The Darkness We Cast (Attn: FU's, NFU's on Korriban/Open!)

[Nabrina Vao]

(OOC/Read to this soundtrack. Enjoy!)

Planet: Korriban
Location 1: Sith Temple Proximity
Location 2: Valley of the Dark Lords

The hot, midday sun bore down on the countless archaeologists, acolytes and would-be students of the Academy. The dreamy waves of heat that seemed to rise up from the hot, arid sand-blasted Earth of the Sith homeworld were unbearable to travelers new to the place for sure, as was the dry, coarse air that restlessly raced across the forsaken planet's surface. Its red-rock mountains and dead orange ground seemed to insult and offend all life that sought to tread it, and its numerous caverns, canyons and mesas seemed to invite all to an untimely end. To come here to die was a thought that did not occur to most, not surprisingly.

Yet it was on planets like this, where life should not reign, that great stories are made. In some cases, with the right stimuli and with very particular qualities, legends are born.

Shunned by fellow students due to her former relations with a now-dead academy instructor, and a pariah before other instructors for personally cutting him down after capitalizing on his weakness, Nabrina Vao, daughter of Ryloth, spent the solar cycles going back and forth between the academy's library where she immersed herself in holobooks, her own quarters to rest, meditate and drill her Djem So form, and out into the Valley of the Dark Lords to draw inspiration from the legends of Darth's of old. To date she had been unsuccessful in gaining innermost access to any of the tombs of the Dark Lords, and had to content herself with the minor holocrons and more arcane holobooks back in the academy. She seemed to hit a wall in her path to the Dark Side, but she would not be deterred. She was a Twi'lek, and while attractive by all respects, her Sith tattoos, forcefully inflicted by the Sith pincerbugs employed by her old instructor and master to torture her at his amusement, added a menacing aesthetic to her appearance. Images and vivid emotions, sensations and luxuries often associated with the Twi'lek species died in her that day - what was left was a cold, brooding phantom of a tailhead whose markings were testament to the ruthlessness of life on Korriban, and the brutality of life in general, let alone to a slavegirl.

Today, she sat in the cool shade of the concave entrance to the tomb of Darth Bane, not quite able to figure out how to gain entrance, but also religiously empowered by the thought of sitting in the damned presence of the creator of the Rule of Two, and who once systematically dismantled the old Empire and utterly destroyed his rivals. In her black flex-armor and electromesh suit and covered by her crude steelcloth cloak with the hood up in order to protect her further from the elements, she could be seen holding her hand up before her face - Dark Side energies pouring forth from her gloved palm as she sought to tap into every unpleasant thought pattern and memory in her, forcefully reliving and remembering every painful bit as she assaulted her own mind with experimental techniques she had picked up from the holo's back at the academy. Namely, Memory Walk, and Mind Splinter. Traditionally used as methods of torture, she now used them to build mental toughness, while simultaneously reinforcing the negative energies of chaos welling up inside her, as well as practicing two techniques she thought to be immediately beneficial - in her eyes, definitely more profitable than the fancy show that was Force Lighting, for example.

Her migraine was excruciating, having been all but completely vexed and nearly pushed to coming undone at the seams and losing her mind under the constant mental assault she was subjecting herself to. It was a brutal, almost sardonic form of self-help; her lightsaber almost seemed to rattle by her waist - the lightsaber that was once the old man's, but has since been claimed following his pathetic demise.

A quick lapse in the exercise, and she looked up with her exotically orange eyes to catch her breath and rest - her mind and spirit reeling from the barrage of negativity. She looked around momentarily, her eyes peering beyond the shade into the bright valley floor, where hundreds of little dots in grey and black scurried around. Would this be her fate? Would she learn to walk the path alone? Or would someone come - someone wise, someone strong, someone who would, perhaps to her vain hope for belonging that still lingered somewhere deep down, not only love her for who she was, but also for what she could be?

She said nothing, and thought no more of it. She huffed and puffed - her lips dry and chapped from windburn as she once again closed her eyes, and continued the drill.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Nabrina Vao"]

Korriban
Heading towards the tombs.

Solan normally found himself on the other Silver Jedi worlds, helping himself to their garden and growing it from time to time, but alas their recent changes could affect him so he was avoiding their eyes for a while... that didn't mean his attention to their space lessened. And it was that fact and a short blurb sent to him by an old friend that pushed him through customs on the planet... well under the guise of a researcher on the tombs and to be fair he was not lying.

