Private Loosing Dogs

[Capris Halcyon]

Somewhere in the Outer Rim...

Capris wrapped an oversized cloak to her chest, weaving through a city of medical tents and second-rate refugee housing with quiet deference. War was nasty business, and even though Exegol could be comfortably resigned to the history books, its ripple effect was very much alive and well. Thriving even.

Now more than ever she should've wanted to be by Valery Noble ’s side. To handcuff herself to the Sword's own wrist as if to guarantee the woman who'd suffered hell and back could never slip away again.

But instead the Padawan found herself here, braving some backwater planet in an attempt to put distance between the puedso-family she'd managed to both build and fracture in the span of a couple months.

Whether it was the burn marks finally scabbing over, or the much less corporeal scars that came from living someone else's torture, Valery's kidnapping and subsequent rescue had dealt a blow. One that left a raw, immovable mental block in the dead center of Capris's mind.

And like any wound that refused to clot and heal, Capris felt the childish impulse to scratch. To slap on a bandaid and pretend it wasn't bleeding through for everyone to see.

Maybe she should've gone to Kahlil Noble . Hell, maybe she should've been the one comforting him for once. But for some reason that gesture felt.. Impossible. After the stunt she'd pulled on Batroine, the people she'd hurt, the self-imposed distance she let settle and fester between her and her Master…How was she supposed to go about mending their relationship? How was she supposed to face up against the disappointment he no doubt felt towards her?

She was no model Jedi, and far from deserving the title of Padawan to the Shield.

But none of that'd mattered this far out. Here she was just a kid with a sword, free to act, and defend, and rage without the weight of Jedi principles. There'd been word of a Sith spawn terrorizing the outskirts of the city. The capital of a former border world finally settling into its sovereignty from the Maw. And after hitching a ride through rather sketchy means, Capris found herself in some flimsy position to help.

So long as she could get pointed in the right direction.

Pulling the cloak she'd stolen from Kahlil low enough to where her face could be seen, the kid approached a particularly rough lean-to that seemed to be operating as a soup kitchen.

"Excuse me-"

"Get lost girl, 'Alliance hasn't been to these parts in weeks, we're out of handouts." Came the abrupt, disinterested response from the Rodian inn-keeper as he fiddled with a lighter and smoke. "Not my problem If you're hungry."

Where Kahlil might've tactfully interjected and salvaged a 'conversation Capris could only quirk an eyebrow, a cloud of herb wafting her way.

"Righttt- " Fighting the urge to wave a hand in front of her face, her nose wrinkled in disapproval. "My mistake."

The Rodian managed a grunt of consensus between exhales.

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

For a planet comprised almost entirely of sandy islands, this backwater had certainly seen better days.

When Gatz had been given the details of this job, he almost didn't believe such a place could exist. The Outer Rim was largely full of either uninhabitable planets, or barely inhabitable planets. So when he'd heard that there was a tropical paradise out there at the edge of known space, he'd taken the job almost purely out of curiosity. In his mind, it'd be a simple thing to deliver a shipment of various foods, and then he could catch some rays on the white sand shores.

To be fair, technically he still could. The planet was beautiful. It was the eyesore of a shanty town that made this place such a backwater. Constructed from a mixture of scrapped durasteel and the wood from local palm trees, "Paradise" almost reminded him of Nar Shaddaa, if on a much smaller scale. The people -refugees from the war- were dirty and starving. That meant they were also rude and unhelpful, and a few of them had tried to swipe crates off of his hover pallet.

A simple glare had chased them off. They'd get this food soon enough.

Gatz had just stopped the floating pallet behind the soup kitchen, leaving a handful of workers to unload it, when he caught sight of the Rodian manning the shelter trying to chase off some teenager.

"Not my problem If you're hungry."

Frowning, Gatz stepped up beside the girl to intervene, "it is now. Feed the kid. Consider it my delivery fee."

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

While the impulse to provide some snark was certainly there, Capris didn't get the chance to voice it.

"It is now. Feed the kid, Consider it my delivery fee."

With a subtle head turn she regarded the newcomer, some offworlder in a much better state than the majority of bodies milling about the encampment. It took a moment to register, but an elbow prod from the force helped identify him as a fellow force sensitive. An admittedly more subdued presence than the Jedi Masters she was used to, but a presence nonetheless.

