Taciturn

[Kana Truden]

Kana dragged her fingertops along her scrunched nose. As far as pain went Telti had gone just about as well as Kana had most likely expected. Her calls to war usually did, the only one that really stood out was Ord Mirit where the only thing that had been broken was her pride. Not to mention the dent in her own self-esteem, but that one had always been there so what did it really matter?

“I really shouldn’t.” Kana frowned. “I mean, I already owe my overseer a good explanation as to why I’d let you go after everything he’s been told.”

Which wasn’t to mention the fact that Kana was suppressing her own urge to just flee in the first place. This woman, the same woman who was asking her to drinks had been the cause of untold mental damage, yet at the same time there was that small spark of appreciation. It was like thanking a legate for your crucifixion, almost. You might mean it at first, but in the long run, did you really?

Kana both feared where it could be going and where it was going no matter what she did from here on out, and a direct confrontation with this ‘Aver Brand’ was more than likely going to end up exactly where Kana thought it would.

Painsville.

“One drink.” Kana added rather hesitantly. “Only one.”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Having exhausted her words for the moment, Aver was content to lean back and listen to [member="Kana Truden"] speak. Watch her squirm. Witness her relent when she arrived to the same conclusion the merc did the moment they’d met.

She made no effort to conceal the smile that pulled at her lips when the Jedi acquiesced. Caveat or not, it was a start. They both knew – whether consciously or not – that a finger was all Aver needed to take an arm, and then the whole body.

And true to the inkling, the blue of her eyes flared with a sudden hunger that had little to do with food.

“Come, then,” she spoke, and offered the blonde the crook of her elbow. There was no reason to be crude about it, a certain Queen had reminded her once with a smirk. She’d taken to the statement, even as she made to take the earlier, crueler conquest to a bar across the street.

The door hissed open upon their approach, welcoming them into the bustle of a busy city after work. Laughter and smoke filled the air, along with the smell of beer and stale cologne. It wasn’t full – not yet – but the cheap neon letters blinking ‘HAPPY HOUR’ above the counter promised it would be soon enough.

Just as well. There was no anonymity like that of the crowd.

 

[Kana Truden]

“Mhmm.” Kana chuckled with little in the way of actual humor as she denied [member="Aver Brand"]’s arm hook. “No, we said drinks, not a happy couple on a date.”

Which was as ironic as it got. Happy hour flashed before them in bright neon and the scene around them started to fill up with patrons. Kana took her seat by her nightmare-slash-apparently-not-nightmare with a half-hearted, half-dejected sigh. She didn’t enjoy her arbitrary disposition, yet the moment of return had long since passed. Maybe she was able to find some joy in it, maybe not. She had to at least try, right?

Right.

“So, you look, uh… Good for dead, I guess.” The healer hesitated, lip twitching at her remark. “As far as carcasses go, I guess I’ve seen worse.”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

A piggish snort escaped her before she could bite it back. Hell, she didn’t even try. These days, Aver just didn’t care about perception anymore. (Not that she’d ever been big on propriety.)

“A deaf miraluka wouldn’t mistake us for a couple from a hundred yards away, Truden. And we’re not exactly the happy sort either. I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

Something else, sure. Being seen as a romantic partner to Aver Brand? A snowball’s chance in Netherworld.

“Mm. Are you always so smooth, or is it just me that you make that special effort for?”

The merc tongued the tip of a sharp canine and held her gaze for a moment longer, then turned to face the bored bartender.

“Two beers. Make it fast.”

When he looked like he might complain, Aver flashed him a smile. His mouth snapped shut, and he bent down to fetch the bottles with remarkable speed. She could swear she saw beads of sweat on his forehead as he swiped her credit chip. Relief or fear. Maybe a mix of both.

A short stroll later – filled with elbows and knees and a few sharp looks – they plopped down into a booth.

“So what’ve you been up to, Jedi? While I was playing dead, you know.”



