Prepositional Phase

[Lamper]

There the doe wandered through the steely forest.

He watched her from a distance within The Peacekeeper's halls. Innocent. Perhaps, but perhaps not. He prepared a phrase in mind, a clause of preoccupations that'd brought him here to justify his spying. It was a strange transitional phase, from fighting Sith to creeping in a woman's shadow. But each was equally just in its intent. To uproot evil wherever it hide.

Aibhne looked absolutely battered, having skirted his previous appointment to attend this necessary duty. In fact he was probably being chased this very moment. Though he was suited in a clean and comfortable black slip, shirt and slacks, his complexion remained bruised and beset with sealed cuts; one most prominently dried at the center of his bottom lip. But he refused to leave her to her dubious devices. No doubt she had plans to infiltrate the Jedi and sell her findings to the Sith. Though, in truth, his eyes kept falling below her waistline. She could be hiding some biological weapons there after all. One could never be too careful.

As he followed her, he did recall and reconsider his strict pursuit of her dismissal. And while he stood by it, he also felt a growling guilt in his gut. She had saved his life after all. Though the way Jedi Lord Zo took her payment upon himself rather than give Aibhne his right to settle the debt himself definitely ate at his pride. Aibhne had been harsh towards her on top of basically refusing her a favor, so he naturally wished he could rebalance the scale. But something about her. Something about her caused within him some amount of friction, and he could not place why. And that bothered him incessantly.

Plus it was about lunch hour and the smells of cafeteria grub seeped through the vents, so his stomach was also speaking to that.

When he started to loose sight of her as he was remembering the shape of her ear as he had whispered into it, he suddenly panicked and moved out of cover to cross the hall into a doorway for cover. But suddenly an exiting Jedi appeared and they almost collided into each other. In so doing, the other Jedi spoke up and apologized for the inconvenience as they danced around each other before recognizing Aibhne and speaking his name aloud with an inquisitively pointing finger. @Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Meanwhile, Talia was getting quite comfortable within the halls of the Peacekeeper. She felt strange walking around in full gear, and had instead opted to remove the upper layers of armor. She wore thin, black armorweave underneath, grabbing a tray to pile with food. Although she felt out of place, other than the occasional glance, people kept out of her way. The situation felt entirely surreal, and she couldn't help but pause to admire the architecture within the ship, along with the decor. Children and teens passed by her, some with training weapons, others with lethal lightsabers. It was daunting to think that these children could potentially grow into becoming vicious warriors on the battlefield. Her encounter with the Sith from her past had left a scar. She despised them, but she also feared them. The Force was something she couldn't comprehend, but she could comprehend the blade.

Finding a table way in the corner, Talia dropped her tray and sat down, biting into a piece of fruit. She wasn't oblivious to being followed, but she pretended not to notice. In truth, the Jedi was almost humorous in how clumsy he was in shadowing her steps. Talia couldn't fathom what drove him to do so, but she guessed it was out of suspicion. The man was over the top paranoid for someone that had waltzed into a fight against three Sith. Talia heard him stumble into other Jedi and the quick shuffling of feet, but still she did not look up. If he wanted to pretend he was invisible, she would humor him.

@Lamper

 

[Aibhne Tibbot]

Aibhne grabbed the wagging finger. He grabbed the man's mouth. And he froze. A deadly constipation set into expression, just starring sternly at the man. And as though the poor man were a tree, Aibhne slowly peeked from behind its trunk with a fowl squint. There she hid, in plain sight, pretending to eat. Clever girl.

"I'll pay for damages," Aibhne covertly whispered to the man as though his tree trunk had been bashed into by Aibhne's speeder. A straight forward apology that left the fellow Jedi dumbfounded and even slightly offended to have been treated like an object.

With that close call tightly wrapped up, Aibhne pushed passed body after body; jarring trays and toppling open drink containers and causing a slight ruckus. He frowned in the struggle to make it through the obstacle course she had set up for him. Don't make this difficult, he intrepidly chided. In order for him to expose her slithering tongue ... the imagery of the phrase caused him to recklessly trip over a rogue foot. But he reclaimed his strong stride just as he reclaimed the train of thought. In order for him to expose her deceptive lies, he'd decided it was best to confront her outright in the moment. So he finally found her at the back corner of the cafeteria. And amongst the rabble and ambient noise, he stomped to attention just opposite her bench and fired a finger point at her fruit as she bit into it and declared...

