Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Echo Across Time

Brayden Antares

Guest
Yeah. Brayden didn't have a fething clue what Madalena was on about since her entire memory was a fabrication, but he opted to stick with his present plan of smiling casually. "Food is different in the Unknown Regions." It wasn't aggressively different, really. There was definitely an amount of variety in the far reaches of the galaxy that many living in the known quadrants were simply deprived of.

"Let's...stay here, catch up. I know you're eager to hear about the Unknown Regions, but I'm more curious about what's been happening among the greater galaxy in my absence."

It was the best that Brayden could do to redirect the woman's intended conversation. Wait. Josh...who in the blue hell was Josh...

"No, I haven't spoken to him." Whomever him even was.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Food was different in the Unknown Regions? Madalena blinked. She’d never even considered the thought of that. She was just about to hound Brayden with more questions about what was different about it, about what he’d tried and experienced, ask him whether he’d brought anything for her to have a taste of, but Brayden immediately said that he wanted to stay there to catch up.

Madalena nodded, looking around. Grass as far as the eye could see, pretty much, though there was that mansion thing to one side, and the remains of her speeder further off on the other side. She supposed sitting where they were was as good as any place.

Gently tugging on her brother’s hand, she sat herself down on the grass and waited for him to do the same. Her brother was back! Her heart was racing in circles, trying to contain the happiness of it.

Brayden hadn’t spoken to Josh yet. Madalena shrugged. She’d get them to meet up sooner or later. Josh would’ve been just as happy as her once he knew his friend was back, there was no other option. It was a shame that most of their old life on Coruscant was so gone, otherwise there’d probably other people who’d be more than happy to-

Madalena blinked. Maybe she could throw a little party to celebrate her brother’s return? She’d ask him about it later.

“I don’t completely follow the greater galaxy,” she replied with a shrug, “in the galactic East, the Empire fell, so there’s no one actively antagonizing the Confederacy right now. The Confederacy keeps growing, and I joined their Knights Obsidian. They even let me train a few people! People also seem to like some of my ideas, for instance, my Hutt Breeding Program, though I got bored with it and sold the last of the Hutts to some crime family order. The Silver Jedi are stable too, though the Mandalorians are trying annoy them. Still, looks like the stupid Mando Empire is going to fall sooner rather than later. Good riddance. This galaxy has enough roaches in it.”

Smiling, she removed a waterskin from her belt and took a good long gulp before offering the bottle to Brayden.

[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden returned to his seat, leaning against the exterior of his father's former estate. It wouldn't be information he intended to volunteer to Madalena for the time being. Naturally, he was still very unsure of what the disposition of the entity referring to itself as Madalena was, regardless of how benign she may have seemed.

As he listened to Madalena, Brayden mostly nodded along. He certainly had not been cut off from the holonet recently, so it was possible for him to receive some amount of updates. However, during his time on Phindara, he'd been far too involved in other affairs to allow his mind drift beyond the borders of Endelaan more than a handful of times. When Madalena offered the waterskin, Brayden took it wordlessly. Following a long drink of the soothing liquid, he handed it back to the woman. "Hutt...Breeding Program? Why in all of the galaxy would you want to involve yourself in something like that?"

Brayden held no real love for Mandalorians either, but he never found himself identifying with the hatred of those particular people on the maternal side of his family. If nothing else, Madalena's statement served to ease his apprehension of the woman slightly from a standpoint of familiarity.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Done speaking, Madalena saw Brayden leaning against the wall. Quickly, she shuffled over to sit next to him, her knees resting atop each other, and close to touching his own legs. While he had said that it had indeed been a story, a joke, there was something in her that needed a small assurance that it would be okay if she touched him as she had earlier. It was probably silly. He’d probably laugh at her if she gave it voice.

“Because it’s genius!” she answered with glee, “I was on Tatooine because I wanted to get this artifact from a freshly minted Hutt Boss.” What she hadn’t added, what she couldn’t add, because it had been Scherezade that had gone to see the Hutt, was that he had their mother’s lightwhip, or she would have never even considered going to Tatooine. “He wanted to make me one of is dancing girls, so I killed him, took some of his insides out, wore his skin, and danced. And then I had this amazing idea!”

Quickly, she removed her holodevice again, the images of the damage she’d caused on Manda, when she strapped bombs to her baby Hutts and threw them at an AT-AT to break it down entirely, and the time on Tatooine when the Confederacy came in to wipe the Empire’s remnants out of there, and she used her Hutts again to send them up through the sewers and make the entire bridge area go boom, effectively destroying the personal hopes of more than a few criminal bosses.

