Private A Fine Addition to My Collection

[Elise Ike]

It had been almost a thousand year since she had felt... this 'way' about anyone and she wasn't just referring to infatuation. Jacen Nimdok was unique in so many different ways, it made Elise want to be with him more, to spend each free moment with the ancient man. Hopefully today's 'actions' would cement such hope and needless to say the vampire was not disappointing.

Elise more or less leaped into Nimdoks arms as the two began to kiss, her lips opening wider to allow his tongue room to roam around her mouth. The vampires hand sliding along his shoulders in a sensual manner, fingers lightly digging into the skin as she felt his hand slide across her skin. Her response being a slight pleasurable moan at the caressing nature of Nimdok's touch.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Elise’s lips parted at his urging, her tongue tangling with his. Her body coiled around him like a serpent, clawing at him with need and provoking a gasp from Nimdok. She wasn’t just excited, he realized. She wanted him to touch her like this, had wanted it for quite some time.

As she moaned softly, his hands wandered, tracing along her spine, down to her hips. The fabric of her dress rustled faintly as his fingers slid further up her bare thighs. His lips moved from her mouth to her throat, teeth grazing her skin. Any lover’s mark he imprinted on her would rapidly disappear, but he left one anyway.

He didn’t think he could wait until the evening to make love to her. Her study was full of fragile objects, and the narrow couch clearly wasn’t meant for such activities.

“Why don’t we take this to your bedroom?” he purred, his breath hot against her neck. “I don’t want to risk breaking anything in here.”

Elise Ike

 

[Elise Ike]

A gasp escaped Elise's mouth as she felt his hand caress along her thigh and up her dress further, the women's legs parting a little almost on instinct to give Nimdok more room to roam as she arched her back. The vampires almost claw like nails digging further into his back as the mans mouth playfully caressed along her think neck, earning a few 'mewing' like sounds from Elise.

The mood was so deep she almost didn't realize it when Nimdok had pulled away, her heart still aflutter upon the sweet talk entering her ear. "Hmm, quite the naughty boy you are, come, and don't worry, the walls are sound proof, though that was for other reasons". Her hands slipping from her back, coiling around the mans fingers as Elise pulled him from the couch, leading across the hallway and into her own room.

Said room sharing similar style to the study, all but with a large double bed in place of the couches and table. "Welcome to my boudoir... now, where were we"? Her hands skillfully slipping from his hands and up Jacen Nimdok 's chest, coiling around his neck as she held him close.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

As she led him across the hall to her bedroom, Nimdok spared a cursory glance at the closed guest room door. Miri was still inside, and he sensed no distress or discontent from her. He still made sure to turn the lock on the bedroom door once it shut behind them, not wanting to risk traumatizing the child.

Elise was all over him the moment they were inside, yearning for closeness, her kisses greedy. He slid the black jacket off her shoulders and undid the back of her gray dress, tugging it frantically away from her body, stroking each area of newly exposed skin as he went.

The discarded clothing fell in a heap on the floor, joined soon by her bra and underwear. He was already on top of her in the bed when he realized he was still fully clothed. Smirking and shaking his head at himself—it really had been a while since he’d done anything like this—he promptly shifted his clothes away...

***

Some time later, Nimdok watched Elise in the semi-darkness. With her long dark hair spread across the pillow and her slender white limbs tangled up in the sheets, she looked like she belonged in a painting in an art museum.

His fingers ghosted over her neck and shoulder, trailing down her arm. The mark he’d made on her throat was nearly gone, but he still had scratches from her nails running down his back which he had yet to heal.

It was obvious from the look on his face that something was bothering him, but he was reluctant to speak. She’d been good to him. Very good. No disappointments or reasons to fear. Only pleasant surprises. Which was why he felt obligated to tell her the truth, to get the one sour note out of the way so the rest of the symphony would be unmarred.

“Elise,” he began. “I know it’s a strange time to be bringing this up, but… I’m not the same person I was the last time I visited you.”

To her, this would probably sound confusing. Elise knew that Nimdok was really a dead man, that his real name was Arimanes, and that he was a shapeshifter impersonating the deceased. She’d seen all that in his memories.

