Private In The Flesh

[Dresden]

Location: Jutrand, Residential District, Balcony
Tag: Darth Malum of House Marr

Night falls over the city...​

​

He had almost forgotten their faces; their lingering stare haunting his childhood memories, dragging along with the years, yet still remaining as an afterimage - a ghost trapped inside his skull, occasionally whispering, faintly uttering the echoes of time. It had never truly crossed his mind, what the possibilities could've been had he willed himself to look in directions other than what the Dark Side guided him towards.

His reasoning for being on Jutrand was to get closer to a purpose - to meet with destiny personified and relinquish the illusion of his current life, becoming free within the bonds he'd be allowing upon his soul. For so long he convinced himself that solitude was the only way he could live, that his exile from the rest of his "family" meant he'd be stronger without them or their name.

Now was the time to admit weakness and accept this internal defeat. It was too late to turn back, there was now only a wall that creeps closer, pushing and protesting any attempts at cowardice or retreat. He could not hide from the light of the future, the yawning void eager to swallow up new flesh.

There alone against the skyline, heart tightening with anxiety as Dresden breathed to calm himself. He closed his eyes, embracing the warmth of the Dark Side as it soothed his neurotic thoughts, its gentle touch on the verge of becoming a chokehold as it settled even further into his being.

Soon he would have answers.

Another step towards meaning.

 

[Darth Malum of House Marr]

A lone whistle, melodic and harmonic played through the silent alleys of Jutrand's Residential District, a place normally bustling with activity and people was uncommonly silent and bare today. Or well more accurately, tonight, for the sun was setting, and where the eagle once held dominion, now the raven would take flight. For that was key in the emptiness and silence, it was not truly uncommon for Jutrand's Residential District to be this way, for as the sun fell, so did the rustle and bustle of the place's occupants, turning in to enjoy the creature comforts of their hearths, as they rested and prepared for the great comings and goings of the morn.

Not Malum though.

Turning into another alleyway, he fell deeper and deeper still into the darkness, as his whistle carried him forward ever still. Once as a child he might have been too afraid to even consider this prospect...

...No certainly he would have been too fearful, after all, it was these alleyways where the poors lived, and though Malum once had been afraid of the imaginary monsters in the closet or underneath his bed, he had certainly been afraid of the all too real less fortunate, which would no doubt make their homes along streets or benches, with no roof over their heads to survive the cold.

It would only be days after, as he grew older, and taller, that he learned not to fear those of lesser class and standing, for their troubles were neither their fault nor something to be judged. He might sneer, and hold up his nose at them, an instinctual response born out of how he was raised, but he could no longer fear them, pathetic survivors that they were.

No, instead why he traversed these routes in the darkness was for another reason entirely.

It simply allowed him to relax.

The fresh air, the rhymic steps of his march, the relative silence as best as he could be afforded. He simply wanted to be away from people, yet did not want to be in some stuffy room either. He should have been with his family, he should have been maintaining the Tsis'Kaar networks, he should have been governing Alvaria, instead, here he was, avoiding his troubles, avoiding his responsibilities, just simply for an opportunity to think.

Well, that was a lie, the one thing he did not want to do at all was allow himself to delve into the depths of his mind.

Dark memories awaited there.

And darker things still.

So he walked, as the moon rose overhead, he walked.

Not realising that family was coincidentally much closer to him than he had originally realised.

Dresden

 

[Dresden]

Location: Jutrand, Residential District
Tags: Darth Malum of House Marr

There it was, the intrusion of footfalls entering his ears, the touch of something else present within the Force. There was something familiar about this aura that he felt, but unable to fully identify it. Dresden turned away from his view of the skyline, his eyes shifting over nearby surroundings, soon locking on an individual that gave off the very presence that he felt within his bones.

He had not seen this man before, yet his very signature within the Force was one that resonated with him deeply. Personally. "You. What is your name?" Dresden spoke aloud, raising his right hand, pointing towards the odd stranger in question. There was no hostility raised, no aggression in the armored man's tone, only the slight distortion of his words due to the apparatus upon his head.

Dresden awaited a response - eager, grasping for anything.

Perhaps this was the moment he was waiting for.

 

[Darth Malum of House Marr]

Malum's melodic, rhythmic steps ceased as the distorted voice broke across the silence of the darkness. His red eyes quickly found themselves through the blackness to the armoured figure, slightly shorter than him, from what he could surmise, though decked out in plate, durasteel and... was that beskar? He could not be entirely sure of either.

What he was confident of, however, was the fact he was dangerous.

If it was indeed beskar or not, the armour was an imposing, intimidating sight, yet clapped around him too, were other tools of war, a blaster of some kind, grenades perhaps, and most telling of all, a hilt of a lightsabre attached around his waist. This man was a warrior, and more tellingly, though his first instinct was to label him a Moridinizid, the jetpack was telling him enough, there was something far more of import that took him away from that idea.

Well, two, really.

The darkness swelled about him, it was as if he was bathing in it, as if he was the epicentre of an earthquake in fact. So no Moridinizid, at least not a regular kind. And though there was no shortage of Moridinizids with darkside tendencies, even if they would righteously argue against darkside sympathies, one wielding a lightsabre, was rather rare.

And then the other, and certainly the most peculiar, he felt his amulet begin to grow warm.

There were only a few things that could signify.

He needed to be careful.

"A rather queer way to introduce oneself." Malum intoned, his vision glimmering with both caution and perhaps the smallest hint of mirth, as he did not yet draw his lightsabre, there was no outright hostility from the helmed man yet, and if this was an ambush, it was a bad one, he had given away his position, and as far as he could tell, there was no one circling around him.

Even she had not yet stirred beyond curiosity.

"But if you must know, I am Darth Malum, of House Marr," He left out the titles, he left out the pomp and circumstance, as he gave the slightest nod in greeting, "And who might you be, helmed one?" His eyes glimmered now in curiosity.

Dresden