Faction Library Hours: The Overdue Sequel (New Jedi Order)

[Oros]

JEDI ARCHIVES
CORUSCANT

Previously on Library Hours
​

Twilight descended on Coruscant.

It was a night like any other for the New Jedi Order. Those Jedi in residence not already fast asleep wandered the halls allowing the Force to guide them towards some uncertain purpose. Distant echoes of a city world that never sleeps could barely touch them here. Scattered bars of some half-remembered song emanated from a padawan's quarters until hushed curses cut them off. Dagon Kaze was shadow boxing on the roof without a shirt probably. Another normal evening.

Except for the creeping vines spreading from the library doors.

Oh dear! Master Lashiec will be so upset.

Hovering back and forth just outside the threshold in a panic, Senior Archivist Oros floated in his imposing crystal life support chamber. Beyond these doors the archive was gone, replaced with ancient crumbling jungle ruins scarcely lit by distant torches. Reaching out with the Force he confirmed this anomaly was confined to the library...for now. That such a transformation might spread to the rest of the temple almost disturbed him as much as the disappearance of his sacred texts!

Can anyone hear me?

He called out with the Force, perhaps summoning Jedi from nearby, but more intent on reaching anyone trapped inside. After all, the archives had not been empty of scholars. Were they now lost somewhere in the ruins? Was Aeris Lashiec among them? Oros had a bad feeling he would have to find out.

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Oros ​

It was getting into the later evening hours. Jasper had spent the majority of his day training, getting used to dueling with his new mechanical arm. It was stronger than expected, so it was taking some getting used to. At the present moment, the padawan was on his way back to the archives. He still had the data about his creator, Jastile Kai'el, on his person, having forgotten to return it to the catalogue of past and current members. Jasper didn't make it far before a message rang out in his mind...

Can anyone hear me?

Jasper wasted no time hurrying to the archives, where he was greeted by a rather bizarre sight. The Celegian Jedi Master Oros was there, suspended in his life support chamber as per usual. What was unusual was the entrance to the library. It was gone, completely replaced by the sight of a ruin of some sort, jungle fauna entangling the decrepit structure and spreading out from the entrance to the library.

"Oh," Jasper began with a blank expression, his mind struggling to comprehend what it was in front of him. "I... That was the last thing I was expecting."

For a brief moment, his droid Pyf began to stir, briefly leaving the hood of the padawan's vest. When the droid saw what lie in the llibrary's place, however, he slowly returned to the safety of Jasper's vest, clearly deciding that he wanted nothing to do with this.

"Master Oros," the padawan continued, still visibly confused. "What is this?"

 

[Yula Perl]

Oros Jasper Kai'el

Yula didn't normally frequent Coruscant without being in tow of Dagon. After Nida's capture on Ilum, she'd all but set up shop on the Alliance capital. This was the best place to be if news of her sister came through—that, and they seemed to turn a blind eye to the scanners she'd set up on the roof of the temple.

When not trying to track her missing sibling, she'd prowl the halls and harass the occasional Jedi. Sleep was getting harder to come by, and Aeris Lashiec had been kind enough to let her nap in the library, so long as she helped to categorize some of the unsorted media. The busywork kept her mind from straying too far into crisis territory, and the towering shelves offered a protective sort of comfort.

Craving that particular brand of peace, Yula had made her way to the archives late that evening. Instead of the library entrance, she'd stumbled upon something completely out of place—crumbling archaic architecture and jungle vines.

"The feth?"

Someone had gotten there ahead of her, a confused blonde. Yula rubbed her eyes. Was that cigarra she'd snuck in the third floor bathroom laced with something more explicit?

"You seein' this chit?" She waved an arm to the blonde, who was clearly as confused as she was.

 

[Miri Nimdok]

Miri was an avid bookworm, and libraries were one of her favorite places to be. The Jedi Temple on Coruscant boasted an impressive archive, and she had availed herself of it as soon as she joined.

