Private What the Water Gave Us

[Damsy Callat]

Kamino.

Damsy had really thought she would never be back.

But, then again, it seemed like she had been telling herself that over and over, every few years or so since her desertion of her Dauntless command.

She sighed, sending small bubbles blown full of the memory out of her nostrils and up, up, up towards the ever-tumultuous water's surface as she swam. The people to whom that fumble meant anything to were long gone, if not long dead. Damsy should have probably been relieved, or at least Syreni should have been, but neither were and, chances were, they wouldn't be until they found what scales had shed from their shared body to be lost under years of benthic mud.

There had to be something she was missing here. Some unprocessed emotion. Some bit of closure. Some life lesson. She was sure she didn't want it, but if finding it was what it took to finally sever this ocean from her past, she'd do it. Anything to get the call of Kamino to stop.

Instead, she did, mid-stroke. She floated up vertical and glanced over her shoulder.

Whatever that had been, it wasn't what she had been hearing in her dreams over the last few months. It wasn't a moan from the solid rock under the ocean floor, the sound of Kamino's other tides, but it was familiar in a different way. Though the muted warble travelling through the water could be only another way that the planet had taken to torture her, she had to know for sure if she could.

Slowly, she turned herself towards the sound and began again to swim.

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Swim, Sing, and above all, be free.


In the wake of her visit to Dromund Kaas, Jenn felt the need to wash.

Not quite in a shower with soap, mind - her body was more than fine. No, the whispers of the Dark Side she had felt on that accursed world were persistent, and she refused to let them tempt her any longer. After running into her greatest friend on Scarif, however, she felt the need to feel less familiar waters caressing her scales and enveloping her soul. Kamino did not quite sing out to her soul as much as Scarif did, but an ocean world it remained, and its waters embraced her readily nonetheless.

Abandoning herself to the currents was a truly glorious feeling. The war held no importance here, and neither did the rest of her worries. No questioning the validity of her allegiance when she maintained friendships with Jedi and Sith alike. No worrying over the fate of her people. No fear of what may yet come in the future. No, the seas had always been an ally to her, protecting her from the galaxy itself, as a mother would cradle a daughter. In those places, the Manda practically felt tangible to her, as if she could reach out and feel the flow of the Force flowing through all living things.

Her beskar'gam was left on her ship - a rare occasion, to be sure, but she wished to feel the ocean's embrace as intimately as one could, wearing but a modest swimsuit. Neither beskar nor underlay would stand between the gentle touch of Kamino's waters and her being.

And so she sang, her melody carried through the waves, and through the Force itself - a beautiful, if haunting sound. Something best left for those occasions where none were near: a siren she may be, Jenn held no desire to lure anyone to their doom with that sweet voice of hers. No, she sang for herself, and she sang for the tides as well, pouring all of her soul into that captivating melody.

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

There was nothing in these seas to mistake another humanoid figure for, even at the distance at which she first recognized it through a meandering school of deep water sounder. So, when she saw it, she came to another full stop, pivoting her tail flute against her momentum and grinding to a halt. She glanced down its body to where she expected to see legs, but furrowed her brow when she saw a fin instead.

Great. The Mandalorian Enclave had started to play with genetics t—

Jenn.

The statement of her name was almost involuntary, it dawned on the hybrid so suddenly. It pushed itself into the Force matrix swirling around them just as the water did.

She took to swimming evermore towards the song as quickly as she had stopped, diving under the fish as the school doubled back.

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Sing for a friend.

​

Her name was not quite uttered, but Jenn could all but sense it nonetheless. Echoing within the vast expanse of the ocean, and the Manda itself.

And, just like that, the sweet melody... changed. No, her song was meant for something, or rather, someone else now. The Ersansyr had shown a great deal of love for Kamino's gentle embrace, but now was the time for her to pay homage to something else altogether. In the wake of her change, Damsy had been the one to bring her a certain measure of clarity, helping her without expecting anything in return. Without the Sithspawn, then the proud Mandalorian would have remained lost, and confused- afraid of what she had become.

