You say break and enter, I say art appreciation [Serian]

[Kalani Kallai]

Exocron was not turning out to be as exciting as she had hoped. Her ride had run off to join some religion, and was apparently too busy trying to earn his way into some after life to party or pay any attention to her. Clearly whatever it was, was a rubbish religion.

With a sigh, Kalani angled her wings and headed back to land. She had been soaring over the ocean, enjoying the updrafts that made it near effortless, but the sun was sinking and soon it would take more work to remain aloft. Imagine if the worst should happen and she fell out of the sky! She looked absolutely ridiculous with wet feathers. No. Not happening.

Which meant she had to figure out what she was doing for the night. She could stay in the forests of course, was in fact perfectly at home sleeping in a tree, but how boring and uncouth! Very country girl. There were some rather nice houses she could see as she neared land. Perhaps one of them would have a party going on that she could invite herself to! That's what she would do if she had a nice house. Besides, they'd thank her in the end. Any gathering would be lucky to have someone as beautiful and talented as herself present.

She almost passed the first house by, not enough lights on, but sharp eyes caught something interesting.

Colour.

Adjusting her trajectory without a second thought she dropped lower. Art! She loved art! And it looked rather good, and not like the usual reproductions. A quick scan showed an upstairs window left open, presumably for air. With complete disregard for the multitude of laws against break and entering on most planets, she fanned her wings backwards and landed lightly on the sill. Well. Fairly lightly. In this light at least you could hardly see the claw marks.

Dropping to the floor a perfunctory glance around revealed her to be in a spare bedroom. Or possibly the bedroom of an extremely boring person. Either way. The art though!

This room had two pieces, one of a stunning landscape with tiny people in the background, the other a detailed, expressive portrait. Cocking her head slightly she studied the two and then grinned. The portrait was a close up of one of the figures in the landscape! How clever!

Clearly she had to see the rest.

She let herself out into a hallway. Also filled with art. She moved slowly down the hall, stopping to devour each picture with her eyes. A sudden pressure on one talon made her look down and almost squeal in delight. A black cat, more kitten really, was gnawing on her plumage.

Now, normally anything that might mess up the feathers was greatly frowned upon, but this little ball of fluff was adorable! This avian had no fear of felines, and leaning down, scooped him up and deposited him on her shoulder, where he was free to play with whichever feathers he liked. Her attention drawn to floor height she noticed two other pairs of eyes regarding her from a doorway. With silent delight she went to get these cats too, all of the cats were belong to her! The cats seemed to have other ideas. One of them hissed, swatted her outstretched hand and ran off. The other let himself be picked up but just hung from her arms, entirely unimpressed. Cat on her shoulder, cat in one arm, and hand absentmindedly in her mouth to stop the bleeding, she continued her art appreciation.

 

[Serian Loria]

Serian’t estate, for it was a chunk of mostly wild land with a stretch of road and then the civilized landscape of the estate proper, sat on a large cliff. The large elegant mansion, for what do you call something with twelve bedrooms with the top most rooms being much nicer? The reason was because he preferred his students to live with him, but also he had servants and there was places for guests should he ever have any. He chose this place not for the grandness of having a big place or simply to show off, but for the practical reason that it suited his needs along with his desires. The location was far enough away from civilisation as to make one think one totally isolated, but close enough that getting where he needed wasn’t a chore.

He didn’t like the press of the city and the location was perfect, the fact it had its own chunk of private beach was even better. He liked his privacy, even if he had servants, students and three cats. The main thing about the home was the windows, on the lower floor they were quite large, letting in as much light as possible. They could be opened to let in the ocean breeze and even had places to sit to just take it in. The upper floor had a common room in the center separating the bedrooms, all were large and had their own bathrooms, the ones on the ground floor did too. The ground floor rooms weren’t as nice or big, but still bigger than one might expect. The living room was big, the kitchen generous and came with a study.

What the human servants couldn’t maintain, droids did too, the security system only being active when he was gone, this was not the case currently however. Before his stasis he’d put a fair share of the artwork he’d made, along with what knowledge he own, journals and other similar valuables in caches. There weren’t many, only two, placed in remote areas that had weathered time quite well. During his time within the former Confederacy he’d hunted them down. These things were what he took from his old home on Naboo, before he’d sold everything else. He didn’t stint on possessions, he placed little value in things, though the art he made and the knowledge he possessed were prizes.

