Ikia had joined the jedi order when she was a walkling. In a twist of fate, a jedi by the name of Dax Manowi who enjoyed exploring found her on the forest moon of Endor and decided to take her in. When he heard about the ewoks believing their very life force connected to their personal tree, he decided to take her back to her home every year for a month so she would not lose her roots. It was Ikia's saving luck that she had been on the forest moon when the other jedi younglings were slain by Anakin.

Ever since then, Ikia and her master Dax have been in hiding and using the force to such little degree that Ikia's training has only gotten her through her initiate training a few years ago. She is a few years behind the expected age of a padawan, but has been such for some years now and might very well be ready to take her trials soon.

The recent events present some serious trials indeed. Ikia, currently separate from her master, is looking at the news. Everyone in the bar she was in wanted so badly to cheer, but there were some Empire troopers relaxing there at the moment.

  Matt had avoided Anikin's toddler murder spree by a matter of days, because the Jedi intending to take his much younger self was gunned down during Order 66 before he made it to Matt's parents home (Yay?)

  A few years back, Dax sensed Matt's urge to not set people on fire with his mind.  His parents were much more forgiving of the idea of some bathrobe wearing know it all taking their kid 'for his own good' when his talents expanded past getting things off the tall shelf for them.  Regardless of how many times he stresses the 'Not' part of that first sentence.

  Matt dresses normally (so far as that goes in Star Wars), able to thankfully convince Dax that he makes a more convincing 'totally not a force user' if he doesn't dress like he lives on a Desert world for no practical reason.  This is somewhat ruined by the All Temperature Cloak he owns, but that's currently in a satchel either way.  The hand me down blaster at his hip also screams the opposite of Jedi, because guns.

  "Stupid question.  How can it be an official announcement of rebellion, when a rebellion has no official standing with the Empire"
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:16, Tue 02 Sept 2014.

"You must always consider your actions carfeully, padowan," Mits was warned by her master, "Especially when feeling strong emotions.  Even an outburst of positive  emotion that seems perfectly innocent could end with regret."

"What?" Mits answered her teacher, "That makes no sense.  Give me one good example."

"Well...  Suppose you're enjoying a sandwich in a canteena in an Empire controlled space station.  Then you hear about a star destroyer getting captured by rebels because the commander fell for a simple trick.  While you may be tempted to burst out laughing, such a slip could blow your cover and get you in serious trouble."

"That...  makes way more sense than the 'Love leads to the dark side' junk I've been hearing in the archive..."

Flash forward to the present and Mittens is trying hard not to burst into riotous cheers.  Fortunately her face is hidden behind the shadow of her hood and the sandwich she's stuffing into her mouth.  While she hurries to chew and swallow so she can put her two credits in on the conversation, one of the troopers nods to Matt.

"Good question.  I've got one of my own.  How can they pretend to be defenders of democracy when they're trying to overthrow the legally elected supreme chancellor by force of arms?  And another question: do they really expect people to buy all those unsubstantiated allegations?"

"Don't know what those words mean," a second trooper says, "But legal or not, I'm about to join the rebs to be rid of this blasted helmet order."

A third chimes in, "Don't know why you always complain about the helmet at meal time.  Eating through the in-armor food processor is awesome!  And you know why that helmet order's there.  Never know when a reb might take a shot at you."

The first one sighs.  "Billions of identical twins in the galaxy and I'm stuck with the dumbest and whiniest."

Mits is about to choke on her food trying not to laugh.

"You see?" the second trooper says, pointing her out, "Eating normal is dangerous.  Through a straw is where it's at."

"You uh... gunna be alright, miss?" the whiner asks.

Mits hides her face with one hand and thumbs ups with another.

Ikia always hated that sad fact of life: You can't complain about a complainer or else you become one. So Ikia has learned to just not complain. Well, OK, that is also due to her jedi training from Dax Manowi.

She spots the trying-not-to-laugh cat, and the fact all 3 clones are too stupid to notice the cat is laughing at them.

Ikia answers Matt, however, "Because by law, technically every citizen has standing with the empire and its laws. The rebellion is composed of a lot of citizens of the empire. A rebel, by definition, can not rebel without first being under the rule they are rebelling against."

  Matt's player can't decide of what BG skill unlock to take, but at the moment it's Mechanics so he really hopes the kitty doesn't start full choking.  If only so they don't end up the worst martry example of the Rebels. 'She died on a sandwhich because the Empire is too ridiculous! WE WILL NOT LET THIS STAND! FOR WHATEVER HER NAME WAS'

  Then a law gets passed to cut off all crusts and you got another, dumber rebellion over Sandwhich preparation on your hands.

  Look, his token knowledge skill is Lore, not Buracracy okay?

  "Oh, thanks for clearing that up." Normally he'd use her name, but, you know.  Sometimes you omit facts when next to soldiers even when names are less distinctive than being the only one of your species around for lightyears.

