The Good, the Stressed, and the Edgy. (Ali, Yarkar, Kress)

[Kressara Thryn]

“Alright, so the contact is willing to meet? Bespin? That’s a ways to go for a simple meeting, but I suppose if we want to secure the trade route through Alliance territory it’s necessary. Alright, I’ll head out today. It’s a simple meet and greet. I doubt I’ll need an escort. Okay...alright...thanks Lorcan. Bye.”

The hologram of a sharp featured man boasting pointed ears, shark like teeth, and a relaxed blue mohawk nodded respectfully to Kressara before the transmission cut. Perfect. Her boys searched tirelessly for a contact that could grant them access to Alliance trade routes for shipping their own exports, and months of scouring the galaxy finally paid off. A wealthy bureaucrat was willing to meet at the Cloud City Casino to talk deals. Not only would this greatly increase her range for distribution in the galaxy, but the location had a lot to offer in terms of well deserved relaxation. It was about time Kress took a few days to pamper herself.

Stepping from her room fully dressed in infiltrator’s gear and her belted trench coat (which wasn’t such a common occurrence this early in the morning) and lugging around a travel bag, Kressara locked up behind her and strode with purpose into the dining hall. She’d grab something for breakfast at the Temple before departing and take a second to chart her course.

Eyes peeled away from their meals when double doors swung open and Kressara wandered through looking prepped for travel, curiously trying to make out the nature of her pending absence. Acolytes and instructors often saw the masterless assassin coming and going, but never with any answers as to where and why. When asked, she merely changed the subject and if anyone made demands to know where she kept disappearing to, Kressara would rise to the occasion and fight for her right to privacy. Eventually people stopped bothering her about it.

Ah, something in the shape of eggs was being served. Great. For her sake she hoped Could City had better dining options. Even Euphornis fast food in the slums was more appealing than this.

“I can’t even tell what this is.” Kress complained about the egg-like substance on her plate and considered going without. It was reminiscent of the grub they served in the prison her old master locked her away in. You know...THE BIG ONE. The Sith prison on Dromund Kaas. Over a year she spent eating crap like that. Never again.

Mind lost in her charts, the sith assassin took a seat alone at one of the large tables and plotted her course over “breakfast”. As focused as she was, something felt off about the dining hall. Stressful, tense, undesirably glum. Golden hazels peered out from over her work to scan the room for the source of the bad energy.

[Aliclair Austjor]

A pair of hellebore copper orange eyes opened within the darkness within chambers. With a space to finally call her own, Aliclair could finally meditate without the constant noise of other people and distractions. She 'd stretch out her body and limps to crack them before moving onto freshening herself. Today, was a day off of sorts from any training. Her left ear was still recovering from a recent "adventure", so it was bandaged up. She sported her new attire, which was a one piece dark gray one piece and gave her hair a few swipes of her brush. She stared at her reflection before draping it over with a sheet. And with a quick notion, made her way to see if there was anything edible or if she'd need to prowl the galaxy for something better to eat.

Why wasn't she surprised. Her gaze glossed over what seemed to be. Mush. Ali gave her non-tattered ear a flick before turning to sit at a solitude table to look over her holo-pad for any prey located around, or if she'd need to get in her ship and travel offplanet.. with Silas' permission. The hybrid wasn't sure how long her leash was... But boy was she hungry. With her long tail tucked at her side, she began to process where she'd start, if permission was granted.

[Yarkar Edetar]

Yarkar hadn't had a good night's sleep in days. Every time he would even attempt to close his eyes he would feel the siren call of the Force. He even spent a full day training with his saber and, despite the exhaustion, sleep didn't come to him. His eyes were sunken with bags as he was completely in a trance. He didn't even notice what the food was, just that it was something to give him the energy to keep moving. He stumbled around, looking for a table and almost entirely blind to where he was going. His mind was clouded and his vision was blurry from the rapid blinking leaving blobs of tears along his eyes every now and again that ran down and out. He didn't even notice them as the few salty droplets gave his food the only semblance of seasoning they would get.. As he sat down, he practically almost fell face-first into his plate. He starts to hastily devour whatever it was in front of him, not even tasting it as he barely even chewed. He had to continue, it was the only way.

