Not Him Again... (The Varus Shatterstar Invasion of Voss)

[Micah tol Powl]

V O S S
The City of Voss-Ka

There was a disturbance in the Force.

Have you felt it?

Millions of voices, crying out in terror, at the announcement that [member="Varus Shatterstar"] would be arriving on the next transport. And, as per the norm, the Silver Jedi had sent their greatest Jedi Guardian to serve as the front line of what was certain to be the end of the world.

...all right, so Zak had detention.

Yes. Again.

What part of child abuse and obvious species-ist discrimination on the part of the teachers were you people not getting? Six hundred posts later and the boy's still got detention? I would hope that someone in the Youngling Protective Services division was paying close attention to this!

...just not too close. The Antarian Rangers still hadn't figured out who'd put the cherry detonator down the refresher in the Master's Grotto, where Zak most certainly wasn't supposed to be. But, that was days ago. No need to go digging through the past, right?

Plus, the flowers in the grotto never looked better! That burst water pipe really helped with the irrigation. And how was he supposed to know it'd go into one of the main water supplies and shut down all the showers in the girl's dorms? It had only been for one day. Girls didn't need to shower all the time anyway. Besides, with all that junk they put on themselves, they usually just smelled like a fruit bowl regardless...

Anyway, as punishment Zak was once again dispatched to meet and greet a new Jedi to Voss. The Nautolan was doing this so often, the Voss at the Tourism Welcome Center thought he was on the payroll. Adjusting the utility belt he wore over the aquatic tunic, the child reached a hand back to adjust where the slingshot was holstered at the small of his back.

Should he have had a lightsaber?

For Varus Shatterstar? He ought to have a STAR DESTROYER!

...besides, the insurance adjusters had convinced the Silver Council they could cut their premiums in half if they didn't let Zak carry a lightsaber in public.

But, that was all right. He was a Jedi. He knew how to handle Varus Shatterstar. A slingshot. Fist full of bottle caps for ammunition. Some bubble gum. A cherry detonator. And a juice box tucked into one pouch, in case he got thirsty later.

It was Sith Lightning Citrus flavored!

Standing his ground on the star port, the Nautolan Jedi stood his ground and awaited the coming storm. This would be a day that would live in infamy...

Spoiler

---

Welcome to the Varus Shatterstar invasion of Voss. This invasion will last until such time as [member="Varus Shatterstar"] drives each of us to fall to the Dark Side and join the Sith, at which point the SSC will revert to a minor faction that will simply be known as the Shatterstar Ultimatum.

Objectives
1. [ PvP ] Prevent [member="Varus Shatterstar"] from hitting on [member="Valae Kitra"], [member="Anna Song"], or any of our other eligible bachelorettes. Bonus points for this objective may be awarded if Varus Shatterstar takes a measured hit from [member="Basaba Willamina"]'s Stick of +5 Clubbing.

2. [ PvE ] Prevent [member="Varus Shatterstar"] from hitting on that NPC chick from that thread from 6 months ago. You, know, the cute red-skinned Voss girl that winked at [member="Gorto Lutt"] one time in a thread no one really recalls. ...okay so that's not a lot to go on. Recurring character does not equal plot armor!

3. [ Fleeters ] Immediately blockade the planet to prevent [member="Varus Shatterstar"] from spreading to other worlds of the Coalition.

4. [ Antarian Rangers ] Do we even still have these? Paging [member="Willa Isard"]...

5. [ BYOO ] Flee the city. Defect to the One Sith. Save yourselves!

 

[Jada Raxis]

[member="Zak Dymo"]

She was new, but no less savage than her family name held up to. Yes she had learned a great deal about them, but rarely even cared, or at least didn't admit she cared. The Echani woman was next to Zak, keeping a watchful eye on the crowd. He was a Padawan just like her, which made her all the more comfortable, even if she was a wildcard.

"What re we waiting for again?" Jada asked, sniffing a huge bump of glitterstim from the back of her hand.

Her rage flared up again, looking around seeking a target. She was Jedi, she couldn't attack at random, but good god she wanted someone to just give her a reason, just one reason to lay down the law with her double bladed vibrosword.

"Wanna get a bump little greenie?"

 

[Varus Shatterstar]

OOC: I think I should be given a break on Objective number 1. I'm a freshly eligible bachelor, after all. Jedi need lovins too. ^_^


"I'm done..."

