Private Thousand Lanterns

[Matsu Ike]

Her arms stretched out... the trip in hyperspace had been different this time around. Spending time tinkering and focusing on the course as she reviewed the books... actual books compared to many of the datapads and screens that had been used as technology advanced. The jedi master herself though ran a finger along the spine of the book and the uneti wood was sturdy, the pages made from the pulp of it had served to preserve the pages for tens of thousands of years where others might have fallen apart. She had been checking it and comparing it to information gleamed from the tomb that had been found. A sage was what they had called it and she had only managed to gleam that because of research done by another older Jedi master who had left some clues as this seemed to be his initial field of study... then she had had to get innovative and focused flow walking backwards to see events and listen... feel the air and everything around to try and understand.

That had been the biggest part of the plan... learning and being able to comprehend while she watched scattered memories of an area but she had managed to do it... she had managed to feel it and the force was anew within the jedi master where she had entered. No one had been there for a long time it felt and even then it was a lower point... a place with massive statues and instruments she had never seen before. That had been the first part that was intriguing... the depictions on the walls, the massive eye that was looking upon the galaxy and she knew that. From Ossus the eye was a jedi thing... or at least they had thought.... in truth she knew there was no direct information about why it had been made just that it existed and it helped focus the minds.... so seeing it here gave her one or two ideas and different theories that would need to be tested.. specifically as she looked up and the stars all above her looked like the galaxy. Where she might be able to travel to.

The book itself had just been one of the things found though as she searched as well as an astrogation aid.. bringing it up, the star charts changed a little showing the horizon as opposed to the galaxy and she was able to get a better idea from orbit what there might have been back then. It was like an ancient sextant for traveling the stars. She had been checking on some of the things here and that was what led her to this area and searching possibly dangerous and ancient ruins. There was only one or two people she knew out in the galaxy who really knew how to explore and preserve such things. Domino or the likes of Zak Dymo and Maple Harte . Could provide insight as well as a sort of back up when exploring. THe jedi master secured her kimono style robes as the world of Tokodana was in view and her seeker class setting itself down thanks to the more advanced autopiloting software. "This looks promising." She pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail.

She had heard legends but there was only a few things. The battle site of an ancient conflict.... the columbarium of the jedi had been built upon it and more had been built upon that. A mysterious being who had served to conceal it for hundreds of years... that was the records she had worked on and discovered in their archives here and now. She secure one of her sabers on her hip while the sky blue kimono flowed behind her. Not form fitted but it was loose enough to move around in and she slid a second layer cloak over her shoulders. The jade color of the cloak from the wukong that they had been working with to establish them. Her eyes flicked around and there were a few of the researchers in their robes here as she was going now. Her wrist datapad and scanner set up so she would be able to have direct feedback and information with the ship and their archives Ai... the force ghost that had been found and encountered though provided insight in some of the temples where they were researched.

 

[Zak Dymo]

[ feel the fire ]
​

The boy's head-tails whipped, side to side, with the snap and motion of his head.

A pair of headphones dressed the sides of his head, the over-the-ear pads pressed up against the gills that marked the underside of where the tresses connected with his head.

The boy's feet touched lightly against the deckplates, stepping on the balls of his feet. The movements were rhythmic. Controlled. His body moved in time with the music that was pumped into his head. The child's eyes were closed. Bouncing up and down, head snapping from side-to-side the youngling seemed lost to a world of sound in a universe of cacophony.

His legs jumped in and out, a criss-cross motion that was followed with a drop in his center of gravity. Dropping low, the boy arched his back and threw his head back.

...as he did, the lightsaber passed within just an inch of his face.

This wasn't a dance. It was a duel.

The white blade snapped up, the Greater Krayt Dragon pearl giving off a predatory presence in the Force that had come to represent the lightsaber Riptide. Eyes shut, the boy half-danced, half- dueled as he parried the lightsaber and then duck his head a second time.

