Private Stranger Is Better

[Maijan Paisea]

THE ILLUSIONIST
DENON | SEVEN CORNERS | CHEESKER’S END
Mercy

​

The bar was beautiful. Dark, open, and lit with technicoloured lights that created dimensions and depth like digital illusions that shimmered over the silhouettes collected and going about their business. Most loitered about the bar, elbows on the countertop and slipping lower and lower into their own weight after another shot, and another. Others found their way to the dance floor, others simply milled about in a contented buzz.

Through the sea of bodies, there was a small knot of rough-looking creatures lounging, drinking and trading stories of dubious origin over hands of cards. A spine-quaking laugh erupted from the circle, and brawny arms stretched out to collect stacks of chips in the centre of the table. The large player drew his winnings in towards his chest with a triumphant grin.

“Ah, tut tut.” Maijan interrupted, waving a golden finger to the oversized alien who was celebrating far too early. Dark eyes looked over the top of her cards at the sabacc table piled high with chips.

To draw out her victory, she raised her Qui Gon Jinn and Tonic to her lips and took a long, drawn-out sip. The high she’d been riding for a while was starting to fade, and the bubbles weren’t biting her cheeks the same way they’d been minutes ago. She frowned and set down the glass, shifted her weight, and with the colourful lights bouncing off golden skin, she oozed back in her seat and splayed a perfect hand to the table. The Firrerreo halfbreed glittered triumphantly.

She’d been toying with these fools for the last two hours. Their skin was starting to blister with heated rage, and another growl roared from the belly of a gamorrean who’d had a bad mix of Staves and Coins for the last four hands. He’d lost more than he’d originally bet, and he left the table in a hurry.

Lazily, Maijan stretched to reach her arm across the table and curl around the stack of chips meant for the round’s winner. Her. Again.

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

One large shape left the table only to be replaced by another one.

Mercy plopped herself down in the chair left open by the Gamorrean with a flushed grin. She had won a bunch of credits in this morning's pit fight and it was burning a hole in her pocket. Why not try a rotation with Lady Luck? The worst thing that could happen was Mercy losing it all, but ya had to spend money to earn money, no?

That was the economic theory anyway.

"Boys, lady. I see she cleanin' ya out like nobody's business." Mercy declared with a big laugh. The handful that were angry wanted to shut her up, but one look at Mercy well... it was enough to make them polite.

If not polite at least mum.

"Ya gon' deal me in or what? I am half o' mind to bet it all on the first set of cards." Truthfully speaking Mercy didn't even know what they were playing right now. More often than not Mercy didn't need to know. The players at the table often just let her win. Or at least not let her lose too much, because those hands were large enough to rip a Gamorrean's head off straight.

"What do ya say, lady-" Over to Maijan as Mercy looked over her shades to the other woman. Her eyes lingered briefly on the discoloration and wondered. Looked a bit like her own skin. Even if all of her was burnished copper instead of only some of it.

"-I will be gentle, I promise."

 

[Maijan Paisea]

"Ya gon' deal me in or what? I am half o' mind to bet it all on the first set of cards.

Maijan's cool expression deepened, and she took another sip. Behind the glass, she eyed the new arrival. It was a habit for the fallanassi, her necessity to observe so intensely. The way Mercy's hair fell, the way the lines of her face moved when she spoke, and her muscles flexed with even the subtlest of movements moved into a compartment in Maijan's mind should she need to recreate the illusion of the red-haired tank. It would be a fun one to make — this new arrival seemed quite the character.

"-I will be gentle, I promise."

"I doubt you know the meaning of that worrrd." Maijan replied, making some quick motions with her hands and the cards restacked. Someone grunted.

A small dealer moved to the middle of the table, rearranging the bets while the half-Firrerreo controlled her section with precise care. With the stack of cards in hand, the troglof moved swiftly. Handing out the cards to the remaining four players.

"Place your opening bets." He said, once everyone had their cards.

Maijan lifted the faces of hers, and her expression remained neutral. "You want to go firrrst?" She asked, inclining her head in the new player's direction.

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

If Mercy knew that Paisea was preparing herself to the possibility of copying her appearance...

Uncertain how that would be received.

