Catch & Release

[Neology]

Arriving early, scouting the ground, planning an emergency exit. Those were hard habits to break. Thirty minutes early, Novus's rental speeder swooped down and around, giving her a good view of the block. Nice place, she supposed. Busy.

Mal Denton's pick of restaurant was on the top level, on the edge of the financial district. The front was elegant, sandwiched between a small theatre and a specialty tailor. It seemed like expensive tastes for a soldier. Perhaps he'd asked his employer for a few suggestions? If he was trying to impress her … Well, it was an interesting gesture, if nothing else. Of course, she'd never been on a date before and Korriban didn't have a single restaurant. 'Fake it like you mean it, right?'

The rental's thrusters hummed as she pulled down to park, fell silent a few moments later when she turned the key. Still early. Novus leaned back in her seat, peering through her window. Coruscant in the evening. Beautiful. She wished she could stay, and that she didn't have to hide.

'You only want this because you can't have it. Idiot.' She knew this dance.

Gradually, her blue eyes shifted from the fine sweep of the boulevard to the horizon. A touch of concentration on their bond and she could still pick out Levin, bright and familiar against all that background life. Calm. She smiled, briefly. At least the Jedi hadn't turned her over to his order yet.

The chrono in the dash read five minutes till. Time to get going. Novus popped open the speeder door and climbed out. The walk to the front of the restaurant was very short. She elected to wait outside, watching for Mal. Idle hands fiddled with her hair, then swept down to smooth the hem of her dress. Slinky and black, cultured – or maybe not. She rather liked the look.

[Mal]

Mal had gotten advice on the restaurant from Ina, truth be told he was a little surprised by her choice but went with it after reading several reviews. It was a nice place with amazing food he was told, so he risked it and set it all up. It had been two weeks since he had first met Arjha, a lot had happened to him in that time. He'd met and gone to dinner with Seria, and he'd also met that Jedi Chias Nero. All in all, it had been a good couple weeks, especially after he'd started learning more about the Force. His senses were better, as was his ability to refresh his body with the Force. He was only getting better and stronger by the day, he hoped he would start figuring out other skills later. Still, maybe he could find someone to teach him...

Mal pulled his mind from all those thoughts as he landed and stepped out of his speeder, he was dressed better than he normally would for work. Going to work with Ina at the senate he typically wore dress pants and boots, with a decent long sleeved shirt and a coat. Tonight he wore the black dress pants and boots, minus the vibroblade he usually had in his boot, a nice navy blue dress shirt and a black coat. All tailored to fit him perfectly. He'd been told several times that nothing looked better on a man than a well tailored suit. He guessed that he was about to find out, despite the suit though he felt almost naked without carrying a weapon of some kind. He'd carried one everyday for the past decade, but had decided that he didn't need to carry one on a date with Arjha. And if he did, then things had gone very bad.

Mal saw Arjha standing at the entrance, fiddling with her hair a moment before she started smoothing out her dress. Smiling the soldier quickly grabbed the single flower he had gotten her before he walked up to her, he thought he had been a little early. He hoped she hadn't been waiting too long, he'd feel a little bad that she'd had to wait on him. "Hey, I hope you haven't been waiting long." Holding the flower out to her, a single purple iris, he couldn't help but smile at her again. "You look great Arjha." And he meant every word of it too, he didn't know which was better, the dress she wore now or the blue one from last time.

Mal gently placed one had on the middle of her back, his other hand gesturing at the door. "Shall we?" He asked before stepping into the restaurant. After he confirmed their reservations, which was something the soldier never thought he'd be doing, they were shown to their table. Mal did the gentlemanly thing and held Arjha's chair out for her and pushed it in after she sat down. After taking his own seat he couldn't resist but look around the place, he just hoped that Ina hadn't steered him wrong with this place. "So how have you been the last couple weeks?" He asked before glancing down at menu for a second, at least everything was in basic. He wasn't sure how much he could read in some of the other languages, most of what he knew wasn't very polite anyway.

[Neology]

Novus spotted Mal as he arrived and stopped fidgeting, shooting him a quick smile. 'You do remember what you're doing here, right?' She quashed that thought back down. Arjha wasn't such a difficult act to keep up. All she had to do was forget everything that had happened in the last two weeks. Her thoughts shifted toward the Jedi, briefly, then were reined in. 'Okay, maybe it wont be so easy ...'

A certain expression came to mind, lighting her bright blue eyes with genuine humor. 'How can I miss you if you never go away?' She would need to find the limits of this strange, two-way awareness soon. Couldn't have the Jedi sticking his nose into everything, after all.

This, for example.

