A chance to relax

[Lauri Törni]

Lauri had been busy for the past few months. Since the liberation of Commenor, and its subsequent government reformation, he'd been helping to train the new recruits to the planet's defense forces. Now, he finally had a chance to take a break.

The young lieutenant sat in a bar, out of uniform and with a drink in his hand. Lauri wanted to spend the night relaxing, but he still couldn't shake the constant vigil that had been drilled into him. so, he looked around the bar, observing the other patrons.

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

The young woman was loyal to the Sith, but she was still independent enough to want a night out for drinks. When the Sith had attacked Commenor, she had not been involved and knew very little of the whole deal.

Tonight she wore a loose skirt of dark blue and lighter blue shirt. Since this was a night out to drink and relax, she carried no weapons. She was trained to fight though so if something broke out, she felt confident enough that she could defend herself.

She walked with a great amount of confidence and up to the bar. Next to her was a man that looked like he could be military, but he wasn't in any uniform. She nodded to him as she waited for the drink she ordered to arrive. It was clear he was watching for somebody or something. Bryn wasn't looking for trouble and did not indicate she would cause any.

Her drink arrived, she paid for it and took a sip. Leaning against the counter, she didn't speak to the man, but it might show in her stance she wanted to. Showing emotion was considered a weakness, but somethings were difficult to keep entirely buried. Curiosity was one of them. While she could control giving voice to it, she couldn't hide the fact she wanted to talk to him.

[member="Lauri Törni"]

 

[Lauri Törni]

Lauri took a drink of his drink. The other patrons had been mostly what he expected, shady figures, young friends out for a night of partying, drunks, and a few other soldiers, also on leave. Only one patron stood out to him. It was a young woman, dressed in blue. She walked up next to him and nodded, not hiding her interest. With no one else of note, Lauri turned to her, and spoke.

"Hello."


[member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

He took the opening she offered and said hello. Noting he was considerably taller than she was, Bryn had to look up to meet his eyes. Not showing any real emotion, she gave him a polite nod and smile. Lifting her glass to take another drink, she waited to return the greeting until she set it back down.

"Hello. I am Bryn."

Holding her now empty hand out to him to shake, she wasn't on any mission and was ready to try and be social for a change. Maybe even make a friend or two.

"What's your name?"

[member="Lauri Törni"]

 

[Lauri Törni]

"Lauri."

He shook Bryn's hand, before taking another drink. He rarely got a chance to drink, so he savored the taste. He smiled to himself, thinking about how he almost never got to be social. tonight would be a nice change of pace. He turned back to the stranger, speaking again.

"So, what brings you here?"


[member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

Tipping her head just slightly when he provided his name, she considered his question. What had brought her here? She had recently been exposed to various things and wanted to experiment, but since they had just met Bryn didn't feel proper really telling him that much about why.

"To get away and make an escape for a night. What about you?"

The drink tempted her and she took another sip. Looking up again, she waited on his answer. Maybe it would be similar to hers.

[member="Lauri Törni"]

 

[Lauri Törni]

Lauri took another drink before amswering.


"About the same as you. Relax. Destress. After all, that's what alcohol is made for."

The lieutenant glanced at his now empty glass, and called for another. He lookes over the girl standing next to her, and caught her eye. They were differemt colors, likely from an prior accident, and also probably a touchy subject. Lauri didn't broach the subject, instead taking a drink from his refilled glass.

[member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

"To destress then."

Holding her glass out in a small toast, this was something she felt proper to do. After they clinked together, Bryn took a sip and set it down again. Looking closer at him, she realized they were about the same age. Tow young people out for drinks and the chance to relax.

"What is it you are trying to get away from?"

That was the purpose for drinking after all.

[member="Lauri Törni"]

 

[Lauri Törni]

The two glasses clinked as he accepted the toast, and Lauri answered after taking another sip.

"Work, mainly. Been busy training new recruits for the past few months."
He paused for a moment, then added that he was a Commenori soldier as a brief afterthought.
Just after the words left his mouth, a memory of the frontlines wormed its way into his mind and lauri shuddered, attempting to push the thought to the back of his mind. Distracting himself with the conversation, he turned back to Bryn.

"What about you?"

[member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

"Work seems to take up lives and eats them away, doesn't it?"

While the question was asked, it was meant more as an observation than anything that needed answering. Lauri mentioned he was a Commenori soldier and she nodded.

"We are each soldiers then it seems."

She could tell something disturbed him, but since she had no sense of right or wrong, she wasn't bothered by much. Not having been involved on Commenor when her Empire had attacked, she only knew of what had happened.

Meeting him in the eyes, she answered.

