When life gives you garbage...

[Venom]

"So so hungry..." Zhroin thought to himself as he wandered around the slums of Corellia. It had been almost three days since he had really eaten anything, he felt weak as hell, and his head was killing him. He wasn't sure if he would really be able to steal from anyone in his condition, and things just weren't looking good. Not too many people were outside, as no one really liked walking around the slums at night time for some reason.

The wind blew and he was reminded of the condition of his clothing, ripped up, dirty, and worst of all thin. Winters were always the hardest time for someone in this kind of position, but somehow, he had always made it through.

He noticed a small run down bar a little ways down the street from him. While he sure as hell didn't have the money for a drink, maybe there would be someone who was very very drunk outside the bar. If he could find someone in any worse sort of condition than he was, maybe he could improve his luck.

 

[Cailst]

"Yo, what's up?" Bubba yelled out to his friend Zhroin.

Bubba was a bit elated at the moment. He had managed to find a letter jacket in the dumpster. The sport was swimming. Seemed to fit him as he did make the swim from the escape pod to the shoreline without getting noticed. And unlike his last broken jacket, It actually was a bit warm.

Still, he was hungry. Not enough monkeys had frozen to death yet. It was only the start of winter and it'd take a little more time for random animals to start freezing to death. Luckily, he would not be one of those animals due to the fact that the old couch provided a lot of cover from the wind chill.

 

[Barnabas]

Another night at the ‘Rancor’s Pits’. That wasn’t the actual name of the bar of course, just a joke someone had once called the place. However, the sign had seen so much wear that the name was indistinguishable and the joke name stuck. The name originated from the fact that there was never any cleaning done at the bar. The bartender, Chob, had his nose punched in during an extremely lively night, and it did not heal well. This made Chob lose most of his sense of smell.

He really didn’t really care about the smell, or the name, as long as folks kept coming to buy his watered down booze. Although, with the winter setting in, business was booming, all many homeless beings used what money they had to buy a drink here and huddle around his space heater for warmth.

Trounan, although homeless, was not one of those crazies, as he caught one off Chob’s eyes and nodded to his glass. After many nights of visiting the bar, and even more after that of conversation between the two, he and Chob had struck up a bargain.r Chob gave Trounan free, clean water and an occasional drink, and in retun, Troanan worked as the unofficial muscle. Mostly just dragging the drunks out at nights end, but sometimes breaking up fights and dissuading fights too.


It was a nice set up, as far as Trounan was concerned. Clean water was hard to come by in the slums, and as his residence wasn’t very warm this time of year, the more time here was the less time fighting the chill of winter.

Trounan took a quick glance around the single room and saw that, as usual, nothing much was happening. The regulars were never any trouble, mostly ancient hobos who were just happy to have the heat and alcohol. It was the youngsters, like him, who were usually the problem. More often then not they tried picking pockets, or fights, but soon realized one of two things. One, a fight brought Trounan's fist down on their head, or two, that no one here had more than 5 or 6 credits, except Chob, and no one would mess with him, as he had two acesup his sleeve, an old blaster, and Trounan.

 

[Venom]

Zhorin looked over and saw Bubba standing near a dumpster. Diving into those wasnt something that Zhorin had done very much of, he only had when he had no other options for food, and even then...

"Hey there, Buddy." He responded as he started to walk towards him, the wind made him shiver and he really hoped that he would find something worthwhile in the bar.

"How is life treating you these days?" He asked, when he got closer. Bubba was one of the very few people he had actually bothered to get to know in their special little homeless "family" he was also one of the few who Zhorin hadnt seen try to attack someone else for some small scrap of nothing.

 

[Cailst]

"Eh, I'm still breathing, good enough I suppose, you?" Bubba replied.

Given some of the other people that he came across, that was a marked improvement. Fortunately, he didn't have any immediate reasons to suspect he'd stop breathing in the near future but it seemed eventually inevitable.

Zhorin was one of the fellows that Bubba had come across in recent months. Seemed to be fairly friendly but could be a thief if necessary rather than merely finding what other's don't want.

