Familiar Face

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member=Lancem Cuiléin]

Nakia stood outside the door of her small undercity apartment, her ice blue eyes scanning the street to either side. She was eagerly expecting a guest. How long had it been since she and her cousin had spoke face to face? Years, that normally passed by so fast for the three-hundred year old Anzati, but it felt like it had been an eternity. She was almost giddy to ruinite with her family. Lancem, the middle cousin, would be but the first. After him would follow her older cousin Tristan, the younger morgana, and, most excitingly of all, her twin brother Lanval! Everything would be like old times again, like before they had all gone their own ways.

Nakia had ended up here, in the Coruscant underworld. She'd been here for six years now, and by now she knew the ropes of the business. She knew how to make use of men, and how to discard them. She never left potential problems, as getting rid of them carried the added bonus of feeding as well. Stories had quickly begun to go around, and Nakia had built up a reputation among the stallholders and storekeepers around her safehouse. This was well and truly her turf now. And yet enforcers kept flocking to her employ, following her around and helping her collect protection money before they too were discarded. It had become a cycle. Men were self destructive idiots.

But all of this was small time. Once the Cuiléin clan was together, they would expand their operation. Tristan had it all planned out, and now Lancem would be here first to help her. The purpose of his visit was this, he would be her enforcer now as they worked together, but Nakia knew he was just as glad to see his family again as she was to see him. So she got to toy a bit with these people, show Lancem how feared she was around these parts, but most of her attention went to the approaching meeting.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem stepped down the dark alley, moving casually over the limp form of a Rodian who appeared to have picked a bad place to sleep the last night and had ended up being struck, probably with something fairly heavy based on the green blood currently oozing down the side of his head.

It was dark this far down, and it was difficult for him to tell whether it was day or night, oh well, who cared. It really didn't matter what time of day it was, what mattered was that he was going to be seeing his cousin Nakia for the first time in nearly six years. He had desperately missed the company of his family, and Nakia's was no different, especially the comments that both of them made about eachother. They were humorous most of the time, and tended to be in good humor, at least for him they were.

From across a walkway he thought he recognized the apartment block she was in, and peeking out of the door he saw a figure which he recognized immediately as hers, it was something you couldn't just forget, even after years. It especially was easier when she was still wearing the skimpy clothing she was fond of. He spent a moment flicking on the hood of his jacket as he casually stepped down the way. He probably exuded energy right now through the Force, but he could care less.

As he neared her door, he looked towards the ground, allowing the hood to stop his face from being seen. "Hello Nakia, I have become the embodiment of a depressed and emotionally dysfunctional man-child with the ability to choke the life out of all of the puppies I see." He spoke with his best impression of a dark-sider before flicking off the hood and giving his cousin a firm hug. "I've missed you Nakia. How much is this hug going to cost?" He slyly whispered as he released.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

Nakia eyed the figure that approached from the darkness suspiciously for a moment. The underworld was full of creeps. But she grinned as she closed her cousin in her arms. "So what else is new?" she said to his imitation of the Sith. She stepped back and looked Lancem up and down with a critic's eye. "Let's call this one a freebee. You couldn't afford this, darlin'," she chided with a smirk. "I've missed you too. How have you been? Have you seen Lanval and the others? How are they?" She wanted to know everything.

As she asked her questions, he gestured at the door and swiped a keycard over a reader set into the wall. The maglock bleeped, and the door slid open. "So this is it. Home sweet home," she announced as she gestured around the room with her arms spread wide. Her voice sounded like she'd just called a poodoo heap good eating. The furniture, aside from the holo-projector she had used to sporadically communicate with her family these past six years, was sparse. A blaster carbine leaned against the wall by the door, and the maglocked door slid closed behind them, but there were no other signs of security, let alone comfort. "If you're staying, you can sleep on the floor. Morgana can share the bed with me," she said. It was most likely more comfortable to sleep on the Cuiléins' ship, since it had staterooms for all five of them, but the ship wasn't here and this was Nakia's place. She'd earned it, and it was hers. With the support of her brother and cousins, Nakia had big plans for this place. She didn't bother asking Lancem what he thought. He'd tell her anyway.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem grinned and stepped into the building behind his cousin. It was a decent looking place, though it was definitely matching it's area as it wasn't terribly rich and didn't hold any sort of extravagant trappings like many people tried to put in their buildings to try and make them feel as though they were special.

