Ask Coruscant The Samurai and the Mobster

[Beto Lorsoni]

The cigarra on Beto's lips had a strange vanilla flavor to it. He hadn't paid attention when he bought them and while it definitely was something you had to get used to, somehow he had preferred smoking them over buying a new regular pack. He had taken the elevator up a thousand levels just to be able to see the sun set from one of the surface levels. It had taken him a while. Three cigarra's and one holo-call with his brother about him going to collect on an outstanding debt back on their own level 1313. Now he had arrived at the bottom of the skyscrapers and all he saw was a faint glimpse of an orange sky betraying that the sun had already started to set. Corellia was a dirty has-been of a planet, but at least he could see the ocean and watch the sunset every now and then through the smoke of the factory exhausts. Coruscant was just endless layers of durasteel and people.

Starting to regret his little trip to the almost-surface of the planet, Beto sighed out vanilla-scented smoke and looked around to find anything that could be worth it. The people were definitely more diverse than back on his homeplanet. Regardless of their diversity, they were the same in one aspect: most of them were desperately poor, easy to exploit and seemed to have accepted their horribly mundane and impoverished existence. Once the sun had properly set, most of them would retreat into their apartment and watch a holo-movie to charge of for the next day of the endlessly repeating cycle. Beto looked down on them. He had spend miserable years on a prison ship, sure, but at least he didn't let anyone tell him what to do.

"Ah kriff it," he smiled ironically and threw the cigarra on the durasteel street before flattening it with his shoe. "I'll just go see what Tone's been doing."

At the speed in which the elevators moved down he'd be just in time to hear his brother's excited stories and share in the profits. Just how he liked it.

@Arclight

 

[K]

Atrisia had its own metropolises, sprawling cityscapes that grasped at the sky. They were nothing compared to Coruscant. The choked walkways were claustrophobic with sentients, the air thick with pollution and the streets lit by glaring neon that promised all manner of goods and services to the many many denizens of the city.

Unfortunately, K was still broke.

After escaping from the space port and her adventures there, K had taken a long turbolift ride to the surface to get a glimpse of sun and sky. It was nothing like home. Even above the clouds there was a haze of pollution, muting the setting sun and dirtying the otherwise brilliant sunset as it glowed orange and purple in the sky. The last of the evening light glared harshly off the shining metal of the many skyscrapers that poked above the cloud level.

A whiff of t'bac and vanilla hit K's nose as she watched the last bleeding of the sky before it swiftly turned to darkness. Not that there was ever true darkness on the ecumenopolis of Coruscant as street lights flickered to life with harsh light and the neons continued their ever present blaze of colors. Turning from the view, K cut an interesting figure among the many sentients that bustled about in their styles and suits. Robes weren't entirely uncommon, but the cut and style of her own didn't appear to be much replicated among the crowds. More significant was the sword hanging at her waist that didn't fit in this high up on Coruscant. In the lower levels nobody would bat an eye, but up here, everyone seemed to be doing double-takes at the young ronin Yovshin.

@Eccles

 

[Beto Lorsoni]

Beto was about to turn towards the elevators when he spotted a young girl carrying swords around as if it was the most ordinary thing in the galaxy. "Those real?" he asked, pointing one lazy finger towards them as he tried to take measure of the kid. "You're a bit young to be in a gang," he doubted his own words. How old had he been when he got involved in his first racket? Even if he started young, that was different for he was blood-relation to an established Corellian family. The rules were different, surely, though just like he wasn't a native to Coruscant, everything about the kid screamed that she wasn't either.

Regardless, she'd probably be fine. Who was he to meddle in her affairs and take up the role of lecturing adult to tell her if she could or could not carry swords around in the more policed levels of Coruscant. She wasn't his kid. He didn't have any as far as he knew. Definitely none that would dress like that. Wait - robes, swords, - kriff. What if... nah, Beto smiled over the ridiculousness of thinking the kid could be a Jedi or a Sith simply for wearing robes and having a sword.

So maybe one piece of advice. "If you're not in a gang," he started walking towards the elevators, "maybe try to blend in a bit more." In passing her flashed her the kyuzo petar he carried in the inside lining of his jacket.

He hadn't said it or three uninformed officers of the Coruscant Security Forces (CSF) blocked his path, "You two together?" one of them asked as he pointed at the oddly-dressed kid. That prompted Beto to frown, cast a glance back to the kid and feigned some indignation. "Does it look like we're together?" their clothing style couldn't be farther apart, but the officer didn't care about a civilian's indignation and stepped passed him without acknowledging his answer. "You there, with the swords-" he said to the girl as bystanders instinctively started walking in a larger arch to make sure they wouldn't end up in the line of fire. "-identify yourself."


@Arclight

 

[K]

She was about to walk away and continue her life away from the smoggy sunset of Coruscant when a suited man approached her, asking if her swords were real. He seemed puzzled over her style and dress, and she was beginning to feel more and more out of place among the upper level crowds. K didn't believe in luck, but if her's were bad the man was likely about to start lecture her.

"Yes, and I am not-" She started before he continued speaking, flashing his own weapon and offering a bit of advice. Old men just couldn't help themselves it seemed. Still it seemed to be good advice as they were almost immediately approached by the local security forces, something she had been desperately trying to avoid. With a casual brushing off of the law enforcement, the old man continued on his way, leaving her to fend for herself.

