Log:A return to innocence
Location: Ajan Kloss
Participants: Evie Leven, Juria Nexum
[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
It's always a toss up when Juria will receive one of her visions. Certainly she's not so strong in the Force that she's guided effortlessly through the Galaxy by the whims of the connective energies. More than anything, she's pulled by whimsy. Happenstance. Nastalgia.
Which is precisely why she'd come out from the room she often uses for Meditation to find Evie and their daughter having dinner. As always there's that warm smile on her face as she sees the two most important people in her life, but there's something in her eyes that Evie has no doubt seen before: Wanderlust. Moving to serve up plates, something she that is probably disgusting... some indigenous dish from Kaffar Prime that almost certainly has bugs in it. She leans over to kiss the top of Evie's head, "We need to go to Ajan Kloss." Then over Katya, brushing her hand down the young girl's arm. "I'd like to show her where we met."
Are there ulterior motives?
She's not sure... She doesn't think so?
But with matters of her visions, it's never certain.
Suffice that it seems important. Important enough that the following day they're landing the Asteroid upon a landing pad that's practically over-grown and reclaimed by nature. With Juria standing behind Evie, both hands on her wife's shoulders. "This'll be fun!" You can practically smell the jungle diseases from here.
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[ Evie Kora (11)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
'Empress of the Void' is not a title that Evie gave herself -- and others have since adopted to refer to her by -- solely based on her prowess in a starfighter. She frankly prefers living in the black of space, aboard a starship more than she likes being on land. It's how she was raised. It's how she's raising her own daughter. So shifting over to a /different/ section of space wasn't too much to ask by any means.
Ajan Kloss, however...
It's a place that the pilot-turned-arms dealer recalls vividly. It was a place she visited en route to rock bottom. The First Order she had known was dead. She was a traitor to many of the people who had once revered her. Kylo had abandoned them. Hadrix and Emma had vanished. Fuze, her former superior who had become her lover, was dead. She was wearing enemy colors among former foes celebrating the downfall of everything that she'd held dear.
It was also the site of the beginning of a new life for her. She knew she had to do what she did. To give her people a chance that, had Palpatine been successful, the former Emperor would not have. Perhaps because she'd always been friendly with her foes... because she'd earned their /respect/, they didn't revile the TIE pilot. They welcomed her. Tried to recruit her. Had Dameron himself made the offer, she might have accepted it. Her life would've been very different, then. She might've not even been here now. It was the place Hadrix came back into her life. Coming to collect his broken former comrade and help her onto her feet -- figuratively and literally.
Most importantly, it was where she met a feisty slip of a girl who she's found she can't live without.
"I can picture it like it was yesterday..." Evie murmurs, letting her gaze travel the green-covered landings. "...you know, I thought that they would have done something with it. Maybe a statue of that Rey girl, or Poe and his smug grin." Taking little Katya's hand in her free hand, and gripping the hilt of her blaster -- just in case -- with her other Evie leads the way down the landing ramp. "I can find the /exact/ spot, too." she tells Juria, walking partially through her memories, partially through the now. "I think Ektor was standing right about there... I think he was already a few drinks in when I spotted him, too." That's a memory that brings a smile to her face. The self-proclaimed pilot was possibly her very best friend on the other side.
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[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
The pair of them share very similar, if parallel, upbringings. Like Evie, Juria has lived most of her life aboard a freighter. Her father was a Coruscanti born freight hauler who, after the rise of the First Order, took to smuggling to help the fledgling Resistance. He'd met her mother, a pilot in her own right, on Corellia where the two had eventually had Juria. So while the wisp of a Jedi may have been Corellian by birth, she was raised in space aboard The Mandate.
Where their paths diverge.. Gallem Nexum was arrested after the First Order took control of Coruscant with Juria signing on fully to the Resistance thereafter. A rookie pilot by the time of the battle of Exegol, she remembers distinctly the first time she ever heard Evie's voice and that message sent to the Resistance Forces..
Almost as vividly as she remembers the first time she ever saw the Empress of the Void.
Walking with their daughter now, so many years later, with a small hand in each of their's, she smiles over at the two people in the galaxy who mean more to her than anything else. Through whom she rebuilt herself and has become the, admittedly eccentric, person she is.
"Hah, yeah.. I remember, he was hitting on me pretty hard." Said of Ektor. "Kept trying to get me to go with him over to the river clearing.." Pointing off down an entirely overgrown path that leads towards a small pool. A brief twinkle in her eye, "But I had someone else I wanted to meet." Side glancing Evie, not nearly so shy as she use to be, "Babu... that adorable little scamp.." Teasing..
