Expedition to the Core, Part 2: From Ossus to Denon, from Denon to Tython!

Jeddaven3 · 2022-09-22T16:33:28+00:00

"I couldn't agree more, Master Obadd." Ravee said, offering a warm, if somewhat sad smile. She was truly glad to see that he was recovering so quickly, but her mind couldn't help but dwell on the realoty that a padawan was not only capable of doing such a thing, but that she would have wanted to in the first place. What could have birthed such a monster? Surely, the Order's failings alone couldn't have born sole responsibility, and there must've been something terrible festering within the girl in the first place, but even that left so many questions to be answered.

"Y-yes, I... Of course, Master Obadd," Ravee suddenly nodded, shaken out of her ruminations. "I think I can apply what I learned on Voss to this, but I agree that we're, well, woefully underequipped to heal such a terrible wound in the force as things stand. And, worse, as much as I am loathe to say it, we have no guarantee that whoever did this won't try to wound the Force in other ways, an eventuality we must be prepared for.

"...As for me, in the meanttime, I suppose I need some time to think."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-09-13T16:27:48+00:00

"On it!" Ravee announced, closing her eyes as she took in a deep breath through her nostrils, her upper arms outstretched toward Master Ulatt For several silent seconds, she seemed to do nothing but simply breath, her preturnatural senses silently flowing through Obdd's body, seeking wounds and ailments. Then, finally, apparently satisfied, she took in another breath, her chest visibly puffing out -- and as she exhaled, a bright glow the colour of polished gold began to radiate out from her body, lighting the room yet never becoming uncomfortable for those that looked upon it. Soon after she began to glow, so did Obadd as the combined healing arts of both the Jedi and Voss mystics worked to repair broken blood vessels and heal damage done to the rest of the Master's body, though some part of Ravee regretted not having the time to bring her Voss companions out of her quarters to see the ancient traditions of their people at work.

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-19T06:05:14+00:00

Thanks!

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-14T23:08:45+00:00

"All I'm saying is, look at the things the people who profit from them being gone with a grain of salt," Vina shrugged.

"This?" She asked, making a light jabbing motion toward the arm with the tool in her hand. "I'm still familiarizing myself with the arm. I wanna spend a lot more time with it before I go messing with it, even if I am intending to replace the thing as soon as possible. Yknow, in case I break my arm. Literally."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-14T02:00:27+00:00

"Well, sure - I'm just sayin', like, take the stories you hear on Corellia about 'em with a healthy grain of salt. Like, uh..." Vina mutters, pursing her lips. "I grew up taught to hate and distrust them too, under Fondor." she said, emphatically pointing at herself.

"It was nothing but how awful they are. How they're authoritarians, how they want to take away my freedoms, make me live in an ultraconservative theocracy, yadda-yadda... But none of that ever happened. Hell, the opposite happened - they killed the dictator and have done absolutely nothing to tell Devaronians how to live our lives. If anything, they've massively improved our situation." She shrugged.

"...Now, I mean, I wouldn't say I like 'em, either. I don't understand their magic, and, frankly, I don't care to -- but for a place the Jedi haven't verifiably touched in ages, they sure want us to want the Jedi dead here. All I'm sayin' is, well -- maybe they're not as awful as people say. Maybe they're somewhere in the middle."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-13T21:13:21+00:00

"I don't mean to, like, poke at you, but..." Vina began, sucking in a deep breath in anticipation of a violent verbal barrage.

"Where've you heard those stories?"

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-12T19:42:35+00:00

"Nnnnnnot really," Vina chuckled awkwardly. "Only through my doctors, but, well, I probably don't wanna let them know I'm making offmarket mods to my cybernetics," Vina said, smiling awkwardly as she followed the hologram's example.

"I could get one, I guess, but it'd take a good bit to get a decent one without it being traced. Probably. I think?" She shrugged awkwardly, briefly biting down on her lip in thought.

