Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Maize bellowed in Old Corellian that the reporters better make way and though they didn't understand that tongue, they did still obediently clear a path back to the Governor's speeder. Naturally though, the HN reporters snapped holopics and took footage of Lord Thanatos leading his sexy wife, the Lady Saevitia, and a completely new figure in their lives.
//Can you hear the headlines now, Love? We're going to bump Marcus and his friend to "in other news"...// Maize snickered privately as he waited for Kass and their guest to board the speeder. After all, Maize and Kass were the "original Waynes" to stir up a scene. First, public displays of affection and then picking some woman out of th crowd and boarding the airspeeder with her... It was definitely HoloNet gossip channel-worthy!
He gave a mocking salute to the reporters before boarding the airspeeder himself; the driver closed the door behind him. Maize settled in beside Kassandra, wrapping an arm over her shoulders as he considered their guest in the seat across from them in the stretched transport.
"M'lord?"
"The residence, please," he called up to the driver.
"Of course."
They pulled away from the platform and Maize lofted an eyebrow at the young woman, the question clear on his face before the words came rumbling out of his mouth. "So, little Force user. What did you want to see me about?"
Easily amused
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(7/20/07 9:04 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti noted that even though his driver was required to address him with extreme formality, Maize still did not abandon courtesy simply because he was in control. It was an odd combination of impulses, but it reinforced Shakti's impression that as a rule... as long as she wasn't deliberately rude or disrespectful to him... she might be all right.
But he'd asked her a question, and Shakti had to set her observations secondary to that. She'd had plenty of time to size him up, and if this went well she'd have plenty of chances to observe Wayne's behavior later. Now that she had his ear, she couldn't waste the chance.
But cripes. The confessional portion.
Shakti hated explaining herself. She could do it and in fact took pride in having a more honest grasp of her actual motivations than many people. It just always started so awkwardly and she'd never found an appropriate way to decrease that...
Wetting her lips before she spoke, Shakti tilted her head briefly and plunged in. "That requires some explanation, and without it this all seems-- well, it's still kind of random from your end, I'm sure." With an apologetic shrug of one shoulder, Shakti continued. "There are a lot of things I've been... told I shouldn't know. Shouldn't want to know, more precisely." She was unable to keep her irritation from bleeding into her voice. "And I'm pretty sure on top of it all, I've been lied to."
"You probably hear this a lot. Lot of students go to the Jedi and don't stay." Shakti's personal guess was that most prospective Force users sought out the Jedi first because it was a safe option. They were more likely to accept acolytes of all skill level, more likely to treat failures with mercy and attentiveness, and more likely to care for their students. Safe. Easy. It was only when they found the Jedi not to their liking or were rejected by them that many students risked a darker and more dangerous path. Shakti was no exception, but these two probably had little interest in her theories.
"I left because I felt they were keeping things from me, that their beliefs were getting in the way of their ability to instruct their padawans. They... they censor things, lock away truths that they feel are too dangerous and they teach their students to do the same thing to themselves. They wanted me to believe that anyone who taps into that power is consumed by evil, becoming a mindless force of destruction." She shook her head briefly and made a sharp sweeping motion with one hand, dismissing the idea.
"I don't think that's true. At least... I don't think it has to be. But there's only so much I can teach myself." Dark eyes rose to meet Maize Wayne's, briefly moving to Kassandra's before returning. "I know this is sudden, but you seem to have things other Sith don't." A flicker of a scowl passed her face and she made another dismissive gesture. "I'm not even talking about power. You... have..." How to phrase this. "...a life. You do things besides destroy. For all the talk of individuality, some Sith seem to get so wrapped up in wreaking havoc they stop being people."
Her voice took on a deep urgency. "Even if you don't have time or patience for me, you're proof that the Jedi were wrong." She swallowed, but once again her pride refused to let her shrink from her request. "And I don't want to learn from anyone else."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith..."I left because I felt they were keeping things from me, that their beliefs were getting in the way of their ability to instruct their padawans. They... they censor things, lock away truths that they feel are too dangerous and they teach their students to do the same thing to themselves. They wanted me to believe that anyone who taps into that power is consumed by evil, becoming a mindless force of destruction."
Up to this point, Maize had listened quietly, his dark blue gaze riveted on the young woman before him. Peripherally, he was aware of the route that the driver was taking; it was wide and circular, giving them plenty of time to have their conversation before ever reaching the Governor's suite in the Senate district. Good man... he knows not to take us back unless we're satisified with this "interview." If we're not, then it'll be anyone's guess what happened to this one... When she spoke of the Jedi and their misinformation, he did give Kass a sidelong glance, nudging her through the lifebond.
Her mention of his life, his family made Maize quirk a brief smile. Early in his "career" as a Sith Knight, he and Kass had been persecuted for their relationship on Korriban. The Council had sent Kass on death missions to try and split them up. They'd gone rogue and fled for the safety of their unborn children. There were some, Maize knew, who struck that balance between life and the Sith, and in truth, he strayed far closer to family life than the Sith. But for whatever reason, this one was intrigued by that.
"And I don't want to learn from anyone else."
Maize pinched the bridge of his nose then ran his thumb and finger down the creased lines of his face to his chin. Wish I hadn't had so much chapagne... or that I'd tried to neutralize at least some of it... Been a long time since I've taken a student who's actually been likely to stick around. Not since... who? Archaen's return?
"Your history and your logic is interesting," Maize allowed, lifting a dark eyebrow, "but I am a busy man with many responsibilities, political and private. Give me a reason that makes it worth my whil to be saddled with an apprentice."
Easily amused
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Posts: 32
(7/22/07 12:22 am) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...You don't know a damn thing about my history, Shakti noted privately. But even that couldn't distract her long from a very clear, imminent, and pressing problem.
