Old Playmates (Sejah, open)

[Bhen F'shar]

Chicth.

Chitch.

Pfffffh.

The lighter was beginning to run low, he would have to refill it later. Taking a deep draw on his cigarette, the gray-furred Nehantite looked at the doors to the bar, then pulled the cigarette from his mouth with a paw and exhaled a cloud of smoke through his nostrils. Placing it back in his mouth agqain, the ash glowed a bright red as he inhaled again, sucking in the burnoff with seasoned taste.

Finishing his cigarette, Bhen let the butt linger, smoldering to the filter, before dropping it and cushing it out with his footpaw.

Bhen F'shar was a Nehantite, a mongoose-like species from a planet called Nehantish. His fur was gray, with a lighter face and chest, and headfur as well. His pink eyes were often narrow, and a cogarette was almost always tucked into his thin mouth. He dressed well, silk shirts and fine pants, not to mention classy light jackets. Bhen liked spending money on clothes, and enjoyed looking good.

His paw dropping his lighter back into his black jacket's pocket, the gray mongoose walked up the steps, and surrendered his .45 at the door without problem. The air inside the bar was heavily air treated, as he couldn't hardly taste the smoke in the air, or other usual smells, either. Though he had never stepped footpaw into the B+G before, he knew where to look for his friend. Sejah always made himself inconspicuious; that brown mongoose was always a bit spineless.

And true to form, Sejah was found sitting at a table out of the way and in less than full light. "I take it you got my letters, Sejah," he said, his voice scratchy from smoking too much. Pulling out a tarnished silver cigarette case from his coat pocket, he lit up another, and blew smoke across the table as he sat down across form his childhood friend. "So, you're going to be a Jedi, huh? Never would have thought it," he paused to take another pull on his cigarette. "Still can't believe you actually got here."

[Sejah Haversh]

From his table, Sejah looked up at his old friend, and smiled weakly. As long as he could remember, Bhen had smoked.

As he took a seat, Sejah sat back in his own and sighed. "I got your letters. Was there somehtign you wanted to see me about?" The brown Nehantite asked, dressed in robes that resembled those of the Jedi order. On teh table before him stood a half empty bottle of grape Nehi, and he lifted it to take a drink before continuign, "What brings you out here? You were my brother's friend better than mine." he asked.

Bhen was a full nine yeaars older than Sejah, and had been Sejha's brother's friend before he was killed by a car. After that, Bhen let Sejah hang out with him, and they called themselves close, but there were thigns they never talked abotu,a nd boundaries they knew not to approach. True friendship was not somethign common in the slums of Nehantsh's larger cities.

[Bhen F'shar]

Sucking on his expensive cigarette, Bhen let the question hang in the air for a few moments before answering with smoke-laden breath. "You're missed. Your Master Rej tried to stall them, but they know you're gone. But where to, they don't know yet."

His new cigarette over halfway gone, he pulled out his cigarette case and set it on the table. It was quite old, many generations older than himself, and had been made for the oversized smokes that his planet engineered two hundred years before it was discovered by the Empire. The seal imprinted on its tarnished surface was that of his house, a scripted symbol of old importance, but it held little hold on his current life. The case just kept his cigarettes from getting smashed, that's all he cared.

Taking another pull on his smoke, the gray Nehantite pointed at the Nehi and said, "Still drinking the kiddie stuff? Sometimes I wonder about you, Sej."

[Sejah Haversh]

the air around them already awaft with smoke, Sejah fanned some of it away with a sweep of his paw. "And I see you're still smoking like a chimney," he said with a smile, "IT seems our old habits die hard."

That was the extent of good humor between them. Resting his paws on the table, the brown Nehantite let his head hang slightly as Bhen blew out another breath of smoke. Examining the scared tabletop, he said, " you mean they allready found out I'm gone? That was fast. It must have been one of my students reporting my dissappearance. I know my mom wouldn't tell them where I went, at least, not the correct destination. She doesn't even know I'm here. How long do you think it will take for word to get out about a Nehantite Jedi? The House Inquisitors will surely track me down after hearing of that, even if they don't know who they're looking for."

[Bhen F'shar]

Bhen's voice was scratchy from years and years of smoking, and he replied with gray breath, "I'm not sure, they haven't dispatched a team as far as I know last I checked. Took me a while to track you down, actually."

