Private Lost In A Lost World

[Starlin Dinn]

Unknown Planet
The Outer Rim Territories
Desert Dunes
​

Though he had gone to sleep on the surface of an ocean, safely nestled aboard Leviathan, Starlin Dinn awoke to find himself sprawled out in the sun, surrounded by coarse sand and endless dunes interspersed with jutting red rock.​

​

His ship was not immediately visible, that is - he was not within the confines of its shell. The contrast was disarming, and in the minutes following his rousing the boy felt certain he must have been trapped within the bounds of a dream.​

​

No dream, not even a nightmare, just cold, hard reality awaited him as time ticked on and the heat became all the more oppressive. He traversed to the top of the nearest dune, glancing out over the horizon, and spotted the tail end of Leviathan jutting from the sand in the near distance. She didn't seem in bad shape, there was no smoke swirling, no debris scattered, just partial submersion.​

​

He had no idea where he was, no idea how he had even come to be there, and the lack of water in his proximity left him rather on edge and delirious in a way that made little sense anatomically. He was no Selkath, he did not need to be misted or submerged in order to survive and yet his innate connection to the water's flow left him off-kilter when none could be found.​

​

"What did you do this time, PL?" he huffed, as he staggered down the dune toward the submerged jellyship. Given Starlin's inability to pilot, it only made sense that this had to be the blasted droid's doing.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

A faint melodic tune would drift over the dunes, a deep voice accompanied by a seven-string hallikset. The wind would carry the song, which fought out against the haze of the midday sun...

"I dreamed my love came in my sleep
Lowlands, lowlands away me John
Her cheeks were wet, her eyes did weep
Lowlands away..."

No sailor in these deserts, but a Jedi Master perched atop a beast of burden. A trial of his own was what had brought him here, as Jasper Kai'el was seeking to train his abilities. In the extreme heat he meditated, his body uncovered and left to the elements. In the night he improved his mastery over Tapas. As a Jedi who had always been lesser than his peers in Force capabilities, this was a means to better hear the universal energies.

And the Jedi Master meditated through song. After all, the universe was a song of sorts. That was how he came to understand the Force, anyway.

It gave him plenty of time to reflect upon the last few days. The forming of the Jedi Outcasts, the joining of the Farworlds Alliance, the raid on Dromund Kaas. His role as a father to both his student Braze and his infant baby boy, little Cole. The loss of Sacorria in the Core, now in the clutches of the Sith, only to bring those people to an ancient ringworld. A place which seemed to hide many secrets, even as they called it their new home. For the path that Jasper had chosen to walk, he had to ask if he was doing the best that he could. Then he had to find the strength to continue to walk that path, even as he struggled. So naturally, a retreat of this nature was a Trial of Spirit. A trial 'passed' as a padawan learner, but one that never truly ended.

Before long, though, a vessel appeared on the horizon. It was submerged in the sand, and a distant figure clambered down the dune to reach it. A pilot, a mechanic, and a natural-born civil servant, Jasper could not help himself but alter his course to approach the stranger. When he was in range, the man called out with a wide smile on his face.

"Hello there! Do you need any assistance?"

 

[Starlin Dinn]

He knew how to walk in sand, he had been raised in the heart of a desert for as long as he could recall, and while his Uncles weren't the fondest of him wandering off from the safety of the City there were times he would go alongside his caretaker to sit at the edge of the winding river that fed through its valleys.​

​

Scaling dunes, or descending them more aptly, was not as common an excursion, but he managed to resist the natural urge to tumble that came with an off-kilter momentum. Shuffle became walk which began a full blown race to reach the bottom.​

​

Then, a pause. Or, as close to a pause as one could get when crumbling sands were the only foundation beneath him. In the distance, music. The melody might have been unfamiliar to him, but hearing music where there was none? That was not uncommon for the Dinn boy. He'd been dealing with such phantom sounds since he was just a small boy, the pull of the Force was melodic for him as it had been for his Father though he did not yet know that.​

