From Space, even at a distance far removed from the Orbit and Gravity of this world charred black and left burning, could the destination be observed. The mere circumference of it, enough to stagger and baffle, the breadth of it's gaping mouth, absolutely sickening to behold. But neither magnitude nor proportion could describe that haunting and dark foreboding. The frigid shiver of fright and heart thudding anxiety that breathed from the hollowed belly of this subsisting beast. For though it had long ago grown cold, it's essence yet remained. Hot and awful. Something capable of placing unease even on the most seasoned Fringer.
But therein reside the attraction.
The low-orbit traffic and Speeder Lanes that criss-crossed and lazily sagged down through the soot and ash in to the amber glow of fire and loathing of the atmosphere, became especially chaotic on approach to the New City. Initial Census reports had identified upwards of a million-five, that called this Volcano home, but with elementary glance alone, that could not have been further from the truth. The Unit alone employed a staff that exceeded that estimation.
The approach towards those upper-most Landing Decks was a relentless task indeed, barbarous Transport Taxi's sparred for positioning. Callous and fierce visitors and inhabitants alike waged vehicular warfare trying to shave seconds off from their travel time. Even the affluent pleasure seekers, looking only to feel the instability, and bathe themselves in the vexatious depravity and disturbing luxuries that were something unlike even the most ruinous slums of Hutt Space could offer, struggled in the influx of arrivals and departures.
But once arrived, once the landing struts lowered, and the Droids came to greet and direct those unfamiliar, the feeling was unmistakable. That tingling sensation that you were standing somewhere, above some. . .
thing, that was deranged beyond sanity. That the worlds below were something only the most exclusively exceptional could withstand and survive whole.
Xander and [member="Matsu Xiangu"] currently resided deep inside of her personal office, if in fact it could even be considered that, to him it'd always struck him more as a luxury den that just happened to have a desk standing in front of a massive pane of glass that overlooked the entire mouth of the Volcano. He'd have taken in more of it's sights and wonders, and that mysterious and macabre style she so perfectly embodied and decorated her personal spaces with. But that was for her to focus on, his eyes were lost somewhere, staring off out of that window while she drifted about silently. Gazing lazily upon a swirling cloud of cinders and smoke that was wreathed in crackling chains of lightning in the far distance beyond the tinted glass.
For the last twelve minutes he'd been standing there, stirring ice with the bottom end of a forest green fountain pen. From a crystal decanter, mid-conversation, he'd decided to pour himself a small glass of something special she had just sitting around. Something nearly as rare as she was. She'd mentioned the name at some point, but he couldn't entirely recall what it was. Something Atrisian crafted, one of the rarest Whiskies in the Galactic Market today. It'd be made on the planet Corlass, distilled then aged in a special wood only found there. It cut the harshness out assiduously, and left a faint, almost strangely sweet whisper on the palette while producing an awkward coolness to chill your chest and leaving you tingling and freezing for more! It was something truly peerless, and one day soon it'd be lost forever. It left him feeling almost sad to even taste it, but, with a clink of his pen---which found itself then clipped between a space between two buttons on his shirt----he tossed it down with one unceremonious gulp.
Almost was not enough to deny the desire.
They'd moved well beyond considering each other simple colleagues, but what exactly they'd become words couldn't easily translate. Some bizarre place between two definitions. Two individuals joined together by shared fetishes and sinister intrigue.
"That's definitely an. . . option." He finally replied, but to which conversation point that they had been sharing?
[member="Cameron Centurion"]
