you can call me great one

Room 313- early Monday morning

2009-11-09T12:54:55Z

Jaina had gone out for her twenty-first birthday pretty much just to say she did it, even when the last thing she wanted to do these days was celebrate. And not only did she do it, but she did it well enough to wake up with a splitting headache when her alert buzzer went off. See, this was another reason she rarely drank like this; all the giggling and falling off of things (not that she'd done that) in the galaxy didn't make up for the aftermath.

After running through a technique to take away the worst of it, Jaina pulled her comlink and phone to her, because she still had messages to check, even if she wasn't getting up just yet. She was also still sore from yesterday's spar. Some degree of laziness was allowed. She rarely had messages on her phone anymore, so she was a little surprised to find one now. And then her heart did a little flip when she saw who it was from.

And then her stomach dropped when she remembered that she'd kind of initiated the whole thing.

She listened to it a couple times, then finally worked her way up to leaving one back before deciding maybe she should see how much she was up for in the gym. After a really greasy breakfast, some aspirin, and a gallon of water.

[Establishy, unless you wanna wait till 6!]

Room 313- Thursday evening

2009-11-06T02:11:44Z

Even as much as she hated the lonely feeling she had going on lately, Jaina had been keeping to herself, filling her time mostly with work and training, as was good and proper. She'd also gotten in touch with her mother earlier, neglecting to mention anything that might have been important personally, an learned that- if her math was right- her birthday was Sunday. She was hoping she could just not tell anyone that and skip it, but since it'd be her twenty-first, she was betting that she'd never hear the end of it if she did that.

In a half-assed attempt at social, she'd left the door to her room cracked as she sat on the floor, taking apart pieces of an old computer she'd found in the junkyard. She didn't know what she was going to do with any of it, but it was mindless work and it made her feel nice and twelve.

[Door cracked, post open, entertain me! Today did not suck!]

Room 313- Tuesday after classes

2009-11-03T13:22:04Z

In short, the time issue just got the better of them. Once Jaina got that voicemail from John last week, she knew things weren't going to work out. Not as long as he was still on fast forward. And really, she was new at this, but it had to be one of the weirdest breakups ever. Maybe it would have been easier if they'd yelled and ruined things forever, but they still loved each other, and it was obvious, and it was already making letting go that much harder. Odd, considering how much time she typically spent pushing people away. Odder was the fact that she didn't want everyone finding out, at least not now. It wasn't exactly something she wanted everyone hearing about on radio.

Times like this, Jaina was really glad that she didn't have a roommate, because it meant that she could have a good cry about it when she was sure the squirrels weren't around, try doing normal things, have another good cry when that failed, and be okay to go to class. Afterwards, she came back to her room and began doing the post-breakup ritual of girls everywhere, even if she didn't realize it.

Namely, she started boxing up the things that reminded her of him. She was trying to mask it as redecorating, since she hadn't done that since Valentine left, but pictures came down off the walls, jewelry was put away, her phone wallpaper was changed to something that came with the phone... She didn't throw anything out, but it was going away for now. The bedding she was keeping. It was comfortable, and didn't even smell like him anymore anyway.

The one thing that caused hesitation was the watch. He'd given it to her after the breakup, since time kept kriffing with them, and she wasn't sure what to do with it. Realizing she'd always be able to just put it away later, Jaina stowed the box in her closet and took a seat on her bed, slipping the watch onto her wrist. It slid down her hand when she moved her arm, only stopping at her knuckles. Somehow that seemed fitting.

[Door closed, post is open if you're good with the usual SP. Watch totally not randomly stolen without permission.]

Room 313- Monday afternoon

2009-10-26T01:45:59Z

Jaina's Monday didn't start off any different than usual. Training, class, returning work calls, not necessarily in that order. When she got back to her room to check her messages and find out what she'd missed, she found a series of messages.

She saw the text first, which was confusing, and once she listened to both messages, she had a really bad feeling about this. There was only one other time she'd gotten that many messages from John in such a short amount of time without her replying back.

Which meant she was calling back and really hoping she got him and not his voicemail.

[For that guy, and up early for time zones and RL.]

A pool hall in Palo Alto- Wednesday

2009-10-22T01:37:32Z

There were always great things about date night. It was summer again out here, which was a still a little strange when it was just barely fall in Fandom, but it meant time in the pool with a hot shirtless boyfriend, so Jaina wasn't complaining. It also meant a trip to the pool hall (see what they did there?) so she could show off the mad skills she'd freshened up on during the Kellerman's trip.

"So," Jaina said after they selected a table, "what are we playing for?"

[For the challenger omg and yay sp.]

Room 313- Sunday night

2009-10-05T01:02:43Z

After getting in a spar with Jacen and seeing him off, Jaina didn't really feel like heading off to Fight Club. Instead she went back to her room for a shower, then collapsed on her bed, proud that between Jacen being around, meeting a tiny version of Wedge and an older Luke, having a conversation with her AU step-grandmother she was going to be older than soon, and several encounters with her older alternate universe boyfriend, no one had died.

That she knew of. She hadn't heard radio yet.

Not wanting to move off her bed, she pulled her phone to her hand, and called up Cuddle Bear's number.

[For the callee!]

Room 313- Friday after the picnic

2009-10-02T23:08:20Z

Jaina was not the biggest fan of Fandom. At all. And she'd spent a week (mostly) silently freaking out about the weekend. Yet she was completely happy to show Jacen around and let him see where she'd spent so much of her time these last few years. She thought maybe she just hadn't realized how much having her brother back at school with her, if only for a weekend.

The bonus was that he wasn't a Jacen that wanted her dead.

She'd left him in order to make a call, and after meeting up with him again she decided to show him around the dorms. "So this is the war room," Jaina said, opening the door to her room.

[For the brother, but open!]

Room 313- Tuesday evening

2009-09-30T01:49:21Z

Jacen was going to be here this weekend, and Jaina was completely and totally worried about it. Ben and his version of Luke she didn't worry so much about (or she did, but she didn't expect any blowups from them), but she was going to worry about anything her grandfather might say right up until Jacen was on his way home.

And when there was something she didn't want to deal with, she completely avoided dealing with it. Which was why she was preparing to go on her second run of the day. There'd been ~~handwavy~~ time in the salle, too. Distraction was happy-making, or at least it helped her not freak out too much.

[Ping me. Door's half open, post totally is.]

