Selus returns

(( Wow. Just...wow. My humble thanks to the player of Selus for making the awkward and tension so real and honest. It was a great scene to RP, and I'm excited to share it. ))

Selus spotted Aittera on the upper Promenade in the evening, wearing her usual leather trench coat over a black mini-dress and thigh high boots. Her hands were stuffed into her pockets, her usual sexy strut was obvious even if partially concealed by the coat itself, and the hard look he had once seen on her so often back when they first met was apparent from his vantage point as she made her way down a crowded walkway.

Making his way to a point that would intersect where she was heading, he pulled the wide rimmed hat low so that she couldn't tell it was him until she was passing.  He pushed it up to show his face with a "Going someplace awfully fast aren't you, Angel Girl?"  And gave her a wink with his normal grin.

Aittera was brought up short, and for a moment, it looked as though he was about to get an insult or worse. Recognition registered in her expression though, clearing the storm from her deep blue eyes, and she launched herself into his arms with a cry of utter joy, kissing him deeply. He wrapped his arms around her as he slipped them inside her trench coat, pulling her body against his as much as possible, and returned the kiss with affection as though he could somehow say how much he'd missed her with just a single kiss.

The crimson-haired rogue pulled back to look the Cathar over, smiling affectionately at him as she confirmed for herself that he was really there and in one piece. "You're finally back!"

Selus gave her a nod and placed another soft kiss to the corner of her mouth, taking her hand in his. "I am, with a surprise."

"You mean you aren't surprise enough? I was about to send out a search party," she joked, squeezing his hand.

He laughed and pulled her out of the crowd, over toward the seating area overlooking the inner promenade. "Yeah, I heard you have one of your own too."

Aittera blinked, her immediate thought conjuring Ragious's face in her mind. "I do?"

Ragious's Force-projected image appeared behind Selus, still clad in the pants from their last shared dream and shirtless.  He looked over with a glare at the Cathar as Selus gave voice to the surprise he was speaking of. "I heard you got yourself a new place here."

Aittera's gaze flickered over Selus's shoulder, then back to his face as a self-conscious flush crept toward her cheeks from her hairline as though her scarlet locks were somehow setting her face on fire. "Oh! Right, the flat! Yeah, I was tired of the hotel, and I...thought...well, it's a long story. What's your surprise?"

"I salvaged the Hope,"  he said with a smile, hoping that the news would be happy rather than a reminder of the events surrounding the attack.  "It's in rough shape, but the main hull was intact."

At hearing the news that the Cathar had, Ragious almost shook with anger, fading slowly from view. The last look on his face was one of pure murder, aimed at Selus' back.

The news was a surprise alright, leaving Aittera stunned for a moment as her eyes drifted back to that spot over Selus's shoulder in time to see Ragious fade from view. Her smile dissolved.

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd be happy.  I know living on the Wanderer with me hasn't been easy, or ideal.  I wanted you to have your own space again.  Didn't think you'd go in for a brand new ship, but maybe fixing the old?"

Aittera's mind seemed to leap after the fading vision and scrambled to catch up to the conversation at hand all at once, making her response sound as though it came from far away as she tried to focus on Selus's face again. "Uh...no...yeah, that's...I didn't think it was possible."

"Well, it took me a while to find it, due to the way it drifted after the attack.  I was surprised by how intact it was.  I suspect it may have had some kind of rotational soft impact, or maybe even the emergency thrusters came online at the last second."

He noticed her look, and wanted badly to figure out the reason for it, struggling to find the proper way to ask about it. "Is there something going on, Aittera?  You don't sound exactly like yourself?"

"No! I guess I just never considered it possible that the Hope could've survived." The smile she managed was telling in the way it was a little tighter and contrived, very unlike the candid one she'd had upon first seeing him. "Where is it now?"

"The asteroid.  I didn't want to start work on it before I talked to you."  He gave the hand he was holding a squeeze.  "I missed you, I really did. I should have called."

She nodded, her expression softening at the feeling of his hand tightening around hers. "I wish you had. Come on, let me show you my flat."

Aittera stood to lead him back the way she'd been coming from. "I didn't realize you'd be gone so long. When I said I wanted a few days to myself, I didn't realize it'd be weeks."

"Well, I didn't realize it'd be weeks either.  And believe me, I would have rather been with you than the salvage team."

Selus followed her, never letting go of her hand as if he couldn't bear the thought of not having that contact with her, even if it was through a glove for the time being. When they reached her door, she keyed it open and waved a hand inward to invite him inside. The apartment was small, but not cramped, and there was still no furniture. However, there were two potted plants, and at the base of one, there was a flurry of motion in the foliage before a small creature poked its head out, looking along its flat snout toward the source of noise that disturbed it.

"I don't have any food, but we could order something."

"Oh, that'd be fine."  The Cathar's eyes were drawn to the creature. "Did you get a pet?"

