Unkempt

[Cadre]

| Nar Shadda
| Undercity

Below the city, animals of all description fought for survival. A small rat crawled along its way from crumb to crumb, looking for something more than just a scant survival. There was a feast nearby, it knew it. The rat jumped over a pipe, and down into a shallow puddle on the other side. It's fir was wet, but the scent of the meal drove it beyond what could be a life threatening chill. The ragged creature knew that life was going to be short anyway if it did not eat.

Senses were overwhelmed by the smell of its next meal as it did not pause in its approach. A few berries and nuts were scattered before a grill. Water swayed about the entrance tot he grill before speeding up and falling to what sounded like a long drop beyond the grills entrance. The rat began to eat.

Splash

A red had came out from the darkness beyond the grill and grabbed the rat with its sharpened fingernails. Pulling the creature back into the darkness, a Lethan Twi'lek suspended high above a dark drop into a wretchedly smelling abyss, feasted on its meal.

Teeth tore into the flesh of the rat, sinew being chewed down as it were a sugary treat. Blood trickled from the Lethan's mouth, only to be scooped up into his mouth. Then...she paused...

There was something powerful nearby...she felt it.

 

[Lord Kataklysmos]

*Cough cough*

The elder Lethan Twi'lek coughed and held the cover of his cowl over his mouth. He walked through the disgusting waters appearing as if an old man with dementia, confused not knowing where he was going....

But of course that wasn't the case. Kataklysmos knew exactly what he was doing, and his mind was more sharp than ever. Visions of tyrannical rule started below ground but he would rise and so would she.

He sensed her but did not give up his disguise, unaided by the manipulation of the force and merely embellishing a limp he already had. Sometimes important things were wrapped plainly.

[member="Araceli Rimb"]

 

[Cadre]

The Twi'lek dropped as soon as she saw him through the grill. Plunging to the distant floor, Araceli's soft, force assisted, landing was a thing of beastly grace. A predator she was and ready for a greater feast. Bounding towards the nearby ladder, she scampered up like a rat, and into the tunnel where her little meal had once run.

She sniffed the air. Food. Well fed food. Clean. Plump.

She could not help but let out a hungry growl.

Stalking the cloaked figure, Araceli considered it only a meal. Something to be devoured and stuffed in a corner, protected from the scavengers and eaten over time. She could survive off the flesh for a week if she was careful. Yes, it was a good hunt.

Closer, she noticed the creature limping. Her smile grew wider. It was too easy.

When she was within ten metres...she jumped...claws and teeth bared...silent in her assassination...

[member="Lord Kataklysmos"]

 

[Lord Kataklysmos]

Kataklysmos heard the small patter of her feet more importantly he felt her coming. When she initiated her assault he smiled barring his decrepit teeth. She was more beast than sentient. He wondered if she would succumb to his beast language. He shook the thought off.

"Qazoi Kyantuska!" He announced his move as he attempted to take control of her mind and body. He didn't imagine she had built up the defences in her mind to defend against him.

Kataklysmos took a step to the side. Assuming his manuever succeeded he would have her place her arms at her side and legs straight making her stiff like a board giving her little protection from colliding with the floor and thoroughly giving her a start seeing for the first time the true strength of the Dark Side.



[member="Araceli Rimb"]

 

[Cadre]

She felt her body go rigid, and stiffen to a rect posture. This was against her will. Right at that moment every instinct said to flee, but as she came crashing to the ground, she could not do anything but take the scrapes and razes of the landing. Water, mud and excrement splashes around her, but nothing of her visage really changed, nor did it worsen her smell. She just lay there, face down in the water, drowning to death but with no abilty to move.

Her mind screamed out in panic. What was this thing? Who was this person? Was she being punished for running away so many years ago? Was this her recompense?

Fear gripped her soul as she found herself incapable of holding her breath or from preventing the water from flowing into her lungs.

[member="Lord Kataklysmos"]

 

[Lord Kataklysmos]

Kataklysmos stepped into the water once more. He waited moments, letting her think about her position in life. Finally he knelt down and pulled her ever so gently from the water. He placed his hand on her grimy chin and willed her to rise, he willed her to eject the water, and he willed her to breathe again. He held her there standing as if she were a soldier. He smiled at her showing the rotting teeth beneath his lips, it was as if she were the slab of meat and himself the carnivore. He ingested her fear as though it was candy. He kissed her brow.

"The universe begs you to be." He said cryptically. He willed he to walk alongside him, back out to the surface, not as a beast but a sentient being. "Lead the way." He said as she walked in front of him. He gave her back the rule over her own speech and hoped it wasn't merely growls and hisses. There was something happening soon that she needed to witness.

 

[Cadre]

The thing was controlling her. Somehow. Some way. She felt its tendrils wrapped about her, possessing sinew, muscle and joint. She was not her own, but his play thing to manipulate and control. Araceli's heart raced. She knew that this was her end. His smile would haunt her nightmares, taking over from the man that had once owned her.

