Private Soup

[Mercy]

TASH-TARAL
Avalore
​

Mercy felt good.

Better than good.

That soup had been great. Well, no, it had been pretty disgusting... at first. The more she ate from it, the tastier it became though. This was probably concerning. But for the first time since that dark night on the tree-infested moon? Mercy felt peaceful. Relatively speaking for her anyway. Kinda peckish, but that wasn't a strange feeling for her. The amount of food she went through daily would put most body builders to shame.

"Got the boon, check. Got the drugs, check." Mercy muttered to herself as she strode back towards the starport and her ship.

All in all today had been good.

No evil flesh-eating trees in sight (or mind) and the job was well done. Her employer would be helpful, so that would mean more cash on her account. It didn't take long before she noticed something peculiar in front of her though.

A little lady.

Dragging a... corpse? Now, in Tash-Taral that wasn't so odd, except perhaps for the girl's age. She couldn't be that old. "You know, a good ol' fireman carry will make that way easier." Said without giving it another thought. Two more steps and she was walking alongside Avalore. The fact that a fireman carry would probably bury the girl in undead goo and maybe send her flying into the ground didn't seem to come to Mercy's mind.


"Where ya also dropping by that ol' warthog fella? Cool chit, no? Though fancy having a whole corpse to give over to him. I only had a limb."

Thinking about that.

"I am not sure I could handle a whole keg of evil-tree-soup honestly." Shrugging there lightly. "So, what power did you get?"

As always Mercy didn't realize it when she was about to step on a live mine.

 

[Avalore]

Avalore rolled her eyes. It wasn't the sudden intrusion that bothered her, but the words itself.

"That chit isn't real. You can't just drink power. Not without side affects, anyway," she grumbled recalling with acute accuracy the day Ashin injected the ability to read into her mind.

The strength she had found herself empowered with on the cliff face was fading from her finger tips. Everything burned, and no longer in a pleasant way. She turned and grabbed the ankle with both hands, taking backward steps as she dragged it.

"He lied to you."

 

[Mercy]

Avalore

A glance to the side there.

"Yeah, side effects. I feel karking hungry, he got that part right." Mercy yawned without seeming very disturbed at her words. One other thing she didn't do was offer the girl assistance.

Mostly because she didn't want to offer assistance. Lazy et all. But also, she could smell the Darkside off of her. This proximity even a blunt tool like Mercy could sense enough to figure that part out. In that capacity... burdens were placed on shoulders to make them stronger. Her shoulders were magnificent already.

Avalore's?

Could do with some work still.

"So, what did he offer you then, that you so lightly assume a Master of the Darkside was casually bartering lies for UCs?" Usually Mercy wasn't in the business of repeating herself or asking a question a second time.

But she was curious what crawled up her arse.

 

[Avalore]

Avalore's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, her head turning back in the direction of the stall.

"Master of the Darkside," she repeated, skeptical. "Right. Because a master of anything sits at chit stall in the middle of nothing selling fancies." Was that... elitism in her voice?

Very much so.

Avalore had pulled from nothing-- the poorest of the undeveloped tribes in planet whose jungle she didn't even think had a name. Ashin had lifted her up into a world of resources and, though Avalore hated to admit it, adventure. Why would anyone with that potential spend their time like this?

"He didn't offer me anything. He told me to drink and I did. Nothing happened, nor should it. It's a conn," she insisted, continuing her slow but steady shuffle back. She didn't seem bothered by the lack of help. She was use to the expectation that she keep up or fall off.

"Have you considered you're just hungry 'cause you're big?" She looked up at Mercy, unflinching and unapologetic in the statement.

Mercy was big.

 

[Mercy]

A snort.

"As opposed to what, frolicing on same fancy pleasure yacht? Chilling in a remote palace?" Mercy shook her head there. Why was it that everyone was so obsessed with looks. Damn appearances that seemed to inform their opinions more than actual knowledge did. "Power doesn't give a shite about what you look like, where ya are or what ya do. It is or is not."

That being said.

The fact that they were all obsessed with appearances? Worked out fine for Mercy. Everyone assumed she was just a stupid lowly wall of meat. Okay, so maybe Mercy was a bit dim, but most certainly not lowly.

"Ya seem very evasive on what the drink ought to have done." Mercy pointed out, but didn't ask a third time. The conversation was already starting to bore her. Then again this one was just a kid. Kids were always kind of boring, which was why she had left the palace in the first place. Well. More like fourth or fifth place.

But getting knocked up to carry a bunch of sniveling heirs had always seemed beneath her.

She stretched lightly however when the subject of her stature got brought up. "True. I am big." The stretch was clearly for Avalore 's benefit. Rolling muscles and showing off ever so slightly.

"But I know hunger... and I know hunger." She tapped her stomach. "This is something else. Besides-" A smirk there.

