[Video]

[out_of_order]

[The image moves slightly as though the tablet's been placed on something uneven before it steadies. The red-haired padawan gives a nod from where he stands by some tool bins, and he pauses from picking through them, raising a hand to give a thumbs-up.]

Hey- So I know there's been a lot going on between Temba and the other place, and what all's been happening. I was thinking of setting out to the other city again some time soon, have a better look at the power situation. I know we've already got one city to worry about, but if there's something important to find here, I figure maybe it couldn't hurt to at least get the basic utilities up and running.

Anyone else interested? I think we've got a fair amount of engineers so we shouldn't be running short at least. And if anyone's had a closer look and knows what specifically we might need, you're welcome to give a rundown.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in my workshop while I get things together.

[He nods at the camera again with a 'Thanks BeeDee' and the tablet shifts towards the ceiling before BD-1's head pops up, and he raises a foot towards it before the feed ends.]

Comments

[out_of_order]

Given how abrupt Merrin's nature is to do things, Cal really should have expected what happens next. He's still confused when their conversation cuts off, but in the next moment he senses that shift and pop of another presence, a familiar one. The green flame-like trails make her hard to miss, but to have someone suddenly appear like that is still enough to startle him. He lets the spanner he'd had in hand fall from his grasp, bringing the same hand over his chest. The look on Merrin's face, the tone of her voice, cuts short any sass he might have tried to pack into a greeting.

"....yeah," he says, sighing as he leans against the counter. He combs his fingers through his hair, leaning his head back to look up at the ceiling as though the memories would replay there.

"I saw the Agrii... I was there with them, when the storms first began." He closes his eyes. "When they were fleeing in terror, trying to find shelter from it. There was confusion. Pain. ...death. It was just one after the other, overlapping. I couldn't break out of it."

[noch]

Yeah, he really should've expected it. Maybe one day...

Regardless, she comes closer while she listens, arm brushing against the counter. Close enough to reach for him, or—her gaze flickers to his hand, resting on the edge of the counter—place her hand on top of his, which is an urge she's not sure she can resist. Not when he looks so... upset, and her heart is twisting inside her chest with sympathy.

So she doesn't. Her hand covers his, fingertips curling into his palm. For the first time, it occurs to her that when he sees the past, there's a part of it that might linger with him. If he's feeling their emotions... her Jedi is kind, compassionate. How could it not stay with him?

"You were trapped there?" she prompts softly.

[out_of_order]

His fingers tense slightly as he feels her hand alight over his own, the most he can do with his hand in that position, but perhaps acknowledgment enough. He brings his head forward again, opening his eyes to look off towards the floor. It's all too easy for those memories to come back, so vivid as they'd been, as clear as though they were his own.

"I would have been," Cal says. He turns his head just slightly, one corner of his lips doing its best to lift in a smile. "Thankfully BeeDee was with me. He was able to call for help. Echo found us, practically carried me out."

The little droid has been watching attentively from the counter across from them, giving a quiet hoot.

[noch]

Ah, Echo. You are now Merrin's favorite person on this planet, for good or ill. And BD-1 is her favorite droid—always has been, but still. She glances over at him, offering Beedee a small, grateful smile.

Her hand squeezes his briefly. "This does not happen to you every time you see into the past," she says, but there's an edge of uncertainty in her tone, as if it's partly a question. Sure, the crystals in the cave would've enhanced his power, but to the point where he couldn't escape?

[out_of_order]

The droid can't smile back, but he wiggles in place a bit. That had been a scary situation. At least the erratic energy within the cavern hadn't disrupted the signal to the communication devices.

Cal shakes his head. "No. Usually the moments I see are brief. It happens on contact, and usually I can get a sense that there's been an imprint of it through the Force," he explains, glancing down at his free hand in thought. "But I think there was so much that had happened in those caverns that I couldn't tell an ending from a beginning. Those memories all came at once, and I was so disoriented that I couldn't remove myself from the place to stop it."

[noch]

When they'd spoken about his power before, he hadn't told her too much about how it works—so she absorbs this information now, nodding her head as he explains. What must it be like to be able to look into the past? Like all things, there must be beauty, wonder—but also pain, sadness. And to be suddenly overwhelmed by that pain and sadness?

