One would think, after twenty some years, I would know not to let Tholgeth plan anything by himself.
But, of course, I do for reasons I don’t quite understand.
Occasionally, I like to needle my mother. She’s certainly earned more than that, but I’m not suicidal. I had been discussing various ways to hopefully induce a fatal stroke in the old shyrack with Tholgeth, and he said he had an idea.
He thought, considering my mother’s intense dislike (and occasional attacks upon) of him, that it might be amusing to give her the impression that we were in some form of relationship.
Easy enough; she’s fallen for that trick before (though, the last one was a very bizarre looking Togruta woman). However, when it came time for the execution of it, Tholgeth went ahead with a far too long, and FAR too public announcement of marriage!
Even worse, before I had a moment to ask him what in the HELL he thought he was doing, he had one of his agents get forged, official documentation in place. He swears it was ‘spur of the moment’. I swear he’s been planning it for Maker knows how long in an attempt to see if it caused -me- to drop over dead.
Which it nearly did, when he used my ship to fire on two of my mother’s ships.
For a start, I had no idea any of the weaponry on my ship was even in working order. Evidently, the port side guns were still functional.
She’s not speaking to me at the moment.
She went silent after he fired on her ships.
That’s—not good.
Not speaking means livid, if she’s shouting or even speaking she’s not that angry, and livid means one or both of us is going to either die or genuinely wish we had. Happily, Tholgeth is taller and wider than me, so it will be easy to use him as a living shield should it come to that.
Then, we come to the fact that her finding out it’s just a bit of a joke, meant to raise her hackles, will make matters much, much worse given the whole issue with the destroyed ships and all.
That means, at some point, she’s going to call the bluff.
Tholgeth appears to be perfectly alright with all of the above.
And I—received a massively, comically over-sized basket of fruit from Agent Kindrak.
I seem to have lost control of my life, and it’s going down an almost absurd path.
To: Jedi Knight Geviana Tolan
From: Darth Bi’ev Aculeatus - Special Research Division
Subject: Regards From Corellia
Someone appears to have left the door unlocked.
I thought you should know before you continued running your mouth in a most un-Jedi-like manner over the open comm frequency.
Cheers!
- Bi’ev
P.S. Unlike my younger brother, I am not so easily caught.
Don’t let that deter you from notifying your precious CorSec so they can waste their time chasing something they’ll never see.
(( I figured it was a bit silly to think that Ixor just magically taught himself how to use a double-bladed saber, so…))
Blocked.
Damn.
That little Pureblood was faster than he looked.
What Ixor couldn’t understand, however, was the fact that Bi’ev didn’t appear to be making any move to try and strike or get inside of his defenses. Every swing, every thrust, every attempt to get at some organic part of that awful little man ended up deflected or hit so hard it caused the Twi’lek to stagger back a step or two. If Ixor hadn’t known better, he’d almost swear Bi’ev had the ability to see one or two moves ahead. “Maybe he can. Might be a Force thing.”
Ixor swung one blade toward Bi’ev’s midsection and tried to angle the second blade toward the Pureblood’s legs, and might have landed a hit—if Bi’ev hadn’t all but disappeared in a cloud of purple-black…Ixor wasn’t sure what it was, Force energy, he’d always assumed, it showed up when he cloaked as well, and knew that trick. He spun around, meeting Bi’ev face to face, not about to give the other Sith the chance to quite literally stab him in the back.
Instead of a swipe, Bi’ev sharply thrust his free hand toward Ixor, causing a slow, foggy appearing circle of energy to form around the two of them. Ixor stepped back, noticing that he couldn’t quite seem to move as fast as he thought he should, and became momentarily aware of the energy field’s weakening effect. He thrust his own hand back at Bi’ev and, despite the motion not having the effect of tossing the Pureblood back several yards, at least it made the horrid little man stagger a bit.
Or, at least, enough to break his concentration.
Ixor’s swing should have connected; he’d moved fast enough, he’d aimed for what he knew to be a weak spot in a saberstaff’s defenses, it should have hit. The white blade’s movement abruptly halted in a flash of pale blue and sparks. Bi’ev appeared, from what Ixor could tell, to use the connected blades as leverage to leap up and aim a kick at his head.
