Nomi and Vic

Nomi is in one of Rogue Ronto's common areas playing her instrument. She's pretty good. No formal training, but it sounds nice at least.

Vic has been poking at something on his datapad in the common area, but looks like he's not really getting anywhere with it. It looks like he's initially irked about it, but the music looks like it's having a calming effect on him. After listening for a while, he comes over and sits across from Nomi. He doesn't interrupt, but when she's between songs, he asks, "What do you call that instrument? We don't really have anything like that on my planet. Most Skakoans have some pretty strong bias against music that isn't made through synthesizers. However, some of the miners I knew played music a little like that. I think they were Mustafarian."

Nomi looks up and smiles at Vic as he comes over and when he speaks up she rests the instrument across her folded legs and puts one hand over the strings, muting any lingering noise. "It's called a Dotaesivar. It's usually played by someone with more arms. You can get more sound out of a twenty string instrument with more than 10 fingers, but I like the challenge and the range, even if I can't get the same harmonics. I've never heard a Mustafarian play music. To be honest, I've never met anyone from Mustafar. I've heard it's a pretty inhospitable planet for many species. Though I don't think the heat would bother me much."

She cocks her head slightly, her eyes wandering to the side as though she's thinking about something. "Forgive my ignorance. I don't know much about Skako. Would you tell me about it? Do plants grow there in your atmosphere? Do you have bodies of water? I admit it is difficult to wrap my mind around a non-oxygen planet- so many things would be different. But I'd like to have my concepts broadened."

Vic chuckles to himself a bit when Nomi talks about needing more fingers to play the Dotaesivar. Before she has a chance to be offended, he exclaims, "I wish I had more arms too! I was working on getting a mechanical one built onto my armor when my whole life went pear-shaped." Vic laughs harder. "Sorry, my translation program likes to produce bizarre colloquialisms when I use an idiom that doesn't translate well. I have no idea what shape a pear is or why being shaped like that is so dire, but it picked that up somewhere when I wasn't paying attention."

Following the other topic, Vic explains, "I'm not surprised that you don't know much about my planet. Skakoans are typically a very...insular lot, to put it politely. Most of my people don't see much of an upside to leaving the planet, mostly because it's so damnably inconvenient." He kind of grumbles that last part. He looks at you appraisingly. "For example, a Skakoan that wants their 'concepts broadened' does not typically think to look beyond Skako for that; they typically add another topic of scientific study or learn a new aspect of business instead."

He pauses, considering. "You're right, the atmosphere is very different; it's under high pressure as compared to what most life forms desire. We used to have plants and large bodies of liquid on the surface, but Skako has been a city planet for many hundreds of years. There are some natural preserves that are covered in vines like most of my world once was, but, like you suspect, they are very different due to the composition of the atmosphere. Skako looks a lot like Coruscant now, except for the lack of variety in people and having no sky. The atmospheric haze is so thick that instruments couldn't penetrate it to see that there was life there, which caused us to be overlooked by the rest of the galaxy until we became space-capable on our own. It's one reason why we think our culture is so different: we've had so few influences."

Vic looks as if he's about to follow this up and then hesitates. After a moment, he sits up straighter and says, "This is the part where I would ask reciprocal questions in return, but I find myself having difficulty. I hope I do not cause offense, given your people's history with the Confederacy. Are you from Coruscant originally?"

Nomi laughs along with Vic, appearing genuinely happy to have something to laugh about. "I can't say I've ever heard that one either. Having a third arm on your suit wouldn't be the weirdest thing one can see in the galaxy. But why stop at just one? Wouldn't a total of four add a nice balance to the structure?" She pauses. "When you say 'working on', you mean that literally huh? Like you are building a third arm for your suit?" She looks suitably impressed.

Nomi purses her lips as she listens to Vic talk about his home planet. "I think many people feel safer with their own. Deep down, familiarity is comforting. And I have to admit that if I had to wear an atmosphere suit to go off planet I might not want to. Unless, of course I could have four arms." She winks exaggeratedly. "Do you like to travel or are you driven to by circumstance and being shaped like a pear?"