She was on her way to return some books she had checked out when she noticed something odd. The library seemed to have changed in some way. She couldn't quite put her finger on it... hm, maybe it was the inexplicable indoor forest that had developed seemingly overnight?

Not long after setting foot in the overgrown archive, she heard a voice in her head. A few seconds later, Jasper Kai'el and Yula Perl arrived, looking equally as surprised by what they found there.

"It would seem the library has been... redecorated," Miri remarked.

Miri traced the telepathic message to its source, responding in kind. <I can. Who are you? What happened here?>

Oros

 

[Thal Mantis]

Can Anyone Hear me?

Thal stopped, his hands letting go of the piece of the armor he was busy buffing out and refitting in the dorms. He let the flightsuit go down, as he backed his desk chair up, wiping the polish off his hands.

It wasn't a voice, and it wasn't... bad. Someone was just asking for a hand. He put on his typical lounging attire, about to leave his room- before he put his utility belt on, deciding that maybe having his lightsaber wasn't that bad of an idea. Never knew nowadays. And someone reaching out through the force was usually a prelude to a trap of some kind, but this one didn't seem malicious. Then again, that would be a good trap, wouldn't it? Cautiously walking down the hallway, he made his way further into the temple....

He walked past the garden trying to search for the source of the voic-

The garden was not where the library was. The library was where the library was, the garden was where the garden was. Why was the garden now where the library was? Or rather, why was the library now a garden?

"This...isn't the library's usual...decoration." Thal said, stepping beside the other few Jedi that had also gathered. He gave a glance over at Yula Perl . She seemed familiar.

"This wasn't planned, was it? Get us closer to the living force or something?" He wasn't aware of any Sith trickery or tom-foolery that could turn a plant... bigger. But then again, the galaxy was a big place... He raised both of his brows, giving a deep sigh.

He should've just gone to bed...

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Oros , Yula Perl , Miri Nimdok, Thal Mantis ​

"You seein' this chit?"

"Yeah," Jasper responded with a frown. "That definitely wasn't here before..."

Some more people joined the party, one a man he didn't recognize. The other was a padawan that he did recognize as the girl who Ara Sheridan slammed into the bar at the award ceremony for Tython a while back. It seemed that everyone present was coming to the same conclusion: This wasn't natural.

"Sorry, I'm not acquainted with anyone here," he continued. "I'm Jasper."

With the formalities out of the way, all that remained was the present issue of... whatever was going on with the library.

"Well," the padawan began, scratching at the bridge of his nose, "What do we do?"

 

[Lossa Aureus]

Location: Somewhere
Equipment: Discreet Device - Left Ear, Long Handled Double Lightsaber, Weighted Training Robes, Concealed Sling Bag
Tags: @open

Can anyone hear me?

Dark hair twitched to life, covering a pink face that basked in the soft sounds of the ruin. A voice calling across the space that finally interrupted the peaceful slumber of the Padawan inside. There was something pleasant about falling asleep in the library. The smell, the soft voices floating in the background.

The stones falling-

She blinked, eyes wide open as she remembered she was in fact supposed to be in an archive. A fairly modern one at that given recent events.

"All...righty...then." She clicked her tongue as she looked around, confused how she had slept through such an extreme remodeling of the interior of the space.

Her face screwing up more as she wondered who had picked her up to keep her inside the newly remodeled archive. They could have at least tried waking her up a little. Feeling across her robes, she pulled on the Sling Bag, opening it up before looking at the watch inside to see what time it was.

"They didn't even leave me the article about...wait. Is this...some kind of trick by the masters?" She asked herself, noting no one seemed to be around. Listening intently, she wondered if anyone else was inside as she pricked the end of her finger and dabbed the end on a tester.

 

[Gabriel Pryce]

Jasper Kai'el | Oros | Lossa Aureus | Thal Mantis | Miri Nimdok | Yula Perl

Can anyone hear me?

Gabe sat up from his bed, his roommate fast asleep, and rubbed his eyes. Something had woken him up, spoken like they were right there. He rubbed his eyes and slid out of bed, grabbing his lightsaber from the nightstand and entering the hall. Something felt...Wrong. After wandering towards the library he found a group of others that had been drawn by something.

