Within The Dark

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

"It's winter." Again, truth, though that wasn't exactly the whole story. It really was Winter on the farm right now, but Val only knew that because he kept track of the seasons as he traveled. In truth he hadn't returned home for nearly a year now, having kept away for one reason or another.

"Not much to do during winter." Val pointed out. "Most people usually just stay inside, hunting every now and again for some meat."

He rolled his shoulders. "Not much else to do."

Traveling was one way to occupy your time, though most farmers back home didn't do it of course. They were either too poor or too small minded to ever want to leave Vilith in the first place. Val had been different from the get go of course, but even back when Aerith had been alive they had often traveled in the winter. Not far mind you, just a system or two over to see different worlds, but...it had been an odd sort of tradition. He smiled as he remembered it, then looked at Ryssa.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Ryssa wasn't sure how to take that smile. The cynic in her took his story with a grain of salt. Another internal voice mulled if there was any truth to what he said with how he appeared to reply so easily. Even then...

"Didn't think farmers did much traveling at all." Ryssa quickly spun her head back forward, paying attention towards the road. A few more pourstone houses and they would be at the inn. Was she being a bit too harsh? Perhaps. Ryssa wasn't keen on being forced into any issue, and while she was actively thinking of ways to drop Val off at some medical facility and get rid of him, it didn't mean she was all too pleased at the situation.

Things had already escalated well enough.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

"Most don't." She hadn't asked a question, so he didn't feel a need to elaborate.

It was obvious though that Val was hardly like other farmers.

He still did consider himself one, but even among those on Vilith he was something of an oddity. Besides the fact that he was not only stronger and faster than most humans, he'd also lives about twice as long. It was a fact that many noticed, and although most in his village had accepted it, some were...well more than a little weary of what they didn't understand. The children that he had grown up with, his friends, had all long passed. Their children were old now too, and their children...well it was their children that feared him.

Many didn't understand him, didn't know what he was.

Val didn't blame them, most people on Vilith were simple. They had never met the Sith or Jedi, most had never even met anything more unique than a Twi'lek. They were simple folk, and Val was anything but simple, at least when you dug beneath the surface.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Right."

Little else was said between them. Perhaps it suited the sombering mood. Either way, Ryssa turned in towards a small, dusty landing pad where she could park. This early in the morning there were a few inn patrons and work keepers about. All she had to do was go back into her room, grab her things, returnt he keycard for the room and the speeder and be done with it.

Actually... A thought came to her. Maybe she could have him stay at the speeder while she gathered everything and then headed over to the spaceport herself.

Didn't take much and it was but a five-minute walk. She'd have the Osiris up and running in no time. Turning off the engine, she followed that plan.

"Stay here. I'll be back in a bit." she told him, moving to hop off and out of the speeder.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

"Uhh." Val began. "No."

Val might have been a farmer from a backwater world, but he wasn't simple. There was still a severe lack of trust between the two of them, and Val wasn't about to let her wander off with the gauntlet, that would have been silly. "If you're going somewhere, leave the gauntlet here."

Wasn't a difficult request.

They didn't trust one another, that much was clear, but Val couldn't let her have all the cards, it wouldn't have been fair to him. If she wandered away with the gauntlet, she was liable to...well stay away. He doubted very much that she would come back once he was out of sight. Perhaps that mistrust would eventually come back to bite them, like when the cultists spotted them arguing, but Val wasn't willing to simply let her go and do as she pleased.

He undid the buckle that kept him in place, ready to move.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

That resulted in her bark of laughter.

"Hah, nice joke," the Clawdite told him with a note of sarcasm in her voice as if he'd really said something quite funny.

Fine, will have to think of something else. I have time between here and the spaceport.

Ryssa didn't bother to wait for him. Instead, she turned on her heel and headed for the entrance of the inn. Her pace was brisk even with her short legs. She certainly could move quite fast.

Darting inside, it was likely that one of the droids would say hello and perhaps stop both. In this case, he went immediately for Ryssa.

"Welcome back honorable customer!" annoyed, Ryssa attempted to sidestep.

"Thanks I'm fine." she said. The droid not to be offput, did the same to Val, extending his arms out wide in greeting, sliding between Ryssa and Val.

