[D4LM] Jedi Cop 2: Cold Trail Gets Hot

[Petrus Karath]

Back to the library. Petrus felt like he'd been spending a lot of time there lately. The door slid open at their approach.

"Right, so, this isn't exactly your usual sort of research." Petrus explained to his companion. Whispering, of course. "Byron Mik. He's a Jedi, but also a detective! He fights crime. Rawr!" Petrus flexed. "There were some trashy novels about him. Probably more fiction than truth, but I'm hoping we can figure something out."

"So, uh..." Petrus waved vaguely. "Where do we start?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya started at Petrus for a long moment, her expression blank, then shook her head sadly, her antennapalps dropping judgementally. She reached for a console. Powering it up, she muttered "One year of graduate education," opened up a basic database program, "two years of graduate education," selected a literary database, "three years of graduate education..."

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus just grinned. "I promise, I'll give you some good wisdom later, I promise."

He followed along, looking over her shoulder as she began her work.

[Dapper Dog]

OOC: This is an Average Lore check with a setback die as Jedi info is uhh vanishing.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya stood up, gesturing Petrus to the chair. "I'll walk you through it. Fun fact, if data about a text gets censored, altered, or scrubbed, you can usually find it if you preface the search string with..."

LM valuable facts below the dignity of a doctor of archaeology: 1eP+3eA+2eD 1 success, 3 advantage


+1 triumph to use while researching, +2 advantages from researcher (improved), one boost from advantages! Extra advantage to, idk, notice something, or not be noticed.

[Petrus Karath]

In truth, Petrus wasn't a total stranger to researching. Working together, it actually went quite quickly. And while he wasn't able to quite keep up with everything she said, he did a fair job.

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D4LM, investigate Jedi Cop! +1 triumph and +1eB Vaya: 3eA+2eD+1eB+1eS 2 successes


Final: 3 sux, 1 Triumph

[Dapper Dog]

OOC: See PM.

[Petrus Karath]

"Well." Petrus let out a breath. "This explains a lot." He pursed his lips for a moment. "I guess... I guess I need to figure out what to do about it, though."

He looked at Vaya. "I don't think I need to mention, please don't say anything about this to anyone. Not until I've had a chance to figure it out." He paused a moment. "Not even Jenna."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"Well." Petrus let out a breath. "This explains a lot."

Uh, it does? About what?

He looked at Vaya. "I don't think I need to mention, please don't say anything about this to anyone. Not until I've had a chance to figure it out." He paused a moment. "Not even Jenna."

Vaya dampened her usual urge to quip, and somberly drew a finger across her lips like the applicator of a tube of sealant, the universal “glued shut” gesture of silence. She looked at Petrus thoughtfully, and then spoke. “You can work it out on your own time however you want, Petrus. I think whatever is going on, Jenna would be the last person to take it badly. But since I’m already in on half the secret anyway…” she trailed off, and shrugged, trying to make sure that friendship, rather than rank curiosity, was the predominant tone.

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus shook his head. "I just need to figure out what it means, first. Until I do that, I don't think I'm ready to talk about it with anyone."

There was a brief pause, and then, somewhat contrary to what he'd just said, Petrus spoke. "We're supposed to be better than that." He waved his hand at the information he found. "That's not who we are."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya let out a short laugh, then looked apologetic. “Petrus, most people in the galaxy forget how long history is. It’s so long it’s hard to wrap your head around. The Academy was around for multiple thousands of years, but no individual graduate lived for more than a small fraction of it. When the people change, the group does, too. I don’t think I’d believe that any faction or creed could have thousands of members over thousands of years and not have any part of it go rancid.”

Her lips twisted. “Sorry. I don’t know if this is helpful. My point is, everyone you looked up to and respected, who taught you what it was supposed to mean when you say ’we,’ was hundreds of generations removed. They probably never heard of any of these people, or any of this,” she made a casting-away gesture at the console and shelves, “and would hate the idea just as much as you.”

[Petrus Karath]

"Maybe." Petrus said, frowning. "But if that's the case... why did I see what I saw? There must be a reason." He was silent for a time, lips pressed together.