Then around at the clearing, which is.. not nearly so clear as it was eighteen years ago. Nature certainly does work rapidly. Nodding slowly, green eyes search.. "There." She points towards a stump. "I was there.. and you were hugging Hadrix." Whom she's come to know over the years and far more so recently. "I saw your mother..." Said down to their daughter. "And I thought, that is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen... then I promptly ran away blushing."
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[ Evie Kora (11)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
The number of times that that Evie's blushed are so few and far between that they could rightly be marked down on a calendar. This place, those words, the memories that are flooding back?
Yeah, it's another day for the calendar.
Releasing her grip on the pistol, she reaches that hand, instead, for Juria's free hand. Flashing her wife a loving smile and wrinkling her nose cutely. "Sweetheart, even /I/ wanted to meet Babu that day." she teases right back. The truth was she didn't know of Babu until later, but that was entirely besides the point.
"You were so full of life that day. I mean. Most people were celebrating... but they paled in comparison to you. You were shining like a light in the darkness, and I could /feel/ it. I swear you were keeping me alive just by talking to me, and I'd never experienced anything like it in my entire life."
Was it the Force? Just Juria's infectious personality? Evie certainly wouldn't be able to explain it. Even married to a Jedi, it's something that remains a mystery to her.
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[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Heck, even BEING a Jedi it was a mystery.
Almost two decades later and Juria can no more explain anything about herself as that eighteen year old fighter pilot looking up at someone whom she both admired and was... "Gosh I had such a crush on you." She admits with her green eyes flicking down to the ground when Evie's hand brushes her cheek. She leans into it, turning to kiss the inside of her palm.
While Katya, still too young to appreciate it, stares up at them... Juria peers down into those big ol brown eyes and smirks. "It was love at first sight. At least for me.." As if the young girl could possibly fathom how something like that is even a real thing.
Then the wispy blonde haired Jedi turns to peer around the clearing. Breathing in the scents of a world reclaimed. A place so heavy with emotions and imprints of the joys felt here that she can almost see it... actually see it.. A smile begins to form, curling the corners of her mouth upwards until her teeth peek from between thin, pale lips.
"I wonder if it's still here." She murmurs to Evie, nodding towards the hangar. "My Y-Wing. It got pretty banged up in the battle.. I wonder if they even took it when they moved from the base?" She tugs them both in the direction of the small facility that was almost completely overgrown with vegetation.
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[ Evie Kora (11)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"Not just for you." Evie confirms, leaning over to press her lips against her wife's cheek for a soft kiss. Juria had represented the part of her that was missing. That she'd lost in the fall of the Order. If she hadn't believed in things like fate, meeting Juria most certainly would have sealed the deal for her.
When Juria talks about her own ship, though? Evie can't help but flash a little grin. "You know, I don't think you'd ever told me what you flew during the war. I'm surprised it had guns." the Empress teases, following without hesitation as Juria leads the way. The clearing, Evie knows well enough. Same with the interrogation room. Everything else on the planet? Juria's most certainly the expert in the room on.
"I wouldn't be surprised either way, to be honest... that day really felt like the war was over." It wasn't. "That we wouldn't need them any more..." but at the same time, those who were less shell-shocked than she was might well have felt differently on the subject!
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[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Juria hadn't always believed in fate either and... perhaps she still doesn't? It's difficult, as far as ideas. She thinks things happen for a reason, but not necessarily that the reason is predetermined. Pieces always fit like they're suppose to, but there's no picture that's already formed waiting for them to fall into place.
Such is the nature of the Force.
She grins back at her wife and their child, who might not be all that inclined towards seeing her mother's mushiness, but certainly is eager about looking around the clearing where they'd met.
She leads them. Picking through overgrowth far easier than she would have all those years ago. Whoever she'd been, she's a much different person now. "I wasn't quite the pacifist I am today.. Believe it or not, I was very angry.. I know-" She widens her eyes and holds up her free hand, "-I know.." A grin curling her lips.
"It was actually hearing your message that changed my opinion on what enemy means. Because if I felt that way about you, who was nominally anyways, my enemy? How could I so easily write anyone off? It's where I learned my first lesson as a Jedi." She turns to walk backwards, as far ahead of them as the length of her's and Katya's arms. "Don't be so quick to judge because the people on the otherside are people.." She winks at Evie, "You taught me that."
Turning, "Obviously, now it would have ion cannons. I'd much rather disable a ship than destroy it."