Half a chance she'd flirt even harder. Half another chance copy!Mercy would get her teeth kicked in. It probably depended on jus' what side of the bed Mercy stepped out of that day. That was the way it was with a creature like that. Temperamental, full of hunger and passion for everything the galaxy had to offer.

"Oh, I know the meaning jus' fine, darling." Mercy drawled lazily as she accepted her cards without looking at them. It just didn't mean she'd apply it all that often though.

"Me?"

An innocent look that looked anathema on a woman like Mercy.

"Ma'am, I hardly know the rules an' I wouldn't wanna make beginner's mistakes." Batting her eyes at Maijan like some fethin' animation princess instead of the heavily-tattooed muscle-bound warrior. "Let the adults at the table start, I will pitch in, I promise." Then she leaned back and shouted an order o' whiskey over her shoulder, while her feet boldly settled on the chair left behind by the stomping alien who had lost all their savings.

"So," Conversationally and as if the rest of the crowd wasn't sitting at the table. "What's the story behind all those goldy spots on yar skin?"

Mercy had a sneaking suspicion.

And she wasn't all too subtle about those.

 

[Maijan Paisea]

The tiny card dealer in the centre of the table looked from Mercy to Maijan.

With a shrug, Maijan slid forward a neat stack for her blind. While next to her, a medium-sized lizard fellow scratched his chin and wondered how he could keep getting such chit hands.

Eventually, he conceded and met Maijan's amount. Then he looked to Mercy expectantly.

"So, What's the story behind all those goldy spots on yar skin?"

"No story." Maijan shrugged, narrowing her eyes at the red-head. "Does it look like rrreal gold to you?"

She looked down at her cards and arched a brow, rolling her shoulders into a shrug. Light glanced from the gold of her collarbone. "Surrre feels rrreal."

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

Mercy smiled pleasantly as she leaned back against the seat.

"Dunno, hun. Gonna have to get a bit closer to really get a feel for it myself." Drawled easily as she finally took a glance to her cards. There thick-set brows furrowed in confusion. Had those cards looked like that a moment ago? Must have been. Even still Mercy squinted suspiciously around the table for a while.

The Force seemed okay today. But then again, not like she had any talent in sense, so Mercy wouldn't have noticed even if it hadn't been the White Current karking with them all.

"This lookin' to be one chit-show o'a'night, folks." Mercy murmured with amusement as she folded that hand.

Dropping her cards back and stretching lazily.

Hm, was that a... no, not a shimmer, couldn't have been.

Before the others could concur or make fun of Mercy however? A chair was flung straight into their dealing table. The dealer in the middle screeched in panic, dropping down and covering their head. The credits flew and spilled all over the place. As did most their drinks. Not Mercy's though, she had seen the Gamorrean approach in fury just a few seconds ago.

The first thing Mercy did was catch her glass of ale and push back her seat a fraction.

"Looks like someone be cranky..." Mercy drawled bemused... even as the Gamorrean threw himself towards Paisea. Should be funny to see how the pretty glitter lady handled herself in a fight.

 

[Maijan Paisea]

Maijan looked completely unbothered as Mercy 's suspicion grew. Her interest feigned in the bet the redhead would offer and then whatever came next. It was only a matter of time before Maijan's triumph conquered the table again.

But those other hands never made it to the table. A chair did instead.

Chaos broke out. People were quick to abandon their hands and dove for chips that dropped in the cluster check from the attack. Maijan, for her part, struggled to keep the illusions that covered the faces of the cards while preserving herself.

The gamorreon's beefy green arms connected with Maijan, throwing her seat back. Her half-metal body clanged loudly against the ground while the pig-faced assailant wound up for a punch.

"Such a sore loserrr!" Maijan growled, lifting her golden arm across her face to block the first strike as she struggled beneath his weight. Her blaster was at her hip, too far for her to reach for. Instead, her cards erupted from her hands in a spray to the grunt's face. He clawed at them angrily while the ex-pirate squirmed to disloge herself. Once she had enough space to wiggle free, on her hands and knees, she started to crawl away. The last anyone would see of the dark-haired Firrerreo would be her retreat. As soon as she was able, she eclipsed herself within The White Current to disappear from view. A few credits and chips along her trail disappearing from sight as she crawled and collected.

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

Mercy took another sip, but then almost choked in it when Maijan disappeared out of sight.

