Private A Godless Endeavor

[Loske Treicolt]

A world of firsts could be exhausting. There were many experiences on the spectrum from mundane to epic that Loske had never experienced before. Today had multi selected several integers on that scale. Right now was just one more new thing that she was learning the motions of. There’d been several things today that she didn’t want to repeat (like almost dying), but this one she could relive.

“No point of comparison here.” That could be either a disadvantage or visa versa, likely depending on the situation.

She watched the sentence twirl around Cedric’s chin, up his scarred cheek, and flutter away overhead.

Even as the moment occurred, she projected it to a timeline not of this one. Perhaps it was the past, maybe the future, but the two spirits circling around each other in a loopy daze were harmonized. Pulled from the beach and placed amidst somewhere more suited to the silver screen. In her mind’s eye, thus projection, the swirls of light turned into the exaggerated fabrics of a gown and the shimmers of the luminescence against his Jedi robes looked like regal embroidery.

Her pupils were comparable to the size of marbles.

The directive pressure from him at the small of her back suggested when to move - or, at least that’s how she interpreted it. After the first few clumsy steps she understood the dynamics of the dance floor a bit better, and relinquished any sort of power struggle for passion. Whether or not they were clumsy was a lost judgement. Nobody else in the crowd was right of mind - once the speeches of gratitude had completed, everyone let loose.

Although a raspy drawl, the reflection of times past still enamoured her. She loved memories and stories. Even if they inevitably involved someone else.

“I wonder if you can tell me the memory.. just by thinking about it.” She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning back without reason before she drew in again, keeping her steps small. “You know, reading history through objects. Think it can span to minds?”

Why not try it when high as a kite?

“Or, actually... no. The present is good.”

 

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Their dance was not the most graceful thing, but then Cedric wasn't here for appearances. For once, the Essonian's smile never left his face as he swayed along with Loske, allowing the music to wash over him like a warm tidal wave. The worries that generally pressed upon his mind were cast aside, left forgotten in favor of temporary bliss.

It was a memory that would stick in his mind forevermore, of that he was certain.

"Happy to be your first," Cedric's grin grew a bit sly as he gave her a wink. She retained that almost phoenix-like appearance in his mind's eye, her golden tresses flickering about behind her like bouts of dancing flame.

"Might be possible. Force bonds are...forcy," Cedric added as his gaze traveled up toward the sky for the moment. Describing something as complex as the Force right now was a lot of work. A lot more than he was willing to put in.

Loske mentioned something about not trying it, but then Cedric's curiosity mixed with a complete lack of inhibition shot that idea down rather quickly. He'd already begun to envision the memory in his mind, his eyes squeezing shut to better connect him with the Living Force.

His recollection was as vivid as a dream. Loske would experience it just as he did, fueled by the spice, the intimacy of their bond, and blind force of will. The first thing he recalled was the scent cooked meat filling the ballroom. Then came the girl, a young woman in her late teens. Her eyes were pools of blue, and ashen hair fell down to her waist. Her lips were pressed into a soft, content smile as she stared back at Cedric adoringly, but there was something off about her. A spark in her eyes that had always left Cedric on guard, even in their private moments.

Lysandra had been insane, and more than a little power hungry. Her affections had not been false, but desires behind them certainly were. Her later actions had come to be the foundation for Cedric's mistrust of relationships, and Loske would feel that apprehension sinking in before the memory was banished.

Rather than leave her with that, Cedric shifted his thoughts toward more recent times. He recalled just moment before, when she'd reached out to take her hand, and he'd begun to see her as something akin to a goddess. There was no mistrust in that memory, no dark intention.

"Imperium or not, you've made all this struggle worth it." Cedric spoke as he receded from the memory, eyes opening as they swayed softly to the music. "If Ession hadn't fallen, if I'd never ended up helping the New Republic...I'd never have met you."

Loske Treicolt

 

[Loske Treicolt]

Loske could only simper at the suggestion behind his words. Laughing would give too much away and once she started she probably wouldn’t be able to stop. Her stomach, back of her throat and ears all felt connected and on the precipice of some sort of change. A laugh could not bode well,

All too agreeably, Cedric pitched his mind backward to the last time he’d traced a dance floor. Loske took this cue to squint her own eyes to activate her concentration, and tightened the hold in his hand to make sure their palms and fingertips were truly touching enough to activate the aid of her psychoscopical abilities.