“I got the Minister of Science’s ear,” she explained with enthusiasm, “I gave him the Hutt’s tail and he cloned dozens of baby Hutts for me! They’re like little puppies, you can train them. And they’re cold blooded! Most surveillance systems look for warm blood, something vaguely shaped like humans, or droids. No one thinks to look for a bunch of Baby Hutts that recently ate bombs.”

Laughing madly, she turned the holodevice off and pocketed it again.

“I had a fun run with them,” she concluded her story, “but I sold the last fifteen of them to a crime family closer to the core and made a really nice income from it. I’m going to think of something better soon enough though. I always have grand ideas, and the CIS gives me the resources to make them happen, even if it takes some greasing from time to time.”

Madalena looked at Brayden, her smile wide. She was practically beaming now. The Hutt Babies had been a stroke of genius, as had other plans she’d made, like the time she contaminated the drinking water of an entire pirate fortress so that when the CIS showed up, the pirates were literally crapping their pants. Such was how the mind of the girl who no longer existed worked; and in turn, so did Madalena’s.


[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden's brow quirked at Madalena's exclamation of genius. Remaining silent, the tall Endelaan native allowed his mind to follow the logic and color of Madalena's thoughts. The more the woman spoke, the more Brayden silently admitted to himself that it was a very innovative concept.

Filing the bit about surveillance systems away, Brayden pursed his lips slightly. Naturally, his exposure to modern technology had been limited since his release from the Darkness, but he was curious as to such an obvious flaw in a system he presumed was widespread.

When Madalena finished speaking, Brayden allowed a somewhat bemused expression to linger on his lips. "Well then. That's very...inventive." With a single finger of his right hand, Brayden reached over and lightly tapped Madalena on the forehead. "I think maybe you might actually be legitimately crazy. The second coming of Boa--" Brayden caught himself before he related in to another Endelaan reference. Play the part Brayden, play the part.

Feigning an inability to recall their 'childhood story', Brayden recovered as best he could by snapping his fingers. "Wait what was the name of that Queen from our stories again? Anyways, maybe you're crazy like her." Was there even a Queen in the story? He didn't know because he never made up any stories with her.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Madalena giggled as her brother tapped her forehead. She’d known he’d see things her way once she explained the genius of the Hutt Breeding Program. It was almost a shame that she’d sold the last of her Hutts a mere two weeks ago, or she’d have proudly shown him her baby slugs and how they followed orders like little puppies. The secret was always to kill them before they figured out they were people… Sorta, with wants of their own. It was heartless and cruel. And she’d bathed in it.

“Maybe I am crazy,” she shrugged, still smiling proudly, “but my crazy works against whoever my enemy of the day is.”

The second coming of Boa? Madalena blinked. Who was Boa? Brayden then asked about the name of the queen from their stories, causing Madalena to blink a second time. “What queen?” she asked, emerald eyes squinting. Was there a queen that she had forgotten about? No, that was impossible. She’d never forget something like a queen. “We never made stories about the King and Queen of Endelaan. Just the Prince and Princess, Brayden.”

Maybe…

Her face lit up. “Did you create new ones while you were away?”

[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden gave Madalena his best impression of an incredulous look. "Wait. You're sure I didn't tell you about the Queen before I left?" Brayden paused for a moment, feigning giving Madalena the opportunity to connect the dots. In truth he was scrambling to come up with the best way to proceed.

If Madalena thought that Scherezade was the Princess in the story, Boadicea being the Queen wouldn't really make sense. Perhaps he could just modify the per--. Brayden's train of thought came to a grinding halt as he started to laugh at himself. Madalena probably would have just thought he was on the verge of telling her he was just joking again or something. In reality, however, Brayden was laughing at how ridiculous it was for him to fret over the specifics of a story. Clearly...this woman didn't remember Scherezade's time on Endelaan.

"I'm sorry you're right. I didn't tell you before I had to leave! Boadicea...a beautiful, powerful, but clearly psychotic Queen. Like she experimented on and ate her early children. The Prince and Princess were just the first to be deemed worthy. Anyways...you and your baby hutt story reminds me of that." As Brayden finished explaining, a lop-sided grin adorned his lips.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Madalena nodded wildly when Brayden asked if she was sure. Of course she was sure! She might occasionally forget a few details, but she’d never actually forget a character. When Brayden left she frowned, wondering if it was another one of his jokes. At least this one wasn’t half as cruel as the bigger one of earlier.

But then Brayden realized he hadn’t told her about it at all, and Madalena smiled, turning around with a quick move so she could lay on her back with her head on her brother’s lap and listen to his story.

