The Foundation of Trouble

[H3xle]

Taryc was enjoying the flirting, and she didn't try to hide it. She wasn't quite sure Laira was actually intending to go anywhere with it, but that was alright. Everything didn't need to end in a sexual relationship, though that tended to be fun.

Something in Taryc's mind pinged when she mentioned and described the scarabs. She felt like she had seen something similar at some point, but couldn't put her finger on it quite yet. Taryc wasn't too worried about the woman's identity, so she put the little bit about scarabs in the back of her mind for the time being. She focused on the task at hand, which was dredging up any further information about their mark.

"That doesn't seem like an action intensive plan, but it's a good one. No use trekking all over the Outback when your scarabs can do the leg work first." Something about Darian was trying to come to the surface of her mind, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She slid out of the booth for a second and began to pace the length of the room in front of the table, her eyes half lidded in concentration. "I think I am remembering something else about Darian...he has a peculiar taste that was always worked into his background. The inquisition tagged it as something to watch as it could eventually be used to track him. It could be that he hasn't gone away from it yet..." She paused, and turned back to Laira. "Is there anywhere in the Outback that has a special type of confection like Kaminoan Saltwater Taffy? Barring that, we should look for semi regular shipments of the Kaminoan stuff..."

[member="Laira Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Kaminoan Saltwater Taffy?" Laira made a gagging face at the thought of deliberately eating something with the briny, saltwater taste of that stuff. "I'll see, but that kinda stuff can be shipped covertly and not on public manifests at a place like this. A lot of the smugglers carry a box of stuff for a buddy here and there if it fits in their hold without costing them." Something as simple as candy wouldn't be too easy to pin down if it was being brought in covertly, unless a place of business was ordering them.

The Shadowport wasn't exactly lawless, but it was a Shadowport for a reason. If a shopkeeper wanted something, he posted a request for all to see or asked a friend to bring it in for him. If it was the former, then records were sketchy but recent requests would be easy to find. If it was the later, then there wasn't going to be a record she could look up on her datapad. "All the excitement comes later. Can't go chasing down everyone on this rock or we'd die of old age before we found your man."

After she typed in all the search parameters she could, she brought up a list of people. Not a whole lot of pictures to put names to faces, but that was expected at a place like this. The Outer Rim wasn't known for proper census taking and expertly run bureaucracy, and shadowports tended to frown on such a thing. A lot of the names on the screen were blatantly recorded aliases, some so bad as to call themselves Han Solo to remain anonymous. With a tap she sent the data to her little scarabs, which buzzed for a moment and then the small swarm of about thirty or forty tiny coin sized droids buzzed out of the hold disappearing into the port. They were hard to notice in night-time and didn't exactly try to get noticed when they flew.

"So cutie, tell me a bit about yourself now that we are alone. I'd love to have something interesting to listen to while we wait." Laira batted her eyelashes playfully, looking up in a very obviously fake bashful manner. She wanted to get to know the older woman a little better before actually flying her all over creation. Yes, her droid could help protect her and she wasn't exactly a slouch, but to sleep with a stranger in the ship with her was another matter entirely.

[member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Laira Vereen"]

"So cutie, tell me a bit about yourself now that we are alone. I'd love to have something interesting to listen to while we wait."

Taryc smiled back while contemplating precisely how much to say. The woman had already admitted to being an intelligence gatherer. On the other hand, Taryc had already mentioned being a former Primeval agent and currently working for Firemane. Most of the rest of her history would be fairly easy to track down, she wasn't always the precise instrument that others of the Inquisition had been.

"I don't know how interesting I am," She began with a shrug. "I was born on Bastion, my parents were both Inquisitors for the Primeval. I was thrust into that training at a very young age and was raised to be a zealot. During my time being a zealot, I put all manner of nouns to the flame. Places, objects, people. All in the name of the Three and The One." She watched Laira as she spoke, seeing what reactions she would have to her words. "Then the Primeval fell. The gods had proven to be wrong, fallible. The vengeance they were supposed to wreak on those who failed them never came. I don't know what it's called when a zealot loses faith, but I did. My family died in the aftermath of the Host Lords fall. Most of the rest of their agents did as well, or were scattered to the wind. I took to vices to try to fill the void that my faith had left. I spent about five years drinking, drugging, and slutting my way around the galaxy. The only people who died to my hands in that time were ones who tried to push me in a way I didn't want to go."

She paused then, scratching the back of her head with a small smile.

