Private Day 69

[Jem Fossk]

Corin Trenor
Spintir | Dawn Temple
Day 69

Jem was exhausted today. She had come to accept that some things would just look different for her now, but on a day like this everything was harder.

She strained against the torso sized rock she hefted across the north gate courtyard. The crumbling temple was not without its sign of repairs. A small portion of wall had been re-erected, each stone placed by Jem's own hand. Her species was strong, strong enough to lift the rock that was as dense as her bones, but they needed rest as anyone else.

She had made it halfway across the courtyard with the stone before it slipped. She let it fall, yelling in exertion as it thudded between her feet.

Dammit.

A form eclipsed the sun shining through the entry. Her eyes whipped up, red and frustrated- she fell still, shocked by the face crowned by the rising sun.

What was he doing here?

 

[Corin Trenor]

It was with his arms crossed over his leather covered torso that Corin stood there, leaned into the frame of the entrance. He was a little less interested in his role as a 'comforter' in this new role Jem had found herself in, a labourer to transition back into... whatever she was before all of that. Forced to be there, or the insistence was a little too much to then refuse. Either or, Corin was there now with a smirk those rose from the clear frustration on her face. He watched that rock fall, too, one that a Dark Heiress was no doubt able to handle. Or so one would think.

"Come on, no need to cut out the hard work on my account." He called out in a snide tone, "And try not to look so happy to see me."

Corin wandered a few steps forwards, "I only saved your life."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem stepped back, the force around her growing twisted as she struggled. She could feel Warden awaken behind her. The being of pure light took the form of a female Zabrak and watched, with patient eyes, to see if she needed to intervene.

It was her job to protect the temple from trouble.

How embarrassing.

Jem's jaw set as she forced to take active breaths and tried. not. to react. She didn't spin out any further, and so the Warden remained passively behind her. Some might have called that progress. Jem struggled to think past her boiling thoughts.

"Save me?" She balked, red eyes cutting through him. "Is that what the order is calling it now a days? You've tried to kill me every step of the way-- does he know you're here?"

He.
Dagon.
She couldn't even say his name. The wince of pain was almost visible.
Almost.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

Even as those twisted eyes a shade of red settled on him some more, Corin continued forwards. Somewhat slower, yes, but forwards nonetheless. His hands stuffed themselves into the two sides of his leathers, and remained there as he came to a standstill. He seemed far braver in the face of her now, either that or careless and foolish.

"I tried once, the second time? I had the chance to, several times even, but the reason that face could come back at all? Yeah, that's me. You aimed for the brain, I diverted best I could; turns out the best in that short amount of time is a few inches. Goes hand-in-hand with this whole Jedi thing I do, you're welcome. And he knows, all of them do - it's all about this transition, from Sith side back to Jedi."

He looked at Jem expectantly.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Well this was all news to her.

She looked to the warden, hoping she should rebuke the claims but she had not been involved in this. Was it a lie? The force told her no, which made the matter all that much unpalatable.

"You- you did this. You-" the force reverberated with the crack of incoming darkness. Welp there went her three day streak. As she stepped forward the warden did too, the golden hand weighing heavily on her shoulder. Jem found she couldn't move. Corin would be safe from her for the first time, but it didn’t lessen the ire cast his way. Her chest heaved, her anger frazzled by confusion.

"Why are you doing this?" She cracked, her anger breaking down into a flurry of words. "What do you want, a thank you? This isn’t a life, this is hell. You have him. Why do you have to rub it in?”

For two months Valery had her practice one thing: if you feel something, say it. It didn't make the pain go away, but her eyes were clear for the first time. This was Jem speaking. Not the darkside around her.

 

[Corin Trenor]

He flashed a look to the stone floor beneath them and he mumbled a muted, "Yeah." He almost sounded tired, and the two orbs nestled into his head much to the dismay of Jem, widened all the more as he said that. He heard all the attitude towards her own existence at her informal trial, now once more months later. The Padawan moved to encircle her once the hand settled on her shoulder, unsure as to how firm the hold was, if Jem could even so much as turn to face him as he moved.