“She ate her children?!” Madalena asked with almost child-like big curious eyes, “ewww!”

But then… “Wait, is this Queen the mother of the prince and the princes?” she asked, “what sort of experiments did she do? How psychotic was she? And hey, I’m not psychotic. I just… Think outside of the box," Madalena grinned.

[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden actually allowed a genuine laugh to escape his lips. Part of him hated Madalena with a passion. However, he was quickly realizing that the only reason he hated the woman was because...she was obviously [member="Scherezade deWinter"] having some sort of crisis. To that end, Brayden merely wanted to help his sister, the one person that had been half of his life for so long. Even in the Darkness, Brayden had felt the comfort of Scherezade's presence for a long time. When it disappeared... There was just no way he was ever going through that again if he could help it.

"I mean...you sounded a little crazy when you talk about breeding creatures just to make them swallow explosives and blow them up." As his laughter started to subside, he shook his head slightly. "Yes, she's the mother of the prince and princess. She was a sorceress and their father a warrior that had tried to conquer the Queen's home." Brayden stopped with his storytelling at that point, satisfied it was just different enough from real life to be 'safe'.

A grumble in Brayden's stomach confirmed that...he actually really would need to eat soon. In the blink of an eye, the tall Sith was on his feet, reaching down to pull Madalena up. "Come on. It's definitely time to eat." More importantly, he needed to get Madalena away from the childhood home of their father. A hint of the man's presence still lingered but perhaps Madalena not knowing their father had been a powerful Sith would keep her from being able to notice.
 
Not crazy! Out of the box! But instead of saying that out loud, Madalena merely giggled, emerald green eyes looking up at her brother. She was well versed in multiple languages and she still felt like she lacked the vocabulary to articulate just how happy she was now that he was back. She’d known all these month with him so far away that a part of her had been missing this entire time, but now that he was back, it felt somehow more tangible than it had before.

Focusing her attention back to the story, eyes widened again as now suddenly the prince and the princess had parents. “That’s adorable,” she pointed out, “so the Queen is a Sorceress while the princess is a warrior, and the Kind is a Warrior while the prince is a sorcerer. I like it!” And the King had tried to conquer the Queen’s home. What was this home? Which of them had belonged first to the magical kingdom of Endelaan? Or perhaps, none of them had, and they’d built the place together after they got tired of trying to conquer?

So many questions. So many directions this story could go. Madalena wanted to grab her art supplies and start painting and sketching it all, when Brayden suddenly pulled her up and said it was time to eat.

Wherever they’d decide to go to though, the starting direction was more or less the same. Taking her brother’s hand, while remaining completely oblivious to the presence from the mansion, Madalena began to walk. She wondered if her speeder was in any condition to still be used. It was a good thing it was a rental though; she wouldn’t have wanted the one she actually owned to have undergone that little accident.

“Gotta stop by my speeder and pick some things up,” she said with a little smile, only now remembering the art stuff that was still in there, “and after that; restaurant, or my ship? What do you prefer?”

[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden was extremely happy that his efforts in detaching himself from some story that he hadn't ever actually made seemed to work for the time being. As Madalena came to her feet and slipped her hand into his, Brayden briefly glanced down at the touch. It was completely involuntary, but it was certainly noticeable.

As an effort to make the glance appear innocuous, Brayden's calloused hand gave Madalena's a gentle squeeze. Walking alongside the not-his-sister, Brayden allowed his gaze to roam the horizon. Once Madalena started speaking to him again, Brayden glanced in her direction. "Okay, no problem. Also...we can try a legitimate restaurant. I just spent several days on a ship crossing the known galaxy to get here." A thin smile touched the larger Sith's lips. "I'm not exactly in a hurry to abandon nature once more."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
"Legitimate restaurant it is," Madalena grinned, squeezing her brother's hand back. Legitimate restaurant… Nature stuff… Okay. She had a perfect place in mind. Not the one that Josh had shown her, but somewhere else, on the outskirts of the city, where they served proper meat as well.

It only took a few minutes of walking in silence, Madalena herself perfectly content and happy, before they reached her crashed speeder bike. "That's your fault," she laughed as she let go of Brayden's hand and pulled the speeder upright, inspecting the damage caused to it. "Next time you can just gently announce your return instead of hit me through the Force like that while I'm driving towards you." The rental company was going to charge her an arm and a leg for it, but it appeared most of the damage was just cosmetic anyway. It could still run.

With a swift motion, Madalena hopped on, motioning for Brayden to take the seat behind her.

