Private Flip your fins

[Jenn Kryze]

To say that Jenn was having a tough time would be the understatement of the century.

Everything as piling up on her, and it made things all the more difficult for her to handle. She had done the unthinkable, and allowed someone to remove her buy'ce: that person was neither a warrior nor a Mandalorian, but a mechanic who had managed to drag herself from Coruscant's Underworld... and she was hopelessly in love with her. Her betrayal of The Way weighed on her, even though she clearly enjoyed her relationship with Sam Sheridan : and yet, this was not the end of her troubles, not by a long shot. On top of all the doubts and shame eating away at her whenever she was away from the woman she loved so dearly, there was a more... immediate concern.

Namely, the fact that she was no longer human. Not fully, at any rate.

Wading through the teal, fluorescent water seemed inconsequential at the time. After all, her beskar'gam was a sealed environment capable of operating within the vacuum of space: why would she worry about the potentially biohazardous liquid? Besides, she had to do so in order to turn the access valve and secure her escape from the local crime syndicates after Sam's deal went sour, and she had reported no ill affect after their daring escape... for a few days, anyway. As the weeks passed, her metabolism changed, the Mandalorian experiencing severe dehydration that all but confined her to a bathtub for hours at a time - and medical scans were unable to pick up the cause for her aggravating symptoms. Unaware that she was the victim of Sith alchemy, Jenn kept on changing, until the time came for her to face the true extent of her changes.

This was too much for her to deal with on her own. She had to find someone who could help her, someone capable of understanding the cause of her change, someone who could fix her! But, with very few people she could trust, she was left with no choice but to embark on a journey to find the only woman she could trust with such a delicate and upsetting issue.

It was a good thing that her occasional work as a bounty hunter had taught her to track her quarry so relentlessly, because her friend was not making it easy to find her. When she realized that she was not on Coruscant any longer, a simple visit turned into something resembling a hunt, the afflicted Mandalorian seeking out her unknowing "prey" as she followed every last trail she could find... until she finally touched down on the world of Kesh, where her appearance was more than a little exotic. By the time she reached the city of Naneti Sso Jri Qorit, the huntress was heavily dehydrated and barely capable of standing upright, all but collapsing against the door leading into Damsy Callat 's mansion.

 

[Damsy Callat]

The Homecoming Gate surrounding Naneti Sso Jri Qorit was wide open as Jenn staggered towards it. A dozen Keshiri guards stole glances at the huntress as she approached the city walls, but none made as much of a move to ask her who she was, let alone hinder her path under the risen trellis.

Once she stepped down from the marble steps back to the ground through the gate, she was deposited into the outskirts of a sprawling market. No one here gave her even a first look as they bustled about their individual business, at least not at first. After she had progressed a few meters through the crowd, a teenaged boy s’kytri manning a wooden stall noticed a path of dragged footsteps in the dirt. He strained his eyes and body to follow them through the throngs. When he spotted their humanoid disturbance through the crowd, he plucked a personal comm off his belt and muttered something into it.

A break in the crowd lay just before Jenn now, leading into what must be the city center. More marble shone under the beating midday sun, as well as a large pool. Its only swimmer, if one could consider it that, were the thick roots of a great tree that grew at the head of the construction and down its vertical side. Directly to the north was a building rising above the rest, somewhere between a temple and a residential mansion. As Jenn came upon it and nearly collapsed one of the grand doors, the other eased open.

The dark coolness would immediately be welcoming, a sanctuary from the blood pumping symptoms of dehydration. If the Mandolorian decided to lessen her physical burden by stepping towards the exposed foyer, she would find a protocol droid meeting her halfway. It would grab onto her arm to support her. “Welcome, Mistress Kryze,” it began in animated binary while ushering her inside. Past the threshold when the door echoed shut behind them, it looked like the silhouette of a ghost accented only by the sitting room’s burning fire.

It stopped along side the wooden frame of a loveseat and helped deposit her on the plush cushions. It then straightened its black frame. The ethereal glow emanating from the fireplace caught onto the red of its biggish eyes as well as the remnants of a crimson diamond logo that someone must have been in the process of grinding off. “I regret to inform you that the Darth is out. You arrived quite sooner than she expected. All I can do in her stead is keep you comfortable.” An ominous pause in which the droid didn’t, couldn’t, swallow, but perhaps Jenn did. “Is that acceptable, Mistress Kryze?”