"Nice place, little on the less than wealthy side of things, but I don't blame you for that. Personally i've been sleeping in random and scattered motels and caves for a long while now, so I guess it must be nice to own your own place and not have to make sure you don't get Soup on the floors." He blurted rapidly in his usual style as he shifted himself about the room, taking in it's sights.

He smiled lighty as she asked about the rest of the family, truth be told he hadn't seen much of them yet. In fact, Nakia was the first one he'd seen so far, the others shouldn't have been too hard to find though. "I'm not sure about the others, I assume they're alright. Thanks for the floor offer as well, it looks a lot nicer than other places i've stayed. So, Nakia, besides the obvious activities I can percieve from your outfit, what have you been up to?" He questioned with an obvious curiosity and a longing to learn what the Family had been doing during their absence of each other.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

"Oh, I don't feed here," she assured him with a grin. "I always use their place, so I can be messy all I want... all over the bedsheets." She knew the comment would make her cousin uncomfortable, though he may not show it. That was what she did it for.

She turned and sat down on the edge of her bed, by far the softest seat in the place, and kicked a chair over to Lancem. "What, you mean have I been turning tricks? At first, yes," she admitted. "I needed the money. Now, it's all for fun." Lancem knew well enough how Nakia hunted, that she liked to sample before she fed. "I've got a little protection racket set up. Got a bit of a reputation. You don't pay up, you get found in an alley with your brains scooped out somehow. Very scary stuff," she grinned. "I practically own this block and a couple of others. Nobody's tried to muscle in yet, but I have some connections when they do. Once we're all together, we can build on this. There's nothing we can't do." She fixed Cancem with her black and ice blue eyes. "Speaking of which... I've got some payments due."

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem frowned slightly at her first comment before breaking out into another grin. "I'm sure that's not the only thing making a mess on the bedsheets when you're around, Nakia." He snickered to himself quietly for a second before returning to the conversation at hand.

​It was a good operation that she had running here, one that he wouldn't mind being a part of, at least for a little while until he got himself settled back in with the Family and their movements and activities. Besides, it was always a good thing to help family, even if it meant you had to go to some idiots home and beat them over the head with a vase until they relented and finally gave you the credits you deserved, or rather thought that you deserved.

"Seems like a nice idea you've got going. I figure you need to make sure your consumers are re-acquainted with their namesake, I suppose I could tag along if you'd like. Perhaps help you with your consistent beating of men, wouldn't want you to be alone in a room with them after all, that sort of thing is dangerous." He smiled wickedly, his eyes showing that he meant it would be dangerous in a sense that was not usual for the scenario.

He leaned into one of the walls, sighing quietly as he continued looking about, finally escalating his gaze once more to his cousin, Nakia. "I've been doing mercenary work, learning a few tricks here and there. Gotten pretty good at the whole sleight of hand stuff, but there aren't many places to show that sort of thing off." He left out the story of what he'd gone through his first two years of being alone. He left out how he'd endured self-torture in a horrid attempt of bringing back their parents, of how he'd sliced and diced himself, frozen himself, burned himself all in a worthless prayer that his family could return to him.
He left it all out.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

Nakia's stare didn't let off as Lancem told his little story. Her icey eyes bored into his for a long, long moment. "I know you, Lancem," she finally broke the silence. "There's something you're not telling me." If it was something Lancem wanted to hide even from his family, Nakia thought, it must truly be bad. After a few more moments, Nakia sighed and stood. "Fine, have it your way. Let's go."

