'Funnily strange, Sheriff, that all these misfortune of yours started happening after this town got some new blood in it. In all my years of us being neighboring landowners, there had been not a single act onto you.'
Hensely’s words echoed in his mind. It had for some time now. A suggestion tha...
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'Funnily strange, Sheriff, that all these misfortune of yours started happening after this town got some new blood in it. In all my years of us being neighboring landowners, there had been not a single act onto you.'
Hensely’s words echoed in his mind. It had for some time now. A suggestion that someone was meddling with Jax’s ranch. And in all his thinking on it, his mind kept coming back to one face. One he stared at from across the room, waiting wordlessly for his thoughts on this.
Kob's quiet, working his jaw listening and for some time after, as he leans against the wall with arms crossed and staring at the crackling fireplace. Jax isn't too sure if he's just thinking, pissed at the happenstances or...if what he suspects is true.
A sigh, possible a hint deeper more tired. "Buckthorn's a good man, I don't think he'd go to such efforts."
That doesn't answer the big question here, the unspoken one, please Kob. Did you? Why? Tell me no.
His voice nearly croaks. That face was still raw, open, pleading, and Kob glances over and stills at it as Jax asks again, "One of Hensley's?..."
"..."
"Kob-"
"Jax, please..."
Don't ask me, please, it spoke.
"Who else could it be?...Whole town knows Hensley's willin' to go under the belt, even if he makes stink like roses." A deep frown as the hired cowpoke shifted off the wall and moved to the small table. He picked up his hat, lightly pivoting it by the brim between his hands. A look to the fireplace again, seemingly weighing his words before he looks to Jax again, "There ain't a good reason, not that I found. Been trying to stop it, the meddlin’."
Too blue eyes stared for far too long at the hazel gaze, and there’s a cornerstone of the home built there threatening to collapse and bring the house down. To break and shatter. When there was nothing more said, the sheriff pulled himself away, jaw clenched tight and shoulders so tense they threatened to shake harder than a wild storm’s gales. He got up, pushing from the table and stood for a moment, not knowing what to do or what to ask. So, he paced over to look out the window. His hands fiddling with the braided necklace around his neck and that copper penny with a bullet hole shot clean through it—
‘Penny for your thoughts.’
Jax had said, time and time again.
When Kob would be sitting on his mule or at the bartop of Minnie’s saloon, that deep and cloudy look crossed his face as if something had him trapped in his mind. Passing the coin the man had hit in a contest between them with his second shot, he’d provoke that dust storm, draw it out. Tell me what you’re thinking.
His boots scuffed the wooden floor of his cabin as he stopped in front of where Jakob leaned against the wall, silent and watching. Jax sets the copper on the table and slides it closer with a push of a red-tan finger, his throat too tight to ask, like a noose already been set.
Nothing.
Just a shift of weight and a heavy swallow, averting eyes.
Jax just slowly nods and his shoulders sagged as his voice sounded small and hurt, “Alright…Alright, I won’t ask any more on it. Won’t take a notion. Just…just…”
He cleared his throat, working his jaw, pausing and stuttering, and trying again and again.
“Are we…real?...”
“Or m-meddlesome?”
Kob’s words echoed in the sheriff’s heartbreak.
‘Been trying to stop it, the meddlin’.’
And the former outlaw as he watched the ground crack, that cornerstone give in Jax’s eyes realized in pain:
I scanned a freighter, all laden with loot
Its engines were struggling, and unarmed to boot
I said to me maties, we will take this fine prize
Our Steel Shadows will be its demise
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Run down the freighter and we make it so
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Steel in these Shado...
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I scanned a freighter, all laden with loot
Its engines were struggling, and unarmed to boot
I said to me maties, we will take this fine prize
Our Steel Shadows will be its demise
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Run down the freighter and we make it so
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Steel in these Shadows we roam
We ran for the freighter, our engines were hot
It turned to escape, but jump it did not
An ion blast did cripple its drives
We fell soon upon it, with vibro knives
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Run down the freighter and we make it so
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Steel in these Shadows we roam
We carved up the booty, each got his share
And we told the ship's captain, we would treat him fair
He kept his mouth shut and we let him go
More freighters kept coming down that star road
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Run down the freighter and we make it so
Yo-Ho the Shadows come home
Steel in these Shadows we roam
If a dream was had during sleep Creon wrote it in a journal. As within seconds the memories of those experiences are fleeting, and he ponders analyzing them in understanding his own instinctive subconscious psychology or the Force. He does this while eating citrus fruit, the most bitter in the ma...
