Osarian's Open Terrain

Vejide winces visibly when AVI explains that even if he could locate the base the AVI from this universe had established somewhere in the universe it could take a decade or more to find a way for him and Dee to get back to their own universe. A decade probably seems like the proverbial drop in the bucket to a virtually immortal being like AVI, but Vejide suspects that a decade, which is the conservative or optimistic estimate of how long it would take AVI to complete his research, would feel like an eternity to Dee. The other options do not strike Vejide as particularly promising either, especially AVI's risky sounding attempt to recreate the same variables that sent him and Dee to this universe in the first place, but Vejide holds her tongue since it wouldn't be helpful or supportive to express her doubts, and so instead she smiles and says, "Well, hopefully it won't come down to trying to blow up an Acclamator."

Crossing her legs beneath her and cupping her chin in her right hand, Vejide asks, "What clues do you have about the whereabouts of the fortress so far? For what it's worth, if you ever have any places you want to check out, I'm sure Fumnanya would be cool with adding the odd stop here and there to whatever else we might be doing at the time. He . . . We all would be down with doing whatever we can to help you and Dee get back home."

Giggling, Vejide nods and agrees, "It would be kinda cool actually. Crinkling her nose, she adds, The being in a fighter and hoping to be sent to the right universe at the right time rather than just blowing up with it part, not so much. Pursing her lips in thought after AVI ventures his guesses about the kind of world that could fit the bill for the other AVI's hidden fortress, Vejide muses, Hoth maybe? Or that world with the Crystal Caves? They're both pretty off the beaten path. Groaning when AVI changes into a clock, Vejide suppresses the yawn inspired by learning of the time and moans, Way past my usual bed time. Chuckling when AVI says he hasn't ruled out the possibility that Dikeledi never sleeps, Vejide reveals, She's a light sleeper. Keeps her blaster under the pillow."

Laughing and arching an eyebrow after AVI mentions she can stay in his room for the night, Vejide jokes, "Why AVI, what would the rest of the crew say? Standing up and stretching her arms over head while giving in to the yawn, she says while yawning, Then again, I'm here, the bed is here, so why not? Sitting on the side of the bed and pulling off her pants and socks, Vejide crawls under the covers in her shirt and then, yawning once more, says, Night AVI," and is soundly asleep a few moments later.




Fumnanya, rubbing his stubbled chin as he enters the kitchen after waking up and showering, grunts a greeting to Dikeledi, obviously just back from her morning job and drinking a bottle of water while examining the contents of the fridge.

Tossing Fumnanya a bottle of water, Dikeledi asks, "Hangover?"

Nodding with a scowl, Fumnanya screws the top off of the bottle and asks in a raspy voice, "Rest of the crew?"

Taking a few pieces of fruit and some yogurt from the fridge, Dikeledi replies, "De'ath is sleeping in front of the telly. Sango and Nkosana are MIA so far, probably paid for spice and a crash somewhere in the city. Vejide went into Ossa-Prime. AVI is still in his room, physically anyway."

Fumnanya's mind is too fuzzy to make sense of Dikeledi's statement about AVI at first, but he nods when he realizes she means his consciousness could be somewhere in the holonet, and so he grunts before sitting at the table and drinking his water. Dikeledi joins him briefly, eating her disgustingly healthy and nutritious breakfast as he nurses his aching head, and Fumnanya is grateful that she is not the most conversational member of the crew since, aside from asking how much longer they will be staying before looking for their next job, she doesn't disturb him much. Finishing his water after Dikeledi has gone to her room to shower, Fumnanya tells himself that he will worry about their next pay day later, when his head is not throbbing, and heads into the living room where he drops onto the sofa and numbly watches what Dee dozes in front of for a few moments before dozing off himself.

The sound of his comlink buzzing wakes Fumnanya up, and he almost ignores it before groaning and rising from the sofa to answer it. After listening to what Vejide has to say and agreeing that meeting with the Jedi Adept is the best play, Fumnanya takes a deep breath to resist the urge to throw the comlink against a wall. Having no reason to distrust Vejide's take on the situation after hearing her explain what the Jedi has revealed so far, Fumnanya suspects that he and his crew are about to heading straight into a world of poo-doo thanks to what went down on Coruscant. Cursing and running a hand through his hair, Fumnanya sets his anger aside so that it has less chance to cloud his judgement for whatever it is that lays ahead, and then prepares to gather the crew for the trip to Ossa-Prime's starport.

