Private Edge of the Abyss

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

"I mean if you don't want it." Aya looked at Ana for a moment. BUt she didn't say much. "Look bewbies." Seastone shouted as she had a blue footed bird on her hand and was getting changed into the fresh uniform. "Always so cool." The twi'lek said it while she was changing her shirt and Mistral was with the wookiee avoiding all of them and eye contact as the two of them found a fascinating area with two crabs. "I got two credits on one claw... he might be uneven but seems like a scrapper." Mistral said it avoiding the others as the wookiee roared. "No, I called one claw you got that one right there look at the big shell."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana looked from Aya to Seastone, then toward Mistral and the Wookiee, who had very clearly decided that crab gambling was the most important activity currently taking place on the island. Given the alternatives, she could not entirely blame them. "I didn't say I didn't want it," she replied, finally unfolding the dry clothes and giving them a more thorough inspection. They were ridiculous, but they were also dry, and at the moment, dry was winning every internal argument she had. Seastone's enthusiastic announcement about the bird earned only a brief glance before Ana added, "I'm beginning to think you would be equally excited if someone handed you a particularly interesting rock." The observation was made entirely without judgment; if anything, it sounded like she had accepted Seastone's boundless energy as a fundamental law of the universe.

With the men thoroughly occupied by their apparently high-stakes crustacean competition and making a conspicuous effort not to look in their direction, Ana finally stood. "For once, I appreciate the professionalism being displayed over there," she murmured, her gaze lingering briefly on Mistral and the Wookiee. "Or the crabs are genuinely that interesting." Either explanation seemed entirely plausible.

Stepping a little farther down the beach to find a modest amount of cover, she changed quickly, trading her damp, clinging garments for the smuggler-cache uniform. By the time she returned, carrying her wet clothes bundled under one arm, she already felt marginally more human. The outfit still looked absurd—comfortable, admittedly, but undeniably absurd. Looking down at the shortened trousers and the aggressively open collar, Ana shook her head as she settled back onto the driftwood. "I feel like I've accidentally joined a very relaxed Imperial Navy. Still," she let out a small, quiet sigh, "it's much better than being wet."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral still didn't look as he spoke. "Professional crab racing is an important aspect of any culture." The wookiee roared an affirmation for that as Seastone looked at Ana and spoke. "ANd for the record... who doesn't like shiny and interesting rocks? THey are like the best friends for any kids growing up. You can talk to them and tell them secrets and they don't judge you, practice kissing them and have them as lookout when you are prranking the principle of your school by disassembling their speeder and rebuilding it in their office. Rocks are awesome and if you gave me one I would be haappy to meet your best friend."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana finished adjusting the borrowed outfit, giving the collar a final tug. It still looked ridiculous, but dry clothing easily outweighed any fashion concerns. Seastone's colorful childhood stories about using rocks to practice kissing and pull speeder pranks only reinforced Ana's growing suspicions about the Twi'lek's lack of childhood supervision. "I am simultaneously impressed and concerned that every example somehow became more alarming than the previous one," Ana murmured with dry amusement, folding her damp garments into a neat bundle. "Remind me never to become responsible for educating children."

Turning toward Mistral and the Wookiee—who remained entirely engrossed in their high-stakes crab race—Ana announced her completion with all the ceremony of a software update. "You can look now," she said, shaking her head as she settled back onto the driftwood. "Though I feel obligated to point out that if the crabs have become more interesting than the possibility of people changing clothes, I may have fundamentally misunderstood several aspects of galactic culture."

Glancing down once more at the shortened trousers and open collar, she let out a small sigh. "I also appear to be dressed for an Imperial beach holiday, which is a phrase I never expected to say."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

"It is a gift, like a really cool superpower." Seastone said it as she had distracted from Aya getting in her own set of the outfit and stood there. "SHe offered a sympathetic look at Ana though. "It is alright, it has been a long day. We'll make it up for you at the next island. I'll find entire groups who want to oogle you." She offered it and moved over with a small knife as she stabbed one of the crabs and Mistral looked at her and then at the wookiee. "Interference, that wager didn't count." THe wookiee looked at him and both of them rose up as he spoke turning around to look at Ana. "If the situation was reversed and it was me stripping down to change into form fitted resort clothing. Would you have just stood there and starred?"

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana stared at him for a moment after the question before crossing her arms, the answer requiring considerably less thought than it probably should have.

