The Geometry of Shadows

[Micah tol Powl]

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

THE PLANET
D O S U U N
RESIDENCE OF DOCTOR [member="IRAJAH VEN"]

The first time that the Irajah had given him a toy, his response had been: What am I 'sposed to do with this?

He figured it out on his own, and now happily played with the set of F.O. Joes that she'd bought for him. It was a franchise built around the mythos of the Stormtrooper. An elite unit led by the brave Captain Baron and Lieutenant Chalk, with heroes such as Agent Crimson, Storm Shade, and others rounding out the assortment of characters represented by bits of injection molded plastics that were brought to life in the blue-skinned child's hands.

Azi had also adjusted toward a preference to toys, as evidenced by the fact that the amphistaff had claimed as her own a stuffed doll that was meant to represent a figure from the popular Endormon GO! franchise, specifically an Ivee -- which was a lovable creature rumored to be able to evolve into a number of different variations of more advanced, or evolved, characters later in the game. In any case, the serpentine-like amphistaff usually had a coil hooked around the plush Ivee and dragged it almost everywhere the amphistaff went.

For the purpose of the current drama, in which the F.O. Joes were battling the dastardly Rebel Alliance -- who were led by the villainous Princess Oeia Lr'gana and General San Holo, with help from swindling black marketeer Cando Lalrissian and the Wookiee eco-terrorist, Chowbacca -- the Joes were striking at the Rebel base on the planet Sofa IV.

Said rebel base was, in fact, a blanket and pillow fort, which was anchored by the large cardboard box he'd earlier retained possession of after the Irajah had gotten a large package in the mail.

Underneath the covering of a linen sheet, the Pantoran was tucked inside of the box, articulating the battle that was taking place. Azi was there as well, coiled up and wedged between the Pantoran and her beloved plush toy.

Hopefully, the Irajah didn't have other plans for her living room. Which was where this Hollywood studio production of F.O. Joes: The Movie: Episode WTF was taking place. Largely because he'd required the use of some of the sofa cushions for the construction of the pillow-and-blanket fort.

If she did, however, she'd have only herself to blame. She was the one who'd suggested he play with toys after all.

 

[Kuzo]

Her entire body moved slowly, as though invisible weights pressed down against her. Each shovel full of dirty seemed heavier than the last. Even though she knew she had been digging for the last year, the hole never got any deeper. It was always the same. Though she could look up in to the clouded night sky above her, and the top of the hole was a meter above her head, she knew, with a conviction only available in dreams, that it wasn't enough. She could never bury them all.

At the very edge of the hole, lurking above her head, a pair of eyes appeared. Dull, lifeless, then gazed fitfully down at her. Carefully, she adjusted where she threw the next shovel full of dirt so she wouldn't hit them.

"I'm sorry, I'm not done yet," she whispered, her throat tight.

Another set of eyes appeared, a pair of emaciated, gnarled hands clutching the edge as they peered over.
​"Soon, I promise," she choked with a sob, the weight of her people, slowly gathering around the edge of the hole above her making it hard to breath, to speak.

The feeling of the first body hitting the bottom of the hole behind her reverberated through her core. She turned slowly, still weighed down by some invisible force.

"No. Please. I'm not done yet," she begged, looking up in time for another to crawl over the edge. "Wait, please! I can't help you yet! Please stop!"

But the tide only sped up. She couldn't move, her feet trapped in the sucking mud at the bottom of the pit as bodies piled around her, covering her, suffocating-


Irajah sat up in bed with a gasp, heart pounding. It took her a moment to shake off the sensation of wet soil and cold, heavy bodies.

Sunlight streamed through her bedroom window. She blinked, squinting into the brightness, letting it wash over her in clear counterpoint to the nightmare. Slowly, she sat up at the edge of the bed, running her hands through her hair. At some point, she'd kicked the covers off, so she bent over absently to retrieve them.

It wasn't the first time she'd had that dream- and it wouldn't be the last. The sense of heavy dread was always the last of it to fade, though usually she could fight it off before she reached the medical center.

Today, however, was a day off. For both her and [member="Boo Chiyo"]. Yawning and stretching, she stumbled out of bed. Grabbing a robe to pull over her pajamas, she plodded out of her room. She didn't notice the state of the living room at first, so focused on making it to the kitchenette without walking into the blasted corner. Mechanically, she hit the button on the caf machine, digging out a mug emblazoned with the C.C.M.C. logo. A huge yawn split her face again as she waited for the caf to brew.

It wasn't until her mug was full (dark and sweet), that she plodded back to the living room. Taking tiny sips that burned her tongue each time, she paused, a bemused expression on her face. Treading quietly over to the edge of the fort, she knelt carefully, then peered under the sheet.

