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Thread: The Nine Million Credit Woman

  1. #21
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    "Oh!"

    Ana followed where Li's paw pointed, understanding now what he meant. She stood at the window, eyes fixated on the sun hidden behind a cloud. Reaching out with a finger, she drew a line from the sun and cloud to the sea in the distance.

    "Starship."

    Turning back, she looked at Li, then looked around the room for something she could use to convey her thoughts. Ana whirled around, not finding what she needed, then promptly left the room, looking elsewhere. A container was opened here, a drawer was opened there, until she found a pot full of dry rice. She spread two handfuls over the floor, and frantically began to arrange the grains.

  2. #22
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    Ears flattening in confusion as he watched, the Wah followed Ana about, putting items back in place, and closing drawers behind her in an effort to keep his home neat and tidy. "Careful with those!" he called out as she rummaged through a few containers of spices, then he gasped as she heaped rice upon the floor.

    "Aw, dag, yo!" he found himself slipping back into his bounty hunter persona momentarily. "I harvested that!" His voice came as a whine, watching Ana sully hours of hard work, and ruin perfectly good, organically-grown rice from his very own paddy. Sure, he had more on his ship, but that was store-bought, and therefore less special. But there was no sense in trying to explain further to a madwoman, so he simply stood by and watched as an image too shape.

    Or at least he hoped it would be an image. It had better be, he thought to himself, after wasting a couple quality meals like that.

  3. #23
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    Ana moved quickly, arranging hundreds of grains of rice in a precise way that began to quickly take the shape of a ship. The detail of her rice-shaping was precise and exact, and nothing about the representation appeared crude. Ana finally finished, looking at her handiwork without a glimmer of comprehension in her eyes. She then looked at Li.

    "Starship."

  4. #24
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    Grain by grain, the image began to take shape upon Fook's carefully-crafted wooden floor. At first, it could have been one of many ships, but as details emerged, Fook's humor drained until his black eyes stared at the rendered craft. Corellian frigate. A gunship. The rice making up the outlines of the cannons made the purpose of the craft unmistakable, and he could feel his toe claws trying to bite into the floor while controlling his reaction. Slowly, he looked up from it to Ana, studying her carefully.

    "This was your ship?" he asked, his voice flat as his eyes locked upon hers.

    While a few Corellian ships were still in Imperial circulation, most were run by the Alliance, which meant that Ana was likely Alliance herself. In some ways, that was a relief, as Fook found the Alliance to be far more benign than the Empire, but another question was raised: Why would the Alliance be out this far into the Outer Rim, near a planet he'd been sure to get tagged as basically worthless, and incapable of supporting life? There was no tactical reason for it, and if Ana had jettisoned in an escape pod, what had damaged her ship to necessitate such an action?

    "Alliance?" was his next question. He'd already given away that he was not as low-tech as he appeared, by knowing of starships. But to ask about the Alliance would betray that he knew of galactic politics as well. Deep inside, the Wah prayed he would not be forced to kill his new guest in order to protect his privacy, yet he knew the call for it may arise.

  5. #25
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    "Hm?"

    He asked, she guessed, with a word she didn't understand. Ana's head canted slightly and she shrugged. Rising from the floor, she proceeded to inspect the rest of the Wah's kitchen, quickly finding the source of the sweetened rice cakes.

    "Ah!"

    With an unabashed wide smile, she reached into the jar with each hand to retrieve two treats, nibbling one around the edge, then doing the same with the other so as to keep them both as close to identical shapes as possible. Meanwhile, she tried to piece together missing words in her head to missing memories, and the scant few of each that she held onto in the here and now.

    "What is Alliance?" mouth half-full didn't stop Ana from compounding with another bite.

  6. #26
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    "Hey, you'll spoil your dinner!" Fook found himself echoing his grandmother as he snatched the jar of goodies, and used a length of twine to tie the lid on securely, keeping at least a few sweet snacks safe from his plundering visitor.

    "Alliance," he then brought the conversation back to its focus. "This way."

    Leaving the rice ship where it lay on his floor, the Wah padded over to a low desk, which bore an ink tray, brush rack, and a roll of paper. Seating himself upon a cushion, Fook tipped a bit of water into his ink tray to moisten the ink stone, then unfurled a length of paper, holding it in place with a pair of round, flat stones which had been hand-polished.

