Ask BIO 301: Marine Biology

[Connor Vance]

After his ninth tutoring session with Arak, Connor had been convinced to actually attend classes at the Academy. And thanks in large part to Arak, Connor was placed in the appropriate class. Which was with his friends. Needless to say, the Academy sucked.

The only upside was that Connor shared arithmancy class with Nash. One of the many down sides was that she was always pissed in that class. Regardless, once Connor started school he’d been officially assigned a dorm.

Well, he’d been assigned it when he was enrolled, he just never showed up.

He was beyond stoked to find out that his roommate was Arak! The two were getting along swimmingly, this just meant more time to plan heists and hang out. Something Connor definitely needed and enjoyed.

Arak, Nash, Lizard Boy, and Connor had all been assigned to a special trip for their BIO class. They were supposed to catch and photograph a leviathan on Glee Anselm. Connor wasn’t too pleased with this task but he couldn’t really argue.

That was until Arak asked for Connor’s help finding an outfit that wouldn’t offend the Nautolans. Connor helped him with his outfit all right! He picked out a stylish cap, a cool tee shirt, and matching shorts.

“Don’t worry man, she’ll be impressed! This just shows how confident you are at catching the Leviathan.” Connor offered his best friend some fake encouragement. “I’d never lie to you dude!”

This was gonna be so good.

Connor and Arak were the first two to make it to the ship that was going to carry them to Glee. Connor himself wore a plain white tee, tropical print board shorts, and a pair of sandals. He had a cigarra in his mouth and was smoking, his ears perked happily. He was so excited to see what everyone thought about Arak’s bold fashion choices.

@Javier esschoolbus @Sreeya @Rom

 

[Xohhar K'liir]

Xohhar was walking toward the spaceport just off the Academy with a dufflebag slung over his shoulder and a heavy wheeled suitcase trundling along behind him pulled by Oracle, the ID-21 Seeker Droid's manipulators grasping the handle and cheerfully beeping at the Falleen acolyte about the sabacc game he was playing with Bixby, Astra, and some of the Academy maintenance and medical droids that evening. Xohhar was wearing a red and white floral print shirt over a grey tank top with the poster of the popular Nautolan holofilm "The Shape of a Certain Point of View" printed on the fabric, and a pair of dark blue board shorts. Topping the outfit was a floppy straw hat and the holocamera that Vossari had given them when he assigned their group the task of infiltrating Glee Anselm finding and capturing a photo of the Sith Leviathan rumored to reside beneath those waters.

The Falleen acolyte had been up all night creating dossiers for the others of their cover as students from Coronet University on Corellia traveling as part of their undergrad studies on Folklore and Literature on Aquatic Worlds. It was... soothing, doing this kind of mission prep work again; it reminded him of the missions he'd plan with his Father, simple infiltrations at galas and industry events looking for rumors and records to add to their files on allies and potential rivals. Taking the suitcase holding his gear and waving the little droid off, Xohhar turned the corner into the hangar where their assigned shuttle was waiting and groaned audibly at the sight of the Pureblood's horrendous outfit.

Since arriving at the Academy and finding himself orbiting the friendship that Connor, Arak, and Nash shared, the Falleen acolyte had borne witness to several of Connor's attempts at 'helping' the noble Arak - while Xohhar couldn't be sure that the Pureblood was aware of the root of the Half-Sephi's pranks, his own observations of the love triangle that only one member seemed to be aware of made it fairly apparent... which made his own job in the group of friends perfectly clear - at least in his mind; his role was to level the playing field.

Doffing his own hat with a sigh, the Falleen swiped the cap off of Arak's head and swapped them before shrugging out of his floral patterned shirt and holding it out for the Pureblood to put on. "Button that up, the connotation of the text on the t-shirt is a fishing joke about self pleasure." He looked down at the frankly offensively bright orange swimshorts the Pureblood was wearing and shot a baleful glance toward Connor as he slid past the man to put his suitcase into the shuttle's cargo hold, though the corner of his lips were quirked in what the other man might someday realize was the Falleen equivalent of a wide grin and murmured low enough that only the Half-Sephi would hear. "Those shorts with that skin tone are a sin that no priest could absolve." He'd briefly considered removing his own shorts and swapping them for the orange - at least it was a color he could shift his scales to compliment - but it wouldn't do to completely ruin his friend's fun. Adjusting his new cap, Xohhar dug into his pocket for his EZPhone and a few datacards he'd prepared containing their forged Coronet University student IDs.