"It'd sure be a start." He said with some frustration, "You have him as much as I do, and I'm sure once this is all over then that's that. Back to him, back to Master and Padawan, and back to all of that on Denon." Corin flashed a sudden look to the Zabrak, as if to see if it understood his final comment in a bout of nervousness.

He breathed a sigh.

"Hate me all you want, and hate that I'm here too. But the members of that trial, those Masters and Dagon? Yeah, they're the reason I'm here. So you either fail this little section of whatever this is," his arms stretched out on either side as he stared around the old temple before he settled his attention back on Jem, "Or you allow me to lift some damn rocks, or whatever other menial labour they have you doing."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem failed to make sense of him. She wasn't even sure he knew the answers himself. Why was here? Not for her. That was fine by her, but it made the whole thing feel like a test. She wanted to dig her heels in on principal. She didn't want to get along with him. She had a problem with his face.

Her shoulders dropped in a heavy sigh, the presence of the warden winning. The corruption staled and slowly dissipated, leaving Jem neither light nor dark.

Just tired.

"It's not labor, it's a... project. My project." She defended, huffing as movement returned to her limbs. "I chose it." Her weary gaze followed him as she bent over and hefted the whole thing up-- her lips pressed together to mask the strain. In something that was nothing short of showing off, Jem walked it over to the drying concrete and laid the heavy mass in place.

"There," she puffed, sucking in a breath. "Easy." Her aching fingers flexed. She jerked her chin at him, welcoming him to try.

Alone.

Her brows shot up in subtle petty pleasure.

 

[Darth Solipsis]

“Break him. He is your lesser, you are Sith. Shatter his mind and BREAK. YOUR. CHAINS.”

 

[Corin Trenor]

"You're an architect now then," Corin nodded several times over and even with all the sarcasm in his voice, it seemed as if he treated it as a serious outcome to all her rehabilitation. "Or is it some abstract rock art instead?" He continued with the tilt of his brow.

But even as Jem lifted the rock and called for Corin to do the same, the Jedi instead lazily reached out his arm and elected to raise it with the Force instead. To let it shift across and settle down beside the rest, as if it were on a cloud no matter all the weight. "I never exactly said how I'll lift them, and I'm not bound by the same rules you are. If that was a rule, at all." He smirked, like an ass.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

"No," Jem declared sharply. "Stop it-- no." The force pulsed into the stone he had laid, dark energy exploding against it. Pieces of it cracked and crumbled off. The outburst came randomly, her own fatigue clouding her thoughts as she shook her head. She couldn't do this.

She couldn't- she had to.

"You don't get it." She stepped towards him, her fists clenched. "I'm not a joke. I feel the darkside as clearly now as I did on that roof-top. I'm not punching you in right now because I'm choosing not to."

"The stones. Are lifted. By hand," she gritted, her jaw clenching at the effort it took to stay in place. Her hallucinations had become common place, but there was something about this one that hit harder than the rest.

Innate hate.

"We already knows who wins." Dammit, stop that.

 

[Corin Trenor]

"You're so dramatic, Dark Heiress." He said without so much as a flinch from the shattered stones, hands risen to the side of his head in some faux-surrender that then fell to his side in the moment after. "Because that's all it ever is. Choose, it's a choice; let it in, shut it out. You said so now - can feel it, but made a choice not to act on it."

Corin wandered towards another stone and set a hand on it, "You're not as tormented as you want to believe."

"I've felt that pull. On Denon, how good that feels. You know what I mean." He remarked with a knowing look. It was with no small amount of effort that Corin held onto the stone next, heavier than he believed it to be, strain seen across his furrowed brow as he shuffled over to where it needed to be set down.

Jem Fossk

 

[Darth Solipsis]

“Is this what you’ve been reduced to? You had such promise. You could of changed the galaxy.. kill.. him.”

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem's jaw dropped at the audacity.

"It's not that simple-" Her throat flexed and strained as the voice cut in. She had had promise. At every stage of her life she had been capable of something, but she had given that up to protect them. And now they stood before her, mocking her for struggling with what little pieces she had left.

She closed her eyes and turned from him, her comeback cut short.

