Arika has already helped herself to the pots and pans in the kitchen. As well as the stove and the refrigerator filled with food. She has taken out meat, vegetables, spices, and other ingredients that she will need. She takes a fairly large pot and fills it with water from the sink, then sets it atop the stove and turns the lighter beneath it on.

While the water boils, she sets to laying out a carrot on a cutting board and starts to chop it into tiny slices with a knife from a drawer she'd rummaged through. The meat would come last, as it would ruin the taste of the concoction before it would even begin.

Leia always felt a chill go down her spine when entering through these hallowed doors. Donned in a simple white blouse and medium-length skirt -- beige and black were both certainly, certainly out -- her heels clicked along the stone walkways.

Obi-Wan told her to meet him in a small meditation room. She palmed the door open, delighting in the warm colors and comforting atmosphere.

Shortly after speaking with Sheryl, Miku once again made her way towards the Magic Department's building. She was a little proud of herself for remembering the way through the City to the Jedi temple, and by the time she finally made it, she sat herself down on the steps of the building and rubbed her legs.

While there was nothing she could justify worrying about, Miku felt the tale-tell fingers of nervousness coil up around her heart and stutter the beat. I'll be fine, she assured herself. I'll be just fine. Miku stood up and dusted off the back of her pink skirt before starting into the temple. Her legs felt a little bit like gelatin, the inside of her knees felt oddly ticklish with each step inside.

It was about then that Miku realized she didn't quite remember where she'd gone the last time she was in here. "...oh boy."

Arika stands at the front of the Jedi Temple, a bag of undergarments in one hand, and the other relaxed at her side. She is dressed in the outfit that Rein had made for her, looking at the temple with a somewhat intrigued, and yet sedated, expression. The structure is familiar, if only in the building techniques, and for a brief moment, she remembers Ostia, and the magic world, and she feels a small ache.

But that is gone as quickly as it had come. She does not have much effort to miss her old home. She has her son now. She has that part of her that she'd had to leave behind for his own safety. Negi requires all her attention and affection. The motherly affection that he'd been deprived of as a child.

Arika shifts on her feet, her low heels making click click sounds against the ground. She waits exactly where Negi told her to wait for him -- right in front of the temple. She assumes that this way, he won't have to go far to look for her in the city.

After talking to Ben, Luke had decided to go to the Jedi Temple and practice some of his lightsaber forms, working off some of the energy that had built up with a full night of sleep and a healing trance besides.  As well as to calm his mind, keep it focused; he had the sense that they were standing on the brink, watching the storm come swiftly in, and knew that he and the other Jedi would need to get together and work things out, checking in with all of them.

Focus.  Feel the Force, let it flow through you.

His green blade sliced through the air, leaving glowing trails behind, concentrating on those first teachings Obi-Wan had given to him on the Falcon, many years ago.  And gradually, Luke slipped into a sort of trance, the Force wrapping around him and supporting every simulated parry, every practiced strike.

By all rights, he probably should have been fixating on the Ohm, but the people he knew well on the ship all seemed to have made it out in fair shape. He’d try to get hold of the debriefings when they were all in, then ask questions if he needed to. But for now, he was more interested in what had happened to Steve during shore leave, partly to figure out who in the crew was messing with people’s heads, partly to find out if the ship had any particular limitations…

He would have liked to hold this conversation semi-private, but, barring locking himself in the Shadow or the Falcon, there weren’t a lot of places no one could sneak into. He settled for second best: somewhere he figured most people would be too busy to stop by, the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He sat nestled in a circle of stones in a cross-legged, half-meditative posture. “So Stacy,” he called casually, “do you have a few minutes?”

Ben Skywalker was trying to meditate, and failing spectacularly.

The Room of a Thousand Fountains – or, more accurately, on the ship’s reproduction of the room at the Temple, which was itself a replica of the Old Republic’s Temple Room of a Thousand Fountains – was designed to be as relaxing as possible, filled with waterfalls and shallow pools that rippled in the soft lights. But even in this familiar pocket of the ship, his mind remained stubbornly unblankable. His emotions, he knew, were an open book of pain, regret, confusion, loss, and even fear and anger toward Coruscant’s invaders. Jedi Knights were meant to have control of their feelings at all times, but, then again, most Jedi Knights didn’t have to relive the destruction of the galaxy.

