annexedlogs | Relief Log #2

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Relief Log #2

I. In The Aftermath

After the mission is complete, the new recruits are invited back to Central Command for a patch-up and celebration to let loose and socialize a little bit.

The first order of business is the patching up. Anyone who was injured is welcome to go to the Hospital, if the injuries are more serious. Everyone else, those with smaller injuries like scrapes and bruises, minor cuts or burns or abrasions, are welcome to come to the Infirmary in Central Command. There will also be attendants that tell returning new recruits that if they'd like to learn a little first aid and tend to their comrades, they can also head to the Infirmary.

In the Infirmary, anyone who's not injured but shows up will be instructed in basic first aid so they can tend to their teammates and friends. Nurses will be rotating around to check in on people and make sure nothing is more serious than it looks, but generally, the new recruits will be encouraged to tend to their teammates in order to encourage group bonding.

II. A Fine Meal

On an evening a few days after the mission is complete, all the extra-universal new arrivals will be summoned to one of the large meeting rooms in the Central Command for a feast. When they arrive in the room, it is decorated with orange and brown streamers and fall iconography - bundles of twigs and dried flowers, bundles of fragrant herbs, dried pumpkins with faces and fall scenes carved into them, and other decorations. In the center of the room there is a large table laden with delicious-looking fall foods - poultry birds so large they had to have been roasted on a spit, huge roasted portobello-style mushrooms, mashed tubers, gravy, stuffing, bean casserole, candied yams, mooncakes, boiled spicy crayfish, roast herring, various types of stews ranging from traditional stew to fish stew to mushroom stew, and tons of desserts like tarte tatin, ice cream, apple crumble, pumpkin pie, and almost any other fall food you can think of.

Characters will be invited to sit around the table and feast together, while quiet music plays in the background, facilitating conversation. Some of the rebels have volunteered to keep restocking the table as people wander in and out to sit at the table and eat in rough shifts, and these volunteers will encourage characters to share things they're thankful for, things that make their lives better. All of those things that make life worth living, that make the fight worth fighting.

On a table near the door to the room, there is a stack of beautifully cloth-wrapped bento-style boxes that characters are invited to take with them. They are told by volunteers that these boxes aren't just leftovers for later, but a necessary component of the night's test of courage. They encourage characters to take one and participate, as it's a particularly bright feather in the cap of anyone who undertakes it.

III. The Skyclad Light Show

Once the feasting throughout the late afternoon and early evening is about complete, characters will be invited out into the courtyard of the Central Command for the evening's entertainment. The courtyard is essentially a small but beautiful park, with benches, patches of grass, a few ornamental trees and gardens, and plenty of places to spread out a blanket (provided by friendly volunteers!) and watch the show. And what a show it is!

Every year around this time the Skyclad take magical lights that trail behind them, and put on a spectacular light show in the sky. Streaks of vibrant color follow each hoverboard as those riding them in the sky flip, twirl, dive, and perform other feats of hoverboard artistry for the crowd below. The show goes on for about 45 minutes, with the Skyclad twisting and twirling, drawing beautiful designs against the evening sky.

Characters who really bonded with their hoverboards and took to tricks and flips and kicks after the mission would have been invited to participate, especially if they were interested in joining the Skyclad. The Skydance, as they call it, is quite highly choreographed to avoid midair collisions, all with the goal of producing something truly beautiful and ephemeral. Try not to choke!

IV. Night of Remembrance

The final tradition of the evening is a solemn remembrance of the warriors who have fallen in the fight against the Sylphid. After the Skydance, volunteers would have set up another table of those bento boxes from earlier as well as little bags containing 5 mandarin oranges, and would brief the people in small groups about the traditional Night of Remembrance. The Night of Remembrance is a really big deal among the Witches, and is a great opportunity to prove yourself if you're looking to gain respect and rise up the ranks, as it's also partially a test of courage. The tradition involves taking leftover food from the feast to the shrine at the cemetery in the Mages Sector in order to 'prepare a feast' for the dead and honor those who have fallen, and offering oranges to the fallen along the way. The food must still be at least a little warm when it's presented to the spirits. Sounds simple, right?

