A Bottle of Bourbon

Locations

Tia’s Apartment
Vigil Starport Control
Veragi Prime
Barcrawl

Factions

Vigil Compact (Republic)
First Order
Pentastar Alignment
Vyjand

Players

Tia O'Mandalorio (Laurie)
Sabbath Rune (Jack)
Syatt Walker (Scott)
Fausto (Roger)
Antwoord (Phil)

NPCs

Lt. Lee Meriweather
Junero O'Mandalorio (Uncle J)
Cpt. Assyria Cromwell
Dr. Connor Mathison
Jayanna Korrs (JK)
BLX
Lady Adasta

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Short Public Excerpt/Summary

After surviving her assassination attempt and having an early dinner with her Uncle J (which Lee initially joins but is quickly and perhaps conveniently forced to leave due to an unavoidable work matter), Tia invites Lee over for drinks. A few hours, a long conversation, and most of a bottle later, the two receive an invitation from Sabbath to join him at the Barcrawl for more drinks - which they readily accept.

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Lee's private comlink beeps. "Hey, Lee! You off duty yet? I hope I'm not interrupting - does this thing have a DND setting?" Lee can practically hear Tia's grin. "I just got back to my place, and I'm staring at a full bottle of bourbon. You wanna come over and help me with it, or am I gonna have to drink it on my own? I don’t know about you, but after today, no way in hell am I staying sober."
"I can probably get out of the office. Sure. Just need to find an unlucky ensign to push off the paperwork on." You hear her yelling an order across the room. "Yep, that'll do. See you in 10."
Lee hears Tia chuckle. "Looks like I did catch you at the right time - glad I could save you from the paper-pushing. Even you need a break once in a while. I'll have two glasses waiting - see you in ten!"
Hanging up the com, Tia places a small bucket of ice on a coffee table next to a large bottle labeled Bela Vistal Reserve, sets out two generous glasses of bourbon to breathe, and flops down on the couch to wait.
The sound of a speeder races down the street, then you hear its horn blare. The speeder door slams and is met by a cacophony of loud Huttese swearing. Which is answered by, "If you didn't want to dodge speeders, you shouldn't have been on the sidewalk! Idiot!"
Shortly thereafter there's a ring and an audible conversation with the Gatekeeper Droid. It pulls its head back inside the door and turns to you, warbling in Huttese. "Mistress Lee from the Vigil requests entry before, and I quote, 'She is forced to backhand the loiterers outside.'"
Tia lets out a peal of laughter. "By all means, let her in! Seems like there's always someone lurking outside my door - no need to add to the usual disturbances with a public brawl." Tia grins.
Lee walks in and pats the Gatekeeper droid on the head/eyestalk. "Good little guy. Knew you'd find a cool gig." She strides over to the couch and drops a bug-out-bag on the floor. She leans over to pick up the glass and downs it.
Pulling at the neck of her dress uniform, she says "Mind if I get out of this monkey suit? Brought a spare." She kicks the bag on the floor.
Tia cackles. "Good thing I took out the big bottle." She eyes the empty glass with amusement and some amount of admiration. "And by all means - you're not on shift, let your hair down. Honestly, I don't know how you put up with the uniform to begin with. It looks hella itchy." Tia leans forward to grab her own glass, takes a swig, then leans back on the couch, folding her legs underneath her and getting comfortable.
"Nah." She begins, "It's the dress uniform for O.D. Watch that bothers me. But uniforms are good, they let people know they are talking to an office, not a person." She doffs the jacket on the couch and heads for the guest bath. "The same amount of armor and tailoring in each, but something about the collar and epaulets just makes it uncomfortable."
She disappears and returns a few moments later with a gold hoodie and fatigue pants. The bag and her boots visible on the bathroom floor. In bare feet she pads over to the other chair, stuffing her datapad in her BDU pocket. She pulls her flask and puts it on the table next to the bottle. One swiftly filled glass later and she sits on the chair.
"You know? You can still feel the extra static in the fabric from the Stun grenade."
Tia snorts, taking another sip from her glass. "I'll take your word for it - although I suppose I shouldn't talk, given some of the high heeled nightmares I've had to suffer through instead of a uniform." She shakes her head. "And which stun grenade are you thinking of? We've had so many things lobbed at us lately that they all start to blur together."
Lee looks at you deadpan "You mean there's been more than one stun grenade dropped in your living room?"
Tia grins. "Wouldn't you like to know? A lady never tells."
Lee takes a drink "Meh, honestly three drops in the glass should do it. Thought you were more subtle than that. Hard enough rolling the sleeper out into the alley after you lift their wallet without the neighbors playing peepers because they heard a concussion charge."
She winks.
Tia snorts again. "Forget the blast - just the sound of T snarking about the mess would be enough to have the whole neighborhood running to see what the commotion was." She rolls her eyes. "He was fussing about scorch marks in the floor and stains on the upholstery for DAYS."