Enlisting AVI's aid to get in touch with Dee to let her know that they are packing up and heading into the city, Fumnanya gets in touch with Sango and Nkosana to have them start making their way to the starport, and then trudges down to the beach to let Dikeledi know that the crew's vacation is officially over.

Dikeledi is already in the Geheim Masjien's cockpit beginning the pre-flight checks when Fumnanya boards the YT-2400 after packing up his, Sango, and Nkosana's belongings. Dropping heavily into the pilot's seat, Fumnanya asks, "Dee and AVI onboard yet?"

Shaking her head, Dikeledi says in a cool tone that lets Fumnanya know that she is far from happy with the turn of events, "You have Nko verify the bounties this Jedi are holding over our heads are legit?"

Giving his first mate a skeptical frown, Fumnanya asks, "You really think . . ."

"Just have him check, Dikeledi curtly interrupts him before Fumnanya can finish his question, Can't hurt to make sure, can it?"

Lifting his hands in surrender rather than arguing the point, Fumnanya comms Nkosana to set him to the sure to be pointless task as they wait for Dee and AVI to arrive.

AVI remained silent through the discussion, using his time to continue to strategize based on what little information he had. By the time the decision was made, he had come up with only a couple of solutions to his conundrum, and none of them were viable at this time.

No, I haven’t been able to hail her. I don’t know what she did to take herself off the comm, but I will continue to try.

-----

Dee was coming up off the beach as the Geheim Masjien was coming back in. She paused and looked up, opening her helmet and wondering where they had gone before trudging back up the steps. Waiting patiently where the ramp would come down, she jumped up and boarded before the ship had even finished settling down.

Where'd you run off to?

Dee looked into the cockpit as Dikeledi was stepping out.

Dikeledi, you are going to have to give me some pointers on shooting sometime. I am still woefully inaccurate.

Setting her rifle down behind the command seat, she collapsed into the open co-pilots seat.

So, yeah, where have you all been?

Dee, we have been trying to hail you all morning. Where have you been?

Dee looked down at Fumnanya's datapad where AVI pulsed red with apparent frustration in his voice. She was confused and looked from AVI to Fumnanya

What do you mean? I was just heading down the beach to practice my shots away from everyone. I haven’t gotten any comms for you though.

Dee, I tried to raise you a couple of times before we left but your comms were off. What are you doing that warrants seclusion?

She frowned and crossed her arms, sitting back into the seat hard.

If you must know, I am practicing my army woman routine trying to get better at not getting killed. If I turned off my comms, it was an accident, I promise. Anything else, dad?

She pouted and shook her head and made an audible "humph" but decided AVI's mood was more than she wanted to deal with, and she stormed out of the cockpit, leaving her rifle behind.

-----

Stomping into her room on the ship, she started sliding the armor off and grumbling.

Overbearing helicopter bot. Put some rotor blades on top of that tin can of yours.

Dee tossed pieces of armor into a corner, leaving only the black, form-fitting Stillsuit on as she fell back onto her bed.

Dee and AVI stepped out of the ship after about an hour. AVI walked over to the railing to watch Sango and Niko walk, and to keep an eye out for their guest. Dee was back in her robes again, with her Stillsuit slung over her shoulder and her headphones jamming to something electronic. Her mood seemed to be rather neutral. On the inside, she was nervous though. Siding with the Jedi would be a good thing. However, doing a mission in the heart of the First Order was not something she was hoping for.

She headed straight into the laundry to clean the suit and gather up any of her other belongings.

Her people had fled the galaxy because of the Order, and now she was being taken to one of their prisons? How much was the bounty on her head anyway, before all of this? How was she identified? Was she identified?

Dee folded the laundry she had done and set in in a basket to be carried back out to the ship. With only a few more minutes left on the cycle, she jumped on top of the washer and started browsing her datapad as she continued to drown out her thoughts with music.

What would Aponia think of this? What would Dark De’ath think of this? Dee winced at the scolding she knew she would receive from the other. She was going into the heart of a dangerous group to do what, break out a Jedi for some reason? She agreed with AVI, ghosting the Jedi would have been the better option here. Coruscant was enough of a wakeup call for her; this was suicide.

Various news articles about the atrocities of the First Order scrolled down her screen as she took in the clips of the horrendous acts. She covered her mouth in shock but found it impossible to look away from what she was seeing. She knew it was bad, but she had never really looked into it before now. Not like this.

