Private The Once and Future Loser

[Arris Windrun]

ACOLYTE HOUSING
DESEVRO ACADEMY
Kirie

The smoke of a cigarette left her lungs. Arris looked down at the little roach of what was left, considering whether to smoke it down to the root. Wasn't like the heat would hurt her.

She let it slip out from between her fingers and burn out slowly against the cold stone floor, then pushed herself off the wall and walked down the hall. It was quiet - most of the acolytes were busy training, studying, or had found a ride off the frozen hellscape, going on their misadventures until the masters called. Her metal feet echoed like an omen of her arrival, and those few who filled the halls were sure to step out of the cyborg's way.

Not that she paid much attention to their reactions. Not while she was very distracted by a conversation from about a week ago.

"I got a criminal enterprise and you want direction. Take it off of my hands, Arris. You will be a boss, the enforcers and thugs will follow you."

Arris arrived at the door of a room belonging to Kirie and some girl named Avina.

"Wait... was she one of the ones who--" Arris shook the thought.

She steeled herself and considered carefully if this was the right approach... How else was she to juggle both responsibilities? And besides, she had unfinished business cut short by a little detour aboard that battle station over Atrisia. She reached for the door and tried to open it. Locked. Half of her thought to knock, the other half hadn't the patience. Either Kirie was in there or she was somewhere else.

The technopath reached out through the Force.

"Open."

She projected the thought as a demand, her will within the wires, and stepped inside as soon as it surrendered.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Desevro Academy, Kirie's Room
Tag: Arris Windrun

Kirie's room was such a perfect place to cry. Her bed was on the upper bunk, and on the side closest to the door, so that to even know that Kirie was there, a visitor would have to turn and crane their neck. Even better, her bunkmate, Avina, rarely slept here, having developed some sort of walking pneumonia that relegated her to nights under the watchful eye of the med-droids in the Academy's stark infirmary. It was small, and quiet and peaceful, and beneath the safety of her scratchy blanket on the top of her rickety bunk in her cramped, silent dorm, Kirie let her feelings unwind.

Kirie wept silent, bitter, and self-pitying tears. The kind that weren't a performance, that crinkled up her face and made her throat and chest hurt. She cried for Quinn Varanin , and the fact they would both have to face the next chapter of their lives without the other; she cried for her home, for her mum and dad; and for the fact that despite being truly free for the first time in years, she had never felt more lost.

The door to the room opened suddenly, with a swishing sound and a wash of frigid air, without the usual warning chime of someone swiping their entry card. Kirie sat up with a start, fear washing away her softer emotions as she was overwhelmed by alarm.

Her sense of panic only increased when she locked eyes with Arris Windrun , renowned as a Kaggath finalist but known personally to Kirie as the psychotic instructor who had shot her for seemingly no reason. And now she was here, in Kirie's room. Why?

A voice in the back of her head told her that it was because Arris had gained a taste for seeing her suffer. Maybe she was coming to give her some more, or else finish their business, whatever that was.

With the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end, Kirie lowered herself down from the bunk, the floor very cold against her bare soles, her oversized sleepshirt pulled on a funny angle that exposed her collarbones.

'Ms Windrun.' Kirie signed respectfully, her eyes flitting from Arris to the deserted hallway behind her.

Arris would feel the spark of intention through the Force the moment Kirie's gaze broke from hers, as the girl suddenly bolted into motion, trying to push past Arris and run far, far away from the room and whatever the blonde Sith wanted.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris hadn't a clue about the muffled sobbing and watched Kirie scramble down the bunk, though she did notice the unmistakable tear stains and the redness of her eyes. There wasn't much time for her to consider why the young woman was crying; even if it might as well have been obvious, before Kirie signed and made a break for the door.

Little might Kirie have known, but professional fighters learned to read eyes. It was the moment hers flicked to the hallway behind her that the cyborg caught wind and looked to the brunette's legs just as they flexed. Not a hand made it past the threshold when cold metal fingers wrapped around the back of Kirie's neck and yanked her back into the room and towards the center.

She threw her hand up in a gesture that said "stop," just like the acolyte had done when Arris raised her gun that day.

