Getting Acquainted

[Liliana Tiraen]

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Evening
Senatorial District
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Liliana thought she was accustomed to stressful days, she thought she knew what it was like having more information dropped on her plate than she could manage, after all, she had gone to one of the top schools here on Coruscant and she had been less than a street rat back on whatever world she had been born on before she had been adopted. But by the force, nothing had prepared her for what the Senate was like, it had been a constant flow of information whether it was imagery, names, places, voices or events. For the first time in years she felt like she was in over her head, she had had never been this overwhelmed with all this kind of information before.

While she was used to Coruscant from spending several years here the Senatorial complex had always been out of reach, she had never really had a reason to go there before, nor had she been able to, but it had always been there, teasing her, just out of reach. Now however, she had been inside it and she was sure that she had been in the way for so many who just wanted to go from one point to another while she had been staring in awe of the architecture. And while her day had been packed full of stress, information and more information she felt rather pleased with how it had gone, figuring that she had done better than she had expected of herself.

But there was one thing she noticed that separated her from the other senators, connections, groups of people that could help each other out, close allies, she lacked all of that, she wasn't even sure if Selena had had time to gather connections she could pursue to try and re-establish the connection with.

However, one thing she had managed to pick up while talking to a Twi'lek Senator for some world she didn't recognize was that there was a bar that a lot of Senators tended to head out to to relax and talk to people outside of their normal circles.

So, that's where she was going, dressed in her pearl white suit she headed out from her Office and out into the Senatorial district, while the district was new to her, it wasn't hard for her to find her way to the bar. Having stood in line for longer than she anticipated she had been met with a bouncer and a surprisingly high cover charge before she was let inside, finding herself in an equally surprisingly fancy looking bar.

Looking around she could see senators she had seen glances off all day while she had been busy trying to learn the ropes of being one of them. Right now she felt as if the title Junior really fit her quite well.

Making her way over to the bar she managed to catch the attention of the bartender long enough to order a Martini, receiving her drink she looked around and spotted an empty table which she made sure to be first there, looking around at the crowd of Senators and others she didn't recognize.

"Well, this seems to be the place to make connections." she thought to herself and took a sip from her drink.


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Spoiler

@Nefieslab

 

[Numenius Pax]

Numenius was beginning to feel like he might have a problem.

Every time some news came from the warfront, Numenius was getting more and more distressed and more and more interested in trying to see what was at the bottom of some bottles. He managed to keep it all pent up though. He managed to avoid thinking about how much he wanted to drink and he made sure that he didn't drink in excess and only when and where it was socially acceptable because although he felt like he really wanted, or needed, a drink, Numenius Pax was NOT going to become a gods-damned alcoholic.

It just wasn't happening.

But... it was evening, after work, and this bar did some rather nice cocktails with whiskey and brandy as the primary components and they were what he enjoyed as drinks it had to be said. He was already on his second drink by the time that Liliana walked up to the bar. He watched her for a moment, noting how none of the usual hangers on and other senators were orbiting her. As a senior senator, Numenius had people who liked to act like they were his friends.

They were fun.

Rather than messing around with them, he dismissed them with a short word before moving over to the table where the Junior Senator was sitting. He set his drink down and touched the back of the chair,

"This seat taken?" he asked with a little smile, "Don't suppose you're waiting on someone are you?"

@Danee

 

[Liliana Tiraen]

[fancybox2] Looked around at the various senators of neighboring worlds, some she had exchanged words with briefly during the morning, but it as usual had been focused around Selena and how unfortunate it had been that she had passed away at such an early age, she wondered how old how her parents had been when they had been 'taken care of'. However, her self-pity was interrupted as a figure moved over towards her, taking a sip from her Martini she looked up towards the man as he spoke. She hadn't anticipated someone approaching her, from what she had gathered not a whole lot of people wanted to associate with a no-name, whether that was true or just rumors spread by the students back in school she hadn't found out yet. But it seemed that people clung to their cliques of like minded individuals.

As the man came closer she tried to place a planet, rank and name on him. She knew that some considered him an old-timer. Raising her head slightly she smiled. Now, he could either take the seat over to where he came from, but from what she had seen the bar was far from that full to ask someone to take their chair over to a different table. That's when the name fell into place, Numenius, he was definitely one of the older senators around. But, she hadn't expected him to come to her out of all the people.