​

Starlin did not deal in Force, or Father's for that matter, he just knew that the draw was insatiable.​

​

This did not feel quite like the other times had, it was no repeat of the arch incident which had seen him pulled from his home and spat out into the greater Galaxy alone and confused.​

​

For one thing, it had never been accompanied by lyrics before.​

​

Turning his head, he looked around the empty desert and furrowed his brows. It was getting louder, in spite of the fact that he was barely moving. Whatever it was, it was coming his way. Seeking, rather than sought.​

​

Then, from behind him, a voice. Starlin about jumped out of his skin as he swiveled in the sand to face the saddled stranger; not in his head, then, he was not sure if he should be relieved or upset.​

​

Starlin Dinn was no fan of strangers.​

​

Still, his Uncle's voices echoed through his mind in tandem. Don't be rude, it's unbecoming.​

​

"Hello, Sir" he chirped, trying to keep his voice from becoming too terse, "Maybe, if you've a shovel in your pack." He thumbed toward the sunken ship. "Might take a while though." Forcing a smile, despite the way his tummy twisted with nervousness, Starlin half shook his head. "I wouldn't want to impose on you, Sir," he settled on.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"No shovels, I'm afraid," Jasper responded as he hopped off of his Eopie. "But I think I've got a way to help still."

He began to rummage through his pack until he found what he was looking for. A pink gemstone, about the size of a large cooking pot. It hummed with a faint harmonic energy that filled the air around it. Jasper didn't have the energy on his own to pull off a feat of telekinesis that large, so he always had a back-up plan to augment his capabilities.

The Force Crystal had plenty of energy to spare.

Jasper sat himself down and crossed his legs, the crystal still within his grasp. His eyes would flutter closed, and the man would begin to concentrate. It would start with a low rumble, then a quivering in the sand. Slowly but surely, the vessel once submerged would begin to rise up out of its prison. The vessel would set down slowly before the man opened his eyes... and immediately moved his organic hand to rub at his temple. It seemed that the strain of subverting his limitations had caused a headache.

"There we go..." he finally spoke again, managing a smile. "No problem at all."

At least now he knew that a nap was in his future. That would surely chase the headache away. After a moment the man stood up and put the stone back into his pack before he turned and offered a handshake.

"Oh, apologies, Jasper Kai'el," the man greeted. "I probably should have given my name earlier."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

The last thing he expected, when the stranger assured him he could help, was for a giant pink gemstone to be pulled from his pack. Starlin stared at it, blinked, then furrowed his brows.​

​

"And that will help, how..?" After a moment, he hastened to add: "Not to look a gift Zaathri in the mouth, but..."​

​

He fell silent as the man sat cross-legged in the sand, the same way Uncle Theryn had taught him to settle when it came time to quieten his mind and meditate. He tilted his head a little to the left, all the more confused, and simply watched. The man sounded certain of himself, after all, and who was Starlin to say whether or not his plan would work?​

​

Starlin stood there slack-jawed as he felt the energy thrumming from stranger and stone, heck even his ship felt momentarily alive. Music swelled, only this time it did not come from the cross-legged man but the space between them, setting the tiny hairs on the back of his neck on end.​

​

Eyes widened as he saw the ship first tremor, then wobble, before it was slowly released from its sandy prison. The act reminded him of the party trick his namesake had shown him back in the Deep Core, only much, much more impressive. When it settled upright, landing gear stabilized within the sand at last, the boy could not help but shake his head.​

​

"That... was awesome."​

​

He had seen unexplainable feats done before, of course, Uncle Theryn was known for making plants blossom and grow from nothing, and Uncle Darien could speak to him from across the Ziggurat, his voice echoing in the lad's mind, but this... this was spectacular.​

​

"How did you do that?"​

​

It made Starlin's control of water seem trivial.​

​

After a moment, he stepped closer and offered down a hand to help the man up.​

​

"Starlin" he mirrored, "Starlin Dinn, it's nice to meet you, Sir."​

​

He couldn't recall the last time those words had been sincerely uttered.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"How did you do that?"

