EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Well, the staff will naturally be needed to open the portal, though I can use it to enhance the feather spell beforehand. I believe once I lighten the body, we should be able to move it together with our own magic." Meesei answered.

Closing her eyes, Meesei concentrated on the staff to see if she could determine how much magicka was contained within, and if it would be enough to hold open such a large portal. Unfortunately, she was not near experienced enough with the staff to be able to tell with any degree of certainty. It simply felt like there was a lake of magicka within the weapon. Still, the portal could still possibly drain it dry.

"I will cast the feather spell first. Let us see if we can lift the body together before I open the portal." She suggested. Holding the staff out in front of her, Meesei concentrated, pushing her alteration spell through the staff, and adding some of its power to it before projecting forth a white orb of glowing alteration magic. The spell hit the Dragon and immediately engulfed its entire body with a white glow. The glow lasted only a few seconds before dissipating, but the effect of the magic still remained. The Dragon's massive body, while still fairly heavy, was a great deal lighter than before, and given the strength of the spell, would be for some time. Right afterwards, Meesei held out a glowing violet hand towards the corpse. "Okay, help me see if we can lift it."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"You do not need to feel guilty." Meesei replied. She stepped up to the Dragon and placed a hand on its now-cold corpse. She applied a bit of force, as if to test the creature's obviously massive weight. "From what you described, it gave you no choice. I know that you would have let it live if it were your decision. Aside from that, this Dragon was trying to lure in the Dragonborn to challenge him, right? If the legends are anything to go by, a Dragonborn will absorb the soul of a Dragon upon the Dragon's death. Considering that the current Dragonborn was capable of killing the World-Eater himself, I imagine this Dragon would have lost that duel. You may have saved his soul from being consumed by killing him yourself."

Meesei took several steps back from the Dragon to get a better look at its entire body at once. It would certainly require a large portal to teleport the entirety of the creature at once, but there was no strict limitation on how large a portal could be. A larger portal was no more complex than a smaller one; it simply required more magicka. There was enough open space for the portal, so Meesei was willing to try. "It might be almost as difficult to cut it up. Getting through those scales and bones would likely require a lot of effort, and some strong tools. Its body is certainly large, and certainly heavy, but I do not think that is anything we cannot overcome. A strong feather spell could make the corpse light enough for one of us to move it with telekinesis." Meesei suggested.

Star Wars - Lawless Galaxy

Scipio Industries and Finance

The Believers had been ready to receive the communication from Ken, so there was little delay in processing. Along one of the hubs the encrypted transmission was bounced through, it was picked up by a Believer communications officer, then passed on to its final destination.

Among the Believers, communication was not a straightforward process, and was not always quick. Passing messages within a single cell could be quick, depending upon their protocols and the situation they were in. However, long-range communications, especially when multiple cells were involved, greatly favored security over convenience, especially where their leadership was involved. Combined with the fact that their leaders tended to be cautious and patient when planning their orders, and it could take days or longer to receive a response at times. That might have been what Ken was expecting; however, in this particular case, it was only several hours before Ken received his response. Although, it would take his relatively weak device well over an hour to decrypt the message, even with the proper encryption keys. The voice in this message was not Cinder’s, but rather that of the Rodian woman who was Ken’s usual contact among the Believer leadership.

Confirming your report on the completion of your primary objective, agent Freeman. It is our understanding that you were not able to mount an attack against GORT company, but that was only your secondary objective, and based on the information you provided us, we do not disapprove of your decision to shift your focus onto Mr. Scipio. We will continue to monitor GORT company for future action against the slavers. I have re-assigned an agent in the sector to meet with and assess Mr. Scripio and his organization. The agent should arrive within the next cycle. I recommend you inform Mr. Scripio of our agent’s arrival beforehand to arrange the meeting. Our intent is diplomacy, not espionage. Acklay out.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei hugged Sabine, placing her hand upon the back of her head. "I know it is not going to be easy, Sabine, but I only want what is best for you. We can get help for you back in our clan, and I will be there with you every step of the way." She said reassuringly. Meesei felt confident that, once enough time had passed and everything that had happened was not as fresh on her mind, she would be able to accept the fact that they were safe in their clan. The Silent City was extremely well-protected, and violence among members of the clan was not common. At least, not unsanctioned violence. The fact that challenges and duels were not only an accepted practice among lycans, but an encouraged one likely contributed to that fact.

After she was finally comfortable with releasing Sabine, Meesei walked back over to the dragon, then telekinetically pulled the staff behind it back to her hand. She hoped that Sabine would soon come to be less reliant on it for comfort, but she would be consulting with Saraya on the issue. The Khajiit was much more of an expert than Meesei, after all.

