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| - The Triple Sunset Cafe A lovely little seaside cafe that honors the beauty of the gorgeous triple sunset of a small group of planets. There are seats inside and out, with umbrella covered tables and eager servers ready to serve on the beach, or tables and booths inside with just as eager servers happy to get any order they can. Morning comes, cloud-darkened and gloomy, to New Alderaan. Humid as it is, life goes on. Roe is currently sitting on a large stone near the Triple Sunset Cafe, having sent an electronic invitation for Ti'ilandria to join her there this morning. Her Tapani-made outfit looks a bit out of place here on the Rim, practical as it is, so she can't help drawing the occasional curious glance. She smiles faintly and nods to each one, if they're Human. Those who aren't get the same thing, polite but a little more distant. She's trying... she really is. Since Ti'Ilandria is still only cleared for half days, the young Lieutenant called in that she was meeting a friend and thus was working her half day in the afternoon. Command, oddly enough, seemed delighted by this and told Ti'Ilandria to take the entire day if she needed. Of course, that only got the TechGirl curious about what was now in her medical file. She'd have to slice into that file sometime and check it out. There is a pause and Ti'Ilandria looks to the left, at empty space with an annoyed glance, her hand rising up to wave away something that is clearly not there, before she turns her attention to look around the beach. Hazel eyes finally fall upon a figure she reckons as Roe and Ti'Ilandria stuffs her hands into her pockets and starts her lazy gait over to the other woman. "You know, we can go shopping after this, too. Pick you up a few outfits. I know a few people that would find Imperial Credits useful, so I don't mind exchanging them for you," she offers quietly, glancing around and enjoying the view of the ocean. Roe's sense of the medical is never turned off, a drawback of being a practicing physician, and what she sees in Ti does trouble her a bit. But Ti's getting far less politically-questionable help than she can provide, so the squelches the thought of offering aid. "I'd be glad to, Ti," she replies softly, rising from her perch and dusting off the seat of her pants. "I do need to get rid of some of these credits." She gestures to the cafe. "Shall we? They have the best Alderaanian creme parfaits I've tasted outside of the Legacy complex." “Hear hear," Roe agrees quietly. "It seems military bureaucracies are the same everywhere, in that regard." She steps inside, finding a table right on the fringes of the cafe. It makes you less likely to get a server quickly, but it's a lot more private. "I've been all right. Mella asked me if I was bored, but really, I'm not. I'm still getting used to the lack of... well, of /pressure/. I never noticed the black cloud I was laboring under until it was gone." She tries to catch Ti's eye. "Have you ever had that feeling? Like a burden was just /lifted/ that you never knew was there?" "Well, kinda," notes Ti'Ilandria as she slides into a seat across from Roe, considering her words with a wrinkling of her brow and a thoughtful expression. The young woman's lips purse a bit more and he hazel eyes dart to the side, before she pulls them back to look at Roe before she bobs her head a bit. "I lived a pretty carefree life before joining up with the Military. And then I ... well, you know, the responsibility I have in the NRDF isn't really the responsibility I worry about. It's outside of it that affects me most. Some o' the things I've learned here an' there and how to deal with it and figurin' out what I should do. Sometimes, just talking to my friends helps." Ti'Ilandria gives a shaakish smile in response to that. "I've got good friends, close friends. Most people would say a good cry helps, but ... I don't cry. Never have, don't like it. Only cried a handful o' times in my life. But... Ifn' I really need help, I go talk to Luke. We talk about it some, and then, it's like things just make sense." There is a pause and Ti'Ilandria chuckles. "Then we start teasin' each other should the situation allow. I should introduce you to Luke, sometime, ifn' you're willin'. I want you to meet all my friends, since you're one o' my friends, too." "I'd be glad to. Though I'll confess I'm a little intimidated by his rep, if the Luke you're talking about is the Luke I'm thinking of," Roe says, laughing. "I mean, a retread Imperial medic meeting the most famous Jedi Master in the galaxy? Not something I'd consider pleasant, unless one happens to be the danger-loving type. And despite reports to the contrary from Kashyyyk, I'm emphatically not." Ti'Ilandria's eyes slide to the left again and the woman seems to be nodding in agreement, before she waves a dismissive hand in Roe's direction. "Nonesense! Luke is a good man. An' just because you were an Imperial don't mean nothin'. It's what is and was in your heart that matters, Roe," offers the woman with a warm smile. "The fact that you got up an' left because you could not and would not agree with it any longer, well, that says a lot about what is in your heart. Which means, Luke'll like you. So you have nothin' to worry about or fear. So don't. Got it?" "Well, if you say so..." Roe murmurs, not entirely convinced, especially concerning Ti's distraction with someone to her left, but not wanting to push the point. "But frankly, I put up with it for