Aittera glanced toward the miniature raptor as it ducked back into the cover of the plant and nodded with a little self-conscious chuckle. "Damn thing gave me sad eyes when I saw it, and I got suckered in. I was supposed to be buying furniture."

Selus turned to her with a smirk. "Aittera Timm, putting down roots.  I never would have guessed.  So why do you not have any furniture?"

She shrugged, crossing the room to activate a panel that revealed a small screen, and tapped in an order from a local restaurant she knew delivered. "I tried a few times, but I just couldn't find anything I liked."

"Huh.  Maybe you should try again, I can't imagine you could entertain much here without places to sit, besides the floor that is,"  he teased as he moved toward the plant with the raptor to sit against the wall.  "This thing isn't going to try to eat me is it?"

She chuckled as she shook her head. "No, he eats the plants apparently. That's why I got two. And I'm not really the entertaining type, but you know that," she added with a smirk as she finished sending the order.

Once that was finished, she walked over to sit on the floor in front of him, reaching over to rub the flat of the raptor's snout. Selus leaned his head back against the wall, just watching her for several minutes as if trying to see what had happened in his absence, wondering why he felt so...uncomfortable here.  "This feels weird, doesn't it?"

Aittera's response didn't match the look in her face, and she knew it, but her eyes remained focused on the little reptilian creature. "I don't know. It's not as though either of us does 'domestic'."

"No, I know.  And you do too.  What happened while I was gone?"

"Made the deal with Khor about not going after Ragious." She realized she was dodging the meaning behind the question, but it felt like Ragious was in the room, analyzing the interaction, watching her every reaction to Selus. Then, of course, there was Selus and everything she had been sure she was going to say to him that just refused to come out.

Selus frowned, knowing there was something she wasn't saying, but he didn't want to make this a fight or confrontation - something they'd done far too much of before he left.  "Yeah, but that doesn't feel like the issue this time.  I know you were upset about that, this feels like you're completely avoiding something."

"I mean, I come back and you're not at the hotel, I have to find out from Ali why, and this place...it just feels weird me being here, like it's not someplace I should be."

"Somewhat ironic, since I think you're the reason I haven't bought any damn furniture," Aittera admitted with a slight smirk, rubbing her forehead with two fingers as though trying to see a clear path to take the conversation. She was trying to avoid another fight as well.

"Why would I be the reason?"  He truly seemed to have no clue.  "Unless you mean...is this...are we through?"

Aittera winced, and it was clear to her suddenly that she'd considered it to be a possibility. "I meant that it didn't feel real, because I hadn't told you about it yet."

"Oh.  Okay then.  I was afraid you meant that you hadn't bought anything because you...well, apparently I jumped to a conclusion. I'm sorry."  Selus looked down at the floor as he worked his gloves off, his bared hand reaching down to run across the surface to feel it against his fur. "Something else happened, so you may as well come out with it."

"Khor said there could still be contact between me and Ragious. Like some kind of left over thing from the mind contact or something."

"And Khor was right I'm guessing?  That's what you're trying to avoid saying, isn't it?  You're still in contact with Darth Asshole."

Aittera looked up at him and nodded, her expression carefully neutral. "We've talked."

"You and he talked?  What could you possibly want to say to him?"

"I don't know. It just...happens. He says I think too loud or..." She blew out an uncomfortable breath and looked around the sparse living room. "It's not like I have actively sought him out or anything."

"Obviously suggesting Sky could help was a terrible idea."  Selus blew out a breath of his own. "What can I do to help?"

Aittera visibly stiffened at the mention of Sky, and she directed her gaze back to the raptor. "Just forget it. I can handle this. Let's just...eat and talk about what to do with the Hope."

"What about us?  Are we okay?"

The door chime sounded, and she got to her feet to answer it, part of her grateful for the interruption and hoping that he'd let the question slide away unanswered for the time being. Once the food was paid for, she stopped by the kitchen to grab a bottle of Whyren's, casting a quick glance around as though she expected Ragious's shimmering form to be standing there. Not surprisingly, she caught a glimpse of his Force-image angrily turning his back to her and disappearing.

When she returned, she set the bags and the bottle in the center of the floor before seating herself cross-legged beside Selus. "I ordered you a nerf steak."

"Thanks, it's been since the night I left that I've had a meal that didn't come out of a small bag and needed water added to it.  But you still didn't answer my question."

Aittera reached for the bottle first, opening it as she spoke in a softer tone. "Why didn't you call?"

"I didn't know what to say.  You were so angry at me for wanting us both to get out of that feud alive.  I knew a response to what we did was coming.  I knew it would be bloody. I guess I kind of figured if I gave you time, you'd be less mad.  And maybe if I brought back the Hope, you'd even be happy again."

"I'm not...mad." She took a long drink from the bottle and handed it to him. "And I am happy you found the Hope. It's all I had from Davin, and being on that ship makes me feel like maybe he didn't die in vain."

