Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Public Omens Inside the Blackwall (Sith space: get your fortune told!)


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Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk

Nova's head began to drop slowly, as if the weight of his situation was finally hitting him.

He knew that he was somewhere within Sith space, but he had no idea that he was trapped at the Capital. Who knows how long he would be stuck here for. The cosmic forces that threw his transport off course was slowly demolishing his hopes of reconnecting with his parents anytime soon. It is not that they didn't want to see him. They sent their only child to Jakku for training and protection. They knew with the conflict happening all around the galaxy that the safest place for him was being protected at the Enclave, not by his parents' side as they fought in wars.

"My plan was to try and reach Naboo. I have a friend there that has connections to the Spacers Guild. They would know how to find my father. As for my mother, I don't know where she is."

Even though Velok visioned that his father was on the opposite side of the galaxy than him, at least that meant that he would be safe from the Sith. Nova was unsure what the fortune teller meant by hunger, but maybe there was a way that the boy would be able to assist. That was if he ever made it off of this planet. The words spoken about his mother though provoked a wave of different emotions from the padawan. He was glad to hear that his mother would soon become safe. Perhaps they would be reunited again. But learning that she was currently imprisoned made the boy feel like he had been stabbed through the heart.

"P-prison?"

His voice was starting to crack, small shakes washing over his body. He tried to stay strong, but it was becoming more and more difficult. What had happened? Something in the war? Was his father trying to find her, and that is why he was so far away? Nova had so many more questions to ask. Being in the home of the Sith though meant that most of them would more than likely remain unanswered.

"Can you see where she is? The Outer Rim? Coreward? And is there anything I can do to help her?"
 
"Can you see where she is? The Outer Rim? Coreward? And is there anything I can do to help her?"
Velok sighed heavily. "Perhaps I should have lied. Son, your first, second, and third priorities just now should be to survive the next twenty-four hours or however long the day is on Jutrand. There are no smugglers in and out of Sith space, not yet; they haven't found the trick of it. Have you..."

He chewed on his thoughts for a moment.

"I could suppress parts of your memory and dump you on the Sith as an acolyte, or the local army recruiting station. That might be your safest way forward. No charge."
 


Though he did not want to accept it, the fortune teller was right.

He desperately wanted to go and find his mother to try and save her. But if he wasn't able to survive on Jutrand, let alone Sith space, then he would never get the chance to see her again. The proposition that Velok offered carried a lot of weight. The boy's only other option was to try and return to the pilot that he traveled with here. But it was likely that man was just as desperate to escape as he was and had no intentions of helping out a boy with no real connection to him.

His initial reaction was to run. No idea where to, but just somewhere. Anywhere. To try and escape and hide from all of this madness. But he knew that would not be possible. Sooner or later, he would be discovered for being a Jedi. Maybe he would be imprisoned, just like his mother. Left to the wicked ways of the Sith. They were taught all the time at the Enclave never to trust Sith. That was the only way to stay safe. Now he couldn't walk more than ten feet without bumping into one.

"I don't know, I just don't want to forget who I am."

Nova pondered the best he could, trying to think of a solution.

"What if I went with you? And worked for you? No payment or anything, maybe just a meal every so often. And protection."

The boy knew that Velok had no connection to him whatsoever. Nova was just another stranger seeking answers for his troubling questions. Another credit to the account. But he truly hoped that the fortune teller would at least consider his proposition. If not, then maybe trying to become an acolyte was the only thing he could do.
 
"What if I went with you? And worked for you? No payment or anything, maybe just a meal every so often. And protection."
And the old gods help him, Velok actually considered it. He truly had become a soft touch in his way, he figured.

"You'll need to trust less easily to survive here. I could likely sell you to half a dozen Sith for enough money to live comfortably for weeks. Anyone could. You're a meal ticket, son, and you'd be a lot of risk. A lot of risk. I could...hsst. I do know one way, one terrible and unreliable way to get you to Naboo. Very, very, very bad way. We need something dead..."

He sent a message to Mercy Mercy and got to work.

