Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

Riss has sent along the call earlier in the day, and tactfully avoided even talking about the messages she sent last night in any communication prior. Instead, she waited for tonight when she'd swing by again. Dressed up a little she put on a heavy sweatshirt over a more casual, and more revealing top. Light scent of a perfume touching here and there in just the right spots as to not be an overwhelming scent.

Making her way out there she actively avoided thinking about what she was doing tonight. Just wanting to get herself there so it would be easier to slip into a headspace that felt right, natural.

With the last leg of her journey coming to a close she approaches the home of Bryson Rist.

There are a few lights, the home was well nice, at least two stories and on any other world would be considered more mansion or estate than a home. She could see someone seated on the porch that covered the front of the house with a swinging chair.

As she got closer she could see it was Bryson sitting with a datapad.

Hands joined in front of herself, one broke off to give a wave at shoulder height once she got close enough. Looking toward him, trying to meet a gze. Riss would approach while giving a softer call out of "Hey," as she tries to find a good volume that grabs attention, but is mindful of the fact the kids might be asleep. All part of the process for her arrival.

As she finishes the last leg of the journey and gets closer still to the porch to be conversational she adds, "You have a beautiful home," she says with a slightly lopsided smile.

Bryson looked up and said, “Oh thanks, it’s been in the family for well… a few generations. My great-great-great-great aunt built it, with her bare hands. And droid hands. Lots of hands, really.”

"Still a dork," she comments idly, brushing a bit of hair behind an ear. She comes up along the porch proper. Walking over to his end, "Was she a great woman too? Your great-great-great aunt who was really just great?" she teases with a brief laugh.

Sitting herself beside him, if there's room, or finding another seat nearby if there isn't. She gives a nod at the datapad, "What're you working on there?" she asks with a raised brow.

“I really don’t know, we keep her portrait up over the fire place, the kids call her Aunt Broody. I know she came from House Alde.”

“Work, I like to get ahead when I can. Even on my wonderful vacation,” he said turning it off. “Normal dorky father things. Hot brew?” he offered.

“The secret ingredient is a dash of love and whiskey.”

"Now, that's a combination I like," she says with a brief, warm chuckle. Nodding her head in assent to the offer.

"You know, I have a friend in house Alde. Aurilie, we.. well, when Kat left, another friend of mine, I needed someone close and that was her," she said, a softness in her tone for the memory. "Forgot how much I missed her until I saw her again couple days ago," she adds, another smile. Chuckling she tacks on, "Broody.. might be something of an Alde family trait."

He poured her a cup from a hydro-thermos, "Maybe, I can't really say. We are a distant relation at best by now."

Taking the cup with both hands she taps her fingers on it, a physical response to the turning of wheels in her head, "So.." she starts, but loses track of where she's going. Taking a sip from the cup in the meantime.

"This.. whole thing," she says, glancing off toward the palace a moment like it was somehow connected. "When it comes time to? How do you help me out of my situation?" she asks with a half-chuckle. "Like.. what kind of strings do you pull?"

“It’s not terribly complicated actually… I will make a few calls, talk to the right people and it should be a simple matter. Mortality is a rather business-like affair on Alderaan. We are a civilized people after all,” he offered.

“Mostly.”

"Mostly," she chuckles, there's that nervous tinge to it infected by the fact her mortality was the one floating about in the conversation. Looking down into the cup she exhales slow, "So," she looks up to him, a furrow to her brow, "Hypothetically.. if I didn't do what you asked me to do, would you just watch me die?" she asks, there's a heaviness to the tension there in the moment.

Something she works to relieve herself a little with, "Well.. not watch me, watch me die but.. ya know, just turn your head and forget it all happened?"

“Politics matters on Alderaan, I can’t just get House Uros to stop, they have their Honor on the line. That matters to people,” he said honestly.

“I wouldn’t watch, but I would have no means to stop it.”

"I know," she says, her tones soft rather than despondent. A nod, "I know," she says with the briefest of smiles.

Letting the mood linger for a moment before there's a slight up-turn in her tone, "Thanks for before by the way. The uh.. advice you gave me last night? Sorry, about that too while I'm at it," she says with a half chuckle. Bringing a hand to the back of her neck she brushes it along awkwardly.

"I understand," he said chuckling. "Now, I stick to hot brew in moderation. Kids don't care about hangovers."

"Doubt they would," she laughs briefly, looking to him with a smile that settles passively. "They're asleep now, right?" she asks, glancing toward the building itself, a window or something, with the question.

"They should be," he said. She can hear frantic footsteps and oofs and other sounds come from behind the door. One even calls back with a high pitched, "I am sleeping!"

"See they are sleeping."

"They sound very asleep," she laughs, hand coming up on its side to half cover her mouth when she did. Sitting with the warmth in her cheeks a moment as she puts both back on the cup and takes a shorter sip than she usually did, which meant it was pretty average.

Assuming they're sharing the seat, she scoots just a bit closer to him, "So.. last night there was another thing. When we met, and I was leaving, that thing. You seemed.. it wasn't anything much, but was it a bad call or.."

"It was unexpected, not bad just not something I was expecting. So much so I am repeating myself. Being dad tends to blind me to other things even when I have company," he said honestly.

"I couldn't imagine it, the stress of it all, kids are.." she shudders a little. "A lot. Little bundles of people you can just mess up with and hurt for years without realizing it or anything.. just trying your best," she says, her voice a touch softer as she sets her head down against his shoulder.

"Seem like you're doing good though.. they sounded, happy? Curious?" she shrugs.

“I was doing well until you put that little existential crisis in my head,” he said looking back at the door.

“It’s a full time job, I know that is cliché, but it’s true. I don’t even have a bed, it’s just a waystation for children with bad dreams and a tired old dad who just happens to be there.”

Bryson focused on Riss and said, “But back to what you were saying, kids make dating… even noble courtship a challenge and actually not really a concern.”