Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Faction Jedi of Hidden Waters

Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
Connel Vanagor Connel Vanagor

She gave him a nod of her head while she was looking around... the force was different here now... becoming more and more like something sour and metallic. "That would work." She said it and looked up at the ceiling of the cave that seemed to be getting more and more obscured with swirls of chaotic enerrgies. "Though I don't think we are on Kashyyyk anymore." She said it and it wasn't something she wanted to admit... she didn't know where they were yet. "It is like the force itself is screaming.. you can almost taste it in the air." She said it while looking and there was more she was sure of it. Walking as she listened to the sounds.. the swarm was still chanting but further off the images shifted... the forests and caves giving way to plains of ash filled skies, desolate grounds and nothing around.

She heard something screaming, something shouting... someone as the image came into focus. "I am Darth Breschau, the Scourge of Dromund Kaas. I severed the Force-connection of those who spoke against me, leaving them as empty husks and I used the screaming spirits of unborn children to power my Sith alchemy, that no lineage would rise to challenge me. I corrupted my mother with a Sith kiss, and I,Breschau who devoured her sister's life in the Force when she denied me. Soon, my name was whispered by mothers on a thousand worlds to terrify their children into obedience. I am Breschau, who bathed in the blood of younglings to sustain my decaying form." She said it as the hawk bats were eating from the open chest cavity but it was the netherworld and once they were done it healed to be done again.

Matsu looked at the form of the woman and she was clearly a woman, hauntingly beautiful in her refinement. "I am Breschau, who forced the Jedi Seers, the prophets of Ashla, to dance upon plates of superheated cortosis, under which spectral fires of the dark side eternally burned, and I laughed as their essences flickered and writhed. I am Breschau, and when my Sith apprentice was unfaithful, I did not merely scar her face; I carved the Mark of the Betrayer upon her very soul and bound the sigil to my amulet. As for the woman and her lover, I had their spirits fused, essence to essence, into a single, eternal wound in the Force, and I left them anchored here, in this Chaos, to be perpetually unraveled by the Howlers, and I laughed as I hear their silent screams echo for all time."

"I am Darth Breschau. And this… this my punishment." The jedi master got a better look at the woman as she could take in more of the situation. Her skin gleams like molten honey poured from the gods' own chalice, silken and fever-warm, flushed with the subtle heat of unspoken yearnings that rise beneath its surface like a tide threatening to crest, every inch begging to be traced by fingertips that might ignite or dissolve in its intoxicating velvet now marked by the cruel bite of beskar where chains kiss her flesh, leaving faint crimson welts that bloom like forbidden roses against the amber glow. The jedi master stopped and starrred though taking in many more elements.

Eyes of liquid obsidian ringed with golden red glowing hues faintly, hooded beneath lashes thick as sin-soaked silk, smolder with a feral promise almond curves that dilate in the half-light, drawing anyone into their vortex where desire coils like smoke, fringed by kohl that smears like the remnants of a lover's desperate grasp, capable of unraveling empires with a single, sultry glance that strips away pretense and leaves only raw, aching need; they lift now toward the bruised heavens, defiant and pleading in an formed euphoric agony, shadowed by the jagged overhang of rock that presses like a jealous suitor against her temple.

Her cheekbones, sharp as the edge of a forbidden blade, hollow slightly with the rhythm of her quickened breath the shouting as she proclaims something that her devoured lungs would strain, framing a nose of regal delicacy and lips swollen like overripe persimmons, glossed in crimson that parts to reveal the pearl-glint of teeth, curved in a pout that murmurs invitations too profane for daylight, each exhale a jasmine-laced sigh that clings to the air like a lover's sweat parted now in a gasp as the beskar collar tightens, its cold links grinding against the frantic flutter of her pulse at the throat, a metallic tang mingling with the salt of her skin.

Raven locks tumble in wild, unbound cascades, heavy with the musk of night orchids and crushed amber, braided with golden filaments that snake through like veins of fire, brushing the fevered hollow of her throat where pulse flutters visibly, a siren's lure to press lips against and taste the salt of her abandon tousled and matted now against the unyielding granite, strands catching in the rough-hewn crevices like dark silk ensnared by the mountain's possessive grip, whispering against stone that rasps like gravel under a boot. She could see her body already starting to heal when she hung there. The pile of gore below where pieces dropped.

She is sheathed in a lehenga choli of blood-red silk that slithers over her form like a serpent's kiss, the choli a scandalous cage of gold-embroidered paisleys that plunge low across the lush, quivering swells of her chest fabric taut and translucent where it strains against hardened mountain peaks, the shadowed cleft between them a velvet abyss adorned by a teardrop ruby that sways with hypnotic menace, as if daring a hand to delve and claim its fire; the silk tears faintly at the shoulders where manacles clamp her wrists, exposing more of the hennaed skin beneath, the chains' weight pulling the bodice lower, a teasing surrender to gravity's merciless pull. Gravity manifesting even in the lowest places of chaos.

The kamarbandh, a sinuous band of chased gold studded with cabochon emeralds, bites into the silken dip of her waist, baring the taut, undulating plane of her belly where a diamond navel jewel throbs like a second heart, pierced flesh quivering under the weight of imagined caresses; from there, the lehenga blooms in pleated waves of crimson decadence, zari-laced lotuses unfurling along its hem to whisper against thighs that part with liquid grace, the fabric parting like fingers splayed in revelry to reveal glimpses of skin hennaed in intricate, exotic filigree swirling vines of midnight mehndi that coil up her calves like possessive lovers' fingers.

Blooming into peacock feathers on the arches of her feet where silver anklets chime with bells that toll her every futile twitch as a summons to surrender, while on her palms and the undersides of slender wrists, the henna weaves mandalas of interlocking hearts and thorns, deep burgundy patterns that stain like the flush of climax, intricate arabesques tracing the sensitive hollows of her inner arms and curling teasingly toward the swell of her hips, each design a map to hidden places that pulse with the same dark rhythm now smeared and cracked where beskar cuffs grind against them, the chains' icy links slithering over the patterns like serpents devouring their own tails, the metal's chill seeping into her bones with a shiver that arches her back against the rock's unyielding spine.

Each design a map to hidden thought that pulse with the same dark rhythm as the haath kaan necklace layered gold chains heavy with baroque pearls and sapphire drops that nestle into the damp valley of her décolletage, rising and falling with her chest that heaves in languid invitation, now tangled with the broader collar that encircles her neck like a lover's bite too deep, its riveted band etched with runes that glow faintly in the sulfurous haze, the chain from it snaking down her sternum to anchor her to the stone, pulling taut with every ragged breath and sending vibrations that hum through her core like a plucked string.

Jhumkas of moonstone and coral dangle from lobes like forbidden fruit, swaying to graze the curve of her neck with every tilt of her head, while bangles of hammered aurodium clink like the shatter of inhibitions along arms that reach out as if to ensnare, their chime mingling with the anklets' seductive tinkling; anklets that encircle henna-veiled ankles, bells tolling softly against the intricate lotus blooms etched into her soles, each step a sensual incantation that sends shivers racing up her spine to pool as liquid fire in the core of her now silenced in the spread-eagle bind, legs splayed wide against the crag's fractured face, the fetters at her ankles bolted into fissures that weep mineral tears.

The chains groaning like ancient beasts under the strain of her writhing, their links forged in some infernal smithy, rough and pitted with rust that flakes onto her skin like cinnamon dust, carrying the acrid bite of forge-smoke and old blood. Rendering her a apparition of carnal divinity hauntingly, perilously beautiful, her every curve and adornment a velvet trap woven to ensnare the senses, leaving admirers breathless, branded, and utterly, irrevocably consumed by the exquisite torment of her touch; she hangs suspended thus upon the mountain's flank, a voluptuous sacrifice to the storm-lashed peaks that loom like titans in judgment.

Their basalt flanks veined with quartz that glints like shattered mirrors under the pallid sky, the air thick with the ozone tang of impending thunder and the distant rumble of avalanches grinding bones to dust far below. The rock itself is a monolith of primordial fury, hewn from the earth's furious heart jagged escarpments clawing skyward, pocked with hollows where wind howls like damned souls, its surface a mosaic of lichen-smeared fissures that ooze a viscous dampness, cold and slick as the sweat of fear, cradling her body in a cradle of thorns where every shift grates skin against unpolished edges, drawing pinpricks of blood that trace rivulets down to pool in the cracks.

the stone's weighty chill leaching heat from her limbs like a voracious paramour, while above, the chains form a web of shadowed filigree, their lengths draped from hardened kyber spikes hammered into the crag's crown, swaying pendulously in the gusts that carry the leathery flap of hawkbat-wings and the sulfurous reek of hellfire pits flickering in the valley's cracked basin below, where embers dance like fireflies drunk on brimstone, illuminating the scene in hellish chiaroscuro that casts her form in strokes of infernal gold. The jedi master was looking at Connel and she had a look for herself with this scene... it was powerful and envoccative to know what happened.

Matsu could hear it... she could see it happening as the hawk bats were swooping down and attacking but the rock the sith lord was chained to was stretching them out at the limbs. Each ankle, wrist and neck. Her voice carrying over while there were others who had marched past them. "Well that isn't disturbing... I think we might have found a rift but instead of the netherworld of mists and shadows it might have taken us deeper. The realms of chaos and the darkside where the worse go to." She said it while motioning for him but spoke as she slipped from a sleeve a silver and golden glowing cylinder as her sabers gleamed. "The terms of combat have changed, what is here is already dead and hates the lightside."
 
