OOC: Heya Xalsin. I couldn't resist entering this thread. Boot me if ya want As far as the character, I have pages of bio and background information, but I was just going to introduce it all in the story. Cheers!
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The hoots and cat-calls could be heard throughout Cell Block 14 as they brought in their latest prisoner. If the creature were standing, it may have stood a couple of inches over six feet tall, but he was being dragged by a pair of Imperial guards to its cell: 282. Keying open the cell door, they tossed the deathly pale humanoid into its confines. Long, stark white, yet matted hair obscured the man's face. The man groaned in agony and looked up at his captors with undisguised hate, peering through the long locks of bloody hair. His eyes were completely white save the pinpricks of blackness that served as the creature's pupils. Brushing his tangled hair away from his face, the near-human appeared to be very attractive, but it was hard to tell from the swelling and blood covering his purple-hued face. To the prisoners, it was obvious that this prisoner put up resistance early and easily explained why he was so broken...
Brodie nodded slowly. "Brodie understands. The Brothers live life one way, they give example to Brodie for him to follow. Brodie tries his best." He replied the the young girls statement.
ooc: sorry for the delay and the pathetic shortness of this post, but i'm back!
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C. S. Lewis
"And for one last instance, I'm Human again." - Sergeant Ghost
OOC: hehe, good to have you in, Nilanna.. I had nigh forgot about this thread... Good to see you're still around, Vague
IC:
Tayne started out of his nap at the sound of cheering and jeering from the other prisoners. That could only mean a new fish had been ushered into their ranks, though it was unusual for them to bring someone into the cell blocks this late in the evening, when most everyone was already locked away for the night.
Tayne jumped to his feet, pushing aside the tech manual he had been reading before he had slipped into sleep, and stuck his head up against the barred window built into the door. THe guards were dragging in a large mass that looked like a giant bruise with hair. Tayne smirked slightly, wondering what the man had done to earn that kind of beating. In his short time here, the young half Zabrak had learned a small level of automatic respect for any one who would take a beating for the sake of rebellion.
The man looked more or less conscious, and there was a brief moment that their eyes met before he was dragged out of sight into the cell next to Tayne's.
It took several moments for the guards to quiet the prisoners, generally by shouting threats and banging their stun batons against any body part that a prisoner was unwise enough to stick out. The noise quieted and the guards returned their post.
"What'd you do, new guy?" Tayne spoke quietly through the window, just loud enough to be heard. It was strange to speak as if he were some old veteran of this place, but it was another lesson he had learned quick and hard: act like you belong, or people will treat you like you don't.
*******
Kendra gave an almost wistful smile, looking distant for a moment. "I can't even imagine what that would be like. No one's ever wanted to give me anything, 'cept maybe a beating. They always want me to give them something. And I never wanted to learn what they wanted to teach. You must think an awful lot of them, huh?"
Brodie gave her a small nod. "They growed Brodie up." He said softly. "Special here." He pointed with a large hand towards his chest and tilted his head a bit to the side as he regarded Kendra.
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C. S. Lewis
"And for one last instance, I'm Human again." - Sergeant Ghost
"Yeah." Kendra's reply was equal parts bitterness and plain misunderstanding. Sure, she'd heard people throw around those phrases a lot, having someone in your heart, or the "love" word, but in her experience, it was all a lot of garbage. The word love, in her world, was nothing more than shallow lust that the occasional master had tried out on her to see if it would make her more compliant. The results were always the same: unsuccessful.
She wondered briefly what gave Brodie the right to have grown up with people that were so special to him. Obviously he had affection for them, and they had reciprocated. How was that fair? Kendra didn't even get along with other slaves, her own kind, but somehow Brodie, the monster that he looked like, had found a way to endear himself to a bunch of monks?
Well, whatever. When people said that life was unfair, they weren't just making noise, they were speaking a cosmic truth.
