The Phantom of the Opera

[Arage Bao]

Galaxies Opera House​

The Agony of Tarkin​

First Act​

​

The Uscru Entertainment District, a place of amusement and as the name already suggested entertainment. Jared had never thought he would be able to partake in all of it, when you were born in the Understeets you died there. It was as simple as that, at least it was until his Master had come and rescued him from its clutches. He still did not know why she had taken him in, why she had thought him to be special. It might have had something to do with his inert force ability, she had told him he was strong with the Force. Strong but untrained, but she would correct that fault. And here he was, barely a year had passed still.. a lot had changed since then. He was no longer helpless and no longer was he alone, it was almost enough to bring a smile on Jared's face. Almost. There were still issues that had to be resolved on Coruscant, but not today. Today was a day of solace and merriment.

*​

Silently he walked up to the Cashier, showing his ticket to gain admission. Today he would see a reproduction of 'The Agony of Tarkin', an old piece to say the least. But he was interested how they would spin it, he had heard a lot about the new producer. They said he was a genius.. well Jared would be the judge of that. The Theater was splendid to say the least, the stories had not done it any credit. The walls were decorated with intricate symbols, laced in gold and silver. Expensive but tasteful, just the way Jared liked it. A seat was found quickly enough, he would have enough time to sit down and relax for a minute. So that he could get his bearings, before being blast away by the sound and thrill of song and dance.

*​

Jared made a quick sweep with the Force, he would not be taken unaware by hidden enemies that much was for sure. Soledad had taught him that at least. And then it started, quickly he released the flow, easing himself in his chair and listened to the opening speech. Excitement rushed through his veins, making his heart pump even harder than it already did. He had never been to an Opera before and for at least a little second Jared felt like a little kid finally getting a present he had always wanted.

@[member="Aella Cadeyrn"]​

 

[Holly Isaac]

Aella took her ticket from the attendant at the box office and walked through the hall gracefully running her fingers along the intricate designs on the walls. The last time she had been to an opera was with her father back home. She wore a long black dress with a deep plunging v-neck, a slit up to her thigh, and a sheer drop sleeve. She wore black heels, just low enough that she could still run if she had to. While she was here to enjoy herself she still had a knife strapped to her inner thigh just in case. There was still a possibility that one of the Sith there was a bounty on would be here to create trouble.

She took her aisle seat and sat there enjoying the sound of the orchestra washing over her. Aella soaked up the sound of the voices that seemed to cut so clearly over everything else. Just as the soprano reached the climax of her first aria Aella heard a stifled scream behind her. She tensed and grabbed her knife, turning around to see the Sith choking a patron. "STOP!" she yelled as she flung her knife at the Sith pinning his robe to the wall momentarily. The Sith ripped away from the wall and charged toward her. "Not close combat, please not close combat!" she thought before she leapt out of the way, grabbing the dagger she had strapped around her ankle, throwing it into the Sith's shoulder as she did a break fall in the aisle. She quickly jumped to her feet and ran toward the stage. Perhaps this force user was a little more than she could handle and a lot more than she bargained for. Couldn't he have waited until after the last act? The audience began to panic and suddenly everything beautiful stopped.

The Sith kept going toward the stage, obviously intent on something.

 

[Arage Bao]

Just a few moments ago Jared had been enjoying the sweet sound of the first Aria, when suddenly the melody cut out with a scream. With a start he stood up, opening his eyes. Everywhere he could see people running for the exits, the podium was already empty; its performers fled. At first he did not understand what had happened, until he finally noticed a man jumping from the balustrade – running towards the same podium the performers were singing on a couple of seconds ago.

For a second he wondered what the guy was planning to do, when he suddenly felt the familiar sense of the Force emanating from him. Without considering any other action, he raised his hand and with it he ripped two chairs from their foundations. With some difficulty he balled them together into one big chunk of metal and stone, digging inside of himself he found some energy reserves and ripped them open. Almost gently he flicked his wrist, pushing the ball of metal towards the Sith. Hitting him mid-air and making him crash into the dais.

