Raxus Prime, Monday

A great deal of worlds from Revan's Sith Empire had returned to the Republic after Malak's death - or at least expressed their wish to. But with the Republic in the ramshackle state it had been in these past few years, not all of them had been... reclaimed. Some of the bigger backwaters, they hadn't even bothered to deal with until now.

Or maybe turned a blind eye to on purpose, Atton mused. Raxus Prime was a center of industrial power, and the current Chancellor didn't seem especially inclined to upset business relations.

He reached up and touched his jaw for the umpteenth time. It felt weird.

"You do realize we're on live holonews right now," Mira said, from his right. "Stop touching your face, Rand."

"I wouldn't be touching my face if you hadn't made me shave this morning," he complained.

"I didn't make you shave. I made fun of that poor Bothan you taped to your face until you saw the error of your ways."

Atton pulled a face, his eyes darting briefly to the Republic soldiers marching behind them. "I don't know why we're doing this anyway," he said. "A procession through the streets of a Raxus habitat? This place is a garbage dump."

"A garbage dump full of credits," Mira said. "I think our Chancellor is just trying to remind everyone that he finally remembers where he put his balls."

Atton let out a snort. "He's definitely making himself at home back there on the big fancy seat while the rest of us walk." He shot Mira a glance.

But she just shrugged. "Hey, I didn't vote for him. Anyway, those news crews are getting pretty cl--"

A blaster shot pierced the air and slammed into a building right behind them. The entire crowd reeled; Atton could sense the Chancellor's security detail practically leaping on top of him. He spun around to the sound of two lightsabers clicking on at once. "Seriously?" he muttered. "Seriously."

"Come on!" Mira bellowed. Right, right.

"Never a day off on the job," Atton said irritably, Force senses yelling at him which direction to run into as he dashed into the crowd.

[[ establishy, la. ]]

The Perk, Monday Evening

Atton was sore, cranky, newly shaven and newly burned in places he didn't even want to think about, and he still had a chunk of adrenaline in his system that was only slowly ebbing out, so it made perfect sense for him to stop by the coffee places for a giant mug of coffee before he headed back home. Well, theoretically, anyway. In practice, it was well past the appropriate time for coffee, but damn it, he didn't have anything schedule tomorrow - hopefully - so he could risk the insomnia.

He sank down in a chair with his coffee on the table in front of him, his phone in one hand as he texted Sparkle that he was back in town, his comlink in the other as he yelled at Mira. Well, yelled at a communications device, which happened to be transmitting that information to Mira, who was used to this by now.

"How many times do I have to tell you people? Droids! They break! In--"

"In the head. I know. This is the 25th time you've told me this today alo--"

"We should just scrap the whole lot of them. Go back to the old days. No more droids! Hey, we were just on a garbage planet--"

"And the droids who tried to assassinate the Chancellor are scrapped, so hey, you got your wish. I'm going to hang up now."

"No, Mira, this is going to happen again, because these dr-- She hung up."

Of course she did. He let out an annoyed grunt and tried to pour as much of his restless leftover energy into drinking his coffee as he could.

[[ open! because idk what to do with myself today. ]]