Private Tribal Marks

[Jonyna Si]

​

The sun slowly sank below the horizon of Ran Dom Kuun. It'd only been a few months since The Day The Stars Stood Still, and yet Jonyna couldn't shake the feeling that what she was doing would normally get her in a lot of trouble.

But to her, it didn't matter. Dark side? Light side? It didn't matter. What mattered was good or evil. Family and respect of the Force.

That's why she answered a call that had come from a fellow Cathar.

Darth Tormenta had contacted her, looking for help with...something. Jonyna had taken the opportunity to vet the contact as best she could, but she couldn't turn down helping another cathar. From what she could tell from research, her fellow cathar was a pirate who fought against slavers. Even if it was with sith philosophy, the sage couldn't bring herself to hate someone who fought against slavers. That was a heroic act in any culture that admired freedom.

Now she waited at the starport. Whatever her fellow cathar needed help with, she'd offer her services as best she could without breaking her morals. And if it came to it, she'd do her duty as a jedi. But for now, she was a tribal leader first.

​

 

[Darth Tormenta]

Khamesi was hesitant to get off the shuttle that her brought her down to the starport. Her relationship with the Cathar people at large was...poor. Her being a Sith, and a willing one at that, made her an outcast from her people, plus she'd been raised away from the majority of them. She had no blood ties still tying her to them, but she was trying to reconnnect. The Day the Stars Stood Still had helped somewhat. She was still distrusted andhated, but she had at least proven she wasn't going to cause problems with her presence, intentionally or otherwise. Well, problems besides them having an issue with her, or that Warpriest Prime tended to show up when she was being...social.

But none of that was important in the here in now. What was was that she had reached out to Jonyna Si for help. She had most of what she needed for a magical creation of her own devising. It's creation may be beyond her, but not getting the ingredients or theory. So here she was, asking another Cathar for help, kind of as a way of helping mend those long burned bridges with her own people, and partially because the powers she was seeking were meant to be a surprise to those she would normally ask for help. Blood infused with the darkside was easy, it flowed through her very veins. Blood given willingly from one she cared for was also easy, Dima had agreed to give it, though she hadn't told Dima what she needed it for. Blood of enemy infused with the light was still not hers, but not hard to get.

No, what she needed help for was a unaligned crystal large enough to serve as the base of the ink she needed to create. Kyber crystals did not get so large often, and crystals taken from beasts were rarely unaligned. She needed help, and the hunt would be good for her, to be outside of Sith space and politics for a bit. Finally she stepped off the shuttle, greeting the Cathar she had asked to assist her in this project.

"Greetings Jonyna, thank you for agreeing to help me on my hunt."

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

"Anything for a decent cathar." Jonyna smiled as she greeted the fellow cathar. What would normally be a trigger for a duel between jedi and sith, was instead a handshake to a fellow member of her species. "So, what exactly do we need to hunt for?"

The cathar along the starport seemed to eye the two, curious of what a meeting between dark and light entailed. Ran Dom Kuun didn't often get sith, and almost never sith in....cordial terms. To see their sage, a woman who had been only known in legends, talking casually with a sith lord, it was...Astounding. Confusing. Enthralling. Maybe it was a sign that things could finally get better. That Cathar could recover from the days of the Great Sith War of old.

Tag: Darth Tormenta

 

[Darth Tormenta]

Khamesi looked down at Jonyna, many of her allies would be screaming at her to attack the smaller Cathar, though both of them were huge by Cathar standards. However, Khamesi had more...guidelines and boundries than most Sith, and perhaps the most important was she was a woman of her word. She swore she would not start any fights, and had asked Jonyna for help. Even if she hadn't said it, that came with a inplied promise of safety from Khamesi and her forces.

"I'm working on gathering elements for a little bit of...magic and alchemy. Most of the ingredients are simple for me to obtain, or I already have, but there is one I thought it was best to seek help for. Where better than to mend ties with my own people in the process?"

She paused as the sound of a ship landing set her on edge for a moment, still wary for one of her rivals to interrupt at any moment, but that was because the recent outing of the Tsis'kaar had made her position precarious. She bore enough forces and influence they couldn't oust her entirely, but she was on the fringes once more. Perhaps a good thing, the fringes were where she always did her best work.

