Collaborative by Cep100 and Ukchanak1
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Gazing out across the valley, Alyx sits on the edge of the rock outcropping and looks over the forest. Occasionally birds and other creatures chitter and burst out of the canopy, to fly off after each other in pursuit or play.
She feels she must escape, sometimes. Not from Master, or from the Force; she enjoys the feeling of peace from the Force, as if she is the stone tossed into the pond, and the ripples attune them. But the other students irritate her, especially Kit, who told everyone what to do and barged in on discussions, declaring them arguments.
Her quiet contemplation and solitude is broken by the distant snap-hiss of a lightsaber. The echo of it is carried on the wind from around a crevice hidden from view. The quiet hum of a blade moving through the air is nearly drowned out but the spats of material contacting it are easily audible.
The side of the crevice has a ledge wide enough to walk around it but the bank of the crevice has an easy way to look down onto whoever is wielding the saber.
Alyx sighs as she realizes it's Ian, and she watches him practice below her. She frowns at how her heart skipped a beat, tamps it down and rubs at the flush on her cheeks angrily. When she had been mastering basic math and successfully cleaning her room and making her bed, he - over a foot taller and growing the first of human facial hair along his lip - teased and tormented her. Good-natured enough though it might have been through his eyes, she was so alone among the students who knew who they were, KNEW they were Jedi, while she was just . . . an orphan . . . that she had cried and cried. Awkwardly he had apologized by offering kindness in the uncertain way of a teenager.
Many years had passed, and an clumsy partnership had been joined, broken apart then reunited many times. Every year, he grew more into a man, and the easy smile that came to his lips and the twinkle in his vivid indigo eyes did strange things to her.
Confronting the Master about it led to a dry dissertation and a long file to read on the ships' console about reproduction and glands and hormones and chemicals and body parts that were important for species' survival. Babies, and eggs, and shells and pouches. None of it explained the heights of thrilling emotion or the crushing blow of misery. "Adolescence" and "puberty" were cold, clinical words for what felt like she had lived and died a million times over.
In response to that - and because it really was all Ian's fault anyway - Alyx frowned down at him as his braid whipped around him, his body spinning and swirling as he fought his ghosts . . . and right as he paused to gasp for breath, she threw a rock at his head.
Ian had been doubling up on his training, using telekinesis to launch projectiles at himself and using the saber to knock them out of the air. He had moved with surety and grace and was a total badass up until the rock Alyx throws beans him in the head.
He stumbles a bit in surprise as he whirls around, searching for his assailant. When he spots the Zabrak a broad grin splits his face. "Hey there, darlin'. Nice aim." He rubs his head a bit and chuckles.
She sighs and frowns, glancing away in irritation.
I wish he would stop smiling like that . . . "Don't call me DARLING!" she yells at him. "My name is Alyx, you idiot." She pulls herself up the rock onto the top of the craggy plateau, walking away from him and his . . . self. She flushes and focuses on not thinking about anything.
Animals act that way. Just animals, like the cute and stupid animals. Who are dumb and don't know any better.
His grin subsides a bit as she yells at him and starts to walk away. He scratches his head for a moment before he decides to head after her. Quietly he bounds up the walls of the crevice, dancing from wall to wall until he's up on the same level of the mountain with her.
"Hey," he says, announcing himself once he's made his way up. "Takin' a walk? Sure is'a lonesome place." He goes to walk towards her, his eyes widening slightly as his mouth turns into a frown of concern.
The wind picks up a bit and the human scowls a little, pulling his hood up and bringing his arms into his black robe.
"it's not lonesome,"she corrects him sharply, pulling her own robe around herself and heading for a sheltered alcove. "Why are you following me?"
He rolls his eyes with an look of mild irritation. "
Probably same reason as why ya tossed'a rock at me." He gives her a small, teasing smirk. "Okay, I don't feel much like fightin', I was just happy ta see ya is all."
He continues to follow her at a languid pace, the definition of a mosey. "Y'seem angrier'n normal. You okay?" His voice has dropped its pretense of humor, taking on a slow, gravelly roll. His expression has softened to a open, calm expression, one that he almost never shows around the group.
Alyx sighs and goes to sit down in the tiny half-cavern. "Yeah. I'm just . . ." She waves towards next to her. "I just don't know what we're doing, anymore." She looks irritated. "Why do they call him 'dad'? He doesn't act like a dad."