 

[Venom]

"Same, I guess, though I cant say that sometimes the opposite seems like it might be just a little bit nicer." Zhorin rubbed his head a little bit in a worthless attempt to make the pain go away after a particularly bad throb of pain.

He stopped a few steps from Bubba, realising that just asking him to walk to the bar with him when neither likely had any money at all would seem kind of odd. Not only that, but he wasn't sure if Bubba drank.

Though maybe the bar had recently thrown out some food, he might be hungry enough to eat something... like that right now, and if Bubba would be nice enough to check, he couldn't exactly have a problem with it.

"Have any interest in heading over to that old bar with me? Im hoping that maybe I can find something to eat, and maybe a drink or two..." He said as he pointed to the Rancor's pits.

 

[Cailst]

"Sure, they might have something to eat and I bet they have some sort of heat." Bubba replied.

While he wasn't quite a cold as he would otherwise be, he was still pretty cold. It was somewhere in the mid 30s. A couple snowflakes falling to the ground and immediately melting. Unfortunately, it was bound to get worse. Eventually, the snow would fall enough for it to stick and stay. Temperatures were also bound to drop. And that tended to kill even people.

 

[Barnabas]

The door opened to the ‘Rancor’s Pits’ and a cold gust of wind blew inside, drawing the angry glares of several of the beings around the space heater. Trounan glanced over to make sure it was that idiot drunk Sarpht, and instead what he saw brought both a slight grin to his face. Some of his friends from around the slums had just walked in, Zhorin and Bubba. Zhorin was more or less a decent guy, but he did tend to over indulge in booze and thieving. Bubba on the other hand…he was a little crazy, but usually harmless, as long as no one messed with him.

He waved at his friends and motioned to two seats at the bar, greeting them with “Hi guys!” With the other hand he began rifling through his pockets, looking for any spare credits he might have. He knew the two probably had nothing on them, and if he could, he would buy them a drink. He suddenly remembered that he had spent the last few credits from his last job on some nearly expired meal bars from the store at the divide between the slums and city proper. ‘Oh well’ he thought, the three of them could probably scrounge something together, and he knew he had some stuff left back at his place.

 

[Venom]

The air in the bar was stale, but so much warmer than outside. He looked around and saw many others who were in the same position as him who were probably sitting in here for the extra few degrees of warmth. The warmth came at a price however, the bar smelled horrible. Enough for someone who was homeless to notice immediately. However, Zhorin figured that it would be worth it for at least a little while.

He waved to Trounan and went to take one of the seats that his friend had offered. "Hello friend, how are things going for you?" He said once he sat down.

 

[Cailst]

The bar. Bubba had been in there a few times. Decently warm but it did smell less than pleasant. A different sort of bad than the old items in a dumpster. Nevertheless, the smell went away fairly quickly as he acclimated to it.

Meanwhile, he did see his friend Trounan. A good fella, trying to actually work for a living doing something helpful. Maybe if Trounan actually got somewhere, Bubba could ride his coattails and have a chance of trying and getting an actual job. Perhaps even one that might provide him with some legal documents that could help him in the future. After all, he barely had any on Taris and few when he was in the Imperial military so he'd pretty much have to start from scratch.

"What's up Trounan?" he asked.

 

[Barnabas]

As the two sat, Trounan decided to answer them both at the same time, “Well guys, not too bad, but needless to say, could be better.” He said with a chuckle. He took a drink of water and continued on, “My home is pretty much ready for winter, mostly enclosed, though the entrance is still a problem. It’s covered nice and fine mind ya, but an actual door, instead of a ratty blanket would be nice. Oh, and like I said before Bubba, if ya ever come across any kind of power unit in your dives, bring it to me, if its got any juice left, I’ll trade ya some good, sanitary, eats for it.



At mentioning the power unit, Trounan began drawing a diagram on the bar absentmindedly, his voice growing slightly softer, almost talking to himself, “I repaired enough of the heating elements with the worst damage for the grid to be online, the coils in the sides might need some more insulation from one another, but the coils in the base didn’t need much fixin’, so they should work best. Heat rises right? They should work with any standard power generating unit, but it would have to be at least a quarter charged,compared to the original unit's full value, to handle the start up energy needed to get bast the capacitors.”


