The Hand That Feeds [Jared Ovmar]

[Matsu Xiangu]

Matsu had been born to a life of luxury on the Inner Rim. It had been a childhood free of anything worse than the pain of a bruise or a scrape. It had been easy…and it left her hungry.

She found herself farther than ever from what she supposed would traditionally be called home despite an utter lack of sentiment for anything she had left behind on Corvanni VI. She was hopping from planet to planet, sector to sector, bargaining for passage with whatever she had and that day she found herself on Bakura. She had no particular reason for being there, just like any other planet she'd found herself on in the last few months. She chose to let the days take her where they would and always learned something. She liked the moons of the planet, so close – looming. But now she was inside, deep within the capital city, blending in almost seamlessly among the clientele of a more upscale bar.

She sat by herself, a young strange woman with no idea of how alluring she might be. Her fingernails, long and red and pointed, tapped quietly against the glass of her ale as she scanned dark eyes over the crowd. But she was in her head, thinking of her dream from the night before.

She coughs. She coughs, and in her hand is red gel like maybe her insides went on vacation and wanted to see the view from her palm. She holds up her hand so that it might see the ocean, her organs whispering loudly all around her as they take in wonders that before they could only hear through layers of skin and muscle. It had been stifling, deep in the recesses of her haunted cage of a body. "It's beautiful, it's beautiful," they cry. And she has to agree despite the beam of wood impaled through her torso.

She looks down at it casually before letting her eyes drift back to the ocean. Blood runs down her arm as she holds it high, letting her organs taste the salt air. And when she coughs again she chokes, working to spew out a lung that lands with a wet 'splat' on the beam that runs through her body. And she laughs. She laughs and laughs and laughs. Perhaps she'll lay there for years, collecting red, sticky piles of what made her real. She wonders idly if it all comes up if she gets to be someone new.

Matsu kept all her dreams written down. She was obsessed with her mind, with the minds of others. Whether the things she saw in her subconscious at night meant anything she wasn’t sure – but even if they didn’t, she craved them. It felt like a challenge, something sick to unravel.

And with Matsu, sick was a safe bet.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

The planet of Bakura was a beautiful world, that was a fact that could not be disputed by anyone. Lushly decorated by forests, mountains and lakes, the world was one of the few worlds rich with nature. Here people could relax, take a deep breath and feel disconnected from the busy outer-world.

His friend, Sargon, was the Governor of this world, and Jared could not help but feel maybe a tad envious because of that. Sure, he himself held the seat of both Annaj and 244Core. The capital of the Fringe itself, and one of the most important industrial worlds of the confederation accordingly.

But still, neither of them could pride itself for being exceptionally beautiful. At least, not in terms of vegetation. Instead they had to be content with sprawling cities, and industrial complexes. Jared knew was being irrational, his two planets were the most important worlds that the Fringe had to offer.

But sometimes… a man did not want to be important. Sometimes he just wished to be left alone for a while, and ease down.

Sadly today had been anything but relaxing. Negotiations between two High Councilors of the Fringe, rather than friendly meeting between friends. At any rate, that was over, and now he was in some kind of uppity bar.

Barkeep only knew that Jared had money to spent, and was some sort of important Lordship. Didn’t seem necessary to go ahead, and blapper around that he was in fact a member of the High Council. Especially not the part where he was the High Lord of Homeland Security.

People did not like the Inquisition for some reason. Certainly had nothing to do with the torture, and disappearances. No no. Those were rumours and hearsay.

Anyway, so here he was. Sitting at the bar, and drinking his wodka. For once, Jared was too far away in his own thoughts, to notice a pretty girl. Probably gotta wake him up or something.

I would suggest a pointy stick, or maybe a rocket to the head.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She spent a few more minutes at her seat in the corner, just watching the activity around her. She relished having nothing to do and nowhere to be. She was far from lazy but the adventure, the rug-out-from-under-her-feet nature of her current existence was exciting.

Her glass was empty after a few minutes of the peculiar sport of people-watching and she lifted herself to traipse to the bar for more. She had an unusual tolerance for a girl of her size and thought she was safe for one or two more before she felt it. Matsu didn’t like getting too drunk – she didn’t mind losing control (oh no, oh no; that she loved) but there was a haziness to alcohol that made it hard to remember all the things she’d done. And that wouldn’t do.

