Welcome to Nar Shadaa Rock City!

[Sanis Prent]

<font size=-2>OOC: This RP takes place 10 years ago. Anyone's invited, so long as you remember that.</font>

"Alright, Prent...on your feet."

There was no telling how many times he'd said it. The cop's voice warbled in through distorted ears, like listening to the ocean through a sea-shell. I tried to stand on legs that became rubber, and pitched off the side of my cot, flailing my forearms out just in time to break my fall. The residual taste of vomit in my mouth clued me in to my predicament. The fat lip and bloody knuckles confirmed it.

"Hell, not again."

Quickly, I began a mad search for my chit case and other particulars.

"I got it all right here, Prent...minus the bail money. Your ride's here."

I winced against the silhouette at the door, the light of a foreign day piercing through my retinas like a fiery spear. Slowly, I steadied myself against the iron bars of the cell and groaned.

"At least you're a familiar face. How many weekends is this now? Five? Six?"

I nodded and shrugged at the same time, keeping my eyes shut against the unrelenting glare. My captor, Sergeant Hygar, was at least somewhat hospitable. My cot had a mattress.

"Keep it up, and you'll be just like your old man."

I shot the Sergeant a red-eyed glare, wrenched out of my hangover by his latest barb.

"Whatever. Where's my stuff?"

"As I said, right here. Back away from the door."

I shuffled on my feet, back toward the cot, as Hygar opened the cell door. Yawning, I stepped out, as the fat policeman pressed a few items into my hand.

"Kid, go get a job or find a hobby. I hate wasting good cell space on you."

The look on his face was one of humored concern. He kept his eyes on me longer than usual, as if to emphasize some kind of point. I looked to him, and then to my stuff, pocketing my various personal items.

"Yeah, but its the best hotel I've never paid for."

I finally worked up the courage to look back at the doorway, and at the silhouette who'd come to my rescue this time.

[Geeda the Hutt]

Geeda was waiting in the hover-limo for Prent as he exited the building - facade of which was only rivaled by the man himself in shabbiness.

Prent was a mess. Looked like he'd slept off a few too many in some Kuat gutter somewhere. But the Hutt didn't care.

She owned him - atleast for the moment. And she expected him to be grateful.

The door slid open with a whoosh, and the blue Twi'lik slave motioned with his hand for the blonde scoundrel to get in.

[Sanis Prent]

The hover limo was oversized in every way. Vertically, horizontally, and lengthwise. As if I couldn't tell who the occupant was in the last throes of last night's inebriation, the smell cut away the last vestiges of my stupor. The unforgettable combination of something awful and even more awful Chandrillan perfume made me blink myself awake, as I was led to the presence of my latest employer, Geeda the Hutt. There was nothing to say, really. I'd jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Thanks for saving me 100 credits, I guess."

My eyes grew accustomed to the dim interior of the limo, and shifted side-to-side at Geeda's lackeys, as the door shut.

[Geeda the Hutt]

"Boon dooba nas sabbo Sanis ho ho ho"
(your'e worth every credit, Sanis, hahahah)

She slapped his knee...which was quite a feat given the length her short arms had to span to him as he sat across from her.

Prent tried to pull away and avoid the contact, but wedged in as he was between the Hutts lackeys, he had little success and suffered the indignity.

" Oon dabbo dos noooba ub luddo"
(one day, you will appreciate all I do for you)

She slathered her thick tongue around her chunky lips and her amber eyes swirled and dilated as she sucked the spice pipe beside her.

The hover-limo speed off with a lurch.

[Sanis Prent]

I made a concious effort not to look at and/or wipe away the film of slime deposited on my knee. At the same time, I redoubled an effort not to breathe through my nose. This close to the hutt wasn't my first choice, and her breath did the work of a dozen pots of caf in waking me up. However, throwing up all over my boss wasn't a way to keep a job...and with a hutt...keep my life at the same time.

"Thats a pretty speedy pickup, if you don't mind me saying."

I glanced at my chrono. Damn, still in the AM.

"Up for breakfast and everything."

Of course, a rowdy interruption from the bliss of drunken unconciousness had the effect of sending my stomach on a flying trapeze act. Yet another reason to keep breathing through my mouth. I leaned back in my seat, in an innocent maneuver to get some distance.

"I've got the feeling this isn't a random act of charity though."

[Geeda the Hutt]

Getting down to business and dispensing with further pleasantries, the huge Hutt impatiently flapped her hand at her Twi'lik attendant to show the data to Prent via a small holopad.

A name and an address displayed on the screen.

"Ossdoonda nom eedo. Nommo eedo. Gind ebo"
(He owes me credits. Lots of credits. Get them.)

She drew loudly on the pipe and the spice bubbled in its base. The blue grey smoke curled at its tip, adding further noxious fumes to assail the intrepid Prent.

Geeda didnt need to elaborate. It was not a "new" job she was sending him on. Just the name and credit amount was different. The method and timing were up to Sanis - provided they were brutal and fast. Hutt pre-requisite modis operandi.

The limo pulled up to the curb..they had only travlled about 20 blocks or so, and the door slid abruptly open. A shove toward the door by the Twi'lik and then a sharp restraining yank on Prents shirt as Geeda pulled him back for one last instruction.

"Oodinndoo nom soood oona, Saaanis"
(Make him sorry for the late payment, Sanis)

ho ho ho ho

Then Prent was bundled rudely out of the limo, barely his feet touching the sidewalk before the vehicle pulled eratically from the curb.

[Sanis Prent]

"Great..."

