Tabbing Out

[Blue]

With one thing and another, Willam's ability to grab a drink had been incredibly hampered as of late. Fleeing to Nar Shaddaa then getting stuck there, tracking down Ylva and fighting with her and her Mandalorian not-lover, having to jump straight off of Prazhi with Yanna before getting a chance to relax. This was the first time in a long while that he had been able to sit back with a good drink and simply enjoy the fact that, against all the odds, he was still alive. Again. The Sleepy Bone Bar was a decent cantina. Its floors were only slightly sticky, the drinks were strong, and the servers handsome and pretty. But most importantly, it was crowded and loud and a place where you could see a thousand people and not recognize or be recognized by a single one. The music was on the edge of good, and dangling its feet over chaotic noise. It was the type of sound that bored into your brain and destroyed any hope of forming cognisant thought. Which was exactly what Willam was after right now. Still, there were some things that needed to be done. The captain touched his cybernetic eye and sent a message in Binary to Odd. ++Has Govan made contact yet? We need to know whether they want us to transport their shipment of cooling units. If they aren't interested we can't sit around twiddling our thumbs. Unlike my thirst, our credits are not infinite.++ After a moment, the response came. ++No signal yet. Fleshbag may welch on deal. Maybe we should put them on ice. Making us wait.++ ++Give them another hour. Check the holonet for anything else while we wait, just in case.++ With a rude confirmation response from Odd, Willam sighed and focussed his gaze on the bartender. "Fill it up to the brim for me, will you? I've plenty I need to drink about- I mean, think about," the captain requested. The bartender snorted and did as he was asked. Now that his drink had been refilled, Willam stood and made his way over to a free booth. He sunk down into the seat with a sigh and put his feet up on the table, taking a hearty sip from his glass while investigating the strange stains on the ceiling. His fingers drummed a rhythm on the butt of his blaster pistol, and he began to sing a low song to himself now that the music of the band had been muffled somewhat by the booth's walls. "There was a gallant 'Public ship sailing the starry sea; pull high, dive low, and so flew we. Its Captain was a-searching for a pirate enemy; flying down Triellus onto Handooine! Look ahead, look astern, look a-weather and a-lee; pull high, dive low, and so flew we. 'I see a wreck to spinward and a lofty ship to lee'; flying down Triellus onto Handooine..."

[Meira]

"Haha! Go again, boys. Freddy, I think you can get it this time."

"You do know the whole phrase about the definition of sanity, don't you?" Frederique replied to Emilio, but his eyes were on Remy who sat across the table from him. The Echani leaned back in his chair, a smug victor's smile on his face. "I know where my strengths lie."

"Not in those skinny arms." Remy quipped.

"Alright, alright." Came Ylva's voice over Remy's shoulder. She set four large mugs down on the table before lowering herself into her previously empty chair. "What's the score?"

"The same." said Emilio.

"Really letting yourself go, Freddy." Ylva said, shaking her head.

"We all know it wasn't my arms that caught your eye." Frederique replied, giving Ylva a wink as his dark green lekku twitched with a mischievous humor.

With a chuckle, Ylva nodded, conceding the point. She took a healthy swig from her mug before setting it to the side and squaring off to Emilio who sat across from her. She dropped her elbow onto the table, her empty hand out and ready. Emilio, drinking from his own mug, took his time. He eyed the Zabrak as he slowly set his own mug down. He turned his head one way, then the other, cracking the vertebrae of his neck and then he rolled his shoulders. Finally, he carefully positioned his own elbow onto the table, locking his hand with hers.

As Remy sat up, placing one of his hands over the top of the two competitors', Frederique stood. He made a vague comment about utilizing the facilities and wandered away from the other three. As he moved through the pockets of patrons, Freddy tucked a hand into an inside pocket of his jacket, finding one of the three cryocylinders held there. He palmed it, passing it through his fingers and over his knuckles as he walked. Ahead, at the end of a row of booths, he saw that a line had formed and he grumbled.

Taking up his position in the line, Freddy leaned against the outer wall of a booth. Activating the cryocylinder, Freddy inhaled the glitteryll, held it for several seconds, and then released the breath with satisfied sigh that was loud enough to turn the heads of some of the beings in the line. Freddy gave them a lazy smile, a bubble of laughter causing his shoulders to shake slightly as he felt the pleasurable tingle of the spice working its way through his system. The heady combination of glitterdust and ryll quickly sharpened his senses just enough to make the whole cantina seem that much more vibrant while also washing him in a warm, mild euphoria.