She pulled herself up to the bar next a man deep in his own drink, her shoulder brushing against his completely by accident. She turned her head to say sorry in case she jostled him, pushing a stray lock of dark hair behind her ears and --- well, hello.

The thing about wandering and having few acquaintances: she knew no one simply by their face. Even if they had their image plastered all over a planet she wasn’t likely to know them by appearance. She knew important names but beyond that it was almost like she lived under a rock. Therefore, [member="Jared Ovmar"]’s very-important-person status in the sector of the Galaxy she was exploring completely eluded her.

Not that it would have changed her behavior had she known with a face like that.

She glanced down to his glass and found luck was on her side, her drink of choice almost empty in his hand. The bartender had been attentive to her all night despite it being her only time in and he moved quickly when she lifted two long, delicate fingers.

She turned to the stranger again, a sickle of white teeth and bright-red lips offered in a small smile. “They have a saying about that where I come from,” she offered, honey-voiced with an underlying rasp as she pointed to his glass. The bartender came over just then, dropping two more drinks in front of her. She lifted one, pointed red nails glinting in the bar lights as they curled around the offering. “The first glass goes down like a post, the second a falcon, and the third a little bird,” she said, holding out the refill for him. “Matsu Xiangu,” she finished, her last name rolling wicked-slick off her tongue.

 

[Arage Bao]

It was a quiet night, the music caressing the air as a faithful lover. there was no violence in the air, the mood was surprisingly peaceful and bustling in a pleasant way, he supposed. The drinks were good, expensive though. But that was to be expected from an upper-class bar, where all the sleazeballs of the planet met each other. Priding themselves in their riches, and luxurious lifestyle.

Of course, he was one of them now. It was an wake-p call to him. The man who left Coruscant, a mere thug had died a long time ago. Even before the chasm and the Throne-Breaker. First the responsibilities of the Confederation, and then the additional power and wealth of Santhe Corportation.

He was rich beyond belief, powerful without a limit; both political as well as his capabilities. But these facts did not make him happy, far from it. It showed him everything he had lost, a simple life free from all the worries and doubts that started to plague him.

A life fulfilling because of the people he had helped.

Who was he helping now? He was a profiteer of war, blood was his trade. A murderer too, plenty of people had been killed by him. After his death, and resurrection Jared thought he was done second-guessing himself.

To survive he had to cut off all the feelings, everything that had made him truly good. Had he not embraced the darkness within? The thought that redemption might still be within reach was a sobering thought.

“Who are you trying to kid here. There is no atonement for your deeds.”​

He nodded to himself, almost happy to have that figured out, as someone brushed past him to order something at the bar. Honestly, it was not much of a trouble, and he was just about to take another sip from his wodka as the gi-- well hello there.

Wasn’t she a pretty innocent bird, lost in the tides of vice, debauchery and corruption.

A smile appeared on his lips, as she spoke to him. Well well, she knew how to talk to the talk, but could she walk the walk? That was the million credit question.

As he spoke next, and accepted her drink their hands touched each other. It was as if static burst from their skins, and touched both of them. His smile turned into a lazy grin.

“Well spoken, my Lady. Thrice you have my thanks. Once for the drink, once for the poetical adage, and… well many more for the beauty that warms the heart and makes the soul sing.”​

Words upon words were said, drawn out and arranged into a calculated web of articulate seduction. Then he finally raised his drink, and finished with a simple word. Sometimes you gotta start with sweeping a woman from her feet, and then grabbing her attention with something straight-forward.

“Cheers.”​

​

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]​

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

The shock that coursed up her arm when their hands brushed was surprising but welcome. It felt like power. She tilted her head slightly and studied him. (Power. Raw. Want. Want. WANT.)

At heart Matsu was an animal. An animal painted over with a thin veneer of poetry and manners, but a creature all the same. A predator, untrained and hungry, she had yet to know what it was she inflicted on others – pain was a game. She was cruel, a beast in soft muscle and warm skin. But she had yet to know suffering herself…and that was when she would be truly great.

To fully realize what she was doing to another living being, and do it anyway…monstrous.

