Affluenza Epidemic

[Jaden Luka]

An odd chuckle escaped from Jaden: a flicker of unexpected nervousness wrapped around a baseline of amusement in this strange reversal of roles from his usual interactions with women. It was the same feeling you got when you kicked the thrusters to full on an unfamiliar starfighter: that faint worry as things began to accelerate beyond the confines of your expectations, propelled along on the bow wave of anticipation and excitement at the speed and prospects at play.

"I've never boarded anything Cizerack before," he offered, embracing the metaphor that Rai had selected for them. He leaned a little closer, both encouragingly into Rai'faani's touch, and in closer range to drop his voice into a lower, more enticing tone. "I'd have to thoroughly reconnoiter the exterior and all the potential access points before starting an operation like that. And also -"

Twisted slightly in his seat towards her, the subtleties of brushing hands against shoulders were unavailable to him. Instead he embraced his A-Wing pilot training; too much thruster power to go anything slowly. His fingertips accidentally found themselves brushing against Rai's leg, his voice dropping even lower.

"- this isn't the kind of uniform I'd wear for a mission like that. I suppose it'd have to be removed, so we don't spoil the immersion."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

What a distraction.

T'yeellaa watched the dancer as he left nothing to her imagination. She sipped her sparkling wine, and in a bid that was half genuine curiosity and half a desire to not be a pathetic third wheel, she pulled a credit chit from her jeans pocket.

An unsure look read plain on her face. What does one credit buy?


What do twenty credits buy?

She played it safe. One credit. Authorized with a press of a thumb, T'yeellaa held it up, not sure how this was done. The male dancer, like some trained circus animal, slowed the swaying of his hips and sank them close, hooking a thumb along a belt that seemed to be there only for the collection of these little gratuities. Guided by his hand, she slipped a credit into a slot designed for it, and the dancer slowly descended from the table, never losing a step to the music. T'yeellaa couldn't wipe the grin off her face. She followed her first instinct, which was to reach out for a handful of buttocks. The man moved her hand away gently but insistently.

"Don't touch the merchandise, princess."

What?? Oh that was torture. The elder Meorrrei knit her greedy fingers together in her lap. Look, but don't touch. It was cruelty, and yet somehow the tactile deprivation was kinda hot. She could only sit as he danced around her...straddled her, and did everything she wanted except that. Like some kind of slutty prisoner's dilemma. T'yeellaa's purr rose heavy in her throat as she felt the heat in her ears and below.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"I've never boarded anything Cizerack before. I'd have to thoroughly reconnoiter the exterior and all the potential access points before starting an operation like that. And also -

- this isn't the kind of uniform I'd wear for a mission like that. I suppose it'd have to be removed, so we don't spoil the immersion."

Rai's tongue pressed into the slight cleft of her upper lip, retreating back after passing slowly over sharp teeth. The purr just above her belly was octaves deeper than her voice, a sound that one felt as much as heard.

"Well jI sshould warrn jyou not to expect a qujick vjictorrjy. jIt majy take all njight. Therre mjight even be..."

A hooked claw had found its way underneath the button at the top of Jaden's jacket. A moment more of searching, and it found the thread that bound the decorative fastener to the garment. Rai'faani curled her finger in gently increasing force until they both felt the thread snap.

"...cassualtjiess."

T'yeellaa had gone strangely silent behind her. She might as well be on Mustafar; her older sister had been quickly forgotten in the shuffle. Rai'faani retreated her hand from where it had damaged Jaden's uniform, framing the human's head on the far side so that she could gently guide his ear close to her mouth.

"jI'm gojing to go powderr mjy nosse. jI hope jyou'rre trrajined well enough to sstand at attentjion even when the offjicerr leavess the rroom."

She punctuated that entendre by passing the tip of her rough tongue over the edge of Jaden's ear as she stood up.

"jIf not, then conssjiderr thjiss asss jyourr drrjill jinsstrructorr." Rai authorized a fifty credit chit, slapping it against the ass cheek of the Togruta woman dancing within arm's reach.