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Everything you became, and chose not to be.
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This was crazy. All of it. Clearly nothing he had ever seen or experienced before, but then again, that is what this life was about sometimes. It was in fact why they were here. Whatever drew them in was either going to convert, or kill them. So getting into an “it’s them or me” mindset, meant it was time to go to work. It meant that Connel could cut loose. Connel had to focus, to embrace the chaos (in a manner of speaking) and channel it into action. Every instinct sharpened, every sense tuned to the task at hand. Survival wasn't guaranteed, but hesitation wasn't an option. This was the moment to prove his worth or face the consequences.

Pulling “Night” and “Day” as he let the carbine drop and hang, Connel ignited the shortsabers. Connel's movements were fluid, almost instinctive, as the shortsabers hummed to life with a searing glow. The energy blades sliced through the air, their precision matched only by his unwavering focus. Every step, every strike, was calculated, driven by the singular purpose of survival.

If that’s the case, then we should cauterize this entire wound.

 
Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
Connel Vanagor Connel Vanagor

She looked at him change his weapons and gave a nod of her head. She wasn't certain about the idea not that it was bad but she hadn't tried such a scale yet... should be fun. The sith lord wasn't going anywhere and watching what they had here she could make out spires coming into view as they moved. The forest and cave were behind but the spires looked twisted, like gnarled root but of stone. The light around not changing in the sky so for now at least they might not have to worry about there being different creatures if there is a nightfall. Herr sabers were in her hands but not activated as she rarely brought them out... she didn't need them but once they got to the stone... flesh stone... something she looked up and around.

"Well there's something you don't see everyday.... unless your us." She said it while looked at the gates made from bodies... fleshy, partially dissolved and writhing in a soundless pain. She didn't recognize any of the face but held a hand up to stop Connel as she spoke. "Feel with the force, focus it on the gates. These are sith or dark jedi." She kept looking and found something as she pointed towards one of them. "THis one was on the Death Star over Atrisia, she was shot by her own troopers and this one they were at Ruusan when the Silver Jedi tried to rescue Joza from the sith." She said it looking at it as a voice reverberated from the other side.

"There's one at the door, at the gate to damnations ninth circle... is it thief, thug or whore? There's one at the door... and there's room for one more 'til the end of all creation." The voice was there as the doors opened, the chains contorted and twisted forms and Matsu was looking at it as there was no one on the other side. She raised her head to look up and there was more thing skittering on the edge of ones vision. Her mind racing to place things of teeth and claws and eyes... horrible things and grotesque forms left behind. "Be careful what you touch, the ninth circle was a curse for Corellians but it was supposed to hold things so reviled, so evil the darkside rejected them."
 
Everything you became, and chose not to be.
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FLOLLOWING THE WATERFLOW
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He was recognizing some of those who were showing up. As Matsu was theorizing about what was happening, it was clear that they indeed “Weren’t in Kashyyyk anymore…”

You mean “Kansas”...

How did you know that?

Father’s son…

Anyway… this was not a simple forest anymore, everything in here was not only corrupted, it was either dead, or morphed into something dreadful. They could not be killed, they were already gone, and if the two here did not do something…they would be consumed by the corruption. The air was thick with an unnatural stench, and the ground beneath them seemed to pulse with malevolent energy. Every step forward felt like a battle against an unseen force, pushing them closer to the edge of despair.

[Hawkbat, this is Womprat…]

He was contacting The Vigilant Reaper through the comm-link in his mask.

[Hear you. Don’t see you.]

[Wearing my Life-Day Sweater… giving one to a friend… swoop the nest.]

He was activating his locator beacon. Catch! Tossing one to Master Ike Connel went into “fight mode” and started tearing into everything around him. Demon and monstrosity alike.

Got some heat coming our way. Now LOOK away!

Pulling one of his Force Blinding Flashbangs Connel pulled the pin and threw it in the middle of a grouping of undead Stormtroopers. If the flash did not blind them it would distract them hopefully. At this point he did not care about any of them. They were gone, all rejections of even the cowardly Dark Side. Every bit of aggression, feeling, emotion in him was soon released, tearing into each of them with a powerful ferocity.


 

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PERSONAL FLIGHT LOG – Entry #2120
Location
: – Above Kashyyyk
Assigned Craft: Vigilant Reaper
Astromech Partner: BRED (BB-30)
Current Mood: Flying, so I’m good
Background Noise: I can’t hear anything over the spherical Diva.

We were searching.

Couldn’t find him for nothing.

If I was in my X-Wing, I could fly a little lower, but we have a crew. I’m flying Omega Squad’s “Reaper” with Alison from Striker Squadron. We’re looking for Connel. He just up and disappeared.

“Wooo-beeep.” [Translation: He’s resourceful… he’ll be found.]


Okay, who are you and what did you do with BRED?


“Weeep-bwoo.” [Translation: Oh, ha.ha.]


Sorry, just worried about family.


“Chrrp.” [Translation: Believe it or not. I get it. We’ll find him.]


“Grid 3808 negative results.” That was the sensor lead. He was new, and very “booksy”. Name’s Tak.


Moving to next grid.

“Lieutenant, may I remind you we are on a hostile planet.”
On a hostile planet, looking for friends.

“This is against military protocol.”


[Hawkbat, this is Womprat…]

Vindication! It was Connel… but the question is “Where?”

[Hear you. Don’t see you.]

Ali, you see anything? Tak, find him!

[Wearing my Life-Day Sweater… giving one to a friend… swoop the nest.]

“I’m getting a… wait two signals…they’re a trek,”

We’re moving. Get ready for a gith!
Michael A.
Insert funny quote

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TAG: Matsu Ike Matsu Ike , Alison Sky Alison Sky
This is where he is speaking
 



Alison was happy to be in the air again, even if things were heating up. She had taken her temperature before liftoff and it was a few degrees higher than normal. The ice packs she shoved into her flight suit were uncomfortable and hard to maneuver around, but they seemed to be paying off because her temperature had lowered by almost two degrees.

Ali, you see anything? Tak, find him!

She shoved the thermometer back in her pocket and scanned her instruments. The whirring and beeping was a steady sound in the background.

We're moving. Get ready for a gith

“Roger that. This is where the fun begins!”

Things were really going to heat up now.

Michael Angellus Michael Angellus Matsu Ike Matsu Ike






 
Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
Alison Sky Alison Sky Michael Angellus Michael Angellus Connel Vanagor Connel Vanagor

She gave a nod to Connel as the first wave came. The gates were opened.. the danger coming and she had to admit... there was something easier about fighting then there was about worrying they might be in a depth of the netherworld reserved for beings worse then Kaine Zambrano. The Corellians had it right when she was moving with the duel snap-hiss of her blades appearing. White silvery blade emerging before she spun around and up into the air. Slashing into troopers that were twisted and corrupted... some melded together, others missing limbs. She added to it and was more moving with a fluidness to her strikes using the momentum of the swings to send her around while following through with slices. It allowed her feet and body to send them flying as well.

"We'll need to press." Connel had his weapons and she could see those grenades being effective. The golden gleam in the distance showed a palace as the jedi master pointed for a moment. "These hordes can be endless Connel we need to go where they will avoid." Or at least where they aren't allowed. She imagined whoever was given dominion over this level was something. She was still slicing as another grenade went off and felt something at the back of her mind. The jedi master went up as she kicked back manipulating the air and the force. COnnels grenade being directed into a cone in front of everything when she was moving.

The jedi master's gaze was drawn to a stark, unsettling tableau set against a bleak, mountainous drop. High on a jagged rock face surrounded by soldiers, acolytes and things crawling, a woman was bound and helpless. Her skin is a pale jade green, sickly in its hue, a color that speaks of corruption or torment to the untrained eye. Her body was draped across the rough stone, secured by dark, thin strips of silk wrapped around her chest, wrists, and ankles, pulling her taut against the unforgiving surface. Her long, magnificent hair, the color of silver, spills in heavy waves down the cliff face, starkly contrasting with her skin and the dark stone.

Her face is contorted in an expression of intense agony, her mouth open in a silent scream or gasp. From her lips, a thick, slimy rope of neon-green liquid drips and trails, pooling slightly on her chin. The venom sizzling along her skin as the trails of acid made rivulets as it went down. Her eyes are closed or heavily lidded, perhaps from the severity of the pain. Her musculature appears defined, suggesting a struggle that has left her utterly exhausted. Looming above her, casting a shadow over the whole scene, is a massive serpent. Its scales are a dark, rich green and brown, while its body is coiled around the remains of a tree growing between the rock holding the woman.

The snake's head is poised directly over her, its jaws open, fangs long and bared. The venom pooling in her mouth dripping from its fangs as its golden eyes mirror a sith lord. The venom before it strikes her body it drips black, elongated and thick like oil. Matsu moved with her blades still going as the pathway through the mountain like area wrapped around towards the temple in the distance. The sounds of fighting was still there but she moved motioning for Connel before she stabbed the saber in the ground. and the sound of energy crackling came. "Connel duck." She shouted it as her hands released electric judgment. Cascades of white and golden light across the crowd. The impact throwing them backwards.