She shudders dramatically. "No, thank you! Once was more than enough."
"Honestly though, with the company you keep, that's probably going to wind up being the thing that most makes sense." She finishes the glass.
"But you've already figured that out, you've got it covered." She pauses a second, takes out a small scanner, waves it across the room. A little light comes on. She gets up and walks to a chair across the room. "I mean, I don't have half the wits you do. I just got it drummed into me after a rotating door of dolts to..." She feels around the edge of the chair, pulls out a small pin with a bead on the end. She pulls a small metal case from her other pocket. "keep it casual." She drops the bead into the box and closes it.
She heads back to the couch, putting the box on the coffee table. "Not yours I take it?"
Tia raises an eyebrow and stares at the box before scowling. "No," she says flatly. "It's not."
"Well, you have had a few guests lately. Never know what the cat drags in." She leaves the scanner on the table, it emits a quiet little whispering sound. "Though if I recall correctly, Uncle J left his bag on that chair when he came in. Or rather, his manservant did." She notices Tia looking at the whispering gadget. "That's a 'ZSK Owl' combo surveillance scanner and vid-vox jammer. Loads less range than the professional versions out there, it barely covers this room, but pretty useful to have." Lee pours herself another drink, "Especially when you have to keep lots of stuff under wraps."
She raises her glass in toast.
Tia mutters, "Ain't that the truth - this place has practically had a revolving door." She has a sour expression. "Looks like I'm going to have to invest in some better equipment. My uncle is nothing if not resourceful when it comes to his incessant attempts to babysit me." She scowls. "Thanks."
Still frowning, she clinks her glass against Lee's before draining it.
Lee continues, "So how long are you going to stay down here on Tier One? I mean there's got to be better skyline views off Tier Two and Three, More than enough room to keep away from that floating fat man." She makes the universal face mimicking the insane Tyrant. "Street level is just awful. Roving drunks, drive by mishaps, creepers in alleyways..." She smirks. "Just awful."
Some humor returns to Tia's expression. "Oh, I dunno, I think I'm starting to get used to it." She smirks. "Besides, at least he has his own place now. Thank you for that, too - the alley was getting a little old, and I think some of the neighbors were starting to get nervous." She chuckles.
"Not sure I'm doing anyone favors with that, honestly." She pours a shot from her flask. "But I pulled some strings and saw the trauma center surveillance." She looks at your patched midsection. "So I guess the ship sailed on non-intervention and I didn't hear the boatswain's whistle."
"Well, I for one am glad it's left the harbor," Tia says emphatically, then winces. "As much as I'm not always the biggest fan of so many people waltzing around - and into -" she briefly scowls at the box on the table before turning back to Lee, "my place, I'd take that in a heartbeat over dealing with one of those inquisitors again." She pauses, then gives Lee a more serious look and says in an uncharacteristically quiet voice, "Thank you for pulling those strings."
She refills her glass and sits quietly, swirling it absently in her hand for a moment before looking up at Lee. "Would you really have spaced us on that ship, Lee?" Tia asks the question, but by the expression on her face, it's clear that she feels she already knows the answer.
"You've been holding onto that one for a while." Lee takes a sip. "Wondered when you were going to take it out for a breath of fresh air." She moves over and tosses an arm over Tia's shoulders, leans over and kisses the top of her head. "At that moment, having known you for maybe four hours total, it wouldn't even have been a decision. But I would have regretted it for every moment of the remaining 96 seconds of my life I'd have enjoyed in the vacuum."
She scoots back over. But I regret tons of what I've done for the cause. So that may not be as impressive a statement as you'd think."
Tia just watches her and waits.
"Guardian Protocol. Section 17. Clause 1. If a monitored Vanguard is ever in a position to be contained beyond the reach of a Magister, it is the responsibility of the Guardian to end the Vanguard's life processes through whatever means necessary. Even at the cost of her own life."
She breathes, "Yep. It ain't pretty, but then so little in this galaxy is." She fills the glass again. "Maybe that's why I watched that non-intervention ship sail away."
Tia nods as if confirming something she already knew. "Again - can't argue with you there - the galaxy can be a real shithole." She sighs and makes a face. "Can you at least tell me anything about why?" She frowns. "In case you haven't noticed, a good amount of my time seems to be spent around a certain Vanguard. Might be nice if I could at least know enough to try to avoid situations where I'd run into protocols likely to get one or both of us killed." She takes another pull from her glass.
