Private Shuttle and Snarl

[Soah Ty’Jyn]

Interacting with: Varin Mortifer

​

The shadows broke.

Her body convulsed in the dirt, sinew and bone reshaping, pain lancing with every crack as they stretched to make room for something far larger. Dusky black fur rippled outward in a wave, quills spiking up along her spine as claws tore deeper trenches into the earth. The girl was gone, swallowed by the predator beneath.

The nexu lunged at her again, too late.

The massive cat collided with it in a blur of muscle and fury, slamming the beast into the ground with the full weight of her bulk. The air shuddered with the impact, dirt exploding outward. Her fangs found its throat, and the forest filled with the wet, tearing sound of flesh giving way. The Nexu thrashed, shrieking, claws carving deep furrows across her flank, but Soah only locked her jaws, crushing down harder, until the sickening crack split through the night.

Blood flooded her mouth in a hot and metallic pool, coating her tongue and dripping in dark rivulets down her maw, shoulders and chest. She shook her head violently, until finally body beneath her went limp. Silence followed. The Nexu now lay broken in the brush with its life bleeding into the soil.

Soah stood over it, chest heaving, the massive form of a dusky panther beast framed by shifting ink that writhed across her pelt like living shadow. They crawled over her ribs, her flanks, her legs, as though the darkness itself had claimed her. Her amber eyes burned through the black, narrow slits aglow in the dark.

A sound carried to her. Flesh on flesh. Bone breaking under fists. Her ears twitched, head snapping toward it.

Varin.

The cat swung its massive head, blood still dripping from her jaws, and fixed him in her sights. She was as large as a bha'lair now, ink slithering around her like serpents.

Those amber vertical slits narrowed thin, her tail lashing once. Twice. Then she went still, her gaze locked on him as she loomed there.

Watching.

Waiting.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Solid bone cracked under his force giving way to flesh that soon also began to break down into mush. Soon the nexu’s writhing became nothing more than bodily twitches as Varin's breath began to quicken. Slowly he began to stop pounding as he began to realise that his prey had finally passed.

He stared down his broken foe almost as if looking for some sign of life so that he could continue his assault, his fists finally began to relax as he slowly stood. It was then he felt another presence behind him, quickly he spun around throwing another fist at what was behind him as hit eye gave off an eerie maroon glow. The gashes on his chest began to cauterize themselves from his own body heat as his fist flung toward his next prey behind him.

A roar left his throat as the smoke billowing from his back began to erupt into flaming plumes from his back almost like wings, threatening to burn the entire forest down.

BOY STOP!

Came Ignatis deep loud commanding voice in Varin's head.

Varin's fist stopped only mere inches from his next prey as he began to notice the eyes and the black inky substance surrounding their body. The branded carvings along his body giving a fierce orange glow almost like an infernal furnace, slowly began to die down as his eyes began to dim down to their normal dark brown color.

He sniffed the air around her almost as if taken more of the senses of a beast, the scent giving him his final confirmation. The creature had given him all the signs he needed to know that it was Soah. The Cat Lady taken by a different form. His eyes glared down at her as he slowly began to calm down from the altercation, his wings starting to be sucked back into his brands, leaving nothing but blackened smokey wisps in their wake. The back of his shirt bore scorchmarks and burns revealing the intricate details of the Ur-Kittat runes branded into his back.

As the light show that emitted from his body died down, so did most of the nearby heat, leaving the jungle air to feel cool and damp.

Varin spoke quietly as he began to catch his breath and slowly relaxed.

“Good to see you made it out alive as well.”

Soah Ty’Jyn​

 

[Soah Ty’Jyn]

Interacting with: Varin Mortifer

​

Soah's amber eyes narrowed as she watched Varin's transformation ebb. The glow along his skin still pulsed faintly, that molten light fading to ember as the scent of charred skin wafted in the air. Whatever had clawed its way out of him, those wings and that fire, it wasn't entirely human. She had seen something like it before, but different. Kasir's Warform had been as if the feral creature had ripped out of his body. This... this was different.

The massive cat tilted her head to the side in that same small, uncanny motion Soah carried even as a girl. Her nostrils flared, catching the mingled scents of iron, ash, and something else buried beneath it all, something older, deeper. A whisper of something bound to him.

She took one long step forward, her paws pressing into the wet soil. Varin's voice rumbled low across the clearing, but his quiet words seemed too human after what she'd just seen.

