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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Mar 24, 2016 1:38:52 GMT -5
Var was now dressed. One of her usual sorts of outfits, black leather pants and a tank top. She was wearing a large smile as well, and attentively drinking a cup of caf. The truth was that she felt considerably perkier than usual. A nice roll in the hay, a good shower, and a cup of hot caf, and once more she was a proper Twi'lek. She was also sitting on a table. The rationale for that was now forgotten, but it had seemed perfectly sensible when she'd sat down on it in the first place. It made for a very nice view of the holographic charts though, and Var looked at the options presented.
There was the usual discussion she was well familiar with. Go to the thing, stop for supplies at the fleet. So on, so forth.
Her mind wasn't heavily on it. She was thinking about what she'd do if she was a Mandalorian. No matter how she added things together they didn't come up in favor of what the prevailing wind seemed to be. Why kidnap Enarin? It wasn't sensible. If they'd known he was valuable there'd have been a ransom offer by now. And if it was slavers, they'd have taken the whole group. If there was a bounty, they'd have known.
"Pirates doesn't make sense Donnie," Var said finally, moving away from the uninhabited systems with her eyes. "Think about it. Enarin's useless as a slave and there's one of him. You, me, Jada, Sen..."
She paused staring at the twiggy little slicer.
"All right not Sen, but we'd all have higher prices. Even others in their group would be better choices for that. And if that isn't the motive I can't see them going to some criminal place that's well-known. This whole thing... It's too professional. Too clean. Too well-organized. And above all too fast. I think Enarin was just caught up in something, by chance."
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Post by The Conman on Mar 27, 2016 20:43:23 GMT -5
Enarin wasn't useless...his lekku were worryingly short and he was built like a rake, liable to fall over in a stout wind, but...useless? Donnie opened her mouth to respond, and for the first time in a very long time, her brain engaged shortly before it did. Before even speaking, she closed it again, realizing how stupid defending him in the context was. She was somewhat hurt, but she really couldn't see why they'dve taken him over the likes of Teryn, or some of his friends.
That thought past, something else was nagging at her about the situation, since when did Enarin go anywhere with anybody, especially women? She looked back and forth between Sen and Var, figuring Jada was probably the only one in the room with less of an idea about what went down than her, eyes wide with wonder as she spoke.
"Enarin has friends? Since when? This blue girl he was with, are they together, is that a thing? Does he have a girlfriend I don't know about? Is she from a good family? When did this happen? I haven't seen pictures, is she pretty?" Donnie machine gunned at nobody in particular, hoping for a reply from either Sen or Var, she crossed her arms, leaning up against the nearby island in the kitchen once she'd finished her mini-tirade.
The woman was somewhat excited by the notion he'd managed to find friends, and maybe even a girlfriend. It'd taken him long enough, Doneeda was starting to think she'd have to find him a nice man or something, that he was playing for the other team, so to speak, which kind of ruled out grandchildren. The fact he'd been there with a girl did much to raise the woman's spirits, at least he was there for the right reasons, Donnie surmised, mentally praising Var for letting him go.
Shed've done the same, given the facts. Though Donnie would have sent him with a box of condoms, she wanted grandchildren, but not quite yet.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Mar 28, 2016 0:50:38 GMT -5
Var knew the look. Donnie got it occasionally, and she'd learned to respect it and be wary of it. In short it was the look of extreme and total conviction that wasn't about to be backed down even one little bit. Needless to say Var immediately began to regret her phrasing. However what happened next was so off-expectations that she blinked a little. Donnie questioned the whole thing and began talking about Enarin's friends and- Holy shit the woman had a point, since when did Enarin have a girlfriend? Var's expression immediately shifted to consternation and she scratched thoughtfully at her chin.
"I- I had no idea. I knew he had friends but I didn't think he had any female ones, I thought he spent too much time with boys, but- Were there girls this whole time?" Var froze up at the end of the line and she turned to Donnie with a look of fear.
"My gods Doneeda, have we been bad parents?"