A second opponent had jumped in.

Putting a hand out, the young Nautolan issued a Force Push that sent the first opponent flying backward, freeing him to pirouette and give this second opponent his attention. That was before a third presence jumped out onto the make-shift dance floor.

Vaulting forward, the child's tumbled through the air as he neatly avoided a strike from behind. Planting the landing, he sprang forward with a flourish, gliding underneath a sweep of another lightsaber as the first opponent returned. The lightsaber was passed behind his beck, the blade spinning through the air as it traveled from his left hand to his right.

Pirouette. Step. Step. Slide. Criss-cross. Left foot out. The boy's head bobbed in time with the music, even as the lightsaber in his hand artfully danced between three incoming strikes. The Nautolan was tucked away in one of cargo holds of the ship, with a trio of Saotome Training Droids.

This was clearly the most astral way to pass the time. One, the cardio was real, brah. Two, these were sick beats, yo. Three, lightsabers. Drop the mic.

...and where was Master Ike? Curled up with a bunch of books. And not even comic books, like actual books? The feth? Like, srsly? Who did that?

Boomers. That's who. They were thousand of lightyears in space, where no one could hear you rock, and what was Master Ike doing? Reading, that's what. They could have been throwing the most lit rave this side of Zeltros, but no. It was books. About dead people. And poems about things that happened a thousand million years before anybody cared.

Wait! What if it wasn't a poem?

What if it was an epic rap battle? A clash between the DJs of legend? The real schism that had separated the Jedi and the Sith, the rap beef between Jedi Master Mac Yoda and the Sith Lord Darth Dre!

Suddenly, history was looking a whole lot more interesting!

...even if it was only in his imagination.

 

[Domino]

Off the galactic plane where the disk of stars stretched out below, the Sangromancer II floated far from anything at all. Inside Domino was laying with her back nestled into the curled up form of Myunnah, a glass of wine in one hand and the song of a long gone alien in her ears. It was wordless though the tune carried a message of great sadness and loss, the woman's voice echoing in a wail that filled the ship to the background of a string quartet and piano. It was to here that she had retreated to re-center and it was here that her personnel had forwarded Matsu's message. Snuggling back into Myunnah's warmth, she let the thrum of the engines lull her into a nap as the ship reoriented itself from the aimless drift for the shift into hyperspace safe in the hands of the automated systems.

Scant hours later, the crimson ship spat itself back into real space far into the planet's gravity well and hurled itself into the atmosphere below. Domino may have been taking it easy before, but now was the time for something new. Likely really old actually, yet new to her, which didn't happen too often these days. She had tossed her armor on over her spacer's leathers and a simple poncho of dappled green on over everything, neatly hiding the pair of sabers tucked in at the small of her back though not the blaster strapped to her thigh or the bag slung over one shoulder containing several exploration goodies Matsu was probably intimately familiar with as she'd designed most of them.

Looking around for Matsu from the bottom of the ramp, she hitched her bag up and set off to find the erstwhile Jedi Master.

Matsu Ike Zak Dymo

 

[Matsu Ike]

Zak Dymo Domino

She looked at the two who were here. Zak was... well he was Zak and seemed to be thinking intently to himself while Domino when she arrived had taken care. The jedi master moved forward to look at the Twi'lek and well she looked much the same if maybe a little fuller in her figure.... no that was her clothing with what looked like layers of clothing, armor and a secondary layer to conceal it and whatever equipment she might have when her voice came out. "Domino, you look wonderful. It is nice of you to join us." She didn't need to go more, Domino was a reclusive sort... she trained and studied for years it felt like all alone. She wished she would well socialize with the galaxy but it was alright when they had a chance she would talk.