As she listens to his final description of his planet Nomi fingers a small decoration at the hem of her pants which Vic may have taken for a stain previously but which on closer inspection is actually a small embroidered blue-green flower with a long stem. She shrugs when he speaks of offending her. "If I can flat out accuse you of being related to the one member of your race of billions who just happened to do bad things to my people without you being offended I think I should not take offense at your questions. Somi and I grew up on Ryloth. We lived there until we were 14. I don't really miss it. Did you know most of the settlements are underground? The climate is really harsh in many places and where it's beautiful there are large animals that love to eat Twi'leks. It's not... How do I put this? I love my people, but I think there must be some weakness there to have been subjugated so often and to need rescuing. By the Hutts, the Zygerrians, most recently the Separatists." She gives Vic a mock hat tip. "And every time: liberation at the hands of the Jedi. It's one of the reasons I just can't believe what is being said on the HoloNet. So, we are independent today, but who knows what this new regime will mean for Ryloth. The government and social system there needs a shake up, but I don't think that will come from another foreign power stepping into the old master's shoes. Of course, I'm not ready to head in there and lead a revolution, so I can only complain so much without sounding like a hypocrite."

Vic muses to himself, "Hmmm...maybe arms 4 would work better than 3. I'll have to think about that. The ones I've seen use just one extra arm, as two is more than standard Skakoan armor can usually support. But I think I could make it work." He makes a few notes on his datapad, but then realizes he's being rude and puts it away again. "Well, if I do, I'll make sure to rig a harness for you to try them out. You could learn to play with 20 fingers." He seems completely serious.

"Do I like to travel? No, not particularly. My older brother, Ori, is the one who likes to travel. I was dragged along with him on his business and diplomatic trips since I was pretty young as his 'assistant.' It had more to do with needing someone to supervise me at first than any interest on my part, but my brother took it seriously, so I did too. I didn't necessarily dislike it once I got used to it, but it was also kinda hard to imagine going back to Skako full time afterward given the opportunities out here. More recently, it's the shape of things bringing me to travel, as I had thought I'd found a place to settle down for a bit."

Vic shudders a bit at the mention of the large animals that eat people. His interaction with wildlife has been limited. When Nomi finishes, he says, "I don't know what this Galactic Empire means for any of us. I've heard Confederacy pols argue that the Republic would crumble under the weight of its own size and bureaucracy. I've heard others say that this is what they feared about the Republic all along, that it was just a mask for the elite to keep certain people in power powerful. Most who joined the Confederacy did so because they saw the flaws in the Senate's way of governing. I'm not sure any but the greediest, most cynical warmongers saw any of this coming." He makes an all-encompassing gesture to indicate everything that's happened with the war, the Jedi, and the Republic. "But most of this political stuff doesn't make much sense to me. I didn't realize how bad things were until Ori explained it to me. And I don't think even that sunk in until I was fleeing the temple with you lot."

"Now that would be a sight," Nomi says. "A Twi'lek with 4 arms. I must admit, it would be exciting to be able to use the full range of the Dotaesivar. You must be a pretty skilled mechanic to be able to build something like that." She laughs about the idea of paying with four arms.

"What was this enterprise that Master Quiet ruined? Where were you building?" she asks with curiosity.

Vic sighs a bit theatrically. "I prospected for a place to build a mine out on the Outer Rim. I found a site on a planet with unusual geological properties that I expected to be really profitable. It's on a little-known world called Zoph, far from any settlement. I thought it was effectively trackless wilderness, but apparently Master Quiet and the Jedi had some reason they didn't want us digging there. The craziest part is that it's in Separatist controlled space; I can't work out why he'd care, how he knew anyone was there, or what possible reason he could have had to come and mess things up for me. It took a year to put together financing, a good crew, and to build up the infrastructure there." He shakes his head. "I'm not sure I could fix things at this point even if I got it all straightened out, but I really need an answer: Why?"

The look on Nomi's face gets more and more concerned as Vic describes his site and all of his questions. "If there is anything I have learned working for Jedi for the last four years it's that nothing they ever do is for no reason. Those reasons may be a complete mystery to anyone outside of their head though, especially those of us who don't have this sense of the Force. Maybe the location was Force-important for some reason? Vesper was there, right? Did you ask him if he sensed anything while he was there that would make it seem important to a force user?" She purses her lips in thought. "If it is some sort of Force reserve or something like that maybe Master Quiet or someone on the council felt some sort of..." She shrugs. "Disturbance in the Force? I don't know a lot about it. It's a lot of belief in the impossible for me. But I see Efnir move things by thinking about it or Vesper disappear into shadows and Lilikai jump multiple stories without injury and that helps me know that whatever they can sense, it's real. And it's a bit frustrating that I don't get it. Ha."

