Sarge Potteiger
Emotional Damage
Corellia
Golden Beaches
Sarge didn't get a whole ton of downtime to go home anymore, aside from his apartment in one of the habitation spheres over Fondor. But sometimes, if he were lucky, he could come home home. To Corellia. It wasn't his birthplanet. Far from it. So far as he knew his birth planet didn't even exist.
But Corellia was the closest he could find, albeit a bit more high-tech.
Still, it put a smile on his lips.
And today he was smiling a bit more through the thick, bushy brown beard that looked like it belonged more on a lumberjack than a mercenary. The Golden Beaches of Corellia were renowned for their beauty, and had tourists there almost year-round. That meant he could blend in a bit better than normal.
Clad in a simple pair of black and white swimtrunks and a white tshirt, the wiry muscled mercenary settled his black OmegaPyre service cap back on his head and smiled broadly beneath the brim of it as he walked along the shore, waves lapping at his feet. Flip-flops dangling from his hand, he spotted the local marina and made to take a good long look at the boats.
Typically he wasn't a fan of boats, but if there was a place to find nice ones, this was going to be it. His feet registered the transition from sand to wooden dock, and he walked slowly down the pier, shadowed gaze taking in the sights and sounds of people readying their vessels for trips out to sea.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 07:23 PM
Coryth was kneeling down on the docks trying off The Prophetess. A gleaming beauty of a sail boat, though it was on the small side meant for only four, max. Her ship, her baby had been just the thing she needed to escape after all the events in unknown space. Corellia had been that home away from home for the petite Jedi. Being born on a starship, she'd never really known a true home until the time she was taken in with the Jedi Order. Even then, something about the dorm room in the temple, still did not feel like home. Out on the ocean at least she had found solace in the rolling waves and wonderful glories that nature provided.
Even here, Coryth was untrusting, her awareness spread out to it's max. She couldn't help it really, just wanting to protect herself against the unknown. With how much things had changed in her absence, it was only natural to be cautious in her new environment. Still, even without the force, there was a strange feeling she had. Something was different around her. It was enough for her to push off of her knees, stand and look about. Cocking her head to the side, she peered at the people around her so far thing seemed normal up until the point that she came upon one being. What she got from him was .... nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing, which was bizarre. Not possible. She told herself.
Closing her eyes, she shook her head, trying to push the feelings away. If she got nothing, then well no, the being could not be, nothing could exist without the force. Figuring she was seeing something, Coryth tried to ignore it. But nothing was impossible to forget. Itching in the back of her mind, she finally finished her knot and rose once more. The tiny redhead found herself curiously staring at the shadowed man.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 07:32 PM
@Coryth Elaris
The man glided through people like he didn't exist, footsteps painfully quiet even among the noise of a crowded beach. People simply seemed to not notice him as though his very existence was tied up in not standing out in the slightest, which was at odds with an obvious soldiers physique and unkempt beard.
But as he moved, he found himself drawn to thick hair the color of a dark maroon It wasn't quite red, and his mother would have killed him if he'd labeled it such, but it was definitely an auburn mixed with a maroon of some sort. And while he noticed her, she noticed him. There was nothing romantic about it - her hair was striking, and would draw the attention of anyone.
But what caught his attention about hers...? Well, it was that she couldn't seem to ignore him.
Which meant a few things - either she found him exceptionally attractive (dubious at best), was intrigued by his facial hair (more likely), or, at the very outside, was some kind of a Force User.
One brow rose beneath the brim of his cover and he cocked his head quizzically at her before moving to get a closer look. And, as he neared, he found himself facing a tiny woman, easily a good foot shorter than him and then some. "Something the matter, miss?", he asks, tone genial and helpful. It was a quiet voice, at least for now, but within it was held the promise of easy laughter.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 11:51 PM
Coryth tried to look away as the man approached her. Now finding herself craning her neck to look up. The height difference, an annoyance today for her. It was just something about it, the fact that he felt like ... nothing was driving her crazy. No one should feel like that, she knew that but yeah evidence lay before her that there was a man who in fact had no presence in the force whatsoever.
"Nothing at all." She lied, which was above all strange for her, but Coryth didn't want to seem rude to the man. "It's just a very fine hat you have, and I couldn't help but notice." She smiled sweetly as she extended her hand. There was something she had to confirm. Everything, absolutely everything about this told her that the man before her was not real, could not exist. However, if he could touch her skin, force her nerves to respond in kind to the touch, then ... real.
Inside, every part of her was freaking out, but on the outside, she appeared to be nothing but calm cool and collected. Something to be expected of the folks around the docks. "I'm Coryth, Coryth Elaris." She spoke softly, beaming a smile up at him ... hoping he bought the lies she had spoken, but even to her .. the hat thing, seemed lame. "What brings you to the docks, sir?" Must ignore the feelings ... must ignore the feelings ... must find out more, need to know more.... Who the hell is this guy?
Posted 29 August 2013 - 10:58 AM
She seemed pleasant and honest enough, so he mentally shelved the feeling that she wasn't quite telling him the truth. A large, calloused hand topped with long, slender fingers extended to shake her smaller one, and the man gave a smile that showed the caps of off-white teeth through the mess of his facial hair. "A pleasure Miss Elaris. They call me Sarge."
Sarge. The rumor of OmegaPyre. Kerrigan was known for her brutal methods in battle, and the Lady Protector was known for shrewd political and business acumen - not to mention her secrecy. But Sarge was just as well known for entirely different reasons.
The first of which was that no one was entirely certain he existed. He seemed more like a figment of a crazed mind. An isidious monster conjured from a frazzled mind; a true monster - pleasant outside, but truly evil within.
Not true of course, but rumors weren't reliable in the slightest.
"I enjoy looking at boats, naturally. Don't own one. But there's usually a fine vessel or two around here to admire." Without realizing it, his eyes shifted to her hair, then over to her boat.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 03:30 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth nodded to him, a certain shock in her eyes as she grasped his hand that she was quick to hide. The man was real enough. He was physically real for certain, but he didn't exist within the force. Something that made her damn uncomfortable to say the least, and right now it took a hell of a lot to mask the discomfort. "It's a pleasure Sarge." She said with a bright smile, still working to mask the inner turmoil and confusion.At least I'm not crazy, he is real .. and this isn't some figment of my imagination.
Smiling still, her eyes followed his to the ship behind her. "She's not much, but certainly gets me where I want to go. It's nice to be on the ocean without a need for an engine to push ya about. Something is truly beautiful about being out there like that. Granted she still has an engine just in case the winds don't blow favorably. Still, she's my baby. Always the one place I can go, that I truly can call home." As she finished those words, there was a lingering sadness. A real home was something Coryth had never really known. Something that always had her wondering if she was really missing that much. Everyone else seemed to take great pleasure in returning "home", so there was always those thoughts that lingered within her mind from time to time.
Sighing, Coryth realized she had been rambling a fair bit. "Sorry," She chuckled lightly, "I ... tend to talk a bit when I'm nervous." Admitting that so openly, she wondered if maybe she'd hit her head somewhere along the lines in the last day or so. You're letting him get in your head. Gotta stop that.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 04:59 PM
So, she was a wandering spirit like he was; a gypsy soul, even if she didn't realize it. And she was Force-Sensitive, at least on some level. The faint widening of her eyes coupled with the spark in them had implied as much to him. As the guardian of the Lady Protector, he'd learned to read the multitude of tiny clues people provided that trailed back to their inner psyche.
Releasing her hand, he stood there with a straight back and let his eyes trail along the pristine white hull in front of him. The confession caught him by surprise though, and his lips curled upward in what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I hope I've not put you off so easily.", he jokes.
The nervousness only added to his gut feeling that she wasn't exactly what she seemed, but he was holding out judgement for now. He was just as likely to be wrong, if not more so, than he was right. "If it makes you feel better, I love the contrasting sails. Draws the eye in." Just like your hair.
@Coryth Elaris
Posted 03 September 2013 - 08:42 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
She shook her head slowly, "Not so easily, no. Just .." She shook her head a little quicker fast pushing away her thoughts on the matter. "Never mind.." She bit at her lip for a moment, thinking for a moment. Too many thoughts both good and bad were racing through her mind. She had a certain opinion of men after the things she'd been through.
At the thought, she reached up pulled her sleeve back a fair bit to scratch at the scars. Upon her arm, they crisscrossed deeply upon the exposed skin, to say she'd been through hell was a small understatement. The way the scars wrapped around her arm, hinted that there was much more beneath the cloth that she kept hidden from view. After a moment of itching she pulled the shirt sleeve back down covering the marks of torture. The only thing not scared on the poor things body was her hands, her neck, face, and that was it. Everything else had been marred by the Sith some years before.
It drew a small bit of laughter from her, "I picked the bright colors because they remind me, of me. Bright, vivid, wild and even a little dangerous."She said with a smirk. The sail boat, a proud achievement for the petite woman. "Suppose when I reworked the ship, I put a lot of me into her. It's funny how that happens, and yet I didn't realize I was doing just that until much later."
Reaching up she pushed back her hair, moving the stray bits back from her face with a sigh. As she did so, it moved the jacket around her shoulders enough to expose a small white cylinder hanging at her waist. Upon it a simple inscription: I shall do no harm, seek the weak, feeble, ill and wounded. Above all else, help those who need it most. No matter the side. No matter the cost. A simple oath, her oath.
Looking back to him, eyes moving over his features, trying to read him from expressions alone was difficult. In that moment she realized just how much she relied upon the force. Though being an empath and that being separate from her force skills, gave her a small bit to work with but hardly enough. "I .." She paused, thinking it over carefully before she spoke again, "Could take you out on her, if you'd like?" She wanted to get to know him more, just the way he was, she had to know more. "Or perhaps you'd like to accompany me for a drink?"
Posted 03 September 2013 - 09:00 PM
@Coryth Elaris
The man gave another laugh and a smile, apparently a man of an easygoing nature. He noted the scars, but he had a fair share of his. As he turned to look away and out to sea, she'd find his right cheek pockmarked by something; likely shrapnel scars, it made his beard thinner in patches than it otherwise would be.
And, as the light caught his neck, she'd find a saber burn across his throat. Yet, still, he found a way to smile like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. "We always put ourselves into everything we do.", he says a bit absently as his gaze meanders it's way back to hers. While he kept looking away, it seemed to be more out of a desire to take in the surroundings than to ignore her. He was always prompt in returning his attention to her.
"Better idea; we grab a few drinks... and take them out on the boat with us.", he offers. "I'll even buy the drinks." If she was polite enough to take him out on the boat this soon after meeting him, well, he could be polite enough to pay for their beverages; be they adult or otherwise.
But if there was one thing he could take away from all this, it's that she was, in fact, a Force User of some kind. Which made this all the more entertaining for him. Force Users were both his favorite and least favorite kinds of people.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 09:37 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
In the warm sunlight it was hard not to notice the man's scars. A part of her knew there were stories behind every single one. Though, all of hers were just one big story. Most of the older littler scars had been long ago buried with the new mass of scars, but a story for another time, perhaps.
"Truer words have never been spoken." She said softly, was hard not to put your heart and soul into the things you worked passionately on.
Her gaze fell back to the horizon, letting her thoughts drift for a moment. This would be the first time she was alone with a man in some years, something that worried her a little. At the same time, she knew it was a small fear she'd have to get over. People weren't out to get her twenty-four seven. And chances are the guy before her was just as nice as any, with a few good stories. But still, she wished greatly that she could read him with the force, and understand his motives completely. She hated not having that window into a person's soul.
With the offer of drinks, she just beamed brightly. "Sounds perfect." Her voice a little more bouncy and excited. Maybe ... with a drink or two in him, I can get the real story. Though, I suppose I could just ask him straight up ... but who knows where this all is going to go. Could just be a lap around the port and come back to land and we part ways ... who knows, but I really do want to know more, and maybe just maybe this is the way.
Normally she wouldn't have been so trusting, so open, but her curiosity was getting the better part of her with Sarge. Coryth just needed to know what made him tick. Why he was the way he was. Of all the things she'd managed to glean from him, he seemed easy going, and kind enough, which was reason enough that she'd let him on her boat. Though, she was no fool, should things go wrong, she knew where the weapons were after all.
"Lead the way, my good man." She seemed happier, the sadness that had been there earlier was completely gone from the small redhead. The idea of a small boat trip, with another person seemed to have changed her entire attitude in a matter of moments. Time for less solitude and more getting to know people around you. What could it possibly hurt. Though her mind did race through the possibilities and she was equally quick to squash them.
@Coryth Elaris
And, like the wind, she'd bounced right back to fill the void of her sadness with a bouncy giddiness that was oddly endearing, and brought a heartfelt smile to his lips. Where before he'd grinned large and showed the caps of his teeth, this was just the faintest upturn of the lips that implied a more content, truer form of happiness than the showy grins.
"Gladly, just try not to lose me." With the woman in toe, he began walking down the pier from the way he'd come and towards the boardwalk and it's myriad of stores, restaurants and resorts. A main street ran along the beachfront which would allow them to, hopefully, find somewhere that sold bottles of booze to tourists.
Or citizens looking for a vacation. "So, Ms. Elaris, what kind of drinks do you like?" Feeling the sand beneath his feet again made him smile... until it started to burn his friggin' feet. Picking up his pace just a hair, he found his way up and onto the sidewalk and put his flipflops back on.
Looking up and down the street, with it's myriad of parked speeders and storefronts, he furrowed his brow in thought, trying to remember where the nearest bar was. Ah! Right. Block to the north. Turning to his right, he began leading her up the sidewalk to a crosswalk, where he moved across the street when the traffic eased up. "I'm rather partial to whiskey myself.", he says with a grin.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:31 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth nodded in quick reply to him, and as he turned she was fast behind him. Though the tiny woman had to take three steps for his every one, but somehow she managed to keep up along side him.
"Hmmm ... A good whiskey is fabulous. Throw in a Corellian Ale here and there and I'm a happy woman." She grinned, her own choices of drink a bit strange for someone as dainty seeming as her. With all the horrors she'd seen in her lifetime, the wars she had been through, it was a small miracle she hadn't crawled deeply into a bottle years ago.
"Truly, as long as its strong and lingers on the lips it's all that matters to me. Never had a fondness for the fruity drinks most women seem to love." She gave a small shrug. There is nothing about me that is like most women. Watching him ahead, she giggled a little as he hit the hot sands in his bare feet. She'd done it far too many times herself but still she found it humorous.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:35 PM
@Coryth Elaris
The man literally stopped his forward momentum and turned to her, mouth wide open as he was already laughing. "So long as it's what? And lingers on the what?" And like that, he began to laugh far harder than he had a right to. So hard, in fact, that he had to lean forward and place his hands on his knees for a moment.
It was such a simple, dismissive sentence, like it was nothing. But when you said it to a military man with a dirty mind, well, game over. But even through the laughter, he was glad she enjoyed whiskey like he did. Made this far simpler. A bottle of Whyren's Reserve and a case of Ale and they'd both be set.
Although if the tiny woman liked whiskey she could probably hold it fairly well. Two bottles.
Once he was done laughing.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:49 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
She knew it the second the words left her mouth that it was bad. Her face flushed a bright vivid red as she tried her best to keep a straight face, which lasted less than a second. "Damn it, Elaris, open your mouth.... stick both feet in!" She scolded herself still dying laughing herself.
Leaning back, she used both her hands and covered her still flush red face while laughing. The poor thing could barely breathe.
"I've got to learn to keep some thoughts to myself. One of these days, saying something like that will be the death of me." She still hadn't returned to normal color, her cheeks about the shade of her hair, a humorous sight for sure. She shook her head, and turned her back to Sarge, waiting for the redness to fade away and her body to stop betraying her in such an obvious way. Damn you Elaris, always sticking both feet in! At least it wasn't like that one time ... We don't talk about that one time with the council ... EVER. Hopefully he would stop laughing any minute now and they could be on their way forgetting she ever said such a thing. Unlikely…
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:55 PM
@Coryth Elaris
It was another minute or two before he could finally breathe again, and he stood, wiping some tears from his eyes and shaking his head. People were still giving him a few strange looks, but he merely shook his head and ignored them. That was entirely too good; so good he couldn't make a suggestive comment about it.
"I'm sorry... it's just so great.", he says, still laughing a little bit. Taking hold of the brim of his cover he lifts it up and runs his hand through his fairly short brown hair and wipes his brow of the sweat the cap had accrued there. "Alright, c'mon. It's just up here." With that, he started walking again, laughing and shaking his head.
In fact, he was still doing both those things when he walked into the store. The store was fairly large and just packed with all kinds of alcohol, but thankfully the whiskey and beer were kept close. Walking back an aisle or two he grabbed them two bottles of expensive Whyren's Reserve and handed them to her.
Another aisle and he grabbed a small case of Corellian Ale; as per the ladies preference. He was still residually giggling as he paid for their booze. "I am so sorry, Coryth."
Posted 03 September 2013 - 11:13 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
"I'm not going to live this down, am I?" Her face now a more subtle shade of pink and less ... vibrant red. "Ever?" She reached up rubbing her face slowly, "Oh gods... What have I gotten myself into..." She mostly was talking to herself at that point knowing too well those words would never, ever be forgotten. At least not anytime soon. After another shake of her head, completely embarrassed she followed along behind him and up into the shop.
Wandering the aisles with him, she with great care took the whiskey from him and held onto it as if the bottles were little babies. Whiskey this good, needed special care in her opinion. Even Coryth was giggling again by the time he grabbed the ale. "Sorry? For me opening my mouth? When is a guy ever sorry for that?" She said now chuckling a little more loudly. She gave a small bow, "And this comedy act is here all week. So get your laughs while you can."
She walked to the front and set the bottles on the counter, waiting for him. "Just remember whose boat it is," She said jokingly, "Could always throw you off on some remote island and leave you!" Her voice clearly bouncy, light and teasing him completely.
She sighed contently, a good laugh was always good for the soul. Even if it was at her expense. "Truly though, not the first time I've done something like that, won't be the last. At least it wasn't me being a smartass in front of the Council, now that was .... bad. They still use me as an example for the kids of what not to say when before the Masters." She shook her head and shuddered, a bit of the pink returning to her cheeks as she recalled the events of that night so many years ago
Posted 03 September 2013 - 11:20 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"Now you're intentionally sticking your foot in your mouth.", he says with another laugh. "But no, if you want to open your mouth I'm not complaining." He gave her an overly suggestive look that was far more comedic than it ever would be seductive. Currency exchanged and two bottles bagged with due reverence, he held the door open for them as they left.
"Look, you wanna throw me off the boat, great. Just make sure to jump in after in a white tshirt." With a smug smirk and a shake of his head, he waited at the edge of the sidewalk for a break in traffic. It took a minute or two, but they were able to cross fairly simply. "I'll be able to find you when I see the red floating on the water.", he quips.
Just a block ahead, he could see the marina and it's myriad of boats extending out and into the gently lapping waves. A beautiful sight if he'd ever seen one. "And maybe after a few drinks you can tell me how badly your foot went down your throat with the Council."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 12:00 AM
@Sarge Potteiger
At those words she glanced over her shoulder and up at him, a cute smirk on her lips. "Maybe..." She broke into a grin as he went on and started to laugh at the 'seductive' look. On the way out the door, she gave a nod of thanks to the door held open for her. Not many men did that for her anymore. Though, most people just thought she was a child based on height alone, an annoying fact that pissed her off more oft than not.
She lofted an eyebrow as he talked of throwing him off the boat. The white t-shirt comment ended with her reaching out and trying to elbow him in the side for it. "Ha! That's not happenin! If anything I'll chunk you in sans shorts." She said with a grin, teasing completely. Though something about the grin said she'd do it given the chance.
The sight of the boats ahead, had a happy content look back on her face. She loved the open water, loved the boats, and loved being out on the waves. The splendor of the ocean had always drawn her to it, for both it's beauty and sheer power.
At the mention of the council incident, she visibly shuddered, "Eight drink minimum for that one." On that her tone said it all, she was dead serious about drinking that much before she'd talk of what really happened. "Was horribly mortifying."
"Though I'll tell you that if you tell me about those scars."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 12:09 AM
@Coryth Elaris
Something about her just had him perpetually shaking his head; it wasn't even the fact that she stuck her foot in her mouth. It was that she seemed every bit as outlandish as he was - even if she was more than a foot shorter than he. "I don't think anyone wants to see me in my underwear.", he says with a roll of his eyes.
Eight drink minimum? I've got a bottle for each of us! "We might hit that point pretty quickly." The tip of his tongue appeared to wet his lips and he caught her look, and again it brought a smile to his own face. Even if this heat was starting to get a little oppressive. "Which one you want to hear about first?", he says quietly, taking his flipflops off to walk back across that hot sand and to the dock, where it was a short trip to her boat.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 12:32 AM
@Sarge Potteiger
"Oh what, ashamed that you're a briefs boy?" She said giggling, keeping up with him easily now that she had fell into a decent stride along side him. It still took three of her steps to one of his. "Oh are you just shy about the goods," Just had to press it a little further, still completely teasing him.
That drew a full laugh from her, "That we shall. It's just ..." She shuddered again, "The story is ... humiliating! So I want to feel all warm, fuzzy and toasty before I put myself back through the misery." She paused for a second to think, "Maybe I'll need a few more drinks than that to get there. Actually, yes ... Yes I will."
As they walked, she moved to his right side and looked up at his neck, "How bout the saber burn on the neck, that has to be a good tale."
Hitting the docks, she moved ahead of him and headed straight for The Prophetess. As she arrived she leaped over the gap between the dock and her boat with an uncanny grace for someone of her size. Moving down to the door, she unlocked the main cabin and made a motion for him to go ahead. "You'll walk right down into the kitchen slash dining area, and I just stocked up on food, treats and the like. So feel free to eat anything you'd like and put the drinks away while I get things started up here." The interior of the ship was quite nice given the boats age, everything was varnish woods, with white cushions in the small dinning area. If he went past the kitchen on his right would have been the small bathroom and shower, a pristine cream color within. Beyond that were two bedrooms made for two people a piece. The whole ship only made to house four people, maybe six if people were really close with one another.
With that she moved back over to the dock and with a practiced grace she untied the boat and moved back into the upper levels of the cabin itself, and headed for the cockpit. "Once you get settled feel free to come join me." For now, she started the engine, to glide them out of the harbor and into open waters.
@Coryth Elaris
"Boxer briefs, actually." Although he'd never admit it, he loved the feel of a freshly laundered pair of boxer-briefs. Just the right amount of tightness to it to be extremely comfortable without, well, ya know. "Well, I'm sure we'll hit the magic number of drinks somewhere along the line."
Casting a glance down at her, he nods slowly. "I'm not a very good storyteller.", he confesses with a bit of a sheepish grin. As he climbed aboard the boat, he swallowed slowly and let his eyes glaze a bit. Heading down into the cabin without another word, now eerily quiet, he sets the drinks down on the counter and moved them away from the edge so as not to accidentally knock them over.
Finding a small fridge, he pulled out some of the ale and stuck it in so it could cool. With that all done, he paused to rest his head against the wall, staring holes in the floor as he did so. Wetting his lips, he began to speak as he climbed back outside. "I was on an undercover op on some woebegotten planet. I can't remember which... they all blur together." His happy tone was gone, replaced by a somber one.
"The Admiral had me posing as a merc and attending a poker game with Imperial operatives held at a warehouse out in the local docks district. But somehow I was sniffed out, and after flipping the table to facilitate my escape... I got outside and ran headfirst into a Sith. She'd been waiting for me." He paused, and shook his head slowly.
"My nervous system took a huge blow from all the Lightning she pumped into me to get me to kneel and by the end of it I found her saber against my throat. Eventually, the Admiral arrived and I wound up getting away from the Sith, only to have the Admiral put two shots into my chest."
He tapped his solar plexus. "Point blank." Scratching the side of his head, he looked down and away from her. Judging by the reverence he put on 'Admiral' he likely held a lot of respect for whoever it was, and perhaps even a few romantic feelings, given the slightly hurt tone in which he spoke of the shooting.
"It wasn't her... but it seemed like it. And that's what hurt the most."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:32 AM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth chucked at the boxer briefs comment and nodded happily along. As he started to speak, she knew it was not going to be a pretty story. The empathic nature of her gift, already was tugging at her hard with his heavy emotions. They may not have been out in the open, but she could feel them as if they were her own.