"The Force, of course. Ah, but you could say I had a bit of help," Jasper stated, gesturing to the stone he placed in his bag. "I'm not an incredibly Force-inclined individual myself, a bit on the less-than-average side of Force users. But with a little concentration and a bit of energy to spare, anyone can do anything. You just need to have a creative solution."

As Jasper took the younger man's hand as he helped him up, his head cocked ever-so-slightly. Starlin, huh? He knew a Starlin. Starlin Rand . That chain-smoker guy. Jasper never knew the guy well, but he sure did know when he was around. Dinn, though, was the name he knew better. Any relation to Eloise Dinn?

Perhaps. Best not to spring a load of questions on a guy who was maybe dehydrated.

"Pleasures all mine," he answered to the greeting. "You had a string of good fortune. I'm here on a training sabbatical. Then again, someone once told me that true coincidences are rare. Not sure if I buy that though."

Jasper turned his head to the vessel. Strange thing, it was, nothing he'd quite seen before. Even so, he quickly gathered that it was likely gyroscopic. It was far more alien than anything he was used to working with, though. His mechanical knowledge might be enough to navigate it's core systems, even at the deficit of familiarity.

"Any clue what brought you down?" he asked. "Any strange noises or vibrations you can recall?"

 

[Starlin Dinn]

The Force.​

​

While it wasn't the first time he had heard that phrase in recent weeks, it was still a very new one and he had yet to fully wrap his head around what it actually was. One thing was clear, it did a whole variety of different things, and he was beginning to wonder if it had any part in Uncle Theryn's blooms, and Uncle Darien's telepathy.​

​

... or his own aquatic sensibilities.​

​

"What exactly is it?" he cautiously inquired, "The, erm, Force? Never heard it back home, but out here? Seems like the go-to phrase."​

​

Same name? More like namesake, though Starlin wasn't to know that the man he'd met back in the Deep Core was known elsewhere. Nor was he to know that his eldest sibling had gotten out of the family business and had found herself in the wider Galaxy too.​

​

How could he know that? Nobody told him anything.​

​

As for the what, Starlin shrugged. A troubled expression played over his face, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Beats me, when I went to sleep last night we were floating on an ocean." Looking to the sky, and noticing the difference in the number of suns and moons on show, a deeper frown settled in. "No clue how PL got us here."​

​

An oddity to be sure, but then strange things had happened around Starlin Dinn as of late.​

​

"Where is here, by the way?"​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"What exactly is it?" he cautiously inquired, "The, erm, Force? Never heard it back home, but out here? Seems like the go-to phrase."

"Well, that's a complex question. Depending on who you ask, mind you," Jasper noted as he rubbed at the scruff on his chin. "Some folks like to get real mystical about their explanation, but to me it's more simply understood as a science. The Force is like a fundamental building block of reality, like energy or matter. It makes up various things, like atoms do, and some people have an innate ability to interact with it. Like how the bodies of some animals can create light, or generate an electrical charge. The weird part about it is how it manifests externally, like how I just used telekinesis. If you've ever encountered someone who maybe had a strange gift you couldn't quite explain, that may very well be your answer."

Jasper listened to the young man as he explained what had occurred. As he did, he paced around the ship to check for any damage. Fall asleep in one place, wake up in another. Strange. What could have caused that?

"Well, here doesn't really have a name," the Jedi answered. "Just a string of random letters and numbers. The lone trail blazed out here through hyperspace was laid a good hundred years ago, and the planeshift made the route a bit sketchy. Don't imagine anyone has been out here long enough to name the place."

The man's eyes shifted back towards the vessel.

