Coruscant First Charity Auction

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

He was sure she knew how nobility could be? Katrine gave an honest shrug to that statement. "Not a clue," she admitted. Van-Dervelds weren't exactly the galaxy type of nobles, rather the last remaining rulers of a distant world that few outsiders threaded on and she hardly allowed anyone to call her what she still wasn't even when they'd made the mistake of it. Sure, she knew some people said, Lady, because they were being nice but frankly, Katrine too the future title she was to inherit too seriously that she didn't allow its misuse. Father was Lord and for as long as he was Lord, she wasn't Lady. It made perfect sense in Katrine's head. "How can they be?" She asked though since clearly, Liber knew what he was talking about. He brought up her Uncle again. Katrine had two Uncles int his galaxy, one of them wasn't of blood and knew her while the other one she had yet to meet. The third one, she didn't think she ever would after hearing about the former elder of the family... But no, Liber was speaking of Uncle Isley who seemed to prefer to call himself Metus now though Katrine didn't pay much attention to that.

"My Uncle is the Vicelord of the Confederacy. He's not rude," Katrine pointed out as her head went backward on his statement. "What kind of questionable leadership? And what exactly is this Order you're in? Are you Jedi? Sith? Neutral? Something new? I mean, I'm pretty sure you're not Witches, that doesn't sound like a name Witches would use." Definitely didn't sound like a title Witches would use for themselves. Though, in truth, Katrine didn't know Witches would call themselves Mandragora until the spirits had called to her so maybe it was a quick judgment on her part. Not that she saw it so.

He knew very little but he definitely knew Father was once Viceroy, wondering about the experience and how he was welcome there during his position. Her little mouth formed an o shape as she thought about it. "Mother always said it was a good time. Confederacy outlawed slavery even the last time so the Twi'leks were quite happy about it. It was peaceful." She recalled parts of the stories she'd been told growing up. Ryloth had always called to her and she'd assumed easily it had everything to do with he stories Mother told her when she was a girl. "I don't know though. I wasn't here when it happened though. What I do know is what Mother told me when I was little... will tell me when I'm little," Katrine suddenly found herself correcting herself, something about the sentence munching at her brain with concern. "Sorry," she muttered a moment as the thoughts ran through her head, thinking about her childhood which hadn't occurred yet. Mother was supposed to be here now but she wasn't, she hadn't been in several years now, bringing her sudden concern for the future which was her past. "My thoughts distracted me," she admitted as she forced them away willingly, which wasn't an easy task.

Clarification came a moment later, at least she assumed it was that as Liber explained he didn't just want to know about her Father but also her and her family. And as though he knew how her head worked, the tall man told her he would tell her of his family if she told him of hers, giving her an incentive to continue, though first, she'd taken another sip of her drink. "We've got fur, tales, big teeth and sharp claws but you can't see it now. Most people assume I'm a short thing who couldn't lift a heavy glass," she revealed with a smirk though not offering an explanation of what Lupines really were. It was always entertaining to have people assume she was just a weak girl. There were too few of them now, and only the Van-Derveld blood left, that most of the galaxy didn't have the faintest idea of what they were. "It's mostly just the Van-Derveld Hawks now. My other Uncle is probably lurking about somewhere, hopefully, I'll get to meet him sometime." Rambling about, Katrine thought of her Uncle Cat again. Her name didn't have much to do with his though it could seem so. Mother named her with a single letter alteration of Father's name, who was Ket, though the full name was slightly different because as she had said, she had intended to fix the one she didn't like, which he had.

Her lips pressed together as she thought about it. There was a lot to say so she wasn't super sure where to even start. "What do you want to know exactly? My tree is long and has a lot of branches, with plenty of tales attached to all of them." It wasn't wrong, not at all. The Hawk tree was even longer than the Van-Derveld one, though it was only because they knew so little of the bloodline, going back just a couple of generations with their knowledge of their moon's history even scarcer. Liber was just going to have to ask her what he wanted to know.

