Private Lost In A Lost World

[Starlin Dinn]

"That is so cool" he said, of it being inside a literal space rock. "You must be really smart, mister," he went on to add, "How'd you even know how to do that? Design something like this, I mean?" He was glancing around the interior of Leviathan with a fresh set of eyes, it was mind-boggling.​

​

"So many moving parts" he mumbled. "I read the manual three times, and... there's so much to it."​

​

As they made their ascent, Starlin settled his backside to the control panel, careful not to sit on any switches or buttons, and allowed Jasper to take the inactive pilot's seat.​

​

Whatever small talk they might have been engaging in was fast snuffed out as Jasper drew attention to the larger ship, and turning to face the viewing port once more Starlin could not help but audibly gasp.​

​

"That's a ship?" he asked, eyes wide. "No way..."​

​

And yet as his ship drew closer and found itself pulled toward the hangar it became impossible to dispute.​

​

"This is crazy!" the boy said, even as he hastened toward the boarding ramp ahead of their arrival.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"You must be really smart, mister," he went on to add, "How'd you even know how to do that? Design something like this, I mean?"

"Just a... childhood hyperfixation of mine," Jasper answered. "Maybe more like an obsession. I've been tinkering with ships for as long as I can remember. Nothing gives you more freedom than flight. I'm sure that there's something about that desire that's innately organic."

It helped that he knew lots of engineers too. Plenty of folks to bounce ideas off of so that he could bring his projects to life. As they approach, though, he couldn't help but beam with pride at Starlin's reaction.

"Super subtle, isn't it?" he noted. "It looks like any old space rock, then it's a ship when you least expect it. It has onboard cloaking too, so it can hide the less rock-looking outer parts to help with the illusion."

As they moved into the hangar, they would find it populated by various individuals servicing smaller craft than the Corvette. Prime amongst them was another vessel of Jasper's design, his beloved Epo-1 Delta-class Light Interceptor. A good number of them were being worked on. As they stepped off, Jasper would receive a few salutes of recognition but they would more or less be undisturbed. Lots to prepare for, as the Grafted was getting ready for the journey back to Refuge.

"You've come at an interesting time," Jasper told Starlin. "We just picked up refugees from the Core worlds, some of our stragglers when we lost our original home base. Planet called Sacorria in the Corellian Sector, Sith control it right now. We're en-route to our new HQ way out in the edge of the Outer Rim. A slow journey, so we worked a pit stop in so I could set my boots down and do a little meditation. How you feeling, by the way? Light headed, dehydrated... any injuries?"

Jasper figured now was a good time to see how the young man was fairing, if he needed anything immediate. The desert was a harsh environment after all, not for the feint of heart.

 

[Starlin Dinn]

"I never really thought about it before" he confessed, "Not before I was spat out into space, anyway. I mean, maybe I wanted to fly like a bird when I was little but..." He shook his head. "I was drawn to the water more than the sky."​

​

He nodded eager and earnest insofar as the larger ship was concerned. "It's such a cool idea" he declared, "Easy to hide it, I'm sure." A pause. "Cloaking? Does that hide it?"​

​

As they headed down the boarding ramp, Starlin lifted his hands to partially cover his ears. It was a lot, loud and busy and bright; the sound, though, was clearly the worst offender for the lad. He'd lived his life in such relative peace up until recently, the Ziggurat was quiet whenever petitioners weren't present and even then Starlin had been kept away from the crowds.​

​

His gaze, though, darted this way and that, soaking it all in, learning all he could, he was excited and eager and curious... just overwhelmed.​

​

"Sith are the uh, the bad guys right?" he said, using the simplified terms other-Starlin had. "Are the people okay?" He looked around for sign of the aforementioned refugees. "What can I do to help?"​

​

A soft shake of his head followed. "I'm alright," he said, "A little sun can't keep me down." He paused, chewed his lower lip, then sheepishly smiled. "Well, I mean, some water would be nice..." But the rest he could push through. He'd had migraines for days.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Space
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"Sith are the uh, the bad guys right?" he said, using the simplified terms other-Starlin had. "Are the people okay?" He looked around for sign of the aforementioned refugees. "What can I do to help?"

