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WHO: Mara Jade and Cade Skywalker
WHERE: A dingy little bar downtown
WHEN: tonight!
WARNINGS: DRINKING. Huttese cursing. Degenerates.
SUMMARY: Pretty much what it says! Mara and Cade go drinking to get themselves pissed and bitch about the Skywalker line
FORMAT: idefk

It hadn't taken her long, and she was already striding across the wooden floors, an empty seat already picked out in the bar as she strode over to it. She flopped down into the seat, and as soon as a waitress came in, she ordered some of the necessary "bar food" they had on this planet. All starches, but not bad. She especially liked the pretzels they made here, and she also went ahead and ordered a pitcher of beer. Hey, she'd told Cade to hurry, so if he wasn't here before she started, it was tough poodoo for him.

She'd actually known Vader. She knew what he was capable of, and she didn't want him around here. It wasn't up to her to do anything about it though. That would be up to the Jedi. She was going to sit back, and drink herself into a stupor. Right kriffing now.

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Drinking oneself into a stupor was the perfect idea, seeing as Cade hadn't yet acquired anything as good as a deathstick to numb himself. What passed as them - or what he'd been given at first - were just pale white imitations, and tasted bad, to boot. He could probably get used to them, but that wasn't the point.

The point was that Vader was here. Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker. The best reason for a Skywalker to never pick up a lightsaber. Something twisted inside his chest as he thought about it, but he resolutely pushed it away.

You couldn't change the past.

But in the present, he wasn't even going to think about the future.

So caught up in his thoughts, he didn't even think about shutting them down. Or anything down. His presence within the Force was clear as he pushed open the door to the bar, looking around for only a few seconds before sighting Mara and striding over.

"Kinda wish I stayed out of here," he muttered to her as he sat down. "In fact, heading out after this doesn't sound like half a bad idea."

When he walked in, she had been inspecting the cracks in the wood of the table, a hand grazing back and forth over the blaster pistol hidden on her side, but as soon as he did, her head snapped up, and her green eyes went straight for his face. She couldn't shake that feeling of familiarity whenever she felt his force presence, and her own felt a need to be closer.

It wasn't... attraction. Not like what she had with Skywalker, but it was something. Like the Force itself was trying to force her to figure out something.

Not important, she ignored it, and pushed her force sensitivity to the back. "Stang, I know. I think I'll be launching here soon, if you want to come on board. I'm sure you miss sleeping with an engine in the background as much as I do."

She said this as the server brought the beer, and Mara was already grabbing it and ready to slosh it into a cup.

That caught his attention, enough for him to disregard the look he had seen in her eyes. "If I didn't know better, I'd almost think you were talking about getting off this planet. But keep talking." As long as it was anywhere but here, he was interested.

Her lips spread into a white, wicked grin, but instead of saying anything, she just took a long pull of the beer.

"Who says I'm not?"

Oh. That made Cade smile. If she was pulling something on him-but, well. Would she? Not like she had a reason.

"Like I said, Mara, keep talking." He made to pour himself his own glass. "If you say we're going off-planet, the only thing that could be better is if you've found one with its own cantinas."

She rolled her eyes, and paused only when the waitress brought a plate of big, doughy pretzels.

"Have you ever seen one of those planets without cantinas? The only places that don't are the ones with the hyper fanatics, and even then you just have to look."

She pulled the side off of one of the large pretzels, and started munching.

He rolled his shoulders in a shrug, downing a third of the glass in one go before wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "The point is, sleeping with an engine is nice, but where are we going? Has this sector even mapped itself yet, with this backwards planet?"

And on second thought.

"Kark, I wouldn't mind one of those fanatic planets, anyway. Could find some good business there."

"There hasn't been any mapping yet, no. We're working on that, actually. Someone has to do it, when the people on this place can only get to their own moon. Have you looked at how expensive they've made that?" She still couldn't believe it.

Millions of these earth 'dollars' for a single trip? The technology was bad, sure, but these people just weren't doing it right. They weren't focusing on automation or sustainability. How were they going to even colonize their moon, let alone get out of their own system?

The smile faded slightly. "So you're suggesting we go out and do it for them?" It didn't sound as though it'd get him living comfortably. But...hell, it was tempting. Assuming that one vital part was taken care of.

"Do you even have a ship?"

"I'd rather do that than stay marooned here, wouldn't you?" she asked, before taking another long drink, and then topping both hers, and Cade's glass off.

"No. I'm first mate on one."

He didn't respond immediately. Mainly because...well, he actually did have to think about it, nodding his thanks as he was topped up and drinking meditatively.

On one hand, the freedom of space...and the boredom of doing nothing but mapping. Piloting. Charting.

On the other hand, trying to stay down here, have some excitement - and actually trying to make his fortune. So far, that hadn't been going so well. Oh, and it just so happened that Darth Vader was down here too.

