Private So if I win, you buy me dinner right? (Duel)

[Darth Strosius]

The masked acolyte was silent for a few moments, one hand coming to rest on the chin of his mask as if he was in thought. He merely nodded in response to her offer, evidently still thinking. "I appreciate the offer, but no. Returning to Korriban would be little more than a failed mission I believe." Finally, Alisteri spoke up again.

"Korriban is no longer within our grasp, so any excursion there would risk capture or worse. Plus I know my master, she will contact me when the need arises; of that I am sure." He nodded, seeming to be trying to reassure himself just as much as he was Alina Tremiru . "Besides, I haven't learned much since I last met her, I doubt that she would pleased with such a lack of progress." He chuckled at the thought, although he did reach out to clasp onto his friend's shoulder for a moment. "....Thank you Alina. I...I appreciate the information."

"How about a little stroll around town before we head back to the academy? Walk off our dinner?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"It's not in the Jedi's grasp either. Neutral space. It wouldn't be as bad as you think to get there." Alina offered, but nodded. Darth Strosius knew his master better than she ever could, even if it turned out to be the woman she'd released. There was an odd look at the show of physical affection. Sure, they punched each other and such, but she just wasn't used to that level of kindness.

"Yeah, a walk sounds lovely."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Of course, Alisteri didn't know all that much of the situation involving Korriban, but that little bit of news didn't change his opinion. He knew his master, she would call to him again when the time was right. Right now though? He was preoccupied with the realization that Alina Tremiru didn't seem to get much positive feedback. That was going to have to change one of these days. "That it does."

So, rather than heading back towards the academy, the masked acolyte instead just kept walking alongside the street. He had no idea where he was going of course. "So tell me about your master then. I don't believe you've mentioned her all that much before."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina clasped her hands behind her back as she walked beside Darth Strosius , taking the moment to look around. See the city. It was getting later in the evening. There wasn't much light, due to how Dromund Kaas was with the sun, but there was night. And they'd reached night. The city made up for the growing darkness, lightning up the area around them. It was pretty, in it's own way. Distracting.

Too distracting. She blinked, glancing back to her masked friend. "Huh? I- Oh. Darth Arcanix is a.. Kind teacher. Kinder than what you'd expect from a Sith. But still strict. Hard. She gives nothing away and only tells you how to do something just enough to get you started. Then has you pick it up from there. It's.. Very intimidating. But I like her. I am grateful to have her as my teacher."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Dromund Kaas, whether it be in the city or out in the untamed wilds, was not a place that Alisteri had all that much experience with. He was more used to dryer areas with sparsely populated regions. This city didn't do much for him, but he supposed that it was a good reminder of the glory of the empire that he now called home. Still, he never understood why so many people lived in one place like this.

"To be fair," A small chuckle escaped him as looked back at Alina Tremiru , "I've never met a Sith that didn't intimidate me in one way or another. I think it just comes with the job." He smirked, but he wasn't completely joking. "Seriously though she sounds like a good master, I'm glad that you didn't get stuck with someone too strict. I know of some Sith that have a 'sink or swim' mentality and only that mentality."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Yeah, it's a.. Flawed mentality. That makes monsters like Vulcanus." He was likely the worst of all the monsters that had been made by this flaw of thinking. The Sith needed to change. Alina let out a sigh, turning her gaze down. She stopped on one of the bridges to lean against the railing, staring out to the city. "We have power. Strength. It's our duty to destroy the Empire's enemies and protect our citizens. Or at least, that's what it should be. The Sith have been destroyed time and time again because they were like Vulcanus."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri stiffened slightly at the mere mention of Vulcanus, a brief slideshow of memories that the name conjured flashing before his mind's eye before he recomposed himself. "Monster is not a title that does him justice." He was a bit relieved when Alina Tremiru continued, without any further mention of Vulcanus, himself leaning on the railing next to her and idly glancing over the city before them.