But now the dead man’s spirit had claimed him for the sake of Miri, who was endangered by the actions of the fraud impersonating her father. He had become the mask. The effect served to humanize him, for better or worse. In the case of his growing relationship with Elise, it looked like things were turning out for the better.

Arimanes had felt some attraction to her that day in her study, but he had been alarmed and repulsed by what he saw in her past. Nimdok didn’t care about who she had been and what she had done a thousand or so years ago. He’d seen worse from his vantage point in the Nether, where time had no meaning, and he understood that only the present mattered when it came to Elise.

Taking her hand, he pressed her palm against his chest. “If you look deep enough, you can feel the difference.”

What Elise would uncover upon searching was a kind of seam where the two spirits had been forced together, yet each remained a separate entity. Much of what she liked about him, his shyness and attentiveness, had come from Nimdok. But her fascination with him was because of Arimanes’ shifting, sly nature. The two operated as one, but one side tended to manifest more than the other depending on what the situation called for. In this case, Nimdok had presided, and he was the one who had fallen hard for her.

Before he could say more, he sensed Miri leaving the guest room and wandering down the hall. “I better take care of this,” he said. He was on his feet a second later, clothing himself once more and moving to the locked bedroom door. Carefully he opened it and poked his head out.

“Are you looking for me?”

“Yeah,” Miri replied, bounding over. Nimdok was careful to position himself so that he blocked her view of Elise. “I gotta go to the bathroom. And I’m hungry.”

He tilted his head. “Well, go to the bathroom first.”

“I can’t find it. Where is it?”

His brow furrowed. Dixon Manor was certainly a large house, but it was hardly a maze. For a young child, perhaps it seemed bigger and more intimidating. “Wait here a minute, Dr. Dixon will show you where it is.”

“Okay.” The girl stood with her feet together in the hallway as he closed the door, turning to Elise.

"I'm assuming you heard all that," he said, struggling not to laugh. He bent down to pick up her clothes and laid them on the bed, not sure if she'd put them back on or change into something else.

Elise Ike

 

[Elise Ike]

Elise held a toothy grin and she laid upon the bed, trying not to chuckle as Jacen Nimdok realized he was still clothed. Her own hands reaching out to 'aid' him in the progress as the lights of the roomed dimmed a little. Vampires often did their best work while in the dark after all, and she planned to do something quite good for her partner.

---

A soft 'hum' left the women's mouth as she felt her neck being caressed once more, her eyes fluttering open to look at Nimdok at what was now night time. Her head slightly cocking to the side at the strange expression plastered across his face, whatever it was it clearly held weight if he was looking as such now of all times.

Granted as usual she wasn't left in the dark for long, Elise raising an eyebrow at the short story retailed by him. Needless to say, her curiosity was peaked, her own hand sliding up to the Nimdok's head. Much like their first meeting within the manor walls her mind peered into that of the man who laid with her. "A merge of two soles... quite intriguing, I've heard stories about things like this but they were all... different in some way".

Once more it was another aspect of the being that just made her more interested, a wave of questions already coming to the for front from that short discovery. Though now was not a good time to ask such personal details, more so with the appearance of the original Nimdok's daughter.

As the two conversed Elise slipped from the sheets and over to the walk in wardrobe, quickly donning herself in more child friendly attire as the two conversed. It was quite the classic situation to find themselves in making her smile some more as she exited to give Nimdok her answer, the women now donned in a simple long white dress as she gave the man a small peck on the cheek.

"I certainly did, I'll show her to the washroom and make sure she properly cleans up, I'll be back soon", her feet carrying her out the door and into the hallway, Elise crouching down and giving Miri a sweet smile. "No need to be shy, here, I'll show you the way", her slender hands reaching out to take Miri's palm before leading her around the hall towards the old styled bathroom, herself standing out the front while the child did their business.

"If you have any problems just let me know, I'll be happy to help"

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Nimdok exited the bedroom shortly after Elise went with Miri to the washroom. Closing the door behind him, he leaned against it, watching them walk hand in hand down the hall.

For the most part, Elise seemed content to let all the various strange things about him slide without asking too many questions. He appreciated her acceptance of him, but he was glad he had at least gotten the issue of his having two souls off his chest. Nevermind that it was already threatening to complicate things. For instance, did his having two souls mean that what they just did was technically a threesome? Arimanes might claim to have been bored out of his mind the entire time, but it was his body being used, after all, and he was still there when it happened, even as the galaxy's most disinterested voyeur. And what if things progressed even further between him and Elise—if they were to marry, would she be considered a bigamist?

