A change of fate? (Mantic Dorn)

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

​

Planet: Metalron Grid location: R-8​

Derriphan let out a loud sigh as he finally walked out of the hangar that his star courier was resting in. "Lig amzi, anas dujikri kaselsa tikra buti udlseraze." He muttered in sith as he scratched the back of his head and adjusted his coat a little before pulling the furred rimmed collar closer against his neck. It certainly wasn't cold on Metalron but he couldn't shake the feeling something was off somehow, a thought he dismissed as paranoia after dealing with the Toydarian head engineer to get the repairs to his ship that he wanted done.
"Running into that damn asteroid field as turned into a nightmare." He spat as he walked along towards the spaceports cantina, he needed something to wash down the rasping dryness that had begun to take hold of his throat after he set foot on the planet.
He could feel something in the force but due to his innate resistance to it's pull it was almost impossible for him to fully sense or feel anything within it's multitude of currents. A sharp wind gust sent his long pitch black hair flying all over the place, especially into his face, and he hurried to get into the cantina as it seemed there was some sort of storm brewing outside or simply just the wind picking up, he didn't know and didn't much care.

[member="Mantic Dorn"]

Sith translation
Lig amzi, anas dujikri kaselsa tikra buti udlseraze. «About time, that damn mechanic sure was stubborn.»

 

[Mantic Dorn]

With the trail gone cold Mantic was no longer sure if he needed to stay on Metalorn much longer. the planet was not hostile territory yet he did feel something that alerted his senses here.
However, the public transport back to republic space had been cancelled for the day due to a ions storm that had made allot of spacers stuck here for a while.

Mantic had walked the streets for some time, trying to use the time to collect his thoughts. But alas, he found himself almost a bit impatient. Food seemed like a good idea and therefore he made his way to the nearby cantina. A rustic place but there was not much to choose from. He found a booth in a corner and summoned the waiter to order some food.

While he could not put the finger on it there was something off here and he kept himself alert but was also aware that they were close to hutt space and the constant criminal activities around here very much caused ripples in the force. Hence he decided to stay and try and enjoy his meal.


[member="Derriphan Itsu"]

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

As he reached the cantina he rubbed his forehead and moved his hair out of the way, combing it back with his palm as he entered the cantina. With a quick look over the interior he noticed someone that looked quite out of place, [member="Mantic Dorn"], sitting in the corner. Derriphan did find him odd and quite out of place but decided instead to sit down at a both and order himself something to drink along with a light meal, sitting down four booths to the right of Mantic.
After he had ordered his food he moved a little deeper into the booth so he could get a good look over the interior of the cantina, one of his hands moving under the table to pull out one of his pistols and placed it down on his lap for easier drawing.

When the food arrived he ate quietly while he glanced around, he was on edge but he couldn't understand or grasp why.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

The food was so so and Mantic sighed realizing that this was what he had to expect for the next couple of hours, or possibly days until the space port opened up its service again.

He looked at the soup for a while. It held a purple color, a local custom it seemed. Then suddenly he thought he saw a ripple run across it. He blinked and looked up.
There was a presence nearby.

Slowly the jedi scanned the room, even if his head was turning he was actually fore most reaching out with the force. It would show him if there was a threat to someone nearby. The sensation rang higher as his observation fell on [member="Derriphan Itsu"] sitting a few booth away.

Not acting straight away Mantic did however observe the man for a while. The force was in him but he could not tell of what alignment as of yet.

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

When it came to the force Derriphan wasn't of any alignment, but his feel was leaning towards the dark as if he had simply had a taste but hadn't immersed himself into the dark side as of yet.However there was something off about how he felt in the force as if he was both able to wield it but it also tried to avoid him, as if he was resisting or resistant to it. It was a trait of his fathers and it also made it hard for Derriphan to utilize his gift in the force as well as learn new skills.

