Private Footing

[Tansu Treicolt]

Ukatis | Near the Nuvar Hollow Refugee camp
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"Augh!"

It was as though she couldn't get her gardening gloves off fast enough. Her fingers scrabbled at the cuff for an irritatingly long amount of time—far too long for her temper—until a single whoosh of the Force stripped them from her hands and flung them, loudly, at the nearest wall. Fwap thwap.

"I am so over this!"

The gloves smacked against the stacked ration crates by the entry table, jolting a half-dead holoprojector into flickering blue life. It immediately threw a jittering image of the refugee camp across the canvas walls: supply lines marked in red, overcrowded med tents pulsing with warning glyphs.

Her boots were next—struggled with, yanked off, and discarded with equal fervor. Thump thump. One of them bounced off a crate of med-patches, sending a few flimsiplast sheets fluttering off the central map table.

With all the commotion and narration of her grumbling upset, there could be no mistaking it: Tansu was swept up in a Treicolt Tizzy.

She stomped past the holoprojector again, and the little machine rippled the entire camp layout, decoherence lines skittered across the projection.

"I can count on," she jabbed one hand up, then another finger, then another, pacing across the uneven canvas flooring—"both hands! Probably! How many times we have been a part of an evacuation, and some sorta refugee crisis and only maybe ONE? Maybe two, MAYBE, if we're bein' real generous, REAL GENEROUS, two times where we weren't on the backfoot?"

Her hands dragged down her face, pacing again, and kicked aside a dropped medchart as if it were personally responsible for everything she'd listed.

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

While Tansu was crashing out very openly and loudly, Talsin was experiencing his own version of aggrevation. In his case it was staring at the holographic map with a frown that was carving a deep edge in his face. Once upon a time it had been flawless, pristine and unmarred by any harm. But that was before Talin Treicolt and Jonath Kago smashing through said face with their fists until it broke.

Now he had several scars running through his face.

The frown softened, but only slightly, as Tansu walked in and started jabbing at the map.

"Yes, it is rather frustrating, isn't it?" Tal said finally, exhaling the tension in his body as he tried to reach out and pull Tansu towards him. "I have been staring at the map for the past hour, trying to make it look less disappointing."

But everything counted up towards the same conclusion: they were removing water from a sinking boat. No matter how many people they were saving, there were more being put in harm's way every day. There was only so many evacuations you could do, so many defensive postures set-up, before the realization that you weren't making any headway.

"Are we going about this the wrong way, Tan?" Said softly as he glanced down to meet her eye. If she had allowed to pull him towards her, he'd wrap his arms around her waist.

"I thought stepping up, being proactive, actually going out to help people instead of waiting for a government or an Order, would feel more satisfying than this."

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

If Tansu was a storming tide, Talsin was the shoreline meeting her, tempering each swell until her wildness eased into something steady — something held until it reached a natural ebb and flow.

"Yes, it is rather frustrating, isn't it?"

"Yes." She huffed her agreement into his chest. "It is."

"Are we going about this the wrong way, Tan?"

His answer came in the form of a strangled sound from the back of her throat, and she looked up at him, chin on his chest. At this distance, eye contact made them into cyclops. One very intense eye meeting the other.

"I dunno." She muttered, still wrapped up in frustration and letting it command her tone. Her entire body sunk into his, as if the weight of her frazzled energy were too much to keep upright alone. "Me too. But maybe that's just the thing, it ain't feelin' proactive is it? We're always," her hands moved around him, gesturing behind his back. "—reactin' to somethin' or other.

And now the Core's in a freefall, The Alliance just peeterin' out tuh nothin', High Republic's relaxin' in their zone, takin' it easy and content to do this stuff, which is like fine and all but..

Back in my ma and pa's day, they were deployed into the frontline. Deployed. They went to push the enemy back, not just clean up the mess the bad guys brought into town."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

She was right.

It was all a mess and more.

Talsin had not expected the Alliance to fold as quickly as it had. The victory over Atrisia had been a rare bright point, one that made him hopeful they'd be able to push the advantage and take out the Empire at its heels. Instead the nation that won was gone and the one that had build a death star with only a smidgen of the old Empire's resources and saw it destroyed, was still here.

Still indoctrinating its people, still harvesting it for resources.

It was disheartening to say the least.

"Yeah, but it is not a mess we are cleaning up, Tan. It's people. How many people have we saved?" Thousands, more. To some degree it was satisfying, but just not satisfying enough to sate him... or Tansu apparently.

"Shouldn't it be enough? Getting them out of a bad situation, rescuing those who need it, protecting those who can't protect themselves... that is what a Jedi is about, no?"

But Talsin sounded unsure. As if he was trying to still convince himself.

