Cascade – Some By Virtue Fall
by Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Karen Villiers
Post Details
::ON::
Yolanthe headed towards Tyler SHort's small ship, alteranting between the eggyolk yellow of impotent rage, and the slate grey of despair. She had what latinum she could spare in her pockets, and hoped the downpayment would be enough to buy her some time.
Time to what? she asked herself. What, realistically, could she do. SHe could run, but she was at the edge of the Alpha quadrant. There was only the hostile empires of the Beta QUadrant, or the unknown frontier of the gamma. Her homeworld may have been isolated, her culture alien, but at least she knew the basics. Beyond DS5 there was real hardship. Get your act together, woman, she scolded herself. You've gone soft She reached the docking bay that Short was using and quitly approached his small runabout, hoping to put the meeting off as long as possible.
"So what's it gonna be, love?" Short's voice, at once soft, husky and lustful with a menace beneath it emerged from the open hatchway. "That husband of yours, what is he again?"
A woman's voice, tense, hesitant but with a duranium edge followed. "A Vedek," she stated.
"Aye, one with high hopes of being the next Kai. Isn't he one of the conservatives, traditional values and all?"
When the woman did not respond he continued.
"Made a big song and dance about the evils of gambling a few months back, didn't he? I wonder what he'd think if his darlin' wife had racked up debts that could bankrupt half of Bolius ..."
The Bokkai hesitated. Short was with someone, and the sleazy ape was trying to blackmail another woman. GAmbling Debts. Maybe he wasn't as far out of the Bookie game as he claimed. She stayed where she was, unwilling to interrupt. If there was someone else, perhaps she could have an ally. It wouldn't just be her word against his, maybe she could go Trellis afterall. The small relief the thought provided was enough to fade the yellow on her colouring and turn it pale blue.
Bennya Celes had been a wealthy woman in her own right, benefiting as she had from the fortune her father had acquired during the occupation. It had been fine for the beautiful Bennya Celes to prop up gaming tables and place high stakes but for the wife of a man of status the same behaviour would never be appropriate.
Seemingly overnight Celes had become a reformed character, and in a few short weeks she became Alenis Celes, the stunning new wife of Vedek Alenis. With that single contrived step Celes had moved forward, no longer was she only wealthy, she was also powerful.
But in three years little had changed, her huband’s influence had grown, as had her habit. She had gambled her own fortune and lost and in attempting to win it back she had stooped to selling influence whilst skimming from the coffers of the monastery she ostensibly supported.
Each step had brought her closer to this time, this place – the tipping point. Celes could not be exposed and Short was not open to negotiation. She also could not pay.
“Tyler,” she said stepping closer to the man, the heavy ornate earring glittering in the light that emanated from the panels of the cockpit, “We can find some … arrangement,” she continued as she tilted her head to one side and ran her fingertips slowly over his trousers. “Alenis doesn’t need to know.”
Outside the small vessel Yolanthe frowned. The woman was obviously trying to seduce Short to keep her secret. Would she want interrupting? was she the sort of woman who would be shamed by her intervention, or would she be furious that the bokkai had stopped her from paying her own debt. She hesitated, torn. Worse, Short may expect the same from her when she told him she had come up with less than he desired. just the thought of it made her want to scrub herself down with disinfectant.
"Such an opportunist,," Tyler said, a slight catch in his tone at the back of his throat. Why not? he thought, wouldn't make any difference to things though. If Celes thought he could be bought off with a fuck then she was less a prize, more a penalty. He caught the gilt tipped fingers she traced across his cheek in his hand in case one of those nails was hard and false, just waiting to make a stab or a slash at his throat. As her gaze fell, Tyler knew he was right, an amateur chancer, one that he was going to have then expose.
But Celes was mroe skilled than he gave her credit for - it was such an obvious threat, one that distracted from the real weapon, from the poison. She gasped as he grasped her chin between his fingers and jerked her face up, but even she couldn't prevent her lips from twisting into a vicorious smile as he forced his mouth onto hers, parting her lips with his tongue. Taking the poison himself.
Celes counted in her head, one ... two ... thr ...