"What's going on?" He mumbled, still half asleep. And then he saw the vines. "What the kriff?"

 

[Ayra Lowe]

// Padawan Lowe //
// Jedi Temple //
// Objective // Get Out of the Roots //
// Focus // Oros // Gabriel Pryce // Jasper Kai'el // Yula Perl // Lossa Aureus // Miri Nimdok // Thal Mantis //

---

---

"Stupid... fething, Force-Damned roots!"

Feet kicked indignantly at the mass of vines that came out of nowhere, entrapping her against an old stone wall. The young padawan had hardly assumed that auditing files for the council would lead to this. She had been surprised by the ancient architecture as she neared the back corridors of the library, but it came as less natural as the vines and roots spread rapidly throughout the room, changing everything it touched.

Where the feth did these vines even come from?

A familiar voice peering into her mind at least offered some semblance of relaxation, knowing she hadn't been magically whisped away to some random temple alone.

Unfortunately for the Echani she wouldn't be able to respond, her ability in the force not yet competent enough to send complete messages through the force. She hoped, perhaps, that her feelings of frustration would project back onto whoever the sender was. As she tried her best to tear through the thicket with her hands, most of her wished that she hadn't left her lightsabers in her room.

Perhaps there was a reason most Jedi kept their weapons on them most of the time.

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Decidedly angry footsteps echoed down the increasingly narrow corridor that led towards the archives. Brown robes hung in the whirlwind of force that kept them swaying above the ground as Aeris Lashiec, former head archivist, the avidest of bookworms, and most easily irritable former council member stormed down the way towards the only place that she truly cared for in this whole building, this whole monument that was so keenly attuned to the past that it forgot the future.

The fabric that swayed in the wind let go of its grip around her shoulders as she deposited the cloak on the ground. Her hand moved to grip her lightsaber, ready to ignite the second she passed through those doors and to fix this as fast as possible.

“What do we do?” Jasper had asked.

“We rip, and we tear,” Aeris said as she pushed him aside, the green blade of her saber slowly extending from its slumber as she stepped further and further into HER part of the temple, HER sanctuary. “Until we are done.”

And without uttering anything more than that she began to cut and push into the jungle in an effort to reach the FORBIDDEN SECTION. If there was any point of origin for all of this, then that would be it. Most likely she would find the traces of some moronic padawan thinking it cool to ignore the obvious warning signs, or maybe some stupid knight who had fallen into a safekept tome like Dagon would almost certainly fall shirtless through the vents again, or maybe, just maybe it was a Master too dense and too proud to know their limits and wards.

This section was the one that was the most heavily restricted, and yet on more than one occasion there had been time for Aeris to nearly wanna shank a hoe because they just couldn’t help but make like a curious cat and get themselves killed.

Would you want to be the one from the Jedi Order who had to find a ‘next of kin’ simply because their child, uncle, or grandpa was an idiot? No, and neither did Aeris. Not after last time.

 

[Oros]

JEDI ARCHIVES
CORUSCANT
Jasper Kai'el Yula Perl Miri Nimdok Thal Mantis
Lossa Aureus Gabriel Pryce Ayra Lowe Aeris Lashiec

​

Ah! Greetings apprentices...and Yula.

Chimes echoed in their thoughts. Somehow each Jedi's mind translated musical notes into galactic basic. Tentacles brushed against crystal as if reaching out. Master Oros observed them like a humanoid scientist observing some interesting ants. How unsettling then that this anomaly warped his perceptions beyond a few dozen meters.

Everything is quite fine, I assure you. We have it under control-Master Lashiec! Oh thank the Force you're alive!

Aeris stormed past him, and it took a few awkward seconds for the alien's life support tank to turn and float after her leaving it up to the gathering spectators if they would follow.

I warned the junior archivists not to open it. I reminded them Horak-mul was a powerful Sith Lord.

