Private Dogsma (Skorvek)

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Raya was right, for once, about headphones. The simple ear covering headphone is the greatest invention in the history of sapient kind. Sure, one could see the antiquated printing press, or the hyperdrive as the one thing which brought sapient from various planets together, but the headphone!

The headphone makes separation in an interwoven world. No wonder Raya loves hers so much that she’s never without. I can hear nothing but the post-electro-synth-rock-whatsamawhatsits pouring through the padded cups around my ears, from the data chit she pinned to my linen blouse. Sleeves rolled up, only one side tucked into my soft grey linen trousers, the clothing is loose.

Loose as this beat. A nibble on my lip later, jam to the beat and I recognize my surroundings shift as they oft do. The hubbub of people, those strange flash-in-the-pan creatures, is dulled. I am solitary companion of my own thoughts.

Maybe Manu would like headphones. Might solve his copious issues, that boy. Eh! A mother can hope.

I finger the ring on my left hand, the Eye of Solomon that while marking me as a member of House Zambrano also has the locator beacon Kaine demanded after Raya and I got lost halfway to Sabarene. Again. Lost, he called it.

I don’t think my husband understands yet how one can never be lost, when they act upon the instinctive navigation capable through the Living Force. Alas, such things require a lack of conscious control, and Kaine Zambrano, while many mighty things, isn’t ready for that. As I breathe in crisply warm air, I feel the niggle in my left thigh.

Someone is ready. I’ll pick up a student today. My today being this current swell of time on... whatever planet this is. I don’t know, I didn’t look at the map, when I keyed in the coordinates in my yacht. Least my kids are happier, when I don’t take random freighters anymore.

Wherever I am, I shall call it Dogsma, after all the canine headed upright people, the headphones kept the tumult out. When I was thirsty, I walked into a door, opened a refrige unit, and grabbed a drink. When I was hungry, I made a sandwich from another door. The headphones are the amazing bit!

Now, the sapients who make a fuss can’t fuss at me. Or, more like today, I decided they all move so slow that I can meander up to a gigantic structure reminiscent of Braxus’s unfortunate daughter. My daughter’s best friend and distant cousin.

The deathling.

“Aaahhhh.” Guards and beings shift in an aching slowness as I stretch my arms above my head for a necessary and beneficial stretch. Here. That intrinsic sense of completion and significance.

Here.

I let the sapients match my speed once more, and stand in what looks to be a foyer of sorts in this Dogsmatic world.


Skorvek

 

[Skorvek]

He spent some of his time Meditating infront of the netherportal he had but what he didn't expect was a uninvited guest who made her way here, He stood up still clad in his gam except for the helmet piece when he turned to face Ahani Najwa-Zambrano . At first he had no idea who this woman was and was about to react as a intruder in his home before he saw a very familiar ring on her finger to signify that she was apart of the Zambrano Family, He did a bow first before speaking in his deep tone the nether gate stood not far behind him.

"I didn't expect to get a visit from a member of the Zambrano family, Welcome to my home....I don't believe we have met, then again I have yet to meet much of the Zambrano line outside of a few members"

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

What a great stretch! Really, I ought to find Raya a gift for her musical success, reward when rewards are due. Something shiny, or perhaps alive. She likes live things.

“You?” This armour clad Anubian, perhaps? I glance up and down him, but alas the more I look the more a niggle in the back of my mind gives me whiffs of the Deathling. No, he would not be a pet for Raya.

He is something else entirely. His jowls and lips curve, move, jaws snap gently up and down.

“... hmm?” I shove my headphones around my neck, the music now a faint whisper. “Eh.”

I raise my hand, curl time in my fingers and rewind a shadow of the past to listen to what this... canid man says. Time is easier to manipulate than asking a being to repeat themselves. Of course to Skorvek , it would appear as if I stood before him moving my hand around in silence, but I’ve long since refused to endear myself to others in some... demure attempt to be civil.

“You.” Silver eyes narrow. He smells of beskar and regret, a lingering sensation of death and longing. Kind of peach-like in aroma. Some familiar odour, the heartbeat of... “Ah. You. The brother. Funny... how cyclical our lives get, eh, Skorvek? Yasha was fond of you. She spoke of you in Bastion, in the night.”

