forum The Old World // one on one // closed

Started Mar 23 by @Mojack group

tune

Once, thousands of years ago, metal was forged and then came a blade, black but not all consuming. Markings etched in the lower part of the blade and handle, appearing to be a language — but unknown to human brains.
What do you do when you come across such a blade?

Evidently, it’s not some random sword. It was stored on a pedestal, the stone holding carved perfectly to match the shape. The room itself was old, evidently long forgotten. Dust crept through each and every corner, plants that thrived well in dark places reigned here.
Gods.
That’s not a skeleton, is it? Just beneath the pillar that holds the sword. Leaning up against it, the skeleton is old judging by the wear on the bones. The remnant of whatever this person wore appears to be armour.
Not plate. Not chain either. And certainly not modern.
You don’t recognize the style at all, broken as it is.

Then there’s the pull. You’d fallen down here by accident. Perhaps it saved you from the battle that went on above. Maybe it will be over when you come up.
If.
You don’t want to think the word ‘if’, but there’s something…dark, about this place. Ominous. Unnatural. You fell down here by accident, but could you have avoided this? It’s not clear how big this structure extends, but surely there is an exit.
This, evidently, is not an exit. And as much as you want to leave…
That sword is calling you.

xxx

Thinking about the relationship between a sword and a user lately. Thought about a ‘what if’.
Plot, simplified: Character (you, person joining) is in the midst of some future war, perhaps they’re a soldier, or just a civilian caught up in it all.
Whilst out in a rural area (uncommon for this time period) you slip into a hole, and end up in some weird tunnel, which you realize appears to be more of a structure, as ancient stone walls hide themselves within the roots and dirt that have come forth over potentially centuries of inactivity.
Whether or not you had a communication device of some kind doesn’t matter in this underground structure. Radio, phone, etc.; none of it works down here for some reason. If you had a compass, it seems to not know which direction is which, which solely leaves you to your senses at this point.
But your senses pull you to something unnatural — a strange sword, black as night, of unknown metal, and perhaps a bit too big for you or any average sized person to wield.
Shortly after that — something wakes up, and quickly reveals that the sword is…not so normal.

(Spoiler alert: there’s someone in that sword)

And they’re a bit confused, but also quite strange in themselves. Though, they find your world equally as confusing.

will you return to the surface with a potential ally to get yourself out of this precarious situation? or perhaps you’ll be blessed, and the battle is over by the time you’ve left the tunnels.
as usual, I don’t have a firm structure for my RPs; just an outline. Whatever happens, happens, and im always curious to see what others come up with.

Notes

• feel free to do some worldbuilding of your own, like I said love seeing what others come up with.
• this does take place on Earth, albeit in the future (2067). A bit of advanced technology is present, such as the use of combat exoskeletons to improve performance; bullets are still used but other, more heated (plasma?) ammo is present as well.
• there’s not really an exact date of the conflict start; it was smaller conflicts that eventually seemed to just combine into a larger one and connect.
• climate change is still a problem in this world and extreme weather events are seen globally, feel free to use that in your character. children have also been born with health conditions due to this (such as heart conditions)
• a war does take place in this rp, here’s where details get a bit more cloudy. small battles take place over the world, there are no nuclear exchanges but they have been threatened. one major component of the conflict is over fresh water, but other tensions relate.
• you can be a civilian, a civilian who has taken up arms (but officially not a registered soldier), or a soldier of whatever rank or background you desire.
• my character will not be a human but does have human traits. romance is not a must for any of my RPs unless said otherwise. if it happens, it happens is what i say — go with the flow!

Rules

1. Ask before joining — if I do not know your writing style, I will ask for a writing sample with dialogue. Please have one at ready! Do not be offended if I deny you; I am most selective with my limited RPs compared to group RPs or character chats (least selective; open for everyone usually).
2. Activity is not a must. I am not active myself as I am now a college student (times fly by, huh?) If it appears I have forgotten to respond, I may have thought I did, when in reality I didn’t. It could also be possible that it has been a long time that I feel awkward about replying in case the other person doesn’t have the motivation to continue. Please note this before joining!
3. Cussing and violence are expected. Note that as is everything, there is a time and place for it.
4. Good grammar and punctuation appreciated, but I know that everyone makes mistakes, as I certainly do.
5. Mature RPers preferred as a preference. Any sexual content will be a fade to black sort of deal.
6. All notebook.ai rules apply.
7. One paragraph minimum, or at least four sentences. No one liners. At the very least, give me something to work with and I’ll try to do the same for you.
8. Any questions? Ask!

