Writer

And here's hoping I typed it in right... PM it to me? Just to be safe? *Writer knows he's a bit weird about things like this... *

Whoa! You're back! I'm here! Do you still have AIM, yah?

FFWM, should we perhaps have Damien and Arai run into one another again coming up shortly? As in, writing up posts as them tonight? EDIT: Considering she's signed off, I guess that's a no. But it should happen soonish, methinks

Or did Arai use shatterpoint on you? o___O @FFWM: *points to SR, accusingly* She started it!

Who said anything about *liking* Dominic? Dom an' Arai are old friends; back when Dom was a Jedi, they trained together, played together, pranked Jedi Masters together... *clears throat* anyway... So put your Kraken away. Even if you *did* send it, Arai would find a shatterpoint somewhere in its makeup which, once properly exploited, would turn the beast back on you. So why don't we leave the choosing to Dominic. Since Melany's PLAYER seems so intent on claiming him whereas Arai's "attracted to" suggests a bit more of a challenge, I might dare to speculate that Arai's chances are slightly higher And the fact that they're old friends sure helps too

Umm, hello? Shatterpoint? She can be VERY persuasive if she wants to be

Didn't get to play with her much before, so I'm bringing her back. Name: Arai Elan Gender: Female Age: 29 Species: Human Occupation: Exiled Jedi Shadow, Mercenary for Hire (to a good cause) Attracted To: “Attracted?” she scoffs. “Who has the time?” Force Talent: Shatterpoint Image: Arai Elan Additional Notes: Arai was exiled for being too impulsive and being too willing to walk the narrow line, to make slight use of Dark Side powers when such use brought her the desired result. Given her ability to see shatterpoints, she can easily tell when such power use would bring the desired result. As an exile, Arai now believes she has been released from the rules and regulations of the Jedi and is freer to accomplish her mission: the destruction of the Dark Side. However, she also recognizes that the regular use of this power is poisoning her ability to return to the Light. To combat this, she spends four hours in meditation daily. So far, it's working, but she fears that it may soon no longer be enough. Eventually, she may need another person to call her on her actions, to snap her out of it. EDIT: Arai is also STALEMATE at present, though in my first post, she'll be rid of the Rusty Bucket. I imagine she may get hooked up with Dominic in the near future... and hopefully make his loyalty to the Found waver more than a little

It didn't take a Jedi to notice that lightsabers were a touchy subject for Dominic; he'd completely ignored that question. But that was the least of Arai's worries. Why was his presence in the Force so faded? It made reading his shatterpoints much more difficult, though thankfully not impossible. He was a bit wary of her. There was something he considered very important that he didn't feel as though he could tell her. More than anything, that resistance made her curious. And so, after weighing her options carefully, she laughed out loud. "Come on, Dom," she said, smiling widely at him. "You turn me down without even hearing what the job is? That's not like you. And besides that, the job is on-planet and I really think you'd enjoy it."

Arai watched him intently as he spoke. There was something he wasn't saying. That she could tell just from his face. Digging just a little deeper told her that his willingness to disclose information on his "religion" hinged upon what sort of relationship she kept with the Jedi. At his farming comment, she laughed softly. "Believe it or not, I've tried it and you're right. Farming would most definitely not suit you. Lots of manual labor left to the farmhands, in spite of all the heavy machinery they like to keep around." She leaned back in her seat, examining him inside and out. Something felt very different about him, muted somehow. Beyond that, his most immediate shatterpoints seemed focused around the "religion" he'd mentioned earlier. But it was too soon to redirect his attention to it. "Any jobs on your immediate horizon?" she asked. "If not, I've got an option for you. Two-merc job. Employer said I could pick whoever I wanted." She smiled faintly, noting a slight shift in his pattern. "Wouldn't mind getting back in touch with you, Dom. One of the things I missed most after you left the Jedi was pranking the Masters with you." Her mind on overdrive, she gauged his internal reaction to that thought and then added, "Though I suppose you might say they had the last laugh on both of us... I think." She looked him up and down, curiously. "Did they take your saber from you when you left?"

