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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2023594" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 147: Relative Sanity“That’s stupid, Akan,” Shadow said, standing there with her hands on her hips and looking about as annoyed as she sounded. Of course, Akan was trying to fight a grin back at her higher pitched voice. Why he found it funny to see her stuck as a human, he wasn’t sure...but it was. He didn’t mind being human...obviously. He’d grown up human. Lived most of his life human.  But Shadow hadn’t, and it was obvious.    “Its not stupid!” he replied, wandering over to a very comfortable chair but not actually sitting in it. Instead he just leaned over the back, looking past the shorter Shadow and out into the skyline of the late afternoon of Nar Shaddaa. There was a soft orange glow to everything, and he was doing his best to ignore the blue glow of the ‘Halpak Industries’ sign. Closing his eyes, Akan grumbled, “Its intelligent. The last thing he would expect is for us to walk right into the lobby and ask to meet him. He’ll never know it was us.”    “Yes. He. Will. How many times do I have to tell you that?!” she threw up her arms in frustration and stormed over to the wall to glare at it, knowing she might have to throw something at Akan if she kept her focus on him, “He will smell us! That doesn’t change!”    “It should.”    “It doesn’t!”    Akan sighed. Alright. New strategy, “Even if it doesn’t change, how could he notice the smell if we’re just in the lobby?”    “He could have his office right there,” she said, glancing over her shoulder a moment before the feeling to harm Akan returned and she had to look away again.    Rolling his eyes, Akan said, “A guy that puts his name on everything would have his office at the very top so he could be above the galaxy.”    “Sounds like you have some experience with that,” Shadow grinned slightly and walked back towards Akan, getting bored with just glaring a hole in the wall.    “It’s a pilot thing,” he said with a shrug, not in the mood to argue anymore than he had to at this point. At least he’d been able to take that damned tunic off. The high collar had been far too high and he felt like he couldn’t breathe in it. Shadow, on the other hand, seemed quiet comfortable in his clothes...even though they were big on her. She was probably just doing that out of spite. Probably? Nah. Definitely. Seeing that she wasn’t going to bend at all(neither was he, of course, but sometimes you just had to move on), Akan tried a completely different approach, “So what was your idea, then?”    Shadow wandered around a large couch before plopping down on it and laying back. She idly rested her head off the side and stared at the currently upside-down world while she said, “Well, we know where he is, so searching for him isn’t necessary anymore. I figured we could find some places near the building and see what they know. Just general things to work with until the Voorts get here.”    Why so cautious all of a sudden? Marix’s voice slipping into her thoughts in that usual annoying way.    Shadow mentally rolled her eyes. Ket isn’t a fool and you know it. The more careful we are, the better chance we’ll have.    It’s a trap and you know it.    Exactly why we should take our time Shadow sat up straight and looked over to Akan again, “We have to do this slowly, Akan. This is a trap. Ket loves traps and he’s good with them. And just because we know that this is a trap doesn’t mean we can do anything about it. If we take this slowly, there’s more a chance that we’ll succeed and...and make it out alive...and with Loki.”    To her surprise, Akan nodded. The sun had set now, leaving the smuggler’s moon to b e lit only by the many smaller lights across the countless buildings. Looking off into the darker sections, Akan asked idly, “So what do we do now?”    “First off,” Shadow said rising her hand and getting to her feet, “You put that tunic on and tidy yourself up to look more important. Then, we go and ask some questions.”    It took Akan a good long time do ‘tidy himself up’, as his version of tidy was very different from that of the rest of the galaxy. Even Shadow understood the concept, at least. His constant ‘better yet?’ question was eventually only countered by Shadow yelling back ‘Cut your hair!’. Which he should. No self respecting noble would look that scruffy. But that seemed to be the one thing he wasn’t going to do. Ah well...she’d cut it while he was asleep if it came to that.    So finally, they took to the streets of Nar Shaddaa. Shadow led the way through the maze of catwalks and balconies, around buildings and up at least three before they could finally see the Halpak building again. Of course, reaching anywhere near that was going to take more time...it took an hour. Amazingly, Akan didn’t complain the entire time, and had remained silent and done a very good job in his current role.  They passed by a countless number of bars, clubs, and really anything else one could imagine. They passed at least twice that many different species, to the point where even Shadow had given up figuring them out.    Now they walked towards the base of the Halpak tower. It was three blocks away from the look of things, and Shadow had decided that they would take a left...now. She made sure Akan knew this by giving him a sharp look over her shoulder and the usual order through their link. Weaving through the crowd, Shadow walked over to a fairly interesting looking bar. Passing by an older looking male Twi’lek at the door, Shadow glanced over her shoulder to check on Akan. He wasn’t there. She stopped and looked around. Nothing.    [Dammit, Akan!] she growled through the link and then charged back after him. No wonder he was so quiet. Keep his thoughts quiet and she’d not detect his plan to go ahead with his original idea. Idiot! Again, she made a mental note to beat him sane...but flagged the note as ‘urgent’ this time.</blockquote>

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