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The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind
- Thread starter Ankh-Morpork Guard
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Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
What happened was we lost Jen's player. She had to disappear for some real life reasons and we figured out a good way to work with it. So Jen's going out was on purpose. For Titus, though, it was figured that he would essentialy lose it without her. And the whole Akan vs. Titus had been brewing up since the very beginning. It seemed like even when they got along there was this 'I'm going to kill you' tension between them.
THAT part was left up to the dice. Its the only player vs. player combat I've been involved in and it was loads of fun. Nothing was fudged, and Akan nearly got himself killed(which would have been interesting...) So Titus' death wasn't planned, and Akan really was going to try to just knock him out and talk things through afterwards.
Both me(Akan's player) and Titus' player kind of let our guard down with those traps. We got lucky in avoiding them(as they were, apparently, all over the place and that fight moved like crazy) and then that last one just popped up when both Akan and Titus were nearly dead.
He does have another character that we'll meet in a little while...but it was just the three of us until finally getting a new player in. That didn't happen until after this whole Halpak adventure, though, so its still a little while off.
Glad you guys are enjoying this.
THAT part was left up to the dice. Its the only player vs. player combat I've been involved in and it was loads of fun. Nothing was fudged, and Akan nearly got himself killed(which would have been interesting...) So Titus' death wasn't planned, and Akan really was going to try to just knock him out and talk things through afterwards.
Both me(Akan's player) and Titus' player kind of let our guard down with those traps. We got lucky in avoiding them(as they were, apparently, all over the place and that fight moved like crazy) and then that last one just popped up when both Akan and Titus were nearly dead.
He does have another character that we'll meet in a little while...but it was just the three of us until finally getting a new player in. That didn't happen until after this whole Halpak adventure, though, so its still a little while off.
Glad you guys are enjoying this.
happenings explained
funny i thought you were the DM but apparently not. im sorta curious whats gonna happen with the jai. all three characters are PC's and then voorts replacement will show up a lil later? or is voorts player say playing the jai until his replacement can show up? and yes i am enjoying it a lot. so thanks
funny i thought you were the DM but apparently not. im sorta curious whats gonna happen with the jai. all three characters are PC's and then voorts replacement will show up a lil later? or is voorts player say playing the jai until his replacement can show up? and yes i am enjoying it a lot. so thanks
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
We rotated the GM, with the GM's player becoming an NPC. Another usual no-no along with player vs. player combat, but both worked perfectly for us. The way I've written this, its harder to tell who was running the game, but we all had very different styles.aros said:
The Voort vs. Akan fight was run by Shadow's player(as she wasn't involved in it). Most of Arranis stuff was run by Titus' player, with the first adventure being run by me and Jen's player mostly. This is the point where Shadow's player started running the game, especially since the whole Alraxian thing was her creation, so she knew all about the place.
As for little Toby, he's an NPC run by...well, actually all of us. Usually, the player who Toby was closest to was allowed to run him, as he's fairly simple. He's also great. I love the little guy, though Shadow's player was about as annoyed with him as Shadow is. He's also not done being a plot point...his next important thing happens in the next update. Though its a bit indirect. This was a break before Voort's new PC appeared. I'll make sure to mention when he appears.
And I'm off to write the next update...
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Chapter 164: Phoning Home
Their shuttle set down in the very large, all white coloured docking bay that had been nearest. Apparently, the entire ring was littered with them, and they were amazing. Nothing like anything Akan had ever seen. It all looked metal, right down to the shine from the floodlights the shuttle produced within the dark landing bay, but there were no panels. It was all one, single, every extending piece of...of...something. As Akan powered down the systems in the shuttle, he made sure to keep those floodlights on.
Shadow hadn’t mentioned that there wouldn’t be any lights. Of course, she did say something about it being empty. Apparently they’d have to find the equivalent of a comm system and call in to ‘home’. Which meant searching this gigantic ring to find the ‘comm’ room.
Satisfied with things, Akan got up and wandered back to his quarters. The door slid open to reveal Toby, sitting at the edge of the bed on his haunches. The little Alraxian was leaning forward towards the door, purring slightly as his hands played with a small...small...Akan’s belt! With lightsaber attached and blaster in the holster! Akan tried to step in, but banged his head on the doorframe. He cursed and ducked down, having forgotten how tall he was now.
As Akan got closed, Tobias had to look up much farther than usual. So much so that he ended up falling over backwards with a pathetic sounding ‘oof!’. Akan grinned, grabbing his belt while the little jai had let go of it and said, “You look like you’re waiting on something, little guy?”
Tobias got back up before finding a better position to sit in to stare up at Akan. He nodded a lot, but not so much that it made him loose his balance again, “Goin’ on adventure!”
“Oh, you are?” Akan’s grin grew as he tried to fit the belt on. It was...smaller. Grumbling, he figured out how to adjust it.
By the time he’d gotten it right, Tobias was nodding again, “Uh-huh! Goin’ with you!”
“You decided this for yourself?” he raised an eyebrow, though reached down and picked up the jai anyway.
Surprisingly, Tobias didn’t nod. Instead, he shook his head after enjoying the longer trip up to a comfortable spot in Akan’s arms, “Nope! Mo—....she said I go with you!”
He was pointing over Akan’s shoulder. Akan turned around to see Shadow standing there tapping her hand on her hip and looking bored as usual. Her tail flicked for a moment and he saw something...odd in her eyes that quickly passed when she motioned past her, “Come on, let’s get going.”
“In a rush?” Akan asked with a grin, walking that direction anyway. She fell into step next to him, though he couldn’t help but notice it was a little closer than usual, and didn’t say a word before they were out of the ship and in the expansive landing bay.
The deck below them even felt like metal... “What is this stuff?!” Akan finally gave in and asked while Tobias found a more comfortable spot to rest in his arms, yet still having the ability to look everywhere and anywhere at the exact same moment.
“Think of it like a living rock,” Shadow said, waving her hand at the deck as she led the way to a circular door that looked very similar to those that Loki had. Loki...he shook those thoughts off. It wasn’t worth it right now. And besides, Shadow was still talking and it was hard to ignore how much more...female she sounded for once, “Its grown and sentient enough that it should know we’re here.”
The door in front of them irised open to reveal a black nothing. Then lights kicked on. Bright, numerous lights. The corridor was like a long, endless arch, going both left and right with no end in sight either way. Shadow smiled proudly and motioned to the right, “Well, it knows we’re here. I’ll go this way and see what I can find. You two go that way.”
She started walking off. Akan tore his eyes away from staring and realized there was something very important he needed to know, “What am I looking for?!”
Shadow stopped. She stood there a moment before glancing over her shoulder and waving her hand vaguely, “Round pedestal thingie with about ten different coloured crystals in a big, wide open empty room.”
“Thank you so much for that wonderful description,” Akan grumbled, rolling his eyes and starting the other direction with a sigh.
Both of them went their separate ways for a long time. Well, it felt like a long time. In reality, it took Akan and Tobias only ten minutes to find the room that vaguely looked like Shadow’s description. Big, wide open and empty were close, at least. It was more like huge, wide open, and mostly empty. The room was like a giant oval, at least fifty meters in diameter. At the center was a pedestal like she’d said, with a bunch of crystals all in it. Tobias was now on Akan’s shoulder, and purred happily, “We found it first! We found it first!”
Akan grinned and looked at the thing, which was about waist height. All of the crystals were raised up from the pearl white pedastal. Akan bit his lip a moment. [We found it, Shady. Um...now what?]
“Press one! Press one!!” Tobias insisted, nearly pouncing off Akan and onto the entire pedestal. Akan held onto him carefully, not liking that idea just yet.
