Lucky at Cards, Lucky in Love

[Rosario Perlyn]

"Yes, Jedi wouldn't do that", Rosario, suddenly very serious, stated with the voice of conviction, earning her a look of surprise.

"No point in mourning what's lost, eh? Although it was a fiendishly good idea. Guy found a substance that puts you to sleep and you dream, but the dreams aren't some funny nonsense your brain cooks up, but taken from your own best memories. Even makes you remember stuff that you've already forgotten, too. How genius is that?"

Rosario drew on her cigarette again and then crossed her arms. She listened to the fellow's emphatic speech, accompanied by expressive gestures, with interest, but with a look of skepticism.

"I don't know that that's such a good idea", she protested, but hesitated to elaborate. She could not have clearly articulated why, or would have had to dig through her own thoughts and feelings to order them and put forth a clear argument; but the whole concept simply rang misguided.

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

If anything, his interest peaked as the man described the hallucinogen drug in such a very delicate yet captivating way that he felt the sudden urge of looking for it himself despite the Jedi trying to erradicate it from Zeltros. Dangerous and reckless but what's some good fun without risks?

"You're joking, right? That sounds pretty cool to me. The side effects must be awful, though."

When things sounded too good to be true then they really were, probably even going as far as reaching for a small shipment would be a waste of their time. Killing off his cigarette inside the ashtray, Ar'ekk spared Rosario a glance and then focused back on the man next to her.

"Good thing being a Jedi is a long forgotten thing for me. No more having to worry about saving the galaxy."

Revealing your past like that wasn't very smart but at this point in time you'd be able to find out easily just by getting access to someone's file, the slicer's one wasn't very clean anyways.

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[Rosario Perlyn]

A thoughtful gaze rested on Arekk for many seconds. She looked at her glass and pensively took another sip from it, then stared at the floor for a while before raising her eyes again. She was overcome with a sudden sadness at Arekk's words. She couldn't imagine what must have happened to the man to make him say things like these.

"Oh, man, you were a Jedi? Fancy that." The man laughed nervously, and then fumbled for something to say.

Rosario ignored him. "And still you're not enjoying it and want to relive memories of the past?" she asked Arekk, looking at him with a kind of naive seriousness.

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"Nothing fancy about it, pal."

Words no longer stinged as those times were long forgotten and buried as they should have but the friendships made and lost were certainly something to mourn over yet not forever. Rosario's question made no harm to Ar'ekk and he responded with some tranquility, enjoying the last few drops of his alcoholic beverage.

"Not anymore, everything is in the past. Squashed. The Jedi Order is no more and I am no longer worrying about a dogmatic doctrine. I enjoy sabacc more nowadays."

Bitterness in his words? Totally.

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[Rosario Perlyn]

The words she heard saddened Rosario. There was a bitterness in them that was the residue of an anger at the world that could no longer sustain itself and had resigned.

"That's such a sad way to look at things", she said. "What's wrong with the present and the future? There are so many pleasant things in the universe and you... just refuse to look at them?"

She spoke the first words that came to mind to express what she felt more than she thought it, unsure if she was expressing herself quite properly. But it did not matter if she was not. She was in a pleasant state of relaxation, the world, or rather existence in itself, felt warm and soft, and there was no point in torturing oneself by obsessing over the proper verbal form.

And what a deplorable misconception it was to think that being a Jedi was about belonging to an order and following some dogmatic doctrine. Rosario wondered what could even have given him the idea, for while there had indeed been an order, nothing her master ever said suggested that such a thing was in any way essential - nor was there any mission so grandiose as to save the galaxy from all ills. It seemed fundamentally misguided and pointless to think about any such impossible thing that could only be a distraction from the training through which one was to realise one's potential by perfecting the way one related to oneself and others. But these thoughts, for all the mellowness of her state, she recognised as something it would be been unwise to utter.

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"Eek, let's not ruin this wonderful day with depressive talk. What is done is done."

With that finally out of the way, Ar'ekk glanced at Rosario once more and pondered about her heavy stance regarding the matter the slicer had brought up. She was very concerned in the way he spoke about the Jedi and the certain bitter way he referred to them in his explanation, which were clearly somewhat mixed between bitterness and some other feelings thrown betwixt.

"Deneba is no more and so isn't the Jedi Order. I am a free man who lives for himself only and that makes me happy. What else can I say?"

A part of him still missed those good days back there on the training grounds with all the old faces or aboard the Independence during missions but what he was doing nowadays kept him happier than before. Some sacrifices were made but at the end everything paid off.

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[Rosario Perlyn]

"Oh, but who lives only for himself? I don't believe you. That would be monstrous. Don't tell me you don't care for anyone", said Rosario firmly, her hands on her hips.