That question. That question that no prospective student was ever ready to answer. No amount of preparation would be adequate, and no amount of careful wording could compensate if her motivations were wrong, if her reasoning wasn't enough. She'd been honest with him so far, and it was fortunate that honesty came fairly naturally to Shakti. If she started playing games with him now she could lose everything.
But what did she have to offer him that another apprentice didn't? Why should he bother with her when he wouldn't bother with anyone else?
Because I'm. Not. Like. Them.
She was irritated by her own uncertainty. Of course she was different. She was a better student than he'd find anywhere else. Shakti wasn't some pathologically insane unpredictable treacherous power-hungry disobedient wretch. She was better than that. Wayne was under no obligation to take an apprentice, but if he was going to invest that time and effort... he would never find another student like her.
"Another apprentice will be watching you, waiting until you screw up. Waiting for a chance to turn on you for their own advantage. Waiting until they think they can get the upper hand. I'm not that stupid and quite frankly don't care. If I were that stupid I would have used all of this time and effort to find a master I could get away with betraying. I didn't."
This wasn't a case she was perfectly comfortable making, because she knew that many Sith knights and masters expected their students to betray them, and in fact approved of such behavior. However, Wayne wasn't many Sith. He had loyalties outside the order. Most notably he had a family. He'd spent no small amount of time and effort building himself a business legacy and a political career.
In Shakti's experience, men who had built anything in their lives valued the stability that allowed their affairs to remain intact. If there were any Sith who would value a student he could rely on... it was a man who knew what he could lose by allowing a treacherous apprentice close enough to destabilize him.
"From what I've read, it seems to me that half the time and effort spent on an apprentice is waiting for them to turn on you, and preparing for the day they inevitably try to put a saber in your back. Making sure it doesn't work. Making sure you stay in control."
"I don't want to usurp you or destroy you or screw anything up for you. If I wanted that I think you'd know it. You have knowledge and experience I don't. That's what I want."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith..."Very well."
That was all Maize had to say and their driver swooped the airspeeder directly to the residence. He snuggled closer to Kassandra's side as he watched his new apprentice take in the meaning of the two words he'd spoken.
"There are enough guest chambers in the residence that you'll live with us," Maize said after some thought. "And we'll see what happens... Wait. What is your name?"
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(7/22/07 11:42 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith..."Very well."
Shakti did her best to pin down and hold in a smile. Somehow it felt... socially awkward to express the exultation she felt at finally, finally planning carefully enough to make something work. Since a couple of crashing, mutilating, horrible failures when she was young, Shakti had driven herself to understand every situation as best she could, taking in data from every direction and every source, hoping to build a complete enough picture of her surroundings that she could prevent them ever from mastering her again. Her life needed to go her way, and no one else's. Finally 'her way' was making progress. She was too bullheaded sometimes to settle for less.
Her victory was colored at the edges by apprehension. She'd overcome one set of obstacles, knowing that a minefield lay beyond. This was only the first of many tests, but Shakti had been determined to pass it if only to have a shot at the others.
I'll get them, too. I won't be held back again.
"Wait. What is your name?"
Shakti blinked. Here he'd been offering her a place on his property, a chance to learn from him, a chance to finally be more than she was... and without knowing her name.
"I-- wow. Yeah. Wow, that is relevant." She shook her head briefly, surprised and mildly amused that the conversation had come this far without normal introductions. It occurred to Shakti just how little this man knew about her. Even with the aid of the Force, the only information about the young woman before him had come in the last several minutes and begun with finding that Shakti had been watching him.
Wow. When I think about it that way I'm actually really creepy. Huh.
"Sorry about that." This shouldn't have been a problem. Sith were often expected to give up their public names and take on a new name, a new identity, a new life. Even the Jedi didn't ask it, but the Sith did. Well, hell. I guess I'm one step ahead in that department."I was born Esperanza Messiah," her lips curling in disgust around the poisonous syllables. The mockery, irony, and bondage in the name were the only emotions it evoked. That wasn't her name. It was the name of a girl who'd loved her family, loved her friends, and tried to save them all from each other. It was the name of a girl who'd been slowly dragged to pieces over the coals of her own best intentions.
She drove back the sound of her brother's voice, that sincerely apologetic, concerned, insistent meddling ignorant thoughtless sound, refusing to call her anything but a name she despised. "But everyone who knows me just calls me Shakti."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Names were powerful, potent. They had meaning, symbolism. Or so Maize Wayne felt. He pursed his lips upon hearing that Shakti did not use her given name.
Surely she has her reasons for that, but... Esperanza would flow so much more fluidly off my tongue...
The thought made him grin inwardly, remembering years earlier when he and Kass were first into their personal relationship. She'd asked why he tended to refer to her by her full name -Kassandra- rather than shortening it to Kass. Maize had explained how saying her full name sent the most delicious shivers down his spine.
Ah yes, the power of naming...
Feeling Kassandra sense what he was remembering made him actually smile this time. He patted her tanned thigh and forced his attention back on Shakti.
"You already know who I am, and who my lifemate is. Were we on Korriban, I'd demand that you refer to me only as Lord Thanatos. Here..." Maize shrugged, gesturing out the window as the airspeeder came to an easy landing at the Governor's residence. "Let's be real. You're Shakti. I'm Maize. This is Kassandra."
A manservant awaited on the landing platform to meet any of the Wayne's needs. Maize addressed the Human in hushed tones, explaining who Shakti was and what her role in the residence would be.
"This is Virgil. He'll guide you to your quarters. See to him for whatever you may need. Virgil will guide you to my private office on the morrow. Do you have any questions for now?" Maize said, wrapping his arm around Kass' waist once more.
