Ball on Socorro

[Aurelie Fleury]

Socorro. Local time: 22:45

Aurelie had been away for a long time. She had been on the run, as a furious snob, or thug, or whatever, on Nar Shaddaa had found out that she was the daughter of Mael, the man who had conned tens of thousands of credits from the man. Leaving Hask was hard, probably the hardest thing she'd done so far - but it was what was necessary to keep him safe, safe from the snobs goons and thuggish friends. Knowing that they would reunite sooner or later was at least of some comfort.

She had drifted about for a while and now found herself in the cantina of one of the larger inns on the outer rim planet of Socorro. Scrappy was at the room, two floors up and Aurelie had acquired the money she needed for the night. The girl sat in one of the booths with just a small round table and two chairs with a beer whilst waiting for her food to arrive. She looked around, it seemed like the locals were having a ball - that's what she called it when they managed to remain civil enough not to have an active bar fight.

The place was crowded, to say the least. It was a miracle that she'd found her little booth instead of having to head upstairs with her food. The young woman enjoyed sitting among all the people, she missed having real contact with someone and often found some sense of solace when looking at when others were having their fun.

It was only a matter of time until it happened - someone was bound to want the other seat at her table. To her great distress, a being with a sluggish appearance and bad smell approached her table. Aurelie liked to think of herself as an open minded person, but tonight, she just wanted to enjoy her meal without having her appetite ruined by whatever ungodly smell that was about to invade her space. "Seat taken?" it asked, pointing a limb at the empty chair. After a few moments of hesitation, she let out a "Uhh, yeah" and was greeted by an offended look. "It doesn't look very taken to me!" the being exclaimed, clearly not believing her answer. Aurelie looked towards the entrance of the cantina with a hint of desperation "Yeah, they'll be here any moment now" she said, hoping for the being to leave.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

All this crusading would make anyone thirsty. That's why when Sumas found himself in the system he decided to treat himself to a drink. He flew the ship into Socorro's atmosphere and touched down. He wandered around, getting a lay of the land. It didn't take long for him to find out where all the best cantinas were. He decided on the nearest and made his way over to it.

When he arrived, it was packed. He squeezed through the crowds of people, looking for a way to either an open booth or the bar. After a few minutes he spotted an open booth. It was only when he got closer that he noticed a woman was sitting there. He gave a click of the tongue and was about to turn away...when he spotted a rather disgusting looking man approach the woman with an attitude. He moved closer, overhearing the man shouting at her. She looked worried, almost expecting someone to swoop in for her. She might have expected someone else, but he was going to have to do.

He came to a halt beside the man, pressing the barrel of a pistol against the being's side. "You heard her. Seat's taken. Now scram." he said coldly, his T-visor hiding the glare he gave the being. It eyed him for a bit before taking its leave, leaving Sumas with the stranger. He holstered his gun and took the seat to serve as a seat warmer. "Next time someone gives you trouble, just show them who's boss." he quipped, taking his helmet off. He gave her a smirk. "You waiting for someone?" he asked her, trying to figure out what she was doing.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

It felt like the tension between her and the being was rising exponentially until it suddenly turned to an armoured figure. While the bar was loud and crowded enough for the other patrons not to notice, she certainly saw what was happening. It was a relief that the being was leaving, no doubt. She gave the armoured one a thank you-smile right before he sat down. Him sitting down, however, was something which caused mixed feelings since the T-visor made her suspect that he was Mandalorian. While often a rather apolitical person, Aurelie knew that Mandalorians could be out to harm Hask, even after he left the Sith.

The girl looked at her new tablemate for just a little longer than one might expect considering his role as saviour of the night. The guy seemed friendly enough, she thought and threw another look towards the entrance. She always hoped that someday, Hask would just wander in through the door with that warm smile of his. Her disappointed eyes returned to the man who was just taking off his helmet, a Zabrak, apparently. "Sure will!" she chirped, trying to pick up her mood and showed her teeth in a jokingly aggressive manner "Grrrr". She figured that, if Hask did come in, she could shoot the Mandalorian for him, but until then she could try to enjoy his company.

Flashing a smile, she shook her head "I guess I'm not." Aurelie took another sip from her beer and tried to sneak in a glance at the gear the Zabrak was carrying. "I'm Joie, by the way" she said, employing the name she had given the innkeeper upon check-in. Her blaster, vibroknife and normal knife were all on her as usual, but she had made an effort to keep them all concealed as per usual. Talking to a stranger over a beer seemed weird after a rather lengthy time mostly drifting around by herself, but she wanted to take the chance to have a chat. "Avoid the Corellian, I think they might've peed in it or something" she said, wishing that it was a joke.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

Sumas smiled as the woman joked. But that didn't mean he didn't spot the anxious looks towards the door or the disappointment in her eyes. She was waiting for someone. Someone quite important to her if he had to guess.