"Open up your file sharing, you can study the dossiers I created for each of us on the flight to Glee Anselm." Nothing in his placid expression or tone gave any indication that he was joking about how he expected the other Acolytes to spend the trip.

@Javier esschoolbus @Apollyon @Sreeya

 

[Arak Ragnos]

Arak never would’ve guessed his roommate was going to end up being Connor. The whole time he’d been at the academy and had his own room he was slightly ecstatic after hearing of others trouble with theres. The two of them got along rather well and actually had fun together. So when he heard about the planet and how it was a beach world he turned to his friend for advice.

Arak complained multiple times as the outfit was pieced together. He wasn’t one for ball caps and he didn’t understand how the phrase was some important Natolan proverb. The shirt wasn’t as bothersome as it was mostly a black tee with yet another proverb. The shorts on the other hand he was not happy about. He argued with Connor for at least an hour or two over the clashing of his skin and the shorts. Finally he gave in when Connor told him orange was a sign of royalty on Mon Cala and that they would get special treatment if he did.

Arak was waiting with Connor at the ship just passing a ball between his hands out of boredom. For some reason Connor didn’t want him to help him any Force techniques or explain the lessons better like normal. It seemed odd but Arak couldn’t force it upon Connor to do the extra training. The next person to join was a newer student or one Arak didn’t meet till recently.

When he began switching and offering Arak clothes he was dumbfounded. As he began explaining the problems with his outfit he didn’t catch Arak slowly turned an upset gaze towards Connor with no words. “Is it now?” He held the gaze as he buttoned up the floral shirt and straightened the hat. He then started to wonder if the whole outfit was a trick Connor had conjured up. His eyes narrowed on the half-sephi. As he begun trying to gauge him for any of the ticks of excitement he had started to learn and understand from them living together. He’d have to remember to get him back at some point on the trip.

He turned to regard the one Connor called lizard boy. “Dossiers?” Though Connor was helping him with getting the grammar of basic down he didn’t help much when it came to learning the uncommon words. But after he tried to tell him a word he knew meant something different he wasn’t too keen on learning word definitions from him anymore. “Why did you create stuff for us?” He questioned in confusion.

@Apollyon @Rom @Sreeya

 

[Nash]

Nash was sleep-deprived, hungover and also on spice. She thought doing spice would kill the headache, but it didn’t help. She stepped into the ship feeling like death. Nash walked into the ship last, adorned in casualwear and with her EZPods in. Her eyes were visibly bloodshot.

Right away she noticed the eyesore that was Arak (@Javier esschoolbus ), blinking a few times, “Dude you look like someone ate a bunch of starburst candies and threw up,” She muttered before walking closer, “We can make a pitstop to get you better clothes when we land,” Nash said with a warm smile, likely ruining Connor’s sabotage attempts without realizing.

She gave a nod and wave to everyone else, smiling at Connor. She walked right past the Falleen after snatching her datacard and ID. While they talked, she plopped down in a seat near the back, propped up her legs, pulled down her hat over her face and dozed off. It didn’t matter what backstory she had, she would improvise.

@Rom @Apollyon

 

[Connor Vance]

If someone couldn’t read Connor’s ears, they couldn’t read his emotions 98% of the time. While his face was perfectly tranquil his ears dipped slightly and twitched as LB ruined his scheme. Dick. His green eyes turned to glance down at Arak as he took a drag from his cigarra. Arak would see the mischievous twinkle in Connor’s eye. He’d see the slight upturn at the corners of his lips.

Connor offered him a small shrug as a response. It was worth a try.

When LB walked past him and said something about a priest. Connor quirked an eyebrow. “Come on now LB, the day is young. You never know what we could get up to.” Connor knew Xo hated his nickname. It’s why he used it. Someone had to soften that Falleen’s scales. He was too uptight.

Then Nash arrived. She was fucked. Connor knew a bender when he saw one and she’d been through it. Those bloodshot eyes and exhausted expression that was all he needed to see. But when her blue eyes turned to him and she smiled, his ears turned red and perked. He couldn’t even help it.

Fuck.

“Morning Nash.” Connor offered, as he ashed his cigarra. His ears perked slightly more when he spoke.

