Private A Deal is a Deal in Death

[Onrai]

Vanessa slowly regained focus, her vision blurred by the effort spent on creating this new lifeform as she took in the new form of her herald, a smile across her face as she forced herself to stand, arms embracing the crystalline maiden as she did so. Realizing the woman was bereft of any attire that would otherwise conceal her modesty, Vanessa quickly grabbed a crimson robe and gave it to her, an indication that she was to dress herself with it. “I never had any doubts.”

Vanessa searched for something else, a trinket of her authority that she could provide to her new herald. She settled on a stave, crafted from a branch of the dead Tree of Morag, atop which a gem made of the same liquid crystal that formed the body of her harbinger topping it. How fitting an item it was, something that symbolizes the death of the old and the birth of the new primordial entities. It was through this stave that Vanessa’s bond with her herald would be created - a bond that would allow her prodigious powers to flow through the stave into the living battery that was Kay’s new form.

“Now Kay is obviously no more... What shall I call you?” She asked.

Dea

 

[Dea]

She held onto Onrai if only to gage the feeling of it. Modesty wasn't even in her mind at the moment. It was all about touch and feel. And right now Vanessa's body felt different when pressed against her own. Instead of the physical presence she felt the woman's energies converging with her own.

Once the embrace was broken she slipped on the robe. It'll have to do for now.

Her white eyes studied Vanessa while she created the stave, seeing those same energies intermingle together. She reached out her hand for it and held it, taking note of it's feel but also pondering on Vanessa's statement and question. Was Kay really no more? Her memories were still there, yet her despair and guilt weren't. At least not for the moment. And here she was in crystaline form. She ran her hand up through her hair, only to find that there wasn't much there but shards of crystal. "Oh dea--......Call me Dea."
It would have to do for now.

 

[Onrai]

“Dea.” She said. “A good name for you, my herald.” Vanessa raised an eyebrow and noticed that whenever Dea spoke or moved, it seemed as though an energy of sorts was pulsing or flowing through the liquid crystal inside of her body. The same was reflected at the tip of the stave, ancient powers churning inside the construct blessed by the dark goddess. “Now that you’ve been given new life and a new purpose, it’s going to be time for us to add another deity to the pantheon. But to do this, we need the energies of another one of... I suppose now they would be described as my siblings. The vile goo-beast known as Mnggal-Mnggal is another of Tilotny’s children. We are going to go to Mugg Fallow, a dark world in the Unknown Regions covered in the gray goo of the creature’s existence, and will drain every last scrap of life that I can from it. Such a vile creature, destroying and rotting away all it touches, will not be extant within this world.”

Vanessa remembered in years back when there was an outbreak of a similar plague, which ate away at the flesh of those it infected similarly to the touch of Mnggal-Mnggal, or worse, the Blackwing virus. She had seen the effects firsthand when attempting to and successfully saving Aleidis Ijet‘s lover, the Togruta Jedi, through a combination of encapsulation with biofiber and aggressive retroviral therapy. The elimination of such a threat would be most important, a means of preventing harm from coming to the Sith Empire by its corrupting essence. But subjugating it, if such were possible, would also be useful.

And a way to make another god.

Dea

 

[Dea]

"A sibling? How many of you are there? How many are there to be?" Would she have siblings too? Or would she be alone and irreplaceable? Both ideas she liked, though for the moment she liked the companionship that she had. Loneliness only brought despair and she had more than enough of that.

Of course a long trip meant that she could have more time to contemplate her existence and learn more about the body she now inhabited. "Am I a living being? Do I eat, drink and everything that I used to do? Or am I more...like a droid?" Both had their advantages and disadvantages.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

“Only in an allegorical sense, Dea.” She said. “The power I now wield came, lineage-wise, from the same source as theirs, but there’s no actual relation.” She elaborated briefly, a soft sigh on her face. “I don’t know how many others within the sphere are to receive the sort of gift we possess. That depends on how many methodologies to achieve godhood there are, how many ways exist for people to achieve the sort of power that brings one to another state of existence as I live in now.” So surprising for Vanessa was that despite her power - power that was more appropriate for a triumvir - Vanessa still did not possess any of the defining traits of a god. There were limitations on her power and her knowledge, even her presence. There was no limit to her immortality, certainly, and the risk of her death was practically nonexistent now, but the answers eluded her.

