Private This Tab Comes With Interest

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain (middle rank)​

"Jengu, for a medical droid, your bedside manner is atrocious."

A small silver haired woman in charcoal fatigues like Penny came up between the pair from behind, reaching out to slightly nudge the much taller droid on the chestplate. The droid lowered its large green orb to the soft impact point of her fist, then drew up to her face. All the while, it kept refocusing the receptor as if he couldn't quite track her.

"I am a pararescue model..." he reminded her. "our social suite isn't quite as robust as base models."

Armored "pararescue" medical droids like these were deployed to the front lines, capable of bringing relief or pain depending on the situation, utilizing their extensive databanks of physiology of countless species. Made to operate in the heat of battle, they weren't exactly known for their conversational skills. Naturally, the Lord Commander preferred the medical stiffs.

"I'll take it from here, LC sent me to pick her up,"

"But the diagn---"

"Voice Authorization Sitra Herf Nen Isk Cresh." Jengu's eyes flickered a few times in recognition of the override. "If her previous diagnostics from the past hour checked out, then I'll take her off your hands. We know where to come when she gets in trouble again."

Since Penny's lightning quick return to medbay, she had been the talk of the day, giving even more reason for people to gawk at her.

"Hrrmmmm...very well." Jengu was hardwired to accept her override, but he didn't have to like it.

Truly she was a devil.

The woman gave him a little clap as he stomped off, then spun on a heel toward his former charge.

"Poor guy, can't help his programming. He cares almost too much...anyway you'll have no such concern with me." she beamed, offering a hand. "Captain Araluen, at your service. I overheard there was food." She looked over Penny's shoulders, her grey eyes transfixed on the back of Jengu as her nostrils visibly flared. "Mmm yes...it's stroganoff night! Why don't we take this party out in the lobby away from all the moaning and dying, yeah?"

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

The exchange between dutiful tank-nurse and the new silver-hair woman was watched with more enthusiasm than it appeared. On the outside, their frequent-flyer of a patient merely looked tired and uninterested. Like someone who wanted just crawl into a blanket and pillow fort and hibernate, with a big ol' Do Not Disturb sign in front of the password-protected fort flap. On the inside, she was both amused and relieved.

Taking the woman's hand, Penny shook it gently. "Penny...and it is a pleasure." She said with a smile that was sly, but tame in comparison to what she was (would be) known for. It was no lie. If the helpful Captain did intend to see her out of the medbay, and to wherever the food was, she would be her new best friend. Until she needed to crawl off to sleep, at least. Then, no one but the blanket fort would be her friend.

"Yeah....I'd say I've experienced enough misery and death for one lifetime." And there was still so much left to go. "Lead the way, Captain. I'll follow you almost anywhere. I'm sure the medical team is as tired of me as I am of the medbay, by now. I'll give them a break for...at least a couple days, maybe." Let's hope much longer than that, but she wasn't off to a very good start.

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain​

Cherith's smiled widened as Penny greeted her, her wide mouth seemingly too large for an otherwise delicate face.

"Don't say that you don't even know me!" she chortled, shaking vigorously to the point that she had the other woman's arm flailing. If Jengu was human he may have had a heart attack seeing the woman's nonchalant handling of his patient. Then she just let Penny's hand slip out of her hand like falling water.

"I could be a monster or something worse...like your direct reporting officer."

"The medical team?" she repeated as she led Penny off to the lobby. "They're hardly annoyed I think. To be honest, you're quite the source of entertainment. I think they have pools running to see how soon you wind up back here again. I'm sure you'll mind your hands though now, ha ha."

She giggled some more at Penny's desire to be away from the goresome scene of the intensive care ward.

"If the afterbits of combat bother you, then why not give it up?" she inquired, eyes flickering over the other woman's lightsaber hilt. "Find a nice little pleasure planet in the Core to retire. Use those fancy Force powers for party tricks."

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

The gentle grip she offered the woman turned into an overly enthusiastic shake that was borderline aggressive. Penny's arm flailed, and then flopped to her side upon its abrupt release. So much for sparing the small woman. She damn near popped her arm out of her socket. Still, Penny's smile didn't waver. While she focused a little more closely on the Captain, noting how...off...she seemed to be, she couldn't quite place what was going on with her.

Blame it on nearly dying--twice. The Forcer was tired and not as perceptive as she would be, in healthier circumstances

Her mouth is freakishly...large, though... No, that's rude. Don't be rude. What if she is your officer?

