Private Echoes of the Missing

[Caelan Valoren]

He shook his head at her.

"Your methods cause injury for the sake of injury. Enjoyment of the suffering of others is not a positive trait."

Finishing up his work on the injured attackers, he stood again and allowed the locals to take full command of the situation. It was clear to him that his trip to this world was a trick, trying to get him killed the same as the people who'd killed his parents had been trying for a long time now. You'd think they would higher better people considering their attempts kept failing, but perhaps they only wanted to use the expendable, cheap sort in order to not lose people they actually cared about, or large sums of money.

He turned to regard her at what she said. Fate beeped at him and he waved a hand at the droid in response. No, he wasn't in need of him killing the woman.

"I didn't need your help. It would have been easier to deal with them without you. I really don't need people following me around that don't know me and I'm sure Reign would rather you be doing whatever work you're supposed to be doing instead."

She could doubt all she wanted, he had actually met the man before.

"Go home. You aren't needed or wanted here."

---

ATTIRE: Link | WEAPON: Lightsaber | COMPANION: BD-F8

TAGS: Roxsie ​

 

[Roxsie]

"No, they cause injury for the sake of disablement. If i was doing it just for suffering, I'd have aimed for the eyes and mouth." She corrected, "I only made them feel pain at all because you didn't want them dead. That would have been relatively painless."

The fact anyone was so determined to get a padawan off their back, yet not determined enough to send a truly threatening team was rather odd. And had truly bought her curiosity, even if she technically wasn't obligated to participate. They weren't quite inside of Diarch territory yet. Still, it was a good test. See how far things could go, and see how much of a threat the boy may be. Though, assuming he wasn't lying, his positive perspective on one of the two Diarchs seemed at least worth something.

"Maybe you do maybe not. Do you really expect people to just assume you're sufficiently competent just because of a force shield? Besides, it's not just about you anymore." She gave another smile beneath the mask at his suggestion she wasn't wanted there, and that Reign would rather her do whatever she was supposed to do, "I don't know why you think bringing up the Diarchs would really make a difference, as long as I'm not acting outside of an agreement, I don't see how it would matter. Or why you think I'd trust any jedi's judgement on being needed or wanted."

She waved a hand aside, "Besides, organized criminals on the outskirts of the Diarchy's territory? Totally justifiable involvement." Running away with any justification available, or jumping to dismissiveness, was probably the only skill she'd actually kept up with her mother on. Not something really of great skill or intelligence, but the lack of formality did help sometimes. It allowed you to evade standard expectations of protocol, simply don't pay attention to them. "Is your sister force sensitive? Could you try and find her that way. I mean, if it's just on one world maybe it would work. If you're close emotionally anyway. I could probably sense my family if they were that close." she looked up in thought and let out a hum, "Well, if they weren't hiding."

Caelan Valoren


Phrik sword
Rebreather that is styled like a golden lower skill.
VEV Starthrust Series Fast Courier

 

[Caelan Valoren]

"You could have done what I did," he said, staring at her. "They didn't need to have their limbs cut off."

She was very wrong in what she said. It was possible to fight people without using a weapon designed to harm them. Yes, he carried a lightsaber, and sometimes he might need to use it, but he rarely went to it before trying something else. He had reason for invoking the Diarch. Mainly because he found her behavior deplorable and fully intended to mention as much to the Diarch when next he had a chance. Reign may not agree with him, but that wasn't the point.

Even though she was in the wrong, he would say nothing further on the matter. Trying to convince someone like her that what they did was wrong was like trying to talk a Kowakian Monkey Lizard into doing what you wanted. You basically couldn't. Not that he considered a hit squad to be organized criminals operating on the edge of diarchy space. They'd have come at him just about anywhere.

"She is, but I don't have the sense skills to find her. It's not something I'm suited towards. Besides, I'm pretty sure she was never here and this was just a setup to get me out on my own. They've done this before, though usually with better forces than these."

Either desperation on their end, or they were running low on people willing to take on the job.

"Regardless, I have no further reason to be here since she is clearly not here. I'm going to return to Coruscant, unless you intend on stopping me."

---

ATTIRE: Link | COMPANION: BD-F8

TAGS: Roxsie ​

 

[Roxsie]

"And you didn't need to possibly give a concussion." she shrugged, "You could also have just let them kill you. Then only one person gets hurt. Need or not need doesn't mean obligation."

As far as she felt it, there wasn't any real reason to be bothered by their injuries. That's just how the fight worked out. If they were smarter they'd have chosen a fight they could actually handle, or even tried surrendering earlier. There likely was very little way she could be convinced otherwise, Roxsie was incredibly stubborn, even if she was wrong. It would likely take a great deal of reason and time to truly persuade her.

"You should work on that. I heard the nightsisters are really good at tracking abilities." she suggested, "And why leave already? Have you tried interrogating the people they send to see what you can find? Who hires them, and then track onwards from there? At some point they may slip up. They don't exactly seem very competent about who they send."

Another shrug, "I won't stop you leaving. But you're not going to get anywhere this way. You need to learn instead of just following. Imagine they actually did have to move her somewhere, all they have to do is send you on a wild goose chase again. And off you go, putting in zero effort to actually find out how they did any of it or scare them off of doing it again."

Caelan Valoren
Phrik sword
Rebreather that is styled like a golden lower skill.
VEV Starthrust Series Fast Courier

 

[Caelan Valoren]

"Concussions are rarely fatal," Caelan said. "And if I let them kill me, my people would be without a leader. That's not something I can do."

He shook his head at her question. No, he hadn't done those things. He also knew it didn't matter. The people that sent them were still on his world, waiting for him to return so they could kill him. They were probably doing the same thing to Kita as they were to him, leaving breadcrumbs out there for her to follow in order to attempt to kill her. They wanted him dead. He didn't know the exact reason other than it might make it easier to control Lazerian if there were no Valoren's left alive.

