Vigor Mortis

[PersonMan]

A planet, covered with lush forests, mountains floating above the surface, molten caverns leading further into the planet's core and hills littered with glowing crystals sticking out of it. Thresco saw himself walking on the surface, wandering through the forests by day, only to watch as the ground blackened, the trees turned to an ephemeral blue state that lacked any leaves as the plants and bushes retreated into the ground, only to turn back once the light of day rose from behind the mountains. It was in those very same mountains that he could see a large monastery, temple or cathedral, being unsure as to which of the three it truly was. A moment later, he saw himself walking through the large building, looking up at the large blue sphere of energy floating near the tip of the spire. When he looked down, he saw a large circle, divided into a black and a white half, both having long triangle of the opposite color running through the center. It was undoubtedly meant to symbolize the darkness and the light, as well as the fact that one would not be able to exist without the other. It was at that same moment that he experienced a powerful sensation running from his toes up to the tip of his nose. Watching closely as a yellow and red light appeared on either side, a woman and a man appeared. Pointing their fingers at him, they spoke only the words "Find us." before a bright light enveloped all that he could perceive, moments before the Mandalorian awoke from his slumber.




It had been some time since he had met with a member of the Sith, the first time when someone shed some light on the topic of the Force. Since that time, he now knew that he had in fact been born with a high midi-chlorian count in his body, leaving him with quite a few things to think about. While it had allowed him to know that the awfully realistic dreams he had been having were in fact visions given to him by the Force itself, he had also learned that these very same visions would not always come to be exactly as they had been presented. What was more important than that was that his connection to the Force meant that he was meant for greater things than just smuggling and scamming across the galaxy. It had presented itself with quite the conundrum, for on one hand, he had been making a living for himself and his self-made family by doing the things that were generally frowned upon. On the other hand, becoming a Jedi had been something he had been training for for years. Hell, it was the sole reason why his clan had been murdered in an attempt to find him. In more ways than one, he owed it to those that had died protecting him from the people that had been looking for him to delve deeper into his connection to the thing that had ruined his early life, the Force.

Specific visits to other places in the galaxy had been rather pointless, though a particular visit to a space station in the outer rim had allowed him to figure out a thing or two about the force while trying to get rid of some Sith relics. Aside from that, his visit and temporary stay on Kesh had allowed him to delve even deeper into the power he had inside of him. It was by following a new dream, or Force Vision as they had been classified as, that he had chosen to head deeper into Wild Space in search of something... different. Not long after he had left Kesh, he had taken over flying from Torgost and started following the vibe he was getting. Believing that it was the Force telling him where to go, he could no longer really tell whether he was flying on instinct, was following the Force or if the two were really more of the same. After all, he had learned that through the midi-chlorians in his body, the Force was capable of speaking to those that knew how to listen. By listening, he had learned that he had to follow these hunches and vibes he got, even if they sometimes seemed like they might lead him astray or might show him an incomplete or false future, just like the one in which he got killed by setting himself on fire.

At moments like these, he felt like all he could do was believe in himself and have faith in the Force not leading him on a wild chase across the less explored regions of the galaxy. And if flying aimlessly across Wild Space while wasting a ton of fuel was not having faith, than he wouldn't know what was. While his visions had showed him a planet that seemed rather different from any other he had seen as a smuggler, the thing he saw in front of him was most certainly not a planet. Even in Wild Space, a place so close that it was actually just about as far as one could go before leaving the furthest reaches of the galaxy, the Mandalorian had never imagined that he would find something so peculiar in nature. At first he believed it to be a massive red space cube, though closer inspection proved that it was in fact a rhombohedron made out of metal. His first guess was that it was some kind of alien space station, and that he had made some kind of mistake. Even so, the peculiar feeling he was getting from it matched the sensation he had experienced from it while in his dream vision. Somewhere in that cube, or rhombohedron, there were two very specific sensations that called out to him so strongly that he could not shake it. Thankfully, it was because he could not shake it that he was capable of following it all the way to his destination.