It was thanks to Damsy that she now embraced her nature. And so her melody was meant for her, for the tormented soul she should, by all means, have grown to hate. But that song carried none of the judgement Jenn should be showing her for being Dar'manda, for being Sith. No, there was warmth and affection behind the tune now, inviting and welcoming. Her arms remained open, palms pointing toward the surface - as if inviting her as she sang, that luminescent gaze of hers resting upon the hybrid's form as she approached.

Not that the smith held any desire to let the song end before it should, letting it reach its crescendo first, so very charged with emotion. The two had been apart for some time now, but the fondness she held for her remained undimmed by the passage of time. Damsy was no Ersansyr, but she was more of a sister to her than those elegant and haughty socialites looking down on her for her nature as a warrior rather than a wordsmith.

Few were those who could truly understand the call as Damsy did, and she cherished her friendship for it.

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

Whatever Jenn wanted be damned. Damsy swam into her arms with a speed that would not hurt either of them but would send them falling backwards. Damsy was able to keep hold of Jenn's forearms all the while, floating in somersaulting fashion over her before they could right themselves, momentum spent.

"Jenn!" she exclaimed. "Is it, is it really you?" The Siren let go of her, the gentle pressure of the former's talons leaving her skin, and began to circle the Mandalorian, looking for any sign that this was a hydrothermal mirage.

In truth, Damsy looked a little like a vision herself. Though Damsy had told Jenn that she too had a tail the last time the two women had met, Damsy had not morphed into it. It was clear now that Damsy's squaloid form obscured even the features of the top half of her body in ways that Jenn's did not. She was still recognizable, of course, by both form and fashion:

She wore the same tight, short-sleeved leather top that was the foundation of her signature blue- and white-toned I'm a different kind of Sith look.

Her black hair was braided down against her scalp, then left to hang in loose waves below.

But she had talons as fingertips and fangs in her mouth. Her skin had thickened and bruised an all-consuming grey-blue, her eyes distracting from the camouflage.

They were a a brighter blue, almost glowing with neon, than they had ever been on land.

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Reunite with a dear friend.

Jenn's intent was quickly forgotten about when Damsy all but crashed into her, the sweet melody cut short as her eyes went wide. Both merfolk went spinning about joyfully, the ethereal touch the Mandalorian had to her somewhat dispelled, although not quite broken. Of course, her friend's joy proved to be rather contagious, and the mysticism found itself replaced by warmth. Having their tails spinning together like this was... certainly a first for her, but not quite unwelcome. The kind of embrace only they could share.

"Yes, Dams'ika, it is me", confirmed the fiery-haired Ersansyr with a smile as the two friends parted from one another - allowing one another to drink in their similarities and differences. Clearly, her old friend was no Ersansyr, but she retained a certain danger to her shared by some of her sisters. After all, some of them were more monstrous than others, and Jenn... well, her form was clearly different from one found in the romanticized view most held of Merfolk. She, too, had claws of her own, linked together by webbing and covered in the same iridesceny blue scales as her tail. And her fangs would undoubtedly bring her the chance to tear someone's throat out if they ever got too close.

Two Sithspawns. Two monsters, by the reckoning of some people. But above all, two dear friends, united by more than their similar natures.

The fiery-haired Mandalorian seemed content to hold position for the time being, all but showing off with elegant gestures of her arms and tail as Damsy circled her, evidently trying to divine if she was, in fact, more than merely an illusion. Although not quite as bright as the Sith's own, Jenn's eyes were truly captivating, their luminescent glory easily beckoning lost soul to her with but a gaze.

"I've missed you terribly, vod."

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy knew better than to ruin the moment by asking why.

So she smiled instead, fangs and all, not trying to hide them for once in a long time. She was flattered if she could push away the self-deprecation, which she managed for now.

