You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

[Kaden Farr]

wearing: xxx | tag: [member="Scherezade deWinter"]​

Location: Haseria​

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Haseria had become a new home for the resurrected Mandalorian. The world was located near Faleen inside the influence of the Confederacy, and the home of a particular blonde mandalorian that Kaden Farr was quite fond of. It had grown over time, beginning with a simple curiosity as to why she had been the one he was able to reach outside of the Netherworld. Overtime the curiosity had grown into feelings that were deeper than friendship on his part. While he did not want to speak for the blonde, he had hoped she returned the feelings.

The afternoon sun was hot, but Kaden didn’t mind. He had been exposed to various different temperatures in the Netherworld and had never faced anything on Haseria quite as extreme as to what he had been used to. The heat was nothing compared to parts of the Netherworld, so Kaden was likely dressed a bit warm for the weather. His vest did not need to be on, and yet it was, though the muslin shirt beneath had its sleeves rolled up just past his elbows to keep his arms cool.

Kaden faced off against a length of run down wooden fence. The beams which ran across the post had seen their years of weather and sun making them worn and uneven. Metal cans still found a place to sit on the ragged beams, as Kaden eyed them down the sights of his favorite slugthrowers. Target practice was part of his regular routine, and while there were those who said the expert shot did not need them, Kaden refused to let his skills grow lax. They needed to be sharp at all times.

Each shot rang out across the open field. The golden and patchy ground made a great surface for the sound to travel against, returning the sound of his slug pinging the metal cans as one by one they flew off the fence. It was then Kaden realized he was not alone.

Someone was approaching.

Every since his return from the Netherworld, Kaden had been able to pick on the those who were force sensitive. He had not figured out how to pick them out of the crowd per se, but in this case the aura was strong and alone. He recognized it, though he was not sure who it was. Kaden holstered Artemis, in favor of keeping Apollo trained ahead of him. Turning around Kaden scanned the area.

“I can feel you. Is anyone there?”

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Outfit | Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 3 Czerka knives | 1 Nastirci Combat Knives | 2 TOTT-001 Arc Light Blaster | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tag: [member="Kaden Farr"]

It was another hot day on Haseria. Scherezade had just started making her way back from Daisy's house, having visited her friend and attempting to get her to train with the Force. She loathed Daisy's fear of it. Like it or not, her best girl friend was a Force User, and if she didn't learn to control the Force, it would be a matter of time before it controlled her. Not to mention, others would be so easily be able to use as well. It was for her own protection. And Scherezade… She was frantic about it. There were so few people in her life; her need to protect each and every one of them, even at her personal cost, was too great for her to be able to ignore, even during the times she dearly wanted to.

Her ship, the Giggledust, wasn't too far away, though she'd had a feeling she could use the walk once she was done. There was no question about her love or devotion for Daisy, but sometimes Scherezade needed a bit of a walk or other forms to let some of it loose after their meetings. Daisy was sweeter than saccharine; she sometimes reminded her of the memories she had of her own mother. But nothing else in her life was as pure or as good. The walks… They helped her make the transition from what was in other instances almost like a cocoon or a dream, back to the reality of her life.

The thoughts in her mind were so crowded that she almost missed it. Almost. About halfway along the road, she felt him. Kaden Farr. Daisy's new squeeze, whom Scherezade had threatened. He was here now? On Haseria? That was quick. And, surprisingly – apparently Daisy's family hadn't gotten rid of him yet. Not that Scherezade had any proof that they were doing that to her men, but considering her friend's history... She was going to be super surprised if they weren't the cause for her bad love life. Was she hiding him, or did they genuinely like the Mandalore's ex husband? She didn't know. It was a little bit scary to think about it.

A moment later she began to hear it, the string of shots. Judging by the sounds, he wasn't as far as she'd initially thought, and Scherezade almost giggled as she covered herself in shadows. Haseria wasn't an easy planet for shadow hopping; the sun was harsh, which did cast strong shadows, but not enough of them to make her jumps easy or quick enough. Still, she did it, finding the right place to jump from and to. While she had mastered the ability months ago, she'd yet to learn how to cloak her presence; yet considering she often tended to peacock it around, it hardly seemed like something urgent to add to her list of skills.

She was hiding in a shadow when Kaden at last called out. He'd noticed her. But… that was strange. He did not know it was her? Scherezade had assumed he would be able to tell her apart by now, considering they more or less knew each other and… Well there was that whole business with Selene. Eleriya. Scherezade had yet to give her a name, though she'd been told she could. Not-mother didn't sound like a good one, even though at present it was the closest one she had inside her mind.

