Log:Reunited
Lira'una reunites Sabra with her father, Jacen Spectre
OOC Date: July 9, 2023
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Lira'una, Spectre
Much like Coruscant, infrastructure covers the entirety of the surface of the Smuggler's Moon -- literally every single inch. And when they ran completely out of room? They began building up in layers like a city of scaffolding, full of catwalks, dark places, and depths that hadn't seen the sun in millennia.
Places like the Hutt District, the Dawnrise District, and the Corellian District were surface levels -- not particularly opulent, but they at least saw sunlight filtered through the dense smog in the atmosphere. New Vertica was the richest district on the Smuggler's Moon with tall, beautiful towers that actually reach up through the smog. Only the filthy rich live there, and it's the only place on the entire moon where crime (violent crime, anyway) is the exception rather than the rule.
The rest of the moon lives in the lower levels. The Gearhead District is filthy and industrial, but there were a lot of businesses that called it home, and the spaceport used to be an old rigging shipyard. Ko Hentota is below that, and the lower you go, the more dangerous you get. Down in Ko Hentota, you had the real slums -- people and rats living together, sometimes even in the sewers themselves. It wasn't unusual for people that went to Ko Hentota to never be heard from again. It was one of the best places in the galaxy to disappear.
It was also the home of the largest open-air (that's a relatively term since the air here is filtered down through so many levels and sunlight /never/ makes it down that far) black market on the moon -- the Night Market. It's literally a small city worth of vendor tents and stalls selling just about anything you could want to get your hands on from illegal weaponry (small arms, explosives, etc) to spice and other drugs to literal slaves (which were not actually all that illegal this far out on the rim.. only in certain places).
The Night Market is no place for a child -- which is why Lira'una hasn't brought Sabra /into/ the market. Instead, they're loitering in sight of it underneath a barely functioning neon-purple sign advertising Twi'lek dancers. Ironic, given that Lira is, herself, a Twi'lek dancer, so it's a bit like having an icon representing her 'character' floating above her head for other 'players' to see.
Under that sign is a group of three, actually. Lira'una is wearing an inky black robe that swallows her slender, five-foot-nothing frame, though her lavender skin is obvious with the hood pushed back and her lekku left to slither out against her back. In front of her, and with one hand draped over the girl's shoulder, is Sabra -- a human girl of about four years old. And standing in front of both of them? A BT arachnid droid stands sentry, its spindly legs supporting an otherwise black body. A blaster rifle is mounted underneath that swivels about while glowing red eyes stare out observantly it what seems to be all directions at once. The two girls might look like easy targets for predators on their own, but thanks to the menacing appearance of that droid, /everyone/ gives them a wide berth.
"Are we almost done?" comes Sabra's voice, craning her neck to look up to look at Lira.
"Any minute, kiddo. Then we'll be on our way back to the ship. I promise." Lira's young voice carried hints of her Rylothian heritage -- the faintest of accents to her Galactic Basic (French, for the readers) -- but it was only a trace. She'd either been away from home for a long time or, perhaps, even just picked it up from family.
They were waiting for someone. Someone that Lira had paid for information on Sabra's father. Lira might have left Sabra on the ship under BT-SKT's protective custody, but the child was only four. She didn't like leaving her alone. Besides, the risk of this particular mission was exceptionally low, all things considered.
It was Nar Shaddaa, though.
Nar Shadda has a reputation that never ends. Even for someone that came up with the criminal element all around him, he is very wary of the area. Maybe it is because of his background he is wary. The informant was an old friend of his grandfather which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement considering some of the people grandfather worked with. Money was his driving factor.
There is a mixture here. His daughter is within reach potentially, but is the informant legit or jerking him around. Every fiber of him wants to walk right into the meet area, but he knows he has to be wary. Head down, he passes the two across the street and id's his daughter. Still careful, he looks around them to get an idea if anyone is with them.
Patience is key and he makes his way to the end of the block, doubles back and across the road before approaching the pair. His right shoulder has an H-11 resting there and otherwise he looks like barely more than a vagrant. He appears at the edge of the sidewalk way from the crowd, leaving space for the droid guarding them. No sense getting killed this close. He glances around himself once more and then leans down a little,"You keep that sabre in the scabbard?" he asks the little girl.
The red headed youngling goes wide eyed and looks him dead in his face,"DADDY!" she all but squeals and goes headlong towards him and wrapping her arms around his neck. He stands up and just stands there, still midful of the streets, but hugging the child he's lost and found again.