He’d protect these things before he ever protected say a television. His people, his pets, his art, his books and himself, were what he valued. Anyone in his service, his apprentices and his pets, were his and he saw it as his duty to protect them if he could. That wasn’t to say this was obvious and he was incredibly selfish and possessive at times, but he still had a sense of duty and honor. Not something you’d expect from someone Sith trained and former Sith, though he didn’t claim any ties with any name given to ‘force using factions’. In his own way he was generous and kind, but only because money and things held no value at all for him. Someone who didn’t value them could give it away easily, within reason.

His being home meant that he didn’t need the security system, though it could be turned on easily should it be needed. However anything that got past him given his Power would probably only be irritated by the security. Anything shy of coordinated, well trained lethal people, a small army or something drastic along those lines he couldn’t take on himself. Lone thieves, lone killers of some kind or anything like that, well, they could be swat like bugs if need be. On the estate proper he had a studio where he did all his art, it wasn’t in the house because he liked having a large workplace. It was about the size of a medium sized ‘modest’ house, had a bathroom and a place to sleep, but this was where he earned his money to have a ‘proper’ income, even if he had enough to support a sedentary lifestyle. He just wasn’t the type who wanted to do nothing, what he did within Moross also was a paid job, however that was only for one half of his life.

He didn’t notice that someone strange had entered his home, he didn’t sense danger nor did he feel any burst of activity from his three servants. Within his home the only ones who noticed something was amiss were his cats. Though they were still young, no more than perhaps eight or nine months, they were the self proclaimed ‘rulers’ of their owner’s territory. The first a solid medium haired black cat with a white spot on his chest was named Blight. A name richly deserved for he was prone to mischief and pest-ish behavior, a name he’d have gotten instead except blight was more apt.

Keer was next, a silver short haired feline with black swirls and stripes. He was a dignified sort a ‘little lord’ who around more than one person was rather aloof and politely affectionate. In private he preferred to lounge on laps, calmly staying put where he could get plenty of pets, even if they were absentminded strokes in his fur. Sheeva was third, but by no means was she ‘least’. If Keer was the ‘lord’ she was the ‘queen’ and was highly protective of her territory around strangers. If she didn’t see Serian accept someone, she would not tolerate even a single twitch of fingers in her direction. However once she saw someone ‘claimed’ she was all purr and love, until she got all the attention she demanded then she claimed a window and basked in the sun.

When the feathered stranger appeared, trying to treat her like some easy ‘pet’ she made her dislike clear and bolted as fast as four feet could carry her to tell ‘her’ human. Tattling was only right and proper since the stranger appeared where she wasn’t invited. She came through the cat door with an angry yowl, fur all a fluff, standing near hissing in the direction of the house. This got the ruby eyed Archivist’s attention and he turned towards her one eyebrow raised. She knew immediately when she had his attention and sat down her tail lashing.

Some intruder-bird-female wanders our space, took irksome-brother and elder-brother to walk staring at the color-squares on places higher on bare spaces. Tried to pet me like she belonged. Do not like and drew blood, chase it away.

His affinity for cats came in the form of understanding through the force what they ‘said’. It wasn’t the same as it was with say another ‘person’ for it was impressions, images, body language and Other, translated into a form in his mind similar to telepathy. Once he ‘understood’ he looked towards the house his lit ruby gaze seeming to glow in the failing light. Her duty done she jumped onto a table to wash, pleased that her human knew what she wanted, but also to wash the stranger from her fur. Serian left his study, extending his Senses to find out just where exactly this intruder was. Little did this person know that she’d entered the home of a man who had enough ability to leaver her a mere smear on the marble floors.

[member="Kalani Kallai"]

 

[Kalani Kallai]

The hall largely examined, Kalani had started peering into the other rooms as well. Some of them looked as though they might be occupied, most of them did not. One clearly was, and a quick peer in the drawers revealed it to be by a person of taste, even if that taste seemed a little bland to the avian. Too many plain, sombre colors. Still, it was not snooping time, it was art time, and so she wandered back out again, and headed down the stairs.

There were some quite good animal portraits in the staircase that made her smile before she moved on. She liked wildlife, as could be seen from the black cat currently on her head swatting at one ear with impunity. She had adjusted the mackerel tabby slightly so he wasn't hanging in quite such a hard done by expression and instead rested more comfortably, if not happily in her arms.

Distracted as she was by painting and kittens, and not under any sentients watchful eyes as far as she knew, she was less than mindful. When she turned to continue down the stairs, one wing knocked a vase of the pedestal it had artfully been sitting on. She watched it fall almost in slow motion. There were two options as she saw it. She could let the vase fall or she could drop the cat.

Well.

