Log:Mandalorians: Forged by Fire
Mandalorians: Forged by Fire
OOC Date: December 2, 2019
Location: Corulag
Participants: Zee'Roh Kora, Ca'tra Sinbri, Sumi Kora, Clan Kora
The ladies have elected to stay behind to collect their spoils of war. Letting the others leave, Sumi finally turns back to her ladies and pulls out her flamethrower, igniting a large pile of the flammable goop to give them some light. When the fire is good and crackling, she kills the rifle and slings it back, letting it rest over her shoulder.
<"Today we shared in a rare kill. One that forged our companionship, molded it into a bond we'll share forever. Clans are built upon such victories. Memories and stories we all pass down to our children, and their children, and so forth and so on. Clan Kora is not a name that you'll find in any history book, nor is it something that was carried upon the shoulders of great warriors. It was made by this circle, we sisters; and it will be upon our shoulders its name carries on.">
Sumi drew an iron from her bag where a sigil had been hammered into the shape of a five fingered hand, with a palm of swirling fire. <"Here is the sigil for Clan Kora, Five of the Six tenets of the Resol'nare represented. The sixth is represented by the fire, where Mand'alor will rise from the ruin forged by the cleansing flame."> She places the iron into the fire to let it sit for now. <"Now is our chance, your chance.. to choose if this sigil is /your/ sigil, and this clan is /your/ clan. Speak your heart, ladies.">
Zee'Roh saw to her armor, charred black along one duro-steel plated pauldron, ash brazed across her beskar silver-blue helmet, and scorched into the breast plate worn over her chest. The wrist computer is still operational, the armor is still functional, but she's elected to keep the scarring.. a representation of the battle they'd fought.. a victory hard won. Standing near the blaster ravaged corpse of the giant slug, she'd busied herself kicking at one of the large fangs while the others present had filed out of the cave.
Stomping until she'd loosened the mold, then wiggling the fang loose to hoist up in her hand like a trophy, which she holds up to her arm just over her shoulder with visor turned to gauge relative form and function... With a brisk nod, she returned to her sisters as the flamer ignite the fire and cast them all in the omenous green glow of that goop what was still slick upon her legs and waist. Listening to Sumi, eyes fixed upon her Alor behind that half charred T-Visor until silence settles save the crackling fire.
<"I came from nothing..."> She says quietly, staring away from Sumi the dancing flame, <"But I've been a warrior since I stepped off an assembly line... in my heart the sole purpose of my existance was to fight, and always for someone elses glory... someone elses prize."> The tooth is tossed down amidst her gathered spoils.
<"Until now... I feel inside me a swell of pride standing beside you.. Sumi Kora, Ca'tra Sinbri... you are my vod.."> Lifting her gaze by way of a turning visor to look upon each. <"I carry the name of our Clan with a pride I've never known before.. no construct of someone elses whim, but for my own desire to see us.. this Clan.. stand ahead of a revival of the Resol'nare.."> Motioning between the pair and herself. <"There is no decision.. This is my clan. Now, forever, and always. /This/ is who I am. Zee'Roh Kora.">
Withdrawn from the Sumi and Zee'roh, the young doctor had stood back as the fire was kindled. The orange flames dance across her visor giving its impassive exterior expressions, vibrant, warm. The sigil raised in the air by the Alor of Clan Kora draws her forward, it has a magnetic pull for her. Under the helmet her eyebrows draw together in remembered pain. The words Sumi speaks evoke the family that the war on Mandalore stripped from her, no glorious victory for the ones that raised and cherished her. Their lot had been the ashes of defeat. She never spoke of it to the darmanda, the weight of that loss. It has taken her years to not feel the ghost winds of their names sweep through her obliterating sunlight and friendship. It holds her still now.
Under the steel of her armor, tears glisten. Joyous ones to be sure because she is witnessing a soul blossom into fullness and knows it to be a rare and precious thing to behold and share.
Can she share that with these two? It is not that they are not worthy but has she reached the moment that she can let her family's name go like the ashes that sweep their devastated dome? That is the cusp she stands on.
<"So be it, Zee'Roh of Clan Kora. I name you my sister, my friend, my companion for life. And upon you I charge the same pledge I pledge you. No matter the field of battle, the time, the clime or place, you will find me, your sister, beside you. No battle will claim you absent me. Where you fall, I will be there to pick you back up. We will not die alone."> The iron is drawn up then, orange hot and glistening, the soft sizzle indicative of a plasma heat.
