Ask Onderon Inhospitable

[Maura Starwalk]

Maura was exhausted. She'd been tired from fighting already, but on top of that, she'd run him all the way here. It wasn't a marathon (and the Force certainly helped), but she was still just... physically exhausted.

But, she'd made it. The Sith was lying on a hospital bed across the room, stripped of his armor and peacefully unconscious. Maura had burned off or removed any symbols of the Sith on his armor to hopefully avoid him being turned away. "I mean, yeah, he's Sith, but he still deserves to be treated? Right?" The nurses had removed the rest of his armor during whatever cleaning and stitching up they did. The kid assumed it'd been discarded.

His lightsaber, on the other hand, was clipped to her belt and hidden under her Jedi robes next to her own. It was the only weapon still on him by the time she'd gotten him here, and she certainly wasn't going to let the nurses see it. "Or let him keep it." Was it wrong to think of it as a trophy? "What would Master Voran say?"

"Jedi should not take trophies!" Maura said while doing a terrible impression of her master's voice. "She'd probably say something about, like, respect probably." She probably shouldn't think of it as a trophy. After all, she still felt kinda guilty about that agonizing look on the Sith boy's face.

But again, ask for forgiveness not permission, right? Maura's been a little nervous about taking it off of him in case she got memories from it, but nothing had happened. Thankfully.

Sigh. The girl drew her knees up to her chest, nestled her chin in between them, and continue to watch Wodan. At least she was getting a chance to rest, too. She wasn't too sure how long she would stick around, or even if she should. Hailee was probably waiting for her. Hopefully. "And what am I even gonna say to him when he wakes up?"

The padawan peered across the room to make sure he looked like he was asleep, then sat up cross-legged in her chair and stuck her hand out. "Hi! I brought you to a hospital. No need to worry!" she said while talking to and shaking the hand of a pretend Wodan.

"No, that's...stupid." Should she introduce herself? "Hi, I'm Maura. Sorry for cutting up your legs, but the nurses said you should recover just fine." Was it unwise to give him her name? "What if he- Wait, I literally have rainbow hair. Of course, he'd recognize me!" "Hi, sorry for kicking your butt, but you'll recover!" She giggled.

And by the Force, she had so many questions she wanted to ask him! Why was he Sith? Why were the Sith invading? Why did he bring guns? And a spear?!

Maura went back to staring at Wodan with her head on her knees, anxiously waiting for the Sith stranger to wake.

tag: @Braden

 

[Wodan]

“Your voice is annoying.” Wodan said, his eyes flickering open to look over at the multicoloured Jedi. His entire body radiated pain, from head to toe, though his legs had it the worst. As a consequence of his burn out when trying to fry the Jedi, he pulled too much energy into himself, his weak grasp of the technique not allowing him to disperse the energy reliably.

Lifting his right arm up, it caught on something. Looking down he saw that he was restrained, both arms were cuffed to the bed frame. “Great.” He said between gritted teeth. Leaning his head back onto the pillow he closed his eyes, reaching out with the hand hidden from view from Maura he tried to summon The Force, perhaps pull something he could use as a weapon. But as soon as he latched onto the Cosmic Energy another surge of pain rain through his body forcing him to constrict his muscles, this moved his legs causing him even more pain.

“Fuck.” He screamed out, both because of the pain and because of the situation. Once the pain settled, his eyes turned to rest on Maura, there was hate there, she could easily see that. But it was a fake kind of hate, one the Firrerrian put on to cover his true feelings, fear.

@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"What? My voice isn't annoying!" Maura protested, though her thoughts would remain just that - thoughts. A look of defiance, or perhaps stubbornness, would cross her features as she puffed her cheeks and stuck her bottom lip out into a pout at the comment instead. She watched as he discovered the restraints with a frown, then winced when he screamed an obscenity out into the hospital air.

"I uh, I told them you were injured by a Sith so they would, um, help you," she piped up sheepishly after a moment. "Also the nurses said you shouldn't move. That's why they put those things on you. She said, 'Moving too much will cause him pain and also disrupt the healing process.' " Maura mimicked the drawl of the supposed nurse as she spoke, too.

Awkward silence.

