Hoth: Blood and Ice

The base and the two united groups would be at the most risk in the night if the pirates would want to take advantage of the situation now. And Kat would rather not be caught unawares if she could help it.

So dressed in her armor and weather-protected Jedi robes, she patrolled the area of the base, keeping an eye out for dangers to the expedtion.

Her only company, thus far, was some kind of rodent lizard thing that sat on a box nearby to eat at some scraps it had found.

She regarded the small creature in silence, marvelling at how life managed to find a way even on a snowball of a planet.

"Looking for warmth and food too, huh?" Kat murmured to the being. "Be careful, you might become food yourself."

The rodent lizard made a sound, "Squibble, squibble." Then it set itself to eating, every now and then looking back and forth for possibly predators. Movements were quick, as it tried to consume its bounty.

She smiled a little as she glanced to the creature a couple of times as she surveyed the area, also keeping on the look of predators herself.

Then there was a sinking feeling of sorts. No... that wasn't it. The faint sounds of the Force of this planet, something changed. Something was different. Kat stood to her feet, focusing on the discordance in the Force. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck standing up, and a trickle of cold sweat there - as if she was a prey becoming aware of a predator on their territory as well.

For a moment she felt as if someone was looking into her mind? Her very being down to the atoms... everything scrutinized.

OOC: Discipline versus 3 red and 3 purple (3eC+3eD)

It was unlike anything she had felt before, her mental barriers suddenly overcome with this unknown force...

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D1 EN Discipline/Willpower against ????: 2eP+1eA+3eC+3eD 3 failures

Whatever it was... it was strong in the Force. Drawing on the Dark and Light but all malice which seemed contradictory.

She did get an impression from the brief moment, whatever it was was looking for, it was seeking someone... maternal.

((guess I don't need to start my own EN thread after all, then!))

It's a subtle shift, from a seated restorative trance close enough to sleep (not much point lying down, in the stiff armor currently keeping her body heat in), to still but alert wakefulness. Still, the change in Tethy's energy is obvious enough, especially to other Jedi like Kat.

"What," she murmurs after a moment, unevenly, "is that."

--

D1 EN--Malevolent mystery vs. Discipline, unless that was only targeting Kat in which case ignore me: 2eP+2eA+3eC+3eD 3 failures, 1 Despair




(Tethys also has Calming Aura fwiw, though as written I'm not sure that does anything for Force stuff where a power's not actually being rolled)

Tethys Carrack wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 14, 2022 2:44 pm

((guess I don't need to start my own EN thread after all, then!))

It's a subtle shift, from a seated restorative trance close enough to sleep (not much point lying down, in the stiff armor currently keeping her body heat in), to still but alert wakefulness. Still, the change in Tethy's energy is obvious enough, especially to other Jedi like Kat.

"What," she murmurs after a moment, unevenly, "is that."

--

D1 EN--Malevolent mystery vs. Discipline, unless that was only targeting Kat in which case ignore me: 2eP+2eA+3eC+3eD 3 failures, 1 Despair




(Tethys also has Calming Aura fwiw, though as written I'm not sure that does anything for Force stuff where a power's not actually being rolled)

She has dealt with nosy force users before trying to feel her thoughts and emotions. This is something more… aggressive, focused, and disciplined but also there are hints of instability. Something is broken, not broken, like a bird with wings that allow it to fly but somehow clipped to keep it from soaring at full potential.

For a brief moment she searches the mind, like a Krayt Dragon searching for prey.

She finds something.

The memory is still fresh, the song… the movements, the dance.

A voice ripples through the molecules of her mind, her spine… reverberating through her blood.

“Hello Mother, found you,” it seems almost playful if not so sinister.

Then the presence is gone.

OOC: Despair used.

A mother...?

But it's not her. No, she knew her own child would not feel like this.

"Tethys," Kat's voice gasped breathily as she felt herself snap out of the discordant presence in the Force. "... You felt it too?"

"Yes." Tethys's voice is a bit higher than usual, uneven in pitch. "A lost... child? Something strong, something bent out of true."

She draws several slow, measured breaths; when she speaks again, her voice is closer to its usual timbre. "I'm not sure I've ever felt a mind this strong. Even Dark Side entities and Sith sorcerers..." She swallows. "Darth Zash wouldn't be its equal."

There could only be one fitting of that description.

"Then I worry we already have less time to face the coming danger that's been looming on the horizon. The Daughter of the Dragon must be on this world already, or close to it," she spoke with a grim realization. "The late Grand Master warned me just earlier this evening of an impending threat... I had thought we had at least until the morning to speak with everyone..."

The Force worked in mysterious ways, so a warning through the Force wasn't unheard of for a Jedi. "It must be this discord that we've been feeling in the Force in recent times."

"The Daughter of the Dragon?" It's clear this title isn't familiar to Tethys. "There was something... something like a dragon about the presence, I suppose. More feminine than masculine or agender." She moves a hand as if to rub the bridge of her nose--then drops it again when she realizes it's the chilly duramesh of her armored glove that she'd be touching to her bare face.