Easily amused
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Posts: 36
(7/23/07 1:37 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti had expected things to go very differently with Maize than with another master, and had in fact been counting on it. If that had not been a certainty from the outset, she would never have given the Sith master a second thought. However, the differences were so numerous that Shakti feared that she would be left without the comforting context of previous research.
First off, according to what Shakti had gleaned from reports by Sith of their training, their accomodations weren't exactly lush and extravagant on Korriban. Considering Maize's wealth it should not have been surprising that he had guest rooms available, but that didn't change the fact that Shakti was not going to be staying in a traditional cell-like room, but rather in her master's own home.
Maize himself had pointed out one other difference. It was common in formal training for a Sith master to assert his or her authority over a student at every opportunity, especially when it came to modes of address. Shakti was privately impressed that Maize didn't seem terribly dependant on such assertions of power. Perhaps he was simply secure enough in his own position that he didn't always need to fall back on those formalities.
At least he wasn't showing her around personally. That might actually have been too personal at this stage. With Virgil leading her around, at best it might feel like she was just staying in a much nicer hotel than usual. A hotel where the owner had agreed to train her as a Sith, but that was a minor technicality and didn't bear consideration right now.
But did she have any questions? With Shakti this question was nearly always an invitation for a hundred enthusiastic and zealous inquiries. This time, though... Shakti didn't even know where to begin.
The young woman shook her head. "Not right this second, no," she replied.
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Maize nodded, once. "Then I'll see you after breakfast. Virgil will attend to your needs until then."
As the manservant led her away, Maize paused there on the landing pad with Kassandra. She was all but purring audibly by now and that meant that they had things to do, between them, before the night was out...
+++++++
By morning, Maize was a bit more coherently and cognizant than he'd been the night before. And, to his credit, he did indeed remember that he'd agreed to take on a Sith Apprentice. He growled and muttered to himself about it while dressing and taking breakfast privately with Kass, though she shushed him, reminding Maize of her feeling that Shakti would prove a good pupil.
He dispatched Virgil to meet her once she was finished with her meal and to deliver him to the rooftop of the Governor's residence. It was there, Maize had decided, that they would continue their conversation and her descent into the Darkside.
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(7/23/07 9:19 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Left alone in her quarters, Shakti pulled her backpack over between her feet. This was... this was pretty nice. Better accomodations than she'd had in a while. Maize's manservant assisting her where he could. No clear and... obvious danger to her for the moment. Then tomorrow a chance to prove herself.
Shakti stripped down to her pants and a camisole, peeling layers of clothing away from her twisted and disfigured skin. She really ought to have asked Virgil what she was supposed to do with dirty clothes, but she could wait on it at least another day or so. She sat cross-legged on her bed, bent over her datapad, trying to record her impressions of what was happening to her.
They've been unfailingly polite so far, and Wayne has even gone so far as to allow me to call him and his wife by their first names. He's a little unpredictable. I have a hard time judging his opinions immediately, because he doesn't give most of the usual clues that he's even making a decision until it's been made and announced. When he agreed to take me as a student, it was an abrupt and curt "very well," with no accompanying explanation or elaboration. Until he'd decided it had been extraordinarily difficult to tell if he was taking me seriously or humoring me for a moment or irritated or simply drunk.
That's something I'll need to keep an eye on in my training. If I'm doing something wrong or have offended him somehow, he'll probably wait and let me discover it myself which on the one hand makes each lesson more memorable, but on the other it means I won't know if he's angry or disappointed or pleased until later.
It's strange that I should worry so much what he thinks of me personally. I was interested in him as a source of knowledge initially, but after our short discussion I felt like a child hoping for approval. I've never been so insecure as all that, and the suddenness of it was bizarre. Not since Juan and I were learning to read have I wanted so badly to please a teacher, and even then only because it was our mother.
Shakti paused, chewing gently on the tail end of her stylus. Old memories.
There's envy there, I know that much. Nobody has a perfect life, but Wayne seems like he's got everything together. It's most certainly an incorrect impression, so I won't give it the weight of truth. Just the same, it's an unusual impression to receive from a Sith. The villains denounced by the Jedi are madmen tearing loose at the seams. Stripe was clearly unbalanced from the get-go. No one is perfect, but how does Wayne keep that appearance up all the time?
Then there's Kassandra. She's no less powerful than he is; at least she doesn't seem that way. I haven't spoken with her much, since the bulk of my conversation was with Wayne himself. I have no idea what she thinks of me, of having me here. It was true that she repeated her husband's invitation to me, and that suggests that if I do well she'll be supportive of his efforts even if she doesn't particularly care for me. Or she won't care and she'll do as she pleases, and wait to explain herself later.
But that's just unfounded speculation. I don't have any real information on her. She's just a beautiful woman wielding incredible power at the side of a man who seems genuinely attached to her. Their relationship is interesting, and while I'm not here to study them as individuals, I have to admit that I don't totally understand it. With luck and a little attention, hopefully the number of things I don't understand will decrease sharply the longer I'm here. Maybe I'll have time to get to know them later.
She closed her datapad and slipped her stylus inside. What now. Sleep? Shakti hated sleep. Dead time. Nothing was ever advanced or resolved or accomplished while a person slept, and it was such a waste.
Eventually, in spite of her apprehension, Shakti did sleep.
She woke the next morning and laid her shirts out on her bed. Shakti didn't have anything else to wear, and didn't really need it. She pulled on the black camisole, then layered a white overshirt, a black overshirt, and a black zip-up sweatshirt on over the whole thing. As long as she switched around the order of the layers, Shakti could have something resembling a varied wardrobe, and as long as no one took it into their heads to inspect her wardrobe too closely, it wouldn't actually matter.
