Private A formal invitation

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Yalara academy

Tag | Onrai

A formal looking letter had arrived, upon opening it read...

"Greetings and salutations, it has come to my attention that you have a past riddled with the occult. We have yet to meet sadly, but I also know we should have plenty to speak about. It is with pleasure that I formally invite you to visit me on the planet Yalara, I welcome you to my little den of illogical logic."

-Lady Keres

That letter had been sent out some time ago, and it would be today that she expected a visitor to this academy. While waiting for this newest arrival, she was in the process of making letters to more people. Her time back on Nal Hutta had taught Keres something very important... There were many others who could feel a coming storm, others just like the soon to be newest arrival.

It wasn't very often that the vampiress sought out others in order to learn, she had to swallow that stubborn pride.. Not the easiest task, but one she knew had to be done. Answers were out there, and she hungered for them. Claws reaching out like a rabid and starved animal for any scraps she could find.. Rapture had proven to be helpful in uncovering some mysteries concerning her kind, yet sadly the real answers lingered further out in the void.

Today she needed assistance, today she needed Onrai to help find this information.

And so, it was to be that the devil waited, doors ready to open.


















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[Onrai]

Yalara
Adeline Noctua

The great platinum-plated cube hurled towards the surface of the world, ominously silent throughout the voyage even by the standards of space. Substantial in size, it soon entered orbit over the world, a geocentric position over the academy the invitation had been sent from. Soon enough, within the halls of the great structure, shadows would begin to coalesce as they had on a hundred different worlds, forming into the shape of the wraithlike spectre that many millions had offered supplication to from across the galaxy. The 'occult,' as her hostess had called it, was but the smallest fraction of the forbidden knowledge of the ancients waiting to be unleashed on a waiting cosmos.

Silvered eyes flashed from within the formless face of the shade's vaguely feminine form as she looked about, seeking the sight of whoever, or whatever, had offered her the supplication of an invitation. Eying a door behind which a lifeform most aberrant was sensed, Onrai chose to take the more conventional path of actually opening the door, sensation almost then and there clarifying that what sat down at the desk, quill in hand, was what had sought her out.

And there was but a certain malignancy within her. It was hard to place, but she had only sensed such vileness one other location not even within the galaxy itself - yet she was far too frail a power to be such, wasn't she?

"Your supplication has been heard, and the one you seek now comes to you." Onrai said, choosing to take a formal tone with the woman in question. This was a parasite, much like Kurineth Cull , but of so fundamentally different a nature it was difficult for her to so easily divine what exactly she was. One of the experiments of the Architects, or a descendant therein? Plausible. One of the servants of the Father of Shadows? She felt so similar to Bacathe, and yet Onrai was convinced this wasn't the case.Perhaps as the conversation continued she would know and learn more about the one before her.

"Knock, and the door will be opened to you." The offer was open and any inquiry Adeline sought could yet be made.

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Yalara Academy

Tag | Onrai

To say that Adeline normally was able to expect the unexpected would be a solid truth, with the keyword being "normally" here. Who can say they expected a cube to show up? But nonetheless, Adeline greeted her guest with a simple nod before tapping a claw onto her desk in a rhythm.

"Ah but alas, with so many doors... It is always hard to tell what is on the other side."

She smiles a bit before continuing.

"If you do not know, I am what you could call a seeker, perhaps an occultist if you so desired to say. Over the years I have gotten my hands on some objects of interest and even made contact with a creature one could say.. Was not subject to normality. As mentioned within my letter it has come to my attention that you may hold answers or perhaps even just interesting information that would be rather useful to both me and the students of my academy."

Adeline reaches her opened hand out, bringing forth a peering eye right in the middle of her palm. As Adeline blinked, so to did this gazing eye. It weeped a black ink as dark as the void, the droplets landing upon the table. She closes her hand, the eye vanishing seemingly at the woman's will as it was nowhere to be found once the hand opened again, the dark liquid soaking back up into this vampiric woman soon after.

"I had been within a deep state of mind, letting my eyes truly open. I saw things we would never see normally, places so eldritch not even I could properly describe it all... Then again, perhaps it gave me shapes and colours my mind could understand.. Hm. I found something, and in return for teaching me things most interesting I had let it take shelter within my body so that I may feed it eyes to see the world around us. This was years ago, and by now I took control and consumed it. That eye is just the surface of what I can do of course, but I wonder what that being was."