"I am a soldier of the Empire. A special breed or so I was told."

One eye was clearly cybernetic and that might be a clue as to what she meant.

[member="Lauri Törni"]

 

[Lauri Törni]

A chill went down Lauri's back. She was with the Sith. Now the memory that had come forth unbidden began to overtake his mind, filling it with visions of the battle. He sat, staring down at his drink. She said she hadn't been there, but she still aided the monsters who had.

After several moments of silence, Lauri spoke with a slight tremor in his voice.

"Oh."


He took another sip, letting the drink numb his mind.



[member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

A look of loss and distance filled his face and Bryn knew exactly why. There was a chance that someday they could meet and be enemies. That wasn't something she had thought of.

"We are both soldiers and follow the orders given to us. You and I don't have a choice or not much of one. If we don't deploy and fight, then we are seen as deserters."

This woman had no family and one friend in all her life or all that she remembered at least. Sympathy and empathy were somethings she lacked and didn't miss them. This didn't mean she didn't have feelings, she just had them so far repressed from her brainwashing and training, she didn't know much about being human.

If she said she was sorry, they would be nothing but empty words.

"Someday you will be free of your duty. Mine will never end."


[member="Lauri Törni"]

 

[Mercutio]

Mercutio slowly stepped into the bar, hidden under deep layers of his force cloak, deep enough to even slip by the keenest of senses. His mind led him to this place out of familiarity with its like. It was by far his true destination, but his ship needed refueling and minor repairs so here he came to kill...
some time.
He arrived just to catch the tail end of the conversation between the only two who stood out amongst the other patrons. As he stepped closer he allowed his cloak to fade, reaching forward between the two, tapping the bar, requesting a 'Korriban Red Water' before stepping back a step, looking between the two as he awaited his drink.

"Its futile attempting to make a human understand the meaning of 'forever'."

He stated, in reference to [member="Bryn Celli Ddu"] response to him about a never ending duty.
Though he himself appeared human aside from the skin tight suit that covered him nearly head to toe, the only biological components of him in the open being his well kept long blond hair that hung down well passed his waist.
There was a very slight, almost unnoticeable tilt of his head toward [member="Lauri Törni"]

"No offense meant. Just stating a fact."

His voice was fluid and held a certain melody to it that didn't quite seem to match his almost cyborg like appearance, but deeper within held a story of joy but also of deep sorrow.

 

[Lauri Törni]

Lauri sat for a while, silent. Bryn's words were true, but he felt angry still. He knew rationally that she likely had no involvement with the Sith invasion of Commenor, and that he shouldn't be angry at her for the deaths he witnessed. Still, his mind wrought forth a storm of anger, sorrow, and the emptiness he let consume him during battle. But what did she mean by hers would never end?

His contemplations were interrupted by a man with long, blonde hair. Lauri turned to this new stranger and responded to him.

"None taken. But, um...who might you be?"


[member="Mercutio"]

[member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

When a person came up between the two of them, she looked up and noticed right away he was much like her. Though it appeared she was still far more flesh than he was. She was far from immortal and could be killed, but tonight wasn't going to be a fight for her life. It was a night for drinking, mingling and doing what she wanted.

"You really think so? We are not as immortal as you might think. Bryn."

With his last words, they indicated he was more human than she was. That he had intended no offence by what he said. It was more than she could ever project she thought. Not that she cared one way or the other.

Taking a drink, her liver started processing the alcohol and would prevent her from getting drunk. Her drinking partner was curious as to who the newcomer was and she looked between the two of them. Her name had already been given to the stranger.

Picking up something else from him, she realized was hiding something. Not knowing was it was, her cybernetic eye started looking at him far more closely than it had been before.

[member="Lauri Törni"] [member="Mercutio"]

 

[Mercutio]

"I do not even know 'who' I am anymore. However, what I am is a serpent, recently stripped of an old skin."

Mercutio replied both poetically as well as vaguely.
When his drink finally arrived he forced pulled the glass, of what appeared to be nothing more than water tainted by red clay, to his awaiting hand, so as not to be unintentionally rude by reaching between the two for a second time.
He tilted his head to the side, pressing a nerve sensor that removed the plate covering his lips, slightly unveiling the marred remnants of his mouth, before taking deep drink, finishing the glass in a single swallow.
Another click of his neck and horror of his scars was hidden once more.
A slender blonde brow arched just over the top of his facial covering as he looked to [member="Bryn Celli Ddu"] his eyes taking notice of the hers as the trailed over him.
Only a moment passed however before he looked back to [member="Lauri Törni"]

"You may fight for a cause, and dedicate or even sacrifice your life for it. Or attempt to justify living as 'living for the cause is harder than dying for it' But in the end your cause too will fade from memory, maybe tomorrow, or next year or a thousand years. Make what you can while you can."

