~| Day 2, 12:10-12:25 GST |~
~| Aboard the Kaggath, Arena |~
Ven'ren had been wandering the corridors a while this morning. Heavy armour left behind this day, so there was no clinking of metal boots to warn anyone of his presence this time around. Instead, he took some joy in stalking through the ship silently, taking note of how long it took for people to notice him. He had found a Jedi, left apparently alone and unmonitored in the arena. This did not trouble him in the least. The Sith that left him there would have had a plan with it. And things did seemed to be set up as to allow the Jedi to cause a fair bit of trouble.
If someone was going to notice him sooner rather than later, it would be a Jedi, so Ven'ren kept his distance. He caught a glimpse of it messing with a defeated droid, but then stayed out of sight until the Jedi disappeared into the turbolift. Ven'ren followed the same way. Stepped into the prison complex as though it was not full of people that could potentially be a danger to him and identified the individual who had come through the same door just before. He indicated who he was talking to with a gesture.
“Why don't you come with me, I want to talk to you.”
Koren used the Force to lift the droid piece out of his sock and send it rolling along the floor as he pulled his head back and groaned. “Seriously? I just got back.” He leaned a bit to look out the far door, not even acknowledging the… he’d like to say Sith but the presence was…
different. Anyway he didn’t turn, yet. When twisted to look out the door he shouted. “I’ll be back later Nazca! Remember, what I said earlier.” He then turned around facing Ven.
“So? Where we going? I hear Akiva is nice at this time of year.”
“I know you did, I followed you.” Ven'ren stated, thinking this should have been obvious. He snorted. “Well, that would be nice, but unfortunately” he paused, as though this was new information, and he wanted to let the Jedi down easy, “We are on a sith prison ship.”
He went back into the same turbolift he had just exited, waiting for the Jedi to follow. “So we are just going to go for a walk in here. And you can keep your toys, you are expected to cause some trouble anyway, it looks like.” He shrugged. “More interesting like that I suppose.”
Koren turned to follow him into the turbolift. Though that didn’t mean he couldn’t speak as he walked. “Me? Cause
trouble?” He placed his hand on his chest as if thoroughly insulted at the concept. He followed the man into the Turbolift hands clasped behind his back in a non-threatening gesture.
“You know, I never would have figured this for a Sith Prison ship. It’s too nice, I was thinking I was on board some kind of pleasure yacht-” He cast a sideways glance at the man, a look of slight distaste on his face. “-That isn’t why you’re taking me is it? Cause I gotta tell you, even if I wasn’t a devout Jedi, you don’t do it for me.”
The Sith tilted his head into a rather impressive angle and it takes a few moments before he responds. “That is very unfortunate. I am sure my master will be very disappointed when I fail to seduce all the Jedi. And this is my nicest mask too. But you know, so far you have said five things and they have all been jokes. It makes me wonder if the fourth one isn't. We are being very nice to you. You don't seem very damaged at all. Strange, that.”
He stepped out of the lift back into the arena and looked around, but only stayed there for a moment, electing to continue to somewhere there were no more jedi watching through the roof. Made him uncomfortable.
“You’re keeping count? I’m honoured. I really am.” Why they were back at the overlook into the arena he didn’t know. Though part of him felt like giving the man a good
shove over the edge. See how good he was at his telekinetics. “I have to say though, on the damaged note. You’re in the presence of a Watchman. We’re very good at the whole questioning thing, and used to prisons.” He shrugged.
“It also helps that I was meditating for a while, kept myself out of trouble. That’s another thing I excel at, keeping myself out of trouble. Take now for instance-” he raised his arms to encompass the whole room. “-I could start a fight if I wanted. You’re alone, I’m alone. There are weapons with my reach, if I use the Force and yet. I’m doing nothing.” He offered a smile. “Perplexing isn’t it?”
