Post by Marshall on Apr 5, 2019 13:48:36 GMT -5
Sometime later. He'd been there for a good while, having disappeared into the upper portion of the enclosure to prepare himself. In The Red, here, there was not so much of an unroar of noise. Silence seemed attainable. Tavv'ari had been there when he'd stepped through the crevice, and to her he had nodded his greeting before moving toward where he knew the big alien had been laying. In the time it would have taken Ava to come up to that bit of the broken flash frozen bubble, Sol would not have moved very much. He had sat himself down near the floating bodies, and had taken to his own silence. The trick here wasn't what he and Ava were about to attempt. Here, it was letting go of everything inside his head enough to even make the attempt.
She had spoken to Jeryndi and gained as much information as the revivified man could provide. With the hours of the day, whatever time of day it was, dwindling, Ava sought Solomon who said he would be aiding with the Dreamers.
She entered into the chamber quietly, her footsteps light against the ground beneath her. She could see Solomon sitting on the ground near the levitating and made way towards him.
The big alien was thoroughly bound. The dreaming humans nearby were not bound at all. All three floated above the floor. As he had been jostled earlier, and examined, the invader floated senseless at waist-height.
His armor lay in a small pile beneath him on the ground, capped by his helmet. It was the helmet that Medren had recognized upon seeing it here. The helmet that was very like that of the figure in the holo on the Wayfinder. It was of crude make here, signs of its workmanship on every surface, but the bird-shaped cutout for the eyes, with its semblance to the T-visor of beskar'gam, had a black sheen within it through which the warrior had to look when he wore it.
It had been -days- since he'd last heard silence like this. The heaviness of it, how somber everything up in that higher level of the enclosure felt when compared to the still heavy sense of everything else beyond, was noticeable to him. In was because it was so quiet, and so still, that he was able to hear the light footed approach of Ava. With his eyes shut he couldn't see her, but he could tell she was close. After just a second more of that balming quiet he opened his eyes and looked toward the Jedi in the dim red haze, "Would like to start with the big guy, or with the Mandals?"
This was the first time she saw the Dreamers – truly saw them. They looked just as they were described. Sleeping peacefully. If they’d been on the ground and not levitating in midair, Ava wondered if she would have noticed anything wrong with them in passing glances. Biting down on her lip, she took in the differences between the bound alien and those that floated freely.
When Solomon’s eyes opened, he would see Ava picking up the helmet beneath the bound sentient. She was turning it over with gloved hands, inspecting the craft of the design, and looked over at Solomon. “This reminds me of your beskar a little bit.” She said while a gloved finger traced over the top of the helmet. “It does look similar to the holo ‘ghost’ we encountered.”
The body of the invader was big, muscular, imposing even bound and even asleep. He would have been taller than anyone in their party, any of the Mando'ade, all of them except Dr. Azair. He, like the other sleepers and everything else on the entire planet almost, was stained with the red dust and caked with it, so it was impossible to say what his true coloring was.
"It does," He agreed, "I've been tempted to work with it, to see if I can spot any particular differences that might point to its origins, or in the least to see how it differs from what I've seen in use by Mandals here, and in my own beskar. I haven't yet. I don't want to stir up any waters that I don't have to." He said that, but was raising his left hand and holding it out toward Ava and the helmet she now held.
“Hmm.” She replied. Ava looked it over one last time, taking in its details before eventually passing it to Solomon.
“Considering the violence we saw from the ‘ghost…. And the fact that this one is quite tied up… we should try the Mandals first.” She stepped away from the very large alien and moved towards one of the unbound Dreamers.
Ava glanced at them carefully, almost as if she were looking for something. Perhaps even trying to sense something. "Jeryndi said their REM was off the charts." She said to Solomon.
He remained where he was, having taken the helmet and laid it against his lap, visor laying so it was facing him as he watched Ava in the dim lighting, "Yes, he told me that too. He said that everything else is slowed, though, with no physical or mental reason he could find for the condition. They also seem to all be connected in some way. He said he was very aware of where other sleepers were through the one he was trying to help here."
“In my meditations… and in my dreams… I can feel others.” Ava said softly as a gloved hand gingerly reached up to wipe away collected red dirt from one of the Dreamers hands. “I can’t really describe it. It’s… like an awareness… a knowing that they are out there. But when I focus on it, it slips away like the remembrance of a dream." She looked back at him. "I can feel them, Solomon."
