This is what it feels like (Dredge)

[Cryax Bane]

Cryax let all the air out of his lungs with a "whoosh" when his mother stopped screaming bloody murder. Then, the room came sharply back into focus as Dredge's cocktail was dumped on his head, the fruity-smelling liquid drenching his blue-black hair, a befitting christening of Cryax's new life. When Dredge took his chin between his thumb and forefinger turning his head to force the Chiss to face him directly, Cryax tried to resist, but the armored creature had a vice-like grip, and so he relented and let his red eyes meet the Vong's beady black ones. What he saw in those black pools chilled him to the bone.

Then came the ceremonious unveiling of one "Colonel Snazzy Pants" who seemed to be some kind of large crustacean pet of Samantha's. Cryax had no idea what "treatment" the father/daughter team was referring to as the Chiss had little knowledge of the Yuuzhan Vong and the Yorik-Kul they implanted into their slaves. Amid snickers from Dredge and Samantha, Cryax slowly walked towards the creature as he was bid, his red eyes nervously flickering to its snapping pincers. His ignorance was the only thing moving his feet along as he dolefully approached the crab-like monster and waited for it to do its worst to him.

[member="Dredge"]

 

[Dredge]

[member="Cryax Bane"]

The crab stared at Cryax with his beady black eyes and moved forward on it's long spider like legs. The crab creature said nothing and immediately went to work on Cryax. With loud hiss the crab used it's pincers and hit Cryax on each of his shoulders pushing him to the ground to begin the procedure. Drops of disgusting viscous gooey liquid fell onto Cryax's chest. They smelt of the worst and vile sewers and saltiest of brines. The crab creature hissed again loudly and sprayed more of it's gross spit onto Cryax. It's breath reeked of dead fish and black lagoons. It lowered itself down to eye level with Cryax and hissed again

"Enjoy your new life Wretch. Have fun." Were the last Cryax would hear from dredge.

The crab demon opened it's mouth wider and when it was fully open for the man to see, there were not teeth inside of it. But rather tendrils of gooey disgusting tentacles. The tendrils moved forward in almost a dancing motion, like a predator playing with it's prey before gutting it. The slick tendrils dripped more of the vile liquid down and soon they began to slither their way to the nose and ears of Cryax. A few clicking sounds were heard from the beast and in a sudden flash of pain the beast rammed the tendrils into the brain of Cryax.

Placing the Yorick Coral inside of his head the crab demon administered ungodly amounts of mind searing pain. The procedure only took a few moments but when he was done Cryax would be unconscious only to wake up to an empty sewer with his mother crying over him worried sick about what her son had just done.

 

[Cryax Bane]

Despite the fact that Cryax's head felt like someone had nailed a hole in it, getting his mother safely to the surface was the first priority for the Chiss. His head foggy, Cryax couldn't trust that his recent memories weren't just a nightmare. As he hurried down the corridor with his arms around his mother, Cidaxi Bane, who was sobbing quietly with a pained expression in her glowing red eyes, he reflected on the last few minutes before he'd blacked out. Dredge was there, of course, along with the Vong child Samantha. And some kind of crab demon thing. Then the tentacles. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. The tentacles jamming violently, into his nose and ears, causing unbearable pain. The room suddenly swam. He felt a wetness on his lip and investigated with his fingers finding a trail of blood coming from both nostrils.

As mother and son ascended to the street, it was dawn. The two Chiss stole through the waking light, retrieving Cryax's bodyguard droids from the slicer bar and then hailing a speeder taxi to the casino. Once back at the Dragon Palace, Cyrax put his mother in a room, tucking her into bed and gently kissing her forehead. He had given her a mild sedative to dull her pain and let her sleep soundly for a long while. Then glancing back at her one last time, he crept silently out of her room and went back to his penthouse, the door opening with a hiss.

Tiptoeing into the bedroom so as not to wake his sleeping boyfriend, Cryax locked himself in the adjacent bathroom. His reflection in the mirror horrified him. Hair matted down with a sticky substance that seemed to be a foul mixture of liquor and alien goo. Rivulets of blood trailing from his nose and leaking out of his ears. And the smell was toxic. By the Core, he was in bad shape. He filled the sink with water and started to slowly and carefully clean himself up.