"Sith..." She hissed, as he spoke a bit of anger flaring up within her, burning brightly in her eyes for a moment. The woman was quick to tame it, to push it away. Her own experiences with Sith had not been pleasant. Right now she refused to let that anger consume her and turn her into the very type of monster that had done those horrible things to her.
The first Sith nearly destroyed her with Sith lightning to get an answer, to have her release a book of knowledge and great power to him. The second tortured her mercilessly until she was so broken that nothing of the old Coryth remained behind. The third cut off a toe with a pair of pliers and forced her to heal for her for months. The fourth forced her to kill for the first time, something that ripped her apart from the inside out. The fifth kidnapped her and forced her to use her gift of visions and prophecy to see the future and help him plan great evils. Sith ... not people she cared for at all. They had done so much to her, nearly killed her time and again.
As he got to the part of being shot, she gasped, placing a hand on her chest, the same spot he'd pointed to. Reaching up she brushed away a single tear that had been threatening to fall. It pained her to feel what he was, and the inner turmoil over the relationship that might have been. She just knew there was something, maybe even love for that Admiral and to be shot like that ... that was the worst type of betrayal in the books.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to go through that. Can't say I've ever been betrayed quite on that level. Been through a couple wars and seen plenty but nothing like that." She reached a hand over and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You ever want to talk about that ... or anything, I'm always open to talk. Day or night." It might not have seemed like much, but Coryth rarely if ever offered such things to someone she'd barely met, but with him she felt like he might could use someone like her around.
"I tend to wander a lot. A lot more than even most Jedi wander. I never stay in one place for too long. The longest I stay anywhere is on Corellia, here on the seas. But my comlink is always on, unless poodoo has hit the fan and things have gone to hell, then I don't answer, but then you know something has gone horribly wrong." She shook her head rapidly, realizing she was rambling again. "Sorry ... rambling again. I don't mean to, just can't always help it."
Realizing she probably needed to move on to another topic, something to keep things going and maybe change Sarge's emotions to a bit of a lighter side. "What about the scars on the cheek, seems like that stung a fair bit." Her eyes moving over the scars, imagining the original wounds. She always had a curiosity about scars ever since she started working as a healer. It just told so much about a person and the things they'd been through.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:43 AM
@Coryth Elaris
If there was one thing he didn't want her to do, it was cry. He had, for awhile, dated a Zeltron with no control over her pheromones, so he could tell an empath when he saw one. It also helped that he'd spent quite a lot of time on Zeltros recently since the perpetually happy atmosphere allowed him to get over his ails.
"I appreciate it, Coryth." Moving to the edge of the boat, he placed his hands on the railing and looked out to sea for the moment now that they were out on the water and away from civilization a little. "You're the first to ever ask about me as a person, so I admit I'm a bit at a loss."
Instinctual, he reached up to the thinner parts of his beard and chuckled. "Force Blast on Kashyyyk, fighting the old Witches of Dathomir. That was... quite a long time ago." Near on 400 years, actually. "Witch exploded the air, sending huge chunks of bark flying all over. Naturally in among the large were a ton of small. Most assume a grenade, but that's not quite accurate."
There was a hint of a smirk as more of his usual self returned, "That was... an interesting span of time, admittedly." Turning to walk back and face her, he gave a cock of his head. "If you've got an autopilot or something, why not turn it on. I think it's about time to hit the drink."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 02:06 AM
She managed a tiny smile now feeling the emotions start to shift into lighter territory which improved her mood greatly. If she knew a rough patch of emotions was coming, more often than not as long as it wasn't extremely powerful emotions or the emotions of a large group of people she could block a lot of it out. But asking about the scars, she hadn't expected the power of the emotions that she felt from him. "Anytime Sarge." She said, her smile growing a bit brighter until he mentioned that no one had asked him about him ...
"What?" She said, shocked. Her face contorted into a look of utter and absolute confusion. "What?" She repeated again a little more firmly. "How could I .. be the first you ask about you? Truly you? You have to have met hundreds of people over the years, surely someone else has asked."The tiny redhead seemed baffled as she continued to guide the ship out into the open sea, now out of the protected cove of the Golden Beaches.
"I'm sorry." She stopped herself, but still she couldn't understand how not a single soul had never asked him. "I don't mean to be ... rude or anything, I just can't wrap my mind around that idea that no one at all has asked. I .. always ask about the person. I want to know what lies beneath the surface. I'm a healer, and there are many wounds out there, some of the worst in fact that do not bleed and cannot be seen. And it is only by getting to know the person as a whole that you can find such and help to heal them." She leaned forward, and pushed her hair back from her face with a sigh. "But don't worry, you'll figure things out I'm sure. I don't bite ... much." She said with a small smirk, "So no need to be at a loss. Not with me, not out here. There is nothing out here but you, me, alcohol and the open ocean. There's no judgements on this ship."
Then he went onto the tale of the Witches. She shivered at the thought, having met one Witch, one very very evil one and never wanted to go through that again. "The scars, they do certainly look like a grenade, which is what I thought when I first saw em. But that does explain it just as well, the spells they can weave, honestly even as a force user I find concerning. " Her brow furrowed for a moment as she spoke those last words. "There are just some things that you shouldn't be able to do with the force."
Now seeing that smirk and feeling his emotions back closer to where they were when they met, her own smile returned. "That was the plan. I just wanted out in open water before I left things to the engine. Still not out far enough really to catch the winds and use the sails, but I don't think I'll be doing that tonight. Think we'll just survive on the engine and all and just enjoy the evening." With that she clicked a few things on the console, flipped a lever up and pressed in a couple more commands, locking in the course for the boat that would take them on a round trip around one of the nearby islands and bring them safely back to port over the next few hours.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 02:17 AM
"Coryth...", he says slowly. "Ask yourself something." Wetting his lips, he disappeared into the cabin, knowing the little redhead would follow. Already pouring himself a glass of whiskey, he began to speak. "Have you ever looked at a hunting rifle and asked 'how are you doing today?' What about your lightsaber? Do you ask if it's feeling a bit down after a bad date?" He sighs, taking a swig of the fiery liquid.
"You don't ask a weapon how it feels... because weapons don't feel. And I'm a weapon. I kill things, and I'm really good at it. I'm dependable, reliable, relatively easy to handle for the most part. What part of that shows off the fact you're a human? Reliability? My pistol's reliable, doesn't make it human."
He sighed, finding himself a seat at the small table and staring at it's surface slowly. To lighten his mood a little, he gave her a meaningful glance. "And I do bite; but only on request." Smiling sadly, he takes another gulp of the alcohol and lets his head rest back against the wall for a moment.
"So the answer is no; no one's asked. And it's amazing how few people bother to ask when you don't volunteer anything."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:05 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth frowned as she followed him down. What he was saying, while it made sense, broke her heart. It was not how it was supposed to be. It could not be like this. Reaching down to the bottle she poured herself out a glass and took a hearty gulp, still not quite wrapping her brain around it all.
"You may be highly skilled at what you do, and do a damn fine job of it. But it does not make you any less human than I." She said firmly. "At the end of the day, you have a heart," As she said the word heart, she reached out and touched a finger to his chest, just above his heart. "that beats within your chest, a brain to think, and a soul to guide you." She managed a half smile, hoping he'd understand how she was looking at this. "All of that makes you human and the rest of the damn galaxy are idiots for looking at you any differently."
She chuckled when he mentioned biting again, "So do I ... makes life a little more interesting," She finished with a smirk, as if laying out an unspoken challenge. Perhaps she was being a little bit of a tease in that regard.
"Back to the point, the man I met on the docks today, was perfectly human. And had you not told me what you did for a living, I would have never known you were such a 'weapon' " She lifted her hands and made little air quotes with her fingers as she said the last word, "as you so quaintly put it."
She shook her head and sighed little taking another drink, "Look, I just don't want you to sell your self short. Right now, I'm starting to think you are doing just that, and letting other people dictate what you are. Thing is, no one can decide that but you. If they do, you have every right to deck them for it." She teased at the end trying to keep things a little lighter.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:17 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"Sadly, I didn't have a choice. I had a very particular set of natural skill, and the Plague made more than sure that I became what I am now. A weapon. That's not selling myself short, Coryth.", he says with a bit of a sad smile. "That's being honest." And that was entirely true.
"Like you, you're a Force User. Because I call you a Force User, does that sell you short? Not really. It's accurate, no?" He takes another swig. "The problem lies not in what I am, how I got here, or my job. It lies in how people perceive what I am. I think most realize I'm a weapon, and assume that on some level it means I don't like people."
Raising both brows, he gave her a meaningful look. "I really don't, if you have to know. But the other reason you met the human me, was because I wasn't working." There was a bit of a rueful chuckle. "It means a lot hearing you say these things, Coryth, but it's not quite as bad as you think."
"A bit lonely at times, but that's mostly my own fault. For the most part I make do, and find my enjoyment and happiness where and when I can. Usually in a nice day and an easy woman." He paused. "Not meaning you, of course.", he elaborates. "Which is actually a bit of a misnomer. Half the time I don't even sleep with them, I just flirt with them a bit to feel alive and then go about my business - leave them to find another guy with who to wile the night away."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 02:50 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Her eyes fell to the floor as she thought about what he was saying. Then she looked back up to him, her eyes meeting with his. "That's not entirely true though, just as you may be a weapon, it is not all you are. There is much more beyond that, and what is beyond that weapon is someone I'd like to get to know better." She said with a genuine smile.
"Just as I am a force user, it is far from all I am. Like I said, I want to get to know what is beyond that, and I hope that that you just might want to as well." With all the things she had been through and the years she had been gone, friends were something that was few and far between for the redhead. She hoped that maybe she could find a new friend on this little adventure of theirs. "Perception is everything. My master taught me that years ago." She gave a small shrug, "Even so, it's easy to get the wrong idea. Make assumptions that are far from fact." Lifting the glass back to her lips, she downed the rest and reached down, refilling it quickly.
She nodded slowly, not sure that she'd want to meet him working unless he was on her side of the battle. He was not someone she wanted to go against. Just from the small talk they had been having, and the feelings she had been able to read from his emotions alone told her a lot about the type of fighter he would be. Certainly not a situation she wanted to be in. She smiled at the kind words, "I'm glad it does, Sarge. I just ... It's hard to understand for me. Though, I suppose with the different paths we walk, things are so much different. I just can't imagine living a life such as yours and never have someone ask deeper questions."
"I would imagine it is. I know how that feels all too well, been traveling for years now. Over a decade, working my way from unknown space back to here. It was damn lonely out there. Though it was good to come back and find my ship still here. Surprising really." She shrugged it off hearing the comment about easy women. "Companionship is vital. We all need it. So, I can't blame you for flirting and spending time with women when you have the chance."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 03:25 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"It's true enough.", he retorts. "Because if you tried to figure out exactly, and I do mean exactly who somebody was... well, you'd never actually know anyone else in your life because you will never, ever, figure some out entirely. And that's OK; but it also means most people just take their face value and leave it at that."
A small smile graced his face again before he downed the rest of the glass in one go. "And I should warn you now; I'd have to drink both those bottles to get drunk, so don't expect me to fall over anytime soon." That wasn't entirely true. It was more a bottle and a half, but at that quantity of alcohol it was semantics.
"But, if you think about it, living the life I do is exactly why people don't ask deep questions. I could die tomorrow, then what's it matter, ya know? Just one more friend you've lost." He was entirely cognizant of just how depressing that sounded and was. But that was truly the reason most soldiers stopped making friends after awhile.
They'd just die on you. You learned to save yourself the pain.
"And you'd be surprised how many women would hold it against me. But you aren't like most women. I like that." He laughed and stood to grab himself some more whiskey.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 04:46 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
"Its not so much that I want to know what makes a person to everything they do, what makes every part of them tick," She sighed, "I just like to know what is beneath the surface, a little of what is beneath the mask. Cause I know damn well I can't know everything but I can learn enough."Reaching back into a drawer in the kitchen she retrieved a rubber band and quickly tossed the lengthy red locks up into a neat ponytail. She'd have enough of pushing it out of the way.
A smirk came to her lips, as her eyes wandered over him from head to toe, "Only two?" She moved over, taking a seat in front of him, her feet dangling a few inches off the floor. "One and a half is my number on getting drunk. So ... there is a small chance between the whiskey and the ale." She'd learned her limits long ago on drinking and took great care not to get drunk but there was something about Sarge that made her feel comfortable enough to let loose. Maybe tonight, she might just allow herself to get drunk. It was a strange thought, being comfortable around men again. After Zerxes, she'd never ... not even her own fiance. So, the idea of being okay here and now was strange.
"I suppose I can understand that. At the same time, I care too much. During the war, I led a small team and I took special care to get to know each personally and deeply." A sadness passed through her eyes and soon left, "I took their deaths quite personally. Thing is, even soldiers need friends. Maybe I'm just different than most." She shrugged and looked up to him, watching him for a moment before she turned to glance out through the window, out onto the open ocean.
"From your point of view, I can understand it. Losing friends constantly, I'm not sure I'd want to gain more just to go through the heartache and pain of losing them again."
She smiled at the last comment, "No, I'm not most women. Not in the least little bit." With that she grabbed her glass, one of the bottles and started up the steps. "It's no fun down here, you miss out on the smell of the salty ocean and the great views. So I suggest we go up on deck and take a seat on the lounge chairs I have out there." She was already on her way, knowing he was likely to follow.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 05:04 PM
@Coryth Elaris
Head turning a little to get a look at her pulling her hair back and into a ponytail, he smiled. A woman who could pull off a ponytail was always attractive, but in Coryth's case... "Ya know, I prefer your hair let down. It's thick, got some volume to it. Far more attractive down than up.", he says absently as he follows her up and onto the deck.
"I have my friends, Coryth. But they aren't soldiers, for the most part. They're smugglers. Engineers. People who, if they die, poodoo's already hit the fan too hard for me to do anything about it. I don't have to order them to try and navigate a minefield, or hold the line with the knowledge they'd not survive."
Unlike before, he hardly seemed sad or bitter about these things. He'd accepted them for what they were, and was more or less indifferent. He'd accepted the responsibility for these things with his job, but it didn't mean he liked it. It just meant he had to live with them.
He could do that. Mostly.
Lowering himself into a lounge chair he extended his legs in front of himself, crossing them at the ankles. Taking a whiff of the salty air, he found himself closing his eyes and smiling faintly as he relaxed a little. "You said you were gone near ten years, right? Do you know anything of the galaxy right now?"
Posted 04 September 2013 - 06:28 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
She grinned, "I prefer it down as well, but there comes a point where it's just doing nothing but getting in my way. And that is where I am at, sticky hair in this heat, getting in my way. Peeling it off my face is not my idea of a fun evening."
Nodding, she too took a seat in the chairs, lounging out and stretching her legs. The cuffs of her pants rode up a fair bit exposing that same familiar pattern of scars that were on her arms. Even her feet in the flip flops she wore, were badly scarred with those deep crisscrossing marks."That was one thing that made me sick back then. Giving the orders and knowing that most likely the kid I just sent out on the line was never coming back." She shook her head slowly, "I don't know how you do it. How one can get used to it, because it makes me damn ill just to think about. I just can't do that." The thoughts painful, as she pulled her glass back to her lips drinking half of it then and there. "I do get what you are saying though, I really do."
It was strange the similarities and differences between the pair, things that didn't quite effect him were the very things that tore her to pieces. The life of a soldier, a warrior was no life for her.
After a moment or two, Coryth leaned back into the chair and finally noticeably relaxed. To answer his question, she nodded slowly. "Ten years, and just now working my way back. So much has changed in the galaxy and I haven't a clue where to begin with it all. So to answer your question, no. No, I really don't know much of the galaxy right now. I don't know who is fighting who, what role the Council plays in all of it, where I am meant to be ... If I can even be called Jedi at the end of it all." She gave a shrug, "Been trying to figure it all out as I've been taking transports a bit further and further in. Everything still seems just as messed up as when I was taken."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 07:16 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"And there you go with your sticking your foot in your mouth. Peeling stuff off your face not your idea of a good time, eh?" With another habitual chuckle the man cast his gaze towards the now setting sun, where the red began to kiss the deep blue of the open sea, and, ahead, shone bloody light through the trees of the small island.
The man smiled faintly, taking a sip of his drink before rolling his head to the side to look at her. "Well, OmegaPyre, or, the Omega Protectorate, controls Corellia here... along with most of the trade routes all the way down to Bespin. We're a government whose standing army can be hired out to others, really. It's a bit difficult to describe, but we're fairly well liked by our people."
"The Republic is around, and they and the Sith are posturing back and forth in an endless cockfight that the Mandalorians are caught in the middle of. Other than that, you've really only got minor, nuisance factions kicking around the Outer Rim." And like that, he'd summed up the galactic state of affairs.
"Republic and Sith may go to war soon, and Omega may back the Republic, they might not. Most just leave us to ourselves, really." Entirely true, because Omega was probably the last faction anyone truly wanted to get in a war with. "If you're looking for a place to be, Coryth, come join OmegaPyre for a bit as a full time employee. We have an extensive medical research station and college in orbit over Fondor, and can provide you with plenty of Force Training should you need it."
He grins, "We also provide good pay and full benefits; life insurance, dental, eyecare, medical, you know the drill I'm sure. Plus, you'd get to work with me from time to time, along with a bit of a family. I'll warn you now though, most of the women there will hit on you pretty viciously. Especially the one woman, Hevana. She'll hit on pretty much anything with a woman's parts and a pulse."
As he spoke, his tone and feelings became more happy as he clearly loved his job for what it was and what it provided him. He was well cared for and got to do what he enjoyed with his life, even if it was a hard life to lead. It was exactly the sort of job satisfaction you couldn't fake.
Posted 05 September 2013 - 09:40 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Shrugging, it was all she could do as a bit of pink flushed across her skin, though barely noticeable in the light of the setting sun. "Seems to be a habit of mine. You know how it is, hard to break and all that."
Calmly she listened, taking in every word. Coryth needed to know how things worked in the galaxy now, her own life might soon depend on it. "A strange concept. An army to rent out? Seems .. like an odd thing to me." She shook her head, "Very strange, indeed."
The more he spoke, the more she realized things really hadn't changed that much. "Seems like the same messed up place I left, just the names have changed but the game has not." That was something she found concerning.
At the offer, her lips twisted into a frown. She wasn't certain about the offer he had set before her. She still had work to do for the Jedi and knew her place was there but at the same time maybe the offer wouldn't be so bad. It could give her a new perspective which was something the young woman needed right now. It was just the idea of being some part of a standing army waiting for war ... That she did not like, but regardless war was going to come to her whether she liked it or not.
She turned back to him, the frown ever present. "I'd have to think about it. A decision like this is not something I can make on a whim. And ... the idea of being part of a government who hires out their military is concerning to me. I've seen enough of war and death to last a lifetime. I'm not sure if this Omega Pyre is the right place for me, at the same time not certain its the wrong place either." Another shrug followed.
At the comment of the woman Hevana, she just laughed. "I've been hit on by pretty women before, nothing new to me. Though right now it beats being hit on by men." A shiver raced down her spine, "Bad stuff happened a while back. A Sith, tortured, toyed with ... not sure I care to recount it but it was bad, pushed me to sever my connection to the force to prevent me from falling to the darkside. I've ..." She bit at her lip, "Well to be honest you are the closest I've let a man get to me in years. So I'm sure I could handle a few women hitting on me. At least they won't get their wrists broken for it."
Posted 05 September 2013 - 09:50 PM
The man's teeth shown through again as the pink of her cheeks brought about a warm, pleased smile. A woman embarassed or flustered always made him want to embrace them and smile and forget the world, and she'd feel it coming off of him. For all his roughness, he was a loving man. 'Gentle' would be going a bit far, but certainly caring.
"We've got more than that, ya know. OmegaPyre is the mercenaries. But we've got a medical station and college in orbit over Fondor, as I've said. We've got research and development firms, Caf plantations and argicultural projects. We're an expansive business, and if you don't want to see war then you don't have to."
"Most of our time is spent clearing the Outer Rim of Bando Gora Reavers and others who wish to do innocents harm. There's a little of everything, for a little of everyone." There was a bit of a chuckle. "But I won't press you further; I think you'd fit in at Cardea Medical Center, and if you want me to show you around at some point, you're more than welcome to request it."
His head slowly tilted. "I'm honored then, Coryth. Although you've my condolences for what's befallen you; no sense in me apologizing, for obvious reasons, but you have my sympathies." Giving her a bit of a sad smile, the man's dark brown eyes drifted to the deck for a moment.
"If you do ever want to talk though, let me know. I dated a girl once who, just before her birthday, stopped talking to me. Called me up a year later to tell me she'd been raped, had a kid and a boyfriend... a boyfriend she'd had even back when her and I were dating. But, despite all that, I still loved her. I was always willing to stop my day to help her, and the same goes to my friends."
Pausing, he gave her a quick look. "If you've got a slip of paper, I can write down my comm frequency."
She nodded slowly listening over it. "Thing is with war, the worst of the injuries happen in the field. Things that kill and fast. It's why I always was embedded with units on the battlefront. Annoyed me when I was a teen, because being an empath that close to it all just .. hurt. But I soon got over it. Healers like me are needed all over the galaxy and being in a hospital all the time, starts to give me cabin fever after a while." She paused thinking for a little while, letting the silence pass between them as she looked out over the calm waters.
"War is going to happen. There is nothing I can do to change that, but ..." She sighed softly taking another drink from her glass, "I can be there and make a difference when it does happen." A small smile crossed her lips as she thought back to all the lives she managed to save over the years. They more than made up for the ones she could not, though those were the ones that haunted her at night.
"I would like to see the Med Center, I think. I think it would be good for me. It's been far too long since I've been in one, worked in one."
She bowed her head slightly to him, "I just felt comfortable around you, like I never have since it happened." A small sad chuckle escaped her lips,"After I got past the you not existing in the force part. That crap freaked me out. You've got to be the first person I've met who hasn't had a force signature of some kind and being nothing, you were hard to ignore."
She looked away from him, a hand to her forehead as she listened, "Thank you. It means the worlds to me. Only one other person ever offered me such, and I couldn't ... couldn't bring myself to take him up." Biting at her lip another sigh escaped her, "I didn't want him to look at me any differently. I didn't want pity, or false apologizes, I just wanted understanding and that look on his face when I gave him the smallest inkling of what happened, I didn't think he was capable then." Reaching up she ran a hand over her face pushing away the painful memories to the back of her mind. A calming breath in and out and she finally had it far enough away from her mind to move on.
She stood and lifted a finger at the mention of paper and headed down into the cabin for a moment. Coming back she handed a pad over to him with a small pen clipped to it. "I appreciate this, I really do. People I call friends, are few and far between."
Posted 05 September 2013 - 10:36 PM
The man laughed a bit, "At least you know where you're needed and where you can stand to be for awhile." There was a nod after that, and he took the offered pad while still talking. "Then when you've got some free time... come out to Fondor." Smiling, he scribbled his comm frequency down in a curiously neat handwriting for a soldier.
Handing it back to her, he grins. "Glad to be of help, Coryth. And the Force Null thing generally garners a lot of interest since, ya know, the Force is in all things." That elicited a bit of a sigh. "A blessing and a curse. Although I'm glad people can't read me like a book."
Looking to his empty glass, he frowned. "To drink more... Or... Yeah. Drink more." Lifting himself up, he cast a glance down at her and gave her shoulder a light squeeze, revealing some burns on the skin under his forearm.
"I don't think we've hit your irrational quota, yet." And with another chuckle, he walked down and into the cabin to pour himself more whiskey.
Posted 06 September 2013 - 03:47 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
"Fondor?" A smile returned to her, "All I have is time right now. I haven't let the Council know I've returned to known space, so I'm pretty certain to them I'm long dead, so time is something I have loads of. If only I could sell time, now that would be handy."
She gave a small shrug as she took the pad back from him. An eyebrow lofted to the neat handwriting, but she made no comment to it. "It helps to know where I'm needed and what my job asks of me. Its just as much a part of me as my beating heart within my chest. It may not be pretty but it's not so bad once you get used to the blood. Lots of blood." She shuddered a little at the thought. "Took me years to get used to the feel, sights and smells of it."
