Private &nbsp; The Mermaid of Nezamiyeh

Auteme · Dec 6, 2020

A bar and grill was effectively Auteme's least favorite types of restaurants, given it combined her aversions to meat and alcohol. Not that she minded all that much -- she'd bought a small platter of fries, then ate it with the lunch she'd packed in her bag. Of course, she'd packed it a very long time ago, but the Farseer Traveling Bag kept the fruit and bread fresh as long as she needed it to.

It wasn't much of a choice to stop there. She'd been wandering Nezamiyeh all morning, but not in a bad way. In fact she'd been lost in the best way. So often the galaxy felt tamed, and in the rare moments where she could explore a place that still felt old and wild and fascinating, she was happier than ever. Outside of the downtown she came across fewer and fewer people. Despite the wild growth and the unfamiliar landscape, she never felt she was in danger; the energy about the place was undeniable and every stranger she met was as kind as the best Jedi she knew.

Still, as brimming with life as the place was, she'd spent the last hour without seeing a single soul. When she'd arrived at the semi-operational restaurant she hadn't thought twice about entering and finding herself a booth. Only a few minutes later did the questions start popping up. Not long after was the commotion.

Auteme found herself swept up as the patrons left the restaurant. Duty, maybe. Curiosity, certainly. Whatever her reasoning she walked a few steps behind the others down towards the beach -- finding herself in step with a lanky, pointy-eared man and what looked to be his daughter. But there was something...

"Do I know you?" She stared at him a little longer. All the exploration had reminded her of a certain inner drive to discover; there was something familiar there, and she thought it'd be nice to find it.

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun · Dec 7, 2020

Lori wasn't out in the restaurant like

Jacen Nimdok , Miri and

Auteme were. Instead she was out on the beach itself, doing what some liked to call 'beachcombing'. Her eyes scanned the sands by her bare feet as she walked, looking for beautiful shells and waterpolished stones that she could gather and use for....well, that was her own secret.

It was nice to have a bit of a break. One can only run and hide for so long. And this time she didn't want to stop in order to fight. This time she hoped to not find her enemies tailing her or any others that wanted tocash in on her capture.

The sun was warm, the beach and water itself seemed inviting. That is until the people started to pour out of the beachside restaurant. Lori squinted her eyes in the sun as she abandoned her beachcombing for the moment. Something was going on. And to see a bunch of people clearing a restaurant like that wasn't a good sign.

Lori quickly slipped on her boots, dusting off some of the sand from her feet, before she approached near where the others were headed, curious like any passerby would be.

Deryn Kaaldos · Dec 7, 2020

Deryn wasn't exactly the type of person you'd expect to find in a place like this. Well, if you knew him well enough, perhaps you'd realize he was, until the thought that he can't eat nor drink through his armor that he wore every second of his life came to mind. Still, he was here because he was on a job. It was a job that involved crashing the Warhawk into the ocean. Likewise, Deryn wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought, but it'd take a bit to drag his ship out of the depths of the oceans.

He was just outside the bar, standing idly on the patio of the establishment one armored metal hand in his pocket as he watched as he watched as the recovery team finally delved into the waters to retrieve his ship around a day after the crash. He succeeded at the job, luckily, but he doubted that the pay would even cover the repairs to his ship. This was a cash-out, a complete waste. "Kark...." In his other hand was an Daquiri complete with lemon and a straw umbrella but had its contents pour out with a crack of the glass. Of course, he wasn't really going to drink it anyways.

He took out his pocketed hand, rubbing it against the temple of his helmet. It wasn't the amount of credits that he'd lose that was worrying him. Deryn, ultimately, never cared for money. His sweet darling Warhawk was in great pain, and it would've caused him a heart-attack if he physiologically had a heart. He would've started crying if he had tear ducts too. This made an odd scene as he stood out like a sore thumb among them all as a near seven feet tall, heavily armored and armed individual seemingly crying with a spilt drink on his coat. It was a pathetic sight but most wouldn't comment on it if they didn't want to take a visit to the medspace.

