Think we'll get grounded for this? [Kaia]

[Callum]

Agrilat, Corellia
The old Agrilat Swamp Circuit

Date night. Callum absolutely loved date night. Relaxation, food, romance, lots and lots of sex. Well, for mother and father, at least.

For Kaia and Callum? Date night meant it was time to see how much they could get away with without getting caught. They always tried something different each time. Long ago they really only ever got in trouble when their parents went out, but now the twins had become quite adept at covering their tracks and keeping their noses clean. Almost everything they did, they did together, and typically kept their mouths shut about it. Having each other's back was really the only way to go in their relationship as siblings... since they each had too much dirt on the other. Better to be accomplices than rivals.

Callum turned the corner slowly. "I think this is is, Ki," he said with a big grin. This was a trip they'd been planning for a while. It had to be when they knew their parents would be gone for some time, cause they intended to have criminal amounts of fun here.

The place was just spooky looking. Callum loved it. Even back in its hayday, hundreds of years ago before the spread of the virus, this joint had been terribly illegal. It was a place where they used to swoop race, one of the most dangerous places. The sharp crystaline plants (that were really overgrown, now) made the curcuit so treacherous that often times racers were only allowed to go one at a time. Dad had talked a lot about this place, and Callum could see why.

Getting out of the plain speeder, Callum pulled out a spot light, breaking up the thick night air. A few critters broke and ran for hiding. "Whoa... okay, now that's cool..." There was a huge abandoned statium that stretched alongside the first section of the race track, which disappeared around a sharp corner. The old announcer's tower was still intact, but clearly crumbling from decay over the years. In the distance there was even what appeared to be a junk yard where they'd simply discarded crashed and destroyed swoops.

"Where do we start?"

 

[Kaia Za'tire]

She was excited, probably more than she should have been, actually. First off, it was a swamp, and that alone would turn most people away. Second off, it was shut down, and mostly illegal to even be in the same area as this place. There was nothing known about it anymore, and there certainly wasn't anything good to come of this; and for those reasons, it made this all the better place to actually be. Quietly turning off the engine of her own speeder, she looked around the swamp-grounds.

She wanted to be careful, as to not upset the wildlife that lived in these parts, and sat upright on the speeder. Turning to her right, she pulled her left leg up and over the side of the speeder until she sat right on the edge of the speeder, looking out over the swamp. Carefully, she stood up from the speeder and straightened out her cloak and pulled up her cowl; if she was going to be sneaky, she was going to have to actually do it properly.

Before she took any steps, she saw Callum light the spotlight and just walk around casually, obviously scaring the animals around him. She mentally face-palmed at his actions, not for any reason other than he lacked subtlety. Laughing a little bit at the thought of how he and her father were so much alike, she grabbed the spotlight off the side of her speeder and lifted it up to turn it on as well. "This is amazing..." She said with glee, absolutely thrilled with the ruins of the place. All throughout her life, she'd studied histories and pasts of things, wanting to learn more about them.

When she had suggested the idea to Callum about coming to this old place, she knew it'd be a catch right away. Taking a few steps away from her speeder, she held the spotlight up high with her right hand, shining the light across to the large trees on the opposite end of the track. Her left hand was right on her blaster on her left hip, as she was still going to be at least a little bit cautious. "I can't believe this place is still standing...!" Her excitement was getting to her, and she oh-so-dearly wanted to go and traverse the stadium already, but she knew she had to take it in strides.

 

[Callum]

Yep, they'd hit the jackpot. Callum turned to grin widely at his sister. "Could you imagine the look on dad's face if we took home one of the crystal plants and just left it sitting on the counter for him? I bet he'd have a stroke. If he even noticed it."

He noticed Kaia looking with excitement toward the bleachers. Strolling up next to her, he put an arm around her shoulder with his free hand and smiled at her. "Shall we?" Giving her a tight squeeze, he continued forward and made his way toward the stadium.

There was trash everywhere. Many things had likely decayed over the years, but a lot of stuff hadn't. There were a number of places where it was obvious that at some point in the past a few people had made a makeshift camp here for at least a night. There was extra trash, some left behind items, and some obvious places where they'd burnt firewood for warmth as seen by the black scorch marks on the duracrete flooring. Every once in a while Callum would stoop and pick up something interesting, turning it this way and that before tossing it over the stadium's banister and into the darkness.

