Log:Jedi Order: What Went We Out In Those Woods To Find
A party of Jedi and Alderaanians venture out into the woods, chasing whispers in the dark
OOC Date: April 12 2022
Location: Delaya
Participants: Nora Frayus, Ulani Kalgaav, Corto, Rune, Bors Thul, Yuun
RP Rating and Summary
Content Warning: Graphic Imagery, Sensitive Themes (Child Abuse, Murder, Animal Cruelty)
At the behest of Count Corwen Frayus, friends of Nora Frayus set out into the woods to investigate stories of a strange presence near The Voidlight Forge.
Log
The woods at the foot of Voidlight Forge are dense and old. Ancient growth and gnarled bark dominate much of the landscape, upturning rock and soil and mulching organic matter into compost beneath. The trees are so thick that little grows beneath the canopy. Some shade-dwelling ferns and flowers speckle the ground, desperately grasping for any little light that they can squeeze from the cracks beneath the tree limbs. Wind rattles those branches above, filling the air with the sound of creaking doors and shifting floorboards. Wood groans and shudders. Leaves dance to a chorus of insects and amphibians and nocturnal birds of prey.
It is easy to feel as if one is being watched in these woods. Indeed, the sound of skittering creatures is around every corner. Every rock-face navigated up the steep incline. The higher one gets, the thicker this forest seems to grow, with mist pouring down from the mountain tops. The stones here have been eroded with roots as well, with small blue flowers sprouting up from cracks within their faces.
And it is oppressively dark. Not even the moonlight is enough to illuminate this winding, forested mountain path.
[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It's been nearly an hour since the party had ventured forth from the trailhead at the forest's mouth. The path itself had been fairly well-manicured at the start, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the further into the woods the trail had wound, the more unkempt it became. While an occasional root or rock presented a tripping hazard at the beginning, the terrain itself has become as stifling and oppressive as the very air here.
Indeed, the air is thin. This is because those being led by Nora Frayus up a once-familiar trail have not only been winding, but climbing. It is an insidiously subtle sort of steepness that might not have ached all at once, but grows more and more difficult with every passing step. And that's what this woods feels like. Fatigue, misery, and oppression.
Mist rolls down off the mountaintop, smelling sweetly of moss, lichen and flowers. A promise of respite, perhaps, should they ever reach the top.
"I have never known him to be superstitious," Nora says of Corwen Frayus. He was a fairly common topic of conversation on this late night hike. "If he says he hears these voices, I suppose I am inclined to believe him. Though I suppose woods as disorienting as these can make even my father's imagination turn a touch feral. Still... we have known these woods since I was just a girl," Nora murmurs. She pauses as she reaches one of the switchbacks in the trail and turns to look over her shoulder at those behind her.
"We are nearly there. Just up this incline will see us to the final leg of our climb," she says, and glances over her shoulder at those behind her.
[ Ulani Kalgaav (Ula)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ulani is in fairly good shape, if she is honest with herself. Well-cooked and balanced meals, plenty of exercise with long strolls. The occassional basic training run down to make sure she is tip-top enough to clamour up the ladder of an X-wing. Not to mention lugging all manner of machine and droid parts when she's working her profession. Heck, she's currently helping -- in a small way -- to oversee the building of an estate carve into a literal mountain. So she should be able to handle this hike right?
No. No, the poor thing. She pauses a moment to lean against a tree; wheezing for breath with a finger up in a 'just a minute' gesture. Trying not to think, or panic, about how thin the air feels up here, she eventually nudges away from the tree and picks up her pace to try to keep up.
[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"If he ain't before, and is now, he's either dyin' or on to something."
The allure of mysterious woods plays within the mind of all those fond of looking beyond the veil of reality. Dank atmosphere, deep mist, a total disconnection of the technology that defines our day-to-day, this is what inspires folklore and tall tales of ghosts and spirits. But we all know ghosts and spirits are real. After all, the Force is real, even to those who might just dismiss it as a parable. And so we come to the Drifter, who has made a habit of finding himself in the middle of these little sojourns as of late, but this time he was armed. Across his back was a bolt-action design slugthrower. Not for ghosts, no, ghosts were best dealt with by harsh language, but for any other beastie or womp rat that might do for food in a pinch. Alas, no campfire today.
Corto didn't look tired, his frame bearing the constitution of a Houk and his long strides crossing distances in a blink if he committed to it. Instead he was content to amble at what humans would consider a slow pace, following up the back and keeping watch as he always did.
[ Rune (R)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The steepness of the climb didn't bother him, Rune had recently had many encounters with too many stairs, nor did the oppressive nature of the woods themselves, what currently bothered Rune was the tangle of roots and branches that gripped at the cloth of his vest and baggy pants. After tugging the former away from the most recent grasping branch, the Ysannan lifted his shoulders in a shrug and continued to trudge along behind Nora.
"That could be it, whispers on the wind and such. When presented with places that appear frightening, the mind often leaps to far-fetched, but logical conclusions." Rune says, dodging a vine of thorns he had the fortune to see ahead of time.
Despite his calm and ease of manner, he did carry the black metal cylinder in his hand. Already detached from its holster on his belt and ready for action, or to light the way, should they have the need of it. Nevertheless, his resolve had him scanning their surroundings, peering past the thickness of the trees, searching for anything that might be out of place in these fear inducing woods.
