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Post by Solaris on Mar 11, 2013 13:08:08 GMT -5
Miri smiled as she glided through the upper reaches of Yavin's atmosphere, suspended on her twin dovin basals. She relaxed the shield-cysts embedded in her carapace, letting the atmosphere flow past her armored skin. The scent of the wind blowing past her sensory nodules was achingly familiar, the tropical warm air of Yavin IV scented with the sweet smells of life and death from the jungles that blanketed the moon. It was spring; the flowers were in bloom, and their perfume pervaded the air with a pleasantly sweet scent.
Miri sighed to herself as she set down in a murky pool outside the northern ziggurat, reluctant to stop flying but tired after the long journey through hyperspace. She laid down on the pad just inches below the surface of the succession pond, extending the feet on her wings to balance on her belly and sip daintily at the liquid, then withdrew from herself back to just being the Human in the cockpit as she pulled off her cognition hood. Miri blinked at the sudden change in perspective, taking a moment to get reacquainted with her body again as the hydrostatic bubble canopy retracted back into its support struts. She squinted against the sunlight, shading her bright blue eyes as she looked around the landing pad for the walkway. The weight of the fighter settling down on the pad lifted the stone path up through the surface of the nutrient- and calorie-rich liquid, giving Miri a way to reach the rim of the yorik coral enclosure without getting her feet wet. She hopped down, glancing back at her interceptor as it sank deeper into the amniotic liquid, lifting the pathway up higher while the fluid rose almost to the level of the cockpit.
Miri walked out of the Yuuzhan Vong landing pad, maintained for visiting Vong shapers and Jeedai pilgrims, and craned her neck up at the ziggurat, a massive stone edifice. Though it was only a few hundred years old, it was hard to believe the Temple Academy's buildings hadn't been there since the dawn of time. She walked along the pathway leading to it, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the jungle around the Temple and the Jedi students training hard under the watchful eyes of their instructors. She caught more than one staring, but figured it was to be expected - even if it weren't for the normal reasons people usually gawked at her.
Miri Dakaar, after all, was clad in glossy blue-black Vonduun carapace that clung to her torso like a second skin and contrasting sharply with her pale skin and silver hair, the glistaweb skirt and trim shimmering pearlescent blue-white in the red-tinged combined light of Yavin and Yavin Prime. Were it not for her bright blue eyes and delicate features, the tall, slender woman might have been easily mistaken for a Yuuzhan Vong herself. The living armor suited her position as envoy to the Vong Jeedai, and in truth she'd gotten almost more comfortable wearing it than the cloth robes Jedi traditionally wore.
The white-haired young woman spotted a tall, dark-haired Jedi waiting for her. She smiled to herself as she walked up to the handsome man, the sight of him bringing back almost as many memories as seeing the temple had. Miri had been in several classes with Keller Dan-Dover while they were in training. More than one of her girlfriends in the Academy had had crushes on him, attracted by his good looks, quiet confidence, and easy charm.
Miri refused to admit whether or not she'd been one of them.
"Hey Kelly," she said as she closed in, brushing her hair back behind her ear and grinning up at him. "How've you been?"
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Post by Reliable Idiot on Mar 11, 2013 20:06:34 GMT -5
Kelly couldn't help but smile when he saw Miri approaching.
He recalled when they first met. Kelly was feeling cocky, and decided to take her on in a spar after she'd already bested five of his peers. Despite ending up with a broken arm and a bruised ego, they had been friends ever since.
"Not as bad as I could be, Mir." He smiled, but there was an obvious burden weighing down that smile - his search for his sister had been both physically and emotionally draining. After six straight months of following leads in the Outer Rim and the outskirts of Sith space, he'd lost her trail yet again. Keller was beginning to think she was either dead or missing beyond his ability to find, but there was always that glimmer of hope that shined through whenever he thought of his fathers last words.
Spending some time catching up with an old friend was just the kind of downtime he needed, and he couldn't think of many others he'd rather catch up with than Miri Dakaar. Keller had always had something of a thing for Miri - he apparently didn't mind the fact that she could best him in a duel. But he'd always refrained from asking her about it because of her demanding duties as ambassador to the Vong and his as an active Jedi Knight and SpecForce operator. Keller knew he simply didn't have as much time to invest in a relationship as he'd want to, and knew that she probably didn't, either.
"What about you? Still dressing to impress, I see;" he smirked as his gaze scanned the courtyard they stood in: a dozen sets of eyes were trained on her and the peculiar crabscale armor surrounding her body, Keller's included. Vongtech had always fascinated him, as well as the Vong culture in a whole. He'd heard mixed stories about them from his father, who had both fought against and with the Vong at the Battle of Bakura during the war. Kelly was curious, but intended to be as cautious while doing so as possible, trusting Miri would steer him in the right direction while they explored her new home.
