I'm good at shooting people, cracking wise, and pretending to know how to fight.

There was a restless energy in Atton's body. He'd choose to blame the island for it, that disturbing vibe against that backdrop of ash. It stayed with him as he left the island and returned to the Temple, hungry for something to do.

But the Republic needed him for something later in the week. So he was stuck here now. He'd tried meditating, but he either got too lost in it, or he drifted so close to the Force itself that it spooked him-- spooked Mical, even, who'd shown up to the highest tower of the Temple with worried eyes, asking invasive questions.

And that left him here. In one of the training chambers, running through the Juyo trials that, more and more, were forms of his own invention. Striking at invisible enemies, over and over again, until his muscles screamed and his mind was blank.

"Oh. It's you."

His lightsabers came to a sudden stop, high in the air. "Asida, right?" he said, without looking over his shoulder. "Mira's Padawan."

And then he twisted around, catching her blade between both of his, his foot kicking out against her abdomen. She slammed down against the floor, eyes wide.

"As they say back on Earth, when you come at the king, you better not miss," Atton drawled. His lightsabers shut off with a snap-hiss. He watched the anger - that small flash of hatred - pass across her face, and something cooled in him. The drawl fell away. "Mira's talent was never at the lightsaber," he said. "Get up."

She scrambled to her feet. "Don't you dare talk about her--"

"Shut up," Atton said flatly. "I can't believe Mical's let you run around the place like this for this long, except I can. Pick up your lightsaber. Come at me again." His tone was clipped. Military-style.

Snap-hiss.

She flew at him. He batted her 'saber aside. He shoved her to the ground. "Again," he said, taking a step back.

And again. And again.

At least this felt useful.

[[ nfb, nfi. ]]

It had been quiet for a few weeks. Training, interspersed with surveillance missions, followed by more training. Atton would've been glad for it, but being here made him ansty a lot of the time, and with the Sith still missing in action--

He was very, very antsy.

Even Mical had noticed, as evidenced by the few, awkward attempts the man had made at starting a conversation. (Ugh.) And... "Oh, here he comes again," Atton muttered, watching Mical stride across the large hall with worry in his eyes. "I'm fine!"

"Atton, I would like to avoid doing this again," Mical said, irritated. "Believe me, I would. But this is not about your intransigent habits, it is an emergency. I just received a distress call. It is Mira, she needs backup, and I would send Visas--"

"But I'm your best bet," Atton said flatly. "I get it, I get it. Give me five minutes to get my gear and to tell Sparkle what's up and I'll be on my way."

With that said, he hurried up the stairs to the dorm wing.

[[ open for SP ]]

"You know, it's a holiday on Earth," Atton said.

Mical's attention was only briefly distracted away from the large holoprojection he was looking at. "Is it?" he said. "Why, Atton. I didn't think such things would peak your interest."

"Yeah, well, you don't know everything about me," Atton shot back irritably. "I just want you to know that you're ruining my weekend." Beat. "How are you going to ruin my weekend?"

"Mira has found a small colony of Force sensitives living on a planet near the Gamor run. And before you ask, no, I do not expect you to mentor any of them. You simply need to help Mira extract them." Mical shot him a placid, mildly concerned smile, which Atton distrusted because it had never led to anything good. So he squinted back at it, which just made the smile even more placid and mild in its concern, which forced him to scowl harder, and--

"I will be accompanying you on this mission," Brianna said, stalking into the room with her lightsaber in hand. "The planet is quite treacherous according to our scans, and I would like to meet these potential new Jedi. They must be assessed first."

Atton pulled his scowl away from Mical and pointed it at her. "You don't trust Mira's judgment on this one?" he said.

Brianna simply met him scowl-for-scowl. "Mira requested it," she said, "Her exact words were, 'Check these people out. I'm a great judge of character, don't get me wrong, but I can't decide whether I'm picking up a whiff of evil or if that's just their leader's scent-glands--'"

"Enough, enough," Atton said, waving his hand vaguely at her. Not that this could dispel the notion of terrible scent glands, but still. "Anyone got a respirator for me, in that case?"

[[ nfb, nfi. ]]

Atton gave the stick one more swing in the air to get some of the remaining tension out of his wrist. "Okay," he said idly, "You can take a break now."

Hey, Atton had started breaking a sweat. And while Sparkle wasn't the complete wet blanket he'd been months ago, he figured the guy was doing just a little worse.

"You know," Mira said, leaning against the doorway, "You could just give him a Bothan Stunner and be done with it instead of trying to play Captain Hardass all the time."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Stunner to the genitals isn't going to work on everybody, you know."

"Of course I know," she said idly, "But it's a start!"

[[ for sparks! ]]

Atton hadn't been kidding when he'd told Sparkle he was busy-- he didn't even have the time to linger on the island after the end of his class. A portal back to Coruscant, then two briefings about the pirates - one to him, one by him - and the rest of the afternoon had been spent coordinating their next moves with the various Republic agencies that, at least hypothetically, were going to pitch in for their effort to clear out the major trade routes.

Tomorrow, he'd be making a quick scouting run to make sure everything was on the up and up. If he was lucky, and nothing terrible went wrong, maybe he'd have the 24 hours after that off. Then he'd be back on the trade lanes, trying to find connections to possible pirate headquarters on Coruscant and around the Mid Rim, and...

... basically, he should be sleeping, now that he had an hour or six to himself.

Instead, he was crossing lightsabers with Her Royal Jedi Highness Bastila Shan again.

( Read more... )

[[ establishy. references, sigh, the novel revan, a pox be on its house. ]]

Thump thump thump.

Atton made a noise under his breath and turned back into the warmth barely an inch away from him. What time was it? Middle of the night? Felt like middle of the night.

Tee-oooo-uiii.

He reached over to swat in the direction of his nightstand. Alarm. Had to be an alarm. Why did he set an alarm? Whatever.

Shhhhhhh.

( Atton, we had scheduled a meeting in the council cham-- ohhhh, you're not alone. )

[[ i don't even know. nfb, nfi! ]]