If it's in your nature, you'll never win

[Armand Temi]

​

​

Location: Vlassy Nature Preserve, Garqi in the Outer Rim​

“What about this one, Priestess?” asked Livna, holding up a colorful flower with an orange and blue starburst pattern.

“No, I don’t think that’s the one,” said Briga after a cursory glance.

She tossed the flower down, feeling a little guilty that she’d picked it off of its stalk. There were no more like it in the vicinity. Furthermore, the blonde Caprine wasn’t even sure they should be disturbing the foliage, but this wasn’t for her to decide.

Priestess Tiin was on a mad search for the Tigercinth, a flower whose nectar was medicinal, and combined with the cliff-stalk extract, made a powerful pain reliever. Briga made the journey sound altruistic – “We can provide more homemade medicine to our proud species,” she’d said – but Livna wondered if her Lady was more interested in its opiatic effects in order to replace the more expense spice she’d developed the habit of using.

So now they were trudging around the Vlassy Nature Preserve on the planet of Garqi in water-proof boots and garments, vaguely reminiscent of safari clothing, that the horned maiden was not used to but would protect the both of their fur-lined hides from insects and deep mud puddles. Livna felt especially grateful that she was now the Priestess’s favorite. It mean a little more humane treatment, special favors, unique gifts, trips like the one they were on, and occasionally a place in her bed chambers.

She spied another orange and blue flower – could that be the Tigercinth?

Livna picked her way through an especially thorny brush to get to a clear grove where there was an abundance of these flowers. They were definitely Tigercinth, she was sure of it. And the smell was quite lovely, intoxicating almost. Feth, Briga has the guidebook on her datapad. Livna couldn’t remember if even just smelling the pollen could affect a sentient’s senses, but since neither Caprine were wearing a rebreather, it was too late for that now.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

Vengeance walked through the gardens in a nice gray suit. The Sith Lord had gotten good at hiding dark side corruption. He held a fine silk handkerchief in his hand briefly holding it to his face as he walked among some of the more exotic plants in the garden.

He chuckled when [member="Livna Zios"] forced her way through the bushes into the area with the Tigercinth plants. He turned to her.

"Quite lovely aren't they." "You do know there is an easier way to get to this side of the gardens."

He looked the girl up and down curiously.

"What are you............and then who are you?"

Slipping up beside her he turned to look at the plants.

 

[Armand Temi]

“Oh!” exclaimed Livna at the sight of a stranger in the grove. He was a human male, tall with dark wavy hair, and while the Caprine remembered that their earlier tour guide had told them this part of the Nature Reserve would be more deserted, she figured that there was no reason for it to be completely abandoned.

The horned maiden had the faintest of Force signatures, something her Lady knew she had but would never cultivate for fear that Livna would run off, or worse turn on her. So she was quite unaware she had this power at all.

“I didn’t know… I came from that direction,” she said, pointing behind her. “But they are lovely flowers. Their scent is almost overwhelming,” Livna continued, still not sure whether the pollen was affecting her.

“I’m a Nur Caprine from Iktotch,” she said, with a sparkle in her bright, green eyes. “My name is Livna Zios. And who are you?”
The horned maenad was young, pretty and looked about as innocent as the Tigercinth – dazzling at first glance, but underneath there were subtle toxins that could make you swoon, and in large doses, perhaps make you sick. While the Caprine wasn’t darksided, she had an aura of mischief and magic just the same.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He smiled glancing at [member="Livna Zios"] with a wink.

"You can call me Marcus and I am from.........somewhere else."

He held a hand out for Livna that once she took he would time in perfectly that the false Light side aura the full force of the Sith Lord's power and darkness cascade through the area. He smirked at her holding a firm but not crushing grip on her hand.

 

[Armand Temi]

“Somewhere else,” said Livna, smiling back at him. She picked one of the nearby Tigercinths and placed it below her delicate nose, deeply inhaling the fragrance. “Aren’t we all from somewhere else?” The horned maiden then tucked the flower behind her right ear. For a moment, she was distracted by the colorful foliage, thinking how the Tigercinths would make a good garland or flower crown if woven with the right greenery.

