Galaxy's Edge Space Bar

[Terenia]

Nareth can't help but roll his eyes a little at Elriss' little speech. "Is that so?" he asks, "Well by all means, convince me." He has no real idea what he is asking -- his knowledge of this 'Light' is painfully limited, and he is quietly cursing Ossef for feeding him so little information.

<<He probably sent it to you,>> Dom points out.

<<I would have seen,>> Nareth responds stiffly.

<<Not if you were too busy playing Halo. With my hands.>> The amount of indignance in Dom's tone is palpable. Evidently he can think of far better things for his hands to be doing.

Dom's lips twitch into the smallest of scowls as Nareth shoves the human's thoughts away. <<I would have seen,>> he repeats, before turning his attention outward again just in time to hear Elriss speak to James and Ike. The very name 'James' makes Nareth uneasy, reminds him of Myitt's presence, which he is carefully ignoring. He forces a thin smile.

"Really, Elriss, I do hope you are not in charge of recruitment efforts on Earth," he says airily, smirking at Elriss. "With an invitation like that, it is no wonder the number of voluntary recruits has dropped so dramatically."

[Shenmue654]

James stares at Elriss with a confused frown, particularly after hearing Dom's statement. "Recruits" obviously meant people to infest--- Not something James was interested in. He finally responds with, "Look. Ma'am. Where I am from, any businessman or lawyer in the Oligarchy would be doing a poor outreach job if they were not aware of every species that uses their products. Marketing is key to inter-Group success. That's how I know we are not from the same Earth."

He looks sideways at Dom and says, "....are you always so unusually...aggress ive in your search for new slaves, then?"

He takes another mild sip from his coffee. The nerve of these people. A rebel he might be now, but he had hoped basic social niceties were observed.

[Terenia]

Nareth laughs quietly. It's an appropriately unsettling sound, and using it makes even him uncomfortable. "Of course we always ask permission first," he says smoothly. "Everyone has a choice. Come peacefully, or forcibly."

<<You fit this role far too well,>> Dom comments, shifting in his mind, uneasy. Nareth doesn't respond, instead turning his attention to his tumbler of vodka, frowning at it disconcertedly. He wishes that Elriss would leave, so that he could drop the act. The whole point going to the bar was to have a moment where he could feel like himself, not the arrogant, unconcerned Visser he was forced to spend almost all of his time projecting.

[Shenmue654]

"And you approach every other species in the galaxy with such an imperialist policy?" states James Woodley, raising an eyebrow. "How exactly have you gotten away with existing so long without running into another species with technology better or different than your own? The biggest obstacle to inter-species cooperation is the utterly alien nature of another species, even when they look the same as you."

James Woodley had, in his time, run into humanoids made of light. He'd heard of sentient black holes. He'd heard of a brutal species of centaurs in sub-zero temperatures with far better weapons but no communications systems or spaceflight. You never knew exactly what you were going to get.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

In spite of herself, Elriss finds herself laughing at Renlath's words. Maybe she's been wrong about this Yeerk. Sadly, her own laugh causes a wave of nasea to roll through her.

She turns to James, her eyebrows raised. "Where'd you say you come from, again? An Earth where interspecies cooperation is key?" She leans closer, her eyes flashing a hint of ambition, "I'd love to see it." She waves to the Bartender and calls for water, then continues, "We're not dumb, hon. We scout out a world before we start, ever since the fiasco with the Arn and the Hork-Bajir homeworld. Thing is," she grins, "we haven't even met our equals yet. And with every race we take, we grow stronger. We're Yeerks." She nods towards Renlath, sure he'll approve.

The Bartender plunks a glass of greenish-tinged water down in front of her, and she sips it gratefully. She turns to Renlath, unsure how much he knows about the Light, and how much to reveal. The reputation they have tends to be that of an almost-mythical shadow organization or brute squad for the Council, and she gets the idea that, to some degree, they prefer to leave it that way. "The Light is about unifying the Empire," she explains. "It does away with the divisions and the goals of the old way, and it gives us a common direction, common beliefs to work towards. It's a different way of looking at the Empire, a different way of running things." She frowns, not sure she should be telling a Visser he's essentially obsolete. "There's nothing a totally unified Yeerk Empire could not accomplish."

[Terenia]

"Unifying the Empire?" Nareth echoes. "Unifying how? What method does your Light have of running the Empire that is so much better than the current operations?" He smiles smoothly. "I trust you have heard the human phrase, 'do not fix what is not broken', da?"

<<Though if they did try to change things,>> Nareth adds internally, far more interested in the topic than he is allowing himself to appear, <<That could be just the upheaval the rebellion needs to act.>>

<<Presuming they would act,>> Dom responds, trying and failing to glance at Myitt.

[Shenmue654]

James exasperatedly runs a hand through his brunette hair, which flashes hints of red in certain lighting conditions. "You've 'never met your equals?'" James says. "And I thought that Prince Astolian of the Thyllians was arrogant. You have to have run into a species that caused you a few problems, either technologically or biologically. The galaxy is a strange, strange place Yeerk. It won't be long."

James then mutters, "Especially since from the sound of it, your Empire is almost as divided as the Oligarchy..."