A bow of the head followed in thanks to him. "It is odd, being Force Null. Like I said, you are the only one I've ever met. And you are quite correct, the force is in everything which is why it took so long to convince myself you were real. Cause if you were not, you were one damn fine figment of my imagination." A playful smirk danced upon her lips as she rose to follow him back down, needing another refill as well. "There are days, that I wish people couldn't read me as openly. Always annoyed the piss out of me that my master knew what I was thinking before I did. He was far too good at that stuff."
"Though with you, Empathy lets me read into a little more than most I suppose. I still have to go on visible clues for the most part, which is ... something I'm not practiced at. There's a good chance I'll read you wrong."
At the touch she glanced up to his arm seeing more scars there. "Burned somewhere along the lines?" She asked softly, not sure that she wanted to know the answer, the first she had asked about his scars had hurt badly, even for her.
She glanced to the empty glass and thought for a moment, "Nope, not yet but I'm sure we'll get there. All in good time my friend."
Posted 06 September 2013 - 04:02 PM
"Selling time would be a bit difficult, but you'd be rich if you could figure it out." There came a faint bit of a sardonic laugh at that, followed by the sound of liquid sloshing around in a glass. A moment later the thunk of a bottle being set on the counter could be heard and he shook his head.
Truthfully, in his line of work, it was good that people only had his expression to go off of the vast majority of the time. "Empaths tend to have a hard time with me, because I feel strongly, quickly, but thankfully I control it just as quickly." With a smirk, he takes a swig and waits for her to fill her own drink up.
Looking down to his forearm and lifting it up for a moment to get a look at what she saw, he smiles faintly. "Crash landing.", he says with a bit of a chuckle. "Admiral crashed us right into a space station. I'd just neutralized a sociopathic murderer on our vessel, but not before he took out our engines."
Sighing a little, he downed more of the drink, a cue that said sociopath wasn't a happy memory. "You'll learn to read me in time, I'm sure."
Posted 07 September 2013 - 12:54 PM
"Wouldn't that be the truth." A soft chuckle followed.
"Tell me about it. Been hard to get a good read on you, though the strong emotions bleed through badly even with my defenses up, so even if quickly felt I'll still pick em up." She gave a small sigh as she filled her glass back up. "And not always a pleasant gift to have. Bloody curse some days."
"Sorry to hear that, hun." She shook her head slowly, "To be fair, ships hate me with a divine passion. If I'm flying it might as well be a death sentence, crashed once, took out a control tower the next ... knocked a wing off a fighter, after that the council stopped giving me ships to fly and forced me onto transports or gave me a team to fly and later extract me at a moments notice. Annoying really, but I just can't seem to get a handle on this flying thing." As she spoke the last few words she waved her hands in the air a bit, frustrated that that single skill had eluded her in such a manner. Most things came easy to her, but that was the single thing she could not get down.
With that thought out, she headed back upstairs and onto the deck the first of the evening stars just starting to peak out over the darkening seas. A smile of pure contentment followed as she starred up at it for a moment. She allowed for silence to pass again between them before she spoke,"Love looking out at the stars, always found solace in them. I used to sleep on the streets, grew up on them truly and nothing really would make me feel joy save for those few moments before I fell asleep." Bringing the glass to her lips, she took a small sip letting the contentment wash over her.
"Never knew what was going to happen from day to day back then. Did a lot of things that I'm not proud of, but I did what I had to, to get through the day, to survive. But there were times that I'd stop and lay upon the rooftops wherever I was and just look up to the heavens knowing what comfort lay in them for me." Looking down to the deck a sad look crept upon her face, "Dreams of a silly little girl, always wishing for a better world. A new world that would bring something better for me."
She shrugged and returned to her seat on the lounge chairs just looking up at the skies once more, seeing more stars slowly appearing above them. "I did find that better world eventually. Coruscant saved me. Nearly killed me first, but it did save me in the end."
"I can fly enough to elude the more novice pilots, but that's about it.", he confesses a bit sheepishly. "I've always been a groundpounder, always will be. The finer arts of just about anything elude me like infinite wealth." What he wouldn't give for infinite wealth. Well, he'd give up infinite wealth for one thing, but that was another story entirely.
Pausing as she went back outside, he took a long swig of his drink, filled it up again, and then followed after with a glass in one hand and the bottle in the other. "I get my solace from a bright, sunny day. Stars are nice, but then they remind me of the vastness of the universe and... frankly, they scare me at that point." Anything his mind couldn't comprehend put quite a bit of fear into him.
He was terrified of the unknown. Icy tendrils around the heart, terrified.
It had, for a time, been the main reason he'd never done anything with his life. Because he was simple too afraid.
He had, mostly, gotten over it, thankfully enough. But it was still there at times, especially when night came down and he was alone with his thoughts. His memories. His actions. But, most importantly, death.
"Coruscant is nice, but there's far too much city there for me. Even Fondor is a bit much. I'm a suburban boy with a country heart and cities just... well, they just don't quite cut it. Alderaan is more my style."
Posted 08 September 2013 - 11:21 PM
That brought a smile back to her lips. "Honestly, even finer arts like saber skills, I'm not that great at. In fact ... crappy at best. I can defend myself at best but even then it's not great." At least she was not completely alone in that department. "Only thing I'm really good at is healing, illusions, and a few other mental and scholarly things."
"Infinite wealth, think we'd all be better off with that." The talk of wealth brought a thought to her mind, one she enjoyed. "It's not exactly infinite but I did steal a hearty stash from a Sith Lord, long story. Not something I even feel the slightest bit bad about. Its where my funding comes from to help as many folks as I can. So his ill-gotten gains have been making up for his actions."
"I never had a home you see, born on a star ship to boot. I guess it's only natural that I hold a fondness for them. But I can understand where you are coming from. Its scary sometimes to think what's out there. Now seeing beyond known space, I fear for us all." There were things out there that she saw, evils far greater than anything the people here knew. Things that existed only in their worst nightmares. But were as real as Coryth and Sarge.
She looked back over to him, "The city, to be honest I can't stand." She pointed down to her bare feet. "I never wear shoes, cannot stand them. They keep me from being in tune with the world around me. Coruscant I never get a good read for with all the metal, duracrete, catwalks and buildings. I'd give anything for a planet with soft grasses, sandy beaches and crisp mountains. I feel so much more in those places, sense far more just being able to connect with the grounds beneath my feet."
It had nearly killed him when it had been obliterated from orbit, and his eyes glassed over as his mind went back to those fateful wastelands.
An ill wind laden with ash and cinder lashed across the pockmarked surface of cracked dirt and bedrock. Mountains that had once proudly sported the most vibrant greens and brightest whites were now an ugly brown that stung the eyes with their loathsome hues. Here and there a stubborn survivor of a shrub clung to the last vestiges of scarred earth in an attempt to continue the circle of life which had been broken upon the back of an Imperial Armada.
Adjusting his belt, hearing the faint rattle of his revolver in it's holster, Sarge looked to the nearest mountain and then to his companion, a small woman of the same age as he - 19. Members of the Rebellion, they were fighting the Imperial Remnant for control of the galaxy as best they could.
Amazing how even in 400 ABY the Rebellion and Empire still found a way to be central combatants. If only he'd known what sort of holocaust lurked on the horizon, he'd be far less likely to risk his life for something like the Rebellion; the Plague would render most of their efforts mute.
Still, the pair kept on walking, until they were forced to climb the side of the mountain towards an entrance to the cave system they hoped would yield survivors. Adjusting the set of his duster on his shoulders, Sarge gave a nod to his companion as they headed into the cave... only to find a dead body hanging from the wall.
Not even a moment later, the sounds of voices reached their ears and a group of four came around the corner with torches; all of them had weapons. Sarge, from within his helmet, couldn't see where his partner had gone, but they didn't either considering they were merely talking to him.
With the speed a trained gunslinger, he brought up his pistol in time to outright kill three of them... but not before they shot him. Four times.
In the torso.
His world went white, his body hit the floor, and unconsciousness took hold.
Sarge snapped back to the reality of the boat, breathing heavily and reaching for a weapon that was no longer at his side. Finding that he'd nearly fallen out of his chair, the man shuddered and sunk into his seat, embarrassed, without another word. He didn't even realize he'd dropped not just his glass, but the bottle.
Posted 08 September 2013 - 11:58 PM
Coryth was up fast, ignoring the broken glass on her deck and knelt over beside him. That was something she had seen before in war torn men, flashbacks to trying and traumatic times.
"Come back to me, Sarge." She had asked quietly while he seemed to be off in a galaxy of his own creation.
Soon enough he came back, though a twinge of fear fell across her as she saw him reaching for a weapon, thankfully one not present at that moment. "It's okay. You're here with me, safe from harm and always will be."
Coryth didn't touch him in those moments, somehow knowing better of it. Personal experience told her such things were dangerous, if not deadly with someone like him. Kneeling down still, she looked over with kind eyes, seeking only to comfort him in whatever way he would allow for."Whatever it is, whatever happened, if you ever want to talk about it, Sarge I am here to listen. Always." The concern so clearly written on her face, it was people like him that she worried the most about. He deserved so much better than a life of memories that haunted him.
Never did she move away from him, not caring about the drink spilled or anything else for that matter. The only thing that mattered then and there was him and him alone. "Is there anything that I may do to help you? Anything at all?"
Posted 09 September 2013 - 12:12 AM
"I'll be fine, Coryth.", he manages weakly, swallowing not just excess saliva but his pride as he came to grips with the fact that he'd just gone full retard in public. Many perceived Sarge to be flippant, uncaring about his own failures; the truth couldn't be further from that. He was hyper self-critical, a trait he'd gotten from his parents since they'd loved to nitpick.
This was one of those times where he was already mentally berating himself for the loss of control, for that immersion in the rippling waters of the past that always promised a riptide that would pull him under in a heartbeat. "I'm so sorry.", he says, finally, moving to clean up after himself with a speed that spoke of not just good manners but a need to escape.
His mind was distancing itself in every way it could think of from what had just transpired, and it was hard to blame it for doing so. "I'll be fine.", he repeats, like a mantra, convincing himself it was so. "Not the first, won't be the last. Always fine."
Posted 09 September 2013 - 12:50 AM
A frown creased across her delicate features. She shook her head and watched as he moved from the chair and began to clean up. Without much of a word, she rose to her feet and headed down belief, letting him have a moment to collect himself. She returned with a small dustpan and broom and dropped back to her knees to help sweep things up.
"Listen to me and listen well," Her tone firm and serious, "You are never to apologize for how you feel around me or what you remember. You have nothing to be sorry for. If you ever apologize for that, you are apologizing for the truth, so don't do it. Ever." She looked to the glass and back to him. "And its only a glass, its not the end of the galaxy."
"Now, it's going to happen again and when it does I will be right here waiting for that com call. When the time is right and you want to talk, I will not shrink away from that responsibility." She gave a small shrug and rose to her feet, dumping the broken glass into a bin just inside the cabin door. "Believe it or not, I know exactly how you feel. I'm haunted by so many things, so many things I've never spoken of to anyone else. I just hope that I can be there for you, so that you do not have to face it alone like I have done for so long."
With those words, Coryth left his side and headed to the front of the ship, ducking beneath the neatly tied down sail. Slipping her feet over the edge, she stared out over the waters, listening to the waves crash softly against the bow of her boat. She figured right now he needed a little space and she was going to give it to him.
There was a deep sadness in her eyes, seeing him this way pained her more than she would admit or even show. Suffering was one thing that she could only do so much to help. When it was right in front of her yet she could do nothing, it only stung deeper.
Posted 09 September 2013 - 03:29 PM
She was wrong. He did have to be sorry; he was making an absolute mess of himself. She may not mind if he had problems, but he did, and that's why he had to be sorry. Giving a bit of a numb nod, he retreated to his seat and once again sat in the silence and space that she provided when she'd gone to the bow of the boat.
Running his fingers through his short hair, the soldier let his brown gaze sweep across the waves as the boat piloted itself around the island that was the fulcrum of their trip. Standing, he went to the controls and set the autopilot to take them about a half kilometer further past the island and then shut off the engine so they could coast.
On one level, he felt bad doing it... on another, he didn't.
Moving to the front of the boat, ducking under the sail and taking a slow seat next to her, arms resting over the railing. "They wanted to eat me; you know?"
Posted 09 September 2013 - 03:58 PM
Coryth sighed, letting what emotions she had running through her wash over her body, calmly letting them pass through. Each dealt with in its on way. Frustration at the situation, she wanted to help but could not. Sadness, sorrow for the way it was. It was life after all and nothing was ever as easy or as simple as it should have been. If only I knew how to comfort him, ease his burdens, I'd give everything I have to do so.
She didn't quite understand it but she felt a certain attachment to the man on the boat. He'd been through so much, too much. Much like she had, and in that she felt that maybe there was a small chance that they could help each other, if only the galaxy would allow for it. It was in that moment she realized it was not by sheer chance that they met today. No, there was a greater purpose in it. The force had something else in mind.
She turned her head slightly, cocking it to the side as he sat down. The words seemed so strange that he spoke. Nodding slowly, she knew they had to be from whatever memory his mind had thrown at him. She shook her head and sighed, "Beings do the most bizarre things in their most desperate hours." She wasn't too sure what he had gone through and only could guess at it. Only assuming it was a most desperate situation, she had no idea the truth.
Reaching over she laid her hand on his knee for a second and gave a gently squeeze. "Things do get better eventually. Everything takes time. Some more than others." Withdrawing her hand, she returned it back to her own lap and focused back out on the waters.
"I am here, though. If you want to tell me more, if you want to talk, I am here. In whatever capacity you need. If you need space, I'll give it. If you need someone to sit with you in silence, I'll do it. Whatever you need, I'll do it." The last words could have been twisted into some naughty joke, but Coryth was dead serious, not even a bit bouncy or happy as she had been before. She only seemed greatly concerned and worried for her new friend. All she desired for was to help him in whatever way he would allow her.
Posted 09 September 2013 - 04:07 PM
The man nodded slowly, then extended an arm to wrap gingerly around her shoulder to draw her against him. It was the lightest of touches and holds, the kind reserved for someone who didn't want to cross too many boundaries too quickly. Physical contact eased his mind, made his problems disappear.
He'd learned that much over the past year or so.
"Alderaan was a lifeless waste.", he begins slowly. "A pockmarked hell of residual heat from the turbolaser batteries and ionization from the ion cannons. The reek of ozone pervaded even the air filters and in some places the radiation was so intense it'd kill you in a minute, even with full rad protection."
He shrugged faintly.
"Survivors weren't the nicest folk.", Sarge explains slowly. "I'd not suggest doing whatever it takes, since... from what you've made mention of, my cure is your ailment." He frowned a bit, watching as the island disappeared off to their left and open water stretched in front of them endlessly.
He had given her a hint of his age with that explanation, as Alderaan had been whole since before the Plague had even started.
Posted 10 September 2013 - 06:38 PM
As he pulled her against him ever so gently, she allowed herself to rest her head upon her shoulder. If that was what he needed then, she was going to give it to him.
When he spoke again, her brow furrowed together as a look of confusion crossed the woman's face, truly not understanding in the least now."That was ... well over four hundred, maybe even close to six hundred years ago or longer, if I recall my galactic history well enough." Baffled was an understatement. She knew of beings that could live much longer than that, but few she ever met. And they most certainly were not humans.
She turned her head to look at him, "I must ask, how old are you?" She didn't discount the story, everything she could pick up told her he wasn't lying to her. From facial expressions, to vague emotions, it was enough for her to believe him completely.
"I can only imagine how horrible it must have been. I've been on a dying world, feeling it all go, nearly crushed me under the weight of it all." She shuddered quite noticeably against him, before she managed to shake the memories from her mind. "So, I can only imagine what you went through. If it was anything like what I did, what I saw, felt ... And it sounds much worse than mine own experience, I know it must have been one of the roughest things you've been through."
She gave a small shrug, "Truly men ... Men are my ailment. But that is aside from the subject at hand. But you aren't most men. Or I'd never have let you on my boat, and would have ran from you a long while ago. Yet, here you are, which makes you special. To me."
"I'm familiar with that. Father, when I was little, worked at a bus depot - big ol' things for civilian transportation. We'd always go in through the garage, and it smelled like nothing else... in a good way. There's still times when I can swear I smell it and it makes me feel six again." What he wouldn't give to go back to that time.
Frowning a little, now a bit melancholy, he shifts his attention elsewhere. "I'll introduce you to the Lady Protector, then. She can help you make a decision about where to be.", he says with a bit of a smile. Yes. He'd just said Lady Protector. If that wasn't a clue as to his importance in OmegaPyre nothing else would be. "I'll be glad to have you around, for sure.", he adds with a grin.
Posted 12 September 2013 - 11:47 PM
Shifting again she put more of herself up against him, leaning over into his lap now with her back pressed to his chest. The warm thoughts from his childhood seemed to resonate through her. She wished for a simpler childhood, something not nearly as painful as hers. Maybe that would be something she kept hidden. None of that registered in the emotions she presented around her, Coryth made damn sure of it. She wasn't going to be responsible for him feeling anything but good things from her. "I'd give the galaxy to go back to a simpler time. Where I only worried about what toys I had to play with and stuff like that. Simple things.... I really miss those days."
She cocked her head to the side a bit oddly. Surprise rippling through her, "Lady Protector?" That was one person in Omege Pyre that Coryth knew of ... She glanced up to Sarge, "And remind me, what exactly is it that you do?" Chuckling softly, she looked up to him from her position, "It would be good to be around. Around you, maybe even around others." Though that she had her doubts on. "Would be nice to be somewhat useful again."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 12:07 AM
"That can't be comfortable..." Looking down, he took notice of her new position and chuckled faintly. "I miss the carefree nature of it. The innocence. Death isn't something you can comprehend. The world will always be the exact way it is now, so far as you're concerned. Getting older is your only true goal, because you can't wait to be cool like all those older kids.", he snorted at the irony of it.
Spend the first ten years of your life wanting to be older... and then you get older, and you want to be young again. "I'm security.", he explains simply, that word more heavily weighted than it would have been without context. Anyone could be security, but not everyone was security.
"We make sure everyone finds a purpose, that's for sure..."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 01:57 AM
She smirked, "More comfortable than you know." A soft laughed followed, "Been known to sleep in the strangest of positions, contortionist style."Giving a shrug home, she shifted again onto her side still against him as she looked back over the seas. "Used to sleeping in the crappiest, cramped and small places. Gets ya used to strange positions." Even as the words left her mouth, she knew they could be twisted around so easily but still she couldn't help it. There was a filter she was missing in her brain, unable to stop and think before she opened her mouth.
Closing her eyes again she sighed, "Purpose, I think more than anything else I really need that. No idea quite what I'll do there but I'm sure we'll find something that fits me like a glove." Needed was an understatement. The redhead felt so lost. As if she was just drifting on the open ocean, no anchors, no guidance, no engines, no sails, just drifting. "I've been drifting from planet to planet ever since I got back into Known Space. Every transport has taken me a little closer to the core, a little closer to here. My only hope when I got here is that Lexa would still have my boat, all in one piece and wouldn't have done something stupid like sell it off. This, was the only place I knew to come to. Knew I'd be safe and could take a little time to myself before I had to start figuring my life out once more."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 02:09 AM
"You really don't have a censor do you.", he says with a bit of a laugh before gently wrapping her up and sliding her up so that she could rest easily in his lap - it was clear he was doing this more to make her comfortable than anything else, and his touch was light, careful. "Well it seems your ship is more than fine, and you may find a new home soon.", he says quietly.
With a bit of a smirk, he added. "If you need an actual place to stay, I've a condo in Coronet you can stay at - although I've been known to have the odd visitor or two." What that entailed, who knew, but it was either poker buddies or women.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:35 AM
Coryth shook her head slowly. "Nope, no censor at all. Gets me into worlds of trouble." Chuckling she recalled memories back at the temple, with the Council. "You know, the Council had brought me in to give me a new assignment." Sighing, a story that she hated to tell. "I remember them telling me that my partner would arrive soon, a Master Daret. Well ... I recalled Daret being a bit of an asshat. So .... nothing like opening my mouth and sticking both feet in. 'You mean that squid head .. stands about yay tall ... smart ass, egotistical, anal, rude, inconsiderate, snotty to everything as it's beneath him, complete jerk to woman, and general bastard to boot' ?"
Her hands went to her face, even now turning red in the darkness. "What I hadn't noticed was how the room was dead silent at this point, jaws agape.... You know all the things that should have given me a clue. I went on complaining about the Master for a good three or four minutes, insulting him with pretty much everything I had. I literally had no respect for the man and it showed." Her lips twisted into a frown, "Too bad he was right behind me the whole time just waiting for me to finish. As I stopped, I seemed to pick up on all those little clues that I had missed moments before ... Closed my eyes, and turned around. 'Hi Master Daret, great day isn't it?' I tried to smile, but there was no point in being nice. No apology was going to make it better either, nothing .. I was karked. Been perhaps the biggest witch ever, in public, only reenforcing the man's extreme dislike for females......." For a while she was silent, still embarrassed, "Needless to say ... that was one awkward mission."
A smile returned to her lips as he scooped her up and sat her in a more comfortable position on his lap. Gently she leaned her head back against his shoulder and shifted only a hair more to get comfortable. "Sadly, not the first incident, not the worst incident and certainly not the last incident in front of the Council." Her lips twisted into a smirk, "Perhaps that is why I was never given Master. Guess I still have some learning to do .. or something. Gave me padawans, more than I could ever manage. But geez. The term 'don't pull an Elaris' .. commonly known among younglings, new knights and padawans."
She nodded to him, "Took a bit of repairs to get her truly seaworthy when I had gotten back, but ten years gone, I think that is to be expected."Pausing she thought over what he had said to her, really she had no place to go or stay but the boat, and that was cramped as always. Something she was used to, but it wasn't the most practical of things. "You sure? Cause heavens know staying on a boat twenty-four seven isn't exactly the most fun home to be in. It's great for a few weeks, a month or two but longer than that, and it may just drive you mad."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:52 AM
Both of his brows arched upwards in barely contained amusement at her story, because he could picture the little woman being a foul-mouthed little pain in the arse and then turning around like nothing had just happened. It seemed to fit, despite them not knowing each other too well. "I've never done anything like that, I'm afraid. Mostly because I just end up saying it to their face once I get fed up; I try to avoid unnecessary conflict, though."
Which was true.... until you got him angry, and then whatever loose set of ethics had constrained him before went straight out the window - along with one of your limbs, most likely. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm a noun like that, and then I realize that it would probably be unflattering and I stop caring a whole ton.", he says honestly.
"Got an extra bedroom you can stay in; I'm only on Corellia about once a month, so you'd be set."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 12:26 PM
A small laugh escaped her lips, "I can see that with you. Something about your personality, just seems to speak that to me. Makes sense I suppose." A nod on conflict, something she avoided at all costs. "I just ... can't help but speak my mind sometimes. And truly I often forget to think before I speak ... So, trouble happens."
Lightly she reached out and patted at his knee, being comforting as possible. She wasn't sure what to say to that, and let silence pass for the moment. Her thoughts then went back to his condo in Coronet. "I appreciate that, hun. I really do." Drawing her lower lip in, she crewed on it for a moment, nervously thinking through the possibilities. "As long as you don't mind. It would help me a fair bit right now to have a real roof over my head."
Leaning forward, the redhead's hands flew to her forehead, a gasp of pain followed, but soon Coryth's hands fell away, her body relaxing but it was clear she wasn't quite with Sarge for the moment. Her eyes had glassed over and her vision faded from the ocean view before them and morphed into something else.
A woman, a brunette, came into her view and Coryth watched as the woman picked the lock to an apartment of some type ... Her vision shifted to inside the building and she watched as the woman approached, seemingly shocked that the little redhead was present. Confusion so clear in the other woman's eyes.
Just as quickly as the vision came, it faded back away. A shudder fell over her, and Coryth shook her head trying to push off the pain that had caused her. She hated sometimes how those things came and went striking her like lightning. Thankfully this vision was quite short, and vague, very vague to her. The longer the visions lasted, the more side effects they left behind. For the most part though, her prophetic gift lay in her dreams, nightmares really but they always felt as real as Sarge was beneath her. Always haunted her.
For a moment Coryth kept leaning forward, holding her head. It still throbbed greatly, which right now she just needed it to stop. She seemed to forget about Sarge for a minute and just sat there, staring at her feet, trying to collect herself and ponder on what this little vision was and would be. It was so vague, and it was something she hoped may become clearer in the days and weeks to come. Strange things visions were.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 03:11 PM
"I don't think before I speak because I want people to know what's on my mind.", he says with a bit of a shrug as she pulls, well, a him. One moment she's with him, and the next she's fading into herself, and he knew better than to disturb her in that moment. Feeling her shudder, he wrapped an arm around her waist gingerly to secure her. "You alright....?", he asks in a near whisper, looking down to her for a moment.