[ Bors Thul (BT)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Ahhh captain he called prime the coils! Hyper me boys, to Doaba! Preppin' the charts in the stars we sail! Runnin' down to Doaba! Weigh me boys to Doaba! Hyper me to Doaba! Give me a gal, can dance Trandangah! Hyper boys to Doaba! Round as melon, sweet as a j'dando! Runnin' down to Doaba!"
He's singing again, inside his helmet - the seals not locked and so the muffled tone of it can be heard in proximity to the Lord Thul who is marching to the beat of it. Bors being one of the only actual soldiers of the party assembled; fighter pilot maybe, commando later, with all of the associated years of boot and active service years of regular P.T. to make these sort of treks.
So he may lack the non-human constitutions of some, and he may actually be tired; but he's not in a griping sort of mood and when it comes down to the brass tacks he's an A-Wing pilot.
And A-Wing pilots are farkling crazy.
[ Yuun (Yun)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
During the walk, Yuun has taken to keeping towards the back of the group provding his skills as rear watch during this hike. Having changed into some warmer clothing, he is able to keep up with the others and works on keeping his presence quiet for the time being. Taking in the scenery around him, he seems to be lost in what he sees. Again that look of wonder as he's on another planet and exploring a part of it. His attention shifts forward as he hears the voices of the others speaking.
Taking a moment to listen in, Yuun doesn't speak up for the time being just wanting to listen in, but also keep his guard up just in case there really is something out here in the woods before they move up the incline.
[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Care, Ulani," Nora says with a little smile. She too is a touch winded, and though she is perhaps a touch more stoic about it, there is no hiding the way that she seems a bit short of breath. Her feet feel a little heavy in her boots, and even the smallest step forward makes her heart thump quickly in her chest. It's as if walking is as difficult as jogging at this altitude. She places here hands on her hips and regards Corto next. There is a small eyeroll in the dark at his words and she shakes her head. "You curse our journey, then. That man is far too stubborn to die," she says. And so, they press on.
Up that last hill and into a clearing. Rune is certainly right -- it is so easy for the mind to trick itself. To hear things that just... aren't there. To draw connections, for sentients are inherently pattern seeking. Shapes form within the mist. Whispers in the treetops above. The sound of something far off on the wind. And those treelimbs. They knock. They groan. They creak. But it is all just... the woods.
Save for Bors' singing.
Even Yuun, alone and silent in the back, makes his way through the cave relatively unscathed. Save, perhaaps, for a scuffed boot or an occasional errant rock tripping him up as he goes.
Until they arrive at the very top.
It is a sudden, drastic clearing in the woods that sits at a relatively even level. Thee ground is soft -- stone once slick and sheer has been eroded by roots and growth and rain for centuries. At its center sits a massive, gnarled tree. Its bark is knotted, reaching out from its trunk in the shape of arms desperately trying to escape the wood. The warmth of Voidlight sits just over head and within reach, and the stars are seen in the inky black of the sky along with the moon -- a waning crescent.
Nora's lips turn into a frown and she looks over either of her shoulders. She takes a few steps nearer to the tree and reaches out to touch it. A small 'N' has been carved into the bark, overtaken by moss.
"Something is wrong," she says.
[ Ulani Kalgaav (Ula)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Care. Oh, care sounds nice. A warm bath with bubbles and some of that soup the kitchen staff makes with the artisan bread. Maybe a foot rub --- definitely a foot rub. Care would be lovely. There will be a time and place of all of that. For now, she's on a mission and dagnabbit---
Stopping just at the edge of the clearing, Ulani takes the opportunity to lean on one of the gnarled trees. Lifting up her helmet, she takes in a deep breath and gets about only half of what she is needed to make her burning lungs happy. In this moment, she looks towards the clearing. First with an idle pass then her eyes stop, dart back, and try to focus. The helmet goes back on; the augmented reality kicking back in and scanning the area. "I thought I saw something," she says quietly to Bors, touching his arm then pointing in a specific part of the clearly. "Some kind of movement? Or I might just be lightheaded. I don't see anything there."
[ Rune (R)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The relative calm of the clearing may be misleading to the group that arrives through the dense forest. An eyebrow is arched at the knotted tree, the figure of the plant itself enough to give one the spooks as it seems to be trying to escape its own core. It's to the Voidlight that Rune cranks his head, hazel eyes narrowing at the relative ease it seems they have discovered their objective.
The warning given after Nora approaches the tree has Rune closing his eyes to reach out with the Force, trying to detect something, or rather someone, hidden from them in the clearing. Either they are not there or the oppressive nature of the whole area is blocking his connection with the Force. The end result has the Ysannan opening his eyes and looking about with a measure of caution. "I cannot detect anything for certain but..." a pauses for dramatic effect, "...I have a bad feeling about this." The lightsaber hilt is gripped a little tighter in his hand as they investigate the area.
[ Bors Thul (BT)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Reaching up pull his helmet down just that last centimeter or two and the seals hiss and whine softly, the T shaped visor on the proto-Imperial Trooper armor burning an intense, silvery, sky blue - his first reaction to Nora's comment of something wrong. The thick barreled carbine on his back swung around before he comments,
<"Well it certainly has become further ominous in our endeavor to these parts."> his tone bright and chipper, silenced when Ulani points out to him where to look, head canting to one side and adjusting his stance and leveling the EE-3 with the stock in the crook of his arm, letting his eyes sweep while his head remains still, switching to comms rather than externals.
