revivalproject | open ☾ an arrival

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open ☾ an arrival

WHO: Merrin and YOU
WHERE: All over Temba
WHAT: One (1) very confused space witch makes her debut
WHEN: Right now?
WARNINGS: None yet, but will update if anything comes up!

A. YOU'VE GOTTA BE KITTEN ME

Despite the fact that Merrin is absolutely the type to hold grudges, she's somehow made peace with Voroka and the other mothkittens in spite of the terrible crime against her—at least judging by the fact that she's currently sitting cross-legged in the grass near the library while the kittens nap, lounge, and play in the sunshine around her.

A few bolder ones have already approached her, and she extends her hand towards one of them to let it curiously sniff her fingers. She's learned her lesson from last time, however, and she keeps her talisman, a palm-sized, halfmoon-shaped white rock, gripped tightly in her other hand to prevent another theft. That's the last thing she needs, now or ever.

"Hello, Voroka," she says to the mothkitten, though her voice doesn't sound welcoming so much as stern, like a disappointed parent. "Did you think I would not recognize you?"

B. LIFE'S A BEACH

It takes her a little while to find the path to the beach, but she eventually stumbles across it and—well, her home planet, Dathomir, is essentially a dry, harsh wasteland, and the largest body of water that exists there is a swamp, maybe a pond.

So nothing really prepares her for the sight of the ocean stretching out in front of her. It appears almost infinite to her, and she stands there on the beach for a long time, staring out across the water in wonder, her lips slightly parted. Her gaze keeps darting to the waves lapping against the shore as if she's... contemplating something.

(In fact, she's contemplating putting her feet in the water, though she doesn't know how safe it is, if at all. A lifetime on Dathomir has made her wary of everything, even if it looks harmless.)

C. SURPRISE! AT THE DISCO

After a few days of exploring, Merrin has finally started to get the lay of this place, and so she feels comfortable enough using her magick to teleport around—at least in the town center, where she's most familiarized, whether there are other people around or not.

The only thing that heralds her imminent arrival is a thick green fog that she materializes into, and then she's suddenly there, looking completely unperturbed, like she just stepped off a lift instead of blinking into existence halfway across the city.

D. WILDCARD

Of course, Merrin is still exploring. She can also be found in the hangar, inspecting all of the ships, including exploring her own assigned ship, the First Breath, at the inn, contemplating her food options and wishing she could eat Greez's steak, in the hotel, staking out an empty room (or not?) to claim, or pretty much anywhere else, seriously. Jedi and anyone who can sense Jedi will also be able to sense her—she feels pretty similar, actually, but definitively more... dark. Or sinister.

Or feel free to use any of her TDM prompts, if those speak to you more.

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It's not nearly as heavy as the music Cal had grown fond of when working on Bracca, a more upbeat tune that he wouldn't be surprised to hear at a club or in the background at a bar.

Even with not knowing how long nor where Merrin has traveled with the crew of the Mantis, it's not difficult for Cal to figure what she means. If it's anything like his own experience when he first set out with Cere and Greez, then you never quite knew what to expect wherever you ended up, although the possibility of an Imperial presence was usually high on the list of concerns.

"Yeah, I can understand that. When it's quiet around here, it's quiet." He sets his tool down, lifting up the small metal frame he's been working on. "I guess I don't mind it too much though. But it is kind of strange coming back here after being somewhere else so busy."

"This... Coruscant, yes?" she asks, awkwardly enunciating the unfamiliar word. Someone's already mentioned the name to her, and she'd made a mental note of it—now she makes the natural leap that it must have been the place they'd been to before here. "It is busy?"

As always, she's hungry for any sort of information about worlds outside of Dathomir. So much of the galaxy is unknown to her, much to her dismay.

Now that the welder is off and Cal has set it aside, she approaches him (and BD-1) at the counter he'd been working at, her gaze sweeping over the parts spread out over its surface, though none of them mean anything to her at all. Finally, it lands on that small metal frame in his hands, her eyebrows knitting together with curiosity.

"Yeah," Cal confirms with a nod, glancing at her as he lowers the frame. His lips quirk in a lopsided grin at her question. "Very busy. The entire planet is covered in buildings like one gigantic city. It rises levels and levels up that you can't even see the original surface, however it might have looked. Hey BeeDee, can you bring it up?"