Her dance partner remembered smells, so Loske felt an assault on her nose. She struggled not to open her eyes in shock, but kept them closed so as not to interrupt the experience. The odour faded to the background, it’s impressiveness being replaced with the context of several other bodies. The people that surrounded Loske and Cedric on Chandrila were replaced with robed figurines in black, with varying lengths and embroidery. The stars and lights overhead were replaced with a ceiling and ornate decor. Then, like an out of body experience, she was looking through and younger Cedric’s eyes into blue, mysterious ones that were not her own.

She was thing awkwardly shifted to Lysandra’s point of view. Her stomach clenched as she dropped several inches, finding herself having to angle to look up at Cedric. In real life, she reflexively drew tighter to him, as if she could insert herself between teen Cedric and the other woman. The memory’s angle shifted, so Loske and Cedric were dancers in the silhouettes layered beneath teenage Grayson and betrothed. Some steps matched, some made them side by side. She was about to get too dizzy to maintain, and her posture was starting to slouch in his hold, when he ended the moment and drew them back to the present.

Her belly churned, and she felt cross eyed while the music continued to dance along his shoulders. She tried really hard to find one thing to focus on, a fixed point to steady her oncoming nausea.

Then Cedric spoke - a silken line uncurling from his lips, twisting through her hair until it found a home in her ears. It warmed the drums, and snuggled in soundly somewhere in her head. They were beautiful words, in sound, sight and feel. Woah, she could feel vowels and consonants. She blinked heavily and slowly. That was way too serious a statement for right now. Woah. A similar, kindred sentiment tried to draw attention to itself in her mental peripheral. She couldn’t see it well enough to read it, and it couldn’t make its way to her tongue.

“Cedric I..” she started, and leaned into him. Beautiful words. Words of contented acceptance. He’d lost his world, many of his people, his way of life— but in doing so, was put on another path she happened to be hitch hiking on—- and he was okay with it. “I think I might l—“ nope, dizzy. ”Might need to sit down.” she quickly corrected, and swayed slightly, not to the beat of the music and made her heels heavy to lean back, suggesting toward the edge of the crowd. The dance floor thinned near the lapping waves, and a rocky, secluded space near the foot of the villa. “Sorry, it’s.. wow. This is really strong and I’m really dizzy and I want..” another heavy blink “To give you the respect what you’re saying deserves but I also want you to say these things when you mean it and not because of some weird soup spice.” She drew the back of one hand to her mouth and made a frustrated face, hissing a cuss into her skin for not having a better tolerance for inebriants.

 

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Normally he would have been marveling at the ability to transfer memory so accurately, but the moment being as it was happened to be a bit distracting. Documentation would have to wait.

Then came her slow words. Cedric heard them as a dull buzzing beneath the thrum of life all around them, and it took him an extra second or two to process what she’d said. The Essonian’s eyes went wide as the realization came over him.

And then came the secondary realization that she had not actually said that . Never had a surge of adrenaline cooled so quickly.

He followed after her, silently thanking the Ashla for the break in the crowd. “Well,” he did his best to lower his voice, but the buzz of life around them made that difficult. “I’ll admit I’ve never tried spice before. This is an...interesting first.” He cracked a half-smile. “But I do know this, loopy drug or not,” he reached out to take her hands in his. Felt right. “I’ve been thinking that about you for awhile now. This stuff just makes me more honest.” An honest admittance. There was much more to be said, but Loske had a good point. Better spoken sober, that way there wasn’t any doubt. “Normally I’d try to seduce you now, but I’m not to confident in my abilities at the moment.”

Loske Treicolt

 

[Loske Treicolt]

Fingers entwined, her hands were snatched up. They stopped walking, and got serious and unserious in moments miliminutes apart. This time she couldn’t avoid laughing. It started in her belly and frothed to the top. She had to tilt her head into her shoulder to stop it, not bringing her hands away from their cocoon. She ended with a hhm-hmm.

The waves slowed and pooled around their feet, the water cool. It was the grounding shock she was looking for. While she’d been born on a desert planet, she had an affinity for the more watery ones. They held more pleasant memories. The ebb and sway of bodies on the dance floor, mixed with the journey to the past was enough to spark her stomachs ineptitude. The distracting, orphic encompassment of the lights turning out to be too much. The distance, although it was only a few meters, allowed some refreshment. She tried to look in the direction of the horizon, but it was dark and the waves of the sea only glistened beneath the stars.

“Normally you’d try to seduce me.” She repeated, the sentence sounding as humorous the second time around as it had the first. Maybe it was because of Cedric’s cool exterior, and an admittance to self doubt was perceivably uncharacteristic. Cracking a toothless grin, Loske took those hands of theirs and wound them behind her, so his arms were around her and she was holding his wrists at the small of her back. It was also helpful support for her waning dizziness. “Is that part of the program in the Jedi texts?

