The mood at the Governor's residence and office was somber and subdued. Even his non-Force sensitive staff knew something had happened - even if the HoloNet was silent on Wayne family affairs - just because of the way their leader was acting. To put it light, Maize Wayne had gone mad. Stark, raving mad. The Sith Lord was coolly unstable under normal circumstances; now, there was a deep-seated rage and violence to him that none had seen.
In a completely separate matter, it had come to the attention of the Governor's office through the Coruscant Security Force (CSF) that grass-roots terrorists had begun bombing various districts of the city-planet. Some targets had been in the lower city, while others were located in The Works, and even in the Senate district. CSF was doing its best to insert intelligence agents into the terror cell and root them out for arrest.
Garbed in black, his eyes red-rimmed from lack of sleep, Maize Wayne listened with as much patience as he could muster as the CSF director outlined the latest efforts. Such efforts had largely amounted in failure. Ordinarily, Maize would've left such a normally competent officer at the helm to continue his work. Not now. Not after what had happened to his family. Maize was beyond the breaking point now.
"--and it seems that--"
The director's words died in his throat as the Darth Thanatos exerted pressure with his single-most effective physical Force ability: the choke. Failure, even temporary failure, would no longer be tolerated by him.
"I've had enough of your excuses," he growled, tightening his grip as the man gurgled and clutched at his throat. "I've had enough of it from everyone!"
The CSF director missed the last words though as his oxygen-starved brain failed. The body crumpled in Maize's grip, and he unceremoniously tossed it down there in the corridor where they'd been walking and speaking.
"Get a hold of Black, Shakti and the monsters on Korriban," he growled to Virgil, who'd stepped up and begun the disposal of the CSF director's corpse. "We're going hunting."
Re: Madness. [open]
Tendril would have called it the Flood. That change in the emotions of others around him. It was unnatural. It was wrong. It was horrible. And yet, he liked it. He loved the changes in them, loved to see how others would be affected. And he longed for it to grow more powerful.
He sat in meditation in one of the tombs of Korriban. He was not afraid of the spirits and the tuk’ata. He could handle them all. He was here because he was interested in his Order’s history, but it also was a good place to practice the flood on the slaves. His mind pushed and pulled and molded the Force around him, ebbing and flowing with his heart. He let it seep into the minds of others, of the slaves around him. He brought back the saddest memories he had. The time his mother was killed, the time his father left, the time that his steak was overcooked. All times of utter sorrow. And, in turn, the slaves around him wept, feeling the sorrow.
Now, in a controlled situation, this was easy to do, however, tendril had noticed that it spread to when he wasn’t concentrating, which could be bad. Imagine, a Jedi learning of his insecurities during negotiations, or battle. It could spell the end of Tendril. Yes, the Flood was a double edged blade.
But that was of no concern right now. What was of concern was the man in the Security uniform that was terrified to be in the Tomb with him. Tendril smiled as the man entered the room. The Giant drew his blade and held it close to his throat.
“What do you want?” His voice was hardly more than a growl, and he feigned anger. It was always fun to play with the normies like this.
“M-M-M-Master….B-B-B-Black?”
“That would be me, di’kut.”
“I-I-I-I I’m here ah-ah-ah on account of M-M-M-M-Master Wayne. He w-w-w-wishes you to g-g-g-go h-h-h-h-hunting.” Once he had finally gotten it all out, Tendril decided it was time for him to die. He decided it in passing really. He had not made Tendril angry, or upset, or insecure. He was not afraid of him. But, he still thought this man should die. Perhaps it was the will of the Gods…the will of the Force itself. So, he did.
An hour later, Tendril was preparing to leave Korriban. His mind however, was still caught on why he had fed that man to the tuk’ata. There really had been no reason to it. It was unlike Tendril. He did not argue with it, and he did not feel remorse, but it still felt strange, foreign…like a thought that was not his. Perhaps the Flood was two-ways…perhaps he had been affected by the spirits of the tomb. He would have to test that….
He climbed into his ship and sat down on the floor, since he could not stand easily. He barked a few orders, and a pilot droid took them off, leaving Tendril to his own thoughts, which fled back in forth between being hungry, wanting to write a novel, and to start playing grav-ball. All odd, thoughts really. But the oddest part about it all was that he couldn’t remember Maize’s name. He kept thinking of him as Mr. monkey-lizard. He had no clue why.
The ship docked in Coruscant, and the giant made his way to the Governor’s office. The receptionist made no move to stop him as he entered the office where Maize would be. He smiled, and without thinking, spoke.
