Of the Naval College at Anaxes, Perris had but one feeling: familiarity, though it had been a number of years since he had last set foot in it before recent events necessitated the move of the capital to this world. Over the course of his career, interspersed with his ever-increasing duties, with the destruction of Rhommamool and Osarian and therefore the loss of his wife and son, with the increasingly losing fight over being plucked from the cockpit as his primary place of work, Perris had done a stint or two as a guest lecturer, here, and in many other places where future generations of fighter pilots sought to learn to be the best in service to the Republic.
He still flew, but as the chief of Starfighter Command (a post to which he was assigned, but not yet accorded rank - the last guy had been a Commander, how
hard it was for them to stop sitting around with their thumbs up their collective arses, he did not know), there was much that kept him away from it, making space for younger, and
eventually better pilots. At thirty-two, he could still out-stick them, but his discerning mind and eye were much more valued by the higher-ups... such as they were. He was effectively plucked with little notice, many of the men and women that served in the positions of command prior to the fall of Coruscant perishing there in the battle for it. It made him grumpy, which made the Alderaanian more stubborn than usual, but all of it got swallowed in the face of so much loss. Even he had lost friends, and it stung no less than when Elsie and Ori were ripped from the land of the living, but the deaths of his compatriots would be more easily weathered, if anything. It was simply a fact of life in the Republic Forces that the threat of death was inherently higher, statistically more considerable than average civilian life.
No matter what he might say otherwise about
that. Setting the stormy thoughts aside, he slipped softly into conference room, his eyes first landing on Alarice Mollari, the very woman that had a hand in pulling him out of the cockpit, offering her little more than a polite, respectful nod, and a thin, tight-lipped smile before turning his attention to the few others he recognized. Firstly, Ayumi Pallopides...
"Senator," he said softly as he passed her chair, offering the woman a curt nod, then to Valara Tiall...
"Tiall," he said, the moderate depth of his voice carrying a shade more warmth than it had for the senator, then...
...blue eyes came finally to Ruuku Hollis, and the thin smile wavered, before affirming into a small grin. Few things could pull such an expression onto the face of Perris, as of late, but an old, familiar face could do it.
"Hollis..."
Perris rounded the table to take up a seat on the other side of the older man, one that had been integral to his growth as an officer, and settling in, smoothing out the trousers of what was still the uniform that marked him as not only a fighter pilot but a member of a specific
squadron and battle group (facts that were very recently changed from entirely true to mostly untrue) before leaning in and dropping his voice to a non-inclusive whisper.
"...how's the wife?"
This was one of the few still around from his years as a pilot fresh out of the academy, one of the few of that era still among the living to whom he could still truly respect, knowing the man behind the rumours that he did not give one chit about. There was the fair share of rumours about him, as well (celebrity, indeed...), which he ignored as well as any thoughts about them as his ear went to the words of Admiral Mollari. The small grin dissipated, leaving the thin smile of before behind, once again.
"Admiral..." he began, shifting to sit up more straight-backed in the reasonably comfortable chair to look across Hollis to her on the other side of the old man,
"...not to chastise you, as that is far from my intent, but you and I both well know from our respective careers in the command of men and women that establishing rapport will go a long way to making this entire process go a lot smoother. We have all suffered losses in the war with the One Sith. Our reasons for being here are far from comfortable or kind."
He turned his head to look on the unfamiliar Confederate woman before Mollari could answer, not that an answer was necessary (he would chat about it with her
later if she deemed it necessary) -
"Viceroy, I would be interested to hear what you have to say."
[member="Alarice Mollari"] | [member="Ayumi Pallopides"] | [member="Ruuku Hollis"] | [member="Sophia Walsh"] | [member="Gar'Hal Velasura"] | [member="Valara Tiall "]| [member="Atticus Savar"]