"They're still alive, at least in one sense, so that's not really surprising. Jeryndi mentioned a vagueness, too. He said when he came out of his meditation he felt like he had an understanding of something, but that it slipped away quickly in the moments that followed." He went from looking toward her, to looking down at the helmet now laying against his lap, "Have you experienced anything like that so far?"
It seemed the emphasis of what she said was lost to Solomon. Her brows furrowed a little as her gaze went back to the Dreamers. “Yes.” She said. “It’s… hard to describe. The only thing I have is this… knowing… this connection to them…. Maybe this might help me find answers as to what that connection is.”
He gave a shallow bob of his head in a slight nod, and was then pushing himself to his feet, taking the helmet with him, "that's my hope as well. We're going to try to wake them, right?" He started toward where Ava was, the helmet still held with his left hand. "Jer said he was going to, but then didn't try."
Ava nodded. “I’m going to try to help them.” She finally replied. “I don’t know if waking them would be the best thing or not honestly. There’s no telling what state they’re actually in because…” a hand gestured to the floating. “Whatever this is, it’s obviously influencing them. But we will try to help them.”
"Alright," Sol said while regarding the floating bodies, "I just need to know what we are aiming for, here, so we're on the same page. If we are going to leave them asleep, in what other ways would you like to try helping them --" he looked Ava's way, "Or, would you just like to attempt making some sort of contact with them, get a feel for their conditions, and then decide. I'm following you on this since it was you and Jeryndi before I offered to help."
“A feel, first.” Ava answered. “Let’s try to get an idea of what we’re dealing with and then go from there.” Her eyes flickered around the Dreamer, glancing for exposed skin. “Jeryndi said he used direct contact with them, right?”
"Alright," he said, looking at the sleepers as well, "He had to unwrap the one he was with earlier. Tavv'ari helped him keep as much of a seal as he could get by wrapping his hand back up with pieces of what the sleeper was already wearing."
Ava stared at the Dreamer, calculating the last time she’d consumed one of the pods. Wondering if there was enough of the red liquid within her system to protect an exposed hand. Uncertain that it wouldn’t be enough… the Jedi nodded.
“We’ll follow in similar fashion, then.” She said. “How do you plan to join me in this – with the Meld?”
"I was thinking direct contact," he replied, having placed the helmet on the floor of the enclosure in favor of laying his left hand against the chest of the sleeper he was standing next to. "It’s not really the time or place for me to begin experimenting with things like the meld."
“Alright.” She said after a minute. “We… need to make sure we’re working together on this. Two Force Users go prodding in opposite direction at the same time might do more damage than good to them. So… eyes first.” And then a breath. “I’m going to slip my hand between the collars of her shirt and place my hand on her shoulder till her clothes cover my skin.”
He gave a small nod, and then looked from Ava to Tavv'ari, and back again, "I'll hold her hand. Would either of you mind wrapping our hands up?" It wasn't Red proof, but it was what they had. He pulled the wide strip of fabric he used to hold his right arm in place from a small compartment on his suits midsection, and shook it out.
Having done this before with Jeryndi, Tavv carefully picked her way closer and made ready to be useful as she could. It wouldn't have occurred to her to pretend that she understood any of this in a deep way. She understood that strange things were afoot--had been afoot for some time--and the principle that wielding the strange against the strange contained enough symmetry to satisfy her warrior's mind. That this particular strange involved jetii, who came with their own legends and were attached to their own myths, was neatly offset by desperation.
“Thank you.” Ava said kindly to Tavv once her hand was properly wrapped and secured. “Do you know her?” A nod went to the woman whose shoulder she was now gripping. She then added. “Anything about her might be useful.”
"No," Tavv answered at first. "We know she's of Yen Amidi's clan--like Renda. Without beskar'gam, some of us took to creating patches, or patterns on our clothing. We saw before we wrapped her--that's her clan." The short woman--giving Ava a run for her money as the smallest adult around--thought a moment more. "We think she saw battle. Probably out near the Chiss blockade, not long ago. Her scars are healed, but not old."
"Was Renda able to give her a name?" Solomon's question followed all of that softly. He was looking the woman over from where he stood, feeling her all too slow pulse beneath the wrapping that now had him bound to her.
