Private Dathomir Danger

[Aurelion Nova]

OBJECTIVE - Traveling to Dathomir


Where: Hyperspace - Near Dathomir
Why: Hunting the Past
Wearing: Robes; Lightsaber
When: Morning - 10 AM
With: Nimue

Aurelion was more than a little anxious having Nimue on board for entirely..... personal reasons. Though he didn't have any REAL issue with her being board The Escape but..... well.... he couldn't quite shake some sort of...pressure having a beautiful woman on his ship. The distinct feeling that everything about himself and his ship was being weighed, measured and judge with intense scrutiny, whether true or not, made him feel uneasy. V1, meanwhile, simply watched Nimue curiously. The little astromech's optical sensor zooming in and out uncertainly on her before Aurelion re-entered the main gathering area of the ship. Holding a warm cup of cocoa for both himself and Nimue as he sat down across from her, offering it with a small, sheepish smile, his ears drooping timidly under what Aurelion considered to be an intense gaze. Between the two of them it was the little astromech who spoke up first, Aurelion taking a long sip of his cocoa as V1 chimed.

"Lady+Type=Aurelion?"

"Aurelion+Lady=Partners?"

Aurelion nearly spit out his drink and coughed, choking on the cocoa as the little astromech looked up at him with an... impassive stare. He would REALLY have to talk to T1 about being more conservative with his opinions. "Ermm... n-no.... we're just... going hunting together. For a map." V1 gave a soft hum at this, head swiveling between Nimue and Aurelion as the little droid was given a silent stare that was VERY much quietly pleading for the little droid to NOT say anything else embarrassing. Unfortunately V1 had no such intention.

"This+is=Date?"

Aurelion turned a bright scarlet and set down his cup, ears tucking down as he narrowed his singular eye at the little astromech droid. Giving a soft, timid hiccup as he murmured "No. V1 could you... maybe go check the hyperdrive cycle? Please?" The astromech looked taken aback by this request before making rather..... teasing worbles to Aurelion before rolling off to do as asked. Head swiveling and flexing in amusement as Aurelion glanced at Nimue, awkwardly cleared his throat, and hunkered his shoulders a bit. His normally smooth, porcelain features aflame with a dusky blush as he curled his hands up in his lap. "S-Sorry about that..... I umm.... don't know why they act like that." Shaking his head Aurelion desperately needed something else to talk about and thus he adopted a more... rigid posture. Something he had long been forced to practice on Hapes as Nimue held herself with a poise and bearing that reminded Aurelion of the royalty there. It was all he could think to do to reciprocate the demeanor. "Could I umm... know a bit more about you Miss Nimue?" He asked softly, a singular orb of soft, sky blue gazing up in stark contrast to Nimue's own blazing orange eyes.

 

[Nimue]

L O C A T I O N | Hyperdrive - Near Dathomir
W E A R I N G | [x]
W I T H | Aurelion Nova ​

Nimue was turning into quite the traveller since stumbling into the lost prince. In the space of less than a year, she had visited more planets than she had in her entire life. Granted, the large majority of them were planets of little to no importance at all. Ryloth had been a glorious exception, to visit the sister coven of the Mandragora that resided there, as was Tatooine when Nightmother Vytal had invited her to join them. There was no denying that the Silmä’s views on the galaxy held truths beyond what they had assumed. In the cast of the galaxy, time was not a great healer, and to Nimue it still seemed as though they were holding on to ideologies of the past. There were, however, some exceptions to that rule.

A quiet, unnerved pair of eyes had been staring at her since she’d stepped onto the ship. Who they belonged to she had yet to entirely discover, but the child she could see had done enough to garner her attention. At least attention enough to join him on his trip to Dathomir. Their first meeting on Tatooine had certainly been one for the books. A fluctuation in the dark side so great that it called a powerful master of the force from all the way over the other side of the Galaxy. How could Nimue pass up a chance to dive into a mind so keenly and unawarely connected to the force? She couldn’t.

More than used to silence, and often preferring it to the alternative, the two had been sat on the ship for a number of hours already. In truth Nimue had expected him to strike up conversation long before now, but there was something holding him back. The Oracle had yet to bless her with visions of his past, or his future, so what little she knew came from assumptions. Surprisingly enough, the first words came from a chirpy little bucket of bolts that Nimue hadn’t even noticed when she’d first arrived.

The fluctuations in its voice made him difficult to understand. The Silmä had very little experience with artificial intelligence, or indeed artificial life as a whole. She had yet to decide on her opinion of droids, but they were a staple in the Confederacy it seemed. Growing used to them wasn’t an option anymore.

