I Like Pretty Rocks

[Kaile Vera]

D R E S S E L
Breehara - The Greater Calama Cantina



Those that know Kaile, know that she has a tendency to pick up rather curious curios for one reason or another. Her room on the Messa has a small collection of shiny babbles and trinkets she's picked up over the years. Nothing expensive, but just a small collection of pretty rocks, beads, and anything she could barter for a reasonable amount. It didn't hold anything of relative value - at least from her own understanding - but more of an emotional value to them. They were memories.

Having to work day by day for the credits in her pocket meant that she had to carefully consider where she would spend it and how. Her last bit had gone towards tweaking more upgrades on the Messa, something that she still wanted to work on. Her current project was to rig the Messa to have something work along the lines of a tractor shrouder, just for emergencies.

Kurt was off making deliveries, and she'd requested to get dropped off on Dressel while she went to go find someone who might be able to help her with it. She just needed to verify a few things -- that and drop of a Galactic Alliance surveillance chip to the local resistance cell -- and hopefully gather the basics of what she'd need.

For now though, she was terribly hungry. Walking and talking and getting into salvage was rather wearying work. Not to mention, the thought of a fresh baked pie was rather saliva inducing. Mmm.. pie.

The Greater Calama Cantina was a quirky little establishment. Mainly because it was carved out of a massive Greater Calama shell. She had no clue how they managed to nab it, but boy did it ever look pretty. The shell itself was as hard as hijarna stone, and while a little dusty and worn for wear, it was quaint.

The wind would pick up, scattering the grasslands outside of town and bending them under the pressure. None the less, the smile that frosted her lips was still rather cheerful. After all, who wouldn't when the option to get pie was imminent!

[member="Eralam"]

 

[Eralam]

Eralam often found himself drawn to Dressel.

Like many Shards, he had no home of his own. Orax might have been his homeworld, but over the years the older crystals had decreed that their more mobile relatives were less than welcome. He couldn't really blame them. Palpatine had nearly wiped out their race in his purge against any beings considered especially unnatural, and theirs was a race of long memories.

Unlike other displaced peoples, such as the Alderaanians or more recently the Corellians, the Shards had resisted the urge to band together. They learned their lesson about taking a visible role in galactic politics. Almost as one, they went underground, establishing a covert intelligence network dedicated to preventing a repeat of that massacre.

There were still a few Shards active in the galaxy, and many of them liked to frequent Dressel. It was considered something of a safe haven. The people kept to themselves, and since it was located on a major hyperspace lane, it was always easy to escape if the need arose.

Eralam found himself here frequently.

Today, he sat in the back of a small cantina called the Greater Calama. He liked the place. It was basically a natural bunker, which suited his paranoia quite well, and the bartender was a connoisseur of small batch bourbon. It wasn't the cheapest place to sit and have a drink, but the whiskey was good, and no one really questioned why a droid was consuming, well, anything. In his right hand was a snifter with three fingers of a dark bourbon aged for 18 years in Endorian oak barrels. In his right was a simple meerschaum pipe, long since aged to a mottled dark brown. The cloud of smoke around him was distinctly sweet, smelling of apricots with a slight mustiness that betrayed the presence of perique. How exactly he managed to drink or smoke a pipe was a question best left to the imagination.

As usual, he had his back to the wall and a good view of the door. He didn't recognize the human that walked through the door. By his reckoning, there was nothing unusual about her appearance. Average height, average build, the sort of dark but not really hair that was common enough that he suspected it to be the genetic norm; she was completely unremarkable in every way.

Except for one.

She had no Force presence. None at all. He wasn't all that good at detecting others, as his own aura tended to wash out competing signals, but at this range? He should have at least been able to detect her as a mass of bioelectrical energy. Instead, there was...nothing. It was like trying to sense a Vong, almost. But that wasn't right. She didn't move like a Vong. There were none of the subtle telltales that often betrayed someone hiding beneath one of their biots. Obscured by the cloud of tobacco smoke, his olfactory sensors weren't picking up any traces of Vongformed hormones, but that was always a hit and miss thing anyway.

After a few moments, he came to the realization that he was staring and shook himself slightly. No one on this rock knew who he was. Chances are, this she wasn't hostile. Better not draw undue attention.