"And how's a guy supposed to do mouth-to-mouth on a choking victim with a helmet on?"

"You'd put your mouth on a stranger?  Gross!"

"Mouth to mouth isn't for choking victims, moron.  You'd end up killing your patient."

Mits chases her bite with some water.  When Ikia answers Matt the troopers stare in silence for a few moments as if in shock.

"Now there's something you don't see every day."

"Meaning never."

"An alien lecturing a human in perfect Basic."

"And the human thanking the alien."

"Well... She had a point."

"She?  How can you tell?"

"You really should learn to use your HUD."

"You got a HUD?  I didn't get a HUD."

"Me neither.  Must be a tech corps thing."

"Something tells me you two don't even know what a HUD is."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Tue 09 Sept 2014.

Ikia can't fault them on having difficulties with gender on an alien. She still has difficulties on a number of aliens and what gender they are. Though she is making the effort to study. It seems the most basic of courtesies to at least address someone by the correct gender.

She glances. And smiles. The imps are complimenting her in their own roundabout way.

"If it helps you any, this man is my friend. He and I are close." Sure, it has only been a handful of years. But when you aren't really allowed to make friends outside those who travel with you, Matt and Dax are IT for Ikia. Making them pretty much family.

  The debate over medical technique incompetence is making Matt wonder if he should stick with Mechanics for his BG skill or not again (wait, what about persuasion? Or Stealth?).

  "She's the nicest short hairy person I've met."  Which isn't exactly a small category in this setting.   Of course, he has to know.  "Is your hud pointing at her eyelashes to figure that out?" Cartoon girly eyelashes theory!

Troopers can be expressive even with helmets on.  In this case their heads nod back slightly to indicate that behind the helmets they all have an "oooh" expression when Ikia explains that Matt is her friend.

To Matt's question, tech trooper glance-glances.  "Uh... no!  No.  The alien classification software uses advanced algorithms..."

Mittens loses it and busts out laughing.  "It was the eyelashes!"

"HeyheyheyheyHEY!  Cut that out!  No mocking of the HUD!"

"Can't wipe my tears from laughing with a helmet on..."

"I don't get it.  What's so funny?"

"Nothing!  Disrespecting an imperial officer is a serious crime!  I could have you arrested!"

Mits tries and fails to quit laughing.

Ikia looks up at Matt. "Thanks." then notices the imperials getting a bit ruffled.

Ikia says, "Relax. You know how a giggle-fit can be. You just can't stop laughing."

But she gets up from her seat and walks over to put herself between the imps and Mittens. "May I sit here, ma'am?" she asks Mittens, presenting the chair that would put her between Mitts and the imps.

  "Hey, if the HUD works, it works.  I can't afford one, but I know those Mechanic Visors work pretty much the same way, with just as much technical terms to cover for basic image recognition."  After a moment, he add "Besides, I'd hate to be the guy filing out the paperwork for that arrest.  Your job is probably hard enough as it is, without your co-workers bringing that up."

He'll head over with Ikia in a moment, maybe if these troopers have as short an attention span as it looks, having to look back and forth will distract them from GIGGLES ARE ILLEGAL.

Mits does the same hide face / thumbs-up she did before to answer Ikia's question.  The angry trooper glances between Mits, Ikia, and Matt, apparently distracted by Matt's statement.

"You sound surprisingly familiar with such things.  What's your occupation?"

"Speaking of recognition.  Suppose some rebs were to steal trooper armor.  How are we supposed to tell them apart from the real troopers?" helmet face asks.

"They wouldn't make it past the first security checkpoint without the right codes."

"Suppose they have a slicer," other trooper says.

"You're not helping!"

"Uh...  speaking of security checkpoints, we're about 94 seconds behind schedule."

"So we walk a little faster."

The troopers stand up, the techie looking over at Mittens.  "You're lucky your polite friends smoothed things over for you."

He and the others march off.

"So what are you going to put on the incident report?  'Female alien laughed because HUD accurately identified gender?'"

"And how do you know for sure that one was female without a HUD?"

"Good question.  Since the most useful thing my helmet does is hide the fact I look like you."

The voices quickly fade.

"Thanks," Mits says, finally regaining control of herself, "Name's Mittens!  A pleasure to meet you both!"

Ikia waited for the troopers to be out of sight and out of hearing range before turning to look at Mittens again. "You are welcome. My name is Ikia. Are you alright, ma'am?" Those guys WERE ridiculous. Ikia, thankfully, doesn't laugh easily. Well, OK, we're only thankful for that in THIS situation. XD

  "Mildly passable handyman.  I could fix up a broken holorecorder, but probably not a busted droid." He'd also need to be able to afford a datapad if he wanted to even try slicing things... Yes, we know he bought a blaster, what's your point?