[You should be able to start with any of them...] Shadow’s voice echoed through his head. He could feel her mentally grumbling at having to walk all the way back. But with a smile, Akan looked to the little jai perched on his shoulder, “Which one should we press, little guy?”
Tobias looked hard at all of them, thinking with a long, unending ‘hmmmm....’ that had replaced his purr. After a minute, he suddenly yelled out and pointed, “Blue one! Press the blue one!”
Akan rolled his eyes. Always the damn blue with these Alraxians. One day he was going to figure out the rationale behind it. And if there wasn’t one...well, just another reason to beat the galaxy’s creator senseless when the time came. However, he reached down and pressed the small blue crystal that was near the center. The pedestal shimmered, and all but the blue crystal sank into the base. A second later, two others, a red and green one, then rose up next to the still slightly depressed blue crystal.
“Um...is it a riddle or something?’ Akan asked no one in particular.
Tobias, of course, still had his own ideas, “Blue one again! Blue one agaaaain!”
To that, Akan could only shrug. But as he reached for the blue crystal, Shadow’s voice suddenly yelled through his mind. [NO! Do NOT press the blue one! Not the blue one! Um...what are the other two?]
[Its rude to listen in on thoughts.] Akan sent through the link in a flat, sarcastic tone. [Red on the right, green on the left.]
[Um...green should work.] Shadow ‘said’ with so little assurance in her ‘voice’ that Akan almost wanted to press the blue one again just in case. But Shadow wasn’t done, and just couldn’t resist a comment. [I’m not just listening in on your thoughts. This link provides much more...interesting access.]
He knew that. He’d always known that. Yet, the way she said that made him shiver. Ignoring the odd look from Tobias, Akan reached down and depressed the green crystal. This time, all three crystals sunk into the pedestal. Then, in a flash that surprised both he and Tobias, something shot out and expanded from the center. It only took a second, but suddenly they were literally standing in the galactic core.
Planets...stars...even little asteroids all over the place! And they weren’t even holograms! Akan could reach and touch them. Some were even moved out of the way by where he currently stood. Taking a step back, they found their spot and others moved out of his way. He identified at least a dozen of the Core worlds before noticing that there was something odd. An entire second of the Unknown Regions was mapped out. In fact, it was a huge section with thousands of planets clustered together.
[Go to that part and it should focus on it.] Shadow’s voice startled him out of the sudden awe of the moment. Sure, he’d seen holograms like this...but you couldn’t touch them! Not like this. And they weren’t so...so...extravagant. Tobias had hopped out of his arms, padding over to play with some of the planets, batting them around and even pouncing a few of them with happy grrs. Akan ignored his urge to do the same and walked over to the section of space that was completely unknown to him.
As he did so, the entire...thing refocused. The galaxy fade away and the section he’d walked into now filled the whole room. Tobias had yelped in surprise at the sudden change, having thought he was being overrun by the moving planets. Akan looked around in amazement, not having expected there to be so many planets in such a small section of space that was so unexplored. [What do I do now...?]
There was a short pause before Shadow’s voice sounded in his head again. [Find a small, green planet with three moons. One of the moons is also green, so its fairly easy to find. When you find it...press it.]
“Oh, yes,” Akan grumbled as he walked around looking, “Easy to find, yes. A thousand planets and I have to find one with three moons. And its green! So helpful.”
[You do know that you’re thinking that, too, yes?] Shadow’s voice almost sounded like she had an evil grin on her face. She probably did. And Akan cursed. Sometimes the link wasn’t fair.
And to his surprise, and slight annoyance, actually, he found the planet within only a couple of minutes. It was near the pedestal, which he found somehow even more annoying. It should be far flung and not in the center of everything. That was boring. But despite this, he reached up to the planet which was at eye level with him and pressed it gently. A small blue(of course it was blue) ring surrounded it, then there was a beep.
The pedestal shimmered again, and in a moment the face of an Alraxian appeared. It had soft brown markings and gave Akan a critical look, “Hyne rheloi heth-nah. Abanon Nar.”
“Um...what?” so it wasn’t the best thing to say, but Akan was no first contact specialist. He was bad enough with languages as it was, and the Alraxian on the other end of the holo(which was definitely a holo) didn’t look like the happiest person in the galaxy.
Hearing Akan didn’t seem to help, and the eyes became a turbolaser-like glare, “Identify yourself at once!”
“I...ah...I..um...I’m Akan...Ta...um...Akan BlueIce,” he finished very lamely. He’d made a quick decision that it was for some reason a good idea to use the name that Shadow kept pushing him to use. She’d told him time and time again that he was technically a BlueIce now, and this sure seemed like the perfect time to pull rank, as it were.
The Alraxian on the other end continued his glare for a moment, speaking slowly, “You do know that impersonating a member of the Imperial Family is punishable by death...don’t you?”
As those words were spoken, Akan couldn’t help but feel like there were weapons already aimed at him. But he held his ground and kept a straight face, “I’m not impersonating anyone! I’m...here with Shad—err, Marix. Marix BlueIce.”
At the sound of ‘Marix’, the other Alraxian’s eyes went wide. He scrambled from looking back and forth before managing to stutter, “Marix?! The Enaijai’la? You are her—I’m am sorry, my prince! I will put you through to your family immediately!”
And before Akan could say anything about the ‘prince’ or ‘your family’, the image changed. It shimmered and then he saw a familiar face. This Alraxian was female, with peaceful, bright green eyes and soft black-white hair. Black with a white stripe...the opposite of Shadow. In fact, she looked like a like Shadow. Or rather, Shadow looked a lot like her. The Empress had a surprised look on her face, but managed a slight smile, “Well, well, well. Last time I saw you, you weren’t in such good shape. Where is...Marix??”
He somehow managed to look only mildly embarrassed, remembering their short meeting back on that horrible swamp planet when they were still searching out Sadrak...Suddenly realizing he’d been asked a question, Akan shuffled his feet and said nervously, “She uh...um...over...that way...and...yeah she’s...um...coming...”
She grinned slightly at his reaction, “Stand up straight, boy, I’m not going to hurt you. What are you doing there?”
“Well um...we’re uh...” he trailed off, trying to stand up straight and get a hold of his voice. Why he was so nervous, Akan had no idea of, “Kind of having to...to come home.”
“Coming home?” the Empress’ face looked horrified for a short half second before returning to a neutral expression, “No! You cannot do that! It is forbidden! If you step foot in our space you will be killed! Don’t!...please don’t...”
He sighed and hung his head. That last part had sounded like she was actually begging, “We have to...there was a. A...uh...a problem,” and surprisingly, with that, his confidence started to return. Yes, they did have to do this. For the Voorts, if nothing else. And so his voice actually straightened out again, “We messed up and tried to stop it. But we couldn’t do anything about it...”
“Stop what?” she didn’t sound happy at all, and Akan really couldn’t blame her.
“His name was Halpak,” Akan said carefully, not wanting to step into dangerous ground, “Ket Halpak. He...got away from us and escaped here with one of the clones of Mar—“
”We know, boy,” the Empress cut him off swiftly, her expression fading into a sadness that he’d never seen on anyone’s face before, “There was an attack on an outlying colony yesterday.”
Very slowly, Akan asked the necessary question, “What...happened?”
She looked in a different direction, off over his shoulder, and said very quietly, “No one survived.”
He managed a nod, not really knowing what else could be said. Shadow should be running in soon. Then he could just step back and let her do the talking. He wasn’t good at this...especially with a species he knew barely anything about. The silence between the two of them was broken by the Empress, who quickly changed the subject, “So...how have you two been since I last saw you? Tell me of your exploits...I doubt it is anything boring with my daughter involved.”