"Besides, Deneba wasn't" - she noticed too late that she should have used the present tense - "so bad. It's just a bit dry and the carnivorous bushes are freaky, but the people are nice."

Rosario didn't quite know herself why she felt the urge to poke at this person like she did.

"Well, if anyone's depressed, there's just the thing for that, you know..." their human companion interjected with a smirk.

Rosario grinned at him. "And if I'm not depressed I'm not allowed?"

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"Only my loved ones or those who I consider important enough in my life. The rest aren't my problem, not anymore."

The slicer tried to explain his point but ultimately was futile to keep going, there was nothing else he could say that wouldn't make Rosario offer a counterpoint and that was totally fine to do. Sinking into his glass, Ar'ekk diverted his attention between the Zeltron girl and the man beside her.

"You've been to Deneba?" He asked, putting a stop to things for a moment to inquire. "Isn't that CSA territory now?"

Another laugh escaped his mouth as the man suggested such thing with that delicacy, ensuring that the point was conveyed across clearly.

"Hah. And what that would be?" Again, play clueless. "Dying to know."

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[Rosario Perlyn]

"Oh, don't be so disagreeable!" exclaimed Rosario with an open, encouraging smile. There was no reproach in her words this time. "You're not in a good spot, and..." She looked at the young man with amused skepticism. "What's your name, anyway?" She turned back to Arekk before she received an answer. "He's suggesting to give you a nudge to knock you out of that rut." Rosario extended her hand to touch Arekk's arm casually as she spoke. Her hand wandered down from his upper arm to his hand and then fell into the void. It was a casual touch that she did so naturally that one might not have found any special significance it - except that most people, at least non-Zeltrons, wouldn't have done such a thing.

The young man, who had introduced himself as Valen, enthusiastically agreed: "That's exactly what I'm proposing."

Rosario suddenly took Arekk's hand, and Valen's with her other, and looked back and forth between the two. "So - where does one go?" she asked naively, with a beaming smile, as if everything had already be decided.

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"Ar'ekk."

While he appreciated Rosario's friendly affection, the fallen Jedi gently stroked her fingers and set them on the table after feeling them creeping up to personal territory. Not long ago he wouldn't have bat an eye but this time it was different even if she meant something else in return. It was better if the Zeltron girl kept her hands to herself now if he didn't want to upset him.

"What's yours?" The slicer asked while exchanging glances with her, index rubbing his nostrils. "You look familiar. Maybe it's nothing."

Hazel-blue pools fell on the exit and the man pondered to part ways with their newly made friends but the thought quickly dissipated, instead reacting to the girl's new attempt at grabbing his hand by tucking them inside his leather jacket. No offense again but yeah...

"This is your planet, isn't it? I have no idea."

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[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario looked at Arekk with unconcealed puzzlement. She was unaccustomed to a person being so ill at ease in her presence, and it put her at a loss. Eventually, her expression turned into one of compassion the way one would look at a wounded animal. At the same time, she could feel a pang of disappointment in Valen. This, too, confused her, until after a moment's reflection it finally occurred to her that the young man had hoped to be alone with her.

She smiled gently, but with a momentary tinge of sadness. "I'm Rosario." Being told that they looked familiar was not an unusual event to any Zeltron who had been in contact with off-worlders, and Rosario, having lived more than half of her life among those not of her own species, was used to it. "I get told that a lot. But I know absolutely nobody", she said with a twinkle in her eye, and more light-heartedly again. Then suddenly she was perfectly earnest: "That can be changed, though."

"Well, there's a good place not far from here", interjected Valen, who had not let go of Rosario's hand, resigned to the development. "Good music, comfy corners - just what you need." By way of reassurance, he added: "They know it, obviously, so no-one bothers you. It's made for this."

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"Rosario? Hearing that name just gave me this big flashback but I'm not sure if we ever crossed paths before."

It had been a while since Deneba and the fall of the Jedi Order as they knew it so the slicer's memory had already supressed anything dating two years ago, especially with the passing of Jyn and Atefeh's abduction. Don't want and will never remember, that's for sure, better supress it with something else. Ar'ekk meant no ill with his commentary regarding she looked familiar even though all Zeltrons did and hoped she didn't take that at heart.

"As long as there's drink or a massage, I'm game." A grin finally surfaced on his face like per act of magic. "And good music. I don't mind."

His gaze dragged toward Valen who kept going on his monologue, a firm nod finding his way as soon as he stopped talking. The fallen Jedi turned slicer had no idea where to find entertainment in this planet so felt obliged to follow them two otherwise this trip would be really boring.