Apartment in Palo Alto- Friday Fandom time

2009-09-25T06:55:59Z

As much as Jaina didn't want to admit it, there was some weird time stuff going on in her galaxy, too, because Han and Leia managed to drag her on a forced vacation to Mon Calamari for days. They were still freaked out, enough that she'd gone without (too much) complaint. And she'd gone stir crazy being out there with nothing to do. Her parents had finally taken pity and given her leave, though they insisted that she take it easy and just take a break already. This after she told them about Hawaii. They hadn't believed her.

Since she hadn't been able to pinpoint when she'd get where she was going thanks to all the time weirdness, she got to the apartment on her own, opening the door with her key and hoping John was around.

[For he who deals with her and yay SP! I'm done spamming, I swear. Because now I go to sleep.]

Somewhere in the GFFA- early Friday Fandom time

2009-09-25T06:44:56Z

Once the battle was over, there wasn't much left to do besides wait for new orders. And thanks to how Han and Leia had found her, neither of her parents had seemed intent on letting Jaina jump right back into work. It only took twenty years and one incident that was pretty tame in comparison to other things for them to get overprotective.

She was still on the Golan, with Prann and his people in custody, and the battle station now occupied by some military personnel as they waited. And, at the moment, she was sitting around a table in the mess with Wedge, Han and Leia, complete with glasses of brandy. Jaina had no idea when drinking became okay in front of her parents and a family friend she'd known since she was born, but there she was.

"If this station had lips," Wedge said, "I'd kiss it. Since it doesn't, Colonel Solo, I'll drink your health instead."

"Hear, hear," Leia said, and they all raised glasses.

She also didn't know when she got toasted by her parents and a family friend she'd known since she was born. "We really have Prann and his people to thank, in a way," Jaina mused. "I mean, it's not like they intended to help, but if it weren't for them..."

"Yes, if it weren't for them we would have all died," Wedge agreed. "Even as it is, we lost way too much here. Pash Cracken, Judder Page... Old friends, young people I never knew. You'd think I would be used to it by now."

"You don't get used to it," Han said.

It was weird. She was sitting here with people who had been fighting in a war years before she existed. To think about all the people they'd known and lost, and everything they'd seen... it seemed unreal. She didn't like when they said things that suddenly made them look their age, or older. She'd rather see them as invincible, untouched by everything they'd experienced. And she had possibly two more wars ahead of her before she hit thirty-five. What would she sound like then?

She was almost relieved when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, giving her a reason to stand at attention. "Grand Admiral Pellaeon, sir," she said, saluting.

"Please," Pellaeon said, waving them to sit. Han had barely stood, but he was the only one who'd ever been Imperial military. "At ease, Colonel Solo. After what you've been through, you deserve a rest."

People kept saying things like that. Now the Imperial admiral was saying it. That just wasn't right.

Pellaeon offered Wedge a stiff salute. "General Antilles, I've come to offer my apologies. Captain Devis's man found us, but we hadn't had time to prepare the fleet for lightspeed before you arrived here. I should have joined you regardless, but when our communications failed..."

"You did exactly as I would have done, Grand Admiral," Wedge told him. "The battle plan was explicit. It simply didn't take into account that all our communications might fail."

"That's very generous of you, General Antilles. I hope if I were in your situation I could be as forgiving."

"I wonder if you would care to join us for a drink," Wedge offered. "I believe the brandy is from your home province."

Pellaeon paused. "I would very much enjoy that, General Antilles, but at the moment, duty calls. I was wondering if I could make an inquiry of my own. Captain Devis hasn't returned to his command. Do you know his whereabouts?"

"I'm sorry, Admiral, he, ah- didn't make it," Han said regretfully. "He died helping to take down the interdictor."

Jaina saw the look on Pellaeon's face, but that wasn't what bothered her. It was the feeling she caught in the Force, something she'd felt from people before, and something she knew she'd feel again.

"I see," he said.

"He said to tell you he did what he thought was right," Han continued.

Pellaeon nodded, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Well, yes, that sounds like him," he said. "He was a great admirer of yours, I believe, Captain Solo, despite the fact that in Imperial holos you are most often portrayed as something of a villain. Or perhaps that's why he admired you." To the rest of the group, he said, "Ladies, gentlemen. Until I have time for that drink."

"Villain?" Han repeated as Pellaeon retreated. "Maybe I need to see some of these holos." The holos Han had seen put him in a very different light, and still made him money off the royalties.

"That was a little odd, don't you think?" Leia asked.

"Yeah," Han agreed. "Devis was a good guy, sure, but..."

"Is the Grand Admiral married?" Jaina asked suddenly.

Leia shook her head. "No. They say he's never made time for it. Why do you ask?"

"Because I think Devis was his son." That kind of loss was something she knew well enough to recognize now. Maybe she wouldn't need two wars to sound like Han and Wedge.

The table fell into a heavy silence, and Jaina decided she didn't mind the overprotectiveness right now after all. She got it.

Finally Han raised his glass. "To all of our sons and all of our daughters," he said, "be they with us or beyond."

[Once again with the NFI, NFB, and all that fun stuff. Dialogue from The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes.]

Bilbringi- Thursday Fandom time

2009-09-25T04:33:01Z

Being sent away from a fight was hard enough, but having to sit here, close to the battle going on outside and completely unable to do anything about it was so much worse. Especially with Prann looking out the viewport and making comments like, "Wow. "Look at that. And you wanted us to help them."

"What? "Jaina said, not sure she wanted to know.

"Come here," Prann said.

Getting to the viewport wasn't easy. For some reason thinking a Jedi might be a threat to them, she'd had stun cuffs slapped around her hands and feet, and there was a slave collar around her neck. As if that wasn't enough, Vel was staying close, in case she needed to be stunned again. When she got to the viewport, her heart sank. "The rest of the Vong fleet came back."

"Yep," Prann nodded. "In a few hours your fleet's going to be scrap metal, and even if we were inclined to lend a hand, I don't think we could do much good against that many."

He was talking about it like it was nothing, but those were her friends, her comrades out there, and they were going to lose. Badly. "Don't try to justify your cowardice to me," Jaina snapped. "They're all going to die, and you're just going to watch."

"Watch? No, I'm going to run. The hyperdrive is ready to go, thanks to your spare parts. Why do you think I dropped the cloak? But it looks like they've forgotten us out here, so we're going to finish running computer simulations. Our cobbled-together drive is a little quirky, and we don't want to end up in a star."

"Please. If you'll just listen to me-"

"Solo, I said no. Hey, look at it this way: you're going to live to tell the uppity-ups what happened here, which no one else is likely to be able to do. You're going to live, Colonel- and it's not even your fault."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jaina asked, frown deepening.

