Private Fill the Space

[Tev Ontarre]

Location: Tranquility Heights, Passeri, Crytal Nest
Tag: Aiden Porte | Lily Decoria

At Tranquility Heights the Gondwana Sea did not end so much as surrender, the long gold of late afternoon laid flat across the water until sky and tide were the same warm color and the horizon was only a rumor. Tev Ontarre had chosen the hilltop garden for exactly that reason. There was nothing here that asked anything of a person. The benches faced the sea and not each other. The flowers were native and unhurried. And from somewhere down the slope, carried up on a breeze that smelled of salt and turned earth, came the faint glass music of the Nestmother's Wind Forest that strange singing the Shashay protected so fiercely, a sound like a thousand patient chimes deciding, slowly, what they wanted to say.

He had set a low table beneath the garden's one old tree. Tea from the house down the road, the quiet one with the good leaves; three cups, because three was hopeful without being a demand. He had not brought a medallion. He had not worn the jacket with the Fellowship's mark stitched at the collar. The tree-top headquarters out on Mount Tyrannus was a half-hour's flight east, and Tev had thought about it for all of a moment before deciding against it. A man did not heal where he could feel himself being recruited. He knew that better than most.

That was the trouble with people like him, and he suspected like them. They were always being asked to be useful. To stand the line one more time, to carry one more stranger out of one more fire, to be the steady thing in a room full of frightened people and the asking never stopped, because the answer was always yes, and a galaxy learns quickly which doors open when it knocks. Tev had spent the better part of his life giving until the giving hollowed him out, and he had only lately come to understand the thing he was now trying, clumsily, to offer two people he barely knew: that you did not have to earn the right to rest. That a life had worth before it was spent. That sometimes a person did not need a cause or a banner or a new master to follow, they needed an afternoon, a view, a cup going cold in their hands while nobody waited on them to decide anything.

He had reached out plainly. No promises about the Commonwealth, which they were free to ignore. No invitation to the Fellowship, which he meant for them to be able to refuse without it costing them his friendship. Only this: Come to Passeri. Rest. Stay as long or as little as it suits you. If they came and left the next morning, that was a good outcome. If they came and simply slept, better still. He had built no plan beyond the tea, and felt no need to.

The wind forest sighed. Somewhere overhead a Shashay called to another, two clear notes against the failing light, and Tev let his eyes close for the length of it.

Then, footsteps on the promenade stair, more than one set, unhurried. He rose, the burdens that lived in his face easing into something gentler, and turned to meet them with both hands open and empty.

"You found it," he said, warm and low. "Good. Sit. There's nothing here you have to do."

Today he was someone they could talk to if they wanted to do that, someone to simply be with them as they figured out their next chapter.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Lily Decoria Tev Ontarre​

For someone who constantly taking on the troubles of others, with no complaints. No words of regret, Aiden sure had taking a break from that all together, as he found himself on another vacation of sorts. Much had happened in the past week or so. He recalled Lorn's meeting, the abrupt call to charge in and fight against the Sith. The Jedi Knight wasn't afraid, but this battle had been fought for years, thousands of years before him, and it would continue thousands of years after him. He still didn't get an answer from him.

What happened to him during his brief time away? What changed in that amount of time, that caused this renewed strength and drive to eradicate the Sith. Because this wasn't seen at all during the time that he had known him. Not this fierce...

So, what happened?

What had changed, what new weapon did the Jedi have in their arsent besides, hope, strength. Because they surely did not have the numbers. They needed the assistance of the Nobles, and all of the Republic. They had to stand together, if they didn't, there was no point. They could not fight the might of the Sith Empire, with only a handful of Jedi. It was pride, arrogance, agression that defeated the Jedi over the histories. And still, those same mistakes were being made today.

He often wondered why his father never took part in Order affairs until now. He gave his life for that Order, and for Naboo. Naboo was still strong....

But the order was seemingly broken.

Once more, Aiden wasn't a coward, but he wasn't going to throw his life away so rashly. He had people he cared for, people he loved deeply. His mind drifted to Alina Grayson , then drifted to Lira. They were the two most important people in his life now. He wasn't going to throw that away for someone else's pride. He was better than that, he was stronger than that.

So here he was, on a escort venture of sorts, standing alongside the once battlemaster Lily Decoria. "You can talk to me you know?" Aiden said quietly. "I'm not here to judge, just to listen." He spoke quietly before they reached their destination.

"Good day. My name is Aiden Porte. I appreciate the invitation, especially for my friend here."

