Mostly Just Deserves (Slade/Kress)

[Kressara Thryn]

Moraband
Kressara's Living Quarters
Early Morning



"This your sister?"

Lorcan's airy tones posed a question to Kressara when he spied a dusty picture frame on her severely under used desk. A rather uninteresting looking golden blonde girl stood between a man and wife, looking far too camera shy in front of a barn door.

"What?" His boss paused her closet rummaging to peer over her shoulder at the photo in question, only to roll her eyes in response and grumble, "No. That's me."

His eyebrows raised and cybernetics shifted between the unremarkable girl in the photo and his more than lovely partner in crime. "No way! You look so different...you're pulling my leg."

"Yeah, I know. I aged horribly."

"Oh, can it! You know I don't mean it that way...you just looked so plain. I didn't even recognize you. Now you're something else." He cast a wink her way and Kress stepped out of her equally unused closet wearing her best stalker armor and cloak. You know, the one with the fancy muffled plating on the legs, hardy weaved body suit that hugged her tight and allowed for soundless steps, and a layered black hip long cloak to cover her manageri of equipment.

"Are you done rooting around my apartment?" She sighed and Lorcan wondered out loud, "What's with the bad mood? You're the one who invited me to join your manhunt. What did the sorry dope even do?"

"He killed my parents."

An awkward silence fell between them and the sharkish punk's kidding demeanor changed. No wonder she was being so touchy lately. Hunting down your family's killer was kind of a huge deal. Why hadn't she told him until now? Was she worried he'd bail? His shoulders dropped and boots left prints on the dirty floor as he closed the distance between himself and the unusually melancholy sith. "Hey...sorry. I didn't know. Why haven't you mentioned this until now? You know I have your back right?"

"I know…" She answered, staring at her own feet. "I just didn't want to feel anything, but I do. It was too long ago to still be upset. I feel childish when I think of them...like I'm still some lost brat the sith picked up who just wants her mom and dad back."

Lorcan huffed and slung his arm around her shoulders, walking the pair out of her seldom lived quarters. How long had it been since she even stepped foot into her own room? The place looked abandoned, but remnants of her presence were scattered here and there. "It's never too long ago. They were your parents and you're not supposed to compare yourself to the other sith. You're not built like them. Just because they might think loss makes you stronger doesn't make it true for everyone. Sometimes it hurts you and no motivational word vomit can turn it into a benefit. They call it loss for a reason."

Together they exited into the halls of the residential wing, bags in hand and dawning black armor. For once her associate was wearing something protective instead of his usual studded leather jacket and ragged edgy attire, and his cyan undercut was pulled into a man bun on the back of his head. It was a different look on him, for sure. The only thing he kept on him was his single blue crystal earring which never left his person for sentimental reasons even Kressara wasn't aware of. While she locked the door behind them, Lorcan crouched down beside a crate of munitions to check the supply. After he was certain they weren't missing anything for the journey ahead, he lifted the heavy box of guns, blades, and ammo with his knees and began his stride to the Skipray with the blonde in tow.

They entered into the vast, ancient hall of the Moraband temple on their way to the landing pad and Lorcan's distinct voice echoed off of the sandstone pillars. "So when we find the guy who axed your folks...what are we going to do to him? I mean, kill him I'm sure, but how? We busting his knee caps and feeding him to the local wildlife, oooor...?"

Kressara shifted the weight of her bag onto her other shoulder and stated plainly, "We're scrapping every bit of metal on him for my lightsaber hilt. I remember he had a few implants, maybe a false hand. I'm building my prized weapon out of his bits and pieces and selling the rest for spare change. Beyond that, I'm not sure. I've dreamed about catching him for a long time now and nothing I think up even remotely compares to the chain reaction of bantha poodoo that followed his attack."

A hateful gile swirled in his artificial stare.

"So I'm stopping by a black market outpost on the way there, purchasing a few venomous earworms, and letting them crawl into his brain while I play acupuncturist with a rusty screwdriver after I snap his back in half over my knee?"

A few seconds passed and a small, genuine grin pulled at Kressara's red painted lips. "This is why I can't get enough of you."