With just about anyone else Connor leaned towards asshole. Arak knew it and LB was probably catching on too. But with Nash? He was different. He was soft on her. He’d glance over to Arak.

“Shut up dude.” He muttered. “Help me pilot this rust bucket.”

As Connor walked through he’d quickly thumb through the dossier. He spotted something weird on the third page. A story about a half-Arkannian and his Togrutan lover? That was it LB was going overboard.

Connor plucked his badge from the file, dropped the rest of it in the bin, and glanced at LB. His ears pinned back. He was definitely annoyed. Connor would take the pilots chair and quickly remind Arak of the take off check list before getting them off the ground.

“Alright, punch in the coordinates for Glee and we’re golden.” Connor told him, watching what Arak put in carefully.

@Sreeya @Javier esschoolbus @Rom

 

[Xohhar K'liir]

Xohhar looked over his shoulder at the Sith Pureblood and shrugged "A dossier is a collection of documents and files about a specific person or event. Champion Vossari instructed us to infiltrate Glee Anselm - probably because a group of Sith aren't likely to be welcomed with open arms - and we'll need papers and a reason for going to the planet when we go through Customs at the spaceport. So the dossiers I wrote have our cover identities and paperwork - we're students at Coronet University traveling for our course on Folklore and Literature of Aquatic Worlds course. That explains why we're walking around asking about a Sith Leviathan without arousing too much suspicion."

Storing his dufflebag beside his suitcase, the Falleen acolyte lifted his hand without looking in a rude gesture toward Connor at the continued use of that damn nickname. He knew it was a futile effort, but even Acolytes he didn't know around the dorms had called him LB! It was beginning to get out of hand. "It's Xo, and why does it sound like a threat when you say that?" he grumbled, silently resolving to finish that virus that would cause the cyborg's arm to slap him at 3am on the third Zhellday of each month. He felt a slight grin tugging at the corner of his mouth after Nash's greeting and promised shopping trip toward Arak, then raised an eyebrow as the Twi'lek woman brushed past him without a word and settled in to sleep off whatever partying she'd been up too the night before. 'At least they took the Student IDs,' he silently consoled himself as he settled in his own seat, watching Nash ignore the dossier entirely while Connor binned his after reading the story sample for his cover as a creative writing major.

Flipping his phone over in his hand Xohhar watched as the academy shrunk out of sight through the viewport before pulling up the files he'd... borrowed from the library about the habits and behavior of Sithspawn and began reading through the field reports; knowledge was power, and in Xo's book there was no such thing as being over-prepared.

@Apollyon @Javier esschoolbus @Sreeya

 

[Arak Ragnos]

Arak was trying to sort himself out now that he knew that he actually looked like a fool. While Arak was glaring at Connor he saw the subtly change in his eyes and the smirk that was unnoticeable to most. The bastard planned this. His mind was already churning a way to get back at him. It had to be something that he wouldn't see coming.

As he was plotting his mind went partially blank as he saw the exhausted Nash coming towards them. He didn't know what a bender was. But he did know what exhaustion looked like and Nash was flush with it. Before he could comment on it she even commented on his outfit. He's going to get it for sure now. This meant war and Arak was bringing the war on this trip so help him god. He perked up at her comment on taking a pitstop once they landed, "Only if you help me chose the clothes." He stated happily while he side eyed Connor.

He was then dumbfounded by how much LB went into detail over the meaning of this word. And the lengths he went through to formulate this plan. Though he found one giant hole in all of this, "Why not just mind trick the desk clerk into letting use through? It happens to be my specialty." The fact he went through all the trouble of formulating these fake ID's he'd assume he'd look into who he was working with more. He took the info that was designated for himself but chose not to read it yet. It would be a long flight after all.

He watched the complete difference he showed to Nash compared to the others even himself. His eyes narrowed and he began to smirk. He stayed quiet till she walked into the ship before looking at Connor with a dumb grin on his face. "Morning Connor." He said mimicking his tone as he began to chuckle. "Can you feel hot your ears are? They looked like steam is about come out." He laughed out having to tease his friend.

He was still chuckling as Connor shushed him and told him they were flying. He quieted down as they walked through the ship but still had the occasional chuckle. He sat down and pulled out the trusty notebook he constantly wrote notes on the various things Connor had been helping him learn. He flipped through till he got to a section labeled: Flying and not Crashing.