Jada flicked the lightswitch back on and coughed politely.
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Post by The Conman on Mar 28, 2016 1:08:16 GMT -5
Donnie looked over at Var as she spoke and then at the floor, arms still crossed, then back up as the lights came back. She didn't think they'd been bad parents, there was a mountain of shit she'd hidden from her's. It was normal...Enarin wasn't the talkative type either, it wasn't like he'd tell them about a girlfriend even if he had one. Most times that wouldn't have been an issue...but when one of the witnesses, who wasn't taken, was his...thing...it was troubling.
The woman figured she'd drop by wherever Teryn was from...pay her a visit, ask a few questions.
"No...Var.." Donnie began, standing up and uncrossing her arms, recognizing the look on her face.
" Thanks Jada." She said warmly to the dark woman, eyes returning to Var, picking up what Jada was layin' down.
" We'll talk about this later, hon, bigger fish...though I do think paying Teryn a visit wouldn't be the worst idea in the galaxy. If what Sen told us is right, she was the last Boska to see Enarin before he was taken...she might be able to tell us something we couldn't get from the security cameras, maybe help us narrow down which planet to go to." Donnie postulated to her wife.
The reality was that they were, if Teryn couldn't give any insight, in a coinflip situation. Both of the unpopulated worlds would be good places to hide, both were largely uncharted, and both were out of the way. Away from any major hyperspace routes. It was literally a 50/50 chance they guessed the right one. Not that they were on any kind of timeline, so far they hadn't gotten any kind of ransom demands.
Instinct, however, told the woman that finding him sooner rather than later would be better.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Mar 28, 2016 1:39:33 GMT -5
Jada nodded to Donnie. She could pick up on it.
Var reluctantly nodded though. She wasn't really sure about later, but she had to admit that Donnie was right. If they guessed wrong on the uninhabited systems, then it meant it could take days of planetary surveying to find out. All that work for no answers would be a crushing waste of time and effort. If Teryn knew anything at all, they had to find out. And they couldn't waste any time. Slowly the nodding became convinced.
"All right, you're right about it," Var said slowly. "We need to hurry up and get back. Maybe Sen can find a little more from his usual arrangements too. It's not a waste of time going back."
That was mostly to convince herself, but oh well.
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Post by The Conman on Mar 28, 2016 2:13:20 GMT -5
--- A few hours later ---
Donnie walked through the bowels of the old freighter with her wife in tow. Typically, she'd be beside her, but in the current situation, with the tight quarters they were in, pod apartments lining the walls with ladders going to the upper levels, about a story above her head, it wasn't really possible. The woman knew about these places, the places where the less well off Boska, and refugees, lived. Typically not families, not in the section they were in at least, the small pod apartments being barely large enough to get up and crawl around in. The woman used her hand to gently nudge a crippled green twi'lek, missing a leg, to the side, with a warm smile.
"Thankyou..." She burbled, sliding by, the man getting a facefull of boobs in the process.
The envrionment was dark, with redish yellow lights providing the majority of the light, with the odd blue or green one showing up from time to time. The dim light emanating from the various pods denizens doing whatever they did added to the cave-like atmosphere of the place. She looked down and through the mesh floor, seeing at least 10 levels below, arranged in the same as the one she was on. Long halls, with pods stacked 4 high on either side. The pods having a number marked on them, with an A through D denoting it's location vertically. The woman's hand was resting on her DL-18's handle.
Just because they were Boska, didn't mean there weren't criminals. Donnie was well aware she looked like she didn't belong.
The pair had been walking on the level for about 15 minutes, dodging around the locals, who'd turned the corridor into an extension of their living quarters, in some cases, the corridor decorated with various flags, cookers, and lines with clothes on them blocking out the light in some cases. The smell was akin to an apartment complex, lots of different kinds of food being cooked at the same time, mixed with something Donnie could only describe as B.O.
The woman looked down at her comm, bringing up the info that'd been provided by Sen.
Level 10 - Pod 2187-C
Donnie stopped, and looked back at Var.
