Galaxy's Edge Space Bar (archive)

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne felt the tip of her tongue wet her lips with a level of timidity she tried her best to hide. "That's ****ing unsettling," she told Mar, slowly shaking her head. And yet something within her still sympathized with him, however impossible it may sound. It was true that she was an optimist to the end, and she wanted the best for others... even if they were soul-eating mind-copies. Maybe that's my soul doing the empathizing. Maybe I would be better off without the damned thing, she thought with a sardonic roll of her eyes.

Still, Mar's expression alone was enough to make her turn on her stool to face the bar again rather than looking at him straight on. She glanced to Keshin on her other side and saw he had struck up a conversation with the fox-like individual Parker had mentioned to her when she had first arrived. Not wanting to interrupt them, but needing a moment to not think about her disturbing conversation with Mar, she ordered another drink.

[Shenmue654]

Keshin notes Sukohn's face. The Bar isn't as crowded as it normally would be for some reason, which gives her the chance to see it. Keshin sighs, rubbing the back of his head. <I almost forgot about that. Joanne, we need to find a way to-----hey, look at that.>

Keshin looks across from him and notes that Elayne seems to have switched tables. <Looks like there's my opportunity.>

<Careful, Kess. An' let me tell Hunter where I'm goin' first.>

<I'll tell him.>

Keshin then stands up, looking at Hunter, doing his best Joanne impersonation. "Sorry, somethin' jus' came up. Maybe I can chat with ya later, though. You seem like a nice guy."

Keshin smiles and walks away with him and towards Elayne's position. Once he's close enough, he notices that she looks disturbed. He shrugs and eventually says, "Something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
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Mar blinks, and then suddenly realizes that Elayne was disturbed by what he had said. No surprise there. I did go into quite a bit of detail. Mar thinks it best not to disturb her and waits at the Bar for her to finish mulling things over.

Out of nowhere a woman walks up to speak to Elayne. Mar frowns.  Hmm, wasn’t that the woman who shot Myitt’s friend? I had better be wary of her.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

((Ghost in the Shell Kelly?  Good anime.  A little freaked up but probably where evolution is headed...  >_> ))

Ossanlin shakes his head.  <There are so many variables, we could never be sure of success, but then battle is always a gamble, as is life.>  Ossanlin chuckles a bit to himself.  <If you say he'll be convinced, Terenia, I'll believe you.  I hope for all our sakes you're right.  Very well, then I suppose that is our location, but would it be better to ambush him inside the city or out?  Frankly I believe you have the right of it here, Terenia.  I would rather have the operation take place as far out of human sight as possible.>

He turns his main eyes to Myitt.  <Unless you have a good reason for engaging in urban combat?  I suppose Claxter and I could both morph human to stay close and maybe take out the guards...but then there should be several controllers here yes?  Or at least the chance of a few...why should one bio-scanned Yeerk make a difference?  Honestly though we must formulate the location of the ambush and its nature.  Out in this desert, we could set up sniper posts, in the town that would not be an option...  If we take the battle to a nonpopulated region, we could also set up something akin to what Claxter was suggesting with anesthetic gas or stun mines...>

<<I hope for the sakes of all of us, and of Terenia's sister as well, that you're telling the absolute truth Warrior.  It's time to graduate from the academy.>>  Ossanlin's private thought is for Claxter alone of course.

[Terenia]

"No," Terenia shakes her head, "no offense, guys, but I've seen Andalites morph human before. I wouldn't put it past you to abandon the mission for the nearest hot dog stand. Besides, it'd be easier to take people down with those tails of yours."

Terenia sighs and stretches, cracking her back in the process. A clouded look crosses over her face as she watches Myitt over by the computers.

"What if this doesn't work, eh?" Terenia asks, "I still think this is a pretty big gamble for a couple of uninvested Andalites to take. How do I know you won't just kill Zorish, and my sister, right out to eliminate the problem?"


((page 500!!! YAY!))

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne lifted her new drink and turned to Keshin as he addressed her. Her expression betrayed her relief that she could think about something else for a moment. "Hello again, Keshin and Joanne," she nodded then took a sip. "I'm fine." She could feel, by the coolness of her face, that her skin was indeed much paler than usual. Glancing at Mar over her shoulder, she saw his eyes on her and Keshin, and gave a small smile of apology before looking back to the bounty hunters.

[Shenmue654]

Keshin blinks, a worried look on his face. "You don't look good at all. I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I...just wanted to ask you a question, though I might be intruding. Are you up for that? They say that curiousity killed the cat, but I tend to screw to ignore the phrase pretty often." Keshin grins, trying to look as friendly as possible.

<Yeah, we don't wanna scare the broad off by lookin' all demandin'. But how d'ya know this is gonna work?>

<I don't. We're winging it. That's all we can do for right now.>
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A confused look crosses Mar's face. What could these two possibly want with her? Bounty Hunters aren't exactly known for reaching out to others on a whim, though I suspect the human is more likely to do so. ...I could just check, but it's better to wait. I'm too close to other people for my concentration to go unnoticed.