Easily amused and determined
to understand it all.
Posts: 88
(10/2/07 11:43 am) Reply
Re: Madness. [open]
Virgil found Shakti in her room with a popsicle hanging out of her mouth watching a terrible low-budget holoserial called "These Feelings We Share." Clarissa had been just about to confess her extramarital affair with Ricardo's Ferrerroan butler. Shakti questioned this, since the original child actor playing the offspring of the union was a Rodian, and had only recently been switched for a human.
Of late she'd been spending more time either in her room or out of the house entirely. Shakti wasn't qualified to handle things like conflict resolution, and wasn't even that fabulous at giving emotional assistance to people who wanted it. This case was way out of her league.
Her former master had gone completely off his rocker.
Shakti had learned to trust his judgment during her training, but sometimes she still had her doubts. For the most part he had a good handle on what was stupid, pointless, and not worth his time. These things Maize tended not to bother with at all rather than getting worked up about them.
When he did get worked up, though... he completely lost it. Shakti spared a moment to ponder the irony of affiliating with the Sith and somehow managing to be surprised that, like her, they might tend toward some temper issues.
What was really unusual was that he was apparently requesting her assistance. That gave her pause. Maize's wife had been very good to Shakti, providing even the clothes on her back. None of them had ever actually needed her for anything, though.
Hunting, eh? Sounds like a fight to me.
She pulled on a pair of comfortable shoes that could survive the day's activities. Her hair topped it off, pinned crazily behind her head, the ends spiking out in fierce defiance of their subjugation.
A quick speeder-trip later, Shakti hiked up a couple flights of steps to Maize's office. She found herself entering behind a-- Wait, what the hell is he?
Whatever he was, Shakti had to look up to see his face, and that was highly unusual. Shakti could generally stand eye-to-eye with any human man, but this guy was... much larger.
Damn. That's interesting. Have to look that up later.
"Good morning, Mr. Monkey-lizard."
Shakti sucked in a quick breath and held it, knowing that if she dared to exhale she'd betray herself by snickering, and this seemed like a profoundly stupid idea.
A moment for self-control. She could do this. She was a Sith knight, by the Abyss, and had enough discipline to keep from giggling. Almost.
After a brief snort that could either have been amusement or derision--really the best she could do to repress the impulse--Shakti peeked around Tendril's shoulder. "Maize," she said pointedly. "You rang?"
Re: Madness. [open]
Maize's office had been turned into a war room. While he was more than ready to just raid the lower parts of the city wihtout a bonafide plan, even he had the presence of mind to do this right. Holomaps lined the walls of the office, and datacards and flimsi print-outs with details on the terror cell waited on his desk. He didn't expect Tendril to read such, but Shakti would... at some point, anyway.
"Took the two of you long enough," he barked angrily, ingoring the jibe from the hulking apprentice. "Don't make me add you to the list of bodies that've been discreetly disposed of by my hand today. Get in here and understand what we're doing."
Visibly agitated, Maize quickly gave them a run down of what had been going on on Coruscant and who they were about to exterminate. He pointed absently to the maps of the city which he'd already memorized. Again, he didn't even expect Tendril to understand; the old giant simply needed to be pointed to a target and that was that. Shakti, and any others whom might join them, would be more intellectual, he'd supposed.
Re: Madness. [open]"So Wayne has lost some family members, eh?" "Yeah. And Coruscant seems to be the victim of terrorists, too."
Emryc arched a brow as he leaned back in his chair and placed his legs on a small table. "Is that droid HK PROTO on the loose again?"
Commander Mehellan shook his head, for although HK was one of those pesky droids who loved to cause murder and mayhem the recent attacks on Coruscant were the result of a more subtle, and thus different, group or individual. "No. But the time would be right for an assault on Maize's position as governor of Coruscant."
The smoke of a lit cigarra circled around the grinning features of the Sith Master, slowly difusing with the air in the room while Emryc's arrogant grin filled the soundwaves. "I don't give a frak about Coruscant anymore, let alone for the governorship."
A reply that caught Mehellan off guard. He had stood beside the Sith Master when Maize and Emryc had engaged in a battle of, in, from and about Coruscant and now this very same ambitious man no longer longed for the Pearl of the Galaxy? Emryc grinned even louder as he noticed Mehellan's surprise. "Coruscant is just a planet. A useful planet and one that might have my interest later on, but not for now. But! Ruining Maize's fortunes even more is a chance too good to pass up. Get me some information about these terrorists and Maize's current mental state. I want to know everything the old bastard knows."
