Log:Starlight Vanguard: Completely and Freely Open
Aria recruits Naro into her Rebel cell
OOC Date: April 3, 2023
Location: FRT Strong Mynock
Participants: Aria Voss, Naro
Aria never shows up without sending a message first. There were just too many variables. She wasn't going to spend the time to walk all the way out to the Mynock with her guards just to find out that the ship was just about to depart on a tight schedule, so she pings the captain with a request, "Have time for a chat?"
The problem, of course, with doing it this way, was that it was hard to play off the topic of conversation as casual. After all, how many people invite themselves onto your ship and then casually ask whether or not you're into committing treason?
But, such was the state of the galaxy, and as Aria had told Bar'duur, Kaine, and Saito, she 'had a feeling' that both Naro and Nayeesa could be persuaded to have Rebel leanings, if they didn't already. And so Aria was on her way to 'feel out' the good Captain, striding up the boarding ramp of the /Strong Mynock/ flanked by her two usual guards, wearing her normal blouse and slacks 'corporate armor.'
Naro didn't have much of an issue accepting the invitation or more granting one to his new boss and compatriot, Aria. Meeting her at the ramp and the two regular guards she has around her. "Good to see you again Aria. Or should I call you Boss in public?" One always walked the fine line of professional with a personal name. he waves them aboard as the cargo he had last was being offloaded, almost done. "The Rec Room as usual. And would you like a drink?" he leads the way to the port side of the ship and the more than generously sized room set aside for recreation.
The question draws a warm laugh from the woman. "Just Aria," she says, though it's flattery that touches the tops of her cheeks and corners of her eyes. "If we get any more formal than that, I might as well go back to the core and surround myself with the nobility. They're all much more obsessed with titles than I am."
She makes a slight gesture to have her guards wait in the cargo bay, as usual, and follows behind Naro. "It's good to see you again, too. Truly. And I appreciate you taking the time. Nar Shaddaa can be a fickle place, and friends can be hard to come by. I'm pleased to be able to count you among mine." A beat, then, and a warm smile. "If it's not too much to ask, I really could. Make it a double, please. Whatever you have handy. It's been... well.. it's been a week. How have /you/ been since I last saw you?"
The cathar laughs and nods, "I know that feeling, titles was never my thing to toss around or receive." he offers the bench-like couch for Aria to sit on and he goes to pour a double of some Whiskey. It was a good one to wind down to, poring himself a double in a slightly larger glass. Taking it over to her he hands the lighter smaller glass to Aria before taking a seat, "And well.... The contracts provided have all been very acceptable and pay well."
Aria all but collapses into it, propping herself up on one corner and crossing her legs. One elbow lifts to rest against the back, and she leans her head over into her hand. Her dark hair cascades down one slender pink forearm, and she looks /tired/ .
"Thank you." Her voice is soft, her smile softer. She lifts her free hand up to take the glass and then brings it to her nose, using the scent of the whiskey to both wake her up and calm her down. Her eyes close. Her lungs fill. And then she exhales through her lips, finally taking a decent-sized sip.
"Good," she says at last. "The runs have been safe? The ship looks fantastic. I didn't see any /noticeable/ scorch marks, so hopefully that means you're staying out of the targeting reticles of the pirates. And the Sith, depending on /what/ you're hauling." A little grin tugs one corner of her lips, her eyes sparkling with michief. "Not that /I'd/ ever advocate such behavior..."
He sits himself casual as well, more leaning into the crook of the corner of it, facing more towards Aria, Naro's arm resting across the back of the couch, "Not that I ever enjoy having such problems. But this old gal packs a wallop, Probably need a corvette to really give her a good scrap and a chance at taking her down and boarding her. Why I've got the executioner out in the bay. Try to keep it using non-lethal weapons, but there have been a few times its needed to do more." A sip of his drink, "Even tired, you still shine Aria... Guessing though its been a rough week with getting everything still started and running smoothly."
"I wish I could say I can't imagine living in a world where you'd need all of that -- and I /used/ to be able to," Aria answers. "Not any more though."
The compliment, though, seems to catch her by surprise. She laughs quietly, coyly, her violet eyes shifting down towards her drink. "That's.. kind of you. Considering how little I've slept the last few days, I'm people don't actively free from my presence, much less think there's any amount of shine."
