*Bolded text indicates events that did not occur in the thread itself, but were decided upon as canon by either myself or the other writer(s) involved.
Unheard and Unspoken
"She has lived for too long with nothing to lose… not anymore… regardless of her choice, she will lose as much as she gains… she must decide what means more to her…"
- Having been tasked by Adrian Vandiir with destroying the stolen datachip, Inanna returns home to Lao-mon for the first time in over forty years. She is accompanied by Faya, one of Vandiir’s Sithspawn, who unbeknownst to Inanna is carrying a Dark Side demon to be used as a last resort should she fail her mission.
- Inanna speaks with her father Tammuz about the contents of the datachip and the attack on their home. She is horrified upon learning the extent of Vandiir’s experiments, and begins to have second thoughts. This triggers the release of the demon, who attempts to kill Tammuz and destroy the chip. Tammuz manages to capture the demon inside an amulet.
- Wanting to save her family from being hunted by the Sith, Inanna makes her choice. She destroys the data. For her actions she is disowned by her father and leaves her home planet, possibly never to return.
- Upon returning to Adrian Vandiir, he fulfills his end of the deal, giving her the footage of Arrius Messala. He also gives her a job working at a nightclub on Zeltros in exchange for her continued silence on the matter, and more or less tells her that he never wants to see her again.
- Tammuz sends the amulet containing the demon to Nimdok with instructions to let Miri wear it for protection. The little girl now has her own pet demon, whom she has named Schmendrick.
For Sentimental Reasons
“Who are these guys and what are they doing in my swamp?!”
- In the aftermath of what happened on Lao-mon, a still-recovering Nimdok travels to Coruscant with Miri in order to visit some friends. Their first stop is the apartment in which Starlin Rand lives with his mother and stepfather. Starlin, who has recently become the Padawan of Syd Celsius, is happy to see Nimdok but worried by his sickly appearance and obvious poor health.
- Starlin tells Nimdok that he recently met a very strange but talented swordsman named Val Drutin. Val inherited a collection of antique lightsabers from his master, which have apparently not been seen in decades. Intrigued, Nimdok agrees to meet Val and examine the sabers.
- But first, he will need the help of someone who can determine the origins of these elegant weapons from a more civilized age. Enter Moondog, a blind Kiffar musician with a particular knack for psychometry, a Force ability which allows the user to glimpse the history of an object simply by touching it.
- Nimdok, Miri, Starlin and Moondog arrive at Val Drutin’s starship. While Miri and Starlin distract the eccentric Val, Nimdok and Moondog examine the collection. The prize find they discover is an ancient Forcesaber, estimated to be around 10,000 years old. Nimdok immediately steals it, along with two other weapons.
- However, the Sith attack, apparently seeking vengeance against Nimdok for his killing of the Doppelganger. Val duels a Sith Knight to the death, while a Shroud attacks Nimdok. Starlin annihilates the Shroud with Force Light—causing his heart to briefly stop in the process.
- Nimdok and Tamara, Val’s ship maiden, manage to revive Starlin. Nimdok advises Starlin to focus on his Jedi studies and take a break from helping him find artifacts. Nimdok and Miri then leave for Thustra in SJC space, where they officially go into hiding.
Club Euphoria
"Go to Club Euphoria. Investigate. See if you can locate the compromised copy."
"When I do?"
"Determine the extent of the damage done to the copy. If salvageable, disable and retrieve it."
"If not salvageable?"
"Destroy it. I will not tolerate my tech in the hands of a potential rival. They dare to reprogram one of MY children?! They shall be killed using knives and Horse Manure from the Five Sacred Islands of Chinn!"
"Is that a very disgusting form of murder, Mother?"
"The most disgusting. I can't even describe it, its so disgusting. You know that one movie where they sewed everybody together because the dude was insane?"
"Oh yes. That was a very disgusting film."
"Well, the form of murder I am contemplating is a hundred times more fethed up than anything you see in that film."
- After getting a job as assistant manager at a nightclub/brothel on Zeltros, Inanna descends into alcoholism. She loses contact with Red, who stops responding to her messages. Alone and not sure what to do, she unwittingly befriends the club bouncer, an HRD named Ayreon, after saving him from a particularly nasty guest.
- A mysterious woman calling herself “Ishtar Mina” shows up one night asking to speak to Inanna. When questioned by Ayreon, she claims she has news from Red. Ayreon agrees to tell Inanna, but he is suspicious of Ishtar.