Kendra drifted away from the edge of her cell, back to her cot with a sigh. Her earlier victory in the fighting pit had assuaged the ball of anger that burned perpetually in her chest momentarily, but now she could feel it beginning to rekindle as her hatred for her situation, her life in general, began to reappear.
"Well, I suppose you'd better go." Her voice was flat, almost implying that leaving was not a mere suggestion. In part, she hoped that he would leave and never return. This strange man made her feel things that she was very uncomfortable with; an almost sense of calm, relaxation even, perhaps acceptance. These were things she had never really experienced before, and she wasn't sure how to handle them.
Yes, it was best to drive him away now, before he tried to get deeper. He had somehow made it through several layers of her emotional defenses and if he made it deeper, it would just be that much more painful when he was finally taken away from her. It doesn't matter what she gained, she would always lose it, so it made sense not to gain too much...
And yet, there was the other part of her that longed for that social connection with someone, anyone. Despite her best efforts, Brodie gave her a faint glimmer of hope, that maybe, just maybe, she had found someone who she could talk to, that actually did not want anything from her. That part of her hoped that he would stay, that he would never leave, that he would make absurd promises to come back and see her often.
It was ridiculous, and Kendra hated that part of her, but try as she may, she couldn't stop that faint glimmer of hope that tried to find a way to shine. Flopping down on her cot, she turned her back to him and stared at the wall. He would leave, eventually. And the sooner he did, the less it would hurt when that eventuality came.
Brodie might have trouble speaking properly, but the Ikotochi had no trouble understanding what was spoken to him. As far as words went, her statement was far from venomous. In fact the words themselves were darn near neutral. There was more to a statement than the words selected, though, and the absolute lack of humanity in her voice told him all he needed to know. Kendra might as well have just told him to space himself.
He sat still for a few long, silent moments. Perplexed. What happen? He wondered internally. Why she mad? He didn’t want to go. Brodie wanted to stay right where he was. He wanted to keep talking to Kendra. He wanted a friend. Maybe she no want friend. He thought to himself. Maybe she no want ‘Dummy-Two-Horns’ friend. A less pleasant voice riposted.
Brodie hung his head in response. That was probably more like it. Maybe she was just… What was the word.. Humoring. Yeah. Maybe she was just humoring him for a time. And now she was done. Done with the simpleton. He sighed quietly before gathering his considerable mass up to a standing position. The lighting down in the tunnels left much to be desired but Brodie had gotten used to it. He could make out the outline of Kendra on the cot, her back facing him and giving no insight into her soul.
“Brodie go then.” He half-whispered, though sound carried well in the dug-out tunnels and the only competition came from the gentle streaming of water running through the trough in her cell. He waited for a response that would never come, then turned around and walked away. His shoulders slumped and posture defeated. As he reached the split in the tunnels he turned back to cast one last glance at Kendra, then he disappeared into the darkness.
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C. S. Lewis
"And for one last instance, I'm Human again." - Sergeant Ghost
Kendra kept staring at the wall as the sounds of Brodie's footsteps diminished, hoping he would come back but silently pleading for him not to. She realized, with a start, that she actually kinda liked him. Which was absurd; not only did she not even know him, but she was supposed to know better than to let anyone get that close to her.
Once his footsteps had completely faded away, she stirred from her cot and drifted to the bars of her cage. She leaned her head against the bars, peering at the dark corridor that had swallowed up Brodie. He would be back, she decided. The floor would need mopping again sometime.
Nothing good will come from this, Kendra. I can promise you that. She told herself darkly. Heaving a heavy sigh, she turned and flopped back down on the cot, and slowly worked at getting to sleep.
*********
Oromi was about as good as a master as a slave could hope to get, Kendra reflected the following morning. Of course, that was a bit like saying he was what floated on the top of a septic tank as opposed to what settled at the bottom, but either way, she would take what she could get.
In this particular instance, what she got was a lavish breakfast full of protein and carbohydrates served to her in Oromi's office while he talked to her. There were still two other Vydeki guards that stood with stun sticks ready on either side of her, but at the moment she enjoyed being unchained and uncaged and decided eating in peace was more important than causing trouble at the moment.