[Slade Xandir]

"Since when did he allow her refuge on his planet?" his question was low, the moon where his eye had been glinting starved scorn to the pair who began their trek towards him, but most importantly the ship he leaned on. Their ship. The sun greeted them as it roved quickly over the entire inventory they jostled in their arms. He was wearing a regular black fitted tee shirt and some casual black joggers, laced up on the bottom with his typical black combat boots, shined through the scuffs that scarred them. A jacket was tipped over his shoulder, held even more in place as he had pinned it between the contact of him and her Firepspray's outer skin. Sabers had been left with his draconic bone armor, refitted and ready with sabers that had finally been redone by him. Raven, the voice that responded back to his earpiece hidden under his ebony mane, would be bringing it to them once they were ready to infiltrate Yavin 8, which ironically was the very same Yavin he had brought her her gift from, and quite possibly where she had hidden that very same gift, at. He hadn't seen the massive black bird, and hoped she had some semblance of connection with the bird still, should it still be there. "I don't have any records of a new contract being ordered for the division to be built. Must be independent," Raven had researched the matter in seconds and relieved her findings. He offered them both the head-nod as opposed to the snarl he wanted to indulge somewhere deep within. "She better be careful who she cozies up to," he murmured in the mic before addressing the pair who just made it to him. "Today's your special day," he sought that familiar set of sparkly hazels with his single gold. "He's on the move right now, but Raven is tracking him back to a base he made years ago. That's IF he's actually heading there."

Slade regarded her, already trying to pry into whatever cracks still laced her mind, to find something to know more about with her, but stopped himself short. "Ships been refueled, and your last engine was changed out since a majority of the fuel injectors had burned up in the last 2 jumps you did." He uncrossed his arms, and shoved hands into pockets, much more at ease now that there was a reason for him to be in her face. "He's got-" a fractioned second caught air until her monotone voice clipped in his ear. "3." "3 individual bases on this moon. Surely they're all armed." His point had been made. He was going with them.

[Kressara Thryn]

"I packed a few compressed meals for la...ter..." Lorcan's voice slowed to a stop when the pair emerged onto the tarmac to find Slade propped against their ship. The punk's positive mood was shot from the sky, dropped, then crashed and burned against the landing pad. His brows went flat and eyelids drooped with oh so much 'delight'. "Wonderful. Your ex-boyfriend is leaning against the hull."

Kressara cut him a warning glance which went thoroughly ignored, so she rolled her eyes in defeat. Lorcan was headstrong. Telling him not to do something only made him want to do it more, so rather than press him to be nice she opted to keep her nose out of it.

"Let's see what he wants before we scowl at him, Lorcan...and I doubt he'd like to be referred to as my ex-boyfriend."

So they approached him, waiting for the sith lord to state his business when Slade proved to know something about their mission. Quite a good bit of something actually. Word travels fast down the wrathful grapevine of the sith. He must have heard it second hand and taken it upon himself to gather intel. Useful...but why? What was in it for Slade? His blonde enigma took naturally quiet steps until she stood looking up at him under the shadow of their transport. Already he was delving for bits and pieces, she could see it in his eye, but honestly the girl simply lacked her usual upbeat energy to play that game. Instead she was eerily mellow. Calm, but promising a storm. Maybe not though. It was hard to tell with that one sometimes.

"You won't take no for an answer, so I hope you packed enough for yourself. It's going to be a decent amount of time before we come back here again."

Lorcan was not so ready to throw in the towel and allow that guy to just waltz in with his fancy intel on a mission that was supposed to be just the two of them. He especially didn't like him helping with Kressara's ship...even if he didn't know an intake from an outtake. Sun caught his stunning blue crystal earring and cast refractory blots into Slade's good eye as the walking tower passed between his boss and his boss's superior.

"I'll be priming the engines. We'll be ready to take off in a few minutes...he can sit in the back seat of the cockpit or something."

With that he disappeared up the loading ramp and dropped the crate of munitions into the Skipray's cargo hold, then stormed off to the pilot's chair where he'd wait impatiently for both Kress and Slade to board. The petite blonde cracked a small smile and murmured between herself and the ravenette, "I don't think he's happy to have the company…come on. Better board before my associate takes off without us just to prove a point."

Briefly her eyes searched his, for what one would never guess, then lazily strolled up the ramp towards the cockpit.

