Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night...

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

THE PLANET
SOFA IV

...alarms were sounding all throughout the base...

...clutching the stolen plans to the rebel's secret superweapen -- the Galaxy Destroyer -- Storm Shade was now trying to egress from out of the compound, in order to deliver the plans to the F.O. Joes so that the rebels could be stopped...

...a series of blaster shots impacted the wall beside him, tracing a path that drove him to flee to the left, springing out into the open as he found himself on the run from rebels. There were enemy soldiers closing in on both sides, but he had almost made it back to the hangar...

...the door to the hangar opened, revealing none other than Cando Lalrissian, standing there with a heavy blaster pistol aimed at Storm Shade. "You didn't think you could win, did you?" the gambler asked, in a dastardly, totally bad guy tone...

...but Storm Shade knew he still had one ace up his sleeve. For the rebels couldn't have known... he'd brought nunchucks.

...wind howled as the Atrisian superspy brought out the linked weapons, Lalrissian and the rebels taking a step back from the awesome aura of awesomeness that began to envelop the ninja as he whipped the nunchuku around...

...and then the ends ignited...

...he hadn't just brought nunchucks. He'd brought lightsaber nunchucks...

The young Cathar played with an assortment of injection-molded plastoid figures.

They were known as F.O. Joes, a children's holo-cartoon and toy franchise built around the mythos surrounding the ubiquitous stormtrooper in the galaxy. An elite unit led by the brave Captain Baron and Lieutenant Chalk, with heroes such as Agent Crimson, Storm Shade, and others rounding out the assortment of characters represented in the kitten's hands.

For the purpose of the current drama, in which the F.O. Joes were battling the dastardly Rebel Alliance -- who were led by the villainous Princess Oeia Lr'gana and General San Holo, with help from swindling black marketeer Cando Lalrissian and the Wookiee eco-terrorist, Chowbacca -- the Joes were striking at the Rebel base on the planet Sofa IV.

Said rebel base was, in fact, a cardboard box that was large enough for the youngling to fit inside, propped up against the side of the sofa in the living room. I Need a Hirou was playing in the background, though it didn't seem as though the cat-eared youngling was paying the holo-cartoon the slightest attention. Instead, he shuffled back and forth between the various plastic figures arrayed on the floor as he played.

The Cathar's parents had decided to go out for the evening, apparently wanting to dine at a restaurant that didn't involve youngling meals or kid's menus. Who did that?

Apparently, parents. That's who.

So, Micah was home with a stranger. And this one was as strange as they came. Which was probably normal, being that he was a teenager.

On the coffee table, next to errant pieces of loub-paper features various childish depictions of Sithspawn, was the boy's school textbook. He had some homework that he was supposed to complete.

Eventually.

[member="Thesh"]​

 

[Lief]

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Bastion, The Outer Rim Territories // The tol Powl Residence​

Watching Cartoons // With [member="Micah"]​

♫ // Tonight... We Are Young!​

So Let's Set The World On Fire​

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​

As he sat there within the lounge room, Thesh could not help but wonder what sort of madness he'd got himself wrapped up in.

Left alone with a kid, despite being little more than one himself, it was a daunting task indeed, yet thankfully for the most part he had yet to need to wrangle the boy who was set up in some box with his toys. Little figures that Thesh didn't recognize. He'd never had the luxury of such, the times that he'd been able to play prior to his enslavement at the hands of the Empire had been borne solely of imagination, without any tangible playthings outside of perhaps a stick or two. The show which was playing on the holostation was also a little confusing, and he sat and watched it in grim fascination.

Did people really enjoy such nonsense?

With a frown he turned his sights back down to the book he had been studying. Thesh was good at blocking out distractions, yet all the same the flashing lights and exaggerated tones emitted by the characters on screen continued to grab his attention. He read the same line five times over, before sighing and placing the book down.

Then he turned to the box.

"You hungry?" he asked, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "I'm hungry."

He wasn't hungry.

But with little to do and so many distractions from his work he decided it was high time they ate. Luckily for the kid Thesh was actually a fairly decent cook, kind of had to be if he wanted to stay out of trouble, so after pushing himself up from his seat he made his way toward the kitchen.

He found an autochef within, and while it was tempting to just whip something up quickly that would leave him with the issue of nothing to do all over again. So he bypassed it in favour of real ingredients and appliances, eyes drifting back through into the lounge.

"You know, your parents will kill me if you don't at least start that homework of yours. What is it, anyway? Looks interesting to me."

Thesh was a sucker for old tomes, he could spend whole days locked away within [member="Darth Maliphant"] 's library if given the chance.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The youngling was head down into the the box, contorted into the most improbable position possible and seemingly nonplussed by it. His tail swung from side to side at random intervals, usually in time with the pew, pew, pew sound effects that were coming from within the box.