"I need help tracking down a large crystal suitable for use in a lightsaber, not borne from a living thing, nor aligned with any particular aspect of the force. Kyber crystals call to their users, and are usually aligned with them, and usually to small for what I need, crystals with organic sources tended to bear at least some touch of the light or dark, and most other crystals are rare enough to be hard to track down in general. I need one large enough to act as a force-sensitive binder for alchemic dyes, as I have a blueprint for a set of tattoos that draw on old legends mixed with force magic to make them function."

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

Jonyna thought for a moment. She knew a crystal like that, but...

"Will you need to bleed to crystal?"

A question she dreaded the answer to. If it was yes, she couldn't help a sith seek a crystal like that. Not because of her role as a jedi, but as a person of moral character. To intentionally torture a living thing, to do so with intent, it was wrong. She wouldn't help her kind do that, even if they were of the same species.

Darth Tormenta

 

[Darth Tormenta]

"If it can be avoided, I'd rather a non-living crystal. Just as gems of old were used for dyes, it is going to be the main ingredient, bring balance to the other ingredients, in the recipe. If it comes from something living, and is bled to be of use, it would throw off the balance of the alchemy by introducing a new source of...pain, and through it the dark side into it."

Khamesi was at heart a pragmatist. Even for her enemies torture was only ever used for revenge or to cause pain, it was to ineffecient without her being on hand to burrow into their mind to be of much use. Granted it was still fun, but business and pleasure were best kept seperate when dealing with Cathar, Jedi, and especially Cathar Jedi.

"So you can see the problem, both from the pragmatic and the moral, bleeding a living crystals creates to many issues."

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

"Oh! Yeah, I know a place. It's a bit of a trek into the jungle if you're up for it." Jonyna smiled, looking to her taller companion with a smirk. "You've never treesurfed, have you?"

Tag: Darth Tormenta

 

[Darth Tormenta]

"No, never. Until the Day the Stars Stood Still, I'd never stepped foot on Cathar. Before my family was to poor to make the trip, after I was a Sith Acolyte without the freedom to move as I wanted. Now, now I can come and go as I want but most of the planet despises me for being me."

It wasn't the prettiest planet Khamesi had been on, but it was nicer than the city worlds. There was no doubt about that. Granted, she had a soft spot for flowering trees not for the towering ones found in places like this, but that was just a preference. It was still a pretty world, though the scars of the past marred it's surface. What planet in this galaxy didn't have scars on it, especially inhabited ones.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

The jedi chuckled, leading her away from the starport, and prying eyes, and towards what looked to be a large highway of slick branches that seemed to maze around the trunk of the tree. "Then lemme show you an old Cathar tradition to help you get reacquainted with the culture."

At that, Jonyna leapt onto one of the branches, using the naturally slick moss to 'surf' across it, and downwards towards the equatorial jungle that la beneath them to the south. Jonyna seemed to use all four limbs at times, allowing herself to slide effortlessly across the branch that swirled downwards around the massive trunk of the city-tree. Once she made it down to a lower level, she called up to the sith.

"Just trust your instincts! You still got it in you, yeah?!"

Tag: Darth Tormenta

 

[Darth Tormenta]

Khamesi shed some of the heavier pieces of the armor she wore, putting them to the side. Even if they were stolen they would be easily replaced, but she doubted many around here would be willing to steal such things. She looked at the moss skeptically, she may be agile for her size, but she was much more of a powerhouse than anything else. Things such as this weren't in her normal wheelhouse, but she was always willing to give a new skill or experience a try.

She jumped onto the moss, closing her eyes so her only sense was focused on maintaing her balance as she slid along. Once she started to get the hang of the balance, she opened her eyes once more. She wasn't a thrill seeker, and kept a calm visage as she moved along to meet up with Jonyna Si . It wasn't half bad, all things considered, but she preferred other forms of transport. Still, it was a heritage of the Cathar, and she was here in part to reconnect with that. Once she was back on stable ground, she stretched.

