Purgatory

[Lina Djo]

"Eun." she repeated, the name rolling off her tongue pleasantly, her smile returned. Excitement glittered in her eyes and she shifted on the stool perching now on its edge as if ready to leap, to run headlong into whatever trouble might be in front of her. A shiver ran through her.

"I'm Calina." she took a sip of the drink, deliberating for a moment over whether she should tell him the connection between had and Jared. Eyes crinkled in a smile. No let it be a mystery for him to unravel. "I'd like to see this map."

[member="Eun"]

 

[Eun]

Did his fingers tremble when his name came from her lips? Or could it just be the lingering effects of the headache?

There was something obsessive in her eyes, where before he’d seen nothing but bored mischief. A thief with idle hands brought to purpose? All because of this Ovmar fellow. Eun wondered what the man had done to earn this sort of reaction. He’d a feeling the longer he stayed on this path, the more he would come to learn.

“The map? The map is gone.”

Did he see a flicker of sharp disappointment? Of compressed, aimless anger?

“But... maybe there is a copy in his pockets.”

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Djo]

Disappointment, not anger. But it wasn't all bad. Eyes slid past [member="Eun"] to the retreating back of the bouncer, each holding on leg and dragging the man with an expression that said neither of them wanted to be there. She placed a hand on Eun's arm, signalling him to wait, eyes on her target she slid from the stool, weaving through the few patrons that were standing to get a closer look at the guy who'd dropped dead. Murmurings rippling through them. Another one. Two in one day? Were they linked?

She followed them to the back door. "Wait! I think know him." One of them looked round with a sigh. "Really?" Calina's eye glittered, hand extended slightly towards the body she began to turn his pockets inside out, seeing the dark thing whispering within his jacket. She looked down at his face, feigning concentration as invisible fingers closed around the parchment inside his jacket. "No, sorry, my mistake." With a grunt of annoyance, the pushed open the door, and hauled him out. The scroll remained, inches from the floor where she had held it. She beckoned it with a slender finger, and closed her hand gently around it.

She almost skipped back to Eun, free hand finding his and giving it a gentle tug. "Come, I've a new game to play."

 

[Eun]

Deception suited her, for with a few well-placed lies she pried away the scavengers from her prize and swiftly claimed what she wanted. Looting the corpse seemed to vex her little, if at all. No stranger to death? And yet so young. Eun remembered when he first met Death, lifetimes ago. He was also young then, younger than her, and confused about his purpose.

Calina seemed to know hers.

Did he feel a twinge of jealousy at that? How odd.

She returned to him, scroll in hand, and touched his hand with her own. The girl’s fingers were soft and warm and might have seemed comforting had they not just busier themselves by peeling away a dead man’s last possession.

Eun’s hand was not warm, but cold. Inhumanly cold. A brush against his skin was like brushing against the surface of Hoth. Beautiful, pale, and unforgiving.

The traveler let her drag him from his seat without complaint.

“Oh?” Her troubles had fled like shadows beneath the sun of this new purpose and her face beamed with excitement. “Lead on.”

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Djo]

Calina might have been sure in her purpose in this moment, but if she dared to take a step back from the task that now laid itself at her feet, she knew that her lack of direction would come creeping back, that the uncertainty would close itself about her heart and leave her lost once more. For now she seized the chance to be certain, to be the girl who knew what she was looking for.

Eun's hand was icy beneath hers, but she did not let go, weaving them out of the bustling cantina and out into the crowds of the spaceport. The cold was strangely comforting. It offered no lies about what it was and what it could do. Warmth could lull you into a false sense of security before lancing you with hot blinding pain and misery, but cold simply was. Somewhere in the back of her mind she asked why he was so cold to the touch, but for the moment she parked it as a mystery to unravel as they went.

She guided them through the throngs of people moving to and from the hangars, spacers and smugglers from all walks of life, explorers catching a brief respite form their travels while there ships were refuelled before the next leg of their journey. None of them looked twice at the pair, and in turn Calina disregarded them. She released his hand as the Femme Fatal drew into view and her whole body seemed to shift, form excited child to a woman of authority as they approached.

A HRD whose appearance resembled a kiffar moved to greet them. "Mistress...we were not expecting you so soon." The emotionless eyes of the machine travelled from Calina to Eun, ever analysing yet never judging. "Are we set?" Calina asked.

