-
“Tell me about it.”
Capstan glanced side long at the so-called Alliance Military, all of them capable of hitting the battlefield and all of them preferring to be here, drowning their braincells in booze. At this last thought, she looked at her own half-empty bottle and shook her head.
“Yeah... this waiting and hiding.. not what I signed up for.”
Her eyes lifted back to Kyran, the bottle dangling listlessly in one hand at her side.
“Name's Corell, by the way.”
-
Tera
“I like it,” Ben said simply. “Though I wasn’t only piloting freighters. I was one of the simulation testers for a piloting holo-game; they even put my voice in there. I also was a speeder-instructor for a few months.”
Seeing her take a sip of her drink made Ben aware that he wanted one as well. That whiskey in the Knightfall was calling his name something fierce, but he restrained himself from answering that call. People might look at him oddly then.
“You’re a pilot too, I’m guessing,” he said, digging his hands into his pockets.
-
Ky raised his glass up in a salute to her.
"Pleasure."
He then took a drink of his beer.
"You ever think about going old school? Join up with the military like the old Jedi Master's used to do. Take the fight to the Imperial's."
-
Serasai
"Depends on who you speak with." Ariana replied flatly. "Some see him and the others that died that day as some sort of spectacular group of martyrs."
Her head shook slightly, her eyes still following those dancing, drinking, genuinely enjoying themselves. "I never quite understood why anyone ever makes a big deal out of it. We seem to lose good people at any major battle. I don't see why everyone insists on Endor being such a rally point. It didn't change anything. Yes, sure, the Emperor may have died but the Empire itself did not die with him. We still fight, now they have an Empress and when she is dead, will that end it? I doubt it."
As she had been talking her arms had come to fold in front of her chest, something which she quickly undid as soon as she finished speaking. "Don't get me wrong, I believe in restoring the Republic, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. It just seems all of them," She motioned to the people again. "they seem to think it will just be an easy thing that will magically happen one day. It can be infuriating at times..."
-
Carré
"Strange of him to walk away, sweets." He mused, giving her a little squeeze. She was a beautiful girl, one he'd probably feel right in pursuing himself, if not for other things heavily on his mind and knowing Kelly all too well. Though, it was more the other things on his mind that kept him so eyes wide open, so attentive and... well, so celibate, for the majority. "That ain't like him."
He took a big gulp of the cider he kept, straightening a little, his back arching slightly, like he could crack it as if it were one of his fingers. He then relaxed a great deal.
"I've seen the way he looks at you and it is not something I would put anything in the way of, y'know what I mean? I think even when he's angry with ya, it's different from when he's angry with me or any of the other guys in the squad. I mean, I'm sure I could tell ya what's up, at least partially, but for everything I can see in the way people carry themselves, express themselves and how they look at and react to each other, I can't read minds." He sighed, laughing a little. "You're probably gonna have to ask him what's up yourself."
He probably already knew what deep dark thing in his best friend's psyche this was coming from. Justin would do it himself, go ask what's gotten into his best friend, but the reasoning behind it would be a little uncomfortable for a man-to-man discussion and it would more than likely end with one of both of them acquiring some bruises, gift-wrapped in fists.
"Don't believe everything you hear, Carré. What he says to you and how he acts towards you can tell two very different stories." He thought about something for a moment. "The eyes say a heck of a lot, if ya didn't know. That thing about them being the windows to the soul is very true."
-
Justin
The ghost of a smile stole across her lips, staying for a fleeting moment as the gentle squeeze of her shoulder did much to comfort her. She took another sip from her mug, curling her fingers around it and savoring the warmth. It seeped into her fingers, gradually relaxing them and setting her more at ease with their minor discomfort gone.
"You're probably gonna have to ask him what's up yourself."
"I'll...I'll think about it. I don't know if I've had enough liquid courage yet to go after him again tonight." Carré murmured softly, tucking an errant curl behind her ear as she sipped one more time. With painstaking slowness, her mind caught up with the first time Justin had said, instead of lingering on the last as he just had. "Wait...what? The way he -looks- at me? Really."
A bit of a grin affixed itself to her face, in spite of her trying to hide it behind the mug she couldn't sip from fast enough. Her emerald eyes warmed as she freed a hand and picked up her pencil, snug in Justin's side as she flipped through her sketchbook. Past sketches of her x-wing and several of the squadron members, there were several of Kelly mixed in, until she stopped on one of Kelly and Justin himself. Arms crossed and glaring at one another as she'd caught them in the midst of a spirited discussion standing in the Rogue's hangar.
