Inch by Inch

[Joza Perl]

Vorzyd
MezNet Casino

It was time to move forward.

Joza was always moving. Front, back, side to side. Didn’t matter as long as she was in motion. But for the past month or so she’d been confined to a hospital bed, only allowed to walk when accompanied by an orderly.

She was stationary. May as well have been dead.

Thyferra was a weird drug induced haze that simultaneously brought out the best and the worst in her. She’d willingly flung herself at a burning planet only to distract a Sith Lord from said burning and then fall victim to a crashing star destroyer. As much as it was odd, she remembered it vividly. Almost as if she were having an out of body experience, watching it all happen.

Drugs, man.

Joza rubbed a palm against her left eye as she made her way into the casino, trying to fix the prosthetic back in place. It was cheap but functional, and it had served its basic purpose. Today she was looking for something more permanent.

“Excuse me,” She approached what she could only assume to be a bouncer or a bodyguard—a thug, probably. “I’m looking for Enyo Typhos.” She took a pull from her cigarra and exhaled to the side and away from the burly man. Instead of her usual business casual attire, today was all bantha leather from the pants to the jacket. Darkly clad, enough to blend in. “Joza Perl.” She added. “I have an appointment.”

Still as polite as ever, though.

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]


The burly thug - a Devaronian cyborg with an artificial ear and right arm - scrutinised Joza. "Wait," he said in a dull, gruff tone. For a moment there was nothing. To the uninitiated observer, it would look like as if he was just standing there and looking at her. Maybe checking out her assets.


In actuality, he was communicating with his boss via his brain implants. He might have been checking her out anyway. Regardless, he gave her a curt nod. "Come with me," he ordered and turned on his heels. At this hour of the day, the casino was already defined by hectic activity.


Various patrons had made themselves at home. The casino floor was a living, breathing ecosystem populated by fools with too much time on their hands. Some sought a fortune, others already had more money than they knew what to do with, which is why they needed the thrill only the risk of losing everything could offer. Between slot machines, dice and card games, holofights, miniaturised droid races and so on, there were plenty of ways to make a fortune here - or lose it all and end up a debt slave.


Here, there would be a rush of euphoria as a player scored a big win at a slot machine, accompanied by a triumphant roar. There, the same player might experience a parabolic descent into an abyss of despair and anger when he lost all he'd gained - and more - at the next get-lucky machine, and all his savings were devoured by the ravenous beast that was the casino. After all, the house always wins.


The boss might have been expected to watch the melodrama from an elevated vantage point, like a queen surveying all she owned. Probably surrounded by fawning lackeys. Enyo was not most people. Besides, she disliked the noise. So instead the goon led Joza to a backroom. Two cyborgs clad in dark armour stood guard. Stepping aside, they opened the door. The minion gestured for her to pass through. Inside, she would find an extremely Spartan chamber.


There was a table, and a chair in front of it. The chamber was filled with projectors and surveillance equipment. An adjourning room contained what could be described as a workshop. "Enter," Enyo ordered. The door closed behind them the moment Joza had presumably crossed the threshold. "What happened to your eye?" Straight to the point as usual. In contrast to the mindless devotees of the Goddess of Fortune and Luck, Enyo was simply dressed: Dark cargo pants, black shirt, combat boots.

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza remained fairly calm and neutral throughout the exchange that would eventually bring her to Enyo. The Zeltron took her time in admiring the busy casino floor, figuring that an indulgence like this wasn’t really the cyborg’s thing. But hey, she was no stranger in branching out to make money.

The back room didn’t surprise her much—basic, only the necessities. No frivolous decorations, no ostentatious gold throne.

The pink woman arched a brow, smoke lazily curling from the cigarette clenched between her teeth. She removed it to speak. “Never struck me as the type for small talk, Enyo.” She sounded vaguely amused. “And here I was, ready to complement you on your latest business venture. Busy out there. Busy is good.”

She took a drag from the cancer stick, exhaling to the side again on reflex. Joza wasn’t the type to blow smoke in someone’s face unless she intended to punch their lights out next. Or have her own lights punched out because she could be a smarmy queen.

