Totally not Skyrim [Day 0 - EE]

[Dapper Dog]

"I have, though with far less protection than a transport, mostly you minimize what is exposed and wait it out and hope you are not buried in the process. At least that is how we treated Tattooine," he said in reply.

"Huh," she said, "I mean, Coruscant is interesting I guess? I wonder what it's like there now?"

When Verse piped in he said, "Coruscant is lovely at any time of the year a far cry from this back... planet."

[Qareme Torth]

Verse blinked, then turned around to gawk at the reporter and his captive interviewee. There hadn't been a 'don't look!' hastily added after all; those were usually the sign you were supposed to be subtle about looking at people who were being pointed out to you.

"Huh," she said, "I mean, Coruscant is interesting I guess? I wonder what it's like there now?"

"I imagine it is not that much different to how it was before. Perhaps a little less welcoming to some" Qareme replied, looking at the Stormtrooper as he added his bit.

"Bankor can be lovely."

[Ria'la Tu'roth]

"Bankor is what we make it. Currently we intend to make it free."

He glanced across at the door.

"I guess the Aznuri will let us know when we need to shut the doors again. Good to have shelter for this . . . that isn't Camp 14."

[Dapper Dog]

"You will lose, if your goal is freedom, and will only serve to bring the full might of the Empire down on your people," Rayne replied.

"You get a brief moment of freedom and then mass suffering."

[Verse Aura]

"The Empire is just a wrinkly old man and a bunch of angry people too busy taking other people's freedom that they've forgotten they've lost their own too. The galaxy's not going to let this go on forever. Sooner or later there'll be enough people who remember what they've lost."

[Qareme Torth]

Qareme places her hand on Verse's shoulder.

"There is no need to partake in senseless arguments. You will not alter his view, and he will not alter yours."

[Ria'la Tu'roth]

"I think you underestimate our resolve. Bankor resists external invaders. We've done it before, we'll do it again."

[Dapper Dog]

"The foundry gives tens of thousands an actual living, instead of poverty," he mused.

"But I am sure you can feed them with speeches."

[Dove Gray]

"There is a stun setting on this thing," Dove patted the weapon she had taken from the trooper. "And I'm inclined to use if this conversation continues to espouse the bantha-poodoo of fascism."

[Verse Aura]

Qareme places her hand on Verse's shoulder.

"There is no need to partake in senseless arguments. You will not alter his view, and he will not alter yours."

"But..."

She thought about it for a moment.

"...I mean, there *are* ways to change his mind..."

She thought about it for another moment.

"...but maybe you're right."

[Dapper Dog]

"Just saying it isn't as simple as just winning, there will be consequences," he said with a shrug.

[Qareme Torth]

"But..."

She thought about it for a moment.

"...I mean, there *are* ways to change his mind..."

She thought about it for another moment.

"...but maybe you're right."

"There are not. Forcing someone against their will to say you are right does not change ones mind, only reinforces the opinion they already have. If they are shown something that convinces them that a different way is the right way, then they did not truly believe in previous beliefs. Regardless, neither is possible in a crashed ship in the middle of a desert."

Qareme let go of Verse's shoulder, and moved to sit down.

"How are the repairs looking?" she asked, turning towards the cockpit.

[Ria'la Tu'roth]

"Gals, handsome here and I are just having a friendly chat. No need to get all heavy on him."

He smiled sweetly at the 'trooper.

"Well not yet anyway. He's going nowhere. We're going nowhere. Let's wait out the 'storm and see what tomorrow brings."

[Sinnya]

"Lucky? I think that differs for each of us. Some of us were targetted I imagine; proper dissenters and troublemakers. For those, I don't think this will be the last time they're on an Imperial list somewhere. Probably not the first either."

"It's kinda like hunting as I see it. When you have found your quarry, you continue your pursuit until one has vanquished the other. But sometimes your snares catch something different sometimes you catch a Clodhopper instead of a Whisper bird. No point throwing it away, but next time you go hunting again, you're back on the hunt for that Whisper bird."

He laughs a little. It's a gentle sound, lost slightly as the wind starts to whip up. "Although I should've chosen a better self representation than a Clodhopper."

"Could be worse. You didn't say a stink-roach, or a tree barnacle... hmph." Sinnya tugged at a thin kerchief wound around her neck and half hidden under her jacket collar, mindful of the approaching moment when she would probably want to pull it over her mouth and nose. Or just go inside and let the nice aircon filter the dust. "Though... tree barnacles live pretty safe lives, I'll give them that."

Also, they were generally too stupid to realize what was going on around them, even if they were about to be somebody's dinner. Okay, maybe not so enviable.