Template

Name:
Age: (21-30)
Gender:
Pronouns:
Orientation:

Appearance:
Clothing:
Personality:
Background: (can be in any format you want. write as little or as much as you want)
Other: (conditions, relationships, skills, fun facts, etc. feel free to mention things that will NEVER or unlikely be mentioned in the rp, because I do it too)

I don't need.. but I… could I perhaps…? All good if not :)

oh of course!! do you have any questions?

YAHOOO thank you for feeding my notification addiction

my only real question would be regarding the plot after sword and charc meet - something to do with the war i assume?

admitting that I haven’t thought out all of the nooks and crannies but yes, I lean towards that aspect! it’s kind of up to you how deeply you want to lean into the war aspect; of course it will always be a factor, but whether or not your character is an active (and how important are they if so) fighter is up to you

okay cool cool, i've got an idea for a character just gotta write him up adsljdnak

Name: Commander Kanan Solice
Age: 29
Gender: Cis male
Pronouns: he/him
Orientation: Queer, undefined

Appearance: Kanan stands at six foot six, being muscular from head to toe. He has broad shoulders and has a square-shaped torso, along with thick, strong thighs. Kanan has defined arm muscles, although his right is maybe a tad more defined due to being right-handed. The man has tanned skin with olive green undertones and deep, striking green eyes that are rimmed with black that only outlines and adds to the menacing appearance he tends to sport. Defined jawline along with a defined Roman nose, and thin lips. Kanan tends to keep himself clean-shaven as much as possible however his facial hair grows pretty fast which leaves him with stubble nearly all the time, giving him a five o'clock shadow. His black hair is cut relatively short, buzzed at the back and sides. He does have an eyebrow slit that extends back into the thin hair on the left side of his head. Scarred from head to toe, with a botched right ear that has caused him to be slightly deaf, to an array of scars on his back from a variety of weapons such as knives and blast wounds. He also only had 3 fingers on his left hand.

Clothing: When not fighting, Kanan wears black/dark grey cargo pants with far too many pockets to count. The pockets tend to hold an array of items from daggers, spare bullets, and first aid items (bandaids etc). There are also many zips on those pants. He also wears black leather cargo boots (again, with a zipper or two because fashion). For shirts, Kanan wears tight-to-the-skin athletic shirts - often in black or grey. He wears a silver watch on his left wrist that has a crack right down the middle that he refuses to fix and the watch face is a deep blue. His dog tag is often tucked into his shirt. He also wears another chain that has a gold ring attached, he rarely takes it off. He's never usually off duty these days but when he is he tends to wear black jeans, loose-fitting shirts and a leather jacket. Commander Solise, however, wears his armour proudly. To distinguish him from the rest of his troops, his amour is black with yellow accents that he has drawn on himself - the most prominent one being a sun on his helmet. Always keeps a gun strapped to his side. Always.

Personality: Kanan is a hard-working man. Strong-willed, some may call him stubborn, when he sets his mind to something he will stop at nothing to get it. Selfless to a fault, always putting others in front of himself to the point where it gets in the way of his own self-care. He barely takes a break unless he's sick or injured or physically cannot drag himself out of bed due to exhaustion. He pushes himself to the max, always trying and trying to get stronger, fitter, smarter, and be a better soldier. He's good at working in a group, considering he is a military commander and leads his own battalion, and half the time prefers it because it means he is out of his head. His heart is as big as anything, he cares for his team, his men, his brothers more than anything. Even though he often sports a scowl or frown (even though he's not necessarily angry - he calls it his thinking face), he is a kind man underneath all the rock-hard outside.

