[D7 LM] Short and sweet (Manka Cat Rules)

[Sholua Tempes]

Sholua was in her room. She had the small box from the farm with her and a familiar looking silver cylinder. For several long minutes she did nothing but breathe and consider her options. Then she turned to face North. She'd checked with the ships computer earlier after she'd noticed the box always seemed to align itself on a north-south axis no matter how she'd placed it down.

She flipped the box open and then opened her mind to the Force. She never remembered using or even opening her toolkit, but she had. She didn't remember much of how she opened the small, slender hilt open keeping the power source isolated while she worked. All she clearly remembered was the content of the box. A dark grey crystal that she carefully kept away from any metal. So different to the crystal in the saber she had lost a decade before. Fascinating, the facets looking like a roiling thunderstorm as she placed it inside the hilt, and began the intricate Force aided assembly.

Minutes dragged out until finally she placed her tools aside, and returned to meditation.

Then there was the snap-hiss of a blade igniting. A dark grey, crackling blade that pulsed with energy. So very different to the blue blade of her youth. The room was too small for combat moves, barely big enough to swing the small blade suited for Form IV. Instead she just moved the blade slowly from side to side, watching how the crackling pulses changed. There was a pattern and it did not take long to perceive. The agitation within the blade was at it's strongest when it pointed north. It was like a raging thunderstorm when pointed north. South and east it was merely a crackling cloud, a storm waiting to happen. West . . . well this was the most puzzling for her, west the pulses increased, not to the extent of north, but a definite increase.

So what lay to the west?

She snuffed out the blade and exited her room to see what lay to the west . . .


--
Shoto Lightsaber acquired!

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

To the west...or at least on the route to west that has to run through the ship unless Sholua's plans on slicing herself a more direct path, there's a Bothan eating second breakfast in the common room. Someone's leftover omelet with a bit of raw swamp trout (not a trout, and they're river fish, but that's critter names for you) and an bit of some sort of dense, sweet bread sitting on the remains of its wrapping.

She doesn't look up from stirring her instant caf. It's disgusting if you miss a lump of the powder. "Hey, Sholua! You eat yet? I can split this if you want. There's some of the sweet bread Raven gave me left too.

[Sholua Tempes]

One of the reasons she'd made a shoto, apart from it matching her fighting style, was that it was easier to conceal. Into her jacket pocket it went, as quick as you like.

"Morning, Honey."

She hooked a chair with her foot and sat on it.

"I'll pass on the eggs . . . beginning to feel like a Mirial Fox with eating so many of them. I'll try the sweet bread though."

She reached across the table to snag some.

"Raven . . . that's the one that bailed on the Wookiee movie and was at The Cave last night?"

She was still looking west, which led to a bulkhead and further into the ship, not towards the ramp.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Don't mind the eggs really...I kind of think my ancient ancestors might have been kind of similar to those foxes. They're good raw even" She grins, "Not that I was gonna clean our tips by licking egg off them, mind."

Curling her legs under her, she sips a steaming cup that smells like caf. "But yeah, she's the one who was here for like five seconds. Been kind of regular at the Cave, and we've chatted here and there. She came with me to Sinclair's, because I was kind of nervous heading someplace that fancy on my own and she wanted to do some shopping too."

"Oh, reminds me, I did say I'd tell folks," She fishes the gold and purple gleam of the Cascader from a pocket, but pauses as she looks up and notes Sholua's gaze, looks along the same path, and frowns. "Hear something back there?"

[Sholua Tempes]

She was caught, staring at the west bulkhead with a mouthful of sweet bread, which she quickly ate.

"Ah sorry . . . just a sense. Is Cutey messing with the engines again?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Maybe? Said something about reading a thing for overclocking your hyperdrive...or something like that." There was some definite confusion in her tone. Engines...not remotely her strong point. Unfortunately, also probably not Manny's either.

"Think he found the poster maybe? You picking up on... well, whatever that would entail with him. Maybe confusion, maybe just awe at Mika's magic." Dhel lowers her cup and looks at Sholua. "He tell you yet that there's...hmmm, no strings to this staying around thing?" There's a nervous tap of one claw against the plastic cup. "Still wrapping my head around that one."

[Sholua Tempes]

Sholua raised an eyebrow.

"OK we're going to be putting a 'do not open' sign on the hyperdrive then. That is not something we want to be messing with."

Ah it was time for the serious talk.

