A Wedding On Retalik: Take Two (Jak Sandrow)

[Slot 14]

Leyan had never loved her home city more than she did in that moment. No matter what had happened there, she still loved it. And she would miss it terribly. But only because she grew up there. As they started to ascend into the atmosphere, she found herself beginning to wonder just what the outside of the sky looked like.​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

As they left the atmosphere, Jak accelerated, till they were high up enough to easily see the curvature of the world. Crovhana was invisible now, far too small, and far too dim to see. Absently, Jak wondered exactly how well Leyan would hold up on Coruscant... Better save that till much later.

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

Leyan took a small intake of breath, pressing her hand against the glass as she leaned as close to the window as she could get. Retalik. Green and just as full of life and beauty as she'd dreamed it was. And beyond it was a darkness filled with nothing but stars. It was so amazing to her that she actually felt tears rising to her eyes.​

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"How could I not know the true beauty of my own home?"​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak didn't hit the hyperdrive just yet; instead, he just backed away from Retalik till it appeared no larger than the planet in the holo projection.

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

Leyan looked a lot like a child seeing a Christmas tree in the dark. Her face was full of wonder. Though sadness still tugged at the edges of her mind, she was to overcome to be effected by it.​

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She turned to Jak.​

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"I want to see other places. Other worlds unlike my own. I... I want to see everything!"​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak chuckled. "That might be a bit too much; heck, I've seen hardly anything, and here I am, smuggler for all my life." Punching in a few coordinates, he leaned back in his chair as the computer crunched the numbers. "So, this is a spaceship; it's like a small home, but for flying through air and space. Spaceships can come in all sorts of shapes and colors, some have guns, lasers, plasma batteries... Some are the size of..." He gestured in front of himself, trying to get the scope across. "Some are as big as one thousand Crovhanas, even!"

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

Leyan listened to Jak in fascination. She'd never even heard of half the things he was talking about, but she took in every word anyway.​

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"What's a 'smuggler'? Do you visit a lot of places because of this job?"​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak coughed. "Well... in my opinion, a smuggler is someone who gets people what they want, whether or not they should actually have it... And yeah, it's pretty much all flight, all the time. You can take breaks, if you can afford to."

"Although, I'm not just a smuggler," he clarified. "Actually, I've applied for a job as a bodyguard. We'll see what comes of that."

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

"Bodyguards are called Hëmdael in Crovhana. The royal family each have their own personal hëmdael that they keep for their entire reign..."​

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Leyan's voice drifted into silence. Rythar had been her bodyguard. The slightest thought of him made her chest hurt. She looked down at her hands.​

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"... Do you have any water?"​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak nodded. "Oh, yeah," he said. "Just going to go to hyperspace first, then I'll get a drink for you." Pulling back a lever, he remembered too late that she had never seen hyperspace before. "Don't be scared!" he rushed, too late.

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

Hyperspace? What was- WHAAAAT???? Leyan wasn't sure how to react to what she was seeing. It was a brilliant blue sort of tunnel. How did they get inside it? Was that what was supposed to happen? She looked over at Jak, confused and a little bit startled.​

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"W-what's happening?"​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak grimaced. He really needed to remember she was new to all this. To him, this was as natural to him as air and ground, and metal under his feet. "Ah... it's sort of like space, but really really fast," he fumbled. He knew a little about hyperspace, but was no expert. Still, it would all be Bothan to her.

"From what I've heard, all the white is stars, and all the blue just sort of a backwash of light, like the sky," he attempted to explain. "I don't know... not really."

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

Leyan turned her attention back to the window.​

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"It's very pretty..."​

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Her throat was dry. Her stomach was starting to feel bad as well. It was like hunger, but not for solid food. Water would make it feel better.​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

"Don't stare at it too long, or you'll get vertigo," Jak advised, moving back through the ship to get at his supply of water. Getting two waterbottles, he took one for himself, and gave the other to her. "Here you go."

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

Leyan gratefully accepted the water. She drank slowly and deeply. After a little bit, the stomach ache subsided.​

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"Before. You said something about being a plant..."​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak nodded. "Yup," he smiled. "I was a human, then I got turned into what is called a Vinithi. An artificial, yet completely natural plant." He put his hand in front of him, and formed a leaf in his palm, which seemed to rise out of his hand like a lily pad on water. He gently peeled it off his palm and handed it to her. "I can manipulate plant matter - including myself - to my whim. I'm not as powerful as I know I can be, but for now? I'm pretty well off."

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

Leyan gently took the small leaf in her hand. She had a way with plants much like Jak did. She couldn't grow them out of herself or anything, but she could get them to "trust" her, in a way.​

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The leaf began to sprout tiny white roots that wrapped her index finger in a kind of hug. It grew upward, with three other leaves sprouting from its stem.​

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"Vinithi... they sound a little bit like Theowei."​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak stopped breathing in mild amazement as she began to change the leaf and make it grow. He reached out with the Force again, just to check something....

No... She wasn't Vinithi at all.

"I'm sorry, Theowei?"

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]

 

[Slot 14]

"My people are called the Theowei. We come from the Theowen, our plant-born ancestors. There have been off-worlders who describe our nutritional habits with the word 'photosynthesis'."​

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Leyan gave the leaves now in her hand a very tiny grin. She then held them out to Jak for him to look at.​

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[member="Jak Sandrow"]​

 

[Jak Sandrow]

"Interesting..." Jak said. He examined the leaves closely. "Very interesting." He nodded, a little to himself. "What more can you do? Can you show me?"

[member="Leyan Viceritas"]