"AH-HA!"

Some voices quieted and even some faces looked back over their shoulders curiously, but soon turned back around and payed him no mind. He was so taken with his finding and accusatory declaration to disturb her lurking that he only now realized that she really was eating. And in a moment of pause, he comprehended what that meant. It meant nothing! Anyone could eat, he reasoned. Indeed, a whip of ingenious wizardry. A sound deduction. She could not hide from him.

Without explanation to what he had exposed in her behavior, he rigidly sat down opposite her, placed down one flat palm onto the table and then the other, and stared at her with a cocked brow. And when no reply was immediately forthcoming, he began to shake his head disapprovingly. Now that'd really show her.

But he'd given it to her too hard. His thoughts in imagery caused a train wreck in his head. He quickly reorganized and continued with a sigh. He'd been too harsh. In truth, she deserved his thanks.

"I'm sorry." He looked away solemnly. "I didn't mean to offend you. I owe you my life." He paused through introspection. Then he slammed his fist down, shaking the table, and added, "You're a spy! Admit it!"

It took his eyes a moment to realize they were staring at her chest, flicking up to her eyes late to catch up to gavel hammer.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

This was like watching one of those terrible, independent Holomovies that never made it out of a film festival. Talia slowly put down the fruit she was biting out of, chewing quietly as the Jedi’s odd antics played out before her. In truth, his “AHA!” had made her jump a little. Before she could say anything, she was distracted by his ongoing inner conflict. His expression changed from disgust to fear to anger, and everything in between.

His emotional tirade was followed by smacking down on the table in front of her, apologizing awkwardly, then going right back to strange accusations. The strange glare attempt, the shaking of the head disapprovingly, and causing multiple glances to come their way. So much for remaining discreet.

Talia sighed and rolled her eyes, now grabbing a piece of bread to nibble on it. She was being irritating on purpose, not humoring his odd outbursts of dialogue for some time. It was as if he weren’t even there. Despite the multitude of negative emotions the man felt towards her, she couldn’t help but notice how often he found excuses to look at her. It was almost entertaining.

“Oh damn, you caught me.”

She took a sip of juice, now digging into the rest of her lunch.

“I’m actually a Sith soldier only pretending to capture my Sith friends and handing them over to you. I slipped right past the Jedi Lord’s radar and am actually plotting to kill everyone here.”

Another sip of juice. Talia stifled a yawn, finally meeting his gaze.

“By the way, as my punishment, Lord Zo said that you have to honor the request I made and teach me how to use a lightsaber.”

Talia reached into a pocket and pulled out a datapad with the instructions he had relayed and slid it over to Aibhne.

“So nice to meet you Master Abh.. Abheeen… Abby….”

@Lamper

 

[Aibhne Tibbot]

Her scathing indifference infuriated Aibhne, his eyes flicking about in search of submissive reasoning. Yet every hairbreadth defied him. Almost in spite of him. Her eyes were maddening. Her sighs swelled his chest with a surge of over-breath. Her mouth, that incessant chewing, remained impenetrably padlocked against his influence; devoid of emotion in reaction. He just wanted to grab her face, squeeze those lips and... He shook his jarred face free of the fantasy.

But then she admitted it! And his fist banged the shuddering table, again, in victory as his eyes widened brightly and he pointed an inculpatory finger. He even found a miracle in the span of his lips as they for once spread into a gruesome grin, a frightful sight. But then it dawned on him, watching the liquid slide up into her mouth as though it defied logic and so reconstructed his expression, crushed. She'd tricked him! And his fist banged the shuddering table, again, in defeat as his eyes squinted dimly and he darted an averting stare off into the distance where he might find her darkest secrets lurking in the shadows. And he harrumphed grumpily.

But then the unthinkable happened. She informed him that he'd get exactly what he wanted, the right to repay his debt.

"What?!?"

