Dust in the wind...

[Von Fontaine]

"Damn," comes a voice from the dusty 31st level concourse between the Zela Palace and Mickey Roy casinos. It takes a lot to get thrown out of the Mickey Roy, especially from levels 30-35, where the sex shows are.

Apparently busting up five or six serving droids and a filthy backplanet slug of a bartender will do it, though. "Nobody respects the empire anymore, that's the problem."

"Frak, why is it so dirty up here?" Von Fontaine muttered, brushing dust off his olive vest and his now-torn rental pants. It was a strange occurence, here on the normally glittering casino planet to pick oneself up from good honest dirt like this. "I guess cleanliness isn't such a big priority on the vice floors."

"Damn droid-lovers. Being humanoid don't mean jack anymore. My Pa would be spinning in his grave," Von seethed, staring at a handful of Yakkon business-trippers with loathing. "What're you looking at, ya slurgs?" Unfortunately, Von's single-minded attention on the Yakkonese suits made him miss the long-overdue sweeper droid as it entered the concourse from a maintenance hatch behind him. A fresh spray of dust and grime filled his eyes and nose as the Yaks entered the Mickey Roy, laughing.

Von turned and landed a solid clanging kick on the rear turbine of the sweeper droid as the glistening cloud of dust blew down and away from the concourse like a zephyr dancing in the eddies of the air.
<hr>

[Xau Ghin]

"The frak is your problem?" Xau said as he walked along side Von and stopped. He surveyed the man from head to toe. He was a tad shorter than Xau, who stood at a solid 6'1. In a fight, he deduced, Xau could easily win... even without the help of his droids.

"Yelling and screaming only puts you out of favor with the..." He looked over at a glass window in which a prostitute was sitting patiently in. The owner was outside the door with a scowl on his face. "locals. Assuming, of course, they are the purpose of your visit to these lower levels, ah, what's your name?"

[Von Fontaine]

"Whatever, bastards had it comin'. I'm gettin' tired of this dump anyway." Von rubbed the dust out of his eyes, seething. "Too many freaks around, and no frakkin' respect." He spit at the wake of the droid, coughed up another small dust cloud, and pulled his vest to the side a little, revealing what looked like the guts of some household appliance, loose wires and chrome. Von regained a little bit of his swagger as he rested his palm on the contraption hanging from his hip as though it were a weapon. "My name's Von. Von Fontaine."

"They're just lucky I ain't found what I'm looking for yet. Give me a year or two - I'll be back and they'll be gnarfing sorry." Von's features tightened for a moment as a peculiar foreboding sensation washed over him. He turned back to the tall man who'd been addressing him. Yes, the man looked downright intimidating, looming a few inches above Von's head, flanked by droids, either painted or pigmented in that stark fashion that appeals to those slightly maddened by the darkness of the modern galaxy.

"What do you care anyway, ya big spooky ponce?" Von snarled at the larger man. Even as he spat the words, he felt it wasn't just the man's arrogant bearing and obvious condescension he was responding to. There was something else to him, a darkness akin to what fueled Von's bitterness and anger every hungover morning. This man actually scared him a little. And that only earned him Von's spite, since Von wasn't a man (well, youth, actually) to ever concede superiority to another. <hr>

[Xau Ghin]

"Just curious is all." He replied casually.

Brash and unreasonably affronted, full of energy with an untapped will to destroy. This was perfect, fate had unequivocally dealt him a flawless card. Von appeared clearly less than adult, and wisdom guided Xau steadily; a guy like Von Fontaine would do anything given the right circumstances. For days Xau had been on the look out for the perfect specimen that would aid him in a hunt, a patsy of sorts. How difficult could it be, idiots walked the streets in hordes from dusk until dawn. No, precise selection was necessary. The true master selects his pawns like a great casanova does his woman, not anyone will simply do.

