Private Quiet in the Library

[Arlo Renard]

Jedi Temple, Coruscant

It wasn’t all that difficult to get away from the others. Kai just had to wait until later in the day, when fewer people were milling about the Temple grounds. There were still a few walking the halls, however, so he couldn’t use them for travel. Instead he took to crawling through the vents—which was made easier by his malleable nature.

Tonight he wanted to explore a room he had never been inside before. Gently removing the grate, he slid out of the narrow passage, landing on the floor with a soft, muffled sound like a rubber ball bouncing against carpet. He reached up to put the vent back in its place, then took a few cautious steps forward, making sure he was alone.

It was a big room, full of shelves. He knew that the shelves were lined with books and other methods of storing data, but he had never seen one up close with his own eyes. Dagon had liked books—so had a few of the others whose memories he had absorbed. Kai ran a finger over the tops of the books on a particular shelf, his eyes scanning over their titles. Should he try to read one? There were so many of them, he didn’t know where to start.

Before he could decide, the lights suddenly flicked on. Kai froze. He was no longer alone. Should he try to run back to the vent and escape? It would take too long. Maybe he could hide?

Footsteps. Kai’s own feet made no sound as he darted toward a shadowy alcove out of sight of the library doors. He waited.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Arlo Renard

A big room, full of shelves lined in row upon row with everything from tidbits to entire caches of information. A vast ocean of literary treasure, all maintained by a meticulous few who found a greater pleasure in order than many other experiences in their lives. This place was a passion project of its own and in many ways it showed. The hiccup from a while ago, back when a veritable box of trouble had cracked open within, was little more than a memory by now.

Silent footsteps echoed around the halls before their mute echo was interrupted by a loud rumble. Books, a big pile of them had been deposited onto the table before the blonde woman who had entered the room. A quick sigh parted her lips, the irritation evident in her peevish features.

There was a presence nearby, she felt it. Her eyes wandered over towards one of the shadows in the room with a curious glance before the irritation resurfaced again and she went back to the books before her.

“Are you going to stick to the shadows or do you mind helping out?” Aeris asked out loud and turned back towards the shadowed figure. “Could use the help.”

 

[Arlo Renard]

He could just barely see the figure who entered the room. A human…? Female…? With yellow hair. She seemed focused on a pile of books, either unaware of or ignoring his presence. At least, at first.

The sound of her voice startled him. He blinked, then took a cautious step out into the open. Dressed in a facsimile of the customary NJO uniform, he looked familiar, to say the least. But he didn’t speak a word to Aeris, or even really acknowledge her.

He approached the table strewn with books, his curious gaze wandering over the covers. Noticing what she was doing, he imitated her. If there was any particular organization involved, however, he didn’t follow it.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Wait, Dagon? Aeris' brow rose with an amused grin. It was a bit unlike him, but then even he was bound to have his moments. She didn't question it much. In part out of respect for her friend and in another because she just didn't have the energy for it. Today had been a long one with younglings and padawans that tested her patience more than few others could. All the questions, all the running around and the noise. She had been just like them once, but even then she could hardly have been as bad as the current herd, right?

Her eyes set on the way Dagon seemed to sort the books with another curious look. Was he just shuffling them around? A did not come after D, K did not come before D. Aeris put her own pile down for a moment before she looked at the neat tower the man had built.

"Do not tell me you forgot your basic alphabet, Dagon." Aeris chuckled and began to deconstruct the structure. "What is going on with you? Have you had a bad day or something?"

"Want to talk about it?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai liked the tower he had built and was sad to see Aeris dismantle it in an attempt to arrange it by letter. But he let her do it, not wanting to cause trouble by interfering.

She called him Dagon with some degree of familiarity and asked him if he wanted to talk. He stared at her with guileless blue eyes, a dopey, befuddled expression on his face that the real Dagon wouldn’t typically wear. (Probably. Most of the time.)

