A Slicer and A Socialite

[Alric Kuhn]

Logan sat on a barstool within his favorite cantina, his chin rested on the bar itself, his eyes looking rather sad and mopey staring at a small glass of Corellian Whisky. He was at a loss. He owed nearly one hundred thousand credits to one of the biggest Crime Lords on Nar Shaddaa, a Hutt by the name of Jerric.

Jerric was a mean old Hutt, had hired Logan to hack into the defense systems of a Republic Star Destroyer. He had thought the task rather easy, after all the Republic was a bunch of idiots. What he hadn't anticipated however was the fact that when in drydock, Star Destroyers kept their systems localized, meaning that there wasn't anyone who could hack in, as there was no access to its systems without actually getting onboard the ship, and that was all but impossible for Logan.

This normally wouldn't be a problem as he could have just returned the money to Jerric, however...Logan had already spent it all on important things. Like the shiny new coat he was wearing.

So, without an idea in the world Logan slumped slightly, staring at his nearly empty whisky class in an attempt to come up with an idea to make one hundred thousand credits, in just seven days. Of course he could slice into the system of a bank or some such, but most of them on Nar Shaddaa were protected by...well the Hutts, and stealing from them would cause him more trouble than he was already in. Any other things he could do were much the same. In the back of his head his instinct of cowardice called to him, telling him to run as fast as he could.

He liked Nar Shaddaa though, and he didn't want to leave.

“BREAKING NEWS!”

One of the holo-screens in the back of the bar screamed loudly at him, and with listless eyes Logan stared at it.

“RAGING SOCIALITE AND KNOWN PARTY GIRL VIVIAN OCTAVIA HAS COME TO NAR SHADDAA. WHEN ASKED WHY SHE WAS HERE THE PARTY GIRL ONLY RESPONDED WITH. 'STIMS, SKIN, AND SIN!' MORE ON THIS LATER!”

Pondering for a moment why this was breaking news, and why the newscaster had felt the need to scream it Logan stared at the picture of Vivian Octavian. His eyes shifted slightly, icy blue staring at a pair of sunglasses. Suddenly, an idea formed in his cybernetic mind, and a smirk crept over his face.

Wealthy socialite running around on Nar Shaddaa with likely expensive and very ill protected computer systems? Yes, that would make a very nice target. He could take her, use the datapad she undoubtedly carried to slice into her parents back accounts, and then steal the money he needed. His smirk grew wider, and suddenly he jumped from the bar stool. Blink needed to repair.

“HEY!”

The bartender shouted after him as Logan rushed out of the Cantina. The blonde man only turned back and yelled “I'll catch you later!”

And then rushed out the door, never to return.

 

[Evelynn]

DJ, turn it up.

Vivian Talina Octavia came to Nar Shaddaa with a neon crash, entourage spilling out from the luxury yacht into the spaceport with reckless abandon. Playing bass-smothered beats from portable speakers without a care for those who might have craved sleep. No, this was Nar Shaddaa! Wake up, people! It's time to frak and party!

The paps came crawling, they love a good train wreck, put on a show. Headline after headline. Princess Vivian Gone Wild – Page 3. Princess Vivian Heard Uttering Xenophobic Slur, But Which One? - Page 2. Princess Vivian: Disowned? - Page 3. Half of it was speculation, the other half truth. It didn't matter, any publicity is good publicity. There was something sweet in that anarchic party living. It was a grotesque display of excess. The opposite of punk.

We are the one percent.

She could imagine the expressions of her dear old mother and father as they're directed to the glaring holo-screen. “STIMS, SKIN, AND SIN!” They'd be appalled, as per usual. Same old, same old. The shame of Belleau-a-Lir. Let's hope little Elara wasn't watching the escapades of big sis, as she strutted around at night with those over-sized sunglasses and outrageous piercings.

With a near limitless amount of credits to play with Viv and her selection of faux-friends hired enough speeders to make the owner of Rent-o-Speed a very happy man and with no care or consideration for other drivers upon the moon the party posse sped off into the night.

Destination?