Lira sighs softly, letting her eyes drift closed as she.. waits. She wouldn't have made herself that vulnerable if Skitter wasn't standing there, but this happened to be an /ideal/ opportunity to test herself.. to reach out with the Force and /feel/ what was happening around her. The ebbs and the flows, the movements, the ripples in the currents... the threats. But here, those currents moved like rapids with tumultuous eddies and so much noise. It was hard to single anything out, much less make sense of all the noise.
Hence the practice.
Heavily armed beings weren't an oddity on pretty much any part of Nar Shaddaa with the exception of New Vertica (and some still were, even there), so it wasn't unusual to spot a man with a blaster rifle slung over his shoulder.
It was odd for that man to be moving towards them.
"POTENTIAL. THREAT. APPROACHES." BT-SKT's vocoder was a deep, digital, masculine baritone.
Lira'una's eyes snap open at the warning, but Sabra's eyes had already locked on the 'threat,' even before hers had.
/DADDY!/
She wouldn't have let her go if that hadn't been the reaction, but even as Sabra rushes forward towards the man, the Twi'lek girl herself is moving forward, her pace swift without being overtly threatening. If it was a mistake -- if that girl was in any amount of danger -- Lira was on her heels close enough to rip her back and BT-SKT was already fanning out to the side, skittering across the dingy ground to get a clear shot at the man's back.
"Easy, Skits," comes Lira'una's voice, an empty hand raising slightly from her robe in what she obviously intends to be a 'soothing' gesture towards the droid.
But her eyes are cast up towards the man -- his tall frame lifting and holding that child close. A child that Lira had spent the last two months keeping safe from a merciless, unforgiving galaxy that wouldn't miss either of them, if anything had happened.
"You're... not my informant." It's not a complaint. There's a smile creeping onto the girl's purple lips that softens her blue eyes.
For the moment, his eyes only observe the droid and the Twi'lek until they don't present a threat to either of them. Once that is passed, he closes his eyes and just hugs the little girl for a long time. Yes this is Nar Shadda, but that droid seems to be primed to protect his girl and that is enough for him for now.
He pats her back gently and she mutters into his shoulder,"Momma's gone." Barely audible beyond the two of them, but Lira is probably close enough to hear.
"I know baby." he whispers back and they both more or less forget anything else for several minutes. Finally he takes a deep breath to stead his voice and looks to the duo that have been protecting his girl.
"Not your contact no." he agrees with her. It is a tricky situation, clearly they have been taking care of his girl and that is pressing against his distrustful nature a lot.
"I can't ever repay for protecting my daughter, but whatever you ask I will do my best to accomodate." he tells her.
Sabra turns back to Lira and she smiles,"You found him. Thank you so much." Her face is a little conflicted given she has been so close to Lira in the recent months, but it's her dad too.
Lira's quiet while father and daughter reunite, her hands folding in front of herself. It was an unusually somber moment for the Twi'lek, who only recently had come bounding right up to one of the most feared mercenaries and Mandalorians in the sector -- if not the rim itself -- like a bundle of endless energy.
But this wasn't her moment. It was too precious and important to interrupt with her usual outbursts, and so she waited patiently, merely raising a hand to gesture Skitter back to her side. Without a word of protest, the droid seemed to 'stand down,' relaxing its posture as it spider-walked back over to take up position beside her. It was tall enough to reach her waist when it 'stood up' on its legs, but mostly it seemed to keep its center of gravity low, hovering around her thighs.
There's a note of melancholy to touches Lira's eyes when the offer of payment is made -- and even more when Sabra thanks her, her smile tinged with sadness.
"You're welcome, kiddo."
But then those eyes are drawn back up to the girl's father, her lekku slithering up around her shoulders to loop in a scarf-like way around her neck. The tips curl in a kind of self-soothing way, even for those not familiar with the lekku language itself.
"Her smile is payment enough. I'm just glad to see the two of you back together."
One hand slips back out of her robe, palm empty, and then she waves the other over it and a single credit chit appears. She offers that chit out to Sabra with a little smile.
"Don't forget to practice."
There's almost a note of finality to that, the way she draws her robe closed around her, arms crossing as if she were cold. It wasn't cold. There was over a foot of height difference between them, and that close, Lira had to look /up/ at the man.
