Day 0 - Drinks Are On Me (Expecting)

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

At the prospect of a full blown imperial assault Mayrelli prepares as any good Mandalorian should.
She is getting absolutely blind drunk at the feast and cursing years of building up a formidable alcohol tolerance.

"I just wanted to save his life just the once, you know? Take a bolt meant for him or push the guy out of the way of a sword."
Mayrelli sighs and starts draining another tankard.
"But nooooo, Mandalore has to be this amazing warrior who's almost never in any situations like that. Guy has to be the best of the best, almost saves my life again like three times. And there is no way I'd be getting out from under the weight of all that life-debt interest."
Slamming the tankard down and hazily deciding on whether to start on a massive leg of meat or under drink before shrugging and trying to consume both at the same time.

"Then it turns out the Empire, who I remind you is like...way more than us. Since they're an empire and all. Is gonna come and finally I might be able to pay back that life-debt, but I'm gonna die doing it, which makes the whole thing completely pointless."
Blearily she wraps an arm around the closest Mandalorian, which unfortunately for Varina, is her.

"I mean, am I right? Or am I right?"

[Varina Ordo]

Like any good teenager, Varina loved to brood. Nobody, absolutely nobody, could ever understand her feelings, after all. There was no better way to reflect on the tragedy of her existence then over a pint of ale. And hey, at least the Rebuilders kept a good supply on hand.

The thing about brooding was that it didn't mend well with getting embraced. "Why in... in..." The shock kept Varina from coming up with a witty curse. "Why are you touching me?!" She did her best to weasel out of it without being too aggressive. Acting out wasn't something Raven would appreciate, after all. "Just kill any stupid Imperial who steps foot on the planet. Enough of them fall and the rest will run away with their tails between their legs." She pressed her lips together. "Well, most if not all stormtroopers are human, but still!"

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"I'm not touching you, I'm holding you in a warrior's embrace like a true Mandalorian; because we're probably all gonna die."
Which once Varina had squirmed out, left Mayrelli hugging the air.

"We can't just kill all of them, I think, I mean....maybe."
She squints at Varina as she tries to process the idea.
"There's gonna be at least....four....hundred?" That seemed like a decent number. "So each of us would have to kill about 17, if we round up, maybe we overkill one or two guys with rocket launchers or something."
The pilot nods to herself and then starts to grin.
"Well, 17 isn't so bad. I mean, ethically it's monstrous. But from a practical standpoint I can definitely take 17. You're a bit smaller so do you think you can manage 14 or something?"

[Varina Ordo]

"What sort of stupid creed are they teaching you guys nowadays?" Varina crossed her arms and huffed. "There's no warrior's embrace. That's, like, totally not a thing. You made that up."

Varina relaxed, at least in terms of body tension. "No, no, I'm not saying we kill all of them. I mean we kill enough of them that the rest of them are scared that we'll actually kill all of them. Or, like, I don't know, even getting close to half would scare most people. Hell, I don't think the old guy would tell us, 'Hey, it's going to be a coin flip that you die defending this base.' "

The calculation, well, that did make Varina get a little antsy again. But the cherry on top was any amount of doubt in her capabilities. "Who are you calling little? I'll take down twenty, you'll see. You'll see!" The great thing about having a cybernetic leg was that she could kick any furniture without hurting herself. And so, the base of the bar's counter received a solid thud.

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Mayrelli bends down to examine the leg dent and whistles.
"Okay, 15. I forgot you were the 6 million credit woman. Even if you don't know about the warrior's embrace, which definitely exists and is an important part of ancient Mandalorian culture."
Levering herself up to a mostly vertical, if swaying position on her stool.
"So we only got to kill 8....point 5. Well that's easy, anyone of us could do that. Although I have to say, half killing a guy is messed up. Maybe emotional wounds count, I dunno."
She sighs, knocking back another drink and getting most of it in her mouth.

"But it's crazy, right? Tell me it's crazy. I'm pretty sure it's crazy."

[Varina Ordo]

"E-Even if it did exist, and it definitely doesn't, then it doesn't really have anything to do with how good I am at fighting." Varina flashes her fingers twice. "Keep count... Or maybe I'll record it. No, wait, that's kind of messed up."

Whatever precarious position Mayrelli put herself in... Well, that was her business. "That's why you just put them down. Quick and easy," she said without much enthusiasm.

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Oh yeah, definitely messed up. It's like....like. You gotta keep count, as a unit, for information. But keeping count as one person is just kind of weird. You kill one person, you're a murderer. Three people you're a serial killer but 20+...then you're a hero. Or a really bad serial killer I guess."

She shakes her head and takes another shallower sup.
"I didn't sign up to put people down. I mean, implicitly, yes. But explicitly, no. Obviously combat was going to be a part of it. You don't become a Mandalorian to collect bottle caps - well new Mandalorians maybe - but not us. But the last time I was in a war it was a total disaster, I mean they just killed everyone. Fighting is fine but war sucks."

Glancing over at Varina.
"Right?"

[Varina Ordo]

"Oh I was talking about like... Using a camera so that it's an accurate count. That footage though? Naw." Varina raised her mug then swallowed more than just the ale in there.

"Well what's the alternative? Ask real nicely? Just knock them all out and hope they wake up better people?" The whole time, she didn't bother looking over at the other woman. Instead, she fidgeted with her drink. "If we could only kill the ones in charge, then I'd choose that any day. But when I really think about it, some of the grunts have it coming too."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Oh no doubt, I mean. Stormtroopers, they ain't nice. Almost by definition. But this war, I don't mean they killed everyone like the two sides got together on a battlefield and they took turns. I'm talking orbital bombardment of civilian centres. I'd never seen anything like it."
She shudders quietly.

