Private Familiar Strangers

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

The Jedi Temple was quieter than it had ever been. Corin knew it had nothing to do with the hour. This place had simply lost something over time, to him. It felt smaller now, emptier, despite standing just as tall as it had before.

He hadn't planned on staying long. Find his leads and leave. But his feet had taken him somewhere else instead - down old halls and past familiar doorways, until he stood before one he hadn't stepped through in years.

A presence stirred on the other side. Not just anyone.

Iris was there.

Corin exhaled, glancing down. His fingers curled slightly, thumb brushing against the bandages wrapped around his wrist. The fabric was worn and frayed at the edges, much like the dark vest he still favored after all these years. A habit, maybe. A reminder. He should turn back. He should move on, like always.

Instead, he knocked.

"We need to talk."

 

[Iris Arani]

​

There was no immediate answer, but not because Iris had wanted to ignore him. Her eyes opened as she felt him. His colors, dying through the haze as they had before. Different now, but still him. She reached out, hitting one of the buttons within her bacta tank, which prompted a robotic voice to speak through a speaker beside the door.

"Come in. Just a moment."

The door opened for Corin, revealing what was probably expected. A bare minimum room covered in paint, some fresh stains with most being old. An easel, a couch, a suspiciously unmarked desk with a datapad on it. It took a couple minutes before Iris stepped from what amounted to be her bedroom, the door hissing open. She herself was just in a towel, still coated in bacta as she wandered towards the kitchen.

"You want a drink?"

She was detatched as ever, or at least it seemed that way. Iris couldn't bring herself to look at him yet, instead busying herself as she opened the fridge to find something despite all the drinks being right there in the front.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

In the minutes between, Corin stood in quiet stillness.

It was as expected - barren beyond the scattered splashes of color across the canvas, reaching further onto the walls. Somewhere to sit, to eat, to rest. It was all one truly needed, even if most wished for more. Corin had little use for even that now. His quarters had long been turned over to house another, his own stays brief enough that the guest spaces sufficed.

His steps carried him to the datapad, fingers brushing its surface as he gave it a cursory once-over, privacy disregarded.

"No, it's fine," he said with a flat voice, the tone his voice had taken of late.

The towel hardly seemed to matter. He'd seen her in less.

Yet, as she moved across the room, it was easy to notice, she never once looked at him. Corin lingered in the center, arms loose at his sides, his presence heavy despite his silence.

A beat passed.

"I understand if you're angry."

 

[Iris Arani]

​

A lock screen was all that was revealed. A very heavily encrypted lock screen, the kind used by Shadows if Corin had experience with them. Iris finally selected a drink, water, to take a sip of. Alcohol was something she wanted, to dull the feelings bubbling up in her mind. But that was an escape, and the kind she'd stopped taking.

"I'm not angry. Nor was I then. You chose your path, I chose mine, and we never talked about what it meant for either of us." Anger hadn't been the emotion. She spent a long time trying to figure out what those emotions were, and even now she still didn't fully grasp what they meant. It'd be much easier if she could see her own emotions in the Force like she could with others.

"I believe I just missed you, a lot. And wanted to have you help me when I was.. Going through some things. I didn't ask or reach out, so it's not like it's your fault. Seeing you now reminds me of that." She turned, leaning against the counter as she wisted open the water to take a sip. This was the facts of it. The truth, as much as she could tell.

"Are you angry?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

His head tilted slightly, eyes narrowing, not in hostility, but in consideration.

"…No." A beat. "Not at you."

He looked past Iris for a moment, at nothing in particular, before his gaze returned, sharper now, as if piercing through layers of distance. "We never talked about it because we never needed to." The words came quiet, matter-of-fact. "I had to leave and pursue a different path."

His voice, usually measured, carried something else now. Something subdued, controlled. Corin once wore his heart on his sleeve, and now it appeared to have withered and retreated inwards in the years since. There, where it beat unseen as he carried himself with a quiet control.

"I still thought about you."

There was no hesitation and no dramatics. Just the simple truth laid bare. His eyes searched hers, as if waiting to see if she'd look away first.

"And I would've helped." His fingers curled slightly, then relaxed. "Had I known."

A breath left him slowly.

"But you didn't ask. And I didn't reach out." A small smirk played at his lips, brief and fleeting. "So maybe I should be angry."