Von was now trying to confront Xau, breaking personal space and glaring up with a scowl. Xau only returned the gesture with a dismissive half-smile and raised his hands in protest.

He said, "Slow down there. Let me buy you a drink."

Fontaine seemed to be buying it.

"Somewhere short of droids and..." He judged the snarling bouncers examining the two men's exchange. "...on a different level."

[Von Fontaine]

"I can afford my own drinks. What are you, come kind of perv; hunting the vice levels for receptive 'patrons?'" Von's snarl fell a bit short of convincing. Confused by the contrast between the man's obviously sinister bearing and his apparent attempt to reconcile, Von re-evaluated his situation. Was this creep a grifter? or a pervert? If so, Von was pretty sure he could beat him at his own game.

But which game was he playing? Von decided to push the issue. If this guy was just a rich pervert, he might be muscled out of a few creds. Just the creds Von would need to get out of hock to the frakkin' casino and get back on his trip to the fabled Sith planet.

He pulled out the contraption at his waist, and with a flick and a sizzle, accompanied by a slight burning smell, a reddish glow spiked out from it, and held in the air. The colors shimmered, and faded through the spectrum, but the effect was unmistakeable. Von raised his makeshift lightsaber to eye level and tilted it even with the man's throat as he said, "I need some creds to get offplanet. Either you can help me with that, or it won't make a difference that I never got your name, because you'll be dead. Not so frakking condescending now, huh?"

[Xau Ghin]

He smirked slightly as one of his eight droids motioned to react, but suddenly halted at Xau's silent command. Xau wondered if the lightsaber would really cut him, it was hot, he could feel that on his neck. But the variation in color over seconds-long periods of time gave him doubt.

"Help you obtain some creds?" Xau asked. "Sounds like you have a plan, then?"

[Von Fontaine]

"Yeah I've got a plan. Or didn't you notice me robbing you right now?"

Or at least that's what he meant to say. To be honest, Von had thought he'd been pretty clear about his intentions; but apparently it'd all been over this loaded city boy's head. Or he was just exceedingly slow to anger.

Taken aback and a bit perturbed, Von's eyebrows knit together with frustration. He took a couple of breath, found his tongue, and stammered, "Uh, yeah?"

"Give me your money . . . or else?"

[Xau Ghin]

Xau watched the young man's face as his hand squeezed tightly around Von's, apparently it caught him off guard. He forced the strange lightsaber away from his throat, not that he believed it would do him harm anyway.

"They weren't kidding when they said you were brash." He said as four of the seven droids lined up behind him. The other three watching from afar, loosened their guard.

"You're not robbing me." He assured. "And where did you get that thing?"

[Von Fontaine]

"It's mine," Von grunted as he struggled against Xau's grip on his precious light saber. "I -hnnf- I made it! Leggo, you womprat! Von reached out through the force with all his frustration and the smoldering wreckage of his wounded pride. For a moment, an eddy of the winds formed a small dust funnel around the two of them, kicking up an almost opaque wall of dust between Xau and Fontaine and the droids. Von's eyes flashed a glint of unnatural orange. In a sudden flurry of motion, Von leapt, planted a foot firmly against Xau's chest, and kicked off, trying to wrest his hand and saber free.

The dust devil around them exploded out into a fine mist as Von's wrist emmitted an agonizing series of crackling pops. Xau's hand still tightly clenched around Von's, but because of his reckless acrobatics, Von's wrist was now twisted almost 360 degrees out of its socket. Xau, for his part, was surprised that, despite an obvious display of force attunement, Fontaine hadn't mustered any real strength for his maneuver. Xau hadn't noticed anything special about the youth's abilities apart from the slightly impressive level of dexterity.

"Frak!" Von snarled at the sky. "Oh, force-frakkin' slorg scat!" The pain was unimaginable. Although he was still furious with Xau, he was beginning to figure out that discretion was the tenable option left to him.

In a nearly civil tone, Von said, "Who said I was brash? Your friends from the all-goth planet? Who the hell are you, and how do you know me?"

