Private Creeping Roots

[Cerbera]

DEEP SPACE
ON BOARD THE HIDDEN LEAF
Madrona A’Mia

The ship was quiet, hibernating almost, but A'Mia's vehicle that docked with it would find it still operating on low-power mode. Just enough juice to allow docking procedures and open up the gate between the exterior and the interior. Once stepping inside she'd realize that this was most likely the right address. So to speak. Because just stepping inside she'd realize the corridors were lined with flora. Moss covering the surfaces. Vines and plants thriving. Mud under foot. It was not an organic ship, she knew this, because from the outside the view was clear enough. It had once been constructed as a regular enough starship.

The inside had merely been transformed.

An internalized eco-system.

It wasn't just flowers and plants. As she stepped deeper in, she'd realize it was fauna as well. Smol critters twitching and twittering in the background. But this was a not a place of peace even if it was hibernating. There was quiet menace behind it all. The plants were dark, small, they were waiting on the prowl. The critters stayed out of sight but she had the distinct sensation of being watched.

However... nothing touched her.

Just... certain passages were slowly closing or opening... leading her into a certain direction. The draw was getting stronger. There was power here. Like the stalking vine. It was luring her in, because it couldn't move on its own.

It was dreaming and her dream touched everything outside. Eventually... she'd reach it. The prison, the trap, the thing that had sprung around Cerbera and kept her in this state. She was frozen, her face stilled, her eyes closed. But even here A'Mia would see that the plants were reacting to the dreamer. Wrapping themselves around her body. Suspended in the air by vines. Animals sleeping just under her feet.

As if they didn't want to part from her proximity.

Someone had spend a lot of effort to trap this creature here. Someone had hid this spaceborn coffin extremely well.

Perhaps there was a reason for that.

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Deep Space
Docking From: Borrowed Starship
Boarding: Unknown Starship
Cerbera

[Soundtrack]

Caution was never A'Mia's strong suit.​

Curiosity, a hunger for knowledge, and just enough instinct for self preservation were the characteristics that allowed A'Mia to walk the vibroblade's edge between great discovery and utter ruin. Her propensity to throw herself headlong into such unique opportunities was what brought her there that day.

Her many footsteps were ponderous upon foreign soil, found in such an unexpected place. The bare soles of wandering limbs that propelled her forward could taste the quality of the strange environment. Clinical awe and more than a little professional envy filled her to the edges of the orchid core, expanding even beyond the confines of that artifice rib-cage to make her buzz with anticipation.

A'Mia left the few troopers in her entourage behind to tend the ship, and she was relieved at her foresight, knowing that their clumsy traipsing would have ruined the moment for her. She made note of the guidance offered by the master of this domain, admiring that the puppeteering was done in much the same way she effected her surroundings back on Korriban.

Eventually, after drifting through a reverie of exploration, A'Mia reached the sleeper. She was struck with an immediate sense of familiarity.

Déjà vu

She too had been kept in stasis, on Kashyyyk rather than a ship, but close enough to evoke vivid memories of her own waking. A'Mia had been pulled from slumber by a great shifting in the Force, a dark surge of energy that at first had felt like Korriban calling her home. Later she would learn it was her Lord Master to be who'd summoned her, and two hapless Jedi that gave her the final nudge to wakefulness.

It was now her turn to call forth a sleeper from their dream. But how?

A'Mia tread carefully forward, one long fingered hand outstretched toward the slumbering form. She was sure not to physicially touch. Instead she reached out her consciousness to the other, in the same way one worshyr tree might signal to another. Proverbial roots of psychic energy reaching out to nudge carefully.

Awaken​

 

[Cerbera]

Madrona A’Mia

Her mind was vast and yet contained.

Like a potted plant trying to escape the pot by breaching through the pottery.

A'Mia would feel it. The effort of decades of a slumbering giant. Trying to break through, probing for weaknesses around the trap surrounding her sleeping mind. It was a subtle trap, careful and delicate, because it had to be. Anything strong and formidable would have tipped off those that might have been passing by and stumbled onto Cerbera accidentally.

They never considered the fact that Cerbera had seeded the Galaxy with her artifacts and that they could be used to track her down. Like a venus fly trap luring its prey in before the jaws clamped shut.

A'Mia's subtle touch was all that the Sith Lord needed.

Plants and animals groaned and chittered and moved around them. It was a large presence that suddenly shifted until its full focus was bearing down on A'Mia's mind.