"Not to worry, they're well," Jasper assured. "Though I appreciate the eagerness to help. What they need is to get somewhere they feel secure, somewhere they can lay their heads down at night without worry. Besides, you seem a tad bit... overwhelmed yourself. Best to ground yourself before you expend the energy to help others. I learned that one the hard way."

The boy really hadn't gotten out much, had he? Even so, he was eager to help. That was a very good thing.

"Come on, let's get you some water then," he decided. "I know that all the new sights and sounds are a lot right now, but at the moment try to pretend like they aren't even there. Before long places like this will feel mundane, once you've worn in your boots a little."

As he lead Starlin down the wide hallways of the Grafted into Stone, he offered a glance back over his shoulder.

"Say, where'd you come from anyhow?" the man asked. "Maybe I can help you get back there? I overheard your droid say it didn't exist, or something to that effect."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

He tried to lower his hands, but that lasted just a few seconds before someone dropped a vibrotool which clattered against the metal of the hangar bay floor, and someone else's voice boomed with laughter elsewhere in the vast space. Nope, hands would remain hovering over ears for the time being he had decided.​

​

"Is it always so loud, Mister Jasper?" he asked, picking up his pace in order to keep up. Grafted was much, much larger than first anticipated, and they had a lot of ground to cover. "If there's any way I can help, I'd like to," he added, Uncle Theryn's voice gracing the back of his mind. Pay it forward, he would say. He liked to help, even if it was behind Uncle Darien's audience room curtain.​

​

"I was raised in the City of Mercuitie" he explained, before faltering. "Guess you'd need the, erm... planet name?" Starlin frowned, shaking his head. "If I was ever told it, I don't remember."​

​

Taking a moment to recall the naming conventions of the planets he had visited thus far, he quickened his pace to walk alongside Jasper instead of behind.​

​

"The people were known as Shaal, and Zaathri, so maybe it's close to one of those? Like the, erm... Cath-har." A pause. "Cath-ar, sorry." Jonyna Si hadn't much liked the way he said her homeworld's name, he was making a real effort to do things the right way. "People are named for their world, right?"​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"Is it always so loud, Mister Jasper?" he asked, picking up his pace in order to keep up. Grafted was much, much larger than first anticipated, and they had a lot of ground to cover. "If there's any way I can help, I'd like to,"

"Lots of important things are loud when it comes to space travel, especially at this scale," he noted. "If you think this is loud, there are some planets that are entirely covered in one giant city. Now those... those are loud." The man offered a warm smile. "Your time to help will come, if that's truly what you'd like. We'll start you off at a pace you can ease into when that does happen."

From there they would find their way to a much quieter part of the vessel. The cantina was sparely populated with much of the ship's crew working on preparing all of their vessels for what was to come. It was a modest, utilitarian food court with a few automated systems for grabbing a quick meal and very little else.

This wasn't a luxury cruise liner after all. This was a vessel with a purpose.

Jasper stepped up to a machine that dispensed two water bottles, then turned and offered one to Starlin.

"People are named for their world, right?"

"Well, I suppose it depends on where you are," Jasper nodded. "Never heard of a Shaal or Zaathri, though... strange. I wonder if there's any info on them in the Jedi Archives..."

In any archive for that matter. Coruscant? Maybe, but that was the den of the Sith now. That made things...

Difficult.