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Jenn had never been this sloppy. As it was, the fierce huntress stumbled more often than she stepped, her body struggling to keep up with what she would have considered normal a few weeks prior... truly, it was a pathetic display, and one that would have inspired a great deal of shame if not for the fact that she was clearly unable to think straight. Her gills were rather discreet, certainly, but she could not afford to keep fabric nor beskar over them, leading to the rather awkward tears around her neck meant to let them breathe!

Any reprieve from the merciless sun was welcome, which led the Mandalorian to her first mistake: stumbling into the foyer and the promise of coolness it offered, unaware of the risks such a gamble could hold. So exhausted was she that the presence of a droid was seen as a relief rather than a danger, allowing it to grab onto her arm and guide her over to her seat, registering the fact that the robot knew her name only after she sat down, a chill going down her spine as she realized how easily she could be disposed of at the moment. Wondering if she would even be able to reach for the Mockingbird at her side and fill the droid (or any other ambusher) with hot lead in the state she was in, the Ersansyr struggled to parse the meaning behind the droid's words... only to be filled with horror.

She was certain that Damsy lived here, and yet this droid was referring to a Darth that had been expecting her. Either her friend was not the mistress of the house, or she had made a very, very troubling decision. Closing her eyes, Jenn could only ponder on the circumstances that could have pushed Damsy to such a choice after her time with the Jedi, her chest rising and falling slowly. Damsy, you fool...

"It will have to do", answered the Mandalorian with a rasp. "I need... water, please."

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

“Wonderful, Mistress Kryze. Please stay here.”

The protocol droid waddled off, leaving Jenn alone in the dim room as first its vision and then its mechanical movements slipped from her senses. Then there was a moment of silence except for the crackling of the fire. The walls seemed to glisten now too, as if they were not of wood but glossy irises staring the newcomer down…

Soon enough, though it may have actually felt more like forever, the droid returned with a tall goblet in each hand and one more in one that had sprouted from its back. It stooped to set each on a nearby end table, then its extra arm folded back into its chassis. “You may think that you just need water, Mistress Kryze,” it said, “but the Dark Lady’s personal experience indicates that electrolytes must be replenished in this state as well.” A glance into the vessels revealed that only one contained water while the other two held a sweetly-smelling green liquid.

”In either case, pray pace yourself.”

With that, turned to leave again. As it reached the archway into a corridor reaching further into the ground floor that it had taken before, perhaps into a kitchen, the horned head of a tuk’ata poked out. The droid stopped to pat between the hound’s spiky ears. “Gtejarsa. Be nice to our guest.”

With that, it disappeared around the corner, this time leaving Jenn with something very real watching her.

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Jenn had never been this vulnerable before, and she absolutely hated the feeling of helplessness she was experiencing at the moment. Her helmet's HUD made it clear that relatively little time had passed since the droid's departure from the room, but that fact hardly helped to lessen the impression that an eternity had passed her by. Was this the existence she had to look forward to now? The very thought left her well and truly despondent. More than anything else, Jenn was tired...

The droid's return was a welcome one - but the contents of two of the three goblets had her frowning. Was this an attempt to poison her? Perhaps so, but then again, if any of this was a trap, there were easier ways to dispose of her than making her drink a liquid she did not recognize. As the droid departed and left her in the presence of a tuk'ata, she let out a sigh, her hands slowly raising towards her helmet... and, with a hiss of decompression, the sturdy buy'ce was removed and brought to rest on her lap.

Exhausted and barely capable of keeping herself conscious, the Mandalorian welcomed the coolness of the air against her face, taking a cup of water in one hand, and that of the sweet-smelling liquid in the other, taking a tentative sip from the green drink, then another from the water.

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

The dog whined after Jenn took her tentative sips of the refreshments before beginning to pad over to her. It’s slow advance resembled a stalk, but perhaps that was just the play of ingrained fear, for it reached the halfway point between to arch and where she sat before stopping, stretching, giving a mewling yawn, and moving instead toward the fireplace. In shadow of dancing flame, it gracefully curled itself up and went to sleep.

All that was left for Jenn to do once she was done with her drinks was to as well.

**

”Oh, stop your fussing, Ara,“ came familiar Basic through the thin veil of perhaps a dream. “I’m perfectly fine. It’s only a bit of blood.”

Some distant beeping was impossible to understand.

”No, I wanna see her. Tha’s all that matters. Pavondir told me she got here safe. … ‘Kay. Thanks. See, tha’ ain’t so hard.”

