1000 Oceans

[sIlancy]

s'Il took a tentative step into the bar and grill, casting a series of short glances over her should until the door closed behind her. She could have sworn someone was following her; why wouldn't they? She'd made plenty of enemies in her years, and she knew some of them would love to see her dead.

Finally turning her gaze back to the inside of the bar, she didn't remover her silver rimmed sunglasses; leaving them to cover her eyes. She started forward. Before s'Il could take two steps an arm appeared in front of her, barring her path.

"Whoa, no touching," she snapped at the gaurd while at the same time jumping back. She glared up at him through the tinted lenses.

"You need to check your firearms, Ma'am."

s'Il breathed deep, trying to calm herself as best as she could. She reached a trembling hand up, and lowered it quickly. *Steady girl, steady.* Once more she reached a hand up, this time not shaking as badly, and pulled out her guns. Dropping them on the counter, she looked at the gaurd, and he nodded, moving aside so she could pass.

Once more she started into the establishment, her sunglasses still resting over her eyes, and as she slid into the booth she normally occupied, she breathed a rattled sigh. A droid shuffled up, and she nearly jumped out of her skin before realizing it was here to take her order. "Uh," she stammered, glancing around almost wildly, "I'll have a uh, a....." she bit her lip. "Uh, surprise me, ok?"

The droid stood for a few seconds before heading back to the bar to fill her semi-order.

s'Il sat back, staring at the people in the bar through her sunglasses. She didn't dare take them off. Not now.

[DarthHERA]

"Bring us rum. A bottle."

The droid would have jumped had his physicality been designed to permit it, Hera had arrived so silently behind it, he had not realised she was there. She nodded toward the woman in the sunglasses. "Make it Corelian."

She had checked her lightsaber and blasters at the doors without dispute upon entering the Bar & Grill behind s'Ilancy. She scoffed that the Jedi still insisted on that absurd rule. As if almost everyone in this place wasnt a walking weapon on their own accord.

It was rare Hera ever came to this known Jedi hangout.
But she was here tonight because her quarry seemed to like this place and was an elusive person to find sitting still for any length of time.

She had heard of the Aquisitions Operation s'Ilancy ran and, as was good business, she had been watching the enterprise from a distance. Now was a good time to shorten that distance.

Hera approached the table and, without waiting to be asked, dropped herself into the seat opposite s'Ilancy. Pointing casually to the glasses she advised.

"I'd work on that disguise if I were you.."

[sIlancy]

s'Il only stared at the other woman; she hadn't the foggiest as to who this woman was, but it didn't stop the supsicion that was already running rampant in her paranoid mind to spike about eighteen notches.

Inclining her head foreward, she stared at the woman across the table from her, her eyes becoming visible if not only for a moment over the silver rims. Normally a shining metallic hue, they were as white as death. Only the pupils remained their normal blackness.

Liquid Silver; a hyper-stimulant. Some of the side affects included increased muscle reflexes and hightened senses. Others included extreme paranoia, rapid pulse, tremors, and white eyes. It was a drug she'd not taken in a long while, and she was feeling its terribly hightened consequenses. Once, a long while ago, she'd built a sort of tolerance to it; even harnessed it to her advantage in a way. Now, however, it was like the first time she'd placed the milky white eyedrops into her eyes.

"Do I know you?" Her heartbeat had been thankfully slowing down to its normal pace as she'd been coming off of the high, but her senses were still bearing the aftershocks.

A long time ago she'd needed the drug, but now.... she really had no reason to take it. And yet....

Old habits die hard.

[DarthHERA]

The droid placed the bottle of Corelian Rum and two glasses infront of the women as s'Ilancy asked her question.

Waiting till the droid moved off, and after pouring her companion and herself a drink Hera replied.

"Not yet"


She grinned at the women opposite her and gestured for her to drink up.

"It will help with whatever you got goin on behind those shades."

Hera downed her drink in one gulp and poured another.

[sIlancy]

Reaching a slightly shaking hand out, s'Il pulled the glass in front of her, and lifting it carefully up, took a sip.

The rum blazed a trail of fire down her throat, somewhat bringing her closer to her normal frame of mind. It settled into her stomach, seemingly spreading through her body and the faintest of smiles touched her lips. She took another sip.

"Gods that's good," she said after the glass was empty.

s'Il looking at the woman across from her, and she tentatively pulled the sunglasses from her eyes, setting them as gently as she could on the table. "Something tells me you know more about me than I know about you," she ventured slowly, staring at the newcomer with white eyes.

