Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Change of Guard...

Tarika Sadow*

Shadow Fleet Commander | Rule Breaker
Some neutral planet..somewhere

Tarika had been waiting for what seemed like forever for her challenger to arrive and was already focused, this guy was somehow powerful... but she has no idea of who he is or even what he is.

As her mind remains calm and her appearance under her cloak she smirks and waits on him, the whole premise is a duel so she made sure to bring her dueling staff that has the perfect settings, the energy based weapon is the exact copy of her saberstaff and as it is she has not dueled in a long while so she is seriously out of practice.

Waiting there she sighs and waits more on the guy to arrive, the day is bright and as it is the temp is very humid and she is seriously roasted her arse off, but she is determined to do a great job with this duel, and is determined to wait as long as she needs to.

One day she will be required to lead her marines into the heat of battle so what better way to work up to that than dueling and making sure she can defeat others, granted her talent is in sorcery but for now she would need to get good with balancing them both equally,

@[member="Tirdarius"]
 
"Not the most scenic of places in which to hold a confrontation," a voice spoke, quiet as a whisper of air across the warm barren wasteland upon which the young woman was standing, draped in a cloak that was surely more likely to overheat her than to provide any respite from the oppressive heat. It was not the place that any sensible sentient would have chosen, but one did not always have the pleasure of choosing when and where they might risk their life. Choosing your ground only happens in holovids and stories. "You could at least have dressed for the occasion," the voice remarked again, a faint hint of amusement carried along with it.

Walking calmly across the sandy ground, boots tapping with soft and measured rhythm against the hard-baked mud, the voice's owner appeared but a short distance away, attired in soft black fabrics that flower around him as he stepped, light even as the colour was dark. Deep grey eyes stared sternly ahead at this one that had sought out the fight, audacious as that may have seemed, intriguing as it was. He kept his hands at his side, close but not quite touching the lightsaber that rested at his hip. Given the nature of the challenge, it had seemed appropriate to keep it with him. Not that I require it for this, he thought, calmly.

It was rare that any sought him out for the purpose of dealing death these days: often, in the past, that had been both a requirement of power and prestige, but also a threat wielded against those who sought to exercise it. He was long past those times, and the subtle machinations of the assassin no longer something he might have to deal with. A more direct challenge, though, this was always a possibility, and it never hurt to hone one's skills against another with less predictable talents than the norm. Thus had he come here.

"Shall we first observe the pleasantries, or are you one who puts aside common courtesy and drives straight for the heat of battle?", he asked, the former Sith Lord raising an eyebrow with inquisitive intent. In his experience, most preferred simply to attack in order to get the battle over with, but they tended therefore to put aside that precious moment to truly prepare themselves - a fatal flaw he had found in many. Admittedly, I am the one proving fatal to them, but they might make it challenging with a little patience. Sad to say, but these were times of impetuosity now. "Tell me first: what is your name? I always try to learn them where possible."

@[member="Tarika Sadow"]
 

Tarika Sadow*

Shadow Fleet Commander | Rule Breaker
The moment he spoke she smirked and looked over her shoulder to find a man dressed in all black, her attire was made for the heat since on her natural home world it was always hot so she was plenty cool.

As she reviewed him she turned on her heel and regarded him with a stern gaze and an icy expression, fact is she was once a sith herself but decided that being a dark jedi was more fitting for her persona, and the fact she was not defenseless made her more appropriate for being a dark jedi. As she stood there she studied him as he spoke and nodded at every other word, her dueling saber hooked to the front of her outfit and to the side, as she stood there she listened and sighed, something was off about this one and something told her this would be intense but she had no clue what he truly intended.

Pleasantries are always welcome, but we should make it quick since it appears you have a mission to attempt completion she spoke with a clear, stern and commanding voice as she stood there and black is so fitting for a hot world, so nice to know you will fry in this heat she said with sarcasm and she remained civil but also stern.

Taking off her cloak she smirked at him and she used a force throw to send it away and then stood there with a mocking grin, she was not one to be baited and she had a feeling, a gut instinct this male actually had business here rather than just being here for a duel, but it didn't matter since they would have fun dueling and she would be walking away, although it could just be that she is paranoid after being expelled from the LoTF and now she thinks everyone is out to get her.

@[member="Tirdarius"]
 
There it was: that sassy, disdainful, slightly mocking tone that was so familiar. It was one he heard from near enough every Sith and Dark Jedi he had ever crossed paths with, excepting perhaps his own Master, and that was solely a consequence of her inability to speak verbally. This one had that same intonation, the slightly confrontational attitude that always provoked, even when that was not necessarily the intention.