With a hoot, the little droid hops closer, a lens flickering before projecting the holographic image of the city-world. Of course the projection doesn't quite do it justice given the limitation of colors, but the spirals and lines of light along the planet's surface are still quite visible.

"It was the center of the Galactic Republic, and where the Jedi Temple was." Left unspoken but implied: it was home. "Although technically it was still there when we went. This Coruscant we were sent to was some nine hundred years in the past from what we figured out." It had been an overwhelming thing to swallow, and in some ways, it still is.

Seeing Merrin glance at the frame he'd been working on, Cal chuckles a little, seizing on the slight distraction. "I'm working on a portable charge pack for BeeDee. One that can use the power rods that the Agrii have here," he explains.

Her eyes widen at the holoprojection BD-1 brings up, and she realizes the understatement inherent in her question: it's not just busy, but immense, unlike anything she's ever seen before. It's practically unfathomable in comparison to Dathomir, or any of the other planets she briefly visited with Cal and their crew, and she feels a little... awestruck by the sight.

The Jedi Temple—so this is where Cal lived? Where the Jedi learn? How she wishes she could've seen it in person.

She has to practically tear her eyes away from the projection to look over at Cal, then down at BD-1. "So you will not run out of power. That is good." BD-1 trills in reply, making Merrin smile slightly, even though she has no idea what the little droid is saying.

Her attention refocuses on the projection, and she reaches out towards one of the impossibly tall supertowers, her hand passing through the very top of it. "This is your home planet?"

It's a completely reasonable reaction. Cal might have enjoyed it more when they'd first caught a glimpse of it through the cockpit window if he hadn't outright panicked about potentially heading straight into Imperial territory. But even then, it had been strange to come back to a home that wasn't quite.

"...it was. Or at least as much of a home as I'd known," he says. "Heh, it's kind of funny, but this was the most I've ever really explored anywhere outside of the temple itself. When I was still in training, we rarely left the temple grounds."

BD-1 obligingly shifts the map, zooming into the planet itself to show the Jedi temple. Cal had spent as much time as he could in the last few days of the trip just trying to soak in everything that he could, unsure that he'd ever get the chance to do so ever again.

Edited (agh tenses) 2021-04-12 01:53 (UTC)

She's even more intrigued by the close up of the Jedi Temple, and she leans in closer to examine the projection, gaze roving over the stark lines and protruding spires, the blue light reflecting off her eyes. She tries to imagine Cal as a young boy roaming around this building, but it's difficult to picture, since there's so much she doesn't know about the Jedi.

The tone of his voice makes her look up and meet his gaze, considering her next question. He's never refused to answer any of her questions, but that doesn't mean she wants to pry so much that it causes pain, even inadvertently. The past is a delicate subject for both of them.

Finally, she asks, "Your training was difficult?"

For how eager Merrin seems to be in taking in what she can of the temple, Cal wishes he could have shown her in person, although he has to wonder if the Jedi might have had objections. Were the Nightsisters known back then? He can't help but wonder, though he supposes those are answers he won't be able to find out.

Memories of the past will always be bittersweet for the reminders they bring with them, but Cal doesn't shy away from speaking about them. He looks at the temple's projected image, remembering walking those steps, the initial anxiety he'd felt when Master Kenobi had requested they all meet there once he'd spoken with the current Council.

"It was more difficult once I became a padawan," he admits, smiling that half-smile again as he leans against the counter. "I caught on pretty quick with basic training. Under Master Tapal, he'd have me pushing myself to learn how to do things." Those lessons had been painful sometimes, but he can't say they hadn't helped him out in the long-run. He ran his fingers through his hair in that anxious need to do something with his hands, laughing dryly.

"I don't know how many masters had their padawans strung upside-down with their lightsaber several feet out of reach below them. Or had them standing on a platform while he flung a big sphere at you to learn how to deflect it through the Force."

She takes a step to the side, examining the projection of the Temple from another angle, though her gaze keeps straying to Cal, as if to make sure that the bittersweet edge to his smile remains more sweet than bitter.

Master and Padawan. From what she's gleaned from Cal—and even Cere—she's been able to equate it to a mentor and student relationship, though she gets the feeling, based on the way Cal talks about his Master, that it goes beyond just that. Hearing that he was tough on Cal, though... it brings a smile to her face. Tough love is basically the pillar of Dathomirian child rearing.

