Galaxy's Edge Space Bar

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

~Raile~

Raile nods as he listens and then casts his eyes down.  "I've had more than enough practice of late.  The people I had befriended on Dantooine turned on me after listening to the so-called "Emperor's" propaganda.  A man I considered my greatest friend, and one whom I held in high regard...I killed him.  He drew a blaster on me out of nowhere.  I deflected a shot into his weapon-arm, but as soon as he dropped the blaster, he pulled a knife with the other hand and charged me.  I only meant to push him away...his back shattered on the column he flew into.  And the others...they'd informed the "Empire" of my whereabouts...I had to face a dark Jedi...I fled as soon as I could and...well I ended up here."

[Darth Revan]

Garreth's eyes widened, "A dark Jedi? Some of our brothers joined the Sith?" He pauses a moment to allow the information to sink in, "By your very presence, I take it you defeated him." Garreth shakes his head, "The future sounds very bleak indeed. I only hope you are able to survive it and create a better one; even if only on a single world."

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Al grinned at Ewa, "I'm pretty sure I ran over here not to deal with something, while you only followed out of morbid curiosity." He sighed and glanced up the ramp, "If I know Salem, it's time for us to be moving on. Too much danger and we're out of here." He bowed deeply to her with a flourish, "It has, however, been a pleasure to know you."


Salem continued to watch his display of his surroundings. Two figures near the door appeared to be fighting, and two more a distance away seemed to be... performing acrobatics? With... energy swords? One jumped a ridiculous distance into the air- Salem sighed and turned away. More mysteries at this bar to look into later. They seemed to be cropping up faster than he could solve them.

As a matter of curiosity, he called up a readout on Ewa and Al, now at the bottom of the ship's ramp. As he finished tying his cloak on around his neck, he looked at the display, then narrowed his eyes. He ordered the computer to compare Ewa's anatomy and physiology with those of known species.

"The hell...?" he muttered. Ewa was showing up as a Paladinian. Ordinarily, they were one of the standard species Salem's ship would have scanned for, but as this particular ship had never, as far as Salem was aware, existed in the same universe as a Paladinian, it was a functionality he'd never bothered turning on. So, was Ewa truly a Paladinian? And if so, was she from his home universe? And if so... could she be his key to getting back?

Salem ordered the wall/door of his "closet" open and stepped out, quickly, and began walking down the ship's ramp, his head covered in a hood, his black cloak billowing out behind him as he walked. The spurs on his now-black cowboy boots clanked audibly as he walked, and where the cloak blew back, it revealed what looked a bit like a blue-gray flight suit... or at least it would have, without the visible shoulder pads and plating.

"You're Paladinian!?" he asked incredulously, approaching Ewa. He stopped in front of her and looked her up and down. Of course, there was no way to tell a Paladinian on sight alone under most circumstances. He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, then smiled and took down his hood, "Sorry, just not expecting to meet a Paladinian here. Nice to see somebody from a respectable species. It's nothing but Yeerks and primitive Humans and blue grass-munching dirtbags lately. So tell me... Ewa, right? How is it that a Paladinian ends up in this little place?"

Al had straightened from his bow when Salem exited the ship, and looked at Ewa with some surprise. He gave a slight whistle, "I sure hope you meant to look human, because you sure as heck pull it off." He frowned, "So... you're not who you said you were?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

~Raile~

"Count Dooku...a venerated Jedi apprenticed himself to the Sith Lord known as Palpatine.  The very same Sith that maneuvered his way into the Supreme Chancellor's chair and then wrested all power away from the Galactic Senate.  Worse, Anakin Skywalker...rumored to be the one who would fulfill the prophecy of returning balance to the Force...turned on us.  He...killed many.  And the Army that had been cloned for the Republic had also been programmed to turn on the Jedi apparently at Palpatine's leisure.  Nothing else could account for the multiple simultaneous deaths, bolstered by our own Clones turning on us."  He lowers his eyes.  "So many died..."

[Darth Revan]

Garreth bowed his head for a moment's silence, then picked up his head and slung his arm around Raile's shoulders and guided him back toward the bar, "We really need to drive our conversations away from your past. Perhaps meeting someone else would shape our conversations to a better form."

[Shenmue654]

Keshin watches some of Ossanlin's eyes travel to him and groans. It was pretty clear that the Andalite wasn't going to either trust them or leave them alone. And considering the entire rebel gang seemed caught up in something, it was almost best to leave them alone for the time being. Oddly enough, his best chance of getting anything done at all was with Jocun. Keshin wandered over to his table and glanced at him with a grin.