While Imperial sanitation was quite good, it took him not long to find a dead rodent in the interstices of the megacity. He packed up his kiosk quickly into his gigantic backpack and used his ritual accoutrements to set up a circle around the death site, to wit: an alley.

"There was an incident on Naboo not long ago," he said as he worked. "A breach point into somewhere, ah, else. A useful exit."

There was a sound like a combustion engine crossed with recrimination, far away but growing stronger.

"As for the entrance...well, let's see what we can do."

He paused to cast nuna bones for his own fortune and hrrrrm loudly at the result.
 
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Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk Nova Dainlei Nova Dainlei

The message could be boiled down to: "Do you mind commiting some treason if it means getting a way out of Sith space?" and someone smart might have been skeptical about it.

But Mercy was the unique kind of thick. The one that believed rules didn't apply to her by virtue of being herself.

That is how she stood there alongside the big renegade Sith with a cauldron slung over her back as if it weighed nothing at all and a young boy who smelled suspiciously unsithlike.

"Uh... Is that a train I'm hearing?" She looked up at the Sith Lord. "Don't tell me we are going to use that thing. Those things onboard eat anything, including us, if they realize we don't belong there."

Her stomach suddenly rumbled.

She had the decency to look at least mildly embarrassed about that.

"Then again, I guess it's better than being stuck here in Boring Territory for the rest of the Empire's existence."
 


His naiveness was showing, quite poorly in fact.

It was more than likely his sheltered upbringing. Most of his life has been spent around Jedi, or those who still had good intentions at heart. This was the real galaxy. He wished he didn't have to assume that everyone was against him, but that was the sad state of where he was today. His head hung in shame before Velok, wondering why he even suggested going with the fortune teller. But slowly his eyes rose at the mention of a way out of Jutrand.

"Oh my gosh, thank you. I'll take terrible and unreliable."

The boy listened as Velok spoke of another way to get to Naboo. An unconventional one, by the sound of it. But Nova did not care. How bad could it be?

Nova stood by patiently as the fortune teller began to set up a small ritual by the decaying animal. He stayed quiet while watching the event take place, not wanting to disrupt it. That is when he jumped slightly at the sudden appearance of another. The woman was tall and had a strong frame, one that made the boy feel small standing next to the two of them. It was only once she approached that he could detect a darksided presence that radiated from the both of them. Maybe it was just the planet that he was on. He tried to pass it off, believing his own lie in the hopes that he would be off world soon.

Churning from a nearby train caught the attention of the trio. Was that what they'll be using to escape? His fate was in the hands of them now, so it was either follow their lead, or end up a prisoner of the Sith till the end of his days.


"Velok, what can I do to help?"
 
"Velok, what can I do to help?"
Velok's head snapped around. "How do you know my name? ...ah, right, it's on the sign." Jutrand and forbidden arts had him jumpier than normal.

He straightened up from daubing the last of the ritual circle across the alley pavement. The sky flickered overhead - not a change in Jutrand but a wavering in their location.

And then BAM - the three of them were not on Jutrand but somewhere else, a screaming dusty wasteland, and that earlier engine noise was titanically louder. Its source came into view: a train. Various sphincters tightened with fear.

"Mobius One," said Velok, "the Raykkan way across the Netherworld of the Force. Be assured that we are not technically dead. Now hurry; a train this size only stops when it's profitable. We can get aboard but only if we run and above all stay together."

Mercy Mercy
 
He tread in the shadow of everyone, as if the gaze of their true selves would swallow him whole. He clung to them, remaining beneath notice with his head held low and cradling the strap of his bag slung over a shoulder. Hardly the image of a Sith, if not for that strange blade that was slung over his back. It seemed too heavy for someone such as him to carry, radiating an evilness that Rhyse could not truly comprehend. Fellsong Fellsong was terrible by nature, whispering darkly to him at all times.

He seemed to be holding onto a hiding frown, or at least one that tried to. Though as something caught his eyes, they lit up for all of a moment. He rummaged through that bag and pulled out an old tome. He read over the title: Secrets of the Lady: The Toxins of Valrar, by Velok of Toola. It certainly helped to have when thrown in amongst poisons, and finding it wedged between a false panel of an old bunk no less.