"I.. don't know exactly what happened to separate you." Apparently Sabra was a little fuzzy on the details, too, but she was only four. "But if you need a place to stay with her for a little while, you're welcome to a room on my ship. It's modest, but I think Sabra's been comfortable." Her eyes shift to the girl. "I hope she has, anyway."
The pair stand together, listening to Lira talk and he finally moves back into street wary mode, careful of those passing close by once more. He looks to the droid for a moment and nods,"A good side kick you have there."
Emotions are still pretty high, but he shakes his head,"I owe you one either way. You have a mark to call in whenever you want." he tells her. He finally offers his hand to shake,"Jacen Spectre." While the name sounds made up, Lira would know from Sabra it is legit.
The interaction between the two females gets a quizzical look, but for now he doesn't ask. Sabra takes the chit and replies,"I will."
It's a tricky thing, glad to see daddy, but sad to be separated from Lira too. She looks at him and he nods then she leans down to hug Lira, transferring from dad to her,"Miss you." she mutters softly.
He looks down towards the pair and he replies softly,"I was off planet when one of them came looking for me assuming I was a smuggler, my family name does that sometimes. Apparently in the mess that followed my wife was killed. I don't know how she came to be with you, but I am thankful." He is thoughtful, studying how Lira interacts with his daughter and finally says,"I don't awnt ot impose, but if you need a hand flying I have done some. Not the best shot in the galaxy, but good enough. Maybe on your next flight out you could drop us there and we could keep moving?"
"Lira'una."
The Twi'lek girl reaches her hand out for Jacen's, her fingers slender but strong. From within the baggy covering of her robe, it's hard to judge strength. There's much much visible aside from her head and lekku, the slenderness of her neck, and occasionally the bird-like lengths of her arms when the sleeves slip down far enough. She certainly doesn't give off the initial impression of being 'strong,' but there's definite grip strength there.
"It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you." She smiles knowingly, and it becomes obvious that she'd heard about him in the way that daughters talk about their fathers. Not his reputation or lack thereof in the smuggling world. Not his prowess as a pilot or skill with a rifle. Simply that he was the greatest man that has ever lived, that he could do anything, that he'd never done anything wrong, and that he was coming back for her if Lira could just help her find him.
When Sabra reaches for her, she's happy to oblige, wrapping the girl up in a close hug that her lekku slither out of the way for.
"Miss you, too," she whispers, wrinkling her nose a little, an attempt at playfulness despite the look of resignation in her eyes. It wasn't easy for Lira, either, but there were no tears. This was yet another path she was learning to walk -- the balance between the brightness of love and darkness of fear -- fear of loss, of jealousy. Those emotions that had no place within her, no matter how much she wanted to let them in.
She holds Sabra while she listens to Jacen, her head tilting ever so slightly to touch temples against Sabra's -- a gentle, reassuring connection after the mention of her mother being killed. There was no way to mend that wound or fill that hole, but she could at least remind the girl that she wasn't alone or without love.
"It's not an imposition," Lira assures, her smile growing perhaps a bit hopeful. "I'd be grateful for the company." There's the bit about dropping them off, and Lira nods. "Wherever you'd like."
With the agreement of them coming back to the ship being made, Lira nods towards Jacen and hefts Sabra a bit back towards him -- a feat that seems to be taxing the limit of her abilities, which confirms the whole 'not strong' thing.
"We could stop for take-out on the way back, and maybe over a meal, Sabra and I can tell you about the last couple of months." She looks hopefully at the younger girl, even Lira herself seems to be getting excited by the prospect, her weight shifting to the balls of her feat and giving her a little 'bounce' to her posture.
Taking her hand, Jacen shakes it and has a firm, but not crushing grip,"Good to meet you Lira'una." he tells her softly. He smiles a little bit when she mentions having heard all about him. A wink to Sabra and he says,"Let's hope she didn't exaggerate too much." he teases his daughter lightly.
He notes the closeness of the two, nothing how much Sabra clearly loves the woman. He might not always be the best judge of character, something about Sabra seems to never miss. If she trusts the Twi'lek woman and since the trust has been proven, he eases a little as well.
He nods and finally replies,"All right. We're in." Reaching for Sabra back and rests her on the hip opposite of where the rifle is slung,"Food sounds good. Do you know a place that won't gift us with a parasite along with the food?" Cracks in the armor, nothing huge, but a crack. He does smile a little by the way she bounces on the balls of her feet.
In the span of a lifetime, two months is not long. But to a four year old, it has the odd dichotomy of being both a much larger percentage of their life than it would be for an adult but also a short enough period that, if they were all to part ways at that moment, Sabra wouldn't remember Lira after a couple of years.