Mar smiles at Elayne upon seeing her expression. At least she hasn't been completely turned off.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

<Hmm, I do have some experience with humans, but the emotions and sensory input are rather intense...it takes constant concentration and effort to master the brain.  I suppose I would have difficulty  doing anything but concentrating on keeping the thought-processes in line.  I don't believe Claxter has any experience with the human morph, you're right, it's probably much too risky to attempt human morphs.>

Ossanlin looks back and forth between Terenia and Myitt.  <Is there a consensus then?>

[Chad32]

<I have experienced taste before, sir. Is the Human sense of taste that good? Or is Human food that good? How much effort to Humans focus on how good food tastes?>

<Also Terenia, the fact that we are doing this at all instead or keeping Efaen here is because we want to save Tamora and help you. If we weren't going to make an effort to keep Tamora alive, we wouldn't bother going.> He didn't say that he would be willing to kill Zorish and Tamora outright, if he was given an order.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin shifts his gaze to Terenia a moment.  <You invested us the moment you decided to inhabit Efaen against her will.  The moment you took a morph-capable member of our race involuntarily, it became our business.  And to address your other concern, I hope not to be forced to kill you and Efaen.  I do my best to preserve all life, but sometimes the preservation of many lives requires the sacrifice of a few, and I will serve the greater good.  As for Zorish, he would be much more valuable to us alive.  He could supply the rebels and ourselves with invaluable intelligence regarding Earth.  Locations of planet-side pools, plans for the invasion, Visser 3's ultimate goals, Yeerkish tactical data regarding Earth.  I could continue the list.  Aside from the fact that we would be saving a few lives in the process, we would also be making great gains ourselves.  Plans can be altered, fleet positions changed...but some of those plans have been in the works for years, changing them would represent a major setback for the Yeerks.  And the locations of pools cannot be changed easily either.  The potential gains are worth the risks.>

He shifts his gaze back to Claxter.  <Humans are....excessive.  Their neural processes produce very strong data.  Because they have dealt with these types of sensory inputs and...primitive...u rges their entire lives, they are somewhat used to them and equipped to handle them in most cases.  Their sense of taste is...overwhelming.. .and it takes a great deal of mental energy to master it.  Also, the act of formulating auditory output is.....fascinating.  To create vocal sounds for communication is rather novel.  It would take years of practice, as with any morph, to truly control the brain and behave as a human would.  I think it's not a good idea for either of us to try and intermingle with humans, we would be rather obvious in a crowd.>

[Terenia]

Terenia scowls a bit, dropping her gaze to the floor of the ship.

"Right. I keep forgetting that you risking your lives is all my fault," she sighs heavily, "just what I need, more blood on my hands. Alright, yeah. I guess you have my vote. Let's do this."

<You seem rather convinced of their failure,> Efaen comments silently, speaking up for the first time in awhile.

<I've learned not to be too optimistic when it comes to crazy-ass rescue attempts,> Terenia responds, <they usually end with people dead or worse.>

<Yet you are not doing more to stop them?>

<It isn't my concern if a bunch of Andalites want to plummet headfirst into certain death,> Terenia says defensively.

<No, I suppose not,> Efaen says, <despite the fact that you just acknowledged you would be adding to the blood on your own hands.>

<Shut it,> Terenia snaps, <you're just worried Claxter will get hurt.>

<I would not like to see any of my kind hurt for your cause.>

Terenia snorts out loud, lifting her head and fixing her stormy eyes on Claxter, "Efaen says don't do anything stupid," she paraphrases.

[Chad32]

<Yes my Prince.> Claxter said, taking Oss' word for it.

<I will try not to do anything stupid again.> He said to Terenia. Something like panicking and running off in the middle of a battle. Or any of the numerous things that can go wrong during a mission.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

((Hey...just realized GESB hit 500 pages!!  woot!    I'm gonna wait for Tara to post before posting IC again.))

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne shook her head. "No, it's fine." She lifted her beer to her lips again. "Ask away," she murmured to Keshin after swallowing and lowering the glass, "although I can't promise that I can answer. You saw how well I did with your last question," she murmured, recalling the medical jargon-babble that had filled her monitor when he had brought up Joanne's illness.

Abruptly, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end, a telltale sign that she was being watched. From experience she knew that this sensation did not always occur immediately after she had gained someone's attention, but sometimes several minutes afterwards. Still, she suspected Mar: a reasonable assumption, given they had just made eye contact. But then she dismissed the thought; the particular gaze she was feeling seemed more subtle. Her blue eyes scanned the bar, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary, so she returned her attention to Keshin--albeit with slightly tighter-strung nerves than before.

[Darth Revan]

((Snap, 500 pages? Sweetness. Congrats all.))

[Shenmue654]

((Yaaay, happy 500. : ) Although I think this kind of proves how insane we all are. -___-;; ))

Keshin snickers, waving his hand. "Nah, don't worry about it. This is actually something you would know. I just asked that question because...well, because we don't know if we're going to live to see the future you come from. We might die anyway in the war." Keshin glances off, biting his lip, but eventually turns back to Elayne. His expression has returned to normal.

"Do you by any chance remember the names of the morph-capable group that first noticed the presence of the Yeerks on Earth? I'm betting they played a reasonably large role in the war, so I'm kind of curious actually."

<I hope this works, Kess.>

<We won't know until we try. She's not nearly drunk enough, but it's worth a shot.>