Private The Perfume Lab

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani had no formal training in perfumery, yet the bulk of her work in the Royal Academy’s alchemy labs had been consumed by making alchemized perfumes. She had her own work area reserved—though she was never foolish enough to leave valuable tools out in the open—and for now, all the time in the world.

Unscrewing the cap on a brown glass vial, she used a dropper to extract a small amount of the contents, then trickled them into another container. The aroma of an exotic flower bloomed in the air around her, captured from a garden on a planet she had recently visited. While it was a pleasant scent, other people using the labs tended to give her a wide berth. She liked it that way...

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

"So this is where you make those odd perfumes. Which are you working on today?" The young acolyte casually took a seat across from Ishani Dinn , book in hand as he idly started to take down notes. On what it was hard to tell, but he kept a soft smile as he glanced about the various concoctions. And yes, he rather brazenly approached and invaded her space without so much as a care or concern.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Her corner of the lab was quiet, peaceful, almost serene—in a way that perhaps a Sith’s workbench should not be. Every now and then there were loud noises, the sound of glass breaking or something bubbling over, a curse muttered under her breath.

But very rarely did she hear a stranger’s voice. Startled, she jolted, and the glass dropper in her hand clinked against the rim of the vial. Thick globs of essential oils trickled down the side like beads of sweat or condensation on a chilled glass.

Ishani set the dropper down and quickly looked up, a little slack-jawed. Sure enough, an unfamiliar young man sat across from her, book in hand, jotting something down. She blinked. His smirking face didn’t vanish.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” she asked tentatively. She sounded small, timid, girlish, as she always did around strangers. "I'm just experimenting."

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

Oh. He stared blankly for a moment as she jumped in surprise. Was he really sneaking up on people so easily? Though maybe he just didn't understand enough of social interaction to realize he was being much too forward with how he introduced himself. His gaze fell to the bubbling liquid as he wrote a couple more things down. Chemical reactions, interesting. He'd have to figure out what they each were made of at some point.

He shook his head at her question. "I doubt it. I am.. New. But I know you, Ishani Dinn , and those around you. I figured it was time for me to introduce myself so we're not complete strangers the next time we might have to infiltrate some netherworld bazaar or such." The Acolyte closed his book then, laying both hands atop it in a rather posh manner.

"You may call me Firrerreo. Or Acolyte. Which ever suits your fancy."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani salvaged what she could of the spill, but it was likely contaminated now. Only after cleaning up the mess (a few spilled drops of transparent oil which, while appearing innocuous, was very hard to obtain and highly valuable) and sealing the container did she turn back to the young man again.

She got a proper look at him now. He was probably around the same age as her, and like many boys at that age he was still developing and not yet truly masculine. His shaggy hair was mousy brown and (in her opinion) much too long, and the shadow of peach fuzz along his jaw only made this immaturity more obvious. His eyes were noticeably yellow with Dark Side corruption.

He had introduced himself as Firrerreo. Though they had gotten off on the wrong foot, and his sulphuric gaze made her wary of him by default, Ishani's disposition toward the boy had gone from cool to something more neutral. "Okay," she said. "Firrerreo. You're new—where are you from?" She couldn't detect any particular accent in his voice, at least not so far.

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

There was a noticeable lack of an accent in his voice, as if he specifically was choosing to speak as neutrally as he possibly could. In fact, almost everything about him seemed that way on a closer inspection. He was holding himself in a way that wouldn't give just what his background could be. His clothing did the same. His hair, how it was styled. The only thing that was easy to tell was he had gone to great lengths to hide any way to learn where he was from. All so none would ever learn his name.

"Another of the Sith Orders. I was on Korriban before it was.. Taken. The battle was harsh, and I've only recently been able to return." A subtle dismissal was evident in how he spoke. He wanted little to do with talking about himself. Instead he nodded towards the equipment to repeat the same question he started with.

"Which of your perfumes are you working on today?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Korriban before it was… oh yeah. She hadn’t been here back then, but the rubble was still being cleaned up when she arrived.

The fact that Firrerreo was being deliberately evasive wasn’t lost on her, but it was par for the course with plenty of Sith. She only considered it slightly abnormal.

“Just experimenting, like I said,” she murmured, scratching her head. “Well—here, this is my latest perfume. Would you like to try it?”