He began punching in the coordinates of the planet having to stop once as he realized he almost flipped the grid info. After a few minutes of cross reading and punching stuff in they were into hyperspace. He checked to make sure they were alone in the cockpit before turning to Connor. "I see why you didn't want to do training on the trip now."

@Apollyon @Rom @Sreeya

 

[Nash]

Seeing Connor always sparked all sorts of thoughts in her head. The first was noticing his ears which always gave her the warm and fuzzies. She would be lying if she didn't sign up for this at least partially because she saw Connor's name on the attendee list, but he didn't need to know that, "Shit morning, but good to see you dude," Nash said in response.

Her warm smile faltered when she caught Arak looking at Connor while answering her comment as if she wasn’t even there and suggesting Connor pick out his clothes instead. Between this and acting like she was invisible back on Coranth, she couldn’t understand the sudden and weird behavior change. It only appeared around the half Sephi. Nash glared at him, “Well fuck you too then,” She said gruffly before going to her seat, actually a little hurt by his standoffish behavior.

Fortunately she felt better after her nap and chugged some water to curb the headache. Nash took a moment to read through her bio as a student. She barely got past the name before she tossed it aside, glancing up at the Falleen, “Look, we don’t have ‘Sith’ labeled on our foreheads to announce to the galaxy what we are. Everyone thinks Arak is a Zeltron. We can just be some fucking randos showing up curious about a legend. The entire purpose of a legend is everyone talks about it. So let’s cool it with all this fucking alter ego shit because we’re not the ISB,” Nash rolled her eyes and lit up a cigarra. The other guys were still in the cockpit so it was just her and…what the fuck was this guy’s name again?

Nash decided it was far too quiet in the passenger area of the ship so she plugged her EZPhone into the speakers and began to blast her music. She started to sing and rap along to it while wandering over to the kitchenette area to put together some snacks. Nash rocked side to side to the beat, pausing briefly to glance up at LB.

“What’s your name, dude? Ain’t nobody like being called Lizard Boy so I’m gonna do you right,” She said with a grin as she tossed a hotpocket his way with the Force as if it were an airplane. To her delight, it actually floated where intended and into his hands.

@Javier esschoolbus @Apollyon @Rom

 

[Connor Vance]

Connor’s ears only turned redder when Nash glanced at them. He knew that she knew what that meant. However her smile faltered when she glanced to Arak. He looked down and caught his friend looking up at him, asking him to pick out his clothes again.

“Dude what the fuck?” Connor asked in disbelief.

Once they were in the ship, Connor watched Arak enter the coordinates. He went to correct his friend when he saw him almost put them in backwards, which would have sent them to the clear other side of the Galaxy. But Arak caught his mistake and fixed it before Connor said a single thing.

“Good shit man.” Connor congratulated him. “Look before we go back, I wanted to talk to you.” Connor leaned forward to confide in his best friend. “I’m gonna take your advice. I’m gonna ask Nash out on a date today.” Connor’s ears perked with excitement and twitched with nerves. “I just wanted to say thanks for giving me the advice when we first met dude. It gave me the confidence I needed. You’re a real bro.” Connor slapped Arak on the arm before going back to sit with LB and Nash.

He glanced at LB right as the hot pocket landed in his hands. His gaze turned back to Nash, his ears perked a little. Then he threw a thumb in LB’s direction.

“You let that cool first right?” He asked Nash.

@Sreeya @Javier esschoolbus @Rom

 

[Arak Ragnos]

Something he did made both Nash and Connor mad at him. Arak had no idea what exactly. So after he put in the coordinates and gained so pride back. He sat in contemplation. Tracing back the events to see where he could’ve went wrong. He was doing so when Connor leaned forward.

He listened to his best bud confide in him. Every single part of universally screamed in sequence internally. He knew this day was going to come eventually Connor had talked about it multiple times. He didn’t want this to happen. But how could he stop it? “Hey before you go I uhh want to also talk to you about something.”

He began messing with his fingers and was trying to finally put this into words. “I like Nash too. I’ve been racking my brain on what it was I felt about her and why she made me act certain ways.” He said slowly forming a smile. “I want to see her smile and be happy. I want to protect her. Even though I can’t even protect myself. I’ve never felt this way before and I don’t know what to do with it.” He let out a sigh. He felt oddly relieved actually saying it.

