Layover (Open)

[The Conman]

Doneeda had grown bored, and somewhat distressed.

Her favourite in the race, Jodrel, had been forced to retire early due to engine trouble. She'd noticed it a few seconds after Asyr had left. The Corellian had been having trouble keeping the pod straight going into corners, it looked like it was getting seriously squirmy under hard breaking.

The issue made sense, there was a last minute change of venue, changing the surface of the race. The difference for a repulsor vehicle wasn't huge, but when tenths of a second made a big difference...it was. She surmised they hadn't had enough either time, expertise, or both to set up the system correctly for the track. Causing it to overcompensate for directional drift during breaking, making the pod a handful. Apparently too much of a handfull, causing a couple of close calls on a hairpin and one of the higher speed doglegs.

Donnie was, simply put, bummed. So she'd done 3 double shots of the House Blend.

For the first couple of minutes, things were good. The booze kicked in, she felt her spirits uplifted, and chatted idly with Cellia, as there wasn't that many other people in the place.

Then a purple dinosaur and a green wookie made of moss rode through the bar in a bath tub. The stopped, beside her stool.

I, AM THE PRIDE OF THE PEACHES!

The wookie said, before the whole thing turned into diamonds and disintegrated. Donnie giggled, and turned back to Cellia.

Hokay...Tree mo'da House'tuff.

She said, leaning back and watching as the ceiling started moving.

A minute or two later, Cellia poked her arm.

Hey, Spacecase -

Donnie returned back to earth.

Sup seksy?

She responded almost immediatley. This wasn't her first rodeo, and though she was mildly hi, Donnie was still all there.

Cellia grinned, and shook her head, pushing her jet black hair out of the way.

Your Poison, madam.

She said, presenting the 3 doubles.

Ozzim

She said, picking the first one up and downing it.

Donnie got up, and picked the other two up, looking over and sighting Asyr still talking to Var. She surmised it was time for her to go see what was going on.

As she motored over towards the table, Donnie noticed the floor was moving, the dirty patterned carpet moving and weaving beneath her feet. It was quite disturbing. She resolutely looked up, and ducked to avoid the palm trees that were growing out of the tops of the coat racks on the ends of the stalls.

After a minute or two of dodging coconuts on the floor, the younger of the two twi'leks arrived, nonchalantly bumping her right hip into Asyr, who was leaning on a chair.

Wazzuuppp

She said enthusiastically.

Hey Var, Asyr, Is ga gifz

She said, presenting the shot to him.

[Rugs]

Asyr remained calm as the Twi'lek began to react. Silently, he thanked the resolve all his years of training in the martial arts and combat in general had bestowed, because it might have been difficult not to make some face when she started to turn around and lift her shirt. Some lower, more base part of him felt a thrill when he saw that she planned to lift her shirt, but he batted that down. He knew that sort of shirt-raising what was going on.

Again, he thanked himself for his resolve when she revealed what was hiding beneath her shirt. Her skin was scarred, and in a word, ugly. The scars were obviously old, but the skin was still bad, and raw. Proper treatment at the time of the injuries might have saved her skin, left the scars to just be little marks or lines like the very few that he had, but that apparently hadn't happened.

Or maybe whatever she'd been subjected to had been that bad. He didn't particularly want to think about it.

It was really a shame. The rest of her body was so pretty--it as beyond unfortunate that someone had done that to her.

Asyr sighed as she turned around, white smoke rolling gently out of his mouth. She spoke again, her voice brimming with anger and hate, but he just listened. Calmly. Quietly.

"Listen...," he said when she had finished, speaking carefully, "perhaps I worded things poorly, or perhaps I spoke out of turn, but I want to clarify: I don't understand what you went through. I never can. I never will.

"But pain is something I understand." His face remained calm and steady, but something changed in his powdery eyes. They were suddenly kinder, softer. Sad, even. Sad for her. "I wish," he continued, sighing, "that I could take the pain away, reach back through time and make it so those things never happened to you. Sure the Galaxy would be a better place for everyone if I could."

He plucked the stub of the cigar from his mouth one last time and blew a puff of smoke. "But I can't," he muttered, looking at its remains before he dropped it on the floor and stamped it out underfoot. As he spoke again, his gaze returned to her. "I can offer you empathy. But, considering the circumstances, that's all I really can do." Now his expression changed, as he allowed earnest remorse to show and his shoulders drooped a bit. "I am truly sorry for you though..."

As he finished speaking, he heard someone else coming over. He looked up, and lo and behold, there was Donnie. She gave him a little bump with her hip. He gave her a lopsided grin.