"The people they work for currently hold my world hostage. I'm working with the Alliance to free it, but it's taking time. Asking them who they are will not do anything for me. Besides, last time I tried that all they knew was some guy in a hood paid them a lot of money to kill me. These are the types of people who don't care about the job as long as it pays."

He moved to walk past her, towards the transport beyond.

"If they ever did have her, she's already dead. They're trying to kill off my entire family. But they don't have her. She's out there somewhere and I intend to find her. I just have to deal with their half-hearted attempts to kill me along the way."

---

ATTIRE: Link | COMPANION: BD-F8 | OTHER: Sigil Bead (Necklace)

TAGS: Roxsie ​

 

[Roxsie]

Another shrug, "Keep telling yourself that. I'm sure those who end up with nerve damage cause of all the head trauma feel so better about it." she answered, refusing to give way on the matter. Whatever his reasoning, she didn't like how convinced he was that what she was doing was wrong. She didn't know why it bothered her that much. But it did. Must be the feeling of being judged. Regardless, she refused to step down.

A raised brow on the statement his world was being held hostage and the alliance was trying to free it, "Sounds like you need to turn to assassination yourself instead of chasing their hand-outs." she said scowling, "If that was my sister, that's what I'd do. You say they don't have her, then make sure they wish they'd have kept her and kept her alive so they can stop you. Make them pray the alliance gets your world back faster because they could be next."

She felt the rage boil in her at the thought of some shady group kidnapping one of her own family members and then just, to her view, sitting by and letting them get away with it while she followed like a lost puppy, the disgust and anger didn't just bleed into her voice it filled it. "Oh yes, but the jedi ideals have to stay intact. We can't make the people who hurt our family and try to conquer our world be afraid. Nooooo, that'd be dark side, that's baaaad. Can't make people afraid! That leads to the dark side doesn't it!" she clenched her fists.

"You're all karking cowards." she insisted, "Never do what you need to for your goals. But just go with the force right? Or whatever you say. There's no chaos there is the force yes?"

she rolled her eyes and unclenched her fists just glaring up at the sky.

Caelan Valoren


Phrik sword
Rebreather that is styled like a golden lower skill.
VEV Starthrust Series Fast Courier

 

[Caelan Valoren]

She continued to ramble on about how he was wrong, how he was no different from her, how he was a coward. He did stop walking. There was a small part of him that didn't completely disagree with what she was saying. He wanted to hurt the people that had hurt his family. But he also recognized that didn't make him a better person, and it didn't bring his family back. It just made him like them, weak, a murderer. He didn't want to be known as those things. He wanted to be above that.

"It's not cowardice to avoid committing murder, to avoid rushing into battle," he said, not even looking at her. "Cowardice would be running from it altogether. I'm not running. They know where I am. I don't hide. They come at me again and again and I defeat them every time. The end result is I remove more and more people like these from the galaxy, and not just the ones that hire them."

He turned, just slightly, to look at her.

"The real tragedy is you thinking that becoming them solves anything. It doesn't. You think making them afraid helps. It doesn't. My world is directly on the border of Alliance space. That didn't stop them from attacking it. They don't fear."

He narrowed his eyes.

"You don't think, you just do. You'll end up dead soon because you think everything is so very simple and you're going to rush right into something that isn't and get yourself killed. Not everything is simple. Not everything can be solved by rushing in with a blaster or a lightsaber. Some things take time, patience and will to resolve. That's what makes us different. I'm not afraid of them. I've every intention of defeating them. But I'm going to do it in a way that actually resolves the problem. I'm not going to run headlong into it and get myself killed. I'm not going to stoop to their level.

"Maybe someday you'll understand that not everything can be resolved with blind combat."

That said, he turned and continued on, leaving her to stew in her thoughts.

---

ATTIRE: Link | WEAPON: Lightsaber | COMPANION: BD-F8

TAGS: Roxsie ​

 

[Roxsie]

She gave him a shrug, "Did you remove them? They seem pretty out and about to me. You're afraid of what killing could do to you I think. Or how it would feel. Instead of doing what matters, you do what, in the end, is running from some nondescript evil."

Roxsie narrowed her eyes at his next comment about becoming them, "As if that matters." she spat, "Sure this time you didn't kill them. Maybe they push a little too far and you do. Maybe they're too much of a threat to leave alive because they don't stop until one of the two of you is dead. You think killing makes someone like them? Sure it does. In the same way you eating food makes you like a rancor or darth nihilus, in the same way making stew makes you like jedi yoda. Such a shallow perspective."

Another scowl at his next statement, "Listen kid. I'm not the one running around thinking I can knock out every enemy I come across. And nothing here, probably nothing on this planet short of an actual proper military response, is an actual threat to me." she insisted, "And it seems to me, running headlong into it is exactly what you've been doing. With even less preparation than a womprat trying to prepare a meal. Even an idiot could have prepared a bomb spread, followed by chemical burning so that you'd have to outlast that. And of course, deal with the precious lives lost. Yet you strolled right into a prime location for that kind of tactic."

She turned to leave herself, unsure how much he'd actually hear anyway. But a jedi should have keen senses, if he chose to use them. It irked her. She'd met few jedi, but to her mindset, refusing to kill was like refusing to eat. It was almost insane to think someone, even a jedi, would dare to try and live life that way and pretend those who chose to kill were wrong for it. She couldn't fathom that kind of thinking. Or she didn't want to.


Caelan Valoren

Phrik sword
Rebreather that is styled like a golden lower skill.
VEV Starthrust Series Fast Courier