"K." She told the lawman the alias she was using, but he didn't seem to take it that way as he waited for her to produce some sort of identification, apparently seeming to think she was merely agreeing to identify herself. She stared at his masked face, breathing steadily as she prepared herself. He stared back.

"Where is your identification kid?" He finally said after a few awkward moments of silence. The crowd was clearing a section around them, and the two other security men took steps to flank her. K remained immobile and silent as she stared down the first man.

"Answer the question kid or we'll have to take you in for possession." One of the lawmen to her side said annoyed, reaching for her with his hand as he made a move to grab her. Behind the first lawman, K could see the old man approaching the elevator.

K burst into movement as the lawman's hand touched her shoulder. She grasped it and pulled, throwing a leg behind his before slamming her hip into him and rolling him over her and slamming him into the other flanking lawman. Ducking, she swept her leg and hooked it behind the first lawman's to send him spilling to the ground before launching herself into a sprint.

Sliding into the turbolift with the old man just as the doors slid shut, K left the lawmen a confused in a confused pile to be gawked at by passerbys. Looking at the old man as she brought her breathing under control again, she gave him a nod. "I am not in a gang. Thank you for the advice."

@Eccles

 

[Beto Lorsoni]

Having decided to not get in the way of the Coruscant Security Forces over something as minor as a kid displaying bladed weapons, Beto had continued his way to the elevator and benefited from the commotion going outside so he had the entire thing for himself. He smiled and took his pack of scented cigarra's from his pocket again, but he hadn't managed to even take one out when the girl came sliding into the elevator. Outside he heard the muffeld shouts from the officers to 'open the doors' but it was too late.. they were moving and they'd be going down fast.

"You're welcome," Beta chuckled and offered her one of his cigarra's. "You won't lose them until you're down to at least level 1313," he pointed at the level indicator and that it was already set to 1313. "I'm Beto, I own a seafood place on that level" and a synthetic spice lab, but who was counting. He was curious for her story, for not everyone would find it needed to choose getting pursuid by the CSF over simply showing them their identification.


@Arclight

 

[K]

K eyed the offered cigarra curiously for a moment before accepting one. She had never smoked before, though she had heard rumor of some other Yovshin that smoked contraband t'bac ciggaras from outside the Empire. Bringing the stick up to her nose, she smelled it. It smelled lovely. An eyebrow raised as she glanced up at the stranger's mention of what level she needed to sink to, specifically, before she could lose the authorities. Convenient that he was already heading there.

And there it was.

"My name is... K." She said after a moments hesitation. She had abandoned her name, and while the chosen letter she was going by was adequate, she had yet to get used to it. She didn't know what else to say other than the proper manners. "And I'm-" pleased to meet you. Was what K would have said if not for a loud growl that echoed through the turbolift from her stomach. "-- hungry." She finished, a little uncomfortable with the situation. Fiddling with the ciggara, she remembered she had it and put it up near her lips.

"I don't... Do you have a light?" She asked. She had never smoked before but the concept wasn't entirely foreign. She knew she needed a flame, and she couldn't very well conjure one from her hands, nobody could do that. Right?

@Eccles

 

[Beto Lorsoni]

"Okay, K-" Beto couldn't help but pause as he internally chuckled at his own joke. She had pronounced as it was a mere K, but he figured it was probably something like Kay. It naturally flowed.. or something, he studied accountancy with a minor in racketeering, not linguistics.

As her stomach rumbled he did feel bad. For some reason he felt responsible for a hungry kid, clearly out of her depth and foreign to Coruscant. Despite the heat of bringing in a fugitive runaway, for she was clearly running from something, Beto didn't really think twice when she said she was hungry, "like su'shi and noodles? Fill you right up." Perhaps she reminded him of the day he returned to Corellia after four years on that prison ship. The emptiness he thought he could only fill with..

kriff, a light, ofcourse. He snapped back and pulled it out, lighting hers first and then his own. "My brother and I started the restaurant not so long ago," he told her, shaking his head with a smile as the vanilla scented cigarra swirled to his side in his left hand, "He's a bit of a clutch, but family, you know?" did she?


@Arclight

 

[K]

Su'shi and noodles. The two words only heightened the pangs of hunger in K's stomach as she stared at the wall passively. It had been... days since she had run out of food in the cargo hold she'd stowed away on. Hours since she had snuck off the landing bay.

"I..." She started. She was broke. Would she be indebted to this man. "I don't have any money." She finished, her voice stoic as she resolved to remaining hungry for the time being. Until she could find work, something temporary. She didn't plan on sticking around. She knew a shadow lurked in her past that might be fast approaching. The consequences of her broken vow.

"Thank you." K nodded politely as she let Beto light her cigarra. A puff of ember as she inhaled. Vanilla and t'bac filled her lungs, forced a small cough out of her that she was able to mostly suppress before exhaling, refusing to show weakness as her eyes watered at foreign smoke in her lungs. The taste lingered on her tongue, ashy but pleasant.

K wouldn't comment on family, the bonds that she had shattered coming here. She would contemplate on that subject later, when it wasn't so fresh. She had bigger priorities to focus on. Food, shelter, money... Survival. She emptied her mind of all these things as the elevator door opened on level 1313, revealing the vast undercity to her. She glanced at Beto next to her, trying to decide whether to trust him.

@ecclessey