Blue Clouds

[Kaili Talith]

A very amused smirk set over Kaili. She didn’t feel very old yet, but watching the look on Uncle [member="Dissero"]’s face as it struck him was almost priceless. The girl could only assume that somewhere deep down her parents felt the same way just about every day when they considered that their youngest was now closer to being twenty than ten. That Aela, the twins and her were all growing up and on such widely different career paths. Where Micah surrounded himself with tomes Kaili had surrounded herself with data. Where Aela had taken a semi-militaristic approach on galactic politics, Kaili had settled for a healthy dose of apathetic pacifism and where Maleah had settled on nature, Kaili had settled on industrial expansion. Micah often said that she had a bad case of YSS — Youngest Sibling Syndrome — but that wasn’t really why Kaili did her damndest to stand out… Was it?

Probably not.

Hopefully not.

“Right? Kindness gets paid in kindness, it’s what I tell myself at the end of the day anyway.” Kaili said and nodded. “Oh.” The nodding stopped. Friends passing away wasn’t the type of topic that was hers to ask about. Instead Kaili just listened and let Dissero finish his retelling of how he met Cerita.

Offer of food and the girl chuckled in response. “Yes, please.”

“You know, the one thing I’ve missed since moving out has been father’s cooking.” Kaili said with a warm smile. “Mother’s too, of course, but mostly father’s.”

Kaili was after all her father’s daughter. She would never admit to having favorites, but she kinda did. Though not by a lot.

“I make do, though. I am not too bad of a cook, and I do say so myself.” The kid said and happily devoured another bite of food from her plate.

A few moments of silence lingered in the air as Kaili looked around the room again before setting on her uncle again.

“You know, this is nice. Meeting family again, I mean. It’s been ages since I last saw Mae-Mae. Maybe I’ll visit her next once I leave you to your duties again.” Kaili smiled and took yet another bite.

[member="Dissero"]

 

[Dissero]

"I'm sure Mae-Mae would love that," he cleaned off his own plate with a scoop of a fork and stood from his chair to gather Kaili's from before her. Turning back to the stove Dissero heaped on more eggs, more bacon, and put another few pieces of bread into the toaster.

"She's mostly on Borleias now, I think, where the Eve Foundation is Headquartered. You'd probably like it there. It's like a cleaner, prettier version of Coruscant. Lots of big tech companies are based off Borleias." Course he had no idea if Kaili had already been there. Dissero was not the best at keeping in touch or up-to-date on the happenings of extended family. The man was known as a hermit for a reason, of course, though anymore those reasons had fundamentally morphed into a lifestyle. One he was plenty comfortable with now.

Keep your head low, keep your name off the tabloids, and don't cause a scene no matter what. These were the things that helped a man who had made himself plenty of powerful enemies in his youth secure. That security then transferred to those he cared for most.

"My duties?" the man chuckled as he placed a freshly filled plate on the counter before his niece, "I wasn't aware I had any duties..." and then he went back to take what was left for himself before rejoining Kaili at the table.

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

There was a very deadpanned expression that fell over the young Shamalain fledgling when her uncle mentioned the presence of tech companies on Borleias. Her eyelids drooped, her eyebrows quirked. Ah very flat “Oh really?” parted Kaili’s lips as her gaze followed her uncle around the kitchen. Maybe a small part of Kaili would figure that Di-Di should have been aware of where the girl had grown up at the very least, but that was hardly the reputation she held. Loner, hermit, liked to be left alone, that was more in line with who she had been told her uncle was.

Didn’t mean she would like him any less over it though.

“I mean, we all have responsibilities one way or another.” Kaili shrugged. “I have a tech company to run on Borleias,” Playful little smirk shot out at her uncle. “And you will have a child to take care of, before that a pregnant woman to look out for. Even if she doesn’t really need it, you know?”

Kaili snickered. She had to bring up Borleias again, it was hard not to. “You know I grew up on Borleias. I guess I never saw the Coruscant part as much as the Paradise part. Warm beaches that stretched out for miles... “ She warmed up just thinking about it. Few had the chance to say that they truly had grown up in paradise. Perhaps there were a few perks to being the daughter to a fake god after all, right?

Right. Several of them in fact.

“Way things are going right now, I might actually be looking to turn my store into one of those big electronics companies you talked about, and soon. I just need an opening, you know?” Not that life in the smaller market was unbearable. People simply seemed to put more trust into a chain than the small-timers.

“Which, I guess, is a quarter of the reason I wanted to see you.” She shook her head side-to-side. “Though mainly because I wanted to check up on my favorite uncle.”

[member="Dissero"]

 

[Dissero]

"Geh," Dissero paused over a bite, "Borleias...that's not right, now what..." He snapped his fingers, looking over at Mahet who had vacated the kitchen to take up a spot on the couch over in the common area where he was reading the latest GNN articles on a holo-flimsy.

"Mahet, what's that-"

"Byblos," replied the Noghri before taking a very slow sip of his own tea.

"Byblos! There you go, Byblos. Gaw, you are a brat Nohei," a smirk, Dissero sat up in his chair and leveled his eyes at the girl, "favorite uncle indeed. I'm your only uncle."


~~~

"Your father tells me you're something of a technopath," they'd finished up breakfast and Dissero opted to take her down to the lower levels where his workshop, study, forge, training facility, and the entrance to Faen's den could be found. "That's a unique talent. Not a lot of them around the galaxy. I only know of two from all my travels, not including yourself. I wonder..."

He lead her into his study - a large circular chamber that had once been the progenitor's trophy room for stolen relics. Many of the relics remained inside modern-day display cases; the rest of the walls were lined with shelves which were filled with books, tomes, data files, datacrons, and even a few trinkets to boot. If Kaili looked hard enough she might spy a holocron or two.

"You're not a Jedi of course, but you're of the more Lightside oriented variety right? Like your Aunt Mae-mae."

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

Somewhere in there was another smirk at the brat comment. Kaili had her moments much like the rest of the kids did. Difference being perhaps that unlike with Micah, those moments weren’t really all the common. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t entirely true either. When it came to being a brat it was far more certain that Kaili would be called as such simply because of her temper, but that was something she had worked a lot on as she grew older. Micah still got under her skin sometimes, but that was what she had come to rely on him for; a good reminder of how far she has come.

… Only after she had thrown her fists at him, of course.

The smile that particular thought brought to her would linger even as Dissero led the girl out of the kitchen...

~~~

Eventually they came walking into a big room. Kaili’s eyes widened just a little in awe, but only a little. After all, a girl like her had to keep herself in check. She had heard about this room from Micah, or so she believed. The room certainly smelled the part for what she was expecting. Old, preserved, yet looked surprisingly modern. Not that Kaili really had any expectations for what this particular room would look like, as was evident by the way she was caught off-guard by the grandness of it.

Enough so to get herself lost in her own line of thought while her uncle spoke.

“Huh?” The girl said and looked over at her uncle. The awe and surprise was far more evident than she wanted to let on. “Yeah, I guess.” She shrugged at the lightside orientation. “I’ve never really considered myself much of either-or when it comes to the force, you know?” Kaili said as her head waggled back and forth again. “But, I guess with a mother like mine it’d be pretty hard not to consider myself perhaps just a little bit more, errr… Light.”

The girl still had her temper though.

“Why?” Kaili asked in return almost on impulse as if curiosity got to her. There was an expectant silence hanging in the air, but Kaili dared not break it. It was much like a child approaching a relative who had returned from a long trip expecting gifts. They were, after all, in Uncle [member="Dissero"]’s study.