Selus took a drink and cut into his steak, taking a big bite and chewing it down before speaking, "So we should fix it.  Get you back in it.  And then maybe work on getting us back where we should be.  I love you, and upsetting you - even to save us - was the worst feeling I've ever felt."

Aittera nodded, taking the bottle back for another hefty drink before digging her own nerf burger with fries out of the take-out bags. "I love you too."

"That's really all that matters then.  If we remember that, then no matter what comes at us, we can just blast it." He gave her a wink and one of his grins that showed his fangs as he moved over closer to her to kiss her on the cheek, then re-positioned to sit closer to her.

"You know what? We should finish eating and take the rest of this bottle back to the Wanderer. I could use a night in a real bed for a change." Inwardly, she was cursing herself for actually entertaining the thought or notion that Selus's presence in the flat felt as much like an invasion of her privacy as his earlier expression of discomfort indicated. Further, it was irritating as hell that Ragious's reaction to her seeing him was for him to leave as though it was his presence that did belong there. Any other time, getting the bastard to walk away from her was nigh impossible.

"And the bed on the Wanderer is extremely comfortable.  And big.  And sturdy."  Selus offered with a grin. "And it's been missing one of the people that should be in it."

He moved a hand to her back, giving it a rub as his other brought a large piece of his nerf steak to his lips, chewing it down and moving to take another drink from the bottle.  "Then maybe tomorrow we should look at getting you some furniture for your place."

(( Added to The Next Chapter ))

Aittera's story

Because this is a blog and not a forum thread, the posts go from newest to oldest, which can be frustrating for anyone who hasn't been reading the stories shared here all along. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, because in the past, there were all of two people reading here, and I fell off of writing continually for any one character for a long while. 

However, posting for Aittera has become something I've fallen in love with, and I'm excited to find that a few new people are interested in her as well. I thought about posting a journal thread at a forum (and I might still do that), but in my experience, it's best to keep a copy of your work even when you trust the management of a forum. So, with that in mind, I've created two google documents to organize and post her ongoing story in a more traditional oldest to newest format. 

The first document is entitled Picking Up the Pieces and contains some of the original posts I made for her before some OOC issues kind of wrangled her story into a corner of sorts. I'm including it, though, because it contains some of the building blocks of who she is at her core and some of her history.

The second document, The Next Chapter, begins with where I started to pull her back on course and will be where I continue to add what's posted here as I go. 

Anyway, thanks for reading!

The Unthinkable

(( My continued thanks to the player of Ragious for every contribution that makes me look so much cooler! ))

Aittera sat up amidst plush, soft blankets and white silken sheets on the lavish bed that immediately beckoned to her to lie back down on the exquisite mattress that was so comfortable, it could in itself be a lover's embrace. The cool, slightly stale air that could only ever really exist in the constantly recycled and scrubbed atmosphere of a space station or starship was permeated by the smells of half a dozen types of blossoms, their fragrances blending into a distinctive aroma that set the senses alight and inspired sensual fantasies. Candlelight flickered from every corner of the room, painting the skin of her exposed thigh in warm hues against the ethereal white of the sheet it had slipped free of. Her brilliant warm curls hung loose and wild around her shoulders and cascaded down her bare back, trembling in crimson waves of motion as she turned her head to the faint hiss of the door sliding open.

She didn't recognize her surroundings, but all the same, she'd known them as though they were her own, and when Kol Arren's massive form appeared, silhouetted in the doorframe in a simple pair of loose black pants, the smile that formed on her soft, ruby lips was pure seduction. She lifted one hand to crook a finger toward him, wordlessly beckoning him to join her, and let the blankets fall away from her body. 

He stepped into the room, the door sliding closed behind him, and smiled affectionately at her as he drank in the sight of her naked form with admiration and desire, the only woman he could not conquer. At least, not before she had conquered him first...

And now, here they were on the other side of abandon, his wild muse meeting him at the edge of the bed as his fingers found their way through her firey locks, the seductive bass of his voice caressing her.

"I need you."

Bolting upright in his bed on Dromund Kaas, Ragious silently muttered the words in his mind again, incredulous that he could speak them even in a dream. He was Darth Ragious, he was one of the celebrated heroes of the Empire and he had accomplished that while remaining above the need for anyone. Yet, here he was in a dream telling Aittera Timm that he needed her.

He rose from the bed and moved toward the door, pulling the same damn pants that he had worn in the dream from where they lay across the back of a chair. He wouldn't be sleeping again tonight, he had someone to visit, an outlet for the anger that his actions in the dream caused him.

Rismaa

Finally! Finally! Harkyn and Rismaa have managed to get past awkward and into smooches!

Sheri'dan Character Bio

Char Name: Sheri'dan Zila

Age: 28

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Basic available info: 

Youngest child of Republic army General Jafan Zila. Mother deceased ten years. Two older brothers, both members of the army.

