Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

Having sent the message earlier in the day they managed to track down a time in the schedule to talk. This was that time. In a place where Kat could feel safe discussing things. Somewhere that Riss hoped she might get an even better look at this picture, as clouded as it currently is.

And maybe.. maybe start piecing together what this light was supposed to be.

Making her presence known Riss paces a little outside of the door. One hand passively on the back of her holstered blaster and the other swing out to her side. With her thumb she picked through her nails a bit as she walked, back and forth, toward and away from the door.

In meditation as she waited, Kat was reflecting on the events of the day, as well as that of the past days to try to glean a better understanding. Or if there was anything she had missed.

Then she was alerted to Riss' presence outside. With a soft sigh, she rose from her seat and stepped over to open the door. As expected, she was dressed in her usual browns and whites when the door opened, and she took a step to the side to make the way inside more open for Riss.

"Good evening. Please come in," she said softly, her tone calm as always.

"Hey," Riss managed out with that somewhat rush inspired by the fidgeting. Walking into the room as Kat allowed and walking near toward the center before glancing around quick and taking in only the briefest look at her surroundings. Enough time for her head to switch into gear. Turning on her heel she looks back to Kat, hands both going down to rest comfortably on her own hips.

"Sorry about last night," she offers a conciliatory shrug.

The room, like all the lodgings for the guests, was quite nice. Though it really lacked in much of personal belongings to its occupant. Kat was never one to travel with many personal effects, and the traditional noble regalia that was standing on a dress-form was probably something she'd leave behind here on Alderaan when it was time to leave.

She took a deep breath, watching the door close before looking to Riss. "I was worried about you, Riss," she said at first. "At least I saw you later at the parade, but... I was worried."

"Yea well, you're always worried about me," she looks up from downcast eyes with a subtle, hesitant smirk as she kicks her foot across the ground a little. A swaying of her hips with the motion. Glancing back down she settles the smirk before she walks over to Kat and puts both hands onto either shoulder, "I.. needed space. A lot of it. You.. dropped a pretty big bomb on me, ya know? I wanted to find you again after but.." she shook her head, letting her hands back down and resting them on her own hips.

"I couldn't just sit in the Spire pretending like things were just okay after that. Not a safe place to talk.. just sitting with knowing there's this thing I need to know that I couldn't? So.. I walked, and I walked and I found myself at the parade. Thought I might find you there, and I did, but.. even then it wasn't a good time or place so I went and did what I always do," she gives a half-hearted chuckle. "Went to the bar, found myself a prince to flirt with and forgot everything for a little while. It was nice. Joran even punched some douche for me," she adds with a rising mirth to her tone.

Feeling Riss' hands on her shoulders, Kat raised a hand to touch her elbow, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I figured you needed space, yes. I just... after everything, I couldn't not tell you as soon as I could. If you had ended up in danger because I had been holding back, that would've been on me, Riss. You had a right to know, so that you could be safe."

She sighed, and released a short chuckle as she looked up then down. "But yes, it wasn't the best place to do it. For that I'm sorry. I should've insisted on some place else."

"You know me," she chuckles lightly, bringing a hand up and brushing it along Kat's cheek. From hand to simply her thumb, an extra stroke before it rested there, "I'm never safe," she laughs, there's that teasing scrunch of her nose and then the hand slides back down once more and finds Kat's. Taking a hold she tugs her a little bit more into her own space, finding a nearby couch where she could sit them down. Pushing aside one of those fancy throw-pillows that well-off folk always love putting on their couches.

"But.. thank you, for telling me. It helped," she said, settling down and still holding to Kat's hand. "I just.. need you to tell me more. Everything you can, mm? I can't not know, now. I need.. everything," she says, her tone drifting into determination.

"There's regular Riss-safe, and then there's sleeping with terrorists-safe," Kat retorted, half-smiling but her tone was serious, betraying her concern for Riss. And the often questionable choice in partners she made.

Kat still wasn't sure if this was the worst one yet. Though she figured that the two of them would have very different opinions on what was terrible and questionable.