<<"Movement, but evasive. Possibly a smaller creature, Jawa sized, or someone moving specifically low to the ground to use the brush to conceal them...">> head turning towards Rune, <<"What in the a-... How many times must we remind thee of such commentary on mission, goodsir?">> one can practically feel the brow raise. The scrutiny through the monocle behind the visor.
And then he is looking back to the forest.
[ Yuun (Yun)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Yuun is the last to come up, he is tripped a few times but still he is keeping his eyes on their surroundings and watching the group as they enter into the cave. Scanning the mist, trying to figure out if it's the mist or his eyes playing tricks on him. Blinking a few times, he shakes his head and slows as he enters into the cave. The dark skinned Jedi Knight continues to survey the area they're in, and he hears Nora and Ulani, "We must be calm, it's not going to do us any good if we allow our emotions get away from us. Relax, but be vigilant. Focus on the here and now." he says in a calm voice.
[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Well, that ain't creepy at all," Corto rumbledrawled when he beheld the giant gnarled and obviously evil tree. Tightening the strap on his rifle and being careful with his footsteps (they were now in a metaphorical crime scene), he advised young Nora with, "Listen to the music, and pay attention to what it says is wrong. There'll be your answer." Now, first instinct when told something was wrong, check out the surroundings. Skies. Trees. Floor. He crouched down to investigate the ground, following animal tracks, dirt scuffles, all sorts of things that looked totally natural on a forest floor. He would have smelled, if he had a nose. Maybe he did and it was internal. But then he listened.
"Quiet for a sec," he warned the rest of the team.
Quiet. Yes. Indeed. Too quiet. Not a sound to be heard. No nature, no animals, no small cute fluffy murder machines. Nothing.
"Nora's right. Y'all ain't hearin' the noises you should."
[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Nora Frayus turns to look up at Corto when he speaks. The music in her head. For all the groaning and eye-rolling that his frequent campfires and unsolicited advice pulls from the young woman, she does, in fact, listen when he speaks. Her eyes close for a moment and she runs her finger across the slope of the letter 'N' she'd carved into this tree when she was younger. They weren't better times. Not really. But she was younger, and childhood comes with its own perspective. The music Nora hears -- the force -- is a bit like a distant concert of strings. They are... discordant, mostly. There is no real rhyme or reason for any of it, but sometimes, several strings will ring out into a chord.
There is no rhythm here. No hope of melody. When Corto mentions the lack of sound, it comes into perfect clarity. Nora lifts her eyes to the sky above the gnarled-barked tree at its center. Above it floats a...
"By the Mother, what is that?" Nora says, a wave of disgust and revulsion washing over her and making her stumble three paces back.
The creature is massive. thirty feet in diameter, with skin somewhere between transparent and translucent. It glows an ominous red in its veins, body resembling that of an embryo. Curled into a fetal position, bright red lights at its core swirl out into a network of veins that turn into pitch black. And across this creature's belly, a sizable, oozing wound is slit from top to bottom. Thick, dark red 'blood' drips from it, saturating the leaves of the tree above and making the branches start to shiver.
And then, an awful, terrible sound.
"SZZZJOROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK....."
[ Ulani Kalgaav (Ula)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ulani reaches around to take hold of the carbine slung to her shoulder, bringing it around as the group condense their respective senses towards figuring out just what the heck is up with this place. In the holos that she and Bors concsume in their downtime, Ulani has heard the 'it's quiet, too quiet' more than she can count. But never has she experienced the true horror of that until now.
The silence is oppressive. Heavy and suffocating like a lead blanket pressing down on them. Each comment from their party is like a triagnulation -- slowly pinpointing the source of the phenomenon that is akin to living death.
The hovering, bloody fetus is difficult to miss when Nora points it out and Ulani recoils in utter fright. "What the---" From the woods around them, more movement and she jerks around wide-eyed to see a deer, it's flesh slopping off and eyes read, lumbering quickly towards Yuun; it's head down and menacing antlers so pointy. Her trigger finger presses with surprise, hitting the ground a few feet away from the deer, the flash of red lighting up more creatures emerging from the woods. All manner of fauna; all deathwalkers.
[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"This reminds me of the time I..." It's okay everyone! Corto had an anecdote for the situation! "It looks like..." hm, all the hulking Feeorin cowboy could do was stare up at the giant hole of /wrong/ floating in the sky. "This is just like when... hmm." Big. Giant. Red. Bleeding. Thing. "I don't think anything like this has ever happened to me before."
Corto's out of wise man words. We should run.
The first thing that happened when he heard scurrying was the Dresselian-make rifle flying off his back and into his arms. Then, resisting the urge to look away from the hole in existence, the still wind embraced him. Nothing and everything moved around Corto as he immersed himself in the great big energy field called the Force, and his amber eyes pierced through the veil separating reality from not to touch the mind of the embodiment of wrongness.
Big mistake.
There once was a man called the Drifter
Who spoke in a very loud whisper
He touched the wrong mind
And what did he find
It popped him like an overgrown blister
For perhaps the first time in the histories of all these young twenty-something fashion models, Corto the Feeorin looked like he'd taken a cinder-block to the nads. His eyes bulged as he was metaphorically vomited from his place of pride, and it was only by stabilizing himself with the rifle that he avoided falling over. His cast-iron stomach prevented any of the recent womp-meat and dirt-caf from coming back up. "I think your old man is on to something!" he bellowed in Nora's general direction.