These thoughts trickled through her mind like ethereal bubbles floating in the breeze, and then popped out of existence. No, she simply did not have the focus to do proper investigating right now.

"No offence, Captain...but I've suffered far more menacing reporting officers than you. You could prove me wrong...but I'm not too concerned." Yet, the Force attempted an imperceptible whisper in the back of her mind that she was wrong, somehow.

"Yes, I have learned my lesson. Anything pretty in this ship is probably going to kill--" Pausing, her eyes whisked over Cherith next to her. The synapses sparking to life. They passed shrewdly over the woman, more alert than they were a moment ago. Paranoid...? Or had she sensed something?

"Oh, the 'afterbits' don't bother me. I just need a break, is all. The past several..." She almost said weeks, then months, but now she was no longer sure. Time had become a blur since Azar-Anil sling-shot her into space. "...it's been a while. I got too much shit to do anyway, before I die in some freak accident."

A nagging growl from her stomach reminded them all, and loudly, how much she needed to stuff her face, but Penny ignored it. Attention set on the Captain. "Have you been in the Balarac your whole life, or did the Lord Commander liberate you from a gruesome fate, like he did for us?"

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain​

Her smile receded to a smug smirk.

"You put too much stock in those baby blues." She pointed finger guns at Penny's eyes.

As shifty as the human was, Cherith was amazed that this one could also manage to be so gullible. Perhaps that was just the way of the universe, balancing out all those fine features.

"What were to happen if they were just suddenly plucked out?" Cherith laughed to herself with that oversized mouth.

She led Penny down the hall from the ICU to the lobby, a small bounce in each step like she was overflowing with energy. The aroma of stroganoff became stronger with each step as they approached the kitchen connected to the lobby.

"I have too much shit to do," she repeated, voice lowered several octaves in exaggeration. "It doesn't seem like it was all that important if you were slinging mud down on Isonov. I mean, unless you're some kind of mud connoisseur. I know a Sergeant who likes to collect a tin of soil from every new world he visits. He's built up quite a collection by now. I think his pops was a geologist until he was gobbled up on the job. Nice guy - the Sergeant."

Directing them through the doors of the kitchen, she found a large covered pot of simmering in the far corner of the convection plate. She clapped her hands in glee. There it was!

"LC and I both hail from the same homeworld," she replied distractedly, more concerned with gathering a bowl and ladle for herself. "So I guess you can say I'm a Lifer. Many of the cohorts that 'liberated' you from the that mudball were trained by yours truly. I was even impressed by their recent performance, actually. Aside from LC and the officers, most of the battalion were fresh recruits still being blooded. Funny to think the Emberline got smashed by a bunch of greenhorns."

She removed the top and leaned over to get a whiff, closing her eyes.

"Mmmm...I hope you don't mind sharing. Been a while since 'noff night. Beef is so hard to come by out in these parts. Bantha and nerf just doesn't do this dish justice."

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

"Then I'd see through the Force. I don't need eyes to get shit done." Penny responded without hesitation, returning those playful finger-guns with a pair of her own at Cherith. She almost said 'to kill', but that might have invited the wrong inference, reading between the lines. "Why, do you have plants that want to pluck out my eyes? Just so I'm prepared..."

The aroma of a 'home'-cooked meal was becoming nearly intoxicating as they honed in on its source. A simmering pot of beef and noodles like a lantern in the dark. She knew she was hungry, but the tantalizing scents were now turning her stomach into a raging monster as it bubbled and groaned.

"I am a mud connoisseur, as a matter of fact." Not by choice. It just kind of happened, after being stuck in that bloody, pock-marked mud pit for so long. It seemed she was content to keep up with the jokes, rather than bother with explaining her path in life. What anyone really thought of her, or her actions, held little weight, so long as they didn't get in her way. The road to vengeance isn't always clean, fun, or glamorous.

"Greenhorns with rocket-packs and whatever those sinister guns are... What do they shoot, again? Some type of spider? I don't think I've ever seen a weapon so disgusting and terrifying. Your ammo continues to seek and destroy even if it misses its mark, apparently." As evidenced by the gaping hole Penny acquired in her back. The damn thing tried to dissolve her lungs.

"Mmm...I don't know. I might have to fight you on this one." In the kitchen now, she didn't even need to take a deep breath for her mouth to start watering. She could see it now. Two heaping bowls of stroganoff, and then she might very well pass out in her chair with a pregnant-looking belly.

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain


​

"The fight starts now!" she chirped as she helped herself to several ladles of the pasta. There still plenty left - Cyprian had left enough to last the woman a week. For Cherith, that was one sitting, but she was trying to be somewhat nice to her charge.