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

Stirring slightly once a familiar presence touched his senses even in the depths of sleep, Jalek rolled over and swung his legs over the side of the bed, pulling on his pants over his boxers and standing. With a quiet yawn he ran his fingers through his red hair to comb it into some semblance of order, frowning slightly once he found the bathroom door locked and knocking on it instead. "Are you okay, Blue?" A quiet meow sounded and with a small smile he knelt to pick up the orange-striped kitten, gently scratching the back of its head as he straightened, holding the small animal against his bare chest. "How'd the meeting with the other slicer go?" Glancing briefly around the room to determine if anything was out of place, he noted that the other kitten, this one with blue-tinted fur, had made itself comfortable on Cryax's pillow.

Once the other man had stepped through the door he'd sensed something off about him, though he couldn't place exactly what it was. That was one of the benefits and yet one of the detrimental things about his Force sensitivity. It allowed him to work out what, if anything, was wrong, but never anything more than that. Still, he didn't like what he was feeling. Something more had happened at the slicer bar, and it wasn't just involving the usual slip-ups that were bound to happen somewhere along the line, regardless of how careful one was. This was something more.

A number of ideas as to what it could be flashed through his mind, but he dismissed them without having evidence to back any up. Unnecessary worry wouldn't help either of them. Instead he knocked softly on the door once again. "Is it alright if I come in?"

[member="Cryax Bane"]

 

[Cryax Bane]

Cryax jumped sky high as he heard the knock on the bathroom door, and then exhaled deeply, placing a tremblng hand over his racing heart. When he was asked if he was ok, Cryax said nothing and hastily finished splashing cold water on his face. Frankly he was very much the opposite of ok, but when his Morellian boyfriend asked more questions, he realized that ready or not, he'd have to face Jalek eventually. His lover could sense things with his Force powers anyway, little mental disturbances that Cryax knew he couldn't hide. Another knock and the Chiss turned off the water and dried himself off, grimacing as he saw the gooey mess that was now Cryax's towel. I'll burn that later, he thought then briskly raised his voice through the door. "I'll come out in a sec," he said. Then he took a deep breath, double checked his face for blood and opened the door.

Dark circles hung underneath his eyes from sleeplessness and duress, as the Chiss lingered in the doorway. Cryax forced a smile and brushed his hand against Jalek's cheek, "Hey, ch'eo ch'acah you should go back to bed. It's late," he said softly, in a pretense of nonchalance. A foul smell hung in the air, the scent of sea water mixed with decomposition, and he realized that he probably should have showered. Then, wracked with sudden flashbacks of the crab demon clamped down on his head, tentacles snaking into his nose and ears, Cryax weakly stumbled to the bed and sat down on it, staring into space as if completely lost. He turned his head and looked up at Jalek with pure terror in his gaze. "I think something really bad happened tonight."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

As soon as he laid eyes on Cryax it was blatantly obvious that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. What, he wasn't quite sure, but this was beyond the normal look of stress that the Chiss often returned home wearing. This was something more, and he had a sinking feeling that it involved a particular Yuuzhan Vong that he'd heard too much about in the past weeks for his liking. But still, he knew that Cryax needed to talk, and even if he couldn't do anything, he would still listen. Even if he wanted nothing more than to kill the person responsible and be done with things, there were boundaries that even he knew existed, and unfortunately, that was one of them.

Still holding the kitten he crossed the room to sit next to Cryax, reaching down with his free hand to intertwine their fingers, the other arm still holding the animal close to his chest. "It's early, not late. Just about seven in the morning. You were gone the whole night." Here he smiled, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Don't think I didn't notice." Just as quickly as he was smiling his voice took on a more serious tone. "What is it that happened? If you're going to tell me that it's Dredge again, then don't bother. It's about fething time something gets done about that. You know that there isn't a point in letting this continue when the problem can be solved one way or another." There were very few things that genuinely got under his skin, and this was one of them.