"It means, I've done a little fighting myself, in my time, and I know your type. Getting dead is your goal in life, and you'll keep throwing yourself into the fray until it happens. In the meantime, you live in constant disappointment."

Being called on something was one thing. Being called on something when it was no longer true was just going to piss her off more. She didn't want to die, she wanted to help. "You don't know me," Jaina said. "Don't pretend you do."

"Whatever, kid. I'm not going to make an argument out of it. It's not worth it."

His lack of caring was maybe the worst part. He just didn't give a damn if everyone out there died, as long as he got away. Half unaware she was even doing it, she demanded, "Take this station into battle, now!"

And there was his blink, the moment where he realized she'd nudged him with the Force, and he shook it of. "Well," he said. "Nice try."

Despite her outward appearance, Jaina wasn't disappointed.

This was because she waited for him to be ready, and when Prann notified the rest of his group that he was laying in the calculations, Jaina reached out to just barely touch his mind. She wasn't trying to control him, just to slip him some suggestions. He'd put in one coordinate and she'd just change one digit. Suggestions through the Force she could do. Mindwipes she could do. Winding up people's memories she could do. Specifics were new, and this wasn't how she'd been planning on learning.

Vel must have noticed the look of concentration on her face. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "Stop it, or I shoot your hand off."

And now she had to see if she could teach herself to do this while talking. "I'm not doing anything. What could I be doing?"

"Doesn't matter anyway," Prann said, drawing back from the controls. "Here we go."

All Jaina was left to do now was hope that it worked, and when he pulled the jump lever...

"What- what happened?"

Not bad for her first day. "You tried to jump through an interdictor. It didn't work," she said.

"I did not! I set the jump in exactly the opposite direction."

"Yes, well, obviously you didn't." Said with no small amount of satisfaction.

Prann jumped from his seat, blaster in hand, and Jaina knew she might be in a lot of trouble here. She didn't care. She'd gone this far, she would see it through. "You did this," he accused. "Somehow you got in my head..."

"Listen to me, Prann," Jaina snapped. "You're interdicted. They have a solid read on you by now, so if you put the cloak up you'll not only be a sitting target, you'll be a blind sitting target. You've got just one choice now: take out that interdictor, or die. What's it going to be?"

For a long moment he kept his blaster trained on her, until his human friend finally said, "She's right, Erli. We have to fight our way out now."

It almost looked like he was going to fire. Jaina could see his finger twitch on the firing stud, but he didn't. He holstered his weapon and got to work. "To the guns, then. But so help me, Jedi, you're going to pay for this."

Yeah, probably. Jaina knew she might have crossed a line here; she'd forced these people to fight when all they wanted to do was get away, but they'd taken her and her pilots captive and were going to leave a lot of others to die, so she didn't feel that badly. Part of her wished she could fight even now, assist in any way possible from captivity on the battle station, but between all the restraints and the fact that Prann would probably shoot her dead, she'd have to wait for her moment.

At least they did fight their way through, and the weaponry meant that they were able to split the interdictor right in two, lights flashing through the viewport like it was part of a show. Some of Prann's people actually cheered. You'd have thought they signed up for this.

"Status?" Prann asked immediately. He was still beyond furious.

"We've sustained major damage to the southwestern deflector grid," reported the Barabel. "Other than that, we're in pretty good shape."

"Good." Then he turned his attention to Jaina, taking a few steps towards her. "Well, Jedi. You got your wish. Now I get mine."

As soon as he'd aimed the blaster at her head, one of the humans spoke up. "Hey, wait, Prann. None of us signed on for murder, especially the murder of a Jedi. The station is still in good shape, we're no longer interdicted. Let's just blast jets out of here, stick to the original plan."

"Nobody gets inside my mind like that. It ain't right," Prann argued. "And if we try to jump, she'll just do it again, drop us by the other interdictor. Once she's dead, then we jump."

"Just let me stun her," Vel said. "She can't do anything then."

"No, not until she wakes up. Then who knows what kind of mind tricks she'll pull? Better this way."

Jaina kept her eye on the blaster, but it didn't worry her. He might shoot her, sure. And she was pretty sure she wasn't going to survive a head shot, but at least she'd won this one. "Right now you guys look like heroes," she said calmly. "Nobody knows you weren't planning to help. Nobody has to. Kill me, and all that changes."

"Hey, she's right," the Rodian said. The fact that the crew was arguing against her getting shot was a big point in why she didn't worry.

"No, don't be a fool," Prann retorted. "We've got all those other pilots on board. Somebody will talk."

"Good point. Are you going to kill them, too?" Jaina asked.

"Prann, come on," Vel pleaded.

"I'd take his advice," said a new voice.

Jaina turned her head as Prann jerked the gun to aim above her head and fired. For once Jaina wouldn't complain about her height. The blaster bolt was deflected by a familiar bronze lightsaber wielded by an equally familiar Lowbacca. Even though the shock of everything that was suddenly happening, Jaina thought that a Wookiee putting himself between her father and a blaster bolt was somehow just right.

She had no idea what was going on besides the obvious "My parents set my pilots loose," but there seemed to be blaster fire everywhere. Jaina was still unable to do any defending herself, but between Lowie, Alema and Leia there were three Jedi taking care of the shots being fired at them, along with the rest of Twin Suns firing back. For insisting they didn't sign up for murder, Prann's crew really wasted no time firing. It ended about the time Lowie sliced through Prann's weapon and knocked him to the ground, and soon after that the rest of his crew figured out that they were better off giving up.

For as calm as she'd been, when it was over Jaina was left letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Hi, Dad, hi, Mom. I was wondering how long you were going to take."

"We stopped to pick up reinforcements," Han said, nodding towards his backup.

Since Anakin died, Leia had not shied from showing her concern over her kids in situations like this, and now was no different. She came over to Jaina, checking her over, asking, "Are you okay?"

"Never better," Jaina said. She might freak out later. Right now she was going to hold it together and not think twice about it.

And while Leia was playing concerned mother, Prann was left facing the very reason he hadn't wanted to have to kill Han Solo's daughter. Namely, Han Solo. "Look," Prann was saying. "I don't want any trouble from you."

"You were holding a blaster on my daughter," Han reminded him. "What do you expect from me, a kiss and flowers?"

"Oh. Yeah. I was just angry, you know. I wouldn't have really done anything," Prann lied.

Han ignored him. "The rest of you," he shouted. "I want you back at your posts, because this crate isn't going anywhere until every last Alliance ship has made it out, understand?"

Despite the fact that his crew surrendered their weapons to Twin Suns on those orders, Prann was still trying. "This is our station. We earned it."

