Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Some New Beginnings [The One Sith]

skin, bone, and arrogance
"And your left hand, please? Very good. Now, if you could please read the slide in front of you..." There was a moment of silence, then the disembodied voice added with an indulgent chuckle: "Into the microphone, please."

There was another moment of silence again before another voice sounded, this one clear and highly polished. After a moment's hesitation: "Are you quite sure?"

"Yes, please. Think nothing of the content. Simply read it as well as you can."

A pair of gossamer brows quirked upwards, a pair of icy blue oculars narrowed, and a pair of slightly pink lips parted to reveal perfect white teeth, and a tongue all working in concert to produce a rather ridiculous-sounding utterance: "To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock, awaiting the senation of a short, sharp sock, from a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block." Those chilling blue orbs were hidden behind their lids and rolled. "It's written down twice more. What is the point of all this?"

"We are testing your cognitive function. If you please?"

The blue eyes did not reappear, but instead repeated the verse twice more from memory. "Satisfied?"

"Very nearly, just a few differential equations..."

And on the battery of testing went, to what purpose the blue-eyed test subject could not be sure. All she knew is that she had been subjected to these kinds of tests for one hundred and eighty two days, with no sign that it would soon be over.
 

J3C0

Guest
Mierin stood behind mirrored glass watching the procedure, and not for the first time. Keen yellow eyes studied the scientists, and more keenly, the subject. She watched with careful study, observing each and every facet of the woman before her. The Sith Pureblood said nothing as one of the scientists approached her, a rat like man in a aged white coat, he held a clipboard in front of him as though it were a defensive shield.

“Lady Mierin. She seems to be stable and functioning.”

The Pureblood turned to the rat like scientist, her eyes shifting over him and her lips turning down in disgust. She had dealt with this man before, in a very similar facility. The rat doctor was not someone she liked, and she could have sworn she had had him killed. Poor memory on her part.

She nodded to the man, and then turned to a mousey woman on her other side.

“Inform her of where she is.” Her voice remained impassive as she ordered the woman into the testing chamber. The Pureblood refused to let any of the Scientists do it, they would likely trigger an...unwanted response. So she had brought along a woman from one of the One Sith's more bureaucratic facilities. She would serve the function of information giver in this little...experiment.
 

Leena Mai

Guest
This was terrifying.

One moment you're sitting in Spacebucks, sitting with your grande-mande extra foam, non-dairy creamer soy-bean sonic-boom latte and then the next moment you're stuck in clerical hell, standing next to the most imposing red woman this side of Sith space. Of course, maybe if she were blue it would have been a different story. Blue was a colour of calm, of peace, of the sea. Red, of fire and passion. Of hell.

“Yes, Ma'am,” Leena nodded tersely, not raising any objections to the woman's commands. Today was not a day to die. After all, tonight was the finale of Ebony Lark, the finest soap opera ever to have graced the holo-anything.

Sensible heels clicked upon clinical floors as she entered the testing chamber. Click click click. Was this even in her job description? Wasn't there something somewhere that needed stapling? Yes. Yes. There were things that needed to be stapled. Sorry. Got to go. See you in another lifetime. No, no, too late for second thoughts, although there never really was any time for first thoughts.

“Miss Lacroix,” the woman said with a polite smile that seeped through like chicken soup for the soul, “how are you feeling?” Hey, I can't miss the pleasantries. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?! KILL ME? HUH?! I'll tell her where she is in a second, bro! Don't rush me.

Don't tase me either.
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
The woman addressed as "Miss Lacroix" didn't look up for a moment; it was her first interaction with another person that wasn't separated from her with a pane of durasteel. The woman raised her chin and finally glanced to her left, to the door where a brunette in sensible heels. Would she be called mousy? The patient could hardly be sure.

"I have been married," she corrected Leena, but immediately raised a slender hand, one finger extended in the air. "Forgive me, that may not be right." She paused and cleared her throat. "I am genetically identical to a woman whose experiences I have assimilated. She has been married. Had children. Built a career. Become a widow. Aged. Not I." Her lips pressed together to form a white line and she shook her head. "I am aware of my above-average cognitive abilities. They make adjustment to my abnormal living situation... a challenge."

Picking up a plastic cup of water, she took a sip and stood. "You aren't one of these white-coat-wearing morons," she observed drily, her lips curling up at the edges, as if to silently add: So what kind of moron are you?
 

Leena Mai

Guest
I wouldn't go with mousy either, lady.

Leena's head shifted backwards slightly, as the legendary barbed tongue came out to play. Although these lashes were light, playful. A correction if you will. Just stating the facts that yes, Avadreia Lacroix was married, although then that statement was corrected. Too many addendum to keep up. Slow down, Leena Mai has an art history degree, small words, short sentences.