You're beautiful. It said with a tone that was absolute. It brokered no opposition, it showed no sign of hesitation. It said and so it was. From one moment to the next Cerbera's eyes lazily opened up. Revealing pure amber with no pupils. The vines around her arms loosened and her hands reached out to cup A'mia's face from both sides.

"I have been waiting for you." She whispered in the fellow flora's mind. "I knew you'd come, thank you, child." The vines slowly letting her go of her until she settled into the ground. Toes curled into the dirt with satisfaction for the crunch.

"You have set me free... how can I reward you?"

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Danger, the likes of which A'Mia hadn't encountered in a long while, became readily apparent. To her sensitive eyes, the being bloomed before her into a riotous kaleidoscope of power.

She realized now that though the sleeper had been held here, restrained and exiled, her prison was now her lair. A'Mia would need to be cautious about how she responded lest she become ensnared.

You're unlike any I've ever met​

A'Mia understood the draw of beauty logically, but for her the highest compliment she could psychically pay in turn was to acknowledge unrepeatable novelty where she encountered it.

"Knowledge," she answered aloud, her bright voice full of quiet respect.

Wide blue-green eyes gazed down and drank in the sight of someone so alike herself, yet leagues ahead in the realm of self actualization. She suddenly felt as a sapling before an elder, with more reverence now than she'd ever shown her Grovemind.

 

[Cerbera]

Madrona A’Mia

Not power, not authority, not wealth.

Knowledge.

A'Mia would know instinctively she made the right choice. The creature in front of her softly stroked her jaw, approving. And where her fingers brushed the bark, soft moss grew. Fingers slid down, brushing her shoulders next, leaving little flowers in its wake. They'd disappear if they weren't fed, but that wasn't the point.

It was a hint of promise.

The ease of transformation that one such as Cerbera possessed and could offer in return. "Knowledge..." She purred softly. "That is the only thing that matters. When everything else in the Galaxy decays and falls apart, it is knowledge that can grow it back together once more."

Finally Cerbera let go and softly stretched, letting out a little yawn.

"It was good to sleep. But it is even better to wake from hibernation to a face so much like mine. Tell me your name, little sapling. Who am I thanking for my freedom after all these years?"

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Eager agreement filled A'Mia at the woman's words. There was many an occasion in the neti's one-hundred or so years that she thought knowledge was everything and nothing else mattered. She did not believe in such fanciful notions as kismet but this was one such circumstance in which she wondered at the odds. To unearth such a deadly treasure, and to be the face of her salvation?

A'Mia felt a surge of pride in their shared botanical heritage. Surely they'd each crafted this moment in their own way, each of them plucking on threads within the Weave until their paths might cross. The neti circled the vinithi, like a younger predator taking stock of the elder who's territory they'd stumbled upon.

"A'Mia Madrona," she said with deference, leaving off her titles which were no doubt inconsequential to her host.

"And yours?"

 

[Cerbera]

Madrona A’Mia

While the young predator circled Cerbera knelt down in the moss and mud.

She caught one of the critters moving about, smiling as it cooed towards her, before beginning to shift under her grasp. Teeth harsher, softness turned violent and once she sat it down back down into the moss it sped away.

"For your soldiers' sake, I hope they stay on your ship." She murmured over her shoulder. "This place is not hospitable to those unwelcome."

And yet it seemed to welcome A'Mia all the same.

"I am Cerbera." Responded calmly as she got back up to her feet. Amber suns following the track that A'Mia was making. But she seemed to find it amusing. "Madrona A'Mia... a full name, powerful." She tasted it on her tongue and found it plenty. "You are perfect the way you are, Madrona A'Mia, but even perfection can be refined into more."

Once they were back face to face Cerbera looked her up and down, calmly, with no rush.

"You have already changed yourself. I can feel it. Tell me of your progress. What have you accomplished and what more do you wish to do?"

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

"They will stay where they have been ordered to," the neti assured as she completed her circle.

Large keen eyes observed the workings of her new companion. She almost drew out a datapad to begin taking notes. Almost.

A'Mia knew she was still on uncertain footing and it was becoming increasingly obvious how outclasses she was. These facts didn't cause her fear but they certainly encouraged caution. So she leaned into deference despite her general irreverence of hierarchy

"Well met, Cerbera. You may simply call me A'Mia, if it pleases you."

There was a pregnant pause as she considered next how to answer such weighty questions.

"My most significant breakthrough is this," she finally said.

