Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Espada Emi
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Espada Emi

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Flower Fetch




Korriban, Sith Academy Int.

6 ATC 1

Week 1, Day 3


Classes were already over for some time with most of the acolytes settling back into their rooms when an impatient, rapid knocking started up against Mara’s door. It was the pale skinned Zabrak boy, Haiki Benara, looking tired and impatient, his little ball droid whirring nervously at his feet. “You should already know why I’m here.” The boy didn’t sound awed or frightened at all considering he was talking to someone well known for poisoning students who disappointed her. Mostly his tone of voice was somewhere between smug and impatient. It only helped enhance the overall obnoxiousness of the situation that he was talking loudly through the door.

Mara ignored the brash knocking. Her eyes looked down to her datapad and continued to work as she wrote more notes. She didn’t enjoy brashness or impoliteness. Especially by those who were underneath her.

“I’m bored to death just following along at the same pace as the dimwits in your classes. I want the chance for more, to get the knowledge you aren’t giving us. I’ve heard you sometimes give out favors. I want advanced lessons. So, What do I have to do to get them?”

Mara placed her pen tool down. The hairs on her neck rose in irritation at hearing the little gnat bellow into the door and announce his intentions. Irritating an Overseer was ill advised, a lesson he hadn’t managed to learn. An oversight she aimed to correct. As he continued to pound, she opened a desk drawer. Inside a small ring with a thin needle sat beside a vial. She picked both up then opened the cork of the vial, pressing the needle inside. A quick jerking motion coated it to her satisfaction.

The Overseer shoved the vial back in and closed the drawer. After placing the ring on her middle finger, the needle on the inside, she rose to her feet. She took her time approaching the door before she snapped it open and jerked him inside. On her hand the needle penetrated his skin causing a small notable sting near the shoulder area. The door slammed shut behind him as she walked back to her desk in silence.

Hai slapped a hand to his shoulder as soon as he felt the sting of the needle, going dead silent as he pulled his pale fingers away with faint but noticeable red stains. He stood there frozen and staring at his hand for a moment and then started mouthing words to himself, lips moving frantically. If Mara observed him even for a few seconds it would become clear that rather than really panicking the Zabrak boy was analyzing his own scenario, running through his options and possibly dissociating from himself at the same time to get it done. After a moment he snapped out of it, clenched both fists by his sides and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He moved closer to her desk with a grim little smile on his face and spoke up.

“I see I’ve made a serious error in making demands of you. I underestimated you, overestimated myself and disrespected you in your own territory. It won’t happen again. Now, if I’m already dead, I’m already dead. It’s possible that I could identify the poison in my system but given the delivery method and my current lack of noticeable symptoms it’s unlikely to be one I know. I’ve seen other students more experienced if less clever than myself die attempting self cures in your class under similar circumstances and the longer I take the more I’ll deteriorate. To avoid that, any guidance at all would be appreciated.” It was the closest she would ever get to an apology from him, or a request for help. No true Sith would beg for his life or apologize after all.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Fallenreaper
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Mara walked around her desk and took a seat, listening to the student’s tune change. As she faced the young hybrid, she folded her fingers into each other. Letting another moment pass, she turned to a top drawer. Her hand pulled out a datapad and wordlessly passed it over to him. On it was a three woody-stemmed plant with fungus growing on it.

“Within the catacombs underneath the Academy is that plant. Find it and break off a small section, the sticky sap will lessen the symptoms when swallowed. Do not taste too much. A small amount will do.”

She gestured for him to take the datapad with him as she retrieved a jar. It thumped on the table then she slid it over him.

“If you want to gain any favor from me, I require only one whole stem from it. Including the roots. The datapad will show you the general areas to look in order to find it. If you come back alive, I’ll consider giving you limited private lessons.”

Hai took the datapad after giving it a once over to try and memorize the plant and grabbed the jar with it. His grin got a little less tight and a bit more smirking, some of the confidence he’d arrived with returning now that he’d been given a potential way out.

“Consider it done. I’ll be back with the sample in short order.”

With that, he turned to walk out, already thinking over where the best place to start searching might be.

“If you manage to survive, be less foolish and open when you aim to gain favors. You will learn quickly it’s an exploitable weakness.” Mara’s ice-cold voice chased after him.

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Haiki muttered back to her as he walked out, not caring if she actually heard or not and trying to shake off his wounded pride considering his life was literally on the line.

From there he would go to the area used for sparring practice, hoping to break into a weapons locker and get one of the training sabers stored there for protection. Fortunately, he always carried a toolset on hand and between that and his innate talent for manipulating machinery with the Force he thought his chances were good.