He kept going for a few more seconds, his voice trailing away to nothing, but his lips were still moving. Suddenly he came to his senses and looked around, “Sorry guys, drifted off there, anyway, besides the usual problems with life sucking, I have had some fun recently. I have been trying to teach Sena a few rules and commands, and it seems to be paying off. Biggest thing, now when she catches anything, she doesn’t eat it. Managed to teach her to just kill them and put them inside the box I have out for her. It’s a little messy, but that way I can take off the skin and cut out the organs that shouldn’t be eaten. Better for her, and I manage to get a little extra food for myself as well.” A wide grin appeared on his face. “I’ll be damned but that silly dog learns fast.”


After refilling his glass of water, he passed it to Zhorin, who looked pale, probably from hunger. Water wouldn’t help in the long run, but it would put something in his gut. “So what have you guys been up to, same as usual?”

 

[Venom]

Zhorin kind of absently watched Trounan draw and talk to himself for a moment, then he glanced behind the bar. The few bottles that were there still looked very tempting, but he wasnt really in any sort of position to attempt stealing something, much less something that was behind a bar, that was being watched.

He wanted the alcohol so badly though, he could almost feel the bottle being pulled to his hand. And for a second while looking at it, he thought that he saw it moving towards him. However, it was still in the same spot, and he still had no bottle.

He realised he had zoned out somewhat, and had only kind of heard something about his friends dog when a cup of water was pushed to him. He smiled, and accepted it. While it didnt really help much, it was nice to have some actually clean water.

"Yes, it has been the same as usual." Zhorin said after he set the cup back down. "I need to find a way to make it so that it isnt anymore." The last part was said more to himself than to his friends.

 

[Cailst]

"Same as usual, came across an old imperial buddy from back when I was in the Empire but that's about it. He seemed a bit spooked by Darth Cletus's pawn shop. Probably thought ol' Darth Cletus was a Sith instead of some guy trying to be ironic." Bubba said.

Thinking about what Trounan had said about the power units. They were rather rare in dumpster, especially ones with more capabilities than a paper weight. But, they did have the chance of showing up. Perhaps something would show up but it sure was unlikely.

"I'll see what I can do about the power unit but it seems really unlikely. Personally, I'd try and upgrade your basket door to something more like a couch door. They provide a lot more insulation and if I come across one, I'll let you know."

 

[Barnabas]

Trounan grinned at the similarities, and the overall futility of the lives of his friends and his own, "Well, could be worse...I guess."

"Well Zhorin, like I always say, your in the grid, at least slightly, there's always something out there that you could try. Probably most, if not all, will not be to your liking, but hey, money is money." He pauses, thinking of his own situation, "Plenty of fools with money on this world."

Turning to Bubba,
"Thanks buddy, yeah, what I am more looking for is an actual door from a storage unit like mine, but a couch sounds like a definite improvement."

Looking around to make sure no one was listening too closely, he leaned closer to his two friends,"And you too know you can always bunk with me if ya ever need it, alright? Plenty of space at my place."

 

[Venom]

Words turned into jumbles in Zhorins head as he once again stared at an almost empty bottle that was sitting behind the counter. Something in his mind told him that he didnt need to touch it with his hand in order to reach it... but his head just hurt so much. He tried to focus through the pain, to pull the bottle to him, and once again he thought that he almost saw it move, no, he was positive that it moved. It may have just been a little shake, but he was sure that it had happened.

He sat up in the stool, which was a somewhat rare thing for him, due mostly to fatigue and laziness, but now, he felt an extraordinary clarity that he had only ever felt one time before. He looked to his friends, amazingly knowing what was said even though he had been so focused on the bottle. Niether had any real similarities to the bums who were in the bar, nor did they seem to have the same attitude, or a similar something else that Zhorin could feel, but he wasn't sure what it was.

