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 Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:01 pm
14
Vyrtem and Valya left to look around some more, and picked up various supplies as they went.
And then she saw it. A beautiful pendant with a large green crystal inset into silver. Her eyes got big and she stopped dead in her tracks. It was incredible, and she bit her lip as she looked at the price tag. Everything was perfect except for that price. She walked away with a smile, though. She could appreciate it even if it wasn't hers.
He watched her expressions as they changed from pulse-pounding excitement to heartbroken reality. He couldn't stand to see that look on her face. Vyrtem made a note of the necklace's location and filed it away for later, making a promise to himself.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:06 pm
15
Finally, they had gathered their supplies and made way for the shuttle that would bring them to the gardens.
They were alone on the shuttle, and Valya leaned against Vyrtem as they rode, comfortably silent, toward their destination.
It was some time before the shuttle stopped and the doors chimed to announce that it was clear to file off the transport. They took their first steps off the shuttle and were greeted by a massive, green expanse of land, filled with all manner of flora and fauna. It was here that the zoos and plantlife were contained, and it was easily the most alive part of Korriban.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:11 pm
16
Vyrtem used his ID to get them in and Valya's eyes lit up as she looked around at the impossibly large trees and the unbelievable greenness of everything. Birds called and animals flitted through the trees contained within the massive biodome, and Korriban's dry heat was replaced with a humid warmth that felt absolutely fantastic by contrast.
Vyrtem smiled warmly as he watched the most beautiful thing on Korriban stare in awe at the gardens. "Haven't you been here before?"
Valya blushed and closed her mouth. "Well, I've always meant to, but I never found the time..."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:16 pm
17
Vyrtem smiled. "Well, it's better late than never." He took her hand and led her on a quick tour to see some of the more exotic animals and flowers before winding down shortly before sunset, when they went to an open field, sparsely populated by trees and free-roaming herbivores. It was there under the shade of a lone tree that they laid out their blanket and set up their food. It wasn't much, but they weren't her for the food.
They rested after what had been an eventful day and held hands as they watched the sunset.
She played with his fingers and rolled his hand over to inspect his palm. "So what's the story with the bracer, I've been meaning to ask."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:21 pm
18
Vyrtem removed the blackened hunk of durasteel, handing it to Valya. "It's all that's left of my father's armor."
She frowned, inspecting it. "What happened? You never told me."
Vyrtem looked up at the sky, taking a breath and stroking her fingers absently with his thumb. "Well, the truth is, I don't really know... I know that my parents were both soldiers. I know that my father was a commando, and my mother was a sniper. And I know that I had a little sister, though I don't even remember her name... One day, we were on a trip through deep space and out ship failed. Something happened, and I ended up in a disintegrated escape pod somewhere in Imperial Space. They found this bracer, my mother's dog tags, and my little sister's locket in the wreck, and when they patched me up, I wound up in an orphanage, where I was taken in by the Sith..."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:28 pm
19
"So that's why the... Scars, then?" She tried to do it in a way that wouldn't make Vyrtem self-conscious.
he touched his face. "Oh yeah. From the wreck..."
She smiled and touched his cheek, running a delicate finger along a scar. "I like them. They make you look tough." She scrunched her nose cutely at him and nuzzled his neck.
He pulled her close and held her tight, kissing her neck as she squealed. "Nowhere near as tough as you." He joked. But was he joking?
"What's wrong?" She frowned.
He shook his head. "What do you mean?"
"Your eyes. They were somewhere else."
Vyrtem smiled "I don't want to be anywhere but here, Valya."
She frowned again. "But you were... What is it?" She propped herself up on her elbow.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:05 pm
20
Vyrtem's brow furrowed. He couldn't lie to her. "The other day..."
She kept on frowning. "Yeah?"
He tried to frame it correctly. "Well... You killed Mina..."
She looked hurt. "Are you upset?"
he shook his head quickly "No. No no no. I think she deserved it. But you killed Mina. I didn't."
She watched his eyes, her brows furrowed.
"I mean... After all she did to you... After all she put you through.. I didn't. I would have let her live, despite all of it..."
She saw pain in his eyes. He felt... Guilty. Ashamed that she'd had to do what he thought he should have done. He didn't see it the way she saw it.
Valya sat up, reaching up slowly and pulling Vyrtem's head to her chest, softly holding him to her. "Vyrtem..." her voice was a whisper.
She could feel him shaking against her breast... She exhaled softly. "Vyrtem... It took a lot of strength to be willing to spare Mina. More than I had. But don't you see? That's why I chose you... Because you're different from them. Because you were strong enough to spare her. You don't let your fear and your anger control you.
