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| - Paxo: Pax City - Upper Market Here, the city roofing pulls away and the sky may be glimpsed. It is very beautiful here, and a winding stair leads up from the bottom level of the market place to a famous cafe overhead, while tents and splendid buildings enclose some of Paxo's most famous shops. Out in the open air, in the marketplace, there is a lot to buy; in the center of it all is an well pknown store filled with all manner of rugs and carpets to purchase, expensive and cheap in quality, steeply priced and in some cases, a steal. It depends on your knowledge of such things. There is no incense wafting in the air, nothing to get into the rugs and ruin them. There are tapestries on the wall, however, portraying gardens and temples and cathedrals. A young woman, with tan skin and long, layered, black hair, skips through the upper market. She wears a somewhat revealing blouse and skirt and a necklace made from gold and tarnished silver. Her fingernails are well kept and beautified, much like her teeth. She's probably not much older than sixteen or seventeen. She comes to a hault near the sugar snap cart and smiles. Her toe twists against the sand while she flirts with the salesman. A woman watches her from a distance, her gaze uncertain and hesitant as she tracks the girl's movements through the market. She stands half-shadowed by a market stall, fingers twisting at a pendant that hands from her neck by a chain. Her own blouse and skirt are rather less revealing, and despite some effort, she does not look entirely comfortable in them, nor with the hair left loose to blow about her face in the breeze. "Scooped delight, please!" she says, smiling a little. Her eyelashes bat playfully while the salesman gets her snack and scoops it into a cone. She reaches into a pocket and pays for the treat, then lifts it from the salesman's grasp and turns, giving it one firm lick with a pink tongue. Only once the girl has turned away does Briseis move forward, picking her way through the crowds with a soldier's careful steps despite her dress. She moves steadily toward her, attention focused. The young woman gets some of the desert on the tip of her nose. She reaches up with her tongue and nimbly removes some of it, then wipes the rest off with her hand and licks that away, too. Giggling slightly, she looks around and continues eating. Briseis pulls in front of the girl suddenly, although not without a rather clear expression of trepidation and hesitation. "Excuse me," she interrupts. The girl jumps slightly, but settles after a moment. "You scared me!" she admits with a smile. Afterwards she smiles a little and checks her sweet.. still intact! Her eyes travel down to Briseis' necklace, then she smiles. "You've been to Merr Sonn, haven't you!" she observes. "My father told me I couldn't go to colonize it, because I was too young, but I'm going to Alderaan next year!" She twirls her skirt. "I already had an offer to go with a boy," she admits proudly, tilting her chin up happily. Briseis glances down at her necklace, blinking at it for a moment before her hand falls free and drops to her side, leaving the pendant to swing free. "I-- er. Yes. I have been to Merr Sonn," she answers slowly. She studies the girl for a moment, as if baffled as to what exactly to do with her, now that she has her, and it takes nearly a full minute before she remembers to ask, "Are you-- Adara Maut?" A pause and then she adds more quietly, "Are you Haquien's sister?" "Oh, you must be Briseis!" she exclaims. She pulls up her own necklace, revealing it to be a quarter-circle as well, made from tarnished silver. Afterwards she gives the woman a kiss on the cheek, unless she resists, and then another on the otherside, while holding her sweet out to the side. Sticky lips plant against the Captain's skin without a second's warning! "Haquien told me all about you. Is he here? He should be. But shhh," she holds her finger up to her lips. "You might be arrested!" She giggles. Surprise near unto shock writes itself across Bri's features, and for a moment she is stunned speechless, first by recognition and the announcement of her name and then by sticky kisses that press against her cheeks. She lifts a hand to rest light at the girl's elbow until she pulls back, and then drops her gaze to the matching necklace. There is a blinking moment's silence, stretched tight with tense emotion, and then she shakes her head briefly. "He's not," she answers. "I came-- I hoped to speak to your parents?" she requests, and then rushes to add, "And to you, as well." She pulls back, still smiling, but eventually it falters. "Um, well, father is.." she tilts her head, then sighs unhappily. "He doesn't like Haquien anymore. He tried to get us to leave during his last visit and refused to return home. Father was very angry with him and.. and.." she sniffs. "But it's OK. He told me stories about you, and wrote to me, too! He said he'd take me to