"Say, where'd you get this thing?" he asked. "I'm a bit of a ship designer myself, but never seen one quite like this."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

It was a lot, the answer that Jasper gave, it contextualized the Force in a manner that was hard for a boy such as he to conceptualize in his mind. He'd had tutors, of course, his Uncles had made sure he had a good education, but on a world like Zaathru scientific principals were harder to come by. ​

​

They dealt in deities and mysticism, and though Uncle Darien had done his best to explain matters such as gravity in more logical terms he didn't exactly have a textbook on it, nor a degree. So it was that Starlin momentarily slow-blinked at Jasper, right up until the point in time the man mentioned strange gifts.​

​

"Like... Making flowers grow from dry sand? Or... speaking into someone's head?" He swallowed, "Or making water move?" The latter example was quieter than the other two, filled with introspection more so than the curiosity brought about by his Uncle's gifts.​

​

Telekinesis. He liked the way that word sounded, and he whispered it beneath his breath and found he liked the way it rolled off his tongue even more so.​

​

"So, how'd you know you could do it?" he asked, even as attention returned to the ship.​

​

"I, erm, found it," he said, unsure on how to find the right words to explain the arch-incident that had spat him out into the Galaxy's embrace. "Other-Starlin made it seem like it was once my Father's, but... I'unno." The boy shrugged. "Don't really remember him, much less if he had a, erm, space-ship." He spoke the word in a disjointed fashion, clearly starships, spaceships, whatever you wanted to call them, were not in his regular vocabulary, though that was likely not too surprising given his lack of knowledge on the Force.​

​

In a Galaxy as fethed up as this one, with constant celestial wars, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who did not know at least a little bit about it.​

​

Yet here he was.​

​

Wherever here was, because Jasper did not have a name for it and the explanation the man had given made absolutely no sense to the lad.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"Like... Making flowers grow from dry sand? Or... speaking into someone's head?" He swallowed, "Or making water move?"

"Sure," Jasper stated in a rather plane tone. "All stuff I've seen before."

After that, the boy asked how he had learned about how to use his gifts. Jasper's smile became somewhat nostalgic.

"Ah, well I was raised in an order that taught me how to," he explained. "Jedi is what we're called, and my sect was called the New Jedi Order... It doesn't exist anymore. The Force can do many things, but in the wrong hands it can also be very dangerous. The Jedi train people how to safely use their gifts, and then how to use them to help others. Or, at least, in a perfect galaxy they do. Nowadays things seem... complicated."

He was no purist, that was for sure. Nor was he an extremist. Jasper just felt that his simple principles didn't have a place in any large Jedi Order. That was why he had made the Outcasts. It let him and others be good Jedi without the baggage of senatorial entanglement.

When Starlin mentioned 'Other-Starlin,' his eyebrow did quirk up a little.

"Other-Starlin, huh?" he noted. "Common name where you're from... Only ever met one other guy with the name."

The way he said 'space-ship' did bring an amused smile to his face, though. Not one that was judgemental, more appreciative of someone experiencing something new. It rarely happened these days, considering how wide-spread space travel was.

"Starships is what they're typically called," the man explained. "Yours is a decent sized one too, a Corvette A personal luxury transport would be my guess, must have been some kind of super specialized commission from... well, I'd need to see a maker's mark or read the ship's internal data to know for sure."

After a bit of rambling, the man let out a laugh.

"Sorry for the earfull," he apologized. "I'm quite fond of starships. I've even designed a few of my own. Doesn't take much to get me ranting."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

"You've seen it before?" he asked, straightening up as though leaning in closer. "Even... Even the water stuff?"​

​

Another explanation on the Jedi came, it ran parallel to other-Starlin's though Jasper's gave him a little more insight into the actual structure of it. "So it's like... a religion? Only, more mystical?" Starlin knew all about religious entities, his Uncles were revered though he knew they were just men with gifts. Uncle Theryn had been very clear about that. Hadn't let any of it get to Starlin's head.​

​

"So you have to be, what, born into it to learn it?" He frowned, was he eighteen years too late?​

​

Drawn from his thoughts by talks of other-Starlin, the boy shook his head. "Oh, not common at all, Sir," he confessed, "Never met another Starlin until this whole ship fiasco happened. After I found her," he thumbed toward the ship once more "she brought me to a man who just happened to have the same name." He shrugged as though it was no big deal, but even the thought of that encounter made his throat close over. "He mentioned the Je-di too."​

​

The gentle correction was taken in stride, and Starlin muttered Starship under his breath in hopes that it would override the incorrect terminology.​

​

"You wanna check her out?" he asked, perking a brow, "I don't mind, she'd still be submerged if not for you."