"This is it..." She said, looking up at the second from the top pod, a dim blue glow emanating from it, dimmed somewhat by the curtains, seeming to indicate someone was inside.
Donnie spotted a panel beside the bottom pod, at waist level, with 4 buttons on it with labels above them, obviously made on a cheap labelmaker. She spotted the one that read "Teryn", and pushed it. There was a buzzing noise from an unseen speaker somewhere, for a few seconds, until a voice came on.
"Uhm....Hi?" It asked, sounding confused even through the fuzz of the probably hundreds years old speaker.
"Hi, Teryn? My name is Don-" She was cutoff by a click and the sound of the pod opening above her.
"Doneedas'Oaknadaa...You're Enarin's mum!" a blue face said, looking down from the pod.
Donnie looked up at her, wearing a warm smile, so as not to put her off. The woman needed her as cooperative as possible. She knew "meeting the parents" could be a tense situation at the best of times.
"Hey...Teryn, d'yah think you could come down, Enarin's missing, we'd really like to ask you some stuff about what happened?" Donnie asked, sounding concerned.
"Uh..." she said, looking around, like she wasn't really sure what to do.
"...Ok?" She said, with a confused look on her face.
After a few moments she'd climbed down, and was standing, leaning up against the bottom pod, Donnie and Var looking at her.
Doneeda surmised she was very pretty, big bright eyes, pretty face, fantastic tits, gorgeous lekku. She had to hand it to Enarin, he had good taste, she was hot as hell, to her.
"Ok hon, Enarin's been taken, we need to know what happened, you were the last one to see him before he got taken." Donnie asked gently.
"Uhh,...well...I was going back to get my bag...I'd forgotten it after he got me Ice cream...It was strawberry, really good. I'd never had it before. He got it for me because he said it was the best flavour....He's really nice, you know?" She paused, looking down at the floor, crossing her arms nervously.
"I really like him-" She started again, only to be cutoff by Donnie, eyes wide with confusion, mouth agape.
She was, in Donnie's experience, perhaps one of the dumbest women she'd ever met. She'd said a lot of words, but hadn't actually communicated anything. The tan Twi'lek put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Teryn, I need to know who took him...Do you remember anything about that?" She asked, as if she was asking a child.
"Uhh...well...They were wearing armor?" Teryn said hopefully.
Donnie looked over at Var, trying to hide her slowly building frustration, hoping her wife would be able to pull something substantive out of the woman.
"Var...hon...help?" Donnie asked, desperation in her eyes.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Mar 29, 2016 1:55:33 GMT -5
Var had a tendency to get cold. Chalk it up to coming from a desert planet instead of space, but she just didn't handle chilly too well. So she'd decided that over the typical black leather pants and the tank top, she'd wear what Donnie had once christened 'the badass long coat.' Apparently it was the type of coat to be worn by a badass, though it was a nondescript brown suede and had little to distinguish besides pockets and straps to keep the collar raised against weather. It was also admirably warm, and concealed the blaster pistol Var had brought. Truth be told she'd never been in a place like this.
Space was at a premium in the fleet, she knew that. But still coming into one of the old freighters, it was a shock. The smells were strange too. Foods, substances legal and illegal being smoked, urine smells. The lights were mostly dim reds, but there were periodic flashes of brighter color. Most confusingly to her was the fact there was water. Somewhere up above in the endless maze of these levels were leaking pipes, dripping down onto the walkways like rain. It was bleak. She momentarily locked eyes with an old man sipping a bowl of noodles happily. He paid her no attention and slurped away.
By the time they reached the right pod, Var shuddered a little at the thought of living in such a place.
Luckily Teryn came out when called, and Var devoted half-attention to her, while the rest was kept on the area around them in case of muggers. Technically that would have been Jada's job, but the woman's idea of subtle here was probably throwing people off the walkways to make room, with extreme prejudice. Instead she'd been given the grocery list and told to stock up. It was fortunate too, because Var didn't want to pay attention to the girl her wife was talking to.