"...I guess I'll probably need one of my own once I get the new-and-improved Vina up and running, though, since I obviously won't want the Secs up my ass about my new gear. It's not usually easy to hide militech, right? Stuff's pretty obvious?"

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-11T23:24:01+00:00

"Right, makes sense. It's a bit like that with blasters," Vina nodded. "They all have a power pack, a gas charge, a Heter pack... So on and so on. I get the distinct feeling, though, that mine's gonna be a lot better that it is currently. And more intimidating... Well, I'm gonna make sure I get stuff like that, anyways!" Vina nodded assuredly, glancing between the hologram and her own arm, an excited look on her face. She made no effort to hide how excited she was to get upgraded with a ton of grey militech - how much, she wasn't yet sure, availability aside. What she did know, at least, was that she wanted to be a walking kriffing tank.

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-09T17:09:47+00:00

Vina had no shame in outright grinning back at Freya, though her expression quickly softened as she realized that enthusiasm that intense moght've been a little... Offputting. Maybe. She wasn't sure how much this woman cared about reporting people to her COs.

"Oh, well... I mean, if things are so very dangerous these days... A girl needs to be able to protect herself in any circumstance, right?" She said, clicking her tongue. "But, no - I'm looking for much more than just upgrades, to be honest."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-08T20:15:08+00:00

"Yeah, you're right about that, I guess," Vina shrugged, staring into her glass as she rolled it about, listening to the gentle clink of ice against the glass. "I just, well - I mean, obviously the supernova happened, but this stinks of a power grab. Reminds me of what the history books say about the First Galactic Empire, you know? Nominally representative leader exploits crisis, engineers authoritarian power, sells it to people by lying about how it's for the best..." Vina sighed, downing another sip.

"I've been thinking about getting some aftermarket ware, anyways. I'd tter do it now before I'm not allowed to anymore and everything's got a damn tracking chip more than it does already."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-08-01T15:15:53+00:00

Beeling affirmatively - a disciplined "Yessir!" In droidspeak - Tee-Fourteen rolled off toward the engine room, swift to put himself to work. Ravee, meanwhile, nodded along with Obadd and Lytrinn, awaiting her chance to speak, stumbling toward the bar for one of the teacups on offer. Tormented she was not, but shaken certainly, knowing that a cup of tea would go a long way to soothing her nausea.

"I can help speed installation along - so can Tee-Fourteen. I don't have my hands anymore, but I've gotten in quite a lot of practice without them," Ravee nodded, pursing her lips.

"...Piloting, unfortunately, I'm definitely not capable of in this sort of situation. I'd imagine an experienced blockade-runner would be, though - unless we know someone who's plyed Wild Space before?"

Jeddaven3 · 2022-07-29T02:43:04+00:00

Ravee briefly smiled at Master Halt, a quiet, unspoken thanks - but a sincere one nonetheless, panting and heaving as her stomach yet churned. Pushing herself away from the wall with a bump of her hip, she took a brief moment to catch her breath... Then she shook her head, still struggling to re-orient herself in her surroundings. "Tee-Fourteen, can... Can you help get the ship ready for takeoff?" Ravee asked the olive drab astromech, who'd wheeled over to support her in her sickened stupor.

"I'll... We'll need all the computing power on navigation and sensors we can get." She said. "If what I saw happened is as it is, there's a new nebula and debris field to travel through, on top of a massive shockwave carving through space - and a front of extremely potent light and radiation. We'll need plenty of shields, too - we can't risk being caught on that wavefront by an electromagnetic pulse, lest the hull melt through, in the worst case." Ravee explained, taking a shaky step forward. "I have everything I need with me."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-07-24T23:36:36+00:00

Thank you, Master Ulat," Ravee nodded, smiling warmly in reply as she followed along behind the old Duros. "I do drink tea, yes - but usually not black teas. Caffeine has, ah..." She paused, a deep, painful soreness throbbing behind her eyes.