The waiter passed them again and Liber stopped him, asking for another for him and suggesting her something sweeter. Katrine thought about it now, looking at the waiter as one of her eyes narrowed slightly. "Um, I think I wouldn't mind a Corellian whiskey," she decided. She'd only tried a few but she definitely liked more the likes of whiskey and vodka.

[member="Liber Cluvius"]

 

[Sargon Vynea]

The suppression of laughter wasn't easy, in fact it was down right impossible. Giving Jorus a cheeky grin straight into his camera nodded to Jorus, the randomized changes had put him back into the positive. "Seems we need to keep this quick, I've got a girl to take out for a nice dinner. Feth, a nice Mon Calmari show while we're at it, seems she's in need of a good night."

Nine of coins, two and a five, not nearly enough to feel comfortable but what could you do. "Tomorrow, open for you?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Simone"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Simone"]

Pouring over the firewall there didn't seem to be a vulnerability to exploit.

Nothing that would get her more access than to maybe the front-end homepage, to leave some kind of graffiti in the shape of her callsign. But with enough patience Simone would finally notice something. Not a hole, but a backdoor. It was the universal wisdom of cyber-security that leaving a backdoor in any firewall was a very risky endeavor, because while you could secure it?

It was still an opportunity for an accomplished slicer to attack it.

By the looks of it one of the SysOps had left it there for seemingly their own convenience. There were protections in place, but it was an avenue of assault if Simone was good and careful enough.

Risky thing, that.

 

[Simone]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Sargon Vynea"] [member="Itash Mecetti"]

Simone’s laughed as Jorus cranked up his music to drown her out. A hand moved to the controls, turning it back down. “Alright, alright i’ll beha-- holy feth, can he hear me?!”

The slip in concentration set her back, the firewall booted her clean out. “Kark!” she muttered, feeling hot under the colour and flushing a deeper shade of pink. She buried her face in her hands momentarily, laughing at herself.

“For you, Mr Vynea, my schedule is free and open anytime you like. ”

She was smirking uncontrollably now. Focus gorramit. She told herself and started the attack again, slipping through a wall that granted her access to the homepage she shuffled some vital links, and changed the image to something vulgar. Now she was having fun.

She fell silent for sometime, working her way through what she could seeking an opening. “Oh hello.” The backdoor was well camouflaged, she almost missed it. Almost, an minor glitch and she doubled back to see it. “Oh you beautiful idiots.” she murmured.

She kept the back door in her sights, and turned her chair around, kicking up another array of terminals behind her. Holoscreens sprung into life, pre written programs booting up. Defences and attacks in a variety of forms, personally designed by yours truly.

She rose from her feet, kicking the chair away. And lighting another cigarette. A wave of her hand and the backdoor slid into holoscreen form, all responsive to her gestures. “Alright boys, I’ve gotta got to work.”

She opened the back door.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Simone"] [member="Sargon Vynea"]

An Alderaan of twenty-one carried the hand. The third wheel collected the pot, comprising some of his money, some of Sargon's, and enough house funds to offset the price of admission. Everything he won after this would be icing on the sweetroll.

The third wheel stepped away from the table long enough to cash out the bulk of his win, transfer funds away, and take a leak. While in the 'fresher, he abandoned his earpiece under a toilet at maximum gain, for Simone's listening pleasure.

The third wheel returned to the table, received two new cards, and bought in with the minimum. Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

[Asteria deWinter]

Slowly, she had sipped her champagne slowly as her emerald gaze observed the crowds moving through the room before glancing to Oeana, and giving her a small nod. Nothing else was required as she used her communicator to summon one of the Red Ladies to rejoin them. Once one had, taller than the woman, Oaena handed her the purse she carried for Asteria along with the champagne glass from her hand before she left the ballroom, making her way through the floor in search of someone in particular.

Her most trusted employee was given a particular task, with the limited information they possessed, casually glancing at the faces as she moved before her dark eyes had landed on a single man, [member="Zeradias Mant"].