"Oh, no no, it's free, everyone I know personally is on Empress Teta, so, a bit long too long for me to wait." she said with a slight laugh and straightened her back a bit. "But please, have a seat." She said, taking a sip from her Martini. "Now, pardon my assumption if I'm incorrect, but, you're Senator Numenius, right?" she said, letting her confidence shine through a bit as she couldn't help the slight smirk that crept up on her lips.

Now, what could a Senior Senator want with her? Either it was to tell her to step off from something she had done unintentionally during the day or it could be that he just wanted to be friendly and thought she looked a bit lonely.[/fancybox2]

@Nefieslab

 

[Numenius Pax]

Empress Teta...

So this was the new Senator for the 'cursed' planet as it was so called? She looked to be cut from a different sort of cloth from the last senator from Empress Teta. Indeed, the last one had been a former GAR member who had stuck around the barracks as it were and kept getting herself involved in firefights.

Right up until a firefight ended badly, Gods rest her soul.

He didn't see the same characteristics in this woman but that was to be expected. She had likely gotten herself elected on an entirely different platform than her predecessor after all. Humming a little bit as he sipped at his drink, he sat down at her table gratefully with a small smile.

"I know that feeling." he admitted with a little chuckle, "I went to the trouble of inviting some of my friends from Corulag to visit me here when I first joined the senate... surprisingly enough, they were only focused on partying on Coruscant. Imagine that, right?"

Numenius nodded,

"That's me." he agreed with a small smile, "And you are the new junior senator for Empress Teta - Liliana, correct?"

Once the introductions were concluded, he continued,

"I thought I'd introduce myself here rather than during a debate. When we're in the middle of a debate we've all got our 'war faces' on as it were and I know that's no real way to introduce yourself to someone for the first time, you know?" He smirked a little bit, "And also to warn you... there's going to be a lot of jokes and ribbing about the 'Curse of the Empress'. Just ignore it and you'll be alright."

@Danee

 

[Liliana Tiraen]

[fancybox2] Liliana hadn't heard too much about how the former Senator had been in person or how she had acted in the senate, so she had quite a bit of work before her to try and pick up the loose ends left behind by the late senator. Taking a sip from the small glass she looked at the man as he sat down and introduced himself. So, he was the Senator of Corulag? That was a world she had only heard about in the history tapes she had been forced to read as a young girl and briefly mentioned during school. But she had never been there in person, though she made a mental note of paying the world a visit some time.

With the attention flipped from him back to her she was curious to see how much he had found out about her or whether she had managed to slip beneath the sensors, so to say. But he had done his homework and even surprised her with an additional note of trivia. She had never heard of the term 'Curse of the Empress'. Liliana would have to take a look into this 'curse' that he mentioned.

"Ah, well I can't say that I've heard anything about a 'Curse of the Empress' yet or from my time living there." she said with a smile. "Though now you've given me something to look into and it does sound like something I could put some time down into."

With a sip from her glass she glanced around before lowering her voice a bit. "I have to say, I feel a bit out of place in a place like this." she said with another sip from her martini as her attention turned back to him. "But, I guess it's just my nerves playing me. I mean, stepping in so soon after Selena's passing and stepping into a war, I have to admit it feels a bit daunting." Raising the glass to her lips she finished it and looked over towards the bartender, she shouldn't drink too much tonight, there was far too much to do tomorrow, but, another drink could hardly hurt, right?

"But, let's not dwell on the past or the horrors of the everyday life, how are the drinks here? Anything you might recommend?" She asked, diverting the attention from the gloom and doom of the recently declared war. She didn't feel like talking about it right now anyway and she doubted he was too keen on talking about what happened beyond the core.[/fancybox2]

@Nefieslab

 

[Numenius Pax]

Numenius was probably a bad person but he was looking forward to telling her about the Curse of the Empress. It wasn't nice, it was kind of a kark move in fact, but he had had a long day. He felt like he had earned this. He probably hadn't and he was probably just being a kark to the new woman though.

A mental sigh later, he was feeling a little bad about it.

"Just make sure that you never have have reason to enter into combat." he told her with a roll of his eyes, "You'd think that would be common sense but... well... there's been... I want to say five? Four? Anyway. There's been about five deaths since I joined the senate and mostly due to getting themselves involved in a live-fire environment."

He chuckled a little bit.

