Ask The Spooky Streets

[Varyn Atrix]

This place was eerie. Primarily overrun by AMS, he couldn't believe that he'd been allowed to come here at all, even with a Jedi Knight. This was where people really went to die. But he was going to be a great Knight someday, and that meant the couldn't be afraid of anything, just like he was sure Master Drast wasn't afraid of anything.

They'd been sent to help extract a group of locals who had only narrowly managed to get a signal off-world. Varyn couldn't even imagine what they had been through just to get that far. He didn't want to be cowardly, but as he looked at the empty streets, deadly silent, he felt a nagging, horrible feeling in his gut. His mind started going to what it was like to be eaten alive by these things or turn into one.

He shook his head slightly, shaking the thought out so that he could focus on the here and now. The more his mind wandered to other things - good or bad - the greater his chances of meeting that ill fate.

He gripped his saber even tighter in his hand, though the fact that it was only a training saber meant that it was good for little more than a bludgeon to keep the infected at bay. It wouldn't be cutting anyone in half, and he was starting to wish that he had a real lightsaber... for the 18,000th time.

Master Drast, he whispered. Isn't this where we were supposed to meet the civilians? Where are they? he asked, hoping for insight that Waxillum almost certainly couldn't and wouldn't have.

 

[Waxillium Drast]

Wax could sense the padawan's unease, and given where they were he couldn't really hold that against him. But if he was to be a Jedi he would have to be prepared for this, to face his fears and overcome them. This was why he had agreed to bring him along, there was only so much you could learn sitting around in a Temple somewhere. Here, in the real world, was where really learning could be found.

"Peace young padawan," Wax replied as he scanned their surroundings, "we'll find them." He finally spotted something and began walking, leading the way to a building with an exterior stairway, and beginning to climb up to the roof of the building. Atop the building they had a better view of their surroundings, and Wax dropped to a knee near the roof's edge to look around.

"The answers we need are all around us. There," he pointed in the general direction of a cluster of buildings, with a speeder van seemingly innocuously blocking the entrance to an alleyway, a lightpost nearby that bore signs of repair, and a few other oddities that stood out from the general chaos of their surroundings, "what do you see?"

He told the padawan nothing of what he saw, instead letting him make the discoveries on his own, to reach his own conclusions. More often than not staying alive was a simple matter of keeping your head about yourself, being mindful of your surroundings, and staying alert, and he hoped that he could pass some of that to the young Jedi.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Yeah, but like, what was peace going to accomplish? Everybody in the Jedi always told him he needed to "be at peace" like as soon as he was, he would find all the answers in the galaxy. If he was "at peace" the voice of the Living Force would say "the civilians are at 245 W. Valorum Street." He huffed slightly to himself but was wise enough to hold his tongue from saying it aloud.

Yes, Master, he said. We'll find them, but hoooooow? He followed the Knight along toward the roof, moving out to take a knee next to the other Jedi. He looked in the direction the other Jedi had pointed and squinted.

Uh... he started. He really wanted to get this right. Surely, he should be seeing something. ...more... abandoned buildings? he said, feeling almost certainly that that was the wrong answer.

What do you see? he asked, deciding that turning the question around maybe was the better route. Besides, if Wax saw something Varyn didn't, then he needed to learn from it!

He caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye a moment later and instinctively dropped down lower until he was practically laying down. It was the infected moving in an alley directly under the pair. The alley was narrow, and the two Jedi likely could have leapt relatively easily to the next roof over, passing away from the infected without drawing further attention and heading in the direction of the cluster of buildings.

 

[Waxillium Drast]

At the padawan's response Waxillium's lip's pulled up in a lop-sided grin, and as Varyn dropped to the ground, Wax raised a finger to his lips to remind the young Jedi to stay quiet. Not that he needed that reminder, he seemed to have that much common sense. So the old fools were at least teaching them something in the temples.

Watching the infected, Wax rose to his feet and gestured for Varyn to follow, leading the way to jump over the alleyway to the next rooftop. He lead the way towards the buildings with the van in front of the alleyway, moving from rooftop to rooftop till they climbed down another set of stairs.

As they walked, slowly and careful to not make too much noise, Wax started speaking in a whisper. "You must look for what is there, and what isn't." On reaching the alleyway, he stopped besides the lightpost, and tapped a finger at a solder-patch that seemed relatively new. "Patched not too long ago," Moving aside to let the padawan take a look, he started moving down the alleyway, noticing the lack of litter, "and someone had been cleaning up here."

Reaching a door that seemed to be some sort of back entrance to one of the buildings lining the alleyway, he bent to take a look at the door, before reaching down to pick up a large boulder that besides the door that seemed to stand out, revealing a key underneath. Opening the door, he gestured for Varyn to step into the dark room beyond the entrance, before stepping in himself and closing the door behind them. But as he turned around multiple flashlights came to life, pointed right at them.

"Stop right there!" Light blinded them, the shaking hands holding them evident by the way the lights wavered. But the voice that spoke was firm, in control. "Who are you? Were you bitten?"

Wax took a step back, and gestured for Varyn to reply, asking the padawan to take the lead, eager to see how he handled the situation.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Atrix]

Varyn followed the Knight as he jumped to the other rooftop, reaching it and landing softly on the other side, one of the few things he felt like he was actually good at on the long list of things Jedi apparently needed to be good at. Yes, jumping... the real key to being a Jedi.

As he followed down the stairwell, Varyn almost rolled his eyes at the statement about what was there and what wasn't. At first it sounded like another one of those Jedi non-answers that he received so often, but when Master Drast went on to explain what he actually meant, Varyn perked up, listening closely and then immediately thinking oh boy, there's no way I'm going to ever be that observant.

Oookay, you can do this, you can do this, you can do this he told himself. The small details were the important part. The little things that he just kind of... overlooked. He wasn't even sure he could force his mind to be that detail focused. Another thing to add to the list of things to work on, he thought to himself.

They moved down, opening the door to the building and he was immediately confronted by way too many people in the dark. Shouldn't they have like... sensed these people or something? Wasn't that what Jedi were supposed to do? What Varyn did sense was fear and not animosity. The questions they asked only reinforced that to him.

He pushed his hands up so they could be seen by the many flashlights.

We're your extraction team. We're Jedi, and we weren't bit, he reassured. He could immediately hear people grumbling about the extraction team only being two people, but also the surprise that they were Jedi. He heard someone else say that one of them was a kid and Varyn frowned a little bit.

Look, do you want to get out of here or not? he asked, before wincing slightly, realizing he probably shouldn't have said that and immediately trying to soften up his impulsive words.

We can help get you off this world and to safety, he said.

Cartel hit squads have been clearing the streets. Killing anything that moves: infected or not as part of their "containment plan." We won't be able to go anywhere until they're dealt with. They've got several camps that they're operating drones and sensors out of, the leader said, and Varyn got the impression he had once been military or something of the sort. He just had that presence of someone who was used to being in danger.