Background: Growing up in a low socioeconomic community/neighbourhood, Kanan and his family never had much money. The neighbourhood was run practically by gangs, with frequent break-ins, shootings and thefts every other night. Kanan was the eldest of three children, having a younger brother and a little sister. His father was an abuser and left before his sister was born, being exposed as a cheater and his mother kicked him out. Not that it mattered, really, considering he was never home to begin with. Either way, his parents went through the trouble of divorce, his father being told to pay child support (news flash, he never did). With three children there was barely enough food for the family and often Kanan went hungry in favour of his family eating instead. However, his mother was killed in a break-in, and Kanan was shot, too, however survived. His siblings were killed in a gang battle when Kanan was sixteen, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kanan joined the army when he was eighteen and never looked back.

Other: Like I said before, Kanan is partly deaf in his right ear due to his mank-ass ear. His eyesight is also slowly getting worse but he refuses to do anything about it. He can see and therefore that's fine. He's a Scorpio, being born on November 2nd. He makes a mean martini and honestly thought about being a bartender for a while. Plays guitar, but plays left-handed because of his left hand despite being right-handed - plays both bass, acoustic and electric, and at home, he has a small but growing collection. Loves motorbikes and rock music (but has a soft spot for opera). Favourite colour is sunset orange and loves otters more than anything. Does suffer from PTSD, depression and anxiety, causing his hands to shake slightly when he gets super nervous but often it fades away in the field when he's focused.

Big fan of him!! I’ll get a starter up shortly :)

Name: Nule (pronounced similarly to Mule) Asoros (ah-soar-ohs)
Age: Nule’s age is not known. It can be assumed that they are an adult, and likely old, from a human perspective.
Gender: Uncertain; Nule has never cared for such things. In their world, they were portrayed or referred to as a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes neither, both, occasionally just a beast. They are not oblivious to the concept of gender, however.
Pronouns: Any (for this RP I will primarily use they/them)
Orientation: Asexual biromantic — though they seldom have felt attraction beyond platonic, they do feel romantic and other forms of attraction.

Appearance: Nule stands tall. Too tall for a human. Their hands (and extending slightly into their wrists) are perhaps one of their more unusual features; a strange, almost scaly texture presents itself instead of human skin. Not to mention that it colours itself midnight black, and each digit ends itself in a long yet sharp nail; more like a claw if anything. Despite that, they are perfectly capable of wielding a sword. Though it would not normally be seen, their feet (and once more, extending slightly into their ankles) are of that same dark texture, although their digits on their feet are of a somewhat more normal length.
Nule is about 7’3” in height. They do have relatively human features; aside from their hands and feet — the rest of their skin is fair in colour, not extremely pale but they would certainly look to be the type that burns in long exposure to sun, not tan.
They have what can be described as a heart shaped face, with more of an androgynous look to it; their hair is black, and somewhat longer as it does extend down to their shoulders. Their facial features are a bit sharp, but not overly so. Their eyes give additional clues to their inhuman nature— yellow irises which are reflective at night (in similar manner to nocturnal animals), but sclera that is black. Their pupils look relatively human (circular) at least.
Build wise, Nule has a somewhat athletic build. They are lightly muscled; a structure that in human terms could be considered that way due to their unique height. Due to that, they also weigh around 245 pounds.
Their teeth are a bit sharper, specifically in the canines, but not overly so. They still possess incisors and molars, however. Their tongue is not humanlike at all; inky black, long, with a pointed end.

Nule can also take on the form of their own sword, or use it in many of their attacks. For reference, the appearance of their sword:
Blade made from unknown metal — dark in colour, under light will still be reflective. The sword is somewhat similar to a katana at the base, but going further off the handle and into the end of the blade, becomes similar to a kopis, a strong forward curve at the end. The blade’s length is around 34 inches in length, slightly above average for what is considered ‘maximum’ in terms of one handed blades.
Small markings, hard to notice due to the darkness of the blade, are present near the handle. There are only two of them which could be potentially identified as ‘characters’, they are in vertical alignment. What makes up the characters— lines, angles, dots, but no rounded lines are present. They are not overly crowded or complex.
A small yellow gem is slotted in the handle. Dark red ribbons are present on the handle; attached to which are two silver bells that sound slightly at each movement.

