Private Roam If You Want To

[Cato Harth]

Serena, in typical toddler fashioned, was mysteriously compelled to try and declothe at the earliest possible convenience. She was shut down by her mother, thankfully, but her follow-up plan was to just make a break down the hall. Cato groaned, and followed suit alongside Inanna. Her antics suddenly seemed a lot more serious when she was caught staring at the ship console with mischief in her eyes. "Get away from that, pinkie." He said with caution. Expy cheeped nervously.

Then, Serena pressed it a button anyway. The ship engines flared, and it rose up off the ground. The Belgian man down below, and his astromech droid, were jostled by the sudden movement, and Tsilla nearly face planted into the holoterminal. A few others inside the hangar panicked at the unexpected liftoff. Cato, for his part, was quick to lunge forward, seizing the controls from his daughter and forcing the ship back down. It thumped to the ground roughly, but no serious catastrophes seemed to have occurred. "What are you thinking?!" He chastised, "That is dangerous! Listen to your mother and I, you do not mess around with ships!" Probably the harshest reprimand he had ever given Serena, given the circumstances. Cato pinched his brow, and sighed.

"What was that?" Tsilla's voice came from the doorway, where she was leaning over and looking a bit frazzled.

"I'm really sorry about that, Master. Our daughter got a bit rebellious in her curiosity. We'll pay for damages, if there are any."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

As the ship lurched, Inanna grabbed Serena while Cato seized the controls, holding her protectively in case things got rough. Luckily he was able to get the ship back on the ground intact and with nobody hurt.

"What are you thinking?! That is dangerous! Listen to your mother and I, you do not mess around with ships!"

Serena stared at her father with wide eyes, flinching at his raised voice. Her lip began to quiver, her tawny eyes growing glassy, before she let out a wail and hid her face from him.

Tsilla entered the cockpit and asked what had happened. Inanna stood there awkwardly while Cato answered, Serena sobbing against her chest. "Excuse us," she said, moving past Tsilla out of the cockpit and into the 'fresher, where the sound of her crying would be muted.

Had Inanna done what Serena did, her parents would have smacked the chit out of her. But Serena seemed to understand that she had done something wrong, and no spanking could top the shame and terror she must've felt. Either that, or Inanna was just getting soft in her old age.

"You like starships, don't you?" Inanna asked softly, after Serena had begun to calm down. The baby just whimpered wordlessly in answer. "But you're too young to fly one right now. Someday when you're older, you can be a pilot."

She reemerged minutes later, with a subdued Serena pacified by a sippy cup. Hopefully no chit had gone down while she was gone. Tsilla had to be a pretty forgiving type if she was teaching younglings...

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato tried to stay angry, but his sternness cracked the moment Serena began to cry. He falteringly tried to say something, but failed to do so before Serena was whisked away by her mother to be calmed down. He sighed, and knocked his forehead against the door frame in defeat.

Tsilla studied him with a pitying smile. It was an unenviable awkward position to be in, "…You are a first time parent?" She asked.

"Uh… yeah. Sorry to put you in the middle of all this," Cato cringed.

Then, the Mikkian chuckled, "I teach classes full of younglings, Mr. Harth," She patted his shoulder, "I know how they can be. Just… don't be too hard on yourself. You're learning, just as she is."

Cato nodded, "…Thanks," He had to own up to his mistakes of course, but she was right. Every day was new territory for him. And he was trying his best. Inanna and Serena came out soon after, with the latter a bit more calm. Her father approached gently, "…I'm sorry for yelling at you, honey. I just want to keep you safe, and you're not old enough to use a starship yet, and people can get hurt when they don't know how to use one." He glanced up at Inanna for a moment, then Tsilla, before continuing, "But I shouldn't have gotten so angry and loud in telling you that. Can you forgive me?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

If Inanna was growing soft when it came to disciplining Serena, Cato was cracking. He was apologetic when they returned, asking for the toddler’s forgiveness for yelling at her.

Serena seemed uncertain. Initially she said nothing, pretending to drink while she avoided looking at her father, but Inanna could tell she was gnawing anxiously on the plastic mouthpiece. Upon realizing they weren’t all just going to forget about it and move on to something else—at least, not so easily as she might have hoped—Serena finally mumbled something incomprehensible. More easily understood was her twisting around and holding out her arms to her father, losing her grip on her sippy cup in the process. Practiced reflexes kicking in, Inanna caught it with telekinesis before it hit the deck and handed Serena over to Cato.