"We all felt like that on our first day." he assured her with a small smile, "And if you meet anyone who tells you they didn't feel like that for the first year? The first half a decade? They're lying to you or themselves."

Laughing, he nodded,

"Yes actually." he admitted with a smirk, "Bit weird but there's a lot of strangely named drinks here. Like... hmm... The Sith Ambassador. Smoothest blend of Corellian alcoholic cream you will ever taste. Mannaan Sunrise - kolto and tequila."

@Danee

 

[Liliana Tiraen]

[fancybox2] Liliana's head was now working the information she had received about the curse, wondering what it could be and why it apparently was such a big deal. As he began to explain it she made sure to try and remember everything he said about it. Her brow furrowed as he chuckled and she found that she had been holding her breath while he had been talking. Working over everything he had said about the curse she didn't even notice that he started to talk about her second question. Looking up she heard him mentioning something about strangely named drinks. Blinking a few times she heard him mentioning something about a drink called 'Sith Ambassador' and when she was fully tuned in again she nodded.

"That does sound like a rather interesting drink, the Sith Ambassador one, though, after the introductions week to my class a few years ago I can't stand Corellian Alcoholic cream at all." she said and chuckled, "I can't exactly remember why, but, I do know the taste makes me nauseous." Turning in her seat she stood up and looked back down towards her newfound company. "I'll be right back."

Walking over towards the bar she couldn't help but feel a bit less out of place, perhaps all she had needed to feel a bit more part of everything was someone to talk to. As she got to the bar she waited for what felt like thirty minutes, but probably was closer to five, before she had the bartender's attention.

When she eventually returned to the table she had a glass of red wine in her hand and sat down in her seat once again. "So, how much of a crowd does this place usually gather?" she asked and took a sip from the wine, smiling. "Because I could see this place get quite crowded after large hearings or other similar events."[/fancybox2]

 

[Numenius Pax]

Oh this place was full of interesting drinks and, sometimes, interesting people as well. He said sometimes because this was, honestly, the first time in awhile that there had been someone actually interesting to speak to at this bar. Usually Numenius only visited this place these days to get a familiar drink and hope against hope that he might see a familiar face.

More often than not, he was disappointed but Liliana was a lovely find.

She was actually interesting.

"Sounds like me and most forms of beer to be honest..."

He was still banded from the central library of the Corulag University and he still didn't know why. Honestly he was half convinced he'd actually done nothing and the school just wanted more credits out of his parents. Raising his own drink to her in a silent toast, he sipped at it as she sipped at her wine,

"Well... it attracts all sorts." he joked before smirking, "You know the Empress Andraste sat right over there, right? She was pregnant at the time so she spent the afternoon drinking virgin cocktails with me and another senator, talking kriff about the senator... she was surprisingly down to earth."

Strange considering she was royalty to a few hundred planets these days.

@Danee

 

[Liliana Tiraen]

[fancybox2] As she sipped her wine once again she let it sit in her mouth for a bit as she debated where to take the conversation further, not wanting to bore the senior senator with tedious small talk if he wanted to discuss different things. But then he went and mentioned someone she hadn't anticipated. "Empress Andraste? You mean the Empress Andraste?" she asked with a slightly bewildered look. Of all the people to come to the heart of Republic space, the Sith Empress herself had been seated not too far away from where she was currently seated, now that, that was something she was rather keen on finding out more about. Raising her glass once more she sipped a bit longer than she had earlier before she was going to start asking questions. The first one was the most obvious one, to her at least, why? But before long, the night began to rather quickly disappear before her.

—

Theme

How and when they had ended up seated in the back seat of a low-riding Air speeder, piloted by two Jawa she swore had spoken to her in basic, while eating the best kriffing cup of noodles in her life, she had no idea. They must have left the previous establishment at some point and hitched a ride with these Jawas, though how they had managed to convince them to get noodles from what appeared to be level 73 and then have them drive them back up to the Senatorial district, she had no idea. But one thing was for certain, either the rear repulsor lifts were failing or the constant bouncing and rocking was part of some custom modification made to the speeder to make it stand out more.

"Ei-either whay... as I was say... said, what the Galaxy really needs, is a corporation that spends their time making life sized wookiee teddy bears... like... the war with the Hutts? Wouldn't have happened if everyone had a kriffing Wookiee bear they could just... just hug and then, be relaxed. If it roars or whatever a wookiee does, then that's just better."