"I explain this good to you one time, hee?" Oromi was laying down the law in his strange, high pitched, and almost whistly voice. "You fight good, you win fights, you cooperate going and coming from fights, then good things come to you. You get baths, nice food, nice bed. And you get to keep fighting."
Kendra's eyes never left the weaselly looking creature as he spoke and she continued to eat.
"But." Oromi held up a large hand, emphasizing his next point. "You fight guards, you cause trouble, you don't get nice food, or nice bed. You sleep in hole and don't get to fight. We throw you in mining hole, seal entrance and drop bread to you twice a day, and you slowly waste away forgotten. Hee! Not a fitting ending for such a fiery female, think not?"
Kendra actually stopped chewing when he spoke his ultimatum. There was probably only one thing in life that she hated more than anything, and that was being alone. The idea of being dropped into a hole and forgotten nearly filled her with panic. Being beaten and abused, she could handle that, that being forgotten was something else entirely.
Still, she didn't want Oromi to know how close he was to a soft spoke she just resumed eating, trying to look as nonchalant as possible.
Oromi was no fool, however, and it was obvious that he realized she was afraid of his threat.
"You like to fight, hee? Just keep nice with us, and you keep fighting. Finish up your breakfast. You have show off later this afternoon."
*********
Maybe it was the threat lingering in the air, or the lavish breakfast, or perhaps the satisfaction her bloodlust had gotten from yesterday's fight, but Kendra was relatively cooperative for a change. She bathed and even allowed some other woman to come and put make up on her and braid her hair. It wasn't until afterwards Kendra even thought to wonder why she would need to wear make up. It was about the time she started asking herself that question that she started asking herself what the "show off" was that Oromi had made mention to.
It turned out that the Show Off was a publicity stunt where the fighters were put into long cages, and people could come and see the fighters before placing bets on them. To this end, Kendra had only been provided the most provocative and quite inadequate of clothing. While she had raised a fuss about this at first, Oromi had made it clear, it was either those clothes, or nothing at that. At least this way she still had a sliver of her dignity.
At least along with the ultra tight, ultra short clothes, she had also been given a real knife, and permission to cut at anyone who tried to stick any limbs into the mesh cage. This at least kept Kendra occupied for the afternoon, trying to lure unsuspecting idiots to stick a finger in between the bars. Kendra learned something about herself that day, and that was she had no stomach for seduction. While that did not disappoint her, she was disappointed to not have any severed fingers by the end of the day. She'd had no shortage of potential victims, either; a sizable crowd had been there, and quite a few of them had come to ogle at the half dressed woman with black hair and jade green eyes. The knife in her hand only added to dangerous mystique and allure of her.
Of course, they had to activate the shock collar to get the knife back from her, but even that struggle was not as intense as she could have made it; Oromi's threat still lingered about her.
She was marched back to her cell, told she had three hours until her next fight, and left to her own devices. She sat down on the cot with an exhale, still dressed in her costume (Kendra couldn't bring herself to call them "clothes"), and wondered if Brodie would be by today... Or ever again.
At least she would fight again tonight. That thought kept her going.
Brodie's living quarters were not so different than the rest of the slaves quarters. He had a cot to sleep on, and a trough to wash up or drink from. But unlike the other cells, Brodie's door was left open. It still had the lock on it just like anyone else's, the guards just didn't feel the need to use it. The other noticeable difference was that one corner of his cell was littered with cleaning tools and supplies.
As he stepped into his cell her paused to pick up the tray of food that had been dropped off earlier while he'd been talking with Kendra. The slop was cold now, not that it tasted much better when it was warm but it seemed worse now knowing how he'd been dismissed from her presence. Had that not happened, he imagined he wouldn't have minded at all sacrificing his dinner. The Ikotochi sighed dejectedly and sat down on the edge of his cot and began to shovel the cold slop into his mouth without an ounce on enjoyment.