Where as another vision had told him to meet Solan on Kesh, there was something innately different about this one, as it seemed like it was something he was not producing of his own will, but something he was forcefully experiencing, a vision of someone else's creation. After following the hunch that had taken him straight to Solan, it had been this particular dream that had come to him for at least a week, sometimes even several times a night. What that told him was that the Force must truly have absolutely nothing better to do than to push him from one place to the other while allowing him little to no sleep at all. It was a most bothersome feeling, though it made him feel important as well, to be chosen by the Force to go on these seemingly random trips across the galaxy, even though he really only had a limited understanding into the ways of the Force. He was not like the Jedi that had been trained their entire lives to serve it, or like the Sith that were hellbent on shaping it for their own needs and purposes. As such, all Thresco could do was to go with his gut feeling and do whatever it was that he needed to do. After some much needed time alone, the Mandalorian turned on Torgost, allowing it to run its systems and fly the ship while Thresco himself paced up and down the cockpit. The closer he got to the strange object ahead of him, the stronger both the peaceful and soothing, as well as the spiteful and destructive sensations became, making him want to turn around and make a run for it in Hyperspace.

"Torgost, are you getting any readings from this place? I can tell by looking at that... thing, that it is made out of a metal alloy, though I have never heard of any space station this far out in wild space. While my eyes tell me that thing is a space station, there is something else inside of me that tells me it is something far different from anything I have ever seen before. What can you tell me about it?".

"Judging by my readings, there is nothing present at your designated location. Would you still wish to proceed as normal?".

As soon as the words were spoken, something rocked the ship, causing Thresco to lose his footing and fall back. Hitting his head against the metallic interior, he had lost consciousness before he even properly dropped to the floor. Normally, Torgost would fly the ship away from any potential harm, though it seemed that the initial shock that had sent the Mandalorian into an unconscious state had also knocked out everything on board, including Torgost. Incapable of getting away, the ship slowly drifted towards the red metal rhombohedron as it started to open itself up. Showing a brilliant white light that would have blinded anyone that stared into it, it was as if the ship had been caught in a tractor beam. Pulling him into the opening inside of the strange object, Thresco and the Jiriad Kadiilir soon disappeared from sight as nothing but the red object remained. While unconscious, Thresco again found himself walking through the massive building that seemed like it was dedicated to both darkness and light. When the man and the woman showed up again, he noticed for the first time that they were similar to humans in many ways, but were truly something else entirely. Pointing their fingers at him again, the chanted the same thing again before the blinding light blinded him.

"Find us.".

 

[Thresco]

Gasping for air, the young Mandalorian jumped up from the ground, ready to get back to the controls and steer away from the obviously dangerous construct in front of him. Slightly dazed by getting up too quickly after having been down for an undetermined amount of time, it was not after several seconds of self recollection that Thresco figured out that he was no longer on board the Jiriad Kadiilir. In fact, he was no longer even in space, while his vessel was nowhere to be found. Among other things, he also noticed that everything but his interior armor and his lightsabers had disappeared too. As he slowly regained his composure, that which he saw in front of him was entirely similar to that which he had been dreaming of for days now. Believing himself to still be asleep, he pinched himself to make himself wake up, only to remain awake with the realization that his surroundings were very real, as well as a small bruise on his arm. Looking around, he could tell how this planet had the same forests, glowing crystal hills and floating mountains, which meant that this simply had to be the place. As much as he tried to make sense of that which could not be made sense of by logic, his mind started drifting to places that were best left untraveled. By the time doubt was setting in, he already believed that he had died when he fell and hit his head, and that this place he was in now was in fact the afterlife.

"How is any of this even possible? I was in wild space only a few seconds ago, and there was no planet to be found anywhere. Did I die when I fell down? Is this my own personal hell? Forcing me to relive this dream until the end of times? This can't be real...".