Arai smiled faintly and shrugged. "Been a helluva ride, Dom," she answered, glancing down at her appearance. She looked far more like a weathered spacer than a Jedi. Then again, he hardly looked like a Jedi anymore either. But she had heard he'd left at least a few years before she'd been exiled. "Bit of a mercenary these days. What about you? I'd heard you left the Order a while back..."

"What do you mean, you won't take them?" Arai demanded, scowling at the Weequay across from her. "She stabbed a finger in his direction. "No. You pay attention, boy. You gave me a job. You paid me half up front. You are going to pay me the other half, and you're going to take two dead bodies off my hands." The Weequay squirmed. "It complicated." She glared. "Then make it simple." "My employer no want," he squeaked. "Too much... eyes watching. Always seeing. We take and they know. They know we order hit." "Open your eyes, genius," Arai hissed. "They'll know anyway. Get a good slicer, every order can be traced." The Weequay squealed. "It different!" "Take them," Arai said, "or I'll make sure you and your employer experience more pain than you've ever known." "We give money!" the Weequay protested, shoving a credit chip across the table. "Just dump them, okay?" Arai fingered the chip for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed. "Get out." The Weequay needed no further urging, bolting for the door almost before she'd finished. Slowly, Arai raised her right hand to her forehead and massaged. This was a headache she was not looking forward to dealing with. How to dump the bodies of two criminal masterminds without arousing suspicion or drawing attention to herself? "Joy," she murmured, bringing her left hand up to join her right in massaging her head. Then from between her fingers, she caught sight of a vaguely familiar face. Her hands dropped and she looked closer. "Dom," she murmured. Then, louder to catch his attention, breaking into a grin. "Dom! Dominic Travesty!" She waved him over, wondering briefly if he would remember her. "My goodness, it's been ages since I saw you last."

Ever since she'd been exiled, this tiny little ship had served as a home for Arai Elan. Barely more than a cockpit, a bedroom, and a small twelve by eighteen foot space intended for some sort of cargo, worn out almost to the breaking, it actually deserved the name painted haphazardly on the port and starboard sides of the arrowhead cockpit: Rusty Bucket. Artificial gravity was off, though whether it was because Arai flicked the switch and turned it off or whether its connection to the power supply had failed (again) was up for debate. Whatever the cause, Arai was deep in a meditative trance drifting lazily in almost the exact center of the entire ship's mass, and expending only a fraction of her meditative energy to remain so. The ship itself was in a high orbit around Coruscant and there were two body bags strapped to the walls in its tiny cargo room. Her mind drifted back in time almost a full day. She found that it was easier to let go of her darker actions if she replayed them in her mind while fully in the Light Sided meditation and repented. Her peaceful expression twisted just slightly as the memory began... It had begun innocently enough. She sat across from a man whose reputation she'd been told was a bit questionable. His clothes suggested it was more than just dubious. But he had information and she needed it. It would have been easy enough to find and follow his lesser shatterpoints through to the conclusion she wanted. They'd have both left the table happy. "I should have done," she murmured. But she didn't. She saw the fault line as plain as day. It was fast, it was easy, it was ruthless. A darker element deep within her heart mocked her, told her that she was too weak to make use of something so cruel. It dared and she accepted. Her eyes flashed golden briefly before reverting to their natural blue. "Kattra Havia," she said softly. "Pike district. Coronet Noble Apartment number three." He panicked, exactly the response she'd expected. "What? What did you do to her?" The fault line moved just slightly. It was still centered around the woman. "Nothing yet," she answered. "But do you want to risk that?" He'd given her the information. Then, she projected the woman's image into his mind, in pain. He lurched from the table, in tears. With a faint, cruel smirk, Arai rose and returned to her ship. It was such a subtle use of the Dark Side, but nonetheless poisoning to the heart. With great care and deliberation, she took the memory and released it into nothing. The event was still in her mind, but the emotion that had accompanied it had passed. Slowly, Arai unfurled her legs and opened her eyes. Still drifting, she called on the Force to switch the gravity back on. There was a pop and nothing happened. Laughing softly, Arai drifted into the tiny, cramped engine room and got to work at repairs. Again.