But Livna, she thought, catching herself. There is a much better distraction right in front of you.

She glanced behind her, looking for a sign of Briga, but her Lady was elsewhere. As she eagerly took his hand, she realized right away that something was different. Marcus’s aura changed like sudden, smoky clouds obscuring the yellow sun. At first she thought the Priestess was coming back, but then realized, based on the poignancy of his power, that the feeling that washed over her was not her mistress at all.

Marcus was darksided… stronger than Briga for sure. Livna didn’t have much experience with Sith Lords, but what experience she had was unpleasant, and at times, distressing, although out of all of the Priestess’s maidens, she’d been treated the best by the Sith. Either that or she just knew how to keep more composed than Toole and Saira.

Her mouth a terse line now, she asked, “Where did you say you were from again?”

Livna didn’t pull her soft hand away, but he would feel it begin to tremble, betraying her fear.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

Vengeance smirked when her fear overwhelmed and betrayed her. He leaned in not letting go of her hand his other hand sliding to the small of her back.
He whispered into her ear the air around his hand holding hers beginning to crackle with energy.

"Do I frighten you little flower?" "Surely I am not the first thing that goes bump in the night you have ever met?"

As he pulled back he would let the energy around their hands build until a spark of lightening jumped form his hand to hers. It would not do any real but be enough to startle her. Even still he would not let go of her hand unless she jerked away. He really did love these little games intentionally ignoring her repeated question about where he was from.

[member="Livna Zios"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Up close, Livna noticed that Marcus had a reddish tint to his hair. Red to match his devilish smile, she thought. When his hand ran down her back, she shivered, but she didn’t pull away. There was a choreography between them that seemed practiced all of a sudden, at least on the Caprine’s part, one of predator and prey. He might be able to tell that Livna had been preyed upon before, but she stood her ground just the same. Perhaps now was the time, as though in a confessional booth, to reveal just how much she did know about darksiders. Her green eyes sparked with alarm at the lightning but again, displaying more courage than anyone may have thought upon first glance she said:

“I’m as much of a wildflower as these Tigercinth. And yes, you are right, I’ve encountered your kind before. I’ve endured hardship at the hands of the Sith. My mistress is affiliated with them, though I’m not privy to the details of their affairs."

Unexpectedly, she took one of Marcus’s hand and placed it back on her lower back, then untucked her khaki shirt. She helped guide his hand up her soft back – he would notice a lining of silken fur which differentiated her from human – until he would be able to feel the cross-cross scars from a brutal whipping on Panatha.

“I haven’t just met the bump, I’ve encountered the blackest night itself. What about you, Marcus? Show me what you’ve encountered?"

Livna was still a lightsided being - full of kindness and good cheer - but her innocence had been lost a long-time ago.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

Marcus smiled as his hand was guided further up her back. He even chuckled at her words.

"Many like to claim the title of Sith, few are worthy of doing so, and even less actually are Sith." "While it is possible your Mistress and I may know people in common I can guarantee we do not walk the same path."

He tilted his head for a moment before letting go of her hand his other hand staying on her back. With his free hand he untucked his own shirt and started to unbutton it.

"I have been this close to the brightest light and been enveloped by the darkest night."

As his finished his shirt finally fully opened revealing over a half dozen scars and puncture wounds.

"These are just the one caused by the so called light who would call themselves defenders and guardians." "Handing out so called Justice."

Then Marcus did something he had not even really planned on doing until his hands were already pulling up her shirt and the words were leaving his mouth.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

He held a smirk on his lips filled with nothing but trouble and mischief.

[member="Livna Zios"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Livna’s eyes followed Marcus’s hands as they grazed the bottom of his own shirt. He curled his fingers upward, pulling it away to show her his scars, multiple gashes, wounds and burns. Her green eyes traveled every bit of his torso, as though she were reading a spacelane map.