"Hey," Han said, "what's your name?"

"Erli Prann."

"Erli Prann. Can't say as I've ever heard of you. But Prann?"

"Yeah?"

Rather than use anything like, say, words, Han's fist shot out, smacking the blaster against Prann's head, knocking him right back onto the ground. "If you ever touch my daughter again, I'll kill you."

Jaina was so giving her dad a hug after this. Once she had all these cuffs off.

[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue from The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes. Sometimes I like it when my girl is not in a book a lot. It means fewer posts.]

Bilbringi- Thursday Fandom time

2009-09-24T12:34:29Z

Luckily the battle was going okay on Jaina's end. Otherwise she might be slightly miffed at the fact that her comm was buzzing now. Or at least she would until she realized it was Wedge, and that he was contacting her privately on a coded channel. "Sir?"

"I've got a task you might find a little more exciting than bug burning," Wedge said from his end.

Jaina looked out the viewport of her cockpit, thinking she didn't need more excitement. They were doing well right now, she wanted to keep it that way. "I'm about to have my hands full, General. What do you need?"

"I need you to find Admiral Kre'fey for me."

She frowned. "Admiral Kre'fey, General?"

"Something's wrong with the HoloNet," he explained. "We were the advance for two more fleets. We can't contact them, so they haven't shown. I need you to find him, fast, and bring him here. Have him send someone to find Pellaeon."

"Sir, won't they come when they realize it's the HoloNet and not something gone wrong here? " Jaina asked, though she recognized that yes, this was a problem.

"They're not supposed to. For all they know - for all I know - the downing of the HoloNet is cover for an attack on Mon Cal or the Imps, and this battle group is already starfood. I need you to let him know we're still kicking."

Jaina tried to keep the frustration out of her voice in her reply. "General, you want me to leave the battle?"

"A few starfighters can get out of the interdiction cones. Our capital ships can't. Still, I doubt they're going to make it easy for you, so I wouldn't worry about lack of action," Wedge pointed out. He knew her so well. "Anyway, there's another part to this deal, if you really don't fancy leaving the Bilbringi system. Our long-range sensors indicate that one of the Golan Two Battle Stations may still be operational. If things go badly here, we might be able to use it as a rally point, but I need it working. If it's not, and can't be made to, I need to know that as well. Send one of your flights to find Kre'fey and secure the station with the other two."

"Yes, sir."

"We're all counting on you, Colonel."

Yeah, yeah. It didn't look so bad to her out here, and she really, really didn't like being pulled out of the action again to go run an errand. But orders were orders, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Even with the shiny new Colonel rank.

She switched channels to give Twin Suns a heads up and to let the Scimitars know they were being left to the battle, which was received only slightly worse than she would have thought. Unsurprisingly, the question came from Jag. "We're running, Colonel?"

Yes. "Not exactly."

"We've got a head start," Eight reported. "We've got pursuers, but they're pretty far behind."

"They'll catch up, Eight. Before they do, I want some distance from the fleets. We're splitting up," Jaina explained. "Jag, as soon as we're out of range of that interdictor, you're taking Five and Six to the coordinates I'm sending you. We'll cover you until you've made the jump."

The surprise in his voice didn't go away. "Jump, Colonel?"

"Yes. I don't know how secure this channel is, and I'm sure somebody's paying a lot of attention to us just now. Make the jump and contact your superior there. Tell him it's all go. Do you understand?"

"Copy. What about you?"

"We've got another job to do."

For as much as Jaina thought she was being sent on an errand mid-battle, she quickly figured out how right Wedge was. From the second she sent Jag off with the others, they came under heavy fire from the coralskippers, and they lost Nine to three skips at once. As much training as she gave, sometimes you couldn't prepare for being stranded without a working ship when you got that heavily attacked before anyone could get to you. At least when Jag's group jumped into hyperspace she could relax some knowing that they were on their way. Which left Jaina's group to get to the Golan battle station, leaving behind the suddenly far outnumbered New Republic forces...

...Through an asteroid field, chased by dozens of skips who were stupid enough to follow them. That part was kind of just fun.

Once they were nearing the station, Jaina clicked her comm on to talk to her pilots. "Okay, Twins, here's what we're going to do. Our primary objectives were to see if the station is operational and to bring it on-line if it was. I don't think General Antilles figured on half the fleet following us out here, though. We're going to get there a few seconds ahead of them. The rest of you will cover me while I enter the docking bay, then you're going to punch to the outer system."

"Are you saying we're supposed to leave you, Sticks?" Her squadron never ever seemed willing to leave someone behind. While ordinarily Jaina would be thrilled they'd always learn to function as a team, times like this she wished they'd just do what she said.

"With any luck, they won't see me drop in. They'll think I jumped with the rest of you," she explained.

"With all due respect, Colonel, that's crazy," Two said.

Losing patience here, yes. "General Antilles needs to know the status of this station, and he needs to know soon. If any of you can think of a better plan, tell me now."

"Same plan, but one of us stays behind," Three said. "It doesn't make sense it being you, Colonel."

"It's the way it's happening. The last thing I need right now is an argument." And frankly, if this went horribly wrong, she'd rather risk herself than any of her pilots.

Three seemed to get that there'd be no convincing her otherwise, and at any rate, they were too close to the station to argue. "Yes, Colonel. Understood."

As she'd told them, she started off in formation with the rest of the group, then dropped out to try and make a run for the docking bay. Quickly, though, she realized it wasn't going to work. Some of the skips had seen what she was doing and were following her.

She didn't even have a chance to turn around and formulate a new plan. Her vision flooded with flashes of green lights, and when she was able to get in position to see, she found that the Golan was very much online, and was on their side.

*****

Jaina left the rest of her squadron to fend off the Vong while she went aboard the battle station and see how else they could help. When she got out of her ship, she noticed that her X-wing was the only ship in the enormous docking bay when she landed with permission, but before she could dwell on it, she was being welcomed aboard. She was met by two humans and a Rodian, and the male human, a gray-haired man about her father's age, extended his hand to her when he got close enough. "I'm Lieutenant Erli Prann," he greeted her. "We spoke a moment ago. These are my associates, Zam Ghanol and Hiksri Jith. I really can't say how glad we are to see you..." He glanced at her insignia. "Colonel...?"

"Solo," she finished.

"Solo? Not the one from the holos? Jaina Solo?"

She was pretty convinced she was never going to get used to the fact that her reputation could precede her. "'Fraid so. And I hate to be rude, but could we cut straight to the situation? I need to assess this station and report to General Antilles as soon as possible." And her pilots were still out there fighting while she got to have small talk.

