Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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A is for Alcohol

Force, was Zandra ever in a sorry state. Half her crew dead, the other half goin' straight, and now she had this bloody robotic limb to keep her company. She didn't get any credits either for all her trouble. No. All she managed was to steal a few pounds of 'stardust' from the ship. Hardly worth anything, especially since Zandra had used most of it herself as an anesthetic before the operation.

She curled her mechanical hand, now covered in a black leather glove. It felt so weird still. She felt every touch, but it still was not hers. This was not the hand that Calico had held onto during their wedding. This was not the hand that cradled her children. This was not the hand that fought and won countless battles in the stars.

The pirate looked the bar tender up and down. She'd been here almost all night. After drinking herself half dead, she was actually starting to sober up. This was bad. Sober was bad. She had to get drunk again before she went back to her ship to sleep off the inevitable hang over.
 
Tugging on the high collar of his waistcoat, pulling it up so that it once again was pulled taught across his body and hid his mouth from the view of others. It was only a few hours earlier, going by the timepiece he had hanging from the inside of his brown waistcoat, that he had finally grown sick of his parents fecaj and left his family's estate, taking with him only a few things. One of the few things was the large and antique slugthrower rifle that hung over his back, dwarfing the size of his torso. The wooden of the stock was a deep brown and in lain with curling lines of silver.

Stepping silently into a slightly run down cantina, Ydrin cast his mismatched purple eyes, one having a black film replacing the whites fully apart from a small ring around the pupil, around the room, cataloguing every person he saw. With quiet thuds of his boot clad feet, the young male strode towards the bar with a confident gait, one installed in him from birth by his family, which were of the few noble families to live on the peaceful planet of Naboo.

His reason for stepping into such a place was simple, he wished to observe the social interaction of people. To register how acquaintances and unknowns interacted with each other at different levels of blood alcohol readings. This was but a simple way for him to start understanding how those his parents classed as 'Lower Beings' socially mingled with each other, something he wished to research.

Stepping up to the bar, Ydrin gracefully collapsed his frame onto a bar stool a few places down from a blonde haired, much like himself, woman who seemed to be starring at one of her hands. Shrugging of this piece of information as something to do with existing in a social situation that he still did not know about, Ydrin silently gestured for the barman to pace him a drink. He did not dare trust his voice, he knew how it got when he interacted with those he was not close with.


[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]
 
"oi," Zandra grumbled to the kid that had just sat down, "Ain' seen you 'round these parts."

It was true enough. Zandra, despite being an outlaw, had something like an immunity here. The Queens dear ol' husband just happened to be an old friend of hers. As long as she didn't go around kill nobody, or stealin' nothing, she was safe. This was one of two planets she could hang around comfortably.

She cracked her neck loudly and whirled around in her seat to face the kid.

"Ya lost or somethin'?"

She pulled out a cigara and lit it up, fumbling slightly with her new hand. Kark. That had been her sword hand too. How was she ever gunna fight again?

[member="Ydrin"]
 
Ydrin jerked slightly as a slightly harsh, feminine voice voice addressed him suddenly, jerking him out of the stupor he had fallen into while starring at the amber liquid of whatever drink in was he had been served by the bartender. Turning slightly, he twisted to face the woman he had noticed earlier. He was sure that, upon seeing the stare that bordered on a glare being fixed on him by said woman that he should of felt something, but like in nearly every other situation he had lived through, he felt nothing.

"M-me?" 'Frink!' Ydrin cursed mentally as he stuttered. This was why he tried not to speak more than needed. Every time he spoke to someone he was not close with, his voice would break on every or nearly every word that he spoke. "N-no. I'm n-not l-lost. J-just nev-ver stepped-d into th-this area bef-fore." Again he cursed mentally towards his stutter.

Turning sharply back to the bar top once again, Ydrin resumed his task of staring into the liquid within the glass he held between the fingertips of his right hand. He once again began to sink back into his mind, attempting to plan his next steps now that he was free from the guard of his parents. 'I can't stay on Naboo. Their reach is to extensive for me not to think that they could find a way to drag me back, even if I have just taken a large amount of there money.' He shifted slightly, feeling the bag of credit chips laying heavily in pocket. 'My only option is to get off world, but I have no ship and I'm not willing to shell out on money, I have no intentions to blow through it all, I've got to make it last until I can secure a steady stream on income.'


[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]
 
The pirate raised a thin white eyebrow at the boy. Woah. She must've scared him somethin' fierce. Nobody stuttered like that unless she had a knife to their throat. She could hardly hold her cigarette, let alone a knife right now. Her hand was still healing, after all.

"Woah, woah, kid. Sorry. Didn' mean ta make ya nervous. Was jus' askin'."

She took a deep puff of her cigara, glanced around and decided that maybe a nervous kid like this was her ticket off world after all.

"Ya know, I know somethin' that could help ya calm down some. Ever try 'Stardust'?"

[member="Ydrin"]
 
A small scoff was torn from Ydrin's throat as the woman once again addressed him. Sighing, he placed his drink back onto the bar and turned to face his fellow blonde and faint feeling of annoyance rumbling within him. At this rate, he would not be able to plan out his method off world."

"Y-you didn-n't s-scare me." He kept it short, he had no obligation to go into detail about the reasons behind his stutter, as such no more words were needed. Why would he waste time speaking when there was no need to continue of after the relevant information had been given to the person or persons you were in a conversation with. Even after reading about it, the reasoning and logic behind 'Small Talk' continued to evade Ydrin.