The woman shifted, polyweave and red-brown bark-like skin moving aside slowly. Her torso split open in a beautiful display that would surely be grotesque to a non-botanical. Thrumming faintly, nestled within her chest cavity was the Murakami Orchid Core entwined evermore with A'Mia.

She was clearly protective of it, and would move away or close herself off if it seemed the woman might try to touch. But there was pride in her bearing too, in showing off something so private to someone that might actually appreciate it.

"I have spawn as well, though they are large. I can release one if you care to examine?"

"As for further ambitions," she paused, uncertain how much she ought to reveal. Ultimately she decided that too much caution could be dangerous in and of itself, stunting growth and possibility if leaned on too heavily.

"I seek to touch the Great Weave, to make of myself the perfect Architect."

It was true, but it was vague enough so as not to be entirely revealing.

 

[Cerbera]

Madrona A’Mia

There is nothing simple about you, Madrona A'Mia.

The voice would coo as she leaned in closer to watch her chest unfold for her. Eyes widened a little bit in awe. "This is wonderful..." Cerbera purred as she leaned in. The movement was slow, as to not startle the little sapling, and the alchemist kept her hands to herself this time around. While she might have cupped her cheeks and stroked her shoulders... she would not dare to touch this creation.

Instead she leaned in slowly, breathing in the orchid's smell with a wide smile.

"You are beautiful, little one." Cerbera whispered to the orchid in clear approval. Even though she wasn't touching it... A'Mia would feel it. Her influence slowly circling around the orchid... boosting it, making it grow just a touch fiercer. Only then raising herself up again. It meant they were rather close this time around.

Cerbera didn't understand the need for distance between inter-personal interactions.

It got in the way of objective observation.

"Tell me of the Great Weave, darling. My memory is always erratic after a long hibernation period." She did not know if she heard of it or not. But perhaps having it explained would shake any loose hanging branches.

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Though A'Mia was clearly wary about the woman drawing nearer to her precious creation, she appeared to have no qualms with the intense proximity as Cerbera straightened up and the neti gazed down at her. Just as smoothly as her body cavity had opened, it knit itself back together again. No small amount of cautious awe showed in her bearing at the boon offered by her companion.

Typically, A'Mia was the one drawing closer to other people than was comfortable for them. It appeared that her fellow botanical was much the same, only the neti appeared neutral about the closeness, rather than shying away.

"Tell me of the Great Weave, darling. My memory is always erratic after a long hibernation period."

How to explain such a thing? It had been many long seasons since she'd discussed her worldview in depth.

"A way to encapsulate many complicated concepts under one term," she began haltingly, her bright voice quiet as her unblinking gaze considered the anomalous being before her.

"The great tapestry of space-time, reality, physical and metaphysical laws of the universe, all that binds and all that flows... The Weave."

She paused to see if her host was following, though she soon continued as it was clear her host wanted to know more.

"The way these things interact with one another, they appear to me as one gigantic happening. My scope of course... is limited. I am but one mind, one body- save for when I meld with my spawn. So, one of my greatest ambitions is to overcome such limitations. The be free from the burden of such imperfection, that I might play the Weave as an instrument, rather than regard it as a map. If you'll forgive such hasty metaphor."

 

[Cerbera]

Madrona A’Mia

She listened intently, looking up at her curiously.

A'Mia was much like a tree herself. Large, stately, solid. It was a pleasure to look at such a masterpiece. Cerbera wondered what made her tick. She was aware of Neti as a species, of course. But she had never had the pleasure of working on one herself. It would be rude to do so now, of course. She had rescued her.

These things created a debt, at least for a time.

"Now that is interesting, little sapling." Cerbera went on her toes and lightly stroked A'Mia's chin. "I love watching you talk." She murmured thoughtfully as the face made out of bark and vine and tree shifted from expression to expression.

"You know. If you wish to see the Great Weave in its entirety and the problem is scale..." Amber eyes met blues. "...I may have an idea that could assist with that."

There was one other species that Cerbera had always wished to play with.

"What do you know of the Drengir? Our violent branch-cousins?" They were intelligent, but in a base way. Not a true civilized species. They barely had any science available to them. A hivemind that only craved flesh and consumption. Every few times every century they would try to break free from their colonies to consume the Galaxy.

They were always thwarted.

If A'Mia indicated she didn't know them, Cerbera would explain and otherwise she'd lead straight into her idea.

"We could carve out a section of their hive-mind for you, darling. Why not? How many eyes do you need to see the beauty of the Weave in its fullest? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? I do believe we could make that happen."

