Private Blacknight

[Dagon Kaze]

"This is where the Mandalorian War started? This doesn't look like much of a battlefield."
"Much is buried here, and there is much that should remain buried."
​

"Still nothing, Arthur?"

"Like I said before, Sir, this bloody jungle's scrambling my sensors with such ravenous intensity only a migraine compares to." the AI's voice came through the earpiece.

Migraine.. but you're a--??

??

"Even your sensors?"

"Even mine, Master Kaze. I would like to reiterate my previous stance on this endeavour to the Tomb of Freedon Nadd - it's dumb as hell."

"Dumb as-- ?? I told you, Yula's been rubbing off on you too much."

"Nonsense, Sir. As much respect I have for Miss Perl, her tongue is far too crass for my liking."

So this is what highly-advanced A.I really means - useless sensors and personal tastes.

My luck exactly.

"Yeah, keep fooling yourself, Arthur. Hold on--" Dagon halted abruptly, narrowing his gaze at the tracks left on the mud. Footsteps, not paws. Recent. Not exactly human, too. "--those are fresh. Light-footed, someone smaller or well, light as hell for whatever size they carried. What'd they say back at the camp? No one should be around here, no?"

"That is correct, Master Kaze. I advise caution."

"Arthur - it's me, remember? When have I been cautious?"

A pause.

"Well, it seems to me, Sir, that it is you who Miss Perl has been rubbing off on way too much."

Add humor to the list of characteristics you don't need in a jungle.

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

It's dangerous to go alone.​

TAG: Dagon Kaze
THEME: X

While Melydia technically had a bit of a home on the Sith academy on Korriban, the insectoid found herself more and more drawn to the wildlife of Dxun. So many friends to be made, so many things to be fixed. The Sithling should spend days just among nature. And she did, sitting on mossy rocks or a fallen tree limb, munching on local berries, and just enjoying the general ambiance while she buried herself in her work.

Creation was a tricky process. There were so many things that could go wrong, so many ways a subtle change could affect a future friend. A small collection of creatures had gathered around her, some brought from afar, others who had joined the little posse more recently. Each one, however, had something just a bit off from their original form. An extra protrusion, an unusual size, some even with limbs of other creatures fused to them in a mish-mash of flesh. And around this small group of creatures, a circle of mushrooms, unusually vibrant in coloration, had formed.

They were friends, each and every one of them. And Melydia would hum a vacant tune of dissonance as her head tilted from one side to the other, considering the creature she was currently working on. "What do you think?" she asked an unusually large frog, listening to its ribbit in response with careful consideration. "Yes, we think a longer tongue would help them, too. All the better to catch monchies."

 

[Dagon Kaze]

The raven-haired Jedi followed the tracks diligently like a hound, while keeping his senses open to the wider area. It wasn't long before he picked up a hum, one ticking away on the tune of moments that made up a dull day. He halted for a moment trying to piece out something more of it in vain, then followed its source; the light footsteps in the mud did not diverge. Whoever was humming carelessly was also the same sentient leaving behind the tracks.

Shuffling through the thicket until he came out unto a small clearing, Dagon found her sitting on damp rocks cushioned by the jungle's unstoppable overgrowth. Pointed ears and spines drew comparison to the Theelin - which Alfred confirmed - but the folded wings were an unnatural addition to her form. Her curious fiddling with what looked like a frog weirdly reminded him of when Yula would sit for hours fidgeting some gadget. The parallels ceased there. One was an object, the other was...well, a live creature.

"Who th--" he began, his tone more of confusion and curiosity rather than hostility, before Alfred cut him off in his ear.

"Manners, Master Kaze."

??

I'm in the jungle, Alfred, not a damn gala night.

"Hi..?" hands clasped his waist, uncertain exactly how to approach the situation, "What, uh-- what are you doing?"

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

Absorbed in her work, Melydia was practically oblivious to the world around her. She ran a hand down the creature's back and with it, she encouraged growth in the creature. Slowly but surely, the creature began to warp according to her will, a couple spines similar to the ones lining her face poking out from its limbs. The frog beside her gave another ribbit as it watched, having been through the process before.

"Oh!" Jumping at the sudden voice, she flitted into the air about a foot with a flutter of her wings. She brought the creature with her, keeping it safe in her arms, protective of the small one. She relaxed a fraction, feet returning to the ground as she took in the dark-haired human. "Hello," she said slowly, head tilting to the side, trying to determine friend from foe. Well, maybe more like friend from future friend.