"There was a gallant 'Public ship sailing the starry sea..."

Freddy's mind locked onto the tune, barely heard from the booth behind him. Turning his head, He could see what appeared to be a human man sitting alone in the booth, singing quietly to himself. Turning his head back to the line, and seeing that it didn't look like it'd be moving any time soon, Freddy decided to change course.

"flying down Triellus onto Handooine..."

"'O hail her! O hail her!' our gallant captain cried..." Freddy sang, still hidden on the other side of the booth wall. Then, slowly, he slid around, leaning against the booth's opening as he continued. "...pull high, dive low, and so sailed we... Now that's a proper old space shanty, sailor." He said, his eyes moving over the man. "Where'd you learn it?"

[Blue]

As he opened his mouth to start on the third verse of the song, another voice stole the opportunity from him. Willam's head tilted back down from the fascinating splotches above him and towards the sound of the person who had joined in on his tune. Though the club's lighting was not exactly ample, the captain's cybernetic eye allowed him to get a good look at the fellow. The Twi'lek had a familiar air about him that Willam immediately recognised; here is a man, he thought to himself, that is used to getting what he needs with his tongue. Sharing the appraising glance that the Twi'lek was applying against himself, the captain could appreciate the man's looks. Certainly, he would not be opposed to the idea of buying, or being bought, a drink by this fellow. But there was a look in his eye that, to a practised dissembler like Willam, no amount of masking could hide. A haunted glimmer, lurking beneath a haze of narcotics. The captain was hardly one to preach against recreational indulgence, at least not unless he had something to gain from doing so. He had drank his fair share of drinks and experienced his fair share of highs. However, he had a hunch that this one had turned to it more heavily of late. Not enough to affect them overtly... at least, not yet. "Well, when you spend as much time as I do in dockside cantinas and clubs, and you're bound to pick up a fine selection of shanties from across the whole galaxy from all sorts of sources," Willam said in his prim voice, an easy smile curving his lips as he sprinkled a little truth to hide the lie more smoothly. He tipped his drink to the stranger in greeting, the servos in his cybernetic arm whirring inaudibly under the music and general hullabaloo of drunken patrons. "Gathered my fair share of tunes, stories and, most importantly, credits over the years. Along with losing my fair share of appendages... and more distressingly, alas, those same credits," he continued with a laugh. Once again, his eye gave the Twi'lek a scrutinizing look, and the captain's smile grew a shade wider. "I don't suppose I could tempt you with a drink, in the unlikely scenario that a handsome chap like yourself is not already here with company?"

[Meira]

Freddy smiled, dipping his head in acknowledgement at the man's less than specific answer to his question. No surprise there. Most people on Nar Shaddaa knew the importance of keeping one's cards close to one's chest. At least... the smart ones did. And with just that, this man proved himself smart enough to be worth the time and effort of trying to pick out more details. As the man continued, Freddy rolled his head to the side, one hand raising in a what can you do gesture at the mention of lost limbs and credits. There was plenty of that to go around the Smuggler's Moon these days as well.

"I don't suppose I could tempt you with a drink..." Freddy's own smile widened to match the man's. "...in the unlikely scenario that a handsome chap like yourself is not already here with company?"

Freddy's eyes glanced over to the table where his company sat. But it was only a moment, and then they were back on the man. His hand reached out, snaking around the waist of a server who happened by at that opportune moment. "Another round for my thirsty new friend." He said, his eyes never wavering. "And one for me as well. On the tab." Freddy released the server with just the slightest tap on their backside as they hurried off to complete the order. He then quickly, but oh so smoothly slid into the booth next to the man, extending a hand.

"Frederique Mercure, but my friends call me Freddy."

Across the cantina, hands slammed into a table and the three beings exclaimed. Emilio in defeat, with Ylva and Remy in victory. They laughed, amicably, and then clinked their mugs together before taking deep drinks. Ylva released a satisfied sigh as she set her mug back onto the table. "You just can't beat the champ." she said, matter-of-fact, as she wiped her lip with the back of her hand. "It's science."

