Public Kiss Land

[Isar]

Coruscant
Uscru Entertainment District

People were screaming.

Isar looked down. He held a blaster, barrel smoking. In front of him, a human lay on the ground with a scorched hole in his chest. Isar ran a tongue along his gums, tasting the glitterstim residue.

The thump of the electronic music inside the club still drowned out most of the screaming. Isar let out a laugh. He knew he sounded deranged, even to his own ears. The Zeltron wore a black and gold jacket over a dark red shirt.

"Well, I told you not to keep talking, idiot," he said to the dead man. Isar holstered his blaster pistol, took a long sip of his Corellian whiskey, then tossed the remaining contents onto the body.

"Rest in peace."

Isar walked out the exit, waving a hand and muddying the minds of bouncers racing toward the scene so that they let him slip past and out onto the street.

Lilac eyes flicked one way, then the next along the street. He started walking. A few blocks later he entered another club and went up to the bar, found a guy selling spice in the crowd, and then went up to the bar.

"Corellian whiskey, on the rocks."

Isar tried to gauge if he could feel any type of way about what just happened.

He decided he didn't give a shit. He just wanted another drink. The blare of the music and the dancers inside drowned out any other thoughts. The alcohol and spice did the rest.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

"And then he asked if I had ID, and I said - does anyone in this place -"

Again and again, Tansu replayed Talin Treicolt 's story. The line sounded so cool, so cavalier, and so perfectly delivered that it struck a chord of envy deep in Tansu's soul.

Talin's story ran through her mind now because she'd taken a wrong turn on the way to Hollow Heart Enclave and was somewhere abundant in saloon-looking establishments.

With all the pandemonium they'd gone through to trying to find the Enclave, finding it again for a second time, or a third time, proved a challenge. She'd made it to the lower levels well enough, but had taken a wrong turn or two.

And now that she was here. Wherever here was. Here was just another somewhere she'd never been before. As much as she knew she should turn around and walk out of the neighbourhood, the glittering lights and flashing neon held too much allure; even if what the bright advertisements were trying to sell didn't interest her.

Plus, she reasoned with herself, she could ask for directions from someone what worked here. Maybe she'd even get the chance to use Talin's brilliant line for herself. It was as good a plan as any, and Tansu made up her mind.

The bar she chose to walk into was busy. So busy that people didn't pay her much heed as she walked in. It was an outrageous assemblage of humans mixed freely with alien counterparts. Tentacles, claws, and hands all curled around drinking vessels of varying shapes and sizes. Conversation was a steady babble of human and alien tongues, all of it indistinguishable.

At the very back of the bar was where people ordered their drinks. That's where she'd ask for directions. To prepare for the inevitable question of her identification, Tansu would simply dispense the same line Talin had used and ooze so much charisma that she would not be denied.

Tansu puffed up her chest, ran the line through her mind one last time, made eye contact with the bartender and immediately chickened out and veered hard right and into the refresher instead.

It wasn't empty. She could hear noises coming from the stalls, but she focused on the mirror instead, and used it for a pep talk.

She was almost ready to try again when a sound rattled the walls. It sounded like a blaster! And then screaming!

Tansu darted out of the washroom. The scene was chaotic. Energetic music thumped, patrons darted around without agenda, and someone with a smoking blaster was pouring a drink on the dead body.

What she couldn't understand was the inaction. Nobody was doing anything. Nobody was checking the pulse of the body, and absolutely no one was chasing the leather jacket-wearing murderer out into the streets. It didn't even look like anyone was calling the marshals.


Without thinking, Tansu slid next to the body, checked for a pulse and found none. She pleaded for someone to take care of the situation, was met with apathy, and decided her time was best in pursuit of the killer.

"Hey!" She yelled out into the streets. It was busy. People kept their heads down and ignored her. She stood out like a sore thumb because civilians in the lower levels kept to themselves and here was some backwater teenager shouting out for attention.

Oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man what would Kyric do? What would her parents do?

Streetlights caught a glimmer of gold up ahead, and Tansu recognized the shape as the silhouette that had stood over the dead body. She darted down that pathway and into yet another bar.

"Hey!" She reached for the blaster holstered at her thigh and pushed through the crowds to interrupt the fellow hunched at the bar. It seemed like a good idea to point the blaster at his power back while he sat there, not looking her way. "Hey, you! You just killed a guy! You're under citizens arrest!"

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Isar
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