Human footsteps, no claws or hydraulics, descended one of the twin staircases. Said human only came into view when she walked from the landing into the foyer.

Gtejarsa stirred his head and barked.

Damsy smiled but put a finger up to her lips. “Ssh now. We got a sleepyhead just there.”

Gtejarsa got up silently. He padded over to his master as she picked up another end table near a loveseat opposite of Jenn, twirled in around, and set it back down. “How ya feel?” she asked as if there was no more important questions to ask.

With not as much as a wave of her hand, a washing basin came floating towards Damsy from the fireplace mantle and set itself down on the tabletop. She bat back one side of her dirtied white cape to get at a canteen on her belt, which she unscrewed and emptied its contents into the bowl.

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Not only was the green liquid far from a poison, it tasted rather... pleasantly sweet, to the Mandalorian's surprise. Regarding the pet with narrowed eyes, the fierce huntress finally allowed herself to relax - or, more accurately, to stop fighting her own body and accept the fact that she was far too exhausted to do much of anything. Merely gazing at the fireplace, Jenn allowed her eyes to slide shut, content with the fact that she was no longer suffering from dehydration. More tired than she had ever been before, the fiery-haired warrior completely forgot to slide her helmet back on...

* * *

Although she was something of a light sleeper, Jenn was fast asleep by the time her host returned home, her peaceful expression making the prospect of waking her up a little difficult... doubly so when her face remained bare, her features completely exposed for Damsy to observe and appreciate. But, eventually, her eyes fluttered open, and she was made to realize that the voices she'd heard were not a dream. Still feeling a little groggy, she observed the woman before her in silence, her expression as strict as one might assume from her voice... before a smile tugged at her lips in the wake of her friend's words.

"How do I feel? Well, about how I look", quipped the Mandalorian. "But, I suppose I could be worse, for someone who walked into a Sith's home for the second time in recent memory." Her smile turned into a grin, her light-hearted approach about the whole topic rather uncharacteristic of a staunch Mandalorian who had sworn allegiance to the Enclave. "It's good to see you, Damsy."

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy looked up from filling the basin with knit brows at Jenn, but then she gave her own grin. ”’Ho are you an’ what’ve you done ta Jenn Kryze? Sure, she looked jus’ like ya but I was ’dar’manda’ to her.”

If she still held hard feelings for that, nothing about her countenance betrayed them.

”In any case, you must feel pretty fethed up, then,” she added before pausing, weighing her words with some regret. “Seriously, though, Jenn, you’re real pretty.” Damsy stepped back to the unoccupied sofa. She unclipped her caplet, shrugging it off onto the upholstery. It revealed a new, blue bodysuit. It wasn’t quite the expected attire of any Sith most people might have the misfortune of meeting.

She turned back and walked towards the kitchen corridor. She did not step through the archway but opened a door beside it. “Hope Gte was a good boy for ya. Sorry 'bout Ata; reprogramming all the Sith Eternal creep factor outta him's been…slow goin'.” She did not enter, but again pulled a roll of linen wrappings towards her. She closed the door and returned to the washbasin. "I felt you comin'. I have an idea why, so I popped out to get ya somethin' I thought might help." The linen got set down beside the bowl. When Damsy’s hand let go of it, the off white cloth was marred with a few bloody fingerprints.

If she was bleeding, Damsy didn’t seem bothered by it. Instead, she seemed troubled for some different, equally unspoken reason.

”But ’fore I give it to you, I have to just make sure the Force didn’t lead me wrong. What…happened to you, Jenn?”

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Laughter escaped the Mandalorian in the wake of those words, the banter shared between the two of them a welcome break from all of doubts and anxiety that followed her wherever she went. "People change, don't they? Besides, you've helped set me on that path, you dastardly little chit." The grin that accompanied such words spoke of just how fond she was of her friend, regardless of her status as a Sith. "You picked a title yet? Your old man's is kind of bland, I'm sure you can do better. Your place looks a lot less gloomy than Netrayaim, so I'm already playing favorites here."

Being called pretty was not something she had expected, her cheeks turning a little rosy in the face of such a comment. If she was honest with herself, it felt rather nice. "Thanks, Damsy. You're not so bad yourself." As soon as the words left her mouth, she began agonizing over them. Not so bad? Seriously? Now it sounds sarcastic as all hell!