“The game is rigged though, isn't it?” Ven said as though this question was the answer to the previous one. “You stay a Jedi, you don't throw yourself to aggression and attack someone like me, someone just talking to you. But if you cooperate you cooperate with Sith. And we want you to cooperate, don't we? If you don't fight us, then we win. And if you fight us then you are like us and we want you to be like us, don't we? You could start a fight now, there are weapons within your reach but what good does that do you Jedi? Not a very Jedi thing to do is it? If you take all your strength and fight us and you break your moral code then we win. I know this.”
Koren let out a real laugh, just a single one then. “Depends on where you stand on the code. From a certain point of view the very concept of this ship, and having us prisoners has you an aggressor attacking us and our believes. Some would argue that from that standpoint alone if I were to incapacitate you here and now, it would be no different to if you pulled your lightsaber on me right now.” He shrugged. “Also non-aggression is not the same as me joining the Sith for the record. I hold to my beliefs, to the code. As strong as I always did.”
He walked nearer the edge of the arena. “I have no quarrel with co-operating with the Sith. You are human, I am human. If you cut us open we’d both have a heart, two lungs, intestines and a liver. As well as various other organs.” He turned back to face Ven. “I have a problem with those who harm others, and I will co-operate with you until it brings harm to someone else and then. Co-operation will cease, which in the end.” He laughed again. “Doesn’t make me very useful in your
bigger picture. Now tell me, you’re bound to know my name. If not, I am Koren Omi-Ren. Jedi Watchman, do me the courtesy and tell me yours.”
Ven'ren tilted his head a little again. “Strange that. Because we did attack you're home and destroy everything and you do not fight back openly and you are not angry and I wonder, what could we harm to make you fight us that we haven't already? Do you think that you can escape us, you think you can win? It would be interesting if you did, very interesting, but this is a prison ship and everything you can do must be by design, or else they would not make it so. If you have a chance of getting out of here it is because it is a part of a greater plan by Sith. Does that not bother you?”
He silenced after that. He got a feeling he should not say his name. That that name meant something else at this time. So far the discussion had left him feeling almost empty, like there was nothing in what the Jedi was saying that he understood, nothing to anchor by, but now the defensiveness returned.
“My name is Ven'ren.” He said finally, when he had decided he was just being silly about it. “It would be nice to meet you, but that was a long time ago.”
“Time flows by, as does the Force. It may have been nice to meet me a long time ago, but does that not make it so now?” He shrugged. “Anger doesn’t help a situation, it clouds judgement. Makes people make rash and poor decisions, do I want out of here? Simple answer is yes. Of course I do. Is everything I do part of some grand design?”
He paused for a second, closing his eyes briefly as he let himself touch the Force. “Of course it is, my doing is the will of the Force. I let it flow through me, I do it’s bidding in an attempt to bring peace and prosperity to the Galaxy. To help those in need, I do not try and bend it to my will. I flow with the current, not against it. Yet my will is my own, I chose this path. Tell me, how do the Sith plan to take this from me? Pain? Humiliation? Anger? Grief? All of these things I have felt.” He pointed to the ceiling where you could faintly see the other Jedi.
“As have all the other Jedi here. What differs from you and I, is I accept these emotions for what they are. I do not hang onto them but I let them go. I do not let them consume and control me.”
Ven'ren snarled, somehow, this is what made him angry.
“Good! Stay that way! See where it gets you. See how long your friends survive!” He was not quite shouting yet, but his anger was clear.
“It doesn't
work like that!” Barely aware he was using the force, with these words, Ven pushed the Jedi away in anger. Not mentioning what part of what Koren just said didn’t work how. He stood a moment overlooking the arena, realizing that he was, in fact, conveniently in an arena.
“It
doesn’t work like that.”
Koren followed the simple philosophy. Absorb and deflect, he let the current of the Force take him over the edge and into the arena. There he flipped in the air and landed on his feet perfectly, his left leg twinged a bit as he did so but it was nothing major, he could easily ignore it.
“You know, I’ve already been here once today without a reasonable explanation. How about you tell me
what doesn’t work that way?” This was getting curious and curiouser. This Sith… was almost broken. On edge, off balance. If it was possible for a Sith to be even more unbalanced than usual.
