Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Here In The Dark

The Handmaiden

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T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

The Handmaiden stood within the dark of the ruins, her eyes slowly shifting over the broken stone masonry and torn statues that seemed to loom over the open plains.

Her eyes wandered slowly, her head hidden beneath a heavy hood. The horns that protruded from her skull seemed to slowly slip out from beneath the black cloth, her tattoos on her lower lip showing as her chin tilted up to allow her a better look at the statue above her. The massive man seemed to loom there, his face cut in half by ancient rot, his hands hanging onto a heavy sword. The Handmaiden tilted her head, looking at the sword. There were half a dozen markings upon it's blade, most of them faded and torn away by the rains that had happened on this world.

A particular marking stood out, a single symbol still etched as though it had been placed there yesterday.

Handmaiden gave no indication of it's significance. Her head did not sway, her eyes did not bulge, she simply looked at it with the same air of calm that she had put on everything else.

These ruins were old, ancient beyond all belief. This world had once been home of the Sith Empire, the ancient Empire they had called it. This world had resisted the Sith, resisted their invasion and then later their occupation. It was a significant event in history, a world resisting the Empire so fiercely as this one had. That was why this statue was important, why The Handmaiden had made her way here.

The past always held something of worth.

Even if it wasn't seen by everyone.
 

Thel Rhysode

Guest
T
The ship, which Thel has still not managed to find a name for, broke through the atmosphere of the planet and landed on its surface. For once, the boy had no idea where he'd come -- he had been in a hurry and there was no time to look at the map. All he knew was that this place was relatively safe to stay on for the next seventeen hours, so that's where he decided to hang for a while.

He'd tried to make sure the landing would be as safe as possible, staying away from any structures or landmarks that could damage either the ship or which he could damage during the process of landing. Even though he was smuggler and a lone wanderer, he was no destroyer of worlds and culture.

The boy, as he proceeded towards the exit of the starship, grabbed his black backpack and his mighty blaster, along with the breathing mask which had turned into his trademark. Of course, nobody really knew who he was, so the trademark was not very famous.

He made his way out of the ship and he was greeted by a sight of emptiness. There was nothing of importance around him -- just some land and air around him and the ship. No people, no structures, not a single tree. He had no idea where he was, he didn't even know if this place was inhabited or not. Sounded like both a terrible and a fantastic planet to stay on. For an adventurer like him, this place was heaven.

He started stepping in a direction while setting his backpack over his shoulders and attaching his weapon to his dark brown leather belt. However, he kept his mask hanging around his neck, just to be sure.

Something tore him towards the direction he had decided to go, yet he was not sure what exactly called for him.

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

Guest
T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

She wandered.

The blade was what she wanted, but the ruin was not entirely focused around it.

Ancient civilizations had a way of creating interesting projects, interesting paths. It was a trademark, a story was always told through their architecture. Most often that story told of death, of destruction, yet sometimes...sometimes it was more. The Handmaiden stepped through the broken stone columns and the felled buildings, her eyes slowly wandering as she swept through the ancient ruins. The air was still, a small wave of fog had slowly rolled in between the stones.

Everything seemed...quiet.

The cloak around her shoulders shifted slightly, fluttering in a soft breeze. Her head turned towards something within the distance, a sound, a song. Her lips tugged upward, fang like teeth showing for half a second before she turned away. Her feet began to gently tread over broken grass and ancient stone, pressing tiny bits of gravel into the dirt as she wandered back towards the blade. The song played within her mind, calling to her, an innocent voice within the dark.

It was something only she could hear.
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
Thel continued the road he'd taken, following that feeling which made him feel so odd inside. Not that he was doubtful or scared; he was anxious, somewhat curious as well. But the ache it left in his heart made him want to wander. Wasn't adrenaline the reason people did crazy things?

As he moved through the fields, he started to near an area which seemed to have some structures. There were buildings or landmarks which he couldn't describe at that moment, but which he guessed were rather ancient. He couldn't fully grasp their appearance nor could he imagine what they were. All he could do was to go closer to them and see what they were for himself.

He would have gone further, but the point was -- he heard something, somebody; only as quiet as a whisper in a wind, but he still heard somebody's steps. Now came the part when he was afraid of what would happen.

But was there really something to be afraid of in this galaxy? Fear of the chaser's wrath had made the boy rather immune to any other feelings of fright and horror. Now he greeted situations like these with joy. Because they had something to teach him.

He couldn't see the person whose steps he could hear, but he could make presumptions about them, considering how the steps sounded. And somehow, Thel's brain formed a picture of an alien woman, of a mysterious figure.