    "Your starship flies through the stars," he spoke, selecting a brush and using its tip to mix the ink in his tray to an acceptable opacity before moving it to begin painting. "In those stars, there are two great kingdoms. The Alliance," his brush created a good facsimile of the Alliance symbol, "and the Empire." Crafting the Imperial gear took slightly longer, yet it was clear that the wah had a deft paw with the brush. Pulling the brush back, he leaned away so that Ana could get a clear view.

    "Do you know these symbols? Is one of these your kingdom?" he asked, having shown no deference to either name nor symbol.

  7. #27
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    She watched him paint attentively, eyes unblinking over every stroke he made. When at last the comparative work was completed, the girl inspected both symbols, and mused over the question put before her. After a few moments, she looked up to her host.

    "I don't know these. Which kingdom is Li?"

  8. #28
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    The Wah looked up at Ana, his eyes studying her, and he found truth in her words. She truly had no idea.

    "I am not Alliance, or Empire," he replied. His brush set to work on a third symbol, very unlike the other two. It was a pictoral language character, likely a word, which he framed in a neat square. "I am Wah. My kingdom is very small, and very far away. We do not interact with either the Alliance or the Empire, but I am different. I travel both kingdoms."

    Rinsing his brush out in a cup of water, he then hung it to dry. It was almost too much to make sense of; a strange woman having lost her memory in a crash, now oblivious to her own past. If he didn't know better, Fook could swear he was trapped in some terrible daytime drama holovision program. But he did know better, and still he wasn't sure what to do. Nearly any action he could take would reveal he was not some low-tech farmer, and jeopardize his hideaway in the process. Yet he had to do something, so he racked his brain for an answer.

    "You should probably rest," he spoke. "You were badly injured, and your body needs time to heal. You may not be tired, but it's probably best if you lie down again. Besides, I need to go dig in the garden and come up with dinner. Or cast a few nets and see what's under the surface, out there," he nodded to the sea.

    Immediately it struck him. Words came rushing back, words from his past, from the monks and priests of his homeworld. "Cast a net into the mind, and catch what lurks beneath the surface," he'd heard them say, before using the Force to sooth the minds of those who were troubled, or inconsolable. While he'd never been terribly good at any of the mental arts, back home, it was at least worth a try.

    Standing up, he picked up his cushion and brought it around to where Ana's head had been in her makeshift bed. "Here, lie down. I'm... going to see if I can spark some memories," he said, sitting upon his cushion once more, paws spread to either side of her pillow.

  9. #29
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    "If Li is Wah, then Ana will also be Wah."

    The words coming out of her mouth were finally beginning to represent her thoughts, and she gathered some reassurance that whatever Li had done to help was working. But before she could explore that further, her hirsute host began pleading with her to return to bed.

    "But I feel fine. I can help you."

    But he insisted, and she lay down again, with the promise of doing something to bring her memories back to her. She lay still, wondering what was going to happen next.

  10. #30
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    Among the Wah, there were those who followed the path of the monk, devoting their time and study to the mental and spiritual arts provided by the Force. And then there were those who followed the path of the warrior, training their bodies to fight and endure great hardship without suffering. Fook was of the warrior path, so it was with great trepidation that he looked down at Ana, praying he could remember what he'd learned when he was a teenager.

    "Close your eyes. Focus on yourself. On the last thing you can remember," he said. His warm pawpads pressed against her temples and cheekbones, and he closed his own eyes as well. "Focus on your starship, we'll start from there."

    A month's worth of mandatory cross-training in the mental side of the Force was all he had to call upon. A month's training when he was a teenager with thoughts filled with fighting and girls.

    Deep breath, block out everything else. Focus only on yourself and the one you are working with. He told himself. The Force flows through all things: muscle, memory, emotion, they are all tied. It is simply a matter of navigating the forest.