"He almost had you." Remy said.

"I'm sure he likes to think so." Ylva replied, giving Emilio a grin and a wink.

Emilio returned the smile with a chuckle and a shake of his eyes. His eyes then fell on Freddy's mug, still full. How long had he been gone? Emilio glanced around the Cantina, searching out the green Twi'lek's figure, but couldn't spot him through the crowd. Remy, noting the concern that pulled Emilio's brows together, tried to calm the man.

"Relax, 'Lio. He'll be back in a few." Remy said, putting a hand on the man's shoulder.

Emilio exhaled sharply through his nose, glancing sidelong at Remy. "History would disagree." he grumbled back. "I'm not interested in hunting him down and peeling him off of some spiceden floor again. We're supposed to just have a couple and go."

"Go find him, then." Ylva said, waving her hand. "You'll be insufferable until you do."

That managed to get a chuckle from Emilio as he nodded, downed the last of his drink, and stood from the table. As he moved away, Ylva turned to Remy, shaking her own empty glass at him. "That's you up next, yeah?" she said as she set her glass down and took up Freddy's forgotten one.

"Almost makes me miss the days when you were the boss and stood all the rounds." Remy said with a wink. All the same, he stood and moved to the bar to order the next round.

[Blue]

The widening smile on the Twi'lek indicated that the man was more than willing to share a drink, and the barest flicker of a glance elsewhere hinted that he had indeed come with company. Willam's cybernetic eye scanned the approximate area that he had looked, but the search area was too wide and the cantina too crowded to discern anything of detail to note. His new companion was the handsy type, it seemed, as he gently grabbed one of the servers around their waist and ordered them both new drinks. Willam raised and tilted his current glass to the man in thanks. The captain himself was more of a talker than a toucher; he much preferred to charm his way into another's affection than to use the more forceful, personal bubble violation method... though there were some who responded better to it, to his constant bafflement. Willam met the extended hand with his own, flipping his left hand upside down to allow him to shake the Twi'lek's with his flesh and blood appendage. "Nice to meet you, Freddy," the captain replied, the corner of his eye wrinkling as his smile matched his new friend's. "I'm Captain Willam Scathe, but my friends call me... well, they call me all sorts of things, and not all of them flattering," he continued, a warm chuckle bubbling up from his chest. A hubbub of cheering from across the cantina drew his attention for the briefest of moments, though his eye never turned to investigate what the noise was about. Willam was many things, but trusting of strangers, no matter how handsome or pretty they were, was not one of them. What if they're a thief, waiting for a chance to slip their fingers into my pockets? What if they're a bounty hunter, waiting for the opportune moment to slip poison or tranquillizers into my drink? So many possibilities, and even more when there was money hovering over one's head like a dark cloud. "So, my charming new friend... what poor soul did you abandon in favour of drinking with an old spacer like me?" Willam inquired. His tone was light and his smile took on a cheeky element as he spoke, indicating the joking nature of his question. The server returned and put down two drinks with a smile that did not quite reach their eyes. Willam thanked them as they wandered off, and reached over. The drink closest to the captain found itself sat in front of Freddy, while the other was swept up by the cybernetic hand and raised into the air. "To interesting new friends! May the queue of them have no end," Willam laughed, downing over half of the large cup in one go.

[Meira]

"Oh... Captain." Freddy said as Willam took his hand. "Charmed." He never could quite resist a man with a title. Willam's humor in his following question was noted and answered with a coquettish chuckle and a lightly dismissive wave of the hand. "No one that will miss me, I assure you."

Willam was quicker than one might have expected at first blush, collecting the drinks brought by the server and distributing them before Freddy had a chance. The server too had faded back into the din of the cantina before Freddy could interact with them again. But no matter if that one got away. He could still reel in the Captain.

"But may they wait their turn." Freddy said, clinking his glass with Willam's and managing a smile around the rim as he took a sip. With his eyes on the rugged Captain, he did not notice the large, muscular figure approaching the booth until that figure's shadow darkened the table slightly. "We're quite good here, no-" He began as he turned to dismiss what he assumed was another server, but stopped when he saw Emilio instead. "Oh... hello darling. Don't mind me, I'm just-"

"Looking for a score?"

