Balancing life within Dreams (Open)

[Sera Inkari]

Bovo Yagen System
Bovo Yagen
Deep Jungles.
Evening

A small two room temple stood on a hill, with a warm glow coming from within, in the middle of an already warm jungle. Decorated by a simple stone fountain in one room, and the other a room of candles, with a burning fire at the far end. A globe depicting a red sun was rotating above the room of fire, causing a brown stone structure to carry an amber glow, and the small stone temple to be prominent in the otherwise large amount of greens through the jungle. Above the room of water, a similar globe gave a light mist emptying it's contents, and gradually watering a few simple plants below.

Sera dressed in usual red temple robes, folded beneath her. Long curly red hair was pulled back, and she was meditating silently. Running water from her fountain was all you might hear coming from within. Since her time spent in the netherworld, dreamwalking had become a serious problem. With no master to guide her, her force had become overwhelming to her, and dreams had begun to bleed into reality, slowly at first, then taking over. Waking dreams were common now, something inside her was telling her she needed to find balance, so she sort balance here between the room of fire and water, the elements. To lead her to a balance within her dream.

Only someone with that balance established could aid her here.

 

[Veino Garn]

[member="Sera Inkari"]

It had been a long time since Veino had been in a jungle world such as this. Well, not really. He'd been on Yavin IV. That was jungle, although wilder and more deserted. Older too. Old enough that for the most part, its civilization was dead, except for the occasional passerby.

But for now, he was here as on a pilgrimage, of a sorts. Or perhaps an odyssey. To be precise, a vacation was actually the better term. Being an empath hurt more than many would ever imagine. It was heavy and left a constant thundering in his head, leading to a constant battle to keep a firm grasp on his identity. That had fallen apart after he'd literally gone to hell and lost himself there. He'd barely managed to bring his mind back together upon his return. Memories of that were fuzzy, but they made him queasy.

So he had come here on a camping expedition to clear his mind and recenter on his own identity. Who was Veino Garn? What did he stand for? What did he believe?

So here he was, pack on his back, and trudging through the jungle. It was quiet. Maybe not physically, but emotionally. What little he could pick up from animals was weak and nowhere near as complex as sentients. But no.

There was a sentient around somewhere. He paused and spun slowly on his heel. The awareness seemed to be coming from up a nearby hill. Of course. Another hill to trudge up towards. He took a deep breath, hitched the pack higher on his shoulders, and started marching up the hill.

 

[Sera Inkari]

Heat built within her small temple’s fires, and mist saturated humid air, both aligned opposites of each other, and both creating an atmosphere of life and fertility inside, fire and water, simple and not. Sera’s natural temperatures of Kintan’s deserts were as hot as this, or hotter, she was comfortable.

Going along with where this led her, elemental balance, she was more made of fire but drawn to water, naturally shifting toward a center archway so she felt both. Sera began meditating again looking for balance, then her dreaming came, she did not resist, allowing. Oceans of blue eyes opened, awake and asleep, drawing and drinking of her surroundings deep into her unconscious.

She was a part of this but also separate, not understanding how to be force connected without being consumed by life. She shrank from knowing that everything was as her force wanted things to be, already, without her interruption. When she interrupted life, her force, how could she justify that act? How could she justify one step outside of where she was right now? Only when asked, when something revealed itself.

Without knowing, she was dreamwalking, and had found herself leaning out her small temple, arm clasped lightly, hugging a pillar, long locks of hair trailing down her side, as she was leaning further, almost falling, letting go.

[member="Veino Garn"]

 

[Veino Garn]

[member="Sera Inkari"]
Veino paused three quarters up the hill to look ahead. He could feel the Force strongly here. There were more Force sensitives than him in the area. Not a lot, but at least one other. He stretched out gently with his mind, seeking this other, and really hoping the presence wasn't a Sith or other maniacal murderer. But he was a Master now. Surely he'd be able to handle whatever came his way. Right. Like that had ever worked well before.

But he could see the building now. Small, probably no more than three rooms, and illuminated by an interesting light pattern. He'd almost say it was firelight. More likely, they were poorly maintained lights. It must be difficult to get repairs and supplies out here. There didn't seem to be any major threat here so he trudged up the rest of the hill. While he was in fit enough shape, it was still quite a hike.