Clothing: Nule’s typical clothing involves that of a long ‘coat’, though it would lack zippers due to that not existing in their time. The coat is thin, leathery — but of durable material. It could be considered having both Asian and western styles in it. Medium sized separate strands hang off the edges of their coat, and it has long sleeves. The coat is charcoal grey in colour.
Some thicker leather straps are present on them, whether for protection or extra storages. They’re located around the chest area, as well as the shoulders.
They wear a wide brimmed hat, mostly flat — similar in style to a Kasa, or specifically a jingasa. It appears to be made of wood, but much like the rest of their outfit is dark. Their boots have a somewhat old western style, making for an interesting mix overall.

Personality: Nule is calm. They are seldom one to lose their temper, though it is to note due to their nonhuman nature, at the base of everything they don’t deal with things like a human does, no matter how many humans they’ve been around.
Nule is mostly content with where they are in life. They’re not a very ambitious person, and if anything, given past events, they’d rather stay off the radar. Still, when one has gotten their good attention, Nule can be a good ally — or friend — to have. They have some difficulty admitting certain things, but they’ll do their best to protect those close to them, or get their friends out of bad situations. One wouldn’t think it, but they do have hard lines they won’t cross, and anyone who crosses those lines is generally never forgiven.
While normally calm, Nule is not incapable of emotions, and they’ve shown them in front of others; amusement, contentment, etc., but generally have a harder time sharing them with others.

Background: Nule once served a king — a king which would certainly not be written in any books or records that this new world has. They were considered quite important — not of royal blood, but essentially the king’s ’right hand’. While the king could fight, he preferred to employ Nule in these matters, as opposed to himself; also building up the idea that this king had some form of control over Nule, who was a mysterious being, not human, yet said to have been found by the king before he was a king at a young age, and taken in.
Nule initially had trouble with human concepts and relationships, but got used to things quickly, or what could be considered quick for a being such as themselves. Still, they are not fully adapted to some things, and sometimes their nature ultimately overrules things.
The king’s right hand had friends within their line of work, though by the ‘end’ of their service, few remained. When the king was said to have taken a dark turn (which was not to say he was a saint before then), and gone mad, it was Nule who put the king down, but their previous actions in service to the old king had not been ignored. Not to mention many feared the mysterious nature of Nule; Nule would end up chased from what they once knew as a home (though, they were not heartbroken with it, more focused on staying alive), and for many years be hunted. For a while this slowed down, but eventually they would be cornered at some ruins only a few centuries old — and from there a battle would occur, a game of cat and mouse finally ending.
While Nule ended up defeating all of their pursuers, in the end, in a dying breath one of them did something that Nule still struggled to comprehend. It forced them into the form of their sword, and unlike most times, it seemed they could not escape — forced into some sort of sleep.
It was supposed to be permanent, but powerful magic was used back then, that even the caster did not fully understand, but had no choice on the verge of death but so close to felling the beast.

Other: Nule has black blood. They are quite flexible. Nule is not sure what they are species wise; their memory grows foggy in relation to their childhood and before. Nule is primarily carnivorous, but may enjoy a fruit here and there. They also enjoy tea, with no preference, except not really liking bitter teas (bitter foods in general). Nule can eat with utensils, as they had to learn how to, but originally didn’t. Additionally, they had to be socialized into eating in the presence of others. Nule can regenerate lost limbs and organs. Their eyes are reflective, in similar manner to looking at a cat and seeing its eyes glow in the dark. Nule has slightly more advanced senses than a human. Nule does not consider themselves particularly good with kids, but they have a soft spot for them anyways.

Devil. Monster. Betrayer. King killer.

It did not matter that Nule had thought their actions to be right, that they would kill one to save a massacre from happening. Their king had not been the same man they knew when they were young.

Kill the Mad King.