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Eralam"]

He was staring.

Kinda hard not to notice such things, even without the Force sending her warnings. Bobo kept that in check. Nothing came, and nothing came out, but that didn't mean a woman's sixth sense and her Lorrdian nature wouldn't pick up on it.

She had worked as a Yum Bunny waitress for some time. Noticing eyes latch on her was part of that sixth sense.

Big brown eyes would catch the tall figure sitting at the back of the cantina. He had all the sure signs of someone well used to knowing about the typical rules of cantinaing; back to the wall, eyes to the door. It made it easier to keep one's skin with less holes when in a new watering hole. Granted, Kaile wasn't expecting the brief stare down coming from what appeared to be a droid.

Enter curious point number one!

A smile frosted her lips, and like a Nexu with her attention caught by a shiny, she headed right on over. The cantina was small, and there weren't many places to sit. Being the social girl that she was, and because the droid had sparked her interest - she did like tinkering after all - it wasn't long before she stood before Eralam. With her thumbs hooked behind the straps of her satchel at her shoulders and a wide grin, Kaile sang the following.

"Hi there!" a rock of her heels, "Mind if I sit next to you?" she had a touch of a drawl, but a sweet disposition.

"Promise I won't bite." she teased.

 

[Eralam]

Eralam sighed internally. Way to go, dumbass.

Outwardly, he nodded.

"Sure, go ahead," he replied with his own drawl, his voice a basso rumble. How a Shard managed to pick up an accent was, like the mechanisms that allowed him to drink and smoke, best left to the imagination.

He took a couple more drags off the pipe before emptying it into an ashtray at a nearby table with a deft flick on his wrist. It disappeared into a pouch on his belt. The cantina's high efficiency air filtration system quickly cleared away the last of the smoke, allowing the Shard's olfactory sensors to determine that there were, in fact, none of the telltale pheremones given off by Vong biots. And yet, the young human's presence in the Force, or lack thereof, was still a stubborn hole.

It was conspicuous in its absence, like the gap in between teeth left when a child looses one. He kept subtly poking at it with his mind, trying to plumb the dimensions of it.

Finally he gave up, shrugged, and tossed back the rest of his drink.

"Pardon my impertinence," he said, his speech patterns unhurried, laconic, "but you seem to be missing something sort of important."

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Eralam"]

"Thanks!"

Kaile had managed to slip onto a chair next to him - back to the wall, eyes to the front! - and made herself comfy. She didn't take off her satchel, and instead went straight for the menu. Pie was on her mind!

The spicy blue-white smoke of his pipe was actually really nice. She didn't particularly find it a curious thing that a droid would smoke a pipe, she met plenty of really nice droids who liked to do things. Everyone was the same regardless of what they were made, was her mindset. And sometimes, maybe one needs to enjoy a pipe!

Truth be told, the smoke gave Kaile a measure of nostalgia. Spicy, woody. Made her think of fire pits and stories. A slight frown would furrow her brow, curious on the why. His query would draw her from her thoughts, and she panned her attention over to him.

"Huh?" a blink, a bit of confusion. Missing something important? She immediately snapped her head down to look at her person. For a second she had a brief fear that this was a dream and she was naked. She had a few of those from time to time, but golly was that ever embarrassing! Much to her relief, she had all her parts covered, which only increased her confusion.

"What am I missin'?"

 

[Eralam]

The Iron Knight had a fleeting image of throwing a set of keys on the table just to see what happened. He'd put money on the words "ooh, shiny" being involved.

"It's nothing physi-you know what? Lemme buy you a drink."

This was somewhat baffling. For one to be absent from the Force and totally ignorant of the fact was highly unlikely. So for her, this was nothing new, and not something she really thought about often enough to be obvious. Either that or she didn't exactly expect a droid to notice.
Beyond that, he wasn't sure what to think, and he certainly didn't want to make any assumptions. Eralam hadn't lived as long as he had by making assumptions when it would be simpler just to ask the question.

"Are you aware of the fact that you're sort of...absent from the Force?"

Now there was a humdinger.

