HoloNet Buddies

[RobbyL9]

Niko's head flew back in the middle of a sip of beer and he nearly sputtered it all over Abbi laughing. Luckily his hand came out and held it in and he managed to contain his feelings until after he had swallowed. "There you are guys. Don't drink and paint-strip, it never works out."

Just as Niko finished another round of chuckles he received a tap on his arm from one of the room's bouncers. "Pardon me?" the rough Talravin-voiced man asked "But someone from out on the dance floor is looking for you, a young twi'lek lady." The man must have stood six foot seven with abs and arms the size of Corusant City. Niko looked suspicious, wondering if this was code on Nar Shaddaa for 'do you want to go to the parking lot and get the living piss kicked out of you?'

"Uh, really?" he managed.
"Yes, she gave me your description. Tall, goggles, kinky brown hair."
"Well where is she, just out through... Uh, here?" Niko pointed with his bottle.
"Yeh. Go on. You a lucky guy, she's been gettin' hit on ALL night."

Niko picked up his bottle and computer. "Abs, I'll just be a moment. I think I mighta seen Shimmer, I'll just go say 'hi'."

He patted her on the shoulder and walked through the card room back out into the booming frenzy that was the nightclub. Looking around, he couldn't seem to find anyone in the crowded dance floor. "Hello?!" he called "Somebody out here call my-" Nobody was paying any attention to him.

Niko was just about to give up and go back when a familiar hand planted firmly on his chest and stopped him. Manicured nails, soft and un-worked skin... Red. Niko slowly looked up the arm toward the face, almost as nervous as if he was staring into the face of Darth Sion himself.

"There you are... Nicky." spoke the sultry voice of Arruna.

[RobbyL9]

Niko was at a loss for words. Here was Arruna, the red twi'lek in the rainbow-colored dance routine he had come so close to being immersed in that one night. Then Sister Ethea dragged him out by the collar, beating him like a runaway slave with her scripture. And for some reason, she not only knew his name but she had apparently found time to give him a pet name.

"H-hi. Uh. Uh."
"Uuuuh-rruna. Arruna." she laughed "Emphasis on the 'ru'. You'll get it."
"Hehe, yeah. I... Uh, why are you here, Arruna?"

The red twi'lek girl took him by his arm and dragged him along, laughing cutesy-like. Her head was turned away, so Niko quickly downed his beer and held in his sputters to gain any courage he possibly could. After lowering the bottle, he noticed how she was dressed.

Arruna wore a spaghetti strap slip-over dress which ended just about where her butt did and a pair of stiletto heels with very thin and intricately tied straps. He only noticed now that her shoulder was showing that she had a tattoo on her shoulder of some type of foreign language.

"Well I'm sure you heard. About the tour and everything. Me and my girls and my lil' sis decided to celebrate."
"Well, on that note, congrats to you and Shimmer. Is she around?" Niko had downed the beer so quickly that he was still sharp mentally, but he was now tipsy enough not to care.
"Oh, she's around and all, but uh..." Arruna said suggestively as she slipped into an empty booth "I figured maybe you and I could just... Talk. I mean after all, if a boy gon' be datin' my lil' sis, I wanna check him out first."
Niko slipped into the booth. "Dating?" he shrugged "Well, I mean she's hot and all-"

God, he was such a lightweight, the beer was taking more of a toll than he thought. He mentally slapped himself three times, one for him and twice for Abbi.

"I mean she's NOT at all... Um. What I would have expected." Niko corrected as quickly as possible.

Arruna definitely heard his first version of that comment, but she just laughed it off. Leaning forward, she stared intently into his eyes with her big, pretty ones. Niko noticed that she had very long and curly lashes and her eyes were sparkly and blue.

"So, Nicky." her voice said in a fog "What do guys like you do for fun?"

[Abby]

Abbi glanced over her shoulder a little to see where Niko had gone, but he'd disappeared. She peeked out of the corner of her eyes--RJ seemed alright, and G had set him up with copius glasses of hot tea. He was chuckling.