[ Rune (R)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rune looks back at Bors with a shrug and a mouthed apology, eyebrows lifting helplessly at his inability to keep from announcing his feelings. He had started to turn back to investigate when Corto's comment registers and he stops dead in his tracks, his eyes widening for a completely different reason. If there was one thing he learned from his time in the wilderness of Ossus, it was that he really wished he had a map. If there was a second thing he had learned during that time, it was when silence prevails, something nasty is keeping the everything else quiet.
As if on cue, a sense of foreboding brought on by the Force lifts the hairs on the back of his neck and he too swivels his regard to the top of the tree, the horror that hangs above them being seen for its full effect.
"What the hell is that?!" Rune cries as he depresses the button on the metal cylinder. Almost instantly the area around him is bathed in a green glow as his lightsaber activates to extend a column of light. The weapon hums deep with power, something tangible, tactile, not like the power that seeks to invade his mind, the tickling in his subconscious invasive, evil.
There's a sense that not all of them managed to resist the probing of their minds and, with a quick glance around at his gathered group, the sudden inaction of Yuun to the thing above gave that sense true form. "Yuun! YUUN!" the Ysannan yells, his eyes alighting on the burst of deformed creatures that rush from the underbrush toward him. Unable to wake the Jedi, he instead comes to his aid, leaping through the air to position himself between the addled Knight and the horrors that approach.
Ulani's blast sails by, illuminating the terror that the deformed wildlife possess: the blood, the rot, the unnatural gaits all approaching with ill-intent in their beady eyes. Up comes the verdant column and down plunges the light, sweeping among the unnatural beings as they push toward his friend. Rune manages to lop the head from one of the beasts, the rest slide easily by.... until they turn their notice onto the Padawan instead causing the color to drain from his cheeks. "Oh.... kriff...."
[ Bors Thul (BT)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
<"See! No reason for misgivings! It's just a beast cast upon us by the winds of fate! It's..."> What -IS- that? standing firm, left eye widening behind the visor of his helmet and the right remains pinched at his monocle, <"It's only a horrific space baby... likely to bring us tidings of... What it is like to be caught forever in the womb of the galaxy?"> really reaching there Bors.
Rifle still lifted.
<"Look it can't speak basic yet... adorable... space baby."> just keep telling yourself that, Bors ol' boy, <"It's not like its very presence might be twisting all of the life around it into a cruel mockery of what it is meant to appear as?"> oh look, it's twisting nature with its very presence, <"Everything will be perfectly alright."> it's not going to be perfectly alright.
Then the shot rings out and he is looking to Ula, <"Crimany"> Language, Bors! <"I thought Ektor was next to me a second!"> and now Rune is charging in... and monster animals...
<"Bollocks... Nope! This is obviously something scientifically quantifiable and not a buggering ghost-monster ghoulie!"> Wash your mouth out Bors! You potty mouth!
The warbling blaster fire is sprayed into the mass of animals to keep them from growing closer with their bent and twisted bodies, dropping into a wide legged, bent knee, stance as he opens up. The weight of fire bringing a beast low, <"Ula, dear - best be glued to my hip, yes?">
[ Yuun (Yun)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
As Yuun looks upon the creature, he didn't know what he was expecting but this was like something......the mist obscures everything around him. The creature seemed to grow larger, and as Yuun looks up, the skies seem to brighten for a moment, until it's almost blinding. He saw red, the sounds becoming discernable as a bombardment...but where, cries of children, and sentients of all kind scream out in pain and torture. Lowering his arms down and begins looking around, bodies litter the ground, and as he looks he sees a little girl evicerated about five meters from him by a red lightsaber, a creature all in red, but not in armor cackles.
He tries to move but something is keeping him from moving, "HELP ME! PLEASE MASTER JEDI DON'T LET THEM GET ME!!!" a man screams out. Turning to look around, it's night time now, it smells like things are building are burning, he's on Corucant as some bi-pedal creatures begin cutting into people, the man that gets near Yuun finds it's head cut off completely but a large razor like wing, but when he looks down he sees his father's dead eyes looking back at him.
"YUUN! BABY RUN, GET TO SAFETY!!!!" his mother calls, "NO! I can help you!" he calls out but his voice is small, he looks down, he's in his pajamas, standing in his living room as small creatures seem to be pushing against the door, his mother is bleeding from many bites, she has a blaster pistol in hand and she shoots a few but then a flashing light on her pistol lets's her know that her energy cell is empty. As she looks at the pistol the door explodes open engulfing her and ripping her apart as she is brought outside. Yuun's body is heavy, he can't move, he's trying to rationalize this but he can't, he turns to run and finds himself in a cave, webbing all around him, his lightsaber encased in resin, as he looks around, the cave is dark, it's hot in hear, and he sees people cocooned against the walls, and as he turns around, he hears pained cries echo off the walls as insectoid like creatures begin devouring those alive, an erie red glow emanates from down one of the entrances. A loud screeching sound reaches him, Yuun's nerves are frayed, he tries to run, tries to fight, but a spear like appendage stabs through his leg and blood rushes from his wound. As he looks up, "YOU'VE FAILED JEDI!" red eyes appear above him as the voice is dark and malevolent.
