First Reply The Jutrand Reception - (Sith Blackwall)

[Christina Locke]

//: Lirka Ka //:

The sight of Lirka at work made it abundantly clear where she stood on the Metric of fighters. Barely worth the bucket she fit in compared to the one having herself a wild time as the finale arrived.

The blade directed at her in particular as though it was a mere extension of Lirka.

There really wasn't any point in faslifying things now. Either she'd be found out, and experience the fight all over again without a chance to submit. Or it would end before it had even begun. It wasn't like she would find Allyson anytime soon. Entirely doubtful that her sister was even remotely interested in finding her in the first place.

She might as well be honest.

"Christina Locke." A grimace forming from her sigh. "And yes. Related to her."

There hadn't been a chance for her to live quietly on any world she had visited. At least not without someone knowing of Allyson Locke and pointing out the obvious similarities. And while farther between, there were some that had been more than happy to try to get their frustrations out on the unaware twin via physical violence.

Now wondering if much the same would happen here.

 

[Lirka Ka]

It felt good to get the blade moving, but really, disposing of people like those who had once filled the fighting pit was little more than pest control in Lirka’s mind. Little challenge, pure butchery. Cathartic for a moment, but deeply unsatisfying when the work was done.

Unlike prying information out of Christina Locke , already Lirka was feeling plenty content with what she had gotten out of the woman. Beginning to pace, a predator’s prowl - her “eyes” staying locked with the Corellian’s, and her blade unwavering in its static stillness. There was a brief hum of amusement from the armored beast before she spoke.

“Ahh…”the greatest spy the Galaxy has ever seen?” One Allyson “fething” Locke? I know of her, she is a…coworker.”

It was a loathsome word, but not an entirely inaccurate one. The ministry had acquired quite a few odd souls, though she of course didn’t mention that her first proper meeting with the other Locke had been one of bloodshed and Lirka’s paranoia leading her to jump the Corellian in hopes of prying out any useful information being kept from her by high command. Instead, Lirka spouted out some of her dry humor.

“I’m so sorry.”

It was probably one of the only times Lirka would ever let the word “sorry” sputter out of her mouth. Knowing the who was certainly helpful, but it only meant so much.

“Then, Christina Locke, I must know: why are you here on this most wretched of world?”

Lirka could only hope that she wasn’t dealing, and battering, another ministry agent she didn’t know about. If she was two for two, Madelyn Lowe might actually have good justification for getting the brute’s head on a platter.

 

[Christina Locke]

//: Lirka Ka //:

"Oh for feth's sake. She has a title too?" Rubbing the bridge of her nose to keep a headache from forming.

Lirka kept their gaze interlocked as she began with the questions. Expected given the situation and not entirely new ones either. Except the information that Lirka was giving her in return made her pay a special amount of attention. Eyes growing wide at the revelation that Allyson and Lirka potentially shared airspace of the same room.

"Same to you. I've dealt with her exes." A moment spared to commiserate the suffering imparted by her older sister before the moment slipped back to severe interest. Another question that she felt needed an honest answer before it bit her in the exhaust port.

Especially since she had no real idea of what she had just agreed to.

"Gerwald Lechner brought me to Sith Space. I didn't get out before the Blackwall went up. Job hopping to stay under the radar, which, getting really hard nowadays. I was stupid enough to get spend my last credits at the furry fortune teller instead of buying a ticket off world." All truthfully spoken. If a bit exasperated by the turn of events as she continued to stare at Lirka.

"Anything else?"

 

[Lirka Ka]

"A title straight from the rodent's mouth."

Their meeting had been short, and greatly annoying. Lirka cared little for spies that weren't her own, and rodent had come to feel like a rather befitting title for a woman so...slippery. The scuttling things in the dark that drove Lirka mad when left with pondering her own thoughts of blades in the dark waiting to slit her throat for one reason or another.

The talk of exes was enough to make the Once-Sephi shutter in her suit. Romance. Oh how so loathed it, the mess of herself and Trayze Tesar and even acting like she was capable of feeling such a thing had left her in a particularly sour mood once the toys of tormenting the poor Acolyte subsided. Yet, she could see the potential for a bond, something to use. A note made for the back of Lirka's mind - strife between kin?

"Lechner...the Wolf. Councilor. Imperator."

She seemed to be prattling it off to herself, the name had some familiarity beyond the Empire. It harkened to a different time, and a different face. A different Lirka lost to time before she had become the monster that now stood before Christina Locke with a blade pointed at her throat. But, Lirka kept her mind tethered to the present for now.

"Deeply stupid to trust an oracle, but we all make mistakes."

Lirka always found some reason to give scorn. But evidently, she very much did have something else. To lay the seeds, and see if she could sink her fingers in to this wayward Locke.

"You were heralded by a Dark Councilor. Yet stand before me in the ruins of a Pit, fighting for scraps. So that leaves me to consider, are you a renegade? AWOL? A traitor even? Or were you simply cast aside?"

Crude language, but Lirka understood the prospect of all of those things rather well. She had felt every title in her soul at one point or another in her long life walking the Galaxy.

 

[Christina Locke]

//: Lirka Ka //:

Despite the situation where her life was still very much on the line, she managed to roll her eyes at the self appointed title.

Very much like her sister. Even now, she still could proclaim such things with all the honesty in her heart. Endearing if a bit embarrassing for the other. The thought shifting as Lirka mentioned the titles that Lechner wielded.

The attitude shifting only slightly given she knew little of the words, just that they seemed important.

