No Heart

[Arekk]

Ethos City, Lithios, The Meissa System
"I felt the rise of that old familiar feeling. I hated it. I welcomed it."
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[member="Amea Virou"]

"Hrssh! This feels so different it makes me all fuzzy."

The sudden change from freezing cold to tropical warm was an amazing sensation for the first few seconds until your body began experiencing all sorts of feelings while it adjusted to the current weather. Batuu's sunny horizon with its marvellous beaches and the crystaline clear water was worth the long trip.

As he was ushered out of the door by Amea, Arekk removed his leather jacket to avoid dying because of the heatwave and to enjoy the summer breeze that felt like angels themselves were blowing wind on your face. His eyes scanned the sorroundings as if he had touched down on the strangest land seen in the galaxy, which it was the case in a way since he hadn't been here before.

"Emphasis on technically. I've only heard about this place, never visited it." The fallen Jedi pointed at what seemed to be the hotel's fancy entrance which had a very tropical/island-like decoration. "How about we check-in?"

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[Amea Virou]

It was funny how fast a change of scenery could also change the way someone felt. The second Amea stepped out and felt the warmth and smell of sea salt she could almost close her eyes and whisk herself back home again. In the end it wasn’t so much that she missed home as much as the association it brought to her. As her eyes slowly opened to look upon the beaches around her. Instinctively she grasped at her jacket and pulled it off of her shoulder to fold it over her arm. The sunshine on her bare arms made the small cuts and scars that had spread over her arms and shoulders over time all the more obvious and for a second she considered throwing the jacket back on. Had it not been for the drastic change of heat, maybe she would have as well.

“That still leaves you at an advantage.” Amea chuckled at the man’s remark. Local or not he still held the reservation for them. She was along for the ride here. “So, where are we staying?”

She walked by his side and took in the sights. People seemed to take in as much of the sun as they could. In the distance a set of trained lifeguards seemed to be working on a man with sunstroke, on the other end of the beach was a bar covered in a little rickety thatch roof that somehow managed to look more expensive than what she could afford. All around the sound of music seemed to play, most of it calm and almost tacky in its gentleness.

Glancing over at the building up ahead, one Amea could assume was the hotel, she was struck with the one realization.

“Wait a minute.” She perked her brow at the man. “We’re not sharing the same room, right?”

[member="Arekk"]

 

[Arekk]

Ethos City, Lithios, The Meissa System
"I felt the rise of that old familiar feeling. I hated it. I welcomed it."
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[member="Amea Virou"]

"No." He commented rather quickly without hesitation, a friendly smile adorning his face. "Unless you want to."

The sound of the waves hitting the shore and the marine breeze hitting his face were feelings that he had sorely missed since he set foot in his beach house over at Glee Anselm. If there was ever a paradise to be in it would be there, a place to escape that wasn't rainy and dark like Ethos City.

Credits weren't an issue if that continued to be Amea's concern, sharing a room or buying two separate suites wasn't an issue for Arekk himself. After all he was the one behind the whole vacations idea, right? She was free to make her choice, the one that made her feel comfortable and he wouldn't push it.

"Plenty to see and do in here, you'll love the view on these apartments." The man's index pointed at the top part of the hotel where the balconies had a prime view of the sunny horizon. "There's the desk, come on."

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[Amea Virou]

“Yeah, well, neighbors or something maybe.” She chuckled. “Unless they have one of those… Two for one type of deals. You know where there are two rooms and a shared kitchen.”

She wasn’t opposed to sharing that. Kitchens were a widely different thing and the most efficient way to save yourself the money on food. Of course there were no luxury steaks cooked to perfection but she had always had people around her to cook whenever she didn’t want to, and in the end Amea wasn’t a half-bad cook. She just didn’t want others to find out about it. It usually meant she would be put on an eternal cooking list, and truth told that sounded like just about the most dreadfully boring existence she could think of.

“I guess those are just called houses or apartments, now that I think about it.”

As the wind blew there was a lightness to it. The sound of waves, the sound of people enjoying their day and workers who did not. She was not really one to enjoy these, but given the situation she would try to let her insecurities on the matter rest. She gave Arekk a quick glance to gauge his opinion on all this. All things considered she didn’t know too much about him other than he was a good enough person with an absurdly deep wallet. In that regard he reminded her of some other friends who had more money than they knew how to spend, but she rarely heard from them anymore. It came with the jobs and lives she held.

“Huh.” She tsked as the approached the desk. “Well, they are certainly… Cheap.”

It was hard to even chuckle at that. The prices were enough for her to start measuring the value of her own kidneys if she had to. Not that she ever would have to, but hey, thought experiments and what-not.

“Room 34, floor 25. View of the ocean.” She changed page in the catalogue of the rooms. “Or there’s Room 42 on floor 28 with a view of the jungle and the mountains.”

“I mean, I like both.” Amea said and leaned against the desk looking at Arekk. “Your choice.”

 

[Arekk]

Ethos City, Lithios, The Meissa System
"I felt the rise of that old familiar feeling. I hated it. I welcomed it."
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[member="Amea Virou"]

"That's a much better idea. I like it." The desk's bell rang as Arekk kept pressing on it, awaiting for someone's arrival to help them. "Apartments, yeah."

