Galaxy's Edge Space Bar (archive)

[Shenmue654]

"You can hold me to my word, unfortunately," Mar groans. "Since I've actually agreed to do something pretty clearly I'm forced to comply. This whole affair has been infuriating. All I wanted to do was pay your tab."

He then glances at Mike suspiciously and states, "What on Earth do you think is wrong with him? He doesn't look safe somehow."

[Myitt]

"Mmm, instead you've admitted you own my eternal soul, and made quite a few enemies."  Myitt grins.  "Welcome to the Space Bar."  She grimaces, looking down at her right arm and prodding at the swollen flesh around the grey, concrete-like bandages.  Her last batch of painkillers is wearing off and it looks a little...too red around the edges.  She's been cut by Hork-Bajir blades before, but sitting around and drinking for a day afterwards generally isn't recommended.  Besides, her face is bruised on one side, and her side still aches from where Seran threw her into the bar counter.  Luckily nothing broken, or the pain would be much worse.  Perhaps a bruised rib.  She sighs, lost in thought...about her injuries, and her life...whatever's left of it.

Corliss shakes his head.  "Don't look at me, I'm not pulling that thing off of his neck."

[Shenmue654]

 Mar stares at the young man, debating whether or not to try to help him. That Yeerk Corliss seems to have a good sense about these things. It might not be a good idea to set him free, but his constant jittering is starting to grind on my nerves.

He then notices Myitt's obvious pain and his face becomes forlorn. He comes up a bit closer. "Poor thing. Do you want me to help with that? I cannot heal it but I think I could it make it so that it does not hurt as much."

[applix]

Mike began to pull himself up the stool and held out a hand towards Corliss, palm flat and shaky. "Get away from me!" He growled, still not looking at him as his body was turned away from most of them. His mind ached as the shadow began shouting at him, his mind lapsing for a moment before he finally realized he had turned and was looking at Myitt.

After a split second he glanced over to Corliss and growled again, moving to stand up. "I know why you won't help me yeerk, you don't have to explain yourself to me." He coughed and began to look around the bar for something to work with. "Give me a blade or something, I'll do it myself!" He yelled to no one in particular.

***

Applix seemed to be watching the boy with his brown eyes from across the bar. He knew nothing of medicine or he would have helped the boy earlier, and now he just stood dumbstruck. It had been a long time since he'd been forced to deal with something like this.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

((Wow, heavy posting for one day.  :p))

*Ossanlin watches with calm reservation as the proceedings continue within the bar.  His fur flickers silver again and fades back to blue...it was turning out to be very difficult indeed to will his silver-blade form back into existance.  It was obviously something he would not be able to do at a tail-whip, and maybe something he wouldn't be able to do very often either.*

<I wish I was silver right now Corliss, then I could help this poor human some more...unfortunatel y it's not quite under my control.>  *he slowly removes his hands from the boy's weak body as he sits up to take a drink.  Corliss taps the collar and the boy suddenly convulses terribly.  He backs up as the boy falls to the floor, gripping the gurney.  Strangely he is unable to truly sense the boy's aura.  He had no idea where the human had truly come from or what his capabilities were.  It was obvious that he was not a normal human, given the fact that he was here.  As the shock ends, Ossanlin tries to take stock of the boy again.  He was lost and confused, obviously very scared.  Now a strange aura seemed to emanate from him, and it was getting stronger by the moment.  This was not boding well, yet he felt that the aura was simply something surrounding the boy and not actually coming from him.  Ossanlin needed more time to assess the situation...that collar would need to go, but as of yet he had no ideas.  He watches as the boy sets it off again, but Corliss does not act.  The boy tries to run across the bar and trips, the collar going off again.  Ossanlin winces with his main eyes as he watches the poor being twist and convulse on the floor.  He attempts to salve the boy's feelings of flight.*

<Calm down...Mike.  Look, I may be able to remove that cursed thing from your neck but not for a while...look, just relax and sit down in an easy chair.  I have certain abilities that may or may not assist you in getting that off, but it will take some time for me to make use of them.>  *Ossanlin tried to buy some time and keep the youth calm as he directed a private thought-speech to Corliss.*

<<What did you sense?  Why didn't you try to remove it.  Do you think the boy is dangerous?>>  *Ossanlin watches Corliss with a stalk-eye watching for an affirmative nod or negative head-shake.*

*in regular thought-speech again, he continues looking at Mike with his main eyes.*  <Why don't we chat for a bit.  Do you remember anything else about the Skrit Na ship?  Or anything from your past?  You're a long way from Earth...>  *Ossanlin keeps his other stalk-eye on Myitt and Mar.*

[Myitt]

