Log:Poked the Dragon
Sumi and Dom settle a score
OOC Date: July 13, 2020
Location: Blue Light Bar, Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Malik Ren, Domino Graystorm, Mandl, Sumi Kora
Malik Ren has had dramatic interactions of late with the proprietress of the notorious Blue Light -- to put it mildly. So it may be somewhat unusual that he is here, but thus far, his intentions seem neutral. He is ensconced at a corner booth meant for more than one person, out of the way, with walls at his back and a view of the bar, of people entering and exiting. He has even deigned to purchase one of the bar's notorious Fizzpops, and upon cracking the seal, the little holo-message cheerfully displays the fortune:
Choices made in anger cannot be undone.
He rolls his eyes, and drinks it anyway.
Heavy bootfalls upon the floor betray the approach of an armored warrior which Malik Ren was familiar. Adorned in beskar, and concealed by a cape, the warrior of Mandalore wore her helmet that provided the Master of the Knights of Ren a glimpse of his own reflection: What a guy. A fizzpop, unopened, is held in her hand, and she initiates it with her thumb, projecting its fortune for both to read: "Things can always get worse."
<"Hmph. Figures.">
This voice belonged to Sumi Kora.
"These bloody things are right more often than I am completely comfortable admitting in mixed company." Malik watches her -- or watches himself in her helmet -- and lets one corner of his mouth lift in the hint of amusement that comes naturally to his features. "You might as well prove it for the reliable augur it is and take a seat, Sumi Kora."
Her cape is briefly fluffed back and she finds her seat, sprawling her legs wide in an unladylike fashion. One hand rested on her thigh, and the other set the drink down and hoisted her helmet up. Long dark strands fell around her youthful face, now unmarred and beautiful compared to what it had been in the past. Her eyes slowly turned to him, her scan counting around 80ish people present. "How fairs your troubled world, Lord Malik? No more Pirate Queens I suppose?"
Ah, the helmet reflection. No one trains like Malik, inflicts pain like Malik, no one's saber's incredibly quick like Mal-- oh, she took her helmet off. Alright. Well, her face is still nice to look at, even if it's no longer HIS face, and he does spend a moment contemplating the unscarred features, the same and subtly different from the face he's always known before. "No, the dedlanite mine resumes production, its workforce having been saved from slavery, peril, and untimely demise," he replies. "To the happiness and relief of all parties involved, although it does stick in my craw to let the Jedi just..." He finger walks a hand through the air. "Wander away."
Ah, the helmet reflection. No one trains like Malik, inflicts pain like Malik, no one's saber's incredibly quick like Mal-- oh, she took her helmet off. Alright. Well, her face is still nice to look at, even if it's no longer HIS face, and he does spend a moment contemplating the unscarred features, the same and subtly different from the face he's always known before. "No, the dedlanite mine resumes production, its workforce having been saved from slavery, peril, and untimely demise," he replies. "To the happiness and relief of all parties involved, although it does stick in my craw to let the Jedi just..." He finger walks a hand through the air. "Wander away." (repose to serve as set)
"I enjoy killing slaver scum." Sumi says in an adjacent way that seemed like justifying her presence among both factions. There had been no question about that though. Sumi obliterated Slaver and Slave soldier alike with high prejudice. "Glad to hear justice has been served all the same. The Jedi will show themselves again. They always do." Sumi sits back in her seat and takes hold of the fizzpop drink, hoisting it for a sip, then making a sour face. "Yuck."
Domino sashays in and makes a strait line for the fizzypop machine to acquire a fizzypop and thus her fortune. She hrrphs at the fortune-the fizzypop once again preaching a gospel the paranoid woman already knows well. Abandoning the soda on a random table she makes her way to the bar, "My Ren." And then a slightly smug and far too innocent sounding "Beautiful." she greets Sumi.
"Who doesn't? It's practically the one thing the galaxy can agree on. We probably should be building a galactic peace platform on that principle alone," Malik replies, dryly. He is seated at a corner booth with Sumi, not far from the bar. The wait-staff seems quite wary of him, and they are making droid servers go to the table, rather than organics -- if he notices or minds, there is no evidence of this outright. "That they will," he agrees about the Jedi, then indulges in a smile regarding the fizzpop. "Fate is hard to swallow."
In greeting for Domino, he collects the compliment intended for Sumi - however 'innocently' - and applies it to himself instead. "I am, thank you."