If you make me marry that vamp—!

He shook his head, trying not to think that far ahead. Better to take things slow, meet them as they happened.

Dragging himself back to the present, he suddenly noticed how late it was. The windows showed a dark night sky outside. He had arrived shortly before noon, and they had spent maybe an hour in her study discussing the artifacts… add to that a few minutes of fooling around before they moved to the bedroom… goodness, did they really spend hours in bed together? Well, it hadn’t been just once, after all…

Meanwhile, Miri had finished her business and was currently struggling to wash her hands. Even standing on tiptoe, she wasn’t quite tall enough to reach the sink. In the absence of a stool to stand on she was about to ask Elise for help when suddenly her body jerked forward, as if an invisible force had grabbed her wrists and pulled her up over the edge of the sink. She landed uncomfortably on her stomach with an “oof!”, then scrambled into a sitting position on the countertop beside the sink basin, making quite a bit of noise in the process as her shoes banged against wooden cabinets. Blinking in surprise, the child shrugged and turned on the faucet, washing her hands as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Or rather, stranger things had happened to her as of late which made floating up onto a bathroom counter seem normal in comparison.

When she was done, she turned off the water and hesitated, not sure how to reach the towels. As soon as she thought of this new problem, however, the hand towel promptly flew off the rack and into her hands. Giggling at the “magic trick” she had unwittingly performed with the Force, she dried her hands, hopped down from the countertop, reached up to grab the door handle and opened it, finding Elise on the other side.

“I’m back,” she announced. “And I’m still hungry.”

Elise Ike

 

[Elise Ike]

Elise felt the sudden and unrefined use of the force from within the bathroom, herself slightly poking around the door to eye up what had just happened. It didn't take a genius to guess that Miri was potent with the force most children that had force sensitive parents did after all. It was though, interesting to see her almost natural if but raw use of the power to attain her meager goals.

She once again had to silence a small chuckle as the small girl bumbled around the sink going about washing up, Elise ducking back into the hall way as to not arouse any suspension with the girl. It just meant another topic to talk about with Nimdok later... perhaps over dinner? It was a train of thought mimicked by the daughter as she emerged from the washroom.

"Hungry are you? I suppose I can cook up something for you and your dad, why don't you two stay for supper and the night while you are at it". She offered, once more taking the child's hand and walking back to the bedroom where she believed Nimdok to still be. "Hellooooo, small child wants din dins", she called out upon entering the room.

Jacen Nimdok

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“So I heard,” Nimdok replied, chuckling. “If you don’t mind us staying, I would appreciate it. I have no other plans.”

If Elise hadn’t extended her hospitality on such short notice, in all likelihood they’d probably be having dinner in a dingy spaceport diner, then spending the night in some cheap temporary lodgings. Living such a nomadic lifestyle meant that you never knew what the night would bring. There had been one particularly nasty experience on Zeltros, where he had failed to read the fine print and accidentally booked a room in a brothel—a fairly common mistake, given that most motels on Zeltros doubled as cathouses. Even though he had walked in with Miri in tow, the man who sold the room to him didn’t bother to mention the trio of half-naked Zeltron cafarels which greeted Nimdok upon unlocking the room door. After quickly covering Miri’s eyes, Nimdok had persuaded the startled women to leave, then holed up in the emptied quarters, put the “Do Not Disturb” sign out, and kept the door locked for the duration of their (thankfully brief) stay.

“I want ice cream,” Miri blurted, pulling Nimdok out of his thoughts. By then they were heading downstairs, and she was walking in front of him.

“If Dr. Dixon has any, I’m sure she’ll let you have some. But you have to eat dinner first.”

“I know that,” the girl replied. “I’m staking my claim now ‘cause I want some later.”

“Where did you hear that phrase, ‘staking my claim’?”

“You say it a lot, Daddy. A whole lot.” She paused, trying to think of a better word. “...You say it a ton.”

“Do I? I never noticed.”

“You also say ‘I would appreciate it’ a ton, too.”

“Well, I’m a very appreciative person. Especially when people are nice to me.” He briefly looked at Elise.

