Private Good Vibes

[Elle Mors]

This Vibe​

There were few places she'd rather be than laying in the grass under a canopy of trees, anywhere with Sylvia Virtos aside, but having that and Sylv together at the same time was sure to top both. She could feel her cheeks tighten as a smile crept across her face and breathed out softly through her nose while she enjoyed the moment. The dim orange glow of the planet's star shining through her closed eyelids kept her from drifting too far off, not that she had any intention of doing so, but it added to that inner feeling of warmth she had when the two of them - Sylvia and her - were together. To think that, not too long ago, she'd been wandering aimlessly across the sands of what was quite possibly time itself, dead, every day felt like a dream in comparison.

This was possibly the best one yet.

"I know you like Denon, it's fun and all, but all of that metal and concrete.. It feels good to be out here." She said, her words as wistful as the smile that her lips had formed. Pushing herself up against the trunk of the tree she'd been leaning her neck against, transitioning from laying to sitting up more or less straight, she opened her eyes and sucked in the cool air as the breeze washed over them and through the leaves above. A wandering hand reached over for Sylv's, her head turning towards where she thought she had been when it didn't find hers, and saw her standing instead. "You should relax, leave the standing for when you've got work to get done, it's just us out here."

"Let's enjoy it."

 

[Sylvia Virtos]

No Fear No More
Elle Mors​

---

For a while, Sylvia had sat up against the tree trunk where Elle had been looking for her hand. She had quietly been admiring both the view and Elle herself, but it was a moment that lasted just a little too long. When her mind was not occupied with even the most of insignificant tasks or distractions, it was prone to the very thing she was now once again fighting off. Even just idle conversation would have been enough, but that peaceful silence shared between the two had felt like anything but.

"I was just getting into my own head again, it's fine," Sylvia responded in an attempt to reassure Elle as she carefully sat back down. "Silence is just a little risky, still, I think."

Even with the passage of time it was a little too easy to end up in dark places when her mind wandered. The time Sylvia spent in that small, lightless cell, fully at Carnifex' mercy, had left its mark. The way he had found her and taken her had been so sudden, so seemingly effortless. Even with Elle by her side, it was difficult to shake the fear that his ships would suddenly appear in the sky above to drag her back there when there was nothing else to think about. Sylvia did not mind these quiet places Elle loved, but she needed something to keep herself busy in some sense while they were there.

"Wait, I got something for you," she suddenly said, getting back to her feet mere moments after sitting down. A grin that broke through a clear and hopeless attempt at a sabacc face formed as she angled her face down towards Elle's. "One sec," and away she jogged, back to the ship they landed in. A surprise for Elle and a bit of a distraction for herself. All that Sylvia questioned was whether Elle would like it.

Just a few minutes later Sylvia returned, approaching the tree Elle was sitting at carrying a guitar. She had acquired it not all too long before the two met each other again on Csilla and had been practicing since. It was a good way to pass the time when she was alone and she had kept it a surprise. Until now.

"Didn't see that one coming, hm?" Sylvia shot Elle a playful look before carefully placing the guitar down and getting comfortable against the tree trunk, her arm brushing against the blonde's. After placing the instrument in her lap, she began tuning it.

"I'm not that good, but I wanted to play a song for you. My attempt at being romantic, I guess," she explained, her last remark delivered somewhat jokingly.

 

[Elle Mors]

There was something surreal about it, about getting the chance to experience something like this more than just on her own. For a year she had hopped from planet to planet doing exactly what she had dreamed of doing way back during those late nights on Bastion, watching holos with Sylvia Virtos in her room, but it had never really felt the same as what she had expected it to be. "Mmm, yeah, I guess you're right." She admitted, gripping the blades of grass under her hands with curled up fingers. She hadn't forgotten the harrowing captivity that Sylv had endured under Carnifex's thumb but death and.. undeath?.. had a way of showing her what really mattered, and right now - and probably forever - it was making sure she kept what she appreciated close, and never took it for granted.

"Huh?" She asked, opening her eyes again just in time to see Sylvia run back off for the ship. There wasn't a single thing that came to mind when she wondered what in the stars she could have snuck out here that she wouldn't have noticed. Part of her wondered if maybe she had made another mechanical friend or something, the other part realizing she spent altogether far too much time having cutesy thoughts about what her girlfriend tinkered with for her own amusement than she did actually trying to make herself a part of those cutesy thoughts.

"Didn't see that one coming, hm?"

Her jaw dropped in response, both shocked and impressed at the sight of an instrument held in Sylvia's hands. Righting herself a bit more, and leaning forwards a bit to help position herself to better pull her legs back towards herself, Elle hastily transitioned from sitting to kneeling in her excitement. "I didn't even knew you could play." She admitted, her voice a bit breathy. If she had been caught in one of those rather depressive episodes she had often found herself in before.. Ziost.. she might've considered it a failing on her part. On the contrary, with a new perspective gained, she understood that, whatever the ramifications of her not knowing this about Sylvia, it made for a better revelation for the both of them than if Elle had known anything about it in the first place.

Of course she couldn't help but smirk at the idea of Sylvia doing anything romantically intentionally. Not because she couldn't, but because Sylv had this strange idea that she couldn't. "I couldn't fathom my Sylv being romantic, certainly not someone who'd venture into Hell and bring me back." She said, tongue-in-cheek. "For real, though, that is - you are - hitting every box today."

"I swear if you start singing I am going to swoon."