"You know you can tell me anything, ch'eo ch'acah. I don't care what happened, because you're still the same to me." He squeezed Cryax's hand gently with another smile. "Even if you can hardly put up with me sometimes."

[member="Cryax Bane"]

 

[Cryax Bane]

As he listened to Jalek's gentle, coaxing words, the Chiss's first instinct, as usual, was to hide. To hide those uncomfortable things from everyone around him and most importantly himself. There was a dim hope that if he didn't speak the unspeakable it would somehow disappear. But this was Jalek, a man who most wouldn't trust given his gang association back on Taris, but Cryax's true love and confidant. This time he knew that this time he had to fess up. But where to begin was the ultimate question. With Cidaxi Bane? The strewn around corpses of dead Ravens in the sewers? The tentacles invading his brain? He squeezed Jalek's hand a bit too tightly, almost clutching at the the other man, desperate for his calming touch. The Morellian was dead right about one thing. He should have asked for more help in dealing with the monster. Now that the One Sith were allies, maybe? Or maybe they'd all just laugh at him as the mess he was in was his own making.

The Chiss reached out a blue-skinned hand to pet the kitten named Blue who was sleeping soundly on his pillow. He closed his eyes as the sounds of purring filled the air, calming him momentarily. Then he turned back to Jalek, eyes wide open and looking serious. Cryax didn't know where to start so he thought he'd just blurt out the crux of the matter. Holding two fingers to each side of his temple, he said "I think Dredge put something in my brain, and...I let him." Then before Jalek could open his mouth he continued. "I didn't have a choice. Trust me, the bastard made it impossible for me to say no."

Then Cryax leaned over and plucked his Datapad from the nightstand, starting up a Holonet search. A few minutes later he made his way deeper into the darknet and found what he was looking for, intel on the Yuuzhan Vong. As his red eyes scanned the data, he became visibly shaken. He pressed a button and a Holo flickered to life on the surface of the Datapad. A three-dimensional model of the Yorik-Kul, the device used to turn beings into slaves at the command of the Yuuzhan Vong. "This." he said gesturing to the Holo of the spiky organic abomination. "I think he put one of these in my head."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

Reaching down Jalek nudged the kitten he was holding, Red, towards the other, his attention belonging completely to Cryax now. Instead of speaking he took the datapad from the Chiss' grasp, collapsing the holo display and scrolling through the information listed, shaking his head and returning the datapad to the nightstand and only pulling him into a tight hug. He was aware that at this point one of the best things he could offer was his support, and that was what he would do. Even if it wouldn't do much else than help for the moment, it was all he was capable of given the time. Later, however, he would be out for blood, in whichever way he could help.

Finally releasing his boyfriend he flashed a crooked smile, his demeanor returning to its rare serious nature moments later. "Which means he can control you whenever he wants. That karking piece of..." He trailed off, leaning in to kiss Cryax on the lips, venting his pent up frustration about what Cryax had been forced to go through in that one embrace. With him not being one to speak his thoughts or feelings, he communicated them in other ways, this being one of them. "All that matters is that you're okay now. We can deal with the rest of it later. There has to be a way to get rid of it. Nothing lasts forever, and there's always a way."

Now he turned his attention to the other presence he'd felt shortly before Cryax entered their penthouse apartment. It was vaguely familiar in the sense that it resembled that of the other slicer, but with a distinct difference that made it obvious it didn't belong to the same person. From experience he'd learned that it meant the two were related, but as far as he knew the man didn't have any relatives, and if he did, they were distant at best. "Who is it that came in with you?" He paused, unsure of how to phrase things in the very high chance that it was something Dredge was responsible for. "Family?"

[member="Cryax Bane"]

 

[Cryax Bane]

Cryax returned his boyfriend's embrace and savored his kiss, all the while holding back emotions that threatened to come flooding forth. He ran his fingers through his blue-black hair and gave Jalek a wan smile. "I'm not sure I'm ok, but I'm better now that I'm with you." A tiny bit of blood dripped slowly down from one nostril, and he hastily wiped it away with the back of his hand. When Jalek mentioned getting rid of the surge coral, Cryax nodded. "Yes, yes, maybe there's a way to have it removed. Perhaps I could contact the One Sith to see if one of their sorcerers could help me?" Jalek knew that Cryax didn't like asking for help so for him to suggest reaching out to the Sith, the situation must have been dire indeed.