At some point he came across a spot where a high flying swoop had obviously swerved off course and been launched into the stadium. Setting the spotlight down in a place where it would shine on the scene, he knelt next to it without disturbing anything for a moment. Most of the vehicle was missing, but there was the occasional part here and there that hadn't been picked up. There was also several large blood stains; apparently a few people in the audience hadn't gotten away in time to save their lives. Callum tilted his head curiously and picked up a piece of machinery that didn't look to bad, examining it closely. He was more than itching to get to the junkyard and see what wonders beheld there, but there was plenty of time. They had all evening. He looked over to see where Kaia was and what she was up to.

 

[Kaia Za'tire]

The excitement that overtook her was one she rarely ever got to experience, not because of doing anything that would definitely get them in trouble, and not just for something that was seeking out relics of the past, but because of the both of those combined. It was an exhilarating rush to be int his area, which not only had the very real possibility of danger, but also had so many secrets of the past. She was excited, and she was thrilled to be here; it was difficult for her to contain her excitement at the moment, but she managed.

She rolled her eyes at Callum, when he talked about the crystal plant and giving Dad a stroke, and just laughed lightly at that. Taking a few steps off in the direction away from Callum, she held her spotlight up and shined it across the stadium, and out in the far reaches of the track. She was careful, so very careful, while taking slow steps as to not make much noise. The first thing she'd learned from so many years ago was to not make much noise, because that could lead to a lot of problems--but, what fun was it to actually be safe?

Not wanting to waste any more time, she sprinted across the fields, with her cloak lifted in the air. The excitement was overwhelming and she didn't want to waste it with being careful, after all, so much could be lost if you took too much time. A few moments later, she reached the furthest reach of the track and followed along it toward the back end of the stadium. Her brow raised curiously as she saw a door in front of her and stepped up to it. "Maintenance access?" Oh, this was going to be interesting. Looking over her shoulder, she waved at Callum and spoke out. "There's a door here! I'm going to see what's inside!" Of course, he may not have heard her, since she wasn't exactly very loud.

Quickly, she opened the door, which creaked loudly and much to her surprise, it wasn't locked at all; it was even opened up a little bit, as a couple of limbs from a tree above blocked it from shutting all the way. Holding her spotlight up and shining it inside, she stepped into the maintenance room, not only moving the limbs of the tree out of the way, but also leaving go of the door. As she left go of the door, it slammed shut behind her and she jumped a foot in the air, spinning around to look at the shut door. "Oh, fuck!" She cursed out loud, and tried to open the door with as much strength as she could, but it was locked.

"CALLUM! CAN YOU HEAR ME!? THE DOOR WON'T OPEN!" She yelled out at the top of her lungs.

 

[Callum]

He didn't hear Kaia. In fact, he couldn't even see her, though he could see her spotlight glowing from around the corner at the far end of the stadium. Well, she got antsy. Callum smirked, then looked back to the rubble in front of him. She'd be fine. While the two of them often acted like children on the outside, their parents had more than prepared them for adulthood. They were quite capable of taking care of themselves.

Fiddling with a piece of equipment that looked salvageable, a sudden sensation of panic washed through him like the freezing waters of a natural waterfall. It almost took his breath away. While Callum was Force sensitive, he had chosen not to hone such abilities. The only time he ever got anything so strong was if Kaia was involved.

Absentmindedly stuffing the item in his coat pocket, Callum snatched his spotlight and tore off running as fast as he could. "Kaia?!" he yelled out, moving toward the place he last saw the glow of her spotlight. Skidding around the corner and nearly losing his balance in the process, he saw a door that she'd likely gone in. He tried the handle, but it wouldn't turn. "Kaia! Ki, are you in there? Are you okay?" he called out again, praying she was behind the door. Callum stepped back and shined the light on and around it, looking for any access point or a weakness in the door he could exploit.

 

[Kaia Za'tire]

She heard the faint voice of Callum on the other end of the door and just let out a small sigh of relief, which hopefully would be quiet enough for him to NOT hear. The last thing she wanted was for him to know that she was comfortable around him. "I'm here! I'm fine. The door's just... rusted and old. It's a maintenance tunnel." She wasn't too alarmed now, especially now that she could hear Callum on the other end. "It doesn't look too bad from here..."