"Nasty business. I'd feel responsible if all those colonists got the same because of us. I mean, it's not their fault a bunch of Mandalorians started causing trouble. Way I see it we sort of have a responsibility, don't we?"
Frowning into her drink.
"Ugggh, I hate responsibilities. I literally learnt piloting to get away from them faster."

[Varina Ordo]

"I'm not sure if there was ever a time that warfare was nice and pretty. Seems more like something made up to make the stories nicer for regular people to enjoy."

As much as Varina considered herself a thinker and a philosopher, she hadn't even considered how this whole thing would affect people outside of the Enclave. She'd been too focused on her fulfilling her responsibility for the old man. "Why would you have to bring that up?" she asked, slumping over her ale. "It's like you want to be freaking bummed about everything."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Psssh, I'm the life of the party."
Mayrelli shoots Varina a look.
"You're meant to be the bummed out brooding one. You should be the one who looks up from their poetry or whatever to tell us all about the innocents at risk. Then I could have been the ace pilot pointing out all the solutions."
Pause.
"Solutions like uhh, evacuating them, maybe? I dunno, has anyone asked Mandalore? Last time I asked him him something he told me 'black, two sugars' which was helpful at the time, but we need more direction than that."

Mayrelli promptly starts trying to drown her sorrows again.
"Man, I am getting bummed out."

[Varina Ordo]

Varina massaged her forehead. "I'm not the bummed out, brooding one," she protested a bit too strongly. "There's no way we can tell everyone to just pack up and leave. We just need to hit the Empire hard and fast. If the first wave of ground troops is gone, then they won't keep coming." She knocked over her almost-empty mug. A bit of ale threatened to escape, though that didn't bother her. "Hopefully they won't decide to just blow up the planet at that point. Ah, well, that's a bit extreme anyways." It'd be so horrible if the Empire actually ever made a planet-killing weapon.

"The old man? You just have to be insistent. Dude gets off her butt if you hassle him enough." Varina sighed out of resignation. "Why don't you just tell me what history you two have. I'm sure it'll be thrilling to hear."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"It's the empire Varina, they don't just give up. Their whole thing is just being a dick for long enough until everyone just sort of gets tired of it."
The pilot shoots her a glare at that last part though, jabbing her mug at the other Mandalorian.

"Our history? Well 19 years ago we conceived a child together, but it was so bummed out and brooding I had to give it away and return to my life of being awesome. But we both swore if that kid ever came back and threatened to be insanely lame we'd come back to save the galaxy. And it would be absolutely thrilling to hear."
The mug is triumphantly emptied.

[Varina Ordo]

"If they won't give up, then we'll kill every last one of them." Varina kept her eyes lowered. "Yeah, they'll give up before that." She especially kept her eyes down when the lady jabbed that mug of hers forward.

The story, though, made her look up. "You're pulling my leg. You're not serious." And yet, she definitely had that glint in her eye that she wanted to hear more.

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"Absolute truth. Also the baby looked nothing like either of us which was really weird at the time. But that's definitely how it went down. We then separated for years."
Mayrelli takes another sip, buying some time as she nods at herself. "Yeah."

"And he definitely said to me- he said, 'Mayrelli you're far and away the best of us and I appreciate you, but we must pretend we never met before.' Which was also really weird at the time. But that's how it happened. Then I went and had many adventures and became even more heroic. And he went to do his Mandalore thing. And then we met back up."
She winks at Varina before cocking her head.
"And what's your totally true store about Mandalore and yourself?"

[Varina Ordo]

Varina's curiosity slowly lowered as the story became more and more ridiculous. By the end of it, she even righted her mug. "We go a bit back. Raven found him, I tagged along since I owe her a lot."

She shook her head. "That entertaining enough for you? Would you rather that I was his like long-lost daughter or something? Cause sometimes it's like he thinks I am."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

Snip

"It's kinda boring. But sometimes life is kind of boring, often the good times are."
Certainly hers had been.

"It must be terrible to acting all fatherly and overbearing, truly, my heart bleeds. Although I guess I was sort of the same until my dad was gone. Then I missed it. And you're about the same age."
Mayrelli blinks and then quickly changes the subject.
"And you better not uh, be growing any taller, by the way."

[Varina Ordo]

"Wow, thanks for telling me my life is boring," Varina said, definitely oozing with teenage sass. It wasn't like she had anything to prove to Mayrelli anyways. Or anybody. Never.

"It might be better than the alternative in a leadership position." Varina shook her head. "Lots of jackasses out there who just push people around all the time." There was a reason why she never aspired to being in charge.

Varina let out a long groan. "What's this about my height anyways? I'm strong, I'm capable. It's easy to stab people in the right places."

[Mayrelli Fayedd]

snip

"Yeah, right now you're the perfect height."
Mayrelli blearily looks up and down, first slooowly measuring herself and then Varina.
"Maybe a touch too tall. But if you get any taller you'll be too tall. Take my height for instance, that's the perfect height. Pilots have to be sm- we have to be compact. So we can pilot anything. If you've ever seen a tall pilot they're lying."

Blinking a little at that last bit.
"Are you still carrying a bunch of knives everywhere?...You know that's totally fine so long as you don't name them."

[Varina Ordo]

Varina stared at Mayrelli, more flabbergasted than anything. "What are you even going on about? Haven't you had ton of ale at these sorts of things before? Jeez..."

The topic of her weaponry made her blush a bit. "I carry a perfect number of weapons, none of which are named, thank you very much." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the long garrote. "Backup knives, whatever. But sometimes, you need something different, right?"

Though when she thought on it more, she did wish she carried more on her. A pistol, two knives, a rapier, sap gloves, garrote... And the new blade in her cybernetic foot. That thing was totally cool and totally a secret.