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Post by Solaris on Mar 12, 2013 9:34:01 GMT -5
Miri smiled wanly. Come to think of it, that armor really didn't leave much to the imagination. The plating was so thin and form-fitting - she hadn't thought about that. It'd been months since she was among Humans, or anyone but Yuuzhan Vong - what Humans looked at and what Vong looked at were two totally different things. That made the stares a lot more embarrassing, and she felt her face heat up even more as she blushed bright red. Miri bit her lip nervously as she crossed her arms across her chest, not meeting Kelly's eye. "Oh, um, yeah. I guess. My, um, my Coralskipper doesn't like 'deadtech', so I, um, kind of have to wear this to fly her right. Or at all." She blushed harder when she realized she was stammering like an idiot schoolgirl. "It's still growing," she finished lamely, not wanting him to think she preferred such revealing clothes. Not outside special occasions, anyhow, but those certainly didn't include in public with so many strangers around.
"I can take it off, though." She stopped when she realized what she just said. "Ugh. I mean I'm going to be putting on normal robes later." Miri raked her fingers through her hair and looked up at him. "Transient barracks still in the top of the north ziggurat?"
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Post by Reliable Idiot on Mar 12, 2013 15:10:02 GMT -5
Kelly smiled to himself when he saw Mir blushing like that. He'd never seen her so flustered. Kinda cute, he thought, before remembering that she was terribly embarrassed and wanted to know where the barracks were.
"Yeah - just about everything's in the same place," he explained. "Meet me in Dock 4 when you're done; that's where the Justiciar is parked. I've got to make a couple tweaks to the ship before we leave, so uh.. take all the time you need."
The armor looked so integral with her skin that it seemed to Keller that it would take a while for her to get it off. Then again, his knowledge of vongtech was at a bare minimum. He couldn't begin to imagine what the Flower of Light would look and feel like compared to the Star Destroyers and other warships he'd been on.
The Justiciar was a classic CR-90 corvette. Kelly had found the skeleton in an Alliance junkyard and refurbished it by himself with all new systems. Thanks to the general modularity of Corellian ships, he fashioned it into a kind of home away from home.
While waiting for Miri, Keller took the opportunity to shuck the traditional Jedi tunic he was wearing and trade it in for a pair of bluejeans and an olive T-shirt, trusting the Yuuzhan Vong wouldn't mind his preferred casual way of dress. His mother's lightsaber, plated in zinc, hung on his belt, and it would stay there unless Miri told him to remove it. His dad had taught him to always be armed.
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Post by Solaris on Mar 12, 2013 19:08:16 GMT -5
Miri was wrong; she did not prefer the bio-armor to dead clothes. It felt nice to wear something soft and comfortable for a change, especially with her reshaped nervous system making her so sensitive to touch. She had peeled out of her Vonduun crab-shell armor and glistaweb robes almost as soon as she was inside her room, the sensation of the tendrils and ganglia separating from her body was as excruciating as ever, but the relief at not having the living thing constantly touching and probing her flesh was ecstasy. Miri regarded her forearms ruefully, knowing there wasn't anything to be done about the concealed fighting claws hidden in between the bones. Ah, well. At least they didn't produce a very noticeable bulge. Miri plucked her tsaisaber up off the back of the carapace, gently petting the segmented wormlike thing that was as much a part of her as her own flesh and blood - especially considering much of that were Yuuzhan Vong grafts and biots.
Miri opened up her vacuum-sealed storage chest, fanning away the preservative gasses that had kept her clothes and belongings fresh while she was away. She thought about putting on Jedi robes for the trip out to the decommissioned Yuuzhan Vong warship, but opted instead for civvies. After all, she might as well enjoy the opportunity to dress normally while it lasted; her furlough was only going to last for so long before she was to report back to the Confederacy.
But first, a bath in the hot springs where the only other things in the water were other Jedi - and hopefully, not even one of those - and the only stuff in the water being some salts. Miri smiled to herself at the thought. That was definitely something she'd been missing.
Miri showed up at Dock 4 an hour and a half later, smiling sheepishly. She was freshly-scrubbed, having enjoyed the bath entirely longer than she probably should have, her silver-white hair pulled back in a ponytail. She skipped make-up; it wasn't like they were going out on a date, and she didn't have any besides. Miri wore a black tank top and blue jeans, her tsaisaber wrapped around her neck like an odd choker.
"Permission to come aboard?" she called out at the gangplank, hoping Kelly was close enough to the entrance to hear her.
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Post by Reliable Idiot on Mar 13, 2013 19:35:32 GMT -5
Kelly was just inside of the doorway. Miri had took much longer than he'd expected, and as a result he decided to check, double check, and triple check every inch of his ship. On the third time around, he found a faulty wire in the control panel for the boarding ramp, and decided to take care of it.
"Come on in. I'll be done in a minute." He was crouched down with the panel at eye-level, holding a fusion cutter between his teeth and fiddling with the console with gloved hands. A moment later and the problem was fixed. He stood up and turned around to face Mir, stuffing the gloves in his back pocket.
It was a while since Kelly had seen her normal. Her ponytail reminded him of his sister, who'd worn one like that, but he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind.
"Must be splendid to get out of that glorified bathing suit, huh?" Kelly smiled, beckoning for her to follow.
