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A Drop in the Bucket
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Friday, 06 Apr 2012, 7:52 PM | Message # 1 |
 Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| The Inquisitorius had tried—oh how they tried—to apprehend the 'dangerous' fugitive known as Karth De'Qora. Wanted for charges of treason, conspiracy to commit murder, and a slew of other false accusations the Empire had levied on his kind since the Purge began; the former Jedi had taken to calling himself Jacen Hall, reinventing himself as a traveling merchant of sorts, specializing in scrap parts.
To his credit, he never complained about the state he'd ended up in, opting instead to adapt to a different set of rules. Palpatine's lackies were ever vigilant in their pursuit and persecution, if only they knew how easily manipulated they were. This new galaxy was no friend to the Jedi, an order that had spent thousands of years protecting it, instead choosing to believe the lies of a corrupt Supreme Chancellor and Sith Lord. Palpatine's victory was complete; not just in the eradication of his enemies, the Jedi, but of the Sith's influence slowly snaking their way to the farthest reaches of explored space. Even here, on Kolatill, the Empire's grip could still be felt tightening; but talk of its coming and of its wrath were often dismissed as far-off, unimportant affairs.
Such was the majority opinion on the planet, at any rate, even though there was a scant Imperial presence already. For the most part, though, the Sector Moff knew to leave such a hive well enough alone, let the criminals and the degenerates police themselves. It was readily apparent in the cantinas, dens of filth, drugs and sex where a brawl wasn't just an everyday occurrence, it was a right of passage.
Sighing, the former Jedi—who had long since dropped both the title and the responsibility—settled back in his booth, content to spend the days lost in his thoughts and finding what little enjoyment he could in the face of innumerable hardships.
The years had been kind to him, all things considered; but then again people from Serroco had a habit of aging gracefully. In an attempt to blend in with the local rabble he'd grown a thick mess of a beard that had never quite meshed with the youthful features present beneath. However, the truest sign that Karth was not simple bar trash was his eyes: deep-set and as dark as the night sky. They held a quiet wisdom that was common among Jedi, but were also heavy with a longing for something he had lost so long ago.
A faint echo in the back of his mind drew him back into the present, growing louder in the deep recesses of his subconscious. Danger? No, this was more... ambiguous, something had disrupted the Force, somewhere close. It could have been anything, but for him to have heard it...
His hand instinctively reached beneath the thick coat he wore, feeling the reassuring weight of his lightsaber in his rough palm. Obsidian eyes scanned the cantina, his mind opening up to the area around him, feeling the faint life signs of every being in the bar. He couldn't sense any surge or fluctuation, nothing warranting his immediate attention, anyway. Perhaps the warning was unfounded. Nevertheless, he called to the barkeep for another round, settling his back against the wall just in case.
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Saturday, 07 Apr 2012, 5:11 AM | Message # 2 |
 Lieutenant
Group: Users
Messages: 73
Status: Offline
| His instincts would have been right, of course there was no way that he could know for sure. Daneira had cloaked her force signature enough that no one would have known it was her, not even her best friend, the love of her life, and the man she thought was dead. Of course, she had no idea that the man she had been hunting was Karth De'Qora, the name she had been given was Jacen Hall. The other details she had ignored, as she didn't care what he had done or what he owed to whom. She had long stopped caring about those things. Vengeance was no longer her drive, but credits to live on was a different story.
She sat at the bar in the scudgy cantina, her hand wrapped around a glass of amber colored liquid, though the contents were left untouched for the moment. A long, fitted dark colored coat hid her form, and the hood of the coat masked her face and her long dark locks from the rest of the patrons. She sat with her back to Karth, though she was keeping an eye on his movement by his reflection in the various glasses and bottles that lined the bar. She had yet to be close enough to him to actually see his face, aside from his basic scruffy features. Just another deadbeat that owed a debt, Daneira thought.
For a brief moment, as he reached into his coat, Daneira rested her hand on the blaster that was holstered at her hip. It wasn't the only that she had on her, since she had long given up using her lightsaber, though she still had that on her as well, just in case. If he moved too suddenly, it was likely that she would kill him where he sat, without a second thought or hesitation. But he didn't. He just leaned back in his booth.
As she swirled the liquid in the glass idly, something felt off. It was like tingle in the back of her mind, something she hadn't felt in ages, and something she didn't want to feel anymore. Dani let the glass fall to the bar top, only a few inches, and she rose to her feet abruptly before she risked a glance to the corner that Karth was sitting in, her mark, Jacen. She strode from the cantina, careful to avoid contact with anyone else. It had grown too crowded in there. Tomorrow would be another day.
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Saturday, 07 Apr 2012, 7:29 PM | Message # 3 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| The weapon he concealed was an ancient thing, at least in his mind. It was a relic dating back to a life that had long since passed him by, a grim reminder of the greatest of the many failures of that life. It was his master's, a simple thing that glinted with a polished silver sheen; and even Karth himself often wondered why he kept it. The memories that accompanied the weapon were unpleasant to say the least, images and chaotic thoughts he often buried under a death-stick and several pints of whiskey. That wasn't to say that they were all bad, however; from time-to-time he found himself pondering the raven-haired beauty that had captured his heart so long ago. She would have been a master by now, her skill in battle and unwavering courage would have made that a simple achievement; she was a far better Jedi than he had ever been, at least in his eyes.
Had he known that that same woman now sat only some distance away, watching him cunningly with every shift in posture, his whole world might have come crumbling down. In his mind, 'Dani' was gone, she had perished on New Plympto; and he had to live with the guilt that she was no longer in his life, that he had survived when he would have let the entire galaxy burn if it meant saving her. It was true what they said about love, at least in part. Though he had not selfishly fallen to the Dark Side as Skywalker had, his judgement and morality was grayed when it came to matters of the heart. In his youth he questioned such constraints, lambasting the Order for their narrow-mindedness. The Jedi were selective in their prohibition of emotions, as a student could just as easily be attached to their master as they could a lover. The harsh reality of this new galaxy had sobered him in that regard, he was alone in a realm that despised him for something he was born with - that he had no control over.
The sun soon acquiesced to the demands of night, settling beneath the city skyline and allowing the moon to rise full and vibrant. He'd spent the last hours nursing a mug silently before wrapping up in his coat and heading out the door. The city was surprisingly peaceful that night, save for the hustle-and-bustle of the cantina's neighborhood. His apartment was only a few blocks away, tucked snugly against the city's outermost wall and situated above a small set of shops. He shuddered beneath the chill of the night, watching from the shadows as a small Imperial patrol passed by on its way to the garrison. He had a full day ahead tomorrow, and he felt it best to sleep off the disorientation he'd gotten from the booze, lest he oversleep again and miss out on the next month's rent.
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 08 Apr 2012, 3:38 AM | Message # 4 |
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Lieutenant
Group: Users
Messages: 73
Status: Offline
| In that same shadow, Daneira lurked. Anyone who knew her now called her Nora though, the name she had given the old man who had nursed her back to health on New Plympto had given her. Nora. She was a killer. And she was good at it. She watched the man duck into the shadow of the alley when the familiar tromp of an Imperial patrol marched by. The plastic hitting pavement in perfect unison was a dead give away, and even she ducked aside these days, though she knew that she could have easily disposed of the entire unit of clones without a second thought, it would have drawn too much attention. Dani knew that she didn't need to be drawing attention.
It was so easy from that moment that he backed into the alley. He was entirely too close to just let go and wait for the next day, which meant she could get this job over with and move onto the next venture, hopefully off of this useless rock. Silently, she drew the blaster from her hip holster and clicked the setting to stun. It was a tell tale sound, which likely would have alarmed him if he cared. "Jacen Hall." Dani finally said out loud. "You owe my employer a lot of credits. I'm here to collect."
