It was a long night

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NOTE: All entries and replies are to be In Character. There is usually a comment thread in the Stories/Journal Comments forum for OOC comments and questions.
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Smallcorners
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Re: It was a long night

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Eti sat curled up on a couch in the garden room on the Pink, Par's ship. It's name really was not Pink, but she called it that and slowly the moniker was taking effect, even down to the new paint job. Granted it was the old paint that had her calling it Pink in the first place. Both her fathers suffered from space sickness, Ren more than Par, though she suspected that some of Par's was from siphoning off of Ren's. The forward cabin with the large window was full of plants to help combat that illness, especially among longer flights.

She had discussed this once with Ren, the usage of plants to help with his connection to the Force in the thin reaches, and the added benefit of assisting with life support, along with fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables. This was long before they had ships of their own, when she was still dreaming about the Little Trouble and determining how she would set it up. Ren had chuckled and told her he would keep it in mind. Today she sat in the result of his memory of that conversation.

She looked down at the datapad in her lap set to compose message, there was only one line so far, "Hello, Handsome,". Eti glanced out at the stars streaking by, they were in hyperspace, she thought they were on their way to the Yavin system. The young woman did not remember being carried out of the library on Ryloth, or the decision on where to go next to find the second part of a 'cure' for her. Eti snorted softly, cure. What she needed was a cleansing and the last person that she knew of that could do that was now returned to the Force. Exhaustion, she supposed, was why she had passed out in the library.

The sliver that had lodged in her body while hiding from Tuskens was designed to kill Jedi by draining them of Force, severing their connection to it, then sucking their bodies dry of life. The process was painful and would have taken minutes if she had been hit with more than a mere splintered shard. Yay for ancient evil weapons? Eti was no Jedi, but she was strong in the Force, young, healthy enough, and very strong willed. She had not died, though she should have, and she had taken damage that would be a while to heal.

Her connection to the Force was severely frayed, before the sliver have been found and removed she had lost everything but two connections. One to Alisyad, the other to Rando. She ran a finger around the edge of the datapad, at the still blank message on the screen. Rando had agreed to return to 'diplomatic' missions in addition to his tasks as Commissioner, she was just not sure for which employers. And while she may have been squandering her meager store of energy to keep enough of a bond with him to be reassured of his continued health, she was not sparing any to know where he was. Granted she did not do that before either, it was enough that she knew she could find him if she had to, and that he could as well if he tried hard enough.

News though, words, those had to be conveyed in a more prosaic manner. Besides, she liked the process of letter writing, of imagining him reading her letters in the corner of some bar while he watched the crowd. He never replied, that was an ongoing teasing scold of hers, that he never wrote back. If he did...she shook her head. He knew about the fraying, he could feel it she was sure by the fact he still felt worried about her. Afraid she would fade away on him. No, the fraying would not kill her. The other issue?

The dark stain, the tainting from the ancient Sith artifact dragging itself through her power to that deeply buried darkness until it pierced and bled. That was something her fiance would be very worried about, if he knew. She refused to fix her connection to the Force until the darkness was cleaned and contained. Eti would rather be severed than be dark. She would rather be dead, but others objected to that option so here they were hurtling through hyperspace following a lead from a book found in a library on Ryloth.

Nasha's huge head dropping into her lap startled her, had she fallen asleep again? The grand wrix huffed, draping her body into the space between the front of the couch and the window, Eti grinned and uncurled enough to poke her feet into the cat's furry side. Somewhere they had dropped out of hyperspace, probably why Nasha had moved from the nook she liked to claim while on the Pink. There were no planets in view, but the ship was humming along so they must be close?

Eti fished the datapad out from under Nasha's chin then leaned it on the cat's snout between the tusks. Letters did not write themselves and she wanted to get this one sent when they reached a place with a strong enough signal to handle the encryption.

Hello, Handsome,

Some news from the meeting on Jato.

The Untold Bounty II is nearing the completion of it's repairs and will be restocked soon for future missions. Aimi made a special mention that the medical center needed replenishing. What would droids need from anything in there? The droids that had remained and could be repaired were, they were also reprogrammed and she believes some will be replaced. There is a new security system being installed that will be triple locked? Not sure how that would have helped with Pal taking the ship as he had access to it as part of security? Paranoia never ceases to amuse me.

Dino is back, I think I mentioned Salt saying she heard something about they had heard from him? He was at the meeting and very focused, even though Aly thought he was drinking something stronger than usual. He now believes that Pal did somehow gain self awareness, sentience. He claims Pal as a friend and promised him that we would not interfere in his self mission to find his Maker.

When he and Dino were pulled out of the ship during the decompression of the bridge, Pal took over control of that large CIS ship. It was his orders that had Dino rescued from drifting away into oblivion. It was also his orders that put the old man on a Sorosub 22 droid fighter full of what Dino called 'horrible rations and booze'. Then he was sent on a course back from who knows where into the side of Endor. Needless to say Dino survived the crash and Doc Sarius seems to have been able to patch him up quite well.

As Aimi has not received a report from Salt about what to do next about the slavers she suggested holding a ranged competition this week. Something low key, fun, and popular. I will need to work it, but at least that event is not as straining on me as the arena nights are. Aly mentioned needing to find the rifle that Vennie gave her. I hope it is not the one that nearly dislocated her shoulder before.

We seem to have received some information about those Alrak pirates, and an odd, cryptic, message from them. Enough that Aimi thinks she may know where they are based and is toying with an idea to go take a whack at them. I did ask about the previous data theft, and she said that the professor did pay the ransom, but did not get back all stolen information. This was more or less as expected.

