First Reply Channel What's Inside

[Galen Dooku]

// Serenno | Seven years ago...

"He is a shame, Elena!" his father hissed. Mother recoiled at the word, more afraid now of what that branding would do to her son than what her husband's wrath would do to her. She clenched her fists, white-knuckled as she stomped at him from across the family room.

"He is our son!"

"He is no son of mine!" father retorted, pointed an accusatory finger to Galen. The boy stood still, dressed in a set of muted-grey pajamas. Tears rolled down his face in a steady stream, dripping onto the fabric. He couldn't move. Couldn't speak. He failed the hunt, failed his father...

The fresh cuts running over his eye stung from the salt. The nexu cut deep, but having to watch this unfold somehow hurt worse.

"He is weak, and foolish, and a waste of space for House Dooku. He cannot stay here."

He stomped away, too ashamed of Galen to even toss him an angry glance. It was as if the boy didn't exist. His mother came over quickly dropping to her knees and cradling his head in her hands. Blood from his wound mixed with the tears, leaving pinkish-red streaks down his face.

"You can fix this, Galen," she told him, wiping his cheeks with her thumbs.

"We can fix this."

// Serenno | Present day...

"rrrraaAAGGHH!"

Galen brought the end of his kendo staff against the training droid's head, crushing the metallic cranium with a loud clang that echoed through the Citadel's training hall. It was his duty to remain airtight, to keep the feelings in check, but by the Force did it feel good to spring a leak every once in awhile.

The droid hand't yet hit the ground before Galen was moving to the next, delivering a series of decisive strikes against its chest. The staff battered the metal, crunching it under the weight of his blows. It, too, collapsed to the ground, joining several others in a chaotic mess of droid bits and metal scrap. The Knight sighed, catching his breath as he looked over the remains. Sweat ran down his brow, through the grooves of the nexu scar that stretched over his eye. He hardly noticed it these days, even when he stared into his own icy-blue eyes in the mirror.

"I grow tired of droids," Galen mused aloud in the empty hall. He longed for a new opponent. One made of flesh and blood that could think and react. These training droids were expensive prototypes, the best of the best. But there was nothing like bringing the kendo staff against warm bodies.

---

OPEN for training, introductions, or socials​

 

[Ryahtik]

"Now...Now this is interesting."

There was a soft clap from the corner as a male individual, all cut up and seemily near deaths door on just a glance, was leaning on a large pillar. The strange male had enjoyed the show that he had witnessed, slowly leaning forward as the long and yet strange robe like armor had draped over his body. Each step seemed silent, as if even the most gentle noise would disrupt something special. Speaking out again, his voice was of elegance, something that seemed...out of place except to those of noble heritage.

"If the cries of the hall, those of the damned and now yourself, you wish a better challenge?"

With a small step forward towards the wall, he slipped a hand towards one of the large staffs in the collection. Giving a soft hum, as if impatient but at the same time, relaxed in his position, he grabbed onto the largest staff and swung it around his body. He seemed rather...uneasy with it right now, as if not made for his height. Though the more he spun it, the more it became apparent he could use it like a giant club. Though with a few...alterations so to speak, he seemed to make it a tad more weightless. The Force maybe?

"My dearest question though is...do you want a challenge?"
Galen Dooku

 

[Galen Dooku]

“I do,” Galen said flatly, turning to face the scarred man that approached him. He was ghastly, gliding across the room in silence like a specter. Had he not spoken first, the Knight would have missed his presence entirely.

“Though I’d say you look rather worse for ware. Are you sure it’s here you need to be, and not the medical wing?”

Galen watched as the man tried handling the kendo. It was awkward at first, but he seemed to familiarize himself with less conventional methods of utilizing the weapons. Better than going at It unarmed, the Knight supposed with a shrug. Kendo are hell on bare knuckles.

---

Tags: Ryahtik
OPEN for training, introductions, or socials​

 

[Nadir-Zahi]

SERENNO - TRAINING FACILITY

---

It’d been a long day of poring over books and audio files, copying down information that he considered important or necessary to know. He was sure that the archives had grown sick of his requests by now. Not that he could blame them, but he appreciated their work nonetheless. Getting up from his desk and giving his hound a pat on her head, he donned a lightweight outfit and needed to the training facility. It was high time that he got a bit of practice in. He needed to stay sharp when assignments were slow to roll in.