-
Ariana
Onashi grunted in agreement.
“For as long as this whole Rebellion’s been around, that don’t strike me as quite right. It’s been too long. I figure lots of people would get disillusioned.”
He looked at the crowd some distance away.
“Though your story’s a bit less interesting than others. I like it. It’s always, ‘the Empire killed my brother!’ or, ‘I used to be with the Empire, and then they had me killin’ kids, and I’m too good for that’.” Onashi smirked. “It’s nice to hear someone who’s saying ‘my family’s in it, and I just don’t like them much’.”
-
Serasai
A gentle laugh left her once more, brief yet not holding back in the genuine amusement she found at his statement.
"Well," a soft shrug of her shoulders, "it's rather difficult to like an establishment that found it justified to destroy an entire civilized planet."
There were plenty of other reasons going through her head, softly reminding Ariana why she was in the Rebellion, why it was her family had decided that the Empire was wrong and needed to be stopped. Democracy... At least some semblance that the individual had control over their own life.
"Then again, I joined before that unfortunate incident even took place." Ariana tugged her eyes away from the crowd and turned back to the mercenary.
"Perhaps I am just one of the silly idealists." Where her tone of voice may have been lacking in the humor she found in the statement, the smile that accompanied the words would give it away.
-
Ariana
Onashi smirked.
“Worse things to be, I suppose,” he said. He nodded to one of the pilots. “Like a pilot. Those TIEs aren’t worth the racks they stack ‘em on. Stormtroopers aren’t much better, but when they’re led right, they can be dangerous. A challenge.”
Onashi’s smirk widened. “And their armour? Some of the best stuff out there. TIE fighters don’t even have shields. Get a good shot in, they’re dust. Half the time you have to shoot a trooper twice to make sure he’s down. Too many think they put ‘em down with one, but all it takes is a little bacta and that trooper’s right back on the field.”
He snorted, and foregoing the cup, took a swig of the wine from the bottle itself.
-
Kyran
Corell shrugged and looked off to the side at nothing in particular, her lips pursing together for a moment.
“Thought about it. Thought about it a lot, in fact... but I'm no Jedi Master.”
Suppressing a sigh, her shoulders sagged a little. As much as she wanted to do rather than wait, there was reality reminding her that she was not a soldier, and nowhere near trained enough to survive an encounter with an enemy. Her father had been a swoop mechanic and though she'd left Coruscant to pursue bigger and better things, the only things that had gotten bigger were the machines she fixed. Better was still on the to-do list. Lifting her head, Capstan smiled ruefully.
-
Ben
Tera nodded, “Rogue Squadron.”
There had been a lot of pilots who could make that claim since the squad had formed. Too many, in fact. It wasn't worth thinking about how many others had shared her callsign in the past, but a curious part of her couldn't help but ask what came out of her mouth next.
“You ever fly with the Rogues?”
-
Corell
Ky snorted softly. He avoided speaking the thoughts that were going through his head. He understood the.....inner conflict that the Jedi were forced to endure. He was a soldier he had no moral compass other than his own beliefs of right and wrong. No "preserving the greater good" and all that.
"Well if you ever get tired of sitting around doing nothing but training let me know. I can introduce you to some people who'll get you playing in the mud, unless you just want to become one of those idiots who will jump out of a perfectly good aircraft." Ky smirked. "That can be arranged too."
-
Dash
They were far enough away from everyone else, or at least that's what her mind came to conclusion to. The fire was far off, the voices surrounding it nothing more than a muddled sound of happiness that pierced the night.
Not that Charles was paying attention to that. The whole distance thing was probably some sort of instinct buried into her subconscious that was somehow working its way through the haze of alcohol and... well... whatever the hell else was going on. If there was anything else. Dashiel was quickly having the affect of making her think about a whole lot of nothing else but him at that particular moment. Even the constant questioning or scolding her mind had been attempting to carry on with had finally come to a complete stop.
The blanket she'd managed to get a hold of was finally let go of, its hitting the ground first providing a cushion that kept the bottle of alcohol from breaking as it too found a place on the ground, rolling off to one side.
Her arms now being free of any objects had little pause before they found their way to loosely move around the Intel agent, pulling the two of them closer together.
