Cipher Nine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stabgremlin) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
revivalproject2020-06-03 03:08 pm
stabgremlin) wrote in revivalproject2020-06-03 03:08 pm
Keyword: Onomatophobia
WHO: Aden Nahain & Open
WHERE: Aden's Calibration Room!
WHAT: Calibrations! Aden will be angry about this eventually.
WHEN: During the calibration event.
WARNINGS: Uhh... Torture, violence, murder, xenophobia, brainwashing, drug use... Will add if more comes up.
On first glance, it looks like a normal boyhood room.
There's a small bed, and equally child-sized furniture like a desk and chair, a shelf with toys on it, and a white kite propped up against a wall.
The sheets on the bed are midnight blue and have clouds and stars on them and there's many soft-looking pillows, and a stuffed animal that's seen better days. Its fur is slightly dirty, and one button eye has fallen off. Though it's obviously been ripped in places, there's obvious clumsy attempts at patching it up with mismatched thread, and there's hairpin stuck onto its head.
There's a glossy button glinting beneath the bed, and further beneath the bed, there's a wooden practice blade.
On the wall above the bed, there's a large model of a space ship clumsily put together.
Looking around more though, there are things that are very out of place.
There's a blaster rifle leaning against a bookshelf, and on the windowsill where sunlight is shining in, and the wind is making sheer white curtains flutter, there's a holo of six young women and one teenage boy- not out of place, but what is out of place is the shiv next to it.
A bottle of pills lays open next to the small trash can by the desk, a few white pills having spilled out.
Looking in the trash can itself, there's a lot of discarded cards that have been crumpled up or torn to pieces- one card is still intact.
Even the toy shelf holds things that are out of place- there's a fragmentation grenade, and a strange metal mask.
There's a lightsaber hilt too, though that's next to the room's occupant- Aden himself, seated on the floor, looking toward the window at the clear skies outside. Somewhere in the room a music box plays, though it's hard to pin down where the sound is coming from.
WHERE: Aden's Calibration Room!
WHAT: Calibrations! Aden will be angry about this eventually.
WHEN: During the calibration event.
WARNINGS: Uhh... Torture, violence, murder, xenophobia, brainwashing, drug use... Will add if more comes up.
On first glance, it looks like a normal boyhood room.
There's a small bed, and equally child-sized furniture like a desk and chair, a shelf with toys on it, and a white kite propped up against a wall.
The sheets on the bed are midnight blue and have clouds and stars on them and there's many soft-looking pillows, and a stuffed animal that's seen better days. Its fur is slightly dirty, and one button eye has fallen off. Though it's obviously been ripped in places, there's obvious clumsy attempts at patching it up with mismatched thread, and there's hairpin stuck onto its head.
There's a glossy button glinting beneath the bed, and further beneath the bed, there's a wooden practice blade.
On the wall above the bed, there's a large model of a space ship clumsily put together.
Looking around more though, there are things that are very out of place.
There's a blaster rifle leaning against a bookshelf, and on the windowsill where sunlight is shining in, and the wind is making sheer white curtains flutter, there's a holo of six young women and one teenage boy- not out of place, but what is out of place is the shiv next to it.
A bottle of pills lays open next to the small trash can by the desk, a few white pills having spilled out.
Looking in the trash can itself, there's a lot of discarded cards that have been crumpled up or torn to pieces- one card is still intact.
Even the toy shelf holds things that are out of place- there's a fragmentation grenade, and a strange metal mask.
There's a lightsaber hilt too, though that's next to the room's occupant- Aden himself, seated on the floor, looking toward the window at the clear skies outside. Somewhere in the room a music box plays, though it's hard to pin down where the sound is coming from.
no subject
"Nice of you to be concerned about my health, but it's a dream anyway, right? I don't think you have to worry," he says, as he scoops the toy up in one hand.
no subject
It was a kitchen- and if the look of the room was anything to go by, it was in the same house as the bedroom. No sullen Chiss man on the floor of the kitchen though, instead there was a child around five years of age with a worn stuffed animal clutched in one hand, and a young woman, similarly freckled and with the same dark blue hair as the child, working on cooking.
"A'kharre! A'kharre! Is mom coming home? And dad? Hey! Are they coming home!"
"Dee! Settle down!" The woman snapped, with exhaustion rather than anger, trying to nudge the child away with a foot.
"But are they! Are they coming home? Hey!"
Sighing deeply, the young woman moved away from what she was doing, crouching down so she could look Aden in the eye, "I don't know. You know how it is. They're busy. Their work is important."
"More important than us?" Aden asked, with a look of genuine concern.
"It's important because of us."
"... They're never here though. It's always you."
"Is that a bad thing? That it's always me?"
Aden hugs his stuffed animal- there's a tear in it, a bit of its stuffing sticking out- "No. I miss them."
"I do too, Dee. Now, go fix Mr. Snuggles up, and dinner will be ready when you're done, alright?"
"Yeah..."
The five-year old, still hugging his stuffed animal, goes and runs out- past his adult self, and a certain someone who just couldn't leave well enough alone.
