Private Liar, Liar, Labs on Fire

[Kal]

In one of several hidden laboratories belonging to the late Adrian Vandiir, an unclothed Changeling tapped away at a console, pausing only to frown down at its fingers, as if insulted by the audacity they displayed in retaining some goo despite this body having emerged from an exowomb a full five minutes ago. So that was why a shower had been installed next to the tear-shaped cloning chambers.

Perhaps he should head back and- oh. Unauthorised perimeter breach? Not good.

---

Whatever mechanisms had once guarded the laboratory, something had disabled them. Perhaps a passcode of some sort, or a stand-down order following its owner's demise, or simply a programming error. Either way, autoblasters remained inert, ray shields inactive.

Things far more insidious than any security droid awaited within, however - or so Kal wanted her to think.

Emerging from the sterile - but unnecessarily ornate - floor with a grand swirl of shadowy panache, the ghostly form of the late Darth Prospero rose to its full height, the cold blue glow of his eyes the only colour on his usually flamboyantly-garbed form. Evidently, death had brought with it some limitations in the fashion-category. After mere moments a near-perfect impersonation of the Sith Lord's voice rippled outward.

"Here to pillage my work, are you? The audacity!"

Auteme​

 

[Auteme]

Kal ​

A rather un-Jedi-like scream echoed through the hallway, along with the metallic clatter of her flashlight on the ground. She scooped it back up not a moment later and tried her best to be calm. This, of course, was not a situation where she felt especially calm. Adrian Vandiir was supposed to be dead. Even if he'd escaped it, by some SIth magic or another, it was still distressing. The Force didn't much like resurrections as far as her own sense of it went.

"Adrian Vandiir," she began, "How are you still alive? Weren't you... killed... on Dantooine?" Accounts varied, of course; one (notably from one of his subordinates) stated he'd died after being wounded by forty Mandalorian warriors equipped with anti-Force talismans, which were apparently all killed, before he was finished off by two 'criminals and low-lives'. Some suggested this was his convoluted way of getting out of his engagement with the Eternal Empress, Ingrid L'lerim. Quite the extreme method if that was the case.

Nonetheless Auteme treated 'Adrian' with suspicion, watching him closely. Ever the passive pacifist she didn't summon any Force light or make any moves that might be considered hostile.

 

[Kal]

The look on "Adrian"'s face could only be said to be characteristically smug, a silence that could only be described as mocking descending as he gave her a bit of time to consider what she'd just said. Glancing pointedly down at the colourless shadowy mass that was his body, he sighed.

"You don't say? To think some consider you clever - but then I suppose you might be, by Jedi standards."

Drifting closer, critical eyes bore down on her as if seeking to unravel her very being until nought but cold truth lay exposed. Had she ever met the real Adrian? Presumably, given that the late Sith saw fit to create that whole Totally Real Adventures of Auteme debacle, though Kal hadn't the foggiest what might have taken place during such a theoretical meeting. Best play it safe, then.

"To one such as I, death is but an inconvenience - albeit one made all the worse by would-be-thieves."

Auteme​

 

[Auteme]

Kal
​

"I'm not a thief!" She squeaked. As soon as the words tumbled out of her mouth, she felt like she was lying. She wasn't actually lying -- she hadn't taken anything from Adrian's lab.

Yet.

"Look, I just- I thought I might learn something," she said, before frowning immediately. "No, no, I'm not becoming a Sith, or whatever, or being morally blegh, I just... I'm curious. I'm sure you know how that is."

 

[Kal]

Cold blue eyes practically radiating doubt, he shook his head as if in exasperation. "I can appreciate the lure of curiosity, but we both know you, in turn, are unlikely to appreciate the importance of my work, making you less knowledge seeker, more entrepreneurial pest."

Drifting closer, he continued to examine her, putting little effort into making the experience a reassuring one - quite the contrary, he wanted her to feel as if she was being judged and evaluated by a spirit that might just decide to possess her. Or throw her through a wall. Or sic security on her.

Enough discomfort to encourage a retreat, but not enough to force him into a situation which would reveal his relative weakness compared to what one would expect from a Sith Lord's ghost on the home field - not to mention a general unwillingness to inflict unnecessary harm.

"At least you are less destructive than your fellow Jedi. Or those thrice-cursed bucketheads."

He made sure to have the last part be especially scathing, given how Adrian had died. Nevermind the fact that there hadn't been any Mandalorian helmets in sight; Kal was reasonably well-informed, but hardly some great seer out of myth.

Auteme​

 

[Auteme]

Kal
​

"Okay! Okay. Okay." Auteme turned on her heel and speed-walked back down the hall towards the exit.

 

[Kal]

Auteme​

Looming menacingly for a while longer just to make sure that the Jedi was really gone, the Faux-Adrian scratched his incorporeal head.

<Huh. I can't believe that worked.>