"Greetings, honorable customer! May I interest you in a room?"

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Val's hand pressed on top of the droids head, pushing it out of the way. The thing flailed it's arms for a moment and then slid out of his way as he followed after Ryssa.

"How rude."

He smiled as it spoke, but apparently the droid had no inclination to follow after him. Val followed close after Ryssa, an easy thing to do since every two steps she took was a single one for him. Their size difference really paid off for him in the end. He smiled slightly as she tucked herself into the smaller hallways, Val having to stoop his head as they wandered through the inn.

Briefly he thought about the inn back in the village at home.

It was more modest than this one, if that was at all possible, really only having four rooms to lease out. The same family had owned the inn since before Val had been born, one member of the family taking care of it through thick and thin. They were a kindly folk, always offering a free bed when necessary, making money on their tavern rather than the rooms they rented. He smiled at the memory, following after Ryssa as he bathed in Nostalgia.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Her room wasn't too far off, but the blasted man kept following her. It added another level of aggrevation to the Clawdite. Did he have to be right up on her?

Another half grumble on her breath and she stopped at her door. A card key was slid against the console and the door slid open; the rather small and ordinary door that would be a few inches shorter than the brute of a man behind her.

Her gear was all of a few disposable items and some clothing. There was also a few datachips scattered on the desk to the far right along with the mobile dataterminal. Those she went for first.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

He ducked beneath the doorway and stepped inside.

The room wasn’t much to look at, really just about the same as you’d expect to see from any inn in a place like this. He looked around for a few moments, but in truth didn’t pay too much attention to Ryssa.

Sure he had followed her, but he wasn’t about to get all nosey about it.

There wasn’t any need to be too suspicious of her. He doubted that she would set off a bomb or anything to get rid of him, though he did think that if she had the opportunity she would break out into a sprint and get away from him as fast as possibly. Other then that though, he doubted very much that she would attack him or do something silly like that.

She didn’t seem the type, not after saving his life.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Now how am I going to be able to get rid of him? The question plagued the Clawdite's mind, mulling over the best scenario that she had to work with. Taking another satchel by the desk Ryssa unzipped it. She first collected her mobile data terminal, then the datachips, and finally the filmsi. The rest... eh, clothing. Wait was there a window in the refresher?

Grabbing her clothes, she shoved them into her bag. It was a really random way to pull the slip on him, but maybe it would work.

"Sec." she murmured, heading for the refresher.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Val didn’t follow her into the bathroom, he thought that might have been a bit much, but he did shift and walk over towards the other end of the room, perching himself on the window that was located there.


The view was quite lovely, not to mention it provided him with a neat look at everything behind the building, and since the bathroom wasn’t located on a corner...well he already had her only exit blocked off.


If she wanted to get away from him, she would have to be a bit more clever.


One couldn’t blame her...well actually they absolutely could. She was trying to wiggle herself out of a deal that she herself had made, or at least appeared to have made. Apparently honesty was not the best policy for Ryssa.


Shame.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Ryssa shut the door to the refresher behind her. As soon as she did her attention swiftly went towards the window. Would she be able to use it? The Clawdite came to a halt right in front of the window.

At first inspection, it honestly didn't seem as if there was enough room for her to wiggle by. She was tiny, but not that tiny. Frustration grew. How am I going to get rid of the guy?

Tapping her fingers along the window ledge, Ryssa mulled over what she had available. Spaceport would be another five minutes on foot. It was relatively busy at all hours with the mining company shipping out its wares.

Unless Val could get stopped by security? Guilt shot through her. If he was stopped by security then odds were the cultists might nab him. Ugh, this was the worst.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Val drummed his fingers on the windowsill.

"Did you fall in?" He called out to her. "I mean, I know you're small, but you're not that small."

It was a joke.

They were going to be traveling together...well if she didn't run away from him, and that meant they should at least form a kind of close relationship...right? He frowned for a moment and looked up at the corner of the room as if he would find an answer there. Eventually he shrugged.

A part of him wondered what Aerith would have said about all of this. She likely would have called him a fool and told him that Ryssa was just a nice young lady trying to go about her businesses. Perhaps she would have been right too, but without his better half here to guide him...he could only do what he thought was best. He frowned slightly and let his knuckles play against the side of the wooden window bank, his head tipping back as he let out a heavy breath.