Club Trop

Hottest destination on Smuggler's Moon, y'know? VIP list. Private suits. Freedom of press, freedom from press. How else are you going to sneak a dealer in and get some stim on the move? Let's take this party in the back. We can dance later, when we're seeing stars.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Logan had made his way back to the shabby run down apartment he called a home.

One would figure that if they got their hands on nearly a hundred thousand credits that they would upgrade their lfestyle a little bit, not so with Logan. Instead he had chosen to upgrade his personal computers, buy a few drinks, and of course get his hands on some...other entertainment. Oh yes, life was sweet for Logan when he had had that money, and that sweetness would be his again very soon.

With a slow almost swaggering step Logan made his way to the holo-terminal mounted on the far wall. He smiled slightly, and began to look at the starport records for Nar Shaddaa. There was no need to slice anything, all traffic to and from the planet was recorded, or at least all traffic that a spoiled socialite might use. Finding out the rest was rather easy. He searched for speeder-renters near the airport, and found the one that was completely and entirely rented out. He knew that would be the one Vivian Talina Octavia had hired out. He smirked slightly, and then picked up his comm, dialing the frequency of the speeder renter.

When a young woman picked up, his grin only grew larger.

“Yes hello. I'm from Informa-tech, ID Number 133932, we run all your security systems. I'm having a bit of trouble, it seems your administrator has set up some type of password that...well its just not supposed to be there and its causing some real trouble. Now I don't want to make the trip down there and get anyone in trouble, so if you could give me that code we'd avoid a little bit of a kerfuffle.” He drawled out his words, enunciating smoothly and sounding as intelligent as he possibly could, not hard for him. Unsurprisingly the woman on the other end of the line complied with his request and delivered the security information for all of the speeders under their ownership.

People really were idiots. Speak with a voice of authority, and most people listened.

Logan plugged the security key into his wrist-mounted computer, gaining access to speeder systems in a heartbeat. Brute forcing the system would have taken hours, perhaps even days. Part of being a good slicer was knowing when to take the easy route, and Logan always knew.

He smirked slightly, and headed out of his apartment, grabbing his jacket and holstering his blaster, he had a date.

 

[Evelynn]

They made their own rules of skies.

Airspeeders weaved in and out of the clogged mess of Nar Shaddaa. It was evident to anybody who had a brain that most of the speeders were in fact being piloted by those both under the influence and over the limit. Petty crimes liked drink driving didn't apply to the upper echelons of society. A tap on the wrist and that was the end of that.

Princess Vivian: Piloting Under the Influence! - Page 2

Father had been livid about that one, but ultimately his rancour became flaccid (my, that's not a pretty sentence). Forget the influence, shove it in your pipe and smoke it. Better yet. Letting her speeder stop in the constant air traffic of Nar Shaddaa, the young woman reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked to be a small Hersh'ika's Kiss made out of paper.

One for the road.

A glitterstim bomb.

The paper package went down the hatch, a safer alternative to drug consumption when one's schnozz is feeling the strain. Only problem is that it took a little time to kick in.

Speaking of kicking it. Initially Vivian didn't notice that something was so clearly wrong in this situation. Ever been playing a racing game and you start off looking at the wrong screen thinking that you're player one? At first you're like, yeah, this is my screen! Then about six seconds later you've actually driven off a cliff and your guy isn't responding just quite like you want to.

Well, tuns out that Princess Octavia was player number two. Awkward.

“What...?”

The woman jiggled the controls, all the while slowly losing her already depleted patience (she didn't come with a lot of that). Feet stomping on the peddles. Smashing the buttons. Hell, she even tried to change the radio station but nothing responded. Her speeder had gone rogue. With a frustrated shout Viv drove her palm into the middle of the steering mechanism, producing a soft thwop on that genuine leather.

Hire luxury. Softer on the hands.

No biggie. She reached over to her bag, she'd just call up one of the guys on the com and they'd come stop this hunk of crap and get her out of there. Wait. Where the frak was her comlink? Teenage girls and handheld devices, am I right? Not realising that in a spiced-out stupor she had thrown her comlink at a homeless man upon Coruscant Viv was lost.

Well not for words.

“PALPATINE'S PECKER! WHAT IS GOIN' ON?!"

