Electric Current

[Kuzo]

Coruscant ​

She had laid it all out.

Sitting together on the couch, her leaning against his side, she had explained her plan. Laid it out, stacking brick upon brick to build to the inevitable conclusion. Taking what they had gleaned from the two survivors of the raid, integrating their particular skill set. It wasn't enough, she insisted firmly, to simply wipe them out as they found them. They had to infiltrate at the base level. Establish trust. Take out one cell and those higher up the ladder would simply go to ground.

The Star Cabal.... what a ridiculous name. They had plucked it from Desmond's mind before making him and Charus theirs.

If they were lazy, they could attempt to send those two back in. But after what they had done to them, and how long they had been gone, well, it would raise more alarms than her plan would. In hinged in equal parts on their particular fields of expertise....

And was only possible now in the way it was laid out by the brands that marked a deeper connection on their skin.

"Well, what do you think?" She said, tilting her head to look up at him.

At three months pregnant, Raj wasn't showing yet. She estimated another two months before it became noticeable on her slight frame and would make the plan ahead too difficult and frankly, dangerous to begin. It would change the dynamic, even if it didn't change her. It would make people react to her differently, and while it could be a boon, it was too much of a wild card to account for. The firelight shone softly on her dark hair as she found his eyes.

It was not a safe plan. But it was also not particularly risky. The biggest risk was blowing their cover before they found the leaders.

The Star Cabal..... Irajah snorted to herself.

Ridiculous.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Jairus leaned back against the couch, eyes shimmering against the flicker of the fire and pondering about what she had just told him.

"Hmm."

That was all she needed- most of their communication didn't happen out loud anymore. It could? But it wasn't necessary anymore. Most of their thoughts and feelings and considerations just mixed together. Especially when they were next to each other. When their hips touched and the Dragon and the Shrike softly found their way towards that particular spot of familiarity. There they danced and touched and enjoyed. It felt like a shimmer, like the basics of whiskey rushing underneath skin and making it all flush and tingly.

Strange.

But pleasant.

The fact that she was three months pregnant didn't even enter his consideration. Zero, three, six, almost there... it didn't really matter to Jairus. He cared for their child (children? difficult to say, but it felt more.. full. Without taking a peak it was impossible to say and Jai wasn't prepared to take that risk), but he cared more about Raja and that was the end of that.

No, his thoughts went to the feasibility of the plan. The risks attached to it. The consequences that could occur. Yes. Jairus had shifted his role once they began to be familiar with one another. Letting her plan, letting her guide their path, but... that part of him that was always plotting?

It couldn't be killed.

It could just be sated.

"What happens if they catch us prematurely?" Jai asked finally, his arms wrapping around her shoulders and pulling her closer. His cheek resting softly against the edge of her temple. Nuzzling. Softly. "Do we kill or do we salvage?"

 

[Kuzo]

Tilting her head up, she laid a kiss softly on his jaw, leaning against him.

"Well, that's the one part that can't be planned for, can it? Since it would depend how. I think salvage if possible, but otherwise?"

She shrugged.

"Better to cut out part of the cancer than none of it. But I would rather get all of it if possible."

She could feel the marks on her back, the tattoo of the dragon, curling, like the brush of fingers against her skin that never left now. She knew that on his side, where it met her back, the small, winged shrike would be shifting as well, coming to meet her counter part. While the brands for the connection itself within the Force were by and large static, the creatures they had marked each other with had a life of their own. She had never witnessed either of them moving- it seemed that the moment one's eyes reached the tattooed lines they would stop, waiting until they were once more unattended. Her own dragon, his mark, would shift across her back, curled at the small or stretched out across her shoulders the next time she caught a glimpse of it in the mirror. The smaller shrike seemed perfectly content to wander Jairus's whole body, never really sure where it would be found.

It was strange but unalarming. Which was amusingly strange in its own right.

"I can easily take a day or two off from the clinic. I intend to use the Doctor Calais persona for this. If it fails, no one will live who could compromise it," she said with a shrug. "And it offers a veneer of reality I couldn't properly whip up in such a short time. It took us a month to properly seed Calais through the systems, I'd rather not have to do that again and lose this window."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Eyes closed lazily-

In a way it was a metaphor for both their marks on each other's body. The slow and lazy dragon slowly moving about according to each other's design and the shrike flitting fast by, claiming every inch of skin as if it was its natural due. It amused Jairus. How it would hug the thumb of his hand when Raj felt cold, stroking his jaw whenever it got excited or interested, it was intrinsically linked to each other's feelings and intent. Perhaps that was why Raj never saw the dragon move.

It deliberated, thought deeply and acted only after every piece of information was slowly processed and clear.

"Charus had a person in his head, when we took him." Jai mused softly to himself, his arm wrapping tighter around her shoulders. Mine. Pulling her in and punctuating with one of his own kisses, on her brow. Anywhere else it might have seemed as if they were trying too hard.

But in truth?

If they didn't exchange physical touch every so often... they'd probably end up getting nothing done for the next few hours at the very least.

"Tysha. One of their... mm." Nuzzling in response to a nip. "-researchers. She has been sick for the past week. We can.. extend that... and I can take her place." Raj would know. White Current meant that there was no limit to the form that Jairus could take for their purposes. Male, female, human or not, it wouldn't even be caught, unless those people were masters of White Current themselves. Something told him that that wasn't the case for these anti-force cultists.

"We move in together and we will see just how far this conspiracy of theirs goes."

Because Jai agreed.

It was best to take this apart root and stem, rather than taking a single vine. "I wonder if I should wear heels." Head tilted as he wondered about that.

 

[Kuzo]

"You should absolutely wear heels, yes," she said with a chuckle, mulling slightly.

"My concern with you mimicking someone to take her place is that we must find her. And secure her. This in addition to injuring one of them enough to warrant 'Calais's' access."

It was messy.

Irajah hated messy.

She had no doubts about Jai's ability. But the only way to be certain that he could properly mimic her was to have him dip into her mind. The outside viewpoint of one man who barely knew her? Too much risk. And if they did not have her in hand, who was to say that she wouldn't take that day to show back up and bring it all toppling down?

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Maybe months ago there specific views on each other would have been hidden from one another.

Jairus never pushing with her and Raj respecting his privacy too much to do otherwise, but with those brands merging each other? There were no secrets left to carry for either of them. He knew how she saw him - raw, instinctive, taking power for granted, impulsive... partially true. But there was a process to the madness and the chaos, if there hadn't been?

The Sith Lord wouldn't still be breathing today.

"Mmhm, we would snatch her first, love." He softly detached herself from her, wandering over to the hearth and studying the flames for a bit. "Ensure every inch of her is understood and immersed."

A shrug. "I will know her better than she knows herself."

That wouldn't necessarily be pleasant, truth to be told. It was one thing to extract bits and pieces of information. But this was something closer to the core of why Jairus was the way he was. Parts of other people, all mold together into a cocktail of everything. The flashes back to the past, of different lives, had slowed down to a trickle and barely happened these days.

Part of him suspected Raj had something to do with that.

"We are agreed then?"