Oh, yes, absolutely, that's the point. Basically her making an extremely Skylah statement about the dual nature of her identity and also thinking it looks cool. Imagine that thing where a kid has a haircut that their parent just really does not approve of. And the parent will not stop bringing it up, in direct or passive aggressive ways. Only, it's a stoic, battle-scarred, (reformed??) Mirialan Sith making hints about how she can "still just get the other side done and no one would know."
Instead, we get adoptee Skylah with cool, balefully red eyes.
Oh, yes, absolutely, that's the point. Basically her making an extremely Skylah statement about the dual nature of her identity and also thinking it looks cool.
I mean, I'm pretty sure it's counted as a religious sacrilege, because symmetry and geometrical patterns were used to signify their connection to the larger cosmic destiny of the galaxy or some such.
You can drop the vague hinting routine and state outright that Skylah's Pa'ma isn't on a rampage to conquer everything only because Skylah's mom is just that good.
And also they love each other and she would totally use the forbidden puppy dog staring technique on her that she tried to pass on to Skylah, but couldn't because of the scary Sith eyes.
mean, I'm pretty sure it's counted as a religious sacrilege, because symmetry and geometrical patterns were used to signify their connection to the larger cosmic destiny of the galaxy or some such.
This is correct. That their worship of destiny is generally interpreted as an unsophisticated knowledge of the Force, and that it is not in significant conflict with Jedi teachings about the will of the Force appears to be why Mirialan culture has such a reverence for the Jedi Order. Asymmetrical tattoos probably would be sacrilegious.
However, if we had a Mirialan who, for the sake of example, was part of a sect of Force users who teach adherents that the Force is a tool which you must bend to your desires based on selfish emotion, perhaps she would not be in a very good position to call that sacrilegious. No matter how symmetrical any tattoos she might have are.
You can drop the vague hinting routine and state outright that Skylah's Pa'ma isn't on a rampage to conquer everything only because Skylah's mom is just that good.
There are different definitions of "reformed" that one could subscribe to. For instance, still teaching your child how to channel the Dark Side might not qualify for many people, even if you don't indoctrinate her as a Dark Acolyte while you're at it.
And also they love each other and she would totally use the forbidden puppy dog staring technique on her that she tried to pass on to Skylah, but couldn't because of the scary Sith eyes.
any puppy eyes come 100% from Skylah's mom. Also, note, since it's been a while: during lightsaber building flashback, her pa'ma was described as missing an eye.
I meant "Skylah's mom would use forbidden puppy dog eyes stare that she tried to pass on to Skylah, but couldn't, because Skylah has scary red eyes more predisposed to murderously glaring at people and demanding human sacrifices". But, it seems I'm wrong and she did pass this dangerous technique on to her daughter. After that now she pretty much doesn't have the moral high ground to stand on against pa'ma teaching Dark Side techniques, I guess.
However, if we had a Mirialan who, for the sake of example, was part of a sect of Force users who teach adherents that the Force is a tool which you must bend to your desires based on selfish emotion, perhaps she would not be in a very good position to call that sacrilegious. No matter how symmetrical any tattoos she might have are.
Eh, I think she'd just consider them incredibly tacky and likely to get her in trouble with someone who takes this sort of thing seriously. Like, I dunno, a cross pendant with a skull grafted on top of it.
Navigate through rougher, more dangerous terrain: 2
Skylah
"I have an idea!" you tell Brenby. He doesn't even make a sarcastic comment this time — possibly because he's too busy deflecting blaster bolts from the back of a moving speeder bike, but you take this as a good sign anyway.
You're approaching the edge of a gorge — relatively narrow, lined with trees, the faint glint of a streambed down below. It's a bit of a drop, but relatively shallow, at this end, and you think there's an opening further along. You hope. There probably is.
"Do not jump us off that cliff!" Brenby finds the attention span to comment on what you're doing, finally.
"It'll be fine!"
"Skylah!"
"Hold on tight!"