The field was open, but every now and then was a sparse tree. It was the nearest one that cast a shadow large enough for Scherezade to be able to walk out of, a small smile on her face. From the shadows she could see nothing. But now… Glowing green eyes looked at the firearms, the bottles, everything else. Practice or fun? She wasn't sure.

"Are you practicing on how to shoot Daisy's brothers when they finally come for you?" she asked with a grin.A joke. At least... She hoped he would get it was a joke. He knew about her brothers, right?

 

[Kaden Farr]

wearing: xxx | tag: [member="Scherezade deWinter"]​

Location: Haseria

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Kaden turned in the direction of the familiar voice. [member="Scherezade deWinter"] seemed to be around a lot ever since she became aware of Kaden's physical presence in Daisy's life. Was that normal? Kaden did not think so, not with how protective she seemed to be. There was a story there that Kaden would get to the bottom of at some point. For now, there was the issue of what she had said. Why was it that every threat where Kaden's involvement in Daisy's included death. For a man who had been to the Netherworld twice it did not hold the same weight as someone who did not know what to expect. Perhaps it should have frightened Kaden, but it didn't. His lack of fear made him reckless where he should exercise caution, after all, he did not just have himself to think about.

Scherezade only got a shrug for her prodding. Kaden did not seem to think her question merited a response. With how much hatred this one had for Mandalorians it was odd that her best friend was a Mando, and that she was unaware of how much they actually did train. He was never going to be caught missing when his life depended on it. Kaden had to be able to fire his weapons in his sleep.

"It's just something I do everyday," he finally surrendered as he used the force to line the cans back up again one by one.

The skills were knew to this incarnation, and there were basic things he knew, and other skills which had been gifted to him by his mother. Selene had promised to give him what he needed to accomplish the task she had given him. He paused for a moment looking at the woman. Kaden knew she was hiding the truth about Selene. Kaden had asked her about the interaction on Thyferra, but she had dodged him. Today he would get his answers. He just had to keep her there.

"You ever fire a slugthrower before," he asked hoping to pique her interest. "I can show a bit of how I fight, and you can teach me a bit about the weapons you use?"

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Outfit | Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 3 Czerka knives | 1 Nastirci Combat Knives | 2 TOTT-001 Arc Light Blaster | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tag: [member="Kaden Farr"]

Scherezade looked at the cans as Kaden mentioned he did that every day. He did? Why? She couldn't phantom how those cans would serve as a proper way to enhance one's abilities once the basic learning was done. For that, she imagined, the challenge level had to go up. Way up. To her, shooting poor defenseless cans on a hedge was more like a hobby or pastime. But considering that she was a woman who could afford to purchase entire farms and still preferred to hunt her meat down so she could fill her refrigerator, she had no intention of actually doing the judging thing. Different strokes for different people and all of that.

And then he asked her if she'd ever fired a slugthrower before. Scherezade gave him a look that inquired whether or not he recently suffered head trauma, pointed at her waist where four firearms were dangling from, and gave Kaden a little twirl so he could see how they, along with a Czerka blade, decorated her.

"Sure," she grinned, taking out one of her Dissuaderpistols and raising her chin ever so slightly. It was a move that Kaden had seen her perform before, usually when it was blood she was attempting to scent. But this time, it was her skin that was working for her, checking the way the wind blew. She didn't have any normal slugs on her; the slughtrower she chose to walk around with was one which she'd specifically designed her glitter bullets for, and these ones… Well, neither she nor Kaden were wearing any actual protective clothing. Not ones that would help them if her acid glitter got on 'em, anyway.

But once she made sure the wind was right, she shot the first bullet. There was little actual aim involved; her body knew how to do it, and the sweet song of battle rose in her ears, causing her to briefly close her eyes and enjoy it before it all faded away almost as fast as it had begun. The wind was taking the glitter away moments later, and Scherezade held a hand up to Kaden.

"Glitter bullets," she explained, "I invented them. They pack the same punch of an average slug, but they explode on impact into an area of effect that includes glitter. " Smiling innocently as she placed her gun back in its holster, Scherezade jumped onto the fence behind her to give Kaden the stage to do as he willed, "the glitter is covered in acid that will melt through Beskar, skin, muscles, all of that down to the very bones."

 

[Kaden Farr]

"I uh... don't make it a habit to look women over these days anymore," Kaden said in reply. The statement was as true as he could make it. There were accidental glances here or there, after all one could never help the first look usually. The second or third was a different story however. Yes, it was not a typical thing for a hot blooded male like Kaden, but in truth he was far from typical. His entire childhood had seen him have eyes for one girl only, and that had proven to end rather poorly. Now, well, there was Daisy, and his eyes were certainly focused on her. What started out as making up for haunting her, explaining to her what had happened, had turned into something else entirely, something Kaden was not about to ruin because he was caught looking at other girls.

