Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

Delmi bobbed her head to the music while enjoying a drink on this rooftop bar. She found a small place off to the side and scanned the crowd for a familiar face she had contacted at the mixer waiting for her conversation partner to make her way out of the party.

Layne eventually made her way over. By herself. Her padawan had... been given the evening off. Which was a nicer way of saying she'd simply gone off by herself without telling Layne. But whatever, it was a festival and Tyche could both take care of herself and was owed some fun. Although... she didn't expect the angry girl to have a whole lot of it. Layne had *never* been like that... had she?

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she looked around for Delmi and approached when she noticed her.

"Delmi," she said with a nod, "been a bit."

Delmi smiled and nodded a greeting, "Layne... Uhh maybe Master Layne?"

She waited for a moment for confirmation. "It has been a while. When was the last time our paths crossed? Balmorra? Quesh? They all blur together."

"Most people just say Master Jedi," she said with a casual shrug, "even if it's incorrect. And I can't recall. It's been busy for all of us, I'd guess."

She'd been to so many battlefields. some of them together, that they did indeed blur into one.

She smiled and nodded, "You ready for another blob in the blur?"

She takes a drink from her glass, "Looks like there's a noble house out here that has a bit of a... pest problem. Giant bugs are taking over their home and if they aren't thinned out a bit... Some more drastic measures are in place that will be undesirable both to the buggies and to the people who live in that house."

"I've heard about the Killiks themselves being a problem, not about the specific house with the issue." She nodded. "But to my understanding they're sentient. A fellow Jedi is planning to try and come to some sort of understanding with them. Talk to them, see if there's a peaceful solution."

Delmi nodded, "That's cool... I mean if they can be convinced to leave... and like actually leave, then that's great. But from what I hear... there's not a lot of progress on that front. House Syrush is in danger of getting overrun. Probably gonna need to thin these things out a bit to make sure there's time for a peaceful solution to come to fruition."

"That may be the case," she said, nodding. "Strange as it may seem coming from me, but I'd like to avoid killing them if I could. At the same time, people are going to do it anyway, and as you say it may be necessary to keep them at bay before someone can figure out a way to come up with a better solution."

She considered it a moment.

"Which house was this, again?"

"House Syrush. One of the smaller houses." She replied.

"I'm not really up on the politics, I assume they're affiliated with one of the larger ones? Well, I don't mind helping out at least. Especially if someone else is organizing the whole thing and I don't have to worry about any of the hassle of doing that," she said with a weary chuckle. "Fair warning though, associating with me might get you killed in about... three days or so. Apparently I pissed off some house of assassins or something and they've announced they're not going to be discriminate in getting their payback."

She chuckled, "Well I'll level with you too... I'm doin' all this for the 'bad guys' that everyone around here seems to hate; House Thul. Buuttt... To be real honest with you... I'm just tryin' to get in the door over there. Figure out what the hell is goin' on around this place. I'm running some errands for them to build up my rep."

She took a drink, "But it also means we'll probably be runnin' with that Sith Duke... Zeno Thul. You gonna be alright with that?"

She was quiet for a moment, thinking about what Delmi had just said.

"...Yeah, I didn't take you for the type to suddenly go rogue like that. As for Zeno. Well, that depends on him, I expect. You know we used to be classmates, right? You should be very careful around him. Of everyone who went there, he's the *last* person I'd have expected to switch over to the republic. I don't trust it. He's playing some sort of game. Either for the empire, or for himself."

Another moment of silent thought. "So long as it's not just you, me, and a dozen of his blackguard on this mission though, I think we can work alongside him for now. That said, you know me, I'm not the most cunning type. But... if he sees you being too chummy with me, that might make your errand business a little more difficult. Could make him suspicious. You sure you can handle that?"

She smiled, "I'm cool with that. We're a squad killin' bugs; that's all. And I'm thinking of keeping it pretty tight too... no more than a handful of people. Get in... get out and try and keep House Syrush safe. It's a political thing for him for sure... but me just being me is all I can do. Most people tend to like usin' these skills I got. They don't tend to care much about what I think past that. So if I do what I do... I'm hopin' they'll want me to stick around a bit."

"Sounds solid enough to me. You got any back-up to keep you safe on the, you know, the non bughunt end of things? Actually you know what, probably better not to tell me. Operational security and such. Unless you don't have any, in which case you should probably tell me. Or someone at least. Preferably someone who can come in guns or lightsabers blazing when you hit the panic button."

"A girl's got friends if she needs them." She said with a smile and wink.

"Plus... I can always call you for the lightsaber thing, right?"

"Of course. Just uh... like I said there's the whole house of assassins thing going on. Civil tensions. And, I may or may not be a fugitive from Alderaanian justice... I'm not quite certain on how that works, really. Launching a full scale impromptu assault on house Thul to get you out if you butt-dialed me would make me even less popular with my fellow Jedi."

She laughed, “Don’t worry about it Layne. I can take care of myself most the time. And if I can’t? Well then I’ll die.”

She smiled and took a sip of her drink, “Everyone dies one day. May as well be doin’ something you’re proud of.”

She put her drink on the table, “Though I still do prefer not to die if it can be avoided.”

"Yeah, everybody dies. Although sometimes they don't stay dead. I don't see you becoming a force ghost, though. However amusing that might be. No offense."

“None taken. I don’t consider myself wise or creepy enough to linger around as a ghost.” She said with a smirk.

"They're not really all that creepy. Not the ones I've met, at least."

Well okay, *most* people *would* in fact have found them creepy.

"...and wise. Well, in the end they were. Redeeming themselves through a second death. If I ever screw up so spectacularly that I die, I hope I'll get to come back as a ghost and redeem myself a couple of thousand years down the line."