The Manor

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett stood for a moment, then decided that it was best to play nice for now. Perhaps making “Friends” would serve him better, at the simpleton seemed easy enough to manipulate, as well this Darryn seemed quite logical. Rett decided that these two would make excellent patsies when he ran, if he ran. Slowly his hand moved out, first shaking the large pig monsters, then the simpletons. Oddly enough, the latters grip was far more firm than the former.

“They are beautiful.” He said truthfully. “I lived in a different palace before this. One in a desert world. The flowers are different, and there were no grand vines or great green plants save for oddities. The amount of water was too much to keep them alive. Here....this is startling. I must admit I am a bit taken aback.”

There it was, the longest Rett had ever spoken

It was strange to think, but fitting that his longest words would be about a Garden. Usually his lord had never wanted to hear his words. Once, the mistress of the house had taunted him into speaking more, but never so long an eloquent as what he had just stated. Looking at his scarred and broken face it would have been difficult to say that he was capable of expressing such thought.

He looked at Darryn, then remembered he had not stated his name. “I am Rett.”

It was an afterthought, his eyes had already shifted back towards the gardens behind the two men. The Twi'lek was enthralled.

 

[Louise]

His statement please Darryn, who beamed with pride, prominent lower teeth glinting in the afternoon sun “Ya hear that Tork? The gardens are beautiful.”

“Tork already know that,” he grunted in response, “Tork just testing to see if red man blind.”

The gamorrean stopped for a moment, trying to balance out of red man was offensive or not. His way of thinking went like this: if you could use it as a call sign, then it wasn't offensive. Red man could work, so the pig stayed his tongue for the moment.

“Heh. We're proud of our work here, Rett. If ya'd like, we can go to the library, find some of those old flowers you liked, get them planted here if we can.”

The rather charismatic and chatty gamorrean continued his verbal assault, leaving those of a more shy complexion to get battered by his constant words. One can't help being an extrovert as much as one can't help being an introvert/

“So [member="Rett"], ya know where you're going? Kitchens? Housekeeping?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

He looked at the two men again, his gaze fumbling away from the gardens and towards the pig.

“Bodyguard.” He said the words softly, they were only barely carried over towards Darryn. That was one of the first things he had actually learned, that he was to be a bodyguard for Thalia. It was an odd thing, him a bodyguard. He was by no means big or fearsome, and he had never won a fight, but he supposed if that was what Thalia wanted, then that was what she would get out of him.

To his other request, he shook his head slightly.

“No. No thank you.” He reminded himself to be polite. “It would remind me of times I would rather forget.”

That wasn't necessarily true, he likely would have enjoyed seeing those flowers again, but the prospect of spending any amount of time surrounded by people, when he could rather be alone, did not appeal to him in anyway at all. That was when he realized what he wanted.

He wanted to be alone.

Like he had been in that refresher, like he had been in that room. He had never been alone before. He had never truly been isolated like that. Even his room back in the palace had not been his own. Suddenly Rett felt very small. Could he be alone here?

He glanced at the manor that seemed to loom over them all.

 

[Louise]

A frown came to the face of both Darryn and Tork as the twi'lek informed them that he would be amongst the guard, almost as if punctuating the shift in their expressions a bell rang out. It wasn't an ominous bell ringing, rather ritual but there was no great dread or foreboding in its rich ringing tones.

“Food!” declared Tork, frown disappearing as he very happily darted off onto the path around to the back of the manor. He was a man on his own mission now.

“Don't know if you've been told, but everybody eats together here” the gamorrean told Rett, face still a grave mask compared to a few moments before. Without further prompt he began to walk on the same path that Tork did, fully expecting the twi'lek to follow.

He snorted, although it was actually a sigh to a gamorrean.

“Don't know why she's puttin' you in there,” Darryn admitted quietly, looking over his considerable shoulders to [member="Rett"] (who was hopefully following), “y'see there's a couple of bad eggs in the guard, if you know what I mean.”

There was a pause in speech, allowing for their footsteps to ring out as they crunched along the gravel patch.

“They're none too fond of aliens. They don't bother me much, no cause to be in the gardens but...” his scowl deepened, suddenly remembering that they were going to create an area to train outside, “...but you're gonna be training with them quite a bit.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett followed along quietly.

His lekku twitched slightly when Darryn informed him of the “bad eggs” as it were. Of course it only confirmed Retts suspicions of the other slaves here, that everyone was out to get him and would hurt him no matter what.

Of course this completely ignored the fact that one of those very slaves was telling him about those bad eggs that would likely want to hurt him. That thought never entered his mind, he was far too trained into thinking that everyone was his enemy, that everyone would end up hurting him. The bad eggs in the guards only confirmed that suspicion, though he had not even met with them.

The gravel crunched. “I will deal with them.”

He said it with a great deal of pride, though quite honestly he had no idea what he could do. Most of them would be better trained, stronger, and likely faster than him. He could bite them, but that would likely get him in more trouble that it was worth it.

His thoughts lost him.

He did not even seem to care that he would be eating with dozens if not hundreds of other people. Normally this would have caused him a great deal of anxiety, but for now he was lost in a sea of worries pertaining to perhaps getting more beatings.

 

[Louise]

Darryn frowned hearing the twi'lek's words in response to his nugget of cautious advice. That wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear. As one of the older residents of the manor he enjoyed the status quo, he liked how his life was now, especially compared to how it had been once upon a time.

If [member="Rett"] was going in to upset the apple cart straight off of his own advice then, no, he didn't want that, not at all, even though those were thoughts that remained inside his own mind, a physical shake of the head came to the surface.

“Please, don't cause trouble. If they mistreat you, go to Madame Gorsceux.”

The gamorrean could only hope that Rett would follow that piece of guidance, although it was hard to tell. He didn't know this man, only that he liked gardens, he could be violent, he could be a psychopath. Maybe he hated everybody that wasn't a twi'lek. How could he know? He was just the gardener.

Going in through the back door Darryn would lead the red man through a new room and a corridor that eventually led them back to the more familiar main hall and then the dining room. Which had already began filling up. Thalia and Enos were already there, with her sitting at the head of the table and he on her right. Tork was already there, looking excited as ever. There were also a few new faces, part of the house keeping team who were all identified by their smart black and white uniforms (some girls in skirts, some in trousers, hey man, we're progressive).

At the opposite end of the table sat a man with a face composed of scars whose head immediately turned to study Rett as he entered the room, grizzled visage turning into a scowl as he did so.

Enos, catching glance of this decided to wave down Rett and indicate to the seat opposite him at the table.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]Rett stopped suddenly as he walked into the common eating area.

The sheer amount of people inside startled him. This was more slaves than had been at the palace, this was more people that had been at the palace. This was more people than he had expected. The slow rhythmic thumping of his heart began harder and faster, the sound in his ears drowning out as the noise of the crowd got to him. The scraping of spoons, the scratching of knives, the clashing of forks against plates.

He heard it all.

Everything came to him like an assault on the senses. His eyes began to sting, his head began to hurt, voices began to shrill in his ears over and over again. The commotion, the looks, that scowl. Rett looked at it all, he took it all in, and he did not react favorably. His heart thumped in his ears more than before, veins beneath his skin began to pop out.

His Lekku curled uncontrollably behind his back edging towards themselves against his back, a sign of great discomfort. He began to panic, a surge of emotion that was not foreign to him. He tried to breath, but found his chest stifled by the weight of a hundred bricks.

Rett saw Enos, but did not truly register his presence.

He had to get out, he had to leave. He couldn't, there were too many, too many people, too many threats, too many that could hurt him. Instead of walking towards Enos, Rett simply cast one last look around the room, and then turned around.

The Twi'lek did not run, instead he scrambled.

Like a cat dipped into water Rett made his way down the corridor, finding the main hall quickly and rushing to the nearest, darkest corner. He sat down, placing himself into the fetal position, shaking as his lekku curled.

 

[Louise]

Oh dear.

Thalia watched in silence, face a mask of stone as the twi'lek turned and fled in a crumbling mess. Of course, upon the touch of mind one would find a certain spike of the Force. Oh yes, there it was, that potential she was drawn to in the first place. Strange that it came down to being overwhelmed that set him off, usually it was anger that lit the fuse. Well, this was one way to set a first impression.