He watched Scherezade do her thing, and marveled at the bullets. They certainly did pack a punch, but the acid was had his interest.

"Impressive," was all he said before walking up to where the can had been. It was completely gone.

He turned back to Scherezade and shrugged.

"Not sure I have much to teach you about how I fight... so I guess..." Kaden shrugged again... "What do you know about lightsabers... I came back connected to the force and figure I should learn something about a force users weapon."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Outfit | Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 3 Czerka knives | 1 Nastirci Combat Knives | 2 TOTT-001 Arc Light Blaster | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tag: [member="Kaden Farr"]

Scherezade shrugged. There was nothing wrong with just looking, unless you did something bad and abused that, but that hadn't been what she'd meant. If Daisy's brothers wanted to come after Kaden, it wouldn't because of the accident parts, but rather, because he was maybe touching their sister. They were Americus', they probably didn't even need proof of any touching happened.

But when he said impressive, the Sithling practically beamed. It had been a while since someone had commented positively on her bullets. To most people, they were silly ideas that resulted in a silly thing. Much like Scherezade herself in her slightly younger days, when people heard about the glitter aspect, or that it was pink, they'd wrinkle their nose about it and think it was dumb.

Of course, that tended to change when they got smacked with the bullets. Or when Scherezade did go after them. Scherezade, if her usual weaponry wasn't on her, didn't look to most people like a killer. And yet, she left a trail of dead everywhere she went. Blood and death ran through her very veins, though she had learned some months prior that it was also within her to give life.

When Kaden walked back to the cans, she fully expected him to have another one or few to put there, but instead, he just turned around and shrugged before asking her about lightsabers.

For a moment, she remained silent. But then, she shook her head.

"Before you learn about a Force User's weapons, you need to learn about the Force," she pointed out, "you know how to do telepathy, I'm going to assume you know at least some telekinesis. But what about the rest? What do you know of the less tangible aspects of the Force? What part of the Force do you believe we rely on when use the lightsabers?"

Assuming those were questions that would require him to think for a moment, she gave him an encouraging smile. There was no attempt to belittle him with her questions – instead, she wanted him to figure out if he could find an answer. There was a reason that children who were just starting out weren't given real lightsabers. It took more than just having the Force to be able to use them safely.

But Kaden was lucky.

Scherezade was a great teacher, and she was more than willing to teach him if he let her.

 

[Kaden Farr]

"What do I know of the force?"

Kaden closed his eyes and reached deep into the inner darkness. Perhaps Scherezade had sensed it in him before, perhaps she had not, but Kaden knew a display was warranted. Deep from within Kaden drew. HIs mind imagined a spear of pure black forming in his hand. As he thought it, he felt it. Kaden soon gripped the tangible evidence of the dark energy, a darkshear in his hand. WIth his eyes fully open, he launched the weapon at eh final can sitting on the fence.

"I have been well gifted with power and ability by [member="Darth Elyria"]. My mother has cared for me well."

Would the woman finally admit she had met her. Perhaps Kaden would work the truth out of her over the course of whatever this encounter was about to become.

"Everything relies on sense, it all starts there. I assume lightsaber combat is not any different?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Outfit | Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 3 Czerka knives | 1 Nastirci Combat Knives| 2 TOTT-001 Arc Light Blaster | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tag: [member="Kaden Farr"]

Scherezade watched as Kaden conjured the Spear of Midnight Black. By the expression on his face, it was clear that he was mighty proud of himself for being able to do so, and while her own excitement was pretty far from matching his about it, she wasn't about to spoil his mood regarding the thing.

But when he mentioned her name and said she was his mother… Find my son, tinira, and he will be your guide when I cannot. Those had been the words the woman had used. Elyria. Selene. She'd said Scherezade could add her own name to the mixture, but she hadn't given her one. But if he was supposed to guide her, why was she supposed to teach him about lightsaber combat?

"And she couldn't give you lightsaber combat instructions?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest, "I've had centuries worth of information branded into my brain. It's part of why I learn things so easily; the knowledge exists in my head and the rest is mostly a matter of practice. If I had the mind to become a Sorceress instead of a Warrior I could've finished training in a week or two from the moment I was freed."

Jumping off the fence she'd been sitting on, Scherezade pulled out both of her lightsabers – Fire and Smoke. Made to her by her best friend with little silver decorations to ward against werewolves and protect her heart. While they had slain down countless of enemies, they had failed her with that particular thing. It was not something she wanted to think about just there and then. Still, she made sure both were set to minimum damage so that getting hit would only stun them rather than actually burn, and tossed one hilt to Kaden.