He needed to get his mind off of things. Alcohol was out of the question; Deryn couldn't get drunk anyways. Games? All of his consoles were on the Warhawk. Take a swim? Hell no. Deryn hates water and absolutely despises swimming. He really doesn't like water. Its cold, its wet, and it gets everywhere. However, once a crowd started to muster from a certain disturbance, Deryn took interest.

He walked along to see, ending up walking just behind Nimdok and Auteme. "If only there were Jedi to hunt..... Would've made a profit back." He said aloud, not realizing that one was just in front of him.

 Auteme

 Jacen Nimdok

 Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Jacen Nimdok · Dec 9, 2020

"If only there were Jedi to hunt..... Would've made a profit back."

Blinking, Nimdok craned his neck at the mutterings of a figure in heavy armor walking just behind them.

Deryn Kaaldos stuck out like a sore thumb; the fact that he was talking to himself only made him seem more strange. He was lucky that the locals didn’t care whether or not he hunted Jedi in his spare time, provided the Jedi wasn’t a recent defector to the Chaldean Potentium. Nimdok frowned but said nothing, turning to face forward again as he continued to walk. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun pulling on her boots, her curiosity piqued by the crowd.

“Do I know you?”

A voice at his shoulder drew Nimdok out of his thoughts. He turned and saw a young woman walking alongside him, a dark-haired girl with kind eyes. While Auteme’s question showed she couldn’t quite place a name to his face, Nimdok recognized her immediately. His memory took him back to Anaxes Station, where he had seen her briefly being delivered what sounded like bad news. But that was three years ago.

Auteme probably knew him from much more recent events.

“The Prosperity,” he replied. “I was at a conference there. We discussed an incident involving a Padawan who was killed over a Sith holocron, and whether or not the various Sith artifacts in the Jedi’s vaults should be disposed of.” He shuddered at the thought. “You were the lead organizer, weren’t you? You certainly did most of the talking. For once, I felt upstaged by someone with more to say. That’s not something that happens every day.” Smiling, he gestured to himself. “Professor Nimdok, at your service.”

"Aren't you Auteme from The Totally Real Adventures of Auteme?" Miri blurted out as soon as her father was done talking.

Further ahead of the group, there was a cry of distress: “There she is! Gerda!” Dashing feet sent up clouds of disturbed sand. Peering over the heads in front of him, Nimdok saw what they were running towards.

A small humanoid figure lay face down on the edge of the beach, saltwater foaming around the body with every crash of the tide. Long hair obscured much of the upper half, shining a fiery red in the bright noon sun. The lower half of the body resembled a fish’s tail, covered in glistening green scales.

“Mermaid!”

Miri’s squeal was followed by her bolting forward, spurred on by sudden excitement. Nimdok reached out and grabbed her before she could go too far, even stopping in his tracks while the rest of the crowd passed them. “Hold it,” he said. “That mermaid’s been beached. She might be sick or hurt.” Or dead, he thought grimly.

The body was indeed motionless. Her right arm was bent at an awkward angle under the torso, while the left stretched limply forward toward dry land. Jorn and one of the girls who had been talking back at the restaurant, a blonde, each took one of her shoulders and dragged her away from the sea, then rolled her over onto her side. The blonde’s friend, a green-skinned Mirialan, turned to face the crowd.

“Okay, everybody, back off,” she said. “We gotta get her out of her Skin. Actually, does anybody have a towel?”

Behind her, the blonde had already started to remove the greenish “Skin” of the mermaid, revealing pale flesh underneath. As soon as her neck was exposed, she checked for a pulse.

As she always did whenever something inexplicable happened, Miri turned to Nimdok, her freckled nose wrinkling. “Why are they peeling her skin off?”

“It’s not her real skin,” Nimdok explained, ever the near-human encyclopedia. “It’s an Atargatis Skin. Wearing it allows a person to swim and breathe underwater for an indefinite period of time, thanks to the artificial gills and self-cleaning system.”

“So she’s a pretend mermaid?”

“I suppose so, yes.” He shrugged. “She and her friends are likely members of the Finfolk, a unique subculture found only on Chaldea. They willingly wear the Skins on a regular basis, living most of their lives in the ocean.”

“I want an At... At-tar-gat-is Skin,” Miri said, pronouncing the word carefully. “Can I have one? Please?”

