Faction The Tangle

[Makko Vyres]

THE TANGLE​

It was one of the largest junkyard on Coruscant. Inevitable that such an urban world produced a lot of machinery and speeders to be scrapped. It was crushed, condensed down and shipped off-world to one of many scrap planets to be recycled.

In one corner resided The Tangle.

Every few days the scrap was assembled into a nightmarish obstacle course and padawans were flown out from the temple to use it for practise. Only the padawans called it the tangle.

The caretaker was a short junk droid called Cobbie and he was almost every padawan's favourite teacher. No one had programmed him to make observations on technique and to start setting the padawans off in group races.



Makko sat one one of the old cookers that had been turned on its side to make a chair. He enjoyed this part of the week. It was one of the only parts he did. He had grown up running around the urban jungle of Denon, frequently from the law.

Harding a rattle, he turned sharply. The noise seemed to have come from a shipping container placed behind the start line.

"Two minutes to start!" called out Cobbie, the caretaker droid. Today was a race. Everyone speeding through the track marked out by flashing green beacons. If a surface had green paint then they had to go over, under or through it depending on where the painted edge was.

Makko stood up, pretending to stretch out because that's what the other padawans were doing.

Behind them, in the container, old machines started to wake up after centuries in storage.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Where Makko found a measure of kinship with the junkyard, Cora did not. She hated this part of the week.

Much less at home, she'd made it a point to stand as far away from the junk as possible. That was proving to be difficult. There were no scrapyards at the estate where she'd grown up, so the blonde Padawan was sorely out of her depth.

"You would like this place." She muttered in regards to Makko's apparent comfort as she begrudgingly stretched an arm across her chest, reaching to grasp her shoulder with the other hand. "Reminds me too much of Level 1313."

Cora had no idea why everyone was so obsessed with the underworld. It was seedy, disgusting, and she'd only been twice. The first time she'd been shot, and the second time she'd been the victim of an attempted kidnapping.

Glancing nervously at the old shipping container, she grimaced as something mechanical started to stir. Closing her eyes, she visualized the nice, relaxing cup of tea she'd reward herself with by the end of this ordeal.

Makko Vyres | OPEN

 

[Delete Character]

Amazin wasn't entirely sure why she was here. She really didn't know many of the other padawans, but perhaps that was why the Council sent her. Maybe she ought to learn more of the people that could be the future of the New Jedi Order.

She was stretching like all the others and looking around. It was a junkyard race, which seemed a little odd but she guessed it wasn't her place to question the authority of the older Jedi. She really didn't have a lot of experience as far as junkyards went, but just looking around she secretly hoped she remembered to get her tetanus shot.

 

[Tenn Kalos]

"You would like this place."

"What's wrong with that?" Tenn quipped as he walked past Cora, stretching his arm in a circular motion.

The Tangle was recognizable to him as well, and while Tenn didn't exactly have any love for his time in the sublevels, this gave him a sense of familiarity that was often missing in the Order. Scaled up by a significant margin; None of the junkyards he had been around on Level 3000 were quite so massive, but familiar nonetheless.

As was the concept of a race. The stipulation being that this one was on foot. If only it was on swoops, or podracers. Tenn would've cleaned house, he wagered. But an obstacle course made things a bit less lopsided in his favor. Not that the padawan was lacking in confidence. He had done plenty of this back in the day, too.

Tenn crouched down, stretching one leg at a time, "Let's get this thing going." They still had a little more time until they started. He was getting antsy.

Makko Vyres | Corazona von Ascania | Amazin Star​

 

[Cinjay Saito]

Now wasn’t this just nostalgic.

Although junkyards by no means topped her list of all-time favorite places, the Tangle was an admittedly nice reprieve. Some homespun mimicry of the lower levels she used to roam.

But from the flurry of reactions, she could gauge that wasn’t the overall consensus.

With a brief look of acknowledgment past the surrounding group, her attention filtered towards the whirring shipping container. Curiosity and anticipation intertwining. This should be fun.

Despite her inclination to remain aloof, she found the corner of her mouth itching into a grin as someone voiced their own eagerness. “Bit Impatient are we?” Her glassy eyes scoped the surrounding filth with interest, the force aiding to fill in the gaps. “I second that.”