She walked, towards the surface. Mentally she fought but she could not change her direction. The surface was sure death for her. She would be found and executed for her crimes. She would be dead.

"LEEB MEH AH LON!"

She screamed allowed, without realizing that she had been freed to do so. It was the first words that had come from her mouth in decades. Her voice, scratchy and hoarse from lack of use, broke instantly into hisses and snapping teeth. She was no speaker, not one to articulate her thoughts. She would kill, bite...destroy.

"Stahp...stahp...leeb me..."

Her fear slowly turned to anger and hate as she thrilled in the small freedom offered.

"I kill...I kill...yous...I kill..."

[member="Lord Kataklysmos"]

 

[Lord Kataklysmos]

He ignored her savagery.

"Shhhh." He hushed her. "There is something you need to see. Something you've dreamed about." He said. "Would you feel more comfortable speaking our native tongue, love? Basic hardly suits you and our tongue is so beautiful." He said slowing her down to walk besides him. It was all symbolic something that would probably be lost on a beast like her. <<What is your name, love?>> he asked in their native tongue.

 

[Cadre]

She fought. Nothing happened. The only resistance she could exhibit was in her tone and there was no way she was giving him what he wanted when she had only one way to show defiance. "I eat...I eat...I tear yous...I eat...yous flesh..."

His words in their own tongue fell on deaf ears. If she had ever known it, it was a long time since she had heard it. It was barely a fleeting memory to her.

"Yous so strong...let gos...see how strongs...I eaaaaat...yoooous...."

[member="Lord Kataklysmos"]

 

[Lord Kataklysmos]

He continued to walk but left her to stop dead in her tracks. He turned around. "Well aren't you coming?" He said with the impatient tap of his foot. He returned to her and got within an inch of her face. His face was stern and serious as if her words were actually a concern to him, and then he smiled, that same decrepit smile. "You know love.... I have sickening thoughts too." He said with mischief in his eyes. "For instance.... I wonder what it'd be like to witness someone eat their own tongue." She would feel a sharp pain in her tongue as he forced her to give a relatively small bite to herself. Not only did this demonstrate his accuracy with the force but her helplessness. Blood would drip down her chin, her bite was by no means soft.

"What do you think? How hungry are you?" He said with a maniacal smile.

 

[Cadre]

Araceli screamed, eyes widening frantically. This thing was not worthy fighting. As he tooth sank deeper into her tongue, she made more and more of a horrific muffled howl. She could not stop. He controlled her.

Relent.

Relent.

Give him his wish.

As an animal, beaten into submission, her will relinquished all control as her tooth sliced her tongue open.

Will follow...stahp...stahp...will follow...do any...do any...will do any...

She could only think the words, willing the agony of the torture to end.

[member="Lord Kataklysmos"]

 

[Lord Kataklysmos]

He turned his back, her eyes told the tale of submission. Her jaw relaxed once more. "You will become a lady again." He said as they walked, her trailing behind him gracefully if it weren't for the grime and dirt she'd almost look respectable.

As they walked he released her from her bond. He wanted to see if her mind would realize who's will was who's. He wanted her to walk gracefully behind him, but what would she want? To serve her Master? It was self-preservation. The weak willed followed the strong. And Kataklysmos' will was strong. No one on the surface or living in the entire Galaxy could do what he could. The Force flowed through him like a conduit and he had tapped into techniques long forgotten. He was the Dark Side. He was knowledge.

 

[Cadre]

The moment his grip released, Araceli knew it, and she fell to haunches and bounded back a couple of steps. Her eyes wandered to the dark tunnels that had been her home for countless years. She hated her life. She knew nothing else though. What more was there then to hate life? She looked back up at the one, who she had only recently noticed had the same tendrils that she did. She had not seen someone of her race since her childhood.

She stood erect, stooped, almost knuckle draggingly so, and followed after the man in the hood.

Whatever he had, he could use it to destroy her in an instant, she felt it so real.

Whatever he had, perhaps he would teach her a little.

Then one day. She would feast on him.

A smile crept across her face for the first time ever. It was an unknown emotion. Elation. She had found something more in life to focus on. With this one, she would never hunger again. That alone was something she was willing to follow him for.

[member="Lord Kataklysmos"]

 

[Lord Kataklysmos]

He stopped at an opening in the sewer tunnel. He took a step out, turned to [member="Araceli Rimb"] and smiled. It was her time to live again. There was a woman struggling with bags attempting to get into her house. Kataklysmos lifted a boney finger and pointed to the woman.

"Feast." He commanded. Using the force to open the door from across the barren street. The woman wholly unsuspecting the door would fling open fell into the doorway.

The young twilek would need a shower so he compatriots weren't too turned off to the prospects that were to come.