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

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)

"You said you met him, what was your impression?" Obviously he'd also heard stories from Boba Fett and others, including Imperial Intelligence. He'd seen the pilot in action. "He appeared brash to me. Brave, a quick draw, but brash. He was an Imperial soldier before deserting, where he earned both second and first classes Corellian bloodstripes. The latter is almost always awarded posthumously." He didn't tell her to tarnish her image of him - indeed anyone who earned such awards had Vader's respect - but to add to his personal impression. "He put himself between Leia and myself. He was loyal to her, it seemed." But did he love her is what he wants to ask.

"Have you explained to him those reasons?"

It's difficult for Rey to speak of Han even now, a year later. She'd had such a short time to know him, and sometimes she blames herself as much for his death as she blames Kylo.

"He was brave, certainly. And he didn't hold the theft of the Falcon against me. He offered me a job on his ship before we knew I was Force-sensitive, after I fixed a broken compressor."

And he'd accompanied Finn on the possibly foolish mission to rescue her. She believes he'd done it for Kylo, but he'd made a point to try to help her, too. When she was nobody but a stray girl he'd found trying to escape Jakku.

She's not sure what to make of the fact that he'd been an Imperial soldier before, but it doesn't shock her. Her best friend back home had been a Stormtrooper. The Rebellion had been just that -- a rebellion. She doesn't expect everyone joined up all at once.

As far as his other question goes...

Rey sighs and shakes her head reluctantly.

"We haven't had a chance to really... talk. Like that. We had a -- a misunderstanding, before we came here, and it made everything more difficult. We're still trying to work out how to talk to each other about any of it."

There's a rough sound from Vader's throat. A chuckle, for all it's quiet and doesn't translate well through the artificial larynx. "Like calls to like." Guttertrash sticks together he means, and would say except he's quickly figured it Rey doesn't follow his sense of humor.

"It's worth attempting it. I've been encouraging him to talk to you."

Rey can sense his amusement anyway, though she'd most definitely take it personally if he called her or any of those she'd bonded with guttertrash. As it is, she's perfectly fine being considered anything at all like Han Solo.

His other statement has her tilting her head curiously and regarding him with a sort of wary hope.

"Why? I'm not joining the First Order, regardless of what happens here."

He considers himself in the same group, which is why it amuses him. He may talk like a privileged Coruscantii but that was something he'd picked up and trained himself to use. Enough stress however and he reverted back to his natal accent.

"I tried to get Obi-Wan to leave, on Mustafar. For old times sake. You don't have to agree with someone to not want them harmed." And they period was certainly Vader at a level of delusional, paranoid, and violent which hadn't been topped. He'd been more like a feral predator than anything. "Padmè had friends who were Separatists, she and one even brokered a truce and peace between the CIS and the Republic, before Dooku assassinated Bonteri but had they been successfully, the civil war would have been over barely a year into it and Palpatine would have been forced to step down a Chancellor." Did he mention how much Palpatine hated Padmè?

It's a lot for Rey to take in, though the broad strokes of the conflict itself had been recorded, and Padmè's contributions as Queen and Senator were well enough known. The only thing that had been left out was that she'd been married to Anakin Skywalker. It puts things in a strange new light even now that she's had time to process it.

"I don't want him harmed. I don't think he wanted to hurt me, either, but when you're each the strongest Force-user on opposite sides of a war, eventually the battle comes down to the two of you."

She's not sure, now, if Kylo would be able to kill her. She's fairly certain she couldn't kill him -- not now, anyway. She'd promised herself she wouldn't hesitate if it came down to her life or his, and it had only taken a few conversations to make her certain she couldn't follow through. Talking to each other was only going to make everything worse if they went home to find nothing changed.

"That's something the two of you can create. A stalemate. If you two refuse to harm or fight each other, then you can can control that outcome. From there was else may you accomplish?" He'd told her about Padmè and Bonteri for a reason. "Also, Palpatine's chief tactics is to set people against one another. The Moffs and high ranking military don't trust anyone or each other, spend things infighting so they cannot band together against him. He's tried to isolate Kylo in order to use him. He did isolate me." Vader turned and tucked a finger under her chin to look at him. "Don't let him separate you from those you love. Don't let him separate you from each other. That's when he pounces. It's the only way you'll be safe from him."