[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The creatures that have risen from the woods are wrong. Two heads, each split asunder. Tongues loll out from beneath the split jaws, their breath fogging in a mist of red as they try to breathe. They choke and wheeze as they struggle to move, blaster fire ripping out through the darkness. Some of them fall. Some of them seem unaffected entirely. No bullet or lightsaber swing misses, it simply fails to fall them on their path towards the sleeping form of Yuun. The sounds they make sound almost human in a way, too. Mournful sounds.
"Youjmnnn.... failllhthh..d.... themm.... Jemmmmhdi..." one manages to choke out, just as Bors' blaster bolt wrenches its neck to the side and it twitches on the ground.
"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR," booms the creature aloud, "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmrrrrrrolllllgggggggggggggg..." Its mouth opens and its sound is muted, but not because it is growing quieter. Because it's muffled. A massive bubble forms, sealed around its open lips as its body arches in the night sky. Wider and wider that bubble swells until...
Pop.
Hot, red blood pours down from the sky like rain over the party, soaking into hair and clothes and skin.
"Baby, Run!" one of the creatures shrieks in the woods.
"Yuun! Yuun!" Nora says, dropping to her knees and shaking him awake. "Get up, get up get up," she says as Rune hacks apart a few of those creatures that advance towards them.
[ Ulani Kalgaav (Ula)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Lightheaded doesn't even begin to describe it now. What she had hoped, briefly, was just a trick of the brain without sufficient oxygen is proving to be quite tangible as Bors manages to end two corrupted critters in a visceral manner and another felled by the flash of a saber. The joke about Ektor -- that was a joke, right? -- anchors her enough to pull her towards Bors. "At the hip. Right, we'll--"
That awful, terrible noise pierces her brain. Ulani releases her rifle, letting her shoulder strap catch it as she puts her hands tightly against her ears and...
-- Silence. No, not silence. She can hear it. The familair sound of conveyor belts and machinery below. The humm of a hundred voices and droids at work. She looks up and around her -- she's home. But not on Chandrila or Alderaan. She's back on Kuat standing in the study that overlooks the weapon construction in the facility below.
"Little Lani." A harsh, cold, disapproving voice. She spins around to come face-to-face with the familiar blue eyes of Havelock Kalgaav framed by a pair of smart wire glasses. "Do you want to see him?"
Her throat is tight. Dry. Unbearable like shards of glass as she croaks. "No. Please."
Something grabs her and spins Ulani around, bringing her face-to-face with the sunken features of Bors, throat slit open and pouring blood over a Black Squadron slightsuit. Empty grey eyes staring back at her. "The dream is dead, Lani," he father laughs from behind; cruel hands landing on both her shoulders and squeezing hard. "Back to work."
-- Ulani falls to her knees in the cold, dead grass of the clearing, sobbing to herself and begging him to let her go.
[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Gotta try again," was the gritted-teeth rumbledrawl from the determined Feeorin. He jammed the rifle barrel into the ground to use the stock as a cane, glared up at the giant baby, and embraced the stillness of the Force once more.
As far as he knew, he made contact.
You ever had deja vu? It's a funny thing, the absolute certainty you've been here before. We go back a long time ago to the sands of Jakku, back when the Drifter dressed a bit nicer and had a few less wrinkles. So... fifty years give or take. Sitting in a little sandstone hut in front of a human woman, he'd jumped into the middle of an amiable conversation. "...but not that it did us much good seeing as we're all dead."
Now that ain't right. That ain't right at all. "Y'all aren't dead. We drove those raiders off fair and square," was the drawl from the younger Corto. The skin wrinkled around where his nose would have been in an expression of abject surprise.
"Oh, no, no you didn't. You left. We all died," the dark-haired woman across from him explained in a tone far too cheerful for the words. It didn't work. Half of it carried over. The rest was spliced in from something else.
"I didn't leave! Ain't the type to leave!"
"You aren't even here now, silly!"
She wasn't wrong. Corto's meatfist hand was currently inside the table he was sitting at. It wasn't there. Or, more accurately, he wasn't. It wasn't even a shimmer. Where his hand would be was barely even a possibility of an idea of a flesh and blood limb. It was the categorical definition of Not. "I left when they were gone. You were safe."
"Oh. They came back."
[ Rune (R)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If he weren't so focused on the defense of his group Rune may very well have felt the terror that creeped slowly over his skin, the unnatural creatures that poured around them, the bloody thing in the sky that murmurs and screams, the choked sound of the woodland creatures.... speaking? A shake of his head draws him back to the very real now, lightsaber held in front as the bubble of go bursts overhead and rains down gore.
Rune shudders as his garments are dyed red by the blood, his hands shaking of their own accord as fear threatens to overwhelm him. Then there's another attempt at mind invasion, the creeping crawling invisible tentacles of the horror in the sky trying to drown all their thoughts and leave them helpless... Not if he could have a say in it.
All the emotion, the growing sense of dread, the futility of fighting these deformed creatures, all of it wells up inside of Rune as he grits his teeth. The Force powering his resolve, tightening his grip, and giving strength to the voice he delivers. "ENOUGH! LET GO OF THEM!" the Padawan yells, the Force imbued cry resonating out like a wave, striking Ulani and Bors, shaking them from the nightmares they dwelled in.
The verdant blade dips slightly, Rune's stance dragging a bit slower as he works to recover the energy spent in that burst of Force. Though he may be weakened, his eyes narrow, concentrating on the things that assail them, prepared to defend to his last breath if need be.