Tavv shook her head. "He didn't know her. He's Yen's grandson, but their clan is large."
She nodded. It would have to do. Ava looked from the group and then spoke directly to Tavv. "I'm going to touch her now." She said. "It might not look like much but... I'm going to try to do everything I can to help her."
Solomon didn't bother with his own warning. He took the cue from Ava and closed his eyes behind his faceplate. He had taken the time to clear some headspace while Ava was talking to who she needed to speak with, and it was still available now for him to use. He waited, feeling for the dreamer's pulse, breathing into his own to get as close to her's as he could manage.
Her only gloved hand reached to hold onto the Dreamer – to keep her from moving about in her weightless state.
Ava’s hand slid across the woman’s skin. The motion was hesitant and jerky. As if she’d forgotten what this felt like. It was the first skin-to-skin human contact she’d felt long before arriving on Mandalore and stepping into the Red. She could feel the red dust that had slipped past the collar of her shirt and cling to her skin like a grainy second suit. And beneath that was the thin bump of a scar – like a knife wound. Her hand slipped lower, towards the woman’s right breast where it rested over her heart.
Thump. Thum-thump. Thump. Thum-thump.
It was slow and soft. But it was there.
She felt that protracted rhythm. Felt its pattern beneath her fingertips as her brain mimicked the sound.
Thump. Thum-thump. Thump. Thum-thump.
As if tranced by this, Ava’s eyes closed. Her methods differed from Solomon there. She didn’t try to breath in time with the Dreamer. Nor did she slow her own heartbeat to match the pace. Her eyes closed and it felt as if some part of her slipped beneath the still black glass of the water’s edge. At once it engulfed her. Her physical senses began to slip away with an unseen current as something else swooped in.
The Force.
Life.
It was still here even in this dismal world. Ava could feel it thrum from Tavv. She felt it in the pulse bleeding from Solomon. Distantly, the Jedi felt her maker still holding strong. The Dreamers around them, too, were felt. But, most importantly, Ava could feel the Mandal woman and the life that thrummed beneath her bare fingertips.
And she drew towards that.
It was a matter of being calm, of being stilled and motionless. He needed to feel that to be able to feel the Mandal woman. The closer he could get to her state the more aware he'd be of her condition and anything linking to that. The Force was welcomed in, the flow of it becoming a connection between her body and his. It was through that closeness that he was reaching for that awareness would blossom. His breathing slowed, his heart beat slowed, his mind was filled with the sensation of her faint and dreaming life. There was a disconnection that always happened for him when attempting something like this. There was a bridge that needed to be crossed, and in crossing it awareness of his own body would always fall away. It became, always, a scope of the inward, an eye on life itself where everything could be connected, and was connected with everything else. There was no end to the vastness of it all which meant he needed to remain focused on that heartbeat, on that breathing, and on finding the woman who slept.
Distant barks--shouts--voices from below, down at the rocky roots of Tal Ruus.
Tavv snapped-to, backed off a step, and ran over to slip out between the tight formations that guarded this smaller cave. She was one of the few Mandals with comms that "worked," but just then all she got was static.
There was some part of Ava that heard the distant shouts. It was not as if her body had gone completely deaf. But that wasn’t where her focus was. It was on the woman. Ava had come to know the feel of blind static water of the Red. It was where she’d laid her mark days ago. She looked for that now.
That infinite awareness that he had boiled down within his mind, that keen line of focus he had on the woman beneath his grasp, was suddenly cut through with a sense of alarm. He hadn't heard the shouts himself, but he felt that. It was a raising of something, a quickening of the pulse that came from the life he was feeling out around him. The world that had been calm before had turned swiftly, and on the edge of that came the inward scream that something was happening. Something he needed to be somewhere else for. It was a shot back into himself, a quick and lightning fast release from the woman. His body was suddenly his again, all fingers and toes -- all arms and legs -- his eyes opened to the red fog that surrounded them to see that Ava was still in it.
Tavv panted at the edge of the cave, having darted right back. "Ijano thinks he spotted someone down near the wakeks. Thinks it could be our thief... How the hells that bastard gets around out here...." She did not finish the sentence, as the important part of the news was already conveyed.