"Did Sabbath ever tell you what really happened?" She rubs the shoulder where you saw her take the Sniper rounds.
Tia winces sympathetically. She stands up, pulls a fabric pouch from a drawer, scoops some of the ice from the bucket into it, and hands it to Lee. "What really happened with what?"
She takes the ice pack and pins it between her shoulder and the couch. She then takes out her datapad and calls up a feed from the security databanks. "So that big droid of Mathison's, BLX, he was needed, and they died defending him." She plays the file.
Tia watches as Sabbath, Fausto, Bandit, and Antwoord land on Veragi Prime, a world infested with Vyjand. In reviewing the footage, it’s clear that the Vyjand were using their infections to pit the populace against itself. The four fight off massive amounts of enemies as they escort BLX through the city as it scans and analyzes the Vyjand control signals. Meanwhile, JK leads battle droids to clear the way.
When a school full of children appears on the screen, Tia’s eyes widen in horrified recognition. Corrupted and controlled by the Vyjand, the students were armed with improvised explosives and hand weapons. Tia watches with sorrow as Sabbath and the others are forced to kill the group to protect the droid from their explosives.
In the final moments of the recording, the three Force Users all die horrifically, disemboweled by the Vyjand’s melee weapons as the group holds off wave after wave of elite soldiers. Bandit goes down last, taking the Vyjand commander with him. Of the group, Antwoord alone survives, though only because he was knocked unconscious and buried under a pile of debris.
Their sacrifice allows BLX and his few remaining Security Droid Protectors to survive and transmit the control countersignal, successfully killing off the creatures infecting the planet. Tia jumps as she watches JK stagger in, wearing armor that looks like the other Vanguard. Bleeding massively from her wounds and her eyes, she calls in, "They're gone, In the Lady's Name, they did it. We're all gone. Extract the droid." She collapses against the wall before disintegrating into nothing, leaving only her clothing behind.
A short time later, a troop carrier lands. More droids disembark, then retrieve Antwoord out from under the debris. A commander arrives, and Tia quickly recognizes her as Assyria. The woman begins to meditate, and one by one, the horribly wounded bodies of the three fallen Force users disintegrate, just as JK’s had.
The screen fades to black, and Lee sets the datapad on the table. "That's the way it starts," she says, watching the shock roll across Tia's face.
"We're taught that the Force selects some to curse with power. They are born, fight, hate, and die, at the whim of the Will of the Force." She pauses. "But that's not the worst part. They die then forget. Then they're born again and it just keeps cycling. Over and over, and over, for Millennia. Only they never remember what they learned."
"The Lady broke that cycle." She straightens in a way you've never seen her before, almost proud when talking, clear, even though she's been drinking heavily. "She used the Force against itself. She keeps us focused. She gave us the Vanguard."
"They stand between the candle and the darkness." She settles back down. "But sometimes they can go bad. That's where I come in.” Lee pauses, and for a moment seems close to tears.
Tia turns a horror-stricken look at Lee. She bites her lip and her attention seems to turn inward. "He mentioned the children, but not the rest of it." She pauses, and looks back at Lee. "'That's where you come in.' You said before that you had to keep an eye on the Vanguard. You were willing to kill all of us on that ship to extract Sabbath, if you had to. Based on the protocol you quoted earlier, I'm assuming you're a Guardian, not that I really know what that means. The question is, what exactly are you guarding and from what?"
She studies Lee, then holds out a hand, palm up as if weighing something. "Are you guarding them from possible enemies?" She considers, then turns her hand and makes a thumbs down motion. "You don't like it when they're under fire, but you haven't stopped it from happening. Maybe that's a piece of it - goes with the whole badass bodyguard thing - but it's not enough."
She holds out her other hand in the same measuring motion. "Are you guarding them from themselves - from 'going bad', whatever that means?" Again, Tia turns her hand in a thumbs down. "You're one hell of a fighter, but you're no therapist. Maybe you watch for it, look for warning signs, but still - not enough."
She brings her hands together in front of her and leans forward. "So then what are you guarding? Could it be that you're guarding the rest of us?" Tia continues to watch her soberly. "What happens when they go bad, Lee? And what, exactly, are you supposed to do about it if they do?"
Lee looks down at her glass, which, from all appearances in her eyes, can never hold enough, "Do you really want to know?" She takes the widening eyes as a confirmation. "Since we've found Vanguard going bad since the beginning of the war, a number of veterans have been asked by The Assembly to watch over them." She finishes the glass but doesn't refill it. "But now I've been tasked to do something so far outside our mandate that I'm making it up as I go along."
