Plate of Escargot

[Liliane]

Lilin was definitely not a person who'd typically be seen wearing armour. She just guessed she was not a person who'd want to have a huge layer of protection around herself; her lightsaber and movement skills were all she thought would be able to fully protect her from getting hit. Her mother had not worn any armour in battle, her father didn't wear too much, even her aunt and first cousin once removed didn't wear any.

But now she felt like it was mandatory thing at battlefield.

She'd done some research and, even though it was a really darksided thing, she decided to grab some Greater Calama shell to use for some parts of her armour. She guessed her inner darkness could have some effect on the material and would neutralise its effects. If not, she would find out soon.

However, she was not alone.

The Covenant was a wonderful group of people and in such a diverse faction, there had to be somebody who'd like to go on an adventure. She'd contacted a Talith with a first name of Micah. After all, she had heard he had been on the most recent planets of the Sith, mainly just to mine and find some stuff.

She thought he would be helpful on such a trip.

As she didn't know too much about him, he also thought it would be a fine chance of getting to know him. After all, if you were friends with the people you went to battle with, everything was more organised and united.

Ugh, all of her thoughts went to fighting again.

She stood on the planet of Thule, where she guessed she'd find some of these huge snails who had an extremely durable shell. Her ship was landed behind her and she'd left a droid there to protect and defend it. Even though there weren't many people nearby.

And so she waited. Waited to hear of Micah, his location, or for his arrival.

[ [member="Micah Talith"] ]

 

[Micah Talith]

“Yo,”

The lighthearted greeting would come from [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] ‘s right. There, in gunmetal grey songsteel and pliable alchemized Terentaktek armor was Micah Talith. He had his dark grey green Warden cloak on, his gauntleted hands tucked into his pockets. He wore two different types of hilts, one was longer than a standard lightsaber, clipped to his waist. The other was stockier, made for a lightwhip he had most recently crafted. His alchemized and force imbued sword was sheathed at his back, a faint iridescent blue gray lattice decoration barely visible on the metal.

A desert beige long scarf was wrapped around his neck, more like a cowl really, barely hiding the lazy welcoming smirk that always seemed to linger with the teenager. That mop of brown hair was wild as ever, as if he had merely awoke and ran his fingers through his hair to settle it some.

“Lilin, right?” he would ask, perking a brow in mild curiosity. He’d seen her around the Rising Tide; he made it his job to observe others so. It was like a big game of hide and seek for him, because it allowed him to tag and trace various Force signatures, practicing his Force Tracking skills at every opportunity to constantly improve.

Gravel would crunch under his boots with his lazy swagger, the bright citrine hue of his eyes latching upon the young woman with a friendly air. He came to a stop just a meter from her, his lanky but toned 1.83 meter frame hovering over her smaller one.

Enter the cheeky grin.

“Did you bring the salt?” Oh Micah, what a lame joke.

 

[Liliane]

Oh wow, for the first time ever did Lilin see the boy so close, so for the first time ever did she truly understand how tall he was.

"Yeah, I'm Lilin," she replied to Micah's first question. It was so interesting to see how the Covenant was together a lot of the time, yet there were not too many people whose names she knew or who she'd actually talked to. It was an interesting relationship she had with the majority of the people there -- something like a friendship and trust-based understanding, but at the same time, she might have never even seen them.

She looked blankly at the boy with clue of what to do next in her mind.

"Salt?" she asked, a part of her understanding it was a joke, yet the rest of her afraid to show it out in case the boy didn't mean it to come off as a joke. The girl had to admit, the longer she stayed in the faction, the more did she start to care about what others thought of her. The group had changed her a lot.

But Micah's face told her he was actually trying to be funny, so she force a laugh. Ugh, what a strange situation.

"Uh, I have my lightsaber?" she tried to make the situation less awkward.

[ [member="Micah Talith"] ]

 

[Micah Talith]

“Well that will do, Lil. That’ll do.” Micah sang, his eyes darting up ahead towards the direction they would be required to go for this particular hunt. Not that it would be terribly hard to miss the Greater Calama. Depending on their age, their enormous black hard shells were hard to miss on the horizon.

