Private Rhapsody in Hues

[Mishel]

ARTIFICER + JEDI
The Princess Leia

Kurayami Bloodborn

​

Before Mishel's arrival on Dagobah, somewhere in hyperspace her freighter, the Princess Leia soared through the void. There on the small table that worked as the dining table, office, holder of things not meant for a cabinet, droid workbench, and anything else. Mishel and Kurayami sat with grilled pork belly on the small one-burner portable stove, an array of carbs and vegetables, spicy and not-spicy along with plenty of beer. "So what happened after that?" Mishel inquired of Kurayami who was in the middle of telling one of his many tales, "no you said that, skip that before I add more spicy food on your plate before you can have your next beer."

The Tygaran moved to knock back her shot of whatever passed for tequila around these parts. "Oof, tastes like crap, told you we shouldn't have bothered to bargain with that Rodian." Shaking it off, she moved to grab some meat and laid it out on her bowl of rice. It was these days that she missed, when she, Kurayami, sometimes Mara, Romi, and/or Coren had a good time on their way to whatever mission they needed to be at. Lav the Selonian pilot moved past them, aiming to head toward the fridge, there a bundle of clams awaited him. He held up a paw and then told them. "I got enough here to boil for the twos of ya, lemme get a pot."

Mishel gave Lav a nod of approval, "as you were saying Kurayami."

​

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

Kurayami was halfway through chewing a piece of the immaculately cooked pork belly while half rambling his way through, half actually telling the story Mishel had asked him about. " Wha? After that? I mean, wait no...if I already told you that then next was, uh no I think that was on Mon Cala. Or was that Sullust? Hold on. Frakkin... why can't I remember this chit? I was literally there!"

To Mishel this may have been business as usual while listening to the Corellian and indeed quite the mix of entertaining and nerve wracking to the point she wanted to snap his neck, but his memory had never been his strongest suit when it came to things that were far in the past if he remembered right this was about when he helped the Galactic Alliance retake Naboo and the part he had repeated was that he had dropped out of hyperspace and directly into an active warzone with no warning. "Okay. Right, so before I even saw the flashes of the lasers, I was already in a banking climb to get out of easy killshot range. I mean Bitchin Betty was havin' a field day with yellin at me about everything. Wasn't an alarm that wasn't going off. Weapons weren't charged though, I mean I went to visit a gravesite. Thank the Force it was an old Lucrehulk and rogue droid starfighters. Clone era tech. Managed to out fly 'em easily enough while my cannons charged. You point eight Ls. 9.3 cannon at most fighters and they ain't comin back from that salvo.

First kill was great, vaped them after pulling into a zoom climb until I came over the top inverted, kicked hard right on the rudder while pulling back on the stick. Unleashed hell during that half roll and vaped at least one. Turned that into a slash at top speed through their lines before pulling back up and setting up for another slash in the opposite direction. Hard left rudder, fire a burst, hard right fire a burst. Scratch two more. Got yelled at for using open comms to pull aggro from the little annoyances. Damn Rogues thought they knew everything. Anyways, started to use some nearby debris and asteroids to scrape a few off my six mostly because I was bored with open space and dodging there was too easy so I made my own fun. Mostly though just took out targets of opportunity or pissed off droids that I could who were trailing friendlies and then vaped 'em when they switched to me as their primary target.

Gotta say, there are times I miss a good aerial engagement, also kinda nice to know that if I make a mistake though it isn't game over immediately. Strange in that sense."

During all this he had paused a few times to take bites of the food arrayed before him or a sip of his beer. After setting his drink down again he looked over to Mishelhis seemingly ever present smirk plastered on his face. "How about you Mishel? What tales do you have to share?"

 

[Mishel]

ARTIFICER + JEDI
The Princess Leia

Kurayami Bloodborn

​

It was definitely nothing new when it came to Kurayami. His memory was about as reliable as an empty can of beer. Still, Mishel listen intently as Kurayami continued his story. Slowly she brought up the freshly grilled pork belly to her mouth, eating the delicious piece of meat, savoring each bite. She listened as he talked about eight Ls. 9.3 cannons, and he was right most fighters won't come back from that kind of salvo. Yet stranger things have certainly happened out there on the battlefield. The man talked about zoom climbs, being inverted, and kicking the rudder. Most of it was just stuff that Mishel, quite frankly, didn't understand.

