Private Flesh is Weak

[Jorryn Fordyce]

// Lady Jorryn Fordyce //
// Objective // Connect //
// Focus // // Vakhari Lutris //
// Attire //

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The air of the galaxy brushed against the hair of the silver-haired Sith, breathing it in deep as it trailed past. Something she had taken for granted so long ago, now taken fully into her chest. Death hadn't been as gentle for the Echani, it choked and twisted the soul of the woman as she struggled in vain. It had been mere weeks since she was pulled free from it's grasp by Princess Quinn Varanin, a mercy that Jorryn would never forget or be able to repay.

So, she sought to serve her mistress in ways that had been previously unavailable.

This new form had come with its own benefits. Sith magic now twisted and sang along her skin, and with the runes came new abilities. A call to the mystic and alchemical nature of the Dark Side of the force, its potency hummed in the shaped blood that ran through her veins. Yet, this alignment was new, and strange to the former Lord Inquisitor. As much as the nature of Sith magic was now known to her, it was limited and weakened by the girl's failure to understand it.

Whispers in the Sith Order had given Jorryn the name of one so inclined for such pursuits, Vakhari Lutris , and it was this woman that the silver-haired Sith found herself in pursuit of. Five cloaked figures followed closely behind their lady, features obscured by the nature of their dress. Their mistress was far more resplendent, dress in a witches robe as she walked, heels hiding the short nature of her build.

The laboratory she sought was in view now, and the former Lord Inquisitor strode up to the front desk expectantly.

"I seek an audience with your Lady." The figures following her trailed back, the sound of clattering metal coming from them. "Tell her I don't intend to be kept waiting."

 

[Vakhari Lutris]

Tag: Jorryn Fordyce

The lab, the doctor's tidy little nest... Jorryn had traveled all the way to Terminus, the seat of the Lutris family. The streets were everfull of your typical large city, smells of pollution, industry. However, her end location the knowledge hungry Sith had found herself at was at least a much cleaner and well groomed area, being the grounds of the decadent Lutris manor the lab sat under.

Entering the lab the reception area was anything but human in both appearance and operation, not a single organic like herself was in sight. All just a cascade of white sterile polymer.
​

"I seek an audience with your Lady."

The droid at the front would focus its lenses on the stranger and her little group, sensors adorning the walls would send out scans of the visitors.

After a moment the droid simply blips a red light, seeing that no appointment matching the scans was on file. However, a handy touchscreen is powered on so that this visitor may enter their information to make an appointment.

Aside from the front door, the only other obvious way further into the lab was a heavily reinforced door bearing the sigil of House Lutris.

It would seem that either the droid, or the policies of the doctor in fact did not care about if someone wanted to wait or not.

​

 

[Jorryn Fordyce]

// Lady Jorryn Fordyce //
// Objective // Connect //
// Focus // // Vakhari Lutris //
// Attire //

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The red light denying her shone brightly against the unamused face of the silver-haired Echani, her dark lips turning downwards as the droid refused to even acknowledge her. As the touchscreen presented itself to the Sith, it was just as swiftly brushed aside in favour of more immediate action.

Jorryn's head tilt sideways as her amber eyes fell upon the sigil of House Lutris, emblazoned upon a durasteel door that seemed intent on preventing anyone from gaining further passage. As tempted as she was to use her newfound power and try to rip the thing off it's hinged or cut through it with her lightsaber, Jorryn took the more diplomatic approach and simple rammed her knuckles against the door.

Her hand rest against her hip as she looked towards the security camera, hoping the alchemist was watching through them.

"It would be wise to let me in, Lady Lutris." Black nails grate against each other, a little annoyed that she had to wait even slightly. "I have a proposition that I think would greatly benefit both of us, if you would just be so lovely as to let me in..."

The gaze remained resting upon the camera, an eyebrow raised impatiently as she awaited an answer.

 

[Vakhari Lutris]

Tag: Jorryn Fordyce

Within the bounds of tech and flesh, she was always watching. The camera was indeed looking right at Jorryn, but she could feel something else aside from the inhuman lens taking in her form. It could of course be nothing but pure tricks of the mind, but it would be hard to shake the muffled feeling of someone examining you, as if they walked distinctive yet careful steps around you while soaking in information about you.