Makko Vyres | Corazona von Ascania | Amazin Star | Tenn Kalos

 

[Makko Vyres]

"You would like this place."

"What's wrong with that?" Tenn quipped

"You're just annoyed that you might ruin an outfit," Makko said to Cora.

He pointedly looked in any direction but hers as he walked up to the line. His kept his expression calm and even. Tenn, being a Lorrdian, would certainly pick up on the fact that throwing out the small jab amused Makko a great deal. His kind were too aware of subtle nuances of body language to miss it.

"Let's get this thing going."

“I second that.”

Makko rolled his head to stretch out his neck and stepped up to the line. No one ever wanted to make it look like they were taking it too seriously, but everyone always moved a toe as close to the line as they could.

Cobbie waddled up to the line and raised his little metal staff.

"I hope you enjoy today's route..." he said. There was a note in his synthesised voice that suggested there was an interesting configuration for today's layout.

"Go!"
Head down, Makko burst off the line. He was quick and agile, but the others were almost certain more in tune with the Force than him. They were twenty meters away when he heard a crash behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see a bundle of droids crawling out of the container that had been sat behind the line.

"Looks like they set some droids up to chase us!" Makko laughed.

He was wrong. No one had deliberately programmed those droids for the race.

The group rounded a corner. Ahead of them was a pile of broken down landspeeders. That had been piled in a big pyramid to take them up to the roof of a warehouse. The top edge of each landspeeder was painted neon green to let them know they needed to climb.

Makko swore under his breath. Some could summon the Force to jump higher. He would have to run and climb like anyone else.

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, The Tangle
Tags: Makko Vyres , Corazona von Ascania , Tenn Kalos, Amazin Star, Cinjay Saito , Maran

​

Jalen was actually pretty comfortable in a scrapyard. Tons of microorganisms clinging on to metal scrap made it much easier to feel where it was that he was going. He walked with far more confidence in his step, though he was still very reserved. He kept to himself as the others spoke. He knew Cora. Maybe he could talk with her? No. Too many people were around her. He'd be better off sticking to himself.

"Go!"

As the race started, Jalen purposely didn't sprint out ahead. He was, to his own credit, actually pretty agile, but he wouldn't be able to handle all the attention if he won. Jalen was far more concerned about the droids chasing them.

They didn't say anything about that, he thought, trying to recall the exact words of the trial.

He had listened to it at least thirteen times in preparation, and not once did it express that the exercise would contain a droid threat of any kind. They wouldn't leave that out, would they?

No, something is wrong, he concluded.

But what could he do? Say something? He'd surely have a panic attack.

So he said nothing.

 

[Hex]

Tag: open
Location: Junkyard near the Tangle
Objective: Gather salvage

Spoiler: Equipment

• Guarderma HE suit metallic pink hex pattern with mag boots
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (3 explosive, 1 gas)
• Dancer repulsor board
• Jade Void Amulet
• Dervish Knife
• Cheap data pad and communicator

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

The teenager scapper gently cruiser on her dancer board looking at piles of scrap, she had a sixth sense about these things, what might look like a pile of junk to someone could contain a mint condition droid navigation chip, maybe some micro-fusion reactors, still warm and mildly radioactive to the touch. Her fingers tingled as the drummed them on her lips inquisitively, there had to be something good around her somewhere.

Above her several ships moved by, the usual dumping vessels including one that looked like it was dumping a perfectly good starfighter, something to look at, but the military usually stripped all the fun stuff out of their trash first. One of the ships above did catch her eye though, it looked like a decent quality transport heading towards a corner of the dump.

'...Wonder who that is...'
"That a statement or a question?" she smirked to herself.

Almost subconsciously she turned her board towards the point where the ship had dropped behind the piles of debris and began to climb up a small hillock made of what looked like artificial grasses from corpo sports courts.

"So wasteful."

Appearing at the top of the mound she saw a lot of movement in the near distance. The trash looked strange, as if it had been deliberately arranged by someone, and now a load of people were lined up and racing on it. "How strange." she laughed. She moved a little closer and took a seat on a half crushed speeder. From her elevated vantage she would be easily visible to the racers but she didn't really care and it gave her the best view.