Not out of mind however.

Instead of a protracted fight... she just slipped away. How... slippery. That would have been that, if not for the fact that Paisea was a greedy lil' schutta on top of being a coward. She began stuffing her pockets with credits and chips. Which also were disappearing right off the floor. A neat trail for someone like Mercy to follow.

Which she did.

A rolling boulder cutting through a fighting crowd. Yes! Crowd. The fight had escalated instead of settling down with the golden girl's disappearance. Chairs were being thrown, more of them. Tables included. It was a whole bar fighting thing. Mercy didn't pay it any mind. Most people circled around and found a better target for their drunken brawl.

The ones that didn't? Mercy threw them to the side contemptuously, because she had a better prize today.

Once they found themselves in a side corridor of the bar Mercy acted. Judging the trajectory Mercy's arm snapped out towards the closest approximation of Maijan's shoulder. Trying to seize her by her neck and pin her down against the wall.

If successful... well... Mercy wasn't that far into the planning. All of this was kind of ad-libbed.

"An' what we got here?" Drawled sweetly.

 

[Maijan Paisea]

Maijan's greed always got the better of her. While emotions with nowhere else to go curled into fists behind her, she continued to pluck discarded credits from the floor. She came here to win. Not to be forced into a loss by someone who couldn't hold their temper.

Crawling like a massiff, she scrounged unapologetically. Her pockets and miscellaneous pouches were growing fat, and she was becoming more and more gleeful when a painful grip snagged her.

"An' what we got here?"

With wide eyes, Maijan yawped in pain. Her neck was a pillar of both flesh and gold, and the parts that weren't reinforced by Firrerreo benefit squished beneath the grip of the redhead.

"A feel for –– hyurk —yourrrrrself." Maijan fought against the pressure of her trachea to make a call back to their earlier exchange. At the same time, she drew up her metallic arm, heavy as gold, and punched her elbow against the inside Mercy's elbow that locked her against the wall.

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

A hrm there.

The woman felt weird to the touch. A strange mixture of softness and cold metal? Mercy was familiar with cybernetics, but this felt like something entirely else.

"Oooh," Mercy murmured in return with a smirk. Her grip on Maijan's throat even decreased as a result. Sort of a reward for being... well... a sassy ol' girl, which Mercy appreciated much and plenty. "Yar a sassy lady, I like-" And then Maijan had to ruin it by punching her. Usually a punch like that would most likely have floored its target.

It was a hard punch after all. Even at the awkward angle the strange woman still managed quite some force behind it.

Instead it rammed into a brick wall.

Mercy's look was quite pointed. Like a stern teacher being disappointed. "Ahh... wasn't a great idea, babe. Buuuut..." A shrug there. Part of her felt like suppressing the murderous urge inside of her.

"See this arm?" She waggled her free arm. It was gorgeous as fark and it positively reeked of the Force. Some occult, eldritch chit. No matter what angle you looked at it, the tattoos seemed to be moving on their own. Shifting subtly and beckoning for you to keep looking. "It can smash straight through ya chest with little difficulty. So- ya can try an' punch me again an' see what happens... or..." Didn't immediately follow up with the 'or'. Instead Mercy waited to see how Maijan would react, because this entire situation was amusing to her.

Part of her hoped that the struggling woman would struggle even more.

She hadn't yet murdered anyone with the new arm.

Sooner or later it would need to go through a test drive.

 

[Maijan Paisea]

Reverberations shimmered up her golden arm to the base of her throat and she groaned in surprise. Metal clanking against metal, with rough force, turned out to be a not-great idea.

Mercy 's admonishment slithered out and settled between them, drawing Maijan's attention to the composition of muscle and ink. Her pouted expression settled into a thin line when the odds were left inconclusive.

And as a gambler, Maijan wanted to know the outcomes.

Against the wall, she shifted to test the strength of the hold against her throat. She coughed, and perched more on her tippy toes to relieve the pressure on her human skin. As a reflex, the tattoos that decorated Mercy shimmered and flickered, smoothing over and disappearing. There would be no physical sensation, but that which had been so pretty dissolved to nothing. A trick of the Fallanassi only for the eyes —— just enough to disorient and hopefully loosen..

