Dev Shadows of Atrisia

[Junko Ike]

The sounds of the airship coming in were minimal... they didn't make sound even when pushing the engines to the max. The engineers have been working on many things that they had... they would have to work on them as well. Improving many aspects to reflect the better technologies and they would also improve it so that they could respond faster. With the new engines here and in the gentoku they would be able to improve the trains for better around the planet. Then they would expand it to many of the other Commonwealth worlds that were being improved upon for them. THey had plans for weapons and armor but they would have to work on the rest.

"It is all so... beautiful." Junko said it while Barca was standing there and her wardroid seemed to agree.. the thing might be a machine but those wardroids were surprisingly able to learn and improve. She would have to see what came but having the saame programming for their Makie's would be a benefit if they were lucky... if they could improve the models to have different functions and increase the yield for citizens and commonwealth members.. she could see some powerful utility of it all. A combat model, a defensive model and a utility model that would be able to augment itself for all of them. She would have to get Miyoung on that.

 

[Junko Ike]

"Miyoung, I am going to have your so busy it will be insane. We have so much more work to do." She said it with a small smile on her face though when she stepped on the airships platform as it passed the wall. They were able to get a good place on it as the guards were there with them. A look from the womans face though told her what she needed to know.. she already had plans... better she likely already had plans of how to improve those plans and it would be insane. The jedi princess was taking in others parts of it while the image of Shoma appeared on her interface.. he was congratulating her for her hard work in the battle and what they had done as he was getting all of the reports now.

He seemed happy though and she was glad about that as on the airship the rest of herr handmaidens joined. One or two stayed back in case they were needed and a couple used the far-caster to get to Xam'chi but... she was taking the airship to decompress and enjoy the fruits of their labor and the defenders of the attack. Her airship was beautiful as the guards were quickly unloading without even having to dock.. they were practiced and teams were catching, tossing and moving quickly as the guards and porters changed out quickly. Junko breathed with a look on her face when she found it her lounge with a smile forming on her face. "Perfect."

 

[Junko Ike]

She moved onto the lounge as her handmaidens came around. Her robes and layers being removed slowly. The signs of the battle and debris was there still and she hadn't changed as her hair was let down. Phaidor fussing over it with a comb to straighten while Qi was getting oils. Uzeki taking the boots off of her feet as Min joined her. THe leggings for defense and extra padding when falling orr leaping were important if you expected dangerous situations.. it was also easier to slid down crushed imperial armor and drop pods after the atrisian forces had dismantled it with the children... in celebration. SHe smiled though as Kaorri was bringing some of the tea.

"That was a terrible attitude to have, the one might have been a risk if she had realized who you were but the others.. they could have tried for a stray shot and the great reformer of Atrisia would have been lost." Junko looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "And you would have to find someone else to plot to kill and assume the identity of." She said it with a smile and the fox woman snorted for a moment but grinned viciously. "Yes do you know how boring most of these noble ladies are in the Atrisian commonwealth some are interesting but they are married and it would be obvious, otherrs are just dull and have little interesting things to do."

 

[Junko Ike]

All of them looked at the woman and then laughed. Kaori grinned herself at that. "Besides, I mean this really, you have grown on me even if I still want to eventually do it... for now there is a whole lot of fun that can be had and some of those Imperials were interesting enough... sort of. Mostly they just tasted like fatty foods and shame." Junko looked at her and gave a small laugh. "Funny you should say that, we got a report from one of the teams that was on the death star and they said the food court had much the same in terms of foods as well as in the gift shop. It is nice to know it wasn't just a joke." Junko had a look and smile on her face though.

THey all did as the information was coming to her and the jedi princess was stripped down to the barrest layer of her kimono.. he battle treated pieces secured in a case and ready to be cleaned, presented and designed for her in a way that she would improve upon it. Letting more information show through as the airship rose higher over the walls of the city and then they were on their way. She could see through the crystasteel bottom that allowed them to see the landscape below. The spire was being refitted as more airships were coming in and the megablock of buildings, shops and apartments were designed to be beautiful to all of the others who were there.

 

[Junko Ike]

From the lounge of the airship as they traveled, Junko observed the moonlit deck with the quiet intensity of one who was tired but after the battle her people were celebrating. The night air carried the faint scent of cherry blossoms and distant rain, but her attention was fixed on the pavilion in the center, where two court dancers sisters in grace, if not in blood moved through a dance of renewal. The elder, with hair like polished obsidian piled high and adorned with jade combs, knelt on the crimson silk cushions, her crimson kimono slipping from one shoulder like a petal in the wind. It pooled around her waist in folds of embroidered gold.

Revealing the elegant curve of her back and the subtle strength of her form, honed by years of disciplined practice. Her companion, younger and lithe as a willow branch, mirrored her pose, her own garment a deeper scarlet threaded with silver draped loosely across her chest, hinting at the warmth beneath without fully unveiling it. They leaned close, hands brushing in a gesture of shared breath, their faces tilted in murmured conversation, eyes half-lidded with the exhaustion of the day's endless celebrations. A single lantern cast a golden halo over them, turning their skin to ivory and the fabric to living flame, while the paper screens of the pavilion whispered secrets to the breeze.

 

[Junko Ike]

Junko let the scene settle into her like a painting slowly taking color. The hum of the engines was a low heartbeat beneath the revelry, steady and reassuring, as if the ship itself were determined to carry them all into a gentler dawn. Below, laughter drifted upward from the crew who had found renewed life in victory; above, the stars shimmered like distant watchers, impartial yet bright. On the deck, the dance shifted. The elder sister lifted her head first, a small smile curving her lips—soft, tired, but edged with something triumphant. With a fluid motion, she extended her arm, fingers slicing the air with the practiced precision of someone who knew the language of movement better than words. The younger echoed her, but where the elder was measured grace, the younger was wind—swift, playful, her feet barely disturbing the cushions beneath her.