"Sooo you should probably just hangout here for a bit. 'Specially 'cause they don't know you're-" Maura lowered her voice. "Sith." She continued. "That's what I would do, at least. I mean, not actually, since Hailee would probably take me home to be treated, but uh-" Would it be rude to say his buddy left him? Maura wasn't actually sure what happened to the other guy, so she changed the topic.

The padawan's eyes would suddenly brighten. "But it can't be all bad! You get to talk to me! For a bit, if you want." Wodan might get the feeling that he didn't really have a choice, which was true. The blabbermouth would go on regardless. "My name's Maura by the way! I'm sorry about, er, like, that, but considering I think you were trying to kill me, it was kinda justified sooo..."

A nurse popped in for a moment to re-check Wodan's vitals, going about the usual blood pressure assessment and making sure the fluids in the IV drip Wodan would be connected to were sufficient. Once she was out, Maura would stop chewing on her cheek and ask, "So like... aren't you a Firrerreo?"

She'd heard the nurses mention it, but it wasn't the quickened healing that would shorten Wodan's recovery period from months to weeks that interested her. It was the story of the Sith destroying the Firrerero home planet, and when she asked, he might get a semblance of what she was getting at.

tag: @Braden

 

[Wodan]

“I can heal just fine on my own.” He replied sharply, his blood allowed him advantages over the ordinary sientiant spices. Although it was not instantaneous, even wounds such as the ones he received from the multicoloured Jedi brat would heal back to normal in time. Wodan rolled his eyes at the thought of having to spend more time with the chatterbox that he had to.

“Wōđanaz Buri Ása-Liða.” He answered. “I wouldn’t have tried to kill you if you didn’t get in the way.” Wodan continued, the pain from reaching into The Force was slowly starting to dissipate through his body allowing him a little more clarity of thought.

The nurse came in and checked on him. He gave her a weak smile, an act to fool the woman before she left and he was once again alone with the rainbow child. “Born and bred. What backwater world were you dragged from by the Jedi?”

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"Yeah! You guys can do that, right?" Maura's features scrunched up, impressed. "That's so cool! I wish I could do something like that, but I can't even concentrate long enough to Force heal..."

She trailed off as Wodan introduced himself, and her expression was soon replaced by a different emotion. "Wo..dan...naz...buried...asa..." There was no way she was going to be able to pronounce that whole string of sounds. "...do you have a nickname?" If she had to pick one for him, she'd probably go with Dan. "Dan doesn't seem very Sith-y though. Maybe...Danaz." Yeah, that was edgy enough to be a Sith name, Maura decided.

Maura didn't find his answer to her other question satisfactory at all, but he asked her a question before she could complain.

"Um." What planet had she come from? Her brows pushed together as she tried to remember the " backwater planet" the Jedi had "dragged her from." Despite her focus, she couldn't. "I dunno. I've lived with the Jedi since I was like, six or seven. I dunno! I really can't remember much of my life before the Jedi!" Though she sounded a bit solemn at first, her tone quicker cheered up.

"So like, if you were 'born and bred' on Firrerre... why are you Sith?" Maura finally got straight to the question she wanted to ask. But, of course, there was another one. "Also what does 'bred' mean? Like I know what born means but I dunno what bred means."

tag: @Braden

 

[Wodan]

“For a Jedi… You can call me Wōđanaz.” He replied with a straight face, he wasn’t going to be nice to the girl just because she hadn’t left him on the battlefield or chained him up in a cell somewhere. At the first sign of freedom he would escape.

“So you were taken from your home? Sounds like the Jedi haven’t changed their ways, despite what they peddle in the media.” He continued, Alexandra and all those before her tried to spin that the Jedi were different now, from all he saw they were the same as the Jedi Order from the Old Republic.

Rolling his eyes at her question he sighed. “It means I was born and grew up there. Also that I am proud of my heritage. You were born on some little rock but grew up a Jedi, so you might have rockling on your birth certificate but you are more Jedi than rockling because you didn’t really grow up there.”

@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"What's wrong with that?" Maura would ask with a quizzical expression. "That's like an orphanage's whole thing?" If he hadn't taken her, someone else would have... hopefully. It was hard to remember things all those years ago though. "I don't even remember the Sisters' names..." Not that they mattered, really. She didn't need to remember who they were to remember she never really liked any of them much.

