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 Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:17 pm
Valin looked at her with all seriousness. Though normally a playful and goofy sort of guy, he looked all 26 years of age right now - perhaps older. His eyes seemed to burn with sureness of his cause but also pain over things.
When he spoke, he did so clearly and precisely - trying to prove the point without showing any anger towards his friend, "Red, this is my battle. Darth Rutum is my problem - he's obessed with me and only me. He wants revenge and power. He's a Sith Lord - it's what they all want. It's a personal battle between us and it's also a bigger battle, as well - one thousands of years old. Jedi versus Sith. Good versus Evil. Light versus Dark."
He looked away, "That's all you need to know, Red. The war... just leave it in the past. Where it belongs."
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:27 pm
"Oh gee Valin," she said in such a feminine 1950s housewife sort of way, "that sounds swell. How silly of me to think that knowing anything about little old Rutum would help in any sort of beneficial way." She even giggled a bit, obviously faking, and in a fraction of a moment her right palm slammed flat onto the table as she rose to her feet the same moment.
"How dare I not realize that whatever agenda he has with me pales compared to the tension between him and you. Whatever was I thinking?" Cynically and furiously she shouted at him, disgusted with his selfishness. She didn't really expect anything els,e but that didn't mean she couldn't be disappointed.
"If he wants to get at you, then it should be obvious that he's going to start by tearing us apart. He'll start destroying the fabric of society just to get it to work the way he wants, and that requires me losing my livelihood, my home, and my loved one and that is not something I'm gonna stand for." Her teeth barely parted with her words, baring at him as though she would spring over the table and rip his neck out in a moment's notice. Her nails dug into the wood slowly, somehow resisting the opposing force which would otherwise cause them to break.
"If you want this to be a personal battle, then fine, but if that really is your choice, then get the hell off of Earth!"
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:42 pm
"And maybe I will!" Valin shouted - loudly and full of anger fiercely directed at Red because right now there was no other target to direct his rage, "What's the point of me being here?! I just crashed here! I never wanted to be here! I never wanted to be anywhere! I just - I just wanted to get lost! Disappear! Begone! Keep moving from place to place! I don't care anymore! I just wanted to keep moving because if I kept moving then I didn't have to think about the war! And then these bastardizations of life known as the Yuuzhan Vong attacked my ship and somehow - by some improbably and highly unlikely way - I ended up trapped on this dirtball!"
He glared at the girl, all his Jedi reserve and all his Jedi patience spent up. The dam was finally broken. It was as if everything over the years just finally couldn't hold back Valin's pain and anger at himself.
"And no: I will not speak of the war! I will not speak of my crimes!"
He marched over to her and whispered through clenched teeth, right in front of her, "What do you care anyway? You regarde me and everyone else here as beneath you, anyway. You could care less what happens to me, anyone else, or this planet so long as you get your revenge against KenoTao? You're almost no better than the Sith Lord out there plotting to kill me."
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:55 pm
She responded by matching his glare with her own. Silent bitterness simmered between them as she searched him, listened to him, replayed his words, and observed his general behavior at the moment. It was the first time she had gotten him to act serious about anything to her knowledge, the first time he stopped acting like a bumbling oaf, and the first time she had ever seen him act human for that matter instead of some pre-programmed life form. Admittedly she would have enjoyed that under different circumstances, but his opinion of her made her down right livid and every tiny her on her tail and ears would have ripped his pores to shreds were they made of iron.
"You speak so readily for someone who is supposed to empathize so well. Your opinion of me is so negative, that rather than try to help me, you'd rather try to subordinate me. Every time I so much as bring up that b*****d all you ever do is try to suppress my rage, change my outlook on life, guide me down your path like some damned pet. I don't assert my will on anyone regardless of what I think of them, but you can't help but to interfere because you know best right? You and your 'force' can save the universe, heal all wounds, defeat the evils in the hearts of trillions and it's your personal mission to make sure everyone does exactly as you think they should because you're the holy Jedi, the most sacred being in this Force infested universe.
Who really thinks low of this planet and these people Valin? Who really doesn't give a <********> who lives or dies or when or why or how? Me because I don't like them? Or no wait, me because I don't respect them? No no no it's because of my quest for vengeance right?!" Her left arm batted behind her, sending the chair several feet in the air and several feet back down with a loud splintering crash. She hardly felt it.
