The Dark Academy on Korriban

Sylvain arrived at Jun-Tsu's door and gave it a gentle knock to announce his arrival.

He looked particularly handsome this afternoon, having just finished at the refreshers and putting on a new cloak.

The sound of footsteps came from the other side and the soft chime of metal on metal before the door opened and Jun-Tsu stood in her doorway. Veiled as ever beneath her concealing robes, she smiled at the sight of Sylvain, "You vaste no time."

Her desk was filled with books, but a small area at the center of her chamber had been cleared away (as much as it could given the size). It was bare right now, but a small side-table next to her bed held a bronze bowl, a cup, and a smattering of various poultices and powders.

"Come in."

He smiled, "I know when to wait, but also know when it's necessary to act."

He walked in and looked for direction on where to sit or stand. "You look lovely as ever Lady Farro."

"Und you zeem dashing az ewer ser Torsin. V'one might almost beliewe you did zo just for me. But zhat couldn't be true." Her smile broadened slightly as she turned to begin preparations. She gestured to her bed as a place to sit for the time being.

Delicately she took up her implements and set about preparing for the ritual. To begin she set the bowl on the floor and took a seat opposite her bed. There, she took up two packs of some sort of powder. What it was it looked like little more than dust or ash, while the other was thicker, almost mealy white material. When the two met in the basin it bubbled and effervesced taking on a thick liquid texture. She stirred the contents with a silver dowel.

Sylvain sat where directed and smiled charmingly over to Jun-tsu.

"I may just have done so... I hope you don't mind."

Watching her work he had several questions run through his mind. Fortunately for her Sylvain was fairly open-minded, and if this is what needed to be done to see what this would lead to he'd give it a shot.

"What is it that you are mixing? Or is that a secret of your house?"

"Zhis iz just a base mixture. Zome simple compounds meant to give us a liqvid zhat vill bind effectively to zhe other ingredients. Opening another satchel, she pulled out a handful of pellets and grinding them between her fingers they added to the mixture causing it to froth a bit more.

"All zimple khemistry really....up to a point."

That's when she stood and removed her robe to reveal the garb beneath. Little more than simple garments that provided a modicum of modesty, she walked to her desk and slowly unpinned her veil. Letting it free, she set it on the desk to reveal long crimson locks bound in a simple style. Unpinning them they draped the entire length of her back.

She took up something that looked like a headdress and bound it in her hair. "Now ve add a bit of mysticism."

He smiled as he looked over her new appearance. There were parts that were quite enticing and others that created a feeling of uneasiness.

"It certainly does help with the aesthetic. Hauntingly beautiful you are Miss Farro. Does it serve any other function?" He asked with interest.

"Sympathetic majik iz zhe oldest of all powver. Zhe harmony betveen zhings. To take on zhe aspect of zhe beast und zhe darkness draves v'one closer to itz powver."

She knelt over her mixture her hands raised above the basin. Carefully her fingers moved in some unknown configuration. Whirling, graceful motions, "Of course, I could just be lying."

Flecks of energy began to ebb from her fingertips, dropping like dense fog into the bowl. As her motions continued and she began a soft chant, the contrails of green essence moved steadily up her arm, as though more of her body channeled it.

"Ser Torsin, if you vould be zo kind as to join me. Sit on zhe other zide of zhe basin und use your lessons in meditation. Clear your mind und feel zhe Dark Side. Feel the predatory powver of it in zhe air, in you, und pass it into me."

Sylvain smiled at the woman's dry humor.

Then nodding he followed her instructions.

Sitting in meditation, Sylvain opened himself to the powers of the force around him.

(OOC: Are we gonna have to make any rolls here or are we 'fluff'-ing it?)

OOC: I'm just fluffing it. I might have you make a Discipline or Cool check when you drink it just to help with some narration. In all honesty, this is really going to be more like a psychadelic trip that we narrate together for parts. Just 'playing' with the Force and House Farro's 'rituals.' Unless Dapper stops by and wants to interject.

