Fwurg

[Dragonmaster352]

"No adults." Miri said in a weak voice, looking at Salia with pleading eyes.

She closed her eyes a moment then shook her head as if trying to get rid of something. When she opened her eyes Miri looked a lot more awake.

She pushed herself from Salia's hold.

"No adults." She said firmly, turning around Miri had an angry look on her face. "No adults, not now not ever. If you like them so much then go away."

[Salia]

"Adults aren't scary, they are just really big and completely crazy." Salia knew, but she sort of figured Miri didn't care regardless.

"Everyone here seems sad or angry or scared..." Salia observed, not sure what to do right now. "Its like everyone here is a whole bunch of adults..."

"I know!" she decided "We should play ball! Playing ball is fun, come on, if we go play the others will join us soon enough!"

You could accuse Salia of a lot, but she was persistent in this regard.

[Salia]

"Come on, playing ball is fun and maybe the others will want to join and since your arm is hurt we can do football instead but really it doesn't matter because playing ball is just playing with a ball and I brought several so there is enough for everyone and then we can all play together and it will be fun!" she explained

[Dragonmaster352]

After a moment Miri nodded, agreeing to play ball with Salia.

At first it was just the two of them, then one of the younger kids asked if he could join and soon after that more kids started to join. Eventually everyone joined in and they held a small tournament that lasted several hours. The only ones nowhere to be found where the tall girl with cybernetic legs and the short person Salia had met earlier.

Everyone who played had a great time sharing laughs, especially Miri seemed to enjoy herself. Eventually the team Miri and Salia where on won the tournament but the losing teams didn't mind because everyone had lots of fun. But the fun didn't end there. After the tournament everyone started to pre-pair diner. They made way to much but it tasted so good they finished all of it by the time it had gotten dark.

[Salia]

"See, I told you it'd be fun!" Salia noted to Miri. "Playing ball is way more fun than stealing stuff, so I like to play ball whenever I can, though there's lots of other fun games too, like tag or hide-and-seek and dancing and cartwheeling, and sometimes of course you have to go and learn things, but learning is a lot of fun too except meditation, that is just really boring but everything else is fun especially when you get to try things for yourself or when the teacher tells a story and then you can play after too, so that is fun as well, so everyone should try doing that instead of stealing because its so much more fun for everyone!" she suggested.

[Dragonmaster352]

Miri got a sad and guilty look on her face at Salia's words.

"You really need to learn when you should just be quiet." Turning to see who spoke, it turned out to be the tall girl with the cybernetic legs.

"Come with me for a sec, will ya?" She said to Salia.

[Salia]

"Are you a Jedi Master in disguise...?" Salia looked at the tall girl with general suspicion when she said Salia needed to learn when to be quiet, but without waiting for an answer she hopped up.

"Sure, do you want me to teach you how to play ball as well?" she offered "Cause I can teach you if you want and then you can join us next time!"

And with that, she followed the girl to wherever she wanted to take the young Twi'lek.

[Dragonmaster352]

"Didn't you see the look on Miri's face? You reminded her of something she had tried to forget for a moment." The tall girl said when they where out of earshot.

She led Salia into the building up a few stairs and onto a balcony. As it had already gone dark the stars where clearly visible. It was quite the view, the galaxy shining brightly. The tall girl sat down on the rail that guarded the edge of the balcony.

"I watched you play, I've never seen any of them so happy and carefree. Especially Miri. From what part of town did you run away from?"

[Salia]

"I came from the Jedi Temple!" Salia explained "Playing is very important because if you don't play you do not have fun and who wants to live a life without any fun...?" she knew

"Also, its healthy because you move around and that is always a good thing because it is healthy. But most important is that it is fun.

There is one thing I don't understand though... most kids play just because it comes naturally... so why aren't the children here playing all the time...?"

Salia seemed genuinely confused about that.

[Salia]

Salia looked at the tall girl, waiting impatiently for her to answer, but then giving up "So, do you wanna play hide-and-go-seek?"

[Dragonmaster352]

The tall girl snapped out of a daze, having been staring at the stars.

"Sorry, you asked why no one here plays?" She asked and continued without waiting for an answer.

"Would you play if some one would hit you for it? Everyone here has their own story and their own scars. All caused by adults. Take Miri for example, her mom was a worthless drunk who hit her for no reason.

Her dad's worse. A real sick bastard, doing things like that to his own kids."

She looked at Salia.

"Do you think that we are doing wrong with what we do here?"

((OOC: Sorry I'm a lot busier these days and this got put on a back burner.))

[Salia]

"You should not hit people, because that is mean..." Salia knew. She pondered this complicated conundrum for a while.

"I guess if you cannot play at home because people hit you, then running away makes sense... but the kids here are not playing either, and people are still hitting them and breaking their arms... so then it is not really any better..."

Salia's universe was perhaps a bit too simplified, but at least it was clear.

"Why do you not all come live at the Jedi temple? I can let you all in and then we can tell the Jedi Masters. They are really wise and will help, I am sure!" she suggested. "Plus, you can play there and usually you do not get hit."