The jedi master moved as she motioned for Connel to move quickly and the fleshy stone spires were still in the way. She slashed into them to collapse the one in the path for at least some time. The jedi master still hovering and in control but she moved quickly as her body stilled and paused. Her mind registering when she first saw it as just another one they knew..... "No." Her voice shifted. Sabers returning to her hands when she slashed at the snake.. the large serpent hissing as the saber bit into its thick neck... her eyes remaining on it while she sneered... body strengthening to throw it from the tree branch while she was looking. "Help her." She said it to Connel and let something slip in her face with more concern.
 
Everything you became, and chose not to be.
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FLOLLOWING THE WATERFLOW
UNDISCLOSED
LOCATION





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Sometimes the only way to hold the galaxy up is to slam both hands against it and dare it to fall.

The badlands breathed rot.

Not the rot of death, but the rot of memory, of everything the Forest once was being pulled inside-out like a flayed spirit. Even the Force had gone glassy around them, shards of Light and Dark caught in the air, cutting her skin with every breath.

The gate yawned open again.

Another wave.

Another howl.


This one sounded like someone who used to have a name. She didn’t let herself listen. He tossed something in a bright arc. Master Ike caught the beacon on instinct. Locator beacon.
The kind Omega Squad used when things officially went “well, kark.”

Before she could comment, a second cylinder left his hand—silver, thumb-grooved, humming faintly with that strange Vanagor signature she had learned to recognize. The Force prickled around it, tightened like a fist.

It detonated.

Force-Binding flashbangs weren’t subtle at the best of times. This one felt like someone had popped a miniature star into existence right between her eyes. The kind that made one’s vision snap white, and even with mastery the afterimage laced itself into your bones.

Demons screamed. Fallen screamed. And under it all, there was the unmistakable roar of a Vanagor choosing violence. Connel was finally, fully cutting loose. Not elegant. Not shadow-smooth. Not the silent phantom that Matsu fought beside before.

No— This was the son of Caltin Vanagor, the Mountain That Walks, breaking the world open with his bare hands and calling it technique. For just a heartbeat, as he tore into the front line— Broken Gate footwork, slamming through a four-armed demon with the kind of elbow strike that only works if you’re too stubborn to care about physics.

Teras Kasi hand-blade driven so deep into a fallen Wookiee’s corrupted sternum that the creature’s eyes flared with the echo of who it used to be, this was one his father had felled previously, having been corrupted by another.

A shield-punch without the shield, the kind of wide-arc strike Caltin used to use when he didn’t have time for a lightsaber—and then the lightsaber came alive, Dawn’s Light carving the darkness like a frozen sun while Windu’s Guile danced at his belt like a promise of more brutality to come.

He wasn’t fighting to win.

He was fighting to hold.

To bar.

To be the line.

Connel was known to be fierce.

Few would have ever seen him like this.

The corruption recoiled from him—not because he was Light, or Dark, or balanced, or trained—but because he was Connel Vanagor, and he had decided at that moment that nothing, absolutely nothing, was getting past him to the rest of the planet. Bodies—real, simulated, remembered—hit the ground around him like punctuation marks. The air shook with the rhythm of his strikes. He was a one-man earthquake.

Above them, something thundered—

Engines.

Fast.

The Vigilant Reaper was coming. Connel’s self-awareness went into overdrive, as did his concern. Not of the demons.

Not of the corruption.

But of the thought that he… might not stop.

He could feel Matsu looking his way, as if pulling him back to the moment, to her, to here.

He didn’t turn.

He didn’t need to.

I know, he growled, shattering a demon with a pivoting heel strike that would’ve made Caltin proud. Just hold the line.

Hold the line.

Almost laughable.

He’s not a Jedi or a Sith when he’s like this. He’s a damn storm front with an opinion.

Because the gate wasn’t stopping. Because the corruption they were fighting back had set its teeth into the planet. Because neither of them could afford hesitation.

And because, Force help them both—Connel Vanagor had decided to fight like his father. Which meant the galaxy was going to feel it.

The deadlands shuddered. The air tasted like rust and burned sap.

Connel rolled his neck until the vertebrae popped, shook the ash off his shoulders, and tugged Dawn’s Light free with his thumb resting against the ignition plate. He didn’t ignite it yet.

Not for effect.

For respect.

You want through me? he muttered to the tide of demons clawing their way out of the shimmering gate, their shapes flickering between nightmare and memory. You should’ve sent something that ever lived.

His HUD flickered once. Beacon signal: Matsu secured.
The Vigilant Reaper: Inbound. Fast.
Pilot: Michael Angellus (which meant chaos with style).

Connel allowed himself half an exhale. Then he slid his free hand under the chest rig. The leather cover brushed his palm. The Ariel Codex. A relic in his own handwriting. A threat manual. A prayerbook. A psychological weapon. He flipped it open with the easy familiarity of a man who had needed these words many times. The pages fluttered in the wind of the oncoming horde. He stopped on the one he needed.

Silence Doctrine, he read aloud. The demons shrieked. He smiled under the mask. He wasn’t supposed to enjoy this. He knew that. Caltin had warned him a hundred times—

“You don’t fight because you want to.
You fight because someone must.”


But there was a simple, ferocious clarity in moments like this. Moments when the galaxy formed a single question:

Will you stand?

Connel answered the way he always had. He slammed the Codex shut with a snap that echoed like a verdict. The mask’s breath-filter deepened, and he centered himself with one deliberate inhale. Meditation of the Mask.Ariel Protocol.


Initiate.

His heart slowed. His mind sharpened. His fear sank into still water. The world narrowed to the space between beats. Darkness, he whispered behind the mask, you don’t get to have this forest.

He ignited Dawn’s Light. Permafrost-blue fire tore out of the hilt like a living scream. The first demon lunged. Connel didn’t step back. He stepped through.

Broken Gate footwork. Teras Kasi hand-edge. Shoulder slam. Elbow hook. Knee to sternum. Pivot. Draw. Slash. His father’s teachings braided through every strike and every breath. Not elegance. Not grace. Purpose.

Bodies fell around him like a rising wall of his own making. Each kill meant nothing, because none of these things were alive. But each kill meant everything, because it held the line for one more second. Then— A thunder in the sky. Engines, ripping the atmosphere open.

“[Vigilant Reaper],” SERAPHIM’s cool voice whispered in his ear, piped through Michael’s comms. “[Weapons hot.]”

Connel ducked under a corrupted Wookiee’s war-axe and smashed the creature’s jaw sideways with a hammerfist that sent teeth flying like shrapnel. He hit his wrist comm.

Hawkbat, this is Womprat He stabbed another demon.
Call for fire! Danger Close!

Michael’s voice crackled through, stunned, incredulous, and still very much Michael.

[Uh—Womprat—your position—]

[Danger Close], Connel repeated, tone flat as a judge’s hammer. [Fire! On! My! Mark!]

He heard Matsu shouting something, maybe his name somewhere behind him and the corruption. He heard her, but the corruption was louder. The ground shook with another wave. He felt the forest’s agony along his bones.

SERAPHIM, he growled, my gear… prep for barrier sync. His gear had been hard imbued with the Force long ago, he never used it until now.

Confirmed,” the AI said, calm as always. “Energy harmonics locked. When ready, I will reinforce your projection.” Connel raised Dawn’s Light in a guard stance. He let the Force roll through him, not like a river, but like a tidal wave made obedient.

He expanded it outward. A sphere forming. A wall. A shield. A promise.

As the demons surged in— He planted both feet.

Called every lesson Caltin ever beat into him. Every bruise. Every spar. Every moment of doubt. Every moment of clarity. He shouted: [MARK!]

The sky fell.

The Vigilant Reaper unleashed a full strafing line of cannon fire, incendiaries, and ion bursts that turned the entire corrupted valley into a boiling, screaming cauldron of annihilation.

Connel stood in the center of it. Wall of the Force blazing.

His projection caught the blast. The flames curved around him like furious oceans hitting a cliff.

And behind him—the corruption was beginning to fail, not game changing, but what they were doing was clearly working. They were nowhere near finished, but this was a good start, He didn’t turn, didn’t pose, didn’t gloat.

He simply held the Force shield until the fire stopped.

Then lowered his arm.

Shook out his hand.

Still got it, he muttered to himself.

The last flickers of corruption hissed away around him. There was more in the area, but for the moment, he had one. They had one.

SERAPHIM chimed in gently. “Your vitals recommend a rest period.”

Get in line, Connel said.




 

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PERSONAL FLIGHT LOG – Entry #2120
Location
: – Above Kashyyyk
Assigned Craft: Vigilant Reaper
Astromech Partner: BRED (BB-30)
Current Mood: Flying, so I’m good
Background Noise: I can’t hear anything over the spherical Diva.

Talk to me, Tak!/COLOR]


“Searching… one… two beacons found… we’re 2 minutes out!”


SERAPHIM… can you contact Knight Vanagor…!

”Yes, I will contact Ariel.”


Stupid code name. One day I’m going to ask him about that. Alison and I were running full speed, full burn at them. Word is he NEVER calls for help, so if he is now then we have issues. I’m a nervous wreck, but I can’t show it. Have too many people counting on me right now, and I have to say, adulting sucks.


“Wooo-beeep.” [Translation: Switching non-essential power to weapons and engines.]