It was their blade that drank in his blood that day, the orders given by him, this time not. For once in their life Nule had given themselves an order. To not let the king go any more mad. The king had grown old, but it was not age that made the king different to them. It was something different in his eyes. Madness. Evilness. The king looked surprised, but he’d said nothing, not as he died quickly, for Nule took no pleasure in this.
But by killing the king, they’d gotten rid of their major protection in the world, and somehow, that was a realization they had made only after the fact. One of the few moments in their life that made their heart drop, as the doors opened and footsteps halted. They could see the shadow of the person, in the barest bit of light given of from the other room, as their hand curled around their sword handle.

Devil. Monster. Betrayer. King killer.

That was…wait, where are they? Nule had not been certain what pulled them from their memories. Or how long they had been reliving them. But for some reason, the first time in a long while, the shroud had…dissipated. They felt different. And then they recognized what they were, but did not know why they were. They took on this form rarely.
More importantly. Where are they? They try to push into their memories, but all they can remember is a hunt, a repeated dream they had. Or more accurately a nightmare — they the rabbit, the hunters who chased them night and day with their dogs through the forest. It’s as though a wall has been set up somewhere in their brain, and that bothers them.

A presence. Is this a nightmare, too? Has Nule’s old king come back to find them? Did he survive somehow? No, they think. They killed the man, saw the life fading from his eyes. Nule could recognize the eyes of a dead man, and the old king was dead. Of that they were certain. So…who was this? An approaching presence is clear as day to them, despite their somewhat dulled senses in this form. It’s as though they’re waking up from a nap. A really long nap — and some parts of them still need to wake up.
There’s not much Nule can do in this current state, but bide their time. They know they’re not far from waking up fully, from there they will reorientate themselves, figure out their next steps. But for now, they are stuck in the form of their own blade, one that they’d wielded to end so many lives, the last being their former master.
So the dark blade sits on the pedestal, waiting to wake up.

Escalation of the war was on the horizon. It grew and gained traction like a moth to a flame. People wanted what they couldn't have. People died for the most basic of human rights that were denied simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kanan knew it all too well what it was like to be on the outside. To go starving for days in order to feed his family. It felt like a life time ago that he had been in such a position. Nothing but a child at that time and now he was going on thirty and a commander in the war over water. Over food. Over safety.

How things had changed since he had first joined the army fresh out of high school. Not even then, the minute he had turned eighteen he had applied, dropped out, and joined the ranks of many men like himself who had been suffering and alone. Kanan often wondered if his mother would approve of where he had ended up. A leader. A commander over how many men in his battalion? He had been lucky he had survived as long as he had, many of his friends– brothers, had been lost to the battle that waged. And frankly, Kanan was sure that his men on the surface probably thought that he was lost to the battle, too, considering he had lost his footing on a particularly rocky bit of land. With the amount of blasts that had been dropped on the field it was no surprise that the land was falling apart underneath his boots. Mud splattered, dirt flew like bullets at every missed shot and land mines made themselves known far too often for Kanan's liking. Ending up down a hole, however, was not what he had expected.

The commander groaned, standing on his aching legs as he brushed the rocks from his armour and rubbed at his helmet as if that would help the growing pounding in his head from such a hard fall. He flicked on his head light, the small beam illuminating the cavern that he had ended up down. God, his breathing felt too loud in the silence of the space, and the diagnostics in his helmet weren't doing anything for his head, either. The loud beeping, alerting to the crash, the damage his suit had taken, and how his inbuilt compass was spinning ten times as faster as it normally did with no sense of direction. Fucked. He was fucked if that was out. Down in the caves under the field there was no light and he had no idea how far he had fallen.

Something glimmered ahead of him. Kanan squinted, as if he didn't have the ability to zoom in his sight using the tech in his helmet, before bringing up arms. An enemy solider? No, they would have made themselves known the minute he had fallen down the caves had it been someone else. At least someone else alive. If it was a dead man that was no better, because then he really was alone down there with no sense of which why to go. He took a step forward. And another. Another. Slowly, carefully, with his gun aimed and ready to fire the moment something went wrong. But the closer he grew, the less his gun aimed.