"You know what Trounan? You're right, it is time I tried to do something, and you're right maybe I wont like it, but it almost has to be better than this."

Afterwards he glanced to Bubba and said "You, you also could definitely do something that is better than diving into dumpsters! You used to be a soldier, and you're still young..."

He stood up then, and felt slightly dizzy. If he was feeling better, he mightve realised that he was probably causing somewhat of a commotion in the bar. He put his hand on Trounan's shoulder and was about to start saying something to him when he collapsed, falling to the side.



The bottle fell, and broke upon hitting the ground.

 

[Cailst]

"No problem, I'll see if I can find some "real" door." Bubba said to Trounan.

Then Zhorin mentioned getting a real job. If only. Certainly would be more interesting than living in perpetual poverty which he'd been putting up for nine years. Perhaps if he could get something. Unfortunately, he'd need to get some sort of papers. After all, he barely had any papers on Taris. Here, he had no record of being anything. And without papers, he couldn't get a job unless it was some under the table deal.

That is, unless, he were to acquire some false papers. Perhaps something that looked good enough that any "real" employers would accept it. But how to get one. Maybe some dead person looked enough like him that he could use their papers? Or simply fabricated papers? Something to get him some legal recognition.

But as he thought that, he noticed the bottle slightly moving on its own accord. Some sort of trick of physics? Or of the eye? As he briefly took notice of it, Zhorin collapsed as did the bottle onto the floor.

"You alright?" Bubba asked in a panicked voice as Zhorin fell onto Trounan.

Then, he began looking around for a phone to call up any emergency services if Zhorin didn't get back up soon.

 

[Barnabas]

Suddenly Trounan felt something, something very odd, not an uncomfortable feeling, just new, like hearing a new sound or seeing a new sight. Trounan couldn’t explain it, but his focus was drawn to a bottle behind the counter. It was moving slightly, ON ITS OWN! He was about to point this out to his friends when, suddenly, he knew that, somehow, Zhorin was behind the bottles movement. However, that very moment the bottle stopped moving, and Trounan shook his head, figuring he was just tired and his eyes had gone out of focus for a second. Trounan then heard Zhorin talking, and he seemed to be very enflamed about his words.

Trounan listened to Zhorin rant. The guy was sounding really driven at the moment, which was very odd, because he normally was a passive, melancholy sort of guy. However, Zhorin seemed to be changing right in front of Trounan’s eyes. A second ago, Trounan had seen an alcoholic youth who had submitted to the reality of his life, proceeding on a downward spiral of darkness, but now, the new Zhorin that Trounan saw was full of drive, courage, and hope for the future.

‘What a marvelous, and sudden, change’ Trounan thought to himself. However, he then realized that Zhorin was drawing attention to himself unnecessarily with his rant. This was not in and of itself a bad thing, but some of the less sober patrons might take this as an opportunity to pick a fight with what seemed to be a drunk kid who was skinny as a rail.
Trounan was about to say something to Zhorin, when he clapped a hand on Trounan’s shoulder. He looked up just in time to see Zhorin collapse. Bending over his friend quickly, Trounan checked Zhorin’s vitals like he had learned throughout the years on the streets. First he checked Zhorin’s breathing, which was a little shallow, but otherwise fine, then held his fingers to Zhorin’s neck to see if he could feel the beating of a pulse, which Zhorin still had. As Trounan sat back on his haunches he let out a sigh of relief, it seemed Zhorin had just collapsed from a mix of hunger and exhaustion, as far as Trounan could tell.

Looking up at Chob, Trounan waved at him, giving him the ‘Everything is ok, just another collapsed bum’ sign and said, “This guy just needs some air, and I know where he lives, so I’ll take him home. See ya night after next Chob.” With that, Trounan put Zhorin over his shoulder. When he stood up he staggered for a moment, not that Zhorin’s weight was too much for Trounan, he actually was slightly light since he was so thin, but Trounan wasn’t prepared for the weight coupled with standing straight up quickly, too much blood rushing to his brain. He steadied himself, motioned for Bubba to follow, and headed out the door.