The pressure on the door would hiss as the heavy slabs of metal groaned to life, making way for Jorryn to explore a little further into this lab.

The first and foremost stop was right after walking through the first door, being stuck in a room as the door closed behind. After a quick process of decontamination, the next door opens. The same sterile surroundings able to be seen all around as halls stretched on, droids would follow closely behind the visitors as they scrubbed the air behind Jorryn as she walked.

Everything in here was clean- too clean. A great deal of obsession had gone into keeping it all that way, surfaces polished, shelves organized in a extremely distinct pattern. The doctor seemed to keep an orderly ship around here, even the air was pure.

Jorryn would be gently guided on a path, kept away from a lot of the lab. Soon entering a tidy office her eyes would see the petite doctor she had been searching for, idly rotating slowly in her comfy looking office chair as her ruby eyes gazed at the ceiling above. The strange girl's snow-white hair reached down to the floor as it glided along with the slow rotation of the chair.

"Yesssss?"

On a surface level it seemed as if she was paying little attention, looking as if she payed more attention to the ceiling over her visitor.

"Not often I get such emergency visits, are you needing work done on your body?"

As of late she couldn't quite decide if visitors such as this were a blessing or a curse, if it was a curse it was one of her own making... The norm around the lab was an extremely limited number of people, with the only real one able to go about being Valaine Valentine for a number of reasons.​

 

[Jorryn Fordyce]

// Lady Jorryn Fordyce //
// Objective // Connect //
// Focus // // Vakhari Lutris //
// Attire //

---

---

The lens of the camera reaffixed itself as it observed the Echani, tapping her heels against the floor as she waited for its examination to finish. Whatever its findings had been, the sealed door hissed open after only a moment, giving access to the rest of the laboratory.

"Thank you." The words came with an air of sass, but not forgetting their manners.

Boots tapped against the metal floors as she made her way through towards a second room, a decontamination chamber. The jets of steam washed over the Echani and her companions, one of them flinching at the process. A click of her tongue denoted the Sith's displeasure with the figure before they reassumed their neutral stance.

After the process, they were guided through the laboratory, amber eyes wandering as they silently took in the layout of the place. It was bigger than the former Lord Inquisitor had supposed, an operation fitting an alchemist with Vakhari's renown. More notable than that was despite the surroundings outside this building, everything in the building was organized and pristine. Clearly a care taken by either the droids or their mistress. Jorryn could appreciate the orderliness. Despite the dark side's tendency towards chaos, the former bureaucrat within the witch understood the need for a tidy workplace.

Eventually, Jorryn was led to the alchemist in charge of this place, a tiny thing spinning carelessly in a chair. Delicate snow-like hair draped the floor below her, cascading from a pale figure. The chair continued to rotate as Jorryn entered, the alchemist giving little attention to her new guest.

The Echani's brow scrunched as the girl's words floated in the air, uncaringly asking the silver-haired Sith if she needed work done on her body, already carefully crafted by Sith sorcerers and alchemists. Her hand shot forward to stop the spinning on the chair in its motion, pulling it so Vakhari would face Jorryn fully.

"Does it look like I need work done on my body?" Taking a step back, the Echani vainly presented her form. Jorryn had been brought back in her prime, and new runic tattoos decorated the skin lightly, Sith magics coursing through them. Two intricate black horns sprout from the crown of the witch's head, decorated with silver trinkets and baubles. In Jorryn's mind, she already represented the pinnacle of Sith beauty and power.

"I haven't come to request you to work on me," Her amber eyes looked down upon the girl, the gaze intentful and ambitious. "I come with far more interesting propositions. Rumours reached my ear of a Sith Alchemist. I've been told that you are a flesh shaper, are you not?"

"While this form of mine doesn't need any improvements, there are venues of the dark side that I hadn't felt before. I find myself in tune with the motions and intricacy of the body, both mine and others." Her arms folded as she stood tall, an attempt to show dominance as she loomed over the girl. "I've been led to believe that you can assist me in furthering this understanding."

 

[Vakhari Lutris]

Tag: Jorryn Fordyce

She quite liked rotating in her chair, to her it was a form of focus and meditation that others just wouldn't understand. And so when it had been stopped by this visitor, her eyes would be forced to physically gaze upon what she had already seen beforehand.

