{{ urbania's void - chapter 16
...mental burn (day twenty-one / +21)
The ladies man in Tessick took over as he slid into the Exa Sendra beside Khee and Kaidin.
"Hey there... Hiya... Ooooo hey... Look at you!"
Kaidin shoved him playfully and cackled as he weaved through the crowd to the front of the club, dragging Khee behind him. Khee's eyes were wide as he glanced around the multi-tiered room. There were platforms and floors elevated to many different levels in the tall space and the ceiling couldn't even be seen. It vanished into the darkness at the top of the building, giving it the illusion of being space, with little pinpricks of white faintly showing, like stars. Small platforms and big ones alike, lining the wall upwards towards the ceiling, held many different species, dancing and drinking and laughing.
The bottom floor they had entered on was also filled to the brim with people and beings, mostly dancing. Kaidin locked his right arm in Khee's left and began to tug him across the floor, through couples dancing, under swinging arms and around a pair of twi'lek who were admiring Tessick, who brought up the rear of the train.
"Hey ladies."
He walked by as they giggled, only to stop at a spot in the middle of the dance floor where Kaidin had already begun to groove to the music. The buckles on his boots and his shirt clattered in beat as he thrashed wildly in circles around Tessick and Khee. Tessick bobbed his head and crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Kaidin's 'dancing' --- "You haven't even begun to drink!"
Kaidin just laughed.
"I thought we were supposed to be looking for stuff. Ya know, something, someone... anything." Khee spoke over the music, his eyes still scanning the crowd and the surroundings.
"Alright Kheeeeeeee..." Kaidin let his eyes wander around the interior as he threw his arms around Khee's neck from behind, swaying them both back and forth to the music. "Ooo! I found something!"
Khee waited for a response.
Kaidin threw his finger up in front of Khee's face and then moved it, to point to a couple dancing a few floors up. A humanoid and a twi'lek performing some suggestive dance move. "You see them?"
Khee nodded.
"That dance is called the Grinder. It originated on Ryloth."
"It looks painful. Remind me never to go to Ryloth." Khee responded by pulling out of Kaidin's grasp and spun around towards the dark corners of the club, aiming to head towards one of the tables. As he stepped up to a booth that sat a few feet away from the spot they stood in, a slinky twi'lek intercepted his path, arching her back slightly as she leaned against the table.
"Can I help you?" Khee sputtered.
Feeling hands on his left arm, Khee was unceremoniously shoved to the side, stumbling towards the ground. Tessick caught him and helped him up and they both looked to Kaidin, who was now hovering over the pale green twi'lek. "He can't help you. But I'm sure I can!" Placing his hands on his hips, Kaidin beamed proudly, while Tessick and Khee scowled.
"Oh really?" The twi'lek was a natural at this kind of thing. She pulled herself back onto the table and used her feet to lock around Kaidin's legs, tugging him closer.
"Yes reeeeeeeally now... how can I help?"
She ran her fingers down his chest, over the buckles on his deep green shirt. They ran all the way down to his stomach; to his waist... they stopped on the top hem of his pants. Her eyes brightened. "I'm sure there's a little something you can give me."
A low cackle sounded from Kaidin as he leaned forward, resting his hands on the table. He set them palms down on the surface, his hands on either side of where she sat. He brought his lips up to her ear and whispered. "I'm sure there's a big something I can give you."
They both giggled and in a heartbeat, she had slid off of the table and grabbed Kaidin's shirt. Her lekku trailed behind her, as well as pieces of her skimpy outfit, as the two stalked through the sea of people to the private rooms.
Tessick glared after them, smirking, "Lucky sith---"
Khee cut him off by hitting him in the arm and hissing quietly, "Zekk!"
Tessick crossed his arms, glancing back to Khee, "I know. I know. I was just keeping with my character."
"Mmmhmm." Khee responded with a tone of disbelief as his eyes began to wander around the club. "What are we going to do about him?"
"He said he worked with the Mindmap."
"Yeah, but Jacen would never even dream of running off with that twi'lek, right?"
"Kaidin would." Tessick sighed, resting back against the tabletop. He shook his head. "Maybe he has a plan."
In their minds, both of them knew that was false, but they stood silently with the music blaring in their ears, trying to pretend otherwise. They were broken out of their reveries when they heard a loud wookiee rumble and glancing ahead; they spotted a chubby wookiee, furry paws on his hips and a sneer on his face.
Narrowing his eyes, Tessick straightened himself and cracked his neck, "Yes?"
The wookiee lashed out and wrapped long fingers around Tessick's high collar, throwing him backwards into the booth seat.
Barfights weren't uncommon at all on the lower levels of the Urbania. Upwards, you got kicked out for them, especially in places like the Epsil and the Vina Lidrina... but down here, it didn't matter. They were just a staple of the lower level life.
The wookiee growled something in a low guttural jumble as he towered over Tessick, who was lying sprawled out on his back in the booth seat. The lanky man grabbed the edge of the table with his right hand and pulled himself up a bit, letting his eyes wander to Khee, who was standing feet behind the wookiee with a casually concerned expression plastered on his face.