"I know it worked, cause I can feel the new power. Maybe you just weren't powerful enough to benefit from it." The remark casually flung in Avalore's face like it was nothing.

Didn't say what it was though.

Just smirked.

 

[Avalore]

Avalore stopped short, the casual remark as it were earning a tick of her head and a long, cold look. She had learn quick and early not to pick fights she couldn't win, but that didn't stop the new urge for her to try.

Her finger tips tingled with the power of earlier. It hadn't drifted far, and Mercy might recognize the hard look of someone on a precipice if there ever was one.

"Why," she clipped, her voice deadly. "Because I'm small?" A wild dog stepped out from between the stalls, its hackles raised as it growled.

It was only looking at Mercy.

 

[Mercy]

A bemused expression cast over her shoulder.

Sizing up Avalore up and then down.

"Easy, little buck, I don't discriminate whose head I cave in." One warning was all she gave. Adult or kid, they died all the same, and Mercy never did understand why some people made a point of it. Put a weapon in a kid's hand and they could slaughter with the best of them. On the other hand some adults were as meek as lambs.

"Mostly cus' ya young." Following that up relaxed. It didn't seem like spite. Just a statement of fact. "Size dun' matter. I have seen little trained folks demolish big 'uns every so often."

Not that often.

But hey, maybe it would make her feel better.

"If ya gonna do something, it be the time for it." As Mercy stretched again, but this time it wasn't show to a trained eye. It was the subtle shifting of a tectonic plate readying itself to move into a dangerous position.

 

[Avalore]

A tense silence stretched as she considered the woman. It all dispersed with a huff as she resumed her shuffles.

"Yeah it does, especially when someone's punchin' you in." The dour edge to her words made it clear that she was speaking from experience. She gave the corpse a solid tug and was pleased to discover she could move it with less strain now. She focused a bit more on that power at her fingers, making it a point to redirect it to the muscles that barely stood out along her shoulders.

The mutt growled but otherwise let Mercy pass.

"And I'm not being evasive," she shot back, putting emphasis to the big word she had learned from books. "He said nothing and I feel nothing. ...'spect maybe nauseous. He gave you soup?"


"Asshat."

 

[Mercy]

Avalore

She eyed the mutt over the rims of her shades.

Then growled in return and it reverberated not just through the air, but in the Force itself. Before Avalore could ask- "It's an animal thing..." Murmured warmly as she watched the dog flee back into the alleys.

"He said nothing? And you didn't ask what it would do, before you swallowed liquid given by a strange tusked sentient in the market?" Who was the real idiot? Mercy was as dim as a brick wall, but even she saw some concerning stuff about just accepting a drink from a stranger. Drinking it without asking what it would do.

And then be upset about it not doing anything at all.

Mercy just laughed there. And for all the ugliness of her demeanor, that laugh was beautiful. Light and chiming like a bell rather than the aesthetic of the burly angry tree.

"But, yes. Soup. Chowder I suppose, if we are being strict with definitions."

Her boot lazily hit a loose rock on the ground as they walked. It embedded itself in a wall nearby as they strode past it.

"I offered a piece of a Drengir. If you don't know what that is - think big fething ugly tree, sentient, Darkside, eats meat. He turned it into chowder, told me if I ate it, I'd be able to sense them and tap into their hive-mind." She glanced around. meatmeatmeatmeat. Then frowned when nothing was there in the shadows before shrugging.

"Anyway. I can feel their presence even now. Just feint. They won't ever surprise me again."

Paused beat.

"So, you offered him the head of that corpse, I am guessing?" Since it was the main thing missing from what she was dragging.

 

[Avalore]

"I know what Drengir is," she cut in defensively, but otherwise let the woman explain. Maybe it was a little stupid to drink without asking. Avalore had just been so preoccupied with proving he was a fake. Maybe he had gotten the last hit in after all.

The urge to vomit grew a little more, and she might have, if Mercy's next words hadn't sparked her interest.

"Wait. You can sense them? You know where they are? Are they nearby?" She cut off, insistent and even a little tense. She and her master had been running from them for months. This might have been no real issue if not for that fact that more than a few times, the Dengir had managed to catch them unawares.

Every stop they made was a risk, including this one.

Mercy

 

[Mercy]

Avalore

"Oh, do ya know?" Amused expression. "Well, I didn't and they karked me from one side of this arsehole moon to the other."

The same moon that Avalore's master had been on, in fact.

The same master Ashin Cardé Varanin who had rescued her arse with some opportune sniper rifle fire. They didn't know this illusive connection between one another. Neither did they know that there was a little droid (sniper model) humming on her ship, which belonged to Ashin and who had lost it on that forest moon.

She was still lost in those dark memories when her question brought her back.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, yeah. I can sense 'em alright." Nearby? Mercy looked around. meatmeatmeatmeat. Damn, that was gonna be annoying. "Nope. Not on this world at all, in fact. Hell, if they were here, I'd be karking running and not trundling so you can keep pace with me."