He snapped out of his train of thought, not realizing he actually had been staring at his food for a minute or two as if he had been meditating. Seeing that no one had come up to him or tried to get his attention, Derriphan holstered the pistol he had held in his lap and finished his meal. When he was done a large Trandoshian stood up and yelled into the cantina. "Here'ssss to the karking Ion ssssstormsssss!" He said with a hand raised up and the others raised their own glasses and let out a collective booo as if they agreed with the lizard.
'So there's an Ion storm going on now? Frack..' Derriphan thought as he pushed the tray where his food had been away. A large rotund man suddenly waddled his way to the booth and leaned over the table as he looked at Derriphan. "Hey kid, I can see you are new here so how about you get out of my booth huh?" He said with a grin that made his puffy cheeks ripple in a sickening way to Derriphan. "I'm sorry but I didn't see your name on it." He replied which only made the fat man bellow out a deep, rumbling laugh, a laugh which reminded Derriphan of a hutt's laugh for some reason.
"That's the ticket kid, I choose which at any time. You could say it's a prerogative of those in charge." The fat man then said as he pulled his sleeve up and the logo of the black sun was tattooed on his forearm. "I think you get what I mean kid so how about you leave this cantina huh?" He then said with the same sickening grin plastered across his face, it didn't stay there for long when Derriphan simply leaned back into his seat and raised an eyebrow. "So just because I'm sitting here, you want me to leave? that's... well idiotic to be certain." Derriphan replied with a sly grin of his own.
The fat man grew red in his face and moved in to the booth to grip derriphan but stopped when the pistol was drawn and placed against his forehead. "Now you turn around and get out of the cantina and when this Ion storm is over you won't have to see me again all right?" Derriphan said though he was using a mind trick on the man to make him go away as well.

Derriphan didn't know that his strange feeling had related to [member="Mantic Dorn"], but it was sure that Mantic would feel Derriphan's use of the force now.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

The short rumble that rouse was one of those things that tested him each time.
On one hand Mantics traditional roots urged him to intercept and calm the situation.
Not because jedi must or even should interfere with every single mislead action they spotted, but because one of the two obviously was force sensitive.
These were however times when the jedi had lost their control over such individuals and it was simply an impossible task to take on.

In the end, when the gun was drawn, Mantic did decide to approach the man. The raw, untamed power emanating from [member="Derriphan Itsu"] was closer to the darkness then the light. This was also a common trait for untrained and thus the jedi made up his mind.

Silently he stood and walked over to the table, navigating passed the crowd in front of the bar with his warm soup.

"Would you mind some company then?" he spoke emphasizing on the word "company" as in opposite to the fat mans demand on him leaving the table.

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

The fat man snorted and left when Mantic came up to the table and asked his question, Derriphan however simply raised an eyebrow and holstered his pistol. 'Who's this?' He thought but then simple nodded to [member="Mantic Dorn"]'s request and moved one leg up so that it seemed he was ready to kick the booths table over, though it was bolted to the floor, He didn't know why but it allowed him to relax easier.
"So do you always come to the table were the sitters might be trigger happy or something? Who are you anyway?" He asked as he seemed genuinely confused and intrigued over what Mantic had done just now, not many people would do what he had done and Derriphan had never met a jedi or even cared to listen to the stories about them so he couldn't suspect anything about Mantic besides being and feeling... well weird to Derriphan.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic inclined his head and sat down.

"Thank you." he spoke and placed his bowl of soup in front of him. Slowlyhe spooned up some of the content and carefully blew at it.

"My name is Mantic Dorn. What should I call you?" there was a calmness to Mantic that indeed should make him appear somewhat off, strange even. Suspecting as much he tried to smooth it over with a smile before he siped his soup.

"I could not help but notice your skill in diplomacy. It is not often an agent of the Black Sun is discouraged easily." he added as a sort of explanation to his actions.

He knew he was pressing [member="Derriphan Itsu"] to a degree, but then, Mantic was not the one to put things on hold for long.

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

Derriphan only smirked when [member="Mantic Dorn"] mentioned diplomacy. "You can call me Noxith and my skill is with a weapon rather than diplomacy but they come in handy when one has to... delegate with someone like the fat man." He said with a slightly amused tone as he ordered a juma juice and then finished his own drink in one gulp. "Besides I'm just waiting for my ship to be repaired and then when those ion storms are over I can leave. What about you?" He finished as he placed his glass down slightly harder than he needed to.
There was something that Mantic wasn't asking Derriphan, he could feel it but in his experience when he got such a feeling it never ended well for either him or the asker. Though in those cases it was mostly an insulting question regarding his appearance, Mantics calm demeanor made it almost impossible for Derriphan to read anything other than that one simple fact about the man and it baffled him and intrigued him.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic did not know if [member="Derriphan Itsu"] was aware of his powers or not. Regardless he had chosen to involve himself and therefore had to run the course set.

"I came here looking for someone, but I ran into a dead end." he answered and returned to another spoon of soup.

"Now, may I ask, how could you be certain that the fat man would leave. Or were you prepared to use your gun to defend this..." he pointed around them with his spoon.