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

Guest
T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

Bare feet pressed into cold soil, toes curling, heel digging deep. There was soft thuds as she wandered through the ruins, the scattering of the dirt and the scratching of rocks as they were thrown up into the air and fell back down to the earth. Her robe fluttered, and the cloak that surrounded her face seemed to shift for half a moment as pale eyes spied the figure within the mists. The Handmaiden shifted, her body moving with the ebb and flows of the fog.

The sword that she had observed earlier gave a pulse, a soft glow.

The runes within the blade began to shine, half blue, half red. Colors began to mix and swirl, corruption setting into the stoneworked blade as the Handmaiden opened her mouth.

"Do you wander?" Her voice echoed all around the ruin, ringing within the fog itself. "Or are you lost?"

The questions would sit within the air, her voice a rasping song that called out within the ruins. The stone sword seemed to sway slightly, shift within the grip of the soldier that held it. The Ruins seemed to shift, to move, the columns becoming a haze and the ruined ground beginning to alter itself. A trick of the mind perhaps.
 

Thel Rhysode

Guest
T
The boy had no idea if he was the one being talked to. Seeking for an answer, he moved a little bit closer to the voice, still not able to see its owner. But it was rather sure the person was a woman, which gave him a little bit of an idea who the person could be.

"I ain't lost," he decided to take the risk and answer the question. "I'm a wanderer."

His voice didn't echo a lot like the woman's did, but it was still rather easy to hear it. The environment seemed to give a lot to the voice of a person, making it resonate with more power, get the effect of an echo. The fog all around made the situation a lot more mystical.

Thel noticed the ruins moving around and the environment altering itself. It was slightly terrifying, to be honest, but as he understood it was nothing really dangerous, he tried to calm down. He couldn't understand what exactly was happening, though. There didn't seem to be any pattern the environment was making, at least not from his point of view.

Was all of that even real?

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

Guest
T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

The earth continued to move, the stone columns began to warp and bend, the soft glow of the sword began to permeate the air itself. Mist began to flow all around the ruins, the air becoming thick with a fog of pure white. Within the mists, dark and hooded approached a figure. Steps pressed into the ground, the earth remaining still where they felled. The silhouette approached the boy, small hands slowly clasping in front of it, a smile slowly perking upon it's lips.

"So you wander." The voice echoed all around the mists, not coming from the woman, but from behind the boy, in front of him, and to the sides.

The stone seemed to shift in place, rearranging itself even as the sky above remained stalwart.

"But are you sure you are not lost?" The question was barely above a whisper. "After all. Those who wander are often lost, even if they do not know it."

The willowy rasp seemed to stall the shifting of the world. The columns behind the figure ceased their movement, the glowing blue of the sword seemed to fade. The ground itself continued it's movement, shifting in small waves as though ripples upon the water emanating from the figure before the boy. The silhouette simply stood, impassive, horns poking from beneath the hooded cloak, hands clasped at the front, face hidden by dipping cloth.
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
"I am not lost, I ensure you," Thel replied with a tone of confidence. And even though he had no idea where the voice came and how one could even speak like that.

He had not for once thought about whether he was actually lost or not. Yeah, he didn't know what to do or who he was, but the point was, he didn't need to know such things. He was a free soul, he tended to think of himself. And that for a reason. His whole life was about running, yet he was not 'lost' or sad. He didn't want to live a different life.

"Sometimes the ones who seem to be the most sure about their lives are those who are really lost," he dropped a bomb of philosophy.

Nah, he was not a philosophic person. That's exactly why most of his quotes and thoughts were a complete poodoo. He just didn't have the mind which would grasp the concept of life and the universe. After all, Thel was a simple guy with a single desire -- to be free and to be himself. He didn't need no philosophy in his life.

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

Guest
T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

For a moment the figure didn't move. Instead it became the stability within the world, it remained, standing still as the earth and ruins seemed to shift about. It was dizzying, hypnotic almost. The mist gathered and swept around, cutting through and obscuring the figure as she stood firm. The boys words echoed through the fog, eliciting a small smile from the woman across from him. It was hard to tell if the world was changing, whether or not everything was really moving, but as the figure took yet another step forward it was clear that she was the cause.

A ripple tore through the ground, waves crashing onto the earth.

"Are you so sure?" The voice came from behind the boy this time, not all around. "Are you so confident in your answer?"

Did she have a point? It certainly didn't seem that way. "What do you wander for, young one? For Freedom? For treasure? For love lost?"

A pause hang in the air, a stillness, everything suddenly seemed to stop.

"For power?" It came from all around again.
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
"I wander because I am being chased. Wandering is the only way to get to freedom," Thel spoke as he tried to avoid getting hit by any moving ground or anything. What the kark was going on over there?

