Journey into Madness

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya spent the majority journey from Contruum unconsciousness, muttering things that made no sense as she recovered from the fight. The power vacuum Jared had left had left her exhausted and she could not shake the image of Kaine toppling off the edge of the building from her head. When she woke, it took a couple of second to establish where she was and why her movement was restricted.

"Where are we?" she asked Rave, blinking against a headache.

I can't believe you're trusting her.​

Anaya didn't respond she merely closed her eyes again. Jumping slightly as the memory replayed again.

Kaine was always a weakness for us.​

"I know, that's why I tried to kill him."

You didn't try hard enough. You wouldn't have been able to do it then either. You're pathetic.​

"Yes, thank you, you've told me that. Find a new insult."

What will Jared think?​

That stung, and she blinked against tears, head tipping back to find her reflection smirking back down at her. Head snapping forward she buried it between Rave's shoulder blades. "Rave, either knock me out, or get me out of this ship before I break something."

The laughter was ringing in her ears again.

[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

"Y'know," said the Merrill scion, wiggling somewhat, "I'd expected myself to be a little more distracting. Not that I swing that way necessarily, but you, my dear, have a reputation."

Repulsorstraps kept her in Anaya's lap, and thence in the pilot's seat of a Rassilon-class starfighter she'd captured from Daemos. The ship was about as fast as anything in the universe, and it was making excellent time.

"And since I don't fancy knocking you out, and we're about an hour's flight away from our rendezvous with Velok, feel free to entertain yourself. I'd rather you get handsy than frenetic. We're in a really little air bubble here. Wouldn't mind you keeping yourself contained."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

It was the wiggle that reminded her Rave was on her lap. How often does someone get to make that claim?

Unbelievable

She ignored herself lifting her head at Rave's invitation. A chuckle escaped her and she lifted her lips to Rave's ear "Where's the fun if you're not swinging my way?" She purred. Her hands moved, fingers trailing up the inside of Rave's thighs.

"I wasted too many years chasing women who are not interested."

Woman. There was only one.

[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

And that was one Sith Lord distracted and one possibly suicidal funk derailed, at least for the moment.

"Well, I suppose..." She shrugged both eloquently and ambiguously. "Let's say that what I'm used to is pursuit by the arboreally inclined. That, and never being able to hold onto what I want, either."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya gave a soft chuckle that echoed in her own mind.

We know all about that, about not keeping what we want.​

Her lips brushed Rave's neck, trailing soft kisses along the woman's neck and across her shoulder, a hunger stirring within her. A desire for emotionless contact, for delicate contours of flesh in which she could forget her insanity. A distraction. It knawed at her, sent the other one giddy with excitement, her lekku twitched in anticipation.

"What do you want, Rave?"

[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

Rave shivered despite herself, let herself visibly struggle to focus on piloting -- all in the service of keeping the fractured Sith Lord occupied. One of Anaya's lekku trembled against Rave's leg; injecting a little hesitance that was pretty much real, she rested her palm against it, brushed her thumb against the tip.

"More than I can list. More than I can ever remember at once."

The end of this flight couldn't come soon enough.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya's eyes slid closed as Rave brushed the end of her lekku, a smile spreading across her lips.

She's toying with you.​

Anaya froze. Was Rave toying with her? No...Yes...Maybe. She was certainly trying very hard to distract her. She realised she'd been unnaturally still for a few beats too long.

"Humor me." she said finally.

[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

Rave's thumbnail scraped the tip of the lekku. "I wanted someone once. Older than me, stronger, aloof, affections elsewhere. Might even have been love on my part. Died about two weeks ago, so I'll never know."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya drew in a sharp breath and smirked as Rave drew her nail across the lekku.

"That's something I can relate too....unrequited love. Something I understand."

You don't understand death.​

"Death...No...but he does." she relaxed, eyes closing for a moment. "He will be angry with me."

[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

Unsure whether Anaya was speaking of Velok, Zambrano, or someone else entirely -- this was pretty clearly half a conversation -- Rave looped the Rassilon through a cloud of nebular gas. A vessel appeared, Pathfinder-class, with the size and guns of a heavy frigate, and the speed and crew requirement of a light freighter. An expensive ship, the Baobab.

"I've long since given up predicting what Velok will choose to care about," she said as the fighter touched down. She gave the lekku a caress, unbuckled, and slipped out of the ship. Her boots hit the deck.

They were alone save for one.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"Hello, [member="Anaya Fen"]. I am Velok."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

There was a fleeting moment of cold as Rave left her lap, and Anaya was sad. The moment passed and Anaya dropped out after Rave, excitement, curiosity and fear making her shiver slightly. She looked between Rave and 'Velok', lips parted in a half smile. This was a joke.

Or was it?

How does she feel?​

"Not touching." She moved forward slowly circling the woman who claimed to be the puppet master.

He lost hair.​

"And height. Another species all together. Not unseen. Rach did the same thing. But Rach wasn't dead dead."

Velok was.​

"So they say," she came to a stop before 'Velok' "I like this one better." she tilted her head. "Prettier."