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Tranquillity Heights, Passeri, Crystal Nest
Outfit: Casual
Tag: Tev Ontarre | Aiden Porte

Lily received the invitation and while she wasn't sure what she was going to do next in her life, the former Jedi Knight wasn't confident that a relaxation break would help much. However, the more that she looked at the invitation and looked into the location and facilities. Lily felt drawn to going. Then she realised that she rarely ever actually relaxed since joining the council. There was always a tension of having to perform, to maintain peace and strong diplomatic relations with those who could be allies. Even if some of their actions were objectionable.

So, Lily found herself on the transport towards the respite and spotted Aiden Porte. Another Jedi, one she had interacted with a little but not a lot. Someone she had a decent amount of respect for, he had also been a questioning voice towards Lorn. Though Lily had unfortunately suffered the worst outcome in that whole ordeal. Lorn got his members, Ala got to show she meant business and Lily attempting to prevent the divide from widening had to leave. It was not the Order she wanted to be in any more, not one that she felt represented what a Jedi should be. But Lorn's approach wasn't the correct one either.

"Thanks. I fear for now, that I have done far too much talking..." Lily gave a weak smile to Aiden, she had been told she overstepped with Ala and that lingered in her mind. She was not here to disparage the Grand Master. "Not sure there is much else I can say. I just wish it hadn't turned out this way. But I must move forward and onwards." Lily shrugged her shoulders, knowing there was little else she could really do on the matter. There was no way that Lily could feel like she would go back, she was sure apologies would be demanded of her and Lily would not fake one.

And she did not believe one was deserved.

Right now, Lily shifted her thoughts away from the sad thoughts and focused on the arrival of someone else new. "I appreciate this invitation. I was surprised to receive on but I look forward to enjoying my time here." Lily mentioned as she stepped forward.

 

[Tev Ontarre]

Aiden Porte | Lily Decoria
​

Tev read people the way he read anything really, not for weakness, but for where the weight was being carried. He saw it before either of them had finished. The way Aiden set himself a half step toward the woman at his side, angled like someone long accustomed to standing between a person he loved and whatever came next. He let out a soft exhale. Tev knew that stance from the inside, he'd worn it most of his life. He understood the particular exhaustion of a man who could call a thing an escort venture of sorts, rather than admit he was just as tired.

"Aiden." He took the offered name and returned it with weight. Tev poured the tea, unhurried in his motions. The tea had time to steep while he had waited, and then filled all three cups without asking whether anyone wanted any, because a cup in the hand asked nothing and that was the point. "You are here, and that is enough," his voice heavy for a moment that soft baritone timbre that rolled so easily. He set the second cup nearer to Aiden than the man had reached for. "No one's keeping count, of who needs this or that more than another."

The Dosuunian shifted his attention to the woman, Lily. He listened, and noticed the words that she had done too much talking and that there was little left to say. His words were gentle, with no edge and faintly there may have been amusement, "don't speak at all if you're not up for it. There's no one here to account for, just yourself, and there's no one left to perform for." The breeze came up the slope and the wind forest answered it. That slow glass music threading through the garden.

He let it fill the quiet so Lily wouldn't feel she had to. Tev was familiar enough with the exhaustion of wearing a mask, performing for others.

"Whatever the name of thing you walked away from, I had not been there for it, nor would I ask you to relive it for my benefit. I only know the look of someone who has held a line until it cost them more than it should." He let the moment settle between them. "You are allowed to set it down here, and take a moment for yourself."

He eased back onto the low wall, the sea going copper in the sun light behind him. Tev gestured loosely at the city falling away below the promenade, the quiet hotels, the dark green hush of forest paths. "Stay an hour, or a season. Walk down to the water, sleep until you can sleep no more, or sit right here. Let it all go cold." He held a faint, worn smile. "The space doesn't need filling."

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Lily Decoria Tev Ontarre​

"Fair enough." Aiden responded warmly, to Lily's comment. While he had more to say, much more to say. He wasn't going to intrude on that much more. It was a time for reflection or so it seemed, and more importantly.

A time to relax and take some time to enjoy the simpler things in life.

Aiden gave Tev a simple nod, and smiled. "Thank you."

The Jedi Knight had done some research on this place, and there was truthfully, so much to do. They could be here for a long time and still find something new to do while they were here.

"So what do you think?" Aiden said as he glanced between the two of them, Lily and Tev. "What are you feeling like doing?"

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Tranquillity Heights, Passeri, Crystal Nest
Outfit: Casual
Tag: Tev Ontarre | Aiden Porte

Lily realised that there was a lot that Aiden had been wanting to share on it, she could tell her desire to not say more had implied she was shutting him down. It was not her intentions and she felt deeply apologetic about it all. "I am sorry, I did not mean that you could not speak more on it Aiden, I am open to hearing what you have to say. I just... A lot happened that day. I said everything there and I feared I would only be repeating myself if I continued to talk on it." Lily admitted as she then turned her attention to their very gracious host.