"Well, it's a bit early in the night to tell but..." Freddy turned his eyes back to Willam, his expression half a question, half a joke. He sensed more than saw Emilio's growing frustration. Switching tactics, Freddy held a hand up, as if offering Emilio up as a display. "Captain, this fine specimen is Emilio. One of the aforementioned poor souls." He turned his eyes back to Emilio, switching his gaze from playful to forceful as they alighted upon the man. Emilio, this is my new friend Captain Willam Scathe. He graciously invited me to share a round after we discovered -quite by coincidence as it happens- our shared love for space shanties."

What Freddy missed as he tried to weasel his way out of Emilio dragging him away from this man was that Emilio's brow furrowed slightly in thought at the mention of the the man's name. Emilio had heard that name before, but he could not place where, or in what context. Most of Freddy's words were lost to him as he thought. Just as well. Their effect would have been the same. When the connection didn't come to him, Emilio shook the thought away as irrelevant.

"If you're buying," Emilio said to the man, ignoring Freddy, "then he's probably going to rip you off."

" Now, 'lio..."

"And if you're selling, he doesn't have the credits. Sorry to bother you." Emilio took hold of Freddy's arm as he finished, pulling the Twi'lek from the booth.

"Let me go, you oaf!" Freddy protested. But Emilio had always been much stronger than him and he was half way out of the booth before another figure appeared.

"Heeey, gents! Everyone alright? Remy said, throwing an arm around Emilio's shoulder. Having seen the beginnings of what looked like an unnecessary confrontation, he'd abandoned his spot at the bar to intercept. When his eyes landed on the third man seated in the booth, they widened. "Oh!"

The recognition was instant, though it was not one of his own memories. He glanced up to catch Ylva's eyes. She was watching impatiently from their table. When he saw that she saw him, he gestured with his head for her to come over. He saw her grunt with frustration, down the last of Freddy's drink, and stand to stalk over.

"Right... well, I'm sure we've all made fools enough of ourselves. Yes? Maybe we should just-"

"Bugger off? That'd be swell, Remy. Thanks. Now if you don't-"

"The hell are you shits up to?"

"Ixta" Freddy cursed under his breath.

Ylva approached, half annoyed, half amused at the tangle the three former Jolly Janitors had made of themselves. Her eyes moved over Willam, hardly giving him much thought at first, then moving back to him as recognition sparked. His name still hung somewhere just beyond her mind's reach, but she definitely knew this man. "Hey... uhhh..."

"Willam." Remy coughed, not-so-subtly.

"Yeah! Willam! How the hell are ya?"

[Blue]

Willam found himself quite enjoying Freddy's company as they clinked their glasses in a toast. He clearly had a quick wit, able to read the flow of a conversation and respond with clever retorts. The captain could not help but find his mind recalling the first time he had met Ylva, and the brief but enjoyable banter they had engaged in... shortly before she had tricked him into assisting her to commit genocide. Shoving such poor memories aside, Willam took a deep swing of his beverage just as a large shadow cast itself over the booth. As Freddy and this Emilio spoke back and forth, Willam's mind whirred. Is this the opening salvo of a con? No, looking at Freddy, he seems genuinely put out by this man's appearance. An ex, perhaps? This fellow is looking at me rather intently. Does he know me? That would most likely be bad, doubly so if he's a bounty hunter. The captain chuckled at Emilio's statements, as if watching two friends bantering, but his eye was watching with a wary energy. As the larger man grabbed at Freddy, however, Willam felt compelled to step up. After all, if everyone in the cantina saw someone he was engaged with being pulled away without so much as a fight, it would damage his reputation! That on its own was almost as deadly to an independent spacer as a blaster bolt to the brain. "Now, steady on-" Willam began, standing up from the booth just in time for a third person to join the bugger's muddle. The captain froze in surprise as recognition sparked across his synapses. After all, it was hard to forget a face that once pointed a gun at you. It was one of the reasons that Willam was so good at remembering people. "Hang about... You're-!" "The hell are you shits up to?" Yeah. You brought this on yourself when you thought about her. The agog expression on the captain's face lasted all of half a heartbeat before his instincts kicked in and turned it into a wide smile. The laughter came next, straight from his stomach, and he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. "Of all the cantinas, on all the planets, in all the galaxy, we just had to walk into the same one at the same time!" Willam exclaimed. It was almost enough to make one believe in destiny... almost. "I'm doing just dandy. And yourself? You're certainly looking..." The captain's eye travelled up and down Ylva. Considering that the last time he had seen her she had been all but dying, her appearance now was infinitely better. The Zabrak woman looked even healthier than when she had been on his ship, the worn out aura she had once emitted completely gone. Now she was full of energy, and all the better for it. "Well. The obvious need not be stated," Willam finished, his winning smile growing on his face. His eye moved across to all the men gathered around the booth, presumably all friends of Ylva. She certainly likes to surround herself with eye candy. A woman of good taste. "I see that block-headed Mandalorian boy-toy of yours didn't end up getting you killed after all, which is a miracle in and of itself," the captain continued. "And one that calls for another toast!" The lean spacer caught the attention of one of the servers by snapping the fingers of his cybernetic hand. The sound was not all dissimilar to a scatter gun being cocked. "A new round for everyone here, on me!" he called out, his grin still warm and friendly. He shot a wink, towards Freddy to assure the Twi'lek that he had not been forgotten. "The galaxy is a surprisingly small place, isn't it?"