She spoke, her speech slurred and she found herself struggling to find the words necessary to continue the conversation, how they had ended up talking about Wookiees, she had no clue. But blast if these noodles weren't the best thing she had had for months. She slowly ate, or tried to, the constant rocking and jumping of the speeder made it harder to eat for someone who already had a hard time eating while drunk. She grabbed the bottle she had acquired at some point after leaving the bar, took a swig from it and coughed, coughed again and again. Once more the constant movement of the speeder made it hard to consume anything, though the coughing came from the fact that she had just chugged some Corellian brandy straight from the bottle, handing it over to Numenius, she wasn't even sure if he was still awake, all she knew, or thought she knew, was that at some point, he had suggested getting something to eat, though probably not noodles from level 73, but then again, noodles were noodles.[/fancybox2]

 

[Numenius Pax]

Yeah, he kind led with the story about Andraste because no one ever believed it was true despite him swearing down that it really had happened and it hadn't been just some kind of stress dream or whatever. Looking back on it now, he could find the whole thing to be fun... but back then it had been absolutely terrifying.

"Yeah..."

A small pause.

"She's so much shorter than you expect." he admitted with a laugh, "And yet so much more terrifying than you can imagine - right up until she starts laughing at the senate's shenanigans."

--

Numenius wasn't sure what had happened but he was now eating some rather delicious noodles in a low-rider speeder... the hell was his life right now?

... and why the hell had it taken him this long to get here?

"... I want a wookie hug." he admitted, noodles halfway to his mouth before stopping, "do you... do you think we could like... hire a wookie to do... hug stuff?"

He blushed bright red and gestured wildly, the noodles flying out the window to the planet below unnoticed as he gestured wildly,

"N-not like... bedroom hug stuff! Just hug-hug stuff!"

@Danee

 

[Liliana Tiraen]

[fancybox2] As Liliana continued to eat those criminally delicious noodles she looked over to Numenius as he continued on the topic of Wookiees and the usage they could provide to the Galaxy, though as he mentioned 'hug stuff' she tilted her head a bit and furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of what he wanted with that. She was about to ask what he meant when his skin turned bright red and threw the Noodles out of the window. She shook her head and looked out her window, perhaps hoping to see the noodles falling towards the surface, though it was an impossible task as she they had already moved a fair distance by the time she looked out the window.

"Wait..." she said and looked to him. "You... thought... I thought... you meant... Hah! Ha-ha-hah!" she burst out and shook her head and took another mouthful of noodles and as she went for another bite she found her cup empty. Feeling disappointment washing over her she threw her cup out the window and grabbed the bottle of Brandy and once more took a swig straight from the bottle as she washed it around her mouth.

Swallowing the Corellian alcohol she figured that she'd just place the brandy on her left so she could move closer to Numenius and not risk spilling the expensive drink all over the back of the speeder. Moving the bottle with her left she felt the cold air brushing against her hand before she placed the bottle on the tray that was definitely there and pulled her hand back into the speeder. Wait— speeder?

Blinking she hurried over to the window and looked back out and she thought she could make out the glinting of light reflecting off of the bottle as it plummeted to the surface. "Kriff!" She sat back down in the speeder as one of the Jawas up front turned around and yelled something reassuring, or it could have been a curse and derogatory, but, Liliana just smiled. "You're right, this suit does look good." She turned to Numenius. "You jealous of my Jawa friend thinkin' my suit is sweet?"

@Nefieslab[/fancybox2]

 

[Numenius Pax]

Numenius was beginning to regret opening his mouth if he was honest but, for some reason, it had seemed like a good idea at the time and it didn't even seem like a bad idea now. He might (definitely) have had too much to drink to be thinking too clearly. But it didn't matter!

There were noodles to be having.

"Hey! I've seen the holovids!"

There were... a LOT of those holovids...

Not that he'd seen any of them!

Well... okay so maybe he had seen some of them but... it had been for learning experience only! Nothing... nothing like that! He flushed bright red.

"Your suit would look better on me and you know it." he declared brazenly, "My legs are FAR superior!"

--

He didn't know how or why... but they were on top of the senate building.

What's more, they were on top of the senate building, sat in the senatorial pod of Chandrilla. He hoped that Trenton didn't mind them borrowing it... or spilling liqueur in it...

"... and THAT is why Jedi..."

A drunken hiccup.

"... suck balls..."

Very philosophical stuff.

@Danee