It had been a fairly plain vase anyway. She did cringe when it smashed though, and glanced around guiltily before raking most of the pieces behind the pedestal with one taloned foot.

[member="Serian Loria"]

 

[Serian Loria]

He entered the house just as he heard something shatter, he let out a soft sigh, more exasperated than really upset. It was a mess, the person who made it both an intruder as well as most likely and amature. He had no idea, but the mess was irksome, though easily fixed. One of his servants moved by him and he caught him by the shoulder and shook his head motioning to let him take care of it. He didn’t want to risk the man getting hurt and he’d rather take care of the problem himself. He moved up the stairs quietly, making hardly a sound. He didn’t have a weapon, he didn’t need a physical tool for everything he could do was Force based. In the bright lights of the house his lit ruby gaze glittered like flawless gems, but cold.

He was prepared to kill this interloper within his home with even the slightest provocation. It wasn’t all that hard for him to end someone’s life, he lusted for death as readily as anyone who followed a darker path than his. However it wouldn’t be satisfying to find it hardly a challenge, so though he was prepared to kill he would most likely aim to leave a lasting impression. When he cleared the stairs he saw the mess within the common room of the upstairs. It looked like whatever the intruder was they’d probably come from the balcony for the doors were open. As he paid attention he could hear claws on the marble to his immediate right, down the hall, perfect. He didn’t see any other opened windows which meant whoever had come in could be trapped readily enough.

When he turned down the hall his first sight was of color. Vibrant green being the most eye catching, he saw wings and for a hair’s worth of a second simply watched. He’d never seen such a creature and ‘she’ for as Sheeva said, she was female. It wasn’t readily seen given the wings, but something in how she moved and the lines of her body said ‘female’. He decided then to make her aware she was no longer alone. He crossed his arms and narrowed his lit ruby gaze, he could easily intimidate if he wanted. He stood at six foot even and weighed a lean and lithe one hundred and eighty pounds. His hair was short, shoulder length and a silky ink black.

His skin was fair, cream and honey, though he was by no means pale. He had features that he inherited from his bloodline, his parents had been noble born and that passed to him for he had the ‘look’. It meant little now given eight hundred and ten years, but in his speech, in his tastes, in his manner, those old roots still stood. He was dressed in loose dark pants and a long sleeved dark shirt, comfortable clothing and he was barefoot.

This alone might not have been intimidating, except he seemed to radiate a shivering aura of ‘predator’ despite the fact his Aura was hidden. Though he was not Sith, the Dark path marked him and gave something to him that could either breed fear or breed a desire in others to have him protect them. It wouldn’t be hard to guess which end happened to be possible at that moment.


[member="Kalani Kallai"]

 

[Kalani Kallai]

Kalani did not hear anyone approach, though she thought she heard folks moving around. Oh well, she would deal with that when and if it became necessary. A feeling started tingling along her spine and the base of her skull however. The sort of feeling one got when a predator was eyeing you. Take wing, it said, scarper. Her change-feathers slowly turned a reddish-purple magenta colour, giving lie to the nonchalance with which she glanced back over her shoulder.

Yep. That was an angry man standing there all right. She went back to studying the landscape that had held her attention before he arrived. She was not entirely sure what to do now. He hadn't spoken, and she rather felt that whoever started this exchange off would be on slightly rockier footing, and he stood between her and the way she'd come in. Oh she could probably flee into a nearby room, dramatically throw herself through a window, assuming it wasn't shatterproof which they usually were these days, but that would probably hurt. She'd much prefer not to pursue that option, thank you all the same.

It was fairly safe to assume this was the owner of the house, and from the quick look at his wardrobe, of the room she'd briefly rifled through. Well at least he hadn't walked up when she'd been doing that. Talk about awkward. Too bad he was so displeased, he was pretty for a human. Granted he was tragically monochrome, but the eyes were a nice touch and she wanted to touch his hair. It looked awfully soft! Hair was a source of interest to the avian, as she had none. Granted feathers were certainly better and superior, but hair was still fascinating.

Well. Perhaps if she pretended that he wasn't there and there wasn't a problem he'd go away. You never knew. She moved on to the next painting, an abstract. She tilted her head, wrinkled her nose, peered at it for a moment, made a slight 'tch' noise and went to the next.

Or intended to go to the next. The black fluffball on her head chose that moment to try and put his weight on what was essentially nothing but downy feathers and went tumbling down her back, catching a claw or two on the way. Wincing, she swiftly meshed her wings together behind her, catching him on the more solid flight feather at around butt level. This was a dilemma. Now she wasn't quite sure how to move him in a dignified manner, particularly as he seemed happy gnawing and pawing at these new larger feathers and she still held the other cat.