"Yeah. First and last time I waste money on one." Probably. Granted so far she hadn't run into any familiar faces at least.

Despite wasting her time in not getting to the port. Maybe giving some weight to the fortune tellers words. A subject she wisely chose to not pursue with how Lirka spat the words. Further weight added to the scorn as she questioned Chris and her status within Sith space.

A frown appearing once more.

"Didn't get assigned a position. He found me in cryo and cryo sickness made me act out. He put me back under. Slipped away when he wasn't around." She didn't honestly remember much about how she got free. Most everything had been a blur. Feelings that drove her to act. Vague scenes of her moving through an unfamiliar place before she had fully come awake.

"I don't really know where that puts me." A funny thought coming to mind that escaped her mouth before her brain could stop it. "This gonna count as a first strike working for you? I don't even know that I'm in any system."

 

[Lirka Ka]

Such a funny thing, titles were. Lirka coveted them, many of her own self appointed things meant to inflate the Once-Sephi’s monstrous ego. Lash of the Kainate. Slavemaster General. In days prior, Grand Moff, Governor, Commander, and a myriad of other things to be expected from a long and tenured life killing things.

With the slightest shake of her head, Lirka sprinkled in just a bit more of her scorn.

“And even worse when you pay for them. Charlatans are abundant.”

As the frown grew on the face of Christina Locke , Lirka’s ears opened to listen more intently. This was the moment of truth, after all. What would tell the Once-Sephi if this bout was a worthy endeavor or simply a waste of her precious time.

And it was quickly seeming plenty worth her time. A wayward warrior, one of the many souls that slipped through the cracks. The thing that Lirka coveted in this Empire even more than another title to add to her long list.

“Cryogenics. How fascinating. You must be storied to have been worthy of such a thing, and yet…”

Lirka’s blade lowered, the threat of impending death lessening some. Though it was doubtful that Lirka didn’t have some sort of trick at the ready if this meeting went south once again. Locke had revealed just how slippery she could be if she was able to escape the Wolf.

“…Here you are, wayward. Alone. A drifter. I know where you are, you are an outsider. One of the things that have slipped through the cracks.”

Lirka paused for a moment. She had quite the way with words.

“Quite the contrary, though your intuition serves you well. I believe in the power of the outsider, the power of those who have had to fight for what they own. What the Galaxy might declare scum.”

Lirka extended her hand, one more time.

“Christina Locke, I offer you a chance to find your place within this Empire. Join my entourage, bask in the powers offered to us by the Butcher-King and become something greater than what you are. Show your strength. Or…stay here on Jutrand, wallowing till the ministry puts you in the gallows.”

And like usual, Lirka never said anything that didn’t have at least some violent undertone to it all.

 

[Christina Locke]

//: Lirka Ka //:

The woman was making a very strong case against fortune tellers and soothsayers. One that would not be lost on Christina anytime soon.

Her explanation however seemed to draw the most interest from the woman. But the observation of her worth was something that even the Corellian had to admit was likely just because she bore the face of someone else.

"Probably just because of my last name more than my current abilities." Reminding herself that the chance to become better was still on the line. "Something I aim to correct."

It didn't matter that they likely only put her into safety because of a name. Not when she could become worthy of that name. Or rather her own legacy if she had any say about it. That she had the chance to actually be worth the spot her name had probably bought for her. To carve out her own spot in the future rather than rely on a name.

Reinforced with every word the woman shared. Her own tenacity had brought her to opportunity. Strange as it was.

A hand offered once more as her chin rose.

"I'll take that chance." Taking the offered hand rather than scoff at the offered gift.

It wasn't like she'd be getting a better offer after getting herself knocked flat and nearly squashed.

 

[Lirka Ka]

It was a situation Lirka knew well. Though one she’d rarely admit to. To wear another’s face and live in the shadow of their actions. Yet, such a thing made the greatest of frameworks for the path. To break the shackles of similarity and become someone other than the specters of the past - in Lirka’s case, become a murderous Kainite monster.

“A reasonable assessment.”

Lirka may have been a liar at hearts, but she wouldn’t waste time trying to impart any grand lectures on self worth to Christina Locke . Bloodlines were so often the path of privilege, Dark only knew Lirka had seen it plenty of times over. One did not serve Carnifex for as long as she had without seeing his veritable army of spawn and what they reaped: for better or worse.

Yet, the girl’s ambitions brought a cruel smile beneath Lirka’s helm. It was just what she had hoped for. Oh how she adored the rats that sifted through the scum of the Galaxy, always ready to become something greater. They had suffered, and so they would become transient into something greater. Or they would die, so bid the Primordial Dark.

A simple mantra, and one Lirka kept to herself for now. No need to startle off the young Locke so quick.

“I’d expect nothing else.”

Lirka gave the woman a firm shake, it wasn’t a gesture she was particularly used to. But it served well enough - Lirka had lauded herself as a guiding hand before, now the opportunity had presented itself to prove her worth of this grim mission. It was a short lived gesture, for soon Lirka turned upon her heels and made her way to the door. Leaving the myriad of dead for the scavengers.

“Then we make way to the Warship. There is much for you to learn, Warrior Locke. Come, I will get you acquainted with the mission on the way.”

And with that, in a way most unpredictable Christina Locke had made her way off Jutrand. Under the shadow of a monstrous slaver styling herself a law woman - and by Lirka’s “diplomacy of the fist”, taking the first steps on the Once-Sephi’s path for “her” warriors.