Private Are You Alive?

[Jonah]

What comes around goes around.

At least, if the ancient saying was to be believed. In today's case, it seemed that the words would hold true. For, within the region known as Hutt Space, there was a kingpin who was living large. He hailed from a long line of criminal scum and considered himself to be "royalty" in these parts. (However, he was the textbook definition of nepotism.) So it was that this sod decided to drape himself with finery. He only worse the best clothes, ate the best meals, and sat on a literal throne in his home.

And behind the throne? He had a display of victims who had wronged his family. Some were skeletons hung upon chains. Others had been...stuffed? And the centerpiece of it all was a woman who had been frozen in carbonite. She was situated just above the throne, looking down upon any of the kingpin's guests. A grim reminder not to steal from him or to cross him in any way.

Well. This is where the poetic irony started to come in. You see, while the kingpin didn't like being stolen from, he had no problem stealing from others. And soon, there was to be a reprisal. Now, because the kingpin had a lot of money to throw around, removing him from the picture wouldn't be as simple as hiring a few mercenaries. No. This would require a large paycheck and a larger force. Enter the Haxion Brood: a criminal syndicate that was all too happy to add some funds to their accounts.

When the day of reckoning came, the kingpin was caught completely unawares. And after several minutes of intense fighting, the sorry sod was kneeling before his throne with a vibrosword at his throat. The man pleaded for his life - but the contract said nothing about leaving the man alive. With one fell swoop, Jonah personally removed the man's head. And with that, it was time to loot the place and go home. The sable-skinned man was content to leave the looting part to his subordinates as they reveled in that.

But there was something that caught his eye.

Something...off putting, but he couldn't look away.

The woman suspended in carbonite. It was as if he could feel something emanating from her. But that should have been impossible, given how long she had seemingly be on display. Anyone inside should have died a long time ago. Yet still, he felt. So, on a whim, Jonah reached out. His thoughts moved through the Force, attempting to make contact with the woman. And if she was alive...if she could understand...she'd find his voice posing a question in her psyche.

<< "Are you alive? >>

Tag: Ersela Zepal

 

[Ersela Zepal]

Darkness.

That is all that Ersela had existed in for some time. Swirling patterns of a darkened fog. Unbearably thick, it surrounded her so completely that she could not see her own self.

Glimpses of light and scenery would brifely take form, but at a distance so far away she'd need a spyglass to see what was going on. Every sound was muffled and equally distant.

However there had been moments that were a lot more clear. Ersela seemed to almost ascend into a wild dream. A man tended to be there, dressed in finery and having his way with various ladies and dancing girls.

That is until Ersela got involved.

He angered her. And like a hunter cornering her prey, she would chase him down through everchanging landscapes until she'd manage to catch him. His screams were vivid and they filled her with glee while she tore into his flesh with daggers, knives, sticks and even spoons! Whatever would appear in her hands she would use them.

However his death would never come. Instead he would disappear and Ersela would find herself sucked back into the dark fog. Over and over again this situation had occured and while she would briefly find some glee, it would quickly be replaced with despair.

But despair for what?

Are you alive?

The strange voice boomed through the darkness, causing the black fog to swirl and back away. If only briefly.

Was she alive? The concept of death now captured her mind. Perhaps she was dead and this was her personal hell. When had she last eaten? When had she last done anything other than escaping the fog for brief moments? There was hardly any other explanation for it. Yet she couldn't be certain either way.

"I don't know. Are you? Where are you? I can't see you......"

Tag: Jonah

 

[Jonah]

To the Haxion Brood soldiers who were standing around their superior, the moment must have been quite odd. One second, they were putting a kingpin down. The next, their boss was saying "oh shit" out loud. All the while, Jonah's eyes were transfixed upon the carbonite figure. His jaw dropped when the voice sounded off in his psyche. There was just no way that someone was in there, alive, after so long...and yet, there was confirmation.

< "You're uhh...you're a little stuck right now. But give me a minute, we'll get you out." >

It took more than a literal minute for the situation to be addressed, for Jonah's crew did not come to the operation equipped with the means to extract the woman from carbonite. And, after searching through the kingpin's gilded facility quite thoroughly, they didn't find the means locally either. Instead, the team decided that it would be more efficient to bring the carbonite slab along with them so that they could release the prisoner accordingly.

As Jonah's men set about working to bring her down from her position at the center of the room, the man himself reached out once more to the being trapped inside. < "I don't know what you did to end up in carbonite, but today's your lucky day." >

Ersela Zepal​

 

[Ersela Zepal]

The fog swirled and mingled around her. Or at least it seemed to. For the moment she had thought the voice to be an illusion. But then it returned.

....you're a little stuck....we'll get you out....

Ersela tried to make out the voice. Should she know it? She certainly didn't feel stuck. Unless that was what the darkness was.

The man's voice echoed through the fog as she recalled it. Sometimes it was close, sometimes it was far away.

...carbonite....lucky day...

Those words stuck with her more than all of the rest. The black fog continued to swirl. Ersela focused on the lighter fog far in the distance.

"Can you see me? Where are you? I can't find you. It's too dark. Who are you? This innocent flower needs some light."

Although Ersela was hardly innocent. She knew that. Attacking people over and over, tearing into their flesh. Those were hardly the actions of an innocent being. But they deserved it. Oh they deserved it each and every day.

To be free of the black fog would be the greatest of things.

"If you can free me...do it. Don't play games with me."

Tag: Jonah