"The blade has no weight," she explained as she ignited the one she was still holding, "we rely entirely on our Force Sense when we use lightsabers. IF for any reason you're severed from the Force, never ignite a saber. Not until you have at least a few years' worth of experience under your belt."


Messing around a little with her lightsaber, she motioned for Kaden to do the same. He was going to have to get used to the strange feel of it in his hands.

"You should probably be careful of Elyria. Selene. Whatever you wanna call her," she shrugged, believing that maybe her admittance to knowing her at last would have some sort of effect. And without waiting, she launched forward, aiming the tip of her lightsaber's beam directly into his torso.

 

[Kaden Farr]

"I am used to a beskad," Kaden replied in answer to Scherezade's question about whether or not Elyria had given him lightsaber skills. In truth Kaden had never wanted to carry a lightsaber until he witnessed the effectiveness of the weapon battle. He was a Mandalorian, and prefered the weapons of his own kind, but why not use any weapon he could to his advantage. "I am sure she could have given me more than she did, but I have gifted with what was essential."

It was cut and dry with Kaden at this point. What Scherezade shared about her personal self, it did not have any bearing on his own situation. While it was similar it was also different, and Kaden wanted to ensure that she knew his abilities did not work the same way. Kaden simply knew certain things when he needed to. Maybe that made them the same and he was being stubborn in his thought process. That would not be new.

He caught the hilt as it was tossed to him. Little time was given to react as Kaden had to ignite the blade and parry the attack which came his way. Knocking the blade out the way, Kaden arched his brow at Scherezde's advice.

"And why would I do that. She is the reason I am alive. She is why I can be in Daisy's life, be your friend. I owe her my devotion for just those things."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Outfit | Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 3 Czerka knives | 1 Nastirci Combat Knives| 2 TOTT-001 Arc Light Blaster | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tag: [member="Kaden Farr"]

Scherezade almost pointed out that beskar was armor, only to realize a split of a second before she opened her mouth that Kaden had actually said beskad instead. Mandalorians were so bad about naming their chit, it was almost hilarious. But at least it put a genuine smile on her face. She was missing some of those lately.

As they continued to speak, she kept the attack on. There was nothing she did that was advanced in any sort of a way; up, down, upper left corner, bottom right corner, and so on. The basics of what was needed to build the foundations on for most of the lightsaber forms. She expected it wouldn't take him too long to get the hang of it; after all, he did have training in other forms of weapons. The more complicated stuff would come later, when she could blind fold him and do some more complicated moves to drill deep just how much relying on the Force was involved.

"Are we friends?" she asked, pausing for a moment, lofting an eyebrow. "I thought you tolerate me because of Daisy."

Not that she understood why she and Daisy were friends either. Daisy regularly claimed that she loved Scherezade, and Scherezade felt the same, but she could never quite figure it out. The two had met on a beach, where Scherezade had been lying on the shore, being run over by water while so completely drunk that she could barely move, and it had been Daisy's brother's words that had spurred her to almost slicing his neck. Daisy had not once attacked her in that. Instead, she'd taken her to her ship, given her clean clothes, tried to feed her… They had been friends since that day. Scherezade still didn't get it.

"You don't owe your devotion to anyone," she said, re-igniting her saber, "I was brought back to life my grandmother," and another instance, but she didn't wish to speak of that second time, "You'd think I'd be grateful to that, wouldn't you? Yet the more pieces of what happened that I put together, the more I learn that there was no compassion or kindness in that. Every step of the way, she has added to my pain and my suffering, because she believes that if I hurt then my mother will hurt, and she wishes to eradicate my mother's entire blood line. She's also about a thousand years old and hops between various dimensions."

Sighing, she turned the lightsaber off again.

"She helped me too, you know," she said, "on Yag'dhul. She was the reason I was able to get from the underground tunnels after collapsing into them and find you and Daisy. She almost had me under a spell of morbid lullabies and warmth that I yearn for and in those minutes or hours I would have followed her to almost any corner of the galaxy."

She remembered the feeling of it. The warmth. The safety. The assurances. For a split of a moment, Scherezade had even wondered if she'd been the spirit of her mother.

"She's dangerous. And I'm pretty sure she wants something."

 

[Kaden Farr]

Kaden could tell the woman was taking it easy on him, but he had trained enough times to know that when learning a new weapon. She was helping to establish and get used to the weapon. He had to admit that the weapon itself was lighter than he wanted to even admit. Kaden was used to the heaviness of the beskar weapon. This was nothing like it. Kaden had to trust the force with every swing, parry, and block. He expected resistance when the blades collided, but even then there was none. Each move of her blade was matched, and when she stopped, Kaden simply nodded for her to repeat the pattern until he was used to the blade itself.