[Chad32]

Ike laughs a bit at Nareth saying they've never met their equals. "Eventually they're going to run into something they can't infest, for one reason or another, and if they can't beat that species they'll start having problems. Though even if they do, they probably won't talk about it casually, eh Renlath?"

[Terenia]

"Of course we have our adversaries," Nareth says, shrugging. "But they have not prevented our continued expansion. In this war, they are losing ground while we continue to gain." He does what he can to avoid looking at Myitt as he speaks. "The divisions that exist within the Empire are inconsequential. Small, insignificant groups that are easily shown their place."

[Chad32]

"It's a wonder that a race with such a glaring weakness can even win an intergalactic war. You can infest and control other species, but you need something that isn't found in most solar systems. If anyone could find and destroy the kondrona radiation generators, you'd be screwed, and it seems like finding a source of radiation that isn't found anywhere else on the planet shouldn't be difficult. Your people are just lucky. Or maybe the Andalite just aren't that smart."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

The strange man overhears some of the conversations going on around him, squinting his eyes at the BT once he hears a few words.  "Yeerko-Andalitian war...creatures from Ellie and Cray-cray's little corner of the plane?  Really?"  He ****s his head, eyes shifting back and forth between the groups and the BT before settling on the dry-washing projection again.  "Is this how you amuse yourself?"  A hint of incredulity specked with derision enters his tone.

The BT's eyes flash dangerously, the dry-washing motion slowing.  The stranger shrugs and looks away.  "I'm not judging.  Besides, it would be unwise of me to anger my generous host."  The dry-washing resumes its normal cadence.  The stranger takes a mental breath...despite the power this Primal could currently exert over him, his thoughts could not be read.  He was far from powerless here...just...far less powerful than him.  His eyes dart toward the BT before returning to his glass.  At least Mother wouldn't be able to find him here...he kept telling himself that.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Elriss looks at Renlath with laughing eyes. "Hon, the divisions in the Empire are a little more than inconsequential than just an underground Peace Movement and that horrible little Rebellion. I know you Vissers surround yourselves with Empire-loving yes-men, but even you've gotta see that we're not any better off for all this divided faction-on-faction business." Even as she says this, she still finds herself unable to meet Renlath's eye, electing instead to stare at whatever those floaties are in her glass of water. "We wouldn't be around if the Empire wasn't broken, da?" Now, as she hits one of her favorite subjects and begins to speak more quickly, her accent becomes less consistent, her southern twang dropping in and out. "The point of the Light is to unite our people under a direct, unquestionable hierarchy with strict, solid rules for decisions. There needs to be a direct, continuous, and instantaneous two-way feedback between them in charge and them they govern, and a large enough majority dissenting opinion on a lower tier of the hierarchy needs to be able to halt or even overturn a decision on the part of a higher one. The Council's behind us." She frowns. "Some more than others," she mutters.

She turns to James, her faith in her Empire clearly unshaken by his words. She's not failed to notice the red tint to his hair. Maybe something that subtle could work with her blonde... "We'll 'cross that bridge when we get there,' to use another human phrase," she says. "Like what the Visser here said, we get plenty of resistance, but that ain't the same as meeting someone who can match us." The smile she gives him rides the line between innocent and mocking, "And every new race we capture only adds to our strength, technologically and biologically."

She shrugs at Ike, the hint of her 'adorable' playing across her face, "It ain't like we're in the habit of making the Kandrona easy to find, hon."

[Chad32]

"Few people are dumb enough to show off their weak point." Ike said. "I guess the fact is whatever you're doing is working for you. It may be a tightrope walk, but somehow you're getting across. Behind the scenes, greater powers move their pieces in place. The One has chosen me and others of my group as part of His people. I wonder if there's a greater power behind the Yeerks and Andalites."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

The stranger suddenly gets a spike through his senses...the presence of yet another mass.  One of the individuals in here must be linked to another being aside from the BT projection.  He begins to scan the crowd once again, trying to probe with his senses.  They're still blunted severely...sensitiv e fingers stuffed inside of thick mittens...but he can sense a few eccentricities of aura still.  Most were human, and most were somewhere between light and dark alignment as so many often were.  In the case of the blonde, her aura almost feels twisted painfully, though he can't sense anything further with the BT's massive aura blunting his senses.

Suddenly he feels a painful stab, like a live electric current backfeeding through his senses.  It had happened when he'd spiritually probed the average-looking, very calm man in that particular group.  Not a Yeerk...then how would a human come to this place?  He had to be an Avatar or a Sworn.

The stranger overhears another portion of the conversation..."The One?"  And he'd been "chosen."  So, a Sworn then.  One enslaved by a mass that was not particularly friendly with others.  The stranger grimaces to himself and darts his eyes back up to the BT, whose only response is a quirk of the eyebrow.

[Chad32]

Ike felt his attention drawn to the stranger who had sat down at a different table. He didn't know what it was, but something inside him felt that this individual was significant. Someone to be watched. He didn't want to just get up and leave his table, partly because of his drunkenness. He decided to give a small smile and wave to the guy, and keep tabs on him.