She was partially following his story, half-roll this and vaped something that - slash, and then something scratch, comms, pull aggro. Now that she got - pulling aggro was a reference she understood. Using debris and asteroids to scrape things off - well, the First Order had certainly used asteroids to hide behind before. Mishel continued to eat, this time it was rice and a spicy assortment of vegetables before another round of pork. The brunette knocked back a shot as Kurayami's story winded down - he said he missed good ol' fashion aerial engagements. She could, in a sense, get it - and yet not - then again starfighters were never really her thing.

Then the pilot asked if she had any stories to share. "Well," began Mishel, "I have a few, well, there's this one on G'Rho. Bunch of Ssi-Ruuk there, and I along with a few knights of ren charged into the fray. I don't quite remember what all we were supposed to do, outside of kill and secure the building. I'm sure there was something to do with securing information of some sort. I had gone way ahead of my master, probably too far ahead as I ended up alone and surrounded, which for a while was fine - until it wasn't."

Mishel took another shot and then continued to regale Kurayami with her story, "pretty sure I ended up having some scaleback chomp down on my hand, I ended up slicing off that hand with my lightsaber and kept going. I didn't think about anything other than, murder, seek and destroy. I was also so hyped up on the dark side and adrenaline that it hadn't really occurred to me what happened until we were on our way back to base, and then... Well, it all sort of caught up at once." The Tygaran shook her head and sighed, "good thing I'm in a new body because it would suck not to be as connected to the Force." Mishel's previous body had more cybernetic parts at the end of its life span than most Sith would ever really know what to do with.

"So uh, you know, we're headin' to Dagobah where this Rimward Jedi Coalition has put up a new Jedi Temple, yeah?"

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

Somehow Mishel managed to still put up with him after however long they had known one another. Perhaps it was due to her just being able to tune him out by now or at least those parts that she didn't care about, maybe it was just the fact that he tended to drone on at a regular tone like a well maintained hyperdrive to some. The memory of talking to Amara about something random until she fell asleep when she was overly anxious about an upcoming mission made him laugh a moment and almost spit his beer out.

Admittedly the timing of the memory was not the best since it surface while Mishel was telling of her exploits on G'rho with the Knights of Ren. He grabbed his flask from the pouch on his right hip where it was usually kept. Unscrewing the cap he took a long swig and proffered it to her. Up close and personal brawls were something he had plenty of experience with, but he did try to forget most of those honestly as it was a bit too personal sometimes. " That sounds like a hell of a fight. I know you always did have a tendency to get a bit too far ahead for your own good at times, then again I can't really yell at ya 'cause I do the same damn thing. Guess mine came from the years of working alone after...well ya know, I mean losing someone close to you sucks hard. Losing someone you bonded with through the Force so closely that you know their next move before they do...I can't describe that. I do understand working without a severely hampered Force connection and yea it ain't fun to say the least. So I'm with ya in that I am happy for you that you got a new body that isn't mostly clanker. Been lucky to avoid cybernetics myself with all the shit I gone through as well."

Now came the reveal as to where they were going, or more precisely the reminder as to where.

"Is that right? Dagobah? Wow, who saw that shithole of a planet and thought, 'Yea let's build us a temple out here. Prime frakkin' real estate, let me tell you. We'll get the finest moisture farmers from all over the galaxy to come and learn in the swamp how to do flips with a weird little green dude on their back. Lift and stack rocks while doing a one handed hand stand because reasons! We hid all sorts of stuff in the swamp so it's now like a giant claw machine, anything you can pull out with the Force is yours to keep as long as you are a Padawan in our order!' I mean no offense, it's just other than ya know the stories of the planet and its ancient history why a temple out there? I just can't wrap my head around it. Good to know the name of the new people taking over though I guess. "

 

[Mishel]

ARTIFICER + JEDI
The Princess Leia

Kurayami Bloodborn

​

She knew all too well what it was like to be without the person you were bonded with. Kurayami was right, you can't describe the feeling that she carried with her - the way she and Shia were bonded. Mishel poured herself a shot of tequila and then took another just to stab the memories and feelings away with the alcohol. The brunette smirked when Kurayami remarked on the fight, "yeah... Wandering off never really did me any good." All those years she had blamed others, but not herself. Just one of the things she focused on, realizing, that yeah - it was her fault that she got herself into so much shit. Part of why she was headin' to Dagobah - the place where it all kinda started, Mishel hoped to pass some of what she learned onto others.