There were a few moments of silence as Meesei looked over the Dragon, taking in its size. "The Dragon, I would like to claim its body. As aggressive and dangerous as this one was, I feel it would be a disservice to such an impressive being to just let its body rot. From what you described, he was a proud warrior. I think we should at least honor his remains by using them. Do you think this staff could create a large enough portal to bring the body through?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei kept her eyes fixed upon Sabine's and repeated her question from earlier. "Do you trust me, Sabine? All I want is what is best for you, and I am willing to do anything it takes to help you. I will stay by your side for every waking moment, for however long is necessary, if that is what it takes. With both of us together, Sabine, there is little in this world that we could not defeat, or at least escape. Just think back to when you were captured. Imagine if I had been right there beside you; if we had both been able to combine our talents to fight back against Arinette. Perhaps we could not have defeated her with the staff, but we could have got away from her. You, me, the rest of our pack, there is nothing we cannot handle together, and you can feel safe with us. Just, for a moment, try to think of our abilities and what we can accomplish. Can you honestly think of anything that we could not survive together?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei kept a firm grip on Sabine's shoulders, with just enough pressure to provide another reminder of Meesei's constant presence. "If that staff is as powerful as it seems, then it would be foolish not to use it against Vile. However, if you really are relying upon the staff as much as you say, then that is all the more reason to stay away from it as much as possible. The staff is just a weapon. A powerful weapon, but still just an object. It is not healthy to have your sanity bound to a lifeless object. I know it will not be easy, but you have to try to break yourself away from it. Sometimes, there has to be pain before there can be healing."

For a brief moment, Meesei looked back towards the Dragon. She would not want to diminish Sabine's accomplishment, but its body did serve as strong evidence of the staff's power. It allowed Sabine and the others to slay the Dragon with hardly an injury among them. It was understandable that the staff would give her confidence; the problem came in that Sabine seemed to have lost all of her confidence without it. "When we are back home among our clan, or not doing anything to involve ourselves in a fight, I would like for you to allow me to keep the staff securely locked away. We can use it against any danger, but I do not believe you should allow yourself to become accustomed to it always being around. Powerful artifacts such as the staff tend to be fickle, with something of a mind of their own. They can move on from their owners at their own will, according to old stories. I will be there for you every step of the way, and I promise you will have the time you need. Just because we now have the Axe does not mean we are ready to invade Vile's realm right away. We still need to take the time to gather all of our allies, resources, equipment, and everything else we will need to give us the best chance possible. Not to mention, we still need to have another Daedra empower the Axe. All of that will take time, so you do not have to worry about rushing into anything."

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak Dyreackthanose

---

Ssarak climbed out of the carriage behind the others, a bit lethargically. Much like Lyn, he could not say that he was too fond of the cold. His body was meant for his volcanic homeland, where the very idea of a "chilly" day was a foreign concept. Apart from his helmet, he was wearing his full armor, much as he usually did when traveling.

"Yes, we do have much we need to report." Ssarak said in agreement with Leith. "But, I would not mind some time by a warm fire, personally."

Ssarak stood close beside Meirin. He felt eager to finally be able to relax within the safety of the College's walls with her. Although they had went on the same mission together, both of them were professional enough that they kept their focus on the tasks at hand, for the most part. The chances for them to spend personal time together were few and far between. However, he was not so impatient that he could not wait until they had dealt with other matters.

Star Wars - Jedi Exile

Breathing. Breathing had been the only other sound in the small room, aside from the constant hum of the servers lining the walls of the room, since Kresst received the news. He was almost grateful for the white noise that the computers created, else he would have been alone with only his own breaths, and his ever-quickening heartbeat. Outside of sleeping, this was likely the longest period of time that the Mrlssi had spent alone in the room without working on something. No inspecting artifacts, no cataloguing, no meditating, just his own thoughts. He was sat in his hammock, which was strung up near the top of two servers just to the right of the door. His large eyes were half closed, and looking down blankly at the hard floor that he was suspended above.

For a Jedi Knight with his years of experience, Kresst’s response may have been seen as odd. As opposed to being meditative, he was emotional. He felt the sadness, the loss, sharply in his chest. He had the capacity to rid himself of it, certainly. Like every Jedi on the ship, he had went through all of the same training to be able to center himself in peace, and to detach himself from pain, fear, and anything else that could draw out his emotions. However, that was not his choice. He allowed himself to feel what his mind naturally wanted him to feel. It was anger at the betrayal of the Republic, sadness at the loss of the Order he had known for all of his conscious life, and fear of the unknown to come. That was the natural order of his mind, and he was certain he had never felt anything so intense before.

Again, Kresst played the message aloud through his datapad. The voice of Master Kenobi filled the small room completely, with each word holding a kind of weight that Kresst had never felt in a simple recording. In his research, he had found similar recordings given by important men and women of long-dead civilizations. He had catalogued recordings of powerful warriors and inspiring leaders giving hope to their subjects. Sometimes they were successful, and many more were failures. For a moment, he wondered what some future scholar a few hundred years in the future might make of the recording he was hearing. Would it be another tale of the Jedi’s brush with extinction, or the final words of a dead Order?

