All In (Ovmar)

[Velok the Younger]

SPIRA
A REALLY NICE BEACH

Rave wasn't one for tanning. This had something to do with the fact that her skin was a Yuuzhan Vong biot woven into her pores. Today, however, she'd opted to do away with the ooglith cloaker. Without it, she was scarred from Vongforming, bruised from Nightsister apex mastery, and pale as feth. Dead-fish pale. Baby-butt pale. But her doctor told her that she was vitamin D deficient (turns out you don't get many rays wearing a bodysuit and living in perpetual winter and/or a starship) so she'd picked out a smallish two-piece, left the ooglith masquer at home, alchemized the perfect sunscreen, and set up a lawnchair by the shore. Spira was all beach, all the time. Today, so was Rave.

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Trundling under the weight of a folding chair was Jared Ovmar, former Lord of the Fringe, Voice of a Dark Lord, Sith Lord Extravagante, Playboy, Millionaire, Persona Non Grata on Zeltros after the marshmallow-incident, Rogue, Ass and Derp.

But above all, one could describe Ovmar as a collector.

Finally reaching Rave he set-up his seating contraption and laid down with a satisfied sigh, he was only wearing an expensive swimming trunk. Probably more to annoy Merrill than anything else.

‘I found something.’ the Sith Lord simply stated.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Rave adjusted dark glasses and applied the arcane arts of a Sith forgemaster to her incipient sunburn. She began tweaking the composition of her skin. Sunburn was actually the worst.

"And I found the other half." She sat up and began rubbing a new layer of alchemical sunblock into her pallid knees. By the end of the day, come Chaos or high water, she swore she would be golden. Golden. "Granted, I get the distinct feeling that part of both our halves is going to be, ah, subjectively unimpressive. Prove me wrong."

Alchemy wasn't something to apply lightly to oneself. Full-blown Mask was well within her skillset, but she fought Sith often enough that she didn't relish turning into a Gethzerion. But a mild tweak like this...very viable.

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Ovmar snorted and made a distinct grabbing-motion in the air, an already lit cigarette appeared in his hands and he put it to his mouth. There was much to say about what was coming next, this had repercussions, fallouts, reverberation if you will. That which he had discovered could destroy… well… probably everything, everywhere.

But then again.

He was a Sith Lord, and for some ironic reason he trusted Merrill.

So he shrugged and continued.

‘How are does time-shift experiments going?’

Rave probably never told him about them, oh well.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"Dose time-shift experiments are going fine." She stretched out on her beach chaise again. "I'm glad we chose Spira. I think you have a cold. Fresh air is good for you."

A black cat walked by, twice.

"So far, unless I figure out how to weaponize deja vu, I'll admit my experiments are fairly small in scale. I'm considering aperion's implications for alchemy, but considering the potential for unraveling things I'd rather not have unraveled, I'd prefer to start with something pre-existing and quantifiable. You understand."

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

‘Jup.’ Jared replied. ‘The ocean air does wonders, I giev u d-’ the Sith Lord sneezed furiously, and it seemed as if the fabric of reality itself gave a quick shudder to accommodate the dispersal of new particles coming into existence.

‘Ever heard of something called the Orb of Passage?’

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"If I say no, you'll do that expression that's half a sneer and half a grin. Superior smirk, I think is the term. If I say yes, you'll say 'oh really,' raise your eyebrows, and indicate you don't believe me. So why don't you make the totally valid yet tacit assumption that I know everything, and go from there."

She stretched on the chaise, then adjusted the back and rolled onto her stomach, staring up the beach at the parking lot. High-end speeders as far as the eye could see. She'd opted for something from Daw Motors, pure chrome, and worth approximately what Ovmar spent on eyebrow threading. "I think I have a where if you have a who."

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Jared grinned anyway, which generated another tidal-wave of superiority, hubris and annoyingly handsome-vibes. He did note that she was looking back at the parking lot, probably looking at her expensive transportation.

True Sith Lords teleported straight through the despicable parts of Chaos, boring a hole through the fabric of reality itself and stepping through the void into the new reality.

Probably.