Interesting.

With an indignant grunt coming from the Rodian, her attention shifted again as he leveled a glare towards Gatz. He looked almost ready to argue, but the discount seemed to sober his fighting spirit a bit. Enough so that he pressed out his smoke and moved to stand.

Capris blinked in equal parts surprise, gratitude, and annoyance. Yeah no…. This was backwards.

"Wait no-" The girl quickly interjected, hoping to stop the misunderstanding mid-spiral, "Stay put."

Readjusting her cloak in an attempt to hopefully look less like the malnourished street urchin she was unwittingly selling herself as, the kid started anew. Keeping her level of sarcasm right where it was.

"I appreciate the clear enthusiasm, but I'm not here for food. Just information."

Adjusting once more, she freed her wrist to display a holo-projection of a particularly nasty looking beast. One that didn't look quite..organic.

"You've' heard anything about a Sith-spawn in these parts? Sightings, casualties, haunting your dreams maybe?" The girl pressed, her gaze flitting over to Gatz after a second of deliberation, "Either of you?"

The Rodian seemed to blanch at that.

"Yeah." He rasped, eyeing the projection coldly. "What's a runt like you want with it?"

Stifling an eye roll, the kid freed the concealed lightsaber from her hip, setting it down on the counter separating the two with emphasis.

"To handle it.

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

The Rodian glared at him, and Gatz stared right back with a frown on his face. Was the innkeeper really trying to scare him off? Laughable. Gatz spent most of his adult life in Hutt Space, dealing with and for some of the worst scum the galaxy had to offer. This man was no hardened criminal. Hardened from strife and hardship? Sure. But he wouldn't have lasted one day in the Red Sector on Nar Shaddaa.

Gatz was about to say something more, but the man finally put out his pipe and moved to fulfill his request. Good. Now the smuggler could say he'd done his good deed for the day. Or, he would have been able to, if the kid hadn't spoken up.

It seemed that she wasn't here for food after all. No, instead, this street urchin was trying to get herself killed. Gatz had never faced a Sith-spawn before, but he'd seen holos of them. And that was enough to know that he wanted nothing to do with them, and this kid shouldn't either. The Rodian seemed to agree in some form, as he asked what the girl wanted with such a creature. Yes, the way he had addressed her was derogatory, but Gatz thought that the man was trying to make a point: kids shouldn't be playing with dangerous inventions of Sith alchemy.

Then she plopped a lightsaber on the counter, and everything changed.

Gatz took another look at her, really taking the sight in this time around. This was not some scrawny teen struggling getting by, living in an alley. This was a Jedi, too young to be a Knight, who was lithe, but probably not malnourished. She was still likely to get herself killed, though.

"I haven't been here long enough to spot anything like this," Gatz admitted, before asking, "but where's your master, Padawan? You're not hunting this thing by yourself, right?"

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

The Rodian was quick to drop any more accusations of naïveté. A small, childish victory that had the corner of Capris's mouth twitch up into a smirk. Petty as it was, it felt good to be wielding some margin of power. Capris certainly wasn't catching a feeling of respect from the innkeeper, but she'd take quietly brewing resentment any day.

What really caught her attention however, like he was bound to, was Gatz. Clearly the humanitarian knew a thing or two about the Jedi, at least the cursory stuff. Shame that's where his knowledge, ergo usefulness, seemed to end.

Still at the mention of Masters, Capris couldn't help a small bristle in the force. Where was her Master? Well one was off trying to heal from unspeakable traumas and the other…

Capris closed her eyes for a moment.

"Touchy subject." The padawan ultimately shrugged. Maybe she would've felt like getting evasive any other day, but right now the need to prove her standing felt inconsequential. "Lucky for me I won't be needing one."

Definitely a bit too cocky, but when you had Kahlil Noble as a Master you were bound to start sounding like him eventually.

"I've done this before." She absolutely hadn't, not without Kahlil. But Gatz didn't need to know that tidbit. "Stands to reason that I could do it again."

At that, her eyes ghosted back over the projection. "I mean someone's got to, and I am probably the only one in a 10-system radius packing a laser sword sooo."