It was just a matter of finding the slime like trail they left behind. The good thing is that Greater Calama are somewhat common on Sith worlds, both as food sources for the larger predators and as implacable predators themselves. The Greater Calama continues to grow throughout its life. Truly massive specimens are not uncommon, and with sufficient nutrients and stone available the Greater Calama can rival larger Sithspawn such as the terentatek and the Leviathans of Corbos, at least as far as mass goes.

Another cheeky grin shone over at the petite [member="Lilin Imperieuse"], his stare appraising her for a moment. Compared to his growing height, she was a small thing, but not as tiny as his mother. At 1.53 meters, there was little doubt anyone was shorter than Jedi Master Kira Liadain, and unfortunately for her, all his siblings managed to glean the height gene from their father. Aela was still taller than him by about five centimeters or so, but it didn’t seem likely that she’d reach Soliael’s two meter height.

However, seeing his father stand next to his mother was still the most comical of sights.

A twinkle shone in Micah’s eyes in humor, then with a casual toss of his head, he encouraged Lilin to follow him.

“We’ve some ground to cover, “ he reported, taking a small datapad from his pocket. The holographic feed flared in a miniature diagram of a map.

“I’ve sent some scouting drones to cover more ground. Calama’s are not hard to miss.” This would be a venture for both of them. He was curious what he could use the Greater Calama’s shell for in his own experiments with alchemy and imbuing.

“It’s getting them out of their shells that will be a bit more difficult.” He chimed with impish flare, friendly lighthearted cheer bathing his expression.

 

[Liliane]

Phew, the awkward situation had gone by with no real trouble.

Her eyes turned towards the direction the boy seemed to want to go and she followed his lead with enthusiasm. Because they boy seemed to be a lot more informed about the huge snails' location than she was. Looked like one headache was to be cured.

Yet then the boy reminded her of the fact that these shells were rather difficult to get.

"Nah, I think we'll manage," she spoke, having returned to her rather cheerful mode. She was an optimist as a person and when she was not depressed due to the fact that she was destined to do things she would never want to, she was quite happy and bright. Even her own family was a little bit surprised of her personality, considering how dark the rest of her bloodline was.

Her boots made this nice sound while walking and she loved listening to that. It was something one would never hear in a busy city, but something that would be heard in the lonely planets full of nature.

"How do you manage to be so organised? I mean, I would have not even thought of sending drones to help at search. Feth, I don't even have any of these."

Oh wow, she was already derailing the whole reason of their meeting. Whatever. She could have used the time of walking for something useful. But her eyes did follow the ground because she was not so dumb that she wouldn't know snails left a trail behind.

[ [member="Micah Talith"] ]

 

[Micah Talith]

“Yeah well…” Micah began, flicking his gaze from his datapad to [member="Lilin Imperieuse"]. “Need to be in order to make sure we don’t end up walking around for kilometers over volcanic area.” The right corner of his mouth would quirk up higher; here came the snark.

“We don’t want to be baked alive for the vultures to pick at,” he would joke, but there was a seriousness that edged his tone. The Calama is utterly fireproof, designed to survive in volcanically active settings. It takes in stone or even lava and excretes it as a highly durable shell. The fact that their natural habitat was in or near volcanically active terrain was a concern. Especially how long it might take to manage to take one down.

His brows drew together as he studied her downcast gaze at the ground. Amusement lit his eyes again. “To be fair, I’ve family that taught me how to hunt and track at a very early age.” he’d relay, hoping to make her feel better. Micah’s character was one that desired to ensure everyone felt included one way or another, even if that required him getting into personal space and dragging them out into the open. It made for some interesting situations with the outgoing teenager. Some personalities would clash against his, others simply found his infectious friendliness the bridge they needed to open up a bit more. It could go both ways, frankly and Micah was perfectly willing to break the ice in any way possible. Often with jokes and his normal carefree attitude.

“They are easier to handle if they are out feeding -- but that means getting into a hot spot or two.” he would explain to her. “I brought us two echani portable shields that can help with that.” he informed her, a thumb gesturing to the pack he had on his back.

“The drones will scan in a grid then relay it on over if they find anything.” he gave a slight shake of his datapad in emphasis. He kept his stride to match with hers, ensuring she didn’t fall behind.