"Orrrrr what." The half-breed hissed, bringing her hands up to grip the wrist that held her in place and wrenched to pry..

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

The tattoo disappeared out of view.

This made Mercy blink, then scowl, then look thoughtfully. She still felt the strength humming through her arm. Still felt it coil skin-deep as she held Paisea up by her throat.

It loosened. Slightly. Not out of shock, but to give her more room to breath and allow the illusion that she was getting somewhere. Even still as Maijan tried to pry the grip loose? She met iron. The inkling that mountains could shift and be grinded down to dust. But this grip would never let go, unless its owner made it so.

"Orrrrrr," Using Maijan's accent against her with a smile. "Ya can share ya prize winnings..." Her free hand already coasting up the golden girl's hip to catch the side of her pockets.

Not going in just yet, but only just so.

"An' we can have a drrrrink together, where ya tell me how ya go so invisible, ma'am..."

 

[Maijan Paisea]

Greedy as ever, Maijan sucked in as much air as she could. Sweetness filled her lungs, in and out, and she felt a level of stability course through her muscles.

Her eyes narrowed at the mockery of her voice, teeth clicking together to prevent the words from slipping out. She wanted to bite and gnash in protest, spit and scream. But then that would draw too much attention to her and her pockets.

Share an undemanded amount of earnings, the percentages could be whatever she determined, or get punched through the chest into oblivion. To that place the Jedi called the netherworld.

A growl slipped through that she hadn't intended, and her teeth bared at Mercy .

"Whiskey, rrrright?" Maijan tested, squirming again to get free.

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

Mercy's head tilted at the growl and then her smile widened.

She slowly leaned in, until their noses almost touched. There she growled back in return. A slow deep noise that rumbled from her chest out of her throat and almost seemed to vibrate the immediate area. Force scream was a silly power most of the time, but a low-level version of it to settle dominance with other animals?

Useful.

"Carrrreful lady," Murmured lightly there. "I might get even more attrrracted to ya then I already am." Which came out of the LEFT field entirely and would probably get Maijan shook.

Maybe.

Withdrawing just a fraction again? Mercy bit her thumb (even more random) and then? Tapped Paisea's jaw with... okay, yeah, that was sticky and hot and totally Mercy's blood. "Jus' if ya decide to try an' run away from me, babe." Out of nowhere her grip on the other woman's throat disappeared as Mercy dropped her back on the ground.

And she looked down to see what Maijan would do next.

 

[Maijan Paisea]

The wall Maijan was pressed to quaked against her shoulder blades and the surface of her body that was pressed to it. A low, primal growl filled her ears and crawled over her skin. It was startling at first, but infurtiation quickly took over. Maijan's wide-eyed expression was quickly replaced with her eyes narrowing, and the gold on her eyelids glinting with the shift of light.

So this was a Force user. A Jedi? A Sith? A Rogue?

The corner of her lip peeled back, and she was about to hiss out slanderous commentary when the woman pulled back to bite and tear open her own flesh and — was that —!

Maijan's jaw stretched in protest, her jaws groaning when they couldn't yawn any further apart. Her feet pedalled uselessly to get away from the finger reaching for her mouth, and she twisted and craned to make the delivery as difficult as she could in the situation. But alas. The warm ichor touched her skin and she instantly spat.

As she heaved up her protest, Mercy released her. Palms and knees clapped against the ground and she caught herself, gagging and wiping at the mark on her face.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!!?" She screeched.

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

The taste and touch of acid on her lips as the blood seeped in.

Spit, rub, claw, it didn't matter.

It was now part of her as much as her own breath and beat of heart. Mercy looked down with a warm smile. She rubbed the spit off of her cheek, usually it would have pissed her off, but Maijan was spitting all over the place. So she didn't take it that personally. Besides it was quite a shock to have someone rub blood all over ya, right?

"Ah.. ah... relax. S'just a lil' procaution. If ya decide to go invisible on me again? I will know where ya go." Oh yes, it was a neat trick she had learned on the Pomojema.

"Now, we doin' that whiskey o' do I need to kick yar ass again? Am down for either or, in whatever order ya need, hun."

Not all that impressed with her screeching really.

 

[Maijan Paisea]

Air collided in her lungs, fully restoring itself to regular breaths while the back of her hand smeared against her mouth, dragging it down her chin. Absolutely disgusting.