"You're welcome in Naneti anytime," she said. Damsy assumed, based on the last time that the proper Mandalorian had stumbled to her doorstep, that she had trained her body to deal with aridness better than Jenn's could, but an invitation was always good to make no matter the circumstances that may lay behind it.

"An' not just 'cause you' Spawn. Ya know that, right?"

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Reunite with a dear friend.

Damsy's fanged smile was met with one of her own. Here, neither of them had to worry about being seen as monsters. They were free from the judgement of others, the scorn of the Light, the fear of those who dwelled above. A realm of water and tides brought about freedom, and not a little serenity as well.

"I don't do very well in arid climates", admitted the Ersansyr with a chuckle. "As you might remember. But... I might make an attempt, to spend time with you again." As ever, the words were genuine. Jenn had always taken immense pride in her ability to speak the truth, to let honesty guide her - and now was no different. Luminescent and otherworldly as her gaze may be, there was no mistaking the warmth behind it. No matter how she may have acted during their first meeting, there was no accusation, no reproach, no distaste. No call of Dar'manda or Dar'vod.

"I know", whispered the Mandalorian softly. "It's been some tough times. And I still... try to follow the Resol'nare, to do things right. But- I am not ready to turn my back on my friends. Neither you, nor Alina, or even the Jedi I have grown to call such."

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

Something struck Damsy like a sneaker wave on shore.

She didn't know why she had never thought about it before, but the way that Jenn spoke about being pulled in two directions that seemed at times, or maybe always, to juxtapose each other reminded her of herself. These days, her internal struggle was similar in its basic concept. The ghosts of Coruscant's Jedi followed her everywhere, even now that she had grown to accept her Sithspawn nature in ways that she had once never imagined could be accessible to her.

Still, Kamino wasn't the only call that she lost the sleep she didn't need but wanted anyway by waiting up at night, anticipation acid at the bottom of her stomach and heart. Ashla still called to her too.

Damsy was still jealous that Kai ( Kai Bamarri ) had been able to heed it. She had no idea of his fate, which also proved how unfit of a would-be mother she was, as if she needed any further proof of her failures.

In Jenn's words, Damsy was trying to follow Qotsisajak, to do things right by her own lineage, but she wasn't ready to turn her back on the Light either. She often wondered if she ever would. She couldn't see that maybe that was alright. Ironic, then, perhaps, that the Siren replied, "That's real kind, but don't let me get in the way o' your code. I understand, Jenn. It usta mean a lot to me too." Sooner or later, one's affiliation would find its own tidal pattern. Not every one flowed as freely as another's, but whatever the strength of the undertow, one would be wiser to sail rather than swim with the current.

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Reunite with an old friend.

Jenn could see where things were heading, and she refused to entertain that thought. That webbed, scaled, and above all clawed hand of hers soon came to rest on her friend's shoulder, her gaze locked with the Sith's own. "I'm not giving up on my friends that easily." There was a finality to her voice, a firmness that would perhaps remind Damsy of the days when she seemed so sure of herself, a firebrand Crusader whose devotion had taken her to the Sithspawn in Coruscant - and later to the stronghold of a Dark Lord of the Sith - out of respect for the importance of one's heritage in the form of beskar. Distant days, now.

"Even Dar'manda can one day return to us", she continued after a pause. "So speaks the Jorhaa'ir, whose wisdom eclipses my own. But... that's not what I want us to talk about. We all have our paths to walk, Damsy. And I won't begrudge you the steps you take. I would be a poor friend if I did, wouldn't I?" There it was again- that fanged smirk of hers, so full of mischief. Evidently, Jenn had changed since their first meeting, and even more, perhaps, since their last encounter on Naneti.

"You're a good soul. And I can hardly believe that Kamino brought us together after so long without reason. What called you here, Damsy?" There was a touch of concern to her voice, tempered by curiosity, as she began to swim around her friend, displaying her own elegance with her fin. Drinking in the sight of her fellow Sithspawn from all angles.