But he wasn't. Not with her. Just that part of himself.

"I changed out there," another breath, "And not all for the better."

 

[Iris Arani]

​

She still wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were shifting, glancing around at nothing he could see as she always did. The colors, the flow of the Force she'd been watching all her life. Not his colors though. Everything else but him. She didn't want to confirm what he said like that. What his words meant, she wanted them to just mean that without her having to scan for what was unsaid.

"I worked as a Shadow. I killed a lot of people. Who I ended up as, no matter how much I ended up missing you, was someone I didn't want you to know. You can be angry at me about that." Her eyes closed, but the colors never faded. The world still spoke to her, and she had no choice but to listen. Even his colors couldn't be ignored for long.

"But you're not. You shouldn't blame yourself either, you know. We were kids in a war trying to do what we could. What is it we need to talk about? It's not just that, us not blaming ourselves or each other, right?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

He stepped in closer. Closer than he should have been, closer than she could ignore.

Her vision was bathed in the myriad of colors that bled from his presence, the raw emotions that made up his essence. If Iris refused to see it, if she turned away from the truth with closed eyes, then Corin would force her to face it. To confront him.

"Look at me," his voice was low, steady. If she hesitated, he would lift her chin with a single finger, forcing her gaze to his.

Forget who he was before. That man was gone.

Shadows clung to him now, his dark hair falling in unkempt layers that framed his face, casting long streaks across the sharp angles of his jaw. But his eyes - those were what had changed the most. A haunting fusion of crimson and violet, carved with Force-marked glyphs, pulsing with something unnatural. Something no longer purely his own. Deep blues and purples bled from his presence, but at the core of it all was black; pitch-dark and inescapable.

"In search of Dagon, I killed people. A great many." His voice never wavered, but the words came slower. "I lost myself in that darkness, in my own desperation. Even after I failed, after I tried to right my wrongs, I knew I could never come back. I didn't care if I never saw any of them again." He exhaled, barely a scoff. "But I always thought of you."

"We need to talk about whether we can start again, or let it all go."

 

[Iris Arani]

​

For a moment she froze. She hadn't expected him to step closer, not like this. Yet, she let out a sigh. Her eyes shifted, suddenly and very actively hyper fixating on Corin's own. She'd been avoiding it, wanted to delay the confrontation as much as possible. It was how she fought, running away until she found the position she needed to strike back.

If Corin was going to back her into a corner, then, she simply wasn't going to keep running. She listened. Not to his colors, but to his words as he spoke. He did know her, knew how she could see the world. Knew what he was asking her to do when she focused on him.

"Neither of us are who we were." She paused for a moment, seeming to mull over her own words. "When I killed all those Sith, all those Imperials, there was no hesitation. Not until I saw red, at least. I saw myself becoming them, and I ran from it. From being a Jedi, from existing even. I didn't even paint, but I got out of that depression. Only to learn my body is breaking more and more. I'm in the bacta tank in the other room more than I am out of it. I've healed my mind, but my body won't last for much longer, maybe another decade of good years before I start to loose sensation in my hands."

Ah. She was rambling. She started to speak more and more, laying out the facts of her life she hadn't laid out for anyone. She was doomed to a very slow sort of death, the kind that couldn't be stopped.

"That's what you'd be starting again with. Why I didn't bother to reach out. I hoped you found a better life, but it sounds like you're still as fucked as I am, huh." She gave a little, weak sort of smile. Genuine emotion on her face.

"You're allowed to let go. Start something new. Live the life you want to, rather than what's left to you."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

These cold, unreadable expressions had become second nature. Whatever thoughts twisted in his mind, whatever words he chose to swallow instead of speak, they were his alone. But even now, with all he had become, there was one truth he couldn't ignore. He owed her this much. If nothing else, he would piece Iris back together, in a different way she had once tried to do for him.

Denon had been his descent, the moment he had fallen beyond saving. But Iris never gave up on him.

His voice was quieter than usual, almost distant, as if speaking a truth he had long accepted.

"I was never cut out for normal," Corin muttered, knowing there was no point in pretending otherwise. "I want you as you are."