"Why don't you tell me about your uncles?" he requested. "They also have special talents? They teach you anything, or... were they the ones who seemed reluctant to explain anything too you."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Starlin sort of stared for a moment, before looking at Jasper as though he had three - no, four - heads. "You're pulling my leg" he said, "Whole planets covered by one city? Like, the entire surface?" He shook his head. "No way."​

​

Then he smiled. "Alright" he declared, "I'll be patient then." He was eager to get right to it, but this wasn't his call to make. He was stepping into a world he had no current place in, after all.​

​

His hands lowered from his ears as they entered the much quieter Cantina, and soon enough he was opening the bottle to chug down its contents.​

​

"They don't get out much" he said of the Zaathri and Shaal, a slightly amused smirk settling over his lips. "We don't have your fancy spaceships back home."​

​

Talk of his uncles put a bounce in his step, and Starlin nodded eagerly. "Uncle Theryn can make plants grow wherever he wants" he said, "That, and he can make things appear like they're something they're not... create images out of nothing!" He had put on the best puppet shows for Starlin when he was a little tyke, weaving illusions for the boy with just his mind.​

​

"Uncle Darien's wicked smart, he can speak words into my head from across the City, and I've seen him talking to people in languages he doesn't actually know."​

​

He looked to Jasper then, heart heavy; Starlin missed them deeply.​

​

"They aren't my actual Uncles, not by blood I mean, but they raised me when the rest of my family left me behind. Honestly, they're more my dads than my Father is. Uncle Darien runs the City, he makes sure everything is calm and safe and peaceful, and listens to everyone's problems to try and fix them. I want to be like him, I want to make things better for people."​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"You're pulling my leg" he said, "Whole planets covered by one city? Like, the entire surface?" He shook his head. "No way."

"There are plenty," Jasper assured. "Coruscant, Hosnian Prime, Denon... Huge cities that tower up so far into the sky that you can't see solid ground. Real mazes, those places, easy to get lost in them. Some folks that live in the depths never see sunlight in their entire life."

He listened to the mention of his uncles with great detail. Sounded like... plant surge, illusions, telepathy... all pretty standard, though telepathy from across a planet was extensive. Even with augmentation, Jasper could only manage a few feet himself.

And then there was the matter of this father of Starlin's... the one that the other-Starlin had stated was a bad person. Could the man himself have been a Sith? Perhaps, then, there was something deeply paranormal that was causing the strangeness with that Corvette...

"No names I know," he finally admitted, "But I know those abilities. Plant surge wills plants to grow by sharing your energy with them. Force Illusions are pretty self explanatory. Telepathy links the minds of two people, but it is... very uncommon at such a large range. However they learned to use the Force aside, your Uncles are clearly powerful..." Jasper paused for a moment, rubbing at his chin while he thought. "I wonder though... that father of yours. You said Starlin Rand said your parents weren't good people. I wonder if they were Sith. Maybe partly why he had told you that the Sith weren't good people either. The Sith have access to other plains of reality, places that defy our logic and reason. If that's what your father was, well..."

The man let out an exhale before taking a sip of his water. Then he spoke again.

"...that ship may have been places neither of us could truly fathom. That could account for the strangeness."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Even though none of the places Jasper listed off rang a bell, Starlin found himself nodding along as though he understood all the same. If this was a bit, it was one the man was very invested in... and that made the boy realize it likely wasn't a load of rubbish.​

​

"I don't think I like the sound of these city-planets, Mister Jasper," he confessed, "There has to be hundreds and thousands of people crammed onto them... millions even?" The idea that even more, say a billion, a trillion, could exist in one place, was too much for his little brain to handle. Somewhere in there, Starlin shuddered.​

​

"Exist without the sun? No. No thank you... The sun gives life, it makes things grow and makes people happy and..." He shook his head, deciding then and there that he would never, ever go to someplace without sunlight.​

​

When Jasper stated that he did not recognize the name of his uncles, Starlin only smiled. "I didn't expect you'd know them, Sir, but it was nice to talk about them all the same. I miss them." It was nice to hear names given to the feats they did too. "Does that mean I may be able to learn some of it too?"​

​

Mention of Sith had the boy shrinking slightly, and though he sipped at his water he dipped his eyes and frowned. "He did say that. Said they were, that... Sith..." He did not dare look up, for a sense of genuine shame washed over him. "Will that mean I can't learn to be like you?" he whispered, "If they were Sith, does that make me Sith..?" His brows furrowed. "I don't want to be bad, Mister."​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"If they were Sith, does that make me Sith..?"