For all he knew, she suffered from mild seizures and that had been one of them; or she could have had a flashback like he did. It never occurred to him that perhaps she'd had a flashforward. After his question, though, he quieted himself and waited to hear what it was she had to say.
Silence would reign until she felt the need to speak again; he'd give her all the time she needed.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 05:19 PM
Coryth sat for a long while just staring at the waters in the darkness. Slowly she nodded, to let him know she was okay. A little bit of pain but otherwise fine. "I'm okay..." It didn't sound terribly believable but it was there. She did mean it. Just something about her voice wasn't quite the normal her.
Her shoulders rose and fell with a heavy sigh as she laid her arms over the one he had wrapped around her waist. "From time to ...." She started slowly, choosing her words with great care. "I see things. Glimpses really... Of things to come." Hoping against hope that he'd believe her, maybe understand a little. "Been like this since I was little. Ever since I could remember I've got these ... visions?" She wasn't sure what to call them."They change constantly ... The future is funny like that. Even knowing about it, can change it. And the closer to the event I've seen, the visions get worse."
"Most come as nightmares in the darkness. Others simple dreams. Either way, I'm haunted." Her eyes hadn't moved from the ocean, seeking solace in the soft waves crashing against the boat. "Sometimes, but very rarely they come in my waking hours. The longer they last, the more side effects I suffer. From headaches to ... passing out."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 05:39 PM
"One of them people who can see the future, eh? I've had that happen once... once. And it did happen, without a singular doubt. Took six years for it to come true, but it happened. Weirded me out somethin' fierce.", he explains, shuddering a bit at the thought. "Just didn't feel natural ya know?"
That was true. There was nothing natural about seeing the future, especially when it could run along infinite tracks to infinite different endings; something as simple as changing what coffee you ordered often could alter things in ways you'd never imagine, if only because of the trickle down effect of such an action.
It's partially why he was so private, really. To avoid people who could look at him and just see right through him, his past, and most importantly, his future.
Some things just aren't meant to be known.
"That's quite a, uh, thing you got there." He wouldn't say 'curse', as that wasn't sure, but he wouldn't say 'gift' either, since it too was inaccurate. It simply was what it was. "I am honestly at a loss."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 06:11 PM
She nodded slowly to him once more. "Yeah, but honestly .... I'd give up everything I have to make them go away." Her empathy, she had already locked away knowing she was going to feel some rough emotions after she came through that particular vision. At least in part he understood what it was like. "It seems to happen to a few people, even without the force." She'd found that often enough to know it was true.
"No, it's completely unnatural. It's so rare for Force Users to be like this. Only met one other being who could do what I could. Even then, I do wish for control over it." A sigh followed, finally she slowly seemed to be regaining her bearings, her voice seemingly stronger. "I hate that it strikes like lightning. Completely random, and I've been warned not to chase control, but it would be nice to sleep for a change and not dream."
"Curse? Yeah, it is." She confirmed. It was something she hated that she could do. "It sucks, to be quite frank. Rarely if ever do I see good things happen. Most of what I see is cold, dark, sinister and evil. Thing kind of things that keep me from sleeping for weeks after I see them. And ..."She closed her eyes tightly, "Nothing hurts worse than seeing the death of a friend, and know entirely too well there is so little you can do to stop that rip tide from coming and taking them. Hurts more than being there when they die." Her voice cracked on the final few words, clearly speaking from experience. "That is not something I want to know. I don't want to see beforehand. The knowing, kills me."
Reaching out she patted his leg again, before giving his knee a squeeze. "It's okay, really. It's nice just to talk about it for once and not feel like I'm going insane. That's the part of all of it that hurts so badly. I didn't ask for this. I didn't want this ... this .. karking curse!" Her voice had grown a little louder, anger rolled from her. "I just .. Just, want normal."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 06:17 PM
"Shhhhh..." the man murmurs, arm tightening ever so slightly around her. "Keep yourself calm...", he whispers patiently, knowing exactly the sort of anger she was feeling right about now. It was the same rage he felt, too. The best way to deal with it was to stay calm, let them be angry, but do nothing to elicit anger directed towards you.
Inevitably, they'd realize you were doing nothing to warrant the anger and calm down. Even if she wasn't full on screaming or yelling, the anger was there and it was palpable, a faint haze upon his mind that stoke a furnace he'd rather her not see. "You were given the Sight for a reason, Cory. It sucks, I know, but I've learned there's a reason for everything in this life."
Smiling faintly, he brushed his cheek against her head against and planted a light, brotherly kiss on the side of her forehead. "Now calm, and remember that even when you're weak, someone will always be there to pick you up."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 06:59 PM
The sound of his voice so near to her ear, was soothing, more than he knew. Trying hard to remain in control, she closed her eyes and drew on the Force, allowing for it to wash away the worst of it. Angry was the last thing she needed to be. No, in her worst moments, in anger, the darkside always called to her, threatening to pull her under. But that was something Sarge didn't need to know. Something she wasn't going to let him know, unless she had no other choice.
"I just wish, wish that I knew. That I knew exactly why I'd been given this. Because I hate this part of me." Tears were threatening to spill over now. "Just hurts, so much sometimes." Her voice cracked on those words. She was having a hard time holding it all together and it showed. Thankfully the anger was melting away. Melting into sadness and sorrow but at least she was away from that danger that anger brought to her doorstep.
She closed her eyes once more feeling his cheek against her head, a soft sniffle could be heard from her as she reached to wipe away the tears. There was nothing else she could say, leaning more into him, she tried her hardest just to relax and let things go. Something that she had always struggled with. At least this time was different. She actually had someone there for her, which helped more than she could ever express. A soft nod was her answer to him, the only thing she could offer at that point.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 07:11 PM
He made another soft, soothing noise to quiet her as his other arm came up to wrap around her waist, knowing exactly where this was about to go; crying. He hated crying, if only because it made him feel helpless. "We all have our burdens to bear, and heavy though they may be, we were given them because we are able to carry them. You just have to know your strength."
There were times he had no faith in anything, and times when he had a clarity that he wished he could have when he wasn't trying to help someone. But that clarity was something that had evaded him throughout his life, simply because he couldn't trust. A hand lifted to rub some of the tears from her face, and a frown creased her face.
"It's going to be fine, Coryth. Everything always works out in the end." That was something he truly, deeply believed. Now matter how deep your hole was dug, there was always the knowledge that it could reverse at any second to keep you going. This moment should be proof of that to her.
And it was at times like this that it was easy to understand why he was capable of such emotionless brutality. He was so caring that if he didn't shield himself, he'd be run over by everyone in the galaxy; and no one wanted to be a patsy.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:04 PM
She bowed her head, looking down to the deck and watched as the first fallen tears splashed upon the wood. "I just, I .." She stumbled over her words, trying to find the right ones, the ones she wanted to come out. "I'm not sure I'm strong enough for this anymore. After everything I've been through. I feel ..." Slowly she let out a heavy breath, "Shattered and disjointed. Like I'm some kind of puzzle and no one, not even me can get the pieces put back together right."
She turned to look at him as he wiped her tears away. "I feel ... empty. And ... it hurts, everyday hurts a little more than the one before." It couldn't come as a surprise given the few details she had told him that she was a bit of a shattered soul, just struggling to get her life back. "I keep thinking it's going to get better, but it doesn't. Now I'm back in a galaxy that I no longer know. I don't even know if my two closest friends are still alive. I haven't been able to contact them, to find them. They just seem to be like smoke in the wind. That is ... if they are even alive at all."
She shook her head slowly from side to side. "I don't have anyone I can really turn to anymore." More than anything she needed reassurance that someone, anyone at all could and would be there for her.
After a long bit of sniffling, she managed to push away much of the tears, trying to bring her emotions back under tight control. "I can only hope that you are right, Sarge. Because I don't think I can keep doing this, like this if stuff doesn't start to get better." Perhaps, after all this time the tiny Jedi had come to her breaking point.
"I'm afraid Sarge." She admitted painfully, "I'm afraid that if my life remains in the shambled mess that it is, that the darkness will pull me back in. That I'll become the very thing I swore to protect the innocent from ... A monster." If that were the case, Coryth wasn't sure that anyone would be able to stop her and feared the destruction she would wreak on the galaxy before anyone could get a handle on her. "I fear for everyone, if that ever happens. There won't be much to stop me."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:18 PM
Sarge sighed. He absolutely hated when people were like this, because they needed reassurances he was entirely unable to give. He couldn't tell her this was going to get easy, or that her friends were life. He simply knew that things would get better. But she didn't want that. She wanted to know only definite's.
He really couldn't provide those; not in good conscience.
"Coryth, the only person truly making you miserable is you.", he says bluntly. "I'll be here to listen and calm you if you need it, guide you back onto the right path... but you're the reason you're a mess. I've been through many of situations just as terrible as yours in your own way. I see dead loves ones in real people, constantly. I've heard their voices coming from mouths they shouldn't be.", he says sadly.
"But I don't let it get to me. I can't. It means I've lost. That I'm not strong enough. And right now... you're not being strong enough. You're letting it wear you down when you shouldn't. You don't shrug it off and keep going because the only easy day was yesterday. You cling to the past and your problems, because on some level they define you. And they do."
He sighs. "But they aren't you. So stop worrying, and start being happy."
Posted 14 September 2013 - 12:00 AM
The tears that had stopped flowing only moments ago came back rolling down her face. She leaned forward, placing her head into a hand and letting her hair drape around her face, temporarily hiding her. She hated the nights she got like this but they came more and more often. The past was slowly consuming her, for her lack of letting go. Some things she just ... could not let go. For several minutes, she said nothing, the tears speaking for themselves as they came hard and fast. Sobs shook her little shoulders, but she wouldn't look up, and didn't move from beneath her own hair. There at least her features were hidden, her pain. The sting of the words he had spoken could remain hidden from his sight.
In her heart, on some level she knew he was right. But that fact did not make it any better, or any less a bitter little pill to swallow for her. After a while, her sobs started to soften, to ease, but she still didn't move. Slowly she drew her knees up to her chest and then buried her head in her knees, the hair cascading along her shoulders, and legs. She hadn't cried like this in years, hadn't let everything out in so very long. Usually she feared doing so as those around her often ended up being sucked into feeling what she was when she completely let go.
Here it was just him and her and she couldn't bottle it up any longer. Finally she let go, dropping her guards and defenses, all of them at once. A flood gate of pain, agony and pure misery had been opened, releasing nearly a decade of emotions she had locked away. It wasn't intentional by any means. "Sorry..." Her voice cracked out, after she realized what was happening. "I'm so sorry." Reaching up with both hands, she held her head, still letting it rest on her knees. It hurt, badly but it was time she stopped locking everything she felt away.
"You're right." She whispered softly between sniffles. "I ..." She sighed heavily, "I ... have trouble .... letting things go." She bit down hard on her lip, drawing blood before she finally let go. "Lock everything up, never feel it... And .. never let it go." Finally she lifted her head, staring back out to the ocean, red locks obstructing her view but she didn't move them, keeping her chin on her knees. "Had to keep it bottled up, to keep others from feeling it. Going through it. I didn't .. didn't want others to suffer."
"I am be a healer, but ... there was a time when I was something else." Then the admission that probably hurt her the worst of everything. "I killed a lot people. A lot of people. Innocent people the last time I kept everything locked away. I let everything fester until it twisted me into something so evil ..." She started to tremble at the memory alone. "There wasn't a soul to stop me back then." Finally with tear stained cheeks, and reddened eyes, she turned to him, shifting on his lap. The fears so vivid and real in her eyes, quite tangible. "You see Sarge, if I lose to what happened to me, people will die. A lot of people who do not deserve it. And I've lost once before."
Bowing her head she blew out another heavy sigh, "Being an Empath, I can't always let go. Often I have to lock away what I am feeling to keep others from suffering. Hide it and never get to release it. I'm sorry... I let it all out on you. After all these years, I've just started to keep it all in. A mistake if there ever was one. I don't talk about the things I've been through, because I don't want to relive the way they made me feel. Like I said, I have trouble letting go. I've struggled with it since I was a little kid." There was so much sadness in her every action, expression and movement.
"At the end of the day, you are right. I'm wrong." She gave a small shrug and turned her head away from him, looking back into the cabin of the boat behind him. "I just ... don't know where to start. Where to begin to let go. Maybe releasing the pent up emotions of years .... is a start."Another sigh soon followed, "But sooner or later I've got to come to terms with all that I've been through. Got to start talking to someone about it."
She sighed, and finally got up rising to her feet, she stepped away from him. "Look, I'm sorry for putting all of this on you. Should probably take you back to shore. I highly doubt you want to spend the rest of the night with me, like this." She felt so damn bad for what she had said, for how she made him feel, for releasing those emotions onto him even though she had promised to only let him feel warm, good emotions from her. Not the pain and agony, that she often was wrapped up on. Reaching up she wiped away the tears still rolling down her cheeks and headed back to the cabin. Once inside she grabbed the remaining bottle of whiskey and removed the largest glass she had on the boat from it's cabinet and filled the cup to it's brim. Sitting down, she simply started drinking rapidly.
Posted 14 September 2013 - 12:12 AM
The torrential downpour of pain and sour brought instant tears to his eyes, but he choked them back with the hard-bitten and determined expression of a man determined not to let them flow in public. His grip tightened like a vice around her until she apologized, and he forced himself to leave her go.
To let her do what she will.
But as she spoke, he listened; quite intently actually. She was his focus for the moment, and he wasn't going to interrupt her while she was on a roll and making progress. It wasn't until she disappeared into the cabin that he got up slowly and took several long, deep, steadying breaths of salty air.
Pivoting on his heel, the walked down to join her, moving slowly, wary of what she may be doing. But the clunk of a bottle told him all he needed to know. "What you need to do Coryth... is find a place where you can be alone and just... cry. Do that periodically. Give in to your emotion from time to time, and you'll be fine."
He took a seat next to her, shaking his head. "I missed my Pop-Pop's funeral, you know? I was on vacation. I was 11 at the time, and my parents made sure the last thing I said to him was 'I love you' and 'I'll see you when I get back'... but I wasn't able to go to his funeral. They say that if a kid can see a body in a casket... know that the person is leaving. That they can say goodbye. But that if they don't, then that person is never truly dead for them."
Rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, he let a few tears begin to fall from his face. "But it's true. It's entirely true. He was never dead for me. And I stopped by his grave periodically to talk and to cry... and then I'd go back to my car and go about my business. That was my release. That was where I would go to relieve the tension and stress."
It was quite evidently still a fresh wound despite the passage of time, but it wasn't information he'd ever shared with anyone else. "You need to find that... and just be happy whenever you're not there."
Posted 14 September 2013 - 12:39 AM
The tears were still falling from her eyes as he came down into the cabin. Almost half the tall glass gone by the time he reached her. Blood shot and reddened eyes flicked up to him, slowly she was trying to pull her control back. To reign things in. The look on his face, the tears that threatened to fall, she could see pained her greatly. They were her fault and it made her feel damned awful for doing it. "I'm sorry." She repeated again, only feeling worse by the second. But slowly layer by layer she was rebuilding her guards, putting the walls back into place.
She sighed once more, slowly letting the breath out. "Its hard though, to find a place that is remote enough." Bringing her elbow onto the table, she laid her forehead into her palm, "When I open up, drop my guards and let it all out. It means that I also pick up everything that anyone is feeling within a mile. It's only by luck that this is near the end of the tourist season and not many people are on the little island. Many six people, I could feel them." She said sadly. "That is the part that hurts me. As well as letting things out like I just did, I know it hurt you. Likely hurt the people on the island too and they'll never know why they suddenly felt such agony."
She soon quieted herself as she took the glass up again and quickly took a few more gulps from it. Everything he was saying made sense to her. She understood quite well. Most of her guard still was down, so a lot was still bound to get through. "I'm sorry about your grand father." Family was something she barely knew but it pained her greatly when she finally did find her own father only to lose him less than three months later.
"Guess, I could just ... take the boat and go. Go as far as I can ... and stop. Drop anchor and just let it all go." Granted she had the feeling to truly let go, like she had tonight, she would need alcohol to aid her in finally letting her last guards down. Alcohol made it harder for her to peel back her empathy layer by layer. She could to about half ... or all. Nothing really in between.
She reached across the table and wiped away the few tears that did fall. "I'm so sorry for making you cry. For bringing that pain to you." That was not something she'd forgive herself anytime soon for. "I ... I just ... I lost control. The walls came down and it all flooded out. I'm soo sorry." She kept apologizing for it, feeling worse about it by the minute. "It's my duty to stay in control ... to make sure that never happens when others are around. Sorry..."
"I've got to find something. Got to. I really do fear what will happen if I can't get through this stuff, Sarge. I do." More layers she managed to pull back up, protecting not only herself but Sarge from the deluge of emotions she was feeling. "I don't want to be the reason innocent people end up dead. Not again." Perhaps that would be the right motivation to keep her from letting her old wounds fester as she had been. Maybe it was needed for Sarge to be as blunt as he was. Had he not, so much might not have dawned on her as it had tonight.
"Do you want to go back? To shore that is?" She asked him, but felt like she needed to do it as she rose to her feet slowly. She feared that he'd want little to do with her after the pain and misery she drug him through tonight. Taking a couple steps, she was starting that way, not really waiting for a reply.
"The pain wasn't caused by you.", he says finally. "It's always there. It never goes away... but you learn to live with it.", he says somberly, before standing up slowly and looking out of one of the small windows lining the edge of the cabin. "Look, Coryth. The place has to be significant to you. It has to be somewhere you feel safe. Comfortable."
He sighed. "I can't just decide to let myself out at night. It doesn't work that way. The place has to be somewhere you'd find cathartic. Somewhere of an emotional significance. If you've a favorite spot in the woods, that's a good place. Wherever the pain is coming from though... that's generally where you need to go. I'm not saying go back to hell or anything, but something that reminds you of it is good enough."
Shaking his head, he sat himself down on the edge of the one of the beds. "No, Coryth. Don't take us back to shore. You need to cry, and I need to sleep."
Still, he adds, "And stop apologizing, please. Once is enough - if you do it more than that it just comes across wrong.", he wasn't trying to hurt her, not by any means. But rampant apologizing was never a good thing to do. "You've no reason to apologize, and even if you did... one time is all you need."
Posted 14 September 2013 - 01:23 AM
She nodded somberly, sighing painfully. "Long as it wasn't because of me. I hate ... hate to hurt others. Its half of why I bottle up all the emotions I feel. I don't want to bring it to others." At his next words, she frowned even more so than she already was. "There aren't many places that hold any significance to me. Just ... aren't. I've never really stayed in a single place for longer than a month. Not even in the Jedi temple. I was always moving, always going somewhere else, always trying to stay ahead of bounty hunters." She flopped back in the seat at the table, taking a large gulp from the glass, only a quarter of it left at that point.
"Only place that means anything to me is an ocean. Its the only place I can get far enough away from people to feel safe. To be alone with my thoughts. To not feel what every single soul around me is feeling." Leaning forward, she laid her head in both hands, tears slowly falling to the table below. "The ocean, this boat ... it's all I've got." In more ways than one. It was her home, her haven, and a safety net. It was the one thing in the galaxy she could not live without.
She sighed, "The pain, most of it comes from Tatooine. Every time I set foot on that world, it tries to kill me. Somehow some way, someone tries to end my life when I stick a toe on the planet." A huff came out harshly from her as she thought back to it. "Was on a mission there for the Council, alone. I was doing surveillance, and sipping some tea. They came fast, a couple darts laced with sleeping serum and .. before I could even lift a hand to defend myself, it hit me and within seconds I was on the ground. They took me to a building layered with Ysalamiri. The things were everywhere." Her eyes focused off at the wall across from her. She barely even blinked as she started the story.
"I woke up, naked, chained to a wall, so tightly I could barely breathe. It was so hard. Every breath required me to pull up to let my lungs expand."Her eyes then dropped to the table in front of her. "The monster was there. My fiance's cousin. I was the bait for him." Slowly Coryth reached down and pulled back her long sleeves, deep, dark criss-crossing scars were layered upon her forearms. There was hardly a square inch of skin that hadn't been sliced open. "The guy ... tortured people for a hobby. Loved it. Loved to watch me scream, cry and plead for my life to end." She closed her eyes, letting the tears fall freely, almost uncaring. "By the time he was done, he had burned my insides, sliced open every inch of my skin, save for my face, neck and hands, raped me over and over and over, cut my right breast off, broke both my wrists after I managed to get a hand free and broke his nose, and worst of all, he made sure I was pregnant before he let my fiance' even close to the building I was in."
Coryth was trembling quite noticeably now at the table. Her eyes had not left the wooden pattern before her. "He even coated my body in a chemical to prevent healing and encourage scarring. His intent was to leave me so that no one would ever want me again." The slowly, unblinking she pulled her sleeves back down to hide the scars like she always did. "Feeling the force flood back into me as I was being rescued was perhaps the worst feeling in the world because I could feel that monster's child already growing inside of me. It drove me to the brink. I tried to ... abort the baby in my own way. But I couldn't go through with it. I couldn't. Gave her up for adoption." Slowly Coryth drew her knees up to her chest, still not looking up. "That was the third of many terrible events on that dust ball. It hurts to think about going back. I was only dropped off there when I came back to the galaxy and there was not a time that I stopped trembling while I was there. It hurts to even think of returning. Not only that I fear being hurt again if I was to go alone."
Hearing his words, she sighed heavily. Some part of him had wanted to go back to shore, to bury her own emotions again and get back to where things didn't hurt. "I don't want to cry anymore." She sniffled sadly. "I don't want to hurt." The thought bringing her sobs back as her shoulders started to shake. A glance up to him, and she tried to dry the tears, tried to make it stop but her attempts only seemed to worsen it all.
Posted 14 September 2013 - 01:37 AM
Yeah, he had no words to respond to that. There were none. 'I'm sorry' didn't even begin to cover something like that. "You'll need to get over that sometime, but not right now.", he says finally. Standing up slowly, dutifully, from the edge of the bed he'd been sitting on, he moves over to sit next to her.
Running his hand slowly down the back of her head, he settled himself in for what was going to be a long night. "Right now, you let it all out until you fall asleep, alright?"
Posted 14 September 2013 - 01:56 AM
As he came to sit beside her, she reached out with both arms and wrapped them tightly around his neck. Shifting closer, she buried her face into his chest, heavy heart wrenching sobs shook her little body. "Never ... told ... anyone..." She sniffled, trying to get words out. Sarge was the first person she'd given that much detail to of what really happened to her inside that building. "Not even ... my fiance' .. It's been ...eleven years and .... it still feels like yesterday." She shook her head, not lifting her head from him as she spoke. "Every night ... the nightmares come back. The days .. sometimes I turn around and I swear I see the son of a queen standing behind me." At that she shuddered harshly. "I see him image sometimes in the mirror. Hear his voice ... A touch across my skin the wrong way can send me into a rage ... that I can't come out of on my own. That bastard ... he got what he wanted... ruined me... There are nights that the flashbacks overwhelm me completely. That monster... is in my mind, my soul ... and I can't escape it."
For several minutes she just lay there sobbing heavily into Sarge's chest. "I've never ... never recounted it for anyone. It hurt too much." She choked on her words, and reached up, pulling her shirt over her nose, and blew it before dropping the shirt back down. She didn't want to move, didn't want to let go of Sarge. Right now he felt like her lifeline. So things like tissues were an afterthought. The sobs stopped for a moment but the tears continued as she paused to catch her breath. Panting, she tried to calm down a little and get her breath back. "Lost my fiance', not long after. A mission gone horribly wrong... Sith." She shivered before the trembling became pure shaking, only getting worse. "I won't ... recount that. It would .. turn the darkest of soul's stomachs."
Leaning her head back down she started to sob again against his body. "Do you .. think you, you .. could hold me ... for a little while?" Something about Sarge had made her feel safe. Safe enough to reveal the things that she just ... never spoke of. Never let others know. It was no small wonder that the darkness had consumed her, even if only for a short while.