Miri followed his shift in focus. “Did she take your stuff?”

“Yes, she did.” He successfully resisted the urge to smirk.

“Are you happy now?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“Good.” Miri hopped off the last step and turned to face him, grinning. “I’m happy you’re happy.”

Elise Ike

 

[Elise Ike]

"My house is always open for guest, be it friends of students", though the question would be if Nimdok would be staying in said guest room with his daughter or 'somewhere else'. "I'll get things set up, you can come down and help me cock if you wish though it would be rude to ask a guest to do that". Even if she wasn't always one to embrace her Atrisan culture today was different and as per culture it wouldn't be appropriate to ask Nimdok to partake in helping her, though that didn't mean he wasn't able to keep company.

As the dad and daughter conversed Elise slipped downstairs, quickly, with the use of the force, getting the table set up for a dinner of three. The planes being arranged so that herself and Nimdok would sit across from each other with Miri in between the two at the end. "Now, what do I have in stock... I doubt either of them enjoy blood that much".

Most of the food within her stock was simple, nothing grand nor anything exotic from her home world despite some spices and sauces. The fridge mainly held easily obtainable meat and vegetables from the nearby farms while the pantry had some noodles breads and other dried good. "Hmm I think I can work with this". "Nimdok, would Miri be okay with a pick and choose stir fry"! The 'pick and choose' mainly being for the younger girl as kids often were picky when it came to cooked vegetables

Jacen Nimdok

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Elise had already hurried into the dining room, setting the table for them with the Force. Miri watched from the doorway, her eyes wide. “Daddy! She can do what I can do!”

“Yes,” he remarked. “And perhaps one day she’ll teach you how to do even more impressive things.”

It seemed that whenever the two of them paused to comment, Elise moved on to something else. Now they could hear her rummaging around in the kitchen. At the vampiress’ question, Nimdok glanced down at Miri with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know what that is,” Miri said, mimicking her father’s quizzical look.

“It will probably involve vegetables.”

“Awwww.”

“But you get to choose which ones she cooks for you.”

“I don’t like any vegetables at all.”

“If you don’t eat them, you won’t get any ice cream,” her father replied, his tone as serious as if he were warning her of the dangers of entering an ancient tomb to look for unplundered loot.

The girl tapped her chin with her finger, then nodded. “Okay.”

He followed her into the kitchen. Spotting Elise standing in front of the pantry, he said, “She’ll accept it as long as she has her pick of what’s in hers. As for helping you cook, I have many talents, but cooking is not one of them. I don’t mind assisting you so long as you tell me what to do. Otherwise I might accidentally set the house on fire.”

“No, you wouldn’t do that,” Miri rose to his defense. “You would just burn all the food and make it turn black and get all crispy. Like that one time when the archaeologists made a big bonfire on the beach, and they were making hot dogs, and when you tried to make them you kept leaving them in the fire too long. Actually, I don’t think you were supposed to put them in the fire, you were supposed to hold them over the fire, but you didn’t know that’s what you were supposed to do… whoops.”

Elise Ike

 

[Elise Ike]

Elise rolled her eyes at the banter between the two, it seemed most children who were not fond of healthy food. She would also have to check to see if she did have ice cream, if not... perhaps the force could help with that, maybe a snow cone instead. "Seems like you have a good handle on your daughter, if only all politics were like that and the galaxy would be at peace". She replied with a coy smile, herself slicing through the meat while she heated up the pan, sprinkling a few spices onto the raw beef.

"Since you are not to skilled with cooking you can just cop up the veggies, you can handle that? no flames or fire and I assume you can hold a knife without hurting anyone". Her head nodding to the side at the other chopping board, "Oh, also chop sticks or forks"? Once more she doubted that Miri had any skill with her native utensils and would probably find the slight taste of wood with her meal to be strange.

Jacen Nimdok

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

"Seems like you have a good handle on your daughter, if only all politics were like that and the galaxy would be at peace.”

“She doesn’t make much fuss,” Nimdok replied, watching as Miri darted into the pantry and started pulling items off the shelves. “But she can get herself into trouble very easily. Put those down.”

“I wanna smell ‘em,” the girl protested, holding a pink fruit up to her nose. “It smells good.”

