Call Me Animal, That's My Name

[J'Raa]

I take a laser beam
And I use it like a stone axe, baby
I take the present, past and future Mama
And blast it out my thorax, hey, hey

Call me animal, that's my name
Call me animal, I'm not ashamed
Call me animal, this is your hour
Call me animal, you've got the power
--"Call Me Animal," The MC5

J'Raa stared at the sign in front of the blurrg stables. "Hoshin's Hut (Not Hutt)," it read. J'Raa expected it was a joke of some sort, or perhaps one of those "pun" things he'd been told about by his Wookiee butler and sometime bodyguard. Whyykaanna was a droll fellow, and exceedingly so for a Wookiee. The smells of the place assailed the man's nostrils, but in a way that reminded him of home, or at least the only home he'd known, on the jungle floors of Kashyyyk.

Seeing no one around, J'Raa made himself welcome. With a small push of the Force, he vaulted the restraining rail that separated the grazing field from the holding pens. Landing quietly so as not to startle the beasts, he smiled as one of the blurrg turned to lazily regard him.

"Hello," J'Raa said in voice that wasn't human. "The sun is bright today, and the grazing looks fine. Come over here and let me take a look at you and perhaps I'll take you on a marvelous adventure."

It was a secret very few people knew about blurrg: though they appeared to be simple beasts of burden, they in fact craved excitement. Many of them wanted to be pirates, even though most of them didn't know what a pirate actually did. J'Raa suspected they just liked wearing stripes and bleating something that sounded like "Yo ho."

@Katrine Van-Derveld

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Bored. That was what it was. A whole lot of boredom going through her head right now that Katrine rode her speeder through the planet. The spirits had given her a task of getting out of the cities this morning though they hadn't fully clarified just why they had wanted her to get out. Doashim had messed with her mind a few times, showing her an image of himself as if he'd wanted to set out and find one out in the wild but beyond that, they hadn't clarified much.

When her speeder came to a stop, it was so her sapphire gaze could take a look at the sign ahead of her, arriving to a place she hadn't seen before. Hoshin's Hut (not Hutt), the marker showed, her eyes switching to the rail that had been opened. "I wonder," she muttered as she turned off the engine of her speeder and made her way towards the rail. Curiosity kills, Jart playfully pointed out, making Katrine giggle. "Says the curious spirit," she responded as she moved past the rail. Katrine could almost swear her words had made the spirit laugh but it sounded like nothing she had heard before, the bird attempting a snicker with a sound.

Making her way further inside, she'd first seen the tall animal oddly shaped. It wasn't a Rancor, Rancors were really pretty but this one was cute. "What is it?" She asked out loud. A blurrg, Lykek responded without much explanation, troubled creatures, slaves like our chosen in their past, they require our protection, Jart offered more just as she'd heard an inhuman sound, undetectable to her human ears. Her head tilted as she realized there was a man approaching one of the other blurrgs. Reaching out with the Force, she sensed out the animal through it, not feeling it feel threatened by the strangers. Curious perhaps but not threatened, "Excuse me?" She called out in Galactic Basic to got his attention. The spirit had claimed the blurrgs had a troubled past and required their protection. And somehow, those words had come as a sort of command to her. She had to protect them.

[member=J'Raa]

 

[J'Raa]

J'Raa turned at the sound of the voice, as the blurrg's head came alongside his outstretched hand, rubbing itself against him. "Hello," he replied in Basic, before momentarily turning his attention to the beast. In the language of the blurrg he said, "A moment, new friend, the female and I would speak with each other too."

"I'm sorry," said J'Raa to the young woman, "are these your blurrg? I've come to purchase some breeding stock, and didn't see anyone around. This one and I were just getting acquainted."

The blurrg bleated out something between a bovine moo and a sheep's baa.

"She says I should compliment your eyes." He started, and regarded the creature as if he hadn't meant to say that out loud. In the blurrg's own tongue he said "Don't embarrass me, beast, or I won't take you to the stars and you'll spend your days being ridden in a carnival by children. Do you want that?" The blurrg bleat-moo'd again. "All right then."

"I'm sorry," he said to Katrine. "I didn't mean to. I mean, your eyes, they're fine. Lovely. There's...two of them." He shook his head. "How much for the blurrgs? I need six, three males, three females."

[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Quick hello followed by a foreign language, making Katrine's eyes narrow slightly as she watched the interaction. She didn't hear him chant so she assumed the use of Force in what appeared to be the stranger speaking to the blurrg. Is it? Lylek poked at her as she considered it. "Then what?" The Lupine asked the spirit.

When the stranger spoke to her again, it was to apologize though that only confused the blond, listening to him go on whether the blurrg were hers. In a matter of speaking, Jart whispered in her ear as the man continued. He'd come to purchase. They are not for sale, Doashim suddenly hissed in her mind, startling her enough that she fidgeted for a moment. "Don't do that, I'm talking," Katrine hissed right back, a slight growl in her tone just as the blurrg spoke up again in their tongue.