The alley was dark enough that while he would have been able to see her form in the shadow, he wouldn't be able to see her face still, but her voice would be familiar. Hauntingly so, not that she would know that. "Do you want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?" Dani continued before she moved forward slightly towards him. She gazed at him from beneath the heavy hood with her deep greyish-blue eyes. Something in the back of her mind was still bothering her, but she fought to push it aside with the thinking that she always felt that way before she took out a mark for a client. But the truth was, she didn't. This feeling was something else.
Message edited by Daneira_Farris - Sunday, 08 Apr 2012, 7:34 AM |
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Saturday, 14 Apr 2012, 9:58 PM | Message # 5 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| The universe was a fan of irony, it seems. After nine years of constant wariness and vigil, the moment he'd finally let his guard down was the moment that things caught up to him. He heard the click of the woman's blaster a second too-late, but he made no indication of surprise or panic as she moved closer. Rather, while his connection to the Force had dimmed over the years, his warrior's instincts had never left. Entire scenarios played out in his mind in quick procession; and his first instinct (to retrieve his lightsaber) was quickly eliminated as a possibility. If possible, he wanted to try and avoid a struggle: the sound of combat in this part of the city at night was not abnormal by any means, but he would have preferred to avert unwelcome eyes from the shrouded pair.
Karth opted instead for a stalling tactic; he slowly pivoted to face the hunter, something in the back of his mind continued to stress how familiar the register of it was. He shook those thoughts from his mind, now was not the time to lose focus. Stranger still, however, was the fact that she referred to him by his assumed name. She was no friend of the Empire, it seemed, and that helped assuage the pit in his stomach, at least a little. His eyes, cold and hard as granite, studied her every move intently, waiting for any potential opening. After several moments of silence, the former Jedi finally responded to her inquiry.
"The hard way, I suppose. By that of course you mean to stun or shoot me?"
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Monday, 16 Apr 2012, 6:52 PM | Message # 6 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| (( A day late, sorry about that. Still more punctual than I usually am. =D ))
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Tuesday, 17 Apr 2012, 5:59 PM | Message # 7 |
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Lieutenant
Group: Users
Messages: 73
Status: Offline
| Daneira's nerves were rattled for only a brief moment the second 'Jacen Hall' spoke. But it was only for a moment, and barely that. She kept the blaster trained on him and she took a step closer. Yes, it was still dark, but the light that filtered in from the street was just enough. Just enough to send her world spiraling completely out of control. Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her, either way she was unsettled. And angry.
"You...son...of a...." Dani started without any explanation. Karth wouldn't even know what hit him, actually, he would, when her fist connected with his jaw. The blaster was on the damp pavement, and she was determined to just strangle the....imposter...no....the phoney....whoever he was with her bare hands.
The hood of her coat fell back, spilling her raven curls free, as she lunged at the man. It was obvious at that point that she wasn't thinking clearly. No, she was thinking of the last time that she had seen her best friend - the love of her life - and he died. She hadn't actually witnessed it. But the explosion came between them and she was thrown back and when she went back, his body was gone. So there was no way this could be the same person, but his eyes were familiar.
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Friday, 20 Apr 2012, 7:10 PM | Message # 8 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| Karth_DeQora : :: He recognized her in the split-second before her fist connected with his jaw, sending the unprepared Karth sprawling to the duracrete. Same as anyone who'd just gotten punched by a (surprisingly) strong woman, the Jedi let slip a terse expletive before shakily rising to his feet, mind still trying to register the magnitude of what had just happened. An amalgam of questions began racing through his head, and after a moment of stunned silence he finally settled on one. It might not have been the sort of question she was expecting, however. "What the hell was that for!?" ::
Daneira_Farris was still a little uncertain, though his voice was too familiar to NOT be the Karth that she knew. No, it was impossible. Her gaze dropped to the blaster on the pavement and she thought better of going for it, and decided that just strangling him to death might be the better option. "Who the hell are you, really?" She demanded before she went any further.
Karth_DeQora : :: If he wasn't a tad drunk, and perhaps wasn't thrown by the current situation, he might've kept his composure a little better. As it stood, though, Karth wasn't about to relent from his belligerent questioning. He would, however, grant an answer to her last question. "I'm Karth, but you know that. Why else would you punch me!" Groaning, he nursed the bruise forming on his jaw before inching closer to her, dark eyes ablaze. "And what the hell are you doing here!? You were dead- I saw it! You can't be real." His posture slackened, the Jedi sunk back against the alley wall and allowed his weight to carry him slowly to a seated position. ::
Daneira_Farris was very, very angry. But instead of taking it out on the man, she relented some. "I'm not dead....I'm right here. You were the one that died...in that explosion. Your body was gone when I came back from it!" She, for some reason had an unyeilding desire to hit him again. maybe it was from the pain or the hurt that she had felt over the many years since he had 'died'. Hesitantly, she moved closer and crouched down in front of him and looked at him carefully.
Karth_DeQora : :: It was painfully obvious that they had a -lot- to talk about, and it wasn't a conversation that could be properly had in a derelict alley behind a dive-bar. The shock still radiated from his core outward, but the words came easier than they had before. "I... this is so- man, I'm really drunk." He was brutally honest, if nothing else, and was still thoroughly convinced that she was a hallucination. But he'd humor his sociopath of a subconscious for now. "... How?" It was a vague question, sure, but he she no doubt knew what he meant. How did they both survive, yet think the other dead? How did they go nine years without finding each other? ::
Daneira_Farris thought about it for a second. "I could hit you again." she offered, without a moment of hesitance. Maybe it would sober him up. "How what? How am I not dead? Sheer, stupid luck....and the help of an old man named Dominic." She said as she offered a hand to help him up. the alley wasn't really the place to be talking about this. Dani was still a little hesitant about him, but, it was worth a shot.
Karth_DeQora : :: "Don't need to lose any more teeth, thanks." He took her hand in his and hoisted back onto his feet, His eyes were glazed, fluttering as he struggled to maintain his vision. That whiskey was stronger than he remembered, and he was far more inebriated than he was willing to admit. "My, uh, place is nearby. We need to talk.. I need to lie down." Should their reunion, after nine years of mourning, have been more dramatic? Most likely, but Karth was in no position or state of mind to vocalize any emotions besides a yearning for food and a sudden urge to vomit. ::
Daneira_Farris hesitantly, she slid an arm around his waist to support him. "And a shower....a shower probably wouldn't hurt." Dani wrinkled her nose some as she started to walk. Her motel was just around the corner too, so either one would be fine. As she walked, she said nothing, but she caught herself casting sidelong glances at the man to make sure he was really real.
Karth_DeQora : :: It was a silent journey back to Karth's dilapidated apartment, which consisted of little more than a room and a small bath area (which also, handily, featured a kitchen). He flung himself down on the fading red couch and breathed deeply into the pillow. In the span of an hour or so his entire life had been thrown into reverse, and he wasn't handling it well in his current state. Karth managed to force open an eye, casting a glance at the lithe form of his hallucination as she closed the door behind them. "Water," he croaked, either unable or unwilling to move. ::
Daneira_Farris took a moment to glance around the....apartment....if one could call it that. she pulled her coat off and touseled her dark locks before she heard the croak of 'Karth' from the spot he had collapsed on the couch. "Sure." she said before she crossed the room in just a few steps and filled up a somewhat clean looking glass with water before she started to hand it to him. Instead....she poured it on him quickly...to wake him up. They needed to talk. just as fast as she had done that, she turned and got another glass for him to drink.