He paused at the doorway.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

 

[Sera Inkari]

Sera released her grip from her pillar, folding downward and pressing another hand to push herself. Falling, falling, then catching herself, she felt the movement but was not awake to feel, she only saw what would be. Pulling her draping deep red robe up, back through mist, spraying her face and robes under the globe, then back through her fire.

Deeply dreaming, layers underneath layers, she smiled. Familiarity about him, she couldn’t place what she felt, before their force's netherworld swallowed her whole she had felt this aura once, but where.

“You have come.” The priestess uttered softly, voice fluttering softly like soft wind. She knew not who came, her force offering her no answers, only that she had been directed here. Glow still behind her, Sera dipped her head to Veino, holding her arms outward, long draping, simple cloth hiding her form.

“Please.” Turning inward, she sat to stone resting before a table, folding her robes beneath her.

Upon her miniature wooden table, two cups sat, with her pot of brewing tea over her fire. Pouring one Massassi Blossom tea, to sooth, and make her visitor comfortable. Jungle heat and her fires might cause discomfort, this might help whoever they were. Herself she sipped pure distilled water, crystal clear, doing so often.

[member="Veino Garn"]

 

[Veino Garn]

[member="Sera Inkari"]

Veino paused in surprise as he caught sight of the woman, outlined by a fiery glow behind her, as she give a slight bow and raised her arms in greeting. Veino returned the bow, although a little more cautiously. She seemed very familiar, like they had met before, but he couldn't place where. It was a long time ago, that was for sure.

He followed her inside and a took a seat at the table across from her and wrapped his hands around the cup of tea. His shoulders relaxed as the warmth of the roof and the tea soaked into his bones, easing the tightness from his muscles. He took a slow sip.

"Thank you. The tea is wonderful," He set it back on the table for a moment, to inspect the cleanliness of his hands, "I'm Veino Garn, and I think we may have met somewhere before."

It was exasperating he couldn't remember where though. Usually he was good at this, so it must have have been a very long time, but not so far back as to be on Susefvi. He was sure of that.

 

[Sera Inkari]

“We met on crusades of force and fire, briefly we sat and watched life unfold.” Sera smiled, engaged with what this meant, ever tasting her water to soothe her body. She went where she was led, where she dreamed she would be. Trying to aid her dreams' messages to be born, now she had dreamed of him, but why? They had met on a crowded ship, when the army of light gathered to fight the Sith, her time to be there, and now was her time to be here.

Both times he had been there, finding her again. “Sera Inkari, priestess to Kintan and globe of eternal fire.” Her head dipped, thick red hair falling down, and eyes closing respectfully.

“You found me,” her voice confirmed gladdened, “I have dreamt of our meeting.” Head raising, deep blue eyes meeting his, fire’s glinting off hers, and warmth reflected back in her words, she carried fire on her breath. What came next? Her dream was fuzzy, unclear, only there was clarity there waiting for her. She held out her hands folding them over, “may I take your palm Sir?”

[member="Veino Garn"]

Mood Music

 

[Veino Garn]

[member="Sera Inkari"]

Crusade of force and fire. Which one was that referring to? A crusade... He frowned in thought and took another sip of his tea, feeling it soothe even more of his muscles. Then it struck him. The Army of Light! Of course! That had been a very long time ago. Almost a decade by now. He shook his head slightly in amazement. Strange how paths wound themselves in and through each other.

"Good to meet you again, Sera." He repeated her gesture, bending his head and blinking slowly. His hair was not long enough to fall down that way though. "And so I did. Our paths cross once more for a purpose which I do not understand."

He held out his hand, turning it face up so she could look at it. His hand was dirty, stained with sweat and dirt from his trip, and calloused from countless hours spent holding a lightsaber hilt, slowly rubbing away at his skin. But beneath the grime and hardened skin, his palm was still visible, dark brown and readable.

