Naril

Star Wars - Jedi Exile - Knights of the Last Republic

I'm still here! I'll have a post around tomorrow evening, I expect. What a lovely new year. :3

Star Wars - Jedi Exile - Knights of the Last Republic

The last several minutes had passed in a blur for Seris, her senses pounded into a muted fuzz. She knew only the running, one foot in front of another, the alien weight of a lightsaber that wasn’t hers banging against her chest. The Force felt wrong, almost like the smell of burning in the walls of a familiar home. Even the Temple itself, usually something that only sharpened her already acute senses, seemed to be filled with a creeping miasma. Catching up to the group, Seris realized that she could feel only a scant few of the deep souls around her, that nothing but the flat, empty minds of the Clones pressed in from all sides. Darkness, the deep, reeking Darkness her people’s legends spoke of, followed them.

Ahead, the old Ithorian Master led their group, a bright jewel at the head of a constellation of other sparks. Not for the last time, Seris wondered why the Force led her with these Jedi, why her fate seemed so closely bound with theirs. The tunnel walls to either side were ancient and smooth, the floors beneath well-worn by the passage of boots, and the air smelled dusty. Seris let the quiet seep into her skin, tried to let go of the fear pounding at her temples, the anger clawing at the back of her mind. Panic would serve no purpose down here. Slowly, by degrees, Seris felt her heart slow, the sweat start to evaporate off her skin, her fingers unclench from their hard, tight knots at her side.

Even still, those feelings didn’t fade away completely - her mind did not feel empty, or serene. Rather, they no longer pressed on her mind, no longer suffocated her thoughts and actions. She still felt the red-hot pulses of anger, the frustration of feeling so much death with so little she could do to help. But now, those feelings seemed to be foundations ready to build on, to create something new from, rather than to use that power to destroy. Her fingers curled in on themselves, and she felt the Force move with them, still coiled around her hands and arms, almost like a second skin. She pulled in a long, slow breath, blew it out in a steady stream, letting her senses fill the air in the tunnel, the rock outside it, the branches to either side.

Seris jerked to one side as the ceiling caved in with a sound like the sky falling in, narrowly avoiding falling rock and, a moment later, falling bodies. Hulking figures hit the ground with heavy thumps, and even Seris could hear how their heavy armor absorbed the impact with mechanical power. She had already ducked into the remaining tunnel opening when Worror’s lightsaber exploded into life, pulling the Force into an endless fractal of power around him, the harsh sounds of blasters shattering the quiet that had existed only a moment before. She gathered the Force around her again, almost an instinctive action, and looked down the corridor. Another bright splinter in the Force hurtled down the web of hidden passageways toward them - another survivor.

Seris pushed off the floor and started heading toward them, intent on warning the new arrival of the danger ahead. Still, she only got a handful of meters before another explosion slammed through the hall, this one close enough to throw dirt and rubble down both sides of the hallway. Seris raised her arms, protecting her face, and felt her ears ring from the blast. Dust and smoke did nothing to hide the new commandos from her perceptions, though, and Seris found herself moving before the last pieces of debris finished clattering along the corridor floor. To her relief, she realized she could still feel the Force moving around the new arrival - they may have been in the path of the explosion, but apparently they were still alive.

Seris felt the Force pulse around her the same way it had above, and she raised one arm, throwing it ahead of her. With that motion came a surge of power, flowing into her and through her, following the growing tendrils of thought and will she sent toward the commandos. With a thought, the pulse of power became a hammer-blow of raw force, and she saw one of the clone’s knees bend entirely the wrong way. The man fell, clutching his leg, dropping his weapon. Three other troopers stood ready to make their way through the breach, weapons raised. Seris kicked to one side, felt a blaster bolt move by her so closely some of her hair crisped from the heat. Behind her, by Worror, were another four commandos - if all of them were to get their bearings and come together, the few survivors of the Jedi Order would, doubtless, be crushed between them like a nut in a vise.

