five nights that the festival went on.

For the fourth year in a row, Dash had found purchase in this community of like-minded adolescents who had come for a week long party that catered to just about every venue he fancied, and others that he was only mildly interested in. Highest of course on the priority list, the gaggle of girls from across the Galaxy that he had free reign to chat up, dance with among other activities. Currently our hot-shot slicer was taking up residence at his favorite haunt in the capital city-scape; the holo-cade. With large bay windows facing the open arena of dancing youth in the streets of the capital, he was currently neck deep in competition against five other gamers who had thought to challenge the boy in simulated ego-boosting. Bad idea.

"Oh-ho, better ramp it up fellas, I've got all this track and no one to decorate it with." The Hapan called out to his racing opponents while they attempted to try and keep up. Dash's hands moved over the controls with practiced ease, a permanent sly grin rested on his face while he sat back in a somewhat relaxed position, revving his twin engines in the pod-race at Malastare. While he'd never attempt the real thing, he was quite good at the virtual notion of going at over five hundred miles per hour without missing a beat. An opponent to his right came across a cut-away ramp and attempted to bull rush him with a push bar that was fixed to the engine mount. Shifting down, and using the auxiliary flaps for stability before he pushed the thrusters again caused his own craft to slip right underneath the attempt and let his opponent slam into a guard rail that broke away.

"Well that's just embarrassing - but on the bright side that guard rail knows better than to mess with you." Dash taunted as the virtual droids went to work picking up the wreckage while bickering with each other in binary. "Clean up isle twelve." He gave a side comment before turning his attention away from the game as a passing scantily clad waitress walked by. "Hey sweetheart - puff cakes for your valiant winner?" He swooned but got his head back in the game an instant later. Needless to say on the gamer side of things he caused a lot of rage quitting.

Three of the other players decided to teach him a lesson and attempted a box formation to force him into an obstruction. That only served as a makeshift ramp for the pod and launched Dash up, up, and further up till he landed on a secluded portion of a sky-lane where he went into dodging traffic before sliding down a waterfall and getting another lead in front of them. Glancing over to the side, as one of the three went into a tail spin with an incorrect maneuver and began to barrel roll to his demise.

"I see you tried spinning, I hear that's a good trick." Dash mocked as he sped through the victory lane and claimed first..again. "Well gents it's been an honor, and well just be glad we're not playing for coin, cause I didn't bring a bag big enough. And now I have a date with a flaky sweet pastry, and those three." He thumbed over to the wait staff at the food counter who were gossiping about something completely off-topic. Dash's ego was inflated again and he rose to take a seat, being served puff-cakes with a giggle from that previously passing waitress. After the first powder sugar-ed bite he replied to the default 'How is it'. "Redundant." The curious confused expression softened when he explained that sweets from a sweetheart was just that.

[member="Kyra Sol"]​

 

[Lief]

Kyra hated crowds. All those people with their own bodies and thoughts, their own agendas and feelings, sickened her to her very core. There was nothing worse than mingling and that was precisely what she had to do here. It was like seeking out a needle in a haystack only this haystack was crystalline and glowing and bright... And so too was the needle. Part of her cursed [member='Eamon Tragon'] for having sent her here in the first place, but the engineer knew what he was doing and what he wanted from the venture. After all, Kyra was not here to 'party' or 'rave' as the cool kids were. No, she was here on business. How typical? Truly, though, she didn't mind.

Eamon had assured her that the individual they needed would be here, as he had been for a few years prior. It seemed that prolific teenagers were rampant in the engineering industry... Internally she rolled her eyes. Eamon hadn't done wrong by her or the Company yet, so she had no reason to doubt his expertise... But all the same, she really wished he had come in her place. He'd prefer you, from what I hear was pretty much all Eamon had to say on the matter, and while she was the C.E.O and he just her Head Engineer she knew when to give in and listen to advice by now. This was one such moment of necessity, she decided.

