To Felucia, With Love [TSE]

[Ao Xian]

Felucia​

Ao'Xian sniffed the air. It was warm here, the breeze thick and heavy, redolent with the scent of the enormous fungal growths that dominated the landscape. It was pretty, in it's own, particular fashion, she decided, as [member="Kazmai"] unloaded his equipment. Ao herself traveled light, but she seemed perfectly content to wait while he took care of the necessities an expedition like this required.

They weren't the only ones here after all. While a number of settlements had been burned to the ground a few months back (nasty business that, very hush hush apparently, Tai Fa had been stern when she had gone poking), most of Felucia was still owned by the wilds. As Sith Imperial space crept closer, slowly swallowing up the old worlds of the Silver Jedi, teams were beginning to be dispatched to some of them. Advance teams, a dozen or so Sith with some Legion support, scouting out the situation on the ground. While some members of the team were examining the current climate of the remaining outposts, others were pushing into the fungal wilds, seeking out any remaining Jedi influence that might be lurking. The Voss fanatics had been cropping up in the most unusual of places, so before the Empire extended its reach it was much to everyone's benefit to, shall we say, take a peek under the hood?

"Take a peek under the hood," Ao mused aloud, mane rippling.

"Kazmai," she said thoughtfully, not turning to look at him. "What does that even mean anyway? 'Take a peek under the hood.' What hood? A cloak's hood? Doesn't that seem rude to you?"



ooc:

Spoiler

Feel free to explore Felucia! Go with Ao and Kazmai, check out the burned outposts, the remaining outposts, or hunt for something of interest to you!

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Ao Xian"] |

"It's an old speeder mechanic phrase, my lady." Lord Arioch interjected, "The hood, more or less, is the area on the speeder where the vital engine components are. To peek under it is to check to see how operational those components are."


He only knew the information because his damnable brother was once interested in becoming some sort of speeder racer. He was glad he was the one to quell those dreams. Unlike his formal attire, Arioch adorned himself in dark armor that seemed equal parts demonic and draconian. He had joined this party mostly from curiosity about Felucia, as its native wildlife could hold specimens for his diabolic work with Sith Magic and alchemy. He felt the Force around him. This world pulsed with it in the most raw form of the energy. It was primal, a delightful place for one who considered himself a predator, like Arioch.


The Arkanian was rather quizzical about the vulpine being that lead them at present. How could a filthy beast rise to the ranks of the Sith? At very least, he did harbor a granule of respect. The hierarchy of the Sith was one where it took equal measure of cunning, ambition, and ferocity to either face the Dark Trials or to usurp your superiors by taking their spot for your own.

 

[Chlorraan]

A faint chill cut through the temperate air of Felucia; for just an instant, a tiny fraction of a second, the thriving jungle world seemed to stiffen. All organic sound vanished, and all the critters and beasts disappeared from view as time seemingly froze. In this century-long instant, it was as if the living planet had died, leaving only a corpse to be marred by the presence of outsiders. It was only for an instant, however. The powerful breeze soon returned, its steady howl breathing life into the jungles once more.

Even as the outsiders punctured through Felucia's winds like needles through flesh, even as they made their unholy descent onto the world's surface, even as they stained the land with their presence, the planet breathed. The breath of Felucia was the breath of the Force; the heart of Felucia was the heart of the Force; the will of Felucia was the will of the Force. This indisputable truth gave the jungles power, power that flowed from every living organism like hot lava. A tranquil power, for now. But one that could easily by stirred. One that was growing wearier and wearier of this foreign presence.

The will loathed this presence. The will would soon dispose of what it loathed.

Raw, primal desire seeped into the wind, flowing south towards the nearest outsiders. Like a river of dark side power, it would slowly drown them in beckoning allure, whispering the faintest words into the ears of those more attuned to the mystical energy. It called them North, it would lead them through a dense and unexplored Jungle. All who followed would soon make their way to the Maw. And there, they would be confronted by the true will of the Force.

Spoiler: OOC

Something's reaching out to anyone near Ao Xian's group with the Force. It's possible to resist it if you're powerful enough, but if not, you'll be beckoned up north, into a thick jungle. Have fun~

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Chlorraan"] | [member="Darth Arioch"] | [member="Ao Xian"]

"It's a human phrase, oh Burning Star." Kazmai spoke ignoring the white squishy one. Filth. "They always stick their noses where they do not belong. It's why they get killed so often." That last part was accompanied by a smile widening towards Arioch. There was nothing friendly about that smile. Sharp teeth glinting for an instant, before the heavy equipment in his paws was settled down right next to the Arkanian Sith Knight.