You swerve the speeder bike hard to the side, feeling branches slap at your face and shoulders as you slip between the trees lining the gorge. Then there's a stomach dropping lurch while you're literally just falling, earthen walls of the gorge rising up around you. Brenby abruptly throws an arm around you again, while you hit the emergency downward thrust, bring the repulsor lift up to maximum power, and haul up on the handlebars. You dip worrisomely low, water from the stream splashing onto your legs, but you even out and keep going. "Told you!" you declare, triumphantly.
Behind you, after a moment, the other speeders follow suit, something you hear more than see, concentrating as you are on not colliding with any rocks, or the walls of the gorge. The tortured whine of repulsor lifts too-far off the ground, and the painful sounding crash as one of them bottoms out into the stream bed.
Brenby recovers enough composure to let you go, twist back around, and deflect another oncoming blaster bolt.
"Single file!" you say, proudly.
"So I can see." Figuratively, anyway. The walls of the gorge narrow around the two of you, and true to your intentions, Brenby is much better at fending off one assailant than a small swarm of them. "I have an idea!" he shouts back to you, all at once.
For an instant, you're actually sympathetic to his earlier reaction — it's a pretty ominous thing to hear. "Okay!' you call back, in the spirit of fairness. Then he brings down half the gorge on top of you.
Well, a near thing to it — as you pass under a large tree, roots precariously growing out over the lip of the gorge, Brenby reaches out with the Force, and with an audible roar of effort, drags it downward in a cascade of earth, stone and ancient wood. You swerve with what little room you have to avoid a falling stone or two, but you manage to shoot out ahead of the worst of it.
From the sounds coming behind you... your pursuers weren't so lucky. Some are buried, others merely crash messily into the resulting wall of earth.
Shooting out through the mouth of the gorge and back into the dark forest beyond, you bring your speeder to a stop, arms shaking with exhilaration as you remove them from the speeder's handlebars. Twisting around, the damage Brenby did is truly impressive, the pile of debris choking the gorge a tomb for the enemy speeder pilots. You shoot up to your feet, balancing on the speeder's handlebars to get a better look. "Wow," you say, "that works, I guess!"
"Your piloting is terrifying," he says, sounding more relieved than angry. He's breathing hard in the wake of a truly impressive feat of telekinesis.
"Like... scary-good?"
Brenby gives you a Force-glare again, but his heart isn't really in it. "... 'Scary good'," he says, blankly. Then he starts laughing, full-throated and genuine, broad shoulders shaking as he doubles over in his seat. "You," he says, in between bouts of laughter, "are intolerable." It doesn't feel like an insult, somehow.
"Uh... you too?" On sudden, irrational impulse, you reach down from your vantage point and tousle his blond hair a little.
He's too startled to immediately react poorly. "What are you doing?" It's a little adorable, how baffled you've made him.
"Um, uh... saying 'good job'?" you offer, with an awkward sort of grin.
The Sith lets out a huff, but doesn't get mad, at least. "We should get moving again."
==========
Avress
You descend further into the ruin under Elra's guidance, although she's making you go in front. Which is sensible: Neither of the Pantorans have lightsabers, as has been helpfully pointed out. The sense of a dark and terrible presence doesn't abate the further down you go, playing on the edge of your mind, wearing away at your patience. It's... difficult to cope with.
"How exactly do you plan to 'remind her' about a Jedi's 'proper duty', again?" Elra asks, from a few stairs behind you.
You frown, open your mouth, but Keel comes to your aid. "She's got a lightsaber, sis," he says.
"What, so she's going to kill Rist with it? How are we going to get out then?"
Your grip tightens on the hilt of your lightsaber, one side still ignited to light the way. The familiar, green glow has gotten progressively less soothing the further down you've gotten, and you can't shake the feeling now that the walls are getting narrower. The statues of ancient Sith becoming that much more imposing. You pause, turning to look at your two companions. Keel, feigning a nonchalance that he plainly doesn't feel. Elra, looking pensive, if not somehow annoyed. It occurs to you, comparing near identical facial features, that the two are twins. Not quite a useful thought at the moment. "Killing is a last resort. Always." You sound as firm and assured as you can. Never mind that Rist is a Jedi Knight — fallen or not — with years more training and experience than you have at your disposal.