Having less of an outward reaction to what the droid had to say, Nimue rose a slender moon white brow rose in response. Presumptuous little thing. She said nothing in response to it, deciding that false life such as this had no right to anything she had to say. Instead she turned her gaze onto Aurelion, matching it with an incredulous expression. “Do you program these yourself?” She asked of him as the droid trundled off to do as it was bid. Her tone was that of an ancient matron who had spent years chastising those beneath her for less. Waiting for an answer, however, was out of the question. She could feel the embarrassment rolling off him like waves crashing onto a beach. It was more than likely that it would never be brought up again, and that was just fine with Nimue.

“That is a very ambiguous question to ask of one who has lived so many years.” Nimue’s unwavering gaze did not shift itself from their view, even when she brought her steaming cup up to her lips to take a sip. A sudden wave of molten hot liquid rolled over her tongue, bringing with it the bitter sweet taste of warm chocolate. For a brief moment, she simply allowed the sensation to carry on. Years had gone by, perhaps even more, since she had tasted something as sweet as this, but she wouldn’t allow her little project to sit in silence for long. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.” She spoke as she lowered the cup enough to lean forward, bending at her waist. Her flame orange eyes settled on the curious glint of light in Aurelion’s blue green orbs.

Curiosity was natural, especially when presented with a mystery nobody had dared solve for centuries. Nimue was just that. But nobody ever solved a mystery by asking such vague questions. “What is it you would like to know, Master Aurelion?”​

 

[Aurelion Nova]

OBJECTIVE - Connecting with an ancient Vampire?


Where: In Space Near Dathomir
Why: Hunting the Past
Wearing/Wielding: Lightsaber & Robes
When: Morning
With: Nimue

Aurelion took NImue's initial question as the rhetorical quip it was obviously meant to be, though that didn't stop his ears from droop sheepishly at the prospect that he would design a droid to say.... things like THAT. Thus while he didn't give the ancient priestess a verbal answer he did quickly shake his head and bring his own cup up to almost hide his face behind as he took a drink. His cheeks flushing as Nimue chastised him over the ambiguity of his question. Aurelion was VERY aware Nimue watched him even as she drank and he squirmed awkwardly in his seat, cradling his cup in both hands as he ducked his head.

Of all the things Aurelion never expected it was for Nimue to look him in the eye and genuinely refer to him as 'Master'. That made a tremor shoot down his spine and quickly take another prolonged drink from his cup. While Nimue wasn't inclined to keep Aurelion waiting in silence Aurelion wasn't... exactly in the right mindset to give Nimue the same courtesy. She was intimidating and, if she were a more aggressive person, he doubted he would even be able to talk to her. As Aurelion lowered his now-empty cup he sighed, exhaling his now-warm breathe and fidgeted in his seat. Attempting to speak for a moment only for a small, timid hiccup to leave him instead of any words.

If Aurelion had been flushed before, now his normally pale features burned a soft crimson, his elongated ears wiggling in alarm at how embarrassing his current situation was. His presence in the Force wavering and shifting, quaking on it's foundations as he tried and failed to reign in his emotions under the blazing, orange gaze of the woman before him. Aurelion tore his eye away from Nimue's only to look at her cup and gulp softly, noting how it was low and standing up stiffly. Taking the only opportunity he saw to escape the embarrassing situation as he reached out to take her cup for her. "H-Here umm... I can get us mo-...."

Aurelion paused as his hand touched Nimue's as the ancient priestess would actually find something worthwhile from this de-railed conversation. A sensation, a tremor in the Force she had never personally experienced before, as from one touch a string of tethered fate would snap to life between them. A Force Bond tethering the two of them to such an extent that, as Aurelion and Nimue's presences touched they would both find themselves drawn into the other's minds. But more than that due to their powerful connection to the Force, more than the present emotions, they would also experience each-other's past.

From Aurelion Nimue would feel a deep, innocent embarrassment she likely had never felt in thousands of years, if ever. A trepidation and worry to match her weakest, most naive, formative years and a bright, innocent hopefulness as of yet unmarred for what he felt his duty was to protect those he could in the galaxy. As for the past she would experience....

Spoiler: Trigger Warning

Nimue would inhabit the body of young Aurelion, the tangible 'reality' the memory slowly sinking into her very soul as emotions, physical restriction and biological functions she had not experienced within any recent memory began to surge through her consciousness. She was, in a word, helpless as her world was half-blind by the eye-patch the young boy wore over his right eye. A stronger, firm grip currently clasped around their tiny wrist jerked them forward. Dislocating their arm and making them wince in pain, the form she was currently experiencing nowhere near as durable as her actual body.