"Nope," Jasper stated in a pretty certain tone. "You aren't born anything but yourself. Being a Jedi or a Sith is a choice, plain and simple. It's not something in your blood, just a decision made by someone before you. I've got a close friend of mine, his name is Silas Westgard . His ancestors were Sith, but he may be one of the best Jedi I know. You don't need to feel guilty about what your family was."

That was something that Jasper was certain of above all else. Life was complex like that, after all. Being a good Jedi really came down to, in his experience, being a good and well-rounded person. Making decisions that a stable adult should be able to. In many ways the Sith path was innately immature. It threw kindness and collaboration to the wayside for personal ambition and greed. Strip away their force powers and he doubted most Sith could make an honest living.

"I'm sure you could learn how to do what your Uncles can," he expressed, "Some abilities can be easier for people to learn than others. Sometimes you have an inherent affinity that makes something way easier to learn. It's all based on your determination to learn. And perhaps even finding some creative solutions when you find your limits."

Jasper himself was a prime example. Without the use of the Force Crystal back on that desert planet Starlin's ship would still be in the sand. He had lived his life finding creative solutions to get around his limitations.

"Maybe it would help to start with what you do know and go from there?" the Jedi Master suggested. "After all, maybe your own gifts can do more than you think."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

There was something inherently comforting about a person who spoke with such certainty, emphatic and to the point. Theryn had always been that way, he could be flowery and poetic yes but he never sugar coated things, and he never, ever left doubts in Starlin's mind. His Uncle was a heart on your sleeve kind of guy, and he was beginning to get the same energy from Jasper.​

​

It helped, of course, that he hadn't been a zealot about all of this Jedi-and-Force stuff. There was no holier-than-thou talk, no my beliefs are the only beliefs, just facts as facts and viewpoints as, well, viewpoints. It made it all much more manageable for a complete noob like Starlin to keep up with.​

​

"Okay" he whispered, still a tiny bit apprehensive about the whole parent-thing, "Okay, good, because... I'd want to help anyway, and... While I wouldn't want to be a pester, I'd definitely get in the way." He forced himself to smile at that last part, tricking his brain into letting go of that last bit of trepidation. Another Theryn trick, of course.​

​

"I don't really know what I can do, Sir," he confessed, glancing around the Cantina as he considered himself in earnest. "I know that I... hear things... that other people can't? Like, whenever my Uncles do their thing there's usually a swelling of, like, music? I don't know how else to explain it. You know the vibrations you feel when someone's playing an instrument? It's like that, only it sort of... guides me? To things and people and places. Especially special things."​

​

He glanced down at the water bottle in his hand then, and smiled. "Oh," he said, "and I guess I can do this..." There was no difficulty or hesitation behind the act, in fact he barely looked to be concentrating on it at all, as the Force swirled through-and-from him to the liquid itself. It spiraled upward from the bottle to the opening, looking every bit a whirlpool to begin with until it broke free from the top of the container and formed something more akin to a waterspout.​

​

"In the desert back home" he went on to say, voice just the tiniest bit strained as he split his focus, "I could feel the underground reserves, deep, deep beneath the sand. I don't remember ever learning how, I just... could. Can."

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"I know that I... hear things... that other people can't? Like, whenever my Uncles do their thing there's usually a swelling of, like, music? I don't know how else to explain it. You know the vibrations you feel when someone's playing an instrument? It's like that, only it sort of... guides me? To things and people and places. Especially special things."

"That, I would imagine, is your natural sense as a Force user," Jasper stated. "If you want to think of the Force as a kind of energy, then it you can think of it as a sort of vibration. A frequency that permeates all things. When it swells, you hear it better. It's not weird to think of it as musical. I find that to be much the case myself, only a bit fainter than most of my peers. I've trained for a very long time to be able to listen to the things around me."

