Arrival on Ossus

[Iden Farlander]

The way the Sith, or rather Atraxis as she now knew him by name, had used the force to manipulate and force the rocks to unite to his will was...unsettling. The way he controlled the force was unnatural and crude. It was—dare she say it—an abomination. The darkness that permeated from within him, that she could feel spreading throughout the entire cave as he tapped into his force abilities sent chills down her spine.

The work was accomplished, but she would have preferred to have done this task alone rather than to endure the unnatural use of the force from the Sith beside her.

Finished with their work, Iden felt the Sith’s eyes upon her and shifted uncomfortably under his strong gaze, unaccustomed to being “summed up” by Sith. “Not as worthless as I assumed all Jedi to be.”

“High praise indeed,” Iden replied with dry humor.

Once the Sith had moved back towards the hallways, Iden crossed to the other side of the cave, where the twi’lek presently stood. With the Sith’s words of advice to Tsara in mind, Iden placed a gentle, unassuming hand on Tsara’s shoulder. “I leave you to make up your own mind,” she said quietly, staring into the twi’lek’s deep blue eyes. “But you might try becoming one with the force rather than manipulating it.”

With that, Iden took a step back from Tsara, her hand returning to her own side and allowing Tsara to follow Atraxis into the hallways of the cave.

@Tsara Tarr @Red Pyramid

 

[Tsara]

Sound advice from the Jedi, given that manipulating the Force had always been akin to a wrestling match, or an argument with something far greater than she was. Save the more influence based elements. There was something called a Mind Trick, to where what you said, or commanded, the subject of the trick did.

Tsara could never command with the Force that way, but could use the trick on a subtler, softer level, by implying her desires with questions, leading through allusions. Always tedious, it at least was something she could do with the Force, something she could enact without being fought by it.

So, manipulation was likely out of the question, but communion was a potential avenue that would loosen the Force up a little in regards to her person, maybe. Yet, Atraxis seemed very confident in leading her through some sort of meditation, so why not give his method a try first?

Acknowledged Iden's remark with a nod, Tsara followed after Atraxis.

"And so, I begin..." a word begged to finish that sentence as the silence following hinted at a lack of completion. Tsara denied it.

'Again' would imply Odzerah.

No one needed to know about Odzerah.

Atraxis least of all...

@Red Pyramid @llamallove

 

[Atraxis Aburay]

Sat down in the room, looking at Tsara closely as he took in her state. She seemed to be having a bit of emotional turmoil, something was effecting her and causing her to shy away from him on some level. It was as if she was hiding something from him, something she believed to be terrible and would change something. He couldn't help but from beneath his mask, yet something came to mind that his father once taught him.

"Atraxis, this life can fill one with anger and resentment and they can lead you down some very dark paths my son. You must understand this is a small world in a much larger galaxy which is part of an ever expanding universe. Those feelings are a part of everyone and everything and you must learn to understand them and then face them in order to absolve yourself of them. Do not let you judgement, or your faith, be shaken by such hollow feelings." his father would say as he held the young boys shoulders, giving him a reassuring smile.

"In this life, you must do your best and practice acceptance and understanding. Replacing hatred and anger with love and acceptance. You are a strong boy, and I know you will be a strong man. Help those who need it when they need it, and you will gain friends the likes you have never known. Just be honest with yourself my son."

Atraxis could not stop the memory, but it did bring a smile to his face. He pulled off the mask, and pulled back his hood to expose his face to her. His soft pale yellow eyes looking over Tsara. "Tsara, sit with me. I can feel something is bothering you, I......want to listen. I give you my word that I shall listen to all you have to say, no matter what it is. You may not have known me for very long, but I assure you I am a man of my word. I shall not betray it to anyone." he said as he held out a single hand for her, to take or refuse at her choice. He would not force her to do anything, but she had asked for his trust and he would give it all to her. Now he simply asked for the same.

@Tsara @Iden Farlander ​

 

[Tsara]

The request from Atraxis did not please Tsara one bit. Her face soured in a rare break from its mask of placidity. Her blue eyes glared, and her lips pursed, then, the expression softened, and order returned. Kneeling down, blue eyes directed on the floor, Tsara appeared pensive, thoughtful as she began to speak.

“In the far corners of the Galaxy...”

-”BETWEEN BEIGE PROSE”-
A Star Wars: Fires Of Rebellion Story​

“In the far corners of the Galaxy, there are bastions of quiet only disturbed by the designs of ambition; old worlds and older knowledge sought after. I was not alone in my captivity, in my want to escape from the shadows of a crumbling tyranny..."