The hallway that the gangplank led into curved to the right, leading to the center of the ship and the main hallway that led to the cockpit. On the way there Keller stopped to throw the gloves and fusion cutter onto his bed in the sleeping quarters.
The cockpit was relatively spacious, allowing room for two passengers aside from the pilot and co-pilot. There were two consoles to sit at, and Kelly took the left one. Minutes later, they received clearance, and made the jump to hyperspace.
"We've got four hours yet to arrive," Kelly explained, leaning over his console. "That's a bit of time to kill."
[Up to you whether you wanna skip to getting to the ship or not]
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Post by Solaris on Mar 14, 2013 14:42:38 GMT -5
"Mm, you have no idea," Miri said with a smile as she slid into the co-pilot's chair. She didn't touch the console, she just wanted time to spend around someone who spoke Basic without an accent and didn't react in horror to something that was built rather than grown. "I don't care if it's 'soulless' or not, there's something to be said for making clothes comfortable." She chuckled, her cheeks coloring at a naughty thought about certain other usages the word 'comfortable' had with regards to clothing. Miri cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject. "I ever tell you about how I wound up being . . . well, y'know. The way I am now?" Miri plucked at a silver-white bang to emphasize she meant her current status as a shaped creature; she'd been a blonde when she was in the Temple, and her eyes weren't quite so vibrantly bright. I'd prefer to not skip. Talking heads provides some good opportunity for low-challenge character development.
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Post by Reliable Idiot on Mar 14, 2013 22:17:23 GMT -5
"Nothing more than a five-minute version," Kelly replied, leaning back in his seat to stretch his legs under the console while his hands interlocked behind his head. "I always wondered why you didn't dye your hair back." Kelly cleared his throat, leaning over to type in a command into his console's keyplate that probably served no purpose except to allow him time to think of what he was going to say next.
"I, uh, like the silver better, though. Much more unique," he continued, leaning back again and setting his gaze on the viewscreen ahead. "And it brings out the blue in your eyes, quite nicely."
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Post by Solaris on Mar 15, 2013 10:12:19 GMT -5
"I might dye it back after I'm done with the mission to the Yuuzhan Vong," Miri said, brushing the stray bang back self-consciously. She smiled at him, pleased at the compliment. She really didn't like her hair the way it was and her eyes still unnerved her, though she'd gotten used to her skin being paler than it used to be. "It makes me look like an old lady, but the Yuuzhan Vong don't hold to cosmetics and would probably get offended if I dyed it."
"They did it to save my life," she said softly, looking out the viewports at the hyperspace energies dancing off the ship's hull. "My, um, my father tried to kill me. The shapers had to basically rebuild me from the ground up after he left me to die in the event horizon of a black hole. A couple of the People on their pilgrimages into the land of the dead - what they refer to our deadtech-using culture as - found me, and they pulled me out. It, um, it was really bad - my bones were practically jelly, and I would've died then if they hadn't basically linked me up to their ship's life support systems." She shivered at the thought, the half-remembered pain and terror that had reduced her to little more than an unthinking animal. "I don't really remember much of it, and my memory from before is pretty spotty, but I remember the look on my daddy's face as he killed me.
"I hate him for it," she said, her voice shaky. "He's a Sith now. One of those red-skinned freaks. He let them change him into- into a monster, and when he stabbed me with his lightsaber he enjoyed it." She laughed bitterly. "Well, I didn't used to have daddy issues . . ."
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Post by Reliable Idiot on Mar 15, 2013 13:47:51 GMT -5
Red skinned freaks. Was Jenny one of those now? The thought gripped him like cold steel digging into his soul.
"The Sith took my little sister when she was ten. She was wonderful, so full of life. I ... remember her ninth birthday. I got her a river stone, and it was her favorite present -- she wore it on a string around her neck; she wore it everywhere, all the time. I missed her tenth birthday because I was at the academy with my father. Maybe if we'd been there.. "
Keller paused. His face was bleak, his voice devoid of the warmth it had before.
"My father searched for her for ten years. I didn't hear from him 'till a couple months ago; he'd found Jen, but he was almost dead when I got there. He told me she didn't do it. I've been looking for her since then.
I've had the same dream for the last three nights -- it was more like a nightmare, really.. I was n'top of this cliff. I turned around and there was the edge, and my sister was hanging on by her fingertips. She was much older than when I last saw her; she was a young woman now, very pretty, but something tainted her. I took hold of her hands and she stared up at me. Her eyes weren't a pretty green like they were, they were fiery yellow. The rest of her was the same.. and then she just let go, and I could see her as she fell through the clouds. She was changing into something more monstrous; she was screaming when she fell, but it turned into more of a growl. Then I turned around and there were my mom and dad. I couldn't talk to them -- they were just kind of standing there, looking over the edge. They had changed, too. I didn't need words to know. They'd given up on Jenny.
And then I woke up. "
Kelly looked at Miri, his calm brown eyes meeting her sad blues. They had much in common in the area of losing someone they loved.
"Do you think we'll ever get them back, Mir?"
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