Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Private Lifestyles of the Rich and Alchemical

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
"Water, Air, Time, Death, Energy completed," she said flatly, reining in the Dark Side 's tendency to snap at people. "Life, Earth, Fire identified. Those cylinders will be the death of me."

This was far from the first empowerment exercise or opportunity she'd pursued to bring back Spencer, and she realized it was beginning to show. Ashy pallor, prominent veins in her wrists, too much gray hair to easily conceal. Next, if past bodies' decay was any indication, she'd start losing fingernails. Being Anger had arrested those consequences. Being fully...mortal...again, and diving this deep into the Dark Side, was bringing them back with a vengeance.
 
He wasn't one to overlook the obvious changes of Ashin's appearance, but he also wasn't one to remark on them. The woman's path was her own, even if he wished he could help her take it without having to lean so heavily into the corruption that ailed her.

"That is a very respectable amount of stones," and a healthy amount of credit to boot for the former Empress. Dissero found himself caught between the awe he felt at how quickly she was working and the sense that he shouldn't be surprised at all. Weren't no one else in the galaxy like Ashin Varanin.

A cursory glance passed over the stones in question, ones he had also struggled with in his youth. Though there were certain elements there he believed she should have been able to grasp quite readily; the Body stone, for one, considering her own specialty of protecting and enhancing the power of her body. How he would have loved to just tell her, even drop a hint.

That wasn't how it worked, though.

"I might have something... Come with me. Bring your lunch if you like."

Down to the basement he lead her and into his workshop space where he offered up his stool as a seat and moved to a nearby cabinet, "A few years back, Rave and I were researching and experimenting with gesaril carvings and what effects we could manifest through various mediums. I somehow managed to achieve a level of empathy channeling through the keys of my grand piano - I'll have to play it for you sometime - so I tried it out on a few different crystals."

"I've never found myself so challenged to think clearly as I have in the last ten years. Between nearly losing Verie and the stress of her first pregnancy, to having a house full of kids there are times I find I can't think at all. So I made this for myself."


He pulled off a hook a cord of leather from which an amber-colored carved amulet hung.

"It's a Kasha crystal shard that I re-carved using the gesaril method. It sort of...compounds the clarifying qualities and takes it one step further. Clear thoughts in, clear thoughts out, in a cyclical kind of nature. Works well in short sessions, helps you find the right path of thought, clear all the extra rubbish out of the way. But I found if I wear it too long I have trouble progressing past that one-track mindset. And I get a headache." The man offered her a shrug and the amulet, "Might help you."
 
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Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
She took it with a wry smile and held it up to the light. "An Amulet of Greater Tunnel Vision? That does sound about my speed. I tend toward fixation, as you might have noticed once or twice. I'll be sure to use it sparingly."

If only because - useful and good as the offer was - she felt wary of relying on any crutch. And she wanted no asterisk beside her success when she finished with the stones, whenever that might be. It was the same reason she'd worn comfortable athletic clothes when she challenged Moridin for the throne. Nobody, not even her - especially not her - should be able to say 'yes, she succeeded, but it was just because of...'

She kept those thoughts private lest Dissero think her ungrateful. She pocketed the Gesaril-carved kasha crystal.

"That's a remarkable combination of extremely obscure traditions. I never visited the Gesarils myself, but when I was with the Jade Empire forty years ago, some of our people went and learned from them. Surprising things - Force manifestations for their own sake, no direct utility as we'd define it. But plenty of room for adaptation and experimentation beyond what the Gesarils dreamed."
 
He smirked and idly itched at his nose, "No, I hadn't noticed at all..."

Smirk shifted to a doleful expression while Ashin recounted a part of her past. He likely could have sat for hours listening to her stories but he was certain that now wasn't the right time for that.

"I've never visited them either, though I had meant to. Rave thought their methods quite remarkable so far as I recall, and anything that caught her interest was worth looking into in my book. Would be nice to see their work in the flesh - right now I'm merely mocking an example with that amulet." Not to mention carving by the whim of maybes-this-ways and what if-this-workeds. The amulet worked as intended, at the very least. A little too well if the headaches had anything to say of it.

