Uptown Girl (D2 EN, Shaisha's Lodgings)

[Shaisha Vreysk]

Something about what he says makes her frown against her own better judgement, as if the thought of anaesthesia was like a sour memory.

"That patient? A wookie or something?"

[Cole Ormont]

"The one that just happened to be susceptible to psychosis and was violent." Cole half shrugs, "say my skrogger anaesthesiologist was hungover, and the guy woke up, but didn't have a psychotic episode? or that he did, but he went catatonic instead of violent? I mean, what are the odds of all those coincidences?"

He gives a snort of laughter, "but no, not a wookie. Shit, I'd be dead if it had been," and he runs his hand through his hair.

[Shaisha Vreysk]

"Probably," she chuckles, wincing only slightly at the pain now from that particular activity.

"... I've seen a wookie take someone's arm off... or rather, saw a someone who had gotten their arm taken off by a wookie. Always thought it was kind of made-up and stuff, but guess their reputation is true. Thankfully, I've never fought a wookie. Other big scary things, but not a wookie."

[Cole Ormont]

"I've never doubted it. I've seen how wookies are put together under all that fur. And joints? y'know? surprisingly weak." He holds out an arm and mimes pulling it off with his other hand, "pop."

He offers to take the water glass from her, "got anything around here to drink?"

[Shaisha Vreysk]

She jerks her head to her left. "That thing that looks like a sarcophagus. It's actually a bar once you lift up the lid. Help yourself... though I recommend steering clear of the Massassi-bottle. Don't think bloodwine is to your liking."

[Cole Ormont]

"Duly noted," he crosses the room and opens the unusual bar, pouring through the bottles, picking out a whiskey and giving it a sniff. Cole looked back at the sith with a slight narrowing of the eyes, "do you want something?"

[Shaisha Vreysk]

She cocks her head sideways. "Don't doctors usually advise against alcohol in situations like these?"

[Cole Ormont]

"Usually," his reply is flat, "but there are no counterindications for the drugs I administered, and you're not so direly dehydrated to be a problem. You need rest more than you need a drink, but something tells me you're a big enough girl to handle it."

Cole poured himself a generous double, speaking at the glass as he half-shrugs, "you can say no."

[Shaisha Vreysk]

"In that case," she smiles, "pour me a glass of that Ziost brandy."

Letting him fix the drink, she took a moment to get herself comfortable on the divan. "You probably have questions about the sith, no? Least I can do is to answer them, as a thank you for what you've done."

[Cole Ormont]

Cole brings her the drink, throwing himself, uninvited, down on the nearest couch. He is ungainly, slouched in the seat, legs wide apart as if his right knee had a restraining order out on the left, cupping the glass of whiskey near his crotch.

"Anything beyond what the Republic already knows I assume is classified. These are impressive digs, especially when the Imperial compound is down on the lower levels. Isn't that a bit of an insult to the Empire? I wonder how that got decided."

[Shaisha Vreysk]

"My master keeps several private residences on different planets, like many of his fellow Dark Council members. There is no insult to those staying at the Imperial compound." She honestly failed to see how it would be an insult in any way... well, Xevious was a distrustful guy overall, so he'd probably find a way to be insulted either way.

"And I didn't mean sensitive information about us. You wanted to learn more about my species, no?"

[Cole Ormont]

He sips the whiskey, it's heavy with smoke and coffee flavours. "Two factions, two levels. Someone had to decide which group got to stay on the upper levels and who was down in the slums," he waves away the observation. "Not to sound disinterested, but unless there's something specifically unusual about you, the data I got from your scan will allow me to construct an extremely accurate holomodel."

"But you can tell me how you came by some of those scars, and maybe I can better mesh this," he indicates vaguely towards her, "whole refined VIP deal with a body that's been through the wringer a few times."

[Shaisha Vreysk]

She shrugged off the comment of two factions... there was only one important divide to think of when it came to Sith, and that was that there was Sith and non-Sith.