"Not terrible, but I prefer a speeder bike. Nostalgia may play a role there though."

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

"Psssh." Jonyna waved off, "just try and keep up. This is literally my backyard."

And without another word, Jonyna began climbing back up the branch of a neighboring tree. The canopy of Cathar was well traveled, and Jonyna didn't seem to skip a step when venturing deep into it. The sounds of strange animals echoed through the thick rainforest. Small insects crawled along the branches while small boar-like creatures ate from the forest floor. Jonyna didn't go any higher than her fellow cathar could see from the floor, but she did seem to travel unusually, slide along branches and swinging from vines, occasionally breaking out onto all fours to cross a large branch quickly.

"So like...what Do you know about Cathar? Kinda curious what the experience is for the rest of us out there. Can't imagine not being in tune with the forest like this..."
Her tone was strangely casual now. Away from the rest of her tribe, she found solace in the fact she could speak freely with another cathar. No longer under the strain of her tribe's expectations, now only seeking to understand what had become of her species in 900 years. Before, they were already seperated. Spread across the stars and just barely to the point of full recovery from the Mandalorian wars before the Empire took over. Now? That could be so different. There could be tribes across the stars in other sectors of the galaxy.

Tag: Darth Tormenta

 

[Darth Tormenta]

"I can't tell you how typical my experience was, my parents and siblings are the only known blood relations I had, and the colony we were on was mostly Twi'lek. There were no other Cathar, mostly Twi'lek, then humans, us, and some other small family groups. The administrator of the mine, the main source of income for the colony, was a Hutt, one of the few...good ones I've ever met."

It was plain as day Khasmesi was no where near as accustomed to moving through the trees as Jonyna was, but she was a practiced climber, and did her best not to damage the trees. Using shatterpoint to insure grips even in solid rock was a common occurance for her, so she had to fight the instinct so as not to cause true damage to the trees.

"My father was a technican, he led the team that maintained the mining equipment for the colony after years mining the different ores in the astroid, mainly titanium. My mother was one of the clerks for the mining company, worked in logistics checking export and import reports. Her hobby though was history, and she taught me what she could of Cathar history and myths. I wasn't always the best student, but it was a break from normal schooling. I'd seen recordings of Cathar, but it wasn't till I was a Sith I even met some that weren't blood, and as I said before, only recently I came here myself."

It was possible there were other Aivar out there somewhere, uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on, but if there were, Khamesi had never met or heard of them. She'd been taught what she could, and spoke Cathar before she learned any other language, but beyond that, she had no direct exposure to the culture.

"As far as I know, if there is an Aivar tribe, I am it's only living member, and if I ever have children, they are unlikely to be pure Cathar. I learned rock and stone, metal and fire long before I'd ever seen a living tree. Before I was a Sith I owned a little diner in the starport of the colony, I served most of the miners and security crew. Cathar dishes weren't my specialty, but I did serve many that I could, to some popularity, but that's probably the extent of my direct experience with Cathar traditions."

She left out what had happened to the colony, but there was enough there to know it was long gone. Literally, the asteroid itself had been destroyed long ago. There wasn't even an abanonded tomb to mark where her life had forever changed, only slag and rubble. Granted it had been her that had destroyed the asteroid, after finding slavers had commendeered it she refused to let that stain occupy her original home.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

"Yeah, I was wondering why you didn't have your marks already when you asked about this. But it wasn't my place to ask." Jonyna took a moment to land next to her fellow Cathar, pulling back her coat and sleeves to reveal a set of tattoos across her shoulders. "That's the mark of family Si. Everyone in my family has it, and it's our mark of pride. If you want, you could style your new ones after your own family, or maybe just make your own new marks." Jonyna paused, looking down at Darth Tormenta 's legs. "You also don't seem to have the Marks of Maturity. Those are kinda a big deal. They show you're an adult and um..." She let out a cough. "Ready to mingle, as it were. To find a mate. Then when you do, you get new ones. Kinda our version of getting 'rings', or whatever the humans do. If me and Giran ever get married, we'll have to do that. Oh! And you add a bit of their mane to yours. Color, not...actual pieces. Or at least, that's how us Denik do it, based on how things were waaaaaay back before the mandos spread us to the stars."

