Her eyes stung...
She was as dehydrated as the sands of Tatooine was dry, she felt almost as bad as she had after all that drinking at the Alasakan Heights casino, courtesy of Kaine and Yasha Australis a week prior to the failed invasion by the sith, she took a moment in the corridor to rest her forehead against the wall, she thought she was going to throw up for a moment but a few deep, slow, purposeful breaths in the mouth and out via the nostrils settled her stomach. She'd had the good sense to bath and wash her mouth out, she might be feeling the rigors of alcohol in her system but she was damned if she wasn't going to at least
look the part. Her
armour was sleek and polished though it still bore a weather worn--
more like weather beaten--and scratched exterior, a telltale sign that it wasn't fresh off of some assembly line but rather well looked after despite the punishment it had been put through.
She clutched her helmet by the rim in one hand, she tilted her wrist and stared down at the two lenses from which she viewed the world while cloistered within the relative safety of the helmet
:: Oh the things you've yet to witness from behind this thing :: she mused to herself. In these hallowed halls, or at least they were hallowed in her mind, reeked of history, every step she took was a new adventure for her as another day waned over the planet of Mandalore, something she suspected others that'd lived here for generations took for granted though that was a gross assumption on her part. Still, she did wonder just how many mandalorians of her generation were in awe of stepping foot on this planet for the first time? The more she had read of the mandalorian clans histories, the more she started to think perhaps her parents had been embellishing things, dressing tales up to be more glorious than the reality of it all. Then again, growing up on Eres III did tend to make a person cynical, that was a large part of why she wanted to cut out on her own and see the galaxy and without a filter over her eyes.
She snapped out of her internal musings when she felt the ground underneath her vibrate, looking up and around to try and determine the source she could only gap in subdued awe as a cragmoloid stomped passed her. She'd never seen one before but she at least knew of them, her emerald eyes zoomed in on the heavy laser on his back.
"Ohhh, that'd look so good on you Cujo" she cooed quietly to her
canine companion that passively sat on its haunches beside her. As her eyes trailed after the larger than life bipedal alien she realized that he must've been heading in the same direction she had and she thanked her ancestors that she'd had the good sense to sneak off the proverbial beaten path to compose herself without unwittingly catching the attention of what was shortly going to be her peers.
"Alright, enough screwing around Cujo, let's get in there" she remarked, Cujo barking the once in acknowledgement and rising to all fours.
She nestled her helmet under her left arm against her side, her blasters holstered at the small of her back while a beskad blade was nestled at either side of her hips, the symbol of her clan,
Clan Dathu, emblazoned on her shoulders loudly and proudly as she strode after the cragmoloid. Against his footfalls she was practically lighter than a mouse in terms of noise, she wondered whether or not he'd even hear her were she here to put a knife in his back, then again, thinking about it, it'd probably have to be more like a pike... a very
long pike or perhaps a lightsaber pike to achieve the desired effect before the giant turned around and popped her skull like bubble wrap. All the native wildlife on Eres III that might have presented a danger to him was something she and her brethren were given to never taking on by oneself, there was "bold", "heroic" and "fearless"... and there was also "utterly stupid" and "suicidal". She swooped up just behind [member="Bachus"] as the doors flew open and started to close behind him, quietly kicking herself for having missed the start of the history that was taking place here.
There were already a number of fellow mandalorians present in the circular room, none as big as the figure she'd followed into the chamber but none the less intimidating by merit of their cantankerous builds, there were others present that looked every bit as grizzled as the kind of mandalorians her parents had told her about, she'd be in awe and maybe even eek out an involuntary squee if she knew any of them as there was probably a great many war heroes and veterans in this very room. There was one that she recognized, [member="Kaine Australis"], the humble host of her first night on Mandalore, she'd never thought she'd meet such a historic figure so quickly and yet here she was, standing in the same room as him once again. Her attention was briefly snatched up by the sound of the door opening once again, a blonde woman [@
Kat'ra Smart] had entered the chamber but said nothing, she smirked ever so slightly, thankful that she hadn't been the last to arrive as she turned her attention forwards once again.