"Nothjing too ssavourrrjy." she instructed the stripper with a wink, jerking her thumb toward the human as she left for the loo.

[Narssiska Vraska]

Vraska slipped up to the table, like a whisper in the shadows, and replaced the nearly empty bottle with a fresh one. She noticed the look on T'yeellaa's face and slipped in next to her, placing her mouth just at the edge of her ear and whispered; "For one hundred creditss you can recceive a private dancce from the performer of your choicce. During a private dancce the level of intimaccy iss up to the performer'ss dissccretion. Half off your firsst dancce." And with that said she left, disappearing back into the shadows between the flashing lights and brightly lit stages.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa could feel the reptilian voice buzzing just past her right ear, offering temptation and delights. And on her left shoulder, she imagined a miniature Samus Dage standing there like one of Saanjarra's winged sun nymphs, scolding her. Don't you dare, kitten. Don't you dare.

And in the middle of both angels and devils, a nice firm body gyrating on her lap like he was paying rent there.

At least the club owner brought more wine, which the now-harried T'yeellaa really needed.

[Jaden Luka]

Jaden wasn't entirely sure what was happening until it already was. Confusion wrinkled his brow, realisation dawning as a stray glance settled upon T'yeellaa and her close quarters encounter, and then on the Togruta advancing her way towards him, crimson hips swaying hypnotically as she closed the gap between them. He tried to look for Rai'fani but she was gone; and then his eyes lost all ability to choose their point of focus, utterly transfixed by the dancer before him.

A whispering voice in the back of his mind reminded him how he felt about the concept of strip clubs and exotic dancers; how he felt about the kind of people who paid for this kind of experience rather than earning their close encounters with their wit and charm. That voice was found and summarily executed as a pair of perky and pristine vermillion breasts filled the entirety of his vision. An azure and blue lekku - were they still even called lekku when it was a Togruta? - was gracefully swept aside, improving Jaden's view, before being draped across Jaden's shoulder as the dancer circled around behind him. Her hands took gentle hold of his biceps, a fingertip tracing over the aurabesh embroidery on the familiar squadron patch on his sleeve. "A Rogue, huh?"

She leaned closer, her lips so close that Jaden could hear her sultry whispered breaths against his cheek. "Slip me a few more credits, flyboy, and we can make this a lot more intimate." Her fingers trailed down the side of his neck. "Never danced for a war hero before."

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

Rai'faani entered the loo, a casual glance at the rows of stalls indicated they were all vacant. After a brief trip to the toilet, she headed to the sink to wash her hands, and to prepare for the real reason she was here. The Meorrrei girl rifled through her purse, pulling out her makeup compact, a tube of lip gloss, and a microflimsi note slip. The compact was opened fully, so that the mirror side lay flush with the counter. Next, she carefully opened the lid of the lip gloss. Inside, the normal waxy core was missing, leaving a hollow space that had been filled with a fine white powder. Rai carefully leveraged the tube over the mirror of her compact. A few taps measured out a small mound of the pulverized jeeta sap, which was carefully arranged by the edge of the microflimsi until it formed a thin white line.

Careful with her movements, and mindful not to make an errant breath, Rai rolled the microflimsi into a tight tube shape. Ears rising, she glanced up again at the restroom door before squaring her shoulders over the compact mirror. Rai leaned over, pressing a finger to one nostril as she inserted the tube in the other. Novices would take only a small bump at a time, but that only made it harder to come back to the rest. With a sureness of movement, Rai took a single long, deep sniff as she passed the tube down the line, taking the full hit in a pass.

The euphoria was instant. A jolt of energy that hit straight at her heart, followed by the nearly-electric sensory bliss of the refined drug in her system. Rai's legs nearly buckled, but she bounded up in a burst, her tail high and taut as claw-tipped hands attempted to knead the marble counter top.

"Ffffffuuuuuuck...." her voice rattled, as her ecstasy compelled her to bite at her lip. She spent a few seconds with her head nearly hunched into the sink, panting and breathing heavily as her mouth began to salivate. Everything felt alive to the touch, and Rai wanted nothing more than to just rub her body against the wall. Rising with a sudden jolt, the Meorrrei girl continued to sigh and pant, unbuttoning another two buttons on her top as she played with her hair.

