Log:The Shadowport: The Hapan-ing: Friends in Low Places

Netep is on the trail and walks right into a great night out. Rale has already beat her to it.

OOC Date: November 30, 2020
Location: Night Club - Hapes
Participants: The Shadowport, Eriu Jynx as GM, Netep Muri, Rale

Eriu Jynx

The distant storm is rolling in closer the later in the evening it gets. The rumble of distant thunder is punctuated by flashes of lightning in the dark clouds overhead. The city itself still seems to glow - likely do to how the lighting is done with interior illumination that cause walls to shimmer with their own colors.

Netep hsa been following our squirrely servant from her arrival and he's given her a merry chase down through the noble distict and finally back into the city proper. A few loops through avenues and small side streets leads her to a building that is already alive with the night time party goers. The thumping music within is already heard outside and he slips in past the line at the door after a word with the bouncer.

The same bouncer that is picking and choosing who enters the club currently as he motions a few in. Even on Hapes there is a pecking order and they have a finer line between what is beautiful and not.

Netep Muri Mystique! Intrigue! Netep finds herself engaged in a real-life holoflick or, even better, a cloak and dagger novella. For a woman who never stays in one place for long, she's dedicated a great deal of brainpower and manhours to this unfortunate House. Nearly twenty hours, in fact! It's hungry work, hence the crumbs in need of dusting off her right, caped shoulder after she crinkles and pocke----no pockets. After she crinkles and tosses the crisp wrapper into rubbish bin (actually a donations bin, whoops), our space gypsy masquerading as an upstanding, posh citizen hustles across the street toward that club.

It's there that she pauses, two steps from the curb, and gives those in line a quick once-over. A look down at her own getup judges it to be a tad too...'I came for groceries and gossip' and not enough 'I'd like to rub up ons'. ROlling her eyes, she makes a brief retreat back to that side street and donation bin. The cape is carefully unclipped and chain/broche plucked from the fabric. Holding the hardware in teeth, she gathers up a wad of curls from either side and cuts the mane's volume by half, instantly. This upper layer is twisted and secured by the pin, stabs notwithstanding, then the chain is draped artfully from there to ......

Her right ear. It hooks to the upper most stud gleaming there and makes a fashion statement. Not sure WHOSE fashion, but it's something. She takes a peek at her compact from handbag, touches up the lip gloss, and then scurry-struts her way back to the club to face the bouncer's judgement.

Here's hoping he likes the eau du Lorrdian emanating ever so exotically from her person. Like a dusky-skinned queen emerging from the black sand's stormy haze, so does she prowl forward from the waiting crowd of clubgoers. Eye contact. On point.

Rale Oh, on this most intriguing and auspicious of nights, there are many beautiful sights to behold! This club is the domain of the beautiful and fashionable, and as such, the line to get in moves slowly, and only with great scrutiny. Surely, it would take a miracle for someone to just wander up and get in, right? Insanity to even think of it, especially with an alien.

"Friends! Bariu, my being, it is good to see you, how is your son?" No. What? Oh yes, it's Rale, the tiny, batlike alien strolling up past the line like it is the most natural thing in the world. He's wearing his suit, decked to the nines with gold cufflinks and teeth so shiny they almost glow in the dark as he spreads his hands. Oh, how those in line balk, looking to the bouncer with a 'seriously, he's gonna kick his ass, right' look. But no! Instead, the bouncer grins and gestures Rale closer. "Mister Miro, always a pleasure. He's doing great, just turned ten, thanks for asking." And there's a flash, a sight of a cred stick, and Rale is passing it to the man. "That's excellent! Buy him something nice for me." And he's making to just stroll right in, and the bouncer is gonna let him.

Netep Muri What in heavens....NO.

Those enormous ears bobbing along about hip high cannot escape Muri's attention as they cut in front of her line of attack. And are admitted? This could be her break! EJ's gonna be mad about the cape, if so. But no time to think up apologies now. She's on a mission. Two, really.

"MIROOOO!" she yoohoos with a batting of lashes and award-winning 'I see what you did there' smile bearing her freshly brushed teeth. "I thought you'd never make it!" The bouncer is spared the briefest of once-overs for the MAN that he is, but she doesn't deviate from her target - Rale. At the rate her projected confidence is carrying her, she'd be easy to clothesline cause doesn't look like she plans on stopping.