"Just... stop!" She shouted.

Her frustration rippled through the Force, towards the brunette and the door that still listened. It shut violently, but it was a subconscious act, as if a periphery to her appendages.

The woman looked to have swallowed her anger, but took a cautious stance in case the acolyte tried to strike her with the Force again.

Kirie

 

[Kirie]

Location: Desevro Academy, Kirie's Room
Tag: Arris Windrun

Kirie didn't make it far. In fact, she didn't even make it out the door before too-strong fingers wrapped around her neck with a grip that brooked no argument, a grip that would leave little fingertip-shaped bruises and crescent moon cuts, and she was thrown back into her room.

Her foot caught on the floor and she stumbled, falling briefly before scrabbling back onto her feet to get away from Arris, who was yelling. She struggled to focus on the words over the loud rushing of her blood in her ears.

"Just... stop!"

Kirie stopped. The burst of Force energy smacked into her chest and she screwed her eyes shut and resisting the urge to cover her ears as the door slammed shut behind Arris. But, she didn't run. She stayed rooted in place, and when things seemed calmer she opened her eyes, swiped away the tear tracks, and lowered herself into a low and reverant bow, the kind reserved only for the highest lords and ladies of the Sith Order, and the cruellest and most arrogant of her slavers.

Her protocol droid, seeing a visitor, floated serenely down from her bed to fix its bright blue eye on Arris too.

'My Lady.' Kirie signed, standing up straight, her face a mask, eyes a little puffy. She stood as still as she could but a little trail of snotty tears was running from her nose, so she had to break her concentration to wipe it. Her steady gaze returned to Arris a moment later though, seemingly unashamed.

'How may I serve you?'

 

[Arris Windrun]

The bow annoyed her, as did the further reverence. At first, Arris wanted to stay angry; escalate her frustrations towards the acolyte, because the Talusian smelled nothing but the least considerate, mostly insulting lies when people acted that way around her. She called Mauve out on it; she could call this one out on it, too, but then...

"You're afraid," she mumbled.

Was that a twinge of guilt Arris felt? Why did this remind her of -- the cyborg clutched her chest suddenly and winced. There it was again, that sharp pain deep inside her core, felt just a day ago. She was quick to try and hide it, straightening her posture and taking another step towards Kirie.

'How may I serve you?'

She eyed the bot as it translated in some woman's voice. No way was it stock, so who exactly was this young woman?

"Enough of that too," she ordered, albeit in a less shouty manner than before. "Just... Fuck!" A curse to vent her frustrations.

The cyborg ran fingers through her hair and took yet another step forward.

A more vulnerable part of herself wished to say, "Stop acting like I'm a freak!" But she didn't.

"Look," she continued, "you're going to answer some questions and then you're coming with me, okay? We have a task for you, off-world."

The force swirled around the room like a captive audience drawn to the chaos. It was perhaps a little dimmer, and even the droid might've been affected by the static produced by the technopath's subconscious probing. Just like she had instinctively slammed shut the door, her willpower scratched frantically at everything from little wires to complex devices, and it began to crack away at her psyche.

For now, however, she appeared to have collected herself and remained calm - or at least, as calm as she could be.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Desevro Academy, Kirie's Room
Tag: Arris Windrun

Arris seemed different than when Kirie had seen her during the Acolytes' trials. She had been quick-fire then too, at least enough to be provoked into shooting Kirie, but today she seemed... Frantic. That was not a good sign. Interactions with Sith superiors were usually navigable provided they remained predictable. From what Kirie had seen, unstable Sith always seemed to take take out their frustrations on those around them, especially their lessers. Not to mention she was already at a disadvantage with Arris because she had singled Kirie out. She had the Sith woman's attention. Maybe her curiosity too, maybe her ire.

She looked as if she might have been nursing an injury too, or else pulled something in preventing Kirie's escape. Kirie had seen how she'd winced after her outburst.

None of that was good. She would need to be very careful.

Their short, frenetic interaction had taught her some valuable lessons though. Of principal importance was that Arris did not respond well to deference. That alone set her apart from most Sith. Kirie had found that her toadying stroked their egos and efficiently communicated her status as something to be ignored, and stepped over in favour of more interesting quarry. But that would not work with Arris Windrun.