The whisper came from a tired looking man in the back of a transport who'd turned a couple of heads. People were often curious about lunatics who talked to themselves when no one was around them giving them attention, and Varus was very much alone. Their eyes only hovered for a moment, however, noting the unkempt face and the red, tired eyes, which allowed them to assume he was the typical, drunken crazy. The way he looked back at them, however, unnerved them and diverted their judgmental gazes away as he bore narrowed eyes and a scrunched up nose that showed his disapproval.

It had been too long. He had searched for her too long, as if more than a year the first time wouldn't have already been enough. Now, after the supposed love of his life had gone missing for over six months, he had to assume that she'd scampered away back into the darkened corners of the galaxy again. She didn't want him anymore. He'd become boring for her, or perhaps she'd simply found something that held more worth for her. Either way, he couldn't search for her anymore. Not when every moment that he sought her out was a stinging reminder that she'd abandoned him to begin with. In fact, alcohol had been a bigger comfort to him than she had every really tried to be, no matter how very destructive a comfort it was.

When he stepped out of the transport into Voss-Ka his ice blues adjusted to the people making their ways back and forth in the city, the others in the transport blending right in as they stepped out into the hangar and were on their way. Varus, though, had no particular place to be, though he knew right where he was going. When he ventured out into the crowds of people he overheard a rather particular offer regarding a "bump", which drew his attention to a pair of humanoids, one tall and seemingly an adult and the other quite tiny. "Stop offering drugs to a child.", Varus mumbled as he walked past the both of them towards the lift that would bring him to the crust of the planet. Once there he could find a cantina and the stiff drink he so desperately desired.

[member="Zak Dymo"] - [member="Jada Raxis"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

What are we waiting for again?​

"Master Shatterstar," the youngling supplied in answer, as he glanced up toward the woman standing beside him. Something about the way in which he said it seemed to suggest a sense of foreboding. A resignation, or acceptance, that seemed to suggest the end of the world.

As he watched, the woman seemed to blow her nose. Or, was she sniffing something? Was it scratch-and-sniff? As she looked down at him and asked if he wanted a 'bump' the small Nautolan was totally confused. "What's a bum..."

"Stop offering drugs to a child."​

Yep. It's that nerf herder again. The stubby head-tails whipped about the child's head, as the boy looked up in time to see Master Shatterstar...

...completely walk past him. Like he wasn't even there.

Slumping forward, the child's head-tails sagged along with his shoulder as the child resigned himself to this being the worst punishment ever. This week. Or day. Or something. Plus, something smelled stinky, like Corellian whisky.

Short legs moving in a blur, the Nautolan was nipping at the heels of the taller human like a Corgi herding a thousand pound cattle. "Master... Master Shatterstar, I'm... I'm here to take you to the Silver Temple."

[member="Varus Shatterstar"] | [member="Jada Raxis"]​

 

[Varus Shatterstar]

Varus began scaling some steps down to the first floor and continued minding his own business as he did, though a certain tiny little creature was hot on his heels. In fact, the tiny little thing beckoned him by suggesting the had was there to take him to the Silver Temple, which was a place he hadn't heard about in quite some time. There had been a number of Jedi well known that operated among the Silver Sanctum, but he hadn't had the pleasure of spending much time with any of them. Apart from a recent enough gathering of Jedi and a few words spoken between Masters of another walk of life, he knew nothing about their ways.

"The Silver Temple?", Varus asked as he stepped out of the star port and into the city, which was a rather decent looking place. Not too many people that he couldn't stand the curious gazes that sometimes came his way, and plenty of places to drink. In fact, he turned his sights upon one such place called the "Rickety Cricket", wasting no time in in getting back to what he knew best those days. Drinking...

"Hey. That kid ca-"

"The kid's with me, and he won't be drinking.", Varus whispered as he waved his hand gently past the eyes of the man watching the door to the establishment, who instantly dismissed the fact that a mere child was walking into the cantina. "Sure. Just keep an eye on the little guy.", the man said as he leaned down and smiled at Zak while showing a completely different attitude towards him. When they found a place to sit, Varus took his seat and crossed his right leg over his left, waiting for a waitress to come and take their order before he asked the little one what he was talking about. "A honey whiskey please, and thank you.". Varus said to the young woman who turned and made her way towards the bar to make his drink.