Tyler's jaw slackened and he stumbled back staring at the Bajoran.
"It won't kill you," Celes said stepping back, "but it will paralyse you." She wiped her sleeve over her mouth, resisting the temptation to spit his taste over the floor, "you'll have lots of time to think when your ship is adrift, life-support failing and the cold fingers of space piercing their way into your flesh."
The listening bokkai froze. The woman was going to kill him. Kill a man. The natural instinct was revulsion, then fury. Ochres, then yellow, began to seep in her colours. Her hands flexed hard, ready to intervene.
And then a little voice in her soul said, "Wait." If she waited, this woman would solve both their problems. Tyler Short would be gone. She could just about here the man's laboured breathing as the paralysis took hold. Celes would send him off into the black, where he would suffocate, or freeze. A creeping death, but he would never tell Odan Vehr about the bokkai on DS5. He wouldn't be telling Odan Vehr or anyone else anything ever. Problem solved.
For a moment Yolanthe closed her eyes. It would be easy just to let Celes go through with it.
"Ah, Ter'raq!" THe bokkai pushed off the side of the ship and stepped into the open hatchway. "Let him go."
The Bajoran turned swiftly, her face as set and cruel as the poison just administered, "If you have any sense you will leave now," Celes said. The bartender from the Box of Delights ... unlike Short, she would be missed if Celes had to take decisive action. "If you're here, you either work for him, or owe him. Either way we're on the same side."
Maybe and maybe not, Yolanthe didn't know, but she wasn't going to stand by, she knew that much. "You want to walk away now," she replied coolly. She had the best part of a foot over the bajorran; her sheer size had settled many a bar fight before it started, she hoped Celes would take the hint, and back down.
"He's of no value to me alive, nor to you, I think," Celes tilted her head sending a cascade of auburn curls over one shoulder, the tinkle of her elaborate earring dulled as it came to rest against her neck, "unless you're one of his ... Is that it? You just can't let him go?"
Paralysed he might be, Tyler on the floor used what strength he could find to shift his head towards Yolanthe - she was that naive - all he needed was his helpless gaze to persuade her to remove Celes. His head barely moved a centimetre but it would be enough - would it? He couldn't move his lips to appeal so used his eyes hoping that she would see the promise of forgiveness there.
Yolanthe flicked a glance at Short and his pitiful expression. "I have my reasons." she looked Celes in the eye, "You wouldn't understand." I don't understand. "But you can't kill him. So, last chance. Walk. Away."
Celes straightened, there was a way out of this mess and she had just identified it, "Oh, I understand alright. Keep him, for all the good it will do you," she said with a toss of her head. Backing down was not inher nature, but in Celes' eyes the bartender had not won anything except gaining herself another enemy, but the woman was obviously too stupid to realise that.
Yolanthe turned a ugly ditchwater colour as she realised what Celes meant. The idea made her flesh crawl, but only someone who knew what the shifting colours meant would know it. She stepped back just enough for Celes to pass. "Start walking."
Celes merely let an unpleasant smirk spread across her face as she passed the bartender, "You'll both end up in the same place," she called back as she left hte ship, there was more than one way to deal with inconvenient debts.
The comment turned the bokkai a sharp lime green. and she ignored the comment, watching until the Bajorran was out of the shuttlebay.
Then she looked down on Tyler Short. She wished for a moment he was a woman, then she could cheerfully give him a second smile without a second thought. b Then she sighed and returned to the matter at hand. "I can't leave you here, that woman might come back. She squatted next to him, examined him with a practical eye, and then hauled him into an over-shoulder hoist. "I'm going to dump you in sick bay, let them take care of you. After that, its up to you." She straighted up, and shrugged her shoulders a few times to settle her burden into place. Then Yolanthe turned and headed for the nearest turbo lift. "Just remember. I didn't have to intervene."