Soah's upper lip twitched. A low rumble vibrated in her chest, neither threat nor greeting. Then, with a slow roll of her shoulders, her body began to shift.

Bones cracked, reshaped as muscle tore and rewove. Shadows wrapped around her as armor, kissing the edges of her flesh as fur gave way to skin. The inky black tendrils slithered over her body, shaping into a veil that kept her modest even as the change left her bare. When it ended, she stood upright again, small, lean, blood slicked with her dusky skin streaked with red and shadow alike.

Soah gave a roll of her neck as the pain of the transformation fed the shadows around her, even as the echoes of her transformation still hummed through her veins. Then her head rolled to a stop, that deadpan gaze fixed upon Varin as she studied him without a word, tilting her head up slightly to meet his gaze. Her face was a bloody, unreadable mask, blood dripping from her stained mouth, tracing lines down her throat and onto her collarbone, with only the slow shift of her pupils betraying her scrutiny.

When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet but edged like glass.

"Something else lives in you." She didn't phrase it as a question.

Those amber eyes lingered on the fading wisps of smoke curling off his back, on the runes burned into his skin that reminded her faintly of the ones she'd seen carved into Kasir's walls. She couldn't tell if what she sensed in him was strength or infection.

Either way, it made her wary.

And for Soah, wariness was far closer to respect than fear.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

“Something else lives in you.”

There was a moment of silence that wrapped around the two of them after he witnessed her shift. The phrase caused him to look down at his exposed arms and shoulders, at the runes that had begun to spread.

“Saying it like that makes it sound like a completely separate entity.”

He breathed slowly as he lifted his mace back up and holstered it on his back. The cold metal hissing under the still slightly hot brands on his back.

“After being with something for so long…your body learns to adapt with it, depending on it. It becomes a part of you.”

He looked at the broken body of the Nexu near them, then back at his bloodied hands.

“In my home…On Carcosa. We worshipped a being. Something very old, older than most things. The Eater of Suns. As long as we followed its every whim the planet prospered. And prosper it did, rare healthy minerals gave way to rich soil blessing the planet with abundance.”

His voice strained slightly as the wound on his chest finished cauterizing, The old flesh falling off like ash in the wind.

“Later my father realised this entity was dying. If he were to die, so would our planet. Something had to be done, a suitor had to take him into their body. I was chosen for that. I was still a very small child at the time, but I knew my duty then as I do now. I underwent a ritual to bind this being into my body, I gained power, he gained life.”

He slowly sat into the dirt as the memories lashed his mind. The pain, the screaming, the fear and finally, nothing. A void of cold blackness. A death.

“I didn’t survive the ritual. The being saved my life that night. Ever since then he went by the name of Ignati. With Him, I do not know fear.”

He stared at Soah with what looked like a glare in his eyes, but it was the sign of focus. He knew everything he was saying was a very closely guarded secret. He was inviting death to him just by uttering anything about the ritual.

“Have you ever burned alive before? Felt its searing pain? The air ripped from your lungs as you scream? It's one of the most horrible fates anyone can be condemned to.”

Slowly the sounds of the forest began to return. Insects chirping and night carrion cawing.

You are saying too much boy.

Varin scoffed to himself.

Simply giving her the same courtesy of how we met since she told me how she obtained her power.

Soah Ty’Jyn​

 

[Soah Ty’Jyn]

Interacting with: Varin Mortifer

​

The air between them seemed to thicken as Varin spoke, his words winding through the dark like smoke. Soah didn't interrupt. She watched. Listened. The only movement came from the slow sway of her tail, brushing against the dirt with each rise and fall of his voice.

When he mentioned ritual, her ears angled slightly forward. Eater of Suns. It was grand, almost absurd, but not unbelievable. Not to her. The ink beneath her skin pulsed faintly in interest, as though it too listened, drinking in his story.

That dark head tilted, that small, animal motion of curiosity that came before a strike.

"I have not had the pleasure," she admitted in her typical, even if almost detached tone, though her eyes glittered faintly in the dim light. Being burned alive was not an experience she cared to add to her collection. But the way he spoke of it, as if it gave him strength rather than terror, was strange.

Fascinating.

Soah studied him for a long moment, her pupils narrowing as the silence stretched.

"So you are both alive," she began slowly, testing each word, "But only because one chose not to let the other die."

There was no fear in her voice, just a quiet intrigue that was edged with the same type of curiosity a predator held when deciding if something was prey or kin.