"... this territory..?"
It was a direct question. Mantic wanted to learn some more about the mans personality before bringing up the obscure source of his persuasive powers.

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

Derriphan focused his glowing red eyes on [member="Mantic Dorn"] when he heard that question. "Well shooting him in the leg would persuade him and it wouldn't bring about a needless death but that would be in a worst case scenario after all once you've made a statement like I did it's best to simply charge the weapon or if you have a slug thrower pulling back the hammer also does the trick. It rarely goes bad after that is done but when the situation does it's best to simply wing and give a threat saying their head is next and it'll end there." He said in a tone that might suggest he was answering a teacher who's lessons he'd grown bored of, his gaze having turned out of the booth didn't help in that matter either.
"The simple crux of the matter is to be threatning after you've tried persuasion and in the end avoid needless loss of life, after all I could have use for the fat man in the future and having his brain all over this floor wouldn't really allow me to do that now would it?" He then said as he turned his gaze back on Mantic, it was clear he really didn't get the line of questions Mantic was asking him but it also seemed he was interested as in why he was being asked the questions in the first place.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

This would be more complicated than he had expected. It was even possible that [member="Derriphan Itsu"] was not aware of that he was force sensitive.

MAntic put his soup aside and fixed his eyes on [member="Derriphan Itsu"]

"Have you never asked yourself why you of all people get away with things like this? Have you never considered it odd that while others are simply put down for acting like that you manage." Mantic asked.

"The fat man is a intimidating fellow, perhaps even more so then you. Yet, it was you who won here. I am guessing it was not the first time something like this has happened to you? No?"

Mantic leaned back in the seat to get a better view of his table neighbor. He was not sure if he should press the matter, yet that brooding darkness in him should not be ignored.

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

Derriphan looked at [member="Mantic Dorn"] for a few moments before it clicked. 'He's a Jedi.' His expression grew amused as he moved his index fingers in front of himself and made a slight force spark between them. "You meant the force didn't you? You're a little awkward for a jedi trying to ask me if I used the force to manipulate the fat man, which yes I did." He admitted, With what he'd heard of jedi he knew he wouldn't try anything since To Derriphan he hadn't done anything wrong... or the rumors he'd heard were false and someone was having a laugh at his expense.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

The dark side was nothing Mantic disregarded, even if the display of force was low profile. The spark was nothing less then a reason to assume [member="Derriphan Itsu"] already had begun his training at some of the many sith affiliated academies around the galaxy.

Mantic did not show any visible reaction though. Instead he reached inward, preparing himself for what might come.

"I trust that you know what you are dealing with mr Noxith." he extended a force around [member="Derriphan Itsu"] to dampen his connection with it. There was no holding back for Mantic on this. He had been targeted by sith assassins before and knew that they sometimes worked in pairs. He could not be certain though.

"As a jedi I do not take these matters lightly and you are treading on a thin line here. I suggest that you explain to me how it comes that you consider the force something that you can use without consideration for what it might bear with it apart from the immediate result that you seem pleased with." Mantics voice was no longer friendly or gentle. It was a demanding tone to the question. Wether or not it held authority or not was in the eye of the beholder but Mantic had every intention of finding out exactly who this man was.

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

When the force was dampened around Derriphan it would feel like he was resisting it a little though it didn't seem as if he noticed it at all, besides the sudden chill it sent down his spine and he moved his arms to cross them over his chest. 'Ok don't take this guy lightly then.' He thought as he frowned a little at [member="Mantic Dorn"], showing his displeasure at what he had done.
"I am... or was raised by my mother who was a sith lord, She taught me to view the force as a tool to be used. However I am not affiliated with the one sith or any of those factions because I'm sick of it, their infighting cost me my parents and I've avoided their worlds ever since." He gave Mantic the short version, omitting the fact that he was alchemicaly altered in the womb to take the strongest genes from his mother and father to make a new breed of warrior for the sith. Also omitted was the fact that there was a sith lord after his head after finding out about him before murdering Derriphan's parents and having already had to deal with two acolytes sent after his life already.
He was proud of his heritage, his mother, a pureblood sith, had given him his eyes, haircolor and his strenght in the force, while his father, a Dashade, had given him his complexion as well as his innate resistance to radiation and the force to a degree.
"What did you just do to me?" He then asked as his teeth seemed to start clicking really fast as the cold he felt was affecting him.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

This was worse then he had thought, Mantic pondered and let his ha d stroke his beard. While there were methods to avoid it Mantic did sense nothing buth truth in [member="Derriphan Itsu"]
How likely was this. To stumble over such a unique specimen.
No, this was larger then chance. The force had brought them here, there were signs to this. Mantic was given a chance, now he neeced to act on it.

