Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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The chronicles of a haunted planet

"I do get along very well with Zelosians..." He admitted, thinking it was an odd comment but particularly appropriate. Jedi Master Vandal was one of the kinder individuals Maud had ever known, teaching the young man the ways of the force. Often times, it had strictly deviated from the ways of the Alliance - though Relit had taken to the direct route of the traditional Jedi Council, he had always expressed regret for the loss of life that was forced upon him and the other masters. But after taking to the tap tree in a life long pursuit of inner silence, Maud had found comfort sitting at his side.

Thinking of the world and the universe, thinking about what he wanted to be and what he wanted to do. But more times than not, he found himself dwelling on all the things that were wrong in the universe. The Jedi, the Sith, everything in between.

He stuck another pine needle in his mouth, scratching at the band of black concentric rings running along his thigh. They are life rings, he told the artist, as he intended to replicate the bands of a tree and the stages of life.

"Nope...but something tells me it's not a physical eye?" He paused, throwing another pine nut at her. "Unless there is someone by the name of Beyonder. In that case...still haven't heard of it."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

This time the nut landed deftly along the fabric of her shirt. Her eyes remained closed, the nut untouched. "Not a physical eye," she muttered, corner of her mouth quirking just a bit. Hammocked-self continued to sway gently above her passenger. There was a longer moment of silence and it seemed as if the girl forgot to continue to conversation.

"Legend has it," she yawned. "The artifact. The Eye of the Beyonder artifact leads to a map that leads to a treasure. What if I told you I found that artifact and found the map?"

Dangling foot stopped swinging and she felt her lids begin to grow heavier until the steady-thrum of the ship lulled her nearly to sleep.

"Promised you adventure, didn't I?"

The last sentence a quiet mutter as she gave into the lack of sleep from her earlier adventuring. All the pine-nuts tossed up at the girl in the galaxy probably couldn't wake her. Probably. They'd travel for a few more hours and then the hyperspace warning would go off, quickly followed by warning beeps from Pibs.
 
Legends and artifacts. This was sounding like something for his uncle, not for a spiritual young man who wanted to pick flowers and nuts and wander the universe. Though, if he were being honest, it was hard to remove the mystical natures of the universe from it's identity. He would have to take it all or not at all.

Chewing on another pine nut, he tried to sway in the crash webbing but found that it didn't have the same give as the hammock above. That bummed him out for a bit but listening to the story, intrigue grew amidst the threat of slumber. As she yawned, he did too, and he smiled at the name of the artifact. Maps and treasure and artifacts and legends.

"If you told me..." He covered his mouth as he yawned again. "You found that artifact and the map, I would ask you..." He curled his bohemian outfit around him, snuggling up in his earthen toned cloak. "If you liked...the sorrel?"

He took a heavy breath as he drifted off to sleep to the sounds of the engine. Her opinion of the herb was obviously of utmost importance, but not more so than a much needed nap.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

Silence only met Armaud's question about sorrell. Though. He probably didn't even notice it as the ship seemed to lull its passengers to sleep.

Eyes snapped open just before the warning of entering real-space went off. Legs swung to one side of the hammock and for a girl who had gotten out of this exact hammock a thousand times before, smoothly climbed down, careful not to step on the bohemian. Boots hit the floor-plating and she made quick of the short distance to the cockpit. A globe of greys, charcoal, light blues with hints of brown filled the viewport.

Pibs gave a quiet razzle. Very conscientious for a droid. Even though she doubted their passenger would stay asleep for long. He seemed to have too much of a curious nature for that. "Readouts say low visibility, not much life signs. Let's find a place to land. Don't worry. It shouldn't be like it was with Ember."

Pibs warbled.
 
As he rubbed his eye with the palm of his glove, he wondered what he had dreamed about. These small naps always seemed to bring the most vivid dreams about but for the life of him, he couldn't recall it. Like the silhouette of someone disappearing in a growing fog.

He shrugged, rolling his shoulders as he turned and placed his feet on the cold metal of the space ship floor. Looking up, picking a bit of sleep out of his eye, he pondered on how the woman got out of the hammock without hitting him. This was her ship and all that, but it was still impressive.