Mandl, head down and headset affixed, practices conjugation. "Jabba, go. Jabba goes. Jabba has keta." They spend time wrapping their scarf up into 'turban mode,' settling into a booth. "Rotta, run. dopa ran. Rotta will dwana."
Sumi glances up subtle-like from Ren to look over Domino. A smile that translates to murder crosses the Mando's beautiful face. Domino was smug, Sumi turned cold. The life behind her gaze, even the look on her face, changed. Her lips formed a thin line before ticking upward slightly. "Domino Greystorm. You saved me the trouble of finding you again." Sumi declares cooly. "I appreciate the effort you've made in making me miserable. It's given me time to connect with Kasia and determine one fact from our conversation."
Sumi reaches over and presses a button on her gauntlet, and the jetpack on her back came to life, the rocket churning slightly as it rotated into position and filled the breech with a sudden high pitched whine, followed by the caution of a red light.
"You lied to me."
Domino chortles at Malik's acceptance. "I was talking to Sumi but yes, my Ren, you are always the prettiest in the room." She reassures with idle amusement. She is poured a whiskey before Sumi's sudden irritation gains the attention of the entire room, "Oh, Sumi, that wasn't effort. If I'd put effort there'd be nothing to prove you're you, your property is yours, or maybe orbiting a sun to get a lil half baked and think about what you've done." She leaves her whiskey on the bar which she turns her side against to face Sumi and lifts a finger, "Uh-uh. You had your chance and you didn't take it. You'll get your shot at me but it's not going to be today."
She points at Sumi and looks at Malik Ren "See? No matter how obvious or apparent it is how awful I am people are always so SHOCKED that *I* of ALL people would DARE Lie!" She claims her whiskey, groping blindly a bit before her fingers find it as she is not dumb enough to take her gaze off an angry Sumi, "Though you'll have to reference my memory, Beautiful? What did I lie about this time?"
Malik Ren folds his arms and leans back slightly, as though those extra couple of inches are really going to save him from being impaled by broken bits of flying Blue Lights when Sumi's weapon fires a rocket at close quarters. The bar's customers are starting to get worried, and more than a few are just up and leaving with a scrape of chairs against the floor, no questions asked, not sticking around to see what that rocket does.
"For the record, I am not planning to save you from yourself," he notes to Domino, but otherwise, he's like a retail employee, you can kill people in front of him and he won't care.
Mandl signals to a 'droid, removing their apparatus. "Ah, yes? Mandl wishes an Klatoonian speeder-bo-- mb..." The irony of the off-the-cuff choice sinks in as Dr. B'rot watches the bar empty out, leaving only... oh no.
Mandl *hurls* a handful of credit-chips, yelling: "Ah, certainly! Yes, major... reactor malfunction! Dr. B'rot *very necessary* elsewhere! Immediately! Of course, of course..." nevermind the headset is put aside, and was never connected to a comlink.
Domino reassures Malik Ren, "I know, my Ren. There's no illusion. On the job or off the Clock, My guts inside or outside-it's all mine to address." How the times have changed! She sift her gaze back to Sumi, "I am not worth shooting up your friend's bar, not when literally *EVERYONE* knows you could have tagged me at any other point. That'd just be rude." she doesn't draw anything on the other woman but she is keeping her gaze on the Mando woman.
Sumi makes a subtle nod to Malik, then in the blink of an eye, her hand drops to the holster containing her GLIE-44, and draws it. Her initial salvo is not very successful, and Domino is as Sumi predicted, nimble and quick. Still, the stubborn century old soldier rises from her seat, firing at Dom using a single hand to hold the weapon. Her other hand cups the helmet from the table, scooping it up and doning it casually, her HUD washing out with silver once it was seated.
Sumi positioned herself between Domino and the door, stance wide and pistol smoking, but at the ready. <"I've been looking forward to this.">
The result of missed shots caught the corner of the bar, a stool, and the floor. Poor shot placement, but Sumi was emotional. This was personal. She switched to a steadier stance, leveling her hand by supporting it with her other.
Malik Ren rests his elbow on the table, chin in his hand. People are screaming. Taachi, the codru-ji bartender, is screaming, "Get out of the bar! Get OUT of the BAR!" as several shots burst bottles, and one sears a black hole in the wall. This type of altercation typically brings good men out of the woodwork, weapons ready to defend the lady of their choice, unwilling to let beautiful women come to harm no matter the reason for the altercation.
