Around In Circles

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Having hijacked a shuttle away from Meras, Milivikal sought some sort of familiarity. Despite mental "studdering" she knew exactly what she was doing when it came to control over this simple minded Rodian.

And thankfully, her trip was over. Leaving her somewhat stranded once again. The Dark Jedi stood at the bottom of the Delta class shuttle's boarding ramp, looking at the greenskined companion to Tirsa with contempt.

"Get lost!". After a brief moment of bewilderment, Endo disembarked.

She trudged along the bleak landscape, while clouds bearing acid loomed above, but mercifully held the dangerous liquid at bay. For now.

Bast Castle, while worn, still had a certain aura of power. And danger.

"Cloak, Hobgoblin!" Silence answered.

"I've reconsidered the offer."

[Jeseth Cloak]

The Dark Jedi stepped forward with his eyes as distant as ever, except his face lacked those charming curves that went hand-in-hand with his smile. He just seemed to be indifferent. "I hoped you might. Come inside; You must be famished from your trip. We'll wait for Hob inside. I have some things I'd like to ask you about in anycase." The winged man just turned and walked towards the castle, stepping up to the gates and entering the access code. The atmospheric field dropped long enough for them to pass through, the gates parting.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

She followed Jeseth in silence, but her mind was loud, abuzz with possibilities, doubts, and dark hopes.

Slowly, she began to hum some nameless tune, meshing with the thoughts only Milivikal could hear.

I am where I am where I am...

The humming shifted a bit, taking the tempo of thier footfalls into account. Briefly, she glanced at the fairly short Dark Jedi,

Wary is the one with wings.

His smile had gone--Milivikal was glad for that. It did not suit him. Now Jeseth's lips were somewhat pursed together, for he was thinking too.

Oh, those thinking gears, they do grind. Will the rodents grow tired?

[Jeseth Cloak]

Shadows parted like cloth to the winds as Jeseth passed between them, finally finding a suitable place to take a seat with the woman. There was a variety of strange things set upon the table. Most of it looked like food, but on ocassion Mili watched as one or two of the dishes twitched.

"Help yourself." Jeseth sat and kicked a chair out for her with a thought. "Why did you reconsider our offer?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

"Its rather complicated." Milivikal said dissmissively as she searched the table for something edible. One of the dishes twitched again. She jerked to her feet, pulled a vibroblade from a sheath at her side, and stabbed it five times.

"Very complicated." She added, returning to her seat with what appeared to be an edible pastry from the plate next to whatever was twitching. Tenderly, she bit into the food, taking off only a small corner. Thankfully, it turned out to be edible.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth took a bite of something, tearing a piece of the little creatures face off and swallowing it. His gloved left hand wiped away the blood that was dripping along his lips. "The galaxy is not appreciative of our efforts, you know... but you seemed so independent and reluctant to rally to a cause. Why has that changed at all now?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

The thing had the audacity to twitch again. Milivikal brought the knife down with a loud chink of metal agains porclean. "It hasn't." She replied, taking a large bite from the pastry.

"You see, Cloak, I just happen to want the a very similar thing. Sorsha failed to properly facititate a means for aquiring it. She has displeased..." the woman bit into the pastry yet again, chewing for the right words. "...the wrong people, and because of that, lost my favor as well."

"And the galaxy? Since when did this place ever know what was good for it?"

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth grinned for a moment. "You may fit in just fine here... though that is not for me alone to decide." His eyes went distant as he attempted to passively pry into her thoughts. It only took a few seconds for him to sneer and resign himself to defeat. His every attempt to scry her mind was met with a cacophony of strange and indecipherable noise. Some of it had been rather painful to bear, but he didn't show the discomfort outwardly.

"What was your crime, that you were imprisoned here..?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

A slight tapping signified the approach of another person.

Tap, taptap, tap, taptap, tap.

From out of the inner depths came Hob, bearing a walking stick. In spite of the crutch he was bearing, the dwarf seemed uninjured and hardly feeble. As though he had simply adopted the appearance of age as an affectation.

A great aura independant of age also seemed to come with the dwarf, as though his own personal presence was somehow so grand as to cause the air to grow quiet with respect. Even as Hob reached the table, the muted sensation fell over Milivikal and Jeseth both, though the energy in the hall did not react with the usual response to a Jedi's call.

A chair spun through the air, coming from somewhere off to the side to settle across the table from Jeseth. The dwarf clambered into it, showing no hesitation or physical ailment that the cane had suggested. When the dwarf had himself well and properly seated, he turned his intense gaze onto Milivikal.

"We are here," he said. "Speak."

[Milivikal k'Vik]

The silence. Milivikal shuddered inside. She could glean no rythms but her own.

Nonetheless, her cool, melodic voice flowed out. "Hobgoblin. I have decided to accept the offer." Jeseth, she could manipulate to a degree. But the Hobgoblin was like working marble with only your bare hands.

He knew. Damn him, he knows!. She ground her boot heel into the permacrete, the scratch/hiss breaking the silence. It was crude, but it let her think without pain. Even with that, the sound lacked it's proper edge. It was the wrong sort of unnatural. Hobgoblin was sucking the soul of the sounds.

"You can stop now. Point proved."

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Ah, but ye assume old Hob is at work, lass," the dwarf replied, lapsing into Hob-brogue. "He is not. 'Tis but the herald of his presence, don't y'know? Hob has grown in power even since last ye were here. Where Hob goes, things change."