((Yeah, things got a little out of hand, haha ))

Myitt watches Mar, coldly.  "If I ask you to help with the pain, will I owe you the arm?" She smiles a little.  "I think I would rather stick to normal medicine."  She sighs, digging through her jacket and taking out a small vial of clear liquid with Yeerkish text wrapped all around it.  She snaps open the lid and drinks its contents, shivering.  "Ugh.  I hate this stuff, you know, they really need to make it taste like grape or something."  The pain in her arm and various bruises diminishes almost instantly to a manageable level, and she sets the empty vial down next to the tupperware pool that's still sitting in front of her.  The generator in it is still humming faintly, but it seems to be single use only.  Myitt gently peels back one of the antiseptic putty bandages and winces.  "Nnh...could be worse."

"It's not what you think, Mike, I just...think this should be left to someone who knows what that bloody thing can do," Corliss says, nodding very slightly at Ossanlin: he's also distressed about this human child.  Something about him he can't quite place.  Perhaps a natural distrust of those who seem innocent but have been tagged with a collar that electrocutes them, keeps them in line for no apparent reason.  Why would someone do such a thing?  As he considers these things he glances back at the hovering holoscreen, closing it out. 

[applix]

Mike kept pleading with the shadow, but it was already beginning to possess him. As far as it was concerned he was going back on the deal and his body convulsed latent from the shocks given by the collar. The youth struggled to see around the bar, grabbing what appeared to be a steak knife left over from one table.

"I remember it all, and that's why I want this ****ing thing off of my neck!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, reaching up to the device with a hand and socking it with a fist.

His body convulsed again, but his grip on the knife grew tight. He could feel the dark motivation he had to finish his quest or duty, and so he concentrated even while being shocked. When his frail body had gone limp against the table he had been leaning on, he slowly pushed the knife up to the collar. He began to saw at the collar with haste and his breaths became very shallow with it barely doing anything to the device. Eventually he gave up before the device could turn back on and he sighed, glaring over to Myitt with almost pleading eyes. He walked over to her and if allowed would stand beside her, the knife still in-hand. "Can you get it off?"

His sight had returned almost completely now and so he could focus on things such as her eyes, but his focus drifted away leaving an innocent but ghoulish appearance on his visage.

***

Applix looked on to Ossanlin with concern, knowing full well that the andalite was going through mixed feelings about the boy. Applix didn't know what to think himself or he'd be in the same boat. When he heard the Skirt Na his eyes twitched and he walked towards his friend Ossanlin. <I think I might have some logs of their ships, those local to this area. I'll be right back.> He patted his waist again where his weapon was usually stashed, knowing that he had left any significant communications devices on his ship as well.

[Myitt]

Corliss watches the boy yell and thrash against the collar, then walk over to his sibling.  He felt more than a little uneasy.

Myitt stares at Mike, then at the knife in his hands.  "Sorry, kid, I'm not in the best shape right now."  She holds up her bandaged arm and glares across the room at Corliss. 

He shrugs helplessly.

Myitt's free hand edges toward the Dracon in her jacket...just in case.  "Mar, perhaps you can help this human child?"

[applix]

Mike seemed to hesitate for a moment after Myitt spoke to him. He was fighting the good fight but he didn't exactly know what to fight or why. He seemed suddenly aware of one fact though- Myitt had to die. The shadow had done its job and now it backed off, letting the youth's confusion do its job. He wasn't far away at all now and he needn't even tense in order to strike out.

His body lunged at her, muddy and holy suit stretching as he stabbed and sliced at her with the jagged but sharp steak knife. "****ing YEERK SLUG!" He screamed, tears rolling down his eyes as rage came over them. He wasn't trained in hand-to-hand combat but he was a dangerous beserker at the moment, thrashing the knife around in front of him.

***

Applix managed to escape mayhem, walking towards his ship. But he was sure to hear dracon fire or something similar in a few moments.

[Myitt]

"F*ck!" Myitt exclaimed as she backed the seat away from the crazy human, totally shocked.  She instinctively reaches for her Dracon, but the swinging knife catches her in the wounded arm, tearing a fresh slice deep into her already torn jacket.  She backs away further, drawing the weapon shakily with her left hand and firing at Mike without much time to aim.

[applix]

Mike didn't even know what had happened when he opened his eyes and saw only black. He could feel a splinter shoved into his cheek and his squashed nose pressing up against wood planks. He could feel almost nothing from his body, the shock from the collar still wearing off. The shadow had left him, but it had taken his eyesight with. He felt panic writhing through him and he tried to turn himself onto a side, but something felt wrong.

