The People You Meet

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

"They helped." He told her simply, and it was true.

Nikolas had better regenerative abilities than most beings, but he couldn't just outright survive a wound like that with no consequence. Without stitches it likely would have taken a couple of days, plus he'd have reopened the it a couple of times. That was why he had sought medical treatment in the first place. It was easier to just get it done and encourage a little bit better healing. Meant that on the next job he wouldn't have a wound that could be taken advantage of.

Not that he would share that detail with Farah.

"He is, of sorts." Nikolas gave her an amused smile. "Don't think he ever went to school though."

The thought of any of his siblings attending school amused him a great deal. The Thawne family wasn't exactly reasonable, even the 'best' of them. Felix was supposed to be the normal one, but even he was about as arrogant as a Hutt staring into a mirror.

Perhaps Lucy could pull it off, but barely.

 

[Farah]

Farah nodded in affirmation. She knew that the stitches helped, of course. She was also aware of certain species’ ability to heal quicker, but in giving him another once over she decided that he didn’t fit the bill for anything she could pin him for.

At the revelation about his brother, her brows lifted. “I see.” Farah technically hadn’t gone to school either. Most of her basic education came through flash training at her request, the rest came from her own experiences as she threw herself into her craft. It wasn’t uncommon, she discovered on Coruscant, to have field medics and “doctors” who had little schooling. Most of them had a mix of formal training and instinct on their side.

“So, are you human?” She took another piece of bread, tearing it in half as she eased back in her chair, prompting him with the raised brows. It was a blunt question but something told her that he wouldn’t mind.

That, and you got used to asking personal questions when you had patient after patient in the ER.

“Because of your ability to regenerate quicker.” She gestured to his stomach with one hand, taking a bite of the roll quickly. “That and your sociopathic tendencies.” She shrugged.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

Nikolas touched his chest in mock affront. "Sociopathic?"

It was not the first time he had heard that of course. Since the treatments that aged and changed him Nikolas had heard the label more than once from people outside of the Thawne family. He and Teslyn were both very...open with what they were, even with strangers. Neither of them lied about who or what they were, and it was one of the reasons that they were so dangerous. They both had an incredible ability to lure in their prey in a variety of ways, and then simply striking when the opportunity presented itself.

It didn't matter what love they had showed before, what method they used, all of it was for the family.

Still, he could joke about it, and that was what mattered in the end. He opened his mouth to speak when he saw the waitress returning out of the corner of her eye. In her right hand she balanced a large tray, in her left she brought a small wooden stand. It took her a minute or two but eventually the young woman managed to balance the tray long enough to unload a small sampler of over a dozen different appetizers.

After she left, Nikolas began again. "I'm Corellian."

That was what his mother had told him anyway.

"Born there anyway." He leaned forward and plucked an odd sort of miniature fried ball from one of the planets.

 

[Farah]

She rolled her eyes at his play of being offended.

The blonde woman reappeared in her periphery, this time bearing plates. Plates with food. Farah decided then and there that she liked the waitress.

Her hand went towards some sort of pastry that looked to be filled with meat and cheese. Whatever it was, it smelled heavenly and she let out a drawn out sigh of satisfaction as she took her first bite.

Chewing thoughtfully, the Zeltron looked him over and then swallowed. “Only Corellian?” Little did Farah know that she was half Corellian, or rather, that she was not a full blooded Zeltron. It would have been impossible to discern from looks alone.

“How boring.”

She finished off the hand-sized pastry, tilting her head back for a moment. If she ate too fast she’d make herself ill, or at least uncomfortable.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

Nikolas munched on the small morsel that he had plucked from the plate, smirking at her as she insulted his lineage. In truth he had never really considered himself to 'be' Corellian. The Thawne children were quite literally from all over the Galaxy. Corellia, Fondor, Ryloth, even Copero. There were more than a dozen of them, and all from different worlds.

Their species had never particularly mattered, only their various talents. "It's not where you're from."

The assassin contended. Slevin and Natalia had instilled that in their children. It didn't matter if you were human, twi'lek, or whatever else. All that mattered was that you were the best at what you did, and Nikolas most certainly was. Teslyn gave him a run for his money of course, but their methods differed so greatly that they could hardly be said to do the same thing. Not really anyway. He smiled and leaned back in his chair, continuing his statement.

"It's what you do." He sounded almost as though he were quoting something. "And how well you do it."

Nikolas smirked. "And I do what I do very well."

 

[Farah]

She met his smirk with a raise brow, lips twisting into something not unlike a smirk but not exactly that.

“How inspiring,” She mused, eyes wandering over him then drifting down to the appetizer he’d taken earlier. It appeared to be fried meaning that it had to taste good.

Reaching across the table, she plucked one for herself.

“You must do you job well, then. Unless you’re here on daddy’s money.” She popped the fried morsel into her mouth and made a noise of approval. “Oh, I like that.” She commented after finishing it off.

“What is it that you do, exactly?”

Farah knew that she wouldn’t get a direct answer out of him but it would be fun probing and seeing how he would continue to evade her. Of course, it was obvious that she was trying to prod him for information. That was how this little back and forth went.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

"I kill people." Nikolas decided to break the little game they were playing.