::OFF::
A JP Between
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner and Bartender, The Box of Delights
&
Bennya Celes, a Bajoran
&
Tyler Short, a ne'er do well
NPC's by Loise
by Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Karen Villiers
Post Details
| Title | Some By Virtue Fall | |
| Mission | Cascade | |
| Author(s) | Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Karen Villiers | |
| Posted | Mon Oct 01, 2012 @ 10:16pm | |
| Location | A Cargo Bay | |
| Timeline | SD69, 0400 |
Yolanthe headed towards Tyler SHort's small ship, alteranting between the eggyolk yellow of impotent rage, and the slate grey of despair. She had what latinum she could spare in her pockets, and hoped the downpayment would be enough to buy her some time.
Time to what? she asked herself. What, realistically, could she do. SHe could run, but she was at the edge of the Alpha quadrant. There was only the hostile empires of the Beta QUadrant, or the unknown frontier of the gamma. Her homeworld may have been isolated, her culture alien, but at least she knew the basics. Beyond DS5 there was real hardship. Get your act together, woman, she scolded herself. You've gone soft She reached the docking bay that Short was using and quitly approached his small runabout, hoping to put the meeting off as long as possible.
"So what's it gonna be, love?" Short's voice, at once soft, husky and lustful with a menace beneath it emerged from the open hatchway. "That husband of yours, what is he again?"
A woman's voice, tense, hesitant but with a duranium edge followed. "A Vedek," she stated.
"Aye, one with high hopes of being the next Kai. Isn't he one of the conservatives, traditional values and all?"
When the woman did not respond he continued.
"Made a big song and dance about the evils of gambling a few months back, didn't he? I wonder what he'd think if his darlin' wife had racked up debts that could bankrupt half of Bolius ..."
The Bokkai hesitated. Short was with someone, and the sleazy ape was trying to blackmail another woman. GAmbling Debts. Maybe he wasn't as far out of the Bookie game as he claimed. She stayed where she was, unwilling to interrupt. If there was someone else, perhaps she could have an ally. It wouldn't just be her word against his, maybe she could go Trellis afterall. The small relief the thought provided was enough to fade the yellow on her colouring and turn it pale blue.
Bennya Celes had been a wealthy woman in her own right, benefiting as she had from the fortune her father had acquired during the occupation. It had been fine for the beautiful Bennya Celes to prop up gaming tables and place high stakes but for the wife of a man of status the same behaviour would never be appropriate.
Seemingly overnight Celes had become a reformed character, and in a few short weeks she became Alenis Celes, the stunning new wife of Vedek Alenis. With that single contrived step Celes had moved forward, no longer was she only wealthy, she was also powerful.
But in three years little had changed, her huband’s influence had grown, as had her habit. She had gambled her own fortune and lost and in attempting to win it back she had stooped to selling influence whilst skimming from the coffers of the monastery she ostensibly supported.
Each step had brought her closer to this time, this place – the tipping point. Celes could not be exposed and Short was not open to negotiation. She also could not pay.
“Tyler,” she said stepping closer to the man, the heavy ornate earring glittering in the light that emanated from the panels of the cockpit, “We can find some … arrangement,” she continued as she tilted her head to one side and ran her fingertips slowly over his trousers. “Alenis doesn’t need to know.”
Outside the small vessel Yolanthe frowned. The woman was obviously trying to seduce Short to keep her secret. Would she want interrupting? was she the sort of woman who would be shamed by her intervention, or would she be furious that the bokkai had stopped her from paying her own debt. She hesitated, torn. Worse, Short may expect the same from her when she told him she had come up with less than he desired. just the thought of it made her want to scrub herself down with disinfectant.
"Such an opportunist,," Tyler said, a slight catch in his tone at the back of his throat. Why not? he thought, wouldn't make any difference to things though. If Celes thought he could be bought off with a fuck then she was less a prize, more a penalty. He caught the gilt tipped fingers she traced across his cheek in his hand in case one of those nails was hard and false, just waiting to make a stab or a slash at his throat. As her gaze fell, Tyler knew he was right, an amateur chancer, one that he was going to have then expose.
But Celes was mroe skilled than he gave her credit for - it was such an obvious threat, one that distracted from the real weapon, from the poison. She gasped as he grasped her chin between his fingers and jerked her face up, but even she couldn't prevent her lips from twisting into a vicorious smile as he forced his mouth onto hers, parting her lips with his tongue. Taking the poison himself.
