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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It dawns on him only as he sees Tech scan the grounds. "Tech, have you ever been in a cemetery before?" It would make sense if he hadn't, and he doubted many would have explained in detail beyond 'burial ground' to him - most people had something like it.

The Clones, however...they weren't allowed such things.

"One will be more wear on me. I've had to do it before when the suit was damaged." Which had given him more practice than anyone - even Palpatine - really knew about surviving in the state he was left in. Maul, maybe came close. "I will need to focus to remove them without damaging them. I would be grateful if you would stand by." He didn't think his life would really be at risk of losing his life. But he wouldn't pretend that not damaging the cybernetics while removing them wouldn't mean he'd really be vulnerable to being jumped.

"Well, no," Tech admits. Certainly he knows about them, seen images, perhaps even caught glimpses of burial grounds from a distance during missions. But he's had no reason to visit them, and regardless of how close or distant they were to the Regs, it was sadly true that many of their dead likely were never recovered or brought home. It's not something he's thought about, but it's a sobering realization as Vader's question prompts it.

He turns his head back towards the man, brow arching before he nods. Prior experience at least serves as an advantage, and Vader knows his limits better than Tech does. ...of course, he's also someone who obviously pushes those limits, so there is that. Perhaps that's why the request made then is somewhat of a relief to receive even if it hardly needed to be asked. Again, Tech nods. He understands how delicate such attachments can be.

"Of course."

Vader has seen one burial ground for the Clones. For his own men, graves marked by orange-painted helmets placed on sticks. One lone helmet of 501^st blue painted with jaig eyes at the second position. Two lightsaber hilts marking the first position.

What have I done? the words echoed in his mind as the memory formed almost as real as the moment he'd found it, and he had to stop himself from stooping to pick up hilts that weren't there. Even for his bone-pale completion, Vader paled to an ashen color as he shook himself away from that. "There is one on Mandalore. The 332^nd company. Ahsoka buried them." He didn't know if Tech wanted to know, but if he ever thought to look it up, it would be there. He'd forbidden it from being touched, even after the assault on Mandalore. "Most cultures, most beings in my experience with them, consider it rude to step directly on a grave. If you can avoid it, you should." That was certainly something that would help Tech tonight.

"Kamino wasn't my choice, by the way. I didn't know until after." Because Vader would have at least attempted some kind of fight pull off the best for himself. And to save some of the Cloners as well. For his men, for himself.

Arms first, he thought. They took more focus to use and weren't needed to keep him upright. Left first, as it was more simply connected.

Tech was watching again. He's not sure what he was expecting to come next, but those words somehow aren't it. He knows about the 332nd, or at least its ultimate fate. He knows that Rex had survived despite the listings. That's...all he'd known. Vader's words suggest at least one more survivor, which starts to make things a little clearer regarding how Rex had managed the effects of the chip.

It's strange, the little knot of emotion that forms in his gut. It's unfamiliar, but here in this place it's been easier for such previously almost foreign things to slip in, to take hold, a side-effect to the chip's suppression, he's suspected. "Mandalore," he muses, no doubt making note of that. It's the most he can do for now.

"I see," he says, nodding at Vader's advice as he once again lets his gaze travel back towards the cemetery grounds beyond. With the other beginning the process of removing his limbs, Tech does his part in keeping an eye out, as well as give him what little privacy that can be allowed.

Kamino wasn't my choice, by the way. The clone's feelings on that had been mixed, as he's sure it was for his siblings. It was home and a prison, but the only real place they could identify as where they'd come from. Watching the remnants burn, sinking into the sea, it had been a sobering sight. "I didn't think it would have been," he acknowledges. "But the Empire certainly makes it clear as to what will be done to those no longer useful to their purposes."

He can imagine it's a rough crash course in emotion here for Tech. He isn't trying to pile on with him, he really isn't. For a few reasons, mostly the fact Tech brings him a sense of comfort and he doesn't want to lose that. Doesn't want to inflict pain on someone who he cares about. But there isn't a way to not inflict pain, sometimes.