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[ Evie Kora (11)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Evie's eyes widen ever-so-slightly at Juria's confession. Whether she'd never known, or forgotten? It doesn't stop the revelation from surprising her.
"Who would've thought?" Evie asks, adding a little sway to her walk to bump shoulders with Juria, careful to step over a couple branches that had since fallen.
"I mean... not that you were angry. That much I get." If it had been her father taken by the First Order? She would've likely been in Juria's shoes herself. "But..." Evie sighs a bit, and smiles. It's a bit of a world-weary smile, that still perseveres. "...you know, I tried to teach my people that, too. That just because the other side didn't agree with us, didn't mean they weren't people just like us. That's why I could be dogfighting against them one minute, and knocking back drinks with 'em the next."
Evie was also a big believer of her time off being her /time off./ It's how she'd been in the same room with Rey without drawing her blaster. "I like to think some of it actually stuck with some of them, too. Even the ones who stayed behind."
As Juria turns to face them as they go, Evie's eyes go downcast -- watching for things that might trip her wife so that she can provide hints -- or, failing that, brace for the fall. "...and you remember that too, Katya." she reminds their daughter, winking. "Not that you'll have to worry about any of that as long as your mothers are around." she promises with a dazzling smile. "...and, I mean, so would I darling."
Not just to save the life, though that's part of it. The shipwright in her would prefer an intact ship than a flaming scrapheap to take apart!
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[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Juria has an uncanny ability to always step over obstacles, even when paying no attention to them. Whether that's done consciously on some metaphysical level, even when things look like collision is imminent, she'll turn at just the right angle to bypass it.. or skip to step over a fallen branch.
Always grinning, leading them towards the big double doors that have come loose from their track on one side and hang against stretched and twisted vines that keep it from tumbling. There's a large enough gape between them that they could all walk side by side into the dark interior. "Katya, stay behind your mother." Peering inside with a flashlight slipping from a side pocket of her backpack.
The bright beam passes over several cloth covered ships, some of which have parts jutting out from beneath. There is as much vegetation in here as outside with more than a few sounds of fauna... small lizards skitter to the right, a large monkey rat chasing after them with a prehensile tongue snapping out to nab one in the glow of her light.
"A Ki-ki." She says to the pair, pointing at the rat-monkey. "They're generally harmless.. scavanger animals. They use to get into the machines though..." Passing the light around until she spides parts of an old Y-Wing off ruther into the bunker hangar. "There."
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[ Evie Kora (11)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
As Juria instructs Katya to get behind her, Evie decides to do one better. Bending down so that the girl can climb onto her back. Evie might have never been the strongest person out there -- but a child she can carry. Especially when it's /their/ child.
Trudging forward, she slows her pace a little to be more careful. Doubly so now that she's carrying precious cargo. She can't help but let her eyes pass along the illuminated areas... smiling to herself as the familiar outlines of ships start to take shape in the dark. "It's almost like a graveyard in here..."
They did leave the ships! It's like a memorial of sorts, though. While Evie might love to tinker, dismantling those ships she'd briefly flown against seems almost blasphemous for /her/ to do. It wasn't her place, as much she'd normally be tempted otherwise. "If they've," the Ki-Kis, "been down here with the ships for all these years... odds are it's gonna take a lot of work to get any of these crafts void-worthy again, if that's what you're thinkin' sweetheart." Evie offers her professional opinion. ...not that she doesn't have the /tools/ back on the ship to do this, mind!
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[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Juria glances back at her two precious women, one smaller than the other, riding the larger's back, and grins. She doesn't shift the light in their direction, but she hardly needs to with the light spilling in behind them both. It's like there's a halo glowing around them..
Evie's observation that it's like a graveyard turns her attention back to the ships, "Yeah.. some of them were only able to get back on auxilary power.. Including-" She fixes the Y-Wing in the full beam of light from her carried flash. "Mine. Most terrifying thirty seconds of my life was that reentry."
She kneels down once they're standing behind one of the pair of nacelles, wiring dangling. The power had long ago drained, however. the flashlight is laid on the cracked duracrete as she pulls off her backpack and reaches inside for a hydrospanner and a vibro-torch. "Nah, I don't want to move them." She assures her wife with a grin. The backpack is replaced, the small cilander of her flashlight fixed to one of the straps, and she starts up the ladder she'd used 18 years ago to climb down out of the cockpick.
"I just need something from the cockpit." It takes several tries to finally get it to pop open... the emergency release lever not working on the first six. When it finally breaches, it's with a hiss.. the last hydrolics fluid remaining bleeding out. It is entirely possible the canopy will never close again.