"We are refuelled but we still have much of your list to-" Calina waved a hand to silence her.

"Begin pre-flight checks, then meet us in the conference room." Parla bowed and stepped away, her long strides carrying her up the landing ramp with an easy grace. Calina turned to Eun. "Before I attempt to whisk you off this station, I should probably ask whether you want to come..."

[member="Eun"]

 

[Eun]

She did not draw back at his icy touch. Too distracted by her new enterprise? Or perhaps she simply did not care. Eun quirked a brow as she dragged him all the way to her ship.

A kiffar came out to meet them. Eun's greeting smile wavered. Those eyes. Lifeless. Eun's head cocked slightly to the side, listening. Hm. No heartbeat. Odd. Unsettling. Calina ordered him and he obeyed. A lover? No. A slave? Or something else.

Calina seemed intent on following the map, wherever it might lead. Just who was this Ovmar to her? Ahh, so many questions to which he held no answers. Refreshing.

A full-lipped smile cut across his face.

"And what? Stay here to rot on this station and miss out on all the fun? I think not."

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Djo]

Calina beamed at his reply. "In that case then," she swung a hand towards the ship and gave a mock bow, eyes never leaving his face. "Welcome to the Femme Fatal." She rose from the bow, still smirking and moved up the landing ramp. she wanted to tell him things, to explain that the ship had been commissioned and named by her mother, that this heap of metal had been where she grew up, that all of her pain had been born here. But to do so would spoil the game, would it not?

So she led them in silence throughout the ship, crew members averted their gaze politely, but cast sidelong glances at the new guest when they were certain Calina could not see them looking. The deeper they moved into the ship, the darker Calina's eyes seemed to grow, the shadow of her pain and anger flitting beneath the surface, just out of reach but still ever present.

She led them through clean cut corridors and into a small conference room. A large oval table took centre stage, framed by ten black leather chairs. A dark wood drinks cabinet spread across the far wall, crystal gases and decanters glittering in the white lights above them. Parla slipped in behind them momentarily, dead eyes surveying Eun for a moment before turning her attention to Calina. "Eun, this is Parla my...." she pursed her lips trying to find the right words to describe Parla. Once upon a time she would have called the HRD a babysitter, but that was no longer the case. "Huh...we really should work out an official title for you."

Parla blinked and looked at Eun. "I'm her Personal Assistant. When the mistress is off collecting strays, I make sure that things continue to run without her."

"You make it sound like I collect strays regularly."

"Your mother did." The words were spoken blandly, without malicious intent and with the tiniest of shrugs but the effect on Calina was profound and it took every ounce of her self control not to crush the false woman's head. The shadow that had lurked behind her eyes seemed to take over he whole face and it took a moment for the HRD to register that her words had been taken as an insult. How peculiar. "Forgive me, Mistress." the HRD bowed her head. "It was not my intention to offend you. I merely meant-"

"Stop talking." Calina replied through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, drawing her anger back in, regaining control before sliding the scroll across the table to Parla. "We believe this is a map to one of Jared Ovmar's libraries, I want you to translate it into a digital format we can work with." If Parla though the request was odd in anyway she did not display it, she simply nodded her head and settled down into one of the chairs, drawing out a datapad and began.

With a quiet sigh Calina turned to the drinks cabinet. "Would you like a drink, [member="Eun"]?"

 

[Eun]

A large ship, full of so many different species, large and small, hairy and scaly. All stirred together in this ship, a bouillon of flavors. Behind closed lips, Eun ran a tongue across his teeth, restraining a smile.

Following a pace behind [member="Calina Ovmar"], he trailed his fingers across the bulkhead wall, cool to the touch. Clean, but not the sterilized white-black tunnels of a warship. Eventually they reached a meeting room of sorts, with requisite table and chairs. Here, the interior decor evoked the subtle wealth of mercantile interests. Dark wood to display power over nature. Drinks to loosen inhibitions.

Eun breathed in a lungful of recycled, lived in air, seeming to pay little attention to the bickering between the woman and her servant. Ah, the problems of the progeny. A well of anguish miles deep and richest in taste.

"Hello, Parla."

Personal assistant? Not a very good one then, for personal matters, it seemed.

"Of course, whatever you're having," he said with a smile, words soft yet clear.

