Private Backwater

[Trextan Voidstalker]

It was not the most pleasant stew he had ever eaten. There were the legs of some creature he didn't recognise in the mix. It didn't seem to be poisoning anyone and he was hungry.

The space port here was a clearing in the middle of forests. With almost no industrialisation almost the entire landmass was covered in dense forests.

Trextan had a six hour journey ahead, with not a single cafe along the way. To the south of here was a small settlement. Just a few hundred humans. Someone there had an old comm unit. Passing by Trextan had picked up the call for help. They claimed a group of trandoshan had moved in, stealing all their food.

It sounded unlikely. The Force told him that something was amiss here.

Trextan cast his eye around the bar. People hiding from the galaxy and some locals in plain, drab tunics. Trextan looked out of place.

Not as much as the Zeltron girl sitting at the far side of the bar, looking concerned. The one he had been watching intently as he ate.

--

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

(no judgey the phone google doc post mess this all is! Snoopers!)

Kyra ate quickly, trying to ignore the attention her age and appearance had been garnering. It was true when they say small towns had people that knew everyone in it. Suddenly all the lessons in the world couldn’t prepare her for how obvious she felt sitting in a bar in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

She shied deeper into the supple leather of her jacket and stuck her face into her tankard, taking a deep breath to try and clear all the thoughts she felt flickering up her way.

Her eyes snapped up, onto Trextan. The blue of her iris’s were deep and questioning, the padawan reaching out with the force to get a read on his intentions.

And emotions.

And mind.

She’d take what she could get, ok?

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

The Force fluttered around Trextan, then snapped into a wall and cut her off. His eyes widened a touch. He was powerful in the Force, more than she was. However he didn't have the finesse to go unnoticed. No sith assassin would have been so clumsy with it.

Trextan pushed up off his table, leaving the remains of the stew behind. He carried the mug of blue milk with him, which he set down on Kyras table.

The hand holding that mug was artificial. Smooth lines of dark metal, rather than a fancy prosthetic. The robotics continued up his wrist, but his shirt hid how far it went before meeting flesh.

"And who are you?" he asked, helping himself to a chair.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra’s eyes widened in turn, the girl quickly realizing she had prodded a bear she’d prefer remained sleeping. Inside Silver Rest, other force users were abound. But out here?

Well. If he was a sith, he’d probably already be overwhelming her.

She told this to herself as he stood up and walked straight to her table.

No…. there was no tellling herself she had imagined that. Her gaze skimmed him for the bump of a saber. Instead she found herself met with the sight of a cybernetic hand. ...Definitely a saber user, then.

‘And who are you?’

She did not remove her face from the tankard, the cup practically swallowing her features whole.

“Information like that comes at a price,” she bluffed, stiff inside her chair.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"I…what? Right. Oh."

Trextan frowned. He was very new at this "Warden" business. It wasn't really a job, but more of a set of principles. He had seen far more war than anyone should have done, thrust into the wars between the One Sith and the Alliance, and then the Alliance and One Sith because of his heritage. He had always been an attack dog, not the one with the leash.

Anyone with some more experience of travelling the Rim on their own would have seen through the gambit. All that swagger he had marched over here with seemed to falter.

"Well, how much for who you are, what you're doing here and why you just did...that…" he said. He waved one hand back towards the table he had previously occupied before using it to try and control his unruly black curls. He failed.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra smiled sweetly, the tankard finally lowering to show the soft smile on her lips.

“Did what?” She challenged, with a tone that match the innocience her wide eyes abruptly started to portray.

The gentle edge of pheromones crept through the air, Kyra looking expectantly up to him. Confusion pinched convincingly at her brows.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Pheromones would be far more effective on the young man.

"When you…never mind. Let's start with the other questions," he replied. He had been about to call her out on what he knew full well she had done.

He started to get the sense that she wasn't as much of a threat. That there wasn't a need to press the matter.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Subtle glee danced like like through Kyra’s eyes, the girl leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table.

“Why?” She leaned in, reaching out to finger at his drink curiously. “Questions are so tedious, don’t you think? Like pop quizes-” she released his cup, allowing it clunk back into his hands. “Nobody likes them.”

Had she always been sitting right beside him? She was now, the faint grinding of a chair leg mixing in with her words. Her arm brushed against his, reaching up to pull back her hair to the other side of her shoulder, exposing the long length of her neck. It was unblemished. All of her was. She hadn’t seen a battle, even her arms looked too soft to hold up a sword…

“Why not start with an easy one? Names. What’s yours?”

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

She seemed perfectly friendly in fact. The girl probably had a touch of natural force sensitivity and had meant no harm.