Their sleeves unfurled like banners, catching the lantern light in sweeping arcs. Patterns of cranes and storm clouds glimmered with each turn. For a brief moment, the airship deck felt less like polished wood and more like a floating shrine suspended between heaven and earth. Junko exhaled slowly. The weight of command, of battle, of everything she had carried through the night, eased in the face of this quiet ritual. The dancers were not performing for an audience now. This was for themselves—for release, for remembrance, for the simple act of breathing again after chaos. A gust of cool air drifted past, stirring Junko's uniform and sending a few petals from the ceremonial arrangements skittering across the floor. She stepped closer to the railing, leaning forward just enough that the wind kissed her cheeks. From this angle she could see the faint tremble in the younger dancer's shoulders, the kind that came only when joy and exhaustion mingled too closely.

 

[Junko Ike]

The elder noticed too. She reached out, steadying the younger's hand with a touch so gentle it was nearly invisible. Junko felt something in her chest soften. Strength could wear many faces, she reminded herself. Tonight, it wore silk and quiet smiles. When the dancers finally paused, their silhouettes framed against the lantern glow, they bowed to one another—slow, deliberate, reverent. A bow not of ceremony but of gratitude. Junko found herself bowing her head as well, though no one saw. The night continued, the ship drifting through moonlit clouds, but in that moment the world seemed to hold its breath, as if acknowledging the fragile, beautiful calm they had earned.

Junko exhaled the force from her body as the airship continued to go through the night. Continued to sail across the planet overr mountains and carved roads that were always being worked on. It improved for her though aas after being able to watch the dance she could at least relax her mind and body. The jedi princess going back to her open aired lounge. HEr handmaidens waiting for her as they made the space in the center and Junko was able to drift off to sleep. HEr body relaxing when the streses of he battle, the danger and all of the intense blood pumping was finally finally releasing. THe jedi princess snored a little to herself in the pile of handmaidens.

 

[Junko Ike]

In the velvet hush of sleep, Junko drifted into a dream that felt warmer than the night air, softer than the silk cushions beneath her. The lounge had changed. Moonlight poured through gauzy curtains like liquid silver, turning the open deck into a secret garden suspended among the clouds. Her handmaidens were there no longer in traveling robes, but in flowing garments the color of dusk and dawn: deep indigo shot through with rose, pale gold that caught every breath of wind. The fabric clung and released with each slow movement, light as petals, revealing nothing yet suggesting everything in the way only dreams allow.

They moved around her in a silent circle, barefoot on cool wooden planks warmed by lantern glow. One brushed a lock of hair from Junko's brow with fingertips that left trails of starlight on her skin. Another knelt, palms open, offering a single white lotus that hadn't existed a heartbeat earlier. Their hair black waterfalls, copper fire, moonlit silver swayed in perfect unison, as though the same breeze moved through all of them at once. There was no sound but the faint rustle of silk and the slow, steady rhythm of breathing that matched her own. Junko felt herself lifted not by hands, but by the gentle tide of their presence until she rested at the center of their circle, cradled in layers of softness and warmth.

 

[Junko Ike]

Faces she knew by daylight now looked different: eyes luminous, lips curved in knowing half-smiles, every gesture deliberate and reverent, as if she were something sacred they had waited all night to worship in quiet. A hand slipped into hers, fingers interlacing with impossible tenderness. Another traced the line of her jaw, feather-light, asking nothing, offering everything. The lotus was tucked behind her ear; petals cool, fragrance sweet and dizzying. Around her the circle tightened, bodies close enough that she could feel the shared heat, the synchronized rise and fall of breath, the hush of fabric against fabric.

No one spoke. Words would have broken the spell. Instead there was only the language of nearness slow, deliberate, intoxicating in its restraint. Junko felt the warrior, Junko the princess, Junko who carried galaxies of responsibility on her shoulders, let it all dissolve. Here she was simply held, simply adored, simply allowed to be weightless. And in the dream she smiled, small and secret, while the handmaidens leaned in, foreheads almost touching hers, a living constellation wrapped gently, fiercely, lovingly around their sleeping star. The dream did not shatter; it thinned, the way morning mist peels away from warm skin.

 

[Junko Ike]

First came the scent: real lotus, faint but unmistakable, tucked behind her ear exactly where the dream had placed it. Then the warmth: not the hazy, all-enveloping heat of the circle, but the distinct press of bodies curled protectively around her, real arms, real breath stirring the fine hairs at her temple. Junko's eyelids fluttered. Moonlight had shifted to the softer silver-blue of pre-dawn; the lanterns were low, wicks trimmed to embers. She was still in the open lounge, still nested in the center of her handmaidens, but the dream-gossamer garments had been traded for the simple sleeping robes they actually wore.

Yet the feeling remained: the same reverence, the quiet worship translated into the way one hand rested lightly on her ribs, another cupped the curve of her shoulder as though shielding her from the entire galaxy. Someone had braided a thin strand of her hair while she slept; she felt the gentle tug when she turned her head. The lotus was real too plucked from the small hydroponic basin at the lounge's heart, its petals already wilting against her skin in the cool air. A soft exhale ghosted across her cheek. The handmaiden closest to her face Miko, she realized, recognizing the faint scar along the thumb hadn't moved away. Miko's eyes were open, luminous in the half-dark, watching Junko wake with the same tender gravity the dream had worn.