Looking up at the person dragging them a few words would ring in Nimue's consciousness as Aurelion thought about the person dragging them. 'Mother. Guardian. Hater. Abuser. Drunk.' The woman stumbled into the refreshing room as their lips moved. To Nimue's consciousness the voice would sound a mix of a younger Aurelion's and her own as he pleaded, sobbed and cried. "P-Please Mother I-I'm SORRY! Please I-I didn't mean t-to!" The woman would turn, strike them in the face, and send them to the floor. Huffing angrily as she snarled at them. "Sorry!? You're SORRY when you hit your MOTHER!?" True to her words the women bore a light pink mark on her cheek as she turned on the refresher tub. Lifting them both by their throat as they struggled to gurgle out any response.

Tears cause their vision to blur until suddenly their world is cold, wet, and it is impossibly to breathe. The woman shoving their head underwater as they spasmed and jerked, utterly and truly helpless as they sputtered out bubbles of air. Their vision swimming and limbs beginning to go numb before a dull clamor of noise would reach their ears, some servant who had stumbled upon the scene and, as she lashed at the servant in anger... their head was freed as they pulled back. Coughing and puking as they desperately gulped down air. Each breathe that flooded Aurelion's lungs making the connection weaker for Nimue... for everything to haze and spiral away to a greater distance each moment until.... she would return to herself.

As Nimue and Aurelion both returned to their own consciousnesses Aurelion would stare blankly at Nimue. Unsure of what he had seen in her past he was currently incapable of reacting to it as his eye narrowed in on her with a look Nimue would likely find very familiar. The feeling of her ageless, unending hunger overwhelming the young Padawan in much the same way his first attempts at using Animal Bond had gone. He became.... something close to primal in his desire to sate a hunger now his own. He moved with instinctual, surprising grace fueled by the Force before landing in the chair atop Nimue. Though he was still much weaker than she it would at least no doubt be surprising to feel him bite down on her neck. Though, lacking strength far from being able to truly hurt her, and the fangs Nimue herself possessed, it was much closer to a tickling nibble than a truly threatening bite......

 

[Nimue]

T A G S | Aurelion Nova​

Nothing good could have come from the fact that Nimue knew almost nothing about this child. What little she did know came from assumptions. His nervous demeanor, his awkward and slow speech, his timid practically nonexistent presence no matter what room he was in. All of it pointed to something disturbing, something in his past, or something that was following him even as they spoke. Nimue could not tell, and she disliked not being able to tell. For her, staring at him was like staring into a void. An eternal black swirl of nothing but raw and untapped emotion, desperately mingling with a surge of twisted power.

He was an anomaly waiting to be explored.

When he finally attempted to talk, Nimue actually leaned further forward to hear what he had to say. It was surprising enough that he had the gumption to ask her a question in the first place. Much to her grave disappointment, his only response was a soft hiccup. She grimaced, and pulled herself upright into a perfect posture once again. If she were any other woman she would have looked at him softly, spoken of how brave he was for trying his hardest, but she wasn’t. The High Priestess of the Silmä had no time for diffidence.

A soft, but expected sigh escaped her lips as Aurelion used the only reason he could to escape, the hot chocolate mug.

Where soft, supple skin met ancient hands a surge in the force burst forth. Beginning as a rumble, nothing more than a light vibration where their hands touched, Nimue rose an incredulous brow. What is this? To Nimue it appeared as dark tendrils of white, gold and black bursting forth from their connection, splaying out across the cramped interior of the ship. Tangling the strings of fate together impossibly. Nimue had never experienced it before, but she knew what it was. From her sisters in the Silma, from the years she spent pouring over aged texts, from the visions the Oracle blessed her. No. Her hollow tone demanded of nothing, for who could she command here? The force was no more willing to bend to anyones will then she was. The High Priestess tried to pull their hands away, almost desperately, even resorting to using her other hand to pry his fingers from hers. But it was too late.

Innocence. Pure unadulterated innocence washed over her in waves, the kind she hadn’t felt for years. For the first time in her unnaturally long life, Nimue was uncomfortable, but it didn’t last long. A darkness came over her eyes, muting the orange flame in her gaze until they were nothing but ebony shadows. As though she were living it, looking at it from Aurelion’s point of view, his history flashed in her vision. Sparks of memories long since passed, flashes of emotion Nimue had never allowed herself to be open too. She winced, as though the pain were her own, as though she had personally endured the suffering of a cruel and wanton abuse. Nimue’s chest heaved, struggling in a blurry underwater prison, just as he struggled...

