[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/2wSv1RH.png[/img][/center]
[right][b][color=darkorange]Keldabe Administrative District // Mandalore // Mandalore Sector[/color][/b]
[sup][sup]Mentioned:[@Bastian][/sup][/sup][/right][hr]

[color=60b6bf]"Rask Coburn. 'Some time' is underselling it a bit, I'd say. I'm still kicking, myself."[/color]

Tybren smiled and Rask smiled back. He wondered just how sincere the Mirialan's was. He thought of predators on the Rim that would bear their teeth before striking. 

Rask gripped the Mandalorian's beskar-clad arm. A small gesture darkened with a certain ambiguity. He knew full well that the Mandalorian could crush every bone in his forearm to powder if he so chose. Rask thought back to the last time they met. Rask had been a young man then. In his prime and dumb as hell, but getting wise fast. Not fast enough, as it had turned out.

[color=darkorange]"Kickin's nothin to scoff at. Lotta people from the bad old days ain't around anymore to kick much of anything. After 22 years, seems like theys all droppin like flies."[/color]

He thought of all those faces from his past, those he'd never see again and those he hoped to see one last time before he put a blaster bolt through them. The passage of time usually bleached out men's stains, made past infractions that seemed unforgivable in the moment just petty slights after a few decades. Rask hoped that this was true for Tybren for his own sake. To him, though, the past only festered like an untreated wound.

[color=60b6bf]"Of course, it's a bit different nowadays. I'm retired, mostly. Doing a lot more talking than shooting."[/color]

[color=darkorange]"A semi-retired mercenary,"[/color] Rask chuckled. Not the full story surely, but one he hoped to pry out. [color=darkorange]"Well if that don't beat all."[/color]

[color=60b6bf]"What about you? Here for Founding Day, I'm guessing. You still... working?"[/color]

Rask didn't have to look down to know that Tybren was resting his hand on the pommel of the sword at his hip.

[i]Same old Tybren.[/i]

He didn't take much offense. Last time they crossed paths, Rask knew he'd been a real bastard.

[color=darkorange]"I'm not ridin with the Irregulars, if that's what you're askin, or any such outfit. The string on that trade run out not long after we parted ways. For me, anyways."[/color] 

[i]Parted ways. Pretty way of puttin it.[/i]

[color=darkorange]"I ain't sure if I quit them or they quit me. Quits, either way. I been with the Outer Rim Regulators since then. Keepin the peace on the frontier, or somethin like that. Gave a run at retirement like you, but it didn't take with me."[/color] 

Rask tried to downplay his status as a Regulator marshal. Relations between the Regulators and Mandalore were rocky at best, and the badge didn't open doors and earn trust on Mandalore like it did elsewhere on the Rim. The Mandalorians were fiercely independent and never much cared for Regulators interfering with their affairs, the Death Watch especially. He suspected they viewed themselves as the inheritors of the Rim, and just saw the Regulators as an obstacle to that. An unfounded suspicion, granted.

Rask pushed his battered wide-brim hat back on his head and looked up at the massive tower before them, like some mountaineer eyeing their next conquest. A problem to be solved. [color=darkorange]"Hell, I'll be honest, I forgot about the Founding. I'm planetside lookin up old friends is all, just worked out that I ended up here at the worst damn time for it."[/color] A half-truth. [color=darkorange]"You weren't on the itinerary, but I'm happy I ran into ye."[/color] Perhaps another. Rask wasn't sure yet.  

[color=darkorange]"You look like you done well for yerself, Tybren. How'd a merc like yourself come into retirement? That don't happen every day. Make it big, or you got a side gig goin?"[/color]

Pounding drums cut through the din of the crowd, all in near-perfect unison. A chill ran down Rask's spine though he did not know why. Despite the celebratory mood, the drums seemed ominous to him, some primal herald of blood and fire to come. Mandalore unified after years of strike. He did not think they would be content to sit on the sidelines of the great galactic game any longer.