Out in the impossible jungle baleful crimson eyes glared with hate. Massassi warriors stalked those unfortunate Jedi trapped in the library during its transformation. Where the restricted section had once been a stone pyramid now loomed. More of the long extinct shock troops stood guard outside. Echoes of an ancient past.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

T R E X T A N​

"Master Oros."

He wasn't supposed to be here. During his travels around the galaxy, Trextan had found that walking with confidence in one direction often convinced people you were supposed to be in a place.

On the other hand, he reflected, the jungle breaking out of the library might have been the enabler and not his own attitude.

He wasn't supposed to be this far into the library as he hadn't been a member of the Order for years. Trextan had effectively abandoned the Order and the Alliance at the height of the war with the First Order.

It had been Jacen's war, not his own. Far from spreading fascism across the galaxy, the imperials had collapsed in on themselves within a few months of the war ending. He didn't know what had happened to the Sith that had betrayed them from within.

Coruscant was his home, even if he spent most of his time travelling. He had been born here, grown up here. Lost his parents here. Been inducted into the sith to use as a weapon against his own biological father here.

This visit had been more pleasant. A quiet visit to his sister and her husband when he had heard Oros' call. A voice he hadn't heard through his head in a very long time. Hopefully the telepathic librarian wouldn't see that he still had a holocron Jacen had left in his care.

On the scale of things, he imagined that was quite a serious library card infraction.

"I'm guessing the thing that needs to be closed is in there?"

 

[Lossa Aureus]

Location: Somewhere
Equipment: Discreet Device - Left Ear, Long Handled Double Lightsaber, Weighted Training Robes, Concealed Sling Bag
Tags: Jasper Kai'el Yula Perl Miri Nimdok Thal Mantis
Gabriel Pryce Ayra Lowe Aeris Lashiec Trextan Voidstalker

The small testing device blipped green, letting her settle everything back in the bag before finding the small container of water and sipping from it. The small corner of a room she had been plopped into leaking light through a diamond shaped hole atop the wall beside her.

While a large open frame doorway sat opposite the window.

Frustration flooded the area from someone else, or maybe something else she squinted to filter through the emotion as she let loose her empathic ability to offer some reassurance even when she couldn't see who or what it was.

"Hey! Just hang on, I'll-" The padawan began to holler as a large hand gripped the edge of the framed doorway. Her mouth settling into a tight o-shape while she scrambled backwards. A large red face peered inside, shoulders and body shortly behind it as the hulking mass entered the room with a disgusted leering smile.

"OHfethohfethohfeth!" Came the harried cries of the padawan as the Massassi warrior lumbered inside and tried grabbing her.

Her backward pedaling pushing her against the wall before she rose, keeping herself pressed there until the hand was almost touching her nose.

A swift duck and turn outside the reach found her staring at the muscled side of the figure as it swiped sideways at her, a grunt of effort from the Massassi as she tried ducking again. Met with a surprisingly fast adjustment to the swipe that caught her in the chest and sent her sprawling.

The coughing gasp for air was interrupted as she hand tossed her through the doorway and out into more ruins. Eyes watering, she pushed up with her hands, pedaling her legs and finding purchase to propel her forward as the heavy steps behind her warned her of impending trouble.

She reached out for that feeling of frustration again, honing in on the feeling as she coughed and hacked more as her lungs burned. A sharp pain in her shoulders causing her eyes to water. Almost missing another grunt of effort behind her as a shadow cast itself across the floor ahead of her.

A touch of the force, and making herself slide, the balled fists of the chasing Massassi found hard ground as Lossa slid forward and into a small vent looking hole in the wall at ground level. Vines snapped and pulled at her robe as she tumbled into the vine filled room below.

At least the landing was soft. She thought to herself, hearing the sniff and huff of the hulking creature behind her trundle away.

"Hello? Anyone there?" She called out, feeling a bit closer to that frustration that had made itself known. The slow ache in her shoulder settling into a burning feeling as she winced attempting to swipe away at the vines around her.