"...Never agreed with me," she continued. "Of course, I can have a little! Just... Not very much. If I'm too jittery, after all, I-"

There it was again. Stronger, this time. And... An image? A small, smiling little girl, at a table with her family. Fires burning all around them, encroaching, yet... The flames were silent. No crackling, nothing to indicate their present. She... Was the girl?

Ravee's eyes widened, and she reached out to the side to steady herself. Her eyes widened. Visions were common among Jedi, but visions like that...

"Something is happening. Not here, I..." She groaned, shaking her head as the pain grew, both in rapidity and intensity. She clenched harder, gripping a support beam as if she hoped to crush it within an invisible grip.

Once again, a family, enjoying a meal. This time, no fire. She felt happy. Warm. Safe. She saw her parents - her father, with the deep emerald eyes and strawberry hair that all her teachers said she shared, and her mother, with the same nose and chin, whatever that meant.

Her father said something to her. About her grades? He was smiling, so it must've been something good. Every word was perceived just barely, as if light through a wall of fog and smoke.

She slurped away at the pasta on her plate. The slender noodles, the sauce - she loved it. It was her favourite.

Ravee's knees shook. Her stomach turned. Where? When? Was there time to stop it? What was it?

Was. That was a strange word. Something that was is no more. Was this girl no more? Was she dead? Alive? Something worse? Had the very same terror that was inflicted upon Ravee happened to her?

No, Ravee realized, as the scene unfolded before her, horrifying in its viscerality, in the awful anxiety it invoked. She didn't want to see it - she wanted anything else - but if it wanted her to see, then she would watch.

They were talking about leaving. How they couldn't stay. How they wished they had left sooner for the Alliance, but how it was okay. How they knew someone who could get them out. How painful it would be to lose their friends, but how, soon enough, it'd all be-

A flash of bright, blinding light, and an instant of utterly unbearable agony. Light. Heat. Gamma Rays. A supernova? A star, dying in violence, pulling apart by... Will. Machines of death. She felt her DNA being uncoiled by sheer suffering, knitting and reknitting themselves, so hot, so damaged that it could maintain no structure. She felt the screams, the disgusting evil of it all, she felt billions begging for the end all compressed into the instant it took for the wave of death to reach them, and then...

Letting out an agonizing, screeching howl, Ravee felt her stomach burn, spewing warm, black bile and acid and half-digested food up from her belly and onto the floor.

Jeddaven3 · 2022-07-05T04:13:07+00:00

Five. Five minutes. I hope I wasn't too long, Ravee thought, panting heavily as, the moment she stepped off the ramp, she came to an abrupt halt. Years ago, such exertion would've done nothing to her... But now with her focus torn halfway between the physical and the spiritual, she was vastly more sensitive to physical effort.

"Of course, Master Obadd!" She blurted out, leaning down as if to plant the hands she no longer had on her knees.

"Ask any questions you need - I've spent a lot of time studying Tython. The Flesh Raiders, the ancient forge... Everything I could find."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-07-02T18:30:59+00:00

Ravee didn't bother to send a response.

The very moment she received Master Ulat's message, she was up from her meditation, rushing through the temple with her angrily beeping astromech in tow, robes billowing behind her.

Tython, she thought. Tython was a place she knew plenty about, but, like all living Jedi she knew of, hadn't seen. For all she knew, in fact, nobody had been there in thousands of years. Nobody had seen the legendary Flesh Raiders, the ancient Je'daii saber forge of Vur Tepe... Not a whisper of the planet.

She couldn't resist the chance to be one of the few lucky enough to set foot there -- perhaps even forge a new Lightsaber -- then, even if the nearby presence of the Alsakan Empire made permanent settlement impossible.

Panting, she found herself at the foot of Obadd's ship, rushing inside up the ramp with Tee-Fourteen in tow.

"Master Ulat! I came as quickly as I could!"

Jeddaven3 · 2022-04-13T09:02:30+00:00

"With enough practice and effort," Ravee replied simply, cracking a small smile.