There was no easy way to tell Jalek about his mother so he decided to just rip off that bacta patch. "My mother, Cidaxi Bane, is here in the casino." He shook his head incredulously. "She passed a while back on Bakura. But Dredge brought her back with some sort of necromancy, and used her to get to me." It was only seven in the morning, but Cryax crossed to the kitchenette and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, forgoing the glass. He brought the bottle back and perched on the edge of the bed, began to swig directly from it, staring at the floor as he talked. "That's how I ended up with this Yorik-Kul thing in my brain. The implantation was, well, horrible to say the least. Tentacles were jammed into my nose and ears. The process nearly killed me."

Clenching the bottle so hard that his arm trembled, Cryax had a sudden urge to hurl it against the wall, smashing it to bits, but stopped himself. "I couldn't stand to hear her scream like that, babe. It was awful. She never asked to be a part of this," the Chiss exclaimed with a furrowed brow. "Nor did you, love. I'm probably putting your life in jeopardy as we speak."

[member="Jalek Sathora"] [member="Dredge"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

Merely shrugging at the mention of his own life being in danger, Jalek reached a hand down to gently rest on top of Cryax's, toying gently with his fingers. It was nothing new to him, having his life at stake simply by existing, as that had been his typical, everyday way of living when he still called Taris home amongst the numerous gangs he had membership with. In fact, it was a rare occurrence if someone didn't want him dead. If there was one thing he was good at, it was making the wrong people mad, and they usually ended up being the more important ones in the hierarchy of things. "You mean someone else still wants me dead? That's a relief. I was beginning to think I'd lost my edge, for a second." Still with the comments, despite the dire situation the two, or rather, three, were currently in.

There were many things Jalek didn't like in the galaxy, and seeing Cryax upset over anything, or in any sort of pain, was unquestionably at the top of the list. Usually one to deal with things he disliked with a crooked grin and a sarcastic comment, this was a bit new to him. It was a matter closer to the heart that required a bit more finesse for him to deal with, but he took it all in stride. After all, this was his boyfriend, the man he loved. "No one's blaming you for anything. And no one will. This'll work out." He smiled again, this time gently squeezing the other man's hand.

In an attempt to divert the conversation to a more pleasant angle, he kissed Cryax on the cheek again. "I suppose this is the part where I get your mother's approval, huh?" Here he grinned crookedly. "Hopefully she isn't expecting too much from me. I'm not exactly the highest quality, but I'm not your usual street punk, either."

[member="Cryax Bane"]

 

[Cryax Bane]

Intertwining his fingers with Jalek's, Cryax let out a chuckle at Jalek's crack about losing his edge. It felt good to laugh, and if there was one thing that Morellian slicer knew how to do it was make him forget his troubles, even the one beyond forgetting. He tilted his head in for a long kiss and leaned in to whisper in his boyfriend's ear, lips grazing against his earlobe. "I love you, my bat in'a." Then he pulled away and took another swig from the whiskey bottle. He was starting to get drunk, and it was a blessing to be able to blot out the horrors of the last twenty-four hours even if it would leave him with a pounding head.

When Jalek mentioned Cidaxi, Cryax just smiled. "Yeah, babe, you will soon meet my mother. She may not approve of you at first, but I believe you'll win her heart in the end." He chuckled and kissed Jalek lightly on the lips, running his fingers through the slicer's red hair. "My mother doesn't even let me say kark, so just watch your mouth. I know how hard that is for you." He frowned and looked down at the floor for a moment. "In her state I may have to take baby steps with revealing things to her. When she finds out what I do for a living it's going to kill her. Again. And I'm going to send her back to Bakura after you meet her. She's simply not safe here."

Cryax then flopped on his back on the bed, with one arms dangling off the side of the bed, the whiskey bottle hanging loosely in his hand. His other hand snaked up to his temple where he rubbed. He was struck with the sudden urge to claw at his own head until he dug into his brain and ripped the surge coral out with his bare hands. "What a fething mess I've gotten myself into, eh?"