Tirdarius found himself mildly amused by the young woman, though: her verbal riposte was just as lethal as he suspected she might be, although he did wonder at her understanding of basic Force technique, if she did not recognise that there were skills available to her that would allow differentiations in temperature to be rendered irrelevant with just the tiniest exertion of will. Perhaps there will be other gaps in her knowledge to be demonstrated in short order, he noted reflectively, though he was not prepared to underestimate her purely on this alone.

She still hadn't told him her name, though. That much hadn't escaped his notice. So be it, then. Most enjoy their battles in anonymity, as though it adds an extra layer of safety to a dangerous situation. He could cope with that, for now.

"Sadly, other colours simply lack that same visual presence, and after all these years, I am simply accustomed to them," he remarked mildly, a faint smile on his angular features, the laughter lines at his eyes a little more apparent. "But are we not taught to treat all discomfort as another tool: an object to focus us, a medium of irritation, rage, anger?" The former Sith Lord's smile widened wryly at that, reflecting on that blind doctrine that all of his brethren had fallen to. "Let us call it an irrelevance for now. Our outward self is but the first lie we tell others, isn't it?"

He came to a stop a few feet away from her, hands resting at his sides, posture relaxed. He wasn't in a hurry, as she claimed, but then he doubted that she had any idea what his intentions were here. Few enough do, after all. Watching her patiently, he gathered his energies around him, opening himself up to the Force around them, that calm, swirling stream of invisible power that moved around them both, a flickering tempestuous vortex that might at any moment burst into manifestations both beautiful and deadly, a storm that would blast away all before it. And so, we stand on the threshold of the tempest, waiting to see if we will still be here in a few moments. The thought was oddly calming.

"Now, we both understand the nature of this dance. Ladies first, I believe?", he said, proferring a courtly bow in her direction, though not for a moment taking his eyes from her. I'm not that naive.

@[member="Tarika Sadow"]
 

Tarika Sadow*

Shadow Fleet Commander | Rule Breaker
Smirking as he stepped closer while taking in his words, he was well educated which was a good thing and something she could respect but for now she knew nothing of him other than the fact she could tell he had some serious power backing his actions... what was even more evident was how he handled himself, the way his body language spoke of and the fact he seemed to be gathering the force before even trying to make mention of a lot of things, all this she noticed and all of it made her smirk with great interest and satisfaction

could he be a sorcerer as well? her mind puzzled and asked as she stood there with him gathering the force around him, which in turn caused her to pool the force and brace herself within it. Her mind calm and focused and as he told her ladies went first she smirked and an electric fire boiled in her eyes as her own electric abilities activated, she smirked at him as she stood there with her eyes showing streams of electricity within them, as she remained there she gathered the force quickly in her body and caused her own electricity to boil up inside of her and stored the energy within her inner cell.

She quickly gathered it and stored it as she stood there and eventually gathered enough that she assumed a more neutral sideways stance and held out her hands in a claw like form and sent forth a few streams of knight level force lightning, she aimed the streams at his legs and focused her mind on shocking his knee cap..

@[member="Tirdarius"]
 
The surge of energy he felt move along her arm and gather at her fingertips burst forth in a stream of blue-white electricity that shot through the air between them with violent force, the smell of ozone strong in the air as it leaped across the gap from her fingers. His own energies swirled around him and concentrated themselves to a point, gathering at his hands and spreading outwards to form a bubble around him, but the suddenness of Tarika's strike had ensured that no fullness of protection could be his.

The blast struck him in the knee, jolting it and sending flares of agony along the kneecap, the muscles of his leg twitching and convulsing with involuntary motion as the energy of her strike forced to the muscles to contract and tighten. His leg buckled beneath him and the former Sith Lord forced himself down onto on knee, gritting his teeth both at the shock of the strike and at the concentration required to maintain his technique despite this.

Sith training had not entirely innured him to pain: when a person experienced agony of any sorts, they could embrace it, and accept it, or they could withdraw from it until it passed or enveloped them completely. Tirdarius had learned both, but the ability to simply push away pain was one that required a level of compartmentalisation: you had to, in essence, ignore the agony firing through your nerves, cutting them off from the rest of you. It was effective, but would always leave you mildly insensate in some respects.