 

[Sera Inkari]

“Many blessings for your visit,” genially her voice’s tones matched her skin, warm, cupping her hands to receiving insight from the given palm. More reading him than his palm, feeling sensations given, and so intuition encouraged.

There was not the usual pre-amble seers might give, Sera instead went very still, following his life’s course and what may come, she saw different directions, shards like her crystal in her chest, reflecting possible realities, when enough of them matched she found her common sight. “Assassin droid, closer, water, wound.” Whose wound she could not see, that was uncertain, only that there was a wound before the end, perhaps another target, perhaps someone Veino knew, or perhaps by accident a passer-by. “Look for green, you will find shelter, or luck when you have none.” She smiled, a more pleasant vision, that of relief or success, then back to…

“He is hunting you now, and he will come here.” Sera stated, her face distant, opening her eyes and releasing his palm. That silent finality was assured, unless something truly drastic changed it, the droid hunting him would be standing here eventually.

Time was less important to her, everything was always going on right now. A decade for Veino, was a few months for Sera, such as their netherworld experience had shaped them all, caught in its timeless web. If he looked closer, Sera had barely aged a day, like any companions that were trapped with her, “my dreams grew,” because of where she had been, “within a place of dreams, spirits and visions.”

Dreams she was handling, if you could call how she lived handling, like an old Jedi Master who had retreated out of his temple into hiding, so he didn’t fall to his powers. Only in Sera’s case she was a young woman of little force ability, hiding in the jungle, so her powerful dreams were balanced against earthly elemental fire and water.

[member="Veino Garn"]

 

[Veino Garn]

[member="Sera Inkari"]

Veino listened to her stillness as she studied his palm. This was fascinating. He had never seen anyone use the Force in this manner before. Visions, yes, prophecy, yes, but never a palm reading. It'd be interesting to see what the Jedi Council thought of such behavior. If they thought anything of it at all.

But then he sat still as he listened to her words. An assassin droid. Of course. That was why he had never been able to sense the identity of his stalker. It was an inorganic being. Guilt twisted in his chest and he took a deep breath, letting the guilt drift out with the outbreath. That would be of no use now. He filed away the phrases to remember later when the time came.

"I'm sorry to lead it here then." He shook his head sadly. "It seems the time has come for me to vanish and lure it into a trap of my own."

A place of spirits and visions? Yeah, he'd been there. "You ended up in the place of spirits and visions too?"

 

[Sera Inkari]

“Yes. For many cycles, others saw them pass in months, my dreams were years.” Sera confided, tones of regret. To nobody else had she confided, that her nights had be months long, while her body aged just days, they could not have helped. Her longest dream had been one year before she woke, and she had felt herself slipping into her dreams a little more each day.

Such was how the netherworld worked, her force mysterious weaving together tapestries and lives, greater than time or her internal clock.

When he apologised Sera just softly smiled, pressing his palm softly in both of hers, “we go where we are led, so does he.” Veino had that much power over his pursuer, the machine would go where it was led, methodical in his search.

Part of her would be sad to lose her only guidance for months, year, however long she had been away. Drifting from [member="Veino Garn"] ‘s hand gently. “Take me with you.” Almost a plea, if she stayed longer, she would be gone completely and of no use to her force. “Balance is hard to find.”

[member="Veino Garn"]

 

[Veino Garn]

[member="Sera Inkari"]

Veino nodded slowly, feeling her regret slip through the barriers of his mind, and flashes of memory. He pushed them out, bringing his mental barriers back up. This was no time to lose himself in other's minds and emotions. Not that he now knew his enemy and had placed someone else in danger.

"Glad I didn't spend that much time there," He said after a moment, remembering his time there. No Force meant to no mental barriers, and unfortunately, his empathy was not Force-based, so that remained. Nothing worse than being stuck in the Netherworld and feeling everything everyone in a wide vicinity felt as well.

He gave her a sad smile as she pressed her hands into his and let out a long breath, "So it would seem, unfortunately."

Take her with him? That would be doable. Dangerous though, certainly. But hardly more dangerous than staying, and there was something else in her plea. Something under the surface. Desperation, almost. He nodded.

"Probably should, although it won't be much safer. Where would you want to go?"