He shrugged his shoulders, figuring it was harmless enough. Miri had a habit of sniffing random objects, areas, and even people that she found pleasing to the nose, though she only did it around people she was comfortable with. Her sense of smell and taste were much more acute than a typical near-human, a trait which almost certainly came from her mother, who had made and sold perfumes for a living…

"Since you are not too skilled with cooking you can just chop up the veggies, you can handle that? No flames or fire and I assume you can hold a knife without hurting anyone.”

“Certainly.” Nimdok moved to the chopping board she indicated and picking up the knife. He was glad to have something to keep himself occupied, preventing him from dredging up memories of his late wife. Now was definitely not the time for that.

"Oh, also chopsticks or forks?”

“Forks. I don’t think Miri is coordinated enough for chopsticks.”

“What does co-ordinated mean?” the girl asked, overhearing him.

“It means you can’t use chopsticks.”

“But what does the word co-ordinated mean?” she insisted, not fooled by his hand-waving answer.

“Oh, you want the definition. Why don’t you go find a dictionary and look it up?”

“Daddy.”

“I don’t know everything, sweetheart.”

“Yes you do! You know everything!” she exclaimed, holding out her arms for emphasis. She was still holding the fruit from earlier in her hand.

“You little flatterer. All right. Coordinated means many different things, usually having to do with bringing many different things together in a way that ensures harmony and efficiency. But in this context, it means graceful. When I said you were not coordinated enough, I meant that you were clumsy.”

Miri stood looking up at him in bewilderment for most of this explanation, but at the end of it all she blurted, “I’m not clumsy! You’re clumsy!”

“Sometimes, yes,” he agreed. Finished cutting the vegetables, he set them aside within Elise’s reach. “You won’t be uncoordinated forever, though. Especially now that you have the Force.”

“I’m gonna be a Sith Lord when I grow up,” Miri announced.

The knife clattered against the kitchen countertop as Nimdok put it down somewhat carelessly, thrown off by what he had just heard come out of his daughter's mouth. He kept his voice low and even, not wanting her to think he was angry. “...Wouldn’t you rather be a Jedi?”

“Nope,” Miri replied cheerfully. “Sith Lords are cooler.”

"What makes you think that?" Now his voice did rise a little in volume despite his efforts at controlling himself. "Miri, a Sith Lord was responsible for your kidnapping. The Sith have been chasing us across the galaxy. They're the people who put me in the hospital on Jerrilek, the ones who you—"

He nearly said 'the ones who you killed on Coruscant', but he stopped himself from finishing the sentence. She wouldn't remember the events on Coruscant—he had erased her memory, knowing the trauma of that day was too much for a child to bear.

Miri looked at him, her brow furrowed and her lips pursed. Her expression showed guilt and regret. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he said, the tension bleeding out of him. "I'm not angry with you. It's just... you don't really want to be a Sith Lord, do you?" She shook her head. He sighed. "Why don't you go sit at the table? Dinner will be ready soon."

The girl obediently left the kitchen. Nimdok glanced at Elise, biting his lip. The vampiress tended to fall into the role of quiet observer, picking up information as she went along, rarely demanding answers. He wasn't sure what she was thinking, if she was afraid of seeming nosy, or if she even cared.

"I know that you must have a lot of questions," he said quietly. "I won't fault you for asking them now."

Elise Ike

 

[Elise Ike]

It would seem Miri wasn't very big on complicated words, earning another light chuckle from Elise as she began to get the meat ready for cooking. This type of light banter being quite nice, certainly beat cooking all alone for once. Her smile though quickly faded as the young girl mentioned the 'S' word, Elise glancing to the side, eyeing up Jacen Nimdok 's reaction to such a... worrisome comment.

She stood there, watching on like a statue as Miri got a semi stern lecture, the prior happy attitude now being much more somber. In addition she got some more information on the current situation about his daughter and why he had never mentioned her before. "Your father is right, Sith are not very nice people, they tend to take what they want when they want without regard for anyone else". "Saying they are cool would be like looking up to a criminal, besides, there are plenty cool Jedi along with other non Sith force users like myself".