"Mjirrrorr mjirrrorr on the wall..." she moaned, punctuated with a laugh as she raked her tongue over her upper lip.

"...who'ss the baddesst bjitch of all?"

[Jaden Luka]

Starfighters.

Starfighters are great.

What starfighters have you flown?

A-Wing. X-Wing. T-Wing. Y-

Jaden fought the urge to flinch with every ounce of muscular self control he had.

Y. Why. Why was this happening? Why am I doing this? What am I supposed to do with my hands?

All efforts to focus rapidly dissolved into distracted futility, as more and more of the Togruta slid seductively across Jaden's body. He'd had a jacket when he'd come in here, that was definite, but right now it was somewhere decidedly other, exposing a lot more of him to the dancer's attention than he was entirely comfortable with. The bare arms weren't too much of a problem, but the fact that his shirt was half-way up his stomach, and the Togruta's abdomen kept accidentally brushing across it? That was problematic. Maybe it was a good kind of problematic, and maybe he should just suck it up and stop thought-complaining about how high up the inside of his leg her hands kept getting, but this was weird. Why was this happening? Was this some sort of prank, conceived by Captain Quez with his sisters in some sort of sordid family meeting?

And more importantly, why was Rai'faani paying for this? Was her ulterior motive the obvious one? Was this some Cizerack tradition, outsourcing the warm up stages so that things would be more expedient when later rolled around?

Either way, Rai needed to hurry her furry butt up and get back here, before Jaden's plans for the evening moved from a public performance sort of situation to a give me your credit chit and I'll find us somewhere private sort of situation.

[Narssiska Vraska]

A second pair of hands wrapped around Jaden's shoulders from behind, and the green scaly face of Narsisska eclipsed the edges of his vision. "Dikiri iss quite a danccer, iss sshe not? The offer sstill sstandss, for that private dancce. We have nicce, quiet boothss ssecluded from the vission of otherss where you might enjoy a more intimate experiencce." Her hands moved across his shoulders even as the Togruta rubbed her body against his, her hands traveling everywhere. No stone was left unturned. Vraska's own hand reached out and caressed the dancer's orange collar bone and then ran down; across her chest plate and finally wrapping around one of the ample breasts.

"Sshe hass much to offer, no? My danccers are allowed to perform ass they dessire. At their dissccretion. Dikiri hass few... resservationss. Jusst pay her and sshe will do the resssst..." She spoke directly into his ear, her mouth so close she could have easily licked it. She did not such thing, in the end, and retreated from the Rogue pilot and was gone; a tactical withdrawal before the Cizerack women could return.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

The wine was not helping. It was cold, and took care of some of her thirst, but it was pulling apart T'yeellaa's inhibitions brick by brick. The dancer continued to shimmy on her lap, grinding right where she was most vulnerable. T'yeellaa's peels of nervous laughter had gone silent, and she just watched and felt as this man did everything she wanted except all the other things.

She was panting. The K'ohta'rrou tugged at an ear tip, and the dancer followed her lead in an uninvited and totally welcome way, running his fingers along the length of each ear like he was playing a musical instrument. Goddess, he was playing one alright. T'yeellaa blinked, realizing that if something didn't stop, she was about to get wetter than Kamino.

"Okajy!" She bolted up from her seat, prompting the dancer to take an athletic hop back to give her space.

"Ooooookajy..." T'yeellaa peeled a nervous laugh, wetting her lips.

"Look, jI love whateverr jyou'rre dojing, but..."

It was so hot in here. She fanned herself with a hand.

"jI thjink jI left a code cjylljinderr jin mjy offjice!"

[Jaden Luka]

"No."

No no no no!

