Private Never Shall We Die

[Daxium Ryiah]

The cantina pulsed with laughter, music, and the ever-present haze of Zeltros' intoxicating pheromones. To most, it was paradise, a place where inhibitions dissolved into the air itself.

Daxium Ryiah felt nothing.

His poisonous yellow eyes drifted across the room with slow, deliberate precision, dissecting every face, every conversation, every potential threat. A half-finished glass rested in his hand, untouched for several minutes as he sat alone at the bar, wrapped in a silence that seemed almost unnatural amidst the chaos around him.

A year.

Only one year since they had thawed him from his frozen tomb.

One year of agony.

One year spent confined to a hospital bed while his body waged war against centuries of cryogenic imprisonment. Every breath had been earned. Every step had hurt. Every doctor had doubted he would survive.

And somehow... he had.

He almost wished he hadn't.

The galaxy that surrounded him bore little resemblance to the one he remembered. Empires had risen and fallen. Entire generations had lived, loved, and died while he remained trapped in perfect stillness, conscious only enough to know the endless cold.

Everyone he had ever known was dust.

Lady Sinistra...

His jaw tightened around the thought.

She had sought immortality with an obsession bordering on madness. If anyone could have defied time itself, it would have been her. Yet even that hope rang hollow. Centuries were an impossible burden for anyone to bear.

She was gone.

She had to be.

And his sister...

His fingers unconsciously curled around the glass.

The bond between them had once been impossible to ignore, a dyad that tied their very souls together. He had searched for that familiar presence countless times since awakening.

Nothing.

Only silence.

Whether death or something stranger had severed the connection no longer mattered. She was gone from him.

Everyone was.

He took a slow drink, the liquor burning pleasantly compared to the frozen nightmare his body still remembered.

Who was Daxium Ryiah without his past?

Without his allies.

Without his enemies.

Without a purpose.

The question lingered heavier than the drink in his hand.

His gaze swept the cantina once more, cold and calculating despite the exhaustion hidden beneath it. A predator without a hunt. A relic wearing the face of a man who should have died centuries ago.

Eventually, someone would notice the solitary figure with venom-yellow eyes who seemed utterly immune to the charms of Zeltros.

Whether they approached out of curiosity, opportunity... or something far more dangerous...

...would likely determine how Daxium's second life truly began.




Braze

 

[Braze]

Tags: Daxium Ryiah

​

It wasn't often that Braze visited cantinas, much less the endless revelry of Zeltros. He had come hoping to track down one of his mentors, Cyran Vaas , though his search had produced little more than stale leads and unanswered questions.

The planet's ceaseless, playful hedonism pressed against him from every direction. Between the nightmares, the Force visions, the projects piling beneath his hands, and the several trials he had taken upon himself, exhaustion had begun to settle into his bones. A little rest and relaxation couldn't hurt…right?

His gaze settled upon a lone figure wearing a distant expression amid the surrounding celebration. He seemed untouched by the revelry, brooding quietly while the cantina carried on around him.

Whatever the reason, Braze chose the nearby seat. Loud places had never suited him previously, and the stranger looked as though he might appreciate company that asked for nothing.

"Hope you don't mind me sitting here," Braze offered, settling lightly onto the stool. "You look like you might prefer quieter company over someone trying to drag you onto the dance floor…" His gaze passed over the stranger for a moment before returning to his face. "Though, admittedly, I never expected to find someone tall, dark, and handsome sitting alone in a place like this." he set a few credits upon the counter, nudging them toward the bartender.

"So…what would you recommend from the drink selection?" His jade-green gaze settled upon the stranger once more.

 

[Daxium Ryiah]

Daxium had been lost in his own brooding thoughts when the stranger approached and asked if he could sit. Truthfully he could care less, but a low growl admitted from his throat all the same. Daxium was a dangerous man and most people instinctively avoided him. The kid in front of him had chosen not to, which was as interesting as anything else in this place.

His sickly yellowed eyes narrowed as the stranger sat. The white hair might indicate Echani back in the day, but for all Dax knew there were a billion new species in the galaxy these days.

The kid asked a question and Dax grunted at first, but decided to answer, something he wouldn’t have done in his past life.

“Corellian Ale.”

He lifted his own glass, the ice cubs in the ale clinking against it. This drink at least had remained unchanged over the centuries.

Daxium was a man of few words, mostly because he had been taught the galaxy was full of foul creatures unworthy of conversation. Of course those teachings were long dead along with every other thing in his past.

So here he sat, talking to a stranger. It was a brave new world indeed.

Braze

 

[Braze]

Tags: Daxium Ryiah

​

"Ah…perfect. Bartender~ I'll have a Corellian ale for my friend here," Braze chirped, ordering Dax another drink before turning his attention back toward the bartender.

"And I'll have a filthy, in-and-out namana-tini with spotchka. Make it skate, with a slice for garnish."

The bartender soon set a tall, elegant martini glass before him, filled with luminous blue liquor and fine shards of ice floating on top.

"A man of few words, I take it~?" Braze ventured, curling his fingers around the slender stem. "Oh…where are my manners? My name's Braze, by the by. I don't get out much, so forgive me if I'm a little too chatty."

He offered the admission with a small smile, then raised his glass toward the brooding stranger.

"To surviving our own personalities ey~?"

 

[Daxium Ryiah]

Daxium watched as the stranger bought him a drink and then ordered one of the girliest drinks he had ever seen in his life. Were men allowed to do that now? Was this just a new trend with the youth? He wondered what this kid's angle was. Usually buying someone a drink meant you wanted something from them, or at least, in Dax's mistrusting view of the galaxy, it did. Did people really just buy drinks simply to talk to someone?

