Sometimes, Unfortunate Hunting Accidents Happen

[Dorne Calato]

[member="Matsu Ike"] [member="Matsu Xiangu"]

1: CYRANO​

​

The Landing pad for this feudal outer rim world was a simple marked ferrocrete platform, maintained with paint and hand brush to accept a rare few star ships as visitors. It rested in a wide, grassy valley under grey skies, marked by a ring of a dozen stones painted black, braziers of lit flames atop them which made them visible from the sky... though appearing very primitive.

Consul Cyrano Dorne stood quietly beside his brown kybuk mount, accompanied by his son Calato. The Consul was a man in his 50's, and a hard life of fighting had added many wrinkles, many lines, and many a graying hairs in his head of black, though by the grace of the Force he was as able-bodied as any of his man at arms. Cyrano wore a nobleman's winter tunic and thick boots, over which he wore the pelt of one of this world's saber toothed cat. The grey-white fur made him blend well into the surrounding snow. though today only he and his son were there, to meet their guest in secret.

His son Calato also stood with his own beast, and minded a third meant for their guest. Calato was young though already began to sport a dark, raven beard and long, disheveled hair, carrying his father's features. He dressed as well as his father, and also carried a pelt- though smaller than his father's. The young man tightened his hood over his head, trying to keep warm.

"...Who are we meeting, father?" Calato deigned to ask after having stood in the snow for an hour now, with nary but a family of wild Kybuk in the distance.

"An old friend, son." Cyrano answered simply. His son, quick on the uptake, followed with a question to confirm.

"Old friend? So... they know?"

"Yes.... yes they do. They are the Jedi order I spoke of."

Cyrano thought quietly to himself, reflecting back on his days as a Jedi Knight... and the fateful day he declined promotion to Master, when his world needed him most due to his brother's death. This was a good twenty years ago, and he wondered if his old Jedi comrades ever forgave him, or at least understood it was what he thought was right at the time. He looked up to the skies to see if his friend's vessel was coming or not. He tried to humor himself, perhaps this world is so backwards they deigned to miss it on their travels.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dorne Calato"]

Arriving on the planet the jedi master was careful... kind of. So much had been happening and there was a lot of work still going on that she had been working on some of the larger projects. Generally in ways to help colonize while using the massive Saratai to get it off of the ground before she was moving with some of the attention on things. It gave her a lot of the work to do before she brushed her robes off with some looks at the datapad on her arm to lead her with the holomap to meet an old friend. it was to meet and greet his son, that would be getting trained with the jedi hopefully. In the long term, not a bad deal and with all of the improvements that had been getting made well she could bring him a few new things thouching the channeling gloves in her robes pocket. They were amazing while being built to channel the force and catch blades... then you could crush vong crab armor thanks to some improvements. The jedi version of a crushgaunt and it was made for lightsiders as she was arriving.

 

[Dorne Calato]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

"Father... it's been almost two hours, I think she's not coming." Cal said, realizing the snow was falling now, and the cold seeped through his fur and coat like needles. The young man shivered, voicing a rare complaint to his father.

"Patience, Cal. She's here. Do you not sense her?" Even before she was in visual range, the lord of house Dorne reached out with the Force and sensed a most powerful master coming. It felt good to use his power once more, away from prying eyes. Above the graying clouds a black spot materialized, and soon it would come to the landing pad. Calato nodded, as he too felt that strong presence in the Force.

The craft landed, and the duo approached. Calato's mounts began to scare from the sound of the craft but he assured the bidepal creature, as his father taught him. It's alright. And somehow, the creature did understand. Cyrano himself brought two beasts forward.A smirk came to Cyrano's face. When he was the promising Knight, he was quick to learn the names of every Padawan who came to the order. Now it seemed he was very much overtaken, his powers waned as the younger generation grew. Had it been so long already? yes it had, I suppose. He wondered if trying to be sentimental would slight the Jedi, but age had softened Cyrano. He approached the Jedi and extended kindness in the form of an embrace, expecting nothing in return.

"I vaguely recall a youngling with fire in her belly and a curiosity that got her a fierce scolding from the vault keepers. Now she has comes as the master. Welcome, Master Ike. I don't suppose you've forgotten me already?" He said, a softness in his voice reserved for those friends younger than himself. For their transportation needs, Cyrano brought Master Ike a Kybuk mare of gentle temperament, with a bundle of thick fur if she found the weather to be... too chilly for her.