“Oh, not at all, Mal.” Slender fingers grasped the iris by the stem, held it briefly to her nose. The fragrance was sweet, cool, and powdery. Pleasant, even if the natural inclination of her thoughts tended toward what inhaled toxins that scent could hide. “Thank you. I like the outfit, by the way.”

The black dress had a modest hemline in the front, long, close fitting sleeves, and a back that dipped down very low, showing the long curve of her spine and shoulder blades. She shivered slightly at the unexpected contact, skin on skin, but let the soldier steer her into the restaurant nonetheless. The interior was pleasant enough, though a lifetime in various temples left her without a proper appreciation for such things. Lots of natural materials, probably imported to great expense, and soft lighting.

She took her seat, smiling politely at the soldier. She glanced through the wine menu, finding very few options that she recognized. Her brows rose slightly as Mal inquired about the past two weeks. Quickly, she put together a heavily edited account.

“Well, I did go to Alderaan. A small village at the foot of the Juran Moutains. You were right; it's a very beautiful world.” Her finger paused over a Nabooese red as a safe choice. A planet and a color she recognized, and listed in Basic, if nothing else. “Met some interesting people, got plenty of exercise.” Ah, better not mention the rakghouls, of course …

“And what about you, Mal?”

[Mal]

Chuckling, he looked down at himself. "Honestly I feel a bit strange, I'm still not quite used to dressing like this." Well she liked it, so Mal assumed he had made the right choice in attire. He was used to wearing armor everyday and ducking under blaster fire. There was little need for him to wear combat armor on Coruscant, and he wasn't getting shot at everyday anymore. Which was definitely a bonus, he was starting to actually sleep at night instead of dozing on and off all night. He was even starting to get used to having hot food, the soft bed on the other hand... he'd been sleeping on the floor for a while now. Soft beds was still something he had to get used to, and it wasn't easy at all. Surprising right? Not being able to sleep in a soft bed, Mal definitely had issues.

Mal smiled at Arjha as she told her story, he had no reason to doubt her right? "The Juran Mountains? I did some survival training there during basic. It was beautiful, but very cold." Mal wasn't exactly a win man, so instead he decided to order a Corellian ale. Even that wasn't quite his taste, but he wasn't about to order a Corellian whiskey when he intended to drive later. Many things the soldier could be called, but suicidal was not one of them. Besides, he wanted to stay clear headed for this date. He had a very good feeling about this night, and it wasn't just the dress that Arjha was wearing. Though that did contribute to the good feeling he guessed. He couldn't help but think that a woman wearing a dress like that for a date had high hopes for the night.

"I ran into the psychiatrist that gave me my psyche eval after my mother was killed. And I ran into a Jedi friend for some tea, then one of her friends joined us, also a Jedi." Mal shrugged, it hadn't been quite as exciting as he made it seem. Despite the date, but he didn't feel the need to mention that right now. Not when he felt something was going to happen tonight, what he didn't know but he knew something was going to happen. Good or bad he'd just wait for it and do whatever he needed to do when it came. Leaning back in his chair he thought about it for a moment, "Oh, and argued with construction workers at the senate. Tried to use the refresher on a floor they weren't cleared for."

Mal placed his order, Corellian ale and a dish from Ryloth he recognized and remembered eating once or twice on his travels. From what he remembered it was good, he hoped he was remembering correctly. It wouldn't be the first time he could be wrong, and it wouldn't be the last. Still anything was better than MREs, especially when he had been forced to eat them for up to three weeks at a time. He'd seen piles of stuff he was unable to identify that looked better than military food. His steel grey eyes saw everything, but rarely ever left Arjha, he decided to stretch out his senses unconsciously. A habit he had formed in the last couple of weeks, he hadn't even noticed that he had done it to be honest. "So tell me Arjha, what made you pick xenobiology?"

[Twysper]

A dark inky-furred being slunk into the dimly lit atmosphere of the restaurant, peered up over the edge of the podium, standing on tiptoe, and scared a soft shriek out of the greeter. The Stellar Mythic Captain chortled and tilted his head to the side, regarding her with his large green eyes.