Sumas managed to wave over a waitress in the commotion. Though it would probably take her a minute or two to get to their table. The woman introduced herself as Joie, receiving a grin from Sumas. "Nice to meet you Joi, I'm Sumas." he introduced himself cheerfully. She warned him over the beer, making him laugh. "I've found that's usually the case with Corellian beer." he quipped. The waitress arrived and he ordered some Tarisian ale. "Not the biggest fan of Tarisian ale. But every now and then I get a sudden taste for the stuff." he explained to Joi, trying to strike up some conversation.

He glanced at the door for curiosity's sake then looked back to her. "So what brought you here, Joi?" he asked her casually as he waited for his dink.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Although it wasn't her real name, an eyebrow twitched as the Zabrak called her Joi instead of Joie. She wondered if he merely didn't care or if he was trying to prove a point. Nevertheless, she decided to just let it go, it was not as if she cared much for the name and the man had just helped her get rid of that other creature. His name didn't exactly scream 'mandalorian' to her, but then, which ones did? Having a name to go by was nice regardless.

The two laughed along at the joke at the expense of Corellian beer. Admittedly, the Mandalorian seemed to have a good sense of humour, although that could be said about anyone laughing at her jokes. "So, Tarisian is your go-to in overcrowded bars?" she asked, not seeing what would make a man take anything other than a cold beer in a setting like this. Her food arrived roughly around the same time as the ale did - causing her to quickly start eating greedily.

The girl paused upon hearing his question. She made a mental note of him once again calling her Joi - still, it didn't matter. She barely knew what brought her there herself - it just happened to be where the freighter she and Scrappy had hopped onto took them. After another bite, the young woman looked up to him "Well...." she said with a pause. "The Corellian, for one" she chirped jokingly before returning to her food.

Sure, food was good and at times rather hard to come by. But the thief didn't want to let it all become all too awkward "I haven't been able to keep up with the news much lately. What have you guys been up to?" she said, nodding towards his T-visor to indicate who she was referring to. Another bite and she continued "I've heard a lot about shenanigans on Atlas, what happened?"

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

Sumas looked at her with a smirk before glancing over to the bar. "Usually it's something stronger than Tarisian ale. But today I feel a bit adventurous so I switched up a little." he said simply as he looked back to her. Soon enough the food arrived and along with his drink. He took a big sip and placed the glass down with a satisfied sigh. She helped herself to a few bites of her meal before she bothered to answer his question.

He smiled at her little joke before helping himself to another sip of his drink. It was sinking a little quickly. She asked him about some stuff and brought up a very interesting subject. Sumas sat up and leaned forward a bit in excitement. "Well we've been busy, lemme tell you. Invasions all over the place. Of course that's what happens if someone thinks orbital bombardment on the Mandalorian homeworld is a good idea." he explained with a shrug. "As for Atlas, a bunch of stuff happened there. The Empress and a bunch of goons decided to go party there and blew the place up, killing a bunch of her own people. One was a Sith Lord if I remember correctly, while the other was one of those red-skin Sith with one arm. It was a mess." he continued, helping himself to another sip. "Only ones that survived was the Empress, some other sad excuse for a Sith and one of our Field Marshals."

Of course, Sumas didn't have a clue what Joie was to the "red-skin Sith with one arm". Whether she would even register that was an entirely different question.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

It was nice to finally have someone other than the droid to talk to. Naturally, the galaxy was filled with people, but she had avoided most real contact with other organics for quite some time now. Being careful and surviving had been a top priority for quite some time now, but Sumas came at just the right time and from the looks of it, was not there to do her harm.

She kept eating whilst listening to the Mandalorian talk of the events of late. He had a calming sense of nonchalance to him which Aurelie appreciated. She thought of Hask as soon as the man mentioned a one-armed red-skinned Sith - a smile appeared on her face as it did sound like just the kind of mess that he could get himself into, at least when she weren't around. Allowing the lovely though linger in her mind, the girl kept eating away. At first, she didn't react to the fact that Sumas didn't include the Hasky Sith in the list of survivors.

As the dots started connecting in her head, the eating progressively slowed. Then it stopped.

Looking down in her food, the young woman felt how her eyes were starting to become wet. She shaked her head slightly, telling herself that nothing was confirmed, that it couldn't be Hask. After all, he was no Sith. Slowly, her head turned up from the food. Her lower lip had a slight shiver to it and she was barely keeping her composure "And that one-armed guy, right?" she asked with a suppressed undertone of dread in her voice. "The red-skinned Sith, he survived, right?" she continued with more of the deep fear she felt sipping through to the surface. Aurelie was expecting an answer sooner than anyone could hope to even compose a sensible thought, her eyes were travelling from point to point on Sumas' face, looking for signs of what he was about to say. "Right?" she continued more desperate.

