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extrapenguinHi everyone! I have spent the past few weeks in a haze of travel/work/commitment. For related reasons, ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
juletide (annual small-fandoms exchange, Yuletide ripoff, Yuletide-in-summer) is a prompt meme this year. Come participate!
Also it's summer, so my words brain melts out my ears. Thankfully there'svexercises so I can do something creative. I'll post a round-up of some sort later – either one large one when it's all done, or an intermediate one tomorrow/next week and then a final one in August. Might also try to get into playlists again.
In the meanwhile, it'ssunshine_challenge time, and I decided that this year I'm going to write ficlets for all the (main) prompts! The frame story is that Darth Nox is bringing Empress Acina to a wide variety of locations for recreational purposes. Prompt #1 is Amber.
Amber
Acina eyed the cliff face in front of them skeptically. "Is the purpose of this excursion merely to get some exercise, or does the place you spoke about actually exist?"
"But Acina, have I ever lied to you?" Nox asked, treacly sweet. Acina did not mention the other woman's Sithly habit of half-truths and misleading not-lies. "The place is right at the top of the cliff."
"I'll take your word for it." Acina tugged at one of the vines that ran down. It held.
They climbed up the sheer wall slowly. The Force could only do so much – there were next to no handholds, and jumping around madly would only lead to the vines they used as supports snapping and sending them plummeting to the ground. Perhaps they could have floated each other up in turn, clinging to handholds when they were not trusting the other with their life unnecessarily, but Acina was the Empress of the Sith. She had standards.
Even if Nox caused them to slip. No self-respecting Sith should go on a hike through the jungle with another unless they planned a bit of assassination themself as well.
At last Acina's fingers grasped the top ledge. She hauled herself up.
"It's just through here," Nox promised.
Acina, fool as she was, followed her fellow Sith. The curtain of vegetation parted easily with a wave of the Force. Behind them-
A wall of golden yellow gleamed in the sunlight. All manner of creatures, pets and slaves and wildlife, lay trapped beyond its translucent visage.
"What sort of Force trick is this?" Acina asked, impressed despite herself as she took in the expressions of sheer panic and the way the desperate attempt to escape the yellow goop.
"This was once the citadel of Darth Venjan," Nox explained. Acina sighed silently and prepared for the history lecture. "He was one of the Sith who joined Vitiate in the long trek to Dromund Kaas. After their arrival, though, the system proved too restrictive for his ambitions in alchemy. He set up an outpost on this jungle moon and probed the limits of the Force."
"Vitiate tolerated this."
"Why wouldn't he? Venjan had no ambitions for earthly power and reported back diligently." Nox shook her head. "His research was for the most part facile, but some of the notes have their uses in what not to do. You may examine them if you wish, though they aren't even much good for a laugh."
"I see." Nox's offer was genuine. Perhaps that shouldn't throw Acina, after so many genuine offers from the other Sith. "And this? Did he immerse his citadel in – some sort of resin – for a purpose, or did something backfire?"
Nox drew a theatrical breath. "Unfortunately, the details are lost to history, but based on his final set of notes to Vitiate and my investigations of the site, he seems to have set out to transmute blood to water." She paused for effect. "Perhaps, for a moment, he even succeeded, but then the sorcerer lost control of the powers of the nether world and transmuted the air he breathed into tree resin. He tried to free himself, but all he achieved was hardening that resin into amber." Nox turned to face Acina and smiled. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"
The sunlight glittered off the golden amber, all the inhomogenities and imperfections calling attention to themselves with how the light glinted off them. "Yes," Acina had to admit. "It is."
Nox beamed. Acina couldn't help but compare her, Dark Lord of the Sith, head of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, proud and free and joyed, with the other Zabrak next to her, a dead slave of Darth Venjun's, killed escaping her master's insanity. She wanted to say the Empire had come a long way, but in truth, it had not.
"If you go to the top of the structure, you can see the void where Venjun himself was before he consumed his body trying to escape," Nox suggested.
"Lead the way."