"From there to here is a much shorter time frame. I grew tired of vice, tired of wallowing in self doubt and pity. I was trained to fight, and I do it well. I figured I had so much blood on my hands, it'd likely take the rest of my life to atone for it. That is if I ever can. I decided that the journey would be worth it, but I had to do it my way. So I started hunting down Sith and Primeval agents. I hunted them alone, and with others. I was there when the Iron Empire routed a One Sith remnant, though they likely don't recall as I stayed in the shadows. I helped the Alliance at Atrisia. I helped the Alliance at Kaeshana. The allies I've gained along the way, Draco Vereen, Elpsis Elaris, Firemane in general. All of them have helped me on my path. Only a few years ago, you'd be likely to have found me in a bar completely wasted. Now I'm back on the hunt, and actually being helpful." She shrugged again. That was her story, glossing over any gory details. She wasn't a great story-teller, she knew she had rambled a bit here and there. "What about you? What's your story?"

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Atonement isn't in the actions, its in the heart. If you are seeking redemption to help yourself, to be selfish, it will never come." Laira said with a matter of fact tone in her voice. Redemption and Atonement were things people sought but could not gain on their own from Laira's understanding of the word. That even if Taryc rose to save trillions, if she did it for selfish reasons it wouldn't be enough deep down. Some people didn't feel that way, some people could justify anything given enough time. But those people didn't go looking for atonement, they went looking for public acceptance to further themselves in some weird, normally convoluted way.

"But I did find you in a bar." Laira said with a smirk and a chuckle. Sure Taryc wasn't drunk and wasted, but she had been found in a bar, and quite easily picked up by the redhead. "Isn't that my story, always a little late to the party." She giggled to herself, remember times she had missed out on fun and stories by mere minutes even if she did have her fair share to talk about when she wanted to.

"My story is easy. Born on Bothuwai to a woman and a former OP Commando. He had an old CIS holocron he picked up from somewhere and was a weak Force Sensitive. I wasn't so weak so he used it to teach me until he died. Cancer plus bacta allergy. Nonetheless, there wasn't anything tying me down anymore so I hit the hyperlanes. First as a co-pilot until I got to Roche. There I found this old thing in a couple dozen pieces, and salvaged it, rebuilt it from the ground up. Then it was mine, and I was broke. What else is a broke girl like me supposed to do other than haul freight." There were always other options, but some women were respectable and had standards in the galaxy. There was some truth to the story, mostly that she had helped build the ship from the ground up but it had hardly been salvaged at Roche.

"That, combined with my being easily flattered, enjoying such flattery, possessing a dame in shining armor complex, and probably being a little too flirty for my own good led you and I right here. Not that I'm complaining. I don't normally get company like you, all sexy murder machine and what not." Laira grinned widely at her companion, having fun passing the time and flirting back and forth. Taryc was a little old, and Laira wasn't without her restraints when it came to relationships, but there was no harm in a little mutual fun.

[member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]

 

[H3xle]

[member="Laira Vereen"]

"Atonement isn't in the actions, its in the heart. If you are seeking redemption to help yourself, to be selfish, it will never come."

Taryc couldn't help but nod along. She'd found the same thing to be true. She had started out trying to actively find atonement, but after awhile she had come to the realization that not only did she want atonement, but that being a force for good made herself feel better all by itself. While she realized that she still had a lot of blood on her hands, she was slowly coming to terms that whatever happened would happen, and she was just going to be herself, and that meant being a cold blooded killer for good, oxymoronic as that sounded.

"But I did find you in a bar." Laira said with a smirk and a chuckle. Sure Taryc wasn't drunk and wasted, but she had been found in a bar, and quite easily picked up by the redhead. "Isn't that my story, always a little late to the party."

Taryc batted her eyelashes at Laira. "Well, some vices are worth keeping around. I'm a good girl now, but not a priest." Her mind drifted to Elpsis, there was definitely something there, though they hadn't really delved into what it was yet.

Taryc listened to Laira as she spoke of her past. As was to be expected, there were small tells that told the inquisitor that parts of the story weren't true, but there was never enough tells to point to which parts of her story. Honestly, if someone tells even a completely true story enough times, it becomes memorized and similar tells can develop. Detecting lies was never an exact science, and Taryc wasn't in a suspicious enough mode to make anything of it. If the young lady had some details she wanted to hide, so be it. She was helping her, and Taryc didn't feel any warnings of betrayal.