The sounds of clinking cutlery and idle chit-chat died down into a whisper, the man at the opposite end of the table rested both of his elbows upon the polished wood and looked to Thalia, his expression spoke volumes:

This is what you've brought me?

The anzat stood from her chair, choosing to walk the long way around the table and round the back of the very unimpressed man, footfalls slow and deliberate. A game of posture before she was gone to tend to her very skittish twi'lek.

“[member="Rett"]?” she called out softly, slowly walking down the corridor. She did not wish to startle him and thus let her presence be very known in trying to find him.

“It's just me, Rett,” she spoke again, entering the main hall. It wasn't too hard to find him, his own frantic panic lit him up like a beacon in the main hall. “Are you okay?” Thalia asked, approaching slowly, “What happened?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett sat in the corner, shaking.

His entire body seemed to be shuttering with an uncontrollable lust for...not being here. His lekku curled, his eyes sealed shot, and his lips were turned down into a scowl. His skin was covered in goosebumps, and his head seemed to shake back from side to side. The Twi'lek looked absolutely pathetic, little more than a coward sitting in the corner while his friends were off fighting. Though Rett had no friends.

What had that been?

He didn't know.

It had been an assault on all of his senses. The detail. The information. It was like he had perceived everything about everyone in that room all at once. He had seen them, heard them, listened to them. It had caused his brain to go haywire, his mind simply overloading and his thoughts being override by the jumblings of dozens of other people.

When Thalia approached, she would find him a ruin. “i-i-i-i don't know.”

He managed to stutter out. His eyes did not meet hers, and his body did not stop shaking.

 

[Louise]

“Oh [member="Rett"],” she murmured softly, hitting her most compassionate moment right there and then with the twi'lek, her heels clicked closer and closer upon the wood until she was a meter away from the cowering creature.

Thalia did not opt to get any closer, choosing to crouch down right there so she was on his level.

Was it too soon to tell him? Perhaps. What harm could it be if he knew about his gifts? Perhaps it would soothe him, or maybe it would confuse him even further, sending him into a new realm of fear and panic. Could it be a step on the way to trust? No time like the present.

“Have you ever heard of the Force, Rett?”

That wasn't likely. Why would a beaten slave know of the Force who would spare a moment to tell him? It had to be assumed that the twi'lek didn't know very much at all. That as the state the majority of her slaves came in.

“Or have you heard of the Jedi?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

His eyes cast over to her, bright yellow watching her.

Pathetically, like a child, Rett slowly shook his head. He had never heard of the force, and he had never even been permitted to hear the word Jedi. Jedi would have presented Rett with hope, it would have given him ideas of being rescued, ideas of being saved or something of the sort. It would have given him the thought that maybe there was hope they would come for him one day.

That was not allowed.

Rett was not to have hope, was not to have independent thoughts of grandeur. Dreams had not been allowed in the palace.

So when Thalia asked him of the Jedi, he simply shook his head again. He had no idea what she was talking about, and by the looks of him her current words and sympathy were not helping at all. The kindness she was showing would likely register with him later, but for now his mind was still reeling from the shock.

 

[Louise]

He did not even know of the Jedi, of course.

Thalia sighed, making the conscious decision to shift from her crouching position to actually sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the distressed twi'lek. The woman had decided that his frenzied state needed an explanation, even if it didn't make much sense to him at that moment in time. Eventually he could learn, eventually he could become stronger, fatter, more succulent.

Thalia salivated at the thought.

“The Force is....” how could you explain it to somebody so simple, “...a power.”

She frowned, it was hardly easy to explain. After all the Force was a topic covered in hundreds of different philosophies and theories. From the Unifying to the Living. The anzat couldn't just release all this information and expect him to take it, believe it, embrace it.

“The Force flows through us all, through every living creature,” she began, ending her spiel with an ever-tantalising, “but...”

She looked to him, almost through him with those piercing emerald eyes, “...some have a closer connection, they can manipulate it, control it, they can bend the Force to will even.

You have that connection, Rett.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett stared at her with cold, not quite understanding eyes.

