If Only I could remember... {Salem Norongachi}

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Katrine blinked once then again when [member="Salem Norongachi"] said his parents weren't around and hadn't been around for long. That whole concept was so foreign for her that she needed a second to wrap her mind around it as her face went said and she just went: "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. That's so sad."

It really was. For someone who had a Dathomiri for a mother and Dad who could probably live forever in her mind, she couldn't begin to explain how sad she felt for Salem right now. "Well, I'll make sure no birthday of yours is ever missed again. I promise!!" He probably couldn't imagine just how serious Katrine was at that particular moment. She already considered him a friend. "When's your birthday?" She asked, her tone of voice completely serious. Very.

He asked her about Dathomir. Kat nodded. "I was born there. My great great grandmother, who is Clan Mother to the Singing Mountain Clan performed my naming ceremony and taught me plenty. If I had to pick one place in the galaxy as home, it's definitely Dathomir." Even though Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa came close, Dathomir was definitely it.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

"You're a sweet kid." He meant it, yet another surprise but he could feel his hackles rising at the feelings that he judged as weakness. He quelled any negative responses that threatened to rise a follow up and then she asked a question of which he had no answer. "I honestly don't know..." As sad as it was to admit he had no clue the exact date when he had stepped forth from his artificial womb. "Its not important. I'm alive and that's all that matters in the grand scheme."

"The singing mountain clan?" Now that was a name he hadn't heard in many a year. "Didn't happen to know any Hawks did you?"

[member="Katrine Van Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

She was a sweet kid? Katrine grinned as wide as she possibly could. But that didn't change just how serious she was, even if he said he didn't know when his birthday was or that it wasn't important. "It's okay. Mommy doesn't know when her real birthday is either. Her Guardian gave her one and she's stuck to it this whole time. We can find you a date!" This was a thing. Katrine honestly needed a date. "It's important to celebrate birthdays. Cake and all." To her it was, but then again, she was only seventeen so you could hardly blame her for that.

[member="Salem Norongachi"] seemed curious about the name of her clan. Seemed to even know it. Did she happen to know any Hawks? Katrine nodded frantically. "I'm a Hawk! Mommy's a Hawk!" But the words had slipped out of her mouth before she could even remember that she hadn't given a last name to Salem before. This was the firs time. Her fully name was Katrine Van Derveld Hawk, as was tradition in the family. But she had jumped so fast to the mention of her last name that it surprised her, made her cover her mouth for a moment. This was not information she should have given. But a second or two of covering her mouth, the redhead's mind formed questioned. "What Hawks do you know?"

 

[Salem Norongachi]

"Then pick one." He was eager to get off the topic, it had always been a source of discomfort that he had been born as he had been. "Although I've never been a fan of cake." Norongachi added as an afterthought.

"You don't seem very avian to me..." A joke, the only one he had ever made in the entirety of his life that he could recall. Omega couldn't understand what it was about Kat, her energy was almost infectious. It seemed to cast aside the dark and broken shadow that had loomed over his mind for as long as he could remember and plant him firmly in the present where all things were possible. "The wonders of a childs mind..."

"Ti'Cira Hawk, that was a very long time ago. A whole other life. I taught her how to fight." He didn't feel the need to add 'Monsters' to the end of the sentence.

[member="Katrine Van Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Pick one?! She could pick one?! Katrine's eye went wide as he suggested this. Grandpa Seth chose Mommy's birthday at random. She'd never been given a chance like that, only heard about it from Mammy. So when would it suit for Sal's birthday to be? When would it be best for them to celebrate his birthday? When would it be best to make cake for him? But he didn't like cake... so she could probably try and bake something else... when was a good date for him? "Life day," she suddenly decided. Yes, that worked. He was a gift. A friend. A gift for Katrine. So life day suited him perfectly. "Yes, we'll celebrate your birthday on Life Day." She nodded to herself at this decision. It had been made, there was no going back from it.

She didn't seem very avian to her? Katrine chuckled. "Physically, I'm more like the Hawks. Except the eyes. I take after my Dad when it comes to the eyes." This was true. The red eyes, the face, she was like her mother but the sapphire blues made her stand out even though blue was possible in the Hawk line, the particular shade made her stand out very much.

TiCira Hawk? Her eyes went wide again. Though [member="Salem Norongachi"] said that was a long time ago, Katrine still kept her eyes wide for a while as her brain actually processed how small the galaxy truly was. "That's my aunt!" She ended up saying before she could stop herself. The redheaded sister of her redheaded mother who trained her mother while she was still a Jedi. Katrine knew the stories well enough, held on to each word of her parents to know such things. Salem also shared he had taught her how to fight, which made her smile. "She trained my Mommy when she first was a Jedi." Another piece of information that should have been quiet but clearly, she could not stop herself. But Sal couldn't know about her mother, no, why would he?

 

[Salem Norongachi]

Life day. The damned celebration brought a rash of memories best left forgotten from Sal's life but it served just as well as any other day. The bubble of hyperspace burst and they found themselves in the Krant system.