"You seem pretty confused," stated Keshin with a slight grin. "This isn't your Bar, isn't your time period, and you're surrounded by vigilantes. What in the world was it like in your Yeerk Empire, anyway? Did we all suddenly decide to hold hands and kiss Andalite butt? I never could get much of a bead on it other than its similarity to rebellion doctrine."
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Mar frowns, flashing back to the strange incident they both participated in outside the Bar. "It...still makes very little sense. For reasons I cannot fathom, I chose to assist you in destroying a universal flaw. I have seen things of that kind before. But still...doing so might have caused me damage under the wrong circumstances. Sticking with such foolish ideals has caused me nothing but trouble in past incarnations. I should...avoid what I appear to be attempting before it twists me again. All you seem to find with kinship is pain."

[Myitt]

"He's not babysitting you right now, is he?" Myitt asks Tamora gently.

Distracted, she turns back to Ossanlin. "Yeah. Pretty much what I thought you were going to say. So that's all settled, welcome to next year." Her tone is flat, grim.

[Chad32]

"we don't kiss Andalite butt. We own Andalite butt. In a way, at least. They have rights just like everyone else. A lot of Yeerks didn't like what the original Council did, but the Council had the Kandrona and a lot of Vissers that were loyal to them. In the last great battle, a lot of Vissers died. In fact most of the people loyal to the Council died in the last glorious push on the Andalite homeworld. Instead of sending grunts to do their work, the glory hounds wanted to be there personally to get credit. The Visser who studied Humans so much and succeeded in the operation to sieze the Human Homeworld was put in charge of the onslaught against the andalites, though many other Vissers had roles in it."

"After the war was over, the Yeerk Empire was more or less in shambles. It took time to regroup, and in that time people started saying they didn't want another war. The Council couldn't do much. They didn't have enough loyal Vissers to enforce their rule, and couldn't use the threat of genocide to scare their people into complacency. There was an uprising. A bit of civil conflict. A new Empre rose from the ashes, and the only conflict left was inner conflict. One of the top debates was how to treat hosts, though obviously that wasn't the only issue. We don't all hold hands and sing songs of peace and love, but we also don't expand our borders, and we don't have much reason to opress hosts aside from some that think ruling the galaxy also means being superior to the hosts that allow us to have what we have."


<Please just tell us everything so we can get this over and done with, instead of hiding the Gregnat in the scoop.> Claxter said.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

~Ossanlin~

Ossanlin blinks as more memories return.  <But what Corliss did was the lesser of evils...yes, it was you...your Council that wanted to do something horrendous.  And Corliss stopped you with his actions.>  He squeezes his eyes shut, pulse pounding in his ears as sharp pains pass through his brain, and then are gone just as quickly.  He glances at Mar.  <It is not all you gain, and you will never know if you do not let it happen.>



___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _____________

~Raile~

Raile shakes his head.  "I rather like the fresh air, I think I'll stay out here for a time.  You may return if you so desire, Garreth.  You have already done me a great favor, I would not ask more of you."

[Shenmue654]

Keshin gives Jocun an utterly skeptical expression, as if someone just said that you could cure world hunger. Which was pretty much what Jocun's Yeerk Empire appears to have done. "Excuse me, but that Imperial line almost has to be bull****," says Keshin sardonically. "I realize all the power-hungry Vissers died in a fire, but the propaganda shoved down our throats was an institution. New, equally arrogant Vissers would just come and replace the dead ones, and the Rebellion members are in a minority. Even with a civil war at hand the idea of cooperating with host bodies at all is totally foreign to the average Yeerk. I realize this is exactly what happened, but..."

Keshin smirks slightly. "...I really doubt the hosts are treated with the kind of equality you're describing. They're probably more along the lines of second-class citizens who conform because they've been inundated with it since birth. I could be dead wrong, but I haven't seen one intelligent race on any planet without arbitrary hate. Except maybe the Taxxons, out of necessity."
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Mar almost snarls, a sneer crawling across his face. Even without the centuries of memories that prove the War-Prince wrong, Mar has had enough bitterness to last him. The comment just brings that dull ache back into his heart. "I know a great deal about friendships, Ossanlin. I know that power and greed often rules above kindness. I know friends who have killed to take my assets and friends who could no longer stand to be around me. I know instances where I have been abandoned for no fault of my own, and parents that hate their own children." This last comment causes Mar to visibly shake. The interesting thing about being mortal, Mar has found, is that many more emotions than he's used to come to the surface.

