Hoth: Blood and Ice

Pipka was running late opening his stall this morning. He and Gibzy had been working non-stop all morning to prepare for the extra mouths to feed. Then, when he came into the mess hall, poor Sgt. Dereegs had been swamped with prep work, so he lent his hands to that work too.

But now, he was pouring out Hoth Chocolate and Caf faster than he'd thought possible. It was so busy, he had almost considered forgoing his hug for a mug policy, but these new base residents seemed to appreciate the hug as much as the mug.

Remmington definitely needed some sugar this morning. He stops by the mess and lines up before its his turn and gives Pipka a hug. "Morning Pipka. Looks like things are really busy today."

"Morning Lord Remmington, it is super busy, want to throw on an apron and help out? I've been planning on branching out into franchisee locations."

As he draws away from the hug, Pipka gives Remmington an extra sniff followed by an approving grin.

"Sorry but cooking is not really my forte. I'm more likely to get in the way than be of any help." Remmington comments.

"I'm still kind of amazed that we got so many people out." He takes a sip of cocao as he looks up the mess hall.

"I know, it's great isn't it, so many new friends. I even heard there was a new ship that landed this morning. I was busy with my goats, so I didn't get a chance to go and welcome it."

"It should take them a little bit to get settled in. Hopefully they'll be able to help us along with the base too."

"Yeah, a new Darth showed up." Remmington chuckles a bit at the memory. "It was certainly the memorable event. The galaxy sure is a small place sometimes."

"Oh, it was an old friend of yours then? That's great.

Hey, are they also a Vera Hawke fan? I picked up this Vera Hawke mod for Dejarik a while back. Maybe we could set up a game night and play."

"Sure, I'd like to play sometime. Just give me a shout. Let's exchange Galactic Network IDs."

Going back to Pipka's first question and chuckles. "I guess you can say they are a fan. So this Darth Irrej apparently is Darth Baras' brother and he came all this way looking for his lover who happens to have been an apprentice of Baras. Turns out that the lover is none other can Master Layne. Then with some theatrics, Darth Irrej removed his mask to reveal his scarred face....

.... of Jerri Organa!" He hopes he nailed the delivery.

Pipka nods along, drawing closer to Remmington as he is drawn into the story unfolding.

'Oh no, he's going to be so disappointed to find out Layne is spoken for. he thinks. 'Since Jerri isn't here, I'll have to step in and help Layne let him down gently.'

... Error 404, response not found, initiate reboot sequence. Pipka faints.

From Remmingtons prospective, Pipka is standing there, enthralled as the drama is revealed, up until the last bomb is dropped. There is the sound of a small engine revving up, which is actually his two hearts working frantically to pump enough blood out as adrenaline floods his system and his body must obviously be in danger. Pipka's body suddenly goes limp, but the repulsors in his armor kick in and hold him upright. The shock of this sight causes poor Petunia to faint as well.

"Pipka? Hey, are you still with me?" Remmington checks on the Chandra-Fan to make sure that he isn't having a seizure or something.

He leaves the goat be. It's just a goat.

Pipka comes to a few moments later and shakes his head a bit, "I'm sorry, sometimes my imagination gets away from me. For a second, I thought you said that Jerri Organa, the best author the galaxy has ever known, was here on Hoth, and that he was actually the long lost brother of Darth Baras, holding the title of Darth himself, and had single-handedly broken through the pirate blockade to come and reunite with his soulmate, Master Layne... But that couldn't be what you said."

Remmington nods. "That is what I just said." He readies to catch the Chandra-Fan in case he passes out again.

"The maestro, he's here?" Pipka mutters. Petunia has since recovered and is standing there licking Pipka's face with concern.

"There's so much I want to ask him, I wonder if he likes goats..." He looks up at Remmington with glee in his face, "I could get his signature to go with the unpublished script of 'Vera Falcon in Jedi High'!"

"You can always ask him. I don't know how forth coming he will be. He seems really hung up on Layne, so that may be the only thing on his mind." Remmington comments.

"You're right, Layne must be elated that he heroically broke through to come and see her. I'm sure they'll be inseparable for some time and who am I to get between two reunited soulmates.

I'll just give them some time before I intrude, then I can practice what I want to say."

Remmington smiles. "Sounds like a plan. I'll be cheering for you. Good luck!"

"Hmm... I guess Layne must have been busy with Jedi work. Well the whole star-crossed lovers thing is just a taboo on top of another taboo that Jedi are not supposed to form attachments." He ponders out loud.

"I never understood that. Attachments keep us grounded, and make our weapons really cool. But really, I don't think I could live without the friends I make. They give you something to fight for and someone to fight for you. If I didn't have any friends, I wouldn't have any reason to fight, which would be okay, but I'd also be really sad without friends."

Remmington nods. "I completely agree. Same can be said about family. Like if it came to a choice between saving my friends and family over some strangers, I would save my friends and family first. That's just makes us people. Oh the other side of that train of thought, can you imagine what it would feel like if you had a Jedi cousin or something that chose to save some random person and left you to die?"

"Well, I wouldn't feel much for long, but I would probably be happy the Jedi and their cousin could have each other." Pipka says earnestly. "Oh wait, you said if the Jedi didn't save the cousin, but wouldn't that be how they are supposed to handle it now, ignore the attachment to their family and save others."

Remmington nods. "Yeah, that's the problem. They are supposed to treat everyone the same. Which, I get it is fair and all but it totally ignores the feelings of those close to them."

"Okay, I see where you're going with that. The Jedi need to abandon their attachment to abandoning attachments. I mean, how can they talk about defending life and balance when they reject so much of it?"

"Yeah, its a strange contradiction." Remmington nods.

"Like the whole reason for that de-attachment is so that they don't go rushing off making rash decisions. Is it really the issue of having attachments? Or more just poor judgement or acting rashly?"