He slid the empty tray back out the doorway and laid down on the cot, staring at the rocky ceiling as he tried his hardest to understand what was so wrong with him that no one would give him a chance. And with those heavy, depressing thoughts on his mind he slowly drifted into a less than restful sleep...
The next day came far too soon. Dinooro, one of the Vydeki masters clanged a walking-stick along the bars of his cell to wake him. "You Dummy, Up Up. Kitchen need help. Dishes dirty." He spoke clanging the bars again for emphasis before he hobbled away, leaving Brodie alone again.
The Iktochi rolled off of the cot and stretched painfully, before he left his cell and made his way down to the kitchen area. He spent the rest of the morning there among several other non-fighting slaves cleaning up after breakfast. When that was finished he was sent to the fighting pit to clean it up for the nights fights. The day came and went quickly, Dinooro always managed to find more work for Brodie to do, and he did it without mischief.
He found himself once again with mop in hand, and hesitated as he came to the bend in the corridor that would take him down towards Kendra's cell.
"Well, I suppose you'd better go."
He shook his head slightly, and continued on down the hallway. He'd come back later during the fights. Mop up then. He didn't want to feel hurt again.
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C. S. Lewis
"And for one last instance, I'm Human again." - Sergeant Ghost
Kendra collapsed to the sands of the arena under the debilitating pain of the shock collar, the zapping sound of the electrical discharge almost drowning out the roar of the crowd and announcer's thunder.
"Unbelievable! The human girl has won! Tundra has won the bout!"
She felt two strong sets of arms grab her and hoist her out of the arena bodily, leaving her victim still laying in the sand with a bloody face. Kendra hadn't even been sure what race he was, but he was certainly a lot bulkier than she was. She had relied on her stunstick's painful jolt along with her speed and agility to best the creature.
The crowd had loved it. The young female in the revealing outfit gracefully staying one step ahead of the lumbering brute. She had taken a couple of nasty hits, but had managed to avoid most of the brute's power swings, which was fortunate for her; one solid hit would have probably sent her sprawling.
Once her hulking opponent had been stung enough times by the stunstick, he began to slow, which made it easier and easier for her to smack him roughly in the face, resulting in a broken, bleeding nose. By that time, there was very little fight left in him. Eventually, Kendra had been able to trip him and pummeled his face several more times before the shock collar had been activated and match declared officially over.
Kendra was still shaking her head, trying to clear it from the hazy, black mist that seemed to accompany the fights. She saw Oromi nearby, talking with some creature she couldn't even begin to identify. She was no expert on Vydeki body language, but she was quite sure that Oromi was happy. Very happy. The other creature, conversely, did not look so happy.
After several moments of talking to the creature, Oromi waddled in typical Vydeki fashion over to her.
"Hee! You fight good! Make me rich! Now, one more fight tonight... We make good show so everyone bet, hee?"
Kendra just eyed the greedy little Vydeki with a steely gaze. Another fight? Still tired from her first round, but determined not to show it, she merely nodded. "Bring it."
Before she could move from the stool she'd be set on, someone approached from behind, pouring a pitcher of cooled cooking oil over her. She jumped to her feet angrily, wiping at the oil that coated her face and saturated her hair. Oromi just laughed.
"Hee! Now you look good for menfolk and they bet more! And you taste good too!" He gave another whistling laugh at his own joke, then gestured towards the arena gate. "Time now. Time now."
The gate from the staging area to the arena opened. Kendra glared at Oromi with a smoldering gaze, but finally decided to take out her anger in the combat ring. There were a handful of ready guards with stun sticks that helped enforce this decision. Turning she walked out into the arena, which cheered and whistled at her appearance.
"Now, witness the epic struggle of sentient versus primal rage." The announcers voice was low this deep, steeped in drama. The crowd quieted down, buying in to the scene the announcer was painting. "One human female, alone and afraid, left to her fend for herself. Unknown to her, a pack of murderous Seebiun wolves has been stalking her..."
