The Devil's Nest, Friday Night

[my_own_advocate]

"You found him on the front steps of the bar an hour before it opened?"

Lucifer eyed Tiny. Then the sad sack at the bar. Then Tiny again.

"Is he paying?"

Tiny nodded.

"Right, then I don't care," he decided. "Now, the little skiing people that keep going about the floor, on the other hand..."

The Devil's Nest was open.

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh, fuck you," Atton mumbled into his drink. He couldn't even work up the interest to say it to weird British bar guy's face. "Tiny, just keep 'em coming."

He slumped a little more.

[unusual_sith]

Well, that was an interesting Force signature. Lana couldn't tell if he was actively uninterested in company or just indifferent, so she nodded hello.

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh, good," Atton said, without looking up from his (non-alcoholic, but she didn't need to know that) drink. "This island is still dragging in the Force users by the dozens, huh."

[unusual_sith]

Lana chuckled. "Well, it dragged me in as a student, but I came back of my own accord. I take it you're an old hand re-appearing then, and not a new face?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Student gone townie gone everywhere else in the multiverse," Atton drawled, and sipped his drink. "And you don't quite ping Jedi to me."

Maybe if he still cared enough, he wouldn't have flat out gone and said that, but... eh.

[unusual_sith]

"Force, I should hope not." Lana grinned. "I do hang around with some these days, but I think they and my Korriban instructors would be equally appalled if I felt like one."

[suitably_heroic]

... Atton squinted at her over his drink. "You're not one of the Revanites, are you?" he asked.

[unusual_sith]

"No," Lana answered firmly. "We put them down a few years ago." She cocked her head. "Although I suppose it depends when you're from and which version of the galaxy. I'm with the Eternal Alliance, and back home it's twenty-six years after the Treaty of Coruscant. Though I keep waiting for someone to decide a new calendar, given the treaty is well and truly broken."

[suitably_heroic]

"... I mean, I want to say none of that surprises me," Atton said, "But I also have no idea what Treaty of Coruscant we're talking about. And Eternal Alliance? Feeling a little optimistic, huh?"

He took a sip.

[unusual_sith]

Lana shrugged. "Definitely. But it's more that we were formed in opposition to the Eternal Empire of Zakuul, and it stuck." She smirked. "They were optimistic, too."

She drummed her fingers on the bar. "As to the treaty - the Sith Empire was hounded out of the known galaxy, spent time nursing a grudge, came back and attacked the Republic. Eventually sacked the Jedi temple on Coruscant and forced the Republic to sign a treaty. Followed by a lot of cold war and idiots being idiots, open war, Zakuul attacking them both, us taking Zakuul down, and more idiots and open war. Any of that sound familiar?"

[suitably_heroic]

"No," Atton said, considering his glass. "Glad I'm still on the oldest end of the island's screwed-up Force-user pool."

[unusual_sith]

"Or possibly a different version of the galaxy," Lana pointed out. "What's going on back home for you?"

[suitably_heroic]

"We're rebuilding the Jedi Order after Revan and Malak pretty much destroyed it," Atton offered. A pause. "Well, the others are. I mostly travel around the multiverse actually being useful."

Sometimes.

[unusual_sith]

"Oh!" Lana nodded. "Right, you're a few centuries before me, then. Should I not say too much more?"

Did he mind spoilers?

[suitably_heroic]

"No, go to town," Atton said, eyeing her. "What am I going to do with juice from literal hundreds of years from now? Tell Mical to put extra blaster cannons on the temple rooftop?"

[unusual_sith]

Lana shrugged. "If you like. I doubt there's a lot I could say that would make a difference anyway. I don't imagine anyone thinks the Empire is truly gone, do they? You might not know Revan is still alive, but unless you want to invade the Emperor's fortress, there's not much you can do to kill or save him."

She smiled wryly. "Though if you do want to, let me know. Anyone taking down Vitiate would be worth it."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton-- was not going to admit that this conversation, the Revan stuff, had him really wishing there was real alcohol in his glass this time. "I mean, we did think the Empire was truly gone," he said, sipping his drink, "What with it being Revan's brainchild and everyone involved with that being either dead or, well, me."