He sighed and glanced around, "Well, ahm - welcome to my workshop." A casual gesture followed. "Not quite at the same level as the one on Vassek's moon but it works for small projects. Had to move my forges outside, the noise kept waking the kids. Would you like a tour of the vaults? Got a few familiar things down here."

Taking her mind off the stones for a bit might help, too.
 

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
"Maybe one day when we both have more free time and all our dreams come true, we'll take our families there. By all accounts the Gesarils are the friendliest, most peaceful pre-technological species around." Not that any of the young Varanins were kids anymore - but they could all stand to learn a thing or two about listening to the experts even when those experts were unassuming and harmless.

Then again, that might be a bad idea. She had visions of Quinn massacring Gesarils and shivered.

"Lead on. I'll never say no to a tour of one of your vaults."
 
The way she said it made it sound like a pipe-dream, but it was a pleasant pipe-dream to consider.

"Maybe one day," he agreed and nodded to the door, "this way then."

"Don't have quite as much as I did last you saw my hoard. Kept the important things. Sentimental things. Things too dangerous to be lost..."
the first vault was the next door down the hall on the left. He'd graduated to higher-tech security but he still used his Keycron as the last mechanism measure. The door swung open to the study area inside, where he'd previously sat pouring over Je'gan's datacrons amidst the community of holocrons.

"I think you're familiar with most of these."
 

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
The collection took her breath away. Faded old memories came back to life, strong enough to prickle her eyes.

"Sorkatar." About to touch the unassuming cube, she held back. "Velok the Elder. Vulta Daanat - the Blackguards, also Velok. A Dark Side tradition obsessed with gathering knowledge. Xushan..." This one she picked up: a red holocron concealed in the braincase of a glossy black alchemized skull, just visible through the eye sockets. "I don't know if I ever told you, but this was the holocron that started my entire path to the Dark Side. My...companion at the time, Tam Ranox, he and I were trapped and the holocron offered us a choice."

And here was Velok's actual holocron, not just the ones that he'd added his voice to, beside one that reminded her strongly of Moridin at a sensory and spiritual level. She skimmed over others she didn't know, holocrons and books both, many of them. And a set of mundane datacrons that had belonged to her cursed grandfather, Je'gan Olra'en, Darth Shule.

"I'd forgotten most of these existed, those that I've even heard of. I could spend a lifetime down here quite happily if circumstances were different."
 
She'd mentioned before her connection with Xushan, "You'd said it started your foundation of Alchemy..." but she hadn't mentioned it was what had driven her to using the powers of the Darkside. His brow creased upwards as he watched the skull in her hands, "She's not keen on me anymore. Not since I finished the Phobis. I suppose that's a good enough sign that I'm making the progress I wanted to make."

More's the pity that he hadn't a longer opportunity to delve into Xushan's knowledge. So much he could have learned from her, but nothing that would help him now.

"You're welcome to them any time ... but come see the other vaults, the fun stuff is thisaway."

Vault #2 was a bit less welcoming than the first. There existed no space to sit or find oneself comfortable, suggesting it wasn't meant for such use. This room housed reinforced casings of triple-layer glasteel and security implements that weren't immediately obvious. Moridin's mask sat on display, centered in the room within a freestanding case.

At the back against the center of the wall sat the original Void Stone, discovered and researched alongside Rave what felt a lifetime ago. Above it on display hooks the Dtaisia Shumdijara from Ostanes Ostanes ' collection. On a plinth nearby, the Grimoire of Sith Alchemy and Magic. On the opposite end: the Seer's Throne.

On the left wall of the chamber displayed with great care and respect inside a larger glass case: Rave's Entropy and Farwalker Armor copy, and the Velok Emblem.

On the right wall: The Billionaire Suit, Executive Edition, a full Immortal Battle Armor Suit, and set between them a Beskar Plated Chaavla Revolver.