Coruscant one day and that we could spend the day together, and that you'd be like a sister to me." She giggles and licks her treat again. "You're really pretty. Are you two getting married?" "Yes, I know, but I still need to speak to him," Briseis insists, interrupting before Adara pushes on, and the Guard Captain rocks back slightly, blinking rapidly at the girl before her for a long moment. She swallows before answering politely, "Thank you," accepting compliment in lieu of answering the query. "Please, do you think your parents would see me? It's important." She twists her foot nervously. "I think father would have you arrested.." she trails off, then scratches her cheek. "But you can't be! Please don't go to him, Briseis. Please don't!" She sniffs and pouts sadly. "Arrested--" Briseis looks taken aback at that and breathes out slowly, her expression torn as she looks up from the girl before her and across the marketplace. After a long pause she looks back to her and asks, "And your mother?" She sniffs and looks up again, perhaps giving it some thought. "I think she would meet you, maybe. Father's shift starts in an hour. We can wait and.. and meet mother in the house?" She flings her arms around Briseis and sobs into her shoulder. "But it'd be dangerous!" Briseis draws back, setting her hands on the girl's shoulders to maintain distance between them in the face of what seem rather to the reserved Guard Captain like hysterics. "A great many things are dangerous," she says carefully. "I would like to speak to your mother, please." She sobs again, then wipes her eyes and sniffs until the emotion's passed. "Ok," she laments. He eyes her sweet, then dumps in into a waste bin while heading off through the market. "It's a fifteen minute walk. We'll have to wait.." she sniffs, then guides Briseis on. "I can wait," Briseis murmurs softly, and moves to follow the girl. She adjusts the weight of a bag slung over her shoulder, moving it out of the way of a passerby in the close quarters of the market, and walks onward. The home is upper middle class, and meticulously well cared for. The yard has trimmed plants, and is not in the slightest overgrown. The paint is also new, and the windows perfectly clean. After opening the front door Adara sneaks inside, checking a hat rack, before gesturing Briseis inside. In the living room is a thin, middle-aged woman with short black hair and tan skin. Briseis steps inward uncertainly, and her hands smooth down over her skirt as she pauses, seeking the reassurance of an absent uniform. She straightens and clears her throat slightly, glancing from the woman toward Adara. "Mother this is.. hmm," Adara says. The woman looks up and frowns at Briseis, then says, "Yes? May I help you, dear?" Her frown lifts a moment later. At the aborted introduction, Briseis draws straighter still, her bearing clear military despite her dress. Her gaze fixes on the woman before her for a long moment before she bends forward in a deep bow and responds with crisp clearness, "I am Captain Briseis Karakas, of the Republic Guard. I apologize for any inconvenience or danger I may have brought on your house by coming, although I hope there will be none. I-- bring news. Unfortunate news." A pause, and her gaze lingers on the woman for a moment before she has to clear her throat again, and when she speaks once more her voice is softer, her words less rehearsed. "I wanted to bring it in person." The woman's lower lip trembles slightly and her breathing becomes louder. Her hands fidgit while her gaze levels on Briseis. "Go on," she insists, her tone laced with emotion. Adara twists nervously. The temptation to look away is strong, but Briseis resists. Her gaze remains fixed. She does not fidget, nor does she shift her weight to ease the slight ache of her left leg. Her voice comes evenly as she relates the following: "A week and a half ago, Haquien met a clone named Petrus, also known as Myriad, in battle on a planet called Mustafar. Although-- although we have been unable to find a body, the Jedi have confirmed to me that Haquien was killed in the course of the fight." Save for the one slight pause, there is not so much as a hitch or a tremor in Bri's voice as she says it. It is a speech she has had time to practice. Adara gasps and begins to cry, burying her face in her hands. The woman's jaw clenches and she looks down at her hands. After several moments she looks up at Briseis and says, "Thank you, Captain. You may go." "But mother!" Adara laments through a sob. She travels over to her mother, who frowns at her. "Be quiet," she replies. Briseis remains focused on Haquien's mother rather than his sister, and she presses her lips together for a moment before she nods silently. There is a brief pause, and then she says, "I have-- I do not know if you want them. But I have brought you his medals. I also-- There is to be a memorial. Tomorrow. If you would like to attend." Briseis pauses and then clarifies quietly, "A Jedi memorial." The