She gave a small toothy grin as the small child went to the table, Elise directing her attention back towards Nimdok. "So, you are on the run from Sith? Not a very good predicament... I can see why you want my help". Even if she was a long Sith Lord Elise still had her family connections and though she wasn't on the best terms with them Sawa would , out of a matter of pride, eviscerate anyone who laid a finger on her.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Maybe I should be more strict about which holovids she’s allowed to watch,” Nimdok murmured under his breath as Miri left the room. He had no clue what had prompted her to say she wanted to become a Sith. It made no sense, given what the Sith had done to them. He'd have to have a real conversation with her about it soon, maybe later tonight.

"So, you are on the run from Sith? Not a very good predicament... I can see why you want my help.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “There are two Sith that I know of who have it in for me. Adrian Vandiir, the Dark Councilor of Scientific Advancement in the Sith Empire, wants my head on a pike because he thinks I destroyed a Sith holocron—the very same one I gave to you, damaged as it was. And then there's Arrius Messala, the Lord of Doubt. He’s the one who abducted Miri. He apparently thought that experimenting on her would convince me to join him, as if giving her incredible powers that she can barely control is some kind of blessing...” He glanced toward the doorway leading to the dining room and sighed. “Now that she’s with me, she shares in my peril. But every time I’ve tried to find a safe place for her, the danger doesn’t go away. My enemies see her only as a game piece to manipulate, something they can use to get to me...”

Casting his eyes down, he fell into silent introspection. The only sound in the kitchen was the stove humming and the food sizzling in the pan. Then he shook his head, snapping out of it. “She’ll just have to stay with me for now. I’m sure things will work out in the end.“

His gaze traced up Elise’s figure, lingering on the sight of long black eyelashes resting against a fair white cheek. Moving behind her, he lowered his head to kiss her shoulder, then spoke quietly. “I don't want to impose on you any more than I already have, but would you happen to have anything lying around here that might help me, or some connections who could do something about my current predicament?”

Elise Ike

 

[Elise Ike]

"If it a holovid with Sith then its probably some stupid propaganda that they spew out every fives seconds on how the Jedi are evil and comit genocide where ever they go". Her tone sarcastic but also slightly annoyed, even if it was over exaggerated some of the things she had seen when visiting Korriban in the last few years boggled her mind.

Her hands moved back to the task of preparing the meal as Jacen Nimdok retailed the unfortunate meeting, her head nodding slightly all the while as he went. The name Adrian sounded familiar... well his last name anyways but that was all she could really say about the Sith in question. Arrius didn't ring much bells either but if they were a threat to Nimdok then they were certainly powerful.

A short sigh left her mouth, the meat and other finished and ready for the wok, herself using the force to take the other items Nimdok had prepared as a flame came to light from the stove. "I do not have anything with me at the moment to help in such regard, but I know people who can". "My daughter, she is a high ranking member in the CIS military, or what ever their force order is called". "With her help it shouldn't be hard to get a meeting with their witch sect, those are the sorts of people that can deal with souls and other spiritual things".

In addition to that if would offer that tad bit more protection against any Sith after the two. Even if the CIS was at 'peace' with the empire of the east their relationship wasn't at all pleasant. "If need be you can take refuge on at her Dojo on Sanctuary, its out of the way and the planet is protected by some group called the white lotus or what ever, light side users". As she finished the pan had heated up all the way, Elise adding a few dashes of oil and sauce before sliding in the meat, a crackling sizzle enveloping the room along with the scent of spices.

"We can talk a little more later, right now getting you two fed should be our main goal, can't really worry about the future if you starve".

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

At the mention of Sanctuary, Nimdok perked up. “Sanctuary? My parents were from there,” he said. They had immigrated to Alderaan as newlyweds, and that was where Nimdok—the real Nimdok—was born. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of the White Lotus, but I’ll be sure to check them out.”

He was less enthusiastic about the idea of letting a witch sect sink their claws into his twin souls. As far as he was concerned, there was little that could be done about it—he needed Arimanes, and anyway this was Arimanes’ body, not his. The arrangement they had was never meant to be permanent. They would just have to work together for now.

Not long after Elise finished speaking, Nimdok felt Miri stretch towards him through the Force. It was a tentative nudge, but spoke volumes as to her need to speak to him, to know that she hadn’t done anything wrong. Talking to her couldn’t wait until later tonight, it seemed.