Slowly the woman's head returned to its original position, a slow and deliberate nod coming into play as Avadreia didn't lump her in with the morons of a white-coated variety. “I am not,” she re-affirmed with a hint of a smile creeping forth, “I am Leena Mai. Executive Assistant extraordinaire.”

Her job title was slathered with heaping spoonfuls of mirth. Executive Assistant? Assistant to whom? Executive of what? Beauricatic titles were a wasteland of pointlessness.

“You did not answer my question, Miss Lacroix. How are you feeling?
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
"Feeling?" echoed the clone disbelievingly. In all her time awake she had never been asked such a curious question. The specs on all manner of Star Destroyer, yes. The solutions to dozens of economics equations, certainly. Even questions about her genetic material's family. But nothing about how she felt. "I've never put much stock in feeling. What is the point? 'Oh, I don't feel comfortable' and 'oh, we, the group, we feel...' When did people start feeling rather than thinking? Thoughts. Thoughts and ideas, plans and actions. That is what interests me."

She fixed her glacial gaze on Leena and pursed her lips lightly. "I feel fine. It's the oddest sensation, Miss Mai," she said, her eyes flickering to the young woman's gaze. "I remember aches, and clicking. All these things associated with age and yet my wristband tells me I am twenty-eight standard years old here," she tapped her left index finger to her left temple. "And two years old, here." She indicated her slender frame.

"They say youth is wasted on the young." Avadreia reached up to touch the corner of her eyes, where she remembered once finding wrinkles. Now her skin was smooth. "I feel fine. May I go, now? I have things to accomplish."
 

Leena Mai

Guest
Hey, feelings are important. If you hold it all in you're going to go nuclear one day, you'll just be sitting there at your desk and bam, you accidentally knock over your cup of caff, something snaps. You scream. Flip the desk over, rip off your blazer and start flinging your poop. Extra extra, read all about it: Avadreia Lacrox Goes on Rampage! Dropkicks Rodian Transvestite!

It's early days, I'll crack you and your emotions yet. It might take years, decades even but you'll crack.

Avadreia Lacroix was keen to get out and boogie and as much as Leena would have liked to release the kraken onto the mean streets of Coruscant she was but a simple administrative monkey and there was a terrifying red woman to contend with in the other room.

“Not yet,” she said, guilt prompting her to add a,shortly, but just a few more questions.”

Leena frowned, hands moving to prop themselves upon her hips as she poised herself to ask the question she had been sent in to ask. “Miss Lacroix. Do you know where you are?” Mai queried, knowing that the simple query would likely annoy the clone further. The young woman followed up quickly. “Do you know the circumstances of where you are?”
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
Avadreia pressed her lips together to bite back her impatience. "The Halstrom Clinic, Imperial City, Coruscant," she stated matter-of-factually. "The woman known as Avadreia Lacroix was suffering a medical condition called vascular dementia - a series of small strokes also called, in some medical literature, multi-infract dementia. She sought treatment privately so as not to upset her work at the Kuat Drive Yards. When it became apparent that she would no longer be able to perform her duties effectively, she resigned and sought more aggressive treatment. When that failed, she came here and arranged to have her genetic material banked and constructed into a clone, so that her unique cognitive and organizational abilities might one day go on to be useful. She was concerned with mortality."

Her lips turned down at the edges. Was that an emotion? "And with good reason. She died six days before I was..." She hesitated. "Brought online, so to speak. Born would not be the word, as I was never really born. Grown, is more accurate, but gives the impression of agriculture." Avadreia paused and then lifted her brows, as if to ask what difference it made. "That is what I understand the circumstances to be. Am I misled?"

[member="Leena Mai"]
 

Leena Mai

Guest
The marbles were there, of that there was no doubt. Actually, the marbles were more than just there, they were polished and lined up into the neatest of rows.

Of course, Leena had been given all these details beforehand albeit the cliffnotes. Taken from the safety of behind a desk with the stationary to in a room with the Ice Queen herself (or rather a clone). “No, no,” the woman said with a slight frown, hands still placed upon hips, “you are not misled.”

Mai was still fishing for emotion. Young ladies have no patience. You're gon' learn today.

“Are you aware of the..more recent...social...developments that Coruscant...has seen?” Leena asked, the question eeking out of her mouth rather uncomfortably. The One Sith had appeared out of nowhere, nobody had expected it, the Jedi least of all and given the slaughter that occurred perhaps they could have used a drop of the old foresight in their cup of tea.