Her posture changes as she's clearly mimicking someone else "Lt. you need to enact Guardian protocol on those fledglings. I don't care that they're away from the fleet. No, I don't care that you're the only one we're sending. And No, there is no manual delineating your engagement on the ground." She makes a face. "You're a big girl, Lt., you can figure it out. Harrumph, harrumph, dismissed!"
"Those guys should be in training, they should be developing according to a plan, with their powers under scrutiny and around others who can bind them if they go off." Lee seems exasperated.
"Instead, they've got me." She leans forward. "Someone who has to carry a half dozen stims in her pocket so she's combat ready in a heartbeat. Someone who's got the training and the fortitude to resist mind powers. Someone who's got the determination to try and put one of them unconscious before they can go off. And someone who'll bring a building or a space station down around their heads if she can't."
"Who am I guarding? Some days I can barely guard my sanity. Let alone anything else."
Tia watches Lee quietly for a moment, then a ghost of a smile appears on her lips. "Oh, I dunno. You did a pretty good job of guarding my ass today. And frankly, I find the fact that you're drinking rather strong proof of your sanity. I'd be more worried if you kept yourself stone cold sober through all this."
She leans back in the chair, bringing her hands around to cup her drink. "And at least as far as I know, none of your charges have exploded yet. Given all of the madness that has been happening around here that says something - it's not like there's been a shortage of things that could set even a normal, rational person off."
Her smile fades and she regards Lee more seriously. "It seems odd that Vigil would go against standard protocol, though. All you military folks do like your rules and regulations. I wonder why they would make an exception for these three?"
She pauses, then slowly says, "They must have a lot of faith in you, to trust you with such a thing - to let you fly on your own. I get that you might prefer to have a manual, that it might make your decisions easier, but take it from me - there's something to be said for having the freedom to chart your own course and make your own calls on the ground." She takes a long drink from her cup and makes a face. "You're the one here, and it seems to me that you're in the best position to see what's going on - not some bureaucrat or officer off-world." She pauses, then adds in a somewhat placating tone. "Regardless of how much faith you have in them."
"Maybe." She leans back. "But we all may just be ants in a test tube. I mean, I don't know why they made the call. I can't fathom a thing the Assembly does. But when you predict as much as they do and get it right, us peons tend to not question much."
She roots around in her pocket for a stim, looks at it, squints, and decides not to use it. "The Assembly's not really military, though. Hard to explain. Most of the Vigil isn't involved in the war effort directly. I mean, most are just regular folks living their lives in our home system, or starting colonies with refugees from the First Order's campaign. Heck, lots of us are like Mathison and his technicians, working in the public fleet trying to help folks out."
"The Lady learned a long time ago that meddling in the affairs of the rest of the Galaxy is just naked foolishness." She stops and her hand touches the medallion on her dog tags. "But there's a whole lot of OpSec there I can't go into."
"At the end of the day, this is an experiment, it has to be." She curls her knees under her arms, and stretches her toes out as if grasping for an idea. "Someone up there thinks that maybe these three knuckleheads fumbling around on their own will find a different solution. Like Mathison and his droid on Veragi."
"The fleet was going to glass that planet. We had no way to ferret out that much infection and maintain a system blockade that deep in Pentastar territory for long. The Admiral was beside himself, the thought of the deaths three quarters of a million people, even human supremacists like Pentastar, was going to break him." she sighs and laughs, "Then the Doc gets these idiots to fly to Veragi with him with a crazy idea to countersignal their mind control with a big lummox of a droid. And somehow it works. And they all died." She rubs her sleeve over her face as her voice breaks a little.
"How could Assyria not ask her Magister to try and find them? I mean it was literally the code Πεθαίνουμε, έτσι μπορείτε να ζήσετε 'We die, so you may live.' Every Vanguard defines themselves by that oath." Her brows furrow and her teeth grit. "And I have to sit there and listen to these fledglings stand on their moral high ground and piss all over my people, our faith, their duty, with the surety that their own morals are so above reproach, blind as they are and flailing in the weeds."