A myriad things of varying uses, creeds, origins, and powers neatly littered the spaces in between. Artifacts of infamy alongside scrolls and tomes of renown sat alongside weapons and tools of lesser fame.
 
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Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
Truth be told, not much in this room caught Ashin's interest like the holocrons, though her gaze lingered on that Mandalorian revolver and Moridin's mask. Then came the double-take.

"What is that..."

She crossed the room and came to a halt by the glass case that held Entropy. Her head tilted as she tried to get a sense of the sword, visually and through the Force.

"Alchemized songsteel, terentatek leather...some Atrisian stylings, or I'd think it was a Mereel or a Merrill. Brilliant lines. Look at those proportions."

She turned to Dissero Dissero , biting back a request that felt impolite.
 
At his current stage in life, there wasn't much of anything in here that interested him, either. Not that a lack of interest devalued the pieces - simply that nothing here was of any use to him right now. So why keep them locked away? Various reasons; some sentimental; some for the asking; others for amusement; and still others out of respect to their makers ... whoever they may have been.

He was showing them to Ashin only because she had expressed interest in seeing his vaults, but also because - feth, he was curious what pieces she'd be drawn to or know about. Angling for a story or two, maybe. A level gaze followed the woman as she conducted herself across the chamber to the sword.

"You have a good eye. That belonged to Rave, it's called Entropy. Seydon traded it in on some other item I auctioned off a few years ago," he leaned over at the side of the case, opened a metal panel with the Keycron, input a code on a keypad and spoke a verbal passcode. A gentle hum sounded followed by a beep and a click. He opened the forward glass pane and careful withdrew the sword, holding it out for Ashin to take, "honestly can't remember what he traded it for, but I remember feeling like he'd been cheated. I'm not about to question the value Seydon places on things..."
 
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Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
"Seydon of Arda owned this sword? How about that."

She made a mental note to track Seydon down - he'd been terrifying in his day, and could still be inordinately useful. Right now her attention rested wholly on the sword in her hands. Entropy had superb balance and responsiveness. She'd carried blades much like it, but never made to this standard. The swords she forged for herself were simple, brutal things. This one came alive. She found she didn't even need to ask the sword's enchantment: it revealed itself to her at a touch. Rave Merrill and an Atrisian smith - Tametomo was the name she plucked from the aether - had forged this weapon to block and cut emanations of the Force itself. Lightning, black spears, Force Light - anything.

"When I walk into the Netherworld's nether regions looking for Spencer, this would be the best possible weapon to carry. You've already done a great deal for me, and I know this is precious to you. And I can't promise I'll survive, so asking to borrow it wouldn't be appropriate. Is there anything you would consider a fair trade?" She thought of Jentaral, her short sword - very strong in its way, but far less specialized, less a work of art.
 
A brief moment of deja vu struck the Alchemist as he stood there. Not in how he knew that the sword would end up in Ashin's hands like this, but that the instant he placed it in them he knew she would ask for it. Less fate and more the sum of parts that made up Ashin's current mission. The only part of fate he connected to the sword was the fact it had been traded to him at all.

A weathered look of thought shifted across his features as his gaze lowered from her face to the weapon of such a fine level of craftwork he could never hope to attain. It wasn't the masterful skill that went into the forging of it, or even the power it held. It was for the simple fact that Rave had been a cherished friend and prior crush whose loss he still greatly lamented.

He valued it because it had been made by her in the same way he valued the items in his collection that had once belonged to and were created by a man he called brother, Jared Ovmar. ...not that he'd ever had a crush on Ovmar.

The respect he held for Ashin weighed against the sentimental value of the sword. He'd not reveal which one tipped the balance. In the end it wasn't that simple.

