Facing Your Fears (Netherworld Adventure, All Welcome)

[Tamara]

(This is an RP for those who can't keep up or can't get into the big threads. It starts in the Dunes, separate from the main plot, but the course of the RP will depend a lot on who joins and things will take their own course.)

One moment enjoying a fine wine on Naboo, the next in a desert.

Endless, gritty, red sand stretched before her. Distant shades, maybe of people, maybe of ghosts were visible in the distance. In the sky a greenish, malevolent sun shone down.

Rising from sand, Tamara brushed off her dress and looked around. Featureless wastes filled the limits of her sight. There was not a building, not a tree, nothing.

“Is this death?” she wondered aloud. Her voice seemed dead in the wastes, lifeless. “Well…I guess I should get going…I’m guessing this is either a dream, a vision or some sort of strange event…might as well play my part.”
Her laugh sounded hollow, coloured by doubt and fear.

 

[Jsc]

Not very far off, the sands began to shift. Shift and swallowed whole by a rising tide of black water from the ground. Spouting forth from the desert earth, a slope appeared and brandished it's fine captain. The Ferryman had a sense of humor indeed. Waving his newest passenger ashore and into the desert wilderness beyond. Karen Roberts stepped from the boat with a frown and a wave. She probably wouldn't be paying this Ferryman either,

"Well then. I suppose this was a free ride too? Hmm."

The boat did not respond except for the water at her feet. It slowly began receding again too.

"Oh. You're going. ...Well? Thanks for nothing then. Ta ta."

Just like it had come. The boat and her Ferryman, disappeared. Leaving Karen stranded in a desert with far too many dunes. So distasteful.

"Ugh. And here we are again. In hell. Lovely. ...You'd think I'd be used to this kind of treatment by now? Gods, how I hate it. ...Bah. Never again."

Clad in foreign stone and purple-hued of skin, the natively transformed Karen Roberts sat down and sighed. Just what was she going to do now.

[member="Tamara"]​

 

[Tamara]

[member="Karen Roberts"]
At this point Tamara was not about to think anything was impossible or strange, considering everything else which was happening.
She saw the other woman emerge seemingly from the ground, and headed over to her.

“I saw…are you real?” she asked. Not the most normal first question one asked. Getting closer she saw the other woman looked real enough. “I’m Tamara. I guess you’re here in this desert of purgatory too?” She extended a hand.

 

[Jsc]

Karen stood and brushed her green hair away. She was indeed, present in purgatory.

"Oh, I'm very real Miss Tamara. Karen Roberts, formerly of Corellia. ...Though. Recently I appear to be adventuring through hell."

She waved a hand around the the desert as if for a presentation,

"Welcome. To Hell. ...Oh, and the boat rides are free."

Roberts smiled with sarcasm. However, it was nice to see a friendly face.

[member="Tamara"]​

 

[Tamara]

[member="Karen Roberts"]
“Karen Roberts…the peacock, right?” Tamara said, laughing. “You’ve changed a bit, still, nice hair. Well, anyway, this is hell? Seems a little less…well…grim than I expected. Still, I don’t have any trouble believing it. I’ve been through time travelling rifts, ancient wars and trying to get a table at Bastion Station. Still, we might as well get going. So…have you met anyone else caught in this place?”

She held out a hand towards the ground, frowned. “I seem…unable to use the Force. Same with you?”

 

[Jsc]

Now there's a name she hadn't heard since Tython. The Peacock. Oh man, was she really that old? Ugh. Nevermind. There was a desert to conquer now. Or, whatever this place was.

"The few humans I've met in this place all seemed overcome by it's magic. Lost, despair, or an eternity of searching. Everybody who comes here eventually gets affected by this place. Even I seem to have been reborn into a more... Colorful version of myself. It seems."

Karen looked about the wastes. She wasn't quite sure if there was a way to go from here. Where was that Green Sun again?

"I wouldn't try touching the Force if I wear you. Last time I did, my hair turned green, the ground turned to fire, and a Ferryman appeared to rescue me from certain doom."

She shrugged. It had been a long day so far. Somehow, she kinda knew Tamara would understand that part.

"Erm. Nevermind. What I mean is? ...The Force is somewhat distorted in this place. I don't think it works the same way it used to."

Roberts pouted just long enough to remember something,

"Do we, uh? ...Do we know each other?"

[member="Tamara"]​

 

[Cuan Kunn]

She was at the Ruined City, but... there was the desert back there. Kelly wasn't sure which way she should be going. She shook her head and bit her lip. Where was Coren? Where was Jared? Was the Treader still active? She should probably worry about herself, but since she married into the Starchaser line, she felt the need to watch out for the flock. Or nest, as the pilots and commandos of Warbird Wing called the ship, and the group.