Rey flushes slightly at those you love; whatever's between her and Kylo is complicated enough without adding another layer to it. Their Force bond hadn't been chosen -- she wonders if somehow Kylo's left that part out.

Sensing it's not the best time to start protesting that it isn't like that, she addresses his other point instead.

"If he can get the rest of the First Order to agree to a truce, I'm sure Leia would too. He's still her son. She'd be as relieved to stop fighting him as I'd be."

And if they had a common enemy in Palpatine, there was surely a way forward.

He said "love" not "in love with". He did know there was a difference even if he struggled himself with the difference.

"So there is a goal. A reason to work together." Vader removed him hand but he didn't turn from her. "Leading in a war is not what I would have chosen for my children. It's brutal and damaging, and I can still tell you the name of every soldier I've lost. Those aren't burdens I wish on any of you."

Rey would argue she barely knew Kylo -- they've only managed to have approximately three reasonable conversations with one another -- but she can't actually deny that she cares for him. And being Force-bonded to him isn't likely to make that less true.

"Leia's a good leader, but the past year has been hard on her. And Kylo -- honestly I have no idea what sort of leader he is. Or would be, if the First Order's goals were more aligned toward peace. He took over for a tyrant, and I don't think that role suits him."

A part of her regrets walking away from him. There's a chance the two of them might've brought about an end to the war by now, and with fewer losses.

Discussion isn't needed. The Force knows, and bonds transfer emotion. Vader could sense what neither of them seemed to be able to say.

"She would have great teachers in Queen Organa and Senator Organa. And her sprite is quite like her mother's. Padmè lead a counter invasion at fourteen, with a handful of teenage girls, an ageing Jedi well past his prime, a Padawan, an exslave boy, and only a dozen royal guards who had no combat experience. The invasion was designed by Palpatine, who used his knowledge of Naboo's pacifistic culture against them and backed with the wealth of the Trade Federation. And she won." His voice barely changes - but his feelings? It borders on worship.

"If he's a like me as he's been shaped to be, he won't want that seat. And he's can be nudged on the right path."

Vader's probably going to have to be the one to clue either of the two of them in, in that case.

Rey listens with increasing interest as he speaks of Padmè, and for not the first time feels a pang of regret that she hadn't gotten more of a chance to talk to her. She would've had some applicable advice to the situation back home, Rey's sure.

As far as Kylo's desire to rule the galaxy goes, she's less certain.

"If he doesn't want it, he's got a strange way of showing it. He could've walked away."

With me, she doesn't say aloud, though the thought's right below the surface. Now that they're no longer at odds with one another she's begun to accept that maybe Kylo's intentions had been closer to her own than she'd thought.

Can't he just smack them both upside the head?

"That's not as easy as you think. This has been his entire adult life. More. After a time, you've done so much, given so much, walking away doesn't feel like an option anymore. That ship has long since jumped to hyperspace and left you in it's wake." Was he talking about Kylo or himself? Or both? And how much did that matter?

Someone probably should.

Rey is quiet for a long few moments as his words sink in, during which she regards him with some seeming new understanding. Perhaps she's starting to see that the similarities between him and Kylo aren't necessarily bad.

"How do I help him see that it isn't too late to choose another way?"

What would you believe?

Give him time then.

Vader is quiet for longer than Rey was, looking straight ahead. But it's not difficult to see the almost violent twitching of this muscles where they attach to the cybernetic bases, even through his clothing. It's not difficult to feel him either, the hurt, the betrayal, the rage, the pain.

'Then you are truly lost.'

"There isn't a way back for me. It's too late." It's resigned. Not angry or prideful, just resigned. This was his life. "But it needn't be that way for him. Give him an anchor which won't yield it's hold, not to anyone, not even him. Know, believe he's better than the worse he's ever done, don't let go. It's a battle he must fight, but one you have to win. The Dark lies. It whispers beautiful promises or screams terrible fates, but it's all a trap. And I made my pledge. But it. He. Can't have my grandson."