Improvement is the status quo. Improvement is the status quo. Improvement is the stat-

The second he finished whatever substitute for food he had somehow found a way to consume his fork continued moving a few times before his body finally realized there was no longer an intake of food. He practically collapsed forwards, the shock of hitting the table shooting him awake and alert as his Danger Sense warned him moments before the table hit him so his mind was believing it was some kind of assault, unable to figure out any direction the attack may have came from through the thick fog of sleep deprivation. His eyes were sharp, but he saw nothing, as there was nothing.

[Kressara Thryn]

A few new faces entered the dining hall as Kressara planned her excursion, when a bang against one of the tables flicked her hazels upwards. Ah, Yarkar was among the breakfast crowd…he looked like hell. Sitting at a seperate table not far from him was that Jedi girl Silas claimed as an apprentice. Kressara considered her trip for a second, thinking about the cold vastness of space. Why hadn’t she taken Lorcan’s offer for an escort? Traveling alone was less than no fun, but actually disturbing to the sith black bird. Too much time to think and contemplate, to make bad decisions and listen to negative inner voices. It was unpleasant in her head when she wasn’t focused on the world outside of it. Not that she couldn’t handle a little introspection! It’s just that she did it all the time and preferred to avoid it for the sake of a nice vacation.

Closing out her programs and leaving the plate of egg substitute behind, Kressara rose from the bench and sauntered over to the seat between Yarkar and Ali’s respective tables. Dropping down and leaning an arm against the back of the chair, Kress mused out loud, “You look like someone beat the heart out of you, Yarkar.”

Looking over her shoulder to the feline apprentice, the flaxen sith noted, “And you look like you’re dying for a good meal about as badly as I am.”

Pushing with her heels against the ground, Kressara turned the chair so that she could see either of them on both sides of her gaze, rocking onto the back two legs of her seat with her arms raised to cradle her head. “Just so happens, I’m leaving today. I’ll be back by the middle of next week I’m sure. It’s just a little trip to Cloud City Casino on Bespin…you know. Across the street from that VERY luxurious resort which my boys managed to book a whole suite in for me.”

If these words left the lips of any other sith, it would have certainly been for the sake of gloating. However, Kressara wasn’t usually the boastful sort and the fact that she was divulging information about her off world antics at all was about as rare as a rain shower on Tatooine. There was something almost inviting about her posture and a certain friendly quality lit her glitter peppered eyes.

“You see where I’m going with this, right?” Kressara prodded the apprentices. Just in case either of them were slow to catch on, she explained, “My men are all tied up working various tasks and I need myself a small crew to accompany me on this little business trip. About two should do it, and frankly…you both look like you could use the time away from this place.”

[Yarkar Edetar]

Yarkar rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He was managing to wake up a little from the overflow of his senses as he slowly figures out that there was no assailant and that sound is coming out of Kressara's mouth. After a little more waking up the sounds were still bouncing around in his mind, slowly coalescing into words. He realized that he hadn't heard anything more than the whirring of machinery for the past few days, really. He hadn't ran into any of his droids that spoke, even those that simply spoke in whirrs and blips. The sound of language almost felt foreign to his ears, rapping up against the walls of his skull as it finally figured out what was said.

"Well, I'll tell you it wasn't someone who did this to me. I simply have sought power, and power I found. The extent of which? Only the Force knows. The consequences of such? Very clear."

His own voice is raspy, like there was something stuck in the back of his throat. He swallowed, feeling the twitch of his muscles as he did so. What he could only imagine was a small piece of half-chewed debris, likely devoured in his desperate bid to stay awake, dislodged itself. He coughed as his voice returned to its typical cadence, smooth and full of breath. However, this was not adding to the very poor illusion of him being in good health despite his appearance.

"However, I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of running a mission beside you. I need to get out and do some actual business rather than being stuck in my head all day. You wouldn't believe what can happen when you spend a few days with as little sleep and as much active meditation as possible. You'd be surprised if you let your mind run wild for a day or so sober."