Vyrtem. I love you even more because you are so much stronger than any of them. You are in control...
Look at me, Vyrtem. Look at me." She put her hands on his cheeks and lifted his face to hers.
"Vyrtem Vayne. I love you. I love everything about you, and I wouldn't change anything about you. You are everything I could ever want, and so much more. Please know that. Don't ever forget it. And don't try to be something you're not. Not for me."
Vyrtem's body was weak as he was pulled back into Valya's embrace. He nuzzled her neck softly and breathed deep her scent. "I love you, too, Valya. More than I even know how."
They held each other for a while, and then lay down to watch the sunset in comfortable silence, drinking in the warmth of the other's presence and allowing the rest of the world to melt away without notice.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:13 pm
21
They lay there for quite some time, even managing to begin to doze off when something started beeping. The sound was alien to Vyrtem, and so he was content to ignore it, holding Valya in his half-asleep haze.
But Valya recognized the sound. Slowly, at first, but then more quickly. It wasn't the sound of a holo-call. It was the sound of an emergency holo-call. She shook her head and reached for her holodeck "One second. I've got to take this." She looked down at a small Mirialan's face. The girl looked flustered. "Tawny? What's wrong?"
The girl looked excited to levels of terror. She was babbling, and more or less just freaking out.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:21 pm
22
Valya held up a hand to calm the girl. "Tawny. Tawny! Tawny. Calm down. Take a breath. Hold it. Let it out. What's wrong?"
"Oh my God! I thought you were dead! Valya! What happened!?"
Valya shook her head, confused. "What do you mean? I'm fine, Tawny. What happened?"
"There was an explosion! Valya, the supply room! It blew up!"
Valya's brow furrowed. She didn't understand. "Run that by me one more time?"
"The whole thing just exploded! We thought you were dead!"
She turned to someone off-screen
"No. No, she's okay. I don't know! I'm trying to talk to her! No! She's okay!
Valya! What happened?"
Valya was lost. "I... I don't know. I was out of town. I'm on my way back, I'll let you know as soon as I find anything out.
Vyrtem, we have to go back to the Academy."
Vyrtem had already been packing. "After you."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:38 pm
23
They were back at the Academy as soon as they could be, and the place was positively abuzz. Droids scattered in every direction, Eradicators were hustling about on their ways to take care of various businesses. Vyrtem and Valya made their way toward her place of work and met an Eradicator cordon, a veritable wall of Sith preventing them from moving forward.
Valya held up her ID, rattling off her Imperial ID Number. "Assistant Manager of Equipment Requisitions in the Korriban Academy. What happened here?"
Vyrtem just stood back and let her go. She already had a better handle on this than he did.
The Eradicator waved her through.
"He's with me."
And then Vyrtem. An Eradicator led them to a tall, thin pureblood Sith dressed in an inquisitor's robes. He surveyed the scene and turned as the teenagers approached. "Can I help you?"
Valya stepped forward. "What happened? I'm the second in charge of this station."
The man nodded and waved his hand to the scene of the show.
It was destroyed. The entire back room had a blackened, charred appearance, and the blast door that normally kept the supplies secured was a warped, twisted sheet of metal blown out and through the counter, leaving a hole in the wall and in the counter.
A probe droid was collecting data from the site, inspecting what appeared to be a corpse, rent in half and scattered to different distances in the lobby.
Valya's hand shot to her mouth. "Oh no. Barya. No..." She pulled against Vyrtem for strength.
"What happened?"
The Sith's eyes focused on Valya. "That's what we're trying to figure out."
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:35 am
24
Vyrtem watched the droid as it calculatingly took notes on the situation before proceeding into the back room to scan and examine the destruction therein.
Valya looked again at the body of Barya. Her manager. Her friend.
The droid spent some time in the back room before re-emerging and coming back to speak to the Inquisitor.
It let fly a series of binary speech patterns that left Vyrtem baffled. Valya was not so easily confused, though.
"A gas leak? We inspect that room every day to ensure it meets safety regulations! There's no way there could have been a gas leak."
The inquisitor shook his head slowly. "I know this is difficult for you, but maybe it was missed. The droid says that it was a leak deep inside the wall that wouldn't have been seen on a cursory inspection. I know it's hard to accept, but this was certainly a gas explosion, and finding that flaw in the pipes spells out a pretty convincing argument. It's nobody's fault. It was doomed to happen. You should be thanking your lucky stars that it was not you who was caught inside when the security system activated."
Valya went cold. "Vyrtem... It could have been me."