a long time. There were others beginning to see where the ISB was heading. A colleague of mine from OCS, Lieutenant Avril Sturm, wrote me that there were actual mutinies in the Imperial Army when that genocidal order came down a while back. It almost came to Stormtroopers and Army troopers exchanging fire. I hear they did in some places. The Empire might not last much longer if it keeps turning on itself this way." And isn't that what Ti'Ilandria has been fighting for? Why is she so suddenly disturbed by the thought? "Because there will be so many displaced by it," murmurs Ti'Ilandria, answering her own questions aloud in an absent voice without realizing it, shaking her head absently. Reaching up, the young woman rubs the bridge of her nose for a moment before she lowers her hand to the table, fingers tapping against it's surface. "Luke's right, your shoulder's aren't wide enough for the weight of the galaxy yet, don't put it there ifn' you don't have to," she murmurs again, before looking up at Roe. "Unfortunately, that is something we will have to deal with when it happens. We can prepare for it only in a limited way. But we cannot stop it. And we probably shouldn't. It will not be a pleasant time for many. It'll be a horrible time for far too many, I'm afraid. All we can do is to hope to minimize the pain and suffering on the innocent. If the Empire is that corrupt, then it needs to collapse." "It's needed it for a long time. But nature, as they say, abhors a vacuum. If the Empire falls, something will have to replace it. I don't think it'll be something worse, if ordinary citizens are getting tired of the ISB thinkin up a new way to harass and torment them every week. But that still leaves a lot of moral territory to consider," Roe replies, her tone apprehensive. "It could be just as much of a battle as this war already has been, putting the right replacement into the slot." She refrains from commenting on Ti's internal monologue... if internal or a monologue it is. Bobbing her head back and forth, from shoulder to shoulder, Ti'Ilandria gives an odd sort of nod of agreement. "But I am not the one suited for such planning," she notes, before her eyes shift to the left and she ducks her head slightly before amending, "I think." Inhaling slightly, the young technician glances around, making certain that their conversation is still private and that a waitress is not on the way over, before she continues. "But now I really should introduce you to Luke. He and the Jedi Masters, like Jessalyn, would be the ones to talk to. Even if you don't go to Command, they can relay the information, at least. It will help the innocent people in this." Ti'Ilandria shakes her head and frowns, murmuring to herself. "I just don't know what to do." Okay, enough is enough. "Ti? Who are you speaking with?" Roe has to finally ask. "You talk as if the replacement of the Empire is your own responsibility, but I've made no inference of that at all, only stated my own concerns." She reaches over, laying a hand on the technician's shoulder, concerned eyes peering into Ti's, if the woman will meet them. Hazel eyes snap to Roe and Ti'Ilandria blanches, her face a deathly pale as all the blood seems to drain from it. "What? Talking to? I'm... uh ... talking to you, aren't I?" she asks, her eyes obviously wanting to dart to the left but she holds them desperately on Roe. Then Ti'Ilandria blushes and gives a shaakish and nervous laugh as she shakes her head. "Don't be silly, there's no one else here," she states, looking to the right first and then over her shoulder, before looking around over her left shoulder and back to the medic. Laughing again, Ti'Ilandria reaches up and runs her hand over the back of her neck again as her face turns even more crimson. "Oh, well, yeah... see, something Luke and I were talkin' about just the other day," she notes with a nod. "I see a problem, an' I try to face it and fix it. I look at it as a puzzle to attempt myself. An sometimes it's just too large for me ta' even know what to do to even begin. And that's where I'm at. I want to help, but I just don't know how. I'm just this little Tech in a big wide galaxy." "I know that feeling well... I can't heal the galaxy. I wouldn't even know where to begin the first incision," Roe says. "But I can try and help you," she adds, reaching over and clasping Ti's hand. "Something is wrong. You've been talking to someone on your left since you came to meet me, off and on. It's got me more than a little concerned." "Don't be silly. There ain't nobody off to my left, so I couldn't be talkin' to anyone there, now could I?" asks Ti'Ilandria, wide eyes giving a wary glance to her left, before flicking quickly back to Roe. Then the young woman sighs, reaching out to wrap her other hand around Roe's as well. "I ... look, I'm all right. Just... guilty conscious, or something. I promise, if I need help, I will come to you. You already helped with the electrical burns, for which I am grateful, Roe. Now, come on, let's have a parfait, then go shopping, mmm?" "I'm good with that, I think," Roe murmurs uncertainly. She's had a patient or two dodge her advice by arguing that there's nothing wrong. Once in a while they were right, and even when they weren't, it's impossible to heal someone who doesn't think they have a problem! "Mind if I order?" But she keeps watching Ti subtly, with the sleight of eye of an expert observer. Something's amiss, promise or no promise.
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