[Xau Ghin]

"No." Xau said as he released the man's wrist. "The Sith Order informed me about you, they said you were brash."

"You've caught their attention, Von. They know you're looking for them." In reality the self decreed Sith-to-be was far beneath their radar and Xau had little to do with them any more. But, he suspected, Von would be so swept away by fantasies of at last joining the Sith that he would hardly question Xau's lie. Even if he did, Xau was more than prepared to supplyment the illusion.

[Von Fontaine]

"Oh, well... I knew that." Von puffed out his chest a little, though the effect was diminished by his badly injured hand cradled against it. "I've been looking for them too. Are you the recruiter or something?" Von brightened a little. He'd known ever since he was a little boy, blasting rioters from three stories up with his father, that he was destined to great things with the dark side. That's why, when his parents had murdered each other, he'd taken his whole inheritance to seek out the Sith, never doubting they'd welcome him with open arms, perhaps as a hero, even.

"My father was well-respected by the Empire and the Sith Lords..." In reality, the tale his father had repeated countless times had been mostly wishful thinking. True, a Sith had once come to the gutter-planet on which Sonny Fontaine had worked as the Governor's enforcer. True, the Sith had chuckled and said, "The hatred is strong in this one" while watching Sonny interogate a freedom fighter. But that had been the end of the story in reality.


Von's confidence returning, he said, "I need to meet the dark lord. I've nearly run out of my traveling funds, though. Can you take me to him?"

[Xau Ghin]

"Not so fast." Xau said. "One does not simply walk into Korriban." Xau began to walk, leading the youth clutching his wrist. "The Sith are aware of your existance, but you have much to do to prove your worth. Are you willing to show the Sith your true power?"

[Von Fontaine]

"You must be kidding," Von said, managing a bit of a swagger still."

"I was born ready."

[Xau Ghin]

"I bet." Xau said as they continued walking. He let go of the youth's wrist and began to explain.

"Now the enemies of the Sith are plenty. Both the self righteous Jedi and the ignorant Imperial Inquisition both would like to see the Sith Order disfunct. Though their efforts are many, they obviously come short everytime."

He nodded towards Von, looking to make sure the boy was paying attention.

"Allow me to let you in on a little secret: The Sith have very big plans for this galaxy. And by big plans I mean they're planning to take the Empire right out from underneath those Imperial dogs' noses. This requires the aquisition of a certain set of documents in the hands of the nefarious Jibuu the Hutt. "

"Your mission, as bequesthed upon you by the Sith Order of Korriban, is to penetrate Jibuu's palace on Nal Hutta, retrieve the documents and return to me."

"Understand?"

OOC: Chris, I have no idea if you plan to post over break but if you do, e-mail me and we'll go over some of the plot details.

[Von Fontaine]

Reeling inwardly, Von tried to come up with a suitable response. Breaking into a Hutt's stronghold? Stealing from a Hutt?

Being an arrogant dung-kicker from a backwoods planet will numb you to a lot of harsh realities, but even Von wasn't foolhardy enough to take this in stride. His panic radiated from his face like the flush of a man thawing from carbonite. His palms sweat, his throat constricted, and his stomach shrank up towards his mouth, threatening to make him sick.

"Well, I . . . I . . . I'm ... uh, glad that they'd give me such an important assignment. But doesn't that sound kinda <ulp> dangerous?"

See, the closest thing to actual crime Von had managed so far was petty violence, usually under the influence of alcohol, and near plenty of bystanders who would break up the fights. He blabbered on, trying to delay the inevitable realization that the people he'd been looking for for years were apparently trying to get him killed before even meeting him.

"I mean, the dark lords aren't gonna want to waste promising young sith like me, right? So there's backup? Or a squad? Or something?"

Now he just couldn't stop talking. At least he realized how pathetic he sounded.