Jaden had found himself in some dire situations before. He'd sailed through dogfights; faced off against Star Destroyers with nothing but a handful of squadmates; survived pirate raids in a battered Corellian freighter with only one gunner to operate the ship's two turrets; he'd even been in bar fights handicapped by Stormtrooper gear, and had proudly wrestled a Trandoshan the size of an Endorian redwood to the ground. None of that, none of those perils and challenges, had filled him sith the kind of abject fear he felt as his wingman tried to bug out without him.

Watching T'yeellaa stand, Jaden tried to follow suit, but found himself trapped. Suddenly he found himself understanding how Gold Leader must have felt, staring into the still active force shield surrounding the second Death Star. Jaden's obstacle was no Imperial battle station, but it was certainly no moon either; and as Jaden reflexively reached out to move it aside, his hands wisely veered off at the last moment, sparing him from an explosive and perhaps deadly impact.

Instead he reached out, hand grabbing T'yeellaa by the wrist. The panic in his eyes was real: that cresting discomfort that came from struggled self control and a lack of knowing what to do with one's hands.

"Don't leave me."

The Togruta turned, fingers sliding up the inside of Jaden's outstretched arm. Before he knew what was happening, a tractor beam had ensnared his fleeing hand, sending it on a Jek Porkins trajectory towards the firm and perky surface of her aft. Arms draped around Jaden's shoulders, copper skin and supple lips encroaching so close that they filled the entirety of Jaden's scopes. He managed to retreat a few microns, just enough to make sure that speaking wouldn't accidentally transform into a different use for his tongue; one last ditch effort to coax Rai'faani's sister - and more importantly, the only witness to his thus far gentlemanly conduct - into staying.

"Not like this."

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"Leavjing sso ssoon, ssjissterr?"

Teasing her hair up at the last second, Rai returned fro the refresher with more than a little more pep in her step. She opted out of her seat entirely, sitting on the stage beside T'yeellaa's dancer.

"Aww."

It was the most artificial expression of sadness possible. A slight pout of her lips and gone. Rai's tail played with the dancer as he pivoted to face her. She leaned back against his leg slightly.

"Well, jI guesss jyou'll be takjing all of jyourr frrusstrratjionss out on...what wass hjiss name agajin. Sssh, don't ansswerr."

Turning her changeable attention, Rai rolled on her side as she leered at the extra attention being plied onto Jaden by the Togrruta.

"jIss mjy pjilot rreadjy to take off?" The heiress pulled her sunglasses down on her nose, teasing the cleft of her upper lip with her tongue.

[Jaden Luka]

On the one hand, Rai'faani was here now. On the other, that didn't really seem to improve things.

Jaden wasn't entirely sure what he'd been expecting. What did he think Rai'faani was going to do, return and angrily send the lap dancer she'd paid for away? He'd been expecting her to be his rescuer, to bring this whole ordeal to a close; but he'd forgotten the fact that she'd been the instigator, the absentee torturer who had begun things in the first place.

It wasn't that the experience was terrible. All things being equal, sexy dancing and body rubs seemed like one hell of a way to start off an evening. But it was weird. Jaden Luka was a fighter pilot: if he wanted an exotic alien beauty draped all over him, there was no need to get credits involved. Sure, if it meant getting up close and personal with a handsome human like him, then maybe the money part was just a pleasant bonus; but he didn't want to be a business transaction; didn't want the state of his groin being the object of someone's future performance review.

Take off was probably a double entendre, but Jaden chose to take it as an offer for escape.

"Uh, yeah," he muttered, arms still moving awkwardly in avoidance of undue contact. He tried to stand, and things wound up bumping against places they probably shouldn't have been bumping. The dancer didn't seem to mind; didn't seem all that dissuaded, either. A confused look knitted at Jaden's brow. "Eject?" he asked, hoping that would do some good. "Please?"

It certainly worked, although if Jaden had hoped to escape free and clear, he hadn't succeeded. There was a roll of the Togruta's eyes as she dismounted from the Commander, and a disapproving glance thrown in Rai'faani's direction. With every ounce of swagger she could muster she strode away, hips swaying hypnotically. A glance over her shoulder turned into a wink and a blown kiss when she noticed Jaden was still watching.

"Uh - I'll call you!" Jaden lied in her wake. No he wouldn't. Why did he say that?