Gyno, weapons up.

Specialist Gyno Belku, the guns guy, good guy… for … well he’s a good guy.


“Weeep-bwoo.” [Translation: Are you weirded out that he’s not like you?]


Who do you know is like me?


“Bip-Beep-Bip.” [Translation: Fair enough.]


”I’ve contacted him, and let him know that you are arming weapons.”


Hawkbat, this is Womprat What the?
Call for fire! Danger Close!


Ummm…


[Uh—Womprat—your position—]


[Danger Close], What was going on down there? He was fighting, but what? [Fire! On! My! Mark!]


That maniac Schutta! If he survives, I’m gonna kill him!


Get a Lock… Get a solution… Ali… bank us for a shot. I need to match harmonics.

“Are you sure that we should be doing this?” Tak spoke up, concerned about the loss of life. I get it. I don’t like it either, but I couldn’t just waffle right now.


“I’m not comfortable with this. Are you sure?” Gyno doubled down and it bugged me.


No, not at all, but he is, and I trust him.
Didn’t like saying that, still don’t but it seemed to be enough for the others.

We had to wait for his call, and I have to say that is SUHUUUUUUCKED! It’s not like being in an X-wing. It seemed like I doubled in age until… [MARK!]


“Wooo-beeep.” [Translation: You said you trust him… trust him.]


Yeah, you’re right.


“Weeep-bwoo.” [Translation: 1. I always am. 2. I’m recording this day as you admit it.]


I felt the “whomp” of the weapons fire and wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn’t. All I saw down there was explosions and fire. This was not good.


Until… “Both beacons still functional… they’re alive.”


I’m gonna kill that Schutta.

“Huh?”

Crap.

Michael A.
Insert funny quote

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TAG:
This is where he is speaking
 
Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
Connel Vanagor Connel Vanagor Michael Angellus Michael Angellus Alison Sky Alison Sky

The fighting was coming and Connel managed to get a moments peace. Matsu moved as she wrapped hands around the woman and from her shoulders she hooked under the armpits. Pulling her off of the rock as she rolled her over with the venom spilling out of her mouth. Gasps of air coming while the jedi master was still trying to pull her. "You shouldn't be here." She said it while motioning for Connel when she finally hefted the form over her shoulder and was moving. Not floating but stepping with the crunch of rock beneath her boot. The green skinned woman showing pain still as she vomited green venom that became black tar on the ground.

Matsu continued as she looked for a place and found one. Climbing higher and higher up a narrowing pathway she could block and send stone along. Letting connel follow with her and help carry or protect the path. Finally the path came to a lip and went down into a smaall volcanic valley that nothing was following. The gleam of kyberite veins in the rock glowing yellow and she spoke to herself as she was ho0lding the womans head, hands running through and pulling aside her silvery white hair. "You shouldn't be here." She only repeated it until she looked aaround and finally spoke. her breaathing evening out with her speech.

Through the trees of kyber-woven crystal, radiant as the lost groves of Alderaan's sacred Eden, bloomed with an untamed purity, their roots entwined with the galaxy's deepest secrets. Yet I saw a rogue jedi, a sun kissed master named Shedad, her heart aflame with forbidden desire. Defied the cosmic will of the force. Buried in the hellscape's core, where kyber veins glowed with a siren's allure, she vowed to claim their power. Her voice, sultry and defiant, echoed through starlit braziers, proclaiming that these heavens would bow to her will, their blossoms and fruits conjured by her ancient and forbidden art of the force to resurrect a paradise where lovers could roam free."

The gravely voice of the green skinned woman continued the story. "She dreamed of a haven for her beloved, a woman whose gaze set her soul ablaze, their bond a spark of eternity. At Shedad's whispered incantation, a palm rose, its silver trunk shimmering like moonlight on a lover's skin. From its gnarled boughs wove a golden lattice, delicate as a whispered promise between women. Towering like the spires of Theed, its branches swayed with emerald leaves, each kissed by pearls that pulsed like starbound hearts, heavy with ruby fruits that burned with the passion of a thousand and one forbidden nights, a mystic mirage of a paradise reborn for two souls entwined by the force's eternal damnation."

The jedi master was looking at her as the woman spoke but had turned her head. Her voice still ragged and areas of her throat were burned while she looked up. "You always did have a romantic heart." Matsu looked down at her. "And you a silvered tongue, which explains the irony of poison dripped into the mouth. A venomous tongue that speaks only lies chokes on its own poison." She said it more sad but was looking around as she looked at Connel for a moment. "We are safe here but don't eat the fruits no matter how tempting." She saaid it seeing the oasis in the planes of hell, fruit laiden crystal trees, rubied crystal fruits growing on them and water flowing.

She looked and pointed how things were not crossing the barrier at the top. "The old poems in the temple are proving a lot more true then I thought. Myths and stories, legends and motifs, this is a plane of hell and dreams."
 
Everything you became, and chose not to be.
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FLOLLOWING THE WATERFLOW
UNDISCLOSED
LOCATION





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No rest for the wicked.


Taking a moment to catch his breath, Connel let Master Ike make googly eyes with the body she was pulling off that rock. He was too busy looking around for any threats when he saw her blow chunks.


The environment that they were walking into was… different… to say the least and while he was not ready to attack anything (even putting his weapons away), he was not simply standing around. Looking for exits, as well any blind spots where something, or someone could be hiding behind, he tapped the comm-link on his gauntlet.


[Womprat to Hawkbat… green with envy.]


A simple code for them to go back about what they were doing, that all was fine. They were in a place that looked to be something of a resting point. The problem is, what were they going to be resting for?




 
Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
@Connel Connel Michael Angellus Michael Angellus Alison Sky Alison Sky

Matsu looked at Connel as he was moving around and she breathed in and then outwards. Allowing the force to guide her while she sat there. The oasis, bathed in the soft, flickering light that emanated from the kyber-woven crystal trees was the ultimate paradice of the Ninth Circle a place where she could see the force's cruelity twisted into eternal ironies. Punishing the damned not with flames or voids, but with mirrors of their deepest longings. Here, in the shadowed underbelly of the underworld, amid the fractured spires of forgotten places, tombs and the howling winds that carried whispers from a thousand shattered worlds, bloomed a verdant sanctuary of silken greens and luminous blues, where life mocked the death that birthed it.

It was a master's obsessive forgery of paradise, sculpted from the raw chaos of the lowest circles those abyssal layers where ghosts bartered souls for spice routes long crumbled and the air hummed with the residual screams of betrayed apprentices. This mirage stood as the permanent stage for a singular exquisite purpose. In the heart of this Oasis, reclining against the velvet cushions of a stone dais carved from obsidian-veined marble its surface etched with runes that once channeled the Force's wild currents lay the Jedi Lover. Matsu could see her as she walked towards the center of the oasis. The fruits of the trees gleamed and she was recalling much of the poem.

Her warm brown skin gleamed like polished cortosis under the crystal canopy's glow, her dark, flowing wavy hair spilling across the pillows in rivulets of midnight silk, tangled with stray petals from the luminous blooms overhead. She was clad in a bejeweled top over globes of sweat slicked perfection shaaped like cantaalopes from the greatest markets of Alderaan or Hetzel and sheer skirt of deep crimson the hue of the forbidden Ruby Fruit that had sealed her doom a rare blood-red orb harvested from the shadowed orchards of Dathomir. Matsu looked from her to the fruits of the trees as they were rubies, crystals and she could feel the force coming from them. Her mind racing as she took in more of it.

Its pulp said to ignite the force's hidden fires, binding the eater to the soil that nurtured it. Her eyes, half-closed in a limbo that blurred serenity and torment, traced the ornate patterns of jedi... sith-like designs that coiled across her arms and thighs: swirling mandalas of ancient Jedi script, now alive with faint, pulsing veins of light, as if the Force itself wept through her flesh in bioluminescent sorrow. The sith runes curled off of them in intricate patterns. She was alive, yet utterly ensnared, a radiant captive whose fate echoed the ancient creche poem of the wayward master a fallen jedi who, in devouring the heart of a terrentatk-beast under Korriban's twin suns.

Chained her spirit to the planet's endless dunes, forever drawing wanderers into the sands' embrace, only to watch them perish unfulfilled. Her torment was the very river that brought life to the trees a luminous thread of quicksilver tears, weaving through the undergrowth like a hyperspace ribbon torn from the void, its waters shimmering with the iridescent flecks of drowned stars. The face of a love mirrored as the tears flowed and came out a thousand carved faces to feed the central waters and river. Matsu stood there as she observed it and followed letting Connel walk and search around... striking him with some of the force and metaphysical stuff here might be a little much.

She looked back at the woman and sculpted with the gentle ferocity of a lightsaber's afterglow high cheekbones flushed with the fever of unspoken oaths, full lips parted as if exhaling the last breath of a shared vow bore the ceaseless etchings of grief. Her tears a of her endless awakening to this gilded cage, did not merely stain the earth; they gathered in crystalline pools at the dais's rim, warm as spilled plasma, then cascaded in sinuous falls that tasted of ash and the Ruby Crystal Fruit's lingering venom a bittersweet nectar that had promised reunion but delivered only this exquisite isolation. From those pools sprang the Sacred River, a serpentine artery of liquid starlight that snaked through the oasis's heart.