"Domino this is Zak Dymo one of the more interesting jedi that I have come to know." She said it while walking and looked at him while moving a hand to her sleeve as she produced one of the golden snack cakes that had been infused with sweet cream. "If he gets too excited you can generally bribe and calm him down with candy." She smiled looking at him but motioned for the two of them to come and join them. "Thank you both though, reading the rammagon texts have given some ideas of sites older then most of the jedi know and I could use the aid of others." A smirk as she held the book with its uneti pages that were imbued with the force itself.

She pointed into the distance. "There was a site here... older then most of the temples where darkside and lightside force users fought and then the prime jedi, the first jedi built over it a series of catacombs and crypts. Where the ashes of the jedi have been brought for tens of thousands of years... thousands of generations of jedi who passed away and their light has become concentrated within a single location." That might get some interest as she knew somewhat they it was still used by others.. this was famous and jedi ashes weren't always scattered to the winds.. they had been taken to temples and could be retrived by other force users as the jedi abandoned the temples.

 

[Zak Dymo]

With his headphones on, the small Nautolan stayed in his own musical world.

As the ship landed and adults started mulling all over the place, the boy shut down his lightsaber and returned it to his side even as he continued to bob his head in time with the music. His head-tails bounced about his shoulders, as the child's body ran through a variety of different gestures and moves. He moonwalked down the loading ramp, disembarking behind Matsu Ike before doing a spin and then locking-and-popping at the foot of the ramp. At that point, the boy was able to get his first glimpse of just what planet they had come to.

It looked boring already.

It had great music (because it had no choice in that regard), but boring nonetheless.

Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom, the Order of the Sagging Breast was convening to discuss the agenda for the next meeting of Crazy Cat Ladies Anonymous, or whatever else it was that adults talked about. Zak honestly had no idea and wasn't paying much attention to either of th...

...was that a Sasori snack cake?

Suddenly, Zak was standing next to Matsu and Domino on his best behavior. Reaching up, the boy pulled the headphones down so that they were around his neck as he looked up at both ladies with his large, abyssal eyes. "Hi!" the boy chirped brightly.

"I'm Zak," the boy uttered.

No, he hadn't been paying attention when Matsu had done the introductions. Besides, that had been a whole ten seconds ago! And who cared about what happened ten seconds ago?

Boomers, that's who.

Okay, Boomer.

 

[Domino]

Right, well that was a ringing endorsement. Domino was starting to feel more grateful that she hadn't gotten an introduction after watching the little tyke completely change after the snack was revealed. "Um right, hi. I'm Domino as she said." Peering down into those fathomless black eyes with her own chocolate, she didn't seem disturbed. Just a little resigned. "I don't have candy." Turning her gaze back to her fellow scholar she added "And the old Jedi were dicks unless we're talking about the Je'daii." Which she highly doubted. Though to be fair, most Jedi orders were in her estimation, it was the individual Jedi that made them worthwhile. Those that stood by their principals as long as those didn't include blind obedience at least.

This wasn't how Domino had expected to start this expedition but she decided to trust that Matsu knew what she was doing, the Artisian hadn't been wrong before when it came to these things in her estimation. By her side her fingers twitched into a curl, damn she wished she still smoked. Instead she hitched her bag and started towards the tree line, that old ruin was more than likely their entry point or a good place to start looking for one.

Zak Dymo Matsu Ike
((Sorry I took a bit, life got tough but I'm getting through it))

 

[Matsu Ike]

Zak Dymo Domino

The jedi master looked at the change in Zak when food was involved and she shook her head as Domino seemed to be ready and she motioned to start moving. Allowing her senses to expand outwards and the jungles here were fresh still. Lots of green and the lake as in the distance the remains of the castle could be seen. She knew from the history books it had been a grand castle built atop but there was a lot more to it as it had connected to the catacombs and now its sealed the tunnels... at least the ones on the surface. A place like what she had found in the archives had a few entrances as she secured her bag and sealed it with a small rebreather she could bit down on. The hydrostatic bubble appearing as it slid around and the straps clasped.