-
Tera
Ben shook his head, saying, “Didn’t stick around long enough after Yavin to fly with the Rogues. Red was enough excitement for me, thanks. I don’t think I was good enough to qualify for it anyway. I didn’t even have to train my replacement.”
This time, Ben did grimace. “I was good at surviving, but that was about it. My fighter was perhaps the most shot up in the squadron.”
-
Carré
"Wait...what? The way he -looks- at me? Really."
Justinian nodded, a small, confirmatory smile showing. It wasn't that hard to see and it didn't take his natural talents as a Lorrdian to see it. She could probably ask any other guy in the squadron and they'd confirm it. Such was the way of things. He sniffed at the scent of the spiced, spiked cider and finished most of the rest of it as it had gotten cool.
"That's right. The way he looks atcha." He said, after swallowing, watching her now with interest as she flipped through the pages of her sketchbook. He'd seen her art before, but certainly not all of it and her talent was undeniable. When the pages ceased to pass, one scene showed that was undeniably familiar. His smile lessened, as if unsure. He could smile at it for what it was, but he was certain that there usually weren't spectators. She certainly got the passion of the argument down pretty well. It had him wondering just how much time she spent watching. He settled back into an easy smile then.
"When'd you manage to do this?"
-
Kyran
It was a tempting offer and there'd been a time when she would have jumped at it, quite literally. Now, though, there was that voice in the back of her mind, reminding Corell not to be too hasty. It sounded uncannily like Navaria Tarkin. Then again...
“You really think they'd want a no-talent Jedi around, when they're trying to get down to business?”
-
Corell
Ky couldn't help but laugh.
"I doubt that you've got no talent. Besides you think we've gone back to Geonosis where we're hatching fully trained troopers out of tubes? We go on missions all the time with Greenies. You got to pop your cherry sometime. Sure we don't send a team of a rookies on a mission alone, and when possible we'll put a first timer on a cake walk mission whenever possible."
Ky stopped and took another pull on his beer.
"Hell, I'm sure Ackbar was a rookie once."
-
Justin
She hid - or at least, tried to hide - the sudden flush of her cheeks by draining the rest of the cider in her mug. Several moments passed as she stared down at the empty mug, her muddled mind swimming rather lazily about in her head.
Carré was good and drunk and she'd have sworn she heard her normally well-secured filters falling away like leaves in a gale-force wind. If any of them were even left at that point.
"Umm...I was kinda in the hangar late that afternoon...had earbuds and music in my ears, so I couldn't hear anything. I just wanted someplace to draw for a couple of hours, and I had told Tink I was gonna be sitting up on the catwalk and he said he didn't mind. So...I'd been watching Kelly talk to Tink and Chrys, and then walk around his X-wing...and then you came in and I couldn't help myself...I had to draw it." She smiled faintly through the blush that just wouldn't recede for anything. A fingertip absently traced along Kelly's shoulder in the sketch, smudging the shading a bit.
On purpose, of course.
She'd meant to do that, just then.
-
Justin laughed and squeezed her tight, putting down his now-cold drink and reaching that hand around to the back of her head, pulling her close to plant a chaste kiss on the top of her head.
"You're so damn adorable sometimes, girl." And he just held her there, petting her hair. "I might just see why Perris' taken such a shine to you. Well, you're a pretty girl. I figure that helps, too."
His hand slid down from her head and he just drew that arm across her back then, resting his cheek against her hair, smiling. Holding her just like he would Chrys. She hadn't wanted to come here - the thought of so many people she didn't know, even with Justinian there, was too much. She opted to stay shipside and Tink had elected to keep her company and they'd both get work done. That moment, he had silent prayers that she wouldn't spook and that it would be a good Life Day for her as well. The girls stayed, too. Just didn't want to be away from mommy. He could understand, in a way.
"Don't you worry about him. He'll come around."
-
Serasai
His comments were enough to bring a short laugh to her once more. "That I cannot help but agree with. Lack of challenge is one thing, but I think my problem would be more of being stuck in that cramped little cockpit."
As if to emphasize her point she interlaced her fingers and stretched her arms out in front of her. "I need freedom of movement, not some damn machine doing the fighting for me. I don't think I could ever see myself being a pilot. Cruising around at top speeds in an airspeeder is one thing, especially if it doesn't have a roof..." She paused as a whistful smile slowly formed on her lips, "but one of those little fighter boxes is totally different from what I can tell. No thank you."