Ixor leaned back to avoid a boot to the face, and failed to notice the hand darting out again, coming close, but not quite touching him. A quick, short burst of lightning momentarily stunned him; before he had a chance to react or recover, another shove-of-nothing caused him to lose his footing in Korriban’s sand and fell to the ground with a hard, ungraceful thud. With the Twi’lek’s grip on his lightsaber lost, the weapon deactivated itself and rolled a few inches away. Certainly not out of reach, if he were quick enough.
Of course, these things never quite work out the way one intends, and the Pureblood’s voice froze Ixor where he fell.
“You never asked my specialty, Twi’lek.” Bi’ev’s voice held more than a hint of smug amusement. He twirled his lightsaber in an obviously practiced, overly ornate flourish that ended with one of the pale blue blades at Ixor’s throat. “This weapon does have defensive holes. You’ve seen that, and nobody skilled with the weapon would deny it among—semi-friendly company.”
“There are a few different ways to make up for it, as I’m sure you know.” Bi’ev shrugged lightly and deactivated his lightsaber, “You’re making a mistake that could easily prove fatal. In fact, it might have if this weren’t just a bit of training.”
Ixor wasted no time in scrambling back to his feet and moving back from Bi’ev. He narrowed his eyes at the other, older SIth, but didn’t bother speaking beyond a muttered, irritated, “Of course, my Lord.”
The Pureblood chuckled dryly, his voice dropping back into an almost bored drawl, “Speed and stealth serve well, but don’t underestimate what can be done by enduring and deflecting attacks until your opponent wears themselves out or becomes careless enough to provide even the smallest opening.”
“I hadn’t considered—” Ixor was cut off by Bi’ev’s impatient hand wave.
“Of course you hadn’t. Your kind never does, do they?” Bi’ev shook his head and reached up underneath of his hood to tuck a bit of fallen, stray hair back behind his ear. “Allowing your ego to outreach your talent will get you killed and it’s always such a shame to see potential wasted in that way, wouldn’t you agree?”
Ixor nodded slowly, unsure as to whether he was being insulted or complimented.
Perhaps it was both.
“Would you recommend I spend some time practicing defensive moves then, my Lor—nah, that’s a dumb question, you kinda just told me that.” A clawed hand reached up to absently scratch one of the lekku, “I think. Figure I’ll do it anyway. Pretty obviously need it since y’knocked me down in less than five minutes flat.”
I took some time to stop and have a chat with Doctor Azil’mort, mostly in regards to Tholgeth and—Tholgeth. Essentially, it was an apology for Tholgeth existing and a slight reminder that, as irritating as he may be to Azil’mort, it’s nothing compared to what I put up with on a daily basis.
It’s such a pity Tholgeth is so efficient and skilled when his temper and ego aren’t getting the better of him.
Thankfully, Caspira isn’t something he stole from the Doctor (though, I’m still unclear as to the connection). That was one of my main worries, that Tholgeth was sniping people from another Sith’s power base; while that’s not strictly a bad thing, when it’s done openly like that it can create issues.
He reminds me a bit of Taz’hezyst, actually; Azil’mort, that is. Not quite as maddeningly calm, however, and likely not the sort to talk my ears off about things relating to synthweaving.
Hm.
It may simply be because he’s also a blue Twi’lek. When there aren’t obvious tattoos, they all look fairly similar.
Speaking of issues, Azil’mort seemed concerned that Tholgeth was sniffing around what IS something he considers ‘his’: Lord Laz’ab.
Frankly, based on what I’ve heard of the man, Tholgeth would deserve anything he got by going after that one. However, that outcome would cause problems for Azil’mort who would, in turn, likely cause problems for me. I’d rather not deal with that; there are no shortage of unstable, violent Sith for Tholgeth to pick from if he decides he wants one for whatever mad reasons are going through his head. He can pick one from a bin of those unattached to someone else.
Purely out of curiosity, I almost want to meet this Lord Laz’ab both to see if he’s as unstable as I’ve been lead to believe and to see if I can figure out why in the hell Tholgeth would have an interest in him.
Tholgeth hates Twi’lek.
Obisen has decided to believe that he’s an equal to the Sith. Idiot decided he would presume to tell me that he knew what was best in terms of where he is assigned and to flat out tell me he was refusing his next assignment.
