X Never Marks The Spot

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Kian Karr"], [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Kana Truden"], [member="Corvus Raaf"], [member="Meeristali Peradun"], [member="Spike Arrel"], [member="Uther Weiss"], [member="Jannik Morlandt"], [member="Veino Garn"]

Phylis hustled along the corridors of the Ossus Temple. She was late. Nothing unusual there, but on this occasion she was collecting together a group for an expedition and so she grumbled to herself as she approached the landing bay.
"Stupid manual chronos. How was I supposed to realise it's not been changed...."
Still, she was only a few minutes late.

The transport she had requisitioned for her expedition was waiting, fuelled and ready. It was a boxy, blocky thing, but it'd do the job.

Looking around, she wanted to see if any Jedi had responded to her message as she carried her piles of notes and gear on board.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Phylis Alince"]


Against all laws of reason Dark Is Not Evil, Blood Knight anti-heroine Siobhan Kerrigan happened to be on Ossus. Presumably no Jedi had tried to kick her from this hallowed ground yet, since the Temple's structural integrity had not been damaged.


Anyhow, she was there when Phylis arrived in the hangar bay. The woman carried a pile of notes and gear with her, but Siobhan did not seem to notice or care about that. After all, Phylis was her favourite librarian. Well, she was actually the only one she knew but she would still be her favourite. She was certainly the hottest!


Besides, she had helped save Siobhan from losing her mind Alderaan...and almost died herself in that battle. So naturally Siobhan, a force of nature as usual, quickly moved over to her. "Hi, Phylis," she said with a genuine smile before giving the woman a big hug. "I'm so glad to see you're on your feet again."

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Phylis let out a little squeak and dropped her bundle on the floor. In the stiff wind some of her loose papers began to blow away.
Before she could think to grab them, the woman was there, invading her personal space, hugging her!

The Jedi Master blushed. This would be just the time when the Padawans and Knights would walk in. She managed to disentangle herself and tried to keep the heat in her cheeks from showing, vainly.
“Oh…Siobhan…you’re here,” she said dazedly. “Uhh…it’s good to see you too. I see you’re…recovered?” she asked.

Her mind whirled. What was Siobhan doing here? Had she gotten her message somehow? She’d suspected the other woman had hacked into her e-mails but this seemed like proof. She always knew where to appear and fluster the Jedi Master.

 

[Kian Karr]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Phylis Alince"]

Kian had received notification requesting Jedi for an expedition and had jumped at the opportunity. It had been quite some time since he had engaged in a mission or task that wasn't steeped in the disorder nature of war. He wasn't sure what the expedition would entail, or whether or not they would face hardships, but he knew one thing...he was glad to get away for a while.

Rounding the corner into the hanger bay, Kian approached Jedi Master Phylis Alince just as another women was embracing her in a friendly hug. Kian stopped for a moment, a safe distance away, and watched curiously. He didn't wish to walk up and interrupt their personal moment, but nor did he wish to stand there watching them. As a result, Kian found himself standing there, half looking and half not looking at the two. Somewhere in his mind it dawned on him just how ridiculous he looked, but alas he felt helpless to change that fact.

 

[Kana Truden]

When Kana had heard that Kian would be in attendance she had set her clock to way too early. He had already seen her get late every single time they had met. Truly she didn't know why she even cared about it, a jedi is never late after all. However late is still late and Kana hated to be late. Besides, they would probably take off without her if she was late this time. Nonetheless she may or may not have been waiting for the rest of the team to assemble for the last hour or so.

Kana had been taking a few laps around the hangar area while she waited. She jumped at the opportunity to come along. Though the sender had been unknown to her she had a good feeling about it since at first she had thought it to be [member="Corvus Raaf"]. There had after all been mention of lost items and jedi to be involved, that sounded very much like something the Corvus that Kana knew would enjoy. However it wasn't until she stood in the hangar bay looking at the two strangers hugging that the realization kicked in.