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Blue-green eyes went wide with surprise. She wasn't one to truly know or understand proper social decorum, she was still learning it herself after all. Cerbera though, she might just be as odd as A'Mia when it came to interpersonal matters.

How… nice it is to relate, she mused to herself.

The other woman completed her thought and the neti's mind reeled a bit at the implication. Her studies and other work could be paused for a time— but there was the matter of galactic society at large and its sense of propriety.

"A thrilling prospect," her tone was soft, gaze distant.

"We'd need to be sly, cunning and careful. As you must know, our voracious cousins are not well regarded."

Still, she nodded as if the idea had taken root and would grow stronger as it was tended.

"In the meantime, what are your needs? If your ship well provisioned enough? I would like to continue to work with you even after our ways might part for a time…"

Her gaze became focused again, intense. A'Mia's form loomed a bit as well, shifting subtly to stretch thinner, her own trailing roots spreading through the environment a bit as if to take it all in much the same way Cerbera had wiggled her toes in the soil moments before.

"I could even— The Weave as I see it now, I could show you. That you may understand what you intend to work with."

 

[Cerbera]

Cerbera grew contemplative as she considered it.

Yes, it was probably best to come properly prepared. She didn't think their cousins could really hurt her. Few things in the Galaxy could, she had contingencies in place for it. That is why that harlot had to trap her here. If she had tried to kill her, Cerbera would have just come back again in another shape.

But no, forced hibernation? It was brilliant really.

"Mm, we will prepare, darling. Not to worry." Eyes flickered in amusement when it became clear Madrona A’Mia was concerned about the state of her ship and her provisions. She gently patted her cheek, almost motherly. "If you wish to help me, be a dear and lend me a few of your soldiers. The ones you are not that fond of because I won't be returning them."

Another sleepy yawn.

"I haven't had my fingers buried in... experiments in a long time. My fingers are itching to get busy again."

Interest signaled right after though. Eyes burning like a furnace.

"Oh, yes. Yes. Show me what you see, my sapling. I love experiencing a fresh perspective."

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Searching the fellow botanical's face as she was lost briefly in contemplation, A'Mia began to notice an odd sensation within herself. A feeling that was almost entirely foreign to her, something she'd read about and learned in passing through observing others. It was an emotion that her family and the Grovemind had noted as missing in her when she truly was just a little sapling, and its absence had disturbed them.

Kinship.

Empathy.​

Not just the fleeting fascination she often felt about new people she met. No. Not even the powerful but ultimately practical loyalty she felt toward those she worked alongside on Korriban; her Master, the other Lords of Vardin, nor even the deep devotion she showed to Kor'ethyr Academy. This was different from all that.

For perhaps the first time in her century of life, A'Mia gazed upon someone and felt the faint tug of recognition that she had much in common with the person across from her.

"Of course," she murmured as those silent musings spidered through her mind.

Telepathically she summoned two troopers, one with enough strikes on his record that his life was nearly forfeit as it was, and another who'd shown signs of cowardice on Woostri but managed to survive despite that. Their sacrifice was fitting, A'Mia felt, for her to have discovered such a treasure and in order to keep herself in the good graces of Cerbera while the neti learned all she could from her before their ways inevitably parted.

That flickering sensation in her core grew stronger, as hunger for knowledge burned in her fellow botanical's eyes and A'Mia leaned toward her. Long fingered hands reached carefully to hover about Cerbera's face, cupping it without yet touching.

"We make mycorrhiza of the space between us, yes? We mingle our minds. I've been told it can be jarring... but for us? Akin to a handshake."

It was the only waning given, a reassurance that surely they understood the way of such things. A'Mia made contact, gently at first, holding the woman's gaze even as creeping tendrils spouted through her palms and make their way beneath her skin to connect them both physically and energetically.

The shift was sudden, visions soon made themselves available to Cerbera whether her eyes were open or not. Various scenes and examples of breathtaking memories the neti had seen in her lifetime drifted in the ether between them: Kashyyyk alight with blinding Lightside energies which bound A'Mia in her own stasis for some stretch of years, a vast battlefield littered with star destroyers and other such vessels of war but illuminated strangely like a grid and seen from a deific view, as well as other less grand but still profound examples of A'Mia's unique shatterpoint vision.

Should Cerbera open her physical eyes and behold her own ship, she would see it in an entirely new light. Familiar surroundings would take on new, impossible hues and patterns somewhat geometric in nature appeared around certain organisms. There was much to take in, and for the unaccustomed, it might be an utterly overwhelming shift to the appearance of reality.