That was quickly taken care of.
It hardly matters that another Sith has decided he’s worth their time as a plaything; he is Force blind and beneath us.
Furthermore, Darth or not, I highly doubt Ixor’semo will take a swipe at me.
He isn’t nearly powerful enough to even cause me to stagger, let alone take me out of the equation, and he isn’t stupid enough to believe that he is. If I’m lucky, he’ll pull his toy back in line. If not, I’ll have to deal with it myself.
Today is not that day.
Tomorrow will likely not be that day either.
I ought to make him pay for the door that Ventoren kicked in.
Tholgeth has somehow arranged to have his own ego kicked around, beaten, and stuffed back inside of him.
If he doesn’t die in the process.
I suspect he won’t, the people he’s going after have enough of a sense of humor to find it more amusing to leave him alive after being properly shoved back into his place.
I’m still not entirely sure why his big metal panties are bunched up, but it has something to do with him thinking one of Perkele’s—I didn’t quite follow—either he’s upset that one of her Force sensitive children ISN’T on Korriban or he’s offended that one of her children isn’t Force sensitive at all.
Either way, he’s got it in his head that Elfaroth, of all people, shouldn’t be dipping his pen in that particular inkwell.
Stars, that was an archaic turn of phrase.
At any rate, Tholgeth has been told he can’t come running to hide behind me if he gets in over his head; not only is he an adult, he holds a Darth title.
He can clean up his own messes.
Or, more accurately, he can be turned into the mop that cleans them up.
That child is not nearly as powerful as he seems to think he is; the fact that his main ability is to scream extremely loudly only makes him seem more like an overgrown toddler than an adult anyway.
I’ve spoken to Perkele, she finds it as entertaining as I do.
I’m looking forward to watching either her or Elfaroth (or both) chew up Tholgeth’s ego and spit it right back out at him.
If they chew up that ridiculous metal suit, even better. Perhaps I should request that.
Aside from that, the only other remotely interesting thing I managed to come across had to do with a couple of younger Sith comparing lightsabers in Vaiken’s cantina.
Standard fare. A slightly older Sith complimented the younger one—Velmar? Something to that effect—for essentially getting into a cantina fight and acting like a common piece of street trash.
Were I this Velmar’s Master, I’d be livid that he’d been behaving that way in public. Being easily goaded into anger is a blatant sign of weakness in an apprentice (or in a Sith for that matter). Perhaps I ought to send all of mine a reminder to use people like him as examples of how not to behave unless they like the idea of being shocked until I can smell burning brain tissue.
…I find I still cannot take any Sith in a silly outfit even the slightest bit seriously.
Eventually, that will kill me, I suppose, but it beats having to treat a person in a three foot tall, pointed hat and robes that look like they have kites sewn to the shoulders and back as though they have any right to be taken seriously.
Taz’hezyst took it upon himself to decorate the ship for all that Life Day nonsense.
My ship, for clarification.
He’s got his own ship. If I recall, it’s decades newer and much nicer than mine, actually.
What he’s doing on mine again I’ll—have to remember to change the access codes on the locks.
Eventually.
I rather like being served tea, and that Twi’lek still hasn’t got it out of his head that he’s a Darth now, and not a servant. Then again, he sits here and talks about synthweaving and making those idiotic looking ‘lekku mittens’ for people and I begin to think that’s his method of torture.
Bet the tea will be poisoned one of these days; if it isn’t, I’m going to be terribly offended and vaguely creeped out.
To: Jedi Knight Geviana Tolan
From: Darth Bi’ev Aculeatus - Special Research Division
Darth Tholgeth Voidscream - Special Research Division
Subject: Greetings From Bombed-Out Corellia
Hello to our favorite Sith-tempered Jedi!
Once again, we’ve visited the—pardon the pause, I did have to quiet a bit of laughter—crown jewel of Corellia.
Coronet City is looking a bit tarnished, but that certainly didn’t stop us from having an excellent, fun filled evening.
It may be true that neither of us are particularly adept at dancing (A video is embedded.), but that was made up for by the fact that we had such a wonderful time. No trouble from the locals either; we suspect it’s because we were dressed in a fashion similar to what you call “Green Jedi”.
Tholgeth sends his regards as do I.