Something seemed off today but he couldn't pinpoint it as he walked through the main starport, careful to touch and hold his hand over the pocket where he kept his saber these days. It was one lined to the inside of this jack and hidden away from most people's sight with the exception of those with the force. Those with the force would see a beacon of force energy walking around because of the crystal he kept next to the saber, the one tied to him and while containing the taint that the darkside brought with it was relatively a calming presence compared to what one would expect. Further it didn't seem to corrupt the air around him, it wasn't that the corruption was not there, because it was. No, it was more like it was being lessened and replaced by the other aspects.

He enjoyed that better than a gem of simple dark power, his Gardener's heart was far more personal to him than some silly trinket and it was why he never parted from it, even when he was trying to act inconspicious which worked at most points.

He laughed a bit and found himself walking towards the speeder that would lead him on towards the tombs and old temples, careful to swing over his leg and get close to the speeder before launching from its dock and finding himself gliding over the landscape, dust and red sand flying out behind him as he ran over the normally and otherwise barren landscape. He wondered as he traveled, had it always looked like this or was this the result of the original extinction event caused by the Republic long before their lives. Had Korriban been green at one time before that?

He thought about this when he passed a tomb and a pinprick caused him to slam hard on the brakes, so to speak.

It was a familiar feeling that he felt, the speeder almost skidding to a stop as he was lurched forward but not off. He looked to the side at a tomb he was not thinking to look into, a tomb he would have otherwise traveled past but instead something felt off. He looked at it for a bit longer before turning the speeder and moving towards its entrance. Someone was there and the feeling he was getting was too familiar to let go. His hands tightening on the speeder as he felt and itch again.

 

[Nabrina Vao]

Ah. Someone comes.

Like a shade looming just beyond the reach of the sun's glow, at once blending in yet contrasting with the penumbra of light to be found in the mouth of the cavernous entrance to Darth Bane's tomb, Nabrina quickly pulled her hand away and ended the exercise again before looking upward, only to see a speeder making its way towards the revered Dark Lord's resting place. Was he here for a holocron? She considered the possibilities: If this 'archaeologist' was, she better observe and learn. If he wasn't, he was probably academy personnel, and she'd do well not to get in their way any further. The status of pariah isolated her well enough - any more and they might just not let her in anymore.

And then, like a sudden cold wind out of place, she felt it - the dancing allure of something. It wasn't coming from the cave, but no Darth seemed to be walking around - and out in the Valley, no Darth would be casually strolling about anyway. This wasn't a garden world like Naboo, so what was it? She searched deep within, and as little beads of sweat continued to drip down from her forehead, down the front and sides of her face and even down her headtails, she squinted a little to focus her vision and compensate for the blinding light of the Korriban sun. The hazy image of a speeder and someone mounting it was evident, but something wasn't right. The will-shattering headache and the hellish psychic storm of unpleasant and repressed memories were all but completely gone, but a certain tightness in her chest. Her nostrils flared and pupils dilated as the stranger drew closer, yet she couldn't understand what was happening.

What is this?

She stumbled to her feet, understandably weakened by the little mental toughness exercise, but struggling to get herself together as she saw the speeder and its rider, clear as day, moved close enough as to not have their impressions upon her naked eyes distorted by the sun and the heat. Most of her head was still covered by the hood of her cloak, but upon close inspection one would already be able to discern the familiar tattoos decorating her mouth, jaw and lower cheeks. She kept the dread of panic down her gut as she just moved to the side, knowing better than to lash out and strike at something that posed no immediate thread, that she could not understand, or would not serve her. A confluence of both curiosity and resentment surged in her as she steadied her senses and returned her attention to the Force to guide her.

A lightsaber.

There it was, but there was more - power source, but for what? She did not understand. Confident and bookishly intelligent as she may have been, there yet remained an expansive plethora of things in the Will and construct of the Force that she did not yet know, let alone comprehend. Finally, as she moved to the side wall of the cavern's entrance, about three arms' length away from the stranger, she lifted her gaze and looked upon him with her orange eyes, glowing like embers as they reflected what scant light penetrated the tomb entrance's penumbra. He seemed ordinary upon ocular inspection, but she knew better. This man walked the path of the Dark Side, but he was not from here. The mere fact that she detected his lightsaber's embedded crystal, and that something else she couldn't quite put her finger on just yet, confirmed that.

Still steely and brooding as ever, she said nothing, and simply stared from the shadow of her steelcloth cloak's hood as she stood by the side, not appearing to want to speak, but not coming off as imminently hostile or preparing to strike either.

Not this one. Not today. This one has something to say.

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Jirano Okkasi]

It was a fact of life that the most important lessons often come from discomfort, from birth we are engineered to learn from pain. Did we do something wrong? We are scolded for it. I want to touch that, it's hot and hurts, understood don't touch that again. Now, these lessons stay with you, deep in your subconcious, it's not like you remember you learnt that fire burns. But my first time on Korriban.