Following the tug, they sat. The couch, apart from its decorative pillows, was quite spacious and comfortable, allowing them both good space to sit. "There's a group of dangerous people that want to throw Alderaan into civil war, Riss. Remember the protests the other day that attack prince Joran, and then what happened last night at the parade? This group has been pushing for these protests, and making them violent with aggressive rhetoric and harmful talking points. Their current objective here is to destabilize Alderaan, which will weaken the Republic... and then work towards the main objective which is to eliminate the Jedi Order. It is probably why they had someone pretending to be a Jedi at the parade, to add more to the pyre, so to speak."

Sighing, she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. In the moment her weariness and how much all of this had been weighing on her since yesterday was visible.

"Not everyone's happy with the Treaty of Coruscant, not even me. But instigating violence, pushing for civil war, spreading misinformation among the houses to create further division when Alderaan needs to come together to heal after the war... it's terrorism, and it's going to see a lot of people hurt if they succeed." The look in her eyes when she had left Coruscant alive was back, that determination along with the sorrow. "I don't want to see another war on Alderaan again. Not after having fought against the Sith here."

"I don't want to either. I've.. run away from this place once but, much as I hate some of what's here I do love this planet. Its home," she says with a light smile.

"Can we.. prove this is the group responsible? That that's what they're trying to do here on Alderaan?" she asks, her thumb brushing along Kat's hand. It was less something she did as reassurance but a fidget from the nervousness she felt building up a bit more as things come nearer the surface.

"What do you mean?" Kat looked at her with a bit of surprise. "Riss, I wouldn't be talking about this out of thin air. My fellow Jedi had intel ID'ing their agents on Alderaan, one of them being this Bryson Rist."

Her hand held onto Riss' tighter. "It seems... too convenient now, that this thing lined up so quickly for you and Bo to get you away from that assassination-contract. I intend to investigate further, starting with speaking with House Uros. Just in case there was more to that than what it seemed, if it was about using you or your brother as an unknowing delivery person for their fabricated intel." With a pause, she shook her head. "I'm sorry for not thinking of it sooner, Riss. That you got caught up in this."

"Hearing that a lot lately," she chuckles awkwardly as she shifts her seating a bit. Glancing down her brow furrows. "I know.. you think you know who Bryson is, but.. he's not like that. Topple the Jedi? Destabilize the Republic? He's.. just a good guy, a single father with kids he wants to make Alderaan better for. Neither of those goals make any sense for someone like him."

"Whatever's going on? That's not Bryson. His image being among those files," she shakes her head, looking up and making eye contact with Kat. "He's.. involved, but not in any of this. Not in this grand scheme that you see going on. What this group you're chasing wants."

"Riss." The name was said firmly. "You met this guy less than a week ago. You don't know who he is just because you've slept with him a couple of times. The man you know is what he has chosen to show to you."

Kat let go off her hand, retreating to her own lap for now as she looked at her friend. "I'm not saying he's personally holding the blaster, but people died the other day on Delaya; either directly killed by his friends, or as collateral damage. People are dead on Alderaan too, because their continued existence threatens their plans." She sighed, looking off for a moment, before looking back to Riss.

"How many Sith or Imperial troopers do you think also had family and children? Same for murderers, terrorists... everyone in the galaxy has someone in their life; family, friends, children. Many of them also tell themselves that they're doing unspeakable actions on their behalf. It doesn't excuse it, or redeem those actions."

Kat wasn't angry, but she... upset. "But tell me how starting a civil war in these times is going to make Alderaan better for anyone? All the thousands of people who will die? The young children of the houses they're painting to be the villains to the others? Telling people who are looking for answers to their frustration that Bouris Ulgo will somehow make everything better are telling lies. Doesn't matter if it's Ulgo or anyone else; if another House violently tries to or even succeeds at removing the current royal family, it will drag everyone else into a disastrous conflict. I've spoken with the protesters, and that's the swill they've been fed by the ones behind this movement."