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[Rosario Perlyn]

Valen led them to a club of sorts a few block towards the better neighbourhoods. The place was quite dark inside, but there were moving neon-coloured lights and patterns on the walls. The music had a strong beat with ephemeral melodic elements that suggested the mystical. The arrangement of it was somewhat labyrinthine, lacking a wide open space anywhere, though people could be found dancing in smaller ones.

"Now what about that flashback my name gave you?" Rosario asked inquisitively.

Settling on a corner sofa, she ran her hand over the upholstery and found it pleasantly soft. Lolling, she rested her head comfortably on the backrest, but looked expectantly at her two companions. Valen stood in front of them and shielding them from view by others in the room and began to produce something from an unsuspected pocket inside the back of his jacket. He held them out in the palm of his hand. "One for each. Takes about half an hour till the effects start. After an hour, there's another one you shouldn't forget to take, helps with the hangover", he explained knowledgeably.

Rosario quickly grabbed one of the pills and swallowed it without hesitation, and without liquid. Its unexpected bitterness made her screw up her face. Then she looked at Arekk with an expectant smile.

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"I think I've seen you before. Not like you can forget a Zeltron... Weren't you in Deneba a few years back?"

Being inside the nightclub made him feel right at home, most nightclubs on Lithios offered a similar if not identical ambient that was most enjoyable with a cigarette and a glass of the finest brandy by his side. Hopefully this would also be the occasion, a good strong beverage to cope with the electronic music and the robotic people, but he knew that nothing could be so bad.

"Sweet." His cybernetic hand reached to take one of the pills from Valen's open palm, determined to swallow it and travel down the rabbit hole. "I just hope we don't end up in some dark alley withn nothing but our underwear."

The instructions were pretty straightforward and Ar'ekk acknowledged such with a firm nod, placing the pill on his tongue and swallowing it dry. He waited for the effects to kick in while laying back against the sofa and hoped it'd be an easy trip.

It had to be.

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[Rosario Perlyn]

"Eh, what of it if we do?" said Rosario and laughed merrily. "It's just clothes, and I'm not too attached to these."

The girls was lolling relaxedly on the sofa and briefly straightened up when she changed the topic. "I did actually live on Deneba a while ago. My first time in the desert... mountains, really."

"Deneba - isn't that some godforsaken place way south of here? Not much there except a bunch of nerf herders, I imagine."

"South-east of here, yes", Rosario continued, sinking into the sofa again and leaning her head against the backrest, looking up at the black ceiling. "You'd think I should have hated it, but there's a strange... tranquility about it. Except when you run into one of those bushes. The first time I saw one, this one fellow insisted on a demonstration: he threw a chicken into the bush and all that remained was a bunch of feathers. Kind of sad, really."

She turned her head to Arekk without moving any other part of her body. The way her neck was twisted seemed odd, but she showed no sign of discomfort.

"So what were you doing on Deneba? Where do you think we might have met?" she inquired curiously.

Her hand began to stroke the velvety upholstery, feeling its texture. Rosario frowned briefly as her attention latched on to this tactile sensation, then an amused and interested expression settled on her face. She began to realise that she almost never paid conscious attention to the way ordinary things felt to the touch and wondered why. She noticed that her palms were beginning to feel a bit sweaty while at the same time it seemed to be getting a bit chilly, which was odd.

[member=Arekk]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"I don't know." Ar'ekk snorted and laughed. "Could be an effect of what we just took."

The effects of the pill swallowed had begun to flourish in their entirety as his palms began to get slowly sweaty and his breathing ragged while the pupils of his eyes widened, clearly showing that he was under the influence of narcotics. Kicking back into the sofa to try and relax, the slicer only wished that this wouldn't be one of those awful trips where he'd end up seeing all sorts of twisted stuff.

"The Jedi Temple." The former Jedi turned netrunner remembered Rosario from those days though rather vaguely, after a couple of years all those memories began to turn fuzzy. "I lived there while training as one of them, long ago. But then had to move out due to some particular circumstances I cannot remember for the life of me. Maybe I'm wrong and correct me if that's the case..."

He started to feel slightly cold after ten minutes and combined the sweating it didn't help in keeping him relaxed, the effects of the drug were beginning to take its toll but he had to stay focused and instead enjoy whatever was coming next. Ar'ekk would be safe even though Rosario was experiencing the same thing as him though she was a little more comfortable than himself.

"It's been years."

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[Rosario Perlyn]

"Come on, not that many years", said Rosario, laughing. "Are you saying I'm old?"

She could feel the strain under which Arekk's mind found itself, a tinge of anxiety, and of worry about what might be happening to him. "It's going to be okay, don't worry", she said softly, taking his has and pressing it reassuringly. She noticed the texture of his skin in much more detail than she had earlier, and she began to explore the inside of his palm with her fingers.