"General Chiyo. Permission to come aboard?"

 

[Micah tol Powl]

THE PLANET
S O F A I V
HIDDEN REBEL BASE

...alarms were sounding all throughout the base...

...clutching the stolen plans to the rebel's secret superweapen -- the Galaxy Destroyer -- Storm Shade was now trying to egress from out of the compound, in order to deliver the plans to the F.O. Joes so that the rebels could be stopped...

...a series of blaster shots impacted the wall beside him, tracing a path that drove him to flee to the left, springing out into the open as he found himself on the run from rebels. There were enemy soldiers closing in on both sides, but he had almost made it back to the hangar...

...the door to the hangar opened, revealing none other than Cando Lalrissian, standing there with a heavy blaster pistol aimed at Storm Shade. "You didn't think you could win, did you?" the gambler asked, in a dastardly, totally bad guy tone...

...but Storm Shade knew he still had one ace up his sleeve. For the rebels couldn't have known... he'd brought nunchucks.

...wind howled as the Atrisian superspy brought out the linked weapons, Lalrissian and the rebels taking a step back from the awesome aura of awesomeness that began to envelop the ninja as he whipped the nunchuku around...

...and then the ends ignited...

...he hadn't just brought nunchucks. He'd brought lightsaber nunchucks...

Mew.

The boy's imaginary adventure was interrupted as the amphistaff chirped, jostling him was the snake-like biot slid from between his backside and the box to peer out, as though seeing something straight through the opaque sheet covering the blanket fort. Even before the humanoid shadow had passed overhead, the wagging amphistaff tail that was now bludgeoning his right side suggested that Azi knew the Irajah was there.

The curtain was drawn back on the theatrical stage, revealing the child playing inside of the cardboard box. Unlike the Irajah, the boy was only half-dressed. A pair of soft, pajama shorts adorned his trunk. There was a matching top for the outfit, but he didn't seem to ever want to wear it.

Yellow eyes peered up from beneath the veil of the sheet. "You hafta ask Azi," the boy remarked in reply. "She's in charge of the base."

It sort of made sense. Azi was kind of the undisputed master of the house anyway.

The diamond-shaped head of the biot just perked upward, most likely curious about the mug in the woman's hands. The amphistaff was usually interested in whatever either of them was holding at any given particular time.

Mew.

[member="Irajah Ven"]​

 

[Kuzo]

"Whadya say Azi?"

She gently moved her mug away from the little biot- she'd discovered the hard way that ampistaffs and caffeine did not mix. Never again.

Mew?

"Sounds like a yes to me."

Setting the mug just outside of the fort, Irajah crawled inside. She plucked Azi off of the floor just before the little creature made it to the mug. The two jockeyed for a moment, the biot trying to make it to the caf (after all, Irajah was keeping it from her) and Irajah, well, continuing to keep her from plunging her whole head in to the sugared liquid. Looking around, she hooked Azi's favorite toy out of the corner where it had been forgotten with her foot and dragged it over. Dangling it above the biot, she shook it a little, slowly luring her away from the caf.

"What's going on this time? Has Chowbacca ruthlessly raided the supply depot? Princess Oeia Lr'gana tried to kidnap Storm Shade and turn him against the First Order?"

As she spoke, she finally managed to cross her own legs, shoulders slightly hunched and head bent so she could fit in the fort. Shaking the Ivee in her lap, Azi finally took the bait. Absently, Irajah continued the mock tug of war with the biot, all the while stealthily retrieving her mug from behind her.

[member="Boo Chiyo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

The young Pantoran shuffled over, so that he was sitting up against the Irajah's side as she continued to battle with the amphistaff.

A pale blue arm was extended, directing the woman's attention over toward the bookshelf. Where, if she hadn't noticed before, a series of books had been re-arranged to form a makeshift jail in which a Wookiee figurine was guarded by several smaller pieces of plastic."No, Chowbacca's in prison, on Grimoire," the youngling supplied. Grimoire being the name for the maximum security bookshelf... er... prison.

Whether Grimoire was a planet, a moon, or a space station... he really hadn't decided yet.

"An' Princess Lr'ganna's frozen in carbonatedite," he added, with a nod toward the coffee table. From within the opaque mass of an ice cube, sitting inside a plastic tub, it was clear that there was some kind of toy figure frozen in the middle.

How he'd done that... when he'd done that... was anybody's guess.

"Storm... Storm Shade's, he's... like, he... Storm Shade's stealing rebel plans from Cando Lalrissian right now," the Pantoran explained, pausing as he spoke to hold up the two key figures of this narrative.