Karth_DeQora : :: He reacted eerily similar to an akk dog when it was thrown into a pool of water. Karth, in his drunken stupor, shook violently and stared daggers into the vision of Daneira before shifting his weight to face her, head never leaving the pillow. "Just leave me alone," he said, almost -pleaded- at length, wondering why the drink hadn't banished her from his mind yet. Dani was one of many painful memories he had thought long-buried, turns out those wounds were just as fresh nine years later as they were the day he received them. Seeing her again, whether or not she was 'real', brought him back to a time when they discussed marriage, children, a life outside the Jedi where they could love one another free of chastisement. ::
Daneira_Farris "Why?" She asked as she sat on the edge of the couch and held the glass of water she got for him to drink. Dani watched his face, and the pain that crossed it. It might have been easier on both of them had she not seen his face and just killed him in that alleyway. But then she would have realized....and the guilt would have killed her. She sat the glass on the floor and looked down at the drunk man. 'The tank blew up....I know you thought I was on it, but I wasn't. I had just jumped down minutes before and then i got pinned against the river edge by five or six of those clones." She started to explain, though she wasn't sure it would snap him out of it. Idly, she brushed his dark hair back from his eyes with her fingers and waited for any reaction to see if he even would accept the start of the explanation.
Karth_DeQora : :: When she'd first laid hands on him, he had rationalized it in his mind that he'd somehow walked into a pole or a wall. As she helped him limp home, his mind kept droning on and on about how none of this was real. Now she brushed the hair from his eyes, and there was something so... familiar, so comforting about the way her hands moved that Karth, for the first time in a long while, found himself wishing for that image of her to be real. Perhaps she was, he couldn't know for sure, not until he dragged his ass out of bed in the morning and saw her there. But how he -wanted- her to be there so badly, Karth relaxed a great deal and began to speak. "Why couldn't I sense you..." he trailed off, feeling the edge of weariness bearing down on him, but he was determined to finish this. "I should have felt you alive, or you me..." ::
Daneira_Farris shook her head. "I thought you died in the explosion. I got pinned up against the rivers edge and fought as long as i could, but i got shot....so i fell into the water and just stayed under as long as I could. Until i was far enough away...." Dani shook her head some. "It was bad, Karth." She said solemnly. Though she wasn't sure how close she had come to actually dying, it must have been close enough. "I kind of shut down after I saw what happened."
Karth_DeQora : :: "I looked Dani." There were tears forming now, and the curtain of sleep threatened to close, but he fought against it. He was pathetic in that instant, a true testament to what nine years of being a fugitive, burying your sadness with alcohol, thinking you had lost everything could do to the most righteous and stalwart of men. His words were husky, choked, and he struggled to continue. "I looked for years. Years! And nothing..." he sighed, flipping onto his back and watching the shadows dance on the ceiling. "I gave you a burial... I couldn't even bury you properly. Just an unmarked grave-" this time the tears -did- spill, if only slightly, but enough that they reflected in the light of the street outside. "You can't just show up after nine years and expect me to think anything else. You're not here, you can't be." ::
Daneira_Farris "I went back to the battlefield once I healed up. There was no evidence of you surviving it. I wanted to take your body home...but I couldn't. I just laid there in the grass....and cried like a little girl." It was so pathetic. And it had been so painful, and the memory was equally as painful. Her chin wavered slightly when he exclaimed that she wasn't there. "I am here....I am RIGHT HERE!" She exclaimed, her voice raising the more upset she got. I'm right....I'm here." she finally murmured, unsure how to prove to him that she was really not an illusion.
Karth_DeQora : :: Sleep soon became the only thing on his mind, a comforting embrace to perhaps wipe this nightmare away come sunrise. When she shouted, however, he began to snap into a more lucid state, at least for a moment or so. "Prove it," he said at length, voice heavy with exhaustion. "Be here when I wake up, prove it to me." He smiled then, a rare occurrence, as he'd had very little to smile about this last decade. Soon the world began to grow dark, his focus dimmed in the wake of deep slumber. As he finally succumbed, Karth managed to eek out one final phrase, mumbled and slightly incoherent. Were she capable of translating, it would have said "I missed you..." ::
Daneira_Farris was almost an emotional wreck, somthing she had shut out for years. Not long after Karth passed out, she did too, just from the sheer exhaustion of it all. she had stayed on the sofa and was curled to his side with her head on his shoulder. her dark hair fell over his shoulder and arm and nearly reached the floor in length. He would find her very much still there, and very much still alive. Though it was unspoken....she was very much still in love with him.
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Saturday, 21 Apr 2012, 8:57 PM | Message # 9 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| Karth_DeQora : :: Hangovers as severe as this were commonplace for Karth these days. He equated it to having been kicked repeatedly in the head by a ronto and then thrown into a wall. His stomach churned in displeasure, making sure to punish him for his profuse stupidity. Sunlight split the darkness of his apartment, forcing open one haggard eye and giving a limited view of the room. What he -hadn't- noticed was the curled form of Daneira beside him, and this was demonstrated when he unfortunately attempted to roll off the couch, taking her with him and sending the two crashing to the floor. ::
Daneira_Farris was woken abruptly, and rather painfully as she hit the floor and then Karth crashed on top of her. "Ow!" She exclaimed as she pushed the Jedi off of her. "For the love of god, Karth....I was sleeping!" She said as she looked at the man and pulled herself into a sitting position. It hurt, because she had hit the floor hard, even after such a short fall. "Are you alright?"
Karth_DeQora : :: "BAH!" He screamed, jumping to his feet when he noticed just who was tangled up beneath him. Backing away in a hurried stupor, he stumbled into a wall, grasping the cold surface to hold himself up. "I-" he started. "I can't still be drunk... can I?" He vaguely remembered the events of the night before. How she'd shown up after nine years, how he'd made an absolute fool of himself as well. He dreamed peacefully for the first time in years, as well. But still, reality was as gentle as a boot to the face, and it took him several minutes to come to grips with everything. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said at length, rubbing the back of his head and looking around for a shirt. First thing's first.. he needed some coffee. ::
Daneira_Farris pulled herself from the floor and straightened her clothes the best she could. Her fingertips found their way into her raven hair as she touseled the locks back and out of her eyes. "How's your jaw?" Dani asked as her gaze swept the apartment for the first time in the light to assess where she really was and what was there. It felt so weird seeing karth again, after all of that time, and especially since he was dead.
Karth_DeQora : :: "Eh? Fine, I guess." It wasn't until he ran a hand along the bruise that he winced. "I forgot how hard you punch," he groaned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and sauntering into the kitchen/bathroom. The coffee there was a day old, but he was in no mood to wait for a fresh batch, so he drank it his way: black and cold. A plethora of questions cycled through his mind, the foremost of which he voiced. "What happened last night?" A broad question, to be sure, but it would better explain how they ended up sleeping together, much less together at all. ::
Daneira_Farris sighed and dropped down onto the couch. It had been much more comfortable during sleep, it seemed. "You were pretty drunk and....I hit you. Then I helped you get back here....and we fell asleep." She said, a simple and true explanation. Dani wasn't really sure what to think about this all either. And the night before she hadn't bothered to consider what the people had paid her to track him down would think. She had no idea what to tell them, but she had time to deal with that later.