Celes counted in her head, one ... two ... thr ...
Tyler's jaw slackened and he stumbled back staring at the Bajoran.
"It won't kill you," Celes said stepping back, "but it will paralyse you." She wiped her sleeve over her mouth, resisting the temptation to spit his taste over the floor, "you'll have lots of time to think when your ship is adrift, life-support failing and the cold fingers of space piercing their way into your flesh."
The listening bokkai froze. The woman was going to kill him. Kill a man. The natural instinct was revulsion, then fury. Ochres, then yellow, began to seep in her colours. Her hands flexed hard, ready to intervene.
And then a little voice in her soul said, "Wait." If she waited, this woman would solve both their problems. Tyler Short would be gone. She could just about here the man's laboured breathing as the paralysis took hold. Celes would send him off into the black, where he would suffocate, or freeze. A creeping death, but he would never tell Odan Vehr about the bokkai on DS5. He wouldn't be telling Odan Vehr or anyone else anything ever. Problem solved.
For a moment Yolanthe closed her eyes. It would be easy just to let Celes go through with it.
"Ah, Ter'raq!" THe bokkai pushed off the side of the ship and stepped into the open hatchway. "Let him go."
The Bajoran turned swiftly, her face as set and cruel as the poison just administered, "If you have any sense you will leave now," Celes said. The bartender from the Box of Delights ... unlike Short, she would be missed if Celes had to take decisive action. "If you're here, you either work for him, or owe him. Either way we're on the same side."
Maybe and maybe not, Yolanthe didn't know, but she wasn't going to stand by, she knew that much. "You want to walk away now," she replied coolly. She had the best part of a foot over the bajorran; her sheer size had settled many a bar fight before it started, she hoped Celes would take the hint, and back down.
"He's of no value to me alive, nor to you, I think," Celes tilted her head sending a cascade of auburn curls over one shoulder, the tinkle of her elaborate earring dulled as it came to rest against her neck, "unless you're one of his ... Is that it? You just can't let him go?"
Paralysed he might be, Tyler on the floor used what strength he could find to shift his head towards Yolanthe - she was that naive - all he needed was his helpless gaze to persuade her to remove Celes. His head barely moved a centimetre but it would be enough - would it? He couldn't move his lips to appeal so used his eyes hoping that she would see the promise of forgiveness there.
Yolanthe flicked a glance at Short and his pitiful expression. "I have my reasons." she looked Celes in the eye, "You wouldn't understand." I don't understand. "But you can't kill him. So, last chance. Walk. Away."
Celes straightened, there was a way out of this mess and she had just identified it, "Oh, I understand alright. Keep him, for all the good it will do you," she said with a toss of her head. Backing down was not inher nature, but in Celes' eyes the bartender had not won anything except gaining herself another enemy, but the woman was obviously too stupid to realise that.
Yolanthe turned a ugly ditchwater colour as she realised what Celes meant. The idea made her flesh crawl, but only someone who knew what the shifting colours meant would know it. She stepped back just enough for Celes to pass. "Start walking."
Celes merely let an unpleasant smirk spread across her face as she passed the bartender, "You'll both end up in the same place," she called back as she left hte ship, there was more than one way to deal with inconvenient debts.
The comment turned the bokkai a sharp lime green. and she ignored the comment, watching until the Bajorran was out of the shuttlebay.
Then she looked down on Tyler Short. She wished for a moment he was a woman, then she could cheerfully give him a second smile without a second thought. b Then she sighed and returned to the matter at hand. "I can't leave you here, that woman might come back. She squatted next to him, examined him with a practical eye, and then hauled him into an over-shoulder hoist. "I'm going to dump you in sick bay, let them take care of you. After that, its up to you." She straighted up, and shrugged her shoulders a few times to settle her burden into place. Then Yolanthe turned and headed for the nearest turbo lift. "Just remember. I didn't have to intervene."
::OFF::
A JP Between
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner and Bartender, The Box of Delights
&
Bennya Celes, a Bajoran
&
Tyler Short, a ne'er do well
NPC's by Loise