"That, combined with my being easily flattered, enjoying such flattery, possessing a dame in shining armor complex, and probably being a little too flirty for my own good led you and I right here. Not that I'm complaining. I don't normally get company like you, all sexy murder machine and what not."

Taryc actually blushed at that, something she had only started doing recently.

"Sexy murder machine, I'll have to remember that one." She replied with a smile. "You're flirty, definitely, but you seem to have good instincts. Those guys likely would've pushed for sex once you got alone with one of them. You shook them like you were trained to spycraft or something, I'd have been more likely to just tell them I was done and walk off." She chuckled at herself. She'd have been blunt about it, and possibly caused a fight. She left off if she was looking for anything more than flirting, mostly because she had no expectations. She didn't only think with her legs, and conversation was some times better than sex.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Well, that's good news." Laira touched Taryc's hand, tracing her fingertips across the back of it, "Maybe we can keep this up and after your quest we can see where things go, but lets not set a date just yet." Laira liked the woman and was comfortable around her, but wasn't smitten. Taryc was no Elpsis, that was for sure.

"Those guys weren't useless, they did a good job creating a distraction for us. Good assets don't always need to know they are just assets, Bothan proverb. Its almost like I was raised on a planet known mostly for its Spynet." She sighed with a smile gazing at her companion, grinning just enough to show her pearly white teeth behind pink lips. She was being just sarcastic enough in her tone to let her friend know that of course she had some form of training in spycraft given her backstory, it was one of the reasons she chose it. "Don't worry though, I'm innocent and and adorable, I swear." Her training however was rudimentary, taught by a bothan aligned with the clan since her father had joined and subsequently controlled the Obsidian Order, and a wraith that had followed Draco since his days even before his time with the Techno Union. Not all things are learned from one master, a good princess knows what she doesn't and what she can learn from her counsels.

"You are right about them. Not that I couldn't have handled my own, but this way if we need them in a week or so we can go pick them up. Besides, I prefer your companionship to theirs." Laira had a thing for nice compliments and flirting, but she also didn't like the typical male machismo she had been raised with. Those were a dime a dozen where she came from. She also didn't like the rich stud act, again she had her pick of the litter for that as well. She liked the more unique types, and woman atoning for an age of sin by struggling to be a better person and putting away their vices was fairly unique, and not unlike her Father's stories about meeting her mother. "You've been polite about boundaries despite me laying it on thick. Part of the fun of flirting is being on the receiving end without feeling like any second you are going to have to fight for it. Let's just keep this pace for now." She intertwined her fingers with Taryc's in a manner that was pleasant for her.

It was about then her datapad pinged with an update from one of the droids sent from a terminal at a different dock.

[member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]

 

[H3xle]

Taryc smiled as she listened to Laira speak. She let her hand slip into Taryc's, and even squeezed softly in return. She could see that the innocent and adorable was at least partially a ruse, but, once again, she felt no malice from her, and so left her secrets lie. It was one of the more significant differences between Taryc now and Taryc then. Before, she'd have followed secrets down to their source with fire and blood. Now, she only followed them if they could be a threat.

That and she was enjoying her time with Laira as well.

Taryc turned to look at the datapad for a moment, partially wishing she'd had some training with mechu deru to be able to pull the data off the pad without interrupting the nice flirt fest going on.

'I'll have to remember to introduce her to Elpsis at some point.' She thought to herself. 'I think she'd really enjoy her.'

Then she turned back to Laira, making no move towards the datapad that didn't belong to her. Instead, she continued the thread of conversation.

"I try to match the feeling of people. Kind of like a social chameleon. Were you the fast and loose type, we'd likely be in a pile over there." She said, nodding towards the floor with a wink and a grin. Then her demeanor returned to the calm flirtatious way she'd maintained. "This is fun, though. You don't meet many spacers that don't skip the friendship aspects of a relationship in favor of sex. Too many feel the next time out of port could be their last. It's nice to get to know you as a person." She replied, pretty well matching Laira's sentiment.

[member="Laira Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"A pile, eh?" Laira grinned ear to ear, blushing at the thought of it. Especially since she did, despite the appearance of the little cramped up vessel, have a bed. "Well, I don't skip that step because I understand my invulnerability and invincibility stem from my well deserved confidence and self-esteem. If I slept with everyone for fear I might not come back I'd lose my powers." Not entirely untrue. That was at least part of why she didn't sleep around, as Laira was certainly convinced that eventually she would get her happy, fairtale-esque ending. It never even occurred to her, even in her most private moments, she would be the one that died on the next mission.