"So I snap, because I know that they'll eventually consider me the villain." She looks up, and though you know her eyes aren't really her own, the edge in them makes your breath catch. "I had to verbally slap a guy sitting over the death bed of his sister, because all the telltales were there. The bleeding eyes, the uncontrolled emotion, the despair. He sat on the edge of frenzy and didn't even know it because no one's trained him. I put myself between him and you, because while putting a lightsaber in my gut might have made him blink, doing it to you?" She shudders.
"Damn I'm not anywhere near sober enough for this conversation."
Tia watches Lee for a moment, then carefully puts down her drink. After a slight hesitation, she moves to sit closer to Lee, giving the woman's shoulder a gentle bump, as if to jostle her back from her dark thoughts.
"Hey. I think we both know that sometimes it's necessary to say the wrong thing to get the right result." She watches Lee carefully. "You did what you felt you had to do to keep a bad situation from turning into a worse one." Her lips twitch. "And frankly, while I get that your primary concern was - and is - to keep Sabbath from losing his shit, I'm certainly not going to fault you for fundamentally putting yourself between me and danger, regardless of what complicated motivations were going through your head and regardless of the fact that you decided that you couldn't be nice to do it effectively." She pauses and gives Lee a look. "You seem to be making a habit of taking both literal and metaphorical bullets for me lately. For what it's worth, I appreciate it - and I'm not any less thankful just because you might have more than one reason to keep me breathing."
She pauses again and regards Lee thoughtfully. "None of your three charges are... The most subtle of people. Now, clearly, there's a lot I don't know about all of this." She waves a hand. "Vanguards, the Force... Hell, I didn't even realize Vigil had that much of a civilian element. I knew y'all had contacts with colonies, but I didn't realize that you had actual colonies of regular folks who identify themselves as Vigil." For a moment, she looks distracted. "Did you all band together at some point with a common cause or did you start out together on a home planet or something?" Tia shakes her head as if to clear it. "Nevermind. If you're willing, you can give me the history lesson later."
She sighs. "Look, what I'm trying to say is - well, take what I'm about to say with a side of salt, 'cuz I know there's a lot I don't know. But. Have you tried talking to them about any of this stuff? Sometimes it's impossible to avoid being a villain, but if they're stumbling around in the dark, it seems pretty clear that you know a fair amount about all this stuff. I get that you're a Guardian, not a Magister (whatever that is), but if they're flying blind, maybe you could shed some amount of light."
She grimaces slightly. "Might be more effective than waiting for them to put two and two together - they seem to have a tendency to jump to conclusions and fill in the gaps of what they don't know with supposition instead of fact. And even if the Assembly or whatever is hoping that they'll follow a different course or do something mad or brilliant, I would think that just the fact that it would be you talking to them and not a trained Magister would already be a significant change from how y'all normally operate. They seem to have given you a lot of freedom with what to do - maybe this is one of the ways you could put that freedom to use. Maybe the three of them would have a better shot at figuring whatever this is out if they knew a little more - having the right tools for a job can be helpful. Maybe then the worst offenders might lose at least a little of the holier-than-thou attitude."
She tilts her head at Lee. "I don't think any of those three would want to go on a rampage from what I've seen of them. I get that you're saying there's some kind of Force hoodoo that could take that decision out of their hands, but if you give them the warning signs, maybe they'll be able to better self-police." Her eyes briefly glint with humor. "They are cops, after all. And you can't be there all the time - you know they're going to get themselves into trouble eventually."
She pauses again. "Or, if you've already tried talking with them and I just don't know about it, or if for some reason you can't talk to them about it..." She gives Lee a searching look. "Tell me what to look for. I'm as big a fan of a sharp tongue as you might imagine - there may be situations I could diffuse, either with vinegar or honey. That first time we sparred, you said you didn't have enough hands." She shrugs and holds up her hands, wiggling the fingers. "I've got two. And, frankly, if everything you're saying is true, there's a decent chance I could end up being in the line of fire if Sabbath snapped." She grimaces and mutters, "And thank goodness dear Uncle doesn't know that particular piece of intel." She refocuses on Lee. "You know I spend a lot of time around Sabbath. Basically, even from a selfish point of view, it's in my best interest to keep him from losing it." She shivers. "Especially if it means avoiding another potential lightsaber to the gut - believe me, I'm properly motivated." She looks at Lee. "And it sounds like you could use an ally on the ground."