Calato bowed to the arriving master, but found himself staring when they spoke. A pang of disappointment could be heard in the boy's voice. "She's... I thought she'd be taller..." He muttered, which got him an elbow to the rib from his father. "Welcome, master Ike. I am Calato, House of Dorne, son of Cyrano." He parroted his father's greeting.



[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Elsewhere on the world, in the shadows of the catacombs of the capitol, a conspiracy gathered amidst the buried dead of the city. Nearly two dozen figures wearing black robes and expressionless masks met, torches in hand. They formed a semi-circle around one figure with markings on his face.

"My soldiers are in place at the finance building." One of the conspirators spoke.

"As are my house guard, at the legislative office." Another voiced, his voice hoarse and rough, the cold unkind to his aging constitution.

"My blades stand outside the fool Dorne's manor." A woman's voice came from a third conspirator. All the rest affirmed their part in the treachery.

"Excellent. The final piece of our plan will be arriving, and all will be set into motion... This world will belong to the Raven Court once more, and our newest allies... among the Sith." The conspiracy turned their attention to the stairs, awaiting their final ally.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

That she’d done her best to hide her pulsing, toxic signature from anyone on the planet who might feel it was only to be expected. Gliding from her starship high above atmosphere in a smaller, cloaked craft, Matsu Xiangu emerged as a spider from the dark corner of her web. The ruins and the sickly presence of her new and unexpected allies made her feel at home - much like the opening of some sorcery, a ritual she’d seen a thousand times before.

The planet itself whispered to her, alive with the signatures of two that felt a lifetime’s distance away. She tried to pick up the threads, the years in between, but her past felt diffuse.

She hadn’t quite been the same since she’d come back from Out There.

But Matsu Ike...she could remember her. She’d never particularly been against Jedi though she’d spent the last year terrorizing their strongholds. But Ike had once been something like a friend. She’d even trusted her. Strange, how the Force worked.

Cyrano Dorn was another story altogether. She’d known him through Ike, a tenuous acquaintance at best, but she’d remembered him all the same when she’d been contacted about a potential alliance to remove him from existence.

Small and pale, she emerged from the half-crumbled ruins of an old building she’d crossed through to arrive in the courtyard where the Conspirators gathered. She too wore black, an elaborate twisting and turning of fabric that fit tightly until it loosened at the waist. Though she wore no hood, the cloak reached up to fit snugly around her face, ending just beneath glowing amber eyes. It covered her ruin of a mouth quite nicely. Though she barely reached to the chest of half of the group, she appeared quite at home among the conspiracy shrouding themselves in the resting place of so many bodies.

But bodies were only fodder for a necromancer.

Capable only of telepathic communication, she stopped within the circle of men and women and reached out inky tendrils to speak through their minds.

“My creatures stand with yours, Ravens. They move at my command.”

_____________________________________​

Elsewhere - at the Finance building, the Legislative building, outside the Manor - soundless monstrosities emerged from the shadows to fall in with the Conspirator’s soldiers. In truth they were corpses, bolstered by Matsu’s sorcery to be faster, stronger, and smarter than their usual counterparts. They paid little heed to the living, their dead-dry skin whispering in their armor as they settled in for the order to proceed.

[member="Dorne Calato"] | [member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dorne Calato"] [member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Arriving and looking at the two as one presented her a horse was.. surprising. Though she was never one to turn down gifts... with some speciies and cultures that might be insulting or worse. If they are dangerous to some people it could be a health hazard. Her hand came out to it though touching with a small nod as the small golden circlet on her wrist jingled when she stroked the beast. Listening to the boy introduce himself as she finally spoke. Black eyes turning to look over the boy and she provided a smile showing the normally featureless face could warm... with was just deathly pale naturally as the circlet's force enhancement allowed it to keep her warm even on hoth naked. So long as one could feel the force they could have its environmental adjustments. Deserts were also easy enough to handle as it cooled the body. "I am Matsu Ike ahhh daughter of Oshida of House Kessel." She shrugged not really sure but why not she could fit in with it all if she needed to while walking. Letting her robes open a little to show the twin sabers on her hip and the z shaped hilt that was connected for throwing like a chakram when needed. Her small equipment pack showing off to the side with its need as a bag of holding when she needs it. "This is a very lovely planet."

