7th- overnight lockdown. pls threadjack

[bearshermark]

Sweet Lily of the Hidden Valley:

I used to travel with a lot of companions. It took awhile to grow used to each other, but since we're stuck down here tonight, I've thought of a few things we could talk about to pass the time and maybe help us work together better. Whatever anyone is comfortable with answering of course.

What is your home world like?

What kind of skills or abilities do you have?

Good ways to make money here, or unique supplies we might need?

Who isn't expecting to get a weapon and needs one? I have a few lumps of ore now if ever I can get to the forges..

Comments

[darkeststars]

Hmm.

And here you are with your mission and your birthmark. I suppose that makes you the one everybody expects to take up your saber and beat back the darkness with your light, does it?

[bearshermark]

That's the hope.

Is the world you're from alright?

[darkeststars]

No.

I know some people like you -- no birthmarks, but most do train from birth, so I hear. They're called Jedi. Their chief job is to kill people like me.

Funny coincidence.

[bearshermark]

People like you? Why?

[darkeststars]

The Sith are darkness made flesh, hero. I am one of their leaders. [ As baffling as that still is. ]

Not that I blame the Jedi all that much. A good half of the lunatics in our number could use putting down. But still, it's rather inconvenient when one starts with negotiation but the other side insists on continuing to try to kill you.

[ He doesn't really know why he's saying all this. It's not like it matters to their mission here, and could even be a hindrance, if Eleven decides he's too dangerous to consort with further. Just.

How funny, truly. Apparently he collects people like this entirely by accident. Who would ever have guessed. ]

[bearshermark]

[What. Excuse him for several minutes as he works to try and reconcile that information]

You mean you're just

born from darkness?

[darkeststars]

I was born from my mother, like most humans, I hope.

The Force has

[ There's a concerningly long pause, but eventually some more text appears to Eleven's quartz piece again. ]

The Force, the power that binds all the galaxy, has two sides to it. The Light and the Dark. The Jedi call themselves champions of the Light Side. Their idea of 'balance' is beating back the Dark throughout known space.

The Sith Order, however, doesn't believe in restraining ourselves so. A Sith does what he must to follow his passions. And the Dark Side answers to our fervor.

[ Another pause. ]

Both sides are distressingly fond of foisting off their feud on people who didn't ask for any of it.

[bearshermark]

[He's human at least, so there is that]

What is it that you fight for then?

[darkeststars]

[ Well now, isn't that a loaded question. The Empire, the Sith? A laughable thought. Home and family? As if he could make any difference for them now. His friends? Naive. Peace? Order? Nebulous ideals that ignore the suffering of real beings on the ground.

There's a long pause again. Eleven might start to wonder if Arche isn't going to answer, or if he's run into some sort of trouble after all. ]

Survival.

[ Whose, he doesn't specify.

He stares at the word for a second after he's written it. Too honest. These things should come with a remote-delete command. ]

I hope you're not about to tell me you proudly defend your world in the name of some lofty ideal.

[bearshermark]

No, I understand.

I think I was just fighting because I had to, before. But now I know Erdrea can't survive under the darkness it's fallen to. I might not be the hero I'm supposed to be anymore, but I have to try.

[darkeststars]

That's reason enough, I think. Because you must. Because there is no one else. [ He seems to recall hearing something along those lines, anyway. And stars only know he's had his own fair share of that. ]

But what do you mean exactly? Has someone decided you're not full of light enough or something tedious like that? [ He could imagine the Jedi eating their own that way, back home. ]

[bearshermark]

No it's not that. Everyone has faith in me.

But I lost the power they think is going to save them.

[darkeststars]

Well, that sounds...exciting.

2/2 actually

[darkeststars]

I thought you said you had power? 'Magic', if you like?

[bearshermark]

I do, but it's possible for anyone to have magic.

It's the spirit of the Luminary that marks me as Yggdrasil's chosen. But that power was stolen by the Lord of Shadows. I'm not powerless, only... diminished.

[darkeststars]

[ Hm, this is... a little more difficult than it has been previously to map onto things he understands. Sounds like religious nonsense, mostly, but if there's some sort of real power attached to it-- ]

What, this Lord just... ripped it out of you? People can do that?

[bearshermark]

He could, anyway. It almost killed me.

[You've seen the injury]

He wasn't human, though. He resembled a demon before, and now that's definitely true.

[darkeststars]

Hm, all right. That tracks.

[ He may or may not have some amount of experience with stealing other people's power, but he wouldn't expect to be able to do it to one of the living without swiftly rendering them not-living. ]

Well, you're going to go after this Lord, yes? Take back what's yours? Obviously there's been a bit of a wrench thrown in that, but regardless.

[bearshermark]

I'm going to try.

[darkeststars]

Oh, good. Here I had my sarcasm bucket all full up ready to respond to some terribly noble return message about valiantly enduring this extra hardship even through near certain death for the sake of the world, or something along those lines. You have more sense than the Jedi at least.

[bearshermark]

I might have said something like that if I hadn't already failed so terribly at the role I was given. But now I just need to focus on doing what I can.

And for now, that's working together with everyone to get out of here.

[Including Sith lords]

[darkeststars]

There is something to be said for failure. Teaches you what not to do twice.

[bearshermark]

I suppose it does.

[He's lucky enough as it is to have lived to have a second try]

But I don't think we're enemies here.

[darkeststars]

Who, you and I? As a rule I prefer not to work against those who've been good to me. Unless they subsequently stab me in the back, of course. [ A common hazard in this line of work. ]

If I considered you my enemy, believe me, you would know.

[bearshermark]

That sounds like a good policy to have.

[He should probably be more cautious himself given his recent experience, but there are better reasons to hold onto an alliance. After all, his former hunter has become his most ardent protector]