"I thought you called him Daddy?" Norongachi smirked as he brought the sublight engines online and pointed their nose at the world. He near did a double take when Kat dropped the bomshell that she were related to Ti'Cira. The universe was much smaller than more people gave it credit for.

"Huh..." He commented. "If ever you see that Witch tell her Omega said hello." The thought of her expression upon delivery of that message made the old man smile.

[member="Katrine Van Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

...nitpicky nitpick. Katrine chuckled. "He's my Daddy. He can call him how I want." The redhead pointed point and gave a nod. Her Daddy, Dad, Father. Yep. Well, hers and Chloe's. But still. Chloe wasn't here so she could be possessive if she wanted to be.

She blinked. If she ever saw her Aunt, she should tell her Omega said hello? "Omega? Why Omega?" He did say his name was Sal or Salem. Omega wasn't mentioned in any of it so naturally, if he brought it up, [member="Salem Norongachi"] should have expected questions about it by now.

 

[Salem Norongachi]

"Whatever you say, kid." Was his response as hands guided the ship toward the planet spinning lazily in the distance. A curse near fell from his lips when he realized his mistake and a mind built for strategy and tactics floundered for a way out of explaining the origins of that name.

Bugger it, he thought and answered. "It was just a nickname she knew me by, she'll know who I am if she hears that." Simple, truthful...to a point.


[member="Katrine Van Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Well, good. They sorted that out. Katrine's Daddy was her Daddy. There was no reason to nitpick it. Not that Kat couldn't argue her point for hours. But most people couldn't do that. Not unless it was Chloe or Mommy. She and Chloe could go on forever about a certain topic. Questions and answers, over and over again. Neither was ever satisfied. But most didn't like that so it was probably good [member="Salem Norongachi"] just accepted it and let it go.

Omega was a nickname Auntie TiCi knew him by. She'd know him if she heard that. Katrine nodded slowly, processing that. Of course, she wouldn't mention that she wouldn't be able to mention it for a long long while. Running into relatives just sounded like a bad idea. But he didn't kneed to know that.

But... Katrine did need to know something else. "How did you get that nickname?"

 

[Salem Norongachi]

It was like watching a very slow machine scan a document, every word meticulously stored away for fear that any faster might somehow corrupt the data. Children...was all he could think as he watched the concentration on [member="Katrine Van Derveld"]'s face.

"Its what they called me in the Army." More or less the truth, he just didn't feel the need to explain that it was actually the name of his model.

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

In the army? "Cool," Katrine just said and then paused, thinking about all the things she heard about the army... which, when she thought about it, wasn't really much. Nobody Katrine Van Derveld knew was in the army. Maybe Uncle Isley might have been at one point but nobody talked about it and Katrine's three hundred question game with him was only a quarter in... some people just didn't know how to play the game.

But what did she know about the army? They wore funny clothes. They yelled. They carried all kinds of weapons. Now there was something she liked. it almost made the other stupid things kinda okay. "What kind of weapons did you have in the army?" Her next question followed. Omega thing was nifty and all but weapons fascinated Katrine all the more so she could quickly jump to the topic, even if there was a gazillion questions she could follow up on his answer. Guns were way more fun. Kinda like explosives...

[member="Salem Norongachi"]

 

[Salem Norongachi]

Salem Norongachi feared that this rabbit hole was only going deeper and the tumbling was beginning to get to him, but alas Krant was still in the distance and by the looks of it there was a line. Maybe something had happened at the port authority that had stalled the comings and goings of the worlds traffic.

"Only two that mattered," He began and reached down to his belt unclipping the bronzium hilt of his saber. "This and well, if you know what this is then you know the other."

[member="Katrine Van Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Only two? Katrine frowned. How many had he had? Why weren't any of them relevant? Oooh, a lightsaber, her sapphire blue eyes lit up at the sight of it. "It's pretty. Where's the other one?" She asked, her gaze never actually leaving the hilt, her fingers just itching to reach out for it.

"What crystal?" Another question shot out the need to just take it growing. Of course, even if Sal was a friend, Katrine's mind carefully calculated the odds of him taking it well if she just reached out and took it from him. Then once she did that equation, she threw it out of her mind and reached for the hilt. She wanted to see it. And she wanted to turn it on. And she wanted to hear the pretty sound it made. And she wanted to see it move in the air.

[member="Salem Norongachi"]

 

[Salem Norongachi]

A twitch of an eyebrow greeted her question and his response missed not a beat. "If you need more than one you're over compensation for something else entirely." The line of traffic moved a ships length and he nudged them forward. Two ships whizzed by them going in the opposite direction with system patrol craft hot on their heels.

"One that works." Was his reply.


[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

A frown formed on her face as [member="Salem Norongachi"] said that having two sabers was over compensation for something else entirely. "You could just say you don't know how to use two blades." He had just accused her father over over compensating. Katrine would not stand for that. Not for a second.

Then, he decided not to tell her which crystal it was. "Too simple, lacks information," she just muttered and looked ahead, watching the air traffic ahead of them. "You don't like to answer questions properly." And when Katrine Van-Derveld asked the questions, she preferred an actual answer she could work with.