Thankfully, Jenn did not have long to ponder on things, closing her eyes when her friend asked just what had happened to her. Inhaling deeply, she waited a few moments, before opening her eyes once more and slowly bringing her fingers to the subtle gills on the sides of her neck. "Trouble on Coruscant. My girlfriend and I tried to get some replacement parts for our shop, but chit went sideways and we had to bail. We got separated, and I ended up cutting through a sub-level. Must've been some sort'a... Sith hideout, I guess? Lots of vats, test tubes, you name it. I had to go through an automated system to reach a valve and get a door open - whole process was still working, so I got tossed in some weird tank full of weird liquid, injected with a couple of things... and, well I started changing a few days later."

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy gave a knowing grin at Jenn’s teasingly chosen words. She responded, “Naneti Sso Jri Qorit. Means wandering at an end. I’d like to think it’s a better sentiment than dark castle, an’ I know for a fact Imma better interior decorator than Dad.”

Then, her smile turned tight-lipped and apologetic. She nodded. Pity may have seemed to be what shone through her face, but it was actually understanding.

“Did the gills come first?”

It was vain hope, really, thinking you could hide such a familiar sight from a veteran fish, even if Jenn didn’t know.

But then she corrected herself, “No matter. Gimme your hand.”

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Damsy's words claimed a smile from the Mandalorian, the fierce huntress seemingly at ease around her friend - and all too happy to partake in banter with her. "Can't argue there. That place gave me the creeps, but this is... nice." She paused in the wake of her words, her gaze truly warm and joyful as she looked the Sith over. "Wandering at an end... sounds peaceful. I'm happy for you, Damsy."

The way her expression suddenly changed did not bode well, however, alarming the fiery-haired warrior a little. Just how bad was it? Would she be okay? The very notion that she would need to completely rethink her equipment to accommodate her gills was already a bother, but she was keenly aware that the worst may lay ahead of her. "They started forming a couple of weeks after. Before that, I felt all sorts of dry, and frankly queasy. My throat was burning constantly, too."

Although taken aback, Jenn offered Damsy her hand nonetheless, rather keen on finding out just what was wrong with her.

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

”Mm, yeah, I getcha,” the Siren muttered as Jenn listed off her symptoms. It was the same for her, all of it, at least until she had come into the comfort that the Force could offer.

Then she took a hold of Jenn’s hand, gently pulling to extend her arm over the wash bowl. “I need to take this off.“ With her free hand, Damsy softly rapped her knuckles on the beskar of Jenn’s gauntlet. “Do you trust me?” If the answer was yes, Damsy would take the armor off one handed. Buckles and complex fittings were no match for the combined skill of a former Mandalorian and a Sith Lady. She put it to the side.

Then her free hand unravelled a wrap of linen from its roll, tore it off with her teeth, and dropped it into the basin. An invisible force swished it around underwater, then caused the cloth ball to break the surface, and float over Jenn’s now-exposed forearm. It wrung out the cool moisture, which fell over Jenn’s skin in sparkling beads, rolling over the sides of her arm under the pull of gravity, but somehow avoiding Damsy’s fingers.

”This water’s from Kamino,” she said as she worked to repeat the preceding steps. “It should lessen your symptoms for a time.”

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Jenn's answer to that question was immediate, the words leaving her lips before she had time to even think about them.
"Of course I do", assured the Mandalorian, marvelling at her friend's ease when it came to taking off her gauntlet. She remained quiet as the Sith went about doing... whatever it was she was seeing. In truth, the Force remained a frightening thing to her, a well of power she associated with the enemy. But Damsy was a dear friend, and so she managed to grit her teeth and suppress the instinctual urge to put as much distance between herself and the person wielding such power.

"Thank you", spoke the huntress with relief, the feeling of dryness and the intolerable itching greatly lessened. "I appreciate the help, Damsy, I really do... but you haven't yet told me what is wrong with me."

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

“You’ve been a victim of somethin’ called Sith Alchemy,” Damsy explained without missing a beat. Only when she had did she look into the huntress’ eyes. “I was too.” She looked away, back to her work. “In wha’ I’d once’ve called a cruel twist of fate, I practice my own now. But never on the unsuspectin’.“ A pause occupied by a sigh as Damsy reached for Jenn’s other hand. “Not like this…”

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

This revelation earned Damsy a raised eyebrow, and a pause from the Mandalorian. "That sounds an awful lot like the Sithspawn you had under your care back on Coruscant", remarked the huntress. "Guess I'm just lucky the process was automated and the facility's owner wasn't around, uh..." In the wake of her words, she extended her hand to let her friend work off the gauntlet and repeat the process, visibly taken aback by such a turn of events. "Give it to me straight... what's going to happen to me?"