"Oh, okay. That makes sense then." Maura brought her legs up and onto the chair, then wiggled her way into a cross-legged position. "Except I don't think I have a birth certificate. I would put Jedi on it if I did, though." They were essentially her family. Despite her delinquency, the Knights and Masters of the order had always looked out for her. They were her teachers and her guardians.

"What was Firrerre like?" she asked after a few seconds of silence. She'd seen videos of the carnage and holobook images of the planet before its glassing, but she wanted to ask him about it anyway. Who better than someone who'd grown up there? "I heard the seas are filled with massive angry sea monsters! Is that true?"

tag: @Braden

 

[Wodan]

“Did your parents get a choice? Or did the Jedi think you would make a good soldier in the future and take you?” Yes the Sith did the same thing, but at least they didn’t hide the fact they did it.

He spat out a laugh when she commented she would put Jedi down on her birth certificate. Did she really think Jedi was a place, it was just a religion, just like the Sith nothing more. “It was beautiful, no other planet could hold a flame to Firrerre.” At least to him it was, but that was only because the few memories he had were from long ago, when he was just a child when everything was giant and magical. Perhaps now if he went back it wouldn’t seem so grand, but Raze had taken that opportunity for him, so only the rose tinted memories remained.

A shiver ran up his spine at the mention of the seas. “For a child you heard a lot about a planet which was almost destroyed years ago? But yes, creatures roamed the depths of Firrerre which would strike fear into any sentient, from you to Empress Anaris.”

@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"I don't have parents," Maura said matter-of-factly. "And yeah. We have to do schooling and stuff." She lowered her voice. "Don't tell anyone, but I still skip some of my classes," she said with a giggle. The history lesson about Firerre though, she'd been present for that. History was boring, until it wasn't. "We had to learn about Kashyyyk too..."

Maura trailed off, her eyes glazing over for a second. She was talking to a Sith, and Sith were for things like destroying planets. Wodan didn't seem evil like the other Jedi said (just really grumpy), but how could someone be okay with that? Maura looked back up at the man, narrowed her eyes a little, but kept her thoughts to herself for now.

"Pffh, I'm not scared of sea monsters," Maura scoffed with a playful roll of her eyes. What could be so scary about something that didn't even have feet? "But apparently there are giant space monsters that eat whole ships! That's pretty scary."

Awkward silence.

She really wanted to ask him why he joined the Sith.

Like, really really wanted to.

"...sooo... why did you join the Sith?"

tag: @Braden

 

[Wodan]

Bless the bloody Force this girl was irritating, if it wasn’t for the pure exhaustion he would try and kill himself just to stop hearing her voice. “I’m sure they're glad too.” He mumbled to himself when she mentioned her parents. “Did you learn how to strap Wookiee’s to a spacecraft in that class?” It was a pathetic stick to hit the Jedi with, but it was all he had right now.

“Wait for one to bite your leg off, then tell me you're still not scared of them.” He snarked back at the rainbow haired brat.

Then it came, the same old question, why was he a Sith? Why join the people who destroyed your world and killed your family? He could do with a little business card which had his justifications, would make this continuous question easier to deal with. “I prefer the colour red.”

@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

Maura scoffed when Wodan gave a half-assed answer to her question. "Okay, and? I didn't join an order that kills entire planets 'cause I like red." It was the first time she'd sounded irritated since talking with Wodan, and it was literally just because he'd given what she interpreted as a sarcastic answer to her question. "'Cause that's stupid. And I like every color." Except gray. Gray was boring.

Maura swung her legs out from under her so that she was sitting properly in the chair, placed her hands on the arms, and leaned forward.

"My master says people join the Sith 'cause they're hurt." Maybe she hadn't said exactly that, but maybe she said something similar. Or maybe one of her teachers said something similar. Whatever. "Hurting other people isn't gonna make you hurt less." Her teachers used to tell her that when she'd get mad and lash out at the other kids. "So why did you actually join the Sith? 'Cause I'm not stupid. It's not 'cause you like red."