The ship was in pristine condition, it showed no signs of impact or impact. Even the sand had barely scuffed the paint.​

​

It was almost as if it had simply manifested inside the sand dune, but of course that was crazy... right?​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

The notion of water was interesting. Something he could do perhaps?

"Yeah, water I've seen," he nodded. "Have a few colleagues who trained with shapers. Elemenatlists are out there, not super uncommon. Harder to learn that stuff for me though, I find."

"So it's like... a religion? Only, more mystical?"

"Plenty of folks see it that way," Jasper answered. "Maybe even some Jedi. But I'm not a very religious kind of guy myself. But hey, it's a way to understand it from a cultural lens. If that helps you wrap your head around it. Don't gotta be born into it though. I was a case that might be rarer these days. Jedi used to prefer training younger folks, but in the earliest days and latest days of the order they accepted anyone Force sensitive. I don't feel like age is important for training, only a willingness to learn. Not sure what they get up to in the main 'Order' though, I left with my folks a good few years back now."

It was when he mentioned the ship bringing a man who mentioned the Jedi that his suspicions were confirmed. Jasper nodded as he processed it all.

"Well, what do you know, the Starlin I know is a Jedi," he noted. "Well, I don't know know him. A colleague of a colleague. Did he smoke an unhealthy amount?"

When offered to survey the ship, Jasper nodded and made his way aboard. Alien as it looked, he could assess it pretty well for damages. Mostly because there were none. It was pristine, almost like it had teleported here. That didn't make a lick of sense. He wasn't aware of any Hypergates in these parts.

"Doesn't look like you crashed," the man muttered. "No, this is weird. You teleport often?"

He paused before he asked another question.

"Know where the main computer is?"

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Caring less about the religious aspects than the willingness to learn, Starlin took half a step closer to Jasper in excitement.​

​

"Wait, really? And anyone can learn?" He paused, "I mean, anyone that can, uh, what did you say? interact with it?" Giving little time for Jasper to respond, Starlin pressed on. "How do I-- I mean, how would someone start? You know, if they were, uh, interested?"​

​

As for other-Starlin...​

​

"He was?" He tilted his head a little to the left, thinking back to their interaction. "Now that you mention it, he did smell like cigarra smoke." It had clung to the man the way in which the air around Uncle Darien smelled whenever he stepped out onto the ziggurat balcony to decompress. A rarity for his Uncle, certainly not something he would have been pleased to know Starlin had seen him do, but it did give him a comparison point.​

​

"You think it was the same guy?" He tried to recall the full name the man had used, but it had been some time since and the lad had been more preoccupied with his first name not his last. "I think he had an R-name, you know, for his last name? Rann? Radd? I'm not sure."​

​

Together they headed up the boarding ramp and into the heart of the ship, Starlin standing back to give Jasper room to assess as though it wasn't his ship.​

​

Well, he supposed, it wasn't really his ship was it? He'd just happened upon it. Still, PL acted as though it was his.​

​

"I mean, ordinarily no, but..." His tanned cheeks took on a slightly flushed hue, "Would you believe me if I said that's how I found the ship? I was exploring my Uncle's rooms, and heard this music calling for me." He frowned, that probably sounded really weird. Shaking his head, he moved on, the music didn't matter so much as the rest of it.​

​

"Found an archway there, ornate and... out of place? Made the mistake of stepping under it, and, well, found myself in a uh--" He spent a moment recalling the term that had been used in the weeks since, "hangar..? No doors, no way in or out, just... her." He patted the interior wall of the ship.​

​

Then he hurried on ahead, leading Jasper toward the cockpit.​

​

"Not sure, but PL will know. At least, he should know."​

​

Inside the cockpit was a pilot droid, it was built into the ship and accessed every aspect of the ships systems. In a way, PL-TO3 was the main computer.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"How do I-- I mean, how would someone start? You know, if they were, uh, interested?"