"There is two Corvuses?" Kana whispered to [member="Kian Karr"] and nodded at [member="Phylis Alince"]. "I mean, this one seems a bit more... Grump-... Older. But I mean, there is two of them?"

Kana looked around for Corvus, hopefully she hadn't heard her say that. Not that there was anything wrong with having a thing for knowledge and lore. It simply was a complete surprise to Kana, especially considering the rarity of people who wanted to know about the jedi and not simply be one. Now the only question that remained to be answered would be how well the two of them would get along.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Phylis Alince"], [member="Kana Truden"], [member="Kian Karr"]


Siobhan was under the probable misperception that she and Phylis were bestest buddies. In the light of the fact that she was still a rather unstable woman who made a hobby out of tearing down buildings, it might be best to let her entertain her delusions.


Anyhow she pulled away from the librarian a bit reluctantly. For the record, she had not been trying to cop a flee, despite the temptation. Not her fault that Phylis had the hot librarian look. "Yeah, was a tad amnesiac for a while. It sucked," she said. "But it's good to see you recovered. I was worried. Wouldn't want to lose my favourite librarian," she said with a smile. "So...you going on a big quest for knowledge and all the good things?"

 

[Corvus Raaf]

"Is being less grumpy something to be pleased about?" She'd overheard her friend and was grinning widely. Since her time with Veino Garn, she'd learned to apply a filter to the volume of emotions she could feel and likewise share. Until recently there was just a switch - 100% or 0%.

She'd heard of Master Alince by reputation - and she knew Kana and Kiar - but the other person in the hangar bay was not familiar to her at all. "Who is the...other woman?" Corvus felt rude to stretch out her senses to see if the person was Force Sensitive or not, so relied on the old-fashioned way of finding out information - by asking.

[member="Kana Truden"] | [member="Kian Karr"] | [member="Phylis Alince"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Little Miss Can't-Keep-Her-Mouth-Shut quickly turned around and to her shame Corvus had heard what she had said. Kana scratched the back of her head and let out a awkward chuckle. Her friend's grin wasn't helping the situation either, at least not for Kana.

"Uh, I mean, ehhh..." It was hard to really come up with anything intelligible to say. "You're... You and she's she and I mean, it's... Yyyyyeah, you caught me. Congratulations."

"I've never seen the other woman before though." Kana shrugged. "A good friend perhaps? Why don't you ask the woman herself?"

[member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Kian Karr"]
[member="Phylis Alince"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian had been about to respond to [member="Kana Truden"] when he heard [member="Corvus Raaf"]'s response from behind them. Turning he bowed his head to Raaf as way of introduction. He had been seeing a lot of Kana and Corvus lately and he was really beginning to get a sense of the two. Turning to Kana, Kian smiled broadly as she mumbled her way through her explanation to Corvus.

"I do not know the other women either." Kian said, "Why don't we find out?" Kian asked, and began walking towards [member="Phylis Alince"] and [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]. He walked directly up to the too and bowed at the waist in greeting.

"Master Alince, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Kian Karr." Kian said and turned his attention toward the other women. "I'm afraid we haven't been introduced."

 

[Uther Weiss]

While he was in between operations, Karr had invited him on an expedition being led by an archeologist from the Order. The expedition sounded like a nice break from his normal routine of training and volunteering in the infirmary, so he had decided to join his friend. Not expecting much action, he had dressed comfortably in street clothes, and carried few armaments. He found Karr standing around looking awkward. The rest of the group was made up of women, a couple of whom he had worked with in the recent past.

"So do I get to keep what I find?" he asked Karr as he greeted him with a pat on the shoulder.

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Veino Garn]

Veino sauntered into the hangar, whistling lightly as he hefted his bag up over his shoulder. WIth his battered great-coat and scuffed spacer's boots, he was just one of millions of itinerant workers in the galaxy. Except he had a lightsaber clipped to his belt and a bag of small metal spheres in a pocket. Hardly common baggage amongst the travelling crowd. Being poor was though, and it certainly included Veino.