[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“Nope. Just you.” An impassive look set on ‘Aver Brand’ as she ordered drinks. Beer was far from what Kana would have picked herself but she could hardly hold it against her ‘date’ for going with the easy choice. It was kind of like walking up to a McYoda’s cashier and just asking for a burger. They could make a fuss and ask you which one it was, but in the end whoever ordered would have mentioned which specific burger they wanted if they truly gave a damn.

The two of them elbowed their way through the crowds. In some ways it reminded her of how life was before the order and when things were simpler. Then again, had she not been brought into the Order when she was she probably would have died on Alderaan all those years back.

“Recuperating.” Kana stated with a shrug and a sip of her drink. “Thinking about what I’ve done, most of which was done in a magma cell, I might add.”

And then Kana sighed. “Got to meet Avalore again, got to know Jacen. Even got to see my old apprentice for a shortwhile, but he’s gone again.”

“I take every day one step at a time, I suppose. Resettling into what I used to be back before the, uh…” Eyes drifted away. “Events we both know of.”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

“Magma cell?” Aver quirked an eyebrow, then tipped back her bottle.

When she set it back down, half of the drink was gone. It was a warm day out, and armor made you sweat something fierce.
“These new Jedi ain’t kidding around with hospitality, are they?”

She’d heard stories. Rumors, really. Scuttlebutt, if she considered the profession of the gossiping populace. The Alliance were a few cuts above the Republican folk, mostly in terms of efficiency. Unbound by professional obligations, Aver could freely express respect of their methods. Could, but didn’t. Not yet.

“Avalore Eden?”

That name. Hal Terrano had spoken it first. She’d sent a gift to the woman, once, in a past life. It wasn’t a very nice one, as far as gifts go. But it was certainly memorable.
The merc covered up her grin with another hearty swig from the beer, but her eyes never left [member="Kana Truden"].

“How’d the Alliance folk take your daddy-killing ways?”

 

[Kana Truden]

“Depends, are we talking rigid sticks up their rear-ends Jedi or the Alliance?” Kana perked her brows and took a swig from her drink. “What the Alliance lacks in hospitality they gain in results. Those who want to get better from the start can get out in a month, those who do not…”

Kana took another swig. “Well, the cells probably make them see reason.”

That particular sentence shocked even Kana. With time and age came apathy, with apathy came the strongest urge to just not really give a damn. The firrerreo asked for Avalore’s full name but Kana offered her little in the way of an answer. She knew better than that, having spent time on Coruscant had taught her better than that. In some regards pragmatism had very little to do with being a Jedi, but Kana was done with the title. All she was at this point, and all that she ever really wanted to be, was a Healer. Both because of the now-attached irony of it and because it gave her purpose, and as long as she had a place to stay with Avalore she wouldn’t ever really consider doing much of anything else.

Eat, sleep, die. Life wasn’t much harder than that.

… Or maybe she was just letting herself slip back into what she was before.

“As for my curious case of patricide, they have me on probation.” There was no need to show anything. Simply because there was nothing there. No ankle beeper, no cybernetic implant. They trusted her, she appreciated that. She let the moment pass, the silence linger for a bit before she spoke up again. A chuckle burst through her nose.

“Corvus has disappeared again.” She said surprisingly uncaring for someone who was her friend. “We had a small reunion and all that, but then she just disappeared.”

“That leaves, well, me as the final leftover from yesterday's news. With Kian, Seraphina, Corvus, Tugorious and the rest gone, I am the only surviving member of the Order that I knew.”

“I could die right now and none would be the wiser to that. Or care.”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Aver tsked, regarding the [member="Kana Truden"] with a level gaze. Nothing given, nothing gained. Two could play this game.

“We both know that ain’t true. What goody-two-shoes would I seduce if you were gone?” When she spoke, the firrerreo was all teeth. The warmth of a late afternoon sun was gone, frosting over once again. The glacier inched forward.

“And if you screw up probation, what then? Back into the magma dip?”