"People come here all the time for augmentation."

The strange girl states, blinking a few times as she worked on pulling her mind out of her in depth imagination.

"I saw what you look like already, and I can smell the work done to your skin."

A statement that brought its own questions with it of course, no nearby terminals were on, and the doctor had been staring at the ceiling. Leaving it currently unknown how she had already looked at Jorryn before they even met, with Vakhari having a clear understanding of the work done on the Sith.

"Flesh is Ecchani in origin. Skin engraved with multiple runes. Head seeming to contain a set of horns, and yet? No Devaronian? Interaction and altered genenom logged for further examination."

If anything it seemed she spoke to herself more than to Jorryn, taking a mental note of the interesting creature that had shown up. Would it be too much to ask if she could open them up to take a better look? Most likely...

"You have been told correctly yes, flesh and blood bend to my will as easily as technology does."

For how much this girl may have been spoken about, her stature, looks, and even voice gave no feeling of power. By all normal accounts she just appeared to be a petite oddball with a weak signature in the force.
​

"I've been led to believe that you can assist me in furthering this understanding."

She thinks about it for a moment as the woman loomed over her like some henchman collecting protection fees, the attempt at intimidation failing as Vakhari scooted her boot to make the chair slowly spin again.

"I suppose we can start our first lesson right now actually, do you know where we even are?"

​

 

[Jorryn Fordyce]

// Lady Jorryn Fordyce //
// Objective // Connect //
// Focus // // Vakhari Lutris //
// Attire //

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The jaw of the silver-haired Sith clenched tightly as the girl in front of her mentioned the smell of her skin. It was a fair observation between those studied in flesh and Sith magic, but something about the way Vakhari worded it irritated Jorryn as she looked down. The irritation waned as the girl continued her observations, addressing her as more of an experiment than a person.

She had caught wind that the alchemist was eccentric, but those words seemed to undersell the truth of the Emperor's sister.

"Further examination?"

An eyebrow cocked itself, not with annoyance this time but a curiosity. The Echani had come here to learn the secrets of other's flesh, yet there were many mysteries she failed to understand about her own. The nature of the runes that now decorate her skin least of all.

"Let's start with one step at a time, Lady Vakhari."

The tone didn't outright dismiss the idea, Jorryn understood the nature of careful study. The words gave permission, but begged patience from the smaller woman.

As Vakhari continued, she began the first lesson. The Echani would prefer to have called it collaboration, but it was true that the petite figure had far more to offer the reborn Sith than the other way. Jorryn entertained the question, unsure if it was some riddle.

"We are in your laboratory, specifically your office." Amber eyes strayed across the room, taking in all the surroundings. It was clean, everything cautiously sorted away, yet a clear lack of technology in the premise. A place for quiet contemplation perhaps? But then how did Vakhari give the witch permission to enter? "From what I have heard of your experiments, I would have imagined something grander."

 

[Vakhari Lutris]

Tag: Jorryn Fordyce ​

"We are in your laboratory, specifically your office."

"And the location of this laboratory?"

It seemed like a redundant question, but to Vakhari it was still part of the first lesson... One could say this first lesson would be the most important.
​

"From what I have heard of your experiments, I would have imagined something grander."

Vakhari smiles a bit, slowly rotating as she was thinking about many things anew.

"But what is grandeur really? A mighty subjective thing, with the scope of it being shaped by how our separate and chaotic minds see it. If a mind claims to be creative, drawn in by the sciences of the world... How can he or she focus on their craft when worried about matters of material wealth and the so-called grandeur that so many seek?"

The girl held interesting views on the world- On the galaxy as a whole. Her mannerisms and attire weren't the only things opposite of typical Sith values.

"Philosophical ponderings aside... You did not see much of my lab, I watched."

Now there was a far easier sentence to understand, mostly... It was indeed true that the visitor had hardly seen anything.

"You say you feel a connection with matters of flesh and blood? Tell me more about that, all about whatever feelings surround you, what triggers it. Is it just selective to some serene death craft? Or do you ever find yourself pondering about the body and how you might save it just as you could take it?"