She could see more of it as the tear were quenching roots woven from kyber shards salvaged from a thousand fallen blades. It coaxed forth cascades of crystal flowers, their petals unfurling like the sails of a ghost-ship in the Nebuli translucent veils of amethyst and solar gold that chimed with ethereal vibrations, each note a fractured echo of the Lover's muffled sobs. The air grew thick with their perfume: night-blooming thornvines exhaling the musk of charred myrrh and wild ozone, a scent that clawed at the throat like the afterburn of a hyperdrive misjump, reminding her of stolen nights in asteroid belts where fingers had traced constellations on bare skin.

This river was the irony's sharpest thorn a testament to the bond that damned them, Jedi light braided with the shadow's unyielding grasp, sustained by the very vitality it sought to consume. Every inhalation she took, laced with the mist's saline kiss and the faint, electric tang of Force-tainted dew, nourished the mirage's deceit: vines that climbed the dais in possessive spirals, their leaves veined with veins of captured lightning, blooming fruits that dangled like false promises, heavy and ripe with the illusion of escape. The paradise thrived on her torment, each tear a nutrient that deepened the colors the emerald undergrowth pulsing with bioluminescent veins.

The canopy's crystals refracting the dim underworld glow into auroras of crimson and indigo, painting her prison in strokes of heartbreaking splendor. Yet in the quiet lulls, when the wind through the trees mimicked the sigh of a distant freighter's engines, fragments of their history surfaced like debris from a wreck: the press of Shedad's palm against hers in a rain-lashed Coruscant alley, the shared pulse of the Force humming between them like a twin heartbeat of desire in this eternal vigil. She was the living damned, alive and adrift, her grief the catalyst that propelled the oasis's cruel perpetuity, a living monument of sorrow amid the Ninth Circle's grand jest where punishment came not as oblivion.

Matsu was looking at all of it, Connel was exploring aand she looked at the woman. Her wounds healed enough mostly once the venom had stopped being in her mouth and wounds. "You aren't supposed to be here Chora. When the building came down you saved me. You..." She stopped and looked at herself in the river... the tear reflected much and she could see herself. "I must look so old since we were... it has been almost fifty years." The woman looked at her and she spoke aas her silvery white hair gleamed. "Snowflake, you know one good deed doesn't make up for what I did even if it is the one that mattered most. Did you ever count?"

Maatsu looked at her as she paused for a moment standing there. "Count what?" She said it and Choraa Ike was looking at her while she was along the grass. "How many children there were on Ossus that day." She was looking aat her and the jedi master spoke her composure there but barely. "I've absolutely no idea." She said it and her breathing hitched for a moment, a small moment as she was suddenly looking for Connel. "How old are you now?" Chora said it while she was looking at her. The teenager showing through in her youth once the skin had healed. ""Uh, I dunno. I lose track. sixty and something, I think, unless I'm lying. I can't remember if I'm lying about my age, that's how old I am."

Chora looked at her and wheeled her around with a hand on her shoulder. "Fifty years... fifty years older than me, and in all that time you never even wondered how many there were? Never once counted?" Her voice was coming out aas she breathed higher for the moment. Moving a little. "Tell me: What would be the point?" Matsu said it uncharistically, the one who never forgot and knew obscure things. Chora looked at her for the moment and glared as Matsu looked up at her. "Two point forty seven billion!" She said it with a resigned voice. "You did count! No You forgot! Fifty years, is that all it takes?" Matsu looked at the Falleen woman with her silvery white hair. "I moved on!"

Chora was looking at her as she remained there. "Where? Where can you be now that you could forget something like that?" Chora was looking aat her and Matsu didn't speak. She didn't know how to look at someone with it as she A wife who regrets. And the wife who forgets. The tragedy of it was that here all of it was laid bare and she had seen it. She knew her own betrayel that would bring her here... The memories of them all and her own choice. Her attention moved from seeing it. That was her punishment. When she did all of that. When she failed to stop the one person because she couldn't, she faced the real torment. when Chora killed them all, then the consequence. She lived while wantng to forget the past crimes.

At the oasis's ragged fringe, where the fertile loam surrendered to the jagged obsidian scarps of the Ninth Circle's outer maw those barren crags where the air crackled with the static of unbound dark-side tempests and the ground wept black ichor from wounds inflicted in wars older than the galaxy stood the spectral sentinel: Shedad, architect of this luminous vally. She had forged it from the chaos's dregs, weaving kyber filaments plucked from the ruins of her own shattered being into these trees, channeling the underworld's feral energies to birth a haven amid the torment. In life, she had been a jedi master an enforcer of the light, a Je'daii blade tempered in the forges of worlds underlevels.

In death, claimed by a blades kiss during a mission on her Lover's behalf, she lingered as a silent sentinel, her essence a translucent ghost of regret and resolve. Standing upright with a posture of defiant possession, as if daring the cosmos to reclaim what she'd stolen from entropy, she was shrouded in a gold-embellished ensemble of hammered aurodium string and kyber chains relics looted from pleasure barges, now draped like a warlord's mantle over her lithe, ethereal form. The links gleamed with an otherworldly luster, catching the crystal light in prismatic flares that mimicked the exhaust trails of starfighters vanishing into black holes, her dark curls framing a face sharpened by undeath's chisel: eyes like twin voids ringed in ember-gold, lips curved in a rictus of longing.

Shedad's gaze bored into the mirage's heart with the ferocity of a tractor beam locking on a fleeing corvette, her hand not upon her lover's warmth but splayed across the threshold stone a monolithic slab of polished black stone, cool as the vacuum between stars, inscribed with wards that hummed a low, forbidding dirge. She had crafted this paradise as a beacon in the underworld's chaos, a false paradise amid the static storms of the lower circles, luring the living Lover down from the galaxy's teeming heights through the maw of the netherworld's vents, past the spice-haunted alleys of Ryloth's shadow markets, into this cauldron of ironic retribution. "Come find me,"

Her final words had whispered across the ether, a ghost-vision laced with coordinates etched in blood and kyber dust. But the Ninth Circle's law was ironclad, a perversion of the Force's balance: realms of the living could not cradle the dead and the realms of the dead punished even the living, their vital essences clashing like matter and antimatter in a reactor breach. And for the quick to trespass into these punitive depths where the air grew leaden with the moans of eternally bartered souls, and the ground shifted like the decks of a derelict cruiser under spectral sabotage the peril was manifold: tendrils of dark-side miasma that coiled like mynocks to sap the life-force.

Illusions spun from the circle's collective despair that lured wanderers into chasms of regret, or worse, the awakening of ancient guardians wraiths of fallen Sith lords, their crimson blades igniting like warning beacons to drag intruders into the collective torment. Thus, Shedad remained exiled at the boundary, her form flickering like a holocron's projection starved of power, cursed to eternal guardianship of the perfection she'd birthed. She could only witness the arch of her lover's spine against the cushions, the subtle tremor of those henna vines as another tear traced its path, the river's gleam quickening in rhythm with the Lover's faltering breaths her touch forever barred by the threshold's merciless veil.

In her stillness, the irony gnawed deepest: she, the dead one who had clawed paradise from pandemonium for a living flame, now paced its perimeter like a caged nexu, her spectral fingers clawing futile grooves into the stone, sending ripples of impotent Force that teased the air but shattered against the barrier like blaster bolts on a deflector shield. Their doomed love endured not as faded holorecord or whispered spacer's tale, but as this flawless, breathing monument to sorrow a sculpture of light and shadow amid the Ninth Circle's gales, where every crystal chime tolled the cost of crossing worlds for want of one another's fire. The oasis bloomed on, defiant and devouring, its roots drinking deep from the well of their separation, a poetic requiem etched in tears and tempered starlight, forever whispering of unions forged in the void and fractured by its unyielding laws.

Matsu was looking at Chora as the pair of them saw it the figure moving on the perimeter and she was certain Connel saw it as well. The sounds were there as she moved but it wasn't a threat.. it seemed like things avoided the place and she could see Chora was in a place of pain... the oasis making her pant and her chest heave while she was moving. "This is not going to be something nice Matsu.. I need to get out of here but they'll put me back on the rock." She said it while Matsu looked at her and the sounds of something coming were there as she looked at a form she hadn't seen in a long time. The spectral form of her mother moved forward while she saw a form of Caltin going to Connel.

The air in the crystalline oasis thickened, turning the scent of flowing water into something cloyingly sweet, like wine left in the sun. Connel could feel a dull, familiar ache in the force, the ghosts of a thousand past battles asserting themselves. The silence that had protected them from the victims suddenly cracked as a voice, deep, resonating and seemingly drawn from the very lifeblood of the ruby fruits, began to speak with the spectral form of Caltin. It spoke not to his mind, but to the man he had become and the memory he tried to live up to.

The father's voice focused, zeroing in on his family name, the name that meant brute force and desperate measures. It was a challenge to the man who lived by the blade, promising an easier out than the perpetual struggle he endured: "Connel be warned, Connel beware! By closing your eyes you'll see what isn't there... The Force is a wheel, it will reveal, All you've become, all that you feel." The words were meant hit him like a physical tremor, blurring the edge of the forbidden fruits. They seemed to pulse faster, promising a deep sleep where the weight of his legacy and his own choices could finally be shed.

