Private Deadringer

[Zaavik Perl]

Forty minutes?

If that's what it took, that's what it took, he guessed. This stuff damn well better be superior to his usual spray-on option. Of course it was going to last longer, but forty minutes still seemed steep. Maybe he was just being impatient.

Clearly he wasn't being nearly as patient about anything as she was being with him. It hadn't even been twenty minutes since he inadvertently pulled her out of a dead sleep alongside himself. In that time she'd cleaned up his rash self-modification and applied an entire dye kit which he had a notion she intended for himself.

All because he thought he might have seen the future?

They really had come away from popping shoulders and carving spines, hadn't they?

What had he done to deserve that kind of patience?

Zaavik frowned, suddenly feeling like he'd been ungrateful. He had an inclination Korriban's uncertainty was still bothering her, despite the repose they'd given each other. Not even that could be a miracle.

A shamefaced look drifted upward. "I'm sorry," he pleaded. She'd know for what, right? If he was being as emotionally parsimonious as he thought, surely.

 

[Darth Daiara]

She shrugged noncommunicably, her legs crossing as she stuffed her attention into the box at hand. She knew what he meant. At least, she thought she did. Waking up in a fuss wasn't something anyone aimed to do, but if he needed a moment to have a break down then he would get it.

He had pulled her out of Ziost in a pile of self-defeated tears.

She was ready to throw in the towel back then.

She was ready to die then.

What was an impromptu haircut to that?

"...Do you think it's me?" She finally commented, looking up from the extra box. A troubled look was growing across her features, her thoughts shifting back to things past.

"Do you think they're finding you through me?" She wasn't hiding her face now a days, not since Vesta. Come to think of it it was her the imperial android had found first on Vjyun.

...It was her Allyson had tracked down. Her nostrils flared in alarm. She contorted, twisting to study her own reflection in the mirror. Was there a file on her?

 

[Zaavik Perl]

That wasn't a possibility he'd considered. It was definitely known he had an 'accomplice' but until she'd suggested it, he didn't have any reason they knew anything beyond that. "I don't know," he confessed. None of the close calls he'd had so far had been with her, but that didn't feel sufficient to rule it out entirely.

Standing, he took a step forward, reached out a hand, guided her anxious regard by the cheek, away from the mirror. "But maybe not," he added. A weak smile tried to be reassuring.

"Like you said, it doesn't have to happen, and it might not even be you at all."

The appearance of his contract in the sector didn't necessarily mean he'd been seen around. Though, when paired with the portent, it was more than a little unsettling. Still, the last thing he wanted was for Aradia to blame herself for anything. He was the one putting her at risk, after all.

"I'm the one they want. I doubt any of 'em even know your name, let alone your face."

 

[Darth Daiara]

"But they did see me," she countered, the worry deepening.

"At the caves, remember? That girl looked me in the eye when you called me your friend, you think they did mind ju ju on her?" She plied, that stress deepening. They had little proof and only their gut to off of, but twice now she had been found first when the objective was them both.

It couldn't be coincidence.

She let out a frustrated huff and ripped open the box, her fingers shaky. "We can't take these chances."

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Slow blink.

Reassuring palm retreated behind his head. Now it only gestured for how foolish he felt. Of course they had to know something. He'd allocated too much consideration toward what they might have on him that he somehow missed something so obvious.

"I remember," he confirmed. That didn't mean he expected someone to have a clear memory after taking a stun bolt and heel to the temple. If they'd delved into her mind, though-

The sound of cardboard tearing snapped him out of scrutinous retrospection.

No use analyzing it anymore. Better safe than sorry, or something.

"Do you need help?"

 

[Darth Daiara]

She wanted to go back to sleep, but that wasn't going to happen. Their morning had started and no end laid in sight. After this they had to plan-- gather supplies-- and leave.

She didn't want to linger to anything that had connections to them. Not unless-- Her thoughts caught once again on Vesta.