His cigarette burning down near to the filter, he popped open his silver case and withdrew another from it. Placing the tip up to the glowing embers on his current one, he chained the fire on to the next, and took a final drag through the elder of the two before pressing it out in the table's ashtray and sticking the other into the side of his mouth.

"That package you sent yourself, I tracked it to here. Good job using your brother's name, by the way, almost threw me for a loop on that one. But here I am, and if the Inquisitors are even half as smart as me, they'll be here soon as well. " Pullign another breath through his cigarette, Bhen held the smoke in for a while before exhaling through his nose. "Pack your bags, Sejah, they won't let you stay here, and there's nothing I can do that will help. I'm sorry pal, I would love to lend you a paw, but, you put yourself into this. Do yourself a favor, odder a beer."

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah responded by pickign up his Nehi and taking a drink. Setting the nearly empty bottle back down, he looked at his old friend stone-faced. "I am not going anywhere. If the Inquisitors come, they will not take me back. I shoudln't be punished for a system I have no control over, Bhen, and I'm not going to be anymore!"

Sejah was mad, and his pink eyes were bordering on red as he raised his voice. "If you only came here to tell me to leave, then you've come for nothing. I will go back to Nehantish when I want, and on my terms. I am going to be a Jedi, Bhen, the first of our kind to do so. I want to see the looks on their faces when they have to acknowledge that I, a low-born nothing, becomes a champion of peace in the galaxy."

Seething with anger at how he ahd been treated on his homewlrld, and that Bhen seemed to only be there to taunt him about it, Sejah knocked bakc the last og his grape soda and sat back in his chair, his tail flicking defiantly beside him.

[Bhen F'shar]

"Can you stop a bullet, Sejah?" Bhen growled, "Can you keep yourself from being hunted down like an animal? Do you really think they care about you here at this order? Ha, I bet hardly any of them even know your name. They won't fight for you, what have you done for them?"

He looked like a furry dragon as he spoke, his words coming out with whisps of smoke. Suckign on his cigarette again, the end glowed a bright red as it bruned back on the shredded tobacco, small bits of ash floating off into the air. "I found you, Sej, and if I was paid enough, I might even take you back, but I'm not on the Grand Inquisitor's payroll, and I'm here as a friend. You get caught, and you'll go to jail for many years, at least ten. Think about it." Blowing another cloud of smoke into the air through the side of hsi mouth, the gray mongoose stared with cold eyes at his friend.

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah was stuck, he didn't know what to do. Scratchign the back of his neck he replied uneasily, "I don't know what I'll do if they come, Bhen, but I will take whatever punishment I get if I do get caught. But, let's not talk about that," he changed subject, "As long as you're here, we ought to do somehting. Have a little to drink, play some Spet, you know, just hang out."

[Bhen F'shar]

"And I suppose I should just feel all warm and fuzzy while we do, shouldn't I?" Bhen replied, then takign another drag on his cigarette. "That's the problem with you, Sej, you always try to find a 'bright side'. There is no bright side here, you got me?" He was beginning to grow impatient with his old friend, and pulled again at his rapidly shortening smoke.

"Listen, I came here to get your tail off this planet, not to play games with you. But if you've been too blinded by all this Jedi crap, I guess it's too late for me to help then. I thought you were smarter than this, Sejah, I know your brother was." He spat, his words accented with whisps of smoke.

[Sejah Haversh]

A low growl eminated from Sejah's throat at the last line Bhen had ripped on him. "Don't bring my brother into this. He's dead, and there's nothing I can do about it. I might as well have just insulted your mom, okay, so just drop it, Bhen."

Sitting back in his chair indignantly, the brown Nehantite waved some of the smoke away form his face. "I will do what feels right is they come for me here. But it is not up to you to make my decisions for me, got it? Now, you want to keep arguing, or do you want to have some kind of fun? I haven't seen you in almost a year, I'd like to at least think you're still a friend, Bhen."

Sejah ahd begun to calm down, and he relaxes his stiff posture as Bhen pulled out his cigarette case again, his current cigarette was allready almost gone. Sejah wondered just how black his friend's lungs were from all the smoking he did.

[Bhen F'shar]

Chaining the new cigarette off his current one, he sucked the near-dead smoke down to the filter before cushign it out in the table's ashtray. Letting the new cigarette hang limply in his grasp, Bhen stared at Sejah and then replied, "Sorry, Sej, I didn't mean it like that."