The ink slid higher along her arms, reacting to her rising energy, dark patterns pulsing in quiet rhythm with her thoughts.

"And this... Ignati... he is the reason your wounds seal themselves?" she murmured in contemplative query.

That amber gaze lingered on him as she processed it all, her tail flicking once before curling neatly around her legs.

"Strange," she added softly. "But useful."

And with that, for the first time since they met, Varin managed what few have not -- managed to get Soah to engage in conversation.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

"And this... Ignati... he is the reason your wounds seal themselves?"

Varin gently grabbed his bone rosary from his hip and ran his thumb over the carvings of each bead.

“As a side effect of the ritual, I have a very high body temperature. I can heal, survive in harsh cold climates and the heat itself doesn’t bother me. I can also burn poisons out of my system. I’m only limited to my imagination with this power.”

He closed his eyes for a moment as he gave a silent prayer. Bowing his head to his rosary. A small flame was produced between the two adventurers, slowly growing in size to create a small bonfire.

He chuckled to himself as he looked at Soah.

“It's funny.”

He paused, letting the quiet hang in the air for just a moment.

“This forest, the mountains. They remind me of my home.”

The flames and smoke began to take the shape of silhouettes. Humanoid silhouettes. One of them looked like a younger female, a child’s age.

“My sister, she was born force dead. Absolutely no sensitivity to the force at all. But when it came to alchemy, planting and sithspawn she was a savant. She was able to bring back a sacred creature to my home planet. The creature had been extinct for hundreds of years.”

The shadow took the shape of a large serpent like creature, its body almost seemingly made of flame and smoke.

“Lava wyrms. But because of the nutrients in my planet's soil their flames were purple and blue. Absolutely stunning and beautiful creatures.”

He looked around at the trees, sighing almost as if he was in his own backyard.

“If it were up to me I would never have left.”

Soah Ty’Jyn​

 

[Soah Ty’Jyn]

Interacting with: Varin Mortifer

​

Soah listened in silence, the flicker of the new flame painting her dusky skin in gold and shadow. Her tail gave a slow, thoughtful sway behind her, the rhythm betraying the intrigue she otherwise kept carefully hidden.

The air carried the scent of heat and smoke, curling faintly around her as Varin spoke. Each word drew her attention, not out of sympathy, but out of fascination. This one carried his fire like a second skin.

Once again, that braided dark head canted slightly to one side, those amber eyes narrowing as if studying a specimen.

"You burn poison from your blood," she said quietly, testing the idea. "And your body bends to fire and not the other way around."

It wasn't quite admiration. More like analysis, a quiet curiosity that crept into Soah's tone despite the stillness of her face.

As the fire grew, the shadows would move as a serpent's shape unfurled from the smoke, its body coiling in silent motion. Soah's pupils thinned, reacting to the flickering light, but she couldn't help but lean forward just slightly, drawn to it like any predator to movement.

"Lava wyrms," she repeated, almost under her breath. "I have not seen one." The name carried weight. Wonder. But only for a heartbeat before her tone returned to its even calm.

When Varin spoke of his homeand how he left it and family behind, Soah watched him with that same quiet focus, her tail flicking once against the dirt.

"Home burns itself into you," she finally replied in a quiet murmur. "Even when you leave, the ash stays."

That predatory amber gaze lingered on the fire-serpent as it coiled and faded, all the while, her expression remained unreadable. Then ever so quietly, she finally continued.

"Your fire remembers," it was said in a soft enough volume that it might have been to herself. Perhaps, in turn, thinking of Kasir and then the rest that were left behind on Felacat.

A swivel of her eyes landed back on Varin.

"What prevents you from going back?"

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Seeing that Soah was being drawn into the conversation brought a….surprise relief to Varin. He was just now learning that even though everything had happened a year prior, there was a lot of hurt still deep inside. Festering his very being, bringing rot to his very core. An infection of the mind and emotion. Yes he could burn most poisons and infections out of his system, but some wounds burrowed deep into the marrow. Building the very skeletal foundation of someone's being.

The lava wymr’s silhouette danced and slithered between Varin fingers in a form that brought beauty and danger. A dance that showed a hint of sorrow. There was no pair, just a singular one in a forever dance of cold lonesome.