Once characters who wish to participate find their way to the cemetery, they will discover a couple more volunteers with a variety of lanterns. For some reason, nothing electric, battery-powered, or at all technological will work in the cemetery, and they haven't for as long as anyone can remember. Any light source must be either very old-school or magical in nature, and texting someone for help would be completely impossible. But why would you need to call someone for help?

Well, it wouldn't be a test of courage without a little danger, right? On this night, every year, the spirits in the cemetery are stirred up and come back into the land of the living. Yes, ghosts do really exist. The ghosts have a variety of temperaments - some of the ghosts are very pleasant and will chat with people for a while before accepting their orange, some are playful and mischievous and will play pranks on people coming into the cemetery (these pranks are sometimes harmless and sometimes very not-harmless), and others are angry and resentful at being dead and won't hesitate to viciously attack interlopers. Some of the more unfriendly ghosts can be calmed down with pleasantries and shows of respect, but others cannot be and will continue to attack interlopers until offered one of the oranges that they've brought.

There are two types of lanterns available: traditional lamps that are simply a candle in a glass bell that can be easily carried with a ring on the top, and magic lamps that attract spirits and appear as a glowing blue-green orb floating in a glass bell fitted with a ring for portability. People carrying traditional lamps are seen as quite brave, but those who take a magical lamp are absolute legends.

Participants will need to take a bento, some oranges, and a lantern of either variety, present the oranges to various ghosts as they make their way to a shrine on the other side of the cemetery, where they will set out the food from the bento as beautifully as possible...and don't let that food get cold, or your offering will be worthless - who wants congealed gravy and soggy stuffing?! At the shrine, they will find an assortment of delicate beaded charms attached to the branches of a large weeping willow tree. These are protected by magic, and can only be taken by someone who's completed the tradition. They will light up a different color depending on what kind of lantern the participant is carrying. These charms will provide a one-time magical boon to whoever takes them.

Characters carrying traditional lanterns will find their charms lighting up orange and these charms will, when used through the calling of a keyword by either Heba or Tian characters, summon the spirits of the dead in an area with a radius of around 50 feet to attack an enemy or group of enemies. The keyword can be set simply by speaking it to the charm. This charm can be offered to another person as a gift or kept for the character's own use, and can be used only once. If the charm has been gifted to someone, it will turn red, but will still be functional.

Characters carrying magical lanterns will find their charms lighting up blue and these charms will, when carried on a character's person, provide one resurrection from death without the loss of memory that usually comes as a side effect of resurrections. This charm can be offered to another person as a gift or kept for the character's own use, and can be used only once. If the charm has been gifted to someone, it will turn purple, but will still be functional.

Regardless of which charms are given, characters are encouraged to show them off as evidence of having participated in the Night of Remembrance. Anyone who is gifted one of these charms should be grateful, they are regarded as high-value gifts to be given only to someone you care about a great deal. Many people, regardless of whether they've earned the charms themselves or been gifted them, will attach them to their network devices to show them off.

NAVIGATION

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Rey had been stuffing the last bit of a small apple pastry into her mouth with great relish. She's just about to start in on the piece of pumpkin pie she'd also claimed when she feels Vader's presence and looks up, freezing involuntarily mid-chew.

She forces herself to swallow and nods to him in acknowledgment but makes no move to approach. If he wants to come to her she's not going to run away, but she's not sure anything they might say to each other is proper dessert conversation.

He nodded in return but also nudged a little in the Force, a (for him) very subtle tap that probably felt like an actually shoulder bump, along with a inquisitive 'you're well?' feeling. He didn't however approach in her space yet. Waiting to see if she'd rebuff his presence as he suspects most would or if she'd tolerate him joining her.

She feels that nudge and bristles slightly out of habit; every part of her wants to rage against accepting Darth Vader as someone whose presence she tolerates, much less actively invites. But her curiosity has always been stronger than her anger, and there are things she could learn from and about him that the entire galaxy no longer had the opportunity to. She can't waste that. A Jedi wouldn't turn away from the chance to seek knowledge.

So, after a moment and a defiant bite of pie, she returns the silent inquiry with her own return nudge of assent, and glances at the seat across from her.

Not the warmest of invitations, but it is one.