As she turned around, she leaned her back up against the doorway and shined the light out and ahead of her, lighting up the hallway. "I take that back..." She admitted it, after she saw it; the entire place was rundown and it looked like the weeds and even some of the plants had started to grow from the cracks of the building. Right now, all she hoped was that the building wouldn't collapse around her, and judging by the sounds--or lack thereof--it seemed like it wasn't going to happen.

"Well, unless this is a one-way tunnel, I'm sure there has to be an exit somewhere around there." She spoke loud enough so he could hear, while she scanned up ahead in the lightened hallway. "So, I'm going to take a look around here, and find the exit." Reaching her right hand into her pocket, she pulled her holo-comm and put in Callum's frequency. Waiting for him to answer, she just waited there. If he answered, she'd look into holo-image of her twin brother and just give a nod.

"We'll keep in contact with this. There's no way I'm letting you out of my sight. All the relics are ours to share!" She said a bit playfully, although she absolutely meant it. Even though she was a Jedi, she was still mainly raised as a smuggler.

 

[Callum]

The frowning face of her brother would appear in the holocomm after he answered it. "Ki, I'm not sure you should keep going by yourself. I can see you, but I could hardly help you if something else happened. We don't know what the infrastructure is like around here. This place is hundreds of years old... It could collapse on you."

It was one of the few times that Callum dropped his silly mask that he hid behind so often. He cared for his sister. She was his best friend, and he loved getting into trouble with her, but he would be devastated if something happened to her. He was protective of her. Still, she was as stubborn as mother... and father. Their entire dysfunctional family was stubborn, frankly. So he knew when arguing would do him no good, and for once he didn't even try. "Alright... just be careful. And if you don't find anything, or run into something dangerous, please come back this way. I'm going to try and get this door to open again."

Once again, he set the spot light down in a place where it would shine on what he needed to see. Next to it, he put the holocomm, where it would still pick him up to keep in contact with Kaia. He frowned at the door, considering it for a while. He could likely jimmy some kind of explosive from all the random parts lying around, but he feared that the size explosive he'd need to get through the door would cause the entire structure to crumble and trap Kaia inside. If there were any power still being fed to the door, he could slice it open... though it may take some time, because the locking mechanisms on this door were ancient technology compared to what they had now. And probably faulting. There was always old school lock picking...... He'd really taught himself how to do that more for the shits and giggles than anything else. Almost no one bothered with such archaic methods anymore, but Callum liked having odd skills like that.

Kneeling at the door handle, he pulled a thin, tightly bound pouch from a pocket. "I'm going to try and pick the lock, Ki." As he began to choose different sized picks, he smirked. "Finding anything interesting?" No sense being a complete humbug. He would be pretty jealous if she found something neat without him, but only once she managed to get out alive and in one piece.

 

[Kaia Za'tire]

The long, dark hallway was lit up with the spotlight, and it made traversing it much easier. While her right hand held the spotlight above her right shoulder a bit, she held out the comm with her left hand. With half her focus on the call, she kept walking along the path, trying to find anything else up ahead. "It won't collapse on me, really. The inside of this place looks pretty well off." It was a lie, but only because she didn't want to worry Callum; she knew he'd get a bit overzealous in his attempt to save her.

Stepping over a large vine across the hallway, and ducking beneath some more hanging vines, she continued on her journey to find anything in the maintenance room. If Dad were here, he'd be doing the same thing, most likely; actually, she knew he'd be scavenging the speeders, and leaving the rest. Stepping slowly, she stumbled a bit over a few of the larger vines, and almost fell, but caught herself before it happened. "So far, there's nothing dangerous here. Just a lot of... oh? What's this?"

"Finding anything interesting?"

She went silent for a moment, and all that could be heard from the comm was a loud, and very obnoxious screeching of metal grating across the ground. Her own eardrums almost felt like they'd burst, when she heard the metal screeching, but she persisted in opening the door. Shining the light through the mostly open door, she stepped halfway inside and looked around at where the light shined.

