Whiskey and Philosophy

[Eralam]

"Yeah, well, you're not the emperor here, and I'm not flesh and blood. I do have an HRD, but that's not the point. The point is, it was hot when you left the boots on. Wait, where was I going with this?"

There was an easy shot on the 9 for the corner pocket, but it would leave him out of position for a decent shot after. Eralam sank the ball anyway, and on his next shot, kissed he cue off the 13 and sent it to the other side of the table, where it could do no harm. The 13 spun in place for a minute, but barely moved an inch.

He gave the impression of a grin as he leaned up against the wall.

 

[Sinistra]

"I have no idea, truly."

She leveled a shot on the 4, careening it down the table into the corner opposite her where it knocked the 11 away from the pocket where it had been waiting patiently for someone to tap it in when the cue was conveniently near.

"It's a little odd to hear a robot Shard express lust and carnal desires for an organic. So much for alternate universes. This one is a hot mess, don't know about your incarnation. I can feel the screws wound tighter, the need for control is more. I think she's lost the big picture though. She's very into the strings and woven contacts of the spy game. Pity. She does not long for the overt power of those in charge but she revels in the power she has a spymaster. Different strokes, to be sure."

 

[Eralam]

"It's weird, you know? This body shouldn't know those things, but I can't help but appreciating when you bend over the table. Even in the HRD I've never had something like this. The mind is remembering what the body never knew."

Eralam shrugged as he lined up for a difficult shot on the 9. He nailed the shot, but dropped the cue ball in after.

"I think I'm much more content as a spymaster than I was as a god. That had its perks to be sure, but I think I like the anonymity. No more holding the fate of the galaxy in my hands and all that jazz."

 

[Sinistra]

"Yeah, yeah, cool it Casanova. Your body may not remember but mine knows what those feelings are. It's like a demotion over here."

The recalcitrant Sith Lord glowered over the table, suddenly angry at the way he simply disappeared and how it had driven her completely insane. She had loved him then, needed him and stupidly lost him. To underscore the sexual urges of their past lives annoyed her as she lined up a shot, ramming the cue down the table so hard, it completely missed the 6.

She sank back against the wall, arms crossed, shoulders slumped, a defeated look on her face.

"I loved you, I lost you and now that I find you again, we're back at square one."

 

[Eralam]

"That's not the only stuff I remember," Eralam said softly. "I'm being flippant because I don't know how to deal with the rest. I don't know how to deal with needing you so bad it aches. I tore apart an entire universe looking for you, only to find a pale imitation, not the woman I loved. And now that we're here and the barrier between the worlds has been breached, I'm a goddamned robot."

He lined up a shot on the 12, but his heart wasn't in it. The ball bounced off the felt about a half inch from the pocket.

"All I really want to do is hold you and tell you it's all going to be okay, that we're here together now, and that's what counts. Only I can't, because I'm stuck in this cold metal prison, and you're not her and I'm not him. We get all the memories and the feelings, but it's damned near impossible to act on them. Okay, sure, I could hop in the old HRD, but would it matter?"

The there was a bitter note to his last question, but it was far from rhetorical. The Shard would like nothing more than to do just that, but he wasn't all that confident that she'd let him. There was just too much anger and regret tied up with the good, and he felt like a minor swimming against a tidal wave, just trying to find a safe place to rest. It was maddening. Infuriating, even. She was right there, and she might not be able to love him as he was. Maybe the bad outweighed the good in her eyes.

It'll take a lot more than words and guns
A whole lot more than riches and muscle
Open your heart and hands my son
Or you'll never make it o'er the river

The old song played in the Shard's head, a haunting reminder of the failures of his past life. Would they get a chance to try again, or was what was once lost too far gone to be found again?

 

[Sinistra]

"In this room, yes. It would matter to me. The one who lost you. Honestly, I was more terrified that because you were a Shard again that everything the human you felt was gone."

She dropped the cue on the table and reached for his metal hand, careful that the servos would not catch her skin in the joints of his hand. The metallic form standing here was the image of her best friend, and held the everlasting soul of a man she loved, cast across the multiverse. They were out of chances for now, but the future was uncertain.

She spoke with a sigh, sarcasm taking hold of her again, shaking the thick emotions off her voice.

"The universe is cruel and the gods hate us all around. Once I walk out of here, she won't remember this, won't remember us. Neither of them will. It's almost a little comforting."

 

[Eralam]

He nodded slightly.

"I'll be back in a sec."

The HRD was being stored in the backroom for another meeting later on. It was still within the bounds of the building; changing out wouldn't violate the rules of their strange melding of boundaries. The actual process was pretty simple: Eralam opened up his chest plate, and remotely controlled his robot chassis's arm, inserting the cassette that contained his crystal into the HRD's chest. Once it was in and hooked up, the synthflesh smoothly melded together over the port. It looked like a scar, nothing more.

He threw on some jeans and a plain gray t-shirt, not even bothering with shoes.

He walked back out, looking exactly like she remembered.

"Once we leave this room, we'll probably lose what we had before, but we can keep some things. We can find each other and start over. Damn the gods and the Force and anything else that gets in the way."

 

[Sinistra]

She crossed the distance surprisingly fast, wrapping her arms around the HRD chassis. It gave like skin and muscle but it was still cold to the touch. Right now, she didn't really care. The echo of her former self would get at least a little chance to have closure before they were catapulted on to another galaxy in the multiverse, their lives twisted together across time and space.

For now, she leaned on him, just getting what she could until time and space conspired to wrench them apart again. She scanned the memories and traumas of her host's mind, shaking her head as she squeezed her eyes shut. She pulled back, leaning on the edge of the pool table.