Trying his hardest to maintain the composure he had only just regained a few minutes ago, it felt like his own doubts were eating away at his sanity. None of this made any sense, there was no way that he had been unconscious for more than a few minutes, just like it was impossible for Torgost to fly to a nearby planet, drop him off and fly away as such a thing was impossible for various reasons. Mostly because it was against his coding. While that much could be rationalized, him being on a very breathable and life sustaining planet instead of inside a cube-shaped space station or his own ship could not. It was entirely impossible for him to be in such a place while his own ship was nowhere to be found. Doing his very best to hold on to his wits, the Mandalorian started walking forward through the forest, wandering through places that were exactly like those he had already seen so many times before in his own dreams, or rather, his visions. Because of how he was raised, he knew that he would be able to survive with just the bare minimum of equipment, which was about all he had on him now that his exterior armor had disappeared. Without his helmet, his armor and his guns, the thin suit of armor he still had would only do so much to keep him warm at night. Having no idea what kind of wildlife the place had, he decided that the best thing to do now would be to collect wood and start a fire.

Taking one of his sabers, he cut off various branches from a nearby tree, uprooted some plants and put them on top of some rocks so that they would dry up quickly. Cutting the branches up into smaller pieces, he used the heat radiating from his saber to start the fire before putting the slightly dried leaves and branches on top of them, creating a fire large enough to scare off any unwanted predatory guests. Sitting by the fire, one of the more peculiar things he experienced as the hours went by was that there did not seem to be an actual sun in the sky. The light was more or less just there without any plausible source. While on the subject of strange, he also seemed to experience no feelings of hunger, thirst or tiring, which would only have been normal after spending quite some time preparing a fire and trying to orient himself in this strange new environment. It was however after a few more hours that the strangest thing imaginable took place. In the blink of an eye, a shadow fell over the sky, covering it with a starless black blanket. As it did, the trees dropped their leaves and took on a transparent blue color while the surrounding shrubbery retreated into the ground itself. Within seconds, Thresco was surrounded by a ghastly forest, devoid of all life other than his own. That was, if he was still even alive to begin with.

Interestingly enough, this part was similar to what he had seen in his dream, tempting him to believe that he might very well be living the scenario the Force had shown him. As the hours went by, the fire was slowly starting to die down a bit, tempting Thresco to toss more wood and dried leaves into the flames. With time, the Mandalorian started believing less and less that the thing he was seeing were real, though he had to keep some modicum of faith in the Force, especially in a place like this. To him, the Force was still relatively new, though he knew that a big portion of his life had been directed by it. By the time he learned about something inside of every living being that directed them down a chosen path, it made him want to know more about how he could direct It. Being a follower had never been his style, which was why he had chosen to become a lone wolf out in space, a smuggler that no one would miss if he ever got caught or killed. Whether it was in response to him or not, the flames suddenly rose up like a pillar into the air, roaring as they utterly incinerated the wood and leaves that it had previously been feeding on. By the time the flames died down, a tall man stood in the center of the flames, looking down on him with an almost fiendish grin. Wearing tight black clothing, the things that stood out about him the most were the pale white face, the red markings under his eyes and running from the top to the back of his head, and obviously the fact that he stood at a height of over two meters, thus dwarfing the Mandalorian.

"Greetings, mortal. Long have I waited for someone to come to Mortis, someone who was strong with the Force. And you are exactly that, strong with the Force in ways you have yet to grasp. I can tell just be looking at you that the two of us will get along just fine. I can feel the yearning in your heart. A hunger for vengeance long repressed. A thirst for knowledge no one can give you. That is why you were sent here, to me.".

 

[Thresco]

Listening to the words spoken by the tall man inside of the flames, closer observation showed that his eyes had pitch black sclera surrounding a bright red iris that lacked a pupil. Aside from the pale face, the red facial markings and the black clothing, his eyes alone had the ability to rouse suspicion in the Mandalorian smuggler. As he looked on, he knew that he had felt this presence before, just like he had seen that unforgettable face. He was one of two people that he had seen in his vision, calling out to him from a large monastery somewhere on the planet which had just been identified as Mortis by the pale faced man. Why there was only one of the pair here to greet him was currently beyond him, though there was most likely a reason why the woman was not here at this time. Choosing not to dwell on what was not there but on what was, he kept his blue eyes locked on the image in front of him, all the while wondering what it was that it knew about him. From the looks of it, it was like the pale man could see right through him, unflinching whenever Thresco moved, even when he reached for his Lightsaber out of caution. It seemed like he knew exactly how the Mandalorian was going to respond, though there was more to it, much more. Given the smug expression on his face, his manner of speech and the unsettling aura around him, it became clear that this... thing, was far beyond that which Thresco was. This thing was no longer on the mortal plain of existence, or maybe he had never been in the first place.