When she finished her breakfast, once again attended by Virgil-- she was beginning to feel that he was supervising her in addition to seeing that she was fed-- Shakti found her way up to the roof with her backpack slung over one shoulder. Pulling the cuffs of her sweatshirt down to her knuckles, she had to smirk at herself. A grown woman and I can't help but feel like a runaway, wandering around someone else's house with my little backpack and only what I can carry. I've become quite the little scholarly vagabond.
Shakti stepped up onto the roof with Virgil at her side, and couldn't suppress a little anxious thrill. She felt like an understudy called upon at the last moment, called upon to take over when she hadn't studied her lines. Like the old nightmares she'd had in school where she walked into class only to find that not only was there a test that morning, but by the way Shakti where are your pants. The comparison was so striking she had to restrain herself now from looking down to check.
She didn't know what Wayne wanted from her or what came next. All Shakti knew was that she had to make it work.
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Maize acknowledged Shakti with a nod that, in the same moment, dismissed Virgil. He stood at the roof's edge, one booted foot propped against the slight ledge that ran the perimter of the building. Compared with his attire from the evening before, Maize was dressed down. He was in his trademark white tunic and black leather pants. For now, his lightsaber was not on his person.
"I like it here," he remarked, "but it's not the same as being on Corellia in the morning... Have you ever been there?"
It had been a long time since Maize had had an apprentice, espsecially one that had fallen in his proverbial lap this way. He wanted to get a sense of this creature just as much as she coveted knowledge and power. It would be a give-and-take sort of experience as they got to know each other for Maize did not work like other Sith.
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(7/24/07 10:52 am) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti watched her new master carefully with one hand wrapped around the shoulder strap of her backpack. She shook her head. "No. I didn't get offworld until... relatively late in my life."
It was more than she usually told people she barely knew, but not because Shakti had any reason to be ashamed of her past. What had happened back home hadn't been her fault. She just didn't usually think most people had any reason to know. It seldom came up. Maize... she didn't really care if he learned certain things, and if he cared enough to ask her about herself that was good enough for Shakti. "I've been making up for lost time, but... never made it to Corellia."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Maize nodded.
"There's more to the Darkside and the Sith than sheer power, sheer hatred," he said casually, his gaze remaining on the Coruscant skyline. "As you know, the Force is nothing if not complex. What I will ask of you is oftentimes no less complex, no less confusing. Rest assured, there will be a purpose to it however. I do not act randomly."
The air traffic was starting to pick up here in the Senate district of Coruscant. Vehicles lined the airways already, an endless stream.
"What do you see... when you look out at Coruscant, Shakti? Not with your eyes... but with the Force?"
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(7/24/07 1:08 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti stepped closer to the edge, looking out over the skyline to share Maize's perspective. "I..." She frowned. "Ever since I got here it was like... like there's no room to breathe. Like there's something alive on every side of me, pressed against my skin whether I can see it or not. Feels..." She shook her head. "It's easy to feel very very small."
She stretched out a hand, first spreading her fingers and then curling her fist closed again as she hesitated. "It's hard to find a metaphor for it. It's like being in an anthill, only you're not just packed in with other ants, but every grain of sand is alive and moving, too. The further down..."
As she strained her senses as far as they'd go, she felt a slow and sinking dread. "Further down it's... uglier, and I mean I can guess why, but..." She blinked. "It's distracting. Lot of... lot of bitterness. Fear."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Maize wondered what her impressions said about her. Were he even the slightest bit empathic and able to get out of his own head, Maize might've had an idea or two. But, alas, he did not.
"Since you spent time with the Jedi, I'm going to assume that you have the basic skills intact. Being able to move things with the Force, perform the most basic of a Mind Trick... things like that," Maize said after a moment. "If not, correct me and we'll see that remedied. Assuming that you have learned such things along the way, let's delve into the darker aspects of being. For that, we'll travel onto the streets of Coruscant itself..."
When Kass was his apprentice, they'd come to Korriban and razed the block where she'd grown up. In a brothel. That had been a delicious adventure. Maize didn't suppose anything with Shakti would be quite so potent, but then again, one never knew.
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Posts: 41
(7/24/07 8:23 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith..."I'm not as good with the mind tricks as I am at moving things. I've actually had enough practice with the telekinesis that sometimes when I try to do other things... telekinesis comes out instead." She shrugged and offered by way of explanation, "It's the only thing I really felt comfortable teaching myself. Y'know, lift this thing. Okay, now lift a bigger thing. Now lift two, like that."
Streets of Coruscant can mean anything, depending on how far down you go, at least according to what I've read. The whole planet is a mess of streets. The surface is nested with them. ...Now there's a dubious term. What's on top and "the surface" aren't anything approaching the same thing.
There was some doubt in her mind as to what the heck they were supposed to be doing on the streets. He'd assured Shakti that he wouldn't tell her to do anything pointless, and Shakti was hoping that meant she wouldn't be sent to slaughter a speeder full of orphans on their way home from school or something equally absurd. She'd decided she trusted Maize, and that meant that she had to assume whatever he had planned was going to make sense at some point.
"So yeah. If you've got something in mind, I'm game," she replied. "It's what I came here for."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Retrieving his lightsaber and his cloak first, Maize then led Shakti out of the residence on foot. It took some time to get away from the Senate district as sprawling as it had become; meanwhile, Maize pointed out architectural facets to Coruscant that his apprentice might not have known or noticed. He'd always been a fan of architecture and while Kass would pore over mysteries of Sith sorcery, he'd admire the "pretty buildings" as he'd joking call the ancient Temples in their travels.
At last, they reached one of the lower income commercial districts several levels down and well beyond where the Governor maintained his residence. Using the Force as they walked, he rubbed the minds of any who started to take notice of them; most were busy with their own lives and failed to spot the Sith Governor walking about on foot with a young woman in tow.