"I can't think of anything I would consider a fair trade for this piece, but if there's a single person in this galaxy that I feel irrevocably in debt to, it's you. Take it with you, let it do the job it was meant for, and when you return with Spencer it can be brought back here to rest until it is needed again." That felt right, as difficult as it was to part with it. He could imagine Rave to be pleased that her weapon would be put to such a task, tested and proven in the Netherworld of all places. Who was he to deny it this opportunity?

For that matter, who was he to deny Ashin anything of need at all?

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say anything about the potential of not making it back."
 
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Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
As a general rule, Ashin Varanin didn't feel bad about things - other than missed family opportunities - but this moment qualified.

"I can promise this sword will come back to you. Just know there's no debt. You owe me absolutely nothing but what friends owe each other." She set the sword back on its hangar for a moment-

-then stepped in and hugged him.

Hugging people was, again, not something she did much. Her threadbare memory offered no commentary on whether she'd ever hugged Dissero.
 
Dissero couldn't put his finger on the moment in time when his relationship with Ashin had changed over from mentor and pupil to something else. He wasn't prone to proclaiming Ashin is my friend to anyone if only because he couldn't be certain she had ever entertained him as anything more than an Associate. He was certain where she stood in his eyes, though. The fact that she hadn't smote him on the spot for hugging her when she agreed to marry him to Verie had meant something, but he wasn't going to ask just what.

This hug may have spooked him a little.

Frozen in disbelief for the briefest of moments, Dissero prayed to whatever Gods were out there that she wouldn't detect the sudden leap in his heartbeat. An admission of friendship and a hug from Ashin Varanin would go down in history as one of the monumental moments in his life. He digressed, refusing to live beyond the present, and wrapped his arms around her in return. She was smaller than expected, and though he knew her to be tough as beskar nails she felt strangely fragile. There was no mistaking the woman's mettle and the power she employed, but the instance made him keenly aware of what was at stake.

Not a sword, but the lives of two dear friends.

Dissero gave her a firm squeeze, releasing his hold whenever she felt keen on ending it, and did well to steel himself before he looked at her again, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about that." A smirk helped to push the well of deep concern back down, but his eyes certainly conveyed the warmth of a man caught between endearment and worry.

"Back to work then?"
 
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Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
"Yes, let's put this moment of human feeling behind us. Work beckons." She grinned at him and reclaimed the sword from the glass case. "You don't happen to have a scabbard for this, do you? If not, I'll have Ijaat Mereel Ijaat Mereel make one once I resurrect him. Practice run to make sure my failure to resurrect Spencer isn't a problem at my end."
 
Well feth.

"Mereel's dead, too?" He'd missed a lot over the last near-decade. A hand larked through his hair, blinking the shock of that news away in order to look around the display case, "Uh yeah, pretty sure I do. If it's not here then it might be in the last vault. I'll take a look and leave it on the kitchen table if I find it. Need to fire up the forge and get to work myself. Don't have Faen around here to stoke the coals, didn't think the local authorities would take to letting a dragon loose on lake country."

Though as he thought of it, this needle might require Faen's assistance. A trip back to Grievous' Castle and his former home could be in order.
 

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
"A dragon, no. No, that wouldn't click with the lake country pet zoning laws."

She took another fond look at the sword. Using it as part of her meditation might open doors, or stones rather.

"It was suicide," she said on her way out the door. "Mereel. I'm told he killed himself a few years ago, something about trying to save his clan and atone for half-destroying Manda'yaim. If I can drag him out of whatever corner of the Netherworld snagged him, maybe you'll wind up with a few more toys on the walls."
 
Suicide. His gut coiled reflexively at the word. The idea of bringing the man back from such a thing didn't sit well either, but he wasn't about to protest. All he could manage was a frown.

"Wouldn't mind adding a Mereel piece to the collection. Round things out a bit, fill in the gaps," something from each of the galaxy's greats. He had a few names to check off the list still, Mereel being one of them. There was a part of him, a very small and greedy-completionist part of him, that hoped Ashin would find success in her trials. For Spencer's sake, of course. Success would only be good on the road to her recovery.

"Now where is that damned scabbard..."