​

Damsy Callat
​

 

[Damsy Callat]

Even Dar'manda can one day return to us...

"I know," Damsy said. She didn't know if she had any desire to, but she knew nonetheless.

I would be a poor friend if I did...

The Siren gave a half-hearted smile. Sure, that much was true. It was the kind of acceptance that Damsy hoped she could say she exuded. For many people she had met since embracing the Darkside, it didn't mean much. They seemed to doubt her intensions were coexistence and failed to at the very least really, truly tolerate her, let alone meet her where she was without asking her to move.

Hearing sentiments spill from Jenn's lips that had many times overtopped her own, Damsy found them strange sounds indeed. If they were floods of compassion, she had at once forgetting how to swim. Maybe that was why Jedi and civilians alike were scared of her. A relatively soft Sith, speaking to the strength of diversities of thought, of allegiance, of emotional control, was as mutant as a shi'ido-human hybrid. It must have struck their hearts as a catastrophe that stole away their most natural instincts of mutual goodness.

What called you here?

"I hear the magma under her surface in my dreams," she began. "The moon pulls it 'round in tides, like the ocean, but slow." She ran her fangs softly over her bottom lip. "I was created 'ere. Spent the first twenty years of my life swimmin'. Wasn't technically 'lone," she shrugged, "but sure felt like I was lot o' the time. The company of Kaminoans ain't so, uh, warm, nor are these waters. I didn't know 'ow to sleep back then, so all life was to me was huntin' and periodically goin' to Tipoca for medical tests.

"Ever since leavin' the Confederacy, I've been draggin' my connection to this place out. When I made a home on Kesh, I thought I wouldn't be the least tempted to come back to visit." She shrugged again. "Guessed wrong."

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Reunite with an old friend.

"I know."

That was all Jenn needed to move past the matter with a respectful nod. She was not here as a member of the Mandokarla, but as a friend - still earnest in her concern for Damsy, perhaps more so than before, now that she was... changed, in many different ways. The Ersansyr could see her friend's half hearted smile, and, although blind to the wider context, the Mandalorian felt... so very sorry for her.

But it was when she spoke of her past on Kamino that she found it in herself to stop circling her, her graceful motion interrupted - and she merely floated before her fellow Sithspawn in shock. In a way, Damsy was... a truer Merfolk than her, spending so many years of her life within the embrace of a world's ocean. But Kamino was not Scarif. A vast ocean that lacked warmth, stormy seas, and cold, clinical inhabitants. Evidently, this planet's hold on her friend was far from the intimate bond she felt with Scarif, the gentle song calling her to the warm waters... but it was, nevertheless, a call the Sith could not ignore. And this, she understood more than others.

"You can't ignore the call. But... answering it will give you no closure. Can I do - anything? There has to be something we can do. You helped me when I needed it so desperately. I would help you, too."

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

Yes, there had to be something they could do. She had been swimming away from the very fact, but it was high time to stop.

Damsy sighed and then closed her eyes. She reached out into the Force, feeling around with her for intuition she was ready to no longer ignore.

"Damsy."

She opened her eyes to see Naroh Se sitting cross-legged before her, not just on land but under the blinding florescent lights of the capital complex. A wide open book balanced in her lap.

"Do you remember the story of Naimih Has? Do you remember why you can never go there?"

Damsy opened her physical eyes and came back into reality. She glanced at Jenn. "There is a place that could hold answers," she shook her head, "but it'll be dangerous." Before she could say that she didn't want Jenn to come, she stopped herself. It would be disrespectful, from the little bit of Mando'a etiquette that the Siren held herself to still, but also, truthfully, Damsy was more frightened to go alone than she was to put her friend in mutual danger.

"Naimih Has. It's said to be the deepest ocean trench on Kamino. Saberjowls don't 'unt past a certain depth, which is to say I don't know what creatures live down there."

