Petra Munteanu is secretly Wanda Maximoff (witchweird) wrote in thegalaxy, @ 2016-05-05 15:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | !locale: naboo, mika corliss, wanda maximoff |
WHO: Wanda Maximoff and Mika Corliss
WHAT: Wanda has an unusual, newsworthy item that Mika is interested in. Then the force shows them more.
WHERE: Naboo
WHEN: A few days after taking up with a new trading partner
After enough time spent in questionable circumstances, with senses stretched to their limits and danger just over her shoulder, things get pared down to essentials. Survival, safety, food and air, a place to sleep, and always an eye out for a betrayal, with an alternate exit in mind just in case.
First it had been a rigged poker game, then a chase across space down to a wild planet with very few ways off, a week with a caravan of nomads, then a smuggler's trip out of that system, a drudge's life in an ad hoc smuggler's city made up of old ships cobbled together, with the occasional visit to the nearby station complicated by attacks on her associates and watchers in the shadows --
Compared to anything in the past couple of months, the ship she was on right now was a genuine respite. Only one person and a few droids to look out for. True, her shipmate had lied to her and tried to trick her, but Wanda could tell from the shape of her mind that her intentions fell only within a specific sphere -- by hook or by crook, her shipmate was determined to outtrade Wanda and buy out Wanda's share and return to her family in triumph.
It wasn't ideal, but at least Wanda didn't have to fear being murdered in her bed. Maybe being left somewhere, unknown and totally creditless, but after the last couple of months, Wanda didn't think that was so much of a threat after all.
And after a few days without any visible danger or threat to her survival, Wanda was starting to unfold a little from the harsh and wary survival mode she'd been stuck in, starting to relax and take stock.
Item: one ship, clunky but serviceable. Shipmate unreliable. Even her shipmate's family, Wanda had gathered, considered Halvri disreputable, risky, the blackest sheep in a family of blackish-gray sheep. That was why she'd been stuck with Wanda (and why Wanda was stuck with her).
But even a clunky old ship was a ship, and a ship meant options. Wanda spent some scattered moments daydreaming about buying out the other half of the ship and having her own transportation again, free and clear. More likely she'd just have to buy and sell her way out of her contract with this ship and start over somehow, but ... even when the daydreams shattered, there was leisure for them to come back.
Item: a share of the cargo, hers to trade. She just needed to make sure Halvri didn't pull any tricks on her. Halvri had already tried to settle the worst of the trade goods on Wanda, and keep the best for herself. And the droids were ship's droids, but even so they were a bit more Halvri's than Wanda's, hard to trust them with the cargo. Wanda probably ought to buy one that would be hers and set it to guarding her cargo and keeping watch. Which led her to--
Item: bits and bobs that Wanda had managed to hold on to. Valuables, mostly, that she'd had on her when this run began, before she'd fallen afoul of those powerful people who had very good reason to cheat at cards,
reasons worth killing for. She'd escaped with her life, and a few things she'd snatched up from the poker table as bargaining chips.
She'd traded away the encryption key and everything it encrypted back at the smuggler's city, but she still had a few things left. Personal stakes, she thought. She'd never looked at them very closely, but she thought some of them might sell for enough to buy a droid.
She opened the box and sorted through them, setting aside a few prospects that looked valuable. Then she realized that the box itself, although it was a bit grimy from everything she'd put it through, was actually a very impressive piece of work. She added it to the pile.
The ship's next stop was Naboo. Wanda found a Naboo classified ad site on the holonet and put a few of her finds up for sale, including the box.
Just before landing on Naboo, Wanda checked and found a message expressing interest in the box. A holojournalist? But it sounded like there might be more to this box than she realized. She was not just curious (but she was a little curious, she had time to be curious), she also thought that maybe if she was able to find out more, then she could perhaps get more for the box when she went to sell it.
And the holojournalist had promised to keep Wanda out of whatever story she was going to create about this.
So when Wanda set off for the meeting -- she'd asked the journalist to arrange for a private place for them to talk -- she was cautiously optimistic. It might even be fun to find out more about this silly little box. After she'd cleaned it up, it was such a whimsical thing, decorated with delicate patterns and elegant, cheerful designs.
There was also something about it that made Wanda feel just a little uneasy, but she chose to ignore that as paranoia. But as she neared the meeting place, she couldn't help but bring the box out, just to check on it. Still exquisite, still mysterious.
Wanda entered the meeting place, and recognizing the holojournalist from the holonet, she nodded her greetings. After making sure they were private, Wanda set the box down on the table between them. It settled with a definite noise like something coming to rest, to home, and Wanda could barely take her eyes away from it. Had it always shimmered in the light like that?