Keeping Score (Sarge)

[Jsc]

The Red Porcupine
Corellia

It was home. The city, the sights and the sounds. Karen loved Corellia as much as Ayden loved his hat. Which was quite a bit these days, let me tell you. She smiled dearly as she walked back into the bar that had defined her career as an Omega Commander. Nothing had changed. Just Karen.

She winked at the hostess and took a seat nearer the bar. All the televisions had the big game on and the fans were chatting with gusto. Karen didn't know the teams but it was fun to watch. It fun to get caught up in the moment. See who was winning.

Speaking of keeping score, Karen had invited another to join her today. She was here to walk down memory lane and couldn't think of anyone better to share it with than Cira's mysterious It-man. The scruffy looking nerf-herder who always managed to rub Grant the wrong way. An invaluable trait that always brought a bemused smile to the blue-haired girl's face. Ah well. Boys will be boys.

She ordered a strawberry lemonade and fondly watched the big game unfold on the tele. She could order Lunch in a moment.

___

@[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

It wasn't every day mail found its way to Sarge, and it wasn't every day it came from the most outrageously haired woman in the galaxy. But then again, getting the man to show up anywhere wasn't quite as hard as people thought - you just had to ask. For a man who didn't like being found, he was supremely easy to get ahold of; at least if you knew what you were doing.

So it was that he found himself in a familiar bar, in a familiar city, on the planet he'd adopted at his home. Why was he here? Looking for the familiar shock of blue hair that denoted his favorite strange jedi turned Omega thing. He wasn't sure what she was up too now, really. Didn't really care either.

It didn't take long for a familiar figure to ease its way into a seat next to her. He had the same unkempt beard and the same tired brown eyes. His shoulders were still hunched in the posture of a man always expecting a fight, but the thing that had really changed was, well, the uniform he sported.

He didn't. For the first time in a long time.

No, he had on a simple white t-shirt and a faded pair of pants; although to his credit he still had on a pair of Omega issue combat boots. "Evenin, Blue." The man says.

Same raspy voice, hoarse from too much whiskey and shouting.

@[member="Karen Roberts"]

 

[Jsc]

"Mr. Potteiger." The thirty-something woman mused. It rolled off the tongue like chocolate. "Hehe. ...Thanks. For showing up."

She drew in a deep breath of relief. Maybe she had worried that he wouldn't show. It was a relief then and Karen let the air linger for a moment. Taking in the sights and sounds of her favorite eating establishment. It smelled so wonderful here. So completely human to her senses.

"I... Well. It's never easy leaving home, I suppose. I guess I came back, to say goodbye."

It was hard for her to say. Though, she didn't know why. Maybe it felt like running away.

"What with Cira missing like she is. Well. ...Heh." She brushed her hair away from her face. Pausing; waiting for the right words. Though they never seemed to come. "I guess you boys are on your own now."

She didn't have to say it. Sarge was a soldier. He already knew. Sarge always knew. Karen had left OPSAAT Corellia and returned to Coruscant to join Kei and the Army of Light. It was a retirement, of sorts. A girl getting her house in order. A woman who's fighting days were best left behind her. Sarge had the uncanny talent for knowing everything. So, she didn't feel it necessary to explain. Only that she wanted to say goodbye. For old times sake.

She smiled and lost his gaze,

"Well. I'm sure you'll do fine. You always have. Heh."

___

@[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"Like I'd resist the siren call of ol' Blue.", he teases with a snort as he flags down the 'tender for a drink. He's quiet a few moments as he orders himself up some brandy and shakes his head a bit. "Maybe ye ain't heard, Blue...", he begins slowly, eyes casting themselves down towards the counter for a moment.

His brow furrows pensively, one corner of his bottom lip getting chewed at for a moment. "But I resigned from OP. In fact, so far as most people know, I'm dead. I'd like to keep it that way. Consider my being here a favor to you." He shrugs. Dagobah hadn't been kind to him. Some of his veins were still blackened from Stars knew what.


Teeth sinking into his own lip again for a moment he shakes his head. "Didn't know the Boss was missing - she didn't tell anyone anything though, so I doubt I'd be able to find her. I'm good, but I ain't that good." He wasn't about to tell Karen that she moonlighted as a professor of archaelo-

Wait. That's it.

He just needed to find where Talia went. Brilliant.

But he did know Karen had left. And he knew where she'd gone. He kept tabs on people - some were much easier than others. A drink was set in front of him, and he tipped some of its contents back and down his throat as he gazed to the monitors to watch the game. "Always have...", he says absently, mind a million kilometers away in that moment.

@[member="Karen Roberts"]

 

[Jsc]

Karen smirked at that comment. She couldn't keep tabs on Sarge. Nobody could. But he could keep tabs on you. It always made this relationship feel so 'one-sided'. Well, at least she still knew he would appear for drinks. No matter what flag he was flying these days.

"Mr. Potteiger. So mysterious. Hehe."

Karen wasn't a school girl anymore. She didn't go in for the mysterious shady type. Generally because she had discovered that there was never anything but pain and sorrow behind such a façade. Doors that stayed closed for a reason. Though, she admired this soldier's privacy. If he wanted to stay newly dead? That was fine by her. We all have our choices to make.

