Issue 1 Downtime

It was Friday after class and that meant Miranda was in her usual place, kneeling at the edge of the cliff near where she'd said goodbye to Aria. She laid the shallow dish in front of her knees, wrapping her wings in front of her to protect it while she lit the incense and placed the cover on it to diffuse the smoke. She inhaled deeply before repositioning her wings, letting the wind catch them and beat against them. It was as close as she got to flying these days. She folded her hands in her lap and watched the sea.

((Open))

"Would you mind if I joined you?" Nailah asks from a couple feet away.

"That entirely depends on why you're here," she said without bothering to turn her head. That sense of 'being watched' that Miranda sometimes used poked at Nailah.

"To join you in remembrance. If you'll have me, that is."

That seemed to be an acceptable answer because Miranda moved a bit to make room for Nailah. "There's always room for that."

"Thank you." she smiles as she sits down next to her, keeping her own wings folded to not get in the way. "Is this for Aria?"

"Not just for her, but yes," Miranda said, flapping her wings gently which drove some of the smoke out towards the water.

"Who else?"

"No one specific. It seems selfish to remember just one person."

"There's something to be said to pay respects to everyone, but I wouldn't call it selfish to remember those who touched our lives more than others."

"It was just for her when I started," she admitted, flapping her wings gently. "But the more I kept doing it and the more I kept learning about the past of this place and the teams, the more it broadened the meaning."

She nods. "It's good not to let those people be forgotten. Goddess knows I have my fair share of people to keep in my thoughts."

Miranda nodded thoughtfully, letting things remain quiet for a while. The silence was punctuated by the occasional flap of her wings as she blew more incense smoke out to sea. Eventually the smoke began to taper off as the incense finished burning out and Miranda's flapping stopped.

"Thank you for letting me share this with you." Nailah says, looking at Miranda after finally opening her eyes again.

"I'm here every Friday," she said, "if you decide you want to join me again." She took the lid off the dish and lifted the dish into the air, flapping her wings hard to scatter the ashes over the side of the cliff. "Mother watch over you and the Three watch your crossroads," she murmured to the ash as it fell.

"I might." she says, watching the ash scatter in the air. "You have a very unique perspective of the world."

"Everyone should have a unique perspective. It's sad that so many do not."

"It can be hard to shake off preconceived notions."

"'Preconceived' implies that they are not your fault," she said, putting the dish back together and tucking it away in her bag. "Otherwise, they are your conceived notions."

"It just means they existed before the current situation."

Miranda shrugged, "Seems like a cop out." She stretched her wings one last time before folding them tightly against her back.

"Only if it's used as one."

"Which seems to be the way it's typically used. Shall we continue going round about this?"

"Let's not."

"So what makes my perspective of the world so unique?"

"You lack a lot of those notions. Your take on many things is completely fresh if you will. It's very raw and unapologetic."

"I process and judge things as I see them. I often find out that general opinions differ after the fact, but those opinions seem... near-sighted."

"Just don't forget that they sometimes stem from experience too."

"Experience should never be an excuse for a crummy opinion."

"Of course not, but it might only seem crummy because you lack their experience. Few people hold bad opinions because they want to be wrong or evil."

Miranda seemed to have little to that, so she just shrugged, "Okay."

"It has helped me put some thing into perspective and be less... vengeful, I suppose."

"Revenge isn't really my realm, no matter how badly part of me wants it sometimes."

"That's a good attitude to have."

"You should hope I continue to feel that way the next time a Darth-level lightsaber master shows up in my training program," she said, only a half a smirk on her face.

"Gotten into Star Wars, have we?" she chuckles.

"It's something I can identify with."

"That's my girl." she chuckles. "I have a Danger Room program that sets you up with a lightsaber and a training droid."

"Oh, I have a lightsaber, though I may change the blade color before too much longer. I could show you sometime if you like. Mostly I hang out in the cantina and the program has various people try to come after me. I try to realize what's happening ahead of time and do something to stop it. Occasionally it tosses a lightsaber duel in there. I usually lose badly at those."

"Sounds like you've put quite a bit of effort into this. I'd love to see it."