Daggers darted from his eyes into the datapad's instructions. Then in their finding, both of his palms banged the shuddering table again.

"Eeev-neee," he painstakingly pronounced with a shriveled prune face. Then he thumbed his chest, "Aibhne, me, was there. I was there. The Jedi Lord took you upon himself. I can't teach you to use a lightsaber. You'd just as easily cut off an arm or a leg or a, uh, uh," his hand fretfully waved and wagged over itself in search of an appendage to wave and wag at - so many of her amorous appendages distracting and disturbing his point from getting across.

"Let me see that," he demanded as he snatched up the datapad to double check the details. He obviously didn't believe her. What with her deceptive nature and questionable motives. But upon further inspection, Lord Zo's mark was unmistakable. His seal of approval clear. And his command absolute. Yet despite this being the outcome he'd just previously decided he deserved, he now took the opposite stance in defensive illogical applesauce.

"You think you can confuse me," he dropped the datapad back down and wagged his finger. "Break through my defenses," he tapped his temple in significant gesture towards his immeasurable mental capacity. "But I see through you." His finger sharply pointed at her chest but wisely redirected upward toward more neutral territory. "Me. Eev-nee." He pounded his chest. "See," he proudly added archaically. "Try as you might to sneak past this gate guardian. With all your wiles and gadgets. But the gates are shut. And these eyes will strip you bare." Her shirt suddenly started to disappear as his eyes traced down her neckline. "Bare-bare of your gadgets. Your gadgets and your wiles that I will be stripping you of. But only, of, only the-the gadgets and the wiles. Not, not..." his hand was waving and wagging again, searching for safe territory to wave and wag towards. "I'm only doing this because Lord Zo commands it," he finally declared conclusively as though he'd won.

Catching his breath, her fearsome verbal jousting cornering him like never before, Aibhne cracked his neck sideways as a hooked finger tugged at his collar. And without a thought, he let slip out of the corner of his mouth, "What do you wish to learn anyway..."

The final thought a flitting fancy, in disbelief of the merit of her request to learn a skill of which he figured she'd have no use for.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Talia was, in all honesty, concerned about the mental stability of the man. He was a complete lunatic, and she wondered how he had gotten past the psychological test to be allowed to handle a lightsaber. There had to have been some sort of screening, right? Talia finished up her lunch as he continued blabbering, his hands moving about as if he were interpretive dancing. As he spoke about stripping, Talia couldn’t help but scoff.

“All this talk of stripping me bare is making me blush. At least buy me dinner first.”

She offered him a wink as she rose to put her tray away. She knew her comment would make him rage and potentially slam the table a few more times. By now, almost the entire rest of the cafeteria was eyeing them. After she was done, she closed the distance between them and snatched her datapad back, scowling at him.

“I want to learn whatever I need to be able to fight Sith. I’m trained, but I need to know how to handle sabers.”

She began to walk as she spoke, expecting him to fall into step beside her.

“Sabers have an advantage of being able to switch on and off, so I want to learn how to use that in combat. Furthermore, I want to be able to rely more on reflexes. I don’t have the Force voodoo magic or whatever, but get me as close to it as you can.”

They had arrived in an empty training room by the end of her walk. She stretched and cracked her neck, walking to the middle of it. Talia walked over to find a training saber, taking off the outer weave of her attire as she did so. This left her in a tanktop and form fitting pants, revealing her copious amounts of tattoos and scars. The woman was well toned, clearly someone that had been in countless battles. The tattoos told a story from different points in her life, and they covered her entire back and shoulders, some spiraling down the backs of her upper arms.

After grabbing a training saber, she walked over to face Aibhne, almost a girlish look of excitement in her blue eyes. Truth be told, nothing excited her more than combat, and it had been a long time since she had learned something new. She cocked her head and offered the Jedi a grin.

“So, what’s lesson number one, Master Eevie?”

@Lamper

 

[Aibhne Tibbot]

His eyes flexed open in abysmal shock and terror, eyes turning up towards hers just in time to be bayoneted by a blink. Her wink impaling his throat whereby blood over-clotted into a swollen, choking ball.