Maybe part of him wanted Tansu to convince him otherwise.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

A more righteous person might have known that yes, it was enough. To be there for those who needed it, to instil peace and healing and balance.

But Tansu yearned for more. She'd grown up surrounded by heroes of The Alliance, had bedtime stories of days long gone, filled with adventure and triumph. In the lifetimes ago, the good guys won. The good guys took the fight to the bad guys and they beat them.

She exhaled again, a huff of partial agreement.

"It is. I guess."

She felt partly suffocated by his logic and calmness, and needed to move. Her hands squeezed his wrists around her waist, apologetically, and unthreaded herself from him. Instantly she was pacing again, arms ready to flail with her gesture. She just needed to stomp out a bit more frustration.

"But it feels so...ugh, okay stay with me on this — if all we do is rescue, how far does that go? We keep ourselves as Jedi with job security sure, there'll always be somethin' to do, a mess to clean up, a broken body to heal, but what if we could help make a galaxy where evacuations ain't needed? Where people aren't scared they're next? Make the Sith, of all sorts, think twice before crossin' borders and ruinin' lives?"

Her turn about the room ended, and she gathered his hands up in hers.

"We can do so much more. I know we can. Get ahead of the need for people to be rescued or saved.

Jedi are supposed to be peacekeepers right? But there ain't no peace to be kept. We ain't even close to peace. We're neighbours with the waiting game of 'Where will they hit next'?"

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

A Jedi with job security.

That was hilarious, but Talsin kept the snickering in, because in the mood Tan was in he didn't want to think he was laughing at her. He'd have to remember to compliment her for that description later on.

"I don't disagree." Talsin said as his eyes tracked her back and forth. She really was aggravated. It was... nice to see, honestly. In a way. Tal wasn't enjoying the fact that she was so frustrated, but the fact that his girlfriend had such a deep-seated capacity to feel. And to feel about something deeply moral and responsible?

Yeah, it filled him with pride.

She'd feel that- the connection between them swelling with his pride and love for her.

"But... everything you have said... every single incarnation of an Army of Light, the Lightsworn, Ashlan Crusade, they have all said the same thing. Now, ten years ago, a hundred years ago." Talsin frowned there as he looked at the map. "And yet here we are. New Sith, new Jedi... the same cycle that keeps repeating over and over again."

He bit his lip.

"But that is not an excuse to just maintain the status quo, is it? We should act, not because of the promise of a changed future, but because it is the right thing to do. Because people are suffering now. And it doesn't matter if we succeed in taking out the Sith as a threat. It matters that we try... because sitting on our hands and only guiding along the suffering makes us complicit."

He squeezed his hand there, nails biting into the palm.

"Can I ask my people to put their lives on the risk for this though? It's one thing to go out myself. Can I ask House Lota soldiers to fight, not to defend the innocent, but to assault the guilty?"

His voice however... was already resolving. A question that already had an answer.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

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Indeed she felt the glimmer of his pride shimmer through their bond — a golden glitter sparkling the edges of the clouds she currently felt. Bashfulness flashed across her face briefly, but faded just as swiftly when he started to express his thoughts aloud.

"I know, I know," she bit her lip. It was one group after the other, rising, falling, rising again — a galactic wheel meant to spin on for eternity. But that didn't mean they had to be flattened by its revolutions.

"Right, yes, yes." Her encouragement peppered through his rhetorical questions, enthused by the conclusions he seemed to be drawing. Like they were going to meet at the same point. Get to an area of decision resulting in action.

Talsin's phrasing sounded like something a..well, a Duke would say. Not to defend the innocent, but to assault the guilty. He just came up with that. On the spot.

“I’m gettin’ chills all over hearin’ you talk like that.”

She shivered at the inspiration and stepped forward, seeking to slip her hands to his.

"Maybe they want to? They've lost their home to the Sith too."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

He smirked at her mention of chills.

"Do you want me to warm you up? I do have that heavy fur cloak, I could put it on and wrap my arms around you." Teasing her a little, but then Tansu slipped her hands into his and his expression softened.

Tan was thinking exactly what he was thinking.

That was good, but it was also something to be cautious of. You couldn't just assume that meant they were correct. It could just as well mean they were both wrong. But he didn't want that to be the case, he wanted them to have arrived at the same conclusion because it was the only conclusion that was worth taking.

They had to get out there and do something of worth.

Not just moping up, not just maintenance, but actual action.

"I think so too... they have all lost so many and so many. We just need to make sure that this doesn't become vengeance... doesn't become cruelty. It is very easy for people who lose... a lot to slip into a dark place."

Talking about himself? About Talin? Tough to say. Maybe all of the above.

He lightly pulled her back into his arms, assuming permission when she touched his hands and laced their fingers together.

"Are we doing this then? We won't easily be able to back out again if we commit to this..."