"Ask, for starters," Jasper remarked with a chuckle. "And from there I'd ask why next. Sure, learning how to better use your natural gifts is great and all, but just doing it for the fun of it all isn't exactly the most productive outlet. Why would you be motivated to learn? If you can answer that, then you're probably more ready to train than you think."

When Starlin tried to get the last name of the other-Starlin down, Jasper nodded in affirmation.

"That's the guy, Starlin Rand ," he confirmed. "Few years my superior, I think. Small galaxy, huh? If you know that guy... I have a sneaking suspicion that I might now a relative of yours. I know a Dinn too. Purple hair, green eyes, bit of a fire cracker. Ring a bell?"

With the string of coincidences, Jasper figured he may as well see if there were a few more afoot. It would save him some time, and probably make the young man feel a bit more comfortable if they knew some of the same people.

"Would you believe me if I said that's how I found the ship? I was exploring my Uncle's rooms, and heard this music calling for me." He frowned, that probably sounded really weird. Shaking his head, he moved on, the music didn't matter so much as the rest of it."Found an archway there, ornate and... out of place? Made the mistake of stepping under it, and, well, found myself in a uh--" He spent a moment recalling the term that had been used in the weeks since, "hangar..? No doors, no way in or out, just... her."

"Curious," Jasper muttered as he assessed the ship. "A Force-Nexus perhaps... or some kind of artifact..?"

He really more mused his theories aloud as they made their way to the cockpit. A pilot droid was there, who Starlin called PL. That would make sense. A pilot droid would be very familiar with the ship. Jasper would offer a half-wave to the droid.

"Good afternoon, PL," he greeted. "I'm Jasper Kai'el. Does the ship log it's internal data regularly? I'd like to see if there's anything in there that may help me diagnose your... sudden arrival on the planet."

It was worth a shot, right? Maybe the ship's internal systems logged an anomaly.

 

[Starlin Dinn]

His cheeks flushed a deeper red as Jasper called him out for skirting the subject. His peculiarities weren't exactly something he shared with others often, he'd never been made to feel strange or othered by it, certainly not by his Uncles, but there was this innate reluctance all the same.​

​

"Why?" he asked, a very soft furrow to his brow. "I think it would be worthwhile to know what I'm capable of, to make sure nothing... bad ever comes of it." The boy frowned, and he looked down to the sand his feet were partially sunken into. "Other-Starlin said my parents were that. Were, erm.. bad. That Father tried to get away from it, but it pulled him back in."​

​

Starlin shook his head firmly. "I don't want that. I want to do good, I want to help." Of course, learning to help a City or even a Desert was one thing, something he would have been able to do back home, especially since water was such a vital commodity in such an arid region, but helping a Galaxy? That was... a little overwhelming to think about.​

​

"Do you think you would have, if you had the choice? Learned, I mean?"​

​

Then came the more pressing matter, and Starlin's head shot up. "Another Dinn?" The description, of course, held nothing in the way of familiarity, it just made the boy frown and shrug. "I'unno, Sir, I haven't seen anyone from my family since I was about yea high." He gestured down toward his knees, then huffed to offset some of the nervous energy creeping in. "Well, aside from my Uncles but... They aren't blood. Aren't Dinn's."​

​

Onboard the ship, Starlin largely hung back. He was watching, trying to figure everything out himself. If he had known more about his Father the answer would have been simple, but Starlin had been kept in the dark so he was as useless as a wooden stick at a blaster fight.​

​

<Good mor-ning, Jas-per Kai-el> PL began, <I am PL-TO3>​

​

For a moment there was silence as he processed the query, then:​

​

<Affirmative.> PL did not immediately offer up any of the information, nor did he provide Jasper with a way to extract it.​

​

"It's alright, PL" Starlin went on to say, "He's just trying to help. Let him in, like you did other-Starlin."​