He lets a wolfish grin out, but it's not like it's flattering. The bags below his eyes leave a deep shadow of what was lying just behind the glazed-over stare of the Sith apprentice. He was mostly used to this kind of being ran ragged when he was under Tormentous' reign, but it felt so different when he made himself do it. Without someone to lord it over him, it was like each morning was a struggle and each expenditure of power laid more weight. Maybe it was the fact that his powers were becoming more complex, but he was growing stronger beside them. The only different thread was quite simply the lack of structure. Perhaps it would be good to be with people for a while. They weren't like droids, they did things that weren't commanded of them. He thought that maybe the long stretch of time he'd spent only in the company of himself and droids before deeming himself worthy of the Sith may have actually driven him mad. Made him into a droid, in a way. Perhaps now was the time to stop this metaphorical transformation at its roots. He was Sith, not mere metal, after all.

"Either way I accept, even if I feel if two people were necessary then the both of us are overkill. That just means the mission is easy, after all. Better to kill a bloodfly with a mountain than to be trapped with only a large net to deal with it."

[Aliclair Austjor]

As Aliclair continued to look on her holopad for a decent hunting spot not too far from the palace, or even Silas, her ears flicked toward boots clicking on the marbled floors of the "feeding" area. She didn't bother to look up, as her nose could tell her who it was. A slightly discomforted rumble vibrated her throat and chest. The feline hybrid had to admit; The Crow had guts. Especially to suggest she tag along to some shindig as, what, bodyguards? As Kressara spoke to her, her opalescent eyes shot to her with a small growl, as if showing she didn't want to be bothered.

As she spoke more, Ali only grew more irritated. Plus, it would be nearly impossible. " I don't think Master Silas would let me leave off planet, so I'll pass. You two should be enough" she stated, standing from her table. While recognizing Kress, she didn't recognize the other apprentice, and therefore, had nothing to say. "Have fun, and send me a post card. Maybe." she added begrudgingly, thinking that the ebony-winged assassin might actually send her a picture of the casino from Bespin.

[Kressara Thryn]

“If I let a single thought pass through my mind without a freighter’s worth of drugs to filter it down into something workable, the sith would surely crumble into ruin by the time the cooks here decided on which nutrient pastes to mix up for dinner.” Kressara leaned in on the back legs of her chair and beamed a pearly wide smile at the younger apprentice. “So keep doing whatever it is that’s aging you at the speed of light, and I’ll keep up my habits until I’m more spice than human, thus preserving my flesh into eternity while you look like a wrinkled old man at the ripe age of twenty three.”

She knew that wasn’t how spice worked, but the idea of it was amusing enough to speak into existence. Half the temple already swore up and down that Kressara bled pure grade glitterstim, and having her blood on their hands was enough to cause wooziness. Despite the fight they were already picking between one another, Kressara was quite pleased with the amiable reaction to her request, however the feline hybrid rose from her table far less willing to take on the venture as Yarkar was. Letting the chair drop back down onto all fours, the assassin scrambled to her feet with a scuffle of boot soles on the stonework, doing what crows do best…her fingers caught Ali’s tail, giving it a slight tug to stop her momentum before instinctively backpedaling with a bounce in her stride.

“Come on, whiskers! Don’t you worry about Silas. We get along just fine! I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I borrowed you for an actual mission. Even he has to know that it’s poor training to keep an apprentice too far removed from the outside world. You could be the strongest sith in the world and still get your tail handed to you by a common thief if you don’t actually have life experience, and who better to take you on a mission including life experience than the one who’s lived the most amongst us all?”

Extending both arms out from her sides, Kress offered up a disarming grin.

“That and he clearly isn’t showing you how to apply what you’ve learned to co-operation missions with other sith. Can’t blame him though. He’s a busy guy! Just trust me on this, friend…but, if you want to stay here and pray for better experience than a plate of mush and a couple training dummies, be my guest! I’ll send you that post card I guess.”

[Aliclair Austjor]

Aliclair glanced once more at the mush these people called food before turning her back toward the two with a flick of her tail. Unfortunately, her tail became a target, and before she could react to the pattering of boots, the tug on it only sent her whipping around with a snarl and claw swipe toward Kress before snatching her tail from her vicinity. She slightly inhaled to say something but the assassin continued speaking, causing the hybrid feline to seethe. her brows furrowing. Indoors is how Ali preferred to live but Kress had a small, valid point. Being anti-social doesn't win fights. Giving her ear a small flick, she casted her gaze down in thought, running her claws through the fluff that was her tail. Then, they rolled. She knew she'd regret this decision but it was better than going for a quick hunt. "Fine, I'll bite. Considered me hooked." the feminine said. "When do we depart?" she asked with a small eyebrow raise to her question.