"He's going to have an uphill battle on this one. She's only ever loved 1 person and she refuses to get close to anyone else. She's old and stubborn. I don't know if he can change her mind."

 

[Eralam]

"Maybe, maybe not."

He smiled softly, and a little sadly, as he lifted his hand and strokes her cheek gently with the back of his fingers. The texture was a little different than he remembered, the lines drawn by different stresses and experiences, but the soul was the same, and that's what mattered.

"There's a lot working against us, and them, but we can try if you want to. For now though..."

His voice trailed off as he bent down and kissed her gently. He pulled away after a moment, lips whirled upwards in a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"We have each other again. We can worry about the rest later."

 

[Sinistra]

"That's the thing though. We can't do anything. It has to be them, but even if they do end up together, it's still not us. We need to find a way out of this universe to one where we can be together."

She reached a hand over to his chest, laying it over where she knew that Shard would be encased in the synthflesh. She could feel his presence in the chest cavity, the brush of his mind and thoughts against hers. There was a gentle caress through the Force against the facets of the stone before she looked up at him and sighed.

"So now what?"

 

[Eralam]

"So now we enjoy some time together."

He motioned to the bartender, who brought over a couple of fresh drinks. Eralam gave him a significant look. The man nodded slightly, then vanished out of sight.

"I've got an idea. There's a place between worlds we can jump to from here. They'll be left behind, but we'll be able to meet up there. If this were my old body and our old home, the jump would be as easy as snapping my fingers. Here though, I was never a Whill. It'll take some time to build up the energy necessary to make it, and our arrivals will probably be off by a few days. One of us might end up waiting on the other."

The whiskey was completely different when tasted with a tongue rather than spectrograph analysis. The taste was a tangible thing that almost took him off his feet as he sipped the pungent brown liquid.

"Until then, we can keep playing pool. Or whatever."

 

[Sinistra]

"Then I don't really see any other choice. We should try to get there. These two are not my concern. You want them to be friends, they will be but a love affair is beyond them I think. It's beyond her at least. I'm crazy, but this one cares for no one but herself."

She took a sip of his whiskey, sitting on the edge of the pool table. She looked up at him, her head cocked over.

"If we have time, and privacy, and this pool table..."

The implications from her were fairly clear. Clothes and good sense were forgotten in favor of rekindling a particularly intimate connection. The pool table saw the previous urges spoken by Eralam come to fruition and for as long as they could manage to keep going, they did. Granted the HRD chassis had more longevity than Sinistra did but it was more the feeling of his skin on hers, even if it was cooler, that seemed to ease her more than anything.

They had moved to a private lounge room in the back, laying on a sofa, wrapped in some thickly comfortable throw, arms encircling the other. This was exactly how they had been laying when he vanished and it was hard for her not to feel apprehensive that the same thing would happen again.

 

[Eralam]

Time is an illusion.

Eralam, the true Eralam, knew this. He had plucked at the universe's sinews and had bent time to his will. But that was his old self, his old life. This new one was subject to the whims of time as surely as the leaves of the trees. He would grow for a season, and then he would die.

To hell with that.

He had found his Sin, and they would leave these poor fools to their own devices. They were but dim reflections of the former Whill and the Emperor of the Sith. Let them wallow in the arrogant impotence that so typified the denizens of this universe. That wasn't his problem.

"It's almost time, love. We should probably get dressed. As much fun as it would be to leave the others in a compromising position, he's already lied to her about having an HRD handy. You're right that they might not find love, but they'll need each other if they're going to reach a fraction of their true potential. It wouldn't do to have them at each other's throats from the get go."

He smiled sadly, then kissed her one last time. It was a desperate kiss, full of the sorrow and ache from losing her, mingled with the joy of finding her again, and the fear that they might not find each other again.

And then he stood and walked over to the storage rack, beginning the process of swapping bodies.

"It's probably best that they don't know what happened," he said, his voice metallic and cold once more. "Enough of your sorcery will linger that they won't forget the bond, though I imagine it'll take them some time to get used to it. They'll have to come to terms with that in their own."

There were other things as well. Their lovemaking had been...vigorous. It would have been taxing for a woman a third the age of Sinistra's body, and there would likely be residual soreness. That couldn't be helped.

While she threw on her clothes, the former Whill headed outside to have a word with the bartender. Though he would have liked to watch her finish dressing, he knew the temptation would be too great, and they were coming perilously close to the narrow window of opportunity to make the transition.

If the bartender thought the request to mention nothing that had transpired from the moment they left the card table was odd, he didn't say. Stranger things had happened, and discretion was an important part of the job.

Once that was settled, Eralam took his place at the booth, awaiting the arrival of the woman he loved for what might be the final time. His heart ached, but the little sliver of hope in the back of his mind was enough to strengthen his resolve. They would go through with this, and they would meet on the other side. He was sure of it.

 

[Sinistra]

You are never ready.

Sinistra joined him in the booth, refraining from reaching across the table to touch him one last time. The sensation of being transported from one place to another is unsettling. The sensation of being pulled between universes is traumatizing. One moment, she was looking her last upon on the silver metallic form of Eralam. There was a pull that threatened to rend her apart, then Sinistra blinked.

She looked down at the cards, the dent put in the bottle and back up to him.

"Huh. I don't remember who won that hand. What's going on here?"

Something felt off to her, something that she couldn't place. Her body felt different, like it knew something she didn't. She didn't feel like he had anything to do with it, for some reason she trusted him.