"Ember a person?" He yawned as he stepped up to cockpit, hanging in the back on the steps. "Or is that a gentler way of saying a fire got out of hand?" He was one for literal interpretations but not this near to waking up. Emerald eyes moved to the view screen as he nodded. "Jandoon?"
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

He surprised her. Folk didn't usually do that. Maybe she'd just been too focused on what was ahead instead of behind. Head turned, catching Maud try to push the sleep from his eyes. Hands never left the controls even as she half turned.

"A person," she nodded. "And yes, Jandoon. Some folk say it's haunted with restless spirits. I guess we're about to find out."

Lopsided grin flashed briefly across her mouth.

"I'm sure it's all just a bunch of made-up spacer tales," said the spacer. "Strap in. Looks like it'll be a bit of a bumpy ride." As if on queue, the ship rattled as it hit the outer spheres of atmosphere.
 
"Haunted, huh?" He moved forward, more delicately than his appearance might have indicated he was capable. Clicking the straps in, buckle by buckle, he gave all the dash components a brief glance. He was sure that a quick way to upsetting the woman was to just start randomly flicking switches. But that made it all the more enticing.

"Don't believe in spirits?" He looked over to her, being a firm believe himself. A lot of energy was stored in a body and when there was enough motivation to stay around, finalizing various affairs, he could only assume that spirits lingered. And that was in the least drastic circumstances.

Force wounds were an entirely different matter.

"Ever walked into a place, hair stands up on ends? Skins prickles? Everything seems colder or noises seem to carry further?" He rubbed his hands together as he took a deep breath. "Hope it's haunted. That sounds like an adventure."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

"Sounds like you've experienced that. Something of the supernatural?" sandy-brown brow rose along her face as she cast a sideways glance at Maud. Heavy swirls of grey and white enveloped the ship as they went deeper into the ship's atmosphere. Shadows loomed in the mist and the ship's sensors beeped off several warnings. Definitely masses of some sort. Perhaps a mountain range or floating rocks.

"Closest I've ever come to any spirits or ghosts were starweirds. And trust me, that's the closest I ever want to come."

Nasty creatures. And very impolite.

Pibs warbled.

"Bring us as close as you can. Navigation is a bit haywire. Something must be interfering." With another sharp jolt, they'd find themselves on solid ground, the mist swirling around from the ship's exhaust. Even from the cockpit, she could tell they were in a clearing of some sorts. But the visibility was still very poor. Unbuckling, she left Pibs to the shut-down sequence as she opened the cabin door. Pausing to rummage through her pack, she looked up at her unique passenger.

"There are rations over there. Might take a day or so hike to get to where I think we're going and back."
 
"Hmm." He replied quietly as she explained her interpretation of his statement. And she had misinterpreted to assume that he was referring to ghosts. He watched quietly as the shipped rattled, moving through initial entry into atmosphere. Sliding a pine nut in between his lips, he slowly moved the bit between his teeth before cracking it.

"A lot of energy goes into somethings life. The time it took for you, or I, to grow...a lot of energy." He nodded. "I just feel like it leaving, once the body dies, would be a tremendous waste." He smirked as they moved passed the floating rocks and came to a hard landing. "Not sure about ghosts though." He also wasn't sure what the difference was.

He had never been religious or dogmatic in appraisal of something bigger than him. But he had always felt spiritual in his own ways, likely distilled from a particular Zelosian and Maud's uncle. Coming down into the belly of the ship, following behind Kinsey, he raked bitten nails over his thinly grown beard.

"Ok." Nodding, he grabbed a few vacuum sealed items and stuffed them into his satchel. Taking another bit of sorrel, he strung the satchel over his shoulder and grabbed his walking stick. "I enjoy a good hike."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

She shrugged. Kinsey knew a lot of things and like all spacers, could wear many hats to survive. But about the mystical? Supernatural? The...soul? She definitely didn't know much. The girl wondered exactly what Maud believed in and why. And maybe the people and experiences he had to shape his beliefs.