“No,” her father replied without so much as a pause. "Absolutely not. The Skins are not only known for being as addictive as a drug, making the wearer never want to take them off, but they're rumored to be made with Dark Side alchemy. You don't want to risk exposure to that, no matter how much you'd like to be a mermaid, gelfling."

"Darn," Miri muttered.

In the meantime, the trio were still tending to Gerda. “Did you at least try to do CPR when you found her?” the Mirialan asked Jorn.

“No,” he admitted miserably, still rolling the thin, pliable Atargatis Skin away from Gerda’s face with his fingers. Gel-like and almost transparent, it began at her hairline and sealed off her skin in a waterproof embrace. “I ran straight back to you. I didn’t know what to do—I wasn’t thinking straight…”

Something about his behavior made Nimdok think that there was more to the story than Jorn was letting on. But for now, the focus was on Gerda and making sure she was all right.

“Her heart’s beating,” the girl who had checked her pulse said. “Looks like she’s breathing, too.” She slapped Gerda’s bare face with her hand, trying to rouse her.

The mermaid—or rather, the girl beneath the mermaid suit—stirred faintly. Her eyelids fluttered, squinting against the sun, then she suddenly jerked upright, her hands scrabbling for purchase in the sand below her body. Both Jorn and the blonde instinctively got out of her way, equally startled by her sudden jolt back to awareness.

“Whoa, hey, it’s okay!” The Mirialan said. “Gerda, what happened? Your Skin get a hole in it or something?”

Gerda’s eyes were wide, darting from face to face. She seemed bewildered, as if she didn’t know where she was or how she had gotten there. Looking down, she grasped the edge of the Skin. Half of it lay folded in a heap beneath her, the other half still binding her legs. She looked at it with an expression of horror, then squirmed violently, trying to free herself from it.

“Gerda, it’s all right,” the blonde tried to reassure her. “Let us help you…”

As the three worked to remove the rest of the Skin, the crowd started to disperse, no longer interested now that the mermaid had been found alive and the cause of the upset appeared to be just a minor accident. Nimdok’s brow furrowed. Gerda’s behavior wasn’t totally bizarre for someone who had nearly drowned, but there did seem to be something a little off about her. It was as if she didn’t recognize her friends or the Skin she wore—it was all strange, foreign and frightening to her. Then there was the fact that she hadn’t spoken a word since they found her, not even to explain what had happened…

Auteme · Dec 12, 2020

"That- that show's entirely fictional." It was, but it didn't stop people from asking her about it.

All the time.

On public holos.

Broadcasted across the Alliance and the galaxy.

Her, the Jedi.

Her walk became rather stiff after the comment from the man behind her. Even a glance back at the armored giant -- who was a good foot and a half taller than her and looked like he could bench a starship -- was more than enough of a scare for her. Red goggles? Combat armor? Looking to hunt Jedi? No thanks.

She did her best to speak to the professor without sounding like she was being watched by someone who probably wanted to kill her. "Yes, I... ah, talk a lot," she said, refraining from saying any more.

Thankfully they arrived at the scene of an unconscious mermaid. Wonderful.

She stayed with Nimdok and his daughter just long enough to hear about the alchemized skins, but when the woman bolted upright Auteme started to walk over. There was a panic, a fear in the woman -- and still, something beyond that. The Force gave her a nudge. One of Gerda's friends gave Auteme a look, but she continued, waving him off. "I'm a doctor, let me help."

Half-truths were becoming too common these days.

The friends made way. Auteme approached and knelt beside Gerda, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. Gerda, it's alright. Can you take a deep breath for me?"

She guided the woman through it, getting her to calm down just a little more. Auteme couldn't sense any substantial injuries but she checked anyways. Flashlight to the eyes to check for a concussion, vision test, her own sense of the Force.

Still, the woman's breaths indicated she'd been drowning, and her demeanor made Auteme think there may be memory damage.

"Do you remember what happened?" She glanced to the skin, now resting on the sand nearby. With a bit of effort she reached out through her empathy, continuing to calm Gerda -- and encouraging her to be open and honest.