A sword? What was a sword doing all the way down here? It looked… old, yet somehow new all at once. Swords hadn't been used for centuries, how long had it been covered by the mass amounts of rock and dirt? How long had they been fighting on top of such a thing?

Maybe it was a bad idea to reach out and touch the handle, but Kanan couldn't help himself as his fingertips brushed the weapon.

The feeling of being wielded by someone else — well, that was a feeling that very few probably knew about. In a literal sense, of course. It was a thing very few Nule had allowed to do, and Nule had trusted all of these people deeply.
This was a new hand. And if Nule could freeze up, they would’ve, but it was difficult for that to happen right now. Something felt different, though. It was as though the touch had pushed them to wake up fully. It wasn’t like the person, whoever they were, had grabbed the sword. It seemed more like an examination — but that was sometimes a prelude to trying to grab something, and Nule thought to themselves that it was better to ‘wake up’ sooner than later.

Within a few seconds of contact with the sword, it seemed like it just…collapsed into smoke. Which was possible, in the world Nule knew. The smoke was dark, but had no scent; it ignored any reaction that the other person might have, and swam down to the ground, briefly splitting in half as it snaked behind the pedestal, before collecting right within a shadowy space in the back.
Shadow once became solid again, starting from the legs. The shadows themselves helped obscure some of what was going on, but it was very obvious something unnatural was happening here. Nule looked vaguely human; perhaps a very tall one, though some of their lesser human features nullified that.
They had stretched their arms slightly, as though waking up from a rest, before pausing, and slowly tilting their head up to look at the very individual that woke them up.

Nule said nothing, just watched, their eyes glinting slightly in the dark — before they reached a claw up and pulled the brim of their hat down slightly. The individual; human. Tall, but not like them. They didn’t recognize what he wore, which was unusual; not that they were an expert on the world and its cultures, mind you.

It could be taken as notable as Nule simply stood there, neither taking on a defensive or offensive stance. Why would they? They could not see any weapons, so it was clear to them, at the time, that this was probably a curious…maybe not a child…human adult, that had found their way down here somehow.
Which Nule would figure out, in time.

Kanan had seen some weird shit in his life. Enrolling in the army fresh at eighteen meant he had spent his whole adulthood seeing weird shit. It didn't help that rules tended to be disregarded in war when situations grew dire, and the longer the war on the surface built, the weirder shit became. But, seeing the metal, feeling the cool, smooth metal that touched his fingertips disappear into nothing but smoke and cloud was definitely taking the top of his list.

The commander took more than a few steps backwards as the smoke circled around the base of the rock the weapon had been wedged in. Even in the dark and the little light that his torch gave in the cave, it had been obviously stuck in the ground for a very, very long time. Either that, or someone was damned good at making concrete that looked like pure rock, but Kanan somehow doubted that it was the latter conclusion that his brain drew in the moment. Probably because there was no logical explanation for what he was witnessing. Swords didn't just disappear. They didn't turn into smoke and grow and grow until there was a damn figure standing before him dressed in some strange attire with eyes that made even the commander shiver at the sight.

Especially when the figure was taller than he was. Kanan was far from short. If anything, he was above average in the height department and yet the thing standing opposite him was definitely over seven feet tall and the largest he had ever encountered. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. It was clear from the eyes from the fucking display of smoke that had poofed the thing into existence. Had he done that? No, that wasn't possible. Magic didn't exist. Unless it was some form of technology that hadn't yet been discovered by America, yet. How would it have made its way down into the caverns, then? Kanan refused to believe it was any sort of magic. Maybe he had just hit his head too hard? That was the only logical explanation for what he had seen.

It didn't stop the commander from raising his gun at the thing, breathing heavily through his helmet into the air around them, "What are you? Hands above your head- slowly. One wrong move and I'll blast your head open." Would bullets even work against it? After what he had just seen, if Kanan was to trust his eyes, he didn't know what would work.

While Nule certainly did not recognize any weapons initially, that didn’t mean that they could have a hunch that they were wrong on this guess.
They did not recognize the thing that the man held, pointed at them, and moved to speak a command at them. That seemed to imply the presence of a weapon, and they could only assume it was the thing held in his hands.