Akan managed a nervous laugh, nodding slightly and saying, “We’re uh...fine. A lot has happened and I’m not really sure what to make of everything at this poin—argh! Ow!”
Tobias had gotten bored and latched onto Akan’s leg. In that painful way, he clawed his way up all of Akan(which took longer this time) and got up onto his shoulder. Oblivious to the holo of the Empress, Tobias purred into Akan’s ear and said, “Booored! Want Akan play!”
“Tobias, this isn’t exactly the best time to play,” Akan whispered, not knowing that the Empress could still hear him just fine. Even if she couldn’t, she could have read his lips.
There was a shocked look on the Empress’ face. She hadn’t failed to notice that the jai had black fur, and a stripe that was of the same colour of Akan’s. It was something Akan had still not realized, “What?! Who...whose is he?”
“Um..ah...he’s uh...” but before Akan could figure out the correct explanation, Shadow walked in.
Their shuttle set down in the very large, all white coloured docking bay that had been nearest. Apparently, the entire ring was littered with them, and they were amazing. Nothing like anything Akan had ever seen. It all looked metal, right down to the shine from the floodlights the shuttle produced within the dark landing bay, but there were no panels. It was all one, single, every extending piece of...of...something. As Akan powered down the systems in the shuttle, he made sure to keep those floodlights on.
Shadow hadn’t mentioned that there wouldn’t be any lights. Of course, she did say something about it being empty. Apparently they’d have to find the equivalent of a comm system and call in to ‘home’. Which meant searching this gigantic ring to find the ‘comm’ room.
Satisfied with things, Akan got up and wandered back to his quarters. The door slid open to reveal Toby, sitting at the edge of the bed on his haunches. The little Alraxian was leaning forward towards the door, purring slightly as his hands played with a small...small...Akan’s belt! With lightsaber attached and blaster in the holster! Akan tried to step in, but banged his head on the doorframe. He cursed and ducked down, having forgotten how tall he was now.
As Akan got closed, Tobias had to look up much farther than usual. So much so that he ended up falling over backwards with a pathetic sounding ‘oof!’. Akan grinned, grabbing his belt while the little jai had let go of it and said, “You look like you’re waiting on something, little guy?”
Tobias got back up before finding a better position to sit in to stare up at Akan. He nodded a lot, but not so much that it made him loose his balance again, “Goin’ on adventure!”
“Oh, you are?” Akan’s grin grew as he tried to fit the belt on. It was...smaller. Grumbling, he figured out how to adjust it.
By the time he’d gotten it right, Tobias was nodding again, “Uh-huh! Goin’ with you!”
“You decided this for yourself?” he raised an eyebrow, though reached down and picked up the jai anyway.
Surprisingly, Tobias didn’t nod. Instead, he shook his head after enjoying the longer trip up to a comfortable spot in Akan’s arms, “Nope! Mo—....she said I go with you!”
He was pointing over Akan’s shoulder. Akan turned around to see Shadow standing there tapping her hand on her hip and looking bored as usual. Her tail flicked for a moment and he saw something...odd in her eyes that quickly passed when she motioned past her, “Come on, let’s get going.”
“In a rush?” Akan asked with a grin, walking that direction anyway. She fell into step next to him, though he couldn’t help but notice it was a little closer than usual, and didn’t say a word before they were out of the ship and in the expansive landing bay.
The deck below them even felt like metal... “What is this stuff?!” Akan finally gave in and asked while Tobias found a more comfortable spot to rest in his arms, yet still having the ability to look everywhere and anywhere at the exact same moment.
“Think of it like a living rock,” Shadow said, waving her hand at the deck as she led the way to a circular door that looked very similar to those that Loki had. Loki...he shook those thoughts off. It wasn’t worth it right now. And besides, Shadow was still talking and it was hard to ignore how much more...female she sounded for once, “Its grown and sentient enough that it should know we’re here.”
The door in front of them irised open to reveal a black nothing. Then lights kicked on. Bright, numerous lights. The corridor was like a long, endless arch, going both left and right with no end in sight either way. Shadow smiled proudly and motioned to the right, “Well, it knows we’re here. I’ll go this way and see what I can find. You two go that way.”
She started walking off. Akan tore his eyes away from staring and realized there was something very important he needed to know, “What am I looking for?!”
Shadow stopped. She stood there a moment before glancing over her shoulder and waving her hand vaguely, “Round pedestal thingie with about ten different coloured crystals in a big, wide open empty room.”
“Thank you so much for that wonderful description,” Akan grumbled, rolling his eyes and starting the other direction with a sigh.
Both of them went their separate ways for a long time. Well, it felt like a long time. In reality, it took Akan and Tobias only ten minutes to find the room that vaguely looked like Shadow’s description. Big, wide open and empty were close, at least. It was more like huge, wide open, and mostly empty. The room was like a giant oval, at least fifty meters in diameter. At the center was a pedestal like she’d said, with a bunch of crystals all in it. Tobias was now on Akan’s shoulder, and purred happily, “We found it first! We found it first!”
Akan grinned and looked at the thing, which was about waist height. All of the crystals were raised up from the pearl white pedastal. Akan bit his lip a moment. [We found it, Shady. Um...now what?]
“Press one! Press one!!” Tobias insisted, nearly pouncing off Akan and onto the entire pedestal. Akan held onto him carefully, not liking that idea just yet.
[You should be able to start with any of them...] Shadow’s voice echoed through his head. He could feel her mentally grumbling at having to walk all the way back. But with a smile, Akan looked to the little jai perched on his shoulder, “Which one should we press, little guy?”
Tobias looked hard at all of them, thinking with a long, unending ‘hmmmm....’ that had replaced his purr. After a minute, he suddenly yelled out and pointed, “Blue one! Press the blue one!”
Akan rolled his eyes. Always the damn blue with these Alraxians. One day he was going to figure out the rationale behind it. And if there wasn’t one...well, just another reason to beat the galaxy’s creator senseless when the time came. However, he reached down and pressed the small blue crystal that was near the center. The pedestal shimmered, and all but the blue crystal sank into the base. A second later, two others, a red and green one, then rose up next to the still slightly depressed blue crystal.
“Um...is it a riddle or something?’ Akan asked no one in particular.
Tobias, of course, still had his own ideas, “Blue one again! Blue one agaaaain!”
To that, Akan could only shrug. But as he reached for the blue crystal, Shadow’s voice suddenly yelled through his mind. [NO! Do NOT press the blue one! Not the blue one! Um...what are the other two?]
[Its rude to listen in on thoughts.] Akan sent through the link in a flat, sarcastic tone. [Red on the right, green on the left.]
[Um...green should work.] Shadow ‘said’ with so little assurance in her ‘voice’ that Akan almost wanted to press the blue one again just in case. But Shadow wasn’t done, and just couldn’t resist a comment. [I’m not just listening in on your thoughts. This link provides much more...interesting access.]
He knew that. He’d always known that. Yet, the way she said that made him shiver. Ignoring the odd look from Tobias, Akan reached down and depressed the green crystal. This time, all three crystals sunk into the pedestal. Then, in a flash that surprised both he and Tobias, something shot out and expanded from the center. It only took a second, but suddenly they were literally standing in the galactic core.
Planets...stars...even little asteroids all over the place! And they weren’t even holograms! Akan could reach and touch them. Some were even moved out of the way by where he currently stood. Taking a step back, they found their spot and others moved out of his way. He identified at least a dozen of the Core worlds before noticing that there was something odd. An entire second of the Unknown Regions was mapped out. In fact, it was a huge section with thousands of planets clustered together.