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun · Dec 12, 2020

Lori furrowed her brow as she watched the goings on. Mermaids? Fake skin? All of it seemed bizarre. She glanced around them all, looking to see if she could see any hidden cameras or something....crew...anything. But no. The only one that seemed out of place was

Deryn Kaaldos , and he looked much like the kind of person that would be hired by the Eternal Empire. That in itself wasn't good for her.

Casually, Lori undid her braid and let her hair fall so that it could hide some of her face from view and turned her attention back to the scene. Some of the people left, however

Jacen Nimdok , a young girl,

Auteme and what looked to be the injured party's friends remained. If there was some kind of skin that enabled one to hide under water, she wondered if there was other types of skins for other types of climates that could be utilized as well. Hmmm...It was worth looking into later.

'Gerda' still seemed sorely confused about everything that was going on. "Maybe she hit her head?" Lori spoke her thoughts outloud. Just what it was like below the surface of the water, she just couldn't guess. "Or poisoned by some kind of....fish?" Some had poisonous barbs, didn't they? In some worlds perhaps. But it wasn't as though Lori had gone and researched everything here. She just came to collect some pretty things for a special little project of hers.

Deryn Kaaldos · Dec 13, 2020

There was an odd jump in his aural senses. The professor before him looked at him curiously but the one he was conversing with had a more violent reaction. He could hear it, that jolt. A slight skip of a heart. The sudden irregularity in her breathing. It was disgusting. Humans were disgusting creatures, with all that noise happening about inside them. Though, he couldn't say much for himself, with his armor clanking against the ground and the hydraulics pressing to move. That slight whirring, and when it gets faulty like that time with 

 Mariah of House Marr
it really hurt his sensitive ears. But those were mechanical, non squishy and icky stuff. The only thing that he had that made icky sounds... was him, being what is essentially amorphous sludge inside a shell. Perhaps he should be less critical of humans.

After having completely glossed over the obvious Jedi, he, along with all the others, arrived at the sighting of the mermaid. People that live underwater? Must be bantha poodoo crazy to be under there with all those big-ass fish, and where there is big-ass fish, there is always a bigger big-ass fish. Not only did he hate the feeling of water, as a giant metal man, he wasn't exactly good at surviving there. Anyways, it was standard non-Sith moral obligation to help a person in need, so he took out his Stunfist.

"I can electrocute her awake." He offered as his stunfist activated. A burst of energy came out of it, dancing across his knuckles. Obviously, that fist would do more than just wake her up. Luckily, as Auteme offered help, the mermaid woke up, and Deryn tucked away the weapon. Instead, he brought out a cannister that had a small knob to twist on from within his coat. Twisting it, out came a large needle and the knob extended outwards as well, turning the cannister into a syringe-like object.

"Bacta?" He offered. The syringe was way to damn long but with a precise hand, one can use it. Deryn carried it around in case his regeneration took a wrong turn and his brain started to slow in function. He held it out for Auteme as a notification appeared on his HUD. He was being called for a job. It was a familiar source, as well. He read it over silently in his helmet.

Huh. He was already where he needed to be for the job. But did he want to do this now while his ship was still being taken from the ocean? He accepted it, knowing that he was going to do it sooner or later. He suddenly found forty-million credits cashed to him in advanced, brightening his mood severely. Another sixteen when he finishes the job.

Seems like he's been hired for some terrorism and mass murder of what he could only assume could perhaps be hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives here on Chaldea.

Maybe after he helps the mermaid; would be rude to just leave her drying up in the sun, after all.

 Jacen Nimdok

 Auteme

 Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Jacen Nimdok · Dec 13, 2020

As

Auteme approached to examine her, Gerda sat on top of one towel while two others covered her body, naked underneath the Skin. She flinched away from the light Auteme shone in her eyes, skittish as a rabbit, and when Auteme asked her to breathe, she coughed up quite a bit of water.

The Mirialan girl left for a few minutes, retrieving a bag containing Gerda’s clothing and other belongings, but when she returned and laid the bag beside her, Gerda showed no interest in it. She looked at Auteme, whose Force empathy was enough to attract her attention, but didn’t answer her question.