Achieved LT rank in five years of service to the army. Dishonorably discharged after two years in military custody. Records sealed.

Known skills: Heavy weapons expert. Expert slicer. Systems analyst.

Personality:

For the most part, Sheridan's been fairly solitary since she left the military, taking short term mercenary contracts and jobs in Hutt Space and the Outer Rim for the most part. What little time she spends in the Core, she keeps as brief as possible.

In public settings, she's laid back with a charismatic way about her and seems to be able to get along with most anyone.

She's definitely got her own style and way of doing things, is cocky as hell, and rarely gets along with anyone who tries to excersize any kind of authority over her.

I take it back...

After careful consideration and discussion, it's been decided that I mis-assigned this egregiously the first time around.

This fits the original Sheridan...and a whole bunch of others from past and present as labelled below. I suppose that really just makes it a Lela song. :P

A New Twist on an Old Theme

Aittera sat bolt upright in the dim light of her bedroom, suddenly and completely awake. Her hair was matted with sweat, and judging from the condition of the blanket, she'd been wrestling with it in the moments before the vision of a Sith's armor beside an Imperial Admiral's uniform drove her from sleep.

Unlike the last, this dream had been vivid, and every detail assaulted her conscious thought. Clearly, whatever Skye had done to protect her mind from Kol's - Ragious, damnit! - influence was failing her. It was the only explanation, because even the idea that she could dream that sense of - excitement? thrill? - contentment to command the dreadnought that was to replace the one she and Selus had destroyed was unconscionable. Blue eyes scanned the dark space around her, peering into the corners of the room.

"If you're here, don't. Just...go." The dangerous edge in her voice was unmistakable. This was not going to end with what passed for a pleasant conversation between them, and that seductive reasoning he was so capable of would only make matters worse. If he had been drawn to her again, he was smart enough to heed the warning, as there was no sign of him.

It wasn't her dream, and somehow, she was aware of that, but that was not a comforting thought as it had been when he'd admitted the last was a result of thinking about her while he was with someone else. This was about her specifically, and the romantic overtones combined with the feelings suggested on both their parts was unthinkable.

She untangled the blanket and pulled it back into place as she laid down again, but she didn't fall back to sleep. Instead, she spent the next few hours contemplating the unthinkable.

Alone, but not

Aittera sulked in the back booth of another dimly lit cantina somewhere in one of the seedier neighborhoods of Nar Shaddaa, plowing her way through a bottle of whiskey as she played the previous night's visit over again in her mind.

It had been a week since the day Ragious had appeared to her, chiding her for thinking about him too loudly, claiming to be the closest thing she had to a best friend. He might be right, now. The only real friend she had on the moon was now lying in a coma, and even he had been too busy to really talk much beyond the afternoon they'd spent trying to salvage what friendship they could from the past they'd shared. She had thought about calling Selus, but there was so much that she needed to say to him, and once she began, she wasn't sure he'd be inclined to just sweep it all aside or forgive her.

Ragious had admitted that this time it had been his thoughts that had drawn their minds together, but it hadn't been the simple matter of his image appearing next to her or stalking toward her. He'd been in her dream, and that dream had followed her into consciousness. Unlike the two dreams she'd shared with Jheryth, there was no sense of clarity, and when she woke up, she wasn't even sure of more than a few details. It wasn't really until the Sith's image appeared in her room and told her that the dream had unintentionally been his doing that she'd even known that he'd been the man in it.

Now, though...

Now, she recalled every detail.

Aliyobi

The Dark Lord Returns

(( My heartfelt gratitude to the player of Darth Ragious, as ever. ))

Aittera stepped out of her as yet unfurnished flat to head toward the nearest taxi stand. It had been a couple of weeks since her meeting with Khor to discuss the terms of surrender the truce between herself and Darth Ragious.

She'd been establishing new contacts while looking at job possibilities locally with security firms and privately owned companies. Not that she'd take a job like that, of course, she told herself. Something about a security job felt too normal or safe to really consider seriously. But it made her feel busy enough to justify whittling away at her savings and kept her mind off of Selus during his increasingly prolonged absence. Look for a job, talk to someone, drink, sleep, repeat.

She was trying not to think of exactly these things when Ragious came to her thoughts, as if the image of his face leaning forward towards her had just been waiting for this moment to remind her that so much else in her life had gone awry since they first met.

As if summoned by her thoughts, his force image appeared beside her at the taxi stand, dressed in the same plain black tunic, pants and boots he'd worn during their last encounter.  "You know, when you call out for me that loudly, it is very hard to ignore you."

Aittera nearly jumped at the sound of his voice and turned to look at the force image after a quick glance around to see if anyone was looking in her direction. She spoke quietly to keep from being overheard by potential passersby. "I didn't call. Go away!"

"I'm not the one that was thinking at me.  And rather loudly.  So instead of fighting, why don't we talk things through so that you can go back to ignoring that I exist."