If she knew anything about Shards, she might surmise that a droid who could pick up on something like that was, in fact, an Iron Knight. If she didn't, he suspected they'd both have some explaining to do. Either way, this was going to be an interesting conversation.

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

Kaile was used to being offered to be bought a drink; came with the waitress territory. Being a Lorrdian meant you could tell when some were genuinely trying to be nice or were going to be a sleaze. [member="Eralam"], despite being a droid, was quite friendly. He has a nice personality matrix, she mused, smiling at him to say.
"Okay, but you gotta give me your name first." the cheeky grin grew wider. "I'm Kaile."

With his elaboration, that brought a whole new kind of interesting plot twists. Wait, how did he know? Kaile had worked with Omega Pyre and along with other droids who were apt with a lightsaber, like HK-36. Her experience also did have someone who was an Iron Knight, but that was way back in her Rebellion days.

Finding another was just so out of the blue for her that she didn't figure that was the answer straight off the bat.

Another blink, this time taken aback. She normally had those questions from other Force users. Kaile was an enigma to them and their senses. Hearing that question from a droid though...

"Well yeah." she said plainly, her pert grin returning. "Can't sense me and can't sense out!" she would tell him. She never hid what Bobo was, although she was rather protective of him.

"It's a ysalamir bubble." her face would scrunch a bit, as if not quite exactly that. "Well.. sort of. Bobo does that to me." Bobo, being the one currently asleep in his miniature ysalamiri home within her satchel.

Big, brown curious eyes would stare up at Eralam inquiringly. "... How did you know?"

 

[Eralam]

Fascinating.

It was no ordinary ysalamir, or he'd be cut off too. Their bubbles were fairly uniform, so this one was something different. Immature? Or maybe the result of an experiment? It seemed impolite to pry further at this juncture.

"My name is Eralam," he replied. With a burst of will and intent, he removed the pipe and a measure of tobacco from their pouches on his belt, packed the tobacco in the pipe, and placed it in the corner of his "mouth", which was in reality an aperture custom designed for this very purpose. His hands never left his glass.

Once the pipe was in place, he lit it with a flame that sprouted from a fingertip as if by magic.

"Mercenary, swordsman, and Iron Knight. It's a pleasure to meet you, Kaile."

He took a few drags from the pipe, once again polluting the air with the sweet smelling smoke.

"My people are a race of inorganic crystals that can be installed into droid bodies. Some of us can use the Force. I've been around for a long, long time, and I can't say I've encountered too many humans lacking a Force presence, so I was curious."

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

In that instant, Kaile's eyes snapped wide in awe and wonder. She immediately came scooting over closer, her eyes as large as saucers and an excited tremble in her voice.

"Wait... You're a Shard?!" What [member="Eralam"] didn't know is that the Lorrdian had a Cortical Datasplint. It allowed Kaile to store large amounts of information within her brain. Not only that, it allowed sensistive information to be stored in a save location and did not require access through a computer. This allowed Kaile to store the information and then 'forget it' knowing that she could easily retrieve it at any time through the datasplint.

This wasn't the only cybernetic implant she had, they were just really well hidden along her scalp a few inches past her ears. With all the thick strawberry blonde hair she had, keeping them nice and undetected was just fine. Not to mention, they could get past some pretty good medical grade scanners.

"Oh good golly, I never thought I'd meet one in the flesh." Or chassis, but still! "I've heard some stories, but no one has seen much of them since the Gulag Plague." Her mind would race. "Wait, you can use the Force?"

How did that work? Well then again, the Force was infinite.

"What can you do?"

 

[Eralam]

"Mostly cheap parlor tricks and killing things," Eralam said, the barest hint of a laugh in his mechanical voice.

"Get a few centuries of practice in and even a modest talent can become formidable."

Curiouser and curiouser, as the saying went. Despite her somewhat flighty demeanor, Kaile knew about Shards, and was sharp enough to make the connection. It wasn't like their existence was a secret or anything, but most of the galaxy regarded them as almost mythical, or at least legendary. There was evidence enough of their existence, but after the better part of a thousand years in relative seclusion, they weren't at the forefront of the public consciousness.