But she was too polite or distracted, to ask.

Filling her own pack together with medical, rations, and other supplies, she eased it on. "Stay with the ship, Pibs and keep on comms in case we need yah." The droid tweeted almost indignantly. "You'll be fine."

Smiling, she followed Maud out.

The ground seemed spungy beneath her boots. Maybe like a water source was nearby. The last thing she wanted to run into was water.

The not being able to swim thing posed a lot of real...fear.

"Tell me about the places you've hiked, Maud." Maybe they had more in common than she originally thought. Tapping the nav-watch on her wrist, she began to pick her way forward through the heavy mists and unknown terrain.
 
Indifference to the statement, that meant one of two things. Either she didn't care or she disagreed, but didn't have the propensity for open argument with a stranger. Maud hoped it was the latter, easier to change someone's mind than to make them care about something with which they couldn't be bothered.

He stepped off and flashed two fingers at the droid, not unlike an informal salute. Based off the way the little droid vibrated, he couldn't tell whether it made it mad or happy. He wasn't one for technology, as it was.

Poking the ground with his walking stick, tracing veins of the ankarre with a firm grip, he looked up through the fog. While it may have not seemed it, this was where he felt most comfortable.

"Oh, all over." He replied as he stepped forward, feeling the ground with a cautionary lightfoot. "Mountains of Coruscant..."A rare feature. "The forests of Aurum..." Where he met a girl with fire for hair. "The swamps of Gelgelar...the deserts of Lothal." He could go on and on, though he conveniently left out his home, though it had been the place he hiked most.

He stepped lightly, his height changing with the topography, as he tested the damp field. "I take it you are more for flying."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

"You'd think that, wouldn't you?" Blues with small, bright starbursts that seemed to catch light that wasn't there flicked in Maud's direction. "I like time on solid ground just as much. There's something about walking where there are no other footprints. Learning about things that aren't in any holotexts. Experiencing things that others say are impossible."

"Perhaps I feel safer in space just because it's more familiar. Growing up on a spacer colony will do that. But I wouldn't do this if I wanted to feel safe all the time."

Lopsided grin broke up her lips.

She looked behind them and realized they couldn't even see the ship anymore. Not even the signal lights. Visibility was that poor.
 
"I would..." He looked around, visibility was hardly 10 feet in front of them with how thick the mist rolled by. There was an odd silence to the world, as much as they had seen, and he wondered the reasoning. It wasn't for lack of life because he could feel it all around them. Perhaps the wildlife had been scared off by the sound of the incoming ship.

"I'm the exact opposite." He hated being in space and he disliked what he felt was a certain dependency on technology. He realized, however, that his particular mentality was somewhat hypocritical, given the need for technology to travel as he liked. To see new worlds and experience new life forms. To study their customs and their traditions. It was all made possible by technology.

Leaning down, he rustled through some low lying heather as he clutched a small creature in his hand. "A field mouse, caught in some twine..." He stated it quietly. Though whether that indicated life once living here or lived here now, he couldn't say. Pulling the snare from the creatures foot, he placed the mouse on his shoulder and tossed the line back onto the plant. "You said a day's hike? So I take it you know where we're going?"

Not that it mattered. He was comfortable with gently wandering.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

"You never meet a stranger, do you?" Gaze flickered between the small mouse and her strange traveler. A decisive nod quickly followed. "I know the general idea of where we're going." Index finger tapped the coordinates chrono on her wrist. "Readings keep bugging out a bit but," shoulders shrugged. "We'll be fine."

I hope.

The twin concerned her, though. This place wasn't supposed to have a native group. Rather, wasn't known for it. And with all the tales urging spacers away, she didn't imagine that any group who lived here would be particularly friendly to outsiders.

"Just keep your eyes out for any tra-," boot hit something was a twang sound that reverberated beneath her sole just before the ground seemed to move and come up in a wide patch around them from a net buried beneath the moist ground and mist.
 
