Private Law of Nature

[Colette]

Drifter

A genuine smile spread on Colette's lips. Drifter allowed himself to be vulnerable and part of her felt a lot more at ease for it. Obviously it had been some kind of coping mechanism, but to know that he was aware of it was important too.

"Right," she shrugged. Her smile lingered for a moment longer until she spoke again. "I think I get it. Life is easier when you don't look back. Focus more on the next step than the ones before. The steps that you can actually do something about."

The skin was rolled into a bundle. Colette held it for a moment before she extended her hand to offer it to Drifter. She didn't say anything, just waited for him to take it whether he wanted to or not.

"My apprentice and I had a… Falling out." She admitted. A truth for a truth, a small offer of peace for the vulnerability shown. "I tried to make her something she wasn't. She… Lashed out at my entire being. Not physically, mentally — ideologically."

"I can understand that, but I won't forgive it." Colette muttered. "I enjoy who I am, what I think and what I do. I find strength and purpose in the structure I've set up for myself."

"Life is a struggle and I find that Jedi are too prone to comfort. Big enclaves, big spectacles. A lot of posturing for something they shouldn't have." She was starting to get riled up now. "My own adoptive mother is running around underground trying to start fights for liberty, but…"

"Is it so wrong to ask if people want us to do that? Are we supposed to be the ones judging right from wrong? Who gave us that authority, you know?"

 

[Drifter]

Interacting With: Colette

Drifter took the bundle without a word, giving a slight shift to adjust the coarse weight of the Oggdo hide settling in his hands. For a moment he didn't look at Colette and just listened.

He learned the hard way that more often than not, women just wanted to be heard and vent rather than get someone to fix things.

The last thing he wanted was to get smacked across the back of his helm.

When he finally looked up, while Colette couldn't see it, the smirk that usually came so easily was gone, and instead, he responded with more understanding than most. Came from growing up with three sisters and a mother who was more than happy to be emotionally available.

[ Sounds like you care more than most, kid. That's not a bad thing. Just… not an easy one. ]

Those toned shoulders gave a slight shrug as he crouched down beside her again, tying off the folded hide with practiced ease.

[You're not wrong, either. Everyone talks about balance, but really, they just want to be the ones calling the shots. Jedi, Sith, Republic, Empire, it's all the same deck, just shuffled different. ]

He gave a quiet huff through the voice modulator that was almost a laugh but not quite.

[ You askin' questions like that… that's what makes you different. Maybe even dangerous -- but there ain't nothing wrong with that. Askin' questions is good. Makes you think. Wonder. Want to explore and learn more. Never stop asking questions. ]

The word hung there for a moment before he pushed himself back to his feet, brushing off the mud from his gloves.

[ You don't gotta forgive her, y'know. Some people ain't meant to stay. They're just there to remind us when it's time to move on. ]

Well, unless one was as stubborn as he at not giving up looking for the one who went away.

[C'mon. Let's get outta here before I start soundin' like a philosopher with bad hair. There's a cantina a few clicks east. I'll buy the first round. ]

Even with the helmet on, the grin in his voice was unmistakable, worn, genuine, and just a little bit reckless.

 

[Colette]

Drifter

It wasn't bad, and it wasn't easy. Kindness would always create more kindness. It wasn't a theory, it was a truth. Colette had shown kindness, and Drifter gave her some in return. It made life easier, created less friction, and made people feel good.

No balance, but wanting to call the shot. It felt like a shot through her nerves, but not in pain but relief. Her head tilted ever so slightly, her mouth agape as all pretenses of the cold and distant Jedi Knight evaporated for just the briefest of moments.

She had never thought of it that way, but it felt so perfectly… It. What her problem was. The 'it' she had tried to define for so long. Why 'it' felt so wrong to be a Jedi and yet right at the same time. And then the point about Reina too. Had Drifter not mentioned the Black Sun earlier she might've just hugged him at this point.

Drifter began to move and Colette had to snap herself out of her state just to jog up to him.

"Yeeeah…" She whispered and approached his side. Her eyes glanced up at her own reflection in his visor and then back to the road. "Nobody ever really told me that, you know. The part about being dangerous."