His eyes widened slightly at the suggestion he only tolerated her because of Daisy. Kaden's head canted as he pondered why she would think that. It was rare Kaden tolerated anyone he did not want to be around. Her words seemed to come from an insecurity that Kaden did not want to explore, however, it made sense as Selene seemed to collect the damaged and broken.

"What makes you think that? I mean... yeah you are Daisy's friend and that means if I want to be in her life you are going to be there, but we are here now. We hung out on Thyferra, until Daisy was in danger. I don't know where you would get that from, but you and Daisy are the only two people in the Confederacy I am close to."

Former ghosts were not always accepted back among the living that well. The fact Daisy was more than tolerating his presence was a miracle in itself. Had Kaden been haunted by someone, he would have gone insane. Granted, Daisy had seemed to have been there almost, and perhaps the fact Kaden was actually alive and visible to others which made her walk back from thinking she was losing her mind. Kaden felt bad that he had brought her near the place of insanity. That was something he often wondered about, and Scherezade had been there, or was that the Madelina person she had been? Those details were fuzzy, and Kaden did not remember much of what he saw from the Netherworld of the real world. He just knew there was an attachment to Daisy, and that attachment was not going away anytime soon.

Then Scherezade started talking about Selene and her experience. Kaden nodded.

"She is the reason I survived the Netherworld the second time. It is different not being attached to a body when you are there. At some point you just fade into nothing, and somehow she managed to remain for 500 years. I was wandering, lost, and she called to me, helped reach out to the real world, and that is how I found Daisy. I just found her, felt her. She was the only one I could reach, and there is a bond or something that I will never be able to understand... You may say that I don't owe her anything, but I do. I owe her more than you know."

Kaden looked down, and then looked back up to Scherezade.

"Of course she wants something. She wants to live."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"Because let's be honest here, you wouldn't be talking to me at all if it wasn't for your interest in Daisy," Scherezade shrugged, giving the lightsaber in her hands a few swings into the air. She didn't see the point in beating around the bush with it. Her experience with people might have been less than most others, especially considering half of that time was spent being stuck in the space between dimensions, but the last year and a half had shown her how people viewed her; nothing and less than nothing. Daisy was an exception. As was Josh. That was more or less as far as it went, at least as far as she knew. She couldn't understand it, couldn't understand why it was the way that it was, but…

"And when we talked on Thyferra you were mostly interested in Daisy too," she pointed out, "how did the cheese thing go, by the way?" That was what she had told him that day. In the time they'd had, over drinks, he'd wanted to know what he could get Daisy. Scherezade had first suggested pliers that helped you open a person's rib cage, but when that had seemed too extreme, she said cheese would work too. Who didn't like cheese?

­
"We're close?" now she just froze mid-motion, glowing green eyes fixed on the man. They were close? When had that happened? Or maybe… Maybe he just meant that he wasn't really close to people in general, so when you put things in their relative positions… Oh. If that was the case, it was sad. "Is it because everyone in your life before the Netherworld is irrelevant?" her question was almost child-like in its innocent, the result of both struggling to understand how certain social matters worked, combined with a genuine interest. "How'd you die that time anyway?" came the question.

Quietly, she listened to Kaden's tale of Selene. Elirya. The Netherworld. The bond. It seemed bonds that actually meant something were in abundance, all around her, all open for others to make good use of.

Scherezade sighed, and turned her lightsaber off.

"I've never been to the Netherworld," she said quietly, "But I was held captive in the Darkness. The first time, for seven hundred years. The second time… It was a week here, but years in there. Some would say that I survived that first run because of my grandmother, since she released me. But those some would either forget or not know that I was there because of her in the first place. But I know what it feels like. That… Fear, of fading away. Both in another dimension and in here, both strong enough to terrify you yet push you into fading away at the same time."

But she hadn't known. Not what Selene wanted to live. Not that she survived for so long in the Netherworld.

"Have you ever considered that if she survived the Netherworld for five centuries, perhaps she is not a creature of the Netherworld? That she did not die to get there, but that something else had happened that placed her there?"

[member="Kaden Farr"]

 

[Kaden Farr]

"But weren't you there with her one time... I cannot recall that well, but I know I saw another with her the first time I was able to see beyond the veil."

Kaden's retort was not meant to be a complete denial. Yes, he was talking with Scherezade because he was in Daisy's life, and if he had not been, Kaden would likely not be. The truth, however, was that his interest in Daisy was not his motivation for befriending Scherezade. Just because they seemed to come together in a way did not mean romance had to be the reason for both to be in his life. It just happened to be the case.