It would be too soon for that to all be done. She wasn't ready... but if she had to be.... She would. Jittery hands handed off the box, the girl wordlessly slipping down and wetting her hair in the sink in turn. A little manipulation of water itself helped with the saturation, droplets raising through the hair and getting the hair to reach places. She had never finished that training either.

Kaalia could control all four elements. Aradia could barely push past one.

Clean hair was roughly dried and left to sit damp over her shoulders. She didn't look at it, no final farewell given to the color she ...she actually liked. It was too identifiable. She shifted the towel over her shoulder and let herself onto the toilet lid.

"How long do you think we have? The vision, was it pressing or..."

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Zaavik began, not knowing entirely what he was doing, mimicking what Aradia had done for him. How hard could it be? Much more complicated tasks had been achieved by copying what he'd seen.

"I wish I knew," he confessed. "This is all still unfamiliar to me." Light Zeltronian accent stressed on unfamiliar, as if the i-l-i wasn't easy for his palate to articulate. It inadvertently drove his point with more emphasis.

"It's not like I ever had a teacher to guide me in omen interpretation. Jedi shun that kind of thing, say destiny isn't ours to influence."

Zaavik sneered.

"Like I'm supposed to be fate's errand boy, or some kind of pushover. Stupid."

That was the first time he'd been openly critical of them aloud. At least, around Aradia. He never dealt well with gloating, and was an even worse loser.

 

[Darth Daiara]

A noise of agreeance caught in her nose.

"I suppose they're worried about what you might see. Hard to control someone a step ahead of you-- Though it's not darksided, you know. ... Before Order 66, all jedi used it. " It surprised her that she was aware of this history over him. The number of times she had been told the sith were lying to use her, she found it ironic that the jedi were doing it in turn.

Her features softened, taking no pleasure from the twist. "...They probably just feared it," she reassured. "If they were worried about overstepping their hand, they wouldn't be cutting us off at our neck." A pretty way to refer to the academies they had purged.

A little harsh? Not when her peers were dead.

She reached out and laid her hand on his wrist. "People get stupid when they're afraid."

 

[Zaavik Perl]

Trying to defy the inevitable had been the downfall of many great Jedi. There was a kind of parallel there with his own journey. Minus the Great Jedi part, of course.

"People get stupid when they're afraid."

"Oh, trust me, I'm aware," he agreed. Taking advantage of people's fearful stupidity had been a big part of his old job. Creating trepidatious situations to take advantage of was one of his most honed skills. More than a few times he'd attempted it with her when they were at each other's necks.

Back to the point.

"They just don't want-" people to end up like me.

That would have been a terrible sentence to finish.

"Jedi are supposed to be tools of the Force itself. Individualism rarely melds well with selflessness." He picked back up, gracefully turning his words to appear as simply a reorganization of thought. That was another skill. Ironically, his order had been one of the most lenient of its kind. Yet, the same trials and tribulations that Jedi Orders had faced for hundreds of years weren't anything they could break free of.

"None of that matters now anyway. Doesn't apply to me no more."

A few more strokes, and he shook his hands off. A quick run under the sink got off all the black he could manage. He didn't dare look at them, if not to be reminded of what sparked all of this to begin with. Trying to forget might have been counter-productive, but the more nebulous it was, the less upsetting it was.

"Forty minutes?"

 

[Darth Daiara]

It really bothered her. The way he kept excusing them.

No, not excusing them.

Glorifying them while barely containing his disgust for her master, or what he and she now did. He thought his self hatred only affect him, but he was wrong. Every moment he hated himself for what he now was was a moment he told Aradia she was worth the same detest.

He may have seen the flaws in his order, but he was still treating it like it was above, while hers was the bottom of his boot.

She pulled back, her expression growing guarded and pained. She wanted to crawl back inside her skin, unable to find the words for how fucked up the moment made her feel.

She wrapped her arms around her core and craved the return of her pants. "Forty minutes," she confirmed, her voice tight.