The calm and composed facade she had tried to maintain was falling apart, even without any form of real evidence that it was actually Hask that he was talking about. Deciding not to wait for an acceptable answer, that the one-armed Sith was indeed alive, the girl moved on in her thoughts. "There's a video" she said with a hint of eagerness in her voice, perhaps hopefulness. She repeated the sentence "There's a video" more to herself than to the Mandalorian at the table.

Sliding out of her seat just like she used to on the Hellion, Aurelie stuttered something unintelligible and left the room. An elevator opened its doors just as she exited the establishment. Entering as soon as the two Rodians exited the lift, the young woman promptly pressed the button '25' - the top floor and the the 'close door' button. Once up, she entered the stairwell and went to the roof where she planned on watching the video.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

Sumas' expression turned to confusion as he saw Joie start to break down. She inquired about the red-skin but she was verging on tears. She seemed desperate to hear that he survived which indicated he might have been important to her. He slowly shook his head. "I'm...not sure." he said to her. "Was he important to you?" he asked her, but she didn't answer. Instead she rushed off, saying something about a video.

Sumas was lost. He watched her shove past the crowd then gave a look around. With a sigh he downed his drink and set off after her. He barely caught the floor she chose before she stepped in and went up. Sliding his helmet back on he waited for the elevator to come back down then went up as well.

He was on the roof in no time, looking around to try and find the girl. "Hey, Joie! You alright?" he called out to her. Boy, he messed up big time...

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

The wind could clearly be heard swooshing by the rooftops in a whistling sound, anyone stepping outside would notice the strong force pushing them to the side. The thief had already sat herself down in a corner, protected by the waist-high walls with just a few strains of hair flying wildly. A couple tears were slowly making their way down her cheeks as she watched the video for the second time. It was Hask in that bar, she'd recognise him anywhere. And he was still in it when it blew up. She didn't want to believe it, not at all, but there it was, footage of his demise. "But we're a team, right? Hask and Aurie" she whimpered quietly for herself, releasing another tear as she blinked. The droplets of water were annoyingly large, but at this point, she really couldn't care less. "I'm sorry. I know I took off suddenly, but you didn't have to leave like that" she kept whimpering, her voice in the verge of cracking.

Suddenly, the Mandalorian came up, apparently having followed her to ask if she was alright. "No" she said simply with a shaking voice, barely audible through the strong winds. Standing back up, the girl looked at the masked warrior for a few seconds as he stood in the distance. It was impossible to read him because of the helmet, but at this point, it didn't seem important. Hask had left, he was never coming back - she was all alone. Turning around to face the edge of the roof, her eyes slowly turned upwards, gazing into the skies, into space. She had lost her father some time ago, and remembered the struggle, but even that seemed to pale in comparison to what she was feeling now. Aurelie slowly took off her hair tie, letting her blonde hair flow freely in the strong wind, not minding as the tie flew off as she let it go.

"Hask, come back" she whined in a whisper before letting her head drop. Her trembling hands reached for a pocket and dug around for a bit. The girl was just realising that she didn't have very much to remember him by. By one swift motion, Aurelie climbed to sit on the fence with both legs dangling on the outside. Her eyes stared blankly on the shuttles driving off into the distant blackness. "I'm all alone now. In the entire galaxy, with all its stars and planets, I'm all alone." she thought, noticing a few more tears running down her cheeks. She had been missing Hask for all this time and the feeling was greater now than ever before. Yet she knew that they would never meet again. And that was breaking her heart.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

Sumas faintly heard the woman's frail voice in the wind and quickly found her curled into a ball. He stood in place, watching her as she rose and faced away from him. He clearly saw the distress and pain in her eyes before she turned away.

He decided to take a chance and close the distance. He slowly walked against the wind and came to a halt behind the woman. She loosened her hair and said something that was entirely lost in the wind. He started to worry when she sat on the edge of the wall, looking ready to jump off in his eyes. He closed the distance further and leaned against the wall beside her. If she tried to jump he would be able to catch her quickly enough. "I...take it you were close to the guy?" he asked her cautiously, avoiding any degrading terms towards the guy. "For what it's worth...I'm sorry for your loss." he said rather awkwardly as he took off his helmet to breathe the evening air -or wind in this case- and look over the skyline.

"Who was he to you, anyway?" he asked her, looking up at her. He was terrible at this. He was good with blowing up stuff and chasing skirts, not cheering up depressed girls.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

She nodded and produced an inaudible "Yes". Hask & Aurie had been much closer than the Zabrak could possibly imagine - at least that's what she thought herself. What they had was unique, it was close and it was loving. Her tears had now begun pouring in a steady flow and her breathing was far from fair and even - while she wasn't gaping aloud like a baby, it was clear that she was crying. Being subjected to the strong winds blowing from the girl's front, the tears ran down her face relatively quickly. Although she didn't do much to keep the 'conversation' alive, Aurelie could feel that the Mandalorian was genuinely concerned. The thought of him being rather sweet was quickly drowned in the flood of memories of Hask.

