Private Broth, Brooding, and Bad Vibes

[Kirie]

Location: Coruscant Federal District
Tag: Adelle Bastiel

At a hole-in-the-wall near the Federal District of Coruscant, Kirie was nursing a steaming portion of noodles from a bowl the size of her head. Every day since her incident with Anet Raine , Kirie had awoken with a headache, fever, and nausea akin to the worst hangovers she'd ever had. The only relief, it seemed, was to revel in the Dark again, to let it flow over her pulsing temples and sooth the thrumming behind her eyes. But it was only temporary relief, and every morning she woke up feeling just as rubbish as the one before.

She figured she needed to abstain for awhile, to stop rushing to temporary salves and let the discomfort fade on its own, or absorb the energy to properly heal herself from somewhere. That option sent shivers down her spine after what she had done in the temple.

So she was trying sleep, and going on walks, and big, well-seasoned meals like the one in front of her. Kirie twirled the noodles with a pair of chopstick and scooped a big bundle into her mouth, enjoying the spicy, numbing sensation of the seasoning and the rich salty bone broth. She tried to get lost in the moment and enjoy herself, to ignore the looming shadow of the time since they had destroyed Coruscant and began puppeting around its corpse.

A stranger slid onto the stool next to her but Kirie kept her head down. Sith soldiers, workers and, stars forbid it, even other Covenant Acolytes frequented this restaurant during break times and after their shifts reconstructing the Sith Temple. She didn't want to talk to any of them, didn't want to look at any of them. In fact, she found herself wishing lately that she was like Nilira, boxing herself off into an emotionless droid. But she couldn't do that, she still felt everything so deeply.

Kirie tried to stand up suddenly to leave, driven by the intense need to hide herself, to be alone. In her rushing, she accidentally upturned her bowl, spilling her dinner all over the counter and dowsing both herself and the stranger beside her in a healthy amount of broth.

'Oh chit!!' Kirie signed, panicked, her droid waking from standby to swirl above her head while it interpreted and chirped out her expletive. She grabbed the single napkin she had been handed and helplessly dabbed at the spill, which was now dripping off the bar. She looked at the woman beside her apologetically.

'I'm really sorry.'

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Coruscant
Tags: Kirie

If she never saw Coruscant again, it would be too soon.

Adelle skirted the Federal District, navigating debris from the wanton destruction still being cleaned up. Jagged holes still lay in the gleaming skyscrapers and everywhere, everywhere there was a chill haze of fear. Adelle could still feel the echoes of screams in the Force from the innocents that died. Over it all, the oily stain of the Dark Side clung to everything. Her jaw clenched.

It made her feel sick.

But she hadn’t eaten anything in hours, and after her foray to Level 1313, she did need to eat something.

Adelle walked through the door of some small noodle shop, the place barely large enough to house the kitchen, bar top, and a couple of tables. The Dark Side lay thick even here—perhaps especially here, given its proximity. Still, she’d rather take her chances on or near the surface than down in 1313 again. As long as she wasn’t in armor, anyways.

She slid onto a stool next to a frail-looking young woman who leaned over a bowl of noodles like it gave her oxygen. Adelle raised a finger to catch the staffs’ attention then nodded when they said it’d be a moment. So far this trip to Coruscant was nothing but an exercise in patience. She raised her fingers to rub her forehead, a subtle headache pressing in.

No, not her headache.

It felt like the echoes of one, like a hangover from a bender of a night out. Something flashed in the air, something sharp and urgent, before the woman next to her suddenly stood, knocking her bowl over in her haste. Broth sloshed and splashed everywhere, soaking into the fitted pants Adelle had yet to change out of.

A metallic voice shouted an expletive as the young woman’s hands moved. Adelle did a double take. It wasn’t Galactic Basic Sign, but it was a sign language. The broth seeping into her pants started to turn cold. At least it hadn’t been scalding.

The young woman tried futilely to clean up the mess with a singular napkin before she turned to look at her, hands moving in front of her chest while a small droid hovered over her shoulder and translated.

Feth, she didn’t know that sign language and if the woman was hearing-impaired, communication was going to be difficult at best. But she had a droid that translated verbally and not one that translated in sign. Maybe she could hear. But that wasn't something to gamble on.

“I’ve had worse,” Adelle said, using Galactic Basic Sign and hoping there were enough similarities the meaning would come through if the young woman was hard of hearing. The feeling of a headache pressed in again, and Adelle looked at the broth spiller more closely. Her skin seemed pale usually but there was a pallor in the face and a bright redness to her cheeks that seemed more like fever than mere complexion.

“Do you need help?” she said, hands rustily moving through the signs as she dredged up old memories. “You look ill.”

 

[Kirie]

Location: Coruscant Federal District
Tag: Adelle Bastiel

Kirie looked up from her attempts to mop up her dinner the moment she heard the voice, snapping to attention with a habitual alertness learned over years of keeping an ear out for approaching trouble. The voice was calm, but authoritative. It accompanied signs. Galactic Basic Sign, not her native ORSL. The gears spun in her head even as she stood up straight and gave a respectful nod- almost a bow. The woman seemed confident, perhaps she held some position of power. Perhaps she was educated, for her signs read clearly enough. Whether she was kind or cruel remained to be seen.

The stranger brushed her off. Maybe then, she was kind, or just calm. Kirie's panic was beginning to subside but her embarrassment wasn't, nor was the potent desire to be away from the restaurant and back under the covers in her room, silent and solitary. The owner, or the cook, or whoever he was, handed her a fistful of napkins. Kirie passed half to the woman to clean herself up, and used the other half to soak up the worst of the mess before sliding a few extra credits across the bench to the owner in silent apology.