Come now, Tysy, do you ever expect me to come up with a character that's anything less than amazing?

Name: Arai Elan Gender: Female Age: 29 Species: Human Occupation: Exiled Jedi Shadow, Mercenary for Hire (to a good cause) Attracted To: “Attracted?” she scoffs. “Who has the time?” Force Talent: Shatterpoint Image: Arai Elan Additional Notes: Arai was exiled for being too impulsive and being too willing to walk the narrow line, to make slight use of Dark Side powers when such use brought her the desired result. Given her ability to see shatterpoints, she can easily tell when such power use would bring the desired result. As an exile, Arai now believes she has been released from the rules and regulations of the Jedi and is freer to accomplish her mission: the destruction of the Dark Side. However, she also recognizes that the regular use of this power is poisoning her ability to return to the Light. To combat this, she spends four hours in meditation daily. So far, it's working, but she fears that it may soon no longer be enough. Eventually, she may need another person to call her on her actions, to snap her out of it.

"Her own language is very different too," Rani said with a faint smile. "She spoke a little of it last night for me. I thought I'd recognized a few words out of Spanish, but when she repeated it slower, they were nothing alike." When Irene tapped her and asked if she was alright, Akeirra stirred only faintly. She concentrated on the words and found that she knew them. "I am... right," she said slowly. Rani put her arm around the alien woman's shoulders. "She told me last night that she's far better at reading English than speaking it," she said. "Provided she passes the entrance exam, her first and most intensive class will be ESL." When Aruko asked who felt ready for the exam, Rani grinned. "I'm ready for anything," she said boldly. She looked over to Akeirra. "Are you ready for the entrance exam?" she asked, speaking slowly and enunciating every word clearly. Akeirra flashed her a faint grin and nodded. "Rready," she agreed.

Rani laughed. "Depends on who you ask. My dad would say with absolute certainty that the answer is yes. My mother would tell you just as vehemently that the answer is no. I myself don't tend to drink it and therefore my best answer is, I haven't a clue." She glanced at Akeirra for a moment and saw that the woman's gaze was still unfocused. Rani looked back to Aruko. "She's been like that ever since we left our room," she said. "Hardly spoken two words together."

Akeirra and Rani found their room with little difficulty. After storing what few belongings they had brought there, they headed down to rejoin the others. They ate together and talked, and Rani easily slipped into the role of translating words her roommate didn't know into smaller, more manageable pieces. Again, Akeirra tried to point out that the Meinari fleet she had mentioned before was not a military body, but contained the whole of Meinari civilization, as they had lost their planet. And this time, she was slightly more successful in getting her point across. The next morning, Rani awoke to find Akeirra already up, sitting on the edge of her bed and staring out the window. Entrance exams weren't for another two hours, but Rani wanted to be sure they got there in plenty of time. Evidently, Akeirra had the same thing in mind. Even after having a bit of breakfast, the two women were ready for the exam almost half an hour before it was scheduled to start. They went together to the room it was said to be in and found the door still locked. Settling in to wait, Rani tried to get Akeirra to talk, but the alien woman seemed more preoccupied with hearing the words of English spoken around them than in replying. With the faintest of sighs, Rani gave up and looked around, hoping to spot some of the other students she and Akeirra had met the day before.

"And to risks!" Dee proclaimed, slapping a hand on the table with a wide grin. After all, hadn't it been risks that had gotten her into this mess in the first place? Sitting around the table with a group such as this one certainly seemed to be a decent "consequence" of her actions. Not to mention, the old folks at Ashwood were an interesting bunch. She caught Arvel's comment to Atrast and turned to find them both staring at the TV screen. She squinted, but the set was too far away, out of Dee's fading eyesight. "War?" she asked sharply. "What does it say?"

Hah! I did say so, didn't I? And then I got busy. Well, I'll give the ol' thread a good boot, see where we land

So... it's been about a month since any of us posted in the main thread. JM, are you still interested in continuing. If you are, I'll post. If not, I'll leave it alone.