He took another breath, in, and out. Kresst closed his eyes and, for a moment, had to make the conscious effort to clear his mind. Even he realized that the strength of his emotions in this moment were becoming worrying. Kresst did not fear emotion, but even he did not give into it unrestricted. He focused on another word of the message as Master Kenobi spoke it: hope. In such a dark time, the idea of hope almost sounded ridiculous. The Jedi Order that had existed for the last millennia had, by everything he knew at the moment, had been almost extinguished, along with the Republic it supported. But, perhaps somewhat ironically, Kresst felt that he could believe in the idea of hope even more strongly than most Jedi. He did not believe that it was the will of the Force for darkness to overtake the galaxy. Such a fate would upset the balance of the Force just as much as the light controlling the galaxy in its entirety. If darkness was rising now, then Kresst was confident that the light would have to rise to meet it in time. They needed only survive until that time could come.

Azure’s voice came over the intercom at seemingly just the right time. Kresst doubted that he, or any of the other Jedi would fully recover from what happened in any short amount of time, but right now, he understood the importance of action. Their new enemies would not allow them to wait around and grieve.

Kresst dropped down from his hammock, his claws tapping lightly against the floor as he used the Force to soften his fall. With a wave of his hand, he opened up the server room door and walked out down the hall, towards the main room. Despite his light frame, it was easy to hear him coming down the hall due to his claws tapping against the metal floor with every step that he took. By the time he reached the room and joined Azure, he had cleared his mind of the emotions that had filled his thoughts just minutes ago.

“Master Azure.” Kresst greeted, his tone serious and solemn. The texture of his voice was a bit harsh, since the vocalizations of Basic did not feel natural to produce through his physiology, but all the same, he was perfectly capable of conveying the full range of emotions through it.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It was difficult for Meesei to keep her composure. It was painful for her to see Sabine in such a panicked state, but if Sabine saw any doubt within Meesei, then it would only make it easier for Sabine to give in to her own doubt. If Meesei was going to tell Sabine that she believed she had the strength to recover, then she had to be able to say it with complete confidence.

"The Hist showed you everything you needed to cure your pain. Everything that you just described to me, it was not some otherworldly magic; it was your own resolve. The Hist are powerful beings that function outside of time as we consider it, so they were able to help you reach a patient solution right away. This is going to have to be solved in 'mortal' time, but I do think it will be easier to overcome than your childhood trauma. What happened, it is still fresh on your mind, but I do not believe that the pain is nearly as great as what you once faced. This time, it was out enemies who captured you and...did those things to you. They were monsters that you had no reason to trust. But, as a child, it was your sister who betrayed you, at least to your perspective. It was your own flesh and blood who gave you your scars. And yet, you were able to forgive her even before your encounter with the Hist. If you were able to recover from the pain of having your own family torture you, then I know you can overcome this." Meesei reached her arms around Sabine, giving her another hug.

Star Wars - Lawless Galaxy

Paradise

Sirka, upon leaving her meeting with Koren, rushed to try to accomplish as much as she could in the limited time she had. Koren had requested her presence in one of the hangers in half an hour, and she was not about to give up a potential job. She headed straight back to the bar she had just left before the meeting to pick up Delni, who was still quite engaged in her conversation with the strange droid. Delni did not want to leave so suddenly, but the fact that her sister told her it was important was enough to convince her to come along without much argument. At the very least, she did give the droid enough information to be able to contact her, should these “StarBlades” actually get into a position to be able to hire mercenaries.

Sirka explained the situation to Delni on the way to the hanger. She did mention that Koren had taken notice of Delni’s technical ability that he potentially could offer her a job, but Sirka also spent about twice as much time stressing to her sister that she did not have to accept a job from him if she did not want to. She repeated, quite a few times, that Delni should turn it down if it sounded dangerous, and that turning down the job would not affect Sirka’s employment in any way.

On her part, Delni was not completely sure how to feel about potentially being offered work. The idea of jumping into mercenary work, even of a non-lethal sort, had not seriously crossed her mind up to this point. She had always just been helping her sister to find the jobs. It seemed almost bizarre to think that she could get involved herself, though her recent experiences did perhaps help her to warm up to the idea.

Once in the hanger, Sirka followed Koren’s advice and sought out the weapons vendor, after having her own weapons brought to the hanger, E-Web included. Since they were outside of security, it was one of the few places on Paradise where one could actually have their weapons. She had not yet had too much time to examine the E-Web in detail, but she knew enough about blasters that she believed she knew what parts would be needed to fix it, and what was most likely to need replacing based on the damage she saw. Still, she did purchase a few extra parts, just in case the damage was more widespread than she had expected. Sirka was not sure if she would actually have time to fix the weapon before her next job, but she started on the project while she waited regardless.