Civilians however, had not been harmed during the invasion and thus when control changed hands nothing really changed. The status quo returned. Life went on, work went on, play went on. Not even the ever-waged war between Jedi and Sith could stop Coruscant from being, well, Coruscant.
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
Avadreia frowned and weaved her hand together in front of her. Was this a cultural affairs quiz, now? She was sure that this was not what her genetic predecessor had in mind - to have her clone kept on ice (so to speak) and prodded. She had things to do - whether it was a matter of running a shipyard, building a government, or continuing to build a family legacy. There was the matter of Avadreia Lacroix's children, Verie and Sante, to encourage. The Lacroix name must live on, otherwise what was the point of this obscenely expensive medical procedure in the first place? She closed her eyes and squeezed her lids together before looking up again.

"I'm afraid I've let my subscription to the Court Circular lapse," she informed Leena dryly. "But I couldn't help but notice that the facility's management changed some time ago. Right around the time that my access to outside communication was restricted. Coincidence? Doubtful." Avadreia paused and tugged the zipper on her medical jumpsuit, then cleared her throat. "I've not been informed of anything specific, but as you an see from my advanced calculus scores I am able to put two and two together."
 

J3C0

Guest
[member="Avadreia Lacroix"] [member="Leena Mai"]
Mierin stood observing the pair of women through the one way glass, Her expression never changed, instead she stared intently at Avadreia. Her eyes were keenly observing every motion she made, every nuance, every single twitch of her skin. She watched carefully, trying to gauge something from the women that was not there before, as if she could learn everything she needed to know simply by looking at her.

“Tell her...” Mierin spoke suddenly into a small comm-link that would translate directly into Leena's ear. “Tell her the truth. Tell her that the Sith have taken Coruscant, and that we are now in control.”

Her lips tugged into a smile for a moment.

The Sith Pureblood was eager to see how Avadreia would react to that news. She didn't know much of the woman, but her reaction would tell her a bit.
 

Leena Mai

Guest
Little bit of sass, enough to perhaps to warrant defrosting the windscreen but not enough to turn your fingers black. Of course, this reaction was only natural. Question after test after question after test after...where were we again? Questions? Tests? I'm unsure. How are you? What about the weather? Where are my pants?

A voice snapped within her head, startling Leena to the extent of a small twitch.

Thankfully it was not madness but the Sith that stood in the other room. Of course, Miss Mai had no issues with the Sith themselves, but as a decidedly normal human being she was automatically suspicious of Force users. They made her uncomfortable in every sense of the word.

“Well, to say it bluntly,” she began, almost as if she was unaware of the definition of blunt, “Coruscant is no longer under Republic control.”

Leena's hands finally shifted, arms moving to fold across her chest. “The Sith took it, took Coruscant,” the woman said flatly, aiming to keep her voice flat and emotionless, as if she too were under study.

[member="Avadreia Lacroix"]
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
Avadreia studied Leena for a moment, then smiled. "I see what this is," she said, an underlying chuckle touching her voice. "You're testing my irony sense or something. The Sith Empire, on Coruscant?" She chuckled again, this time explicitly, and canted her head to the side. "Nonsense. Errant nonsense," she declared imperiously. "Surely the time period between my genetic donor's arrival here and today is not long enough time for the Empire to grow a backbone and a will to greatness. Perhaps one, or the other, but certainly not both. I should think it more realistic geopolitically that they are still in their sad little backwater, or more likely crumbled to dust by now. After the Umbarran was deposed, the writing was rather on the wall." She shook her head and sighed, still grinning, as if she had just enjoyed a very good joke. What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of fifty? You call him 'Your Honor'. What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of twenty-five? You call him 'Mr. Chief Justice'. She smirked and straightened, going to the makeshift vanity near her bed and sitting down on the small hard stool in front of the small metal table.

She was aware that the 'mirror' taking up that portion of the wall was a one-way mirror, but in this instance she did not care. Slender fingers worked pins into her hair and glacial blue eyes found Leena's reflection. FInally, there was some excitement in her tone. "The absurdity of that last statement," she said by way of explanation, "must mean that it is the last of these ridiculous tests and that I am to be released. Yes? I know that I am meant to be doing something important, but for the life of me I can't... did she leave you instructions?"

[member="Leena Mai"] [member="Darth Mierin"]
 

J3C0

Guest
[member="Leena Mai"] [member="Avadreia Lacroix"]

Well her intelligence certainly shone through to the point of arrogance.

For a moment she waited, not speaking again to Leena and simply allowing the tension in the room to grow. She knew that very likely the little secretary was on the verge of a nervous breakdown at this point, she probably hadn't expected her day to go this way. Lips pursed in thought, a nervous tick that showed itself whenever Mierin was deep in thought.

“Tell her the truth once more.” She spoke suddenly again. “The Sith Empire burned, Korriban fell, Dromund Kaas was eradicated.”