"Of course," Prann said. "It's just such a surprise and such an honor. If you'll follow me, please?"

"If you don't mind me asking, Lieutenant Prann," Jaina said as they walked, "what in blazes are you people doing here?"

Prann laughed. "I suppose that does require a little explanation, doesn't it? We were part of a crew sent out here to overhaul the station." He paused as the turbolift came and they stepped into it. "You might have noticed it's way out here."

"Yes. I was wondering about that." And the fact that there was no other ship in the docking bay, that there was carbon scoring on the walls there like there had been a firefight... She had a few questions already.

"In fact, we didn't know it was here for years. It was cloaked, you see." As they continued on, he told her the story of how Grand Admiral Thrawn had cloaked the station and no one could ever find it. Following a lead, the restorers did, but the Vong invaded Bilbringi while they were still aboard, which left them stranded there for a year. "This morning, though, we swept and saw your fleet. We dropped the field, hoping you would spot us. We've got limited sublight communications, but no hyper-wave or HoloNet. And here you are."

Something was wrong here. If the feeling through the Force didn't alert her to that, the way he said those words certainly did. Jaina had thought at first it was just the fact that she'd always get twitchy being away from the fight, but no. She reached for her lightsaber, but didn't even get halfway to it before she felt like she'd been hit with a ton of duracrete. She didn't even realized she'd hit the deck until she was already down...

When she woke up, she was strapped to a table, and her head hurt, and even just looking at anything made her dizzy. Seriously? This was happening again?

"Sorry about that," Prann said. When Jaina looked up, she found him in the room with her, and his Toydarian accomplice had a blaster on her. She was getting scarily used to having guns pointed at her. "Sonics leave I you with a terrible hangover without the benefit of ever having the fun."

Luckily she found she could still talk. It was her first time getting hit with a sonic, but the aftermath was so far better than it had been after getting stunned at high voltage on Bakura. How terrifying was it that she had basis for comparison? "Prann, what's going on? Who are you really?"

"Oh, that name's as good as any," he replied easily.

"What are you, Peace Brigade?"

"Colonel Solo," Prann frowned, "now you're hurting my feelings. That pathetic bunch of collaborationists? Hardly. I'm a liberator."

"Of what?"

"Technology, actually."

Fun with euphemisms. "Ah. You're a thief and a smuggler."

"What I do is more like emergency salvage," he shrugged. "I haven't taken anything the Vong wouldn't have destroyed anyway. Remember Duro? We got some good stuff there, in hit-and-run raids after New Republic forces pulled out. If we hadn't it would have been wasted. The Vong sure weren't going to use it."

"So you came here after the Vong took Bilbringi?" she guessed. This was definitely better than Bakura. She could already think straight again. That was good, she needed a clear head.

"Nope, this job was a little different. Most of my story was true-except that it was Vel, here, who discovered the missing station in the shipyard databanks. I'd heard a story that one of the Golans disappeared right before the New Republic forces invaded. A few of us got jobs in the shipyards, and Vel managed to slice into the old Imperial records. One of the best slicers in the business."

"Ah, just average," Vel said.

"So what do you want with me?" Jaina asked. "Why did you stun me?"

"Well, frankly, Colonel Solo," Prann said, "I don't want anything from you, especially trouble. But I need to borrow some parts from your X-wing."

Jaina frowned, while some underlying part of her couldn't help but be pissed off he'd think about taking her ship apart. "You can't all escape in a single X-wing."

"No, we can't. We're going to escape in the station itself."

Um. "Come again? I thought you said it isn't equipped with hyperdrive."

"No, I said Golans aren't usually equipped with hyperdrive. This one wasn't, either. But how do you think we were planning on salvaging a space station without the Bilbringi authorities noticing?"

"You brought your own drive." At least they weren't going to make her install it?

"Yes. We almost had it installed when the Vong showed up and torched our transport. Unfortunately, the motivator was still on the transport. No motivator, no hyperdrive. So we've been waiting."

"You can't use an X-wing motivator to jump a station this size," Jaina said. It wasn't that she thought they were this stupid, she just needed the information from them to figure out what was going on.

"No, but we can cobble one together from seven."

If he wanted to get a reaction out of her, he got it. Jaina struggled against the webbing strapping her in, suddenly very determined to get out. "Leave my squadron alone!"

"Hey, calm down. They're all okay," Prann assured her. "We hit them with ion beams, hauled them in with tractor beams, and stunned them with sonics. And that wasn't easy- not with the Wookiee and that crazy Twi'lek." Jaina was really proud of Lowie and Alema right now, just for putting up a fight. ~~And if he thought Alema was crazy now, just wait a few years.~~ "Look, I'm not trying to make any enemies, here."

From where she was forcibly strapped to a table after being stunned, Jaina stared at him.

"Look, Prann," she said, "General Antilles needs this battle station."

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but we've all invested a little too much in this baby to just hand it over to be destroyed," he said with a laugh. "Do you know how much I can get for the cloaker alone? No, forget it. In a few hours we'll be ready to jump. Meanwhile, we've put the cloak back on."

"And what about me?"

"You're a bit of a problem," Prann admitted. "I know enough about you to know that the longer I keep you around, the better the chance you'll be able to use those Jedi powers of yours to- Well, I don't know, do I, and that's the problem. On the other hand, I don't want to kill Han Solo's daughter. I mean, I respect the guy, and I know he's already been through a lot."

"You're just afraid he would hunt you down and kill you." And Han would. There was no question in her mind about that.

"Yeah, that, too. Look, I'm a businessman. This is business. Once we've got the hyperdrive working and jump out of here, we'll put you all off someplace safe- with your starfighters. Okay?"

"No, not okay. Who are you going to sell your cloaker to, Prann?" Jaina asked. "The Vong? Because they're going to be the only ones around to buy it if you don't help us here."

"That's a little dramatic, don't you think? I mean, there's still plenty of market for this sort of thing in the Corporate Sector- heck, in lots of places. A small planetary government is what I'm looking for, one afraid they'll soon need negotiating power," Prann said with a shrug. "If this battle here goes sour, it'll only make the market that much better."

"Until there is no market. Until the Vong have everything, because Huttoads like you are still trying to make a profit rather than doing what they can to help us win."