Kendra was getting a little nervous now. She was alone in the ring at the moment, but the idea of fighting multiple beasts did not overly appeal to her. She was already tired from her first bout, and now this?
The gate on the far end of the arena ground open and a pack of three animals appeared. Wolves; it was an accurate description in that they had four legs and moved like wolves, but the similarities petered out after that. These wolves were furless, covered instead with a leathery looking skin. They had arrow shaped heads which ended in a fang filled point. Along the side of their heads were serrated looking hooks made of some sort of bony growth.
Kendra grimaced just at the sight, her grip on the knife she had been waiting in the ring for her this bout tightening. This would not be easy, knife notwithstanding.
"And now, the wolves attack!" The announcer finished his dramatic set up for the bout with this final phrase, which brought a loud cheer from the crowd.
The chains that had been holding the wolves back snapped off of each of their necks in turn, and the beasts snarled and began advancing forward purposefully.
As the wolves began to fan, Kendra began circling to put her back to the wall. This is not good, this will not end well... A steady stream of negativisms trickled through her mind like the cold sweat that was trickling down her back, still chilled by the oil put over her head. So, that had been the point of that, some distant part of her mind realized: make her more interesting to the wolves, not the audience. Well, maybe both.
The beasts had glinting purple eyes that seemed to shine at her as they approached their flapped nostrils flaring as they deeply scented the cooking fat on her.
Kendra gritted her teeth and made her decision. They were coming for her, so she had to strike first and fast.
The fight was fast and furious, an endless blur of snapping jaws, slashing knives and snarling wolves. Kendra had never experienced anything like this. While she had previously had more than her fair share of fights against people, fighting against animals was something entirely different.
The first wolf actually died surprisingly easily, the blade sliding up into its throat and tearing sideways. While Kendra's weapon was entangled, however, the other wolves were not idle. They acted in concert, each one grabbing a separate leg and pulling, as if trying to quarter her.
Kendra tried to kick them off, but they were strong, and only sank their teeth in deeper as she struggled. Likewise, everytime she tried to contort herself so as to stab down at one of beasts gripping her calf, its counterpart would simply yank even harder to deny her effort. It was something for a stalemate for perhaps thirty seconds, she unable to reach them, and them holding stationary on her legs.
Even as she considered how best to dislodge them without tearing up her legs, the wolves apparently decided they had waited long enough. Whether by design or accident, they both began pulling on her in the same direction. The crowd roared at this, but not so much as they roared and laughed when being dragged across the hard packed sand proved to be too much for the skimpy outfit she had been provided and the top came off. She made a grab for it before she realized she had bigger problems than modesty at the moment. These beasts were showing no signs of being tired, and it wouldn't be long before the ground started ripping up the exposed skin.
In an adrenalized surge of near panic, Kendra kicked both her legs up while bringing the knife down as far and as hard as she could. The effort was successful. The blade sank deep into the wolf's head, who didn't even have time to whimper before dying.
Wiggling her foot free from the dead wolf, she kicked the other wolf in the eye, forcing it to relinquish its grip in order to get away. Before she could get her feet under her, however, the beast attacked again, leaping with mouth wide open. She held up her left arm to block the bite while her right arm slid the blade into the beasts chest.
She couldn't even hear the screaming crowds any more. Whether it was because they had stopped screaming or the loud ringing in her ears had replaced the noise, she didn't know. All she knew is that she was sitting half naked in the dirt with three dead wolves. And she was pretty sure that some of the pools of blood on the ground were her own.
Some one grabbed her by the shoulders and helped her up while someone else pried the knife out of her hands. Still a little too shocked to bother fighting, she allowed herself to be led out of the combat ring. Oromi was waiting in the staging area, looking more happy than Kendra could even imagine.
"Human girl make Oromi rich rich!" He gave a high pitched wheeze that Kendra really couldn't interpret, other than to say that he was happy. She just stared at him blankly while a medic did a rush job of slapping bacta patches roughly on her wounds. "Take her to cell. Make sure she eat good food. Hee! No fair if you get sick now, Tundra. Too much more money to make, hee?"