More questions, ones that held an importance to the petite doctor. It would seem Jorryn was under her microscope, examined, studied...​

 

[Jorryn Fordyce]

// Lady Jorryn Fordyce //
// Objective // Connect //
// Focus // // Vakhari Lutris //
// Attire //

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"We are on Terminus." Jorryn's arms folded upon themselves, unsure of the point of these questions. "If you are asking me the significance of that fact, then I'll admit I'm unfamiliar with the history."

Galactic history hadn't been of interest to the Echani, not that the woman was ever the most studious in her girlhood. Some of the major points of history had been known to her, relevant during the period she served as Lord Inquisitor, but in general the understanding of politics and persuasion seemed a far more profitable study.

Wariness of Vakhari's line of thought only increased as the girl began to ramble, trying to understand if there was a message in the words she spoke. They would remain unaddressed as the conversation moved along, but Jorryn would note them carefully. Vakhari hardly seemed the image of a Sith, especially one related to the Emperor. Perhaps it was simply that she chose to focus on the continuation of her experiments, or maybe it showed the linings of a deeper truth of the girl's heart.

"That much I assumed," It had been clear through all the checks that the Echani had to pass through that the rest of the labs would be more difficult to gain access to, but Jorryn wondered exactly how much remained behind those locked doors. "I'm sure one day you shall find it beneficial to introduce me to the rest of it."

Again there was an underlying meaning to the Arkanian's words, there were still no terminals that the girl could have watched from. Perhaps she had a droid whispering such information to her, or a cybernetic link to the cameras that littered the laboratory. It wouldn't be strange that a master of flesh would seek to implement technology, but the truth of the matter remained hidden.

"Since I have returned with these... augmentations, I feel a connection to my own flesh that I hadn't before." A hand raised itself and turned, showing the Sith runes that lined her skin, their specific meanings unclear to the woman but their part in increasing her abilities undeniable. "To others as well, for instance..." Amber eyes turned to look down at the smaller figure, looking past her eyes and her skin. "I can almost hear the blood travelling through you, as well as your presence in the force and something beyond that though I do not know what it is"

Permitting herself to undergo the Arkarnian's inspection, the Echani now turned to face the cloaked figures behind her.

"The sensations exist to me at all times, but there are ways that it grows in sound." A hand reached up towards the foremost of her followers, gripping them in the force and beginning to twist. "With the quickening of a heart, whether in terror or otherwise, the pathways of their flesh open up to me." The cloaked figure began to curl up in pain, chains flashing through the sleeves of its robes. Whatever the Echani had been doing clearly assaulting the man from the inside.

"To control these pathways is second nature, though limited in its strength and requiring a measure of focus." The face of the hooded figure became revealed, a bald headed woman with a gaunt face strained against the sensation of a trickle of blood came from her eyes before the orbs rolled back where they lay in her head. "For now, of course."

The figure fell to the floor, collapsing with a sickly thud against the steel. Blood poured slowly from the figure before a nod of the head commanded another of the following to attend the mess. "And then, as that life essence fades..." Amber eyes watched passionately as her breath shuddered from her chest, recovering from the exertion as Jorryn seemed to examine something unseen. "I sense something I haven't before, a passing of life that begs to be chained. And knowledge of the potential of that flesh left behind."

Snapping back to attention of the diminutive figure, Jorryn's eyes turned sharply as she took a short bow.

"I apologise for the mess, Lady Vakhari." The particularity of every object the Echani had taken in as she observed the lab told her the Arkanian would rather not have a corpse lying in her office. "It shall be handled shortly." Two of the figures knelt down weakly, tending to the body of their fallen number.

"There is much I feel, it is simply the understanding of such forces that I lack."

 

[Vakhari Lutris]

Tag: Jorryn Fordyce

Vakhari watches as Jorryn put on a demonstration right then and there, the bleeding figure falling onto her once clean office floor. She simply raised a brow, watching as the life drained out of them. It was clear that such a sight did little to phase the doctor, no doubt she saw things like this every day- If not almost every hour.

The mess however was wholly unnecessary, now she had some animal bleeding all over her floor like a stuck pig. Causing her to make a full stop in her chair, a sign that Jorryn had in-fact gained the attention of the young Lutris. The girl rubs at her temples, closing her eyes.