"So... what about the Silver Temple? Why would I need to go there?", he asked as he watched Zak with a lightly curious look.

[member="Zak Dymo"] - [member="Jada Raxis"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Well, this was no better!

Trailing behind the lumbering, ale-saturated, stinky human, the young Nautolan paused at the doorway into a questionable adult establishment. So, he comes in from the frontier, blows through town like the solar winds, kicks the dust off his boots and then trots into the local cantina?

What was this? An Old West holovid?

Spoiler: where Zak's head is at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1PfrmCGFnk​

The sheriff walked inside. The spurs on his boots clinking against the floor as he strode in like he owned the place. A large wad of Big League Chew tucked in the side of his mouth and the ring of the spittoon as he passed by. Reaching down, the boy adjusted how the belt hung down with the weight of the six slug revolvers that were slung down by his thighs.

Straddling up to the bar...

...

...wait a minute...

Pulling out a stool next to where Master Shatterstar had taken a seat, it was a moment before the youngling had managed to pull himself up and plop his butt down on the barstool whose seat was at about head-level to the young boy. Folding his arms down on the bar top, the Nautolan held up a hand as he said, "Fizzyglug. And make it a double."

He had no idea what that meant. They said it in all the holovids though.

Turning his head up toward the man seated next to him, the boy held out his hands as though exasperated by the question. "Uh, you're a Jedi?" the boy answered acerbically. What part of this was not clear? "It's the Jedi Temple."

Well, it was a Jedi Temple, anyway. Personally, Zak preferred the Jedi Temple on Ossus. It had the Room of a Thousand Fountains, which connected to a vast series of underground rivers, the fountains, and was otherwise very aquatic friendly. Here? They were up in the mountains! Zak was pretty certain this was Nautolan hell.

[member="Varus Shatterstar"]​

 

[Varus Shatterstar]

Varus laughed lightly under his breath when he'd heard the little Nautolan order his double shot of some soft drink of some kind. The look of confusion on the bartender's face was priceless as he shuffled off to fix their drinks. When he returned he placed the drinks in front of them and moved on to another patron next to them while Zak pointed out the obvious. "I am a Jedi, but I'm really not much of one. Not these days, anyway.", he admitted to the young Jedi next to him as he took the short topped glass off of the bar.

It was filled half way up with whiskey and absent of ice cubes, just the way he liked it. It wasn't as harsh as most whiskey, the honey doing good work to cut the sharp taste of the alcohol, but it still made him wince lightly when he took a sip. He then glanced down to the little Nautolan next to him and smirked before he said, "I'm just a young man waiting to fade away completely. Then I'll be nothing more than a memory before I'm forgotten all together. That'll be easiest, I think.", he said as he looked away from Zak and raised his glass to his lips for another sip.

[member="Zak Dymo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Fade away until forgotten?

This oversized human adult thing person had lost his mind. "Duh!" the youngling interjected vapidly. "Jedi don't fade away or get forgotten-en. They become one with the Force!" the child stated, quite pointedly as a matter of fact. Really, what was the question there? Every Jedi knew that. It was even part of the Code.

The Jedi kept alive the memory of, like, a ba-jillion-million Jedi who'd come before them. Through holocrons. Through meditation. Through weird Force Ghost thingies that Zak heard about and thought might be really cool to see. Creepy. Toooootallly creepy! But cool.

And Master Shatterstar was a Jedi Master. He would probably wind up with one of the bronzium head bust things that the Council made Zak dust or polish whenever he had detention in the library. "Emotion, yet peace," the boy recited aloud, recalling to mind the simplified version of the Code that was taught to younglings in preparation for the Initiate Trials.

Picking up the glass of soda, the small Nautolan took a sip of his Fizzyglug. Setting it back down on the bar, the child looked up at the man to ask, "Seriously, what are you doin' here, Master, brah?"

If he was wanting to fade away or whatever, wouldn't he have picked a different planet to visit? Laekia? Arda? Mon Cala? You could TOTES disappear in one of the trenches of Mon Cala!

Except he didn't. He'd come to Voss. The home of the Silver Jedi, the Silver Temple, the Silver Council, Silver Guardians, Silver Whatchamacallits, Silver Butt-Wipers Anonymous. Seriously, it was like they were having a liquidation sale on the word 'Silver' and everything must go!

Joke playin' in this place. Damn.

[member="Varus Shatterstar"]​