That lesson still stays with me....

------Excerpt from the personal journal of Jirano Okkasi--------
Spitting out yet another mouthful of sand, Jirano wiped his eyes free from grit and stared down at the runes on the stone that emerged from the sand. There were plenty just like it, Sith marked pieces of sediment bursting out of the sand like an aquatic creature, desperate to noticed just one more time, to remind anyone who would see that they once mattered, that they they still had power. This in turn was mirrored by the figures that scurried about beneath them, examining the various stones, tombs and general landscape around them, would be apprentices hoping to prove their worth, to jump forth from the sea of their fellows to show those above them that they had power. That they mattered.

Was he any different? Cracking his back as he stood, taking a pleasant swig of water from his canteen, Jirano considered the question. He certainly didn't look any different to those around him, choosing to wear the darker, bland colours that the Sith opted to wear, his pale skin already beginning to bronze under the touch of the sun. He dimly felt those around him, like lanterns through fog, occasionally one would yell in triumph, another in frustration and their energy would swell forward to the point that Jirano couldn't resist turning to watch.

-Yes- he thought -I am different. They seek knowledge and power merely to climb the rung to the next step, never actually appreciating what they have, understanding how it came to be, where, and what applications it had. You so much as mention lightsaber to them and they just want to scream and start slashing, checking only to see if their instructor saw that sweet backflip they just pulled. Pathetic.-

Turning around the the fat squat merchant behind him, Jirano smiled and presented a small piece of rune marked stone to the man. In order to gain access to the Sith planet, it required resources, resources that he himself didn't have. But it had been the simplest thing to find a merchant looking for a guide, and after a small conversation of price, Jirano found himself hurtling along the sands in a luxury speeder, the fool of a merchant grinning the whole time as he thought about the riches he could get selling authentic Sith relics on other planets.

“”This hear proves it, it contains writings of one of the great Sith lords, sure to fetch a high price””

With beady eyes, the merchant snatched the stone and tossed it into a bag. Dusting his gloved hands off, Jirano bowed to the mand.

“Fret not, I'll make my own way back to the starport.”

Not wasting any time the tubby little man waddled back to the speeder and set off without a backwards glance.

Shaking his hooded head, Jirano began to walk casually around, glancing at some of the architecture on the tombs, pondering what to do now he was here. The stupid merchant was on his way back to the star port with a stone inscribed with the rune ''And” on it, and would probably export it off the planet before even getting it authenticated by a secondary source, so that took of that issue. But he was on Korriban! THE planet with the greatest knowledge source on the dark side of the force, teachings of the Sith lords from ancient to recent.

The sound of heavy breathing reached his ears, coming from the shaded entrance to a nearby cave, and after a cursory examination he saw a crouched figure in the entrance. Curious as always he strode over, finding a stunning example of sith tattoos on the skin of a twi'lek in the entrance. She seemed to be in some sort of a trance, and not wanting to ruin his chance to observe. Sitting nearby he saw her eyes open but they seemed to focused on her ritual to notice him nearby. As she stood and began to walk to the side it seemed that she was distracted. Looking out of the cave, he couldn't see what had her attention.

“That looked extremely intense, what Interrupted you?”

 

[Nabrina Vao]

Now there are two of them. Both with connexions to the Force.

Nabrina quickly turned her head, shifting her attention from the suspiciously inconspicuous firstcomer and his speeder to the one who'd just addressed her. It had been a while since someone last bothered with her; by now she was used to the silent, uneventful life of the outcast. The only people she spoke with, besides herself, were the colonists by the spaceport. Further than that, she almost never opened her mouth, save for the occasional winces of pain, groans or cries in fits of rage at different points in her isolated training.

Her orange eyes seemed to dilate and then fixate as she stared [member="Jirano Okkasi"], calculating what to possibly say, or possibly, what even needed saying. Not a student, not a hunter. But nonetheless, she could feel his presence beyond, that same swirling nucleus in the endless sea of the Force. No lightsaber, notably. Not a threat; not to be interfered with.

Finally, in her melodic, sing-song but eerily alluring voice, she spoke, "All things are interrupted, eventually." There was a chilling, primal but somehow familiar tinge of calculated insanity to her voice. She said no more, and then turned back to [member="Solan Charr"], still opting to say nothing, while in her mind she listened to the countless cries of the dead and those who have become one with the Force, swirling around the three of them and whispering from beyond. She did not even seem to try and feign sanity - she spoke and stared like one undone at the seams - the husk of one who once was, but has since been lost; given in to something more primal, more pure.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Nabrina Vao"] [member="Jirano Okkasi"]

Solan stared at the architecture and looked around, at this moment alone but feeling a tinge in the back of his mind at the feeling of more lifeforms heading this way. His eyes having turned over his shoulder for half a second, staring in the direction that Jirano was coming from before turning them back down the entrance of the tomb again. He wondered what it was that he felt inside... no he knew what he felt but he wondered how someone that felt like that was still around here.