Vic looks a little incredulous. "I always assumed that the stories about them were overblown somehow or that they really were using some kind of advanced biotech. In all the action, I didn't really think very hard about it, but they really are doing those things. You're telling me that your twin sister does it, but you can't?" Vic stops and revises. "Excuse me. That wasn't nearly so tactlessly put in my own language. I've spent the last year giving orders and speaking in a forward manner. My translator has yet to catch up to the new situation. What I meant to say is that I can see how it might be frustrating, as it clearly isn't just biology. But there must be some biological factor, as for whatever reason, Skakoans for example produce no force users." Vic reaches for his datapad again, but remembers to leave it be before picking it up. "It seems very odd that something so powerful and scrutinized would be so poorly understood." He looks thoughtful again. "Or maybe they DO understand, but just don't want to say."

Vic snaps out of his reverie and asks, "So if you weren't training to be a Jedi, what did you do there? I think I got the short version, that you worked at the temple's docking bay? I saw you fixing Somi's...[he makes a lightsaber swinging gesture] too, but you don't carry tools that I've seen."

Nomi shakes her head, puts the Dotaesivar down on the seat and stands up, pacing a little. "It's biological, or mental or spiritual... who knows?" She waves her arms around a bit showing some agitation. "Somi has never had any biotech implants. And when she first started feeling... whatever it is she can feel... we were like four or five years old. Low-castes on Ryloth scrambling for supper. There is no way that she would have had any implants from a time before we remember. That would have been far beyond our family's means and if it had been some up-caste or crime lord secret scheme she would not have roamed free as we did." She stills and turns to him. "You mentioned that Skakoans are very technological and scientific. Is there any concept of a relationship to something beyond the physical universe? Anything which is accepted as that which can not be explained with a powerful enough microscope?" She drew no more conclusions or theories beyond those questions. "Somi tried to teach me when we were little. I just couldn't grasp it. Like trying to pluck an individual dust mote out of a beam of sunlight- I knew there was something there, but it always just slipped right around my fingers when I tried to get it, so it might as well just not exist."

Nomi takes up pacing again a bit and pats her empty belt where a tool pouch might hang. "It was early. I didn't really have time to tell the Clone Troopers to stop attacking so I could go to my bunk and pack my things. I was lucky I had decided to take my Doteasivar with me that morning when I went to the gardens or I would not have had that either. I did work in the docking bay. I worked as a mechanic. Though I won't claim I was a really good one. It was never something I loved, just something I was asked to do. I did it so that I could stay near Somi. Though I sometimes was sent off world if a mechanic was needed on a ship.  That thing I was working on is her training lightsaber. It's a Jedi weapon. I have not had much experience with them. I'm not sure that I fixed it very well."

Vic looks like he is trying hard to figure out how to answer the religion question. He babbles a bit and you get the impression he hasn't thought a lot about it. "Skakoans think of technology as a part of our nature, and do not understand it as 'unnatural,' but as a part of our species and cultural evolution. Religion is also not distinct from scientific thought; most Skakoans would probably argue that their faith just has not been proven or disproven yet. Ah, maybe this is my scientist perspective talking, trying to square some of the things that my people believe. I've never given it an enormous amount of credence, but Skakoans as a whole are a surprisingly spiritual people. Our religion does posit a higher realm beyond our universe for those who are worthy, but the details might seem very strange to offworlders. I think that the important thing to understand is that Skakoans don't simply believe, they think that the secrets of the Power Mounds are knowable and inevitably provable, as with our own world. So, perhaps these things are accepted without the microscope for now, but they are always seeking to be further understood. Religion is the hypothesis; life is the test." He nods once to himself as if maybe he's just come to this conclusion in talking it out.

Vic looks pained at Nomi's description of her flight. He unconsciously puts his hand on his backpack with his tools to assure himself that it is still there, as if just hearing about someone having that experience made him imagine being parted from them. "I'm glad that you were not forced to leave everything behind. I think about that poor, frightened boy we met on the planet and I wonder if we couldn't have done more for him. At least now he'll have shelter and supplies. He was too scared to leave, but he was brave enough to save our lives with that trap." He shakes is head all of a sudden and jumps topics. "So if not a mechanic, would you rather be a musician then?"

