un: drenched kitten of heated purrs, audio

[jeoha]

[ There's a pause, as he remembers how to use the magic, and then his voice comes through - crisp, low, commanding. He has his Prince voice on and he doesn't even notice. ]

You must go for the head. Decapitation is best, if you can manage it. Caving in the skull second best. Slice open the throat, third. No fancy footwork, no finesse. Your first priority is to keep yourself from harm, so only go for the kill that you know you can take. If you can't take it, escape.

[ He pauses, breathes. ]

We have been told to kill them, if we can. If you cannot, come to me. I will teach you how to fight.

We do not have the luxury of being ignorant.

Comments

[darkeststars]

I hail from the Sith Empire, Lee Chang. Though if you have heard of it at all, you'd be the first here.

[jeoha]

[ He shook his head. He was never going to get used to audio-only communication. ]

Alas, I am not. I have yet to speak to someone who’s kingdom I know.

[darkeststars]

[ Funnily enough, it's not Arche's favorite either. You lose so much information when you don't have a holo-image of the other being's expression. ]

Nor I. Not unheard of, where I'm from -- I've known people from any number of far-off worlds -- but it seems most here have been grabbed from very different places indeed.

[ Entirely pre-hyperdrive planets, even, so far as he can tell. ]

[jeoha]

[ There's a pause as Lee Chang frowns, wondering if the translation was wrong. ]

Worlds - you mean kingdoms? Empires?

[darkeststars]

If it pleases you to think so, certainly.

[ It's blatantly not really an answer, but so far nobody he's talked to here has been even remotely familiar with this idea. ]

And what kingdom do you call home, Lee Chang?

[jeoha]

[ The answer only confuses him further, but he does not continue to pry. Not now. ]

I come from the Kingdom of Joseon. But I could not tell you how far it lies from here.

[darkeststars]

Curious that one man and his regime could pull so many different people from such far and varied places at one time. I suspect there is much more going on here than the corpses alone.

[jeoha]

I've already seen far more than should be possible. [ A little clipped. ] So I suspect that is an understatement.

I do not even remember being taken, or my arrival, and the days in the prison are hazy at best.

[darkeststars]

Yes, whoever they employed for that little adventure was quite the professional. It's not easy to sneak up on me.

You were in an actual jail, were you? I'd heard some rumblings of a prison being involved from some of the others who've come in, but no real details.

[jeoha]

Mm. We woke chained in cells. I did not fully understand until Haltham spoke his piece, but I take it that you then found yourself in the salt mines?

How or why they separated us, I couldn't say. Nor how long we had been so.