Posted 14 September 2013 - 02:00 AM
Sarge knew better than when to talk, so he did he best to avoid talking too much. "Just let it out, Coryth.", he says quietly. His arms wrapped easily around her, and he held her to his chest as she let all her life's pain drain out and onto his shirt. It was the least he could do; she sorely needed it.
She'd cry until she passed out, and he'd put her to bed before going to sleep himself. Such was the plan, but who knew how it'd go. Perhaps they'd fall asleep sitting here. It wasn't really his concern right now.
Letting her cry was.
Just let her cry.
Golden Beaches
Sarge didn't get a whole ton of downtime to go home anymore, aside from his apartment in one of the habitation spheres over Fondor. But sometimes, if he were lucky, he could come home home. To Corellia. It wasn't his birthplanet. Far from it. So far as he knew his birth planet didn't even exist.
But Corellia was the closest he could find, albeit a bit more high-tech.
Still, it put a smile on his lips.
And today he was smiling a bit more through the thick, bushy brown beard that looked like it belonged more on a lumberjack than a mercenary. The Golden Beaches of Corellia were renowned for their beauty, and had tourists there almost year-round. That meant he could blend in a bit better than normal.
Clad in a simple pair of black and white swimtrunks and a white tshirt, the wiry muscled mercenary settled his black OmegaPyre service cap back on his head and smiled broadly beneath the brim of it as he walked along the shore, waves lapping at his feet. Flip-flops dangling from his hand, he spotted the local marina and made to take a good long look at the boats.
Typically he wasn't a fan of boats, but if there was a place to find nice ones, this was going to be it. His feet registered the transition from sand to wooden dock, and he walked slowly down the pier, shadowed gaze taking in the sights and sounds of people readying their vessels for trips out to sea.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 07:23 PM
Coryth was kneeling down on the docks trying off The Prophetess. A gleaming beauty of a sail boat, though it was on the small side meant for only four, max. Her ship, her baby had been just the thing she needed to escape after all the events in unknown space. Corellia had been that home away from home for the petite Jedi. Being born on a starship, she'd never really known a true home until the time she was taken in with the Jedi Order. Even then, something about the dorm room in the temple, still did not feel like home. Out on the ocean at least she had found solace in the rolling waves and wonderful glories that nature provided.
Even here, Coryth was untrusting, her awareness spread out to it's max. She couldn't help it really, just wanting to protect herself against the unknown. With how much things had changed in her absence, it was only natural to be cautious in her new environment. Still, even without the force, there was a strange feeling she had. Something was different around her. It was enough for her to push off of her knees, stand and look about. Cocking her head to the side, she peered at the people around her so far thing seemed normal up until the point that she came upon one being. What she got from him was .... nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing, which was bizarre. Not possible. She told herself.
Closing her eyes, she shook her head, trying to push the feelings away. If she got nothing, then well no, the being could not be, nothing could exist without the force. Figuring she was seeing something, Coryth tried to ignore it. But nothing was impossible to forget. Itching in the back of her mind, she finally finished her knot and rose once more. The tiny redhead found herself curiously staring at the shadowed man.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 07:32 PM
@Coryth Elaris
The man glided through people like he didn't exist, footsteps painfully quiet even among the noise of a crowded beach. People simply seemed to not notice him as though his very existence was tied up in not standing out in the slightest, which was at odds with an obvious soldiers physique and unkempt beard.
But as he moved, he found himself drawn to thick hair the color of a dark maroon It wasn't quite red, and his mother would have killed him if he'd labeled it such, but it was definitely an auburn mixed with a maroon of some sort. And while he noticed her, she noticed him. There was nothing romantic about it - her hair was striking, and would draw the attention of anyone.
But what caught his attention about hers...? Well, it was that she couldn't seem to ignore him.
Which meant a few things - either she found him exceptionally attractive (dubious at best), was intrigued by his facial hair (more likely), or, at the very outside, was some kind of a Force User.
One brow rose beneath the brim of his cover and he cocked his head quizzically at her before moving to get a closer look. And, as he neared, he found himself facing a tiny woman, easily a good foot shorter than him and then some. "Something the matter, miss?", he asks, tone genial and helpful. It was a quiet voice, at least for now, but within it was held the promise of easy laughter.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 11:51 PM
Coryth tried to look away as the man approached her. Now finding herself craning her neck to look up. The height difference, an annoyance today for her. It was just something about it, the fact that he felt like ... nothing was driving her crazy. No one should feel like that, she knew that but yeah evidence lay before her that there was a man who in fact had no presence in the force whatsoever.
"Nothing at all." She lied, which was above all strange for her, but Coryth didn't want to seem rude to the man. "It's just a very fine hat you have, and I couldn't help but notice." She smiled sweetly as she extended her hand. There was something she had to confirm. Everything, absolutely everything about this told her that the man before her was not real, could not exist. However, if he could touch her skin, force her nerves to respond in kind to the touch, then ... real.
Inside, every part of her was freaking out, but on the outside, she appeared to be nothing but calm cool and collected. Something to be expected of the folks around the docks. "I'm Coryth, Coryth Elaris." She spoke softly, beaming a smile up at him ... hoping he bought the lies she had spoken, but even to her .. the hat thing, seemed lame. "What brings you to the docks, sir?" Must ignore the feelings ... must ignore the feelings ... must find out more, need to know more.... Who the hell is this guy?
Posted 29 August 2013 - 10:58 AM
She seemed pleasant and honest enough, so he mentally shelved the feeling that she wasn't quite telling him the truth. A large, calloused hand topped with long, slender fingers extended to shake her smaller one, and the man gave a smile that showed the caps of off-white teeth through the mess of his facial hair. "A pleasure Miss Elaris. They call me Sarge."
Sarge. The rumor of OmegaPyre. Kerrigan was known for her brutal methods in battle, and the Lady Protector was known for shrewd political and business acumen - not to mention her secrecy. But Sarge was just as well known for entirely different reasons.
The first of which was that no one was entirely certain he existed. He seemed more like a figment of a crazed mind. An isidious monster conjured from a frazzled mind; a true monster - pleasant outside, but truly evil within.
Not true of course, but rumors weren't reliable in the slightest.
"I enjoy looking at boats, naturally. Don't own one. But there's usually a fine vessel or two around here to admire." Without realizing it, his eyes shifted to her hair, then over to her boat.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 03:30 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth nodded to him, a certain shock in her eyes as she grasped his hand that she was quick to hide. The man was real enough. He was physically real for certain, but he didn't exist within the force. Something that made her damn uncomfortable to say the least, and right now it took a hell of a lot to mask the discomfort. "It's a pleasure Sarge." She said with a bright smile, still working to mask the inner turmoil and confusion.At least I'm not crazy, he is real .. and this isn't some figment of my imagination.
Smiling still, her eyes followed his to the ship behind her. "She's not much, but certainly gets me where I want to go. It's nice to be on the ocean without a need for an engine to push ya about. Something is truly beautiful about being out there like that. Granted she still has an engine just in case the winds don't blow favorably. Still, she's my baby. Always the one place I can go, that I truly can call home." As she finished those words, there was a lingering sadness. A real home was something Coryth had never really known. Something that always had her wondering if she was really missing that much. Everyone else seemed to take great pleasure in returning "home", so there was always those thoughts that lingered within her mind from time to time.
Sighing, Coryth realized she had been rambling a fair bit. "Sorry," She chuckled lightly, "I ... tend to talk a bit when I'm nervous." Admitting that so openly, she wondered if maybe she'd hit her head somewhere along the lines in the last day or so. You're letting him get in your head. Gotta stop that.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 04:59 PM
So, she was a wandering spirit like he was; a gypsy soul, even if she didn't realize it. And she was Force-Sensitive, at least on some level. The faint widening of her eyes coupled with the spark in them had implied as much to him. As the guardian of the Lady Protector, he'd learned to read the multitude of tiny clues people provided that trailed back to their inner psyche.
Releasing her hand, he stood there with a straight back and let his eyes trail along the pristine white hull in front of him. The confession caught him by surprise though, and his lips curled upward in what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I hope I've not put you off so easily.", he jokes.
The nervousness only added to his gut feeling that she wasn't exactly what she seemed, but he was holding out judgement for now. He was just as likely to be wrong, if not more so, than he was right. "If it makes you feel better, I love the contrasting sails. Draws the eye in." Just like your hair.
@Coryth Elaris
Posted 03 September 2013 - 08:42 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
She shook her head slowly, "Not so easily, no. Just .." She shook her head a little quicker fast pushing away her thoughts on the matter. "Never mind.." She bit at her lip for a moment, thinking for a moment. Too many thoughts both good and bad were racing through her mind. She had a certain opinion of men after the things she'd been through.
At the thought, she reached up pulled her sleeve back a fair bit to scratch at the scars. Upon her arm, they crisscrossed deeply upon the exposed skin, to say she'd been through hell was a small understatement. The way the scars wrapped around her arm, hinted that there was much more beneath the cloth that she kept hidden from view. After a moment of itching she pulled the shirt sleeve back down covering the marks of torture. The only thing not scared on the poor things body was her hands, her neck, face, and that was it. Everything else had been marred by the Sith some years before.
It drew a small bit of laughter from her, "I picked the bright colors because they remind me, of me. Bright, vivid, wild and even a little dangerous."She said with a smirk. The sail boat, a proud achievement for the petite woman. "Suppose when I reworked the ship, I put a lot of me into her. It's funny how that happens, and yet I didn't realize I was doing just that until much later."
Reaching up she pushed back her hair, moving the stray bits back from her face with a sigh. As she did so, it moved the jacket around her shoulders enough to expose a small white cylinder hanging at her waist. Upon it a simple inscription: I shall do no harm, seek the weak, feeble, ill and wounded. Above all else, help those who need it most. No matter the side. No matter the cost. A simple oath, her oath.
Looking back to him, eyes moving over his features, trying to read him from expressions alone was difficult. In that moment she realized just how much she relied upon the force. Though being an empath and that being separate from her force skills, gave her a small bit to work with but hardly enough. "I .." She paused, thinking it over carefully before she spoke again, "Could take you out on her, if you'd like?" She wanted to get to know him more, just the way he was, she had to know more. "Or perhaps you'd like to accompany me for a drink?"
Posted 03 September 2013 - 09:00 PM
@Coryth Elaris
The man gave another laugh and a smile, apparently a man of an easygoing nature. He noted the scars, but he had a fair share of his. As he turned to look away and out to sea, she'd find his right cheek pockmarked by something; likely shrapnel scars, it made his beard thinner in patches than it otherwise would be.
And, as the light caught his neck, she'd find a saber burn across his throat. Yet, still, he found a way to smile like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. "We always put ourselves into everything we do.", he says a bit absently as his gaze meanders it's way back to hers. While he kept looking away, it seemed to be more out of a desire to take in the surroundings than to ignore her. He was always prompt in returning his attention to her.
"Better idea; we grab a few drinks... and take them out on the boat with us.", he offers. "I'll even buy the drinks." If she was polite enough to take him out on the boat this soon after meeting him, well, he could be polite enough to pay for their beverages; be they adult or otherwise.
But if there was one thing he could take away from all this, it's that she was, in fact, a Force User of some kind. Which made this all the more entertaining for him. Force Users were both his favorite and least favorite kinds of people.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 09:37 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
In the warm sunlight it was hard not to notice the man's scars. A part of her knew there were stories behind every single one. Though, all of hers were just one big story. Most of the older littler scars had been long ago buried with the new mass of scars, but a story for another time, perhaps.
"Truer words have never been spoken." She said softly, was hard not to put your heart and soul into the things you worked passionately on.
Her gaze fell back to the horizon, letting her thoughts drift for a moment. This would be the first time she was alone with a man in some years, something that worried her a little. At the same time, she knew it was a small fear she'd have to get over. People weren't out to get her twenty-four seven. And chances are the guy before her was just as nice as any, with a few good stories. But still, she wished greatly that she could read him with the force, and understand his motives completely. She hated not having that window into a person's soul.
With the offer of drinks, she just beamed brightly. "Sounds perfect." Her voice a little more bouncy and excited. Maybe ... with a drink or two in him, I can get the real story. Though, I suppose I could just ask him straight up ... but who knows where this all is going to go. Could just be a lap around the port and come back to land and we part ways ... who knows, but I really do want to know more, and maybe just maybe this is the way.
Normally she wouldn't have been so trusting, so open, but her curiosity was getting the better part of her with Sarge. Coryth just needed to know what made him tick. Why he was the way he was. Of all the things she'd managed to glean from him, he seemed easy going, and kind enough, which was reason enough that she'd let him on her boat. Though, she was no fool, should things go wrong, she knew where the weapons were after all.
"Lead the way, my good man." She seemed happier, the sadness that had been there earlier was completely gone from the small redhead. The idea of a small boat trip, with another person seemed to have changed her entire attitude in a matter of moments. Time for less solitude and more getting to know people around you. What could it possibly hurt. Though her mind did race through the possibilities and she was equally quick to squash them.
@Coryth Elaris
And, like the wind, she'd bounced right back to fill the void of her sadness with a bouncy giddiness that was oddly endearing, and brought a heartfelt smile to his lips. Where before he'd grinned large and showed the caps of his teeth, this was just the faintest upturn of the lips that implied a more content, truer form of happiness than the showy grins.
"Gladly, just try not to lose me." With the woman in toe, he began walking down the pier from the way he'd come and towards the boardwalk and it's myriad of stores, restaurants and resorts. A main street ran along the beachfront which would allow them to, hopefully, find somewhere that sold bottles of booze to tourists.
Or citizens looking for a vacation. "So, Ms. Elaris, what kind of drinks do you like?" Feeling the sand beneath his feet again made him smile... until it started to burn his friggin' feet. Picking up his pace just a hair, he found his way up and onto the sidewalk and put his flipflops back on.
Looking up and down the street, with it's myriad of parked speeders and storefronts, he furrowed his brow in thought, trying to remember where the nearest bar was. Ah! Right. Block to the north. Turning to his right, he began leading her up the sidewalk to a crosswalk, where he moved across the street when the traffic eased up. "I'm rather partial to whiskey myself.", he says with a grin.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:31 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth nodded in quick reply to him, and as he turned she was fast behind him. Though the tiny woman had to take three steps for his every one, but somehow she managed to keep up along side him.
"Hmmm ... A good whiskey is fabulous. Throw in a Corellian Ale here and there and I'm a happy woman." She grinned, her own choices of drink a bit strange for someone as dainty seeming as her. With all the horrors she'd seen in her lifetime, the wars she had been through, it was a small miracle she hadn't crawled deeply into a bottle years ago.
"Truly, as long as its strong and lingers on the lips it's all that matters to me. Never had a fondness for the fruity drinks most women seem to love." She gave a small shrug. There is nothing about me that is like most women. Watching him ahead, she giggled a little as he hit the hot sands in his bare feet. She'd done it far too many times herself but still she found it humorous.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:35 PM
@Coryth Elaris
The man literally stopped his forward momentum and turned to her, mouth wide open as he was already laughing. "So long as it's what? And lingers on the what?" And like that, he began to laugh far harder than he had a right to. So hard, in fact, that he had to lean forward and place his hands on his knees for a moment.
It was such a simple, dismissive sentence, like it was nothing. But when you said it to a military man with a dirty mind, well, game over. But even through the laughter, he was glad she enjoyed whiskey like he did. Made this far simpler. A bottle of Whyren's Reserve and a case of Ale and they'd both be set.
Although if the tiny woman liked whiskey she could probably hold it fairly well. Two bottles.
Once he was done laughing.
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:49 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
She knew it the second the words left her mouth that it was bad. Her face flushed a bright vivid red as she tried her best to keep a straight face, which lasted less than a second. "Damn it, Elaris, open your mouth.... stick both feet in!" She scolded herself still dying laughing herself.
Leaning back, she used both her hands and covered her still flush red face while laughing. The poor thing could barely breathe.
"I've got to learn to keep some thoughts to myself. One of these days, saying something like that will be the death of me." She still hadn't returned to normal color, her cheeks about the shade of her hair, a humorous sight for sure. She shook her head, and turned her back to Sarge, waiting for the redness to fade away and her body to stop betraying her in such an obvious way. Damn you Elaris, always sticking both feet in! At least it wasn't like that one time ... We don't talk about that one time with the council ... EVER. Hopefully he would stop laughing any minute now and they could be on their way forgetting she ever said such a thing. Unlikely…
Posted 03 September 2013 - 10:55 PM
@Coryth Elaris
It was another minute or two before he could finally breathe again, and he stood, wiping some tears from his eyes and shaking his head. People were still giving him a few strange looks, but he merely shook his head and ignored them. That was entirely too good; so good he couldn't make a suggestive comment about it.
"I'm sorry... it's just so great.", he says, still laughing a little bit. Taking hold of the brim of his cover he lifts it up and runs his hand through his fairly short brown hair and wipes his brow of the sweat the cap had accrued there. "Alright, c'mon. It's just up here." With that, he started walking again, laughing and shaking his head.
In fact, he was still doing both those things when he walked into the store. The store was fairly large and just packed with all kinds of alcohol, but thankfully the whiskey and beer were kept close. Walking back an aisle or two he grabbed them two bottles of expensive Whyren's Reserve and handed them to her.
Another aisle and he grabbed a small case of Corellian Ale; as per the ladies preference. He was still residually giggling as he paid for their booze. "I am so sorry, Coryth."
Posted 03 September 2013 - 11:13 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
"I'm not going to live this down, am I?" Her face now a more subtle shade of pink and less ... vibrant red. "Ever?" She reached up rubbing her face slowly, "Oh gods... What have I gotten myself into..." She mostly was talking to herself at that point knowing too well those words would never, ever be forgotten. At least not anytime soon. After another shake of her head, completely embarrassed she followed along behind him and up into the shop.
Wandering the aisles with him, she with great care took the whiskey from him and held onto it as if the bottles were little babies. Whiskey this good, needed special care in her opinion. Even Coryth was giggling again by the time he grabbed the ale. "Sorry? For me opening my mouth? When is a guy ever sorry for that?" She said now chuckling a little more loudly. She gave a small bow, "And this comedy act is here all week. So get your laughs while you can."
She walked to the front and set the bottles on the counter, waiting for him. "Just remember whose boat it is," She said jokingly, "Could always throw you off on some remote island and leave you!" Her voice clearly bouncy, light and teasing him completely.
She sighed contently, a good laugh was always good for the soul. Even if it was at her expense. "Truly though, not the first time I've done something like that, won't be the last. At least it wasn't me being a smartass in front of the Council, now that was .... bad. They still use me as an example for the kids of what not to say when before the Masters." She shook her head and shuddered, a bit of the pink returning to her cheeks as she recalled the events of that night so many years ago
Posted 03 September 2013 - 11:20 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"Now you're intentionally sticking your foot in your mouth.", he says with another laugh. "But no, if you want to open your mouth I'm not complaining." He gave her an overly suggestive look that was far more comedic than it ever would be seductive. Currency exchanged and two bottles bagged with due reverence, he held the door open for them as they left.
"Look, you wanna throw me off the boat, great. Just make sure to jump in after in a white tshirt." With a smug smirk and a shake of his head, he waited at the edge of the sidewalk for a break in traffic. It took a minute or two, but they were able to cross fairly simply. "I'll be able to find you when I see the red floating on the water.", he quips.
Just a block ahead, he could see the marina and it's myriad of boats extending out and into the gently lapping waves. A beautiful sight if he'd ever seen one. "And maybe after a few drinks you can tell me how badly your foot went down your throat with the Council."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 12:00 AM
@Sarge Potteiger
At those words she glanced over her shoulder and up at him, a cute smirk on her lips. "Maybe..." She broke into a grin as he went on and started to laugh at the 'seductive' look. On the way out the door, she gave a nod of thanks to the door held open for her. Not many men did that for her anymore. Though, most people just thought she was a child based on height alone, an annoying fact that pissed her off more oft than not.
She lofted an eyebrow as he talked of throwing him off the boat. The white t-shirt comment ended with her reaching out and trying to elbow him in the side for it. "Ha! That's not happenin! If anything I'll chunk you in sans shorts." She said with a grin, teasing completely. Though something about the grin said she'd do it given the chance.
The sight of the boats ahead, had a happy content look back on her face. She loved the open water, loved the boats, and loved being out on the waves. The splendor of the ocean had always drawn her to it, for both it's beauty and sheer power.
At the mention of the council incident, she visibly shuddered, "Eight drink minimum for that one." On that her tone said it all, she was dead serious about drinking that much before she'd talk of what really happened. "Was horribly mortifying."
"Though I'll tell you that if you tell me about those scars."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 12:09 AM
@Coryth Elaris
Something about her just had him perpetually shaking his head; it wasn't even the fact that she stuck her foot in her mouth. It was that she seemed every bit as outlandish as he was - even if she was more than a foot shorter than he. "I don't think anyone wants to see me in my underwear.", he says with a roll of his eyes.
Eight drink minimum? I've got a bottle for each of us! "We might hit that point pretty quickly." The tip of his tongue appeared to wet his lips and he caught her look, and again it brought a smile to his own face. Even if this heat was starting to get a little oppressive. "Which one you want to hear about first?", he says quietly, taking his flipflops off to walk back across that hot sand and to the dock, where it was a short trip to her boat.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 12:32 AM
@Sarge Potteiger
"Oh what, ashamed that you're a briefs boy?" She said giggling, keeping up with him easily now that she had fell into a decent stride along side him. It still took three of her steps to one of his. "Oh are you just shy about the goods," Just had to press it a little further, still completely teasing him.
That drew a full laugh from her, "That we shall. It's just ..." She shuddered again, "The story is ... humiliating! So I want to feel all warm, fuzzy and toasty before I put myself back through the misery." She paused for a second to think, "Maybe I'll need a few more drinks than that to get there. Actually, yes ... Yes I will."
As they walked, she moved to his right side and looked up at his neck, "How bout the saber burn on the neck, that has to be a good tale."
Hitting the docks, she moved ahead of him and headed straight for The Prophetess. As she arrived she leaped over the gap between the dock and her boat with an uncanny grace for someone of her size. Moving down to the door, she unlocked the main cabin and made a motion for him to go ahead. "You'll walk right down into the kitchen slash dining area, and I just stocked up on food, treats and the like. So feel free to eat anything you'd like and put the drinks away while I get things started up here." The interior of the ship was quite nice given the boats age, everything was varnish woods, with white cushions in the small dinning area. If he went past the kitchen on his right would have been the small bathroom and shower, a pristine cream color within. Beyond that were two bedrooms made for two people a piece. The whole ship only made to house four people, maybe six if people were really close with one another.
With that she moved back over to the dock and with a practiced grace she untied the boat and moved back into the upper levels of the cabin itself, and headed for the cockpit. "Once you get settled feel free to come join me." For now, she started the engine, to glide them out of the harbor and into open waters.
@Coryth Elaris
"Boxer briefs, actually." Although he'd never admit it, he loved the feel of a freshly laundered pair of boxer-briefs. Just the right amount of tightness to it to be extremely comfortable without, well, ya know. "Well, I'm sure we'll hit the magic number of drinks somewhere along the line."
Casting a glance down at her, he nods slowly. "I'm not a very good storyteller.", he confesses with a bit of a sheepish grin. As he climbed aboard the boat, he swallowed slowly and let his eyes glaze a bit. Heading down into the cabin without another word, now eerily quiet, he sets the drinks down on the counter and moved them away from the edge so as not to accidentally knock them over.
Finding a small fridge, he pulled out some of the ale and stuck it in so it could cool. With that all done, he paused to rest his head against the wall, staring holes in the floor as he did so. Wetting his lips, he began to speak as he climbed back outside. "I was on an undercover op on some woebegotten planet. I can't remember which... they all blur together." His happy tone was gone, replaced by a somber one.
"The Admiral had me posing as a merc and attending a poker game with Imperial operatives held at a warehouse out in the local docks district. But somehow I was sniffed out, and after flipping the table to facilitate my escape... I got outside and ran headfirst into a Sith. She'd been waiting for me." He paused, and shook his head slowly.
"My nervous system took a huge blow from all the Lightning she pumped into me to get me to kneel and by the end of it I found her saber against my throat. Eventually, the Admiral arrived and I wound up getting away from the Sith, only to have the Admiral put two shots into my chest."
He tapped his solar plexus. "Point blank." Scratching the side of his head, he looked down and away from her. Judging by the reverence he put on 'Admiral' he likely held a lot of respect for whoever it was, and perhaps even a few romantic feelings, given the slightly hurt tone in which he spoke of the shooting.