She slipped back into her seat, a little spooked. "You okay?" she asked RJ in a low tone.

[Rain]

Ryinn[/b[

I shook my head. Abbi was thirteen and they were letting her drink. She wasn't old enough to be able to handle alcohol, especially not the stuff Gineilli was giving out. It was like something a Hutt would drink!

Deej and I moved away from the bar and began taking a look around. We seen Niko on the dance-floor with some Twi'lek, and he was clearly quite tipsy. I laughed. "Hey Deej, you see anything out of the ordinary?"

[Abby]

Abbi grinned a little bit, wondering how wasted RJ was going to be. Fortunately for her, she wasn't drunk at all except for an uncomfortable stomacheache. She looked around the club, knowing she probably shouldn't leave her seat until RJ regained control of himself. She resigned herself to the barchair and just watched the crowd.

(my first post on my phone! Yay!)

[RobbyL9]

Niko all the while was on the dance floor spinning like crazy. In normal life he'd probably be way too scared to go dancing on a nightclub's dance floor (let alone in the middle of circle of rainbow-colored twi'leks).

The song switched to an alternative rock song about a girl being magic. The twi'leks reached down and un-did their shoes, picking them up and dancing barefoot to keep up with the beat.

"Mmmm hmm!" Niko cried out "Jazzy, snazzy. It's music from the heart of the Force!" He obviously was way too smashed to care now, even though he'd only had the one beer, because Arruna leaned in and rubbed up against him as he danced. In response, he only danced closer and in no time the two of them were freak-dancing up a storm.

Slowly though, Niko began to come back to his senses. Feeling less intoxicated, suddenly, as well as extremely hot he decided to get some air. He stepped outside of the club, felt the cool air rushing up against his sweat, took in a deep breath...

And promptly vomited all over the gutter.

[Reza]

Reza stared at the pitcher in front of her friend. She'd had alchohol before, it wasn't too bad. But she only had a small bit. While Abbi wasn't watching she grabbed the pitcher and took a sip.
"Holy Crap! It tastes like butterscotch and peppermint!" She exclaimed and fishied off the pitcher. She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket and smiled. "That's good. What is this stuff! I love it!"

She knew then that Ethea would beat her senseless.

[RobbyL9]

Niko sat (or rather fell) down onto the sidewalk and sat there for a minute with his head between his knees. He had a tremendous headache and his vision was filled with black, cloudy things. He hung his head there, feeling like he was going to vomit again but only managed a dry heave here and there. He spat into the gutter to get the awful taste out of his mouth.

It felt like an eternity, though it may have only been a minute or two, but Niko's headache cleared up enough that he could stand and his vision returned to it's unclouded version. He stood and marched back into the club, hearing a bouncer and a couple patrons chuckling at him.

Now somewhat alert about what he had been doing before, Niko dodged the dance floor and made his way back toward the leisure room. He was walking so fast now that he nearly knocked over a waitress carrying drinks for a high-roller at one of the tables. "Sorry. Sorry." he apologized.

Finally he found his way back to the place where he and his friends had been sitting. Act natural. Sit down. Odds are they didn't even see you. "Hey Abs, I'm back." he said normally.

[Reza]

"Rainbows die... falling to the ground. Purple skies, crashing with a lotta sound!" Reza sang. "Evile birds, flying in the air. NIKO! WHEN'D YOU GET THERE!?" She faced her friend and smiled widley. She draped one arm over his shoulder. "Yous my buddy. Joo know dat? Your mah buddeh, and Abbi, and Dason, and Deej, and Houston, and Ethea, and the purple mokney on your head too!"
She smiled wider and grabbed her glass, taking a sip. "Yes, all mah buddies!"

[Abby]

Abbi's eyes widened comically, and she burst out laughing. "Hey, you alright?" she asked between chortles.

[hk47fan]

Deej looked around...he had sorta listened to the whole...whatever that was between Abbi and RJ, and Niko's oddness, but he had mainly been pre-occupied with the bar. It kinda creeped him out, at the same time it was actually intriguing. It seemed like a place that people like Ellie and Kim would go to to party. "Um, there's so much going on here I'm not sure!" he yelled above the blasting music and talking.