She shrugs. "If this whole situation is meant as an experiment, maybe it would even help move it along - or buy some time for them to get their shit together. I don't know." She gives Lee a crooked smile, but her eyes are serious. "But for whatever reason, I find that I would prefer to do what I can to avoid seeing you and Sabbath get spaced. Life's more interesting when you're around."
"So," Lee begins by looking at the glass, "I may have said way more than I should have. I can almost hear my instructors yelling at me across parsecs - 'There are reasons we don't engage out there, soldier!' And they'd be right. Suffice to say you'll probably learn soon enough. The Commanders are on their way back to Nigita after news spread across the holonet with your face and his smiling for the cameras."
She leans back and puts her feet up on the table. "Listen, the crux of my orders is to let them figure out on their own if they were worth the induction. My only guidance is that under no circumstances are they to frenzy if it is within my ability to control." She 'pops' the individual knuckles on her right hand, which being cybernetic, must not be a design feature. "There are some in the Assembly that witnessed their trials that wanted them sent out with the Expeditionary Fleet - into that void beyond the barrier. Others thought they should be inducted, mentored, and put to work with the regular corps. Others simply wanted them entombed. They were all pissed at Assyria for making that call."
"I think it was a very close vote." She casts about and grabs her flask, bypassing the glass. "They supposedly did pretty bad on that force trail mumbo jumbo, but then something happened. I don't know what, but the decision came down to let them try and see what comes of it." She gulps down a shot. "So I got the nod. One minute I'm overseeing personal security for a diplomat to Onderon, the next I'm on a boat heading to this barnacle of a planet."
"Honestly, I wish I could help them more than I am. Sometimes I see them and it hurts to look at them trying to be something that's been taken away from them." She looks into the mouth of her now empty flask. "But if I step too much more out of line, and believe me I've already taken an earful for my stunts, they'll just replace me with another officer who can cut the detail." She tugs on her uniform pants, "Same clothes, same bad haircut, just far less likely to give a shit and far more likely to resolve frenzy with a thermal detonator than I am."
"Then there's you." She lays the empty flask on the table. "We'll need a whole case more of that before I set foot in that minefield." She winks. "But I am the last girl anyone should ever let speak about relationships."
Tia snorts. "Great." She rubs her temples. "Glad we've done something to warrant their personal attention. I'm excited already. So many visitors lately." Her voice is sarcastic as she sighs. She gives Lee a look of amusement. "I certainly know better than to ask you to go against your orders, so so much for that idea." She shakes her head. "Even if I could convince you - " She holds up a placating hand. "-and again, I know that's not in the cards and I'm not going to try - there's no point if it would just end with you being reassigned. I'd rather not see you replaced. After all, then who would I drink with?" She leans over, snatches up her glass, and takes another drink before leaning back against the couch. She sighs. "Well, I guess I'll just keep my eyes out for Sabbath's eyes to start glowing red or for steam to start coming out of his ears and react accordingly. You have any other warning signs you think you can share, let me know and I'll take them under advisement." She makes a sour face.
Her com beeps and she checks it. "Speak of the devil. Seems like they want to pick us up for drinks or something over by the Barcrawl. You in? Or have you had enough?" She smirks and gestures at the now very-much-not-full bottle and empty flask.
"There isn't enough in this galaxy to qualify as enough for me." Lee heads over to her bag and quickly drops the hoodie and BDU pants. She pulls out a standard black pencil dress and pulls it over her head. The dress seems to have been chosen to conceal the vast network of scars on her back and upper arms. You wonder how much of that is injury and how much is voluntary, judging from her implants. "Now where did I stick those... Crap, footlocker." She shrugs and slips back into her combat boots. "Eh, at least they're the same color."
"Where to?"
Tia gets a mischievous look on her face. "I don't know - I haven't picked up the call yet, just saw the message. Watch this." She picks up the comm and immediately begins making a series of banging noises, pretending as though she were attempting (largely unsuccessfully) to drag a drunken Lee into the apartment after a long dinner with Uncle J. After pretending to slam one of Lee’s emergency stims on her to sober her up, Tia makes arrangements with Sabbath for them to meet up with him at the Barcrawl.
The moment she hangs up, she gives Lee a wink before the two burst into laughter and head out the door, ready to take the party to the Barcrawl.