"I, I, I..." he stammered in a quandary between denial of a desire to strip her bare and admission of admirable observation of proper courtship and protocol to of course dine her before stripping her as only an honorable individual would do.

Her next sentence disarmed him, or at least stilled his beating heart towards more desirable debate and serious tones of villains and the means to defeat them. Skill and tact threw a left jab while her rising and hurried departure swung a right cross, and he was at her mercy in a dizzying chase as he tried to catch up. Pouting a dour expression of deliberation, finger and thumb clasping his smooth chin, Aibhne gracelessly stumbled over his seat and brainlessly bullied his way through the shoulders and backs of his fellow Jedi to fall into step with the perplexing woman in question. Her points were well taken, in fact even frightfully wise despite her inexperience with the iconic weapon of the Jedi. Yet specific words and phrases stumbled through his head and disrupted his appreciation of the accomplishment. Force voodoo magic being one of the more dilapidated doozies, his brows dancing from drastic lows to highs in opposition to so many contrasts. Yet as they walked, he tried to calm her childlike enthusiasm with stuffy euphemisms like, "Health Co Sources say you shouldn't exert yourself for at least sixty minutes after eating," and, "It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters."

This, coming from a man whose hot and cold temperaments could destroy entire climates. But regardless of his, somewhat personally hypocritical, wisdom - she would not listen, even speaking over him. It didn't help that he couldn't find the courage to raise his reluctant volume above a murmur.

Once they arrived to the empty training room, Aibhne's palm had found its way to his cranium; wiping over his head, mystified. Blowing a befuddling breath out of his blubbering lips, his head sank as he discretely detailed her curves as she stretched; missing his opportunity to do so. He stood, helpless as she entered into the center of the room, peeling off her outer weave. Scratching his head, his lurking gaze at first admired the olive glow of her skin in imagining further detail now that he beheld a more revealed outline of her form. But he was taken aback by her tattoos, but even more so by her scars. If at first he might've disagreed with the triviality of overindulgent cacography, he was more than ever inspired by her badges of battle. If nothing else, he respected the fight in a person's defiance of death. Not that death was something to fear, but that life was worth fighting for. And so his lewd shading shadowed into darker tones of reverential adoration. It painted her markings in a different light to him, curious to know if they were there to conceal her marred skin out of discomfort or if they foretold of a busy canvas that was bound to be reshaped with strong strokes of blood.

Now when she returned to him, his frowning eyes were almost pitying; his heart stilled in retrospection. Pain was his life's undertone, subtle enough in its story to forbid any castigated complaint. Yet here he was at peace with a woman who walked towards war with him as her Durant.

"Hold it higher," was his first sweetly serenading command as he grabbed her wrist and roughly yanked her hilt towards his chest, pulling her face closer to his for added emphasis on his next whispering words of wisdom, his right eye flinching to the abrasive butchering of his name as he continued; side-corner of his lips resisting a strange urge in an upward curl. "Trakata," he paused after his chronically clean breath blew into her the term he used to define what she wished to learn, "is not taught. It's learned. Through years of repetition."

He'd affectionately throw her wrist away and back up a step. Left hand reached out left when, suddenly, a training saber hilt summoned off the distant wall display and smacked into his grasping palm.

"You could not possibly hope to match a Sith with speed or dexterity. But try as you will regardless of what I say as you roam the galaxy, saving prissy little Jedi with the swing of your lightsaber. I'll at least humor you with the basics so you don't hurt yourself."

Though right handed, his left hand galvanized his training saber as the thumb primed the generic blue blade into blaze. Then, epically, he began her exciting first step into a larger world of legend...

"This is the on switch," he dumbly pointed to the button on his hilt.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Talia had to cough to cover a laugh that threatened to creep at his matter of fact blubbering about ‘Health Co’. She looked at him and briefly imagined him as the over eager child that sat in the front row of class. He was the kid that always raised his and answered in every question and was the teacher’s favorite. But after school, the other Jedi kids probably held his head in a toilet and flushed it. The scenario played out all too easily, but she could also see he had come a long way since then.

