Galaxy's Edge Space Bar (archive)

[Chad32]

Belzar wasn't sure what the chip was, but he figured it might help. Whatever it was. He opened a slot in his head that showed a place to insert disks and such.

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne stood on tiptoes and peered about for a moment. The robot's construction was alien to her, and she wondered if the chip would even be compatible with his programming. "Hmmm," she murmured upon finding an open area that appeared to be wired to some kind of audio input. "Here goes," she said, inserting the chip and manually connecting a couple of wires, as it fit him poorly. Her legs were shaking from keeping herself on her tiptoes so long, but when she rested her weight back on her heels and withdrew her hands, she looked excited. "Can you understand me? I don't know if you're capable of speaking in anything but your own language, but nod your head if you can understand what I say."

[Terenia]

"I see," Terenia says, "so you're a nice little demon, or whatever it is you are."

Terenia turns back to Corliss and shrugs a bit, "and how do you feel about this...thing...cavo rting after your sibling in such a way? I for one would find it unbearably creepy. He gives me the willies."

---

Trey finally exits the bathroom, feeling a little refreshed. Not entirely, as he is still wearing his oil and blood stained uniform, but it is definitely an improvement. He re-enters the main bar area, his eyes searching for the only two people he knows. He finds Mar almost immediately - it isn't hard with his strange way of dressing and that weird glove of his - but does not see Elayne. He frowns a bit, not entirely sure that he wants to approach Mar without the strangely familiar girl around. Instead, he maneuvers himself to an empty table, feeling incredibly awkward and out of place. He is about to sit down when his eyes finally fall to the deep red stain in the wood of the bar floor, where his father's body had been when he went into the restroom.

"Hey!" Trey cries, his strangled voice sounding oddly loud, "what happened to my dad?"

[Chad32]

Belzar stood there a moment as his systems processed the chip. It was identified as a translation device, and he managed to catch the last of what she said. After running it over a few hundred times, which to Elayne would be about ten seconds, he figured out how to repeat the words in her language. "Understand what I say?" He said in English.

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne's face broke into a smile, and she nodded. "It seems to be working. I'm glad; it seems none of us have built-in translator chips except for Terenia." She stepped away from him and walked to the grave, peering inside. "Maybe I should go get Trey... he might want to say some words over his father's body." Even though Belzar had dumped some of the dirt on the corpse, he was still visible. "Don't cover him any more for the moment, alright? Not until I get that kid."

[Chad32]

"I will. Thank you for the translator chip." Belzar said. He stayed by the grave in case anyone wanted him to finish burying the corpse.

[KitsuneMarie]

"Thanks," Elayne nodded to Belzar, looking to him. "I'll be back soon, alright?" With that, she trotted past the robot and towards the Bar, crossing the distance much more quickly than she had the first time. Getting the translator chip to function properly had given her a sense of accomplishment that seemed to translate into energy. When she pushed open the Bar door, her cheeks were a little flushed from her swift walk. "Is Trey--" she began, her gaze falling immediately on Mar, but then she saw the young man. He looked panicked. "I have him out here," she said, figuring the disappearance of his father's body was the source of his distress.

[Terenia]

Trey exhaled a breath that he didn't even know he had been holding when Elayne appeared. She looked out of breath, as though she had been sprinting, and that immediately rose alarm bells in his head. Was something wrong? These thoughts were shoved aside by the sense of familiarity that Trey felt when he saw her face. Almost as if she were a friend he had not seen in years and years - so long that he had almost forgotten what she looked like.

Shaking these perturbing thoughts aside - it was highly unlikely that the two had ever met before - Trey made his way gratefully across the bar and to Elayne's side. He was quite happy that she had been the one to deal with his father's body rather than Mar, although exactly why he could not put his finger on.

"Is he..." Trey was not sure how to finish that sentence. Is he what? Buried? Burned? Gone from view forever? The thought brought an uncharacteristic lump to Trey's throat and he let out a strangled gasp.

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne could not help but be reminded by Trey's state of what she remembered of her reaction to her own father's death. Even though she had known that he would almost certainly die, she could not have prepared herself for the horror she had felt when she had seen his body. And the feeling had not grown any better; it had only grown more dull over time. By the time they had buried him--human and Yeerk alike--she felt so empty that she hadn't been able to bring herself to say a word at his poorly-attended service.

"Come with me," she said to the bewildered-looking Trey, holding an arm out to him, her other hand pushing open the Bar door again. "He's outside; the robot's watching over him."

[Terenia]

Trey nods wordlessly and allows Elayne to guide him away from the bar. He takes a few deep, gasping breaths, struggling to control the emotion welling up inside of him - emotions that his dead father would have disregarded as weakness.

It's just a body. You've seen bodies before, Trey said to himself, trying to prepare himself for viewing his father. In truth he had only seen one dead body before, and that had been after a careful embalming according to the human tradition. Not a massacred mess of someone who he had once cared for.

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne put a hand on Trey's back. "You don't have to do this now if you aren't ready," she said, looking to him. "I know how hard it is when it's someone you love." Abruptly, Elayne's mouth snapped shut, and she dropped her hand from Trey and looked towards where Belzar was waiting. When she spoke again, her tone was businesslike. "The robot prepared a grave and has placed your dad's body inside, but hasn't filled it yet."

[Terenia]

Trey shakes his head, not noticing Elayne's sudden change in demeanor. He squares his shoulders and moves forward on his own accord, pulling away from Elayne slightly.

"It's alright," he says, his voice betraying him, "let's just get this over with."

He trudges onward, his insides churning.

[KitsuneMarie]

Elayne nodded and followed Trey towards the glint of light off Belzar's metal frame. The sound of her boots crunching gravel underfoot fell flat, and she vaguely wondered if it was really any different from usual, or if she was projecting her own mood onto it.

She didn't know Trey's father; he was just another body. Pitiable, for certain, but dead and beyond help. With Trey there, however, things became more personal: the body belonged to a real person who was worthy of being mourned. And not just a human, but a Yeerk--a victim of forced nothlitism. Elayne pressed her fingertips against her stomach, disgusted by the thought.

[Terenia]

When Trey reaches the narrow ditch dug for his father he comes to a halt, ignoring Belzar. With blank eyes he stares down at the body of his father, already partially covered in dirt. He is surprised by the sudden emptiness he feels, staring at it. The body is nothing more than a pile of flesh and bone and, despite having his father's face, it is unrecognizable without the soul that animated it.

With Belzar and Elayne standing near him he feels suddenly as though he is expected to say something. His tongue seemed to dry up in his mouth as he stared down at the corpse, mind blank. The silence seemed to hang in the air, thick and oppressive.

"Well...bye then." Trey says haltingly before turning his back on the hole.

[KitsuneMarie]

Trey's reaction to seeing his father startled Elayne, but as she walked to stand beside Belzar, her surprise diminished. She had been no more effusive than Trey at her own father's burial.

"Could you fill it in now?" Elayne murmured to the robot, her gaze falling into the grave, although she jerked it away almost immediately. It was impossible for her to not remember the dead man's face when it was more animated--his expression filled with pain and concern for his son. And it was equally impossible for her to not imagine it full of vitality, before he had been injured.