A hand extends forward to him, beckoning him to wait. "I was about to leave, I'll have you know."

Rale The benefits of a smuggler's education and years of experience are many. Dash. Wit. Tons of ill-gotten credits. But most of all of those? The ability to improv your backside off when things suddenly change. Of course, he instantly swivels those ears-for-days in her direction, and the hesitation is so very brief that even an expert would have a hard time noting it, likely. A brilliant smile again splits his face as he turns and dips himself into a bow that looks like it might scrape those wifi-receivers on his head against the floor.

"Meeyuri! Oh, I had worried I had been left behind! That you had found another companion for the night, and was to drown myself in sorrows for it!" All deference to her as he glances to the Bouncer. Does he need to say anything? Nope, not on this world, as he waits for her to join him, and then lead //him// into the establishment. Ladies first and all, smiling all the while and waiting until they are just inside and out of earshot to whisper "I'm here to forage, what are //you// here for?"

Netep Muri "Foraging," Meeyuri whispers back in a way that sounds like it means something else. Complete with giggle to prolong this agonizing farce. Rale's hand is held fast, toted along like her pet companion until there's a thick enough layer of bodies between them and the door, at which point she shakes him loose. Isn't hard, what with a bit of sweat already forming on her palms. She's done a lot of footwork today, okay?

"There's a servant gone suspect - well most of them, really - but one in particular who caught my eye last night. I've been on his tail for..." she pasues, scanning wrists that move around them until a chronometer is spied. "Fourteen hours. Some of which was computerized, but...well, this is where he's led me and I aim to ..." she stands on tiptoe and turns in a slow, studious circle "..find him."

Eriu Jynx Servant gone suspect? Netep's quick gaze finds him posted near the far end of the bar from the entrance. Club goers are moving back and forth from the liquidation station back to the dance floor so her spotting of him narrowly misses its mark. His shaved head is hard to miss as he leans over and nods to the male bartender, reaching out to take a drink from him - a shot - and downs it before he makes a motion at a backroom. He gets a nod.

Off the squirrely man goes, glancing around before he ducks his head and stops himself before the door. Another quick look and the black painted opening which makes it harder to see the entrance is pulled and he slips through into an equally dark back room.

Rale "Oh, we have a mark already? Love it, love it. I'm friends with the owner, I'll help smooth whatever goes down." A promise quickly and quietly made as he watches her spin about, waiting to be pointed in the right direction, as he is hopelessly down below any line of sight. He leans in close, whispering very quietly "I help the owner move product, so keep in mind these are more our sort of people than the Hapan usual." meaning more violent and/or deceitful than the usual for this planet.

Netep Muri "What?" Netep bends over in a sudden way that might be a duck. Followed by a quick pop-up of her head to track that bald sheen cutting through the dancing sea. It parts and he disappears into a hole in the wall. Assumptions are made, be they for better or worse.

"I've got to hit the fresher," she says and click-clacks a few urgent steps away, then tracks back and gestures to the bar. "Hey, why don't you get us a couple drinks, Mr Connections," because priorities "and meet us outside the fresher?" She thumbs toward that dark hole of a back room with an emphasis on the /us/. The freshers, of course, are labeled on an adjacent wall /behind/ her. Has she even seen them?

Moving like a gal who's got to pee, Meeyuri makes a beeline for that backroom and fumbles blindly for the door. "....Frell does the man see? Poor eyesight, my arse.." she heatedly whispers at herself and sentientologists everywhere.

Eriu Jynx The door itself seems to fit seamless back into the wall. Muri's initial attempts bring up nothing but her fingers find a very small ring that moves when she passes over it. Basically a pull latch if she can get her finger in and pull, the door easily pulls open. Like dragging on a cloud really. If she's not careful it will continue to swing open.

Inside is a very black dark hallway. Hapan's have really bad eyesight. That guy should have knocked himself out or tripped over himself at the very least. The dim lighting is enough for Muri. But a Hapan? Not so much.

It extends down and appears to go left and right. A T intersection after about ten long feet of black painted walls, floor and ceiling.