Bored.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Yeah, yeah." Ryssa yelled out, her voice resonating within the small room. Frak it. Dumping her satchels down on the floor, she decided to at the very least take a sonic. Big guy out there wasn't the only one with aches and pains and covered head to toe in her own bits of shrapnel and grime.

Without further ado, Ryssa brought her hands up to her head. There she removed the security bindings of her visor. Clothing was easy.

It was just her skin after all.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Val was bored.

Really bored.

He heard the sonic showers go off, his ears twitching slightly. The noise was shrill, loud, and in truth he couldn't stand it. There was something about it that drove him absolutely mad, like he needed to get out. His teeth gnashed together and his hands went over his ears as he tried to block out the noise. He knew that she didn't mean to do this, mostly because his reaction to sonics was pretty much a secret to all but his late wife, but...well this was beginning to feel like torture.

Val continued to grind his teeth.

There was nothing he could do besides wait out the freaking noise, his skin crawling with every second that passed, his mind feeling like it was slowly being scrambled up and down in his head. He half slipped off the windowsill, pacing throughout the tiny room as he tried to focus on something else besides the shriek of the sonic refresher.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

The noise would continue. Maybe he'll get annoyed of waiting and leave her room. That would work out. Yup, Ryssa was delaying the inevitable because she did not want to end up on a ship alone with the two-meter midvinter guy.

A hand ran down her arms and her torso, giving a slight grimace at the bruises and cuts that stung her skin. I really should get checked by the medic as well. A sigh fell from her lips in frustrated exasperation.

Just what was she going to do?

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Ugh.

The sound was like grating two styrofoam cups right besides his ear. He frowned slightly and eventually sat himself down on the bed. Half of him considered breaking down the door to the refresher and simply smashing the machine, but then he would have to pay the innkeeper for breaking it and Val had neither the money nor the time to actually fix it. Thus he would suffer in silence, his teeth grating against one another and his mine slowly being scrambled.

It wasn't too long before he started to develop a headache.

Val wanted to smash his head against the wall.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Unfortunately, while Ryssa did not know of Val's pain with sonics, she also couldn't extend her wash up any longer than she already had.

Much to the gratitude of the pounding sensation in Val's head, the dreadful noise came to a halt. He would have to wallow in any lingering pain of the potential migrane as the Clawdite stepped out from under the sonic shower head and put on fresh clothes.

The ensemble was standard spacer attire. Her hair this time did not have her headband visor she had worn before. Instead she had fingercombed it into a high ponytail at the crown of her head.

Glancing at herself at the mirror, her shoulders set.

"This will have to do." all cleaned up she appeared a few years younger than one would expect. Then again, the Changling had the ability to shift her skin to be perceived in whatever form one might desire. Over her clothing she put on the grey black cloak.

An idea was brewing, but one that would be rather painful in the wake of everything that she'd been through.

And to be honest she wasn't really looking forward to it.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Thankfully the noise came to a stop.

There was a sense of relief that was almost indescribable, something he couldn't quite come to terms with until a minute or so had passed and he was sure that it was over. Sonics had an...odd effect on him. Normal humans didn't seem to hear the noise, or rather they didn't hear it quite so well, but for him...well the noise was so shrill he could hardly stand it. The first time he had heard it he'd nearly bashed someones head in because of it.

The noise was not pleasant.

"Done yet?" He called to her with a notable bite to his tone.

The shrill sound of the sonics had made him a little bit more than irritated, the pain that was now pounding in his head pressing away some of the patience that he had felt just a few moments earlier. He wanted to be gone from this room, gone from this planet, and just...well gone. He really didn't like the sonics

Something Ryssa would have noticed had she popped out a few moments earlier.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Wow, okay no need to bite my head off there." was the reply given to Val when Ryssa steppd out of the refresher later. She had her satchels under the cloak and one might have wondered why if they hadn't been chased by cultists earlier. By all intents and purposes, they wanted to keep a low profile -- even if Val couldn't do that with being two freaking meters tall.

She shot him a glare.

"You're the one who got a hot spring tingly bath out of the two of us." she reminded him, moving past him with a small bit of bite to her tone. Understandable, since she was already frustrated with the situation.