Riss' brows furrow, eyes narrowing in on Kat as she starts to speak. Kat let go first but Riss' hand retracted quicker. Hands going to either side of the couch by her thighs and pushing with her legs so she could stand and walk away. Hands flexing a bit as she moves into the center of the room.

"I'm not a child, Kat," she says, her words are sharp. Turning back around she points a finger at her, "And you.. especially you don't get to talk to me like I am one. Strangers I can brush off but my best friend, the one person I trust most, rely on most.." she seethes a little. Eyes welling, "Only because I slept with him a few times? Seriously Kat? Did you just say that? Do you really think that little of me?"

"You think you've got the full picture.. but you don't, I know you don't."

Kat took a moment to reflect, consider her words, before speaking again. Still she remained seated, legs half-crossed and her hands in her lap. "I'm sorry, Riss, but... this isn't like any of our previous adventures. This is dangerous. I can tell you like him. But that is why I am saying this. You're not thinking clearly, because you like him." When she spoke, she again had her usual calm.

"I do not think little of you, Riss. I know you are a person who cares deeply about people you like, which is not a bad thing in itself. But I'm saying all this to you because I can't always be there to save you from danger, but what I can do is to try to steer you away from it. Prevent it from happening to you. Because I care about you."

Riss watches her a moment, standing with her hands coming down to her hips. After some time, time to think, she approaches again and walks right up to Kat. Putting hands to either side of Kat's head as she leans in and kisses her forehead. Holding there a moment, "I know you care, but I don't need you to save me this time. I need you to trust me," she says, hands brushing along the side of her head through the hair.

"He's.. not a villain. He's not someone I'm in danger from," she says, shifting her footing and leaning down to sit on the couch beside Kat again. Leaning her head on her shoulder if allowed, "If everything's like you said? I don't know how much he's done. But, he's being used, or.. mislead because a weakened Alderaan and Republic isn't what he wants. He's just trying to so what he thinks is best.. just like me. Which.. is why I need that proof. If he's wrong, I need to show him he's wrong."

Her words struck a chord with her, and she looked at Riss, the pink-hair agains her brown-clad shoulder. Either Riss was projecting a lot on him, or she had talked to him. "... You've spoken with him about this?"

There's a moment of hesitancy, tension, but it settles and calms as she speaks. A soft tone as she admits, "I needed to know."

The words didn't hit her hard. Instead they felt more like a knife slowly sinking in.

Maybe she wasn't able to balance her attachment to Riss as a friend after all, Kat thought, looking away from Riss so that she didn't see the hurt in her straight on. Now she was the one to stand up from the couch, walking away from it in silence to the middle of the room.

It hurt.

"I trusted you when I told you." And that trust had been fractured now for her.

Riss leaned away when she stood, hands in her lap. Sitting there for a moment, "If that's how you feel? I don't think you ever trusted me Kat. Not as much as you think," she says, blowing air out between pursed lips as she stands.

"Supposed to just sit on my hands? Sit down, shut up, act pretty and stay safely away until we want you or need you. Disregard what I know is true? Nah.. if you trusted me, you'd trust I know what I'm doing. But you don't. Cause you can't get over this idea he's the villain in this story or.. or maybe you just don't believe in me, maybe you never really did," her voice is low, but there's that pained conviction to her words.

Hand resting down passively on the back of her blaster she looks from Kat toward the door, thinks, and then starts walking toward it.

"I didn't say do nothing, Riss," Kat said, looking over her shoulder. She was upset and frustrated, even underneath that Jedi-calm.

"But... no... I'm hurt that you believe him, more than me. A man you've known a couple of days, compared to someone who's known you a long time, and has always been there to pull you out of any mess you got yourself into when you took on more trouble than you could manage." She sighed, placing her hands on her hips as she looked down at the floor.

"It's not you I don't trust, Riss. I don't trust him. And knowing that that you ran to him to tell him what I told you last night... I cannot share more with you than I already have. I can't. Too many lives are at stake for me to share that. You can hate me for it, but that is the choice I must make."