With the door opening for her passing from the inside, Nakia passed by the DXR6 carbine and stepped outside. She wasn't expecting trouble, and she had her S-5 anyway, but maybe Lancem wanted to bring the weapon. "If you're feeling insecure or you need some help to look dangerous, you can bring the gun," she said teasingly. "Oh and cousin," she paused as she stood outside waiting for him and turned to face him again. "Lose the scarf. It makes you look like uptown folk. People here don't like uptown folk," she warned. Whether he brought the carbine or nor, and whether he took off the scarf or not, she didn't really care one way or the other, though the scarf might be a minor inconvenience at some point.

From her safehouse, Nakia led the way to a small eatery. It was run by a scruffy-looking balding Human in his late fourties with rapidly greying hair, or hat was left of his hair anyway. "Len," Nakia called as she entered. "I hope you didn't forget like last time, honey. I told you what would happen, and I'd hate to lose a source of income." "N-no miss Nakia, I aint forgot," Len stammered hurriedly, sliding a sealed cred stick over the counter. Nakia slid it into a datapad and looked over the readout. "You're short," she observed. "It's all I have right now," the man stammered. "Please." "Oh, Len, Len, Len. What would that look like if I gave you a second pass, hmm?" Nakia cooed as she hoisted herself into a sitting position on the counter and swung her legs over so she could drop off and land next to Len if she wanted to. "It's bad for business." she said, towering over the Human as she sat on the counter. "Wait! I have something..." Len said hurriedly, backing away from her and rummaging in a cupboard behind him. Nakia exchanged a glance with Lancem to indicate he should be ready in case Len tried something. But Len only presented a second credstick. Nakia snatched it immediately. "You trying to cheat me, Len?" she asked. "N-no! Please... I need that money for the other guys. They got guns an' they said if they didn't-" Nakia stopped him with a gesture from her hand. "Where can I find these other guys?" she asked. "I don't know..." "That's unfortunate. I'll see what I can do about our new friends." With that, she winked at the terrified shopkeeper and swung back away from him, dropping into the public area of the eatery again and heading for the door. "I knew this day would come," she said. "I'm glad you're here. Let's see what we can find out."

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem shrugged once as he removed his scarf and tied it around is waist in the fashion of a makeshift belt, he didn't want to lose it after all. It had to have been in style at some point or another and he was perfectly joyful with bringing it back to it's former glory as an item of men's apparel. That sounded really feminine he decided as he reached for the offered blaster, maybe he needed to stop thinking like that...it was probably Nakia.

He slung the blaster's strap over his shoulder as he followed after his cousin. When they reached their destination he was vaguely surprised to find such an older fellow was the one who was recieving this 'protection'. After all, didn't Nakia like to hit on the younger ones, maybe he had misjudged something along the way, who cared?

He listened to the conversation casually as he leaned against the door, standing in the way of any attempted escapes though it seemed the fellow was perfectly content with holding a reasonable conversation. From what he could gather of the talk, there was apparently a rival group trying to inch in on Nakia's turf, which didn't bode well for them at all.

As they left the building, he broke into a smile. "For a few moments there I thought you were going to straddle that poor fellow to death, that would not have been something I would like to watch." He snickered to himself as he walked, gradually unshouldering the carbine. "So, we going to go kill things for the sake of currency and possibly dinner? Because i'm pretty hungry if i'd be completely honest and I really hate the idea of people taking advantage of my poor cousin. He spoke rapidly as he spun around, waiting to hear what she had to say about things.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

"Who, him?" Nakia had to laugh. "Does he look like the kind of guy I'd sit on? You must think I have no standards."

To his questions on what they were going to do, Nakia shook her head. "First we need to find out who's behind the attack on Len," she said. "Probably a small time crew, or I'd have heard about it already. But rest assured, if they think they can muscle in on my turf they have another thing coming." Again, she started leading him down the alleyways of the underworld. "We're going to see an information broker. See what he knows. I'm sorry, but you'll have to go hungry for a bit longer. No eating this guy... yet. He's useful to us."

