EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Once more, Meesei observed Sabine's attempts at calming her remaining pain. Meesei, with her years of practice, could identify and match the patterns of magicka in Sabine's body almost immediately, so she could easily compare Sabine's attempts to the actual patterns. At first, her recreations of the patterns were noticeably off, but the more she practiced, the closer she came to mimicing her body's magicka. It seemed like the lesson was progressing as well as Meesei had hoped. It would take Sabine a while to successfully numb her pain at first, but the more she practiced, the more quickly she would be able to match her body's patterns. Eventually, she would become too familiar with her own body, so she would need to practice on someone else in order to continue honing her skill, but for the moment, she could make progress by herself.

As Sabine grew closer to matching her created patterns to her natural ones, Rhazii finally started to act up significantly. Of course, he had a good reason, but it interrupted Sabine nonetheless. "You were indeed close, so it is best not to stop now." Meesei said as she stood to her feet. "I will take care of Rhazii. Keep practicing; the lesson is proceeding just as well as I had hoped. The more experience you have, the more quickly you will be able to match the energies of a person's body. Eventually, you will be able to do so for a person's overall patterns almost without effort."

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

Tarentek nodded to Raldel. It would still be at least a few days before he would feel well enough to travel, but once he had recovered, he could take on the role of negotiator for Tel Nof. "Of course, Tel Nof is barely farther than Jerusalem, and they would be able to send forces quickly. It is the smallest of the three cities, but their technology is notably better. They regularly engage in trade with other cities, so as long as we are cordial, we should have no problem simply walking through the front gate. Getting an audience with their leadership may be more difficult, but if they are governed in any way similar to Amman, there should be a method to get a message to someone important."

As for Raldel's next suggestion about finding people to broker a truce between the other two cities, Tarentek was slightly more hesitant, but nevertheless quickly came to a decision. "As for finding these other negotiators you speak of...if there is going to be a mission to find them, I would volunteer for it. Ultimately, it is my idea to even attempt to broker a truce between the two cities, and I would not send your people into danger without being willing to risk my own life as well. Where are these people you are referring to, and what kind of danger to you expect such a task would entail?" He asked.

Star Wars - Scum and Villainy

Sirka stood with her arms crossed, though in more of a curious stance than an aggressive one. She found it odd how his entire demeanor seemed to shift in a second, but then again, if there was one topic that mandalorians just loved to discuss, it was mandalorians. Despite the pretenders on Nar Shaddaa, she had met her share of genuine mandalorians. It was easy to tell by their asking price which ones were real; no mandalorian would be working at a discount. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Follow the guidelines of the Supercommando Codex, abide by the Resol'nare, I know what it takes. Wear the armor, speak the language, defend yourself and family, contribute to the clan, heed Mand'alor's summons, and raise your children the same way. I know all that, but a mandalorian who can't fight isn't a mandalorian. Literally."

With her response, Sirka mostly wanted to show that she had been more interested in the mandalorians than just a passing thought, as she had done actual research into the idea. Of course, she had little knowledge of the specifics of mandalorian society beyond what she had already said, and she certainly didn't speak the language, apart from a few words she could recognize from her research. There had been a phase of her life where she was almost certain she wanted to join them. After living in a society that treated her worse than an animal simply for the caste she was hatched into, joining a group of warriors that cared not about birth or origin, but only merit was an enticing concept. She had pursued that research for a while, but ultimately abandoned the idea. She herself did not even like her own reasons for stopping her pursuit, and she would not admit them to anyone else. More likely, she would just use a more pragmatic excuse if asked, and if she had judged this mandalorian properly, he was definitely going to ask.

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

Tarentek did not know enough about Onyx to know for sure if it was normal for her to suddenly leave in this manner. Though, given that she was wandering alone when she found him, it couldn't be too strange of behavior. Indeed, Raldel did not seem too greatly concerned, so he doubted it was anything terribly important. After Opal left, Tarentek turned back to Raldel to continue.

