Star Nomad Cast (starnomadnpc) wrote in starnomad, @ 2016-04-01 15:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: darius vandreen, character: rogan ardellian, date: [62.08], location: mon calamari (dac) |
Who: Darius Vandreen & Rogan Ardellian
When: 62.08
Where: New Coral City, Dac (Mon Calamari)
What: Darius hits on Rogan and gets a sad story for his trouble.
Rating: Low
Status: COMPLETE.
All Darius had intended was to get a drink. Well maybe that wasn't entirely true, but it was most of the truth. Maybe Darius also planned to hit up the bartender for gossip, a cute twi'lek who had beaten him in an arm wrestling contest not even two weeks ago. After all just because the jedi were using him as a hired gun didn't mean that he shouldn't keep his ear to the ground for extra work. Even if he didn't take it somehow it might be helpful. The galaxy was becoming a distressingly smaller place so any information was useful. Darius wasn't expecting to see the pilot that had Elix in the grips of righteous and indignant anger. Granted Darius understood why, once she had calmed down enough for actual sentences. After all Lyric had fallen hard for the dead Solo and with Rikki's death only a year ago as well Darius really wasn't sure how Lyric was holding it all together. Sure Lyric could make his own decisions, but Darius' old man had at least pretended to keep an eye out for him and that duty fell by way of inheritance to Darius. Sure it was a shit inheritance but there wasn't much else the old man had left him. Finishing up his drink, Darius joined the pilot amicably by the bar. "I haven't seen you here before." he offered with a brilliant smile, tilting his head slightly as if to get a better look at his face. "Though if you have been, I'm sorry I already missed my chance to be the first to buy you a drink." Rogan had been trying to figure out how he wanted to address his new found knowledge about Lyric and had been failing miserably. Each option had pro's and con's that he could figure and while Rogan was of the general opinion that honesty worked better than other options, there was an awkwardness to bringing it up, that he couldn't say he liked. He liked Lyric. Liked him better than he'd wanted to admit to himself. The other man had a quiet gentleness to him that Rogan could appreciate well. He'd taken Derek in, and he'd worked with refugees, and if Elix was anything to go by, Derek wasn't the first kid that Lyric had taken in. Since Lyric hadn't told Rogan himself it also had the awkwardness of not knowing if bringing it up would just bring Lyric more pain - likely it would. He'd drunk most of a Corellian ale, and was musing over just finding his commlink and calling Lyric up anyway when he was approached. The young man was handsome enough, and certainly forward enough. Rogan raised an eyebrow gently, an amused grin crossing his face. "Sadly, I've already bought this one," he lifted the half-empty Ale glass. "So you're a little late." "Only a little though." Darius chuckled easily as he settled into his seat. This could have been a brush off but the pilot wasn't moving away and he was talking. Maybe if this wasn't serious then Darius could tell Elix to rest assured in the fact that he could be easily scared away. It's not like Lyric would miss some guy who had only just now started showing up. He kept himself bright and cheery as he put in an order with the bartender, who only gave him an amused an indulgent smile. "Then we can just pretend that you got to buy me one instead." he offered as he looked back to Rogan. If he was going jsut off of his gut the guy seemed to be all right. None of the warning flags that were carefully trained in his mind were going off. In fact if it wasn't for a blonde with a smile that lit up his heart he might even be tempted to actually go for it. "Name's Darius." For an instant, Rogan debated straight up saying he wasn't looking for company. It'd be the most honest thing to say, especially since he had been about to leave. Probably also, the kid was good looking, and he could likely get someone in the bar to go home with him if that was what he was looking for. On the other hand, Rogan really didn't have plans for the evening except to talk to Lyric or try to. Which might just involve them both falling in bed again, it wasn't the worst way to handle this whole situation. No, who was he kidding? It was a terrible way to handle this situation. "Rogan," he offered, with not exactly the warmest of smiles, but a nice one nonetheless. "But it seems it's not going to be your first drink either, and I've never been too good at pretend." Probably blatantly untrue considering he'd been pretending with Lyric for months now. "What do you want?" The least he could do was