Apart from a mocking figure of speech she’d adopted specifically to jibe the blonde Jedi, Aver rarely entertained thoughts about the former Grand master. Rarely to never, to be perfectly honest. The woman had crumbled along with her precious Order, along with her precious Republic. Force knew she’d seen to that.

“Well, I guess you won’t be calling me Corvus anymore.” The firrerreo set down her empty bottle, leaning forward. She arched a single eyebrow. “You’re still welcome to kark me sideways, though. Anytime.”

Apathy or sarcasm? Or would the blonde pick a third option?

The sabacc player inside her grinned giddily over the edge of her cards, eyes alight with expectation.

 

[Kana Truden]

Air burst through the blonde’s nose. “Yeah, well, that one time it was a mistake. Can’t fault me for my better senses taking the controls mid-game.” Or well, Aver really could. Most people around Kana most likely did, or so she often told herself. In many ways she had, by a very literal sense, slept with the enemy. Few survived that, fewer stepped out of it with their pride intact unless their last name ended with ‘Ovmar.’ That’s what urband legend said anyway. Kana swerved the content of her bottle around for a bit and took another sip. Mention of magma cells had her sent on the expressway down contemplation lane.

“You know I’ll have to try take you there once the drinks are over, right?” Kana gave Aver a serious look. They were going to have to tango later, there really wasn’t any getting around that. In her mind Kana prepped for the pain that she knew was coming.

Maybe she could try to punch armor again. Broken hands and scars was a surefire turn on for others, obviously.

“They will be expecting that much of me.”

“Can’t really get around that.”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

A faint whistling sound escaped from the bottle as Aver traced a finger over the rim of its mouth. There was something decidedly serpentine about the coil of her muscles, about the way she’d shift in her seat. Whether or not [member="Kana Truden"] noticed, it didn’t matter. They both knew how their little encounter would end the second they ran into each other on the street.

“Mm, no. Suppose I can’t, can I?” she offered through a grin with entirely too many teeth. “Maybe one day your better judgement will win out again. A girl can hope.” The merc winked, then nodded, playful demeanor draining away like blood from a slit carotid.

“Well. I’d hate to send you home with a poor track record.” She didn’t even try to sound sincere. Not like the blonde would believe her, anyway. Now that smiles didn’t matter no more, the woman clipped her helmet back on.

Aver rose from her seat in one fluid movement, wrapping a hand securely around the neck of her empty beer.

“We’d better make it believable, then.”

There was a loud crash as she broke the bottle over the edge of the metal table. The bar quieted, every pair of eyes settling on the skull-faced warrior.

“I can be the one playing hard to get, for a change.”

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana remained still in face of the danger she had purposefully placed herself in. Aver was already jumping to the improvised weapons and all Kana could really do was play along. Her own bottle was smashed against the table, the tiniest splatter of glass and alcohol smudged against the top of her thigh as she rose up with the sharp end pointed at her ‘tormentor.’ The blonde observed her moves as if it was life and death without really committing to the idea. Part of her probably should have been real about it, but there were fights you won and fights you lost. Kana had lost enough to know when the odds were stacked against her. It came with being a former associate of the Galactic Republic almost. A healthy dose of apathy in the light of death.

It fitted a healer just fine.

“For a change?” Kana snickered. “I was pretty easy both of the times we met.”

Self-deprecation could never go wrong.

“I think the words you are looking for was ‘I give up,’ for a change.” Nah, that wouldn’t really fly either. Kana eyed the exit to the bar and motioned towards it with her head, bottle still raised towards the firrerreo. “Let’s take this outside, shall we?”

“... Would be a shame to cause any unnecessary destruction to such a fine establishment as this.” The Coruscanti woman raised an eyebrow and motioned towards the door again. “Don’t you think?”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

She hummed, tilting her head to the side. “I guess you were.”

Under that jacket and jeans, [member="Kana Truden"] looked to be wearing a body much the same as always. Maybe her limbs were a bit ganglier, her face a tad gaunter. That’s what a good stint in the lava bath would do to you, most like.

“Don’t you think?”

