Faction Naboo Cultural Exchange

[Sophelia Ardemark]

Isar du Vain

Azure eyes rolled in what was becoming a very common gesture between them at his comments.

Ones she ignored.

Such a different way of dancing than their last time. The stray thought brought heat to her cheeks that wasn’t from the fire. And made her hyper aware of that gloved hand of his on her hip. Fingers flexed along his shoulder, her own straightening. Then he lead her in a slow spin. One she was grateful for the brief separation it allowed.

A few prying eyes were still upon them.

Sophelia ignored them.

As he pulled her back to face him, she leaned in closer. Her face and lips a whisper away from that ivory surface. The lavender prickled the tip of her nose up this close.

"We are going to have a conversation about this later." Warning breathed between them. "Since we can't seem to communicate how we usually do. Blocking me out?" She pulled away to look him more in the eyes as the dance continued.

The steps began to feel like the least important part of it. There was a quieter and far more complicated dance at play between them. It lived in the moments their eyes met, in the subtle shifts of his hand and the answering movement of hers. A step forward. A pause. A retreat that wasn't quite a retreat at all. There were questions unasked and unanswered every time their eyes met. Their hands moved. There was the faintest suggestion that one of them already knew the answers. All the things they hadn't yet said and all the things they were beginning to understand without saying them at all.

Or perhaps she was just drunk.

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Aurelian clutched her hand, taking in every word as a heavy stillness settled over the room. Her dilemma was painful, but the truth was undeniable: his protective instincts and reckless choices had placed her in an impossible position. Guilt chewed at his insides.

"I am just as unsure," he admitted softly, leaning his head back against the cushion while keeping his fingers tightly interlaced with hers. "But we can try, can we not?"

A hollow laugh escaped his chest, devoid of any real humor. Looking toward the ceiling, he allowed the raw reality of his situation to surface. "In truth, they will probably come for my crown soon enough. What I did on that bridge was... unforgivable."

His voice stumbled over the words as the horrific memories flooded back. He saw the fire, felt the crushing dark energy, and remembered the sheer desperation that had driven him. Releasing her hand for a brief second, Aurelian raked his fingers through his dark curls, his breathing uneven.

"I was trying to help," he said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Trying to even the playing field, but it took a piece of me."

Turning his head back toward her, his amber eyes shone with a profound, bitter sorrow. He swallowed hard, laying bare the truth he had tried to ignore since their return. "Naboo could need you in this position in the near future, so that you may assume the role of the crown again. I have let them down enough."

| Tag: Sibylla Abrantes |​

 

[Elias Merrow]

ELIAS MERROW
SENATOR · AT ATTIN​

---

OBJECTIVE: The Night Market
LOCATION: Evenfall Estate, Velisia
OUTFIT: Black ankle boots, grey loose-fit jean and white Oxford shirt.

Elias did not mean to end up at the Night Market so quickly. He told himself he would go to the social gathering first and talk to the right people, maybe say something diplomatic about Thyferra to whoever brought it up first and maybe drink exactly one glass of whatever was being poured so no one accused him of either rudeness. However, afterthe first hour of diplomatic maneuvering, the market was more interesting than whatever gala was going on.

He liked it better here anyway. Almost no one was asking him what he thought the Senate should do about the border war and he had more time to look at the merchant stalls.

A stall two rows down was selling carved wooden figures, which he didn't recognize. The vendor was explaining to a customer that the carving technique had been "passed down for eleven generations." Elias was dubious about this claim. He had spent an unreasonable amountof time reading agricultural guild records for At Attin and was almosr sure the technique in question was maybe forty years old and had come from a trade manuam.

He pulled out his datapad and started typing out of habit.

Ref: "traditional" Naboo woodcarving, claimed 11 gen. ... check against Velisian guild registry ... likely post-Cataclysm import

---

Tags: Open

​

 

[Ephram Pryce]

Walking around the Night Market, Ephram Pryce had his eye out for something. What that something was had yet to be decided. So far nothing had caught his eye. Not that the decoration would be in his own personal home, but rather in his Senate Office Ephram could personally not care about the Naboo culture but he had to at least keep up appearances. Despite being the Senator of Loronar, many still came to his office outside of his planet for help.