"Here... the Force is strong here," he said softly, his dark blue eyes glinting as he narrowed them. They weren't far from a lesser Jedi enclave that had once existed, where Tiresais had sought to trap them with a bomb years earlier. "Reach out, Shakti. What do you sense? Who do you sense? There is trouble brewing..."
Much like he'd do to apprentices when he'd had the jungles of Ziost, Maize had set Shakti up with an elaborate plot. There were indeed sentients coming and he wanted to see just how she would handle the threat to her person on the catwalks. A wrong move and she and Maize both could be pitched off the catwalk. A right move and... well, that's what Maize wanted to see.
OOC: Essentially, the 'threat' is up to you to create and we can RP it out.
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(7/25/07 8:15 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti had done her best to conceal her delight at having local architectural styles pointed out to her, and was quite proud of herself that she'd only taken out her datapad to keep notes twice. The rest she'd get down later when she was out by herself. It was an unexpected blessing to have a teacher who was also a useful informant about the local culture. It wasn't something she had anticipated.
Then, under the artificial lights of one substratum, Maize told her to focus on something different in their surroundings. Shakti consciously unlatched her mind from the little details around her-- which buildings had water pipes, what color the glowing signs were in different parts of town, which pawn shops had grates over their windows-- and forced her curious gaze to leave her in peace for a moment. Something was wrong, and Maize wanted her to discern what.
* * * * *
"Simon, that match was pathetic."
"What? Are you kidding? He nearly tore the other borrat's head off!" came the reply from a tall man pushing thirty.
"Yeah, well. That's great for you. You were the only guy betting on that one." An irritated young man of about twenty ran a hand through short-cropped blond hair. A sneer of disgust marred his youthful features. "And I bet Mikey's the only one besides you who had any fun at all."
"What do you know, Kerrick," spat a young tough who could only be Mikey. "Even I didn't feel a damn thing."
"Oh ho!" Kerrick exclaimed. "See, even Mikey didn't like it. They weren't even hurting each other. Mikey would know." He grabbed the smaller boy and dragged him into a headlock, mussing his hair with one fist. When his victim wrenched himself away, he chided him, "Hey, man. I feel you. I don't even get off on it like you do and even I thought that was sad. We need to find us something else to do."
Mikey chewed his lower lip thoughfully. "Want me to find us something else to do?"
Simon, the oldest man present, crossed his arms and smirked at their usual guide. "What's to do? We got all excited about the fights and it didn't pan out. Now I really need to see some blood. This had better be good."
When Simon didn't receive an immediately reply, he reached out to grab Mikey and Kerrick stopped him. "Hold on, look at him. He only gets like that when he senses something good," he finished, gesturing to the boy staring blankly at a ferrocrete wall. "Mikey," he whispered. "What is it?"
"I don't know..." he replied dreamily. Shaking his head, he snapped out of his reverie and grinned to his friends. "I don't know. Doesn't work that way. But I can tell you it should be more fun than rat fighting."
* * * * *
Shakti frowned and uncrossed her arms. Her first task, whether Maize realized it or not, was attempting to be aware of her surroundings through the Force past the noise created by the powerful Sith master at her side. Irritated by the delay in her task, she decided not to try and shut Maize out entirely, but rather accepted his presence as part of her environment, a surge in the Force that didn't matter right now.
Once her awareness settled itself, she began to notice the smaller changes. Maize was right, there was something there. "I can't tell who's there. More than one, I think. But--" her breath caught for a moment. Meeting the awareness of another halfway was as indescribable and unmistakeable as a moment of eye contact. "Someone's using the Force." She turned to glance briefly at Maize for confirmation, before turning her eyes ahead again. "I don't think I'd have noticed if he wasn't."
He? How do I know it's a man? ...Eh. Wouldn't be a woman, she reasoned. Most women know better than to hang around by themselves here. Just an induction, that's all. There was doubt there, but Shakti had learned long ago to trust her instincts. They'd often been correct against all reason and her wishes to the contrary. But where is he? He's coming here.
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(7/25/07 8:25 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
"Mikey! What is it?" Kerrick asked.
Mikey chuckled. "Something big. I think tonight I could make some real progress," he mused.
Simon rubbed the top of his head, confused. "What is he talking about?"
Kerrick scoffed. "Same mystical crap as always. You've gotten really weird lately, you know that, Mike?"
* * * * *
Shakti glanced around them, her eyes sweeping over their surroundings. Their position was unstable, but it meant that if they stayed where they were, whoever they were about to face would have to come out where they were. This wouldn't be nearly the advantage it was if Shakti didn't have an advantage at range. Sharp eyes took a tally of small objects lying about that she could pick up and use if she needed to.
Abandoned bottle here. Some broken electronic thing there. Not so good. Maize and I need to have a talk about how clean he's keeping this level of his planet... she thought, darkly amused by her predicament. He's inconveniencing his student.
If there was another Force user about and he was more powerful than Shakti herself was, she couldn't actually count on Maize to leap to her defense and rescue his poor student from a situation that had gotten over her head. That wasn't a reliable way to even the odds if the odds needed evening. There was one thing she had over most fledgling Force users.
Even if they were more powerful... Shakti was smarter.
As a result, she held her ground when three men passed a corner ahead of her, pacing carefully along their own catwalk. They'd have to negotiate a way over to her. That gave her some time to size them up. They were being led by a smallish young man with bristling spiked brown hair and his eyes turned straight to Shakti and Maize.
I think we've found our Force user. Walking right in front like a terrier sniffing for prey, Shakti noted. A trace of a smile touched the corner of her mouth. If he were going to cause trouble Shakti could hardly be blamed for putting him down, could she? Maize certainly didn't need to bother with this if she could have a moment to play.