There was only one answer to the final question: Everything. Even if she wanted to answer, it wasn't possible as her words were rather far from intelligible at the moment. Never had she felt the kind of agony that she experienced now. Never had she felt so empty. The lights from the hover cars were starting to become blurry as her wet eyes gazed out over the traffic. Solemnly, Aurelie's gaze fell down to the ground hundreds of meters below.

The streetlights shone in an invitingly warm yellow colour. Her hands moved slightly as they held on to the ledge upon which she was seated. Both legs pressed against the wall, just as if preparing to push, forcing the young thief's body off of the roof. Aurelie had no idea what would happen after the fact but had a hard time believing that anything could be more painful than what she was living through now. Then, all of a sudden, a strong gush of wind hit her from the front, yanking her back onto the roof away from the wall.

With heavy breaths, the girl laid with her back against the floor and looked straight up at all the stars. Eyes filled with water, she whimpered "Hask?" she said with a shaky voice, although the name was probably too distorted for anyone who didn't know the word to understand. She called out for him again "It was the force that pulled me back, it must've been" she thought while slowly rising to her feet. Soon, Aurelie started moving from one end of the roof to the other, desperately looking for the Pureblood. Convinced that he was nearby.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Sumas Solus]

Sumas didn't know what to do with the girl. The tears started flowing steadily and he fell silent. He didn't have any words for her. Nothing he could say would make her feel better. Not with the loss she clearly suffered. But there was something he could do for her, and he saw it's opening very quickly.

As Joie inched closer to the edge of the wall, Sumas moved closer to her. In no time he was beside her. His helmet was clipped to his belt, opening his arms to place them beside and around her without touching her. He saw what she was trying to do. He saw it and he wouldn't allow it. But just as he wanted to wrap his arms around her an yank her back, a strong gust of wind hit them with full force. He stumbled back a bit as she was thrown off the wall and onto her back. He recovered and knelt down beside her, making sure she was alright. But she was somewhere else. He caught the name she whimpered. "Hask". A rather odd name but then again the guy was a red-skin. They had weird names like that. But he didn't say anything as she laid on the ground before him.

She finally got up, but then wandered off as if looking for someone or something. Sumas followed after her to make sure she didn't try to kill herself again. After a few minutes he realized what she was doing. "There's nobody up here, Joie. Only us." he said to her with a hint of guilt in his voice. He drew a breath then closed the distance between him and her before wrapping an arm around her shoulders to pull her into a hug. "He's not up here, Joie. I'm sorry...but it's only us." he said gently as he held onto her. She was broken. This Hask fellow clearly meant a lot ot her.

"But don't do something stupid like that again. I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted you to kill yourself like that." he sounded like he was scolding her, but his voice held no anger.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

"No, he's here" she said, not even looking the Mandalorian in the eyes as her light and hopeful voice sounded over the rooftop. A few more steps, nothing. And another set of steps, still nothing. No Hask in sight. "I know he's here" she said, still with plenty of hope, though there was no denying that sliver of dread had slipped into her voice. She felt his arm, slowly taking hold of her shoulder - it didn't matter, she kept walking, although restrained "No, I know he's here" she said. The Zabrak started pulling, leaving her body little choice but to follow "He's here!" she exclaimed, resisting him. Hask was on the rooftop, hiding somewhere. "He's here! No! Stop! Hask!" by each word, her exclamations turned into screams and hope into desperate pleas. He had to be alive. Why wasn't he coming out? Reaching for her comm, the girl spoke "Scrappy, I'm on the roof" she said crying "Come quick" it was unclear if her words were intelligible enough for the droid to understand as it didn't answer.

Still crying profusely, the young woman kept calling for the man's name, completely ignoring the Mandalorian's ask. Each time, her desperate plea remained unanswered, and each time the trace of hope decreased. A final "Hask" could, barely, be heard, her voice now weak and shaking. Aurelie soon found herself curled up in Sumas' arms. Her head rested on his hard armour plate as she leaned against him, quietly sobbing. The wind was particularly unforgiving up on the roof as her tears quickly fell down onto his armour whilst causing her hair to flutter dramatically whilst doing it's low whistle.

Eventually, the door up to the entrance opened a few meters away from them. A metallic sound could be heard as Scrappy set foot on the rooftop. An orange colour made itself present as the droid gently pressed the trigger of the flamethrower, sending a ball of fire into the air. The droid came to a rather sudden halt. Taking longer than usual, it processed the available information "Master?" it asked. While not truly capable of emotion, one could think that it was confusion and a hint of that the droid displayed in his voice.

@KinkyPrawn