She laughed when she heard his response, her smile turning a full bloom of bright blood-red. “Well, I can’t let a handsome man go thirsty,” she said, ignoring the fact that he seemed more than capable of keeping himself hydrated. Oh, she would admit he was good. [member="Jared Ovmar"] moved with a confidence that seemed completely unconscious and that lazy grin was far more appealing than should have been allowed. Where did he get off, hmm? Matsu hunted for thrills and they rarely came in the form of men. So many were…disappointing. Easily broken. She could imagine her hand on the back of his head, thin fingers curling in his hair, nails biting lightly against his scalp – and him biting back.

And she could still feel the hint of power (raw raw RAW RAW WANT WANT devour HIM devour YOU) from the glance of his skin.

She nodded her head ever so slightly, downing some of her drink after his cheers. Silence did not bother her and as the lights of the establishment dimmed to muted blues and purples her mind was humming, a low hunter’s buzzing drawl. As she put her glass down, spinning it slowly between her fingers on the bar, her gaze once more returned to him. He hadn’t given her his name which was fine with her – he could share it when he wanted to, or not at all. Without one he seemed like something she’d made up, some phantasm, a dream.

“Do you dream, stranger?” she asked, wondering if she might show him hers.

 

[Arage Bao]

The fine liquor pleased my tasting buds, and in the shared silence with a beautiful girl.. I felt content. No, not content, I felt -alive-. More than I had ever felt before. My death had been a waking call, it had made me reconsider a great many of things, most of all it showed me the frail material that life was made up of.

My resurrection on the other hand.. it had left me craving. But only now, while my mind was exploring the depths of her Aura, did I understand what I was exactly looking for.

Under her thin visage of a beautiful, but innocent girl.. there was something else. Something more primal, and it made my soul sing in unison. Here was a kindred spirit, in contrast though.. this one had less and less experience with the Thrill.

I couldn’t help, but smile softly as I looked on at the dancing lights that made up the skyline of Bakura’s primate city. Her inexperience was compensated with her apparent eagerness.

Might be this one would make a fine.. specimen for his plans.

Then she started to speak again, and again I could not help but smile. Dreams.. if only she knew.. if only she knew who she was dealing with. Even a predator sometimes encountered something that was far above its existence.

Then again, if this pretty survived me.. it could become pretty interesting.

“I dream the dreams of creation, little Matsu Xiangu.”​

Names.. real names had power and as I spoke her true name, she would feel the connection. The soft bite of reality washing over her, it would resembled the way our hands had touched and exchanged energy. But this was on a more intimate level.

“I see you.” ​

​

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]​

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

I dream the dream of creation.​

Creation.
The same dream.

There is a moment - a brief and paralyzing moment - that she felt the world open up beneath her feet. Each time she moved a piece of ground fell out from underneath her - a piece of the world they were standing on giving way to the shuffled stacatto of her footsteps. It was dark there but it didn't matter: she had her eyes closed - better to hear their whispers. Her fingers traveled daintily along the lengths of the wallpaper, and beneath her touch it fell away like so much dust. In its place stood chain link fencing that seemed barely able to hold the weight of the monsters clambering behind it. Their fingers were long, wrapping around and through the chains until they bit into the skin and made their palms bleed. The scent was thick and metallic and heady. Slightly wrong.

She continued to walk. She was in no particular hurry and had no particular destination. This was her mind and she could do with it as she pleased. The smell of rust as she turned the corner was pleasing. It lifted up and spiraled into her nostrils, tearing through her insides until she was coughing up blood. She was dead and rotten and always would be until the day they finally let her die.

“…little Matsu Xiangu…”​

There is was, that bite of reality just as she peeled back her lips to show pearly white teeth encrusted with bright red blood. “You’re just as I expected you’d be,” she said to the man at the end of the hallway as that reality drew her back.

“Is that so bad?” he asked, smoke pouring out of his lungs as he exhaled something bitter and potent.

“No,” she said. And he was gone.

“I see you.”​

His lips didn’t move but it was his voice, a surprisingly subtle infiltration of her mind that at once enraged her and piqued her interest. Curiosity got the better of her. The bar suddenly felt sweltering, the enclosed space limiting that strange urge to soar that was crawling up her spine. She had the basics of telepathy, enough to communicate with him - bold, careless.