What should she do then? Perhaps directness and efficiency would be the key. She could show Arris that she was a competant servant. Never the preferred option, since it taught her superiors that she could be relied upon, but it was certainly preferable to being shot by a beanbag.

She began to sign an apology then thought better of it, and instead dropped her shoulders, deliberately relaxing her posture, though her nerves remained taut and overwound.

'Alright.' Kirie signed, nodding in what she thought was agreement but might have actually read as resignation. 'What do you need from me?'

 

[Arris Windrun]

The change in posture was a bit sudden, and Arris chose to mirror it a little by relaxing her own posture as well.

'Alright.' Kirie signed, nodding in what she thought was agreement but might have actually read as resignation. 'What do you need from me?'

Rather than explain, the cyborg chose a more direct course of action and replayed the intercepted transmission for the acolyte to hear.

<<"Apprentice, the brunette with markings on her throat.">>

<<"Her survival is paramount.">>

The audio played uncannily from Arris's agape jaw, hinting that even her own lip movements were artificial and unnecessary in nature. There was no voice box in this blonde's throat, except one made of silicon and gold.

"You can start by explaining what the hell that's all about. Cuz from where I'm standing, it feels a little odd for a Sith Lord to treat you like a prize.

"My first guess is maybe she's your master, but from what Adekos has told me, that's not really in style with Sith tutelage, yeah?"

At least it felt an unlikely answer, given the woman's only experience of Anathemous was that of violence and arrogant power like the rest of the high and mighty Sith she's encountered in the wild. Something didn't add up, and Arris meant to find out.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Desevro Academy, Kirie's Room
Tag: Arris Windrun

Holy chit.

Kirie stared at Arris, her mouth agape, genuinely dumbfounded. A mixture of emotions ran through her mind. Principally, shame and embarassment that she was still being babysat and that her successes were not her own, but also gladness, that at least there were people looking out for her. It would be hard to fake the look of confusion and pain plastered across her face, and as her thinking brain caught up with her lizard one, Kirie hoped that meant Arris would believe she had no part in it.

'This is the first I am hearing of it.' Kirie told her earnestly. Though, she thought to herself, it sure did explain why she got shot. 'I wasn't trying to pull any tricks. I'm here to learn.' That was probably the wrong thing to say. It felt wrong coming out. Arris would think- would know- that any Acolyte would use an advantage if they could get it. The only saving grace for Kirie was her ignorance.

Kirie sighed and shrugged, unsure of what she could say that would make things better. Maybe it would have been better to own it, to tell Arris that yes, Kaila was her master, that she had knowingly participated in a conspiracy to advantage her in the competition, and had been justly punished for doing so. Sure, none of that was true, but with things like this the truth didn't matter much.

Too late now, though. She'd already denied it.

'Ka- Darth Anathemous is not my master.' Kirie told Arris. 'We are...' she searched for an adequate or at least believable descriptor but found she could think of neither. 'Friends.' Yeah. Right. Like Arris would buy that. Once again the truth didn't matter.

'Look, it won't happen again.' Kirie signed. 'and I know what happens if it does.' Kirie nodded down to the ugly yellow-pink-purple-green bruise inadequately covered with concealer that was poking above the collar of her sleepshirt.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris believed Kirie when she said she was unaware. She expected as much, given the Sith Lord's own reaction when Arris beanbagged the acolyte. However, she found the young woman's sheepishness and stammering odd. It was only then -- at that very moment -- that the likely truth dawned on her. A realization that sank her with embarrassment, worn with visible cringe on the cyborg's face.

She cut in the moment Kirie finished, "and I know what happens if it does."

"Whoa, whoa!" Arris waved both hands. "Nuh uh! Not like that, okay?" There was actually a hint of concern in her eyes.

She was a street rat far and long before she was the Dark Horse of Ruusan or, perhaps now... Beanbagger of Timid Acolytes. At least that was how the Talusian felt post-realization. Point being, she and Kirie had drastically different expectations. One saw only the world of the Sith; kill or be eaten, the romance of betrayal, the tooth and nail of competition - and it wasn't Arris.