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Sage Bane]

--------------------------------One week later--------------------------------​

​

Cryax was a hard man to find, thought Sage Bane as he poked around the Dragon Palace Casino looking for his half-brother. The Chiss hybrid needed to find the Red Ravens President order to ge details on some high-paying odd jobs he'd been given by the Chiss crime lord, and the blue bastard wasn't returning his texts. Typical, he thought. Sage would have liked to get to know his brother better, but he suspected that he was merely a charity case for his brother. Still he couldn't rightfully complain. Since his near-arrest and departure from the Ko Hentota Cartel on Nar Shaddaa, Sage's credit account would soon start dwindling, especially given his expensive drug habit.

For better or worse, the half-Chiss had been given liberal security clearances at the casino, and much to his amusement, he found that the palace's security guards simply opened doors for him wherever he went. Could Cryax be any more of an idiot? No wonder the guy was in so much trouble, he mused with a smirk on his face. Once his search of the casino's main floors came up empty, Sage soon hopped in the elevator and, holding a deathstick between his teeth, climbed to the top floor.

There was a slim chance that Cryax would be in his penthouse apartment, but Sage's real motivation for going to his brother's suite was to find any and all illegal substances he could "borrow." Hands in the pocket of his jacket, he meandered around the hallways until he found the Chiss's door. Holding his eye up to the retinal scanner on the security terminal outside, he smiled widely as Cryax Bane's front door opened up with a hiss. He was greeted by two kittens, one orange and one blueish-grey and he stooped to pet them as they intertwined around his ankles, filling the room with the sounds of purring. Kark me gently with a vibroblade, he thought. He'd not pegged Cryax as an cat lover. Without any more hesitation, Sage lit his deathstick and started rifling around in Cryax's stuff, nodding his head at the impressive spread that the Chiss had. There was sure to be something in here worth stealing.

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

Despite all that had happened with Cryax, Jalek found himself with a lack of much else to do other than take up the odd slicing job here and there to do nothing more than kill time. Since his boyfriend didn’t want him doing any digging that even remotely concerned all that had happened to him thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong, he had to be satisfied with the simple jobs. And it was boring, really, no matter how many credits it brought in. The Chiss was currently off on some business or another, which was his reason for hanging back at the apartment they shared, lounging shirtless on the bed with datapad in hand, focused intently on the task at hand.

As it was he didn’t immediately notice the strange presence once they entered the apartment, mostly due to the fact that it was familiar enough to Cryax’s to not raise any suspicions right away. With a blink he set his work aside, finally having noticed something out of place, and he reached over to pull on a loose-fitting tanktop, stepping near silently out of the bedroom. Glancing around the apartment he finally laid eyes on the intruder, momentarily surprised at how much the man resembled Cryax. He hadn’t been made aware of any siblings that the man might have had, so this came as a bit of a surprise.

Not speaking right away he was content to watch the stranger rummage through his boyfriend’s things for another moment, letting him think he was safe for the time being. It seemed that the kittens had taken a liking to him, something he noted with a small, amused smile. But it was gone as quickly as it came when his gaze returned to the unannounced arrival. “Can I help you find something?” The man didn’t seem to be a common thief, and he most likely wasn’t, given the fact that he’d been given enough security clearance to make it this far. Besides, he had the telltale twitch of an addict about him, which spoke volumes about what he was searching for.

It suited his sense of irony, considering he himself was a smoker, almost consistently so. But he was conscientious of not doing so inside, one of his redeeming qualities was that his idea of respect extended as far as his boyfriend’s wishes, but no more. It seemed that was lost on this intruder, though he’d chosen a more dangerous medium to smoke as well. Death sticks had never been in his taste.