buy the guy a drink before he turned him down coldly for any further affections for the evening. He had the money for it, and who knew if Darius did. He didn't look the most well off. There was a moments hesitation, Darius could see it in his eyes. That hesitation could mean anything but it broke with a smile that seemed unsure and the offer of his name. It wasn't the most stunning acceptance, which meant that Rogan wasn't easily turned by someone just showing him attention. That could be good to know, at least when it came to deciding just why Rogan was taking advantage of Lyric. If anyone was even being taken advantage of. But he'd promised a Rodian who was more than a little moody that he'd look into it if he had the chance and the chance had fallen into his lap. "Already planning on getting me drunk? And I thought I was the forward one." Darius mused easily. He leaned against the bar easily as he turned the entirety of his attention towards Rogan. "So what brings a man who doesn't like pretending to a place like this then?" "I said I've never been good at it," Rogan mused easily enough, raising a hand for the bartender to come their way. "Not that I didn't do it, but sometimes you figure something out and it makes it a little trickier to keep that up." And really that was what it came down to wasn't it? He'd been pretending that he and Lyric could possibly, maybe, if things worked out... But was this any less true now? Even if he was a rebound... "What about you, Darius? What brings you here?" That was certainly an interesting little bit of information. Darius raised an eyebrow with honest curiosity and couldn't help but wonder if he could get a little bit more out of the pilot. Whatever information it was, it didn't seem entirely like he was going along with Darius' full offer. Then again he also wasn't pulling away. "The truth has a funny way of coming out." Darius's smile faded into sympathy as the bartender set down the drink in front of him. Strangest thing was that Darius did believe that, even if he made most of his way through the galaxy by lying. The truth always found a way out, usually at the most inconvenient of moments. He just wished he had a better clue on what to do with it half the time. Right now though he had a role to play so he shrugged and turned his grin back on as he looked up at the bartender. "Seela here owes me twenty credits." he answered amicably, pulling away playfully as she batted at his arm. "You're lucky I let you drink here instead." her voice was fond as she turned to other customers. Darius laughed easily and took a sip of his drink. "She hasn't poisoned my yet instead of paying up, so I'll get them eventually." Rogan laughed at that. It was an honest laugh, because the comment didn't particularly surprise him. It did fill in the information that Darius was likely a regular on the planet, and probably a regular of this particular place as well. He knew the bartender by name, and if she owed him, probably they'd played Sabaac, or possibly she'd been sweet-talked into lending him a few credits for something at some point - regardless they had some sort of previous relationship. "Well, it seems you can't be too worried about it if you're still letting her make your drinks." His smile faded a little as he considered Darius' previous statement. He wasn't sorry that the truth had come out - exactly. In some ways it made his last visit make more sense than it had for the entire month he'd just spent thinking about it during his spare time. And he had thought about it during his spare time. Kriff it, he couldn't help but think as he reached for his own dwindling cup and took a sip of his drink. He'd spent a lot of time thinking about Lyric, and now that he'd been given the answers he didn't like them. But mostly he didn't like them because it made him worry that Lyric didn't see him as anything other than comfort, and probably never would. But he didn't know that. "Yeah, I guess it does," he agreed to the earlier comment, his own smile fading a bit. "Probably it's not a wholly bad thing most of the time." "Well you might have noticed but she pours a mean drink." Rogan did have a nice laugh, Darius had to admit. Really he didn't see a reason to dislike this guy yet. Granted he wasn't Jacen and that was obvious but that was a bit of a hard trick to pull off. As far as he was aware even the Jedi couldn't raise the dead. But he didn't imagine that Elix would be content with the answer of he seems like a nice enough fellow. Tilting his head slightly, Darius let his smile dim as Rogan's seemed to fade away. Something had him lost in thought and being at the end of a glass at a bar usually wasn't the best solution to that. "Most of the time, no." Darius agreed easily