"So anyway. Aren't ya a bit young to fly solo? Or do you have a Master somewhere hiding around here?"

Again it wasn't an insult.

It was just so blunt and without diplomacy there was few other ways to take it.

 

[Avalore]

...Huh. Right. Avalore questioned the validity of the woman's claims. Maybe she was just another crazy looking for an in. She felt it awfully convenient that Mercy got a power that would benefit her master, when she knew that man was nothing but a peddler.

"Hiding? She's right there." Avalore gestured her chin to the massive, square ship, docked for refueling in the ship yard. The floating academy didn't spend all its time in the sky. More than not lately, it needed repairs.

Damn Drengir.

Avalore stopped and wiped the drying blood from her eye, a few attempts made to look a less disheveled than she was. It did little to hide the heap she had gotten in. She sighed and started the last half a mile back to home.

"She pays well for help with Dengir," was all she said, an offer hidden inside the statement. "That is, if you can really feel them."

A half smile parted her cracked lips. It was hard to tell if she was eager, or teasing.

Mercy

 

[Mercy]

She blinked and looked up and kept looking.

Then whistled low.

"Kark me, that's one fething ship, alright." Mercy said with an impressed tone. Her own ship could probably fit like fifty times in it if not more. It also made her a bit more weary now. One thing to be chatting up a little 'un that was on her way to Knight and then Lordship. Another to actually be interacting with a Lord of the Sith.

Especially since...

Well, her own bounty.

If this was someone from the Olden Days of the Sith Empire? Could spell a whole lot of trouble for Mercy. It was a shame that she wasn't exactly good at being subtle.

"If that's her ship, yar Master must be real impressive. Who is she?"

If it was someone from Zambrano's Empire, she was outta here real fast.

Avalore

 

[Avalore]

Avalore grinned a little more, soaking up the woman's reaction.

" Ashin Cardé Varanin ."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

A voice behind the both of them, cool and amused—

" Ashin Cardé Varanin ."

"Can I help you?"

What was the point of being a Dark Lord of the Sith if you couldn't partake in a nice jump scare once in a while?

 

[Mercy]

Avalore Ashin Cardé Varanin

Avalore's name-drop might have inspired an immediate surge of relief followed by only slightly delayed shock, but that was nothing compared to hearing that voice cut into their conversation.

Her back immediately straightened out as if an iron rod shoved itself into her spine.

Which self-respecting Sith to be hadn't listened to Ashin's voice over the years? A Dark Lord who had shook the foundations of the first Sith Empire after the gulag plague. Who had betrayed one Emperor, used another as a figurehead and finally left to forge a new nation that covered most of the Unknown Regions at one point.

Any girl with more brawn than wit, a proclivity to the Darkside and raised under the aegis of the Sith would have aspired to similar greatness.

"Master," Mercy turned carefully and bowed.

It was rather comical to see the walking talking boulder bow and behave all so respectful. "It is an honor to meet you." It was kinda like meeting your own personal hero. But said hero always felt more like a comic book figure than someone actually alive, so it was like meeting Terentatek-Man in the flesh.

"Your... apprentice-" A brief glance towards the small girl beside her before it went back to Ashin. "-mentioned you have a particular interest in Drengir and those who can help against them?"

Asking for pay came natural to someone as self-involved as Mercy.

But right now it wasn't coin that was being thought of.

 

[Avalore]

Avalore's delighted titters cut through the backdrop. Of course she said nothing, turning to face her master with gleam of anticipation. She was having fun.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

The moment escalated from chance encounter to mild interest.

"You're familiar with fighting the Drengir?" Ashin gave the bigger woman a once-over. Serious muscle, physical confidence, the occasional scar peeking out. Yes, Ashin could imagine her living to tell about a Drengir encounter. Maybe even by standing to fight.

"Who's your new friend, Avalore?"


Mercy Avalore

 

[Mercy]

Avalore Ashin Cardé Varanin

"The new friend can speak for herself." Mercy said while setting her jaw and momentarily forgetting who she was speaking to. A lagging moment later she realized once again, looked a little bit chastised, but only a little. "But I am. I fought them on Abherin."

Which coincidentally was the same world Ashin fought them. And also where Ashin saved Mercy's life, even if neither of them realized that just yet.

"I took a limb from them too." Which had been a whole pain in the arse to do. "And had it turned into a soup."

meatmeattastymeatmeat

Her eyes glassed over slightly behind the shades, before she shook her head. "Anyway, I got a pretty good sense of where they are at any moment, if they are close-by."

 

[Avalore]

The corpse thumped to her feet with a small squelch and she flexed her fingers for relief. With a small shake of her head, she smiled knowingly up at Ashin.

You don't get powers from soup.

Ashin Cardé Varanin Mercy