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Post by Atuna Davinari Lemep on Jun 10, 2014 22:56:40 GMT -8
- Principal Authors: Myself
- Who can post on this thread: Myself (exclusively)
- I want to receive critical responses: N
- I will be using standard Universe rules here (e.g., canon-only, fleet limits, etc.): N
Location:Timeframe:App. 3942 BBY to present Dedicatio et causaThis is the beginning of my long, canonical, word-written compilation of Atuna's extensive timeline. For the first time, the Chronicler himself will have his own story added to his library, in 1040p Hi-Def Technicolor 4D Surround-sound. This is the story of Atuna Davinari Lemep, told in both narrative and real-time roleplay formats, as deemed appropriate by me. In a strange way, Atuna himself will be writing this with me. He just celebrated his eighth birthday in my world back in May, so his history is very closely and deeply connected to my deepest and most intimate thoughts and feelings. This is a deeply personal history that I want written properly. Many of the events unfolded in this story will be as old as when he was first conceptualized, when I was a boy just coming off his first playthrough of KotOR II: TSL. Fascinated by the idea of the Miralukan species, I wanted to tell stories about my own friend, who just so happened to be a Miraluka too. Atuna was born, officially, on May 4th, 2006. I was 13 years old. We grew up together. He would tell me his stories as I interpreted them every night before I went to sleep. I'm absolutely sure he would not want his story told to the masses -- he's spent far too much time keeping it a secret -- but I think we both agree it's time to put it in writing regardless of who sees it. As strange as all that may seem, Atuna is a very real part of me. Thus, I will do my best to do him justice. Dedicated to Atuna. I'm ready, my friend. "It's about damn time."Then let's begin. |
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Post by Atuna Davinari Lemep on Jun 11, 2014 0:40:03 GMT -8
The history of the Lemep family is not one that started with greatness or power or excessive wealth, but it became one before long. Anasi Lemep, a handsome Miralukan man with a below-average economic background but with a supportive and hard-working family, married a beautiful young human woman named Daedra Fela'Kai, the daughter of a military man working for the Republic, which kept her away from her father much of her youth. Both, at the age of twenty-two, traveled to a resort on Manaan on vacation to celebrate their respective college graduations, where they met and fell in love. Within a week, they decided to date.
The relationship was bumpy at first. Daedra's family was pleased to know that she had found a suitable boyfriend, even if he was blind and, therefore, unable to enlist. Anasi's folks were much less receptive of his choice in significant others, passive-aggressively insinuating that he should search for a Miralukan woman to meet his quota. However, after a few months of traveling between the families, the Lemeps and the Fela'Kais warmed up to the couple, and the day Anasi's father gave him the blessing, he proposed.
The wedding was extravagant; Anasi had no idea his family could provide the money for such a lavish celebration. For him to graduate with thousands of credits in student loans only to find out his family had held out on him was a disappointment, to say the least, but he quickly cast any impure thoughts from his mind and focused on his new bride. They celebrated their honeymoon at the same resort they had met at just over a year before, both now at the age of twenty-three. Within a month, Daedra was pregnant.
Unsure of how he was going to raise a child without a job, Anasi began frantically looking for work. Over the next eight months, he raised enough money to make a down payment on a home, set up a small high-interest investment account, and provide the basics needed to care for a child. When the day arrived, a happy baby boy was born: the happy couple named him Asar'Din, a name that fused both Daedra's human ancestry and Anasi's Miralukan heritage. Asar'Din, a human boy, was born blind as a result of his mixed heritage, but the two parents loved him all the same. Proud of their new bouncing baby boy, the couple had just finished preparing to raise the first child when, suddenly, Daedra was pregnant with a second.
Anasi doubled his work hours to find money for the newcomer. Daedra, worried that Anasi would be too busy to watch his sons grow like her own father had, found ways to raise money from home. She called friends to ask for odd jobs, implored her father to ask for veteran benefits for the budding family, and even went to work with Anasi in the early stages of her pregnancy. Asar'Din, nearly ten months old, was asleep in his crib when Daedra delivered a second healthy boy: they named him Atuna, a perfectly good Miralukan name for a perfectly normal Miraluka. The two boys hardly knew each other. As time passed, the money that Anasi had been bringing in allowed the family to grow steadily, expanding their resources and allowing room for the two children to express their talents with fewer hindrances. Asar'Din displayed incredible intelligence at a very young age, and despite being blind, at the age of four he displayed a moderate sensitivity to the Force. Anasi was able to teach him, with great difficulty, how to see and perceive the world through the Force, as all Miraluka did innately, which gave the blind boy sight. Awed by this, Asar'Din petitioned to join the Jedi to learn more about the Force. However, when the representative of the Jedi arrived to size the boy up, he deemed him too old to begin training.
