Full Tilt Whirl (Elena and Open)

[Wolf Bane]

I had been working at this new joint bussing tables for a week or two. This place was the real seedy type on lower coruscant mainly gangsters and rapscallions who could afford to drink or eat here came in. I was busting my butt just to make a buck then maybe I could prove to be more then a worthless wet dog.

The weekly card game was going, why any one played was beyond me. Gentlemen Jack always one cause he always cheated and everyone knew it to yet they still played. Gentleman Jack got his name because after every card game he gave half his earnings to waitress sally so she could feed her kids. That and he always had his loyal bottle of Daniels at his side.

In other corners of the joint the bartender was slumped over the bar like normal talking to sally as she waited cook Bearington to finish some dudes meal. Then there was the stripper on the pole who had to be twilik in her eighties, she really need a new job but people felt sorry for her and gave her a few bucks now and then.

I had only been her a week and new the stories of most of the locals except mysterious Buck but that cause he was mysterious. He was mysterious cause he smelled bad and no one really cared to stand that close to him and ask him about himself. There was also blind George who played the piano occasionally I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him yet.

Any way I was bussing my tables cleaning up a mess left by patron. A couple tables down I spotted her a dame of all dames. I hadn't seen her in here before then again not too many women came in here because of Hairy Harry. All businesswomen and want to be gangster women got chased away by his not so good one-liners. There was something about this one though she was as tuff as nails but yet behind her eyes was a past that only gods could imagine.

I could smell her from where I stood; her fragrance flowed through all the smoke. I thought to myself how could a bus boy like me ever get close to woman like that. She had caught my attention fully and not even silver bullet could stop me from getting what I wanted. All I wanted was her name at this point.

[Elena Van Derveld]

From the corner of the room, Blind George began to play the piano. People said that he’d played that piano since he was a boy. As he’d gotten older, his eyesight had slipped, but his ability to play had never waned. His fingers moved smoothly over the keys, pressing each with a tenderness that seemed out of place in such a dive. The tune he played was slow and blue, something vague that sounded like every other sad piano tune you’d ever heard. It was difficult to stop yourself humming along.

At the bar, the wonder woman who Wolf was longing for asked for another drink. The shot glass that the tender had been refilling for an hour was beginning to blur a little at the edges. Just when she thought the bar would rush up at her, clarity would return. Her Lupine blood prevented her from becoming intoxicated. It was a sad day when you couldn’t even drown yourself in whiskey. She drank the whole shot in one.

“Haven’t you had enough?”

“You’ll get fired for saying things like that,” she replied, leaning forward somewhat. It was a balmy day and her appearance was all askew, hair tousled. The bartender was undressing her with his eyes – she didn’t seem to care. His damp palm left a mark on the shot glass - she drank it all anyway.

“Another.”

[Wolf Bane]

I had been watching her interaction with bartender while I cleared yet another table. Blind George was playing that sad song again that he always seemed to play. I took the dishes to the steamy kitchen. Cook was sweating like a pig and adding way to much bourbon to what ever he was cooking.

Then the bartender busted through the door with a stubborn look on his face. He was grumbling about have to get yet another new bottle of whiskey. It would seem this new woman was going to drink us out of house and home. I really didn't care the more money this place made the more I got for busing tables.

Bartender: "She ain't going to leave use any whiskey for the night crowd."

"What night crowd. I have worked her for a week and the only person we get at night is drunk dirk and Lizard boy."

Bartender: "Shut ep boy."

"Fine, I wonder if she knows your undressing her with your eyes"

Bartender: "I said shut ep."

"You could never get woman like that. So I think you should stop dreaming."

Bartender: " Like you could bus boy?"

"Of course I could."

Bartender: "I'd Like to see that?"

"Your on I'll bet you half my paycheck that I can get that woman out there to leave with me tonight."

Cook: "eh I want in on tis."

Bartender: "Your on!"

"Good now both you guys get back to work and wait for me to work my Magic."

I had no idea what I had gotten myself into at this point. I was in it for the money nothing else. Cook and the bartender where in it for the same they didn't want to see me succeed. I had to obstacles in my way first was them and then there was her. I was just a bus boy not much else. I had paid my fair to get to Coruscant to find who I was but still nothing had come up.

I took off my apron and headed through the double doors back out into the bar where she still sat seemingly unfazed by all the whiskey she had been drinking. I made my way to a stool next to hers and sat down.