"I mean, if not, I'll totally do it anyway. I just, I think it'd be more effective..."

(I'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die - please help help help), he thought, and Xau, to his amazement, could hear it - a whisper in his mind.

"Are you coming too?" Von pleaded.</ulp>

[Xau Ghin]

"Of course." Xau replied with a slight smile at Von's uncontrollable thoughts.

"And you're right, you know, you'd be more effective with a group of men to accompany you. With me come seven more." He nodded his head at the droids following close behind. "Assuming you can cope with them for the time being."

[Von Fontaine]

<gulp> "I'll try."

It was a relief to have the backup, no doubt about that. Von could overlook his prejudices for the sake of his skin anyday, and anyway, Xau's droids looked completely subservient to him. At least these were droids in their proper place, with minimal autonomy.

The mission was still a frightening one, but maybe there'd be an upside to it...

"I lost some money here at the casinos, and they won't let my ship out of the docks until I make a payment. Did the Sith send you with an expense account or something?"

Then again, if the ship was traced at all, its owner could end up with a Hutt-sized bounty on his head at the end of this venture.

"Or maybe we can just take your ship, and I'll get mine out of hock when we get back..."

[Xau Ghin]

Xau thought about the forseeable future for a moment. No sense in wasting his own creds on Von's ship when it was doubtful Von would ever see it again. But then, did he really want the troublesome youth roaming his own ship? The dorids could keep an eye on him. Even the most volatile bounties never caused much damage.

"Don't worry about your ship." He said. "You can buy it back with the money we're going to make off this Hutt. Any booty you can grab along with the documents is yours."

[Von Fontaine]

Von took a deep breath. As scared as he was, once he committed to this plan, he knew he'd have to put himself wholeheartedly into it. And that meant faking the same bravado and swagger he was accustomed to until he started to actually believe it again.

It was a job, and more than that, a way to finally realize his lifelong ambition of joining the Sith. He couldn't really refused.

"All right. I'm in. Where's your ship?"

As he and Xau walked to the hangars, he began to feel a bit better.

"Jibbu's not going to know what hit him when I'm through. Man, this is going to be fun! I've never tussled with a Hutt before. So, do you have schematics for the palace or something? I say we go to a local cantina and look for strongarm work and try and work our way into the palace and the Hutt's confidence. Unless of course, the Sith gave you a plan with your marching orders?"

Von was still blithely chatting to Xau when they arrived at the hangar bay.
"This is it," Xau said, motioning with a sweep of his arm.

"That is the ugliest gorfing junker I've ever seen!" laughed Von. "We really should have taken my ship."

[Xau Ghin]

Talk, talk, talk... All this guy did was talk. Xau had tried numerous times to correct the youth's mistakes and misconceptions as they walked to the hanger. While Von might imply that the Sith did this or knew that, Xau would try to correct him and try to keep the elaborate lie in line with the actual truth about the Sith. Xau was concerned that should Von actually research known information about the Sith, he would find his own conceptions about them were far from the truth, despite Xau having told him otherwise. Several times he had contemplated calling Von out, asking if he honestly knew anything about, really, anything at all. However, the thoughts were quickly cast from his mind; if Von never researched the Sith before he wasn't going to research to find out. If he'd just let Von go on believing whatever it was he was believing, matters ahead should be alright.

"No, and I told you... the documents we are to retrive contain a map." He said impatiently but realized the words went in one ear and other the other.

"And my ship is in fine condition. The best ships in the galaxy aren't always pretty."

The droids set to work once in sight of the ship, they let down the ramp and fired the engines. They were more than capable of piloting the ship alone, perhaps even better than most living creatures. While the droids set about their work, Xau stood outside with Von, waiting for the worker droid to approach him for authorization to depart the hanger.

"Here's the deal. We have the objective from the Sith, the plan is up to us, you rather." Xau said as the worker droid caught his sight in the distance. "The documents are of little consequence to you personally. Simply gather them."