"We sat out here for a year surrounded by Vong," he said angrily, "in constant fear that they would find us. Sure, they can't see us when we have the cloak on, but we can't see them either. Every single time we pushed out the probe we all got the shakes. And who knew what the Vong have that might detect us at any second? Do you know what it's like to be surrounded by that kind of pressure every day for a year and not be able to do a single thing about it? After what we've been through... Sister, you can keep your platitudes. I'm taking this station, I'm selling it, and I'm going to take my share and retire to some little backwater so far away the Vong won't reach it in my lifetime and sip cool drinks on a hot beach."

"There's no place that far away," Jaina said.

"I'm willing to look."

She wasn't going to get anywhere with him and she knew it. Jaina looked to Vel, focusing the Force on him as much as she could. Luckily the stun had cleared enough that she could concentrate. "He's crazy," she said. "Stun him and help me out of this."

Vel blinked, and looked at her blankly, then laughed. Well, there went that. She knew Toydarians were resistent to mindtricks, but she'd had hope.

"So it's true, then," Prann said with a grin. "Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to help get those motivators coupled together. Vel, I've changed my mind. Take her to fire control and watch her there. I can't spare you just to be a guard during this. Just keep an eye on things, and don't let her talk to anyone."

"I want to see my pilots," Jaina demanded. And if she could do that, she wouldn't need to talk to Lowbacca and Alema to work out a plan. See, there were reasons for wanting enough Jedi in her squadron for a meld.

"After we've made the jump," Prann told her. "Not before."

He turned and left the room, leaving her trapped in a room with the one person here she couldn't mindtrick while a battle raged on so close that she could see it from the viewports from here, trying desperately to figure out the next step.

[Open for calls and Emails! Okay, no not really. NFI, NFB, OOC okay. Jaina is having a bad week.]

A hotel on the mainland- Wednesday afternoon

2009-09-23T13:37:26Z

Once Jaina had called John to bitch, hey guess who wanted to see her. There were mixed feelings on this, yes. Especially if they were on his time, which meant she was stuck like this longer, though at least she'd still have time to get everything done she needed to do before tomorrow. You know. Like explaining to Wedge and Jag why she looked and sounded like Jacen. Though she was pretty sure Jacen had never looked this pissy.

Having agreed to meet up at the hotel, Jaina knocked on the door to the room, still hating everything. At least here she was relatively sure she could freak out with the management only telling her to shush once or twice, as opposed to somewhere embarrassingly public.

[For the boy... the real boy, and blissfully NFB for distance.]

Room 313, Tuesday evening

2009-09-23T01:42:21Z

To be completely honest, Jaina was in a really weird headspace today. She was two days away from a specific mission back home, trying to make sure everything was in order since she actually had time to prepare for once, and yet she really would rather be in California. Don't think there wouldn't be some serious denial of guilt over that. Add in the fact that out there another year had gone by in something like six weeks for her, and there were plenty of things she really didn't want to think about.

Which may have been why she did it. Somewhere between calls home, waiting for Jag to get back to her with a report on how Twin Suns was dealing with the drills she was putting them through, she found herself actually putting pictures up on her wall. She'd taken everything down and boxed up most of her things after Myrkr, but she didn't really think that way anymore. She didn't make specific plans anymore when she knew she was heading into something where things could go horribly wrong, but she didn't automatically assume she wasn't going to make it back. She just took it as a very real possibility instead. Still, putting up photos right before a mission? Weird headspace.

She didn't have a lot of pictures, anyway. She had very few holos from home, due to that whole middle-of-a-war thing, but there were a few more recent ones from Fandom and trips she'd taken with John that went up around that schedule he'd drawn up for his timeline. By the time she was done, it almost even looked like a normal person's dorm room.

Well okay, it was still way too bare for that, but it helped a little.

[Door half open, post totes open with the understanding that Firefox sucks like a Hoover to pings might be slow at times.]

Duros System- Thursday evening Fandom time

2009-09-11T01:35:23Z

While Jaina had come home without a battle plan, she definitely had one upon getting there. She and Jag hadn't even worked out the new roster for Twin Suns when Wedge had approached her about taking part in his new campaign, and she was not about to say no to it.

It helped that they'd made it out of the first fight intact. Despite the turnover, her squadron rarely lost pilots in battle.

Afterwards, she'd been talked into joining the rest of her pilots at the tapcaf for a drink. It was a personal thing with her: she'd avoid making real connections with the individuals until they survived their first real battle. There was no need for her to get attached before that, and it was a morale boost for new pilots to have their commanding officer come down a level for them after accomplishing something. She figured this counted, and she could spare some time with the group.

"Can't say much for the atmosphere," Raf Othrem said, looking around the tapcaf. You'd think just because the walls were bare, along with everything else in the place, that he looked down on the decor. Snob.

"What were you expecting, a casino from the Galsol strip?" Jaina asked. "Yesterday this was just a piece of space junk the Yuuzhan Vong hadn't got around to pulverizing."

"And now they won't, thanks to us!" Raf said, raising his glass. "To Twin Suns Squadron, and our illustrious leader, Jaina Solo."

There were worse things than being toasted by your squadron, but Jaina wanted to point out that this was just one win, that the next might not go this well. She wouldn't, though. They'd gotten through this one. Let them have that.

She even raised her glass to participate. "To the good fight," she said, smiling as they cheered.

"I'd say one more toast is in order," Raf decided.

"Just one?" Mynor Dae said. "I can't imagine you shutting up for the rest of the night."

"No doubt," Alema said dryly. Yes, Jaina'd been happy to take Alema in. She liked having enough Jedi for some sort of meld. This would make three.

Raf narrowed his eyes at her, but raised his glass. "To General Wedge Antilles, and the plan that gave us back Fondor."

"I'll drink to that," Jaina said.

Not that she got a chance. She saw something fall before her eyes, and she lowered her glass to see the Rogue Squadron patch laying on the surface of the table. Naturally she looked up to see where it had come from. "Lensi?"

She'd known Lensi for years. He was a Duros that had been part of Rogue Squadron from back in the day when she'd first rejoined after being blinded. She'd flown with him, and while she hadn't known him well, she wasn't used to seeing him this unhappy. "Colonel," he replied, very formally.

Raf wasn't paying much attention to the expression on Lensi's face, or maybe he'd just been toasting for too long. "Join the celebration, Lensi," he invited. "Not that we normally mingle with disreputable Rogues, but-"

Lensi was still eyeing Jaina coldly. "I have nothing to celebrate. And I will no longer fly with Rogue Squadron. My people were betrayed today. Betrayed by General Antilles. Betrayed by Jaina Solo."