To return her fire with the same lightning would have been fruitless, he sensed: a person who could wield the energies of Sith Lightning would similarly understand how to counter it, just as he could. Brute force alone would not work here, so subtlety would be required. Gathering his shield around him, there to counter the next strike should one be directed towards him, he altered it with a thought, a blanket that would smother his senses within the Force, but similarly render others unable to detect him. When one is cloaked truly in shadow, you cannot differentiate the being from the shadow it casts upon the wall. That was his intent now.

Energy tingled through his body, aftershock of the lightning strike combining with his own, firing up from the roots of his feet and up through him, gathering towards his fingertips. With a sudden motion, he clapped his hands together and a flash of light burst forth, expanding rapidly out in all directions with an intensity that would be dazing to look at. His energies wrapped around him as his illusion took shape, and he applied the other within the same breath: as light expanded outward, he sought only to reflect it, vanishing from visual sense.

"You cannot attack what you cannot see, girl," he said coldly, his voice appearing from the air that still vibrated invisibly from the sudden exchange of energies. "The Force can lie to you, as can your own senses. How do you see that which is not there?"

Now he'd have to see if she understood the subtleties...

@[member="Tarika Sadow"]
 

Tarika Sadow*

Shadow Fleet Commander | Rule Breaker
She watched as he disappeared and withdrew her own hands back to her sides and sighed deeply, she wasn't trained for this and knew it to be a trick.. but she knew nothing of how it worked and so she needed to figure out a game plan and with it would come a formula for attack..

As she looked into the space of where he was before he disappeared she glared and concentrated and took into account that he disappeared as more light appeared, he was in a cloak but apparently that cloak consisted of light being manipulated, she was a quick study but still it was alien to her and still she knew nothing of it.

As she stood there she smirked and mulled over her thoughts and tore her saber off her belt, she would not be forced to look like a fool so she would test it and would eventually understand more of it.. as she activated one end she threw the saber and used her TK to guide it to see if the light was the result or if it was something else.. although he could take her own saber but she would know and when he did she would fire at him again and this time with one of her more powerful abilities.

As she used the force to throw the blade at him she did so with the lit part being sent directly at where his last placing was, if he was still there she would know it and would fire off at him, if he wasn't it would keep going and she would be forced to pull it back to her, unless he himself used his own pull or push on it to alter its course.. if he did she would know where he is. so either way, she would either know... or wouldn't know. But it sucks when you need to use your weapon as bait to know where a sith master is when he uses cloak to hide himself.
@[member="Tirdarius"]
 
The young woman thought fast, and Tirdarius could tell that she wasn't used to what he was doing: the expression on her face said it all. It wasn't surprising: although he had known a few illusionists and masters of mental manipulation during his years with the Sith, he knew those spheres to be unpopular among those wearing the black. Requiring too much discipline, creativity that goes beyond merely the sadistic, and ultimately too subtle for many. Whether that was true for Tarika, he did not know, but nor was he going to question her on it. We have so many arts to learn and master. One cannot learn them all.

Tirdarius approved of her response: attack into open space, perhaps guessing that he might have remained in that spot where he had vanished. It was a good choice: if he had not moved, rather seeking to play to her paranoia, he would have to choose between being decapitated by her lightsaber or dropping his technique in order to defend himself. Clever, but sadly only a functional strategy if I stay put. Although he had struggled to come to his feet and limp away, dragging his still injured leg, feeling a weakening around the kneecap, inflammation that was not there before, a white flare of agony surging through it each time he tried to put any weight upon it. That might need a bacta tank.

Now he was a little off to the right of where he had been a few moments ago, moving slightly closer to the young woman. There were options here, plenty of them: frankly, knowing she could not penetrate his illusion meant his simplest approach would be to walk up to her and stab her in the back before she realised he was there. Simple, subtle, but utterly uncivilised. This wasn't supposed to be a fight to the death, either: just an opportunity to hone their skills, one Force User to another. And there was little honour in taunting her with skills she could not counter and then leading her to a humiliating defeat. Instead, let us treat this as a learning opportunity.

"Your lightning would have been the better weapon to detect me", he observed cooly, projecting his voice outward through use of telepathy, eshewing verbal conversation and reverting to what his Master had first taught him decades ago: the ability to communicate mind to mind, projecting images, feelings and, as his skills had advanced, even a sense of words he intended to convey. "A lightsaber is focused, but requires merely that one not be where it is going. A Force-based attack can only be countered with use of the Force, and that will push any Force User into dropping their illusions, since maintaining two techniques at once is both difficult and exhausting," he informed her.

