Snow?

[Jacques]

He had never been on Ziost before today.

Nor had he seen snow.

It was a beautiful place, but the cold just pissed him off.

Pestilence threw his hood over his scarred face, hearing the crunching of the snow beneath his boots as he walked toward the Academy. It had a similar look to it as of the one on Korriban, so the Acolyte doubted he'd be confused by the interior of the place. He had even heard it had a weight room, something that could be of use to him.

His master had told him to go out, train some more and meet a few other Sith (as Pestilence hadn't by then taken the time to do so). Then, in a few days, which the Acolyte took as a week or even a few weeks, they'd meet again.

So he wasn't going to let that time go to waste.

As the ex-Jedi approached the doors to enter the Academy, snow began to fall from the sky, another first for the fairly young Sith to see. He stopped for a few moments to stare up and let the fragile, little flakes fall on his face.

 

[Crystalmath]

Darth Asmodeus lay on the roof of the temple, telekinetically twirling his mass of deactivated trophy-lightsabers above him as he dwelled on the past and future and became equally bored with both. A single snowflake landed in his eye and caused him to blink furiously as he sat himself upright with a murmur, letting the numerous weapons fall one after another into his hands before they were tossed one after another in rapid succession into the numerous compartments hidden within the alchemically altered trenchcoat Geist Weiss had given him.

Rising to his feet, Ichabod glared up at the sky with his hands in his pockets as more snow fell around him before he made his way to the edge of the roof. It was a several story drop but Ichabod nonchalantly hopped off the edge, softening his landing with the force. He landed next to the front door, not a sound being made from his feet hitting the ground. Several meters before him, a subordinate stood still. Ichabod struggled to tell the Acolytes from the Crusaders, thankfully they were all just lesser so it didn't matter.

Being somewhat bored, Ichabod leaned himself forwards, peering at the other Sith as he muttered, "Hey worm. What are you doing all alone in the snow?"

If his force presence wasn't powerful enough for the acolyte to get the idea of who he was dealing with, holonet advertising for the 'New and Improved Mandalore' often had Darth Asmodeus all over it.

 

[Jacques]

The Acolyte could feel the powerful presence above him as someone jumped down from the roof of the Academy. His eyes followed the man in the overcoat down, not even wondering what the man was doing up there. He did the same on Korriban.

'What a dick.' Ran through Pestilence's mind as soon as the man spoke, immediately deciding he hated whoever it was had just addressed him as worm. His status as a Sith was not yet high up, and it was a Sith Lord who was addressing him. One of those worthy enough to assume the title of Darth. But that didn't mean he was going to be insulted and just let it slip by. For then, however, the Acolyte decided to just answer the question posed to him.

"Korriban is a completely different world than Ziost. I feel I'm allowed to gawk at snow the first time I lay my eyes on it." His voice was raspy and deep. His vocal chords were messed up pretty bad, along with a great deal of his head and neck and the like.

 

[Crystalmath]

Ichabod examined the man over with a slight smirk. He most certainly wasn't a looker, but that didn't mean he couldn't find a way to have fun with him. He noted the resentment in the mans eyes, especially as he referred to him as 'worm', that was a good start. Standing upright again, Ichabod glided gracefully towards the worm with an inquisitively raised eyebrow, "Oh well then pardon me, I keep forgetting there are some of us who find some poetic beauty in the mundane." His voice sounded almost angelic and as he spoke his smirk widened slightly, though this was because the last time he'd uttered those exact words he'd proceeded to curbstomp an infant and the memory of its jaws tearing apart and skull collapsing inwards made him warm and fuzzy inside.

Jamming his hands deeper into his pocket, Ichabod proceeded to start to circle around the man, his lenghty mess of hair beginning to blow around as he walked, "But a newcomer! Worm, why didn't you say so? I should give you a tour, no questions asked, grab your fanny-pack," Ichabod came to a jarring halt having done a full circle around the man, "Unless you actually have something important to do."

 

[Jacques]

The name Worm annoyed him. The way the man said, well, just about everything that had already come out of his mouth annoyed him. The man's Jedi-like grace and peace-inducing voice annoyed him. The way he grinned at whatever sick thought probably crept in to his mind annoyed him too.

But that wasn't a bad thing.

Pestilence thought for several moments, but then shook his head, "No, I've nothing of importance to do, I would love a tour."

The man was obviously good enough to warrant grant of the title Darth to him. The Acolyte decided to take the man's offer as a sign of goodwill. Not real goodwill, but possibly out of boredom and possibly with the idea that the lesser Sith was not as much of a waste of time as it had originally come across...because Pestilence knew that was exactly the first thought of the stronger Sith.