Her delicate smirk turned into a desperate attempt to keep from laughing in delight. She hadn't been in a fight in a while, and as much as she normally looked forward to pulling people's feet out from under them, she would get a special pleasure from doing it with such a fall below them.
Little guy in the front... he's sharp. He led them here, and he's still leading them. Big guy'll block the path if I bring him down in front of them. Then they'll either have to climb over him and risk me shoving them, find another path and risk me shoving them, or retreat and risk me shoving them. Blond guy might be the Force user's second, but with a Force user and a big bruiser like that by his side, I wonder what he's good for. At any rate... chains on his pants coming off his belt. Couple of piercings. Not to mention...
Shakti pondered a few more potential targets of opportunity as the three approached. They'd need to be closer before she could grab anything on them, and unless they intended to shoot her from down the block, they couldn't do much to her before they got within her range, too.
Shakti had been silent for a while, her attention fixated on her enemies and how best to manage them. Unfortunately casual conversation fell by the wayside. Nice and patient, Shakti. Keep it easy and keep your head. These guys are punks, and they probably don't know their limits yet.
They'd learn. The fact that the three kept advancing meant that they were in sore need of just such a lesson.
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
As Shakti moved forward, Maize lingered several paces behind her, keeping a watchful eye on things. He could sense violence in these locals - lust, passion, simmering rage. All potent and dangerous (or intoxicating) in the right combination; they could be formidable to his apprentice, depending on how things proceeded.
From the shadows where civic lighting had previously been knocked out of commission, the Sith Master watched. Waited. He reached into the Force, extending it out toward the thug-like sentients. Maize "stirred" the Force around them to bring their doubts and frustrations closer to the surface.
Maize wanted to see how Shakti fared on her own, what natural talents would come to light. He had no doubt she intended to do things herself. Maize just wanted to see how it would happen...
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(7/27/07 6:17 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
"What?" Kerrick slapped the back of his friend Mikey's head. "One girl. You found a girl. This is the wild time you found us?"
Mikey's reply was a sly glance and a wicked grin. "Am I ever wrong?"
Simon shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I chase 'em down, I go first."
"You always go first," Kerrick hissed.
"Because he always catches them," Mikey replied.
* * * * *
Shakti saw the largest of the men step ahead of his friends. His eyes were locked purposefully on her, and she turned to run. Expecting this, he broke into a sprint to catch up. She stopped abruptly, turned, reached out with the Force, and shoved his feet out from under him. He broke his fall with his hands and after one surprised moment of hesitation, began to push himself up again.
Grabbing the collar of his coat, Shakti cracked his face down against the catwalk. Once, and again, and then blood began to pour out of his nose and flow down his chin. He scrambled up to try to close the distance, and Shakti shoved him sideways, hoping to sweep him off the catwalk. She wasn't able to apply enough force, however, and he was able to stop himself from sliding by grabbing the rail of the catwalk. The little one, the Force user, strode forward to back up his friend. With a flick of his hand, he tried to shove Shakti backward away from Simon.
This is so pointless! What the hell is even going on?! Didn't these people have lives? Didn't they have hobbies? Why couldn't they sit at home and watch daytime holoserials like everyone else! Worse still, all this one seemed to know how to do was batter around blindly with the Force. No finesse, no creativity, no point in even bothering. Why did she have to play with these idiots again? Mikey reached out to shove her again, but she grabbed the thick chain connecting his wallet to his belt and yanked him off balance just long enough to break his concentration.
While Shakti was busy with her fellow Force user, Simon stood and drew a vibroblade. Her eyes caught movement from Kerrick as well, and she saw him level a blaster on her, presumably waiting for his allies to be out of the line of fire. Shakti took a couple of careful steps back.
Just have to keep them between me and him, then. Should be easy if they keep trying to close the distance like this. I guess it speaks well of his character that he isn't willing to shoot them for a chance to get laid, she noted, distantly amused.
Simon approached again, and as the big man was passing Mikey she gave him a hard blow to the arm with the Force, sending his blade arcing out toward the younger boy. He dodged easily enough, and the two seemed more irritated by the distraction than anything else. She really needed to find a way to deal with the youngest of them, the Force user. As far as she knew, he was her greatest threat.
It wasn't until Kerrick straightened his arms and fired his blaster that she realized she was wrong. Simon and Mikey ducked, and Shakti threw an arm up defensively. She hated blasters, hated the heat and the pain and the smell of her own skin burning. The blaster bolt seared down almost the full length of her arm and in that haze of pain something snapped. Until now she hadn't even really cared about this fight. It had actually seemed fairly pointless, a waste of her time and energy. That was before the pain.
Shakti's eyes widened and abruptly she was no longer facing other humans. The battlefield had become a collection of interlocking but separate moving parts, noses to break, eyes to gouge, ankles to pull from the catwalk, blood that had been spilled and blood that would be. Everything became components moving in predictable patterns, patterns that needed to be destroyed.
The pain became a maddening drive to fling and crush and break until nothing was left to oppose her. She raised her arms to shoulder height, and the tattered sleeve on one arm fell away, revealing not just a blaster wound, but the terrible burn scars marring her skin that had come before. She'd been through worse than this, and these three were doomed to failure.
Like a wild dog building aggression out of fear Shakti dove down into her own rage and clawed it out of herself, heaving it at the large blade-wielding man. His head snapped back as she slammed the force of her will against his throat and his feet skidded backward.
Details, details. These were not people; they were collections of separate destructible parts, and they would not escape while Shakti lived. Dragging her own aggression and determination through the Force, Shakti gripped the thug's ankle and pulled hard. Simon hit the catwalk beneath him, and Shakti made a dismissive sweeping motion with one hand. A ghost of a smile touched her lips as she yanked him off the catwalk, and he slipped off the side like he was being sucked down a drain.