woman's jaw tightens again while Adara moves back, obviously frightened. "You can keep his traitorous medals and tell the Jedi-filth that bore my son away from me that they can burn in a gizka vat!!" she replies, standing suddenly. "Mother!" Adara announces, only to be responded to with a slap across the mouth. She recoils with a gasp and a tear rolls down her cheek, then she rushes to the door, bawling. Looking back at Briseis, Mrs. Maut says, "Now you get the hell out of here before I call the authorities." Briseis stands straight and motionless for a moment in the wake of this, her face wiped blank of expression. After and extremely brief span of silence, Bri bows again and turns, this time to go. Her step is swift and sharp, sending her skirt snapping around her feet, and she does not look back. Waiting outside, Adara continues to cry and sniffs loudly. When Briseis exits she follows after her, trying to keep up. "Take me with you?" she asks, continuing to cry. "I'll be quiet! I promise! I have enough money for my own place. Just please give me a ride?" Briseis doesn't not respond for several long paces, unable or unwilling to look at the girl until they are well away from the house. Only then does she turn toward Adara, her eyes bright with tears that she will not allow to fall. There is a long span of silence before she asks quietly, "You want to go to Coruscant?" "Yes!" she replies, sniffing again. She pulls out a handerchief and hands it to Briseis, saying, "It's OK, I won't tell anyone if you cry. We'll be like sisters, I promise." She smiles and continues on. "Will you take me, Briseis? Please?" Briseis takes the handkerchief, but does not move to use it. Instead she studies Adara carefully. "How old are you?" she wonders. "Eighteen!" she lies easily, peering up at Briseis through wet eyes. She sniffs again and wipes some tears away, then looks up again. "And what would you do there, at eighteen?" Briseis asks, studying the girl. "I dunno," she replies, looking up pleadingly. "I can work at a restaurant?" she suggests. "Maybe I could apply at the university?" she adds. "You wish to study at the university?" "At a university," she explains. "I've finished prep-school! I had good marks!" "Please take me?" she pleads. Briseis hesitates, and then after a long moment she lowers her head, avoiding the girl's gaze, and shakes her head. "I cannot," she murmurs quietly, her voice thick with regret and uncertainty. "Not right now. She-- surely they will need you. They should not lose another child." Adara's lower lip trembles and she tries to wrap her arms around Briseis again. "But.. but, how will I go to his memorial service!" she asks. "We're sisters! You can't leave me here!" She sniffs and begins to cry again. Briseis staggers backwards, her expression abruptly alarmed at both embrace and tears, and for a long moment she simply stares helplessly at Adara. The young woman looks at her helplessly in return. "I won't.. I won't be a bother," she explains through tears. "You won't have to put up with me, I promise! And I'll buy my own ship and learn how to use it and everything when we get there." Bri's expression softens and her eyes grow dark as she swallows and shakes her head. "I don't think you'd be a bother, Adara. I'm sorry-- I'm sorry. I just cannot be the cause of the loss of another child-- they will /need/ you. Please don't ask it of me. Your parents need you. Perhaps--" She hesitates and then breathes out, closing her eyes as she offers, "Perhaps in six months' time. If you still wish to come." "But.. but just for the memorial?" she volunteers, wrapping her arms around herself. "Please, Briseis? Oh please? I loved him. He took care of me and gave me advice and.. and, oh I miss him! I miss him so much." She wipes a tear away. "Don't tell me I can't go to my own brother's funeral, OK? I loved him just as much as you do!" She cries a little more. Briseis breathes out slowly and then, finally, nods. She straightens a bit more and tilts her head to look down the street. "Yes," she says. "Just for the memorial. But you must come back, after. We can send your parents word once we are well underway." She wipes away her tears and smiles, then tries to wrap her arms around Briseis again with a quick sniff. "Oh, thank you!" she replies happily, and then she begins to move along down the street. "I know a shortcut to the spaceport!" she admits. Briseis allows the hug reluctantly, drawing her arms up to pat an awkward comfort against the girl's back before she turns and shakes her head. "Not the spaceport," she says quietly. "Please. Discretion." A pause, a glance around to get her bearings, and then she instructs softly, "Follow me." "Oh, oh," the girl replies. She quiets and follows along behind Briseis, moving along slowly, letting her lead the way. Briseis is more than happy to keep the silence, and she leads the way through unfamiliar streets and back to the waiting ship.
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