Deskyl and DZ in Azerosa
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Her unexpected guest has fallen asleep - still standing, leaning against the wall - in the five minutes she's been gone. The droid reaches for the books, though.

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"...That can't be comfortable at all," she murmurs.  ...Best not to wake her, regardless.

 

She hands over the books.  "Your books."

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"Thank you," DZ says in Basic, and starts going through the books, taking only a moment to absorb each page. It'll take her maybe half an hour to get through everything at the pace she's going.

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That's fine.  She can work on a translator for her other guest in that half-hour; she's had a Thought.  Or three.

The books are something of an eclectic selection, but clearly made with some intent to make the translation not as difficult as it could have been if she had picked at random, notwithstanding that she doesn't seem to have a proper dictionary available.  The illustrated plant encyclopedia should help with the groundwork, at least.

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And when she's done: "Thank you for the books, ma'am."

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"Please, don't."  Augh, and here she does have household staff so she can't just dismiss a service dynamic entirely without being something of a hypocrite...  "...I'm not in charge of you, and this was necessary for you to continue to - be yourself, by some metrics.  That, and clear communication is important.  By many measures I should be thanking you for your efforts, and indeed I think I shall.  Thank you.  We don't have anyone who could learn Basic in nearly as quick a time as you've learned our common tongue."

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"It's no trouble, ma'am. Are you already familiar with Sith?"

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"I am, somewhat, though it's - secondhand knowledge that I can't truly trust in.  It was dramatized.

"...No-one else will be, though.  We don't have any around here."

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"Yes ma'am. It will be safest if you avoid startling or provoking master Deskyl but she's unusually calm for a Sith. She's also fairly badly injured right now; is there somewhere nearby where she can sleep?"

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"I believe there should be some guest rooms available.  ...I don't know if a sufficient specialist in the kind of damage that's been done to her exists, as far as healing goes - I'm not even a practitioner of the relevant magic and I could tell how drastically wrong something was when she telepathied at me - but we can at least get her somewhere private to recover.  I owe her that much, given I'm pretty sure you landed here because of me - I was running a test of a teleportation beacon, and, well, you teleported.

"...How long is your battery rated for?"

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"I have a few days of charge available at my usual usage rate, assuming your days are a similar length to the galactic standard, and master Deskyl will be able to make a charger for me; I'll ask her what parts she'll need next time she's awake. I believe she'll be able to recover without assistance, she's been improving without it so far, but I estimate at least another month and possibly two or three."

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"Ah - you might not have noticed, but we are not running on galactic standard physics around here; I don't know if the parts she would want will be available.  There isn't really the right sort of matter to make them.  ...I'll work something out.  Or get somebody to work something out; I normally just stick to forces, not elements, but then - at least I have some idea of what's going on to begin with, that most anyone else wouldn't.  Regardless.  We will see your needs met.  I owe you that."

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"...I'm a droid, ma'am. But master Deskyl will be very upset if I'm not available to her."

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"...You have the capacity of reason.  As far as I'm concerned, that's what makes a person, no matter their operational substrate.  As far as I'm aware the law of Villarosa, let alone the nature of magic, agrees with that definition, and we are on Villarosan soil right now.  But - speaking of magic -"

...Hm.  She doesn't have that much experience with Spirit magic, that's Lila's thing - but she knows what the telepathy felt like, and Spirit magic is all about connections...

She is clumsy, as most untested magic is.  But she successfully nudges Daisy in the Spirit - which a baryonic object simply couldn't have, if it did not support complex consciousness.

"...See?"

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DZ startles when nudged, and grabs Deskyl's hand.

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This wakes the Sith, who surges forward before she's even properly awake to put herself between Alicia and DZ with her lightsaber lit and ready.

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"Don't move," DZ instructs, clearly worried.

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She was going to Back Away Slowly, but now she is Not Moving, as instructed.  "...Right."  She could probably deflect a lightsaber.  She does not want to test that theory.  "...I expect an apology is...not really sufficient.  But you have mine anyway.  I should have known better."  What an utter fucking idiotsurprises are bad when you are from a Sith Empire, auuugh.

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After a few moments of standoff, DZ circles around to get into Deskyl's line of sight and sign to her, but as soon as she comes into Deskyl's field of view the Sith gestures emphatically for her to get back behind her, and she complies.

After another moment, she takes a hand off her 'saber hilt and drops it to her side for DZ to sign into. Her glare intensifies at DZ's words, and the room fills with an oppressive sense of doom, but she lowers her blade and steps aside.

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"I'm sorry, ma'am. Whatever that was I don't think you should do it again."

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...Oppressive senses of doom are much more survivable.

She is...Okay apparently she's taking at least one nonthreatening step back from the Sith (and DZ) now.

"I am certainly not going to do any such thing without first getting explicit permission to do so as I should have done.  I am an utter fool, to forget that, merely because I was distracted by making a rhetorical point that my audience wouldn't be properly equipped to understand anyway."

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"...You do not owe me an apology for this."

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DZ signs along as Alicia speaks, and when she's done she adds "she thinks I'm a person, ma'am."

The sense of doom fades and Deskyl deactivates her 'saber so that she can sign without waving it around, though she doesn't holster it yet.

    "She says of course I'm a person," DZ reports, and signs back without further translation.

 

    "She doesn't expect to be able to figure out how to charge me until she's more recovered, if the emergency methods she knows don't work - she knows how to make a rotation-powered charger, using a waterwheel or something similar, and a solar charger." And in theory she can do it with Force lightning but no one wants that. "Do you expect those to work, or to be able to find an alternative method within the next few days, or should I start conserving power?"

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Phew.  Disaster averted.

 

"I know of those methods; the problem would be sourcing the parts.  We don't have baryonic matter lying around to use for those.  ...Could probably rig something up for pure elements if we're trying it that way, though.  Even if I have to fumble my way through half the periodic table.  ...My gut instinct, though, is that while you two are here you will be better served by a local solution - especially if you do not wish to be dependent upon a single point of failure in myself.  ...If I can't work conversion out from a standard power tap, lightning usually falls under air magic for legacy reasons.  I should be able to get expert input, and elementally speaking it should cooperate with this use..."

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Deskyl is starting to look unsteady again; DZ moves to a better position to catch her if she falls. "Do you have an idea of how long it will take to get a preliminary option, ma'am?"

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