"I-I've ne-ever heard of-f 'Star-ardust' b-before. Al-lthough if I wa-as t-to guess-s, woul-ld I b-be righ-ght in th-thinking tha-at it's-s a v-variant of Gl-litt-ter Stim, o-or some other-er drug-g?" He slowly reached out and reclaimed his drink before raising it to his lips. Before he took his sip, though, he spoke again. "A-and pl-lease do-on't call me 'Ki-id'. Th-the n-name's Ydrin."


[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]
 
Ah. So the stutter was something else. Interesting. Well, who was she to judge? None of her business. The woman shrugged it off, blowing a ring of smoke in the boys direction.

"Ha, sorry, sorry. Anyone younger than me seems like a kid now a days."z

The cigarette shook slightly in her hand, sending burning white ash into her lap. She paid it no mind, even as the heat damaged the shining leather pants she wore. She smirked, leaning in slightly as if telling a secret.

"It's the best you'll ever find," she told him, "Trust me."

Trust her. Yeah. She would know. She'd tried everything. Nothing had managed to kill her yet, of course. Maybe she wasn't using enough? Time to up the dosage? Yeah. That was it.

[member="Ydrin"]
 
His mismatched eye scanned the woman's face when he noticed that her arm had begun to shake, spilling white ash into her lap from the steadily burning end of her cigarette. 'No sign of pain within the eyes or body, leaving the options of suppression of pain, suppression of reaction or lack of pain.' Upon seeing the unnatural shakes, the medic within Ydrin's mind had awoke and perked to attention before running through his mind and taking over. 'Trousers are leather. Heat damage shows that they're not non-flammable. No sudden twitch of leg in instinctive recoil shows that they do offer some protection, at least, against cigarette ash.' He paused to wave away the smoke ring before it could reach his face. He had the intention to inhale as little smoke as he could, he would not let it damage his lungs lightly. 'Prognosis of arm is unavailable due to glove, though. Leaving the cause of the shaking up to the three options mentioned.' Sighing, Ydrin returned his attention to the conversation.

"No." His tone was curt and clipped. "I-I will-l n-not tru-ust you. I-I wi-ill not-t a-allo-ow a dru-ug of no-on-medi-inal p-purpose-ses enter m-my sy-ystem. I am-m no-ot intrested-d I-in wh-what you're-re s-selling." That said he turned his back on the woman once again. Ydrin had not desire to affiliate himself with someone who was either selling on a product that would damage the user as well as trigger an addiction or selling an using a product that would cause damage to the user as well as trigger an addiction.
 
Zandra's reaction was probably not what he'd expect. She shrugged, smiled and blew a kiss.

"Suit yourself. If ya change yer mind, be sure ta lemmy know first."

She took another long drag of her cigarette, turning towards the bar again. Cal would not have approved of this either. He'd be dumping her stash into the nearest trash dump. He'd be disappointed. But Calico wasn't here. He was gone. Probably dead by now. Who knew anymore? For all she knew, she was a widow.

She flicked the ash off her shaking cigarette and took a deep sip from her glass. Even the drink reminded her of him.

[member="Ydrin"]
 
The reaction of the woman surprised Ydrin, although his high collared waistcoat would not show the twitch of his face. Turning his head slightly he observed the woman out of the corner of his eye, studying her face. This was an unusual reaction by the elder blonde, Ydrin had expected her to continue to pester him in a, futile as it may be, attempt to persuade his to buy what she was selling so that more money would flow and settle into her pocket.

"M-may I inqu-quire as t-to why-y y-you are not-t c-continuing to-o try and sell-l h-this 'S-stardust?"

A strong feeling of curiosity had settled into the young mind of Ydrin, driving him to want to know more about this woman. It was a common effect for him to experience whenever he encountered some being that broke the common image and opinion of them in such a major way that it seemed to counteract pre-made assumptions on a large scale. A desire to find out more would compel him, drive him to start more conversations in an effort to weed out more information, an abnormal reaction for the normally quiet and reserved blonde.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]
 
The blondes smile only grew. She stared ahead across the bar at nothing. The poster hanging behind the bar was advertising a band. Parsec was what the band was called. Zandra owned a T-shirt, the very first one they printed. She adored this band. She'd been their biggest fan years ago, back when they could old ever book gigs in a tiny little run down cantina on Coruscant called Nameless. She wondered if Ned, the tattooed twi'lek guitarist still thought about her at all.

"well, ya don' wan' none," she answered swishing the last few sips of her drink around in the glass, "You said no. What good would I do pushin' ya? 'Sides, it's a bad habit anyway."

Zandra would always be the first to admit that drug use was bad for you. But she'd also be the first one to shoot up when, in the middle of the night, she felt lonely. When she closed her eyes and could swear she saw him. When his name hung on her lips, so close to the edge that one tiny movement would send it tumbling.

But he was gone. And she was still here. And Stardust helped her see him more clearly.
And drinking helped her to forget.

[member="Ydrin"]
 
Ydrin hummed as he mulled over the woman's words while finishing the last of his drink. "W-well I mus-st be-e goin-ng." Pushing himself to his feet, he threw a few credit chips onto the bar before turning and striding out of the bar with long confident strides, soon blending into the crowds and heading towards the spaceport.


[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]
 

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