He had only gone to the academy catacombs once before on a training exercise, but he still knew the way down well enough to get to the entrance. Once there he had Jana shine a light for him and use her sensors to try and map out the cave ahead as best she could.

“The thing has to be here somewhere Jana, try and fine-tune your sensory equipment while I look the inefficiently old fashioned way…”

As the droid’s light shined into one of the numerous tunnels, three pairs of eyes reflected the light back. A deep growl echoed off the walls as they vanished once more.

Hai flattened himself back against the closest tunnel wall and stilled everything about himself as much as he could: his movement, his breathing, even his heartbeat. He called the training saber he’d stolen to his hand with the Force but didn’t ignite the blade, instead of straining to sense the creature in the darkness before inching forward again, this time as slowly and quietly as possible.

The silence continued to settle in the scenery. Nothing seemed to move toward him.

Hai proceeded again but with greater caution, trying his best to silence himself as much as possible, drawing on what he could remember of his survival training for dealing with predators. At the same time, he tried to relax his body and seem unaware of the danger. Let the creature or creatures think he’d be easy prey. He briefly signaled Jana to ready the few combat countermeasures she had installed and continued down the tunnels.

Jana’s light caught a brief glimpse of something in the nearby shadows. It froze then turned to face the droid's light. A slender reptilian hound bore its several rows of sharp teeth. Its hunches rose on its as it straightened up from its stalking posture. About thirteen-foot in high of raw muscle covered with scales and spikes along the spine. It glared at the young acolyte before it charged right at him. Jaws widened and ready to sink it into the unprotected flesh.

Hai fought down his brief urge to panic and instead waited trying to read the creature’s movements and trust in his reflexes and the Force. As it charged in Jana shrieked a warning and he whipped the training saber up, aiming to ignite it right into the creature’s mouth as the beast opened wide to bite him.

A hiss and smell of charred flesh indicated that he struck true. A loud scream erupted from the creature's lungs as it backed away. Another blur launched itself at Hai from his left while a third one attacked Jana.

Hai’s right arm suddenly started to go numb and unresponsive just as he whirled to confront the second blur, but adapting quickly he just let go with his right hand and swung with his left along with the pivot. Jana responded to the charging monster by shooting out a length of fiber cord to entangle it and then firing out little bolts of electricity to discourage any followup if it broke free.

Another yelp and the second creature backed off. It whipped about and ducked back into the shadows where it came from. Its yellow eyes reflected lights back before it melted into the darkness. Meanwhile, J4n4’s opponent became entangled in the cord. It snarled then began to struggle free, left behind by its pack members.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Espada Emi
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Hai moved quickly away from the scene of the fight while trying to keep alert and maintain his bearings as he hurried down the tunnels. Jana, on the other hand, waited to give the creature a few more quick zaps and an angry shriek before rolling almost nervously after her Master.

The Tuk'ata twitched and growled, its form limp. A familiar pair of eyes watched the student and his droid hurry down the tunnel. It growled then began to advance onto its fallen companion. With a sharp movement, it managed to snap the cord off. The younger male began to raise before its savior lashed out leaving a painful, red stripe on its skin. A pitiful yelp echoed throughout the caves.

Hai and Jana flinched at the yelp, but the boy quickly shrugged it off and moved on. They passed by several smaller intersections following the Overseer’s instructions, until they came out into a wider circular chamber that ended the passageway. The ground was rougher now, uneven under his feet and easier to trip over in the dark. Except, things weren’t all dark anymore. Apart from Jana’s light and the red flare of the lightsaber, there was a soft white glow radiating from the center of the chamber. As they got closer, it was easy for Hai to see that it was the flowers he needed that gave off the gentle light.

“Jana, snip and store two of the flowers for sampling and fetch a third for my use. I’ll stand guard.”

Hai wasn’t going to be taken by surprise. Not with only one working arm. He backed up facing the dead end’s entrance, lightsaber still held in his left hand. Jana could give him the antidote but he couldn’t risk letting his guard down to fetch it himself as much as he wanted to. Besides, collection for the Overseer came first. He had to prove himself.

A set of glowing eyes glared through the darkness, followed by bared teeth as a familiar shape stepped into the faint light. A sleek Tuk’ata, the very one tangled by the cords, emerged. It growled and edged forward cautiously. A large gash painted its side from its pack’s members.

It rushed at Hai running along the side. Before it reached him, it leapt into the air with mouth open and ready to take a bite out of his shoulder. J4n4 began to saw off a section of the plant causing sticky, glowing sap to leak down the stem.