"Terminus, correct. And who owns this planet?"

She speaks gently, snapping her finger soon after. Droids come in to aid in cleaning the mess, it wouldn't take long at all for the blood to have been suctioned away, the floors washed and re-polished.

"I understand demonstrations, but... In my office?"

The Arkainian was veryyyyyyy picky about her space, a quirk that Jorryn had noticed rather quickly.

"But thank you for the apology- Ahem.. Onto more important matters, and the sole reason I even asked my question."

She reaches down to her belt, unclipping a rather plain looking book. The girl sets it down upon her desk, gesturing for Jorryn to give it a look.

"Go ahead, inspect it. Tell me all that you feel, all you see."

As far as the mundane eye could tell, it was a normal book. It unlatched and opened like any other bound tome, seemed to be made of simple material. The pages inside were all blank, not a shred of ink to be seen.... Was this some sort of trick? Or, did Jorryn feel anything when holding this tome within her hands?

​

 

[Jorryn Fordyce]

// Lady Jorryn Fordyce //
// Objective // Connect //
// Focus // // Vakhari Lutris //
// Attire //

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"Your House, of course." The amber eyes looked down and continued to examine the deceptively unthreatening girl, wondering where Vakhari was getting with this line of thought. House Lutris was one of, if not, the most influential house in the Sith Order, their presence being wrapped tightly around the Sith war machine, to to mention the Emperor Himself. "My research on House Lutris is what lead me to contact with you, but beyond what is public there is precious little I know. Your relation to Darth Empyrean, as well as the workings and specialties of Terminus are the information I came armed with, but I suspect there may be even more laying beneath."

The words served many meanings. Poking at what stayed behind the face of the politically savant house, as well as the girl in front of Jorryn specifically. Then there was the rest of the lab, presuming that this building dove many floors below, a dark roiling coming from beneath the surface. The sensation was difficult to ignore, but the former Lord Inquisitor had been here to discover, not investigate.

A book was placed in front of the Echani, her eyes flitting between the plain cover and the girl that present it. A journal of some sorts, perhaps? But it felt unlikely that Vakhari would reveal the extent of her experimentation so readily.

Flipping the cover revealed only blank pages, some sort of joke on the Arkanian's part she surmised. Yet, as her dark fingers traced along the pages, a pallid sensation crawled up them. The blood in her digits lurched forwards, drawn to whatever lay in the pages and a dark image shadowed the back of her mind. It was clear by her face that the Echani felt something touching the pages, though unable to reach further conclusions of the book.

Retracting her hand away from the blank page, her fingers rubbed one another in a feeling of discomfort, still getting used to the depths of such emotion.

"I feel it drawing, as though it craves revelation..." Her mind raced to find the words to describe the sensation as it fled, unsure if the feeling had ever really existed to begin with. "As for what I see," Fiery eyes stayed drawn towards the book, wondering what such an innocuous item held. "Nothing I am certain of, but a darkness crept against the edges of my vision. Not against my eyes, but..." Words failed her as they trailed off, curiosity building within her as she quickly turned back towards the alchemist.

"The text is concealed I assume?" Half guessing by an assumption that the girl wouldn't toy with Jorryn needlessly, though evidently unsure of the method of subterfuge. "Or is the message to be absorbed slowly through contact, it's words crawling into the skull of it's reader?" Speculation arose calmly, attempting to uncover a half-truth that would give Vakhari the answer she sought.

 

[Vakhari Lutris]

Tag: Jorryn Fordyce

Vakhari nods along, satisfied with the results given so far.

"Correct, the house of Lutris. Which is why our first lesson is to show patience when within these halls, demands fall on disinterested ears."

A very Arkainian way of telling Jorryn to behave, the Sith- Lord or not, stood within high ranking halls... And had pushed this meeting on a rather high pedigree person.

"You are correct, the contents of the book remain hidden until a proper refresh of the appropriate ink is applied. Then and only then will the goetic text dance upon the pages, to understand it is to understand existence itself. Within your self, your... Vessel, the intertwined duality between life and decay roll across your fingertips. Flesh and blood follow this dogma, forever part of the cycle. It is something I understand, having a close relationship with death and a connection to life."