"I don't feel dangerous." Colette rubbed her bloodied hand against the back of her neck and recoiled once she realized what she had done. Her pants leg was draped in a thin smear of crimson before she turned back to the conversation.

"I mean, I know I'm dangerous but I've never really felt like my questions were the dangerous part."

 

[Drifter]

Interacting With: Colette

Drifter slowed his pace, glancing over when she caught up beside him. The prairie stretched ahead, endless and bright, the wind tugging at their clothes and carrying the smell of bloood and distant rain. Colete would be able to see her reflection staring back at her on his visor, a little worse for wear, tired, but still doing okay.

[ That's the thing about danger, ] he said after a pause. [ You don't usually feel it. You just are it. It's not the blaster or the blade, it's what's behind it. The part that makes people listen when you speak. ]

The Bounty HUnter adjusted the strap of his rifle across his shoulder, looking toward the horizon where the sun dipped lower.

[ Questions shake things up. Make people look at what they don't want to. That scares them. And scared people do stupid things. ]

Drifter glanced back at her again, giving a cant of his polarized helm, and this time when he spoke, the smirk was gone from his voice.

[ You ever notice how the ones who talk about peace the most are the ones who can't sleep at night? They don't want peace, kid. They want quiet. You... you make too much noise for that. ]

For a moment, the wind filled the space between them, carrying the quiet rhythm of their footsteps through the dust. Then true to form, the grin crept back into his tone.

[ Still, if you ever start feelin' too dangerous, don't worry. I'll make sure to keep a safe distance. Like... two drinks apart at the bar. Maybe three. ]

He gave a light chuckle, the sound a husky rough and low gravel before he gestured toward the distant glint of metal where their ship waited.

[ Alright enough jabbering. Let's get this big boy put away. ]

 

[Colette]

Drifter

Quiet. The word lingered between what was being said. Colette listened and slowly nodded along as Drifter shared his thoughts. Part of it frustrated her in its clarity. It was like another piece of her own puzzle and understanding suddenly appeared on the table after having been lost. It clicked into place and revealed one more aspect of the picture she was trying to give shape to.

To her these questions were natural, just regular common sense things to wonder about. The right to end a life. The idea of right and wrong in general. In her pursuit for equal footing in the world it would seem as if she was actually poking at threads that some people preferred to leave untouched.

Authority and righteousness, things that let people control others however they wanted. It made sense then that they wouldn't like it when someone dared to talk back and pierce the social fabric with the most dangerous question of all: why?

Why would death fix anything? Why wouldn't that simply put their sins on your own shoulders, and why would you deny their victims the closure of justice? Why was death justice and why was it seen as closure? Why are you the person to provide that?

These were exactly the thoughts and questions she had provoked her apprentice with, and they were all valid questions that had gone unanswered.

The simple answer was the one she already knew: it wouldn't fix a damn thing.

"Hm?" She hummed in surprise. "Oh, yeah. Let's."

She had tuned out once that glint of humor began to drip from his voice modulator again. As they approached the ship she pulled out a small book from her bag filled with notes. Colette wrote her number on a page and then ripped it out for Drifter to grab.

"In case you need me to save you again, you know?" She offered with a smirk of her own.

 

[Drifter]

Interacting With: Colette

Drifter took the slip of paper, looked at it for a moment as his polarized helm dipped, only to lift back up to reflect the dusty image of Colette.

[ Well now, that's the fastest a lady has ever given me her number. ] He joked, clearly being light-hearted over the situation, but tucked away the comm number nonetheless.

[ I'll hand you my digits -- comm me if you need anything bagged and tagged. Or transported... really anything that will get me some credits to make sure the ol' girl has her fuel. Alex would never let me hear the end of it if Inari forbade us to end up with an empty tank. ]

They arrived at the ship, and the ramp was activated, allowing them to go inside. Drifter got straight to storing the Oggdo and its parts. They could sell it, get the gains, and the bounty for themselves later.

[ Alright. I'ma get cleaned up. You are welcome to wash the stink too. Just go on to the third cabin to the right. Don't mind the knick-knacks there or the plushies. ] he told her, for that had been Kai's room when they were kids.