Nomi listens intently, still standing, but not pacing. "So, if life and scientific proof bears out that something is different than what was previously believed about the Power Mounds would this be acceptable or would the person who discovered this become rejectable? I have read about scientists discovering something that goes against previous thought and belief even being jailed or killed. Not of Skakoans doing this, but there's really not much to read about Skako. I'm not questioning the beliefs, mind you. I don't know enough to do that. And people's beliefs are their own, theoretical, hypothetical or faith."

She settles back into the bench and looks at her many-stringed instrument sideways, setting a hand on it. "I'm not sure. You've basically taken over being the mechanic for this group so I'm really not the mechanic. Am I a mechanic?" She shrugs. "Maybe. A musician? Maybe." Her thumb caresses the strings and they vibrate a harmonic response. "I don't know what I want to be, besides useful. I have always wanted to be useful. So maybe that's just where I fit in." She shrugs again. "A shape-changer of a sort. I do what I am needed to do. I am what I need to be. Sister, friend, mechanic, ear, servant, assistant... Whatever."

Vic is tapping on his faceplate in a way that looks like it might be a fill-in for him stroking his chin thinking. "I'm not sure what would happen. I don't even know if I have a good guess. I have a hard time seeing people being jailed over scientific discovery, but some believe very fervently. I think there would be great confusion, like there is in the Republic when this new emperor declared the Jedi were traitors. Overturning established thought is hard. Historically, the closest thing I can think of for Skako is the discovery of life outside our atmosphere. It was so long ago, but the story still exists about the shock in our society when that was discovered. It's worth thinking about, but I fear that it's a bit outside my expertise." You get the impression that Vic isn't uncomfortable with the conversation topic, but with his own ignorance on the subject. He tends to expound gregariously on topics with which he is an expert, but prevaricate on those he isn't.

"Being a shape-changer is certainly being something. You are probably more suited to survive in our current circumstance than anyone else on the ship for that reason. I have a feeling that we'll all wear a lot of hats before we're clear of danger." Vic laughs again. "And there's another colloquialism: what does wearing hats have to do with serving different roles? Is that why I found a big box of hats in my room when I moved in? Wait, why am I asking you? I'd imagine Twi'lek wear even fewer hats than Skakoans do!"

Nomi rolls her eyes. "You're right about there being confusion. I am even confused. Chancellor- um- Emperor Palpatine is a highly respected politician. He was given a lot of power before he decided to take the Emperorship, or maybe the senate gave it to him... It's really unclear. But I highly respect Jedi, I have worked for them for 5 years and I have witnessed their actions. Obviously there are things that the Jedi did that I do not know about. Master Quiet did horrible things to you. Master Mobak had connections to someone who is wanted on a Hutt planet. Though in itself I am not sure that makes you a bad person, considering who and what are the Hutts. My point is, there are things that I don't know about the Jedi, but all in all in my interactions and observations they are trustworthy and noble and fight for things that I agree with. So what does it mean if they apparently try to assassinate the leader of the Senate and then are wiped out by an order from that same leader?" Nomi crosses her legs meditation-style on the bench. "No, I know what it means, the Emperor can not be trusted, but I'm going to take any interactions with Jedi in the future with a grain of salt. With them all being killed, I am not sure how likely that will be anyway,"

Nomi cringes at the "shape-changer" description, despite the fact of having used it herself a moment earlier. "Not a real shape-changer mind you. Not like the Mirror apparently can do."

She laughs about the hats comment. "Actually, I don't wear hats, but it is certainly tradition to wear a head-scarf, a band or something on the head. For female Twi'lek that is. I had a big box of scarves and bands at home that I didn't get to bring with me." She reaches up and touches the scarf wrapped over her head and under her lekku which is a pale pink and rather plain. "Obviously I only got to bring the one with me that I had on at the time. Not even my favorite. Oh well. I have no idea why Master Mobak would have packed a big box of hats. But then, he had so much stuff in here I can't imagine why he stockpiled half of it. Maybe he bought the ship and all of the stuff it in from auction and even he didn't know what was here."