One down. Two left. Kill them.Edited by: Darth Shakti at: 7/27/07 6:17 pm
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(7/27/07 6:18 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti's fingers traced patterns through the air like the hands of an orchestra conductor as she assailed the boy who had guided his friends to her. She cracked him across the head hard, but her next stroke was met by an upraised hand and halted with a telekinetic burst from her enemy. So he was finally deciding to play, was he?
Another blaster bolt hissed through the air between the two fledgling Force users, and Shakti's eyes flicked toward it briefly. Her enemies had lost their melee fighter, and now it was her against two ranged fighters. Kerrick seemed attached to his blaster, and that meant she had some idea of what he could do. The Force user, though... he was closer and he was more likely to hit her hard enough to cause her problems.
With one palm up, she twitched her fingers and pulled Mikey's feet from under him. He caught himself on the bar of the catwalk, and knocked one of her feet back, dropping to her to one knee. Long ago weakened by purposeful abuse, the joint protested and the pain drove Shakti forward again. Mikey tensed for another assault. She knew she'd have a rough time concentrating under such conditions. When Shakti's other enemy raised his blaster to take careful aim once more, Shakti dragged the other Force user between them, using him as cover.
When a blaster bolt shrieked past Mikey's shoulder, he cried out in alarm. This was becoming messier than he'd anticipated. He reached out one hand, fingers spread.
He isn't. No f@#$ing way.
The little hairs on the back of Shakti's neck rose up as she recognized his intent. Slowly he closed his fist and she felt his desperate attack tightening around her throat. There was an ingrained terror of dying this way... strangling on her knees alone. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe. She had a few moments, a few moments to do one thing.
He thinks he's a Sith? He thinks he's a Sith? Disbelief and rage mixed. This was too much to be borne. Her lips formed words she had no breath to speak.
YOU... ARE... NOTHING!
How dare he? What did he think he was, this little boy with a lust for blood? A Sith?
NEVER.
She reached out through the Force and raked across his face in anger. Latching onto the piercings in his nose and lip, Shakti tore them out of his skin. With a cry of pain he reached to catch the spray of blood in his hands.
She could breathe again, but she didn't even notice. Standing slowly she reached out again and again. Shakti tore a chain from the edge of his ear, piercing after connected piercing stretching and tearing free. She heard blaster fire, but it didn't matter. She wasn't aware of it hitting her, and it may as well not have been happening. Death mattered; death was happening, and no one would stop her.
Words faded from Shakti's thoughts and there was no need for them. Careful deliberation and consideration was swallowed beneath a rising tide of murderous destructive intent. Breathing harshly through bared teeth, Shakti did what she knew she wanted. She flung her arm sideways, and the boy was too busy holding his bleeding face to defend himself. He was beaten already, and Shakti felt nothing but disgust.
He tried to catch himself on the railing as Shakti shoved him aside. He might have been able to strike back at her if his fingers hadn't slipped in the blood coating them, leaving him off-balance and vulnerable to another hard blow against his shoulder.
Shakti was no longer even consciously aware of her own actions. Kerrick's face, white with fear, was replaced by a shaking blaster in Shakti's vision as he brought his weapon to bear again. Still turning away from the latest round of this battle, Shakti had no time to dodge a bolt that hit her squarely in the lower back. The force of the impact and the sudden awareness of more pain dropped Shakti to her knees.
Wild-eyed, the young blond man lowered his weapon, turned on his heel, and ran. Shakti turned to watch him go, reaching out one trembling hand to pull his feet from under him, but even this simple task just... She just couldn't.
Her senses began to return to her, and she cursed herself for letting her last opponent go. She should have killed them all. She should have been able to finish them, not rely on the cowardice of her enemies.
It was a victory, but it didn't feel like one. One of her enemies had escaped and Shakti felt like her body was falling apart. Blistered skin screamed in protest at every movement, her throat ached, sweat was running down her scalp and onto her face, and all she wanted was to curl up on the ground, pressing her forehead against the cool metal beneath her knees and palms.
Shakti hooked her fingers around the catwalk's rail, but while she'd fully intended to pull herself up... even with the rail for support she couldn't gather enough strength to pick herself up from her knees. Past hard, gasping breaths, Shakti couldn't help but laugh. She couldn't see Maize; objects shifted and blurred in her vision because her eyes wouldn't focus. She knew he was nearby, though. Didn't seem like he would have left. "I... heh. I got... my ass kicked." She shook her head, and gave another weak, breathless laugh. "Cripes."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
While he had wanted to see for himself how street savvy and battle-ready Shakti could be... Maize could admit to himself that this had been a bit more than even he would've expected her to deal with. Street thugs yes, but more determined than this sort tended to be.
Probably because they had a Force user in their midst, and she's female... they always underestimate the female. Fools.
Maize realized he probably should have interfered. If for no other reason than if Kass heard about this, they'd end up in an argument over Maize's inattention. Even though Kass knew first-hand that was his style, she didn't like that much. Sighing inwardly, he stepped from the shadows and wordlessly extended a hand toward Shakti to help her back onto her feet.
She feels she failed... what is a victory? A failure, really?
Never a Force philosopher himself, Maize didn't have answers to those mental, rhetorical questions. Nor did he bother posing them to her. He was aware that his silence might also lead Shakti to think he was displeased, but even so, he didn't say anything immediately. And when he did speak, Maize only posed a question:
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(7/29/07 10:29 am) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti looked up to find that her master had returned to her side. Yeah, lotta good he does me now, she thought, holding back another tired laugh. Didn't really matter. As long as nothing else went unexpectedly violent, she'd be fine. She glanced at his offered hand distrustfully but when she tried to pull herself up just using the rail, she faltered and took his hand reflexively.