She brought her wrist datapad up and displayed the holographic map of the lake as one of the smaller mapping drones pinged it. "There are entryways down in the lake. a sluice gate which is why Zak is here... he can do a lot more under the water then us and is small." She looked at him and her bag was sealed so the snack cake were safe to bribe him... like zak snacks. The jedi master herself secured her hair in a tight ponytail with bands so it wouldn't be flowing behind her and she entered the water and waited for the others before descending down into it. Even now the lake was still pretty clear and following the shore until it dipped into the lower sections there was rocky grooves they could squeeze through.

She was checking it out and used a glow rod to pierce the darker overhangs with her eyes squinting when she found the gate. Setting one for Zak and another for Domino as she floated there in the waters and looked up at some of the fish with a small chuckle to herself. Going in through the bottom wasn't always the best idea but who knew what they mgiht be able to find and the gate were meant to push out more of the water should something flood so... in theory if they got in it should be dry enough to move around and explore the sections they would be in.

 

[Zak Dymo]

There was water?

Well, why didn't anybody say something sooner!?

While Matsu Ike was busy doing her hair, and possibly explaining some of the finer details to Domino , the Nautolan was jumping into the lake. After all, who really listened to the details? Probably important, but also possibly boring. Skip it. Wing it. Just do it.

Spiraling downward, a flurry of bubbles trickled up to the surface in the boy's wake, as the aquatic happily plunged down into the depths and then swam back up toward where Matsu was fiddling with glow rods.

Humans really didn't have eyes for this sort of thing. Zak, on the other hand, had eyes that were adapted for precisely this.

Also, if they thought that they would be safe under the water... not so much, no. "There's a bunch of tunnels and gates and stuff!" the boy said, speaking as naturally under the water as he did above it.

Obvious statement was obvious, but it was what it was. Never let it be said that Zak's powers of observation were nothing if not keen.

 

[Domino]

Domino sighed with resignation, water, right. Of course they were going into the lake. Why wouldn't they instead of simply digging in? "I'll meet you down there," she informed her host as the kid leaped into the lake with the boundless energy of a youth. For her part, Domino simply sat down and crossed her right foot over her opposing knee after Matsu's head disappeared under the coils raised by the wind dancing through the break in the trees and mountains. Clasping a hand over both, her senses expanded downwards testing and tasting the life force emanating from all things as she searched out the hollow of blank spaces left by a lack of insects and other burrowing things. The plants were ignored, such things gave little mind to where they grew and would extend their roots wherever there was space, even forcing apart stone retainers if given the time.

Mind stilled, slowed to the point of imperception of the self, she saw where she was, and where she would be bellow. Afterwords it was a matter of drawing The webbing together until the both were and weren't one. On the lake shore there was a shimmer upon the air, and Domino opened her eyes to the blackness below. There she sat and waited where the air was musky and still and rich with the scent of soil and the damp.

Matsu Ike Zak Dymo

 

[Matsu Ike]

The jedi master could sense Domino o not wanting to follow them into the water and she looked as Zak Dymo who was just as excited... more so then she had ever seen him..... Her mind reaching out and finding him as she could see int he water but her eyes were not made for seeing underneath it as the small hydrostatic shield around her mouth and face. She could hear Zak though under the water and floated there for a moment before she was following the boy towards the tunnels. Her hands reaching out to push her forward faster and the jedi master gripped the rocks pulling her down into the tunnel that she could see before stopping near the gate.

The jedi master motioned for Zak to the gate and was looking for the way into the tunnels beyond... she knew a few things about where they were going bt geting there well she hadn't thought about folding the space and teleporting inside.... there was a lot of danger with that and if you were not careful well.... she didn't like the idea of trying to breathe if she was in a wall. 'Zak can you get through and open the gate.' She said it itno the force and water through the face mask but was unsure if he would completely hear her. They had a lot of water down here and Zak was sort of hyper... now he had something to be even more excited about.

 

[Zak Dymo]

Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom, the writer behind the keyboard had once more forgotten he owed a post in this thread.