There wasn’t a choice but to let go. She’d heard the call and felt the sharp spike of danger. The air had shifted and it reverberated in the Force. Ava let go and her eyes opened.
“I have not forgotten you.” She said softly to the Dreamer.
And then she, too, was off towards the disturbance.
At Tal Ruus that night, sleep shifts were shorter, as the "thief" was also a murderer, and everyone available was called upon to share the burden of keeping tight watch.
She had spoken to Jeryndi and gained as much information as the revivified man could provide. With the hours of the day, whatever time of day it was, dwindling, Ava sought Solomon who said he would be aiding with the Dreamers.
She entered into the chamber quietly, her footsteps light against the ground beneath her. She could see Solomon sitting on the ground near the levitating and made way towards him.
The big alien was thoroughly bound. The dreaming humans nearby were not bound at all. All three floated above the floor. As he had been jostled earlier, and examined, the invader floated senseless at waist-height.
His armor lay in a small pile beneath him on the ground, capped by his helmet. It was the helmet that Medren had recognized upon seeing it here. The helmet that was very like that of the figure in the holo on the Wayfinder. It was of crude make here, signs of its workmanship on every surface, but the bird-shaped cutout for the eyes, with its semblance to the T-visor of beskar'gam, had a black sheen within it through which the warrior had to look when he wore it.
It had been -days- since he'd last heard silence like this. The heaviness of it, how somber everything up in that higher level of the enclosure felt when compared to the still heavy sense of everything else beyond, was noticeable to him. In was because it was so quiet, and so still, that he was able to hear the light footed approach of Ava. With his eyes shut he couldn't see her, but he could tell she was close. After just a second more of that balming quiet he opened his eyes and looked toward the Jedi in the dim red haze, "Would like to start with the big guy, or with the Mandals?"
This was the first time she saw the Dreamers – truly saw them. They looked just as they were described. Sleeping peacefully. If they’d been on the ground and not levitating in midair, Ava wondered if she would have noticed anything wrong with them in passing glances. Biting down on her lip, she took in the differences between the bound alien and those that floated freely.
When Solomon’s eyes opened, he would see Ava picking up the helmet beneath the bound sentient. She was turning it over with gloved hands, inspecting the craft of the design, and looked over at Solomon. “This reminds me of your beskar a little bit.” She said while a gloved finger traced over the top of the helmet. “It does look similar to the holo ‘ghost’ we encountered.”
The body of the invader was big, muscular, imposing even bound and even asleep. He would have been taller than anyone in their party, any of the Mando'ade, all of them except Dr. Azair. He, like the other sleepers and everything else on the entire planet almost, was stained with the red dust and caked with it, so it was impossible to say what his true coloring was.
"It does," He agreed, "I've been tempted to work with it, to see if I can spot any particular differences that might point to its origins, or in the least to see how it differs from what I've seen in use by Mandals here, and in my own beskar. I haven't yet. I don't want to stir up any waters that I don't have to." He said that, but was raising his left hand and holding it out toward Ava and the helmet she now held.
“Hmm.” She replied. Ava looked it over one last time, taking in its details before eventually passing it to Solomon.
“Considering the violence we saw from the ‘ghost…. And the fact that this one is quite tied up… we should try the Mandals first.” She stepped away from the very large alien and moved towards one of the unbound Dreamers.
Ava glanced at them carefully, almost as if she were looking for something. Perhaps even trying to sense something. "Jeryndi said their REM was off the charts." She said to Solomon.
He remained where he was, having taken the helmet and laid it against his lap, visor laying so it was facing him as he watched Ava in the dim lighting, "Yes, he told me that too. He said that everything else is slowed, though, with no physical or mental reason he could find for the condition. They also seem to all be connected in some way. He said he was very aware of where other sleepers were through the one he was trying to help here."
“In my meditations… and in my dreams… I can feel others.” Ava said softly as a gloved hand gingerly reached up to wipe away collected red dirt from one of the Dreamers hands. “I can’t really describe it. It’s… like an awareness… a knowing that they are out there. But when I focus on it, it slips away like the remembrance of a dream." She looked back at him. "I can feel them, Solomon."
"They're still alive, at least in one sense, so that's not really surprising. Jeryndi mentioned a vagueness, too. He said when he came out of his meditation he felt like he had an understanding of something, but that it slipped away quickly in the moments that followed." He went from looking toward her, to looking down at the helmet now laying against his lap, "Have you experienced anything like that so far?"