In fact, she still had yet to speak a single word.

“She isn’t a mute, is she?” Nimdok asked, puzzled by her silence. Even if she had hit her head and suffered memory loss, surely she would still be able to speak. Unless the damage was much more severe than it appeared…

“No, not at all,” the blonde replied, her brow furrowing. “She can talk up a storm if you let her. Of course, she knows sign language—we all do.”

Glancing at the mermaid’s friends, Nimdok asked, “You’re all Finfolk, yes? What are your names?”

“We’re Mer,” the Mirialan replied, slight irritation creeping into her tone. “I’m Isha.” She pointed to the blonde girl. “She’s Suze, he’s Jorn, and she’s Gerda.”

Suze, not knowing what else to do, made a few sign language gestures in front of Gerda. She watched the hand movements attentively, then slowly raised her own hands. It was clear to everyone there, however, that she was simply imitating what she had just seen, not actually gesticulating a response.

“Oh no.” Jorn sank to the ground, holding his head in his hands. “No, this can’t… this can’t be happening…”

Nimdok was about to ask the panicking young man a question or two when Miri impatiently slapped his hand with hers, trying to get his attention. He turned to her.

“Can I go swimming now?” she asked.

“No—” he replied automatically, then hesitated. They had been standing out here in the noonday sun for several minutes now, with Miri wearing only her bathing suit... With a sigh, he pulled her aside, took a can of sunscreen out of his bag, shook it, and sprayed her liberally. She covered her face and spun in a circle, then held out her hands and rubbed the liquified spray on her nose and cheeks.

“Now can I go swimming?” she asked again, still hopeful.

“No, but at least now you won’t burn,” Nimdok muttered, shoving the can back into his bag and dragging her back over to the scene of the beached mermaid. The crowd had fully dissipated, with diners returning to the restaurant or leaving the site altogether. Only Gerda and her friends remained, along with Auteme,

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun , and the giant in armor

Deryn Kaaldos .

In the time it had taken for him to prevent his daughter from getting sunburned, Isha had made a startling discovery. “Her Skin has a hole in it,” she announced, holding up the suit. Sure enough, there was a jagged cut in the gel-like material along the front. It was too rough to be deliberate, and looked more like she had scraped against a sharp rock. Checking Gerda for such a wound revealed a superficial scratch just below her ribs. It had already scabbed over, though it probably stung.

“Would that be enough to compromise her suit?” Nimdok asked.

Isha nodded grimly. “She’s lucky she didn’t drown.”

It seemed to Nimdok that Gerda actually had drowned, given how much water she had expelled from her lungs earlier. She was lucky her friends had gotten to her in time… although if Jorn’s side of the story was to be believed, quite a bit of time had passed between her washing ashore and receiving medical aid. The details in this case weren't adding up. But as long as Gerda remained silent, they had no way of knowing the truth of what happened.

Auteme · Dec 21, 2020

Gerda seemed fractured, almost; or perhaps wiped clean. No response meant Auteme couldn't do much with the girl in terms of finding out what had happened. Worse, without that understanding, she worried what might happen if she tried to delve into Gerda's mind. Twisted psyches were difficult to fix.

But if she didn't, what would happen to the girl? It was possible she was worrying too much anyways. Still, the lack of a concussion or apparent head injuries meant she couldn't rule out more 'supernatural' causes. If what the professor said was true, and the skins were infused with the dark side, it might be far worse than a lack of communication or memories.

The skin itself didn't scare her, though. It hummed with the Force but it wasn't as malevolent as some other artifacts she'd encountered. The tear, too, seemed normal enough.

Normally Auteme would've just healed the small scratch, but with the armored giant looming nearby she decided more conventional methods would be better. She waved away his offer for a syringe and instead produced a first aid kit from her own bag. She wiped down the scratch and then placed a bacta patch on it.

One of the Mer -- Jorn -- had reacted in an odd way to the revelation of Gerda's state. Auteme stood and turned to him. Her demeanor didn't change much but she watched his reactions closely. "Hey- Jorn, right? You were the one that found Gerda."

He nodded.