She rose her brow as she watched another mandalorian, secured in bulky armour, throw his proverbial hat [by way of his axe] into the ring, chastising those around him for the folly in entrusting the sith. She wasn't privy to
any of the decisions made that eventually saw the sith empire regarded as "ally" to the mandalorian people but she resonated with his sentiment on that one, not that she was so bold as to concur out loud, at least not at this stage. He did kind of lose her however when his rhetoric against the sith seemed to manifest into a lightning rod to go on a literal witch hunt, another story she had been told as a child was the one about how a certain Mandalor had saw to it that any citizens detected to be "force sensitive" underwent invasive operational procedures. She wouldn't have suffered such a process herself [to her knowledge at least] but such a draconian response seemed ori'suumyc [beyond the pale, outrageous by mandalorian standards]. Emerald eyes shifted to her right as she caught the whispers of another mandalorian [@
Vox Stath], who quietly derided the latest person to express their intentions to become leader of the mandalorian people.
When his turn in kind was drawn to the blonde woman who had popped in earlier, she shifted a little more to her left, she wasn't sure why she felt the need right now to maintain as little presence as possible but she chalked it up to nerves, there were a lot of unknown and/or powerful people in this room and one errant remark from her could have grave consequences. Consequences like the one that a particularly world weary mandalorian [@
Karsan Calnov] had likely just invited upon himself with his boisterous admonishment of just about all the contenders and power figures in the room. Her eyes sparked when he mentioned ash, unwavering violence and resolve, pretty much
everything he had closed with saying resonated with her, maybe it was because she was used to growing up with the self imposed notion that Clan Dathu along with everyone else that stubbornly opted to call Eres III their home had been forgotten to the canals of history, nothing had been done to restore what was once a beautiful, green landscape in generations. Hard to feel inspired by any mandalore who claimed that rebuilding would be their priority... much as she'd like to feel inspired.
Though like the mandalorian who had spoken earlier, he started to lose her when the alien and he started losing their tempers, bristling for what looked like what would have been an epic fight of blasters, blades and brawn. Fortunately, or
unfortunately, depending on ones perspective, cooler heads prevailed and the two developed to barely contained contempt but otherwise quiet for one another. Among the fuss, another fellow mandalorian warrior [@
Ardasz Verd] had broken through the haze of flared tempers and employed that rare trait dormant in most mandalorians, common sense. Now
that was something she could appreciate the temperament of, calm, collected and aired thoughts she very much liked the sound of. She squinted with displeasure at the snide and all encompassing remark of another [@
Dezorath] as he deigned to indirectly equate her to that of a dog. A dog in and of itself was a loyal and heroic animal, hence the construct at her side, and she felt particularly scorned that he'd use such a term in a derogatory manner, she pinched her nose though, the armour of her pride was not so easily pierced and his saving grace was conveying his own support of what the other had stated, the one to whom she resonated with quite strongly by this point.
Finally, the one who she figured to be the master of ceremonies [@
Adenn Kyramud] and hosting this event opted to speak, whatever he had said prior to her arrival was lost to her by this point and there wasn't any way that she'd be able to get the "minutes" to catch up on whatever she might have missed. Extolling the virtues of clanship, family, tradition, honour, all good things that she paid particular respect to in her own conduct, of course there was that kath hound clawing at the back of her mind that prodded her to ask where these virtues were when Eres III was set alight and the mandalorians there were left to fend for themselves... but that was a different time, but not so long ago that the same missteps couldn't be seen taking place right before her very eyes it seemed.
After he had concluded his proclamation, she felt suitably inspired to do what was probably the craziest thing she had done in her admittedly short life. Taking her hip flask from off her belt, she slid off the cap and took a mouthful or three of the water inside before closing it and setting it back where it was before taking a deep breath through her mouth and slowly exhaling through her nostrils. She gestured for Cujo to stay where he was and while the canine tilted its head questioningly it heeded its masters order and sat upon its rear as it watched its master stride towards the center of the room, all five foot nothing of her
:: Give me strength... please :: she thought to herself, unsure of just who it was she was asking the favour from.