Karth_DeQora : :: His eyes widened a tad, and for a moment a faint smile passed over his countenance before it returned to its traditional morning stoicism. "We didn't, uh... you know. Right?" He half-expected another punch for that, but he felt it was a valid question. If it hadn't become obvious to Daneira yet, this man was not the Karth she remembered. A mind withered by years of neglect and guilt, his frame thinner if no-less toned, hair grease-slicked and messy. A far cry from the contemplative, reverent Jedi Knight he was once. That was a life he'd left behind long ago, and it had so brutally forced its way back into his new life. He was handling it far better on the outside than within, where it felt as though mynocks were nesting in the pit of his stomach. ::
Daneira_Farris wasn't the same either. She was pretty sure that he would have been disappointed in the person she had turned into. The life she lead would not have followed that of the Daneira he knew most of his life. "No....we didn't...uh....no." She said quietly as she picked at her thumbnail idly. "So I'm not a hallucination. what do you think now?" She finally asked. He might not have remembered that from the night before, but she did.
Karth_DeQora : :: "I'm not sure what to think," he answered bluntly. "Here you show up, outta nowhere, after almost ten years..." he paused, grimacing again as he felt his jaw click. She'd definitely done something to it, that was for damn sure. "And for what?" he began again, taking another swig of his bitter coffee and stretching his sore muscles. ::
Daneira_Farris bit her lip when he asked why she was here. "Well I didn't know it was you I was coming after. I almost didn't recognize you with the wookee that is growing on your face." Dani paused for a moment and stood up before she went over to the window and peeked from behind the sheet that was covering it. "I was sent to collect a bounty on Jacen Hall." She paused again and turned from the window. "You owe some serious credits to the guy who hired me. And he doesn't care if you're dead or a alive." Though her reputation dictated that he would end up dead before it was over.
Karth_DeQora : :: He furrowed a brow, running through names in his head before one finally clicked. "Moorn? He still mad over that business on Commenor?" Permitting himself an exasperated sigh, Karth finally located a shirt and threw it on, settling back on the couch and rubbing the pain out of his temples. "I didn't think he'd actually do it, put a hit out." That's what he got for borrowing from a small-time crime boss, he reckoned. He was certain he'd picked a winner in the Boonta Eve Classic and had lost, miserably. The sum was quite substantial, but he'd always figured that Moorn wouldn't bother if he was all the way out here, in the galaxy's armpit. "Well Moorn can go fuck himself, for all I care, he has enough cash to buy all the racers and win it back in an hour." His head pounded, unyielding in its intensity, so much so that he nearly doubled-over at one point. ::
Daneira_Farris crossed her arms at her midsection and stayed where she was standing. "I don't think that matters to him. All I know is he paid for my ship repairs and gave me enough credits for me to live on for a long time, and promised more on delivery of you....or preferably your head," she said, and then she chewed on her lip lightly. "What happened to you...on the battlefield?"
Karth_DeQora : :: That was a memory he'd avoided for so long, but he felt as though he owed her an explanation. After all, it wasn't easy to see the man you loved, thought dead for so long, standing before you in the flesh. Were she a weaker person she might've handled it far worse. "Crass," he began, wondering if she remembered the Clone that had served as the 212's second-in-command. "Stabbed me in the back, right here-" he turned about, and Dani no doubt noticed the scar, faded white in color, that marred the spot where his heart beat. "Missed it by an inch," Karth continued, voice a bit raspy as he struggled to remember the exact chain of events. "I fell, was buried by bodies after a few minutes. Crawled away and fell into a ditch... laid there... who knows how long. Eventually managed to make it to out, but I can't remember how." ::
Daneira_Farris moved closer and sat on the couch next to him when he turned to show the scar. It was nasty, and it was too close to his heart for comfort. Hesitantly, she reached out and touched the scar tenderly with her fingertips. It sent a chill down her spine, and the whole story had made her nauseous, horribly so. Dani wished that she was handling this all better, but since she had first seen him (after she almost broke his jaw), she had been fighting the urge to just sob. She hadn't cried since she went back to the battlefield months afterwards, since she had laid in the grass and actually mourned her best friend. In fact, until the night before, she had almost been devoid of emotions all those years.
Karth_DeQora : :: His skin bristled at her touch, a gentle thing so familiar, yet so alien to him. Uncomfortably, Karth rose to his feet and paced to the window, regarding her with a cold stare. "And what about you?" His words sounded far more acidic than he'd have liked, but baring his soul so early in the morning had that effect on him, it seems. ::
Daneira_Farris withdrew her hand and hesitated for a moment. "I told you last night." She started. "The tank we were on exploded and I got pushed to the edge of the river. I don't remember how many clones there were now--but they were shooting and I lost focus--I couldn't handle that many blasts all at once i guess... and I was shot. Fell into the river and made it down stream. I don't know how far. When I got out, I must have walked for miles before I found a farm...the old man there took care of me until I healed." Much like him, she would show him the scar she had. In order to, Dani peeled off her shirt, which she was wearing a black tank top under, and pulled the strap of that aside. It was below her collarbone, probably 2-3 inches from the center of her chest. "Clean through, still hurt like hell though."
Karth_DeQora : :: It looked painful indeed, and his heart softened for a moment. He'd spent the better part of ten years thinking she'd died, that he wasn't able to save her, like he swore he always would. To know that she was here, now, helped to exercise some of those demons, if only slightly. Betrayal was a wound that stung many years after its giving, and now the Jedi are pariahs in a galaxy they gave everything to protect for thousands of years. The sheer irony of it all, coupled with the rage that still burned deep down in him, had hardened him to the rest of them. They cast him aside as if he were common gutter-trash, so he in turn would cast them aside. The Empire was tyrannical; evil, even. But Karth no longer cared. Let them rot under the Emperor's grip; let them see too late their folly. When everything goes to shit, they won't have the Jedi to run to anymore. For the first time in a long time.. the galaxy will have to right itself. Let it burn, he'd often said, what use is it to him anymore? ::
Daneira_Farris tugged her shirt back on, mussing her hair even further. She turned away from him then and paced the floor a little. "I went back to look for you...I guess I know why you weren't there now." She said before she reached for the coat she had been wearing, which she had discarded onto the back of a chair the night before. "I probably outghta go." It might have been best for both of them if she had never shown up there. At least now she knew he was alive. Maybe the nightmares she had would stop then, but she kind of doubted it.
Karth_DeQora : :: "Wait," he spoke, barely above a whisper, unsure whether it was a plea or a demand. "You can't just show up like this, let me find all this out and then leave. You just can't." The way he said those words, with an edge of sadness to them, though they dripped with anger also... it unnerved him that she still affected him so. "We can't just leave it like this," sighing, Karth took a few steps closer and placed a calloused hand on her shoulder. His grip was strong, not holding her back from the door but certainly trying to root her in place. The sunlight glinted in her sapphire eyes, he had forgotten just how beautiful she was. "I don't know what to do, Dani, but I can't do nothing. You say Moorn hired you? Wants me dead? Let me come with you. We can figure all this out... just... don't leave." ::
Daneira_Farris paused when he grabbed her shoulder, and she tensed some. It wouldn't take much to stop her from leaving. She dropped her coat back onto the floor and glanced up at him. Instictively, she flew at him, not to hit him again, but instead to hug him. (the gesture might have looked similar at first) It was the same, the way she fit just under his chin, as she wrapped her arms around his chest tightly. she wasn't sure why she had done it, aside from the fact that maybe she needed it. Maybe they both did. For several moments, Dani would stay like that. 'Alright..." She finallyagreed. "But... I'm just as lost as you are." It was worse now though.