"Or is it you? You because you don't want to be here. You because you'd rather be allowed to run away than have anyone actually stand beside you even if just as a colleague. You because no matter where you would have crash landed, you still couldn't trust that anyone's life is maybe worse than yours."
She leaned forward until there was nothing but a few inches breathing space between them, her face red with indignation. "I've not judged anyone for anything short of their actions and my personal disposition. If I don't like someone, it's their own damn fault. What's your excuse?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:19 pm
"I push people away and I try not to make friends because everyone that stands besides me, everyone that stands near me, and everyone that befriends me dies..." Valin finally said in a soft voice that was barely able to be heard, almost a whimper, once she was done. The anger in his voice, the fury and rage were all gone. And the tall man who was probably the only Jedi in this galaxy looked very, very weak and very, very tired and very, very broken.
"I saw my galaxy tear itself to pieces when the Yuuzhan Vong invaded," Valin started, "And it wasn't even the Yuuzhan Vong that frightened me the most. It was the New Republic and the Peace Brigade. It was everyone. Everyone so willing to turn on one another when extinction was knocking right on our door. Everyone wanted a peice of each other - and everyone wanted a piece of the Jedi once the Vong 'promised' to pass over worlds that handed us over. Didn't matter they were lying - they just needed a scapegoat, someone to hate and blame all the problems on."
He looked sadly at Red, "I can't count how many funerals I went to. Every day - every day - someone didn't come back. Kalee died, Felder is 'dead' - replaced by Darth Rutum, even Valin Lobel died out there..."
The Jedi couldn't look at Red. He felt too ashamed, "I don't like people because whenever they come near me - they end up dying. I'm not really sure why I befriended you. I just figured... you wouldn't miss me when I was finally gone anyway..."
The Jedi did not feel very Jedi-like: He hadn't felt very Jedi-like for years now. For all his preaching and lecturing, he himself was much of what he wanted to be.
"I guess," He said softly, "That you still want to hear about the Yuuzhan Vong War?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:41 pm
"So that's it," she said, backing away slowly. He was just paranoid because of a string of bad luck. No better than a Vietnam vet or a POW. Made sense enough to her, considering the scale on which he was used to fighting wars. Not much different in behavior though.
"You think avoiding people is gonna give you the power to take on this...Sith and whatever army he decides to bring with him? What makes you think you can take on someone who's not afraid to use more power than you and has far more resources?" Truly she could make no sense of any of this. How very illogical of him to try and fight a man not afraid to fight dirty. There had to be more to it, but quite frankly she was exhausted and just about tired of looking at him for now. She expected a bit better, but who was she to judge him? He had seen things she had only just recently heard of.
"You said Valin Lobel died in the war and Felder was replaced by Rutum, and yet before me is a man who calls himself Valin Lobel who just so happens to believe that somewhere inside Rutum is a person who called himself Felder. I want to know why that is." As though not paying attention to what the hell she just said, she turned for the door, her tail swaying too and for to maintain her balance since she wasn't really taking the time to actually walk straight on her own.
"I'll give you time to rest and muster up more courage than you brought with you tonight, but the next time I see you, I expect you to tell me what I want to hear." Pulling the door open, she embraced the light wind that rushed out to balance out the pressure within and without the building, thinking to herself as though she had forgotten to mention something. She looked at him, then the forest, then him again, and then the forest.
"I'm not gonna die." That was all. She probably meant to say more, but she didn't utter another word as she slipped into the night and wandered off. Valin likely had enough as it was anyway, so why press him more. A bit at a time. Just like when dealing with a child...
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The Fierce Deity Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:46 pm
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:51 pm
<~>You damn sure don't!<~>
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The Fierce Deity Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:03 pm
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:05 pm
<~>It would be a nice last name to give her since she doesn't have one.<~>
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The Fierce Deity Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:06 pm
<<...and it rolls nicely. . =;; >>
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:07 pm
<~>Perhaps it shall be so unofficially.<~>
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The Fierce Deity Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:20 pm
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:25 pm
<~>So then...what happens when/if he gets married?<~>
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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:25 pm
((I always thought the name Tybron was awesome. [/random]))
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