"You'll know wherrre I go?" Maijan persisted, her eyes wide. Panic swelled in her chest, widening until it almost made her breaths irregular again. The calmness she'd felt earlier warred within, and she unconsciously touched the nape of her neck — another part of her body that had been overtaken without her consent and restricted her freedom.

"Forrr how long's yourrr blood going to trrrrack me?"

The idea that, once again, Maijan's liberties were tied to the jurisdiction of another, made her deaf to the fun potential of whiskey or any sort of camaraderie. She rocked back on her heels and tried again to smear away the blood and get it off her. When she saw the stain on her skin, she seemed to settle a bit.

Eventually, she composed herself, smoothed her hands over her hips, adjusted the collar of her blouse and turned back to Mercy — although her expression was still perturbed by the idea of conflicting freedoms.

What if the blood tracking and the bomb in her neck collided? And she exploded?

"Whiskey firrrst.

Definitely."

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

Mercy leaned back against the wall opposite of Maijan and looked on bemusedly.

Mostly.

A part, as small and shriveled as can be, felt a tinge of regret. Not for doing it, of course. It was only right to make sure the woman couldn't slip out of her view just as easily as before. But the way Maijan reacted, that was bad, and she resolved herself to make the lady feel better. At least as better as can be.

"Oh, dun' worry, no'mo than a day o' so." Mercy lied as easily as a fish swam. "Jus' enough for us to grab a drink an' ya to share ya spoils, so I dun' have to run after ya for a few city blocks, eh?"

She offered a large hand to Maijan to pull her up to her feet. Then attempted to wrap an arm around her shoulders, as if it belonged there. "So, what's da story behind ya metal parts. Ya sum' kind o' half-droid or something?" Mercy wasn't aware of the special kind of mutation of their species that could cause something like this.

Her skin was burnished copper and beautiful.

Even though they were both half-breeds.

 

[Maijan Paisea]

"Oh, dun' worry, no'mo than a day o' so.

M felt relief atomize in her chest and sag down, heavily, sinking through her composition until it bled out in a sigh that filled the space between herself and Mercy . She did not mention the bomb in the nape of her neck, the other tracker that kept her continuously captive, but having more chains, or more masters, made her paralyze. With relief just hours and hours and hours and hours away from one captor, she felt a smidge lighter.

Gripping Mercy's wrist, she hauled herself up at the behest of the muscle woman. Then easily, as if Maijan were now her property from the blood-smear, Mercy's arm was around her shoulders. She was still uncomfortable from the idea of being traceable, but camaraderie and the promise of booze usually made her easier to get along with.

"I wasn't lying earrrrlierrrr." Maijan cooed, touching the dangle of her hoops as they swayed within her hair. "My skin is gold. Solid gold. Firrrrrerrrrrreo blood."

As they walked, she angled away from retracing their steps.

"I know anotherrrr place." Maijan insisted, already concocting ideas to test the durability of the hex the woman had smeared on her face. After all, it could have been a lie. "They operrrate on the same chip system. I can cash in therrrrre without us going back to..." her hand fluttered aimlessly in the air.

 

[Mercy]

Maijan Paisea

Her reaction told Mercy she made the right call there.

Poor gal wouldn't be a nice drinking partner. Not if she knew that from now on Mercy could find her anywhere. At any time. She'd just have to close her eyes and focus on her blood. Not that Mercy was that interested in this past tonight. But something told Mercy that this fact wouldn't do much to blunt reality from sinking in.

A hum in response to that revelation. Firrerreo? Mercy had never heard of their skin being hard as metal. Her own was silk warm and bright as burnished copper.

"That a fact, babe? An' are all Firrerrrrreo endowed like ya are then?" Curious query because Mercy didn't actually know of any. Besides herself, her mother before her. Maybe they were the freaks and the real thing were supposed to be solid as metal? That idea didn't sit well with Mercy. She knew she was a half-blood.

But it wasn't something Mercy enjoyed to internalize.

"Sure, golden girl, lead da way." And her arm remained around Paisea's shoulders. "...to da place ya jus' robbed so neatly?" Mercy grinned and laughed at that thought.

"Whatcha name? Unless yar prefer 'golden babe'."