The droid approached Xau, putting a temporary hiatus to their conversations. It presented him with a datapad, which he quickly signed, and left. Xau turned to the ramp and began walking in, flagging Von to follow.

"And I don't recomend we try to infiltrate Jibuu's guards. He's all to familiar with my face for it to work. Unless that is, you want to go in alone."

They entered the ship, the ramp noisily closing behind them.

"Welcome." He said casually. "It should suit your needs, you can sleep on the couch should you need to." He pointed to a weathered and dilapidated couch.

"I don't recommend you entertain yourself with the holding cages." He nodded his head towards the rear of the ship. Cages were stacked upon cages and all fastened to the wall. "They're self locking. I'd hate for you to get stuck." Though he silently wished Von would.

And should drawing up plans bore you, the ship is patched into the holonet. You can watch some government produced holovids if you like."

"I on the other hand, have some work to do."

[Von Fontaine]

Von Fonatine went and found a coms unit, somewhat deflated. He apparently didn't know anything about the world, and moving up from random hate crimes against droids at hillbilly cantinas to stealing classified documents from a Hutt's palace was really screwing up his worldview.

He'd idly browsed through some info-field communities before while looking for information on the Sith, but now he took to his search with a renewed passion, seeing as how his life was on the line. He began to look again for information on recorded Sith protocols and methodology, not that he understood what the word meant.

During his digital exploration, Xau came into the ship's cockpit. "Whatcha doin'"

"Nothing. Shut up."

"You think about your plan yet?" Xau grinned wryly, in anticipation of this youth's many failings, hoping to capitalize on each and every one.

"Well, I figure it doesn't do us much good to plan too far ahead when we're not even on-planet yet. I'll figure it out enroute, and we'll have somthing figured out when we hit dirt. If you do know anything about the dung-storm we're headed into, though, let me know. I'm going to do my best to keep you alive too."

Xau was taken aback, if only for a moment. Maybe this brash young fool was learning, after all.

Von took off, with the portable coms unit, to the rear decks.

He wandered around the back of the ship. He hadn't really been paying attention during the tour, so every new sight and sound caught his interest as though for the first time. His sense of wonder was only amplified by the subtly encroaching fear of death that had been haunting him since his first hint of the daunting task ahead.

He disregarded easily the dilapidated cushions that greeted him in the hallway, but he soon found a cozy little alcove near the emergency escape blast-hole. He settled in, and tapped his finger on a link to a supposedly personal account of a Zithragar's mistreatment at the hands of a Sithscammer, a variety of con-man recently thrust into popularity by an expose in a highly-read news source.

"Oh being...", Von muttered to himself as he scanned the last page of the autobiography. In his haste to scramble to his feet, he passed his hand in front of a motion sensor built into the front of the little cubby he'd been sitting in as he pursued his studies.

A shrill plastic bleep sounded in his ears, deafening him for no more than half a breath, and as is did, a polymer and organic-composite cage dropped into his field of vision at a blurring speed, trapping him in one of the very holding cages Xau had warned him against.

"It's Xau. It's just Xau..." he whispered, eyes wide, moments before his accidental captor wandered back into the hold.

[Xau Ghin]

Should he be surprised? Instinct and thought collided in his head and debated his next move. Xau could very well help him, or let him be and prevent any other distractions from occuring. Might as well help him and keep up the helpful friend image.

"I thought I warned you." He said as he walked in the room, commanding his droids to stand down. Flipping a switch he continued. "This isn't a play ground."

Should he drop the 'if the Sith saw this... line? Cheesy remarks like that only hurt the story he quickly continued. Even so, he doubted Von would catch on anyway. The cage rose up, leaving Von to resume whatever it was he was doing, its not like it could hurt.

"And I don't suppose you found anything interesting in your romp around, did you? Something that might help?" He asked skeptically without pausing to hear an answer, he assumed Von hadn't.