Still, something nagged at her - the difference between them.

His hands moved around to the front of her and began to slip under her shirt, unfastening the buttons with strong, deft fingers. The Caprine exhaled sharply at the feel of his skin on her warm, fur-lined hide, but she held his hands firmly where they lay for a moment.

“The difference is that you willingly fought the guardians. I was an unwilling recipient. A servant… loyal to the core… who received pain on a whim,” she said with a defiant tone, not even glancing back to see if the Priestess had begun looking for her. Yet her parted lips, and her hips moving closer to his body indicated she was not unwilling to his caresses. Once she was through making her point, Livna let go and ran her own clawed hands over Marcus’s muscular chest, tracing the battle-scars with a curious touch.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He chuckled.

"Inflicting pain is never on a whim." "It serves two purposes even if the person doing the inflicting doesn't even realize it."

Getting no resistance from Livna he continued to pull her shirt up until he pulled it off of her. He had no shame in his actions so no need to stop unless she protested. Which ever raking claws down his stomach made it less likely.

"The first and most obvious would be pleasure." "Some such as I receive great pleasure out of inflicting pain on others....it feeds our baser carnal desires."

He paused with a smirk and a cocked eyebrow.

"Others inflict pain as a training tool to remove it's effects." "Be submitted to enough pain and survive then it begins to numb the body to the point pain no longer has an effect."

He placed a hand flat on her stomach looking into her eyes before attempting to shoot a full blast of lightening through her body. He could not stop unless she cried out or passed out.

[member="Livna Zios"]

 

[Armand Temi]

After her shirt was removed and tossed to the ground, Livna moved closer still, hoping that Marcus was going to kiss her. It had been so long since she’d been treated as anything but a whipping post or the Priestess's plaything. His touch was gentle, almost hypnotic, and it drew her in… until his words began to sound so familiar.

He did not have the cold iron phrasing of Darth Prazutis’s orders. Nor were they the stern pedagogy of the Elder Clerics in the Temple.

His words sounded exactly like Briga’s.

His warm palm on her stomach was the last thing she felt until the lightning strike. Driven to her knees by the pain, her bare chest pressed against the Tigercinth, Livna didn’t just cry out. She screamed as loud as she could, trying to alert her Lady that she was in danger.

But the fact that she didn’t fall unconscious was a testament to her natural defenses against pain. Her melodicial voice turned into an agonized groan. “You have so much in common with her. I am a servant! I do not need to withstand pain.”

But she did for two reasons: one, Briga had her systematically tortured in case she was captured and her assailants wanted information. She would be executed if Briga ever found her divulging intelligence of her affairs. Second, the horned maiden had a faint Force signature, almost so imperceptible that she may have not realized it was there.

“Do you really want to do this to me?” she asked, her green eyes now pleading with him now from her place among the wildflowers.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He looked down at her with a smile only closing his eyes for a brief moment as his little play toy called out to her Master. He opened his eyes looking down at the woman.

"That is where you are wrong little flower." "You see your Master must be close otherwise your screams would be useless." "The fact that her power is so little I have not been able to sense the difference between her and every other person in these gardens means the correct wording would be she has something in common with me." "The belief that you are a servant is the reason why you deserve such treatment."

He hand would twitch as he focused through the Force to cause a tightening feeling around her throat. He would pull up with the Force choke until she was back on her feet. The pleading in her eyes exactly what he liked to see. He hands went to her bare chest softly caressing as eh looked into her those pleading green eyes with a mischievous grin.

"Oh my little flower we have not even gotten to the foreplay yet."

[member="Livna Zios"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Marcus was right in a way. Briga was wholly absorbed in her own quest for herbs in the Nature Preserve, and while she did enjoy Livna’s company, her loyalty to her own maiden was a tenuous tether at best. Especially now that the Priestess had received the white-furred Anubian consort and still had Toole and Saira, the blonde maiden who often shared her bed was fully replaceable in a moment’s notice.

