[D5EA] You Kids Really Dig the Library

[The Inquisitor]

The bookcases topple into each other spilling books but by the third it nearly falls and then stands up right followed by the second and then the first. The books remain on the floor, but the Inquisitor seems unmoved as he said. “Do you know this man, Oraka Hin? Jenna Karath.”

“Please don’t lie, it tends to irk me.”

OOC: Spend Destiny to use all pips. Verse can use the distraction to run since everyone is kind of in awe at the slow motion near disaster.

Move Bookcases: 3eF 3 Light Side, 1 Dark Side

[Verse Aura]

The inquisitor was duuuumb! He totally didn't even notice there was a Jedi right there!

Nor would he, because she was totally taking advantage of the Force display by getting the hell out of the library.

[Jenna Karath]

The bookcases topple into each other spilling books but by the third it nearly falls and then stands up right followed by the second and then the first. The books remain on the floor, but the Inquisitor seems unmoved as he said. “Do you know this man, Oraka Hin? Jenna Karath.”

“Please don’t lie, it tends to irk me.”

"I.." she breathed out once more, decided to take the seat to regain some of that control. Noticing the bookshelves as she turned to sit she could only smirk at the silliness of it, but ultimately refocused herself on her goal, getting out of this with a green check. Wasn't another thing for her to worry about now, she reckoned.

"Do not, actually. So you're hunting him then?" she asked, didn't look for an answer though, "I've seen the posters but nothing more," she said, honestly too. Was why she kept things need to know with her brother on the criminal aspect of her life, maybe he knew and did the same, but she didn't, and so she could say that with confidence.

[The Inquisitor]

"And this girl?" he added as the holo-viewer changed.

[Jenna Karath]

"Why would you be hunting a child?" she asked incredulously. The thought came out without thinking, as she was examining the holo-viewer to the best of her ability and laid her hands down on her knees to look closer.

[The Inquisitor]

"Why would you be hunting a child?" she asked incredulously. The thought came out without thinking, as she was examining the holo-viewer to the best of her ability and laid her hands down on her knees to look closer.

The Inquisitor stood sharply and reached out for her but her will was strong and for a moment he faltered. He then tossed the whole table with the Force and drew his lightsaber, the crimson blade inches from her face. The heat was palpable and intense as it crackled and popped.

“Are you the Inquisitor?” he said in that calm mechanical voice.

OOC: Failed to Move her. Using Advantage to intimidate her.

Move Jenna: 2eP+1eA+3eF+2eD 2 advantage, 4 Light Side, 1 Dark Side

[Jenna Karath]

There was a smirk, she'd picked up on the gesture and what it meant by now, and that nothing originally moved.. he had to have pivoted. However, this elation at realizing some limit to his strength was quickly drawn away from her face as the lightsaber replaced it, the crackling drawing almost all of her focus as she pushed herself back up into her seat to get as far from the blade as she can.

"N-no," she said, her voice faltering, "and I haven't seen her, no, the child isn't anyone I know," she spoke, quickly, words flowing out before she had the time to really think.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya smiled in satisfaction as Verse made her escape, then watched in horror at the sorcerous power of the inquisitor. She saw him strongarming Jenna, and her antennapalps withdrew flush with her scalp in fear. She started sweating and froze in line, needing to be nudged forward by the other patrons of the troopers. To her shame, it was more for her sake than for Jenna's. Vaya knew that she herself had nothing to say about any of the things he was asking, but she was also keenly aware that she knew something he would want to hear.

She was not a brave woman, as she would readily confess. The idea of going willingly into danger had never appealed to her. But she had always imagined, when she watched a criminal confess under pressure in one of Petrus' stupid holodramas, that she would be smarter. Why talk when they have nothing on you, no reason to suspect you?

The smart, rational part of her was increasingly not in control, locked away by her panic. And even that part of her grew afraid, up in its cage in the back of her brain, of what she might say or do if the Inquisitor turned his focus on her.

[The Inquisitor]

There was a smirk, she'd picked up on the gesture and what it meant by now, and that nothing originally moved.. he had to have pivoted. However, this elation at realizing some limit to his strength was quickly drawn away from her face as the lightsaber replaced it, the crackling drawing almost all of her focus as she pushed herself back up into her seat to get as far from the blade as she can.

"N-no," she said, her voice faltering, "and I haven't seen her, no, the child isn't anyone I know," she spoke, quickly, words flowing out before she had the time to really think.

The weapon is leveled for long moments and then he said, “You can go, Jenna.”

“Wait, before you go,” he said gesturing for her to stop.

“You,” he said to the next in line and they are shoved forward and he casually beheads them with his weapon and then added, “Now you can go.”

He gestured to Vaya and said, “Next.”

[Jenna Karath]

Jenna was quick to take the opportunity to leave, having to stop when he told her to wait and turning half around. Seeing what happens she turns near paler than a ghost, her heart drops, she almost screams but the thought of it made her want to vomit and so she kept herself from embarrassment by sheer willpower alone.