She moved away from the taxi stand to a railing so she could talk to him without looking like a totally crazy person by putting her back to the very public space she'd been standing in. He moved with her, walking through a passing Nautilan who remained completely oblivious to the Sith's projected image. "I just...thought about you. I don't know why."

"Because with all the other upheaval in your life, I'm a constant."

"A constant annoyance?" she replied with a smirk, joking as much as not. "It's probably because you started it by blowing up the other constant in my life."

"Face it, I'm the closest thing you have to a best friend right now.  And why haven't you just bought another ship?  You could have done that instead of buying that flat."

"I'm renting the flat. I can't just buy any other ship. I want my ship. It's what it turned into that I can't seem to---Why am I trying to explain this to you?" She was more irritated with herself than anything else by the way she'd almost admitted to her worst enemy of all people. He wasn't her friend, and she just didn't open up like this to anyone, and yet, she found herself saying, "I can't even figure out how I'm going to explain this to him."

"Then why not buy another ship and make it into your ship.  Or, you could ask nicely for me to give you one of the freighters I've confiscated for you to remake it your own."

"It's not the same. It's about what that ship represented." The internal debate she's had several times with herself over the subject returned, clouding her blue eyes with a storm of emotion as she looked out over the horizon of floating buildings above Nar Shaddaa.

"I didn't even name it right away. It was just a ship." She wasn't speaking to Darth Ragious anymore, and his voice almost startled her all over again when he spoke once more.

"What was the ship's name anyway? We never salvaged it." He seemed to be doing two things at once, but something in the way he was looking at her made it seem as though he was treating her as his priority.

"The Devious Hope."

"That seems like a fitting name for your ship."

A dark smirk on her lips. "I bought it to be a coffin."

"Is some part of you upset that you didn't die in the attack?"

Aittera scoffed, and a breath later, she was chuckling. "No. No, this...one has nothing to do with the other. I bought the Hope with my bereavement pay and wrongful death settlement payout."

"I was going to say.  You must have realized by now that regardless of any threats I made, I was never going to kill you."

She looked over at his image with a short nod, drawing herself out of the past and back to the present. "Just turn me into another Renn'a?"

"You've been listening to the Alderaanian's lies again.  I do not know why everyone uses her as some kind of insult.  Renn'a is a beautiful, intelligent, cunning, sexy woman.  She and I share something that is both special and meaningful and the way you all choose to denigrate her, it is...angering."

Aittera smirked at him. "Pisses me off every time you call Selus my Cathar like he's my pet."

Ragious gave her a deadpan stare. "Like he wouldn't put on a collar for you."

"What makes you think that's not what I was referring to when I mentioned her?"

His image shrugged. "So have you told him you moved out on him yet?"

Her good humor dissolved. "What makes you think the flat isn't for both of us?"

"You would have furnished it if it was."

"I could be waiting for him to help--" She sighed with an irritated scowl. "I just need my own space."

"There, was telling the truth so hard?  I don't know why you always insist on fighting me.  All I want is to be good to you."

"No, you want me to be one of your women, and I don't belong to anyone."

"If it was only about you being one of my women, I'd just take you again.  You know I probably could after all."

"Then, what is it?" She found herself genuinely curious, though later, she'd ask herself what the hell she was thinking by asking.

"If I said what I suspected, you'd go back to fighting me.  And I'd rather keep up the illusion of friendliness between us."

Suspicion clouded her features as she studied the image of his face. "I'm not even sure why I am talking to you." But she did know. Much as she hated him, she at least knew where she stood with him and how she felt about him. That was more than she knew when it came to anyone else these days - especially the too-long-absent Selus.

"I should go. I'm meeting a friend for lunch."

"You're such a liar.  But I suppose I should get back to the attack I'm overseeing."

Aittera bristled, trying to push away thoughts of dying Republic soldiers. "I'll try to think quieter."

"You have only but to think of me and I'll be there for you, Aittera."  His image gave her a bow and disappeared, leaving her alone with the thoughts she'd been working so hard to avoid.

Resentment

Aittera sat curled up in a booth in the back of a cantina somewhere in the red light district, glaring at the bottle she'd been plowing her way through. The seedy little dive was relatively quiet in the dimly lit back corner where she'd taken refuge, and even without the aid of Force abilities, she'd managed to convey the message that she was not worth interrupting on her way in.

"So you do plan to fight me after all then?"

She had been tempted - oh so very tempted - by that little seductive whisper Khor had breathed into her ear. Hell, a year ago, she'd have tumbled right into the bastard's bed without a second thought. He was charming, damned attractive, and that confidence....

A year ago. 

Before Selus chased her down and forced her to reinvest in her life. 

Back in the days she ran from anyone who could make her feel like she wasn't a walking corpse with a dead husk of what was once a heart in her chest. 