- A drunken Inanna, excited by the prospect of news from Red, agrees to meet with Ishtar. However, she is prevented from venturing outside her office after spotting Ingrid L’lerim, Adrian Vandiir’s lover, out of fear that Ingrid’s presence means Adrian is also there that night. Trying to avoid an unwelcome collision, Inanna heads out the back door of the club…
- … and finds Ishtar in the middle of a transformation. The creature attacks Inanna, who manages to escape.
- Ishtar, who is revealed to be a highly advanced biot sent by Arrius Messala to assassinate Inanna, severely damages Ayreon in the ensuing confrontation. The biot’s attempts at escaping are ultimately foiled and it is eventually defeated by Ingrid L'lerim.
(TSE) Apprentice Tryouts
“Sure. I’m in. When do we start?”
- Motivated by the incident with the biot to learn how to defend herself, a very drunk Inanna auditions for a Sith Master. She demonstrates her telekinetic abilities before an audience consisting of some of the most powerful people in the Sith Empire.
- Inanna draws the attention of Vanessa Vantai, Triumvir of Power, and agrees to become her apprentice.
Confessions of An Alcoholic
"My life… my life, when it is written, will read better than it lived…"
- Accompanied by Ayreon, Inanna travels to the Nathema Orbital Complex for her first training session with Vanessa Vantai. After a brief discussion of Inanna’s past and motives for seeking training, they begin with a combat exercise. Inanna specifically asks to learn how to use a lightwhip.
- During the session, Vanessa "breaks" Inanna after whipping her into a frenzy—literally—then subjects her to torture until she falls unconscious.
- Without treating Inanna’s injuries, Vanessa then initiates a highly unorthodox rehabilitation treatment in order to cure Inanna’s alcoholism: she traps her in a Force-nullified tank full of alcohol, pheromones, and Sith poison, and refuses to let her out until she drinks it. Inanna fights back at first, but eventually submits and drinks the stuff, resulting in her developing an intolerance for alcohol and pheromones. The Sith poison does not go away, leaving her tainted; its effects include emotional instability, a shortened temper, heightened aggression, and a power boost whenever she uses Dark Side powers.
- Finally, Inanna is pitted against a Dark Trooper, which she telekinetically disassembles. Her three trials are thus completed, but Inanna is left deeply disturbed by the experience.
- Returning to her quarters, Inanna confides in Ayreon what happened. Ayreon’s psychological programming concludes that Inanna is not safe with Vanessa, and the HRD hatches a secret plan to get her out of there.
Heart of the Universe
“If it turns out I have no choice but to go back to the Netherworld—back to being well and truly dead—then it’ll be up to Arimanes, Inanna, Red and all their friends and allies. I believe they can stop Messala, with a little luck. But I’m not so sure they can take good care of Miri. So maybe it's a good thing you're here, even if Messala didn't intend it that way.”
- Nimdok is convinced that the mysterious magic rock at the Museum of Natural History on Thustra is actually the legendary Heart of the Universe. But the museum won't let him examine it, and his personal principles prevent him from stealing from the Jedi. This doesn’t stop him from obsessively returning to the museum to stare at the magic rock on a regular basis, however.
- One day, a mysterious woman approaches him at his usual bench near the display. Claiming her name is “Lydia”, she tells him she’s an admirer of his and wants to work for him. He decides to humor her and asks her to prove herself by successfully stealing the Heart, although he specifically requests that she not literally steal it, only prove that she can do it. She agrees to this and promptly leaves to do the job.
- Next, Nimdok is approached by a green-haired boy named Slip. Slip, a Jedi Padawan and tech wiz, was sent by Red to check on Nimdok and Miri. As they are chatting, the museum’s power goes out and the visitors are herded outside.
- While they are walking back to Nimdok’s apartment, Nimdok and Slip reunite with “Lydia”, who has apparently been successful in her crystal "theft". She follows them to the apartment, where she responds to their questions with evasive answers and riddles. It is clear that something is preventing her from telling them the truth, almost like the programming of a droid...
- Nimdok finally figures it out, but it is a truly startling discovery—”Lydia” is yet another biot created by Messala and harboring the enslaved soul of his wife Bithia. Determined to free her from the slave programming, Nimdok enlists Slip's help in hacking into her brain, though she violently resists their efforts. They are successful, though the freed Bithia ultimately decides that she cannot stay with her husband and daughter, as it is too dangerous.