Rale Rale watches her go, and his ear twitches once, twice. He runs his fingers over his furred scalp and then nods to himself. Moving through the crowd like he's so very used to weaving between hips, he makes it to the bar and orders One Omaron Sunrise on the rocks, and a Corellian Whiskey, neat. Cradling the fruity and //very// highly-alcoholic drink in his hands, he drifts down from the bar...And into the shadows near the wall, sliding in after Muri with a disapproving expression on his face, following in the quiet-as-the-night way of the Bat-man. He, unlike these people, can see the way with absolute clarity.

Netep Muri "Somebody's got bogus credentials...." Netep singsong whispers, creeping along through a corridor that no servant of House Jynell should have navigated so easily. Also closer up - that face? Meh. S'pose there's anomalies in every race, but maybe, just maybe, squirrely man isn't the Hapan of her dreams or initial assumptions. There's a decision to be made at the end of the hall - Left or Right?

A fleeting glance over shoulder produces no clues and also passes well over the head of her Chandra-Fan drink fairy, but thank goodness she heard a scrape or breath or something to make her look /down/. The shock his sudden appearance there jolts her heart with is minor and rather than hit the ceiling, it merely elicits a sharp intake of breath and slow, tsking exhale.

"I'll take left?" but not without extending a hand to claim one of those drinks. Whichever he hands over, Judges know she ain't picky.

Rale Rale happily passes along the Sunrise, the fruity drink so very tasty if she actually has the time to take a sip. His eyes glance around the place to the intersection and whispers, so very quietly to his companion. "Left leads toward where I used to meet the owner. Right is the..Docks, I think. For his more subtle cargo. Dealer's choice, Muri, but I'm not explaining to Eriu that I lost you at a club." That sounds like a worse nightmare than just being shot.

Netep Muri "She'll fault me enough for the both of us, don't you worry." Netep DOES have time to take a sip. A long one. The resulting brain freeze from the ice cube she inhaled in process sees her grimacing as she goes....dockward. Maybe. Shady characters go to shady places, no? She's got a fifty percent chance of finding her mark so what's the worst that could happen?!

• Sip*

Eriu Jynx Lots of worse things can happen, including staining the clothing and donating it. Already done, check. The hallway has a few doors along the sides - either storage, offices or something else but at the end of the hall is a room that Rale is familiar with or the one he supposes he is led into from another way because this hallway is new to him. Its narrow and claustrophobic - if thats your thing.

The door at the end is slightly ajar and the smell of spice and burning cigaros is already reaching their noses. Conversation is happening presently and it drones out. Muri can pick up some of it. "First payment came in for the job."

Another voice pipes up. "Been some complications over at the estate. We got new faces showing up, off worlders. They came on the coat tails of the Duchess."

The rich voice that Rale recognizes as the club owner sounds out. "That is complicated. Not my problem, we continue to do our work. We are paid. Its business." She, the club owner is sitting back with a thin cigarro bewteen her fingers and is the first thing the door that is angled an ajar shows, her feet up on the desk as she flicks the ashes into a tray. The side of the squirrely man can be seen which means, if they are not careful, they might be seen.

Rale Rale follows along, his ears and nose scanning far ahead of his eyes and, detecting the scents and sounds, reaching out to //very// gently tug on the back of Muri's outfit, slowing her progress. If she looks down, he makes a tamping-down gesture, then gestures to himself and then makes slow walking motions with his fingers and pointing to his ears. Whether she gets it is debatable, but he is saying silently that he wants to go forward and listen to the conversation at hand, see what can be heard.

Netep Muri Voice number two must be her man! An excited gleam lights up Muri's furrow of concentration and she nods exuberantly at Rale, causing the chain in her hair/face to flap about for a moment but wouldn't ya know, her heap of hair makes a decent silencer? Her drinkless arm gestures with fervently pointing, signaling him to go, go, go, that's the guy!

And she's prepared to give him lead on this spying endeavor because her ears just cannot compare! Netep just her best to straighten up, flatten out against the wall, and uh....wish her vividly colored choice in attire away? Perhaps it's best if she creep back to that intersection. So she does, taking slow, long-reaching tiptoes backwards along the wall's edge and about four steps in...