"Hello there, my name is Thresco of Clan Jorr. I came here more or less by accident, though I seem to have lost my ship and my gear. I've seen a vision of you, which is actually the reason why I came here. A few years ago, I started having these... dreams, showing me things I would later run into somewhere in the not too distant future. I feel like they mi-".

"That they might be the Force trying to tell you something? Why yes, that is why they are known among the Jedi and Sith as "Force Visions". Here on Mortis, the will of the Force is the strongest you'll find anywhere in the universe. It is a place that acts as a conduit, allowing the Force to flow into the galaxy, which is most likely why you were sent here. It is after all in this place that I can show you your destiny, as well as the role you will play in the future. However, my powers here are dampened by another. If you wish to receive my guidance, seek out the volcanic pit to the north. It is there that my powers are at their peak.".

Then, before Thresco could properly respond, the flames erupted once more before the tall pale figure disappeared and the fire died out, leaving him in total darkness. As if timed that way, the strange phenomenon popped up again when the darkness disappeared, making way for light to return to the strange, outlandish planet. Along with it came the bushes and plants which rose from the earth, as well as the trees returning to their original shape whilst bearing leaves once more. Carefully considering the words of the pale man, he could not shake the feeling that seemed to resonate from the artifacts inside of a crate he had taken from the Bartokk some time ago, an aura which was explained as dark side energy by the Sith that bought the items from him. If it was as the Sith believed, that would mean Thresco's gracious host was very powerful with the dark side of the force, something that could potentially bring some serious risks with it if the Mandalorian chose to go to the place where the pale man was the strongest. Rising to his feet again, he thought about heading north, though his gut told him that it was not the wisest choice he could make when he only knew so very little about the pale man, the planet and the extent at which the Force flowed through everyone and everything on it's surface. When a soothing wind passed through the trees, a swirl of leaves moved past him by and stopped in the center of the same clearing where the pale man had stood.

"Greetings, young one, and welcome to Mortis. I sensed that my brother had come to you in the night, and since we rarely get any visitors, I believed it proper etiquette to stop by personally. As I had sensed my brother, I also sense in you a great potential to become a powerful individual. My father once told me not to interfere with the will of the Force, though I feel that it has brought you here so that you might increase your understanding of it in order to better serve it. If such a thing is your goal, then come to my shrine in the south.".

Turning to see where the voice came from, Thresco laid eyes upon a tall, yet beautiful young woman that seemed to radiate with light. Her pale, slender figure was covered in a bright dressed that wrapped tightly around her. Adorned with various golden attributes, her penetrating green eyes seemed capable of staring right through the Mandalorian, just as the pale man had done before. Where the man was pale and seemed to carry an air of cruel intent around him, the woman had long green hair falling down to her lower back. While essentially different from the man in every way, they were both equal in that they both felt unbound by the things that tied Thresco down. They were above and beyond mortality, radiating with the same power he had felt whenever he got close to the Force, possessing power he would never be able to wield. That said, there was one more difference between him, the woman and the man, they were no longer alive, he was. During the short time in which he had been alive, he had heard stories of Jedi masters rising after death, becoming a visible representation of the Force itself. As someone so new to the concept, he could only guess about the exact nature of the two beings, hoping that he was correct in his assumptions. Nodding his head in acknowledgement of her words, he thought about how what she said had been the exact opposite of what the pale man told him. Where one wanted him north, the other wanted him to the south, though he could not seem to figure out who's words to follow.

"Thank you for coming to meet me. I've seen a pale man a few minutes ago, so judging by the lack of other sentient life on this planet, I take it that he is the brother you spoke of. He wanted me to come to him in the north, promising that he would show me my destiny and what the future held for me, yet you ask that I go in the opposite direction. I have to ask, why do the two of you appear at different times, asking me to go further away from the other?".

