Ask Naboo Home

[Vayla Mirana]

Spoiler: Music OOC

The pair of Jedi had set sail for an asteroid out in the expanse, had discovered the source of the signal that had reached the Council, and Padawan Quin Leonkri had opened a box of questions. The crashed ship had been flown by his droid, stirring a well of memories, with a message that his parents had been killed in raids. In the absence of his mother and father, the messenger was calling Quin home to take over family affairs.

Home, then, is where the Jedi went. Yet, the Force adept was not fooled; he felt that his parents were still alive. His master, Knight Vayla Mirana, was determined to find out the truth. However events were to play out from this moment forward, the boy would not be strong-armed by politicians, relatives or otherwise, as long as she was there to back him up.

So the duo came to Theed, capital of Naboo, to begin their investigation. There was the threat that Quin was being lured into a trap so Vayla did not broadcast their arrival. Instead, upon securing the Star's Sanctum into a docking bay, the Jedi followed a lead left for them. Someone had to reach out. This someone appeared to be an affiliate of the Leonkris.

She had since left a private message with the port authority to see that only Quin gets it upon returning to Naboo. Claiming to have information on the boy’s parents, the woman was to meet him that day in the city.

Located in downtown, surrounded by bustling establishments and endless traffic, the Galuna Gardens were a whole habitat where nature could reign supreme even with all the metal and duracrete around. The gardens flourished with all manner of flora, from great trees with mighty branches to the tiniest flowers, some glowing as visitors came closer.

Vayla could spend all day there, having never visited before but enjoying her first time. The fact that she was here to meet some unknown character to help her Padawan seemed suddenly overshadowed by the brilliant bushes and boughs. Simple elegance…so shadowed by the complexities of conflict. Like the traffic on the edges of this garden.

"Ahh, a solflower," Vayla knelt to the flower bed beside Quin, surfing fingers through orange petals shaped like rays. "Good for decorating, great for tea."


@Sicadorito @m a n g o

 

[Quin Leonkri]

Quin hadn’t planned on returning to Naboo so soon, especially after having left in such a hurry. In fact, he’d been looking to keep away from his home planet until he became a full Jedi knight. Before the trip to the asteroid with Master Mirror, he’d told himself that it was for the better to stay away, both for his sake and for his parents’. Turns out, not so much. Now he had no idea where the latter were, and to top it all off, the person who was clearly responsible for their disappearance wanted him. But he didn’t know why.

Not all was doom and gloom, however, and Quin was more than grateful that Master Mirror was willing to help him figure it all out. He was waiting with her now in the Galuna Gardens for someone who claimed to have more information on his parents’ whereabouts. It only made him even more worried, thinking of all the times they’d visited the area when he was younger. What if they would never have that chance again? He had been so prepared to throw it all away in his quest to become a Jedi knight that he hadn’t even apologized for leaving so suddenly. Now, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that he wouldn’t ever be able to.

As the Jedi knight knelt down to observe the flowers, Quin was pacing back and forth on the gravel path behind her, his arms crossed.

“I wouldn’t mind some tea,” he said in response to Master Mirror’s musings. “Never fails to clear my head.” He sighed, then kicked a pebble into the flower bed. “I wish I could be as calm as you are. You always seem to know what to do.”

@m a n g o @Die Shize

 

[Thayd Karkoza]

Thayd rises, claps the dirt off his hands, wipes his palms on his robes. Crooked side-glances left, right, then extends a foot to smooth out the soil, sweep it good as new, tamp it down like nothing happened. He reaches out, adjusts the leaves of the two adjacent plants that stock this little patch by the stream. Once he’s done he steps back, squares his hands around this picture cameraman style. What a happy family. He moves on to the next section of interest in Galuna Gardens, repeats the whole process there, carefully transplanting the subject into one of the glass jars that are just strapped all over him like Life Tree ornaments. Jungle Jedi. He’s a walking nursery. Gonna give these plantlings a better life, a purpose, spirited away from this leafy grow-globe prison.

He almost looks like a groundskeeper. Almost. Too off-kilter. Dirt on his hands, dirt on his clothes. Plant-laden. Lightsaber landscaper on his belt. Big fat straw hat, fanning out in a kingly radius, littered all over with foliage, twigs, and the occasional bright, shiny piece of foil or chunk of crystal stashed away amid the hay-colored fibers. The left side of his face is concealed behind a luminous feathered half-mask. Surgical mishap. Still fresh.

On lookout duty: a black crow, sailing circles overhead as the Jedi knight makes his way through the garden. It swoops down, lands somewhere back behind the undergrowth, starts sending up its sharp, grotesque caws. Thayd emerges from the shrubbery into a small clearing to see his crow secretary standing calmly, just out of range as the maw of a carnivorous flower snaps and lunges in its direction, like a leashed hound hellbent on breaking its own neck. Not a monster. Fist-sized head, bounding out again and again on a two foot stalk. Thayd raises a hand, writes a little invisible signature in the air, and the plant freezes mid-flail, baring neck, teeth and all as the Jedi approaches cautiously, crouching down to study the restrained specimen.

His crow cocks its head and also studies, like a small, winged professor, or a ludicrous impostor of just such a thing.

@Die Shize @Sicadorito

 

[Vayla Mirana]

Spoiler: Music OOC

Vayla rose from the flowers to face her Padawan. He was the very reason she had knelt to them, hoping to ease his mind amid the mission at hand. “You think me calm, Quin-Quin?” She smiled. “Here is my secret.” She opened her hands as though holding something, but revealed only skin and air.

“I hold no power, see. I am an empty vessel just like you. Just like him and her and it.” She gestured to a passing man, a sitting woman and a patrolling droid. “My composure comes from the Force. Without it, I would have no hope, would be a terrified little kitten, aimless, powerless…empty.”

She breathed in, smelling oolong and jasmine and peppermint all at once. “Now, how about that tea?” That was enough teaching for now. Quin could sip on her words whilst they walked.

There was a tea kiosk a short distance away in the gardens. Heading toward it, Vayla suddenly stopped in her tracks, sensing something. The feeling was undeniable, easily tuned to, whether her Padawan had felt it too.

The Knight turned toward a clearing to behold the crow. It shined black as night in the sunlight but was not the quarry of her attention. There you are. Vayla sensed no threat from the man beside the crow, he who donned a big fat straw hat. “Follow me, Pad.”

The pair of Force adepts would approach the other. Vayla looked from the pacified plant to the soul responsible for it. “A natural gift?” She toyed. “Or were you trained in the arts that few in this universe are?”

Vayla was opening up her Force signature just enough for this man to receive it. It would be just as undeniable.


@Sicadorito @m a n g o

 

[Quin Leonkri]

Quin leaned forward curiously, half-expecting something to actually appear in Master Mirror’s palms when she held out her hands and spoke of her secret. He looked up as she explained that her composure came from nothing but the Force, a little disappointed that there wasn’t much more to it. He’d heard plenty of other Jedi attribute much of their skills to the Force. How come he couldn’t figure out how to do the same for himself?

His face brightened at the mention of tea. “Tea? Where?” He followed the Jedi knight’s gaze to the kiosk, and for a moment, he forgot all his worries. But then he felt something. He turned to ask Master Mirror if she’d felt it too, but he didn’t need to when he saw her looking in the direction the feeling had come from. At a crow and a man wearing a straw hat.

Quin followed Master Mirror without her even needing to ask, standing just behind her as they approached the man. All his attention was drawn to the man’s hat and the adorable crow with its head cocked beside him. After the Jedi knight finished asking him her question, Quin grinned at the man.

“Nice hat, by the way.”

@m a n g o @Die Shize