Ask Bad Ideas

[Charlotte Le'Anna]

The Fountain Palace sat dark above Ta’a Chume’Dan. The staff sent home, the Chume’doro banished to the outer walls of the palace. Night blanketed the world down below. Fitting for what Charlotte meant to do. She was desperate and desperation bred curious choices. Always, she had clung to some hope that if her power was greater, she would be safer. First, she sought Andruil and the Draugr…although he had proved disappointing. Her rule of the Consortium was unquestioned. The military might she commanded at her fingertips was reviled only by the strongest galactic players. Charlotte should have felt safe…but she didn’t.

Celeste had been respected. Celeste had been political beast and what had it gotten her? Captured by the ISC and thrown in a Jedi prison. Political power was not enough. She served the Darkness and for too long had neglected her training. They could never touch her if her power was great enough. The Empire would provide her no shelter. The Sith had failed spectacularly. Mistake after mistake compounding until they were thrown from their homes…forced to run with tails tucked between their legs.

Whoever called themselves a Sith these days was a mockery. She owed them nothing. The idiocy that led to the events on Manaan proved that. So, Charlotte sought a higher power. There were old ways still intact despite the collapse of the Order. Untraceable methods to communicate a message. One she had had delivered to the monster himself. Darth Raze. The trust darkness this galaxy had ever seen. The greatest power still remaining.

Charlotte arrived on the barren world on a nondescript shuttle, making her way to where he had instructed. She was dressed simply. All stations of office removed. She was under no illusion the danger she was in. Raze could kill her with a look but she had few good choices left…so she made a bad one.

@Sreeya

 

[Darth Raze]

Raze had partially more tolerance for this visitor on account of her actually having some weight to her name. Most of the cretin that showed at his doorstep were little more than snacks for him, with no power or influence where it mattered. The Queen Mother of Hapes was on an entirely different level, and the galaxy didn’t know about her true intentions just yet. It pleased him that she made the trek here and right into the lion’s jaw.

Then again, he knew the draw he presented to those that sniffed power in the air. It was a toxic calling, and it would make others crave him even if they hated themselves for it. The Dark Side was fully at his command, and that mastery was rare. He knew of her origins and the undeniable siren call his very existence presented.

The grand doors opened to reveal a massive hall inside the frozen fortress. It was gloomy and haunting, though he wanted a royal aesthetic. It simply ranked lower on his priorities. The moment she stepped through those doors, she would definitively know that her titles, position, her sense of superiority as a woman - none of that mattered. She was subservient here. He approached before her, his crimson gaze gleaming.

The Queen Mother would kneel or she would die.

"Tell me why I should not feast upon you."

@Valen Pelora

 

[Charlotte Le'Anna]

She was afraid. There was no point denying it. Only an idiot wouldn’t be. Her heart beat a little quicker, her breath hissing across her teeth. As the doors swung open, there was no question who was the prey. Charlotte styled herself a predator…a notation that seemed entirely stupid now. The massive hall was surprisingly austere but the effect no less daunting. She felt small as she walked forward. Even smaller when the weight of Raze pressed upon her. Charlotte was nothing in comparison. If she had not fully known it before, she did now. This was the Darkness.

She knelt on instinct as he approached. Her eyes immediately downcast, fixed to the floor. She barely breathed until he spoke. Her life very suddenly hung in the balance. “I have come to be of service, my lord.” Speak too much and she would die. Speak too little and she would die. “To you and the Darkness.” Charlotte kept her eyes down. Her knees firmly planted on the floor. “My accomplishments are nothing when compared to your own…but I command the full power, influence, and wealth of the Hapes Consortium.” Even the avatar of the Darkness needed resources. Resources she hoped to provide. “All those who know my true face are dead or gone.” No Sith or Imperial had any ties to the Queen Mother. Celeste had been the last.

“It is yours to command, my lord. All that I have is yours.” She was in his power. She asked nothing but the chance to serve. If she died, she died, but she had taken the chance.

@Sreeya

 

[Darth Raze]

Raze heard her regale him with her credentials, his face largely neutral. The crimson gaze stared unblinking into her own. Were her ambitions so badly lacking that she came all this way to give her direction?

"I have owned you since you chose to walk through those doors, harlot."

The wraith stood in silence for a moment, looking around his vast, empty halls.

“Send workers here to furnish and repair this dwelling to my preference,” He said, “I will consume the workers after the job is done,” He added casually as if it was normal terms of agreement, “And you will procure me a suitable set of armor. It will be recognizable across the galaxy, so make it count.”

The wraith gave her a cruel grin, “Did you think you were above running errands?”

He did not recognize titles and power unless they served him directly. In order for her to gain anything from him, she would have to be obedient and do anything he asked. Regardless of whether or not they aligned with her personal agenda. And, of course, there was always the chance he would eat her on a whim if he so pleased.

@Valen Pelora

 

[Charlotte Le'Anna]

She suppressed the wince. The words washing over her. She’d made this choice. She had known exactly what she was walking into. Charlotte did not want to be prey anymore. Despite the trapping of her power, being like Raze could kill her in an instant. That fear that at any moment, her throne room could become her grave, terrorized her. What was stopping the Grandmaster and her attack dog Hera from uprooting everything Charlotte had built. Nothing. She was weak. Pathetic. She could no longer stand it.