"That is nothing," she says, amusement lighting up her eyes as she steps away from the holoprojection and leans her hip against the counter. "In order to join the coven, we must dive into the pools underneath our village and subdue the Sleeper, then harvest its flesh for use in our magicks."

Needless to say, the test was literally sink or swim. The Sleeper was an ancient, powerful creature, fully capable of dragging aspiring Nightsisters down into the depths so that they never returned. Luckily, that didn't happen to Merrin, but... it's not for the faint of heart. In her eyes, she'd much rather swing upside down for a bit.

It's more of a sad smile, remembering bygone days. He may have thought at the time that the challenge set before him were too difficult, but he still managed to get through them. Tapal probably knew he'd be able to handle them.

BD-1 lets the image fade out, glancing between the two before settling himself where he stands. He likes hearing about new things, and as Merrin brings up a mysterious creature of some sort, he beeps curiously before looking towards Cal.

The padawan shakes his head, the other side of that lopsided-smile turning upwards. "I am kind of glad that's at least one creature we didn't encounter," he says before adding, "...and I'm glad something like that was never on my training schedule." Not that Jedi need spell components, or have any business wrestling underwater creatures. The thought just makes Cal a bit relieved that there hadn't been any such things on Zeffo or Kashyyyk.

"There are many other creatures you did not encounter," she informs him, though who knows if that's actually encouraging or terrifying? The smile she shoots him could go either way, honestly.

Her gaze sliding away from his, she thinks back on the day she defeated the Sleeper, officially earning her place in the coven. The uncertainty, the terror... and then the triumph, the joy. How happy her sisters were for her success, how relieved she felt at being able to stay. The sense of belonging. And Ilyana...

That's the thing she misses most about the loss. Not just Ilyana, but all her sisters, and the knowing, deep in her bones, that no matter what happened she would always have their support. Their love. She still does, of course, even beyond this world, but there was always a safety in knowing that they would catch her if she fell. They would fight for her, mourn her, avenge her.

With a start, she realizes that she'd let the silence lapse a little too long to be natural, and she shifts her weight, leaning more of it against the edge of the counter. "I am glad that you were able to see your home again, and experience it differently," she says sincerely. She hopes that it... helped, maybe even gave him some closure, in a way.

"Oh, I don't doubt that," Cal laughs, quite glad that his encounters had been limited. Those had been enough to deal with as it was.

As Merrin's thoughts turn inwards he recognizes the look, wondering more about how life had been on Dathomir. There are still things that he doesn't know and the imbalance bothers him a little for how much she's showed to know about him. When she breaks away from her reminiscing a smile flickers across Cal's face at her words. He can't say he wasn't glad about the chance to do so either, although while he'd gotten much out of the visit, he's still unsure overall of what to think of it all.

"Yeah..." is the answer he finally commits to, if not much of a committal in itself. He glances down at the pieces he's yet to put in place on the charger casing he'd been working on, setting things in their approximate positions.

"I'll admit I only got to see a certain side of Dathomir when I was there. What was it like for you before..?" Before Taron Malicos, before whoever had come that had changed everything. He vaguely remembered that confrontation and Merrin's claims, but Cal couldn't fathom why the Jedi would have come out to Dathomir. Even concerns about their strange magick didn't warrant complete obliteration, not to mention the Jedi had their hands full against the Separatists.

Her eyes track the movement of his hands as he arranges the pieces of the... charge pack, as he called it, though she's really only half-watching, her gaze distant.

Before. The memories are as far away from her as they have ever been, over six years in the past, so it's becoming harder and harder to separate the village she lives in now, empty and desperately quiet, with the one she knew before, teeming with her sisters, peaceful. It feels like she's picked at a stray thread, and now that she's pulling on it more and more of her memories unspool for her.

"You did not see our village. But it was built into the side of the mountain, over the pools that the Sleeper called home. My sisters have lived there for generations." She exhales, stopping a little short. Of course, no Nightsisters live there now, not even her—only spirits.

"Before, it was always busy. My sisters would come and go, and bring their stories with them. There are paths, deeper into the mountain, and Ilyana and I—" She falters slightly, emotion lodged in her throat. "We would explore the caves together for hours, until our sisters had to retrieve us for instruction, or mealtime. I was never alone."