He nodded his thanks and took the glass the bartender offered him. One gloved hand raised it a little halfheartedly at the toast and then brought the glass to his lips. The liquid burned well, both down his throat and over the cuts in his chapped lips that remained from being frozen so long.

"Daxium."

The stranger, whom he now knew was called Braze, began chatting in a lighthearted way. Daxium tried to think of any time he'd ever made small talk and frowned, realizing he never had. It felt weird. Should he say something else to the kid?

"Why did you come out then?" His gravely growl of a voice issued through lips that barely moved. He still stared straight ahead at the liquor on the shelves behind the bar, though his senses were on high alert like they always were.


Braze

 

[Braze]

Tags: Daxium Ryiah

​

Braze sipped excitedly at his ridiculous-looking drink, one snowy brow quirking as a playful little Mogwai grin crept across his features.

"Why~? Oh, I'm looking for one of my surrogate parental units. He's a Zeltron bounty hunter…the best there is!" Braze chirped. "His name's Cyran Vaas . Ever heard of him?"

He took another cheerful sip, savoring the sweet-and-sour sugar crystals coating the rim of his glass.

Braze shook his head and turned slightly upon his barstool, leaning back against the edge of the counter with one elbow.

"Couldn't find him, so I figured I might as well take a break from all the woes of the galaxy and sit somewhere nobody needs anything from me for five minutes." His gaze settled upon the other man as he raised the glass for another sip. "You look a little rough, though…wanna talk about it, Daxium my pal~?"

 

[Daxium Ryiah]

Daxium had never heard of this bounty hunter, but then again this was only the first week he had been out of the hospital. He knew nobody in the galaxy at all, though Braze didn’t really seem to expect an answer. He seemed to just be chatting for the enjoyment of it. This was odd to Daxium. He had never simply just talked to someone for the sake of it.

The next question made him bristle. Dax was about as open as a maximum security detention center. He shared nothing with nobody, but he had enough social grace to know saying so would be rude. This kid seemed innocent enough to at least say a few words.

“Women.” He grunted and took another sip of his drink. He supposed his troubles were due to women. Lady Sinistra had betrayed him and locked him up for centuries. He realized though that when most men said they had women problems they meant romantic. He didn’t have that particular issue. Since birth he’d been raised to believe he was a reincarnated god and Katarine was his reincarnated wife. He had accepted the cults belief without question and had stayed loyal to that.

But now? He supposed he was free to do as he pleased, but what did he please? What did one do in a galaxy when they weren’t serving someone else’s dark will?


Braze

 

[Braze]

Tags: Daxium Ryiah

​

"I hear making friends with men can help with that," Braze offered, thinking of the supposedly legendary stag parties he had heard about. "Something about 'bros before gardening tools,' I think the saying goes…"

Braze took another sip of his drink.

He was not going to ask whether the man had been dumped. If he had, he certainly did not appear ready to move on. He was surrounded by beautiful, fuchsia-skinned women, yet seemed almost entirely oblivious to their playful glances. Then again, this was Zeltros. Being flirted with by the staff was probably part of the experience, offered with such casual ease that it hardly meant anything at all.

"Still, you can't spend your whole life worrying about the past," Braze continued. "Keep looking behind you, and you'll miss every wonderful opportunity waiting in the present…and surrender your future along with it."

 

[Daxium Ryiah]

"Something about 'bros before gardening tools,' I think the saying goes…"

This statement actually earned a small laugh from Daxium. The sound was more like a bark than a chuckle, and it surprised him.

He turned away from the bar, resting his back against it so he could survey the crowd now.

“I am not sure what my future holds.” His yellow eyes narrowed slightly as a pair of scantily clad women walked past them, giggling and waving.

“Though I think less of this planet might be a good start.”

Zeltros was a hedonistic place, loud, indulgent and wild. It was the exact opposite of Daxium, quiet, controlled, and disciplined. He had ended up here by chance, stowing away on a vessel just to get away from the hospital.

“Are you a bounty hunter like the person you were looking for?”

The question surprised him as much as his laugh had. This was probably the longest conversation he’d ever had with someone who wasn’t Katarine.

Braze

 

[Braze]

Daxium Ryiah
“That’s okay. Even prophets, and those with visions, don’t really know what the future holds, because free will exists. No one can truly know the future…” Braze mused. “I suppose that’s why there’s that saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.”

Braze swirled the last of his drink around the bottom of the glass before downing it in one large sip.

“Yeah…the fear of uncertainty kind of gets to you after a while, even if you’re rather resistant to it,” he agreed.

He perked up considerably at the next question, a smile pulling across his features.

“Yeah, I’m a bounty hunter. Just like my dear uncle Cyran Vaas and my auntie Saram Kote , although…I don’t think I’m very good at it.” He considered that for a moment. “I can’t seem to catch anybody or actually bring anybody in. Uncle Cyran says I should stop worrying about the big-ticket bounties and focus on the little stuff. That’s what he does, and he’s great at what he does. It’s not glamorous or exciting, looking for bail jumpers, but it pays the bills, as it were.”

His gaze drifted toward the empty glass as he thought about his last job.

“I lost the acquisition on my last bounty and ended up paying off another bounty hunter who was fighting me over it. They agreed to a seventy-thirty split…in their favor, despite me legally having initiated the bounty first.” His nose wrinkled faintly. “I didn’t think it was very cool that somebody should be hunted down over college debts, though.”

Braze tipped his head, considering his own admission.

“So…I suppose I really am a bad bounty hunter, huh?”