Edited 2022-11-01 04:01 (UTC)

Vader at least picks up the item he was considering, still debating if he wants to take it with him or (attempt) to down it here. But he takes the nudge for what it is. Not warm but not shutting him out either.

He considers the empty chairs, before selecting one he doesn't believe will creak or groan under his weight. And he's uncomfortable sitting so casually in public, that's clear from his presence in the Force even if he masks it extremely well otherwise. The expression is something that makes him feel vulnerable.

"It is relieving news to see you looking so refreshed." He doesn't remember how to a person at this point, don't squint too hard at him.

This is weird.

Not weird enough to put her off her pie, but weird enough that she struggles for a moment with how to respond. He may not know how to person, but she doesn't know how to be normal with a kriffing Sith Lord.

"Thank you?"

It's said a touch skeptically, not because she doubts his concern was authentic, but because she doesn't understand why he has it to begin with.

Another stab at her pie gives her time to piece together what she really wants to say.

"You don't have to care about me. That isn't why I helped you."

"You're welcome." He is at least sincere in that, even if it feels stiff and formal. Boba Fett has noted Vader isn't known for his loquaciousness.

But at least Rey can get out the words that need to be addressed and he's grateful for that.

"I am aware. I care about your well-being because my grandson cares about you. I do consider providing for one's family to be a moral duty." One he judged his officers on even - and an officer who had a family was more likely to be favored, provided they actually cared about and provided for said family. "After believing mine lost, having it returned to me is something of a wonder." And meant he was more likely to care about his family member's loved ones and try to protect them.

Even try to care about them.

His words sting her in a way that has little to do with the person speaking them, though she doesn't quite miss the irony of the situation. She'd waited patiently for thirteen years in the spot she was left. She'd tried to be a good person in spite of the many temptations to be otherwise that existed in a place like Jakku. Didn't she deserve her parents back? Or even to know their names?

What had Vader -- or Kylo, for that matter -- done to deserve to have the second chance they'd been given here?

Rey tries to shove her jealousy down with another bite of pie, though it's no longer quite as appealing as it had been moments ago.

"I'm sure your son and grandson are grateful for the chance to know you."

There's nothing at all that could make her want to have her own grandfather here -- there's nothing she could want to know about a person like that beyond what she already knew. He had never been a good person as far as she could tell; there was nothing there to comfort herself with save the fact that he'd apparently found someone willing to parent his child, which meant perhaps she had a grandmother out there somewhere.

"I sense they are. I am more so." Vader was quiet for a moment, staring into the cup he carried. "My mother didn't leave me in a desert Rey. I left her. There's never been a time I haven't regretted that. It wasn't easy. I cannot imagine what it cost her to send me away. I know it broke her heart. I could sense it. I can sense your jealousy. I won't pretend you have missed anything by being hidden away from him. It is was I would have preferred - keep my children away, until they were strong enough, trained enough to fight him, with me." It's not what happened, it was not what he would have done - he couldn't have, without Padmé, he wouldn't have had the strength.

"This would be easier for you if Padmé were still here I feel." She was better at this, at the messy, sticky parts of things. She'd been with Ahsoka as well. "Her family, they took me in, immediately. It didn't matter where I was from, or that I had a last name with bespoke me less than gutter trash, especially to nobility like them." He didn't idolize them as he did her - they were nobility, she was a goddess. But he did recognize the good in them. But thinking on them pulled Sabé to his mind. "Yané or Saché as well. Although they may be willing to fight through anyone - my grandson included," and by extension, him "to add you to their household of children and grandchildren. You should look for them on Naboo."

"She seemed kind. I wish I'd gotten the chance to know her."

Rey had been relieved when Leia had gone, though she still hoped she'd see the adult version here someday. It wasn't a place for a child, especially with her son here. But she wished Padmé could've stayed a while. She'd wanted to ask her how she'd managed to forgive him.

The thought of finding another family is bittersweet for Rey -- hadn't she already tried that with the Skywalker line? Han was dead at least partially because he'd chosen to come with Finn to retrieve her, though she has to believe he'd have gotten his own son out of there before Starkiller was destroyed if he could've. Luke was dead because she couldn't convince him to leave his solitude. And she had a persistent dread of the thought that one day she or Kylo would have to die at the other's hand.