[Avolon Bisel]

Max bumped into Avolon, who stood behind the bar. He wore his special four blaster holster. The Chief of Security was doing his bartender duties now, cleaning out a glass.

The 'droid mumbled something about Lok.

"I see them. Heck, you know what, I'm feeling nice today," Avolon said, putting down the glasses. "As long as they don't talk to loud, I won't bust any deal that's going down."

The 'droid objected.

"Oh, shut up. You're not in the NRSF buddy, I am. Sometimes you're too melodramatic, you know that? She's a good gal."

OOC - I shall delete if anyone objects.

[DarthHERA]

Hera shrugged in response to s'Ilancys comment. Maybe she knew a whole lot about her...or maybe she knew nothing.

One thing was certain though, the Sith was shrewdly watching s'Il opposite her, gauging firstly how "under the influence" the woman was and secondly, how best to broach the reason for her seeking her out.

Hera swirled the dark rum around in the bottom of her glass, ice-blue eyes trying to penetrate glazed-over white. She tilted the shot glass slightly.

"Not too bad, huh."

The smuggler made no reply, but just waited coolly for Hera to get to the point.

Aware that they had already attracted the attention of the bartender, who was sporting a NRSF shirt, which could mean something, or nothing...(maybe he was an officer moonlighting as a barkeep, or a barkeep who had opportunely peeled the shirt of some corpse he stepped over on his way on shift tonight)
Hera wouldnt be surprised at the latter and amused herself by hoping she was right.

She tossed s'Il a casual query.

"What do you know about art..?"

[sIlancy]

Art......

s'Il's eyes, while still white, had become sharp at the mention of the word, a degree of their old intensity creeping back into them. She stared at the woman across from her intently. Art, in all of its forms, was something she enjoyed "liberating" from the hands of unsuspecting individuals. A past-time she found insanely gratifying.

"I know as much as I need to know," she began carefully; quietly. "And if there's something I don't know, I make it a point to find it out."

The more she drank of the rum, the more she was coming back to herself, and she was growing more confident as the minutes passed; the false sense of paranoia the drug had generated fading fast.

She still didn't know this woman's intentions and reasons for approaching her, however. She kept her voice cool; devoid of emotion. "Why do you ask."

[DarthHERA]

A slow sly smile crept along Hera's lips and she poured s'Il another round.

"Ohhh, lets say......I got my eye on a certain peice that Id rather have my hand on.."

She downed the shot and let out a satisfied "aaah" as the liquid burned down her throat.

"Interested...?"

[sIlancy]

A single finger tapped the tabletop as a response of sorts, and s'Il let a thin smile grace her features as she cradled the glass in her left hand.

"Very." Her smile grew to a wicked grin as she tipped the shot glass back with a swift flick of her wrist, and the rum disappeared down her throat. She set the glass back down on the table softly, her hands no longer shaking.

"What particular piece do you have in mind? Or would you rather talk about that elsewhere?" She'd noticed Avolon's attentions, and while he'd started to grow on her, she knew it was his duty to stop any illegal happenings from going on in the bar and grill. And what this woman had hinted at was one of those happenings.

She didn't want Avolon to have to step in. She didn't want to sour the newfound friendship she'd formed with the man.

[DarthHERA]

Hera's eyes followed the breif glance s'Il had slipped over to the bartender and agreed that right here was not the best place to elaborate on what she would propose.

S'Ilancys interest pleased her - she'd had a feeling that would have been the response....and Hera liked being right.

She also liked s'Ils manner. The woman liked rum, liked crime, and liked a challenge by the sounds of it. Yes, being right was good.


"Lets take a walk."

Hera stood up from the table, tossed a decent number of credits down and headed over to the bar to retrieve her weapons.

[sIlancy]

s'Il stood as well, pausing long enough to grab her sunglasses and slip them on once more as she followed the woman. Smiling disarmingly at Avolon, she blew a kiss to the astromech at his side.

After accepting her weapons, s'Il motioned for her companion to lead the way out; intending to ask this stranger her name once they'd left the bar.

[DarthHERA]

Once out on the street, Hera felt so much better.

The Jedi just gave her the creeps. Even their bar had that sickly righteous ambiance about it. It was like a stench that soaked into one's clothes and made one feel tainted.

Hera stomped her feet on the pavement and waited as s'Il made her way out of the bar behind her. The Sith's eyes shifted about the city streets always watchful of her surroundings.

The two women moved off at a slow pace, they had the majority of the sidewalk to themselves.

Keeping in step with each other, both effecting a casual amble - to all eyes, every bit two passersby taking in the evening air.

Keeping her eyes frontward, Hera spoke.

"Name's Hera DrenKast.......and I want the Trasuvian Masterpiece"






ooc: my last post tonight s'Il, bb tomorrow.

[sIlancy]

Stuffing her hands in her pockets, s'Il leaned her head back, looking up at the sky as they walked. She was able to pick out a few stars just becoming visible in the twilight sky, and breathing in the air, let a contented sigh escape her lips. She still wore her sunglasses, but made no move to take them off.

Hera DrenKast.....

s'Il didn't know the name, but it was a big galaxy; while there were a lot of people she'd become aquainted with over the years, there were still many that she hadn't.

"Lok s'Ilancy; though I figure you already knew that, otherwise you wouldn't have come to me." She idly kicked a small pebble ahead of her a few yards. "You can call me s'Il or Lok; either way I'll answer."

The Trasuvian Masterpiece.....

The name sounded vaguely familiar, but for some odd reason she couldn't put her finger on it. Her lips curled back in slight frustration as she sifted through her memories, but drawing a blank, she merely kept her nonchalant pace alongside Hera.

[DarthHERA]

"s'Il, it'll be, then..."

The woman didnt say much else. Hera knew she must have heard of the Masterpeice...probably all that quicksilver snaking through her every vein was dulling her recall. The "Trasuvian" was a famous peice of truce symbolism and goodwill between two warring factions that was known the galaxy over. It had been crafted by a common and lowly streetartist, and its beauty was unfathomable. The painting - to use a crude and inadequate general term - was in two sections, both of them 1ft wide and 3ft long. The colors were exquisite, as word had it, and the nature of their crafting and the materials used were rare and found only on the moon of Cadorr where centuries ago, cival war had ravaged for 3 decades. The two parts of the painting, when facing one to the other, were so harmonious that they actually emitted a beautiful lyrical sound which bounced and rebounded endlessly off each others surface. They were irreplaceable...and thus, priceless.

The masterpeice was given from one side...(Hera forgot which one)...to the other as a covenent that war would never again be waged between "brothers."

Over time, fortunes changed, civilizations were conquered and subdued - the "Trasuvian" finding its way to many a collector or curator. The latest being a wealthy industrialist who kept it in the "Till Tower" in the elite business district of Coruscant. Hera had met this Jonathon Till - and lost convincingly (and to her irritation, honestly) to him many a game of sabacc as she listened to his gloating over his treasured antiquity. Hera didnt like him much, and liked loosing even less. It was time to balance her books..


Stopping and looking casually around the darkened streets, Hera asked, looking into the everpresent sunglasses, "...You been to Coruscant lately?"

[sIlancy]

"A few months back."

Then something clicked.

s'Il returned Hera's gaze, and reached up, withdrawing the sunglasses to look her eye to eye. "You have expensive tastes."

[DarthHERA]

A slow grin greeted s'Ilancy's de-shaded eyes.

"Yes, I do. And a willingness to pay whats needed to satisfy those tastes." She let the promise of a considerable payment to the smuggler hang in the air.

The grin remained in place, but Hera's gaze was direct and serious. "Can you get us in to take them?"

S'Il, according to Hera's information, was well versed with art and rare goods theft, and it would be a natural assumption that she was knowledgeable in regards to the type of alarms and procedures set in place to prevent such thefts. She was counting on this woman to have such knowledge.

[sIlancy]

s'Il nodded, her brows furrowing in thought. "I can." At Hera's mention of payment, she grinned. "I'll consider the challenge itself to be half of the payment."

She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one leg. "Do you want me to meet you at a particular location on Coruscant?"

[DarthHERA]

Excellent.

Hera was already setting up the priceless masterpeice on its own podium at her place in her own mind. The "Trasuvian" was as good as hers.

s'Il didnt mince words or waste time haggling. Hera liked her style.

"Meet me in Coruscant one week from tonight at the Gnats Craddle Inn on 1087th street and Main. We'll talk money then."

Hera stepped back a step - signalling this meeting was at an end, but before moving off, slipped a small data-disc into s'Ilancy's palm.

"Heres a plan of the Till Tower. The peice is held on the 138th floor. Do some homework s'Il....and bring lots of weapons."

[sIlancy]

The grin that spread across s'Il's face wasn't exactly evil, but it certainly wasn't to be classified as 'good'. Her palm closed around the disc Hera gave her.

Homework, she was always happy to do; especially when the piece to be studied was something as valuable as this.

And weapons? Those she had. In abundance.

With an almost indetectible nod, s'Il moved off into the growing night. She liked the way Hera did business.