Truth be told, he'd never been on a single planet during an earthquake or anything, so seeing a natural disaster was actually new to him, no matter whether it was a truly natural disaster or if it was triggered by something. Didn't quite matter.

"I guess... through wanderin', I get an illusion of freedom." Probably the best and cleverest thing he'd ever said in his life. A little bit of philosophy.

Her head already ached about all of that. Everything seemed to be so unstable. And even though for a moment, things stood still, he couldn't regain from the weirdness and oddity which had been going on around him.

"I ain't need no power. But you do, ain't it so?"

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

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T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

A laugh resounded all around the ruin, it seemed to shake the earth and warp the columns that stood all about. The figure herself began to warp, the black of her robe seemed to bleed out into reality itself, her teeth, filed down into sharp points seemed to spread over half of her face. The tattoo that stretched over her lower lip seemed to move on its on, spreading slowly while writhing like a dying snake. The figure seemed to grow taller, towering over the boy.

"So you do not wander then." The grin grew larger. "You run. Flee."

She seemed to shift, move closer towards the boy even as the ruins began to solidify once more. "Why?"

The voice was inside of the boys head now, a resounding question alongside his own thoughts. It would not be painful, harmful, in fact it was the opposite. The soft rasp would almost be comforting, soft, a pairing to his own thoughts.

"Why do you run?" A soft caress.
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
The boy could no longer understand what was happening. The direction of where the voice came from seemed to change every time the person talked, finally making it to Thel's head. But the voice was comforting. It was not raspy or pointy or cruel. It was somehow... nice. He liked that -- he could have listened to that forever.

But that was clearly not an option.

"Uh... Yeah, you could say I'm runnin'," he muttered as he turned to the figure, which was definitely a horrible sight. The figure didn't look horrific per se, but the Sith aura it gave off was nothing the boy would enjoy.

"I think I did somethin'. Before amnesia, I mean."

He didn't actually know why he was fleeing. It was something he'd done forever. His old self -- before the amnesia -- had left a message for his future self to keep on running, leaving behind a few details about how fast the chaser moved and so on, but... no reason why he had to run.

"I don't know who chases me. But I do know they ain't happy with me."

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

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T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

The figure now seemed to move in unnatural ways.

She snaked forward, her lower body remaining in place, her feet not moving while her torso stretched and moved beyond itself. It was disturbing, almost snake like. A massive serpent moving to surround and bind the boy, looping around him in an encompassing fashion. She twisted upon herself turning until she towered above the boy, her face mere inches from his own. The smile that split her face seemed to hover for a moment, simply laying before his eyes.

"Poor lost little soul." The echo surrounded him, became a part of him, reaching even into his thoughts. It was not oppressive, just encompassing, like hearing yourself speak. The figure stayed surrounding the boy, simply watching his reaction. "Running, and not even knowing from whom you flee."

Her snake like movements shifted about him one more time, loosely holding him in place. "Would you like to learn?"

The offer resounded, this time just a tint of harshness to hit, a bite. A deal with the devil was often said to be bad, but who wouldn't accept their own past? Who wouldn't take that piece of themselves that they had lost. Perhaps a wise man, or a man who did not care. For the boy, for the Handmaiden, perhaps it would not matter.
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
Thel couldn't tell whether he was dreaming or not. A shapeshifter was somebody he had never seen in his life, or perhaps it was all an illusion? His white irises looked at the figure with a feeling of shock and fright, but he felt like he couldn't run now. Because he wasn't meant to run from her. Perhaps he could even actually learn something about his past?

"I... yes."

His mutter was full of tremolo, he was too scared about what would happen after saying that. But he just couldn't run anymore without knowing why he was running or who was chasing him.

"I wanna learn."

At that very moment, he actually started to think whether it was a clever thing to do or whether the figure could be using him. Maybe she was just teasing him, trying to taunt him? But on the other hand, maybe she was a Sith who would be able to actually delve into his mind and read his past like an open book while he himself couldn't even scratch the surface?

There were too many questions, so many doubts.

He had to listen. He couldn't run.

He had to stay.

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

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T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

The grin split the woman's face, her horns having grown longer, curling slightly, her eyes pulsing a bright yellow. The coils around the boy tightened, the snake like movements, hypnotic and almost entrancing continued. For a moment silence reigned within the ruins. The earth ceased its movements, the columns around him returned to their normal weight, and there was only the two of them. The snake, and the mouse. The Handmaiden waited a breath more, listening to the boy speak.

Then she answered.

"Oh child." The resounding tone split the earth. "You will, in time."