[Meira]

It took several long seconds for both Emilio and Freddy's minds to catch up to what exactly was going on. They watched, confused expressions on their faces as Ylva struggled to remember the spacer's name. When Willam reacted, it took several more seconds for the two men to finally connect the dots. It was his mention of Jayec that had done it. In simultaneous movements that one would scarce believe were not rehearsed, their eyes widened and their gaze traveled from Willam, to Ylva, and then to Remy. The Echani widened his own eyes, but for emphasis rather than surprise, as he mouthed "yeah" silently to the other two.

Ylva, already somewhat in her cups, couldn't resist joining in with Willam's laughter. There were certainly worse ways he could have reacted upon seeing her. His jab at Jayec earned him another chuckle and a roll of the eyes. The Mandalorian didn't need her to defend his honor, that was for sure. So she moved on from the comment by enthusiastically nodding her head at Willam's announcement of a toast and a round for the group. She turned her grin toward the boys. They, for their part, did their best to replace their hesitant and slightly anxious expressions with smiles and words of gratitude and acceptance.

"Of course!"
"Sure, yeah."
"Couldn't possibly refuse."

They all said at once, nodding and untangling themselves to sit down at the table. Freddy, having only moments ago been forcefully pulled from the booth began to lower himself back down. But Emilio tightened his grip on the Twi'lek's arm to stop him. Freddy covered his frustration with a chuckle and stood aside, allowing Emilio to sit down first and scoot around to take the spot to Willam's right. Remy then put a hand on Freddy's shoulder as he too moved past to sit. This left Freddy on the outside, about as far away from Willam as was possible in the space.

"Surprisingly." he echoed the spacer as he sat.

Ylva sat down as well, to Willam's left, just as a server approached with a tray of shot glasses filled to the brim. They were passed around quickly and Ylva held hers up once everyone else had theirs in hand. "To uh... not fuckin' dying?" She said, looking questioningly at Willam.

[Blue]

Ylva did not seem to be taken aback by his sudden reappearance in her life and his apparent unwillingness to extract revenge, or at least she did not think on the matter for more than a moment or two. Perhaps it was the drink, but Willam felt that the pair of them had slipped quite easily into a comfortable back-and-forth despite their muddied history. A part of him wondered if this was all some bizarre plot to lure him into a false sense of security, but he reluctantly dismissed it. Under the Chorus' mind-bending influence, a lot of folks had done a lot of things they would have otherwise never even considered. In a twisted way, Ylva and her crew were just as much victims as those they had killed. That is, unless they were already genocidal maniacs. So far, none of them seemed the type. And the way that they pushed Freddy to the outside of the table when they all joined him... Are they protecting him from me, or are they protecting me from him? Willam laughed at Ylva's toast, raising his own glass up to clink it against the groups'. "I can certainly drink to that. To not dying! And to yesterday's enemies becoming today's friends!" the captain called out, adding his own toast to the Zabrak's. He downed the drink in one go, enjoying the sensation of it burning down his gullet, sighing in satisfaction. Idly turning the now empty glass in his hand, Willam's gaze travelled across the gathered crew, his white teeth showing in a wide grin. "But today's friends can become tomorrow's enemies, so let's get absolutely shitfaced to the point that, when the sun breaks the horizon, we're all too hungover to fight!" he continued, taking up the bottle and refilling everybody's glasses. Putting the bottle back onto the table with a clunk, and once again downing his drink as if it were no stronger than spring water, Willam ran his tongue along his teeth and leaned back. He stretched his arms out, his left arm behind Ylva and his right, mechanical arm behind the bulky form of Emilio, comfortable as could be. "So, Ylva! What in the Void have you and your band of handsome, merry men been up to?" the captain inquired, his left eye wrinkling as the corner of his mouth quirked upwards. The cybernetic eye whirred inaudibly under the sound of the music and other patrons, constantly scanning his surroundings and the faces of his new companions.