She squeezes his hand again, a little more firmly this time, hoping to draw his attention over to her as she sends him a small smile. "Then you will not go back there again," she says firmly, but with a lightness in her voice. That's the simple, easy solution, of course.

Then she pauses, a thought occurring to her, and she sounds slightly more accusatory as she adds, "You have not gone back, yes?" Cal might just be reckless enough to try, maybe. He did go back to Dathomir, after all, despite the many undead reasons why he shouldn't have.

[out_of_order]

Sure enough, Cal lifts his head to look towards her again at the insistence of her gesture. The solution she offers, the smile she grants, gains her one in turn. And then the look that she gives him almost immediately after is enough to draw a laugh, breaking up the heaviness that had crept up on him.

"I haven't," he says. "I figure I'd gotten what I'd needed to. I didn't have a lightsaber crystal at the time, but that's where I'd found a shard of a power crystal, though I couldn't say how with all that happening." But the Force works strangely. "And painful as those echoes were, I think it showed an important truth. If there'd been any doubt that the Agrii were suffering here..." He shakes his head.

"Many people here haven't experienced the storms yet. They don't affect us like they do the Agrii, but there are other things that do happen."

[noch]

Ah, good—her ploy to lift his mood worked, and she made him laugh. She can't help but feel... a little pleased about that, all in all, even if she has to purse her lips a bit to keep from smiling.

But it's good to know that he hasn't gone back there. She'll go harvest those crystals herself, if they really need them, if that means he doesn't have to return. "I have not experienced them," she says, probably unnecessarily—he would know that, wouldn't he? "What happens?"

[out_of_order]

"The crystals seem to have an affect on one's powers, I think. In its raw form I guess it's like it's unfocused. Making them into power rods stabilizes them into something that can store energy."

Cal unhooks the lightsaber from his belt, turning it around so the less ornate side is held upwards, and he thumbs the blade on, its color a yellow-tinged white. Notably BD-1 begins to glow, as well as anything nearby made of metal.

"That also happens," he notes with a crooked grin as he watches the little droid twirl around. "It boosts anything running on power so long as power is running through it. I also feel like it does a subtle boost to my Force senses. I'm not sure how it applies with other abilities that aren't quite passive, but if you decide to go to the caves, it's something to be mindful of. And maybe until you're sure things don't get out of hand in there, don't go alone."

[noch]

Her hand falls away from his when he moves to unhook his lightsaber—why would it not? He doesn't really need the comfort of it anymore—but she finds herself feeling that loss of contact, for some reason.

Of course. The crystals. She can subtly feel the power radiating through the crystal when he turns on his lightsaber, making her necklace and rings start to glow along with BD-1. Once again, she wonders how it would work alongside her magick—would it boost her power, like her talisman?

"Perhaps it is similar to my talisman," she says thoughtfully, watching BD-1 wiggle. "Many generations of Nightsisters before me have used it, leaving behind some of their power. It helps to strengthen and focus my magick," she explains, heading off any questions.

Then, it strikes her, that last part—she turns her head to look at Cal again, her eyebrows raised and voice deceptively mild. "You are worried about me?" It might not even be a question.

[out_of_order]

"Maybe. We haven't really figured out how the crystals work. Reeve's suggested it's similar to something from his homeworld, connected to the planet's life itself." And there's already so much they don't know about the world here. He thumbs the blade of light off, the glow fading from metal. BD-1 looks down at himself, then back up at the two.

As she gives him that look then Cal mirrors it slightly, brow arched as he meets her gaze with the question she poses. "Why wouldn't I be?"

[noch]

For whatever reason, that isn't the answer she was expecting at all, and it ends up completely disarming her. Maybe she wasn't expecting him to accept it so casually, or turn it into a question faced back at her. Maybe it's been so long since anyone's worried for her—or, by extension, cared enough to worry for her.

Subtle surprise flashes across her face, then confusion, her eyebrows drawing together—before she turns her head away under the guise of... looking somewhere else. BD-1, maybe. It's a restless sort of motion, because she quickly glances back at him.

"I... am capable of taking care of myself," she says, as if this is the obvious, expected answer.

[out_of_order]

It's a rare expression on her, one bordering shyness somehow, even though he knows Merrin is anything but that. It's almost...cute, in a way. He almost frowns at the stray thought, his attention easily shifting back to her as she replies.

