Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Enjoy the Silence

It was raining outside. One of the few days when such seemed to be the case on their little tropical paradise. Father was gone for the moment, as was Micah. Mother and Maleah had gone away somewhere. All that was left at home was Kaili, Aela, and the non-stop sound of rain hitting the ground. It was calming, but it made the option to wander around outside more of an ordeal than a fun pass-time and while it wasn’t an obstacle most of the time today felt different.

Legs crossed she lie on her back across the sofa staring out the window. A stray look went for the book on the table. Kaili’s book. She was supposed to read but as usual she found no reason to do so. With a bored push up she rested her arm on the cushion of the couch as her hand planted itself across her cheek. With a sigh the girl let her eyes set themselves upon the grand portal to the one part of the house she was not really allowed to ‘explore’ anymore.

The room of [member="Aela Talith"].

While certainly still a place of great adventure and risk it had lost its point after Micah and Aela’s constant disagreements, or rather the silence between the two. It tore Kai apart inside that she never did anything to fix it or that whenever she did try to fix it her efforts seemed to get them nowhere. She just wanted them all to get along. To be a happy family and just be okay, to just get along and not give each other the cold shoulder or glare at each other over petty mistakes. Perhaps one day, but until then she would be stuck in the middle.

She grabbed the book from the coffee table. The cover was old, rugged and torn. Well-loved by it’s previous or perhaps real owner. A second look went over to the Grumpus’ lair. It was one of her old books. The look lingered before it eventually went back to staring at the book.

It was as good of a reason as any to break the silence around here.

Grabbing the book she made way for the grand gate. A hand hovered in front of her face. She was about to do something she hadn’t done in a while, if not ever.

She knocked on the door.
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

Aela looked up from her book as she heard a knock on the door.

For half a second she tried to remember who was home and who wasn't. Mother and Micah had taken off for the day, Father and Maleah had gone as well. Aunt Amorella and Uncle Cameron were staying in their own home now, that meant that only Kaili and she were actually here. She smiled slightly.

“Come in.” Kaili was her youngest sister, and the youngest child of Kira and Soliael Talith. Aela and her had always gotten along fairly well, though that was mostly because unlike Micah and Maleah, Kaili actually listened when Aela said something.

That was not to say that she liked Kaili any more than any of her other siblings, nor did she love her more, but it meant that she was at least easier to get along with and talk to.

It also meant that she trusted her to come into her room, unlike Micah and Maleah who only sought to mess everything up for the sake of messing it up. Though both of the Twins had gotten better at respecting her space.

Probably because of their age.
 
[member="Aela Talith"]

In through the door stepped the other half of the Talith family. At least one half out of the two that were still at home. A respectful look around the room had Kaili realising it felt different. Not by a lot, but something felt different. Perhaps it was the recent few months lack of expeditions into the lair that had simply made it all fade, or perhaps her sister had rearranged her room. In any case it still felt weird to be inside the room without being yelled at to leave.

“It’s so quiet around the house.” The sound of rain smattering against the windows echoed from outside in the living room. “I forgot how lonely it could get when nobody else is around.”

Kaili looked at the book in her hands. “I saw this book and, I don’t know, I figured maybe you wanted someone to talk to.” A smile spread across the girl’s facade. “I think it used to belong to you. You like books.”

It was a book about a nerf racing a womp rat and winning. A fable with a good message, one that Kai would know if she had actually read the book. A message that overconfidence, arrogance and showboating would get her nowhere. It wasn’t necessarily that she wasn’t interested, it just felt a lot like ‘words words words words.’ In fact, most books did but one could hardly blame an eleven year old for being more on the look out for fun, right?

“I should probably read it, but I don’t know...”
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

Aela let out a sigh.

She loved Kaili of course, loved all of her siblings. Yet she was in a current streak of independence. She was growing up and hitting what most parents called the rebellious phase of her life. Of course for Aela a rebellion was simply locking herself away and learning about galactic events, training in the lightsaber, and using the force, but really it was still a rebellion.

Part of her wanted to remind her little sister of that, that she was trying to be alone, that she was in her room for a reason.

Yet the look on her siblings face, the innocent and loneliness in her voice. It broke through that facade of seriousness and made Aela want to do something with her Sister, if only to make her happy for a little while. She couldn't have been too happy about being left behind with only her older sister here.