"I shall bow to your superior knowledge of Sith history. I can only really agree that we have a duty to the citizens of the Empire, so long as we do not forget that we are Sith." In truth, the masked acolyte had very mixed feelings on the 'the strong will survive' mentality, mostly due the fact that he wouldn't be counted amongst the strong.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

It was good to know her bad mouthing of a Sith Lord wasn't something she alone felt. A brief smile formed as she nodded in agreement with Darth Strosius 's assessment. Other Space Kaiden wasn't even worthy of the title of monster. "That is true. There is.. A balance to be found, I suppose. The strong rule, but it shouldn't be at the expense of the weak. It should be to their benefit." Alina closed her eyes, listening to the city around them. The rush of the ships above, the soft thrumming of music in distant clubs. The night life was in full swing now.

"It's why we should make each other strong."

 

[Darth Strosius]

His eye narrowed slightly, although he nodded silently in response. He was thinking carefully for a moment, choosing his words with care before he spoke. Finally, he did decide to speak up again. "Strength is a relative value, or so I've found. There is no true measurement of a value such as that, only measures of certain qualities or categories."

Alisteri paused, briefly realizing that he had been using his right hand to enunciate his point. Odd, that was new. "We are accepting of all who use the Dark Side, to an extent anyway, but the Sith still rein supreme. I have no problems with this myself, but I do think that the Force has many gifts and talents that Sith generally lack; whereas other users of the Dark Side do not lack those things. Perhaps expanding on our ideas of what it means to be SIth will allow us all to be stronger."

Alina Tremiru

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"Strength isn't physical. Or at least isn't just." There were a lot of things that made someone stronger, in Alina's eyes. She raised a brow curiously at his hand movements though. It was pretty new. ".. You're right. If we follow what is, we're just going to wither away. I'm not sure what to do though. It's.. There's so much to learn. Maybe that's what we should focus on. Learning."

She hung her head for a moment, eyes closed as she slapped the railing and stood back up. "But! That's not what we're doing tonight. You wanna drink? I could use a drink. Forget the galaxy for a bit." Alina flashed a grin to Darth Strosius . Already she was wondering just what it'd be like to see him drunk or something like it. "I've got a club we can go to, but you'll have to loose the Sith aesthetic. They don't let anyone in dressed like Sith. Don't want any hot heads thinking they're entitled."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri simply nodded in reply, his attention had shifted away from Alina Tremiru for the moment however. His gaze rested on his right hand, his left having moved to check it's connection to the rest of his arm and make sure that none of the joints had locked up in the hand proper. Everything felt fine, it just startled him that he had moved so naturally he supposed.

It wasn't like it was the first replacement he had after all.

"Huh?" He glanced back up at his friend, raising and eyebrow in confusion. "Oh a drink? You know I don't drink Alina." He shrugged, idly flexing the fingers on his right hand as he pushed off of the railing himself. His head snapped towards her at that last remark, almost looking insulted as he looked over his outfit. Although, he supposed it had been awhile since he had some sort of proper celebration. "....These are the only clothes that I own..."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"C'mon. You should drink. Who knows when we're going to be facing tomorrow. Better to live in the moment and prepare for the future, y'know?" She was all grins now to Darth Strosius as she looked him over. "We can easily find you somethin else to wear. Actually, y'know what? Lets do just that. Find you some street clothes and see how ya look when it's not all brooding and dark. What size are you?" She already hopped off, leading the way towards a couple of shops they could stop in to get him something or another.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri crossed his arms and sat back on his feet as he looked at Alina Tremiru skeptically. "I'll still pass. Besides, if we were both to drink, how would we ever get back to the academy?" He spoke with a slight smirk, he had no interest in such things himself but he knew that the other acolyte loved a good drink. "Brooding and-hey! I'll have you know that I dress like a proper Sith. Intimidating, presentable...okay maybe a bit dark..." The masked man reluctantly trailed after her, and he also began to reluctantly list off what sizes he wore. He knew better by now than to try and ignore or fully disagree with his friend.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Don't be such a buzzkill. We're Sith! Live a little." The fact Darth Strosius was actually going along with this was all the more reason for Alina to try and pressure him to do more. He'd drink something by the end of the night, for sure. At least if she had something to say about it. She'd head right towards the closest store and practically drag him into it, still grinning from ear to ear.