• POP*

That's the sound a very expensive heel makes when it teeter-totters over and takes the wearer's ankle with it. Did the heel snap? Did her ankle? Does it matter since probably her neck is next? Both hands and drink come up to clap over her mouth in attempts to stifle the inward groooooooan. Her bugged eyes fixate on that door with horror now. Did they hear? Maybe they didn't hear.

Eriu Jynx "Right, of course Madam Vas, of course. I just...they looked like they meant business. Fancy clothes but there is something," he can not just put his finger on or so he seems to insinuate with a press of finger to palm - Rale can see this. "They are going to spell trouble."

Vas lets out a huffed laugh and blows smoke at the worried squirrel maybe not hapan servant man. "You worry too much. We have eyes where you do not think they are," she mutters. "You are not my only informant but thank you for coming here, lets hope you did not out us."

THe squirrel man starts to stutter about possibly outing them when Muri's unfortunate possible ankle snapping sound. It echoes in that dark empty hall and thus into the open room.

"What was that. Go check." The two were not alone. A larger man steps through and lights go on. They flare to life and are nearly blinding as the muscle gets a good look at Rale...and further down Muri. "You lost?" his deep voice asks and not at all believe they are. "Madam, we have two here and one you know." He stares at Rale.

Rale The look that Rale casts toward Muri as her ankle pops cannot truly be put into words. It is so full of disappointment, horror, and the sort of cornered look only lifelong prey can have. But he's a professional, and the second the light falls on them, he flips the script in a Yan-worthy display of utter bullshit that might make him, wherever he is, giggle in pleasure for no reason he can tell. "Friends! I was looking for my good friend, she was playing hard to get!" Instantly he manages to seem teasing, vaguely affronted, and swaying in a passable impression of a drunk chadra-fan.

"Are you in there, friend? I was telling my knew friend I knew the owner, she didn't believe me! Couldn't resist. Especially when I saw the door open to back here! Can you tell your man here I am just a friend and let us in? I swear, its been ages, hasn't it?" He glances to Muri, and while his back is to the man watching them, the pleading in his eyes to play along is real and urgent.

Netep Muri Stars a'blaze, they're dead.

"A-r-e__w-e__d-e-a-d?" Netep silently mouths at Rale from her cringe against the wall, drink half tipped aside and dribbling fruity intoxication over her wrist and onto her knee.

BIG MAN. They're dead.

Armed only with the fibs she can concoct on the spot, Netep's more than happy to hop aboard Rale's road to salvation. The moisture brimming over her lower lashes is EVER so convincingly realistic (because it's real) and she slams the rest of that beverage super fast to dull the throb pulsating from that purpling ankle. The offending shoe gets kicked off and she hops along horribly to Rale's side with a sniff and pout. "My glass is empty," she whines, turning the expensive crystal upsidedown to dangle by the delicate stem in show of its emptiness. "You're so 'portant round here, can't you make them bring me another...?"

Muri's soul is vomiting, inside.

"N'less you're full a'shavit. I bet you are, last guy I let -- oh heeeeeeeey," she teeters to the other side now, leaning on opposite wall and slowly sliding down its sturdy structure to better have an angled peek in around BIG man. A teary-eyed expression of awe/wants to be a smile SO badly beams across toward the nice set of legs what /were/ propped up on that desk, who knows where they've gone now. "Are YOU 'friend'?" The longest gasp inward that Muri's big lungs are capable of inhaling sees her turning to beam that awe back onto Rale. "IS that friend!?!?"

Eriu Jynx The man looks nonplussed and even a little put out at the sight of the two. Skepticism shows at first but Muri's pout and hobbling form seem to tip them tumbling drunkenly over the edge of passable to utterly believable.

"Its Miro, the smuggler. Seem's he's got a friend with him. Want I should shuttle them out the /back/ or front?" Back sounds bad. VERY bad. Like blasted in the head and thrown in yesterday's trash bad.

There is a decided squeak from the chair and Vas lets out a long breath of smoke. "Let them in. Lets welcome our long lost friend. I have cargo anyways, maybe we can make a deal. No reason to be inhospitable."

Squirrely edges to the corner of the luxurious office that has a one way window out into the club that people use as a mirror. It allows Vas some entertainment.

"Mister Miro..and guest...mmm get the lady a drink." She motions to a couch for them to sit on.