The voice sharpened, comparing him to the beasts of the Dark Side the Krayt Dragon and the Rancor implying his necessary brutality was no different from their chaotic hunger. "Krayt dragon and reek, hawk bat and snake to live or die is the choice you have to make. Can you undo the destruction you create? Step through the fields, follow your Fate!" As the music reached a crescendo, a thousand whispers rose from the ground the Chorus of the Damned taunting him with the ultimate temptation: the power of erasure. They called his necessary violence a "villainous infamy" and demanded a toll.

The final, desperate plea was the father's softest, deadliest hook, a promise whispered across the chasm of his guilt: "Chaos is waiting, we'll show you the way, But all consequences are your own creation, And there is a price you must pay!" The memories were flashed towards his mind, showing him a life where he became one of the tormented traitors, perfectly silent, perfectly cold, and eternally at war. The combined voices offered the key to escaping the cycle of violence, offering the ultimate amnesty: "What's still unwritten you can erase!"
Matsu felt the notes before it materialized as sound. It began as a cold, electric shiver along the Force connection in her spine, threatening to unravel the meticulous control she maintained over her inner self. It was a pressure cooker of ancient, residual emotions, an echo from the very heart of the Sith that she had helped dismantle. This voice was not external; it spoke in the language of her own regret, cold and analytical, focused on the moment she chose to re-emerge from the Sea of Origin and come here now. Her mothers image shifting.

The initial lyrical phrases were small, insidious, like a chemical reaction occurring within her own consciousness. "It begins very small, seems like nothing much at all. Just a germ, just a speck, just a grain. But the seed has been sown, and before you know it's grown It has spread through your life like a stain." Matsu instinctively retreated, pulling her awareness back from the physical environment. She focused on the pulse of the living Force, trying to find the point where the illusion ended and the truth began, only to find the solid hand of chora.

The voice swelled, becoming a roaring wave of philosophical despair that hammered at the core of the jedi's heart and mind. "Hate is the star; it becomes who you are. Not the hated, but the hater has a torment that's greater." She saw visions of her former students, their failures and their falls, she was shown Chora and the cold truth that she, the wise Master, had been unable to save them. The song reframed her determination as obsession, her calculation and wanting as rage, and her commitment to the Light as a grand lie.

The final verses were a mocking triumph, dissolving Matsu's mother with a laugh but also understanding. "Hate you thought, hate you spoke, hate you dreamed. All your hate gave me substance your lives are undone! It's your eve of destruction! Your hatred has won!" Her mind flashed with images of the Jedi Temple turning to ash, the sound of her own voice crying out in impotent rage against the destruction. The song's essence was the voice of the force she had touched, claiming that her fight against the Dark Side was the very energy that sustained this eternal hell.

She was looking at it and the edge of the oasis opened... showing her and Connel where they needed to go and Matsu was moving as she almost crawled towards it... moving with her limbs feeling heavier and Chora supported her. She motioned for Connel to go with her through the gate but spoke to him. "You didn't eat any of the fruit did you?" She saaid it and as the ash and rock of the volcanic valley ceased to exist, replaced by a vast, unnerving void dominated by a Frozen Lake of Polished Obsidian. This is not white of snow or simple ice, but a massive, black, impenetrable surface that spans the horizon a mirror that absorbs all light and energy.

The surface is so highly polished that it perfectly reflects the chaotic, starless void above, making it impossible to discern where the empty sky ends and the frozen ground begins. The cold itself is not natural; it is anti-heat, a palpable sense of spiritual entropy that sears the lungs and actively dampens the connection to the living Force. It serves as a constant, psychological assault on the mind as Matsu for a moment felt her mental shields falter before she was restoring them, promoting a sense of isolation and spiritual hypothermia that threatens to overwhelm the will of those who were not prepared. She was looking upon it all aand allowed the force to restore her while Chora supported her and seemed to be getting stronger.

SHe was looking at more of it... she could see the black of the ice and more. Encased directly beneath the obsidian surface are the faces and bodies of the damned, frozen in their final moments of agonizing realization and terror. They are not merely trapped; they are displayed for eternity, becoming permanent monuments to their failures. These faces belong to those who broke sacred oaths, constituting the Betrayed Lineage of the Force. The Fallen Jedi are visible, their hands forever outstretched toward the sky or a companion they sold out for an easy escape or a moment of false power. Their eyes are wide open, staring up at the heroes who still walk the light.

The Sith Killers those who murdered their masters not for the glory of a true Sith takeover, but for petty, self-serving gain have faces twisted in a silent snarl, forever attempting to break free from the ice that has become their eternal master: Chaos itself. Their torment is purely psychological; they are condemned to eternal, inescapable solitude, surrounded by the physical evidence of their own cold-hearted decisions, unable to move, speak, or ever forget. She was moving now and was slow on the heavy ice to not disturb it. Her feet shifting and moving in a way that showed she knew how to move on sand and ice to not make her movements felt.
 
Everything you became, and chose not to be.
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FOLLOWING THE WATERFLOW
UNDISCLOSED
LOCATION





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This is out of some nightmare… an inferno of inner thoughts and fears…

Connel couldn’t help but think of this as he was looking around. He looked like he was lost in his own search, and in many respects, he was, but Connel was paying attention. That woman that Matsu was dealing with was of her past. Some past regret. What did that mean? Was this some sort of ethereal weight station? A place where you addressed your past, the good and the bad?

Then it was all confirmed…

Oh… what the frell…

Language… The air in the oasis became as thick as sack cloth, but annoyingly sweet. Then there it was, the feeling of his father’s familiar presence in the Force. Connel’s senses sharpened as he felt the weight of his father’s presence, a mix of familiarity and unease. The air seemed to hum with unspoken tension, as if the shadows themselves were whispering secrets. He steadied his breath, preparing for whatever revelation awaited him in this surreal, haunting space.

You’re not here.

Then the shove at the shoulder. One only ever done by his father. Was it really Caltin, or some odd manifestation? Some odd test to either strengthen, or weaken his resolve? The shove was unmistakable, a gesture etched into Connel's memory, as much a comfort as a challenge. He turned, half-expecting to see his father's face, but the space behind him was empty. The air shimmered, and Connel felt a strange mix of dread and anticipation. Was this a test, or something far more personal?

Connel Aric Vanagor… the boy who tried to live like the man… you’ve lived a dangerous life and that is my fault. My fault for giving you a name you cannot live up to. A name you cannot handle the weight of. You wanted to take the way of a Shadow. I get it, I should have let you. Now you’re this.

The words, they stung. They were the words he had long feared his father would say to him… feared... that was the thing. He long feared this. Yet… he had this conversation with Caltin once. The big man told him OUTRIGHT that Connel never needed to live his father’s legacy or life, he had his own to make. Connel had always felt the weight of his father’s expectations, but Caltin’s words had given him a glimmer of freedom. He realized he didn’t need to live up to anyone else’s name or legacy; he could carve his own path, no matter how uncertain it seemed.

So, why this?

You’re right.

I know. However, I want to know how you figured this out.

You’re right. I am this because you gave me the freedom to be it. You never liked the idea of me going this route, but you knew that I had to learn to be myself before I could learn to be anything. You didn’t choose my path for me. You just made sure I had room to walk it. THAT is who you are supposed to be!

Not very “Jedi Like”.

Connel smiled under his mask. The song… the warning. "Connel be warned, Connel beware! By closing your eyes you'll see what isn't there... The Force is a wheel, it will reveal, All you've become, all that you feel." Most of all, the offer of a way out. It all stung, and it all hurt, but it confirmed to him that none of this was truly real. This may be the visage of his father, but this was not the soul of Caltin Vanagor. Everything was focused on all of the destruction he was responsible for, all of the combat, all of the wars he was involved in. How Caltin was just as diplomatic as he was combative, but Connel was just combative. How he was failing as a Jedi and most of all, as a Vanagor.

That confirmed it all. Says the man who taught me that it is not our alignment that makes us who we are, it is our choices. Thank you for proving my point. Caltin Vanagor may not have been the pristine image of a Jedi, but he was the mold that most Jedi, especially those who knew him wanted to be. He would be laughing at you for thinking the Code was a shackle and not a scaffold… actually no, he would be pounding you into one of these trees.

Oh really?

Yes, “really”. Caltin Vanagor never truly followed the generic “Code”, he followed the original tenets. He believed that you could experience emotions, have feelings and make decisions others would not, but you could not let them define you. Caltin Vanagor taught me to be myself, but most of all, he taught me the same thing his father taught him. To always do the right thing. Yes, I get angry, furious even, but my actions always reflect my choices, just like my father’s.

He went to pull off his mask to show just how resolved in this he was right now, but stopped. No… the mask stays on, because you have not earned that. You play to my fears and my weaknesses, but you are not going to have any control over them. Do I make mistakes? Yes, of course, I screw up all the time, but living life wondering if I turned right when I should have turned left is no life at all. My father taught me that! You may look like him, you may speak like him, you may very well know everything about me… but you.are.not Caltin Vanagor.

Now it was the spectral form’s turn to smile as Connel just walked by. He didn’t look back, what point would that make? He didn’t have to. His father had taught him the difference between a voice and an echo. Let the echoes earn their name, that’s all they could do.

It watched him walk away.

The mask, the stride, the steadiness — none of those were supposed to happen. The echo had worn his father’s face, borrowed his voice, stolen memories from the deepest corners of Connel’s mind. Shadows were never meant to lose their shape so quickly.