Home. A place of comfort and rhythm. A sanctuary for you to truly be your own version of yourself. Something the Varin had hidden so well for so long he had almost forgotten who he was. Did he have other dreams or aspirations? Or were they merely a reflection of what his family needed and wanted. Regardless, the memory of prior goals too left a trail of ash behind him. Forever to be left into the cold ruined ground.

The fire maintains everything it has swallowed. Archived in the chaos of its body and dancing flames. The dance can sometimes display what all it has taken and what all it has given. Yes, the fire does remember. It never forgets, it treasures it all deep within.

"What prevents you from going back?"

Varin’s demeanor and posture grew cold and rigid. With a quick flex to tighten his grip around the flame that danced in his hand he choked the life out of the dancing mirage. Silencing yet another beauty in this world, leaving it into the past. More ashes to be left onto the ground.

He remained quiet for a moment longer as he remembered. He could hear the screams, the blaster fire, the explosions. The voices, the horrible voices of suffering and the sounds of death all around him until it billowed into a crescendo of one voice.

Children! You won’t get away from me!

The thought echoed through his mind as his heart pounded like thunder in his chest.

I’m going to finish the job Sith, and rid this galaxy of you and the rest of your family, YOU won't stop me from my quest….hopefully your sister won't put up as much of a fight.

The voice faded through his mind as his eyes flicked open the maroon glow in his retinas bright like embers as they faded back to their normal brown hue.

He inhaled deeply as he looked at Soah. He was quiet for just a moment longer before he realised a sudden silence in the air. As if every living thing around him just held its breath from tension and anxiety. As if they too knew what happened, and what would happen should Varin just let go.

He spoke quietly.

“It was taken from me. Everything. My planet, my home.”

He let out a shaky breath.

“My family.”

He pulled out his saber hilt, and gently unclasped the crystal compartment pulling out an alabaster white crystal, corrupted by dark red veins.

“This was my mother’s kyber crystal. This and my father's helm is all I have left of them.”

Soah Ty’Jyn ​

 

[Soah Ty’Jyn]

Interacting with: Varin Mortifer

Soah stayed silent as Varin spoke, the only movement coming from the slow, deliberate sway of her tail. The blood from the Nexu had already begun to dry against her skin, tightening and crackling as it congealed.

The air smelled of iron and smoke. When the corrupted kyber caught the light, it burned in her gaze like a trapped ember, and her eyes fixed upon it with the sharp focus of a predator weighing its worth.

When she finally spoke, it was not in comfort, but in truth.

"Reclaim it." The words were flat and decisive. "What prevents you from doing so?"

The silence stretched between them, thick and grounding. Shadows gathered at her feet and crawled along her form, restless and alive, as if echoing the weight of her thoughts.

"You lost more than things," she said at last, her voice low, measured. "You lost the bones of your life. That hollows one differently than fire scars." Her tail wrapped loosely around her right leg, "I do not pretend to fix that."

Those amber eyes lifted to his, and yet despite the blankness of her expression, there was no cruelty in her tone, only quiet conviction.

"If you want it back, then do it. Start small. Find what they kept, who guards it, where grief hides in their habits." A faint hum threaded through the air as the sentient ink across her shoulders stirred.

"Even your Ignati would agree with that."

 

[Varin Mortifer]

"Reclaim it. What prevents you from doing so?"

Varin said nothing. Just glanced at her. The simple suggestion and follow up question was just a bit more complicated to answer. Yes it was true he lost a lot more than just things. He most certainly lost foundation.

She is right. I would agree with that. Reclamation of our home. To see those mountains again and feel the wind upon our faces. It would be delightful. But why don’t you tell her why you can’t do that yet.

He chuckled as his form slithered around Soah, unseen by her eyes but perhaps sensed.

Surely you still remember why you can’t simply just go back. You are very resilient to….most fears I will say. But your true fear still lingers right in your face. Tell her, spill your guts around this bloody soil and lay it bare.

Varin sighed as both individuals' words bore into him. The sigh slowly turned into a chuckle. Of course he began to spill so much of his secrets, of course Ignati would use it to test Varin’s truth with himself.

Finally he drew a quick breath as the chill of the night air began to bite.

“It’s not all cut and dry like that unfortunately.”

He paused for a moment.

“But what about your home? Where you came from. What is your story?”

The quick change in subject was rather sharp, his own personal way of trying to deflect from something he felt he wasn’t ready to discuss or was it something he refused to face.

"It's only fitting I know just a bit about you since you know so much about me now."

Soah Ty’Jyn​