The sith walked around the edge of the overlook, ready to jump down there himself, but delaying. Lightsaber was in his hand, but not ignited.
“You think I haven’t heard all that? You think I wanted this?” If Korens question even registered, he made no sign of it. “And you say this
now?
Now, like it matters! It was a long time ago and you come with it now.” The last part had gone back to a snarl again. The chaos that was this sith’s aura calmed somewhat. Still angry, still conflicted and still thick with darkness, but focusing.
“We are not getting far with you I suppose. Perhaps you will stay like that. Perhaps until someone cuts your friends open and hands you their various organs and you, as you said, would cease co-operating. Perhaps still.” He shrugged, fairly calmer now, almost sounding friendly but with the swiftness of his mood change last time, he might not stay that way for long.
“Now that you are down there without good explanation again, would you kill me if I joined you?”
He had already observed the location where the Electrostaff from earlier lay abandoned, he had noted it on his fall and cold call it to hand in a split second if necessary. “You speak as if I knew you before you joined the Sith. I didn’t, would I have said this then? Yes. I would. Do you think the only one the Empire has twisted and chewed?”
He was taken steps back, slowly. If the Sith did jump he wanted to increase the time in which he could have a weapon in hand. “Violence breeds violence, a path of war and destruction only leads to more violence and destruction. If it comes to you attacking my fellow Jedi I will intervene.” He was now nearer to the centre of the arena than he had previously been yet he still projected the calm Jedi. Hands clasped behind his back.
“Now just to double check do you mean kill you if you were to join me in this arena? As if so, no I wouldn’t think so.”
The sith stood on the edge of the platform, just stopping himself from jumping down. He had planned to. But he didn't. You watch your enemies, before you strike them. Ven truly wanted to take his anger out on the man in front of him. Self-congratulatory thing. Thinking it knows better. Still, challenging the Jedi here, with just the two of them could go either way. Sending in the animals just felt petty, and would not be satisfying enough, but it would have to do. He stepped away from the edge.
“Of course I don't.” He responded to the first question. “I don't see why you would think that. And I wasn't specifically threatening to hurt anyone. But they will start with that at some point. It's an efficient strategy.”
“And it is nice of you to not kill me,“ he continued as he walked over to release one of the beasts kept by the arena. ”I might have to put that to the test later on, but since I unfortunately missed your last fight here by a few minutes, bad luck that, I will have to watch how you fight first. Solve this peacefully and I'll be impressed.”
Koren just shrugged. “If attacked, I will respond in kind.” He smiled. “As I said, violence breeds violence. The difference is my attack will be to incapacitate not kill. Also to do it quickly, not to simply cause pain.” He turned to face the door to the arena, awaiting the entrance of… whatever beast the Sith had chosen to entertain him with.
“You should have figured I am far beyond the point of platitudes.” Ven said as he released one K’lor’slug into the arena. Just one, but a pretty big one. Not something likely to kill a jedi, but Van didn’t really want to do that. He mostly wanted to see the Jedi fight. And be annoying. He sat down by the edge of the arena, close enough to the pit to continue the conversation. “You know, I had a point with all this but I think I've quite forgotten about it now. Right now I just can't let you make me angry and then let you get off without some sort of consequence.”
Koren hit the activation stud of the weapon as the beast came out of the door. Crashing through. He struggled to recall the beasts name. It had slug somewhere in there… it was nasty that was for sure and it probably would want to eat him. As it’s head focused on him and it charged Koren just nodded his head, to no-one in particular. It definitely wanted to eat him.
It ran at him, going straight in for the torso kill. At the last second he jumped over the beast, flipping and landing still facing the beast. He couldn’t remember what it was called but he remembered what it was. The Sith truly were arrogant if they had one of these aboard. In fact-
His eyes scanned the room there was still only
one Sith in the room. If he wanted to cause bother for the Sith then there was one simple solution. Force this beast out of the arena and make it work it’s way down into the ship where it could lay its stupid amounts of eggs. Though then he looked back up at the Sith and realized something, the man was broken. Much like he was, the difference was Koren had a handle on it (For the most part). His training and resolve prevented him from being so twisted.