"Yeah he told me that, and then I immediately went and attached a string anyway. A voluntary one with nothing to do with staying here. He has another Mika poster in his room as well, by the way."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel grins and shrugs. "Yeah, I know. It's his space, I'm not redecorating that. It's very...him...in there."

Her eyebrows lift as she catches up with the rest. 'Attached a string...oh? So you two are like a thing I should stay out of then?" She sounds a little surprised, but not particularly upset by the idea.

"mmm, and a sign on the hyperdrive keeps me from opening it by mistake too, so I"m all for it."

[Sholua Tempes]

"I wouldn't say a thing. Not yet. Moving towards a thing yes . . . which is something I'm not supposed to do."

She grinned, just for a second. Oh wait she doesn't know . . . tschad.

"Ah forget I said that. Yes, Cutey and I beginning to become a thing, but I don't mind sharing, as long as he's OK with it."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel smiles happily "Not tying any strings on my end, either way. So...y'know, just tell me to shove off if it's like that " Then her head tilts with a quizzical, "not supposed to? That a Mirialan thing?"

[Sholua Tempes]

. . . Cutey handled it well . . . Cartess said we didn't have to hide anymore, but not exactly shout it from the rooftops either . . . and Honey is gonna find about eventually, better I tell her than she blunders into it . . .

It took a moment to collect her thoughts.

"No, not a Mirialan thing. More a group I was part of once and might just be part of again and . . . "

She fished the lightsaber from her pocket and put it on the table in front of her.

"Which had me making one of these again. If it's an issue then I'll leave the ship . . . "

A silly offer considering there were two other lightsaber users in a one of the other cabins.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

She leans forward, setting the caf on the table as she looks at the shape of the odd tube? Cylinder? There's no sign of comprehension. "Is there something in it? Like...reminders of some kind of oath that group has you take?" Trying to connect the thing, and the group, and not tying strings into a story that makes any sense just isn't going very far.

[Sholua Tempes]

"It's only been ten years. Have people forgotten these already?"

She picked it up, thumb on the ignition toggle.

"It's a weapon, don't touch please."

There was a loud snap, hiss as the crackling blade ignited once again showing something akin to roiling stormclouds.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Good thing the chair is sturdy as Dhel shrieks and leaps up half a foot in the air and backwards to crash into the chair, landing all askew, fur bristled out and eyes like saucers.

"That's...You're..." She cringes back in the seat. 'Didn't forget." Scrabbling over the arm of the chair, she crouches behind its questionable protection. "Thought you were all gone, though."

[Sholua Tempes]

"So did I, so did I."

She doused the blade, making it a harmless cylinder of metal again, and offered a hand to the Bothan to get up.

"Until two weeks ago I thought I was the only one who survived. Turns out I was being incredibly arrogant and very wrong about that."

She waited to see if Dhel would take her hand.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"There's more?" Dhel eyes her with wary confusion, trying to reconcile the woman she's known and the supernaturally terrifying invaders of vague childhood memory and far less vague Imperial schooling. "Are they...you...here to try taking over again? or..." She rises cautiously, hand resting on the back of the chair. "I mean, we learned you fought with the Republic that did take over, but also, I guess, turned on them too?" History wasn't her best subject, but the Jedi had been solidly in the 'bad' category, even if the specifics were pretty confusing.

[Sholua Tempes]

She kept the hand out and placed the lightsaber on the table away from them.

"The Empire really went heavy on the propaganda. There's a lot that isn't true but the first thing I'll tell you is that we aren't 'back' and we never will be. The Order is gone. The rest is a long story, if you have the time . . . "

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Heart still racing Dhel nods once, considering that Sholua's been here at least since Dhel started to be aware of the circles they both moved in.

"Were you there? In the war?" She steps around the chair and takes the offered hand, fur still puffy with reaction.

[Sholua Tempes]

Sholua helps her back to the table and rights the chair before speaking again.

"Yes. I was padawan . . . apprentice to Master N'tresni who came with the Republic war engine to 'liberate' this world."

She even mimed the inverted commas around 'liberate'.

"He brought me here to fight and kill the enemies of the republic. I was thirteen."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel does some math, curling tightly back into the chair, stroking down the fur on her forearms. "Had my first kiss at thirteen. And they had you fighting wars?" her nose crinkles in distaste, her eyes on the floor. "We're pretty sure the Republic is why my parents disappeared. Full disclosure."

Brushing down the fur at her knees she asks, "So...not back. Not an..Order? But...that?" She points at the light saber. "What does it mean then to have it and be...what you are, without any of that? You've been helping here. I can see that."