 

[Rexus Drath]

[member="Sera Inkari"] [member="Veino Garn"]

A little bird fluttered down and settled itself next to a few other small common birds for this planet. The small bird pecked a few times outside the little temple as it looked into the little two room structure atop the hill. The bird chirped again then fluttered it's repulser lifts and flew inside the temple. Once inside it made a little nesting up above in the top corner of the room on a ledge and looked down at the little meeting going on between the force users.

A robotic eye focused in and began to listen in on the conversation, but the little bird just watched them and it of course just looked like the average bird as it had real feathers and looked to be organic. The bird pecked a few more times then just remained standing there.

Through a set of Augmented Warfighter sunglasses a video stream of the two force users fed into small screen. There was a few flicks and fizzle of booster blue and neutron pixie sparking up on a hill a good hundred yards away, and no one else then the Red Raven hit man Parker was there to bring the pain against known force users and members of the One Sith.

"I love happy endings." The man said to himself then took another hit from the two combined spices.

Laying down in front of him was a ridiculously large M20 SASR sniper rifle. He wore nothing on his bare chest as he moved up to put his shoulder into the but of the rifle. Taking another hit he exhaled smoke and looked through his visor to calculate his shot. Aiming the crosshairs over a spot on the wall where the bird had high lighted woman as a target, the Force Dead mercenary cocked a round into the chamber settled the crosshairs.

Besides him was a lil monster sub machine gun loaded with Sith Killer rounds and the man was intending to cash in that bounty that was going around for their heads. He took a deep breath then paused waiting for the right moment to fire.

http://starwarsrp.net/topic/45203-m120-sasr/
http://starwarsrp.net/topic/53274-bird-watcher/
http://starwarsrp.net/topic/53540-augmented-warfighter-visor/
http://starwarsrp.net/topic/53497-lil-monster-submachine-gun/
http://starwarsrp.net/topic/53664-sith-killer-round/#entry805475

 

[Sera Inkari]

Well seated behind her small stone temple walls with her guest. Sera’s mind was in flux, her force signature seemed to be drifting, because she had no home, nothing now to call her port in her storm. Veino offered the only small shred of anything she knew, however brief their time together had been, he was her only life line. This fragile small temple, the only place that she had in the world away from Kintan, but that was nothing without guidance from another.

She settled her hands folded in her lap, vulnerability, fragility, there was probably sense to a Master, that Sera was poised at a point of choosing her path, or in her case her path choosing her. Wherever her dream took her, is where she went, he could have asked anything of her, and she may well have gone with him anywhere. That was what was at stake.

Gentle breeze blowing through their shared moment of silence, after awhile, the red priestess of Kintan raised her eyes up and smiled, “green, safety, I want to learn how to dreamwalk without falling,” her voice drifted off, rare display of her own will inside her dreamwalking given, and she smiled softly. Having no idea anyone was aiming anything at them nearby, only that a bird was out of place watching their conversation.

[member="James M Parker"]

Spoiler

Hey no problem with you joining. Sera has done no Sith missions yet, or made much affiliation, but she has a clear force aura that is in flux, and has a bounty from [member="Raien Keth"] also which is public, for about 500,000 credits if the crystal in her chest is intact.

[member="James M Parker"] | [member="Veino Garn"]

 

[Veino Garn]

[member="Sera Inkari"]

She was at a tipping point here, in this moment, as the threads of fate wound in and through themselves, preparing to tighten and set her on her course as she sat across from him, unanchored. He didn't remember when he had a moment like that, except perhaps when he had left Susefvi, having been given the choice to be an unaffiliated student or leave on a journey of his own. It had torn him in half to leave, but he had been better because of it. Paid for it in blood though. But that was how all things went in time.

Green, safety, and a place to learn to dreamwalk. He leaned back to consider those things. Veino wasn't sure what dreamwalking was, but the first two he was familiar with. Green and safety. Problem was that those led to a whole bunch of different planets. He tapped the table, unconsciously making a small rhythm. Finally he leaned over the table.