Tip toeing and dodging around was all well and good, but it could get so very tiresome. He wasn't ashamed of what he did, who he was, or his family. His role within the Cartel was that of an Executioner. Not a simple soldier or Enforcer, but a fixer for the organization.

"I kidnap ambassadors, blow up buildings" He took care of problems. That was what he did. "I remove whatever stands in my families way."

Nikolas wasn't bragging, well...not entirely anyway.

His parents had trained him for most of his life to do what he did. He knew that some of his siblings were jealous. Jerick for one, and at times he thought Lucy too. They were good at what they did, but neither quite had his or Teslyn's...talents, when it came to the specific tasks her performed.

 

[Farah]

Farah’s brows rose higher towards her hairline and she stared at Nikolas. Not out of fear but simple surprise. She didn’t know if he was being honest or if he was toying with her. She figured the latter, but found that she couldn’t be quite sure when it came to him.

“That would explain a lot.” She admitted, sitting back in her chair with a thoughtful look on her face—though not without another one of those meat pastries.

The Zeltron munched quietly, contentedly as she ran through the events of today in her head. “So your family runs some sort of syndicate and you’re a hitman.” She looked to him for confirmation, nothing in her tone but curiosity. Farah didn’t particularly mind crime lords and all that so long as they didn’t try to extort her. From a moral perspective, she didn’t really care.

“Are you going to tell me how you really got that wound, then?”

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

"No no." He waggled his finger. "Not a hitman."

That was more what Lucy and Emma did. They were assassins, and quite good ones too. Nikolas would have placed either of his sisters up against the galaxies greatest, and he was pretty sure either of them would win. Though he couldn't help but wonder who of the two would win in a fight, not that he'd ever be foolish enough to ask.

"I solve problems. Sometimes I kill, yes, but not always." That was where the more finesse part of his occupation came into play. It wasn't always about making sure his target ended up dead. It was how they ended up dead, where they ended up dead, what it appeared they were doing. Half a hundred different factors that framed things just the right way. Of course sometimes he was sent to simply ensure a message was received, but still.

There was more to it than killing.

Nikolas smiled, touching the wound for a moment as if trying to remember. "A Rodian."

"I needed him to die a certain way, but unfortunately." He frowned for just a brief second. "He had other plans."

 

[Farah]

Farah watched him as she spoke, now nibbling on what remained of the pastry.

“Did he die?”

She supposed he had given that she’d been working the emergency room for several hours after he left and she couldn’t recall any Rodians with stab wounds coming through.

“Oh,” She finished off the pastry and prompted him, a question dancing in her eyes with a light of amusement.

“Now that you’ve told me what it is you do, do you have to kill me?”

Maybe she’d been watching too many holodramas.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

"He did." Nikolas had sent him over the balcony, falling to his death. He'd had to scrub his own blood from the scene of the crime, but ultimately everything had looked exactly the way it was 'supposed' to. Farah would likely see the news tomorrow and be reminded of this conversation, an article devoted to the suicide of a Rodian official of the Galactic Alliance serving as a reminder.

He smiled when she asked her next, breaking into a small chuckle.

The idea wasn't too far-fetched really. He'd killed more than a few people because they found out who he was and what he did, but never when he didn't feel the need to. Sure he could cut her throat and leave her for dead after all this was said and done, but there was no thrill in that.

"Of course not." He assured her. "We're not in a holo-drama."

Nikolas said with a smile. "At worst I'd cut out your tongue."

That wasn't necessarily true, even if he did such a thing she would still have the ability to write...but Nikolas always had a flare for the dramatic.

 

[Farah]

“My tongue?” She frowned. “That’s dangerous. You’ll have to cauterize the artery quickly or else I’d risk bleeding out.”

Considering what he did for a living, she supposed her already knew that. But Farah couldn’t help but look at things from a clinical perspective considering what she did for a living.

“It would be easier to kill me and dump my body in a barrel of chemicals.” She paused to consider. “Or dismemberment.” When you worked at a hospital, your primary goal was not to kill patients. Suffice to say, it was very easy to die.

Maybe it was a good thing that there weren’t other diners around them in the restaurant.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

"I have a very special knife that does the cauterization for me." He mused to her.

The thing was called a phase knife, something that Teslyn had picked up for him on one of her journeys across the galaxy. It was an interesting little device, somewhat like a lightsaber. Nikolas tended not to carry it, considering it a tad too precious to waste on common knife fights. Though for Farah he might consider it.

"Barrel of chemicals?" He scoffed. "You really think that's necessary here on Coruscant?"

Nikolas tsk'd. "You overstimate Coruscant security."

"Even a woman as beautiful as you can simply disappear and never be found." Coruscant was a big place. "I'd just have to throw you over the edge of the right cliff."

 

[Farah]

Being a surgeon, Farah was intimately familiar with cauterizing tools. Some of her field equipment had a similar function for emergency amputations. “Fancy that.” She murmured.

She shrugged with a gentle rise and fall of her shoulders. No blush, no little smile of appreciation came to her face as he paid her a complement and a threat at the same time.