She felt the well of power in Sylvain and her own aura blossomed in an emerald corona of wispy vapors that moved lethargically along her skin, down her arms, and from her hands into the bowl. The 'waters' darkened from a blue to a black, ichorous mixture. It certainly did not look appetizing in the slightest.

For several minutes she chanted over the basin, pouring both of their power into the concoctions until she felt it was ready. Each passing minute seemed to darken the mix and thin it until it seemed like nothing other than black water, though there was an eerie quality to its look. Its surface steadily ebbed to a solid abyss not even refracting the light from the ceiling. It was a liquid void.

"Are you ready?" She took two cups and a small silver dipper. When she lowered the ladle, the surface did not move at all, but when it rose, it was filled with that same black emptiness. She transfered it into the cup and offered it to Sylvain. She then took up her own cup and filled it.

He opened his eyes at her question and looked at the concoction that sat in front of him.

Smiling he took up his cup and raised it in a toast, "To us."

Then drank it down. The liquid got stuck in his throat temporarily causing a bit of a stop in his breath. Wincing and gritting his teeth he forced it down with a charming smile towards Jun-tsu.

Fluff Cool Roll for Jun-tsu's soup, Average Diff?: 2eA+1eP+2eD 0 successes, 1 advantage


(OOC: Doesn't go smoothly at all, but smiles to hopefully impress Jun-tsu anyway with the advantage)

Fluff Discipline (Willpower) - 2eP+1eA+2eD = 1 failure, 5 advantages.


The acrid liquid burned her throat. She hadn't gotten the mixture quite right, a bit too heavy on some elements and perhaps 'overcooked' a bit much, tempered with the Dark Side. It was....concentrated, perhaps a touch more 'pure' than was intended.

While it hurt on the way down, the effects were sure to be swift and potent. She smirked at the pain. "Prepare yourzelf, I may have over mixed."

She moved what remained of the mixture onto the end table along with the other implements. "Best to keep az much as ve can out of zhe vay. She crawled over to him, to sit at his side.

"Let your mind be qviet. Close your eyes und focus on zhe blackness. Zhe potion vill make you sensitive to zhe movements of zhe Dark Side. You vill feel each vibration and ripple. Even now he was beginning to feel it. His consciousness seemed to want to expand beyond his body, beyond the room, beyond the academy.

Sylvain felt his mind reach out beyond the room, but still very much present in it. It was an unusual feeling. He had minor visions and other bits of inspiration from the force at times but here his body seemed to be colluding with those forces in a way that it never had before.

His mind drifted to Dromund Kaas, and the deep jungles around the city. Vine cats jumping at him wildly and ferociously appeared as apparitions in his mind. Memories from his past mixed with the dark side in an other-worldly sense of unease.

He turned to see the crashed speeder... he, Shaisha and Kris had slammed it into that nest... but where were they now? He glanced around but realized they were nowhere to be seen. Only he, the speeder and the Vine cats....

Then suddenly Jun-tsu was beside him in the place where Shaisha once stood.

The ground began to fall away, as a net of roots was revealed, the jungle beneath the jungle in an infinite maze of dark greenery. The sound of vine cats seemed to increase, their guteral growls echoing from the dark places beyond sight. Jun-Tsu spoke in a haunting many-voice, softly into his ear. A combination of Shaisha's, Kristal's, and her own voice. "Syl."

Syl

Syl

Syl

Syl

Syl

It echoed all around him, booming from the black, and he could feel her hands gliding along his neck, to his shoulders, down his arms. A sensation quite familiar. "Let go....," the many-voice spoke from behind him, that now held that same low growl as the vine cats.

Sylvain had the immediate urge to calm the hearts of the beasts and walk calmly out of their midst. But at the urging of the voice he opened his mind and connected with their's.

He cast his feelings of fear, doubt, and revenge out onto the cats. His mind filled them with a directionless rage. Their growls grew louder and louder. They began to circle around him, chomping their teeth at him in preparation for a feast.

Sylvain then opened his eyes and stood defiantly, staring past the cats. "Let go...." He repeated the words of the voice.