I'd somehow managed to catch my feet and avoid tumbling on the sidewalk as Geeda's limo sped away. I looked around me, at the squalid and poverty-stricken street I was now on.

"At least she remembered the right address."

Running a hand through my hair, I dodged a couple of rodians playing hoverball near a stairwell. A cat hopped out of a garbage recepticle and scurried away as I shuffled down to the building on the end. The windows were all barred up, and the lights were out on the inside. I knocked against the wrought-iron outer door.

"Hey, its me. Where the hell'd you go?"

The little figure on the other side of the doorway blinked.

[Abagael Zellan]

Inside where she’d been sound asleep moments ago, Abagael stirred. For a moment she thought the knocking was just a part of her dream, but as her newest best friend rose from beside her, she was forced to wake up. Sighing the young woman raised her head from the crumpled pillow. Her head was ringing like a gong, and she scowled grouchily, her lips pouting in displeasure.

“Just tell whoever it is to frell off!”

Abby brushed her long hair back from her face and waited in the bedroom. When it became obvious that her instructions had gone unheeded, she sighed and scooted to the edge of the bed. Her naked frame was visible through the window and she waved coyly at an ogler across the way. Hastily she pulled on an oversized shirt that fell just above her knees and padded out into the foyer.

“Hey…who was it?”

[Urky Wenson]

Urky sighed, his brown hair appearing in the port hole while he moved to undo the heavy bolt.

"Me? I stole a matress while you decided jail was the way to go." The 13 year old slid the bolt open.

"I nicked some hawkbat eggs too, but I dunno how to cook them." He yawned, walking away as Sanis entered. "Frell, you're home early. Wasn't figuring you'd be home for another hour. Someone give you a rid or sumthin? But man, you gotta see the matress!"

[Sanis Prent]

"How the hell did you make off with a mattress?"

I shuffled wearily into the kitchen to examine the potential breakfast that Urky had filched. Instead, I bumped into our other flatmate.

"Top of the mornin, Abby."

I looked at her with a strange look on my face, as a stranger walked out of her bedroom, and out the front door. I shrugged, and returned to the task at hand, sorting through the speckled brown eggs.

"Well at least two of us had a good night. Whatever I did to land myself in the pokey, Geeda the Hutt found out, so now she needs 'a favor'."

I turned, and tossed a less-than-par egg out the nearby window.

"Which means I'll be out again, tonight. Fantastic."

[Abagael Zellan]

She waved limply as her bunkmate left, not really caring. Raising an eyebrow at Prent's greeting, the woman plunked into a chair, resting her head on the table and watching Urky's activities with an out of focus gaze. Mornings were always a bit slow for Abagael.

Raising her head just long enough to light a smoke and take a puff, Abby snorted.

"It's you're own fault, Sanis. Gotta stop getting hauled in."

A large yawn interupted her stim enjoyment. Abby got up with a frown, rubbing her temples.

"I borrowed a shirt; doin' laundry today. Jesus, do we have any coffee left?"

[Urky Wenson]

"I threw it in the back of a hauler when someone was moving it to a warehouse. The guys didn't notice when you're moving containers of the stuff." Urky fidgeted with the eggs, trying to figure out how to get Abagael or Sanis to cook them. Hopefully Abby. Sanis was a lousy cook.

"Yeah, theres some non-grog'n the pot. And Abby's right. You should stay away from the ugly slug after this. Abby, could you teach me how to cook these?"

[Sanis Prent]

"Well, its paying the rent. I can't complain too much."

Slouching down into a seat, I pinched a stim from Abby's pack.

"Besides, I think I might be onto something big. If I make it, we'll hit the big time, and really get outta here."

I reached into my pocket, and pulled out a crumpled flimsy. Spreading it out, I slid it on the table.

"They're running freestyle races on the lower levels. This isn't like that rodian gig a week ago. I think its straight up."

[Abagael Zellan]

Abby grunted and slid off her chair, jerking a thumb to the table. She took over breakfast, still trying to find her balance as she mussled about.

"Yeah, yeah, kid. I'll cook. Teach you another time, I'm too frelling tired right now."

She was only half listening as she went about the meal, but still managed to snort when Sanis' latest gig popped into the conversation.

"It's never 'straight up' Sanis. It's like last time. And the time before that. And,"

The woman swung the pan containing breakfast from the stove and plopped it onto the table uncerimoniously.

"The time before that. Why should it be any different?"

[Sanis Prent]

"I dunno...maybe a gut feeling. Besides, the guy who's setting it up seems on-the-level. I think I got a shot."

I shrugged. As helpful as Abby could be, sometimes she was pretty damn pessimistic about the way things were going.

"Besides, I'm a few credits away from really putting my ride in tip-top shape. When that happens, I'm in the money, for sure."

[Abagael Zellan]

Abby shielded her eyes from the light coming in the window and sighed.

"Yeah. For sure."

She couldn't help being sarcastic. It wasn't Sanis--mostly. Lately Abby had hit a slump and it seemed to be getting worse and worse. One never knew who would come out of her room in the morning, but one thing was gaurenteed; it was never the same being twice.

And her father had been trying to contact her again. Asking her, ordering her, begging her to come home and go to college. Though her own appearence was evidence of the less-than-par life she lived (and incidently loved), Abagael Zellan had come from a wealthy background. This little tidbit she kept quiet, and save for very few people, no one was the wiser.

But...

They did need credits. Badly.


"Well."

The woman shook her head.

"You can't be wrong all of the time, right?"

It was as close to agreeing as she would ever come.