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem merely smiled back as he followed after his cousin. She was a headstrong sort of person wasn't she? Though he didn't doubt that this small time petty gang that was trying to muscle it's way into his cousin's turf would be dealt with quite viciously and efficiently. After all, they both had to eat sometime today and he genuinely doubted that she had already.

Stepping over the alley-way garbage he watched his cousin weave her way through the duracrete undergrowth that was the city and it's less than happy underworld. "We're going to an information broker? That sounds costly and not at all worth our time, can you not find some other way of hunting down the prey?" He asked softly as he flickered his senses around him, watching the life-forms which he thought of as food.

"I don't think i'll eat your friend, you've got plenty of other recommendations for people I can eat i'm sure. After all, even with your standards i'm positive you get around to knowing people, don't you?" He asked as another grin spread across his face.
It was fun talking to family again.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

He wasn't wrong, at least. Nakia was acquainted with some people she'd rather not be in the same room with, but that was part of the murky streets of the undercity. The information broker was one of them. Still, it was the very fact that these people knew how to survive was what made them useful. "And what does that make you then?" she fired back. "A hermit? These last six years have been tough on you, haven't you?"

"Anyway, it's this guy's job to know stuff like this. Have you got any bright ideas on learning who we're after in time for dinner?" She shrugged. "Besides, sometimes you have to... grease the wheels a little. Paying a broker for information makes it less likely he'll sell you out for a different paycheck."

They came to a doorway with a barrel chested bouncer guarding it. Nakia stepped forward and stood so close to him she was practically rubbing herself against him, and placed her hand on his chest. "Hey honey. Here to see Andurgo." The man nodded and grinned stupidly. "Da's okay." Nakia grinned wickedly to herself and stepped through the doorway when he cleared the way for him. As she walked, she knew he'd be turning to watch her, so she wagged her hips to put on a show for him. "See you soon, darlin'."

When Lancem tried to follow, the doorman stepped up to block his path. "Just the lady," he said.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

He just shook his head. Of course it was what these people did to eachother down here in the dark and gloom where no one could find them. They were foolish still, tearing each other apart as they tried to fulfill their prophetic dreams in an attempt to mirror the goals of those they idolized.

Even here in their home they were like sheep to Lancem, sheep who groped around in their darkness fulfilling their self-pity and their elaborate schemes in hope that it would provide them some form of sacred providence from the place they found themselves in, that someone their plots and the daggers hidden in their smiles would somehow escalate them into wealth and happiness.
"I don't want to talk about the time i've spent away from you and the others, Nakia. It was not a good time." He said, all the joyful mirth and teasing gone from his voice as he shook his head, blinking away memories and unconsciously moved his hand along his stomach.

Lancem couldn't help but grin however when he saw Nakia provide a little show for the large guardsman who held post near the doorway. She was clever sometimes, playing off of the idiot's emotions and lust to allow entry to a place which would otherwise likely have stopped her. Perhaps they needed to start hiring female bouncers to keep their male counterparts at a level-headed state of mind.

Nonetheless, he was a bit upset when the bouncer stopped him from entering.
"I'm sorry? I can't enter the establishment?" He asked, both upset and curious as to why.
The bouncer shook his head, standing steadfast in his way though he offered to no response as to why Lancem couldn't enter. That was alright, they would be good friends in about six seconds. His fingers and the fellow's neck would be anyways.

"You know what I really hate? When people hire Gamorreans for a job that was obviously suited for a being of greater mental persuasion, it especially doesn't help that with all your stuffed away weight you try to act imposing as though your petty and worthless existence somehow musters up to the excrement procured by your fellows." He taunted as he stepped forward. He hadn't used language like that in a long while, felt good to extend his vocabulary. The man probably didn't understand most of it, but the parts he did get contorted his face into anger as he sent a fist hurtling towards Lancem. It jolted against his hand as he stopped it, the movement surprising the fellow as he didn't expect such a smaller man to stop his blow.