[Slade Xandir]

The Dragon King allowed Lorcan one single glace, a simple acknowledgement that he had heard him. Now whether he was actually going to oblige the offered spaces or whether he'd ride on top of the ship's roof just to spite him telling him where he could and could not go, well... The Sithian was going, and that's all that mattered to him. Damn Lorcan's feelings. But atleast he was somewhat cordial in this meeting and not a sarcastic little snot. He was just salty. So was he more Karkaradon than Issori since the specie was more saltwater oriented-

Mnami's voice broke through the next tangent of his thoughts as she forced him to realize he was staring too long at the aquatic humanoid. He thought he had only offered a mere glance, when in all reality he had been intensely staring at the man. Luckily his angst had turned him from the situation, and pacified him with distance. Blinking sounfly, Slade took a breath and looked back to her, those hazels only a fraction brighter with the waterboy gone. A fraction more...relatable. She clearly had to be in a different mindset when she was between the two of them, and even moreso when she was just him. She was frosting, didn't she know? She didn't need another man to make her life sweet. How long would she play these games? Until her heart bled?

He said nothing, instead following a step behind her, idly wondering if he had introduced her to Raven, or if she had already become acquainted with the Phantom. Upon walking both onto and into the ship, he folded the leather jacket over his arm as he made his way to the cockpit. Maybe he would sit in here. Nice and warm. Hm. Seating himself in one of the far left seats behind the co-pilot position, he crossed a pair of safety belts over himself and kickstand'd a right leg over a left knee, and waited for the pair to get situated.

[Kressara Thryn]

Both Sith entered the ship and made themselves at home, Slade in the seat behind Kressara, and the oddly stoic blonde at his side in the co-pilot's chair. Shark and Crow began working in unison like a practiced team to get everything on the ship primed and ready for take off, showing a small peek into the level of cooperation the mismatched pair was capable of. Lorcan was for the most part, ignoring Slade's presence like one might ignore a chest pain for fear of addressing a potential heart attack. Their lady companion was more inclusive to her former master's presence and swiveled in her seat and asked a string of questions relating to their task ahead.

"So...first things first. I am certain you discovered our mission through common methods. We weren't hiding it, but we weren't inviting others along either. What I'm curious to know is how did you discover our target? That information wasn't shared with anyone...because even we didn't have that intel. All I know is that the sith we're hunting is independent from current and past leadership, and he's a Devaronian. How did you go about pinpointing a potential culprit and his whereabouts?"

Now the cobalt pilot was invested. How did Slade find out that information? Was it even credible? Was the dreadful man fooling them for his own amusement? Gain? Lorcan obviously didn't trust him, which he boasted with the pointed question, "And what do you get out of this? You're a sith lord. Don't you guys have some kind of resolution to be as unhelpful as possible unless you have something to gain? An immoral code if you will. Thou shalt not lend a sorry bloke a hand. Thou must always tell lies? Ooh...if thy neighbor's eye offends thee, pluck it out?"

He cut a sideways smirk at the half blind dragon master.

"I'm sure Slade has only the noblest of convictions for this venture, Lorcan. I appreciate your cautious nature though. You keep me out of so much trouble!" Kressara tried to hint that Lorcan should stop dogging on their unexpected travelling companion, but in a way that made him feel important and appreciated.

"But yes, actually. Why are you helping? Also...what moon are we setting a course for?"

Lorcan shot her an odd, wounded sort of look. "I thought we were starting off our investigation at your childhood home?"

Kressara sighed. "We were starting off there...but this eliminates the need. Assuming Slade's informant knows what they're talking about. Raven, was it? You have to admit. They've been doing this sort of thing far longer than we have and-"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

A warning alarm and light flashed on the dashboard and drew out a lengthy groan from the blonde. It was the loading ramp AGAIN. The blasted thing kept refusing to seal properly the first time.

"Better fix that before we break out of the atmosphere. I'll be back." Kressara excused herself and exited the cockpit, leaving her quarreling comrades alone for the first time ever. What could go wrong?

Lorcan kept his eyes forward and started programming their destination into the command, not bothering to look at Slade before asking, "What's the coordinates?"