With a tug of the force, the saber zipped back under the folds of her cloak and the girl looked Gatz over, trying and failing to pin his allegiance.

"I am planning on hunting this thing, yes."

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Gatz could feel the girl's irritation through the Force, like the pinprick of a needle. He didn't know why asking after her master was a touchy subject, but he didn't much care about that. What mattered to him was that this Padawan was here entirely on her lonesome, boasting about how she was going to kill such a twisted creature without any help. Typical teenager. Thinking she could take on the world all by herself.

"Careful," Gatz chided, "arrogance is dangerous for a Jedi. It's often the first step down a much darker path."

By the Force, now he sounded like the stuffy old masters back at the Praxeum. What had happened to the days where he'd been a cocky flyboy, spewing pickup lines at every woman that passed him by? He was way more fun back then. Is this what happened to people who traded selfishness for selflessness? Valery ought to have warned him that he was going to turn into a stick in the mud.

It probably didn't matter what he said, though. The girl seemed stubborn, and a stubborn teenager was hard to dissuade. Especially one who thought they were doing the right thing. With a sigh, Gatz realized that he was going to have to go with her, kill this stupid thing, and then fly her back to the Praxeum. Because if he didn't, it would disappoint Valery. Which, another sudden realization, was something he desperately wanted to avoid.

"You said you saw this thing," Gatz asked the Rodian, as the Padawan reclaimed her lightsaber, "can you point us in the right direction?"

He was armed with only his trusty blaster, his rudimentary skill in the Force, and a headstrong teenager with a lightsaber and more training than he'd ever had. Gatz supposed he'd have to make do with that.

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

"Careful," Gatz chided, "arrogance is dangerous for a Jedi. It's often the first step down a much darker path."

Ah yes, rhetoric straight from the mouth of any senile Jedi Master. Sure it was a fair hit, but what was someone like Gatz doing spouting it? As far as she could tell he was just some social worker running the slight possibility of being house-trained in the force.

She opened her mouth to ask just that, but Gatz had already moved onto probing the Rodian for more information, seeming to invest himself in this suicide mission just as easily as she had.

"You said you saw this thing," Gatz asked the Rodian, as the Padawan reclaimed her lightsaber, "can you point us in the right direction?"

"Us?" The girl looked at him blankly, "You can't be serious."

She looked about ready to say something along the lines of you'd only slow me down or check your savior complex but for once held her tongue. Game could recognize game, especially when it came to being exasperatingly stubborn. In all likelihood she wouldn't be able to shake him even if she tried.

"You're right, it's better just one of you gets killed than both." The Rodian interjected, his voice adopting a lower pitch of severity despite the snark, "Either way I invite you to try. As far as I know that thing is camped out in some spice den down in the pits of the old entertainment district."

Shooting the Rodian the millionth dirty look of the conversation, Capris exhaled a frustrated sigh. At least she'd gotten what she came for.

"Alright then- guess we have our spot." With little patience or acknowledgment towards Gatz, the girl moved on ahead, already pulling up a holo-projection of the town.

It was only when she was a few steps ahead that she turned to look over her shoulder, canting her head towards their now shared destination.

"Don't die ok?"

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

The girl clearly didn’t think much of his capabilities, with the way she voiced her surprise at his sudden inclusion of her hunt. To be fair to her, she knew nothing about him. She didn’t know that he’d had confrontations with the Dark Side before, or of the years he spent in Nar Shaddaa’s seedy underworld. All she saw was some guy in a red leather jacket with a blaster at his side. Gatz wouldn’t think much of himself either, not taken at face value.

“Kid, I’m not exactly thrilled to be coming along,” Gatz admitted, “but Valery would probably strangle me if I let a wayward Padawan get herself killed.”

She wouldn’t so much as lay a hand on him, of course, but the Sword of the Jedi had placed her faith in him. Too much faith, he thought, for a man with his checkered past. Even so, he couldn’t betray that trust by walking away from this. And, in truth, Gatz wouldn’t be able to look himself in the mirror if his inaction somehow led to this girl’s death.

Gatz sighed. His life had been so much simpler, once.