“If you see me, then take me out of here. I have more to show you.”​

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Every step of the way I was with her, every touch and every sensation was mine as much as it was hers. This girl, this.. animal was fundamentally broken. Had it been in my mind, I might have tried to fix her. But I doubt I would have succeeded, even my considerable powers were beyond the distinct corruption that lingered around her. Lingered around her like the sweet stench of a corpse rotting.

My eyes closed itself, as my lips turned themselves into a faint smile. Who would want to change such a magnificent beast? I wasn’t the same man I once was. Maybe.. maybe if I had met this girl, before… before my legs were crushed and my life slipped right out of my reaching hand.

Before I had been in the Netherworld, and felt the cold flames enveloping my body; caressing it with the familiarity of a mother holding her babe. Before I had spoken and exchanged words with the likes of Bane and Plagueis. Maybe I would have done something for this girl.

Either way, it mattered not. My skill and affinity laid with destruction and manipulation. People thought that being a Master of the Mind, meant you could do anything pertaining it. That suddenly, I would be able to heal them off mental afflictions. But that’s not the case.

A man has to chose his path, just as I had chosen mine. The road I walked on was made out of Chaos and Strife, and the soft touch of healing was not meant to be woven into the mix.

So I offered her my hand, and with it I offered her a future. No.. I offered her the future. There was a smell around her, the stench of the lightside. Pouring from her, but it was a foreign entity. Not belonging to the creature that sat in front of me, and I knew at that moment. That someone else had sought to claim her already, and I laughed.

Laughed, because my offer intrigued her more.

“Take my hand, and I will show you.. I will show you true power.”​

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Despite the short amount of time she'd been alive, Matsu had been to more planets and seen more than most twice her age. She'd had access to the Force as it was taught by sides all over the map - light, neutral, dark. But in the debate of nature versus nurture the girl was a study in nature. Violence - the lazy, serpentine path of destruction that followed in her wake like the closure of a promise - was a natural inclination akin to breathing or sleeping. No one taught her to hate, how to take pleasure in the suffering of others. It was just her.

So when she had joined up with the Confederacy and found within a few days that it wasn't what she was looking for it had been...disappointing. And there had been a claim, a possessive clutching that promised everything and delivered nothing. It made her angry just thinking about it in that brief moment where [member="Jared Ovmar"] lifted his hand in an offer - one that promised so much more than the one she'd been given previously.

At the top of the hole she's pushing things down in to the earth: spiders with jaunted legs like they're ready for war, snakes with cold hate in their eyes, scorpions that would love to sink their stingers in to her pale flesh and watch her writhe and die with their poison. She's never been afraid and as she fills the pit, as she chooses one day to open her eyes after the shivering crawl of one particularly brave spider up her naked spine to leap off the back of her head down with its brothers below...she always knew the end. She'd leap down in that pit and let them devour her, let them bite at her and tear her apart little bit by little bit, komodo mouths begging and greedy - and there would be no pain. There would be no death. There would be power, conquering through sheer will.

So when he raised his hand in offer she smiled - that wolfish one, the one that made it very obvious any of the light surrounding her was the product of someone else. So she took it with her delicate hand and waited to see such power, the offer that intrigued her above the others.

Because she hadn't been looking for a healing.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

She lusted for power, I could see it in her eyes and I could feel it in her touch. I had been planning on just taking her to my ship, and bring her to my capital. But maybe.. a little preview would be a nice thing to do. I looked her in the eyes, the eyes of a predator, of a monster in the disguise of a sweet innocent little girl. A broken thing, hiding inside of something that once was.

And I smiled, it was one of my lazy grins, but it had an edge to it. A subtle change in the edge, which made it give out something… different. Tough to explain, you gotta see it for yourself.

Then I started drawing upon the Force. Many people viewed the Force differently, some experienced it like an eternal storm and others like a mighty river. I theorized this had to do with one's view of the world, and one's own position in said world.

Regardless, the Force inside of me was a steady beat. There was a stark contrast, as it froze me up. A clarity of mind, and soul which allowed me to see how the world truly looked like.

Then I lashed out, wrapped the little girl in the power that was me.