"Yes," she said, without even a hint of hesitation. The blunt admission hung in the air for a second before she shrugged lightly, a faint trace of amusement creeping into her expression as she looked him over, apparently deciding there was little point in pretending otherwise. "I certainly would have. You're remarkably good-looking, and I don't know why we're all acting like this is some great mystery."

The words were delivered with the exact same matter-of-fact tone she usually reserved for identifying software faults. "If someone places an attractive person directly in front of another person, there is a reasonable sensory chance they will look. That seems less like a moral failing and more like basic, logical observation."

Only after the words left her mouth did she realize she had effectively admitted to finding him attractive in front of everyone present.

Following a brief, telling pause, she looked away toward the ocean to cover her ground. "To be clear, I'm not denying that you're eye candy. I think denying obvious things is exactly what got us into half the problems we've had this week," she added, the corner of her mouth twitching with a dry smile. "Though unlike Seastone, I would probably have had the decency to be subtle about it."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

He gave her a look and worked to apply bashful with it but couldn't quite make it work as he spoke. "You think I am attractive? Ah shucks now I am all nervous here and on the spot." He said it though and looked at her. "You are not wrong and you are equally as beautiful as you are smart and quick witted but that doesn't mean I am just going to watch you change in front of me for the sake of it." He said it but was looking at the outfits.. "Also you look like how I imagine the empire might have their life guards if they really hated them and wanted to make a point of it." He said it but the line about Seastone he was imagining that it wasn't far from the truth.

 

[Ana Rix]

"That is significantly less effective when you're smiling while saying it," Ana observed, looking at him for a moment before shaking her head. Whatever attempt at bashfulness he had been going for had clearly been abandoned somewhere between his first word and his second sentence. Still, his compliment caught her slightly off guard, though she hid it better than she might have a few hours ago. Between being soaked by storms, chased across cliffs, nearly eaten by assorted wildlife, and stranded on a strange island, her capacity for baseline embarrassment had been worn down considerably.

"Thank you," she said simply, before looking down at herself with a frown. The outfit was entirely ridiculous, featuring shorts and an open collar that attempted to preserve rigid Imperial aesthetics while simultaneously adapting them for tropical weather. It was a design concept that somehow failed in multiple directions at once.

Ana tugged lightly at the strange fabric, her gaze moving from her own uniform to the others standing along the beach. "You know, the more I look at it, the more I think you're right. This does feel like something an Imperial quartermaster would issue if they had a personal grudge against their entire unit."

A faint smile finally appeared on her face as she folded her damp clothing a little tighter under one arm. "Though after spending most of the day soaked, cold, and wondering whether I was going to die on a fortress wall, I'm discovering that comfort can make a person surprisingly forgiving. I still look ridiculous, but at least I'm dry and not actively falling off a cliff."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

He could only nod agreement to that statement while looking over a lot more of it. MIstrals attention went to Aya who had changed and Seastone had used the distraction to change as well. So there was all of that while they were going back towards the boat. "Now we just need to decide what to do with some of the rations and move out far enough to anchor we can not be caught unaware." Aya said it while she was moving though and leading Seastone back towards the boat. "Plus it will let us be concealed from the trees if we move the boat around the island. Get it into a good position for us to be able to move when we are rested and likely able to work on a few sections."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana rose from the driftwood with considerably less enthusiasm than she had shown when sitting down. The brief period of dryness and relative safety had been pleasant while it lasted, but she suspected "brief" was becoming the defining theme of the entire trip. Gathering her damp clothes, she followed the others toward the boat, casting one last wary glance at the treeline. The island hadn't attempted to kill them yet, which she was tentatively counting as a success.

"Concealed, rested, and slightly less likely to be eaten in our sleep sounds like a solid plan," she said, the sand shifting beneath her feet as she approached the vessel. "Though I have noticed that every time we make a sensible decision, it is immediately followed by something terrible happening. So I would like the record to show that I fully support this plan while simultaneously expecting it to go horribly wrong." The observation was delivered with enough flat certainty to sound less like a joke and more like a statistical analysis.

Still, her attention drifted over the supplies Aya had recovered, forcing her to look on the bright side. "At least we have food, dry clothes, and a boat. Those are three more assets than we had this morning." The fact that she considered this baseline survival to be stellar progress probably said something deeply concerning about the trajectory of their mission, but she offered Aya and Mistral a small shrug anyway. "Besides, if we're anchoring for the night, I'd rather do it now while we're dry and relatively intact."