[member="Selka Ventus"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

"Rach Kol-Rekali had been dead for a year when I placed him in the body of a Hutt, for services rendered and sins unspoken."

Without pretension or selfconsciousness, she turned to stay facing Anaya as the Twi'lek circled her.

"As for the aesthetics of my current form, Lady Fen, I wish I could say the same." Pensive, evaluating, she placed a knuckle beneath Anaya's chin. "Or perhaps it's the light. You do look well -- though it seems you've earned your maturition the hard way."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Services rendered...did you hear that?​

​

"Yes."

She tensed slightly as Velok placed a knuckle beneath her chin, eyes betraying her uncertainty. "Is there any other way?" she replied. Maturation would always be a hard road, but the question was both rhetorical and requiring answer.

Did she need to place herself, not only in Rave's debt, but in the debt of the great puppet master himself?

This is insanity.​

"Everything is insanity when you're looking through eyes that are not yours."

These eyes are mine.​

The black mark shifted across her skin and she winced, taking a step back, she lowered her gaze watching it move across the skin of her arms before settling once more to camouflage among her own tattoos.

The price is to high.​

"Don't know the price yet." she looked up at Velok once more then to Rave. "The longer this remains, the greater the risk of discovery. He will come for me."

[member="Selka Ventus"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

"Part of me is strongly considering that as a viable tactic. I could use your mark to hurt him." She said that with flat confidence, no doubt in her mind, though she didn't explain. "But there are better ways, or at least better timing. When I take him down, it will be on my terms and my timetable.

"Tell me more about how you experience your mark, Lady Fen, and how you believe he experiences your mark. Any detail might be useful, no matter how irrelevant it may seem."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Eyes widened ever so briefly as a flare of panic at being used as a way to hurt the Dark Lord.

I hope that's a small part.​

"Likewise." She muttered. She pursed her lips for a moment trying to peer past the madness that clogged up her mind to find an answer for Velok "It is like..." she licked her lips nervously, eyes flitting from one place to the next, like she was afriad of being over heard.

"He is here, but he is not here. A seed has been planted, one that corrupts. But you cannot corrupt what is already corrupted, though you can bend and twist it better to your will. I am eyes ear and voice should he chose to use me as such." Her face twisted in disgust "I am a slave to his will, but his will is not always here. It lurks like a shadow...like a..."

...voice in the back of your head? How quaint, but you know full well I am not him.​

"One can only hope." Her face had grown distant as she stared into nothing. "It is easier, to believe you are not me. Easier to disregard you as nothing. Unimportant. Irrelevant."

So easy you can't do it.​

Eyes snapped back to attention, settling upon Velok, anger flaring in her eyes. "I do not like being fractured."

[member="Selka Ventus"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

Selka took rather a long time to ponder that; it felt like a week, but probably measured only a few seconds in this relativistic frame of reference.

"There's a fast and humiliating way,," she said at last, "and a slow and painful way. Do you want to know more, or do you want to decide now?"

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya began to pace, fingers coming to rest on her lips. "Humiliation versus pain."

Most people would ask for more information.​

"I'm not most people."

Evidently. But you are smarter than this.​

She stopped pacing, and looked at Velok. "I know pain, I've done pain. Pain of the body and the mind. Pain doesn't scare me. Slow scares me. But how is not important. Irrelevant. Negligible. Null. Not information I require. What is the catch?" Her eyes glittered as she took a step closer to Selka. "There is always a catch. Rave's catch is that she gets a favor, fine by me. I can do favors. Not got much of a conscience so I'm not concerned with what it might be. You on the other hand..."

She tilted her head. "Nothing is more humiliating then being a slave. And last I checked you don't do things, without expecting something in return. Services rendered. When I die i'd like to remain dead, not shoved into a slug body to pay back a debt. I mean I'd rather not die in the first place but..." She bit her tongue m trying to stop the whirl of words falling from her mouth.

"What is the catch?"

[member="Selka Ventus"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Anaya Fen"]

"An unspecified favor? Merrill learned that from me. As for Rasho the Hutt...Lady Fen, when I said his fate was a consequence of services and sins, I think you misunderstood. I gave him life as a reward for his service; he betrayed me in the end, thus his final form. But I gave him the second chance at life that he earned. So long as you don't betray me, Lady Fen, you'll never wind up a Hutt." Selka/Velok's lips twitched. "Even if you might find the hermaphroditic flexibility inspirational.

"But no, the humiliation I mentioned has nothing to do with me."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Anaya smirked.

Betrayal was about the only thing she was consistently good at. She stuck to whatever suited her, and when it no longer did she cast it aside. Velok knew this. Everyone knew this. There were only two people she hadn't betrayed. One was the reason she was in this state and the other? Well, if history was anything to go by, Jared Ovmar was in for a real treat.

So now we'll be indebted to Velok.​

"Such is the way of things."

And Rave.​

She paused for a moment. "I've been in worse situations and survived."

You're insane.​

"Yes. Yes I am. I'm standing here having two conversations, one with myself. Of course I'm frakking insane." She rolled onto the balls of her feet, a smile playing on her lips before she settled back down again.

"Explain." she demanded of Velok.

[member="Selka Ventus"]