He remembered the last time that the sith had owned Korriban, but that had been before their fall and the absorbing of it by the Silver Jedi... Years atleast. This one either got stranded and that would explain the emotions... or she had remained here for a long time and if that was the case, it would prove to be a rather large problem no doubt. He was happy that the Silver Jedi hadn't shown up first, hoping they didn't in truth because explaining his own presence was hard enough, explaining the presence of who ever was inside... well that was another thing.

He looked into the tomb again and started walking, not seeing [member="Nabrina Vao"] yet but certainly knowing she was nearby, keeping his eyes forward and remaining silent for now, hands off his saber and open at his side. A few seeds being drawn out of the pouches he kept on his belt, the seeds hidden by the hand at his side and little more than the size of a chestnut. He was a bit unique with how he defended himself but he could tell that the presence understood he was not hostile.

It was then that he stopped and smiled, about to speak until the second form appeared and his eyes blinked.

This one was very different... who was he....

He looked at the man who was at the entrance, sitting down and soon he blinked as he had given the twilek away as well.

For once, Solan had no witty words, nothing of curiosity to say or make any quick remarks. Instead he was staring at the two forms out of... well surprise. The man who he had not expected to stop, more than simple stopped but walked right up to the twilek who had been trying to hide herself and not get noticed. Solan's kinda just stood there, dumbfound for a few moments and triple checking his memory to see if this was just some Silver Jedi that he had not recognized, but he was sure that this man's face was foreign to him.

It was then that she spoke first to the man and he blinked again, staring and clearing his throat as he spoke finally.

"Well, this is a strange collection if ever there was one. I suppose you are the one that i felt when i was about to pass by?" He focused his eyes on the woman again, scanning over her with interest now that he could look at the person he had sensed, interested but cautious with the seeds still in his hand and more than ready to draw out the saber from its hiding place if things got violent. He hoped not though.

"I am Solan Charr, and you, are away from your pack."

 

[Nabrina Vao]

Initially, Nabrina didn't quite know what to make of the unusual comment - she was not used to idle chatter. People didn't talk to her much, and in between her isolated clashes with bullying rogue acolytes and running from the Order of the Silver Jedi dedicated to hunt those like her down, there wasn't much time or need for it anyway. She was a ghost - almost a parody and a relic unto herself; a whisper made manifest from ages long past. The Valley of the Dark Lords, while under effective occupation, remained a precious repertoire of knowledge, and a sacred site for those willing to give up everything just to acquire a little more.

His voice seemed anything but hostile, and she quickly lowered her guard, letting the wellspring of anticipatory rage wash over her as the intense passion and lust for thrill and power subsided. This one was strong with the Force, and by her estimates could just as easily brush her aside as she would a Mynock. No, dying a dog's death here would not be advantageous at all. Her squinted, hate-filled eyes seemed to lighten up as her eyebrows desisted in their furrowing; her general expression returning to a more stoic, but similarly deadpan serious tone rather than that of a marauder about to go on a rampage - it would be futile, and trying to impress anyone: this she considered the workings of a child.

"You know why", she replied calmly and with a certain tinge of malevolence in her voice, "the pack is weak. Scattered, decaying. The wolves eat at each other and face many different directions. The pack is compromised. I hunt alone."

Her eyes quickly danced in a few random directions, as if recalling something, or an aftershock effect of her earlier exercise. After quickly returning to meet Solan's gaze, she introduced herself as well. "Nabrina. Nabrina Vao."

[member="Solan Charr"] [member="Jirano Okkasi"]

 

[Jirano Okkasi]

Remaining sitting Jirano closed his eyes and felt the slight change in air pressure, the alleviation of pressure in the area that made his heart beat slightly faster, the feeling of somebody pushing on his eyelids. Whatever it was this woman was doing obviously had some force behind it as it was enough to not only be felt by those around her but to affecting the very area around her, an area which would have been well used to the power of raw emotion flowing through it.
And as the man walked into the cave, the feeling changed again, there was an almost palpable tension in the air. What a strange scenario he had found himself in, and that was accounting for the fact he had been preparing to walk the surface of Korriban.

"The pack is weak. Scattered, decaying. The wolves eat at each other and face many different directions. The pack is compromised. I hunt alone."