At this point in time, the Mandalorian Wars had come to a climactic close on Malachor, with Revan and Malak taking many of the Jedi Order's members with them into uncharted space. With the Order's numbers so diminished, the Jedi representative hated to deny Asar'Din his request. Despite being very young, at the time only four years old, he was deemed to old to commence training as a Jedi. However, he sensed potential in the young boy, Atuna. Unlike his older brother, Atuna was still far too young to be deemed a prodigy, but he displayed a much high proficiency with his aptitude with the Force than Asar'Din did. The representative insisted that Atuna be taken for training, to which Anasi and Daedra reluctantly agreed. With a tearful goodbye, the toddler was wisked away from his family. Asar'Din, still only four at the time, was upset, unable to fathom why he could not go far away like Atuna did and become a Jedi. Anasi and Daedra did their best to comfort him, and over time the young boy understood what had happened and why. Rather than dwell on it, Anasi encouraged Asar'Din to study hard and bring honor to their family name, and in return, he promised to work just as hard to bring in the money needed to fund that ambition.
With that promise, Anasi maintained his work and slowly built a fortune for his family. Daedra found work as well, preferring not to sit at home while her men all worked hard. Asar'Din grew easily in the Miralukan community, despite being only a blind human, and was able to receive academic scholarship one of the finest institutions for young Miralukan children. There, he studied hard and made excellent grades in schooling. By eleven he had jumped three grade levels and was already applying to major universities on Katarr.
Meanwhile, Atuna's training had completed itself in no time at all. The Jedi Civil War came and went, and his progress was relatively unhindere by its passing; only the frequent changing of Masters ever stopped the boy from attaining his potential. By age nine, he had been knighted, and at age ten had begun his more advanced studies as a record keeper. He spent much of his time traveling the galaxy with older Masters who sought to recover the knowledge lost during the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War. He traveled to the enclaves on Dantooine, the ruins of the Great Library of Ossus, and even the Temple of the Ancients on Lehon. The last one he did in secret, as he was advised not to visit 'Rakata Prime' at all due to the unstable nature of the planet itself, and due to a darker secret that the Jedi did not disclose to him.
In 3952 BBY, however, Atuna left Coruscant and visited Lehon anyway using his Jedi authority. There he did not discover what he initially thought he would find, but instead discovered old logs and files in abandoned temples and among large chunks of space station wreckage. Many of them made mention of a man named Revan, with whom Atuna became enthralled. The recordings, the logs, everything, seemed to point back to this man. For what purpose, the ten year old Atuna had no clue, but he desperately searched the area for signs of what might have befell him. He arrived at the Temple of the Ancients, nestled between two abandoned Rakata enclaves, and there he discovered a holocron recorded by Revan himself. The man in the recording claimed to be a Sith Lord, a term Atuna had only heard in passing during his training but had familiarized himself with since.
Using the tools he had brought with him, Atuna made a copy of everything on the holocron, sparing no details and manual inputting text and annotations where he thought it appropriate. He was so pleased with himself, that he had found something so extraordinarily rare and unique, and was going to rush to Coruscant and tell his masters all about it, when he remembered that he had come here in secret, against their wishes. Fearing their judgment, Atuna decided to run away from the Jedi and instead seek to find out what happened to Revan. With so many conflicting messages, between the records of the Rakata referencing him as a conqueror, the holocron depicting him as a Sith, and the Republic warship logs hailing him as a hero, he was unsure what to think of him.