"Aye, all courtesy of my sister, really." Interjected, Mishel then looked over at Kurayami, "apparently she and a few others had to go all the way out to Virgillia VII to dig out a fresh body from cold storage. Luckily this one is genetically mine." A small pause followed as the Tygaran thought about what she had just said and then deadpanned, "would be pretty awkward if it wasn't." Her lips thinned and then, Mishel knocked back a third shot and turned her focus on her meal while Kurayami carried on.

"I'd say I'm surprised that you've managed to avoid as many cybernetics as you ought to have by now, but I'm not."

As Kurayami went on what amounted to a rantble, a ramble, and a rant all in one. The Tygaran could not help but laugh, then laugh again and then laugh so much that it was hard to breathe. When he was done with it, she gave a small nod of acknowledgment, "yeah - well, figured baddies wouldn't be lookin' for a Jedi Temple on a swampy, backwater, known only for evil caves and small condescending Jedi masters." To say the least anyhow. "Plus, I figured it couldn't hurt to check out what they're all about anyway. If it's worth anything, maybe I'll ping a few old Confederacy folk to come on down."

The alcohol was starting to kick in, and only because Mishel was going to let it.

Lav came back through what served as the dining area to grab a beer. The Selonian complained the two of them had shit taste in beer. Mishel quipped, "the hell you expect, furball? We're out in the middle of Force knows where with shit refill stations. These ain't the core worlds, y'know."

"But yeah, Kurayami, prime frakkin' real estate, heard there are a few villages around the place too. RTL's been real busy out in these parts, workin' on maintain' the peace and stuff."

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

The silence as they both tried to drink away the memories of those times was a poignant one, and to an outsider would have been unbearable. Thankfully to the two of them it was just a pause for drinks and even when they weren't trying to kill memories of the past could go on for a bit given the propensity for alcohol that they shared. His intent obviously had not been to bring up such thoughts, but here he was doing just that unintentionally yet again, truly a master wordsmith. Probably the reason he had never been given a diplomatic position in any of the orders he had been with. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Mishel. For me I was looking to fill a void that I didn't understand. I knew what caused it yea. Thought I could maybe find solace in either the thrill of battle or the finality it would bring me when I screwed up at the wrong moment. Was I looking to die? Yes and no. Figured I wouldn't take major precautions against it and whoever took me out would deserve it. Put some of those Sith Berserker types to shame back in the day. Why should I care when I wasn't riskin' anyone else's hide but my own?"

So her body was a cloned replacement. Well that was interesting, meant that somehow her Force presence had to be transferred to the new body along with memories. Which meant a memory archive or some similar process. Many possible questions that were best left unspoken. It was a bit uncomfortable, but literally biting his own tongue on purpose while eating helped dissuade him from any further questions when he took another shot because damn that stung.

"Well when you end up dating medics and Jedi healers its easier to stay away from the cybernetics, still came uncomfortably close on a few occasions though. Closest was when I earned the first class bloodstripes. Also the closest I came to straight up death so the details are a bit hazy I know for sure it was recovery of a Jedi and what was left of her strike team. I was piloting an ancient Rendaran class assault shuttle. It was low level insertion for our team. Of course the area was hot, and when we set I grabbed my gear as the ramp was dropping, we run out and grab the team. I'm literally dragging this Jedi back when I see a ping on my HUD from a squaddie who was engaging with an enemy element. Whole thing was an ambush. Not sure what exactly happened but we were pinned for awhile, eventually took a Verpine round to the chest and a thermal detonator went off a few meters away. Not close enough to get through the armor, but it threw me solidly into a column nearby. The Jedi was able to pull me up the ramp and I managed to get my bearings enough to get he shuttle primed for take off. We did get off the ground, but a rocket hit the wing near the engine unit and damaged it enough that we weren't able to make it all the way back to base. Had to ditch it and for keeping the craft together and both of us alive through that and a couple firefights after even when I had no ammo, I managed to earn the first class stripes. According to the doc at base when we got back, the Katarn MK III even should not have kept me going as long as it did even with the bacta injections. I was beat to hell, but only needed a couple weeks in bacta and another few months of PT to get back in fighting shape. Still never got past captain before I left CDF though."

She had a point about baddies looking for a temple on Dagobah, he wasn't one, and he never would have thought to look here. She was also right that it was at least worth checking out to see if there was anything to this gathering. Maybe it would be one that stuck around for a bit, the Outer Rim could use something like that for sure, a little order certainly couldn't hurt out here.