“I’m sorry too,” she murmured against Cato’s cheek, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and pressing her chubby cheek to his. “I’m sorry Daddy.”

“Say you’re sorry to Master Tsilla and… that guy over there for trying to fly their ship,” Inanna said, pointing to the poor Belugan fella whose name she had already forgotten.

“Sorry,” Serena said to both of them with full sincerity, and to the astromech droid as well. She even tried to apologize to Expy.

With the sorry party having run its course, Inanna said, “Well, shall we?” She didn’t want to tempt fate by staying aboard the ship any longer.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato waited anxiously while Serena remained stoic. One would think he was afraid that his daughter would never love him again after once disagreement, but ultimately she spared him the worry, even admitting to her own faults in the process. He smiled lovingly, and lived her up to hug her, "Thank you, sweetie," He craned his neck back to plant a kiss on her cheek, "I love you."

She apologized to Tsilla as well, who dipped her head, "Your apology is accepted. Thank you."

And to Rondo, the belugan jedi. He rubbed his head and chuckled, "I think my buddy here popped a bolt, but, nothing that can't be fixed. Thanks, kid." The astromech droid in question whistled in begrudging relief.

"I owe ya sometime. Maybe I can scrounge together a nice upgrade, if you want," Cato offered.

The droid beeped. Rondo shrugged, "He might take ya up on that." The two of them then ascended down to the second level, "See ya around."

“Well, shall we?”

"We shall," Tsilla quickly remarked, happy to put this all behind them. She led the way back out down the ramp. Sure enough, the ship didn't seem seriously damaged from the outside, nor did anything around it. Cato sighed in relief. "I suppose next up on the list is the Conference Room," She led them down the North Wing, until they came found the room in question: A circular chamber, with a holoterminal in the middle, and seats arrange in a semicircle against the back wall. A row of windows overlooked the courtyard from here. The lightsaber lesson outside was more visible at his angle, and it seemed the instructor had split students into pairs for movement rehearsal. "This is where instructors and administrators will typically gather to discuss events, missions, or anything else that might warrant a meeting of minds. Like I said before, we have no grandmaster, and no real council, at least not by any official titling."

"So I could, in a sense, be on a Jedi 'Council?'" Cato remarked, using air quotes around the word council.

Tsilla chuckled, "If that is what you take away from this, sure. We welcome the participation and investment of all our instructors."

Cato turned to Inanna and waggled his brows, "How about that? Before long you could be married to a Jedi 'Councillor'" He said, using air quotes again. Meanwhile, Espy was still on his back, trying to entertain Serena by twisting his head around and popping panels across his chassis in rhythm, almost making it look more like he was malfunctioning than playing around.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna was still smiling to herself as they left the ship and headed to the Conference Room. Tsilla explained that, while they had no Grandmaster, they did have a Council of sorts. The prospect of having a leadership role seemed to excite Cato.

"How about that? Before long you could be married to a Jedi 'Councillor'."

“Hello, Councilor Harth,” Inanna said, kissing his cheek. “Or should I call you Master Harth now?” she whispered in his ear. Serena was distracted by Espy’s antics, giggling at his wiggling.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato couldn't help a grin, "Mmmmmaybe later..." He whispered back. Tsilla seemed none the wiser to whatever they said, or was exceptionally good at hiding a reaction.

"Let's head to the east wing, hm?" She said, stepping past the family to leave the room. She led the way to the next corridor, stopping at a set of doors which opened to reveal a spacious dojo. An Ardennian padawan was splayed out on the mat, having just been served a loss by a training droid.

She looked up at the new arrivals, and blinked, "Oh. Hello, Master Tsilla. Did you all see that?"

"Not exactly," The Mikkian chuckled, before turning to the Harths, "This is our indoor training room. Good for sparring and other, more physical aspects of Jedi training, when the courtyard is otherwise occupied or unsuitable." Cato walked along the walls, examining a few of the lightsabers propped up on display racks. Tsilla turned to Inanna, "Do you have a lightsaber of your own, Inanna? Or any prior combat training?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Monkey,” Serena shouted, pointing to the sprawled Ardennian as they entered the indoor training room.