He sighed, and admitted to himself that meditation was out of the question. There was too much to think about – could the Ohm be stopped, how was this crew supposed to stop them, should they be stopped at all, should someone talk to them, why were they doing this, how were the Daligig resisting them, why were the Daligig resisting them, where was Vestara anyway, what was the ship meant to do, why was the ship revealing memories now, had that really been his memory, had it really happened -- to put it all aside. And more than that… Ben needed reassurance from the Force. It was unquestionably childish, but after reliving that much death, what he wanted more than anything was the comfort of feeling the lives left on board this ship.

Ben closed his eyes and reached out in the Force, searching through the Force for his family, for the survivors from his own galaxy, and for the beings he’d met since his release from hibernation. He brushed each of their minds briefly, just enjoying the fact that they were there, not caught up in the cracking of a planet or smashed by enemy starships. They were alive and luminous in the Force – and that, more than anything in the Room of a Thousand Fountains – let him begin to relax.

It was a well known fact that Negi couldn't sleep well without sleeping near anyone. Even when he was tempered by experiences, he was still ten, and prone to nightmares. As such, the young boy had sleepwalked through the rooms of the dorm and his internal Girl Senses had located someone. Tall, soft, smelled like machine oil and soap.

Perfect.

Still nearly 100% asleep, Negi crawled into bed alongside the form and curled up, sleeping until morning when he stirred and sleepily muttered, "Morning Oneechan..."

And planted a soft kiss on the person's lips.

The clicking of needles could be heard in the living room late in the afternoon as Matt wore reading glasses, his fingers twitching through the repetitive motions. He had been feeling out of sorts lately, and after some checking, found one of Kandor's stashes of wool and had started to knit. It wasn't quite common for a warrior of Kandrakar to be doing this, but Matt really wanted to keep himself busy and it wasn't practical to keep using the sensoriums or the media library as much as he wanted to. So knit one, pearl two, and he was working on a pair of socks. Why? because he liked wearing socks when he went to bed. It kept his feet warm when Rein randomly sized up and stole the blankets.

That was another thing on his to do list: make the little desu machine a blanket. She had been a good friend, working on things when he wasn't there, but in their downtime, she was off somewhere or sleeping. Or eating. Eating mostly.

He set the blue sock to the side, looking at it before setting it down and starting up another row. It needed to be longer.

There had been plenty of time to rest and recuperate following the defeat of the Nightmare King (crew arguing on the omnicomms aside), but Nanoha was never one to let herself relax for too long. Even if there wasn't anything immediate that needed dealing with, she was back in her office in the Jedi Temple to review the events to try and better understand them.

But her thoughts kept returning to the cryptic comm conversation she'd had with Rein. Why had the cheerful little Unison Device suddenly acted so formal? She couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong.

Matt had been right.

As soon as he managed to stumble his way back from the Medical bay, he had slept the sleep of the truly exhausted. And he wasn't the only one. For a good portion of two weeks, various people had taken up residence in the bus and their comfy beds. Ben had been discovered by Irma, collapsed halfway to the Outsiders hotel and had been dragged in. Rein had collapsed over Matt's face and had rolled to his chest where she had wiggled into his shirt.

But finally, they had woken up from their epic sleep and everyone was hungry.

As such, the smell of cooking food wafted freely from the breakfast nook as people lined up for food, serving themselves. There was plenty of it and for once, not the slop that would be served. No, this was some of the precious stocks of food they had left. How much they could take at a single time was up to them however.

Matt stifled a yawn, drank from his coffee cup and flipped over the sausages. There were a lot of hungry people to feed and news of the delicious morning meal had spread across the famished people over the last two weeks of being unconscious.

(ooc: mingle thread like kareoke but with breakfast. go wild.)

It wasn't often someone found Rein sleeping in a public place that wasn't the inside of her bag. But in the middle of everything her exhaustion had finally caught up to her.

Having gotten a performance check, the still adult sized woman had been on the way to Vivio's place when she sat down on a bench. As if a switch had been thrown, she had passed out on the bench not far from her origin point which was the bus.

Light snores came from the girl as she was curled up, dreaming of better days. A bag of sticky buns were clutched in her hands as if it was a pillow or a lifeline. A gift for a tired little friend.

The girl sat in her office in the Jedi Temple, papers all over the wooden desk she'd appropriated - sketches, diagrams, filled with words crossed out, scribbled in (in increasingly-sloppy handwriting), and the like.

Now that she'd made up with Fate, she was smiling again despite the situation, but anyone who knew her would still see the signs that Nanoha was overworking herself: The bags under her eyes and the way her hands trembled every so often. But her eyes were still bright, and she still managed to keep up as cheerful an air as she could possibly manage against the growing influence of the Nightmare King.