"Speaking of. We're showing on the master schedule that a... Valya was meant to working today. Is that who we're looking at?"
Valya shook her head, swallowing hard. "No... No, I'm Valya. I was... I was sick today, so Barya took over my shift... Barya..." She clung to Vyrtem as she turned to hide her face from the corpse that was unceremoniously being scanned and prodded.
The inquisitor nodded, taking notes on a tablet. "Very well. We'll notify her relatives at once. I think that's all that we need from you for now, miss. Is there anything else we should know?"
Vyrtem's jaw clenched as the cuts on his chest ached. This was no accident.
"N... No... No, nothing that I can think of."
"Very well. We have your information. We'll be in touch. For now, get some rest."
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:50 am
25
They were back in Vyrtem's room. The door had just closed behind them when-
She rounded on Vyrtem suddenly. "Tell me everything that happened."
He was taken aback. Caught off-guard. "I'm sorry?"
She pointed at his chest. "Who were they, what did they do. What did they say?"
Vyrtem sighed resignedly. "Well... You remember the guy who beat me up the first day I was here, right?" He pulled off his shirt, revealing the large, crisp 'x' carved over his heart, covered in black stitches. "He and Mina were something of an item..."
Valya's eyes got big and she touched Vyrtem's chest almost timidly. "Gods, Vyrtem. You never told me it was this bad. You should be resting. What are you doing running all over creation with me when you have a wound this serious?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:58 am
26
Vyrtem shook his head and shrugged. "It's not as bad as it looks. No real damage was done, he just cut me pretty deep. Anyway, Temyr decided that he's going to make us pay for what we did to Mina. I... I never thought he meant something like this, though."
She looked into his eyes, running her fingers over her temples as she closed her eyes and tried to think. "Okay... So he's a Sith. He doesn't like us, and he wants us taken care of. He's clearly well-connected, and he's not unwilling to make dramatic shows of force. Is there anything I missed?"
Vyrtem made a face. "He's the most prolific Initiate from my class. No one's been able to stand up to him for years. He was privately tutored by some of the most powerful Sith in the Empire, and honed into such a devastating weapon at fourteen years old that he's ready to face his trials already, he's just waiting for everyone else to catch up..."
She sat down on Vyrtem's bed. "Great." She sighed and tried to think about what their next move was going to be. "He needs to be taken care of."
Vyrtem nodded. "But how? He's never alone. He and his friends are the most powerful Acolytes in my entire class. He trains constantly with them, and he's never without them. No matter how much talent I've gotten from Darth Trax' studies, there's no way I'm a match for him. Even if I try to take him by surprise, I would still be beaten..."
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:06 am
27
Valya took a breath. "Well, we know one thing; he's not willing to come out in public and do this. He wants to handle it quietly. That's the only reason to make it look like an accident, and to ambush you. He's not willing to go public that he's the one doing this. We can use that. We have to stay in public, at least until we've come up with a way to stop him. They're going to need me to handle the reconstruction of the equipment room, and the inventory of what's left. You're going to need to keep studying Darth Trax' books. If we don't give him a chance to get at us on his terms, he may be unwilling to face us on ours.
Regardless of whether or not he's willing to take us in the open, though, I doubt he's going to be trying again for a little bit. At least not until this dies down a little. He doesn't want to draw attention, for whatever reason."
Who was this combat strategist and what had she done with Valya, the equipment clerk he'd started dating? "Okay... If we don't let him get us alone, then we should be able to outrun him for a while. I like it. I've got to get more power. And you need to stay safe."
Valya nodded. Vyrtem's mind would be preoccupied with her. "Don't worry about me. I'm going to be surrounded by Eradicators all hours of the day while we're handling the reconstruction. You need to focus on training. You're the only one who can take this guy."
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Staypuffedwolf rolled 2 20-sided dice:
2, 14
Total: 16 (2-40)
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:57 pm
((force push 1d20+3 vs DC 10))
force push
1
Health: 1
Stamina: 3
Attunement: 22-4=18
Vaas was alone in thought about the last fight. "I need to use the force not just my strength" Vaas had not noticed he was walking in the deserts of Korriban until he walk past a boulder the size of a small hutt "I can move that" the put his hand out in front of him self felt the force gather at the palm of his hand "ok move you basterd." but there was something watching Vaas waiting for him to let his guard down and strike. Vaas was oblivious to this he just wanted the boulder to move damn it "come on move thing" feeling the force in his hand felt right some how in a world where every thing he did was wrong now it was time to see if the hutt boulder could be moved.
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