So where do I find a slicer in a place like this? Dashal was highly recommended and she knew that Eamon would not be pleased if they had to hire someone else. It was no good finding one by-profession as they didn't really think outside of the box... Someone far more casual was preferred. Speaking of thinking outside of the box a realisation hit her and she began to laugh, although it was drowned out by the revellers. The cybernetic implant she currently housed activated and began to tap into the holofeeds dotted around the City scape. Hooking up directly with the holonet she then began to mix existing knowledge she had of the Slicer, alongside the holo-images shown to her by Eamon, with the holonet and the video feeds themselves.

It was slow going but soon she was able to begin pinpointing his location through the recalling of holo-videos. There was a snippet of hope when she spotted someone matching his description entering the local holo-cade, and she knew it wouldn't take her too long to get there. A few speeder rides later and she arrived on the crystalline structure which housed the amusement arcades alongside other childish features Kyra had never had the pleasure of enjoying as a child. The glowing lights attracted her like a heat-maddened fly, urging her to have a go... Yet she knew that she would only make a fool of herself by doing so.

With a sigh she instead glanced around and narrowed her eyes, seeking out his person. "Watcha havin', hun?" someone asked her and turning she found a waitress stood there looking gormless as ever. "Just a caff" she muttered, uncertain whether the woman had even heard her at all. Not that she cared, she just continued on in search of [member="Dashal Vance"] -- he had to be around here somewhere.

 

[Dashal Vance]

A youth of many games, Dashal Vance was quite gifted in that and other arenas. When it came to his identity though it was all about the shell game. What he was to one person, or a group of friends was not duplicated when he was doing a job. When you mess with the internal security affairs of the rich and paranoid, anonymity was your best friend - that a disarming smile. Reports that would filter in about a well-known slicer in the area for the Eclipse Festival had only one word to provide. That word was Jericho. Among the various aliases that Dash pulled from on a regular basis, that seemed to be his go-to for all things slicer related. He was a mutli-dimensional youth who had his interests in a varied array of fields, and while slicing paid the bills - it wasn't something he was known for on sight. People generally didn't believe his prowess upon surface inspection and that was the way he preferred it. His real name he'd taken great pains to make sure was not exactly easy to find on the holo-net. In point of fact he had scrubbed it long ago. Jericho however had a reputation, and that was most likely what drew people from all walks of the Galactic life to approach his moniker.

Currently, the space-age youth wasn't concentrating on lines of code, or holo-networks. He was fully engrossed in the alluring shape of sumptuous curves in the pliant flesh of -- PUFFCAKES. It may not have been the Galaxy's answer to life, but it ranked high on his list of things to consume at a moment's notice. Three waitresses stood on the other side of the bar as they giggled at Dash's amusing faces and comments about their combined beauty. Oh he was waxing poetic while feasting on the sugary goodness. He wasn't presenting the figure of a professional expert, it was more of the shameless and hormone driven flirt.

"Dancing?" Dash asked with an amused grin after licking his fingers clean of the powdered sugar residue. A wink offered at one of the three. "Oh it's gonna happen. Tripping the starlight fantastic, from the best view of gem city." Then of course the question came, where was this miracle spot to catch all the glory and beauty of the festival. "Wherever you three are." He smirked and took another bite as the myriad of giggled reactions leapt from their three throats. Oh he was a charmer this one, and he certainly indulged in the hedonistic mating rituals of his Hapan heritage. Women were interesting to Dash, not just because of the obvious, but because of his culture. Outside Hapan, it wasn't so matriarchal. He enjoyed the difference greatly. He hadn't seen Kyra yet, she hadn't passed his radar which was quite tightly focused at the time. However, the waitresses weren't the only ones who were focused on the smooth talking gamer.

Five other males around his age were hanging around another holocade treasure talking about his victory over them. They weren't happy, and well deserved in their shame. He'd taken them all out without breaking a sweat, and now he was getting cozy with three waitresses when they only had the green monster of envy to hang out with and talk shop. Their shop talk though was nearer to Kyra's current position. Word about his performance that bordered on game rigging was within earshot. They hadn't used the term slicing, but they were giving every nuance of their meaning voice as they stared in pithy jealousy at the bane of their gaming existence. Dash generally labelled them as 'discouRAGEd'.

[member="Kyra Sol"]