"I'm Trextan," he replied, offering up that much easily this seemed a fair exchange. No amount of pheromones would make him reveal his surname. Voidstalker was well known, synonymous with the Alliance. Jacen Voidstalker, his father, had personally fought the Dark Lord of the Sith and come out alive.

"I'm just here because of a bit of trouble to the east of here," he said quietly, leaning a little closer. His brow furrowed as he decided he probably should not have offered that up o quickly. He didn't have a lightsaber visible, that was hidden inside his arm. He did have a serious handcannon hanging from his hip.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra grinned widely, her shoulders relaxing back. She had this. And JJ said she needed the force to keep control of a situration. He just didn’t like her pheromones.

Puft.

“Aw, that’s nice of you,” Kyra responded easily. “Helping out?” She fanned herself, meming hotness. Really she was just trying to keep the juices flowing.

Too much?

Probably.

She was clumsy too.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Yes, well, I'd rather not say too much about it," he replied, gaze very obviously falling to her lips.

"Just some trandoshans camped out giving the locals some trouble," he added, giving the game away entirely.

"Right, well, actually, should get going on that," he said, staying in place.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra’s gaze widened, shock parting her lips. “Hold up. Did you say lizard people?”

Her hand snapped to his knee, keeping him in place. “Where are they? Are there silver people with them? Where did you get this information?”

How serendipitous that the very scum she was looking for had already been located by this poor bloke with balls.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan leaned away, narrowing his eyes. He wasn't sure that lizard people was a nice way to say it. He wouldn't take well to being called an ape-person.

"Silver people?" he asked, assuming she meant some species with silver skin. He could not think of one off the top of his head.

"Are you looking for them?" he asked. The question rising up through some of the fog that clouded his thoughts. It was odd how it took so long to get back to why she was here.

 

[Kyra Perl]

“Yes, I’ve been tracking them for days!” She released his leg, no longer interested in swindling him now that she had inadvertently gotten out of him what she was looking for. And more.

He was harmless, she was sure.

“Where are they? How do you-“ her eyes widened, the girl jerking back in turn. “Waitaminute. You’re not SJO, are you?” Her attention scattered around them. If she was caught she was in serious poop.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Oh those Silvers," Trextan replied. "The useless pacifists on the edge of the Galaxy?" he asked.

He looked down at where her hand had been and then back up at the girl.

"What was your name again?" he asked. There was a touch of uncertainty in his voice now.

When had she come so close? If she was tracking them then what was she?

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra gave a snort. She wasn’t useless! And he was dodging her question, frustratingly so.

They were slowly beginning to get each other. Or rather. They were both coming up with more questions for the other to not answer. Kyra wanted to know what he was if he wasn’t some “useless pacifist”. But for now she’d just settle for were the escaped convicts had gotten to.

Kyra had been tracking them halfway across the universe. She wasn’t gonna let a gullible boy stop her now.

She forced herself to take a deep breath, Yuroics reminders to pace herself echoing through her.

She smile up at him, leaning back in her seat. “Kyra. I’m Kyra.” Slowly, she focused back in on the pheromones she had drop from use. She yearned to give her lessons with JJ on persuasion a proper try, but she sensed it wouldn’t go well with this stranger.

He felt powerful. Disconcernly so.

“You’re going to stop them right? Gonna need help with that. T r u s t me. Up north, right?” She wagered, raising a brow as she watched for signs of his reaction.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan had gone from deeply enamored to very confused by the zeltrons girl. Only the residual pheromones still influencing his emotions kept him from walking away in frustration.

"Hang on," he said, shaking his head lightly. His expression had already given away that it wasn't North.

He cast a suspicious glance around the room, making sure that she did not have backup. Clearly there were people interested in them. A pair of young off worlders, especially an exotic zeltron, garnered attention. He didn't sense any threats.

"I don't need any help," he said firmly. "But yes. If they are bothering the locals and stealing their food then I will deal with them."

This time the Force briefly danced around the young man. He was not adept at concealing his power at all.

-

 

[Kyra Perl]

“Ok, fine! But if you’re going south know that there’s a bunch of raiding down that path. Crossed em myself. Took my underwear and everything from me.” She pulled and indignant look, still hedging for details.

Her nostrils flared at the spark of the force around him, the girl beginning to grow too impatient for this game.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Oh by the Skywalkers they are roughly east but you'll never find the village by just walking that way. You will have to come with me if you want to find them but you'll need to tell me why…

"...wait, they took what now?" he asked. Trextan had almost been on a roll of defiance there until that particular word registered and seemed to give those pheromones purchase on his faculties once again.