She picked up a small sample vial, labeled simply “Echo”, and gestured for him to hold out his wrist.

Firrerreo

 

[Firrerreo]

There was a hesitation as he watched Ishani Dinn held aloft a new vial. He watched it closely, studying it. Then eventually reached out his wrist. "I don't see an issue with it, provided it doesn't doing anything untoward." He doubted she would be the type to try and poison him, though there was the pin pricks of doubt in the back of his neck at just what kind of effect this could bring. Truth serum, for example, was the main concern on his mind.

Instead, it was one he did know of. Echo. He hummed lightly as a memory crossed his mind. His eyes stayed closed for a moment before he nodded.

"They were not wrong, you know how to manipulate all manner of concoctions. Interesting."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“It’s supposed to be able to bring back lost memories when you smell it,” she explained when he expressed reluctance. But since he proved willing to try, she spritzed some on the inside of his wrist.

His reaction was relatively vague. She waited a bit, expecting more, then sighed and leaned back. “What do you mean by ‘they’? I’m not exactly famous around here.” Most of the other students seemed to view her work with alchemized perfumes as a joke.

Firrerreo

 

[Firrerreo]

"The other students. They joke about it, but those who do simply don't understand just how valuable a skill this is." His notebook opened again as he scribbled down another flurry of notes. His took a shine of genuine interest as he lifted them to meet hers once again. "There must be something you're working towards. What might be? I'm rather curious."

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“That’s true. I could definitely make some money off these things,” she joked.

"There must be something you're working towards. What might that be? I'm rather curious."

Ishani pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth. She wasn’t sure what to say to him. If she were to answer from the heart, it would be something along the lines of “I’m working towards retiring very very early on some remote planet far from all the star wars, maybe Naboo, in a country mansion with massive gardens and orchards for miles, and there I’ll live out my days with Arcturus, a half dozen beautiful red-haired children, and a dog” but that was a pipe dream that sounded ridiculous even in her head. She had no clue what she was doing or what all of this would amount to in the end.

“Uh, opening up a shop, maybe?” she said, after a few seconds of trying to think of something. “Once I have enough perfumes to sell, I was going to set up a Holonet store.”

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

The young man blinked slowly as he watched Ishani Dinn ponder over what he thought was a simple question. Had he asked it wrong? When she did answer, he actually laughed. The pleasant smile he had turned genuine. Firrerreo shook his head slowly as he set down the pen in hand. "No, I meant what sort of concoction is it you want to be able to make? What sort of effect do you want to replicate? Some people have a goal in mind with that. Something their building towards and figuring out. Some also just experiment to experiment. I was curious which you were. Not where you see yourself one day."

The smile faded after a moment, thinning as his amber eyes focused more intently on her. "For a Sith, you've little ambition if that's your goal for the future."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Oh.” Ishani went a little red in the face, embarrassed at the misunderstanding. “Uh… there’s nothing specific I’m working towards. No ‘ultimate perfume’. I just try to make as many as possible, with as many different properties and effects as I can think of or find. So I guess I am just experimenting for the sake of experimenting.”

His next statement made her shift in her seat, clearly uncomfortable.

“Yes, well, not everyone is meant for great things. I’m not a great warrior or a master manipulator… so I might as well throw my lot in with the, er, evils of capitalism.” If she was going to be evil at all. She didn’t seem to have much of a stomach for it so far.

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

The pen lifted of it's own accord, scribbling down more things as the young acolyte listened to Ishani Dinn 's answer. His expression went completely neutral, as if emotion had simply been plucked away. "You're only meant for what you aspire to. To think like that is to chain yourself down. Did your master never teach you what it meant to be Sith?"

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“I… don’t have a master,” she said quietly. “I’ve never had one, not an official one anyway. Only Academy instructors. I haven't been here for very long, though. Only about a year. Before that, I was... a Chaldean.” She didn't expect him to know what a Chaldean was or to have heard of her homeworld, but she wasn't going to offer a potentially complicated explanation unless he expressed an interest in it. And even then, she'd be reluctant.