For someone shuffled off to bedpan duty, Dee was in a remarkably good mood. And her good mood seemed to improve the moods of most of the old folks she helped. She sang to them, ridiculous songs she'd learned as a child. It struck her as remarkably intriguing that these old people could hum along to most of the songs she picked. "Good voice, honey," one of the old ladies said sweetly. "You should write music. It'd be good." Then, her nose wrinkled up. "Well... by good, I mean..." Dee laughed. "You mean a song in txt-speak can only be mediocre. At best. I hear you. And I agree." The old woman blinked. "With a word like 'mediocre' in your repertoire, I think you may do just fine." "Not for my generation," Dee replied, smiling faintly. "There. You're all set for a while now." "Thank you, dear," the woman said. "Have a good day." And as Dee headed out the door, she heard the woman mutter, "Precious few of them left..." Shrugging it off, Dee went looking for the rest of the kids. She found a few of them in the kitchen. "Hey all," she said cheerily. "How's first day?"

"Well you're not me," Dee answered brightly to the Battleaxe, "and I am so jubilant!" Once Nurse Kimball had explained her options, Dee made a face. "Okay, not so jubilant now. Guess there are advantages to being early... bedpan, I guess." She shuddered a little. "Joy of joys."

But Dee was not there to hear the request over the PA system. Indeed, she was being practically dragged to school by her mother, who was in quite a state of rage, terror, and who knew what else? "Skydiving, Dee?" she protested, exasperated. Dee just grinned. It was the fifth time her mother had asked that, as though she could think of nothing better to ask. Dee herself had a brilliant question her mother could have asked, but she didn't want to encourage cheating like that! "So what, mom!" she said again. "So how do they let a sixteen year old go skydiving?" "Told 'em twenty-one," Dee shot back, grinning. "They didn't ask. No ID check." She shrugged. Then she let out a cry of protest as her mother shoved her roughly toward the school doors. "I'm going to have a talk with them," she said sharply. "You stay in school." She stormed off, but just as Dee took the door handle to open it, she heard her mother call, "Where is the place?" Dee grinned. "Somewhere!" And with that, she darted into the school and into the crowds of children there. Almost immediately, people who knew her crowded around. "Where you been, Dee?" one asked. "Borked!" "Who, me?" Dee asked innocently. "They called you," another said. "To the PO-PO! Where you been anyhow?" With a mischievous grin, Dee answered, "Skydiving." The small crowd murmured collectively, "Nine!" and Dee skipped away toward the office to see just how 'borked' she was. She danced into the office and sang out, "You called for me, the lovely Dee. Well here is me, but not for free!" Giggling a bit, she then asked, "What's up?"

NAME: Destanny Rose Leslie Maria Donovan. No one is quite sure why her parents gave her such a long first name plus three middle names. No one really cares. Everyone just calls her "Dee". GENDER: Female AGE: 16 YEAR AT UNI-HI: Junior LOOKS: Image: Dee UNAPPROVED HOBBY: Etymology. She is particularly fascinated with how language arrived to its present state, but even more than that, the meanings of names interest her to no end. For that reason alone, she's eternally grateful for her parents' mysterious decision to give her four. ATTRACTED TO: Men and men only. Preferably a year or two older than her. BIG, BIG SECRET: Apart from her interest in the origins of words and names and what they mean, Dee is slowly but surely losing her eyesight. Furthermore, she seems to be incapable of paying attention to any one thing (other than her unapproved hobby) for more than a few minutes. This is presumed to be a mental illness and as a result, she is doing somewhat poorly in school. RELIGION/PHILOSOPHY: Her general philosophy about life is that it ought to be lived to the fullest measure possible. For this reason, in light of her impending blindness, she is beginning to take actions most would consider extreme, just for a thrill. She knows that once her eyesight is gone, there won't be much else of this nature that she can do. ULTIMATE DREAM: Who knows? She spends so much time daydreaming about so many things it's difficult to know if she's picked any be-all-end-all "ultimate dream".