Chapter Text
From the outside looking in, Tango Veyrah was just a normal barista in a normal cafe. That couldn’t possibly be further from the truth. He was a Blaze, an alien species heavily oppressed in Aspenfall, and the proprietor of the Melting Pot, a small tech cafe and bar where illegal transactions of all kinds took place on the regular.
Tango was busy mediating a rather heated interaction between an angry Blaze and a smug human when everything went silent. He looked to the door to see a lithe human sporting shaggy cyan hair scanning the room with piercing eyes.
When the mystery man locked eyes with Tango, he sent a shiver down the Blaze’s spine. Excusing himself, he went over to the bar where the man had sat down.
“What can I do for you?” he asked, sliding behind the counter.
While the blonde projected confidence, in reality he was thoroughly terrified. This man’s eyes scared him. It was almost as though he could see his soul by looking into his eyes and reveal his true identity to the world.
The cyanette lifted his curious gaze to meet Tango’s.
“You the boss around here?”
Tango hated that the sound of the man’s voice made his heart flutter. His foreign accent was intoxicating.
“That would be me. Veyrah, at your service.”
The cyanette smiled at the admission of a last name only.
“Call me Rho, then. I need something from you, Mr. Veyrah.”
That came as a big surprise to Tango. He only ever oversaw transactions between others. Nobody came to him for anything.
“Well,” he said in an almost playful manner, “you’ll have to tell me what that is before I agree to it, Rho.”
Rho definitely caught Tango’s accidentally flirtatious tone, as he raised an eyebrow at that. Luckily, he didn’t press it.
“I need help with a job, and Moon and Tay told me you were the one to come to for that.”
Tango was flattered that retired thievery experts Moon and Tay themselves had recommended him to this man. There must’ve been something in it for them. They’d never truly let go of their thieving instincts.
“That means you know my rules, then. You need my help, you play my way. I have a strong team that works with me on heists, and they’re going to come with us.”
Etho and Impulse were Tango’s best friends and secret weapons. Impulse worked with the hacking collective known as Pixie/Dust as the legendary SV to steal important assets from corrupt human corporations. He also knew his way around a security system. Etho was a literal ninja, striking from the shadows and all that. No matter the stakes, there was no one Tango would rather have by his side.
“Fair enough.” Rho shrugged indifferently, resigned to Tango’s rules. “I bring the mark intel, you bring the crew."