The Rodian continued to snark at them, in that deriding tone. Gatz had half a mind to drag the man along with them, and the other half wanted to slap him upside the head. He restrained himself, of course. The alien’s bad attitude stemmed from his situation, which was that of a starving man forced to deal with other starving people hounding him for scraps. Gatz knew his patience would be thin too.

Though she had clearly resigned herself to his company, the girl took off in the direction they were given rather quickly. Gatz had to jog a few steps to catch up.

“Hey, slow down,” Gatz matched her stride, “I understand why you think this is urgent, but rushing into this is only going to get us both killed. Let’s take a minute to discuss things, go over that map you’re holding, and come up with a proper plan to kill this thing without dying ourselves. And while we’re at it, why don’t we at least trade names?”

Ah teenagers. Always so impatient. But he hadn’t been any different, when he was her age.

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

For all she knew Gatz could've been some gun slinging vagabond with a ship full of mounted Sith spawn. But even in that theoretical, her feelings on the matter stayed the same. She had no interest in being babysat, and this guy, whoever he was, was frustratingly concerned with keeping her alive.

Damn random good samaritans and their compulsion to do the right thing.

The icing on the cake however was when he name dropped Valery, and as if being doused in cold water the girl stopped dead in her tracks. "Valery?" She asked, very briefly contemplating the idea Gatz had been planted here by the Jedi Master herself. "As in Sword of the Jedi? You're on a first name basis with Valery Noble?"

She couldn't imagine another Valery he could be referring to, as much as she might've wanted

Coming to a full stop she considered him for a moment. Who the actual hell was she looking at? He looked like just another spacer, sounded like a Jedi, and was somehow on personal terms the fething poster-woman of the NJO.

And also apparently had some valid points to make…

"I'm not killing it." She admitted after a lapse of silence, prepping herself for the inevitable backlash, "The plan is to sedate it long enough for an alliance freighter to come and shuttle it off to New Cov. There's a research lab there, your friend Valery knows all about it."

She tried not to let it show, but every mention of the Jedi Master had her tensing up. And to think she came all this way to escape facing any possible reminders of what had happened.

"My master, the other Noble, has been working on reforming Sith spawn there. I know it might not seem like it, but it's possible." Finishing up her pitch, the girl tried to get a read on him.

"If you're still on board, the name's Capris. And you are?"

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

"As in Sword of the Jedi? You're on a first name basis with Valery Noble?"

"To be fair, I tried to call her 'Master Noble.' She insisted I use her first name. But yes, I know Valery. We've worked together a few times, now."

Gatz understood her surprise. A scoundrel on a first name basis with the Jedi Battlemaster herself? Sometimes it didn't seem real to him, and he'd actually lived it. He certainly didn't understand it, even now. But for better or worse, she'd taken notice of him, and pulled him out of his self-destructive spiral of greed and hedonism. He wasn't even sure that she'd intended to do that when they'd first met.

Either way, if there was anyone he owed loyalty to; anyone he had faith in, it was Valery Noble. And letting her husband's Padawan get herself killed seemed a pretty poor way to repay her for all she'd done for him.

The Padawan revealed that she wasn't, in fact, out to kill this thing. No, her task was even more dangerous: she wanted to put the damn thing to sleep, and capture it. Rehabilitate it even. Admittedly, Gatz knew very little of Sith spawn. But he was reasonably certain that you couldn't reform a Tuk'ata. But then, what did he really know about any of this? He'd left the Order at the young age of nine. Mr. Noble's apprentice already knew more than he did. If she said it was possible... then he'd choose to have faith in her plan.

Even if it was certifiably crazy.

"Well," Gatz said with a shrug, "at least today won't be boring."

Capris. That was her name. It didn't change much, in the grand scheme of things, but at least if he died today he wouldn't be dying with a total stranger.

"Gatz Derrevar," he held out his hand, "former Jedi youngling, former smuggler, currently... something in between those two."

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

"To be fair, I tried to call her 'Master Noble.' She insisted I use her first name.”

At that Capris couldn't help a small snort of amusement "Yeah.. course' she did."