“Do you need help?” she said, hands rustily moving through the signs as she dredged up old memories. “You look ill.”

Kirie turned back to the woman and blinked.

'Sorry. What did you say?'

In her rushing around, Kirie had forgotten just how awful she was feeling. Now her head was pounding and she felt equal parts faint and sick, and her skin felt hot and uncomfortable. She closed her eyes for a moment. She needed the Force to steady herself, just for a little bit, long enough to get away from this woman, to make it back to her room and lie down, then she'd lock it away again.

Kirie let out a held breath, and with it she stopped holding back her willpower. The Dark welled up around her, from where it bled from Coruscant's pores, circling in towards her like she was a gravitational attractor. It brushed up against her tension and anxiety, her pain, and it grew in its frenzy. Then, she directed it in the way that was becoming habit, soothing the pressure inside her head, stilling the roiling in her belly, filling her with cold relief, then letting go, letting the leftover energy sink into the ground around her.

Kirie's eyes opened again and she looked to the woman, her gaze much clearer than it had been.

'Oh. I am fine, the air here just doesn't agree with me.' Kirie told her vaguely. 'Thank you for signing. I can hear you, just not speak.'

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Kirie

Where the young woman seemed panicked, Adelle stayed calm—if perhaps tired. Her stay on Coruscant was already longer than she’d meant for it to be. The young woman handed her a wad of napkins, presumably to dry herself, while she desperately tried to clean up the mess. Adelle blotted at the pants, knowing that she was still going to have to go back to her ship and change. Hardly ideal, but again, there were worse things.

The young woman signed again, a question this time. Almost immediately after it, Adelle could practically see the wave of pain and discomfort wash over her. The woman closed her eyes and exhaled, and the Force shifted. Dark Side energy slid around her and into the Sith acolyte: residual pain, anxiety, fear, despair. Adelle forced her breathing to remain steady. It felt like watching someone chain-smoke deathsticks and then being forced to inhale the secondhand smoke.

Perhaps the worst part was the practiced ease with which she did it. This was not the first time for that Sith.

Something chronic?

Adelle looked at the woman as she signed again, claiming the air didn’t agree with her. Her eyes were brighter and color better but Adelle had to wonder how long that relief would last. She had to smother the instinct to reveal herself and offer healing. It was too dangerous here. Too risky. And she had errands she wanted to get done as soon as possible so she could leave this Whills-forsaken planet.

And yet.

Pain wasn't something she could ignore. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d healed a Sith. She stood and placed the used napkins on the counter next to the rest. It allowed her to move reasonably close to the young woman so her voice wouldn’t carry.

“When you get tired of pretending that works,” she said, quietly so only the young woman could hear, “hangar bay 42.”

No signing this time—she couldn’t take the risk that someone else here might know Galactic Basic Sign. Adelle tossed a pity credit onto the counter, as an apology to the staff for not ordering anything, and walked out, headed for her ship.

Her pants were not only wet now, but cold and sticky as well. She was not about to be walking around in those.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Coruscant Federal District
Tag: Adelle Bastiel

“When you get tired of pretending that works,” she said, quietly so only the young woman could hear, “hangar bay 42.”

The words had bounced around Kirie's head, unable to be dislodged. She'd been so shocked, that she just let the woman leave without a further word, mouth agape. How had she known? Matter of fact, what had she known? It had felt like the stranger was looking right into her brain. When Kirie snapped out of it, she had rushed out of the restaurant and looked around, but the woman was already gone. Kirie shook her head. It was probably nothing, and even if it wasn't nothing, then it wasn't anything good. She would just ignore it, go on with her day. Right?

Just go on with her day, easy. Simple. Just... Relax.

Kirie found an empty bench in the Federal District, not far from where they were repairing the Senate building. It was something that she did often during her free hours, but usually she brought a book, or her sketch pad, or, really anything to keep her occipied. As it was, she sat there with her knee bouncing up and down, staring at the people going past, until she finally stood up and let her legs carry her towards hangar bay 42.

Kirie didn't immediately see the woman when she stepped inside, but she didn't wait to address her, dialling up the volume of her protocol droid so that its approximation of her voice boomed across the space. Her hand left its grip on the hilt of her saber, where it had been resting a moment before.

'What did you mean, back there- What do you know?'

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Kirie

The last bit of the ration bar disappeared into Adelle’s mouth when the feminine droid voice echoed in the hangar. Adelle hastily chewed and swallowed, tossing the wrapper into a refuse receptacle. Phantom hopped onto her shoulders as she walked by the half-converted armory cabinet, draping herself around Adelle’s neck. The exterior door opened and Adelle stood at the top of the ramp to the Tome’tayl’kandyc. The soup spiller stood in the hangar, protocol droid hovering nearby.

Phantom sat up on Adelle’s shoulders with a curious mew. Eyes fixed on the floating droid.

“Calm down,” Adelle said softly. “You’ve seen droids float before.”

She reached up and walked down the ramp, in a far more casual look that suited a spacer than the club. The glint of a metal hilt caught her eye but Adelle kept her focus on the frail-looking woman’s face. She stopped a few meters away from the woman—the potential patient.

“I know enough,” she said. “I know a lot about techniques. I have more practical experience in some and more theoretical knowledge in others. If you want specifics, we talk inside my office.”

Adelle nodded back at the ship.

“That’s the only space I trust to talk freely on Coruscant.” Her eyes flicked to the hilt briefly. “And that mistrust was born a long time ago.”