From Respite to Wreckage [Talos/Hugh Seyley]

[Connor Harrison]

The girl was confident, he’d give her that. Why had he helped her? He didn’t much care to see an innocent being put upon, never mind a woman, so felt he could easily step in to right the wrong. It proved that the man inside wasn’t as dead as maybe he wanted.

She talked fast, sharp and to the point, not letting him get a word in as they ambled forwards to the outpost going into the city. She left him with an address, a time and a reminder how the violence was as much to him as breathing.

He watched her go in the city, passing by a trooper with ease. Talos looped his hands on his vest and sighed.

”Foolish.”

----------

The city was still alive at midnight, but far quieter. Few ships landed in the starports and a handful of cantinas still were packed, but the streets were empty and a few random patrols kept the peace as much as they could be bothered.

Talos, however, was on the edge of the city where the nightcrawlers came alive once the suns went down. The loud music; the jeers of patrons drinking away their credits and gazing at the dancing girls. This place had always been the one to give Mos Eisley the moniker of housing a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

He stood opposite the neon illuminated cantina, watching people go in, stumble out and drive on in speeders. His eyes took in everything around him, his breathing calm. Even at night, he was warm thanks to letting the planet abuse his body in a way he felt one with it in order to survive. Arms folded with tight muscle, Talos watched, and waited to see how much fire the Mando girl really had.

[member="Malica Drezyan"]

 

[Malica Drezyan]

In the hours between dusk and midnight, Malica had acquired a stim, two blasters, and a disarmed thermal detonator. The stim was flowing through her bloodstream, inserted through the meat of her left thigh. Masking the damage done to her in the canyon, the stim made her feel healthy. She hummed some pop song she'd heard over the holo-net as she rode her speeder toward the Four Roses, tapping her fingers in rhythm on the handlebars. The two blasters adorned either infamous hip, fitting better than a dancer's skirt. The streets of Mos Eisley at night were a breeding ground for every vice imaginable. Malica weaved through traffic, avoiding a circle of gamblers playing dice.

As Malica dismounted, a pair of young men snorted spice in the open against a building. Equally effective at scaring off gang kids as it was junkies, the sight of Malica's helmet caused the junkies to flee to another alley; many a broken spice addict arm could be accredited to a Mandalorian mercenary. Malica activated her speeder's lock code and sauntered around the corner of the building into the street. Her long fingers traced elaborate orange and red tags of graffiti.

The disarmed thermal dentenator was in a pocket of her black flight suit. Malica walked a block to the Four Roses. Over the heads of the patrons entering and exiting the bar, between people smoking and laughing, she spotted Talos with his arms folded, near the entrance. She took a few steps forward, intending to meet with him, but stopped, distracted.

"20% off drinks tonight for gamblers!" said a Theelin at the door, handing out fliers. She was wearing the bottom of a dancer's outfit and a t-shirt, cut far above the midriff and stretched across her chest, reading: "Four Roses - You can't win if you don't play." The girl next to her wore a similar get-up and yelled, "Win a fortune at the Sabaacc table!"

Reya. The Theelin had been 18 when Malica left the Four Roses two years ago. Yalus must have been offering her a nice paycheck, or had convinced her he was, if Reya had ignored Malica's advice to leave. The two girls were probably bringing the credits home to parents to feed starving siblings. Fabulous business model, Yalus. Employing Mos Eisley's attractive impoverished youth. Things hadn't changed at all.

Reya spotted Malica first. Her counterpart noticed Reya's fixed glare and followed it. She turned to go inside to tell the bouncer and Reya caught her by the wrist. "No, Ari. Let the bouncers take care of it. We're working," Reya said, and the girl resumed shouting and flirting with the men outside the bar. She thinks she's giving me a head start. Dumb girl. No doubt Yalus knew Malica arrived as soon as she parked her speeder bike. Reya threw Malica a conspiratorial glance. She has no clue what I'm up to and I don't give out warnings twice. Dumb, dumb girl.

Malica joined Talos on the side of the building. She removed her helmet and lit a cigarra. She offered him one along with the disarmed thermal detonator. "Are you ready to put on a show, my friend?" She asked, with a look of crazed excitement; a precursor of wild, violent situations. Malica took a drag on her cigarra. She giggled into the crook of her elbow and then giggled again, writing it off as an effect of the stimulant.