Leaving his lover to finish cooking, he peered inside the dining room. Miri was sitting at the table, her legs dangling limply above the floor as she stared down at her hands in her lap. There were no tears in her eyes, but she was pouting a little.

He entered the room, moving slowly towards her chair. “I’m still not mad at you,” he said. “I was just… surprised.”

Though she didn’t say anything, her eyes darted up at him, then she tried to pretend she was looking at the wall behind him instead. He smirked, resting his fists on his hips.

“You already said you were sorry. That’s enough. You don’t have to do anything else.”

“You forgive me?” she mumbled, her head still drooping.

His hands dropping to his sides, Nimdok crouched down in front of her, getting on her level. “Yes. Of course.” He smiled faintly for a moment, then his brow furrowed with concern when she failed to brighten. Miri wasn’t the happiest of children, but he had never seen her this depressed before. He felt like he was trying to console a wilted flower. “Miri, where did you get the idea that the Sith were ‘cooler’ than the Jedi?” he asked.

“Um...” She scratched her cheek. “...I dunno.”

“You sure? Could it have been something you watched on a holovid, or read in a book?”

She looked away from him, her lower lip beginning to tremble, but still she didn’t cry. Finally she replied, “The people who hurt me were Sith. I want to be like them and do all the stuff they can do, so I can kill them when I grow up.”

So that was it. Her definition of what was “cool” was based on the power to purge evil. But she didn’t understand the weight of what she was saying. “You’ve seen the bad things the Sith have done, and having seen it, you want to become one of them?”

Miri mustered up some defiance. “I would only kill bad people.”

“And would you know these bad people on sight? Could you look into their hearts and see the badness, the evil in them?” Pursing his lips, her father rested his hands on her shoulders and spoke in a voice that was both stern and gentle. “You’re very strong in the Force, Miri. One day you may be able to sense if a person is tainted by the Dark Side as soon as you encounter them. But that’s not enough to justify killing anyone, not as long as they could be redeemed.” His eyebrows rose. “Do you remember Miss Inanna?”

“Yes.”

“She’s going to find the Sith who hurt you and stop them,” he said. “Then we won’t have to worry about them anymore.”

But he knew by the look in her eyes that she could feel his lingering doubts and worries. Inanna was no match for a Sith Lord, let alone two of them. She had a chance, but it was a splinter in the mind’s eye. He had tried to convince her not to get involved, but she wouldn't listen to his warnings. If she got herself into trouble, he could bail her out, but he found it much easier to try and tough out the wrath of the Sith than to take a stand against them.

Nimdok would prove a poor judge of his own strength, overestimating his endurance and willpower. A month or two after this comparatively pleasant, peaceful visit with Elise, Nimdok would indeed reach his breaking point. But he didn’t know that, for it was in the future, and precognition was not one of his strong suits.

Elise Ike

OOC: I'm gonna have to wrap this thread up soon, too much stuff going on.

 

[Elise Ike]

Hu that was a strange set of circumstances, even if it was a little complicated, would probably make things easier if they went to stay their for a few months. "You know what they say, the force works in mysterious ways, perhaps you and me were destined to meet hehehe". A jest but to an extent she did know that the force had a way of making certain things happen. "I can say for one thing you will be safe their, my daughter is more then a match for any Sith", mainly since she'd forgo any saber or force fight and just beat the shit out of anyone who dared to intrude on her Dojo with her bare fists.

Elise gave a small nod to Jacen Nimdok as he went to speak with Miri, having children was certainly an interesting experience, it must be hard trying to raise a young girl like her in such a situation. Putting the thought to the back of her mind the vampire's attention turned back to the meal least burn the meat, Miri was already picky enough as is without her food being all black and chard.

Keeping a stable temperature on the wok and constantly mixing the meat soon came to be done, Elise making a spread with some additional rice and mixed vegetables to make a sort of buffet like dinner. Simple but also complex depending on how you wanted to make your meal, no doubt the younger girl probably in mind to take just some rice and meat.

Walking to the door Elise waited a few seconds, catching the end of the two's conversation, "dinner is done, come and get it while it's still hot or no desert for you~". At least while the two where hear she could provide some sense of normality, even if it was a little artificial... those dark rituals and experiments would have to wait. Also skeletons she was putting together best put that away before Miri gets all spooked or breaks something.