Karth_DeQora : :: The ferocity of her embrace caught him off guard, but after a moment of shock he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Things weren't the same for them, that much was obvious. Did he still love her? Perhaps, in some forgotten part of his mind, but that was a part of him that he'd need time to find again. The familiarity of her body was a comfort, a welcome reprieve from the loneliness of his life on this hellhole. But time would be needed to fully bridge the gap that had formed between them, that was painfully obvious when he pulled away from the embrace, obsidian eyes studying her. "Are you sure?" ::
Daneira_Farris stared at him for a long moment. "Yeah." She shook her head and broke away from him. "I can't kill you and if I turn you in, he will kill you. I've thought you were dead for too long for that." she wouldn't have been able to deal with the guilt. If she had just killed him the night before, the guilt would have likely killed her when she realized who it was. "I'm sure. Pack your stuff." She said as she tossed another glance around the apartment, unsure of what stuff he might have.
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Jace_Varitek | Date: Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 1:27 PM | Message # 10 |
 Generalissimo
Group: Administrators
Messages: 2245
Status: Offline
| Sometimes you eat the D'oemir bear, and sometimes the D'oemir bear eats you—a simple, but strong statement on the duality of life. There was no doubt on which end of this expression Jace Varitek, erstwhile Jedi Padawan, had been in the decade since the fall of the Jedi; he hadn't "eaten the bear" in quite some time, but now, crumpled on the duracrete in a dank alley outside an equally dank bar in the slums of Kal'Shebbol, on the receiving end of a beating from a duo of Sullustans who certainly kicked like a D'oemir bear, it occurred to Varitek dimly that his life had never been worse.
Of course, there had been Order 66, a terrible day for all Jedi. But his feelings about that day were mixed; it had been the end of his life as he knew it, but that wasn't entirely a terrible thing for him. It was terrible, to be sure, that everyone he'd ever known was dead. But in all of his years at the Temple he'd not known many other Jedi, not closely, and those he had known he didn't usually care for. Jace Varitek had always been a poor fit for the Jedi Order. He was too doubtful—of himself and of the codes and customs of the Order. He asked questions about the Force that none of his Masters could answer to his satisfaction. He'd felt misunderstood in the Temple, the Masters having no patience for "free-thinkers."
Order 66 had freed him, in a sense. For the first time in his life, he was free to make his own decisions. As an emancipated 18-year-old, however, his decisions were usually poor ones; between gambling debts and drug addiction, even he didn't quite understand how he'd managed to survive for all these years. Getting as far away from Coruscant as possible had helped, and had landed him, most recently, on Kal'Shebbol. If you weren't a wanted fugitive, it was probably a nice place. But Varitek was confined to the slums, if he knew what was good for him.
Though it was hard to countenance the idea that this beating from a pair of Sullustans was at all good for him.
"Not so funny now, are you, 'Jedi'?" one of them said, in poor Basic. Kick.
"Where's your Force powers, 'Jedi'?" the other said, chuckling. Kick.
They didn't know he was a Jedi. When he'd waved his hand in front of their Toydarian boss at the pazaak table inside the bar and told him that the seven he'd played was, in fact, a six, all they'd known for sure was that he was cheating (very badly). None of them, neither the Toydarian nor his Sullustan thugs, believed he was actually a Jedi attempting to mind trick him. No Jedi would be that stupid, they thought. Besides, the Jedi were long gone, and this poor specimen of a man—and poor gambler, at that—way out here in the Kathol Sector couldn't possibly be a survivor of the Purge.
When it became apparent to them that Varitek had no money, the Toydarian and his duo of Sullustan thugs walked him into the alley outside the bar to discuss the payment of his debt. The discussion was blunt. If he'd thought about fighting back, the knee to his unmentionables dispensed with that idea right away. So he folded up on the ground and took it, figuring that the tiny Sullustans couldn't rough him up too badly.
The beating was one thing—he'd had plenty of those. But the insults were hitting closer to home than he cared for (unbeknownst to the Sullustans, ignorant of who he really was).
"What's wrong? Don't have any other Jedi friends to help you?" one of them said. Kick.
"Careful, Dhur. He might have a lightsaber!" Kick.
Little did they know.
"Enough!" the Toydarian said in quick Huttese, his wings keeping him aloft and hovering over the scene. He produced a comically small blaster pistol from a pouch on his belt which, small though it was, was no doubt deadly. He gestured for the Sullustans to move aside. "We've wasted enough time on this human. Get out of the way, I'm going to put him out of our misery."
Well, this sucks, Varitek thought to himself. There was something about looking down the barrel of a blaster that reminded him of an old refrain from the Jedi Code: "There is no death, there is the Force."
Sure.
It took the Sullustans an instant to realize what had happened. It was an instant the Toydarian didn't have, as the shot he'd fired at Varitek richocheted from the Jedi's lightsaber and struck him in the throat. The Toydarian's wings stopped flapping and he crumpled to the ground, gasping. The Sullustans, not quite believing what they'd just seen, stood there dumbfounded. They looked from the gurgling Toydarian's soon-to-be-dead body to Varitek, still on the ground himself but now in possession of his lightsaber, then looked to each other and beat a sudden retreat.
It wasn't the most professional outfit Varitek had encountered. They were no stormtroopers, certainly. They hadn't searched Varitek for weapons and the Sullustans didn't have any themselves. Maybe it was some stubborn sense of morality the Jedi had taught him years ago, or maybe he was simply too tired, but for whatever reason Varitek let them go. A part of him had known, when he'd tried to mind trick the Toydarian in the first place, that he was giving up his identity—perhaps giving up completely, though he had no intention of being shot like a womp rat in an alley.
A Jedi deserved a more ceremonious death than that, even if he'd never wanted to be a Jedi in the first place.
He labored unsteadily to his feet, his face bloodied and his ribs aching as he existinguished the azure blade of his lightsaber and tucked it back into his heavy coat. He turned the collar up, glanced at the Toydarian for a moment, and then started toward the street. In an hour, maybe less, all of Kal'Shebbol would know there was a Jedi on the loose here. It would do no good to hide. Not from Imperial stormtroopers. First, Jace Varitek needed a fix. Second, he needed to get off this planet, and fast.
Jace Varitek
Manager/Administrator from January 2003 to Present
My recent posts here, pre-2009 archives here
"When my information changes, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?"
—John Maynard Keynes
Furthermore, a dancing Wookiee:
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 2:05 PM | Message # 11 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| Meanwhile...
It had taken some time to get used to the way the ship handled. To say it was old or decrepit would be a disservice to those serviceable-yet-scrap-worthy freighters most commonly seen on the 'Rim. The Caecelia, as she had so affectionately been named, was mostly held together by Dani's obstinate disposition and a crew of repair droids. Sure, the life of a scrap dealer wasn't the ideal retirement plan for a Jedi Knight; but it did allow him to see his share of faulty components, and several of the more run-down parts of the ship's hull seemed quite familiar. But never let it be said that Karth De'Qora was an ungrateful or unpleasant traveling companion; upon seeing the ship for this first time, he'd managed an "It's, uh... nice," before following her on-board and settling in.
They hadn't spoken much during the day-long trip to Kal'Shebbol; a decision made because Karth had decided he didn't wish to eat nothing but canned goods for the entirety of their journey. Dani had, for the most part, kept to her room and the cockpit; whereas De'Qora spent a fair amount of time in the cargo hold, immersing himself in simple maintenance work in an attempt to stave off deeper thoughts. The decision to leave with her had been a snap-judgement, a wanting for things he no longer had. She had been perfectly willing to walk out that door and close it on the past; he would never see or hear from her again, and she would move on to better, less-heart-wrenching bounties. A voice in the back of his mind kept prodding at the wall he'd erected around those memories of her, of them, and the only way to avoid that wall crumbling was to divert his attention.