Stopping a few short steps away from the center of the room,
"My name is Sakoda Dathu of Clan Dathu... I was raised on Eres III, a planet that was set alight through conflict between Mandalore the Ultimate, the mandalorians who followed him and the republic forces sent to oust them, the planet forever scarred with lightning storms, ash and flames. I wouldn't be surprised if the clan's name or its origins slipped into the dark recesses of memory where unimportant things are forgotten about" she opened up with saying before turning her gaze towards Ardasz Verd and Adenn respectively, giving them both a small nod of acknowledgement.
"It's soothing to hear talk of rebuilding, about how we are more than simply war mongering warriors, that we, all mandalorians, are family" she added before turning on her heel to regard the others in the room.
"... I was raised on a planet where a bunker in the ground was my home and where the wildlife had adapted to the point where only the most ferocious creatures, creatures capable of living on a planet that should have been abandoned long ago became game for us on a good day, and our eviscerated demise on a bad one. I grew up fighting pirates, scavengers and that same wildlife... but I know nothing of wars, conquests or crusades other than what my mother and father told me" she spoke with a passionate tone, she was not "bored" when she conveyed her words, if anything it was hearing the words of so many far greater warriors that gave her the cahonies to speak as she did just now.
"It might be hard to believe in the age we live in, but this is the first planet I have traveled to since leaving Eres III" she confessed.
"Perhaps my impressions are skewed, I know only the history I have been told and the only face I recognize in this room is that of Kaine Australis, the unintended welcoming party to which I met while exploring our ancestral homeworld here... his hospitality echoed a sentiment that seems lost on mandalorians by and large, the same sentiment that Adenn tried to evoke in all of us just now. Family" she articulated solemnly, taking a breath before continuing, taking another opportunity to scan the room and regard those in it.
"I come from a scorched, backwater planet so please forgive me if my own sentiments sound archaic, but I need to believe that unity means more than just breaking the town hall's glass in case of an emerging foe that needs to be extinguished... that's pragmatism, not unity" she hoped to the spirits that her words were having some kind of positive, resonating effect on her peers. Worst comes to worst she can always just fade back into the ether and she'll be dismissed as "that mouthy pup that said a bunch of pretty words that one day" before eventually being expunged from all their memories like she claimed "unimportant things" would be just earlier.
She pointed one finger at Adenn and another at Tarrok, looking at both of them imploringly,
"If I were to ask either of you to look at each other and say out loud what you think each other demonstrates in mandalorian values or what you think the other clans definition of what makes a mandalorian, I would bet a credit that they'd probably be of the negative variety---" she started to remark, turning her palms open and upwards with a errant shrug before continuing,
"---or maybe you would both come up with virtues to extol of one another, I can only fathom the history, if any, between the two of you and such is the point I am trying to make. The clans of Mandalore eek out existences separate from one another, bolstering and writhing to a place of prominence by their own merits and no others... not that there's anything wrong with a clan being able to stand on its own two feet, Clan Dathu has managed to survive for generations by itself, but it is a far cry from what I'm told it used to be... far beneath the notice of anyone here, but the only times I have ever heard of more than one mandalorian clan being united in any meaningful way is when pitted against a common enemy" she declared with a bit of irritation slipping into her tone as she lowered one arm and pointed the index finger at the end of her other towards the ceiling.
"What would the great mandalorian clans of today do with themselves if we were the only ones left in this galaxy, to say we'd removed everyone else from the holo-board so that only we mandalorians were left. What would we do with ourselves at that point I wonder? I am very much hoping that those virtues of tradition, honour and family will have manifested from the seeds of ambitions for a better Mandalore that are planted here today!" she remarked spiritedly before wrapping up her passionate declaration.
"If I have learned anything from being born into and being elevated to the status of warrior in a clan that fights for its next breath each day, it is that I would see to it myself or hope that the one who does rise to the occasion has the vision and wherewithal to guide all of our people into an era where our bonds with one another are cemented in more than just the convenience of battling an obvious foe and actually foresees a Mandalore where looking forward to, or warily anticipating the next great battle is not the only thing our people have to look forward to" she finally concluded, her shoulders slumping slightly so as to mask the feeling of imminent self implosion for inexplicably being a red, misty vapor on the ground would probably be a mercy than what was likely about to come from her hopefully not long winded but none the less passionate declaration.
[Edit Note: Snipped out a chunk here n there, got a bit freakishly long and some parts were needlessly repeated x) ]