“Once that’s done, we can hop on my speeder to save time. If we managed to get one, I’ll use the slave circuit controls to get the ship over for transport.” He would twist his lips in thought, his forehead wrinkling under the dark forelocks of his bangs.

“Uh… just how big of a Calama were you thinking of getting?” depending on that answer, he would know just what he would have left to use for himself. Not to mention, he was also curious about the properties the Greater Calama’s Force-attunement. It would manifest itself as a powerful healing factor and as an unappetizing or distracting aura. These abilities gain in potency as the snails age, so depending on that… well…

Things would get really interesting.

 

[Liliane]

"Huh, you seem to be able to think of every possible scenario," Lilin joked after the boy had told her about the drones and speeders. Maybe it was a family trait of theirs? She'd noticed how Aela is rather organised -- at least as a member of the Covenant -- and how Kaili had this strange aura to her. They were an interesting bunch of people, she had to admit.

"Oh, I don't know. I don't require too much shell for what I want to do. Just some pieces and decorations. But I've heard the shells are difficult to handle, so maybe we should get a bigger calama, just to be sure?"

Her eyes turned from the ground to the boy who was a whole lot taller than her.

She didn't remember how tall her own mother had been. She was too young when Lilith died. But her father had told her she had been taller than the girl was at the moment. Her father, however, was nearly two metres tall and that told her she still had a chance to grow taller if both of her parents were nowhere near short.

"I know you do alchemy and stuff like that? Do you have any plans with the shell pieces?"

The red irises, as well as the black pupils inside turned ahead of her, taking a glance at the volcanic landscape in the distance. It didn't seem too far away, but it might have as well been an illusion.

[ [member="Micah Talith"] ]

 

[Micah Talith]

Micah shinned [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] with another grin. “Nah, just happen to have access to a pretty neat database about Old Sith Empire Territory.” Ergo, his father’s archives.

“Nothing someone can’t find without holoing.” he would add, returning his attention to the holographic map. At her suggestion, he gave a quick nod. “Mhm, yeah. Nabbing one of the larger ones would be good. I doubt we need one of the massive ones. “ he shot her an amused glance, “Unless you are looking at making a fortified homebase out of the entire shell.” he’d joke.

The drones were about a kilometer away, and so far nothing found. He wasn’t too worried though. At her question, he gave a friendly nod. “Yup. Figure once I study the shell I can determine just what I can use it for. I’m also pretty interested how the Force manifests in the Calama. Pretty good self healing abilities… plus a very distracting or unappetizing aura… makes me wonder if I can use that for some kind of trinket…”

His attention would pan over to the distant volcanic landscape. At least the active volcanos were just slow and steady around here. No random explosion. Well, one hoped.

“And yeah… because their shells are so similar to Hijarna stone, it takes a bit of work to manipulate the shell to what you exactly want.”

It would start of feel a bit warmer as they would walk. His speeder wasn’t too far from here, so when they arrived, they’d be able to put on the heat shields and continue onl.

“So what kind of decorations?” he asked her, curious. Those bright orange eyes focused upon her petite form.

 

[Liliane]

"Uh, some spiky pieces for my armour. Some for extra protection, some for more decorative purposes," Lilin answered the question about what decorations she wants to make out of the shell.

"I have planned them out so that they wouldn't turn into disadvantages in battle," she continued and then chuckled lightly.

Although her inexperience at battle told her she was not the best at understanding if something would turn against her about the armour. She knew the pieces she had planned for the stomach area were defensive and would do no bad for her, but the rest? She had nearly no idea if they could be bad for her.

She would find out when she would first use the armour.

If they managed to get some shell pieces, that is.

Lilin could feel slightly warmer, so they had to be nearing the volcanic zone. But she was not sure how far the nearest calama would be. They were not a widely populous species, after all, so it could take the two time to find them.

"Have your drones not found anything?" she asked.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

As soon as Lilin asked, a small beep echoed from Micah’s datapad. The Talith shot her a grin, “Maybe I got a bite,” he’d quip out in a half tease, lowering his gaze to review the holographic map.

He gave a satisfied ‘heh’, gesturing to the tiny bloop that would point out their quarry. “Got one.” He would scan over the information, guiding the drone to get a closer look. “Not a big one. But good enough.” That is if good enough was a Greater Calama that was three meters in height and width.