 

[Cailst]

Bubba rushed out the bar following Trounan. His friend had just fallen over for no seeming apparent reason. Fortunately, Trounan seemed to know what he was doing. But what if he didn't? Was Zhorin screwed? A brief revelation that sent him over the edge into possible death? Gah, why did he have to be constantly screwed? Did life just hate him so much that his friends started dying. Maybe Trounan would collapse and die, and that one other former imperial, and Darth Cletus, and the guys that threw away their garbage. Why did the force hate him so much?

The force, the force, the force. Maybe Zhorin wasn't screwed, maybe the force would save him. Please let the force save him. Maybe? Or maybe the force was mean and nasty just like he thought it might be.

"Force, please help Zhorin," Bubba silently mouthed.

Bubba continued repeating the mantra hoping that Zhorin might get back up. Maybe the force would be convinced by his worry and anxiety? That's all he could hope for.

 

[Barnabas]

Trounan was headed for his home, knowing that once they got there, they could probably bring Zhorin around. “And if conventional methods don’t work there’s always that bottle of stale booze to try.” Trounan said to himself with a smirk. However, it was not a short walk to where Trounan lived and as they walked on, Trounan’s shoulder started to hurt. “I really need to work out a bit more,” as a pot hole he stepped into brought all of Zhorin’s dead weight pressed down on him again.


As they passed through the slums, Trounan looked back to Bubba, and saw him mumbling to himself. He thought about asking Bubba what was the matter, but then figured he should worry about one thing at a time. In any other part of the city, the three would have made a strange group. In the lead a slightly tall man with extremely worn, but taken care of clothing, with an even more travel worn duffel bag at his side, showing signs of poverty like his un-kept hair, his fingerless gloves, and his constitution tending toward gaunt. Next up, a man being carried along, smelling slightly of alcohol and even worse poverty, along with full fledged malnutrition showing in his features. Last but not most, as all were pretty close to least, can a man of tattered clothing sporting a beer belly hanging out beneath his ripped shirt. These men would have definitely made the average person step inside their house and draw their children closer, but this was the slums and the three were just more of the same.


As they approached Trounan’s home, they began to hear a faint braying sound coming from up ahead, which quickly grew louder. Trounan recognized the sound immediately and only had a second to quickly put Zhorin down to the ground, before he too found himself on the ground, looking up into the face of a carnivore.


However, Trounan had barely time to register the eyes before a tongue was covering his face in drool. “Hi Sena, did ya miss me?” Trounan said laughingly to his dog. He tried to push her off him, but the 120 pound, six legged canine pushed him back down and licked him again, before letting him get up. She then went over to Bubba and licked his hand in greeting. Trounan couldn’t help but smile as he looked at her, ears up and tail wagging. However, she looked over to Zhorin and her mood seemed to change, sniffing him and looking quizzically at Trounan. “He just needs some rest Sena, let’s go home.” And with that the party continued on.

 

[Cailst]

Stale booze? Was that really what would fix Zhorin? Bubba was somewhat bamboozled about Trounan's choice of solutions. Maybe it would work? After all, he had been working there. Still, it seemed fishy, just like that one can of tuna that he had last week. That did taste pretty weird. The expiration date was only a few weeks late. And it's not like there were any bulges in it. Those caused some serious food poisoning. Just like that time he got some old milk eight years ago. The milk was so nasty but he was really hungry. And boy, after that, he felt so bad afterwards. He couldn't even get out of the dumpster in time before the machine came by. It was only by the luck of the garbage collector that he managed to get some care and "oooooo, puppy" Bubba shouted immediately abandoning his previous train of thought.

Bubba immediately ran over and started petting Sena. She was so cute and fluffy and friendly. Awww, so friendly, licking everyone, just wants some friends.

"Good dog," He said, petting and hugging Sena while getting licked in the hands and later face. It was probably the closest he had to any physical affection in a long time, possibly ever.

But then, as Sena looked at Zhorin, Bubba reassured her that it was just a matter of time.

"Are you sure he just needs some rest and not something else for suddenly collapsing?"