This Ancient Autumn World
"I'm only interested in stopping you and your master. Ever since I found out that you were experimenting on children, and when I found out who your master really was, and who Nimdok really was, I've taken a... personal interest in this strange conflict. If anybody is nosing, it's you. This is the closest thing to a personal matter that I've ever had."
- You may be asking, what exactly happened to Red? Well, I’ll tell you...
- Red travels to the abandoned Project Warlock facility on Kiva in hopes of learning more about the Lord of Doubt's origins. He discovers that the barren planet is still inhabited by shadow wraiths, even though eight and a half centuries have passed since the planet’s destruction at the hands of the Galactic Empire.
- Before he can investigate further, Red is confronted and captured by two of Messala's agents, the Sith Knight Thetis Suzerain and the biot Daphne. They subject him to a strange form of torture, which he is totally unprepared for. Red’s droid companion Pitt eventually manages to call for help, but it will take a while before anyone can arrive on the remote planet.
- In the meantime, Pitt accidentally summons an army of the undead shadow wraiths, who are enraged by the presence of a Sith on their world. They short out all power within a certain radius, causing Red’s restraints to fail and enabling him to attack and subdue Daphne.
- The shadow wraiths meanwhile chase and attack Thetis when she makes a run for her ship, nearly killing her. Red manages to convince them to let her go, as he needs her for questioning.
- With Pitt’s distress call having reached Inanna, she sends Ayreon out to see what the hell is going on. Red and Ayreon then proceed to interrogate Thetis, who tells them she acted entirely on Messala’s orders. The extent of Messala’s experimentation is revealed to be far more extreme than they thought, and it may be that he is responsible for the deaths of dozens. The handful of survivors of these experiments are being raised as his own Children, and he is teaching them how to use their unstable Force connection for his own purposes. In addition, they learn that a rogue droid recently kidnapped one of the Children and disappeared...
My Heart is a Hollow Plain
“So here is my offer: come with me now, and I will make you my apprentice. Leave all this behind, and I’ll help you overcome your biggest, most glaring, thrice-cursed weakness.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like waste. Especially wasted potential. And if what your friend told me is true, I must say I find the Triumvir of Power’s training methods most inelegant.”
- Contacted by a concerned Ayreon, Nimdok and Bithia get involved in a plot to rescue Inanna from her apprenticeship to the Sith Lord Vanessa Vantai. The mission involves Nimdok impersonating Adrian Vandiir and offering to become Inanna's new master.
- Things initially go rather smoothly, with Vanessa somewhat suspicious but not sure if it is the real Vandiir. Her attempts to confirm his presence on the station are hindered by Vandiir’s uncooperative Tsudakyr.
- Unfortunately, Vanessa overhears “Adrian” trash-talking her and goes ballistic. The thread then goes off the rails as she orders her troops to attack the group, destroys their ship, imprisons the would-be rescuers, rips Ayreon’s consciousness out of his body, and threatens to experiment on Miri.
- After Inanna finally snaps and tries to kill Vanessa herself, the Sith decides they are more trouble than they're worth and banishes them all from the station under threat of death should they ever return. Nimdok is just relieved that they made it out alive and insists that his impersonation of Vandiir wasn't that bad.
Lady of the Tower
”Then why are you actually here? Based on what you have heard, you do not personally want to take action against your former student. You should be able to handle this whole matter with the utmost secrecy. Or do you hope to get some kind of favor from Darth Prospero for warning him?”
- Vanessa Vantai brings fake evidence of Nimdok's and Ayreon's demise to Tower Vandiir, intending to speak to Adrian Vandiir about the incident, but Adrian is not available. Instead Vanessa winds up speaking to Ingrid L'lerim, now Adrian's fiancee. Ingrid sees through Vanessa's deceit and urges her to tell the truth about what occurred, but Vanessa remains firm.
- Adrian Vandiir, possibly motivated by a dislike of Vanessa, never really bothers to pursue vengeance/justice for this particular incident.
Cocoon
“Oh, Hal. I’m so tired of all this… crap.”
“I noticed.”
- After suffering from recurring nightmares relating to the various traumatic experiences she has endured over the past year, Inanna abruptly disappears without a trace.
- Ayreon and Hal Yomin, her friend and employee, scour New Kaas City looking for her. They eventually manage to track her down to the home of the amateur alchemist Silas Fogg, whom she has tasked with finding a cure for the Sith poison.
- It is rapidly becoming apparent to Inanna that Silas Fogg doesn’t have the resources or the talent to actually help her, and has just been using her. She considers taking revenge on him by revealing that he stole plans for a new Sithspawn project from the Primyn Group.