And I showed her what a true Master Mentalist could do, I held nothing back and showed her my being.

True power is not in the emotion.

True power is being in control.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

[SIZE=12pt]There was a second of almost complete silence punctuated only by the beating of her heart as her hand disappeared in his.[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]But then he took her.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Like rebirth.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Like a christening.[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]There was pain – unimaginable. She rode the waves of a masterfully orchestrated sea, wavering between blinding agony (the snap, snap, snap of her ribs as he tore her apart limb from limb, cracked her open) and strange pleasure. She forgot her hand was in his grip, forgot that they were surrounded by other beings somewhere in some bar, forgot everything but the grip he had on her. She felt…terror. And it was then, somewhere between the seasick begging and the salt-in-the-wounds pain that she was sold. This was POWER! That he could make her feel a thing she’d never known in her life, the tail between her legs knowledge that a predator could be bested if it didn’t know the way to sink its claws in: this knowledge was her power. Control. Domination. [/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]He was magnificent.[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]She screamed, white teeth in a red mouth in a body unlimited in a galaxy unlimited in a vision beyond her wildest dreams and she did not WANT. HIM. TO. STOP.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]She should have wanted him to stop.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]She was terrified, in agony.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Please, please, please...I will earn this with blood.[/SIZE]​

​

And yet there in the bar, outside of her head, she let out nothing but a whine that edged along her throat as inside the playscape in her mind she screamed. Tears lined the edges of her closed eyes, threatening to fall though they seemed to hesitate, as if fearing the repercussions.

The power he showed was like coming home.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

“You are.. mine” I whispered into her mind, as she was held by my power. Whispers of a thousand souls in agony would come to her, and repeat those words again and again and again and again. No quarter, no peace and no rest. Mind and body, she would be mine. In return, she would get everything her sick and demented heart lusted for.

I let it go on for a while, let her feel the extension of my might.. or maybe it was just a part of my power. Maybe I just showed her enough to sate her curiosity, to make her want more. Make her guess the far reaches of my power. That would be smarter, no?

In the end I let her go, pulling her closer to me. Then I whispered in her ear, before she could completely recover herself.

“One day you will think you have grown powerful, and on that day you will want to betray me. Think back to what happened here and now. I am immortal, you might kill me once. But I will come back, and I will make sure your suffering.. won’t be pleasurable.”

My lips brushed her ear this time, as I continued.

“Stay loyal though.. and it will be worth your while.”

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

[SIZE=12pt]You.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Are.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Mine.[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]With those words – screaming, winding, pleading ropes of agony made of thousands upon thousands of voices intertwined, the voices who warned her of the man who held her within his grasp, that gasped and begged with her not to go (HE'S DANGEROUS, he's dangerous, he could kill you with less than a thought) – she rose from the sea. Hands outstretched, salt water dripping off the ends of her fingers, wet hair plastered to pale skin and snaking in patterns over her shoulder blades…she rose like something from the deep reborn for the air, tilting her head to open eyes ringed in yellow to look at the roiling gray clouds above her head, rain whipping against her cheeks.[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]The voices that begged with her to see reason shot through her ears, tore apart her mind – and just as she broke she was set free.[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]She laughed.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]And she laughed.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]And she laughed.[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]And as she laughed her skin fell away in puzzle pieces, revealing the Matsu that could be – the Matsu that lay within her chest and begged louder than all the voices of reason to [/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=12pt]SET.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]ME.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]FREE.[/SIZE]​

She snapped back to reality, to the dim blues and purples of the bar, just as she hit ecstasy in the vision he induced. She was still putty in his grip when he whispered, when he warned...and she smiled.

Betray him? She could be called unorthodox - it was the way of the Sith to say "me, me, me". But Matsu respected power, she coveted the unique...and he fascinated her. She shivered when his lips brushed against her ear but despite the thickness of her voice her words were heavy with truth as she whispered back to him, a hand reaching up to drag her nails lightly through the hair at the back of his head as she'd daydreamed of what felt like ages ago.

"One day I will be powerful. But...Stranger...unless you betray me first, I will never stop destroying what stands in your way."

Loyalty won.​

And she had no doubts her Master would make it worth her while.​

​

[member="Jared Ovmar"]​