He should have broken, the illusion thought. He always breaks at the father. They all do.

But this one did not break. This one knew.

The oasis dimmed. The air thickened. Something old and heavy stepped into the illusion’s awareness, like a mountain leaning down to look at an insect. A second presence.

A real one.

A hand — enormous, calloused, and unmistakably alive in the Force — clamped onto the illusion’s shoulder. Not gentle. Not symbolic. The grip of a man who had hauled friends out of fire and hurled enemies through starship bulkheads.

A voice followed, low and edged with the promise of impact.


You picked the wrong son.

Caltin Vanagor.

Not a ghost. Not an echo. A juggernaut of light and fury, cutting through a horde of shapeless spirits that shrieked in voices not meant for mortal ears. The illusion remembered trying to wear another face then, too.

A lost Padawan. A fallen comrade. Something that would make the big Jedi hesitate.

He didn’t.

He walked straight through the trick.


Caltin… wait. Listen. I can show you what became of those you failed. I can—

The illusion tried to turn, to reshape itself, to flee back into the murk of whatever realm had spawned it. But the ghost — the real ghost — tightened his grip.

If you knew me at all, you’d know that trick only works once.

The illusion barely had time to parse the words.

And the last thing the illusion felt was the explosive, brutal certainty of a Vanagor fist swinging straight through its borrowed face…followed by the utter, annihilating silence where it had once pretended to be something real.

And in the microsecond before oblivion, the illusion understood:

This wasn’t rage. This was protection. Not because Connel needed it — but because Caltin was his father, and protecting him was simply part of the job.

The hand on the illusion’s shoulder tightened. The real ghost leaned in, voice low and edged with a smile the illusion remembered far too well:


Round two. The illusion didn’t beg. Didn’t protest. Didn’t even try to flee. It simply remembered how it died last time—and then it died again.

Connel felt it.

A ripple through the Force, sharp and sudden — not hostile, not alarming, just… distinct.Like the universe had briefly hit something with a very large object.

He paused mid-step, head tilting a fraction as the vibrations settled through him. A pressure wave rolled across the oasis, faint but unmistakable. The kind of impact signature he’d felt once or twice in his childhood, usually followed by a dented wall and a very sheepish Herglic neighbor.

Connel smiled under the mask.

A small, private smile.

A Vanagor smile.

“Get him, Dad.”

And with that quiet note of approval, he kept walking — no hesitation, no backward glance, no fear. Whatever had been stalking him was gone, and whatever had replaced it had never been a threat to him in the first place. He moved to Matsu, the woman she was with was holding her up on one side, Connel would hold her up on the other. Ignoring the bodies under the obsidian lake, the statues of fallen Jedi reaching for something, all of it. It was what it was at this point.

Was it shocking? Sure — but after everything he’d seen with Omega Squad, shock had become something he could set aside when the mission demanded it.


"You didn't eat any of the fruit did you?"
Her question was direct, and prudent. He was still sarcastic.

Only the really ripe ones.




 
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Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
Connel Vanagor Connel Vanagor

The lake was a thing of beauty but also terror as the jedi master looked at it all. SHe was moving through the lake with her feet not leaving the ice. Like when walking in the desert to not call the larger beasts or make a sound. Chora there next to her as she was moving on the ice and looking. "I don't think I should be here, I was bound to that rock for centuries... or what feels like it. Time can move differently down here." She looked over at Connel and spoke with a small wave. "I am Chora, Chora Ike. Iam... was married to Matsu once upon a time." She said it while walking with them and the sounds of someone else walking came. The jedi master looked up at the dark figure ahead of them. It was just looming and waiting as the voice came out smooth and sultry.

"Come, living heart, while your breath is still warm. Listen once, and I will give you the story before the ice claims your name. Long before the Rakata ever tasted infinity, before the word Je'daii was ever whispered, before the first child ever lifted a stone with thought alone, there existed in the Gunninga Gap a region of living crystal called Taurannik Bhet. It floated in the black like a ruby suspended in the throat of night, and upon it the queens raised Núr-Taurannik, the City of the Crimson Dawn. They did not inherit their empire. They took it, world by world, with nothing but their two bodies and the love that burned between them."

"The Crimson Lotus, bronze-skinned, black-haired, eyes molten gold, walked first into every throne room. She needed no weapon; the Twin Tempest Fans at her wrists could gentle a solar flare or peel the crust from a moon. When she spoke, fleets lowered shields before a shot was fired. Kings and queens offered their crowns at her feet, and she would smile, soft and terrible, and place the crown upon the head of the Burning Horn instead. The Burning Horn, pale as moonlight on fresh snow, crowned in sweeping crimson kyber, followed behind her wife like living thunder. Where the Lotus commanded wind and fire, the Horn commanded the bones of worlds. She would set one foot upon a planet's crust and the tectonic plates would kneel. Mountains bowed. Oceans reversed their tides. Entire armies laid down arms at the sight of her, because to fight her was to fight gravity itself."

"Together they were unstoppable. They conquered the Veiled Nebula by walking its poisonous storms barefoot until the storms themselves knelt and became their cloaks. They took the Sapphire Ringworlds by dancing upon the orbital mirrors until the mirrors reflected only their joined silhouette and the defenders forgot how to breathe. They claimed the Obsidian Choir, a thousand asteroid monasteries whose monks sang reality into shape, by singing a single duet that shattered every monk's voice and left the asteroids drifting in perfect silence. They subdued the Star Matriarchs of the Hollow Suns by stepping into the hearts of dying stars and emerging unscathed, hand in hand, wearing coronas of plasma like wedding veils."

"They ended the War of the Nine Void-Queens by arriving unannounced at the final battle, embracing in the centre of the killing field, and letting their kiss become a shockwave that turned every weapon to glass. Planets did not merely surrender. They begged to be ruled. Species rewrote their sacred texts so the queens might walk their holy places unhindered. Entire Force traditions erased their own names and took new ones that meant simply "Servant of the Crimson and the Horn." And still it was not enough. Because every throne they claimed, every star they crowned, every lover they took between them, only made the hunger sharper. They wanted a kingdom large enough to hold their love without creaking at the seams. They wanted eternity to be long enough for one more kiss."

So when the Knell of Muspilli came crawling from the deep dark with the half-finished Taurannik Codex, promising godhood through apocalypse, the queens laughed the laugh of women who had already conquered everything except each other's absence. They finished the verse themselves, arms around one another's waists, lips brushing as they spoke the final syllables. And in seven heartbeats the Muurshantre Extinction devoured fourteen sectors, leaving only a drifting crimson petal and a silence hyperspace still refuses to cross. The Force does not forgive those who try to rewrite its balance."

"It dragged them down through every circle until the Ninth opened like a polished black mirror beneath them. There Chaos gave them the one thing they had demanded of the living galaxy:. a perfect kingdom they would rule together forever. Look across the lake and you will see it: Núr-Taurannik, exactly as it was the day the world ended, risen whole from the ice. Walls of seamless obsidian weeping a million bronze faces of the Crimson Lotus, canals of slow-moving blood-kyber, bridges lined with statues of the Burning Horn caught mid-charge, the great ziggurat-palace climbing into starless black until its spire disappears. At the summit, open to the empty heavens, waits the Obsidian Throne."

"There she sits, the Crimson Lotus, bronze skin turned to living fire by the glow of the drifting petal, hair of midnight pouring over the throne's back like liquid shadow, chains of frozen starlight holding her open like a flower that will never be gathered. Half a kilometre away, yet farther than the heat-death of the universe, the Burning Horn stands waist-deep in the single spring of white-gold fire, pale body blazing, horns dripping frozen flame, forever one heartbeat away from reaching the wife she conquered the galaxy to keep. Between them drifts the last petal of their war-banner, the only warmth the Ninth Circle has ever known."

"And I, Ashāri of the Starlit Veils, chained and collared in black kyber still warm from their throats, walk the lake that will not let me reach either shore. I was the silk they unwrapped together the night the stars still obeyed them. I kept that oath when the galaxy ended while we were still tangled. Now I guide the ones who make their way here but do not drown, because someone must remember how beautiful it was when two loved each other so fiercely that the only fitting punishment was to give them everything they ever wanted and place it forever just out of reach. Look: the petal lowers again. They almost touch. They never will."

"Turn back while your heart still beats in a single chest. Or walk with me and I will let you listen to the sound of two queens who conquered the stars still trying to conquer the space between their fingertips until the last proton forgets how to spin."

She spoke as she was standing there aand talking her form beautiful in a strange way and Matsu looked at her as she spoke to Connel motioning him to step closer to her. She was feeling her strength again while she looked at it and listening she understood a few things. Thoughts, abstract notions and a time before many other things. THere was only a handful of being who were from such a time and none of it was good. "Precepts this is a place of the precepts?" She said it while looking at her but she could see the form change a little.. like a heat shimmer. "They don't have forms, I should have seen it with the illusions... no not illusions. THey were just minor insecurities manifested."

She seemed to be getting a nod of approval. "Not everything is as plain beating hearts, what came before, what was left long ago, the old ones, those who walked before dust and nebula, who weaved the skein of stars all see. We had lives in ways but for many our time haas passed and now we reside here in these realms being made to manifest what many of you want to believe." Matsu looked at her and Connel was there as she motioned for him to stay his hand for now. "But you don't hate things." Her head shook. "No, I was merely a weaver of the staar captured by another who took one of you are her lover and others."
 