Happily for everyone, Malik is not a good man, he is a terrible man with a shriveled, raisinlike heart made of black ice. His role in this gunfight is to yell over the din of plasma-fire, "I will take you to the clinic afterward, though."
Domino flings herself down then darts around to the back of the bar for cover "MAn. I LOVE how easy it is to piss you off. I bet you haven't even stopped to realize if you kill me you will NEVER get your credits back. And I knoooow how you love those credits." She eases her blaster from her haversack and powers it on, "You're gonna have to rely on your CHARM to get laid!" There's a manical cackle from behind the bar, "Is that REALLY a risk you're willing to take?" she then calls, "No clinics! Take me home or to the damned Morgue!"
Domino was going to fight, which made this an honorable duel. This was what Mandalorians craved. Some might argue she missed her initial shots to lead to a fair fight; but truthfully Sumi was mad. Seething. Everything bled over in her head, and she wanted to kill.
Experienced eyes took in the stance, and all at once Sumi did not hesitate. Domino's words were met with the efficient silence of a trained, professional killer. Sumi offset the woman's stance by placing one shot into Domino's side, piercing her buttocks and stinging the wall behind her with a fresh splash of blood. Sumi's second shot missed, but this was due to her closing the distance, aggressive as was the Mando'ade tradition. The final shot is through the torso, at close range, with a modified output from a pistol intended to maim and kill.
Pulverized blood and flash frozen charred flesh filled the room as Sumi holstered her pistol and drew a knife from her bandolier, its brandished presence betrayed by the distinctive metallic noise that manifested upon exiting the sheath.
Sumi kneels down beside her, slamming the knife into the floor so that its sharp edge just barely marks her cheek. A reflective T Visor stared down at her, and Sumi chuckled.
<"You presume to know things about me, Domino Greystorm, but you know nothing. Credits are nice, but I much prefer the sound of people dying. There's a certain element of release in watching someone's eyes fade, their strength leave their body. It's poetic. -- When next we meet, my money will be returned. Everything you've done to hurt me should be undone. Or we'll reconvene, and I'll hurt you again. Don't make me carve up your pretty little face, Domino. People might see what really lurks beneath."> Sumi pulled her knife away and sheathed it, straightening and nodding to Malik. <"Thanks. I consider the matter settled. Hopefully, learning has occurred.">
Poor Taachi is screaming, two hands on her head and two over her mouth. Exactly how much do the Ashkuris pay her, such that this poor bartender stays here, always, through all of this? Unwilling to watch further carnage, with all the rest of the staff and patrons fled or hiding, she ducks behind the bar and frantically tries to dial Kasia. It's a long way to Chandrila, though!
Meanwhile, Malik is watching all of this as though it's a holo-drama with a script he predicted long before it aired across the actual display. When Sumi suggests someone might see what lies beneath Dom's pretty face someday, he dryly replies, "Don't worry, they won't."
He lets another moment pass, and when Sumi considers the matter settled, he finally bestirs himself from his place, ready to inspect Domino's wounds and take her to Home Or The Morgue. Sumi hopes learning has occurred.
"Don't worry," Malik says again, "It hasn't."
Domino wasn't in armor and so that shot to her ass totally inhibits her attempt to flee around from the cover that she's claimed. She lurches up to try to fling herself to safety-and is instead shot again and lands with a meaty 'thump' and doesn't move, bleeding profusely. Absolutely no one would blame Malik Ren for excusing himself and pretending that he doesn't know the woman bleeding profusely on the floor. Without protection of armor Sumi's shots have done their worst and Dom is unsettlingly silent and still.
<"You've a knack for simple truths, my Lord."> Sumi says, stepping toward the table to collect her fizzpop and its projected fortune. The can was turned up and drained after Sumi lifted her helm, and placed the can to her lips. Once emptied, she tossed the can onto Domino. Perhaps only Malik and Sumi would see the relevance, or how fate played out, like Malik had referenced.
Bright letters read: "Things can always get worse."
With nothing further to add, Sumi dons her helmet once more and closes toward the bar, depositing a sack of creds upon the bartop. <"Give the lady of the establishment my apologies. Should more be needed for the damage, my contact is inside. Apologies."> A twist, and slow rustle of her heavy cape, and the Mando stalked out the door in much the same fashion as she'd arrived. A discrete recording was sent to Kasia by way of encrypted interface. It was accompanied only with the following message. " :) "