 

[Thal Mantis]

So, it was Sith tom-foolery.

Perfect.

And he was in his sandals to make it even worse.

Thal gestured to the outgrowing forest, with a furrowed brow, and a fixing of his admittedly very nice hair. "You knew this could happen and yet you put it in our library, Master? Seems a bit reckless to me." Thal crossed his powerful arms, big, stupid, toddler-sized arms of his. One thing that he got from his father, was his size.

He took a deep breath, turning away, looking at everyone gathered, then back to the floating jellyfish Jedi.

"And how do we close or undo this mess?"

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Her throat rumbled a small groan as Oros' crystalline voice tickled against the back of her mind. Of course it was the Horak-mul, of course the indirect ghost of a failure was threatening them in this moment of time. Aeris's off-hand rubbed at her eyebrows for a second before she shook her head and cut down another set of vines.

People decided to come along it seemed. Aeris' attention first set on the young man who had an unnerving familiarity to him, yet one that didn't feel quite 'right'. As if he reminded her of someone from her past and yet someone that she never truly knew.

And then there was the one with the sandals and hairdo.

"Brilliant observation, padawan." Aeris scoffed. "Got any more of those keen insights or can we save them for later?"

Aeris groaned again.

"How did we sink this far?" The boorish bookworm barked at Oros. "I was only gone for a few months at best."

"Hello? Anyone there?"

The voice caused Aeris to stop for a second before she stormed back to where the others had gathered.

"What are you standing around for?! There are people in need of help. FIND THEM."

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Oros , Aeris Lashiec , Ayra Lowe , Gabriel Pryce , Thal Mantis , Lossa Aureus , Yula Perl , Trextan Voidstalker , Miri Nimdok ​

"What are you standing around for?! There are people in need of help. FIND THEM."

"Yes, ma'am!" Jasper stammered with a half salute.

Of all the things to happen today, he hadn't expected this. Sure, Aeris had seemed stern even when he first met her, but he hadn't expected her to be somewhat scary. It seemed to be in his best interest to listen to what she was telling the others. The duelist quickly reasoned that it would be best to stay on the librarian's good side.

As Jasper advanced into the ruins, following behind the masters, a crack in the ground caught his eye. Actually, it was more than just a crack. It seemed to be a hole that he could, with some effort, slip through deeper into the structure. Almost immediately, Jasper begun to flash back to Ilum. No, he thought in his head. That was stupid and it didn't help anyone. You need to stay with the group. Yet still, the thought of someone being trapped down there couldn't escape the back of his mind. What if some other Jedi ended up stuck in this place forever? Would he ever let himself live that down? So, rather reluctantly to what he knew was logical, Jasper sat down on the floor, slipping his legs through the gap.

"I'm gonna check out the lower levels," he told them. "See if there's anyone down there."

And without a word more, Jasper dropped down, falling not so far into a vine infested corridor. The duelist drew his lightsaber, filling the hall with a blue, ambient light before venturing further into the structure. As he did, his ears picked up distant mumbling...

"Stupid... fething, Force-Damned roots!"

Jasper made his way to the source, where he found a fellow padawan tangled up in the roots that filled the space. He didn't recognize her from any previous classes or events.

"Hey there," Jasper greeted with a partial wave. "Crazy night we're having, huh? Hold still for just a moment while I get those roots off of you..."

Carefully, Jasper severed the roots that were anchoring the padawan to the wall. They seemed to react to it by hissing and retracting back into the structure. Oh great, the duelist thought to himself, more wacky roots. Needless to say, after events on Ilum, Jasper was having a Deja Vu moment.

"Weird," he said jokingly. "I feel like I've done this before... Oh, sorry. I'm Jasper."

 

[Yula Perl]

Oros Aeris Lashiec Thal Mantis Jasper Kai'el Ayra Lowe Gabriel Pryce Lossa Aureus Trextan Voidstalker Miri Nimdok

Cool. This was cool.