Smiling at such a view of the world, Jirano found that he was excited. Other Force users, fellows who felt the pull and tug of the universe just as he did. What an opportunity.

“Isn't that always the issue though, when the pack faces the inevitable eventuality that is stagnating what can one do? Do you try to guide the pack, sacrificing all of what you could be in order to ensure that the pack is there for future generations? Or do you accept that you are a misnomer, something that doesn't fit the mould of the pack and yet still expected to be a part of it. I guess it all depends how you view success......”

Standing back up he bowed his head to the pair. “But there are always new packs sprouting forth, the thrill of the hunt occupies me just as much as anybody else. I just hunt different targets than most. Jirano Okasi is my name.”

[member="Solan Charr"] [member="Nabrina Vao"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Jirano Okkasi"] [member="Nabrina Vao"]

He watched the woman first, watching her body and mind relax a bit though it was clear that she was in no way comfortable when it came to dropping one's guard. And to be honest to do so would be rather stupid, thus is why he had not completely dropped his own knowing that a fight could always break out and he did not want that to happen while he was able to stop such a thing. Granted, it seemed that such would not occur so he was mostly relaxed himself and slowly let his hand close around the seeds before looking about for a second.

What he was looking for was something to sit on himself, walking towards a broken colomn but keeping his eyes on the woman and the man while he did so, his body lowering onto it. He wondered about them both, his hands brushing dust and dirt off himself while he sat down and looked over the two of the while they answered.

The Woman's answer was a slight surprise, though not shocking. She was a sith and they often did break away from the others once they had deemed them weak and not worth following. It was not a completely true thought though, something he would never deny. There were plenty of strong sith that remained, one of them which has a planet worshipping him like some god to them. It was a truth that there would always be strong sith just as there would always be strong Jedi.

The Man spoke about something a little more... naive? no that wasn't the right word at all. He wasn't sure what to call what Jirano had said, not sure if he knew what word would even fit the statement given by the man but in truth only one thing fit in his mind and that was that he had found two lone wanderers, something that made him smile to himself, this one more than visible.

"Well, that took my whole pack analogy a little far. A pleasure to meet you both, Nabrina and Jirano. What might I ask brings you to these tombs, or did we all just stumble on each other out of chance?"

 

[Nabrina Vao]

"By chance? Perhaps. What the Force wills."

By now Nabrina sat back down as well, sensing no threat from either of the two men as she brushed her steelcloth cloak behind her and sat back on a low-sitting rock. It would probably come off as odd if her old classmates were here - her deciding to just talk things out; but one had to do that sometimes. The lulls in between the madness were sweet, sober and tender lapses of serenity that simply allowed more space for the boiling pit of rage to surge back up later. In addition, even she knew, despite an atrocious upbringing and a lifetime spent wallowing in anger, that things of reason, like knowledge or wisdom, came only in sobriety. Rage could be controlled, and perhaps for the better.

With a small sigh, she bowed her head a bit before returning both her hands to rest around her navel. "It certainly won't be the first time that the tomb of a Dark Lord brings people here. You've both probably read about this planet - ancient birthplace of the Sith, haven for the stowaway Dark Jedi all those millennia ago. The call of Korriban, the call of the dead." She seemed to space out, as if not used to the serene sobriety and the absence of the usual rage that drove her forward. She was young, inexperienced, definitely green with regard to her own Force abilities, but she was not lacking in passion. A dark, doglike determination seemed to compel her forward - part running from something, part chasing after something else. The much older, much wiser Master [member="Solan Charr"] would have easily discerned the dark cloud that seemed to hang over young Nabrina's shoulders. It was both her greatest soft spot, and her greatest strength.

She then turned to [member="Jirano Okkasi"], almost half-smiling at hearing his quick analysis of what began as a trite but surprisingly perceptive way of viewing the Sith. "Stagnation is unnatural", she replied simply. "We can observe nature - things always change; adapt. In this case, over a long period of time, but it does. Species that can't adapt are usually rubbed out by stronger ones. This is the law of all things." She kept her little expositions short and compact as possible, but ultimately it was a vain exercise, considering the extensive scope of such an analogy, and the philosophy that came with it. She actually seemed to grow weary of speech in general pretty quickly - her facial expression betraying a sense of disdain the longer she expounded on any topic.

"The Force abides by the laws of nature, but that doesn't mean things like this can't be controlled. You can redirect how the Force ebbs and flows, like how your species, and mine, are able to manipulate naturally occurring elements to make our devices, our little technologies. The Force is the same - 'natural' and 'unnatural' are subjective. It is the same with the pack of wolves - they stagnate because they are weak, or fail to recognize the way of things. You evolve, or die. The fact that I would wish to guide a pack of Kath Hounds ultimately means I must walk apart from them." Again, another observation of hers drawn from nature - a reference to how alphas are always distant, but ultimately in control. "To guide any pack I lead", she concluded sharply, "I must be strong, but I also have to be distant; detached. My passions guide me, but that does not mean I blindly submit to every bestial and carnal impulse that arises. But enough for now."