"Are you this Velok?" He said, mustering his courage, showing the book. "It was a great read!"

He glanced up again towards the sign, "Oh, and... what will happen to me?"

Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk
 
A way beyond the Blackwall seemed impossible, yet the Netherworld may prove an avenue to bypass it.

Aboard the train, Corin lay in hiding. He had to. Raykkans ate anything, even themselves. And on this train, he was a delicacy. Shrouded in thick robes with a concealing cloak, he was going to lay as low as one could. Until something churned in his stomach, feeling three other would-be passengers nearby all of a sudden.

He went searching, spying. Maybe they knew the Netherworld better than he...

Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk Mercy Mercy Nova Dainlei Nova Dainlei
 
Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk | Nova Dainlei Nova Dainlei | Corin Trenor Corin Trenor

Mercy was reconsidering this entire endeavor.

She was just a hammer. A sledgehammer perhaps, but merely muscle to smash into objects that displeased her. No matter how much she was trying to escape that identity it was still wrapped around her like a comfortable suit. What did Mercy know about the Netherworld, about ghost trains sprinting through it, about dealing with a species that made the most vile Sith blush and established an enduring partnership with the worst of them, Darth Carnifex for decades?

"You know, I think-" But before Mercy could back down a shiver ran up her spine, cold sweat breaking out. She blinked and they were elsewhere. No longer a bustling city in a grimey alleyway.

No, this was a desert waste and on the horizon was the hell train.

The tracks were nearby and even here you could see the infernal machines that stamped rhythmically into the ground to keep spirits, demons and worse away from the Raykkans' invention.

"Right behind you." Mercy muttered as she cast another look at the young lad. She was skeptical he'd get out of this alive. The ground began to rumble as the train came closer... and closer... until it was upon them. It went from a pin needle in the distance to a veritable mountain dominating their immediate surroundings.

Mercy began to run and the closer they came to the train, the weirder things would be. Flashes of a different world all around them. Of jungles and amber eyes in the shrubbery. Of a deep pit with a city build inside of it, like a hive, that grew hotter and more chaotic the deeper it went. Then the desert returned and they were right against the bounding train with a maintenance spire lodging out of it.

It was high though... and while Velok and Mercy would be fine, she was less sure about the scrawny boy.

In a moment of rare charity she would attempt to grab him by his collar and yank him along with her as she made the jump onto the maintenance platform. Like he was a sack of potatoes slung over her shoulder.
 
INSTANCE: CALDER
JUTRAND KIOSK
"Are you this Velok?" He said, mustering his courage, showing the book. "It was a great read!"

He glanced up again towards the sign, "Oh, and... what will happen to me?"

Velok, just tidying up the cards from a financially successful reading, gave the rare book a double-take. "That's my grandfather's work," he said. "One of them. What will happen to you? You'll read a good book. If you've got the money, I'll sell you another and then your future will be doubly blessed."



INSTANCE: DAINLEI
THE NETHERWORLD - MOBIUS ONE
Mercy Mercy Nova Dainlei Nova Dainlei Corin Trenor Corin Trenor (welcome aboard!)

As Mercy tried to heft Nova aboard, Velok gave him a push as well. Odd as the situation might be, he was no longer in the business of collecting regrets, and he was fairly sure he'd regret letting the kid die - hence this entire adventure.

Then again, he was starting to regret getting anywhere near this train. The Netherworld dust and pounding noise were bad enough. The flashes of a deep hot hive city and a sweltering jungle made him long for the glaciers of Akrugh or Toola. He detested heat. Did the Netherworld have any cold planes? Did the train pass through them?

He clambered aboard, unbalanced by the kiosk in his backpack, and took stock of the general unpleasantness inside this sector of the vast train.
 
Velok, just tidying up the cards from a financially successful reading, gave the rare book a double-take. "That's my grandfather's work," he said. "One of them. What will happen to you? You'll read a good book. If you've got the money, I'll sell you another and then your future will be doubly blessed."
He could almost laugh, a slight smile turning at the corner of his mouth, threatening to come aboard.