Jonyna took a moment to stop, her ears twitching. "Course, you could just do your own thing at this point. I'm sure this is all foreign to you after all." The desire to share her culture, to relate to one of her kind, it showed a softer side to her that she didn't often open up to anyone. Her people, her tribe, that was a weakness she cared deeply for. She prayed this fellow Cathar, the first she had met since coming out of the ice, wouldn't push away the new information, but Jonyna knew it there was always a chance the Sith would reject all this and just go back to doing her own thing.

 

[Darth Tormenta]

"My parents didn't have marks either, may have been something that fell to the wayside among my own ancestors during their exodus around the galaxy. They had mentioned them, but as they didn't have them, I'd assumed it was dead, or for hard traditionalists. Here on Cathar? I see it far more often than not, so it was us that was an outlier."

Khamesi shrugged as she spoke, all of this was bringing back bittersweet memories, but she wouldn't be a master if she couldn't handle something as small as bittersweet. Khamesi wasn't exactly someone that put a lot of faith in tradition, even with the Sith she pushed back against many sect norms, but neither was she one to cast them aside without reason. She was someone that did her own thing, and valued being able to make that choice.

"Plus my fiance wasn't a big fan of tattoos, though she also didn't care to much about her famlies Kalikori either."

Khamesi kept details about her once fiance close to the chest, especially as it was still a source of pain, anger, and fear. Useful to draw upon for power, but not so much for idle conversation. The wave of anger that rolled off her was reigned in fairly quickly, but the wood beneath her claws did crack slightly in her grip. She bore the scars of the night, both body and soul, still to this day.

"While I don't put a lot of weight in tradition, there's no harm in getting my markings, but if I'm going to take the time to get them, I'm going to make them more than just culture or legacy. Though it's probably going to upset...traditionlists that I'm doing it, and me just talking to you will upset many of my allies at home."

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

One could call Jonyna a traditionalist, in a sense. She was now a keeper of the oral traditions of her people, of tales long forgotten or reinterpreted. But she also knew that traditions did change, over time. The traditions she had as a kit were nothing like what she had come back to. "The marks can be whatever you want them to be. Just as long as your honor the past by getting them. I'm just happy to hear you're willing." the Denik's ears twitched though, as a word peaked her interest. "She?"

Jonyna had always been an openly pan figure. She saw the shame of hiding that fact as fool's errand. Had Darth Tormenta not be a sith, she probably would've already made a pass at her. But to Jonyna, her morals trumped any attraction she could ever have. Even if she knew her fellow Cathar wasn't that kind of sith, she too was risking her own reputation by interacting with her, and thus her own urges would have to take a back seat. Not that she didn't have them. She did think her fellow Cathar had quite the figure...especially downstairs. Meow~

She shook her head. Not yet. She needed more than that to commit to such and action. She knew now the truth of what the Sith were, and thus, she couldn't risk such a relationship at this point without much more proof. Proof of her new friend's moral standings, and her place within the Sith Order.

 

[Darth Tormenta]

"Of course I'm willing, I've put myself through worse, and hunted beasts with claw and tooth alone. No one can claim without lying through their teeth that I lack the strength or honor to do so."

It was somewhat true. Khamesi had a arare sense of honor among the Sith, bound to her oaths as more than just mere words. Granted she didn't give them lightly and often acted to the letter not the intent, but that was because most other Sith were coniving, and twisted. It would be foolish to give them your all without having earned your trust first.

"And...yes. She, Sherdau was...well not really a warrior. She was the closest a small colony had, head of the colony milita. Fine shot but not much more than a peacekeeper the majority of the time. Had to deal with the occasional pirate, but they were usually just drunken drifters."

She paused as her anger came close to overwhelming her as she remembered her lost lover, and her hands snapped a thick if young by the standards of this forest branch from a tree. The wound to the tree was minor, given it's great size and age, so she paid i t little heed beyond a quick pass of her hand to seal it against infection. She took a deep breath to steady herself, her anger not weakening but returning to the cold focus she preferred it as.