Before I left to go up top, a stranger wandered into Keeper's. He claimed to be just a courier named Ding looking for an older man with swarthy skin, brown eyes, graying hair, and about six foot and two hundred pounds. Oddly he did not have a name for this person, only that they sometimes hung out in Agathon and would know the package when they saw it. He also kept his helmet on, nor did he have a ship of his own. It gets weirder, love, he claimed he was from Aldaraan, once a part of the noble class, but he had run away from it stating that he had gotten tired of the avarice. He felt bitter.

I asked how he survived the purge, if he joined the war? He stated that he avoided the war, laid low and did not really care about it at all. He was in armor that was all over light gray, and may have been a bit of a bully from his talk. He kept stating that children were cruel and that he was happy to just keep himself afloat. We have two men lately that have been in Agathon that fit the description he gave, Range, and Corik. We did not give him either of their names. They are Jato mercs now, and have taken refuge in Agathon. I have worked with them, and on them. This man makes me suspicious and until I know more, I will not betray them.

Besides, I am not sure where either is!

I am working on getting well, Handsome, we are approaching, or are in, the Yavin system. I am on the Pink with the dads, and left the Little Trouble on Dantooine for Koga to use. Alisyad tells me baby steps towards recovery, one does not rise from their deathbed to attend battle right away. though his image was of a ballroom. The politics of your people, and his always amazed me, some day I hope to see you and Alisyad dressed to the hilt confounding a roomful of snooty nobles. Granted watching you prowl among the Senate is extremely amusing.

I know, I know, love.

If they find what they seek I might not feel as strong for a while, if they don't, or if it will not work, do not panic if I vanish from the back of your mind. Hopefully it will only be temporary. I will remind them to let you know one way or the other if you have not found us first.

I love you, no holes.

Eti


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((Port Jato planning sessions are on Thursday evenings at 9pm ET. Campaigns are 9pm ET Sundays, arrive by 8:30 please. Other RP up on the station does occur, find (a smuggler) in one of several NPC cantinas with 5500 credits in cash on hand.
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Smallcorners
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Re: It was a long night

Post by Smallcorners »

The Little Trouble did not land with it’s usual grace, the figure visible in the cockpit was not Eti, but Par who moved as if in pain. No one emerged, the ramp was not lowered until the next morning after an outrageously colored decimator landed nearby. A large narglatch emerged then to take off into wilderness, while a tall blond man followed by an even larger sludge panther strode up then entered. Of the Nautolan there was no sign.

A message blinked on his comm. The voice was hers, but it sounded off, drugged, slurred from pain or exhaustion. She kept apologizing, yet her story did not seem clear on why. The Jato mission had them split up, they were talking to the pirates, she was determined to not have to kill. She instructed Cari to find their objective and directed Jegy to make a distraction with his bantha.

That much was clear. Then she murmured about antique bikes destroyed, the bantha being shot, Cari opening a box. Her fault, she repeated, it was her fault this thing, this crazed Mark 3 trooper thing was lose on Endor. She was lead, her responsibility. Al wanted to leave it there loose in the woods. She was afraid it would hurt someone.

There was a rustle, she winced sharply, taking a long time to talk again. She mentioned Sahir, how she had missed him, he seemed pleased to see her, but not pleased she was hurt, he gave her a bantha doll that smelled absolutely lovely… He agreed to officiate at their wedding. She giggled, winced again, fell silent except for barely heard shallow panting that eventually smoothed out as if in sleep.

There was a gentle masculine murmur in the background, a slight rustling that could have been someone arranging her arms and sheets being tucked around muffling the voice. Then there was just her hearts beating until the recording ended.
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Smallcorners
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Re: It was a long night

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Eti's head and heart were reeling, her common sense too if one was to be fair. She looked down at her journal box, noting the last date on the last page. Months. Months since she had written or recorded anything. Months of life happening that she wondered if future generations would think that perhaps she had died then? Carefully she laid the printout of the letter from Jato on the pile. She had not died, but she had been working hard, living hard... her sigh also settled into the box on top of that letter. Banned, it read, from Jato for what she had done, for the danger Rando presented additionally. Banned because she chose to pose a warning about a danger near to people that did not deserve it.

She was not a mind reader, she could not see the future, she was merely herself, and right now she was an emotional wreck. She was also wholly surprised that someone had not yet seen fit to lock her in a shielded room, especially her family as they knew the danger she could pose if she let the emotions get away with her. Or that danger was exactly why Rando refused to let her go to him. Her ability to amplify and feedback the emotions of others could be terrifying. That ability had broken Alisyad, nearly killed people on Jato. Perhaps the shard that nearly killed her all those months ago was a hidden blessing?

She had to relearn so much since, part of that was control of her talents. Premonition was the Will's way to kriff with your day. She thought that was how Alisyad put it once. Thankfully, for her, it was simply one of those wild talents that did not manifest often, and never clearly. Woefully it sometimes ended in things like the letter from Jato. Eti closed the lid on the box, putting it back into it's place before rising to walk into the main cabin of the Little Trouble. Mon Cal was visible outside.

Printing the letter from Jato was just a bit of busy work done during a long night of broken sleep due to her worries and insecurities. The patient she had treated the evening before did not truly need her now, she had progressed enough with her retraining to know this. Things could happen, yes, they often did. All she could do was trust that she was ultimately doing the right thing for the most people involved. Sometimes, like the letter, that meant people got hurt along the way. Even her.
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