Exhaling a deep breath, he projected his mind further: first visualising himself, limp and all, then shaping the Force energies around them, moulding it into similar form, giving it shape and sense, all natural facsimiles of the person he envisioned within his mind's eye. Two of them arrayed around her, one behind, one in front. And then himself, the original form from which the others had been created, removing the cloak with that same shimmering wave with which the illusions had appeared.

"You are taught that the Force has a will of it's own, but that it can bend to one sufficiently focused and powerful, yes?", he asked, mind-to-mind so that he did not give away his true nature by virtue of not having to synchronise lip movements with his two illusions. "So it is here: you can shape energies to whatever form you can effectively envision, with sufficient practice. As you shaped the Force into electrical energy to strike me, so I can shape it to bend light away from me, or coax it to play with your mind, letting you see what I desire." All three shrugged with identical motion. "It provokes some interesting questions, does it not? What is real? Can you trust your own senses, or can they, too, be fooled?"

A faint smile curved the features of the three Tirdarius' surrounding Tarika, a touch amused, perhaps even slightly mocking in their own way, though he intended her no insult. It had been a while since he had found a captive audience with whom to test his skills, and so far she was proving fairly receptive. She hadn't underestimated him or become sullen when he had thrown something unusual at her, rather adapting her own technique to try and counter it. A quick mind, then, one that works well with unexpected challenges. He'd have to be similarly creative, so as to ensure an appropriately mind-expanding experience for her.

"Now...which of us is real? Three enemies, but only one can truly harm you," he projected. All three raised a hand then, gathering energies forth from the Force, then channeling it to their fingertips the way that Tarika had done when this challenge had first started, and a blast of Lightning burst forth, firing their way across the gap separating them from her, standing in the centre. Unless her Tutaminis was very effective indeed, she'd need to choose one to block, and only one could be stopped, since the other two were mere illusion. So now we see how acute her senses truly are, he reflected.
 

Tarika Sadow*

Shadow Fleet Commander | Rule Breaker
Her training was not of mastery but rather of adaptation and learning, she was forever a student learning new techniques as the more stronger she became, as her time passed on she taught herself to be mindful of the force and to recognize certain mishaps or mistakes the force could make.. it was evident that he is toying with her, probably a test of her ability to be effective at combating him.. or something else entirely.

As his dopplegangers shot lightening at her she looked at the three of them and made a quick decision of a guess and held out her hand and forced a small shield to appear that caught and bounced back the lightening into the ground, from the she dropped the protection bubble and smirked as she continued to judge them all, within moments she seen something that caught her eye and snapped her finger and made fire erupt over her arm and shot it like a flame thrower at two of the dopplegangers and forced them to phase out and then smirked at him.

So tell me, what are you? she asked and then used a force pull and pulled her own saber back into her own hand, it took a few attempts but she got it and she deactivated it and placed it back on her hip You must be an independent master, no? she asked as she stood there and then moved to the left and stood while contemplating her next decision.

Nice trick, but to tempt a mind would be to deny it the water it craves she stated and then began to subtly gather the force within her own body and store it so she could use her own sorcery against him, although hers is not that powerful yet but as time presses on it grows in strength and in volume.

@[member="Tirdarius"]
 
His two illusions dissipated by Tarika's pyrokinetic blasts, Tirdarius felt able to relinquish some of the considerable energy he had gathered to himself in order to maintain them, feeling a tug of weariness as that self-same force bled off into the environment around him, leaving him wearier than he had been. Force Fatigue, as he liked to think of it, tended to be less of an issue as one became more experienced in manipulating and channeling the energies of the Force - the body becoming more accustomed to it over time - but that did not make it a simple thing to shrug off.

That her next move was simply to stand patient and gather energy struck him as unusual, certainly for one of her training: you didn't learn Sith training among the Jedi, that much he was sure of. Patience wasn't the Sith way, because it required that emotions be kept in check, that rage and anger and hatred be held at bay for a time, waiting for the opportune moment to unleash them in full force. Some, like himself, had that level of self-discipline, but it was a rare thing all the same. A dangerous thing, ultimately.

"Independent, unaligned, perhaps, but I have always walked my own path," Tirdarius replied, his tone still calm and polite. "I've walked on those sides that urge us to specific alignment. I started my training as a Jedi, was captured by the Sith when still an apprentice and pressed into conversion, as any impressionable young man would be at that age." He offered a shrug as if to say that such a thing were irrelevant which, in truth, he supposed it was. "I spent decades thereafter as a Sith, ranked among the hierarchy of the Empire, but their ways are just as short-sighted as those of the Jedi in truth."