[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden turned to face Madalena with a single arched brow as she ran through her reasoning on the crashed speeder bike being his falt. Releasing her hand, the Sith Lord folded his arms loosely over his chest. "Hold up. I know you're not blaming me for your inability to keep your own speeder bike under control."

The Endelaan native's silver-green flashed brightly for a moment as he watched Madalena settle into the driver's position. "Clearly you shouldn't be the one driving either!" A smirk touched his lips as he stepped forward and settled onto the seat. "If I knew where we were going, this would not be happening. You just remember that."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
"While I'm being mentally attacked through the Force?" Madalena asked, "totally your fault." And with that she stuck her tongue out at him. She could handle her speeder at terrifying speeds. When it came to driving anything planet-side… Come to think of it, this was her only accident, ever. There was that other speeder that she had crashed, but that one on Coruscant had been deliberate, since she'd managed to make it go vertically up against a building and then had to jump off. It was funny though; she couldn't remember why that had happened and who the person was who's vehicle she had jumped into at the end of that stunt.

Once both were in their seats, Madalena held back only a little. Brayden didn't need to be subjected to her usual speed right now, though the speed she was going at could in no way be considered slow. Naboo's scenery flashed by them as she made their way back to Theed, switching to a road a little bit before they hit the city, and then drove for a few more minutes to a place that was, while close enough, not really within the city walls. There was no name out front, though the scenery for those who were inside included at least three different lakes.

Madalena wished she could cause tsunamis in them.

Once Brayden was off the speeder, she took his hand again, and half bounced inside. A droid served their menus and left them alone.

"My treat," she grinned, "what do you want?" Come to think of it, she had no idea what Brayden liked to eat at all. So she didn't think about it.


[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden was comfortable securing his hands to the seat for a while, helping to keep his body rooted. However, as he'd suspected, it quickly became apparent that the best way to manage any amount of speed or sudden turns on such a vessel was to have a more rooted center of gravity. For this reason, he leaned forward and slipped his arms around Madalena's waist. There was no real emotional reaction to the close contact. If anything, he was a touch hesitant since the woman was not actually his sister in mind or soul.

As the speeder bike slowed to a casual speed, Brayden released her waist and leaned back. The moment he'd hopped off the speeder, he found his hand seized by Madalena's once more. Confusion shot through his body once more. It felt right, but so much of Madalena's presence was just off enough to be glaringly obvious and just as irritating to him.

Managing to continue his facade, Brayden walked alongside the woman. "Well if it's your treat..." A thin smile touched Brayden's lips as he waved a dismissive hand. "Kidding. Any selection of meats and some fresh vegetables are ideal for me." Everything about the Sith Lord, from diet to physique, didn't exactly pair up with what the common misconception of Sorcerers and Sorceresses was. On Endelaan, those of his blood were expected to excel, to a degree, in most disciplines. During his time away from Endelaan, Brayden had discovered that a strong, physical constitution made wielding some of the more powerful spells much easier.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Madalena was completely oblivious to Brayden's confusion. What was there to be confused about? The Antares twins were together again, and there was not a single cell in her body that was not threatening to enjoy with the sheer happiness of it. It all felt so right! She was even more than half tempted to call in sick so she could take some days off and just spend them with the brother she had not seen in what felt like ever.

Her smile was wide when Brayden mentioned the meats thing. She could have easily forgone the vegetables bit since she hated those, but whatever her brother wanted, she was going to make sure that her brother got. However, as he hadn't specified which meats he wanted, Madalena ended up ordering… A bunch of different kinds for the two of them. A platter of bantha wings, some steaks, a bunch of bite-sized hamburgers, mixed carpaccio, and a few things that she wasn't sure what they were but she was pretty certain something had to die for them to get to their plates. With the vegetables, she gave Brayden the same treatment, ordering a few different kinds of salads, a platter of antipasti, and a few deep fried kinds. And on top of that, she added a cheese platter for herself. Madalena ate a lot and had absolutely no shame about it; she was also active like a beast, training every single day that she wasn't grinding on a mission, and she was out on missions most of the time as it were.

"Well?" she asked, now that the ordering was out of the way, her emerald eyes focused on a sat that were so nearly identical to her own. Her expression was friendly. There was no doubt about her oy at having her brother back. But there was still a nagging question that she couldn't leave entirely unanswered. "Why'd you decide to come back sooner?"


[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden waited patiently as Madalena ordered a variety of foods. As she went about her task with exuberance, the Endelaan native could not help but smile at the woman occupying his twin's body. This was what made going along or even understanding the situation difficult. Literally, he was watching his sister, Scherezade. Granted, he'd spent zero time with an adult Scherezade, but even as infants she had certainly always had their mother's appetite.

