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I would like that very much.

[Maketh folds her hands in her lap carefully, looking down before finally meeting Rey's eyes.]

Perhaps I -- perhaps I could do my reports there.

[Rey can't help but bark a short laugh at Maketh's mention of paperwork. Not just because of her roommate, but Rey's own terrible penchant for neglecting reports and the like.]

Don't see why not. We do the brewing in a place outside of the Speakeasy, so it's a little more private.

And... Nick does his reports here sometimes, too. So, you're welcome here. Even if you've got work.

[Just putting that out there.]

[Maketh nods, just watching Rey. It feels so simple, being here. Talking like this. And she wonders why they hadn't done it sooner. It hadn't been the right time, perhaps. But here they are, right now.]

Well. Shall we? This looks wonderful. Though I'm afraid I don't know what it is.

Gnocchi.

[Rey speaks simply as she pulls a glass towards her with one hand, while picking up a fork with the other.]

Potato dumplings with cheese and other things. Made it before just to make sure it'd be good.

Gnocchi. [Maketh tries the word out and then a bite of the food itself. It's good. Not as spicy as she likes, but pleasant and rich.] I don't think I've had anything like it before. Is this a common dish in your world?

[Rey can try and think up good spicy foods for Maketh to try for next time.

[Funny to think like that -- "next time". She wants there to be one, and many more like it.]

Not really. Well, guess it depends on what sorts of places you go. You won't find gnocchi at a Chinese or burger joint. [She scoffs.]

I suppose not. [Maketh smiles a little. She enjoys good food. It's something she learned to appreciate as a child, when there had been times her parents hadn't been able to afford full meals.] My mother was Mandalorian, and they have this sort of casserole called Tiingilar. Quite spicy. It's something of a challenge to see how much you can eat without crying. My father would cook it for her. I miss it, sometimes.

[She can't help but laugh.]

Sounds like a game people used to play. They'd eat hot peppers and try to last as long as they can without washing it down with milk. It can be quite a show -- especially when they start throwing tantrums, rolling on the ground, punching...

[Maketh grins, nodding.]

Much like that, I imagine! It used to be that if a Mandalorian wished to marry an outsider, their intended would have to prove themselves either in battle or with more...culinary challenges.

[She shrugs.]

An old story. It's probably not true. But it was great fun to imagine, when I was a child.

Could be worse. There was a tribe of people in Amazonas that, for their initiation rites to become warriors, would purposefully sting themselves with bullet ants.

[She shakes her head.] People do stupid things to prove their machismo.

They certainly do. [Maketh takes another bite, trying to keep her mind from drifting to examples from her own life - the things they did in the Academy to prove who was strongest, who was going to survive and who was not. It's not the point of this, and she wants this to be something good.] I'm dying to try the mead.

[Ah yes, don't want to dwell on that.]

Try it. [She gestures to the glass by Maketh.] Tried to make it as dry as I could.

[Maketh drinks. It's different from anything she's tried before, though she has faint memories of a few local drinks from Lothal that might have come close. Just a little. It's sweet, but not cloyingly so. She nods, thoughtful.]

It's not as strong as I expected. I like it.

[Rey nods, then tries her share as well.]

Been working on a batch or liquor and wine to ferment longer. Hopefully they'll be stronger when I eventually crack them open.

[Sadly they're not going to get the more "sophisticated" spirits that are aged by years. Oh well.]

It has a different flavor than any wine I've had. [Maketh considers it thoughtfully.] Though I did try a bottle of something that was spiced, and--that came close. But it wasn't sweet like this. I wonder....perhaps someone here could enchant the ingredients to make them age more quickly?

Well, it isn't wine -- it's mead. [She says this with a slight smile.] But it can be spiced as well. Might give that a try for next time.

[Rey mulls over Maketh's suggestion of enchantment. How strange to think that she doesn't even think twice about this sort of subject anymore.]

Hmm. Can't hurt to ask one of those magic types sometime.

Of course. [And now Maketh has decided quite likes mead. The sweetness of it.] Yes. It wouldn't hurt to see what could be done. It might be applied to other things as well.

[More practical applications, she means. But there is no harm in experimenting.]

Have considered something along those lines, too. Can't hurt to have emergency medical supplies on hand, knowing the way shit goes around here.

[Rey, who gets hurt quite often, hardly being an exception.]

[Maketh nods, though her expression is somber.]

And with how things are going now, it's likely only going to get worse.

Si vis pacem, para bellum. -- If you want peace, prepare for war.

[It's a phrase Rey has heard before in her line of "work". She forms a weak smile as she takes a few more drinks of her mead.]

Nothing ever comes easy.

Precisely.

[They cannot afford to be lax now, not when their enemies are massing just out of sight.]

I know your world is different than mine. But -- have you encountered anything like the Null before?

Yes.

[There's no hesitation there. She's had this conversation with others before.]

They like to call themselves synthes, though. As in synthetics. They seem to value individuality more than the Null, though. Except... there are some contradictions to that. [Contradictions that are uncomfortable to Rey. Not that she would let that on.]

[This is coming dangerously close to a difficult topic, Maketh knows. She sips her drink, thinking.]

And knowing what you do, how would you suggest we proceed?

[It's a neutral question. It doesn't touch upon where Rey might fit in the grand scheme of things. Maketh isn't that cruel.]

[For all intents and purposes, Rey is far too sober to be having g this conversation. She continues to drink and sighs. It'll take a lot more than this to even feel a punch.]

You don't exactly approach them as you would human enemies, for starters. But you also shouldn't think of them entirely as machines, either. Machines that are so logic focused can be unpredictable when they've been driven mad by something as primal as emotions.

[An enemy that Rey has much experience with as well.]

[So something in between human and machine. Something that wants to be pure logic, but isn't.

Maketh hesitates.]

We don't have to talk about this now, if you don't want to.

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