Her eyes then moved briefly toward Seastone, a faint, wry smile finally surfacing. "I have a growing suspicion that leaving her unsupervised for too long results in either explosions or sociology experiments, and I would prefer not to discover which one she has planned after dark."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Aya gave a look to Ana as she laughed at all of it. "Yes, yes and most likely. Seastone is sweet and once you tucker her out for the night she is like an angel... a violence, explosive obsessed high flying angel." She said it and was getting on the boaat with Seastone who stretched. "You make it sound like I can't be unsupervised alone... I totally can. " She said it as a joke and was mostly smiling as Mistral and the wookiee got onto the boat and offered their hands for Ana to climb on. Aya going towards the wheel and controls to take them out and anchor in a more secure location for the time being. "Yes Seastone you can do a lot but you also like to be extra and right now we need to get back and report so we can get a new boat."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana accepted the offered hand without argument, allowing Mistral to help her aboard. Under normal circumstances, she might have made some comment about being perfectly capable of climbing onto a boat herself, but she had spent the day soaked, chased, shot at, nearly drowned, and stranded on an island that may or may not have contained cannibals. At some point, practicality had won the argument.

Settling onto a bench near the others, she let out a long breath and rested her head briefly against Mistral's shoulder before realizing what she had done.

For a moment, she considered moving. Then she considered how tired she was. The second argument won.

"I'm reaching a point where even Seastone is starting to make sense," she muttered, eyes half-closed as Aya guided the boat away from shore. "I assume that's a warning sign."

The gentle rocking of the boat felt considerably safer than the fortress, the cliffs, the jungle, or most of the other places they'd visited during the day.

"Wake me if the island attacks us, the boat explodes, or Seastone discovers a new form of disaster." After a beat, she added: "Actually, just wake me if the boat explodes. The rest seems normal now."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

He was surprised for a moment but didn't make a move with it as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He was looking with a nod though. "Seastone might invent a new problem... maybe or she might invent a chance for us to find some secret stash of jewels.. or we all explode. There is quite a few options for us." He laughed a little to himself though and the wookiee came over near him as he sat down and Mistral looked at him. "You to?" With a look he and the wookiee laughed for a look though when he looked at Ana. "We'll be fine. A chance to really get back and we'll see the others. I wonder what Kono has been doing."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana let out a tired sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a laugh as the boat rocked gently beneath them, far too exhausted to question the arm around her shoulders or the fact that Seastone's future plans included unimaginable wealth and accidental detonation with equal probability. "That is not reassuring," she muttered, her eyes half-closed as her head settled comfortably against him. "Normal people don't describe exploding as one possibility among many. They would say something like, 'We'll get some sleep and head home tomorrow.' You all keep adding variables."

The gentle motion of the boat, the dry clothes, and the simple fact that nobody was actively trying to kill them anymore made it increasingly difficult to remain awake. When he mentioned Kono, she considered the question for a moment, the thought feeling vaguely unfair. Everyone else seemed to have been enjoying a normal investigation, while their team had somehow managed to find every disaster available on the islands.

"Knowing our luck? Probably something calm, sensible, and completely free of explosions," she said quietly. "Which means he's going to be insufferably pleased with himself when we get back. Though if he has a warm building, a dry chair, and a functioning caf machine waiting for us, I may be willing to forgive him. Mostly because I don't think I have enough energy left to hold a grudge."

The admission was followed by a yawn; she made only a token effort to hide as sleep finally began to win the argument. "Wake me if Seastone discovers jewels," she added, her voice trailing off into a quiet murmur. "Or explodes. Actually, those might be the same event."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

"Sounds like a plan." He said it and followed her yawn... unfair it was something that you always did when you saw someone else yawn. He was prepared to go to sleep and Kono was well Kono would be there for them hopefully. Aya found a place as Seastone looked. "Ah sleep, you can't explode that.... or can you?" She thought about it... Mistral was half asleep and he could see that she was thinking about it. That might have been the worse part of it all in his opinion before he was closing his eyes and just moving so the wookiee was slightly angled to protect him from danger of the engine... it would also protect Ana.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana had intended to stay awake long enough to ensure that Seastone did not somehow discover a method of weaponizing sleep. Unfortunately, exhaustion proved stronger than caution. The combination of dry clothes, a full stomach, and the gentle rocking of the anchored boat dragged her under almost immediately. Her last coherent thought was that nobody should ever encourage Seastone when she started wondering whether something could explode. Then the darkness came, and for once it brought no storms, no alarms, no cliffs, and no things trying to eat them.