Arris stepped forward thrice and bent over just enough that they might see eye-to-eye.

"Having friends is good, but you don't want their help."

Her words were serious; her tone came from a place of experience. A genuine warning, not a threat.

"You're the odd one out of a bunch of murderers, yeah? Your friend steps in, you become a threat... And when they step away..."

Arris didn't feel the need to finish her story; she believed -- or at least, seriously hoped -- the implication was received. A Sith Lord, most of all, was not the kind of friend you wanted your competitive ilk to know you had. Same principle as being the intern who's pals with a VP. Terrible look.

She straightened up and took a step back, and smirked. "Shooting you was a favor, yeah?"

That smirk? The juxtaposition that ought not to have betrayed the potential for hair-triggered violence that Arris was.

Kirie

 

[Kirie]

Location: Desevro Academy, Kirie's Room
Tag: Arris Windrun

Kirie bit her lip, unsure at how adamant Arris seemed to be about not intending to hurt her, how genuine the flicker of concern had been when it flickered across the blonde's sharp features. If Arris was faking her reactions, she was the best actor Kirie had ever seen. And she didn't really seem like an actor. From her unpleasant interaction with her during the acolyte trial, Kirie had observed that Arris seemed like the type who wore her heart on her sleeve, for better or for worse.

"Having friends is good, but you don't want their help."

Kirie nodded slowly. Loath as she was to admit it but Arris made a good point. The moment her fellow students caught wind of meddling, her own or otherwise, she would become their target. When it came to the Academy there was no telling what that retaliation might be. It could go as far as her ending up missing a limb, or found cold and stiff on the sparring ground one morning. She had seen that and worse in the short time she'd been here.

'When my friends step away, I pay for it tenfold.' Kirie finished reluctantly. 'I understand.'

Still, the thought of isolating herself from the few connections she still had from the Order was terrifying. She'd had protectors ever since the day she was rescued. Plenty of terrible, awful things had happened to her under their eye, but she had always known that at least there were people looking out for her, who could get her out of trouble if she needed. Kirie couldn't think of a single Acolyte she could rely on if she got into trouble. That meant, at least until she forged alliances and made friends, that she would be navigating the Academy and all its dangers alone. More than that, she would be navigating the Galaxy alone, and she hadn't prepared for that at all. She didn't even have a job!

"Shooting you was a favor, yeah?"

Kirie snorted and her face crumpled into a wry smile.

'I wouldn't go that far.'

But something had changed in the air, a sort of truce had been made, a silent peace agreement that at convinced Kirie that Arris was at least not here to beat her bloody. Which begged the question- why was she here?

'So what are we doing?'

 

[Arris Windrun]

When my friends step away, I pay for it tenfold.' Kirie finished reluctantly. 'I understand.'

"Yeah," Arris muttered.

The ugliness of it did not escape her, but it was good to see Kirie catching on. Sometimes, necessary realizations just stung like that.

Then, the acolyte smiled, and Arris seized as if the weight of her cybernetics had suddenly overburdened her. Whatever charm the Talusian had summoned just two seconds ago apparently fled her. A feeling that confused her more than anything... Why was it so difficult just to be herself?

'So what are we doing?'

Her eyes had drifted low and to the side, unaware that Kirie still signed until the droid translated it. She snapped back to reality and mouthed a partial "what" before auditory processing finally caught up to her.

"Oh, um..." Two words to reveal her inattentiveness. "Pack your shit, you're coming with me to the Smuggler's Moon. I'll uh..."

She looked the brunette up and down again, appraising her state of dress with a straight face. "I'll let you change," she walked towards the door.

Arris winced as soon as she reached it, this time nearly stumbling over as that same sharp pain returned and then some. Before it was brief, but now it lingered something torturous - like a doctor was digging around in there with his tools. Her flat metal palm smacked the edge of the doorframe as she struggled to get a grip, before finally the cyborg stepped into the hallway and rested against the wall.