"Mr Noxith," he began while trying to find the right word. "I am truly sorry to hear about your childhood. While a mother, even a dark lord of the sith, is fully capable of bllind love I am afraid that you need to hear the other side to fully understand what has happened to you. Darkness is just that, something that lets your imagination go wild. PErhaps even making promises about matters that are not really there." Mantic let out a short sigh and looked up on [member="Derriphan Itsu"]

"If what you say is true, you were meant to be a weapon of destruction. A powerful one. Within you lies ideas that are dangerous, not only to others but yourself."

"The sith teach for everyone to embrace personal freedom. They are wrong in that the dark side sets one free. The force is not something that we can pretend to be masters of. We can merely choose to let one or the other side guide us."

"To be aware of that offers us what little freedom is possible for our kind. Let me help you."

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

Derriphan's expression turned to curiosity though he still held his hand around his chest as the dampening was really making him feel cold. "If what you say is true then how is personal freedom that the sith offer lesser than the servitude that the jedi seem to offer?" He asked when he had finished listening to [member="Mantic Dorn"]'s lecture? he didn't really know what it was but he was sure it was Mantic attempting to "save" Derriphan. He really didn't know why jedi always tried to save everyone but for some reason what he was saying made some sense.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

There was a natural curiosity in [member="Derriphan Itsu"]
One that Mantic recognized and saw nothing strange about. In the old days all force users with this sort of potential would have been found and taught in early years. To truly grasp the truth about the force and hone its boundaries took years. But now, in these chaotic times, it was down to reasoning and very much a definition each individual had to find out.

Mantic placed both hands on the table as if it needed support.

"The darkness is not freedom. It lures you to believe so though. It will tempt you with powers, pleasures, personal strength. Sometimes it will even come in disguise offering direct and swift aid to others in need. The dark side will however slowly pull you into a prison, one that is filled with fear, hate, pain and suffering." Mantic tried to speak without sounding to dramatic.

"The light offers the same power, but will demand that you forsake your personal pleasures in favor for others. In that you are correct in that we live to serve."

"There is however a gift of the light that the darkness can never reach. The sith thrive in fear, others but also their own fear of their own mortality. Running from death and constantly trying to outrun it. The force however rewards those of the light, embracing them at the end, granting more power then is ever possible in life."

Leaning back Mantic fixed his eyes on [member="Derriphan Itsu"]

"A true servant of the light does not fear anything, not even death."

"Is a life of indulgence haunted by fear what you seek? One that will spread suffering and self-pity?"

" Or a fearless life of servitude, one where you can help others and share their joy and celebration of life?"

Mantic stroked his beard.

"The question is that simple my friend. The path to either side however, is filled with hardships..."

 

[Ri'ven Gevrok]

Derriphan had to admit to himself [member="Mantic Dorn"] made one heck of a persuasive argument in favor of the light. It was also true that due to the sith lord that murdered his parents still being after him he had spent a while looking over his shoulder so to speak and he was tired of it. He was silent for a long minute after Mantic had finished speaking before he simply smirked at him. "No." He said flatly though still with the smirk plastered on his face.
"I would however like to see what it's like, make an informed decicion as I've seen how it is for one side but not the other so if I know how both are. Then I can decide on my own." He then said with a his smirk still dominant on his face, as if he enjoyed messing a little with people. A fact which was true it was one of the few pass times he could enjoy nowadays.

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic nodded.

"I understand."

He corrected his seat and adjusted his sleeves while continuing to talk.

"Let me just be honest, so that you do not feel betrayed. There are many who bows to the dark side who considers the light a weakness. something that makes us incapable of action against them." Mantic stopped his plucking and returned a gaze filled with cold steel.

"The action of ridding the galaxy of one who follows the dark side is a favour to all. If you are not interested in redemption I will not promise that I or another of the light would not end your existence before you cause any damage to the innocent. Because that is the way of the dark side, regardless of intentions, it always brings suffering to others. There are naive attempts in using the dark side for the greater good but in the long run they always fail. Without exception."

"Now, if you want to redeem yourself I can bring you to the jedi order and the council will hear your case. But from what I understand you are not ready for that. You wish to try and live the life of a follower of the light outside of the order? Is that correct?"

Mantic eyed Derriphan Itsu carefully as he was lifting his force dampening as well. He tried to search the young darklings feelings, trying to sense if the man would be honest or lie in his next statement.