Now I see why Dogsma folded around me today, the whiff of Skorvek, yes, I think that might be his name... the one who demanded of my husband the remains of Yasha Cadera’s soul.

“I am Ahani, Matron of House Najwa of Eshan. Empress Consort of Kaine Zambrano, Master of his Training in those esoteric things which remain a dream to his insurmountable mind.” One hand remains in my pocket, my posture casual as I look up, up at this Anubian. I am, after all, at least a foot shorter than the man. “You smell like death.”

That’s it! Time to search the place for a room refresher spray. My instinct guides me toward what I hope will be some form of janitorial supply I can spritz the dog-man with. “No apprentice of mine will smell like that foul decay of the grave.”

 

[Skorvek]

He gave yet another bow too her when she introduced herself, She says she trained Carnifex herself? that was a interesting thing to know it only shows that obviously outside of her stature shes not someone to cross. When she commented on the smell he merely chuckled a little before a wave of his hand brought in fresh air removing the death like atmosphere with a fresh atmosphere that's more pleasing, She was a interesting creature to say the least. But sadly such a thing that she was looking for was no where to be seen hence his action. He hoped to learn much from her for even in his long years he still has a lot to learn and grow and things to enjoy and create and experiment with. Ahani Najwa-Zambrano

''I hope the air is better now, My apologies for the previous quality I was not expecting guests'

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Off I go, searching the corridor for some form of shed, or break or a person with a mop and the problem solves itself with a wave of the Anubian’s hand. Curious being, wafting death itself away as if it were some form of toy.

“Expect nothing. Account for everything.” Hands shoved back in my pockets, I pick a direction and walk. There’s an eery sense of disquiet the further I walk into Skorvek ’s domicile... palace... place. “You know the godling, care for her in a familial way... you saw my husband about the Infernal. Why?”

I stop short at a crossroad, the scent of death returns again, strong only in one direction. “..... nnnnnnnope! Nope, nope, nopity nope nope.”

Time to turn around and walk the other way, I don’t know where, but I’ll know it when I see it.

“Death isn’t something I prefer, like the little godling. Too busy with everything else, if you catch me... why do you mourn? What positive attribute does it give you to expend your energy on it?”

 

[Skorvek]

He stood and listened to Ahani Najwa-Zambrano 's words asking about why does he mourn for the dead the way he does, She refers to the little godling no doubt speaking of Adara the little devil that he is assisting in her development whenever he can he followed her as she explored the place before he spoke.

"My kind views death on a more spiritual way, some wanting to find the soul to ease its passing or contain or to use the soul to bring back the dead themselves, I went to see the Emperor about her because....while her body moves at the will of her biotic her soul was no longer present. I figured I could take her soul from where it was once held and use it to restore her but....I found out that your husband beat me to it."

He paused for a moment before continuing on

"I merely was concerned about the saftey of her soul, but now I am aware of where and who holds it and that in away she will continue to exsist, I do not mourn her passing, I slightly mourn the fact that her body and those around her continue to think that she is alive and well. Where as that which they are protecting and caring for is nothing but a Husk under the control of a vong machination."

It normally would pain him to say that but in a sense Yasha was both dead and not dead at the same time, which in it self sounds confusing but he was comforted with the fact that her soul shall continue to live on in whatever vessel the sith Emperor wished to store her in.

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“I forget… she had a life beyond us.” The smile on my lips is that of a coy lover, one who knew his beloved sister in a way this Anubian might not expect. “I knew Yasha… quite well…”

Growing like a rose in the dawn, the smile warms even the charged particles of the air, until no death’s sting nor distant relation’s absent chill could dim it. “Skorvek, I see now why you are to be my apprentice. You are as much of us as she was… did you know… my husband was part of her story since Yasha was an infant in her mother’s terrified hands. They were always linked, bonded together through time and space and the coiling destinies of this and other galaxies. Yet I forget not everyone can see such lay-lines and I can teach that knowledge to you. What were you asking, when you went to my husband? Were you asking to complete Yasha, or to have reason to defeat the shade?”

Walking onward, I shrug and stick my hands back in their pockets. A simple enough maneuver, one of safety and security even in an unknown place. Intrinsic to my soul I know nothing can hurt me here, but the smell of death coming from the Netherworld Gate… a place I cannot go.