Slyvain let out an animalistic scream and released his hatred and anger onto minds of the beasts. He felt the surge of satisfaction as he felt their minds bend and break under the pressure of his own. They not only feared him, but loved that they feared him. He had crushed their minds so thoroughly that he could reshape them in any way that he saw fit.

The world around him shifted and contorted as his mind drifted to another locale and thoughts of Jun-tsu.

Their shared vision, or was it just his conception of what he thought she would dream?

The jungles were oddly similar, but he could feel a change in the air. An oppressive fog hung low over swampy roots and that maze of briar beneath his feet was awash in the brackish liquid void of his drink. He stood in the midst of the swamp atop wide-set tree roots. A disturbance beneath the water sent a jolt of fear crashing down his spine. It terrified and thrilled him making his heart beat with predatory eagerness.

A twelve-eyed serpent as long as seven men and as thick around as a tuk'ata, slipped into the waters from the trees. As it sunk, a figure rose, a disked headdress that dripped with the damp. The void flowed from its eyes and mouth. The feminine form undulated rhythmically in a most unnatural dance, if it could truly be called that.

Her fiery red hair coiled about her and out into the air like thin snakes or like flaming vapor. Her entire form seemed blurred, like her motions made it hard to see. There was laughter and clapping and chanting all around Sylvain, it pounded in his head, almost painfully and the louder it got the more blurred the figure of Jun-Tsu became.

In a flash she was gone, behind him, and he felt a dampness touch the back of his neck. That sound of the vine cats growled again and he felt sharpness prickling against his belly finding void-spilling hands clawing at his torso.

OOC: I've invited Kristal and Shaisha to post here as part of your 'hallucinations'

(OOC: I'll wait for them to post. If they don't I'll fill this in as my next post)

The heat of the jungle was quickly surpressed by a chilling wind. Snow suddenly obscured their sight in a white flurry of motion, slowly dying down to just a gentle breeze of ice and snow. As their vision cleared, they could see tall, sleek architecture. Elegant yet oppressive buildings reaching far into the sky above, where the stars seemed like distant needletips as their light were drowned out by the planet's.

A shout broke the windy silence.

A tall pureblood, slender and authorative in appearance, exited a building. Behind him was a someone garbed in red robes and armor, like the Imperial Guard, followed by four soldiers; two carried a stretcher, upon where the third one lay dead, and the fourth carried an unconscious child.

The red-garbed Guard spoke to the pureblood, but his words were muffled by his helmet. The words of the pureblood, however, were not obscured. "We have the child. The Hand is pleased. Leave nothing alive."

Sounds of battle flooded their senses, and the group disappeared in the oncoming barrage of snow. And as the battle dimmed, the red glow of a lightsaber gave them a light to follow out of the blizzard.

On the scene, a woman dressed in armored robes, her face obscured by a hood, slowly paced in front of a pair of Sith. A man and a woman. There was something familiar about their faces... like seeing yourself in the reflection, and realising how much you have suddenly changed over many years.

"A traitor's daughter," the woman spoke, her lightsaber steady in her hand. "It was only a matter of time before you committed the same mistake as your father. The Emperor's will and his Wrath will not be denied."

Before any protest could be given, the blonde-haired Sith was cut down. The man cried out and threw himself at her, but was met by the hilt of her lightsaber to his face.

"I am sorry, Sylvain, my brother. The same goes for you too."

In that instance, the red lightsaber's cut could be felt down his body as it struck through him.

And the snow turned red.

Black.

Endless black.

Except for a visage of a light at the end, no a woman. She stood at the center of what appeared a smooth yet liquid surface. However it was a solid platform steady like a slab underneath his feet. Two steps forward and the woman turned. Kristal stood there, at first wearing the white dress that accentuated her form.

"Sylvain," she said with affection. Stepping closer her face completely obscured his view of all else. From warm affection turned to a look of anger, and then heart break.

"I trusted you."

His frame shook as suddenly she became fully visible again. Dressed in battle armor fitting of a full fledged Sith. It was not explosive, it was not a shout, it was merely shaken. Broken. Turning from him she took steps away. No attempt at moving forward brought her closer. No shouts or words had volume. With every step she sunk just a bit more into the black at their feet until she was beneath the surface.