Sighing, obviously winded, she turned back to Master Solan, or at least she had derived that he was from the impressive command he seemed to have of the Force around him. "What about you?", she then asked with both her eyebrows raised. "What brings you to Korriban?"

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Nabrina Vao"]

He smiled, interested and amused by the woman and man before him, watching them and curious about them. They certainly had different ways to look at things, each taking his quick metaphor to the extreme and amusing him but also keeping him focused on the two of them while they talked. One wanted to think that you could lead a group into something brighter, that together you could be stronger even if the weakest link still remained, but the other one believed solitude was better. That one must always keep moving or else find themselves in a place of unnatural life. Her thoughts were something that he looked towards and for a few moments he thought on it while she and he talked on. But then the question was turned on him and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"What brings me here?" He rolled his head and looked to the side before returning his gaze to her.

"Well to tell you the truth, I had simply wanted to look into the temples that they keep around here, and the tombs. Finding a lone Twilek like yourself was a rather strange coincidence, one that im am invested in seeing why you remain here. These tombs cannot teach you anything, and there are still many sith far more able than a dusty old piece of knowledge. What is left here is just dusty old history."

He looked at her in the eyes again, staring at her for a few long seconds and smiling a bit wider before speaking again.

"Plus, you're being alone here would leave you easily dealt with by the Jedi who hold this planet. You have no friends to call on, or even pawns that you Sith love all so much. So i question your wisdom in even sitting here in front of me, as i could report you to the Jedi with whom i am an ally of... Unless you want to be caught. Because that is the only thing that will happen from your being here. You must want to be found by the Jedi at this point, maybe subconscious yearning to atone or even hope for them to kill you, maybe you want to believe in a group again?"

He waited for her reaction, curious about it and curious about why she remained in this place if not out of a wanting to be found.

 

[Nabrina Vao]

Nabrina simply smirked, her eyes and eyebrows still assuming an expression of disdain or rage as her lips pursed into a toothless half-smile. She hated to admit it, but [member="Solan Charr"]'s humble bravado amused her. It was the mark of one, she knew, who held great power, but for whatever reason, kept it hidden under wraps. As was in the case of the late Emperor, a seeming old welp from Naboo, who would go on to make a Sith Lord of the Chosen one and bring the galaxy to its knees in submission - all those centuries ago.

"This world, Korriban", she began slowly and almost dreamily as her speech sounded like someone either high on spice or stark raving mad, "...is what it is. The Jedi will always try and come and lay claim to the ruins, rocks and dunes of this planet. But it is a death world, Master Jedi. A tomb world that has witnesses the cries, pain and deaths of countless millions over the millennia. That is this planet's legacy, whether the Jedi or the Sith tread its barren surface." She seemed to smile in satisfaction at herself, almost as if she only spoke to herself and her words were of reassurance. "So as there is good in every evil, as they Jedi often say when they speak of Darksiders returning to the light, "so you cannot have any good without a little evil. Complementary, duality. I suppose that is why the Force brings me here." She then looked around, the look on her face like that of someone coming to, or snapping out of a hangover. She looked at the tomb door behind them, and with her gaze seemed to peer beyond the stone. "I know I'll find something here; in there", she spacily mumbled. "Myself, alone, and yet, not quite so."

Nabrina sighed, turning back to the Dark Jedi Master with that exasperated, disdainful look back on her face again, her voice almost hissing yet oddly calming and melodic at the same time. "I suppose you are right. I should take my leave. But let me return the question, Dark Jedi, why haven't you cut me down or alerted the others of my presence yet?" Her hands made no movement as to suggest that she was in any way considering drawing her weapon. "Why do you dawdle with me?"

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Nabrina Vao"]

He laughed a bit as she called him a dark jedi. To be fair it fits him better than any other title and yet hearing it still made him laugh a bit and smile to her. He seemed relaxed, calm, and pretty happy, all of which probably looked odd to her if not downright strange considering that he had no problem with showing the side he is connected to.

"Honestly, cutting you down or calling for the Jedi is too much effort and would only ruin a nice conversation. Id rather not ruin such considering that you have been nothing if not hospitable to myself for inviting me into your cave home thing..." He had paused to lean back and look up at the ceiling of the tomb, staring for those few moments before continuing his words. "But i suppose a 'dawdle' with you because there is no reason not to. I was already on the planet and helping a misguided fool is probably the best thing i can do with my time. After all you are a Sith who thinks she can avoid the eyes of someone who is more prone to violence than myself."