[ Bors Thul (BT)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Well it's a good thing he's in a fully sealed suit rated for vacuum or this would have been a lot more gross than it could have been. <"Oh! Oh1 look at that! It's a terrible wave of pandemonium washing over. This is fine! Everything is fine!">
And then Bors is on the ground, on his back, laid out and shaking periodically as he is cast into the warm, delightful marshmallow of catatonia. Or that's where his animal brain would like to be. But there is no marshmallow here. It's soft, warm. But when he reaches out he finds his hand coated red with,
"Ula?" he doesn't recall lifting his helmet, the look of his arm is lacking the plastoid shell, the thermo-kinetic plating... bodyglove. Tattered flightsuit instead. His glove is off but still covered in slick red. Before him the sight is blurred, unwanted and denied so he looks to one side and sees a form splayed out on the ground, twisted and broken like the black and orange X-Wing driven nose first into a high plowed hill churned up by a dragging impact. Tousled curls identify better than the broken skull and shredded face that has been ground down by the skid from the shattered canopy it was cast through.
Guts running cold, he looks the other way and his gasp rattles over the external speaks of his recumbent form, still armored. But he's not armored, his fighter is a pit of broken component and burnt soil, his ejection seat nearby... But there, another X-Wing battered, most of its namesake stabilizers having been torn or melted off, a skeletal form visible within the burning cockpit of the fighter labeled Aldera 3. "Princess." his face fixing in a horror mask.
Looking down, finally, choking when he finds blue eyes, glazed over and hollow, looking up, features lost but the eyes. Features torn away by something in the crash. Like the figure of the thick built pirate that is little more than a red smear. The figure of the dashing lordly knight, the little left on the ground burning.
The body below him, coating his arms red, only the eyes and brow whole - the rest lacerated and ruined - by flying metal, by flak fire piercing the craft. By a hundred thousand possible things that quiet him. Who would hear him? All alone here, last of his flight, all of them gone now. Why? What caused it? Was it him? It had to be, didn't do his job right, scouting. Mouth open but nothing coming despite the need to scream.
A scream that rips through his externals when he sits up, roused and freed from the terror visions by Rune, ripping the helmet from his head and gasping, sobbing and choking when he rolls onto all fours to vomit.
[ Yuun (Yun)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Yuun starts awake, looking to Nora, and he quickly looks around. He can't help it, he gasps for air and he looks frantic as he looks at Nora. "I'm here." he says. He didn't remember falling to the ground, but here he is. Yuun is able to get to his feet and he is a bit sluggish, but seeing this creature fully and seeing the others attacking them. He turns as more fall, he turns and reaches for his lightsaber, he lets out a breath, he is rattled by the nightmares, he's suffered from, but he knows he's stronger then this.
"Nora please help the others." he feels the usage of the force from Rune. With this Yuun moves towards the incoming creatures, his bright electric blue blade comes to life as he moves to intercept the incoming creatures, he's a flurry of movement, dancing in between the creatures as he fights, trying to keep the creatures from going after the others to the best of his abilities.
[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Nora Frayus' eyes are on Yuun when he wakes. Wide and blue, she yelps at the sudden splash of blood raining down from the sky. It's hot and acrid and sticky, and she stumbles backwards from the man when he sits up. Her eyes are wide she's breathing quickly, looking this way and that way before lifting her hands up to look down at her palms. Blood soaked palms. Her heart jumps and she lifts her eyes to see Rune toss the force towards Ulani and Bors. The impact is a subtle thing, wielded deftly. Enough to push them over, perhaps. To lodge them from their slumber in a way that a lover might wake another from some awful dream. The spark of Yuun's saber beside her is the first thing she hears. It isn't his voice. That's just all... swallowed by that horrible sound from above.
It's pitching higher and higher still as Nora pulls herself forward and crawls, hands and knees towards the drifter. One of the creatures -- a buck, whose antlers have split into coral and glass, eyes rolled back and teeth gnashing, stands... protectively over the drifter. Its eyes turned defiantly upwards towards that bloated creature in the sky.
"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX," it sings in the night.
"Corto, Corto..." Nora pleads, shaking the man to wake him and watching as blood drips from the sky and onto her hands. She pulls in a breath through her teeth, sits backwards, and lifts her hands up to look at her bloody palms.
"I will not," she says. And her eyes roll back and she collapses sideways beside the Drifter.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I told you what would happen if it made a mess of the place. Did I not, Lady Nora? Deal with this, or I shall deal with it for you," Count Corwen Frayus says. His voice booms in Nora's ears from high above, and she blinks stinging, puffy, pink and swollen eyes up towards him. He was always so tall, wasn't he? Especially back then. She's a child again. No older than nine, with her natural blonde hair hanging well past her slender shoulders.
A small puppy wags his tail in Nora's lap. In her left hand, she holds the first weapon she ever made - - the small parrying dagger that she still wears on the outside of her right thigh. Tears sting her eyes and her nose has begun to run. When she attempts to speak, the words feel like molasses in her throat. Everything is hot. The salt on her tongue. The tip of her nose. Her fingertips themselves. Her heart thumps in her chest and she turns her head up.
"I will not," comes a child's voice. She barely recognizes it any more. High pitched, but somehow still... angry. Hurt. Afraid. It strikes her more now than it did back then.