The gray nehantite shook his head, then took another drag from his cigarette. "And what kind of game do you suggest we play to take our minds off your trouble? I don't have a deck of cards with me, so, Spet is out of the picture."

[Sejah Haversh]

"I know you didn't, Bhen, but it still came across that way," the brown mongoose replied, "Besides, you know you can't smoke and play Spet at the same time, you give away your hands that way."

Smirking, Sejah looked back to a dark corner of the B&G, and then back to his older friend. "There's some old billiards tables in the back."

[Bhen F'shar]

Puffing smoke out the side of his mouth, Bhen shot his friend a look of confused comtempt. "Billiards? You've got to be kidding me, Sej. That game's too easy."

[Sejah Haversh]

"Can't you think through that cloud of smoke you live in?" Came Sejah's reply, "Of course not billiards. You don't play games with humans much, do you? They like to make things to lots of thigns at once. On the wall there are some panels you can put over the tables," he explained, making paw motions to help describe what he was saying, waving smoke around in low grey tendrils as he did so, "And then you can clamp ont he net int eh middle."

Leaning back, he waited for realization to sink in, and when Bhen didn't say anyhthing, he shook his head and clarified, "Table tennis. The billiard tables become table tennis tables. Want to play?"

[Bhen F'shar]

The Night Legionairre's pink eyes lit up at the mention of the game. Table tennis, or ping pong to some, was a game taken lightly by most, but not by Nehantites. When it was introduced thirty years earlier on their planet, it was an instant smash, and tournaments were frequent.

Because of their natural reflexes and speed, the game became one more of skill than of physical talent, though that was still a major factor. When they were younger, Bhen, Sejah and his brother would go to the local gym and spend hours playing. The sound of smashing paddles and bouncing balls filled the air like that of a hundred typewriters being run. Yes, the prospect of playing a game of table tennis was a thrilling one indeed, but Bhen hoped to make it more interesting still.

"Table tennis?" He questioned slyly, "I recall I whipped your tail at it the last game we played. Care to get beaten again?" With a smile, he stood up, dropping his cigarette case into his coat pocket. "But first, I want a drink, and I want you to have one as well. No sense in playing sober when we can help it, you know."

[Sejah Haversh]

Standign up as well, Sejah left his empty bottle of Nehi on the table and accompanied Bhen tot he bar where the grey ordered an ale, and Sejah a hard cider. Taking their glasses in paw, the two old friends headed back to the ill-used corner of the B&G and set about converting a pool table into one fit for ping-pong.

It was definitely not quality enough to pass standards ona regulation table back home, but it was good enough. Takign a draught from his cider, Sejah set the class on a paper coaster on a side table and selected a paddle suitable to his taste, then picked up the ball and bounced it a few times on his paddle.

"Okay, standard rules, after each point, loser takes a drink. Once these are gone, we move to harder stuff. I remember those are your standard rules, at least." Sejah smiled, though eh was prepared to wind up stinking drunk that night. Bhen was a good player, of of the best he had ever faced, and he did expect to lose, thoguh he still hoped he'd win.

[Bhen F'shar]

Shedding his jacket carefully, Bhen hung it on a coathook on the wall before unbuttoning the cuffs on his crimson silk shirt to roll them back to his mid forearm.
Selecting a paddle, the gray mongoose spun it in his paw and took a practice swing with it before setting it back and choosing another in better condition.

Stepping up to the table, Bhen nodded to Sejah and said, "You serve first. I won last time, remember?"

And so the match was begun, Sejah served a fast blow, shooting the ball across the net and bouncing it off of Bhen's end of the table. With fluid form, the gray stepped back and delivered a swift backhand to smash the ultralight white ball back at his friend. The game was begun, and soon the ball was only a white blur going back and forth between them, clacking off the paddles and tabletop. Even to one familiar to the game, Sejah and Bhen appeared quite skilled.

But finally Bhen underestimated the speed on one volley, and barely missed his swing, and the ball flew past him and bounced off the floor. Shrugging his shoulders, Bhen lifted his glass and took a swig from it. Swallowing, he looked back to Sejah and said, "One-nothing, not bad. Though I couldn't let you go without getting a point, you know."

Smirking, he walked back and picked up the ball and bounced it off the tabletop before serving it to his brown friend.