He chuckled softly and then said while using the Force to enhance his voice. “Tsk tsk tsk. See what you made me do? It is your own fault really, what sane man would interrupt an excellent Opera? In the middle of the first Aria even.”

@[member="Aella Cadeyrn"]​

 

[Holly Isaac]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Running down the aisle after the Sith, Aella came to a hault as the ball of metal flew in front of her, pinning the Sith down. She whirled to see the lone audience member left standing there calmly with a smirk on his face.

"I was going to handle him," she said with a glare that softened as she realized just how out matched she really was.

As she looked the knight over she noticed the Sith struggle to move for a weapon of some sort. Without breaking eye contact with Jared she flicked her dagger toward the Sith, hitting him square between the eyes. "Cuts the bounty in half, but I don't see how I could bring him in alive." she said. "Mind helping me carry this sack of waste to my ship?" she asked.

 

[Arage Bao]

Suddenly a gorgeous woman came into view, catching Jared's trained eye. And beautiful she was, heels just high enough to look excellent while still being able to run, a low-cut dress most appealing to the eye and very pleasant face to look at. A devilishly handsome grin appeared, playing faintly on his lips when he said: “My Lady, I am sure you would have and I would be happy to oblige, but.” and he paused a second taking another bold look at her. “what could possibly my reward be?”

He did not show his distrust for the throwing knives, last time he came into contact with one of those? Well.. it is suffice to say that there is still a mark of the encounter on his bum. Not that he expected this meeting to end the same, but still caution would never kill a person. As such he drew upon the Force and made thin wall of air surrounding him, by upping its density. It would not stop a throwing knife all together, but what it would do is slow it down. Hopefully it would buy him enough time to evade it, or maybe even make a possible wound less.. well mortal.

@[member="Aella Cadeyrn"]​

 

[Holly Isaac]

"Your reward could be the satisfaction of helping a lady... 15% of the bounty and possibly a free ride to wherever you need to go within reason." she said looking the tall knight up and down. His cloak hid his face, but from the sound of his voice she thought he was probably rather attractive.

She walked over to the Sith, removed her dagger and wiped it on the seat pulling out a cloth to wipe the blade clean before putting it back in its place. She placed her right foot on the arm rest of a chair, dress material sliding down revealing her thigh and tucked the knife into its little holster. "I'm always prepared," she said "just in case a threat tries to get close." As she bent down her long auburn hair fell down across her shoulders. All knives neatly tucked away, hidden on her person, she push kicked at the metal ball still sitting on the Sith. "Shall we?"

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

The man uncloaked himself, revealing a masculine strong jawline, icy blue eyes that pierced right through your soul, clean-shaved cheeks and an amusing grin playing faintly on his lips. “It seems to me, my fair Lady, that I have completed your job for you already.” with a flick of his wrist he removed the bolder that sat on top of the poor Sith Knight. “It seems to me that such royal help deserves an equally royal pay. Let us say 40% and of course I would not object to a lift.”

Without awaiting an answer, an invisible hand grabbed hold of the Sith making him hover half a meter from the ground. “Shall we?” Jared asked her with another one of his charming smiles.

@[member="Aella Cadeyrn"]​

 

[Holly Isaac]

"He was worth twice as much alive. You would have had more bargaining power then. 25% firm. You're looking at a damn fine pilot, lifts don't usually come free." She said.

As he dropped the hood of his cloak she noticed his strong features and icy blue stare. Grabbing her keys she started walking up the aisle toward her ship. She had more important things to do than be distracted by a young knight who would toss her to the curb any chance he got.

"Coming?" She said glancing back briefly as she gracefully moved up the aisle through the hall door.

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

He started following her, admiring the view with some interest. Then he chuckled softly and said: “Might be so, m'Lady. But it was not I who killed the poor soul. 35% and I will not ask you to dirty your beautiful attire.”

In all honesty he did not really care about the credits, the Lord of the Fringe had more money than he could ever spent in his entire life time. But haggling with this woman was exhilarating and made his blood run just a slightly quicker than usual. The fact that she was a looker, did also do wonders for his interest.