"Wazzuuppp"

Asyr chuckled, the remorse fading as he returned to being his normal self. Sexy women had a way of doing that...

"Hey sexy. 'Sup?"

Hey Var, Asyr, Is ga gifz."

She presented a shot glass to him, which he gladly took. "Oh now, what concoction have you brought me this time?" he asked, eyeing the drink and giving Donnie a curious grin with a raised brow.

He was glad she'd come, truthfully. She had a way of lifting the mood, even beyond his obvious physical attraction to her. Besides, he was ready to get back to flirting. But he wouldn't leave his conversation with the other Twi'lek unfinished. Not so abruptly.

"So," said he, turning to look at her with a more serious tone than what he'd used for Donnie, "I understand why you're... upset now. Maybe I don't understand anything else, but I get that much. I still thing you should have a good time--only live once--but only you can make that choice." He offered her a smile that was friendly, rather than lustful, and raised his glass slightly to her. "Maybe things'll be better for you now. I hope they are--you deserve better.

"But, if you still want me to stop bothering, I will. All you have to do is tell me."

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"Listen... perhaps I worded things poorly, or perhaps I spoke out of turn, but I want to clarify: I don't understand what you went through. I never can. I never will.

Var's gaze softened a little and she nodded slightly, not much in the way of movement, but powerful still. This was... an apology of sorts. She could never recall someone backing down like that for her. Every day was a collision of forces, two sides meeting with opposition and neither willing to yield. Yielding meant death or injury, yet here he was. Yielding. And it was all because he knew she was right, and he didn't want to lessen what happened to her.

She couldn't be reading that in. She wanted to see the worst in people, she wanted to expect the worst in people. But people were surprising her.

Kindness. That was all she'd ever wanted since the day it had been ripped from her life, and now she was getting it by just opening up a bit, by not walling herself off the way she always did.

As a Jedi she'd been told to reject emotion, and she'd tried to stoically wall off her feelings rather than address them, because merely having them was 'bad.' Then as a Dark Jedi and a Sith, she'd been taught weakness was inexcusable. The way of the Dark Side was that the weak died at the hands of the strong. You could either be strong or you could be weak, and she hid her weakness. She had to.

And here, outside the ranks of force-wielders there was compassion, there was an appreciation for emotions, a respect for them. It was a whole new world filled with people who were nothing like everyone she'd known before. There wasn't great evil or lofty goodness, there was just a normality to everything. A special normality.

"But pain is something I understand."

Var didn't even question him this time. Her eyes had a vaguely skeptical look to them, but there wasn't a green fire raging in them, more like a slight smolder. On some level he did understand pain. Everyone did, even if the specifics of another's was beyond the knowledge of a man. Yes, he hadn't been through what she had. He'd never been whipped so bad he was disfigured permanently. He'd never been violated. Those were alien to him, but some time in his life he'd been in some kind of pain, and that- that was a shared experience.

She didn't question that.

"I wish, that I could take the pain away, reach back through time and make it so those things never happened to you. Sure the Galaxy would be a better place for everyone if I could."

Var nodded, feeling a certain sensation gripping her. She wished for that too, she longed for it, her wish that could never be fulfilled. It was nothing more than a dream, but here was someone who'd fulfill it he could, someone who didn't dismiss it.

This, this right here, was something she'd never had with Koeing or with Donnie. Her master was powerful, and he responded with action rather than words. And Doneeda, well she wasn't much for discussing feelings or pain. Her soul was light and carefree, like that of a child. Like the child Varulla'aba had never been. As such, she'd never actually had this kind of conversation before. This was... the longest amount of time she'd ever spent talking with anyone about her pain.

How had she lived keeping that held in so much? And why had it taken her so long to just talk, to just share what had happened freely? There was so much lost time there.

"But I can't, I can offer you empathy. But, considering the circumstances, that's all I really can do."


Var nodded, looking at him through teary eyes. Empathy. That was what she wanted, all she wanted, all she'd ever wanted. At long last, someone was offering her simple kindness freely and without coercion.

In the same few days she'd been shown romantic love and pure kindness for the first time. These had been the very best days of her twenty-six years, moments she'd treasure forever. It was, to be honest, more than she could bear.

"I am truly sorry for you though..."

The pale Twi'lek woman didn't take that statement the way she would normally have. She didn't resent it, she didn't scorn it. He wasn't sorry at her, thinking she was pathetic. He was sorry for what had happened to her, for her past and her pain.

Her lip quivered and her slender cheeks were stained with tears now flowing freely. As she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve, trying to clear them...