"I've been resenting the hell out of him lately, and sleeping with someone else - even if he never knows about it - would be some kind of....I don't know. Punishment?"

What she'd said echoed in her ears as she played out the rest of her meeting with Khor in her mind, and she began to wonder how she hadn't seen it before that moment. It wasn't just the way Selus had pushed for the truce, invoking what he knew about her past to know exactly how to make her give in, and the more she let her mind sift back through everything that had happened since the Devious Hope had been destroyed, the more she found to resent.

She loved him though. She would love him forever if he walked into the cantina right that second and stabbed her in the heart. She would move planets for him. So, she would have to find a way to make things right between them.

Somehow.

Surrender

(( Huge, huge thanks to the player of Untruth for this awesome scene! You always make me look so good. ))

Aittera stepped up to the door of the penthouse suite and knocked. She hadn't called first or told anyone what she intended to do. Selus would have wanted her to wait until he returned from the business that had taken him away from the moon, but it was bad enough he'd made her agree to let her vendetta against Ragious go in the first place, so damned if she was going to do this with him holding her hand like some obedient little girlfriend. Her pride was already stretched far too thin.

Khor answered the door once more in his workout attire, his chest bared.  His lightsabers hung from his belt, and he seemed to have been practicing at a high level, judging by the sweat that glistened on his skin.  "Aittera, this is a surprise."

She quirked an eyebrow when she saw him, unable to help the suggestive smirk that came to play on her lips. In truth, red was never all that attractive in members of the opposite sex, but his chiseled chest and muscular arms were impressive, and she couldn't help the sultry note in her tone. "Is this a bad time?"

"Not at all, you merely caught me in the midst of a workout.  Please come in."  He stepped aside to allow her entrance, closing the door behind her. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"I'm here to take you up on your offer," she answered simply, slipping the trenchcoat from her shoulders to hand to him before sauntering toward the seating area, hips swaying. Alright, this was a little much, she knew, but the way he'd smiled at her when he'd first opened the door was inspiration to flirt if ever she'd seen it. Besides, she wasn't above a little feminine manipulation to smooth negotiations.

Khor moved to the closet near the door and hung her coat inside, his eyes tracking her movement, glad to be able to use his already somewhat heated state to hide the arousal he was beginning to feel. "I rather expected to meet with you and Selus.  And to have Ali with me when we did.  What changed?"

He sat in one of the chairs opposite her.

"I've had the chance to really think about what this will cost me, and I think you're right. No matter how this goes, the price I or Selus will have to pay is too much." You can take the liar out of SIS...or however that's supposed to go, she thought with a glance toward the liquor cabinet. "Do you have anything other than Chimbak?"

"Of course, I'm sure you can find something you would enjoy, please make yourself whatever you would like."  He stayed seated, contemplating what she had said and wondering what could have changed her mind after the reluctance he'd sensed in her during their last meeting.

"Some host you are," she chided, getting up to stroll over to the liquor cabinet.

"To be honest, I wasn't sure you would agree to my offer.  I sort of had you pegged as so set on revenge that regardless of what I said it wouldn't be enough."

"You were right. There was nothing you could've said. Selus was the one who said it." Aittera located the Whyren's and retrieved two glasses to bring back to the chair with her. After opening the bottle, she poured them each a drink and handed one of the glasses to him.

He gave her a grin as he took the offered drink then held the glass up to her. "Forgive me, I wanted an excuse to watch you walk again.  You are quite enticing you know. I'm sure you have some terms you'd like to discuss?"

The compliment elicited a coy smile, and she tapped her glass against his before knocking back the contents in one go. "He doesn't go near Selus, and nothing Jheryth Chrystopher does comes back on me and mine. That bastard's been trying to get me to help him, and now that he knows I won't, I'm sure he'll concoct some hair-brained plan to frame me to keep Ragious from looking in his direction."

"Why not cut Jheryth off at the knees, then?  Work with my family against him?"  Khor seemed to be thinking aloud. "It would be the last thing he and my father expect, and you can be certain that my father would consider himself greatly in your debt."

Aittera gave a quick shake of her head that sent thick waves of red into motion as she refilled her glass. "I won't act against him either, and I don't work with Sith. You're on your own when it comes to Jheryth. Consider the news that your father isn't the only person he's after as a gift for helping me make this grudge war go away."

"That's unfortunate, I rather think you and I could have got on quite well."  He gave her another grin before taking a long drink from the glass. "I can make what you ask happen.  But I would like to know why Jheryth is once again plaguing my family."

"Oh come now, Khor'deth, I think we're getting on very well right now," she flirts before addressing Jheryth. "I really couldn't say. When we spoke, he went on and on about how your father broke Renn'a. Apparently, before he became obsessed with me, he was obsessed with her."

"Actually, I believe it was at the same time.  And Renn'a is not broken.  If he continues to speak such nonsense my father will be the least of his worries."  Khor seemed genuinely upset at the characterization of his father's pet, and for the first time in her presence, his usual even temperament gave way to a tone that she could easily associate with a Sith's rage.