“Injured beyond repair, so they took it out.” A simple answer, not willing to elaborate much on the mechanism. “Would you be interested in making me a new one?”

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]


"You keep what you kill. Or so they say," Enyo said in reference to her acquisition of the casino. "It's a farm, the deluded morons outside are the cows. I'm a good farmer." She cocked her head slightly, scrutinising Joza. An expression of deep disapproval crossed her features when she saw the cancer stick.


"Put that out. It is poison," she ordered gruffly. She might have acquired a sin pit where people spent all their time drinking, whoring, gambling, smoking and doing drugs...but her opinion on smoking remained unchanged. She was such a good puritan. "I can make you a new eye. It will not be cheap, but of far superior quality. How did your organic eye get 'injured beyond repair'?"

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza tried to stifle a giggle-snort at the thought of Enyo being a farmer. The blunt directness of the cyborg could make you shiver or add a humorous touch to an odd mental image. “I’d say you are.” She managed to get out.

“Ah,” She removed the cigarra from her mouth, glancing down at the stick before smiling over at Enyo. “It’s almost finished. Do you mind if I keep at it for a few more minutes?” She put it back between her teeth. “It helps.”

Joza nodded at the mention of the eye’s price and quality. “Of course. I’ve seen your work and I’m willing to pay.” She’d had a lot of options when it came to choosing cybernetics but ultimately elected not to go the hospital route again. “Oh, it was burned.” She offered nonchalantly. Eyes were sensitive, enough heat or even a little flame could blind you permanently. “About how long do you think it’ll take?”

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]


"It does not. But fine. If you get lung cancer in a few years' time, you have yourself to blame for it." As always, Enyo had no clue about tact. More likely she simply did not care about it. She thought for a moment. "Give me a week. Then come to this location for surgery and implanation," she passed over what amounted to a card containing coordinates.


For obvious reasons, doing it in the casino was not an option. Joza's explanation of how her organic eye had been lost seemed plausible enough. Eyes were sensitive and enough heat could mess them up. Enyo had used that method during interrogations sometimes. She frowned. "Did someone hurt you?" her tone was...softer and more human than the one she normally used. She was not sure why she cared.

 

[Joza Perl]

A well sharped scarlet brow rose at Enyo’s bluntness. Joza found it a mix of charming and annoying but she wouldn’t press her lucky any further. “Guess I’ll be on your doorstep in a few years for new lungs, then.”

Taking another drag, the Zeltron held her breath for a moment before exhaling through her nose. “Sounds good.” She’d assume that measurements of some sort would have to be taken before then. She was no stranger to surgery. Used to it, but that didn’t mean that she liked it.

Maybe she was surprised when Enyo asked her how it had happened. Joza didn’t figure Enyo to be the type that cared to hear her woes of pain and suffering and part of her wanted to give her a smarmy response. Say that she lost it cooking dinner by falling face first onto the oven.

But there was something in the cyborg’s voice that caused her to hesitate. The hint of Enyo’s genuine emotion, even if Joza could not put her finger on it, registered somewhere in her brain and made her pause.

“Yes.” She stated plainly and shrugged. “Cigarettes can not only give you lung cancer, they can blind you if you're not careful."

She took another drag from her cigarette, probably the last one she’d be able to take before snubbing the lit end onto her wrist. The flesh gave a brief, satisfactory sizzle and she exhaled.

She didn't like to talk about it beyond vague phrasing. She dealt with it through an odd sense of humor.

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]


A pause. Enyo was no stranger to inflicting pain. Recently, she'd aided the Sith in their quest to demolish Thyferra. "Are they still alive?" she pressed on. "Would you like me to help you hurt them?" That was something she was undoubtedly quite good at. No better torturer than a Terminatrix.

 

[Joza Perl]

A strange request. But after a few seconds it did not seem so strange. Not when Enyo was the one asking, anyway.

