Nim Naja: In-Transit to the Atrivis Sector

[GM Craig]

Nim woke suddenly in the night. It took a moment to find her bearings, but as her head cleared, she realized where she was - in the makeshift bed in the cargo bay she and Trax had set up. He was sleeping there beside her, his bare, scarred back to her, gently snoring. She looked around and listened, but all seemed like it should be - lights dimmed for the night cycle on the ship, the thrum of the engines as the ship moved through hyperspace - normal ship noises. It was the night after their discussion around the table in the common area, where Trax and Maris seemed to make such progress. Everything seemed normal, yet she had awoken with a start.

Nim glances at the rifle resting on a nearby crate, unsure if she should wake Trax.

Then she heard it again - some sort of cry. Easing out of the bed, dressed in camouflage shorts and a tank top, Nim pads barefoot to the large, open cargo bay doors and leans out to listen. Everything seems quiet, but she definitely heard something. Nim turns left, towards the Engineering section.

As Nim moves quietly through the ship, she starts to hear the sound of crying and sniffles. Getting closer, Nim peeks around a corner and sees Maris Brood sitting in a makeshift nest of blankets tucked out of the way under the stairs. She is awake, and crying quietly. Maris starts as she realizes she is not alone, and hastily scrubs at her face, turning away to try and hide her tears.

In a very embarrassed tone Maris says, "Oh. Ah... I'm... I'm sorry if I woke you. Just... just a nightmare. You can go back to bed." She sniffles.

[Nim Naja]

Her pale eyes took in the scene instantly. Nim made no assumptions as to why the girl was upset, she just knew that she was, nightmare or not. Her immediate reaction was to comfort her, but she had to ponder it for a quick moment. Some people don’t want to be comforted.

But then she thought about their past conversations and the emotional connection they had made.

Plus Maris looked way hawt in just underclothes.

“Meh. Sleep is overrated,” Nim softly smiled, walking over to the wall. Putting her back against it she slid down to plop herself next to Maris as if to say, nope, not going anywhere.

[GM Craig]

She sniffles again, looking at you with tear-brimmed eyes. Her eyes search your face for a moment as a tear rolls down one cheek. Then she looks away and toys with a corner of a blanket. You are stuck again by how young she seems. She must be close to thirty standard years old, but sometimes she seems ten.

After a moment she says, "I never really slept. For 18 years, it was just naps and dozing, but I never really slept, you know? I always had one eye open, ears straining, waiting for the hunters. I did spice for years, so I could stay awake.

"Then I met Master Shaak Ti, and for the first time, I felt safe. I slept. That was when the nightmares started. 18 years of horrors to process, and my mind made up for lost time."

"Before her, I never slept. Never felt a touch that didn't bring pain with it either. No one touches street orphans, and my first master was not big on touching. After that it was all people trying to kill me. But with Master Shaak Ti, when the nightmares started, she would hold me, try to calm me down. And it felt good. Strange, awkward, uncomfortable. But good. And it kept the nightmares away."

Her hands start shaking, and she looks at you, then looks away, shaking her head. "I don't know why I'm telling you this."

[Nim Naja]

“Then see? Sleep is overrated,” she replied, nudging her gently in the shoulder. She was trying to add a little humor into the conversation, albeit poor humor.

“I imagine it’s been a long time again since you’ve really slept. And it’s weird being around people that know you, ain’t it? Weird and probably intimidating.”

[GM Craig]

She nods. "Shaak Ti got me back into the habit of sleep. Without her though, the nightmares are back. And now I've put myself in a position where I need to trust people again, which is hard for me and jumps up and down on all my buttons. And all that talk today... reliving that."

She turns to look at you. "I'm scared Nim. Scared I can't do this without her. Scared of dying. Scared you are going to get hurt because of me. Scared I'm going to fail when you need me most. Scared I can't handle this pressure. Scared that I'm so broken..." Her mouth had been turning down as she was speaking, and finally her voice breaks, and she starts crying silent tears through closed eyes.

[Nim Naja]

“I’m truly sorry for that..” Nim frowned. Maris’ eyes were closed, but her voice spoke of the regret. “I know.. We really put you through the ringer. We needed to hear all of it but at the same time shouldn’t have asked. It was unfair, and I’m sorry. But you know what?”

She posed it as a semi-rhetorical question, only as a prelude. Her hand raised to Maris’ pale features and wiped away some tears with a compassionate caress. Her growing-out buzzed head tilted to the side and brows furrowed above the pale eyes that tried to offer comfort.

“You’re definitely not broken. Someone broken, someone lost, someone that far gone would not even contemplate those things. Besides. The broken one is probably the di'kut that opted for brain surgery.”

She scratched around the implant as if making a point.

[GM Craig]

She leans into your touch, just a little. Then you make your joke, and her tears are interrupted with a laugh. She then scrubs at her eyes and cheeks.

From her body language, you get that she is quickly getting very nervous, but it seems to be something internal.

She doesn't look at you, but peers at you through her lowered eyelashes, like some nervous schoolgirl. Then she swallows, sniffs, and looks sort of beside your head.

"Would you... "

You can almost see her mentally talking herself out of whatever she was about to ask. Instead she shakes her head and says, "Look, I'll be fine. You better get back to bed before your boyfriend wakes up and starts torturing the crew to get answers about where you are." She's disappointed, somehow, as if you had actually said no to whatever she never asked.

[Nim Naja]

“Absolutely,” Nim tried to cut her off before she finished backtracking. “And forget him, he sleeps like the dead some days.” She started scooting off the blanket and gestured for Maris to lay down so she could pull the covers up over her. Nim wasn’t sure precisely what she was looking for but figured it was a start that she’d have to really say no to.

[GM Craig]

"Would you... "
"Absolutely. And forget him, he sleeps like the dead some days."

Maris seems surprised, and looks confused as you gently lay her down and arrange the blankets over her.

Still confused, she shakes her head a little. "What...?" She blinks as you fluff her makeshift pillow for her and says, "I didn't ..."

[Nim Naja]

It was almost comical listening to Maris but she just smiled and tucked her in. When she was nice and snuggled she gently laid a hand on her back and rubbed it soothingly and started humming a lullabye.

OOC: Sung to Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby. Strange, I know.

[GM Craig]

With Maris tucked in, Nim sits cross-legged near the zabrak's head and sings an old Lorrdian folk song while stroking Maris' hair. Maris starts out pretty tense, but she quickly relaxes, and in a few minutes she is back to sleep, a gentle smile on her face, and deep slow breaths making her chest rise and fall.

Still singing, Nim gazes down on Maris'  face. She looks so peaceful in sleep. It is hard to believe that this innocent face stared down the barrel of a blaster at 5 years old. What kind of a monster could hold a blaster to this head and pull the trigger?

Nim sings the old song for a few more minutes, just to make sure Maris is asleep. She then, quiet as she can, gets up from the blanket-nest and pads barefoot through the ship back to the cargo bay. She comes around the make-shift privacy screen to find Trax has shifted and now sprawls over most of the bed. He has twisted up most of the blankets as well.