Aittera remained passive as she waited for him to take another drink to collect himself, keeping her thoughts focused on the task at hand and as far away from the subject of Jheryth's interests in Renn'a and her sister as possible.

When he continued, he returned to the friendly nature he'd begun the conversation with. "And I agree, we are getting on quite well, but I am ever the optimist for better relations."

"Maybe he just has a thing for redheads," she offered coyly as though the temporary loss of control didn't happen at all, and finished the second glassful of amber liquid.

"Yes, well, I hope that anyone that admires him will still be able to do so when he becomes about a foot shorter. Though I can't imagine that is any great number of people."

"I doubt anyone admires him nearly as much as he does."

"Well, I guess he wins after all if he persists on his current path, because his head will be in a much better position to admire the rest of his body."

Laughing, she leaned forward to pour herself another glassful of the whiskey. "Well, regardless, I've washed my hands of him." Once the glass was full, she looked up at him with a serious light in the depths of her cool blue eyes, leaving the subject of Jheryth behind. "I also want Skyka to be left alone. She's been through enough."

"As I previously mentioned, my father has found other places for his Twi'lek interests anyway.  But I will be sure to mention her to him."

Aittera sat back to watch him over the rim of her glass. "Then, we have a deal?"

"We always did, Aittera."

"Are you in frequent contact with him?"

"My father?  Not really.  I mostly pass messages through his adjutant, but for this I will make the trek back to the homeworld in person."

"I would tell you to give him my best, but we both know that'd be a pile of bantha dung," she joked, taking a sip from her glass as her gaze remained fixed on his face.

"There is one small matter though.  You will probably still feel some presence from my father, it works both ways if I understand it correctly, and isn't a conscious act.  My father mentioned that it may even be a side effect of Skyka's well intentioned, but not so...effective...shielding attempt."

"Will he stop showing up in my damn bedroom or any room in which I'm not completely dressed? A girl tends to appreciate her privacy."

"I'm sure he will. That part is something he can control."

Aittera smirked - albeit more good-naturedly than cynically. "It'd be nice if he started excersizing that control."

"I will do all I can to impress upon him the importance of it."  He returned the smirk.

She leaned forward to extend her hand toward him. "Then, I am finished trying to make him pay for what he's done to me."

Khor stood and moved to take the hand, holding it in less of a handshake and more as one would hold a ladies hand.  He bowed, bringing it to his lips. "I am glad that we were able to find a way to achieve peace, Aittera.  And I hope that this will not be the only thing we ever meet to discuss."

She stood when he did, regarding the gesture with an amused grin. "I appreciate that you're a gentleman, Khor, but I was hoping to shake hands on reaching agreeable terms," she chided playfully with a little glint in her eye. "Of course, if you're that eager to get rid of me, I can go, and you can put this all in writing and send it to me."

Laughing, he gave her the handshake she teased about before moving to sit again, this time in the chair next to her. "I was actually hoping you'd want to stay a while."

Aittera looked down at the half empty glass in her other hand, then back to him. "Oh? Why is that?"

"Why would a handsome man want a beautiful woman to continue to keep him company?  I'm wondering if it wouldn't be quicker to list the number of reasons why he wouldn't."

Despite her better judgement, she sat back down, chuckling. "Well, keep flattering me, and I'll stay as long as you like."

Khor turned to look at her, his knee touching hers. "If you're not careful I'll attempt to flatter you into never leaving."

She turned in her chair so they could talk face to face, inadvertently sliding her knee against his, and studied his face for a moment with a curious smile. "It's uncanny."

He gave her a rather charming smile as he moved his hand along the back of the chair behind her, "What is?"

"You have your mother's eyes and your father's smile, but beyond the physical, you're nothing like either of them. How did that happen?" She finished the contents of her glass, aware of the shift in his interest - as well as the placement of his hand and the open body language - knowing that she should put an end to it before it could go any further.

Khor took a drink to finish his glass and leaned over to place it on the table in front of the chair.  When he returned his gaze to her, she found his smile still there, mixed with some curiosity of his own. "They say we're products of how we were raised.  I was brought up to value education, and I hope you won't find me arrogant when I say that I am quite a bit smarter than most.  I can see the pitfalls of the traditional Sith attitudes and way of things.  Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate any kind of peace with the Republic that requires any concession on our part.  I know what happened in the last war, how we were hunted."

"I have decided to walk a path that let's me be Sith, without being like either of my parents, and I believe I am doing quite well for myself on it."

Aittera dropped her gaze to the glass in her hand thoughtfully, and the light, playful nature evaporated as she spoke a part of the thought his answer has evoked. "I hope for your sake that you don't lose that vision then."

"I hope it does not frighten you when I say that I can be every bit as ruthless as my father when it is required, and I am every bit as cunning as my mother.  I simply have...a gift for seeing when I need to employ those particular tools."