"What the hell," he muttered to his glass, which had mysteriously emptied itself. "Anything's better than staying on the same planet as a Sith. How long?" he continued, loudening his voice.

"It shouldn't be too long. We come back every few days, and some of the people around here know the system pretty well. I don't, but they do. There are planets to explore, and well, it's better than being here."

She wouldn't admit it, but she hated being stuck here. Especially now, with Vader around.

Every few days. And Mara didn't seem to be worried too much, but he felt the need to ask...

"...any reason he'd take a look at it, you think?"

No points for guessing who 'he' was.

"Stang, I hope not. At least not yet, anyway. I'd give it a few weeks to acclimate to how primitive this place is before he figures there's a way off this rock."

"Few weeks is better than none. And it's not like there's anywhere else for him to take over." Cade refilled his glass, considering it. "Not that I'd mind him in space and us here. Especially if he was heading to, say, the sun."

She rolled her eyes, and shrugged. "I can't stand him either, but I'm pretty sure if he just dies, he'll come back."

She made a grimace, and sloshed the rest of her beer down. "Stang, this is going to be a mess."

Cade arched a brow...then decided he really, really didn't want to know.

Really. Life and death were touchy for him as it was.

"How well did you know him?" he asked abruptly. Was there a chance she knew who he was before...?

"He and I were both servants of the Emperor," she explained. "Stang if that isn't enough reason to dislike him, but then again, Skywalker always spoke about him fondly. It's ridiculous if you ask me. Just because Vader's his father, it doesn't erase the poodoo he's pulled."

She did know. Cade nodded at that, taking a long drink. "No. It doesn't," he agreed. "He's a bleeding heart and I don't understand how he lasted so long." Especially if he hounded his kids like he did Cade. Small mercies he wasn't here any more...

"It's not just him, I can tell you that. It's because he's got too many friends."

Her lips turned into a frown. And too many girlfriends.

An arched brow. "You were the only one I can remember. Only one that anything came of, at least." Unless there was a skeleton in the closet they hadn't bothered noting down...

...it was possible, Cade supposed. Possible. Likely? With how morally straight Luke had been in the visions?...more likely that someone after him would be the seed of one of those.

Edited 2011-02-27 04:25 (UTC)

She laughed. "I don't know about that. There's Calrissian, the Solos, all the Jedi he's been training. I'm sure they've amounted to something. I'm just down in the history books for being what, the former Emperor's Hand turned ally," she paused. "Or that other thing."

That other thing being marrying him. She tried hard not to think about that.

"The only girlfriend, I meant. Solos, sure, they had their line-"

And then he cut himself off. Maybe not the best thing to bring up.

"-you were more than an ally," he said again, changing subjects with a shrug. "'Least, in the holos I saw."

"That's because you never met Callista," she said, rolling her shoulders. "Believe me, you wouldn't say that if you'd seen them together."

Wait, did she sound jealous?

Stang. She drank down more of her beer, before pulling another full mug, and she raised her hand to alert the waitress, pointing to the empty pitcher. "Then again, she disappeared out of nowhere, or so I've been able to tell."

"Couldn't have met any of you. Hundred years after, remember?" Unless one of them had inhuman ancestry, but as far as he'd been shown...

And hm. That was an interesting tone in her voice. Cade hid his expression behind his glass, then noted her gesture. Could use a couple more of those, actually, preferably something harder...

Oh, yeah. He'd promised to cover it. Though, that also meant he could choose. Cade scanned the back wall of the bar, wondering out loud, "We getting paid for the mapping?"

"Nah. We don't have to map, though. There's plenty of opportunity for a little bit of smuggling and trading, which may prove a bit more profitable than the map building."

Her lips split into a smile, and she caught his eyes, her own flicking to the back of the bar.

"The whiskey they have on this planet isn't too terrible."

"More my style," Cade admits, catching the hint and placing the order with the bartender. "Plenty for the taking if they haven't bothered looking around up there..."

Probably enough to get him living comfortably, for a bit. Not that he wouldn't mind earning it hunting, but making a profit off selling things that weren't people was a perfectly admirable way to go, too.

"I've proposed it before, the trouble is getting the starting capital, which means we have to find something here to sell there. I was thinking sundries, food and alcohol. Something different for them to get a taste of, and that'll allow us to take their tech or goods to bring back here."

She smiled, and toyed with another pretzel. "It helps that trading is my business."

"Hm."

She sounded like she knew what she was talking about, all right. But...the way she was phrasing it made him curious.

"I'm probably a wermo for not catching it, but who are we selling to...?"

"Anyone who will buy, to start. Without connections, we need to start hocking what we have for their currency, but with a few months work, we'll probably have the right people to get the best bang for our buck. Don't worry about investigating," she drained her glass, and grinned.

"That's what I'm good at."

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