He turned his eyes back down on her, staring at her and leaning forward onto his hand.

"And i must ask, why are you still here other than for your curiosity of my not attacking you. You could have just left instead of asking the question, and all curiosity is born from other reasons a great deal of time, something im sure would apply to now. I don't believe you are the type to be curious without just reason."

 

[Nabrina Vao]

"Sometimes our passions tend to recklessness, that is true", she simply said with a soft, sardonic-sounding chuckle as she looked at [member="Solan Charr"] from the other end of the tomb door and sat back down. "But we have to search and trust our feelings once in a while don't we? If someone came to end me, I can only hope I'll be strong enough to best him" She simply let out a small half-smile again as she looked at him - her amber-orange eyes seeming at once disdainfully apathetic and stoically curious. "The challenge is certainly open to anyone, but that doesn't mean I'll rush headlong to meet my demise."

A few silent moments passed as Nabrina said nothing. "You lack the sanctimonious pretension of your more devoted peers, Jedi", she softly sneered while shaking her head with a smile. "I suppose the old masters were right - infinite shades of grey between black and white, even among Jedi." A small sigh escaped her lips as she seemed to look back, as if remembering something. Even her crimson red skin and jet black tattooing could not mask the emotion of a Twi'lek in reminiscence. "If more Jedi were like you, I doubt we'd have much cause for conflict. Since you already believe me misguided, surely you'd let me indulge in idle thought, Master Jedi?"

Her eyes then turned back to the tomb door, as if in deep thought and troubled by something.

 

[Aithne Charr]

"Firstly, my dear. I am no Jedi and would prefer if you did not call me such, and before you use any other title, including Rogue, i am not those either. I am simply Solan Charr, a man with the force. Understood?" He waited for her to understand his point before sighing and paying more mind to the first set of words as well as if there were more like him. She was a rather strange one but he would be lying if he said that he did not enjoy talking to the stranger beings in the galaxy. After all, he had met more than his fair share of strange Sith, Jedi, and normal old folks in this galaxy.

"Ya, no you and the Jedi would have fought even if they were like me. It is an unavoidable truth of this universe and boils down to the need for balance. For every Jedi there must be a sith, for every one dead on one side, the other side must lose those equally. It is how the universe corrects itself from our follies, twisting fate so that the undesirable elements might be culled and the more desirable elements remain in order to keep a balance it deems necessary. Much as the same way if you remain here, you will die just like all those before you. It is truth that cannot be changed, nor one that can be avoided."

He smiled at her with a wave of his hand to the side.

"After all, the Sith as a whole have shown their weakness as of late, and you are an example of their failures in correcting the current balance to their favor."

 

[Nabrina Vao]

The Twi'lek had nothing to say, but could not help but silently hiss under her breath at the reprimand. However, she couldn't deny the truth - she was effectively a drifter, with nothing to her name and no one to come and rescue her. In many ways, even she felt that she was no better than a wraith, forever doomed to wander and only found a sense of direction at her whim, which was no way, especially for a Sith, to live. The little bouts of conflict she indulged herself in were mere isolated brawls, and the purpose that most Sith found in feeding off and growing from that conflict seemed to escape her most of the time. It was a depressing little bit of meditation, but she sucked it up.

She said or made no acknowledging gesture, but made sure to no longer refer to him as Jedi from that point onward. It felt sort of strange - meeting someone who was clearly more of a maverick about where he stood than she did - which Nabrina thought was quite a radical drift from the prototypical Sith anyway. It was refreshing, but deep in her she started to ask questions again - those uncomfortable rhetorical probes one always just pushed back to the corners of one's mind. Throughout this, she remained silently still.

"I came here to open this tomb, but someone I was supposed to meet up with never came", she finally began to explain with a sigh. Then turning to the tomb door and away from [member="Solan Charr"]'s eyes, she continued, "This is the tomb of the ancient Sith Lord, Darth Bane. This is an alternate way in and out of the chamber beneath the sarcophagus - behind his statue back at the old Sith Academy."

"It's where they used to sacrifice Jedi."

She then stood up, looking back at him momentarily before bringing her eyes once more to the door. Nabrina took a few steps back so she could see the entirety of the wide stone door before speaking again, "I've been drifting for so long it's surreal. It's time I took the next step. This door can only be opened by two - no more, no less. That is the way of the Sith." She then turned her head to Solan again. "You've been kind to me this past hour, and though I regret to admit it, chose to spare my life. Will you help me open this door?"