Now freed from touch-avoiding prison, Jaden's leg began to bounce as a full cell of nervous energy plugged itself into his power grid. Jaden's eyes shot to T'yeellaa, then to Rai'faani, and then back; idly, he wondered if this was what Murray felt like every time a felinoid glanced his way. Despite being acutely conscious of his exits, Jaden also knew that there was no trajectory that led out of here unscathed: if he cut and ran now, he'd become the officer who bailed on the Captain's sister; whatever lay ahead, Jaden wasn't quite ready to chance that fate just yet.

Struggling for something to say, Jaden waved a hand in the direction of the buffet of assorted nakedness. He remembered something his mother had always said in his youth - which felt decidedly like the sort of thing he shouldn't be thinking about right now - about sharing toys with the other kids.

"Did you... want a go... too?"

Smooth, Jaden. Real smooth.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"Actualljy..." Rai said, after plugging from the champagne bottle again, "jI have ssomethjing morre fun jin mjind."

The heiress lazily cast her eyes to the male stripper who was suddenly free from T'yeellaa's attentions. She glanced back to Jaden, and smiled.

"Whjy don't the two of jyou dance togetherr?"

[Jaden Luka]

Momentary confusion washed over Jaden as he slowly put two and two together; comprehension followed like a wave as his gaze settled onto T'yeellaa's dancer. Like a prospective buyer of a new speeder, Jaden gave the dancer an appraising once-over. Sturdy frame. Aerodynamic curves. Plenty of thrust in the back. Decently sized undercarriage too, from the looks of things. Not bad, Jaden supposed, corners of his mouth downturning to emphasise his silent appreciative nod.

But while his eyes appraised, his mind worked, slowly. Rai'faani was a confusing woman, that was for damned sure. First she paid for a dance to goose his throttle that she wasn't witness to, and now she wanted to watch him in a holding pattern to sample what she missed out on. It was strange, not at all like what he would have expected, having met two of her siblings. Sure, he could see the controlling side being born from a mother as wealthy and powerful as Taataani Meorrrei, but it seemed to go beyond that. It was almost like she was one of those guys, who -

Jaden blinked. His eyes flitted from Rai to T'yeellaa and back. They were Cizerack. Rai'faani was one of those guys. Which made him the surrogate for the long-suffering waitress who was about one unsolicited butt grope away from murdering everyone in a five block radius. It took a moment to contemplate that notion, to try and imagine himself in that position without co-opting the suffering of generations of people suppressed by their gender in the face of an overbearing patriarchy or matriarchy. Jaden tried his best to be on the scrappy rebellion side of that dogfight, but he didn't always succeed. That was his failure, but it was an easy one: hard to avoid what life and society made it so easy to be oblivious to. A liberal dose of Imperial training and dogma at an impressionable age probably hadn't done him much favours either: the oppression and the racism was easy to rail against, but it was hard to even realise there was gender disparity going on when everyone was buried under the same generic white plastic.

What to do about Rai'faani, though? Part of him wanted to just roll with it, and let her get her rocks off spectating. The weird attitude wasn't enough to put Jaden off just yet; and whatever, man. He'd done far more compromising things with far less attractive guys in the past, and if that was what worked for her, great. That part of him was swiftly reminded however of the horrifying absence of dancing skills that he possessed. Whatever Rai'faani was after, whatever she was planning, odds were it would backfire horribly.

"Really?"

The word tumbled out of his mouth before he even realised that he was saying it. His expression adjusted to match, eyebrow raised in a look of mild disinterest. Unsure where his tongue was leading him, Jaden's mind leapt into dogfight mode, words evading and manoeuvring on instinct as his voice surged onwards into the fray.

"More waiting around and watching? That's a little disappointing."

Jaden's eyes flitted to T'yeellaa, recruiting her as an involuntary character witness. He sighed, the faintest, almost imperceptible shake of his head offered with a shrug, hands making themselves comfortable in his pants pockets.

"Thought you were supposed to be the fun Meorrrei. Guess that word means something different in the Cluster."