"You hungry?"

The child's tail stuck straight up in the air. There was a loud rustling as the youngling flipped around inside the box, his legs disappearing as his upper body came shooting upward. "Fo--whoa!" the kitten began, fist triumphant as the box suddenly teetered over and the boy lost his balance.

The child landed face-down on the floor. Not to be dismayed, he scooted forward, free of the box, as he popped up on his knees. Fist triumphant in the air, the boy exclaimed, "Food!"

Granted, Micah was a remarkably un-picky eater. It could be fish sticks from the autochef and he'd be absolutely fine with that. Or mac-and-cheese. Or porg nuggets.

Scrambling up from the floor, the cat-eared boy seemed to be literally bouncing up and down as he bounded around the teenager as the older boy made his way from the lounge to the kitchen. The child's tail whipped about behind him as he moved, seemingly with boundless energy.

His homework?

"It's... like, we... we're learning about this Sith Lord," the kitten supplied, changing trains of thought three times before he finished the sentence. "His name's Garush or Gais or Grush or something," the youngling went on to add, mangling the name of Sith King Dathka Graush. "He... he, like, did these runes in this... this, like, valley on... on Korriban an'... an', like there's this crazy strong Force shield that comes from them."

So, Sith runes.

That's what the paper and the markers had originally been for. But drawing Sithspawn was way more interesting.

And also easier.

"Do... do you, like, study Sith magic?"

Not everyone did. Jorah and Blink seemed really uninterested in it. Well, Blink seemed like he was uninterested in most things. And Jorah was only interested in hitting things.

[member="Thesh"]​

 

[Lief]

______________________________________________________________​

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Bastion, The Outer Rim Territories // The tol Powl Residence​

Foooooood // With [member="Micah"]​

♫ // Tonight... We Are Young!​

So Let's Set The World On Fire​

______________________________________________________________​

​

​

Food was, apparently, a very volatile word when it came to the Cathar in his care.

The boy was quick to follow, and in his haste ended up faceplanting the ground; somehow this did not seem to deter him for even a minute, and as Thesh stepped into the kitchen he did so with the soft pitter patter of feet at his side. Glancing down, the boy could not help but smile. He was a funny little one, this Micah, reminded him of his brothers.

What little he could remember of his brothers, that was.

After opening the refrigerator he pulled out a little nerf meat, grabbed some red skinned mandalorian potatoes from the sideboard, as well as a couple of spices and some light oil, and set about prepping the ingredients. As an afterthought he turned to the kid.

"Mind grabbing me one of those onions, and some sort of vegetable? Which ever one you'll hate eating the least."

While Thesh loved his vegetables, he wasn't an idiot. He knew that most of the Galaxy's youths rebelled against such things. But... He wanted to make a good impression. Who knew, maybe he'd be seeing more of the kid in the future.

"Runes? Nice. You mean Graush then, the Sith?" The true Sith, that was, one of those strange species who predated the order. Something which had fascinated him to no end. "I only read a little on him. I haven't really studied Sith Magic - yet - but I've read a few books by myself. I really, truly, enjoy it."

Truth be told he was a little envious of the kid, if he was formally studying Sith Magic already then he was miles ahead of Thesh. Still, Thesh had a lot of things to iron out from the life he was leaving behind, and a whole archive of literature and lore to digest in his free time. One of these days maybe he'd grow a spine and ask [member="Darth Maliphant"] to teach him something specific from the old tomes he'd been reading.

His eyes drifted back to the book on the table, back in the living room.

"Maybe after we eat, you could show me it?" After all, it might prove a little more fun to Micah to show someone his work and talk through it than to sit in silence to study it.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The kitten was bouncing all over the place.

Everywhere except off the walls. And he might have given that a try, but for getting distracted when his sitter asked, "Mind grabbing me one of those onions, and some sort of vegetable?"

Pausing, the Cathar just froze for a moment. Behind him, his tail swooshed low as it swept just an inch off the floor. Then, popping up, the cat-eared child piped up and chimed, "Okay!"

No, he hadn't thought about it.

Turning, the boy bounded off toward the pantry. And he'd just about made it there when he did stop to think about it. Was this a trap? "Wait..." the kitten uttered, his ears sloping forward as he cut a side-eye back at his sitter.

"Which ever one you'll hate eating the least."

It was totally a trap.

"Hey!" the kitten protested, his ears folding back as his tail stuck out in indignation. Then, sulking, he made his way into the pantry to sort through what they had in there. There was some spigage (bleh). That was definitely not making the cut. In fact, the younging re-arranged the pantry so that the spigage was concealed behind several larger items, just so the sitter didn't see that if he looked in here later.