Re: Madness. [open]
Kharn had received reports that Coruscant was under attack from terrorist and that the Governor had flipped his lid and going to hunt them down like dogs, and any excuse to test out his skills against any opponent was a good one.
He grabbed his things and made his way down to his ship, climbed in and prepped for launch, setting his ships co-ordnances for Coruscant and took of from Korriban, upon leaving the atmosphere he punched his ship into hyperspace and settled in for his long journey.
**********
After his ship exited hyperspace he saw Courscant the planet looked as beautiful as the last time he had seen it.
Landing in the appropriate port he grabbed his things and made his way to the Governors Residents, Through the Force he could sense the anger that hovered in the air. The Governors residents was in chaos when he entered the building, he looked around and saw people running around shouting at each other, barking orders.
He walked to the turbo lift and took it up to the top floor, walking past the guards who seemed to be oblivious to his presence, As the lift retched the desired floor he exited the lift and walked to The Governors office, Waving his hand to open the door he entered the office he saw two other people in the room, he knew they were Sith, but cared not what they thought of him
Re: Madness. [open]
Maize countered the question from the newcomer with one of his own: "Who the frak are you?"
He turned back to Shakti and Tendril, waiting to see if they had any questions. Maize took to pacing then, crossing the office by the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked Coruscant.
Easily amused and determined
to understand it all.
Posts: 89
(10/3/07 6:18 pm) Reply
Re: Madness. [open]
Shakti ignored the casual threat against her life, chalking it up to Maize's famous temper. For now she'd give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he had better self-control than that.
This was at least some indication of what was wrong with Maize. He wasn't precisely protective of Coruscant in that smothering, loving, paternal way that a really nationalist leader would have had. Most of the time it just seemed like Maize didn't like other people touching his things.
But... he wanted her help, and she was so tired of walking on eggshells and stopping herself from fighting and killing simply because there was a lack of deserving targets. "Well, you know me," Shakti replied. "Always interested in opportunities for community service."
Re: Madness. [open]
Kharn stopped dead in his tracks as Maize directed his question right back at him, "Well, Lord Thanatos, i had heard that you were going a little bit crazy, but I did not expect you to be senile, I had the pleasure of meeting you when I first arrived on Korriban to begin my training, and I have also had the pleasure of meeting your lovely Wife" Kharn said with a sly grin on his face.
Kharn watched as Maize started to pace about the office "Now I am here to offer you my services, to help you in anyway that I can, But if you don't want my help, then I will leave you to your ranting, My Lord" He said with slight sarcasm in his voice.
Re: Madness. [open]
Maize glowered at the trio. He was not in the mood for sarcasm, jokes or inferences. The last person to displease him had been killed, and in the dangerous state he was in now... these three weren't safe either.
"Then let's go."
Trusting that the Sith had studied the posted material while they cracked jokes about him, Maize strode out of the office, his midnight black cloak billowing as he stormed out. The governor's office was hushed as he departed with the other three Sith in his wake. Not since the war on Coruscant had there been such a concentration of Sith in the political arena on Coruscant; Korriban had tended to leave him be there. Now, people would remember that Coruscant was indeed Sith controlled. Its leadership was taking a very visible and proactive role.
Maize led the others to the "garage" where speederbikes awaited. He preferred those to an airtaxi or speeder when on Coruscant. Of course, after her training with him, Shakti already knew that. They'd used them on several occassions.
"We're going to the lower levels, and I do not expect subtly. We're going to make it very obvious that this government and I are not to be trifled with." Maize climbed onto his 'bike.
Re: Madness. [open]"HAHAHAHAHAHA......SO, AFTER ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED, THE PUPPETEER FINALLY SHOWS HIS FACE......HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
From within the depths of garage, the laughter echoed on the walls. It made it impossible to gauge its source. Up on the rafters of the roof, perched like a demonic bird, sat Darth Corvis. The Knight had heard of the peril that Coruscant faced and had come to investigate for himself. Not because he cared for the planet, but because he just needed something to do. He often did that. Grabbing ahold of the rafter, he dropped to the ground, landing in front of the group of Sith.
"I am glad to see that you finally turned up."
Looking up from the ground, lank, greasy hair hanging down across his face, Nex smiled. His face was white as bone while there were black droops on his face and lips. Smiling insanely, he lifted his head backwards and let out another insane laugh.
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