"Even those of use. There's a reason the person best suited to working on my life support was an archeologist who specialized in technology. Palpatine won't have risks to his control, nor the Moffs. There's a reason I've seen twenty-two years in it, parts of my body rotting away while still attached. Punishment, for failures with Ob-Kenobi. For everything I failed. You and your squad - you ran. I'm grateful you did." Because he knew, knew, they would have been eliminated.

Vader's eyes bled back to blue from yellow, flinched a little as he detacted the right arm.

"Most of us did, anyway."

Tech wouldn't be surprised if Vader was aware that Crosshair still remained, choosing to give his loyalty to the Empire. In some ways, Tech could understand why, but the revelation of his decision made even without the influence of the inhibitor chip had still stung. But he imagines Crosshair felt the same way when his brothers left him. He hadn't necessarily been wrong to choose the path they'd clearly been suited for. But seeing what the Empire was doing just made it clearer to the others that this wasn't at all what they had been made to do for the no longer existing Republic.

"...there have been a few others. Regs who have realized that the Empire's ways are wrong." He pauses. "Rex is still alive." He's not sure if Vader was aware of this, but he knows that the two were close despite the ranks. It had been quite clear during the missions they'd accompanied them on.

He did know, of course. There was little to do with the 501^st he missed. Even less back then.

News on Rex was almost a gut punch. A good one but none the less. "He is?" It stops him, leaving him with a pant leg rolled up his calf. "Is he alright?"

All at once Tech is impressed that Rex has managed to lay as low as he has despite being currently active in working with Republic sympathizers. He nods, glancing briefly at Vader again.

"He is. In fact it was Rex who assisted us in getting our chips removed."

Vader isn't really surprised. Ahsoka had hidden for years and if she was involved in the Rebellion (and she was) then it made sense Rex was. And all the training Rex has gotten and their missions undercover had clearly not been to waste. He wonder for a moment if Rex was still alive.

"Good. Palpatine hid their existence from us, and I didn't put the pieces together, Tup and Fives, until after." There was a simmering rage over that. More that had been taken from him. It bared out in his actions, as his right arm thumped heavily at his side.

Tech's eyes flick towards the arm. It's a little strange that none of the clones aware of the situation have been nearly as upset about things as they probably should be. Concerned, yes, but never so angry. They had the right to be but being angry about it wouldn't do much to change things. There were other things in play as well, but Tech had never given much thought to that side of things, his focus always on the technical.

All they've been able to do was react. It's been a constant string of reactions ever since the Republic's end. They've hardly had time to really let things settle, not between figuring out what to do with themselves and how to establish an income. Even here he's hit the ground running. React, adapt, push on, because the moment he lets things catch up with him, he's not sure he'd know what to do.

"Too few shared concerns about the matter, I suspect," Tech observes. "The existence of the chips themselves had come to light and not been denied by the Kaminoans. No one seemed to think it a great concern." Which really wasn't much of a surprise. Unfortunately to many the GAR was fodder, and to the Kaminoans, they were but property.

Vader's eyes were shifting towards red-rimmed gold from his natural blue, a sure tell of his much he was drawing on the Dark side, and where his anger was.

"It should have been a concern." I should have been concerned he means. For there was none Vader hated as much as himself, and he pulled all the blame he could on himself. Even if he couldn't reasonably be expected to know - Palpatine had made sure Anakin personally had too much too do, too many battles, too many dead, too focus on it. Too much trauma to not sink further into anger, rage, despair.

"Nothing like them should exist. To be able to take away ones' will." His face curled into an infuriated snarl. "It's anti-Sith." He dropped his arm near his helmet, rolling his shoulders to adjust, before focusing on his legs. "What was the jump too far for you Tech?" He meant the your as plural, Tech and his brothers. What had pushed them to the point of leaving

It's not a detail missed, which makes Tech wonder that this is conversational ground he should have tread. But it seems an impossible subject to completely distance themselves from, so enrooted as it is personally. This place and its own implements of chips hasn't helped for much in that.