It was what he imagined was midday when he finally meandered up to the cockpit, scratching absentmindedly at the fresh stubble on his chin as he observed her. Before them lay the main planet of the sector, Kal'Shebbol; a blue gem located along the only trade route that led out-system. It seemed as though she had just finished a rather one-sided conversation with traffic control, so Karth chose to seat himself nearest the communications console, watching bemusedly as she worked to bring the ship down into orbit. When at least things appeared stable, he spoke up. "Mornin'."
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Wednesday, 02 May 2012, 5:30 PM | Message # 12 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| Dani hadn't had a problem getting clearance once they arrived at their final destination. In fact, the man she spoke with seemed entirely disinterested, as if she could have just flown in and back out without anyone even noticing. When Karth spoke, she glanced over her shoulder. "Hey." Dani said simply, her voice relatively soft for the moment. "What's up?"
He grinned, all teeth and lightning-white, as he caught the end of her conversation with the TC Operator. His head was still light from the hour he'd spent exercising in the hold, as the endorphines slowly began to recede from his system, he felt his good mood sapping away. No doubt it was obvious to her, though, that he was in far better spirits than he had been since their reunion. In response to her question, Karth offered a shrug and tapped absentmindedly on the console. "You don't have a coffee-maker on this ship, my head's killing without it." His gaze shifted around the cockpit, which he was only just now studying, before turning back to her. "Figured I'd see how things were going up here, if there's anythin' you needed help with." Smooth, Karth, not at all an unsubtle attempt at pleasantries. Things had been so tense between them, and he thought it best to alleviate some of that before his pleasant demeanor evaporated entirely.
Dani kept her gaze on Karth as he examined the cockpit. The ship wasn't as bad as he thought, she didn't look like much, but she would always fly true. "Yeah, I have one. I've never drank the stuff though. If you want to take the stick, I'll go make you some." She said, standing, offering him the pilots seat. Dani's gaze swept across the man for a moment before she reached out and barely touched his cheek with her fingertips. "I like you without the beard better." She said, truthfully. Before...it had happened....she had never seen him with more than a day or two''s worth of stubble.
If it had been an earlier point in the morning, he might not have been lucid enough to keep himself from leaning in to her hand. It was strange, how she felt like a stranger to him now; and yet there was a comforting familiarity to her. It was more than her physical presence, though; their auras had a synergistic quality to them. The result of years spent in each other's presence, having absorbed each other's thoughts and emotions entirely through the Force, a bond that would never fully be broken. Such a relationship was not uncommon between master and student; but there was another level to it when it formed between two lovers. In another life she had been his, entirely, and he had been hers in turn. Their thoughts and movements flowed together like the current of a river, a gentle push and pull of life energy whenever they interacted. Her absence had deprived him of that, emptied a part of his heart that he wondered was gone entirely. The gap between them now was there, it was wide, but he saw the edge of the chasm. The bridge between them would take some time, but it was buildable. "Well now I feel all warm and fuzzy," he said at length, as the sudden realization that they'd been locked in a moment of silent contemplation hit him. Karth took her up on the offer, sliding into the pilot's seat and allowing gravity and the ship to do most of the work.
Dani dropped her hand only mere moments after she touched his cheek. "Yeah, you're fuzzy, all right." She said, trying to ease the tension that she felt, a tension she wasn't sure if he felt as well. "I'll be right back." And within seconds, she was gone from his side and back into the galley area. The solitude was nice, like normal, as normal as things had been for her before Karth suddenly fell back into her life....like a brick...or a lead anvil. It was so strange to be shutting him out like she had been. Dani remembered everything from the first time they met, to the first time they kissed, right to the second she felt him die....or thought she felt him die, as she knew now was wrong.
Karth kept those memories as well, though a decade of drink and sorrow had scrambled them somewhat. They were happy memories, for the most part. He remembered a time before the war had started, yet after their relationship began in earnest on Bellassa. In his mind's eye he saw them as though they were parts of a slideshow; an image of them laying against an outer wall of the temple, or one of her raven hair twisted in his calloused fingers. More minute details, too, ones he'd never forgotten: the smell of her hair, the way she shuddered slightly when he ran his hand along the back of her neck. The memories that followed those happy few were of death, destruction and fire. There were even more painful ones from Bellassa itself, thoughts of a gray-haired man he'd purposefully wiped from memory, all he could remember of that man was the incredible guilt that was still sharp as a blade. Perhaps in time he would remember, or maybe Dani would tell him exactly who this man was, but he hoped to never find out.
As Dani started making the coffee,she paused briefly to rub her eyes. She wasn't tired at all, no, she was just tired of thinking. Tired of thinking about Karth, mostly. At the same time, she didn't want to stop. They were such good memories. Finally, she turned her attention back to the coffee and watched it as the liquid finished dripping slowly into the cup. She added cream and sugar, vaguely remembering how he took it. The walk back to the cockpit was a slow one, but once there, she held the silver and black lidded mug out to him. "Hope this helps." She murmured. "I can take over if you want. She's got a trick to landing and it's just about time. then we can get what you need and go....wherever we're going."
"Commenor," he replied, sliding over to the co-pilot's chair and thanking her with a nod for the coffee. "I'm guessing you took the bounty through a contact, else you'd know where." It was a fair assumption, and also helped explain why she had no idea who 'Jacen Hall' had been outside a description of what he -might- look like and a list of possible havens. The atmosphere of Kal'Shebbol soon enveloped the ship as they continued their descent, the city below them growing at a rapid pace. "He won't stop until I'm dead, or caught... so I might as well settle it. At least this way we're fighting the battle when -I- choose to fight it."
Daneira gritted her teeth some as she steered the ship down. For a long while, she didn't say a word to Karth as she thought the situation over. "You're not fighting anything." She said after the ship was safely on thee ground and she was powering down the non-essentials. "I'm not losing you again, alright? Walls or not. I can't handle it. The first time almost killed me." She stood and left the cockpit before he could argue. Dani pulled a holster around her hips and buckled it, then slid the one on over her shoulder once she reached her room, then pulled her jacket on over it. each time she went out, it was a debate as to if she took the lightsaber or not, and it always won, so she slid it into the custom holster at the small of her back. Who knew? She might actually need it one day.
He watched her leave, smoky-black eyes lingering on her as she disappeared from view. It wasn't her battle to fight, and he wanted to protest that so badly... but for her sake he remained tight-lipped. After a minute had passed he rose to his feet, touching the hilt of his saber reassuringly. It was strapped onto his chest, concealed by the navy-blue pilot's jacket he wore; accessible in an emergency but not obviously born in front of unfriendly eyes. Even here on the Rim his kind were unwelcome, Jedi were hard-pressed to find allies in this day and age. As they made their way down the ramp, Karth's attention turned to the bustle of the starport around them. Kal'Shebbol was a far nicer place than Kolatill, but that wasn't saying much. It still had much of the lawlessness and corruption that the rest of the sector had, it was just wrapped in a cleaner package. "I need lunch," he grumbled, hand clenching his empty stomach. "You had some green stuff in your fridge that I wasn't sure about."
He should have known, had he remembered her disasterous attempt at making him breakfast in bed, that her cooking skills were non-existant. He, after all, had to put the fire out and save her from the egg slime that was creeping across the floor. And he had done so, valiantly, and swept her off of her feet. "Yeah, you should never trust anything that isn't sealed in a package or you cooked yourself." she murmured as she pulled her raven locks into a ponytail high on the back of her head. "there should be somewhere around here to get some food and we should probably buy some consumables....I'm not used to needing to have stuff around."