[member="Talos"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Talos was thankful the gas helped kill many of his nerves, but also distorted his sense of smell because he imagined the place was rancid. He'd been past it many times in the past but this was his first time inside. Kail Ragnar would have gotten obliterated here with the booze, the broads, the gambling...but not now. This was a magnet for desperation in Mos Eisley, and everyone inside the building except he was a predator feeding from a prey...they were just too desperate or dumb to see it.

A few glances here and there, a few whisps of smoke blown in his face, red nails dragged across his arms, glances thrown his way from smugglers didn't matter. Talos watched Malica every step she took. What was he, a silent protector? She was certainly going further than expected to put on a show. Except he didn't think this was a show.

Stumbling over to him, Malica was giggly, wide-eyed and unsteady on her feet. She looked very inch a sure-handed girl, but right now she looked an air-head. Talos looked down at her, and then back out to the chaos before him.

"What do you need me to do."

His voice was deep and broke through the music above like a knife. Quickly taking the dead thermal detonator so no one else saw, he battered away the smoke from her cigarra.

"Those things will kill you. Filthy habit."

He turned back to the club, eyes piercing the room and making a note of all exits, all heavies and all possible weaponry.

[member="Malica Drezyan"]

 

[Malica Drezyan]

Malica lit the cigarra Talos had declined. Her eyes scanned the club, specifically the balcony where there gambling tables were located. The balcony was filled with smoke. A Gammorean stood at the top of the stairs and grunted. The music was so loud that it was hard to talk and bass reverberated off the walls. Malica's gaze traveled to the stage where two T'wilek and a human writhed against poles. She didn't miss it. Her eyes shot back to the balcony.

She pointed the smoldering end of her cigarra in that direction as she stood on her tiptoes and used the wall as leverage to stretch up closer to Talos' ear. "My target knows I'm here. In a few minutes, he will appear at the top of those steps and invite us upstairs to play cards with him," Malica instructed, and took a drag off her cigarra. She turned her head and exhaled away from Talos' face. She turned back, "I'm going to convince him that I want to work for him again. He's going to be suspicious of you at first, but I will assure him you are here as a mercenary and that you want in on his game. He won't bring me into his office without two bodyguards, but I need you to use that detonator to make sure he follows me into his office. Alone. Threaten to activate the detonator unless he does so. Hold down the balcony until I come back."

A waitress passed them and Malica caught her attention. She ordered two Corellian brandies. She did not see any signs of Yalus Cor at the threshold of the gambling den. She wondered vaguely if they were both in the midst of planning; Yalus's horned head tilting to whisper orders into his Trandoshan mercenary's ear. Further past the balcony, in the back gambling room, Yalus flipped a thin Sabaacc card between his fingers and switched it deftly with the card he hid in his sleeve, unnoticed by the six other players leaning over the edge of the Sabaacc table. "Follow me everywhere." He commanded his Trandoshan. "She's arrogant, but she's weak. There's nothing but ego in that helmet, but I want to be sure," Yalus whispered and wiped the corner of his mouth with his fingers like a Naboo senator at a feast. He took a heathly swig of whiskey, played his hand, and won. At the Four Roses, Yalus always won.

Not tonight.

The brandies found their way to Malica. She shoved one at Talos. "Drink it. You'll need it,"she said and emptied her glass in one gulp.

[member="Talos"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

He listened and watched. Talos didn’t care for anyone in this pit, except maybe Malica. She wanted his muscle, his experience and his attitude for a job and he would give it. Everything else was just in the way. As she spoke, he looked to where she directed with her voice, practically shouting over the music.

Nodding at her plan, which was straight forward enough and easy to do, Talos took the brandy in his hand and glanced over at her as she finished the drink in one gulp. For Talos, drinking was near a luxury now and not something he gave others the pleasure of indulging with him due to the mask he wore. It could be peeled off to allow him to drink and eat soft foods, but the proteins and steroid injections helped fuel him enough when out in the field. Maybe one day he would let her in. But not for many days yet to come.

He didn’t trust her. Not one bit.

"Drink does nothing to enhance the senses or the thrill of a fight. That comes naturally to those born to do it."

He handed the glass back to Malica.

"Lead on, and don’t worry about them. Do what you need to do and then come and get me."

[member="Malica Drezyan"]