Truth be told, he didn’t know what to do. This was a fairly common occurrence, people confusing him for Dagon. He used this form because people were nicer to him when he looked this way. His natural form was rather terrifying. As for talking, vocalizing was something he was fairly new at, and he didn’t really like it. Noise tended to irritate him in general, along with anything else that produced vibrations. It made him inexplicably nervous for reasons he was at a loss to explain.

Finally, he settled for the simplest option: shaking his head and reorganizing the books into an alphabetical tower. He then gestured to said tower as if presenting it to her for inspection, hoping she was pleased with it.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

“Alright then. Keep your secrets.” Aeris smiled at her friend and glanced at his new tower with a continued curious look at what he was up to. “Taken to building towers?”

She blew a small chuckle through her nose. Sure, her best and only friend was acting a bit weird but she generally didn’t consider it too strange given just exactly what they went through on the daily. It was easier to think of it as an attempt at levity than something more insidious.

“Well, either way. Load them up and we’ll see to it that they find their homes.” Aeris pulled up a nearby wooden shelf trolley for the tower to find its place in. “Alphabetic will have to do for now, I’ll sort sections out as we go.”

With a grab at the handle at the back of her pram-like book vehicle she pushed forward towards the greater open area of the library. There were a few other souls around, but most of them seemed to be on their way.

“You know, never told me why you needed all those books on Sithspawn earlier.” Aeris mused and looked over at her friend. “Something happen?”

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

The trolley presented a new problem. Kai looked between it and the tower he had built, placed one hand cautiously on the top of the tower, then slid it off the table into his other hand, turned toward the trolley, and…

The books collapsed, crashing to the floor. He stared down at them in disappointment, then crouched to pick them up, remembering as he loaded them one at a time that they needed to be alphabetized.

When he was done, Aeris pushed the trolley down an aisle. He didn’t follow, although she kept talking to him, asking more questions. Kai fidgeted. This was getting more complicated. Could he… make her forget she had even seen him? The idea was tempting for multiple reasons, although he was still hesitant to do it. He didn’t feed on people inside the Temple, or if he did, it was just a little thought here or there. They’d wonder why their brains went fuzzy, and go about their day as if nothing had happened. But consuming memories, even recent ones, was more complicated. No, he couldn’t do that.

Would he have to talk now? It didn’t seem like he had much of a choice, beyond openly admitting he wasn’t who she thought he was—which might only get him into more trouble. He mustered up an attempt at speech, but lack of practice doomed it right out the gate. The best he could manage was a sound like a cross between a hiccup and a yelp. He clapped his hand over his mouth, eyes wide, hoping she hadn’t heard it.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Aeris blinked at Dagon for a moment before she furrowed her brows in suspicion. Something didn’t seem right. That willful ignorance began to spiral into worried paranoia as she reached for a device in her pocket.

“Wait, I forgot something. Have to look it up real quick...” She frowned and punched the quick dial to Dagon, the real Dagon, with the expectation that his device would ring in the library but there was nothing. The line clicked to life and Aeris hung up.

Sorry, pocket dial.​

Her attention shifted back towards where the very-not-real Dagon had stood no more than fifteen seconds ago. Was he still there?

Arlo Renard (and apparently NOT Dagon Kaze )

 

[Dagon Kaze]

ok

​

 

[Dagon Kaze]

ignore emoji, ttyl​

 

[Arlo Renard]

Oh, nuts.

She was definitely suspicious now, he could feel it. Kai lowered his hand and, moving with the same noiseless footfalls as earlier, made a beeline for the ventilation duct he had entered the library via. Of course, he had to weave between the aisles to get there and avoid her, and then he had to remove the grate, and then he had to get inside—

Given that she could sense his presence, he probably got as far as halfway into the vent, with his legs still sticking out the other side, when she stumbled upon him. Assuming she didn’t grab him by the ankles and yank him back out, he’d disappear inside, somehow turn himself around, only to come face to face with her as he tried to replace the grate.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Arlo Renard

Never in her life had she expected to witness the sight of a friend of hers throw themselves into a grate and quickly try to retreat upon her approach. As whatever it was that had mimicked Dagon tried to go for the grate she put her hand against the sliding piece of metal and knelt down to peek into the ventilation shaft.

