TheElvenJedi

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

She's a little concerned, understandably XD she'll get used to them though haha

awesome, hope you have a good weekend! :3

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

So, I didn't want to assume and jump too far ahead since I don't know who you'd planned for their pilot to be, so hopefully this works out okay! :) Let me know and I can always make some additions or alterations, as always :3

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

The more Malu spoke of Traya, the more Aria felt a sudden case of the shivers coming on. The Champion was too young to remember hearing any real mention of the Sith Lord’s deeds, but mere mention of the name still made her blood turn cold. This was only affirmed as the Miraluka continued with her tale.
“Sounds delightful.” the Champion scoffed. “Malevolent Force spirits and a creepy graveyard planet....pretty much a regular day at the office by now, isn’t it?” although from the way she crossed her arms over her chest tightly, it was clear to any of the people in the room that were well acquainted with Aria, that the snippish remark was her own way of covering up her fear. “So, I hate to be THAT person but what, exactly, are you going to tell the Chancellors when they notice both the Qyaari Champions are MIA?”
“That is a concern for the Council and not yourselves.” Cheriss interjected, a knowing smirk painted across her facial features. “We cannot plan for every eventuality but we CAN assure you that we have contingencies in place to hopefully avoid you being discovered.”
“I don’t suppose anyone would be brave enough to try and follow us even if they DID find out.” the Champion responded gruffly. “Well...I suppose there’s nothing else for it then, is there?”
A fair point, however, was made as to how exactly they would land on Malachor. If one thought Zinuthra’s atmosphere was taxing on a ship, then Malachor V’s weather patterns made the Qyaari homeworld look like a gentle summer breeze.
“Perhaps we should not terrify the prospective Champions out of their first assignment before they’ve even left.” Ailel chuckled softly as Kytra stood up straighter as the conversation wore on, though to the Selonian’s credit she made very little verbal protest to the proposed scheme, beyond a muffled squeak of alarm. Aria shot her new apprentice a reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. They actually make it sound a lot more dangerous than it turns out to be, half the time.” Of course, Aria could not be sure that this was true, but the last thing she wanted was to terrify the trainee Champions out of their wits before they’d even left Zinuthra in the first place. Kytra’s whiskers quivered dubiously as she mulled over the assurance, though thankfully she did not question it and offered a firm nod. As Matthew closed off the meeting, Cheriss spoke a few cautionary words of her own:
“Be careful, and don’t take unnecessary risks. We know you are more than capable of dealing with it, but none of the Elders can tell you what you may find out there. Remember your training, and good luck.”

With little else to say on the matter, the Champions and their students were dismissed from the Chamber, the two youngsters keeping pace with the Champions as they made their way down the hallway.
“So, are we leaving straight away?” Kytra asked at length, breaking the silence which had stretched out just long enough to begin feeling awkward.
“Well, maybe not IMMEDIATELY.” Aria protested, “But certainly as quickly as possible...if it’s enough to get the Elders this worried then it must be important.” she offered another smile. “I won’t lie to you; as Champions you’ll probably spend more time off Zinuthra than you ever did as Knights. But it will be worth it, when your training is finished you’ll be leaders that every Knight, Apprentice and Acolytes will look to for guidance and Yerbol and I will do everything that we can to help you prepare for that.” With that, she waved the two youngsters off. “So, er...why don’t you go ahead and get yourselves ready, and meet us back at the hangar in the next hour or so, okay?”
Kytra dipped into yet another obeisant curtsy, skittering away with a mumbled “Yes, Master” before disappearing from sight. After Ethan, too, had left them, Aria let out the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding in, an involuntary shudder passing through her.
“I am NEVER going to get used to that.” she chuckled nervously, turning her head to glance in Yerbol’s direction. “I mean, telling people what to do is one thing but having them depend on US solely for guidance and listening to everything we say? Please tell me I’m not the only one of the two of us that finds it REALLY weird?” she shook her head slightly, their pace slowed somewhat but not completely as she gave him a moment to voice any of his own thoughts on the subject before she followed up with:
“Come on, let’s go and find the dogs...cause I’ll be damned if we’re going to Malachor without backup.” there was certainly worse help to have at hand than a pair of Force-sensitive hounds who would rip apart anyone (or indeed, anything) unsavory on a simple command in order to protect their perceived pack leaders. It would likely be disconcerting for their apprentices, Aria assumed, but it wouldn’t help to have extra teeth on hand in a battle. Kytra and Ethan could get used to Chwuq and Taral on their own terms, what was most important was that at least the beasts no longer seemed compelled to attack anything on sight; in fact in most cases now they waited for a command before they made any move at all and in fact had even proved rather valuable in defending other Qyaari besides the Champions, when it suited them. They learned quickly and seemed to have picked up on which life forms they should consider allies. Hopefully, it shouldn’t be difficult to introduce Kytra and Ethan into that rubric.
____________________________________

