Hoth: Blood and Ice

[Zeno Thul]

Zeno enters the cantina and orders himself a tall glass of beer. More like decent swill from what he's heard, but better than no drink. Finding himself a table with a Moyr at it if he can, he sits down.

A deep sigh followed by a deep drink.

[Darth Bellious]

She was silent, bloodied, drained, barely sitting on her own, clenching whiskey in half-broken, blood-clotted glass. Perhaps drunk, perhaps just withdrawn, but her gaze was glassy and absent. She could be taken for being in stupor if not an occasional blink and shiver.

"Zeno." She acknowledged him finally.

[Zeno Thul]

"Moyr."

He looks over her thoroughly. "Go to the Rimma Roundabout when you get a chance. You could use some kolto time. That was a hell of an assault. I'm glad you are back, alive, and upright."

He holds up his cup and takes a sip.

Unlike Syl. Too many gone.

[Darth Bellious]

"And owe even more favours to the good doctor?" She chuckled throatily. "The Force will restore me."

[Healing Trance on.]

"I am glad you're alive." There was this unsaid 'not all I hold dear are' attached to the genuine relief.

[Zeno Thul]

"I am glad you are too," he says with a nod. "You know, we barely talked to each other over the past decade or so. But he still asked me to help keep his children safe if he passed. So after we get off this ice ball that will be my primary mission with Luth."

Zeno sighs and takes a drink.

"I really hoped he'd be here still, but I guess he saw or felt something. And it wasn't even Zakuul that did it which makes me even angrier. I felt it... and you probably felt it from me right after it happened. There would have been a moment of anguish mixed in during the battle, not long after the shelling started."

He stares into his drink as though it was the void.

[Garth Thul]

Over in the corner keeping to himself, Garth was unwinding from the stress of the day, but apparently that wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

All the death and hatred and anger was tainting his consciousness.

D8 EE Swoop Racer Hard mode: 2eP+3eA+3eF+4eD 1 advantage, 3 Dark Side

[Darth Bellious]

"I am glad you are too," he says with a nod. "You know, we barely talked to each other over the past decade or so. But he still asked me to help keep his children safe if he passed. So after we get off this ice ball that will be my primary mission with Luth."

Zeno sighs and takes a drink.

"I really hoped he'd be here still, but I guess he saw or felt something. And it wasn't even Zakuul that did it which makes me even angrier. I felt it... and you probably felt it from me right after it happened. There would have been a moment of anguish mixed in during the battle, not long after the shelling started."

He stares into his drink as though it was the void.

There was a long pause, some pain surfacing through a mask of exhaustion and indifference, but there was a whole ocean of it under the bloody ice.

"He gave me no mission. Guess it was my delusion that we were close." Her lip trembled. "I pushed it aside after I had felt it, needed to execute the plan. We've won, at least."

She closed her eyes. "I really should have fallen in love with you back then, Zeno. Instead of him. I really should have. We would have made a great pair, you and I, but when he came into my life I was a fool that still didn't know how to turn passion into true freedom. And then, on Nar Shaddaa, all I had in me was the thirst for power, victory, and revenge. When Kristal died, I began to fool myself again. It is all done and gone now, and he's dead. It scares me how final these things are, a love that stains a lifetime, even as I accept it."

[Zeno Thul]

There was a long pause, some pain surfacing through a mask of exhaustion and indifference, but there was a whole ocean of it under the bloody ice.

"He gave me no mission. Guess it was my delusion that we were close." Her lip trembled. "I pushed it aside after I had felt it, needed to execute the plan. We've won, at least."

She closed her eyes. "I really should have fallen in love with you back then, Zeno. Instead of him. I really should have. We would have made a great pair, you and I, but when he came into my life I was a fool that still didn't know how to turn passion into true freedom. And then, on Nar Shaddaa, all I had in me was the thirst for power, victory, and revenge. When Kristal died, I began to fool myself again. It is all done and gone now, and he's dead. It scares me how final these things are, a love that stains a lifetime, even as I accept it."

"I read something somewhere once that helped me a great deal. The future and the past don't exist. Our minds are beholden to memory and imagination. And they can only hurt us if we let them. The only time something can hurt us without our consent is now."

"You had your reasons for feeling the way you did. I was always an arrogant jerk... and still am. But you still have a century or more ahead of you. It's likely you haven't yet found the person that can make you feel what you want. I'd possibly have been that person, but we had some pretty big barriers to entry that were not overcome so it turned out I am not."

He leans in a bit and lowers his voice, "Which is too bad. I think we'd have done some amazing things together."

Leaning back and taking a drink. "I 100% believe that he respected and cared for you, and likely didn't give you a mission because he knew you'd do what you want in your way and succeed anyway. He probably asked me about helping with his kids because we both had similar views on family and backgrounds. If it had been any other favor he'd likely have a list and you'd be above me on it."

He smiles softly. "You deserve love Moyr. Don't ever forget that or think otherwise. Things just worked out that I can only love you as a friend. But like all things you do, if you seek it you will succeed. You have a relentless drive to achieve your goals, which can help your search and also happens to be damn sexy."

[Darth Bellious]

"For lack of strength to argue, Zeno, I'll say I can believe in some plausibility of what you're saying. But we only choose so many paths in life, and time has an arrow. This present is unlike the ones before, and there is no return to them. My freedom to choose a way forward is not limitless, but determined by my past choices. And they do not point me to any second chances in this regard. I only deserve what I can attain. I must thus chart another path. A lonelier one, but perhaps more meaningful." She forced a smile. "Sexy or not."

[Zeno Thul]

"I'm not going to try to lecture or anything. I just want to remind you that you will only be as lonely as you want to be. You are my friend and very important to me. I'd lay my life on the line to protect you if you need me and call on me. So don't forget you have a person like that living in your galaxy. And if you can inspire one asshole to feel that way, you can do it again."

He empties his cup, then smiles widely at her.

"I love you, my dear and passionate friend. Always will."

[Darth Bellious]

"Damn you, Zeno." She punched him lightly with a balled fist, then leaned over to hug him, arms and lekku. "The most wonderful of all assholes."

[Zeno Thul]

"Someone has to be, to balance out the worst asshole, whoever it is," he says with a chuckle, returning the hug.

"Do you have any plans for when we escape this snowball?" he asks.

[Darth Bellious]

"I do, but I can't really talk about them too much." She grew serious, leaning back. "They have been contingent on..." She paused, the pain still too fresh. "But I suppose now there is little reason to hold back. I am going where you won't follow me, Zeno, but you'll be glad if I accomplish what I have in mind, for this is for the furtherance of what we both believe in."

She looked at him. "Perhaps if one of your children chooses the Dark Side, I can take them with me one day."

[Zeno Thul]

"They'll both be heads of one of my houses one day, so I would say look to the head of Deathwright in the future. That will likely be Kasha, honestly. But it will be her choice in the end. I want her to make decisions that suit her. And I imagine it never hurts to have an ally that heads up a military noble house," he says with a nod.

"If I get the chance, I would like to introduce you to them. Even the kinder of the two has a playful troublemaker streak."