A dome shaped chamber. A circled gathering of black clad teenagers with a battle in their midst.

"Not much more than children, we knew little, understood even less passed ourselves, and what we perceived we lacked...”

A Twi’lek girl, barely over sixteen watches a massive, powerful Zabrak (their master) knockout a Rodian student he is sparring with, looming over his fallen form with a dubious smirk, a smugness in his eyes. The Twi’lek girl looks away, and finds that her other master, a grinning Mirialan, is elated by the brutality of the student’s defeat. A hand clasps her shoulder, and the Twi’lek girl turns to find the pale yellow eyes of a Corellian, already turning, already more powerful than the rest of the students.

A smile on his lips. An anger in his sulfurous gaze, he squeezes the Twi’lek girl’s shoulder before being signaled to face their Zabrak master by the Mirialan. He charges full speed in, Lightsaber snap-hissing to life.

“...and how strong did we feel!”

The young Corellian is, eventually, beaten, but not before giving their master a hard fight; he is dragged back unconscious by his fellow students. The Twi’lek girl is given a ‘come hither’ gesture from the ebony cloaked Zabrak. Fear in her eyes, a quivering to her lips, the Twi’lek girl ignites her red Lightsaber, and reluctantly walks into a fight she can’t win.

A few swift swings, abrupt reposts, and the Twi’lek girl’s Lightsaber is sent flying from her grasp. The Zabrak instructor looks disappointed, then grows enraged, sweeping an upward arcing strike that slashes her left cheek open.

Dropping to her knees, deep blue eyes that once gaped in terror are shut fast, tears streaming. The girl clutches her cheek as she scrambles away from the Zabrak, who, calls another up to face him.

“It was a fragile thing, our pride, and a stronger thing the ideal that was set for us to follow...”

The Corellian, now revived, holds the Twi’lek girl close as she cries into his shoulder. The boy looks at his master much more with the air of a man made cross.

“In the face of failing, only furies can discern intent from the delusions we harbored within our hearts and minds. Not only was our impotent rage ever silent, but smoldering beneath the surface, biding, a prelude to a fissure, was our pain.”

The Twi’lek girl raises her head, and locks eyes with the Corellian, then going cheek to cut cheek, whispers, her lips brushing his ear.

“The sway of hips. The wink of an eye. The smile that leads one to believe in that which is not actually promised. aspiration’s faith is founded on such things. Needs them to be. Regardless of whether something is empty, false, the Galaxy moves on assumptions, on jealousy and envy, on hope as well...”

In his chambers, asleep, the Zabrak instructor leaps out of bed when an explosion blows the door in of his quarters. The candle eyed Corellian boy leads the charge, students pouring in behind him as the Zabrak instructor calls his Lightsaber to hand, ignites it, and meets the rushing onslaught with a look of horror, of doubt in his once smug stare.

“...at what great speed are such objects propelled.”

He is overwhelmed as his Mirialan counterpart in the communications chamber several levels above makes a last second recording, turning about in time to face the students swarming in for her. She makes short work of many, but is eventually overwhelmed as well, her head rolling clear of a mob that then turns suddenly upon itself.

“Once a venture is fully attained, alliances soon break, and all betrayals are noble in their moment of decision...”

The Corellian is now slicing a panel, unlocking a thick, durasteel door that opens into a close room with a hatch, he steps ahead of the same Twi’lek girl he held before, and a Lightsaber snap-hisses to life, the crimson blade issuing through his torso. He falls, and the Twi’lek girl steps over his dead body, dropping her Lightsaber on his back as she activates the airlock, and enters the ship docked beyond.

“In the far corners of the Galaxy, there are bastions of quiet only disturbed by the designs of ambition...”

The ship pulls away from a massive asteroid, the Twi’lek girl in the cockpit, buckled next to the droid pilot, regards the installation built there one last time. When the ship banks, she looks out at the planet that the installation orbited, her blue eyes widening, beholding such a chaotic wonder. Then the ship jumps to hyperspace.

“...but they are best kept, best left, in their quiet...”

-End.​

Looking up, Tsara regarded Atraxis presently. Expectantly.

@Red Pyramid @llamallove

 

[Atraxis Aburay]

Atraxis could feel her swirling emotions as they sat close to each other, the force providing him the answers he sought with each swell of her emotional memories. The Pain and anguish, the horrors she endured and the actions she took to ensure her escape. Every rocking moment of her past was felt in vivid detail. The force ensured it, as if taking some form of pleasure in plying heavy emotion upon him, rocking him to his core as he knelt there before her. His eyes widening before narrowing at lashes of pain, her own memories and the feelings she had about them had brought up memories of his own past.