What Asteria's employees had learned was enough for Oeana to know whom to find. Found and leader all while being the disputed Mayor of the city. The high ranking Red Lady moved towards the man, yet as she approached, she addressed the man at his side. "Excuse me. Lady deWinter would like to make the Mayor's acquaintance," Oaena told the politician's company discreetly, waiting at his side briefly, to conclude. "If it won't be too much of a disruption, you may find us in the Ballroom," and once she had concluded, the Red Lady offered a polite smile before leaving their side to return to her Lady.

 

[Sargon Vynea]

Well the first hand was a bust, but this was about more then winning. Two new cards though could be all the change in luck he needed. "Well played, remind me is losing money at a charity event count as a tax deduction?"

Looking at his cards he grinned wide as he flipped an ace, a dangerous move considering the chances of going over with the random changes. "Care to call this in one?" Throwing a heavy pair of chips on the pile.

 

[Matt the Radar Tech]

"Oh, well," Liber said smirking. "Nobility can be very elitist. If you haven't done the rounds, or been part of the circle, some might go so far as to ignore a newer Viceroy's family. Not simply to be rude, but to ensure they aren't associated until such time as more information is available, to then determine if social interaction is appropriate... it's all very contrite, if you ask me."

The conversation was a little perplexing, Liber had to admit. A lot of his questions seemed to cause Katrine to get caught within her own thoughts, possibly dealing with events or relationships she'd rather not? Which wasn't the Prince's intention at all, as he didn't intend to cause any discomfort with - what he believed to be - courteous conversation. There had been a moment that made the young man raise his eyebrow, when Katrine had clarified a use of tense, when explaining something from her mother. Was Katrine implying she wasn't young yet? Was that possible? Or were there intricacies in the young female's life that not even she understood?

Not wanting to dwell on disruptive topics, and to avoid causing more prompts that Katrine found difficult to express, Liber decided to change his methods. One didn't grow to be groomed in royalty, and not be able to read people or see when a new way of approaching them was warranted. There had been a time when Liber had been discussing differences in mating practices and courting females with a Duros, no less, which had resulted in a very awkward and standoffish scene. Luckily the insulted individual had been talked down, a drink provided, and subjects changed - and from that day on, Liber had avoided any personal talk with a Duros. Only business from that day.

Katrine's mention of teeth and claws and fur made Liber raise an eyebrow. As did her admitting to everyone presuming she was physically wanting, to which the Prince scoffed and shook his head.

"You may be shorter than some, but that doesn't signify your physical capabilities," Liber inclined his head. "And are you a Gurlanin, by chance? I've met several in my travels."

And were that the case, Liber suddenly found the prospect of anyone accusing Katrine of being weak highly amusing; not least of which would be the sudden, and undoubtedly surprising, transformation into a deadly hunting predator, followed by the mauling of said individual.

"Well, I'll be honest, I had no particulars in mind for your family or their past," Liber admitted, taking a sip of the alcohol again. "I was trying to learn more about you, about your loved ones, expressing interest and not intending to pry... so, how about you share what you feel comfortable with, and I can do the same?"

[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]​

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Simone"]

The moment she began changing things on their website it set off a silent ping.

Publicity and out-reach were key when you were a business still busy growing, expanding in the Galaxy. The backdoor beckoned, but as she slipped through dark eyes were already on her trail. They didn't follow, instead they started to trace back. Far sooner than she would have any reason to believe. It began with a wide-net array to encapsulate the amount of connections she had established locally.

Who was she in contact with, if anyone?

Were they around? Nearby?

How far did the connection go and how many servers was it bouncing off of?

The observation occurred soundlessly, but perhaps even with sound it would have been imperceptible. Slicers do so love a challenge. The backdoor skipped the need for a heavily-encrypted password, but the next door was locked with biometric data. Eyes, voices, touch of the skin, things like that. They were always carried around, after all, so there had been no need to pass it by.