“I remember being… jealous of them. Kaine and Yasha, they shared a bond in their journeys through the Netherworld none of us could touch. They understood each other, beasts and monsters searching for a sense of companionship so different from my own connection with our beloved… but…” I shake my head, unaware how much Skorvek knew of them, of Kaine and Yasha not the Emperor and the Infernal. How much did he know of the woman and man, the only one who could take Yasha out of her armour and both send her to bed like a child in the arms of the All Father, and negotiate Galactic powers in tandem. “… Tell me. What makes a person real? What is it? Is it their body? The spirit inside? Is it memory or sinew or skin? What is a body? Is it a mere collection of atoms? A cloud of microscopic witnesses, or is a being, a full person a sense of scale? A series of actions which cause effect?”

Up ahead, I see a little porch and hop up onto the banister to better see in Skorvek’s eyes. “Is a person their acts? Their memories? Their emotions? Their body? Define your terms, Brother Infernis. Define them and then look at the shade left behind, when my husband took Yasha home.”

 

[Skorvek]

He listened and kept his gaze upon her he heard her declaration of him being her apprentice, this was something he didn't expect however....powerful as he maybe he has much, much more room to grow and who was he to deny one of Carnifex's beloved's from teaching him what they know? he listened to her stories about how deeply intertwined Yasha and Carnifex truly have become when she asked him what was his purpose to coming to Carnifex in the first place he answered.


I care for the souls and their well being depending on the soul I have given enemies in the past fates far worse then anything death can give them and used there souls as fuel for my own machines and creations. When I came to Carnifex asking for my sisters soul part of me wished to return it to her body. However as I spoke to him about the soul and seen how much he cared for it I knew the life he chose for her whatever life that maybe was far better then the life of a broken woman who only lived to maintain a empire that despised her every decision and effort.

When she mentioned Kaine she could sense rage ignite for a moment before he calmed himself, He hated that man for all the pain he put Yasha through and that he was the reason the Biot now controls Yashas body in an attempt to survive, He turned to her once she asked what makes a person real, That was a question he too sometimes wondered what was that makes a person real...so many definitions and methods around such a question.


That is a question that many have asked and many have come with variations and terminologies to try and answer it, What I think makes a person is a combination of mind,acts and the soul. There mind to mold them, there personalities there thinking structure and emotional standing, there acts to show the deeds of what they have done to speak for them, have they saved people? have they exterminated worlds for there amusement? such things play significant parts in there world.

And the soul what kind of person inhabits their body to dictate it all.

Ahani Najwa-Zambrano

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

So often I keep giving magnum opii in non-verbal Echani ways, yet these other sentience require words. Flimsy and resolute in their uselessness. Hard and misinterpretive words. I know Skorvek . As I am now, he is before me in his beginning of knowing me, yet I know him through the sights I’ve had, through the way Yasha reacted, the safety in her eyes. And yet the nature of such definitions is beyond us at this point on our cyclical band. We will at some point know one another completely, Master to Apprentice, kin. This is my sense of time.

Not in the minutes and seconds, which physics destroys at each hyperspace jump, but in how much there is left to know of a person, of a planet or thing. What its’ entire story is, what it’s for. This is the only true knowledge and bulwark.

“And what if someone was created to destroy worlds? We don’t hate on trash compactors for their function anymore than we hate on immolation engines for ridding stations of toxic waste.” I hop up to stand on the thin railing, hands still in my pockets. “What if a beings function was that of a compactor or immolation engine? Should they, because of the function of others, despise themselves? Should they struggle into an ill fitting garment, until their arms are lashed to their sides like a treacherous coward-king? When we ponder the scale of individual life, I agree, how someone treats even the lowliest of others is absolute in proving their quality. But, when we pull back and view the Galaxy in the palm of our hands, when we see old systems rotten with flaccid age, held up by artifice and the broken backs of those individual lives, do we condemn the force, the equal measure of destruction to bring it all to powder, and thus allow others, whose function is to create and bring life to follow their function?”

A smirk and a shake of long, silver hair half-restrained in a ponytail I don’t care enough to fix. Bric-a-brac and plant matter from fallen browned palm fronts drift around me, broken down into their mean chemical chains, as if becoming a thrumming cloud.