For someone who commanded the complete and utter respect of any room she stepped in, the battlemaster certainly didn't take much advantage of it. Capris couldn't remember ever calling Kahlil or Valery anything other than Kahlil and Valery for that matter. Every title felt like some forced regurgitation of old customs. That and she had a distinct issue with calling anyone Master.

The man then went and introduced himself, self identifying of some jedi adjacent smuggler

Surprisingly, for someone who carried herself like a die hard skeptic, the girl had no judgment to pass. She'd spent the past 15 or so years slumming it as lowlife before getting a taste of the monastic life. Gatz was much the same just.. Flip flopped.

Whatever reservations Gatz had about her plan- and she knew he must have some- the reformed smuggler generously kept them in. And so Capris regarded the man a moment, ultimately meeting his outstretched hand with one of her own.

"I take it Valery's trying to straighten you out." The girl canted her head with a touch of humor, "Must be working."

Why else would he have stuck his neck out? No one volunteers for a mission like this without having some solid intrinsic motivation.

Pulling up the map projection once more, the girl held it out for Gatz to see. "You've ever done something like this before?" She asked all while reevaluating the terrain. "What kind of jobs did Valery have you on?"

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

The idea of subduing a Sith spawn for rehabilitation was still absolutely crazy, but at least Capris seemed to have stopped resisting his help. Gatz really wasn't sure what he would have done, if she had insisted on finding this thing alone. Follow her, probably, but how would that have looked to everyone else? He supposed that, instead of wonder what might have been, he should just be grateful that things had turned out the way they had.

So far. There was, of course, still the whole problem of the Sith spawn. And who knew how that was going to turn out?

Capris thought Valery was straightening him out, and Gatz supposed there was truth to that. Really, the decision had been his own, and Valery hadn't so much as prodded him about it. She'd merely given him an ideal to strive for, and reminded him of the kind of person he had wanted to be when he was but a youngling in the creche.

He wasn't sure if Valery even knew what she'd done for him.

"Something like that," Gatz shrugged, not sure how to put his thoughts on the matter into words.

Capris pulled up the map projection, and with it came a few questions. They were reasonable, of course. She had no idea of what he was capable of, or what he and Valery had done. Gatz wasn't sure if their mission to Erakhis was supposed to be common knowledge or not, so he figured he'd leave the details out, but give the Padawan the basics.

"We tracked down an old Sith artifact on a planet naturally drawn to the Dark Side," Gatz explained, "and a few months later, she helped me save a few children from the Sith Lord who'd kidnapped them."

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

At the mention of Sith, her split attention swiftly merged back onto Gatz. She’d already taken the liberty to assume by “work” he meant minor supply runs and reconnaissance for the alliance. But no. This amateur force user had faced up against a Sith Lord and survived. To be fair he had the foremost human shield imaginable probably sworn to protect him, but still. It was no small feat.

“Huh. No kidding.”

The kid regarded the smuggler a moment. She’d only been with the Order a year, but being mentored under the likes of Kahlil and Valery basically fast tracked collisions with anything Sith. Still she now found herself having to come to the very real possibility Gatz was equally if not more capable at handling what was to come.

“Ok- you’re significantly less likely to feth this up then I realized.” The girl admitted with her hands raised in surrender, the fresh burn marks on her right hand unwittingly peeking through the otherwise comically oversized cloak she had on.

“Since you know a thing or two about Sith, is it a reach to ask if you know what a rune is?”

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ha! And she'd thought him some random bystander. Gatz didn't know why he was so concerned with proving himself to someone half a decade younger than he was, but it sure felt good to be thought of as more than a simple scoundrel.

"I'm not gonna lie to you and pretend that I locked blades with the Sith Lord," he admitted, "but she didn't kill me, which is a helluva lot more than most can say. You know, since most of them are dead."

Capris relented, even raising her hands in surrender, and Gatz finally felt like they were on the same footing. Yeah, he wasn't going to walk up and punch this Sith spawn in the face, he'd leave that to her. But that didn't mean he was about to slow her down. If he was capable of keeping up with the Sword herself on a mission, then he was most definitely capable of keeping up with her Padawan. Or, rather, her husband's Padawan.

Gatz caught sight of her hand, the flesh recently seared, and was immediately concerned. He opened his mouth to ask after it, but she beat him to the punch with a question of her own: a question about runes. Admittedly, his knowledge about the Force was very limited, but he thought he had a rough idea as to what she was talking about.