“Well, if you are going for plates, I can probably help you with that.” He would over to the young girl, a friendly expression over his face. “We can probably alchemize it or imbue it with certain properties if you like. It may take a bit longer to finish, but I don’t mind helping out.”

Lifting his eyes from the datapad, he’d shine her that little boy grin. “Come on, we’ll get on my speeder after putting on the shields. Then we’ll figure out how to wrangle up a slug.”

 

[Liliane]

Using alchemy was something Lilin was clearly not talented at all, even though her mother had been a Sith Sorceress. Perhaps something inside her was so against being similar to her mother that they made her talented in completely different things, dueling as the greatest example. But if the boy thought it would be a great idea to imbue these pieces with the Force, she had nothing against it.

In fact, the statement made her blush slightly and she was truly thankful for the opportunity.

But she did not have much time to focus on that. They had to jump on the speeder and start going to see if they could catch a huge snail. Micah was nothing like she had expected him to be -- she knew he was organised and generally a great human being, but she had never even thought of who he really was inside. She may have judged a book by its cover and until now had lived that fantasy, never bothering to see what the book was really like.

She made her way to the speeder and just looked at him, ready for whatever was coming next.

"I should also tell you I have never been on a speeder before." And that was the truth. The planet she'd lived on for the most of her life didn't use such technology and she'd refrained from using them during the short time she'd lived away from her childhood home.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

He gave a small laugh, not in mockery but in amusement, his orange eyes bright as he gave a nod. "That's fine. Just make sure you hang on tight so you don't fall down." he would tell her, starting to jog a bit. The speeder was visible and in no time they were next to it. He would hover over it, moving here and there as he would open up the gear bag and hand her items.

"Go ahead and put on that belt." he told her, giving her the heat shield. He would put on his own after. The small beep beep of his datapad would continue to give him updates.

"It isn't too far, so we won't be going too deep into volcanic territory, so that's a good thing. We ware going to have to work together to flip it. How are you in telekinetics?" he asked her, already making a plan for how they can go about this.

 

[Liliane]

Lilin looked at the belt and, even though being slightly confused, she did put the shield on and hoped it would work. At the same time, she grabbed from somewhere and held onto that as tight as she could while slightly bending forward.

"Telekinesis is one of my best Force powers."

She looked ahead of the speeder, at the volcanic landscape, and felt relieved that there was no need to go deep into the volcanoes or something. She was not the best adventurer-scavenger, so anything which could have made the adventure easier made her feel seriously thankful.

"One of the few I can actually use," she added to her previous remark. That was true -- the Force had never quite been with her. She just didn't manage to control it as much as other people seemed to be able to.

 

[Micah Talith]

That from 'somewhere' is no other than Micah himself. While this was a two person speeder, it still required getting a firm grip. It didn't appear that the teenager minded at all. He just kept things casual as he said over the start up of the loud hum of the engine, "Oh? I'm good at that too!" he told her, securing his datapad on the speeder's console.

"How much can you lift?" he asked her, settling his goggles down over his eyes to protect them. He would motion to a par for her to use too, looking over his shoulder with a half cocked grin. "Don't want a bug in your eye." he told her, also offering her his scarf." Or swallow one."

A chuckle came next and with that they were off.

"These guys can be pretty heavy, so we can definitely use your ability with telekinetics to shove one over on its shell. If we expose the soft underbelly it makes them easier to get."

The rocky volcanic landscape would start to whiz on by, Micah using the datapad to follow the map relayed by the drones.

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

 

[Liliane]

"How much can I lift?" she asked, but that was a rhetorical question. "Not too much, to be honest." And that was the truth. Her Force powers were always lacking, had always been. She'd grown used to that, but it was still a little bit too much of a disadvantage. Sometimes her skills in dueling just couldn't compromise for the lack of talent in using the energy she had been granted control over.

She then proceeded to put on the goggles which didn't sit on her too well and which made her itch a little bit. At least the scarf was comfortable.

"Let's hope they're not that heavy," she spoke lightly, nearly as a joke.

Her set of skills made her worry a little bit, but she tried to think of something else.