 

[Crystalmath]

"Ha, I see, I see." Ichabod mused as he leaned back slightly, thoughtfully scratching his chin, "So you just decided to take a break, take a gander at the other Sith Academies, how inquisitive you."

Quite suddenly, the Acolyte would find himself locked in place, the air pressing in around him as Ichabod telekinetically grabbed his entire being and lurched forward, eyeing the man suspiciously, "That's why you're here right? To take a look around." Ichabod's defensive paranoia had kicked in, the Jedi had begun hunting him relentlessly since they'd discovered he was responsible for the bombing of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant that had killed hundreds of Jedi and eradicated the majority of their council. He knew better than most that assassins came in all shapes and sizes and this acolyte had piqued his curiosity.

 

[Jacques]

He sighed, annoyed. Pestilence made no attempt to resist, his power was nothing compared to that of the dark Lord's. The trip to Ziost was seeming much more of a nuisance than actually helping him understand the Sith better. But maybe it might actually be able to do that, and he'd have to get through the...rough start.

"Not so much. In between sessions with my new master, I've been exploring Sith territory while training, as well as meeting other members of the Order on his suggestion...maybe you've heard of him? Darth Exhilis? He's an Iktotchi, in case you didn't know him by visual recognition." His rough, scruffy voice was still somehow calm, as the annoyance and growing hatred from the paranoid man he'd only recently met.

 

[Crystalmath]

Ichabod burst into laughter at the name and instantly released the Worm, "Bahaha, ol' Sogar's your master? How is the little fella' doing? Last time I saw him I broke his nose, hope it still hurts." The irony was somewhat lost to Ichabod, seeing as how Sogar was the only Sith bar some Jawa that was actually shorter than him.

"Alright whatever," Ichabod waved his hand as he pivoted on the spot, turning his back on the Worm, having not really paid attention to anything the acolyte had said except for his mention of Darth Exilis, "Let's get this tour going through our fantasmal wonderland of sadistically bland architecture and mentally retarded trainee's."

With one hand still in his pocket, Ichabod began to walk off, spinning around on one foot to grin delightedly at the Worm as he continued into the temple.

 

[Jacques]

Pestilence followed after the man, attempting to stay behind instead of keep up pace. Hopefully if he wasn't near him, the man wouldn't attempt to talk to him so much. As they entered the Academy, he scoffed in an amused way at the notion of the trainees being mentally retarded. "I'm sure the architecture of each Academy is pretty similar...if not completely. Hell, I bet I already know the layout of this place even though this is the first time I've set foot in it." He said, looking around. It was true, the places were fairly similar.

 

[Crystalmath]

"Yuuuuup," Ichabod drawled scornfully as he eyed the plain grey walls of the corridor, "Not quite the same layout, but pretty goddamn similar designs. My kingdom for a shred of creativity."

As they walked down the corridor, grunts, yells and the sounds of lightsabers clashing together would echo around them from the doorways that lined it. The Worm might notice that for some reason the closer he got to Ichabod the quieter any noise became. Ichabod pulled his other hand out of his pocket and flailed them about as he pointed from door to door, "Lightsaber training, Lightsaber training, Force Training, Force Training, Lightsaber training, Lightsaber Training, I told you the tour would be wonderful didn't I?"

Turning around on the spot, Ichabod grinned at the Acolyte, "So Worm, before we carry on any further want to try out all those fabulous skills the Midget taught on one of our Ziost trainee's?"

 

[Jacques]

As expected, they didn't talk much. Pestilence tolerated the man much more when it was that way, and he walked satisfied by the sound of their footsteps and training acolytes and the like a ways beyond. As they got closer, the Lord felt the need to explain what it was all about, as if he hadn't seen all that stuff on Korriban. But a tour was a tour, unnecessary explanations and all. Even as the man asked a question at the end of the explanation, the Acolyte paid no mind in answering the trivial inquiry.

When suggested he test something out on one of the trainees, Pestilence became intrigued, "Got anyone in mind? I'm in the mood for a little duel right now." He always was.

 

[Crystalmath]

"Nope." Ichabod smiled as he glided through the open-door to his right. The training room was a large, bland rectangular space with Imperial flags hanging from the walls and racks of training sabers underneath. Eight students were in the middle of practicing one-on-one lightsaber dueling but they immediately ceased upon Darth Asmodeus's entrance. "Kneel!" Ichabod uttered nonchalantly with his hands on his waist and the acolytes promptly cooperated, deactivating their training sabers and lowering themselves to one knee before the Sith Lord.