It was curious being on this world and having such a welcoming and warming invitation. Part of her wondered if the warm feeling was something that the Sith would really support. Perhaps some. She knew some would enjoy this.

"I personally know that I will need far more than a simple hour to relax properly. What are the facilities like here? I could probably go for a deep massage, something that would help with the stress that I have been carrying all this time." Looking to Aiden, "is there anything you are seeking in particular as well?" She was interested in hearing what the options were, she also wanted to make sure that they both had a great time. Lily did not want to make Aiden feel like he could not spend time with her while she was enjoying the first break she had in many, many years.

 

[Tev Ontarre]

Aiden Porte | Lily Decoria ​

The apology passed between the two of them, Lily softening it, Aiden waving it off, and Tev let it lie where it fell. He only said, mild as the tea going cool in his hand, "For what it's worth, you can do both here. Talk a thing to death or let it rest. Nobody's grading the silence." A gentle pause lingered for a brief moment. "And nobody's making you perform the unwinding, either. If it takes a week of doing nothing useful, then that's the work. It's slower than a fight. Takes more nerve, too, some days."

Then their questions, Aiden's what are you feeling like doing, Lily's more practical one, the deep ache she'd been carrying like a second cloak. Tev set the cup down and gave it real thought, because they'd asked, and because he knew this city better than he knew how to sit still in it.

"Depends what kind of tired you are," he said. "There's more than one, and they don't all take the same cure."

He looked to Lily first, since she'd named hers plainly. "For the kind that a single afternoon won't touch, there's a bathhouse built back into the ridge, spring-fed, warm as a held breath. The people there will work every knot out of you and ask you nothing the whole time. Book the long treatment. Then let them point you at Whispering Leaves, up the lane, a tea house made for people who want to say nothing at all." A faint smile, as the breeze brushed by them all. "If your kind of quiet wants a view, walk the Nestmother's Wind Forest at dusk. The trees sing. I've seen hardened people go in wound tight and come out looking like they set something down in there. And south of it there's a whole valley that's nothing but lavender to the horizon. It's absurd. It works anyway."

To Aiden he tipped his head, reading the restlessness in a man who'd called this an escort venture rather than admit he needed it. "And if sitting still makes your skin itch, the Gondwana's warm this time of year, good for a long swim off the public beach. There's high country out in the Meadowlands worth a hard climb, and the view at the top's honest about it. Marzovilla Corridor down the hill will feed you pasta until you can't stand, and teach you to make your own if you ask nicely."

He rolled his shoulders, and something wry crossed his face. "Me, I'll be straight with you. My idea of rest still looks like work to most people. Dawn on the promenade, running the forms till the tide comes in. A swim hard enough to shut my head up." He glanced at Aiden, the ghost of a challenge in it. "You look like you know the forms too. If the mood ever takes you, I've got space and no shortage of interest in seeing how a Guardian moves. Friendly. No stakes but bragging rights."

He spread his hands, any of it, none of it.

"So. No wrong answer. Where do you want to start?"

 

[Aiden Porte]

Lily Decoria Tev Ontarre​

"No, its okay Lily." Aiden said with a smile on his face. "You have nothing to apologize for, we have plenty of time to talk. Let's for sure enjoy ourselves first my friend."

The word massage came, and Aiden's curiousity was completly piqued. They had been heard of, he had been known to give Alina Grayson one, every so often. And that truly sounded amazing right about now. It was a time to relax, and let the stresses of life go.

"Lily, I think that is a wonderful idea. I say massage first, then well at least for me, go for a swim on the beach."

Aiden looked over to Tev, "Will you be joining on this relaxing adventure?"

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Tranquillity Heights, Passeri, Crystal Nest
Outfit: Casual
Tag: Tev Ontarre | Aiden Porte

"I do look forward to hearing what your thoughts are Aiden, there is a lot to consider." Lily confessed as she hoped that he would share his thoughts in the very near future, Lily was painfully aware that while there didn't seem to be a big reaction from the council or some Jedi about her departure. Ripples were disturbing the water, things were being affected or creating waves. It was concerning and Lily hoped that the Jedi would survive the coming challenges that they would face but she was confident in herself that she could survive.

Looking to Tev as he explained the options, "intense, probably long. It has been a long time since I have been able to relax or feel settled. It will take time to induce that feeling once again in me." Lily explained plainly. "Swimming sounds good, or simply walking the beach. I also find sparring relaxing and intriguing to see how well this one knows the forms compared to the Jedi." Lily mentioned to Aiden, nodding her head to Tev as she mentioned the other man.

