Private Once More, With Feeling

[Mia Monroe]

"It ended the way it needed to end. Your presence would have changed nothing, Ijaat. For my part, I am glad you weren't there, it was..." she trailed off. The urge to punch the smile from Ijaat's face diminished slightly and she twitched realising he was doing something, thought what she didn't quite understand. "Stop it." she said in quietly "Otherwise I'm going to punch you so hard it'll rip a hole in this ship."

His selfish need to help her was only serving to make her more irritated. "As much as I might have wanted to test myself against Ashin in a past life, I do not have the energy now. So please, stop." She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers. She almost missed the prosthetic. She took stock of the rest of her new form, of the lack of pain and of the symbol on her chest. She shot Ijaat a meaningful look, resigning herself to the fate he had dragged her back for.

"Ashin...with risk of taking advantage of your hospitality, if you've the resources. I'd like to look up my daughter...and if you have any knowledge on Rel Connory. I don't want to trespass on their peace, I just...I need to know."

Ashin Cardé Varanin Ijaat Mereel

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

The tuning stopped as the bite became more Mia and less just psychosis and rage unfiltered. That had been half the point of the usage of it anyway. To pull her back from the brink. With a twitch of his hand, he gestured about him.

"She'll know, or her associates will. I might advise food and drink, and something to wear first though. The poor acolytes might be stricken to see you stark and walking, and revival usually leaves one famished. For my part...Ashin... If you have any access to my old cache I left with you, I'll take it. It's not much, but it's armor and a hammer and guns. If not, just something other than a robe to wear and access to any forge you might have onboard or nearby..."

Eyeing the symbol Mia touched, he nodded in response to an unspoken question he sensed.

"No bonds made 'twixt us with it. Just used my essence to draw you out. It was a gamble. Without your location, we could have burnt the sanity and souls of most in the circle. But a risk that paid off, since you're here. Had it not... Well... I'm not entirely sure what that would do to me, to be honest. Best not dwell on it, eh?"

Ashin Cardé Varanin | Mia Monroe

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Ashin...with risk of taking advantage of your hospitality, if you've the resources. I'd like to look up my daughter...and if you have any knowledge on Rel Connory. I don't want to trespass on their peace, I just...I need to know."

"This is not, as it's said, our first rodeo. You both have folders waiting for you with general information about known associates and family members, dead and alive. That's our standard process with resurrection exercises. It saves time and...hassle."

For my part...Ashin... If you have any access to my old cache I left with you, I'll take it. It's not much, but it's armor and a hammer and guns. If not, just something other than a robe to wear and access to any forge you might have onboard or nearby..."

"Your gear is in the locker where you left it, Master Mereel. There was always the chance that I would have need of you again, after all. I'll note that it's somewhat dusty."

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia wasn't in the least bit surprised that Ashin was prepared, nodding her thanks. "Yeah, clothes would be great. I can work out else what I need after I've read these files and you two have explained..." she gestured between the two of them "Whatever weird fethery this is. Preferably over food."

It sounded an awful lot like a bizarre master-puppet relationship, one she was most definitively not here for. If she was not bound to Ijaat, then she needed all the information she could get before she could make any decisions about anything.

Ijaat Mereel Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

An arched eyebrow met the fellow Dar'manda. He chuckled slightly, and looked to Ashin.

"A business arrangement. A partnership of like minds, if you will."

Here he nodded, surprised to be comparing himself to Ashin and finding similarities. He would follow Ashin if she led out of the room, all the while doing his part to explain in an almost bored, neutral tone.

"It started as me having use to her, and still goes that way. Though she has also proved useful to me. I wouldn't say we're friends, but Ashin has asked me help in securing a better legacy than bloodshed. And well, you and I are subject matter experts in that. My price for helping her and coming back was that you get another chance to breathe free air and be. Truth is, after time in the Nether with Ember, I have a longer and less selfish view of my own past. Part of that was learning to own my own mistakes, and become more than them. Eventually I came to the conclusion that if I deserved such, so did pretty much everyone."

Mia Monroe | Ashin Cardé Varanin | The Pomojema

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Time was arranged for Monroe to dress and Mereel to check on his belongings. Thence, to dinner.

The ritual chamber, for reasons perhaps easy to guess, was near the banquet hall. Ashin took her customary seat at the head of the oblong black table. The tabletop concealed touchscreen controls: Ijaat Mereel and Mia Monroe could order from the ship's provisions, and droids would bring it out.

Ashin set the mask of Anger aside and ordered a steak cut from a Lake Krul hssiss, medium rare. The academy's exercises and excursions often bolstered its larder. While waiting on her steak, she accepted a glass of silver Echani wine and dipped bread in oil and vinegar.