[Dragonmaster352]

"Can you promise they would take us in?"

She looked hopeful waiting for Salia's answer.

[Salia]

"I am certain they would!" Salia stated enthusiastically and without thinking the matter through very deeply. "The temple is really big anyway!" This part was at least true. "Come, lets go tell everyone and gather our things and go right now!"

Salia appeared ready to just get everyone to pick up their stuff and march them into the Jedi Temple.

[Salia]

Impatiently, Salia hurried off to gather the other kids and take them towards the Jedi Temple. The thought that perhaps this might not make the Jedi Masters entirely happy hadn't just failed to enter her mind, it appeared to have taken a wrong turn in hyperspace causing it to end up on Glasslyn, where some confused Sundarian noble was now wondering why he would think the Jedi Masters would not be happy with his plan to invite his neighbours over for lunch. It was a good thing the girls thoughts were usually all over the place, lest the unfortunate Sundarian might think he was going mad.

[Salia]

((OOC: I think we're ready to round this up, all we need is for them to all head to the Jedi Temple at which point there will be complete anarchy?))

[Dragonmaster352]

((OOC: Give me a little more time here. I'll post before the end of next week.))

[Dragonmaster352]

Leaving mad Sundarians to the Sundarian Inquisition, the tall girl started to follow Salia.

But the way was blocked, the short man stood in their way and he looked angry.

"You dare betray me!?" He shouted. "I heard everything. After all I did for you, you think you can just leave when you want?"

The tall girl clenched her fist.

"You betrayed us!" She yelled back. "You're worse than our parents. The things you made us do, the lies? Let us go or else."

[Salia]

Salia stood partially behind the tall girl, sticking her head out from behind her and her tongue from her mouth, going "PFFFFRRRRRT" with some spittle to add yucky to insult.

It was clear that Salia not only thought this appropriate to the situation, but also that it was a strong argument to help settle the matter.

[Dragonmaster352]

Shorty was getting even angrier because of Salia's behaviour. "You! This is all your fault!"

He pointed at Salia, then he grabbed a blaster he was hiding.

"I'll kill you!"

The tall girl started to turn to protect Salia. Just before she heard the shot, Salia saw Miri behind Shorty. Protecting Salia, the tall girl was hit in the back. She slumped to the ground.

Shorty stood there looking quite happy with his work. He had, however, failed to notice Miri. To Salia, Miri suddenly seemed to be more there than before.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!"

Miri screamed, while suddenly Shorty was thrown through the air. Salia managed to duck right in time or he would have hit her.

[Salia]

Salia did seem a little shocked, but not surprised.

"You should not throw people using the Force..." she explained to Miri "That's rude."

After checking for a moment to see if the tossed mean bloke was not in need of immediate medical assistance she turned to the tall girl, taking one arm "We should drag her to the med-bay" Salia knew "Because when you get shot, you need medical assistance, and I did not bring my nurse outfit."

[Dragonmaster352]

The tall girl was breathing very shallow. Clearly struggling for air. She reached for Salia.

Miri ran to the tall girl. "Oneechan. Oneechan." She cried. "Sis, don't go."

The tall girl coughed violently, spitting out a black gel-like substance. Grabbing Salia, she pulled her close with surprising strength.

"Protect Miri and the others..." She whispered just before her body went limp. Salia could feel her fade away as she died.

Miri had stopped crying, a blank expression on her face. Her eyes had gone dull like she was nothing more then a shell. Whatever Salia was going to do, it would either bring Miri back or drag her under forever.

[Salia]

Salia looked at the tall girl who seemed to be bleeding out.

This was bad... there wasn't a doctor, and no medbay nearby and nobody to help and now the tall girl seemed to be dying and Miri was going off somewhere and now everything was bad and...

Seeing her options were extremely limited, Salia did the only thing she knew how to do in emergency situations like this.

*sniff*
*sniff*

"WAAAAAAAAA!"

And with that, she started crying like a little girl.

[Dragonmaster352]

Finally the other kids had come to see what all the noise was about. Seeing Salia crying, Miri in a daze and the tall girl lying on the floor they rushed to them.

Salia could sense the tall girl was almost gone.

Suddenly Miri turned around and hit Salia as hard as she could.

"Stop crying you big baby!" she yelled. "We need to help her!" Apparently Miri had snapped out of it.

The tall girl was only a minuscule point now, but Salia felt turning her on her back would somehow help.

[Salia]

Salia looked more confused than hurt as Miri suddenly hit her. This didn't usually happen - then again, nothing here usually happened, it was all rather odd and outside of Salia's normal frame of mind.

The confusion at least appeared to stop the wave of crying, for the moment anyway, and following instinct rather than intellect she moved to roll the tall girl onto her back. To be perfectly fair, Salia didn't normally use intellect for anything, and she seemed to be mostly guided by instinct entirely, so this wasn't that much of a mental change, but no doubt feeling the influence of the force at least helped her in knowing what to do, and turning people over was something she knew how to do. As to how that would help... that was well beyond the horizon of her current plans.

"I don't know what to do..." Salia told Miri, as if somehow expecting her to know