Now she was on her own, she couldn't feel the Force, she couldn't fraking feel anything, but the sawed-off scattergun she had, and her bowcaster. She had ammo, she had her armor, a Santhe release, and her weapons. She could get through most things.

She had just gotten back to Corellia after some time on Dathomir. Now she needed to find a way back there. Find where she was. Standing, she faced the ruined, and organic …. city, and then the desert. That made almost more sense. She could see anyone coming from anywhere there.

Sure, maybe the state of her armor, all sorts of cobbled together, looked like it would belong in some after-the-end setting, but she wasn't excited for this. And that was when she heard the voices. Pulling her scatter gun up form where it dangled near her hip, she approached slowly, cautiously.

Who was she going to find? What were they going to do when they saw her?

[member="Karen Roberts"] [member="Tamara"]

 

[Tamara]

[member="Karen Roberts"]
“I don’t think we know each other in that sense, but I’ve seen you about for many years. I’m not sure how long. Time…is hard for me to judge,” Tamara said with a little smile.

Tamara looked down at her long, somewhat shabby black dress. “I guess so. I don’t change that much,” she said with a shrug.

“So, ideas on a direction? I don’t suspect it really matters….”

 

[Jsc]

A lonely red desert. Sky for as far as the eye could see. No. Karen didn't think it mattered either. But the cold would get annoying before long,

"I don't think it matters. Lead on Miss Tamara the Unchanging. You have a happy follower in tow."

Karen removed the Lizard Bone she had received from the Old Woman and snapped it in half. Both pieces were now about as long as a human forearm. Then she lit one of the bones aflame with her, (now orange colored,) Lightsaber. Creating a horrific ashy torch that would burn for decades in the Nether. Useful for both light and heat in a desert that held neither.

"Here. You take the other half. It's... A Lizard Bone. Apparently great for starting fires in a Hell so strangely devoid of them. Try not to use it all in one place."

She smiled and tossed it over. Since the Force was so dead to this place Karen used practical effects whenever possible. She didn't want to change colors again anyway.

"Lead on. Has to be something worthwhile out here. Maybe?"

___

Karen's torch had the strange side effect of attracting others to it's ethereal heat. Even from a distance.

[member="Tamara"] [member="Kelly Topol"]​

 

[Tamara]

[member="Karen Roberts"] | [member="Kelly Topol"]

Tamara caught the bone, frowning at it. “I am sure there’s a story here,” she said, eyeing it.

She hefted it, frowning. “I’ll keep mine unlit for now.” She didn’t have a lightsabres on her, rather she was almost completely unarmed. The one ‘weapon’ she usually carried, a phrik sword-cane, had not been with her when she had been vanished.

Still, it was somewhat refreshing to be off on an expedition again.

“Wait…is that someone there?” Tamara asked, pointing to a distant figure on a dune.

 

[Cuan Kunn]

Kelly wasn't going to run into the fray here. She could hear just fine, approaching this group. The pair of women. Someone called the Peacock and the other called Unchanging. Great, so, she was finding the freak show of people in the desert? It wasn't like she wasn't without her marks, anyhow. Kelly may change parts of her hair into other colors, and she could do that using spells, but typically it was more conventional means. Same with the ink on her skin. She marked her trials and path.

She was in hunter mode right now. Not trying to kill these folk, but to follow whichever path they took. This forsaken desert, frozen and red. Sand everything It was gritty.

Was it the wind she was hearing? Or the two women...

Must be the wind, carrying the voices. She was looking to find someone who could help her survive the wastes here. Almost as if they were after a man in black, but that was fiction in a whole other world.

She needed companions to get through this.

[member="Tamara"]
[member="Karen Roberts"]

 

[Jsc]

Indeed it was. Someone else was approaching. Karen turned to view her with a squint. Fascinating,

"Well. It appears our company grows with each passing moment? This desert grows legion."

It wasn't surprising on any account. Hell has it's own ways of sorting people. Karen looked forward to calling this effect, Nature. But that just didn't sound quite right yet.

"Ah. Careful. She's armed and we're without the Force here. I'd hate to die in a desert, hmm."

Karen smirked at that thought. To die in a desert. My my. She might just go to heaven next.