Aurelion, on the other hand, would feel a different sort of past. One filled with welcome darkness, and much sought after terror. Nimue’s parents were never cruel, they simply were, and they had taught her everything she needed to know. About being a vampirika, about being a member of the Silmä, about being Illyrian. But something stirred in her past, something that Nimue had never openly talked about to anyone. A moment in her life filled with unwavering dedication to her coven.

A shimmering pool of oplensanct liquid formed before Aurelion’s eyes, though his vision would reflect Nimue’s. Sharper, cleaner, every colour and outline far more intense than his ordinary view. The Omnivident. Something spoke, but it wasn’t Nimue. Something with a voice that rumbled their rib cage and set their heart fluttering in their chest. Use it. It spoke again. The tone it used was not commanding, but it dared anyone to defy it. It is our only hope. Nimue approached the pool, the sharp tap of her heels echoing off cracked cave walls made of obsidian stone. The only light that filled it came from luminescent flora dotted sparsely over the rocky terrain, glowing shades of soft yellow and blue. Leaning down to glance into the reflective surface, a drop of something barely visible disturbed the still waters. Ripple after ripple stretched out across the pool, that when finally stilled revealed a face. Staring back up at her, and at Aurelion, was a much younger Nimue, a much more naive Nimue. She looked concerned, she felt sorrow. Where there had once been fire behind her eyes there was only fear.

DO IT. The words were enough to push her forward. For her to extend one of her feet to hover out over the omnivident, inches away from rippling the water once more. DO IT NOW. A horrific cry came from behind her. A cry that bounced down the corridor and sent a shiver down Nimue’s spine. They were here. There was no more time to debate. Her other foot shifted forward over the pool, and for one stomach dropping moment she simply hovered over the top, until… SPLASH. Nimue was encased in operlensant water, it stung her eyes, nipped her skin, wrinkled her fingers. Stole the very air from her lungs. Light not too dissimilar from the one that had tied Aurelion and Nimue together on the ship burst forth from the Omnivident, causing torrents of blood curdling screams to echo through the caves, but to Nimue they were muted. Drowned out by the water that seeped into her ears. Even if she could have heard it as clear as day, her mind was focused elsewhere.

Just as quickly as it had begun, everything went dark.

Her flame orange eyes went wide, in a brief and rare moment of total and complete shock as the world began to fade into its ordinary shades of grey on greyer. She was finally able to pull her hand free, and she did so as if Aurelion’s hand was set aflame suddenly. Her shock was so great she barely recognized the all too familiar look lighting up behind his eyes. Hunger. Before she could do anything to halt him in his tracks, or even react to him, Aurelion had pounced. Sinking unprimed teeth into the pale flesh on her neck. Nimue cursed, in a language that Aurelion had only heard once on the dune seas of Tatooine.

In the blink of an eye an iron vice of force had hooked itself under his jaw and pried his teeth apart. Another shot out from Nimue in a tendril that snaked around Aurelion’s chest, probably crushing him a little too hard, but her primary goal was simply to remove him. It tugged. Once, twice, three times, until Aurelion was forcibly thrown back from the High Priestess. It was aggressive, so aggressive he nearly smacked into the opposite wall, but Nimue dragged the tendrils forward before he could break his bird like bones against the sheet metal. With her new and strange bond hovering part way off the floor, now a decent way away from Nimue, she reached up to touch her neck.

No blood, but she could feel the impressions where his teeth had found purchase. “You…” Her voice quivered with rage, but she forced herself to stop and inhale the stale ship air. It was not his fault. She could blame nobody for it. That was, perhaps, the most frustrating part about it. Her fingers clenched, which in turn tightened the tendrils grip around Aurelion. They became uncomfortably so, until Nimue released her frustration in a grumble that echoed long after her lips had closed. She let him go, doing so with little care for the fact that he would fall…but when he did, she cursed again. She felt the pain shooting through his body when he landed, reacting by wrapping her arms around her middle to put an end to the incessant feeling. “This is... “ For once, Nimue had no words.

Staring in open defiance and, in some ways, fear at the young boy who had somehow managed to form a bond with an ancient and powerful Vampirika. It was unthinkable, insane… Nimue finally found her words. “Half a millennium of life without a bond… and I’m forced to bond with you?” She hadn’t meant it to sound so cruel, but that was her nature. She hadn’t meant it to sound so brutal, but that was who she was.​

 

[Aurelion Nova]

OBJECTIVE - Bond



Where: The Escape
Why: Going to Dathomir
Wearing/Wielding: Fate & Robes
When: Morning
With: Nimue

To say that Aurelion was helpless to stop Nimue's prying, grasping grip in the Force was an understatement, as he was not even in his right mind enough to call on the Force to do anything but attempt to feed the Hunger that now coursed through his blood, bone and sinew more deeply and intimately than his own heartbeat. His singular eye was wide and shocked, his thin, lean limbs thrashing briefly and straining taut as Nimue cast him away. Though Nimue did not slam Aurelion into the opposite wall that swimming, bright pool, that power that felt oh so very faintly of the string of fate that now tied ancient pragmatism to youthful innocence, that voice that commanded Nimue then now flooded his mind as well. He was well and truly lost.