Only a small trace of disappointment stayed, he hoped there would be another opportunity to watch the Opera. It was still on his to-do list and the beginning of this one had made him quite interested in seeing the rest. Only for the interruption Jared would probably have killed the Sith anyway, the bounty huntress did not have to know that though.

@[member="Aella Cadeyrn"]​

 

[Holly Isaac]

"30%" she said firmly. "I have to be able to eat, you know." Turning, she looked at him, admiring his confident posture and enjoyed that he was willing to actually push back a little bit.

It had been a couple hours since Aella had last eaten and she had burned through what little energy she had left. She reached out for the door frame, braced herself momentarily before hurriedly covering it up and briskly turning and walking out of the theatre to her ship where her food stock was.

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

She was a determined little thing, Jared was half of mind to continue the haggling. At least until he noticed how little energy she had left, it was commonly known that the elven race had a very fast metabolism – at least in comparison to the humans. Instantly his mood changed to a protective state he had always had towards the female population, Jared reached out towards the woman with his mind and gave her some of his strength. Not a lot, but just enough so she would feel better and would not die on him on their trip. With the strength he left a mental message. “Deal, m'Lady. 30% it is.”

Then he followed her outside the theater with the hulking corpse of the Sith Knight hovering behind him. Jared could hear a couple of sirens in the distance, troops would be here in a few – restoring order and taking prisoners. That had always been the key difference between the upperlevels and the Understreets. Officials did not give a damn what happened down under, there could be a full-blown gang war happening there and nobody would care. But they would never allow such a thing to happen in the Higher Levels.

“I think we should leave the scene before the coppers arrive.”

@[member="Aella Cadeyrn"]​

 

[Holly Isaac]

Suddenly feeling a little bit of extra strength Aella smiled to herself. "Sweet" she thought.

"Good!" she said perking up slightly to the sound of the sirens. "I think you're right! This way!" she said as she headed for the stairwell to the parkade and out the door. "Last thing we need is to have them take the bounty off of our hands."

Aella led Jared and their prize down the stairs and onto the top level of the parkade. Opening the ship hanger door she showed Jared where he could dump the Sith down and gestured toward a passenger seat. "I hope you're ready!" she said with a twinkle in her eye. Before she took her seat in the cockpit Aella grabbed a protein bar from her on board pantry, opened it and took a bite. She grabbed an apple and a protein shake and started up the ship, flying it just as gracefully as she moved, not quite sure of where she would go first.

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

He could only snort at that, the troopers would not be able to keep up with him either way. But he would refrain from needless slaughter, his suit would be ruined for one. Secondly he was not really sure how much his new companion could really handle. In honesty he did not really know what to think about her regardless, she was quite pretty that much was for sure and seemingly she knew how to handle a dagger or two. He shuddered at that thought, how he hated throwing knives, if it were up to him he would melt down all the daggers and throwing knives in the known universe. Distasteful little things, but she had not been part of that little escapade, so he reserved his judgement towards people who deserved it.

With a gesture of his hand he released the corpse of the late Sith Knight and followed the woman towards the cockpit. He accepted the chair with a charming smile and sat down, waiting for her to say something. Instead.. she started eating. That was also a point he was not sure what to make off. "Ehm.. are you alright, my Lady? You seem.. hungry." he said with as much care as possible. This was the first woman he had met with such a healthy appetite, as such he was not sure if it was entirely normal. Though she was not a human and he had never met a member of the space elven race regardless, so what did he know about normality?

@[member="Aella Cadeyrn"]​

 

[Holly Isaac]

"Fine" she said while piloting and eating. "I have to eat every couple hours because I am half Eldorai and we were 'blessed' with a fast metabolism."

A safe distance away from the drama she merged onto the planet's highway and set it to auto.

"I tell you one thing though, it makes drinking contests with people hilarious." She smirked. "I don't think I have ever been properly drunk."

"Where to?" She asked

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]