"You will not?" comes his response. Nora is not allowed to answer. A massive hand strikes her across the face and Nora collapses onto her side. The puppy in her arms scampers off to hide and her dagger tumbles out of her small hands and across the floor.
"Come now, Nora. You do not get to do this," Corwen says calmly as his heavy bootsteps thunk across the floor. Nora can feel her lungs squeeze from the first impact, all of the air emptying out as she covers her face in anticipation of the second. What light she can see through her eyelids is blocked from the shadow looming above. A second blow never comes.
"You do not get to lie to me. You do not get to lie to yourself, and you do not get to hide from what you have done. What did you actually say to me, Nora Frayus?" Nora is back on her knees where she'd began, as if she'd never been struck at all. The weight in her lap is back as well, only it isn't moving. All she can feel is her own sobbing, and a warm, sticky wetness on her right hand. Her dagger, and the lifeless body in her lap.
"Yes, father. I said 'Yes, father.'"
"Very good. An unpleasantness, to be sure, but one that needed to be done. Perhaps next time you will be more responsible," he says. There is a swish of Corwen's cape and her mother's dress that she catches out of the corner of her eyes. Little Nora is still kneeling right where she had always been. She holds the limp body close to her, rocking back and forth as she silently sobs. All she can hear is the sound of her tears, and her mother and father's footsteps exiting his study.
"I didn't. I wouldn't." Nora sobs. She's clutching a mossy stone in her lap and is doubled over, weeping incoherently atop it while running her fingertips softly through the mat of moss.
[ Ulani Kalgaav (Ula)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Please... please no. I can't do this. I can't..." Ulani is barely coherant as she suffers in a prison of her mind. Sobbing over the body of her beloved as chains start to wrap around her and constrict. Suddenly, she is shoved forward, face-planting into the ground and she snaps back into another kind of nightmare. One that sounds like Bors screaming.
"Bors!" With control of her arms and legs again, she looks around frantically; finding the Alderaanian lord keeled over, rolled over, and vomiting. Scrambling to him, Ulani's arms wrap tightly around the man's frame, squeezing him tightly. Convincing herself in a hurry that he's alive. Her lunch hasn't made its way to the surface yet, instead acting like a knot in the core of her writhing and churning.
Quickly she looks around, finding other members of her party in the same sorry state. Grabbing the first thing she can find -- her helmet -- she wings it over at Rune and manages to hit a shoulder rather hard. Who knew the girl had a throwing arm on her at all. "We have to go! We have to go!" She shouts to those around her.
But then her panicked eyes are back on the sandy-haired man, hand to his face and attempting to get his eyes to turn to her and focus. Her own hands shaking. "Bors, talk to me. We must go."
[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Eyes snap open.
It was a dream. A horrible horrible dream. In all these years Corto has known the price of failure, but never so grand. For it fit his drifting ways to move on after the trouble had departed. But on a level it was real. Maybe he should check in on those communities he'd left behind. Maybe see if they still stood. Maybe wonder what the heck this piece of good eatin' with the coral antlers was doing yelling /up/ at the giant baby raining blood down upon them was doing.
The Feeorin had never been one to turn down help, however unexpected. "Yer alright, boah," he said, patting the deer affectionately on the noggin. "Now let's send this big mean ol' mother hubbard back to where it came from."
Stamp. Stamp. To save those here, he needed to end this threat now. It was time to get dangerous. He assumed a wide nearly-sumo stance of stability threw his arms wide to embrace the chaos. The wind around him whipped up, setting his poncho aflutter and kicking the ever-present wide-brimmed hat from his cranium. Blue tentacles with golden rings spilled down to below his shoulders, flicking in the wind without headgear to protect them. It was a feedback loop, with screaming and loud cries and insanity everywhere that Corto beheld, and understood, and channeled into only the purest tenet of the organization he'd abandoned near one-twenty years ago.
There is no emotion. There is peace.
Everything stopped.
In competition and in silence, one word boomed.
"LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!"
[ Bors Thul (BT)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
He's awake, looking at the ground. Throat hoarse, eyes streaming and his body shaking while he tries to make sense of it. The face is there, but it's not. He's on his knees and clinging to his helmet. No he's clinging to her, holding her. Everything is mixing together but it's not in the same.
We must go. She's crying out to him, but she has no face, no face below the eyes, no throat no lungs. Eyes glassy jaw hanging limp while it is held in Ula's hands, choking out another sop while red rimmed gaze stares out at something there but not, monocle dangling from its chain and clattering against the chest plate of his armor.
"All dead, I got them killed. I got them all killed. I got you killed. Mother and Father damn me, I killed all of them." shaking violently, wanting to collapse but remaining lifted by the grip of him. Moving if pulled, if he's directed, the mind in itself, the body like a puppet waiting for strings to be pulled.
[ Rune (R)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It was only a matter of time.... 'It was only a matter of time....' "It was only a matter of time...." the thought turns to speech, the mumble slipping from Rune's lips before he pitches forward into the ground, the lightsaber retracting like his psyche as he plummets....
His body never connects with the grass, instead passing through thick soil to emerge into a world bathed in orange.... bathed in red... bathed in blood.
Lifeless eyes of his tribe stare back at him from within huts torn asunder. What wasn't on fire was well and destroyed, brought down by angry hands seeking something that was worth the cost, at least the cost to them. Some of his tribe still fought, flinging impeccably accurate rocks and spears with their magic, knocking the white suited devils back and down, crushing skulls, impaling bodies, and driving them away.