Of course, as Jasper watched the young man's manipulation of water, he wasn't shocked. He knew exactly what it was, and offered up a very simple answer.

"Water shaping," he observed, "A group called the Shapers of Kro Var once taught the ability to the Jedi Order, quite a long time ago by now. The ability to move the natural occurrences of the world, like stroking a brush across a canvas. I've had to find... alternative methods to do shaping myself. It is fascinating though, isn't it?"

Less Force Sensitive than most, his work around often came in the form of runes taught to him by an old tutor, Kahlil Noble . Runes that offered light-side alternatives to the Sith alchemy made by his family. They were often little more than party tricks, like little jolts of electricity or a bit of frost to chill a surface. Even so, they had their applications.

"The cool part about elements like water is that they exist in many different forms," Jasper noted. "Just a little bit of energy drawn out of it with a bit of help..."

Jasper would reach out a mechanical finger, one with a rune scrawled into it. It would glow faintly before the water in the bottle froze into a lump mid-spout. A more playful grin had now spread across his face.

"All you need to do is think about what the states of matter are," he expressed. "If you can move water freely as a mass, what stops you from moving it when it's much smaller? At a molecular level? If you pulled the water particles apart, I would imagine they'd melt back into a liquid for you, no?"

 

[Starlin Dinn]

"My sense?" he asked, as he chewed the inside of his lip in thought. "So it's like... when it's in use? I can feel it? Hear it..?" He tilted his head a little to the left. "And when that sound is calling to me, is that it too? The, erm, the Force? It's trying to get my attention for some reason?" Brows knit together, and before Jasper could respond he hastily shook his head. "Sorry, I know it's not a living thing reaching out to me, that's silly."​

​

He was happy when Jasper spoke on his aquatic abilities, naming it, explaining it. "So it is the Force?" he asked, "Does that mean I have it? I mean, I can interact with it?" His eyes lit up. "So I can learn, then?"​

​

As water turned to ice, all the way up the waterspout, Starlin gasped. "You're like Uncle Theryn" he whispered, in awe, "He makes things cold, too." Of course, Starlin did not understand that Theryn's icy abilities were the consequences of a curse placed on him in utero, his Uncle did not speak on the Vinterbound frost zombies of his homeworld, nor the harm done to his mother by one during childbirth, in Starlin's eyes it was just a cool trick he knew how to do.​

​

By this point he was grinning too, he reached up his free hand to poke at the solid ice, then looked up at Jasper in amazement.​

​

"What if more energy was put in?" he asked, the introduction into thermodynamics Uncle Darien had taught him a few years prior resurfacing at once, "Would it boil?"​

​

Of course, as exciting as that idea was he fast frowned. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Helpful in some ways, he could make tea on the go, but... boiling water was not fun to mess around with, and people could get hurt.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?

"Well, that's the responsibility we all have to take when we learn these sorts of things," he noted. "Water on it's own is dangerous, isn't it? It can deprive us of the air we breath. Ice can give us frostbite, and can cut us with sharp edges. And yet, we need water to live. Ice can help keep us cool on a hot day. Boiling water can cleanse our food and drink of diseases. Ultimately, that is why we train. So that we may use our talents responsibly for good."

With a touch of his finger, the water would melt down again and slowly drift back into the bottle. Then the Jedi Master spoke again.

"You are right though," the man added. "About the Force calling out to you. It's not alive in the sense that you or I understand. It is energy, but we're made of energy too, aren't we? In a way, you could say that the Force the energy we're all made of. In some ways I find it's almost like we're electrical nodes in a brain, receiving signals carrying information. And if you can hear it, than you can learn it."

The Jedi Master finally offered a more relaxed shrug.

"It's just sometimes a bit unclear what you're being lead to," Jasper admitted. "Even after ascending to the highest rank in the Order, I'm usually out looking to answer my own questions. But that's sort of just life in general, yeah?"

