A Conversation

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Unlikely." Aela's famous sense of humor. "I only have access to my account."

Her mother had always been very frugal, and although her parents were incredibly rich Kira had always made sure that her children learned just how valuable credits were. This was established through the creation of bank accounts for the kids. Each of them got a certain amount of money each month that they could spend. More than enough to live off of, but it was limited in a way. The only problem was...well Aela didn't really every touch hers.

The only time she had in recent memories was back on Bastion when she had rented that ship, and that hadn't even made a dent. "I can't run the entire family into the ground."

Besides, she was pretty sure she'd be good at this. Though something occurred to her before they entered, gently pulling her aside.

"Don't use the force." Aela whispered secretly. "That would be cheating."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Casinos by their very nature were engineered to make people lose. Using the Force really, in all honesty would simply be evening the odds a bit.

But Jamie didn't intend on gambling in the first place. She might watch, egg Aela on to lose some of her money, but she wouldn't play. It wasn't something she was going to be good at, and while she was a bit of spoiled nobility, knew better than to simply throw money into a furnace. People had all sorts of reasons for wanting to gamble, and most of the time it ended up coming down to that tiny little chance that you might become an overnight celebrity.

Unlikely.

"You might run yourself into the ground if you're not careful."

Jamie was hardly a frugal person by most standards, but even still, she would rather simply watch.

"I'll get a drink and watch you." Watching Aela fumble her money away would be entertaining enough.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I'll recover." She said with a shrug.

Gambling wasn't exactly something she had ever done. Aela had watched the members of the 5th Legion play various gambling games over the last few months. Liars Dice, Sabacc, and Pazaak mostly, but she doubted that she could play them with any real skill. A frown pulled at her lips as they stepped into the casino proper. There were hundreds, if not thousands of machines, each one with a different game and each one doing something that she had no idea where to start on.

"Let's start with Pazaak." That was easy enough. "And getting some chips."

She glanced at Jamie. "You can start your drinking after."

Vengeance would be hers.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I don't want to play." She said lazily. "I'm content watching."

Why is she being so persistent?

The casino they had stepped into was extravagant, likely one of the nicest in the galaxy. It was dimly lit, though intentionally so, with just enough lighting to see the colors of the games pop, the vibrant signs on display, the many indoor restaurants and bars, as well as some souvenir shops. Various tables of varying stakes for each game were neatly laid out in staggered order to break up the space in the room. Slot machines jingled and jangled about with repeating sounds of winners and losers every other second.

Dozens of bouncers, professionally dressed and wearing fake smiles wandered about the area while servers and hostesses escorted both guest and drink from table to table. It was all a very fluid system. There was even a stage room where shows would be put on through various times of the evening. Some comedy, some dance, some dramatic.

Despite her social aptitude, she still felt strangely out of place here.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela walked through the lobby of the building, wandering with Jamie until they managed to find some Pazaak tables. They were only one on one of course, a dealer and then a player. Some of the tables had two seats opposite the dealer, likely for situations like Jamie and Aela where two people were together and didn't want to separate. Aela marked the location of the tables in her head and then dragged Jamie over towards one of the counters.

"Chips please." Aela said politely, her usual stoic manner having returned for the moment. The lady behind the counter took Aela's credit chit, converting the thousand credits into a large box filled with chips. Aela inspected them for a moment and then smiled, glancing at Jamie before she headed over towards the Pazaak table with two chair.

"You don't have to play." Aela said with a smile, sitting herself down in one of the seats opposite the dealer. "Just have fun."

"Hello ladies."

The dealer said as Aela took her seat, looking at Jamie as he waited for her to sit down.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The blonde flashed a small smile to the man opposite her and Aela, politely sitting with her hands clasped together in her lap. Her eyes studied the table, the chairs, the man and his attire, everything. It was all so deliberate. Places like this made people feel at home, as if time itself had stopped. She took note that there was not a single chrono anywhere to be seen. No watches on any dealer's wrist, no clocks on the walls, no holoprojectors with advertisements that included the time.