She wasn’t sure when the wash cycle had completed. Setting the datapad aside, she grabbed the damp suit out of the wash and laid it on top of the basket, slipping the datapad inside as she carried it out of the house, across the deck, and back into her room on the ship.

She was sober, and her countenance had fallen a noticeable amount; it was no longer a neutral expression but one of concern.

AVI’s earlier outbreak made a lot of sense now.

Approaching the ramp, she set the basket down and walked over to him as he looked out. Dee threw her arms around him and leaned onto him. She didn’t say anything, not that she would know what to say. He looked down momentarily, paused, and continued his scans of the horizon.

Dee stood there for a while, hugging his metallic frame, watching the world go by.

She finally let go and headed back into the ship with her laundry in tow. Things needed to be hung up and put away. The suit needed to be set up to dry. And she needed an outfit to wear for the evening.

Dee leaned against the railing behind Fumnanya as he cooked on the grill. She was already on her second boulevardier and was playing with the citrus rind on the edge of the glass and giggling about nothing. She hadn’t moved from her spot since she came back with this new drink, so that particular feeling that came with it hadn’t set in just yet. The giggle was the first hint. Perhaps it was something she overheard. Maybe it was a memory. It fed into another one.

She had found in her stash of clothes she had thus far obtained, a golden áo dài with rose red patterns embossed on the edges. She passed on any makeup, like normal, and didn’t do much with her hair, like normal. It wasn’t intended to be formal, just something better than armor and acquired Jedi attire of her own. The light feel and airiness it provided was a welcome feeling from wearing armored pants for the past few days too.

As she listened to the conversations around her, the unmistakable sound of the KDY TIE's perked her ears, and she turned to see the purple fighter come across the lake. She lightly tapped Fumnanya on the arm with the back of her free hand and nodded toward the incoming ship.

Dibbs. Called it.

She then pointed at him and took a sip, returning both hands to guard the glass.

AVI had barely moved since he took up his earlier position and too watched the fighter come in. Using the communications equipment on the Geheim Masjien, he pinged the ship and got a response from the Astromech, giving it a landing location near their own. He then turned and joined the rest of the crew, finding a nice perch next to Dee.

As the ship settled down, Dee nodded and looked at AVI and smiled a big goofy grin.

Yup, I wahn eet

He shook his head at her goofiness. He knew what she was doing.

She, however, was not adequately braced for what was coming next. She had overheard Fumnanya quip about the Jedi's looks, but he said that about everyone. Though Dee couldn’t remember if he had ever said something like that about her, and the thought turned bitter on her for a moment. It was quickly wiped away as she watched the Mirialan step out and glide their way.

Dee smacked Fumnanya's arm all too hard as she stepped off the railing and head over to greet the Jedi. She mused under her breath before taking another drink.

Dibbs

Approaching Denee with open arms, Dee beamed a massive goofy grin. She was almost shouting in her nervous excitement.

Welcome to our little, uh, soiree, though I suppose it’s not evening yet.

She placed her free hand over her heart and offered a slight curtsy

I am Dees, the navigator, and may I say it is a pleasure to meet you. That over there is AVI. I do believe -

Dee pointed back at her companion but stopped short.

Dee froze and leaned back as the woman came forward. Her face went blank for a moment as she got lost in the woman's eyes. She blinked and wondered what just happened, before smiling once again when called an "oddity."

Yeah, I am an oddball, but whatever, these guys somehow put up with me.

She started to turn to point out the crew members with the hand holding her drink.

Dee, too, was puzzled for a moment at Denee's comment. Then it clicked, and she excitedly pointed at the Mirialan's chest

Oh! I know! It’s probably because I am from another universe.

She waved it off like it was no big deal.

Yeah, AVI and I are kinda stuck here looking for a way back home. But yeah, we are both from some parallel universe. That or I am dead, and this is some sort of purgatory. However, I haven’t seen a polar bear or smoke monster walk up the beach yet, so I think I'm good so far.

She turned and started to head back to the railing, muttering under her breath.

I'd like to study you more in-depth later.

She stumbled a little as she spun around, throwing her arms out wide and talking a little too loudly once again.

Come, come enjoy yourself. And what’s in the package? Did you bring me something nice? You shouldn’t have!

A little motion from AVI caught her eye. He lightly patted down at the air in front of him with a downturned hand before returning it to his side. Dee was glad she wasn’t facing the Jedi, or else her aura wouldn’t have been the only thing brightly glowing. She grasped her glass with both hands and took a sip and shuffled back over to her guardian's side soundlessly mouthing the words "sorry" to him.