Galaxy's Edge Space Bar

[Terenia]

Dalik shakes her head. "I had no idea this place, or anything like it, existed until I arrived here," she says. Nodding to Myitt, she adds, "It was my brother who gave me these coordinates, though I was indeed acting under a pseudonym. He's presumed me dead for the better part of six Earth years. If I told him who I really was he would have suspected a trap."

She leans forward, finishing off her lemonade. "I know my brother lived with you. That's why I reached out to him, once I learned of his escape. If he finally grew the balls to truly defect from the Empire, then I want to reconnect." Sitting back, she rolls her eyes. "And to keep him from doing anything stupider than he's done already."

[Myitt]

Myitt laughs cynically. "Well, we can agree on our assessment of your brother's actions, at this juncture, at least."

She cranes her neck to look back at the door. "You're expecting to meet him here? Ah, you know, the little ****er sort of screwed us over. Do I have permission to **** him up a little? Nothing permanent." Myitt grins at Dalik, cracking her knuckles in an absent way.

[Terenia]

Dalik's eyebrows lift. "Elran," she recalls, eyes narrowing. "When you first learned my name you asked about him." Her eyes narrow. "What, by the Kandrona, did my brother get himself messed up with?"

As an afterthought, she says, "No, if anyone has words with him it will be me. He needs to learn." Biting her lip, she considers. "Do you know of a rebel by the name of Keslin Five-Seven-Four? He's nomadic, not involved with your headquarters, but I'm sure you're aware of his existence."

[Myitt]

Myitt is about to respond, but the mention of Keslin redirects her thoughts.

"Yeah, I know Keslin," she says quietly, looking back at the counter. "He's a friend of mine."

[Terenia]

Dalik nods. "I was thinking of perhaps sending my brother to help him," she confides. "If anyone can keep him in line, it's Keslin." Her lips quirk upward in a troubled smile. "Of course his methodology is questionable, but...what else am I supposed to do? I'm not going to babysit him and he can't be running around the galaxy, modifying everyone's memories. I head about what happened on that Blade Ship."

[Myitt]

"That Blade Ship was run by a brother of mine," Myitt says darkly. "Look, I don't know what you've heard about Keslin, but I don't think he can help Dalik, either."

She shivers a little. "I don't think--" The shift in control is abrupt and dramatic. Myitt simply stops talking, the words frozen in her throat, and then she slides nerveless from her seat and onto the floor. She takes the bar stool with her.

[Terenia]

Dalik's eyes widen, and she lurches from her seat to try and catch Myitt. It's too little, too late, and the best she can do is get one arm beneath her head, preventing it from cracking against the wooden floor.

"Are you okay?" she breathes, shifting onto her knees, watching Myitt's face anxiously.

[Myitt]

Her arms and legs are quivering, but she's remarkably calm when she says, "Y-You know, she's been holding herself together for a l-lot longer than I thought she would."

[Terenia]

Dalik's eyes widen, and she recoils as she realizes it is the rebel's host speaking. For a moment she is silent, taking in Myitt's trembling form.

"The oatmeal," she finally says, voice reproachful. "Of course. Serves you right for actually using that barbaric substance. How much did you have, anyway?"

[Myitt]

The human smiles sheepishly. "She had like...an entire packet. Haven't had that much in a l-long time. Very long time. Sh-she's an idiot, I totally agree."

[Shenmue654]

Jeffrey chuckles a bit, after listening to the strange conversation between the Yeerk and the Andalite. Two species who loathe one another, each species with their own perspective on the war, and on these grand events--- And two powerful outliers, one the face of a much stronger "Guardian Council" and "Paragon Corps," and the other the species equivalent of a hacker with a grudge against all. Jeffrey watches Ossanlin's demonstration, and his eyes narrow and his blood seems to boil inside him, watching Ossanlin do things that he will never be able to do, not even if he was able to get ahold of the boosters that he was gunning for before his death. So. You're a Chronos, are you? At least in part. What I would give for that trick. What I would give to Turn. Back. Tme.

Jeffrey finally looks at Ossanlin and shakes his head, saying, "You've got it all backwards. How can you even be capable of changing the face of an entire war and yet you do nothing." The final word in that sentence seems to shake and is weighed down with a poisonous, surprising malice, almost like he was attaching immorality to the statement. "That is what is immoral to me. That is what is ****ed!"

The rippling effect and ringing sound around Jeffrey grows, and his eyes turn stark yellow. "Now...I have no investment in all this." He shrugs. "I'm not a part of this war at all. I don't think you should go back and time and murder a whole race of people, some of them innocent and kind and trapped with a toxic ideology. But I know that if I had the power to save innocent lives, to change the course of history so that fewer good people died,, I would be whatever I had to be, and do whatever I had to do, to make that happen. I would find a way, even if that means I don't look so hot in other people's eyes."

"And that...." There was an image, as if he were unable to repress it, of a man wearing a grinning gold mask and dressed in outlandish clothes, sent mainly to Ossanlin. "...is exactly what I have done. And if I let myself die, I will never finish it."

[Terenia]

Dalik watches the human warily, sitting back on her knees. She seems to unsure how -- or whether -- to respond to Myitt's host. Luckily Jeffrey's commentary saves her from deciding.

She lifts her head, blinking as the faintest impression of an absurd image flickers through her mind. <<Now isn't the time,>> she chastises her host before speaking. "I would be inclined to agree, if Ossanlin weren't fighting for the opposite side of this war," she admits. "He's right, if I understand the implications of time travel." She laughs a little at the absurdity of that statement. As if anyone could ever fully understand. "If he were to go back and change things it would likely have one of two outcomes. My entire species would cease to exist, or we would be condemned to backwater pools. I certainly would cease to exist either way. And I'm rather fond of existing, thank you."

Her gaze turns back to the human woman and she frowns. "Can you stand, human?" she finally asks, speaking in staccato, rigid tones. She almost sounds afraid.

[Myitt]

"Mmhmm," says the human woman, though from the look on her face she isn't entirely sure. She shakily presses her hands against the dusty wooden floor, and slowly pushes herself to her feet. She has to use one of the standing bar stools to achieve her goal, but she doesn't fall again.

"Yeah," she exhales. "That wasn't so bad."

In all the inner turmoil she dismisses the random flicker of imagery, a man in a mask, as some relic of her semi-scrambled brain.

[guitarhero01234]

"Fair enough," Merc says to William, nodding slightly. "Look, I'm sorry, man. I'm just an idiot, and I think this should be obvious at this point. Plus, all of this is a lot to swallow. My head's spinning just trying to understand a sliver of any of it. But anyway, if you can look past that, I can look past most anything, myself." He stands up and extends a hand toward William. "We cool?"

[Terenia]

Dalik also rises, rocking back onto her heels and slowly standing. "She should rest," Dalik advises, eyes flickering to the woman's forehead. "I'm happy to resume our conversation later."

Then she steps back and returns to her seat, wrapping her hands around the empty glass of lemonade and frowning down at the table. She doesn't say another word to the human, clearly troubled.


William's eyebrow quirks. "We...cool?" he echoes. His eyes dip to Mercer's arm suspiciously. "Given your earlier show, I'd say you're quite warm, actually." He reluctantly takes the offered hand. "Are you still trying to understand this place?" His teeth flash in a smile. "Why do you think I keep buying people drinks? I learned long ago that it's better to accept whatever misshapen reality is thrown at you and drown it in a sea of ale and liquor. Makes things more fun, at least."