The feelings were ambivalent. On the one hand, here was a young woman with all the linguistic grace and charm of a disposable spork. Teryn was capable of talking on about things while paradoxically never really discussing them. She was exactly the sort of person you could talk an hour with only to have communicated nothing. Yet, she wasn't a bad person. She seemed nice enough, polite enough, and genuine enough. As was the way of the honest too much of the time, she was simply too dumb to be nefarious. Duplicity for her was impossible.
Var started to reach out with the Force, to see if there was anything she could read herself there, and she found it was like opening a very nice leather-bound book only to discover it was the diary of a preteen girl with no sense of humor or ambition. 'Dear diary, today I drank milk.' It was something not worth reading because the pages might as well be blank. Yet strangely...
She sighed. She felt sorry for the poor dumb girl.
Donnie asked for help, and Var lightly tugged on her arm.
"Excuse us for one second dear," She said to the blue girl. Once out of earshot, she turned to Donnie and whispered.
"The poor girl's an idiot, you have to ask her very direct questions because she has no idea what's important in the first place."
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Post by The Conman on Mar 29, 2016 21:10:42 GMT -5
Donnie sighed, Enarin just had to go and get himself a moron for a girlfriend. She made a mental not to remember to talk to him about her and have the "settling" conversation with him. She was gorgeous, but that level of stupid wouldn't ever change, and she'd eventually loose that body. The woman wasn't disappointed, far from it, at his age, she'dve done the same thing, just...made it clear that they're just shaggin', nothing more. Then again, the woman thought, Enarin probably wasn't really sure what the hell he was doing...as long as he didn't go do something stupid like get her pregnant, he'd probably grow out of her and find somebody...better.
If, of course, Donnie could find the kid.
She looked over at the blurple woman, wearing a tight fitting white T-shirt that left nothing to the imagination, and a pair of grey sweatpants she filled out nicely, and warmly smiled at her. Var was right, she'd need to ask specific questions, Taryn being simply too stupid to be able to tell what was important from what wasn't. Var's instructions were helpful, but she wasn't a cop, the woman had questioned a few pilots about incidents, but they were pretty good at determining what was important and what wasn't. What ( or who...Boska...) they'd had for breakfast: unimportant, the cracks they noted but ignored in the wing root before the incident, probably important.
Taryn seemed to think that how she felt about the person in question was important...was probably important to her, Doneeda figured, gesturing with a small flick of her head for the pair to head back Taryn's way. Once back, Donnie leaned up against the bottom pod like Taryn was doing, and spoke.
"OK Taryn, hon, that's good, now, I need you to try to remember if they had any sort of markings on their armor? Anything that they'dve painted on themselves, to stand out, maybe?" Donnie asked gently.
Taryn closed her eyes, a small frown developing while she tried to remember what'd happened. Donnie didn't expect miracles, in combat it wasn't uncommon to miss what'd seem obvious during normal life.
"Uhh..." The blue girl began, opening her eyes, looking at the wall beside her with a sidelong glance.
"Well...One of them had a shield?" She said, gesturing with her hands in front of her to show it's approximate height and width.
Donnie piped up.
"Which one, which one of them had it?" She asked, trying to slow Taryn down a bit, and get more clarity.
"The big one. He didn't grab Enarin, there was a smaller one, with red armor, she grabbed him, just came out of the building, and grabbed him, tossed him into a van, just like that." She said, gesturing along the way, as if tossing something into the nearby pod.
"Okay, Uh, What colour was the one who had the shield?" Donnie ventured, hoping she'd remember something about it.
Taryn squinted at the floor again, her hand coming up and scratching at the base of her lekku. This was obviously a mental exersize she wasn't used to at all. Donnie felt somewhat sorry for her, being caught up in a high-level mess that involved one of the leading families and Mandos. She'd always felt bad about dragging people into something over their head against their will, it just wasn't the tan woman's way.
"Uhm...He was big..." She said slowly, looking up at Donnie, then over at Var, as if for reassurance.