Aurelion's body would react on instinct as he was dropped unceremoniously to the metallic floor of the ship, his body crumpling there like a broken doll with it's strings cut, as Aurelion quietly drowned in emotions and thoughts not his own. Things he was not prepared enough or familiar enough to face. His mind was a gloom-ridden, fog-shrouded haze as he relived every moment of being drowned in the Omnivident. That same sensation of helpless, stomach-dropping apprehension was lost as Aurelion cold FEEL the water rushing over his skin. The grasping emotions of Nimue's ancient memory refusing to release his mind even as she stared at him, a young Padawan that should have been infinitely beneath her notice, with defiance and fear.

Aurelion would gasp and sputter as his own consciousness began to resurface, quaking and shivering on the floor of the ship as weakly brought himself up to sit against the wall of the ship. The cool metal against his back helping to bring him back to reality bit by bit, only for Nimue's words, harsh and cruel as they were, to bludgeon his already fragile psyche. Aurelion would stare, silently, at the floor in a useless attempt to conceal his emotions. As, through their bond, Nimue would feel his emotions as if they were her own. Just as he now felt a defiant, indignant and fearful hatred of himself from her. Aurelion's singular, only response, to the roil of emotions Nimue now transferred to him were one.

Acceptance.

He began, in that moment, to hate himself. Tears softly rolling down his cheek as he once more felt like a burden on another who did not want him. A crushing, suffocating feeling suffusing his chest even as Nimue's own disdain for him fed the fires of his growing self-loathing. He could not even apologize to her as he had tried so very many times before with his mother, could not even bring himself to look Nimue in the eyes. Unlike this birth mother Nimue had done nothing to earn this attachment, done nothing to be saddled with him, and she would likely feel the deep, melancholic depression he felt just as keenly as he did.

A deep, squirming, writhing revulsion at your own very being permeated his presence in the Force. Fissures, cracks and breaks anew spider-webbing all through the fractures spire that was his psyche. Aurelion's mind coming apart at the seams as he sobbed quietly. A sickening, twisting feeling like their stomachs had been replaced by churning, all-consuming black holes. Hatred to the point of sickening gripping Aurelion as his heart POUNDED in his thin chest. A panic attack seizing him violently as his body began to spasm and twitch, his head turning as he vomited on the floor of the ship. Everything from Aurelion's thoughts to his presence in the Force shook to his very core before, through him, Nimue would 'see' him break.

All at once, under the stress and strain of what had been forced upon him, that cracked, failing tower of Aurelion's psyche would, with one last final snap, crumble and break. A pained, blood-curdling scream leaving him as he did the only thing he could to survive. Nimue would feel his presence in the Force simply... die. His body going limp and his eye staring wide and unblinking ahead of himself, the only indication that Aurelion himself was alive being the tiny rises and falls of his chest. Strangely, their Bond still existed and, though it seemed Aurelion still lived within the Force, he was as responsive as a deaf person was to sound. As reactive as a dead limb to pain. Through their bond his psyche was ash and dust, a crumbled, fractures and jagged ruin that SHE had caused. Perhaps a new experience for Nimue would be that she had broken someone, completely and utterly, that she was tethered to heart and soul. As Aurelion's singular eye began to blink, slowly, he gazed at Nimue. Slowly curling up in the fetal position as he croaked in a tiny, quiet little whimper. "I-I'm.... s-sorry....."

 

[Nimue]

T A G S | Aurelion Nova​

This was not what she had expected. Nimue was unused to her every whim and thought being projected into the mind of another. She had shared visions before, but of the past, and of the future. Other peoples past and future. This was all together different. Too different for her liking.

What came next was something of further torment to the High Priestess. The emotions Aurelion projected back were double her own, triple even. Revulsion, disgust, abhorrence, but not for Nimue… for himself. Her expression molded into something akin to horror as she felt the weight of everything he had ever faced snap his being clean in two. She turned away, unable to force herself to watch. It was unbearable just feeling it, let alone subjecting herself to viewing it as well. This sorrow, this pain, this utter and complete loss of self. They were not Nimue’s to feel. She pushed back, with every ounce of strength that she could. It would not break the bond, even if she willed it too, but it did over power.