 

[Dorne Calato]

CYRANO​

"It is home...Very well, let's us go." The trio rode some distance from the landing site, Cyrano mostly carrying the conversation. He enquired of the other old masters from Ike, speaking of each with great familiarity and nostlagia. Calato though, remained silent, feeling little need to assert himself with his father around. They would eventually reach the edge of an old wood.

"I will leave you with master Ike to train today, do not be afraid to ask her questions." Cyrano told his son, a hint of worry on the young man's face. For ten winters he had known no other teacher in the Art. Cyrano then turned to Ike. "She won't bite."

"You're not coming with us, father?" Calato asked, unsure of himself in the presence of another Force User. He had kept their training a secret from the public; to suddenly train openly with a stranger... made Calato's confidence plummet.

"Nay, Consul Gallan bid me to the hunt this morn. You are 18 now, Calato. From now on you make your own decisions- you need not my supervision." His father assured him.

"...Very well. Take care on the hunt- I have never heard Gallan bid you hunt with him before." Calato voiced his concern, disliking the man who served as the co-head of state. Gallan was no man of honor, in Calato's eyes.

"Gallan and I may have our differences but we are Consuls. Perhaps he has finally seen wisdom and seeks to make amends..." Cyrano retrieved a small object wrapped in simple cloth from his pack, and handed it to Cato. "here"

"..." Calato looked in silent awe at the crystal in the small box. He understood what it mean- his time had come.

"Watch over master Ike in the wood." Cyrano pats his son on the shoulder, then turns to Ike. "Master Ike, I leave him in your capable hands."

Cyrano rode off. Calato looked at Ike. He'd never been that good around women, having spent most of his time around the old maesters who tutored him. Women were as foreign to him as the core worlds.

The young lord became a stuttering, shy boy. "Yes, right... uhm... th-this way, m- my lady." He guided his mount deeper into the wood, showing Ike the way to the Jedi Grove, a place thick with the Force where they would train, and Calato begin building his weapon. The young man looked at Ike for guidance, wondering if he should say something or wait for Ike to ask him some questions.



[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Elsewhere in the wood Cyrano met Co-Consul Gallan's hunting party.

"My lord Nefario." Cyrano greeted his fellow head of state.

"My lord Dorne. I hope you are well." The portly man replied. Gallan had always been an aristocrat, and the thick fur coat he wore only seemed to make him look fatter. His puffy cheeks were flushed red, his receding hairline and lines under his eyes speaking poorly of his health.

"It surprised me to hear you invited me to the hunt." Cyrano said bluntly, looking at him in the eye.

"I know you are fond of it, and I wished for us to make amends. We have our differences, Cyrano, but we are still the Consuls. We should see eye to eye on something."

Dorne looked at him and the dozen men gathered. Half were his own soldiers, the other half Gallan's men. A part of Cyrano wondered what the Co-consul was planning for this day. "Very well... let us get this over with." Cyrano agreed, and one of his riders handed him a hunting spear for game.

A fine hunt indeed, for Gallan too kept a mask of the Raven Court with him. His fellows would lead their allies to the agreed place, where accidents were prone to occur...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"] [member="Dorne Calato"]

Looking at him go off while they traveled her attention went to everything that was around them. The force energies expanding outwards from her before she looked over at the boy when he spoke. "You need not be nervous." SHe wasn't used to riding horses.. at least normal average horses. The Del-Ya on Shri-Tal were beautiful but they were sentient, they could also fly or had horns to really mess with people as they could use the force and talk so a normal one seemed strange despite how beautiful it was. "Your world is very beautiful." There was attention on some of the things before she touched the horse at the mane allowing some attention to go to the boy. "So tell me about yourself, I want to get to know you."