Did he deny them? Rarely. Keeping up appearances was critical. If it only took a wooden carved figure or five minutes to help a geriatric fill out a form then it was free press. Free goodwill. A darling of the people and it was a reputation in public he planned to keep and foster.

Strolling down the wide stall aisle, he caught sight of the Senator from At Attin. Ephram didn't know him much. Young enough to be one of his kids. In fact...Was the good Senator single? One of his daughters needed to settle down. Revy would be more perceptive. Ava was...well, Ava hated him.

Pushing that thought out of the way, he approached the young man.

"Senator Merrow. A pleasure to see you here. In town to vote by chance?"

Elias Merrow​

 

[Elias Merrow]

ELIAS MERROW
SENATOR · AT ATTIN​

---

OBJECTIVE: The night market
LOCATION: Evenfall Estate, Velisia
OUTFIT: Black ankle boots, grey loose-fit jean and white Oxford shirt

Elias looked up from the wood carving he'd been examining and took a few seconds to place the face before the voice caught up with the memory. Senator Pryce. Loronar..? He'd seen him maybe twice since he's been in Senate.

He saved the notes he was taking and put his datapad in his pocket.

"Senator." He set the wood piece back down on the stall table, nodding at the vendor in an apologetic way for having picked it up. "Something like that. The Exchange, technically. The vote wrapped up this morning, so I figured I'd earned an evening off from being diplomatic."

He didn't say which part of the session he meant by that. Elias had a feeling they wouldn't agree.

There was something in the way Pryce was looking at him that Elias couldn't quite place. It was making him awkward, he felt like an expensive vase in an auction, somehow.

"Didn't expect to run into you two rows deep into a market stall," he said, trying not to be awkward. "Come for the carvings?"

---

Tags: Ephram Pryce

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

Unforgivable.

Hearing that from Aurelian tightened Sibylla's expression. There was something in the way Aurelian said it that unsettled her. When one combined the way his hand dragged through his curls with the bitter sorrow in his amber eyes that barely seemed able to hold her gaze.

What happened in the Grace of Theed?

But it was his final words that made her turn fully toward him. Her gloved hand found his again before he could retreat any further into whatever sentence he had already passed upon himself.

"Do not do that." She told him firmly, and while her expression searched his, Sibylla's tone held that which would not take an argument from him. "Do not ask me what I want and then decide in the very next breath that what you want no longer matters."

Her fingers tightened around his, drawing his attention back to her. Willing her to listen to him.

"I do not know exactly what happened on Thyferra. I can only assume because the Force had managed to be cut off planetside. If you have it in you to tell me, then let me know what happened." Sibylla replied, thinking back on what Quinn had told her and all the chaos that had occurred then. She could hardly pretend otherwise after everything they had just discussed. "But I will not sit here and listen to you speak as though your reign is already over and I am merely waiting to inherit what remains."

Those hazel eyes searched the chiseled features of his bronze face.

"You said we could try." She reminded him. "Then try with me."

The soft curve of her bare shoulders rose as she drew a deep breath, her décolletage gently rising under the delicately embroidered corset held up by trade secrets and magic tape.

"And if the day comes when Naboo decides it no longer wishes you for its King, we shall face that day when it arrives." The pad of her thumb gently brushed slowly over his knuckles.

"But do not surrender your Crown to a future that has not happened yet, Aurelian."

| Outfit: x x | Tag: Aurelian Veruna |​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Aurelian searched her face as she told him to stop, a quiet wave of confusion pulling at his brow. Balancing her demands was exhausting. He was not to act on instinct without counseling her, yet laying bare his rawest insecurities was also the wrong response. The fight had drained right out of him. Exhaustion left him bare, stripped of the usual armor he wore before the court.

Mind wandering for a fraction of a second, he pondered a life without the Crown. He had never sought the throne; he would have been content whoring his way across Naboo, living a lavish, careless existence. Yet that careless boy was long dead. He genuinely cared for Naboo now, fiercely wanting to see their home prosper. Stripped of his sovereignty, would he revert to the lost soul he used to be?