Just the same, slow tempo music that repeated subtly over and over again.

It was part of the shtick, to draw people in, to make them feel comfortable and like they had only been gambling a few minutes. It was an effective tactic, but not one that Jamie agreed with at all. It was all so fake. Her focus fell back to Aela as the girl jumbled some chips around in the bucket, before setting them on the table which the dealer hungrily snapped up into his hand before the girl would have an opportunity to object.

"Kay." She said, crossing her leg over the other.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Pazaak was probably the easiest game that one could participate in. There were two players, each one got a deck of twenty five cards. The cards were simple numbers that when played one add or subtract whatever amount was painted on them. Certain cards could be either addition or subtraction. You drew five cards at the beginning of a round and then began the round. When a round began the dealer simply played out from a regular deck that had cards from one through ten in it, playing a card each turn.

The goal was to get as close as you could to twenty, if you went over, you lost. It was a fairly straightforward game, and out of all of the ones at the Casino probably the one that Aela had a best chance at actually winning. It was all about mathematics and simple intuition, both of which she was rather good at, something that Jamie quickly found out as Aela won the first round, doubling her modest bets with a wide grin. "There. See not that hard."

She bragged as a Waitress came up behind them.

"Would you care for anything to drink?"

The girl peered at both Jamie and Aela, the latter freezing up slightly as she quickly realized that she'd never actually ordered an alcoholic drink before in her entire life save for when she had been undercover as a Crime Lord. Did she even like alcohol?

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Now there was something she could go for!

Jamie turned to the woman standing off to the side with a datapad in hand, partway bent towards the two girls to ensure she could hear them over the ambient noises of the casino around them.

"Red wine, please. Whatever your house is I'm sure will be exquisite."

At a place like this alcohol of just about all varieties was certain to be expensive by nature, so there was little worry in her mind that ordering the house wine would be a bad idea. Jamie's expression didn't change when she turned back to Aela, however. The blonde, despite not venturing into a casino before, was smart enough to know you didn't lose every time, otherwise nobody would play. They had to rope you in a little, get you hooked, feel like you could win every time. The moment you bet it all though? It was over.

"Luck." She said bluntly. "Don't get yourself addicted." Gambling could be just as bad, if not worse, as spice or other substances.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela shrugged. "Probably."

Even with the 'fun' persona that she was wearing tonight she wasn't silly enough to fall into the hole of gambling. Aela knew very well what her limits were and just how far she could go with everything she did. This...well this was for fun. It wasn't like she had taken all of her money ever, there was still plenty in the bank.

"I'll have..." She frowned for a second. "A Felucian Sunrise."

It was a drink that Adder had ordered once.

She hadn't been able to try it at the time, but it had sounded good at the time. Felucian Vodka mixed with a splash of Corellian Whisy and some sort of fruit that had beautiful leaves. At the time her 'character' had been drinking some sort of wine, but tonight was supposed to be about adventure, or that was the way Aela was thinking of.

"Right away."

The Waitress took a bow and headed off.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie stared at Aela as the waitress walked away. By all accounts it was likely because she had never had alcohol in her system before, but Jamie was unaware of such a fact. Therefore, she simply assumed the girl was trying to get hammered as quickly as possible. A hand ran up through her now dried, though rather disheveled hair, tilting her head slightly whilst doing her best to make it look at least somewhat decent. Her fingers caught a few snarls as she worked, causing her face to make small grimaces each time, though in between chirped up.

"Felucian Sunrise?" Jamie stayed away from vodka. "I'm not carrying you home, you know."