Aver didn’t think that, actually. The pub looked excellent for putting a former-reformed-Jedi in her place. Plenty of metal tables, all screwed into the ground. A long, sturdy counter, lined with spirits to boot. Tacky decorations that could serve as battering weapons in a cinch. A wealth of corners and walls to pin her foe against. Aluminium chairs. A repeating blaster rifle behind the barkeep. Two exits – three, if you counted the smallish window in the can. And yet…

“Of course,” she said instead, gesturing to the door with the jagged remains of her bottle. “Ladies first.”

 

[Kana Truden]

Feigned smile of appreciation.

“Excellent.” The healer said most uneasy. “Certainly, certainly.”

Kana wasn’t an idiot, she wouldn’t turn around and face Aver a stab at her back, but it most certainly made things a lot harder to navigate in a bar full of people. At first she had found herself backing in to just about everyone until eventually the armored form began to follow the blonde outside. A bubble formed around them, like a void that nobody wanted to stand inside of. A perfectly round little circle of fear and at its very heart stood one slightly terrified medic. Not because she was at a risk of death as much as because she was very aware of her own ineptitude when it came to fighting this particular beast.

Eventually she heard the sound of dust crunch beneath her foot again as they stepped outside. Gasps could be heard in a slow spread down both ways of the busy city street. People began to clung to the walls or back away. They had seen this before, blood was about to be spilled.

Though mainly because bottles were brought into play.

“Well we got that out of the way.” Kana stated. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you… Blah, blah that kind of thing.”

“Last chance, Handsy. Give up.”

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmujzA0HYMI​

[member="Kana Truden"]​

Several scathing retorts danced at the tip of her tongue, the naked blade of wit nearly drawing blood. She swallowed them instead, content to soak up the waves of fear and apprehension and excitement. The crowd was radiating everything on that spectrum, and then some.

Then again, Aver didn’t give a shet about the crowd beyond its role as a meat shield. Might become useful in a few.

The weight of the broken bottle in her hand felt right, somehow, like this was always supposed to end like this. Hell, it probably was. Whatever they were – and much like Kana, the merc didn’t know. Unlike Kana, she didn’t care to stick a label on it – beyond the few stolen moments of swift and reckless gratification, all they could ever wreak was havoc and tears.

Aver because she would never change for someone else, and Kana because she could never understand.

A pang of something distant, sadness perhaps, washed over her. She allowed a smile in the safe darkness of her helmet, and it crooked her lips something fierce.

Oh, well. Everything ends someday.

Even this. (especially this)

With ease of lifelong strife, Aver lobbed the beer at Kana’s feet, aiming to tackle her to the ground in the resulting spray of shards.

 

[Kana Truden]

Somewhere along the road the words “Nobody fights fair, so why should you?” Had been brought to Kana’s attention. Sure, she could have gotten a saber out and tried to twirl it in a magical circle that’d fix the glass problem, but that was hardly going to work. Instead she opted for the toss of her own bottle in the hopes that it would slow the merc’s approach. Obviously it wouldn’t stop it, but with luck it would slow her down.

A foot stepped to the side, a hand was raised to send the dust and glass shatter of Aver’s bottle back at her. The people in the stalls behind the merc covered their faces, ducked and covered as the occasional stray shard ricochet from the walls with a lazy clank.

The belt on Kana’s hip clipped as she withdrew her saber. It wasn’t flicked on, not just yet. Her eyes scanned through the growing dust cloud to spot her opponent. It was hard, obviously. Dust particles irritated the skin and eyes, forced her to focus on the surroundings by extending herself within the force. To sense where Aver was.

Ears up, eyes down.

No words. Just the sound of the crowd and the ensuing chaos.

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Laughter itched at her throat as glass glanced uselessly off phrik and armorweave. She didn’t let it out no more than she would a rabid beast, because Aver was nothing if not pragmatic. Laughing in the middle of combat (however half-hearted) was not conducive to emerging victorious.