"You are correct in your assumptions and have every right to ask such a question. I did not mean to deceive you, though you have to understand, my brother acts purely out of self-interest. Many years ago, a Jedi came to Mortis, and he too was shown a vision of his future. Had it not been for my father, he would have unleashed my brother upon the Galaxy, destroying the light and allowing the dark side to destroy everything. Where he acts as the living embodiment of the dark side, I became the opposite of him, embodying the light. With the departure of our father, I am the only one who can keep him in check. If you wish to see for yourself, I would advise you to go to the top of that mountain. It is there that you will find a monastery that stands at the center of this planet, a place where his power and mine are equal. The decision is yours, but know this, he will try to deceive you with promises of power. Everything is fair from his point of view, as long as it gets him off of Mortis.".

 

[Thresco]

Taking a bow, the glowing woman disappeared just like her brother had done before her, leaving Thresco with a few decisions to make, decisions that could have some very serious consequences if he made them before properly thinking them through. On one hand, he had the choice of going north to the lair of the pale man that promised to show him what the future had in store for him, allowing him to better shape his own destiny and the mark he would leave upon the galaxy. On the other hand, there was the sister that claimed she could teach him how to better understand the ways of the force and how to better serve it, requesting that he'd come south to do so. These two options were as far apart as they could possibly be, though there was still a third option, which was by far the most neutral. If he went up to the monastery that had been described by the sister, he would get to see both the pale man and the glowing woman in a place where their powers were equal. While it would allow him to speak to both beings at once, it would take him a lot more time, possibly without making any kind of progress in learning more about the Force and his future in the process. Several minutes went by as the young Mandalorian decided what would be best for him, ultimately going with the decision that best served his self-preservation, going to the monastery located halfway between the domain of the brother and the sister. Hoping that it would in fact provide him with the information he craved, he started his long climb towards the top of the mountain. Without his ship to take him there, the only thing he could truly rely on were his instincts and his training as a child on Mandalore.

As a to-be hunter, he had learned how to climb trees and rocks, even an almost completely vertical wall if he needed to. While not entirely vertical, the mountain side he had to scale had some truly treacherous steps that could have meant the death of lesser men. However, a true Mandalorian did not need to fear heights and slippery slopes as they had been trained to deal with such things from a very young age. Even so, more than an hour went by before Thresco finally made it to a large platform he believed was the front door to the monastery. To his surprise, it seemed that his ship had been sitting on the same platform. Now that he had been presented with the option to leave the planet if he chose to, his decision to meet with the brother and the sister finally felt like it was a legitimate option, rather than an enforced choice. Wandering through the monastery, he took in the architecture of the building, as well as the peculiar feeling he got from the place. Ever since he had woken up, he had felt a strange feeling pulsating from within the planet, a feeling that seemed to have been empowered while inside of the monastery. While interesting and worth looking into, he had not made it all the way up just to watch the scenery and figure out why certain things made his body feel strange. Not interested in another puberty talk, he walked into a large courtyard overlooking the vast forests below. As he entered the courtyard, it seemed that brother and sister had already been reunited, and neither one seemed pleased to see the other.

"Hello dear sister, so long it has been since last I saw you. We have been here in this prison for hundreds upon hundreds of years, yet you choose the moment in which my revered guest shows up to reveal yourself. It got me thinking that you might be thwarting my plans, to keep me from showing this mortal the true power of the Force. My heart would break at the thought of you standing in my way a second time, sister.".

"You surrendered yourself to the dark side many years ago when you tried to kill father and corrupt the minds of mortals just to get off of Mortis. The moment you drank from the font of power, you proved that you only cared for yourself, that you couldn't care less about the consequences of your actions. Father was right when he said that you had become the embodiment of the dark side, because all I sense in you these days are selfishness and destructive intent. What duality once existed within you is gone, only darkness remains.".

"My my, I must say, I had not expected you to be so wordy. Your words hurt me, they do, though I have grown to a point where such feelings only fuel my connection to the Force. The duality you speak of disappeared when you threw yourself between father and my dagger, forcing me to bear the burden of your death on my shoulders along with the burden of leaving our mother behind when we fled our homeworld and made our new "home" on this... prison. When father betrayed me, I cursed this family of mine for restraining me in life. I will not allow you to do so again in death. If you stand in my way, I will destroy you once and for all.".