Taking a sniff of the brandy, she swirled the liquid around first before taking a sip.

"The old ones are not so interesting; punishement or disciplining, some accidents. More recent ones was from a large beast called Death's Shadow on Korriban... me and two other acolytes had the bright idea of hunting down the biggest baddest thing seen on that planet in a while - it was a hard fight, and it almost ripped up my guts, but I landed the killing blow on it before it could finish the job on any of us."

[Cole Ormont]

"Well, that definitely doesn't synch with the person I met last night." Another sip, "corporal punishment big where you come from?"

[Shaisha Vreysk]

"More or less. I cannot speak for other houses and families, but failure or disobediance was not tolerated by my family. Believe I did mention that I was trained from a very early age..." she sipped the brandy once more, leaned her head back, and savoured the exquisite taste.

"If I failed in my training... not paying attention or making the same mistakes over and over... the training sword would usually be the punishement. If I disobeyed as a child, I would be disciplined. Mind you, I learned when I could do it and get away with it, as well as what not to attempt... which I believe in a way was part of the lesson."

[Cole Ormont]

Cole cocks an eyebrow, "you must have been a poorly behaved child, or an early sadist. Or perhaps my parents just didn't hit as hard as yours." He finishes the whiskey in a gulp and gets up to help himself to another, leaning against the bar instead of returning to the couch.

[Shaisha Vreysk]

His reply makes her snort a brief chuckle, which doesn't hurt as much now thanks to fast-working space-meds. "Perhaps. Most of it was from my own recklessness, or the aforementioned training with practise weapons. Just because I was a child didn't mean they would go easy on me."

"So your corporal punishement is a standard where you come from too?"

[Cole Ormont]

"No," Cole returns bluntly, "it's old-fashioned and outdated. But the Group Commander was nothing if he wasn't a fine upstanding man of military tradition. He was the kind of man who could say," he adopts a gruff, if sarcastic, tone: "a prudent man will beat his kids every day, you may not know why, but they will."

He polishes off the whiskey in a single gulp. "And he'd say it with a completely straight face."

[Shaisha Vreysk]

"Sounds like a shitty daddy," she sighs a little and gives a sympathetic nod. "Can relate to that... not in the same way as that, but... yeah, not exactly the best dad of the century. At least he never beat me without a good reason, and when I was younger he... wasn't so bad."

[Cole Ormont]

Cole pours himself another drink, "to fathers, and the ways they skrog us up." Even Ashla could drink to that.

[Shaisha Vreysk]

I can get behind that. "To fathers, and the broken chains they imposed on us." Shaisha raises her glass to the toast then knocks back a mouthful.

"I guess you are coming to the conclusion that the Sith are not all the bloodthirsty monsters the propaganda is telling you?"

[Cole Ormont]

"Only if that was the was the impression I had before." He gives Shaisha an appraising look, half dressed, with her tawny eyes and brick-russet skin, what a shame. "You don't seem prone to violence, but I'm not convinced yet that you're no man eater."

[Shaisha Vreysk]

"Blindly lashing out in violence is rather inefficient," she says with a smug look over the rim of her glass.

A golden light glittered in her eyes, half-way closed as she regarded the man in return. "And man-eating? ... Well, I would be lying if I denied it. Just as I imagine you probably break a few hearts along the way, officer. You seem like a pretty type."

[Cole Ormont]

Cole pushed his hand through his hair self-consciously, not sure what to make of the back-handed compliment. He poured another drink; he knew exactly how much he'd imbibed, but was still surprised to see the drop in the level of the bottle. "Pretty, huh? Yeah, I've been called that."

[Shaisha Vreysk]

"Or would you prefer handsome? Most guys seem to prefer being called handsome... " she says in an innocent tease.

Cole was quite the farcry from being her type and she got the impression the feeling was mutual.

"Guess it's the way you ruffle your hair so much that makes me think pretty."