Hex opened her duffle bag and rummaged around, several explosive devices, a gun, two missiles, a cylinder with warning stickers in another language.... ah, there it is. She pulled out as neatly wrapped sandwich bought from a food court nearby and laid it out in front of her to enjoy whilst she watched the show.

 

[Delete Character]

After the race started Amazin realized it was a lot like the training obstacle course back at the temple. She was on her way quit easily, hurtling what needed to be, and avoiding falling on the junk. She knew it was supposed to be a race but she wasn't in a huge hurry. In fact after a few minutes she realized her attention was wandering and she slowed down to examine the junk all around her.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

At Tenn's quip, Cora pointedly gestured to the garbage depot as a whole. To Makko's quip, she gave him a sharp sneer. The fact that he wasn't looking at her to see her reaction only made her irritation flare.

While other continued stretching or paced to the starting line, Cora was busy putting up her clean hair into the neatest ponytail she could manage. Many of the faces present for today's race were familiar to her—Makko and Tenn were in their element, but Jalen and Cinjay seemed comfortable as well. The brunette was the only one she didn't recognize, and even she seemed less frazzled than Cora.

"Go!"

At Cobbie's declaration, Cora joined the others as they started through the course. Light on her feet, the blonde Padawan had no intention of coming in last.

Her head whipped back upon hearing the crash, and Cora's heart leaped in her throat as the droids clambered closer. She hadn't had the best experience with training droids since coming to Coruscant.

The pile of dilapidated landspeeders was almost a blessing given her instinct to get away from the droids. Climbing wasn't her strong suit, and she grit her teeth in exertion while hoisting herself over the neon green edge of a painted speeder.

Glancing over her shoulder, she grimaced at the approaching pack of bots.

"Those don't…look like the droids Cobbie usually uses."

She sent a nervous glance to the others before scrambling to climb higher.

Makko Vyres Amazin Star Tenn Kalos Cinjay Saito Jalen Kai'el Hex

 

[Tenn Kalos]

Tenn studied a few of the other padawans, trying to discern little details about each of them. The brief interaction between Makko and Cora earned a half-amused, "Tch," under his breath. But at Cobbie's behest, the chit chat was soon shelved as everyone readied at the starting line. And at go, Tenn launched off like a runaway thief. Which is in fact where he got most of his practice.

The padawan was usually quite subdued and conversative in his motions, but he could switch from 0 to 100 on a dime. He ran with a twitchy, fast paced style, constantly adjusting his approach around obstacles with subtle micromovements. All of it further amplified by the Force, though his application was rudimentary at best.

Tenn sprang up onto one of the speeders, barely taking any notice of the pursuing droids until that moment. He turned around and watch them approach for just a beat, noting what Cora said as she caught up, "...No, they don't," He furrowed his brow, but just as quickly spun around to bound up the remaining speeders.

New droids or not, this was where Tenn got competitive. He would not be losing this race. "Try not to embarrass yourself already!"

Makko Vyres | Corazona von Ascania | Cinjay Saito | Jalen Kai'el | Hex | Amazin Star​

 

[Makko Vyres]

Jalen Kai'el Hex Amazin Star Corazona von Ascania Tenn Kalos

Makko scrabbled up the speeders, nearly cutting his arm on a rough led hewn piece of frame. There had certainly been injuries during their training sessions at the Tangle, but a medical shuttle was never far away on the surface.

He couldn't access the Force but he would keep pushing himself as hard as anyone through the course.

Those already at the top would have a large flat warehouse roof ahead of them. Metal tubes had been laid out, neon green paint crudely splashed on the insides of the rims let them know they had to crawl through.

Then came a large opened into the warehouse, chains had been hung from the ceiling to make a way down that would force them to swing and jump to follow a route down.

Makko heard a crash behind him. One of the droids had powered ahead of the others and was close on his heels.

He assumed if it caught him, that he was out.

 

[Delete Character]

This character isn’t really taking off like I had wanted. Going to need to think a little and figure out what to do so I am jumping out of the thread. Have fun!

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, The Tangle
Tags: Makko Vyres , Corazona von Ascania , Tenn Kalos, Hex , Cinjay Saito

​

Jalen wasted very little time climbing. He cautiously bounded up the speeders, or what would have been speeders had they not been reduced to scrap, closely following behind Cora and Tenn.