It was like people hadn't figured out by now that Jaina could fight her own battles or something. One verbal lash and Jag was on his feet, followed by Lowbacca, who was outright growling. She expected that from Lowie, at least. She probably would have wondered what she'd done wrong if he didn't jump to that reaction, actually. Still. She wasn't having it.

"Lowbacca, sit down," Jaina told him. "Jag- please. Let him talk."

It took a moment for them both to back down, and Jaina braced herself for whatever was coming next. "What's on your mind, Lensi?"

His answer was surprisingly simple to start. "Many of my people died in the attack on Duro."

"They didn't have to," Jaina pointed out. "The attack on Duro was a feint, designed to draw reinforcements from here. The Duros commander of the mission broke with the plan. He jeopardized both missions."

"He was not told the attack was a feint," Lensi protested.

"No one was!" Raf cut in, loudly. "We were all in the dark."

Jaina didn't tell him to stay out of it. If anyone tried to defend her, especially blindly, they'd get told to sit down. If they wanted to defend the mission, she'd like to hear what they had to say. "That's why it worked, Lensi," she explained. "Yuuzhan Vong intelligence is good. Wedge had to make the buildup look like it was aimed at Duro, and he had to make the attack there look convincing."

"Duro was the more lightly occupied," Lensi said. "We could have taken Duro. We were promised this. We were used."

"Such is war," Jag said. "Fondor was considered the more strategic target. The liberation of Duro may come next, it may not. Many of the pilots here have lost a homeworld to the Vong." Jaina herself could raise a hand there. "You think you're alone? You think every one of them wouldn't prioritize the liberation of their homeworld over every other, if they were given the choice? War isn't fought on the basis of sentiment and desire. Battles must accomplish tactical goals."

"Your 'tactical goals' see many of my people dead today," Lensi shot back.

"Because they disobeyed orders. They signed on under General Antilles. If they had paid attention to him, most if not all of them would still be alive. If you want to know who betrayed your people to death, look to the commander who broke ranks." All right, Jaina decided, Jag was also allowed to defend his uncle. She'd give him that.

"We aren't children. We should have been told."

Jaina cut in before Jag could really get going. "Maybe. In hindsight, maybe. Or maybe we would all be dead now," she said. "You were a good wingmate at Sernpidal. I know you've done well with Rogue Squadron since I left. We're going to win this war. We're going to win back Duro. But only if enough of us keep fighting." She reached in front of her to pluck the patch from the table and tossed it back to him. "You have to do what your conscience dictates."

Lensi paused, looking at the patch and then back up at her. "Colonel Solo, I was there, after Sernpidal, when you slapped Kyp Durron for lying to us. You know what it feels like to be betrayed, to fight without knowing what you're really fighting for."

Oh, she remembered that. She'd been a seventeen-year-old kid yelling then, with what seemed like only Colonel Darklighter to back her up, and Lensi had been so new, so unable to understand how something like that could happen. It'd been a year and a half since then just in Fandom time, and now she understood why Kyp had done what he'd done. She still wished she'd known what she'd been getting into, but there wasn't any sense in crying about it now. Bad things happened. It didn't change what she had to do any. "I know what lots of things feel like," she said evenly. "And you know what? I'm still fighting. I'm going to keep fighting until there isn't a single threat left in this galaxy. You think you're the only person who has lost something in this war? Grow up, Lensi."

He fell silent again, watching her carefully. "Did you know?"

"No. But if I had, I wouldn't have told anyone. General Antilles did the right thing." ~~Sadly, this sort of thing would apparently be a huge point of contention for her in about fourteen years.~~

That was apparently all Lensi needed to hear. When he turned and left, he still had the patch in hand. He'd stay, Jaina knew. He'd hate what had to be done, but eventually he'd be a part of something like this when it didn't affect him directly, and he'd get it. He probably wouldn't be the last person she'd ever have to give this talk to, either.

The table was silent, and Jaina raised her glass. "To needing something new to toast to. Raf, I think that's you."

It seemed to be what they needed to raise their spirits a little, and a moment later Raf was coming up with another reason to drink. It wasn't exactly like nothing had happened, but they'd move on. They'd earned their victory, Jaina thought they should have it.

[NFI, NFB, OOC okay. Like 99% of dialogue from The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes.]

Room 313- Wednesday evening

2009-09-10T02:06:16Z

There was something kind of comforting about making plans for a trip home (especially after that gremlin bite which was not to be mentioned), even if it now meant pulling out calendars and trying to work out timing. Even when she knew that she could very well end up staying longer at home than she meant to, since every time she seemed to get into some sort of trouble that kept her there and getting captured or nearly killed. Bring it on. It was a very wrong kind of normal, but it was a normal she needed sometimes.

Once she'd gotten things settled, she made a couple calls to let people know, and started playing with her phone to see if there was any way to schedule herself in there too. There had to be an app for this big a scale...

[Door and post are open!]

Room 313- Tuesday evening

2009-09-09T01:27:49Z

Jaina had been in an on-again, off-again bad mood all day, not that that was any different than normal. But the level of the irritation was new, because even as she sat on her bed reading through the latest report from home, she was about ready to hurt someone over that scratching noise she kept hearing.

Finally annoyed enough, she got up to follow the noise, which was coming from the grate just past her bed... and there was a little gremlin trying to pull a certain diamond necklace through said grate. The gremlin couldn't seem to turn it right to get it through, and though Jaina knew this was a bad idea, she did the stupidest thing she possibly could, and snatched the necklace before it could disappear, just because she didn't want that little bastard to have it.

And sure, okay, she might have taken a chomp to her finger, but... at least she won?

She completely blamed Layla Miller for this.

ooc: availability of OMG TAXI IS ALMOST HERE

2009-09-05T02:19:09Z

Omg I've been doing a lot of traveling this year, huh? I'm going to be gone again, as I am just about to leave for a weekend in DC! I'll be back on Monday night, but the hotel I'm staying at doesn't have free net in the rooms, so I can only get online if I wanna sit in the lobby, and I don't see myself being around a ton anyway.

So. Jaina is visiting John and can be modded at will, Mirax is home for the weekend, Angela escaped to home for the weekend, Aeryn's off island anyway and Lily totes can squish spiders for Marshall all he wants. I should be able to ping the kids in to classes and work and yadda yadda yadda.

And so everyone is aware, why yes, I did use fh_trips to figure out where I wanted to go. Sad or awesome? You decide.

Room 313- Wednesday evening

2009-08-27T01:43:07Z

Between spending days chasing after the universe's cutest three-year-old and following that up with a technical anniversary, Jaina had had a pretty damn good extended weekend. Which meant that once she'd knocked out some training time, she was dying for something to do.

