http://worm-dancer.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] worm-dancer.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] trans_92009-08-05 03:58 am

"This is Siaynoq." She said. "All that remains of the Tyrant's greatest ritual." [OPEN]

Sheeana doesn't like to train in the sensorium. There's something about the guarantee of safety, the artificiality of the sorroundings...It dulls her edge. Her reactions are a fraction of a second too slow.

Instead she's brought her little maker to the park with her. Purple grass. Strange, crystalline trees. Bags of multicolored sand lie in a heap a few meters away, where she's dragged them from the nearby playground.

The sandworm is barely seven feet long on its diet of scraps and sickly from the humid environment. Even still, it rears back and snaps at her with impressive speed on the purple grass. Sheeana dodges back and twists side to side. Each snap of the tripartite jaws closes just a few inches from her. She is a literal blur of motion, dancing evasively then vaulting over it like a naked ancient Greek on a vase.

There is something to this scene of a boy wrestling with his dog. It can be seen on the Dune waif's little crook of a smile.

She draws her crysknife. The bone-white blade is the tooth of an adult maker, and she tells her charge so: "Someday you'll have teeth this big too."

She feints playfully at it, careful to keep her arm from getting caught in it mouth with its rows of little daggers and blazing internal fire.

She doesn't realize she's not alone at first.

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-05 08:24 am (UTC)(link)
He'd gone exploring--talking to Arha and her worm had put him in a pensive mood, and he'd always found that a walk helped clear his head. Though at the Jedi Temple it seemed that he was always interrupted by a student or someone with a pressing crisis threatening the galaxy, he realized those for what they were and dealt with them as they came up. But here, he was quite uninterrupted as he strolled through the upper deck into what he'd learned was called the Hub with thoughts of going to see the city level.

Glad of the weight of the lightsaber at his hip, Luke had set out into the city, thoughts whirring but ever vigilant, as he'd been told the city wasn't the safest of places on the ship. Still, he couldn't stay safe all the time especially if they were to be eradicating a universal threat.

It was a whisper, a nudge from the Force that he barely noticed guiding his feet. Go this way, it whispered. And he saw the worm, and felt the same impression as he had from Arha's worm. Arha's was bigger than it but still stunted perhaps by its container, and from the way the Force eddied sluggishly around this worm it wasn't much better off. Luke was again reminded of the thernbee he'd encountered while a captive of Kueller. But it seemed happy with the girl who was darting around it with a strange white knife.

Curious, Luke went to investigate closer, leaning on a strange tree to watch.

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-05 05:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Luke stepped away from the tree, holding his hands out in a non-threatening gesture. "I wouldn't hurt either of you," he said. "I preserve life as best as I can. I just didn't expect to see another sandworm here." He stepped forward, half-listening to what the Force was telling him.

"I met one that Arha has," he said, addressing Sheeana now. "You two are from the same place, aren't you?"

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-05 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"She reminds me of people I know at home." Luke tilted his head; so this Sheeana and Arha both were members of their own Order. Somehow, that didn't surprise Luke in the least.

"Bene Gesserit?" He asked. "What are they?"

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-06 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
Jedi and these Bene Gesserit seemed fairly close, at least in this cursory explanation. Luke got the definite sense that she wasn't telling him everything, but he could not be secretive; that had been the big fault of the old Order, and here among people he would have to work with, Luke thought it best to be as transparent as possible, should she ask questions.

"Home is with the Jedi Order, on Coruscant."

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-06 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
"Where I live now, I guess." Luke tilted his head. "Very perceptive. I grew up on a planet called Tatooine. If you and Arha are from the same place--it's like the planet you both call home. Completely desert."

He thought about her second question a moment. "We can be teachers," he said after a moment. "We mostly protect and negotiate, and if all else fails, we are called upon to fight."

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-06 07:40 am (UTC)(link)
He smiled; Arha had put it the same way. "I'm Luke Skywalker, Grandmaster of the Jedi Order--and yes, I'm a desert creature."