He leaned closer, his voice dropping lower. "The Inquisitors that we've seen so far didn't just come out of nowhere. They're all former Jedi. Maybe the legacy of that time still existed, somewhere, with us."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya shook her head. “I don’t know why you saw that. It’s been a big enough leap that the, you know, whatever is really… real. Let alone that it shows you, uh, things. People. Or memories. Or whatever it is you see.” She shrugged uncomfortably, and pivoted to the relatively comfortable ground of the corporeal Inquisitors.

“One of the Anzuri Verse and I talked to, Sister Hulia,” she said, even more quietly than the rest of the conversation, “Said that the Empire is Sith. From what I had read before, I thought Sithism was a rival ideology, its adherents wiped out pre-Ruusan Reformations, a thousand years ago. Most scholars regarded it as just more Je-- Academy legends. I thought they were wrong even before I met you. But if they were not only historical, but also survived in some form, it might not have been old sins, but old enemies.”

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus folded his arms over his chest. "There's a reason. I have to learn what it is." He smirked. "There, how's that for a lesson? When-" he waved his hand around, a substitute for speaking "-you listen."

He frowned. "I've heard that. But I don't know much about it. I don't know." He sighed. "It doesn't change what the Inquisitors used to be."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya reached out and put her hand lightly on Petrus' upper arm, a gesture of unusual intimacy from her. "All of you Academy students got a raw deal when the war ended. That happens, people do all sorts of things to survive."

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus didn't quite smile, but his hand came up, pressing hers. "Thanks." He said softly.

He let his hand fall away. "I don't know. Maybe I wouldn't be strong enough either. But... they've turned into enemies of everything that they valued before. And they seek to destroy the things they cared about, and cause pain, and suffering."

Petrus rested his hand on his chin. "If I had the choice, I think I'd rather die." Shaking his head, with Vaya's help, he came out of it a little. "Well, hopefully it won't come to that, huh?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya smiled, and pulled back her hand after a playful push. "Not as long as you've got Jenna and I to keep you from making any dumb mistakes. The other Academy students should be so lucky." She put her hand to her forehead, eyes wide in mock-horror. "I hadn't heard all the rumors when we had that first meeting here... is it true that Verse...."

[Petrus Karath]

"Yes." Petrus said, chuckling. "Whatever it was, yes. Almost certainly. You name a type of trouble, and Verse was in it."

He pursed his lips. "I don't think she was along the time that I hotwired the library terminal. But if it's a story about something being broken, especially if something flipped, yeah, that's Verse."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Joyriding through the industrial district, with a, uh, glowstick, just chopping at things..."

[Petrus Karath]

"Yep." Petrus nodded. "And it was a good thing she did, too. Helped with a very important thing that some others of us were doing."

He shook his head. "She's a little weird, but the Force is strong with her. And she's a good person."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya smirked. "She's also approximately 12. Only a little older than your tiny girlfriend."

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus chuckled. "Well, she's gotta be in her late teens by... wait, what?" Petrus shot a look at Vaya.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"The soup kid. Liua, or whatever. Came to watch that show. You didn't notice?" She hadn't stopped smirking.

[Petrus Karath]

"What?" Petrus said. "No. What? No. No." He blinked. "Oh." Actually, that made a lot of sense.

Smiling, Petrus shook his head. "Well... I think she's over it now. She's changed a lot these last few weeks. It's really something."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya smiled, but her antennapalps drooped.

I guess at the Academy you were used to being around a lot of younglings, she did not say. She’d heard the stories of Petrus’ temple life, and she’d heard the stories of the Purge, and drawn the terrible line between the two points.

It’s a hell of a time to grow up in, she did not say. Here she was calling Verse a child, but Petrus was only that old when his life came tumbling down.

She was sure Petrus didn’t need to be reminded of either of those things.

“Everyone I hang out with nowadays makes me feel as ancient as a Wookiee grandpa,” she said instead, then paused. “Except your sister. Wise beyond her years. And that Trandoshan. And Dove, although I think she may technically be only six years past being decanted from whatever vat she was created in by a scientist trying to engineer the hottest possible neighbor.”