Her steady promise to face whatever came together silenced the spiral. Knowing she would remain by his side, crown or no crown, brought a settling peace to his chest. In a galaxy tearing itself apart, her presence was the only thing he truly needed.

"Okay," Aurelian murmured, shifting his body on the sofa to face her completely. Taking a steadying breath, he prepared to lay out his greatest failure, terrified she might view him with the same disgust he felt for himself.

"The artifact... it was a nightmare," he began. "Nothing like the tests we ran. I wanted to stifle their attack, to prevent those moody mystics and their attack."

Recalling the overwhelming darkness, his jaw set tight. "It fed on my anger. Used it against me. Before I knew what was happening, it dragged me under."

He caught himself before describing the horrific visions of her suffering, shaking his head to drive the memory back into the shadows. "I had to put my guard between myself and the Chancellor plus a very mouthy Senator just to force the Republic military to execute the plan. Now that the whole thing backfired, they will come for everything. I failed our people, Sibylla."

| Tag: Sibylla Abrantes |​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

The revelation that the artifact had been a nightmare, that it had behaved nothing like their previous tests, was shocking enough. But hearing what had actually occurred aboard the Grace of Theed -- that it had fed upon Aurelian's anger and dragged him beneath its influence -- made the color visibly drain from Sibylla's face.

She knew his temper. Shiraya, she knew how fiercely it could burn when he let himself go. She bit at her lower lip as her mind immediately began turning over the ramifications. It brought her back to Thyferra and how Quinn had reacted to the Force being quelled. How it had affected her as much as to when Quinn had looked at her aghast and fear at what had been done. How she had asked her why it had been deployed, knowing how it would affect the Jedi, the Sith, anyone that touched the Force.

And whether any of it had been worth it.

After a few seconds passed, Sibylla drew a slow breath as she worked through everything he had just told her and what that meant. It was clear there was more there, but the shadow in his eyes and what he was telling her already was clearly affecting him. She didn't want to push.

"...I will not excuse the decision you made, Aurelian. We both know there will be consequences. I am sure you knew it then when you decided to risk it." Her brow furrowed, knowing that Aurelian had often called himself the monster that needed to act and take the blame if needed in order to ensure actions and lives could be saved. And while he meant well, his impulsiveness would face cause and effect. "If it has not happened already, a conversation with Dominique is imperative."

She respected the Denonite and her position as High Chancellor, and knew very well what it meant for Aurelian as King of Naboo to act outside of her authority. They were close friends, but even friendship had to adhere to the roles and positions they were elected to. This is the very same reason why Sibylla had said that Aurelian needed to see her as Voice and respect her role.

"But if the artifact fed upon your anger... I am not comfortable with it ever being deployed again." her voice drifted off, the concern deepening over her heartshaped face as she thought on what that meant.

"Do we know why it fed upon you. Or was it merely drawing strength from your anger? Or something worse?" Honestly, the thought sent an uncomfortable chill through her. She had already known how it felt to be led by another entity within the World between Worlds. She had carried a fragment of Vere and had felt the emotions and memories of the Goddess and her lover, Set as well.

"You know what happened with Vere... what if this is something similar? What if whoever wields the artifact eventually loses themselves to whatever entity or consciousness may exist within it?" no, Sibylla thought as she shook her head.

"I do not want anyone else subjected to that risk. Nor am I certain further testing could ever prove such a thing safe." Her lips pressed together. "And that does not even account for the Jedi Order. Corde relayed the communication sent by Grandmaster Ala Quinn -- they want the artifact destroyed."

That alone promised another confrontation between the Order and the Senate in such a precarious time in the war ahead.

| Outfit: x x | Tag: Aurelian Veruna |​

 

[Ephram Pryce]

"Yes, taking time off is important. Especially given the lateness of the hour."

The kid seemed awkward. Perhaps he was intimidated? Epharm was not an intimidating person. A charmer was more his style, leaving the entire tough guy hired gun act to others. He had seen it enough in his career of law and politics. Glancing at the carvings when mentioned, Ephram shrugged. They looked...rustic....to put it gently.

"Just shopping for my office. Nothing major." Ephram shrugged. "I'll leave you to it then Senator. See you next session."