After all, it wasn't as fun teasing someone so depleted.

She kicked out a chair while she used the original ladle like a spoon to take her first beefy sitting at the table. Beef, pasta, and mushrooms smothered in creamy well seasoned sauce. Sitting, she cleared half the bowl before sitting again, practically sucking up the pasta with her giant maw. With each bite, her teeth flashed, pearly white, but the canines were oversized like her mouth.

"Greenhorns in the sense they haven't seen much combat," she finally replied while dabbing the corner of her mouth clean. "Though there's no skimping in training. We hammer them until each maneuver and technique becomes second nature. Discipline becomes easier to maintain, and they can focus wholly on the tactical aspect of prosecuting their mission - terminating the Emberline with extreme prejudice."

Almost every Balarac shock unit was as cool as a cucumber in battle. Any cooler, and they'd be dead - or a droid.

She chuckled as the topic of the Threshers had inevitably come up. "Win or lose, the enemy will remember the time they were hailed by flesh eating spider 'bullets'. Psychological Warfare 101. LC comes up with the most devious devices."

She let out a dreamy sigh that could have been interpreted as admiration, but it was really about all the havoc she could make with the nightmare weapons.

"If you're a good girl, you'll get a Thresher of your own, but then you have to be careful - they bite."

Penny probably knew that better than most.

"Eat up, and I'll take you back to LC. I'm told to give you a 'guided' tour to his quarters this time around. Might want to snag those oven mitts on your way out, Sticky Fingers."

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

They ate in relative silence, as Penny focused half of her attention on smashing the delicious food into her face, massive scoop by massive scoop. At first, she was careful not to appear too gluttonous, but then she glanced up at the Captain next to her... That's where the other half went.

That mouth. Those teeth. The appetite. No, she was not a 'normal' human. Wracking her brain wasn't coming up with any explanations to what she was, either. It was an insanely vast galaxy though, with far more species than she would likely ever encounter, let alone become aware of. Nevertheless, there was something unnerving about her, something that traversed the woman's subtly sinister traits.

When finished, the Forcer did look like she was about four months pregnant, she couldn't have possibly given less of a shit. Leaning back in her chair, she smacked her hands on her belly, and sighed with the most drowsy, content look on her face. All the miniscule energy she currently had slammed into her gut to digest the unnecessary amount of food she consumed, leaving her even more drained than she was previously.

Of course, the woman next to her gave the impression that she could have eaten even more without batting an eye, yet she didn't. Then she mentioned her chaperoned trip back to the Lord Commander's quarters, and Penny barely stopped herself from barking out a laugh. Again? Into that mystifying death trap?

Sighing louder than needed, she pushed herself with effort out of her chair, and wandered over to cooking station. "Honestly...I think I'm fine without a Thresher. I'm happy with my lightsaber and a blaster or two. I really don't feel like hassling with weapons that might actively try to kill me. I got enough to worry about without that kind of risk added to a fight."

Turning back around, she was indeed sporting matching oven mitt. Cherith thought it was a joke. Penny thought it was a great idea. Fuck those plants.

"Alright, boss. Let's do this."

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain
​

While Penny seemed to be struck with the "itis" after indulging her gluttony, Cherith rose bouncy as ever, nibbling on the end of the ladle.

"If you weren't so combative, then you'd have nothing to worry about." She quipped between nibbles. "Oh dang ha ha, look what I did, one of those double meanings. Anyway, treat your gun with love and it will reciprocate and fire true."

She waved over Penny to follow, still nibbling away. A quick turbolift, and they were back on the same deck as the biome. Walking through the dim halls, the shadows grew longer with Cherith present, and the sensation of voyeurs became stronger.

"I'm honestly a little surprised you decided to stick around especially since your last incident today. Especially as you mentioned all these things you need to do. What gives?'

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

A gun full of flesh-dissolving spiders? No, ma'am. Such a thing did not deserve love. Such a weapon shouldn't exist, in her squeamish opinion. She would always be a little biased, having suffered its potent effects herself, but nevertheless... Penny answered with a dry, unenthusiastic laugh. "Looks like you have enough greenhorns ready and willing to yield those things. Besides... I got enough to work with at my fingertips."

Mittentips, currently. Yes, she was trapesing down the halls with those oven mitts on. Even saluting the occasional wandering eye they passed, with a flippant little bop to her temple.