    Any navigation required a target, so he settled upon that ship, searching for any memory of it which was not from his own experience, desperate for some linking memory which would allow him into Ana's brain, to find where things had gone wrong. To his surprise, it did not take much time to find it, yet what he found was not what he expected. Schematics, technical details, combat capabilities. Was Ana an engineer? Why would she know so much detail about it? No, this was data, not experience, he needed to go deeper. "Were you happy on your ship?" he asked. It was a crude attempt at sparking a related memory - a face, a name, anything, which could lead him on the right path, before the amount of irrelevant information he was receiving would become too much.

  11. #31
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    "I don't know."

    Ana's brow furrowed slightly as she tried to remember her previous surroundings. Despite her efforts, it remained formless. She focused on the emotion instead.

    "I remember being happy, but somewhere else. There were mountains. I had ice cream, no - they called it gelaat."

    Momentarily she had a smile of recollection, but it went away, followed by Ana peeking one eye open.

    "What are you doing to my head?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

  12. #32
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    "I'm trying to find you within it," Fook replied. The pads of this fingertips relaxed, seeming to breathe out the same sigh his lungs expelled, before pressing once more with his next breath.

    "It is something the old masters tried to show me when I was a boy. I'm... not very good at it, but it's worth a try."

    Once more, he pushed his own mind into what he understood of Ana's, his very being mingling with her own, seeking out landmarks of memory from which to begin building a map.

    "...they called it gelaat."

    The replay of words shot up a beacon of light in the far distance of Ana's mind, and Fook rushed toward it. He was not ready for the sensation of what he found. Flavor - true essence of flavor - slammed into him with a jolt, as did texture, temperature, and sight. He could see it before him, then the mountains beyond. It was clear, full, yet he could not look around, instead trapped within one point of reference. Beyond the chemical composition of the gelaat, there was feeling. He had found a true memory.

    A torrent of information began to flood in, pathways opening up to other sensations, other memories, and quickly it became too much. Reeling from it all, Fook extricated himself from Ana's mind without ceremony, and tumbled onto his back as his paws left her face, panting.

    "Woah..." was all he could manage, blinking as he felt the memory fade from his own mind. It wasn't his memory, it didn't belong there, yet an echo remained. "Did... did you see that? Feel that?" he asked, lying on his back as the room spun.

  13. #33
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    The sudden resonant shock of vivid memory and the emotion of each charged moment hit Ana with intense, foreign feelings. She gasped, sitting up suddenly from the spark of reconnection, however brief.

    "There was a little pause..." she whispered, not sure of the meaning of the words she said. Her fingers edged against her lips, tracing the ghost of a feeling of someone else's in a kiss she could swear was real.

  14. #34
    (OOC: Hi, my name's Remi. Mind if I join in?)

    Isaac groaned as the screen flashed red. His shuttle was out of fuel, and he needed to land, now. Scanning the ground beneath him, he saw the skeleton of a house peeking out over the forest green. He grabbed his blaster rifle, strapped a handful of grenades to his belt and came in for an emergency landing. After getting his balance on the walls of the cockpit, he trudged down the ramp and through the empty forest. He couldn't help but chuckle as he thought of Endor's vast forests- Hopefully there weren't any furballs throwing spears at him this time around. And hopefully there were some humans down here.

    Pushing through the branches with mud on his Stormtrooper armor, Isaac went to the house and knocked on the door. He made a mental note to call Command as soon as he was done here.

  15. #35
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    As Ana sat up, Fook brought himself to his footpaws, rubbing one of his temples in an effort to clear his own mind. Monks had told of sharing experiences with others through such telepathy, calling it a blessed union of shared life, yet he had never truly understood what it meant, before. There was a memory in his consciousness, a memory which was not his own, yet there it was, as vivid as elements of his own past, and he stared at Ana, then at his paw, wondering if he'd shared the memory, or if he had stolen it.

    A little pause. An apt thing to say, as it was what both needed. Yet in that pause, Fook found little time to reflect. Large, fuzzy ears pricked, rotating back toward his door as he heard footsteps approach, then a knock at the low entryway.

    Damn it! He cursed himself silently. One stranger was too many, but now a second one? This was too much. There was no way anyone should have been able to find him, no reason for anyone to attempt to land on a planet listed as hazardous and unstable. And to find the only house he was aware of on the entire surface? That reeked of orbital scanning. No, his hideaway was uncovered, he would have to flee after this, and give up his hard-earned solitude.