"Runes? They're like a focus of sorts, right? A way to ensure the Force does what you want it to do, with greater precision than normal?"

He was still worried about that burn, but he'd wait until Capris finished explaining her plan before he brought it up.

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Gatz continued to impress by conjuring up a textbook definition. Further confirming her sense of judgment was in need of some serious work.

“Uh yeah- Pretty much.” With a quick obligatory scan of their surroundings, Capris grabbed Gatz’s arm. “I’ll show you why I asked.”

Quick to peel off from the main strip, her sights landed on the first patch of secluded real estate available. Kicking up a nearby pebble with the force, she pinched the makeshift chalk between her fingers and sketched out a rune from muscle memory. While she wasn’t entirely concerned with some refugee seeing what to their minds could only be some half-baked secular street art, her secrecy was more of a force of habit. Runes were a practice fundamentally rooted in the dark, and she and Kahlil had gotten more than their fair share of slack for using them. Certainly didn’t help that her Master was a former Sith Prince too.

Taking a step back, the girl put an arm in front of Gatz before the arrangement began to glow. A protective measure done more in the interest of keeping the integrity of her impromptu mural sound rather than Gatz himself. Without another word she tossed the very pebble she’d used into the radius of the sequence, watching it freeze midair as spires of ice exploded around its form.

“That’s the plan.” She said all too casually, feeling the flex on her energy as the sequence activated. “Place a trap, bait it, and.. voila.”

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Well, damn, turned out he'd been right. Gatz had been expecting to be way off base, or at least to have oversimplified the definition. But apparently he still remembered some thing from his time with the Order: more than he thought he remembered. But he didn't get the chance to revel in his intellectual victory, because before he knew it, Capris had grabbed him by the arm to lug him around the settlement.

"Any particular reason we have to move for you to show me?"

If he'd had a credit for every time a Jedi had dragged him around by the arm, like he was a piece of luggage, he'd have two credits. Which wasn't much, but it was— Well, that didn't matter. What mattered was that the Padawan stopped on someone's back patio, hidden from view by a rickety fence made from wood. Gatz was about to make a joke about her bringing him somewhere she could kill him without anyone knowing, but Capris immediately started drawing something on the ground with chalk.

She then backed him away from her impromptu art piece, and tossed a pebble at it. What followed was a very concerning display of downright sorcery: something Gatz had never witnessed before, not even from Valery, and she was a bona fide Jedi Master. Gatz walked around the little prison of ice that Capris had manufactured, and whistled.

"I have to admit: I took you as some arrogant kid," he shrugged, "but you have a plan, and a pretty neat trick that'll ensure we succeed. You'll be a Jedi yet."

And she'd make a finer one than he ever would have.

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Capris couldn’t help a look of surprise as Gatz complimented her. Genuine praise? She wasn’t the least bit equipped to handle that. Especially not when it centered around her biggest insecurity. Yeah, sure, it was a nice sentiment, but she highly doubted anyone in the current Order would agree with his optimism for her future. Her track record didn’t exactly scream model Jedi.

“Mmph.” She redirected her attention back to her mural to sidestep any obligatory gesture of gratitude. She’d rather just ignore the last bit of what he’d said.

“Yeah and I thought you were some sleaze with a raging savior complex. Guess we were both wrong.”

She almost cringed as the words left her mouth. Yeah that may have been a bit harsh, but her knee jerk reaction towards anything that brushed a nerve had always been a bit fiery. Ignoring her sudden switch in attitude she swept a foot over the chalk lines, leaving the patio untouched and their tracks virtually covered. It was then she looked back over to Gatz, another crucial element of her plan needing to be discussed.

“Right.. So about this bait-”

There was an almost apologetic look in her eye as her insinuation grew clear. But if he could handle a Sith lord surely he could handle a little cat and mouse with a roided up tu’kata. Right?

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Gatz got the impression that praise either made Capris uncomfortable: either she didn't receive it often, or she didn't feel she was worthy of it. He understood that: he often felt that Valery held him in too high of a regard. He didn't know who Capris really was, or what things she'd been through, but he knew a self-deprecating personality when he saw one. Arrogance was a mask for her, he guessed, that his a lot of insecurities.