As promised, within the hour their apprentices arrived at the hangar where Matthew had claimed their pilot would be waiting for them, slowing to a stop before the two Champions and the Sith hounds. Ethan eyed the Tuk’ata from head to toe, while the hairs on Kytra’s tail stood on end as she tilted her head in their direction with equal parts curiosity and apprehension.
“Do they bite?” she squeaked, her eyes not leaving the beasts as she shifted the small pack that she carried over one shoulder. The only other thing she appeared to have brought was the lightsaber strapped to her belt. She’d packed light, clearly expecting them to run into trouble of some sort. The Champion had to admire their courage, both apprentices had still returned to the hangar as ordered. There certainly wasn’t anything that had been said in the Chamber that implied they didn’t have a choice in the matter, if they were REALLY so against the mission they very well could have refused to join them. And yet, here they were.
“Only when I tell them to.” Aria smirked good-naturedly, patting Chwuq between the ears and earning a low rumble of approval from the beast. “Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you. They’re well trained and well-fed.”

“Uff! Uff Uff!” all four Force users turned sharply as Taral let out a warning bark, his ears shooting forward as he gazed intently at something, or someone, approaching the group from the other side of the hangar.

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Wooo awesome, boy do I hope this mysterious person is Neta XD I miss space mom, we haven't heard from her in forever! o:

I shall get right on it :3

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

I just laughed so hard imagining that XD It actually does, too!

Awesome, no worries!

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Et voila! Hope it's okay that I kind of segwayed them into the Malachor discussion, got a bit carried away with the flow there XD Of course feel free to add anything onto the discussion before we move them on again :3

So unbelievably excited to get going with this one *fangirl squealing*
Ari on the other hand, is not as I'm sure you can tell XD

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Aria too, had been looking forward to sleeping in for once. But, as always, it seemed as if every Force in the known galaxy had a vendetta against the two Champions. As the communicator blared loudly and stirred them from their slumber, Aria grumbled audibly and muttered something that was likely a rather unsavory slur about where it should go in Twi’leki (that Malu hopefully had not heard!), as Yerbol answered the call his wife lifted her head reluctantly from the pillow, blinking blearily at him.
“This better be important, Malu.” she muttered in Basic, frowning sleepily as she listened to what the Elder had to say. At the jested threat of demotion, the Champion responded with a snort of her own:
“Please do, maybe then we’d ACTUALLY get to sleep, you know, like normal people do? That’d be REALLY nice.”
She had to admit it sounded ominous, though, and not likely something that could - or should - go ignored. With another protesting groan, Aria buried her face into her pillow once more, her muffled voice proclaiming:
“So much for not having an alarm in the morning, eh?”

________________________________

As they entered the meeting room, Aria had to take a steadying breath to calm her own rising nerves. Finding their usual places occupied (which had never happened before), she had to wonder what unholy terrors had been unleashed this time to require such an audience. She would be grateful to find, that it was far less horrifying than she had been expecting. Or perhaps horrifying in a different way. At the very least, it was the last thing Aria had been expecting to hear, and she certainly hadn’t been prepared for it. At first, she had wanted to laugh at the situation, guess Malu was being serious after all! But as the Miraluka continued explaining the Council’s purpose for summoning them to the Chamber, all sense of humour vanished. Unlike her husband, who managed to stammer out a few confused questions, Aria remained rooted to the spot and staring at the Elders in wide-eyed shock.
“S-Sorry?!” she eventually squeaked out, which drew a few amused chuckles from the older Force users in the room.
“Come on Aria, you could do to look a little less like a rabbit in the headlights, you’ve handled far worse than this before.” Cheriss chided good-naturedly. The Champion cleared her throat, shifting her weight from one foot to the other before she tried again in the hopes of voicing her thoughts in a more eloquent manner:
“I'm sorry, I just...wasn't expecting this, of all things. It's a...a big responsibility.”
“We know.” Ailel beamed back at the two dumbfounded Champions. “But we wouldn’t entrust you with a task we didn’t think you were ready for. I think you’ll find it to be rather rewarding once you get used to it.”
“Just give it a chance, that’s all we’re asking.”

“Of course, of course.” Aria nodded quickly, not wanting to refuse such an honour. Despite her apprehension of becoming the SOLE teacher to a budding Knight, she managed to put on a smile and a brave face, catching her husband’s eye with a sideward glance.
Y’know, I thought I’d have a few grey hairs before anyone ever started calling me “Master” anything! She commented dryly. As Kin and Paix made their exit, the Champion once again began to fidget uneasily as she listened to the Elder’s words of encouragement. They seemed to help quell her anxiety enough for Aria to stand calmly at attention in time to meet the two prospective Knights. Beside the chestnut-haired young man strode a much smaller alien, who while not TINY per se, for she easily had a foot of height on Aria, appeared rather small beside the human she kept pace with. As she stopped before the Champions and Elders, she stood with both front paws clasped together against her stomach, her head held high. Her fur was a striking shade of deep brown, appearing almost black had it not been for the light that caught on it and revealed its true shade, except for her underbelly and a small dot-shaped patch above each eyebrow which were cream in colour. Aria had never seen a Selonian before in her life, but she was well familiar with the species name from old texts she had come across during her time on Korriban. She thought, oddly, that she would have almost mistaken the youngster for a Cathar had it not been for the absence of a thick mane of hair and the longer muzzle. The Selonian’s large, amber eyes studied the other beings in the room with a kind of wary curiosity as she waited patiently for her turn to be introduced, her nose constantly twitching which may have indicated a nervous disposition at her current situation or may have been normal for the species, Aria had no idea herself.