At that point, the bartender came over to take their drink orders. The Shard motioned for more of the same, and also for whatever Kaile was getting to be included on his tab. The bartender, a Devoronian, was a man of few words, and could appreciate a kindred spirit. That was how Eralam got into the good stuff, after all.

"Order what you like," he told the human woman. "It's on me."

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Eralam"]

Being a Lorrdian meant that it was easy to read a saptient's intent when they offered her a drink. It was a little bit more difficult when it came to droids. It wasn't the same as reading intent in a subtle twitch; but would that be the same with a Shard using a droid body? Would their emotions reflect in the actions of their metal confines. That was an curious question for Kaile, one that she was actually wondering if she could answer.

"Thank you!" that sunny smile would split her face, and Kaile would turn towards the Devaronian bartender. He was a particularly nice shade of burnished olive, nice polished horns too. "Do you have a cobalt moon?" an additional thought. "Oh! With an extra wedge of orange please!" Gold ol pale ale for now. The pie will come soon enough!

Returning to Eralam, Kaile would lean closer. "Are there limitations on what you can do? With being an Iron Knight and all?" one would imagine that anything that might harm his chassis would be one. Ionize, maybe.

 

[Eralam]

"Same as anyone, I guess. Don't go playing in traffic, don't tug on Lord Vader's cape."

The Shard shrugged.

"Every species has its dos and don'ts. There are a fair few Gand, for instance, that would die just from being exposed to an oxygen rich environment. Our bartender here makes drinks that would melt your insides. Mind you, he's got an irrational love for human beverages, which makes him something of a weirdo among his own people, but the man's got good taste."

The bartender arrived at the table at that point with the drinks tray, and treated the two guests with a pointy-toothed grin before retreating back to his post. The fellow's story was a long and interesting one, but he rarely told it to strangers.

"At the end of the day, death comes for us all. Just comes for some a mite bit sooner than others."

The Shard sipped his drink carefully, somehow managing to do so despite the pipe stem wedged into the corner of his mouth.

"So what's your story?"

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

By now, Kaile had set her elbow on the table and perched her chin upon the shell of her palm. She was enraptured, like a child absorbing every word that [member="Eralam"] had to say. It was simply fascinating.

With Kaile's own occupation, it required her to absorb and learn a great quantity of information. Some of which she could store away in her datasplint, while the rest she kept up on her own. It was her curious nature that made her do what she did so well, along with her cheerful disposition.

"Thank you right kindly," Kaile would shine out towards the bartender. With her free hand, she brought over her ale. The smile drew wider to bare pearly white teeth at the two wedges of citrus over the rim of the pint. It was almost comical really, at such a large glass for one such as her.

"Me?" brown eyes would warm, and she gave a slight chuckle. "Oh I just wander from place to place. Get a couple of jobs here and there." which was true. "Worked as a waitress at Yum Bunnies!" she said with notable pride. For the delightfully tacky atmosphere, it was a decent job with good tips who were sociable like her.

"Guess you can say I like to travel," which she did. ".. and meet new beings." with another cheeky grin.

"So where did you learn to use the Force?" Kalie would ask. There were so many flavors of philosophies and ways to do things, it was always a curious thing to learn how another thought about it all.

 

[Eralam]

Eralam had no eyebrows. Thus, he could not raise one quizzically. But his head cocked to the side and gave the same impression.

"Yum...Bunnies? Do I even want to know?"

He was, of course, familiar with the chain. No one who traveled the spacelanes could avoid them forever. But without the reproductive urges that drove most organic species, the place had only its quality of drink and prices to impress the cantankerous old Shard. On that account, it had failed miserably. He was forced to conclude that the skimpy outfits of the wait staff was the main draw. That, and their almost overwhelmingly bubbly personalities.

On second thought...

"No, wait, nevermind."

The girl had bubbly in spades. Eralam was being careful with what he said, but if he didn't know better, he would suspect he was being worked over by a professional. There was definitely something strange about her. Not hostile, but, almost worryingly likeable. And he didn't like anyone. Paranoia, thy name is Shard.

"Hard to say where I learned the Force. That was so long ago, not even I remember fully. I've met Jedi, Sith, and everything in between. About the one thing they all have in common is that they're so full of crap their eyeballs are practically floating."