“I know. I make a terrible Sith blame my son Manu, he tempers me. But, where do we drift from blame to understanding? What is power? Is it in protecting all life, even those systems corrupted? Or is it in giving those fragile bits to a creator to reform? What is evil, if we see this universe as a series of broken pots to grind down into powder, then mix with clay to create more contented vessels? Look beyond the horrors of Mandalore, the crashing perturbations of fallen empires and planets wiped from the galaxy in a blink. You, Lord of Death, see a wider sense of scale. Train under me, as my husband trains under me. And you will understand him, just as I do."

The cloud of particles restructures, polysaccharides breaking down to the subatomic particles in a burst of crackling light. Until nothing remained but a small, flat shale of obsidian no larger than my pinkie fingernail. It floats in the air before him, ripe to be taken.

 

[Skorvek]

He listened to her words and understood her strength abit more then before when she mentioned that Carnifex trained under her for a time...then again everyone has there teachers, his was priests and scholars and various warriors and artifacts and the entirety of the Netherworld as well, he watched her recreate matter before her a power he hasn't mastered yet as he only focuses on the soul and how to bend and rip and mold the soul into what he wishes.

For a moment he looked to the Obsidian shale she created and her offer of her teachings to him, He reached out to the piece his armor retracting around his hand to show the pitch black skin that was underneath that gently grabbed the shale before his eyes looked to her, even though he knew so much he always could use more and learn more as that was one of his purpose.

I accept your offer and I thank you for your rather..open view on the universe.

Ahani Najwa-Zambrano

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“Good! The Living Force wins again.” I hop down the long side of the bannister, jumping the long way down to the ground with my hands still firmly in my pockets. Couple of sweets in there for the kiddles, can’t lose them because gravity. Pff! Gravity.

I should laugh. Gravity. Bah. Skorvek will follow or he won’t, the Dark bind those I claim to me through time and space and as his Himness consumes a part of my consciousness with the flow of his lives, I remain inside the confidence he is my student. My supplicant until the day he decides to oppose me. One of multiple futures, I suppose. Niggles in the back of my brainstem though, the Netherworld on him.

A place I can never go. A gate I could not return from, as Kaine and Gunnr do. As Others seem to waltz and dance between those lines, as if the Netherworld of the Force isn’t serious but a play-actor’s foil. Perhaps that is why Skorvek is important to me. He can go where I cannot. He can illuminate the haunt and animal-pain in my spouses’ eyes, when their minds drift back to the home of death and dark. Regardless, I’ve reached the ground and sniff the air… huh. Suppose I should’ve scammed some food off him before I jumped to what mortals consider their deaths…

… splat. Haha! Gravity… heh. Chump.

“Oy! Got any popcorn?! Ooooo or a steak…. wait… Force lives, are you out of earshot?!” It only now occurs to check how far I fell…. what floor were we on?

 

[Skorvek]

He was confused as to why she leaped a good 10 stories down, but observed as gravity seemed to be on her side to gently lower her down she was a interestingly unique individual indeed... He leaped down and at the last minute of the fall had the force stop him from damaging the ground before he followed up to her.


I do have some food after all I make sure this city is well fed for all including guests

Ahani Najwa-Zambrano

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“Good! S’pose it wouldn’t do for a King… Monarch… Lord…. person to leave their underlings without kibble or kip.” I start walking, allowing the natural flow of the Force take me where I need to be for such things as sandwiches and some form of cold tea. If it’s not the right direction, something will happen and I’ll be redirected. Thus is life, in all its’ confundities. An ever moving, ever drifting bunch of minor messes one can wonder at, be confused by, or get mad at.

He seemed to take the whole leaping off a building thing in stride. “I see you didn’t die! How convenient. So! What sort of stuff do you get up to? Got any kids? Planetary enemies I should know about?”

Skorvek

 

[Skorvek]

The room he guided her too was a rather ornate and fancy room and table set up with some food and drink and the like when she asked about his children.

I have a couple of children as for enemies there was a great amount but I care not for them at the moment, as for now its just develop and grow my world without others getting in the way..

Ahani Najwa-Zambrano