‘Mafcur the Magnifecent, Seventh in the Line for the Furry Throne.’ Ovmar answered with a deadpan voice, and not a trace of a smile. He was very serious.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Rave swore softly. "The Furry Throne of Torrevaso? How fethed up is that. My, ah, methods are a little more esoteric and a little less associated with anything so mundane as words. But that certainly fits the reson-"

She chuckled, focusing on the mitigation of her potential sunburn. "I'm too relaxed. Too many secrets just waiting to spill out. Suffice it to say, Jared, I have a very good idea of which Mafcurian estate we're going to target. It's on Kothlis, on a beach much like this one. Cross-checking his name with the planet and general locale should give us exactly what we're after. From there it's just a matter of method. Money? Barter? Violence? Stealth? Mentalism? Political pressure? I don't especially care."

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

The Sith Lord pondered it for a moment, but the answer was pretty clear to him. Furry’s private collection was… big to say the least, something to do with the connection between him and a certain unnamed Shadow trailing the artifacts of yore, suffice to say that the orb wouldn’t be the only thing of interest in that mansion, although it would definitely be the most powerful of all of it.

‘Mentalism. Torrevaso might be the backside joke of the Galaxy, its still something worth exploiting. We take ‘im over, take his entire collection, and perhaps make sure that the seventh becomes the first. Can’t ever hurt to have them in our backpocket, no?’

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"Ever had a furry in your back pocket? Not worth it. Not remotely. Before you know it, everything smells like otherkin and you're getting implicated in mascot murders and chlorine gas attacks. Too soon?"

A flick of telekinesis untied the back of her top; she was aiming to be here for a while, alchemically transforming her pallor into a healthy glow (despite the implicit oxymoron bound up in Spira's melanoma rates).

"You mentalize, I'll appraise. If there's anything of genuine value in the collection, I'll make sure it gets noticed. Feel free to do your own appraisal, naturally. Honestly, misplace one vault ship and nobody trusts you again."

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

'I will trust you on your word, Merrill. I managed to dodge the implications of that particular incident.'

Jared yawned, closing his eyes and enjoyed the filtered light of the sun warming his skin. It was true that few people in their circle truly trusted Merrill with any artifacts or worth, Janus didn’t even allow her to breath on his collection - afraid some kind of treasure hunt would appear out of nowhere and run away with his ill-gotten goods.

‘Mmhm. That being said, after this is all done… we should have a talk. I may or may not have some things you would love to see.’

He took another puff from his ghostly cigarette.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"If that cigarette is an attempt to get me to roll over in annoyance, it won't work. I most definitely don't have a couple of things you should see." She crossed her arms under her chin and closed her eyes against the glare from the chrome. "Once we're done securing the Orb, if it is what legend claims it to be -- and I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have picked up its trail if it wasn't -- there's a location where we should test it. It's in the heart of the Chiloon Rift, near a place called the Bubble of the Lost. Operation Bubble Bath. Yeah, yeah, bad joke."

She went quiet; couldn't help it.

"There's a monolith in there. A...portal. Time dilation."

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

‘Ha. Ha. ha ha ha.’ the Sith Lord uttered in mock defeat, taking another puff from his ghostly cigarette.

‘I am familiar with it, operations of mine are already in progress there, but they can be halted for a short period of time.’

Curious how their interests and focus was individually locked on the same things without any form of cooperation.

Most curious.

Some would even say it was a clear sign of soul mates.

Great minds think alike?

Etc.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Some would be idiots. Rave's life had contained one great love and two great lusts. The first had been Gilamar Skirata (unrequited but no less real). The second had been alchemical archmastery. The third was a jawa.

This was not to say she remained unaware of her attire's effect upon that most lascivious and rakish of Sith Lords.

"Oh, of course you already have people in the Rift," she said with not a little sarcasm. "Middle-of-nowhere ore prospecting, high hazard, middling output, in territory you don't control -- of course you just happen to have something going on. Don't worry, our trip to Kothlis should give you all the time you need to get your mining operations started there. They'll be running into my people, of course..."