 Then off the nameless helmet heads go.  Eventually, he heads on over to the hairy ladies coming to a stop next to Ikia, instead of putting Mittens between them.  "I hope you got to at least finish most of your sandwhich before it became a choking hazard."

"Mittens!  Nice to meetcha, Ikea the polite, and hilarious human mechanic!  Methinks you to are the same Ikea and Matt my teacher assigned me with seeking out.  While I do not carry with me physical proof of my good intentions, I do have a name - the name of my teacher, that is - that you can verify with your teacher, whom I'm told went to the same school as yours.  I would urge you to please do so right away.  For I have a very urgent assignment I would ask your help with."

She grins at Matt, shows off the last bit of her sandwich, and begins woofing it down.  Meanwhile she shows the two her datapad.  On the screen is the name Bram Ordanis.

Ikia gets to contacting her master, confirms the information, then hangs up. She looks at Mittens. "What is it you wish to share?"

  "Just as long as I don't try to tell any actual jokes, then I'm just terrible."

  The Jedi verification email is sent, and he adds "Was it the fact it's lunchtime that lead you here to find us, or the space voodoo?"

"Space voodoo," Mittens giggles, "Never heard it called that before.  I like it!

"Our meeting was arranged by my teacher, so nothing magical about my finding you when he's all 'Search the station for an Ewok named Ikea and a human named Matt,' and gives descriptions and stuff."

She taps on her datapad then shows the screen to Ikea and Matt.  On it is written, "Greetings, students of my classmate.  He spoke well of you.  Mu student Mittens will do well to follow your example.  While I would love to oversee her next assignment myself, circumstances prevent me from doing so.  I will trust your assessment of her performance in my stead if you are willing to assist in this matter, which, your teacher assures me, will count as credit toward your own courses.  Her assignment is to locate and interview a person who openly supports the recent declaration of rebellion.  Thank you.

(OOC: Another case of "had it written, but never posted it." <.< )

Luke! Use the instrument panel! Advanced technology, designed to help you hit small targets! That's what it's there for!

And other sensible things like telling people a place where an Ewok and human of certain descriptions hang out.

Ikia looks up at Mittens and says, "Then if it is your assignment, you are to take the lead and we will follow. This person you are supposed to find; are they someone specific, or will anyone supporting the rebellion do?"

  "I'll admit, grades have not been my largest concern in my training so much as knowing I won't cause accidental property damage."

  At Ikia's question, he nods.  "I somehow doubt finding the first person spraypainting 'Troopers suk' on a wall is the best course of action."  OR IS IT!?  What does searching his feeling say about the matter?...   Why does searching his feelings keep trying to give him fashion tips?

"First in a series of assignments," Mits answers Ikea, "Details on assignment 2 pending my satisfactory completion of assignment one.  I'm guessing teach wants me to find an actual card-carrying  member and not just an armchair rebel.  But just in case, I'll ask you:  What are your thoughts on the recent declartation?  The rebellion overall?  The Empire?"

She smiles and points an imaginary microphone at Ikea and Matt.

Ikia says, "I think the declaration was more for the people and needs to get out to more viewers if possible. People need to know why the rebellion is doing what its doing. I do not know enough about the rebellion to give an opinion outside of the declaration. My opinion is they are doing what they need to and are going about it in a responsible way. The Empire: Well... is run by slaves who know nothing other than slavery. Organic droids, really. It is a sad state of affairs that those who follow the Empire are generally beyond hope."

  Matt shrugs,  "PR stunt if there is no followthrough on their own part.  There is a big difference between asking for help, and asking others to do all the work that involves any personal risk for them.  The Empire is one of those problems I wish I could ignore but know it's only a matter of time where they will want to kill me even if I behave myself."

"Mittens is first hand witness to the Empire's systemic evil."

The kitty's pupils shrink as she recalls, "I was discovered to have the same 'special talent' you two have and was forcibly recruited, tortured, brainwashed, indoctrinated to love hating, pitted against my peers, and eventually unleashed upon my master's rivals and whatever else who's death would amuse her.

"Fortunately, Teacher killed her, rescued me, and un-brainwashed... brain-dirtied?... he fixed me.  So yeah.  You are both quite right in your saying the Empire is full of hopeless beings who will kill you on a whim.  So I'm curious.  If you had an opportunity to put yourself in extreme danger for the chance to strike at the murderous heart of the Empire, joining the rebellion's military for example, would you take it?"

Ikia looks at Matt and says, "You are human, at least. That will get you further than any other species."

Ikia then looks at Mittens and says, "I am sorry for your troubles. As for if I would take a chance if presented with one? I would want more than a remote chance. If I am to sacrifice my life, I would want it to mean something. Though why would you ask such a thing of us? Are you looking to measure our zeal? I can assure you Matt and I are not zealots. Neither are we complacent. We do what we must."