"I don't know anything about dreamwalking. But a safe green place could be Ossus or Ruusan. The Jedi there might know about dreamwalking. Or possibly Susefvi. Probably can't learn dreamwalking there, but it's far enough way from everything to be fairly safe."

Or perhaps not. It was on its own now and independent of galactic powers protection. So its defense was on its own now. But it should be fine. Probably.

[member="James M Parker"]

 

[Rexus Drath]

[member="Veino Garn"] [member="Sera Inkari"]

Parker shouldered the rifle tight and placed his cheek against the stock of the rifle to get into a good steady firing position for line of sight. But then he realized something, this was a one round weapon. He would have to shoot one, reload, sight back in, then fire again, and by that time it would be too late to kill the second target. So he had a better idea, one that involved killing two birds with one metaphorical stone.

Placing the heavy sniper down, Parker walked over to a nearby case and opened it to show a Scrap Maker missile launcher. Taking the heavy weapon he heaved it up onto his shoulder and aimed it at the temple wall between the two targets. The concrete wall would definitely take the brunt of attack but it could possibly kill or incapacitate his foes long enough to secure that crystal. So he took aim with the rocket launcher and pulled the trigger.

With a loud thump the rocket left the tube and screamed it's way to the temple wall as Parker lifted his head up and sounded a laugh that was laced in lithium and made him sound like a patient at Arkham Asylum. He may lose the bird but it would at least mean the two inside the room would be dead or worse.

With the rocket being fired from only a hundred meters it would take mere seconds to arrive, and when it hit it would punch with the power to blow up tanks.

 

[Sera Inkari]

“Ruusan? You will be safer there,” that name called to her for some reason, she knew not why, only that she wanted this man’s guidance with increasing urgency, her force called for….

Fire and flame across her eyes, she saw James’s missile before it was going to happen. Her dream had said there would be a droid standing, was that a lie, or was that what she saw! No, she turned in panic toward Veino Garn. Sera rose seconds before the blast but not fast enough, missile streaming into the wall sent debris, and her backwards hands across her face, the usual graceful priestess thrown like a rag doll.

Sera had no force training, non except her dreamwalking. Non could or would know what her path would take her down if she were allowed to develop, if she survived today. Dust covering her, she coughed and looked for Veino, hoping he’d fared better than her. Crawling through rubble, her thick temple robes provided her protection from cuts but she’d suffered from that impact.

Sera was born of her elements, casting her hand outward, something happened. Her force sent the burning globe on the ceiling out through the hole in the wall, setting fire in front of it, giving them time, and some distraction. Unless there was another missile coming! Because she was having a hard time moving!

[member="James M Parker"] | [member="Veino Garn"]

 

[Veino Garn]

Sorry. Finals kind of blindsided me.

Danger rippled through the Force from behind him and he could see that [member="Sera Inkari"] felt it too. He lunged forward, aiming across the table away from the danger. What was it though? Then he had the answer. One he rather wished he hadn't discovered. The wall blew inward, the concussive force sending him flying towards the far wall as well. He just barely threw up a Force barrier between the two of them and the rest of the blast before slamming into the wall. Something cracked and he grunted in agony as pain flared through chest. Cracked a rib at best. He shook his head to clear it, wrapping himself in the Force to let the pain flow away.

He took a brief moment to dive deep into his own body, reaching out with the Force, until he found the cracked rib. He went deeper, finding the individual cells, and nudged them to begin to knit themselves together stronger and more quickly than they otherwise would have. Then he let it go. It'd take to long to fix it completely. They needed to get out of there now.

He watched as she sent the globe upwards into a ball of flame, presumably as a sort of distraction. He picked himself up and shuffled towards her, fingers ready to grab his lightsaber at a moment's notice. It was a strange attack. In the middle of nowhere. Isolated. No way to reach it without hiking for long distances. Not a chance it could be random, but he didn't even know he'd be here until today. Perhaps the Syndicate had another stalker after him?

He held a hand out to Sera to help her move. "Stick with me. I'll get you of here."

His training and instincts were kicking in now. This was no different than Alderaan or Prakith or Kashyyyk. "Follow me out the other side and head straight west. I'll cover the trail and make sure we aren't followed."

[member="James M Parker"]