[Go to that part and it should focus on it.] Shadow’s voice startled him out of the sudden awe of the moment. Sure, he’d seen holograms like this...but you couldn’t touch them! Not like this. And they weren’t so...so...extravagant. Tobias had hopped out of his arms, padding over to play with some of the planets, batting them around and even pouncing a few of them with happy grrs. Akan ignored his urge to do the same and walked over to the section of space that was completely unknown to him.
As he did so, the entire...thing refocused. The galaxy fade away and the section he’d walked into now filled the whole room. Tobias had yelped in surprise at the sudden change, having thought he was being overrun by the moving planets. Akan looked around in amazement, not having expected there to be so many planets in such a small section of space that was so unexplored. [What do I do now...?]
There was a short pause before Shadow’s voice sounded in his head again. [Find a small, green planet with three moons. One of the moons is also green, so its fairly easy to find. When you find it...press it.]
“Oh, yes,” Akan grumbled as he walked around looking, “Easy to find, yes. A thousand planets and I have to find one with three moons. And its green! So helpful.”
[You do know that you’re thinking that, too, yes?] Shadow’s voice almost sounded like she had an evil grin on her face. She probably did. And Akan cursed. Sometimes the link wasn’t fair.
And to his surprise, and slight annoyance, actually, he found the planet within only a couple of minutes. It was near the pedestal, which he found somehow even more annoying. It should be far flung and not in the center of everything. That was boring. But despite this, he reached up to the planet which was at eye level with him and pressed it gently. A small blue(of course it was blue) ring surrounded it, then there was a beep.
The pedestal shimmered again, and in a moment the face of an Alraxian appeared. It had soft brown markings and gave Akan a critical look, “Hyne rheloi heth-nah. Abanon Nar.”
“Um...what?” so it wasn’t the best thing to say, but Akan was no first contact specialist. He was bad enough with languages as it was, and the Alraxian on the other end of the holo(which was definitely a holo) didn’t look like the happiest person in the galaxy.
Hearing Akan didn’t seem to help, and the eyes became a turbolaser-like glare, “Identify yourself at once!”
“I...ah...I..um...I’m Akan...Ta...um...Akan BlueIce,” he finished very lamely. He’d made a quick decision that it was for some reason a good idea to use the name that Shadow kept pushing him to use. She’d told him time and time again that he was technically a BlueIce now, and this sure seemed like the perfect time to pull rank, as it were.
The Alraxian on the other end continued his glare for a moment, speaking slowly, “You do know that impersonating a member of the Imperial Family is punishable by death...don’t you?”
As those words were spoken, Akan couldn’t help but feel like there were weapons already aimed at him. But he held his ground and kept a straight face, “I’m not impersonating anyone! I’m...here with Shad—err, Marix. Marix BlueIce.”
At the sound of ‘Marix’, the other Alraxian’s eyes went wide. He scrambled from looking back and forth before managing to stutter, “Marix?! The Enaijai’la? You are her—I’m am sorry, my prince! I will put you through to your family immediately!”
And before Akan could say anything about the ‘prince’ or ‘your family’, the image changed. It shimmered and then he saw a familiar face. This Alraxian was female, with peaceful, bright green eyes and soft black-white hair. Black with a white stripe...the opposite of Shadow. In fact, she looked like a like Shadow. Or rather, Shadow looked a lot like her. The Empress had a surprised look on her face, but managed a slight smile, “Well, well, well. Last time I saw you, you weren’t in such good shape. Where is...Marix??”
He somehow managed to look only mildly embarrassed, remembering their short meeting back on that horrible swamp planet when they were still searching out Sadrak...Suddenly realizing he’d been asked a question, Akan shuffled his feet and said nervously, “She uh...um...over...that way...and...yeah she’s...um...coming...”
She grinned slightly at his reaction, “Stand up straight, boy, I’m not going to hurt you. What are you doing there?”
“Well um...we’re uh...” he trailed off, trying to stand up straight and get a hold of his voice. Why he was so nervous, Akan had no idea of, “Kind of having to...to come home.”
“Coming home?” the Empress’ face looked horrified for a short half second before returning to a neutral expression, “No! You cannot do that! It is forbidden! If you step foot in our space you will be killed! Don’t!...please don’t...”
He sighed and hung his head. That last part had sounded like she was actually begging, “We have to...there was a. A...uh...a problem,” and surprisingly, with that, his confidence started to return. Yes, they did have to do this. For the Voorts, if nothing else. And so his voice actually straightened out again, “We messed up and tried to stop it. But we couldn’t do anything about it...”
“Stop what?” she didn’t sound happy at all, and Akan really couldn’t blame her.
“His name was Halpak,” Akan said carefully, not wanting to step into dangerous ground, “Ket Halpak. He...got away from us and escaped here with one of the clones of Mar—“
”We know, boy,” the Empress cut him off swiftly, her expression fading into a sadness that he’d never seen on anyone’s face before, “There was an attack on an outlying colony yesterday.”
Very slowly, Akan asked the necessary question, “What...happened?”
She looked in a different direction, off over his shoulder, and said very quietly, “No one survived.”
He managed a nod, not really knowing what else could be said. Shadow should be running in soon. Then he could just step back and let her do the talking. He wasn’t good at this...especially with a species he knew barely anything about. The silence between the two of them was broken by the Empress, who quickly changed the subject, “So...how have you two been since I last saw you? Tell me of your exploits...I doubt it is anything boring with my daughter involved.”
Akan managed a nervous laugh, nodding slightly and saying, “We’re uh...fine. A lot has happened and I’m not really sure what to make of everything at this poin—argh! Ow!”
Tobias had gotten bored and latched onto Akan’s leg. In that painful way, he clawed his way up all of Akan(which took longer this time) and got up onto his shoulder. Oblivious to the holo of the Empress, Tobias purred into Akan’s ear and said, “Booored! Want Akan play!”
“Tobias, this isn’t exactly the best time to play,” Akan whispered, not knowing that the Empress could still hear him just fine. Even if she couldn’t, she could have read his lips.
There was a shocked look on the Empress’ face. She hadn’t failed to notice that the jai had black fur, and a stripe that was of the same colour of Akan’s. It was something Akan had still not realized, “What?! Who...whose is he?”
“Um..ah...he’s uh...” but before Akan could figure out the correct explanation, Shadow walked in.
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Chapter 165: Mother and Daughter
Akan had given up on stuttering when Shadow walked in. She looked like she’d just run a few kilometers, and when he thought about how big the place was...she might have. A few long strides brought her next to him, and Shadow gave him a nod before dodging a playful swipe from Tobias. Akan took a step to the side and out of the way, trying to find some way to occupy the little jai. They had bumped into a collection of floating planets, which seemed to do the job for the moment, as Toby pounced all around Akan’s shoulder to ‘kill’ the planets.
“Aza...” Shadow said quietly to her mother, who was just staring at her with a wide eyed look. She gave her mother a more careful look and said again, but louder, “Aza...”
Her mother then looked her over before replying. Akan didn’t understand a word of it, though he did get the general idea through the link and the way that the ‘discussion’ had quickly turned heated. There was growling, snarling, and old fashioned yelling from both sides and Shadow angrily swatted at a few planets. She also almost took of Akan’s head, but he strategically ducked from that, though Tobias fell off his shoulder and landed on the hard floor with a thud, a whimper, and a wail. Akan felt like wailing, too, as the jai had tried to latch onto him with claws during the fall...and his claws were sharp.
The wailing silenced the two arguing Alraxians, both of whom turned to give Akan a look that made him feel useless. He managed a weak smile and picked Tobias back up, grumbling something about it being Shadow’s fault in the first place. A long silence lasted between the two females before the Empress spoke again, calm, but soft and very strained. Her emotional speech lasted for a couple of minutes, and Shadow nodded her head and sighed a few times.