So she spent a good amount of time on the comm with Jag, insisting that she get more stuff passed on to her, which led to a lot of "It's not meant as a slight, it's just easier if I get it done" from him, which in turn led to a comment of "Then if I'm not busy here, I guess it's not a big deal if I spend more time at John's," and half an hour later she had more stuff to do than she had in weeks.

Maybe later she'd feel bad about being a manipulative ho, but that was later.

[Mainly establishy, but the door's open if you wanna talk to heeeeer.]

Apartment in Palo Alto- Tuesday Fandom time

2009-08-26T01:12:22Z

For as much as Jaina was still kind of missing a certain little boy (and his siblings, shh), it was nice to get back to something a little more normal, even if it was entirely abnormal to others. But then again, how many of them got to celebrate a two year anniversary for six days? Technically speaking, between her sped-up time and his sped-up time, it had been much longer than just two years, which was why the Fandom date was the one that really counted: there was really no other way to work out the time. Might as well go the easy way.

Tonight Jaina had gone the simple route. When John got home, he'd find dinner was ready- takeout, but it was on actual plates so it was like she cooked- and music playing, and a girlfriend who probably shouldn't have put this out as early as she did, because it gave her free time to realize that "It's a Small World" was still in her head.

[I totally modded the boy. Mwahahahahaha.]

Room 313, Monday evening

2009-08-18T01:42:30Z

While this weekend had had its good points, it had also had its bad, and by Monday Jaina had figured that she'd put off resolving one of those issues long enough. Namely, setting things straight with her mother.

It took a few calls throughout the day to be able to get in touch with her, and finally Leia returned the call, warily asking, "Is everything all right? You never leave that many messages."

To be fair, not leaving a lot of messages wasn't because Jaina was being a bad daughter, but because there really wasn't a point. If her parents weren't able to be contacted, leaving several messages wouldn't do much good anyway. So Leia had to be thinking something horrible had happened. "Oh, no, everything's fine," Jaina assured her. "I was just really wanting to get something settled before things got out of hand. I just wanted to make sure you knew- and I'm sure you've heard- but that whole wedding thing is just... not happening."

There was a pause, and even in little blue holographic form, Leia looked something between alarmed and hopeful, with a lot of other things thrown in the mix there. "There was supposed to be a wedding?"

"No. Not at all. Which is why I wanted to clear the air."

"Why would I think you're getting married?" she asked. "I can't say I'd be surprised-"

"Not me," Jaina said quickly. "Jacen."

More silence. "Jacen was supposed to be getting married?" By that tone, maybe she'd had to tell Jacen that yes, he'd accidentally been dating Danni, too.

"No! No, he wasn't supposed to be.... Why do you sound like this is news?" Jaina asked slowly.

"It might have something to do with it being the first I've heard of any of this?"

Uh oh. "You didn't talk to J- Sue?"

"Who's Sue?"

Oh, Jaina wished her mom couldn't see her flail like this. "My... friend Sue. She said she talked to you and told you..."

"No, I never talked to her. I didn't even know you had a friend Sue," said Leia, with that pointed tone that meant that maybe John's claims that Leia had been upset not to hear more from her daughter were a little true. "Why would Sue know that Jacen was supposed to be getting married? To who?"

"Okay, um," said Jaina eloquently. "I think there was a huge misunderstanding, maybe the wires got mixed up again, forget I said anything."

"No, I think we're going to start from the beginning," Leia said.

Roughly half an hour later, Jaina had placed a call to Jacen begging forgiveness, and a call to John, and was really wondering who she had to yell at.

[Omg I had to. Door and post can be open post-call.]

Apartment in Palo Alto- Sunday morning Fandom time

2009-08-16T17:22:01Z

Jaina kind of really liked the times she and John obviously had nothing better to do with their time. It was a nice change of pace for her, one she really only let herself enjoy when she was here, And it led to things like going out and getting nail polish. Not because she was going girly on anyone, but because she kind of didn't mind that kind of attention. And thank you for that, Walter Jon Williams. *eyeroll*

When they got back to the apartment, Jaina guessed, "Probably not worth doing this out in the open, huh?"

[Omg you know how this goes by now.]

Room 313, Monday evening

2009-08-11T01:46:24Z

It was really very, very weird that Jaina was doing as well as she was these days. For having a long-distance relationship she'd been so worried about at the beginning, it was actually going really well. And the time there allowed her time to relax without work being able to catch up to her. She'd even sort of had a vacation. Yes. In some reality Earth probably just spun off its axis into the sun and it was all Jaina's fault.

Which meant when she actually had a flood of messages and work to catch up on, it elt a little more normal. Or a lot more normal, and she'd been busy today, which was why she missed the call.

And immediately Jaina was getting to her feet to check on the fish John had left to her when he'd gone... and there it was, floating at the top of the water. She'd been pretty good about making sure it was fed and all so far, but between all the up and back and time lag she must have just forgotten. Cursing, she picked up a pen, pointing the non-writing end at the ex-fish, just in case it was enough to spur it into moving again, but no luck. There were better reasons to have to call.

At least it had taken her a month?

[I HAD TO. Post can totes be open. Door too.]

Las Vegas- Friday evening Fandom time

2009-08-08T01:11:46Z

Apparently this was the week for Vegas or something. John was on spring break, and since Jaina seemed to be commuting for her weekends anyway, they needed to go somewhere that wasn't San Diego. For some reason. She didn't even know.

She kind of felt comfortable here, too. While the party side of things didn't really appeal to her, she was used to the lights and the noise and the crowds, and she didn't see a lot of that anymore. Plus it gave her a chance to clean up at the poker table and then wander around where she wasn't worried that security was checking them out. (She was doing nothing wrong. She was just good, okay?) And it just so happened that some of the wandering was done past stores that led to comments like, "This city just specializes in hookerwear, doesn't it?"

[For the boy!]

Room 313, Wednesday before classes

2009-08-05T12:08:14Z

It was part time lag, part restlessness that had Jaina up already and raring to go. She still didn't know what had happened last week, though she'd figured out that something had, and apparently she'd developed an instinct to check up on Ben and Tahiri or something, to make sure they were okay. She knew where Tahiri was, Ben not so much, and she was actually fairly annoyed with herself for starting to worry there.

She set out early for the gym, figuring she'd get in some time before classes, but once she opened the door she found herself slightly distracted by the flowers set outside. Suddenly last night's conversation made more sense. She picked them up to set them on her desk, placing a quick call. Two years in and she was actually feeling more invested. That just wasn't right.

[Establishy.]