Hoth: Blood and Ice

There is a bit of grunting, clanging and swearing as Zeno is assisting some specialists in tearing the backup Hyperdrive from the Umbral Vanguard. The ship honestly looks pretty rough at the moment. He hasn't gotten around to repairing the armor damage from the approach. It just has not been on his list of priorities.

Eventually the backup was pulled free with a winch, and set on a cart to be hauled to engineering. It would end up becoming a lovely explosion and Zeno hoped hed get to see it. Some might see it as sacrificing something of value for the victory. He saw it as an opportunity to transform a tool of connection and order into a blast of destruction and chaos to mess with their enemy. Regardless of beliefs and motivations, almost everyone was on board with blowing the tower.

Nudimsu steps off his ship, holding his caf and saw Zeno strapping up that engine he brought up yesterday. Shrugging, he began to approach the man and nodded in greeting. "Bun'rcit ch'ican."

"So, I suppose that's our big sendoff for the day." He sips his caf and stares at it. "Hopefully nobody shoots at it until it reaches the proper destination."

"Bun'rcit ch'ican," he replies with a nod. "I mean, until it's turned into something more explosive, it's a solid and stable piece of machinery. We could take some practice shots before it gets to engineering," Zeno jokes with a light smirk.

"But it is going to light up the daytime sky for a moment. Not much of a joke to be found in that kind of power."

He nodded along to Zeno as he spoke and looked it over. "Well, so long as it gives the enemy a good shake-up when they see it. Be surprised what excessive firepower can do to morale." He looked at it for a moment longer. "Then again, most of them are droids..."

Staring at it for a moment longer, he then turned over to him and stared once more. "I hate to ask you in such a time, but I must ask you to take on a previous role with me, as you did in Alderaan. Would that be a problem?"

"Glad to help out if I can. We won't get out of this without each other after all. What do you request of me?" Zeno replies with a nod of assent.

"Too right." He said with a deep breath and looked at him. "Well, it is rather simple question." He stared at him for a good long moment in silence. Really not saying anything and keeping his face as neutral as he could.

"How...how does one propose to a Sith?"

"Like most things of a personal nature, that varies from Sith to Sith. But I would say confidently and without doubt are good starting positions. In your case I might simply approach it as a conversation with what you believe to be the benefits spelled out. And no self respecting Sith would turn down power, so a kyber crystal rather than an engagement ring might be more... romantic and respected? For me it was all arranged, and before that there were conversations around it with those I shared relationships."

The observations and explanations may not specifically suit Nudimsu's situation, but it was how Zeno understood things.

"But as an example of how messed up it can be, my father basically coerced my mother into marriage. And made her kill her former husband. So, Sith marriage can be wildly different from what one might expect."

He sighed deeply. "Great. Well, I wouldn't know where to look for a kyber crystal, can't rely on a random woman off the street to help or advise me, either. Bright side is I don't think she has a husband, so less to kill. Just need to prove my value, then..." He thought. "Well, she knows I'm a great pilot and I bring in a decent income. Though, neither is good in establishing power."

He shrugs. "Then again, she is not like any Sith I've met before. Then again, neither are you."

"Most Sith are not like most Sith once you get to know them. They're a more individualistic culture, unlike the more common collectivism of other cultures. And they take it to the extreme. I have a bit more collectivist understanding than most sith because of my military family," he says in introspective observation.

"Conformity is a double edged blade for me. I like the sense of belonging to a unit but hate the idea of not being able to do my own thing. I suspect she's not too different from me in that aspect. So my strongest inkling would be to converse about it with her. She might not even like the institution itself but likes the idea of being a partner to you indefinitely. A marriage won't have political ramifications for her and you like it did for me and Ziandra."

He begins to nod. "Chiss often do marriage to establish until Houses, I believe I said that before. So, the political ramifications I grasp. Suppose the only purpose of actually doing it that way would be some sort of legal measure within the Empire."

Nudimsu nods at that. "Can't say it hardly matters right now, either. Or she cares...maybe she does. Maybe her family cares...I actually don't think I ever asked her about her family before. Nor has she asked about mine, either. Not like mine matter anymore, really..." He gives a long thought into this while he watches the hyperdrive gets pulled out.

"Yeah, this sounds more like a discussion rather than a surprise proposal to me. A lot of moving parts with a shortage of awareness of each other's views and expectations for marriage."

"I see." He nods again. "I must establish what I want with her, and she me. I think we did a few weeks back, which sort of pushed my thoughts to this conclusion." He shook his head. "Just when I thought I had grasped everything with relationships, I come to find out I've barely scratched the surface. Could have put her in a awkward position. Even made a move against her own. Or maybe she wanted to be the one to do it, and doing that would have ruined it"

He continues to nod, placing his hand to his chin and stroked it a little. "All very real possibilities in this scenario. Could have made a mistake; she's deal with enough from me in that regard. Reminding to compliment her if she changed her hair, or remembering that the event of us formally committing to each other is required to be celebrated annually. Even not telling everyone because I feared I would be a liability. Many mistakes in this relationship...I am truly lucky she forgives me for them."