There seemed to be quite a crowd here already. Some he knew. Some he didn't. One he thought he recognized from a long ways back. He just couldn't quite remember. Had been with the Army of Light? He didn't think it had been the Fel Imperium. He could be wrong though. It just seemed unlikely. Anyways, there was no doubt he'd find out she was relatively soon. Probably. He slung his pack up over shoulder and slipped his hat, rather shapeless by this point, onto his head and grinned. Travelling again. Thank the Force. Sitting around on Ossus teaching was getting painful. He belonged up there with the stars, moving from place to place.

He gave nod of greeting to the ones around him that were hovering away from Master Ance. "Ready for this?"

 

[Meeristali Peradun]

Unlike the recent lesson on Ruusan, he would not be so late. That wasn't his fault. Who'd have thought that you could actually blame traffic in space? It seemed like, for once, that he'd been spending more time in one place rather than in several, and the events of the war had made that place be Ossus just when his training as a Guardian was starting to append him to Tython. It was just as well, as most of the people he knew well enough were on Ossus between missions and whatnot, and he couldn't deny the benefit of having others around to talk to in his downtime.

When he arrived at the hangar, newish and relatively unused lightsaber at his hip and traditional robes hung upon his form (the long, semi-prehensile tail poking out the back), he took in the composition of the group and was quite pleased to find that some of the usual suspects were present, as well as some faces more recently added to his acquaintance, with some unfamiliar ones rounding out the group nicely - which was good, because he might have been starting to think that the entire Jedi Order was comprised of the likes of himself, Corvus, and Kana... not that it was such a bad thing. There could be much worse people to have at your side. He'd gotten a good sense of the character of Kian recently, as well, and was glad to see him here. The Kel Dor was a good example of what a Jedi should be, according his observations, experiences, and readings.

After a couple moments of observing the group, he walked up behind Corvus Raaf and Kana Truden with a silent step that belied his physical size, just catching the exchange between the two, and just in time to see Kian Karr go to a woman he called 'Master Alince' to introduce himself.

"Morning," he rumbled softly, the roll of his accent just barely touching on the r's, as it was common practice for him to purposely keep the strong purr from his voice in most situations, "good to see you two here. If I didn't know any better, I'd think there was some sort of joke to be had."

[member="Veino Garn"] | [member="Uther Weiss"] | [member="Kian Karr"] | [member="Kana Truden"] | [member="Corvus Raaf"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | [member="Phylis Alince"]​

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Kian Karr"], [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"], [member="Kana Truden"], [member="Corvus Raaf"], [member="Meeristali Peradun"], [member="Spike Arrel"], [member="Uther Weiss"], [member="Jannik Morlandt"], [member="Veino Garn"]

Suddenly...people!

Now Phylis had come a long way in the last 15 years, but she was still a rather shy person, and so the sudden appearance of all these Jedi was both pleasing and a bit confounding.

First, she had to disentangle herself from Siobhan. Her cheeks had started to go down, so that was good.
"It...was not easy," she admitted to Siobhan. "The poison of the amphistaff was powerful, and I almost lost my arm. But, they were able to save it."

To answer her second question she turned to the other Jedi. Her tone and stance became more of a teacher marshalling her students. "We are heading to a remote planet to investigate some ruins. I am Master Phylis Alince, and I will be in charge of this mission. Follow my directives and I will see no harm comes to you. This is not some sort of 'adventure' or 'treasure hunt'. It is based on careful observation and recording, a desire for knowledge above all else. When you're ready, come aboard. We'll be departing in 20 minutes."

She looked to Siobhan. "This is Siobhan Kerrigan. I'm guessing she's coming along?" she asked, somehow dreading the answer.