There's no doubt that to Sabra, the bond Lira offered was more than just welcome -- it was a lifeline. She'd lost both of her parents and had almost been swept up herself in the chaos. But what might be surprising is that, in a galaxy filled with liars, cheats, killers, and other ne'er-do-wells, Lira seemed just as authentically enamored with the child as Sabra was with her. It was fate, perhaps? The will of the Force, if Lira was pressed on the subject. Or so her mentor would say.
"The Blue Light has the best nerf burgers on the moon, but there's a diner in the Corellian district that Sabra will eat the chuura greens from," Lira answers warmly. She was already turning towards the nearest of the public taxi stops, but rather than walking out ahead, she kept close to Sabra (and the man carrying her). Skitter skittered along beside her. "We might have tried a few different places, trying to find something she enjoyed that was /also/ healthy."
Blue eyes cut over towards the girl with a little grin, and lekku gradually shift, wriggling back behind her. Against her back, they cross each other once, tangling together. Once they were moving and she didn't, herself, have a child to immediately protect, Lira seemed more... shy. Younger.
"Your choice. Or Sabra's. I'm not picky."
She smiles a bit, glancing up at them, and then seems to be happy to settle into quiet, mundane conversation for the trip.
And indeed, the trip back up to the Corellian district is easy via air-taxi, dropping them off at their selected restaurant and then picking them back up to take them straight back to the Gear Head Rigging Zone turned Starport. There, on one of the pads, a YT-2000 is landed. It's very stock, and other than showing its age, doesn't seem to have gotten into any skirmishes. Not recently, anyway.
Instead of keying a code into the pad, Lira pulls a comlink out of her robe and lifts it to her lips. "We're home, Blip." And that has the ramp lowered by the time they're walking up to it.
And like Lira said, the inside is modest. It's not opulent. Nor is it a torn-apart shamble of jury-rigged wires and parts. It's clean. Homey, if you're used to shipboard life -- at least, it's obvious that this is /home/ rather than just a mode of transportation. It's tidy, but very lived in.
Watchful of their surroundings, Spectre keeps the weapon close even in the cab. The three of them settle of Corellian and he is good with that as well,"Food sounds better than anything." he admits with a laugh.
He is watchful of their surroundings again, but seems more at ease than maybe is advisable. He notes the lighter mood of the young Twi'lek and smiles, knowing the feeling of having too much at one time and then getting it lifted.
He studies the interactions between Lira and Sabra, smiling. Sadly, they might lose each other some day, but one thing he'll never allow is for Sabra to forget Lira. He might not be good with emotions and the like, but that much he is set on.
When the arrive to the landing pad and they draw near the ship, he nods and looks over it,"Solid machine." he muses thoughtfully as the pass under it towards the gangplank. His free hand runs lightly under the craft and once she communicates and it opens he sets Sabra down to walk up the ramp rather than bump her head.
Once on board the ship he takes a fast look over the area, not for lack of trust, but just to get the layout,"You have been living better than me baby." he tells Sabra softly as he looks back to Lira,"Again, thank you. ANything you need help with, you talk to me."
"Thank you," the Twi'lek answers with a little smile while they're still under the ship. "I traded up from a Lambda shuttle not long ago. I'm much more comfortable in it, and I was glad to have the extra room for Sabra.. even though I'll admit that she didn't /always/ use it."
Lira's eyes shift over to Sabra warmly. They could go into that later, too, though.
Once inside the ship, Lira sets the bags of food down on the table in the lounge and slips out of the bulky black robe that had been the predominant feature of her wardrobe up to that point. Underneath, the dark purple, crisscross wrap top she wore made an 'X' across her front, leaving an immodest amount of her lavender flesh bare -- not an uncommon look for Twi'lek women all over the galaxy, but one that showed off how 'fit' she was without being overly bulky. Slung low around her waist was a fairly standard utility belt with pouches all over and a DL-18 blaster pistol in a quickdraw holster on her right thigh. Her legs are clad in skin-tight purple leggings that match the top, but they disappear down into a pair of soft-soled leather boots.
When it becomes obvious that Jacen wants to explore before he settles, she makes quick work of taking off her thigh holster rig and tossing it on top of her robe. It leaves her defenseless, but also looking significantly more comfortable. An overt sign of trust, maybe? Either way, she seems more than happy to accompany Jacen on the 'tour,' making a special effort to show him down the stairs to the guest quarters -- what she called Sabra's Room. It's right beside her cabin, and they're the only two 'proper' cabins on the ship, though there are bunks along the corridor to the cockpit.