​

<Very well, Mas-ter.>​

​

Jasper would discover that the boys recollection of events had been eerily correct, one log showed them as being on the other side of the Galaxy, just beyond the Core, and the next?​

​

If he traced back previous jump logs, he'd see it was a pattern, one the boy likely did not notice given his inexperience. It wasn't an anomaly, the ship was the anomaly, stretching back decades to its former owner Arcturus Dinn who himself had very little grasp on realspace permanence. Too much time in the Netherworld had left him scrambled, and so too it would seem those things closest to him.​

​

There was no rhyme or reason to it, that was perhaps the most striking part. It was a tactical disadvantage, plain and simple, yet from the looks of things Arcturus had never seen fit to remedy it. That, or he simply did not have the abilities to do so.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"I think it would be worthwhile to know what I'm capable of, to make sure nothing... bad ever comes of it." The boy frowned, and he looked down to the sand his feet were partially sunken into. "Other-Starlin said my parents were that. Were, erm.. bad. That Father tried to get away from it, but it pulled him back in."

"That's a good answer," Jasper nodded with a warm smile. "See? Look at that. Didn't take you much humming and hawing at all, yeah?"

Curiously, he seemed to mention being left in the dark about much of his family. Wasn't that bizarre. Jasper lingered on it only for a moment as the young man insisted to his pilot that Jasper was there to help, offering up the internal logs from the ship. Jasper studied the logs closely, his eyes scanning over as much as he could absorb...

If he traced back previous jump logs, he'd see it was a pattern, one the boy likely did not notice given his inexperience. It wasn't an anomaly, the ship was the anomaly, stretching back decades to its former owner Arcturus Dinn who himself had very little grasp on realspace permanence. Too much time in the Netherworld had left him scrambled, and so too it would seem those things closest to him.There was no rhyme or reason to it, that was perhaps the most striking part. It was a tactical disadvantage, plain and simple, yet from the looks of things Arcturus had never seen fit to remedy it. That, or he simply did not have the abilities to do so.

"Hells..." he muttered, leaning in closer to see if he was processing what was logged correctly. "This thing has a history of skipping about, doesn't it? It... seems rather unstable. This thing it's... all jumbled up."

Jasper let out an exhale. Would this not have been the perfect moment to know psychometry? Alas, past sight did not grace him. It was a gift he could not call upon.

"Well, it was definitely the ship that did it, not your pilot," Jasper stated. "Ship seems to have a pattern of... moving suddenly. I think what may be at play is a bit beyond technological logic. There's a good chance that staying on this thing might have you winding up somewhere else again. Who knows where, really."

And then Arcturus Dinn... The Sith parent of Eloise Dinn, perhaps? Jasper knew that she had some kind of Sith-adjacent upbringing, but he hardly knew anything concrete. Amani Serys would have surely known more, but she was... Well, she could have been anywhere or long gone as far as he knew. It seemed like, in any case, he was starting to get wrapped up in another strange familial mystery...

He was certainly good at that.

"Hey, I have an idea," Jasper noted. "If you'd like to maybe peruse some training, see if you have the chops for some Jedi-ing, I've got a capital ship waiting nearby to pick me up. Uh, imagine if a starship was really... really big, and could fit a town in it. We can get you off of this dust ball at the very least, and get you some water. Maybe help you get to where you're trying to go as well, without randomly teleporting to who-knows-where. Sound like a good deal, Starlin?"

 

[Starlin Dinn]

"Isn't that the answer everyone has?" It only made sense to Starlin, after all, why wouldn't you want to do some good if you had special powers other people didn't? His Uncles used them for good, to help the oasis thrive with fruits and plants, and to mediate tribal problems. Fortunately for Starlin he had been spared playing witness to the horrors that lay on the flipside, those which had driven Eloise away from their family.