The ersatz mausoleum's roof was not quite smooth. It was a decent enough place to bring a Sith, Acina decided. The amber was beautiful in the light and the corpses of the dead gave it an inherent connection to the Dark Side. The Sun shone warm above them.
juletide (annual small-fandoms exchange, Yuletide ripoff, Yuletide-in-summer) is a prompt meme this year. Come participate!Also it's summer, so my words brain melts out my ears. Thankfully there's
vexercises so I can do something creative. I'll post a round-up of some sort later – either one large one when it's all done, or an intermediate one tomorrow/next week and then a final one in August. Might also try to get into playlists again.In the meanwhile, it's
sunshine_challenge time, and I decided that this year I'm going to write ficlets for all the (main) prompts! The frame story is that Darth Nox is bringing Empress Acina to a wide variety of locations for recreational purposes. Prompt #1 is Amber.Amber
Acina eyed the cliff face in front of them skeptically. "Is the purpose of this excursion merely to get some exercise, or does the place you spoke about actually exist?"
"But Acina, have I ever lied to you?" Nox asked, treacly sweet. Acina did not mention the other woman's Sithly habit of half-truths and misleading not-lies. "The place is right at the top of the cliff."
"I'll take your word for it." Acina tugged at one of the vines that ran down. It held.
They climbed up the sheer wall slowly. The Force could only do so much – there were next to no handholds, and jumping around madly would only lead to the vines they used as supports snapping and sending them plummeting to the ground. Perhaps they could have floated each other up in turn, clinging to handholds when they were not trusting the other with their life unnecessarily, but Acina was the Empress of the Sith. She had standards.
Even if Nox caused them to slip. No self-respecting Sith should go on a hike through the jungle with another unless they planned a bit of assassination themself as well.
At last Acina's fingers grasped the top ledge. She hauled herself up.
"It's just through here," Nox promised.
Acina, fool as she was, followed her fellow Sith. The curtain of vegetation parted easily with a wave of the Force. Behind them-
A wall of golden yellow gleamed in the sunlight. All manner of creatures, pets and slaves and wildlife, lay trapped beyond its translucent visage.
"What sort of Force trick is this?" Acina asked, impressed despite herself as she took in the expressions of sheer panic and the way the desperate attempt to escape the yellow goop.
"This was once the citadel of Darth Venjan," Nox explained. Acina sighed silently and prepared for the history lecture. "He was one of the Sith who joined Vitiate in the long trek to Dromund Kaas. After their arrival, though, the system proved too restrictive for his ambitions in alchemy. He set up an outpost on this jungle moon and probed the limits of the Force."
"Vitiate tolerated this."
"Why wouldn't he? Venjan had no ambitions for earthly power and reported back diligently." Nox shook her head. "His research was for the most part facile, but some of the notes have their uses in what not to do. You may examine them if you wish, though they aren't even much good for a laugh."
"I see." Nox's offer was genuine. Perhaps that shouldn't throw Acina, after so many genuine offers from the other Sith. "And this? Did he immerse his citadel in – some sort of resin – for a purpose, or did something backfire?"
Nox drew a theatrical breath. "Unfortunately, the details are lost to history, but based on his final set of notes to Vitiate and my investigations of the site, he seems to have set out to transmute blood to water." She paused for effect. "Perhaps, for a moment, he even succeeded, but then the sorcerer lost control of the powers of the nether world and transmuted the air he breathed into tree resin. He tried to free himself, but all he achieved was hardening that resin into amber." Nox turned to face Acina and smiled. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"
The sunlight glittered off the golden amber, all the inhomogenities and imperfections calling attention to themselves with how the light glinted off them. "Yes," Acina had to admit. "It is."
Nox beamed. Acina couldn't help but compare her, Dark Lord of the Sith, head of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, proud and free and joyed, with the other Zabrak next to her, a dead slave of Darth Venjun's, killed escaping her master's insanity. She wanted to say the Empire had come a long way, but in truth, it had not.
"If you go to the top of the structure, you can see the void where Venjun himself was before he consumed his body trying to escape," Nox suggested.
"Lead the way."
The ersatz mausoleum's roof was not quite smooth. It was a decent enough place to bring a Sith, Acina decided. The amber was beautiful in the light and the corpses of the dead gave it an inherent connection to the Dark Side. The Sun shone warm above them.
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