"Then came the Hutts. She fought back, and they took her head for it. I killed them in my anger,"

She grew quiet for a moment as she struggled with her emotions before turning topic away from bad memories, as well as keeping many details to her chest, though she had not lied.

"How long to this crystal you thought of??

She wanted to get away from where she had drifted their talks, these memories were no longer bittersweet. That one image, forever burned in her soul, was one of the main fuels for the dark side that burned in her. She had to be careful in feeding it, lest it started to consume her as well. She'd seen what the decay of uncontrolled dark side could do, and she refused to wither away like that.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

"Just up ahead, actually." Jonyna pointed them. She remembered Teemo, the bastard that tried to have her head on a stake once upon a time. She never did get the chance to hunt him down, or make him face judgement for it.

Up ahead, they came across a small stream, a small break in the forest floor that was marked by massive stones that were the result of erosion taking it's course. Within the stream, small shimmers of green glimmered from the clear riverbed, the water looking clear as a window pane. Jonyna didn't hesitate to kneel down, taking a handful and sipping down the water. "This is an old spring that runs right through the jungle. Crystals occasionally form at the bottom if you want to go fishing." And that note, Jonyna swiftly reached into the water, grabbing a fish that looked like a strange fusion between a catfish and a Gar. She didn't even blink before shoving it in her mouth and taking a chomp out of it. "Good fish in it too." She said, mouth full of meat.

Tag: Darth Tormenta

 

[Darth Tormenta]

Khamesi looked at the clean water flowing by, thinking over Jonyna's words for a moment as she contemplated what she did known of Alchemy. The meaning behind an object often meant just as much or more to Sith Allchemy as what it was actually made of. Crystals formed in a flowing, ever changing spring would be perfect for Alchemy and Magic designed to do the same to the body they were bound to. However, there was one issue. Khamesi did not want to clear a section of the stream of crystals, knowing that such things took a great deal of time to form, and no doubt had value culturally to the Cathar of Cathar. So, she had to find, a small number, or perhaps even just one, large enough to suit her needs.

She removed the last of her armor, leaving her only in the simple, practical clothes she preferred over soft silks and other finery. After a moment, she stepped into the spring, moving until she was in the center, and proceeded to sit in the water, not minding it's cool flow over her skin.

"These may work perfectly Jonyna."

She said looking at her Jedi guide, before closing her eyes and opening her mind, searching out into the area around her. While Druidcraft and similar powers were no specailties of hers, she would not be a lord if she could not sense the flow of life in the plants around her, the little heartbeats of the beasts in the spring, and even the life flowing from the spring itself. She was careful to keep the dark side from flowing from her into the spring, it would take quite a long time for her to actually taint a spring such as this if she cared to, but even a small amount leaking in could cause mutation for something downstream. Instead she shifted her mind to the crystals along the bed of the spring, brushing only lightly against them, leaving alone the ones to small for her use, and probing larger ones as she tried to find one that resonated with her. Even if she did not, she should be able to gather enough, but perhaps one that connected with her would work even better, binding to her with Magic all the better when everything was done.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

Deep within the water, a crystal lay buried under a pile of river gravel. As soon as Darth Tormenta spotted it, it was obvious it's what she was looking for. Digging it out though, that was gonna be a challenge. It looked to be a solid 5 pounds of gem, looking more like a large stone than a crystal in size.

"I'm here to help." Jonyna smiled. "So..." The cat was now curious. A dangerous state. "You like girls?"

 

[Darth Tormenta]

Khamesi did not answer right away as she silently probed at the large crystal she had found, unusually hefty, some some extra diligence to ensure it was not some kind of living creature was needed. At least, in Khamesi's mind. After a a few moments like this s he opened her eyes and looked to where the crystal was buried, pondering how to actually get to it wtihout disturbing the spring to greatly. Digging was always an option, but she wanted to conisder other solutions first.

"Yes, realized that while I was fairly young."

She answered as she stood up and moved to the point in the spring that flowed over the crystal, looking down at it's location before kneeling in the water, and beginning to dig.

Jonyna Si