"Who says I plan to stick around?" Asking a bit elusively, she quirked a smirk at the smaller woman next to her. If she was even classified as a woman, by traditional biology. The creeping sensation of the very walls becoming more observant during in their passage did not go unnoticed. She wondered if it was all linked. "Maybe I just wanted some food and sleep first, and then I'll be on my merry way into another death trap. Outside, this time. Somewhere...out there..." Just hopefully not on another planet with a giant, clawed land-squid. But no, that wouldn't be her luck.

With a sigh, her eyes wandered the walls and tall ceilings with a bold 'voyeurism' of her own, reaching out through the Force to 'poke' at that inky, ethereal presence. An invitation to come out and play, in a sense. Playing hide and seek with the intangible was just...annoying. "The shit I need to do requires a lot more credits and information than I currently have. Right now, I need credits more than anything. The rest will follow like dominos. Your--our--Lord Commander seems like a reasonable and efficient enough bastard to work for. So, if he wants to pay me for some work, I'll take it."

Flashing Cherith a smile, she finally cut to the chase and asked, "So what are you? I haven't been able to figure it out on my own, yet"

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain
​

Cherith slowed her pace to a crawl, sensing Penny once again doing the thing she had just been warned about.

"When you poke at the abyss," she started, her voice unusually somber. "It has the habit of poking back."

On the psychic plane, a counterattacking force reeled in that tendril of curiosity, trying to tug on the rest of her mind into its depths. The sensation would have been like drowning, but in instead of water, the pressure was more akin to oil, coating and smothering her very being. The whispers grew into a raucous choir of chittering and buzzes.

"You certainly don't disappoint. It was only a matter of time before you got 'handsy' with the Force." She giggled, the bubbly quality returning to her voice. "So you want to know what I am? At present, I'm the person assigned to bail you out before you kill yourself again."

"Or...are you trying for a third trip to medbay?"

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

She didn't know what she expected, but in beauty in that was she was hardly surprised by the result. Dipping a toe into this pool was apparently an invitation for the pool to dip back. The counterattack felt far more invasive than what she had done. Who knows, though....maybe that little prod of hers had been incredibly rude, by their standards. The impression she got was that something, or things, were quite hungry. Not that she could blame them. She was about 25% beef stroganoff, at the moment.

Though her pace slowed, Penny didn't stop walking. Her eyes slipped closed, and she seemed to drift away. Disconnecting from the world around her, and fading into another. Like the stretch of a black hole as it consumed indiscriminately, and whisked its treasure into the unknown. Then, her eyes sprang open, and finally she paused. Whether lost in thought, or utterly vacant, Penny stared without blinking down the long corridor as if Cherith no longer existed, for a few seconds.

"Are Force users so few and far between for me to deserve a personal chaperone?" Asking as if she'd merely been distracted by a brief daydream, she glanced to the woman. "He must have grand plans for me." Grander than becoming plant food at least--yet. Grinning, she resumed their walk, though the outside impression didn't entirely match the inside.

"But I wasn't asking about your role. You're not human. So, what are you?"

It was really going to suck if she was some kind of human. How insulting. But she figured the woman had a thick enough skin not to care much, regardless.

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain​

For a moment, Cherith thought she would have to intervene on the meatbag's behalf, but Penny broke away from the pull of the Stalkers, hopefully with a new lesson learned about meddling with interdimensional beings quite testy with their current lot.

She didn't vocally acknowledge Penny's success, but her pace returned to normal as she turned forward to lead them once more.

"I'm sure you'd love me to inflate your ego by telling you how special you are to him, but all you Emberline are still being appraised."

Technically, Penny had been a mercenary on the dole, but to the Balarac captain, that just made her more sus. People like her could only be trusted to work in their own self-interest.

"I'm definitely human. Not sure what gave you the impression otherwise."

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

This one was learning, yes. Trial and error and raw curiosity were the best ways to learn, in her opinion. Those were the lessons that stuck. And the little adventures they brought with them made it all the better, so long as they were ones she could come back from. Right now, she was in the slow process of appraising them, as they were her. What she said earlier about dipping after a good meal and some rest wasn't entirely a joke. She had roots nowhere...so why would she decide now to dig them in here? This place wasn't her endgame.

A dry laugh answered the Captain as they resumed their walk. "I am special to one person only...because she is more loyal than she is wise. I don't care what the Lord Commander thinks of me, so long as he has some work he's willing to pay me for. If our appraisals fall short of one another, then I'll be on my way."