- Hal and Ayreon arrive at Silas’ apartment, where Hal talks to Inanna in private. She ultimately comes to the conclusion that she will probably once again have to ask Adrian Vandiir for help with a cure, although she does agree to look for other options first. As for what she will do afterwards, well… things are becoming too difficult for her to overcome and she simply can’t go on with her mission to defeat Messala. She decides to defer to Bithia, who is stronger and more capable and has more of a personal stake in the matter. Now that all of her hard work and suffering has wound up being for nothing, Hal decides it would be a great time to declare his love for her.
- Unfortunately for them both, he’s a Zeltron and his pheromone output means that they can’t be together until she gets that cure. Because nothing is ever easy for Inanna Hoole.
The Coronation Ball
“Your body is a weapon, Shi’ido. Harden and sharpen your fingers into a blade and pierce my heart. I don’t have the Force to protect me. End this, here and now.”
“This is some kind of trick.”
“No trick. You could have done it, but the guards would have come for you before my body hit the ground. Still, it would’ve all been finally over with. You would have stopped me.”
- Inanna hears about Erictho, the Witch Queen of Ambria, and hopes that she can help her.
- While searching for Erictho at the First Order’s coronation ball, Inanna encounters Arrius Messala himself. Their dramatic confrontation climaxes with him giving her a chance to kill him, but she finds the cost of ending him at the ball in front of the guards is too high, so she runs away.
- When Inanna finally does find Erictho, the witch doesn't prove to be much help. In a final surprisingly sweet moment to end an otherwise miserable night, Inanna gets stuck in the lift with some musicians and they sing a song together.
- Messala meanwhile reunites with Nefretiri, an Anubian princess-in-exile and old flame of his, only for their pleasant evening doing black magic in the castle library to be interrupted by the arrival of Erictho, Messala’s former master. And by master we mean he was her slave right up until he killed her—or at least, he thought he did. But now she’s back. Ah well.
- While Nefretiri reconnects with Messala and becomes his companion in later threads, Erictho and Messala initiate a rivalry of sorts.
"So you see, Adrian Vandiir has been of some use to you after all in this matter."
- Before Inanna can enact her plans, the news breaks that Adrian Vandiir is dead. Welp.
- Luckily Nimdok is there to help. Disguised as Adrian, of course. Well actually, he tells her that he knows someone who knows someone who can help.
“I could withstand anything the galaxy threw at me, but not jealousy. That was what pushed me down the path of the Sith in the first place.”
“If that’s the case, why not call yourself the Lord of Jealousy instead of the Lord of Doubt?”
“Because jealousy is pathetic, and no Sith can afford to wear their vulnerability on their sleeve. Coveting another’s gifts, wanting them for yourself—it just goes to show how little faith you have in your own strengths and abilities that you would need to steal them from someone else. No, I don’t think any Sith Lord could go around calling themselves the Lord of Jealousy and still be feared and respected. Not that my fellow Sith consider me much of anything, mind you. But it's easier for me to instill doubt, making people second guess their friends, family, allies, even themselves. I’m quite good at bringing out their insecurities and convincing them they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”
- Messala and Nefretiri travel to Chaldea, where he steals a newborn Bamarri and "kills" its companion.
- Trying to stop him are Persis, an old friend of his, and Toloth Threepwood, the head of the Chaldean Potentium.
- Unable to stop Messala, Toloth lets him get away with it, but banishes him from the planet forever.
"Insert teaser quote here eventually."
- Inanna travels to Atrisia with the gang to meet with Nimdok's acquaintance: Alyosha Drutin, the apprentice of a "Light Side Sith". The ritual Alyosha intends to perform is very powerful, and there's a chance it may kill Inanna. Hoping to strengthen her for the ordeal, Bithia transfers some of her psychic energy into Inanna.
- Meanwhile, the Bryn’adul invade Cophrigin V. Messala is forced to abandon his home base and go into hiding on Dahrtag. He calls Khayyam, an old friend and fellow alchemist, to assist him in one final project: the creation of a Doppelganger-Bamarri hybrid.
- Inanna undergoes the ritual. She is left much changed, but the Sith poison has been burned away, leaving her free to live her life unencumbered by the disease.
- Messala successfully transfers the Bamarri's soul into a Doppelganger body... and the resulting creature promptly escapes the facility, wandering in the frozen wastes of Dahrtag's South Pole, headed for civilization...