- Bi’ev
I’ve been working with Tholgeth again, as of late.
He’s become rather decent, in the sense that he isn’t an unpredictable dog that needs to be kept on an exceptionally short leash. For the most part, he’s kept his temper in check and needed minimal reminders from me to do so.
He is still prone to preferring immediate execution over capture, interrogation, and execution when that is finished; ah well, can’t hope for perfect, can we?
For the most part, we’ve been—getting along, though I suppose that’s required if traveling together (or being stuck in a collapsed mine shaft for an entire night), or someone will wind up dead. It’s curious, though, he’s told me he was a quiet child, which makes me wonder how many times he was hit in the head while at the Academy, because he certainly wasn’t a quiet Apprentice by any means.
I’ve also discovered that my mother doesn’t like him; thinks he’s a horrible thug, likely on account of him trying to attack her (for which, I cannot fault her, though he’s lucky she elected not to kill him for it), and doesn’t think I ought to be around him. She’s said she’s worried he’s going to harm me somehow; I’ll let her worry about that, as I’m well aware that Tholgeth isn’t suicidal enough to make such a bold move.
That, in and of itself, leaves me very, very inclined to purposely spend as much time with Tholgeth as is possible and to make sure she’s well aware of it.
I’d jot down that I don’t know why I don’t update more frequently, but I’m well aware of the reason.
There is nothing worth recording.
At the moment, the majority of my life is calm. Now that that’s been a thought outside of my head it will, of course, dissolve into chaos sooner than later, I’m sure.
My apprentices, the ones still around and alive, are, with the exception of Suchin, no longer technically apprentices.
Taz’hezyst has been a Darth for some time. He recently took his first apprentice.
Gida’tar is at Lord. I’ve heard rumors that she’s taken at least one apprentice, but haven’t bothered to find out for certain just yet.
Tholgeth is a Darth, and has his own apprentices.
I wonder, on occasion, if he regrets having so little to do with Ixor’semo’s training. That one has done particularly well for himself in terms of training and gathering allies for himself. It’s almost a pity Tholgeth can’t claim him; I might by proxy, but I suspect I’d end up butting heads with Achai over that.
Zamir, I believe is a Lord of the Sith.
Ayel, also a Lord.
Those that are dead don’t deserve recognition or remembrance of their names, but there were only two failures in my set.
Out of that group, two are Pureblood, the rest Twi’lek. I’ve learned, over the years, that Twi’lek are far more clever than most give them credit for being.
That aside, Tholgeth took it upon himself to teach that—Donna, I believe, a lesson in manners. I cannot say I blame her for her commentary on his armor. It’s ridiculous. All of it. However, she’s in no position to be taking verbal shots at a Darth, no matter how awful his fashion sense.
It struck me as odd that he elected to use the method of dragging a trail of Force lightning across her face with his fingertips.
It’s a common method, at least among Inquisitors, but I’ve never seen him use lightning much at all, let alone in that fashion. So far as I know, he’s only ever seen me do it. He’s also been—not mimicking, but—perhas it is mimicking. If it is, it would be me if I were more brutish, clumsy, and less elegant with my movements.
…I don’t know if I find the idea of him potentially emulating me endearing, off-putting, frightening, or something else. Likely, it’s nothing beyond him still feeling the need to impress me.
I’ve been getting reports from my Agents (and a few other usually reliable sources) that Tholgeth has been—hm.
Not calm, he’s still somewhat confrontational, just not physically. He hasn’t been allowing himself to be goaded into fights. While it’s flattering to hear that the assumption is that I introduced his brain to enough shocking to knock him back in line, that simply didn’t happen.
I haven’t wanted to speak to him or be around him since his last little incident; figured I’d just end up killing him and that would have been a rash decision, despite the fact that I’m certain it would have made me feel infinitely better. The last I’d heard, he’d gone on some sort of holiday.
Don’t know to where or why, and I can’t rightly say that I care.
This new development is unsettling, though.
Tholgeth may have finally snapped.
I suppose it is possible that everything I’ve been trying to teach him for years now has finally sunk in, but I suspect that it’s more likely he’s just snapped.
Suppose I’ll have to be social with him to find out.
Either that or I have multiple Agents feeding me misinformation.