“I suppose.” She agreed, albeit with some reluctance. “But pretty girls who go missing typically end up trafficked.” The Zeltron gestured vaguely with one hand. “More lucrative than becoming a stain on the bottom of a ravine.” She paused to lean back, humming in thought for a few longs moments. “Which I’m sure you’ll find plenty of on this city-planet.”

She reached again for the bread.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

He smiled.

"I'm not exactly in it for the money." Nikolas had plenty of that, or rather, his parents did. He wasn't one to squirrel away cash, mostly because he never saw a need for it. The Cartel's coffers were completely open to him, no matter what he asked or did with it. Of course there was a limit, somewhat, he just had to convince Verin to let him spend what he wanted.

An easy enough task when she could be bribed with a few expensive chocolates.

His little sister always had a soft spot for him, or at least Nikolas liked to think so. In reality it was probably just that Verin knew that whatever money he spent could be earned back inside of a week from other sources. Nikolas got things done for the Cartel, but he most certainly didn't make any of the money. At least not usually. "Just to shut you up, remember?"

He smirked at her.

"Besides." Nikolas said with a shrug. "What's kidnapping without Murder? It's like sex without climax."

 

[Farah]

Farah leaned back, decidedly taking a break from eating for the moment.

“As long as you treat me to a night on the town first.” Though the scenario was hypothetical, she couldn’t help but play into it as much as he had. If she was going to get an appendage sliced off then at least she could have a nice meal or some expensive drinks first.

Not that she would want her tongue removed, but still. It made her think, mind wander into the realm of cybernetics and organ regeneration. The former she knew little about, but the latter was something she’d touched upon only in lab rat trials.

She sipped her drink, brows rising at the mention of kidnapping and murder going hand in hand. “I think you and I have very different ideas over what makes a good climax.” She’d never killed someone, at least not intentionally.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

The waitress brought out more of the appetizers, these ones being the sort that had actually required cooking.

Nikolas looked at them for a moment, a few of the seafood options appearing particularly delectable. Most of the seafood that could be found on Coruscant were all grown in Fish Farms of course, though a place like this usually outsourced to far more expensive options. It was a fact that he appreciated, mostly because he rather liked expensive things. "Am I not doing that already?"

He asked her as the Waitress wandered away.

Amusement floated across his features as he slowly leaned forward.

"Do we?" Nikolas mused out loud. "I've threatened to kill you...twice now? And you're still here."

He smiled at her. "So maybe our thoughts aren't all that different."

 

[Farah]

“Ah,” She brightened just a bit. “So you are planning a violent end to this evening.” The removal of her tongue or her murder didn’t seem so impossible. This could be some weird form of flirting but he also struck her as the type to tell people exactly what was coming for them. She’d seen that form of power play among the other surgeons, even engaged in it herself when necessary. Farah was ruthless when it came to medicine and had no qualms about stealing surgeries from other doctors when she wanted them.

The clone took a sip of her wine, eyes rolling upwards as she hummed in thought.

“No,” She disagreed after swallowing. The drink was better than she’d expected, typically she was alright with cheaper booze but she could get used to this. “You haven’t actually threatened to do anything. You discussed it.”

She pursed her lips. “And it was only once. Cutting out my tongue doesn’t count as a kill unless you’re sloppy about it.” Which she’d be a cross about if it came to that. Bleeding out wasn’t the worst way to go. Your mind shut down slowly and the pain would fade as you slipped into unconsciousness and eventually death. She’d seen people die in ways that were a lot worse.

Farah figured he had too.

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Farah"]

He considered for a moment. "I suppose you're right."

None of his amusement went away as they continued to speak.

Death wasn't as macabre for Nikolas as it was for many others, in way it was his entire life. Though he didn't exclusively kill for his work, it was much of what he did. Beyond that however his family had a tendency towards violence, something that had become clear to him before he had even taken the name Thawne. Nikolas had never minded it, in fact he had almost always embraced it. He could hardly remember a time when he hadn't felt that odd urging impulse to kill.

It was always there, waiting, lingering, but he had no plans to add Farah to the list of victims. Not yet anyway.

"Maybe I'll have to do better." He said as he plucked up a small piece of seared fish. "Hang you upside down and slit your throat just enough."

Nikolas mused. "Let the blood drain out of you slowly."

 

[Farah]

A thin smirk tilted her lips. “I tend to be right, yes.”

This night was turning out to be more entertaining than she had previously thought. Maybe the food was just helping with her mood, though.

She pulled a plump dumpling into her dish by way of a pair of chopsticks, dipping it in the small cup of sauce provided. It was too big to eat all at once, at least for her. So she sufficed with one careful bite, chewing thoughtfully as he conjured up another way to draw the life from her.

“Mm,” She considered it for a few moments. “That would be better for me, I suppose. Being upside down makes you lose consciousness quicker so I’d be passed out long before I’d die.” She slipped the other half of the dumpling into her mouth, chewing with delight. Farah always enjoyed savory foods.

“I didn’t think that was your thing, though.” She reached for another dumpling. “I figured you to be the type who gets off on seeing others suffer.”

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]