 

[Simone]

"Jorus, don't you dare."

Too late.

"Son of a queen." she cursed. There went her link to any support if she needed it. She disconnected the comms, shutdown the video (because Sargon was a disctration, all be it a good looking one, but a distraction all the same) and sent him a written message.

J E R K​

​

Give him my number.​

Back to the important thing. Not that her needs weren't important, but they were second priority at this point. Holoscreens bathed her in a blue light as she cross the threshold, code running past her eyes at almost unreadable speeds. Almost. Had she been a novice it would have been overwhelming, but she wasn't.

Biometrics were great, but even biometrics required programming, at the end of the day it was all code. She swept it to one side momentarily, bringing up her first defence. They'd have flagged her by now, that was certain, she just needed to keep them off the trail a little longer. A series of false flags sprang up across the district, enough to keep them busy.

Another swipe of the hand and the 'biometrics door' came front and centre. If she'd come across such a door in reality, she'd pop the panel off and rewire it. The theory here was more or less the same. She found a gap, squeezed through and started to unravel the door so she could slip inside.

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Sargon Vynea"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Simone"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Data was everything.

From voiced comms to texted messages and more.

​

JERK​

​

Give him my number.​

​

Someone... somewhere blinked at that and shook their head, before filling it away for later. Apparently the slicer they were handling right now wasn't just an expert, but they were also in the middle of a high-stakes date negotiations with someone within the hotel. Cameras were already homing in on the message's destination. Data left a trace and the signal could be relatively easily localized in a location that was specifically secured by a single party. Root access was funny that way.

The trace on the slicer's location had narrowed it down to about five districts.

Lower regions, poor, that would be a problem when they wanted to co-opt cameras... because they weren't there for the most part. But on the other hand, there weren't a lot of fast-processing HoloNet connections in these districts either.

Not the kind necessary to successfully break through Didact's firewalls anyway.

Simone's doorway was making good time though, once the variables were rewired by her quick thinking. It disengaged the voice protocols. That only left the finger prints and she would have pulled down this defense as well.

 

[Hazel Zanteres]

Hazel had grabbed a glass as she passed by a waitress, immediately taking a sip as she began to listen in on the conversations that were going on around her. A lot of it was just mindless chatter but the Hapan's sharp hearing picked up the main bustle of activity that seemed to involve a supposed mayor; [member="Zeradias Mant"].

She caught sight of a duo moving towards said man, recognizing [member="Cassandra Paige"] simply from how much Sinara had talked about the person behind GenPals. The woman had been mostly amused over the fact someone was using genetics to modify creatures into pets - but did admit there did seem to be a market for the things.

The Hapan listened as an employee of another guest approached Zeradias, but tuned it out as her senses flared up. Hazel sensed someone...no someones within the building - not in the crowd itself but hidden away all the same. They were familiar, and yet Hazel couldn't discern their identities. Whether from her untrained senses, or if they were cloaking their presence.

Either way, Hazel was distracted from that when she felt someone reach out for her across the Force. She hadn't heard Mishel's initial attempt to grab her attention, but this one certainly reached her. In that moment she noticed that the darkness that had been there originally was now absent. A rather amusing happenstance given the shift in roles since the two had last spoken.

Shifting through the crowd, the Hapan made her way to where she could feel [member="Mishel Noren"]'s presence, using it like a tether to follow until she got a clear view of the young woman.

"Mishel, I certainly didn't expect to see you on Coruscant - at a charity event of all things." She offered a smile, stopping in front of her. "How are you?"

There was no real surprise seeing Mishel using crutches, but the care and concern was present. It was certainly a better state from how the two had first met on Monastery.

 

[Simone]

Simone’s focus was absolute, the code before her was splitting under her finger tips but she was careful not to let her ego get the better of her. Good slicers lost their livelihoods to hubris and she was better than good, though she’d never say that outloud, that was simply asking for trouble. A quick glance at her defences told her someone was being nosy.