The small Nautolan swam over to where Matsu Ike was floundering around. Seriously, terrestrial species made the strangest motions in the water. Looking at the gate in front of them, the boy imagined that this was where they were trying to go.

Also, Matsu was saying something. But Zak didn't pay attention to her on dry land. He certainly wasn't going to start now that they were in the water.

Squeezing through the grating, the amphibian boy darted back and forth, looking for the secret to raising the gates.

Well, actually he was looking for a souvenir. There were all kinds of neat rocks in this part of the lake! But was Matsu still talking? Had he been doing something else? And wasn't there someone else with them.

Picking up a rock that looked interesting, the boy started to swim back to show it to Matsu when he looked up and saw the gate that was between them, as if seeing it for the first time.

He'd need to find a way to open that if Matsu was going to see all these neat treasures that he'd uncovered. Fluttering a bit more, the boy poked his head into an alcove that appeared to have a mechanism of some kind.

He started pressing buttons. He figured that would either raise the gate or doom them all.

Either was likely to be interesting.

 

[Domino]

Sitting alone in the dark was pretty not thrilling, Domino could have done that without coming all the way out to the middle of nowhere. Instead, she could be doing something useful. Feeling around in her pack until she had one of the smooth seimei glowrods stashed there. Flicking it on for some light, she tossed it towards the water's edge as an improvised beacon of sorts to the others. Then she set about getting some recon intel by pulling out a creation of her own.

The small Cyclops chirped happily as it powered on, its photoreceptor glowing a bright white-blue in the dimness of the glowrod. "Go explore and map little guy, and send what you find to my datapad." There was no need to keep her voice hushed in the tunnel, but somehow breaking the silence seemed irreverent. Her companions, she was sure, wouldn't hesitate. When she checked, her data pad already showed the faint beginnings of the requested map as the probe droid set off. Bored again, Domino switched over to her music player through her diadem and started up one of those Atrisian pop bands Matsu kept sending her links to. She swore the woman must have been a paid promoter or something.

Matsu Ike Zak Dymo

 

[Matsu Ike]

Domino Zak Dymo

She sensed something... someone somewhere was thinking about her as Zak had disappeared into the cave and she hadn't see Domino.... that didn't worry her as much as the sensation in the water when she saw the gate starting to open up in front of her. Whatever Zak was doing had worked or maybe that hadn't been his intention when she moved in and could feel a current as more water was being pulled out of the tunnels in front of her. She felt the force go into her legs and pushed with the force to propel herself faster and stronger into the water. A glow rod in the distance giving her a place to go as she could see through the water faintly.

She grasped one of the rocks to hold herself stead for the moment as she moved forward and up breaking the surface of the water with her hair swinging around and splashing a line of water droplets on the rock. She moved towards the lip of it where Domino was and climbed up standing there for a moment as she shook herself off. The robes were able to seal and just let the water slide off but still shook a little. Her pack wa smuch the same as the jedi master looked around at what there was in the room. Dark stone arches and walls. She crouched down though and straightened her hair retrieving a glow rod and activated it allowing it to warm up and cast pale blue light around them.

"Don't tell me there are stairs?" She was looking at Domino and spoke into the force for Zak... if he could find tunnels or other rooms to explore under the water the differe tunnels. She was looking at Domino though and the dark stones she touched pointing to the alcoves and different stone plates tha had been set up. Aurabesh writing on them in older scripts then most were used to. "It should be the right place.. the writing certainly is old and this stone is somethign I have seen in Ahch-To's jedi temples. The stone is hijarna and places made with it are designed to last a long time." She said it with a grin on her face though when she looked over more of the room they were in. Smaller alcoves were there and some were filled with urns.

 

[Zak Dymo]

"Don't tell me there are stairs?"

The boy's head broke the surface of the water, popping up behind where Matsu Ike had just exited the water. Large, black eyes blinked as the boy surveyed how the steps wound into the structure. Master Ike had already started exploring the stairs, but Zak had the impression that he was supposed to be looking under the water.