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy had tried not to think about the Sithspawn on Coruscant for some time now.

Her gaze snapped back to Jenn. “The changes ‘ave only started.”

Straight as that was, what she next said curved her verbal path just so. “But you’ll survive. In ways no non-Spawn could dream of, you’ll even be stronger, once you learn to use your body as it will become.”

Too boot, Damsy smiled another of her closed-mouth smiles. “If I’m right, it’ll have a tail. Like a fish. I can show you ‘ow ta use it. I got one too, though it’s more like a shark’s.”

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Jenn could only stare at her friend as she delivered these words, clearly bewildered by such a revelation - and she seemed rather slow to digest the magnitude of such a turn of events. "You're pulling my leg", declared the Mandalorian after a long moment of silence, shaking her head in disbelief. "A tail. You are saying I am going to sprout a fish tail now? That's..."

She trailed off, suddenly lost in thought. Was it that impossible? After all, she had grown gills, which worked both above and under the water... the possibility that she would become a lot more aquatic was perhaps not that far-fetched. Clearly growing anxious as realization washed over her, the redhead began to chew her lip, tapping her foot against the ground nervously.

"... I'm still hoping you're dreadfully wrong, but you're the Sith here, not me. How are we going to find out if I, uh... can grow a fish tail?"

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy shook her head. She wasn’t pulling her leg, or even gnawing on her dorsal fin. She also hoped she was wrong, but knew she wasn’t.

“‘M not sure,” admitted the Siren. “Shiftin’ is easy for me—well, ain’t easy, it hurts—but all I need is contact with water, but, uh, you’re takin’ this like a champ.” Damsy ripped off two more lengths of linen and draped both over Jenn’s arms. She began patting one dry. “I know this’ all new to you, but do ya have any, y’know, any instincts ‘bout it?”

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

Trying her best to silence the rising panic as she began to process the enormity of the situation, Jenn closed her eyes... and, in spite of all the emotions raging inside her mind, the Mandalorian tried her best in the hopes to focus. "Well, after the incident, I... began to enjoy swimming and bathing more and more, you know? Felt as if I had a new need, just as important as drinking, eating and sleeping. It satisfied something inside me, a part of myself..."

The huntress went quiet at that, visibly concentrating as she tried to reach out within herself, to pinpoint what the source of these new desires was... and, as she came to understand the depths of how different she had become, the fiery-haired warrior realized the presence of something at the edge of her consciousness - something so natural, it was almost a passive thought. Unaware of just what she had done, the Mandalorian's eyes opened as she felt her legs... shifting.

Staring in silent awe, Jenn's mouth dropped agape as her legs pushed against one another, her attempts to part them entirely fruitless. The fabric of her outfit began to rip and tear as her legs suddenly decided to be two separate limbs, forming a single, powerful one instead... but, unlike Damsy's own change, hers seemed painless, perhaps even wonderful to behold if not for the fact that she was truly unable to accept what she was seeing, even as her feet flattened, turning in opposite directions... and, eventually, the inevitable happened: the straps of her armor snapped, and the plates of beskar went flying under the force as her transformation finalized, and a wave of pebbly blue scales washed over her tail!

Jenn could only stare in shock as she was left with a long, powerful, and yet impossibly graceful fish tail instead of legs, her tentative attempt at moving her feet merely resulting in her silvery fin to curl inwards.

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

“Well, that’s the opposite of me…” she mused during the moments of calm. After finishing drying off Jenn’s arms, she crumpled the rags next to the bowl. “I ‘void water whateva I can.”

She kept her head bowed to watch her work until a familiar ripping sound overwrote the fire’s soft crackling. Her eyes snapped to Jenn’s in barely enough time to then realize that her friend’s armor straps were straining.

“Feth!” the Siren muttered before throwing herself down to avoid the beskar projectiles. On her way down, she jostled a table leg. The bowl atop it began to teeter dangerously, sloshing the remaining water over its wooden lips. Moments before the basin tipped over entirely and spilled its contents onto the floor, Damsy somersaulted out of the way.

She unfurled to her knees and glanced at Jenn with risen brows. “Some instincts.”

Jenn Kryze