He had sensed something different about this Sith. Perhaps that difference in itself, could bring him to the light. Though if he went through with this, any chance of that would be gone.
“You know, you could have asked me for a stress ball. Though I don’t have one, but if you hit your head on a wall repeatedly I assure you it removes any stress or anger issues you may be having.” He lunged forward pushing the blade out with his left side leading as the beast approached, the electric shock hitting it as the beast jumped back eyeing him with suspicion. It did momentarily glance up at it’s possible escape out of the arena.
Though he gave it a slight mental
tug to keep the beast's attention on him. “For future reference, just so I don’t need to fight off a beast every time I speak to you. What’d I do?”
“You know, I've come to almost like those things.” Ven'ren remarked casually as the duel between the k'lor'slug and the Jedi started. “They're even edible, but I wouldn't suggest it. Whatever gruel they feed you in the prison is probably better for you.” The prospect of the creature escaping was not something that had troubled the sith at all. Ven'ren was a very efficient k'lor'slug hunter.
“And banging your head against a wall does not help against
anything.” He continued with a certainty that comes with personal experience. “Besides, I am Sith. We don't use stress-balls, we hurt people for no good reason. That shouldn’t surprise you. But if you want advice, sure. I honestly thought you expected this outcome though. You are a man of some spirit. You could always try not to be condescendingly lecturing to the Sith around. Might have been a little ill-advised in hindsight. You can’t throw that shit about letting emotions control you as though I haven’t heard it before! As though it works!“ Returning to that conversation got him angry again, and he got up to walk around the ledge of the arena. It calmed nearly instantly to mild annoyance. “Or perhaps it does. You will have your chance to prove that now, won't you?”
Koren twirled the weapon as the beast jumped back at him. Pushing back against it. The blade whirled as the electrified ends sparked and fizzed. “You know, you have a weird taste in pets-” He spun the blade clockwise, at the middle of his turn he pushed the bottom out to hit the beast as it moved high to try and strike past his guard and hit his head. “-You know there are far less dangerous pets to look after.”
He rolled to the right as it tried to strike him again and he winced as he hit his left knee on the cold hard floor. Pain shot up his leg, but his leg didn’t give way. “Also have you really
tried banging your head against a wall for a really long time? I promise it really works! No more stress, no more anger guaranteed.” He stood ready, his right leg under him while his left leg was stretched out at an angle to his left.
He then did the unexpected, dropping the weapon and standing up tall. Closing his eyes. “As I’ve said before, with a clear and calm mind.” He reached out to the feelings of the beast. It was scared, it was angry, it was hungry. Koren wished he could have done this again under less… stressful conditions but they said stress was a great motivator. He focused on the calm feeling within himself, projecting it towards the beast. A feeling of safety and serenity. The beast recoiled slightly, however then lowered itself to the floor still eyeing Koren curiously. “Anything can be achieved.” Koren closed off his mind and opened his eyes, the beast still lying there.
It was calm, yet it wasn’t quite sure what to do. Koren turned to the Sith. “I feel sorry for you, that you were never really given a chance to be one with the Force. Though that doesn’t mean you should take your pain out on others, what do you gain from it? If you were to jump in this arena right now, slay this beast and then throw me against a wall what would that
achieve what would you gain?”
“Oh those are not very good pets at all.” The sith said, sitting down again. “I did manage some sort of relationship of mutual acceptance with them, but generally I tried to keep them out of my territory.” He watched to fight for a moment. Snorting at the question about the wall. “Is that what you do? To keep your pain, humiliation, anger and grief from consuming you?” He would have continued, making fun of the headwall therapy, but he wanted to watch this.
“Oh, so you are doing that!” He watched the Jedi attentively, could feel the k'lor'slug calm down. “Impressive. Well, you have done what I asked now, haven't you. And I won’t do that. Lure that back into its pen again. I’m sure you can convince it, as much its home as you get now, after all.”