[member="Irajah Ven"]​

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah murmured the occasional "Really?" and "Wow." between sips of caf. Azi had realized that the Ivee was the same Ivee as ever, but the mug was rapidlly being emptied, so she was spending more of her attention that she would have liked fending the amphistaff off of her cup. The mess in the living room didn't bother her a bit (though he would have to clean it up later).

She did appreciate that he'd put the ice in a dish though, specifically.

Nodding solemnly at the final explanation of the current scene, she starting scratching Azi beneath the chin with her free hand in an attempt to calm the curious biot (at least, enough to let her finish her caf in peace).

"That Cando Lalrissian is a tricky one," she said. "I hope Storm Shade has a good plan in place to deal with him!"

Without siblings growing up, Irajah had always played these kinds of games alone. Her father, while attentive, had not particularly seen the point, and the only games of pretend her mother played had been... well.... about things like Azi. She understood now that perhaps these stories weren't that interesting from an adult perspective.... but sharing them with someone else? That mattered. And that was the part that she could give to [member="Boo Chiyo"].

 

[Micah tol Powl]

The young boy sagged back, his weight settling against the woman's side as the child slid downward.

Storm Shade didn't just have a plan, he had an awesome plan.

...Boo just had no idea what that plan was.

Yellow eyes peered up from the carpet, as the purple-haired boy craned his head back so that it was resting against Irajah's arm and the loose assortment of amphistaff coils presently in the woman's lap. "Yeah," the child answered, even as he continued to try and come up with what, exactly, that plan was supposed to be.

"He brought lightsaber-nunchucks."

How was that not a totally foolproof plan?

[member="Irajah Ven"]​

 

[Kuzo]

The final swig of caf meant that Irajah no longer had to fend off Azi. She reached her arm around [member="Boo Chiyo"] as he leaned against her, dropping her cheek against his hair. In moments like these, everything outside of the walls of the apartment didn't need to exist.

"Mmm, well, light-saber nunchucks are tough to beat," she agreed, picking up her head to look at him again with a smile.

Of course, it couldn't last forever. But she didn't have to give it up... just yet.

"I'm sorry I got home so late last night, you were already asleep. Buuuuuuuut-"

She paused, peering deliberately out of the fort and toward the door to the kitchenette. A box, wrapped in simple brown paper, sat in the middle of the table. It was easy to over look, the size and shape of a shoe box, and so simply adorned- not obviously a present at first blush.

"Maaaaaaybe you'll forgive me when you see what's in the box on the table for you."

 

[Micah tol Powl]

When she put his arm around him, he settled quite comfortably.

It was odd. He was used to being left alone, but having the Irajah around was a convenience that had definitely grown on him. She never seemed to judge him. She never seemed angry with him. And, as much as he kept waiting for the catch to all of this... it never came.

"I'm sorry I got home so late last night..."

The boy's amber eyes peered upward, his head tilting back slightly as he looked at the woman. He wasn't sorry. Her being late had allowed him time in which to cover up what totally had not been a Gorba Melt exploding in the AutoChef.

The comment about something on the table took him by surprise. Mainly because he wasn't sure just what she meant, or what he was supposed to do. So he just laid there, his eyes darting to the left or right, as he lapsed into an awkward moment of silence. The kind that kind of said you were supposed to be doing something. Except he needed some help with this one.

[member="Irajah Ven"]​

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah grinned, then chuckled. She couldn't help it. Right now, in this moment at least, she was happy. This was simple- not easy, but simple. And she treasured it in the stormy waters she was currently navigating.

"Come on, I'm hungry. You can try them on and we can go down to the café down the street. The one that has those pastries full of chocolate."

She'd seen him eyeing the shoes in the shop window a couple of weeks back. Maybe giving kids mini-repulsors was a bad idea. Probably. Yeah, very likely.

Scooting out of the fort, Irajah wasn't going anywhere for a moment as she unknotted Azi from around her ankles. Or, at least, tried to.

"Azi. Fetch?"

That did it. The amphistaff uncurled in record time, shooting off to find the hacky sack.

[member="Boo Chiyo"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

One does not simply utter the 'f' word in the Ven household.

No, not feth. Though, Boo never heard the Irajah use that word. And so he didn't either. Not that he talked much.

Fetch was the word in question. And while it bought the Irajah some precious moments in which to move about the apartment unfettered by a biot locked around her limbs. Such relief was apt to be too short a season however, and the serpentine creature would return with a furious vengeance.

...and, also, a hacky sack.

Which would need to be thrown.

Repeatedly.

Pitching forward, the child sat up. Then rolled onto his side, rotating on a diagonal axis across the back as he emerged from under the cloth draped over the blanket-and-pillow fort. Flipped arse-over-head, the boy planted his feet and stood up. His purple hair was wildly arrayed, and his face slightly flushed a warm violet tone from the blood rushing to his head.

