A Common Game of Hide and Seek (CSA Dominion of Dressel Hex)

[Caedyn Arenais]

That his Mother and Father weren't getting a divorce came as something of a big surprise to Caedyn; how [member="Lady Kay"] was able to get passed the fact that their father had committed murder was unbelievable and to some extent a little worrisome if she were able to excuse the fact. While his Mom gave her thoughts as to whether he was closer to [member="Veiere Arenais"] than his Sister, Caedyn couldn't help but question it himself. In most times he might have agreed, only now that he knew as he did, it felt like his Father had kept him at arms length; he couldn't have seen his Dad doing something like what the media had been telling the Galaxy, yet only to be convinced by his Mother's response, it left him feeling completely distanced from the father that he had thought he knew.

"Dad didn't tell me anything about what he was going to do. He didn't really teach me anything about the Force at all to be honest...-Lori and I heard stories from school and stuff but Dad didn't like to talk about the Jedi, he always seemed busy when we asked about it" Caedyn shrugged a little, glancing back up to his Mom now wondering how much she had shared with his twin sister; "It's why I was really surprised when Dad wanted me to go meet the Je'daii and train under [member="Asha Hex"]". It had been unexpected from their father, given that Caedyn had taken on the impression Veiere wanted nothing of the life that he himself had held for his children, yet to be so bluntly introduced and shipped off-world with the young Je'daii Mentor, someone he, at the time did not know nor care to trust in...

"What if he doesn't want the help?" he soon asked, "What do we do then?".

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay furrowed her brows. Did [member="Veiere Arenais"] shut out his own children too? That made her worry. It seemed that through the years he was seperating himself from all of them. [member="Caedyn Arenais"] also didn't seem pleased that she wasn't planning on getting a divorce.

"I was surprised too. I didn't want to let you go, or Lori. But...your Dad convinced me otherwise. Perhaps it was a good thing, so that you two wouldn't have to deal with what's going on at home." No doubt the two of them would've been picked on by the other kids, and under constant guard like she was. That wouldn't be a lot of fun for either of them.

Kay took a moment as Caedyn asked the kind of questions that she had at times thought about when she was by herself at night, trying to fall asleep. What would happen if he didn't want their help? How were they supposed to react to that? "...I don't know. I guess that we'll just...have to move on and hope that later he'll change his mind...I don't want to have to give up on him. He didn't give up on me..."

Two beeps were heard as the two beacons that Kay and Caedyn wore lit up. A Dresselian appeared out of the fog with a big grin on his face. "Got ya!" He then turned and bounded back into the fog, disappearing from view.

"I guess our talking was too loud. Do you want to stay here or carry on our conversation at one of the tents?"

 

[Avner Obasi]

Just as the security guards began to swarm the area and create a perimeter, Avner and Viktor were slipping through the cracks. Keeping their heads low, Avner trying to be as smooth as possible in his movements, he just barely managed to brush by a guard who was preoccupied with a Rodian woman complaining about a burst ear drum from the loud alarm. He kept a tight grip on Viktor’s good arm – he didn’t want him to get torn away from him in the madness that he had caused.

The crowd began to thin as they moved further away from the mall and towards the spaceport, but unfortunately the presence of guards were still strong. Despite their distraction and rather loose but serviceable disguises, Avner was still very much on edge. If they were going to get off-planet, it was now or never.

Viktor raised his head and looked back, a nervous look etched across his face. Avner tugged him forward, whispering to not show his face, but it was already too late. A curious guard that had happened to look in that direction began to call out to them. Avner tried to ignore it, pretend he was calling for someone else, but the voice became louder and louder, until he could hear footfalls behind him.

Avner wanted to run, but apparently Viktor panicked. He threw his heavy overcoat open and turned, as if the fear was getting the best of him. In a knee-jerk reaction, the security guard stopped dead in his tracks and pulled out his weapon, firing twice. Avner quickly drew his own, sending a blue circle of a stun bolt into his direction, knocking the armored man over.

The old soldier looked to the man he was supposed to be protecting, and saw him sprawled out on the ground, a smoking hole in the center of his chest. His eyes were open wide, darting back and forth, and he was struggling to breathe. Cursing underneath his breath, Avner knelt down next to him, trying to inspect the wound. Fear hadn’t taken Viktor just yet – it was only shock for now. Hopefully he’d die before he realized what was happening.

“Viktor… come on Viktor…” Avner whispered through clenched teeth. This was not how he thought today was going to go. As much as he wanted to try and save this man, to maybe even at least comfort him in his final moments… a crowd was gathering, and more security guards were undoubtedly incoming. Digging into Viktor’s jacket pocket, he pulled out the datatape, unscathed, and placed it into his own jacket.

