First Reply Day Off

[Vask]

Tatooine - Two Suns Tavern

"Can I get an Ion Burn." The Weequay behind the bar stared at him with the flat expression of a man who had never heard of what he was talking about. "Tibanna Fizz?"

Same flat expression. "Ardees?"

Finally the bar tenders eyes lit up with something like recognition. Head tilting in a nod as he helpfully added. "We don't have none of that fancy shit."

In truth, Vask probably should have anticipated that particular fact. Despite it's rather charming name the Twin Suns Tavern wasn't exactly the Red Moons Andris. Most of the seats here were worn and beaten up, the floor was sticky with...something, and the clientele as a general rule were either missing a few teeth or some other body part. The sort of place someone stumbled into at the end of the night and left missing more than what they had paid for the drinks.

The sort of place no one really asked any questions either.

Which was, of course, why he'd come here.

Tatooine was the sort of world you could disappear yourself into, and the Two Suns Tavern was the sort of place you might as well have turned invisible. It was the perfect place to lay his head for a few hours, especially after all that business in the last few weeks. "Thanks."

Vask offered the weary-eyed bartender as he grabbed the now filled mug from the bar and took it towards one of the booths in the corner of the Cantina. His helmet slipped off with one quick motion, tossed onto the table as he threw himself onto the bench. The first relaxed breath in months filled his lungs, followed shortly by a sip of his Ardees. The sweet ale-like substance drifted down the back of his throat, and Vask felt himself ease into his seat; letting out a stretching groan as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

 

[Ash Cobalt]

Vask
​

The door grated open, filling the entire room with the sound of poorly-lubricated hydraulics. Cobalt swept in, trailing a cloud of dust and exhaustion that carried an almost physical weight.

His ragged boots tracked a trail of sand over to the bar, where he slumped. One gloved hand slapped a small handful of credits onto the counter.

"Get me something poisonous and expensive, and mix it with whatever you use to kill rats." He sighed. "In fact, make it a double."

Cobalt didn't much care for Tatooine, but somehow all the galaxy's detritus seemed to wash up here, time and again. He was, unfortunately, no exception to that law of the universe.

At least the drinks were cheap, and strong enough to topple a bull Gorog. The bartender handed him something that bubbled ominously and reeked overpoweringly of alcohol, or perhaps alcohol's larger, angrier brother.

The scavenger took it, gulped it down in one go, and did the same with the second as it arrived moments later.

The barkeep's eyebrows elevated, suitably impressed. He'd probably expected Cobalt to collapse to the floor, vomiting blood. "Another." Said the mutant brusquely. "Don't stop until I tell you to, and you'll make a lot of money tonight."

For once, Cobalt wasn't bluffing about having money, and there were few finer places in the galaxy to piss away one's credits. The boys at Mahporeem had been filling his pockets lately, and consequently, he'd been filling the pockets of various gambling dens, taverns, and seedier places yet from corner to corner.

Still, this was Tatooine. The place where bars averaged a murder every twenty minutes. The liquid garbage he'd just imbibed hadn't quite dulled his common sense yet, and he looked around cautiously. One hand loosened the sawed-off scattergun in its tattered leather holster.

This wasn't Cobalt's first (or even second, third, fourth, or five hundredth) rodeo here. He'd spent many a night on this dustball and others like it, dimming his sorrows until the owner threw him out.

Surprisingly light patronage tonight, though. Aside from a few tired-looking laborers, there was only one other fellow present.
Perhaps it was the toxic waste he'd guzzled making him sociable, but Cobalt waggled two fingers at the barkeep, then at the table, and trudged over.

"You look like you've been eaten, digested halfway, and spit back up." He observed bluntly. "I know that look well, seen it in the mirror plenty of times. You're gonna need something tougher than that-" he pointed at the stranger's choice of drink "-to feel better. Mind if I join you? Next one's on me if you want."

"Course, if you wanna be left alone, I can piss off. I've been there too. Ain't no offense taken."

 

[Vask]

It took Vask a moment to register that someone was talking to him.

His eyes flickered open and he allowed his head to roll over the back of the bench, peering at the stranger with a slight perplexed look upon his face. It wasn't usual that someone in a place like this would approach you, much less in a manner which could almost be deemed as friendly. A frown plucked at the Soldier's lips for a brief moment, but after a second he simply shrugged and motioned towards the bench opposite him. "Feel free."

A little conversation never hurt anyone.

"What brings you to Tatooine?" It was the only thing he could think to ask. Small-talk hadn't exactly been his forte since everything happened back home. Most of the last few months had been spent in isolation. The only 'real' company he'd had was a droid who didn't know how to shut up. "With a willingness to talk to strangers no less."

Especially in a place like this. "Usually people are too scared of getting shot."

Not that Vask was the type to do so, unless his new friend revealed himself to be a Sith.

 

[Ash Cobalt]

Vask
​

"What brings you to Tatooine?" It was the only thing he could think to ask. Small-talk hadn't exactly been his forte since everything happened back home. Most of the last few months had been spent in isolation. The only 'real' company he'd had was a droid who didn't know how to shut up. "With a willingness to talk to strangers no less."

"Same thing as you, I imagine." Grumbled the white-eyed mutant, sliding into the seat across from the stranger. "Only one reason to come here, unless you're lookin' to get your hands dirty." The movement disturbed the drink he was carrying, which sizzled and popped threateningly.