[member="Serian Loria"]

 

[Serian Loria]

Keer chose that moment to twist and leap out of her arms to hurry, in a dignified manner thank you ever so much, well away from her. He shot a look over his shoulder at his younger brother a very disgusted look on his face at his siblings actions. When he got near his human he walked behind him, sat down and started to wash cleaning his coat and scrubbing his dignity clean with his tongue. Serian however watched the bird-woman “Mind explaining just what the hell you thought to do when you broke into my home, destroyed my property, wandered my halls and decided to try and ignore me?”

He didn’t yell, he didn’t need to, the hall carried his voice easily enough so that all he had to do was simply speak, his tone sharp as a knife. He wasn’t a man who was oft ignored and to have some near-human feathered trespasser not only continued to trespass, she ignored him, was prodding his temper. The chill only deepened, the feeling of danger growing with the spike in his emotions. It might move to curl in her stomach, needle into her mind, commanding her to pay attention and do as told, if only to make his anger go away taking the dread with it. This was the aspect to him that marked him as a former Sith and not merely someone following the Dark path.

Here before her was a Power, someone who was danger, the type of being that wouldn’t bat an eye with ripping what he wanted from her. Instinct usually guessed at what one was before the person even understood themselves. She teetered on the edge of a knife, tipping ever so towards certain painful death. When he killed something out of temper it was never quick, it was never clean and the one who sparked his anger lived long enough to regret.

[member="Kalani Kallai"]

 

[Kalani Kallai]

Yes! Ten points! He spoke first! He might still be intending to shiv her, it certainly felt like it, but he'd spoken first!

"I am not ignoring you, I am busy. You seemed fine over there. Besides, you know very well what I thought to do because I've done it. I broke into your home and wandered your halls and looked at your art. It's very good. Except that one."

She nodded at the abstract.

"Who did them?"

It took all the self control she had to answer him as if she hadn't a care in the world, and if she wasn't currently using them to cradle a cat she might have flared her wings to appear larger. Still, one thing she'd learned in the jungle she grew up in.. If you were stuck staring a predator in the eye, don't blink. Any hunter went after prey in a heartbeat, you had to not be prey.

She turned to face him, change-feathers deepening to blood red and then going a few shades darker. Other than that though, she appeared relaxed, except her wings, which she kept carefully taut for the cat throughout the movement. She didn't even raise her crest any more than usual and that took effort. Her black eyes studied him as she tried to figure out the best way out of this situation. If this kept up for too long she might actually start to moult. That would be horrific.

[member="Serian Loria"]

 

[Serian Loria]

Blight knew when someone was in trouble, usually him, but this time it was the walking feather toy that was. He eagerly jumped off once he knew who had his human’s ire and trotted away his tail high. In his mouth however dangled a bit of vibrant green feather, a new trophy for him to hide. Her words only upset him more, his lit ruby gaze blazing. As angry as he was he was also incredulous, she was ‘busy’? She’d find herself suddenly flying towards him, like someone pulled a string and had her jerk off her feet. That appliance of Power set his lit ruby gaze to glowing. This usually happened when he used an ability that could be aggressive and not like telepathy that was more passive.

Up close his anger shivered along her body like static currents, not painful, but tangible. He held her completely immobile, his will alone grasping her in an iron grip that if he chose could squeeze the life from her. “Your flippant attitude is winning you no prizes woman.”

His display of Power might explain right then why she’d found herself so easily able to enter his home. This might just send her fear into the notch of terror for his actions alone said he wasn’t a ‘friendly’ force user. If she’d been even the least repentant when she found herself caught he’d have probably been much nicer, a vase could be replaced. She’d still have had words from him, but his temper wouldn’t have been sparked. He would probably have even been inclined to answer her question, he can forgive idiotic impulsiveness driving someone into doing something supremely foolish.

Up close his eyes caught and held her own onyx gaze, keeping her from looking away. The pupils of his eyes were blacker than normal, she’d see the promise of death in his gaze should she seek to continue in doing anything more foolish. He had infinite patience, when he chose to use it, but in his home with someone daring to disrespect him, it was hardly present. Only his tight control of his temper kept her whole and alive.


[member="Kalani Kallai"]

 

[Kalani Kallai]

Fair weather friend! She thought with some slight annoyance as the black cat abandoned her. This distraction was promptly forgotten as she was pulled through the air towards him. It was perhaps particularly distressing for her because while flying through the air was not a new experience, not having any control was. The few frantic sweeps of her wings she managed before she reached him did nothing at all, and that was terrifying. Then, even worse, she could no longer move at all. Futile struggling was still better than not being able to resist.