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Eralam"]

That made her laugh, and when she laughed, it was with her entire body.

Her shoulders shook, and bubbling melodic laughter would just make her face glow. It was genuine. It shone in her eyes, in the laugh lines that formed on her face, in the cheeky dimples that peeked out in her mirth.

"Mmm... enough to make their eyes brown, hmm?" she'd banter, wrinkling her nose in light-hearted humor. The Lorrdian could relate, she had met some rather interesting Jedi, who didn't seem to be like Jedi. Fought Sith who weren't rather Sithly at all. It was all a series of preconceived notions, and each would say that theirs was the way that was right.

Truth be told, all Kaile put herself in wasn't a specific dogma, but just a genuine desire to help beings. Oh the Force was something shiny, but even now with Bobo, she rarely used it. It was just something nifty to use. A tool. Having Bobo for here with her certainly made the sacrifice of being unable to use the Force easy.

Whatever made her special because of that added bit didn't keep her company nor snuggled up next to her like that tiny lizard did.

"So what's your take on it?" she would query, bringing the glass of ale up to take a hearty sip. Soft music would start to play in the background, a nice little upbeat jig. It was a particularly lazy day, and the cantina wasn't so crowded. Before long, a waitress would start to quietly sing along.

"The Force that is."

 

[Eralam]

Eralam leaned back in his chair, balancing it precariously on two legs. Had it been the ordinary wood it appeared to be, the stress of several hundred kilos of droid would have shattered it into toothpicks, but the bar's owner was smart. This place was cozy now, but Breehara was not without its trouble. You either kept sturdy chairs, or your kept cheap ones. The proprietor had figured sturdy was cheaper in the long rung, and for that, Eralam was grateful.

"Hmmm," the Shard said. "The Force is like water. You can do a lot of stuff with it. You can make tea, coffee or beer, " he said, gesturing towards the human's pint glass. "All that's just window dressing though. You change the flavor, you make add caffeine to keep you awake, or make alcohol and get hammered, but at the end of the day, it's still water. You'll use it, it passes through you, and you piss it out in the end."

He shrugged apologetically.

"A bit graphic, but that's the gist of it. The water doesn't care what you do with it. It's just water. When you get right down to it, that's the Force in a nutshell. It doesn't care about Light or Dark or Grey or Pink with Purple Polka Dots. That's all stuff organics added to it after the fact. Nearly every sentient species has a tendency towards anthropomorphism. They learn to tap into some mystical Force, and they just sort of assume that because it works for them in the way they think it should, that mystical Force agrees with them. And of course, anyone who doesn't use it like they do is a heretic. And everyone knows the heretics are unnatural, abominations, so on and so forth. So break out the torches and laser swords, 'cause them suckers gonna die."

The Iron Knight sighed and took a hit from his pipe, the fragrant smoke leaking from the corners of his mouth.

"And that's how just about every major war in the last few thousand years got kicked off."

By this point, the tobacco had expanded enough that it was starting to go out, so he tamped it down gently with his thumb.

"So how about you? What's the Force to a waitress slash traveler who carries around a critter that makes her vanish from it?"

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

If [member="Eralam"] thought that a few crude words would daunt Kaile, he was mistaken. They had the opposite effect of amusing her more; mainly, because she could relate to exactly what he was describing.

Plucking her head off her palm, she sat up. Taking her pint, she brought it up to her lips, saying, "Haha, reckon about the same," she told him, taking another sip of her ale. It was unfiltered, with just enough Ukio orange peel for that subtle sweetness. Licking her lips, she went on to take one of the citrus slices.

"Folk tend to take things a bit too seriously," she'd say a matter of factly, bringing up the orange slice to bite into it with gusto. Juice began to squirt into her mouth, and she would chew happily.

"It's just like any other skill honestly," she'd add, covering her mouth with her hand as she chewed, her voice a bit muffled. Swallowing, she added with a slight emphasis of her forefinger, "One you can practice on to make it better, or not and let it just be in the backburner." The Force was useful at times for Kaile when she was doing her missions, but honestly, there was nothing she really needed the Force for in order to do it.