[member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Sage Bane]

Just as he begun going through the nightstand, Sage heard the sound of a voice in the room, and he stopped in the middle of his tracks. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a tattooed young man looking at him with a placid expression. The man was highly attractive with naturally red-hair, soft features, and a lanky build, similar to his own. The casual way he was dressed told Sage that this was not a business associate, but rather someone with a more intimate connection to his brother. The Chiss hybrid didn’t mind this development at all. His eyes moved over the other man, quickly looking for an angle to work. Dressed in a long jacket

Sage turned around and stood in front of Jalek with his hands behind his back, as he managed to slip a vial of glitterstim into his back pocket. “Yes, you can help me as a matter of fact. I’m looking for my brother, Cryax. Do you know where he is?”

Then Sage said something that was simply meant to throw the other man off guard. A situation was much easier to exploit when someone was immediately on the defensive. He lifted his finger to his chin, flecks of black polish on his bitten nails. "You must be his boytoy, huh? Well, at least he's got good taste in men."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

There was a first time for everything, and that included someone that matched him in snark. Flashing a crooked smile he shook his head in response to the first question, flicking a strand of shaggy red hair out of his eyes. "I'm his boyfriend, yeah." The response was tame for him, and instead he looked the other man around in return. "You're almost as good-looking as him, too. Almost." Glancing behind the stranger that he'd learned to be Cryax's brother, he noted exactly what he'd been searching through. "Spice, then. Glitterstim." Despite his typical attitude, the Morellian was quite observant when he so wished to be. "There's this thing called overdosing. You might wanna be care about it, kid. Someone as young as you..." He smirked, shrugging, leaving the rest of the sentence up to imagination.

"What is it you want, then? Middle of the day, everybody else is out somewhere, so's your brother." He stepped forward, brushing past Sage to shut the drawer of the nightstand, raising an eyebrow at the vial of glitterstim in his back pocket and plucking it out. "Next time you steal something, try to do a better job at it than that. I really expected something better, but it seems your looks precede you." After finishing straightening things out into his idea of neatness he stepped back around the other man, shoving the vial back into his hands and taking the death stick right out of his mouth, putting it out and tossing it into the nearby trash, letting his eyes linger on his body for just a bit longer than normal.

Once more he regarded the man, an amused smile playing across his lips. "Blue and Red have taken a liking to you, so I guess you can't be that bad. Even if your skills in other areas could use a bit of work."

[member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Sage Bane]

Sage simply smiled with amusement as Jalek approached him, full of sarcastic comments. The Chiss's boyfriend had a mouth on him alright. Not that Sage could complain. Unlike his brother, he didn't get all huffy when someone got fresh with him. Dishing it right back was half the fun. He could think of some ways to get him to shut his pretty mouth.

When he was stripped of his drugs, Sage smirked. "Aw, you're no fun," he said, his eyes never leaving Jalek's. "You don't look like the stuffy type, but I guess looks can be deceiving." Sage then flopped down on Cryax's bed as if he owned the place and started rolling a cigarette. "Did Cryax not tell you about his brother Sage? Well, half-brothers, obviously." He gestured to his pale skin. Sage saw the way the boyfriend was looking at him and decided that he wasn't opposed to exploiting it to get his way. Especially if it mean he could get his hands on his brother's grade A stash.

He smiled at Jalek as he played with a strand of his own shaggy brown hair. "What is it you see in my brother anyway? He's not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes. You know that right?" Sage chuckled and lit his cigarette, blowing a few smoke rings at his brother's adorable boyfriend.

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

"Well, he's not you, for one." Jalek raised an eyebrow with a grin and returned to his previous position on the bed, flicking through a few windows on his datapad and typing another few lines of code, acting nonchalant about the entire situation. In reality, he wasn't really overly concerned about anything, the vibe was receiving from Sage not too different from his own typical attitude. "And I think he's just a bit smarter than another Bane that I know." Here he looked to the Chiss hybrid pointedly with another smirk, keeping his datapad in hand, the soft glow illuminating his face slightly in the dimly lit room, the privacy screens down. "Oh, and he's fun in other areas." As if to make a point he clicked his tongue piercing against the back of his teeth.