"Who is the Dragon? What did Master Thul tell you?"

With a gesture for Tethys to sit down beside her, Kat indicated that there was a lot to go over. "You know of the growing discord in the Force, yes? The troubling danger approaching we all have been feeling."

As they both settled in for the conversation, she shared of how the Grand Master had appeared to her on Alderaan, urging her to go to Hoth where she would need to be. Then later that she saw Resmi before her again earlier that evening. "She said that us gathered here needed to find our best selves, and overcome the trials ahead. Not just here on Hoth, but beyond. That we could not wait for the dawn to dispel it - but that we had to be the dawn ourselves. From the moment the Emperor was unleashed from his physical form and his spirit dispersed they have been growing in the Force, she told me... and assured me that she was with us, watching over us still, before she faded."

She took a break, letting it sink in for them both as she summarized the events. "I learned from one who had been having visions through the Force, that there was a danger approaching, called the Dragon. And some who mentioned a daughter of the Dragon." Kat shook her head as she was still trying to piece it all together too.

"As you said, it felt feminine... perhaps this is it?"

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OOC: I see now that I derp'ed on the timeslots and Kat didn't learn about the Daughter of the Dragon until MN. But we'll roll with it like this now.

((Haha, oops! Well, whatever you're comfortable with.... Tethys will never know Kat's been time traveling. ))

"The Emperor." Tethys swallows down her unease, frowning intently. "So it really was too good to be true--that he died in a simple coup after controlling his Empire for so long. Everyone wondered, but for so long there were no obvious signs. I really hoped..." She huffs out a breath, a pained sigh.

Tethys sits quietly with Kat's story for a bit. The still pause might make some beings uneasy, but it's the sort of thing most Jedi are used to, even the ones who don't have the habit themselves.

"I don't know what more we can do with this knowledge except be ready to face the test," she says at length, shaking her head a little. "Unless... if we can get comms back, communicate with the librarians on Tython, they might find something. Or not. Even the Jedi archives aren't infinite." She casts a look at Kat in case the other woman has a more useful idea.

"The presence is looking for something. Her mother? Could that be the Dragon?" Something about that doesn't feel quite right, though. Whatever the foreign consciousness that pressed into Tethys's mind had been seeking, she(?) seemed to think of her(??) target more like prey than something powerful and dangerous in its own right.

"I don't know..." she frowned, clearly disliking not having all the pieces. But if there was one thing Kat had showed during the attempted coup on Alderaan, she was very good and collecting, assembling, and sharing information. If she knew, she would share it.

"I don't think we'll have time to call a meeting of sorts for this, but rather inform our allies and fellow Jedi as needed when our paths cross? It seems we are all keeping rather busy in our current situation."

And she'd rather avoid a conflict like last time.

"Better not to have a large gathering of Jedi under these circumstances, anyway." Tethys agrees, still audibly tense. "It would be... obvious. To everyone." Including their high-ranking Sith neighbors.

"Yeah. We don't need more tension," she agreed with a wry smile. "I'll see if I can speak with Master Thy later, pass on this information to her. Knowledge will be key to our survival."

Tethys nods, then adds an affirmative "Mmm" when she realizes the small gesture might not be very obvious in the dimmed night-lighting.

"There's someone here with the mercenaries I need to speak to in the morning. I'm not sure--I can't quite explain, but if I can find her, I think she might know something." A wisp of music, a half-remembered dance--Tethys doesn't even know the woman's name, but there aren't that many castaways staying in the base. She should be able to find her. "I have a feeling she'll be skittish. But if I do learn anything, you'll know."

She unfolds her crossed legs and stretches them out in front of her, leaning back on her hands and shifting cold joints. No stars overhead, just icy gray ceiling. "I told the Sith leader, Darth Baras, that I trust the Jedi here not to make the first aggressive move. That was... it was mostly true."

"I have complete faith in you, Tethys. And I would have said that even if you were not a fellow Jedi." The tall woman had always given the impression of being thoughtful, sensible, and considerate, so Kat felt no reason to doubt her at all. The galaxy needed more people like her, she felt.

Her own breath intermixed with the warmth of the armor's heating system, creating wispy warm clouds visible in the cool air. "Mostly true?" Kat looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "... Are you worried about someone specific?"

"Not really," Tethys admits. "But Zyn and Po can be... unpredictable. And I don't know Jub'Lub well yet, though he seems steady." She hasn't worked closely with Zayne before or since the crisis on Alderaan, but he's never given her the impression of being terribly likely to launch trouble. Ironically, given events in the near future, Layne isn't on her list of worries either, nor is her cousin Daz--hard to cause a holonet flamewar when they don't even have interplanetary comms, after all. "Doesn't Master Yulani have history with some of these Sith as well? I remember hearing something about it."

She rolls her shoulders with a soft scrape of armor. "If this goes on more than a few days, there will be some conflict no matter how careful we are. Alkali metals and water, it's impossible no one will slip. We'll deal with it when it comes, but... it will be easier if it isn't the Jedi."