"Super reservations for two under Mathathyper Chesheervyk." He chittered quickly, receiving a frown from the woman as she looked at a datapad, "I don't have any... Oh. Here you are, o-of course." she brushed a loose lock of hair out of her eyes and the familiar action seemed to let her regain some semblance of professionalism. "Right this way."

~~~~~~~~~~

"What say to wondrous sample now, yes?" Mathathyper Chesheervyk chittered, standing up on his chair and leaning over the white-clothed table, directly in his contact's face. Nihlus Cairn was a perfect buyer for the Mythics. "Make eyes super shiny beautiful like mine, very nice, very nice." He reached behind him for his tiny cloak hanging on the back of his chair and withdrew two tightly rolled sticks of Etherium and a rusted lighter from the depths of a hidden pocket, setting both on the table before them. Before he could do anything else though, a neatly trimmed man seemed to materialize next to their table, a worried expression on his face. Math was intrinsically familiar with this particular look, as it seemed to be the one he was given any time he tried to do anything.

"Sir we don't permit smoking in here."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," Math dropped his head to the table with a thump and pounded it with a tiny fur-covered hand before sitting back up and glaring, "you ruin business dealings with the nagnagging shut up with your ugly-stupid face!" The waiter looked taken aback and the Squib quickly layered on a soothing tone combined with the placating suggestion of the Force. "Fine-fine, no smoke, all good."

The beleaguered waiter seemed confused but somewhat satisfied with that, walking away with a wary backwards glance. Math favored him with a winning cheshire grin, incidentally baring his mouth full of needle-sharp teeth, until the man disappeared back inside the kitchen. Then the Squib turned back to his contact.

"Have powder, much better direct anyways okayokay? Do like me, blow your mind BOOM AHAHA!" The Squib looked around, realizing he had jumped onto the table and that they were now receiving a lot of attention from the other patrons. Math lowered his voice as he got down off the table, ears tweaking. He spread his hands wide as he mouthed "boom" and nodded to Nihlus. Math returned the sticks and lighter to the cloak, and produced two baggies of powder instead, sliding one to the mercenary and pouring his out on the table.

[Neology]

“Cold?” Her brows lifted in brief amusement, full lips curving up into a smile. “Then my blood does me some good after all. I found it very refreshing.” In truth she didn't remember much about the weather, save for the storm. That had been a lovely relief at the time. Maybe a little cold, in hindsight.

She studied the menu and the man across from her with equal interest, idly twirling the iris's stem between her fingers. Truth be told, she wasn't exactly sure where she was supposed to put the flower. It'd wilt if set down on the table, surely. The topic seemed to shift as Mal went on, and as it did, the humor slowly drained out of her expression. Psychiatric evaluations, dead parents, Jedi … Tea time? She blinked twice, nodded vaguely, and looked down at the menu again. Those seemed to her like very heavy topics for polite dinner conversation, yet the young soldier remained relentlessly cheerful.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess you must meet a lot of Jedi in your work. That must be interesting. What are they like?” A server appeared shortly after, saving her the trouble of covering those other points. Novus ordered wine and one of the restaurant’s specialties, hawkbat tenderloin with a muja fruit glaze. She followed the server with her eyes as he walked away.

'Hmm. Wonder what's bothering the staff?'

That question answered itself. There was a scuffle of movement several tables over, drawing her attention just as an excitable rodent creature seemed to be exclaiming something to his human companion. From the top of their table.

”BOOM AHAHA!”

Novus giggled, then shot Mal a conspiratorial grin. Dinner and entertainment, though maybe Arjha was too much of a lady to comment on the kerfuffle aloud. Slowly, she gathered her wits back up to answer his question.

“Well, even as a kid I was always interested in my mom's work, though of course, she predominantly worked on sentient species. That … Always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, it's turned out so well for us Offshoots. Shorter life spans, increased susceptibility to native diseases...” She trailed off, nose wrinkling in disgust. “Nothing my mother had anything to do with, of course, but I didn't see it that way at the time.”

The server returned with their drinks. Novus shot the young man a captivating smile before returning to Mal's question.

“I wanted to go outside the domes, have a little bit of adventure. Eventually, well, the adventure became a lot more tempting than the classroom.”

[Dire Wolf]

“Not now, Glitter,” a strangely high pitched voice rattled with a swat at a venturing hand. It had a habit of raising to a girly tone when he was irritated, “you’re arm candy for now.”

“But baby,” the Rodian began in her own disgusting language only to be cut off by a voice whose high pitch only rose.

“I don’t do butts. Just sit there and be quiet. You’ll embarrass me in front of my new drug dealer.”

Soon enough an inky colored raccoon thing appeared in the seat across from him and began an eccentric sale’s pitch. A wry grin began to spread across the man’s face as the strange little ball of fuzz spoke with that chittery tone of voice and poorly filled lexicon. Before too long a chuckle snorted through his nose, and the little guy produced a pair of rolled spice sticks from his little cloak. Obviously the staff was aware of the shady trio, as he barely had the joints produced when a waiter appeared out of no where and denied that particular bit of fun.

