deWinter is Coming!

[Scherezade deWinter]

Planet: Coruscant
Location: the deWinter Penthouse

=========================================​

It would be unfair to say that it had been years since she last set foot in this place. It had been centuries. It was sort of amazing how the Penthouse had survived the virus, the wars, and everything else that had happened on Coruscant, almost untouched.

Nessarose stepped off her ship, Shiny, and looked at the balcony. They had always parked their ships there. Force knew it had been big enough to contain most of the personal vessels. Signs of combat could be seen here. In the corner, she could tell, a bomb had gone off. But for the most part, it seemed utterly clean.

She had called her sisters to this place as well. One of them, she knew had made it through the Gulag - [member="Asteria deWinter"] . Asteria had been there when Nessarose returned. Asteria had been part o the reason Nessa was around in one piece, anyway, but that was a story best saved for another time.

Two other blood sisters she had, [member="Cordelia deWinter"] and [member="Morgaine deWinter"] . Had they made it through? Nessarose had spent hours meditating before finding them again on the Great Web, but it hadn't been certain enough. Not dead, no, but were they alive? Carefully, she'd pulled on their strings as their mother had taught her to, calling them, almost summoning them to this place.

The Penthouse was utterly clean inside. Nessarose blinked in surprise. How- "Ouch!" the little droid had wheeled directly into her knee, and she bounced on one leg after kicking it away from her. That explained her. Their mother had found people's servitude to be a vile thing when it came to the house. She'd trusted none. So all their childhood homes were filled with droids guarding and cleaning.

The place had changed somewhat though. Where once was a family home, now was mostly black marble, with very minimal furnishing. She remembered being told of something like this before the Gulag, but the details escaped her.

With a sigh, Nessarose headed to where the living room had once been, but now only shiny floor was present, and waited for her sisters.

================​

[member="Asterion"]

 

[Asteria deWinter]

This new galaxy was odd. The faces didn't add up even if the places only seemed to be rebuilt. Even the Red Lady whose structure had been rebuilt to a smaller proportion of its smaller glory was starting to gather new faces but it didn't feel the same. There was that emptiness calling Asteria out. Even though she hated admit it, she had not fully returned to her bearings. Her sister, at first cold as stone had even revived to her former self. Asteria... she had thrown herself into her work, even found several apprentices to train who had proven to be not quite worthy as her former apprentices at been. Of course, she would most likely never found a good apprentice as Nessarose was, Asteria knew as much.

However, when [member="Nessarose deWinter"] invited her to the old deWinter Penthouse, she froze first. Her mind rushed to the last time she had been there. She had been told then that the apartment was no longer a place she could call her home. It had been the first time she saw her mother after the dreadful spirit Boadicea had finally released her, after Asteria's body had suffered permeant scars from her interaction with the horrible creature. Instead of being face to face with the woman who raised her and loved her, Asteria was met with a cold creature. Someone she couldn't recognize anymore. And since then, she had not step foot in the Penthouse.

With those heavy thoughts, Asteria doned herself with a light dress and left her assistant with instructions for the afternoon before leaving the building. The Ice Princess was already waiting for her on the outside platform, ready to go. Before she even had a chance to use her communicator, the hanger doors opened with Simon waiting on the top of them. 'Boss, we going somewhere?' The droid asked quickly. He was still acting a little odd since his reanimation even despite the work she had done through the Sathe Corporation, replacing a great deal of his old and outdated parts even though Simon that was visually remained the same. "Nessarose invited us the Penthouse," Asteria informed him as he walked passed him. She heard the hanger doors close behind her, followed by: 'Where?'

Asteria glanced back at her companion for a moment, surprised at the question. "We're going to the deWinter Penthouse, Simon. Are you feeling alright?"

It was an odd question. Simon was already walking ahead of one big food infront of the other, letting out a small sound, almost sounding like a sigh before hearing a comment before he vanished out of sigh: 'How am I supposed to keep up with all these residence changes...' It left her standing there for a while longer before she too moved to the cockpit and started up the ship. It would be a short trip, in its last bit rising up to the Penthouse. The Shiny was already there. Slowing down, Asteria let it rest by the balcony before she clipped it on to it and turned the engines off.