No longer entirely inundated by a panic that did not belong to her, Nimue finally cast her gaze on Aurelion again. Oracle be… Nimue thought to herself as she settled on his quivering form, forgetting that she was not the only one privy to her thoughts anymore. I wish Vytal were here. She was not equipped to deal with this. A harrowing scream erupted from his mouth, so suddenly that Nimue’s highly tuned ear drums stung, forcing her to cup her hands tightly over her ears. All that untapped power and energy she had been so intrigued by crumbled. Crumbled into ruin and ashes that Nimue could taste in the air. For a brief moment, panic was hers to feel. This was indeed a day for discovery, this was the third thing Nimue had never before witnessed in her long span of life, and in only a few hours...

Aurelion had destroyed his tether to the force. Where he had once been tied to something that connected the ancient and the young, he was now a blank, lifeless spot on the great tapestry of the force. Nimue grimaced. She could feel how lonely it felt, how quiet and cold the Galaxy felt without it. For a brief moment, she almost pitied him, but then he spoke. Sorry. Her grimace turned into a frown, and then an expression of deep, deep irritation. Once again, she lashed out. Dark tendrils of force winding their way through the air at breakneck speeds. They entangled themselves around Aurelion, and heaved him up until the tips of his toes scraped against the metal floor.

They dragged him slowly toward Nimue.

“Wipe your tears.” She commanded, but he remained limp in their grasp. A heavy sigh that parted her painted lips followed, but she did not press further. Instead, with a flourish of her hand, she produced a jet black square of cloth. Nimue dabbed at his face slung face, attempting to do it in a tender way, but perhaps her fingers were unused to the sensation. “You have done enough apologising for a life time. I forbid you to ever apologise again. For anything. Ever.” When she spoke she didn’t expect a reply, so she continued on. “So far, in the time I’ve known you, you’ve apologised far too many times for me to even begin to keep count. For silly trivial things that only you think are with an apology.” Yes, she was a little more cruel in tone than she had intended, but his timidness was impressing upon her in the most uncomfortable of ways.

The harshness was merely a coping mechanism for her, and perhaps it would do Aurelion some to have the seriousness of it impressed on him so ferociously.

“You will get nowhere in life if you spend it saying sorry, and now we are to spend the rest of your life together, I will not have it.” She allowed the tendrils to fall, but this time Nimue caught him. One hand on either shoulder, holding him in place on the tips of his toes. He weighed practically nothing, Nimue was certain she could have held him up even without her vampirika strength. “You have allowed this shadow of days gone by to haunt you for far too long, Aurelion. Do not define yourself by your past.” Nimue shook him a little, if only to get some light back into his eyes. She didn’t care at this point whether it was fear that caused it, or something else. Anything would do. “If people do not find you worthy, you make yourself worthy. If people do not find you useful, you make yourself useful. If people try to crush you… Crush them first.”

She let her grip go slightly, just enough to stand him on his own two feet. “If we are going to share this bond together, I will not have you cowering in the corner at the first sign of fear. I will not have you shy away from the shadows that haunt you. You will use them to your advantage, you will let them strengthen you, but you will not let them dominate your life.” Nimue crouched, so she could match his height. When she sought out his gaze he would find the same hard, unnerving stare, but now they shared a bond he would be aware of what was behind it. The confidence of thousands, to shy away his timorous nature. The determination of half a millennium of survival, to show him it was possible. The raw power he was inches away from grasping, if only he could battle his demons.

“We will not spend our life together living like this. Do you hear me?” Begrudging as her tone was, there was a hint of something Aurelion knew all to well behind it. Acceptance. They were stuck together like this, for as long as either of them lived, there was no going back. Nimue had spent much of time navigating life's more complex moments. From experience, she knew there was no other choice. Acceptance was the only path, and she hoped she had just taken them on the first steps of what would be a long and exhausting journey. For both of them.​

 

[Aurelion Nova]

OBJECTIVE - Show



Where: The Escape - Dathomir Landing Pad
Why: Searching
Wearing/Wielding: Fate & Robes
When: Morning
With: Nimue

As Nimue gripped Aurelion's small, limp form with those tendrils of hers, pulled him towards herself and gazed at him he was certain he was going to be punished. His thoughts echoing in a chorus that overlapped itself, playing out in both his own voice and the voice of what had once been his mother. 'I deserve this. I hate myself. I'm nothing. I'm pathetic. I shouldn't exist. I'm a burden. I'm a mistake. She never loved me. He never stayed.' On and on the thoughts went until.... she began to dab his face and a tiny, near-silent gasp left him, as even Nimue's inexpert touch was soothing to his broken mind in his moment. His overwhelmed mind shocked into a such a state of openness, so pliable to words and emotions from Nimue now that each and every harsh, but reassuring, word he took straight to heart.