"That's because the mistakes don't matter when she observes you learning from each one. If you had a ship that always corrected course by itself so you never ended up in the wrong location, would you ever want to let go of that ship? That's something most folks never bother doing because they don't understand being 'we' and not just 'me'. Too many are content with repeating their mistakes, the same way, over and over, like insane people."

"I have come to appreciate analogies a little bit more. Still think they somewhat pointless, but mental images often do help the proper sentiment, even if they take more time to explain." He nods. "The visualization did help in this instance, though, especially with how long it took me to get the Turtle to move how I wanted her to." He listened on and nodded in agreement to the rest of it.

"Just like Layne, then." He nods. "The 'only me' and the repeated mistakes. Though, I do spend my time correcting and learning from my mistakes, rather than pick at the old wounds to keep them fresh and visable, which makes them a constant reminder of what caused the suffering."

Nudimsu nods. "See, a useful analogy. Rather short one too."

"Indeed. I figured the ship analogy would be appreciated more by a captain. Certainly better than one about weeding a garden or building a house," he says with a smirk.

"And Layne is a different case. She grew up having to take care of herself. It's probably harder to let people in to take care of you if that is your baseline. Still not great to repeat mistakes, but understandable to not trust others."

Near where the Turtle was docked, Nudimsu noticed Lana talking to a woman that looked familiar... well as familiar as any human looks to a Chiss. She had dark hair spilling out from her hood while Lana sat on a crate and conversed.

He turned to him and nodded. "Yes...trust should never be given so casually. Even with a past such as her's. Her hesitancy to do so is something I can understand, but if there is one thing I known since I was but a child, it is that one can do so little by themselves in this galaxy. If anything this experience has given me some small sliver of hope that the both the Republic and the Empire will learn this and be more cautious of unseen threats beyond the two of them."

He shakes his head. "Although that sliver is weighed down by the reasoning that as soon as it Eternal Empire is dealt with, they'll be back on each other's heels within a year or two."

He nods. "Well, speak of the Sith Lord herself, there she is...with..no...couldn't be..." Odds were extremly unlikely it was her. Humans tended to blend together after awhile, anyways. "Hmm...care to come with and say hello, Zeno, or has the hyperdrive have your focus?"

"Assuming the war doesn't stall and leave the galaxy in a three front cold war," Zeno points out. After all, if an empire was strong enough to attack two others simultaneously, it probably wasn't going away. "We're probably lucky they didn't just crush the Republic first. The Empire likely would have watched then had to choose to capitulate or die."

He looks over to the two he is looking at and nods. "I can join you. I think I took care of everything I needed to here."

"I hadn't thought of that route...ghastly thought to even consider, but one that should be nonetheless. The last thing we need is another thing to bog down our lives."

He began to walk over to the two women talking to each other with Zeno in tow. His emotions of seeing Lana were there, no doubt, but if she was...no...couldn't be. The odds of this happening were astronomically high. Even...if the odds of seeing everyone he had already seen at this point were about the same.

A headache was already starting to form in his head.

Dapper Dog wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 05, 2022 11:56 am

Zeno follows along and when they get in range Zeno nods in greeting. "Been some time. I hope you have been well with the Turtle. Sorry that I've let this slight pirate attack stop me from saying hello this past month," he directs towards Lana.

Lana stood as they approached and said, "Duke-Consort Thul, Captain, have you met..." She trailed off looking to the woman next to her expectantly.


The woman said, "Zash, just simply Zash."

Nudimsu blinked and looked at Lana, then at Zash...now. She wasn't Zash then, she was...it began with a a T. T was not a Z.

Talos, Talia, Tanya...something like that.

"Zash. Pleasure to meet you. For the first time, apparently. Lana, do you two know each other?" His eyes were rather wide at she looked ar Zash, not really looking at Lana as he spoke to her.. This whole frakking trip was just...meeting people he already had met before. Concidences upon Concidences. Chance encounter upon chance encounter.

It was starting to get hard to hide his emotions at the moment.

"Ah, my old master. Hiw are you Zash? You look very well. So well it seems I may be a bit older than you now," he says with a smirk. Not that it would really make sense to folks that didn't know about much about her.

"I hope you have been well. Helping around on the base then? Did you come in with the group of slaves that were brought back from Junktown?"

There was a long breath. "Wait...she was the one you...mentioned before, back with the goats...with the soul thing, and...she helped me...and she became a slave here. So she wasn't one of the ships...and now...she knows Lana and you. Okay. Okay."

It was clear Nudimsu needed a moment so his brain could be rebooted.

Zash gave him his moment and gave a nod to Zeno at his play on words.