[Slade Xandir]

Slade considered taking a nap, his desire to remove himself from the pair as watching them work together to merely get a ship in the air was revolting to something that moved to glare heatedly from that pearlesque moon in his left eye socket. If he knew the secret art of Deadly Sight, we could be done with this, right here and right now-

Her voice pulled him from the sludge. Or did it drag him further below the viscous surface? Either way, his mind snapped back to the questions as something else threatened to pull him away from it all, to seclude him in a broom closet or something until they were just both asleep or something. But oh wait, they wouldn't be- BECAUSE THEY WERE FRAKKING WORKING TOGETHER AS A FRAKKING TEAM AND-

"You told me." He took a moment to admit it to her after her kicked water dog finished glub glubbing off and she too had gone silent, waiting for the answer from him. He offered no more than that. She wouldn't recall physically telling him, as she hadn't. Many of nights they had not slept together, but the few that they had, there were times she was plagued with a certain painful loss he still didn't know the origins of. He knew through the bonds they had shared, it would occasionally leak through in her thoughts, but it seemed she was only able to receive a proper night of sleep after her lavender and chamomile bath, or after some passionate and partially violent sex. Either or were the only things that shut the vengeful thoughts of Mnami down into ash. Well, until the next day, or the next time he had caught her training, she had been preparing for something. And his keen eye did not release her from that. He remembered it. And after doing some research, or well after he assigned Raven to do some research, there was nothing more than a singular name that popped on that screen above the deceased Thrynns in his casualty list. Unkempt lords with no manners always boasted their kills, no matter how refined they claimed to be. He had done the same thing. So had Tormentous. They had no filter, and this included the one Kressara wanted to cull.

"Devaronian?" he asked in the earpiece. No a second later, her monotone voice clipped back. "Confirmed.". He nodded just as Kressara had gotten up to be handy birdy, and he rubbed a pair of hands over his face, washing the skin in warmth and mild comfort of a fresh restart to this long ass mission he was about to be stuck in travel for. He was going to be stuck with questions, glares and snarky remarks. He wished sometimes he was the Professor, able to grow headphones on his ears or something.

"P-6", his baritone allowed the aqua rebel the pleasure of steering them to. "Yavin 8."

[Kressara Thryn]

Kressara's glub glubbing fish dog, or whatever else it was Slade was imagining him as, punched in the coordinates and brooded to himself for some manner of time until the silence between them plucked at the nerves dryly aching on the back of his neck. What a pain in his rear...Why? Why did he have to invite himself on this mission? Couldn't he take a hint? Through. That's what he and Kressara were. He screwed up. Not when he lost to Tormentous and became the man's subordinate once again, but when he first laid eyes on that lost little girl in a terminal far from home. He picked her out of a crowd and preyed on her. She might have come to love him, but it didn't make it right. If someone had done that to his daughter…

"You don't look prepared enough. Sure you don't want to go get changed into something else?" He mused in a flat tone and side eyed the sith lord. The gilled cyan punk had no fear.

PANG!!!

"FRACKING AYE!" Kressara shouted in the distance as something presumably went wrong with the busted door. Lorcan looked over his shoulder with concern before shrugging it off. She had it. Maybe.

"While we have a moment...I don't like you. I don't like you being here. I think you're a villainous scumbag and you probably feed off of the misery of babies and small animals. You smell like cologne and carnage, and you look like you're perpetually up to no good. If you were bitten by a deadly snake and I possessed a single dosage of an antidote that would kill me if I took it rather than give it to you, I'd take it. If you were waiting at a station, I'd push you in front of a shuttle. If you had toilet paper on the bottom of you heel…"

CLANK!

"I'M OKAY!" But was she? There seemed to be a lot of struggle happening in the backend of the ship. Lorcan sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You got this!" He yelled back, then turned his eyes forward again.

"Point being, don't get comfortable."

[Kressara Thryn]

(((OOC: I don't know how editing the post made a duplicate that I can't erase, but this is the fixed post.)))

Kressara's glub glubbing fish dog, or whatever else it was Slade was imagining him as, punched in the coordinates and brooded to himself for some manner of time until the silence between them plucked at the nerves dryly aching on the back of his neck. What a pain in his rear...Why? Why did he have to invite himself on this mission? Couldn't he take a hint? Through. That's what he and Kressara were. He screwed up. Not when he lost to Tormentous and became the man's subordinate once again, but when he first laid eyes on that lost little girl in a terminal far from home. He picked her out of a crowd and preyed on her. She might have come to love him, but it didn't make it right. If someone had done that to his daughter…

"You don't look prepared enough. Sure you don't want to go get changed into something else?" He mused in a flat tone and side eyed the sith lord. The gilled cyan punk had no fear.

PANG!!!

"FRACKING AYE!" Kressara shouted in the distance as something presumably went wrong with the busted door. Lorcan looked over his shoulder with concern before shrugging it off. She had it. Maybe.