"So what's next for the mysterious soldier then hmm? Grant and I are off on another grand crusade to stop the never-ending Sith Empire. The usual. Hehe. But surely you must have plans as well?"

She flickered a gaze at the screen. Playfully winking,

"Or will you finally settle down and raise that family you always wanted? Hehe."

@[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"Ain't nothin' mysterious about me, Blue." He says, sipping idly at his drink while his eyes bored holes in the screens in front of him. It was evident he wasn't really watching them so much as he was looking at them. "I just like my privacy." Shoulders lifted into a shrug, and he cast his gaze sideways to her.

Wetting his lips, he cocked his head a bit and chuckled, shaking it as he let his head drop as he contemplated a crusade against the Sith. The Galaxy was in stalemate, but only because no one really had the ability to truly overpower anyone else. It was a dead heat to nothing.

That's part of why he wanted out.

The other part was he was just tired of being so important to people he couldn't stand. "Guess I'm going to do what I always do." A hand lifted to scratch at his beard. "Wander."

@[member="Karen Roberts"]

 

[Jsc]

She raised an eyebrow and looked away with a huff,

"Well that's depressing. Damn."

She was only half kidding.

"What about women? You can't seriously tell me that being around Omega this long hasn't hooked you up with a red-headed temptress yet? Heh."

Omega was sort of famous for it's red-heads. Well? The ones that weren't lesbiana' and so forth. Truthfully Karen was a little envious of Sarge's normal life. Being a Force User kinda burdens you with solving all the Galaxies problems or die trying. Karen never had the option of 'wandering'. Her whole life was dedicated to being a good little Jedi and killing Sith deviants. She wondered what it would be like to be a normal human some days.

"Well. Enjoy it while you got it. One day you'll be dead and the only you can take with you is yourself."

She nodded her head and snapped her fingers. Almost felt good to say it too.

@[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"There have been one or two - but not from Omega. They're almost exclusively playing for the other team with no interest in men. Lotta good that does me." A rueful chuckle rumbled its way up his throat as the bar erupted around them. Someone had scored. He didn't much care who.

Shame what talking about change could do to a man. He was conservative at heart, and he liked things to stay how he liked them - but change was inevitable. It didn't make it easier to accept, however. "I enjoy wandering, yeah. I meet all kinds of new people, but I have to deal with all new problems too." Shaking his head a bit, he gave Karen a tired smile.

"You Force Users have your big factions hellbent on imposing change for a 'good' or 'evil', and then there's people like me. They see a guy holding up a store... and they just put two into his chest. We don't have causes, just morals; no belief in the Force, or in becoming One with it."

He sighs a little. "I almost envy it, really. I'm the sort of guy who needs a cause. Don't feel like I'm really 'living' without one."

@[member="Karen Roberts"]

 

[Jsc]

Karen raised more than an eyebrow at that. Good and bad, light and dark. They were more than just words. A reality of living for more than just Force Adepts.

"War can desensitize a man. Make killing feel so easy that you begin to think it's natural. Began to think it's a part of you. ...I know. I've walked that road too."

She stirred her drink with a fork. Musing to herself now mostly. Grateful though that someone was there to listen.

"...It's one of the things that brings Grant and I together, ya know. Our little love that gives us meaning. A reason to come home, a reason to keep feeling. And that little love of ours only comes to me when I'm doing the right thing. It's not about the Force. Not really. It's about doing what you know is right. Following that conscious we we're all born with. Finding that happy ending at the end of the rainbow."

She was preaching now. She could stop. Sarge didn't need it. Heck, she was probably just trying to convince herself. Venting, musing, meandering with her thoughts. Did she have a point? Maybe.

"Life's not about being a good soldier Mr. Pottieger. It's about making other people happy."

Karen nodded at that. It was a good reminder, for her to stay focused on what really matters. Others.

"...Anyway. I thought you could use a little happiness. Hehe. So here's to us. Messy as we are. Hehe. Cheers."

She could drink to that.

@[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"Being a good soldier can make people happy, you know?", he asks with a smirk, swirling his drink around in his class as he stared down and into its contents. Primary among those made happy was himself - it gave him a sense of pride, accomplishment. It made him feel like he'd accomplished something.

But it also made his superiors happy. It made his subordinates happy. Being a soldier was as much about killing as it was about being a brother, a father, a friend. It was knowing that when you turned your back there'd be ten men right behind you, covering your six - be it in battle or in, hell, proposing to a significant other.

They were always there for you. That bond, forged in the furnace of war, would never be broken.

A smile found its way to his face, though. A sad one. "Cheers, mate." With that, he downs the rest of his container in one go. "I think everyone could use a little happiness. Problem is, some people are either impossible to make happy, or are happy about things we aren't - I know people who are at their happiest when they're blowing up a building."

He snorts. "Making people happy gets you hurt. Gotta make yourself happy, and surround yourself with people who are happy when you're happy, and for the same reasons."

@[member="Karen Roberts"]