Finally, a few more words were exchanged before the Empress looked back to Akan and smiled softly, “Goodbye, tamai.”
She then moved away, and the image was replaced by another Alraxian that Akan recognized. It was an older looking man, with strong features but soft eyes and a smile on his face. His dark hair was well groomed, and Akan couldn’t help but notice Shadow’s eyes light up at seeing her father, “Dad!”
Cole smiled warmly, but raised a hand, “Just a quick word, daama. Thing’s are looking bad...I’ll be glad when you’re back here and safe. I’ll know we have our best back here to save us.”
“Daddy...” Shadow looked down at her feet, actually going red. Akan couldn’t help but stare in amazement. She was acting almost...normal!
“I mean it,” Cole went on, “My little girl really has grown up. Those challengers will be wetting themselves now,” he winked at her maliciously.
“Daddy, your...”
“An idealistic old man,” he finished with completely different words than she’d planned on saying, “Now I have to go. A council is being called and you know I’ve got to be there with your mother. If we don’t arrive in five days...”
Tailing off into a sigh, Cole said quietly, “Well...I hope to see you soon, daama,” and then he turned to Akan(who was having no more trouble as Toby had bounded off to kill new planets) and gave him a wink, “Good job, saama.”
The older Alraxian’s gaze then found Tobias, who was pouncing from one end of the room to the next. Cole turned to Shadow, grinned, and before anything could be said, the image shimmered away into nothing. The only sound left in the room was the grrs and rawrs of Toby, and in the relative quiet, Shadow deactivated the comm line and most of the other things that Akan had turned on...except for the map surrounding them.
After a moment, she sighed, “Well, the good news is we may be allowed in.”
“And the bad news?” Akan stepped a little closer so he could idly lean against the pedestal.
“Ket and Nine have already hit,” Shadow’s voice was barely above a whisper, “A colony not far from here was completely wiped out. I’m...being held accountable. If they do let us in, I...no, we’ll be under house arrest.”
“Then what’s the point of going anyway?” Akan rolled his eyes, already not liking this. Too much red tape for his taste. In fact, none was best for him...but Akan had to remind himself that this was an odd culture and Shadow was technically the heir, which always meant red tape in any part of the universe, it seemed.
“You know we have to go,” she said over her shoulder as she turned to watch Toby pounce and kill a little gas ‘giant’, “But if you want, you can stay. Even if they let us in you won’t be able to set foot on the homeworld until you’ve pledged your loyalty and they can trust you.”
Akan really didn’t like that sound of that, “Pledge my loyalty?”
“Don’t worry about it right now,” she patted his arm gently, not even really noticing that she was doing it, “Right now, we’ve got about five days to teach you about what you’re walking into.”
((Attached is the beginnings of Akan's character sketches like I did for Shadow. I had meant to do Voort next, but somehow Akan just came out on the paper...))
Akan had given up on stuttering when Shadow walked in. She looked like she’d just run a few kilometers, and when he thought about how big the place was...she might have. A few long strides brought her next to him, and Shadow gave him a nod before dodging a playful swipe from Tobias. Akan took a step to the side and out of the way, trying to find some way to occupy the little jai. They had bumped into a collection of floating planets, which seemed to do the job for the moment, as Toby pounced all around Akan’s shoulder to ‘kill’ the planets.
“Aza...” Shadow said quietly to her mother, who was just staring at her with a wide eyed look. She gave her mother a more careful look and said again, but louder, “Aza...”
Her mother then looked her over before replying. Akan didn’t understand a word of it, though he did get the general idea through the link and the way that the ‘discussion’ had quickly turned heated. There was growling, snarling, and old fashioned yelling from both sides and Shadow angrily swatted at a few planets. She also almost took of Akan’s head, but he strategically ducked from that, though Tobias fell off his shoulder and landed on the hard floor with a thud, a whimper, and a wail. Akan felt like wailing, too, as the jai had tried to latch onto him with claws during the fall...and his claws were sharp.
The wailing silenced the two arguing Alraxians, both of whom turned to give Akan a look that made him feel useless. He managed a weak smile and picked Tobias back up, grumbling something about it being Shadow’s fault in the first place. A long silence lasted between the two females before the Empress spoke again, calm, but soft and very strained. Her emotional speech lasted for a couple of minutes, and Shadow nodded her head and sighed a few times.
Finally, a few more words were exchanged before the Empress looked back to Akan and smiled softly, “Goodbye, tamai.”
She then moved away, and the image was replaced by another Alraxian that Akan recognized. It was an older looking man, with strong features but soft eyes and a smile on his face. His dark hair was well groomed, and Akan couldn’t help but notice Shadow’s eyes light up at seeing her father, “Dad!”
Cole smiled warmly, but raised a hand, “Just a quick word, daama. Thing’s are looking bad...I’ll be glad when you’re back here and safe. I’ll know we have our best back here to save us.”
“Daddy...” Shadow looked down at her feet, actually going red. Akan couldn’t help but stare in amazement. She was acting almost...normal!
“I mean it,” Cole went on, “My little girl really has grown up. Those challengers will be wetting themselves now,” he winked at her maliciously.
“Daddy, your...”
“An idealistic old man,” he finished with completely different words than she’d planned on saying, “Now I have to go. A council is being called and you know I’ve got to be there with your mother. If we don’t arrive in five days...”
Tailing off into a sigh, Cole said quietly, “Well...I hope to see you soon, daama,” and then he turned to Akan(who was having no more trouble as Toby had bounded off to kill new planets) and gave him a wink, “Good job, saama.”
The older Alraxian’s gaze then found Tobias, who was pouncing from one end of the room to the next. Cole turned to Shadow, grinned, and before anything could be said, the image shimmered away into nothing. The only sound left in the room was the grrs and rawrs of Toby, and in the relative quiet, Shadow deactivated the comm line and most of the other things that Akan had turned on...except for the map surrounding them.
After a moment, she sighed, “Well, the good news is we may be allowed in.”
“And the bad news?” Akan stepped a little closer so he could idly lean against the pedestal.
“Ket and Nine have already hit,” Shadow’s voice was barely above a whisper, “A colony not far from here was completely wiped out. I’m...being held accountable. If they do let us in, I...no, we’ll be under house arrest.”
“Then what’s the point of going anyway?” Akan rolled his eyes, already not liking this. Too much red tape for his taste. In fact, none was best for him...but Akan had to remind himself that this was an odd culture and Shadow was technically the heir, which always meant red tape in any part of the universe, it seemed.
“You know we have to go,” she said over her shoulder as she turned to watch Toby pounce and kill a little gas ‘giant’, “But if you want, you can stay. Even if they let us in you won’t be able to set foot on the homeworld until you’ve pledged your loyalty and they can trust you.”
Akan really didn’t like that sound of that, “Pledge my loyalty?”
“Don’t worry about it right now,” she patted his arm gently, not even really noticing that she was doing it, “Right now, we’ve got about five days to teach you about what you’re walking into.”
((Attached is the beginnings of Akan's character sketches like I did for Shadow. I had meant to do Voort next, but somehow Akan just came out on the paper...))
Attachments
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Chapter 166: History Lesson
Before they even went back to their ship, Shadow had started to explain about the Alraxian people. It only took a few minutes before it was obviously not Shadow talking at all, but Marix. That was obvious in the way that her tone shifted from the more...formal and stilted way that Shadow talked to a much more fluid and actually normal sounding voice that Akan had learned was Marix. That didn’t completely make sense to Akan, as Marix was just as repressed as Shadow had been...all he could figure was that whatever the Imperials had done to the clones had created another major wall.