With quite sporadic flourishes of his hands, Ichabod pointed at Acolytes one after the other as he muttered orders, "You, get me a seat. You, get me a drink, bottle of white. You, get them to play something casual from my playlist over this rooms loudspeakers, the rest of you up against the wall."

The trio of acolytes he'd pointed at hastily darted out of the room to carry out the Sith Lords orders as the others lined themselves up before him, standing at attention. Ichabod walked past each of them, inspecting them up and down. An Echani boy, taller than Ichabod and quite toned, a towering Wookie, a Chadra-Fan who was Ichabod's height, an Ergesh which seemed essentially to be a writhing mass of plant-material and a plain looking Rodian girl. With a drawn out "Eeeehhhhhhhhh." Ichabod flicked his wrist at the Rodian girl at the end of the queue, "Hey Scum, you'll be fighting Worm over there," Ichabod pointed at the Worm, "Worm meet Scum, Scum meet Worm."

The Rodian kept her eyes locked on the Worm as she stepped forwards and activated her training-saber as she muttered, "My name is Gwendalesh."

Ichabod rubbed his hand through his hair and glared at the girl, "I didn't ask for your ****ing name Scum," Cocking his head back to glance at the Worm, Ichabod waved a hand at the Rodian, "See? ****ing retarded."

As Ichabod sighed the trio of acolytes he sent out earlier returned, one handed him a bottle of white wine and a glass, the other was dragging in a leather chair and the third sulked in behind them and whispered to Ichabod, "It'll be on in a minute."

With a shrug, Ichabod took his seat, poured a glass of wine and as soon as he had the music began to blare over the speakers, "God, excellent." Ichabod sighed as he leaned back in his chair before pointing at the two, "You can start now."

Scum gave Worm a curt bow before she sprinted towards him with her drawn training-saber and slashed forwards in a precise side-swipe at his right side, her arm outstretched and body leaning forwards to give her maximum range.

 

[Jacques]

The Acolyte's mind raced at the way the Dark Lord treated the other people. He couldn't understand how not one of them had the ability, or self respect even, to say no. Not only was he probably not their actual teacher, maybe a lesson here or there (maybe), but he was asking them to do his bidding. Fetch me this, fetch me that, get my music, you do this. He wasn't so much mad at the Darth as he was the other acolytes. How would they get anywhere if they let themselves be submitted to such...unimportant duties.

He was surprised even more by the Darth choosing the smaller Rodian girl. He was hoping for the Wookiee, he knew he could take him. But the girl? The girl should be no problem at all.

As she introduced herself, he went to do the same. She had not earned his true ire. Possibly disrespect when she let herself be submitted to the meaningless deeds set upon her by the more powerful Sith, but nothing that wouldn't stop him from being courteous. When Ichabod stopped her, and demoralized her, Pestilence grew angrier still, but didn't say anything at the time. Instead, he used the chance to fetch a training saber off somewhere else, keeping the real thing hanging from his belt.

The Acolyte activated his training saber just in time to deflect her attack. As expected, she was nowhere near as strong as him, though stronger than he had determined at first. He was able to grip on to his weapon, his right side being his dominant, and push back a little, forcing the two training weapons in to a saber block. With his other hand, Pestilence sent out a decently strong burst of the force, attempting to knock her back with the force push.

 

[Crystalmath]

The two lightsabers clashed, the sound of colliding static energy revertebrating around the room before the Worm fired a force blast at close proximity at the Scum, hitting her fairly squarely in the chest. The impact caused her to yelp as she was thrown backwards, recomposing herself as soon as she hit the ground and rolling over her shoulders back to her feet. Sharpening her big, black eyes on her opponent, she stretched both her hands forwards, reaching out through the force to grab hold of several of the training sabers that had been placed on the rack on the wall behind the Worm. In one jarring action, as the Scum took a step back and jerked her arms back with her, tugging through the force, four training sabers shot from the rack and activated in mid-air as they sped towards the Worms back. Two of the blades came in as straight stabs forwards, one aimed just under his left shoulder blade, the other, at the base of his spine. The other two were swung around in cutting motions, one coming in at his left thigh, the other at his right shoulder.