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Nabrina Vao"]

Solan could almost laugh again as the woman hissed a bit under her breath, making him lean back and almost lay down on the broken chunk of stone that rested in the halls, his eyes staring up at the ceiling over them. He would let her get out of the little bit of spite that was no doubt building up after his comments and then he was surprised by the woman as she answered him and told him why.

She had wanted to open up the tomb of one of the most influential dark lords in existence then... study inside that place. He had to admit that things like this was why he didn't so much trust in the intelligence of most sith and even made him question the sanity of the woman in front of him to the point where he was sitting back up and staring at her in the face. He had to make sure that she was being absolutely serious before sighing outwardly.

"You know, normally when a Sith asks me to help open up the tomb of a dark lord, one who was responsible for quite literally the near extinction of the Jedi and the creation of the Empire so long ago along with the fact that this room you want into is a place where they sacrificed Jedi... It tends to make someone like me want to deny." He looked at the woman with a raised brow before groaning and pushing himself to his feet. "But i was never one to make smart decisions, so lets crack this baby open and see what we got here."

 

[Nabrina Vao]

Nabrina simply chuckled, probably sounding unintentionally devious or almost childishly cunning as she raised her hand in a puerile attempt to defy the legend and open the door her own, but much to her chagrin, obviously failed. "Not today", she said as she shook her head with a menacingly smug grin. She knew for a fact that the Dark Lord's lightsaber has since been claimed by someone else, but what she was after was far greater - certainly much more so than a lightsaber, even if it did belong to Darth Bane. Beside [member="Solan Charr"], she stood a little shorter, but her more lithe Twi'lek frame seemed to further emphasize the disparity in body mass; only her cloak feigned the illusion of a larger body build.

The door itself seemed unremarkable, but was unbelievably heavy to the point of immobility when only one person attempted to pass. It begged for a sense of duality in nearly all respects - how the two doors met at the center and would open up, each going their separate way, and especially how it required the magic Sith number to be passed.

Nabrina remained standing still as she waited for her newfound companion to stand beside her, making no more remarks or notable body language gestures, save for her hand which she held out but with the elbow belt; her palm floating in front of her shoulder as she prepared to try again with him.

 

[Skorn Draclau]

In the darkness, there is only malice and scorn.

He woke up with a rasping gasp. Coughing and hacking his way to the first few breaths of life. He gulped in deep gasps of stale air into his lungs and breathed a sigh of relief. A relief that was as short lived as it was welcome. Around him all that he could see was the inky blackness of oblivion. The void surrounded him. He squinted his eyes, blinked a couple of times hoping they would get used to the darkness, yet all he saw was nothing. So black was the darkness that he pondered for a moment if this was indeed in Chaos, the realm of the dead Sith.

He dismissed the thought after a moment of introspection. After all, the dead don't breathe.

He tried to feel his way through his surroundings. Sand, loose sand everywhere. Everything seemed to be layered with silvery grains of sand. Beneath the sand he felt hard rock. Smooth, well chiseled. Man made. The stale dry air, the sand, the rock surface underneath they all reminded him that he was on a desert planet. Yet, they reminded him of something more. Something that was supposed to be important. Something he was doing. A spell of some sort...that had gone horribly wrong.

He frowned to himself. A bit disappointed with his memory. Or lack there of. He couldn't remember what he was doing. In fact, he could barely remember anything about himself at all.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Nabrina Vao"] and [member="Skorn Draclau"] (Maybe... idk)


He stood beside her, without a word and without a thought at first. Something seemed wrong about this place to his core and now he knew why it was so wrong to him. He hated death, even if it was the currency that he paid with his blood. Death was something he had seen, caused, experienced and lived through enough to not want to be around it as often as he could, and yet he knew that wish was impossible. Even if he shut of his home from the rest of the galaxy, it would just make it vulnerable and death would come to claim it sooner or later. So he had to get out there and face that specter while he could.

That was why he walked up to Nabrina and would help her with this. The worst that could come to pass is he would be forced to destroy the chamber in order to spare the girl harm. Even if she was only a few years his younger, her rashness for knowledge and power, going into a place that he felt crawling up his spine even standing there. She was getting herself into danger, either here with another more dangerous darksider, or at the hands of the Jedi. So he would go with her into this room, if only it meant protecting the woman from whatever still lingered.

When she was ready he would reach out with the force and pull, pull on the mechanism and open up the passage way. If she was correct, it would need two in order to open, something that further worried him as the site needed to remain connected to the force for such a thing to be true. Otherwise one could do it alone without a problem if the force was not involved, but if it was it was actively supporting the mechanisms of its creator.

He didn't like that at all and his sabers started to move into place within his sleeves, ready to find his hand should he need them.