 

[Dorne Calato]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

Spoiler: ((Yoda on a Kybuck))

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/4/46/YodaKybuck-CW23.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100911150534

"Yes, Ymir (to be submitted to planet submissions later) is the only home I know, though I have read of other worlds." The young prince did say, taking a moment to appreciate the local wildlife. The path Calato led them on was rough and uneven, making their mounts optimal to traverse the vast distances of the wood. This place was old, as a world on the edge of the galaxy, left largely untouched. The trees were ancient and gnarled, like venerable beings listening and watching as the ages passed them. And the living Force was strong here. Life thrived even in the harsh winter, the plants and beasts.

"...What is there to know, my lady? I am my father's heir, and yet he has trained me in the Jedi way." Calato said, formal and stuffy, and still slightly shy, wondering if this was what she wanted to know.

"I know it is... somewhat contrary to the Jedi code, to hold political office, to rule- and one cannot walk two paths. Yet my father will always say he regrets breaking his Jedi oaths, for he needed to serve his people, protect them from the greed of the other nobles. " Calato's regard for his father was apparent, and yet also what held him back as a person. The greater the parent's achievements, the larger the shadow the child lived in. And Calato lived in such shadow.

"From where do you hail, my lady? What sort world saw you grow from babe to maiden? What life is it to truly serve the Jedi?" He asked, the young man curious about the greater galaxy. Snow began to fall more heavily now.

((I'll converse with [member="Matsu Ike"] for now until [member="Matsu Xiangu"] can post and we move the bad things forward.))

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

If the Raven Court found her removed, they were not entirely wrong. That their goals were her own was the only reason she found herself standing amongst them. Their ambitions were beneath her - but then, that was how she saw everyone. Insectile. Feeble.

She lapsed in to silence, staring at nothing as she watched their treachery unfold through her creatures’ eyes.

______________________​

The Undead weren’t known for their silence, but Matsu was no common necromancer. Eyes burning with unnatural intelligence, the only thing that might give them away in the dense cover of the woods in which the Hunt was scheduled to take place was the glow of their red-magenta eyes. They kept pace with their live brethren, accepting the Ravens’ soldiers as necessary allies in their Creator’s plans.

The forest was dense, branches hanging low with their blue-green walls of wet foliage. Usually the place was gorgeous - a bastion of ancient watchers releasing the scent of pine and cedar through miles of untouched nature. Something was quiet about the place that day, but Gallan seemed to be dismissing it as just the tenseness of tracking big game.

There was always the chance of death.

Off in the cover of the trees and underbrush, Matsu’s Children did their duty, dispatching three of Cyrano’s men who’d been protecting the flanks of the party without sound. They went for the throat, horrid teeth tearing larynx from sinew before any of the men could do their final bidding and shout a warning.

The mounts, perhaps sensing the monstrous creatures hidden just out of view, gave snorts and shivers. A few side-stepped, but were quickly checked with a few tugs of the rein and a squeeze of the legs.

“Our quarry must be ahead, Lord Dorne,” Gallan mused, spurring his mount forward and somehow managing to keep the slimy smile off his face.

[member="Dorne Calato"] | [member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dorne Calato"] [member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Matsu was listening to him speak as she was looking over some of the things with some of the attention. "It is not always something for breaking oaths. In times of distress for some species or worlds there have been cases of jedi taking control in governments or taking wives." Another thing that was not always allowed and usually avoided. If it was needed and was the only way but the jedi usually made special cases for it. "I only know a couple times it was done for real reasons and several others that were done because some wanted to make plays for power." Keeping it going her senses flared with something while she felt her muscles tense ready for anything that could be coming. Attention on some of the things there, her sabers ready to move to her hands but she was unsure about attacking from horse back... at least with a speeder it wasn't killing if the blade cut through it.. dangerous sure but not unneeded killing.

 

[Dorne Calato]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

Calato nodded in their formal discussion. He had no question that what the Jedi did was noble, and that to join them was a great honor. But the young boy in him had his doubts- forsake one's inheritance, one's family and loved ones? He felt anguish over the thought. He had met someone, a girl- how could he not? He was the world's prince, and he had a pick of any of the daughters of noble houses. Yet the one who caught his eye was a young nurse- perhaps older than himself, but she was a shining light in his eyes. Easy to converse, humble in character, simple in beauty- qualities Calato found nowhere else among the nobility.
Calato sighed, and blocked them out. He was still ashamed of himself, of being unlike his father. He considered sharing with Ike; these feelings were easy to pick up, likely. Feelings of doubt, of being divided. But Dorne's thoughts focused to the task when they finally reached the grove. The Jedi master and Jedi wannabe stood among the world's most ancient trees, brimming with the living Force.