 

[Alric Kuhn]

What was going on was quite simple, Blink had taken over the speeder.

When one had the access codes and knew what to do with them overriding a ships auto-pilot function was actually quite simple. Logan wasn't actually controlling the ship, he had simply told the auto-pilot that it needed to go somewhere, and then had proceeded to shut down the on board systems, radio, air conditioner, and really anything else that was an optional luxury to ensure that Vivian the starlet did not manage to somehow escape, though Logan highly doubted she was intelligent enough to even understand what was going on.

From the small screen on his wrist he watched as the speeder drew closer on the map, a smile drawing on his face as Vivian's speeder peered off from the rest of the group and rushed towards him instead. This really was all too easy. Most civilian tech was easy to Slice into, depressingly so actually.

With a smirk, Logan pressed a key on his computer. The limousine rounded the corner just down the way from him and slowly slipped to a stop in front of him. With dashing ease Logan drew the his WESTAR-34. He didn't really intend to use it of course, but the spoiled little brat wouldn't know that. The door to the limousine popped open, and before the girl could move to jump out Logan let himself fall into the speeder.

“This seat taken?” He said as he pointed his blaster directly into her face.

This was too easy.

 

[Evelynn]

This is why landspeeders are the way to go. She might have had a chance to kick through the windows, the door and made a dangerous tumble out. But in an airspeeder? No such luck, unless it's going to be Splat City, Population: You. Of course she tried everything she could, banging upon the windows, trying to get the attention of other drivers but unfortunately...

Tinted windows. Foiled by minor celebrity status.

So like a victim in a Final Destination flick Viv was helpless to be taken wherever the speeder was going. The woman folded her arms across her chest. Petulant. Furious. This was not her way, and Vivian Talina Octavia was not accustomed to not getting her way.

Lips pursed but teeth gritted. Whoever responsible for this was going to pay. If they had a job, they would lose it. If they had a family, they would leave them. Whatever they had she would make sure it was taken from them and all for this grand inconvenience.

The speeder slowed to a stop, and in a sudden flurry as she moved to dash out of the door she met with the body of a man, who jammed a blaster right into her face, much to her immediate horror. She recoiled, not actually wanted to be shot point blank in the face.

How very dare he.

“WHAT. THE FRAK. DO YOU THINK. YOU ARE DOING?”

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Logan smiled, good, she was smart enough not to get herself hurt. He had been worried the girl would attack him and he would have to do her harm, that would not at all have been good. At heart Logan was a coward, all he wanted from this girl was her money, and if he could get it without actually harming her it would be all the better.

“I'm robbing you. Now give me your Datapad.” It was so simple. He reached over to Betty and pressed a key on the screen. The door to the limousine shut itself and immediately the speeder rushed off. Staying in one place would be foolish, it would give her friends time to catch up, and that was not something he wanted. “I promise, I don't bite.”

Logan gave her a little wink.

He would try this the easy way first, ask for the datapad, if that didn't work...Well he had another trick or two up his sleeve. Still, his face twisted into his most charming grin, perhaps she wasn't so stupid after all.

 

[Evelynn]

Robbing? Robbing?!

She could have laughed. Credits. Credits can buy you almost anything. From a bantha burger to a life. There wasn't a lot of life's wonders that couldn't be unlocked with the power of wealth but publicity was an odd one. Money didn't buy decent publicity. No, no, you end up with fourteen year old girls realising awful songs like Zhellday and becoming the laughing stock of half a year.

A robbery? That was traumatic. Poor Princess Octavia! They weren't her credits, after all. No, this would be brilliant.

Vivian sighed, as if the blaster pistol pointed in her direction was a toy. A life of excess and privilege had lead to this casual attitude of invincibility. Alderaanians, y'know?

“Keep your trousers on, loser,” she sneered, a callous blue stare glaring at him through those oversized sunglasses. She moved to her bag, rummaging through the various contents of mystery (ladies and their receptacles, amirite?) before pulling out her iCompanion 9X, almost brand new and throwing it in his direction.

“Here.”