"I'm not sure it would be fair to them to introduce myself with Palpatine still alive. I won't make anyone else a target."

"She was. Kind, warm, strong." There was a rare warmth to Vader's voice, not just love but real tenderness as well. "Fearless too. Only person I've ever know to show up to their execution with lockpicks and leave with a blaster canon." If he'd doubted he was completely, utterly in love with her? That had sealed it. "But she'd do anything for her people. Always would. Our home was busy, bright, warm. Her light just glowed through it."

"They wouldn't care. Saché was almost as beloved on Naboo as Amidala was. That girl, that child, was twelve when Naboo was invaded. She was captured, tortured - for three days, that child screamed. For three days Yané held back rescue attempts to protect their resistance. They don't know fear. They'd shove you under their robes and keep you safe." It had taken years to learn the truth of that. "He hated them already, they were already a target. Nothing you could do would make that worse."

And yet, as strong and kind as Padmé had been, her influence hadn't been enough to keep him from turning to the dark. It's a sobering thought, one that brings all of her worry for Kylo back to the surface again. It would never matter how hard she tried to pull him back from that part of himself; it might matter if she got home in time to plant a lightsaber in Palpatine's chest. Or maybe his skull.

It's not a charitable thing to be thinking about one's own grandfather, but she's not inclined to stop.

"I wouldn't even know where to begin. I can't exactly turn up and tell them I knew Padmé -- even if I'd known her for more than a few days."

Padmè had tried and Vader often dreamed of her success. Had she more time? He probably would have gone with her, bowed to her wishes. Save for Clovis, and even then, he ultimately did. She was the only one he'd willingly take to his knees for.

But Palpatine? Well. He deserved a saber shoved down his lying throat - before being ignited. It was a desire Vader has had since he pulled his blue one on the old man.

"You could tell then who you are, that you are hiding and afraid. They will take you. They've taken in malt Palpatine has orphaned. They consider it their life's work." He knew. He wondered about his own children.

Palpatine had offered him Naboo once. If has taken it. If his children has been there. The Force whispered of possibilities. Roads and paths not taken.

"I'm not hiding."

She lets her fork drop with a clatter, her pie momentarily abandoned. She might be afraid, but that was a distant second to the realization that there wasn't anyone else who could stand against him and they were running out of time.

Now that she and Kylo were in agreement on at least the need to stop him, she wasn't in a race to beat him to the Sith planet any longer. But that didn't mean she could afford to disappear.

"I can find them after he's gone."

It'd be safe, then.

"It is not an insult. Think of it as an ambush."

In his opinion that was the best way to beat Palpatine. Covert and fast, without time for him to trigger other plans.

"Sachè has scars. Neck to ankle to wrist. Her face resembles Padmè's. Her voice is quite different however."

He has a point, but she's not sure Palpatine won't just tear his way through what's left of the Resistance regardless of whether or not she's still a part of it. They'd been in hiding for the better part of a year, and thus far it seemed to have worked, but they couldn't hide if Palpatine was finally making his move to reclaim the power he'd lost. Not without sacrificing more of the galaxy to him.

"Then...it's an option, I suppose. Leia won't want to lose me, but the Resistance will be safer if he's looking for me instead."

They could leak the information that she'd disappeared. And Kylo could perhaps turn the First Order to another path if he stayed in command. It's not what she wants for him, but even she sees the value of retaining what control he has there if they're going to have to face her grandfather.

"There are ways to hide yourself in the Force so no one can find you. It makes search someone out for an ambush much more easy." It wasn't something he had mastered. But he understood in theory how to do it. "He can't fight against what he can't see. There are ways to huge yourself from sight in the Force as well, but you'd have to learn that from the Cathar Jedi, Juhani. It's since been lost but was used in her time. Used together, you'd be invisible for him." He can be helpful, especially on this topic.

"I know Luke disappeared for years, but he had to sever his connection with the Force for as long as he wanted to remain hidden."

If it were just her, she might be content to give up the Force -- as she thought she was when she got here. But she was in no hurry to lose her only real way of protecting those close to her, or to lose her connection with Kylo, as fraught as it had often been.