He didn't like how familiar that sounded.

"No, you're pretty much on the mark," Gatz smiled, "I am a sleaze with a raging savior complex. I got the Sword of the Jedi to let me buy her a drink, and saved several children from the clutches of the Sith. All within the span of an hour."

It really wasn't the time or place to be joking, not with a serious threat on their hands. But humor was how Gatz coped with fear, and despite how well he kept it hidden, he was a little afraid. He'd never faced Sith spawn before. Yeah he'd tussled with a Sith Lord, but Valery had been there to do all the heavy lifting. This time he had only a rogue Padawan and a plan that entirely relied on her.

Well. If there was ever a time to trust in the Force, he supposed this was it.

"Yeah, yeah," Gatz sighed as Capris mentioned her intentions for him, "I'm bait. I get it. Fine, but after we catch this thing, you're gonna tell me what happened to your hand, and we're gonna go get you medical attention."

He hadn't forgotten. They had other priorities at the moment, but he wasn't about to let her burn go untreated. Someone in this rickety town had to have a little experience with first aid.

---

Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Gatz’s response was characteristically diplomatic, a fact which had Capris smothering a distinct feeling of shame. She was behaving exactly like the child everyone treated her as. Nice going. To her credit though, at the mention of buying Valery a round, she did manage an exhale of amusement.

“You should be careful who you share that with.” She snorted, “Wouldn’t want to land yourself on Kahlil Noble’s radar or anything. Man’s a lot scarier than any Sith Lord, I promise you.” Especially to people who mess with his wife.

In an almost poetic bridge, Gatz then brought up her scarring. A move which sent her right back into that ‘wild animal backed into a corner’ defense mechanism. Feth, she should've been more careful.

“It’s nothing.”

With a dismissive edge in her voice, Capris crossed her arms, making a point to slip her wounded hand back under the folds of Kahlil’s cloak. “How about you mind your own business and focus on not getting yourself eaten, yeah?” Ok, she probably shouldn’t have said that. It certainly wasn’t going to do much to calm Gatz’s nerves. Or her own for that matter considering her very tangible fear that she was going to feth everything up and get Gatz killed. A possibility she was doing everything in her power to not entertain.

“Then we’ll have all the time in the world to dive into the harrowing details of my personal life.” Punctuated with an eye roll, the girl turned away from Gatz and started moving out from the patio, again trying to dodge the conversation through a sheer refusal to acknowledge that it was even happening.

“We’re going to need a speeder.” She noted after an awkward lapse, eyes ghosting over a couple in varying conditions left parked and unaccompanied, “Please tell me Valery didn’t turn you into a total narc.” A little grand theft auto in the name of public safety was by all means a fair exchange in her mind.

Gatz Derrevar

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

"Nah, I like to joke about it, but obviously it was nothing more than a friendly drink."

Gatz had pulled stunts like trying to woo married women before, but that was the kind of thing he'd chosen to leave in the past. But even if he hadn't, making a pass at someone like Valery took stones he simply didn't possess. She was too... great. It was hard to put into words, but he supposed she was more of an ideal than a person to him. Which she probably would have been uncomfortable with, had he voiced that opinion, but the point was that he couldn't woo an ideal. Would certainly never try.

Better to stick with wooing normal, mortal, women. That weren't married with children.

Gatz had voiced his concern for her hand, and she'd immediately responded with lashing out. Plus a roll of her eyes. Right. Teenager. He wouldn't fault her, and this time around, chose not to ramble off some Jedi platitude. Capris had probably heard "be mindful of your feelings" far more often than she'd ever wanted to. So, instead, he ignored the remark and focused on what she said next: asking him about hot-wiring a speeder.

He smiled in response.

"In a crisis like this, I think Valery would overlook us stealing a speeder, so long as we return it when we're done. Which, really, makes it "borrowing" instead of "stealing." Totally different."

Gatz took a second to scan their surroundings for a vehicle, and found a speederbike that would hold both of them, and be quick and easy to hot-wire.

"Keep an eye out for a second. I've have this done in a flash."

---

Capris Halcyon