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

"Right, right. You'll never be able to go home as a Sith. Do you miss home?" He seemed to have a full understanding of what she meant with Chaldean. The neutral expression remained as she watched her, the pen beside him still scribbling away. It paused as he glanced to it, then resumed as he looked back towards Ishani Dinn .

"Or is it home that's stopped you from striving to be something more?"

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani chewed on the inside of her cheek, a bit disturbed by how Firrerreo seemed to know everything. Chaldea was not a famous planet by any means, and its national religion was not popular or even much talked about beyond the limits of its solar system. So how the hell did he know about it?

“It’s… both, I guess. I miss home, I miss my family, but I know I can’t go back to the life I had before. I left because I was afraid of what would happen if I stayed, and I came here because I wanted to rebel against all that I had been taught…” She pursed her lips, looking down at the vials on the table before her. “I’ve been defining myself based on what I’m not, rather than what I am. Because to tell the truth, I don’t know what I am anymore. If that makes sense…”

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

"You are Sith. It would be a good idea to figure out what exactly that means to you. It doesn't have to mean the same as others, but what is it you want? At the core of your being, what will you fight for? You've already crossed the line of no return, Ishani Dinn . And the Sith are merciless to those who show uncertainty." The scribbling beside him stopped as he reached over to take up the quill himself. The acolyte idly glanced through what was written, even smiling to himself as he did.

"Going forward, ask yourself that same question; What are you striving towards? If you don't have an answer, find it. Short term, long term. It doesn't matter. Fight towards something, or you'll be swallowed by the teachings and loose yourself. Do you at least know the code?"

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“You've already crossed the line of no return, Ishani Sibwarra. And the Sith are merciless to those who show uncertainty."

“I know that!” she hissed, her eyes narrowing. “I know what they did to… to a friend of mine when he showed uncertainty.” She neither spoke Arcturus’ name nor said specifically what he had done, even though rumors had likely spread through the school about his disappearance after the failed invasion of Ossus.

As far as why she was here and what she was willing to fight for, it all came down to Arcturus. If she had never met him during that fateful survival trip, she probably would have left the Sith. Gone home defeated and resigned to her fate, or become a lonely wanderer. Or perhaps she would be lying dead at the hands of her fellow acolytes in the forest of that alien world, her body devoured and rotting.

It didn’t matter. She had made the decision upon his return from self-imposed exile that she would stay with him, no matter what. Yet so much of the reason why she considered him worthy of love was because he had betrayed the Sith in order to do the right thing, to save the innocent, even though it had cost him dearly.

So... was she here because she was trying to protect Arcturus from the Sith? He was no longer in immediate danger—in fact, he was working towards regaining his master’s favor. Was she hoping that she could somehow save him from corruption, from losing all the things she loved about him, by being with him in the darkness? That was a foolish notion, and she knew it. They would both be dragged down together. The only other conclusion she could think of was that she wanted him to be happy… but that wasn’t love. If you loved an addict, you didn’t keep giving them drugs that ravaged their body and ruined their life just because it made them happy. You took them to rehab and held their hand every step of the way, and kept trying even as they stumbled again and again.

Arcturus had even tried to warn her, when she confessed her own traitorous actions to him aboard his ship. But she hadn’t listened. Was she that selfish, that pathetic, that she would remain a Sith just for the sake of not being alone?

Firrerreo was still talking. She stared at him, a strange look in her eyes.

"Going forward, ask yourself that same question; What are you striving towards? If you don't have an answer, find it. Short term, long term. It doesn't matter. Fight towards something, or you'll be swallowed by the teachings and lose yourself. Do you at least know the code?"

“I… yes,” she murmured. Then she recited the Sith Code, and by the final line, she seemed to have come to some conclusion, for the line disappeared from between her eyebrows, replaced by a look of determination and resolve.

“... The Force shall free me.”

Firrerreo​

 

[Firrerreo]

"Arcturus made a poor choice, but not a bad one." It wasn't a hard jump to guess who it was Ishani Dinn was speaking of. But that was another reason why Firrerreo was here to begin with. His smile returned as she recited the code, though it was that same controlled one he had earlier. He leaned back in his seat, folding his hands together as he rested them on the table.

"Your perfumes can elicit all manner of emotions, no? I have a task for you. Make one that induces fear. Be useful to your fellow Sith. I'm sure you know of a couple combinations that could already."