[member="Kelly Topol"] [member="Tamara"]​

 

[Ibby]

[SIZE=10.5pt][member="Tamara"] [member="Karen Roberts"] [member="Kelly Topol"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]((OOC Note: Nonadul is always speaking Proto-Basic (or just Proto). Miracloe speaks Proto when it's only her and her mother, but will usually speak Basic in front of company. [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]Here[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt] is the translator I use)) [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Mom!" [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]A hand grabbed Nonadul's shoulder, shaking her gently. [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]"Mom, wake up!" [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]The voice was frantic, childlike. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]There was laughter. That wasn't unusual. Nor was the alcohol that flowed freely from the taps. Everyone was having a good time, getting drunk and swapping stories. Some were on the borderline of ridiculous, but all were meant to get a laugh out of the crowd. And indeed, some of them succeeded. Actually, nearly all of them succeeded. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Mom!"[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Belial frowned, turning to face her lover. "[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]What was that[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]?" she asked. Durok looked at her in faint bemusement, and opened his mouth.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Mom! You need to wake up!" [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]All of the sudden her world began to shake, causing her to drop her glass. The laughter stopped immediately and the vision of Durok began to fade.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIII!" [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]Nonadul pushed Miracloe down and crouched above her, tail whipping back and forth and her Blood Swords ready to impale whatever threatened her daughter. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Mom, calm down! There's no one here."[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt] Miracloe placed one of her hands on Nona's knee, trying to reassure her. The Cernun continued to look around for a moment before doing as her daughter said. That didn’t mean she wasn’t on alert, though. Sheathing her blades, Nonadul pulled the girl to her feet and gestured to their surroundings. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"How did we get here, Mira? What happened?" As she spoke, the female squinted her eyes. All around was nothing but sand, sand, and more sand. Really, it was quite dull and boring. So not her cup of tea. Or rather, booze. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Mira shook her head. "I don't know. The last thing I remember is counting the credit chips we'd gathered, and then we were here and you-- you were asleep." The girl looked up at her then, with eyes wide from worry. "We won't...we won't die out here, will we?" Seeing her daughter so scared caused Nonadul much pain, so to conceal her own worry the female puffed out her chest and guffawed. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Nonsense, darling! In a desert there's always something to eat! Remember our time on Tatooine? I'm sure this is just like that!" Without giving the girl any further opportunity to protest, Nonadul scooped Miracloe up onto her back and began to walk across the desert.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]What the Cernun did not say, was that she could no longer sense the Force -- a fact which worried her greatly. [/SIZE]

 

[Tamara]

[member="Karen Roberts"] | [member="Nonadul"] | [member="Kelly Topol"]

Tamara nodded. "It would be a shame. The lack of the Force is worrying and yet..." She paused, knelt down and examined the sand, letting some of it trickle between her fingers "Hmm, interesting. The sand seems entirely uniform, the granules anyway. I wouldn't expect any different from a hellish netherworld, but it is curious."

She stood and they headed off again. "I think our visitor is hiding from us, don't you?"

 

[Lora Onone]

[member="Tamara"] , [member="Nonadul"] , [member="Karen Roberts"] , [member="Kelly Topol"]

Waking up with sand in her face didn't feel good, she knew her bed was never luxurious but it wasn't this bad! She stood up spitting sand from her mouth and looking around she'd had her gear on and a simple canteen of water when she was relaxing and fell asleep. Downing the water briefly not that much remained she washed the sady taste from her mouth and tucked it away. Looking around she had no clue where she was. The One Sith officer now remembered why she hated the land compared to space it sucked! She spotted what looked like a group of people headed her way and slowly walked toward them.

 

[Cuan Kunn]

She was being cautious. What was this hellish place, after all? The dark haired woman was not going to hurt anyone up front, merely defend herself. Kelly looked at her options. Sand, sand sand, mushroom kingdom, sand, sand, sandy sand, and being alone. Right, maybe it was time to put the gun away?

And that was what she did. She holstered her scattergun and left her bowcaster where it was on her back. She might need it again, and made her way over to the pair she was watching. Kelly didn't need to hunt, but tracking? She could do that, and being alone? She didn't want to do.

[member="Lora Onone"] @Tamara @Nonadul @Karen Roberts

 

[Jsc]

Karen sighed and held her torch with distaste. Yes indeed. As cautious as they come. How irreverent of them. Did hell have no manners? Bah. She'd enjoy this next part,

"Hello all you Mother-karkers! Welcome to the fracking desert! Come say hello or go away!"

Ahhh. She smiled with delight. There. Introductions. Wasn't that nice. She turned to Tamara with a playful grin,

"...Well now. If you don't mind making the small talk with the wandering vagabonds, whilst I scout ahead? I'm sure they're very nice people. Mm."

Karen shook her torch with glee and began hiking up the nearest dune. She'd had enough dilly-dallying for one demon's eternity. After all, when trapped in hell a woman had very little time to play hostess you know? Especially when the arriving guests were so very, very paranoid. And so very, very heavily armed. Good gracious.

She summited the tallest dune and looked about with a red-eyed vista.