Quaking, holding her wrist to try to steady her hand to no avail, she quickly cast her head down when he allowed her to leave and did so with haste.

If she could think, she might have been able to think of Vaya, but all she could hear was her body screaming to run.

So her head deafened, she lost thought to senses, and she quickly made a fast paced walk out of the library.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

The dead man had been a patron, not an employee. He had been working in the library for a shorter time than Vaya and the others, having arrived with a leisurely air about half an hour before. Maybe he was on break. Maybe he was a lawyer or businessman, checking local records. Vaya speculated on all of this as she stepped, wide-eyed, around his fallen body.

She had to move the chair about a third of the meter to the right to avoid his headless torso. She sat with her hands on the table. She had her slim little stunner, concealed in her back waistband, but she had forgotten it even existed. If she had remembered, she might have gotten herself in real trouble by laughing herself hysterical at the thought of trying to use it.

Her antennapalps moved like nervous prairie rodents, emerging slowly to peak above her hair, and then retracting suddenly as if startled.

She fumbled her scandocs onto the table.

"Vaya Mer'darrow," she said in a small voice. Later, she would think that if he was reading her mind, at least at this point it was too consumed by incoherent fear to yield anything useful.

D5EA oh kriff (hard fear): 2eA+3eD 1 failure

[The Inquisitor]

"Same question, Vaya, have you seen this man or any Jedi since your arrival on Bankor?" he asked.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"No," she choked out, in a small voice, any more elaborate lie driven from her brain. She had told a great many lies in her life, and this one was entirely lacking in artifice. If she had had enough presence of mind to do so, she would have hoped that the realness of her fear would sell it.

D5EA "...no" (Deception vs Inquisitor, fear setback, player flip): 2eP+2eA+2eC+1eA+1eS 1 success, 1 advantage


edit: messed up on orokos, replace last green with:

D5EA "...no" (fixing roll): 1eD 0 successes


For 0 success, 1 advantage.

An advantage to make him think I'm guilty of some lesser thing I can then suffer through or try to bluff my way out of? Perhaps hand me off to less scary people?

[The Inquisitor]

"You would never lie to me would you, Vaya?" he asked calmly.

"You know I am on your side right, I only want what is best for you."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

That was so patently absurd a thing to say that it kicked in a reflexive sarcasm so deep it got past the stranglehold her amygdala had on her. She did not, thank the Force, not actually smirk or snort or laugh, she just blinked as the thought crossed her mind, Yeah, the best for me, just like you wanted the best for the guy whose head I think I just nudged with my toe. She felt more herself and started bluffing.

"The... the explosions in the refinery," she said haltingly. "I heard there was a Jedi there. Cutting up the place with... their..." she gave a very realistic gulp as she thought of the Inquisitor's lightsaber, hidden now but capable of reappearing at any time, like a deadly reptile you saw in your tent but then lost track of. "There was someone... like her, maybe. A Zabrak. In the market, yesterday morning. I wasn't sure..." It was a mishmash of half-truths, thrown together on the spot -- when she had started the sentence she had thought of Verse's joyride, then thought of saying she had been in the library, hoping she was safely away, then worried that someone else in the line would have seen them working together, so she described Qareme...

"I just... don't want to get anyone..." she looked at the corpse beside her. "Please don't hurt me." It was entirely unfeigned begging, and she felt hot shame.

ooc: If I half-truth the inquisitor (I saw a Jedi, in, uh, the market! Here are some details about a real padawan I met once, but not actually the market!) is the deception check the same, harder for suspicion, easier for the salt of truth...

[The Inquisitor]

He approached and ran his cold metallic hand along her cheek, "It's okay Vaya, the big bad Jedi won't get you."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

She flinched from the cold of his hand and the casual violation of her boundaries, but again, in the midst of her fear she had a small lifeline to rationality in the form of a mocking thought: Gettin' creepy. If, even only in her own head, she could reduce this terrifying monster to a mockable, everyday one, it might keep her sane enough to get through this.

She realized there was moisture on her face. She was crying. She was painfully aware of the audience -- the troopers, the rest of the captive line, those who had been processed but not immediately fled, out of paralysis or because this was their workplace or because they wanted to bear witness. She noticed Jenna wasn't one of them and was hugely glad, both that she was safe and that she wasn't seeing her like this. Her antennapalps had withdrawn fully, hiding safely in their pockets in her scalp. If only she could do that with her whole body. She looked away and down and found her eyes on the corpse again.

"That's all I know," she protested. Keep it simple.

Please let it be over soon.

[The Inquisitor]

The Inquisitor said, "You can go, but we will be watching you, Vaya. I am sure we will meet again."

"Next?" he said turning to the next victim.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

With the Inquisitor reset to his position across the table, Vaya could stand without having to step directly over the corpse. She retreated to her console to gather her datapad and other effects, abandoned in the hope that if they had grabbed her the datapad, with its valuable (if cryptic and encrypted) information left behind.

Her head down, trying to keep her mind blank, she hurried from the library. She headed nowhere in particular, taking turns at random, glancing around as if she would see a monster in a mask behind her at any moment.

/exit