"He'll listen to you. He and I have hurt one another; that makes it complicated. But he looks up to you. And I don't think it's too late for either of you, not as long as we're here."

Rey isn't sure she's capable of being that anchor, not when they're away from here. Not when he's faced with another choice. Not when she doesn't have anything to offer but herself.

Her only hope is that they have enough time in this place to come to understand one another. If she can get him to actually want to meet somewhere in the middle, she'll deal with the rest of the Resistance once they're a factor again.

"And here I am supposed to be the blind one." He knows how they react to each other. "But I am trying to help him. This isn't an existence I wish for him." And he knew what Palpatine would do.

Those Dark Side aligned aren't likely to compromise, but there had been exceptions. He can nudge, and he would.

Rey isn't going to argue the point; she and Kylo have to work out their issues with one another on their own. But that doesn't feel impossible anymore now that they've managed a few reasonable conversations. She supposes she has Vader to thank for at least part of that.

"You're not what I expected. I think I misjudged you before."

She can hardly be blamed for that, considering that everything she knew of Vader was secondhand and singularly focused on the negative. But she'd nearly made an enemy of him at their first meeting, and it was only by chance that she'd managed to correct her initial assumptions. She isn't quite apologetic, but there's an acknowledgment in her expression all the same.

"While we're here, if you ever need my help, I'll do what I can."

That doesn't mean she'll do murders for him, but maybe he can stop doing surgery on himself when there are Force healers around?

Long ago, Vader had had a conversation with Padmé, about how if people didn't agree, they should be made to. Vader still believed that. He was, however, working on doing it with something less than smacking at differing forces with his lightsaber.

At least, in this case, it seemed to be working.

"People aren't meant to know me. I'm a threat, a weapon of the Empire. Not a person. I gave that up when I became this." The Sith inside the suit.

"I am grateful and I will remember." Given everything: "I will also come to your aide if find yourself in need."

"If I didn't believe you were still a person, we would be having a very different conversation."

Probably one with threats and lightsabers. Or at least a whole lot of cursing. She still can't say she likes Vader exactly, but she doesn't hate him. That's still a surprise.

"It's still strange to think that you'd help me, but I do appreciate it."

Even if she feels a little bit like the worst Jedi ever for striking a truce with Darth Vader -- but if Obi-Wan Kenobi could do the same, she certainly could. She had no personal grudge, after all. Things might get awkward if Luke ever decided he needed her help to stand against his father, but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

"You can believe as you wish, but if you ever question what the price of being in my position in the Empire is, do not forget I truthfully told you." And yet, he still, firmly believed the Empire was good and could be a force for good.

Just not under Palpatine.

"I have an ally within the Empire. A grand admiral. He believes in the face of a greater threat it becomes imperative to shelve any other conflict. Over time I've come to see the wisdom of his tactics and I've adopted it here. We have a much greater threat than any differences we may have at home. You are also important to my family, which makes you important to me. I offered Obi-Wan a chance to stay out of our conflict a long time ago. He didn't take it then, but he seems to be now."

"I know what you've done, but you forget I also know what you've yet to do."

Anakin Skywalker died in the Light. Leia had been skeptical, but Luke had firmly believed it and Rey chose to latch onto that belief herself in the absence of anyone who could tell the unbiased truth. However, it raises a question she hadn't considered fully until just now -- if perhaps a different ending were possible for Vader. If there could be a world in which he walked away from that final conflict. If Kylo could grow up knowing his grandfather from the start.

It's something to consider. There won't be any way to know unless she goes home to find everything changed, and maybe that's for the best.

"Master Kenobi cares for you. I can't imagine he'd seek to harm you here without a pressing need to do so."

That much had been obvious since Obi-Wan had kept Vader to recover in his hut. She didn't know the entirety of what had passed between them over the years, but it was clear that they weren't enemies here.

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