Diving back down, the boy drifted back through the ruins. Nothing about them really stood out to him as being particularly special. It was all old. And boring. And, well, it looked like the kind of place that had been old and boring for a really long time.

That was probably why people had left here in the first place.

Domino​

 

[Domino]

"Shouldn't be many, go up to far and we wont be underground anymore. And down would put us below the drains." Domino gave a shrug with one shoulder and stood back up so she could dust off her pants. She considered retrieving the glow rod but decided against it so the boy could have the light if he came back.

As far as the alcoves and (burial urns?) surrounding them were concerned, Domino wasn't terribly impressed. Sure it was old, but so far nothing was terribly ground breaking in her opinion. Interesting sure, but the type of thing she'd have been happy learning about from a coffee-table book rather than experiencing first hand. Ancient construction techniques were only so applicable in the modern galaxy and she preferred to be on the cutting edge. A fact espoused by her living on several ships, a station, and a floating city in the sky's of Bespin. True several years back she'd found herself the owner of some mountain real-estate after an auction, but despite her several different home plans, she'd yet to build anything on location in the Whiiped wilderness.

With a cocky grin Domino told her friend to "Lead on, oh dauntless explorer. At least until the inevitable horrible monster that wishes to slowly devour us over the next thousand years." Then she was pretty sure that she;d kill it before too much excitement happened. Actually on reflection, she knew way too many ways to kill without expending much effort. She chalked it down to some truly devious Sith teachers and science being scary.

Matsu Ike Zak Dymo
((Sorry for the drunk, and very late post, please forgive me my friends. Though it is no excuse, life has been poor these last few months.))

 

[Matsu Ike]

Domino Zak Dymo

"Come on now... that can't possibly happen a fourth time." Could it... she thought to herself as Zak headed down and the jedi master could sense him in the tunnels down below with a small tight lipped smile on her face. She was looking at the urns and could sense the small traces of force energy without touching them. She reached out and touched the walls focusing the force as he sensations of it changed and fell back around her... lights flickered... voices rebounded in tongues almost before they were appearing near her. She was reversing the flow of time and could see cloaked jedi carrying the urns and placing them. The scents of burnt animal fats used for the torches came to her... the taste of dust in the air before she was observing where they went.

"You never know what you can ind in places like this.. she said and thought for a moment she saw one of them looking towards her as the jedi master fell out of it. Flowing through time and being able to see an areas history was temperamental to say the least even with was training as she stood there for a moment and breathing heavily for a moment gulping in the air. She turned to look at Domino with a look on her face though while she was walking. The woman was skilled and despite her disinterest had a mind few others matches in terms of history or even knowledge. THe more obscure the more strange the more they had discovered it and... "though that time in the swamp doesn't... doesn't count."

 

[Domino]

"Well for us sure," Domino put forward almost too casually, "But what about the kid?" She studied a wall intently, running a finger down a join between stones before rubbing the grit between thumb and forefinger. A little sandy. "How many of these things has he been on? And now he's all alone in those dark and flooded tunnels, a maze connecting out to the lake...." She trailed off, leaving the implications unsaid. In reality Domino was pretty sure that the layout wasn't going to be too bad, sentients had made it and made it to carry water out, and hadn't there been a grating to keep anything too big out?

Turning to the stairs up, she gave Matsu a casual look-over in passing to see her reaction before directing her attention to the stairs. She squatted down to bring her closer as she checked the angle of them, their size both up and the width given for stepping on, and didn't note any slump which hopefully meant they wouldn't slide out from under them once weight was applied. And to that end she reached out with the force and carefully applied pressure to each step until about half way up there was the faint 'twic' that sounded like a line snapping, but nothing happened. "Stairs are safe." Domino announced once she'd pressed on the top step.

Matsu Ike Zak Dymo