He looked Connor in the eyes, “I know you probably won’t stop from asking her because of this. And I envy you for having the courage to do it.” His tone was serious yet not harsh. “I wish I could just let you do it. But I know I’d regret this decision if I do.” Connor was his best friend. The first person he call that. Yet, Nash was the first person who made him care about others.

He walked out with Connor trying to find a way to stop this. They came out to stumble upon the hot pocket exchange. He looked at LB “Those are good. I didn’t know we had some.” He said to him.

He saw Connor walk over to Nash and his heart dropped. He walked past them to heat up his own hot pocket. Before turning to the two. Could he really let this continue? Is this the reason his father told him to learn to close himself off to emotions and attachments to anyone besides the family?

Either way he knew he had to do something regardless. “Sorry to interject Connor but I should apologize first.” He then turned to regard Nash. “Sorry for making you upset. I’ll be more considerate next time. Also you’re the one I wanted to clothes shop with.” He said slightly bowing. His mind was racing through ways to stop Connor. Suddenly a lightbulb went off. “Hey Nash would you like to learn how to light your cigs with the Force?” He queried with a smile.

@Apollyon @Sreeya @Rom

 

[Xohhar K'liir]

Xohhar was flipping between a field report about a sea leviathan seen on Dac and a truly gruesome treatise on the creation of megafauna sithspawn when Nash woke up from her nap and started looking at the dossier he'd created and tossed it aside with a blunt statement about how it wasn't needed. His brow twitched and his scales shifted in hue for a moment, green bleeding into a pale orange before he took a centering breath and clicked his EZPhone off, scales returning to a cool green as he regarded the Twi'lek woman. While he was aware that he may have gone a little overboard with the amount of detail in the dossiers, he was tired of having the need for them dismissed on a mission that explicitly required that they infiltrate and not be caught.

"Two Sith attacks in as many weeks, abominations running wild on Denon and Onderon - people the galaxy over are going to be scared and paranoid and if they see someone they even suspect of being Sith there's every chance they alert the authorities - especially people asking about legends of a Sith abomination. I'm glad that you have a system for Arak to claim he's a Zeltron in place, but this is my first mission with you all involving a civilian population and I am not satisfied with just leaving it to chance; so I created profiles that will stand up to scrutiny for at least as long as we're on Glee Anselm, if not longer.

Crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his seat the Falleen acolyte never raised his voice, nor did his tone convey any sort of condescension; his explanation was spoken softly and sedately, as if commenting on the weather.

We don't have to rely on 'everyone' thinking that Arak is a Zeltron with unfortunate skin growths because he now has an ID with a medical clearance tag proving it. I'm not trying to make us into the ISB, I just don't particularly care to kill my way out of a detention facility and fail the assignment from Champion Vossari over something that could be prevented with a little preparation work."

After a pause the corners of his lips quirked into a more obvious smile than Xohhar usually showed and he lifted his hands in a shrug and quipped, "Plus, I needed something to do while blowing off my Arithmancy project and I find this kind of work relaxing. It reminds me of home."

Pulling his phone out while Nash headed into the kitchenette, Xohhar started reading through the report on the last leviathan sightings on Glee Anselm, head bobbing in time with the music as he lost himself in thought only to shake himself as Nash looked over the counter and addressed him again as a hot pastry in a cardboard sleeve that smelled like sauce and some kind of cheese and meat was floated into his hand. Peering curiously at the pastry and scratching at the crisp dough with the tip of his claw, Xohhar looked up as Connor and Arak passed him and gave a truly wide smile at Nash, dipping his head in as friendly a bow he could manage in a seated position. "Xohhar K'liir, formerly of Nar Shaddaa, at your service - you can just call me Xo though. Thank you for asking... and thank you for the pastry, it smells delicious!"

And then, without waiting for her response, the Falleen acolyte took a large bit out of the gifted snack - and found out why it was called a hot pocket. His scales flushed into a deep red color, eyes wide as he jumped out of his seat with a shout and ran for the cooler, hoping for something cold to soothe the painful burning heat that had engulfed his mouth.

@Sreeya @Apollyon @Javier esschoolbus

 

[Nash]

Nash rolled her eyes and simply turned up the volume of her music when she realized he (@Rom )was going on a rant. She didn’t hear anything beyond the first few sentences, “Whatever you say, Gabby,” She called back, deciding that was the new nickname for him. He had a chance but she wasn’t going to let that much unsolicited rambling and lecturing go unpunished without gifting a nickname in turn. The dude needed to learn how to make his points with less words because Nash was going to tune out every single time.

