(( First of all, look at this amazing, gaudy Nautolan I made. I love him. :D ))
Many Acolytes would have loved for a Sith Lord or, even better, a Darth to notice them. That was one of the better ways to add to the chances that one might survive the Sith Academy.
Pikxei, however, was typically happy to not have them notice him or, at least, not notice him in a way that would make them do anything but sneer some comment about aliens or colours. Neither particularly bothered him; he could hardly change the fact that he wasn't human or Sith and many things that were either venomous, poisonous, dangerous, or a combination of any of those things were brightly coloured.
Unfortunately, there always was the risk that it would attract attention and the luck that had kept it from attracting attention beyond the superficial seemed to have just run out.
"Look at you!" Standing much more quickly than one might have expected from someone looking Bi'ev's age and standing rather a lot shorter than one might have expected for one of the Sith Purebloods, Bi'ev managed to do both, leaving his tuk'ata to raise its head lazily then lower it again, seemingly dozing off once more as its Master moved away. The Overseer that the much shorter Pureblood had been speaking with appeared to be momentarily shocked that their conversation had been so jarringly cut off by Bi'ev standing from his previous position of using the Qorit as a sort of reclining, living chair on the Academy floor.
"What are y--no, no, wrong question, wrong question, you're clearly Nautolan. A very colourful one at that..." Bi'ev trailed off, staring in a way that Pikxei couldn't easily determine, doubly so since it didn’t appear that Bi’ev was looking at him so much as sort of through him; if the small man with the large, hideous Sith beast was missing a few screws it was likely he was still well enough in terms of skill to be just fine with a few screws missing.
If it was an act, it was a good one, enough to make him vaguely nervous.
Pikxei had a passing thought that perhaps this Darth might be on some kind of spice but he wasn't acting anything but a bit--scatterbrained, and that might have been nothing more than personality.
Pikxei stood, patiently waiting for Bi'ev to catch up with--Bi'ev, evidently.
"Name!" The metallic claws on the Pureblood's gloves made a sound that put Pikxei's teeth on edge as fingers snapped when Bi'ev...sort of remembered what he'd been trying to ask. Without a word, the snapping gesture fluidly moved into a sharp clawed shoving away of the Academy Overseer who had tried to re-insert himself into the conversation, though whether that attempt had been made for Bi'ev's benefit or Pikxei's, Pikxei wasn't certain.
"Yours, I mean. You were standing there long enough to have overheard mine before whichever Overseer's," the Overseer who was, of course, still standing well within earshot, "concerns I was pretending to take seriously."
The Nautolan blinked slowly, "Pikxei, my Lord."
"Pixie? Not what I would have expected, but--"
"No, my Lord," internally, he cringed at having just interrupted a Darth to repeat his name a little more slowly, "Pik-zae."
"It still sounds like Pixie, only with a z somewhere in it. You look like one--I--no, not really, you're a great deal larger, but you do look like the sort of person who would be called Pixie with all the angles and colours."
Whatever that was supposed to mean. Bi'ev's vague gestures to Pikxei in general didn't exactly give him any clues as to what in the hell he meant by that.
And Bi'ev just stood there. Long enough, in fact, that Pikxei wondered if he'd somehow fallen asleep standing upright.
"Hey," Bi'ev lazily beckoned for the Overseer to step closer and join them, "anyone got their eye on this one?"
Bi'ev cut him off, "I didn't really care, I was just asking as a formality. Go ahead and tell Lord Hhhh--whatever it is you were going to say that it's mine now and if that's a problem Lord Hhhh can feel free to scream at the walls of their house about it because my calendar is packed and I don't read mail from people who want to argue about which Acolyte belongs to who."
"Alternately," Bi’ev continued as he fished what looked to be a cookie out of a small bad and shoved it into his mouth, “Lord Hhhh can try and catch me at work but I'm just going to make them go and talk to Kosha about it because already dislike Kosha and now dislike Lord Hhhh on principle."
"Darth Aculeatus, you know full well that's not how it works..." The Overseer, rather than sounding angry or even annoyed, simply sounded very, very tired.
"Right, maybe, but if I go and start killing people like Lord Hhhh then I have to take on responsibility for everything of theirs and I don't want everything of theirs despite not knowing what all it is they've got, I just want the Pixie apprentice. Look at him! Why would you ever claim something like that then just let it wander around where any other Sith could just take it?"
"The alien is an Acolyte, my Lord."
"Overseer, do you ever get tired of being wrong every time you say words?" Bi'ev canted his head to one side, cheerful as he'd sounded the entire time.
Qorit, however, slowly and deliberately opened one eye to keep it on the Overseer. The old Tuk'ata never really cared to get up and move if he didn't have to but, if he had to, it wasn't bound to end terribly well for whatever caused him to be required to get up and move.
This time, however, it was only Bi'ev that had given the indication and the beast walked past the Overseer, interrupting his attempts to circle back and not be incorrect by knocking him over.
"That's Qorit," Bi'ev carefully grabbed Pikxei's forearm and started just--walking toward one of the shuttle landing areas, "Probably should be guarding a tomb somewhere but there's not really anyone buried in it that I can say I particularly care for and there's nothing worth looting in there so why not let looters waste their time?"
The beast made some sort of sound that Pikxei couldn't determine; it sounded like it was a few words that were both an acknowledgement, and possibly a dry joke. He'd only ever seen the feral ones on Korriban, not one that had been kept and tended to or that didn't immediately lunge at the nearest living thing.
What he noticed, however, was that they'd passed the area where private ships would typically leave a shuttle and were at the one place the--public one between Korriban and Dromund Kaas ran. He must have made some kind of face about it because it elicited a response.
"Do you know how much fuel it takes to run even the smallest thing I've got that holds me, him," he patted Qorit's spiny head, "and at least one other relatively normal sized humanoid type creature? And how many credits that runs?"
Pikxei shook his head, "I--no, my Lord, I don't."
"More than I'm willing to pay for what amounts to commuting; plus, nobody will talk to you on the public nightmare ship if you've got either a lightsaber, a tuk'ata, or both. You can do anything you want, and they'll just pretend they don't see and won't try to strike up conversation at all--not that I do particularly much but sit there and read, but you know." Bi'ev shrugged.
"It's cheaper, and I don't have to drive! Or hire someone to do it for me.
There was probably a response to that that was correct. Somehow. Pikxei, however, had no idea what that might be and thought it best to sort of nod and follow the small old Sith and his comically large by comparison horror dog onto the shuttle to Dromund Kaas.