She takes another sip of her drink and rolls one shoulder, gradually lifting her eyes again. "When I was younger--" Of course, she was /only/ twenty years old, as it was. "--I used to sneak out. Stay out /all/ night with my friend Elara. She's a Twi'lek. Eventually became dancer. And as soon as she got off shift, we were out in the clubs. She could go for hours and hours. And I'm a /Zeltron/ . It takes /twice/ as much alcohol to get me drunk as most people, but I'd get the stuff that was spiked with spice. One time it took them three days before the local security force found me and drug me back home to my parents."
She grins at the memory. "Even back then, I don't think I was /this/ tired. So yes, trying to make everyone happy in a place that doesn't seem to sleep is.. /exhausting/ . But there's more than that. There's always more than that." She rolls her shoulder. "Apparently, I have a hard time sitting still."
"That is your drive. Your need to succeed, which is a talent that can be rare to a degree that you have it. And wouldn't that play right into what they say about your party ways... Even if more in your younger years than now?" Naro gets up an goes to get the bottle of Whiskey now, getting two, handing one to Aria, "i've a penchant for drinking quite a bit as well before getting drunk... Then that is due more to Catharian biology and healing far faster than most other races.... Its a metabolism thing. Partake as much as you like, I know I will be." he drops back the bottle he as and takes a long gulp. "is there some business you wished to discuss with me?"
Aria's smile broadens at the appearance of the two bottles, and as she's handed one of her own, her lower lip tucks between her teeth. "Captain, I knew we were going to get along the day we met," she teases, her eyes sparkling playfully. She doesn't upend the bottle, but she downs what's left in her glass and re-fills it the way most people will pour themselves a cup of caff. Apparently, drinking straight out of the bottle was just too far a line to cross. Apparently, you can take the lady out of the nobility, but you can't take the nobility out of the lady. Not completely, anyway.
She's licking her lips when that last question is asked, and her eyes roll briefly to the ceiling. "Well, yes, as a matter of fact," she says with a sheepish smile. "Though, now that we've started drinking, there's a chance it's better that we wait until we're in the /middle/ of drinking." She grins, taking another big drink of her whiskey.
The fact that she has two-livers doesn't keep the wisp of a girl from cringing a little at the burn of the liquid on the way down her throat. But she does seem to take it with the practiced sigh of an alcoholic.
"I /will/ say that wanting to see how you were settling in was the extent of my 'official'," she even makes the little air-quotes with her pinky, since the rest of the fingers were busy holding the glass and the others were busy propping her head up, "VGC business. So, you're welcome to kick me out whenever I become a nuisance. But, yes, there's... more."
"I've been running cargo for a very long time... The contracts Voss offers only makes it easier on the old self." The shift of mood that Aria portrays when speaking of being far more boozed to converse and that she has something non Voss official on her mind. The cathar sinks in to the couch to get a bit more comfortable for this, "Best I think to be straight about it. I don't ever see you being a nuisance or kicking you out because of a conversation. Or much else you could say or do." Naro raises a hand and makes a bring it on kind of way about the fingers curling, "Spit it out."
Aria's smile thins. She watches Naro for another moment, taking another big drink from her glass and then refilling it from the bottle. "So, you're aware of my family, by now. My father's the CEO of the company. My mother's... well... one of the most sought after trade negotiators between Coruscant and Rishi. The contact list on her datapad is a veritable who's-who of political movers and schmoozers throughout the Sith Empire. It's all very..."
The girl rolls her eyes again and takes another drink. "The tabloids are /thrilled/ to report that I don't share my parents' ambitions or interest in political maneuvering. I'm a liability to my parents as much as I am heir to the company. I've done nothing for them to ostracize me for. At the same time, if they wait for me to, their stocks will plummet and they'll spend years recovering the losses as investors view them as /weak/ . One of the benefits, if it could be called that, of the Sith Empire is understanding their core values. Weakness is culled. Which is why my father -- bless his little iniquitous heart -- found out I was on Nar Shaddaa for an unscheduled and unapproved meeting, then decided to twist it around and trap me here by making an announcement about our expansion."