Kendra just blinked a few times, a wave of fatigue hitting her quiet suddenly. She slumped back in her chair, exhaling heavily.
"She's fine. Just keep her off her feet for a day or two so the bacta can work on the leg wounds." The medic declared, than immediately left after giving his diagnosis.
Oromi, not wanting to risk his new money maker, and two of the guards brought a stretcher which they used to transport Kendra, still half dressed, back to her cell. Once she was moved to her bed, the guards left, promising her that food would be brought shortly.
Kendra didn't even acknowledge this, but simply stared at the roof, waiting for her still thumping heart to slow down enough for her to go to sleep. Food sounded pretty good, but sleep sounded even better.
It was perfect. As it should be, given that Tayne had spent close to a month of nearly constant effort and sweat to make it so. When Tayne set his sights on doing something, he intended to do it right. So, when he plotted his revenge for the antagonistic Gotal Murro, he wanted to make sure that the Gotal fell perfectly.
It had taken countless bribes, deals, threats, promises, cigarettes and favors to get to this point, but this was the day that everything would go down. Tayne was confident in his plan.
In approximately five minutes, the Imperial wardens would be doing a cell sweep of Cell Block 12, where most of the Gotals were housed, including Murro. It was supposed to be a surprise inspection, but Tayne had been able to sweet talk the schedule out of an unnecessarily chatty guard. Regardless, Murro didn't know about it, and was still down at the motor pool anyways.
The Imperials would happen to find a small notebook just full of secrets of various prisoners; things like where they were hiding their contraband, when they were doing their next illicit exchange. And that's not all they would find. They would also find a handful of banned items, including a shank, a single shot holdout blaster, and a small bindle of spice.
While it might seem like planting those items in his cell would be vengeance enough, those were merely the means to an end, not the end itself. After all, the Gotal might be punished for possessing the items, but that would just leave him angry and probably looking for some pay back. No, Tayne wanted to set it up so that once the Imperials were done working Murro over, Murro wasn't going to have any friends to fall back on.
Hence, the little convenient notebook that Tayne had spent weeks making. Murro would be hauled away for questioning (or perhaps torture) once the contraband was found, and suddenly, the Imperials would come cracking down on those closest to Murro, raiding all their secret hiding places. Most of Murro's gang were not bright, but they should be able to put two and two together and come to the conclusion that Murro had snitched on them. And that seemed to be the ultimate sin in this place: snitching.
If all went well, Murro would come back to population with more than a few people wanting to beat him, and pretty much no one who would trust him. He would essentially be an exile who would be physically unable to leave, stripped of any sort of power or dignity. It would be a thing of beauty.
Still hunched over the speederbike he was working on, Tayne risked a glance at the wall mounted chrono. It was time. They would be starting their cell searches now. Within a few moments, he should know whether or not his plan worked...
The following moments were a bit tense for Tayne. He supposed the worst thing that would come of this was that either the Imperials would just confiscate the goods and never even touch the notebook. Murro would still end up getting in trouble for this, so it wouldn't be a total loss, but Tayne was still hoping for a bit more than just that.
The door opened and a collection of guards swept into the room, walking up to the foreman to question him. Tayne actually stopped even pretending to work, his breath held in his throat.
The foreman pointed out Murro. The guards descended on the Gotal, weapons drawn and loud shouts drowning out any other noise momentarily. Murro tried to struggle, but it was short lived as the guards piled on him and soon had him secured hand and foot.
Tayne just smirked, watching as they bodily carted Murro off. He even managed to make eye contact with Murro shooting him a "bye-bye" look. Murro didn't get a chance to reply. This day was just getting better and better.
OOC: Incredible character development! I was really excited to discover this thread, but I'm equally dismayed to see that the last post was in November. I hope you continue it, it's a very interesting story and I'd like to see how the plot unfolds.
As far as the character, I have pages of bio and background information, but I was just going to introduce it all in the story. Cheers!