After some searching, he found it and the matching terentatek hide sword belt stowed at the base of the large display case within a secondary compartment. Both pieces found their way to the kitchen table and shortly after he departed the house for his forges in the woods. There were fires to light and stones to uncover. The pair of them had their work cut out.
 

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
The idea came that evening, after fruitless hours of meditation and sword practice. Sheathing Entropy, Ashin went over to remove the Time Stone from its plinth. She was looking for clarity of insight. Despite all her work, the cylinders' exact identities eluded her.

She knew for certain, though, that she would eventually succeed. There was no other option. The only question was how long it would take - how much time her failure would waste.

"Break every chain," she murmured, and created a paradox.

Simple causality breaches - little momentary premonitions of threats averted - were the average Forcer's bread and butter. In principle, it wasn't very different to look to the future when a thing would already be known. But that kinship in principle spanned the difference between a holdout blaster and a capital turbolaser. Settling herself in her usual spot, she drew deeply on the Dark Side until it hurt - more traction for the physical corruption.

Then she looked down at her notepad and caught just a glimpse of its future.

Beside the little sketch of a cylinder, her own (albeit shaky) handwriting said MIND, BODY, SELF, SPIRIT.

She released her grip on the Dark Side. With a shaking hand, she printed the names in block capitals, just as she'd seen them, thus closing the loop and finalizing the paradox.

"So I'm..." she sang under her breath to a half-remembered tune, "my own grandpa."
 
It was in the dwindling afternoon light that Dissero sat between his forges, soaking in the heat of them, meditating on the ideas and hypothesis of The Whole and Oneness. Force Bonds existed between countless beings across unfathomable distances. The web of the bonded lay across the galaxy like a blanket slowly knitting and unraveling in unison. Where one bond formed, another ten broke. Where one broke, another hundred formed. Ceaseless in its nature, he had to wonder why he thought he could craft an artifact that would be able to find one single thread among the countless many.

Even if he could, in theory, create such a thing how could he possibly know the power of the bond?

He recalled a story his niece and now Matriarch told him when he was quite young. Quietus' Force Bond with Lord Cazador had been near instantaneous upon their first meeting. Though the two of them would not come to work closely together for some time after, she'd known the power of their bond in the moment they had.

The closer we are the stronger we become together. Never have I felt such ease tapping into the powers of the Force then when I am with him.

Over time that closeness deepened from mere physical proximity to emotional attachment. At the height of their power they ruled uncontested, and even though Quietus would never openly admit to it, Dissero believed she loved Cazador. The devastation brought upon her when he'd contracted the Gulag virus had very nearly left her undone.

They never knew why the bond had formed so unwittingly. Many would have ventured fate, much like Ashin had described people who continually ran into one another across the galaxy without ever really meaning to. Those that were part of a Whole, unknowingly, drawn together in search of Oneness, be it through mutual destruction or evolution. An instance of Celestial nature, as pure as it was random.

His gut told him the needle would not serve in this cosmic power if made from metal. Not phrik, not songsteel, not cortosis, not beskar, not electrum. Such things were far too unyielding. Too unnatural. He would need to dig deep in his skillset and knowledge base. He would need to test some theories he'd once held to be baseless. He would need to look at the limits of alchemy, and then he would need to break them.


Two days passed where, aside from meals, they barely saw one another. Ashin had uncovered the identities to all twelve stones - she would also need to complete their attunement. Then and only then would she be able to take those twelve aspects of being and imprint them into the crystal in the vein of her bond with Spencer.

The weather was fair, the day was still young. A gentle breeze lingered in through the open bay doors of the house, bringing with it birdsong, the sounds of the lake waters, and the aroma of the forges running hot. Amidst the passing of clouds over the sun, a tumultuous and sudden surge of Force energy swelled from the wooded area.

Then an explosion rocked the trees and billowed a massive, dark cloud of smoke upwards into the blue. The ground trembled, the windows of the house felt the pelting of debris, and a quiet settled over the grounds.
 

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