 

[Spike Arrel]

[member="Phylis Alince"] / [member="Meeristali Peradun"] / [member="Veino Garn"] / [member="Uther Weiss"] / [member="Kian Karr"] / [member="Kana Truden"] / [member="Corvus Raaf"] / [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

===============================================

Spike arrived at the landing bay rather later than normal, he had been training so he practically sprinted into the bay to make sure he was on time. He greeted everyone waiting around before he took out his datapad and began fiddling around, looking at various reading materials and such.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Kian Karr"], [member="Phylis Alince"], [member="Corvus Raaf"], [member="Meeristali Peradun"], [member="Spike Arrel"], [member="Uther Weiss"], [member="Jannik Morlandt"], @Veino Gann


"I'm glad you made it. Getting maimed as unpleasant," Siobhan said softly, but it seemed that Phylis' attention was taken from her since plenty of Jedi knights and padawans had joined them. Once upon a time Siobhan had been a Jedi as well. Like ten years ago or so.


These days she was, well, it was a bit difficult to pinpoint an exact Force tradition since she did not care much about that sort of thing, beyond really hating Sith, being a card-carrying femnazi and generally doing whatever she wanted because Chaotic Neutral rolled that way. Internally she felt a bit sulky about the fact that Phylis had introduced her without any of her titles. Vanity was terribly unbecoming of a Jedi, which was one of the reasons it was good that she had stopped being one a long time ago and was a noble these days.


Still, Phylis could've at least said 'Countess Kerrigan! Or 'Master Kerrigan'.


"Yes, I'll be joining you. The pursuit of knowledge is a noble venture after all. Thanks for the invitation," she said with a completely straight face. After all, she was a member of the secret Order of the Torch! Besides, she had nothing else planned today, so she might as well come along and troll Phylis.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus watched Kian stride forward and engage the Master and her friend. She had one ear on that conversation when, as ever, Meeristali was silent in his approach and he made Corvus jump when he spoke.

She smiled at his words. "I was the joke it seems. Apparently I can come aross as grumpy! Hard to believe, eh.". The tone of her voice suggested she was taking it in good spirits. "Although they seem to believe that someone present is grumpier than me!"

 

[Kana Truden]

"Not grumpy as much as much as dedicated." Kana sighed. "Can we please just drop it?"

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

((Okay, now back to that LOA, for real.))

 

[Kian Karr]

"Greetings [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]." Kian said bowing slightly in greeting. Turning back toward [member="Corvus Raaf"] and @@Kana Truden he saw that [member="Spike Arrel"], [member="Meeristali Peradun"] and [member="Uther Weiss"] had arrived.

"Good to see you three made it!" Kian said and turned to Uther, "And I wouldn't try it....Master [member="Phylis Alince"] is not to be triffled with." He said smiling and turning to enter the vessel.

"Shall we," Kian said and then looking back over his shoulder he added ".....adventure awaits!" And for perhaps the hundredth time, he truly wished any of them could see him wink.

[member="Veino Garn"], [member="Jannik Morlandt"]

 

[Uther Weiss]

"Thanks, and I kid. Even if we do come up empty handed, it's nice to blow off some steam." Sometimes he felt guilty with all the free time was afforded in his position as, so he tried to ensure that any spare time he rarely went to waste. Even their 'adventure' had the possibility to reveal something useful for later. It was also another opportunity to get to know some other Jedi better. However, the way Master Alince introduced Kerrigan suggested that she wasn't normally part of their group, so he started wondering if she was in the same boat as him. He had been training with the Jedi (across two orders) for quite some time, but he had yet to accept their dogma.

"Mmhmm, let's get out of here."

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana looked back at [member="Corvus Raaf"] and [member="Meeristali Peradun"]. Judging by the silence that had fallen upon them it seemed fair to assume they had dropped the subject.

"Thank you."

Kana approached [member="Phylis Alince"] and [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] to introduce herself and board the shuttle.

"Master Alince, I am Knight Truden. It's an honor to meet you both." Kana bowed to the master and then turned to bow for her friend. "I won't take up more of your time, there is an expedition to go on after all."

Perhaps a bit of a rushed introduction but the new Knight truly wanted to get this on the way already. Kana bowed again and went for the shuttle with [member="Kian Karr"] and [member="Uther Weiss"]. This would be interesting.