He nods, heading over to join her. "I dunno . . . I ain't 'xactly the one ta give'a comparison but . . ." He shakes his head sighs, "You ain't wrong." He goes to sit on a rock, frowning morosely at the wilderness. "How does'a dad act?" He gives her a small frown but no anger is in his indigo eyes, just an intense deep stare as if he's trying to understand all of her at once. Currently there is little sign of prankster Ian . . . just this serious, intense one that occasionally makes himself known.
"Look at the animals," she points out. "They all snuggle together, and lick each other, and make cute noises to each other. He doesn't touch us, or hug us, or act concerned. He just teaches us things and makes us train. We don't even get to do any fun things, like dance or make artwork. It's more important to be 'good Jedi'."
He nods, making a low, dark sound in the back of his throat. "It's crushin' sometimes. All that responsibility placed on us who've no choice in our path in life, nor even'a choice in who our enemies'll be."
He gives her a tiny smile, "I've sympathy for'im most days. His lot ain' easy neither but he
did choose it." He snorts softly, "But . . . I feel that draw too. That loneliness." He glances over at her, "You lookin' fer'a solution or just fer me ta listen?"
She frowns and his kindness seems to make her even angrier. "Don't look at me like that!" she tells him. "Stop being nice!" She pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them, turning her head away from him to glare at the pale rock, too high up for even a scraggly plant to grow inside. "Why do we have to act like computers just because we have the Force? It doesn't make sense. I've read all the encyclopedia in the databanks and they don't describe life like this. It's only Jedi. And if we have feelings, we become Sith. Sounds more like they just made up the word because saying "sin" was too on the nose."
He lets her vent, watching her with his indigo eyes. He snorts at the end, "Okay, I'm sorry. How did you get a hold of'a real lightsaber? 'Cause that shit cut
deep." He snickers quietly as he goes to look ahead at the same forlorn rock as her. "An I dunno, man. I don' get it, I don' think I ever got it. Maybe it's somethin' we don' get yet at our stage in'the trainin', maybe it's total bullshit."
"
But," he says, holding up a finger, "I refuse ta b'lieve that wantin' a
hug turns you evil." He gives her a small, reassuring smile, "An y'know it's dumb. 'Cause none'a us've had'a normal life when the real world smacks us in'the face it's gonna hit'a lot harder than it would anybody else." He shakes his head, sighing, "We're like the worst'a bein' both sheltered -an- goin' ta'a military school."
Sighing, Alyx smiles and looks at him finally. "Ok. So . . . Thanks." She unfurls her arms and adjusts a bit, looking uncertain before starting to slowly, gradually, lean towards him. "It's really lonely being here," she murmurs quietly.
He nods, putting an arm around her shoulders, leaning his head to meet hers and hiding his wince when one of her horns connects. "You wanna talk 'bout it? I mean, I agree, but I don' think that y'should copy
my methods'a gettin' attention." He snickers quietly. "I mean, in general, no one should do what I do an expect good results."
"You talk too much," she mutters, sighing and resting her head on his shoulder. "We can't change what's happening. So we should just come up with some way to cope while we can."
He gives a gentle snort at her rejoinder and squeezes her shoulder again as he nods. "Okay. We'll cope by makin' sure we never ferget we're people, not robots. We'll make sure ta laugh or cry whenever we feel like'it." He leans his head onto hers again, closing his eyes. "Sometimes I pretend I'm someplace different. Like'a beach on'a ocean. Salt air, rollin' waves, sand everywhere." His voice has dropped to a low murmur, almost hypnotic with his lyrical drawl, "Then I don' feel so trapped."
She shivers and blushes, "I thought I told you to stop talking." Pulling back she frowns at him, "But . . . thanks," and hurriedly stands up. "I um, I need to go," she stammers, backing away a bit before tripping and nearly falling, but catching herself just in time. "Bye!"
Watching Alyx leave, Ian clears his throat. One she's out of sight he seems to relax, shifting how he's sitting on the rock.
Too close. He frowns and goes to stand, muttering to himself. "There is no emotion, there is a cold shower. There is no passion, there is math problems." He resolves to head back a different way, not wanting to let the Zabrak girl know that she affected him too. He'd seen how Selak had flipped out on Avi'ragym and Taryn and he'd be damned if he was going to put Alyx through the same thing.
Last edited March 3, 2019 4:36 am