She spotted him opening his mouth to take a huge bite right as Connor walked out, “DUDE WAI-” Too late. She winced as he made the rookie mistake and she cringed. Nash grabbed a bottle of ice cold water and chucked his way, just throwing it without the Force this time.

“I thought he’d know!” She responded to Connor (@Apollyon ), “He seems like he reads encyclopedias more than even Prof..” She muttered right as Arak emerged. Nash popped a tater tot into her mouth, extending the plate to the boys if they wanted to share.

She looked over at Arak (@Javier esschoolbus ) when he apologized and she recalled the earlier encounter. Nash said nothing for a moment, quietly chewing on her tot. After a moment, she shrugged, “It’s no biggie, and yeah I’ll help you out,” She said, her expression softening. When he abruptly suggested showing her to light a cig with the Force, her brows rose.

“Dude sick!” Nash said, suddenly excited at the prospect, “But like…now? In here? What if I set us all on fire?”

 

[Connor Vance]

Connor watched as LB ran from the room. He glanced back at Nash and shrugged. Not really his problem. Just like Arak’s feelings, love or not wasn’t his problem. If he really felt that way about Nash, why hadn’t he told her? Why had he waited to admit it until Connor was ready? While he and Arak were roommates and he was his closest dude friend. He wasn’t a true best friend, at least not to the point where Connor would pick him over Nash.

Connor’s mind wandered back to the trip with Nash. He thought of Mon Cala and the boardwalk. Dancing in his living room. Playing Mortal Battle together. And all those other tiny moments they got together. He missed Arak’s apology altogether.

“Nash can we talk fo-“ Connor was cut off by Arak who’d turned around from the microwave to offer Nash how to light her cigs with the Force.

Connor’s green eyes narrowed in disbelief at Arak. He was fucking blocking him. Connor’s jaw tightened for a brief moment. And then he let out a slow steady breath.

Two could play at this game.

“That’s sick! Why don’t you teach us both?” Connor asked. He smoked and they were roommates, it wouldn’t seem weird to be interested. Plus Connor wasn’t about to leave them alone. Worst comes to worse, he has to wait just a little bit longer to ask her.

“Arak’s a pro and wouldn’t let anything like that happen.” Connor’s gaze turned back to Arak and hardened. “Right buddy?” His ears pinned back.

Traitor.

@Sreeya @Javier esschoolbus @Rom

 

[Arak Ragnos]

Arak was relieved when Nash seemed to accept his apology. He knew it probably wasn't enough as she seemed properly upset but it was a start. He couldn't just let it go by unaddressed and potentially hurt his chances, especially now of all times.

She excitedly accepted the offer to use the Force to light her cigs. It was the one thing he knew he had over Connor. A larger knowledge base of the Force. He was about to figure out a place to do it when Connor interjected. Fuck. He didn't think of that possibility. "I taught you the ice stuff already just simply do the inverse. Make hot not cold. No need for actual lesson." He stated with a shrug, he needed to find a way to keep Connor away.

He would've been happy at the words, yet Connor's expression told him that he wasn't particularly happy. Arak wasn't bothered he had spent enough time with Connor to know the same would happen if they flipped. "It shouldn't get that bad. Unlike Connor did when I started showing stuff you understand Force manipulation." He stated bluntly keeping his gaze on Nash and partly ignoring Connor.

He pulled Connor's cig pack to him and opened it. He pulled out a singular cig, and held it like he was going to smoke it. He brought his other hand around and held out his finger to the cig. "It's about control. If you put too much into it.." A small flame erupted from his finger quickly burning the cig. "You burn it and lose the object of desire." He pulled another one out repeating the process, "But if you temper it just right.." There was flame was faint barely noticeable. The cig started burning like it was supposed to. "You get the desired result." He said handing her the cig to smoke as he didn't smoke them. His gaze never left her as he explained and demonstrated.

@Sreeya @Apollyon @Rom

 

[Xohhar K'liir]

Xohhar caught the water bottle and immediately twisted the top off and took a swig, holding the ice-cold water in his mouth and wincing at the sudden meeting of opposite temperatures against his teeth. Swallowing with a gasp, the Falleen acolyte immediately took another gulp and swished it in his mouth, trying to soothe the sting from the apparently planetary core-temperature food. Slumping into the seat on the other side of the aisle from Nash and Connor, Xo lifted the still steaming hotpocket in his other hand and weakly croaked out, "Is it supposed to do that?"