Furthermore, if Briga did come around, it was likely she’d enjoy watching what Marcus was going to do. The mystic's place within the One Sith wasn’t secure. Some thought she’d deserted while others, like Darth Plinror, tried to assure the Council that, no Briga was surely coming back, but was on a religious sabbatical at this time.

In either case, Livna was truly alone with the Sith Lord. And she would have to survive this somehow, either through her wits, an offering of her body or a little bit of both.

She clawed at her throat until the motion aided by her knees pulled her back up to a standing position. But then he touched her, softly around her collarbone and lower, and she threw her head back, sighing deeply with desire. Still, the Caprine's body wasn’t completely relaxed as Livna was bracing for another onslaught. She leaned in close to his ear, her soft lips brushing the skin of his neck, and she whispered, “Do you even want me to fight back? What is it that you really want with this game?” If he turned his head, her pale cheek would be right there, blonde hair falling behind it, and her silver horn curling majestically to the sky. She would smell vaguely like dewy sweat and the Tigercinth she’d fell into.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He reached up grabbing a hand full of her hair and pulling her head back. He stuck out his tongue and started at the base of her neck just above her collarbone licking up until he flicked her earlobe before whispering.

"It is so adorable you think this is a game." "That being said let me explain this in a manner you can understand." "I am the predator and you are the unfortunate prey that stumbled into my grasp." "So I am going to do what every good predator does and take what I want." "You can scream and beg me to stop if you want." "It won't stop me but it would make this more fun." "As a matter of fact I encourage it.....with any luck your Master will come running." "If she is pleasing maybe I will do the same to her." "Something tells me you would enjoying seeing her degraded and reduced to being someone's play thing."

[member="Livna Zios"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Unlike the lekku of a Twi’lek, Livna’s horns were sturdy, the keratin holding no nerve endings whatsoever. Therefore as Marcus grabbed a hunk of hair, the Caprine gave him a sharp nudge with her horns, a sly warning that they could – and would be used – if he did something she didn’t like.

But except for the lightning and the Force Choke, Livna was enjoying the firm attention. As the Sith Lord’s mouth connected with her flesh, Livna’s eyes rolled back into her head. Then Marcus’s tongue traced a line from the divot between her breasts up to her neck, and as he whispered his intentions, her pulse quickened to a pace that he could almost feel on his lips.

Livna bristled when he mentioned Briga. Why did the Horned Harlot get to have all of the fun? If she were here, she would just take what she wanted, so would Marcus, and the blonde maenad would be helpless to both of their whims… or plans with a purpose as the Sith Lord had explained to her. It was almost if he wanted her to appear.

“No,” said Livna. “Do not summon her.” She raised her hand up to caress his cheek. “And you’re right. I would enjoy seeing her degraded… watching as she gets to experience all of the dreadful things I have.”

Was her own life just meaningless to him? It was possible, but the servant was about to offer something that may make her slightly more important. At least enough to keep her alive in the short term, she hoped. “She is associated with the upper echelons of the One Sith. She thinks she’s smart enough to remain there, but I’m not sure she can.” It was exactly as had been predicted on Panatha, and not even in one of Briga's vision. Power didn't breed more power. It bred betrayal.

“Let me report into you about what Priestess Tiin does. Her comings and goings. I do not gather you are in the same circles, but she does have access to intelligence at times which may be useful.”

Livna had never, ever considered treachery towards her mistress, but now, caught between dalliance in the Tigercinth grove and a handsome Sith Lord, and the ire of her Priestess, it was a lifeline she threw out. While she was intimidated by the stranger, the blonde maiden did long to press herself against him and have him fulfill the promise of taking her like a predator. How far he would go was up to him.

“Would that suffice as an arrangement for you?” she asked.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He chuckled.

"Then why not summon her?" "Why not see her subjected to such degradation if it so pleases you?"

He snorted when she mentioned the One Sith and it's upper echelon's. He had known from the moment Livna first mentioned her Mistress and Sith that it was the One Sith that she was referring to. There were simply no other Sith powers in the galaxy strong enough to be mentioned out loud.