He then bumped Lauris chest with the back of his hand as if in comradery. But it was blatantly an empty gesture, perhaps out of habit.

 

[Mercutio]

"I do not even know 'who' I am anymore. However, what I am is a serpent, recently stripped of an old skin."

Mercutio replied both poetically as well as vaguely.
When his drink finally arrived he forced pulled the glass, of what appeared to be nothing more than water tainted by red clay, to his awaiting hand, so as not to be unintentionally rude by reaching between the two for a second time.
He tilted his head to the side, pressing a nerve sensor that removed the plate covering his lips, slightly unveiling the marred remnants of his mouth, before taking deep drink, finishing the glass in a single swallow.
Another click of his neck and horror of his scars was hidden once more.
A slender blonde brow arched just over the top of his facial covering as he looked to [member="Bryn Celli Ddu"] his eyes taking notice of the hers as the trailed over him.
Only a moment passed however before he looked back to [member="Lauri Törni"]

"You may fight for a cause, and dedicate or even sacrifice your life for it. Or attempt to justify living as 'living for the cause is harder than dying for it' But in the end your cause too will fade from memory, maybe tomorrow, or next year or a thousand years. Make what you can while you can."

He then bumped Lauris chest with the back of his hand as if in comradery. But it was blatantly an empty gesture, perhaps out of habit.

 

[Lauri Törni]

Lauri watched as the new stranger pulled the drink to him with the force. He hadn't had many interactions with force users, only hearing stories. Soon after, the stranger bumbed Lauri on the chest, a gesture that he'd seen many times amongst his recruits. The man's words, however, held a different tone.

"I don't what happens after I'm gone. Won't be there to see it."

After thinking a little longer and taking another drink, Lauri spoke again, trying to lighten the mood.

"I take it I'm the only one of us three who can get drunk?"


[member="Mercutio"]
[member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

 

[Bryn Celli Ddu]

"Who were you then?"

His words indicated he had made a new life and she didn't know if it was for the better or worse. From the way he looked, it was for the better. His choice of drink appeared odd to her, but she made no comment and she watched him lift it between her and Lauri with the Force.

That was something she was still learning about all of that and had yet to perform that trick. So far she really only understood some ways of being sneaky. The door to the Force had only recently been opened for her and she had so much to learn. If this new man had the ability to sense the Force around other people, then he would easily pick this up from her.

"I too live for a cause and that is the Sith Empire. They made me who I am and I work for them. To them I am nothing though and not even worth thinking about. Nothing more than canon fodder. It is my fate to die that way."

Peering around Mercutio to look at Lauri, she lifted her glass to him.

"To not knowing what is in the Beyond. Correct, I am unable to get drunk. Being what I am has quite a few benefits. I don't know about him."

[member="Lauri Törni"] [member="Mercutio"]

 

[Mercutio]

Threw his empty glass up into the air nonchalantly before catching it with a single finger. He slowly lifted it up to the side of his head, balancing it on the tip of his right index finger before carefully using his thumb to slowly make it spin.

"I am capable of intoxication. However, I choose not to anymore."

Mercutio said with a hushed tone in response to [member="Lauri Törni"] 's question. His attention then moved to the other one, [member="Bryn Celli Ddu"]

"Made you who you are? So they specifically chose which man would perform the horizontal tango with a specific female in order to produce you? That is of course if you were made of flesh at some point in the past?"

He asked, still absent mindedly spinning the glass

"Seems an awful amount of trouble just for cannon fodder. Or perhaps did you mean the Sith Empire made you what you are? Does not appear to have done you any favors in terms of physicality as far as I can see... though I'm only truly looking at the surface. I would like to explore you a bit more deeply.."

In his mind what was left of his old self smirked at the possible alternate meaning to his words, though he only meant it in terms of
enhancements and alterations.

"And to answer your question: I was no one of importance to anyone save perhaps one. Though that is as yet unconfirmed, but soon to be one way or another."

The glass finally ceased to spin, slowly turning one last time before coming to a halt. Suddenly, with a simple flick of his wrist, the glass disappeared and was replaced with an old fashioned black paper card held between two fingers.
He placed the jet black card down onto the bar and slid it over to Bryn.

"If you ever have the... interest in being.. 'explored,' or simply seek the temporary companionship of one more or possibly less like yourself, you can find me at these coordinates. I'll be planet side for a little while longer."

With that he waved a hand and his empty glass landed upside atop the card, having removed his force cloak from it before turning and wrapping the force around himself once more, disappearing from the natural senses and all but most advanced technology.