"Now. ...Where to go next? Hmm. Options, options."

[member="Kelly Topol"] [member="Tamara"]​

 

[Ibby]

[SIZE=12pt][member="Tamara"] [member="Karen Roberts"] [member="Kelly Topol"] [member="Lora Onone"][/SIZE]


[SIZE=12pt]By Nonadul’s count, she and Mira had been walking for many, many weeks. By Mira’s count, they’d been walking for twenty minutes. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“Mom, where are we?” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Mira asked.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]"I don't know,"[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]she admitted. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]"Somewhere sandy and boring."[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]Giving a little grunt, the Cernun shifted the girl on her back. Though Nona would never admit it, her little girl wasn't so little anymore, and it was getting harder to carry her. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Mira picked up on her mother's discomfort quicker than she would have liked. "Mom, let me walk. I don't mind, honest." The human girl began to wriggle enough that Nona was forced to put her down. The girl then reached out and gripped the older female’s hand.[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]“Do you think the sand will ever end?”[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] she asked. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Nona shrugged. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“I don’t know,”[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]she said again. Tongue in cheek, she paused for a moment, thinking. Then,[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] “I have an idea though.”[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] This elicited a slightly wary expression from the young girl. Though she was young, Mira had learned that her mother’s ideas were…interesting in the least. Nona noticed the look and laughed, patting the girl’s head.[/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]“Don’t worry, darling. It’s nothing too bad.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“That’s what you said last time,” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]the girl muttered. Nonadul just ignored her.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“We are the only ones out here, Mira. Anything we say or do won’t be seen or heard. We’re all alone.” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Mira appraised her mother, unsure of where she was going with this. Nona grinned mischievously down at the girl. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“So what say we break out the beer songs and pass the time while we walk?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Oh, brother,” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Mira said, though her eyes showed merriment at the idea. The girl was used to her mother’s peculiar ways.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Oh, mother,” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Nonadul corrected, laughing. Pulling her daughter close with her tail, she began to sing a little shanty she’d picked up somewhere, and together they walked.[/SIZE]



[SIZE=12pt]After a while, Mira tugged on her mother’s arm and stopped mid-song. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“Mother, look!” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]she exclaimed. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“There are people ahead!” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Nonadul stopped mid-song, looking to where her daughter was pointing. All merriment abandoned the female.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“So there is, darling. So there is.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Should we go see who they are?” [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]Before her mother could respond, she added, [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“They may know where we are, and be able to help. Mom, we can’t ignore the fact that there’s more pros than cons to meeting them.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Nonadul harrumphed. She hated it when her daughter went all smarty on her – even more when the smartypants was right. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“Fine, but you stay behind me at all times. You’ll act as translator, like normal.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Miracloe nodded. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“Understood.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]The pair made their way towards the small group of people. Actually, “group” was probably stretching it. Once they got into earshot, Nonadul called out, [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“Solvae! Kyoe ghey vali?” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Right on cue, Miracloe translated, [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]“Hello, who are you?”[/SIZE]

 

[Besk]

Besk opened his eyes with a start. He wasn't in the forest anymore, the sand alone proved that. He looked around, a desert, wonderful. Hopefully it's not as bad as the cave. That place was wrong on so many levels.

He stood and shook the sane out of his clothes, the oppressive nature of the desert made him sigh, on a good note I don't feel like sitting here forever, nor do i feel that invasive light pushing into me. There didn't seem to be a specific direction that looked any more inviting than the other. He reached out for the force for guidence and still found nothing. It seemed that wherever he was and whatever has caused it had decided that he shouldn't be using the force.

The dunes seemed to shift and turn, confusing him as he finally just decided to walk forward. Nothing ever got accomplished by standing still, his old master's voice echoed in his head.

@Nonadul@Karen Roberts@Tamara@Kelly Topol[member="Lora Onone"]

 

[Cuan Kunn]

Terrific, they saw her. That was... not bad, could be worse, after all. Blinking and shaking her head, she made a bit of a quicker step to the group, to the one that was shouting. The dark haired woman was making her way to them, and that was that. She would deal with the situation when that happened.

“Yeah? No need to shout, who knows what you'll wake up here.” Granted she was talking to this person. No stranger danger, as Kelly pushed a lock of dyed green hair behind her ear. “Any y'all know whats goin' on 'round here?” Her voice was... much to the laziness of who was pulling her strings, a bit of a lilt from those 'progressive' coastal cities of Corellia. She enjoyed her times in cities, and her typical style was something of urban decay.

But here? Here it felt like she needed leather and to prepare for the apocalypse. Or maybe she didn't survive it?

Or worse.

Did.

@Besk @Nonadul @Karen Roberts @Tamara @Lora Onone