Lancem sent two fingers in rapid motion into the man's throat, barreling him over as he began to wheeze and choke, hunching over in a wicked sort of agony. "I'm going to be entering now, alright old chap? Good, if you ever bother me again, i'm going to break your arm and shove it so far through your jaw that it will explode. Understood?" The doorman gave a subtle nod of fear before slinking off towards the ground as he continued trying to catch his breath.

He stalked into the building, moving to the side of Nakia as he shook his head. "Sorry, had to deal with a problem." was all he said as he waited for proceedings to take place.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

Nakia had figured her cousin would be able to deal with the bouncer, and he didn't disappoint her. She only hoped the broker's thugs wouldn't mind him casually carrying that blaster around inside. "Oh, you're sorry?" she echoed with a bark of laughter. "I wonder if you spoiled the taste. Maybe I'll find out soon."

The hallway opened into an open floor lined with various booths. It seemed exclusive by undercity standards, with fake red velvet and far too many lights. It even looked like it had been cleaned and dusted at some point in the week. To one side was a counter with half filled bottles lined up on shelves. There was a barman, of course cleaning a glass, and a tio of armed thugs lounging at the bar. Two more stood by either side of one of the booths, occupied by a grinning Dug. The rest of the place was empty.

All five of the thugs raised and readied their weapons when Lancem came in, but the Dug waved them back. "Ho ho ho ho. Who's your new boyfriend?" the Dug asked. In answer, Nakia only winked. "You of all people should know that kind of information is worth money, Andurgo," she said. The Dug ran his fingers along the strand of skin that formed a sort of moustache and laughed again. "I know what you are here for, Nakia," he said. "Andurgo can help you. Can give you location. You would like that, yes?" Nakia didn't answer, only tossed one of the two credsticks she'd gotten from Len before onto the table. "You'll get the rest if the information checks out," she said. Andurgo pawed up the credstick without even looking at it, and it disappeared under the table. "Hrrrm. You come here with guns, you only pay me half. Maybe Andurgo takes the rest now." To his signal, the five thugs raised their blasters again.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Some people weren't very clever, other people had reputations. For example, Nakia had a reputation for taking many mates apparently as was evident by this Dug's sneering taunt. He would have corrected it if it would have mattered, in the end he didn't need to correct every single idiot this side of the Sun. That wasn't his job.

What he was good at doing was listening and waiting for situations to become really bad, like right now. He didn't like it when people raised weapons at his family, that just wasn't kosher to him. That was something that rude people did when they didn't have any other options except to try and fight. He could kill three of them, he knew he could kill three. The other two would both get shots off before Nakia could react though wouldn't they?

He'd just have to try something else, he kept the carbine pointed at the ground as he nodded towards one of the closer guards. "Awfully aggressive aren't we? I don't see why we can't just calm down. Everyone have a nice civilized chat, after all, you all know that their is more money in being reasonable than in being foolhardy and tough. Your boss knows that, except he's...he's not telling you is he? Are you being lied to? How could someone like yourself fall for such a trick, we need to ask him." He spoke softly, his words barely reaching the man he was speaking to as he manipulated his mind.

The man shook his head for a few moments before spinning around to face the Dug. "Ya've been cheating me? You knew the whole time we'd get more money for keepin' quiet and ya didn't tell any of us!?" He shouted as he raised his blaster. The guard beside of him shot him through the side, downing him instantly. Lancem was next, the carbine and his Anzati reflexes acting in tandem as his time of mercenary work struggled through his mind, a blur of blasterfire surged through the air. They were stunning shots, no need to kill people and get everyone mad. Still, they worked well enough, downing three guards.