What struck him the most about Arha and now Sheeana was how perceptive they were, how their blue-in-blue eyes seemed to pierce even him. With his gaze, Luke had been said to see through others; now it seemed he was the one who was transparent, a glass containing his thoughts for them to see. And oddly enough, he didn't feel any trepidation, knowing through the Force that he could trust Arha, and Sheeana.

And the question she'd asked was a sticky one. After Caedus' atrocities, the Jedi Order had had a discussion on exactly where its loyalties lay, and the idea had been put forth--and widely accepted--that the Jedi could be their own autonomous group. So really, the question got down to the core of the purpose of the Order itself. Who did they fight for?

"We fight when there are people who need defending," he said at last, carefully. "Jedi are guardians of peace and justice, and they always have been. Where those things are not, the Jedi will do their best to put it right."

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-06 08:05 am (UTC)(link)
Luke nodded solemnly, thinking of the way his own father had hunted down and killed younglings in the Jedi Temple; how the Emperor's orders had resulted in dozens of Jedi across the galaxy being killed.

"We've been hunted," he said. "The Purges are spots in our Order's history where everything goes blank for a long time."

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-06 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Luke knelt, holding his hand out to the sandworm to--sniff? nuzzle?--do what it wanted, but kept his eyes and most of his attention on Sheeana. "Your Order has an oral history?" he asked.

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-07 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
Luke obligingly scratched the worm lightly, feeling how the Force swirled through it--different than Arha's, but the same creature. It seemed to enjoy the attention he gave it, and he smiled and sent it thoughts of welcome and wonder, hoping it would understand.

"You inherit the memories of all the--the Reverend Mothers before you?" he said, trying to understand. "What's the Spice agony?"

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-07 06:02 am (UTC)(link)
There, a flash--

Luke's brow furrowed for a moment, but he let it go. He didn't know these creatures very well, and whatever unusual things sent out in the Force could be perfectly normal for them. He thought it rude to ask so soon after meeting Sheeana and her worm. It seemed like the kind of question for later on.

"Not a lot," he said. "I know it smells like cinnamon and without it, she would die--and probably you too, since you have the same eyes."

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-08 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
"So it's a drug--a stimulant that enables to you to these things," Luke said, watching the worm squirm around. He wondered if he'd hurt it somehow, with its sudden change in attitude. He could feel its agitation in the Force, and sought to soothe it. Then something she'd said came to mind.

"If she survives?" Luke repeated. "You get dosed with poison as part of your Trials?"

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-08 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
"The Force grants that to Jedi. How do you convert the poison, though?" That would involve bodily control down to the molecular level, Luke thought. While something like that was needed for those Jedi able to hide themselves in the Force, he didn't think it could go farther than that.

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-09 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
"We can do some of those things," Luke said. "We can go into a hibernation state, control aspects of our bodies, but we Jedi don't have the molecular control that you seem to. Probably because of the difference in the way our abilities manifest themselves in day-to-day life; we use ours externally, in defending our charges and the like; yours seem to be more internal."

He caught a glint of something and saw her sucking her finger, but didn't press it. It seemed a reflexive action almost.

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-09 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, Luke couldn't argue with that statement. A Jedi did face many internal challenges along his or her path in life; temptations from the Dark Side, struggles with their own role in the Force. Luke himself had faced those foes. Sometimes, he still did.

"Jedi try to avoid politics as well, but sometimes, it seems impossible to not get involved." He thought of the recently-concluded war, the sentiments that the Jedi themselves could be an autonomous nation, a consortium of Force-users that could in their own right hold political clout. Part of that, surely, was that he was brother to one of the most celebrated senators in the Galactic Alliance, and a hero himself. "We defend and advise, we don't try to rule."

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-10 07:37 am (UTC)(link)
"It always is. Jedi in the past have made the mistake of thinking they may know better than the politicians and sought to change government itself." He sighed. "That never went well."