"Those don't…look like the droids Cobbie usually uses."

Tenn was quick to dismiss this as new robots before he sprinted ahead, but that couldn't be the case. They would've been informed beforehand. They always had been whenever they came out to the Tangle before. Jalen's paranoia was beginning to kick in, and with that came panic. He scrambled up onto the speeder that Cora had stopped on.

"Cora," he began in a muted tone. He didn't want the others to here him and think he was a coward. "I-I don't think they're supposed to be here. Th-they would've told us, right?"

He wasn't crazy to think that. He couldn't be.

 

[Hex]

Tag: Makko Vyres Corazona von Ascania Tenn Kalos Jalen Kai'el Cinjay Saito
Location: Junkyard near the Tangle
Objective: Gather salvage, watch the race

Spoiler: Equipment

• Guarderma HE suit metallic pink hex pattern with mag boots
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (3 explosive, 1 gas)
• Dancer repulsor board
• Jade Void Amulet
• Dervish Knife
• Cheap data pad and communicator

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

Hex took the last bite into her sandwich as she watched the racers carry on, from the way they bounded around it looked like force users, she wished she could jump like that. She wondered if it was something she could bet on and she pulled her datapad out, flipping through local bookmaker portals. She wasn't old enough to gamble but her alternate, Ellie, was 19 so all good. Alas, nothing to bet on. She laughed and slid her datapad away.

Her legs kicked left and right as she watched them, she kind of recognised one of them from somewhere, had she met Makko Vyres before? Probably not, the galaxy was massive and he could be literally any, muscle bound, tattooed...shirtless...oh my... Hex smirked to herself and put her finger into her mouth to whistle support to the runners. A shrill whistle went out from the blue haired girl and she pumped her arm.

'...What are the droids doing?...' Hex shrugged at the voice, "Proobably part of the challenge, who knows?"

She unclipped the targetting scope from confetti and looked through it, it buzzed lightly in protest as it couldnt find the missile it was meant to lock on with, but at least she could use its zoom function to get a better look at the racers and the droids now pursuing them. A smile curled around her lips, they looked like fully operational droids, she wondered what the policy was once the competitors took them out, if she could pocket some fresh combat logic chips, that would be very handy.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora ground her teeth while clambering up the rusty pile of speeders. She'd be taking a boiling hot shower after this was over. After the tetanus shot.

"I don't know," She answered Jalen briskly, sparing a glance below with a grimace before grappling onto the edge of a hood. Tenn's good-natured taunt had played into her fear of failure, even more so considering that he and Makko were ahead of the two blondes. They were in their element.

"And I don't intend to find out-cmon, let's move!" Jalen inspired her protective big-sister instincts, and Cora would offer him a hand if he needed.

With the droids closing in, there wouldn't even be time to catch their breath once they'd made it to the warehouse roof. Cora's eyes honed in on the bright green markings that stuck out against the drab metallic and earth tones of the Tangle, concentrating on making it through the course intact.

She was nearing the tunnels when a whistle rang through the air, snapping her head over towards one of the flanking junk piles in time to see a cheerful looking blue-haired girl pump her fist in support. Whatever the device was in her hands, it was too far away for Cora to discern.

"Wh-who is that?" She called out, motioning to their spectator. Another surprise from Cobbie?

Tenn Kalos Makko Vyres Jalen Kai'el Hex

 

[Tenn Kalos]

Tenn made efficient use of his time, being one of the first to hit the top of the climb, and crawling through the tubes in stride.

But as he continued to spare glances back at most of the others, the competition became less fun. They continued to be distracted by the droids, while he forged on ahead. Surely it wasn't anything to actually be concerned about, right? Tenn squinted at his classmates in contemplation, before he made a move for the swinging chains. He made a mental note to keep track of the situation as best he could, in case something did go wrong.

But in the event that it didn't, he was still making sure to not lose all his momentum in the race. He still wanted to win the thing.

@Padawan creatures​

 

[Makko Vyres]

Makko was falling behind the others. The thumping of droid feet on the metal airspeeder frames was quickly catching up with him.