“Ohh come on-uh. You’re killing me right now-uh. Why can’t you just let us smoke here-uh. Ugh,” he glanced over at the rodent that sat across from him, and waited for him to speak before continuing with the flick of his hand. The motion looked as if some disgusting liquid had found it’s way to his hands and he was attempting to flick it off, “you know what? J-just-just go. Go away. Leave. Come back with some cookies or cake or something. Maybe food. I’m hungry. Hurry!”

Something told him that the waiter wouldn’t be back for a very long time. Yet again his focus was jolted from one thing to another when the adorablest little drug dealer vaulted himself up on the table in with grandiose gestures. Most people would feel a touch of embarrassment at a dinner companion’s boisterous nature. Nihlus found himself laughing like a madman, and only able to think one thing, I really, really, really want what he’s having.

So when the black little rodent made his final gesture that wry grin grew across his face once more he only nodded and mouthed the word along with him. Something caught in the corner of his eye, though. A woman whose hottness was off the charts. Brown eyes didn’t leave the pale beauty that he could have swore was undressing him with her eyes. Without breaking his half-open gaze at the woman he shot a quick, ’hold that thought’ at the space raccoon drug dealer.

Swiggity Swoogity, I’m comin’ for dat booty, he thought as he rose to his feet and sauntered over to the Arkanian hottie that sat across from some boring soldier guy by the looks of it. Nihlus was good at picking out soldiers, high or no. Whatever. Boring. When he finally drew close he flipped a nearby chair around and sat next to the alabaster woman.

“Can I ask you a question,” he didn’t give her a chance to reply, “my love for you is like diarrhea--I just can’t keep it in.”

[Mal]

Mal chuckled softly, "Yeah I guess Arkania is colder, can't say I've ever been there though." Then he shrugged at her next comment, thinking he may have upset the mood. "The ones I've met have been fine, some a little strange, but no stranger than anyone else. I know one who is very shy and a historian, another who is still a padawan. Seem nice, but I don't know 'em that well." He answered honestly, scratching the scar on his cheek lightly for a second while he thought. "Most seem normal honestly. A little out there, but normal." He couldn't speak much about the Sith, the only one he knew for sure that he had met had been dark, evil, but she had still let him live. So there was that, maybe the Sith weren't completely dark and evil after all, still he wouldn't lower his guard around one. As long as he knew he was around one.

Mal's eyes followed and saw the scuffle on the table a few tables down, he chuckled and returned Arjha's conspiratorial grin. Mal was a practical joker by nature, so this hit his funny bone perfectly. Of course if he'd known what was going on at the table, a drug deal of all the blasted things, he'd have flipped the table over on them and shot them both. Twice. Maybe three times. Depending on how angry he was from finding drugs in the same room as him. As it stood, he couldn't help but laugh along with Arjha as everything was unfolding a few tables away. Then it was quiet again, or as quiet as it could be in a room full of people having dinner and talking.

Nodding in understanding Mal couldn't help but agree, "I don't blame you Arjha. I'd be thinking the same thing were my mother in that kind of work, and I was an Offshoot. But, wisdom comes with age. We only realize as we get older the mistakes of youth." He chuckled softly thinking of some of his mistakes when he was a kid, some still made him shudder in disgust. Those were stories that were better saved for a time when they were not on a date. "I agree completely, half the reason I joined the Army in the first place was to travel. I've seen a lot more than I would have been able to otherwise, planets I never would have been able to visit. But hey, I've always been more of a 'go out and do something,' guy than a classroom guy." It was true too despite all his good grades in school he had always preferred to run around outside and do something than sit in a classroom.

And then his evening was ruined by a person that Mal could only assume to be one of the worst people in the restaurant. With what had to be the most disgusting pick up line he had ever heard, and hoped he would ever hear. Did he seriously think that would get him anything other than a laugh in the face and asked to leave? Still, the look about him said drugs and he didn't like that one little bit. In fact it made him angry like even he couldn't believe, it was probably good he didn't have weapons on him right now. With that thought in mind he controlled his anger before he acted, barely controlled his anger, but controlled it none the less! That didn't mean he wasn't going to do his best to get rid of this man, even if that did involve him being mean to an extent. And probably having to pay for a chair.

Mal leaned back in his chair, glaring vibrodaggers at the man before he finally spoke again. "Before you consider hitting on my date, you might want to consider doing something about that diarrhea you call a life. Those drugs in your blood are going to kill you, or one of your dealers will. Or some scum like you after your drugs." His foot shot out and kicked the leg of the man's chair, snapping it. What happened next eluded him as his senses kicked in, standing and spinning he caught a waiter that tripped, even managing to stop the tray from spilling on the floor, or so he thought anyway. Halting the man's stammered thanks, he interrupted, "Yes this.... person.... has interrupted my date and I, can you do me a favor and get him away from us please?" He asked, flashing a smile at the waiter before he stammered off an agreement before calling for his manager to deal with it. Taking his seat and looking back to Arjha, he tried to smile at her. However anyone who knew him would be able to see the anger in his eyes. And anyone with the Force would sense it he was sure, controlled as it was.