Fat pockets and a good soul was a pretty decent summary of who the fallen Jedi was, besides sounding like your average stereotype in this chaotic galaxy. It wasn't his intention but all that money left from his days as a Smuggler Moon's crime lord was too much to let go or give away to someone else that wasn't his beloved Jyn and little Atefeh. That was cut short of course and Arekk was left with nothing but cash and sadness.

"Oh, yeah. Very cheap, huh?" He mused while looking at the prices shown in a compact digital triptych that showcased all the available rooms that ranged from the 'cheapest' to the most luxurious one. The prices were exorbitant, of course, not for your average person. "You could buy a place in goddamn Coruscant with this money for all I know."

He erupted in laughter briefly before refocusing on the desk, eyes laying on a hologram of a female Twi'lek that apparently was nothing but a visual interface that interacted with clients almost like a human counterpart. Its voice sounded natural but it still presented some robotic influxes, seems like real contact had faded over the years now.

"You know me, Amea. The view of the ocean in the morning, while having a coffee? Sign me up." Arekk said with a big grin while swiping an identification chip over a digital interface, checking-in positively for their reservation. "There we go."

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[Amea Virou]

[member="Arekk"]

Well that settled it then. A view of the ocean and with a room each. Amea threw her jacket over her shoulder and observed the holographic twi’lek for another second before she followed Arekk towards the elevator. Her nerves didn’t want to unwind at this point, something stopped her and she couldn’t quite figure what it was. Maybe it was an underlying worry that in some way the calm she sought would be stripped away again. It had been the last three times she tried, and so far there was no proof that it wouldn’t be.

She looked at the advertisements on the side of the panel of the elevator.

“They really like to sell their beaches.” She snickered. “More of a city tourist myself.”

And the less time Amea spent with an exposed back the better. The scars that riddled her back from a lifestyle of action and near-certain death didn’t leave much in the way of perfect skin. Even now her uncovered arms seemed to be a playground for scratch marks. They weren’t deep, and most of them seemed to be fairly recent, but every now and then depending on how closely you looked there would be a scar deeper than the rest of them. She hadn’t gotten treatment for those yet, couldn’t be bothered.

As the doors opened up they were lead straight into a small hallway with four doors. Picking out theirs was not particularly difficult, and once they were inside it was evident just exactly how much money had gone into making this place what it was. An ultramodern style matched with hyper-classic, neo-Imperial details made it seem obtusely intensive in its anti-povo message. To some extent Amea could even feel bad about it. She was not the one paying, at least not with money, and it made it seem all the more outlandish to her.

At least the sound of the waves crashing against the shore was nice.

“That’s… A view.” Amea said and tried to push her conscience aside. “Reminds me of home.”

 

[Arekk]

Ethos City, Lithios, The Meissa System
"I felt the rise of that old familiar feeling. I hated it. I welcomed it."
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[member="Amea Virou"]

"They do a fething good job at it too. We're lucky that I made reservations with time, it seems the hotel is sold out for this season." He snickered at Amea's comment of being a city tourist as he was one too. However, leaving Lithios behind was a welcoming sensation albeit temporarily. "It doesn't hurt coming to the beach every now and then to get away from the massive skyscrapers and the incessant rain."

Amea wasn't the only one that carried a museum of war/fight stories on their back because Arekk's was adorned if more than hers with cuts, gunshot wounds and who knows what else. The pain they had endured over the years hopefully would pay off at the end of everything because otherwise what's worth fighting another man's fight without a prize? She wouldn't have to worry and neither should he.

"Your homeworld had beaches? That's nice." His tone was strange, somewhat appreciative yet a little jealous compared to his own experience living in Coruscant's underbelly. "I'm just glad that we can enjoy this together. A nice thing for a change for once, tranquility for one's mind. Nobody can take this from us."

Peace at last.

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[Amea Virou]

[member="Arekk"]

That smell of sea salt was a stark contrast to the smell of rainwater and refuse. The corruption was undoubtedly still there and the massive inequity between rich and poor even more in your nose than it was on Lithos, but at least for the time being Amea wasn’t on either side of the spectrum. Technically, at least. She lived off of someone else, someone who leaned one way over the other. Stepping onto the balcony she leaned against the railing and looked out over the ocean.

“Well, you say that, but…” She grinned and looked over at Arekk. “It’s when you feel safe that you’re the most vulnerable.”

She shot a finger gun at the man and bent her thumb over the top of her index finger before she looked back out towards the ocean again. The breezes calmed her somewhat. A feeling of wary shot out towards Arekk, unwarranted, but present as if she couldn’t quite let her guard down.

“Enough time in this line of business and you just kind of come to expect to be attacked by everyone and anyone.” She said with another soft chuckle. “Touch the wrong scrap heap, join the wrong excavation…”

She shook her head.

“But we were thinking of happier things.” She said, at the very least. “Not sure what there is to do here. Do they have any sort of tourist traps around here? Shady streets we can jump people in? Maybe score a line of spice.”

Her glance shot out at Arekk and with the crook of her head she opened her mouth to speak.

“... Scratch the last two, those were a joke. Bad family history with spice.”