"Hopefully, your allies can mount a defense in time. Just be sure to warn them of the extent of our enemy's capabilities. I do not know if we could win direct, head on battles against them. Unless our enemy is far outnumbered, we would need clever tactics to give us the advantage. As for the three cities to the northwest, Amman engaged in trade with all of them. We weren't exactly allies, but it was rare for us to have any direct conflict, given our distance from them. Tel Nof is controlled by another group of my race, the Karisskan. We were civil with them, mostly. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are both controlled by different races; they do look somewhat like my people, but neither of them are Karisskan. From all I have heard, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have a complicated, and sometimes violent history with each other. Their people are almost opposites in how they behave, so I agree that it may be difficult to convince them to cooperate. It may not be impossible, but...they would need to believe the danger from this Empire is greater than their animosity for one another. Tel Nof is the smallest of the three cities, but there might actually be a good chance of convincing them to aid in the defense. If...I were to speak to them, the fact that I am Karisskan might give me more credibility." Tarentek explained.

Star Wars - Scum and Villainy

The Mandalorian's response produced a laugh from Sirka. It was somewhat of a hobby of hers to rile up some of the supposed "tough guys" she tended to meet, especially if she felt like having a good fight. A lot of them were more bark than bite, but there were some whose skills were actually somewhat close to their bravado. This one certainly had a lot of bravado, but given that he was being offered this very well paying job as well, she actually had to guess he was more towards the latter. At first, she had just thought he was two-cred merc with an overinflated opinion of himself, but learning that he was mandalorian gave her a bit more context to his words. The armor might have been an indicator for her, had she not seen so many imitation suits on Nar Shaddaa from thugs looking to capitalize on the Mandalorians' reputation. She supposed he could be lying, but again, the fact that he had been invited here suggested otherwise. A fight with him could be interesting; of course, as a teammate, she wouldn't want to do anything lethal, but sparring was fair game. That, or having a competition to see who could kill more hostiles.

It seemed that Dazan had his own input on the matter, though he seemed more genuinely offended than she did. During her time on Lwhekk, she recieved more verbal abuse than most people did in a lifetime, so insults had essentially lost all effectiveness on her. If she picked a fight, it was probably just for the fun of it. "Eh, I wouldn't be too hard on him. This one seems to be a mando to the core; he certainly has the arrogance of one. Still, he's got that Mandalorian honor going for him. I actually like that. Gives them a reason to fight when credits aren't enough. I've thought about joining before; I hear they'll accept anyone who can prove themselves." Sirka commented, shifting her gaze directly to the Mandalorian. "And if you don't think I could prove myself, well, talk is cheap. My actions will speak volumes."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei was patient as Sabine worked on her wound, simply observing how she went about overcoming the problems she was running into. From where she was, she could feel the magic Sabine was using, so she could make observations on her technique. As usual, however, she did not make any comment unless Sabine asked a question specifically, as she felt it was best to allow Sabine to experiment on her own as much as possible. She would learn more about her body through experience than she ever could by Meesei describing it.

Eventually, Sabine did pose a question, to which Meesei had no issue responding. "If you attempt to calm each nerve independently, it will indeed be difficult, but there is an easier way. The problem you are facing is that it is difficult to stabilize one area without interfering with another. It is like trying to create a smooth, flat layer of mud by pressing down on each imperfection in the hopes of flattening it. If you do not use the exact right amount of force, you will only create a larger problem." Meesei explained, though her analogy might not be as strong for someone who had never had to build a home out of mud. "However, if you use the right tool, you can simply scrape over the mud to smooth it all at once. Just the same, you can stabilize all of the nerves at once, you just need to shape your magic into the right tool. Feel what the energies across the rest of your body are like in places where you feel no pain. They are all stable. To numb the pain, you just need to shape your spell to make the energies around the wound match those in the rest of your body. Once you learn to do this, you can numb the pain in only a few moments. Just be aware that the patterns of magicka are different in every person, so you have to shape each spell to the one receiving it. Fortunately, this only takes a few moments once you learn how."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Yeah, I wouldn't really expect a murder mystery to have many, except maybe near the end, depending on how it goes. Speaking of, we should probably skip ahead soon enough.