One of the problems was that Kalani literally did not know how to be repentant. It had never come up. In the jungle she'd done as she pleased, with the smugglers sauciness was considered hilarious and encouraged, and ever since then the galaxy had been her playground. She was exotic and talented. She was often someones arm candy, if she didn't like a place or person she just left, if they didn't like her, tough luck. Worst came to worst, she flew away.

Now she couldn't fly away, she couldn't do anything.

"What do you expect! The way in was open and there were things to look at! Why do you have things if you don't want people to look at them! It did not say closed or private, how was I to know? It doesn't even make sense!"

Change-feathers had darkened to pure black, she was very nearly terrified out of her mind. Muscles clenched beneath her skin and yet nothing moved, her face was stark white, the blood having drained out of it.

I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry, it is not attractive.

She clenched her jaws to keep her lips from trembling.

[member="Serian Loria"]

 

[Serian Loria]

He glared at her “Waltzing in through an opening of a home of someone unknown is trespassing, anyone with a modicum of common sense knows this. You could have knocked on the door, but instead you broke in. Now I must decide what I want to do with you…after all you broke some of my property.”

For certain he was going to make her work off her debt to him, though it wasn’t a big one. He decided that this might teach this one a better lesson, but with her ability to fly away ‘keeping’ her would be tricky. He studied her wings, he could cut off some of the primaries, keep her grounded, he’d seen it done in the pet birds back on Kuat. He’d rather not have to, but if she flew off he’d find her and do it, for now however he’d see her reaction. His anger was cooling, it was never anything that lasted long, the frightful aura going away.


[member="Kalani Kallai"]

 

[Kalani Kallai]

Well it was less scary anyway. She was still being held immobile, which she did not like, but the reduction in terror meant that perhaps she was going to live after all. That would be good. She would like that. Colour rose in her cheeks as the blood started flowing again. Apparently the whole blood freezing in your veins out of fear was an actual thing. Who knew!

"Can't see how I'm expected to keep up with all the laws everywhere. There are a lot of worlds! Tisn't trespassing everywhere. And I still never really broke in, it was open."

Rules! Laws! Social mores! Seriously, how was she supposed to keep track of this stuff? People should just relax. Still, she shut up and let him finish speaking.

"I could.. I could fix it maybe? Could get like.. tree sap or mud or something and stick it back together. Good as new! Maybe better! Reconstructed deconstructed art, it's probably meta or something."

[member="Serian Loria"]

 

[Serian Loria]

He rolled his eyes “The vase isn’t salvageable, but I believe I can easily find plenty for you to do, but I’m warning you… Fly away and I’ll cut your feathers, try to escape after that and I’ll come up with something worse. Now, choose a room on the bottom or the left half of the upper story, the right wing is reserved. Don’t touch anything else, if you forget to pay attention and break anything else...it means more time in my company and in my service. I’ll inform the rest of my staff of your cooperation and in the morning, early, you and I will have plenty to do.”


He turned his back on her, the pieces of the vase floating after him along with what it had been resting on, as he took the stairs down out of sight. And if she had any doubt that he’d forgotten her she’d feel a presence brush against her mind. Keep in mind about what I said about escape and I will request your presence when I am ready, don’t dally when I call for you.

Then the presence was gone, just like that.



[member="Kalani Kallai"]

 

[Kalani Kallai]

He wanted her to.. work? Well all right. She had no idea what eaxctly he thought she'd be doing but sure, he could feed and house her until she got bored here. So she figured until he threated to cut her feathers. The bit after didn't even matter. What could be worse than being ground bound?

"Wh-cut my-? No! No. You can't!"

She pulled her wings in tight to her body as soon as she was able, though by this point he'd already headed off down the stairs, though not without a parting shot of scary.

I can pick a room anyway, almost any room I like, that's pretty good, some of them were pretty nice I guess. Am I supposed to sleep in a bed? How weird! Do I have to? I wonder how far I can go before he cuts off my wings..

She considered picking a room downstairs as far away from his as possible, but he was down there, and anyway, there was just something about being at ground level while she slept that felt all sorts of wrong. Instead she made her way to one of the rooms in the left wing with the best paintings and tried to settle in for the evening.

Sleeping inside was weird.

Beds were weird.

Her change feathers had lightened to a sulky shade of blue, it was going to be a long night.

[member="Serian Loria"]