"Hard for this guy to be a stranger, huh?" He pointed a thumb towards the little mouse and donned a cocky smile. It was true, he had a habit with animals that had existed for as far back as he could remember. Maybe that was an artifact of all his training with the Jedi Master. The way Maud saw it, it was easier to trust animals than sentient creatures anyway.

One knew the ways of malice, the other just wanted to eat and live.

Slipping a pine nut into the mouses little hands, it went to town and stood up on it's back legs upon the young mans shoulders. And before she could finish her sentence, he felt the world turned up around them and he could hear the sound of a tree nearby cracking.

An unfortunate circumstance as they were caught up in the net, hanging, as the mouse sat on Maud's shoulder. Quietly munching.

"Trapezoids?" He sighed and tried to shift. "Trapezii?" He gave up shifting and rested his face against the rope of the net. "I don't hear anyone nearby. And based on the state of this rope..." He picked at the bindings. "It's been here for a while."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

"Yeah," she grunted, fingerless gloved hands pinned at her sides - one against the rope and another against Maud's billowing robes. Somewhere. From the corner of her eyes she caught the calm munching of the mouse still perched on Maud. Muscles strained as she tried moving but she was jammed in tight int he small, folded up space. Face and a tangle of sandy-brown hair stuck to her angular features and rope. Lots of old rope.

And they were rotating slowly.

"We just need a karking circus master now." She grunted and tried moving her legs. "Can you reach my pack? Should be a knife in there. I can't...move." Much to Kinsey's consternation.
 
"Hmm." He chewed on his cheek a bit, contortionist pose as he clung taut to the bottom of the net. Emerald eyes looked down at his staff, sitting oh so comfortably in the grass. He imagined he could use a bit of force to leverage his way out of this but decided that that seemed like the least entertaining route to go.

"I can try..." He replied as he tried to turn over, wiggling his way out of his position. He had a knife in his left boot and a hatchet stowed in his satchel but it was particularly difficult to get to these things. "I imagine this is a lot like your hammock, right?"

He chuckled as he reached into her pack, bypassing a number of rations, and awkward touching, to find the sheathed knife. Closing the flap, he went to work on sawing a bit of the line above his head. "Ya know, they use trapboxes for measuring Endorian chicken egg sizes..."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

At least he had a sense of propriety. The only thing she felt was an elbow to the back of her head. More or less angling with no force behind it. A short, ripple of laughter left her throat at the hammock comment. "Mostly. Just don't share it with someone. Pibs prefers the ship floor."

Another tremble of laughter ran through the spacer.

"Chickens?" She snorted. "You know an awful lot about animals and plants you can eat. Grow up on a farm or something?" She made the comment lightly more as a joke rather than hitting a true target. Pinned to look below them, she frowned as the mist swirled along the ground.
 
"...or something." He muttered, though he could have been just as well off saying no. The homestead wasn't so much a farm as it was a place to live without depending on others. At the end of the day, he was more inclined towards components of farming and homesteading instead of outright farming.

He could still recall the way Gabe tried to make him work in the wheat field or tend to the garden. And he would simply get distracted with a bird or chasing bugs.

"I like to fend for myself. Learn to live with self dependence, that sort of thing. Trapboxes are obviously a crucial component of that process." He let out a grunt as one of the ropes tore free.

"Brace yourself..." He stated firmly as he went to work on the next piece of line that would hopefully free them from the net.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
 
[member="Armaud Eden"]

"I can relate," she spoke quietly. She knew enough about living off the land for a pinch. More so knew about how to survive in space and traveling alone. Well, alone plus a droid. But she probably wouldn't be able to survive as well over a longer period of time compared to Armaud if she was stranded on some wild planet somewhere.

Fingers circled around the netting she was pinned against. Jaw set. "I really miss my hammock about now," the girl muttered as there was a sudden snap and loosening of tension from the ropes. Figure plummeted to the ground as she tried to tuck and roll.

She meant to land in a crouch. Reality had her landing in a roll on her back. Mist swirled and parted as her form pushed the air away, an "oomph," escaping her lips.

Ow.
 

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