Once outside, the blonde took at her surroundings. The balcony didn't look quite right but she didn't dwell on it to the much, continuing on. Simon was right after her. "Needs some lights. Find the electric socket and fix it," she ordered and let him go on first. Before making her own steps through the darkness, Asteria called out: "Nessarose?" Shiny was here, Nessa had to be as well.

[member="Cordelia deWinter"] | [member="Morgaine deWinter"]

 

[Stephanie Swail]

In his journey from reckless wanderer, through to becoming a Sith Acolyte and more recently a Knight, Asterion hadn’t forgotten the time before he had left Korriban and his encounter with a Sorceress who had taught him a lesson. His over-confidence and rash actions had been his weakness prime for exploitation, which she did and nearly killed him all the while though a sickly-sweet smile.

The strong frame of the Minotaur against a pretty young lady was a no-brainer in his head, but once he began her manipulation of the elements and the Dark Magic she wove, he had learnt that under-estimating any opponent was the quickest way go getting yourself killed. He had no idea who she was or what power she had, and he had no control over his rage, and it was a meeting he never forgot.

Even now, standing at the base of the impressive apartment complex in the Senate District on Coruscant, Asterion gazed up at the mighty structure that dwarfed many buildings around it and even jutted higher than the skylines against the cool purple dusk sky.

Remembering those fierce green eyes, her long brunette hair, that smooth voice – all of it helped him piece together who she was over many months of searching media reports, his own Sith archives and other assorted pockets of information he could find. Practitioners of dark arts with a well-established surname of deWinter. Once he had the surname, he had no problem linking her to a luxurious apartment complex on Coruscant. It had been a pain-staking and careful search that had taken a long time, but it had finally come to fruition.

Asterion was on the precipice of deciding which was his destiny was to go; returning to learn and follow Sith Lady Kyros once more since her return to the galaxy, or parting ways to find a greater calling. While this was going on in his mind, it was the perfect opportunity to seek the woman who had nearly killed him. For revenge? Maybe. Companionship? Hardly. Answers? Quite possibly.

Having abandoned his cowl, Asterion was sheathed in his dark silver and black Knight armour, lightsaber attached to his belt and heavy stubble more managed with his parted brown hair, finally trying to take more respect and pride in himself to help him find a way forward on a path he controlled, no-one else, be them Sith Lord or Sith Sorceress.

Stepping forward through to the expansive lobby of the complex and ignoring the looks from some bewildered patrons and passers-by, Asterion headed to the protocol droid behind one of many reception desks, lit by a swirling blue and yellow light above.

”deWinter, please.”

For the first time in a while, he felt quite calm and in control. But he didn’t think that would last too long.


[member="Nessarose deWinter"] [member="Asteria deWinter"] [member="Cordelia deWinter"] [member="Morgaine deWinter"]

 

[Cordelia deWinter]

Layers.

My mother told me that the Force is all about layers. Like an Onion. Peel back one slice only to find another therein, until finally... you get to the heart of it all.

Why did it have to be an onion? The memory of the bitter burning essence of that onion still makes my eyes tear. An onion. An onion an its layers.

I have still much to learn.

Neigh on eight hundred years I have been drifting in this seemingly endless dream. Ever drifting, like a loab-paper boat among the waves of the flowing sea, destined to crash upon the shore of blackest black. At times I return to that beach, to the endless maze of mirrors, each a different time, a different place. Oh everdream of me.

The flow of water would caress my skin, almost translucent in appearance, enough to see the dark blue veins pulsing underneath. Skin as white as snow with hair spun by moonlight. The reflection in the mirror is no longer mine.

A cloud of breath upon the chill of morn, and violet eyes would peer upon the beyond. There is a stirring. I can feel it.

As familiar to me as the beaches of Spira.

Everdream...

[member="Asterion"] [member="Asteria deWinter"] [member="Nessarose deWinter"]