Private 2nd Intro

[Aelys]

// CORUSCANT // JEDI TEMPLE // EXPLORATION //​

Aelys spent most of his time wandering the halls of the Jedi Temple. The timing of which he returned to the Jedi unfortunate. In the wake of multiple battles, the New Jedi Order had struck out against the enemies of the Light; the Sith. In his wandering of the Temple and eavesdropping, he had gathered many had been injured, and many more were dead. He recalled from his first attempt at being a Jedi that that was typical. Members of their Order were always getting themselves into things, especially if it involved the Sith and the Dark Side. It was their duty, and there was no part of him that could fault them for it. But he did wonder, if some regretted it in their final moments, both living and dead.

Would I?

On his trip to the Healers Halls, he couldn't give himself an answer, not one that he'd believe to be truthful.

Part of him wondered why he even bothered to come down here. Maybe to sate his own curiosity. In this regard, he was sure to be more of a quiet observer.

Looking off to the side, he passed one of the medical rooms, not even realizing he was there already before he continued his slow gait past. The room seemed stark and sterile, more hospital like than what you'd expect for a Jedi Temple. Or maybe he was just a fool, never coming down to these parts, who was he to say what these rooms ought to look like? "Hey, come back here for a second." Pausing, he thought of running off. The idea of being silent observer vanishing right before his eyes. Stepping back into the doorway, he shot his hand up to scratch the back of his head.

"Yeah?" Leaning in the open doors threshold.

"This one will be require an escort back to their quarters," the Mirialan Jedi Healer said, indicating one of the nearby patients.

Damn. Blinking blankly, he shuffles over.

"So uh, how can I help?"

Takui

 

[Takui]

Rehabilitation was slow because the sedatives made his body less responsive. They tried to insist he wait for the pain to subside, but Taku vehemently refused. The Galaxy was suffering while he was sat back, unable to do anything. Healers called him the bane of their existence, but as Jedi, they completely understood his desire not to be made useless.

They began dialing back his medication within a week of surgery instead of a month. Takui fought through the pain, and he struggled with the liquid diet they restricted him to while his digestive system recuperated. Barely able to keep his energy levels high, the Padawan felt lightheaded and lethargic most of the time.

Still, he pressed himself.

This one will require an escort back to his quarters.

Taku grimaced. "I'm fine," he objected as he hobbled toward the door. His legs gave, and he hit the frame with a loud thud. The healer shook her head. "I'll be just... urk... alright, alright."

He waved the Mirialian woman off with a hand, and she looked to Aelys. "He needs bedrest, despite his protests. Please, get him back down the hall, I've got other, more pressing matters to attend."

Another Healer rushed into the room and without formality, he approached the Mirialan. "Knight Arula, we need you quickly, there's a problem with-" he looked to the two Padawans and bowed. "Apologies, we have something of a situation, may I ask for your cooperation?"

The two of them hurried down the hall discussing something, which left Taku and the newcomer alone. "Heh. Sorry you got drafted, but I really don't think I can make it on my own. Do you mind?"

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

Emotionally distant, internally he fled from the idea of an emotive response, his blank features settling into an awkward, sheepish smile as he lowered down to help the Padawan back to his feet. Arms reaching to wrap around the other side of his body and propping him up against him Aelys followed the two Healers as they departed, all hope for being relieved of his new responsibility gone as quickly as it had been made his own.

"Don't... Worry about it." Brown eyes, flecked with green, some mixture between hazel colouring peered at him. "We'll just step at the same time, or something." Moving to take a single step, he knew it'd be slow going, but he couldn't abandon the man. Not on his own at least. Aelys gave a quick look of the room in the hopes of finding something to make the process easier. A hover chair, or a cane, something... Finding nothing, his hopes were dashed for a second time in mere moments. Frowning, he let his own disappoint flourish in his silence.

"Fight in any of the battles, or is this like, unrelated?"

Shame he couldn't help it.

Takui

 

[Takui]

Taku grimaced at the pain as it lanced through his torso. The surgery was days old and everything took successfully, but it was still tender. He felt his stomach curdling as he got to his feet. The need to vomit rose, then fell quickly as he took a deep breath.

"Thanks again," he said. The other man could have left him to his devices and let him crawl, but he seemed at least decent enough to hang around. They took a few practice steps and he nodded once they found a rhythm that worked for his wobbly legs.

"Ah, uh, yeah," he answered. "I didn't really do anything important, but I was injured on Byss." He still felt self-conscious about how little he was able to contribute relative to everyone else. There were burn scars on his body now from a lightsaber, and he would forever wear the knit together wound where the Sith had impaled him through the gut.

"I'm doing much better though," he lied. The pain was so intense, his body would have folded under that alone were it not for the drugs. Which was why he needed to get back to his room. "You new here? I only recently transferred to Coruscant from Kashyyyk."