He took a few slow steps, not towards Rai'faani but in a tangent, a careful feint as if he was about to disengage and bug out of the system. He hesitated, focusing on the elder Meorrrei first. "Nice seeing you again, K'ohta'rrou," he offered with a nod, glad that all his time spent practising how to pronounce all the various Cizerack ranks hadn't gone to waste. His voice dropped lower, and he leaned in a little closer to Rai'faani, close enough for his cheek to pass tantalisingly close to her ear.

"When you're done with this recon flight of yours, come find me. I'll show you how a Rogue gets things done."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

Amusement tickled T'yeellaa's expression as Jaden threw a little cold water on her sister. Not enough to blow up the whole encounter, but enough that in his mind at least, could potentially give him the initiative.

She raised her empty wine flute in salute, staying rooted in place out of morbid curiosity. Rai never took no for an answer, and she still gave the human less than a sajoi's chance, but he'd at least make her put forth a little effort.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

Rai's ears lowered a measure as Jaden didn't exactly take to her rowdy suggestions. She glanced back to the male stripper, tossing him fifty credits.

"Get losst."

Ambivalent at the dismissal, the man moved on to greener pastures, hoping that the high roller would have a change of interest in the near future.

Rai listened to Jaden's conspiratorial talk, taking another plug from the bottle. A smirk formed on her features, and as he withdrew, she gestured in a beckoning fashion for him to return back to earshot.

"Have jyou everr sseen the Kai'nau'aani Nebula?"

[Jaden Luka]

Jaden fought the urge to smile. He'd spent enough time around Cirrsseeto to know that the ear thing probably meant he was making some sort of headway in the right sort of direction.

"Kai Now Arnie?" he echoed, making a deliberate point of pronouncing the name in an awkwardly basic-speaker way. His confidence had buoyed a little: perhaps he'd not managed to give himself much manoeuvring room, but he was beginning to feel as if he'd gone from being a sitting duck in an ion-overloaded starfighter to being chased down a canyon; and for someone as deft and mentally agile as Jaden, that felt like just enough of a difference to feel a little more comfortable about things.

He folded his arms and frowned, dutifully returning a little closer to Rai'faani, as she invited.

"That depends. Does it have a different name in Basic? I've experienced a lot of vacuous hot air in my time."

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"Majybe jit doess." She replied flippantly, setting aside the champagne to toy with the collar of Jaden's shirt.

"But jI'm wjilljing to wagerr jyou've neverr sseen one ljike jI can sshow jyou."

Slowly, her hand began to glide down from his collar, keeping warm pressure as it slid down his chest.

"Carre to ssee?"

[Jaden Luka]

Jaden was capable of a lot of things. He could fly, and pretty darn well at that. He could turn TIE Fighters into vapour clouds with ease and style. He could pull out of a nose dive and into a high-G climb in an A-Wing at full throttle without blacking out. He was a decent shot with a blaster too, pretty handy in a fight and, modesty aside, charming as hell. He'd once won an arm wrestling contest with a Basilisk, seduced an alien priestess, and enticed two separate nuns into breaking their vows of celibacy - bringing an empleasured, moaning end to a vow of silence in one of those cases to boot. Frankly, Jaden was awesome enough to do just about anything he set his mind to; as far as he was conerned, at least.

One of the things Jaden was explicitly not capable of however was declining an invitation from an exotic alien beauty to take a peek at her nebula. Not only was an enticement like that pretty much impossible to resist, frankly it would have been rude as well, and, given the significance of this particular Cizerack, it might even have been damaging to the fragile union between the Carshoulis Cluster and the rest of the Alliance of Free Planets. It was practically his sworn duty as an Alliance Officer to bed and pleasure this woman, and that was an obligation that Commander Jaden Luka was to dedicated to ignore.

He shifted back slightly, allowing gravity to tug Rai's hand a little lower. Slowly he moved forward again, easing back into her touch under the pretence of whispering in her ear. A playful smile tugged at his lips, and soaked into his softly spoken words.

"You tell me: does it feel like I'm up for it?"