"It's good that you found her; she probably would've drowned without you. Can you tell me what happened to her?" She put away her first aid kit, then smiled to Jorn. "And, you know, what's happening to her. You seem worried. If you can tell me what's wrong, I might be able to help fix things."

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun · Dec 26, 2020

Lori just watched. That was about all that she could do at this moment. Watch, observe, listen and ponder. It was rather strange that Gerda had lost so much of herself. Was it really just due to a hole in the suit and possible drowning? She hadn't come across anyone that had nearly drowned before, so she wasn't entirely sure on how it affects the body. But then again, different species would react in different ways.

"What could puncture the suit down there? Is anyone vindictive towards her for something? An old boyfriend, maybe? Girlfriend?" They all seemed rather close and Lori was just voicing her thoughts out loud. Gerda might not have any answers in her current state. But the others might.

Auteme

Deryn Kaaldos · Jan 9, 2021

​

He placed back the syringe when Auteme had found an alternative, absorbing himself into the background of the scene as best as he could as they went on. A hole in the suit, with an entrance wound too rough to be something like a knife or even teeth - made him realize something. Was it his fault? Did debris from his ship get across the ocean and snagged upon her suit? It was.... unlikely at best, but Deryn had an aching feeling that this was somehow his fault. Usually is, given whether he likes it or not, pain and suffering follows him like a dog to its master.

"I'll call some medical professionals to get her a more thorough service than first aid could offer." He said, ringing them in the HUD of his helmet. "Personally, I think its best to let her regain some consciousness asking around. Let lips be too loose then you'd get misinformation about the victim or the waters about. Could lead to some trouble with the owner's of the beach and all. Next thing you know, they're getting temporarily suspended because of rumors of some mischievous specie of fish in the waters calling for an investigation."

 Auteme

 Jacen Nimdok

 Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

​

Jacen Nimdok · Jan 9, 2021

At Loreena’s question, Isha shook her head. “No enemies. No boyfriend or girlfriend either.”

“None that you know of,” Suze said softly.

“Now, what’s that supposed to mean?” Isha put her hands on her hips. “Do you know anything? Because I’m sure we’d all love to hear it.”

Suze shrugged. “She could’ve been keeping secrets. I mean, how would we know?”

“If you say so.”

Nimdok’s attention was drawn away from their bickering and towards Auteme, who was asking Jorn about how he found Gerda.

“I saw her lying on the beach facedown,” he explained. “I knew that I needed to get help, but at first I just stood there… I froze up from shock, I guess.” He pursed his lips, his brow furrowing. “But… while I was standing there frozen, there was this… this light. Like a cloud of light that floated over to her, and…” He shook his head. “I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what I was seeing, an optical illusion, a ghost, aliens, something. I turned around and ran. Now Gerda’s got amnesia, or she’s gone crazy, brain damaged, something—maybe if I hadn’t stood there like an idiot, this wouldn’t have happened!”

Well, this certainly changed things. “Which way did the light come from?” Nimdok asked.

“From inland.” Jorn gestured toward some rocks, beyond which the city landscape of Nezamiyeh loomed. “It was shapeless, formless. Just a cloud of pure energy. At least, that’s how I would describe it.”

Quite appropriately, Deryn called for help. Nimdok approached the rocks Jorn had pointed to, not really sure what he was looking for, then turned around again, facing Gerda. She was still sitting on her throne of towels, staring down at her hands.

The mystery had taken a sudden supernatural turn. Jorn’s story would certainly make for a strange report to the local authorities once they arrived. But while the others might be inclined to wash their hands of the strange case, Nimdok was more determined than ever to unravel it. It was just too weird to pass up.

“A cloud of pure energy…” he murmured, thinking out loud. “I suppose it could be any of those things—an alien being, a spirit of some kind, or just a trick of the light. Could be the key to it all, or could mean nothing.”

“I know that I saw something,” Jorn said. “I didn’t imagine it. Whatever it was, it did something to her.”

“But we don’t know what it did.” Nimdok pursed his lips, his gaze flicking over the others. “Are any of you trained with the Force? You might be able to sense something irregular or unusual about her.”