 

[Sylvia Virtos]

Elle Mors​

---

Somewhere deep down, Sylvia had expected that Elle already knew. Even though she had kept it as much of a secret as she could, not much, if anything, went past Elle unnoticed. Sylvia would not have been surprised if she had found the guitar at one point, or caught her practicing and simply decided not to disturb her. The surprise was clearly genuine, however, and Sylvia could not help but grin a little.

"And now you're part of a very exclusive club of people who are in the know," she joked as she kept her eyes on the instrument in her lap and turned another tuning peg. "I started messing around a little while before we ran into each other again. Trying to build things can be a little frustrating at times, and doing something else helps a lot."

A finger was ran across the strings, and the sound produced was met by a satisfactory nod. Sylvia played a few chords in preparation, then re-settled herself up against the tree. "I tried a few different ways to distract myself when I need a break from tech, but this one stuck. It's fun. And in moments like this..."

A chuckle, touched by a hint of nervousness, escaped her lips.

"I couldn't fathom my Sylv being romantic, certainly not someone who'd venture into Hell and bring me back." She said, tongue-in-cheek. "For real, though, that is - you are - hitting every box today."

"Well..." Sylvia responded, somewhat flustered. Her instinctual response to Elle bringing up what she had done to save her was always to attribute everything to luck in one way or another, but this time she was finally able to bite her tongue. She still believed that it could not have been that incredible, considering it was herself who had done it. Today, though, her rational side could accept that maybe, just maybe, there was more to it than pure luck.

Light blue eyes swept away from the guitar, towards the girl next to her. "I suppose your Sylv can still surprise you from time to time." Sylvia could not shake the feeling of how corny the thought was, but seeing Elle smile really did make her day. "Can't promise I'll make you swoon, though."

Not keeping Elle waiting any longer, Sylvia started playing.

And it did not take long before she started singing too.

 

[Elle Mors]

Peace was fleeting, time was temporary, but if she could pick one moment to live forever in it was this. Maybe it was just one of many special moments for Sylvia Virtos but it was the one she was going to, at least as far as she felt in the moment, hold onto forever in memory. The day that there wasn't something pulling the two apart, that they weren't being young and stupid with some petty fight over signals being missed that should have just been given as words, and she was learning something new about the person that meant the most to her - a person she thought she already knew as much as she ever could or would.

It never felt so good to be proven wrong.

"Wow." Was all she could manage, her voice small and little more than a whisper while she kept quiet to listen to her girlfriend play. There weren't any words when Sylv started to sing, though, but that was probably because she was too busy staring with her mouth open and trying to figure out how to express the cocktail of feelings running through her - the mix of surprise, happiness, enjoyment and quite a few more. She found herself moving a little to the tune, not really sure how to follow along to it but also having that inner urge to just do something to physically be a part of the experience listening to it had become. Her music had always been the sound of the world around her, the chirping of birds or the hiss of some lizard, maybe the rustle of leaves or the loud noises of a cityscape. The proper stuff that she hadn't heard in so long had been left behind when her first mission away from the academy had gone wrong. She hadn't ever really thought much about it, about how long it had been since she'd even tried to listen to music or paid any attention to it in the background, so it was rather surreal to be so immersed in it like this.

"Just.. wow." Elle said after the song came to a close. All that time trying to process things, to think of something a bit more wordy to say, and that was all she could find as a response. "That was great, incredible."

 

[Sylvia Virtos]

Elle Mors
​

The performance wasn't perfect. Sylvia was no galaxy-renowned megastar with thousands of hours of training from the very best teachers, but just a girl with a guitar and an acceptable level of natural ability. The holonet had taught her how to play the instrument and most of what she knew about singing came from someone who had given her a few lessons as a favor.

What was abundantly clear, though, was the fact she put her heart into that song. Apart from the few shy glances towards her girlfriend, which caused her to mess up a note more often than not, Sylvia was fully immersed in her performance. It seemed just a little awkward when she started, but as she progressed and became more comfortable, the little mistakes appeared less and less.

And then, it was done. The guitar's final chord faded out, leaving a small moment of silence. Despite everything Sylvia had experienced in her life already, it was one of the most deafening silences in her life. Slowly, her head turned towards Elle again, the look on her face a little uncertain. "So, yeah," she awkwardly capped off. She had just exposed her most vulnerable side, but without hesitation. Even if it was terrifying.

The uncertainty quickly fell away when she saw Elle's expression and was quickly replaced by the reddest cheeks she had displayed in a very long time, courtesy of that little 'wow'. As she put the guitar down next to her, a dopey grin formed on her face.

"That was great, incredible."

"I... thank you," Sylvia responded, somehow equally at a loss for words. With that reaction, all of her time spent practicing in secret had been worth it. A weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. "That means so much."

With all of the tension leaving her body, Sylvia leaned sideways, softly bumping into Elle's shoulder. There, she sat in silence for a little while. All of the worries that occupied her thoughts before were gone, at least for now. These moments could not last forever, but Sylvia supposed that made them that much more precious.

Without realizing it, Sylvia eventually found herself resting her head on Elle's shoulder, her arm linked with hers, simply looking out to the stretch of nature before them. "You know..." she said to break the silence, her tone revealing introspection.

"I never really believed the Force had a will of its own, growing up. I still kind of doubt it." The Jedi believed in following its will, the Sith sought to break it. Sylvia, however, had always believed it was a power that merely was, and no more than that.

"But we're here, together. After everything. And I... it just can't be a coincidence. Something must have brought us together again, like things were meant to be set right. And then the whole... Nether... thing happened, which..." She still couldn't properly explain it. The glimpses of a future she was shown that ended up coming to pass. Instead, she merely let out a sigh before nuzzling up against Elle's shoulder.

"I guess... maybe, you're right. About the Force."