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

In the meantime…

Khara Zhon, Arkanian, Offshoot, trusted agent, and entirely devoid of any connection to the Force startled up from the preliminary testing of the mysterious Monolith standing at the heart of the Chiloon Rift. ‘Something wrong, Zhon?’ one of the lab-assistants asked her, when they noticed her wide eyes. ‘No, no. Nothing wrong. It just felt as if a thousand voices screamed out in unison at an attempt of… of…’

‘Of what?’ the assistant asked with just a bit of worry in her voice.

‘Of painfully misguided sarcasm that rendered straight through the Core of the Galaxy.’ Khara finished the sentence with a sudden clarity.

‘That seems serious, are you sure its not the proximity of the Monolith that’s causing it?’

‘I am positive, but don’t worry. I have the feeling it just corrected itself, let’s go on.’

***​

The Sith Lord merely smiled his smile, and shrugged.

Only the blind or the Jedi would have remained unaffected at such a display of… wares, but Jared had made peace with the fact that no intercourse would be served between the two of them - the snark would have to suffice, and the cigarette, of course. In combination they were enough to put his rushing heart at peace.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

Cigarettes being normally reserved for the aftermath, their relevance here was dubious at best. Unless, as with another man of comparable mores and predilections, Ovmar was always post-coital. Rave squinted uphill -- had he actually driven here in a Stinson? "So," she said after a long moment, "the Orb of Passage of Benja-Rihn, the Monolith of Chiloon, and me. I think I'm going to enjoy this. I just hope we don't undo anything we can't replace."

***​

​

Far away in the Chiloon Rift, AEI/ICE vessels and contractors trawled hazardous lanes, plasma effluxes, and temporal distortions between Sarnus, Valnoos and various other ore-rich locations. Asteroid prospecting wouldn't have served her well if not for the new hyperlane going on. Its near terminus wasn't too far from here, all in all.

This was not to say that AEI/ICE had been here long. The temporal distortions helped, and her own relationship with time, but as with most of the elements of Rave's back-and-forth with Ovmar, it was fairly recent.

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

They sat in the shuttle, ETA to the estate was about ten to fifteen minutes off.

‘If this is what we think it is.’ Ovmar began. ‘We gotta keep this discreet, few if any people should know this thing exists or that we have it in our possession. Janus, Starchaser, Valik - they are… good people.’

Well, perhaps not good in the regular sense of the word. But there was a distinct sense of loyalty and proprietary running through the Hegemony, that which the One Sith was propagandising the Hegemony had already achieved, sorta.

‘But this can have severe consequences, you know?’

For once Jared wasn’t snarking, being a jackass or subtly jesting filled with hubris. he was serious about this, and that should indicate how serious the situation itself was, if even the Joker Lord was thinking on the maybe’s and the sort.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"You think I need that particular reminder? Please."

She hadn't been entirely successful in staving off sunburn. It turned out that a little burn was necessary. So she'd reallocated some from her average verbal encounter with Ovmar, injected a little stolen mental commentary -- as if Janus had any archives worth the name -- and let that suffice. Now, sans bathing suit (but very much clothed, sorry), she peered out the shuttle's viewport at the oncoming estate. Kothlis was a lovely planet; this part had beaches aplenty. Maybe when they were done remodeling the furryking's mind and repurposing his collection, she'd go tanning again. Maybe even find a private cove and do away with the swimsuit.

The vessel touched down.

"You're up."

 

[Arage Bao]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Jared looked at Rave pointedly, the gaze was flooded with imageries of lost vault ships, irradiated duels with dumb & dumber, being locked under an alchemized table and many more situations where that came from. If the Sith Lord had wanted to underline it even more, he would probably have scoffed at the indignation of the situation, alas it was not meant to be.

‘Right.’

Was the only thing he said, before stalking out of the shuttle towards the estate, where he would perform figural surgery.

Moments later they found themselves in the study of an indignant noble brat, who was currently laying in a puddle of spit, burbling some words. Most of the staff was either allocated to other locations in the manor, or were staring at some priceless art.

‘Mafcur, can you hear me? We have some work to do.’