As he grasped her wrist, it caught her off guard. The slight pull forward caused her blue eyes to widen, the first thin crack in her otherwise thick shield of ice. He was only slightly taller than her, and yet he was almost imposing. She did not fight him, keeping her gaze on his, noticing the slight little changes in expression. The thoughts of the little nerdy boy melted away to the design of a man fashioned and chiseled from battle. He was no novice to combat, and there was passion he felt for it.

Talia let him toss her wrist to the side, watching as he stepped back to allow distance. In truth, she was glad for it, the man oddly mysterious to her. This both intrigued and enraged her. She wasn’t one to find anyone curious, and he had piqued nothing but since she found him bloodied yet still defiant against three Sith. Was he truly ready to die then? He had to have known what he was walking into, so why then did he continue? What drove him? What devotion pumped through his veins? Was it devotion to the Jedi Lord he spoke up against or something greater?

She watched as a saber flew into his hand, rolling her eyes as he explained about the on switch. In truth, she had handled a saber before, but the memory made her cringe. She had been alongside Ral, using the saber as a last ditch effort after the Sith had brutally murdered her kin. Today she was using the same weapon, but used by an entirely different group of people. Were these Jedi and Sith really truly any different? Didn’t both sides of the war have cause?

“I don’t have years, so I hope you can teach me quick.”

After igniting the blade, she rolled her wrist and swung the weapon about a few times. After adjusting to the weight slightly, it was clear that she was no amateur with blades. However, that didn’t mean she knew anything about sabers. Talia switched the saber on and off a few times, tilting her head to look at Aibhne.

Almost without warning, she jumped forth to attempt an attack on him. She knew he would block it easily, but she wanted to see how it worked. The saber was in her right hand and she swung it from her own left to right diagonally, his right to left from hip to shoulder. Talia positioned herself slightly staggered to where her shoulder would align with his chest. This ensured that she could easily pivot to his right side depending on his fashion of defending. Granted, of course, she was wholly unprepared for the Force..

@Lamper

 

[Aibhne Tibbot]

She continued to surpass expectations. Though his expression only stiffened further. For he took man, woman, and child alike in war his equal. She no different.

His right foot stepped back, body angling away and profile with his right arm arrogantly folded behind his back, as his left-hand saber, downturned, crossed up rightward to block. Light into light, CLASH. His right side now away from danger, his saber would be locked with hers safely away from his body so that if she attempted Trakata here her saber would not reach him before he could evade.

"That depends on what you already know..."

His slitted side-stare sinisterly stayed fixed on her right hip, her shoulder in peripheral view. There he would glean the hint of her next move.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Talia was almost insulted that he kept his right arm behind his back. She had seen this cocky style in holomovies, but she was surprised to see the Jedi use it. Part of the advantage she had over him was the mere fact that he hadn't gone to the med bay like he was supposed to. He could act tough all he wanted, but it was no secret he would tire more easily than her. She pressed her attack, noting that he tilted along to turn and stepped a foot back. With the way she turned, their blades met, and her saber was out of range of his right side. The twist he would have had to do with the backstep to block in time meant he wasn't in the best balanced positions, especially if he was holding her saber back.

As soon as the blades met, she lowered slightly, jutting her right foot out between his legs. Her left free hand, which was in range reached forward to shove him back to topple him almost comically over. Her right foot would hook against the back of his left, which was protruding out with his right foot back and him turned towards her. Even if he did see the foot coming, he wouldn't be able to focus on the torso shove. Their sabers were harmlessly out of the way, his blade layered over hers so she had inner guard, and with his right arm behind his back, he wouldn't be able to do anything in time except for flailing it as he fell on his ass. The move was quick and dirty, not at all the way a proper Jedi would fight. But then again, she was a scummy bounty hunter.

"I know enough to survive."

Right then, her music player had finished buffering and abruptly began to blast a song.

@Lamper

 

[Aibhne Tibbot]

Aibhne's face gnarled askew and wide-eyed, when he suddenly dropped backwards with a strangled yelp. The pain of landing on soar bones and bruises caused a cringe thereafter, delaying his embarrassed realization of the effeminate shriek that'd just escaped his croaking throat.