"You seem to be something of a bleeding heart, War-Prince," mutters Mar, the emotions lowering to a cool simmer. "But are you suggesting that you would hold my heart dear no matter what occurred?"

[Terenia]

Tamora nods, trying to take solace from that fact.

"I don't like it when he isn't here," she admits, biting her lip. "He's always the one with the good ideas. He's the Yeerk, the smart one. I'm just...human." She shrugs. "My place isn't here in the front of things. I'm supposed to sit back and help when I can."

[Chad32]

"There ar still Yeerks who treat hosts like second class citizens. There is still conflict. But it's...how would you understand? Take a look at Human culture. At one time people killed each other right and left without consequences because someone was royalty and the other guy was a peasant. Females of our host's species were treated as property or just big children that it was acceptable to breed with. Eventually equality came around. sure there were problems here and there, but in most developed society it was frowned upon to treat people without equality."

"Of course we're talking about something different here. Different species, and one of which has nearly complete control over the other. If I didn't want simon to move his body, there isn't really anything he can do about it while I'm inside him. However we don't have complexes where lines of hosts are led to and from pools and sit in cages when they are uninfested. Ideally society tends to improve over time. We get better at surviving, lives get easier due to technology, and barriers come down. I can't say exactly why Human society improved the way it did, and I suppose I can't say exactly why Yeerk society did. Maybe it's just that people in power rely on other people to follow them. When those people stop following them, they lose most of their power. If you opress, you rely on like minded people to help you opress. When you lose them, you lose your ability to control others. death happens in war, and when you send your most loyal people to the front lines, they're the ones that die. Of course the more ambitious and bloodthirsty or ruthless will want to be in the action, and are more likely to bite it."

"What would you accept as proof that I'm telling the truth? I suppose any host you talk to could just be brainwashed? Of course a memory dump is out of the question."

[Darth Revan]

Parker shrugs, "Well, I can't give mine up if I had the choice, not that I'd want to." He continued to survey the conversations and absorb as much intel as he could. It certainly has helped piece together what he had missed in the year he was gone.



Garreth released Raile and gave him a bow. Before leaving to the bar, he looked back to Raile and added, "Remember, good thoughts from here on out." He gives him a wink and heads back towards the bar.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

~Ossanlin~

He glances at Mar again, giving him more attention.  <What I hold dear is the greater good, Mar.  I do what I must, and pay the price.  I suppose in your terms, the price I would have to pay to end our friendship in an unfavorable manner is one I would do much to avoid.>

[Shenmue654]

Keshin thinks on what Jocun is trying to say, still a bit baffled. The Empire he came from was far less human in both its logic and its treatment of others. Subordinate Yeerks could be murdered by superior Vissers and almost no one would care. Friendships could be broken at the drop of a hat and kinship meant nothing. It was as if the vast majority of Yeerks had taken human hosts and absorbed some of their morality.

<Actually, Kess...that might've been it. They got human bodies an' ended up a lil' human themselves. Lookin' with diff'rent eyes. Didn' you say that's how it was?>

<...yes. The influence of the host upon the Yeerk.>

Keshin closes his eyes and states, "....I believe you. But you must have noticed that what you offer is confusing to practically everyone here. You're coming into a time and place where love is a temporary illusion at best with Yeerks. At worst, it's illegal. Where everyone is at war. The entire Bar can break out into a fight in barely an hour. People here are going to find you really damn suspicious, okay?" ******************************************************************************************************************************************
Mar glances at Ossanlin quietly, vivid memories surfacing of the battles between the bounty hunter, over Terenia, and many other instances that have crossed the Bar. They have a sort of bond here, temporary as such things may be. But there is one thing Mar does not and refuses to understand. "...what would you call the greater good, War-Prince? That which saves the greatest number of people? That doesn't honestly sound like what occurred with that brat Terenia. Many patrons were wounded or killed over the insanity of one broken mind. My problem, you see...is that I cannot accept a world that believes in such a thing. Someone always falls, Ossanlin."

Mar looks at the Andalite carefully for a moment and mutters, "Judging from your actions and your constant presence at this Bar, I'm not so sure you really believe in it either. Why not forget the greater good and aim to help those that really matter?"