The dwarf gestured, a pulling-inside gesture that seemed to nullify the muting. Except that nullify wasn't the right word, because Hob's presence still existed, but now it reached only around Hob himself. It was like a man in the shadows who had gathered a cloak more tightly about himself to keep his body heat in, and keep himself better hidden.

Regardless of whether he'd intended to put Milivikal in her place, though, Hob had done so. He and Jeseth were lords of this domain.

"So," Hob continued, dropping the brogue. "You wish to join us? Most interesting. What would the Hand gain from such a dalliance?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

She frowned.

"I can provide unique skills no Jedi, Dark or Light has. I'm sure you know my history, Hobgoblin. But..."

Milivikal k'Vik closed her eyes, and tilted her chin up slightly.

"V i i i i i i i c c c c e e e e e t t t t t...."

Nothing happend at all, but Mili smiled slightly.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth's eyes narrowed at hearing that name spoken. He sensed a similar aura when in the presence of Sorsha some time ago. He stayed silent and merely listened, the wheels in his head turning and turning as he pondered possibilities, and analyzed what he knew about Sorsha and Milivikal. Hob's straight forward manner would suit this situation best, so for the time being he would merely continue his attempts to decipher the future.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

The dwarf sat at the table, entirely unconcerned by the look of him. He blinked once, maybe twice in rapid succession, then cocked his head to the side. "That was a wretchedly stupid answer, woman."

There was a brief surprise that Hob did not allow to linger. "If you did not have powers in the Force, you would be dead now. That you are not, and that you are possibly unique, is the reason you have been granted audience."

The dwarf hopped off the chair and began pacing using his walking stick. "You have come to us, after having refused us," he began. "Why? Your particular ability is subtle enough to take you far. But how far do you wish to go? What would you accomplish with it? Would you simply bend and twist masses to your will?"

Hob lifted his walking stick and pointed the end at her. "Or do you have an attainable goal anchored in your mind? Something you would accomplish that you, and in turn those associated with you, will benefit from?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

She was indeed surprised, and had even jerked backwards at the Hobgoblin's words.

A silence bomb went off, and she simply stared at Hob with pale blue eyes for a time, who examined her with experienced caution.

"I..." her jaw opened for a moment, and slowly closed again. Mili's face suddenly looked very pained, and her head jerked back abrubptly.

"Iiiiiii-ahhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." Mili could feel Vicet, but was still confused.

"I i i i don't." Vicet, what have I done wrong? Panic struck, she attepted to move but could not. You cannot lie your way out of this one, Dark Jedi k'Vik. Underestimating the Hobgoblin might well be your end.

"kn...." the word caught in her throat; she gurgled briefly before spasming, bumping her head against the table and falling out of her chair. Milivikal's hand appeared on the table's edge, and the rest of her slowly followed, managing itself back into the chair.

"I'm a child in a new Universe, Gatekeeper." She rubbed her head for a moment. Maybe, for once, the truth would actually do something remotely useful.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob's eyes had widened during the visitation from Vicet, just enough so they appeared more intense, and tinged with an angry kind of insanity as well. "So it would seem. For all your power- indeed, for all your knowledge of times long ago, you have only brought yourself into this new era. Still running from a long-past youth that has bled into the present, you are seeking refuge at Vjun only long enough to catch your breath."

Hob tottered over to the chair and pulled himself back into it. The walking stick sat atop the table in one of Hob's hands, and it was pointed at Milivikal like an accusing finger. "You called me Gatekeeper just now. To what gate do you believe I hold the key?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

"I'm technically older than you are, but its merely that, a technicality." She sighed, and gave up. The illusion of smooth, pale skin melted away to the truth: Milivikal had been badly beaten by Dalethria Mal Pannis. Her face was a collage of bruises.

"It was taking too much energy. Anyway," she continued "I'm going to level with you, as I'm frelled either way. Sorsha was supposed to be my guide to this strange bowl of soup."

"So here I am," She said, rasing her arms and standing, "the dahling of Jedi thousands of years past, turned 'wrong', with a Dark-side dwarf and a decidedly grumpy Ambrellian. Don't smile, Jeseth, its not becomming."

She looked at Hob, almost madly. "Wny Hob, I've much to gain, and seemingly nothing to loose. Aside from figuring out how to live in this big hydrogen swirl, I don't know what I want." Mili sat down, rocking the chair back, and back level again, hard. She smiled at the dwarf, splitting her lip open again.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob took a moment to consider things, then hopped out of his chair and took several steps away from the table. He then looked over his shoulder at Milivikal. "You wish, then, to become a full member of the Hand?" he asked. "Or simply to stay at Bast until such time as you decide to leave?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

"I believe my residency will be permanet." Mili said with a small measure of confidence. What was a maybe at best before now had a slight foundation.

It was something. But she would have to be patient, and that quality had never been one of Milivikal's most prounounced.

She watched Hob for a moment, and glanced at Cloak briefly before turning her attention to the strange variety of food on the table.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

The dwarf abruptly began walking away, making use of the stick with which he had first appeared. He got three steps further before he seemed to remember that Milivikal required an answer of some sort, though that could simply have been another affectation.

There was a brief hesitation in Hob's footsteps and he waved a dismissive hand. "Then as far as Hob is concerned, ye may stay. Should ye desire assistance, training... Hob will assist you, if you wish."

"Welcome to Bast," he said, continuing on into the distance from which he'd come.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth rose to his feet and left the rest of his food untouched. "Help yourself. I agree with Hob's decision and have matters to attend to."