[Elena Van Derveld]

There was no bartender, now. There was no whiskey. Elena stared blankly at her reflection in the mirror behind the bar. She could see the piano man behind her, as he ran his fingertips over the ivory. The music was blurring at the edges now. It was fading into the background noise. It was so commonplace that it seemed almost like the murmur of voices. Elena narrowed her eyes. The whiskey had kicked in briefly. All of a sudden, there was another reflection beside her.

“Hello,” she tilted her head, looking at the face in the grimy mirror for a moment before turning to regard the man- boy, even- directly. She was taken aback, but with a slight aftershock from the alcohol present, did not outwardly show this. He wasn’t human.

[Wolf Bane]

The Woman acknowledged me first that’s always a good sign. She was even better looking close ether that or am really horny I though. I looked to the bartender and pointed at some booze on the self not knowing what it was just to look like I knew what I was doing. He served me up a drink as spoke with the woman.

"Hello, how’s it going this evening? Names Wolf."

I turned and extended my hand to the lady next to me. She didn't seem as drunk as she should have been. Nothing really amazed me anymore though since my arrival on coruscant all these strange aliens. Some I never would have imagined existed, although she looked Human I could be wrong though.

[Elena Van Derveld]

She would have smiled regardless, but his name just made the smile grow larger. Either he knew what he was and was playing up to it, or his parents had found great amusement in calling him something so ironic. Polite as ever, she accepted the handshake, giving a slight nod. “I’m Elena,” she replied, returning her hand to its comfortable position against her glass – half full, or half empty, she thought as she looked down into the dregs of the liquid. She smirked, trying not to laugh as she spoke, “Do you come here often?”

[Wolf Bane]

She hadn't seen me cleaning tables that was always a good sign. I could now bend the truth a little to my advantage and hope the bartender wouldn't rat me out just to get a few creds. The game had started and it was off to a dead sprint. Wolf just hoped he was in the lead not the tail end.

"No this is my first time I just came in from rutan a week ago. That’s where my family is from well my adoptive family anyway. So where are you from Elena?"

[Elena Van Derveld]

“You know, I don’t remember.” She began to laugh, a sudden tinny laugh. A large smile and she took another sip of her drink. “Somewhere uninteresting, suffice to say… covered in rocks and ash, everything in shades of grey.” A dismissive hand gesture let Wolf know that she did not care to expand on the subject. In truth, she knew good and well that she had begun her life on Munto Codru, but such things were for her and her alone to know. “I’ve never been to Rutan. Is it nice there?” he asked, childlike in her mannerisms.

[Wolf Bane]

"Its alright I guess I never really got to see much of the planet. I wasn't allowed to leave my house that much. I only recently was allowed to leave for here."

Wolf wished he could tell her more about his life on rattan but there wasn't much he could say. He had been home schooled, barely had any friends he could remember except the ones his parents told him about that supposedly moved away. Heck he barely remembered growing up it seemed like he had always been seventeen.

"Its strange really It seems like have always been this age I can't ever remember being younger. All my friends that had moved away and I honestly don't remember them. Only people I knew real well where my adoptive family the Banes and I even felt distant from them separated some how. I really wish I could tell you stories about rutan I was just never allowed to really see it."

[Elena Van Derveld]

“That’s so peculiar,” Elena drawled, eyes widening a little in conspiratory shock. “But you know, I know exactly what you mean,” she added. She too had always felt the same age, but then again that’s because she hadn’t ever had a childhood- oh, the angst. “Why are you here then, Wolf? Business?” the Lupine asked, quirking a brow at her company.

[Wolf Bane]

"Well I don't really know what I'm doing here exactly. I really don't plan to be here long just enough time to make a few credits."

I didn't want to bore her with my whole plan on spending the credits to have my blood tested up against those in the republic data banks. Then I would spend what was left to get a ticket to last know residences of those that matched my blood. It seemed like a good idea at first glance.

"The credits I hope will help me find what I’m looking for."

[Elena Van Derveld]

“And what is it that you’re looking for?” she inquired, her chin resting against her upturned palm as she stirred her drink. Hopefully he would say something like, he wanted someone dead, or someone hunted down. That sort of thing. The things the Sector Rangers were secretly doing, while pulling the wool over the Republics eyes. Perhaps she could make a little money out of this evening yet!