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Oya!

Jenn observed her friend as she closed her eyes, quiet and contemplative. Although her own bond to the Manda (and spirituality in general) remained tenuous at best, she had always been respectful of the Mandokarla and the Jedi - not quite as much when it came to the Sith, to be sure, but Damsy was something of a special case to her, after all. A sister who had found herself wandering off the path and along a trail of her own making, perhaps, but a sister nonetheless. One day, she might just walk alongside the Mando'ade once more.

"We hunt together", came the Ersansyr's response after her dear friend opened her eyes and spoke of a place where they would find answers - and danger. But what was danger, to a Mandalorian, but another trial on one's journey? Jenn felt no hesitation. Even without a debt owed to her fellow Merfolk for the immense help she had given her, the smith would have come to her aid, for no other reason than the fact that they were vode. United by bonds most outsiders could scarcely understand.

"Lead on, Damsy. I'll follow you into the fiery depths of Haran if I have to."

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

The Siren swam up to Jenn and gently put a hand on her shoulder. She nodded. "Sure, but let's 'ope it don't come to that, ay?"

With that, she did lead on, diving down and swimming along the bottom of the ocean where she could trail the fingers on one hand over the top layer of mud. "Obscure Kaminoan myth says that Naimih Has was... like me. Not-not part Shi'ido or even Sith really, but she... did have somethin' inside her." Damsy glanced over at Jenn swimming beside her. "Somethin' not right. Somethin' evil." Though she was fairly certain that Jenn would never reject her, Damsy had gotten used to similar treatment from others. Thus, the expectation was more or less automatic.

Still, she continued the story:

"She was a good geneticist. There was nothing she couldn't do, couldn't create, to the point that science 'lone couldn't 'xplain it. In the decades 'fore the Great Flood, she 'pparently amassed quite the collection of experiments, most of which were aquatic. No one knows for sure if she had anythin' to do wit' the catastrophe, but you ask the right people an' they'll say she did. Changed a 'ole godssdamn world to set her monsters free.

"An' they prolly are. Monsters, that is. I just don't know if I wanna 'unt 'em 'cause of it, y'know?" She shrugged sheepishly, looking at Jenn once more, wondering how unlike a Mandalorian she could possibly be in a day. Damsy knew that she was a monster and so were the Spawn that she saved. If the mythology of the trench was true, like Bogan and Syreni told her it was, whatever lived there would not be that different than the Siren and hers. It was the way of Darkness to offer second chances, especially to the underdogs, to all those in chains figurative or physical. The way Damsy had gotten to see it, altered beings had both types, however their DNA had been changed—by alchemy or science or some other type of deal with a devil.

When Jenn had said that she would follow Damsy to Haran if need be, wasn't she aware that her friend had been born into it?

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Way down we go

Jenn's words belied her intent, her expression - although she gave her friend a nod and an enthusiastic little "Of course!" in response, there was simply no denying the downright predatory look to her, the near-primal glint in those glowing eyes of hers... the measure of a hunter promised satisfaction for her inhuman cravings. A chance to sate those instincts of hers, kept in check with no small amount of effort on her part. And, even if her claws were to stay unbloodied, well... she had the chance to swim along an old friend. Someone who, by all accounts, she should be killing for being dar'jetii. The wretched destroyers of her home.

But, instead, she remained quiet, listening to the tale shared with her by her fellow Sithspawn. So very different from her, yes, but in the end, far more familiar than she would have ever thought possible. "I'm not a Jedi, Dams'ika", came her response to that little comment about there being something evil within her. "I am hardly going to start smiting you where you stand without remorse. Vode an - that means all of us. A lot of us have forgotten, but not me. I remember..."