She explained that there were Humans didn’t exist in enough number to be worth speaking of. According to the ancient Alraxian lore, they were the direct descendants of Humans. How that worked out, Akan wasn’t sure of. Without a time scale, there wasn’t really any point of reference to work from. Humans evolved into a race of feline shape shifters? Either that was complete myth or there was a key point in that which wasn’t being said.
But Akan managed to keep his mouth shut, letting Shadow...Marix...whoever, go on. She next spoke about the Mrrakesh. Like the Alraxians, the Mrrakesh supposedly grew out of the Humans that had once lived in that part of the Unknown Regions. The best comparison that Marix could find was that they looked like much larger Defel. Lupine humanoids, and this really made Akan bite his tongue. Of course there would be a wolf species to fight the cat species of the Alraxians.
On average, Mrrakesh males stood two and a half meters tall, with the females just under that. While this was about the same height as many Alraxian adults, the Mrrakesh were broad shouldered and overall...muscular. While they had the ability to change shape, it was essentially useless when compared with the Alraxians’. Mrrakesh could only morph between two forms: they’re natural form, and a wolflike form that was comparable to an Alarix...but, of course, bigger. There were stories of a Mrrakesh that had found a way to merge with an Alraxian to gain their essentially unlimited ability to morph., but Marix assured Akan that they were just stories. Bed time stories told to scare small children into being good.
But in the end, the truth was that the Mrrakesh were to Alraxians what Alraxians were to Humans. Faster, stronger, and all around a superior race. The only thing that kept Alraxians from being dominated by the Mrrakesh was the society differences. While Alraxians were more like a giant hive-mind, Mrrakesh were best compared with Hutts. Individualists, opportunists, and not above betraying one another to get ahead in the game. In fact, the whole society was based on this type of competition. The leader of the Mrrakesh Combine was the Mrrakesh who weaseled(or wolfed, in this case) his way to the top.
About four thousand years ago, a small group of true Sith found the Hidden Worlds. They created the Darkwings, and in the ensuing Darkwing Wars, the Mrrakesh sided with the Sith. The war lasted nearly two thousand years, ravaging all the worlds in both the Alraxian Empire and the Mrrakesh Combine. When it was finally ended and the Darkwings destroyed forever(supposedly, at least), a stalemate took its place. The stalemate has lasted since then, with the Mrrakesh pushing the borders of the Empire every so often just to see what they could get away with. Trade was established, however, and it seemed to some that the two races would finally stop fighting. Of course, those few that fell into that category were wishful thinkers. Every Enai knew that the Mrrakesh wouldn’t just sit around forever.
By now, Akan had brought the ship out of the ring and positioned them a good distance from the gigantic ring at Marix’s direction. Tobias had once again worn himself out and was asleep in Akan’s quarters. Akan and Marix sat in the cockpit, both trying to ignore how small the chairs currently felt as Marix found another subject to explain to him.
A smile actually appeared on her face, “We do have a strong ally, though. The Jendari lived in the Hidden Worlds long before the Humans arrived. They were with us as we grew, and helped us anytime we asked. They are the oldest and wisest species I have ever known, and we can always turn to them.”
Pausing to allow herself a sigh, Marix looked to Akan, “There are a few other species spread throughout the Empire, but talking about all of that could take years. Mind if we get past this to some boring stuff?”
Akan yawned, trying not to grin too, “Boring? Oh, no, go on.”
“Bah,” she reached over and cuffed him across the back of the head. It also got a grin on her face, as it took very little effort to reach him with such longer limbs. But after leaning back into her small chair, Marix idly watched the stars through the viewport, “When you greet someone, always make sure to keep your tail lower than you waist. Even if you don’t like someone, try to keep your tail straight and not show it through sticking it up or anything.”
“Bad idea to do that?” Akan raised an eyebrow, deciding that sarcasm his only refuge at this point.
She just gave him a glare, “Yes, it is. Now listen, although I only have eighteen brothers and sisters–“
”Only eighteen?!” he yelped, truly surprised, “How is eighteen an only?!”
“Shut up and listen,” Marix continued her glare and then went on, “There are at least fifty other children within the palace. As part of her duty, the Enai takes in the lost or wayward children of the Empire. She is the protector of the clan, and while the children become a part of her clan, they take up the name ‘ka before the clan name to signify their position,” at seeing Akan’s confused look, she waved a hand vaguely in the air, “Like...Ami Ka’BlueIce. Its more a formality these days, though.”
And then she went silent. The silence held in the cockpit for a long five minutes before Akan found himself...staring again. He peeled his eyes away and looked at the giant ring out there. So was that it? Had she told him all she was going to tell? Apparently, but Akan wasn’t dumb enough to think that was everything. At least she’d explained some basics to him. No matter what, this was going to be...interesting. If they even got in, of course.
Marix had gone silent because there really wasn’t anything left to say. Or at least, nothing left that she wanted to think about right now. So a colony on the Mrrakesh border had been attacked. It was a challenge, of course. But not to her. No, it was for the Enai...her mother. But could she really deal with this? The Empress was not a warrior. She was Red Star, a healer. She was a wonderful Empress, but there
hadn’t been a war in the Hidden Worlds since the Darkwing Wars had ended. Her mother couldn’t refuse a direct challenge...it would no doubt come, soon. But the Enai couldn’t face Nine or Ket in single combat.
Sighing and closing her eyes, Marix retreated to think. There had to be a way out of it...
Before they even went back to their ship, Shadow had started to explain about the Alraxian people. It only took a few minutes before it was obviously not Shadow talking at all, but Marix. That was obvious in the way that her tone shifted from the more...formal and stilted way that Shadow talked to a much more fluid and actually normal sounding voice that Akan had learned was Marix. That didn’t completely make sense to Akan, as Marix was just as repressed as Shadow had been...all he could figure was that whatever the Imperials had done to the clones had created another major wall.
She explained that there were Humans didn’t exist in enough number to be worth speaking of. According to the ancient Alraxian lore, they were the direct descendants of Humans. How that worked out, Akan wasn’t sure of. Without a time scale, there wasn’t really any point of reference to work from. Humans evolved into a race of feline shape shifters? Either that was complete myth or there was a key point in that which wasn’t being said.
But Akan managed to keep his mouth shut, letting Shadow...Marix...whoever, go on. She next spoke about the Mrrakesh. Like the Alraxians, the Mrrakesh supposedly grew out of the Humans that had once lived in that part of the Unknown Regions. The best comparison that Marix could find was that they looked like much larger Defel. Lupine humanoids, and this really made Akan bite his tongue. Of course there would be a wolf species to fight the cat species of the Alraxians.
On average, Mrrakesh males stood two and a half meters tall, with the females just under that. While this was about the same height as many Alraxian adults, the Mrrakesh were broad shouldered and overall...muscular. While they had the ability to change shape, it was essentially useless when compared with the Alraxians’. Mrrakesh could only morph between two forms: they’re natural form, and a wolflike form that was comparable to an Alarix...but, of course, bigger. There were stories of a Mrrakesh that had found a way to merge with an Alraxian to gain their essentially unlimited ability to morph., but Marix assured Akan that they were just stories. Bed time stories told to scare small children into being good.
But in the end, the truth was that the Mrrakesh were to Alraxians what Alraxians were to Humans. Faster, stronger, and all around a superior race. The only thing that kept Alraxians from being dominated by the Mrrakesh was the society differences. While Alraxians were more like a giant hive-mind, Mrrakesh were best compared with Hutts. Individualists, opportunists, and not above betraying one another to get ahead in the game. In fact, the whole society was based on this type of competition. The leader of the Mrrakesh Combine was the Mrrakesh who weaseled(or wolfed, in this case) his way to the top.