 

[Starlin Dinn]

"I ... guess I never thought of it that way" he confessed, "I see water the way I see sunlight, it's life, at least... for those of us who need it to survive, but, you're right, too much water and you'll drown, or fires will be extinguished. Just like too much sun can scorch your skin and leave you dehydrated or worse."​

​

All in moderation, he was coming to realize; it was a careful balance.​

​

When ice became water, which itself returned to its container, Starlin took another swig.​

​

"It's like a... transmission?" The word sounded clunky on his tongue. "Like when Pluto calls for help?" A pause. "Pluto is my, uh, droid by the way. The one on the ship." Droid sounded just as foreign as transmission had, but he was learning to make use of those words, learning to make sense of the terms of this strange new Galaxy.​

​

Signals and vibrations. "I don't just feel it though, Mister Jasper" he admitted, "I really do hear it. Thought your singing and playing back in that desert was more of the same, though I'd never heard words accompanying it before."​

​

He rocked back onto the heels of his feet, then forward onto the balls and finally his toes. "Do, uh... Do you think you could teach me? Just a little bit, I mean. If... If you're not too busy." He glanced over his shoulder, back the way they had come before entering the Cantina, and hastily shook his head. "Who am I kidding, of course you're busy." He had refugees to help, and it would be wrong for Starlin to keep him from that work.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"It's like a... transmission?" The word sounded clunky on his tongue. "Like when Pluto calls for help?" A pause. "Pluto is my, uh, droid by the way. The one on the ship."

"Maybe," Jasper speculated. "Or... an innate sense. Like the feeling that spurs birds to migrate, or fish to swim in schools. Something so ingrained it's like a part of our very being. I'm sure it's something we could talk about for a very long time."

And he did believe it when Starlin said he heard it. Jasper did to. It was physical, real, a sensation that touched the ear in a way to ground itself. Make its presence known.

It was only themselves as individuals, however, who could conclude on what it truly was.

"You're right, I am busy," he agreed. "But, one of my many responsibilities is the most important of all that Jedi are given: Training students. You are not able to ascend to the rank of Master without having trained a student, after all. There is no higher importance than offering what you've learned to another who needs it. And, if you are asking, then I see no reason to deny my calling. It won't be easy, mind you. In fact, the very act of learning the Force is to face yourself. Come face to face with both your deepest desires and your greatest fears, so that you would emerge from your training whole. I would not train you alone either. I believe that padawan learners, the initiates of the Jedi, should be trained by their community in unison. That was how I learned. I would ask you to meet some of my peers, others who have different perspectives to offer you."

He paused to take a sip of his own water before adding one more thing.

"If, of course, you're mind is opened to being challenged. It's an experience that may affirm everything you believe... or flip everything you've ever understood entirely on its head."

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Starlin seemed genuinely down to talking about the logistics and philosophy of whatever it was he had just discovered he had inside of him, or more aptly he could interact with. There were few ways he was more his Father's son than in his curiosity, but the migraine he had been nursing wasn't going to improve by embarking upon cyclical conversations varied solely by nuance, so for now he simply nodded. "Well, I look forward to trying to make a little more sense of it then."​

​

For a brief moment Starlin's heart dropped; while he had already hastened himself toward resignation insofar as learning from Jasper was concerned, talked himself out of it so to speak, there was of course that small part of him that still wanted to. A look of confusion crossed his expression in the aftermath, though, because while the man concurred that he was busy he did not scratch out the possibility of teaching. Quite the opposite.​

​

"Really?" he breathed, perilously blue eyes bright and wide, "I mean, yes, Sir, of course, I'd like to learn, from anyone who can teach, and I'm up for a challenge, I swear I am. I really do want to find a way to help, Mister Jasper."​

​

As he was saying it, however, a realization settled into the pit of his belly.​

​

"I, erm, I do have a thing I need to wrap up though," he confessed, "and, I still need to find my Uncles. Is that okay? Other-Starlin set Pluto a task, he was sending me to see someone but... well, as you can see my ship got waylaid." The boy swallowed, he still felt eager but he was afraid of stalling before he even got to begin.​