“Still alive.” She confirmed. Her face was a mix of stern hesitation, quietly considering the possibility of explaining to Enyo what had happened and what she planned to do. It wasn’t something she was proud of, but something she determined that needed to be done.

“Have you heard of the Husk Lizard slavers?” They were a prominent group on Nar Shaddaa, anyone with underworld connections there would have heard their name at least once. “They did this to me.”

She tapped the prosthetic eye directly onto the sclera. It was something she did to get a reaction out of people but something told her that Enyo wouldn’t flinch.

“I’m going to take them down. I could use your help.” It wasn’t necessarily a revenge quest. Her last involvement with them wasn’t even an intel mission gone wrong, it was a gamble that she’d won in the sense that she’d gotten the last piece of information she needed.

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]


"I'm familiar with them." She saw no reason to elaborate on the extent. But then they were a big mafia, anyone of note in the underworld would have heard the name. Slavery was not something Enyo cared for either way. However, they'd hurt someone she sort of liked.


"I can help you. I will be taking an appropriate share of any loot that is acquired. I will require any inside knowledge you have of them. Defences, manpower and so on. And do you just want them dead or do you want them to suffer?" Totally a normal question to ask. She was in the dark about Joza's anti-slavery activities.

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza nodded in acquiescence to Enyo’s request. The Zeltron wasn’t so interested in the loot so much as she was in the destruction of the slaver ring. That didn’t mean that she wouldn’t take what she could from them after Enyo’s share, after all. She’d sunk a good amount of time and resources into gathering her intel on them.

“Of course.” She reached into her jacket, fishing a small data chip from one of the inside pockets and placed it down on the table between them. “A copy of the data I’ve compiled on them. The structure of their hideouts, numbers, habits and the like. I trust you won’t sell me out?” A thin smile crossed her face. There was always that risk, even if it were her own mother helping her.

Joza leaned back in her chair in thoughtful silence for a few moments. “Dead.” She answered, though it was something she'd decided weeks ago. Spending all your time in a hospital bed was a good way to plan a comeback. She didn’t want to spend the time trying to turn them and they’d likely have other underground connections should they seek retribution. “Save for a few of their higher ups. Their head, Adnan Saeed and I know eachother well.” The implication that things were personal hung clearly in the air.

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]

Joza's question actually caused Enyo to look somewhat offended. in the light of the fact that she was a nihilistic, probably sociopathic cyborg whose business was murder, this was more than a littlle comical. "No," she said flatly. "I like you." Besides, she was Lawful Evil.


Proper Lawful Evil. Not I shall kick puppies and impale people for the lulz because I have to prove I'm the ultimate edge lord 'Lawful' Evil. Unlike certain Sith who kept yammering about eclipsing the light and similar nonsense.


She gave Joza a curt nod when the Zeltron talked about what she'd like to happen to the slaver gang. Clearly it was personal between her and this Adnan. "Then the minions shall die, the higher ups will suffer. I will analyse the data and come up with a suitable plan. Ideally we can hit them at some sort of occasion where they will be gathered in one place, such as an auction."


"Do you have any experience with torture? As in inflicting it on someone," she clarified. After all, Joza clearly had experience with being tortured herself. Enyo's tone was dispassionate. She did not inflict pain for pleasure. She simply had no zero qualms about it.

 

[Joza Perl]

“Oh.” Joza answered softly. “Thank you.” A pause as she tried to correct how awkward that had come out. “I like you too.”

The topic shifted from…that to more business like matters. She thought for a moment, genuinely considering all that she’d done. While Joza had certainly done some…shifty things, she was not full-on dark. She was actually much closer to the light side of the spectrum in her personal views and ability to wield the Force, but could not tap into stronger exclusively light side abilities. She was much more neutral when it came to the Force.

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m good at using the Force to peer inside someone’s mind. But their boss is an experienced Force user. I want to try an ability I’ve heard about. It’s called ‘drain knowledge.” A dark side ability, but one she felt confident in executing.

A thought struck her and she took a few moments to gather her words.