 

[Lina Djo]

Parla looked up from her work to survey Eun, offering little more than an incline of her head in response before retuning her attention to the map, hands working across a datapad to build a new map for them. Calina poured them each a glass of Correllina whisky, word its weight in gold, her mother had seen fit to keep her stores well stocked for her own personal taste before it was destroyed. Calina contemplated upon rare occasions to sell the few bottles that remained, but she'd grown quite fond of it of late.

She handed Eun the tumbler, their fingers brushing slightly, his icy touch sending a slight shiver through her, lips curled into a soft smile and mischief danced in her eyes. She leaned upon the table head tilting slightly as she studied him.

"How did you come to be on this wretched station?"

[member="Eun"]

 

[Eun]

Again, impishness shone in her appraising stare, a gleam of devilrous moonlight off twin sheens of ice. A thief judging whether or not the prize warranted the effort. Ah, the coy leaning and an ample view.

Eun rotated the glass slightly, then raised it up. He sniffed the liquor. A fine, woody scent with the sharp sting of spice to offset. Fine lips twitched, then he drank the merest of sips. He remembered a time when he would have drained the glass in a few seconds. No matter where he traveled, drinking games seemed popular, and Corellian whiskey a favorite for them. Easy winnings for someone with his... peculiarities. Easy hunting afterward, too, when the loser stumbled home. Made for a poor aftertaste, of which he soon grew bored.

"A fine vintage, even more so now. Corellians. They say they've fuel in their veins instead of blood. You can hear traces of it in the roar of their freighters. And you can taste it in their drinks, don't you think?"

A rhetorical question.

"A refugee people now. Mostly. Drifting through the galaxy, as I drift. Tragic, but somehow beautiful in its melancholy. They say you cannot fully appreciate beauty..." One thin brow quirked above his mellow, mauve gaze, which slid down, then up again. The barest of suggestions. "...until you've seen wretchedness."

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Djo]

Calina smiled. She admired the Correlians for their fire, she'd seen Brokellia and how determined they were to bounce back from the tragedy the had befallen their homeworld. True strength lied in a peoples ability to get back up, not in their ability to never fall. She took a sip, letting the liquid warm her tongue for a moment before swallowing, eyes fixed on Eun's.

Colour flushed her cheeks, the subtle suggestion not missed but she refused to let her gaze drop. "I've seen Corellia, many of its people are still their, working to make it their home still. Can't help but admire their stubbornness." So Eun was a drifter, moving from once place to the next but ,what for? Was he looking for something in particular or simply taking in the sights that the galaxy had to offer?

Her heart was dancing to a strange beat, stomach fluttering...this man had a strange effect on her. Another thing she could not understand. She bit her lower lip and moved int a little closer. "What are you looking for, [member="Eun"]?"

 

[Eun]

She drifted close and he could feel the heat from her body. Like standing on the precipice of a caldera and basking in its warmth, any closer seemed dangerous, but Eun was a creature of curiosity. The galaxy's unseen sights drew him, and the more dangerous sights most of all, as moth to a flame.

A defiant look burned in her eyes as she asked for what he sought. His lips creased up in another of his enigmatic smiles. She was a firebrand. A woman with enough will to shape the galaxy to her awe, if she so sought. Few enough existed like her in the galaxy. And he did so enjoy watching them rise and fall. Perhaps that was why she intrigued him. That and unwinding the mysteries of her past. One thread at a time.

Red suffused her cheeks. She stood so close he could smell the scent of her skin, her hair. He could hear the way her heart thudded in her chest the closer she came, faster and faster. He could feel the swirl of her thoughts in her sea of memories, just out of reach.

Hunger crept into his lilac stare.

"To gaze upon wonders... see the unseen... and explore the unexplored."

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Djo]

His amethyst gaze was hypnotic, his voice like a lullaby blanketing out all other noise and for a few heartbeats she was drunk on the sensation. The glimmer in his eyes tugged caution through the fog, reminded her that she did not know him, reminded her she'd seen that hungry glint in another's eyes and the danger that it normally predated. But that was hat drew her to him wasn't it? the unknown, the hint of danger. What harm could her do to her here? This was her domain, she knew all its secrets, ruled all its shadows and had done since she was a child.