With so many uncertainties in this situation, Nule thought it better not to..act out for now. They weren’t exactly used to taking the lead for themselves just yet, but it didn’t mean they didn’t know how to do that.
So slowly, Nule spanned out their arms, their palms facing the human, and they brought up their hands just as was asked. Despite that, Nule remained calm, barely anything audible from them. They kept their position just behind the pedestal, the only thing moving their arms as they finally brought them to a stop near their head.

But then, with a voice that was neither low nor high, a tone that sounded to be an androgynous one, they spoke, remaining still as they did. They knew they were not quite in a position to be asking questions, but it didn’t stop them from doing so, at least not in the past. This was the now — they were testing the waters so to speak.

“Who are you?”
The words did not sound uncertain, or unsure, but it was just Nule’s way of speaking. They had not answered the other question of what they are. In truth, there was no answer for that, not that they knew of. Besides that — in the region that they last knew themselves to be in, most knew the King’s Hand. This human displayed no recognition.
They hadn’t fled that far from the hunters, had they..?
Like it or not, Nule knew the disadvantage they currently had. The most preferable course of action here was to try and fill in the gaps of information that they lacked, but if that was impossible…Nule would eventually figure something out.

So whatever the hell it was could speak English, that was at least a start. Kanan didn't take his gaze away from the man. Creature? Thing? There wasn't a word that he could use to describe it considering it was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The commander trained his gun as he followed the movement, finger over the trigger ready to fire the moment it made a move to attack. But, it didn't seem all that dangerous. Tall, yes. Intimidating, most definitely, but if it was going to harm him it would have done so by now, surely. When the smoke was covering it and Kanan had been at a disadvantage.

Scared wasn't something he felt often. Kanan had seen war for nearly half of his life. Had been bombed and gunned down more times than he could count and yet this was what scared him the most? Well, he couldn't bee too hard on himself, especially in the face of something so new and different. Something he doubted anyone had been before. That sword had been wedged into that rock for what looked like centuries. The caves had been covered with so much rock and dirt and debris that if he hadn't lost his footing, he doubted he would have ever found whatever it was standing in front of him.

The scanner in his helmet flickered, scanning and taking in the basic statistics of the thing standing in front of him. Heart rate. Breathing. Its voice was certainly interesting, but then again, its hands were covered in what could only be described as scales. And, it seemed calm. Kanan definitely wasn't calm but he did his best to keep his cool. He was a commander, after all, this was what he was trained to do.

"Commander Solice of the 408 battalion. Identify yourself solider." Maybe it was a bad idea to answer the question when the creature hadn't answered him to begin with, but this wasn't a normal situation. It was far from normal. Kanan took a step to the side, trying to assess whatever it was he was looking at, see if there were any weapons on it that maybe he couldn't see at his currently position.

Standing here in relative silence gave Nule a bit of time to truly get a glimpse of things. What this human wore — Commander Solice — unrecognizable. The introduction, however — Nule knew enough to put things together. A warrior of some kind, then. Just not any sort of warrior Nule could recall, and they had fought a great many soldiers in the past.

This whole situation was unusual, but they did not say that out loud, or show it. Instead, Nule decided to respond. They had no reason not to, and perhaps this would be a moment of truth. Part of them felt wrong at the thought of using that surname, but it was the one they’d went by for so long. They’d known hardly anything else…even if it was the family name of their old King.

“Nule Arsoros, Commander,” they diplomatically return, still keeping their hands up. They watched for a sign, anything that would show recognition of those names.

Though it would be hard to see due to the colouration of their outfit, one could see glints of something on them reflecting through the small bits of light that were able to creep in from the roof of the odd structure. The very same sword that had once been sitting in carved stone was now at their left hip. They hadn’t reached for it, but it was still there.
Additionally, their heart rate sat at around 45 BPM. Low, but certainly not impossible. Their respiratory rate was also on the lower side of things. And if one were to investigate body temperature, Nule was a bit cold, from a human perspective. External signs pointed to Nule being unbothered by any of this. It must all be normal for them.