"I've been practicing my Force healing with her already. So much was known back then that didn't survive the years."

She wishes she still had access to the Jedi texts. Between all of them they'd have been able to uncover so much more than she had on her own.

It grieves him to hear that. "Obi-Wan did as well." There's...emotion to be sure about that. But it's a tangled need of love, hate, resentment, longing, betrayal, grief, and more. Their relationship was strained and tainted by Vader's Fall but it hadn't been served. Damaged but not broken.

"Yes. It's much worse on the side of the Sith. Bane caused so much knowledge to be lost." Vader's voice trachea on a hunger there. Knowledge has always been his weakness. "There are so many mysteries within the Force."

She doesn't want to place herself directly into the conflict that Kylo and Luke seem to have been deliberately avoiding, but she wonders how much either of them have said to Vader about it, or how much he might've picked up on. It's a discussion for another time. As are tales of the Sith; Rey's still too raw from the Palpatine reveal to want to hear about anything to do with Sith powers.

"Something you said before -- you and Obi-Wan were Force-bonded, right? Are you still, after everything?"

She's not asking to pry; it's just that she's long wondered what might manage to sever the bond between herself and Kylo. Once it would've been to attempt to break it herself. Now it's something else entirely. If nothing else, she believes they're going to need this strangely overactive bond to help them defeat her grandfather.

Kylo had spoken of it but Like hadn't. He hadn't pried because of the nature of it.

"We are." A training bond they had thought but over the years he'd had wondered. Doubted it was shortly that - it had always been so strong, a time when they were more two halves of a whole than two wholes bonded together. "He's dead now. I killed him some years ago. But I can still sense him occasionally, when I sleep." He regrets it, stroking form his former master-friend. He couldn't imagine how much it would have hurt and left him so lonely before. A wound that ached, still.

Cue Rey looking utterly miserable at this response. She'd only meant here; it hadn't occurred to her yet that such a bond could persist beyond death. Rather than relieving her, it just makes her more apprehensive of becoming any closer to Kylo than she has. Whatever bond had been between Vader and Obi-Wan hadn't stopped them from being at war. Hadn't stopped Vader from killing his former master.

And the idea that whichever of them survived could still feel the other's presence after death -- she doesn't want either one of them to be left behind to feel the constant reminder of what they'd done, or what they'd failed to do.

She's quiet a long few moments, and then:

"You know Kylo and I are on opposite sides of a war."

Try living it. It was it's own kind of Hell.

"He mentioned it. How did you get involved?" Because no he didn't want this for his grandson. "He didn't seem to be able to explain it."

That's not a story she's in any hurry to tell. She can understand why Kylo might've wanted to leave some of it for later, especially considering Leia's presence here. Telling his grandfather that he's turned against his family doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would land entirely well -- but there's no keeping it a secret, either.

"I stole his father's ship."

Best to start at the beginning.

"The person I worked for had it for a few years, just sitting there unused. A runaway Stormtrooper and a droid needed off the planet and I was the nearest pilot. Then Han Solo found us and brought me to Leia's Resistance after it became clear I could use the Force."

She isn't in much of a hurry to explain how that happened, not least because it ends in having to explain how she and Kylo broke Vader's -- no, Anakin's -- old saber.

He nodded, not surprised about Leia's role. Kylo however hadn't spoken about his father. "Do you know anything about his father?" Given his interest in his family it's probably an unsurprising question.

"He has said you are devoted to the Resistance but when I asked him why, he stumbled." Despite...everything Vader's strangely neutral about the question.

Rey flinches inwardly; something in the way he asks makes it clear that Kylo hasn't explained much about his father, or his end. That isn't hers to tell, and she won't.

"Only the stories. He was a smuggler and a talented pilot, and later a General in the Rebel alliance. And Leia's husband."

She hadn't been there for their reunion, but she could feel Leia's despair at his loss the moment they met. It's still something she can't truly forgive Kylo for, but at least she can understand that his choices weren't solely his own at that point. Not with someone as powerful as Snoke whispering lies to him for years.

"I'm loyal to the Resistance because they were the first people in a long time to show me any kindness, and because they needed me."

Edited 2022-11-07 04:07 (UTC)

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