Throughout her time, she had also developed a skill. It was easy for her to read someone, get an idea of what was going on behind the eyes.

"The doors need not be your own, I can see it within your eyes dear... You find me curious, ask your own questions and I may answer them."





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[Onrai]

"My questions are minimal as it is rather obvious what has happened." The shadowed figure responded to the woman's statement about questions with explanations. "For what reason one of the servants of the Father of Shadows came to you, I know not. That its attempt to hollow you out and wear you as naught much more than a skin failed is clear. Do not be so dismissive as to believe you control it or that you have truly ended its existence and claimed its power. Nakhash is greater than all other evils of the galaxy, and even the fallen Celestials serve him. Were it not for him, the galaxy would be at peace. Or at least more peaceable than it is today."

Onrai paused for a moment to both allow the explanation to satisfy Lady Keres' desire for knowledge as to the creature's origins and to formulate a plan. Despite having resealed the boundary to the hellscape of a dimension the evils called home, the fiendish monstrosity's servants were still active in the galaxy - worse still, they had entrenched themselves in a servant of the Dark Empire! There would be chaos on a galactic scale if such a being were allowed to spread its unfettered influence to Solipsis and abuse the power of the Darksiders beneath him to gain access to the material plane. Then they would remake the galaxy into a place every bit as nightmarish as their own - all beings, mortal and possibly otherwise within the galaxy, would be turned into nothing more than playthings to be violated and malformed.

This would take a great deal of tact. No concern manifested on her form, if such could even be seen through the shadow.

"Your mind likely swims with the sense of alien worlds, places that defy the function of reality and where your existence is unlike anything else. I can show you them, and if you question what you have seen, I can give you the answers you seek. Leave this place with me, and we shall see what may yet be uncovered within the voids of Dark Illathurion."

Adeline Noctua

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Yalara Academy

Tag | Onrai

"My time in a place unknown is something I remember fondly, it was as dark as the deepest ocean. In fact, all around me felt akin to those heavy and cold waters. I saw echos of my past, and it was then that the being came to me. I control the substance just as easily as I control my own flesh, but if you are keen to claim it is not dead or fully absorbed into me.. Well then I just need to figure out how to finish what I started, you could say I have a talent for consuming."

This would have to wait, it would seem this visitor wanted to show her things. Her curious and altered mind swiftly latched onto the idea, this little trip that was offered.

"Together, hidden realities become manifest. I look forward to seeing what all you desire to show, after you dear."

She stands from her desk, pushing in her chair as she waited for Onrai to lead the way.

The woman's petite frame, soft silky voice.. These are just two of the things she used as a tool to make others underestimate her, to make them not see what really was there. For the devil wants you to think she isn't there, to lower your guard and let her claws sink deep. Onrai was no simple individual of course, she could see Keres for what she was.

A devilish monster who craved to consume all, a creature who would love to wrap reality around us around her finger and twist it into some vile abomination of illogical yet wondrous things.






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[Onrai]

Adeline Noctua

"More powerful beings than you have tried to consume them." Onrai said. She of course had no intent of giving away that it had proven nigh impossible for her to truly slay Ooradryl and the other Kindred, and the Shadow Beings in question had been reshaped and transmogrified by at least one of the Architects themselves, but never destroyed or consumed. The first lesson she could teach Adeline would have to be that all of them - herself included - were smaller fish to someone else.

The Sunstar-Shadowstone was raised, as reality rent and a tear began to form on the border between dream and reality. Through the tear the very unnatural essence of the pocket realm began to escape, irradial unmatter entering through the void. Onrai waited until her new charge had entered the rift, then followed behind her, closing it behind them. There was no reason to allow any unwanted interlopers in behind them, after all.

-

The first thing Adeline would notice on stepping foot into the realm was that she had been provided with a pair of wide-bottomed platforms, stuck to her footwear in question. These platforms vibrated and were of critical import to ensuring her safety on Parallelepipedia. Onrai herself had no need for such, her mass minimized as it was with each step. The two had entered the world on the cusp of dune of the amorphous world's surface, overlooking the nearest of the three great cubes smashed, bored through, and partially buried on its surface. The tarnished platinum skein of its scales overlayed its flesh, still surprisingly supple as ichor wept from between them, oozing down the creature's sides.

"Welcome to the world I call home. Say hello to the ruins of the Old Ones."

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Sweet unknown

Tag | Onrai

"Amazing, simply amazing..."