Hai pivoted, trying to whirl out of the path of the oncoming beast, but his reflexes were just a hair too slow thanks to the poison coursing through him. Instead the beast was a little off target but bit into the shoulder of his paralyzed arm as it bore him to the ground. Between his Zabrak biology and the numbness from the poison, he avoided any real pain or disabling shock, but he was still fighting for his life.

Hai screamed at his attacker more from anger than anything else and started hitting it repeatedly with the training saber. For its part the tuk’ata seemed equally determined, savaging the increasingly shredded shoulder in its jaws and trying to tear into the boy’s face and stomach with both sets of claws. In the writhing struggle neither could land a decisive enough strike until Hai switched off the lightsaber and reversed it to stab down at the Tuk’ata’s face directly.

The pain caused the Tuk’ata to retreat. Half its face a bloodied and cooked mess. It shook the blood off its face, splattering all over. One more shape appeared from the shadows, but it didn’t rush up and into the fray. It lingered at the side waiting and watching. Likely seeing which would kill each other first.

Once the blood cleared from its vision it went in for the boy’s foot. Its jaws clamped down and it ripped him toward the exit. Mindful of the lightsaber, it let go long enough to prevent the boy from hitting it. However, the moment he started to rise it went for his foot with new determination.

Haiki struggled to get a swing in, but the warped animal was too crafty for him now and he’d already taken two more gashes for each time he’d failed. The thing was probably planning to drag him back to its lair and let its packmates devour him alive. No...he couldn’t die like that, he wouldn’t! But between the poison and the blood loss he could hardly focus and he could feel himself getting weaker. Maybe he had already failed.

With a shrieking battle cry Jana bowled into the Tuk’ata and started zapping it in the face with her taser, trying to give her master a chance to break free and fight.

The Tuk’ata shrieked, letting go of Haiki’s foot. It lost its balance and fell onto its side, snapping at Jana’s rounded body. Teeth scraped on the armor creating deep gashes, but no internal damage. The Tuk’ata raised its head to utter a barking cry. Once more it rose wobbily to its feet as its tail whipped about to sting Haiki.

Haiki scrambled backwards and barely got the training saber up in time to deflect and burn the stinger tail, oozing blood from his shoulder and foot along with half a dozen other smaller gashes. He threw himself shakily to his feet as Jana shot another entangling cord at the threat and then the two of them ran as fast as the Acolyte’s near-death condition allowed.

He had no desire to stay and be eaten and who knew if the beast would call others of its kind. Someday he vowed, he would come back here and burn all of these things out of the catacombs and wipe them all out. But today he would count himself lucky to be alive. If he actually lived through the day.

After a while of running, or at least something weakly imitating running he turned back to Jana. He grimaced as he noticed how that filthy animal’s claws had scratched up her paint. His chest was starting to go numb and breathing was getting harder in ways that didn’t have to do with the exertion. Jana beeped hopefully and extended one of the stems out to him. He took it in his one good hand and tried to squeeze the liquid from the stem into his mouth, just one mouthful. He hoped it wasn’t too late. It would be an unforgivable embarrassment to succeed like this and then die moments after.

The numbness subsided after a few moments, leaving him to breathe easier. He relaxed slightly, though blood loss and exhaustion were taking their toll and he wouldn’t truly feel safe until he was far from the catacombs. He made his way slowly back to Overseer Cessair, limping and pressing a torn, formerly less bloody strip of his uniform to his shoulder wound.

When Haiki entered her classroom, Cessair looked up from her datapad. She made no extra effort to move from her seat or help him. Instead, she leaned back.

Hai presented the flower he hadn’t drank from to the Sith Overseer, in the little vessel he’d given her. “Well,” Hai paused and gestured to his many wounds and the blood matting him head to toe. “It wasn’t easy, but I got your flower”

Mara didn’t say thank you as she took the vessel. Her figure rose to place it into one of the pots filled with water and soil. She sealed it tightly in a cabinet with a lock before she went to another. From it, she pulled another vial and passed it to Haiki. Her face remained firm and unaffected.

“Drink this and I will teach you one brew. Any additional lessons need to be earned through tasks and other errands.” she stated clearly to ensure he understood.

The boy nodded, his bloodied face serious more than excited as he took the vial, uncorked it and swallowed its contents. Immediately the symptoms started to fade. Mara continued to keep her unimpressed mask and took her seat. She continued to work on grading the projects, indicating she dismissed him. Before he exited, her voice broke the silence.

“Your lesson will begin next week. About three hours after class, do not be late or I will put my energy elsewhere. I hope you will show more respect and subtlety with your actions in the future.”
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