"We're fixing this friend," she explained, caution forgotten as her attention was drawn to her work. She rose the creature up in the air a little, careful not to accidentally drop the friend. "What of you, future-friend? What do we call you?"

 

[Dagon Kaze]

He was not hallucinating - the wings were not just some weird clothing attribute the mysterious girl wore. They were as real as it gets.

Arthur was already on the case.

"My findings have not discovered any compatible avian match for a Theelin to procreate a being with wings, Sir." the A.I stated into his earpiece.

Unnatural.

The thought crossing his mind sent a faint shiver down his spine. That word almost always meant trouble.

His investigative eyes further scanned for more clues. No sign of hostility was evident in her stance, nor posture; quite the opposite - innocence.

Or deception.

The sharp teeth of the Sangnir Voivode of Necropolis stung on his neck even after all the time that had passed since the exploitation of his blind trust. Peering at the frog she referenced, Dagon's eyes narrowed slightly. Spines protruded from its larger than a moment ago form.

"Call me Dag." we? were there more of her around? "You've got a name?" he glanced at her, then the strange frog snatched his fixation. A thousand questions were written on the Jedi's face, some of which he was reluctant to know the answer of.

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

Any remaining hesitance molted away as the human one answered. "Oh yes yes! We are called Melydia!" she answered with a bright smile. "And this us uh.." she picked up the frog once more, noticing the other's eyes wandering towards the creature. "Boggy! This is Boggerson, or Boggy! Both work." she nodded to herself, pleased with the name.

She gave the frog another pat on the head, watching as another spine sprouted from its back. That was probably enough growing for now. She didn't want to overwhelm the frog's body, for fear it'd kill the amphibious friend.

"What brings you here Mr Dag-friend?" she asked, head tilting to the side, curiosity overtaking her initial concern. So long that her friends were safe, she was always interested in expanding her collection of friends.

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Melydia.

The name stuck. Lodged in his head with great importance, one he couldn't put a finger on it. Was the Force trying to tell him something?

Or was the jungle driving him crazy?

Her question fell on deaf ears when he noticed Boggerson unnaturally grow another spine in her hands. A soft nudge in the Force, dusky in its nature, made him frown; eyes fixated on Melydia's pat on the frog's back.

"Are you, uh--, doing something to that frog?" he asked, then with an unintentionally colder voice, "Doesn't look really natural."

The reminder of Freedon Nadd's Tomb on this moon whispered a glacial tune.

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

She glanced down at Boggy, eyes widening a fraction as if she hadn't been quite completely aware of how she was changing the amphibian herself. "We're fixing him. Improving him, even," she explained, posture almost shrinking as she noticed the change in Dag's voice. She'd learned to recognize that tone shift the hard way, a potential friend likely to turn to not a friend at all.

"We're ensuring he can survive out here, even when predators would refuse his friendship, far more natural than any limbs of metal." Her own voice darkened toward the end, brow crinkling with disdain at the thought of Boggerson with metal prosthetics. Now that would be unnatural.

Her rusty gaze slid from the frog back to the human. "Would you not do the same?"

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"No." he replied almost immediately. "Not like that at least." the corruption of the Dark Side was a double-edged sword - its strength merely an illusion to mask the hefty cost one paid to taste the power. He knew it all too well. Intimately. After all, Dagon had touched it. Spurred by his father's corruptive presence, he'd stumbled into the trap of the dark side and channeled its unfathomable power. It had cost him his bond with Kaska.

It had cost him his brother - now lost in the ranks of the Sith.

A long pause, his lips thinned out.

"This is not right, Melydia." said Dagon, warmth replacing the hardened features and cold voice. "You may not see it now, but the price of the Dark Side...it's too high. You may help the frog survive another day but you may leave a bird hungry and its nest dead."

He recalled the products of Sith Alchemy he had met in his ventures. Two of them the raven-haired Jedi had brought to Coruscant with the aim of helping them cleanse the curse. Kai - a newborn in a shapeshifter's body was all good intentions, but the taint of alchemy forced him to hunger for brain soup. Damsy - a decorated soldier who deep inside sought to change the galaxy for the better was beset by the presence of Syreni. A product of the dark side that both gave her strength but took from her what made her a human. Syreni was only sated with blood.

"I can help you before it's too late."