"Is it your experience that a lightsaber is suitable for nonlethal takedowns?" Elra asks. You grimace, and Keel shoots her a surprised look.
You turn and continue on your way. You'll trust in the Force. You have no other choice: People are relying on you.
The latest stairwell opens up onto the latest landing, which you're sure is smaller than the one above it. You're so busy taking this in, that you nearly trip over a humanoid form, lying cold and prone in the dark. It takes you a panicked second or two to recognise the metallic frame for what it is.
"A droid?" Keel asks, kneeling down beside you to examine it. "A damn old droid," he concludes, moments later. He sounds honestly impressed. "They can't have been sealed in here to begin with, can they? Nothing this complex should still be operational after this much time."
"You'd be surprised," Elra says. You and Keel turn to stare at her, and she clarifies, not quite meeting your gazes: "... well, you hear a lot of stories, right?"
It's true, you've heard stories to the effect — ancient droids plaguing the ruins of Tython, the tombs of Korriban. There's a difference, though, between stories, and nearly falling over what may be an ancient Sith battle droid. It's spindly, crude, and sliced neatly apart by what must have been a lightsaber. Amira Rist.
"She cut those down without much trouble," Elra explains, belatedly. Sure enough, beyond the first droid are several others like it.
"You could have mentioned!" Keel complains.
Elra shrugs. "Rist destroyed them all anyway, she seemed like the bigger problem to warn you about."
"Quiet," you say, holding up your free hand. Keel and Elra stare at you for a moment, but obediently fall silent as you creep your way forward.
There's something here, something up ahead that has your attention far more than the bickering siblings. A writhing, pulsing darkness that encloses your heart, sending a chill through your very spirit. It's as though you've crossed an invisible threshold — relative safety on one side, and on the other... this. Part of you wants nothing more than to turn and run, but you know, somehow, that the woman you seek is up ahead. "There is no emotion, there is peace," you tell yourself, steeling your resolve. Then you take one step, then another, and before long, you're peeking around the corner, down a long hallway. There's a light at the end of it.
The archway is as tall as the ceiling here, flanked by an honour guard of Sith Pureblood statues to either side, all of them staring directly at you. Laying about their feet, the shattered remains of more of the decrepit droids. And there, through the arch, you see the figure of a being sitting in meditation. Without further delay, you stride forward. Drawing nearer, eyes adjusting to the bright light, you see that the chamber beyond the archway is relatively large, hexagonal, and empty apart from what looks like a large, ornate door on the far end, carved with Sith runes across its entire surface and resolutely shut. You try to keep your focus narrowly on the woman kneeling in front of it.
She seems small, narrow-shouldered and thin, sitting at the centre of this new chamber in a lotus position, her back to you. The distinctive brown outer robe of the Jedi Order lays folded beside her. As you pick your way past the pieces of droid on the floor, moving through the gauntlet of Sith statuary, you try to consider what, precisely, you're going to say. As luck would have it, you don't have to.
"Approaching someone from behind with a naked blade in your hand sends a very stark message, child." The woman speaks without turning around or changing her posture, the cultured tones of an aristocratic Alderaanian accent sounding weary, but calm.
You swallow. "Jedi Knight Amira Rist?" you ask, trying to keep your own voice resolute.
"That is my name." She unfolds her legs from beneath her, and climbs to her feet.
"Knight Rist," you say, "there are charges you must answer to."
She turns around, then. Standing before you, Amira Rist has to look up quite a ways to meet your gaze. She's human, in her late 30s, pale and dark-haired, with a certain doe-eyed, round-faced delicacy about her. The look she gives you is steady as she takes you in, noting the lightsaber you still haven't put away. Hers, you see, lies atop her folded robe, still on the floor. "Where is your master?" she asks, with something like concern. "You shouldn't be here alone."
You feel abruptly tongue-tied. Everything about her bearing feels right — that same calming presence you've found in any sufficiently senior Jedi before now. But you can't shake the thought clouding, sense darkening feeling of unbalance that pervades her in this place. "You... opened the door, on your own. How?"
"Please put down the weapon, child," she says. "There's no need for it here."