With most Sith, Shakti would have needed to take into account their reactions to failure. Failure to... to do what? Failure to kill them all? Failure to make them suffer enough first? Failure to be vicious and bloodthirsty enough? Shakti didn't care. If Maize disapproved, he would either grab her hand and heave her off the catwalk, or simply stand there and silently judge her.
Whatever.
"Well," Shakti looked down the length of the arm attached to the hand Maize was holding. From the middle of her upper arm down close to her wrist was a streak of blackened and raw skin thanks to Kerrick's blaster. "There's that, but that arm was pretty bad anyway," she added absently. It was true, where her arm hadn't been burned tonight it had been burned years ago, and it helped Shakti keep from thinking about it too hard. "And he shot me in the back, little f@#$er." She shook her head. "At least it was a shitty blaster."
By the Abyss... I hate blasters. What an incredible pain in the ass. Shakti wanted to get some bacta, maybe a couch and something unhealthy to eat and several hours of doing nothing at all. Maybe a manicure, just to prove to the universe how useless she intended to be for the next modest span of time.
Her casual tone couldn't quite cover the pain in her voice, but she'd been hurt before. She'd be hurt again. That's how these things worked. "I should be fine. I haven't died from worse; I don't think it's..." She winced as she moved and the skin on her back stretched at the edges of the blaster wound. She wet her lips, swallowed, and looked over to Maize. "...that big a deal."
Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith..."Don't be a fool or a martyr," Maize admonished, his voice growling softly. "I don't need that."
At least she was honest in her assessments, Maize thought. She has to have a really high pain tolerance... or enjoy it, like Kass, for as bad off as she truly is.
Sighing to himself at wondering about that, Maize straightened his shoulders and glanced around. There was a "safehouse" close enough by that he kept leased through a dummy corporation. That would do. Maize guided Shakti to the safehouse, a studio apartment in the slums. Kass had used her sorcery to ensure its privacy despite flimsi-thin walls and the area.
"Alright. For your first 'official' lesson, Shakti, let's do a bit of self-Healing with the Force," he said. "As you know, the Force is always around and through you. Despite weariness, you'd better keep enough focus in order to draw on the Force for self-Healing. Feel your injuries. Let the pain blossom in your consciousness... and then, draw on the Force. Urge it toward those injuries so that that power overwhelms your system and pushes it toward healing faster. The Jedi don't understand that drawing on the Darkness can be equally effective for Healing. But it only works well on the self."
There was the sort of Healing dynamic he and Kass had developed between them as well, but that took a lifebond to work with the Darkside.
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(7/29/07 3:39 pm) Reply
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Re: Shakti's tale of sweets, speeders and the Sith...
Shakti eased herself down onto the floor, trying to settle down comfortably with her legs crossed. Her first impulse was to try and get the charred and melted fabric around her wounds away from her skin, so she peeled off a few layers until she was down to just her pants and the tank top she wore every day. Once or twice the material of her shirts had melted to her skin, and she had to jerk the fabric and tear it off. Every time she tried and failed to hold back a low whine in the back of her throat.
I hate blasters. Hate them.
She laid her forearms on the tops of her knees, enjoying the feel of cool air against skin that was so often kept covered and hidden. She lowered her head and tried to do as she was told. Shakti didn't like to think of herself as the kind of person who fled from pain, but she'd always tried to concentrate on anything else. When she was injured or the cold was getting in her joints during winter, she always tried to focus on sensations besides pain. The floor under her fingertips, the fabric over her knees pressing into her skin, a breeze pulling her hair across her face, an itch on her left wrist.
Not this time. She tilted her head and tried to listen to the pain. Let it tell her where it was, the desperate blaze of pain dimming once it no longer had to fight for her attention. Before it had been a constant plaguing distraction, but now it just where it was. Finally feeling a clearer awareness of where the pain was, she took a deep breath and drove the Force to follow her awareness, focusing it around and within her body's determined but agonizingly slow attempt to heal itself.
The sensation of flesh knitting into flesh and skin growing over wounds brought a tearing and stretching pain to her blistered skin. Her spare and wiry muscles tensed as she struggled to keep her concentration in an uphill battle against the healing that--
--that hurts like twelve bitches on a bitchboat, she thought. I guess that's how you know it's working.
Sweat ran down across her back and into the injury she was trying to close, but the stinging annoyance it brought faded into a pain that barely warranted her attention. It wasn't even pain anymore. It was just a warning, just a message from her body that something was wrong, that working at such a breakneck pace just wasn't natural it it wasn't pleased. Let it complain. Pain without fear was nothing; Shakti knew the difference.
By the time the pain faded, Shakti let go of her concentration and heard nothing but the sound of her own breathing. Sweat ran down her cheek, over her lip, and onto her tongue, and the sudden taste of it brought her back to reality. How long had that taken? It occurred to her to ask, but she didn't actually have the energy to form recognizable words. The day's activities had already taken a lot out of her, and she'd have to find some way to manage whatever else was going to be asked of her.
What in the Abyss is next? she thought. Part of her was annoyed that she was so worn out, but there was a spreading thrill in the back of her mind at what she'd accomplished in that time. She'd survived a fight in which she was seriously outnumbered, and against another Force user (however embarassingly pointless the conflict had been). She'd even learned to heal herself to a great extent, though she couldn't possibly expect herself to be quick and efficient about it.
But I will be, she vowed. This is something I need to know, something I need to be good at. I will be, and then it won't matter what anybody does to me. They won't be able to stop me ever again if they can't really hurt me.
She swallowed hard, and wiped her forehead with one palm. "Thank you."
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