She hated when people wouldn't just answer her questions.

tag: @Braden

 

[Wodan]

“No you were indoctrinated into an order that supports terroism.” He replied back with a snarky smile, he could tell he was getting under the skin of the rainbow haired Jedi. Which was some solace to the Firrerrian as he lay there strapped to the bed. Though she still was able to put into a stupid quip about colours, so she couldn’t be that upset.

“Have you ever been hurt, Rainbow Girl? Hurt to the point that every ounce of your being is in pain?” His face became serious for a moment as he spoke. “Trust me at that moment, nothing can bring you up. The only thing that can help you push through, is knowing that someone else is worse off than you. If you have to drag them down their yourself, fuck it.”

@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"I wasn't indoctr- indoc- indoctrinated!" Maura protested while stumbling over the pronunciation of the word, then pouted in silence while Wodan continued on. Hurt, pain, and pushing through because someone else was worse off - it sounded like a bunch of Sith crap.

"Well, no, but that sounds stupid," she retorted when he finished. "I don't need other people feeling bad to make me feel better." In fact, other people feeling bad made her feel bad. Like when she accidentally elbowed that one kid in her maths class. Sure, he was a jerk, but it didn't make her feel any better about failing her maths quiz. "What makes me feel better is knowing that I have people who care about me, like my master." She would never admit it, but Alex was the closest thing to a mom she'd ever had.

"Maybe if you make some friends it'll make you feel better, too," she added, her voice less harsh than before. "Though I guess that would be hard to do as a Sith, since all you guys do is try to drag others down n' stuff..."

"Man, I'm glad I'm not a Sith. I'd suck having to hate everyone all the time." Did she even hate anyone? ....no, no she didn't. She wasn't even that mad at Wodanz for trying to kebab her, though he was being a big grump...

tag: @Braden

 

[Wodan]

He had to smile as she stumbled over the word, what were the Jedi teaching these kids, just how to swing a lightsaber? “Have you ever tried it? Making someone else feel worse? If not, how do you know it doesn't work?” He asked, knowing full well the Jedi would dig her heels in on such a thing. If Maura had gone to these lengths already then perhaps wasn’t the innocent Jedi she tried to portray.

“Don’t worry little Jedi, I have friends. But they are not what drives me through the hardship of listening to you drone on about Friends, Family and Unicorns.” Wodan replied with a smug smirk on his face. “Who is your master anyway, was it the blonde?”

@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"Well, uh-" Maura wrinkled her nose and shook her head. No, she hadn't tried it, but he was just trying to sway her to the Dark Side like all Sith would try to do! The warning of her instructors began playing in the back of her mind, lecturing her about the Sith like an annoying mantra.

Change of topic. Good. Maura was starting to get frustrated. "Mm, no. Hailee's just a padawan," Maura answered honestly. She was pretty sure she'd get to be a knight soon though. She was so cool she just had to be! "Master Voran is my master! She's so cool and I'm gonna be just like her one day!"

Beep. Beep.

"...speaking of..." she muttered under her breath when the comlink on her wrist let out a series of high-pitched alerts. She probably needed to find Hailee and get back before she got in trouble for talking to a Sith. She figured Master Voran would already be upset with her for sneaking onto the battlefield without permission, and she was sure the Morellian woman wouldn't be too happy if she learned her padawan was chatting with a Sith too.

It wasn't like he had any good points though, she thought in a huff to herself. Why would she ever be mean back to someone to make them feel how she felt? (@SlagathorTheUnknown) What was she, ten? ...well, she'd done it before. But that was then and now she was totally more mature!

Wodan would very clearly be able to see the signs of an internal monologue going on in Maura's head as her face switched from expression to expression in subtle but noticeable ways. Clearly, she was having some sort of private conversation with herself.

"Whelp! Time for me to go now!" she declared suddenly and loudly. The padawan hopped out of her chair and practically skipped over to the door, just narrowly missing the laces of her one, untied boot as she made her way across the room. Maura paused at the door, then turned around to face Wodan one more time.

"Has anyone ever told you you're kinda grumpy?" She giggled, then dipped out of the room. Not long after, a couple nurses would enter to recheck the Sith's vitals, blissfully unaware that he was, indeed, a Sith.

tag: @Braden