    Holding a finger to his lips to indicate silence, the wah plucked down a sword which hung from a post, drawing it silently, and holding it beyond the edge of the doorframe as he opened it just a crack to see who could possibly be outside. He was not expecting white plasteel armor, and likely his unwanted visitor was not expecting the speed at which the little furball could move.

    In an instant, the door was flung open, and Fook was outside, toe-to-toe with the newcomer as his blade whipped through the air to jam its point beneath the man's chin, threatening to push further. His beady, black eyes narrowed, Fook snapped. "Weapons! Drop 'em! Now!"

    If a Stormtrooper was here, despite this fellow being rather short for a Stormtrooper, then the odds were high that Ana was Empire herself, which spelled trouble. But worse, if she was Alliance, and this man was hunting her, the compromising of his retreat was far more dangerous than originally expected.

  16. #36
    Isaac was startled at the fuzzy creature's speed. He was even more surprised at its bravery; Shouting commands at an Imperial stormtrooper wasn't something you did if you liked your freedom. Nonetheless, he dropped his rifle and took a step back, admiring the house the creature built itself. He took off his helmet and placed it in the dirt, drawing a short breath as his mind went into negotiation mode. Hopefully, this thing wasn't averse to helping an Imperial get off this planet, especially one that wasn't even on duty.

    "Heyy, I'm not here to hurt anyone", Isaac said, his casual tone masking his nervousness. "You're probably wondering why I'm here. Let me come inside and I'll tell you everything." He paused, wondering if telling it was the smartest decision. Nah, he'd save that for later, provided the creature didn't skin him alive right now. Besides, he was already talking too much. Isaac stood in the grass, waiting to hear its reply.

  17. #37
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    The moment of disorientation passed quickly as sounds picked up from outside. Li rose to investigate, but not before signaling that she should keep quiet. Almost immediately, there was a scuffle. The alien's voice, previously so calm and soothing, now spoke in a sharp, authoritative timbre.

    Quietly, Ana rose to her feet, padding around to a window that might offer her a better vantage of the sudden visitor. Pushing aside the bamboo screen slightly, she frowned in confusion. It was a human like her, but this man wore a strange armor she didn't recognize. However, her frown only deepened when she saw the weapons he lowered to the ground. Who was he?

  18. #38
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    "I think you can explain outside just as good as you can inside," Fook replied. He advance as the trooper backed up, keeping his sword point in threatening range, though his eyes darted here and there to see if there were more troopers lying in wait. If he were in bounty hunter mode, with full gear, he'd have Guan Yu run scans, feed him information overlays to his goggles, but there was no tech, here. Not a single electrical signature anywhere near the small house and its garden, or anywhere else on the planet which he was aware of. It was moments like this in which the Wah cursed himself for not being able to remotely activate any of his gear.

    "Grenades, too," he insisted. Curling his toes over the magazine of the dropped blaster, he pulled it back toward himself, then picked it up to bring to bear on the newcomer, his sword thrust through his belt. Despite his rustic appearance and 4'2" stature, the Wah commanded the weapon with the grip and control of a seasoned veteran.

    "How many of you are there? Don't you know this planet is dangerous?" he demanded more than asked. "Your comms are fried by now, if they weren't before. Electromagnetic interference, so you're not getting off this rock. But that doesn't explain why a Stormtrooper is doing so far from home, which I think is the most important question of all. Since when does the Empire dare to encroach on Hutt space?"

    The comms comment was a lie, but it backed up the warning listed about the planet. The sort of warning which told you that if you landed on it, you were never getting back off. It was how he had protected his privacy thus far.

  19. #39
    Isaac kept his mouth shut, listening to this furry thing bark at him. By the time it stopped talking, he could hardly keep himself from punching it in the face. How dare this creature talk shit about the greatest galactic government to ever exist? He knew the comms weren't fried; He could see that just from looking at the silver cylinder in his belt. That meant he could have his squad down here any minute now. Then this fuzzball would be the one fried. There was a probably a whole race of aliens in these forests, too, easy pickings for the Empire to civilize, or at least trade with. On second thought, the Empire would probably enslave these people, assuming all of them were as primitive as this thing. As much as he disliked aliens, Isaac shuddered at the thought of chaining people up and beating them, like he'd seen the Hutts do on his homeworld. And if there weren't any aliens... Well, Isaac didn't like being Force choked either. He wasn't ready to risk wasting the Empire's time.