Ah yes, how the valiant and formidable Daneira Farris--swordswoman of great renown in her time--had to be saved from 'egg slime'. It hadn't turned out so horribly in the end, though, as they'd forgone the entire idea of breakfast and had spent the next hour on the kitchen floor engrossed in other... worthy activities. "I'll cook, no way in hell we're going to make it to Commenor off spoiled grazer milk and questionable canned meat." His eyes found the exit to the city proper, and he motioned with a slight nod that she should follow. The system's sun had risen to just at the midday point, and the city was at its busiest. The markets nearest the port were abuzz with bartering, and Karth recoiled slightly as he opened his mind to the Force. The sheer volume of life signatures that were all-at-once laid bare to him would have overwhelmed a lesser Jedi or an initiate. It was a training regimen, of sorts, but Karth was out of practice.
Daneira nodded some and glanced to Karth. "So you remember that, do you?" She asked, referring to the great kitchen fire and creeping eggs. "I tried." Dani shrugged some, seeming uncaring that it didn't work out in the breakfast sense. She saw him, out of the corner of her eye, hang back for half second. "What's wrong?" She asked, concerned for a moment. It had been years since Dani had let the Force in, usually she just relied on brute strength and violence. It wasn't who she had been, and she was almost afraid to let Karth see that.
His lips twisted into a faint grimace, but soon the initial shock subsided. "I'm fine," he breathed. "Just haven't done -that- in a while." Rubbing his temple, he nudged at her side with an elbow and pointed in the direction of a fruit vendor. "Buy some of those pears, I'll keep my ears open. I'd like to hear some news before we head out."
Dani nodded and moved away from him and spoke with the fruit vendor. Not only did she buy some pears, but she got some oranges and berries too. It all looked good to her. She didn't eat much most of the time, her appetite was just never the same, that and she couldn't cook at all. Microwave dinners were the best she could do. Briefly, she looked over her shoulder to see where Karth was. Part of her never wanted to let him out of her sight again.
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Tuesday, 08 May 2012, 7:49 PM | Message # 13 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| Jace_Varitek : |[ Jace Varitek looked pensively over his shoulder as Karth and Danni passed no more than a meter from him in the market place, but having no idea what had possessed him to look in their direction, and seeing the pair from behind for but a moment, there was no recognition save for a sensation of familiarity that had struck him quite suddenly The Force, as ever, eluded description, but the sensation was akin to seeing a semblance of yourself in the face or demeanor of a family member—only this was something he felt. There was something about this time or place in common with some other time or place in his life, but he couldn't be sure what it was. "What?" Jace said, turning back to the vendor he'd been speaking to as he realized the Carthasian had said something to him. "I asked if you want to see what I have in the back," the vendor said, gesturing conspiratorially over his shoulder at the tent behind him, covered by oriental-patterned curtains. Jace nodded, spared one more fleeting, cautious glance about the market place, and followed him inside. ]|
Karth_DeQora : :: Admittedly, in the near-decade Karth had spent in isolation, his natural connection to the Force had diminished a great deal. He had surmised back on Kolatill that the surge he had felt was a result of Dani, the one person he had been closest to in times long-since past, had suddenly emerged back into his life. Still, as they passed Jace in the market, the area around him seemed to slow for the briefest of moments. Familiarity--no, nostalgia--ate away at him, before the time resumed its natural flow. "We should go," he said at length, unsure of what the sensation meant. Was it a warning? Perhaps an acknowledgement of his connection starting to return? He couldn't tell, but he Karth craned his neck to face her and shook his head. "Something doesn't feel right." ::
Daneira_Farris had a mesh bag of various fresh fruits hanging from her fingertips. While Karth had been virtually in solitary, she was used to people, and she hardly paid attention to any of them in the market that they were randomly wandering in. "Did you get the stuff you needed?" she asked as she shifted the bag into the other hand and checked the chrono on her wrist. She hadn't felt anything, as she had closed herself off to the Force years ago. "But if you want to go...that's alright too." She murmured before she handed a few credits to the vendor in front of them.
Karth_DeQora : :: He was tempted to stay, after all it wasn't often that a person had access to as varied an array of items as they did when they were on Kal'Shebbol. Had there been more time Karth would have stopped to check some of the flux capacitor connectors, her hyperdrive had sounded a tad unstable on the trip earlier and he Karth would sleep easier if he could have a look at it, first. Alas, his first concern was getting back to the ship, where at least they had some semblance of a defensible position. In response to her question, however, Karth didn't seem to either hear her or acknowledge that she was even speaking. He seemed to snap out of it after a moment, however, and nodded. "Yeah," he replied, eyes drawing attention to the group of bags he had slung over his shoulder. "Yeah let's go, now." ::
Daneira_Farris looked to what he had bought, which was all in bags, so she was unsure what it was. "sure." she rolled her eyes some and started through the small crowd towards the hangar where her ship, Caecelia, was sitting. After a moment, and when they were away from the mass of people, she spoke to Karth. "You felt something, didn't you?" She asked idly as she turned her gaze to him. Dani kept moving, though she wasn't moving as quickly as she had been.
Karth_DeQora : :: "Yes," he answered tersely, eyes scanning the crowd for any sort of activity that might seem out-of-place. "Something," he emphasized. "Something I haven't felt in a long, long time. Felt the same when you were on Kolatill, too." It disturbed him, frankly, that he could feel anything at all. He had spent near-ten years trying not to feel at all. He stopped then, watching her continue past him for a moment before realizing. "What worries me," he continued, "-is that all those times that I tried to sense you, to sense anyone, I couldn't. Why now?" The shadows of the setting sun pronounced his angular features, giving him a grim countenance to match his sense of foreboding. ::
Daneira_Farris stopped after she realized he had stopped, and she turned around. They had, at one time, been so good together. So in tune with not only each other, but the Force as well. She didn't want to say that it was her, because she knew it wasn't, but maybe it was them...together. "I don't know, Karth. I really don't." Deep down, he would probably know that as well. Hesitantly, she touched his arm gently. "Come on, Slim...let's go." She murmured before she turned away from him and started walking again.
Karth_DeQora : :: That she did not seem to notice just how disturbed he was spoke volumes of how far apart they had drifted. It unnerved him, really, but there was little he could do now. Life went on, like the wheels on a bus, and he was simply a passenger. That he could not go back and change things was what stuck with him, though; that idea that, if he had acted a moment earlier, or had been able to sense the treachery of his Clones thirty seconds earlier, they might have ended up entirely different people. He said nothing, however, and followed after Dani, wanting to reach the ship within the next hour. ::
Daneira_Farris was silent for most of the walk back, an agonizing hour in her mind as she thought over the events of the past couple of days. there had been so many times where she wanted to say something to Karth, but couldn't muster up the strength to talk about it anymore. So she kept it all inside, and it hurt. once they finally arrived back at the hangar she would have paused to lower the ramp, but saw that it was unncessary.
Karth_DeQora : :: He noticed that too, and wondered silently if they'd left the ramp open. His gaze indicated as much, his lips pursed and eyebrows raised bemusedly. After a moment or two, Karth clambored up the ramp and made for the lounge, determined to store his purchased goods before they expired. "What did you want for dinner, tonight!" he called out, forcing open the (slightly) rusty fridge and proceeding to throw in the contents of his bags. ::
Daneira_Farris drew the blaster from her hip holster (one of the four choices she had) as Karth proceeded to the lounge. If someone who wasn't supposed to be on her ship, was on her ship, they were going to get shot, most likely. Or she would beat them to death, whichever was easier at the time. She hadn't left the ramp open, she never did. that ship was all she had. "I don't care...just make something...you know my cooking skills." She responded before she tossed the mesh bag of fruit to him to put away and she proceeded cautiously towards the cockpit. Surely that guy that wanted Karth wouldn't have followed her. Surely.