"Do you have a lightsaber of your own, Inanna? Or any prior combat training?"

“I have a… er, it can switch between a lightsaber, single or double-bladed, and a lightwhip. I tend to prefer the whip. It’s what I was trained in.” She didn’t mention that it had been Sith training. “Why, would you like a demonstration?”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

“Monkey,”

"Huh?" The Ardennian raised an eyebrow.

"N-nothing," Cato quickly smoothed over the comment, just in case 'monkey' could be taken as an insult. The padawan simply shrugged, dusted herself off, and began to put away her things.

Tsilla rubbed her chin, "Really? That's quite impressive. Both its function and your preference. Lightwhips are rather tricky," Not that an accomplished user needed to hear as much from her. The mikkian's tendrils lifted up slightly, piqued by Inanna's question, "Well… It would help to get a sense of where you're already at training wise. Wouldn't do you much good to run you through fundamentals you've already grasped. So if a demonstration interests you…" She gestured, offering up the dojo space.

"I volunteer," Cato raised a hand with a smirk, "We've never sparred before. I wanna see what you got, from the other side." He walked back to the edge of the mat, setting down Serena and the BD unit, "Play with Expy over here." Then, he walked over to the center space, stretching his muscles. The training droid there took its leave, heaving back out into the hall. The Ardennian bowed out as well to head to another class.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Yeah, it is pretty impressive isn’t it…” Inanna mumbled, blushing. It wasn’t often that anyone complimented her on her skills as a fighter.

She nodded along as Tsilla seemed to agree with her suggestion—then turned to Cato with raised eyebrows when he offered to assist. Well, that made things a helluva lot more interesting. “Okay,” she said, following him into the center of the ring. “All right. Let’s do it.”

Pulling out her hilt, she separated the two halves and turned down the intensity of both to a nonlethal setting. Wouldn’t want to maim the hubby, y’know. Standing with her feet apart, she glanced at Tsilla for a final confirmation. Then she pulled one arm back, activating the lightwhip as she swung it forward.

A cord of yellow plasma spooled from the emitter, splitting off into several additional (albeit smaller) lashes by the time it cracked at Cato’s torso.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Let's," Cato set his on training mode as well, and the white blade ignited, followed by the crossguard. He swung the it overhead like a greatsword to bring it into a neutral stance. Tsilla nodded to them both once more, and despite Expy's efforts to entertain Serena, she too became affixed on what her parents were doing.

Then, Inanna made the first move. Despite pushing himself into this fight, Cato really didn't know what to expect the moment the yellow lashes shot forth. He blinked, then ran towards it, only to slide beneath the cords. He cocked his own blade back, and made a wide horizontal swing as he neared Inanna's midsection, sliding up to his feet as he left the danger zone of the lightwhip.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Cato simply slid underneath the lashing whip. The fact that he had to make an extra maneuver to avoid getting hit gave her a chance to dodge the blow to her midsection, which she did by simply stepping aside.

She was slippery, a natural effect of her Shi'ido physiology. Her defense revolved around evading rather than parrying his blows, and her lightwhip wasn't limited to being just a ranged weapon. The Force swirled around the coils, her telekinesis animating them. The whip lunged toward his ankles, intent on wrapping around a leg and yanking his feet out from under him.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato followed up with a few other big swings, which Inanna deftly avoided. He put one foot too close, and the lightship coils lashed out towards him. With a bit of quick thinking, he lowered his saber blade, leading the whip to catch that instead, and swipe it away.

In retrospect, being disarmed was probably a worse position to be in. So if that was quick thinking, it wasn't very good quick thinking. Cato blinked, then threw out at hand, yanking at Inanna's grip on her own weapon with the Force. WIth the intent of either disarming her as well, or pulling her into a range where the whip was less effective.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Cato somehow managed to disarm himself. Inanna would’ve laughed, had he not used the Force to grab her lightwhip. She resisted at first, hanging onto the hilt even as the telekinetic pressure he exerted upon it dragged her entire body toward him.