<"You've spoken your heart, Zee, and I brand you."> The iron is pressed upon Zee's chest plate, burning the iron enough to leave the ruts of the sigil. <"Your mark is given birth today.."> She states, then dips her hand in the blood of their slain. <"..and it is sustained by the blood of our victory."> The iron is set back in the fire before Sumi places her hand over the burned in mark, and smears the blood over it, giving it a fresh glistening look.
Zee's visored gaze remains forward as the iron is placed against her armored plate, sizzling into the beskar with pugnant smoke curling up around the newly formed mark. Behind that visor, hidden under layers of armor, Zee's jaw fixes firm against the synthetic skin of her face. Her shoulders square in a swell of unmistaken pride at being marked, being accepted... and she dips her head in a slow nod as the blood of their recent kill is smeared over the scorched sigil of their Clan.
<"Where you fight, I fight... where you lead, I follow. You are my Alor, my sister. You'll face no enemy alone and suffer no hardship without me beside you.. your fight is mine now, and forever."> Her hand comes up to rest upon Sumi's right pauldron. Then slides back to brush the tips of her gloved fingers over the heated metal mark freshly blooded. Two finger on that hand dip down into the collected bowl, raised to run them parallel down the side of her helmet, just back from her visor, through the dark scorching from the dragon slugs fiery breath.
"Mourning my family will not bring them back. I have honored them as well as I was able but living among the darmanda had worn me down. I thought that I had lost the way, the Resol'nare. I've heard it said that once lost it can never be regained. I thought that myself until I met you both. I would be exaggerating if I said that I knew the moment I saw Sumi in that bar that I would be here, one day, making this decision. My head didn't know, my heart was wiser. I left the bar that day in a daze, my heart pounding as I walked alone back to the clinic I was working at.
Ca'tra's breast plate lifts visibly as she takes a deep breath. "My family is gone, long live my new family. Will you accept me as one of your own?"
<"Of course we do; Will you accept us as yours?">
Sumi raises the iron once more, the orange glowing bright, reflected off the silver of her visored helm. She steps closer to Ca'tra, her bootfalls distinct, heavy with the thick plating of armor. The light from the flames highlighted her blue armor with dancing glances of orange; their fire.
There's know way Zee'Roh can know the true depth of the decision Ca'tra is making, only the weight it bares upon herself. <"Unquestioningly, we do."> Said with a nod to Sumi whom she mirrors, standing proud herself in the flickering lick of flames dancing around them with soft cracking pops to fill what void settles in the bioluminescent cave.
"It is what I wish." Raising her chin, her voice swells with pride as she intones Sumi's words, "I name you my sisters, my friends, my companions for life. I pledge to you that no matter the field of battle, the time, the clime or place, you will find me, your sister, beside you. No battle will claim you absent me. Where you fall, I will be there to pick you back up. We will not die alone." A subtle change passes over the young woman, visible in her posture, the light glistening on her helm held firmly high. She no longer holds back and steps forward to receive the flaming brand, welding her past and future together in clan Kora's sigil.
<"So be it. Ca'tra of Clan Kora."> Sumi lifts the brand then, aiming the orange hot surface for the thick breast plate of the Mandalorian's armor. Its sizzling is indicative of contact, and when the ruts of the brand are made, Sumi pulls the iron back and sets it aside. <"You have spoken your heart, shared your struggle and your pain. We bear it together now. I brand you."> Sumi dips her hand back in the blood of their recently slain and place that hand over Ca'tra's brand. <"Your mark is given birth today..."> She states, then smears the blood over the brand giving it a fresh glean and glistening look. <"And it is sustained by the blood of our victory. Welcome home, sisters.">
Hugs? HUGS?! Sumi's a hugger!
None of her enemies would know what a hugger Sumi is but her sisters know. Ca'tra Kora moves into her embrace, reaching for Zee'roh as well. Ca'tra's fingers traces the ridges of the sigil then she crushes the two in her arms.
No one has ever confused Zee for a hugger.
By all accounts the only hugs she's ever given was directly related to fornication shortly after or someone being thrown through a wall.
This is different. Sumi steps in for a hug and Zee returns it, even amplifies it by bringing Ca'tra into a big ol Mandalorian mass hug situation. Helmet pressed together with her sisters's. In her helmet there could be tears, maybe, she's certainly capable of them physically, but the jury is still out if anything affects her enough to cause them.
Thankfully she's wearing a helmet to prevent anyone from ever knowing the truth.
The embrace accentuated by the crackling fire and dancing flame.