And apparently, she'd said the man should compliment her eyes. "Oh," Kat commented, "Well, I have my Father's eyes. They're quite lovely." A smile forming on her face. Katrine was quite happy with her eyes, though her Mother's golden color wasn't half as bad either which was probably why a small fraction of her envied her older sister for having best of both.

Once he returned to speaking to her, and not the blurrg again, he'd apologized, commenting on her eyes again. Two of them, even. "Indeed, two. And I only know four people with two of them. And my bigger sister has only one of these. The other one is golden. So that's nine altogether," Katrine declared, with a giggle.

How much for the blurrgs? Six of them. Katrine frowned. "The blurrgs are not for sale. They're under the protection of the spirits. What do you need them for?"

[member=J'Raa]

 

[J'Raa]

Nine eyes? Not for sale? "My apologies then. I was told that Hoshin's Hut on Ryloth sold livestock. I need them..well, I don't need them. I was asked to find some breeding stock and bring them to Nyval IV. Blurrg aren't native to the planet, but they've been bred there for several generations. They're looking to renew the stock they have so that --"

"Hey!" came a loud, low voice from around the long, low building. The pair turned to see a massive black Herglic with a towel wrapped around it's ample waist, dripping with water.
"Why you in my blurrg pen, hey? You don' work for me! You get outta there now or maybe I call a constable now!"

"I was just discussing terms with the lady," replied J'Raa, leaning against the fence. "Only she said the blurrg weren't for sale."

The blurrg that had been nuzzling the man's hand now shoved against his ribcage with her snout, making a noisy exclamation.

J'Raa's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean you've never seen her before?"

The Herglic moved forward, hands clenching. "You being funny man? You got to the count of three before I grab you by the head and pitch you over my farm, hey, funny man?"

J'Raa raised his hands, looking for a gate he could exit through. "There's been a misunderstanding. I'm looking for Hoshin, and I thought she--"

"Two!"

"What happened to one?"

"Two and half!"

"Where's the..." he made vague gestures with his hands. Having lived outside for most of his life and not speaking Basic, he continued to have problems with certain words. "Portal?"

"Three!"

J'Raa Force Jumped into the air, landing next to Katrine. "You might say something," he said wryly.

[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

He was told? He needed them? The man seemed to be correcting himself, explaining he was asked to find them to bring to Nyval IV for stock renewal. Katrine just kept listening before another voice came from the side, making the Lupine turn to look at the alien standing there, in a towel no less, threatening to call the constable. "Let's just...," she'd begun before the man interrupted again, talking about discussing terms.

What terms? Who said anything about terms. And yes, she had said they weren't for sale. Were they for sale?

Then the blurrg girl made a sound again and the man asked it a question. "We've never met," Katrine agreed with the animal even if she didn't get her words. The alien was moving on the threatening...

"Can't we all just...?"

Nope, the two men kept talking one after the other, one counting and the other questioning.

"Portal?" Katrine suddenly caught the words that sounded completely out of place, trying to comprehend. Slug. Jart warned suddenly, her head turning to the alien as he'd fired, her hand raising as she called on the Force, making the slug stop mid-air before it had dropped. She heard the stranger speak up again. Should she say anything? "But you've been doing so well on your own," Katrine returned, almost cheerfully as she grinned at the stranger then back to the alien. "Put your weapon down. I'm Katrine Van-Derveld of the Mandragora and the Confederacy. Your gate was open, this man was already here. Now as for the blurrgs, keeping them is one thing but selling them for reasons unfamiliar to you is out of the question. They've suffered enough." She spoke with a resolve, though she still kept herself alert just in case the alien decided he was going to ignore her words.

 

[J'Raa]

Hoshin the Herglic gaped at [member="Katrine Van-Derveld"], eyes wide as the slug stopped moving and dropped to the reed-strewn dirt.

"But you've been doing so well on your own,"Katrine returned, almost cheerfully as she grinned at the stranger then back to the alien.

"Do you think so?" asked J'Raa, returning her smile. "I must confess to being new at all of this."

"These are my blurrg!" barked Hoshin. "I bred them, hey? I can do what I want with them!"

"I'd like to buy some of them," said J'Raa.

"I don't wanna sell them to you! Get out!"

J'Raa's brow furrowed. "You're not very good at your job," he said.

"GET OUT! YOU BOTH GET OUT!"

J'Raa turned to the blond with the eyes. "I don't think this went very well," he confessed. Looking at Hoshin, he saw the massive figure still held his slugthrower, his posture suggesting he was weighing his options. "Is there room on your..." he pointed at Katrine's speeder, "for two?"

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

"What do you mean new?" Katrine asked back, half ignoring the alien at the moment as her curiosity sparked up at the statement.