"It wasn't her... but it seemed like it. And that's what hurt the most."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:32 AM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth chucked at the boxer briefs comment and nodded happily along. As he started to speak, she knew it was not going to be a pretty story. The empathic nature of her gift, already was tugging at her hard with his heavy emotions. They may not have been out in the open, but she could feel them as if they were her own.
"Sith..." She hissed, as he spoke a bit of anger flaring up within her, burning brightly in her eyes for a moment. The woman was quick to tame it, to push it away. Her own experiences with Sith had not been pleasant. Right now she refused to let that anger consume her and turn her into the very type of monster that had done those horrible things to her.
The first Sith nearly destroyed her with Sith lightning to get an answer, to have her release a book of knowledge and great power to him. The second tortured her mercilessly until she was so broken that nothing of the old Coryth remained behind. The third cut off a toe with a pair of pliers and forced her to heal for her for months. The fourth forced her to kill for the first time, something that ripped her apart from the inside out. The fifth kidnapped her and forced her to use her gift of visions and prophecy to see the future and help him plan great evils. Sith ... not people she cared for at all. They had done so much to her, nearly killed her time and again.
As he got to the part of being shot, she gasped, placing a hand on her chest, the same spot he'd pointed to. Reaching up she brushed away a single tear that had been threatening to fall. It pained her to feel what he was, and the inner turmoil over the relationship that might have been. She just knew there was something, maybe even love for that Admiral and to be shot like that ... that was the worst type of betrayal in the books.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to go through that. Can't say I've ever been betrayed quite on that level. Been through a couple wars and seen plenty but nothing like that." She reached a hand over and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You ever want to talk about that ... or anything, I'm always open to talk. Day or night." It might not have seemed like much, but Coryth rarely if ever offered such things to someone she'd barely met, but with him she felt like he might could use someone like her around.
"I tend to wander a lot. A lot more than even most Jedi wander. I never stay in one place for too long. The longest I stay anywhere is on Corellia, here on the seas. But my comlink is always on, unless poodoo has hit the fan and things have gone to hell, then I don't answer, but then you know something has gone horribly wrong." She shook her head rapidly, realizing she was rambling again. "Sorry ... rambling again. I don't mean to, just can't always help it."
Realizing she probably needed to move on to another topic, something to keep things going and maybe change Sarge's emotions to a bit of a lighter side. "What about the scars on the cheek, seems like that stung a fair bit." Her eyes moving over the scars, imagining the original wounds. She always had a curiosity about scars ever since she started working as a healer. It just told so much about a person and the things they'd been through.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:43 AM
@Coryth Elaris
If there was one thing he didn't want her to do, it was cry. He had, for awhile, dated a Zeltron with no control over her pheromones, so he could tell an empath when he saw one. It also helped that he'd spent quite a lot of time on Zeltros recently since the perpetually happy atmosphere allowed him to get over his ails.
"I appreciate it, Coryth." Moving to the edge of the boat, he placed his hands on the railing and looked out to sea for the moment now that they were out on the water and away from civilization a little. "You're the first to ever ask about me as a person, so I admit I'm a bit at a loss."
Instinctual, he reached up to the thinner parts of his beard and chuckled. "Force Blast on Kashyyyk, fighting the old Witches of Dathomir. That was... quite a long time ago." Near on 400 years, actually. "Witch exploded the air, sending huge chunks of bark flying all over. Naturally in among the large were a ton of small. Most assume a grenade, but that's not quite accurate."
There was a hint of a smirk as more of his usual self returned, "That was... an interesting span of time, admittedly." Turning to walk back and face her, he gave a cock of his head. "If you've got an autopilot or something, why not turn it on. I think it's about time to hit the drink."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 02:06 AM
She managed a tiny smile now feeling the emotions start to shift into lighter territory which improved her mood greatly. If she knew a rough patch of emotions was coming, more often than not as long as it wasn't extremely powerful emotions or the emotions of a large group of people she could block a lot of it out. But asking about the scars, she hadn't expected the power of the emotions that she felt from him. "Anytime Sarge." She said, her smile growing a bit brighter until he mentioned that no one had asked him about him ...
"What?" She said, shocked. Her face contorted into a look of utter and absolute confusion. "What?" She repeated again a little more firmly. "How could I .. be the first you ask about you? Truly you? You have to have met hundreds of people over the years, surely someone else has asked."The tiny redhead seemed baffled as she continued to guide the ship out into the open sea, now out of the protected cove of the Golden Beaches.
"I'm sorry." She stopped herself, but still she couldn't understand how not a single soul had never asked him. "I don't mean to be ... rude or anything, I just can't wrap my mind around that idea that no one at all has asked. I .. always ask about the person. I want to know what lies beneath the surface. I'm a healer, and there are many wounds out there, some of the worst in fact that do not bleed and cannot be seen. And it is only by getting to know the person as a whole that you can find such and help to heal them." She leaned forward, and pushed her hair back from her face with a sigh. "But don't worry, you'll figure things out I'm sure. I don't bite ... much." She said with a small smirk, "So no need to be at a loss. Not with me, not out here. There is nothing out here but you, me, alcohol and the open ocean. There's no judgements on this ship."
Then he went onto the tale of the Witches. She shivered at the thought, having met one Witch, one very very evil one and never wanted to go through that again. "The scars, they do certainly look like a grenade, which is what I thought when I first saw em. But that does explain it just as well, the spells they can weave, honestly even as a force user I find concerning. " Her brow furrowed for a moment as she spoke those last words. "There are just some things that you shouldn't be able to do with the force."
Now seeing that smirk and feeling his emotions back closer to where they were when they met, her own smile returned. "That was the plan. I just wanted out in open water before I left things to the engine. Still not out far enough really to catch the winds and use the sails, but I don't think I'll be doing that tonight. Think we'll just survive on the engine and all and just enjoy the evening." With that she clicked a few things on the console, flipped a lever up and pressed in a couple more commands, locking in the course for the boat that would take them on a round trip around one of the nearby islands and bring them safely back to port over the next few hours.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 02:17 AM
"Coryth...", he says slowly. "Ask yourself something." Wetting his lips, he disappeared into the cabin, knowing the little redhead would follow. Already pouring himself a glass of whiskey, he began to speak. "Have you ever looked at a hunting rifle and asked 'how are you doing today?' What about your lightsaber? Do you ask if it's feeling a bit down after a bad date?" He sighs, taking a swig of the fiery liquid.
"You don't ask a weapon how it feels... because weapons don't feel. And I'm a weapon. I kill things, and I'm really good at it. I'm dependable, reliable, relatively easy to handle for the most part. What part of that shows off the fact you're a human? Reliability? My pistol's reliable, doesn't make it human."
He sighed, finding himself a seat at the small table and staring at it's surface slowly. To lighten his mood a little, he gave her a meaningful glance. "And I do bite; but only on request." Smiling sadly, he takes another gulp of the alcohol and lets his head rest back against the wall for a moment.
"So the answer is no; no one's asked. And it's amazing how few people bother to ask when you don't volunteer anything."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:05 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Coryth frowned as she followed him down. What he was saying, while it made sense, broke her heart. It was not how it was supposed to be. It could not be like this. Reaching down to the bottle she poured herself out a glass and took a hearty gulp, still not quite wrapping her brain around it all.
"You may be highly skilled at what you do, and do a damn fine job of it. But it does not make you any less human than I." She said firmly. "At the end of the day, you have a heart," As she said the word heart, she reached out and touched a finger to his chest, just above his heart. "that beats within your chest, a brain to think, and a soul to guide you." She managed a half smile, hoping he'd understand how she was looking at this. "All of that makes you human and the rest of the damn galaxy are idiots for looking at you any differently."
She chuckled when he mentioned biting again, "So do I ... makes life a little more interesting," She finished with a smirk, as if laying out an unspoken challenge. Perhaps she was being a little bit of a tease in that regard.
"Back to the point, the man I met on the docks today, was perfectly human. And had you not told me what you did for a living, I would have never known you were such a 'weapon' " She lifted her hands and made little air quotes with her fingers as she said the last word, "as you so quaintly put it."
She shook her head and sighed little taking another drink, "Look, I just don't want you to sell your self short. Right now, I'm starting to think you are doing just that, and letting other people dictate what you are. Thing is, no one can decide that but you. If they do, you have every right to deck them for it." She teased at the end trying to keep things a little lighter.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 01:17 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"Sadly, I didn't have a choice. I had a very particular set of natural skill, and the Plague made more than sure that I became what I am now. A weapon. That's not selling myself short, Coryth.", he says with a bit of a sad smile. "That's being honest." And that was entirely true.
"Like you, you're a Force User. Because I call you a Force User, does that sell you short? Not really. It's accurate, no?" He takes another swig. "The problem lies not in what I am, how I got here, or my job. It lies in how people perceive what I am. I think most realize I'm a weapon, and assume that on some level it means I don't like people."
Raising both brows, he gave her a meaningful look. "I really don't, if you have to know. But the other reason you met the human me, was because I wasn't working." There was a bit of a rueful chuckle. "It means a lot hearing you say these things, Coryth, but it's not quite as bad as you think."
"A bit lonely at times, but that's mostly my own fault. For the most part I make do, and find my enjoyment and happiness where and when I can. Usually in a nice day and an easy woman." He paused. "Not meaning you, of course.", he elaborates. "Which is actually a bit of a misnomer. Half the time I don't even sleep with them, I just flirt with them a bit to feel alive and then go about my business - leave them to find another guy with who to wile the night away."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 02:50 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Her eyes fell to the floor as she thought about what he was saying. Then she looked back up to him, her eyes meeting with his. "That's not entirely true though, just as you may be a weapon, it is not all you are. There is much more beyond that, and what is beyond that weapon is someone I'd like to get to know better." She said with a genuine smile.
"Just as I am a force user, it is far from all I am. Like I said, I want to get to know what is beyond that, and I hope that that you just might want to as well." With all the things she had been through and the years she had been gone, friends were something that was few and far between for the redhead. She hoped that maybe she could find a new friend on this little adventure of theirs. "Perception is everything. My master taught me that years ago." She gave a small shrug, "Even so, it's easy to get the wrong idea. Make assumptions that are far from fact." Lifting the glass back to her lips, she downed the rest and reached down, refilling it quickly.
She nodded slowly, not sure that she'd want to meet him working unless he was on her side of the battle. He was not someone she wanted to go against. Just from the small talk they had been having, and the feelings she had been able to read from his emotions alone told her a lot about the type of fighter he would be. Certainly not a situation she wanted to be in. She smiled at the kind words, "I'm glad it does, Sarge. I just ... It's hard to understand for me. Though, I suppose with the different paths we walk, things are so much different. I just can't imagine living a life such as yours and never have someone ask deeper questions."
"I would imagine it is. I know how that feels all too well, been traveling for years now. Over a decade, working my way from unknown space back to here. It was damn lonely out there. Though it was good to come back and find my ship still here. Surprising really." She shrugged it off hearing the comment about easy women. "Companionship is vital. We all need it. So, I can't blame you for flirting and spending time with women when you have the chance."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 03:25 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"It's true enough.", he retorts. "Because if you tried to figure out exactly, and I do mean exactly who somebody was... well, you'd never actually know anyone else in your life because you will never, ever, figure some out entirely. And that's OK; but it also means most people just take their face value and leave it at that."
A small smile graced his face again before he downed the rest of the glass in one go. "And I should warn you now; I'd have to drink both those bottles to get drunk, so don't expect me to fall over anytime soon." That wasn't entirely true. It was more a bottle and a half, but at that quantity of alcohol it was semantics.
"But, if you think about it, living the life I do is exactly why people don't ask deep questions. I could die tomorrow, then what's it matter, ya know? Just one more friend you've lost." He was entirely cognizant of just how depressing that sounded and was. But that was truly the reason most soldiers stopped making friends after awhile.
They'd just die on you. You learned to save yourself the pain.
"And you'd be surprised how many women would hold it against me. But you aren't like most women. I like that." He laughed and stood to grab himself some more whiskey.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 04:46 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
"Its not so much that I want to know what makes a person to everything they do, what makes every part of them tick," She sighed, "I just like to know what is beneath the surface, a little of what is beneath the mask. Cause I know damn well I can't know everything but I can learn enough."Reaching back into a drawer in the kitchen she retrieved a rubber band and quickly tossed the lengthy red locks up into a neat ponytail. She'd have enough of pushing it out of the way.
A smirk came to her lips, as her eyes wandered over him from head to toe, "Only two?" She moved over, taking a seat in front of him, her feet dangling a few inches off the floor. "One and a half is my number on getting drunk. So ... there is a small chance between the whiskey and the ale." She'd learned her limits long ago on drinking and took great care not to get drunk but there was something about Sarge that made her feel comfortable enough to let loose. Maybe tonight, she might just allow herself to get drunk. It was a strange thought, being comfortable around men again. After Zerxes, she'd never ... not even her own fiance. So, the idea of being okay here and now was strange.
"I suppose I can understand that. At the same time, I care too much. During the war, I led a small team and I took special care to get to know each personally and deeply." A sadness passed through her eyes and soon left, "I took their deaths quite personally. Thing is, even soldiers need friends. Maybe I'm just different than most." She shrugged and looked up to him, watching him for a moment before she turned to glance out through the window, out onto the open ocean.
"From your point of view, I can understand it. Losing friends constantly, I'm not sure I'd want to gain more just to go through the heartache and pain of losing them again."
She smiled at the last comment, "No, I'm not most women. Not in the least little bit." With that she grabbed her glass, one of the bottles and started up the steps. "It's no fun down here, you miss out on the smell of the salty ocean and the great views. So I suggest we go up on deck and take a seat on the lounge chairs I have out there." She was already on her way, knowing he was likely to follow.
Posted 04 September 2013 - 05:04 PM
@Coryth Elaris
Head turning a little to get a look at her pulling her hair back and into a ponytail, he smiled. A woman who could pull off a ponytail was always attractive, but in Coryth's case... "Ya know, I prefer your hair let down. It's thick, got some volume to it. Far more attractive down than up.", he says absently as he follows her up and onto the deck.
"I have my friends, Coryth. But they aren't soldiers, for the most part. They're smugglers. Engineers. People who, if they die, poodoo's already hit the fan too hard for me to do anything about it. I don't have to order them to try and navigate a minefield, or hold the line with the knowledge they'd not survive."
Unlike before, he hardly seemed sad or bitter about these things. He'd accepted them for what they were, and was more or less indifferent. He'd accepted the responsibility for these things with his job, but it didn't mean he liked it. It just meant he had to live with them.
He could do that. Mostly.
Lowering himself into a lounge chair he extended his legs in front of himself, crossing them at the ankles. Taking a whiff of the salty air, he found himself closing his eyes and smiling faintly as he relaxed a little. "You said you were gone near ten years, right? Do you know anything of the galaxy right now?"
Posted 04 September 2013 - 06:28 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
She grinned, "I prefer it down as well, but there comes a point where it's just doing nothing but getting in my way. And that is where I am at, sticky hair in this heat, getting in my way. Peeling it off my face is not my idea of a fun evening."
Nodding, she too took a seat in the chairs, lounging out and stretching her legs. The cuffs of her pants rode up a fair bit exposing that same familiar pattern of scars that were on her arms. Even her feet in the flip flops she wore, were badly scarred with those deep crisscrossing marks."That was one thing that made me sick back then. Giving the orders and knowing that most likely the kid I just sent out on the line was never coming back." She shook her head slowly, "I don't know how you do it. How one can get used to it, because it makes me damn ill just to think about. I just can't do that." The thoughts painful, as she pulled her glass back to her lips drinking half of it then and there. "I do get what you are saying though, I really do."
It was strange the similarities and differences between the pair, things that didn't quite effect him were the very things that tore her to pieces. The life of a soldier, a warrior was no life for her.
After a moment or two, Coryth leaned back into the chair and finally noticeably relaxed. To answer his question, she nodded slowly. "Ten years, and just now working my way back. So much has changed in the galaxy and I haven't a clue where to begin with it all. So to answer your question, no. No, I really don't know much of the galaxy right now. I don't know who is fighting who, what role the Council plays in all of it, where I am meant to be ... If I can even be called Jedi at the end of it all." She gave a shrug, "Been trying to figure it all out as I've been taking transports a bit further and further in. Everything still seems just as messed up as when I was taken."
Posted 04 September 2013 - 07:16 PM
@Coryth Elaris
"And there you go with your sticking your foot in your mouth. Peeling stuff off your face not your idea of a good time, eh?" With another habitual chuckle the man cast his gaze towards the now setting sun, where the red began to kiss the deep blue of the open sea, and, ahead, shone bloody light through the trees of the small island.
The man smiled faintly, taking a sip of his drink before rolling his head to the side to look at her. "Well, OmegaPyre, or, the Omega Protectorate, controls Corellia here... along with most of the trade routes all the way down to Bespin. We're a government whose standing army can be hired out to others, really. It's a bit difficult to describe, but we're fairly well liked by our people."
"The Republic is around, and they and the Sith are posturing back and forth in an endless cockfight that the Mandalorians are caught in the middle of. Other than that, you've really only got minor, nuisance factions kicking around the Outer Rim." And like that, he'd summed up the galactic state of affairs.
"Republic and Sith may go to war soon, and Omega may back the Republic, they might not. Most just leave us to ourselves, really." Entirely true, because Omega was probably the last faction anyone truly wanted to get in a war with. "If you're looking for a place to be, Coryth, come join OmegaPyre for a bit as a full time employee. We have an extensive medical research station and college in orbit over Fondor, and can provide you with plenty of Force Training should you need it."
He grins, "We also provide good pay and full benefits; life insurance, dental, eyecare, medical, you know the drill I'm sure. Plus, you'd get to work with me from time to time, along with a bit of a family. I'll warn you now though, most of the women there will hit on you pretty viciously. Especially the one woman, Hevana. She'll hit on pretty much anything with a woman's parts and a pulse."
As he spoke, his tone and feelings became more happy as he clearly loved his job for what it was and what it provided him. He was well cared for and got to do what he enjoyed with his life, even if it was a hard life to lead. It was exactly the sort of job satisfaction you couldn't fake.
Posted 05 September 2013 - 09:40 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
Shrugging, it was all she could do as a bit of pink flushed across her skin, though barely noticeable in the light of the setting sun. "Seems to be a habit of mine. You know how it is, hard to break and all that."
Calmly she listened, taking in every word. Coryth needed to know how things worked in the galaxy now, her own life might soon depend on it. "A strange concept. An army to rent out? Seems .. like an odd thing to me." She shook her head, "Very strange, indeed."
The more he spoke, the more she realized things really hadn't changed that much. "Seems like the same messed up place I left, just the names have changed but the game has not." That was something she found concerning.
At the offer, her lips twisted into a frown. She wasn't certain about the offer he had set before her. She still had work to do for the Jedi and knew her place was there but at the same time maybe the offer wouldn't be so bad. It could give her a new perspective which was something the young woman needed right now. It was just the idea of being some part of a standing army waiting for war ... That she did not like, but regardless war was going to come to her whether she liked it or not.
She turned back to him, the frown ever present. "I'd have to think about it. A decision like this is not something I can make on a whim. And ... the idea of being part of a government who hires out their military is concerning to me. I've seen enough of war and death to last a lifetime. I'm not sure if this Omega Pyre is the right place for me, at the same time not certain its the wrong place either." Another shrug followed.
At the comment of the woman Hevana, she just laughed. "I've been hit on by pretty women before, nothing new to me. Though right now it beats being hit on by men." A shiver raced down her spine, "Bad stuff happened a while back. A Sith, tortured, toyed with ... not sure I care to recount it but it was bad, pushed me to sever my connection to the force to prevent me from falling to the darkside. I've ..." She bit at her lip, "Well to be honest you are the closest I've let a man get to me in years. So I'm sure I could handle a few women hitting on me. At least they won't get their wrists broken for it."
Posted 05 September 2013 - 09:50 PM
The man's teeth shown through again as the pink of her cheeks brought about a warm, pleased smile. A woman embarassed or flustered always made him want to embrace them and smile and forget the world, and she'd feel it coming off of him. For all his roughness, he was a loving man. 'Gentle' would be going a bit far, but certainly caring.
"We've got more than that, ya know. OmegaPyre is the mercenaries. But we've got a medical station and college in orbit over Fondor, as I've said. We've got research and development firms, Caf plantations and argicultural projects. We're an expansive business, and if you don't want to see war then you don't have to."
"Most of our time is spent clearing the Outer Rim of Bando Gora Reavers and others who wish to do innocents harm. There's a little of everything, for a little of everyone." There was a bit of a chuckle. "But I won't press you further; I think you'd fit in at Cardea Medical Center, and if you want me to show you around at some point, you're more than welcome to request it."
His head slowly tilted. "I'm honored then, Coryth. Although you've my condolences for what's befallen you; no sense in me apologizing, for obvious reasons, but you have my sympathies." Giving her a bit of a sad smile, the man's dark brown eyes drifted to the deck for a moment.
"If you do ever want to talk though, let me know. I dated a girl once who, just before her birthday, stopped talking to me. Called me up a year later to tell me she'd been raped, had a kid and a boyfriend... a boyfriend she'd had even back when her and I were dating. But, despite all that, I still loved her. I was always willing to stop my day to help her, and the same goes to my friends."
Pausing, he gave her a quick look. "If you've got a slip of paper, I can write down my comm frequency."
Siobhan
Posted 05 September 2013 - 10:20 PM
She nodded slowly listening over it. "Thing is with war, the worst of the injuries happen in the field. Things that kill and fast. It's why I always was embedded with units on the battlefront. Annoyed me when I was a teen, because being an empath that close to it all just .. hurt. But I soon got over it. Healers like me are needed all over the galaxy and being in a hospital all the time, starts to give me cabin fever after a while." She paused thinking for a little while, letting the silence pass between them as she looked out over the calm waters.
"War is going to happen. There is nothing I can do to change that, but ..." She sighed softly taking another drink from her glass, "I can be there and make a difference when it does happen." A small smile crossed her lips as she thought back to all the lives she managed to save over the years. They more than made up for the ones she could not, though those were the ones that haunted her at night.
"I would like to see the Med Center, I think. I think it would be good for me. It's been far too long since I've been in one, worked in one."
She bowed her head slightly to him, "I just felt comfortable around you, like I never have since it happened." A small sad chuckle escaped her lips,"After I got past the you not existing in the force part. That crap freaked me out. You've got to be the first person I've met who hasn't had a force signature of some kind and being nothing, you were hard to ignore."
She looked away from him, a hand to her forehead as she listened, "Thank you. It means the worlds to me. Only one other person ever offered me such, and I couldn't ... couldn't bring myself to take him up." Biting at her lip another sigh escaped her, "I didn't want him to look at me any differently. I didn't want pity, or false apologizes, I just wanted understanding and that look on his face when I gave him the smallest inkling of what happened, I didn't think he was capable then." Reaching up she ran a hand over her face pushing away the painful memories to the back of her mind. A calming breath in and out and she finally had it far enough away from her mind to move on.
She stood and lifted a finger at the mention of paper and headed down into the cabin for a moment. Coming back she handed a pad over to him with a small pen clipped to it. "I appreciate this, I really do. People I call friends, are few and far between."
Posted 05 September 2013 - 10:36 PM
The man laughed a bit, "At least you know where you're needed and where you can stand to be for awhile." There was a nod after that, and he took the offered pad while still talking. "Then when you've got some free time... come out to Fondor." Smiling, he scribbled his comm frequency down in a curiously neat handwriting for a soldier.
Handing it back to her, he grins. "Glad to be of help, Coryth. And the Force Null thing generally garners a lot of interest since, ya know, the Force is in all things." That elicited a bit of a sigh. "A blessing and a curse. Although I'm glad people can't read me like a book."
Looking to his empty glass, he frowned. "To drink more... Or... Yeah. Drink more." Lifting himself up, he cast a glance down at her and gave her shoulder a light squeeze, revealing some burns on the skin under his forearm.
"I don't think we've hit your irrational quota, yet." And with another chuckle, he walked down and into the cabin to pour himself more whiskey.
Posted 06 September 2013 - 03:47 PM
@Sarge Potteiger
"Fondor?" A smile returned to her, "All I have is time right now. I haven't let the Council know I've returned to known space, so I'm pretty certain to them I'm long dead, so time is something I have loads of. If only I could sell time, now that would be handy."