He watched her quietly, shaking his head slightly as if not believing her. Of course what she said made a bit of sense. The Force. Is that what had saved him all those times? Had it not really been him but this...power? That made sense. He himself didn't have any strength, it was all the force. He nodded slowly, as if trying to come to terms with what was being said. Her eyes were so intense that it was hard not to believe.

“Ho...” He cut off mid sentence.

Was she one too? Could she sense that connection because she had the same connection? Could she use that power too? Slowly he shook his head. Five seconds ago he had never heard of the 'force' now he presumed that it could be used to read and speak into minds? What a silly thought, no that couldn't be it. It was small changes, like the things that had saved him, falling rocks, shelves, that sort of things.

“How...” Again he paused, not quite sure how to speak. “How do you know this?”

Yes that seemed the right question.

How did Thalia know about the force? How did she know that Rett could use the force? So many question.

 

[Louise]

How did she know this?

Thalia wanted to scoff at this notion, but she managed to surpress it. Mocking the creature while he was down wasn't going to achieve anything, it would only plant seeds of distrust and dislike in his mind, and that was the exact opposite of what she wanted.

[member="Rett"] never had an eduction, therefore nobody else did? I suppose it wasn't something the twi'lek was ever going to consider, the education of others. It was small beans in his world of abuse. She had to be nice, no barbed tongue lashing at his already fractured psyche.

“The Jedi are well known across the galaxy, Rett,” she said to him slowly, “they are symbols of peace. They are the type of people that rescue slaves,” the type of people that would question the ethics of her set-up and get involved, “it is not likely that your owners would have wanted you to know about the existence of Jedi, of hope.”

The anzat paused, giving him a moment to absorb that information.

“I can tell you more, about the Jedi and the Force,” she said, looking straight at his face, “would you like that?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett stayed quiet for the longest time.

He had already made a decision. He wanted to hear more, but oddly he was afraid of doing so. Was he about to be shocked with a revelation of hope that should have come to him years ago? Was he about to be told about something thats common knowledge? Fear welled up inside of him, he found a not so pleasant sensation drawing in his head, and his lekku curled.

She was telling the truth thought.

Wasn't she?

Thalia looked genuine, she looked kind. She looked like she wanted to help. Yet he had seen that look before, on one of the Lords daughters. She had been nice, but her niceness had gotten him punished. Not of her own fault, but her fathers.

For a moment more the Twi'lek mulled it over.

He had to take a chance. If what she was saying was the truth, and he could use this...force. Then he had to learn more about it, perhaps he could use it more, perhaps he could...perhaps he could use it to be free. Slowly, like a child, Rett nodded.

 

[Louise]

She nodded, slowly, so skittish was the twi'lek that it felt as if any sudden movements would have startled the creature into running away again. After all, there was no intention of playing catch the Rett all evening, or at all. Thalia was nice now, she was soft now but like everybody she had her patience. If he didn't improve in time...well then, it wasn't meant to be.

Have supper brought upstairs to my study, for both of us.

Enos had long since become used to sudden messages of the mind, he no longer flinched when her tender tones invaded his mind.

“Come with me, [member="Rett"],” she said, finally shifting (not so gracefully) from her sitting position up to standing again, offering the downed twi'lek a gloved hand to help him back to his feet. It was more an emotional gesture than her actually meaning to physically pick him up. “I have no wish to tell you of the Force huddled in this corner.”

Whether or not he took her hand didn't matter, she wasn't going to get offended either way but immediately after she began to scale the grand staircase, leading him upstairs and to her study.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

He didn't take the hand. Rett was making strides, but touching the person who owned him? Actually laying a hand on them and using it to support himself? That was asking too much for his little nerves, far more than he could take. So instead Rett slowly let his arms drop to the floor, picking himself up as ungracefully as she.

His lekky still curled at his back, held in place by sheer anxiety.

Rett wanted to speak, he wanted to say thank you.

That was an oddity, thank you from him?

He knew very well what she was doing, that she was trying to help. It began to spike through his mind that perhaps, just maybe, Thalia was good. That she was genuinely trying to help him and the other people here. It drifted as a thought across his mind, little more than a small nuance, just a gesture of what might be.

Yet it stayed.

It remained in his head, a prickling in the back of his mind.