The Handmaiden would open her jaw, sharp, filed teeth would break apart to reveal a black abyss. Her maw would extend, open like the mouth of a snake. She reached, the coils around the boy suddenly tightening as she began to devour him. Within one fell swoop she grasped him and pulled him into an eternal abyss. He would see Darkness. He would feel no light on his skin, see no stars in the sky. All that he would experience was the dark.
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When he awoke, the boy would find himself in that same broken ruin. He would find himself laying beneath the massive stone statue, the blade no longer glowing. The Earth was solid, the columns were unmoving and straight. The fog had vanished and in its place was startlingly bright streams of sunlight that cast a warm glow all around. Flowers would bloom at the base of the statue, bright little orchids that seemed to bend towards the sun in the sky.

Above Thel, standing within the clearing with her hood still drawn was The Handmaiden.
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
What? was the only thought Thel had as woke up once again. What the heck had just happened? He remembered the woman doing... something? And then after that, he couldn't see anything. Really, what had he just experienced?

He looked at the figure.

"What in the Force did you do?"

He would have wanted to be angry, to go and fight her, but he couldn't. He was exhausted, he felt dizzy. And he didn't feel angry at all. He had no wish to kill the person, to strangle her. Nothing.

"What happened?"

Everything seemed to be stable now. Oddly, the fog was all gone as well, everything was normal, sun was shining. He didn't remember any of that being there before he fell unconscious.

Weird. Maybe it all had been just a dream.

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

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T
[member="Thel Rhysode"]

The woman didn't answer. Instead she simply walked around the ruin. Her footsteps were real this time. She didn't cause any ripples within the earth, didn't move any columns, didn't warp the very reality around herself. She simply moved around the clearing, her naked toes curling in the dirt as she slowly moved to stand in front of the statue. Her eyes fell on the boy, now sitting between herself and the massive stone man. There was no expression on her face, just an odd twerk of her lip.

"I searched your mind, little one." She said the words, this time her voice was still, calm, steady. Most importantly it came from her own two lips. There was no echo, no resounding sound as she spoke. Reality seemed to have caught up with the two of them, and as the Handmaiden peered down at the boy a ray of sunlight struck the edge of one of her horns. "I found the answers that you seek."

The quirk of her lips extended, a smile touching her features.

Her cloak gave a rustle as a gust of wing struck the ruin. She remained still, featureless, a mimic of the statues that looked down on them both.
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
"So ya know what happened?" he asked, even though he didn't want an answer to that question.

Was there really a chance to get to know what had happened to him and why he was being chased? Maybe she'd even seen the reason why he'd gotten amnesia. So many questions could be answered at that moment. He saw hope, he saw a way to go on with life.

"Why am I bein' chased?"

Maybe he was a little bit too hesitant. He didn't even know if the woman had seen anything. Maybe she didn't even want to tell him anything. Maybe she was just a liar or something? Could the figure be really trusted? He guessed she was a SIth, so... why would he trust her?

Why had he allowed her inside his head?

So many new questions rose, he didn't know what to do. The answers the woman had gotten wold most likely not suffice.

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

The Handmaiden

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T
"Oh, little one." Her voice was that same rasp, that scratch of the throat that seemed to stick to the ears. "You seek answers. You ask questions, but are you sure they're the right ones? Are you sure you even know what to demand?"

She stepped forward, a soft patter into the dirt.

Toes curled again within the ground, digging slightly as she moved closer to the boy and the statue behind him.

There was an odd air about the ruin. Not evil, not darkness, but an oddity. It was as if the ozone were being burned, as if there was something sinister within the oxygen itself. Not another trick, not another shift of the mind or dream. It was a physical sense, something that seemed to very gently poke at the skin. She did not seem to notice, instead she took another step forward until she was once again above him, her eyes cast down at his face.

"You run and run. You flee, but why?" She smiled now, those razor teeth showing again.

"Is it because you're weak?" The rasp of her voice clung to the ears. "Fearful of what chases you? I've seen it, the thing that you're so afraid of, the thing that has brought you here and will take you even further."

Oh, she was enjoying this now. "It's rather pitiful."
 

Thel Rhysode

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T
"Tell me, what is it?" he demanded, although not with a demanding tone. He was afraid of the figure.

The person seemed to be overly mysterious, so vague. As if she didn't want to tell him anything about it, as if she was just teasing him. He couldn't be sure if she'd actually even seen anything. All he could do was either trust that she could give her some valuable information or just hear it, ignore it, and go on with his life.

But she wouldn't tell him anything, which was the main problem.

"It ain't pitiful. Tell me, I wanna know."

He sounded like a whiny kid, which he pretty much was. If there was a chance to hear about the one question which he'd always had and the sole person who had the knowledge wouldn't tell him anything, it did make him a little bit sad.

"I know I can't stand against it yet. That's all."

He would have wanted to rise to his feet, but the figure had decided to block him for some reason.

Ugh...

[ [member="The Handmaiden"] ]
 

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