She glanced to Cherith then, eyes roaming in open suspicion and doubt, but it didn't appear she cared enough to probe deeper into the subject. After all, she was skeptical, but she didn't regard her as an enemy. If she was wrong, then that would be another fun lesson to learn. "Alright, Captain. If you say so."

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Cherith Araluen, Balarac Captain​

Cherith shook her head as Penny claimed to have only one person hold her dear.

"Don't sell yourself short, you now have plenty of fans." She glanced the ceiling. "Jengu has taken a fancy to you too - it may not just be his programming. Perhaps no one here has placed you on a pedestal, but there is a certain something about you that stands out."

Penny was trying hard to sell herself as Machevellian, but that claim was about as convincing as Cherith calling herself human. Even the darkest, cruelest individuals were not without sentimentality. The trick was just finding the right heartstrings to pull within the jaded woman.

She would.

The corridor grew brighter as they neared the entrance to the Chamber of Light. Once at the entrance, Cherith hugged the edge of the open entrance, eyes narrowed. This was not her scene.

"And this will be where you part. If I have to admit something, I lied a bit - LC didn't really ask me to be your chaperone outside of a checkup in medbay. I just wanted to hang out for a few and score some free food. Hmm...you're alright."

She motioned toward the center path through the garden.

"Keep to the path and nothing SHOULD happen. Key word should. At the end of the path, there is an isolated corridor that leads to the observatory, and LC's private quarters. Now take care, and try not to cause too much trouble."

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

In one breath the Captain sounded as if she wanted to knock Penny off her high horse, and in the next, offer reassurance. An enigmatic smile was what she gave in return. With the peculiarly shaped puzzle pieces she was fiddling with now in her mind, in light of all she'd witnessed with Cherith, and their environment full of unseen fishing hook waiting for the faintest nibble to reel one in to the unknown...oh and let's not forget the garden of unsuspecting death she was about to return to...Penny was listening more and more, and trusting less and less.

Everything about this place was a boobytrap. That was the safest impression to have anyway, so that was what she would settle on. And that included its people.

As they paused in the doorway, transitioning from the gloomy and cryptic corridors with its hidden dangers and into the bright and inviting dangers of the biodome, Penny watched with seeming indifference as the Captain clung close to the edged and regarded the change in scenery with...discomfort?

"Mmm, I won't fault you there. The stroganoff was worth a little deception, and I couldn't eat it all anyway. Nevertheless, thank you for the company, Captain... You shouldn't need to check on me in the medbay any time soon."

Turning after a polite nod, she ventured into the sea of plants at a leisurely pace. Keeping her hands clasped behind her back as if she meant to stroll around with all the time in the world. She would look without touching this time. Following the path until it lead her to another corridor. One she never managed to reach during her first visit. As she wandered down its length, she kept her senses on alert. Not because she expected something to happen, but simply in an effort not to be caught off guard by anything. Or anyone.

Cyprian Ichar

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

There were no open chambers waiting for Penny this time around, but two black doors. A small console was inset in the wall beside them. Normally that would have been used to call for the occupants beyond the doors, but they already began to rumble open automatically as she approached.

​

The scene they revealed was radically different from the garden she had just left, one of an expansive study that stretched several levels from the floor to the ceiling. The ceiling itself was covered in moving decals of stars and other celestial bodies, which provided the illusion of the chamber stretching on for eternity into the vasts depths of space.

"So you finally made it in one piece," Cyprian called out from one of the upper floors of the study, leaning against the railing with a book in hand.

His face was obscured like normal, but this time by a hooded navy tunic instead of his armor.

"I take it that a lesson has been learned."

Penny Rasalas

 

[Penny Rasalas]

'I take it that a lesson has been learned.'

"Mm... I wouldn't say that." Penny responded with a small quip as she strolled into the eccentric library. It was almost as captivating as the lush, deadly garden she managed to navigate without touching this time. Particularly the decor above was worthy of a marvel on its own, but the sheer size of the library itself was also interesting. She doubted he was responsible for collecting such an impressive selection himself, though he seemed to be appreciating its spoils.

"What are you reading?" Stopping near a plush chair near the towering and nearly full bookshelves, she gazed up at the mysterious hooded Commander above. Exotic garden with forbidden flowers, expansive, sophisticated library of endless knowledge to share, a man trading his helmet for a similarly shrouding hood... This picture she was piecing together was beginning to remind her of one of those cheesy romance novels Zosma liked to read when she was killing time and thought no one was around, but pretended to despise and hid from prying eyes.

This was a shameless surface thought, and one she found amusing, as she let a grin creep wider on her wide.

Cyprian Ichar