Sipping his water, Xo watched as Arak dismissed Connor and began teaching Nash how to light a fire using the Force, his own senses reaching out to feel the way the Pureblood manipulated the Force to achieve his trick. While he was still a novice the Falleen was learning something at the Academy, evidenced by him haltingly lifting a cigarra from Connor's pack using the Force and floating it toward himself; the cigarra dipped twice, nearly falling the second time before a quick pull brought it to his waiting fingertips.

"And you showed Connor how to do this with cold as well?" he asked curiously, glancing between the stiff backs and tense jaws of the two men and then at Nash who seemed none the wiser with the corner of his mouth twitching in amusement as he tried to mimic Arak's feat of fire without success.

At least it wouldn't be a boring flight.

@Sreeya @Javier esschoolbus @Apollyon

 

[Nash]

Wait, these two knew each other? Nash looked from Arak to Connor and then back. Why were the two so weird around each other? Was there…something going on there? And Arak was teaching Connor how to use the Force? Arak wasn’t exactly the type to volunteer help. Oh, there had to be something interesting going on there. When Arak made the comment about how she understood Force manipulation, Nash actually started chuckling, “You’re high, right? I’m shit with the Force!” She reminded him. What had gotten into him?

She listened to his explanation and started to Focus. He had shown her enough tricks with the Force to level her mind and concentrate. Elemental uses of the Force were advanced for acolytes, but of course Arak could do it because he was Pureblood. Nash’s eyes widened as the end of the cigarra began to smoke, “Look look!” She said with a gasp, getting very excited. Too excited.

Without warning, there was a massive burst of flames before it all went poof. Nash screamed and jumped back, but all four had been leaning in to ogle the cigarra. By the time the smoke cleared, she was coughing and looking around. Her eyes widened at the sight - none of them had their eyebrows anymore and anyone born without eyebrows had a hilarious chunk of the hair over their foreheads missing.

After getting over the initial shock, she looked at their ash faces and started to laugh. That laugh turned into a full bellied chortle as she doubled over in all her eyebrow-less glory, “Gabby we might need new IDs,” She wheezed breathlessly in between her laugh, wiping away tears.

@Rom @Javier esschoolbus @Apollyon

 

[Connor Vance]

Connor’s eyes narrowed when Arak tugged his pack of smokes clean from the pocket of his shirt. “What the fuck dude?” He muttered, emerald eyes flicking over to Nash’s face and softening.

Connor was acutely aware that Arak was purposefully ignoring him and focusing solely on Nash. His confession earlier and then his actions now told Connor he fully intended to meddle. That’s fine, Connor had one thing on his side. Boldness.

However, when Nash successfully lit her cigarra, after Arak wasted two of his, Connor leaned in. His green eyes grew wide, his ears perked a little in amazement, and he slowly nodded in approval.

“Well fuck me sidewa-“

BLAM

The cigarra exploded in a gout of flame. Connor felt the heat of the fire briefly. The stink of burning hair filled his nostrils. Connor patted madly at his face, fearing he’d had his nose or lip melt. Instead, he found his eyebrows completely gone.

At first he felt shock. A brief moment of horror. And then he saw Arak, missing a chunk of hair towards his forehead and died laughing. This plan had blown up in his face, literally.

Connor jostled Nash’s arm and pointed between their eyebrows cackling. He clenched his fists together in front of himself, made an explosion sound, and expanded them apart. Then he pointed to Arak and simply wheezed.

“Nash, holy shit.” He told her when he could catch his breath. “Nash…whew. I needed that.” He focused on her and took a few settling breaths. “You got a second to talk, privately?” He asked her, a smile still etched on his eyebrow-less face.

He ignored Arak completely.

@Sreeya @Javier esschoolbus @Rom

 

[Arak Ragnos]

Arak watched as Nash began trying to light the cig. He was partially worried she wouldn’t even understand how to heat it up. Like she said to him, she was shit with the Force. As the cig started to smoke Arak visibly perked up, slowly leaning in. She actually succeeded in one try. “Great jo..”