He studied the man a little more closely. Armored, clean-cut, terse with his words. Military, ex-military, bounty-hunter. All three of those professions tended to spill out here sooner or later. Some of them never left again. Maybe he was here to get his hands dirty, but Cobalt didn't press the issue. Everyone was entitled to their own business on Tatooine.

"They'll serve you shit here that's illegal everywhere else, and pretty soon you'll have either forgotten everything that ails ya, or you'll have bigger, more immediate issues to worry about."

The scavenger's words were curiously accented, carrying a strange twang with emphasis on the Rs. Despite his drinking, he didn't seem especially impaired or prone to slur his speech.

Especially in a place like this. "Usually people are too scared of getting shot."

Cobalt tilted his head a little at the thought of getting shot at. Barely a month passed without that happening, enough so that it was just a tedious part of the job by now. Blasters were familiar. A material object that posed a material danger, usually held in material hands. There were worse options if something was going to escort you off to the afterlife.

"Not normally the type to talk either, but what the hell. Maybe you will shoot me and do us both a favor, or we'll both leave too drunk to shoot anybody. Maybe if more people drank and talked, there'd be less shooting out there, ay? Probably not, but it's a nice idea, and that's half the point of a dump like this. Nice ideas."

The barkeep brought over something a little less lethal-looking than Cobalt's own beverage, but it still emitted a whispy vapor that seemed heavier than air.

"All my human friends say this is about the most their physiology can stand. Give it a try and tell me what you think. Might take the edge off whatever's eatin' ya."

"Name's Ash by the way. Ash Cobalt."

 

[Vask]

Vask seemed to consider the man as he continued to talk, head tilting half a degree as he wondered if anyone else in here had ever met him. There was something...off...about all of this, but he couldn't quite put his finger on any of it. "Vask."

It was his first answer as he judged the drink the barkeep had just put down onto the table.

Eyes flickering over towards the Weequay who had earlier told him they didn't serve any 'fancy shit' here. Though in fairness, the concoction that had been put in front of him hardly seemed fancy. With just a slight hint of hesitation Vask picked it up and sniffed the drink, recounting each word that his new friend Ash had told him in his head.

"So you're just around here getting folk drunk?" Vask asked as he tipped the whiskey back and let it pour down his throat. The burn nearly eliciting a cough from him as he forced it to choke back. Lips drawing to a thin line before he let out a long and strenuous breath. "Kress."

He swore. "That's some rotgut."

Vask coughed once, twice, and then shook his head.

"Drink enough of that shit and you'll be ready to rob a Hutt." He said with a shake of his head.

 

[Ash Cobalt]

Vask

​

"Vask."

"Well, pleasure's all mine, Vask." Came the response. Cobalt seemed to visibly relax in his seat.

Vask seemed to consider the man as he continued to talk, head tilting half a degree as he wondered if anyone else in here had ever met him. There was something...off...about all of this, but he couldn't quite put his finger on any of it.

"Don't give me that look, if I wanted to pick a fight I'd have done it from the bar or the doorway, not right across from you. I'm not in a shooting mood today, or ever really. Can't say the same about the rest here, but that's Tatooine." He shrugged, watching as his new friend tried his drink.

"So you're just around here getting folk drunk?"

"No, generally just myself." The ragged man admitted. "But you looked like you could use something a cut above normal. Usually these places are twitchy about serving the really good stuff unless they know you. Don't want a customer hacking up bits of his stomach on the floor. If a barfight kills you, it's your problem. If the drinks kill you, it's the bar's problem."

As he'd said, Cobalt wasn't typically this affable with strangers. Maybe it was the novelty of seeing someone who looked even more tired and careworn than himself. Novelty was fairly rare in the mutant's profession, and novelty that wasn't immediately dangerous was even rarer. Much as his new friend could be forgiven for not buying it, Cobalt's motivation was mostly innocent curiosity.

"Yeah, Rotgut. Good polite word for it. I wouldn't have too much, but a sip or two shouldn't hurt you greatly, I'd expect." He looked thoughtful at the mention of robbing a Hutt, even though it had been a harmless idiom.

The only Hutt Cobalt had ever worked for had been (mostly) a fair-minded and generous benefactor, as crime lords went. His rise to power had been interrupted by the resurgence of the Black Sun, who then themselves faded into obscurity.

Such was the way of things in this world, his world. Today a pauper, tomorrow a king, or vice-versa. Nothing ever lasted long.

"What's a soldiering type doing in a dive like this, anyway? No offense, but if it weren't for that thousand-yard stare I'd almost assume you had your life together, or at least more so than the rest here."

 

[Vask]

Vask tilted his head in a nod as the man commented on his observation of the drink. It really was horrid stuff, not the thing to sit sipping for a few hours. Though he doubted this place any of that sort of drink.

"Just trying to get away." He answered with a shrug.

"Like you said, this is the type of place to disappear." Vask's eyes flickered around the Cantina. No one paid any mind to anyone else here, in fact he seemed to be the only one looking around at all. Paranoia was in the air, as it always was in places like this, but everyone knew why you came to the Twin Suns; to stay the fuck away from everyone else. "I needed a breather."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders. "This place seemed as good as any other."

Better than the ones with Sith in it.

"You been on Tatooine long?" Vask asked, letting the conversation roll and hoping for once that it wouldn't turn to violence.