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If a dream was had during sleep Creon wrote it in a journal. As within seconds the memories of those experiences are fleeting, and he ponders analyzing them in understanding his own instinctive subconscious psychology or the Force. He does this while eating citrus fruit, the most bitter in the market, and includes the peel. Stretching keeps his body fluid and staves off the stiffness of age slowly by consistent dedication. Each muscle group is addressed with an assured pump of blood to saturate the fibers. He warms up with cardio and pushes recruitment to his core with calisthenics, then showers upon completion. Before breakfast is a concoction comprised of supplements, compiled plant matter compressed into a tar derived from a sacred mountain, and a variety of known herbs and fungi mycelium known to support the body's structure. Progressive overload strength training follows typically with a mace or club that has a weighted core. Wood carved rings held onto a tree by straps are used for acrobatic training. An ice bath follows in a barrel he keeps. He then rests through a walk in Nature seeking the Force and makes practice the abilities he's acquired over his years of study. Lunch is an assortment of dark greens and grains that require boiling water to absorb into an edible texture that hydrates his system upon digestion. Any business leftover from previous days he may address, or to simply nap midday to address the stress of his training. The nap reinvigorates his mind and replenishes the body well enough to have the energy for martial arts training with coaching. Dinner is whatever his wife cooked, or by request of what she'd like to have cooked, or a meal for himself that satiates the appetite to his preference alongside a synthesized protein drink of his own formula. Time with her is given priority before he goes through the hygiene process once again, a routine of stretches, and then returns to sleep once again.
This routine is maintained as a training lifestyle to maintain his prowess in the event it is needed during times of crisis, which has often befallen his Clan over the many years he's spent with them. Thus, he seeks not of his own desire to travel, involve himself in heavy business, find communities outside his home environment, or engage in large scale projects. As with all these things are simply distractions from the role he chose for his life in servitude to the people of his homeland and being prepared and proficient for if harm finds its way, as with shown in history to be an eventuality. It is not his own desire to do this, though he finds enjoyment in the maintenance of his health and potential the body can reach. It is out of fear in the heinous cruelty others in this reality have done out of selfishness, instinctive compulsory ignorance, greed, vengeance, and malice. It’s the anger from those that impose suffering he trains for, awaiting a worthy opponent just as dedicated to push his capabilities beyond its current capacity.
The Mon Calamari diplomats came through an automated door alongside a protocol droid into a room with an extended table and many more chairs than necessary surrounding it. Their glossy eyes scanned the room with a silent and pious look of disapproval. On one end sat Creon alongside his bride Elyo...
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The Mon Calamari diplomats came through an automated door alongside a protocol droid into a room with an extended table and many more chairs than necessary surrounding it. Their glossy eyes scanned the room with a silent and pious look of disapproval. On one end sat Creon alongside his bride Elyon both cloaked similarly in robes traditionally associated with the Jedi.
“Ambassadors, thank you so much for coming,” Elyon said as she stood from her seat. “I am Jedi Knight Elyon de Neverse, and this is my companion Creon.”
Creon stood and bowed, “We are grateful for your considerate compassion in opening negotiations.”
“Yes, we are always intrigued for opportunities of good business. Thank you for hosting us.”
“Please,” Elyon gestured to the chairs across from them. Everyone then made their way back to their respective seats. Elyon then placed a datapad on the table and gently with the Force telekinetically pushed it towards the visiors.
“These are our current logistical output capabilities. Whilst we may not be able to establish a clear exchange rate due to the ever fluctuating galactic inflation, we can offer something more real.”
The datapad showed a holographic display of the planet. “We believe our world’s oceanic environment is compatible with that of your own homeworld. The land-based civilizations stake no claim over underwater territory, and have claimed support for colonization. We also have a detailed outline of discovered oceanic fauna and flora, and-“
A hand from one of the Mon Calamari ambassadors was raised to silence Elyon. “I am sorry. Since you have no standing with the republic exchange, currency rates would have to be established and gauged by supply and demand. We already supply many civilizations across the known regions, and colonial expansion comes at a cost for many generations before any substantial net value returns. There is no profit for either of us unless you accept our rates.”
Creon rose from his chair and paced around in a seething walk to and fro whilst locking eye contact with the Mon Calamari diplomats, "Perhaps you do not understand the brevity of what looms in the depths of the uncharted regions." His hand rose and imagery of the assault on New Tython through the eyes of a young apprentice bearing witness to Muz Ashen carving through Jedi as a one-man army, indoctrinated to behold the atrocity as awe-inspiring by his mentor Jeric Cyrin. That day never left his mind, forever staining his heart on the heinous cruelty of the Dark Brotherhood.
Another wave of memories flooded their minds; Creon's witness to the carnage of the ascendancy and those enslaved by Plagueis. His fight with the collective on Meridian Prime. In witness to the Wrath and the fleet that follows it. The Children of Mortis' attack on Kiast.
"We are those who hold to the ideals of the Jedi standing at the border between them and you. Many lives of good people go wasted in defending the border of what you call "The Unknown Regions". I assure you, it is well known, and we have asked for your aid at a time in need of healing. For if we cannot stand vigilant, you will suffer them too. They take and do not give. They are governed by cartels that have no regard for human decency. Brutish and evil to the measure of historic reverence contesting even the most wicked of tyrants."
Creon's tone went from a low but powerful projection from the diaphragm to one more calm yet underlying fear, "We offer you the seas of our world to inhabit and to help cultivate, telekinetic architects to construct for you all of what makes it home for those who come, and give what business we can with long-term potential in capital. Because whilst yes, we may trade with them, this will become a staple of purchase that will weaken their economy. You will prosper in newfound wealth as what entity I've shown you grows weaker, and we can maintain the advantage of our fixed price and closer shipping distances to ensure our supply outweighs theirs for the sake of our mutual defense."
Both of the Mon Calamari diplomats exchanged looks before looking back to the Jedi and giving a nod of assurance, “In light of new information, please allow us to convene with our hierarchy and they will contact you.”