Jace_Varitek : |[ Karth's ability in the Force really was diminished. Either that, or the fact that he'd been sensing Jace's presence in the periphery of his mind ever since the market place (and that he must have perceived this same familiar sensation more intensely as he'd neared the ship) had made it harder to discern Jace's presence standing directly beside him, but beside him he was; Karth had the instincts of a warrior--no amount of years could diminish this, and no doubt he'd catch a glimpse of him behind the freezer door as he closed it in the instant before Jace struck him with his blaster pistol. It was a DL-series, a decent blaster and a dangerous melee weapon in capable hands. But though he was a good shot with it, Jace was far from capable in hand-to-hand combat without the use of his lightsaber (which had already caused him in enough trouble on Kal'Shebbol as it is). Moreover, he didn't want to injure the man, whoever he was; he was sure, now, that this was the person he himself had sensed earlier. Reasonably sure, at least. But whether he'd had something in common with him, he did now that he'd hit him. Jace took a quick step back, sparing a glance over his shoulder for the second person he'd heard. He was in a difficult position--he knew that stealing a ship was his only way out of the Kathol Sector, and having come upon this empty one at the spaceport, it was his best bet at the time and probably still was. But was he willing to kill its rightful owners to save himself? Especially when the Force, which hadn't spoken to him in so long, was telling him now that there was something special about this time, this place, and these people? ]|
Karth_DeQora : :: He was accurate in his assessment, for the most part. While his reflexes had waned along with his connection to the Force, Karth was still a warrior at heart. Thus, in the second or two in which Jace appeared in the periphery of his vision, Karth's left hand shot to his belt in an attempt to retrieve his lightsaber, only for the butt of Jace's pistol to connect with his temple and send him to the floor, dazed and sputtering. The hit, thankfully, wasn't hard enough to severely damage, only momentarily stun. After a moment of adjusting to the fact that his entire world was spinning about, Karth staggered to his feet and searched for his assailant, eventually locating him amidst the chaos of his sight. He had no words for this man, but his saber was soon in his hands, the violet blade igniting the room with its glow. The blade was a foreign thing to him now, he hadn't used it since the war, but it was all he had on him. ::
Daneira_Farris hadn't gone far before something told her to go back to the lounge. She reached it just in time to see Karth get smucked with the pistol and level her own to the back of the skull of the intruder. And when he would turn around, that would be the first thing he saw, her blue eyes peering from around it the second. "Drop it." She said, her gaze momentarily flicking to Karth. The worry was obvious in her eyes, but she would be able to focus with no problem. It was how she was now. Killer for hire...or in this case....defense.
Jace_Varitek : |[ Jace hadn't looked back for long--the unmistakable snap-hiss of a lightsaber demanded his full attention. If it was possible for his face to go whiter, it did. "Shit," he shouted, incredulous, as he clawed his own lightsaber out of his coat in a hurry. He ignited it, casting a blue glow across his features as he stared down the foe he'd obviously underestimated. Was he one of Vader's people? Was this a trap? He'd only begun to consider the possibilities when a profound moment of recognition came over him. He seemed far older than he'd been at the time, and somehow smaller, but Serrocans weren't that common, and Serrocans with lightsabers even less so. It was Karth De'Qora, he was sure of it now, just as it seemed Karth was sure who he was, too. More to think about, but even less time to do so now that he felt Daniera's blaster on the back of his head. ]|
Karth_DeQora : :: Karth was a bit slower on the uptake, for when he witnessed Jace's sudden change in both posture and demeanor, he saw an opening that was almost exploited. After taking his first step forward, Karth stopped, his eyes widening as the gravity of the situation suddenly hit him like a damn asteroid. He recognized this man. The face was thinner, more severe, and his eyes burned, but he definitely remembered Jace Varitek. So when Dani came around the corner and pressed the barrel of her weapon to Jace's head, Karth shouted. "Don't!" and yanked the weapon free with the Force, just in case she didn't hear him. ::
Daneira_Farris had heard him, but that did not stop her from keeping that blaster trained right at the back of his head. that was, until Karth tore it from her hands. "You and I are going to have a chat about that later, DeQora." She hissed before she backed off some. Dani did still have four weapons on her if it came right down to it. "But for now... maybe we just need to sit down and talk about this." As much as it killed her to admit. She still had it in her head that she was going to absolutely thump this guy for even thinking about breaking into her ship, let alone doing it.
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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| Jace_Varitek | Date: Sunday, 20 May 2012, 6:42 PM | Message # 14 |
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Generalissimo
Group: Administrators
Messages: 2245
Status: Offline
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"Is the gun really necessary?" Jace asked, referring to the pistol that Daniera refused to keep out of easy reach. But he didn't need the Force to know that, yes, it was necessary as far as she was concerned. But who was he, an uninvited guest, to argue? He'd even surrendered his own blaster to her out of courtesy. Seated in the lounge of Daniera's ship and commanding for a moment her attention and Karth's, he continued his explanation—an honest explanation, for once. No excuses. "It was stupid," he admitted with a shrug, "But I'm tired. I'm tired of running, but it's all I know how to do."
"You, on the other hand," he added, looking between them with a raised brow, "You seem to have made something of yourselves. Got yourselves a ship, at least. More than I can say for myself. Me? I've drifted from one rimstint to another all these years, each one more dank and depressing than the last. I suppose I thought the Empire wouldn't find me out here, or wouldn't care. Maybe you were thinking the same thing?" He shook his head, a distant and harried look in his eyes. "They won't stop until we're all gone."
A nervous smile flashed over his face for an instant as he glanced at them again. "But I'm glad to see you guys. I probably wouldn't've had a go at the ship if I knew it was yours. How have you stayed alive all these years? I'd tell you how I did but I'm not really sure myself."
Jace Varitek
Manager/Administrator from January 2003 to Present
My recent posts here, pre-2009 archives here
"When my information changes, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?"
—John Maynard Keynes
Furthermore, a dancing Wookiee:
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| Karth_DeQora | Date: Sunday, 20 May 2012, 7:24 PM | Message # 15 |
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Colonel general
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1157
Status: Offline
| Despite Dani's apparent discomfort, Karth was earnestly engrossed in Varitek's monologue. Perhaps it was a waning sense of shock that caused him to observe the former Jedi with an awestruck expression; or perhaps it was the realization that, much as Karth had tried so hard to do, Varitek had actually managed to stop being a Jedi at heart. Or perhaps he never was, either way, Karth envied him. It wasn't until Jace asked his final question that he noticed Dani rising from her seat, placing the blaster beside him on the table and heading in the direction of the cockpit. There was an anger seeping off her, though it was painfully obvious just in how she regarded Jace with a grim-set jaw and a fire in her eyes. Smiling uncomfortably, De'Qora's attention turned back to Jace.
"Staying out of sight, mostly." That was his response to Varitek's inquiry, though he couldn't tell if the other Jedi knew that much of that was a lie of omission. In this new galaxy, where they were reviled and hunted, a smart Jedi did whatever they could to survive. That rationalization began to wear thin for him over the years; as his sins grew in number along with his desperation. He coughed, turning away from the table for a moment to grab the cups of coffee he'd forgotten up there, offering one to Jace as he resumed speaking. "Spent the last few years as a scrap dealer, living on Kolatill, if a life on that shit-stain could be considered 'living' at all."
His expression darkened, for a moment, as he pondered his next question. Such memories were difficult enough for him, he was unsure as to how Jace would take his next words. "How did you get out? How did you escape? The Empire's been so damn thorough, I survived through dumb luck alone..."
Man, Myth, Administrative God. Also plays a mean kazoo.
Jace Varitek: In Northern California we just have gangs of vigilante interior decorators.
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