She moved the code aside for a moment, tapped into her false flags and deployed defense number two. Behind each firewall lurked a malicious virus with one single goal in mind: wipe data. All data could be recovered of course, but it was a painstaking process and she was banking on the time consuming effort of it.

The fingerprint coding was pulled front and centre once more, a roll of the shoulders and drag on the cigarette and she went back to it. Dismantle, redesign and pass through.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Cassandra Paige]

She inclined her head politely when they were approached, and the pair swept off to follow.

Cassandra was in her element. In truth, she didn't think an evening could get much better than this. There was the event itself of course, going off beautifully. To the benefit of Coruscant itself and to her personally, of course. She looked stunning and she knew it, catching glances beyond Tash's, even from those already engaged with a partner ([member="Liber Cluvius"]). It wasn't just the dress, it was in part the confidence that held her head high, drawing smiles in return for smiles. Just earlier that evening, in a slightly nervous comm call from GenPals PR department, she'd been informed of a potential rival- a sad, sad little copy cat of a company. Imitation they say, is the highest form of flattery. She had laughed, bright and bold, at the confusion on the other end of the line. Angry? Upset? Worried? How could she be any of those things? Being copied meant that they had made it- not merely in the business but in the social zeitgeist of the galaxy. And to have it be done so poorly? Well, that was merely icing on the cake. It told her that these would be competitors didn't even understand just what exactly GenPals did. What the appeal actually was. They saw the flesh and mistook it for the skeletal frame work, carefully built, and wondered why their meat statues fell down in heaps.

She couldn't have possibly been more delighted.

Her smile was genuine as she and [member="Itash Mecetti"] were shown to [member="Zeradias Mant"]. They had spoken briefly, but most of the details involving organizing this event had of course been done through people farther down in both offices.

"Mister Mayor, it is a delight to finally meet you in person. Lord Itash Mecetti, Mayor Zeradias Mant." Her smile was warm and cat like.

Eat your heart out mother.

 

[Mishel Kryze]

Mishel gave [member="Hazel Zanteres"] a smile and chuckled with amusement, "yeah... I came with friends you could say, they're probably rubbing elbows in there." She nodded toward the charity event itself. She hobbled up and gave her mom a hug, having a complete disregard for their surroundings if only for a moment or two. "Yeah, I uh, didn't um didn't expect you here either but uh." She shrugged, here they were at a rather important charity event for - all the wrong reasons - if Mishel had to gather. The propaganda posters put some of the best marketers in the First Order to shame.

She cleared her throat and motioned to the bench, "do you wanna sit or maybe we can go somewhere else? If you're not too busy." Mishel once more pointed to the casino, "it'd be nice to sort of catch up and then I uh, I can show you my new gnarly scar." The mention of the scar brought a rather silly grin to her face, "fun story, beskads totes hurt and you're not supposed to catch them with your gut." Mishel nodded with pursed lips keeping her laughter in, "although that chick never did answer my question about how Mandalorians go to the bathroom, oh and I have got to tell you the story about this." She waved a crutch, "turns out fam damily reunions with the Ren are just a hoot, ankle breakers those guys."

If she didn't laugh, she'd cry.

"Ah, good times, also did you know that I now own two ships? Two. Can you... well, c'mon- I think I saw a really cool noodle house that would just make Xer question all things, all over again." Mishel paused, "I mean uh if you want to go get noodles, also... can you... do you know someone who could fix this." Mishel leaned up against the pillar and lifted the back of her shirt, where new scars surrounded her neurotransponder, "see that? It got smashed on Dagobah, also part of the why I'm on crutches story..."

She lifted her gaze and focused on Hazel with the same child-like gaze she always had. Even though she could feel the change within her adoptive mother the teenager just felt good to be beside her again.

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Simone"]

'Good lord, is that-"

"I didn't even know a Gamorrean could bend in that way."

"Feth me."

"Yeah, I figured you were into- Ow."