Cal raises both brows then. "So...it's okay for you to worry about me but the other way around." He turns to rummage a hand through the tools in the nearby box again. "Are you saying I can't take care of myself?" he challenges, flicking a look back at her with the slightest quirk of his lips.

[noch]

Okay, it definitely isn't fair for him to turn things back around on her. She scowls and shoots him a withering look—one that only intensifies when he glances back at her with that... tiny smile. She'd almost describe it as a smirk, which isn't an expression she sees often on his face, especially not directed at her. He doesn't usually tease her like this, and it feels... unexpected.

"I am not saying that." It comes out sounding a little petulant even to her own ears. Still scowling, she crosses her arms and leans a hip against the counter, aiming for lofty this time. "Would you like me to? I could also stop worrying about you."

[out_of_order]

It's an interesting shift in dynamic, and her reaction had been amusing. He turns back to her, fiddling with one of the strange Agrii tools. BD-1 looks between the two at this new development.

"Could you?" That question isn't so pointed as Cal has to wonder then how easy it is to stop worrying about a person. A chuckle slips from him at Merrin's scowl, and he coughs into a fist as he tries to school his own expression into something more serious. It's not really happening. "It's only natural to worry about people you care about. Or maybe worry isn't exactly the word. Even knowing people can take care of themselves, we can still be concerned. Happens with Jedi. Maybe even with Nightsisters." And things happen, especially here, that turn out to be beyond their ability to anticipate.

[noch]

Could you? It isn't a pointed question, but it still somehow feels that way to her, because of course the answer is no. She couldn't. Especially not Cal. And it might be the truth, but it's a truth that runs deeper, like roots beneath the earth, down to the very core of her, where she's most vulnerable.

Because she hasn't really cared for anyone since her sisters. Ilyana. She never really expected to again, but here she is anyway, one Jedi survivor lodged firmly in her heart without her ever really noticing until it was too late.

And he completely called her bluff. Finds it kind of funny, even. Maybe she'll rip out some of his hair for a voodoo doll... her eyes narrow like she's genuinely considering it. "Did the Jedi not teach you when to be quiet?" she chastises, but there's no real heat to it.

[out_of_order]

Cal bites back another grin at her response, his expression smoothing out as he turns to shift his attention from her and let her have her breathing space.

"You know I mean it though. If you can't find anyone else to go with you, I will. Maybe knowing what to expect will make it easier to be ready for. Or at least having someone there to ground me."

Or maybe they'd help ground each other. He wasn't sure how the crystals would affect her. Maybe going with someone who didn't possess such sensitive abilities would be better, but he still felt better to make the offer rather than completely passing it off to someone else entirely.

[noch]

It just doesn't seem right, how quickly he can make her ire fade, replacing it with a sort of... softness, somewhere in the vicinity of her heart. Even after what he experienced last time, he's still willing to go with her to the caves, just to look out for her.

Even if she doesn't think she needs it... looking at him now, with his attention turned away from her, she finds that she still wants it anyway. His worry. His care. Everything. And suddenly, it feels like she's been smacked across the face by a blow she really should've seen coming, and she stands there staring at him for a long moment, the silence stretching.

"I told you. You will not go back there," she says finally, looking away. "I won't go alone," she promises instead, before adding a little cheekily, "Does that worry you less?"

[out_of_order]

He steals a glance back at her then, just as she looks away. As she relents, no- perhaps that isn't the correct word. But she does understand his concerns, and even if she recovers with those little snipes he's come to know her well for, Cal can still smile for that.

"It does," he's not afraid to admit. He hadn't thought she'd ignore the potential danger he'd brought up, but all the same, it's nice to have them come to an agreement.

[noch]

An agreement. She's not sure when she started negotiating with him over her own movements, but here they are. She glances back over at him, taking in that small smile on his face, and...

And. Pushes herself away from the counter, her expression shuttering. "You will tell me when it is time to leave." Her tone brokers no room for disagreement. Or agreement either, really, since she steps back and abruptly disappears again, teleporting away in a blink of hazy green ichor.

[out_of_order]

And just like that, she's gone.

Cal closes his mouth, glancing at BD-1, offering the droid a rueful smile at the beeping that follows. He turns back to resume gathering the tools he'll need for the trip. "Yeah, you'd think I'd be used to that by now," he says, shaking his head with a chuckle.