    But he was getting ahead of himself. Right now, he had to get his damn gun back. He let his grenades fall to the ground, kicking them into the bushes to show they weren't a threat.

    "Look", he began, putting his ego aside and trying to speak with reason. "We don't want to waste the Empire's time, so let's just talk this through. To answer your question, I'm..." He paused, debating whether it would understand what leave was. He reckoned he'd be better off talking at this creature's level, using simple words to get his point across.

    "I'm taking a break from being a soldier. I want to go home and relax, but my hyperdrive broke and I wound up on your home. I'm not going to hurt you." Isaac chuckled. "Judging by your reaction, it probably wouldn't end well for me." He put his hands in front of him, opening his palms to show his sincerity. "Now put your weapons down and I'll get out of your way. There might even be something in it for you if you help me out, courtesy of the Imperial war machine."

    As Isaac awaited the creature's reply, he went over his options. This creature didn't look like the bartering type, so it wasn't likely he could get some shelter out of him. He was probably better to park his ship near here, where he could observe the creature and take his stuff by way of ion cannon, if he had to.

    (OOC: Hey, are there any other lifeforms on this planet besides your character and Ana?)

  20. #40
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    (OOC: As far as I, and Fook, are aware, there are no other sentient life forms on the planet. There are plenty of animals and wildlife, yes, but basically it's a planet on the Outer Rim in Hutt space, which hadn't been properly surveyed. Someone surveyed it once and classified it as hazardous. Fook found it later, investigated, and updated the hazard warning to basically a full "Do Not Land, Ever," sort of danger, status in the galactic registry, in order to keep it private. It's his little retreat, and he very much likes his privacy there. Li Ho Fook is a bounty hunter, and one of high standing. He's also the only one of his race really out and about in the galaxy, though he's got about 20 aliases he uses. Because they're all him, those who MIGHT recognize him as a Wah (immensely rare unless you've interacted with him before, or follow the happenings of the Bounty Hunters Guild) think that all Wah are completely identical. And, even those who know Fook as a bounty hunter are mostly unaware that he is Force-adept. That's something he keeps on the down-low. He works both sides of the galactic divide, but doesn't really like the Empire much at all, and tends to stick to Alliance and Hutt space, when possible. Hope that info helps! I'll try and put in more info as it becomes relevant, and it makes sense in posts. Fook is basically a 4'2" red panda.)

    "Only thing I want from the Imperial war machine is for it to stick to its side of the galaxy, and leave me the hell alone," Fook spat.

    His ringed tail lashed behind him once, before he could still it. "Taking a break from being a soldier? On leave, or was that just a fancy way of saying you've gone AWOL?" he chuckled. One ear canted back toward his home in an attempt to discern any movement from Ana, yet it was quiet. Thank goodness for that, he told himself.

    Lowering the blaster rifle to hip-fire level, the Wah looked Isaac over. "If your hyperdrive is down, you're in a bad spot, regardless. Ain't no tech on this planet, and I don't recommend radioing for help. Like I said, Hutt space. Never know who you might attract." So Isaac hasn't fallen for the fried comms ruse, but they were truly in Hutt space, and calls for help were often met by less than savory characters. "And seeing as I'd rather not have my home overrun by raiders and the like, I respectfully ask that you bear that in mind while we figure out what to do with you."

    There was a hint of logic that a hyperdrive malfunction had indeed brought Isaac to him. With a navcomputer on the fritz, there was little telling where you would punch out of hyperspace, or when. It could mean that a short trip was made long, or in the completely opposite direction, depending on the malfunction, meaning Isaac might not even know where he truly was in the galaxy. It was the best explanation as to why he was so far from Empire space, at the very least, meaning the likelihood of others being on the surface was low. Of coure, like his own ruse, that could have also been a lie, and he could be after Ana. "Wasn't expecting two visitors on the same day, and all that," he let slip.

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