[Meira]

At Willam's acceptance of her toast, Ylva's mouth widened into a grin. Her eyes moved from Willam to Emilio, then to Remy and Freddy. Emilio's smile was reserved, Remy's slightly less so. Freddy's was long suffering. Ylva threw her shot back after Willam added his own bit to the toast, breathing through her teeth at the burn of the liquid in her throat as she tapped the empty glass twice on the table. She leaned back in the booth with a satisfied sigh. But she was sitting back upright again as Willam poured another round. She took that one up as well, downing it and tapping the glass on the table again. The other three followed suit, one at a time.

"Not hers anymore..." Freddy mumbled, before taking his own shot. Remy kicked him under the table. "What?" Freddy said, looking at him and then at Emilio who'd sighed and shaken his head. "We can't say it out loud?" he continued. Remy was about to lay into him, but Ylva cut him off.

"It's fine." she said, leaning forward to grab the bottle. She began to pour more shots, starting with Willam. Emilio put his hand over his glass and made a subtle gesture with his head toward Freddy when she'd moved to his. So Ylva skipped over him and poured for Remy and Freddy before filling her own glass. "After... everything," she said with just a slight hesitation at mentioning the Archeri, even tangentially, "I... took some time off." Yeah, that was a good way to put it. Ylva downed her shot and sat back.

"Faine took things over. Absorbed everything into her businesses. It's good. I'm more freelance now. Don't have to micromanage these divas anymore." she gestured at the guys with a chuckle.

Remy, watching everyone at the table, sipped at his third drink. Freddy was stewing to one side, which only seemed to put Emilio on edge to his other side. He was starting to get the impression that they were something like three extra wheels. "Ya know..." he announced, looking pointedly at Emilio. "I could really use a piss."

"Me too." Emilio quickly agreed, catching on. They both turned their eyes on Freddy, who smiled and blinked back at them with a feigned lack of understanding. When they did not relent, he sighed and downed his drink

"Yeah, sure... me too." he mumbled as he stood. While he waited for the other two to slide out from the booth, he gave Willam a smoldering smile. "It's our sailin' time." he said, a songlike lilt in his voice. He gave Willam a wink and then allowed Remy and Emilio to usher him away.

"What about you?" Ylva asked, hardly missing a beat.

[Blue]

Willam's expression remained engaged as Ylva explained what she had been doing since the Fall of the Spire and the defeat of the Archeri, though his eyebrows raised when Freddy kicked it off with his own comment. I suppose that's what happens when you commit genocide, even if you weren't fully responsible for your actions at the time. You can't walk away from that without consequence... unless you're a galactic government, of course. The captain kept his thoughts to himself, however, limiting his input to ensuring that Ylva's glass did not remain empty for long once she had downed her drink. "Ah, yes. The Compeer," Willam said, as much to himself as to the table. "A somewhat unusual crime boss, but not the worst I've been employed by. She paid well and never tried to stiff me, at the very least." This line of thought began to bring back bad memories, and so another tumbler of the sweet, burning liquid went down the hatch. He picked up the bottle to refill his glass and anyone else' that needed topping off, but the three other men had decided to visit the bathroom together. An almost laughably see-through excuse, but they seemed to want Ylva and himself to be able to catch up properly without looming around. As such, he simply returned Freddy's wink with one of his own and a crooked smile thrown in for good measure, and the two found themselves alone. "Oh, you know. The usual," the captain said in response to the Zabrak's question. "Charting cargo, hauling passengers. Picked up the most adorable mechanic I've ever had the pleasure to meet on Prazhi. Jumpy as all hell, and wanted to come here of all places. Knew her stuff, though. The Lathspell has never run so smoothly." Speaking of smooth... Willam tossed back yet another shot, licking his lips to remove the last lingering traces of taste from them. They were already a quarter of the way through the bottle, but the spacer was only just starting to feel a buzz. So he began pouring himself another, only to shrug his mechanical shoulder and pour out a good helping into his original cup instead. With half of the remaining liquor now in the much bigger mug, he turned to his companion. "But, now that your lads have given us a little privacy..." Willam said in a low, suggestive voice, leaning towards Ylva. He then passed her the bottle so that she could drink it straight from the source. Taking a healthy gulp from his own mug, the captain leaned back with a cheeky smile playing around his lips. "Why don't you tell me how you're really doing? Can't have been easy, switching out from being your own boss," Willam continued. "I'm fairly sure that I would have gone insane, personally. Enjoy my freedom too much."