The way she described it painted the art as very grey in its nature, able to understand and aid life as much as you are able to snuff it out.

"It is rare that someone understands both of these things, your allure to the secrets of the flesh is a start. For I see that you have an understanding of death-craft, close to the what I learned down in the crypts of dead Yalara."

With a gentle pull in the force she takes the tome back, resting it within her hands. One of the droids that cleaned the earlier mess comes over, the crimson gracefully gliding out of the droid as the strand floated alongside the doctor. Her hand manipulated the essence as easily as a tailor weaved fine silks as she separated the strands, it bowed to the girl's will as she carefully dissected it. Turning the blood into a storybook she could read, delving into who this was while taking a droplet to plant upon a blank page.

The strange tome came to life as the blood echoed along the page, sending out a ripple that awakened the eldritch texts within. Straining to the eye, downright impossible to read as the text flowed like a fine water across the pages. Yet? As a page was turned the watery ink stayed perfectly on, this once rather plain looking book held powerful secrets... Ones that used to be hidden until the doctor found them.

Life and death blossomed in not only this book, but in the very woman who wrote it.

It would be then that Vakhari could no longer properly hide her presence in the force, a power of duality. The girl's own signature seemed to hold a looming shadow, an abyssal yawn that remained asleep.









​

 

[Jorryn Fordyce]

// Lady Jorryn Fordyce //
// Objective // Connect //
// Focus // // Vakhari Lutris //
// Attire //

---

---

A smile parted the lips of the Echani as this unthreatening girl in front of her reminded Jorryn of her place. As little as the Sith cared to be threatened by such a show, the amusement that it came from such a creature sated her irritation. It was true, of course, as much as the Echani pretended, Vakhari was a far more entrenched and influential member of the Sith Order's machines.

Jorryn hadn't come here in any vain attempt to subjugate the girl, as high as she was on her new state of being, she still imagined such an act would be ill-regarded, but the thought that the real threat could possibly be Vakhari herself was one the former Lord Inquisitor hadn't considered.

A mental note was made to not treat the Arkanian lightly.

"I have been in death's caress," An admission the Echani had not thought she'd make when planning to meet the girl slipped her tongue, yet secrets seemed to serve little here. "But this new connection to life I have is exhilarating. Even as an Echani I have never felt quite so in touch with my body. My skin and blood yield easier than they ever have before, but that isn't enough for what I seek to create."

She watched carefully as the liquid came from the droid before it washed over the pages of Vakhari's tome, a cautious curiosity as she wondered quite what was happening. Then the pages supped delicately from the fluid, drinking it into itself as it filled its pages with eldritch knowledge. Amber eyes filled with wonder watched as the words knit themselves amongst the pages before washing away just as swiftly..

The book was filled with knowledge, and the stench of the blood only served to entice Jorryn towards its pages more, a hand running across the pages in an attempt to calm their motion. A power came along with the sudden life of the book, yet it didn't emanate from the tome itself. A strange darkness embraced the Arkanian like a cloak, looming large above the Echani as chills ran down her spine.

Jorryn stopped underestimating the girl as its silent stretching crawled along her skin, basking in its touch. Whatever lay beneath the petite figure before her held a deepness to it, though its answers would lie unspoken, half mumbled through the eternal sleep that embraced it.

"I appear to have underestimated you, Lady Vakhari." Her words shook from her breast as the exhilaration fought its way through her body. "It appears there is much that I have to learn from you, this tome not least of all. I suppose that is why I came prepared with payment."

With a snap of her fingers, the three remaining cloaked figures behind Jorryn shook the fabric away from themselves. The figures were clad in chains, a life of suffering in prisons and streets clearly marked upon their flesh. It hadn't been the most graceful of offering, but meat was meat, and Jorryn surmised that the Arkanian could make some use of them. Scars of surgery laid across their skin, marking where Jorryn had examined them.

"I offer you some specimen, ugly in appearance but I promise they are a shockingly hardy lot." The Echani's smile twisted, clearly taking a sick pride in the work that she had done to them. Using their flesh to further her own anatomical studies, they held little value except for the finale of their lives. "They are yours to do with as you wish, and I simply ask to be allowed to observe your work."