Standing back up to full height, he scanned the area. The sun was beginning to rise, and the golden hues of morning were stretching over the city. Onlookers were concerned, but were too scared to do anything. Sighing, Avner started to run for the spaceport, to his ship. Just when he thought that he could be done with every sort of dangerous situation the galaxy had to offer, he was pulled right back in. He didn’t know exactly what he would do with the incriminating datatape in his possession, but he did know one thing:

If what was on it was true, he couldn’t let the CSA get away with it.

[member="Einon"]

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

"I was surprised too. I didn't want to let you go, or Lori. But...your Dad convinced me otherwise...".

Caedyn hadn't been aware of this, his mother informing him that she had more or less been left out of the decision for her Son to be shipped off to the Je'daii Order. He had been younger both in mind and body when he had first left Commenor and lacked the maturity to understand the true ramifications of the act, yet now despite his love for the Je'daii and his belief that it was truly the right place for him, it still angered him that his Mother had been basically pushed aside in the decision.

"...I don't know. I guess that we'll just...have to move on and hope that later he'll change his mind...I don't want to have to give up on him. He didn't give up on me...", Kay's words weren't exactly spilling over in confidence yet nor did her Son have the answers for the situation they'd found their family to be in. How had his Father let this all happen, how could he do this to good innocent people and then treat his family like this. Had it all been planned since before Caedyn had been shipped off to train under his Master; the emotion rolling through him took on a physical change to his expression, his eyes glancing off away from his mother with a rather hard look that spoke well of his building resentment towards [member="Veiere Arenais"].

"Got ya!" came the abrupt and disturbing appearance of one of their guests and members having taken up the game of hide 'n' seek. Honestly, Caedyn had only come for his Mothers sake, he didn't care so much about being found so much as this sudden interruption had cut him off from wanting to speak further on the matter of his fathers treason. Instead, it prompted him to remain quiet, deciding that perhaps it was for the best that he didn't say anything further for the time being and instead push himself up to his feet before offering [member="Lady Kay"] a helping hand up and replying gently; "We can head back...-I bet you could use a warm drink and I wouldn't mind a Stim-Caf myself".

​

[member="Lady Kay"] | [member="Einon"] | [member="Klesta"] | [member="Avner Obasi"] | [member="Rex Taff"]​

 

[Vallory]

Objective: B

Vallory had still heard of happenings from the CSA. With her ties to Amelia, she was somewhat tied to the CSA as well. So she decided, why not come over to Dressel with them? So she came, and she stopped by some tents with food and such. People seemed to be enjoying themselves here, so why could she not do so? Vallory got herself some food to eat then, not really bothering to ask what exactly was going one here. It didn't interest her, as long as something was happening and that it had free food and beverages.

"Nice set up...food, tents...must be some kind of party going on" she muttered to herself, trying to keep to herself rather than mingle. Of course if another approached her, well she would no doubt drop any rudeness and be made to mingle.

 

[Klesta]

Objective: Peddle ergonomic assessments

"I get that the mill isn't publicly traded, but are there even shares that could be issued for payment?"

Anybody familiar with professional services knows that services of that nature can't be inventoried, and also that companies on the turnaround stage, such as this one, tended to get their cash flow from equity-based sources until their operating income can be stabilized. Usually when a company buys goods and services for shares, it's in expectation of the company buying the shares back through treasury shares once the company turns around, effectively amounting to a deferred payment. Which would mean that the Sith Inquisitor will actually see money when either someone else buys the shares of the Stone River Textile Mill from them (probably an employee that worked on the project, Tiffany here) or when the mill undergoes through treasury shares, in which case they're canceled then. I guess, that's often how it goes: companies tend to resort to issuing shares to pay suppliers and employees when times get tough, which can sometimes result in an absurd amount of shares although they can avoid bankruptcy - the highest-profile bankruptcy case in recent memory was KDY and that was because of the Rogue One Sith, he thought.

"We're not even sure how much they're worth anymore. It's tantamount to saying that we are, in fact, a penny stock. Just a bit of patience: we will get you a promissory note for 7,350 shares"

 

[Ravenfire]

Rex would watch [member="Vallory"] walk into the area of tents. He would approach her, "Pleasure to meet you, my name is Rex Taff and you are?" The chiss would ask a smile on his face. When he reached out with the force he could tell that this woman was a Sith of some description. He hid his Force signature again from prying force user. He wondered why he had never met her before, then again he couldn't meet everyone. While waiting he grabbed some food. He then took a quick look around looks like people were returning from the hide and seek. Wouldn't be long before [member="Caedyn Arenais"] and [member="Lady Kay"] appeared again

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay raised a brow slightly as [member="Caedyn Arenais"] withdrew inside himself. She could feel the growing anger and resentment. It made her just want to hold him, to let him know that he was still loved and needed. Did he feel as though he was being sent to the Je'daii in order to be out of the way for something else? But [member="Veiere Arenais"] hadn't given away any hints that he wanted to take over the government. On the contrary, he did the opposite, so it wasn't as though Cae was a threat to that.