He stared at her, before his lip quivered, his eye watered as his eyelids scrunched up and he swallowed hard enough for Nimue to HEAR it. His heartbeat also tangibly audible to her as the tendrils released his lithe form into her arms. Aurelion didn't seem to care that his feet barely touched the floor. It was all he could do to listen, to stare back into her fierce, fiery eyes and numbly blink his singular icy blue orb in a vague attempt to show he was still conscious, still coherent. He was there..... if only a little. He was listening, if only in spirit. Mostly important, he was himself, if only pretending for her.

As Nimue searched his eye for light, whether the spark of fear or flame of hope, she would be met only with something worse than the darkness of nightmares, something more harsh and unforgiving than the unyielding radiance of light, therein his eye was now completely and utter choking, immutable grey. Apathy of such an extent it began to bleed through their bond to her. A deep, somber melancholy that drabbed the world once lit by innocence to a muted, horrendous mess. Her words had broke him and not, it seemed, there was not enough left to even put back together a mockery of what he had once been.

Only when Nimue crouched down to his height, only when she stared into his eye with the same acceptance for he and their bond that Aurelion himself had embraced her stinging words with did something, some vague remnant, some smoldering ash, flicker with the spark of life. Only when she referred to it, now, as THEIR life, did Aurelion's breathe hitches and cause him to blink one more time. His throat moved, his heart hammered, as his pale, soft hands shakily rose but not to Nimue. Instead they gently moved to his own head, his head ducking briefly, as he removed his eyepatch.

As his hands dropped limply to his sides, clutching the eye-patch in his hand in a crumpled mess, he gazed back up at her. Across his face, where his right eye should been, was an old and jagged scar. Faded by time and dulled to a rough, slightly painful reminder. His eyelids were sunken, unnaturally, as there was no eye with it give them the rounded shape they would normally posses, and he stared at her. An odd feeling, something between apathy, sorrow and the slightest tinge of confusion and curiosity, warred within his gleaming eye as he sniffled. Murmuring in a tiny, heartbroken voice to her something that was likely entirely unexpected.

"Sh-She.... She could have fixed it. M-M-Miss Nimue. She.... c-could have h-had them fix m-my eye." He began to shake softly, trembling violently as bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood, the ruby crimson sliding down his pale jaw.. His voice quaking as he continued to hitch and quiver in her grasp, the words spilling out despite how hard his body tried to reject saying a single word. "I-I-Instead she j-just told them... t-to remove it. She told me.... sh-she wasn't going to spend her... h-her money on something s-so... f-f-f-f.... frivolous." He choked, echoing the exact words she had once said to him with casual disdain.

Aurelion stared at Nimue, his entire being radiating hurt confusion and heartbreak, until he finally could not physically say another word. His only connection to the Force, now, was through her. Though he was still Force Sensitive Aurelion had closed that door, cut off a limb that caused him pain to save himself, and though it could be reclaimed... for now reaching out to her was all he could do. The only thing he asked her was a soft, tiny question from his mind, his heart, his soul. 'H-How can I ca-care about myself.... when no-one else does?'

 

[Nimue]

T A G S | Aurelion Nova​

She could not bear the self depreciation, she could not bear the look on his face, or the whine in his tone, but she was here now. Whether or not she chose to admit it to herself, Aurelion’s life and potentially his future rested in her hands. Rested on what she had to say in the here and now. Nimue did not like it. Not in the slightest, but for once, she said nothing. She simply listened to his tone drone on, lacking even the slightest hint of confidence.

It was, thus far, the hardest thing Nimue had ever had to subject herself to, but she did it anyway.

Her patience was only rewarded when a flicker of something crossed his eye. It wasn’t what she wanted, or even what she expected, but at least it was something. It was life where there had once been none, recognition where there had once been refusal. That was a start at least. Dipping her gaze to the crumpled eye patch in his hand, Nimue did not shift as he spoke of his mother. Nimue could hardly remember her own Mother, so she found she had little patience when it came to listening about others, but she had no choice.