Scattered from left to right, and covering most of the room, there was a large amount of weeds, and vines. The entire ground was covered in it, but what really took her for a spin was the smell. It almost smelt like something had died in there. After pushing herself into the room further, she squeezed all the way in and started to explore. Still, with slow and careful steps, she looked around the room. The ground felt softer than usual, almost as if she wasn't actually standing on anything solid.

It wasn't until she shined the light downward at the ground that she saw skeletons. Large amounts of skeletons, all of which were beneath the vines. She gasped loudly, and tried to get her footing again before she fell over and into the skeleton pile. "Callum... What would you say... if I found a room, filled to the brim with skeletons?" Upon further inspection, some of the bodies had even looked not so old. "And some of them still have quite a bit of meat on their bones. Ehh... no pun intended."

 

[Callum]

"Skeletons?" Callum looked up at the holo with a perplexed expression. "Well, I guess I'd have to go Admiral Ackbar on you and say it's probably a trap...." He meant it, too. "Please make sure the door doesn't close behind you this time. The last thing I need to do is call mother and father and tell them I lost you in a skeleton closet buried beneath the stadium of an abandoned illegal race track."

Truer words had never been spoken. Looking back down at the handle, he focused once more on the task at hand. His fingers gently twisted the picks, feeling them slide along the grooves in the tumblers, occasionally hearing a small click that signalled another step of success. Finally, after a few more minutes, the handle unlocked. "Ha! Kaia, I got it! I'll be there in just a minute, wait for me." With a grin on his face, he pocketed the picks and retrieved the comm and spotlight. Turning the handle, he pressed on the door.

It still wouldn't open.

"Bloody fucking hell...." he muttered. Keeping his hand on the turned knob, Callum slammed his shoulder against the door. It didn't budge. He tried it a couple more times, each time hitting it just a little bit harder, with still no success. After that, he got annoyed. Backing up as much as he could from the door, while keeping his hand on the handle, Callum braced himself and threw the entirety of his weight forward. Just before his body hit the door, it gently swung open of it's own accord, and he wound up flying through the threshold and stumbling to the floor. "Not the face!" he said instinctively, raising an arm to protect the aforementioned part of his body as he sprawled forward -- face unscathed.

After a moment to catch himself, Callum stood to his feet and smoothed out his clothing. "I'm good," he said casually, in case Kaia was wondering. Walking over to the door, he pushed it all the way open and took the time to drag a couple heavy pieces of debris in front of it to keep it from shutting. "Alright, I'm coming. How far down did you go?"

 

[Kaia Za'tire]

"Yes, skeletons." She confirmed, taking a slow few steps to make sure she didn't actually disturb anything beneath her feet. Right now, she was a bit cautious, as the entire room seemed dismal and overwhelmed with the stench of death. She focused her senses, trying to see if there was anything else living nearby, but was unable to come up with anything; so far, the entire place seemed deserted, just as she'd thought. Still, she moved about carefully, and avoided--to the best of her ability--stepping on any of the skeletons.

Looking to the back of the room, she saw something with a small hint of a reflection from her spotlight. "I might have found something." She said, while holding up the comm with her left hand. Lightly, she moved across the room, and as much as she wanted to avoid stepping on the skeletons, she wasn't able to, and had actually stepped on quite a few, and even lost her balance a few times, with only a brief second to catch her footing.

Reaching out, she picked up the shiny metal that was laying on the table before her, and brought it up to the comm, showing it off to Callum. "It looks... really fancy, actually." Of course, through the image, the shiny metal on her end surely would have just looked like a blue piece of metal on Callum's. Pocketing the piece of metal, she continued on her journey, but began to backtrack out of the room when she heard that Callum had gotten the door opened.

"I went..." She paused for a moment, trying to remember. The maze of the hallways that she walked along were far and a bit convoluted, so she didn't quite keep track of where she was going. ".. I went, I think... straight, and then took a right?" She wasn't too sure, and it was evident in her tone, but at least she was trying to help!

Stepping outside of the room, she looked from left to right, and down the long, dark hallways. She wanted to wait for Callum, but the want to explore got the better of her, "I wonder what's over here..." She said, taking a turn and walking down the hallway, to go explore some more. "Have you found anything? This is a great chance for any kind of treasure!"