"Yes... I wanted to talk to you about her, mainly because I really needed to make up for the massive truth bomb of the fact Yasha Cadera was my ex-wife. I needed your help because I cannot imagine a life that Daisy is not part of anymore. That doesn't mean I can't be your friend for who you are. It does mean my interest in Daisy is why we know each other... but doesn't have to be the reason I am your friend."

Kaden shrugged at the question.

"Honestly after Thyferra and what happened I forgot about the cheese. I made her a pair of knives instead."

Kaden shrugged again. A slight blush pulled at his cheek admitting he had not taken any of Scherezade's suggestions. Hopefully she would not feel like it was a waste of her time to offer advice. Kaden was truthful that the events of Thyferra had put it out of his mind. Daisy had almost died, or could have. Kaden had promised to pull the trigger himself if she began to turn. That was a day he did not want to relive, nor did he ever want to think about that promise ever again.

Scherezade seemed to keep asking all the deep questions now, or the ones which required Kaden to think at least. Was everyone in his previous life irrelevant. Maybe they were. Kaden had never given that too much thought, not from that perspective. Kaden shrugged, yet again.

"Maybe... I don't know. What I do know is they abandoned me long before I ever died. I was an orphan because of what happened when Mandalore was nuked, and I had known Yasha since we fought together in the civil war. I helped cauterize her uncle's amputated arm. In the end... turns out she didn't love me, and thanks to too many serious injuries and weak heart, the trauma of her rejection caused my heart to... well... it literally caused my heart to break."

Kaden paused and looked at Scherezade.

"I have a daughter I've only seen once."

Kaden paused again. He was quiet for some time. Scherezade began to talk of her own darkness. She understood now why Kaden had been grateful. There had been someone to help him survive. Maybe she was right. It would make sense Selene had been placed in the Netherworld, but so many Sith Lords had died and returned from that place, Kaden would not rule out any possibility, so he shrugged, again.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Now was her turn to look up surprised. Weren't she there that one time? He had seen her with Daisy? All Scherezade could do was shake her head, wondering what that was all about. She was pretty sure that if she had seen someone from the Netherworld trying to reach Daisy, her first and only reaction would've been to keep Daisy safe, to load her with anti-spirit equipment to keep that person out, and then for good measure suggest she took some yslamiri capsules to negate the Force for a long few months if not longer than that to make sure the Netherworldian gave up. "You're lucky it wasn't-" she began to say, and then shook her head. "Madalena," Scherezade realized out loud, "it was probably my sister that you saw, when she was in my body." A long, too complicated story, of how Scherezade had so miserably failed to get to the Netherworld herself.

Still, Kaden insisted that the fact he knew her because of Daisy didn't mean he couldn't be her friend for who she was. Didn't have to be the reason. "So why don't you ever ask me about me?" she asked, but her voice made it clear that she was not judging him – merely making an offer. It was okay to do so. Did she fully trust him? No, not yet. He was a dude who was interested in her friend and that meant that trust would have to be earned, with or without Selene's involvement in their lives. But from her end, she could give him the chance to do that. And to do that would mean that Daisy as a topic would have to take less dominance in their conversations.

And he's forgotten about the cheese. Now she frowned. "Rude," she commented, and stuck her tongue out. But she couldn't deny that the thought of Daisy getting knives instead didn't pinch her somewhere on the inside. She was a huge knife fan herself. Her body was usually decked in more knives than even professional chefs knew what to do with. But still, she put a big smile on her face. It was good that he cared enough to make her stuff. At least, it was supposed to be good, right?

When Kaden began to speak of the people he knew before he died, she listened. She hadn't actually thought he would reveal so much of his personal life at that point, but she listened anyway. Her face began to pale though every word that he spoke. It was… She had no words for it. No words for a Mandalorian whose story was so closely identical to her own. And it ended with that final note – a daughter.

Any thought of words over Selene were gone in an instant.

"How can you stand it?" she asked, her voice just barely above a whisper, "How could you stand among the living again after all that happened, and not just die all over again? Before… Before you and Daisy became a thing. How could you breathe and not inhale and exhale that pain every single time? Did the Netherworld make you forget what a broken heart feels like? Have you found the way to grow stone over your heart while you were there?"

[member="Kaden Farr"]

 

[Kaden Farr]

Kaden scratched his head. Scherezade was confusing him with whether it had been her or Madalena he had seen with Daisy. He wanted to say something, but there really were not any words coming. Sure he could ask for her to explain it all again, but Kaden had been a ghost and was back in a body now. What was there to really explain that was any weirder than that. Kaden finally just nodded. "I'm not going to pretend I really know... I just saw someone that looked like you, and I just assumed I guess." He was going to completely leave alone the fact she had said he was lucky it had not been her. Kaden could imagine what she meant by that, as Scherezade seemed to be a very protective person when it came to her friends and those she was close to.

Then she asked her next question. Unfortunately, Kaden had no good answer. It was a question designed to prove she was right and that Kaden was not interested in her at all. Kaden smirked and chuckled a bit.

"Alright, you caught me," he replied. "I have been pretty preoccupied with what I can learn about Daisy... it's just..." Kaden paused. Whatever excuse he was going to come up with in the moment was going to be just that, an excuse. "I'm sorry. I didn't intend to make you feel like I was ignoring you."

Kaden simply shrugged when he had been accused of being rude, though the knives had actually been a good idea. It was something of his own hand, and something practical for country. His story was the thing which seemed to keep her interest however. There was something about it she seemed to latch onto or resonate with. Kaden didn't really know why, or what it was that had her so interested. He shrugged at first. It seemed to be a default response when he did not know what to say or how to answer.

There was a long pause before Kaden decided that the truth was the best way to go. Had he learned to grow stone over heart?

"Not stone, besakr," he answered. It was a risky answer because the question which could logically follow would be how could he love Daisy the way she deserved if his heart was so guarded. "I have been growing layer after layer of beskar over my heart since I was child, and only a few have been able to find their way through it. Daisy has faster than anyone. But the truth is... there is no way I can breathe without feeling the pain. Selene promised me revenge. Despite the beskar the pain was still visible. I suppose it is there to keep me from getting hurt again, or from simply allowing myself to feel. Yet... here we are, becoming better friends because Daisy makes me feel."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

He didn't really know. Scherezade just nodded to that, deciding against the initial instinct to blurb everything out and tell him all there was to know about the whole Scherezade and Madalena thing that happened. He didn't need to hear about it. He might have been attempting to become her friend, for reasons that either had or hadn't to do with Daisy, but now was hardly the time to unload the emotional baggage that was Scherezade deWinter. At least, not any more than she already had, in bits and pieces, in nibbles and kernels.

She nodded when he apologized. She hadn't meant to imply that he'd been ignoring her, but… No, that wasn't the word, but the Sithling wasn't entirely sure what the correct'er word to use would've been.

Not stone.

Beskar.

Scherezade listened as he explained, how it had been layer after layer. She'd considered the layering method before, had tried to do it herself. Had miserably failed. Revenge. Feeling. Scherezade said nothing at first, but after some silence jumped off the fence instead. "Beskar is weak," she said, removing a piece of metal from her bag. Beskar'gam. Nothing openly remarkable, but as a Mandalorian, she expected Kaden to be able to call it what it was. A small piece because she was not about to carry an entire Mandalorian tuna can around with her.

"Sometimes I sit in a corner of the room and just stare at it," she explained, tossing it over to him so he could see it was the real deal. Not that the real deal was so hard to come by nowadays. How many bodies of Mandalorians had the Confederacy piled up all on its own? Scherezade had been there to help them do it, each and every time.

And then she took it from him, placing it a few feet away. Without pomp or circumstance, Scherezade grabbed her slugthrower again and shot it. One bullet. Pink glitter. The beskar made a sizzling sound as it began to melt.

"I envy you," she said quietly as she looked at it, "That it worked. That Daisy's succeeded. That Selene offered you revenge without demanding you killed a love one in return. That you're in a situation where it's so easy to tell friend apart from foe."

It was… Probably one of the most brutally honest things that had come out of her mouth in recent months. Not that she'd been lying but… There was a huge distance between telling the truth, and being brutal about it.

Especially to one's self.

[member="Kaden Farr"]

 

[Kaden Farr]

Beskar was weak? Scherezade seemed to have a distorted view on her elements. It was rare and strong, though as result of the devastation caused by the nuclear weapons which had made parts of Mandalore uninhabitable for a time, Beskar in its raw from seemed to be more common than it should be. It was an analogy more than anything. Why allow brittle stone to cover one's heart when a much more dense and near impenetrable iron ore would do much better. He sighed as he watched what Scherezade did with her glitter bullets. A shrug rolled off his shoulders.

"I mean if you create something in a laboratory sure, I suppose you can shoot your way through anything. That is ingenuity any true Mandalorian can appreciate."