Eventually, however, Atuna pieced it together. The star maps, the Star Forge, the Rakata, and Revan. The history of the events slowly unfurled themselves as he continued to study Lehon. Living alone on Lehon was dangerous, but over the course of a few days Atuna managed to take refuge in the Temple of the Ancients. From there, he slowly made his away around the nearby country, gathering old logs, Rakatan computers and ancient writings that pieced together the story of the Infinite Empire, its collapse, and how Revan fit into the picture. The origins, use and destruction of the Star Forge also became apparent to him. Cross-referencing his knowledge of the Mandalorian War and the Jedi Civil War that had followed, ten-year-old Atuna had a brilliantly adept grasp of the history of the universe from his little bastion on Lehon.
His time on Lehon caused Atuna to slowly become disillusioned to his beliefs. Revan’s holocron spoke of power, power that the Jedi could not attain due to the innate limitations that imposed on themselves. Breaking free of those limitations took time, but with great effort Atuna attained an enlightened perspective on what the Dark and Light Sides of the Force could offer to a person should they choose to follow them. Although the Dark Side offered many benefits in short amounts of time, the Jedi found their strength in hard work and discipline. Both could attain certain thresholds the other could not, but Atuna needed more to try and decipher where the line was. This was something far more vast than anything he’d learned in training. He wanted more.
However, time got away from him. Atuna realized nearly a month later that he had been gone from civilization for far too long. Destitute and hungry but full of new knowledge, he decided to fly back to Coruscant and fabricate a story to explain his absence. When he arrived, however, the Temple was almost completely empty. The Jedi were gone, the Temple was on lockdown, and the Archives were untouched. Only the Temple's custodial staff and a meager security force remained. When questioned, the guards mentioned that the Jedi had gone to Katarr for a meeting, but when asked about transportation, they told him all Jedi vessels were impounded until the Council reconvened. Uneasy, Atuna found where the backups for the Archive were held and found that they had not been updated in far longer than regulation allowed. So, instead of arguing, Atuna left the temple to find another Jedi to help him, just a ten year old boy, alone on the streets.
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Post by Atuna Davinari Lemep on Jun 14, 2014 23:36:30 GMT -8
Atuna had braved the streets of Coruscant before, but never without a destination or purpose. As he wandered the myriad levels of the planet, looking for any sign of the Jedi, he noticed another side of the world he had never seen before. Where once it had been strictly bureaucracy and disciplined training, now there was lawlessness and frivolous indulgence. Even he, being ironically blind, could see it all clearly. At the meager age of ten, one would wonder where the good in the universe was amongst this crowd.
Eventually he clawed back up to the upper ring of Coruscant, where he was vaguely more at peace. The hustle and bustle of Coruscant proper was, at the very least, orderly, and Atuna found no issues navigating the many causeways between busy traffic lanes. After searching for several hours in popular Jedi free-time haunts, he sat down at the park and meditated on the situation. The lush, green grass and the breeze between the trees made for a serene center of focus in a chaotic part of the universe, and he had often wanted to come here with any of his masters before his journey to Lehon.
There, meditating in the open field, he searched the Force for answers. Instead of receiving them, however, he got more questions. Probing the future revealed nothing but a large permacrete archway, where beings of all shapes and sizes moved into and out of a building just beyond it. At first, Atuna could not figure out the image, but eventually it became evident that it was a local bank two blocks down the road from the park. Curious as to why this image had been given to him, he stood up, shook the grass out of his robes, and walked the distance to the bank.
Upon arrival, he felt quite confused. Not only were there no Jedi nearby, but the bank was largely empty, a stark contrast to the busy scene he had seen in his vision. A clerk behind one of the desks waved causally to the young boy, who grimaced at his lack of progress and moved to speak to the worker.
“Hello, and welcome to the First Intergalactic Bank of CoruGuard,” the clerk recited in an overly enthusiastic manner. “We’re a private investor that can protect your investments from the dangers of the fluctuating market with guaranteed high-interest savings accounts and mutual funds. You’re a bit too young to open an account without a parent or legal guardian, but is there something else I can help you with?”
“Umm… yes please,” said Atuna meekly. “I was wondering if any Jedi had come through here recently.”
“Jedi?” The clerk repeated, shifting his glasses. “No, I can’t say I’ve seen any. Well, unless you count that one bloke who was here a couple days ago. Looked a lot like you, might I add.”
“Really?” Atuna lit up, suddenly filled with hope. “Who was it? Did he have a name?”