About four thousand years ago, a small group of true Sith found the Hidden Worlds. They created the Darkwings, and in the ensuing Darkwing Wars, the Mrrakesh sided with the Sith. The war lasted nearly two thousand years, ravaging all the worlds in both the Alraxian Empire and the Mrrakesh Combine. When it was finally ended and the Darkwings destroyed forever(supposedly, at least), a stalemate took its place. The stalemate has lasted since then, with the Mrrakesh pushing the borders of the Empire every so often just to see what they could get away with. Trade was established, however, and it seemed to some that the two races would finally stop fighting. Of course, those few that fell into that category were wishful thinkers. Every Enai knew that the Mrrakesh wouldn’t just sit around forever.
By now, Akan had brought the ship out of the ring and positioned them a good distance from the gigantic ring at Marix’s direction. Tobias had once again worn himself out and was asleep in Akan’s quarters. Akan and Marix sat in the cockpit, both trying to ignore how small the chairs currently felt as Marix found another subject to explain to him.
A smile actually appeared on her face, “We do have a strong ally, though. The Jendari lived in the Hidden Worlds long before the Humans arrived. They were with us as we grew, and helped us anytime we asked. They are the oldest and wisest species I have ever known, and we can always turn to them.”
Pausing to allow herself a sigh, Marix looked to Akan, “There are a few other species spread throughout the Empire, but talking about all of that could take years. Mind if we get past this to some boring stuff?”
Akan yawned, trying not to grin too, “Boring? Oh, no, go on.”
“Bah,” she reached over and cuffed him across the back of the head. It also got a grin on her face, as it took very little effort to reach him with such longer limbs. But after leaning back into her small chair, Marix idly watched the stars through the viewport, “When you greet someone, always make sure to keep your tail lower than you waist. Even if you don’t like someone, try to keep your tail straight and not show it through sticking it up or anything.”
“Bad idea to do that?” Akan raised an eyebrow, deciding that sarcasm his only refuge at this point.
She just gave him a glare, “Yes, it is. Now listen, although I only have eighteen brothers and sisters–“
”Only eighteen?!” he yelped, truly surprised, “How is eighteen an only?!”
“Shut up and listen,” Marix continued her glare and then went on, “There are at least fifty other children within the palace. As part of her duty, the Enai takes in the lost or wayward children of the Empire. She is the protector of the clan, and while the children become a part of her clan, they take up the name ‘ka before the clan name to signify their position,” at seeing Akan’s confused look, she waved a hand vaguely in the air, “Like...Ami Ka’BlueIce. Its more a formality these days, though.”
And then she went silent. The silence held in the cockpit for a long five minutes before Akan found himself...staring again. He peeled his eyes away and looked at the giant ring out there. So was that it? Had she told him all she was going to tell? Apparently, but Akan wasn’t dumb enough to think that was everything. At least she’d explained some basics to him. No matter what, this was going to be...interesting. If they even got in, of course.
Marix had gone silent because there really wasn’t anything left to say. Or at least, nothing left that she wanted to think about right now. So a colony on the Mrrakesh border had been attacked. It was a challenge, of course. But not to her. No, it was for the Enai...her mother. But could she really deal with this? The Empress was not a warrior. She was Red Star, a healer. She was a wonderful Empress, but there
hadn’t been a war in the Hidden Worlds since the Darkwing Wars had ended. Her mother couldn’t refuse a direct challenge...it would no doubt come, soon. But the Enai couldn’t face Nine or Ket in single combat.
Sighing and closing her eyes, Marix retreated to think. There had to be a way out of it...
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Chapter 167: Fourty Year Old Teenagers
A few minutes later, Shadow escaped the cockpit to get to work and occupy herself. She gathered a few components together and hooked them together to the comm relay. It was a simple, yet primitive holoprojector that should be on the same frequency as the one on the ring. That way, they could actually stay here on the ship and wait to be contacted instead of having to go back and forth.
But once that was finished, she had nothing to do, and so wandered back to her quarters and sat...brooding. Thinking. If the Empire allowed her to return, Shadow would still be risking death. Assassinations for crimes that Nine committed. Crimes that she would be blamed for. Going back would mean that she and Akan would no doubt be arrested, keeping them both under constant watch, and restricting her abilities. Going back like this could make it even harder to find Ket and Nine, not to mention having to fight either of them.
If she didn’t go back...
No. No, that wasn’t an option. Though even if she went back, it would be under her mother’s direction. Shadow wouldn’t have free reign to choose what she felt was best, and though she could mention such things to her mother, it would be useless in the end. It was up to her mother whether or not Shadow was allowed to fight. Yet, it was expected of the Empress to fight, not of the Enai’la. Shadow could not fight Nine or Ket directly. Not unless...
There was a knock on the door. It didn’t surprise Shadow, and she sighed. The knock was too high up on the door to be Tobias. Without even a shred of enthusiasm in her voice, Shadow spoke at the still closed door, “What?”
“Mind if I come in...?” it was odd to hear Akan’s voice so...high up. The fact that it sounded deeper was something she’d given up on thinking about. Not feeling like getting up off of her comfortable spot sitting on the bed, Shadow did what Akan would call cheating.
Reaching out with the Force, Shadow found the switch and opened the door without even getting up. It slid open with a swish, Akan standing there looking surprised that she wasn’t anywhere near the door. But obviously noticing she wasn’t in the best of moods, he didn’t comment, instead just ducking to get in and stepping over to have a seat on the edge of the bed next to her.
She gave him a sideways look and repeated, “What?”
The look he was getting was close enough to a glare that Akan quickly went to staring at the floor. He shuffled his feet some, suddenly wishing he’d just left her alone like she had probably wanted. Then, realizing she was only getting more annoyed with the silence, he said quietly, “Its could be worse, you know.”
“How, Akan?! How could it possibly be worse?!” Shadow said angrily, though not actually raising her voice too much, “If we even get let in, we still can’t do anything! If I help mother, I’ll be killed! If I don’t, she’ll be killed!”
Whatever it was that Akan had originally been planning to say had been completely lost on him. He managed to look helpless before whimpering and mumbling, “I...I’m sorry.”
At hearing those words, the look became a real glare and Shadow yelled at him, “And what good does that do?! None!”
Akan glanced up towards the door, feeling even worse. She was right, though...it didn’t do any good. What good was he in this, anyway? None, at all. All he knew, she’d told him, and it obviously wasn’t enough. And to make things worse, he could feel Shadow’s tension and worry through the link. She probably didn’t even realize that it was driving him just as crazy as it was her.
Slowly, he shook his head, having worked himself up in thinking and just as angry as she was now, “Fine! Even when I try, you don’t care! Eventually you’re going to have to wake up and realize that you’re not in this alone anymore! I may not like it, but I have to suffer through all of this, too!!”
As she growled a curse at him, Akan got to his feet and stormed out of the room. Walking back towards his own quarters, Tobias appeared, tried to play, and got growled at. Having never heard anything like that from Akan before, the little jai shrieked in surprise and tore off the other direction in panic.
Finding his quarters, Akan made sure to lock the door and sat on his bed, ignoring the slightly warm patch of blankets where Tobias had been curled up. He sat there for a while in silence, fuming about things that didn’t even make sense. It really was like being a kid all over again, angry for no reason and then mad at himself because of it. It was impossibly unhelpful and made him feel even more out of control. But he would be calm. Akan knew that he was dangerous...at least, dangerous to himself. It had taken the loss of the Voorts for him to realize that. But in the end, he had learned. He wished Jen had been there so he could prove to her that he really had learned.
There was a pawing at the bottom of the door. Sighing, Akan said calmly, “No, Tobias, I don’t want to play.”
He heard a soft whimpering before more pawing.
“Tobias,” Akan said with a harder edge to his voice, “I said I don’t want to play.”