"It wouldn't be that hard to make everybody here happy." Sinnya hopped abruptly to what seemed at first like a different subject, though in her own mind there was a connection. "Better conditions at the foundry and the factories. Clean up the Hutts' business some. Leave the tribes be. It's crazy simple." She sighed. "I don't understand why the Emperor has people work so hard at all this instead."

The complexities of galactic political economy hadn't really been part of Sinn's primary education, which meant that she had either a relatively unobstructed view of basic reality, or no frakking idea what she was talking about, depending on one's perspective. Possibly both.

[Ru'ni Wayne]

"Make everybody happy? That's a lot of happiness to be shopped around, I think most of the people would just settle for the absence of misery." He gestures to the incoming storm.

"And that is going to be bringing a great deal of misery our way." He gestures to the makeshift filter that was Sinnya's kerchief. "Good idea that, but I think your aircon idea is even better."

He glances at Sinnya, measuring her character in his own way. "If you ever need anything, send word to the Enclave in town about a Whisper Bird, and I'll try to see what I can do."

[Sinnya]

"Okay." Above the half-raised kerchief, she smiled. "I don't have an old-time whisper network, personally... are you on the comm net? Otherwise, Vella at the Notso Hostel can get hold of me sooner or later." She named a cheap, rather utilitarian boardinghouse near where the colonist slums met the Enclave.

"It's been a while since the last time I got off this continent." She eyed the drop from their perch to the soft sand below, measuring her landing. "Could be about that time again soon."

[Ru'ni Wayne]

The blank look Ru'ni gave her at mention of the Comm Net probably told Sinnya all she needed to know about his technological aptitude.

"Off continent? Where have you been?" He asked genuinely curious. After all, 95% of his own life was either spent at the Enclave, in the Aznuri forests, or in transit between the two.

[Sinnya]

"Down in by the forest, of course." She didn't specify which forest, which probably made it clear which one she meant. "On a couple hunting trips to the Veras Wastes. I would charge more for that next time, if there is a next time."

Sinnya shook her head at the memories. She'd been young and hungry... well, most people would doubtless say she was still young, but she wasn't quite that hungry these days, thankfully. The next time a hunting party of crazy asshole sportsmen showed up wanting to brave the wastes, she would not be underbidding her more experienced colleagues by half again.

"Up to the ice shelf one time, but that was really boring. The crew were some kind of scientists... they only wanted me to say where they could site their temp huts over sea ice, out of the path of the cyclones and the ice demons. After that I had nothing do do but watch the wildlife sensors while they drilled little core samples all day. And fish."

[Ru'ni Wayne]

"I don't think I'll get to travel that much. The elders are reluctant to let me leave as much as they do, it won't be long before I spend most of my days meditating in the Calm - if they had their way."

"I'm honored, don't get me wrong, but they say I have my ancestor's hot blood boiling within me. He was part of that last rebellion the white haired man was talking about, then stayed on with our people - for a while."

[Sinnya]

"An outlander?" Unconsciously, she slipped into the kind of vocabulary used inside the forest. "Are you spirit touched?"

Abruptly feeling she might have just put her foot in her mouth, she busied herself for a moment making sure her rifle strap sat correctly across her shoulder so the weapon wouldn't bonk her in the lekku on her way down.

"They can't make you stay if you don't want to. But... it's hard for the sky called. The rest of this planet's not kind, especially the city. Not unless you have money, or you know a lot of the right people." Sinnya's Ma had possessed neither of those advantages.

[Ru'ni Wayne]

"Kind of a requirement for the position." Ru'ni confirmed as he offered a hand to lower Sinnya down off the transport.

"Threw the shamans for a loop. I'm the first of my line to show the ability and the forest definitely feels more like home than the city. Although, I have a few friends there that I'll miss."

[Sinnya]

"There? The city?" She took the offered hand in a light grip, although hers was predictably dust-engrained after all that grubbing around in sand, and she hopped down nimbly enough that it was clear she didn't really need help.

"I don't know many spirit-touched. Once you go in there, to the Calm... they won't let you out again?"

The storm was howling closer; they wouldn't have much time before they'd need to go inside.

[Ru'ni Wayne]

"Not as often as now," Ru'ni clarified. The dirt didn't bother him, Sinnya deposited less on him than the storm was about to anyway.

Dropping down less nimbly, he gestured to the transport door. "One blessed with such a gift must make sacrifices, so they tell me. It is for the good of our people." His words seem like a spiel or mantra that he has memorised.

[Sinnya]

"Some day, before you disappear back into the Calm, I might ask you what it's like in there." Sinnya lifted aside the loose edge of the tarp-curtain she'd rigged across the inside of the door. "If we get out of this, anyway."

[Ru'ni Wayne]

"And someday I hope you will be able to see it for yourself." Ru'ni replies with a smile as he ducks under the tarp into the transport.