"You..." you falter, swallow, draw yourself up to your full height. "You attacked Elra. Why?"
That, of all things, makes her falter. "Elra?" she asks, blinking in surprise, mind almost visibly racing. "Oh dear! Oh no! You—" Then her eyes fix on something past your shoulder, and abruptly harden.
It happens almost faster than you can perceive. One moment, she's standing there in front of you, unarmed, and then the next she's racing forward, darting past you, the lightsaber flying off of the floor and into her hand. Without thinking, you bring yours down to bar her passage. With a familiar hiss of plasma striking plasma, her newly-ignited blade meets yours, and she throws herself backward, facing you for the first time as a real threat.
"You don't understand," Amira says, impatiently. She's settled back into a Shien stance, right hand outstretched before her, lightsaber held reverse-bladed in her left. The blade is a livid, angry orange, almost fiery in its intensity. A far cry from the almost cheerful warmth you'd seen from Skylah's.
"I understand you just tried to kill someone!" you say. You flick on the other side of your saber staff, the second green blade snap-hissing to life, settling both hands along its midsection.
"That— no, you don't—" Amira's thoughts seem to trip over themselves, torn between explaining this to you, and some unknown urgency in dealing with what's behind you. "This is imperative!" she insists.
"Well," you hear Elra say, behind you, "I told you she tried to kill me. We came down to find her. She tried to kill me again. Who could have seen this coming?" At the sound of her voice, Amira's eyes harden again. Everyone — you, Amira, Elra and Keel behind you — stay perfectly still for a long moment. Then, a blaster bolt streaks past you toward Amira, and you all burst into motion.
Amira deflects the shot easily, even as you dart forward, stopping her from following it up with another rush for Elra. She blocks the scything edges of your saber staff with practised ease, still finding time to ward off any potshots either of the Pantorans make at her. This is, after all, the kind of situation that Shien is intended for, and the reverse-bladed variant she's using is proving frustrating for you to address, bright orange blade flowing gracefully to stop your every attempt to disarm her.
All at once, Keel cries out, and you redouble your efforts.
"Will you just—" Amira cuts herself off as she's forced to ward off another series of spinning slashes from you, giving ground steadily. "Ugh! Just stop!" The outburst isn't anger, so much as a certain level of exasperation. Her free hand shoots out, pushing you hard back against the far wall, jarring you hard. Leaving Elra completely exposed.
You struggle to move back between Amira and the two Pantorans, in time to see Elra meet a similar fate to you, slamming hard into a stone statue, and crumpling to the floor. Keel has backed away, wide-eyed, his blaster smoking on the floor nearby, where Amira had apparently directed a bolt back into it.
"She's not dead! See? Alive!" Amira insists, presumably meaning the woman she's just battered into unconsciousness, having attacked multiple times before. "Now. Will you just put the lightsaber down and we can talk about this?"
==========
Avress:
How do you respond?
[ ] Agree to put your weapon away
[ ] Insist she explain what's going on first
[ ] Redouble your efforts to disarm her
[X] Agree to put your weapon away
Putting our saber down feels kind of like a formality at this point, given that Amira has demonstrated the ability to kick our ass and two allies at the same time, nonlethally. Don't really see what we have to gain from keeping it up.
There was this one post when we were voting on whether to believe Elra about Rist that seemed pretty convincing to me at the time but I was too lazy to bother changing my vote.
I don't know why you would accuse such a fine, upstanding pillar of the scavenging community of that, just because Avress is feeling something like a Darkness grow stronger as we get close to Elra and we found her actually hiding in the dark like a Gollum figure.
Also that her story is "Rist tried to lightsaber me, failed, gave up, please do not question how I survived being threatened with a lightsaber".
It's all a misunderstanding and we're all perfectly fine and on the level people around here.
This update also has Elra seeming familiar with the droids in this temple (though she does give an excuse) and forgetting to give us a heads up about them, which might be suspsicious too.
I think putting away our weapon might be the right choice, though I'm not sure if Avress would just do that.