The final one raised his own blaster and fired, the searing heat striking Lancem in the shoulder and sending him into a spin before he collapsed to the ground, grinding his teeth in hatred and pain as he flicked up his carbine and sent a killing blow through the guard's throat, spraying gore onto the wall. "There, I fixed...your problems...just talk to that idiot Dug will you?" He groaned through clenched teeth.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

As the dust settled, Nakia was at Andurgo's throat with her vibroknife, but her eyes were on her cousin. "Lancem, are you alright?" she called, concern obvious in her voice. Andurgo backed away as far as he could against the far wall of his booth, but Nakia's knife remained at his throat as she advanced with him. "You never show much care for your boyfriends, Nakia. This one special, yes?" the Dug enquired with a grin. In response, Nakia drove the knife forward further, and the vibrating edge drew blood. "You better talk fast, Andurgo." "Okay, okay! Is a crew runs from level two-two-six. Two flights up," the Dug spoke quickly. "Is old warehouse on district. Andurgo set them up. Guy's name Polluk Leem. Is Gran." "You set him up? You set me up!" Nakia hissed. "Leem pay big for getting rid of competition. Is nothing perso-" Andurgo's last words were drowned by a pained gugling as Nakia's blade flashed forward, burying itself into the Dug's throat.

As soon as the body hit the ground, Nakia turned and rushed over to her cousin, her bloody knife still in her bloody hand. "Lancem! Lancem!" She turned to the bartender, who stood still staring at the carnage with his jaw hanging down. "Medkit! Now!" she snarled. "Oh, uh, yes miss," stammered the bartender, producing a medkit from behind the counter. Nakia snatched it away and wasted no further time to apply a synthflesh patch to her cousin's shoulder wound, and finally she calmed down somewhat. "Better?"

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem didn't much feel like doing anything, in fact he was perfectly content to do nothing at the moment. Pain did that sort of thing to you, he could feel where the blaster bolt had fused and scorched muscle and tissue and it hurt quite a bit to move his shoulder. That didn't bode well, then again, when did being shot ever bode well for anyone?

He heard a faint gurgling sound and the thud of a body that were easily enough recognized even from where he was laying. Mercenary work and murder for your entire life taught you the sounds of death, the dying gasp leaving the creature's mouth as it's breath left it's body for the final time.

He got the impression that Nakia was worried about him, which was nice. It was good to be in the company of those who loved you and who you loved back, much better than in the company of paid professionals who would much rather leave you behind if you were wounded in the hopes that it would allow them to pick up a larger paycheck at the end of the day. The synthflesh melded into his own and he had to grind his teeth, lightening a squeal of agony that left his mouth. After a couple of moments he began to return to normal breathing albeit heavy from the pain.

This wasn't the worst pain he'd been through, it was no where near the worst pain. Yet, this was different than the pain he had endured, the pain which had been his worse had been self-inflicted. Or...had it been? Was the pain from his physical wounds or from the psychological wound he gained after he had lost his parents, because the psychological wound had been fatal, and the physical one had not. His face grew reflective before he snapped out of it, reaching a hand over and clasping it onto Nakia's knee as he groaned. "I'm alright, don't worry. Just hit...me in the side of the shoulder, hurts a whole lot, but I think i'll probably live. Did...you get the information you came for? Because if not i'm going to be horribly horribly upset with your powers of reasoning, especially if they didn't tell you even in that outfit."
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

Again, there was something in Lancem's eyes that told Nakia he wasn't telling her something. She nudged him in the ribs and stared at him, eye to eye. "You're just like your brother, you are," she chided. "You boys and your macho poodoo. Come on." She helped him stand up, hoisting him up with an arm under his good shoulder. She took him over to the dead Dug, and let him down into the fake leather couch of the booth. "You need to get your strength up. Go ahead," she said, gesturing down at the dead Dug.