Normally, she'd return with a quip about not being afraid of anything, but instead, she simply looked up at him again and nodded with a small smile. "Now, if you could just convince the rest of the Empire."

"The Empire is what it is for it's very survival.  I'm afforded the ability to walk the path I do not in spite of the Empire's reputation, but because of it.  I could show you histories Aittera, and not just Imperial, but histories of the Jedi Order that they've tried to cover up that shows just how big of hypocrites they are when it comes to what they would do to us if given a chance."

"Do you think that there would be no war if the Jedi weren't involved?"

"That depends on what you're asking.  If the Jedi never existed, there never would have been Sith."

"I'm not sure what I'm asking at this point. To be honest, I think I'd like to go back to the decision I made in the first place to sit out the rest of the war. I signed a lease on a flat above the Promenade a few days ago."

Khor moved his hand from the back of the chair to brush along her upper back through the fabric of her top - something almost unconscious as his fingertips lightly rubbed against her shirt. "I think that is a good decision, I would hate for you and I to ever find ourselves on opposing sides of a battle."

The touch brought the coy smile back to her lips, banishing the serious contemplation and along with it, the shadow that had cast itself over her features. "Oh, I can put up one hell of a fight."

He laughed. "Of that I am quite certain, but I imagine sometimes there are much better ways to go about something than fighting."

"Heh. Yeah, but none that I'm good at."

That's right. I'm pulling out the damn Disney.

Because certain characters aren't listening to me!

Aliyobi

Riukii

Big surprise. It's a 'dat ass' song. :P

Drama (OOC Rant)

All I really want to do is just rp. It's the most de-stressing activity I have. It gets me out of my own convoluted emotionally fucked up screwed up head where I'm very aware that I once had a genius IQ and a rock solid memory and real potential to be someone but am now defined by a mental illness that makes me “that crazy woman” no one can rely on. It helps me fend off paranoid thoughts, hopeless thoughts, irrational fears, unbearable memories. It's my greatest coping mechanism, gives vent to what creativity hasn't been burned out of me by years of medications and other soul-crushing experiences that, quite frankly, are none of your damn business, so, no, I won't go into detail about them here.


It's an escape. It's fantasy. It's better than a movie or even a good book. It's a game of pretend and make believe. It's a safe place to be.


Now, imagine that I'm in this safe space, relaxed, guard down, and it's invaded with ooc whispers/messages about how Person A is pissed with me or Person B is mad at Person C or how someone thinks I'm a bad person for whatever reason. It chases me out of that safe space and back into a reality where I'm a bundle of insecurities and irrational, where my uncontrollable emotional reactions are waiting to take over. It feels like an attack. It's drama with a capital D. It makes me want to flee, which I often do quite readily.


This is a game. This is supposed to be where I go to have fun. Logically, it would seem to me that if I'm not having fun, then I should go elsewhere. I have enough stress in my real life. I have enough real drama to deal with. I have real problems in the real world.


Let me be clear here. If you choose to yell at me, the player, for what my character does, be sure it's for an RP faux paus and not a character flaw. Be sure you know that what my character does is NOT what I would do in a similar situation. For example, if you met Alan Rickman tomorrow in a grocery store, would you yell at him about what his character, Hans Gruber, did in Die Hard? Would you get into a screaming match with Roderick Thorp (the novelist who wrote the book) about how evil the character he wrote is?

If you can't separate IC from OOC well enough that you have an emotional reaction that makes you yell at me in ooc tells about my character's actions, you will be ignored. If you have a problem with someone else that I'm friends with, don't bring it to me, go talk to them, and stop trying to put me in the middle! I can talk things out rationally if you talk to me rationally, but I'm not the villain in your little personal melodrama.


I'm done being sent into tears every time someone wants to yell at me about how to play my characters. I'm not your whipping post. If you need to vent about something, fine, but don't bring me your issues with someone else and expect me to solve them or stop being friends with someone else on your behalf. I don't do that.


So, back the hell off.

Aittera

Riukii

Aittera

Veeh'ra Bio

Char Name: Veeh'ra Starbreaker

Age: 19

Eye Color: Pale blue cybernetic implants

Identifying marks: Extensive scarring over her scalp

Background:

Severe head trauma caused by crushing damage in a "training incident" (that wasn't her fault), so her entire skull had to be rebuilt. Cyborg tech was used to restore 100% of her motor functions and 75% of the rest of the damage to her brain. This made for a total personality change from the dedicated and good-natured soldier she used to be to a calculating, cold, fearless warrior without a moral compass. She follows her orders completely without regard to right or wrong. She is actually a better fighter than she was before the incident, the cybernetics enhancing her combat skills and abilities. She's blunt and sometimes crude. Her blaster rifle is named Jayne, and it is her most favorite piece of weaponry in the whole universe.