No more was said on the matter of his kin, though, instead the focus was entirely ship based.​

​

"Skipping about?" he said, tilting his head. He watched as Jasper's expression shifted, fell, rose... a whole mixture that culminated in one final realization: the ship was the problem.​

​

"I can't leave her behind" he said, an anxious edge to his voice, "What if she's the only way back to my Uncles? I-I don't know where they are, I didn't even realize there was all of this out here beyond the world I'm from. I-I can keep her, right, Sir? You aren't gonna get rid of her?"

When the idea came, his eyes widened. It was a lot, all of it, the offer, the notion of an even bigger ship, but he found himself nodding along all the same. "She can come too?" he asked, of Leviathan, "Even if I don't use her, I'd like to keep her close. Please?"

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"Of course, don't sweat it," He assured. "Grafted into Stone has a large hangar, plenty of room for all sorts of ships. And hey, maybe we can work on a way to get it to stop doing... well, the weird thing it's doing. See if we can't make it safer for you. Okay?"

Jasper would reach down and pull his holocommunicator from his utility pocket, opening the secure channel back to the Grafted into Stone. After a moment the visage of another individual appeared, but not somebody that he was expecting. The person had a similar face structure to Jasper, but was clearly on the much older side.

<Ah, young Master Kai'el,> the old man reacted. <Calling in so soon?>

"Who... put you in charge on the bridge?" Jasper asked.

<Don't worry yourself one bit,> Dillon Kai'el laughed. <I just told them I was your gramps and they were kind enough to name me honorary captain whilst you were away. It's technically true, even if I left out a few thousand years.>

"Nevermind," the younger Jedi exhaled. "I'm coming back up to the Grafted. Got company, and a Corvette sized ship. I need the hangar clear for it."

<Ten four, sonny. I'll pass it along.>

And then, just as soon as he appeared, the image of the older man was gone. Jasper awkwardly reached up to scratch at his beard for a moment before he spoke again.

"Well, if you feel up for it you can have your droid fly us up?"

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Not only could he keep it, but there was a chance they could make it functional and safe again? Starlin nodded emphatically this time.​

​

"Okay," he said, "Thank you."​

​

While Jasper called back to his own ship, Starlin moved to where PL was secured and glanced out of the viewing port over the desert plains.​

​

"To be clear," he said to the droid, "this isn't where I came from, right?" It would not do to be so close to home, only to fly away before he could return to his Uncles.​

​

<In-con-clusive> the droid stated, causing Starlin to frown.​

​

"Can you use your... computie thingy to check? Look for Mercuitie? It's a City, on a riv-"​

​

<Ne-ga-tive, Mas-ter> PL trilled, <No such City exists.>​

​

"It's not here" he sighed, glumly.​

​

<I have no re-cords of any Mer-cui-tie>​

​

Before he could pry further, Jasper was back with him and the focus shifted from unmarked cities to the much bigger Grafted into Stone.​

​

"Did you name it?" he asked, "Is it made of stone?" Then he nodded, "Uh, PL, can you take us to... to Mister Jasper's spa-starship, please?"​

​

<Affirmative.>​

​

It was not long before they were leaving the desert behind.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

Lightsaber, Refuge, Respite, Jedi Outcasts, Grafted into Stone
​

"Did you name it?" he asked, "Is it made of stone?"

"Sure did," Jasper confirmed. "I designed the ship myself too, and it must've taken a year and a half to build the thing. Longer cause we had to hollow out an asteroid to build it inside of. She's a little rough looking on the outside, but she might be some of my best work."

Sure enough, as they took to the sky and slowly departed the planetary atmosphere, a large stone object came into view. To say it was titanic was an understatement. At 1300 meters across, the grafted into stone could easily hold Starlin's vessel several times over. It would resemble a simple space rock from a distance, but soon enough viewports and thrusters would come into view...

To say it was large was an understatement.

"See? Grafted into Stone," he continued, gesturing to the ship. "Name's a bit on the nose, but it is very Corellian. Have to use the naming conventions of my home system. I'm quite fond of the name anyways."

When they were finally at the edge of the vessel, the glow of a hangar bay would become clearly visible to them.