 

[Alric Kuhn]

“You wound me.” Logan said flatly as he caught the datapad with his free hand. Of course it was the nicest money could buy, why would he expect anything else. The clothes she was wearing must have cost more than his apartment. She was a socialite in excess, he doubted that she could even use this thing properly. He sighed slightly, thinking about the wasted technology that had gone into this womans hands.

He pulled a small cord out form Betty, plugging it into the datapad and pressing a small button.

Almost immediately the small Slicing computer went to work. Of course in modern day a Datapad could be used for almost anything. Communication, browsing the holo-net, shopping, and even finance. What Betty would be doing was taking any and all information Vivian had of her bank accounts, and using it to crack those bank accounts. It was actually a fairly simple program, and one that worked rather quickly.

On the datapads screen bank account information began to flash, and with a grin Logan started speaking. “You know, you really should be nicer to a person with a gun on yo-”

Suddenly he cut off as Betty gave a loud beep. He frowned slightly, the program should have taken another five minutes at least. Even his Slicing skills weren't that good. Carefully Logan's eye flickered down at the datapad, looking at the account information.

It was empty.

All of it was empty. Four separate trust accounts, reportedly worth millions upon millions of credits were entirely devoid of any and all funds. His eyes bulged in shock, and he immediately looked at what he assumed to be the cause of this lack of funding.

“HOW IN THE HELL DID YOU SPEND EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE MILLION CREDITS!” That was what the information he had dug up on Vivian had said she stood to inherit from her parents in her various trusts.

 

[Evelynn]

That does bring us to this grey area of self-defence, why didn't she have something for defend herself with? This was Nar Shaddaa, was she really that silly of a girl? Well, actually I'll have you know that Vivian was backing heat, or at least her handbag was, but this was no moment of desperation. It wasn't worth dying trying to play the quick-draw game with this skeezeball.

Don't be silly, billy, that's dangerous.

Something had him surprised.

There was mystery. Intrigue. Perhaps he was a crappy little hacker who couldn't do it. It began to bring a smirk to her face but then...

What?

“WHAT?!”

Without care or concern for being shot in the face dearest Vivian reached over and snatched her datapad back from loser-boy, hopefully damaging the device he had plugged into it.

Empty. Empty. Why the frak were they empty?! No, they wouldn't. They hadn't. Panic rose in the girl's chest as her beloved bank accounts flashed unfeeling zeros at her. They had.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: Princess Vivian: Cut Off? - Page 1

“You!” she screeched, pointing a ring encrusted finger at the grotty little thief-man, “fix this! Immediately!"

 

[Alric Kuhn]

“ME!?” He practically screamed the words, no he did actually scream them. Betty became unplugged from the sleek datapad as the girl tore it out of his hands, and out of pure shock Logan made no move to shoot her, though he probably should have and saved himself months of misery. “There's nothing to fix! You Spent it all!”

The Thought that she would be cut off never occurred to him. His parents weren't rich, not even close to it and had always supported him even when he had been a criminal, the thought of having them deny him what was his? Impossible. So the idea that her parents had willfully taken all of the money that was “hers” never even entered Logan's head.

“I can't get back what you've already spent!” He needed that money, and this numbnuts had spent it all.

Panic rose within him. What was he going to do? The Hutts would come after him, mercenaries, and bounty hunters, and everything else they could muster would be sent after Logan. He would have to go on the run, he would have to disappear and leave Nar Shaddaa. No, this was not at all good.

 

[Evelynn]

She snorted, disgust mingling with rage tinged with panic. “Spent it all? Spent it all!?” the woman repeated, throwing the datapad across the confined space of the speeder. Probably shouldn't have done that, honey, you can't afford a new one. “Don't be so bloody pedestrian!”

As careless as Vivian was with credits she wasn't that careless. There was two kinds of super-rich. There was outrageous bar bills and very happy drug dealers and then there was buying hats at auctions for trillions of credits and portions of businesses. Now logically it is the latter that should have nothing, not the former. She was careless, not mentally deficient.

“I've been...I've been...”

She couldn't bring herself to say those words of horror.

No. Vivian Octavia was not going to sit and be stunned by this revelation! There had to be action! This needed to be fixed because this was a mistake and all monetary mistakes have to be remedied.

“We...”

We?

“...need to call my parents! Pronto, Tonto! Now! Get to it!"