Being anything but one to give lectures on drug use, he could only chuckle and shake his head at Sage's comments. "You're what, eighteen? Trust me, I've had a lot more fun than you can imagine. And that's just including the drugs." Reaching over, he took the cigarette from the other man's grasp, taking a drag before handing it back, holding the smoke in his mouth for a moment before exhaling the cloud, not bothering to redirect it. "The rest of it's up another alley." His smile took on a teasing edge. "Don't get your hopes up."

It was true that he was enjoying their conversation, more for the bit of a mental exercise it brought than anything. It was a battle of wits, and one he wouldn't give up on anytime soon. "Anyone ever tell you that you have the tendency to get ahead of yourself?"

[member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Sage Bane]

The boyfriend's dig at the brother's differences in intellect stung a bit, and Sage attemped a smirk that ended up drifting into scowl territory. The he shrugged, lips spreading into the sweet smile he'd used when he was turning tricks on Nal Hutta. He scooched a few inches closer to Jalek on the bed and lay across it perpendicular to the other man, turning his head to look at him with the same amused grin. "Cryax had a good education from what I heard. I, on the other hand was sold into slavery from the age of ten. Of course, when I got old enough, my Masters educated me in ah, other ways." At that he let his gaze linger over Jalek in an obvious attempt to appeal to his more prurient senses.

As he listened to Jalek, he continued to lay on the bed, biting his nails, playing with the multiple silver rings on his fingers, and scratching at his skin every now and then. His eyes flickered to the dresser and then back to Jalek. "I don't think I ever caught your name, beautiful," he said with a grin that was eerily like his brother's. Then he added with a raised brow, "But I can think of some other choice things to call you."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]

 

[Jalek Sathora]

It didn't take someone with an astounding amount of intelligence to know what Sage was looking for when he glanced to the dresser, so with a sigh and a roll of his eyes Jalek leaned over to open one of the drawers on the nightstand, rummaging around and eventually pulling out a packet of spice, looking it over before tossing it to the other man, shoving the drawer shut, the same smile returning to his lips. "It's not glitterstim, but it's something. Try not to get too ahead of yourself." Finally he set his datapad aside, the screen fading to black, leaning back with one tattooed arm crossed behind his head.

Sage's smile threw him a bit off, but he continued with his comments regardless. "I've already played that game with your brother. Name's Jalek." He doubted that Sage had much of an ear in the slicing community, so he didn't bother to mention his alias on that side of things. It wouldn't do any good to get too personal with him anyway, in his experience. "Funny you say that, though. I had a few ideas in mind for you, myself. But I don't think they were quite the same as what you had thought up, beautiful." He used the same nickname in return, raising an eyebrow as if in challenge.

"I think I might have a few more tricks up my sleeve than you. Being alive for almost seventy years does that." After his mention of just how old he was he paused, almost to let it sink in. "I think I'll still have to decline, however much it might disappoint you. To be fair, I did warn you." He might have been overplaying himself, but one thing he'd learned from life on the streets of Taris was to never back down, regardless of the odds. "Besides, your brother has me just a bit more interested."

[member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Sage Bane]

Sage caught the packet of spice and turned it over in his hands. "Weak," he proclaimed as he looked at Jalek with big brown eyes, and then made a show of putting it in his pocket. There was something else in that nightstand that he wanted more than anything, and he wasn't going to leave until he got it. He ignored the other man's chiding for the most part. Sure some of it was hitting a little close to home, but Sage was a master at letting slights roll off his back. He'd been called many names over the years in many different languages, and as a slave, those words were the least of his troubles. Sage inched up on the bed, now positioning himself so that he was parallel with the other man, close enough to see the clear Jade color of the other man's eyes, but still far enough away to give Jalek enough personal space.

"Seventy years, eh? Older men sure are fun. Too bad you're just a tease." he said with a smirk. Then Sage gave Jalek a mock innocent expression. "And I'm not sure what you're declining here since I don't remember giving you a proposition." He grinned mischievously.

Finally, Sage looked around the room, his smile still wide and playful. "You've got quite the setup here, Jalek," he said, making sure to say the other man's name deliberately and seductively. Then his tone got a bit more cutting. "My brother surely pays a pretty penny for you, but I'm sure all of your needs are well taken care of. Must be nice being a kept man."

[member="Jalek Sathora"]