Writing this, I did enjoy the sort of head-space whiplash from Skylah being like "IF I JUST GO AS FAST AS POSSIBLE MAYBE I CAN OUTRUN HOW TRAUMATIC THIS DAY HAS BEEN HAHA"
vs
Avress grimly and resolutely delving into this dark tomb, she is very serious and not at all scared why do you ask how dare you
I mean, Amira has demonstrated the ability to kick Avress's ass up and down while she had two allies without resorting to lethal measures. If putting the weapon away will get Amira to talk, I can definitely see Avress going "well, this isn't doing me any good, might as well try it her way for a bit."
There was this one post when we were voting on whether to believe Elra about Rist that seemed pretty convincing to me at the time but I was too lazy to bother changing my vote.
This update also has Elra seeming familiar with the droids in this temple (though she does give an excuse) and forgetting to give us a heads up about them, which might be suspsicious too.
I think putting away our weapon might be the right choice, though I'm not sure if Avress would just do that.
And in addition to the point you're bringing up with that post (Yes, the Jedi Knight tried to kill me, but I got away. Don't ask how.), these was also her reaction here:
"Well," you hear Elra say, behind you, "I told you she tried to kill me. We came down to find her. She tried to kill me again. Who could have seen this coming?" At the sound of her voice, Amira's eyes harden again. Everyone — you, Amira, Elra and Keel behind you — stay perfectly still for a long moment. Then, a blaster bolt streaks past you toward Amira, and you all burst into motion.
Just the phrasing on this. It doesn't feel like it fits the situation as presented. My sarcasm meter overloaded while reading this and it doesn't feel like Elra is nearly as worried as she should be to have a Jedi Knight wanting to kill her. Something is up with her and I think trying to deescalate the situation at this point is a good idea.
The fact that she quite handily beat all three of us working together doesn't hurt that desire either.
Putting our saber down feels kind of like a formality at this point, given that Amira has demonstrated the ability to kick our ass and two allies at the same time, nonlethally. Don't really see what we have to gain from keeping it up.
It's entirely true that if she wanted Avress dead then she could have killed her
All the same I have to insist on keeping it drawn until she explains what's happening, it both feels more in character and the sensible of the two options
Launching ourselves at her in an attempt to disarm is just going to get someone, probably us, hurt, but putting it down before being given a solid reason is folding too easily
Even if I feel like I know why she objects to Elra's presence
This is, after all, the kind of situation that Shien is intended for, and the reverse-bladed variant she's using is proving frustrating for you to address, bright orange blade flowing gracefully to stop your every attempt to disarm her.
Oh don't worry, there's also like, not-reverse-grip-shien, which would have been just as accurate and seems like a much more common depiction. Don't ask me what the actual advantage of the reverse grip is supposed to be. Blame Ahsoka Tano for making it look cool.
This seems like one of those situations where someone keeps yelling "Listen to me!" but if they just yelled the actual information they were trying to get across it would clear things up quickly.
Look, just because your philosophy espouses non-aggression and self-defense, it doesn't mean you can't have a magical plasma blade that can cut through almost every material known to the Galaxy.
Think about it as a very large blowtorch. Very useful.
[X] Agree to put your weapon away
Look, aggravating someone who might or might not be falling at the moment isn't really wise. Now we just need to hear how Elra decided to murder her Jedi guide in service of her secret Sith Master, and we'll be set.
Oh don't worry, there's also like, not-reverse-grip-shien, which would have been just as accurate and seems like a much more common depiction. Don't ask me what the actual advantage of the reverse grip is supposed to be. Blame Ahsoka Tano for making it look cool.
Reverse grip mostly just looks cool is supposed to be very flexible, especially in close-quarter fights... with knives and daggers. Mostly, it's about a wide array of options for how exactly you can get stabbed by someone with a knife in a reverse grip, and that it can be quickly re-reversed.
Why the heck someone would block blaster bolts with it, I have no idea, though it may have merit, since apparently the laser blade itself is weightless unless actively hitting someone or something with it, so most of the time you're just wielding a very light cylinder. Apparently then, increased flexibility of the reverse grip might be actually helpful in such a case, if your hand doesn't slip and you don't stab yourself.