"And?" She asked, gently trying to encourage Taryn.
" Uh..well, he was black? His armor, I mean...and gold..." She continued, a bit more confidently.
"Anything else that stands out, hon?" Donnie asked gently.
" Uhm..." She mused, head cocking to the side, sapphire eyes going toward the ceiling while she tried to remember anything else.
" Where were they coming from, Taryn? The building, I've seen it in the videos, but I couldn't figure out what it was, can you try to remember for me?" Donnie asked, putting a reassuring hand on the teen's shoulder.
Taryn looked back at Donnie and warmly smiled, the contact seeming to bring her back to reality.
"I'm sorry, I think it was a bank, or something, but...I donno..." She responded, looking up at Donnie somewhat dejectedly.
Donnie had a brainwave, taking her hand off Taryn's shoulder...she figured if she could get Taryn to concentrate on what she'd seen, Var might be able to do her force thing and see what she'd seen. Taryn may not remember, but it may have still been in her brain, she figured.
"One sec, sweetie." Donnie said, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder, turning back to Var, Taryn nodding and pulling out her comm and turning it on, apparently watching a video message from a friend.
" If I can get her to concentrate, would you be able to use your...forcewhatever, and get some more out of her?" Donnie asked, genuinely not sure, with a determined look on her face.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Mar 29, 2016 21:37:56 GMT -5
One of Var's difficult feelings was continually being around the disabled. She'd noticed it before. Every time she had to be around some child that was delayed, or some adult who was special bagging her groceries, she felt a lot like she was wearing a neutral mask. She was suddenly aware of her facial expressions, and deviating from the standard of resting-bitch-face. Well now Var was starting to realize the phenomenon went deeper. She simultaneously hated the damn girl, and felt intensely sorry for her. She was stupid in a very genuine way, stupid in the way that was like kicking a puppy because it shit on the floor, it just didn't understand and you felt guilty.
The information Donnie was gleaning... Well it wasn't useless, but it wasn't useFUL either. They already knew it was a bank. The colors of the armor didn't seem to matter too much, and the only real interesting part was the news apparently one of them was Captain Mandalore. It'd be great if they needed to get tips on a new comic series.
Donnie whispered again. She asked very casually if she could just get the data through the Force.
Var rolled her eyes.
"The Force doesn't work that like hon," She whispered back. "The girl's an idiot, there's nothing there to read."
Her eyes flitted to the comm the girl was glued to.
"Check her commlink. Maybe she texted about it."
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Post by The Conman on Mar 29, 2016 22:07:41 GMT -5
Donnie smirked at Var over her comment about The Force. It was a bit of an inside joke between them, it'd subsided pretty quickly after they'd met. When Doneeda had first met Var, nearly two decades prior, she constantly suggested she use the Force, for everything from convincing people to do things, to getting her a beer, to various sexual favours. The tan woman had learned long ago not to argue with her, Var was the expert on the Force, and if she said that wasn't how it worked, that wasn't how it worked.
The woman's followup suggestion, however, was genius. Donnie hadn't even thought of checking the girl's Comm. Knowing kids, she'd probably recorded the whole thing. Or at least taken some pictures. Donnie nodded to Var, a good idea was a good idea, so she'd try it.
"That's...a good idea, Var." Donnie said, with a bit of wonder, turning back to Taryn.
"Hey, Taryn...did you make a video...or take some pictures, of what happened, with your comm?" She asked the teen, Taryn looking up at her and cocking her head to the side, obviously thinking, features illuminated by the blue-tinged light coming from her comm.
"Yeeahh, yeah, I do! I took a video of what happened! Here!" She said excitedly, circling around to between Var and Donnie, closing the text app and popping open her camera app. The first picture of her very naked, standing in front of a mirror in a bathroom, taking a picture of her ass over her shoulder, behind a very cracked screen.
"Uhh..Taryn..." Donnie got out, before she closed it, face going a bit more blue than it was before, the teen blushing.