“Yeah, something like… Lemep, or something silly.” The clerk dove into a record book as Atuna’s face went from excited to intrigued. “Yup, here we go. Anasi Lemep. He came in for his yearly portfolio summary and left three days, four hours ago.”
“Anasi Lemep?” Atuna asked.
“Yes little sir. Do you know him?”
“Lemep is my name. Atuna Lemep.”
“Oh, my! Atuna, you said?” The clerk hurriedly reopened the book he had started to put down. “It says here you’ve been officially written into his living will. You’re daddy’s got quite the investment plan going for him, might I add. He must love you You a lot to give you equal distribution of his property on death.”
In that moment, Atuna’s thoughts raced. Inwardly, a small voice spoke out to him. My father? Was his name really Anasi? Could it be another Lemep? No, surely not. If I am written into this man’s will, then it must be my family. And this clerk thinks I’m with him now. This could be my chance to find out where my family is! Think fast, Atuna…
“Yes. Uh, I love my dad,” Atuna said evenly, looking back at the door. “I’m, uh, here to get another copy of the, uh, portfolio… thingy.”
“Summary?” the clerk finished.
“Yeah! That thing. Dad said he needed another copy, for the, umm… for his boss.”
“But you asked me if I’d seen any Jedi before-”
“Right, the Jedi Council, his boss. Es. Bosses.”
“Oh, right… of course, little sir. Let me print that off for you… Well, actually, I’d need your father’s permission to do that. Go tell him our hours of business are-”
Atuna waved his hand casually in the clerk’s direction. “He’s really busy. Just give me the records and save him the trip.”
The clerk nodded slowly. “Yes… I should… save him the trip. Here…” Then he proceeded to copy down the Lemep’s investment portfolio onto a datapad and handed to Atuna. “Thank you for choosing First Intergalactic Bank of CoruGuard.”
“Sure. Have a good day!” And with that, Atuna raced out of the building. He did not stop running until he reached the park again, where he found his favorite spot in the short grass and sat down, plugging the datapad into his datacron. He could not read a traditional flat computer, but using special disability technology in his datacron, Atuna was able to pour over the portfolio with relative ease using a combination of Force sight, touching and hearing. The records displayed themselves in a holographic array in front of him, like an interactive computer console. Most of it was useless numbers he could not understand with the limited knowledge he had on economics, but one thing caught his eye: a home address on the planet Katarr.
Realizing this was his chance to find the Jedi AND see his family in the process, Atuna decided to find transportation on his own. Using clever words, some stealth and a mind trick or two, he managed to snag one of the Temple’s starfighters and piloted it into orbit. He punched in the coordinates for Katarr and leaned back, wondering how he would cope with meeting his family for what to him would seem like the first time. Having only been an infant when he left them, he barely remembered anything about them at all. Feelings of joy and excitement filled him with every passing hour at the idea of seeing the two people who gave him life, and perhaps meeting any siblings he had.
As the fighter came out of hyperspace, however, those dreams shattered nearly instantly. Dark cloud, with tendrils like lanky, old fingers, wrapped themselves around Katarr and enveloped the planet in a wispy, ominous smoke. It continued to expand until, after a few minutes, it rejoined itself at the far side from where it had originated. As it began to recede, the lights that dotted the planet below, which represented living beings from Atuna’s perspective, extinguished themselves one by one before him, like a line of candles being snuffed out in sequence. Atuna watched, stunned, for what seemed like hours as this process continued until Katarr was devoid of life. Everything, from the plants and animals to the people, Miraluka and non-Miraluka alike, was slowly, agonizingly, tragically stripped from reality. On the other side of Katarr, a looming presence hung over the planet, its massive power radiating thoughts of hunger and malice.
Once his thoughts gathered, Atuna mashed the controls of his starfighter until the hyperspace tunnel had engulfed him. There, in hyperspace to an unknown location as far away from Katarr as he could go, he tried to rationalize what he had just seen. However, for him as a ten-year-old boy, that would simply not happen. All of his friends, all of his teachers, and even the family he had never known, had just been mercilessly slaughtered, engulfed by dark tendrils and eradicated from existence. For what purpose? Why? He did not know. He could not know.
All he could do then was cry.
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