 

[Alric Kuhn]

We?

Why would he be involved in this, he was trying to rob her. Logan blinked a few times, trying to understand what was exactly going on. She apparently had no money, no funds at all, though she seemed to be under the impression that it was not her fault. "Listen lady, if you think i'm gonna help you get you-"

He cut himself off, realizing how ludicrous he was sounding. A frown settled on his face, then a thought occurred to him.

If Vivian Octavia's trust fund was nearly worth a Billion Credits, then the source of that trust fund was likely many times that, and the source of course...was her parents. His frown disappeared into a smirk, his mind having put it all together.

“Give me your communicat-” He cut off suddenly as he noticed the small device next to him on the acceleration couch, apparently the girl had thrown it over here in her earlier panic. With a satisfied shrug Logan picked up the small device, beginning to flick through the numbers on the thing until he found a number that simply read 'dad'.

Well that would do. Logan plugged Betty into the communicator, running a small program that would alter his voice, then he quickly dialed the number and placed the device onto his ear.

“Mr. Octavia, I have your daugh-” His voice was cut off as the communicator was snatch from his hand.

 

[Evelynn]

Good, even with an empty bank balance she still had a monkey doing her work.

Manicured nails painted varieties of neon (with Twi'lek tips) tapped impatiently against the leather interior of the luxury airspeeder. If this wasn't a mistake...

No. No. They wouldn't do that to their daughter, even if she had coming steaming off the rails. Talk about coming in like a wrecking ball, move over Miley, you're not even that offensive.

Ignoring whatever game Robin Could-Not was playing Vivian snatched the datapad from his sticky little grip and throttled the device. This thing could make calls? Huh. The socialite had been using it to play Flappy Bantha while in transit from party destination to party destination. See, this is the magic of the cloud, already had her address book ready and waiting. Coulda called a friend while your speeder was hijacked.

Three cheers for the technologically deficient, eh, Logan?

“Father!” came the voice, shrill and demanding, “What, have you done?!”

There was a sigh. He'd been mentally preparing this speech for years now.

“Vivian. Your mother and I, we have let you down. We...we didn't give you the attention that you needed as a child, you were not raised properly and for that we are terrible sorry, but this, this has to stop.”

“What. Has. To. Stop.”

“This! This reckless disregard for credits, for you family, for yourself. Vivian, we care, we really care...but..”

Dangerous waters. Did the Duke and Duchess of Belleau-a-Lir really care? Or was this some practised spiel been waiting in the cupboard for this moment in time. Hard to say, in the mind of the spoilt daughter this was all just to spite her.

“But...what...?”

“We're cutting you off. Your mother and I wish for you to find yourself employment, learn to resp-”

“WHAT?!”

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Logan watched the exchange for some time, his eyes darting from Vivian to the little Blue man on the communicator. He frowned slightly as he said the words cut off, but then smiled at the word love. Okay this thing hadn't completely gone down the drain yet he still had a chance to make his money, still had a chance to escape out from under the thumb of the Hutts.

Letting out a loud sigh and gripping life by the nethers, Logan thrust his blaster into view of the Communicator, right against Vivian's temple.

Seconds later the girl would find herself with a dirty sock forcibly stuffed into her mouth, Logan's shoe now sitting on the floor.

“Listen up old man! I have your daughter in a limousine, by herself, with a blaster to her head.” Stating the obvious likely wasn't the best thing in this scenario but Logan was hardly a regular at the kidnapping game. “You will send one million credits to your daughters bank account, or she will die.”

There, that was easy.

Once the money was in Vivians account it was easy enough to take it for himself using the Slices he had already put in place. Sweat beaded on the back of his head, no, he wasn't used to this at all.

 

[Evelynn]

Of course this tender family moment had to be disrupted.

Unfortunately credits held more value over her own life as the blaster came back into play, leaving one already outraged girl just that little more disgruntled. Did he not realise the sheer importance of this moment? She was about to give the petty criminal a mouthful, but apparently he got there first.

A mouthful of sock, you sickos.