“Bring it here.” Aela said smiling at her sister, closing the book that lay in front of her after slipping a small piece of paper onto her current page to mark it. “I don't remember it.”

She most definitely remembered that book, she remembered every book, but she could pretend.
 
[member="Aela Talith"]

Yeah, right! Kaili lift her eyebrow at her sister. There was no way Aela didn’t remember this book. Aela was the one who read the most out of all the siblings, it was all Kaili ever seemed to see or remember her doing. Read, write or read again. Practice every now and then when sneak peeking. In a sense it was admirable and caused her to keep her distance out of respect. It was just a shame, because at the same time there were so many things to be seen that wasn’t in a book. Like the invisible monsters in the forest out there in their backyard. Aela was missing on a lot of excitement out there.

The girl wiped the questioning look from her face and nodded at her sister.

“I read some of it. It’s about a rat that’s too cocky for his own good who likes to tease people.” Her eyes wandered aside. “Kind of like Micah.”

She wasn’t going to get into that subject. It wasn’t worth it. “But I don't want to talk about him. What were you doing before?”

It was partly genuine and partly small talk. Kaili could pretend she didn’t know what Aela was up to too, or that she didn't want to talk to her sister about their brother again.
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

“I was reading.” Her sister already knew that, but both of them were playing a small game.

Aela knew that Kaili didn't really want to talk about Micah, she also knew that the little girl didn't want to talk about the book she was reading. Yet that was small talk, and it was a way to pave into other things.

“It's one Oma got me.” She slowly picked the book up off the bed and straightened herself into a sitting position, sliding herself onto the edge of her bed and letting her toes curl against the soft carpet. “It's about the history of Onderon and their Kings.”

She showed the cover of the book to Kaili.

It was a neatly inscribed leather bound book, looking ancient. The cover had swirls carved into the front, slight notches, and at the center was a face that looked gaunt and worn, it's visage slightly scary and designed to inspire fear.
 
Kaili nodded at her sister. Reading was what she usually did, but playing the socializing game? Not as much. It felt good, they didn’t really say anything but it felt good nonetheless. It was like talking to an elder-elder almost. That one person you could turn to for most answers. Well, most of the time. When she wasn’t looking to isolate herself within her room. Which, granted, she almost always seemed to do.

The cover of the book was held out in front of Kai and for what it was worth the design worked. A brief moment of unease put the girl’s face in a slight scrunch. A hand courageously hovered in front of her as it slowly reached out for the book’s cover. She wanted to touch it.

The stare felt real enough but was it actually there? The closer she got the harder she fought her nerves. The urge to pull back was great, but the curiosity and need to touch the cover was greater. A soft finger eventually touched ground and began tracing along the edges of the swirls and notches. It was just a book and quite clearly nothing to be afraid of. Kaili let out an awkward chuckle.

“It’s... A book.” A genius observation. “And it’s not scary at all!”

“Why would a book about Onderon’s kings have a cover like that? Wouldn’t a crown or a jewel be more appropriate?”

Because royalty and fine things went hand in hand. Terror, dictators and tyrants were all words that remained outside of the young Talith’s everyday vocabulary. At least, hopefully, for another year or two.

[member="Aela Talith"]
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

Aela shook her head.

“Onderon hasn't always had very nice kings.” That was an understatement. She wasn't about to go into details, telling her eleven year old sister about Freedon Nad and King Onimi would be a very quick way of inducing nightmares and getting grounded. “Oma said that the planet has a long history of not very nice people getting into power.”

“Though right now thats not true of course.” The Republic currently ruled Onderon, there was no king or queen, though Kaili and Aela's Oma was the Beastia of the Beast Riders. That was a different thing however. Quietus didn't rule the planet and had no interest in doing so, she simply lead the different tribes and made sure that they survived in the current environment.

The planet itself was controlled by the Republic, Aela having visited and seen the Senate building in Iziz not too long ago.
 
“Ohh.” Kaili looked to the ground. “Are you going there to see her again?”

It’s what you did when you were going somewhere. At least so she had noticed in the grown ups, if they didn’t know about the place they were going they read up on it. Though most places were familiar to them, father and mother had seen quite a lot and most certainly shared a few stories here and there. Without doubt it served as one of the driving forces for the young girl's wanderlust. She wanted to see what they had seen, but more than that she wanted to see things that they hadn't seen.

She was far too young to leave on her own, of course, but that didn't mean the dream lived on as it had for the last eleven years.