“I no longer harbor illusion of my place in this galaxy, my lord.” The Force was what gave one power. Even the greatest of militaries could be waylaid by strongest in the Force. She remained bowing. “With your permission, I will take my leave to set to work at once.” Procuring the workers would be easy enough. The undercities of the galaxy were stuffed full of tradesmen needing work.

“I will have workers here within hours.” The Chume’doro could silently marshal what she needed. The armor was another matter entirely. That, Charlotte would need to see to herself.

@Sreeya

 

[Darth Raze]

His lair became far more habitable since both his pet and the Queen of Hapes worked to bring it to life. It was all adjusted to his liking, ornate decor and a gothic extravagance that he liked that Emryc despised. Most of all, he finally had music, string instruments resounding beautifully even as he chose to feast upon a worker every now and then. Fear lingered in the air like a delicious scent, and he relished it the moment he stepped into his fortress.

It had been a while since he returned. He had been away bringing devastation to the Jedi on Ithor. News of it reached far and wide across the galaxy. In his short time since claiming a body of his own, he had dealt a more decisive blow to the Jedi than the Sith pretenders had done in decades.

The Anzat found the Queen of Hapes. She had learned better than to act like she was any kind of nobility around here. Here everyone was his to own and use however he pleased. That included the esteemed Queen of Hapes.

“I need you to delay any attempts at destroying the Killik,” He said as he came to a stop before her, “And I have a plan that will cause other planets to rally under your leadership.”

He stepped towards her. The Force coiled around her neck and she would be slammed into the wall behind her, sliding up to hover a few feet over the ground. His face remained perfectly stoic, the crimson gaze meeting hers from where he stood a few feet away.

“But you will do well to remember who owns you,” He warned, “A toe out of line and I will take my time with you, Queen Mother.”

@Valen Pelora

 

[Charlotte Le'Anna]

She took a moment to admire her work. Charlotte was quite pleased with herself. Hapan funds had been expertly funneled through a fun variety of shell corporations to lift the unfortunate from the dredges of the galaxy to gainful employment. All that ended as a meal for Raze but not before they set to work on his designs. Perfection really. She was, of course, dressed modestly upon Raze’s arrival. She knew the part she played within the fortress. His voice quickly reaching her ears.

“Of course, my lord.” The Killik had been a personal thorn in her side but not one she couldn’t ignore. Certainly not if the Dark Lord had a plan to rally more worlds to her side. Charlotte barely had time to think before the Force coiled around her neck and sent her slamming into the wall.

Stars danced in her vision. Fear lacing into her heart. A feeling she was finding she came to enjoy. The electricity of being alive. Her voice was soft when she spoke. “I understand, my lord and would expect nothing less.” That same thrill ran down her spine again.

@Sreeya

 

[Darth Raze]

The wraith gazed at the Queen Mother as she choked out her words. He could see the subtlest details in her demeanor and see into her thoughts without piercing her mind. The haunting red eyes were fixed on her, the porcelain features impossible to read. He stepped closer, his presence almost oppressive with the way the Force churned around him.

He closed the distance. In one fluid motion, he tore through her clothing, letting them fall in tatters on the ground. His gaze lowered to appraise her body, his analysis almost methodical and of an academic nature. He looked over the curves, the skin, and he considered the layer of the galactic power she held. The control she had. How she was perceived. A Queen to billions. And he had her hovering against a wall, pinned by the Force, nude as the day she was born.

He was new to his body, but it had the inclinations of its last host that were built into its muscles. The Anzat had a desire for dominance. An appetite for it. It was an appetite that couldn’t be filled just from soup. No, this was a different kind of appetite.

And Raze always feasted when he was hungry.

–​

It was some time later when he slipped his robes back on over his body, the material sliding over his muscled shoulders and ghastly white skin. He didn’t look back at the wretch he left behind with her disheveled hair, her bruised, and broken body. The illustrious Queen of Hapes. The Queen he used in every way he pleased to fulfill appetites he discovered through his new form of being.

“You get a day, plaything,” He said without looking at her, “And then I want you gone and back in the Senate.”

The Anzat said nothing else as he strode from the room.

@Valen Pelora

 

[Charlotte Le'Anna]

He was close to her. Dangerously close, her life forfeit. Was this it? Finally, the moment that Charlotte pushed too far. Her clothes left her naked. Powerless before the true Dark Lord. She trembled. The fear was real. So real…but with it came undeniable excitement. For so long she had felt almost lifeless. Walking from one moment to the next in a haze. Charlotte felt alive. She was under no delusions of her station. In that moment, Raze owned her.


--


Charlotte’s mind barely function. Her body and soul drained to the core. The Queen Mother lay bare. All of her trapping of power case aside. She managed to raise her head. Her body aching from use. “As you will it, my lord.” Charlotte pushed herself to her elbows. Not bothering to dress. What was the point? “I live to serve.” Once Raze left, she would begin to slowly pull herself together. The necessary messages were sent to prepare for her return to Hapes. There was work to be done. The Free Worlds teetered on the brink of dissolution. She needed to be ready to strike once they did.

@Sreeya