Heavy enough that it shook the ground and would perhaps make him stumble just a bit.

By design? Maybe, but Kazmai was already loading out the next piece of tech from their speeder. Oh, they said that the Arkanians were not humans- near-humans at best, but they all looked the same to the simian. Frail, squishy, easily crushed and one swat from his paw enough to break all the bones in their bodies. All spoken from experience, of course. It was a pleasure that most of those they fought were turning out to be humans in one way or another.

The Voss League, the Mirialans cultists, all puny humans.

He wondered if Ao would mind if he tried to eat Arioch. Hm. Just as the scanning equipment was placed neatly next to the other hardware (one more making the earth shake just a touch) Kazmai froze. He looked up in the air, towards North. "You sense this too, Brightness?" The simian asked to Ao, while trying to shake that feeling slowly infecting his body. He was large. Big. His mind had the momentum of a mountain's slide once it started to move. It took equilibrium and something greater to have him deviate. But even Kazmai could feel the draw to the North. It pushed him and he had already taken up his hammer, ready to move, before the Sith caught himself.

"There is something North. It calls." A look to Ao dramatic pause Xian. "We explore?"

 

[Darth Chagrin]

Felucia. Humidity galore, annoyingly high temperatures and fungal overgrowth; physically, at least, it was about as far one could get from the cold, sterile cityscapes of Nar Shaddaa that Dreek had been raised on. In the Force, however, it was much the same feeling: a world teeming with life that precipitated an overwhelming current of emotions and struggle that such life naturally harboured. The contrast was... mystifying. To tell the truth, Dreek was probably as mystified by the half-vulpine, half-serpentine thing he was following through the planet.

The thing spoke! Dreek decided immediately that he didn't like how she sounded. Before this Kazmai she was talking to could even respond, the human with the strange eyes took it upon himself to answer. Dreek found himself somewhat amused that the man knew such a thing. He certainly didn't seem like he had spent his years growing up on Nar Shaddaa. Maybe he just liked speeders. Clearly the feeling wasn't mutual to Kazmai, who seemed to feel the need to intimidate the strange-eyed human in response. What strange bedfellows, these people were. At least they seemed like they liked fighting.

They had come here to find what remained of the Jedi's influence, but instead Dreek felt a strong urge from the dark side. It sung through him like a second voice, whispering something. His senses tingled, and like a compass, pointed North. Once again, someone else had beaten him to speaking it out loud. Dreek kept himself content with waiting. He had nothing to show by speaking here. He would show them if it came to action.

[member="Ao Xian"] [member="Darth Arioch"] [member="Chlorraan"] [member="Kazmai"]

 

[Ao Xian]

"Mechanics," Ao muttered, shaking her head, mane rippling.

The Xykan was entirely certain that mechanics and magic were basically the same thing. It wasn't that she was dismissive of the effects machinery had on every day life, on the galaxy at large, just that she shunted it off into the realm of the mystic and only peripherally understandable.

She inclined her head to them both, the closest to a thanks they could receive for the explanation, but it was enough.

Ao felt the chill a moment before the touch. Her whiskers quivered and for a heartbeat, scale shifted a paler shade before reclaiming their usual brilliance. Nostrils flared as she lifted her head, scenting the air, but whatever it was, the scent of it was masked by the thick and fecund perfume of the jungle itself. It wasn't the physical presence, but the mental one. She could feel it like fingers beckoning. Nothing like the touch of her love on her mind, no familiarity, no knowing the spots. Sapphire eyes closed and she walled it off, brick by mental brick. She left cracks so she could still feel it, but the bulk of it not allowed to reach her. She wanted to know what it was doing, to feel the call.

But she did not allow it to control her.

It itched, however. Like scrabbling fingers at the edges of the stones. Nails on a blackboard, impossible to ignore.

"Yessss," she hissed, forked tongue coming out in a rare moment where some of control slipped.

While it might not seem, to an outside observer, that Ao'Xian was a being particularly in control of her baser urges, they would be very, very wrong. The fact that she didn't try to eat her fellow sith on a daily basis was testament to that.

The group headed off to the north, pushing through the Jungle. Ao could thread through it, barely disturbing the flora around her. But the others? Would have a harder time of it.

[member="Kazmai"] [member="Darth Arioch"] [member="Dreek Xretissirr"] [member="Chlorraan"]