That's what most sticks out in her memory. Her time with Ilyana, growing up together, being surrounded by her sisters, having the community of her coven.

It's a feeling Cal can relate to. But he's found that once you started calling up the past, sometimes it's hard to stop it all from bubbling up again. He only has the village of the Nightbrothers to refer to so he's unsure of how the Nightsister village may have looked. Dathomir had been rife with craggy mountains and rock formations so building your home in them only seems fitting. When Merrin pauses, Cal glances at her quietly.

"...you were close." He can almost envy that. The Jedi were strict in their view of attachments, and although they were functionally never alone for the support and ability to approach most anyone as they were able within the Order, the only actual bond he'd started to form had been with his master. Even then there were still strict lines, and Cal hadn't the time that others had to see that develop into anything stronger than teacher and pupil, like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.

Close. She's not sure if he means her sisters or Ilyana specifically, but either way both are true, by different degrees, and she nods in reply, her gaze still fixed on some faraway point in the past. With Ilyana, and the joy of believing they were in their own little world, hidden away in the dark corners of those caves.

"Yes. I thought we would be together forever," she says softly, echoing her words to Cere that of course Cal doesn't remember, "and that nothing would ever change. But I was wrong."

There's an edge of bitterness in her voice, unbidden, but she exhales and releases it, finally turning her head to look at Cal. "Now Dathomir is as you found it, with only the Nightbrothers and the spirits of my sisters."

"I'm sorry that things turned out the way they did," Cal says softly, almost hesitant to meet her gaze again, but he doesn't look away. They'd both been naive in that, that things wouldn't take such drastic turns. Merrin's sisters are gone. The Jedi Order is too.

"You still have a place to return to, but it's not the same without the people that made it home. I guess it works out about the same, not having a place to go back to, and any Jedi that may have survived are just scattered because it would be too dangerous otherwise."

He lifts his head a bit, offering a faint smile. "But it doesn't mean we have to deal with anything alone. I think that's something we just ended up choosing, for whatever reasons. It just takes a push to remind us that." His laugh is brief, the laugh of someone who wishes his experience could have been different. "I just wish that push wasn't so hard, but I guess I really needed it."

It's not the same without them at all. Honestly, most days, Merrin felt exactly like the rest of her sisters, just a specter haunting Dathomir, lost and very, very alone. Even the promise of revenge had started to lose its comfort, and so she'd begun losing her purpose as well as everything else. If Cal hadn't shown up... what would've happened to her?

His laugh gets a smile out of her, at least, wan but understanding. How she wishes both their experiences could've been different. Then again, if that had happened, then it's likely that they wouldn't have ever crossed paths.

"You told me something similar, before. You said that... life has this funny way of forcing you on the path forward anyway." If she remembers his exact words—well, they'd had an impact on her. Had given her that push. "That is why I chose to... to not be alone."

Then, wryly and very knowingly, she adds, "You do not change, Cal Kestis."

The words she repeats certainly sound like something he would have said. Cal shrugs, that crooked smile of his appearing again.

"I changed a little, I think. Otherwise I'd still be trying to hide. But...I'm glad I was able to help you figure out another path." One that wasn't so lonely.

He's also glad he'd been given a better chance to get to know the Nightsister. She has her quirks, certainly, but he finds himself not all that bothered by it despite the demonstration of her abilities. She'd reacted to an intruder and a possible threat, and he's just thankful that there won't be anymore undead Nightsisters coming after him.

Privately, she disagrees a little that he's changed, if only because she remembers their first meeting—even then, he'd tried to make an ally of her instead of an enemy, not that she'd listened. Maybe his purpose has changed, or his confidence or resolve, but the core of him is the same, in her opinion.

"So am I," she says, her smile matching his, but soft around the edges. It really had felt like a path forward, away from her anger, her vengeance, from the ghosts of her sisters. Everything that had been holding her back.

Exhaling, she pushes aside conversations of the past—as always, so fraught for them—for something a little more present. Something that's been weighing on her a little bit, and she'd resolved to ask Cal about. Now seems as good a time as any to bring it up.

"There is something I would ask you," she announces, as a... warning?

Anger and vengeance never make things better. True peace is letting go, but Cal knows it's not easy. He knows he still struggles with some things, but he's since reconciled with others.