Sprawling on the sofa between the two men, Rosario noticed waves of pleasant sensations, at first faint and then ever more powerful, flowing through her body, not entirely dissimilar, but still different, from effects she had experienced during meditation.

"Just look for some pleasant sensations. You remember what they teach about meditation? Find a pleasant sensation, nurture it, let it grow." She looked at Arekk earnestly, here words suddenly less flighty and facetious. She seemed genuinely concerned about his well-being. Her voice was full of warmth, and perhaps it was palpable through more than just her voice. Perhaps some hightened senses of another form were also being stimulated by a strong impression.

On her other side, Valen was reclining with his eyes closed. He seemed more composed, presumably in consequence of his greater experience, or maybe because the substance took longer to take effect on him. Rosario, suddenly concerned that he should not feel neglected, began to stroke his hair. He didn't move and merely smiled - but Rosario could feel the sizzling pleasure she was igniting. In this moment, it made her immensely happy to be the source of it.

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"Feels like ages to me." He countered with, grinning. "I never reconnected with people once everything went to hell."

Even though Rosario tried to calm his tormented mind it was pretty difficult to have any sort of positive effect on easing him up, it was something that Ar'ekk would have to try to do in his own terms to enjoy the effects of whatever drug they took. Quickly the sweatiness and quick breathing was replaced by a much more pleasant sensation that completely flooded his senses.

"Pretty hard to focus on doing that when you've cut yourself off from the Force after a considerate amount of time, Rosario. In fact, I don't remember half the things we were taught as Padawans."

The unease and uncomfortableness from before quickly dissipated as soon as the Zeltron girl began to speak again with a very warm tone, providing him with the tranquility to face whatever was to come with a much more relaxed mind. Thoughts were no longer rebellious and cloudy, hands ceased to be tense that they practically clawed themselves to the couch and instead his entire body felt a lot more loose than ten minutes ago.

"You're a lot younger than me. That I do remember."

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[Rosario Perlyn]

"What's the Force got to do with how your hand feels? It's not like only we can meditate." She was finally letting her guard down completely, oblivious to the fact that by acknowledging his words, and using the word we in this manner, she revealed the truth of what Arekk had alluded to earlier.

She seemed pensive for a moment when her attention was momentarily drawn to the music, which inexplicably seemed to have acquired a liveliness and intensity that she had not heard in it before. "Say, what's gone to hell? Aren't things rather nice overall?" She leaned over against Valen, resting her head on his shoulder, but twisting her neck in a curious way so she could still look at Arek. "I'm sure he agrees", she remarked, grinning. She strangely rubbed her cheek against the fabric of their companion's shirt. He reached up with his hand and began to caress her neck in a curiously innocent, positively child-like manner. The girl didn't seem to mind.

"You can't tell me you miss Deneba. But you miss something, so what is it? Why did you leave, anyway? I mean the Force - what's wrong with it?"

She briefly looked into the room, now more crowded, as she found more and more emotions popping up at the edge of her consciousness with a luminosity increasingly beyond what was normal. Images flashed in her mind, imagined by others, but visible to her, in a way that had never happened before, and she felt connected to the room in a way that seemed to increasingly blur the boundaries between individual minds. It was vaguely reminiscent of experiences she had meditating in the jungle of Ithor, which was so full of life. But this was different, for it was a matter of minds, of thoughts and feelings, more than just of life itself.

She looked back at Arekk, gently expectant. He was not yet a part of the sea of experiences she swam in, there was an inaccessible core. But perhaps he would yet dissolve.

[member="Arekk"]​

 

[Arekk]

Zeltros, Zeltros City, The Inner Rim​

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."
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[member="Rosario Perlyn"]​

"I think it's the spice talking." Ar'ekk released a nervous chuckle, dismissing the idea with a brief hand gesture. "Everything's gone to hell. You wouldn't understand."

Being this high and talking about the bad things in life made him feel more reluctant than before, even more when it's about personal matters. Something like that should be talked about in private and not when a bunch of people is eavesdropping on the conversation, strangers to not say the least.

"I can't tell you because it's a very personal thing. Maybe in the future, who knows? And the Force... I guess I've just stopped using it after Deneba and the order crumbled to pieces."

The answers to most of her questions were met with vague responses not because he felt that way, or maybe a little, but because of the effects that the spice had on his mind and body as if he was flying away into the deepest reaches of the galaxy and any thought was impossible to keep in his head, focusing became really difficult and Ar'ekk eventually began to drift away briefly due to the effects of the drug.

"This isn't as nice as I thought it was..."

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