Hit and Run (open)

[Kaede Jinn]

Kaede Jinn stood, leaning up against her heavily modified swoop-bike, watching people walk by through dark tinted lenses. Her starched white shirt was pulled sloppily out of her gray school uniform pants; her black jacket hung lazily over one shoulder. She pulled a stim from the pack in her pocket, cupping her hand around it as she lit it and took a deep breath.

She had been waiting here, people watching, for nearly an hour. Her bones ached slightly, and the old craving was itching at the back of her brain. Soon the sickness would kick in, although not before she got her next hit. Afterwards, she would be speeding home, just in time for the usual "You're late! We had "insert lame social event here" to go to tonight!" speech from her equally lame mother and stepfather. Those were the times she wished her real father had taken her with him all those years ago. The life of a wandering space pirate was probably WAY more interesting than that of a wealthy brat.

She took another long drag off her stim, exhaling a large plume of smoke as a group of teenagers walked by. Her foot tapped a steady rhythm on the duracrete. She looked down at her crono, squinting. He should've been here ten minutes ago…

[Dan the Man]

"Excuse me, Miss."

A calm, age-gravelled voice spoke behind Kaede.

"I don't suppose you'd have the time?"

The older man had a bizarre look to him. He was both refined and haggard. His clothes were elegant yet relaxed; all black with the faintest trim of floral designs at the cuffs and collar. His face was marked with weathered wrinkles, and his grey hair rolled across his shoulders in wispy locks.

[Kaede Jinn]

"Quarter to."

She barely glanced over her shoulder, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. She rocked back and forth on her heels, flicking ash from her stim. Another drag, more ash flicking. Where the frell was he?

[Dan the Man]

"Already, I see."

The look of realization, whether feigned or otherwise, dawned on the man's face.

"It's always a drag, isn't it?"

[Kaede Jinn]

"Hmmm?"

She took another drag, blowing the smoke away from the man. The look on her face was a mix of annoyance and pain. 'You mean waiting?"

[Dan the Man]

"I mean being stood up."

Dan flashed a knowing look at the girl.

[Kaede Jinn]

She blinked. Then laughed. The stim found it's way to the ground, what little was left of it crushed out by Kaede's boot.

"He'll be here. He's probably, er, running late."

Another stim was taken from the pack, held in trembling fingers up to her lips, her lighter in the other. "He'll be here."

[Dan the Man]

"Of course."

It was said as a reassurance, but the tone of Dan's voice was uninflected.

He looked to her almost sheepishly.

"I don't suppose you've got another to spare? I seem to be fresh out of hash today."

[Kaede Jinn]

She muttered through her own stim, removing the pack from her pocket and offering it to him. She quickly lit her own, offering him the lighter as well.

"So," A few smoke rings floated gently up, "do you come here often?"

[Dan the Man]

"Not as often as before."

Dan smiled behind his stim, accepting the light.

"But nostalgia's just as addictive as this, I suppose."

[Kaede Jinn]

"I guess so. I don't have much to be nostalgic about."
The pack returned to it's place in her pocket, right beside her "works". She gave it a reassuring pat.

"I do have a lot of addictions though. Oh well," She shrugged. "At least Mummy and Daddy are footing the bill for it."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Aimlessly wandering had its plusses. For example...

All right, so it didn't. At least not in any way that Olra'en could think of. He utterly failed to get why he did it. Why, after all, would he dump his students for a day or two and play hooky from Corellia? Being a Sith was vitally important to him for many reasons, some of which he knew and some of which he didn't quite get.

And yet he continued to hijack tramp freighters. Every month or so, he'd be off to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what.


The Sith Knight was doing his Master proud just now, thoroughly done up in the local garb and with his weapons out of sight. A pity that they weren't loose enough to hide Azubah's bowl hilt under; these generic sabres that one could get from the Palace armouries never seemed to have quite the right balance.

He was waiting for something to happen, and it was getting boring. With no clue as to the nature of it - precog wasn't one of his gifts - he slouched against a wall, taking in the scenery. Across the way a girl was sharing a stim with a man maybe forty years her senior, the couple and the smoke visible through gaps in the crowd. A quick evaluation of them both made for a really interesting picture, as odd a couple as he might have ever seen.

Amplified hearing might have worked, but the passersby made a bit too much noise. Lipreading...out of the question.

So he'd just have to get closer.

The Sith Knight pushed away from the wall and merged with the people in the street. He stayed with them for a block, then cut left and entered an alley. The place was empty; he had no qualms about Force-jumping to the roof of the two-floor establishment. With care not to make much noise that those below could detect, he walked back in the direction he'd come until he was pretty much right behind the two.

Absently, he noted that that was a nice swoop.

[Dan the Man]

Dan exhaled as she spoke, the smile fading somewhat from his face.

"I've never been the kind of man to say no to raising a little hell here and there, but I've always paid for it myself."

[Kaede Jinn]

"Heh, I'll probably have to do the same. Someday."

Her eyes scanned the street. Still no sign of her "date". Her stomach gurgled loudly, causing her to blush somewhat.

"You wouldn't happen to know where a girl could get a, er, fix, would you?" Her arms wrapped back around her body tightly, her stim hanging loosely from her lips. Even if he didn't know what she was talking about, it was worth a shot to ask.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"...paid for it myself..."

"...someday..."

"...fix, would you?"

Je'gan frowned slightly, displeased with the noise from those passing by. He couldn't hear much of the conversation, and under other circumstances he might have just moved on. These two, however, presented an odd enough picture that his innate curiosity was in overdrive, and he felt justified in trying to get a sense of their emotions, and more, their souls.

Corrupt, he finally concluded. The older fellow seemed like a criminal of some sort, with a respectable ego. The girl was more normal, though, but there was something...

Frowning harder, he fished around in what he could sense, and finally came to the conclusion that her self-control was atrophied beyond the norm.

Making her, in all likelihood, an addict.

'Fix', eh?

He rolled half-way over and fished through his robes, coming up at last with a small package of ryll. This he flicked over the side of the building. A tiny smack was heard as it hit the pavement at Kaede's feet.

[Dan the Man]

"Hmmm..."

Dan bent down, beating Kaede to the punch as he picked up the baggie off the ground. He held it up for a moment and scrutinized it, appearing to be deep in contemplation over what it might be.

[Kaede Jinn]

She raised a brow as the old man bent down, picking up a small baggie of...something from the ground in front of her. She took another long slow drag off her stim, just watching him.

[Dan the Man]

Dan tossed the baggie around in his open palm a bit.

"You have any idea what this is?"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Ryll. Not great quality, but ryll nonetheless."

The voice had come from the crowd, but that might not have too much impact on whether or not the man plummetting from the roof to land beside the pair was a surprise. Certainly he hadn't made much noise. A tacit test for active Force-sensitivity, as well as for evaluating how they reacted to sudden occurrences.