[Meira]

Ylva gave a grunt and a nod to Willam's recounting of his post Archeri doings. She'd never been one for spacing before. She hadn't quite been at the level of phobia, but space travel had always made her uneasy. Maybe it was the tight spaces on ships... or the endless void only a few layers of metal away. In any case, that was one positive that had come with being infected by the Archeri. Space travel didn't much bother her anymore. She wouldn't go so far as to say she liked it, but it didn't give her the willies anymore either. She still couldn't quite grasp the hard on for "freedom" that spacers like Willam so coveted, though.

Taking up the bottle, Ylva took a deep pull as she considered his words. "Iduno." she said, shrugging. "Being your own boss ain't the same as being other people's boss, yeah?" she looked at him sidelong. "Not a lot of freedom when you're have a bunch 'a people lookin' to you to provide their living."

Yeah, Ylva had loved what she built in the Jolly Janitors. It had been hard won. But it wasn't until she'd let it go that she realized it wasn't entirely her own, not for a long while anyway. The more people she brought on, the more men that relied on her, the less she could say it was solely hers. She'd had power. It wasn't the same thing as freedom, but it was just as good. Better, even... at least for the Ylva that had been.

"But you can't just walk back into that after everything that happened." she said, taking another swig as she leaned back in the booth. "Some of 'em still won't talk to me." she added, her jaw tightening for a moment. "I don't blame 'em. And I'm more 'a my own boss now than I've ever been." she added, a small smirk lightening the mood slightly. "No one comin' to me askin' for this or that, wantin' me to solve their problems." she took another big gulp. "I work when I want, how I want."

[Blue]

Willam pondered on Ylva's thoughts of 'freedom' as he tilted another mouthful of liquor down his throat. She had a fair point; in another life, back when he was still in the Republic army, he had only accepted promotion for the perks, naively thinking that with more stripes on his arm he would have greater freedom. But the truth was, you just replaced one chain with another. Sure, he could claim stakes on better bunk space and had a heads-up on operational deployment, but he still received just as many orders and had his little lads to look out for as well. Only after he deserted and nabbed the Lathspell did he have his first real taste of what freedom truly was. Sure, he was still at the whims of crime bosses and other such clients, but he had the choice to pick and choose... most of the time, anyway. And since only Odd was sticking around with him, he had nobody that needed him, either. Just empty metal halls. 'You have a fair point, there,' Willam stated, taking another hefty helping of booze. 'No matter what we do, are we ever really free? Always something tying us down. People, responsibilities, needs and desires. There's always a millstone.' After a moment of silent contemplation, that wide grin spread across Willam's handsome features once more. 'Unless you're me, of course!' he corrected with a laugh. 'I, naturally, have it all worked out. Truly, I am the only free person in the galaxy!' With another swing of that sweet nectar, the captain gave Ylva an appraising look. 'You know, you could always join me. Break away from everything, move across the stars. Travel from place to place, never putting down roots, never relying on anyone. Every job a new destination, nobody knowing who you are. No more past.' The offer sounded sincere, but there was a glint in his one eye. Like he knew that she would reject him flat out, but wanted to dangle the opportunity in front of her anyway. Everyone deserves a chance to escape, even if they know they're never going to take it.