“There’s this other…skill I have. Crucitorn. It’s the ability to soothe the pain of a wound, but you can also exacerbate the pain. I’ve only used it one way. I had to learn when it was used against me.” That was one she’d been taught by Darth Ax’no.

“What’s your way of…you know, doing it?” She meant Enyo’s method of torture, but right now she felt like an awkward torture virgin.

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]


"Both are useful," Enyo commented. Much in the same way that someone would say that the new set of googles or tyres their buddy had bought would come in handy. "If the leader is a strong Force-user, he will have barriers to resist mental intrusion. Any wall can be penetrated, but push too hard and you may give the subject brain damage before you can extract anything useful. Best wear them down first. Over a period of several days if needs be. If you lack experience using these techniques offensively, I'd suggest practicing on small fry first."


She cocked her head slightly as she considered Joza's question. "For starters, forget anything you see in holovids. Nine times out of ten, they get it wrong. Repeatedly punching someone's face while yelling like a madman just makes you look ridiculous. All you do is numb the subject and give them an object to hate. Same applies to threatening to shoot them without being ready to pull the trigger. Furthermore, high-altitude interrogation is plain idiotic. Truth serums are overhyped. Pain has its place, if judiciously applied. With spineless cowards, you can get results with brute force and promising them the pain will stop if they spill. But what wears someone down is time and hopelessness."


Her tone was dispassionate, as if describing the ingredients of a meal she planned to cook. "Start with disorientation, sensory deprivation. Force a captive to stand for hours on end while wearing heavy chains and a hood. Alternate constant, deafening noise with silence, blinding light with darkness."


"No food, no drink, no sleep. Electrical shocks, waterboarding, if they have friends they care about, show them being hurt. Keep the subject off-balance, at all times. Eventually, they talk. I once got someone to spill by giving him an injection that paralysed his right leg - and telling him I'd do the same to the rest. I'm fond of Strappado. Tie someone's hands behind their back, and suspend them by a rope attached to their wrists. Dislocates the shoulders. Add weights to increase the pain. Take them down after an hour at most, otherwise they'd die. Tean zu is good, too. Atrisian technique. Translates as finger compressing."

 

[Joza Perl]

Enyo was completely aloof in discussing Torture 101, a topic that would cause many to cringe. Joza almost did, familiar with torture as she was but never really having applied it. She never felt the need to—the Zeltron had rarely been in situations where she’d needed to extract information, and even then it hadn’t been that laborious. She was always either on the frontline, hacking and slashing or overseeing the medical corps. She wasn’t a shadow on the wall, she wasn’t the dark hand that pulled places and names from some squirming victim.

Still, she was the one who’d wanted this. Joza would have to steel herself and pushed through it. She’d gotten this far, after all. It would be a waste if she didn’t pursue this until the end, at least as she saw it.

“You certainly know quite a bit.” A scarlet brow arched up towards her hairline. “Disorientation is a good way to start.” She agreed. “I’ve found that it’s harder to focus when you don’t really have a sense of normalcy to latch onto. Speaking as the victim.” Saeed hadn’t done that to her, he was more brutal and direct with his tactics. Simply put, he’d hurt her as a power play.

The Sith tortured as a game. An ‘art’. To see how loud you could scream, what your body resorted to doing when it got desperate enough.

“You’ve done this a lot?” She inquired, suddenly a little morbidly curious in regards to Enyo’s credentials. Not that she doubted them for a second.

[member="Enyo Typhos"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Joza Perl"]


"Yes," Enyo confirmed. "I don't enjoy it. But it doesn't bother me. Archangel taught me to be efficient." She'd passed on her skills to Alexia. Of all her siblings, the younger of the two Kaelin clones was the most similar to her. Enyo believed she had good reason to be proud of the little one.


"If you're new to Drain Knowledge and have not used Crucitorn to inflict pain before, it is best if you practice first. Otherwise you may accidentally botch things." Her tone was matter-of-fact. "I have some prisoners you can experiment on. People you'd have no reason to feel bad about hurting."