He nods his agreement, though he does pause slightly at the addition of the anti-Sith comment. He's only started to learn a little more about the Jedi than what he had back in their own galaxy. The Sith are still for the most part a mystery, and naturally there is his curiosity in wanting to know.

The question asked has his thoughts turn inward, the clone looking towards the ground. What indeed? "It was a number of things. The abrupt orders to terminate our generals was the starting point. The changes on Kamino. The order to eliminate insurgents who turned out to be former Republic fighters and civilians as a test of our loyalty. I suppose we'd been set up at that point given Admiral Tarkin's opinion of clones." He shakes his head. The man clearly sought an excuse to be rid of them or keep them. There was no in-between. Perhaps if they'd heeded Omega's warning then... But then he's unsure that it would have changed matters with Crosshair.

It's not a detail Vader will explain in detail right now but at a later date, he's willing to.

But he is willing to discuss Sith philosophy and culture if asked.

"Tarken has met his end, due to his own hubris. While we were once allies, he's long since outworn that arrangement." There's a slight growl to his voice, an unspoken 'How DARE he touch what is mine'.

A conversation for later. It's something Tech would definitely ask, but at the moment it seems there's enough to digest, and they still had the cemetery itself to face.

It's such information as what Vader indulges next that reminds him that there's many things that have happened in the span of time that otherwise separates them. "I'm sure he was responsible for the change in our evaluation session when we found ourselves facing droid with live rounds while we ourselves were armed only with training weapons," he says, his tone somewhat dry, and there is unquestionably a sense of upset at that ordeal, even if it might register more as annoyance. Still, for Tech, it says plenty for his opinion of the former admiral.

There was a cracking off to the side, a rock crumbling into gravel as if crushed in a supernaturally large and strong fist. Meanwhile Vader appeared calm on the surface, save the twitching of the muscles around his eyes and along his jaw. "I was aware he was given that authority."

The sound gives Tech a bit of a start, his head turning towards its source in time to see said rock meet its untimely fate. No need to question how that happened, really. He draws in a slow breath, releasing it in a sigh.

"...what's done is done, I suppose. Echo had shared his concerns when we found out who was going to be evaluating the clones, but none of us expected things to play out as they did. If anything, we should have heeded the warning we did get once he took interest in the squad." But that was then and already seemed like so long ago. He shakes his head. "He did not succeed in getting rid of us by the methods he might have had in mind, so there is that."

"That is hardly the point. If you manage to get rid of him, you, any of you, are welcome to shelter in my shadow." To hell with everything else. He'd given enough to Palpatine and his games.

"How is he? Echo." The similarities weren't lost.

"Well, we're still finding our footing at the moment. It's been...difficult, being on our own, and we don't know very many people we can turn to." Most of those they knew and trusted were dead or at least listed as such, after all. Looking to someone within the Empire wouldn't even cross their minds when they were trying to keep their distance, but then that's been proven to be just as difficult these days, and Tech anticipated it would only get worse.

"Echo is...adjusting. He's had his objections to mercenary work, and that's essentially what we've become. I think he'd prefer we join Rex and his efforts, but Hunter's still looking out for all our best interests. With Kamino gone, I do not know how we will proceed. Perhaps we will be able to breathe a little easier if the Empire believes us dead."

"I'm sure it has. Regardless, you can always turn to me. Even if it is just over the Holonet, I have an address I can be reached at." It would get worse, he knew, and really? Kriff it. He was a Sith, he was allowed to be selfish, to cling to what was his and want to keep it.

"I do keep my own mind from Palpatine, Tech. I wouldn't give you to him. You will be safer if he believes you dead, because he will try to have you brought in. But his interest in the running of the galaxy will fade in a few years for you, as he focuses on other pursuits. Bail Organa would likely help you as well." Vader shifted his weight, now levitating as if he was sitting in a meditative position. Only without limbs.