---​

​

One counter-slicer would have had a difficult time keeping up with the sudden bursts of automated programs flooding the outer reaches of the mainframe. But half a dozen... had less issues once they managed to get their shit together. They isolated the effects, allowing them to go to town in designated zones that were determined expendable.

Ish.

They could scrub the drives later.

In the meantime they did something malicious. Subtly they managed to also isolate the traffic entering and leaving Simone's hardware, not enough to manipulate it in an extreme fashion, but enough to intercept and reinsert.

The silent trace had determined the block she was in.

She had to hurry.

The door bounced open for her, but there was a metric fethton of code and commands behind it. Almost enough to overload her with capabilities, now the alarms would be ringing hard and she'd know that a trace would be put on her now. Little did she know that the tracing had been happening this entire time already. But that was the effort Didact went through to protect their assets.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sargon Vynea"]

Sabacc went much, much easier without [member="Simone"] chattering in his ear. The next few hands were straightforward enough - win some, cash out, lose some, cash back in a bit. He'd been playing sabacc on tramp freighters against inscrutable aliens for the better part of half a century. A steady stream of Coruscant First backers joined the game, made some basic wins, lost enough to sting, and generally walked away - only to be replaced by more.

"It's psych war," he confided in Sargon at one point, sotto voce. "In the same sense as a sporting pistol's a turbolaser. Take their money, tie some negative association to Coruscant First, leave a sour taste in their mouth. Simple simple."

Like heck was Sargon one of 'them' tonight. The pair of them might have tangled across the Unknown Regions, but to Coruscanti elites they were just a couple of hicks with too many war wounds for comfort.

"So what brought you to Coruscant?"

 

[Sargon Vynea]

The pace of the game increased as his rose, a bit more slowly then he'd like but he lost as many as he won with Jorus at the table. "Coruscant, it's the heart of the galaxy no? A bit of everything here, you can the entire galaxy mixed up into one giant pot here. It's what makes it great, a micro-organism of how it all will end up if we're lucky. Yet somehow in the heart of the galaxy there seems to be this sickness, a want to turn back the clocks to a darker age when the 'alien' was a lesser being. It's silly really, we're all aliens in the end when you get right down to it. Sure it starts with the simple things, but once you start making x better then y it only spirals down from there. At least the Sith in all their darkness are honest, honey and silken words hide a rotten core here."

Taking a quick sip as they moved through another hand, wasn't too bad, negative twenty one. He always had a good feeling on the negatives, they just felt rarer to him. Of course Jorus was doing a mighty fine job of proving that luck couldn't be counted on tonight. "We both know I'm not against strong authority, in fact the soldier in me finds it comforting. It's all about how you treat your people though, how free they can be while you protect them. We may have never seen eye to eye on the Fringe, but at least there a man was free. The planets all got to vote, and follow their own customs, some of those were a bit off to me, but they were their customs. Telling a savage world it can't be savage anymore is a every bit as intolerant as telling a peaceful man he has to fight, you just hope that as the pot mixes the better pieces are what win out."

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Nobility could be elitist, Liber began to explain, talking about rounds and being part of the circle. They ignored a newer Viceroy's family. Apparently, that wasn't meant to be rude though it sounded like it, the whole determining if the social interaction was appropriate. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she listened to all of it. "it sounds rude," she shared. "On my planet, there were more noble families but they all pretty much died out due to madness and inbreeding. We're the last ones left on the count of having one of those factors." Obviously, she meant madness but Katrine didn't define madness as a problem. Mother and Father stipulated that madness was part of their blood and something undefeatable but the Van-Dervelds didn't inbreed nor had they ever according to their known history. Grandpa Diego was a boy slut, making kids and leaving them to fend for themselves that was probably the worst any of them had done in the last generations. Of course, Katrine didn't count mass murder Father did sometimes. Most of that though was something Mother told her about rather than her experiencing it herself and Mother defined it as grand romantic gestures.

