Bitch-ception [EN5]

[Moyr Ahaya]

They weren't exactly wasted, but they certainly got a little tipsy after the Mando fiesta. Trying not to stagger, both ladies reached the hangar where the Bitch was docked. Moyr had mixed feelings about the day but she had a hunch that more booze could make them a little simpler.

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Hala walked along-side Moyr. She had borrowed a bottle from the Viper and once they reached the ship, she keyed in the access code. Glancing down at her uniform, this wasn't exactly the way she'd envisioned tonight going, but such was life.

[Moyr Ahaya]

Moyr caught the look as ther swept in. "Feeling overdressed?"

[Col. Hala Moraal]

She gave Moyr a transparent look and shrugged with a nod.

"This isn't exactly the 'more casual' you had asked for, is it?"

[Moyr Ahaya]

"Well, you can make it casual if you unbutton it." Moyr pulled a finger from Hala's windpipe to her sternum before taking the bottle from her hands to take a swig and advance up the ramp.

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Hala chuckled and shrugged, then undid the button which attached the cross-flap of her jacket then unzipped it down nearly as far as where Moyr's finger had trailed.

"Suitably casual?" she asked with a bit of a laugh.

[Moyr Ahaya]

Moyr stopped at the sound of the zipper and looked back. Reaching out, her brow slightly arched, she slipped fingers under the cross-flap and trailed along Hala's collarbone. "You're making progress." Once they were both on the deck, she pushed the switch to pull the ramp up.

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Hala lifted her left hand and gently traced her glove-tipped fingers along the bones in Moyr's wrist.

"Where's the gunny? In or out for the night?"

[Moyr Ahaya]

"The cockpit lights are off so in her cabin, probably. I don't like the ship being left alone. " Moy'r thumb nestled at Hala's jugular notch as fingers wandered to the side of her neck. She looked to the interior of the ship until she spotted a small red light in the dark of the cargo load. "She has set Virginia on, so yes."

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Hala tipped her head back, exposing her neck more fully to the Sith lord.

"Good to know that she's got her eyes on things," she said softly, sighing and flexing her shoulders.

[Moyr Ahaya]

"Since we're guarded, it does offer a chance to get a bit more out of control." Moyr said absent-mindedly, squeezing Hala's neck lightly, then releasing it to follow on the trail blazed by unzipping."Unless drinking with the Mandalorians has already challenged your fortitude."

[Col. Hala Moraal]

"Please," Hala scoffed lightly, her nostrils flaring slightly as she inhaled, "You know I avoid drinking in public if at all possible. And for good reason, too. Lord Haydriss poisoned me yesterday to make a point of it...."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"I heard something about this crazy Sith Lord. Didn't meet her in person though." Moyr mused, her fingers in a bit wanderlust. "How did you survive?"

[Col. Hala Moraal]

"Curiously, she told me she would administer the antidote if I shot her. So I slipped out my pistol, flicked it over to stun, and then shot her," she said with a shrug, working the jacket of her uniform looser around her shoulders to show more of the slate grey undertunic beneath.

[Moyr Ahaya]

"And since you live, I assume she kept her word. So many Sith Lords revel in empty ostentation trying to give people they want to make subordinate to their will various lessons of humility and fear. Do you feel duly terrorised, Hala, in a lasting way, by what she did?" Moyr poked the officer's sternum with her finger.

[Col. Hala Moraal]

"Not 'terrorized', no. Did it hurt? Yes. Could it have become so excruciating that I might rather have died or done anything to make it stop? Perhaps. But Lord Haydriss is not my enemy, and as a Sith I am to obey her. It occurred to me that it would be poisoned, how deliberately she offered me the drink, but she ordered me to drink and I obeyed. I think it would have been a waste for her to let me die, but if she gained some greater good from it than the remainder of my life could produce then I would be hard pressed to argue the efficacy of it. But you know that I try to remain agnostic with regards to Sith politics," she said, her breath pushing her chest slightly back against the Sith lord's fingertip.

[Moyr Ahaya]

"It is amusing for me to observe that you have mental predispositions to challenge authority and yet you refuse to do it. Especially that, as you've just admitted, it's not a sense of self-preservation that holds you back." Moyr stepped away and headed across the cargo load toward the steps that led to her cabin, gesturing Hala to follow. "Shed some light on that if you may."

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Hala nodded and followed, unzipping her jacket the rest of the way. As she walked into the Twi'lek's cabin, she moved over to the small closet, keyed it open, and hung up the jacket within.

"If I strike back at any Sith without cause, then I become viewed as a threat. Lord Haydriss herself asked, my words, if I wanted to be her pet. I don't think she understands my role, but that's for the best. The fewer who know, the better. She asked if I wanted promotion or glory or what she could give me. She also said that, without explanation, she would have felt insulted, or thought less of me, for me using a stun bolt instead of a regular blaster shot. But none of this matters beyond what I'm able to accomplish and how others perceive me. And since I cannot call the force my ally, I will always be lesser. Then so long as I reinforce this view, I am given leave to act so long as my actions produce positive results. And in this fashion, I interact with the Sith and Sith lords. It gets a little more complicated with the Darths, but I have less experience there. Repeated exposure would likely prove out a reasonable course of action."

"If I thought someone were to cause a significant amount of harm to myself or to the Empire, then I imagine their authority would have been corrupted and so it would not really be denial to counteract it. But that is an opinion. You might view that as the line on which I would challenge authority, and that is also fine."

She turned back around, slipping off her gloves and setting them on the table. The scars, keloiding, and physical trauma clearly showed along the right side of her body with her jacket and gloves off, but other than a movement to massage it gently she did not try and hide it. There wasn't a need.

[Moyr Ahaya]

Moyr took off her outer clothing and tossed it on her chair, remaining in her tapewear. She then approached Hala and began to trace a line around her post-traumatic scars, as if marking their extent. "So in the end it is mimicry until there is a real need to shed the humble guise? Are you beyond basic human passions then? Anger, hate, fear, lust, greed?"

[Col. Hala Moraal]

"One is not the same as the other. A tool does not feel anger. A tool does not feel hatred, or fear, or lust, or greed. A tool does as it is bid, and so long as I am perceived as a tool I am not a threat. But I am not devoid of these, and indulging in them can often be productive. The Hutts don't trust the honest cop, and usually kill them. But the less people know of my true emotions, the fewer they can use against me," she admitted. She lifted her left arm to gently run a finger across Moyr's cheek.

[Moyr Ahaya]

Moyr allowed this, even tilted her head a little, moving her touch to the traumatised part, gently so. "And that close-knit circle comprises of...?"

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Hala's cheek twitched slightly.

"You, I thought you knew?"

[Moyr Ahaya]

The fingers began their subtle climb up the shoulder. "I was curious if it got crowded when I had not been looking." One of her leks slithered past Hala's nape as Moyr leaned in and curled around the older woman's neck from the other side, the tip brushing up and down her jugulum.

[Col. Hala Moraal]

"Why would it? I'm not a field operative, haven't been for a while. My need to seduce assets as a part of sapient intelligence collection is extremely negligible. Besides....," she said as she inhaled again with the additional pressure applied to her neck and throat, "Lord Haydriss didn't seem that interested. Very interested in how the universe reacts, less in what surrounds her."

[Moyr Ahaya]

"Why her?" Moyr bit her lip. "Did it have something to do with a promise of rougher treatment?" The lek squeezed Hala's throat gently while the Lethan's hand slipped underneath the top vest by the armpit, exploring further. "Or is it an opportunistic instinct to align with one of the strongest in the pack, a Grand Moff's daughter? Do you think she needs to be... infiltrated?"