as his tone fell more serious. "Can't say you look like you're a fan of it at the moment though." "Yeah, this hasn't been too bad," Rogan lifted the drink up inclined his head to the side with a smile. For a beat he considered what he wanted to say, but the thing was, this was a random stranger who had no idea who he would be talking about, and whom he was unlikely to meet again. And there was a good chance talking it out might actually be helpful. But at the same time - he wasn't certain how much he wanted to say. "You know, no," he stopped. "I mean, it's not the end of the world or anything just - changes the situation a little, maybe. Or maybe it doesn't. I'm not certain." He sighed out and looked over. "Are you sorry you asked yet?" "Oh I'm rarely sorry about anything." Darius shrugged again with a quick smirk to follow. "You can ask Seela for backup on that." Still he calmed the smirk down and focused back in on Rogan. If the soldier was just drunk enough to give him some information, he could work with that. Plus at the moment he didn't have anything better to do anyway given that Tahiri was busy doing something with the Jedi and said Jedi hadn't pulled him in for anything today. So for right now all he had was gathering information for Elix. And despite himself so far he did like this guy well enough, so why not. "Sounds almost like you were looking to drown your sorrows than anything." Darius couldn't help but be sympathetic to that. Being a pilot was thankless nowadays, he knew that better than most. Though if this situation was Lyric, well, it could be interesting. "Nah, not drowning," Rogan refuted, and then he grinned briefly as he admitted. "A light swim, maybe." He looked over at Darius uncertain if the man was still hitting on him or offering an ear to listen. Maybe it didn't really matter which. They both had a drink and Rogan's wasn't quite completed. So he turned it around. "There's this guy I've been seeing," he admitted softly. "He's... a good guy, but it's been casual. I'm not around a lot. And honestly, I mean, I don't even know if next month I'll be around - you know? But I found out today that he was engaged - and that guy died in the war. He didn't tell me. And it's not that he owed me that, or anything... Like I said, not the end of the world. I'm just not quite certain if I should pretend like I don't know and just keep going like we have been, or if I should say something about it. It obviously wasn't a secret..." He shook his head and finished this trail off with a drink. "Maybe there's a little bit of drowning." Darius cocked his head, sympathy trained onto his face with practiced ease. How many times had he played the sympathetic ear at a bar to gain information? His mother had taught him better than she likely had ever known now that it came second nature to him. But this did present him with some new facts. Rogan hadn't known about Jacen, but now he did. He described Lyric as good to a relative stranger, with a pull in his voice that seemed like he genuinely cared. And finding out about Jacen hadn't been a deal breaker, instead this guy seemed to be interested in actually trying to make something work with Lyric. It hadn't been at all what Darius had expected when Elix had come to him on a tear. This poor sap actually seemed to care, which was possibly more worrying than him just coming around to have a fling. "Oh you poor bastard." Darius sighed gently, reaching out to pat Rogan's shoulder. "You've got it bad." Rogan half snorted, looking down into the drink in front of him and contemplating whether he could nurse another one without getting too drunk. It wasn't impossible. He'd been sitting here for a while, long enough that he didn't feel anywhere close to drunk - probably not even really buzzed. Certainly it was closer to a purposeful swim than it was to drowning, so he'd really been right in the first place. The problem was that Darius wasn't wrong and it was the conclusion that Rogan had been quietly coming to as he sipped on the ale in front of him. Mostly he'd not stopped to think about any of this too much. When he was out with the squadron he focused on that and on those all-too-brief moments when he was on Mon Calamari, he focused on Derek and Lyric, and making Lyric's life just a little easier for a moment or two. And he'd told himself it was for all sorts of reasons: it was for Derek to make his life better, it was guilt cause he felt bad for dumping a kid on Lyric, it was just cause he enjoyed the company of both of them. But he couldn't refute that his step was lighter when he knew he was going to see the two of them, or that he looked forward to the visits in ways that kept him determined to not be the pilot that got the wrong hit from a