Shorter than some but it didn't define her physical ability. "Tell that to them," she pointed out, though them was a pretty loose term. People were generally surprised when she showed strength. Though based on what she said, Liber went on to ask if she was a Gurlanin making her eyes narrow slightly. He'd met several in his travels but Katrine had to go through her head to figure out what she knew the name. There was a once mention of it. Father had called them a pretender before she'd learned their name. "Oh, no. I have a friend, his name is Rapax. I think that's what he is though Father calls a pretender. We're Lupines. Like regular sized canine wolves." Rapax was cute in his massive wolf form, and she believed that was what he was, a species Katrine didn't know existed until she met the Jart Shaman. "But I've never met a Lupine that wasn't a Van-Derveld. Last family and all that," she pointed out. The list of the Van-Dervelds she met wasn't that big either. Her parents, her siblings, some Uncles in name. That was pretty much it.

No intention to pry, just curious to find out more about her and her family so she was open to sharing what she felt comfortable with so he would do the same. She shrugged a bit. "We're cute and fuzzy, our fur comes in different color. Most of us have this shade of eyes, except my eldest sister since she has heterochromia like my Nona who isn't a Lupine at all. The humans on our planet fear us but it's their own fault because according to my Father, they inhabited our planet without knowing there was anywhere there, thinking they could just come and claim our world for themselves so they had to be submitted to the rule of the Lupines. You know, to know who's boss," she giggled as she said. "Hawks, on the other hand, are Dathomirian humans. Witches. The family's been running the Singing Mountain Clan since long before my birth. My Nona, who is really my Nona's Nona is still Clan Mother," Katrine continued, throwing in the other half of her family who was just as important to her. Of course, as she spoke, she didn't realize she revealed something important about the Lupines. Her parents were Lupines but Mother wasn't always one, she was born human same as the rest of her maternal family but even her sister was a full-blooded Lupine even though Mother, when giving birth to her was human because of the dominative gene. Katrine just didn't think about it anymore, it was something explained to her a very long time ago that it became normal to her.

[member="Liber Cluvius"]

 

[Talon Vosra]

"Well, hey there." He said, his well cut tuxedo screamed money, new money to be sure, but money nonetheless, "What's your.."

"No." She said as she idly ran an index finger around the lip of a crystal wine glass.

"I didn't mean to bother you, I just..." He said obviously unused to rejection with such swiftness.

"You just received a decisive 'No'." She finished for him as she looked up with her pale blue eyes, "and since you weren't intelligent enough to discern that I meant it, let me walk you through exactly why the answer to your attentions is and will remain a 'No'.

"If, by a strange turn of fate, I were to condescend to tolerate you for more than the two minutes you would without fail disappoint me. After that disappointment you would continue to disappoint until I could no longer tolerate you and one of us would have to leave. Judging by the fact that you have no fear of striking up conversations with people you obviously don't know, my suggestion would be to go find someone else who's time is less valuable to them and try again. So, my answer to you is no. But, please, feel free to have the last word as I walk away."

With that she stood, took her small hand bag and wine glass. The man stood silent for a moment and stared as she walked away. She was in need of some kind of diversion now, nearly anything would suffice. She walked along, her simple long black dress swishing along as she entered the sabaac area and decided that a lowb born game of chance would indeed be diverting enough to pass as entertainment.

She approached a table with an empty seat and sat her glass down before she opened her hand bag. She tossed a few thousand credits on the table to the dealer for a buy in and seated herself as the dealer entered her into the game. She crossed her legs and swept her long thick hair around to hang over one shoulder before she lifted her wine glass and held it calmly. It was an interesting group to put it mildly but then she was in need of interesting in a building full of some of the dullest people to ever be created. They served a purpose but that didn't make them less boring, did it?

"How do you play this game?" She asked as the dealer placed cards in front of her, "I'm afraid I'm just a young woman and ignorant to gambling."


[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Simone"] [member="Sargon Vynea"]