"While we have a moment...I don't like you. I don't like you being here. I think you're a villainous scumbag and you probably feed off of the misery of babies and small animals. You smell like cologne and carnage, and you look like you're perpetually up to no good. If you were bitten by a deadly snake and I possessed a single dosage of an antidote that would kill me if I took it rather than give it to you, I'd take it. If you were waiting at a station, I'd push you in front of a shuttle. If you had toilet paper on the bottom of you heel…"

CLANK!

"I'M OKAY!" But was she? There seemed to be a lot of struggle happening in the backend of the ship. Lorcan sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You got this!" He yelled back, then turned his eyes forward again.

"Point being, don't get comfortable."

[Slade Xandir]

"While we have a moment-" Slade pulled his fingers apart, peering at the pale boymanthing with a halfhearted stare. Oh boy, here it comes. "I don't like you." And there it went. If he had a care, he would have chuckled at the most obvious factor of the tensity within their garbled relationship. The Hunter took that same pair of hands, and ran them through the roots of his hair, onyx tendrils leaking their void in an oil spill through fingers, over hands, down shoulders in a dripping wall of night down toned shoulders in his fitted tee. An inhale only broke between them once the familiar feminine voice charged a heavy curse, just in conjoining with aquaboy's, as though they were on the same trail as regard to Krow. But then he resumed his blab and the Xandir resumed listening. Only when the pretty hater finished did Slade crack him a nice smile, something 'genuine', but tired.

"Well that's unfortunate, because I like you. I think you have an interesting connection with her pain, and you're able to alleviate it through a personal connection that she and I didn't share too well. With my divulgence of power and greed, she was swallowed up in her own personal trifles, and her not sharing them with me made me care less. I wined and dined her, draped her in the best of the best, cared for her, but not about her. You two share a connection that has helped nurture her nurturing side, and thus she relates with you on a personal level, whereas ours was a bit more...formal." His smile softened, the baritones brittling into something that didn't match the kind face he offered the rebel. "I had tried to kill myself once. Tossed myself from a mountain top, trying to off myself as the head of this fanatical faction. Pretty bird saved me. So blame her for not letting me go." He leaned back, resting tanned arms over a chest with a cruel heart thumping underneath it. "Don't worry about little ole' me taking her from you and whatever silly notion of love you possess for her. You're free to feel as you wish, something Sith hold over life and death itself. I'm even glad you don't like me." His crown canted slightly to the left as the smile never left. He submerged his golden in the flared cyan of the ice water veined cyberpunk, admiring the brew of brine that washed him over in a tide of absolute hatred. He relished it, as it collided with his aura. "Because it will make it all the sweeter," he stood and collected a nice stretch before turning to leave for that broom closet he so desired refuge in. Or maybe he should pay his little Krow a visit? See if she needed some strong manly hands to help her do some mechanic work. "...when she comes flying back to my whistle."

Before he left the controls room, he spoke audibly for sharkboy to hear into his earpiece, "Raven, hand me the dewberry slush I left on the right analog table, please." A minute later, a slight breeze addressed the room, only to pick up a pinch as a tear through physics itself cracked beside Slade. It swirled around the edges, as though the perimeter of the hole was barbed wire and threatened to remove flesh with ease should it touch. Existence as a whole warped in a sick blur around it, distorted as the Phantom floated a third-of-the-way blue fruit slush through said portal, still dripping condensation as it was made only a little while ago. Grabbing the floating beverage glass, he "Thank you'd the helpful hybrid woman, who promptly shut the portal to his Infiltrator. Taking a sip, Slade turned a casual flip of his hair, addressing the foremost question that took precedence over their silly rivalry. Would he be properly equipped for this mission? Ha. "I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern, Lorcan. Very considerate." before he began to walk free of the passionate man's fury. He was already comfortable- why not be?

Instead of taking the nap he needed after being up for 3 days with brief rests throughout, he ended up going to see if Krow needed help. Atleast he could be somewhat more genuine to her, without the veiled threats. Could he? " I didn't want to snoop everything about your ship. I'm not the kind of guy to leave over 100 trackers aboard it, so I couldn't run a full diagnostic." It was sort of an apology, as he rounded the bend of the ramp, hoping he wouldn't seem like a pry on her work. "Sip?" he offered the fruity dewberry slush, a refreshing and cold drink for someone who had gotten so worked up. "Would have made your strawberry one, but didn't have much time to get the fruit puree-" he was rambling again. So he sipped the drink, and swallowed, showing it wasn't poisoned, should she want to have some too. Effectively, he shut himself up.