"What do you think works for you? You gotta have some idea on what you'd like to wear."

 

[Darth Strosius]

The masked acolyte merely rolled his eye in response, content to hold out against her pressuring. As long as Alina Tremiru had enough drinks, he could slip by her efforts to get him to join in. Unless she had become an angry drunk at some point, then he would be in a precarious situation. He sincerely hoped that she had not become an angry drunk, he was still sore.

"Something not too dissimilar to these I guess?" Alisteri idly fiddled with the edges of his clothing as he spoke, knowing better than to fight against her dragging him off somewhere. "Whatever you think would be best I suppose." He neglected to mention that he had never shopped for clothes before.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Not too dissimilar.." Alina scoffed before pulling out several various styles of outfits. Most as a joke, but the simple sets of street clothing anyone would wear, that was the real idea behind what she thought he should wear. Simple was best where she was planning to take Darth Strosius . Didn't mean she didn't want to see if she could get him into something else, though.

"Here, go try these on. Make sure they fit. We'll buy which ever you hate the least, yeah?" The smirk was back in force as she motioned her head towards the changing rooms. "Don't keep me waiting too long either, or I'll go in and dress you myself."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri did his best to look like he knew what he was doing as he glanced over the various outfits Alina Tremiru was picking out. In truth he was more so dazed by the sheer amount of various options in the store. Did people really need all these different outfits and options? It seemed a bit excessive in his opinion. At least he would be able to find something that he liked.

"Ah...right..." He nodded, reluctantly taking several of the outfits from her. A small scoff left him at that last remark, but he was quick to head into the changing rooms regardless. Thankfully there were a couple of unoccupied rooms so he didn't have to wait.

After a couple of minutes, the acolyte finally emerged from the changing room. The first noticeable thing was that he was still wearing his mask, even though it clearly stood out from the rest of his outfit. He had dressed fairly casually, but he still had a long sleeved and hooded top with pants. All in black and greys of course. They were about the same as what he usually wore, they just didn't look as Sith-like as his usual attire.

"I think I got it."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Being alone for those couple of minutes had her feeling far more bored than she'd like. Or was it just lonely? She took a seat as he went about trying on clothing. Alina was at least patient, but she didn't want to sit around. Especially not alone. Crazy just how annoying those feelings were for her. She let out a sigh. These weren't exactly feelings she could share, even with Darth Strosius .

Him stepping back out brought a smile to her lips, and a laugh. "Really? Even the helmet?" She shook her head, still laughing under her breath as she hopped back up to her feet. "C'mon. I'll pay, then we should get going. I really want to see you drink."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri let out a small sigh of relief at her reaction, quickly dipping back into the changing room to grab what he had left in there. He wasn't about to admit that it took him the better part of a minute to figure out what half of those clothes were, he was far too prideful.

"Still not drinking." He reminded Alina Tremiru with a small smile of his own. She was certainly persistent, but that was nothing new. The masked acolyte was determined to hold out however, if only so that he could have something to hold over her at a later date. He had to have some form of bragging points going after all. Thankfully it didn't take too long for the clothes to be purchased.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"You will." She spoke pretty firmly on that, but at least she was smiling. Clothes purchased and a nearly normal looking Darth Strosius in tow Alina went right to the bar in mind. Club bar, sort of thing. It was busy around this time of night, but Alina walked right in like she owned the blasted place. More than that, she took Alisteri by the arm and forcibly dragged him along. The bouncer didn't even question it, seeming to recognize the blonde on her way in. She laughed a bit once they were inside, much happier than before.

"Drinks first! Then we dance!"