His blurrg, the alien had said, bringing her attention back to him, eyes narrowing. He breed them, he could do what he wanted with them. Inside Katrine, the three spirits drew all their focus on the man, their invisible gazes drilling into him. The man said he wanted to buy them, the seller refused, the stranger commented about his job, the alien shouted they should both go out.

The stranger addressed her next, her eyes though stayed on the alien as she felt the spirits take over her talk, though rather than them being loud, it came as a whisper into the alien's ears: "You will do well to respect the spirits of Ryloth. These animals are under our control but you could lose your control over them if we so see fit. The alien's face expression changing was plenty in telling them he'd heard them loud and clear before she turned, feeling their control release her as she looked at the stranger.

He asked something about room for two, confusing her slightly before she realized he was pointing to her speeder. "Yep," Katrine responded, "My speeder has room for one more." She was already headed towards it. "What's your name?" The Lupine asked as she made it through the fence.

[member=J'Raa]

 

[J'Raa]

"Tchaikovski D'Void, Lord D'Void I suppose," said J'Raa, though the way he said it made him seem more uncomfortable than proud. "To be honest, I'm still getting used to it. I was raised with the name J'Raa."

J'Raa waited for Katrine to climb onto the speeder, then climbed on behind her, placing his hands on her waist. "You asked before what I meant by 'new.' It's this language, this...Basic. I was abandoned on Kashyyyk when I was a baby. Accidentally, I believe. But I was found on the ground by a minstyngar, and she raised me as her own child. It wasn't until recently I'd met any people, any human people, at all.

"And you are Katrine Van-Derveld of the Mandragora and the Confederacy? What are the Mandragora? And where are we going?"

[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

She blinked at him suddenly. Tchaikovski D'Void, he'd said before adding the Lord bit. Sounded complicated, Katrine decided. "How do you spell that?" The blonde asked before he said he was getting used to it and offered J'Raa. That was actually better sounding. "J'Raa, I can live with that, you can call me Kat," the Lupine informed him as she sat on the speeder.

J'Raa sat behind her and in an instant, her head lowered when she realized he'd placed his hands at her waist, his words distracting her slightly from it as he began to explain what new meant, referring to the language. Abandoned on Kashyyyk as a baby, possibly by accident, raised by a minstyngar. He'd only met humans recently. "Raised by a what?" she asked in a moment, unfamiliar with the species.

The man remembered what she had told the alien, word by word as she turned the engine on the speeder, adding questions about the Mandragora and their destination. "Mandragora is our religion, and this planet is under the protection of the three Mandragora spirits," she offered first as she back the speeder up slowly. "And I don't know. We didn't have a destination per say. We can go back to Lessu, the capital," she suggested, "or the Altar of Spirits if you wanna see the Nightlands," the idea popped in her head then, just before she sped off though she wasn't completely sure why she'd offered the Altar. It seemed just another thing that wasn't her idea at all.

[member=J'Raa]

 

[J'Raa]

Katrine asked what a minstyngar was, and J'Raa found himself struggling to find the proper words. "They're...very large," he began, "and mainly vicious, as are most things on Kashyyyk. They have claws, and sharp teeth." He paused, then simply pictured his adopted family in his head and put the image into Katrine's. "Like that, you see? They were Deathcallers, not Bonecrushers or Bloodspillers."

Having no where else to go at the moment, he listened to her options. "I've never been to the Nightlands," he admitted, "but the Altar of Spirits sounds interesting. Let's go there!"

[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Very large, mainly vicious, on Kashyyyk, have claws and sharp teeth. It was very descriptive. Parts of that could be used to describe her even in her natural form. Then an image flashed in her mind, making her blink suddenly as she saw them as if she'd seen them herself and stored to memory yet fresh. So, he'd been raised by that. Deathcallers, not Bonecrushers or Bloodspillers, J'Raa had continued while Katrine smirked and glanced back. "They're kinda pretty," she shared. Katrine's understanding of cute animals was definitely not standard but she couldn't help her when she'd mostly been surrounded by animals not typically continued cute and yet, on Dathomir, they were both respected and loved.

At her suggestion, J'Raa commented about never having seen the Nightlands before he shared wanting to see the Altar of Spirits. "Great," the blonde just commented before her speeder drove off. She drove in silence, focusing on the terrain. Katrine knew where she was going, there was a map in her head to where she was going when it came to the Altar, even though she couldn't say she knew all that Ryloth had but still, it was still not completely familiar with the territory.

The light region shifted into the dark soon enough and Katrine continued to driving in the direction they were headed. Eventually, the Altar of Spirits would come into view, at the very edge of the rising terrain they were driving. The three pillars to the side were burning at their edge, providing a light even through the darkness as the speeder moved closer. When she came to a stop, it was right beneath the stairs, the engine cutting off at a switch.

Off to the side, a Jart was watching them as she moved to get off the speeder, well aware of its presence. "This is it," she pointed out.

[member=J'Raa]