Efficiency took hold of her limbs and led her into a shoulder-roll. Two hundred pounds of metal and indifference ground the bottle shards to dust, and then she was standing again. A grin split her face ear-to-ear, rows of needle teeth glinting in the light of the HUD.

Whatever baggage had been lingering she’d left in the dust. Hesitancy was swiftly replaced by adrenaline, lips already wet with blood she had yet to taste.

Strife was home.

The overlay of her visor shifted, outlining the Jedi through the cloud. Unlike Kana, Aver didn’t pull out a lightsaber (nor did she pull out a gun, a blaster, a grenade, or a knife), because otherwise it just wasn’t gonna be fun. And maybe she had plans to goad the blonde into punching her again, for old times’ sake.

So she circled closer, trying to get her from the side (or the back, Force willing), throwing a couple of quick jabs. A distraction – eyes up, Kana – because then she was totally going to sweep her off her feet.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

[member="Aver Brand"]

No sooner than Aver stepped into her personal space did Kana react. A fist came swinging, but a fist hit little. The blonde swept herself out of reach from the punches and turned around to face her opponent. Last time, punching armor had hurt bad and with age came wisdom. Such wisdom as knowing not to punch that which hurt you on impact. Yet Kana didn’t ignite her saber just yet. Knowing her opponent there was most likely something within there that would make the effort void. Mainly because of the whole Vong-bug-armor deal from back-when.

Instead Kana remained standing, staring at her opponent trying to check their movements and where they would go, what they would do. Obviously she had little hopes of winning, but she wasn’t planning on making things any easier on Aver than they already were. The Jedi could have thrown her saber, risk her grabbing that and use it against her. She could also have propulsed said throw to make it a bit harder to catch, but the risk of collateral damage was far too great.

No, she remained on alert to try and find a better and smarter way to fight her opponent.

Yeah, fight dirty and all, but not before Kana knew how to gain that advantage.

 

[Aver Brand]

Out of reach for her fists, fine, but what of her legs? What of the Force?

A Schrödinger’s grin split Aver’s face (because, well, helmet), and then she stomped her foot on the ground. Once, twice, thri—

false!

Instead of lunging forward or kicking upward, the merc sent a mild shockwave out from where her boot had hit the duracrete. Just enough to jostle someone’s balance, you see – just enough for, say, a prepared attacker to follow it up with a push and send the Jedi flying into the helpfully crowded bystanders.

Two birds with one stone, right? She’d disperse the throng and keep [member="Kana Truden"] on her toes. Win-win.

 

[Kana Truden]

[member="Aver Brand"]

Kana had certainly not seen it coming. Perhaps she was used to the fact that she had not once seen this adversary use the force, or perhaps she was just quite simply underestimating them. Regardless of which it was the woman found herself stumbling on her feet and slung into the crowd much like Aver had sought to do.

Prone and on top of not just one person but two Kana quickly pushed herself off the ground. Off of those who seemed as displeased as ever at having a grown woman thrown at them. She gave Aver a tilt of her head and the ever so thin smile of ‘Oh, so you do know that, huh?’ It made things more complicated to be certain. The blonde began circling the firrerreo again to think of a way to combat this, to —

Also false.

A table came flying from the redhaired devil’s back aiming for her head, seeking to get a cheap shot at retribution for damages caused. To Kana, of course. The table in itself was damage, but it was acceptable collateral damage.

 

[Aver Brand]

Nine out of ten, Aver reckoned. The landing was a bit off, what with all the flailing and that old man falling over. The crowd that had gathered had begun to disperse with the realisation that collateral damage was an actual thing. The merc considered that a fantastic bonus for such an impromptu maneuver.

She’d give what [member="Kana Truden"] pulled with the table a clean ten, though.

Would, that is, if she wasn’t the sort of bastard who walked the world with a pineal eye sensor installed in her helmet. Since time immemorial, humanoid predators suffered from a massive visual deficit: frontal vision. With the evolution of technology, enterprising hunters and killers had sought to overcome their natural shortcomings and, indeed, succeeded in the end.

So what basically happened was, Aver ducked.