Hoth: Blood and Ice

[Vaylin]

"That's nice of you, what should I see first?" she asked.

[Riss]

"Well let's save that for when you come by, mm? Might be a different thing depending on the time of year. Lotta progress has been made back home since our.. difficulties some years back," she offers with some sincerity, though smiles, "I'm particularly proud of how the Lanar estate is coming along. Killed a couple birds with one stone, refugee's needed a home and I needed people who could do good work so- we helped each other there mm?"

[Vaylin]

“Why have you come here, if you live in luxury. Why waste your time among these savages?” she asked, turning back to the children.

“You are not here to better their lives.”

[Riss]

Crossing her arms Riss looksmover the woman, and then the children. A nugget of truth budding in behind her eyes as she sighs heavily. What's the worst that could happen from being honest with a junkie who won't remember?

"I'm a bad person, and I've done a lot of bad things, but I'm trying to do better. I came here, suggested my friends come here with what ability to fix things we have, to stop, or convince them to stop, from harming those under our protection."

"I.. I am always trying to find more I can do, but I am only one woman even if I am a Countess," she says, and finds some weight leaving her shoulders even as a wisp of cold enters her heart.

[Vaylin]

"Sounds like excuses to me," she said looking at the children. "You have the means but not the will."

[Riss]

"Look, I get it, you think you've got all the grand ideas- and whatever plan you got in your brain might work in your fantasy setting but this is the real deal I'm out here dealing with and doing the best I can with it," she sneers, and huffs with a puff of cold vapor escaping her mouth. "Real easy to say kriff, but you said yourself you have no idea what situation Alderaan is even in let alone what situation I'm in, so kindly? Jump in the pit and have yourself a blast."

[Vaylin]

The woman walked to the edge and looked down into the pit and then jumped.

[Riss]

Riss, despite her reddened face and temper, still rushed forward to stop the woman but was too late- and so simply stood at the edge, "Sorry! I didn't realize you were actually crazy!? Don't get yourself killed cause you're a major-" and this expletive didn't quite get heard over a passing loud mouthed gamorrean.

[Vaylin]

Long moments pass and then Riss sees the woman jump back out of the pit, unscathed. She looked over the edge, “They must have underground pens for the beasts. At least the savages have a form of entertainment.”

[Riss]

"W-wha-.. y-you.." she takes a step back from the edge after Vaylin reappeared, half a stumble in her bewilderment. Hand raised onto her own chest to feel her heart beat, "Kriff me you coulda-" she shakes her head, "okay.. forcey crazy lady, gotcha," she chuckles through awkward panicked breaths as she cools down from the moment.

Which only gave way to a few exasperated but warmer chuckles, "Kriff me I might actually be starting to like you a bit- you're weird, and definitely crazy, but you got.." she waves her hand vaguely, "moxy?"

[Vaylin]

She narrowed her eyes and said, "Are you mocking me?"

[Riss]

"A little? But- like only in a friendly banter kinda way, ya know? You uh.. do know right?" she asked, taking that bit of renewed interest in her new favorite odd-duckling.

[Vaylin]

Vaylin crossed her arms and then said, “Friendly mockery, interesting. You are an amusing one, outlander.”

[Riss]

Finding a crate, or something, very near that wasn't immediately being used Riss took a seat to recoup from before, still glued on her crazy forcey friend, "Thanks," flashing a grin, "it's part of my charm," she chuckles shaking her head.

"Anyway.. you know you could just call me Riss, right? You can definitely just call me Riss, instead of," she waves a hand in Vaylin's direction, "whatever weird outsider term you have."

[Vaylin]

She didn’t think that the woman’s name was important to know but she accepted it all the same. She was not terrified, she should be, she didn’t bow and scrape like the soldiers. She acted like her brothers; it was an alien experience.

She casually sculpts a throne out of the snow and sat and regretted the gesture. The cold shot through her in an instant. She smashed the ice throne and said, “Is there room on that crate, Riss.”

[Riss]

Slightly perplexed gaze at the creation of the throne invites a warmish giggle when Vaylin's experience immediately shoots to regret because of the cold. Then came the request, and with beaming smile Riss scooted over just a tad and tapped the space beside her gleefully, "We can make it work," she says chuckling with further delight.

[Vaylin]

The woman sat and then once comfortable said, “Vaylin.”

[Riss]

Leaning against her with a friendly tap of the shoulders, "It's good to meet you, Vaylin. Even if you are a bit weird," she looks to her with a teasing smirk.

[Vaylin]

“You are the weird one,” she responded looking at their shoulders touching.

[Riss]

"Suppose normal would seem weird if you were wei-" she pauses, half-shy smile but not quite, "Sorry, is that too much? I can be forgetful sometimes that others don't like touch as much as I do," she leans off a little, just in case.

[Vaylin]

"Do you have family, out... Riss?" she asked.

[Riss]

"I do, I lost some too," she says soberly. "Back home I still have my little sister and brother, Meiss and Bo respectively. Meiss was always darling but she.. she took the attack on my family hard, and hasn't fully recovered. Bo.. Bo is a bit too much like me for his own good," she laughs warmly, fondly.

"Hir, my elder sister is out in the galaxy somewhere but she.. I guess she needed to finally go out and find herself. Sent a letter home, haven't heard from her since, and.. that's the Lanar family that's left. My mother, father, and older brother, Neas, they're not with us anymore. Course I got others I consider family but-" she shrugs.

"How about you, you have family Vaylin?"

[Vaylin]

“My mother abandoned me, my father is basically dead and all I have are my brothers, twins. But they are more concerned with pleasing father than anything else,” she offered.

“Perfect family.”

[Riss]

"Hard to please a dead man, but- I get that. Mine was always more concerned with building up the family name than.. well," she vaguely gestures with her hand before her. "Whatever the kriff came out of our lives."

"Been around a lot of the galaxy myself, I don't think there are that many perfect families- if they exist."

[Vaylin]

Her mood grew dark, “Father was very demanding of all us… and our mother abandoned us.”

She then brightened quickly and added, “But, there is always a bright side to things.”