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

"Mm." Silence made its face known in between the duos conversation. There were questions that Aelys wanted to ask, but anyone, even him understood they were out of place. So in light of that, he stayed quiet, suddenly becoming strangely interested in the architecture of the Jedi Temple. Long hallways, arching thresholds, everyone so calm and peaceful.

Thankfully, the injured man continued on his own.

"I think it's cool," he volunteered, mostly without thinking. "Not the... Injury, I guess, but, uh, if you think scars are cool or something." He would've tried to shrug, but the effort was pointless as he helped him through the halls. In his minds eye, he tried to imagine it. An injured Padawan unmarred, fighting against the enemies that invaded Byss. Aelys looked back to Taku, to hear him continue.

"Uh huh," he replies unconvinced. The man could barely walk. Though, Aelys figured it was better than being forced to a healing room and a bed for days on end. "New? Uh, something like that. I was training to be a Jedi back before the Imps and their friends laid claim to all of the Alliance territory, before it fell. I thought it was best to go home then." What could he do, as just a kid against a hardened warmachine of Sith and Imperial alliance? "I lived on Thyrsus, in the Inner Rim. Guess they didn't think it important." This time he shrugged.

"But uh, anyway..." He drags on. "What made you leave Kashyyyk?"

Takui

 

[Takui]

Taku had to chuckle when the other Padawan said it was cool. It wasn't his intention to seem that way, or even get credit for his actions. At the time, it just seemed like the right thing to do. He'd watched another person die right in front of him. What else was there?

By his own admission, Takui never got used to death. It just got easier to pretend like nothing was wrong. Second time around, he'd burst right into action. Now he had scars to show for it.

"Yeah, I guess... sometimes, there's things you just can't do," he agreed. Taku recalled Thyrsus and how close it was to Eshan, which fell in Concord territory. He never got to see it himself, but he'd heard about the culture. Fierce warriors, proud, and they loved to fight. "But the Jedi are working on the response. No one's gonna get left behind ever again," he said. It was a grand promise, and one that he couldn't be sure they could keep. "Or at least, that's the hope."

The young Thyrsian asked about what brought him to Coruscant from Kashyyyk, and for a moment Taku hesitated. This question had kept him up many nights, and probably would for a very long time. He still had friends at the Silver Rest, people he had to leave behind.

He still felt lingering pain, even heartbreak that they chose to stay behind. But, the Concord was wrong. Their actions, even born of necessity, were evil. Taku swallowed, his throat dry.

"There are times when you have to draw a line," he explained. "Evil thrives when good people do nothing. The Concord made the wrong choice. I refused to comply."

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

Aelys wondered if the man had been humbled on the field of battle, or if he had always been this way. He figured him young, barely older than himself. Had he wanted fame? The glory of victory? Or was he just the Jedi that he saw before him? Doing what was right simply because it was the right thing to do. Aelys figured that he'd be one of the former. He was raised that way. Combat and fighting. It was they became closer as individuals to understanding each other. When you knew how they fought, you'd know how they'd react off the battlefield.

"No one left behind," he voices, as if testing the words out for himself. It seemed unlikely, an almost impossible feat to guarantee such a thing. Wasn't it better to leave people behind sometimes? The sacrifice of the few for the many? It was better to be tactical, than be idealistic in the field. His lips parted into a grin all the same, shaking his head. "At least you made it."

Not everyone was strong enough to leave those they cared about behind. Even as Jedi, they couldn't really force people to do things, even if they felt they knew better. Even if they knew it. "Fair enough. Outside of, uh, getting fucked up... How's the change been? From the jungles to this... Whole planet is like downtown." He grins.

Takui

 

[Takui]

"Heh, yeah," Taku managed to give a half smile as the pain struck again. He fully expected to die on Byss, and for some reason, he had embraced that. It was an odd feeling to brush so closely with death and still evade it. It made him look at life a bit differently.

Many things had that effect on him recently.

"I guess I'm pretty lucky." Of course, he did not feel lucky. He felt a bit awkward that his self-preservation suddenly left him, and terrified. He wanted to live, didn't he?

Didn't he?

The other Padawan broke through that train of thought with another question. "Well, Kashyyyk never really felt like home," he thought aloud, "but this is a little bit more urban than I'm used to, as well. Gotta say, Kashyyyk floored me, but Coruscant..."

Taku inhaled sharply, then let out a shrill whistle. "This is even more unbelievable." He felt so much life; but not the way he had on Kashyyyk. No, these were sentient lives, and it was overwhelming. There were so many sudden feelings, so much turmoil- he couldn't ask for a better place to hone his senses, or learn how to deal with people.

It didn't make the transition any easier, though.