Pale features dropped slightly in response to his words. “Well then, that proves to you. She is not worthy of another moment of your time or consideration. You have wasted every moment of your life up to now thinking of someone who does not think of you.” Nimue lifted the hand that clutched the eyepatch, only to peel back his fingers and take it for herself. “You keep this for what reason? To cover up the tragedy you suffered?” Her head shook, disturbing the soft moon white curls on her shoulders. “You should own your pain, and own what happened to get you to where you are today.” She unfurled her fingers, revealing the eyepatch sat in the centre of her palm. For a moment, it appeared as though she were simply showing it to him, but after a few seconds a thin tendril of smoke rose up from the centre of the patch.

Suddenly, and rather violently, it burst into pure white hot flame. It flickered aggressively back and forth across Nimue’s hand as it ate the eyepatch from one end to the other, leaving nothing but a thin film of ash in the middle of her hand. Nimue lent forward, and pursed her lips to blow a steady stream of air at the ash. When it caught the breeze, particles danced wildly in the air. Almost erratically. “There.” She said simply when the dust had begun to settle. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. What is done is done, and there is nothing you or I can do to change that. You can either spend the rest of your life feeling sorry for what happened to you, or you can use it to your advantage.”

Nimue sighed heavily. The next question he asked, she had witnessed many struggle with, and a question she had answered time and time again. Now keenly aware that anything she said or did would likely affect him for the rest of his life, Nimue knelt. She wasn’t normally one for lowering herself to another’s height, but today, for Aurelion, she would. “That is the wrong way to look at life.” Nimue shook her head. “You cannot spend what little time you have in this galaxy shaping your personality around what others think of you.” The next wave of pity, even though she tried, could not be helped. No matter which way she attempted to spin it, Nimue could no longer lie to him.

“Doing so makes you…” She paused, if only to find an appropriate anecdote. “It makes you like smoke. You fill whatever space you occupy perfectly, until something new is introduced and the shape of the space changes.” Nimue stared at him, directly in the eye. “You cannot be like smoke. You must be solid, you must be something that nobody can change. You must be sure of yourself, before anyone else can be sure of you.” She rose a brow, her tone taking on a more curious lilt this time. “How can you expect anyone to care about you if you don’t care about yourself? If you walk, look and talk like someone who is worthless, then that is what people will judge you as. Only you control your image, only you control your fate.”​

 

[Aurelion Nova]

OBJECTIVE - The Stinging Truth



Where: Dathomir
Why: NImue
Wearing/Wielding: Fate & Robes
When: Morning
With: Nimue

Aurelion stared at Nimue, a swirling mix of emotions roiling his thoughts like a violent whirlpool tearing asunder the tranquil blue of the deepest depths of the ocean. Through their bond she would hear every uncertain whimper, every trembling suggestion his mind made to itself, every last buzzing, incessant thought that rose like a swarm of ravenous insects to peel apart the certainty she attempted to instill in him. This swarm was only stilled when she began to peel his small, slim fingers apart, making him jump in alarm as his singular eye widened in shock. Gazing at his hand before briefly looking at her, silently pleading with her not to take it, as he could do nothing to truly stop her.

As she burnt the eye-patch away and calmly blew it's ashes into the wind it was all Aurelion could do to stare at them in a hopeless, awe-struck stupor before his gaze lowered to the floor. His throat seizing and constricting as it refused to work, refused to do what he so desperately wanted to...... to thank her. To cry. Almost to apologize again until he remembered her instruction to never do so again. His thoughts all too honest in that he admitted he would likely forget this rule, for her, he would try. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he nodded quickly. Unable to meet her gaze. A small sniffle rocking his form as he rubbed at his eye and croaked in a raspy voice at the one niggling thought that still perturbed him now "W-What do we..... do now? I... I can't... feel anything.... except you."

Aurelion paused, before look Nimue in the eye, before sheepishly resting a hand on her shoulder. Using her to anchor himself as he closed his eye and struggled to remain on his feet. "What if.... I never.... What if I can never feel the Force again?" In tandem with this question Aurelion attempt to reach through the Force to Nimue, which was simple enough, but he frowned as his elongated ears drooped in sorrow. "I-It's so distant.... it's muffled and it... it hurts. You feel so different." Aurelion commented without really thinking about the words he was saying. "It feels so...... dark and.... cold and severe but... gentle and...." He paused, his brow furrowing in a manner that made him look much, MUCH younger than even he was as he mumbled once again without thinking. "You're so old....."

It was at this moment that a loud, beeping noise would sound from the entry ramp to The Escape. Someone native to Dathomir was evidently requesting entry or, at least, an audience with whoever was inside and Aurelion gave Nimue a worried glance as he could not sense anything, though Nimue would be able to sense that it was in fact a fellow witch like Vytal that stood placidly at the entrance to the ship. Her thoughts carefully measured between idle curiosity and irritation at the outside intrusion.