“I’m sorry, it’s not going to be quite that easy.” A smiled spread on her lips, warm yet cautious. “You’re lucky you decided to mimic the biggest idiot that I know of, you know. Others might have caught on way faster.”

She chuckled.

“So who are you?” Aeris asked and continued to stare into the shaft. “Do you have a name?”

 

[Arlo Renard]

Upon finding her already waiting for him, grate in hand, Kai froze. Panic started to slowly subside as she seemed… amused? Rather than angry at him for the charade. Huh. Well, that was good, at least.

He pursed his lips in a smirk of acceptance, and began communicating with her telepathically. It could be a rather overwhelming experience—he didn’t exactly communicate with words and thoughts so much as he strung mental images and feelings together, then projected them directly into her mind, providing his own meaning and context for it to be understood.

<Kai. My name is Kai. I’m not Dagon.>

The name was accompanied by a very vivid mental impression of the real Dagon, though an intensely lonely one as well. Dagon hadn’t bothered to see him again after dropping him off at the Temple.

<Sorry. I haven’t been in the library or seen books before.>

This was followed by his still-fresh memory of the tower of books crashing to the floor.

<Sorry. I won’t bother you anymore. Can I go now?>

An image of a very plain room elsewhere in the Temple complex, halfway between a cell and proper personal quarters. His intended destination. Kai reached for the grate.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Mental intrusions were a standard drill for some personnel by now. Aeris held a wealth of information in her head that she would do well to keep out of reach from unknown attackers. As that tendril of the force was extended she let out a small branch of her own mind be latched onto with the expectation that it would be something small.

What she got instead was an onslaught of information, something she could not have predicted from someone who look like Dagon of all people. Imagery of Dagon, a feeling of loneliness. The tower of books and the cell. It took a lot out of Aeris not to be overloaded. Her eyes began to close, her head weigh heavy on her shoulders for a moment before she managed to shake herself out of it.

“You have never seen books before?” Aeris asked in horror, she could never have lived such a life. “Are you sure?”

Kai continued to apologize but the librarian simply looked at it and shook her head.

“No, I’m afraid not.” She frowned. “We’ll need to keep you under watch until…”

Until she called the guardians to help escort the mimic back to its cell. Aeris frowned, that wouldn’t do. A blank room, all alone with nothing worthwhile to do. Their escape was not so much a surprise as an inevitability.

That was it then. Aeris furrowed her brows in disdain for the thought of turning this 'Kai' back to their cell just yet.

“Until we have picked out enough books to keep you company for when you go back to your room.” She said and let the frown turn into another smile. “If you haven’t read before I would be more than willing to show you how, maybe help pick out some good texts for you to read while you are staying here?”

“Would you like that?”

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai seemed to groan without actually making a sound, his body language slouching as she refused to let him go.

<I have seen books. Not with my eyes though.>

Wait, had he? His entire brief life up until this point flashed before his eyes. Given the mental link, Aeris might catch a few scattered glimpses of an abandoned city overgrown with wildlife, a cold, sterile laboratory followed by an even colder trek through arctic snow, a forest shrouded in perpetual mist, and the bare, minimalist interiors of various buildings and rooms he had been shuffled through once he was captured. All that just to come to a simple conclusion.

<Nope. No books.>

His finger tracing the shelves before she had entered the library.

Kai perked up when she offered him books. He did know how to read, though it was secondhand knowledge absorbed from the minds of others. She didn’t need to know that, though.

<Ok I read.>

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Arlo Renard

So much loneliness, so much that no individual should have to go through. Aeris held back the sympathetic frown she wanted to let on. Her finger found her chin for a moment as she began to run the quick list on which books she deemed essential reading for someone who might not have read before. Obviously the list was far longer than most people would say it had any right to be, but that did not dissuade her.