Given the length of his journey, it had been a long time since Brayden had fresh food. For several minutes, he quickly began devouring pieces of meat and vegetables with ravenous motivation. When Madalena cut into the silence, Brayden looked up from his food. Slowly, he finished chewing. "I found what I was looking for, so it was time to come back home." There was truth in the statement...just not the same truth as Madalena probably expected. "To my family."

Shrugging, Brayden leaned back slightly. "How did you end up with this...Confederacy...again?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Madalena looked on with glee as Brayden began to eat the food she'd ordered, taking careful note of which dishes he seemed to be enjoying more than the others, already adding ingredients to her next groceries list to make sure he always had what he liked on her ship.

She couldn't deny that hearing him say family send another wave of happiness through her, but her mind began to wonder what it was that he was searching for. Hadn't they chosen at random who'd head west and who'd head east? She was going to ask about it, when the topic got deflected back to her.

"Well," Madalena answered after she took a few bantha wings down, removing meat from bones with expertise that could only be envied, tossing shining white bones back into her plate, "They helped us and other Coruscant refugees anyway. And since you wanted to head West, that left me East. I knew I wanted to join somewhere, but the Sith Empire can suck it, I'm not Jedi material, and the other existing big honchos in the area aren't worth it. So I figured I'd sign up for the faction that helped us after our place got flattened."

Grinning, she took a sip from her water. "It turned out to be a great choice," she prattled on, "I joined up with their Knights Obsidian, which is sorta like their ground forces. I'm doing missions like crazy, so it's incredibly lucky that you happened to come back on my single day off in a while. They're also helping me with my training and appreciate my love for putting the pointy end of the knife in people."


[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

Brayden Antares

Guest
Brayden gazed at Madalena as she spoke. However, the sorcerer also continued to graze and eat the food that Madalena had ordered. For the most part, he was trying to commit some amount of her insights into the past she'd created in her own mind to his memory. It would help for him to integrate into the life that Madalena thought was reality. The closer he was able to get to the woman, the easier it would be to pull at the inevitable strings of inconsistency. It was the Endelaan native's sincere hope this inevitability would create an opening to draw his real sister out of whatever shell took on this Madalena personality.

After Brayden finished swallowing his food, he settled back in his seat and reached for his drink. "I see," was the only comment he had to offer before allowing the cool liquid to wash down his throat. Setting his glance back down, the Sorcerer managed a small smile. "Luck... I don't know how much stock I put into the concept these days..." Brayden trailed off on the topic, deciding it best not to pursue. "So are those the only reasons you ally yourselves with them? Do you not identify with their ideals and way of life, or are they merely a tool, a means to an end for you?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Madalena snorted openly as Brayden said he did not know how much stuck he put into the concept of luck. While she wasn't a huge believer in it herself, there was simply no other word to describe what had happened. What were the odds that Brayden would be on Naboo, a planet she rarely went to, on the same day that she had time off to go there because all she wanted to do was get some more art supplies so she could resume painting the murals on her ship? None, that was what the odds were. So it had to be luck. The thought that he hadn't even tried to call even though she hadn't changed her ways of contact before they separated never once occurred to her.

"Not strongly enough," she answered the bigger question, "I mean, territory expansion is cool, I suppose. They have that whole anti-slavery thing that's a little bit stupid and not even they actually fully control what happens everywhere. But I don't really share a big vision with them. Krak, I don't even have a big vision. But they're good for me and I'm developing my abilities with them, so there's no reason to look elsewhere right now. And there are a lot of awesome people with the Confederacy as well."

Did it sound childish? Probably. But Madalena didn't care about it too much. She sipped from her own drink again before returning most of her attention to the bantha wings. "It's hard to say they're a means to an end when I don't know what the end I want is. So I guess… I'm sticking with them until I have a good enough of a reason not to. But I love being here."

These reasons were so much different than those of the girl who no longer existed were. She'd been gifted by her grandmother to one of the leaders of the Confederacy, and after she had broken, she truly had nowhere else to go, believing she was not worthy of her ancestral home planet, believing that since the Confederacy itself just barely tolerated her, she would have it worse if she tried other places. That girl had been at a dead end regarding almost everything in her life.

In sharp contrast and utterly unaware of the stark differences, Madalena's roads were entirely open. She was with the CIS out of choice insofar as anyone could tell, and not out of necessity. And she truly loved it.

[member="Brayden Antares"]
 

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