Rale Rale takes a seat with just a touch of unsteadiness, pressing home the lie that he is a little inebriated, and trying desperately to impress this very nice young lady with his connections and suave. He takes a sip of his drink, sighing at the taste and nodding to Vas. "Excellent as always...And yes, Miss, all my friends! Very good friends, especially when they have business for me? I admit, was hoping to expand while I was here, something about drama in the Houses, figured I could make a few creds." Dangling that out and speaking perhaps a bit too much (on purpose? hard to tell with Rale) and looking around the room as he lounges.

Meanwhile, he's casing the Big Man, the others in the room, and the squirrely fellow, inhaling deeply as he notes the smell of the man in case he has need to find him later. Probably with Karr in tow next time, no offense to tripsy McGee here.

Netep Muri "Am *I* Guest?" whisper-slurs Muri discomfortingly close to Rale's catch-all ear. Complete with point into her own chest, in case her use of pronoun wasn't adequately defining. "Is *he* Guest?" A too-high upturned note of query reangles her point toward the bald servant skulking in that corner.

It gives her an excuse to look in his direction with a lopsided squint, and read whatever more visual clues he might have to offer what hadn't been spoken already. Not likely much. He's a rat, plain and simple, right? Rale says something about drama in the houses and it takes all will in her world to not shrivel into a ball of BLOWN COVER. There are some Lorrdian cease-and-desist tics playing out on her face, but it's for naught and she slaps his shoulder instead before leaning against (ON) him. Like a fuzzy shoulder prop. "Cred--I like credits!!!!" She lurches forward then, staggering up to her feet, more or less, and halfway across the room toward Rale's gal pal. "I really like your shooooes.." and then maybe it's the nerves or the booze or maybe Muri can just vomit on command, but....

• Splaaaghasplatterohgeez*

Janitor?

Eriu Jynx Madam Vas is most definitely studying them as her feet remain casually crossed atop her desk with her chair in a reclined position. Smoke curls and rises up to give the whole room a smokey atmosphere. She flicks the ashes into the gold tray on her desk. "Drama...there is always power struggles, Mister Miro. You must understand, it is the way of Hapes. One house rises, another falls. Some stand for far too long and rot sets in." She shrugs. "Not my place, not my care. I just handle my business and live my life." At the expense of others.

"So then.." She begins only to watch as Muri, very drunkenly gets to her feet. Method acting at its best. The man is put on edge by the unknown quantity as his hand goes to his blaster. Even Vas gives a look of uncertainty as the lurching near zombie figure of Muri gets closer. "I suggest you stay back," but there is no stopping Mission Muri. Cue music.

Vas jumps a bit, feet coming off her desk so she can push herself out of blast range. The big man is there, grasping Muri around the waist to support her and start hurrying her towards the exit. "That is going to smell for weeks. Mister Miro I suggest you take your guest and go."

The movement of the big man blocks Rale from view and allows him those precious moments to do his thing. The datapad is snatched, Muri is hurried towards the back door and given a light shove OUTWARDS into the night just as rain begins to patter down on the gilded walkways.

Rale "Oh for the love of...I am so sorry, I'll make it up to you. Ten percent discount on next run." Rale looks suitably affronted on behalf of Vas...After he slides the pad into his jacket pocket smoothly and standing up to make his way out. "See you soon, Friend!" And they are shoved out, into the night. It isn't until they clear a fair bit of distance that Rale derps the smile, the pizzazz, and the good humor. "Well Recking good show at the end, I thought we'd had it! Inspired work, the vomit, managed to slide a pad, got the rat's scent on the way out, and we learned a lot. Foot alright?"

Netep Muri "That 'rat' is a worker on the Jynell estate and this is the second time he's seen me. Let's hope the first time didn't land him a good luck, hey?" Netep gimps one small step at a time through the rain, kicking off the remaining shoe and carrying it along in hand. She spits to the side. "Not that /this/ is a good look anymore. Oh." Muri stops short and throws a long, wistful look up the side of the building to that street she need cross to retrieve the discarded cape.

A lengthy, pained sign and she's changing course accordingly.

"Least we know he's an informant. And a nervous one at that. I'll write up a preliminary report, you scour that datapad and see what ya come up with, yeah? Barvy scat's got one thing straight - we're trouble." Wink. And limp. And limp. And limp...