Wearing:
Lawyer Suit
Armed with: Stunning Looks.
Objective: BYOO
Two hours earlier...
Vera Mina sat across the table from Nathan Bloodscrawl, who was dressed in a suit and tie combo of solid black.
Vera had the Droid chefs prepare a simple meal, as her psychoanalysis of him made her realize he didn't like to stand on ceremony. Raw Sashimi and Wine from Grapes grown in harsh Mustafar Soil, imparting a coppery taste not unlike that of human blood had been the meal she had come up with. He hadn't objected.
Her daughter, Sera, was off to the Gala, after having donated a number of toys to a local charity for children with life threatening illnesses.
"So this Planet, Kytrand..." Vera trailed. "You want House Li-Ves to be it's military force?"
"Where appropriate...where not, Bacta-Works security would handle the rest..." Nathan answered calmly. "Sera would effectively be planetary governor."
"Well, where is it?"
"Deep core. Coordinates hidden..." he answered. "And I'm the only soul alive other than Moya who knows where it is, and I'm preparing to tell
you."
"A planet full of gems...lost treasures...and more Bacta than you can shake a lightsaber at." Vera grinned. "I have to say, it's one
hell of a marriage proposal...and
one hell of a wedding ring..."
Nathan was silent a few moments.
"When we first met you were concerned about not creating another Sith via negligence. Well, here is my ultimate reply: What Sith would surrender an irreplaceable resource like Kytrand and give an ally such an immense advantage that could be hung directly over his head?"
Vera leaned forward. "The kind of Sith who wants
me." she answered in a prideful, quiet lust.
"You still think I'm a potential Sith?"
Vera chuckled. "No. I don't...but with a man like you...it's not out of the realm of possibility. I personally hope you don't go Sith...you'd be
much less interesting if you did."
Vera took a sip of wine, savored its taste. Nathan took a sip as well.
"Strange taste." he noted.
"You'll get used to it..." she assured.
"I didn't intend this as a marriage proposal, Vera."
"And I'm sure you didn't intend for The Battalion to be made and massacre all those innocents and Jedi but here you are." she replied smugly. "Besides...you just offered my Family a
planet to rule...in a lot of societies, that would count as a marriage proposal, complete with Dowry! I
accept, obviously..."
Nathan offered no reply to this except to take another sip of the blood like wine.
"I...would...
lack things...as a husband..."
Vera sighed. "You are
not that complicated..." she replied. "You want bloody, brutal revenge, and after that, you're going to do what you want. Lies, deception, explosions, armies of beautiful gynoids in tight fitting catsuits...Marriages are built on
much less..."
A flicker of a bemused smile played across his face for a split second and was gone.
"I don't feel much emotionally...even
you feel more than I do, in that sense."
"You feel enough to eat with me in private. You feel enough that even though you can't speak her name out loud, you still collect everything of your wife that remains. You feel enough to react only with
raw, seething hatred at the mere
sight of a Brain Demon Cultist." Vera pointed out, even less convinced about his lack of emotion than
Braze
was.
"You feel enough that your stress levels lower whenever you are teaching my daughter something I can't." she rose. "I think you're wrong. It's there. It's just only able to come out in specific instances. Where you think only allies can see it."
Vera rose from the table, her curvaceous figure bundled in that tight fitting white dress. His eyes mechanically followed every movement of her artificial muscles as they slinked over next to him. He knew she exuded special pheromones designed to confuse Force Users that she was human. They mostly worked, but she still felt slightly off on occasion.
"Your mother was
exceedingly clever in her design for you." he admitted, still haunted by Braze's words, the implication he was just frightened of
living.
Braze had messed with Nathan's head more than he would ever realize. It was, in fact, those very words, that accusation, that had prompted him to go here, at least partially.
"I'll take that as a compliment..." Vera replied smoothly, running her finger under his chin. "We don't have to tie the knot right away...we can do that
well after this legendary lost planet of yours is good and settled."
Nathan was silent a moment, Braze's taunt cutting deep, and savagely, it mixed with the critique made by no less than his Wife's killer:
A man without hope is not a man without fear, A man without hope? That man is nothing BUT fear.
"The planet has its own quirks. It's got a Nexus that can severely affect people's thinking."
"Like that's such a bad thing..." Vera trailed, smiling. "It'll make the challenge of conquering it all the sweeter."
"We would have to keep it secret. The Jedi cannot learn of the planet until it is
well under the control of House Li-Ves and Bacta-Works." Nathan said.
Vera slinked even closer to him.
"Oooo, a Jedi Padawan with a secret marriage to a member of
royalty! On
Naboo no less! Where have I heard
that one before?!" she joked softly.
Nathan, very much against his own will, burst out into laughter for a few seconds. He couldn't help it. It was
funny. It was a really, really
dark form of funny, but it was still
funny.
"Look at it this way...at least I'm marrying into the family again..." he said in between the chuckling. Chuckling normally felt foreign to him. A completely alien experience. Mere laughter seemed normally impossible to him. Not with her...as sadistic and murderous as she was when she wasn't a lawyer...she still made him laugh...
Vera joined him in laughter at the first joke Nathan had ever deliberately, purposefully made, having actually got the joke. And then she impulsively pulled him to his feet, staring into his eyes.
"
Kiss me, you machine minded
fool..." she hissed passionately.
Nathan, his emotional blocks heavily weakened even more than they normally were around Vera, obliged.
Present...
Vera strutted into the gala like she owned it, whisking a glass of champagne away from a waiter on a tray and taking a sip. Nathan would be going in separate, which was a pity in some cases, yet made it more fun.
Vera was honestly elated. She thought she might drink a few criminals' dead in celebration after the Gala was over...but Theed was one of the safest cities in the Galaxy most times, and the messy behavior she indulged in would be looked here even less kindly than it was in other places.
No... she thought, her mind fighting its own moral limitations.
He wouldn't want that...
Vera watched as she strutted across the Gala, internally sneering at the presence of Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians all rubbing shoulders. It was moments like this where she was convinced
none of the factions actually believed a thing they said: all the fighting, the dramatic monologues of power and freedom, the countless high value real estate destroyed in the process...it was all theater.
She felt a rare sting of pity afterward, but it was only for Nathan, and how he was still too attached to these systems, even as he was secretly in total rebellion to follow his own goals. What did he get, still working for the Jedi? Was it to prove something?
Oh well, she would ask him later. Even if he lied to himself in his answers, valuable data could still be derived from her future Husband.
Vera spotted
Vulpesen
and slinked over, looking absolutely gorgeous and immaculate.
"Quite the party the Naboo Royalty knows how to throw, eh?" Vera asked him, recognizing him as a figure of significance in multiple battles she had read about so far. "Vera Mina. Coreward Lawyer. A pleasure."