"A lot of the time, my ideal relaxation is very proactive mentality. Attempting to keep things a little less so, just to see how it feels and embracing the change I am needing in life in general." Lily stated, feeling that she needed to air it not because of Tev but for her own sanity's sake. Tapping her fingertips together rhythmically.

"Lead the way."

 

[Tev Ontarre]

Lily Decoria | Aiden Porte

Will you be joining?

It was a simple question, and Tev noticed the beat of hesitation it found in him, the old reflex to say no, this is for you, I'll keep watch. He had spent a lifetime being the one who stood at the edge of other people's rest, never quite in it. He set the reflex down. That was rather the point of all this, wasn't it. Hard to tell two weary people to stop standing guard while he did nothing else.

"I'll come," he said, and found he meant it more than he'd expected to. "Someone ought to make sure they give you the long treatment and not the polite version."

Then Lily named her kind of tired, intense, long, it will take time, and Tev nodded slowly, the way a man nods at something he recognizes in his own bones. "That's the honest answer," he said. "The deep tiredness doesn't lift in an afternoon. It lifts in layers. You'll think nothing's happening, and then one morning you'll notice you slept through the night." No promise, no push, just a thing he knew.


But it was the rest of it that caught him, and he didn't bother hiding the flicker of interest that crossed his face. Sparring. Relaxing. How well this one knows the forms compared to the Jedi. A slow, crooked smile answered her before his words did.

"Careful," he said, warm and dry. "Say a thing like that to a man who trains for fun and you'll get taken up on it." He glanced between them, the once-battlemaster and the Guardian, two people who'd carried blades a long while for an Order that had worn them thin, and who both, he suspected, thought clearest with something to push against. "For what it's worth, I think you've got the right of it. Some of us don't quiet down by sitting still. We quiet down by moving, until the body's busy enough to let the mind off its leash." He rolled a shoulder, the ghost of the fighter never far under the calm. "So we'll do it properly. Knots worked out first, salt water after. And when you're loose and rested and there's nothing left to prove to anyone, then we'll find a soft patch of ground and see whose forms are worth bragging about." He stopped for a moment considering. "All three, if Aiden's willing. I'd like to see it."

He rose from the low wall, unhurried, and the copper light came off the sea behind him. Tev tipped his head toward the promenade stair, toward the city and the ridge and everything he'd promised waited down there.

"Come on, then." He started down, and for once did not look back to see if they followed, only trusted that they would.

"Lead the way, she says. Fair enough. This way."

 

[Aiden Porte]

Lily Decoria Tev Ontarre​

Aiden couldn't help but chuckle at the exchange between Lily and Tev, truth be told that's what was needed. The simple laughter, and the ability to relax and even joke. It took away the worries of the world, far greater than anyone realized. Aiden knew this more than most. He knew it, but did he practice it, not as much as he should. Which was why today was a very much needed day.

He followed the group as the moved up the promenade stair, pushing in towards the city. Once they reached the top of the stairs, more of the city opened up. Truly a sight in itself, and that was because they probably haven't even reached the pinnacle, or even the halfway point of this city's splendor.

"You know, I truly love Naboo, but I could see myself having a second home here." He chuckled lightly, he wondered what Lira would make of this place. If he was excited about this, he could only imagine how she would be.

"How long has this city been like this? Has it ever had any, problems?" Aiden inquired, If it hadn't, that was truly impressive. It made it an even far greater place to want to set up shop.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Tranquillity Heights, Passeri, Crystal Nest
Outfit: Casual
Tag: Tev Ontarre | Aiden Porte

Lily nodded her head as Tev mentioned that he would join them and ensure that they got the treatment that they desired. Lily was grateful for that, it would be comforting to have a local around who could ensure that they received the best of care. "Well, I look forward to obtaining that feeling." It had been too long since Lily could sleep an entire night undisturbed. There was usually some nightmare, injury or stress that would awake her before she drifted off.

The roll of a shoulder was something that caught Lily's eye immediately, it was clear that this was someone with a good amount of experience. "Well, I never threaten a good time and fail to live up to it." Lily teased with a smirk, "a good plan. I like that approach, ensures that the body expends as much energy as possible for rest." Lily mentioned as she looked to Aiden, "I am down to a three-way spar, if you are?" She offered the other Jedi, not knowing if Aiden was someone that enjoyed sparring or not.

Taking a moment to take in the city, Lily nodded her head, "it's definitely pretty. I don't think there will be any one place that I will be hanging my hat any time soon. I jumped from one temple or enclave to the next in hopes of finding some place to stick my roots... I think exploring around a little more is something I wish to achieve." Lily mentioned with a sigh, it was going to be a big change in her life but one that Lily already could tell was going to be necessary.

Nothing could be rushed and she had to figure out the Jedi she wished to be, the role she wished to play now that things with the Jedi Order had fallen through.