With the grabbing of a chair she pulled it close to herself and took a seat.

“I mean, you’re not reading that for fun. Are you?”

Kaili most certainly wouldn't.

[member="Aela Talith"]
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

She gave her sister a perplexed look.

“Of course I am.” Aela said indignant. “Reading is fun!”

She couldn't believe the insinuation that it wasn't. Of course her sister had a very different outlook on life than she did, but reading was fun! That was the simple truth. There was so much to learn, so much to experience through reading.

Of course it was never as good as real life.

Aela would much rather have gone to Dxun and tamed a Drexl rather than reading about the ancient Beast Riders doing so, but she was only young. Mother and Father wouldn't let her visit Dxun yet, that's why reading about it had to do. She gazed at her younger sibling, frowning slightly. “It lets you experience the lives of hundreds of people. The stories, the tales!”

She sounded excited.
 
Oh no, Kaili said something wrong! Aela’s reaction at Kaili’s question made the young one’s eyes widen in unpleasant surprise but she softened up as her sister explained what she found to be so fun about looking at ‘words words words words’ all day. The excitement made her smile, it wasn’t to say it felt unlike Aela, but to hear her excited was... A quick look went out the window to check for a full moon.

Right, still raining.

“I’m sorry,” Kaili put on her most sincere apology as she grabbed the book that she had brought with her. “I never thought of that.”

“So you do it to live someone else's life?”

When put like that it actually kind of felt cool, or maybe it was just the sound of an big sister’s words being treasured beyond what had originally been planned. Not that it truly mattered, her hand reached out to open the book and she peeked inside to see if what her sister said was true.

“You mean you read not only to be the nerf but the womp rat as well?” Her eyes scanned over the words written within which was also known as reading a book. “But why would you want to be like the womp rat? He’s the bad guy.”

The reading continued as she waited for her sister to respond.

[member="Aela Talith"]
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

“You do it to gain perspective.” Aela said. “Or I do.”

She smiled at her younger sister and scooted closer to her. “You can't always think like the good guy. Mother and Father say you can, but it doesn't work like that. Sometimes you have to think about other ways to think, and you have to understand it. Obviously you shouldn't actually be bad, but its important to understand where everyone was coming from.”

That was Aela's theory anyway.

Perspective was just as important as anything else. Of course she overlooked the glaring problem with her own words, and completely ignored the villain in her own life, Micah. She had never bothered applying the principal she was now speaking of to her brother, which of course made her rather hypocritical.

That never even popped into her head however.
 
Perspective, understand why people act like they do. Kaili looked up from her book and then promptly fell back into it again. So it was to understand why the rat was acting the way he did, or perhaps even why people like him would. It was another good reason to read.

The lesson about good and bad did certainly differ from what she had been told by others. ‘Always be the good guy,’ yet here Aela added her own wisdom. ‘But understand why the bad guy acts like he does.’ In the end it all made sense, too much sense almost. The silence lingered as what few pages there were in the book were continually sifted through.

Finally she looked up and for a second she twitched. Her sister was closer than last time.

“That makes sense.” Kaili nodded. “You read because you want to understand what makes people do something.”

“Like the rat. He was so certain that he would win that he didn’t take things as seriously as he should have.” She looked to her sister. “He lost because... He didn’t respect his opponent?”

“Or maybe he just lost because he was so sure that he would win.”

[member="Aela Talith"]
 
“Maybe a bit of both.” She offered Kaili with a smile.

She smiled at her sister, she was understanding now, getting more of what Aela was trying to convey to her. Books were important, the lessons they taught equally so. She wanted Kaili to know that, though Aela knew in turn that her sister would never have the same love of reading as she did.

That was okay though.

All of the Taliths were different. They all had different skills, strengths, really only Maleah and she overlapped, and Maleah was far stronger in that particular gift than Aela was. Yet that didn't matter either. She was not jealous of her younger sister, though at first she had been. Now she knew that her talents lay elsewhere.

Like in reading.
 
Kaili nodded and closed the book. Reading wasn’t what she liked to do, that much was correct. The thrill of finding something new and getting her hands dirty simply called to her due to the fact that, well, she couldn’t really name the why of it. It was a feeling, she felt free and in-tune with the world. It was calming yet exciting, a tickling feeling in her stomach.

With a turnaround Kaili looked at the books around [member="Aela Talith"]’s room.

