Trychon took in the attention like a Mon Cal sponge. With a grin from ear to ear, he animatedly retold day by day the various obstacles they'd encountered. He played down their early discomfort, and played up their victories as though they'd come easily. He did it in part because he knew it made for good storytelling, but also because when he first began talking about the Tarantatek, he saw the worry creep into Dianna's glances.
He and Raezyr very carefully shared a few private thoughts about how close they'd come to disaster through their bond. At one point, he thought Aitchkay was about to interrupt because he'd left out details on some of the injuries, but a sideways glance to the corner the droid was standing in kept him silent. He thought to himself that he'd have to crawl around some of the programming... he was impressed with the intuitiveness for a droid.
As the stories continued on a few more of the crew joined the table, and joined in with laughter before long. Trychon kept hoping maybe Raezyr would give him a break and take over for a part of their journey, but to no avail. Raezyr sat there listening and smiling, and talking quietly on and off with Dianna. Trychon didn't mind, because they kept bringing him his drinks... but he was thinking of how to get Raezyr back in the back of his mind.
As he neared the end, the crowd started to dissipate again, they all welcomed the two Sith back to the base again and thanked them for the stories on their way out. When Trychon was completely done, all that was left was he and Raezyr, Dianna, Dek and the kid Kord. Raezyr finally spoke up loud enough for those left to hear. "So, is there a bunch of the crew still out on a mission?"
Dianna frowned for the first time since they'd arrived back on base. "No. There's just quite a few who have decided to be anti-social while you guys are home." Trychon caught her use of the word home, and was sure that Raezyr had as well, but neither commented on it. They'd all had a pretty intense experience together when the Republic tried to capture them, and it was obvious that she felt close to both of them even if it was moreso for Raezyr.
Kord, who had remained silent through all of Trychon's retelling, finally spoke up. "Some of the guys were even ribbing us kinda hard for not staying away... they played it off like they were teasing. They weren't though."
"I'll take care of it..." Dianna started to say, with her cheeks starting to burn a different sort of red.
"Don't." Raezyr interrupted. "They don't like us and they don't have to. Nothing will come of it. If it does... we're not worried."
"Delki will keep the ships safe, too." Trychon added. "Well, fellas and Kingsfolk... I promised a few sparring session with Raezyr and a few of the soldiers... so I think I'm gonna head to my bunk for a bit. Everyone have a nice night."
Dianna and Raezyr nodded to him. He got up from the table and headed out of the common area. He stopped and turned around after turning the corner to catch Dek and Kord offguard, nearly running into him. He smiled. "Yes?"
Dek was a nice kid, Trychon had chatted with him a few times briefly on their other stopins. He was a very talented and natural slicer, but he still had a bit to learn. He seemed a bit nervous as he spoke up. "I didn't want to say anything in front of the group... but I haven't been able to open the files you left behind... from the cruiser?"
Trychon nodded. "Yeah. They're encrypted."
Dek seemed frustrated. "But I've sliced Republic files a bunch of times! Not always really quickly, but I've been able to do it for two years now!"
"Relax kid. I encrypted those files. Figured if you could get into them after that, you deserved to look through them. Otherwise, my intel is always my intel first."
Dek looked a little disappointed, but he smiled at Trychon and nodded. It had been a test for the kid, and he'd tried. It was good exercise for him. Dek started to leave, and pulled on Kord's sleeve, but the other young pirate seemed to be thinking something over.
Trychon looked at him. "Anything else, guys?"
Kord smiled nervously. "Can anyone watch you when you guys fight in the morning?"
Trychon laughed. "Sure thing. Not exactly a fight... Raez and I will be using practice blades, but your friends might not. Makes it more interesting."
With that last comment, Trychon turned around and headed for his room. He wanted to meditate a bit, as he was trying to expand his more subtle connections to the force. This seemed to be one of the earlier steps towards unlocking the tools in his tome.
When he arrived in his room, he ensured everything was still where it belonged, switched into some looser black pants and a sparring shirt he'd ripped the burned sleeves off of, and he knelt on the floor with his eyes closed. He concentrated on the flow of energy around him. He took it in and tried to predict the ebbs and movements of it... then he began poking at it to watch the ripples.
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