“Oh, you want this?” she asked with a smirk, abruptly releasing the lightwhip. As it flew out of her hand, she simply raised the other half of the weapon and thumbed the activation stud. The lightsaber ignited… and her smirk vanished as she realized that it had somehow been knocked into shoto mode, with the blade half the length she expected it to be.

Whoops.

Using the shoto to temporarily defend herself against any incoming attacks, she quickly reached for Cato’s discarded lightsaber, seizing it with telekinesis and trying to draw it into her free hand. Apparently today was weapon swap day...

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato made an awkward shift to avoid the lightship as it was flung towards him, catching the hilt from the side, "I do. Thanks," He smirked.

But now Inanna had his weapon. He fiddled with the whip for a moment, unable to quite figure out how to operate it, before he was compelled to make an attack, rather than sit there defenseless. He jumped forward, snapping the lightship coils in Inanna's direction, "Mind the vents," Cato commented. It would be rather embarrassing if she accidentally lost the match by zapping herself with the guard.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Watching Cato fiddle with the lightwhip, unsure of how to use it, Inanna couldn't help but snort. "Well, this is a familiar sight," she said, keeping her voice low enough that only he could hear.

"Mind the vents."

Her smirk disappeared. "The vents?" she echoed, looking down at his lightsaber. "What vents?..."

Well, now she was afraid to turn it on. Cato cracked the whip in her direction. The tips of the coils just barely brushed the skin of her arm, but it stung even as she moved out of the way.

Powering through the pain, she caught the whip around her blade, and with a little telekinetic assistance, began to reel him in.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"You'll figure it out," was all Cato offered. She had yet to active the crossguard vents herself, which suited him just fine.

Inanna still managed to entangle the coils around her shoto, after powering through a graze, "There goes an arm," Cato joked. Even if this was a real fight, that likely wouldn't be true, given the weaker cutting power of a lightwhip. At first, he gave a bit of resistance as Inanna tried to reel him in, keeping his feet planted and forcing her to drag him closer. Then, he suddenly loosened his drag, springing closer to try and catch her off balance while she was putting her strength into the little tug-of-war match. He reached out to try and seize his own lightsaber in her other hand while it was still deactivated, and while her shoto was still intwined with the whip.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“It just grazed me!” she protested.

Of course, he jumped at her right when she almost had him. The result was that they both wound up on the ground, with him on top of her. She managed to hold his lightsaber just out of his reach by extending the length of her arm to the point of absurdity, while she kept her shoto, still with the lightwhip entangled around it, pinned to the mat.

“Mommy is stretchy,” was Serena’s commentary from the sidelines. She offered one of her snacks to Expy.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Inanna muttered. “Don’t take this personally, honey…”

She then proceeded to headbutt Cato in hopes of bucking him off her.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato's strategy ended with both of them on the ground. He couldn't help a smirk, and whispered back, "Now this is a familiar sight." Inanna put her physiology to use, stretching her arm far enough that he couldn't reach the lightsaber. Expy looked at the snack Serena offered, tilting his head curiously.

“Don’t take this personally, honey…”

Whatever Cato was expecting, it wasn't a full on headbutt, "Ow!" He recoiled, loosening his grip and rolling away. He clenched at his nose, and sniffed, "No fair! That can't be sparring regulation!" He still had the lightwhip handle in his hand, and was left pulling on it to try and untangle the weapon from her shoto.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

When Expy just looked at the food, Serena grew confused. “Where your mouth?” she asked. “How you eat?” Eventually, receiving no answer from the droid except for boops and beeps, she shrugged and ate the snack herself. “Okay, more for me.”

She jumped a little at her father’s exclamation of pain, tawny eyes widening with concern.

"No fair! That can't be sparring regulation!"

“I don’t know what sparring regulation is,” Inanna replied guiltily, her ruthlessness rapidly giving way to fear that she might’ve caused him actual injury. “I tried not to hit you that hard.” Not as hard as she could have hit him, at any rate. “Are you bleeding?”

She sat up and hovered over him, trying to assess the damage to his nose. For a moment, she considered calling off the whole spar—and then he pulled her lightwhip free of her shoto, and she realized she’d been swindled. “Why, you—” She held up his lightsaber and thumbed the activation switch…

…and immediately dropped it with a yelp, stung by the vents.

Serena, motivated by concern for her parents, tried to get up and run over to them.

Cato Harth​