I may have threatened to turn Tholgeth into a dressing gown if he didn’t stop attacking, harassing, or otherwise bothering my Agents. Obviously, I’d never do that. He’s not a terribly attractive shade of red anyway.
Told him to get his own damn chew toys and leave mine alone.
I have no idea what his issue is with Est’i—z—Chiss or Kindrak, and I don’t rightly care.
If he goes after my possessions for a third time, I’ll take it as an overtly hostile move against me instead of “his temper getting the better of him” and simply put him down. Suppose the old tuk’ata might get a meal or two out of him if it came to that.
If the issue is simply that Tholgeth views me as a passive floor mat, I imagine his last thoughts will run along the lines of, “I’ve made a slight error in judgement.” Mistaking slow to anger with floor mat typically doesn’t end well.
If anyone renders MY Agents ineffective, it had better be them screwing up a field assignment or because I’ve done it myself.
My tolerance level for those within the Division, Sith or otherwise, who cannot abide by a simple, “Division members are off limits, regardless of your personal feelings. Find something else to torment.” is at an all time low.
I assume Darth Achai is in agreement, though I probably ought to bring it up to him at some point.
If I’m lucky, I’ll get to watch him beaten into the ground by Elfaroth and possibly Perkele. If I’m feeling ambitious, I may join in, but I think I’d just prefer to watch with the not-so-subtle air of, “I told you this would happen if you couldn’t keep from running your mouth.”
Just as a reminder to myself: I do need to meet with these—people—Tholgeth has been collecting as his. He’s exercised such dreadful judgement in the past, it’s probably worth knowing what kind of insanity, idiocy, and/or incompetence I’ll be facing in addition to his own.
That Zabrak Padawan I had Kindrak and Ixor’semo drag back to me a couple of years ago finally proved it wasn’t a total waste of time and that I’d been spot on in targeting it. It’s taken a few years, as it usually does, but he finally completed his trials and re-education on Korriban. I’ve sent him to Nar Shaddaa. For now. I also ought to make an effort to remember his name in case I’m ever around more than one of my apprentices at any given time and want to address him as something other than “You. The Zabrak one.”
Zaol? I think that was it.
I must remember to work with him on his social skills or I may end up with another, slightly more irritating Tholgeth.
Oh, and there’s one more—blind, eyeless thing. Older than one would expect, looks like he’s in his thirties, and evidently a willing convert from the Jedi.
We’ll see about that in time. I don’t entirely trust it, especially with that race. They’re exceptionally skilled with Force use, and that includes being able to conceal intentions with it.
Might see if Achai wants that one.
It’s either that or Tholgeth has severely selective hearing.
Not only did he attack a Division member because his little ego was bruised, the one he attacked was a Chiss. And, of course, to top that off, Tholgeth took a holovid of it.
Lovely.
I like a topping of potential diplomatic incident on top of doesn’t listen to me. Of all of my apprentices, including the ones that are now dead, it’s a bit discouraging that the ones that don’t give me near constant headaches are the group of Twi’lek.
That newish human—what was his name? Arrogant, stiff thing…Kannik? He hasn’t managed to do anything embarrassing yet, but I’m sure now that I’ve said it he’ll do something.
At any rate…
Tholgeth is lucky that I’m not as quick to anger as I was when I was a younger man. It’s gone from violent fire to more of a slow burn over the years, if I want to stick to stupid sounding metaphors.
To his credit, the slow, dusty gears in his skull seemed to turn enough to remind him that it’s unpleasant for him when I do get angry and he stopped trying to convince me that ‘circumstances’ made it okay for him to ignore a direct order from me just to satisfy his ego.
He thinks he’s managed to get off easy because I didn’t short out his can-like armor and his brains this time.
For now, I’m content to let him think everything is smoothed over.
chiss-gun-for-hire asked: "Hey Sith." Aleesia crossed her arms and looked him over quickly, trying to figure out as much as she could about him. "Got any dirty work you need done?"
“That depends entirely on your prices and what you’re willing to do, now, doesn’t it? I have hunters under contract, and I have Agents. How expendable are—oh, who am I kidding, I’ve got nothing that needs doing that I can’t do myself, unless you’re offering to run to one of the cafes in Kaas City and fetch me some coffee? The not-poisoned variety, of course.”