Vanessa looked at Dea and raised an eyebrow. “Well, you certainly behave like one. Animated by a bound spirit and the like. Technically, I suppose, you are alive. Tsil crystals were sacrificed to make your form, and they are considered living beings, if silicon-based. You do not eat or drink - I’m not even sure what sensations you are capable of feeling. Touch is obviously one of them. Pressure. Texture.” She placed a hand on the shoulder of Dea, pondering for a bit. “No, you do it need to eat or drink. What sustains you is my power, fed to you through the ritual of your creation and amplified by the stave you possess.” She said. “You should be able to sleep, though I doubt it does much of anything to you.”

The full capabilities of Dea’s body were unknown, though Vanessa did have some hypotheses. Energy absorption, she presumed, was a given. Perhaps being able to end the lives of Drochs given the Tsil within her. She would have to find out.

Dea

 

[Dea]

She nodded a little bit. Having very few that were like Onrai and herself was a good thing. However she wondered what would have transpired if she had been alive. Would Vanessa have offered her the same 'choice'? Was that why she had come to her tea shoppe before?

Hearing that food and drink were no londer needed made her feel a bit sad. No more tea. Tea was always her comfort, especially when there was no other comfort to be had. What was she to do now to replace it?

"This will take some getting used to. Do we know what could hurt me? Can I be killed?"

 

[Onrai]

Dea

"I have no idea." She said. "I've made Sithspawn before. "Experiments," as they were. But I've never had the power and the necessary resources to make something like this. Like you." She said. "You are essentially a singular composite crystal, with an ever-adapting outside that should be nigh-impervious to blaster fire. You may crack under concussion but nothing should completely and utterly shatter you. And even if you were shattered, your liquid crystal interior would harden eventually." She shrugged. "You may still be able to drink tea. We'll have to test that."

This really was a unique situation.

 

[Dea]

She listened intently for any limitations to her physical form. No doubt there was some way for her to be destroyed, but it surely wasn't something that she was going to go out of her way to test.

But the drinking of tea, now THAT was something worthy of being tested. "Tea will always be my crutch, even if we find that I can never drink it. As long as I can hold it and smell it, that might be enough." It was the physical heat that she loved. In a Galaxy that was so cold, it was nice to know that there was always something to warm her up.

"When do we leave?"

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa raised an eyebrow, curious as to the future capabilities of her chosen herald. As she raised her hand, a pot of steaming tea and a teacup materialized. This was the first time Vanessa had used her power to properly transform matter from one state to another. The tea was poured into the cup, which floated over to Dea's hand. The very sensation of touching the teacup would feel unusual, the crystalline woman having a sense of its texture, feel, and the pressure exerted on the cup in a way fleshy creatures did not. Were she to drink the tea, she would find that the sensations were equally bizarre, with far more than merely taste being picked up - temperature, the chemical composition. All things were felt as the dark brown liquid swirled and intermingled with the liquid crystal of the construct's core, creating an effect not unlike that of the swirling plasma within a lava lamp.

"In due time. For now, you can rest, or better acclimate yourself with your new form. So far as goddess stuff goes, I don't need you currently, but since you don't have anywhere else, consider the Complex your home." She smiled. "And do expect to fight by my side. You are my herald, which does mean you must pursue and destroy that which I tell you to pursue and destroy."

Dea

 

[Dea]

This had been the first time that she had ever witnessed any kind of food or drink materialize out of thin air. It was a strange thing to witness and even stranger still was how the cup felt within her hand. She studied it, taking note that it didn't even burn her new flesh at all. Instead it only gave her the sensation of heat. Taking a sip of it felt even more weird. It was hard to say whether or not she picked out the composition of the tea because it was unnaturally made, or if that was just how it would always be. Regardless, it was disappointing. She didn't get the feeling of comfort or warm hug that she used to receive.

To hear that she was to rest was just fine. There was much that she needed to explore with herself. Yet when Onrai told her that she had to go after and kill those that she was told to, she of course knew that the possibilities of arguments was high. But at least some that she knew would be safe from any of this. "I will do my best to...try to do as I'm told."