“Do you have anything else to read?” She leaned back in her seat. “I don't think the rain will stop anytime soon. Reading could help pass the time, right?”

With a gentle push she got out of the chair to pick up a book that seemed have fallen to the floor.

“What about this one?” She held it out for her sister to see. “The cover looks cool!”

A book about droids and their components. Not really what a child would read, but at least the cover had a pretty picture of a few assorted mechanical men that had been used throughout the ages.

[member="Aela Talith"]
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

Aela traced the front of the book that Kaili had picked up. She closed her eyes and briefly recalled what it was about. It was a simple lexicon, a compendium of droids, droid parts, and generally what went into them.

She smiled at a small memory that she had of the book. When Aela had turned ten her father in the hope that she would manifest some of his skill with Mechu-deru had bought her this little novel. Of course it had turned out that her skills her gone entirely elsewhere, but perhaps Kaili would follow down the path of their father. She did always seem to be shocking people.

“Father bought me that.” Aela motioned for her sister to join her on the bed. “It's about droids. Like Felix.”

F3-LX, or Felix was the families pilot droid. He was the one that ferried the incapable of piloting Taliths around the galaxy. To the children he had always been there, like an oddly silent member of the family.
 
Kaili took her seat by her sister’s side. The book was about droids, obviously, but a lexicon? She had no idea what that even meant but just like the book’s cover it sounded incredibly cool. Then again, it was hard to go wrong with droids. It was like the ultimate form of unlife, life yet not life at all. A fake brain that worked to not only move arms and legs but also give the droids personality.

Most of the time anyway.

“I like droids.” Kai would state the obvious. “They’re interesting. They’re like, metal with life.”

And it wasn’t like the young girl liked to prod around inside of what few droids she could come across anyway, right? She just had the one natural enemy. Anti-tampering measures. Those had been a shocking revelation and quite literally so. She kept quiet about it for as long as she could. After all, the chances of getting a stern talking to by mother or even father drastically increased when you were completely honest with them.

As long as they weren’t aware of the warranty void Kaili was homefree.

“Could I... Borrow it?” Kaili looked at the book and then her sister. “Please?”

Puppy eyes commence.

[member="Aela Talith"]
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

“Of course.” She patted her sister on the head.

What did she need a book on droids for?

Mechanics were entirely beyond her in every single fashion. Father had tried to teach her, but she had never had much interest in Droids or starships, or really anything mechanical. With starships and speeders she had never really seen the point, she was well aware of the curse that followed them around, as all of the children were.

There was no use in trying to fight it, so she had always ignored that. With droids...well they simply didn't interest her.

“Keep it.” She said with a smile. “You'll get more use out of it than I will.”

Kaili's first book, or at least the first one she would actually be interested in.
 
Kaili shone up. She could borrow the book! The pat on her head had never felt better as her eyes set on the cover of the book. A book about droids! The foundation of the galactic industries. Conveyor belt after conveyor belt of droids building droids that could build droids. You never saw mention of humans doing that. Humans creating humans that creates humans, it was unheard of. Sorta anyway, the ‘talk’ shone some light on the matter after all.

Then she was told she could keep it. She perked her head up in glee and quickly hugged her sister from the side.

“Thank you!” She burst. “I will read it every day!”

Kaili let go of her sister and rapidly flipped through the pages of the book. It was all facts and pictures but it was a good start for any budding robot engineer-to-be or any girl with a big interest in droids.

She took a deep breath. “I... Want to build a droid someday.” Not that her poking around in electronics was a new thing. Kaili tended to do that with just about anything if she was given enough time alone with it. “You know me...”

Kaili took a second deep breath. “... Thank you.”

[member="Aela Talith"]
 
[member="Kaili Talith"]

She smiled at her sister.

Maleah and Aela shared a passion, animals. They often tried to train Toofless and Chaarly together, and attempted to hunt the Hawk-bats that lived on the islands cave. They were connected through the animals that lived on the island, connected through a shared skill.

This was not something that she could share with Kaili. Her youngest sister didn't have the same talents as she or Maleah, but perhaps, perhaps she could connect with her through reading, knowledge. She would never truly understand the mechanics of droids or starships, but she could help Nohei research. Help her find books and novels, parts.

She was smart enough for that at least.

“You should ask father.” Aela told her. “I know he'll want to teach you lots of things.”
 

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