One tall, strong glass of that and Jamie would find herself laughing at her shadow. Two? Two would be bad. Two would be troublesome. And if she had ever the gall to go for a third she would no longer be remembering the evening. A hazy concoction of moments would be about the best way to describe how her memory would be after a night of vodka at the wheel. That was why she stuck to wine. It was simple to pace, and was not masked by the aroma or sweetness of sugary fruits.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I'm not going to chug the thing." Aela said as she once again began to play Pazaak with the dealer across form her. The man seemed to smile at Aela, as if he had heard the phrase before. She glanced at him for only a moment, then back down at the virtual cards on the screen in front of him. She swiped one up then continued talking to Jamie.

"Besides." She told Jamie. "I have an amazing constitution."

She wasn't quite sure if that was true or not, but it took an abnormal amount of sedatives to knock her unconscious and she could generally take a beating better than anyone she'd ever known, so she figured that factored into it somewhere. "It'll be fine."

Probably.

Aela swiped another card forward landing on 19 and locking it into place.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"If you say so."

Jamie's eyes flicked up to the dealer who was wearing a small smirk of his own. It was like the man had heard these very conversations a thousand times over. They likely always went the same. One cautioned the other about this or that, the other waived and shrugged it off as though they were some type of professional gambler or overly informed patron. The next thing they knew? They were on the floor, broke, being carried out by security with no money to even call a taxi. That, or they found their way to someone's hotel room they wouldn't have ordinarily spent the evening with under typical circumstances!

The dealer made a note of Aela's play, revealing his own, an 18. Again, Aela had won the game of luck.

Jamie rolled her eyes. If this kept up she would think she was some kind of professional gambler. Beside them though, it seemed like the couple were having the opposite luck, as they were both shouting at each other, one telling the other to go sell their watch for more chips to win back their lost credits. The other vehemently defending their protest to leave while they still had the clothes on their backs. The most interesting factoid of the situation though was how still, and calm the dealer remained while they argued, as if it didn't phase him in the slightest.

Another minute passed, and they stood from their chairs and stormed off.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela glanced over towards Jamie for a few moments, looking at the younger woman and the odd...almost blank expression that she wore. A frown settled on her lips for a few seconds, observing the way Jamie watched the other couple.

Gently the Jedi Master bumped her padawan, leaning over to just gently nudge her and speak quietly. "Are you alright?"

If Jamie wasn't enjoying their time at the casino Aela would have been more than happy to leave. Though she was enjoying playing pazaak she certainly didn't want to stay if Jamie was feeling uncomfortable. More subtle emotions were somewhat difficult to read through the bracelet, especially with all the excitement.

The Waitress returned with their drinks a few moments later, placing them on the small side tables besides both of the girls.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

What was their story?

She wondered where the two had come from, what brought them here, what had happened, and how many credits they had lost during their time at the Pazaak table.

Caught up in a sort of trance, mesmerized by watching the two argue had zoned her out for a moment. She snapped out of it after hearing the clank of the two glasses against the similarly glass top tables. It startled her for some reason, making her flinch as if she heard the glass shattering in Kurt's hospital room again. For half a second she didn't realize where exactly she was, then everything came rushing back. "Hm?" She blinked, looking back to Aela. "Oh. Yes."

She flashed a small smile. "I'm fine."

Picking up the rounded wine glass with two fingers beneath it and her thumb along the belly she raised it slowly to Aela. "Cheers."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She frowned for a second but decided it was best not to push. "Cheers."

Aela clinked her glass against Jamie's smiling slightly before taking a small sip from the Felucian Sunrise. The drink smelled...well incredibly pungent, but somehow good, like you would a very strong flower. The two pieces of fruit that had been slipped into the alcohol added a fantastic amount of flavour that Aela hadn't quite expected, her eyes popping open. The alcohol, the usual kick that came with Vodka and Whisky was completely hidden...at least until the burn hit her throat.

She squinted for a moment, working through the burn.

"You have to try this!" She told Jamie, ignoring the dealer for a second. "It's delicious."

She waggled the drink in Jamie's face.