[unusual_sith]

"That version is, I suppose," Lana said. "But the Empire that was based on Korriban is still out there. The Emperor goaded Revan, but was otherwise uninvolved."

[suitably_heroic]

"Korriban was a ruin full of ghosts, last time I was there," Atton said.

[unusual_sith]

"It would be," Lana agreed. "We retook it when we came back, a few hundred years later."

[suitably_heroic]

"Like a big Sith homing beacon?" Atton said. "Guess I don't have to ask which side you're on."

[unusual_sith]

"Not either these days," Lana said. "When Zakuul attacked, the Empire and the Republic both folded. The Alliance came about because there were people on both sides that wanted to fight back. And once it was gone, some of us decided it was better to stay together than go back to pointless war with each other."

[suitably_heroic]

"Always fun when that happens," Atton said. He took a sip. "Too bad it always falls apart in the end."

[unusual_sith]

Lana shrugged. "The people I've met from a later time seem never to have even heard of us, so you're probably not wrong. All we can do is try, though. At least it keeps us from answering to idiots while it lasts."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton sighed. "It's not a surprise," he said. "If I had a scrap of an ability to care left in me, I'd be depressed over how little my Jedi wound up mattering."

[unusual_sith]

"If I remember correctly, there weren't many Jedi in your time, so you did manage to rebuild the order," Lana pointed out. "Personally I'm not fond of many of them, but that's probably my bias speaking. The Republic certainly seems fond of them."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton snorted. "I'm not talking about rebuilding the order," he said. "Any laserbrained moisture farmer from the ass end of nowhere could've rebuilt the order. You just find Force-sensitives and feed them light side doctrine until they start vomiting platitudes."

[unusual_sith]

Lana (poorly) hid a laugh at that. "Not one for the Code, I take it. What did you mean, then?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, my name is Atton Rand, if that tells you anything. And if it doesn't, don't tell me." Atton swished the liquid in his glass. "I'd just hoped we could've gotten us out of the stupid wear team shirts, get all huffy about what's right and wrong, help cause a massive deadly galactic war once a century phase."

[unusual_sith]

It did ring a bell, but Lana was polite enough not to say anything regardless. She very much doubted he wanted to be interrogated about his insights about dark side versus light.

"If it's any consolation, the current conflict started long before you," she said wryly instead. "It's not so much new as ongoing; the same emperor that fled the Republic is the one that came back fighting. He was just very long-lived." She smiled grimly. "He was also the emperor of Zakuul. But yes, I did hope the Alliance would set more of an example, but we never seem to learn.

"Lana Beniko, by the way." She nodded in greeting.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton snorted. "Yeah, yeah," he said, taking her hand and shaking it. "There's always something that happened fifty or a hundred or two hundred years ago. Doesn't help any of the people caught in the crossfire."

He dropped her hand. "Sorry you're also doomed to fail."

[unusual_sith]

Lana shrugged. "My Commander's big on helping however we can in the moment, trying to leave the galaxy better. Even if it's just for one person. Granted he's an incurable optimist, I suppose we can at least make it better in the short run. Besides," she added, "For all we know, we're all from different versions of the same galaxy, and each of us did stop the wars in our own. Stranger things have happened, especially here."

[suitably_heroic]

"Think your Commander isn't the only incurable optimist," Atton said, and downed his drink.

[unusual_sith]

Lana thought about it and shrugged. "Perhaps a bit. But there's not much I can do if it's not true, so I imagine it's best just to ignore the possibility and get on with my life."

[unusual_sith]

Lana had been out and about, and decided she hadn't been in this bar enough, but might as well check out their selection.

"What have you got in whisky?"

[my_own_advocate]

"A better question is 'what sort of whisky would you like'," Lucifer said. He waved at the many bottles behind the bar. "Our selection is quite broad."

Mostly because Lucifer liked to drink it all.

[unusual_sith]

"I'm mostly used to varieties from my own galaxy," she confessed. "Though I've been meaning to get together with a friend to try this planet's offerings. Let's start with something solid but not extravagant?"

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed. "Tiny," he said, "Grab one of the boring ones.'

[unusual_sith]

"I said 'solid', not 'boring'," Lana protested. "Something good but that won't cost a week's pay, to be honest."