"Heh...Uhh, sorry...lemmie...gimmie a sec..." She burbled, returning to her original position, across from the pair, leaning up against the pod, looking down at the Comm.
After a few moments, Donnie looked over at Var, then back to Taryn...unsure what she was doing.
"Hey, Taryn...Pictures? Hon?" Donnie asked gently.
"Yah...I'm sending them, and the video, it's just taking a bit...my comm's super slow..." She murmured, as Donnie's Comm started vibrating in her bra.
She pulled it out, a cascade of pictures...and 3 separate videos...downloading from the commnet. The woman smiled a genuine smile, she'd hit the motherload, by the law of averages there'd be something useful in the mess of pictures she'd taken. Doneeda took the small step forward and gave Taryn a big hug, and kissed her on the cheek.
"Bless you, you simple, beautiful, picturetaking, woman you!" She said, embracing the girl.
For all her stupidity, she'd managed to finally do something right. Donnie let her go, and backed up, Taryn looking very confused, arms immediately crossing out of nervousness.
"Taryn, thank you. We've gotta get goin', but if we need anything else, we'll be in touch." Donnie said warmly.
"Hey...uhh..before you go." Taryn started, arms uncrossing, her comm still in her right hand.
"If you find him...can you tell him to call me? He was only there because of me..." She burbled, looking mainly at the floor.
Donnie nodded, Enarin would probably need a roll in the hay after being captured. The woman made a mental note to bug her son after he'd had some fun with the blue girl, not before...that conversation could wait. She smiled warmly at the teen.
"Yeah, I can, as soon as he's back I'll have him give you a call...now, I've gotta go, you take care, ok?" Donnie said to the girl, Taryn nodding.
She turned to Var.
"Let's go, babe." Donnie said.
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Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Mar 29, 2016 23:24:56 GMT -5
Var stared idly about the whole area while Donnie arranged the transfers from the device, and apparently stumbled onto naked pictures. Var really didn't need to see what Enarin'd been slipping into in detail. Not knowing was perfectly fine in her book, particularly given how much she'd deferred rock-hard socks and dwindling tissue supply issues to her spouse's sphere of responsibility instead. Var really just didn't want to think about it or hear about it, and she had a very different horrible image forming in her head.
Dumb grandchildren. Having Taryn there for every holiday. Sitting at the dinner table, being vapid. Trying to rein in Niri from making offensive comments that probably involved alliteration. Blue Bimbo came to mind. Having to scold her for it too, then getting the inevitable reply about how Niri was being honest and Var had told her to tell the truth. Oh it was a nightmare unfolding before her eyes.
Normally Var was rock-steady, calm, even a little icy. Right now she was fidgeting. She practically sprinted off as soon as Donnie said goodbye. Her wife caught up with her speedwalking and Var turned to look at her with blue eyes opened wide.
"Donnie we have to save Enarin, right now," Var shook her head dramatically. "We need to find him a girlfriend who can hold a conversation and doesn't make me fear for the future."
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Post by The Conman on Mar 29, 2016 23:38:12 GMT -5
Donnie was surprised when Var took off like a shot, giving the blue woman a final wave as she took off at a brisk pace after her wife, the considerably smaller woman being able to put some distance between the two. Var had a talent to vanish when she wanted to, and Doneeda had a bit of difficulty catching up to her. After a minute or two, she'd finally caught up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder as she spun around.
As soon as Var started talking, Doneeda knew she'd been holding what she wanted to say in for ahwile, probably since Taryn'd started talking.
The taller of the two nodded and agreed entirely, the thought of her being around for holidays and them having to restrain Niri or Donnie's grandmother from speaking to keep the poor girl from running off into a corner crying wasn't one she liked.
They had to save Enarin, not just from whoever'd taken him, but from himself.
"Var, I totally agree...all it'll take is one accident, and boom, we're stuck with her forever. We'll save him, babe, don't worry." Donnie said, reassuringly, the two walking toward the airlock.
--FADE TO BLAAAAACK--
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