 

[Kirie]

Location: Desevro Academy, Kirie's Room
Tag: Arris Windrun

Kirie's expression did not shift at the mention of where they were headed. She remained stony-faced, but inwardly her mind was racing. She thought about what she had heard about Arris Windrun. Less a Sith and more of a jumped-up criminal riding on the laurels of her raw strength. That was what she had heard, anyway, in a snippet of conversation that had drifted from a tutorial rooms one afternoon. If that had any truth to it, then that would mean Kirie would probably be helping out with some underworld scheme. The thought of that made her nervous. Nar Shaddaa was a place for spice smugglers and slavers. The kinds of people who would see the marks on Kirie's skin and assume they knew what she was: A pet come loose. It didn't matter if she had always been more than that, she'd have to be careful.

'Alright.'

Maybe it would be okay though. Anyone looking would probably assume she belonged to Arris anyway. They'd be left alone if she walked in the Sith's shadow and stayed close.

She was equally impassive at Arris' comment about changing. She felt no shame at her appearance, it was Arris who had barged in after all. Kirie did however study Arris' look up and down carefully. She did not see the spark of hunger that she sometimes saw in other Sith. That was good. If Kirie was to be an object of Sith attention, she wanted to be regarded as a potential asset, rather than a body to be desired.

Arris took her leave and Kirie turned her attention to changing. Her hand hovered over her uniform a moment before settling on her most inconspicuous servant's clothes. They were perhaps a touch too fine for the Smugglers' Moon, but that would play into the idea that she was a harmless and servile outsider visiting with her Sith superior. That was true in a sense too, so she'd have no trouble making it believable if prompted. As a finishing touch, Kirie retrieved the saber that she had used to fight off the Kainite retrieval droids, and had subsequently been given to her by Quinn Varanin , strapping the saber to her hip. Kirie had no intention of using the thing, untrained and averse to violence as she was, and she was afraid to take such an important object with her, but she hoped it would signal her position and convince any opportunists to leave her well alone.

She wondered for a moment if she should try making a run for it again, but decided it was a hopeless endeavour. Instead, Kirie stepped from her room and gave Arris a curt nod.

'Ready milady. Let's get this over with.'

 

[Arris Windrun]

Kirie exited the room into a foul haze that thickened at the end of Arris's cigarette.

The latter grinned at the translation of the acolyte's last words. "Milady? So we're back to that, huh?" She remarked.

Her head turned just enough to toss a sidelong glance at the younger woman, though she seemed more amused than annoyed this time around. Maybe it was enough to leave the room, or, more likely, something in the cigarette calmed her mind. There was also a knowing in the way Arris looked at her, as if she had figured something out.

"Drop the routine, girl. Honorifics have a very different meaning where I'm from, and besides..."

She pushed herself off the wall and crushed the cigarette in her hand, scattering the cooling ashes onto the floor.

"... Passivity ain't for someone with that." A metal finger pointed at the lightsaber.

They exited the Academy and entered Arris's starship after a short walk. It was an unremarkable light freighter, an everyspacer's staple, and not one Windrun called home, given the lack of personalization or decor. The only character trait of note was violent rattling during takeoff; it even sounded like something had broken off for a moment, but everything went smoothly as soon as they broke the atmosphere.

Desevro to Narsh meant traveling the Parlemian all the way to Charros IV, and then adjusting galactic south towards the Smuggler's Moon itself. Not exactly an adventure, and Arris left Kirie plenty of time to herself - should she have taken it.

The freighter dropped from hyperspace into a Black Sun blockade that held the Glorious Jewel and its infamous moon by the throat, a reflection of the uneasy pact between the Hutts and the Syndicate.

Landing was even more violent than taking off, it would seem, as they descended through the Vertical City past floating casinos and glamorous towers, then deeper still towards the Hutt-controlled Red Light Sector (a major source of the Underlord's tax wealth). They touched down at a secluded landing pad at the Sector's outskirts.

Arris grabbed her revolvers and stepped out into the city air, which smelled like open sewage and exhaust.

She looked back at Kirie. "Everyone here is gonna want something from you. Just don't stop or talk to 'em, yeah?"

At no point had the cyborg yet explained what they were doing here, or why she found it useful or necessary to bring an acolyte along.

Kirie