Just his reactions alone made her wonder if Cae wanted her to divorce Veiere. That made her quite sad. How many others would lose their faith in him? Would they press her for a divorce too? Oh she hoped not.

It just wasn't fair.

She took her son's hand and got to her feet, giving him a bit of a smile as he mentioned a warm drink. "Yes, I could use some tea. A warm drink will do us both good." Kay draped an arm around his shoulders while she led him out of the playing field. "Whatever happens, we're in it together. And both you and your sister are loved so much. Never forget that. We just didn't want you to be tied down. This way, you two could learn great skills and be whatever you want to be instead of following in our footsteps." That was the excuse she used to make herself feel better about it. Hopefully it'll work for them too.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

Caedyn's father wasn't exactly so black and white a situation where Caedyn could admit any upfront hatred or resentment towards [member="Veiere Arenais"], no matter how grave the whole ordeal seemed to be on the outside. Like his Mother, [member="Lady Kay"], he loved his Dad and that would always be a difficult part of what they were having to accept, despite his actions, Veiere had helped to raise the twins and had up until recently always shown a great deal of love and care in their lives, not to mention too, the love that he showed towards their Mother. To want the two to wind up divorcing one another was not something Caedyn necessarily wanted yet he felt for his Mom who was obviously wounded by Veiere's recent betrayal of her trust and abuse of her love, to not have considered how his actions would affect her and their family, their lives together.

"Lori and I have grown up a bit since we lived at home, Mom. We will be strong for you too, ya know..." Caedyn sought to assure his Mom, a sense of strength and pride coming through in his words that he offered to her with a firm yet loving look towards the Woman who would, without a doubt in his mind, sacrifice everything for he and his Sister were it ever to come to such a thing. Fortunately thanks to [member="Asha Hex"] and [member="Jaster of Clan Awaud"], the twins would have an assortment of skills and resources to not only protect themselves but she too. While that might be a hard concept for Kay to come to accept, he and [member="Loreena Arenais"] were the future of House Arenais, a generation that despite her wanting to keep treating them like they were still her babies, they were otherwise fast in their growth and maturity against a Galaxy which held little mercy for the weak and innocent.

If recent times were to teach them anything, it would be a harsh reminder of the strength and pride in self and family to keep them and their loved ones strong against such trying times.

[member="Lady Kay"] | [member="Einon"] | [member="Klesta"] | [member="Avner Obasi"] | [member="Rex Taff"] | [member="Vallory"]​

 

[Klesta]

Objective: Peddling ergonomic assessments

"Done and done; thank you for doing business with the Sith Inquisitor"

7,350 shares out of how many? Hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, if his estimates are to go by. The Sith Inquisitor was not interested in owning shares of their clients, and then Klesta proceeds to sell those 7,350 shares of the mill to Tiffany, as soon as they left the mill's premises and back onto their ship. And were they surprised to see an invitation from a faction operating in the Unknown Regions, the Fel Empire, asking them to come in person to their capital. Regardless of whether or not it's about simply getting ergonomic assessments made or something else entirely, Klesta knew that they had to at least pay a visit to them. Because no faction specifically wanted ergonomic assessments done before the Fel Empire even came knocking to their doors. Next stop: Osseriton, while Tiffany holds on to the promissory note for 7,350 shares of the Stone River Textile Mill, believing that she will get paid thirty-five weeks from now, or maybe a year from now. So, in fact, she realized that she may as well be holding 7,350 votes in any decision requiring shareholder approval, but not much of a say in fact.

 

[Ravenfire]

Arms - ghost-shatter-rifle, s-3-mangler-sonic-pistol, praetorian-guard-battle-armor
Raven had been there the whole day. He had been on guard until [member="Lady Kay"] and her son [member="Caedyn Arenais"] came back. He was standing not far away ready to defend the pair when needed. He stood off to the side watching as They came back to the Camp. He waited for Lady Kay to speak with him and give him his next commands he was after all her guard. He was a soldier though and he could wait. He enjoyed wearing the CSA colours gave him something to get up to every morning. He could remember his past mistakes and would eventually fully repent for them but he doubted he would ever give up the CSA's colours. Or ever not want to protect Kay against any potential dangers.