"... What the fuck," The adult Aden comments, with a look of... Horror? Irritation? Both? Who knows.
no subject
“Well, guess we know what this thing’s name is now,” he finally says, laughing lightly, “‘Mr. Snuggles’, huh?”
He’s really not trying to be mean, exactly. It’s just what he’d want someone to do if they happened to catch sight of anything private of his. Brush it off. Make it not a big deal. Still, the more the thought of it lingers, the more it irritates him. He lets out a sigh, tossing the toy back onto the bed, and turns towards his host.
“So, I’m guessing that was your sister or something?” He raises an eyebrow, shoving his hands into his pockets, “Us big siblings sure have it rough when the parents fall short.”
no subject
But then, it was probably because he was a bad person.
Never mind that.
"It was a hand-me-down. Like most of the other stuff I owned."
Clothes, toys. Most of it still in good condition, though it didn't change the fact that they'd been clothes and toys meant for girls.
"One of them," He answered finally, shrugging his shoulder, "I have six. All older than me."
He didn't like this. Being known. He would have been just fine lurking at the edges of what passed for civilization here. Still, this guy wasn't too blame. He wouldn't take his anger out on him, "Poor thing, right? Still basically just a kid herself and having to lug me around like I was her son instead of her brother."
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That's as close as he can get to touching on the tangled mess of feelings he has about his own situation. Even if he wanted to go dishing his secrets to a stranger, there's no simple way to express them. It'd be a lie to say he's never resented being in this position, especially when it came to the people responsible, but... it wasn't like he stuck with his brother this whole time for no reason at all.
"'Sides, I can't exactly speak for your sis" he adds, throwing a grin back over his shoulder, "But if anyone called me a 'poor thing' over something like that, I'd shank 'em." Hopefully, it sounds like a joke.
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She'd kept him out of trouble, for the most part. At least back then. His trouble-making tendencies hadn't kicked in until much later, when it was way out of her hands. Way out of Aden's too. It was strange, getting a look back at who he'd been.
Himself with an open expression, unguarded.
"She taught me a lot."
Cooking, cleaning, budgeting, mending clothes. Life skills.
Skills he'd taken with him when he'd set out on his own.
The other man's comment about how he'd shank someone over being called a poor thing for something like that made him laugh. There was a hint of that cold, humorless laugh that had become the norm for him, but a bit of genuine amusement too. That was rare.
"Honestly she'd probably kick my ass if she heard me say it. Or if she ever hears that I've so much as thought it..."
How long had it been, since he saw her? Years. If it hadn't been for this, he was sure he'd have forgotten her voice.
"She's probably started her own family by now. Husband, kids. That sort of thing."
They all probably had.
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A shame, but not really a surprise. Relationships were fickle beasts, even between family. Maybe especially then. It was all too easy to take people for granted when you counted on shared blood to always grease the wheels. Not that Chikai ever did that, obviously.
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Not like she'd stopped being his sister, after all, even if they hadn't spoken in quite some time. Family was family, and he missed her sometimes. Not that he could ever go home to the Ascendancy, much as he might want to.
"We don't," He confirmed, with a slightly tired smile, "Her place is in the Chiss Ascendancy. Mine isn't, any more."
And even if he should be able to return, it wasn't like he was the same person who had left. And his sister- all of his sisters- deserved better than what was left of him.
"She's safe where she is though. That's all that really matters."
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Something about the guy's attitude about the whole situation - the easy acceptance he seems to have - rubs Chikai the wrong way, though he can't quite put a finger on why. He decides not to think about it too deeply. It doesn't really matter, probably. Instead he simply continues on with, "My little bro's always bugging me about wanting to tag along, no matter how many times I tell him not yet."
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That was why he was the one who went away. Through training, both Chiss and Imperial, and he became someone who's not the brother who left. They deserved to be around people who hadn't cracked under the pressure. They deserved peace, and the safety of living in the Ascendancy.
He didn't.
And he wasn't suited for peace any more. It was why he hated this place so much- too much peace. And he didn't know what to do with himself.
"Your brother wants to get into your line of work then. Unsuited as he might be right now?"
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He shakes his head a bit, clearing it of the passing thought. That was all just temporary, so it didn't really matter. Once they were together again, Chikai was sure he'd be able to convince his brother that he didn't have to worry about every little thing so much. He heaves an overly dramatic sigh, spreading his hands in a 'what can you do?' gesture. "It's funny, y'know? He'll listen to me about pretty much anything, except when I try to tell him no."
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He spoke from experience there. After all, he'd always been told no when it came to playing in the nearby shipyard. And yet, when everyone who worked there had gone home for the day, that was where he'd been playing, climbing on things not meant to be climbed on, and should he have fallen, he would not have survived.
"Weren't you like that when you were a kid, too?"
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"But he's not a problem child like I was." Sure, from an outside perspective, a kid who wanted to follow his big brother into a life of crime would probably seem like one. Chikai knew better though. "He doesn't do things just to be difficult."