With each step she watched the ripples of the fluids just below her, fascinated by both this spectacle and also the strange cubes.

"Oddly dead, yet not. What a strange yet wonderful place you call home, the fluid below me feels- I feel like I have felt it before, like I have seen some of this at some point in time."

Her tone started to sound more and more energetic, places like this were like a fat child in a candy shop for this avid occultist.

"By chance, care to enlighten me as to the nature of the flesh within that cube?"

A question based in two kinds of curiosity, one side wanting to know what it is... While the gourmand within her wanted to know the taste of that supple and juicy looking flesh.

"Disregard, I have a more important question for you."

Next she calmly asks.

"Why is it you accepted my invitation dear?"

A simple enough question on the surface, one which hid the paranoid nature of what it really meant.
















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[Onrai]

Adeline Noctua

"The world is dead. The Charon have seen to that." Whether Adeline was experiencing a false sense of familiarity courtesy of the shadow being, or whether she actually had knowledge of the planet once upon a time was unknown. Certainly insight into the thoughts of Ooradryl and the Kindred had yet to reveal any knowledge of the world in question, which suggested it was merely another aberration whose history had been brief if not uneventful. How fortunate that the Architects, the Old Once, and the Father of Shadows himself had yet to successfully molest its malevolent surface.

"The flesh is the cube. The cube was given its scales by Ap'aci after being born from the mingling of the Soulworm and Kopa Kahn. It is the grandchild of a Celestial, and it is no threat." While she had desired to ask a different question entirely, Adeline would get her answer anyways. The flesh within the cube was a part of its inherent being and was as Ooradryl was originally formed before being clad in its ethereal plate. For but a moment it would almost seem as though a fragment of a discordant hymn whistled through the hole in the cube courtesy of a breeze across the world's surface as they traveled closer.

And now it was time to get to her final, true inquiry.

"Because it was of no harm and may yet prove beneficial." The wraithlike figure said. "No one in the Empire is of any threat to me, from the lowliest peon to the Emperor and Despot themselves. Besides, this meeting had the potential to be beneficial to both my gains and yours. Why would I not accept it?"

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Unknown

Tag | Onrai

"My question was meant to be of no offense of course, I enjoy learning almost anything.. Even seemingly mundane details can have value."

And speaking of learning and or asking questions..

"You said this meeting had benefits for you as well? Pray tell, what is it you have gained from this little venture? If you seek answers from me as well I am open to sharing within reason of course, or perhaps you have something else in mind? If me and my academy can assist I am sure we can work out the details, but I would assume most of what my place of learning has to offer is of little or no interest to you."

She had some more questions, but they were not of important or relevance to the conversation at hand. For now she simply enjoyed watching the area, if anything at least appreciating new sights.



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[Onrai]

Adeline Noctua

"I assure you, I am not one easily offended."

As the two continued heading towards the nearest of the cubes, Onrai continued to ponder over the potential dangers of Adeline being here. It was hardly her - she wasn't the first one shown Onrai's operations in otherspace. No, it was the creature bound to her - one she suspected to be one of the enigmatic servants of the Father of Shadows, lord of the Dark Ones and purveyor of unfathomable evil. If this being was somehow able to transit a message to its master, a message sent beyond the seals containing the oxymoronic hell-paradise the pernicious beings lived in, it could upset the balance of the galaxy and unleash a monster that none would be able to stop.

"If nothing else I have gained understanding of things that yet remain clouded to me. But there is yet more to understand - for instance, how much the being you attempted to snuff out from the universe influences your action, thought, and deed. I could never explain to you the danger its master is to this realm. Even showing you things I've seen here would not convince you - nor did it convince others." her regrets as to the unwillingness of the former Ashlan cardinal to accept what was very real before his own eyes becoming obvious before an unusual question came to her lips.

"Do you believe the common man's theorem that 'good' and 'evil' are somehow correlated with the Light and Dark Sides of the Force respectively?"

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Unknown

Tag | Onrai

The woman scoffs, not at Onrai but at the last question itself.

"No I do not, to me that is all subjective. What is considered good and evil is subjective to me, while one may see an angel, others may see a devil."

But now back to a serious issue at hand..

"It.. Does appear that I have a ticking clock yet again if what you say is true. Hunted by the very shadows I hide in, ironic isn't it? If this being is beyond the common scope of subjectivity then that means this creature is the reason behind things I would prefer to not speak of.. Or at least the guiding hand who is responsible for its twisted conception. I would be a fool to ignore it, so you have my attention."