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

His near-instant rejection of fixing creatures like Boggy had her shrinking away, drawing herself in and around the frog as if to shield him from cruelty. This wasn't the first time someone hadn't agreed with the fixing. No, others had reacted more strongly than Dag. Nevertheless, an overall sensitivity towards rejection.

"We'll fix the bird, too, then," she stated, quieter than before. Fixing was what she knew, on a multitude of levels. It was how she made friends, how she kept them, protected them. To her, at least, there was no distinction between light or dark. No, she'd never been taught as such, only power and weakness, with weakness being the thing to avoid. "We'll make even more friends, just as we were fixed before, too. Would you say we're not right, either?" The opposite of right would be left..or wrong. And while Melydia doubted he meant right in relation to direction, she certainly didn't want to think of herself as a creature of wrong.

The warmth that had returned to his voice inspired less fear than the cold, but not to the level of opening up once more. The curiosity hadn't left, though it turned more cautious. "Help how?" she wondered, still cradling the frog, protective. "And before what's too late?"

 

[Dagon Kaze]

just as we were fixed before, too.

A cold breeze caressed Dagon with its frigid talons. His fears were coming true. She was a Sithspawn; a product of Sith magic and alchemy. It explained the unnatural wings and it explained the wrenching of his guts. He wondered if her ignorance, demonstrated in how and what she said, was an act. Deception was the Dark Side's most potent weapon after temptation. The thought kept him at distance, but it also reminded him of Damsy. Her 'alteration', the manifestation of the Dark Side personified as the so-called Syreni, lied dormant most of the time.

There was a chance such was the case with Melydia, too.

Deception, dormancy, lesser corruption. What was it from the three that was true here? The multitude of scenarios made his head throb.

One question hammered at his head like no tomorrow.

What should I do?

Dagon stepped forward closer to her, his posture as compassionate as it could be. Just like he had done with Damsy, despite the risk on his life it carried back then. For a mere moment, he wondered whether he was selfish. At the precipice of death was where he felt most alive. Was that the real reason behind his reckless behavior? A ploy of his own under the guise of sympathy and heroism.

Deep in his heart, he knew that not to be true. His honest intentions reflected in the glint of his blue eyes.

"The Dark Side, Melydia, draws you in with temptations for power. Power to achieve your intentions, noble or not." he explained, or tried to. Despite his gregarious nature, Dagon wasn't really great at wise words and lectures. He could leave to Aaran any day. The raven-haired Jedi, unbeknownst to him, relied on the charisma and personal connection he could forge. "And with each goal achieved, you are drawn in more. Before you know it - it has consumed you. Made you a thrall of its destructive nature." geez, I can sure talk with heavy words, huh? Not sure if they're really sticking with her, though.

He was right in front of her.

"Tell me - how would you feel if the bird did eat Boggerson after all?"

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

As the head of ravens approached, the insectoid tensed, contemplating a retreat though the honesty reflecting in his eyes kept her still. She did not want to have anyone be a threat if she could help it. No, she much rather be friends with all she could find. Nevertheless, she had to be careful, especially among Jedi, at least so she'd been told. And judging from his severe initial reaction to her fixing, the caution was well-founded.

Still, her eyes of amber blinked once, twice, and her brow furrowed as he went on. "Dark or light, what side does it matter? If it helps us make our friends, protect our friends, fix them, even. We see no reason to assign a shade to the power, nor good or bad. Power is just...power. Just as nature is nature." Her fingers ran down the frog's back once more, this time not inspiring change in the creature, at least not outwardly. If it changed internally, sometimes not even she was aware.

"If a bird ate Boggerson, we would be sad, yes," she answered with a frown. "That is part of why we fix him, so that he can protect himself. We don't want to lose our friends." She moved then, hands reaching underneath Boggy to lift him up, within arm's length of Dag. "You may pet him, if you wish, though we ask you don't hurt him. But you're not a bird, are you?"

 

[Dagon Kaze]

In a past life, he might've been a bird, a robin to be precise. Not in this one.

In this one, he was a Jedi.

And as a Jedi, Melydia became his responsibility. To show her the truth and to protect her from the darkness threatening to envelop her over time. He said nothing for a moment, only patting Boggerson's moist skin carefully avoiding its newly-created spines with his fingers. What Melydia spoke of the dark and light side of the Force recalled a brief moment of his life not too long ago when he himself had justified his slippage into Bogan. It was during the second Battle of Ziost when he had accidentally fallen and tapped into the darkness, spurred by his father's corruption, to save his friend Jedi Knight Kaska Arden.