Elias Merrow​

 

[Ala Quin]

Fashionably late was not the goal. But she accomplished it with aplomb.

In truth, Ala was not here to socialise. The normally exuberant Jedi Master had been waylaid by so much to care about that levity seemed beyond her at times. It was not her natural state. Far from it. But one could learn a new form of being.

So she had escaped the heart of the festivities.

A loose cream blouse and long, muted olive skirt moved softly with each step, a dark sash gathered at her waist. Simple sandals carried her along the old stone path between rows of vines, where paper lanterns cast warm islands of light across leaves and heavy clusters of grapes.

Thyferra refused to leave her thoughts. And the artifact, rather what it had done. Victory had a terrible way of making dangerous things seem reasonable. Ala had spent days considering what she would say, what the Order should demand, and whether anyone would listen or care. With the official statement out for all to see, it was just a waiting game now.

And then there was Lorn. Alive. The word still seemed absurd whenever it surfaced in her thoughts. Grief had already built its little monument inside her, only for reality to mock its foundations.

Ala stopped beside one of the vines, fingers brushing gently over a leaf. She had not come out here seeking company. Nor answers, really. Just something beautiful that did not demand anything of her.

Unfortunately, Evenfall Estate was probably the worst place to be. Even after midnight, distant music drifted between the vines. Laughter occasionally spilled from some hidden terrace, and silhouettes wandered along neighbouring paths with drinks, conversations and intentions of their own.

Ala sighed through her nose. Perhaps it was not the best idea to have come.

| Outfit: xxx | Tag: Tavo Halor |​

 

[Tavo Halor]

OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR // ENVOY FIELD RECORD
TAVO HALOR​

LOCATION Evenfall Estate, Theed, Naboo ⟡ OBJECTIVE Enjoy the festival​

Tavo had drifted from the heart of the estate some time earlier, leaving the louder pockets of conversation and music behind in favour of a slower circuit through the grounds. He had dressed with the evening in mind, trading his usual diplomatic precision for darker, softer layers and an open collar. Relaxed by his standards, though still put together enough that nobody could accuse him of surrendering entirely to the occasion.

When it came to the festival, there had been no particular objective to it. The Cultural Exchange had provided more than enough people to speak with, introductions to remember and conversations worth considering later, and after several hours Tavo had found himself wanting enough distance to let some of it settle. A walk through the quieter edges of the estate seemed preferable to finding another glass and another circle of people.

Old habits made the circuit useful anyway.

His attention moved naturally between the paths, neighbouring terraces and figures wandering beyond the main festivities, never lingering long enough to resemble scrutiny. Most of what he saw amounted to exactly what it appeared to be: guests escaping the noise, couples finding privacy, staff moving between buildings, and the occasional person who had simply taken a wrong turn after too much wine.

Nothing particularly interesting.

Which, on an evening like this, was generally a good thing.

The slower pace also gave him room to put the night into some kind of order. Names, impressions, fragments of conversation and the occasional relationship worth remembering could be considered without anyone immediately adding another piece to the collection.

It was somewhere along one of the lantern-lit paths between the vines that he recognised Ala Quin.

They had crossed paths before, if only in the loose sense that came from occupying some of the same political and institutional circles. Tavo had spent enough time around the Chancellor's office to recognise the more visible figures of the Jedi Order, and Ala was difficult not to know of. He suspected the recognition worked one way, as he tended to blend into the background with the company he kept.

Still, she appeared to have found the same thing he had.

Distance.

Tavo approached casually, his pace unchanged, making enough sound on the stone path that his presence would not arrive as a surprise.

"Master Quin, good evening."

Tavo kept his voice low as he approached, more courtesy than any real concern that a Jedi Master might be startled by him.

"I was beginning to suspect I wasn't the only one who found the quieter parts of the evening more appealing."

His gaze wandered briefly across the lantern-lit vines before returning to her, a faint smile touching his expression.

"I hope I'm not intruding. I thought I'd risk saying hello."

TAGS
Ala Quin ​

HOUSE HALOR // SERVICE • DISCIPLINE • UNDERSTANDING