"You're welcome," Lira says warmly, but there's not a hint of anything even resembling consideration of the offer. "That's kind of you. I manage on my own, but if there's anything you see that you want to do, I'm sure I wouldn't argue." It's just the most sincere thing.. like Lira might be the only beacon of purity left in the dark hole that is Nar Shaddaa. Despite the top she wears, there's not even anything sexual about the way she moves or acts. No suggestions. No flirtations. No hint of anything beyond being pleased the two of them are there.
"If you two want to wash up in the fresher, I'll wash up in the kitchenette and set out the food. You're welcome to take your time. Get settled. I'm sure Sabra can show you the ins and outs."
Lira wasn't really the type for a lot of rules beyond pure safety concerns, apparently. Sabra had been allowed free access to the ship as long as she stayed out of the hatches and didn't touch the controls in the cockpit. If she's asked? Sabra would say that they've never had 'cargo' on the ship. No one coming or going besides herself and Lira. No deckhands or other crew. It's a massive waste of a ship that is /designed/ for that kind of operation. But it might also make one curious about how a girl of her age affords it.
He walks through the ship since Lira seems Ok with it. He nods at her trade and replies,"That seems like a good trade. The Lambda shuttle is a good machine, but this is better." He doesn't seem too worried about why she didn't use it. Pretty obvious.
Food is good, no question, but he is curious about the ship. He does notice when she takes off the robes, but fortunately there is a history with Twi'lek and it doesn't phase him one way or the other. That young and lithe, he probably is too numb to notice still.
He looks over Sabra's room and nods before he looks back to Lira,"I understand self sufficiency, but I would be glad to help where I can."
The indication to the fresher and he and Sabra go to wash their hands. He lets her show him around the area, but soon enough moves back towards food.
He listens to her talk about the time on the ship. If he is worried about the lack of cargo he doesn't show it. He's been up to his neck in trouble before, he will just be mindful of things and the potential of trouble. So far, he is confident that Lira is on the up and up. Time will tell.
Lira smiles at Jacen's offer of help, and she nods. In truth, there was a lot he could do -- a lot that he would discover once he had time to look around on his own. Routine maintenance that just wasn't being done because Lira had no idea how to maintain a ship being just one of many things.
The food and drinks are set out by the time Jacen and Sabra make their way back to the table, and Lira's already sitting in the semi-circle booth with her legs folded crisscross rather than allowed to dangle -- a habit that Sabra's adopted in their time together. And the stories of the last two months flow freely.
There's the time they hit a weird pocket of gravity during a hyperspace jump between a binary star system and things started floating to the ceiling.. and the two of them decided to engage in a mini "space rescue" mission to retrieve them, complete with helmets and sound effects.
There's the time Lira got them a few containers of face paint from the circus connections she still had ('Oh! Right. I used to be a circus performer -- the Astral Marvels troupe. I'm sure you've never heard of us, but my family are still traveling around.'), and they decorated each other's faces to look like various animals.
There's the time Sabra made 'space soup' out of everything she could find edible in the kitchen, and no matter how hard she tried, Lira simply /could not/ eat it without making a face (which she proceeded to demonstrate, much to Sabra's amusement).
There's the time Sabra set up a little makeshift circus ring in the cargo hold and the two of them took turns putting on performances.
And there are mentions of the nights... the hardest times. Sometimes, Sabra stayed in her quarters, but a lot of the nights she ended up in bed with Lira, who didn't seem to mind. There's something haunted in Lira's expression when she tells that part of the story and tries to make it clear how much she understood. Something significant. But nothing she's willing to talk about in front of Sabra.
Soon enough, the food has been eaten, and though Lira has done an admirable job at keeping Sabra laughing through the stories... it's that time. Night. When fatigue set in and all of the worries and memories started creeping back in. Once more, Lira shows the pair of them to their room -- Sabra's room -- the guest quarters easily big enough for father and daughter to bunk together. And it's there, at the door, that she wishes them goodnight.
"If you need me..." Her gaze shifts across the small hallway to the other room. "Well, you know where to find me. I'll see you both in the morning."
Sabra gets a hug and a kiss on the top of the head. Jacen gets a warm smile, and then all of them are turning in for the night.