"Just because one can use the Force doesn't mean that person is any better than one who cannot," this was a firm belief with her, and she proved it constantly every day. "Which is why I don't mind what happens with Bobo."

Her smile would broadened into a sunny grin, "Force or no, I'm still me."

 

[Eralam]

Eralam laughed, a harsh, mechanical sound not unlike the imminent failure of a mechanical component on a starship.

"Preachin' to the choir, sister."

The Shard tilted forward, placing all four legs of the chair firmly on the ground.

"I met this Jedi once, real insufferable character. Had his hair all peroxide blonde, spiked up like some kinda cartoon character. At any rate, he'd been on three planets in as many months, always tryin' to do some kinda good, as he put it. Real meddler though, stuck his noise where it wasn't wanted, and they just about rode his ass out on a rail after a few weeks."

He swirled the whiskey around in the glass, letting it release its potent chemical bouquet, took a sniff, then a drink. It was clear he was beginning to relax a little, as the drawl was becoming pronounced.

"Anyway, the fella was drownin' his sorrows in this little hole in the wall out in the outer rim, tryin' like hell to convince me that he's this persecuted little thing, this martyr. And all I can say is 'Son, you're an nerf herder. Ain't got nothin' to do with the Force, or anything like that. You're an nerf herder.' He looked at me, turnin' all red and puffy, and started hollerin' about this, that, and the other. 'What do you mean I'm an nerf herder?' I said, 'Now don't take it personal, but it goes a little somethin' like this: you run into an nerf herder in the morning, well, you ran into an nerf herder. If all you meet from sunup to sundown are assholes, you're the nerf herder. You done been run offa three planets by now, and you mean to tell me you was a saint the whole time, shinin' yer halo and them mean ol' people just happened to take an irrational dislike on account of the fact yer a Jedi? I'd have believed you if you said your hair.'"

Eralam shrugged and took another sip.

"It's the same old song and dance everywhere you go. They don't get that the sun don't shine out their hind end just because they can use space magic. And it's the little folk that get caught up when they start to killin'."

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Eralam"]

"I've no idea who ends up being the one to blame in the end." Kaile would add, her fingers lightly rapping against the condensation of her glass. She would study it, pondering a bit. "One meets Jedi who don't act like you'd think a Jedi would, then there's a Sith who end up surprising ya and act nothing like you'd expect."

Kaile would lean back against the chair, feeling her satchel bunch up behind her, but not minding it at all. "Maybe it just ends up being the person. Folk start with good intentions, but reckon you know how the sayin' goes with that." this was going into deep things, and while it appeared that the young Lorrdian's discussion would lead to a bleak venue, it really wasn't. It was a story of hope.

"But maybe that's why regardless of it all, one has a choice. One has a choice to do what is right." granted, being 'right' can be subjective, but for Kaile it was helping people. It was working her missions so she could save others. It made her feel useful, with a purpose.

"I just want to help people. And if I see that someone needs some aid, I don't see no reason why not to pitch in." she wold tap her forefinger again upon the glass, "The intent of it all."

"I don't need a code to help me stick to being helpful. I just do it."

Her face scrunched up in a slight case of confusion, then rose to meet Eralam's ocular sensors. "Does that make sense?"

 

[Eralam]

"Makes plenty of sense," Eralam replied, nodding sagely. "That's not too far off from what I do, though I suspect we go about things a little differently."

The Shard stretched mightily, an oddly human motion for a mechanical being.

"The way I see it, there are two ways to help the little folk: you can give 'em the beans and bandages, or you can find the folks doin' the hurtin' and given 'em a bullet. Ain't no one way more right than the other, and both can do as much harm as good, given the situation. But at the end of the day, some folks need savin', and some folks need to be kilt. So long as yer doin' yer best to follow the path that best lets you help out, I reckon that's about as noble as it gets."

It was an oddly philosophical conversation for a bar in the ass end of nowhere in the middle of the day, but Eralam didn't mind. He was actually enjoying himself for once. He was careful to skirt the edges of his true purpose; while the Shards might not be unheard of, they were careful to keep their network hidden. But the general gist of it was still true. He helped where he could, and more often than not, that meant making sure the bad guys were dead.

[member="Kaileann Vera"]