It seemed the emphasis of what she said was lost to Solomon. Her brows furrowed a little as her gaze went back to the Dreamers. “Yes.” She said. “It’s… hard to describe. The only thing I have is this… knowing… this connection to them…. Maybe this might help me find answers as to what that connection is.”
He gave a shallow bob of his head in a slight nod, and was then pushing himself to his feet, taking the helmet with him, "that's my hope as well. We're going to try to wake them, right?" He started toward where Ava was, the helmet still held with his left hand. "Jer said he was going to, but then didn't try."
Ava nodded. “I’m going to try to help them.” She finally replied. “I don’t know if waking them would be the best thing or not honestly. There’s no telling what state they’re actually in because…” a hand gestured to the floating. “Whatever this is, it’s obviously influencing them. But we will try to help them.”
"Alright," Sol said while regarding the floating bodies, "I just need to know what we are aiming for, here, so we're on the same page. If we are going to leave them asleep, in what other ways would you like to try helping them --" he looked Ava's way, "Or, would you just like to attempt making some sort of contact with them, get a feel for their conditions, and then decide. I'm following you on this since it was you and Jeryndi before I offered to help."
“A feel, first.” Ava answered. “Let’s try to get an idea of what we’re dealing with and then go from there.” Her eyes flickered around the Dreamer, glancing for exposed skin. “Jeryndi said he used direct contact with them, right?”
"Alright," he said, looking at the sleepers as well, "He had to unwrap the one he was with earlier. Tavv'ari helped him keep as much of a seal as he could get by wrapping his hand back up with pieces of what the sleeper was already wearing."
Ava stared at the Dreamer, calculating the last time she’d consumed one of the pods. Wondering if there was enough of the red liquid within her system to protect an exposed hand. Uncertain that it wouldn’t be enough… the Jedi nodded.
“We’ll follow in similar fashion, then.” She said. “How do you plan to join me in this – with the Meld?”
"I was thinking direct contact," he replied, having placed the helmet on the floor of the enclosure in favor of laying his left hand against the chest of the sleeper he was standing next to. "It’s not really the time or place for me to begin experimenting with things like the meld."
“Alright.” She said after a minute. “We… need to make sure we’re working together on this. Two Force Users go prodding in opposite direction at the same time might do more damage than good to them. So… eyes first.” And then a breath. “I’m going to slip my hand between the collars of her shirt and place my hand on her shoulder till her clothes cover my skin.”
He gave a small nod, and then looked from Ava to Tavv'ari, and back again, "I'll hold her hand. Would either of you mind wrapping our hands up?" It wasn't Red proof, but it was what they had. He pulled the wide strip of fabric he used to hold his right arm in place from a small compartment on his suits midsection, and shook it out.
Having done this before with Jeryndi, Tavv carefully picked her way closer and made ready to be useful as she could. It wouldn't have occurred to her to pretend that she understood any of this in a deep way. She understood that strange things were afoot--had been afoot for some time--and the principle that wielding the strange against the strange contained enough symmetry to satisfy her warrior's mind. That this particular strange involved jetii, who came with their own legends and were attached to their own myths, was neatly offset by desperation.
“Thank you.” Ava said kindly to Tavv once her hand was properly wrapped and secured. “Do you know her?” A nod went to the woman whose shoulder she was now gripping. She then added. “Anything about her might be useful.”
"No," Tavv answered at first. "We know she's of Yen Amidi's clan--like Renda. Without beskar'gam, some of us took to creating patches, or patterns on our clothing. We saw before we wrapped her--that's her clan." The short woman--giving Ava a run for her money as the smallest adult around--thought a moment more. "We think she saw battle. Probably out near the Chiss blockade, not long ago. Her scars are healed, but not old."
"Was Renda able to give her a name?" Solomon's question followed all of that softly. He was looking the woman over from where he stood, feeling her all too slow pulse beneath the wrapping that now had him bound to her.
Tavv shook her head. "He didn't know her. He's Yen's grandson, but their clan is large."
She nodded. It would have to do. Ava looked from the group and then spoke directly to Tavv. "I'm going to touch her now." She said. "It might not look like much but... I'm going to try to do everything I can to help her."