The ping of her datapad caused her eyes to turn towards it, grey irises narrowing at the poor timing of droids. "Looks like we have a bite. Enough to go check out. Man matching the description of our target bought a round trip ticket to Kashyyyk for departure tomorrow morning." She grinned again, turning back to Taryc and focusing on the older woman, looking over the curve of her face and the divot in her lips just beneath her nose, before her stormy grey eyes found Taryc's light blue.

"So, do you wanna go check and see if its him now, or wait for him tomorrow?" They would certainly have time to get to know one another if this part of their search took them elsewhere. It was a small ship after all, they would have to speak eventually. But if not, there wouldn't be a good reason for either of them to stick together other than they wanted to.

[member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]

 

[H3xle]

Taryc thought for a few moments, eyes on the datapad. She had a feeling like the strange stirrings of this Primeval agent would be the precursor to something far larger. She didn't have a clue as to what, but the thought of what would come after was mildly exhausting to think about. She was enjoying herself here, and she had few enough friends that she didn't think it prudent to miss the opportunity to develop a deeper friendship here.

"He can wait. He'll be at his most paranoid during his preparation for the trip, so we should just keep an eye on him. We know the endpoint is Kashyyk, but are there any stops the ship is making in between? We could shadow from in front, especially if we have the specifications of the ship." She replied. Her thoughts were along the lines of either Kashyyk was really important, or the agent was getting off before Kashyyk. Eitherway, they'd be able to notice. Hyperdrives had predictable speeds, and they'd be able to gauge to see if any unforeseen stops were made between here and Kashyyk.

"Besides, we are having a nice time now, we shouldn't rush into or through anything." She said with a grin.

[member="Laira Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira raised an eyebrow and then grinned with contentment. "Alright, I'll see what I can look up but we aren't exactly in the reputable part of the galaxy. Sometimes these transports make unscheduled stops or meet ups to transfer spice or other contraband." Sometimes to hand over passengers to pirates and slavers depending on the captain of the ship and their desire for money. Double dipping was pretty common place among shadowports with varying degrees of trustworthiness and malicious intent.

The redhead took her hand that was intertwined with Taryc's and shifted her position so that she was sitting with their thighs and hips touching, leaning against the black haired woman. "I suppose we could stay and," she paused looking Taryc up and down for a moment, "Get to know one another for a while longer." Taryc was a bit older than she and a bit more experienced, but Laira had a knack for getting what she wanted out of people without having to press to hard, and what she wanted was stories. Mostly her own stories to tell.

"So other than me, anyone special in your life?" Laira had a bit of a mischievous streak, having flirted with one Jorus Merrill throughout a combat flight in order to render him speechless and bring out his awkwardness in a way that amused her despite the man claiming to be married. She also enjoyed time spent with sweet Elpsis, though that was a crush of sorts she enjoyed but wasn't in the mood to settle down with anyone just yet. She enjoyed playing the field more than rounding the bases, and so maybe a few dates with Taryc wouldn't be so bad. Laira had inherited her Father's preference for buttocks which Taryc certainly had in spades even if Laira preferred boys. "Anyone who might shoot at me if we wound up in a pile before this trip ended?"

[member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]

 

[H3xle]

[member="Laira Vereen"]

Taryc's nostrils flared and pupils dilated slightly as hormones hit her system when Laira slid over. There was a lot of thigh and hip touching, and Taryc squeezed Laira's hand slightly in unconscious anticipation. Still though, her ears worked, and she had heard the question. Thoughts of Elpsis certainly didn't weaken Taryc's arousal at all, however.

"So other than me, anyone special in your life?"

Taryc took a moment to look Laira up and down. In her years, she had been with many men and women. She didn't have a fetish for the strange like a certain Mara Merrill that Taryc had never met had, but had also not been shy with her arousal until more recent times. A thought cast back to her first time with Elpsis, and she smiled, the warmth of it radiating outward on her face. Taryc was elder in that relationship, but at that time had not been sure. They had just come out of combat and sort of fell into eachothers arms. The rest was a sweet, sweet history.

"I do have a special someone, though we are by no means exclusive." She said with a twinkle in her eye and a wink. "Her name is Elpsis Elaris, we met when I joined up with Firemane. She made me feel very welcome, and we've hit it off ever since." She said as she leaned in closer to Laira, inhaling softly to get Laira's scent in her nostrils. "She would certainly be more into joining such a pile than shooting you, however." Then she leaned in to kiss the buxom lass softly.