"So, what brought you back?" he asked suddenly. "Most folks who leave the order behind don't come back, I've heard. Why did you?"

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

Unbeknownst to him, the pain that struck through the Padawan barely registered in the proximity of Aelys. Peering at Taku, he registered the half-smile that sprouted across his face. It was a look that was familiar. The pained expression of someone who didn't want to impose anymore they needed to. Considerate, and kind. The kind of virtues that the stories said Jedi had.

Aelys looked away as if he hadn't noticed a thing.

Opening up any further held the potential for an emotional connection that he didn't envy. This guy already got screwed up once. In this business, it was likely it'd happen again. Frowning, he shook his head as he sighed. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath. The shame of already failing as a Jedi weighing him down as they walked. "You uh... Want to take a seat or something?" Nodding to a bench that wasn't too far from where they were walking already. A choice to be strong and tough it out, or take the obviously needed reprieve. Aelys was a fighter. Skin coarse from being whipped by the sands of Thyrsus.

There were no delusions in Aelys' mind as to what choice he'd make himself.

"Yeah, I agree. Really. The first time I came here, I didn't think it was real. Almost unsettling you know? Like, it's all one big city and... One side of the planet can be sleeping while the other is up and working... There's even hundreds of 'Levels.'" It was interesting, but it was also unnerving. "Man... Definitely not like back home," he laughs.

"Come back?" His brows furrowed, suddenly quiet. There was the truth, and then there was the real truth as to why he had come back. It didn't take long for him to figure out to deliver the former in place of the latter. "I felt... Idle back at home. Felt like I failed too, leaving when I did. The war wasn't even over yet, but... You just get the feeling that things are getting worse so you just leave? Well, that was me then... Felt like shit for years. I would've toughed it out for the rest of my life if I had to, but I talked to my Clans Shamans and Elders. They advised I return and complete the path to Jedi... I wonder if they knew how hard some of this stuff is."

"What about you?"

Takui

 

[Takui]

"Yeah, just for a second," he said, thankful. They wobbled over to the bench that Aelys indicated and took a seat. "It isn't too much further, I just need a short rest."

With his hands folded, the Padawan leaned forward and stared at the ground. The pain felt a bit less intense when he bent over and put pressure on it. His eyes knit shut and he ground his teeth.

And he listened.

The Thyrsian felt... out of place? Not that he was- Taku just got a sense about it. It sounded as though he was from a world not unlike Taku's own- less developed, less populous. He could commiserate with that.

"Honestly, you can't fault yourself," he offered. "War comes naturally, but it isn't natural. It's a byproduct of enmity. It's the opposite of what we do. Win or lose, if a war's over, peace can resume. That's what we want- in an ideal world."

Of course, they both knew they didn't live in that world.

"Which is why the Galaxy needs Jedi," he laughed. It was amusing to think about. The world that they wanted was a world that didn't need Jedi.

"I..." he glanced up and smiled. "...my mom wanted me to," he answered honestly.

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

Seated at the bench, Aelys went through the process of helping Taku seat himself before leaning back into the wall behind the bench. Quiet, more or less, he looked around. Younglings and initiates following around their Masters. It was peaceful in the Temple, despite all the pain and death that occurred here and around it throughout the years, the Jedi persisted. "Mm," he hums thoughtfully.

Peering at Taku as he spoke, Aelys shrugged. "That makes sense to me." Few places in the galaxy really had peace, but, he supposed a lack of warring nations was good enough. Smirking, he raised his hands up, interlocking them together and using them as a buffer between his head and the wall while they lounged.

"I guess she's proud of you, yeah? Was she a Jedi too, or you just get lucky in the Force department?"

Takui

 

[Takui]

That was something he never considered, and ultimately that had never come up in conversation with his mother. It seemed so out of the blue for her to bring up Jedi right before the end. The more he thought about it, the more Taku felt like it was a massive slap in the face to his father, who left the family to become a citizen in the Sith Empire.

There was a flaw in that logic, however. While Taku resented his father for leaving and ultimately sending his mother down the path of ruin and death, she never faulted the man for his decision. He frowned. There were more questions that might never have answers.

In contrast to before the last few battles, the Padawan felt oddly at peace with that fact.

"To be honest, I don't know," he confessed. "I don't have any evidence that my mother or father had anything to do with the Jedi." He neglected to mention his father's choice of allegiance, that was a black stain he did not readily want pock marked on his name. However, even as a merchant within the Empire, that certainly didn't equate to being an actual Sith.

It offered little in the way of explaining his Force Sensitivity. "But, I like to hope she'd be proud," he said, his frown fading. "The whole home team behind you, though? That sounds pretty nice. Do you have family back on Thyrsus?"

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

"Yes," Aelys answered softly.