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-10 08:28 am (UTC)(link)
"What would it benefit them if they caught you?" Luke asked. Politics always hinged on who benefited how much and where, at least in his experience. That was the simplest way to think of it.

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
"Seems typical, I bet they grew up with this threat around them and had to adapt." It had been encountered in other races around the galaxy he was familiar with. "But then why would they want knowledge that wouldn't help them survive?"

He was partly asking her, partly thinking out loud, sitting on the ground now with an expression of thought on his face. Being used to constant demands on his time and expertise, even sitting here was making him feel lazy. Not that he hadn't needed a vacation.

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-13 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
Luke shuddered, thinking of the viruses that prevented Boba Fett and his granddaughter from returning to Mandalore, or the ones that had killed during Caedus' civil war. It was so unnatural it made his skin crawl. "They think you have a way to stop these engineered viruses?"

[identity profile] restoresbalance.livejournal.com 2009-08-13 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"Why don't you work together to stop the threat at its source?" Luke asked, a little puzzled. Without being there, able to pick up on emotions and read the situation for himself he had no idea if he was getting an objective view. While he implicitly trusted Sheeana, it fell to a Jedi to be as impartial in such things as was possible.

"It sounds like all of you have great ability. Wouldn't it be easier to band together?"

[identity profile] brainy-bot.livejournal.com 2009-08-06 09:07 am (UTC)(link)
[is okay?]

The conversation with Kara had been... interesting. To put things mildly. Brainy decides he'd like to talk with her again at any rate, even if he's still trying to find out how she and his counterpart think of each other.

He's on his way back from that part of the city when he catches sight of movement in the park and pauses overhead, floating on the air as his eyes narrow in on the scene below. The girl's movements are interesting and speak of extensive training, but it's the worm creature that draws his attention, and Brainiac 5 floats down to land nearby where he knows he'll be spotted easily.

"Hello," he says once he's certain he has her attention. "I don't believe we've met?"

[identity profile] brainy-bot.livejournal.com 2009-08-06 09:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Brainiac 5," he says. There's a pause and he reluctantly adds, "the second one."

His attention shifts to the worm for a moment and he continues speaking. "I noticed you and your... pet as I was passing by. What is it?"

[identity profile] brainy-bot.livejournal.com 2009-08-08 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
Brainy blinks in surprise and tilts his head curiously. "You haven't met my counterpart?" he asks. "We both come from different dimensions, but our appearances are similar enough. Most others I have met so far have met him already, which was why I mentioned it."

The sandworm gets another curious look, and this time Brainy's eyes light up as he scans it in order to learn more. "It came here with you?"

[identity profile] brainy-bot.livejournal.com 2009-08-08 09:51 am (UTC)(link)
"Chapterhouse?" Brainy asks, not really paying attention to the scrutiny he was under. No doubt it was just natural curiosity about another unusual life form, much like what motivated him to kneel down by the sandworm and reach a hand towards it slowly. "Does he have a name?"

[identity profile] brainy-bot.livejournal.com 2009-08-10 11:15 am (UTC)(link)
"I see," Brainy answers, though it's clear he's not really paying much attention to Sheena for the time being. The worm didn't seem to object overly to his closeness, so he reached a little further in order to position his hand over it. A panel in his forearm slid back at the same time a pale green light focused on the sandworm, and Brainy tapped at some buttons to initiate a more detailed scan as well as record what he learned.

"Is there any reason you call him that?" he asked absently as he worked.

[identity profile] brainy-bot.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 12:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Brainy frowns, but withdraws his hand, the limb changing back to its normal appearance. "It shouldn't cause any discomfort, but I can stop. I have enough data to look over for the time being."

He stands up and turns to face Sheena again. Maybe just a little too late, it occurs to him that he should have asked first. "You don't mind, do you?" It obvious the question is just him being polite, the idea that the answer would be anything other than 'no' hasn't even crossed his mind.