"Have you ever eaten a snail?" she asked to guide her thoughts from the worries to something more fun.

[ [member="Micah Talith"] ]

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

He shot her a mischievous grin. "Are we talking raw or cooked?!"

Was he being serious? There was no way he was being serious? Or was he? It was hard to tell with the Talith, what with how many jokes he would crack. He had this jovial air about him that spoke of a carefree nature. It would be difficult to discern at times when whatever he'd say in jest was reality or not.

"I'm sure we'll do fine," he would call out, reeving the speeder as they moved along. The volcanic landscape would whiz on by, and the closer they traveled towards the main active volcanoes, the warmer it became. Slow moving bright cherry lava would ooze through cracks, carving the landscape anew with each bit of bubbling lava that came pouring out of the earth.

Micah would use his datapad to narrow down on their objective. Beads of sweat would start to form along his temples, the increased heat warming him from the inside out.

"Press the activation switch in your belt. It's the green one." well that made things easy.

A buzzing sound overhead would draw his attention. He gave a crooked grin. "There's the first drone!"

 

[Liliane]

Uh, the green one? Like she would dare to look down. She tried to locate the button using mostly her sense of touch and only after finding one that could be the one, her eyes followed for a moment to ensure the thing she'd found was a button green in colour. It was, so she pressed it although she didn't have much of an idea of what it would do.

Her eyes quickly moved back to look in front of her. The moving speeder was a scary thing and she did definitely not enjoy it. The fact that there was a chance she could fall was too frightening to forget.

She looked around to find the drone and she did definitely not have to look a lot to notice it. If there was a drone, there must have been a snail nearby, right? At least she hoped there was.

The volcanic hotness had been a little bit too much to bear, but now she didn't feel it that much. Maybe the button had done that? Maybe she had just gotten used to the temperature? She couldn't tell. But the warmth of the planet she'd grown up on definitely made staying in high temperatures easier.

"I think they're usually eaten cooked, unless you've had a raw one in your mouth, that is," she finally decided to answer the boy's question.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

"Not looking to having a live one," He'd joke with a half grimace of mild disgust. He'd had his own share of odd things to eat in the past, and while he was willing to always try everything at least twice, even the thought of eating a raw snail was enough to give a slight turn of his stomach.

As it was, the talk about diets and the like would end, because that was when Micah's datapad would give a slight beep of alarm. Not that they really needed it, there about fifty yards to the right, was the unmistakable shell of a Greater Calama. To their luck, it was feasting on fresh lava that was slowly oozing along beside it, its thick snail like head extended with it's two dark eyestalks keeping watch.

He would slow the speeder down to a halt, moving it to a safe location not too far from it. "Well... there she is." He told her. His eyes would move around to study their location. It wouldn't do to get too close to the lava; that would be bad juju for them both.

"I think we are going to have to try and get it away from the lava... maybe even roll it to its back..." he would give a frown.

"Maybe if we both used the Force we can get it to flip."

 

[Liliane]

"Uh, seems like a lot of work..." Lilin commented, hinting at the size of the snail and her own Force powers. She hadn't ever tried to move something so big -- all she'd ever moved with the Force were small things like balls, cards, small bags -- neither had she ever tried to use the Force with some other person on the same object.

It was a day of making new experiences and learning about her own abilities, it seemed.

"How do you suppose we do this? First we roll the snail on her back and then try to pull her away from the lava?"

She tried to look at the small details. Would it be easier to turn her around than it would to pull her straight away? She couldn't use logic here because she'd never had any experience with such large objects.

[ [member="Micah Talith"] ]

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]


"Pretty much." he told her, checking out her heat protective gear before reviewing his own. "We'll need to use the Force to try and roll her onto her belly. Once that is done well..." those bright orange eyes came panning over to Lil, as if to say, well you know what happens if you want to get a live animal to give up its shell.

"I"ll take care of it." He would tell her, looking down to check on the morp gun on the side of the speeder. As long as he set it up to Hutt level, he figured he could knock the snail out and then humanely set it down.

He then holstered it by his hip. "Come on. Let's move on to the southside and take it from there. We want to roll her to the right." He would point to a nice flat black area away from the lava.

"Right there." he glanced over to her again.

"Got it?"