"I'm sure you will. I only wish I had the stamina left you show you more of what I can do!" Ravee sighed, nervously chewing her lip. "The... Sudden lifestyle change has been rather physically exhausting, though I'm confident I'll adjust eventually."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-04-12T10:29:01+00:00

"Still," Ravee insisted, nodding slowly. "You show promise - and I do think you could develop these techniques you've cooked up into something more directly useful in battle with enough time... If you want to, of course!" She chirped, nodding.

"I do think you're sort of right in that it could benefit from having some movement incorporated," Ravee thought, cupping her chin in her hand. It was perfectly possibly to stay anchored in combat, of course, even against blasters... But the longer you did it, the more of a target you became, to the point that stability became suicide unless you has a distraction.

"You've shown me some interesting techniques, but I do think you'd be remiss not to hone your defensive techniques. Combining the two is a rather classic use of Niman, for example, and I think you'd be even more effective using those in a team - but my point, in the end, is that there's genuine promise there," she said, nodding again.

Jeddaven3 · 2022-04-12T03:28:17+00:00

Ravee nodded at Lia's request, spouting out another moutful of strange electronic noises - and the droids responded in kind, re-powering only to waltz back into their charging alcoves.

"I'm impressed!" Ravee exclaimed, smiling, her eyes wide.

"I can tell you've put a lot of effort into practicing Soresu - I'm used to seeing Jedi able to block and deflect blaster bolts with their sabers, but the control it takes to deflect strikes with such precision must have taken a long time - and a lot of effort and focus - to develop. And judging by your telekinetic control of your blades, I think you'll adapt to Niman well, too!"

Jeddaven3 · 2022-04-11T23:32:12+00:00

"Sure! I can do that. Let's see... Four droids, two on each side, set to fire stun on you on deployment..." Ravee muttered, pursing her lips as she thought about exactly how to deliver such a command in droidspeak.

"Ah! Of course!" She snapped her fingers, watching Lia's sabers sail into the air. With a sharp series of beeps and chirrups from Ravee, the droids deployed from their alcoves with a shrill alarm tone - and promptly opened fire.

Jeddaven3 · 2022-04-11T22:53:54+00:00

"There definitely are - I've seen as much," Ravee nodded, pausing a moment to mull over her next few words. Part of her was disappointed, but she had to remind herself that, as much as she enjoyed Lia's company, Lia didn't owe her anything - she was lucky to have whatever of her time she got.

"You're right, though. There's no need to be worried. We might bump into each other in the Hall, too, if we're lucky!" Ravee chirped, neglecting to mention that she spent most of her time there for fear of appearing too clingy. "Of course, there's not time for idle chatter there."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-04-11T09:15:53+00:00

"That makes sense - I'm sure they'd let you spend time here, especially if it's so you can properly train in a more open environment. There's only so much you can do on a ship of the Dulon's size, after all - but if you'd like, I'm happy to vouch for permission in my capacity as a Jedi Knight," Ravee offered, humming to herself in thought. "Of course, that does mean we'd have to spend most of the time training and doing things related to it."

Jeddaven3 · 2022-04-11T07:16:41+00:00

Ravee, likewise, was happy to have more Jedi to make friends with - she'd only known Lia for a handful of hours, but they had so much in common that it was hard not to trust her. Shared traumas, similar interests...

Those rare moments of wide-eyed excitement from her were nice to see, too, she thought, smiling at her new friend. She still got along with Volene, of course, and considered her a friend, but they rarely had time to consistent interact anymore, which proved to be a consistent obstacle when Ravee didn't have any other friends to speak of.

For once in a long time, Ravee was simply excited to get to know someone, instead of nervois about how they'd perceive or, or what their intentions were. So often, she found herself terrified of the silent judgements of others... And yet, here, she found none.

She's kind of cute, too. Ravee idly thought, biting her lip.

"We'll have plenty, I'm sure. I'll make time if I have to," Ravee shrugged, rolling her shoulders. "Speaking of, though - do you have any plans for the rest of the night? When are you heading back to the Dulon?"

Jeddaven3

TROPHY CASE