Ali wasn't sure why this enticed her enough to step out her comfort zone, but it was better than staying here. And curiosity gnawed slightly at the back of her mind of how bustling and busy one building, or planet, can be. And it could be a nice break away from all of this; the walls of the Sith.

[Yarkar Edetar]

"Twenty-three sounds like a good age, perhaps I would have even found the secret to immortal life by then. With what I've accomplished in the years I've spent with the Dark Side, my growth could lead to such wonders given that much time."

Yarkar gives a sly grin to Kressara before watching Ali's tail get pulled. What a wonder to watch someone get literally pulled into the fray. He watched her recoil, noticing the discomfort but inevitable acceptance of the reality she lives in. He studies the moment in full, his eyes alert of each and every aspect of her response and Kressara's motion. He was going on a mission with them after all, he wanted to get some idea of who he was working with. Years can change someone, and he had already witnessed some changes in how Kressara acted as compared to before. While he hadn't known the feline before, she did feel fairly similar to his own sensibilities, and her apparent loyalty to Silas was quite admirable. A grin graced his face, so much to learn from so little, this was the wonder of being around other Sith again.

"I'd imagine it's fairly immediate when we leave, correct? If I've assumed correctly, Kressara is likely asking us as a last resort for something that is about to come bearing down on her neck like a pair of jaws, especially with her trying so hard to convince you. I could be wrong, but knowing Kressara, I'm not sure I am."

A bit of arrogance bled into his voice as he looked Kressara in the eyes, trying to gauge her response. He still felt uneasy after their prior, but supposedly forgotten, rivalry. After all, she was not someone to be trifled with carelessly.

[Kressara Thryn]

“Secret to immortality! Hah! Maybe you will.” Though her admission wasn’t one of confidence in that. Yarkar was a bright kid. He’d figure out many secrets of the sith in his lifetime, but none of them would serve him like the hard learned lessons of someone who failed at everything at least twice. The same failures that depressed and wounded Kressara also made her clever, resilient, and impervious to the whims of others. Maybe she would pass on some of that knowledge one day. Maybe today! Who could say?

Ali’s agreement to join her temporary crew lit up the glimmer lipped sith’s entire being, her smile radiating to every cell and fiber with the threat of infecting all in close proximity. “Wonderful! You’ll have fun, promise! If you don’t, I’ll owe you a favor. Oh, yeah. I planned to-”

Kressara WAS about to state when they were leaving, but Yarkar’s poodoo eatting response cut her off before she had the chance. Smug brat. Citrines narrowed and that radiant beam turned to the more commonly seen coyote grin she used on her fellow apprentices. It wasn’t far off from that sunshine incarnate look she began with, only that all the careless joy had been sucked from it and replaced with sass.

“I just thought I’d be nice and offer to take you kids...” The word was emphasized and aimed for Yarkar specifically. “...out for a nice trip. You’re going to turn into personality void serial killers in this place. Trust me, those are way too easily defeated. You need to live a little and form your own opinions on the world before you decide how much or how little you’ll hate it. If you truly wish to make yourself into rounded warriors, you’ll need to get out more. If anyone in charge here disagrees with that, then maybe someone should be gunning for their positions.”

Saying that last bit with her chest and eyeing one of the temple instructors from across the dining hall who frequently disagreed with her outlooks, Kress continuously liked to display freedom of speech and fearless challenge of malpractice. Otherwise, bad teachers would just continue to instill a future generation of equally horrible mentors and the cycle of uninspiring sith would continue. Adaption was the key to survival. It had to be the same in their order.

Returning her attention to the pair, her demeanor sweetened a bit when the instructor remained seated and silent. “As I was saying, my ship is already prepped for travel. We’re leaving now, so grab what you’re going to bring and let’s hit the road! There’s a deadline to meet~”