There was a pause.

“A new Order has risen, one that has broken the back of the Republic and taken victory after victory from them.” That was a bit biased o course, but then again Mierin couldn't quite help it.
 

Leena Mai

Guest
No, no. No tests of irony here. Although maybe, I don't know, people get so uppity about the very definition of irony that I can no longer what is ironic and what is an Alanis Morissette song. The world is lost to me, there's no hope, just leave me!

So it was a touch hard to swallow. I mean, the Sith Empire's swan song was less that and more of a half plucked goose being fisted to death. So feeble and incapable were they that instead of fighting to the last tooth and nail, they destroyed themselves to spite those who would seek to do the very same thing.

“Well, actually the Sith Empire fell,” she responded rather matter-of-factly, pacing over to the vanity as to stand alongside the woman she was briefing, “they were the laughing stock of every talk show on the holonet. It got really old, really fast. Once you've seen the head of Kaine Zambrano on the body of an Endorian chicken once, you've seen it a million times.”

Not knowing how to put it, she quoted the Sith word-for-word, “Korriban fell, Dromund Kaas was eradicated.”

Leena's gaze caught Avadreia's in the reflection, eyes filled to the brim with a kind-of sombre sincerity (if eyes could be filled with such a thing). “It's not the Empire. It's a new order. The One Sith. This is no joke or test of irony, Miss Lacroix, it's the real deal.”

[member="Avadreia Lacroix"]
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
Avadreia's gossamer brows once again knitted together, her alabaster skin wrinkling between them. She looked thoughtful for several moments, looking at [member="Leena Mai"] in silence before she inclined her chin and nodded. "Now that I can believe," said the clone, a look of understanding crossing her face. "The One Sith." She rolled a pair of pearlescent blue eyes. "Why is it, exactly, that these upstart Sith always seem to have some overly grandiose name? Believe me, it would take more than one Sith to take Coruscant. Obviously it's not just one."

She shook her head and pressed her lips together, as if she took this as a personal annoyance.

"That explains the change in management. But you still haven't mentioned what the upshot is for me," Avadreia said quietly, her eyes narrowing a little bit at the mousy assistant girl person.
 

J3C0

Guest
Mierin finally came through the door of the cell, the Sith Pureblood stood tall and crimson, fading gold eyes darting to Leena momentarily before settling on Avadreia. The woman held a commanding presence, though not overtly so. She stared quietly for a moment, not speaking to either of them before finally letting her will be known.

“The upshot for you Miss Lacroix, is a job.” Her voice was rock.

She had observed enough.

Avadreia Lacroix would make a fine administrator, a fine Voice. Perhaps better than all the others. Many of them were Sith, others were Vong, and most of them were entirely useless when it came to actually running their little corner of the galaxy, at least in Mierins opinion.
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
Avadreia folded her arms over her chest. It was a bit unusual to be in the same room as a Pureblood Sith (which Avadreia instantly recognized, thanks to her learning, since she had gone to college after all), but not particularly more unusual than waking up as a twenty-eight year old woman with the brain and experience of a sixty-seven year old woman.

"Have you a shipyard?" Avadreia asked tremulously. "Wait - a thought occurs." She held a finger up at the Sith woman, fearless administrator that she was. "I seem to recall there was a time that I was something of a democrat. I had to keep my views tightly wrapped in order to remain Director of the Kuat Drive Yards. The thing is - I remember it. But I don't feel it now."

Her lips turned up at the edges. "Ah, yes. The testing. The... education. Am I correct?"

[member="Leena Mai"] [member="Darth Mierin"]
 

J3C0

Guest
Mierin looked at the woman for a second.

“Yes.” She finally said in answer. “We had to ensure that the tentative knowledge we had was indeed true, if you fit what our agents and data had reported.”

The One Sith had ever been spies and information gatherers. They horded knowledge like a farmer hoarded food for the winter. To them it was important to know everything about everyone, Avadreia as the former Director of KDY operations was no exception. Of course it had been hard to believe that this woman had been she at first, yet the documents at the laboratory had not lied.

Or seemingly so.
 
skin, bone, and arrogance
Avadreia pressed her lips together and studied the red Sith, still feeling a little as if she was in some kind of hidden-holocam programme. But no, it was too strange to be even that. Only reality was so bizarre. "I'm afraid I am the bona fide article," she told the Sith with an apologetic glance towards Leena. "Or at least the next nearest thing." Avadreia Lacroix folded her arms across her midsection and perched on the corner of the small vanity-cum-desk, crossing her legs in the unflattering white jumpsuit the clinic had given her.

"And now that you've verified what you came to verify, I assume you will be letting me leave now," she said hopefully. "Is that right?"
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom