Private Your Circuit's Dead

[Kalyn Shif]

A home that really wasn't much of a home anymore?​

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Mara's heart sank, and she found herself regretting even pressing the matter in truth. Of course she'd find a way to dredge up something bad and put it on a pedestal. She'd never been to Concordia, never really put herself into Mandalorian space in general, so she had no clue how it had once been nor how it was these days, but the way in which he spoke made her reason that it must have been in dire straits. ​

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"I'm sorry to hear that" she muttered, before shaking her head some. "But mountains... Mountains I can work with, if you wanna see'em?"​

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Moving to a holoprojector which lay somewhere within the general lounge area, Mara brought up a starmap which showed nearby sectors as well as their route toward Roon. Her eyes scanned over the various planets, even though they showed little more than their names at present, hoping that something familiar would jump out.​

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"Aha," she said, jutting a finger toward the Corellian Run, "Ryloth... Has a bunch of different biomes. Snow, deserts, forests, and those mountains you mentioned too..." She turned to look at him, with the projection at her back, and tilted her head to one side as he spoke of freedoms.​

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"I still remember what it is to not have any" she remarked, "Too many people've tried to own me; never again. Structure tho', structure ain't bad. Sometimes roamin' like this is a little aimless I'll give you that. To each their own, tho', I ain't gonna tell you how to live your life man."​

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Fenn Stag ​

 

[Fenn Stag]

Not a good thing to revisit.

Fenn grew silent for a moment.

The deserts of Ryloth were not a place he wanted to revisit for a while. His eyes hardened over. Killing and war was natural to him- as was his birth, after all, but it wasn't any easier to witness that much suffering. He flicked his eyes around the map,

"Only ever been to the deserts there. Not too long ago, actually."

A noble fight, a noble cause, for selfish reasons. Or at least, reasons beyond his understanding and capability to comprehend. It made things easier, all the same, to not have to comprehend and not have to think as hard as you should have about it all. Orders came down, the word was passed, and the job was done. He helped people there.

Didn't he?

He blinked when she said her last piece. Who was, after all, telling him how to live his life? Was there anything else out there for him?

Or was he really his "father's son"?

"I think the roaming is your structure." He glanced behind her, and then back at the projection. It was hard to tell which captured more of his focus- the red hair, or the flowing field of planets that lay before him, the reality of his limited experience coming to him far too rapidly. His world was small- but the galaxy was vast.

"Empires of my own and others own people in one way or another. Everyone belongs to something or someone, in a way. That's what my father used to say, at least."

Kalyn Shif

 

[Kalyn Shif]

"Oh," she breathed, surprised that he'd already visited the planet she'd suggested. Spinning on her heels once more, and thereby unaware of how his attention seemed to flick between her and the projection, she narrowed her eyes and sought out something a little different among the named worlds.​

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Humming under her breath, she reached out a hand to begin to manipulate the star map, turning it this way and that before one finger reached out toward another world which lay there. Still along the 'Run.​

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"There's always Algara II" she offered, with a shrug, "I'm not sure what time of year it is there, it'll change the temperature rather drastically dependin'. Temperate world, an' all that, but... It has mountains. And, maybe, no memories?"​

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She'd sensed the immediate recoiling he'd felt at her mention of Ryloth, after all, call it the Shif intuition...​

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"Might be it is," she retorted as he referred to roaming as the structure she held to, "An' it works well enough for me. You prefer more stable structure I take it? Schedules and rules and the like?"​

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Turning back to him, she regarded him solemnly at the mention of empires and belonging. "Stars are the only thing I belong to," she shrugged, "Never had any connection to my people, wasn't born on any planet, ain't easy to have a sense of belongin' when you got no roots. Don't know whether to envy those of you who do or not."​

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Well there was always envy to be had, especially for those with a family. She'd known only dysfunction. Maybe that was why she preferred to keep to herself. Easier that way, if things got messed up she only had herself to blame.​

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"That why you're headed to Roon? Family, Duty, that sort'a thing?"​

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Fenn Stag ​

 

[Fenn Stag]

Bloodlines

"No memories would be good."

He said after a few moments of silence, indicating how painful or unpleasant the topic might have been.

"In a manner of speaking, yes, I enjoy the structure. I grew up on a farm, after all. Sticking to a schedule meant you ate or not, or if a lot of people did or didn't. I enjoy the structure of my people in that sense. The support of them all."

He blinked a few more times, seeming to be his way to be outwardly displaying he was thinking. Fenn seemed to take his time with his words.

"Yes. That sort of thing."

Something akin to anger could be felt in the room by those through the force. Or perhaps, retribution was the better term. Buried anger-

Revenge.

Kalyn Shif

 

[Kalyn Shif]

Kalyn nodded her head.​

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"And no issues with Algara?" she inquired, after he indicated a desire not to end up somewhere with too many memories ingrained. It might have been nice to see Ryloth in truth, maybe she'd have to make a visit there on the way back from Roon.​

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"I guess that all makes sense," having a duty which affected a lot of people probably did require real structure and scheduling. Kalyn just took work wherever it was offered, and it never lasted more than a couple of runs in truth. Sometimes people would call on her again but that tended to be few and far between. Most just went with the closest, easiest option.​

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And, well, if not for that she might never have got a job in the first place.​

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Fortunately she wasn't on a run presently, or that might have complicated things.​

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"Aye well, your business is your own" she replied when he seemed a little more aloof with his response. Shif intuition told her enough about the man's emotions in that moment to have her avoid prying much further. Instead she turned to something she probably should have asked sooner.​

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"You ain't injured or anythin' right? Need anythin'?"​

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Fenn Stag ​

 

[Fenn Stag]

H A U N T E D

"No aversions to the planet itself, no."

He seemed to be searching, or at least- hunting. The signature in the force was like that of a predator, encircling it's prey. His genetic father may have been called the Wolf of Mandalore- but Fenn's unnerving, rather off-putting demeanor was more along the lines of a circling falcon, waiting for it's prey.

He turned his head downward. Sooner or later, his voyage out here would catch up with her, and him. They were already hunting him, that much he was sure of.

Desperate measures, after all.

"Where were you born- if not on a planet?"

Fenn's head snapped- not looked, snapped to the sensory array on the command console. A few blips, but then gone. His eyes narrowed. They were after him, or searching- and hastily cloaked their signatures once they saw Kalyn's ship on the radar.

"Do you have a stealth drive?" He walked over to his helmet, thumbing off a recent carbon scoring from it. Very, very recent.

Kalyn Shif

 

[Kalyn Shif]

"Cool, cool," she replied, dismissing the projection with a single push of a button.​

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Stepping away from the table, and the man, she made her way to the cockpit to slightly adjust their flight path to include a pitstop there. A simple enough task, it didn't take her very long at all.​

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"Uh, I was born on a space station. The Wheel..." She glanced over her shoulder at him, and smiled, "Not really a place to raise a kid, but I wasn't the only one so..."​

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The sudden change in his demeanor ended whatever else she might have had to say on the matter, and when he asked his question she shook her head. "Nah, nothin' like that. What's up?" A frown overtook her previously neutral expression. "Someone you're hopin' to avoid..?"​

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Fenn Stag ​

 

[Fenn Stag]

Born on a space station. He could empathize with a lack of a solid home- after all, he was created, less so born. "Do you consider it home?" He looked down at his helmet, gripping it tightly, staring at his reflection in the polarized ballistic glass. His reflection. Or someone else's, rather.

"Bad people. I did something bad to them. And they want revenge. Cyclical violence, like most things in the galaxy."

A ship scorched across their bow, apparently not seeing them visually, relying far too much on their instruments. A typical ship of outlaws and more importantly of slavers. Fenn pointed his finger outwards.

"Yes, them. Hoping to avoid or finish them off, whichever they decide. You either can let them pass or take them by surprise- it's your ship. But if they're cloaked, I doubt they can reach out with their instruments, as I understand."

Kalyn Shif

 

[Kalyn Shif]

There was something akin to dry humour in her tone when she replied to his question.​

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"No. I left when I was still barely more than a kid, and frankly I ain't looked back since. I ain't got a place to call home and that's fine with me." No home, no family, no crew, just Kalyn and 'Cutie' and whoever she briefly met along the way. ​

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As the man explained the situation however she frowned. Men hot on his tail?​

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Without a word she turned the seat back to the consoles and began to slow the progress of the ship. "We're going dark" she said, as he explained the choices they had. "Ship's not exactly built for fighting." One by one she began to power down all but the most essential systems, making them increasingly more difficult to pinpoint via sensors.​

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"With any luck, they'll drift past us. Who are they? Anyone of note..?"​

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Fenn Stag ​

 

[Fenn Stag]

Interesting subject- unfortunately, bad timing to discuss her upbringing, and ultimately, his.

Not that he had much to discuss on his end.

"I took something from them, that they wanted. They're working with the Hutts, if I had to wager. They'd have the most to gain from selling it."

Fenn stepped to the cockpit, watching them slowly surge past, streaks of light when their afterburners kicked in, their thrusters propelling them forward, further away from the pair. But he wasn't counting them out yet- a simple maneuver and they were back behind Kalyn's ship.

"If it's even the Hutts."

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Something else appeared on the sensors-

A corvette sized ship entered from lightspeed over top of them.

Sith model.

Kalyn Shif