Auteme |

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun |

Auteme · Jan 16, 2021

The very word alien was almost alien to her at this point. Still, Jorn's vague explanation didn't give her any distinct clue as to what exactly it might be. Her instinct was something around the Force, given the city's richness in it, but there were a million other things it could've been and she didn't know enough about Chaldea to narrow it down.

She sighed, resigning herself to Nimdok's suggestion. "Yes. I'll... give it a shot."

She knelt next to Gerda again and placed her hands on the young woman's chest and head. The Force was a flow; of energy, of something else, however it might be described. Tracing the flow, finding where it was dammed or polluted, required a clear mind.

Auteme's was anything but. It flooded with questions and worries. What had happened here? Could she truly help Gerda, or any of them? What was the right course of action? Was she wasting her time here, when she might be doing something more important, more meaningful? She wasn't an investigator; perhaps someone more intelligent than her could take over.

She exhaled, releasing those worries, as numerous as they were. All she wanted was to help others. This wasn't a detriment to that at all; so, for now, she would continue. Her energy reached forward to find Gerda's, to intertwine with the web wound within her. Not a true meld, but close -- a slow search of the mind, focused, yet open. Not only that but Gerda's presence as well; if something was amiss, polluted or otherwise, she was sure she would be able to sense it. It was only when she focused like this that she could truly sense things.

No more guessing; there had to be answers there. She dove deeper, submerging herself in the flow.

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun · Jan 21, 2021

Lori's breath caught in her throat at the mention of the cloud of light. It wasn't as though she knew anything about it, but it made her think of her own Force Lights that she would create. Usually they were used for no more than a source of light in the dark. She had also used them as a distraction against her enemies, blinding them for mere moments so that she and others could escape. And only recently had it been brought to attention that such a skill was often used by people like her late Dad to combat Darksiders. Seeing it was enough to make her uncle

Darlyn Excron get nervous. Yet she wasn't certain at all that she'd ever learn to use the skill properly.

Whatever happened to her Force Light when she didn't make it explode? Energy, when created, hardly ever just disappeared. It usually needed to go somewhere. So what happened to hers when she let it go? Did it gain a life of it's own and wandered off?

Lori remained silent as

Deryn Kaaldos had suggested. But her interest didn't waiver. Instead she just watched

Jacen Nimdok , his daughter and

Auteme as they continued to investigate. Maybe in some way she'd learn a bit more about herself too.

Deryn Kaaldos · Jan 30, 2021

​

Deryn tuned in attentively with four parts of his brain power. He wasn't much of an investigator; asking questions can get you hunted and skinned in his kind of business. Though, the rest of his brain was focused on his surroundings. This area was particularly remote so he doubted there was a clear angle for any set-up surveillance but there should at least be a camera around. He heard the word light spring up, and figured he'd try to find something on them. He walked away from the group, zoning out of the conversation almost completely as his focus, even with inhuman senses, shifted to finding a camera available to crack, completely the mentions of the Force.

He turned on his scanners, and quickly found a camera. He climb up a tree to get to it - a feat difficult for a half-ton monster in a half-ton suit of power armor. He would jack his suit into it, cracking into the recordings. He looked back over to the group, raising his hand as he then called for their attention. "Heyo! Think I found someth'in."

 Auteme

 Jacen Nimdok

 Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

​

Jacen Nimdok · Jan 30, 2021

Jorn looked up at the sound of Deryn’s voice exclaiming that he had found something. The young man walked over to the bottom of the tree trunk and called up, “If it’s a camera, I hope it proves I’m not crazy, at least. I know what I saw…”

A glimpse at her surface thoughts would reveal that “Gerda” had been waiting for them to leave. She was counting on the noisy group of people around her eventually growing frustrated by her silence and abandoning her, or at least turning away long enough for her to make a quiet exit. Her need to flee was motivated by fear, confusion, and a fragile hope.

Her inner energy, caged within crude matter, was far more raw and wild than Auteme would likely be used to. She crackled and hummed with electricity, as loud as thunder and as bright as a flash of lightning. “Luminous being” was putting it mildly.