It was clear that something struck deep in this seemingly heartless creature, causing her to freeze up as the following realization that time was after her again.

"As far as I can tell, my actions are my own."

The occultist lets out a weak sigh.






​

 

[Onrai]

Adeline Noctua

“A valid assessment - at least insofar as how light and dark are not reflective of good and evil. Both can be used for inverted means should one’s intents and purposes be… malignant.” She said. This was a particularly unusual statement, especially given that it alluded to the suggestion of the Dark Side as a force for good - and would they not have to be in this situation? To some the Galactic Empire of old were the good guys, and to others, the Dark aside had proven a most beneficent ally.

“The truth behind this universe - which I have seen - is that there is indeed a good and an evil. And while mortals flicker between good and evil, or even apathy and neutrality, there is in fact a source of evil from which all lesser evils flow. No deed, nor act, nor thought could ever compare to it in any fashion. That evil is the Dark One, the Father of Shadows, the one known as Nakhash.” She said. The very mention of those names would likely stir a sense of trepidation and excitement within the foul shade bound to the life-draining humanoid before her.

“His servants, like the being within you, enter within the weak and the foolish, devouring them from within, preserving their lifeless husks, and puppeteering their fleshy forms as domineering gods and monstrosities to the unknowing. They are corrupters most foul, pernicious parasites on the galaxy whose presence can nary be tolerated.” The shade most likely felt a degree of worry, perhaps apprehension - was there perhaps a way that Onrai had managed to truly destroy them?

“But I digress.” Onrai said. “What do you know of the Father of Shadows?”

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Unknown

Tag | Onrai

"Am I the only one who sees the utter irony in the life draining creature being attacked by another? Funny how that works, much like how a parasitoid will consume another within a shared host. But alas I can only claim to know as much as you have shared with me, far be it from me to show some humility but I do believe I did indeed make a foolish mistake. Perhaps there is a way for me to leverage it within my favour, even if the epitome of evil wants to kill me."

Stuck between worry and inquisitive thought, it strangely gave the occultist a noticeable change in both energy and attitude.

"What if there is no life to drain from the desired target? Or better yet, what if there is a constant new influx of stronger and more resistant life being brought in?"

No harm in brainstorming of course..

"Hrm.. Either nothing to try and devour, or too much being changed time and time again so nothing can be destroyed so long as the influx remains the same? Perhaps my biology is the reason we are speaking right now?"

It wasn't too far fetched, Adeline clearly having a eureka moment it would seem.

"Am I just more insane than I thought or is my theory correct? Or should I say.. Does it sound like it has solid ground?"






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[Onrai]

Adeline Noctua

"You wouldn't be the only one who sees the irony." Onrai jested. "And what the creature's motivation is, truthfully, is uncertain. You are still alive, despite this. Perhaps it senses your own corrupt and perverted nature courtesy of whoever transfigured you from your original form into the vampire you are now. If it wished to consume your spirit, that which animates you regardless of the state of your body, it would do so effortlessly, which again raises the question of why. The Father of Shadows is not known for making particularly obvious plays."

She thought for a bit more. "I think it's unlikely, but it's as possible as anything else, all things considered. Regardless, certain truths will need to be explained to you, as clearly as one can." She motioned to the giant multikilometer cube in question. "For example, what this is. Or rather, who it was."

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | unknown

Tag | Onrai

"Uncertainties are always my specialty, where one submits to primal cautions.. I feel the drive of inquisitiveness."

She faintly smiles, perhaps her words were pure truth? Or perhaps it was just a bluff to keep away the concerns of others and hide inner fear... Perhaps both, it was always hard to tell.

"I have some other theories, but I feel as if they aren't valid enough to even share. In time I think I can figure this out... I always do."

Adeline sighs, a deeper meaning to her words.

"Mm?"

Her attention is taken back to the strange cubes.

"Right.. I somehow forgot you are the cube, were these perhaps siblings? Maybe fellow souls locked within whatever duty you all once shared? I once shared a goal with others, before I became what I am today."