"Honestly, I feel better about the Jedi now that they've split from the Republic, or Empire, or whatever it ends up being. What I've always been taught they are is something akin to an arm of the Republic: diplomat commandos with unbelievable powers. It's almost comforting to find out they're just people like the rest of us, with politics and warts and all. (Warts? Isn't that some sort of human medical condition? It must have a different meaning too.)"

"I've got to say, I don't know very much that I can trust about this guy, Palpatine. It became pretty clear to me a while ago that the information about the Republic leaders in the Confederacy was very slanted with propaganda and that not all of the news about the war we were getting was true. So what I've heard about Palpatine is that he is both a useless bureaucrat and an authoritarian strongman and also both a coward and a warmonger. Sure, maybe all that could be true, but it seems pretty unlikely. It seems more likely that someone like Palpatine is whatever those in power need him to be to fit their message at the time. But now here he is taking control of the Republic and swearing to take vengeance on the Separatist worlds. It makes me really worried for my people. What's going to happen now that he has all this power?"

"Hmm, that's actually a good thought: maybe Master Mobak didn't have this stuff because he wanted it, but because he hadn't gotten rid of it yet. Speaking of which, what do you think is going on with the 'pilot' droid? I get the idea that there may be a longer story there, but I'm a little leery about poking around in it's programming when I don't know what is going on with it. From what I can tell on the surface, someone has made an effort to hide where it came from. I don't want to trip over any booby-traps in its programs if they took extreme measures, at least not with the gear I have right now." Vic gestures to the standard-looking data device he keeps reaching for.

Nomi says, "Whatever he is going to do, I fear it is not going to be good, whether you are or were a Separatist or member of the Republic. I think if he has to lie to get the power then he is not going to be using it for anything good toward anybody. And if this is connected to a Sith plot, from what I understand of them anyone who shows capability and strength is going to have to watch their backs. The Sith seem to me like people who can't stand the idea of anyone being stronger than they are. I doubt that applies only in the ways of the Force."

Nomi twines the end of a lekku through her fingers as she considers 3D6. "You know that he was a separatist droid right? He mentioned that and that his memory had been thoroughly wiped. He is strange. This whole legal disclaimer thing is weird. I do think that he was loyal to Firith. I'm not sure that he will have booby traps in his programming in any malicious type way. Though if you do decide to mess with him I would request that you do it while we are not flying so that we have time to replace him with an actual pilot or get off the ship if you trigger a self-destruct circuit. What type of gear would you want to have?"

Vic shakes his head sadly along with Nomi's political observations. "Well then, I guess we're only going to see more of the same or worse. The whole problem with the Republic is that they couldn't abide the existence of someone else out there doing their own thing. And then the Confederacy proved that it had the same issue. Maybe it's normal for people to become obsessed with the power of whoever you think could be an adversary. Or maybe if these rumors are right, it was the Sith pulling the strings all along. As awful as that idea is, at least it leaves us with the conclusion that this sort of war isn't necessarily inevitable."

"Sure, that's what 3D6 says, but there could be all sorts of programming in there that he doesn't know about. Maybe it makes me a bit on the paranoid side, but I'm pretty leery of that sort of hole in his story. It could be what he says is true, but the evidence suggests that there's much more to it even if that is so. If I had a diagnostic program worth running or..." Vic looks around and then fiddles with a control on his wrist. You realize that he's turned the volume down on his translator when he 'whispers' "or a slicer unit. Having one could be really handy now that we're fugitives. If I'd had one at the temple..." Vic realizes that he's perhaps said more than he'd intended. He turns his volume back up and continues as if he wasn't just suggesting we acquire illegal tech. "Never mind. We'll have to do the best we can for now. I'm not sure how we're going to pay to keep our ship running, let alone get tools like those to satisfy my own curiosity about our droid pilot. Hopefully it's just fine and Master Mobak just got a droid on discount because it was so weird."

Nomi shrugs. "More time with the ship and Gigit, more time with the new Empire and what it does and both will become more clear, I think. I don't know much about Tech like that, but if I see an opportunity, I'll point it out."

She refrains from asking about our possibly misses what he says about the temple, appearing a bit lot in contemplating the future of the universe. After a moment she yawns.

"I enjoyed our conversation" she says with a smile. "I would love to talk again another time, but I think my bed in calling me." She gets up and stretches, her lekku mimicking the muscle stretch in the rest of her body. "See you tomorrow, Vic." Nomi picks up her Dotaesivar and heads to her bunk.