Making his way into the kitchen, the boy saw the box on the table and paused. Confused, he looked back at the Irajah for some kind of confirmation. Perhaps to affirm that it was supposed to be for him. Or perhaps to ask if he should pick it up, let alone open it.

When he had, the child was instantly giddly. "ASTRAL!" The expression left him, breathless and explosive, as he literally jumped as his countenance was energized and animated. A far cry from his usual reclusive self. The shoes were practically dancing in his eyes. "This is so..."

...so...

The cheer faded.

The smile froze.

Irajah might have been aware that the boy was now staring down past the box. Down at the bare feet that cast a sharp contrast to the floor with the azure skin tone. There were scars and callouses there that told a story. A story of a boy who had walked across broken glass and busted duracrete without shoes.

Where was Life Day when he had been living in the sewers?

Where was Winter Fete when he had been sorting through dumpsters, searching for something to eat.

His face changed, in a moment very happy and in the next... very sad. Somber. Crestfallen.

Placing a hand on top of the box, the boy continued looking down at the floor as he closed it and held it out toward the Irajah. "You should give this to someone who needs them," the child offered, his voice retreating back to the quiet whisper it had been when they'd first met.

"I have so much," the boy added, still looking down at the floor. "I have... you."

[member="Irajah Ven"]​

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah had watched, the smile on her face at [member="Boo Chiyo"]'s excitement clearly mirroring his own. It had faded just behind his as well, not sure what was wrong at first. Were the shoes wrong? Maybe she'd gotten the wrong size?

She stepped in, hesitantly, not willing to break the deep, thoughtful look that was on the child's face.

When he finally spoke, the words hit her in the chest in an almost physical blow. Slowly, Irajah reached out, taking the box in one hand. But in the same motion, she knelt in front of him. The box didn't matter, not even in the slightest in that moment as it was deposited on the ground.

Up until now, she had always been very careful to offer him a physical presence, but always give him the space to make the decision on his own. A hand held out. Sitting beside him. She couldn't understand all that he'd been through, but it had been obvious that he wasn't used to physical affection- sometimes, when she moved to fast in the beginning, he had even flinched. So she was always very careful to let him close the gap.

But this time she wrapped her arms around him without reservation, pulling him into a hug.

She didn't know yet what to say, so she just hugged him, her throat tight and her heart full to bursting with emotions she didn't fully have a name for. Some muddled combination of pride and heartache- while it was perhaps the first time she felt them, she would come to realize that, in the process of raising a child, it would not be the last.

When she pulled back enough to look at his face, she smiled at him, a little more tremulously than she would have liked. If there were tears in her eyes, she was ignoring it utterly.

"Boo. Sweetie. If you want to do things that'll help other people, we can do that. You don't have to pick one or the other,"
she said, her throat tight.

"You can have me *and* the shoes, okay?"

 

[Micah tol Powl]

He didn't really understand what was happening.

He was crying, but he didn't know why he was crying. He wasn't sad. He was... happy-ish. But also crying.

The Irajah pulled him into a hug, and that was when the tears started rolling down his cheeks, dropping onto her shoulder. She held him out, and told him that he could have her and the shoes, and the boy just tried to stop the wellspring of emotions that were pouring down his face. He threw his arms around her, and just held onto her tightly.

He didn't know what to say.

He didn't know what to feel.

...and then he felt something strike the back of his leg like a riding crop.

In rapid succession, the amphistaff had bolted into the kitchenette and wrapped around the pair of them. In fact, the tug of the biot's coil pressed Boo against the Irajah. A few odds and ends atop the table were overturned, as the amphistaff's tail whipped through the air. The hacky sack was held in it's mouth, in anticipation of being thrown.

And, when it wasn't, the snake becan tapping at Irajah's shoulder with the blunt end of its snout.

[member="Irajah Ven"]​

 

[Kuzo]

She found herself crying and laughing all at once. For a moment, she buried her face in Boo's hair, breathing in deeply and hugging him just a little tighter before craning her neck in an attempt to look at the biot-

"Azi! Okay! We get it! Geroff Azi!"

Mew.

"Mew yourself."

Reaching down, she tried to reach the dropped hackysack, but the coils of the amphistaff prevented and such retrieval. Kicking slightly, she managed to bat it across the kitchen with the back of her heel. Despite the swift uncoiling however, Irajah didn't move far back from Boo once they were freed. Just enough to hold him by the shoulders and see his face.

"Come on. Let's get dressed and get breakfast," she said gently, still smiling. "I've got some news I want to talk to you about. But. *After* pastries."

They'd be okay. She wasn't sure how yet, but everything was going to be just fine.

[member="Boo Chiyo"]