“Well, there are plenty of pets that are nicer. A Whisper Bird for example. Have you ever heard a Whisper Bird sing? Truly astonishing.” He sighed at the thought. “Also-” He looked at the beast pushing in the idea that the arena was a bad place, undesirable and the area it came from was safe. Secure. Nobody would harm it there.
“-I don’t tend to do the head-bang method of releiving stress. I am a Jedi Knight after all. We tend not to get humiliated or angered. Grief is something that affects us all, but I rejoice those we lose for they become one with the Force. In terms of pain? That is a fact of nature. No amount of training can truly avoid that forever.” He shrugged, as he too sat down. He however sat cross legged in an almost meditative pose. The Sith he remarked, looked as if he was sitting on the ledge in an almost leisurely way. As if a child.
“Also, I feel I have been honest with you. What do you have to gain by causing pain? How does this benefit you? You say it is an undeniable fact, that Sith do it for no-good reason. If there is no reason, there is no point. If there is no point there is nothing to gain so I ask again
why?” He was growing more and more tempted to probe the Siths mental defences, see if he could get in. See what emotions toiled under the surface, yet his mind was still working on locking down the thoughts and feelings the k’lor’slug had pushed through his mind.
“Jediiii, you're lecturing again.” The sith reminded. He shook his head at the questions about causing pain. “You don't understand, but that is alright. You don't need to. You did what I asked, so I won't get angry again. Even if you do feel sorry for me. I survive. You'll end up like this too.” The k'lor'slug did not put up much resistance to the feelings the Jedi projected, and slowly backed off towards the gate in came through. Ven'ren closed the gate behind it and then came back to the ledge. “Well then you're done.” He said, and oddly, stretched his hand down to the arena as far as he could reach, in order to help the Jedi up again.
Koren shrugged as he stood up and walked over to the edge. “I hope you do not feel insulted if I do not take you up on your offer of assistance. After all you have not truly answered my question merely skirted around it.” He gauged the jump, again trying to figure out the way he would need to do it in order to
just make it. He still wasn’t ready to play his full hand yet.
Running and then launching himself in the air, using the Force to augment his muscles and then his jump he grabbed hold of the ledge with his hands. Pulling himself up the best he good he got high enough to put his leg over the edge. Once that was done he merely rolled away from the ledge. Taking deep breaths as if tired out from an extraneous exercise. He doubted the Sith would believe his play, however if he did even better. If not all he would know was that Koren wasn’t revealing his true strength. He wouldn’t know how strong or weak he truly was. He usually worked against the unknowns and yet today they would work in his favour.
“So, do I walk myself back or is date night not finished yet?” He sat up, turning to face the Sith. “I should warn you though, no sugar on the first date. Also if you want to continue this relationship you should probably get a sex change.”
Ven went over to the place where the Koren was crawling up on the ledge, considering for a moment if he should decide to feel insulted and kick the jedi down again out of spite. He didn't really though. Instead he just watched the Jedi get back on his feet, arms folded. The wish to do so came back with return to joking about dating. He decided against it, having no interest in doing this whole thing again, and besides, only being mildly annoyed now.
“You do know I just threw you down this very arena five minutes ago for annoying me, right? And now you pick up right were you started. Are you sure you don't get continually thrown in there on purpose? And yes, we are done, you are free to return to your prison cell. Congratulations. And I” he continued, already feeling less annoyed again. “would never take my mask of for you, so don't worry about it.” He made a dismissing gesture, but did not leave.
Koren shrug. “I feel like we’ve gained a rapport. Life is… fleeting. If you cannot enjoy every moment of it, then what is the point?” With that he just shrugged as without even turning back he walked towards the exit hands clasped behind his back. He was still not
entirely sure what the whole ordeal had been about but he had learned something so there was always that.
He stood in the turbolift as it took him back to the prison. The turbolift door opened and he walked back into the cell.
Through the room he nodded at Tolun Fi “You know, yesterday nobody even cared that I was on the ship. Now that’s two times in the arena in less than two hours-” He sighed.