His issues with his former brethren were legion, perhaps even moreso than the problems he had observed plaguing the Jedi Order over the years. The Sith were bloodthirsty, brutal, full of malice, rage and self-importance, believing their way to be the right way, when in truth most had forgotten exactly what the purpose of the Sith was: to create peace and stability through rule. The Jedi supported peace by bolstering the government it saw as spreading civilisation, while the Sith felt that only a strong centralised rule that was capable of effectively leashing chaos and instability could serve. Those who would seek to fragment orderly peace, be they pirates, warring planetary governments or insurrections among the disenfranchised: all can be put down by leaders both powerful and determined. Such was the idea, but it had devolved thousands of times over the millenia: once the Sith had power, they invariably turned it to their own advantage, losing sight of the fact that they were the ones called upon the serve.

"You should understand this well enough, girl," he remarked cooly, staring at her indifferently with those stern grey eyes. "You've worn the mantle of the Sith, as clearly as I. Such things cannot be hidden from us." As with Jedi, you could spot one no matter how they dressed themselves, if you understood what to look for. There were subtle indications everywhere: posture, mannerism, presence in the Force. "Yet you do not act as one now. A Sith would seek my death with whatever means available to them, provided it offered them some advantage. So perhaps your own question is one you should answer: what are you now?"

@[member="Tarika Sadow"]
 

Tarika Sadow*

Shadow Fleet Commander | Rule Breaker
Tarika listened with grave interest to his words as they came off as cool as the spring breeze on some worlds, as she stood there she watched and waited for his mouth to cease running, her own thoughts betrayed her inner calm and her mannerisms patient and undisturbed, the truth was apparent.

Standing in the same place she continued to gather the force within herself, the force was to her a weapon and a vice to be used to unleash anarchy against her enemies, against those she feels have done her wrong and against the regimes whom deserved it the most but one thing that she caught mostly was he shot her own words back to her, the fact was he asked her what she was now.. and that only made her thought process work over time and added for a new junction for her to consider in the avenues of self-dedication of a craft.

I am Tarika Sadow, Dark Knight of the Sadow Bloodline she remarked as chilled to the bone as she could muster and smirked as she stared him coldly in the eye, seconds later her hand came up fast and she sent another volley of lightening adequate for a knight level force user at him and held it as she watched his reaction, she was only testing him.. her bait was the lightening.

@[member="Tirdarius"]
 
Standing there in stillness, his expression calm and eyes cold, Tirdarius felt the energies gather once more around his opponent, observed dispassionately as she raised her hand and fired another burst of lightning across the gap between them. He was better prepared this time, raising his hand as he sensed the discharge but a moment before it materialised, his own energies pouring forth from his hand and surging outward in a half-bubble, enveloping him with invisible force just in front of his palm. As her lightning raced towards him, it struck against the bubble, illuminating it with a surge of blue-white light which rapidly faded as the energy was caught by the shield and absorbed.

"The Sadow line has a deep and dark history, to be certain," he remarked with a calm, polite tone, the former Sith Lord lowering his hand back down to his side now that the young woman's lightning attack had disipated it's force against it. "Theirs was the gift of Sorcery, those ancient Sith magics that wreaked so much havoc across our Galaxy." Tirdarius shrugged slightly. "Not a lost art by any means, but certainly lost on many of those with the audacity to assume themselves practitioners." He smiled faintly, amused despite himself. The ancient ways of the Sith are not as simple as the powers they wielded, he reflected.

He'd known many who claimed to wield those ancient powers, and though there were some accomplished sorcerors among the Sith ranks, ultimately all had believed it sufficient to bend the energies of the Force to their will, as a tool to dominate and control. The understanding of what one was to do with these powers has largely been lost on the majority. @[member="Ashin Varanin"] had understood it, well enough: the Sith were not to dominate as a mere extension of ego, but rather to rule, and rule well. Few others had recognised this, as far as he was concerned, and that alone was sufficient justification for the fall of their kind. Possessing power without understanding it is a child's folly.

"Let us dispense with these lesser abilities you have at your command," he instructed her, focusing once more upon the present moment. "You are heir to a heritage that offers more than the ability to simply flick lightning across a room: a skill that the least apprentice among our former brethren could wield." He took a few steps closer now, his presence becoming evident within the Force now that he was relinquishing his tight control over the mental shields that had concealed it. "Why threaten me with a weapon I can easily counter? You do yourself little justice by pretending to be less than you are here."

@[member="Tarika Sadow"]

(OOC: Apologies for the delay. I've been super busy lately, but I thought I'd try and squeeze in a reply)
 

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