She'd called Leon to go over the plans that she and Roxie had made - Nanoha just hoped they'd be good enough. No, they had to be good enough. That was the only option.

It was pink.

Arguably the most pink bus that Ben had ever seen on his way across the city towards the Sensoriums. He had heard about the bus from various people, but it was the first time he noticed it.

"Even Gwen's powers aren't this pink," remarked Ben with a grin. He couldn't read the text that was scrawled across the side, due to having no magical spark of his own. As such, he stepped towards it and boarded the vehicle.

The silver-and-egg shaped motif reminded him a little of some alien craft, the doors making him reminisce of Gluto, the alien that typically hung around Tetrax. Wondering how his friend was and if he was on the ship, Ben poked his head into the entrance of the bus proper.

"Hello?" he called out.

(ooc: primarily for Irma but anyone in the area can tag to him if they're visiting)

Billy's eyes reopened and he smiled a bit. Looking around the temple he waved a hand to one of the side rooms. "Shall we Mr. Stark?" He moved to the room, even without having him following. He needed to have his answers, and he really needed them. At least this could make sense, because nothing else in his life was.

Plus, maybe he could inform Mr. Stark about all the things that had happened back home. Find out where the man had come from in his time line. Obviously he was in good health, which meant he was from the past. The civil war still meant something to him, which means he had to from either during, or shortly after. He wasn't on edge, so that ruled out anymore than a few weeks after.

And now his head was hurting.

Arha had been moving through every kata she knew, her lightsaber humming and flashing as she moved.  She was focused on Soresu, now, fighting an invisible army only she could see.  This was not the Sensorium, so she relied on nothing but herself.  Arha drew on the Force, and felt it flow through her, gathering in her palm as she moved to push, letting the Force ripple outward to repel a would-be assailant.

It was good practice to actually use the Force this way.  Her Force push stirred a cloud of dust that washed towards the open doorway.  Arha ignored it and kept moving, her hair uncharacteristically soaked and clad only in her plantsuit.  She swept onward, her movements weary, but steadfast.

If Obi-Wan could keep moving, so could she.

Arha began the set again. 

Luke rubbed a hand across his face as he came out of the meditative trance.  The line between meditation and sleep had been blurred lately, his body needing one and his mind the other to keep functioning properly.  Just by looking at the dark circles under his eyes, it'd be pretty easy to tell that Luke wasn't getting enough of one, and healing trances only compensated for so much.

( Wherever I go, your shadow follows me )

It hadn't taken long for Rein and Matt to abductborrow Vivio for a while. After dispensing with the hugs, an extra big one from Rein, they had gone back to the WITCH Bus that was parked in front of the Jedi Temple. Curiously the girl was in her full sized form and was wearing a light summer dress, hand-made by the girl herself.

"Now we haven't shown you this place yet," said Rein as they moved up on the magical lift and entered the water room, "But this is one of the classrooms."

She then grinned as she picked up a swimsuit and handed it to Vivio before pulling her own dress off, revealing a white bathing suit under it. "Go get changed Vivio-chan! We're going swimming!"

Since the announcement, Matt had done his best to clean up everything and prepare a pile of food. There were small sandwiches, various snack foods, chips and several bottles of soda. It was simple snack fair, but it was enough to give people reassurance that there was normal food within the lunacy.

Rein puttered around, the little girl heaving up seats and moving them to accomodate the meeting place in the dining hall, pushing together chairs and tables with surprising strength. The pair worked busily and soon were prepared for whatever would come.

"Seems like we're all ready," said Matt, wiping his forehead. "Made all sorts of snack foods, and I've got the slow roast in the pressure cooker for those who want something hearty."

Walking to the door and wiping his hands on a rag, he opened the door to the bus to welcome anyone who was coming in.

[[OOC: Bendy-timed to before the Holiday plot.]]

Jeka arrived at the Jedi Temple that had been claimed as the headquarters of the Magic Department. A quick inspection of her surroundings indicated that Satori hadn't arrived yet, which didn't bother Jeka that much. She didn't mind waiting, especially when the being she was waiting for was likely to be along shortly anyway.

She passed the time by admiring the architecture. Most buildings on Orando were built into hillsides, and very rarely reached more than a few stories in height. One of the things she'd enjoyed since leaving her home planet was seeing all the things other sentients did with their building materials, and the most interesting examples had always been temples. She and Reep had discussed the reasons for that, and he'd promised to show her some of Durla's temples. They'd never gotten around to taking that trip.

She really, truly hoped that the Daligig were lying about their universes being destroyed. And she hoped that Reep and the others would wake up soon as well.