Standing in the opening of the door, Thresco watched and listened as the tall humanoid male and female spoke to one another while making it look like they did not even know that he was there at all. From what he could pick up from their bickering, his earlier assumption about the two of them no longer existing on the physical plane of existence seemed to be on point. They were spirits existing through the Force, or Force ghosts to keep things simple. It seemed that they had been on this planet for a very long time, long before Thresco had even been born. When he thought that his family had known its fair share of problems, he felt relieved to know that there was actually a family out there that had even greater problems. Apparently, the pale man had been kept on Mortis as a means of imprisonment, forced to stay there by his father and his sister, the former of the two was currently missing from the equation. Learning that the pale man had tried to kill the father but had accidentily killed the glowing lady in the process before his father betrayed his son and undoubtedly had him killed too, it made him wonder what had happened to the patriarch that was supposed to watch over his kin. When it seemed like the pale man and the glowing lady were on the verge of clashing, Thresco believed that it was time for him to step in and keep things from escalating. After all, there was no telling how powerful these beings were, and their clash might catch him in the crossfire.

"Wait wait wait, there is no need for the two of you to clash. You have both invited me to come seek you out in your corners of this world, and while it was milady's idea, I chose to come here of my own free will. It is true that I am quite new to all of this and that I don't know nearly as much about the Force as i'd like to, though I wish to learn what the two of you have to teach me. As unkind as it might sound, I have no intention of being pulled into your family feud. All I want is to learn what it is you have to teach me, something you both promised you would do if I came to you, and I have already fulfilled my end of the bargain by coming here. That is why I suggest one of you teaches me by day and the other by night, seeing as this place won't allow me to feel tired, hungry or thirsty anyway.".

Standing between the pale man and the glowing lady, he wondered if what he had just said was truly the wisest thing. For a moment, silence seemingly fell over the entire planet as the two driving forces behind it mulled it over. A moment later, the woman sighed while the man looked away with a grin on his face, seemingly pleased by the outcome. Closer inspection of the female showed that she too seemed content with the outcome, likely believing that training under both would be better than going with her brother. Taking a few steps back, the pale man crossed his hands over his chest while watching the sister, trying to figure out her response. When she too took a step back, Thresco knew deep down that the two beings would no longer clash as he had made his decision. Turning his gaze to the pale man before angling back to the woman, he could still sense hostility and passive aggressiveness between the two, though that much was to be expected. If they were truly relatives that had been through so much together, than it made sense that they seemingly hated one another so much. That was when the pale man broke the silence, a thing he seemed to rather enjoy doing.

"I can agree to these terms. What about you, sister?".

"You forget who brought up the idea, dear brother. But yes, I too can agree to these terms. However, do not think that I will not keeping a close eye on you brother. Father may be gone, but I am still here, and I will do whatever it takes to keep the darkness from swallowing the light.".

"Oh sister, you act as if there could be one without the other. So please, watch as I show this mortal the power of the dark side, I quite enjoy having an audience.".

With that, the two beings approached one another and shook hands, albeit reluctantly. When they did, a small amount of red electricity and a visible gust crackled around their hands until they released their grip upon one another. Whereas there was quite some distrust between the siblings, Thresco himself did not exactly trust them much either. In a way, they had both tried to initially draw him away from the other so that he could only immerse himself in the teachings of either the dark side or the light. It was as the pale man said, there could not be one without the other. Why walk the black or the white path when one can freely wander the grey area without being bound by light or darkness. For the Mandalorian, choosing either or had never been an option. If he was presented by two things, he would not pick one and leave the other, he would take both, just as he had done with his lightsabers. At the time of his master's death, he could have allowed his corpse to keep his lightsaber, but figured that a dead man had no use for such a tool. When the brother passed him by, he ventured deeper into the monastery while the sister remained, showing him to a room near the top of the central spire. While he needed no rest, food or water, it turned out that she had provided all three for him should he feel the need for it. Fresh spring water, fruits and vegetables and a large soft bed for him alone. For the time being, this would do just fine.