The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Madotsuki]

When the dreamer had been amazed at the sight of grass, she knew she had been living in Coruscant for too long. She took in a deep breath of natural, unrecycled air, then immediately exhaled at the sight of her samurai friend's new ride. At first she had been amused at the sudden change, hiding a laugh as they all realized that Okor was trapped in the back seat. After she managed to look closer at the horses powering the carriage, however, she was in awe of the sheer mechanical complexity of the equines. Unfortunately she was only able to admire them for a minute or two before Hiro dispersed it back into Omnilium.

'It's a shame. Those horses looked awesome,' she said, glancing down at the two from her crystalline perch.

"Cool or not," the ronin replied, looking back up at her, "there's no way I'm riding in a dinky carriage."

'Suit yourself.' And with that, she hopped down from her vehicle and landed next to the rotting marine, already getting used to the pungent odor of death he always carried. Laces of rainbow-colored energy reached into her body as she allowed her construct to degenerate back into Omnilium.

She turned to see that Hiro was already beginning to hate this verse. 'I think this place is nice,' she objected, crossing her arms and frowning.

"Easy for you to say-- you're not the one that got their vehicle wrecked. Again."

'No no no. I mean, I've spent almost all of my time in the Omniverse in Coruscant. It's a bit of a sensory overload, to be honest.'

"You seemed to like it."

'I did. I just needed a break from it is all.'

"If you really needed a break," Okor questioned, "then why did you wait until now?"

She was about to reply, but paused. Her first answer was that she had people who needed her there; it was the truth, but the samurai knew that she was a shut-in, and he'd probably try and dig deeper into that statement. Which was bad, since those aforementioned people were a group of rebels and a family gang. Instead, she answered with 'Well, someone needed to pay for our room, what with Hiro here being gone for a while.'

She could've sworn that she saw a flicker of suspicion in the EPD officer's eyes, but he nodded. "Right. We should probably get going now-- Nebula isn't going to stop itself. The signal seems to be coming from this way."

They started towards the destination, with Hiro leading the group while Madotsuki and Okor hung near the back. She wasn't entirely sure, but she had the feeling that the Chosen of the Plague God was staring at her through his helmet. ...Did he know she had lied earlier? Or was he just analyzing her now that he had the opportunity to do so? Nervous, she fiddled around with her knife until the silence was too much to bear.

'So... Okor? How did you and Hiro meet? And did you two do anything together? He looks a little...' She glanced over at her friend. '...different... and I'm thinking you had something to do with that.'