Yes, Kaden was aware there was no love loss for the Mandalorians where Scherezade was concerned, and yet one of her best friends was one. Kaden's comment, intended to dig at the irony of it all. She was more in tune with what it meant to be Mandalorian than most Kaden had turned his back on. Yes, he was aware that his choices made the label of dar'manda fit. At this phase in his life he did not care. Kaden would rather stand for the principles he felt were right than blindly follow leaders who had no regard for the long standing ways of their people. While Ra had been an unconventional taskmaster, he at least understood the power of the clan when all of them rallied around the Resol'nare. Yasha had tossed it aside completely, as easily as she had tossed him aside. Kaden was bitter.

His eyes looked to the woman when she spoke of envy. His head shook. Kaden could not understand what there was to envy. Even as she explained all the things she envied Kaden could only think they were things which could be available to her if she reached out and took them. While they had just seemed to happen for Kaden, they were all on the other side of great amount of pain and suffering. Was that something to envy?

"I died before all of this ever happened, Scherezade," Kaden began. "You want to envy all the things that happened after the worst moments of my previous life. I had to die to have another chance, but you... you have a chance to see something different without having to die. I get you may want to, or did, or whatever led to that whole Madalena thing, but trust me, death is not the prefered route to a new beginning."

Kaden shrugged again.

"I cannot tell you why anything happened the way it did. Though do not mistake that understanding friend from foe is easy. Don't forget I told you that you and Daisy are the only ones I am close to. Selene is Selene, there is something there, a dynamic which confuses me and yet is simple. Outside of that, I have no one. People are to me what I have made them to be, or what I have allowed them to be. The only person that has ever caught me off guard in that respect is Daisy. I never expected to reach out to anyone while I was dead. I never expected to run into her in person after I came back considering how large the galaxy is, and I sure never imagined that I would ever fall in love with her."

The words just came as Kaden tried to answer Scherezade as best he could. They were four small letters, but something Kaden had never stated out loud. He knew his feelings well enough to know it was not a lie, and Scherezade was observant enough to know Kaden never said anything flippantly. Kaden's shock was that he was usually more guarded around people, and even with Scherezade had been to a degree. Now that he found he let his guard down with Scherezade, Kaden felt a measure of concern. Was it safe to open up? Certainly they could be open. They had Daisy and Selene in common. His eyes darted up from the ground and looked at Scherezade.

"You will let me tell her first before you go running off and doing whatever girl gossip it is you ladies do with each other..."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"Like your armor and other beskar-made stuff aren't made from working it under special conditions," Scherezade retorted with a grin. She understood his point well enough; and while it was true, it didn't change her stance on beskar. There wasn't a Mandalorian out there who would toss chunks of beskar at her during a fight, not like that. Whatever they'd throw at her, it would be after the beskar was handled and cared for, and there was no reason to hold back with coming up with things to counter it or outright remove it from the equation entirely.

His attempt to dig at her was entirely lost though. In an existence where the Mandalorian Empire was her greatest enemy, where any good Mandalorian was a dead Mandalorian, and still her best friend was a Mandalorian and by proxy that meant Scherezade protected her and many others who were of Mandalorian descent as well, the idea that she herself upheld what were meant to be the Mandalorian values had never once passed by her conscious or unconscious thoughts.

As Kaden continued to speak, Scherezade just shook her head. "I was as good as dead as well," she pointed out. Certainly, her wishes had been to actually die, and on that aspect, she had failed, but in terms of what was happening in their reality, she might as well as have been dead anyway, since it was the space between dimensions that she'd been stuck in, "You say the things happened after the worst moments of your previous life, but for me… The previous life is pretty much still going on. The changes between now and then are subtle, at best, even if I'm not drinking gallons of liquor a day anymore."

She removed her slugthrowers from her belt and set to clean them while Kaden had more to say, on how it was not really easy to tell friend from foe, and that he only had her and Daist. Again he mentioned Selene, but where he was open to trust the situation with her quickly enough, Scherezade could not claim to as well; not when their meetings thus had only counted to two. Not when she had learned on her very flesh that just because someone saved you, did not mean they would not use you, dis not men they would gladly you toss you away the moment you became slightly inconvenient to them. She'd experienced too much of that on her own flesh to ever be able to believe it again.

"Why did you fall in love with her?" she asked, blinking. In truth, it was not the first time the question crossed her mind, but with Kaden it was slightly different, "Don't get me wrong. I know how Daisy is and I know how easy it is for most people to fall in love with her. But you gave her your heart before your lips even touched. Why did you even reach our specifically to her when this galaxy is so chockful of people who could've not just responded, but also pulled you from the Netherworld with as little as a blink?"

Looking at him then, a kernel of amusement flickered in her eyes. "I'll tell her nothing," she gave her assurances, "but I'll be surprised if she doesn't at least suspect it at this point."

[member="Kaden Farr"]