His pain was felt freshly, the lash of the whip and the scorching suns upon his naked back. 23 years of repression, all bottled deep inside him clawed at him from just beneath the skin. Angry and in pain, his inner demons sought to ruin and destroy all that brought him discomfort. Burning, brutal pain sounded with the crack of the whip or the prod of the shock baton. Pushing him to work harder, to push fast, or to till the fields longer.

Such was the pain of his life, such was the pain of all slaves forced to work the fields and mines on Celanon. Atraxis looked at her, fury like lightning in his eyes as he reached out, and took her hand softly. He let out a shuddering sigh.

"Such....feelings. I am sorry Tsara, you should not have had to relive that. It is my fault, a failure on my part to understand you at a deeper level without such brash and reckless questions. I would not fault you for hating me now, for wanting to harm me for what I have forced upon you. The Sith teach us, that such things will feed us and make us powerful. That hate and anger will only give us more power, but I find this method is flawed. Hatred and Rage may give you power, but it makes you wild like a beast lashing out at anyone and anything that causes you grievance."

He stroked her hand softly in his own, his eyes looking over her scars as one hand reached out, running a finger along one. Recognizing the marks of lightsabers. He pulled off his robes and his chest piece, revealing his burns and brands from the electrowhips and the devices they used to torture slaves with for their amusement.

"I was a slave on Celanon, born into it I was raised by my father. I was beaten, whipped and tortured all for the amusement of my masters. It was the only life I knew, full of pain and suffering. I am Atraxis Aburay, but when I was born my mother discarded me to my father. I do not know her name, nor would my father tell me about her even to his dying breath. I am a bastard, I am a Slave Child. I tilled the fields, I pushed mine carts and I served as target practice for ignorant Free Children. I broke my chains, and used the remains to choke the life from my former tormentors. The person who branded me on my 15th birthday was given a brand of his own when my Force awoke." he said as he reached up, and pulled up some hair to reveal his barcode brand to her.

"I am Sith, I can not change that fact and I embrace it. But I shall not be defined by my past, I will crush it beneath my heel. Grinding it to dust as I create my own path in the galaxy with my own hands. Nothing shall hold me back, nothing will ever chain me again. I will make my own bonds, and I will find my own answers. Hopefully.....with you at my side, my friend or I would hope to call you that in the future." he said before he began to put his armor back on slowly. Leaving the mask to the side he faced her.

"My past, as dark as it was, forged me into what I am today. As much as I hate it, as much as I want to crack the bones of every slaver on Celanon and drink the marrow from their veins in vengenance, I can only thank them for making me what I am. I am Powerful. And I shall not be Denied any longer."

"You and I, we are more than them."

@Tsara ​

 

[Tsara]

Getting Atraxis' life statement was revealing, but appreciated. His life story, though sad, was also appreciated. He was a Sith in spite of what the Sith had done to him. A hard thing for her to understand, and accept, but she did understand that many in the Galaxy at large took suffering and wrongs in stride, as axiomatic to the process of living. It didn't dissuade them from interacting with the very sources of their abuse. Some, like Atraxis, embraced the damaging aspect, and forged it into a driving (no pun intended) force, as well as a stabilizing pillar.

Was she so different? The vaguely told tale of her time at Odzerah, what she'd learned, and done there was still her modus operandi in the present. Influencing through language, and body language since she lacked so much strength when it came to the Force itself.

Knowing considerably more about the Sith now, and who he was, there was a stronger sense of trust between them. A stronger sense of security.

She had desperately needed that.

Tsara was tired of being alone in her travels through the Galaxy.

"The past is an anchor for who we have become, the experiences gained from it our respective foundations, but present endeavors cannot be sought by looking behind..." she began with a deliberate, meticulous cadence, tone low and even. "...this meditation you wish to instruct me in, shall we begin?"

OOC: is there anything else the three of us want to pursue in this thread, or are we all in agreement that we've completed our respective goals? If not, cool, we'll continue, otherwise, let's call it a wrap, and either create different thread stories on Ossus if we still want to write together, or separate ones representing other encounters down the road. Let's keep in touch!

@llamallove @Red Pyramid

 

[Atraxis Aburay]

*I believe this is the End of this Thread as Well*

Atraxis Exit-​