She peers down into the cockpit, leather seats degraded with time, covered in dust, and eaten by small rodents and insects that worked their way up through the underbelly of the fighter. "I'll just be a couple minutes."
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[PASS ( +75)] Juria's Repair @ (100) diff.
[ Evie Kora (11)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"Let me know if you need a hand!" Evie chirps, bouncing a bit to further entertain their daughter while her wife works at getting into the ship for... whatever it is she's looking for.
"And hey," she calls after. "at least I know for a fact that it wasn't me shooting at you." How does Evie know this?
"I focused fire on the Falcon because I knew it'd be piloted by one of the best fliers the Resistance had. It let me play the part of a good soldier until my pilots had all launched... I didn't want that..." she audibly stops herself from saying something. Mainly because little ears are present. "...General Pryde shutting the hangar bay doors in fear of others defecting."
She's quite sure he would've tried. Just like she's well aware that she painted a target on her back the second she made that announcement across comms. Needless to say, she was /still/ grateful for Zhu Yan providing a safe harbor for her.
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[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Juria is not as nimble as some Jedi, but the Force certainly makes her more so than some. She levers into the pilots seat she hasn't been in for nearly two decades and get to work. First she lowers a pair of dark tinted goggles down over her eyes, shielding them from the sudden sharp white glow of the cutting torch and disassembles the control yolk from the housing bracket. It comes up in her hand with a quiet chirp, "Ah ha!" She smiles over the edge at Evie and Katya, dangling her treasure out for them to see.
She tosses it over the side at her pack, managing, without really paying much attention, to hit the bag and cushion the landing. Then resumes striping more circuitry that was older than her by as old as she is now when she flew it.. "I remember." She says over the 'krrrrrrr' of her torch.
"I also remember thinking that I'd bitten off way more than I could chew.." There was a terrible moment, one that she has neither spoken of nor even thought about since that night. When everyone just ... stopped... when the entire Resistance fleet became an instrument under the command of the returned Emperor.
She shivers, but brushes the thought away.
tossing more parts over the side. Some of it wont be very useful, some of it will. Suffice that what she's getting seems important. If not for the items themselves, than sharing this moment with her family. That they're here with her.. Evie and Katya.
"Then I heard your voice and I felt like everything was going to be okay, somehow."
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[ Evie Kora (11)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
The sight of Juria's treasure is one that brings a little grin to Evie's face. "Good call. That'll make a nice keepsake," The control yoke, afterall, is where the relationship between the pilot and the vessel meets. She likely would've salvaged the one from the TIE she stole, had the Resistance not confiscated the craft.
...and then the talk of the Emperor makes a shiver go down her spine as well. For all the stories she'd grown up with about how life under the Galactic Empire was wonderful... the Emperor's return was a definite catalyst for her defection. Because when comparing Kylo's treatment of his pilots to Palpatine's, there was no competition.
"I'm grateful it was." Evie intones, squeezing her arms against their daughters legs lovingly. "Everything turning out okay... having you two here today... that's /my/ reason to keep living."
Her infamous advice to the First Order pilots: 'Leave, live, and find a reason to keep doing so'.
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[ Juria (Juria)]*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Juria peers around at the gutted interior of her fighter. Goggles once again sitting up on her forehead now that most anything she could want from the derelect vessel was removed. The tools are slipped away, but her hand traces along the panels. It's very unlikely she'll ever return to this base... even to the planet. There are thousands of places she has to be and even twice as many things she has to do.
This, however, was nice.
Then she's leaping over the side and crawling down the ladder. Jumping the bottom three with a clank of boots on duracrete and a grin. Before kneeling down she leans over and kisses Evie's nose, then the top of Katya's head over her wife's shoulder. With affection shared, she does crouch and starts packing everything away. Sifting through what's junk and what could be useful for her needs.
It's surprising the things she ends up keeping, though.
Or maybe not so much so given how well Evie knows her.
Juria can find the good in anything. In anyone.
"Alright, ladies." Backpack slung up on her back. "I brought us some bantha sandwiches and salads.." And yogoort? Katya asks, to which Juria snap points, "And yogurt." Beaming a smile, "What say we go sit by the pool and have dinner before we leave? We really don't want to be here after the sunsets without the forefield generators." Wiggling her fingers, creeping up towards Katya around Evie's shoulder.
"Because the tickle monsters come out!" Those same fingers wiggle against their daughter's flanks. Then wrap around both of them. "I love you both."
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