Yuuzhan Vong. "Kriff it," he shook his head and pressed his hands up to his forehead, shaking off all of it. "This is honestly inconvenient. I'm in no position to talk to anyone about anything." Well Darius wasn't exactly sure how he was going to tell Elix that the soldier wasn't using Lyric at all. He definitely wasn't sure how to tell her that the soldier was actually in love with Lyric. Ordinarily that would be happy tidings, Darius wanted Lyric to be happy. But he also knew that Lyric still had that hollow, haunted look in his eyes that hadn't left since they had lost Jacen on that mission. While Darius was pretty certain that Rogan's intentions were pure that didn't change the fact that he wasn't sure Lyric was ready for any of it. "I'm going to guess he doesn't know that part." Darius shook his head with a soft sigh. He offered Rogan a slight smile over his drink. "Way I see it. If you actually want something real, you'll have to tell him. If you don't want something more then." he shrugged instead of finishing his thought. It was more or less the same conclusion that Rogan had come to himself. He needed to have the conversation with Lyric. Even, honestly, if it was just a 'hey, I didn't know, and I'm sorry man,' conversation. And that was simple enough wasn't it? That could be done. And whatever Lyric's reaction to it... Well Rogan would deal with that. Because the truth was necessary if there was ever hope of anything more and the war was a longer way away from over than Rogan could hope for so anything more would be a long ways coming. Long enough that if he was just a rebound for Lyric, that would make itself clear. "Not really how I wanted to spend my three nights of shore leave," he admitted looking over at Darius with a smile. "But you're probably right. You sorry you asked yet?" "Hey, maybe it'll turn out all right for you." Darius chuckled easily as he set his drink down. While Elix might not like his answers at least Darius felt a little better about this situation. Lyric could still turn this soldier boy away, but if he didn't at least it seemed like Rogan had the best of intentions at heart. And given just how terrible the galaxy continued to be, having someone else who actually wanted to look out for Lyric and Elix and the little one they now had wasn't a bad thing. Plus Rogan was attractive, so Lyric could easily do worse. He flashed Rogan his most charming smile in return. "I already told you, I'm rarely sorry about anything." "You know, I might believe that," Rogan said with a quick grin. "At any rate, you've mostly just confirmed what I was already thinking." Really, Rogan probably should head over and actually find Lyric. Despite not wanting to have the conversation, exactly, he really did miss Lyric. He'd been looking forward to seeing him since early this morning, and that hadn't changed, even as he didn't know precisely how to approach the conversation with Lyric. But there was nothing for that except to just do it, and Rogan rarely backed down from anything that needed to be done. It would have made him a poor pilot if he had. "I should probably go find him. I've been avoiding things with a Corellian Ale, which," he raised his glass to swirl it gently. "This is a nice vintage, almost makes me think I'm home." "Glad to be of service somehow." Darius chimed in cheekily with his own playful sigh. Though honestly Darius couldn't think of a better way to have ended this. After all Lyric deserved some bit of happiness, even if it was a strange soldier apparently from Corellia who wanted to help take care of him. There was an emptiness left in the other man since Jacen's death, maybe Rogan would be able to pull him out of it. Darius had hopes, even if Elix didn't. But Elix had her own grief to work through which Darius was fairly certain she wasn't even beginning to touch. "They've a surprisingly decent stock here." Darius nodded with a teasing smile. "You going to go further down on memory lane with me? Why Rogan, I didn't think you cared." Rogan put both of his hands down in front of him on the bar and shook his head as he stood up. "I think I'd best be going. Don't let Seela poison your drink," he added with a smile as he turned to face Darius. The man was good looking and in another lifetime, or even one from about seven months prior, Rogan might have been interested in the offer that had been extended to him. He would go find Lyric, he'd kiss him, and then he'd figure out how to say that he hadn't known Lyric had been engaged, and that he did now. And then he'd figure out what that meant for the relationship that he and Lyric didn't really have in the first place. "Stay alive," he gave Darius a casual salute - a farewell that was all too poignant a wish these days. |