Up

[Hobgoblin]

The landing pad on Ossus was monitored, yes, but not completely walled off.

In truth, gating the platform to the Nth degree made little sense. Nearly no spacefaring development covered the planet. If anyone savvy enough to evade the Ossus space patrols intended to ignore the regular traffic path and land beyond the monitored area of the Jedi settlement, few things could stop them. For that reason, getting onto the landing pad wasn't a difficult task for the curious civilian.

It was, perhaps, even easier for the curious Jedi Master.

Hobgoblin sat atop a stack of empty durasteel cargo crates staring into the sky as he sometimes tended to do. No one ever seemed to observe the process of his arrival, either. One minute, the landing pad would be empty except for Alliance customs and flight deck personnel. Between that minute and the next, the Jedi Master would arrive, having already taken a sitting position atop something and peering into the ether.

Hob came and went in his own time. Once, he took up his vigil a little after lunch and stayed until well past dinner. The Alliance operations crew that manned the landing pad had been concerned that day - after all, the Jedi sense for incoming threats was well-known - but when queried as to whether he believed some danger approached, Hob only shook his head in response. The officer in charge that day probed Hob with questions, but the goblin remained mute in the face of all of them except for the last one.

"What are you looking for?" the officer had asked.

Hob replied using only one word.

"Up."

Befuddled, the officer left Hob alone for the remainder of that day. Word spread such that on other days, Hob's appearance became a normal thing. Some even looked upon the goblin's presence as a sign of good luck. After all, if anything went wrong, what better person could one have around than a Jedi Master?

Today, as the Alliance crew filtered back to their stations after morning break, they found Hob once again in his spot. Upon catching sight of him, one of the crew approached, wished him a pleasant day, and left a protein bar next to him. Hob beamed at the thoughtful gesture, but said nothing in response.

As the morning dragged on, the goblin remained right where he was, apparently still searching for up.

[Untaaura Verratoa]

"Daa'au jeelaa'naikaurree ai'arra. Nau'a naan'ei wu'aallee."

Major Verratoa addressed her platoon loadmaster as she and a trio of marines caught sun on a cargo skiff. For now, there was nothing to do but wait. Their expected shipments of injection insulation and spools of data fiber were late in coming from the mother worlds. It would be another hour before the cargo transport made it to Ossus, and without those building materials, their scheduled work order was stalled. She'd already attempted to borrow some from the insufferable assistant foreman Ramastan, but he'd made it abundantly clear that he didn't have enough to spare.

So now she waited. Loitered. Did nothing more than make small talk among her crew. The humans kept their distance, and that was honestly fine to her. She didn't come to the landing pad to make a new friend. A green and black anole darted along the cargo skiff's handrail. Untaaura quickly closed a hand over the lizard, bringing it up to her mouth. At least the local fauna was palatable. She nipped the trailing length of the anole's tail, discarding the gristly and flavorless last third of it with the flick of her finger as she chewed. Untaaura's blue eyes narrowed as she looked up at the cloudless sky, tipping the brim of her Marine's cover low over her eyes to keep the sun's rays to a minimum.

That's when she saw it.

Perhaps it was too dismissive, as it was wearing clothing. Nevertheless, whatever the life form was, it was perched on a cargo pod as if it owned the whole pad.

"Leekta," she called, pushing away from her leaning spot on the skiff. "What arre jyou dojing?"

[Hobgoblin]

The goblin's attention fell from the sky, settling to rest on the horizon as though Untaaura's words had prompted him to measure some new version of the distance he'd been measuring. His head tilted in a way somehow characteristic to a being always looking at the same universe of things everyone else saw, but with a different angle that made far more sense.

A quiet puff of breath expelled itself through Hob's nose. "Answering," he replied.

[Untaaura Verratoa]

The Major's left ear flicked with the sort of irritation that arose when someone said a thing that utterly negated a follow-up. She frowned at the alien. It had elongated ears, much like a Cizerack, but that was where the similarities began and ended.

"Obvjioussljy, but...whjy arre jyou on the crrate?"

[Hobgoblin]

The goblin's hand produced a stick; with it, Hob poked Verratoa in the nose without looking at her. "Not answering you, is Hob. Answering a question. A deep question, posed by a keen mind."

"What is up?"

[Untaaura Verratoa]

The sudden violation of the marine's personal space caused Untaaura to flinch backwards. Her blue eyes glowered as her ears ticked back, and it took no small amount of discipline to resist the urge to snatch the stick from the alien's grasp and break it over her knee.

"What jiss up??" She repeated the question, not getting any less irritated by it. With a flick of an ear, Verratoa glanced above.

"The sskjy. What of jit?"

[Hobgoblin]

The other being's words registered in Hob's large ears, taking a moment to echo themselves around the space so they could be properly heard. Hob's brain then set itself to the task of interpreting the string of vocal utterances into intelligible words and then, upon reaching an interpretation, he reacted.

The goblin's eyes widened to their fullest. Finally turning his attention away from the sky, he stared at the Cizeri who'd thought to ask such a question. His head tilted, slowly angling to an almost-but-not-quite vertical orientation. The stare went on for exactly as long as the goblin needed to fully express his incredulity and not a second longer.

Hob turned to regard his visitor with a series of butt scootches. "And when stand on your head, you do, then what is up?"

[Untaaura Verratoa]

What was this? Some manner of prank? Untaaura felt like she was being mocked. The Marine's jawline tightened as her ears gradually returned to even alignment. She really ought to just walk away. Be done with this farce. But for some reason, she didn't.

"The sskjy jiss sstjill up, jyou arre jusst upssjide down."

[Hobgoblin]

Hob exhaled a puff of breath through his nose. "And if on the side of the planet you are, then does up change? No longer is the sky in the same direction it was, when here you were."