​

"If I follow Other-Starlin's trail -- sorry, I mean, erm, Mister Rand's trail - can I still seek you out?"​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"I, erm, I do have a thing I need to wrap up though," he confessed, "and, I still need to find my Uncles. Is that okay? Other-Starlin set Pluto a task, he was sending me to see someone but... well, as you can see my ship got waylaid." The boy swallowed, he still felt eager but he was afraid of stalling before he even got to begin."If I follow Other-Starlin's trail -- sorry, I mean, erm, Mister Rand's trail - can I still seek you out?"

"Very well. Here," Jasper nodded, retrieving a cube shaped device. It was a bit industrial looking, with exposed wires and a scomp link port. "You'll need this. It holds the navigational data for our sector. It will help keep you out of our system's local black hole when you seek us out. Be very certain that this gets into the hands of your pilot droid, understood?"

It was about then that another call came in. It was not Jasper's great great to the odd-teenth power grandfather, but instead another Jedi. This one clearly wasn't as high ranked, though, speaking in a very professional manner.

<Master Kai'el, we've picked up on a transmission,> the individual relayed. <It's been sent from Refuge, on the ring side opposite of Respite.>

"...Understood," he answered, "Play as much as you can."

<Right.>

"H-hello?!

----en... working? How did she---

I---sending my words... else---please... I-I don't know where---being... forced to work on machine---what they do.

Th-that woman---Ate them. I... H-he wa---

---please don't leave us here."

<That's the best we can do.>

"Let's pick up the pace," he stated. "Our guest needs to return to his vessel and depart, then we jump to hyperspace. No delay. Send word back to the Outcast Temple, let them know we need an immediate investigation party organized."

<Understood. It will be done.>

From there, Jasper turned to Starlin and offered a weary smile.

"It seems I have matters of my own to attend to," Jasper noted with an exhale. "Come find me when you've taken care of your business. I imagine we'll have a lot more to talk about."

Jasper had a good feeling that there would be a next time. It was just a matter of when.

 

[Starlin Dinn]

He took the device with a nod, pocketing it ready to hand it off to Pluto when the time came. Before he could ask any questions, or really respond, Jasper received a transmission, so Starlin took half a step back. At first he simply drank from his water bottle, trying not to listen in, but of course certain words stood out to him and by the time the transmission was over he had taken two steps closer.​

​

"Wait," he said, when Jasper dismissed him, "That sounds bad, can I help?" He swallowed. "I know I'm no Jedi, and I don't have much in the way of the, uh, Force just yet, but..." Starlin half shook his head, looking back to the comms device. "She said that they were eating people? I can't just turn around and go back to following Mister Rand's trail knowing there's people suffering like that..."​

​

Starlin braced himself for rejection, all while seeming entirely earnest and sincere in his desire to help.​

​

Jasper Kai'el ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Outer Rim
Tags: Starlin Dinn

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

"I know I'm no Jedi, and I don't have much in the way of the, uh, Force just yet, but..." Starlin half shook his head, looking back to the comms device. "She said that they were eating people? I can't just turn around and go back to following Mister Rand's trail knowing there's people suffering like that..."

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire..." Jasper muttered before he pulled up his communicator. "Jump to hyperspace. Our guest will be staying aboard for the round trip."

Nothing more needed to be said. Jasper reached for his utility belt and handed over his secondary shoto lightsaber, though he made sure to set it to a non-lethal power setting. He offered a smile of reassurance.

"Hold onto this for now," he told him. "It might be useful to defend yourself. Other than that, stick close to me and keep your eyes open. We'll see if you can't pick up a thing or two seeing a bit of action for yourself."

There was nothing more Jedi than a trial by fire, after all. Jasper would be right there, of course, but it was in a crisis where someone's true colors came out.

In a matter of moments, the Grafted into Stone made the jump.