The proud hunter trailed off, lost in thought. Was she a monster for her nature? Was Damsy? Or had she chosen to become a monster when she embraced her nature as a Sith, just like Alina did? Could she even compare the two, when her Sangnir friend proved to have completely relapsed into her old ways? So many thoughts who, she now realized, could not be quite so easily stilled by the embrace of the ocean. This was not Scarif, where warm waters washed off the worries from the mind, and brought her serenity and peace. This was Kamino, a place that was no more hospitable to Damsy and herself than a desert world might be.

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy gave another smile, this one teasing when paired with what she said next. "Yeah, too bad," she began, agreeing than Jenn wasn't a Jedi.

Her face fell back into a serious countenance. "But I think we could school the Jedi, you an' me."

She was silent then too, unwilling to keep talking on that point. She didn't know if Jenn had any reason to want that. Hell, she didn't even know if she herself wanted to give it another try. Coruscant had been inhospitable to her people in the long run, which was the fault of both the constant threat of Jedi and her unaddressed nature. Going back, or even just opening up a dialogue with some of those at the Temple, would mean confronting her failures, and the ghosts of those she had let herself lose.

Damsy spoke again in a few minutes as they came upon an undersea ridge. "We're here." She flexed her tail to propel herself faster than she had been swimming up to one of the jagged rocks. Her talons latched into fractures on the face and to them she anchored herself. She looked upwards into the calm abyss for one, two, three moments until a thick puff of black smoke rose from the other side of the ridge.

"Black smokers," she explained once Jenn had joined her. "They ring the trench. Real hot water. Not easy to breathe neither. The chit'll get stuck in your gills." At least, that last bit had been one of Naroh Se's scare tactics. It worked after all this time, for Damsy was not willing to test the truth of it. There were times to take warnings with a grain of salt and others to not even think about it.

Jenn Kryze

 

[Jenn Kryze]

​

| Location | Kamino
| Objective | Way down we go

Although Jenn welcomed the chance to share some banter with Damsy, the topic was... ill-fated. Since their last meeting, the Mandalorian had not only overcome her distaste for the would-be peacekeepers, but formed enduring bonds of friendship with them as well: in spite of her enduring friendship with Damsy and Alina, the Ersansyr's ties to the Light were far greater than she had first anticipated. A good thing, too, given how tempting the alluring whispers of Dromund Kaas proved to be during her latest visit... oh, the things they promised her!

Jenn's tail was a thing of beauty and grace, to be sure, but of raw strength as well. It took but two firm kicks to bring her right next to Damsy, watching the black smoke rising as her friend explained the danger over to her. Running a clawed finger over her gills absent-mindedly, she chewed on her lips, the gears in her head almost visibly turning before she finally turned to face her friend. "I assume you've got a plan? Rushing it and hoping for the best isn't exactly conducive to success, here."

​

Damsy Callat ​

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy nodded.

"It ain't much," she commented regarding her plan. "Observe the timin', watch for an openin', take it. From there...? Hells, Jenn, I dunno. I ain't been—"

The smell of blood drifting towards them on the deep sea currents, only detectable through wafts of sulfur and cinders every so often. Somewhere no too far off but just out of the mermaids' long sights, an aiwha had just been killed.

"Smell that?" she asked only somewhat rhetorically. "Let's check it out."

Damsy led the way, skirting a wide berth around the trench, into the aquatic horizon about a fourth of a kilometer to a lone rock formation teeming with life, even as it reeked of death. The Kaminoan native dove over it and, batting away seaweed and scavengers, revealed the body of the sea-whale she had smelled. "Looks like a..." she began, swimming around the corpse to appraise its wounds, "saberjowl did this." She glanced up to the opening of the formation. It wasn't small but it also wasn't large. There was no way such a predator could fit down here. It must have realized that and left in search of more prey.

Her eyes found Jenn's. "Musta heard you ask for a plan." She didn't want to disrespect the ocean's gifts, but she also didn't want to waste an aiwha's death. If it's body couldn't sustain a saberjowl, then maybe it could help them.

Jenn Kryze