“We have a few books that we let the younglings and padawans read. Fictional pieces as well as non-fictional that tell important stories and lay the foundation for what it means to lead a good life.” Aeris slowly nodded at herself as she stood up from the grate, foot at the ready just in case Kai decided to shut the shaft again. “If you have anything in particular that you enjoy reading we can most likely see to that as well.”

“... Do you… Have anything in particular you are interested in?”

 

[Arlo Renard]

Content to remain now that entertainment had been offered, Kai climbed out of the vent. The only way he could have been more excited is if she had promised him food.

At her question, he shrugged.

<Everything?>

A cacophony of mental images, so many questions as yet unanswered.

<Jedi?>

Dagon’s lightsaber activating in a foreign hallway as red blaster bolts shot toward them.

Kai shrugged.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

An overwhelming amount of images began to flood her mind that had to be blocked before they overwhelmed her, but Aeris got the gist of it. A warm chuckle rumbled in her throat before she inhaled,

"Everything might be a bit difficult to attend to, but I can give you some history books on the Jedi Order and some additional stories based on both real and fictious Jedi Masters, if you'd like." her attention seemed to shift to the side for a bit, "Force knows we have enough of the latter."

With Kai in tow there was little to really make anyone question what she was up to. If anyone asked, Dagon had just taken a particularly hard blow to the head. He was after all no stranger to those. Needed some slow reading while he recuperated.

The first stop on their literary trip was at the section on non-fiction. Arguably the most fun part on the trip, but Aeris had more often than not found that some of the others disagreed with her wholeheartedly.

"Is there any Jedi other than Dagon that might interest you?" She asked and couldn't help but wonder why it was Dagon of all people. "We have pieces on several known Jedi Masters of the past, not excluding everyone from Revan to Mace Windu, to Katarn and the entire Skywalker family."

Did these names even mean anything to an outsider?

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai scratched his nose thoughtfully. He knew the difference between real and fictitious, but having never read either, he couldn’t say which he preferred.

She asked him a question which had a double meaning. He couldn’t answer one—he didn’t really know much about other Jedi—so he answered the other.

<Dagon is good.>

His personal interpretation of the word “good” was both exceedingly broad and shockingly simple. Good was anything and anyone which did not hurt him or make him afraid. Dagon stood out from the rest of what was good because of their shared experience on Necropolis.

<I have some of him in my head.>

A scuffle in the forest. Dagon had tried to put an end to it by calming Kai with the Force. Kai had latched onto the link, intent on using it against him, to feed on the Jedi’s mind, only to be overwhelmed by what he found...

A smattered portion of Dagon’s identity had been taken, enough to generate a ghostly shadow-mask of Aeris’ best friend. There were other images, too—the most prolific of them being that moment in the hallway, the lightsaber. Dagon had saved Kai. By imitating the Jedi, he was deliberately attempting to model himself on the first and only kind, heroic figure he had ever encountered.

<Don’t know where to start. Sorry.>

Kai touched the spines of the books on the shelves, the gesture reminiscent of a child exploring his father’s study. He was clearly interested in them, but didn’t really know where to begin.

Aeris Lashiec​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

One could argue that Kai had more than just 'some' of Dagon. While the mimic was by no means wrong that Dagon was a good man, the ever changing distinction between what 'good' meant was most likely widely different for Aeris than it was for whoever or whatever it was that had decided to take the form of her best friend. Dagon was a man who threw himself into trouble, from what Aeris had seen of Kai it was just as willing to throw itself out of trouble.

Perhaps there was some lines that could be connected there, if Aeris had wanted to go down that particular rabbit hole. Needless to say, she did not.

"Okay then, well, we will just have to pick out a few good starters then." She said and began to pick up a whole bunch of books from a few different shelves. "We'll start with the basic history of the Jedi Order, the Code and such. Throw in some..." She squinted. "Crystal facts, what exactly is a kyber crystal, and similar..."

She deposited a pile of books to the wheeled bookcase and beckoned for Kai to continue following.

"So, these images." She frowned. "How long have you been alone?"

"What happened?"

Arlo Renard