"I can't blame them for not wanting to check out a swamp and evil cave to see if there is a Jedi Temple there now. Not a bad idea to check 'em out and see if they are worth their salt, any ideas who you would be pinging from those days? Villages on Dagobah now? So real estate costs what, 1/10,000 of a credit now per ten thousand acres? Get it while its cheap!"

 

[Mishel]

ARTIFICER + JEDI
The Princess Leia

Kurayami Bloodborn

​

Mishel nursed another beer whilst Kurayami talked. She knew the feelin' the whole wantin' to die and all, and then she did die. Died saving her sister Alessandra Creed who then stubbornly refused to leave her dead, and well, then... Mishel did have second thoughts about it. Although that's one helluva awkward story that the Tygaran just didn't feel inclined to share at the moment. She nodded in acknowledgment when Kuryami spoke about not givin' a damn when it was only the one person. "Yeah, nah, I get you there, when it's just you and you've already lost bout damn near everything, shit... You just head in there cause you ain't got shit to lose, so yeah, I feel you there."

"I never really dated medics, think I had a crush on my Ren master, but damn was that ever a blaster bolt dodged," shuddered Mishel at the thought who then chugged the rest of her beer. Throwing it into the recycler she leaned back and grabbed another. Kurayami went on to tell his tale about his bloodstripes. She had to think if she actually ever earned bloodstripes, come to think of it. Mishel reckoned she just wore'em cause Coren had'em. "Rendaran?" Questioned Mishel as she popped the beer open with a slight use of the force and chuckled when she did, looking over at Bloodborne she listened to him as he continued his tale. "I'm tryin' to think of how many times things went boom here, hang on."

When Mishel had mentally caught up with it, "proceed."

"Con- wait, Corellian Defense Force, right?" The brunette had to correct herself, it wasn't the Confederacy - that was a life way after Corellia she figured. Shit. How much older was Kurayami again? She never did get a chance to ask Alkor all the details. "Well shit, that's one helluva tale there Kurayami. Think best I got was getting shot in the back with a blaster bolt off of Vader's Castle when the ol' Galactic Alliance invaded Mustafar and suddenly the whole damn place became a labyrinth." Or, a tell your own adventure tale, depending on how you looked at it, she supposed.

Bacta. Mishel's eyes narrowed on the word and she then recalled, "think my sister's allergic to bacta."

Next thing she knew Kurayami was talkin' about the real estate on Dagobah which cracked her up somethin' solid. The Tygaran started to laugh, and she had to sit upright properly just to set her beer down and focus on breathing for once. "Force have mercy, that's funny." complimented the Jedi Master who took in a deep breath and exhaled. "It's almost, quite literally, free real estate."

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

Mishel nursed her beer while Kurayami told a story that even by his loose standards sounded far fetched. It wasn't hard to sense the momentary bit of emotion that washed over Mishel as she reflected on her own past, but he knew when to let a sleeping nexu lie. Now was that time. She nodded in agreement about his statement as to being overly reckless when it was only your skin on the line. "Exactly. Why worry about it? I didn't have people counting on me coming back from each engagement. Plus I had to feel like i was doing something, anything, to keep others from going through what I had. "

"I mean it wasn't really intentional that I ended up dating medics, just kinda how things ended up falling into place. I can't even imagine, but if I were to take a shot I'd say more like a disruptor bolt most likely judging by your reaction." He slammed the rest of his after he told the tale of insanity and explosions in equal parts. While she worked out how many explosions there were he pulled another beer to himself and popped it open taking a sip right before she told him to proceed.

He nodded to her when she corrected herself. "Yea, Corellian Defense Force. Sometimes feels like lifetimes ago to be honest. I guess it's a helluva story, but really, when you go through it it was just about gettin out alive. Don't get me wrong now, I am amazed we managed to, but I guess since that this is the first time I've ever really told the story...kinda never really sunk in cuz of that I guess. Wow." Admittedly her story sounded like it was quite an interesting one as well, not one he remembered hearing either. Apparently something about the word bacta seemed to strike a chord with the young woman across from him. Hearing about her sister's possible bacta allergy he grimaced and shook his head. "Never a good one that is for sure. Medics tend to hate you, especially if you are anywhere remote or near a warzone. Know how hard it is to get a kolto drop in the Outer Rim? Really hard."

Mishel's compliment made him laugh, as she sat upright to set her beer down. He shook his head again still trying to figure out the logic outside of who would look on the giant ball of swamp gas for the Jedi Temple? Kurayami could only hope that the filtration systems were able to handle the smell that came along with that as well as ample laundry facilities to handle the mud covered uniform.

Mishel ​