 

[Iris Arani]

​

"What a way to make a girl swoon, telling her she's abnormal." Iris whispered in response, closing her eyes all over again as she found herself watching his colors again. The unspoken words, the intentions behind them. "You don't owe me this. I don't want someone with me only out of pity and obligation watching me deteriorate."

And yet she wasn't pushing him away either. If anything, she stepped closer. "But I'm selfish too. I won't hesitate to use you to keep from feeling any more scared than I already am."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

Corin exhaled sharply, a quiet scoff that wasn't quite amusement. His head tilted slightly, his gaze fixed on her.

"Good," he murmured. "Then we're even."

There was no pity in his voice, no forced assurance. Just quiet certainty, as if the decision had already been made.

 

[Iris Arani]

​

"For all you've changed you're still as bluntly bullheaded as ever." She muttered again before letting out a breath. A sigh, relief really. More than she thought she needed. "Before you were allowed to disappear because we never bothered labeling anything. If you're planning to make this something official, you're not allowed to just up and poof. Deal?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

He was someone that existed on the edge of space now, far removed and untethered. Corin was incompatible with life in the temple.

That was not something he could change.

“Deal,” Corin agreed all the same.

“I won’t disappear. I’ll be there, whenever you need me. And one day, I hope you can join me out there.”

 

[Iris Arani]

​

"Okay good, okay fine."

Iris let herself smile finally. She certainly hadn't expected Corin to come back, let alone alive. She turned from him, lifting up her drink to take another sip of it, closed it, then went to put it back in the fridge. Idly busying herself. To most this part would be incredibly awkward. She said nothing further, now with the conversation done it was easy enough for her to go about her normal day.

Or more, it was so awkward she didn't know what else to do and defaulted back to her normal manners. It'd been too long since they were last in the same room. She paused near her paints, as if she was going to start painting.

".. What happens now?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

He, too, defaulted to his usual self in that silence. Both as bad as the other in these quiet moments. It was odd, as to how Iris busied herself with sudden purpose - his own version, however, was unable to be delved into, and thus Corin merely stood there.

His eyes flicked across to Iris' paints, then back to her.

"It depends," he said with that same even voice, "If you're waiting to see if I leave or not."

 

[Iris Arani]

​

"I suppose I am."

Would he stay or would he go now? It was a question she hadn't thought about until he actually voiced it. It very much was what was on her mind. More so, which she wanted of him. "But that doesn't really help me figure things out on what we should do. .. I don't have a tv. Or pizza." If she wasn't painting, that was the other thing she used to do, back when she was much, much younger. With Kai Bamarri , the others. Ah, she just didn't really know how to hang out with people.

"What do people do together? Other than the sleeping, I mean."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | TYTHON
TAG: Iris Arani

"Paint, maybe."

His own spare time was spent in transit or asleep, now. Pulled deeply into meditations, sometimes. In either case, Corin was a solitary creature that enjoyed his absent nothingness more than idly business. A far cry from what he was around Dagon, Yula and Jem.

"I never learned to, and I haven't seen you paint in a long time now."

 

[Iris Arani]

​

"Is that your roundabout way to ask me to teach you?"

Iris raised a brow curiously. He'd never been that interested in her painting, at least not visibly. Too mission oriented to really take the moment for a painting session at any rate. "If I couldn't see your colors I'd say that's proof enough you've changed. I'm up to teach you, if you really want to learn."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
JEDI TEMPLE | CORUSCANT
TAG: Iris Arani

He grinned, ashamedly.

"In a roundabout way, yes."

Corin folded his arms over his chest, stepping forwards, closer to the easel, studying what was on the canvas, if anything at all. Painting, or arts of any kind were never much of his specialty. It was never a dislike of art, rather a failure of appreciation. He never understood, despite Iris' seeming obsession.

 

[Iris Arani]

​

"Well if you're going to paint, then you can't do that with your arms crossed." She busied herself. Not with much, just gathering some supplies to actually get painting. Canvas, some paints, brushes. The paint containers, the brushes, they were covered naturally. Save for the bristles, which were incredibly clean. They had to be, to make sure she was painting how she wanted to. The rest of it didn't matter.

She held one brush out to him, giving a faint smile.

"Even if you're just showing an interest in something I do all the time, I appreciate it. And I'm going to milk it so now you're stuck painting. Hope you aren't worried about getting that robe covered."

Corin Trenor