Direct lineage meant little to the Thyrsian. His clan was nomadic, various surnames of like minded warriors that used the sands to conceal themselves from the watchful overseers of the former Echani Compact. Growing up he had dozens of brothers and sisters, all of which he grew close with. Some died, others moved on like him. But most stayed.

"They're glad I'm here. I was raised to know that the Sith are an evil that must be eradicated. The Jedi are the enemy of the Sith." Between his shoulders, Aelys' head rotated to look upon him with an almost sinister calm. As if behind those hazel eyes the storm of emotions that were in constant conflict within him had united in one cause. "As long as I'm on this path of a warrior -- they'll be happy."

Staring off blankly into the open, he wondered what it would be like on the field. The enemy before him, allies around him. Blinking away the vision, he rose from the seat and back to his feet. "And so?" Aelys said abruptly. Looking over his shoulder at the other Padawan for a moment.

"Would you fight again?"

Takui

 

[Takui]

Taku had to agree. Though he only learned about the threat of the Sith much more recently, he already knew they had to be stopped. The dark side of the Force was dangerous, cold, and wanted to consume all things good in the Galaxy. He felt its talons shred him deep on more than one occasion, and everything after the first time had snowballed.

It was odd to hear a Jedi talk about becoming a warrior. He knew very little of Thyrsus other than it was culturally opposed to the Echani, and what he knew of the Echani consisted of "pale skin" and "warrior culture." It made sense in that context, so he didn't question it verbally.

He felt some kind of stirring when Aelys mentioned his loved ones being proud. A faint memory of pride swelled in his chest. For a moment, he thought that maybe his mother felt the same way. Instinctively he shook the thought off.

"Without question," he answered. There was no hesitation. "As long as the Galaxy needs Jedi, I'll fight."

It was all he had left now, the life of a Jedi. Easy street was lost to him; and for all of the choices he could have made to lead him down a path of comfort, he made the ones that brought him to where he was. There was no merchant future for him now, and all of his father's lessons had amounted to nothing.

Served the bastard right.

"I've seen what the Sith are. If no one opposes it, the darkness will spread rampant. If the Jedi can be some small beacon in all of that, we have a moral obligation to do so. That's what I think, anyway."

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

Aelys hadn't come face to face with the Sith before. Stories he had heard typically related to the legends of the Yuuzhan Vong, the demons that reigned in the caves and mountains. His people tended to keep away from them, but bands of warriors had gone to fight them in the past, Aelys included. When he had heard that the One Sith had had a sect of the species carving through hosts of the Republic in recent times, it had sickened him.

It precipitated his ventures to the Alliance to the first time.

At the Padawan's initial response, Aelys' features broke out into a smile and stretched to encompass his visage. "I'll be glad to fight alongside you." The gauntlet of the battlefield and the flames of judgement that birthed warriors was all Aelys cared about in truth. Not some Jedi measures of peacekeeping or knowledge and ability to diffuse a situation. Aelys only cared for the battle.

"What's your name?" His offhand extending out to the Padawan to take. If he took it, he would've leaned in to bring his arm around and help him back up to his feet. "You can call me Aelys." Last names were unimportant. He was his own person after all.

Takui

 

[Takui]

There were Jedi like Ryv Karis who lead from the front. Those who placed an emphasis on combat were the Guardians of Peace, and so, Taku could rationalize the almost-zealotry that danced around Aelys as they spoke. It was... interesting for a Jedi to be so passionate about something.

But then, he had his own convictions. When it came down to it, Aelys agreed that the Sith atrocity was the enemy. That was good enough. Better to have one more able body than another enemy.

"Yeah," he agreed with a smile. "Glad to have you on the right side."

Unlike the other Padawan, Taku was more cautious and deeply thoughtful. His concern was with the battlefield, but he knew that he was much less capable. It was important to know one's own limitations.

"Takui," he introduced himself, taking the Thyrsian's hand firmly and shaking it. A handshake was important, after all. "I'm Takui Mihzu. It's good to meet you, Aelys. You can call me Taku, if you want."

Hopefully this time when he made friends, he wouldn't have to leave them behind.

Aelys

 

[Aelys]

Aelys' smile died down and settled back into his neutral visage.

"Shall we continue on?"

The days were counting down for Aelys. An unknown clock that brought him ever closer to the battlefield and facing off against the Sith. He could feel it in his guts. The storm of turmoil that haunted him for the last few years in his isolation on Thyrsus silent for the first time since he had last been on Coruscant.

"Taku... Nice. It's a pleasure."

There was a glint in his eye that suggested he was at least genuine. Aelys' respect only extended to warriors, who would fight to carve out the darkness in the galaxy and remove it. Pacifists and scholars, they had their place, especially in the Jedi per the Code and its teachings, but he could never see himself going down the path of inaction.

Takui