It had cost them their friendship, their trust, and their bond. Irreparable. And while for a long time he silently justified his actions, it was later on when he understood that had he been more attuned to the Light, then he would've not opted to the temptation of the Dark.

"It matters, Melydia, because the dark side of the Force is destructive. You may not yet be as consumed by it but eventually, all it brings is suffering to both who embrace it and upon who it is unleashed because in its essence its a trap. A trap that baits you with the promises of all the things you want--" he began, "--and it begins from the fear of loss." a soft gesture at Boggerson,

"Today it's Boggerson, tomorrow is someone else and so on and so on..."

"It will never be enough." the last sentence was drawn out with an undertone of sadness as the face of his fallen brother flashed across his mind.

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

Amber eyes were split between watching the interaction with Boggerson and back to Dag's face as he spoke, blinking slowly as if trying to solve an elaborate equation in her head. This seemed to be an awfully complicated problem for something she'd always thought to have been so simple. Perhaps this was why many of the Sith she'd known, the younger ones especially, seemed conflicted in their progression as Sith.

"But we don't use it to destroy," she said with a gesture to the frog for emphasis. "Only create. For a price, yes, but is that not the price for all creation?" It was how she had learned it, at least. Though, perhaps that concept also found truth in Dag's words. The price of creation was costly at times.

"We don't wish to lose any friends, yes," she said with a slow nod. Yes, she was certainly afraid of that, even more so, of being alone. Her gaze turned to a quiet curiosity as she watched Dag's own face shift.

"You say this from personal experience, don't you?"

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Dagon opened his mouth to reply and interject when Melydia asked a question too close to the heart. His gaping mouth shut into a pair of thin lips and eyes looked to the side into an empty stare. The noise of the jungle morphed into the clamoring echoes of the past. The tragedy of the Stygian Campaign against the Sith materialized in one wild pandemonium of painful memories. From the violent crackling of fire emerged a voice identical to his - his brother's. A voice corrupted by their father, a brother lost, a costly price paid.

"I do." he finally answered hoarsely, turning his gaze back on the winged figure before him, "And I don't wish that on anybody. No one should suffer the same fate, Melydia-- you shouldn't suffer that fate."

"Come back with me to Coruscant. Others just like you have been helped by the Jedi there." and while Kai and Damsy's 'redemptions' have been beset by countless obstacles, at least they've turned away enough not to become the next Dark Lord of the Sith to sow chaos across the galaxy.


Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

His silence was answer enough. And while Dag's gaze and mind were elsewhere, Melydia gave a slight grunt as she adjusted her hold on Boggerson, setting the big little guy down. Some friends were very travel-sized. Others, like Boggy, started out as such but quickly turned otherwise as time and the fixing took their hold.

The corners of her lips turned up in a gentle smile. Her cheeks would've reddened a tad if not for the already pink hue of her papery skin, warmed at the notion of inclusion. But that warmth was sapped away almost as quickly as it had formed, brow creasing at the mention of Jedi and Coruscant.

"Jedi? Jedi don't like us, usually," she said slowly, gaze drifting downwards, following Boggy as he hopped about. "Would we have to leave our other friends behind? We wouldn't want them to be lonely."

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"Well, you can't please everyone..." he murmured sarcastically, mostly to himself, as the thought of the white-haired menace Ishida Ashina sprung into his mind. It was ironic that it seemed simpler to heal and redeem a Sithspawn than teaching a fellow Jedi. I'd make a shit master, wouldn't I?

"That's alright, you can take Boggerson with you." Dagon smiled, then added, "But it's your choice, Melydia. It's gotta be. I can't make the choice for you."

Redemption could never be forced, it had to be reached out for. Dagon could only offer the hand to pull her back up.

Melydia Gold

 

[Melydia Gold]

​

TAG: Dagon Kaze

Curiosity was a motivational factor more than anything else. That and a general interest in keeping a new friend happy.

"And our other friends? Can we bring them too?" She had many friends. A whole collection of them were forged right here on Dxun. Some were friendly amalgamations, others not so much. Bringing all of them probably wouldn't be feasible, she knew that. Still, it seemed important that she at least ask.

"We think we'd like to go, yes, at the very least to see this Coruscant. Though..." she paused once more, almost if she herself wasn't sure in what she was about to ask. "What if they don't like us?"