BLAM

A large puff of fire spread out and caught the group in it. Arak could smell singed hair, and all that but his focus first went straight to Nash. He was about to go check if she was ok when she burst into laughter. He let out a sigh of relief, that’s when he looked around and noticed everyone had some form of proof that the explosion happened. Arak’s heart began to sink as he put his hand up to his head and began feeling around. He quickly realized a part of his hair was missing. His plan literally blew up in his face.

His gaze then flicked to the others and their predicaments from the ball of fire a laugh escaping him at Nash commenting on the new ids. He found that part of the whole situation funny for some reason. He laughed with the others for a bit before regaining himself.

He noticed Connor began talking to Nash rather low, unable to hear exactly what was being said. Though he could make an educated guess. “We’ll be in hyper space for almost two days. I think we should hear out LB’s plan as a group. We do still have a mission to do. And it’s for Braids so I’d like to do it right.” He said addressing the whole group. Though it was mostly to prevent Connor from doing anything it was mostly true. Braids was apart of the group that made it through that Code Red mission. And even though their relationship was different than his and Connor’s he’d still consider him a friend.

“Unless you guys have more pressing matters that can’t wait for now.” He bluntly stated standing up to go and wash off the sut. He dampened two towels using one to wash his face. He made his way back towards the group before offering the other to Nash. “Here Nash, it’ll help with the ashes.” He then walked to the couches plopping down and pulling out the datapad.

@Sreeya @Apollyon @Rom

 

[Xohhar K'liir]

Xo had been leaning in to examine the little fire that Nash had created to light her cigarra, trying to get a feel for the way the flames moved in the Force and how to feed energy into its creation when Nash's control over it slipped. Choking briefly on smoke and soot, the Falleen acolyte waved his hand to clear the air and then caught a glance of his companions; Connor frantically patting at his face while an eyebrowless Nash doubled over laughing and a tuft of Arak's hair crumbled from the embers.

The laugh that burst out of him was more a wheeze, a puff of smoke coming out of his mouth from the soot he'd inhaled, but rapidly became a full belly laugh, his head tipping back with one hand clapped over his chest and the other holding onto the chair arm to keep him from falling backwards out of his seat; every time he tried to stop he would catch sight of one of the other Acolytes and start laughing again, his scales brightening to an almost teal color as he tried futily to catch his breath.

"I- I have never been so glad to not have hair before bahahaha! Yo-you all look ridiculous!!" Snickering to himself, the Falleen reached for his phone to take a picture of them before anyone could get up and wash the soot and embers from their faces only to blink when the camera pulled up in selfie mode and revealed the scales of his eyebrow ridges were singed, pushing them up and giving him a look of wide-eyed surprise.

The laughter started up again, Xo gesturing helplessly between the remains of the cigarra, Nash, and his singed scales and the brow ridges that would not go down. Slumping down in his seat and trying to regain his composure, Xohhar felt a rush of happiness mixed with sorrow as he realized this was the first time he'd really laughed since before leaving Nar Shaddaa. He perked his head up as Arak mentioned the plan for the mission, his brows not responding to his urge to furrow them at the lizard boy nickname, and whipped out his datapad with the mission and field report data cards installed.

"I would be happy to go over the mission plan and itinerary!"

@Sreeya @Apollyon @Javier esschoolbus

 

[Nash]

Nash calmed down from the laughing after she had another wave of it from spotting Gabby’s ridiculous face and new surprised brows. She was breathing finally and looked over when Connor asked to speak in private. That was random. Nash shrugged and nodded, but then Arak piped up about the mission. Shit, she almost forgot all about the mission. Beyond their goofy backstories, she actually had no idea what they were doing to deal with this leviathan, “I’ll catch up with you, Gears,” She said to Connor. She actually did agree about doing this right for Braidz. The guy was someone she wanted as a mentor.

She took the proffered towel, wiping her face off and getting another for Connor. Nash joined the group on the couch, prepared to listen to the idea. However, she had an EZPod in one ear playing a song. As a result she was rocking slightly side to side. Nash was incapable of sitting still or without doing some kind of dance.

“Okay, tell us the plan but trim the fat please,” Nash requested of Gabby, “And can we add in me punching this leviathan motherfucker? I really wanna slug it before we take the picture. Dude, what if we get a picture of me slugging it? I bet I’ll just straight up pass the class instantly,” She said excitedly, completely distracted by her own fantasies of face punching giant monsters. After a moment, she cleared her throat and floated back to reality, probably missing half of Gabby’s explanation already.

@Apollyon @Rom @Javier esschoolbus