"He says 'our friend with the bad dancing skills' took his woman."
Khee stepped over to the table and hunched over, resting his hands down on the smooth surface as he turned his head upwards to look at the tall wookiee. "Well she seemed to be sharing herself with more bodies here than you, buddy."
Tessick nodded to the wookiee with a smirk on his face, "Fact."
Zekk caught himself after he used his friend's expression. As many times as he put on that Mindmap, he could see it wearing thin. The first time it's like living as someone else, when it's the fortieth or two-hundredth time putting it on it's the same... like living someone else's life.
But the host body is more used to it.
Which is how Zekk caught himself using Tenel Ka's expression that he had heard so many times in his life. He felt relieved that he didn't slip up with something serious, just a little expression that the wookiee obviously wouldn't know---
With an inquisitive grumble, the wookiee slid into the booth with Tessick, cornering him by the wall.
"Man, what are you doing? Just because your girl is getting around doesn't mean you should too."
The wookiee gnashed his teeth and playfully wrapped his fingers around Tessick's neck, shaking his head back and forth. Khee and Tessick realized it at the same time...
"Lowie?!" Tessick hissed. "How'd you know it was us?!"
Lowbacca, under his Mindmap, grumbled a response and Tessick repeated it in basic, even though he knew Khee understood shyriiwook. "Because I said fact and..." Tessick's eyes trailed down to his own chest. It was covered in a mesh shirt and showing through, right under his collarbone, was a faint scar that Lowie had given Zekk accidentally one day, while sparring.
Laughing, Tessick threw his arms around the wookiee's neck, Khee smiling slyly behind them. He was just happy that it wasn't a random hostile wookiee. Jamming a furry finger towards Khee, the wookiee rumbled something.
"Gadell." Tessick hissed.
With his eyes widening, the wookiee turned to Khee, his teeth showing in a huge smile. And standing up, he wrapped Khee up in a big hug, lifting him up off of the ground. Khee chuckled and caught his balance after being set back on the ground.
A rumble as the wookiee pointed to himself.
"Chuzz?" Tessick grinned. "That's your name?"
A twi'lek approached the table, as the men rejoiced, her lekku resting around her shoulders. She gave the two humans a questionable look then glanced at the wookiee.
"Chuzz, have you seen Solana? My sister is never missing this long." Her voice crept out of her mouth in a slow drawl. She didn't mean it to sound seductive, but with Carithma Xel, everything sounded seductive.
Lowie grumbled and growled an answer... and stopped mid-sentence, realizing something.
The room was lit by soft lanterns, hanging from the tops of the curtains that surrounded the small, circular space. The music pulsed loudly through the walls, but the inhabitants of the room paid it no mind.
"So, Solana..." Kaidin's words came out in whispers as he watched the twi'lek who sat on his lap. Small talk was trying to push its way through his lips but Kaidin's memories and thoughts told his lips to do other things. Solana had wrapped her long legs around the back of the chair and currently had her elbows resting on his shoulders with her fingers running through his smooth black hair.
As she tossed her lekku behind her shoulders, she leaned forward her lips inviting Kaidin's to join them in an immoral kiss. And as their lips were millimeters apart, Solana ran her fingers down to his cheeks, the middle finger of her left hand brushing and slightly pushing the hotspot for the Mindmap.
And Jacen Solo was revealed.
Hissing, Solana scampered off of him and brought her hand up to her own nose.
Jacen's brown eyes scrambled around the curtained space as he wondered what was going on and how exactly he got to one of the back rooms. They landed on the twi'lek who was fumbling with her nose. She was Mindmapped too.
As the device fell into her hand, her skin changed to a creamy tone, her eyes a rich brown. She pulled the lekku headpiece off.
"Jaina?!"
"I feel like I'm gonna vomit."
"Oh kriff..." Jacen collapsed back into the chair he was seated in, one hand clenched around his own Mindmap, the other slowly running down his face. “You’ve got to be kidding…”
Silence passed between the siblings as they ran through what had just happened. The dead air was disturbed as Khee, Tessick, Chuzz and Carithma tore the curtains aside---
"Solana, don't---!" Carithma paused, holding a hand over her mouth.
“You’re a bit late for that!” Jacen stated, dropping his hands beside him and slouching in his chair.
The Solo twins looked to each other. Jaina let a dry chuckle escape her system. "Anakin would be laughing at us if he was here right now."
"He would." Jacen nodded.
Motioning the others into the curtains, he let them close and then Tessick took off his Mindmap, the others following suit.
Zekk grinned. "You’re damn right he would. I'll do it for him." And over the loud music, Zekk cackled as loud and long as he possibly could, pointing to the twins.
Gadell Vessau crossed his arms over his chest as he also laughed a tad, while Alema Rar practically hurt herself laughing with Zekk. Lowbacca just smiled, a big toothy grin reaching ear to ear. Jaina had begun laughing by now and finally Jacen beamed a bit.
It was the first time his lips had upturned in weeks.
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