Solomon didn't bother with his own warning. He took the cue from Ava and closed his eyes behind his faceplate. He had taken the time to clear some headspace while Ava was talking to who she needed to speak with, and it was still available now for him to use. He waited, feeling for the dreamer's pulse, breathing into his own to get as close to her's as he could manage.
Her only gloved hand reached to hold onto the Dreamer – to keep her from moving about in her weightless state.
Ava’s hand slid across the woman’s skin. The motion was hesitant and jerky. As if she’d forgotten what this felt like. It was the first skin-to-skin human contact she’d felt long before arriving on Mandalore and stepping into the Red. She could feel the red dust that had slipped past the collar of her shirt and cling to her skin like a grainy second suit. And beneath that was the thin bump of a scar – like a knife wound. Her hand slipped lower, towards the woman’s right breast where it rested over her heart.
Thump. Thum-thump. Thump. Thum-thump.
It was slow and soft. But it was there.
She felt that protracted rhythm. Felt its pattern beneath her fingertips as her brain mimicked the sound.
Thump. Thum-thump. Thump. Thum-thump.
As if tranced by this, Ava’s eyes closed. Her methods differed from Solomon there. She didn’t try to breath in time with the Dreamer. Nor did she slow her own heartbeat to match the pace. Her eyes closed and it felt as if some part of her slipped beneath the still black glass of the water’s edge. At once it engulfed her. Her physical senses began to slip away with an unseen current as something else swooped in.
The Force.
Life.
It was still here even in this dismal world. Ava could feel it thrum from Tavv. She felt it in the pulse bleeding from Solomon. Distantly, the Jedi felt her maker still holding strong. The Dreamers around them, too, were felt. But, most importantly, Ava could feel the Mandal woman and the life that thrummed beneath her bare fingertips.
And she drew towards that.
It was a matter of being calm, of being stilled and motionless. He needed to feel that to be able to feel the Mandal woman. The closer he could get to her state the more aware he'd be of her condition and anything linking to that. The Force was welcomed in, the flow of it becoming a connection between her body and his. It was through that closeness that he was reaching for that awareness would blossom. His breathing slowed, his heart beat slowed, his mind was filled with the sensation of her faint and dreaming life. There was a disconnection that always happened for him when attempting something like this. There was a bridge that needed to be crossed, and in crossing it awareness of his own body would always fall away. It became, always, a scope of the inward, an eye on life itself where everything could be connected, and was connected with everything else. There was no end to the vastness of it all which meant he needed to remain focused on that heartbeat, on that breathing, and on finding the woman who slept.
Distant barks--shouts--voices from below, down at the rocky roots of Tal Ruus.
Tavv snapped-to, backed off a step, and ran over to slip out between the tight formations that guarded this smaller cave. She was one of the few Mandals with comms that "worked," but just then all she got was static.
There was some part of Ava that heard the distant shouts. It was not as if her body had gone completely deaf. But that wasn’t where her focus was. It was on the woman. Ava had come to know the feel of blind static water of the Red. It was where she’d laid her mark days ago. She looked for that now.
That infinite awareness that he had boiled down within his mind, that keen line of focus he had on the woman beneath his grasp, was suddenly cut through with a sense of alarm. He hadn't heard the shouts himself, but he felt that. It was a raising of something, a quickening of the pulse that came from the life he was feeling out around him. The world that had been calm before had turned swiftly, and on the edge of that came the inward scream that something was happening. Something he needed to be somewhere else for. It was a shot back into himself, a quick and lightning fast release from the woman. His body was suddenly his again, all fingers and toes -- all arms and legs -- his eyes opened to the red fog that surrounded them to see that Ava was still in it.
Tavv panted at the edge of the cave, having darted right back. "Ijano thinks he spotted someone down near the wakeks. Thinks it could be our thief... How the hells that bastard gets around out here...." She did not finish the sentence, as the important part of the news was already conveyed.
There wasn’t a choice but to let go. She’d heard the call and felt the sharp spike of danger. The air had shifted and it reverberated in the Force. Ava let go and her eyes opened.
“I have not forgotten you.” She said softly to the Dreamer.
And then she, too, was off towards the disturbance.
At Tal Ruus that night, sleep shifts were shorter, as the "thief" was also a murderer, and everyone available was called upon to share the burden of keeping tight watch.