Am I Lost In Your Eyes? [Aria Vale]

[Blake Morrigan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrspxLUuZPg​

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Agony clawed at the girls insides.

Her frame was still sleek, her eyes still sharp, her gaze unwavering - it mattered little, for her mind, so keen, was too piercing, the steel too cold and wire taught. The mind had long ago started to cut through itself. The urban jungle was dense here on this citywide planet, the rain often never made it to the surface of Ke'lai, the lower recesses rarely ever saw what the sun and moon ever even looked like...no, that privilege was reserved for the wealthy and powerful. Those who could secure a place within those skyscrapers that surrounded her.

No birds sang.

The girl, surprisingly, was smiling. The expression was eerie. Ghostly eyes blazed with a cold fury but the smile remained. The sleek form of the once-noble sat as a shadow beneath a gnarled conifer, a mist of breath curled around his lips with a gruff exhalation. Her face looked broken. It was like the smile should have faded, but had stuck there, like a piece of machinery had caught and the gear that revealed those pearly whites was jammed.

She was smiling, but she was not happy.

Blake, for the first time since her self imposed path to destroy herself, thought about her childhood. She wanted, for the first time, to share the story. She wanted someone to understand, she needed a victim to pin to the stones, someone who she could make relive it. She wanted to do to them what had been done to her. Wanted them to understand. Wanted to them to be sliced open without sedative, wanted them to cry like she had cried. Wanted them to moan as she had moaned. She wanted them to die every day as she had. Wanted them to fall in love with life and then make them hate it, wanted them to hate themselves as much as she hated herself. And then she wanted them to kill her and tell her that she had paid for her crimes and that everything was even now. That she had nothing left to prove or accomplish and she could go to sleep, sleep with both eyes closed.

Yes...this is what she wanted now. What she felt she deserved as her back remained pressed against the metal walls of her apartment...the door cracked open as rain seeped into her room...sitting in a pool of blood as the wounds from the slugs forced pain to wrack her body. Her eyes tired, back circles under them as her hair hung messily within her visage. Her hand held over her belly as she held pressure on one of her many wounds. Crimson fluid dripping from her nose as that smile remained.

She had finally done it...she had finally freed her people...she had cast aside her soul and embarked on the path of blood...and now it finally paid off. The children would be free...the women no longer enslaved...the men allowed to be men. Yes...she became a monster, a demon for the simple sake of survival. But just look at the good she had done.

That alone was worth it. The people could scorn her all they liked. She knew the price of progress, and she would pay it. But for now, she gazed out the window as the cries of revolution rung through the skies. Bouncing off the buildings and echoing through the streets.

"Vivre libre Ke'lai. La liberté est le vôtre maintenant..." She whispered quietly, leaning her head back and taking a strained breath as everything seemed to fade to blackness.

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| [member="Aria Vale"] |​

 

[NightSister]

Aria stifled a yawn.

It was fairly early in the morning - the best time to get started with the day to some, the best time to be asleep to Aria. Nevertheless, she was awake - though very obviously reluctantly so - and more than that, she was in the hangar bay of the Voss Temple fiddling with the control deck of one of the Order's starships as she prepared to depart.

Yesterday, a fellow Jedi by the name of Ivory whom Aria had never met before but knew to be fairly new to the Silver Jedi had come to her seeking assistance: Aria remained unwise to the specifics, but as far as she was aware, Ivory had gotten a call from an 'old friend' who went by Blake Morrigan, that had seriously worried her and she now needed a Jedi more skilled than she to investigate. That Aria had been considered skilled enough for the task, even with it sounding like a relatively tame investigation - certainly she had dealt with more dangerous on previous occasions, but that she was thought of as among those with talent had flattered her into accepting and so armed with a saber, a blaster and freshly washed hair, the Echani was taking off that morning to hunt Ivory's elusive friend down.

The familiar rumbling sound told Aria that the engines were readied, and she pulled a lever to fly the starship out of the hangar bay. Aria was no supreme pilot, but she could handle a starship well enough that provided no meteors crossed her path, she would likely have reached Ke'lai, which according to Ivory was where Blake would reside, though her exact whereabouts remained a mystery. As luck would have it, Aria's career with the Silver Shadows placed tracking up on the things that she now possessed an aptitude for, so for once Aria felt quite certain that she would be able to accomplish what she had been asked to do. She was genuinely pleased at the prospect of helping someone in potential danger, though what sort of danger she was in Aria was still unsure of - only that whatever she had told Ivory was enough to cause the girl serious panic.

A while later, the planet came into view and soon Aria was gently steering down to the surface, landing in the middle of a shipyard with a gentle thud. Quickly, she called on her datapad to remind her of what Ivory had given as the description of Blake: she hadn't had a picture to show, but had been able to list her features in moderate detail, which would with any luck suffice. Blake Morrigan: Fair skin, black-and-white hair, a little under six feet. The name was unfamiliar to her, but perhaps somebody on Ke'lai would be able to point her in the right direction.

Fixing her plait, Aria stepped off the landing ramp and went straight for the nearest approachable bypassers: a couple in perhaps their late twenties.
"Excuse me," she said in her most concerned tone. "Have you seen my friend? She's, uh - her name's Blake Morrigan, she's tall with black-and-white hair, and I haven't seen her in days."

The couple looked at her blankly for a moment, then the man's face shifted with familiarity. "There was a Morrigan lady at the store last week when I was on shift. It's just a few blocks away, if you take a right there -" pointing, he gave Aria a set of directions which she mouthed along with, determined not to forget. "She might come back next time she's out of food."

"Thank you so much," Aria nodded. "Have a good day. Thanks again."

Reaching the grocery store in a few minutes, Aria went through the same process several times over with a number of different people until she was pointed towards a small apartment that looked a mess from the outside. Seemed promising.

Carefully, Aria pushed the door open and it swung wide with a creak. She could smell blood. Nose in the air, Aria followed the scent like a bloodhound until she found the right door.

"Blake?"

[member="Blake Morrigan"]