"I do have some credits," Rhyse said, fishing for them. Placing them on the kiosk, he said, "I'll take another, if you have them. Though I'll pay for my fortune to be told, too, unless... that was it?"

If so, you truly do get what you pay for.
 
INSTANCE: CALDER
JUTRAND

"That's quite an acceptable amount for both. What we have here..." He rummaged in his gear and emerged with a leather-bound book in poor condition. "...is my grandfather's Commentaries on the Sidious Compendium. A bit navel-gazey, but so was the source material." He slid it across the kiosk and took up a double handful of black-painted nuna bones, which he cast into a bowl.

And to his surprise, he saw something substantial.

"I see two futures, as if you're two beings or have been. No shame in that, we've all been there. The tension between both of you has been, or will be, a source of strength. Ready-made opposition, like a boy pushing against a boulder that never moves. No, that's a bad metaphor, not a vision."

He cast the bones once more, on the house.

"You'll find power. People willing to follow you for incidents. For longer, maybe, if you prove yourself through instigation and audacity."
 
Though he took the tome with some amount of glee, it fell to the wayside upon seeing the bones cast into the bowl. Of what horrid things had they come from, and what horrid things would they declare.

"I see," he muttered with no amount of certainty. "I'll do my best, then."

The number of acolytes in the quarters continued to dwindle, always less than the day before. He partly wondered of what awful curse forced him to live in their stead, though knew all the same that he had taken some of their lives. He blamed Fellsong Fellsong - not unfairly, yet not entirely true all the same. Audacity was certainly somewhere he was lacking.

He made his leave, though turned back one more time.

"I hope I can buy more books off you, Velok." He smiled wanly.

Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk
 
"I'm Rhyse," he reached over his shoulder, grasping the hilt of the Sith blade. "This is Fellsong."

Either a name of some importance, or Rhyse was some kind of dork that named his swords. The latter was not a difficult thing to believe. In any case, Fellsong made itself out to be some notably important thing, and Rhyse had no intentions of upsetting it, or him.

Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk
 
"I'm Rhyse," he reached over his shoulder, grasping the hilt of the Sith blade. "This is Fellsong."

Either a name of some importance, or Rhyse was some kind of dork that named his swords. The latter was not a difficult thing to believe. In any case, Fellsong made itself out to be some notably important thing, and Rhyse had no intentions of upsetting it, or him.

Velok Brokentusk Velok Brokentusk

Having grown up among Sith, Velok had a keen nose for when someone was introducing their sapient weapon. Important social skill.

"Well, safe travels to both of you," he said. "I've run into more than one client on more than one world. I know destiny is heresy, but perhaps we'll have the good fortune to meet again."

Someone else came up to get their fortune told, and Velok got to work topping up the cauldron with slimes.
 
Whether he saw something in the smoke or not, the Khil was tight-lipped in response to Velok's question. He nodded, once, before getting off the stool with a grunt. "I'll keep that all in mind," he said at last. "Thank you for your time, Brokentusk. I can sense others coming to visit you now—so I should leave."

While he had little to actually worry about, given how far away his actual self was—it still wouldn't be prudent to let even this one get caught. He had evaded the destruction wrought upon all of those who were outside the Blackwall or who would be sure to act against it, but if the secret of his other resources within were revealed, there would be much that he stood to lose. Things hard to replace, set-backs of years in magnitude, perhaps.


"Should you need me, you have only to call the name of Tsisaar. Or push the stone into some sort of reaction—I listen for either, no matter how far or deep I may be."

With one hand raised in farewell, he made his stumbling way back through the dilapidated market.
 
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"Unless you head straight for the port, you understand — yes, you'll meet someone." He squinted at the bones' carvings. "Someone...interested in you and...aesthetically satisfactory."

Whether she actually believed the fortune teller was not an argument she wanted to start after that news.

"For kriff's sake."

Visibly pale, stock still for a breaths time, she nodded solemnly before standing and beginning to walk away.

Before letting her walk turn into a light jog.

Into a full on sprint away.

Dodging others in her path until she was out of sight.

 

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