She takes another drink and grins. "It's brilliant, isn't it? Either I succeed and increase company revenue, or the Hutts or one of the other factions kill me, and he doesn't have the errant daughter threatening his stocks, anymore. The Black Nova Corporation is already planning to sabotage one of our ships..." She raises her glass, spreading all but two fingers out in a makeshift 'stop' to head off the worry. "..I'm on it. I've already got people hired to take care of it."
"There has never been a trap I know of that there isn't a way out of or to escape. though far better to avoid them all together." naro seems to get the idea, the trappings of what is far more royalty than royalty itself, the political and business moguls of the galaxy all warring against each other. Such is business. "Still it ways heavy on you..." Though the Cathar she sits with and drinks with seems to have already figured out there was more to the problems, "What else troubles you?"
"If only," Aria answers to the mention of avoiding the traps. "But, yes.. I say all of that to say this. I have no love for the Sith Empire. I understood that when they destroyed Mon Calamari. I was only five at the time, but I understood what it meant. I understood who my parents were courting, practically worshiping all in the name of credits." A pause for her to once more smile tightly. "Not that anyone would be surprised. We have a long history of being on the wrong side of politics."
She takes another drink, then, and shakes her head. "The tabloids say that I'm disinterested in politics, but it's quite the opposite. I'm /very/ interested. Just not in the kinds of politics my parents are. Not the kinds of politics I can discuss in public." She blows a soft breath past her lips. "We can't have a galaxy that lives under Sith rule unchallenged. The people on the rim think it's only in the core, but it's spreading and they have the ability to destroy any /planet/ that dares speak out against him. That's genocide at a level the galaxy has never known before."
The cathar begins to laugh, like any cat that finds itself knowing something over any other being it resides with, "I am not laughing because of what you said. That is truly a dangerous thing the Sith Empire can do... But you sound very much like some friends I know. I agree, but one does have to call propaganda as propaganda. A side not willing to sacrifice for the greater good wouldn't be effective..." he straightens and takes another sip from the bottle he has, clearly not bound by royal etiquette himself. Naro then look to her, "You cannot recruit someone who is already is a part of what you are recruiting for. Though this does have me worrying less about working together... completely and freely open fully with each other..." Naro finally calms far more, "Ask anyway though I've a feeling I already can say yes."
Aria's eyes narrow shrewdly for a moment, trying to figure out /exactly/ was so funny about her little... sales pitch. For it being one of her first, she'd apparently thought she was doing pretty well, until that little outburst. It isn't until he mentions /friends/ in a good context and already being recruited that she seems to breath out a sigh, her smile returning to her lips.
"Well, we can /have/ that debate. Murdering billions of people to make a point is hardly sacrificing for the greater good..." Violet eyes sparkle with intensity, then, and more than her fair share of hope. "Help me," she breathes. "I have a plan. I can't talk about it here, but I already have a team to pull it off that's /almost/ big enough to get it done. I just need a few more. And then we'll have something that's /ours/ . A base. A place to move forward from. Something that's not part of VGC. That no one knows anything about. And we can go from there. Together." A pause, and a little, sheepish grin. "And we can /discuss/ what sacrifices we're willing to make... for the greater good."
Naro listens, but is amused still to have forestalled a longer pitch when Aria was pitching to the choir, as one might say, "A base... that would make things to solidify a bit more in the area. I know a few that where discussing similar ideas... but not having anything solid to work with. Count me in princess..." The last he seemed to add on a whim, almost as if the Cathar were serious and planning all at the same time.
Aria's shoulders seem to lift, her chest swelling with excited triumph. Her smile blossoms, and though for just a moment she seems like she /considered/ breaking the rules of etiquette and going in for a hug, she ultimately thinks better of it and instead lifts her glass towards him for a toast.
"To being completely and freely open with each other," she says warmly, and though there's still a glint of joyous mirth in her eyes, her expression seems to try to affect something like sternness. "And I am /not/ a princess." Though there's a wink after a moment and a little roll of her eyes.
There is a smirk that only a cat can pull off and this crosses Naro's face, As cheesy as a mouse and as proud as a prince. And he'd have not stopped her from hugging him, being as furred as he was he is a lovely thing to hug. Seems he has found a good nick though when things were more amiable and now knew she hated it as much as she might find it amusing. he raises his bottle to the toast and gulps back a large amount of it, "Freedom from tyranny and fear." The toast before he sips it back given.