Entering, he was polite to those he saw on his way to the main room. As the door silently slide open, he watched the interaction between the stranger and Galen. His head turned in Galen’s direction as the Knight faced his opponent.

He grabbed a kendo staff from the rack on the wall and leaned against the weapon gently. “Mind if I jump in, Galen? Or would you prefer a one-on-one match?”

---

Galen Dooku | Ryahtik​

 

[Galen Dooku]

“Mind if I jump in, Galen? Or would you prefer a one-on-one match?”

“Mind?” the Knight echoed with a grin.

“I’d love nothing more.”

He gripped his kendo staff with both hands, assuming a defensive stature that would suit better against two attackers. Galen was familiar with the fighting style Nadir-Zahi was likely to employ, a signature move set perfected through rigorous Praetorian training. Ryahtik on the other hand would prove to be a wildcard.

Galen figured there was more to the scarred man than what meets the eye.

---

Tags: Nadir-Zahi |Ryahtik
OPEN for training, introductions, or socials​

 

[Ryahtik]

A second voice echoed through, he was a bit surprised for how two people started to show up. Raising a hairless brow, he flicked the staff for a moment down as it rebounded back to his hand, showing he had some skill with a staff.

"I assure you, my appearance only hurts...once in a while. There be time for medical after the fact."

Giving a strange smile, he then with a bit of precision, tried to stab his staff right at Galens nether regions. It was a dirty ploy to start with but fighting had no real rules in the end, just of those who was alive and who was dead at the end of it. Besides...he wondered how he would react, his stance not even all the way ready yet into Juyo.

Galen Dooku Nadir-Zahi

 

[Nadir-Zahi]

SERENNO - TRAINING FACILITY

---

He watched for a moment, listening to the bits of back and forth banter. Nadir watched the stranger’s kendo and began a slow pace, circling in silent steps. While the scarred assailant took a shot at Galen, the Tribune took in the familiar surroundings and gauged the space between this little trio of theirs. He knew what the stranger did not: exactly how brutal and lethal Galen could be when necessary. He had a drive in him, a chip on his shoulder that did the driving if he wasn’t careful. Still an open wound. That needed to be fixed.

Alcohol stung when applied to wounds, but the pain was temporary for all the relief and healing it brought about if tended to carefully.

Nadir switched to a single-handed grip, dropping his right arm to his side as he stalked like a rather large spine-wolf. “How have you been, Galen? Having memories come up again,” he asked in an even baritone, gesturing with a nod of his head to the battered training droids that had yet to be cleared from the sparring area. “A bit on edge, perhaps?” He only destroyed bots like that if something bothered him. He'd coached the Knight on restraint and knew that Galen knew when to use it in the right situations. In truth, they taught each other a great deal. Training against droids, especially the sort they employed for sparring, did not call for that particular kind of brutality.

His weight shifted abruptly, twisting his body and staff down in a slash aimed to hit the Knight in the cusp between his left shoulder and the side of his neck. It was a testing prod, similar to the stranger’s jab. He was watching Galen’s breathing, his body language, the minute signals that he’d send while thinking and when preparing to strike or defend.

What beast was he struggling with today?

---

Galen Dooku | Ryahtik​

 

[Galen Dooku]

Galen swung his kendo much harder than he had to, bringing it against Ryahtik's staff with a loud crack. He held it against the floor for a moment, before he sensed an attack from the rear. The Knight was quick, pushing the scarred man's weapon away from his body while shifting to catch Nadir's strike. It was a sloppy maneuver that could have seen him injured on an open battlefield, but he blocked the blow nonetheless.

"I'm fine," Galen said coldly. A clear deception, just as messy as his techniques today. He had set aside finesse and poise hours ago, trading them for brutal strength and power.

"We just need smarter droids. Or at least stronger ones," he said with a half-smile.

He came off the sentence with a swift downward strike aimed for Ryahtik ahead, then followed with a backwards jab pointed at Nadir-Zahi behind him. Galen was comfortable in the fire, wedged between two different forces.

In a way, it felt like home.

---

Tags: Nadir-Zahi |Ryahtik
OPEN for training, introductions, or socials​