As soon as she picked up on the Jedi’s attempt at sensing her, she enveloped Auteme’s mind, searching for specific information. Where am I? Who are you?—

Thus “Gerda” discovered that there was more, much more, beyond her world. An entire galaxy, in fact. The knowledge overwhelmed her. She retreated from the link with Auteme, returning them both to full awareness of their surroundings. Holding her head in her hands, “Gerda” slowly raised her eyes, having come to a new conclusion.

<I need help.>

Nimdok, who had been watching the exchange between Auteme and “Gerda” at the expense of everything else around him, jolted at the sudden message. Around him, the others gasped or cried out in surprise. He turned to his daughter and asked, “Did you hear that?”

Miri looked up at him with wide eyes. “It was in my brain.” She pointed to her forehead. “Not in my ears.”

“I heard it too,” Isha said. Suze looked shaken, her body trembling. Jorn stood very still, staring at “Gerda”.

“Well, what do you need help with?” he asked softly.

In response, the mermaid raised her arm and pointed straight up at the sky.

<To find my friend,> she explained. <My friend was taken away by a satyr and a woman with the head of a jackal. They tried to kill me. I think they came from somewhere up there.>

“They tried to kill you?” Isha held up the torn Atargatis Skin. “Is that what caused this to rip?”

<No. The jackal-woman struck me and I shattered. My spirit fled until I came upon this empty vessel and claimed it.>

“You shattered? How is that possible?”

“What do you mean, ‘this empty vessel’?” Jorn added.

Nimdok’s mind was racing. He was sure he had heard all of this before. Shattered… spirit fled… empty vessel… “Bumorri?” he said out loud. “No, uh… Bamarri? Yes! Bamarri.” He switched to professor mode. “I remember reading about them. They’re a very very rare species of beings native only to this planet—and by rare, I mean there’s usually only one in existence at a time. Their bodies are made out of fragile crystal, and if they are destroyed their spirits wander for three days before they must join with the Force. During those three days, they can supposedly live again by possessing the… the bodies of the dead.”

The pieces suddenly all fit together. Gerda’s suit had been compromised by the tear, probably in an accidental brush with some sharp rocks. She had drowned and her body had washed up on the shore, where it was possessed by the wandering spirit of a Bamarri.

Nimdok’s shoulders sank as he looked at Gerda’s three friends. As Chaldeans, they probably knew better than he did what all this meant. “If I’m right, then I’m terribly sorry,” he said.

“If you’re right, then Gerda’s dead,” Isha muttered darkly. Turning to “Gerda”, she demanded, “Well? Are you what he says you are?”

<I am not Gerda. I am myself.>

Compressing her lips, Isha shrugged, her careless body language suggesting apathy as a screen for her grief. “That settles it, then. Come on, let’s go home and tell everyone.”

“Wait—” Suze hesitated. “Shouldn’t we… bring her along?”

“That isn’t Gerda. It’s just some thing puppeteering her corpse. Besides, her Skin’s ripped, so she can’t come with us anyway.” Isha grabbed Gerda’s bag and handed it to Suze. “Here. We’ll bring this as proof, give it to her folks.”

Suze still lingered.

“There’s nothing else we can do,” Isha persisted. Turning to Jorn, she added, “Her body’s already been claimed. We can’t bury her. It’s out of our hands.”

Without waiting to see if either of them would follow her, she started marching down the beach. Suze eventually followed her, clutching Gerda’s bag to her chest. Only Jorn remained.

“If I help you find your friend, will you give up Gerda’s body so that we can lay her to rest?” he asked the Bamarri.

<I don’t know how to give up this body. I feel as if I am trapped inside it. But I tell you that I will try, after I find my friend,> the Bamarri agreed.

Jorn ran a hand over his face. He was still in shock. This was a lot to take in. “I'll go with you offworld, but I can’t get off this planet on my own,” he said. “I don’t have a ship or enough money to pay for passage.”

“I may be able to help you with that,” Nimdok said. It seemed like the least he could do to help. “I have a ship. Nothing special, but it’ll fly. I mean, I don’t exactly know how to pilot it… and of course, if any of the rest of you would prefer to pitch in…” He gestured vaguely toward Auteme, Loreena, and Deryn.

Auteme |

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun |

Auteme · Mar 7, 2021