Yula was about to turn on her heel and head to anywhere that was not in the immediate vicinity of an ancient Sith jungle library, but then Aeris stormed past and she froze.

That wasn't good. Or maybe it was? The Force worked in mysterious ways that weren’t worth the effort in figuring out.

"Rough day, huh?" She slipped the librarian a piece of hard candy and flashed an annoyingly toothy grin. Yula always kept them on hand, felt like they helped her concentrate when working. Maybe that was just an excuse. "There we go." Her anger was understandable. Yula would have been upset if her garage had been replaced with some sort of weird portal.

"She's right, though- we should get everyone out as quickly as possible. There's probably like, Sith ghosts waiting to harvest our organs." She waved a hand. "Or some chit like that."

"You too, Sandals. We should back up that Jasper kid who decided to fall through the floor." Yula peered over the edge where Jasper had made his descent and shrugged.

Using one of the vines, she rappelled into the lower level of the structure, landing on a bedding of ancient flora. One of the scanners in her her bionic eye confirmed three humanoid life forms in their vicinity.

"Alright ghosts, show yourselves! Deputy Law Reborn is on in half an hour.”

 

[Miri Nimdok]

Sighing as she heard Aeris shouting behind her, Miri had already begun to make her way through the jungle, climbing over roots and vines.

She'd never heard of Horak-mul, but she did have some experience with Sith. Upon spotting a Massassi warrior stalking through the undergrowth, she pulled her slugthrowers and fired at him until he fell... assuming it wasn't a ghost or similar projection.

While the others were trying to save the trapped Padawans, she was headed for the forbidden section to shut down the artifact.

Yula Perl Oros Aeris Lashiec Jasper Kai'el Thal Mantis Trextan Voidstalker Ayra Lowe Gabriel Pryce Lossa Aureus​

 

[Thal Mantis]

How was he, in his pajamas, sandals and very well-kept hair, the most sane and reasonable at the moment?

Thal placed his hands on his hips, grimacing as everyone else went in.

"Gosh dang it."

He said, running his fingers through his hair. He entered the forest, following the tracks made by Miri Nimdok. She put down a-

A... well a great big red thing. He didn't know what they were- he crouched down to examine one. A feint. A ruse.

Predator's instincts were hard to put away. Thal wasn't called the Deathless for any old reason. He survived night after night in the Red Tower because he was a true predator, an animal- a warrior. That's how he knew how to turn around before the force even told him to, before the danger crept up on the back of his neck.

He put his arms up, blocking the heavy swing of an axe. Catch them at the forearms- muscles, no matter who you are, are weaker there. He kicked the warrior in the side of the knee, bringing the bigger man down only slightly, enough to create distance- enough to take his lightsaber out. He pushed it against his chest, turned it on, then bisected the bigger man. The entire ordeal was violent, savage and lasted less than two seconds.

He swung his lightsaber, jumping down- landing a good fifteen feet away from Yula Perl .

"In the absence of knowing what's going on, or what's out here currently- perhaps yelling is not our best course of action."

He tried not to let Aeris Lashiec 's words bother him too much. Thal did what young men naturally did- he grumbled.

"You'vegotkeeninsightslady,Ibet.Hopeyougetstrungupbyastupidghostvineandyouhaveto sit there and wait for someone."

 

[Gabriel Pryce]

Interacting: Lossa Aureus

He'd heard rumors of the ornery Jedi Archivist known as Aeris Lashiec . She was living up to her reputation, that was for sure. Who did she think she was ordering people around like that? Did she even have a padawan? He knew for a fact that he wasn't her's so she had no right to-

Where was he? In his angry, very sleepy thoughts he'd wandered away from the group. He heard laughter, hissing. With a snap-hiss his lightsaber came to life casting a blue glow on everything around him. Master Lashiec seemed to think it was okay to just cut the vines away so that's what he did. His blade crackled and popped as he cut his way through the vines until he entered an empty-ish space. Empty-ish because of the pink girl standing in the clearing of vines and manifested architecture.

"You're not some Force spirit are you?" Gabe muttered in question.