Thought and motion blended together again, and Seris raised her other arm, this time in a beckoning motion. This time, Seris’ mind guided only a whisper of power through the Force, and she felt her will wrap around something on one of the clone’s belts. With a sharp tug, she felt the device come loose, sailing through the air toward her. Seris raised one hand and felt the heavy metal ball slap into her palm, its surface cool and smooth. In one motion Seris jammed her thumb onto the thermal detonator’s activation stud, then hurled the device down toward the troopers, letting it land in the corridor just behind them, aiming to roll into the corridor they stood in and to one side of the breach. The three troopers looked down in alarm, but Seris had already surged past them.

She came to the slumped form of a young Jedi, and the Force moved oddly through him. With a start, Seris realized the man was laced with machinery, some of it even standing proud of his skin. Still, the Order’s life was a dangerous one - wounds that required artificial support were rare, but they certainly did happen.

“My name is Seris,” she said, kneeling down and trying to get an arm around the man’s shoulders, “I’m with some survivors from the Temple. Can you stand? I don’t think I can carry you out of here, and there’s about to be some even more good reasons for us not to be here.”

Star Wars - Jedi Exile - Knights of the Last Republic

I'm writing a post right now. There have been a few reasons why I've been gone for so long, but...well.

Priest & Hawthorne Investigations - An Urban Fantasy Adventure!

Okay, everyone.

I have a couple of projects, and the fact that I'm working nights, that's devouring my life at the moment - I'm having a very hard time getting enough coherent thoughts in a row to put together a post at the moment. I do have an outline, but there's a certain effort and time investment in turning outlines into really solid writing that I'm having difficulty finding in large chunks.

Would you all feel terribly ill-used if I put this story on official hiatus until the New Year? If you'd all rather do something else with your mental bandwidth than wait for me, I absolutely understand. Otherwise, that's about the earliest I think I can commit to something. I feel like this is getting silly, and I don't want you all to feel like I'm abandoning you.

Priest & Hawthorne Investigations - An Urban Fantasy Adventure!

Hi!

I'm actually writing the next post right now, in between getting my apartment ready for a whole lot of houseguests this weekend. The weather's supposed to be pretty and cold, which is my favourite - but I know at least one of my guests is going to bundle up with as many layers as she can put on. *laughs*

I'm so sorry to be taking so long, everyone. I love you all for being so patient. <3

Priest & Hawthorne Investigations - An Urban Fantasy Adventure!

Mm. You all have my sincerest apologies - my life kind of got eaten by several projects in tandem. But! You'll still hear from me soon. I'm not dead! Just really busy for a week or so, there.

RPGC #6: The NaNo One!

I'm double posting, and I'm not apologizing.

50,465 words. I win!

:3

RPGC #6: The NaNo One!

I was at over 47,000 words when I went to bed last night. :3 Two more days until the end of NaNoWriMo. This month seemed to go by really fast - I've done this before and every other time it's been much more of a slog. I like looking forward to writing every evening, and I love looking back on everything I've written and knowing it's just the start.

We're almost there, everyone! Remember to back up your story.

:3

I'm going to give a run at finishing today - my new computer is going to show up tomorrow, and I'll have a lot of things to do. Having my 50k out of the might be nice, and then I can have finished early for the first time!

RPGC #6: The NaNo One!

I don't mean to pop your suspense, but if you don't get your computer back together by Monday, you can do this:

nanowrimo.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/..

To generate 50k words of random nonsense. If you already know you wrote 50,000 words, there's no difference. :3

RPGC #6: The NaNo One!

Mm. I admit I'm still recovering from my enormous Thanksgiving dinner (especially in my apartment - which is very nice, but not especially large) and hostessing, but I'm past 45,300 words today. I had a little bit of a fight with telling rather than showing today. Normally that's not much of a problem, but I'm a little bit tired and the technical-writing part of my brain kept trying to write things efficiently rather in a way that tells a good story. That's bad for word count and it's narratively deadening. Still, I managed to catch myself and I'm leaving tonight with more than 1900 words written.

I'm really looking forward to Monday - I'll be able to validate my story, and then keep going forward. Part II is easily going to blow past the 50k mark, and I'm thinking Part III might start around 55-60k. Part III should be a fun cat-and-mouse sort of thing to write. :3