Calato dismounted from his Kybuk and let her graze on the grass. Calato stroked the back of her neck a few times, before moving to so gentlemanly help Ike off her mount.

"So... father said our training will begin here. But first I must have a proper Jedi's weapon... Uhm, this will take only a few minutes, my lady." Dorne retrieved the crystal his father gifted him, as well as a bag containing the parts for a lightsaber. He laid them out on the ground with ritualistic reverence, and knelt down on both legs to do it the "old way".

"Please, make yourself comfortable, Master.... uhm... there is warm wine in your mount's pack." He had said, before beginning to use the Force to assemble the weapon. Calato had strength in the physical aspects of the Force, but he was lacking in the more subtle, sensory aspects.

A few minutes were all Calato had, for the darkness encroached towards them. Gallan was a thorough and ruthless man, and more than once not only erased his rivals, but murder their whole families. The princeling was no exception, and while the forces moved in the capitol, a smaller task force was on their way to the grove by speeder. Four Capitol guard, loyal to Gallan's coin, and an aspiring Force User who craved the favor of the Sith.


========

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

The revolution had no battle cries, for Gallan demanded silent but swift brutality. Commoners "elected" - the word left a foul taste in his mouth - to positions once held only by the nobles, minded their duties for the day within the ministry buildings. The doors had swung upon, no warning from the guards who were dispatched by rebels and Xiangnu's undead. They tried to run, but their exits were cut off. They tried to surrender, but the undead were commanded to have them herded into the central atrium, lined up. The commoners were segregated from the minor nobles who had proven themselves competent in Dorne's new system.

"Please... what... what have we done? We are just clerks doing our duty..." The bespectacled man asked, fearful. This one once a mere cobbler boy who, under Dorne's leadership could read and do arithmetic... and now helped run the government's financial systems.

"Your duty? Your duty is to die for the fool Dorne's ideals!" The rebel squad leader proclaimed, looking at these lowborn peasants now wearing the dress of dignified office workers. He set the undead upon them, in an orgy of claws and teeth, to die without honor.

"NOOO!!!" They tried to run once more, but it availed them little. The undead had their fill.

"Consul Dorne will hear of this! You will all be hanged! ALL OF YOU!" The noble born woman loyal to the new regime shouted in defiance. For them, their deaths would have some dignity- in some twisted recognition of their lineage, the nobles on Dorne's side were afforded a beheading with lightsaber pikes. Once the institution was now empty of life, the rebels moved on. The scene would play out everywhere else, the works of Cyrano Dorne being torn down, an affront to the affluent nobility.


Meanwhile in the Wood, Cyrano was busy tracking a large boar when he realized something was terribly wrong. He could sense chaos and sorrow in the Capitol, as dark deeds reaped their toll of innocent lives. He looked at Gallan, who had fallen behind... when the ambush was sprung. Gallan's men ignited their saber pikes and skewered Dorne's remaining men before they could react. Only one retainer of his remained, and he sparred with his counterparts. Instinctively Dorne lit up his saber, and moved to cut down two of Gallan's soldiers in the blink of an eye.

"...Gallan... you... How could you do this?!" He asked, outraged.

"You were always a fool Dorne. Thinking you could come back to this world... bring... democracy?!

"I'll see you beheaded for your crimes."

"I think not."

The undead, in the vast hordes they were, came out from the woods to surrouned Cyrano. It was necessary, to wear down the Knight- he would fight courageously and with skill, yes, but by the end of it, he would tire, become vulnerable to the real foe he was to face.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dorne Calato"]

Matsu arrived with im there and as he started to construct his own lightsaber she was curious but all for it as it was progression and moving forward. She sat there on the horse and hopped off as he was working with her body hovering for a moment and she moved quietly towards some of the things to watch him as well as keep her attention pointed outwards towards sections of the world to feel what she could. her twin sabers on her thigh near the sword and her other equipment before she was watching him work on the saber. They could get a few other things as the jedi master crossed her legs bringing her hands up to her knees pressing her fingers together lightly with small circles. "Then lets see how you do to start."