 

[Corin Trenor]

In some areas, Corin was no Jedi at all. Even callous and cruel, so far removed from the tenets that rambled on about niceness and all that came with it. He could find a hundred and more sources for the cause, but it was all on himself; the same as he believed Jem could choose to be done with it, Corin believed he could choose to move on from the chains that bound him.

"It never is." He noted with a coldness to his softened tone, "Just... You're in control. You choose, and maybe it is a little harder than a decision."

He continued to lift and lower rocks.

"I'm from Denon. You're the child of a Sith Lord. It's different. Just continue to choose what you're choosing now." His words were hollow, lacked conviction, even if in line with his own stubborn beliefs. "Done fine so far."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Red snapped over her, her muscles becoming awash with the power she had fought to deny for 69 days. She moved quickly, too fast for the warden to comprehend, and smashed a rock into Corin's head.

Again and again. The clawing hand of light at her back could not restrain her. Euphoria flooded her as blow by blow, she broke the shackles of expectation.

Decision made, her replacement was--

"Done fine so far."

Jem dropped back into the present, the air around her cold and unfriendly. His statement filled her with shame. "You are so naive," she dismissed, that fatigue creeping back in.

 

[Corin Trenor]

Corin huffed and formed a faint, brief smile as he turned over to face the accusation head-on. Per usual. "It's what the rest of them need. Just so stuck in old ideas and definitions about stuff no one understands. You became a Sith for the mission, finished the mission and came back, and now... You're, what, in the middle of rock art or architecture?"

"But if I'm so naive, what is there to know?"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem turned back to him, nostrils flaring as she pushed back. "I'm in the middle of trying to not kill you. You-- an arrogant snot nose brat that doesn't deserve the couch you sleep on. He's my master. I was protecting him-- I was protecting all of you-- and this is the thanks I get? Him, replacing me and you, mocking me.

"You're alive because of me. You should say thank you."

Twisted energy jumped off her, reaching out to envelope him-- The wardened stepped in, it's form buffered between them to redirect the attack.

A familiar wash of burning light washed over her, freezing her in stasis. "Fuck."

 

[Corin Trenor]

It was a smirk that settled itself across his face, with his arms crossed over one another. He watched and listened, unafraid and unburdened. Just as if those words had been thrown at him before, his skin became thicker than most. But as the 'Zabrak' settled in and made a move, whatever amusement Corin felt before had increased tenfold.

"Guess we can call it even, then." He huffed, "You protected him, us, whatever, by lying and then trying to kill us? Did you think that would go any other way than how it did? Maybe that overdramatic side really had a hand in those theatrics, but now all we're lift with is the self-victimiser."

He threw his hands up and turned on a dime, so soon to swivel back around; "Oh, and another thing: You left, there was a vacancy as his student, and I was just there a the right time to fill it. Call yourself replaced, abandoned all you like, but the truth is that's what you did to him."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Her nostrils flared in response.

"Out! Get out!" She snapped, thrashing against the hold of the warden. He was right. The choice had been hers, the consequences were hers. It didn't matter that she did it for the right reasons; she had done it. She left Dagon. How dare he point that out.

"Get out of my fucking face. You don't know a damn thing-- get OUT!" Anger exasperated her feral feature, her fangs flashing with every hiss of effort that rippled through her body. He would recognize this Jem. It was all too easy to slip into it when things weren't going her way.

Only he had thick skin, it seemed.

 

[Corin Trenor]

This was the side that Corin had come to see, come to know, and feel in the Force. Not the nice memories of someone else, the kind words of other times, times since lost, now forced to face the horror that was made from her own actions; corrected, in time, but no wound she made - whether on him, or in another - had not scarred.

"I know a whole lot more than most realise," Corin claimed in return, albeit not in equal measure. Her wrath was not his own, and instead all he felt was the frustration from the continued antics of someone so intent to poison their own mind. Or so he believed. "You made a decision and now refuse to accept the consequences for it, whether the end result was for the best or not. It's time to accept what happened, make amends, and move on. Or else you're stuck poisoning your own mind, again and again."

Jem Fossk