Jamie had said she was fine, though Aela could still feel the slight...hint of unease and worry within Jamie. It was hidden a bit, but the underlying stress and everything else was still there. Aela couldn't blame her of course, she'd been through a lot, but she wanted her to feel better, and thus the night would have to continue.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Of course it's delicious you Dodo head! It's why they're so dangerous!

Jamie did as she was asked, pulling back on her wine glass and setting it down before taking hold of Aela's oddly hourglass shaped glass. She drew in the smell through her nose, and sure enough, all hint of alcohol was masked behind sugary sweet fruit. Her fingers held onto the small red straw in the cup that accented the yellowish orange within the glass and took a small sip. Almost immediately she tasted the sweetness roll over her tongue as her lips released the straw, handing it back to Aela.

"Mhm." She said with a nod, before swallowing the liquid. "Careful."

The girl shook her head, as if she had re-convinced herself. "Two of those and you'll be silly. I'm warning you now."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I think I detect a bit of jealousy in your voice." Aela regarded the terminal in front of her once again.

She frowned for a moment as she noticed the dealer had been waiting more than a few minutes. She flashed him an emberassed smile and then continued on with the game. She upped her bet this time, mostly because she felt like she was ready to play a few higher stakes. The machine dolled out her hand and Aela immediately frowned, having drawn only three minus cards and one plus one. It wasn't a good hand, even she knew that but she would deal with it.

Taking a sip from her drink Aela began to play.

She got to 17, frowning for a moment and looking up at the dealer. Slowly she played out her minus two card, thinking that there was a decent enough chance she got a card drawn that would be below a five.

Fifty fifty was better than nothing. "I don't blame you though. Wine is rather boring."

She teased Jamie.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"It is not boring."

The ever predictable eye roll returned. "It is classy. And a predictable excitement."

Unlike fruity masked alcoholic drinks that were made differently each and every time, and by hundreds of millions of bartenders across the galaxy, wine was more or less always the same. You uncorked it, poured a glass, and that was that. Simple. Elegant. Delicious.Though she never really cared much for white wine. Even the pairings that it seemed to be best with never caught her senses very well. Even back home, there was never a meal she preferred white to red over. Odd, seeing as her parents both enjoyed white from time to time.

"What you've got there is for people who don't know their limits and want to get drunk without tasting the alcohol. It's okay for beginners."

Jamie actually had no idea whether Aela drank much at all, but it was equally insulting even if she did drink regularly.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"First of all. Just because I don't drink...." The dealer locked in an 18 and she frowned for a moment. "...Doesn't make me a beginner."

It actually did, but Aela was in no mood to argue that point.

She had only ever had alcohol during that one week as a Crime Lord and even then she had drank...sparingly, precisely for the reason that Jamie talked about. Drinking wasn't exactly her strong-suit, and as much as she joked about her constitution the stuff went right to her head. There was no need to admit that though, not when she could just drink slowly while she played. "Besides, Pazaak is hardly a classy game."

Aela glanced up at the dealer. "Sorry."

The man smiled slightly.

"No Problem Miss."

Aela looked over at Jamie and shrugged, taking another sip just as the machine dealt her a seven. She frowned slightly as the machine blinked about her first loss, the fifty credits that she had earned on the first two bets quickly disappearing.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"It doesn't huh?" Jamie clapped her lips together, turning in the chair to have a quick look around. "Okay."

We'll just see about that, little Miss Talith.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Ma'am?!" She shouted towards a server that had just set a platter of drinks down at a Sabaac table with a group of people watching. The woman gestured with her finger as if to quietly ask if Jamie was shouting for her. When the blonde nodded, the woman strolled cordially over to she and Aela. "Yes? What can I do for you?" Jamie smirked, partially standing up to whisper a series of words into the woman's ear who nodded and strode away.

Jamie sat back down with a thump into the chair, watching Aela lose some more credits while she waited patiently.

[member="Aela Talith"]