Everything you became, and chose not to be.
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FLOLLOWING THE WATERFLOW
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This is a word salad…


Connel was not his father, but he was his father’s son when it came to stories and experiences like this. He was not “confused” but he pressed “record audio” on the datapad in his web gear pocket. This was all “above his paygrade”, to borrow a phrase from his Omega Squad brethren(and “sistren” if you consider Sariel and Raguel). Connel was recording this, not out o spite or anything, he was because if any of them asked about this, he would need to go back over it. He would also need the recording to prove that he wasn’t crazy.


The story of the two star crossed lovers/conquerors was a best time tale that was admittedly interesting, but was this really necessary? Was she saying this to stall them? To get them ready to have to go through her to get out of there? They were singers, they were conquering before the Rakatan Empire, great. What does that have to do with them now?


One thing about Connel, when he gets like this, he starts to get tactical, and when he starts to get tactical, he starts looking for an opening to fight. He didn’t seem to hide this well, or maybe it was because Matsu had known him since he was a child as he suddenly felt the need to stand down.


So they were beings based on behaviors? (Precepts)


This is giving me a headache.


With the tact of a person who farted in a speeder then blamed it on the passenger next to them, he facepalmed momentarily. I’m recording all of this.


The thought of these “beings” being visual aspects of behavior, Connel was annoyed, but he was not going to let that define or control him. This was about evac right now for him. This was not about anything but that. If Master Ike wanted to know more, he would still be here, but he was focused on the immediate task at hand. The urgency of the evacuation left no room for distractions, no matter how frustrating the circumstances. Connel knew that dwelling on anything else would only jeopardize their mission, and he couldn’t afford that risk.


Soooo… are we able to leave or not?




 
Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
Connel Vanagor Connel Vanagor

"You make it sound as if we have shackled you?" The woman spoke as she was walking and continuing her journey. "We never locked the doors after you knocked, there was never anyone but you making the journey and one living could leave at anytime." She was speaking but continued to walk on the ice. Matsu was looking at more of it as she breathed in and outwards... looking into the ice for a moment but she allowed the force to recover within her. "I am not sure how to best close the bleed, dimensional rifts usually form where atrocities tear the barrier between to be thinner." She had a look on her face though as she didn't know what was coming next and that was strangely different as a feeling.

The palace rose like a fever dream forged from the sun's molten heart. Towering spires of burnished stone pierce swirling clouds of amber and rose, their pinnacles crowned by ethereal halos that pulse with luminescence, casting long shadows that dance like liquid fire across the expanse. At the city's core, a colossal cathedral dominates, its arched vaults and polished domes layered in intricate filigree of gold leaf, every archway and buttress shimmering as if kissed by alchemists' breath veins of pearl and sapphire threading through the opulence like captured starlight. The jedi master was looking as the one walking had disappeared and Chora was looking weird at it.

Flanking this sanctum, there were symmetrical palaces of marble-veined gold unfurl in harmonious symmetry, their colonnades etched with runes that glow faintly, whispering secrets of forgotten empires. Cascading staircases, broad as rivers, sweep downward from gilded gateways, each step inlaid with mosaics of iridescent shell that crunch softly under imagined footfalls. Lining this grand promenade, colossal pearls the size of boulders stand sentinel, their surfaces refracting rainbows that splinter the air into prismatic veils. "There is something." Chora was speaking as she looked at it. "I think I am going to have to hang back here."

Yet the true enchantment lies in the pathway itself a luminous boulevard paved in seamless gold, polished to a mirror sheen that reflects the vaulted sky above. Embedded along its edges, like jewels spilled from a god's treasury, lie oversized gemstones: sapphires deep as midnight oceans, emeralds verdant with ancient forests, rubies ablaze like captured sunsets, and diamonds that fracture light into a thousand galaxies. Matsu was seeing more of it as streams and pools of liquid gold were swirling around like a moat. it was beautiful, it was powerful as an image to see this far down. Much like the oasis it seemed out of place and yet they knew it was dangerrous.
 
Everything you became, and chose not to be.
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FLOLLOWING THE WATERFLOW
UNDISCLOSED
LOCATION





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Yeah, we get it. You don’t want us here. How else would you be saying “No one is keeping you here”. Doesn’t mean I’m not looking for a way out. Also doesn’t mean I’m leaving until our mission is done. Connel was not in the mood to be chastised. Whatever was going on here was creepy and was only going to get worse before it got even close to getting better, that was for sure. That does not mean he was going anywhere, because if he and Matsu were not here, who would be?


This reminded him of a conversation he had with Katarine Ryiah Katarine Ryiah a few days ago about all the ridiculous splintering of the Jedi and “whose ideology was best” it was much ado about nothing to him. Being a “Jedi” was about the choices that you make, and all of these silly different ideals were just unnecessary toppings on a peatzuh.


Chora hanging back was a huge red flag, not because she was doing so, but why? Connel did not think that Ike’s “ex” was involved or setting them up or anything but that there was something keeping her from doing anything.


With the more pomp and circumstance that they were coming across, the streams, the pools, all of the gold was insane, because the scumbags of the Black Sun would have a field day here, or at least try to. The fact that they were in here, Why do I have a feeling like we’re not in Kansas anymore? While I’m thinking about it, what is a “Kansas”?


The concerning part about an “oasis” being in a deep level of hell would be that it’s too good to be true. The Black Sun would exploit such a place for their own gain, and the fact that it’s located in such a dangerous area makes it even more suspicious. It’s as if the whole thing is a trap, waiting for someone to walk right into it.The Dark’s presence in such a perilous location raises questions about the motives. Could this "oasis" be a carefully constructed illusion, designed to lure in the unsuspecting? Or is it a genuine sanctuary with hidden dangers that only the most cunning would exploit? Either way, caution is paramount.

 
Emberlene's Daughter, The Jedi Generalist
Connel Vanagor Connel Vanagor

Chora looked at her as Matsu was coming over and she offered a small look at the jedi master. "Chora you are burning up... and not because we are in a place like this." The Falleen gave a look. "Its because I was away from my domain... or punishment. SOmetimes we have gotten free in the past and have been able to wander around. Officially from what you said sweetie, I have been dead for a mere fifty years... but when you cross over, when you are here, time stops. Take it from me, fifty years in this place is a thousand lifetimes." She said it but moved forward a little more. "The further away I get the more it hurts to be away, like a gnawing in my body that feels like I aam being hollowed out."

Within the golden Castle, direction is a suggestion. Lamplit halls of marble and gold stretch and fold into one another, their angles quietly renegotiating gravity with every step. Corridors rotate like thoughts mid-decision. Floors become walls. Ceilings accept footsteps. The castle listens as much as it contains. THe jewels outside shifting and changing the lighting all around. At the convergence chamber, where polished wood meets veins of molten gold, the air thickens. Light bends first. The lamps flicker, their flames elongating as if pulled toward an unseen depth. The Force pools here, heavy and inverted, pressing against the senses like a hand placed over the mind. Every surface hums, resonant, as though the castle itself is holding its breath.

At the chamber's heart lies the basin. Its surface is black ichor and mirrorless, swallowing reflections before they can form. Jewels embedded in the surrounding walls glow dimmer as the pool awakens, their brilliance siphoned into something older than ornament, older than empire. The Force surges. Matter responds. From impossible angles, from corridors that should not connect, substance begins to gather, drawn inward by command rather than motion. The pool rises to meet it, lifting into the air, defying gravity's claim. The liquid darkens, thickens, remembers shape. This is not birth. This is convergence.

A towering form begins to take silhouette, feminine in suggestion but wrong in proportion, sculpted by will instead of symmetry. Vast wings unfurl behind her, spanning planes of gravity at once, their presence bending the chamber's orientation. Walls tilt in deference. Floors slide aside to accommodate her shadow. From her crown spills a mass of coiling strands, trailing like living constellations, brushing marble and wood without touching them, as if they exist half a moment out of phase. Her body gleams with the unfinished sheen of manifestation, raw with purpose, every contour vibrating with dark-side resonance.

An ornate binding crosses her torso, not decoration but declaration, a sigil of containment etched into form. This shape is calculated. Temporary. A vessel engineered so reality does not fracture outright. When her eyes open, gravity loses confidence. The chamber rotates. Lamps swing sideways, then upside down, then settle into a new agreement. Jewels dim to embers. Gold forgets how to shine. The Force recoils, then coils back, trapped in her wake like a tide caught by a moon that should not exist. She does not step forward. The castle moves instead. Corridors realign. Walls bow inward. The golden palace accommodates her presence the way flesh accommodates a blade.

She stands complete, towering, dreadful, radiant with a desire that feels infinite in scope and intimate in intent. The underworld understands what the galaxy cannot. This is not her true form. This is merely what the castle can endure. THe wet and meaty pieces of her show entrails, parts, organs forming the avatars looks while she stands at an impossible height in such an area and the jedi master looks at it. "Or something like that can happen." She said it and was looking around mostly for a place to move and observe for a moment. She motioned for Connel to well not worry about fighting for a moment, things down here were just as much a danger to themselves as others but this was a place of punishment.
 

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