That is, until red lances leapt from black contraptions, punching holes in the defenders, their eyes rolling back in their skulls before their bodies collected in the orange dirt. Grey men gripped at his arms to drag him away, his body torn from his mother's arms, his screams lifting to meet with hers before the chorus of cries became a solo affair. His wailing only increased when hazel eyes found her sightless ones, his mother's body crumpling forward while smoke poured from her back. Deep crimson furrows were carved in the dirt as he fought for freedom, straining and pulling against the men in grey before they tossed him into a humming machine and smashed his face with one end of those damnable contraptions.
As the darkness overwhelmed him, deep cackling resounded in his ears, in his head, in his soul... and another scream forced the evil away, forced the men away, cracked the humming machine wide open until he was free, as free as a baby bird with no knowledge of flight.
The orange dirt swirled and neared, rushed to meet him as the scream intensified, ripped unbidden from his lips....
...and a helmet bounced off of his shoulder to clatter into the green grass nearby.
[ Yuun (Yun)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Yuun's lightsaber blade huuuuuuuuuumssss....if that is all Nora hears then it's the loudest for her. He glances behind himself, "Once everyone is up, get moving and see to the others." he says as he looks down at the dead creatures. He can feel the darkside permeates them and he shivers as he looks towards the large embryo. "I will focus my attention on that." he says as he lets out a breath. He looks at those who succumb to the creature, he can sympathies with them, he's gone through his hell, but the force is his ally, and a strong ally it is. Yuun is the others ally, he will do what he can, he offers a small smile, he knows what he must do.
His attention shifts to the creature of darkness and with a burst of speed, Yuun dashes forward. He taps into the force, "I'm one with the Force and the Force is with me." he says as he feels the force surround him and flows through him, allowing it to control his movement. His vision sharpens and as he sees one of the creatures coming at him. Yuun lowers himself down as he runs as snow kicks up and he STOMPS on the creature and leaps up high and arcs in towards the large bleeding wound of a creature.
As he streaks in, he uses his inertia to spin to avoid something protuding from it, and he swings. His first strike misses as Yuun thought he struck the creature but he didn't spinning his blade as he starts to drop, he stabs and CONNECTS! He drags down and flips his lightsaber off, then switches it back on to slash again but he misses again. As he lands, he lands on the balls of his feet, and backflips away moving into a guard position allowing himself to be the sword and shield.
[ Ulani Kalgaav (Ula)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
More of her wits are returning, but the reverberations of what she has woken up from still clench around Ulani's chest making it difficult to breathe. Around her, those sensitive to powers she cannot even begin to understand are waging physic and physical battle against an entity far beyond her comprehension. But there is a benefit to a normal kind of ignorance and that is to know when one is overpowered.
Win or lose, they all needed to get away. Far away. Regroup when clearer minds are regained and clarity returns. Then they can try to decipher what happened. What creature they're dealing with. Whether it will return. But for now. Now...
"Bors. Bors, my love, come back to me." Both hands on either side of his face, she rests her sweaty brow against his, singing softly -- quietly to him.
"So just slide over here.
Leave your fear in the fray
Let us hold to each other
Till the end of our days."
His music keeps her grounded. It's her hope that hers can bring him back. "We must go," she whispers again, stroking his face soothingly then taking his hands and staggering to her feet to draw him with her. "Bors. We must go."
[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAVE!" The booming command shakes out into the air and the creature's beady black eyes blink open once again. It peers towards Corto in a compelled, quiet sort of confusion. Its mouth closes and it slowly begins to rotate in the sky. There's another horrible sound, but this time it's different. It doesn't make the treelimbs shake and quiver, or reverberate within the ribs. It sounds almost like laughter.
Enter Yuun. The Jedi's lightsaber swing passes through thin air on the first stroke, but hits -something- within the strange creature on its second. It turns its eyes to Yuun now, standing defiantly before it and its bountiful meal. A loud shriek pierces the night sky, loud as thunder and just as sharp. It blots out everything and everyone... and then.
"Listen to the music, and pay attention to what it says is wrong. There'll be your answer."
Nora traces her finger along the 'N' she'd carved into the tree. They weren't better times, were they? When she was younger. But there's a certain sort of... wait.
We've been here.
Nora Frayus opens her eyes as a chorus of strings ring out within her skull. She exhales and turns her eyes over her shoulder to those around her. Voidlight. The thing in the sky. She turns her eyes down to her hands to check for blood and sees nothing but soft, peachy skin.
Even though they all remember, everything is exactly as it was. The light of Voidlight stands proudly atop that mountain, no more than two hundred feet away. The forest air seems... lighter somehow. The sounds of insects, birds, and amphibians fills the air. Nora's eyes sweep to Ulani and Bors. They're still standing, side by side. To Rune and Yuun, still quipping with one another towards the ring of the forest. And lastly to Corto.
"It didn't tell me anything," she says softly.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
'tis not a creature of sense or thought.
It is a thing that feeds on rot;
on hope, decay, wars fought and lost.
It eats it all, freely-given or not,
And leaves you cold and wet with fever.
Do you dare to wake the Dreamer?
-- The Rhyme of the Floater, Translated. Source Unknown, CA 5900 BBY. --
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