The thought is almost a funny one, to send a message to someone who's part of the Empire they're trying to keep out of sight from, but there's other things as well that don't make this much of a viable approach. "If not for these circumstances I would not have thought there to be any other options, sir," he notes. "Our personal contacts are few, and of the Jedi we were only able to assume if they haven't been killed, then they have made themselves scarce- and are doing a far better job of it than we have been."

Bail Organa... Ah, the senator of Alderaan. Tech nods. The mention of Palpatine shifting his interests is something that he's uncertain about. It seems irresponsible after all the work that had been obviously put into getting to the point where he could create a Galactic Empire, but then it seems that there are plenty enough like-minded people more than willing to do his work and exert their power over others. All in all, it's still unsettling, and Tech finds himself guiltily thinking that perhaps being here does have its advantages in that it provides an odd reprieve from those problems. But he still misses the rest of his squad. That's an absence he can never quite get used to.

He looks over at Vader again, head lifting at the sight. Even having seen the Jedi use the Force before, it's still something to see. "Are you almost ready?"

"More survived than you might think. Most were Padawans, who survived because their masters drew fire to protect them. But the odd adult did as well." Or children who escaped him. "As much as you can, avoid them. They are hunted, and it's generally successful." It's not a brag - it's oddly flat in how he said it.

"Yes." He's figuring out how to tuck the bento box he's 'carrying' into his clothing so he can hold it. Normally he'd tuck it into his obi or under a tabbard but he's not sure it will stay given how he's dressed. "Eager to get started or desiring a change of topic?"

He's not going to mention the one padawan he's so far aware of that's escaped. Hopefully young Caleb had made it safe somewhere.

The thought of the Jedi being hunted is a chilling one, especially with how indifferently Vader speaks of it. "Not that I think they'd be so trusting of any clones if we ever did come across any," he says. He remembers the haunted look that had been in Obi-Wan's eyes the first time they'd run into each other here.

"...both," Tech admits then. He has no reason to lie about it, while interesting as it is to speak about these things, it's no light matter. It gives him a lot more to think about as well.

"Should I carry it?" he asks then, gesturing to the box.

He's more aware of Caleb Dune than Tech knows.

He has to be indifferent. He can't face what he's done, and he can't sit smug in his actions with Obi-Wan and Luke here either. Indifference is all he can manage.

"No, they wouldn't. That's for everyone's safety, but it was designed to prevent survivors and any Clones who slipped through the cracks from teaming up against Palpatine." And him, but it hadn't been his design.

"Fair enough." Despite the fact that he asked, most wouldn't have admitted they wanted Vader to change the topic - they wouldn't dare challenge him. It's...actually nice to have someone who will. "Do you have any other questions about general customs in burial grounds?" Information gathering and all.

"That would be helpful, yes. But I am not sure if that 'counts'." They'd find out, he supposed. He floated it over to Tech.

There's something upsetting in that outline, framing just how intricately things were planned. Knowing distrust was purposely sowed between former allies probably only feels worse when you hadn't been subjected to being forced into acting out against them. Perhaps he should be more thankful that at least here he can still talk with any Jedi at all, without anyone being wary about things he hadn't personally done.

Tech does tend to be more direct and forthcoming in things than other people might be. Speaking with Vader is always an experience in general. "I suppose being respectful is an expected behavior. I think my concerns are more in how one is expected to interact with the deceased if they are capable of doing so here." Giving them fruit to appease them is certainly a strange notion. He takes hold of the bento once it's within his reach, nodding at it. "Is offering food to the dead not an unusual practice?"

Vader had played so wonderfully into Palpatine's hands too - in ways he didn't even realize, still. The man was a master manipulator for certain.

Don't trust wealthy old men. A lesson he thought he knew.

"It's common enough. Food, incense, candles. Not everyone does it but many cultures do." Once Tech had the box, Vader just pushes himself forward, moving as he still has legs attached but only Force replacing them. "If they'll tell you a name or title to addresses term as it's best, and it's best to use your most polished manners until they say otherwise." Mostly lessons he'd learned in Sith tombs that.

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