 

[Mia Monroe]

A business arrangement that required Ijaat be pulled over and over from rest and peace? Mia frowned. She wanted to ask how exactly Ashin though Ijaat was going to be able to do this but was distracted from it the moment they entered the banquet hall, her stomach growling loudly as she skimmed through the touchscreen controls, ordering herself a Bantha stew and dumplings and joining Ashin's choice of starter.

"I wish I could share your positive outlook, Ijaat, but if I'm honest, in your shoes, I would have left me to rot. Some legacy's can't be changed, no matter how much you want them too."

She popped another piece of bread into her mouth, relishing monetarily in its flavour with a small smile. "What can you tell us about the galaxy at large, Ashin?" Maybe she'd garner some information that would help her work out what she was to do next.

Ashin Cardé Varanin Ijaat Mereel

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Around a quarter of a century ago, the current Sith Order set up two centers of power and the Galactic Alliance consolidated power over the Core Worlds, the Colonies, and the Inner Rim. It's been a peaceful few years until very recently. The Mandalorians and the Alliance are at war now. The Sith are consumed by internecine power plays and putting down each other's rebellions. The Pomojema has been unaligned for that whole quarter century. I've bent my last knee, as they say."

Mia Monroe Ijaat Mereel

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

"I never took you to be so bleak or self-pitying, Mia. There's work to be done, for yourself and our people. Their forgiveness doesn't change wat we owe. Cin vhetin is a concept that isn't without connotations of settling debts as a token of acknowledgement. Whether you help or not is your matter, I suppose. Would be easier with you though. These damn kids are on track to do as bad or worse as we did, from what I'm reading"

Shrugging, Ijaat punched controls to grab tingilaar and netra'gal. While the Enclave was Mandalorian, it had been an age since he had a proper spice stew and beer, and he knew Ashin's cooks were capable of producing fine examples of both. The fact that he did caused a disquieted grimace, and he smiled at Ashin before addressing what he was reading. He knew being so blunt with Mia was a risk, but a calculated one. She was ever this way with others, after all.

"The Enclave has called a crusade without a Manda'lor, eh? Bold of them. Very bold. The ones I knew calling the shots in that place must be stepped aside or swept up, or changed greatly."

Mia Monroe | Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes to stop herself hitting Ijaat, and let out a sigh. The anger flashed breifly in the force but she quieted it quickly.
It wasnt self pity, it was simply the truth. A truth she knew many of her old co rades would have shared. Mia did not deserve cin vhetin. Some things could not be changed, nor erased. A statement of fact, not pity. It did not make Mia sad, it simply was.

"And what exactly do you propose we do, Ijaat?" She looked up at him, her tone clipped. "They are not children. They are warriors, looking to test themselves against a greater power. They are no different from your or I when I held the title of Mand'alor the first time. They will fight, the will live or they will die and they will learn. A dar'manda and a blacksmith that should be long dead will not and should not change that course."

She looked to Ashin. You should not have agreed to bring me back.

Ijaat Mereel Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"I lean toward Monroe's perspective," said Ashin thoughtfully. "Not the flagellation, of course, but the notion that these Mandalorians are adults with an adult's right to test oneself against the enemies provided by choice or circumstance or naturally conflicting interests. I've received intelligence that the Sith Order plans to take action that could make them the mutual enemy of both the Mandalorians and the Alliance. To that end, you've both been vaccinated against Blackwing."

Tea arrived in advance of the meal. Ashin sipped it.

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

Arching a brow, he supposed he was in the minority.

"A Crusade isn't something to call without unity. Roche was a reason. This seems to me to speak of the swagger of youth. Proving mettle for proving sake. Which is fine, and good. But there's apt to be backlash, and a large portion who don't want this war. Where do those of our people go? What do they do? And what do the Crusaders even fight for? I'm of the idea we give them a purpose beyond ephemeral glory and prowess. I'm proposing we give our people a home again. We did enough to make it a wasteland. Forgiven or not, it's fitting we give it back to them, no? And what better legacy, Lady Ashin?"

Sipping tea, he fell to silence as what he proposed echoed strangely even in his own ears. How would they take his scheme, he wondered?

Mia Monroe | Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia sat back in her chair, she took a moment to process Ijaat suggestion. "Fix what we broke." She repeated with a laugh and shook her head. "That could take...months...years. " Mia's min went into overdrive, calculating possibilities, her eyes went unfocused for the breifest of moments before she blinked and sat forward again.

"Okay. Lets go see what we're working with. People will not have left it, attempts may have already been made, if not successfully. Its a starting point."

Ashin Cardé Varanin Ijaat Mereel

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"I think that's a substantial and achievable plan. Since I'd like to see Manda'yaim restored, I'll make shuttles, contacts, and reasonable funds available as a starting point."

The planet's true name was the only concession Ashin allowed herself. She kept her feelings in reserve otherwise.

The food arrived. Ashin set aside her wine and engaged with the Lake Krul hssiss steak in earnest.

Ijaat Mereel Mia Monroe