While she left Lancem to his feeding, she went over to one of the thugs, one she knew was their captain of sorts. She sat herself down on his chest, her legs on either side of him, and slapped his cheek. "Wake up," she bit. The thug awoke with a start, and quickly found he was pinned down from moving. "I know you've got the info on Andurgo's contacts," she said. "You're the new info broker. From now on, you and your men work for me. If you don't..." Nakia took the man's head between her two hands and turned it to direct her gaze at the Andurgo and Lancem feeding on him, if he was. "That will happen to you. Got that?" The man gulped and nodded. "You'll keep operating out of this place. Its income will go to me. You come to me for expenses. Anyone comes for information on me, you tell them to take a hike and you come straight to me." Nakia broke into a wicked grin and finally stood up from straddling the thug's chest. She offered a hand down to help him up. "I feel like we'll have a much better working relationship than with your boss between us, don't you? What's your name?" she cooed, suddenly a whole different person. She didn't know it consciously, but the power of the Force was in her words as she pulled him close. "Yes, ma'am... Balasor... My name is Jake Balasor," the newly minted information broker said, flustered. Satisfied, Nakia turned away from him and smirked to herself. They made it too easy sometimes.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem winced slightly as he was dragged over to the dead being, it's neck had been rippled open with the vibrating slash of a vibroblade, that much was obvious in how the throat opened up unevenly, a regular blade would have left a cleaner mark. Unless of course Nakia was just messy with her food which was completely possible as well, he glanced over at her now as she straddled one of the men.

He really hated feeding in public, meant he'd have to probably kill some people later on before they could rat anything out. Then again, no one knew his name or even that he was related to Nakia which meant they should both be safe so long as he didn't move about this planet's underworld too much. He leaned in towards the face of the dead meat, releasing his proboscis' as he stopped almost as if he were going to kiss the thing. They slid up it's nose and a slight slurping sound later he could feel the being's Soup travel into him. Nourishing though bitter from death.

It took him only a few moments to satisfy himself, even now he could feel his strength returning to him though in his mind he knew it was purely psychological. People didn't actually heal better just because they ate food, though eating food was required for them to heal at all. It was strange how that worked. He stepped over to Nakia and her new friend, Jake Balasor as he gingerly rubbed his own shoulder before giving a pat on the back of his cousin.

"Thanks, I really appreciate that. It's nice to be back with the family Nakia, I was alone among people I didn't know for so long. Now I feel like i'm gradually-" He stopped, wincing badly as the word home came to mind. It brought with it bad memories and he felt the shriek of heat build up once more in his shoulder as he shook it and the thought away. "What now?" He replied as he suckled on his lower lip.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

Again, Nakia frowned. "There you go doing that thing again where you don't tell me what's up," she said. She gently punched his good shoulder. "You know we're not talking about that." She'd let him off the hook for now, but something was wrong with Lancem, that much was clear.

For now, though, there were more immediate concerns. "Now we track down the piece of poodoo who thought invading my turf was a good idea. A Gran named Polluk Leem. Him and his crew should be in a nearby warehouse, two levels up. You think you can handle it?" She started for the door, glancing back at Balasor over her shoulder. "We'll be in touch, Jake, darlin'," she called back, and blew him a kiss. The Human, as expected, was clearly conflicted, staring from her to the mangled corpse of his former employer and back. He'd get over it.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

She knew. She knew and yet she could not know the troubles that had swirled in his mind for years. They were not the same as with so many, they had not made him cruel or aggressive, had not uncurled in him some form of repentance to make up for his past actions. They did not change him and yet they had changed everything that had held to him, they had eroded him and though he clung for security suddenly he had found his crag in the world to be shattered, shapeless and flowing underneath a powerful ocean of greed, anger, and...sympathy.

She didn't know, she was subconsciously reading it off of him, from his grimaces and his remorseful looks. She could probably sense it off of him as easily as he could sense the being who ;dumbfound, bore his eyes into her back, confused as to what he would do. "Nakia. I'm not hiding anything from you. There is nothing to hide. Please...stop." He spoke softly, once more his usual readiness and energy leaving him as he tried to shut down, shut down all the thoughts.

It was hard, trying to forget something that had been with you for so long and then was suddenly gone. He had to manage, his emotions come under his control and a false grin spread across his face as he tried to exude confidence in his lie, that everything was alright and would always be alright and that nothing wrong would ever happen. "Sounds like a lot of fun, I suppose I can do my usual number of walking into places and shooting assorted gentlebeings in the throat before consequently being shot myself. For both of our sakes I think you should take up belly dancing and try to soothe these idiots before they try to soothe us with fire." He joked as he stared into her eyes, wondering just how far she'd take her creeping into his thoughts.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]