"I know the upper leadership of the One sith and they know me...I would gather I know them better than she does." "Your pathetic Mistress is a pawn and she will always be a pawn." "She does not carry the name of a coveted legacy important to the One Sith and she is obviously to stupid to leave like the rest of us did when we out grew their shackles."

He reached a hand up wrapping it around her neck and squeezing firmly but not enough to cut off her air before planting a hard kiss on her lips. It would last for only a moment before he let go and grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her back to him. His hands went to her hips as he whispered into her ear.

"It would however still interest me greatly to know what they are up to these days."

He then yanked the rest of her clothes down sure she would be thankful nothing ripped.

"But first there is another matter we need to conclude before I send you on your way."

[member="Livna Zios"]

 

[Armand Temi]

"We will keep in touch then," said Livna, sealing a deal that she wasn't sure she could keep.

And then Marcus kissed her firmly, completely in control. The Caprine servant acquiesced, he'd know she'd been used as much as one woman could have been, but still there was a fervent desire that raged inside her.

And then he undressed her in one fell swoop. LIvna knew that in this game, she was just a servant, but perhaps she could serve Marcus with her information.

She pressed up against his bare torso, resting her head on his shoulder. He could feel her horns as hard as iron pressing into his head. The Caprine had a bovidae quality that could not be ignored.
And there, he took her in the grove from behind, all of her desires fulfilled by the promise of salvation to him.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He had not been gentle......as a matter of fact he had been rough bordering on vicious. It was always how he was when claiming someone for the first time. He was impressed by her ability to take it almost as much as how much she seemed to enjoy being taken. When he finished he simply redressed with a smile looking at her naked form almost sad to see her cover it up..

"We should do this again soon." "I haven't had this much fun in entirely too long."

He planted a soft kiss on her neck wrapping his arms around her.

"Spying on your Mistress is a gutsy move." "I would be impressed if you can pull it off." "Even more so if the information is useful."

[member="Livna Zios"]

 

[Armand Temi]

After all was said and done, Livna languished in the Tigercinth in no hurry to re-dress or go anywhere. Marcus did turn out to be a little different from the other Sith she encountered. Yes, his love-making was demanding and savage, but it wasn’t coarse. It was clear he was experienced, but again, from what the Caprine maiden knew of the Sith, most of them had a long line of courtesans and companions with which to sate their desires.

Marcus put his garments back on, but then lay with her for a moment, arms wrapped around her, his lips trailing up her neck. Livna gazed at him under heavy-lidded eyes, stroking his hands as they encircled. She could get used to waking up to his handsome face, but both of them knew that their lives were not conducive to either monogamy or even a normal relationship. But when their paths crossed again, Livna knew there would be similar fireworks.

“We shall see,” she said. “How do I find you again if I do have information to share?”

She stretched in the soft bed of flowers, looking all the bit like a nymph in the forest. If Briga was the succubus, Livna was more of the siren, her body and musical voice enough to draw in the most stoic warrior. If she could glean information from the galaxy at large, it would most likely be on her back in a politician or nobleman's bedroom.

[member="Vengeance"]

 

[Kenrath]

He chuckled.

"You don't." "You because I am permitting you to spy on your Master for me doesn't mean I trust you." "And do try to be mature and not read too much into our time together."

He smirked licking her from her belly button to her chest before pulling out a data pad and laying it down beside her. It was empty except for a comm frequency. He would then lean in and whisper a code phrase to her.

"Once you have something to report you will simply send the phrase to that frequency." "You will then be given a location and a time to be there." "Memorize the frequency and then destroy the pad."

He stood looking down at her for a moment.

"No run along little flower." "Even the most disconnected Master would notice the absence of one of the servants after this long." "When she asks you got distracted looking through out the garden and lost track of time." "Be a good little flower and take the punishment in silence." "Your cover get's blown and you are of no use to me."

[member="Livna Zios"]