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[Onrai]

Adeline Noctua

"Not even close, actually." She said. "These are the Kindred - the original survivors, anyways. The son of the Architects, Ooradryl" - she motioned to the cube they were nearest, before motioning to the others - "and his sons, Waru and Uthoqquan. The third one has long since been killed and devoured, leaving none to remain. These creatures were created by the Architects, the great spawn of one of the Celestials, and would be kindred to such monstrous beings as the Night Spirit, as Typhojem the Left-Handed God, and as Mekal, the cancer god known as Mnggal Mnggal." She began to travel up a set of moving stairs that led up to a portal that had been cut through the exterior flesh of the creature's hide, allowing access to its interior.

"I learned of these creatures many years ago. In my time with the Maw, I possessed a dreadnought-scale warship, the Gorgon, which was armed with prow-based beam weapons. I engaged in a hunt of most dangerous proportions, one that nearly cost me and others our lives. Apparently, though the size of a Star Destroyer, they were not prepared for dreadnought-scale firepower to be brought to bear on them. The first shot bored through them from one side to the next, and Ooradryl crashed to the surface of the world below. His spawn sought to react, and though the damage was substantial, they were brought down in kind. After I was sure they would be unable to escape the world's surface, I traveled down and drained their life force, severing their brains - or what you could even comprehend as brains - and ensuring their threat to myself and the galaxy would be ended. From there, I began to change into what I am now - no body was meant to contain these forces. And I have learned such things, such many many things..."

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Unknown

Tag | Onrai

"Perhaps we function in more similar ways than I thought."

She says without elaborating.

"I was there when the Maw drew its last breath, at the time I was enjoying the show. It was a spectacle to watch and feel so many souls cling to this realm with all the strength that had, a shame my show was interrupted by a Jedi."

Eyes glance at the otherworldly carcass, Adeline found it beautiful.

"Do you figure hopes and dreams to be an extension of the soul? Or are they a separate entity made by the soul? I ask this because I am curious what you think, for I myself have delved into dreams that never got a chance to be realized. Volatile and chaotic is how I would describe them, the less realized the more chaotic it becomes."

The undercroft had attracted many a strange creature, with the heart seeming to produce what Adeline spoke of. She had stepped into and saw the hopes and dreams of every soul stuck down there, with nowhere else to go it was only natural they became such dark things.







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[Onrai]

"Dreams are an illusion we make ourselves, in the subconscious of our mind. Sometimes enlightening, sometimes frightening. Sometimes impossible, sometimes able to be made into reality. I wouldn't say they're an extension of the soul, or even a separate entity. They just are." Such was the best explanation she could give - metaphysical concepts of such psychological magnitude were not her particular forte even if she had more understanding in these pathways than others.

"In the case of these beings, they would be more nightmares than dreams. I am ashamed to say that not all those who've followed me have been able to accept the truth of this realm without their minds splintering or shattering. I do the best I can to help take care of them, but mortals were not meant to see things such as this."

Adeline Noctua

 

[Adeline Noctua]

Equipment | In Bio

Location | Unknown

Tag | Onrai

"I believe that dreams and ambitions are indeed part of a soul, even the smallest things make up the whole of a being. I say this because I myself have seen what happens to these things when stuck in a limbo... I have seen and felt what it feels like to be within a dream that never had a chance to be realized, never got to even have an end. A nightmare is something we can understand, no matter how bizarre or strange they may seem, they are made by us and thus even the simplest eyes can see."

The woman lets out a deep sigh, finding a welcoming strangeness within her surroundings.

"The things created by my very fingertips aren't nightmares, so twisted that I suppose we can only see them as what we consider a nightmare."

Next, she raises a brow.

"Then I suppose my differences allow me to process and exist in spaces separate from what the common eye can see, my mind is indeed opened after all, and my eyes can see."






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[Onrai]

"Many things are possible." Onrai said. The duo had made entry into the cube, traveling through the tunnel bored in the creature's flesh before reaching the interior - far larger than the exterior of the cube would suggest. While the outside alluded to it having been only a couple kilometers in size, perhaps as big as a Star Destroyer, the interior of the creature was a cacophonous maze of fleshy bridges and tunnels, limply undulating tendrils, and pulsing tumors of grotesque reason from which oozed thick crimson viscera into seemingly bottomless pools of syrupy lakes. To an ordinary person, this landscape would bring utter madness.

"We are now inside the god-beast's body. Its traits are an affront to all order, all nature, and all life. Perhaps the being bound to you will love to know that Ooradryl's deal with the Ancient Ones is now null and void - he is dead, as are the other Kindred who mattered."

Adeline Noctua