Once again, the void.

Black.

It felt like his brain was peeling back, or was it his skin. The void receded to be Jun-Tsu's eye as it continued to ooze the foul ichor. The pair hung in emptiness, her body covered in the dripping black and little else, but to either side she saw Kristal in white, and Shaisha in red. The three women stared at him.

"Let go," Jun-Tsu said.

Let go

Let go

Let go

Let go

Let go

The three women stepped away with silent footfalls on nothing. The blackness began to cling to them.

As the three women receded Sylvain could see a narrow black string tied to each of their backs, pulling them away and leaving him alone in the abyss. When he inspected his own back he saw a string attached to it as well, pulling him further and further away from the others.

He followed the string to its location high above him and Saw the face of Darth Baras looking down on him, smiling contently. His strings were attached to all in this abyss, he moved the currents of the ichor at his will, and all actors danced to his tune.

Anger swelled from deep inside him as he stared at the man responsible for all this tragedy. He felt the anger surge to his hands, building up. It felt as if his hands would rend asunder if he did not do as the voice had instructed.

Sylvain cast his hands up towards Baras and screamed one resounding, "NO!" That emanated from deep within his soul. As if suddenly some invisible barrier disappeared from his view, his hands released the rage that was in his soul. Shafts of intense lightning pierced Baras' face causing him to rear back in pain and agony. In a moment Baras' face turned from that of his master, to the form of the Snake-like being from Jun-tsu's mind. He saw the flesh blacken and rot, as the lightning from his hand raked mercilessly across the beast's flesh.

Soon there was little left of the creature besides a darkened husk of what once was. His friends had disappeared, freed by his burst of rage. However, one string still remained, it was affixed to the charred remains of the creature which then shifted into the charred remains of Baras. Suddenly there was tension on the string, as something from above pulled up the corpse into the pool of black ichor that surrounded Sylvain.

A deep and menacing voice cackled as the body of Baras disappeared from sight.

"Do not go zhere," Jun-Tsu's voice hissed from the black. "It iz a place of anguish und sorrow, to valk zhat path."

Her voice sounded so close, but only blackness surrounded Sylvain. It was as though she were whispering in his ear.

"Stay vith me, she mused lasciviously and a tense passion rose in the young Torsin. "Stay vith us," her voice mixed with Shaisha.

"What do you offer me?" He asked, eyes still filled with rage and passion. His emotions could possibly be diverted, but were not in a place where they could be stifled.

There was not response, only the feel of warm hands against his shoulders. Another pair running down his arms. The feel of flesh pressing against his own, though there was still no presence. There was the feel of hot breath against his cheek, and the press of lips to his chest. His body was alight in the phantom pleasures. Like succubi tempting him from his course, or perhaps saviors pulling him from damnation. Whichever one they were was up to Sylvain to decide.

Sylvain felt the gentle caresses, the intoxicating promises of a release of exquisite passion. But slowly his mind turned cold to them.

"You offer only momentary pleasure? These men defy the nature of the world. They cut their own eyes out to spite their faces. They lack the ability, the courage, and the power to govern effectively. Instead they gratify themselves with their vain and pointless games."

His rage boiled over, focusing his mind on the traces of Jun-tsu's. Forcing her to appear before him in his mind he spoke to her with steely eyes, "I could have your body if I wanted it enough... I do not need your pity to take what I desire. And why do you offer it? To save me from 'sorrow'? What utter sentimentality."

He withdrew his lightsaber, and the bright purple glow reflected off his face as they stood in the abyss. "I need to know how to crush these fools. I need to know how to make them bend their knees and offer me their souls like the vine cats. If your ways cannot help me do that... I have no time for simple games and drug induced fantasies. Lend me your mind, powers, and body, and I will give you mine. I am sure you will find none of it lacking. We can make more of them together than apart. Bind yourself to me and your people will live on in glory if I am victorious, or will be crushed by the wheels of time if I fail."