She shrieked through the cheesy fabric (brosephine, when was the last time you changed these?) as the upstart made his demands. Oh, what a fool! Perfectly plucked eyebrows found themselves raised as he made those ransom demands. One million credits? So small fry, she was definitely worth more than that.

Unfortunately her would-be-kidnapper made the awful mistake of having his victim snatch the datapad from his very hands. Not exactly the most convincing, eh? Looks more like they're a pair of friends in on the act.

Duke Rubis Octavia sighed.

“Now really, Vivian?”

“Mph, MPHFF!”

“Do not contact us again until you have gotten your act together, young lady. I will not have you shame this family any further."

The call ended. Life ended, and Vivian Octavia moved to swing at the face of the man who held a deadly weapon at her temple.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Logan's eyes bulged, though whether with anger or surprise or a modicum of emotions was hard to tell. Perhaps it was fear, fear of the Hutts of course, not Vivian.

The smack that came at him was seen out of the corner of his eye first, and unfortunately for Logan, he did not have the reaction time to stop the hit from coming. He felt the soft hand of the socialitism strike upon his face with a harsh clap ringing in his ears afterwards. He almost called out in pain, but instead he simply dropped his blaster, and went for her neck.

Both hand surged forward in an almost cartoonish manner, aiming to wrap themselves around the girls throat in order to choke her.

“HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!” Logan called to her as his hands began to wring around her throat.

This girl had ruined everything! She had taken his money! Ensure that he would be indebted to the Hutts for years to come! It was entirely and completely her fault that he owed this money, in no way could this situation possible be because of things he did, nope.

 

[Evelynn]

No, no, slapping him once wasn't good enough. He needed to be slapped, and then slapped again. How could they do this, it just wasn't fair! Find employment? As if. As karking if! No, no. Vivian's first taste of discipline wasn't sitting very well, no, she might have spewed. In fact, she probably would have spewed, but there was still the matter of the would-be-kidnapper sitting beside her.

Who was currently in the process of...

...oh dear.

With hands around her neck and a sock in her mouth Princess Octavia found herself being choked by the enraged nerd. Oh no. Oh hells-to-the-no. The nails came to play.

“MF MPH MPH MPH MPHH?!”

After that very coherent sentence those neon nails that hung over her finger tips by about an inch (great to use as 'stim nails, by the by) went straight for his face. Thumbs going for the eyes. Hopefully she'd blind the stupid twat.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Before Vivian could repeat the fantastical of The Mountain, Logan decided it would be best to release the little girl and keep both of his eyes intact, after all a blind Slicer wasn't much use to anyone and if he was going to run from the Hutts, well he would need to keep everything he currently had, his sight included.

So, instead of having his eyes gouged out by ten little knives, Logan rolled to his side, sliding onto the floor of the Limousine and taking Vivian with him, using his knee to kick her off him and down the length of the massive speeder.

Unfortunately for him, three nails managed to dig into the side of his face, pulling away skin and drawing blood.

“Gah!” He shouted at her, clutching a hand to his face and looking at it to find only blood. “You brain dead Schutta!”

His shout was almost loud enough to hear outside of the Limousine, not that anyone would particularly care here on Nar Shaddaa. Picking up his shoe from besides him on the floor, Logan hurled it at the womans forehead as hard as he could, hopefully knocking her out with the heavy custom leather boot.

 

[Evelynn]

Oh dear. Scrapping on the floor on the airspeeder. What a classy couple.

Vivian wasn't really one accustomed to fighting, a few cat fights in the little girls' room but nothing more than that. SNAPPED! Princess Vivian Punches Bathroom Attendant – Page 3. Good times. Fond memories. Let's wipe a quick tear for public toilet incidents long since past.

Finally she pulled the disgusting sock out of her mouth, being sure to spit several times just to try and get the taste of decades old cheddar out of her mouth.

“Me brain dead?!” Vivian responded with pure raging venom, “I'm not the one that can't even pull off a simple kidnapping!”

Just as those last few words left her lips her head turned to face him, just catching a glimpse of the boot that was hurting towards her head. It bounced off of her temple with some wicked act of physics causing the boot to spiral off into the front of the cabin.

It knocked her back, but not out.

“...I would have picked up the blaster...not the shoe...you complete tosser...”