The Depths of Deception

Shortly after Telmeck finished speaking, Rareth reached up and lightly smacked the end of his muzzle. She gave him a moderately annoyed expression, though the issue she was agitated about did not involve Shiva.

"Telmeck I've told you not to keep that thing on after a fight. Pain's a really important sense and...stuff. You'll just end up hurting yourself more. Promise me you'll go to the med bay when you wake up, or I'll have to put you in more pain later tonight." Rareth warned with a chuckle before turning her head and glancing to Shiva.

"Oh, and her? Yeah, she is, but it's not that bad. She was just charged with betraying the Sovereignty or something." Rareth said somewhat dismissively. Her criminal past was not much of an issue for Rareth, but her brief answer did not do much to actually clarify what happened. While she was not nearly as drunk as Shuo, her current state meant she was not thinking about what Shiva's background actually meant to her. Although, depending on how much she had been drinking, Shiva might not even be worried about what it usually meant to her.

"Personally, I don't know why anyone would want to cut anything off themselves. It's all there for a reason, you know. Tails are great for balance, and other stuff." Rareth added as she reached over to grab her own tail, though she ended up grabbing Telmeck's. Nevertheless, she pulled it close to her chest as she closed her eyes to relax.

Star Wars - Scum and Villainy

Sirka'ith stepped into Bay 5 just as a human male was finishing up yelling at another man being guarded by a Weequay. She did not catch the beginning of the conversation, but by the way he was saying he could not be persuaded to accept the job, Sirka assumed there was some kind of catch. The man's scent was agitated and offended, and the credits did seem too good to be true, so it wouldn't surprise her.

Just as Sirka was about to give her own input, however, another human gave a bit more clarification about his friend's issue; apparently, he just didn't want to work with anyone else. Seeing that he made such an issue out of something so simple made Sirka chuckle, as she never really cared whether or not she worked alone. Having a team usually made a job easier, even if the others were just laser bait.

As Sirka stepped up to the group, she gave a slight grunt. "Hmph, personally, I'm here to get paid. I don't care if I'm working with a team, an army, or a defective protocol droid, with how much you're apparently paying I'll do whatever." She commented before turning her head to the less reasonable of the pair of humans. "If you're afraid of being outclassed by your team, then that's more credits for me."

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

Tarentek noticed Onyx leave, but for the moment, he listened closely to Raldel's explanation of his people's origins. He did not know much of the world beyond their region, or at least, not the world in its current state, so this was the first he heard about these groups of people. Reaching out to them for help did seem like a solid option, but there were concerns in his mind.

"It is good that you already have a relationship with those groups. Certainly, it will make it easier to get their help, but...I do have some concern about leaving the cities of our region to fend for themselves. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and especially Tel Nof are large settlements with many people, much like Amman. Even if we have not always had good relations, I do not wish to see them fall to our enemy. Not to mention that those cities will be great assets to this Empire. Tel Nof used to be a Human military base. I want to warn them, but...I do agree that it would be beyond difficult to convince them to work together. These groups in the continent to the southwest, Africa, as the Humans called it, how much do you know about them. I fear that, to resist the advance of our enemy, we will need the support of large cities with organized militaries capable of using human weapons. I fear anything less will not be enough. And, even if we can find the support we need, Africa is far from here, and it may not even be possible to bring their forces here in time. Your people may need to retreat to the southwest regardless." Tarentek reasoned. He still did not like the thought of leaving such large cities to be conquered, but if Raldel had faith that the groups in Africa would be open to joining in the defense, then they might be a better option.