On his back, he ogled Talia from below in disbelief when there came her torture tactics yet again. Just when he was prepared to impart further accolades, his skin crawled under a thousand pinpricks as sound assaulted his senses.

"What is that racket, woman?!?" he indignantly projected over the dominating volume of her player device.

If she'd allow, he'd get back up in the pause to switch his saber over to his right hand and engage her fully. His expression of irritable bowl syndrome leaned towards her with his back crooked and left hand rubbing his tender left butt cheek. If not, he'd have to evade; though he wouldn't hold it against her to go after him while he was down.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Talia had a satisfied smirk on her face as the holier-than-thou Jedi fell on his butt. She smugly twirled the saber around a few times, ducking haphazardly as her victory display almost caused her to poke out an eye. She still wasn't accustomed to the weight of this strange weapon. However, she was glad to know that cheap tactics worked universally, even on well trained Jedi. As the music came on, she fell into step with it, displaying the same odd dancing that she did back at the docking bay. Looking at Aibhne on the ground and his complaining was enough to cause a smile to crack across her face. She had to bite back from laughing. She had to keep up the image of big, tough bounty hunter after all. Talia bobbed lightly, swaying from side to side to the rhythm, blanching at his words.

"Racket?! Are you allergic to music? I will have you know the Jee Bees is one of the most illustrious and creative of musical bands.'

She continued to twirl the saber and swing it around a few times on her own, adjusting her footing and stance accordingly. Talia glanced back at him as he rubbed his painful butt, appearing for a moment like a decrepit old fossil. Talia got into a fight stance, left foot sliding back slightly. This time she awaited an attack from him, amusement still playing in her eyes. In the background, the music continued to echo throughout the training halls.

@Lamper

 

[Aibhne Tibbot]

Grumpily watching her childlike wonder and enjoyment when she nearly seared a hole through her own head, he accidentally chattered his tongue off his teeth with an almost spitting titter. He immediately feared and regretted the sound, a flush of denial choking him stiff. He hoped she hadn't heard it over her loud ...music.

"The ... Jee Bees? Ridiculous. Solheim. Mozaar. That's music," he proudly proclaimed before fully straightening out his cracking back.

He mumbled some more, reclaiming his proud rigidity and irritable nature after hiding his moment of weakness in shared cheer. Laughter was for the weak, he riddled as he devised his approach.

Aibhne stepped a left foot forward, saber in right hand, and thrusted his saber tip straight at her chest, wrist ready to bend with alacrity.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Talia had noticed the slight hint of a laughter from Aibhne and almost stopped dancing herself. For a moment she thought she imagined it, and he put on the sour attitude immediately afterwards. Talia rolled her eyes, sighing.

“You should try smiling more. It suits you better than the grouchy grandpa thing you have going on. After this, I think we should go get some drinks.”

As the thrust from the point came, she was prepared for it. Talia’s saber swung counterclock-wise from her side, from his perspective clockwise. The aim was to bat his saber aside. Left foot forward meant his left side of the body would be closer to her, saber in right hand batted away to expose him. In one fluid movement, the clockwise motion ended into a horizontal swing directly across the left side of his torso. Essentially, from her perspective she had carved an elaborate C. She ensured that they remained in close quarter combat. Talia glanced up quickly.

“You do drink, right?”

@Lamper

 

[Aibhne Tibbot]

"Dr-What??"

Having kept his wrist ready to bend with alacrity, his saber tip was swatted to his right while his hilt remained relatively stationary. Her saber arced outside of his hilt, as he dropped his hilt inside her returning swing so that her saber would be blocked by the angled base of his. This while he (attempted) shuffled in close, crossed a left foot before her right, hugged a left arm around her waist, his left hip hitching inside her right hip, and twisted an attempted judo throw to flip her over his left hip onto her left side to the floor.

His toad's face spoke louder than words to her question, only managing a struggling stutter before reacting to her jovial jousting without a care to the dangers of live plasma. But if he'd earned even a moment in his actions, then he'd exclaim.

"Of course I don't drink..."

Should he have succeeded in full, he'd grumpily elaborate.

@Sreeya