What do you imagine that looks like?”

Poor Cedric was walking into all sorts of compromising positions today -- but on the bright side, if there were any question remaining on the blithe clone’s mental fortitude in the face of extreme emotion and duress, the reports back to the lab would all be outstanding after today especially! She’d thought there’d be a ceiling to the extremities, but her doubts had been squandered after Isar had confirmed he’d had no such reservations and had fraternized with a Mandalorian. They were downright banished when she’d not exploded in the Netherworld when P Placeholder 0128 fully exposed his vulnerability. If her heart had been close to bursting, it would have been then.

She swayed slightly in this new hold, a resolute movement this time, though her gaze remained transfixed on him. His visage serving the purpose of a horizon for her not to get overwhelmed with motion again and stay in the present. The temporary elysian.

Not wanting to drive either of them too crazy, she made some sort of less tempestuous statement: "I think we might have to sleep this off." She admitted finally, rotating herself out of the hold she'd put herself in and giving him a little downward tug as she plunked herself down in the sand. Legs stretching out, she looked pretty comfortable. Enough for a nap.

 

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It was a memory Cedric would do well to preserve. In the midst of war, in his darkest times, it was the pleasant memories that kept him going. The only times he'd ever been able to channel the Light of the Ashla was through focusing on such sacred nostalgia, and he knew in his heart that this was probably going to take the cake over anything else.

The Jedi cracked a stupid grin as Loske drew his arms about her. Theirs was a closeness few would ever enjoy. It was a bond as much physical and emotional as it was spiritual, the ties of the empyrean binding them from across the stars.

"Oh, certainly. The first chapter of "The Jedi Path' covers the various ways one can approach a woman." His words dripped with giddy sarcasm. "It's gonna blow your mind when you get to the second. That'swhen they get into positions," Cedric snickered as he debated whether to continue the banter, or to just kiss her and do away with the niceties.

Loske had another suggestion though. Cedric did well to hide the sudden disappointment of a nature that he'd never experienced before. It was the pain of a blue balled man. Nonetheless he settled down into the sands alongside her, more than content to simply enjoy Loske's company as he drew his arms about her, watching as fireworks burst in the sky and the crowds around them thrummed to the music.

---

Orange light pierced the sky as the sun began its slow rise over the ocean. Cedric's eyes cracked open as it tickled his retinas. He drew his arms away from Loske, leaning up to rub some of the tiredness out of his eyes.

The effects of the spice had burned out of his system, leaving him feeling a bit tired, but content. He looked to Loske's slumbering form, and debated on waking her. Eventually he settled on letting her be, simply reaching over to take her hand as he watched the sun begin to rise above the seas. The party around them had died down in the night, though it would resume in a few hours. For now the beach was quiet, and mostly abandoned save for those like them that had either opted for a nap, or found it at the bottom of a bottle.

Loske Treicolt

 

[Loske Treicolt]

P Placeholder 0128 's subtle movements to wake caused her to stir She'd unconsciously snuggled in through the night, using his chest as a pillow. So when he moved away, she had no choice but to continue forcibly sleeping, or slowly wake up. Turned out Cedric didn't need armour all the time - he could just keep her frame close enough to stay any assassins in the night. Her eyes were slow to open, but when they did the sight was marvellous.

The morning skies of Chandrila offered far more beauty than their star spattered counterpart. Pastel hues streaked through the atmosphere, bleeding into the silver waves that rolled against the sands dangerously close to their feet. Oh yeah, she still had no shoes. In the process of waking up, she exhaled a hmmm and shifted to lay on her back, keeping her hand in his and resting it on her stomach to look upward. Despite the slight agitation in her system, accredited to the previous night's spice, this was nice. This was real nice.

"Good morning." Her voice was low, still somewhat groggy as she elbowed herself up to sit next to him, stretching her legs out and glancing around at the scene. There had definitely been a party here the night before. It was a marvel they didn't have any marker on their faces. Her gaze drifted over several other former partiers -- none of whom she recognized. They were far more solid looking this morning, less like waves of light or silhouettes of the past. She kept her voice low, and a wicked grin crept along her lips while she ran her fingers through her hair, giving it a shake near the ends to let some of the sand fall back to the beach. She was surprised they'd slept through the night with all the noise - probably attributed to getting drugged. "I can't believe we slept together in front of all these people."

She gave a wink before burying her face in her hands and giving it a wake-up rub.