She gave a small shrug as she took the pad back from him. An eyebrow lofted to the neat handwriting, but she made no comment to it. "It helps to know where I'm needed and what my job asks of me. Its just as much a part of me as my beating heart within my chest. It may not be pretty but it's not so bad once you get used to the blood. Lots of blood." She shuddered a little at the thought. "Took me years to get used to the feel, sights and smells of it."
A bow of the head followed in thanks to him. "It is odd, being Force Null. Like I said, you are the only one I've ever met. And you are quite correct, the force is in everything which is why it took so long to convince myself you were real. Cause if you were not, you were one damn fine figment of my imagination." A playful smirk danced upon her lips as she rose to follow him back down, needing another refill as well. "There are days, that I wish people couldn't read me as openly. Always annoyed the piss out of me that my master knew what I was thinking before I did. He was far too good at that stuff."
"Though with you, Empathy lets me read into a little more than most I suppose. I still have to go on visible clues for the most part, which is ... something I'm not practiced at. There's a good chance I'll read you wrong."
At the touch she glanced up to his arm seeing more scars there. "Burned somewhere along the lines?" She asked softly, not sure that she wanted to know the answer, the first she had asked about his scars had hurt badly, even for her.
She glanced to the empty glass and thought for a moment, "Nope, not yet but I'm sure we'll get there. All in good time my friend."
Posted 06 September 2013 - 04:02 PM
"Selling time would be a bit difficult, but you'd be rich if you could figure it out." There came a faint bit of a sardonic laugh at that, followed by the sound of liquid sloshing around in a glass. A moment later the thunk of a bottle being set on the counter could be heard and he shook his head.
Truthfully, in his line of work, it was good that people only had his expression to go off of the vast majority of the time. "Empaths tend to have a hard time with me, because I feel strongly, quickly, but thankfully I control it just as quickly." With a smirk, he takes a swig and waits for her to fill her own drink up.
Looking down to his forearm and lifting it up for a moment to get a look at what she saw, he smiles faintly. "Crash landing.", he says with a bit of a chuckle. "Admiral crashed us right into a space station. I'd just neutralized a sociopathic murderer on our vessel, but not before he took out our engines."
Sighing a little, he downed more of the drink, a cue that said sociopath wasn't a happy memory. "You'll learn to read me in time, I'm sure."
Posted 07 September 2013 - 12:54 PM
"Wouldn't that be the truth." A soft chuckle followed.
"Tell me about it. Been hard to get a good read on you, though the strong emotions bleed through badly even with my defenses up, so even if quickly felt I'll still pick em up." She gave a small sigh as she filled her glass back up. "And not always a pleasant gift to have. Bloody curse some days."
"Sorry to hear that, hun." She shook her head slowly, "To be fair, ships hate me with a divine passion. If I'm flying it might as well be a death sentence, crashed once, took out a control tower the next ... knocked a wing off a fighter, after that the council stopped giving me ships to fly and forced me onto transports or gave me a team to fly and later extract me at a moments notice. Annoying really, but I just can't seem to get a handle on this flying thing." As she spoke the last few words she waved her hands in the air a bit, frustrated that that single skill had eluded her in such a manner. Most things came easy to her, but that was the single thing she could not get down.
With that thought out, she headed back upstairs and onto the deck the first of the evening stars just starting to peak out over the darkening seas. A smile of pure contentment followed as she starred up at it for a moment. She allowed for silence to pass again between them before she spoke,"Love looking out at the stars, always found solace in them. I used to sleep on the streets, grew up on them truly and nothing really would make me feel joy save for those few moments before I fell asleep." Bringing the glass to her lips, she took a small sip letting the contentment wash over her.
"Never knew what was going to happen from day to day back then. Did a lot of things that I'm not proud of, but I did what I had to, to get through the day, to survive. But there were times that I'd stop and lay upon the rooftops wherever I was and just look up to the heavens knowing what comfort lay in them for me." Looking down to the deck a sad look crept upon her face, "Dreams of a silly little girl, always wishing for a better world. A new world that would bring something better for me."
She shrugged and returned to her seat on the lounge chairs just looking up at the skies once more, seeing more stars slowly appearing above them. "I did find that better world eventually. Coruscant saved me. Nearly killed me first, but it did save me in the end."
"I can fly enough to elude the more novice pilots, but that's about it.", he confesses a bit sheepishly. "I've always been a groundpounder, always will be. The finer arts of just about anything elude me like infinite wealth." What he wouldn't give for infinite wealth. Well, he'd give up infinite wealth for one thing, but that was another story entirely.
Pausing as she went back outside, he took a long swig of his drink, filled it up again, and then followed after with a glass in one hand and the bottle in the other. "I get my solace from a bright, sunny day. Stars are nice, but then they remind me of the vastness of the universe and... frankly, they scare me at that point." Anything his mind couldn't comprehend put quite a bit of fear into him.
He was terrified of the unknown. Icy tendrils around the heart, terrified.
It had, for a time, been the main reason he'd never done anything with his life. Because he was simple too afraid.
He had, mostly, gotten over it, thankfully enough. But it was still there at times, especially when night came down and he was alone with his thoughts. His memories. His actions. But, most importantly, death.
"Coruscant is nice, but there's far too much city there for me. Even Fondor is a bit much. I'm a suburban boy with a country heart and cities just... well, they just don't quite cut it. Alderaan is more my style."
Posted 08 September 2013 - 11:21 PM
That brought a smile back to her lips. "Honestly, even finer arts like saber skills, I'm not that great at. In fact ... crappy at best. I can defend myself at best but even then it's not great." At least she was not completely alone in that department. "Only thing I'm really good at is healing, illusions, and a few other mental and scholarly things."
"Infinite wealth, think we'd all be better off with that." The talk of wealth brought a thought to her mind, one she enjoyed. "It's not exactly infinite but I did steal a hearty stash from a Sith Lord, long story. Not something I even feel the slightest bit bad about. Its where my funding comes from to help as many folks as I can. So his ill-gotten gains have been making up for his actions."
"I never had a home you see, born on a star ship to boot. I guess it's only natural that I hold a fondness for them. But I can understand where you are coming from. Its scary sometimes to think what's out there. Now seeing beyond known space, I fear for us all." There were things out there that she saw, evils far greater than anything the people here knew. Things that existed only in their worst nightmares. But were as real as Coryth and Sarge.
She looked back over to him, "The city, to be honest I can't stand." She pointed down to her bare feet. "I never wear shoes, cannot stand them. They keep me from being in tune with the world around me. Coruscant I never get a good read for with all the metal, duracrete, catwalks and buildings. I'd give anything for a planet with soft grasses, sandy beaches and crisp mountains. I feel so much more in those places, sense far more just being able to connect with the grounds beneath my feet."
"You're definitely looking for Alderaan, then." He says with a nod of his head. The world was absolutely gorgeous; nothing but snow-capped peaks, lush forests of the deepest greens and expansive plains of short grass that always seemed to be well maintained despite no maintenance.
It had nearly killed him when it had been obliterated from orbit, and his eyes glassed over as his mind went back to those fateful wastelands.
An ill wind laden with ash and cinder lashed across the pockmarked surface of cracked dirt and bedrock. Mountains that had once proudly sported the most vibrant greens and brightest whites were now an ugly brown that stung the eyes with their loathsome hues. Here and there a stubborn survivor of a shrub clung to the last vestiges of scarred earth in an attempt to continue the circle of life which had been broken upon the back of an Imperial Armada.
Adjusting his belt, hearing the faint rattle of his revolver in it's holster, Sarge looked to the nearest mountain and then to his companion, a small woman of the same age as he - 19. Members of the Rebellion, they were fighting the Imperial Remnant for control of the galaxy as best they could.
Amazing how even in 400 ABY the Rebellion and Empire still found a way to be central combatants. If only he'd known what sort of holocaust lurked on the horizon, he'd be far less likely to risk his life for something like the Rebellion; the Plague would render most of their efforts mute.
Still, the pair kept on walking, until they were forced to climb the side of the mountain towards an entrance to the cave system they hoped would yield survivors. Adjusting the set of his duster on his shoulders, Sarge gave a nod to his companion as they headed into the cave... only to find a dead body hanging from the wall.
Not even a moment later, the sounds of voices reached their ears and a group of four came around the corner with torches; all of them had weapons. Sarge, from within his helmet, couldn't see where his partner had gone, but they didn't either considering they were merely talking to him.
With the speed a trained gunslinger, he brought up his pistol in time to outright kill three of them... but not before they shot him. Four times.
In the torso.
His world went white, his body hit the floor, and unconsciousness took hold.
Sarge snapped back to the reality of the boat, breathing heavily and reaching for a weapon that was no longer at his side. Finding that he'd nearly fallen out of his chair, the man shuddered and sunk into his seat, embarrassed, without another word. He didn't even realize he'd dropped not just his glass, but the bottle.
Posted 08 September 2013 - 11:58 PM
Coryth was up fast, ignoring the broken glass on her deck and knelt over beside him. That was something she had seen before in war torn men, flashbacks to trying and traumatic times.
"Come back to me, Sarge." She had asked quietly while he seemed to be off in a galaxy of his own creation.
Soon enough he came back, though a twinge of fear fell across her as she saw him reaching for a weapon, thankfully one not present at that moment. "It's okay. You're here with me, safe from harm and always will be."
Coryth didn't touch him in those moments, somehow knowing better of it. Personal experience told her such things were dangerous, if not deadly with someone like him. Kneeling down still, she looked over with kind eyes, seeking only to comfort him in whatever way he would allow for."Whatever it is, whatever happened, if you ever want to talk about it, Sarge I am here to listen. Always." The concern so clearly written on her face, it was people like him that she worried the most about. He deserved so much better than a life of memories that haunted him.
Never did she move away from him, not caring about the drink spilled or anything else for that matter. The only thing that mattered then and there was him and him alone. "Is there anything that I may do to help you? Anything at all?"
Posted 09 September 2013 - 12:12 AM
"I'll be fine, Coryth.", he manages weakly, swallowing not just excess saliva but his pride as he came to grips with the fact that he'd just gone full retard in public. Many perceived Sarge to be flippant, uncaring about his own failures; the truth couldn't be further from that. He was hyper self-critical, a trait he'd gotten from his parents since they'd loved to nitpick.
This was one of those times where he was already mentally berating himself for the loss of control, for that immersion in the rippling waters of the past that always promised a riptide that would pull him under in a heartbeat. "I'm so sorry.", he says, finally, moving to clean up after himself with a speed that spoke of not just good manners but a need to escape.
His mind was distancing itself in every way it could think of from what had just transpired, and it was hard to blame it for doing so. "I'll be fine.", he repeats, like a mantra, convincing himself it was so. "Not the first, won't be the last. Always fine."
Posted 09 September 2013 - 12:50 AM
A frown creased across her delicate features. She shook her head and watched as he moved from the chair and began to clean up. Without much of a word, she rose to her feet and headed down belief, letting him have a moment to collect himself. She returned with a small dustpan and broom and dropped back to her knees to help sweep things up.
"Listen to me and listen well," Her tone firm and serious, "You are never to apologize for how you feel around me or what you remember. You have nothing to be sorry for. If you ever apologize for that, you are apologizing for the truth, so don't do it. Ever." She looked to the glass and back to him. "And its only a glass, its not the end of the galaxy."
"Now, it's going to happen again and when it does I will be right here waiting for that com call. When the time is right and you want to talk, I will not shrink away from that responsibility." She gave a small shrug and rose to her feet, dumping the broken glass into a bin just inside the cabin door. "Believe it or not, I know exactly how you feel. I'm haunted by so many things, so many things I've never spoken of to anyone else. I just hope that I can be there for you, so that you do not have to face it alone like I have done for so long."
With those words, Coryth left his side and headed to the front of the ship, ducking beneath the neatly tied down sail. Slipping her feet over the edge, she stared out over the waters, listening to the waves crash softly against the bow of her boat. She figured right now he needed a little space and she was going to give it to him.
There was a deep sadness in her eyes, seeing him this way pained her more than she would admit or even show. Suffering was one thing that she could only do so much to help. When it was right in front of her yet she could do nothing, it only stung deeper.
Posted 09 September 2013 - 03:29 PM
She was wrong. He did have to be sorry; he was making an absolute mess of himself. She may not mind if he had problems, but he did, and that's why he had to be sorry. Giving a bit of a numb nod, he retreated to his seat and once again sat in the silence and space that she provided when she'd gone to the bow of the boat.
Running his fingers through his short hair, the soldier let his brown gaze sweep across the waves as the boat piloted itself around the island that was the fulcrum of their trip. Standing, he went to the controls and set the autopilot to take them about a half kilometer further past the island and then shut off the engine so they could coast.
On one level, he felt bad doing it... on another, he didn't.
Moving to the front of the boat, ducking under the sail and taking a slow seat next to her, arms resting over the railing. "They wanted to eat me; you know?"
Posted 09 September 2013 - 03:58 PM
Coryth sighed, letting what emotions she had running through her wash over her body, calmly letting them pass through. Each dealt with in its on way. Frustration at the situation, she wanted to help but could not. Sadness, sorrow for the way it was. It was life after all and nothing was ever as easy or as simple as it should have been. If only I knew how to comfort him, ease his burdens, I'd give everything I have to do so.
She didn't quite understand it but she felt a certain attachment to the man on the boat. He'd been through so much, too much. Much like she had, and in that she felt that maybe there was a small chance that they could help each other, if only the galaxy would allow for it. It was in that moment she realized it was not by sheer chance that they met today. No, there was a greater purpose in it. The force had something else in mind.
She turned her head slightly, cocking it to the side as he sat down. The words seemed so strange that he spoke. Nodding slowly, she knew they had to be from whatever memory his mind had thrown at him. She shook her head and sighed, "Beings do the most bizarre things in their most desperate hours." She wasn't too sure what he had gone through and only could guess at it. Only assuming it was a most desperate situation, she had no idea the truth.
Reaching over she laid her hand on his knee for a second and gave a gently squeeze. "Things do get better eventually. Everything takes time. Some more than others." Withdrawing her hand, she returned it back to her own lap and focused back out on the waters.
"I am here, though. If you want to tell me more, if you want to talk, I am here. In whatever capacity you need. If you need space, I'll give it. If you need someone to sit with you in silence, I'll do it. Whatever you need, I'll do it." The last words could have been twisted into some naughty joke, but Coryth was dead serious, not even a bit bouncy or happy as she had been before. She only seemed greatly concerned and worried for her new friend. All she desired for was to help him in whatever way he would allow her.
Posted 09 September 2013 - 04:07 PM
The man nodded slowly, then extended an arm to wrap gingerly around her shoulder to draw her against him. It was the lightest of touches and holds, the kind reserved for someone who didn't want to cross too many boundaries too quickly. Physical contact eased his mind, made his problems disappear.
He'd learned that much over the past year or so.
"Alderaan was a lifeless waste.", he begins slowly. "A pockmarked hell of residual heat from the turbolaser batteries and ionization from the ion cannons. The reek of ozone pervaded even the air filters and in some places the radiation was so intense it'd kill you in a minute, even with full rad protection."
He shrugged faintly.
"Survivors weren't the nicest folk.", Sarge explains slowly. "I'd not suggest doing whatever it takes, since... from what you've made mention of, my cure is your ailment." He frowned a bit, watching as the island disappeared off to their left and open water stretched in front of them endlessly.
He had given her a hint of his age with that explanation, as Alderaan had been whole since before the Plague had even started.
Posted 10 September 2013 - 06:38 PM
As he pulled her against him ever so gently, she allowed herself to rest her head upon her shoulder. If that was what he needed then, she was going to give it to him.
When he spoke again, her brow furrowed together as a look of confusion crossed the woman's face, truly not understanding in the least now."That was ... well over four hundred, maybe even close to six hundred years ago or longer, if I recall my galactic history well enough." Baffled was an understatement. She knew of beings that could live much longer than that, but few she ever met. And they most certainly were not humans.
She turned her head to look at him, "I must ask, how old are you?" She didn't discount the story, everything she could pick up told her he wasn't lying to her. From facial expressions, to vague emotions, it was enough for her to believe him completely.
"I can only imagine how horrible it must have been. I've been on a dying world, feeling it all go, nearly crushed me under the weight of it all." She shuddered quite noticeably against him, before she managed to shake the memories from her mind. "So, I can only imagine what you went through. If it was anything like what I did, what I saw, felt ... And it sounds much worse than mine own experience, I know it must have been one of the roughest things you've been through."
She gave a small shrug, "Truly men ... Men are my ailment. But that is aside from the subject at hand. But you aren't most men. Or I'd never have let you on my boat, and would have ran from you a long while ago. Yet, here you are, which makes you special. To me."
"I'm familiar with that. Father, when I was little, worked at a bus depot - big ol' things for civilian transportation. We'd always go in through the garage, and it smelled like nothing else... in a good way. There's still times when I can swear I smell it and it makes me feel six again." What he wouldn't give to go back to that time.
Frowning a little, now a bit melancholy, he shifts his attention elsewhere. "I'll introduce you to the Lady Protector, then. She can help you make a decision about where to be.", he says with a bit of a smile. Yes. He'd just said Lady Protector. If that wasn't a clue as to his importance in OmegaPyre nothing else would be. "I'll be glad to have you around, for sure.", he adds with a grin.
Posted 12 September 2013 - 11:47 PM
Shifting again she put more of herself up against him, leaning over into his lap now with her back pressed to his chest. The warm thoughts from his childhood seemed to resonate through her. She wished for a simpler childhood, something not nearly as painful as hers. Maybe that would be something she kept hidden. None of that registered in the emotions she presented around her, Coryth made damn sure of it. She wasn't going to be responsible for him feeling anything but good things from her. "I'd give the galaxy to go back to a simpler time. Where I only worried about what toys I had to play with and stuff like that. Simple things.... I really miss those days."
She cocked her head to the side a bit oddly. Surprise rippling through her, "Lady Protector?" That was one person in Omege Pyre that Coryth knew of ... She glanced up to Sarge, "And remind me, what exactly is it that you do?" Chuckling softly, she looked up to him from her position, "It would be good to be around. Around you, maybe even around others." Though that she had her doubts on. "Would be nice to be somewhat useful again."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 12:07 AM
"That can't be comfortable..." Looking down, he took notice of her new position and chuckled faintly. "I miss the carefree nature of it. The innocence. Death isn't something you can comprehend. The world will always be the exact way it is now, so far as you're concerned. Getting older is your only true goal, because you can't wait to be cool like all those older kids.", he snorted at the irony of it.
Spend the first ten years of your life wanting to be older... and then you get older, and you want to be young again. "I'm security.", he explains simply, that word more heavily weighted than it would have been without context. Anyone could be security, but not everyone was security.
"We make sure everyone finds a purpose, that's for sure..."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 01:57 AM
She smirked, "More comfortable than you know." A soft laughed followed, "Been known to sleep in the strangest of positions, contortionist style."Giving a shrug home, she shifted again onto her side still against him as she looked back over the seas. "Used to sleeping in the crappiest, cramped and small places. Gets ya used to strange positions." Even as the words left her mouth, she knew they could be twisted around so easily but still she couldn't help it. There was a filter she was missing in her brain, unable to stop and think before she opened her mouth.
Closing her eyes again she sighed, "Purpose, I think more than anything else I really need that. No idea quite what I'll do there but I'm sure we'll find something that fits me like a glove." Needed was an understatement. The redhead felt so lost. As if she was just drifting on the open ocean, no anchors, no guidance, no engines, no sails, just drifting. "I've been drifting from planet to planet ever since I got back into Known Space. Every transport has taken me a little closer to the core, a little closer to here. My only hope when I got here is that Lexa would still have my boat, all in one piece and wouldn't have done something stupid like sell it off. This, was the only place I knew to come to. Knew I'd be safe and could take a little time to myself before I had to start figuring my life out once more."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 02:09 AM
"You really don't have a censor do you.", he says with a bit of a laugh before gently wrapping her up and sliding her up so that she could rest easily in his lap - it was clear he was doing this more to make her comfortable than anything else, and his touch was light, careful. "Well it seems your ship is more than fine, and you may find a new home soon.", he says quietly.
With a bit of a smirk, he added. "If you need an actual place to stay, I've a condo in Coronet you can stay at - although I've been known to have the odd visitor or two." What that entailed, who knew, but it was either poker buddies or women.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:35 AM
Coryth shook her head slowly. "Nope, no censor at all. Gets me into worlds of trouble." Chuckling she recalled memories back at the temple, with the Council. "You know, the Council had brought me in to give me a new assignment." Sighing, a story that she hated to tell. "I remember them telling me that my partner would arrive soon, a Master Daret. Well ... I recalled Daret being a bit of an asshat. So .... nothing like opening my mouth and sticking both feet in. 'You mean that squid head .. stands about yay tall ... smart ass, egotistical, anal, rude, inconsiderate, snotty to everything as it's beneath him, complete jerk to woman, and general bastard to boot' ?"
Her hands went to her face, even now turning red in the darkness. "What I hadn't noticed was how the room was dead silent at this point, jaws agape.... You know all the things that should have given me a clue. I went on complaining about the Master for a good three or four minutes, insulting him with pretty much everything I had. I literally had no respect for the man and it showed." Her lips twisted into a frown, "Too bad he was right behind me the whole time just waiting for me to finish. As I stopped, I seemed to pick up on all those little clues that I had missed moments before ... Closed my eyes, and turned around. 'Hi Master Daret, great day isn't it?' I tried to smile, but there was no point in being nice. No apology was going to make it better either, nothing .. I was karked. Been perhaps the biggest witch ever, in public, only reenforcing the man's extreme dislike for females......." For a while she was silent, still embarrassed, "Needless to say ... that was one awkward mission."
A smile returned to her lips as he scooped her up and sat her in a more comfortable position on his lap. Gently she leaned her head back against his shoulder and shifted only a hair more to get comfortable. "Sadly, not the first incident, not the worst incident and certainly not the last incident in front of the Council." Her lips twisted into a smirk, "Perhaps that is why I was never given Master. Guess I still have some learning to do .. or something. Gave me padawans, more than I could ever manage. But geez. The term 'don't pull an Elaris' .. commonly known among younglings, new knights and padawans."
She nodded to him, "Took a bit of repairs to get her truly seaworthy when I had gotten back, but ten years gone, I think that is to be expected."Pausing she thought over what he had said to her, really she had no place to go or stay but the boat, and that was cramped as always. Something she was used to, but it wasn't the most practical of things. "You sure? Cause heavens know staying on a boat twenty-four seven isn't exactly the most fun home to be in. It's great for a few weeks, a month or two but longer than that, and it may just drive you mad."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:52 AM
Both of his brows arched upwards in barely contained amusement at her story, because he could picture the little woman being a foul-mouthed little pain in the arse and then turning around like nothing had just happened. It seemed to fit, despite them not knowing each other too well. "I've never done anything like that, I'm afraid. Mostly because I just end up saying it to their face once I get fed up; I try to avoid unnecessary conflict, though."
Which was true.... until you got him angry, and then whatever loose set of ethics had constrained him before went straight out the window - along with one of your limbs, most likely. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm a noun like that, and then I realize that it would probably be unflattering and I stop caring a whole ton.", he says honestly.
"Got an extra bedroom you can stay in; I'm only on Corellia about once a month, so you'd be set."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 12:26 PM
A small laugh escaped her lips, "I can see that with you. Something about your personality, just seems to speak that to me. Makes sense I suppose." A nod on conflict, something she avoided at all costs. "I just ... can't help but speak my mind sometimes. And truly I often forget to think before I speak ... So, trouble happens."
Lightly she reached out and patted at his knee, being comforting as possible. She wasn't sure what to say to that, and let silence pass for the moment. Her thoughts then went back to his condo in Coronet. "I appreciate that, hun. I really do." Drawing her lower lip in, she crewed on it for a moment, nervously thinking through the possibilities. "As long as you don't mind. It would help me a fair bit right now to have a real roof over my head."
Leaning forward, the redhead's hands flew to her forehead, a gasp of pain followed, but soon Coryth's hands fell away, her body relaxing but it was clear she wasn't quite with Sarge for the moment. Her eyes had glassed over and her vision faded from the ocean view before them and morphed into something else.
A woman, a brunette, came into her view and Coryth watched as the woman picked the lock to an apartment of some type ... Her vision shifted to inside the building and she watched as the woman approached, seemingly shocked that the little redhead was present. Confusion so clear in the other woman's eyes.