 

[Jacques]

Pestilence turned around to take a quick look at the probably very painful pain that could be passing through him very soon. Not seeing any other way out, the Acolyte dove out of the way, rolling a bit further out of the way. He shook his head to get rid of the dizziness, and then set himself once more. Far enough away from the Rodian girl, the young man set his feet and concentrated hard. It took only a couple quick moments, but to him, it felt like a good couple of minutes. Thrusting his non-saber hand forward, three decent sized bolts of lightning sprung from his hand, a couple more, weaker ones arcing off the other three here and there, and headed toward the other girl. It was a good chance to test out what he'd just been practicing as of late.

 

[Crystalmath]

Scum watched as Worm dived aside, rendering her projectile's attack useless as they flung by and he counterattacked, several sparks of force lightning bursting from his hand towards her. The attack came too quickly for her to prepare a solid force barrier and thus she kept her telekinetic grip on the quadruplet of training-sabers and swung them into the trajectory of the sparks. One spark was dissipated by blade forced into its way, another struck a blade in it's hilt, causing it to short-circuit with a spray of sparks, the third evaded the messy attempt to block the attack entirely and carried on towards the Rodian.

It struck her in the shoulder and she yelped again as her green skin sizzled and for a split-second a thin current of blue energy could be seen coursing through her skin around her shoulder-blade. Pulling her arms back, she kept her telekinetic control over the three remaining blades, letting the destroyed fourth drop to the floor with a clang. The trio of blades pulled up briefly around the Worm to line up before they swooped in as one. One blade sliced in at his left side, the other at his right side and the third stabbed forwards at his gut, being rocketed forwards with little intention of halting it's trajectory on the Scum's part.

Ichabod stifled a laugh at the display and sipped from his glass before lighting a cigarette and taking a drag, puffing out a plume of smoke into the air above him.

 

[Jacques]

He had to get those stupid training sabers out of the way to be able to really do anything. Pestilence decided that the girl was stronger than his second thought of her had believed. But he wasn't going to make any more dumb mistakes, even if there really hadn't really been any mistakes, let alone dumb ones. Reaching out with both hands, the training saber in his right hand being kept against his palm by his thumb, the Acolyte attempted to take control of the three sabers flying at him. Having felt her connection to the force before, and having assessed her ability to command it, Pestilence felt he could take over control of the now-projectile weapons. Actually putting his mind to it, as well as planting his feet firmly into the ground, as if he were attempting to push the floor down with his boots, the ex-Jedi caught a small grunt in his throat as he reached out with the force in search for the flying weapons.

 

[Crystalmath]

The training sabers slowed and eventually halted entirely as the Rodian struggled to overcome the force that her opponent was putting back into the weapons, trying to gain control of them. Feeling the power emanate from the Worm, she found herself on the losing end of control over her makeshift projectiles and thus she tightened her grip on them, shattering the hilts of all three and rendering them useless before sprinting towards her opponent again, her body held low towards the ground.

Once in range she would lunge forwards, keeping her feet on the ground but extending her body and arms forwards for maximum range as she stabbed her training-saber at her opponents gut.

 

[Jacques]

The Rodian panicked, he could tell. If he could overtake her use of the force with his own, and he was certain he could take her in a good bout of fisticuffs, then how else would she win the fight? By charging forward, attempting to go for the legs maybe? No, no, she was just going for a straight shot at her opponent.

Pestilence finally realized what the Dark Lord meant by ****ing retarded however, when the girl didn't change course, attempt to confuse him. The distance between them had been great enough for him to have time to set himself, get ready, and gather the force to him. And now she was charging at him, head on...literally, her head down, looking at her own feet perhaps so she didn't get tripped up. The acolyte readied his training saber, and let her make the first move.

As soon as she began to lunge forward, Pestilence took a step to his right, pivoting on his heel to face the attack, and swung immediately down with his training saber, not holding back any of his strength, aimed at her outstretched lightsaber.

 

[Crystalmath]

A grin spread across the Rodian's face as the Worm stepped to the side and brought his saber down upon hers. Now standing still in a lunging position, she utilised the combat technique known as Trakata, rapidly switching her training-saber off, allowing his powerful slice to harmlessly pass through the thin air her blade once was and then reactivate. Focusing through the force, she gripped the Worms saber-wielding arm with a solid amount of energy she could muster, hoping to keep him in place as she too pivoted on the spot, swinging her training-saber into his now ungaurded right flank.

Ichabod leaned forwards on his chair, resting his head in his cigarette wielding hand, taking another puff as he examined the display. He muttered along to the song that was playing over the speakers, "All the ducks are swimming in the water, tra-la-la la-la-la, tra-la-la la-la-la."