Another whimper, then quietly, “No want play...”
“What do you want, then?”
“Want sleep...” Tobias mumbled through the door, and Akan couldn’t help but wonder how much the little jai could sleep. It seemed like the child was lost in a cycle of bursts of energy then hours of sleep. But Tobias was still babbling on, “...just want sleep and...and everyone all locked away and it cold...cold and locked away...its not fair...and its cold...and...and...”
Akan rolled his eyes, giving and walking over to the door. He hit the switch to see the little black-furred Alraxian looking up to him with the most pathetic, big eyed ‘pay attention to me’ look. Leaning and scooping up the jai in his arms, Akan asked, “Is that it?”
Tobias sniffled and clung to Akan very slightly, looking up to him with an almost pleading look, “...and...and...bad dreams...”
“Awww, c’mon, little guy,” he carried Tobias over to the bed and dropped the jai down. As Toby padded around idly, Akan stretched and rested back on the bed. Deciding that sleep might be a good idea for helping his mind to calm down, Akan closed his eyes. In another moment, he felt a soft something against his forehead. Opening an eye, Akan saw Tobias was already asleep, curled up next to Akan’s head. He smiled and closed his eye again. Amazing how calming it was to have the jai around...
A few minutes later, the door slid open. Shadow stood there looking slightly surprised to find the two of them asleep. She had calmed down and had decided that apologizing was probably a good idea. That was more at the encouragement of Marix, who understood things like that and at least had the slight idea that both of them were a little bit more than just slightly...off lately. Just one more thing to add to the troubles, really.
But at seeing them asleep, she decided it could wait. Quietly, she told the lights to switch off, and then before stepping out of the room, said, “Goodnight.”
A few minutes later, Shadow escaped the cockpit to get to work and occupy herself. She gathered a few components together and hooked them together to the comm relay. It was a simple, yet primitive holoprojector that should be on the same frequency as the one on the ring. That way, they could actually stay here on the ship and wait to be contacted instead of having to go back and forth.
But once that was finished, she had nothing to do, and so wandered back to her quarters and sat...brooding. Thinking. If the Empire allowed her to return, Shadow would still be risking death. Assassinations for crimes that Nine committed. Crimes that she would be blamed for. Going back would mean that she and Akan would no doubt be arrested, keeping them both under constant watch, and restricting her abilities. Going back like this could make it even harder to find Ket and Nine, not to mention having to fight either of them.
If she didn’t go back...
No. No, that wasn’t an option. Though even if she went back, it would be under her mother’s direction. Shadow wouldn’t have free reign to choose what she felt was best, and though she could mention such things to her mother, it would be useless in the end. It was up to her mother whether or not Shadow was allowed to fight. Yet, it was expected of the Empress to fight, not of the Enai’la. Shadow could not fight Nine or Ket directly. Not unless...
There was a knock on the door. It didn’t surprise Shadow, and she sighed. The knock was too high up on the door to be Tobias. Without even a shred of enthusiasm in her voice, Shadow spoke at the still closed door, “What?”
“Mind if I come in...?” it was odd to hear Akan’s voice so...high up. The fact that it sounded deeper was something she’d given up on thinking about. Not feeling like getting up off of her comfortable spot sitting on the bed, Shadow did what Akan would call cheating.
Reaching out with the Force, Shadow found the switch and opened the door without even getting up. It slid open with a swish, Akan standing there looking surprised that she wasn’t anywhere near the door. But obviously noticing she wasn’t in the best of moods, he didn’t comment, instead just ducking to get in and stepping over to have a seat on the edge of the bed next to her.
She gave him a sideways look and repeated, “What?”
The look he was getting was close enough to a glare that Akan quickly went to staring at the floor. He shuffled his feet some, suddenly wishing he’d just left her alone like she had probably wanted. Then, realizing she was only getting more annoyed with the silence, he said quietly, “Its could be worse, you know.”
“How, Akan?! How could it possibly be worse?!” Shadow said angrily, though not actually raising her voice too much, “If we even get let in, we still can’t do anything! If I help mother, I’ll be killed! If I don’t, she’ll be killed!”
Whatever it was that Akan had originally been planning to say had been completely lost on him. He managed to look helpless before whimpering and mumbling, “I...I’m sorry.”
At hearing those words, the look became a real glare and Shadow yelled at him, “And what good does that do?! None!”
Akan glanced up towards the door, feeling even worse. She was right, though...it didn’t do any good. What good was he in this, anyway? None, at all. All he knew, she’d told him, and it obviously wasn’t enough. And to make things worse, he could feel Shadow’s tension and worry through the link. She probably didn’t even realize that it was driving him just as crazy as it was her.
Slowly, he shook his head, having worked himself up in thinking and just as angry as she was now, “Fine! Even when I try, you don’t care! Eventually you’re going to have to wake up and realize that you’re not in this alone anymore! I may not like it, but I have to suffer through all of this, too!!”
As she growled a curse at him, Akan got to his feet and stormed out of the room. Walking back towards his own quarters, Tobias appeared, tried to play, and got growled at. Having never heard anything like that from Akan before, the little jai shrieked in surprise and tore off the other direction in panic.
Finding his quarters, Akan made sure to lock the door and sat on his bed, ignoring the slightly warm patch of blankets where Tobias had been curled up. He sat there for a while in silence, fuming about things that didn’t even make sense. It really was like being a kid all over again, angry for no reason and then mad at himself because of it. It was impossibly unhelpful and made him feel even more out of control. But he would be calm. Akan knew that he was dangerous...at least, dangerous to himself. It had taken the loss of the Voorts for him to realize that. But in the end, he had learned. He wished Jen had been there so he could prove to her that he really had learned.
There was a pawing at the bottom of the door. Sighing, Akan said calmly, “No, Tobias, I don’t want to play.”
He heard a soft whimpering before more pawing.
“Tobias,” Akan said with a harder edge to his voice, “I said I don’t want to play.”
Another whimper, then quietly, “No want play...”
“What do you want, then?”
“Want sleep...” Tobias mumbled through the door, and Akan couldn’t help but wonder how much the little jai could sleep. It seemed like the child was lost in a cycle of bursts of energy then hours of sleep. But Tobias was still babbling on, “...just want sleep and...and everyone all locked away and it cold...cold and locked away...its not fair...and its cold...and...and...”
Akan rolled his eyes, giving and walking over to the door. He hit the switch to see the little black-furred Alraxian looking up to him with the most pathetic, big eyed ‘pay attention to me’ look. Leaning and scooping up the jai in his arms, Akan asked, “Is that it?”
Tobias sniffled and clung to Akan very slightly, looking up to him with an almost pleading look, “...and...and...bad dreams...”
“Awww, c’mon, little guy,” he carried Tobias over to the bed and dropped the jai down. As Toby padded around idly, Akan stretched and rested back on the bed. Deciding that sleep might be a good idea for helping his mind to calm down, Akan closed his eyes. In another moment, he felt a soft something against his forehead. Opening an eye, Akan saw Tobias was already asleep, curled up next to Akan’s head. He smiled and closed his eye again. Amazing how calming it was to have the jai around...
A few minutes later, the door slid open. Shadow stood there looking slightly surprised to find the two of them asleep. She had calmed down and had decided that apologizing was probably a good idea. That was more at the encouragement of Marix, who understood things like that and at least had the slight idea that both of them were a little bit more than just slightly...off lately. Just one more thing to add to the troubles, really.
But at seeing them asleep, she decided it could wait. Quietly, she told the lights to switch off, and then before stepping out of the room, said, “Goodnight.”
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
No update tonight. Sorry about the last couple of days. My brain has fried and I've been kind of busy with other things. I will force myself to sit down, relax, and update tommorrow, though.
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