The shaky hand holding the Dracon had fired at Mike's right leg and now only a cauterized stump remained. When the youth tried to turn to that side searing pain went through his body, his mouth opening to let out a scream in agony. This all had happened in an instant, so it wasn't a surprise thoughts had crashed in on him during the time it took for the pain travel to his brain. He collapsed back onto the floor, the collar contacting the wood paneling. His body convulsed, looking almost comical as he thrashed without his right leg. When the movements ceased it was like someone had changed the channel and only a very soft sobbing could be heard. His mind ached and he hadn't a clue what was going on. The b*tch of a Yeerk had shot his leg off and now he'd be vaporized, at least killing the pain that plagued him.

He said nothing, only laying there with a hand still clutched around the steak knife. Tears had stopped rolling down his eyes only seconds after he had been shot and the sobs were completely silent now. He simply stared off into the darkness, scared stiff and confused in his state of delirium, mostly brought on by dehydration anyway.

***

Applix turned as he thought he heard the sound of Dracon fire. But he was almost to his ship anyway, he trotted towards the cloaked vessel.

[Myitt]

Myitt stands with her back against the bar counter, breathing heavily.  Her arm flares up in agony again, old wounds compounded by new.  Blood drips from one of the putty bandages, but it's really running from the new slice in her upper arm, soaking into her jacket. 

Corliss had already drawn his own Dracon and aimed it at Mike, but there was no sense shooting him now, the poor kid writhing on the floor and missing a very large portion of his right leg.  "Well, great, man, now he really needs a doctor," he says bluntly.  "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Myitt exhales through gritted teeth, equally from the pain and from the stress of shooting someone's leg off.  Her forehead starts to take on the sheen of sweat.  "He's going to need a tourniquet, quickly.  Someone please get that knife away from him."  She keeps aiming down at him, although the shock of tiredness and adrenaline and another wound is making her dizzy.  Her aim wavers and she doesn't fire, just keeps it trained on him.

<B*stard cut me!> Tara wails.

<I know,> says Myitt darkly.

[applix]

Mike's right leg was pretty much gone. The laser had shot through just above his right knee and the part that had been below it lay as a charred remnant under a nearby table. The part that remained attached to the boy looked black and red. What blood seeped out came from cracks in the cauterized skin that had sealed up over his wound. The heat from the blast had surgically amputated him, leaving a mostly-sealed stump for a limb. He tried to figure out where the rest of his body was, but for some strange reason he couldn't let go of his hands.

Mike looked around his immediate area, trying to see maybe if the lights had simply gone out in the bar. But he touched a hand to his face and could see nothing. He let out a troubled sigh and could feel his nose pounding as well as one of his ribs that had broken on his arrival to the bar. Luckily he hadn't done more damage to Myitt because his body was in such bad shape. With his fists clenched and knife in hand he began to drag himself across the floor, searching for any landmarks he could feel with his hands. Ironically he looked like a slug himself as he ignorantly approached Ossanlin's hooves. He felt the hard surface of one and his body jerked in surprise, startled he hurled the knifed hand at the andalite, slicing across in an attempt to cut his leg.

[Myitt]

"Stop," Myitt snarls, stepping forward.  "If you continue to threaten my friends, I will kill you.  Do you understand?" 

"Poor b*stard's out of his mind," Corliss says grimly.  "Myitt, don't do anything rash."

"Rash?" she snaps.  "He just tried to kill us!"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

*jerks and jumps back in surprise, not even his muted silver-blade senses preparing him for the sudden attack on Myitt.*  <Sereck-Nai!>  *His battle-trained reactions brought his tail into fighting stance and his shredder into his hand instantly, training and tracking on the boy.  Something was wrong here, terribly wrong.  There was much more to this human than could be discerned from his appearance, and it was something dark and foreboding.  He squinted against the bright bolt of energy that issued from the tip of Myitt's dracon, and then moved forward again cautiously, his shredder still trained on the human, seeing that Myitt's bolt had incapacitated the boy.*

<We need more information from him...I don't know what he is, or what's happening.  There's a darkness about him, but it doesn't seem to be actually coming from him.  We have to restrain him and treat that injury.>  *Ossanlin steps forward to retrieve the knife, but as he does so the boy lashes out after feeling Ossanlin's approach...the swing was wild but carried a good deal of power and as Ossanlin tried to lift his leg free, the knife dug deep into his hoof and twinged up against a nerve.  Ossanlin inhaled quickly at the sharp pain that ensued, but kept from firing, his fingers tightening slightly on the trigger of his shredder.  Instead of kicking out, he stomps his hoof down, wincing at the pain but keeping himself under control...the shock of pushing the hoof back down to the floor, knife-blade still embedded in it, was meant to wrench the weapon from the human's hand.*