Peace and Quiet [Day 11, MA]

[Riza]

"Our other views, you mean?" she questioned first, playing it slower, safe.

[Phoebe Wren]

"The topic at hand, or these other views. Take your pick, girl," Phoebe shrugged. This was the most she had gotten out of Riza in a while, after all.

[Riza]

"As for the topic at hand it is simple," she unfurled her legs out from under her and sat up more in her seat, "you would like to use your leisure time to talk about Axel's performance in the bedroom, and my preference is to not. Simple matter, certainly."

"Our other views, is far more great. I find you are bit of an insufferable moralist. You will fight a battle, kill men in service to your clan, but you then in turn will not execute a man who has clearly done wrong." Riza waved a hand out, open palm toward the ceiling, "You, also, were found to cry over the man so recently condemned to the grave because what? He had a daughter? I wonder if, when you sat at his bedside and gave him those last moments of peace with a gentle soul, did you forget that he killed children? Strung them up like so many other innocents. Or did the nature of his condemnation wipe away that crime?"

[Phoebe Wren]

"Kriff," she sighed at first, shaking her head. Seemed just casual locker-room talk was something wasted on Riza.

Then the Chiss went on, and the beer-can in her hand was slowly crushed. "First of, I ain't shed a kriffin' tear in years, so don't go caling me some bawling baby." Slowly, Phoebe rose from her seat, fixing Riza with a hard glare. "Secondly, you have no idea what you're talking about, or what my feelings on the matter is. You think I don't know what he has done? Of course I do, you blue... windbag. You sure manage to find a lot of words when it comes to derision or just blowing a lot of hot air; because all I hear is bantha poodoo from someone who thinks they know something they haven't gotten a gorram clue about."

[Riza]

"You gave that man far more respect than he deserved," Riza replied, tone even, even as Phoebe rose from her seat. Riza was, particular, about maintaining eye contact and did so without shying away.

"Wounded pride?" she shook her head slightly, discarding the thought. "You can enlighten me, on just why you felt he deserved some bit of respect, but I am concerned that if it wasn't what I ascribed it to than it is far worse than I imagined."

[Phoebe Wren]

"I ain't gotta explain squat to you, aruetii. And if you had taken some time to even try to understand the ways of the Mando'ade and the Resol'nare, perhaps you'd understand."

Scoffing, Phoebe threw the can away into a nearby trashcan. "Why do you even care to know, because you don't. You don't care. This is all just a pit-stop to you, isn't it?"

[Riza]

Riza raised a brow, folded her arms over her lap, "If I didn't care to know, I wouldn't bother asking, but I won't ask a second time. Instead, I would wonder by just what measure you mean that you believe I consider this to be a pit-stop?"

[Phoebe Wren]

She was angry at Riza, for that cold and dismissive behaviour. But most of all because it didn't seem like Riza understood anything at all.

"You don't even try to be a part of the group. When everyone else is getting together, you're nowhere to be seen. Only answer is that you don't want to be a part of the group - so either you're scared of being seen as part of something bigger than just yourself, or you really just don't care about this clan and the people here."

Phoebe sighed, gripping the back of the chair as she stood behind it. "And you dare call me out for treating Vanito Cadera with some kriffin' decency before his death? Well at least I'm not making myself into an executioner like you, like you did at the UltraLux. How many people had you killed that day, or before that day? And yet you still claimed some higher ground to just execute those prisoners? You call me an insufferable moralist, so what does that make you? A sociopath?"

[Riza]

"Those prisoners," she said, calmly, shifting as she spoke forward and rising to her feet, keeping that gaze though her movements were casual, "are men who walked into a crowded club and opened fire indiscriminately. They killed people, innocent people, and had the audacity to try and surrender. Perhaps, on your strange moral high ground, you can detest me for executing them but you wish to paint me as something that could not be further from the truth.

A sociopath, someone who is cold and unfeeling? Who do you think better fits that description, the individual who repeated called out to her comrades, feared their deaths were imminent, and as soon as she arrived to not only see them well but that those they were fighting slaughtered innocents. Those monsters that then deigned to try and surrender and ask for forgiveness? That individual, who saw what these monsters in the skin of men could do without feeling any remorse, to feel that they had a right to their lives any longer, and thus decided to not grant them the choice to surrender, a choice they did not grant to even innocents in pursuit of their goal.

Or, would you say it is closer to those who would defend these monsters? Give them the right to surrender because of some code of honor that raises itself above even common sense and decency?"

[Phoebe Wren]

"That's a lot of big words from someone who wasn't in there to see it. I think you better check yourself more closely before claiming you have any sort of high ground over anyone." Phoebe lifted her chin, and casually let go of the chair. "And if you're not going to bother with the Mandalorian's code of honor, then what are you even here for?"

She scoffed and stepped back. "Whatever. I thought you were pretty swell at first, but I see now you're just a fake trying to ride on the name of Mandalorians. I'm done here."

[Riza]

"I don't," Riza said, shaking her head. It was a tired shake, the one after a long days work that just blew up in your face. Starting, she walked toward the bar in the lounge. "I'm not better than you, Phoebe. I'm a killer, just like you, just like everyone else on this ship. I just don't fool myself thinking otherwise, that by sparing some murderer I redeem myself at all."

Over by the bar, she dragged her hand along the top, coming to the rounded-edge, "If that's the kind of code I'm supposed to follow, you can keep it."

[Phoebe Wren]

Phoebe narrowed her eyes, but thought better of saying some words that were way too crass. "Well then, no one's forcing you to stay. As I said, this clan doesn't mean anything to you - becoming a Mandalorian never meant anything to you. Our culture is a kriffin' joke to you."

She was done with this and headed out of the lounge. "I'm not wasting my energy on someone who doesn't want to be a part of this and is just along for the ride as long as it suits them. Whatever." Pressing the panel, the door opened with its usual hss.

[Riza]

Having felt she laid out her point, her thoughts, in no uncertain terms. Riza then, in no uncertain terms, sought a different kind of relaxation. That which one found at the bottom of a glass that contained something strong.

[Phoebe Wren]

/exit Phoebe