Private Omen of Durace

[St. Thomas Barran]

BLOODHOUND KHAN

Tags
Melinda Bloodscrawl

[SNOW THEME]

OMEN OF DURACE
9​

RHAND'S SPIRE, FROST VALLEY,
DURACE, THE UNKNOWN REGIONS (902 ABY)

'Huh.... You fight really well, though. Unfortunate-'
​

Impressed, the Khan took a moment to view his newfound acquaintance in an entirely-new light, though he would end up forgetting what was said, on account of both the weather and the averted digression alike, remembering well his intent to state his case on the way to the Forest of Broken Glass. Fully committing to the formation of his fundamental, ideological backbone by then, the Khan found himself feeling appreciation for Melinda's need to stay on track, and in good keeping with the general flow of the interaction; and in this first life she mentioned, it appeared as though the new acquaintance may have retained an aptitude for writing (or studying-) historical records, likely carrying these instincts into the next.

'Now, you queried,"What the Dark Three has against society", in the beginning. A general gist of the challenge to Vicious Nature versus The Wonders of Civlisation, and in most cases, we really have no argument to offer. Its not until we see rotting, decadent exceptions that our stomachs start to turn, the worst, the incurably-vile, its for those we reserve a scourge's wild abandon.... An' the Galaxy's infested with 'em. From Core to Rim - they blight their own as much as the ones they hate.'

Fortunately for Melinda, however, it was only for suchlike individuals that Barran ever sated such hunger for insight, as it was that which seemed to burn tensions away within his own mind in turn, representing a persistent personality-trait that stuck like tar to the soul. Thus earning the unlikely protector her right to honest answers, and in the inward decision to hear out the questions properly, Thomas would find it much easier to reveal,'It is those of whom we consider,"Far-gone; incurably repulsive.", especially if they would sooner sell their own children into slavery.... As they did on Csilla.', trailing off as his thoughts finally drifted back to the sudden revelation of Melinda's death.

'Oh, an' from before... You said you fought my father,"In single combat". But then I began to focus on the main topic of the-'

​

Even in the midst of revealing Csilla as one of those incurably repulsive planets, the look in Barran's eye was all Melinda needed to know that the existential penny had finally dropped in his mind, and doubly so as he turned to search the gaze of his newfound acquaintance, but then that strange, searing pain began to pulsate in his head once more. Emanating from the area behind the eye-sockets, drumming into the walls of his skull as the Khan struggled to inquire,'Are you- are you.... Or rather, were you- a Nuetralizer, by chance?', it was then that the Bloodhound knew the symptomatic nosebleed was surely to follow.

 

[Melinda Bloodscrawl]

Melinda struggled to understand the reasoning St. Thomas Barran gave about the threshold for world's considered irredeemable, unfixable...

"But can't nature be just as destructive as an overdeveloped planet? Nature and people always conflict: this has been a universal constant since time immemorial, since people first started building mud huts. I have heard stories of people whose minds...change... sometimes a natural unspoiled wilderness brought out the worst in people...like on the planet Korun." Melinda offered in reply to his initial answer.

"Are there not hundreds of stories like that? Where people became so one with the environment they forgot what ultimately separated them from it? And horror resulted?" Melinda asked, trying to engage with his ideology.

She blinked at the reveal of active slavery on Csilla.

"But even if all the slavers deserved to die, even if the entire society deserved to go...why should the planet itself suffer the ultimate punishment? It was still capable of supporting life...and now only a field of rocks in space, incapable of sustaining a biome remain." Melinda pointed out. "And what of Tython? Tython was mostly wilderness and wilds. The only offending structure there were those built by Jedi. It was no city planet...and the world of the Shi'ido was more unspoiled by tech than most...it was turned into a hideous ruin during the old wars...and the population was enslaved...and nearly exterminated...by the Maw..."

Then she saw him flinch, and thought he was having a seizure. He stared at her, asking if she was a Nuetralizer.

Melinda paused than nodded, turning her arm into a silver sword blade.

"You are correct, Great Khan. I am an Advanced Model 1. One of many built by Laertia Io..."

Melinda's gaze fell a little at the mention of her creator as her blade arm turned into a normal hand.

"The utterly mad Laertia Io..." Melinda added quietly.

 

[St. Thomas Barran]

BLOODHOUND KHAN

Tags
Melinda Bloodscrawl

[SNOW THEME]

OMEN OF DURACE
10​

RHAND'S SPIRE, FROST VALLEY,
DURACE, THE UNKNOWN REGIONS (902 ABY)

'Hnng.... Fair - enough.... HAAAAUUUGH!!!'
​

The pain was especially acute on this occasion, gradually getting worse as it reached it's pinnacle, the worst migraine of all to endure as he tried to continue,'Insane, though? AAH!!!... Maybe, but - wrong word!', brought down writhing as the next wave washed over his brain. Rolling around in the snow, the one-eyed Woad could not even think properly, but out of nowhere the Khan realised,'Stim - KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!!!!', coming to an understanding that more pain would need to be endured in the process of finding his emergency painkiller stim.

[Clink]
[THUD]
[Hissssss....]​

'Aaaaa..... Sorry 'bout that, its been a while since my last migraine o' the sort. Two years, to be exact.'

Sitting up, then standing after another moment of sighing recovery, the one-eyed Woad was finally able to continue his usual train of thought once more, looking over to Melinda with a wipe of hise nose before he opined,'But yeah, mad - or insane, rather. A given, for sure, but there was much of the genius in that madness too. Much like the other name, what was it? Ame, Ami.... Wait, sorry.... Tal never deployed me to fight 'er, what was that na- Aha! It was the Amalgam. Laertia an' her, both were forces t'be reckoned with.... Both were mad geniuses.', from the other side of the historical fence between them. It had been some time since he discussed the Amalgam with his compatriots, but he had remembered enough to proffer,'Things were really complicated back then, an' being honest - I have a tough time finding honour in any of it.', before his brain unscrambled enough to remember the other discussion.

'Now, as for Csilla.... The tougher of the two to explain, it stands to reason that hindsight teaches us, an' a lot at that; as truth be told, the Scar Hounds did not think much on the world that jaded my friend after the fact - not until we thought to let Nature have it's say.... Dreamer could have ruled it, healing the rot that clung to the air like decomposition, but it will just have to remain a regret of which even our,"Renegade", Chiss have felt since.'

With a simple nod toward the lower valley to where they were headed before, the Khan then turned to resume his usual walking cadence, that which was leisurely enough for them to concentrate and make conversation at the same time, though the subject-matter was anything leisurely for the ones discussing it. Especially on the matter of Tython, still raw in Barran's heart at the same time, as not only was it the day of his worst ever headaches, but it was also the same day his father killed his mentor in single combat, losing the closest thing he had to a brother at the time. Two of the purest agonies, mirrored by the pain in head and soul alike on Durace, laid bare for his new acquaintance to see, exhibiting pains so strong that no snow could shroud it from Melinda's eyes in these moments.

'Tython, however? Alignments fortunately differed already by then, as the Scar Hounds were suffering through the Secret War by that point of it's Galactic greater, marking a hidden civil strife between Marauders an' certain Mawsworn Hardliners - finding foundations, even before the First Battle of Empress Teta.... An' besides, Tython was much too pretty for my brand of Mawsworn to hate it, even though we lost the Mongrel, our leader, on it's blessed surface.'

'We'll never claim t'be infallible, Melinda.... We jus' wanna wipe the slate clean.'