Instead, the boy pulled out some chando peppers. Using the Force, the kitten concentrated as he tried to juggle and levitate those in the air using telekinesis. Holding both hands out, the boy's eyes were focused on the peppers as they dangled in the air, working to keep them there. As he did, he shuffled back toward the sitter.

Were peppers a vegetable though?

They bore seeds, so didn't that make them a fruit? But you wouldn't put chando peppers in fruit salad. So... what was the deal with fruit anyway?

"Can we make it spicy?" the kitten asked, as he returned with the peppers hovering in mid-air.

[member="Thesh"]​

 

[Lief]

"Spicy?"

Thesh tore his eyes away from the chopping board and lifted his free hand to rub his chin in thought. The boy had brought peppers from the pantry, alongside the other things he'd asked for, and was presently levitating them through the Force in quite the show of skill and concentration. They counted, of course, but it was best not to let him think he was getting off too easily. Then he might decide that the peppers were far too healthy for his palette like the rest of the vegetables he'd inevitably skipped over.

"I suppose, just this once."

He tipped his head in a gesture which beckoned the boy and his collection closer, snatching the onions and the garlic ahead of time in order to begin prepping it and leaving the boy with the peppers until he was ready to set them down himself. Far be it for Thesh to put an end to his mental gymnastics, it was the closest thing to homework the kid had done all night.

After swiftly dicing the onions he set them into a frying pan on medium heat with a blob of butter, and soon enough the whole apartment had a lovely aroma about it. Once they were translucent he added in the garlic, and then looked to Micah.

"Might I trouble you for a pepper or two, great pepper juggler?"

At this point the potatoes were being cooked in one of the quick-fire ovens which would have them done in no time at all, and in that same pan of onions and garlic the nerf meat began to sear, just enough to give it a nice outer layer without cooking it too heavily on the inside. Of course he seasoned both liberally with salt and pepper, and he'd even added some of the leftover onion and garlic cloves to the tray with the potatoes, for some extra goodness. Now all that remained was the heat the boy had pulled from the pantry.

[member="Micah"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The kitten's ears perked up.

He liked spicy food. Spicy was better than sweet, but both of those were preferable to sour. Jorah liked sour stuff, like awesome sour jawbreakers. But Micah definitely favored spicy and sweet.

Hands still outstretched, the boy found his attention pulled in different directions. On the one hand, he was curious about what the sitter was doing in the kitchen. But, as his focus shifted to what was happening in the pan on the stove, the peppers began dropping lower in the air, prompting the youngling to turn his attention back to those as they levitated back upward.

"Might I trouble you for a pepper or two, great pepper juggler?"

The boy's tail gave a happy flick at the compliment. He was a great pepper juggler!

...no, he was THE great pepper juggler!

"Okay," the boy chirped brightly, shuffling over closer to the sitter as he brought the peppers over.

Now that those were no longer floating, he could actually pay attention to what was happening in the pan. He wasn't really certain just what all was going on with that, but it smelled like something he wanted to eat.

[member="Thesh"]​

 

[Lief]

Thesh was quick to spot the boy's intrigue, the way in which his attention strayed to the point that the kitchen floor almost became flooded with spicy, peppery goodness, and that brought a genuine smile to his face. He hadn't been so sure about taking on the job at first, but there were honestly few within the Academy who truly fit the required bill and [member="Darth Maliphant"] had believed it would do the boy some good, allow him to know what it was to work in order to achieve monetary gain rather than under threat of physical harm as it had been in the past.

And he had been correct, of course. As he stood there, keeping an eye on both the pan and the boy, he felt an almost cathartic relief wash over his body.

He picked up one of the peppers to begin with, and after slicing it he began to remove the seeds... But then he paused. "You want it spicy, right?" Of course the boy did, that was why he'd picked the hot peppers, so instead he removed only half the seeds and kept the rest with the flesh of the fruit. That would add a much needed kick to the dish. After repeating the process with two more of the peppers, and leaving the last few on the side - after all they could be put back in the pantry soon enough - he opened the oven and chucked one third of the peppers onto the potato tray before closing it and tossing the remainder into the pan.

They sizzled as they hit the juices of the meat, and soon enough the meal was nearing completion.

"What do you want to drink, oh great pepper juggler?" he asked, with a grin, "I'd say we've another minute before this stuff is done if you want to grab two glasses and some juice?" In the meantime Thesh pulled out two plates and set them on the countertop in anticipation.

He might not have been truthfully hungry to begin with, but now? Well, with all of those aromatic scents wafting around he'd be crazy not to be.

[member="Micah"]