He stops fiddling around with components, head tilting in silent query at Merrin and her prompt then.

"Oh? What's on your mind?" he asks, unsure if it's just the particular way she tends to phrase things. At least he doesn't look overly cautious about whatever she wants to say.

It's absolutely the particular ways she tends to phrase things. Apparently tired of watching him fiddle around with the charge pack, she pushes away from the counter and turns so that she can more closely examine the headset.

"The others here." She lifts her head, glancing towards him. "We are... allies?" There's a slight hesitation around the word, because she isn't really sure what else to go with.

But truthfully, she just isn't really sure what to do with all these people period. It's a small group, relatively speaking, but it's still the most amount of strangers she's been around... well, probably ever. Outsiders weren't very welcome on Dathomir, even before the armored warrior arrived, and Cal, Cere, and Greez were the first strangers she'd encountered since Malicos five years earlier.

She really doesn't want to admit it, but she feels out of her depth.

There's not much else he can do without starting up the arc-welder, but Cal doesn't want to do that while he's talking to someone. He looks after Merrin as she wanders back towards the headset, turning towards a wall lined with mostly empty shelves mounted on it to pull out a box of smaller odds and ends. Bringing it back to the counter, he starts to pick through them for the parts he needs.

He probably should have expected the question sooner or later. It makes sense to him that she'd ask about the people here, and he can guess at the underlying meaning. He's been in the same position after all, but unlike Merrin, there wasn't anyone familiar to him here, although he took advantage of that. If they didn't know who he was, then he didn't have to be too paranoid about who to trust, not that it was an easy thing either way.

"Technically. We're all brought here for the same reason, although the attitude towards the situation might differ between people. The Agrii seem to have a broad scope for what they consider 'he-rows' to be."

"He-rows," she repeats quietly, mostly to herself, as if to familiarize herself with the word. Though... it still sounds silly to her. Not only for the spelling, but also for the fact that she doesn't consider herself anything like a hero. A broad scope, indeed.

She turns to look at BD-1 and asks, "You are a he-row as well?" The droid whistles in reply, which Merrin takes to be a yes, and she nods in agreement.

Now she finally does reach out to touch something—the headset, which she picks up and curiously turns over in her hands. "So we must work together?" Again, there's that layer of doubt to her question.

Cal laughs at BD's response. "I think he deserves the title more than I do," he grins, reaching over to give the droid a fond pat on the head.

"I guess you can say we're expected to. And so far I haven't really met anyone who's been brought here that's been adamantly against working together. There have been some who had more interest in trying to find a way to escape, but so far as I know, no one's actively started any trouble."

He doesn't blame Merrin for being dubious about the expectations of everyone working together. But he suspects the Agrii might have ways to ensure that no one tries anything against their interests and the safety of those they'd brought here.

"...there used to be a couple of Imperials," he says. "There was even someone who claimed to be a Sith lord, although he was from a time in our distant past, and could have been mistaken as a Jedi for how he acted. He wasn't at all like Malicos either." Cal had actually come to consider the Chiss as a friend, although he can't help but think that perhaps it's better Altair's no longer here what with the number of Jedi that have recently been brought, especially with their personal experiences with Sith.

It's a little bit of a relief to hear that no one's started any trouble. Honestly, her experience is so... limited, on just Dathomir, that she wasn't sure what to expect with a group of people from many different places, planets, and galaxies. She certainly knows what would happen with a group of Nightsisters and brothers brought to one place, but not much else.

"A... Sith lord?" That's a new one.

She doesn't know too much about the Empire or their Imperials, even now, but she knows enough about how dangerous they are to Cal and Cere—to everyone, really. But she's less concerned about the latter, at the moment. Her eyes narrow as she glances at Cal, her grip on the headphones tightening. "You were in danger?"

He blinks, sensing Merrin's tension. "No, I wasn't. Of course I got a little concerned, but they'd been here longer than I had and one of them said his ultimate loyalty was to his people." Maybe not in such exact words, but Cal felt it was still a dangerous game Thrawn played.

"The Sith...they're the ones who use the dark side of the Force," Cal explains. "Their motivation is power. Malicos wasn't quite at that level but he was probably headed in that direction." It was difficult for Cal to really gauge, given that the only Sith he'd met ~~so far~~ was very unorthodox.

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