As Matthew concluded his introduction of Ethan, Cheriss rose from her seat and indicated the ferret-like Knight. “And this is Kytra Llis, who joined us from one of the first refuge villages that the Alliance set up on Coruscant. She can be shy at times, but she’s observant and dependable with an eye for detail like no other, she’s kept her fellow Knights from walking into fatal traps on multiple missions from Ord Mantell to the further Outer Rim, all of the trainers here hold her in high regard and we’re sure she will not disappoint.”
Kytra’s ears wobbled under Cheriss’ praise, the Selonian’s robes swishing lightly as she dipped into a polite curtsy directed towards the Champions.
“It is an honour to meet you both...I look forward to training with you.”
“So do we.” Aria returned politely with a nod of her own. She felt a little bit as though the Elders were throwing them into hot water by assigning them apprentices without so much as a warning beforehand, but she appreciated the urgency of the situation: with Voldon gone the Qyaari leadership had been de-stabilised and she felt certain there would be populations across the galaxy that would doubt their capabilities as an Order overall. They would have to show them all that the Qyaari would continue to stand as strong as they ever had, and what better way to do that than to announce new Champions in training? And of course, it remained to be said that with two other Champions it would lighten the workload on Yerbol and herself marginally, which she appreciated more than she could put into words.
Kytra and Ethan, on first impression, seemed like a capable pair of young Force users, so how hard could it be?

In the silence that followed, the Elders exchanged glances and perhaps even non-verbal communications of a sort, before Cheriss spoke up once more.
“We would hate to rush you all off-world so quickly, but in the nature of trouble it waits for no-one, and there is something else we would like to discuss with you.”

Of course there is, when ISN’T there? Aria thought to herself with an odd sort of irony, but remained tight-lipped as she faced the Dathomirian.
“What sort of trouble?” the Champion enquired carefully, knowing it was futile to hope for something that could easily be solved.
“The Council feels that the vision we all shared on Voss could entail a warning of more threats to come. Centuries ago, Revan and Bastila disappeared from known space and we do not know what they may have found, but whatever it was it held enough importance to drive Manus, Soto and indeed perhaps even Bracknell himself, mad trying to find it.”

Please don’t ask us to go looking for it, please don’t ask us to go looking for it....
Unfortunately, Aria’s wordless pleas appeared to have no effect.
“Whatever this thing hidden on this unknown planet is, it MUST be found and destroyed or controlled before it further damages the galaxy as we know it.”
Shit. Why us? Why is it ALWAYS us?
“....Understood, but...where do you suggest we start?” Aria coughed. “The vision wasn’t exactly clear.”
“We believe,” Ailel continued where her counterpart had left off, “that another Jedi attempted to search for Revan and Bastila some years before. She may have left clues or a trail of some kind in the last place she was known to have travelled before she, too, disappeared.”
The more the Council spoke of their planned course of action, the heavier the air in the Chamber appeared to get, or perhaps it was simply Aria’s own emotions projecting this onto her environment. Regardless, the Champion felt her stomach turn uncomfortably before any Elder had even spoken the name of the planet.

“Malachor V.”
Aaaaannd they might as well ask us to shoot ourselves in the head.

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Yeah, kinda wish they'd work on more story content as well...it's probably cause all they've been releasing is new after-story content. Seems like they've run out of story ideas which is sad :L

Always got my hopes up for that XD Still hoping that team is gonna finish that revamp thing that cropped up like...years ago and then disappeared, too XD

anyhow, in the process of working on a post, sorry for the delay but the phone has been off the hook today and I've hardly had a moment to sit down LOL

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

OKay well maybe not SUPER out there ahaha but they definitely are less popular compared to the other aliens.

She's gonna be a Selonian, cause that one that the Outlander meets at some point in the later levels was pretty freaking cool...and c'mon who doesn't love giant ferret aliens? XD Should be similar enough to a Cathar that she won't be too weird to write for, but certainly very different to any of my characters for this RP so far :P

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Ooohhh man, I'm pumped! Spent a lot of time thinking about where I wanted to go with my Knight and I think I've finally settled on something so I'll work on getting a post up tomorrow.

They're gonna be a little out there, but I've always wanted to play one of these so I'm gonna give it a go haha