A strand of hair slid across his face and she reached without thought to brush it away, fingers touched his cheek. Calina froze, her heart dancing a strange beat in her chest, the sensation was alien to her and that only made her more curious. She wanted to push further, to see where it went, to understand it. Still so naive...

"You seek puzzles and mysteries, things that cannot be explained in simple terms." she elaborated, her voice barely above a whisper.

[member="Eun"]

 

[Eun]

"Yes," he replied, tone low.

The hunger grew ravenous at her touch. He grabbed the wrist of her outstretched hand, while his other hand reached for her. Ice cold fingers wrapped around the side of her neck, thumb brushing along her cheek and jaw, across her lips. His stare roved down from her blue eyes to the shape of her nose. He clenched his teeth, the storm within her mind so close.

He cocked his head slightly to one side, listening to her shallow breaths and the shifting movement of a nearby third party...

Ah, he'd nearly forgotten.

Eun flicked his gaze back up to meet Calina's, while Parla watched the pair of them, datapad work apparently forgotten.

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Djo]

Calina's lips parted at his touched, a soft sigh slipping between them. She was tingling from head to toe, utterly intoxicated by the sensation. His eyes slid past her face, reminding the girl that Parla was still there. She realised after a moments thought that she didn't care. She owned the droid, its loyalty was bound to her, what it saw did not matter. Nor did its opinion of her.

A smirk played on her lips and she leaned forward ever so slightly.

"Mistress." Parla's tone heeded a warning, they cut through her dreamlike state. Her nostrils flared, her ever present anger rising to the surface once more. She drew away from Eun, eyes sliding away from him to settle upon the expressionless HRD. "May I speak freely?" The question took her by surprise. Parla never asked to speak freely, she normally just did. "If you must." she replied.

"Your behaviour mimics that of your mother."

The words rang in her ears, colour rising in her cheeks. She opened her mouth to argue, to shout at the droid. But realisation dawned that she was correct. Inviting strangers aboard, allowing herself to be drawn into them...She looked at Eun, then back at Parla. "Noted. How much longer will you be?"

"An hour."

Calina drained her glass. "Would you like to see the rest of the ship?" She asked @Eun.

 

[Eun]

Matrilineal troubles? His mind raced back, speeding through the decades, to a dark room, with a corpse on the ground. A bloodless scene, but one the memory of which still sent a shudder of horror through him. Masking the twitching of his lips with a bemused smile, Eun raised a thin, questioning brow, but made no query. Though he wondered just who Calina's parents might be, or if it even mattered. This line of thought, if aimless, at least drifted away from ancient memories best left forgotten.

Calina seemed momentarily stunned, then she drained her glass. In need of a little courage, or simply wishing for oblivion? He ran a tongue along the back of his teeth, lips closed. And who was this Parla, a childhood companion? So why could he not feel her as he felt Calina.

Curious.

"Of course," he said once more, voice a pleasant timbre. "Where to first?"

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Djo]

Calina smiled, but did not answer, instead taking [member="Eun"]'s arm and leading him from the room, Parla's gaze following them the entire time. She shot the droid a glare before the doors closed behind them. Calina's instinct turned them towards the bridge, personnel passed them on various errands. They didn't salute or bow, though there was the odd inclination of the head and muttered greeting of 'Mistress'.

"You must forgive Parla's intrusion. Social etiquette is not her strong suit."

She disengaged from him as the reached the entrance to the bridge, her entire aura shifted to one of command as she stepped through the doors. Technicians and comms officers were sunk into pits ahead of a raised dais, upon which settled a singular chair. Anaya had liked to refer to it as her throne. Another HRD, identical to the one they had left behind stepped up from the shadows on their right.

"We're stocked, fuelled and ready to go. Waiting on confirmation from Control to let us disengage. Do we have a heading?"

 

[Eun]

He glanced down at her fingers as they touched his arm, stared for just a heartbeat too long, then looked back up to meet her eyes.

"Oh, etiquette is a strange concept," he said dismissively, "what is proper today is barbaric tomorrow."

With that she broke away to commandeer the bridge, demeanor imperious.

Parla stepped toward [member="Calina Ovmar"]. Eun cocked his head. No, not Parla. Not quite. The clothes were slightly different. But they were identical otherwise. Twins? Unlikely. The other answers seemed more interesting anyway.