He spared a glance over his shoulder. Most were a good distance behind still. One of the droids, down to one arm but with both legs pumping away was closing fast.

"Damnit!"

Makko pushed himself hard, but his legs were quickly cramping from trying to speed up the pile of speeders. He felt a shove and went tumbling into the back of an airspeeder, landing on the hard metal frame where the seats would have been.

"Alright, I'm out!" he said as he rolled onto his back.

The shadow of the droid loomed over him and Makko drew his knees up to his chest to protect himself.

Makko threw his head aside on instinct and a robotic fist hammered a deep dent into the metal. His eyes went wide. If he hadn't moved that would have been game over. Permanently.

Makko couldn't match its strength, but he straightened both legs with enough force to lift the weight of the droid and send it tumbling down the pile of speeders.

Heart racing in panic, he scrambled back to his feet and made the roof.

"They're not part of the game!" he cried out in warning. "Run!"

Fatigue couldn't stop his legs now, chased by the pack of droids across the roof. He ignored the tube and ran for the opening that went down into the hall of chains to navigate.

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, The Tangle
Tags: Corazona von Ascania , Tenn Kalos, Makko Vyres , Hex

​

"And I don't intend to find out-cmon, let's move!"

"Y-yeah," Jalen nodded, accepting Cora's hand.

It was strange. Cora spoke in a tone that filled him with some comfort. Maybe its just because she was older? Regardless, they were quick to make it to the warehouse roof, and drew closer to the tunnels. It was then that Cora noticed someone in the distance. Jalen tried to feel them, but it seemed that they were too far. He couldn't linger more on this before a shout rang through the tangle.

"They're not part of the game!" he cried out in warning. "Run!"

"I-I don't like being right," he murmured.

Why couldn't he have just been paranoid? It was better that then dead. It wasn't long before Jalen could feel them following behind Makko, the vibrations of their metallic frames against scrap spreading outward, sending ripples through the microscopic organisms clinging to the junk. They were drawing closer.

"We need to go," Jalen promptly decided.

With nowhere else to go, it was off to the hall of chains. If his heart would stop racing, he could come up with something. Alas, his panicked mind came up with nothing.

He kept running.

 

[Hex]

Tag: Makko Vyres Corazona von Ascania Tenn Kalos Jalen Kai'el Cinjay Saito

Location: Junkyard near the Tangle
Objective: Gather salvage, watch the race

Spoiler: Equipment

• Guarderma HE suit metallic pink hex pattern with mag boots
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (3 explosive, 1 gas)
• Dancer repulsor board
• Jade Void Amulet
• Dervish Knife
• Cheap data pad and communicator

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

"They're not part of the game!" he cried out in warning. "Run!"

Hex heard the cute guy call out a warning to his friends as the droid nearly took his head off but was then forced back long enough for him to make his escape before it regrouped. It was him, the guy from the party! The guy who never called even though she absolutely forgot to give him her number.

'...Looks like they werent planned...'
"Yeah, no chit"

Hex already had her hands around confetti and was reclipping the scope to the cylindrical launcher, she peered down the tube at the paint on the nose of the rocket... unguided, chit.

Shouldering the rocket launcher she took aim and the scanner began to buzz as it targeted the missile, a big grin appeared on her face and she began humming a fun tune to herself before squeezing the trigger. A plume of fire appeared behind her and the missile left the barrel at high speed, a second or two later, slamming into the side of the scrap pile facing away from Makko Vyres and at the feet of his pursuing assailant. A loud bang signalled the explosion. "BOOM BABY!" As the smoke cleared Hex looked again and watched as the droid staggered to its feet, its armour was peeled and one of its arms was ruined but it took tentative steps forward.

"Oh come on! That was a hit, you cant just ignore that one!" she shouted angrily at the cheating droid. It looked at her, and, as if suddenly reminded it was dead, collapsed and became part of the larger scrap.

'...Shall we?...'
"Its like you're in my mind or something" she laughed sarcastically.

Hex placing her dancer board down and began to skim her way down towards the droids, a number of which still pursued the other teens, but at least a couple had noticed the blue haired little fireball and were beginning to react. Most of the others had disappeared into the warehouse already, she wondered what was in there, she would find out soon enough.