Drunk people constantly walked past him, Deej shuttering every time.

Meanwhile, Sister Ethea came into the bar, Bible in hand. Her eyes went wide as she saw everything before her...in truth, Sister Ethea had been to bars before, but she still thought they were extremely sinful places. A drunk person walked over to her. "Hey baby, wanna come and see my merchandise?!"

"Oh boy you better be GETTING TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY!" Sister Ethea yelled as she beat him to the floor with the Bible.

She then pushed through everyone, and eventually found the majority of her comrades at a table. "I was visiting Miss Jinkins and her house here on Nar Shadaa, and I come to see you all in all this sin!" she yelled "I should just slap every single one of you...but Miss Jinkins told me that this could play a role in the Lord's work...."

She looked at Ginelli. "I take it you are our host! You better be serving my God! Oh and...there wouldn't happen to be a man named Kevin here, would there?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

[RobbyL9]

Had Niko not just undergone what he did out front, he would have jokingly remarked "I want some of what she's having." Reza could carry a decent tune, though, that much made him laugh.

Just as he was getting ready to sit back down, Niko realized he was missing something. This time he knew exactly what it was, because it was much more obvious. His computer. He jumped up and was about to go scrambling out into the club toward the booth when he nearly collided with someone else.

"Oh, sorry! I-... Hey Niko."

Recognizing her voice immediately, Niko stopped and looked. There Shimmer stood, in a more modest version of Arruna's dress. In her arms she held his computer out to him.

"Did this belong to you?"

[Abby]

Abbi made a face. "It's disgusting," she told him. "Trust me."

[RobbyL9]

"Oh my computer, Shimmer thank you!" Niko said relieved "This thing is like my child. Never goes off on it's own without my say-so."
Shimmer laughed lightly and stood up straight "So, I can't believe it. You're at this nightclub of all places and we literally run into each other."
"Yeah, it's crazy I know."
"But, well last I checked people don't bring their computers to a night of partying."

Niko suddenly felt confronted over the simple inquiry.

"Uhm, well the thing is..." he looked behind him back into the bar, smiling when he got an idea "Remember how I had to leave for work back on Corellia? Well, my company here is having a drink with one of the guys in the club. It's supposed to be business but somehow a lot of pleasure has been mixed in." He said all this with a straight face because technically Niko wasn't really lying, he was just being unspecific.

"Oh. Interesting. So I should probably leave you be then." Shimmer said, turning around to leave
"Oh no! No. Please." Niko stopped her "I'm not really as needed as I thought in this meeting. And anyway, I'm sure you must be eager to get off the dancefloor. Come and sit a while."
"Okay. Only if you insist, I'm not one to interfere with business dealings."

The two of them walked back into the bar and took a seat at an empty table a safe distance from Houston and his friend.

Niko sat down and smiled before asking "So then. Miss Shimmer. Maybe I should start with something that's really had me stumped."
"Such as?"
"Why did you agree to take my number? And more importantly, why did you feel the need to tell me you won this trip?"
"Well. I dunno... I guess because I didn't really have anyone else who I was friendly with." Shimmer ran her first two fingers up and down her left lekku as she spoke "Well I mean anyone who didn't already know. The only company I really keep is my theater partners and they all knew. And I was feeling so good at the time, I figured 'what the hell, I'll tell the whole world starting with him' ya know?"

The two of them shared a good laugh at this and Niko counted his blessings inside. Casually, he glanced over Shimmer's shoulder at Abbi, who was still sitting at the bar.

[Abby]

Abbi just snorted into her cup of water, rolling her eyes. Really, really she was glad Niko told her about the Twi'leks, she thought. If she hadn't known she probably would've swapped his beer for that imported Deralian hotsauce she could she next to the condiments. But she trusted him, so she turned away before she could be accused of gawking like an overprotective mom.

She'd only drag him away before he got too drunk.