"Wazzuuppp"

Donnie arrived and the moment was over. The connection was broken and the magic was lost, replaced by embarrassment. Var's marble cheeks took on a yellowish hue; she was blushing horribly and absolutely humiliated.

She hurriedly slid out of the booth and shoved her way past Donnie, avoiding eye contact with everyone as she raced out into the wet night, her onion rings forgotten.

The rain was still pouring, washing the streets. It fell in large drops onto her headtails, and she simply let it wash over her as she stood in the middle of the narrow pedestrian street, deserted at the quiet hour. She stared up at the clouds, and within seconds her tears were being washed away by the cool water.

Var took deep breaths, calming herself in a way she'd learned so many years ago as a Jedi, closing her eyes and simply trying to be for a few seconds. The emotions washed over her like waves lapping on the sands of a beach, but unlike waves they started to subside, leaving behind a strange calm.

She'd told people now what had happened. At first it had been an accident, a drunken revelation. But now it was fully voluntary, and nothing had happened. She hadn't been judged for it. No one had called her weak or looked at her with disgust. Normal people viewed her problems in different ways.

She- She wanted to be one of them. Even just this, masquerading as a normal person, was liberating. She didn't have to live up to standards or hide away parts of herself, Var could simply be Var, and others accepted it as who she was. It was an escape from pressure, one she wished could be permanent.

She dreaded going back now that she'd tasted freedom. She'd be trapped, a prisoner in a dark world without hope. No one left the Sith outside of a body bag. But that was weeks, no months away. She had more pressing concerns first. She'd never get her life back until she closed the book on her past. And that couldn't happen until she found her owner and ended his life.

Revenge first. Then she could worry about life.

Varulla'aba turned and started the long walk back to the ship alone. Her thoughts were the only company she was going to keep tonight, private thoughts that she wouldn't share with anyone yet. Not Donnie, and not even Koeing. She wasn't ready to talk. Not yet, and even if she was ready she wasn't sure how to broach the issue anyway. She couldn't just tell Koeing what she was thinking. He was a Sith through and through, a true believer. Leaving it would imperil their relationship. And Donnie, she'd be supportive but she also had a big mouth sometimes. Letting it slip to the wrong person could end her life.

No, if the time came to make a move she'd have to do it on her own.

Why, Var asked herself in the middle of a dark and rainy street, was life so complicated?

[The Conman]

Donnie was about to respond to Asyr when Var up and left. Took off, bumping past her and sped off into the night.

She looked at the seat, then back to the door, then back to the seat, then back to the door, stopping at Asyr who was somewhere in between. Then, as suddenly as she was concerned about Var and her disapearence, she wasn't, as what appeared to be a giant green slug past by the front of the bar and stopped a ways down the street, people coming out of an oozing slit in it's side.

Doneeda turned herself away from the window, choosing instead to view the inside of the bar, it being a far better trip than what was going on outside. The Twi'lek sat down, across from where Asyr was leaning.

Ah...da-

She said, motioning to the shot glass.

Ee'da 'ouse blen, cha has eet earlier.

Donnie explained, downing her shot.

Hokay, so, min' lettin' me kno why Var jus ra'oudda'ere?

Donnie asked, thinking for a moment, before waving her hands in front of her, then leaning her head on her right hand, leaning her elbow on the table.

No, I don' wan' kno. Wha'ver cho do d'make 'er freak, I don' wan' kno.

She said, standing up, and moving towards Asyr.

C'mon, les'ee wha'we can'do wi'da bartendar, eh?

She asked, grabbing his arm and tugging in the direction of the bar.

[Rugs]

{Distracted kinda, and short on time, so this'll be quick}

"I really don't know..." Asyr said, sounding confused. He wasn't sure why Var had left so suddenly, but maybe it was best just to not worry about it. Wish her the best as she went on, and let her go on her way and do as she would.

He sighed anyway, looking out into the rain that the young woman had disappeared into. Hopefully someone could bring her some sort of happiness. Someone somewhere...

"C'mon, les'ee wha'we can'do wi'da bartendar, eh?"

Asyr looked back to Donnie. She was standing up over him, reaching to grab his arm. Smiling, he pushed thoughts of Var to a corner of his mind for later and stood up with her. "Aye, Donnie. Let's see if we can get our friend in on the fun for tonight."

He allowed Donnie to lead him back over to the bar and returned to the seat he'd been sitting in. Or he thought it was the same one. Didn't matter really.

The bartender was still there, of course, and Asyr was still quite keen on getting her in bed with Donnie and himself. No time like the present to get to work.

"Hey," he said as he she passed by. "How about another house special for me and my friend here?" His lips turned up into a slight smile. "What's your name anyway, gorgeous?"