When she finally woke, pale morning light filtered through the cabin and reflected softly across the water outside. Ana remained still for several seconds, staring at the ceiling and waiting for the next disaster to announce itself. Nothing happened. The boat remained intact, the sea was calm, and nobody appeared to be screaming. Given the last day, the absence of catastrophe felt almost suspicious.

Slowly sitting up, she became aware of every ache her body had accumulated during the mission. Muscles protested, bruises reminded her they existed, and fatigue lingered stubbornly at the edges of her thoughts. Her gaze swept across the cabin, taking inventory of the others. Everyone appeared alive. Everyone appeared unharmed. Most importantly, the boat had not exploded overnight.

"We're alive," she observed quietly, as though verifying an unlikely result. Rising to her feet, she stretched and glanced toward whoever was awake. "Good morning. I'm pleased to report that neither the island nor the boat appears to have exploded during the night." A faint smile tugged at her lips before she added, "Though I assume Seastone will view that as a challenge rather than an accomplishment."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral was waking up when he heard Ana and looked at her for a moment. "I wouldn't put it past her but she is the best pilot we have right now... at least for navigating through the rocks around the dark islands." He said it and was slower to rise up but he was looking at the large shark came out of the water and climbed onto the boat. Her mouth with a pair of fish in the teeth before she dropped them into a small basin. Her finned and clawed hands were prepared to shred it before she was moving and Aya came up from below. "Don't encourage her." She said it but Seastone was still asleep below while Aya was looking at the fish and then the sea. "It is still for now. We'll eat some and then make way."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana watched the shark woman climb aboard with the fish and decided she had officially reached the point where nothing about this mission surprised her anymore. A day ago, she might have questioned the logistics of catching breakfast by diving into unfamiliar waters surrounded by dangerous wildlife. Now she simply accepted it as another entry on a growing list of things that somehow worked despite sounding like terrible ideas.

The smell of fresh fish did little to improve her mood.

What she wanted was considerably simpler.

"Before we discuss breakfast, navigation, cannibals, smugglers, storms, sea monsters, or whatever today's problem is going to be," she said as she rubbed at her eyes, "is there any caf around?"

Her gaze moved hopefully between Aya and Mistral.

"Actual caf. Not tea. Not a local substitute. Not something Seastone assures me has the same effect but is somehow carbonated and mildly explosive."

The last part felt like a necessary clarification.

After everything she had seen, she was no longer willing to assume the answer was obvious.

"I would like to begin the day with at least one familiar thing before we resume risking our lives."

A pause followed as she glanced toward the hatch below decks, where Seastone remained asleep.

"Preferably before she wakes up and contributes ideas."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

The twi'lek looked at her. "You don't add explosions to tea for flavor to make it strong.. you do it for color." SHe said it and Aya looked at her and then at Ana as she spoke. "We have powdered caf and some water. This boat wasn't really stocked for luxury in mind." SHe said it and Mistral was looking at more of it while he dug through the little kit she had brought out. The water purifier was there and it served enough of a function that they would be able to use it for more fresh water as he worked a hand crank to get a cup... then was taking some of the powdered caf to add it to what he had. "Oh this was all we got for OMega's investigation supplies."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana looked from Seastone to Aya, then back to Seastone, trying to determine whether she was joking.

Experience suggested the answer was no.

Which was somehow worse.

"I am relieved that you've clarified the purpose of explosive tea," she said dryly. "I was concerned there might be a practical reason behind it."

The mention of caf immediately drew her attention back to Aya. Whatever disappointment she might have felt at the lack of luxury vanished the moment powdered caf entered the conversation. At this stage of the mission, her standards had lowered dramatically.

"Powdered caf is still caf," she declared. "I am in no position to be selective."

Watching Mistral work the purifier and prepare the drink felt strangely comforting. There was something reassuring about seeing ordinary problems solved with ordinary solutions after everything they'd been through. No storms. No cannibals. No fortress assaults. Just a cup of caf on a boat.

Ana accepted the cup when it was ready and wrapped both hands around it, letting the warmth seep into her fingers before taking a cautious sip.

"You know," she said after a moment, looking down into the mug, "when I signed on to help with an investigation, I imagined better equipment, better transportation, and significantly fewer attempts on my life."

Her gaze shifted toward Mistral.

"Instead Omega apparently allocated enough funding for powdered caf and optimism."

A pause.

"To be fair, the caf is doing most of the heavy lifting."

Mistral