[ I see you brought another stowaway. ] a sensual feminine voice would pipe in off the overhead speakers, prompting Drifter to freeze, grimace, and then shake a hand over.

[ Well, that there is Alex. Don't mind her. She's a rather onery woman, but she pilots the ship so guess one has to deal with her sass. ] he told her, chuckling.

[ I am the ship! ] Alex shot back, but this time the voice didn't come from the overhead speakers, but from a small hovering droid that floated over from the common area. Alex's ocular sensor went over to review the Oggdo, and then turned around to snap a look at Drifter.

[ You were supposed to capture it alive. ]

Drifter gave a shrug, going [ Eh....minor technicality. I can get another one later.]

 

[Colette]

Drifter

If it took people this long they might just be missing out. Colette wasn't particularly interested in Drifter in that way, but he still showed enough heart that she'd take a chance in him if he wasn't older than her.

In body at least.. Mentally, the jury was still out.

They stepped into the ship and were greeted by a disembodied voice of a woman. Colette looked around to find her only to find it came from a droid. She blinked for a moment at the stowaway comment, and even more so at just how normal she sounded. Whatever algorithm was behind it was clearly refined beyond anything Colette had seen before.

"I wouldn't have let him." Colette stated clearly for Alex before she looked over at the room that had been offered. "Unless to take it back home, but something tells me it would've been to some Black Sun slaver on the rim."

Without delay she made her way over towards the room she had been offered. There wasn't much of note in it to Colette. It seemed like somebody else's room and she was merely borrowing it for now. With that said she couldn't help but notice some of the small details. A lot of mechanical equipment. A photo of a blonde and some brunette that had weathered by age.

A hint of recognition sparked at the back of Colette's mind from the brown-haired one but she really had no idea why.

She leaned away, got herself set up for a shower and let the refresher sweep away the stresses of the day. Colette's hands found the wall. Murky water circled the drain and she let in a deep breath followed by a relieved exhale.

With the shower out of the way she dried off the worst of the wetness and got herself dressed.

"Drifter?" She called out once she stepped out of his sister's room, dressed in a fresh set of clothes from her bag. "Where'd you go?"

"Al- uhh, Alex?"

 

[Drifter]

Interacting With: Colette

Drifter turned at the sound of her voice, leaning casually against the corridor bulkhead just outside the galley. He had scrubbed up and put on the same armor. The only difference is that he tossed it under the sonic to get a good cleaning so now it was stinky free but still showed the wear of someone who practically slept in what he wore.

[ Yo! ] his voice came through bright and playful over the modulator. [ I don't know about you, but I am very glad I no longer stink to high heaven. ]

He gave a lazy wave, gloved fingers waggling for emphasis before he planted a hand on his hip, striking a mock-heroic pose.

[ Alright, I'm all for a drink and something to eat. ] He gestured down the corridor toward the galley.

[ C'mon, kid, Alex swears she's stocked up on ration packs that don't taste like cardboard this time. ]

The ship's AI hummed softly through the speakers, her voice velvet-smooth as ever.

[ They're not entirely ration packs, Drifter. I made sure to include seasoning this time. ]

Drifter chuckled, shaking his head.

[ See? She's a sweetheart when she's not threatenin' to eject me for touching her controls. ]

The Huner started walking, pausing only long enough to glance back over his shoulder at Colette. The grin in his voice was unmistakable.

[ You look better cleaned up too. Don't worry, I'll make sure to save you the good caf before Alex burns it again. ]

 

[Colette]

Drifter

Her shoulders rose for a second before they sank. There were worse things than stinking. Infections, unhygienic wounds, now that was the true reason to worry. Honestly, maybe it was because she was wired differently but rations didn't exactly sound that bad to her either.

"I grew up on dried gristle and water." Colette said and withdrew her canteen to put it on the counter. "Taste is a nice luxury and caf is a waste of good water."

With that said she took a sip from her canteen and put it back down again.

"So, 'Drifter'," she prodded at the question that had lingered from the start. "What's your actual name?"