Just as quickly as the vision came, it faded back away. A shudder fell over her, and Coryth shook her head trying to push off the pain that had caused her. She hated sometimes how those things came and went striking her like lightning. Thankfully this vision was quite short, and vague, very vague to her. The longer the visions lasted, the more side effects they left behind. For the most part though, her prophetic gift lay in her dreams, nightmares really but they always felt as real as Sarge was beneath her. Always haunted her.
For a moment Coryth kept leaning forward, holding her head. It still throbbed greatly, which right now she just needed it to stop. She seemed to forget about Sarge for a minute and just sat there, staring at her feet, trying to collect herself and ponder on what this little vision was and would be. It was so vague, and it was something she hoped may become clearer in the days and weeks to come. Strange things visions were.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 03:11 PM
"I don't think before I speak because I want people to know what's on my mind.", he says with a bit of a shrug as she pulls, well, a him. One moment she's with him, and the next she's fading into herself, and he knew better than to disturb her in that moment. Feeling her shudder, he wrapped an arm around her waist gingerly to secure her. "You alright....?", he asks in a near whisper, looking down to her for a moment.
For all he knew, she suffered from mild seizures and that had been one of them; or she could have had a flashback like he did. It never occurred to him that perhaps she'd had a flashforward. After his question, though, he quieted himself and waited to hear what it was she had to say.
Silence would reign until she felt the need to speak again; he'd give her all the time she needed.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 05:19 PM
Coryth sat for a long while just staring at the waters in the darkness. Slowly she nodded, to let him know she was okay. A little bit of pain but otherwise fine. "I'm okay..." It didn't sound terribly believable but it was there. She did mean it. Just something about her voice wasn't quite the normal her.
Her shoulders rose and fell with a heavy sigh as she laid her arms over the one he had wrapped around her waist. "From time to ...." She started slowly, choosing her words with great care. "I see things. Glimpses really... Of things to come." Hoping against hope that he'd believe her, maybe understand a little. "Been like this since I was little. Ever since I could remember I've got these ... visions?" She wasn't sure what to call them."They change constantly ... The future is funny like that. Even knowing about it, can change it. And the closer to the event I've seen, the visions get worse."
"Most come as nightmares in the darkness. Others simple dreams. Either way, I'm haunted." Her eyes hadn't moved from the ocean, seeking solace in the soft waves crashing against the boat. "Sometimes, but very rarely they come in my waking hours. The longer they last, the more side effects I suffer. From headaches to ... passing out."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 05:39 PM
"One of them people who can see the future, eh? I've had that happen once... once. And it did happen, without a singular doubt. Took six years for it to come true, but it happened. Weirded me out somethin' fierce.", he explains, shuddering a bit at the thought. "Just didn't feel natural ya know?"
That was true. There was nothing natural about seeing the future, especially when it could run along infinite tracks to infinite different endings; something as simple as changing what coffee you ordered often could alter things in ways you'd never imagine, if only because of the trickle down effect of such an action.
It's partially why he was so private, really. To avoid people who could look at him and just see right through him, his past, and most importantly, his future.
Some things just aren't meant to be known.
"That's quite a, uh, thing you got there." He wouldn't say 'curse', as that wasn't sure, but he wouldn't say 'gift' either, since it too was inaccurate. It simply was what it was. "I am honestly at a loss."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 06:11 PM
She nodded slowly to him once more. "Yeah, but honestly .... I'd give up everything I have to make them go away." Her empathy, she had already locked away knowing she was going to feel some rough emotions after she came through that particular vision. At least in part he understood what it was like. "It seems to happen to a few people, even without the force." She'd found that often enough to know it was true.
"No, it's completely unnatural. It's so rare for Force Users to be like this. Only met one other being who could do what I could. Even then, I do wish for control over it." A sigh followed, finally she slowly seemed to be regaining her bearings, her voice seemingly stronger. "I hate that it strikes like lightning. Completely random, and I've been warned not to chase control, but it would be nice to sleep for a change and not dream."
"Curse? Yeah, it is." She confirmed. It was something she hated that she could do. "It sucks, to be quite frank. Rarely if ever do I see good things happen. Most of what I see is cold, dark, sinister and evil. Thing kind of things that keep me from sleeping for weeks after I see them. And ..."She closed her eyes tightly, "Nothing hurts worse than seeing the death of a friend, and know entirely too well there is so little you can do to stop that rip tide from coming and taking them. Hurts more than being there when they die." Her voice cracked on the final few words, clearly speaking from experience. "That is not something I want to know. I don't want to see beforehand. The knowing, kills me."
Reaching out she patted his leg again, before giving his knee a squeeze. "It's okay, really. It's nice just to talk about it for once and not feel like I'm going insane. That's the part of all of it that hurts so badly. I didn't ask for this. I didn't want this ... this .. karking curse!" Her voice had grown a little louder, anger rolled from her. "I just .. Just, want normal."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 06:17 PM
"Shhhhh..." the man murmurs, arm tightening ever so slightly around her. "Keep yourself calm...", he whispers patiently, knowing exactly the sort of anger she was feeling right about now. It was the same rage he felt, too. The best way to deal with it was to stay calm, let them be angry, but do nothing to elicit anger directed towards you.
Inevitably, they'd realize you were doing nothing to warrant the anger and calm down. Even if she wasn't full on screaming or yelling, the anger was there and it was palpable, a faint haze upon his mind that stoke a furnace he'd rather her not see. "You were given the Sight for a reason, Cory. It sucks, I know, but I've learned there's a reason for everything in this life."
Smiling faintly, he brushed his cheek against her head against and planted a light, brotherly kiss on the side of her forehead. "Now calm, and remember that even when you're weak, someone will always be there to pick you up."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 06:59 PM
The sound of his voice so near to her ear, was soothing, more than he knew. Trying hard to remain in control, she closed her eyes and drew on the Force, allowing for it to wash away the worst of it. Angry was the last thing she needed to be. No, in her worst moments, in anger, the darkside always called to her, threatening to pull her under. But that was something Sarge didn't need to know. Something she wasn't going to let him know, unless she had no other choice.
"I just wish, wish that I knew. That I knew exactly why I'd been given this. Because I hate this part of me." Tears were threatening to spill over now. "Just hurts, so much sometimes." Her voice cracked on those words. She was having a hard time holding it all together and it showed. Thankfully the anger was melting away. Melting into sadness and sorrow but at least she was away from that danger that anger brought to her doorstep.
She closed her eyes once more feeling his cheek against her head, a soft sniffle could be heard from her as she reached to wipe away the tears. There was nothing else she could say, leaning more into him, she tried her hardest just to relax and let things go. Something that she had always struggled with. At least this time was different. She actually had someone there for her, which helped more than she could ever express. A soft nod was her answer to him, the only thing she could offer at that point.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 07:11 PM
He made another soft, soothing noise to quiet her as his other arm came up to wrap around her waist, knowing exactly where this was about to go; crying. He hated crying, if only because it made him feel helpless. "We all have our burdens to bear, and heavy though they may be, we were given them because we are able to carry them. You just have to know your strength."
There were times he had no faith in anything, and times when he had a clarity that he wished he could have when he wasn't trying to help someone. But that clarity was something that had evaded him throughout his life, simply because he couldn't trust. A hand lifted to rub some of the tears from her face, and a frown creased her face.
"It's going to be fine, Coryth. Everything always works out in the end." That was something he truly, deeply believed. Now matter how deep your hole was dug, there was always the knowledge that it could reverse at any second to keep you going. This moment should be proof of that to her.
And it was at times like this that it was easy to understand why he was capable of such emotionless brutality. He was so caring that if he didn't shield himself, he'd be run over by everyone in the galaxy; and no one wanted to be a patsy.
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:04 PM
She bowed her head, looking down to the deck and watched as the first fallen tears splashed upon the wood. "I just, I .." She stumbled over her words, trying to find the right ones, the ones she wanted to come out. "I'm not sure I'm strong enough for this anymore. After everything I've been through. I feel ..." Slowly she let out a heavy breath, "Shattered and disjointed. Like I'm some kind of puzzle and no one, not even me can get the pieces put back together right."
She turned to look at him as he wiped her tears away. "I feel ... empty. And ... it hurts, everyday hurts a little more than the one before." It couldn't come as a surprise given the few details she had told him that she was a bit of a shattered soul, just struggling to get her life back. "I keep thinking it's going to get better, but it doesn't. Now I'm back in a galaxy that I no longer know. I don't even know if my two closest friends are still alive. I haven't been able to contact them, to find them. They just seem to be like smoke in the wind. That is ... if they are even alive at all."
She shook her head slowly from side to side. "I don't have anyone I can really turn to anymore." More than anything she needed reassurance that someone, anyone at all could and would be there for her.
After a long bit of sniffling, she managed to push away much of the tears, trying to bring her emotions back under tight control. "I can only hope that you are right, Sarge. Because I don't think I can keep doing this, like this if stuff doesn't start to get better." Perhaps, after all this time the tiny Jedi had come to her breaking point.
"I'm afraid Sarge." She admitted painfully, "I'm afraid that if my life remains in the shambled mess that it is, that the darkness will pull me back in. That I'll become the very thing I swore to protect the innocent from ... A monster." If that were the case, Coryth wasn't sure that anyone would be able to stop her and feared the destruction she would wreak on the galaxy before anyone could get a handle on her. "I fear for everyone, if that ever happens. There won't be much to stop me."
Posted 13 September 2013 - 11:18 PM
Sarge sighed. He absolutely hated when people were like this, because they needed reassurances he was entirely unable to give. He couldn't tell her this was going to get easy, or that her friends were life. He simply knew that things would get better. But she didn't want that. She wanted to know only definite's.
He really couldn't provide those; not in good conscience.
"Coryth, the only person truly making you miserable is you.", he says bluntly. "I'll be here to listen and calm you if you need it, guide you back onto the right path... but you're the reason you're a mess. I've been through many of situations just as terrible as yours in your own way. I see dead loves ones in real people, constantly. I've heard their voices coming from mouths they shouldn't be.", he says sadly.
"But I don't let it get to me. I can't. It means I've lost. That I'm not strong enough. And right now... you're not being strong enough. You're letting it wear you down when you shouldn't. You don't shrug it off and keep going because the only easy day was yesterday. You cling to the past and your problems, because on some level they define you. And they do."
He sighs. "But they aren't you. So stop worrying, and start being happy."
Posted 14 September 2013 - 12:00 AM
The tears that had stopped flowing only moments ago came back rolling down her face. She leaned forward, placing her head into a hand and letting her hair drape around her face, temporarily hiding her. She hated the nights she got like this but they came more and more often. The past was slowly consuming her, for her lack of letting go. Some things she just ... could not let go. For several minutes, she said nothing, the tears speaking for themselves as they came hard and fast. Sobs shook her little shoulders, but she wouldn't look up, and didn't move from beneath her own hair. There at least her features were hidden, her pain. The sting of the words he had spoken could remain hidden from his sight.
In her heart, on some level she knew he was right. But that fact did not make it any better, or any less a bitter little pill to swallow for her. After a while, her sobs started to soften, to ease, but she still didn't move. Slowly she drew her knees up to her chest and then buried her head in her knees, the hair cascading along her shoulders, and legs. She hadn't cried like this in years, hadn't let everything out in so very long. Usually she feared doing so as those around her often ended up being sucked into feeling what she was when she completely let go.
Here it was just him and her and she couldn't bottle it up any longer. Finally she let go, dropping her guards and defenses, all of them at once. A flood gate of pain, agony and pure misery had been opened, releasing nearly a decade of emotions she had locked away. It wasn't intentional by any means. "Sorry..." Her voice cracked out, after she realized what was happening. "I'm so sorry." Reaching up with both hands, she held her head, still letting it rest on her knees. It hurt, badly but it was time she stopped locking everything she felt away.
"You're right." She whispered softly between sniffles. "I ..." She sighed heavily, "I ... have trouble .... letting things go." She bit down hard on her lip, drawing blood before she finally let go. "Lock everything up, never feel it... And .. never let it go." Finally she lifted her head, staring back out to the ocean, red locks obstructing her view but she didn't move them, keeping her chin on her knees. "Had to keep it bottled up, to keep others from feeling it. Going through it. I didn't .. didn't want others to suffer."
"I am be a healer, but ... there was a time when I was something else." Then the admission that probably hurt her the worst of everything. "I killed a lot people. A lot of people. Innocent people the last time I kept everything locked away. I let everything fester until it twisted me into something so evil ..." She started to tremble at the memory alone. "There wasn't a soul to stop me back then." Finally with tear stained cheeks, and reddened eyes, she turned to him, shifting on his lap. The fears so vivid and real in her eyes, quite tangible. "You see Sarge, if I lose to what happened to me, people will die. A lot of people who do not deserve it. And I've lost once before."
Bowing her head she blew out another heavy sigh, "Being an Empath, I can't always let go. Often I have to lock away what I am feeling to keep others from suffering. Hide it and never get to release it. I'm sorry... I let it all out on you. After all these years, I've just started to keep it all in. A mistake if there ever was one. I don't talk about the things I've been through, because I don't want to relive the way they made me feel. Like I said, I have trouble letting go. I've struggled with it since I was a little kid." There was so much sadness in her every action, expression and movement.
"At the end of the day, you are right. I'm wrong." She gave a small shrug and turned her head away from him, looking back into the cabin of the boat behind him. "I just ... don't know where to start. Where to begin to let go. Maybe releasing the pent up emotions of years .... is a start."Another sigh soon followed, "But sooner or later I've got to come to terms with all that I've been through. Got to start talking to someone about it."
She sighed, and finally got up rising to her feet, she stepped away from him. "Look, I'm sorry for putting all of this on you. Should probably take you back to shore. I highly doubt you want to spend the rest of the night with me, like this." She felt so damn bad for what she had said, for how she made him feel, for releasing those emotions onto him even though she had promised to only let him feel warm, good emotions from her. Not the pain and agony, that she often was wrapped up on. Reaching up she wiped away the tears still rolling down her cheeks and headed back to the cabin. Once inside she grabbed the remaining bottle of whiskey and removed the largest glass she had on the boat from it's cabinet and filled the cup to it's brim. Sitting down, she simply started drinking rapidly.
Posted 14 September 2013 - 12:12 AM
The torrential downpour of pain and sour brought instant tears to his eyes, but he choked them back with the hard-bitten and determined expression of a man determined not to let them flow in public. His grip tightened like a vice around her until she apologized, and he forced himself to leave her go.
To let her do what she will.
But as she spoke, he listened; quite intently actually. She was his focus for the moment, and he wasn't going to interrupt her while she was on a roll and making progress. It wasn't until she disappeared into the cabin that he got up slowly and took several long, deep, steadying breaths of salty air.
Pivoting on his heel, the walked down to join her, moving slowly, wary of what she may be doing. But the clunk of a bottle told him all he needed to know. "What you need to do Coryth... is find a place where you can be alone and just... cry. Do that periodically. Give in to your emotion from time to time, and you'll be fine."
He took a seat next to her, shaking his head. "I missed my Pop-Pop's funeral, you know? I was on vacation. I was 11 at the time, and my parents made sure the last thing I said to him was 'I love you' and 'I'll see you when I get back'... but I wasn't able to go to his funeral. They say that if a kid can see a body in a casket... know that the person is leaving. That they can say goodbye. But that if they don't, then that person is never truly dead for them."
Rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, he let a few tears begin to fall from his face. "But it's true. It's entirely true. He was never dead for me. And I stopped by his grave periodically to talk and to cry... and then I'd go back to my car and go about my business. That was my release. That was where I would go to relieve the tension and stress."
It was quite evidently still a fresh wound despite the passage of time, but it wasn't information he'd ever shared with anyone else. "You need to find that... and just be happy whenever you're not there."
Posted 14 September 2013 - 12:39 AM
The tears were still falling from her eyes as he came down into the cabin. Almost half the tall glass gone by the time he reached her. Blood shot and reddened eyes flicked up to him, slowly she was trying to pull her control back. To reign things in. The look on his face, the tears that threatened to fall, she could see pained her greatly. They were her fault and it made her feel damned awful for doing it. "I'm sorry." She repeated again, only feeling worse by the second. But slowly layer by layer she was rebuilding her guards, putting the walls back into place.
She sighed once more, slowly letting the breath out. "Its hard though, to find a place that is remote enough." Bringing her elbow onto the table, she laid her forehead into her palm, "When I open up, drop my guards and let it all out. It means that I also pick up everything that anyone is feeling within a mile. It's only by luck that this is near the end of the tourist season and not many people are on the little island. Many six people, I could feel them." She said sadly. "That is the part that hurts me. As well as letting things out like I just did, I know it hurt you. Likely hurt the people on the island too and they'll never know why they suddenly felt such agony."
She soon quieted herself as she took the glass up again and quickly took a few more gulps from it. Everything he was saying made sense to her. She understood quite well. Most of her guard still was down, so a lot was still bound to get through. "I'm sorry about your grand father." Family was something she barely knew but it pained her greatly when she finally did find her own father only to lose him less than three months later.
"Guess, I could just ... take the boat and go. Go as far as I can ... and stop. Drop anchor and just let it all go." Granted she had the feeling to truly let go, like she had tonight, she would need alcohol to aid her in finally letting her last guards down. Alcohol made it harder for her to peel back her empathy layer by layer. She could to about half ... or all. Nothing really in between.
She reached across the table and wiped away the few tears that did fall. "I'm so sorry for making you cry. For bringing that pain to you." That was not something she'd forgive herself anytime soon for. "I ... I just ... I lost control. The walls came down and it all flooded out. I'm soo sorry." She kept apologizing for it, feeling worse about it by the minute. "It's my duty to stay in control ... to make sure that never happens when others are around. Sorry..."
"I've got to find something. Got to. I really do fear what will happen if I can't get through this stuff, Sarge. I do." More layers she managed to pull back up, protecting not only herself but Sarge from the deluge of emotions she was feeling. "I don't want to be the reason innocent people end up dead. Not again." Perhaps that would be the right motivation to keep her from letting her old wounds fester as she had been. Maybe it was needed for Sarge to be as blunt as he was. Had he not, so much might not have dawned on her as it had tonight.
"Do you want to go back? To shore that is?" She asked him, but felt like she needed to do it as she rose to her feet slowly. She feared that he'd want little to do with her after the pain and misery she drug him through tonight. Taking a couple steps, she was starting that way, not really waiting for a reply.
"The pain wasn't caused by you.", he says finally. "It's always there. It never goes away... but you learn to live with it.", he says somberly, before standing up slowly and looking out of one of the small windows lining the edge of the cabin. "Look, Coryth. The place has to be significant to you. It has to be somewhere you feel safe. Comfortable."
He sighed. "I can't just decide to let myself out at night. It doesn't work that way. The place has to be somewhere you'd find cathartic. Somewhere of an emotional significance. If you've a favorite spot in the woods, that's a good place. Wherever the pain is coming from though... that's generally where you need to go. I'm not saying go back to hell or anything, but something that reminds you of it is good enough."
Shaking his head, he sat himself down on the edge of the one of the beds. "No, Coryth. Don't take us back to shore. You need to cry, and I need to sleep."
Still, he adds, "And stop apologizing, please. Once is enough - if you do it more than that it just comes across wrong.", he wasn't trying to hurt her, not by any means. But rampant apologizing was never a good thing to do. "You've no reason to apologize, and even if you did... one time is all you need."
Posted 14 September 2013 - 01:23 AM
She nodded somberly, sighing painfully. "Long as it wasn't because of me. I hate ... hate to hurt others. Its half of why I bottle up all the emotions I feel. I don't want to bring it to others." At his next words, she frowned even more so than she already was. "There aren't many places that hold any significance to me. Just ... aren't. I've never really stayed in a single place for longer than a month. Not even in the Jedi temple. I was always moving, always going somewhere else, always trying to stay ahead of bounty hunters." She flopped back in the seat at the table, taking a large gulp from the glass, only a quarter of it left at that point.
"Only place that means anything to me is an ocean. Its the only place I can get far enough away from people to feel safe. To be alone with my thoughts. To not feel what every single soul around me is feeling." Leaning forward, she laid her head in both hands, tears slowly falling to the table below. "The ocean, this boat ... it's all I've got." In more ways than one. It was her home, her haven, and a safety net. It was the one thing in the galaxy she could not live without.
She sighed, "The pain, most of it comes from Tatooine. Every time I set foot on that world, it tries to kill me. Somehow some way, someone tries to end my life when I stick a toe on the planet." A huff came out harshly from her as she thought back to it. "Was on a mission there for the Council, alone. I was doing surveillance, and sipping some tea. They came fast, a couple darts laced with sleeping serum and .. before I could even lift a hand to defend myself, it hit me and within seconds I was on the ground. They took me to a building layered with Ysalamiri. The things were everywhere." Her eyes focused off at the wall across from her. She barely even blinked as she started the story.
"I woke up, naked, chained to a wall, so tightly I could barely breathe. It was so hard. Every breath required me to pull up to let my lungs expand."Her eyes then dropped to the table in front of her. "The monster was there. My fiance's cousin. I was the bait for him." Slowly Coryth reached down and pulled back her long sleeves, deep, dark criss-crossing scars were layered upon her forearms. There was hardly a square inch of skin that hadn't been sliced open. "The guy ... tortured people for a hobby. Loved it. Loved to watch me scream, cry and plead for my life to end." She closed her eyes, letting the tears fall freely, almost uncaring. "By the time he was done, he had burned my insides, sliced open every inch of my skin, save for my face, neck and hands, raped me over and over and over, cut my right breast off, broke both my wrists after I managed to get a hand free and broke his nose, and worst of all, he made sure I was pregnant before he let my fiance' even close to the building I was in."
Coryth was trembling quite noticeably now at the table. Her eyes had not left the wooden pattern before her. "He even coated my body in a chemical to prevent healing and encourage scarring. His intent was to leave me so that no one would ever want me again." The slowly, unblinking she pulled her sleeves back down to hide the scars like she always did. "Feeling the force flood back into me as I was being rescued was perhaps the worst feeling in the world because I could feel that monster's child already growing inside of me. It drove me to the brink. I tried to ... abort the baby in my own way. But I couldn't go through with it. I couldn't. Gave her up for adoption." Slowly Coryth drew her knees up to her chest, still not looking up. "That was the third of many terrible events on that dust ball. It hurts to think about going back. I was only dropped off there when I came back to the galaxy and there was not a time that I stopped trembling while I was there. It hurts to even think of returning. Not only that I fear being hurt again if I was to go alone."
Hearing his words, she sighed heavily. Some part of him had wanted to go back to shore, to bury her own emotions again and get back to where things didn't hurt. "I don't want to cry anymore." She sniffled sadly. "I don't want to hurt." The thought bringing her sobs back as her shoulders started to shake. A glance up to him, and she tried to dry the tears, tried to make it stop but her attempts only seemed to worsen it all.
Posted 14 September 2013 - 01:37 AM
Yeah, he had no words to respond to that. There were none. 'I'm sorry' didn't even begin to cover something like that. "You'll need to get over that sometime, but not right now.", he says finally. Standing up slowly, dutifully, from the edge of the bed he'd been sitting on, he moves over to sit next to her.
Running his hand slowly down the back of her head, he settled himself in for what was going to be a long night. "Right now, you let it all out until you fall asleep, alright?"
Posted 14 September 2013 - 01:56 AM
As he came to sit beside her, she reached out with both arms and wrapped them tightly around his neck. Shifting closer, she buried her face into his chest, heavy heart wrenching sobs shook her little body. "Never ... told ... anyone..." She sniffled, trying to get words out. Sarge was the first person she'd given that much detail to of what really happened to her inside that building. "Not even ... my fiance' .. It's been ...eleven years and .... it still feels like yesterday." She shook her head, not lifting her head from him as she spoke. "Every night ... the nightmares come back. The days .. sometimes I turn around and I swear I see the son of a queen standing behind me." At that she shuddered harshly. "I see him image sometimes in the mirror. Hear his voice ... A touch across my skin the wrong way can send me into a rage ... that I can't come out of on my own. That bastard ... he got what he wanted... ruined me... There are nights that the flashbacks overwhelm me completely. That monster... is in my mind, my soul ... and I can't escape it."
For several minutes she just lay there sobbing heavily into Sarge's chest. "I've never ... never recounted it for anyone. It hurt too much." She choked on her words, and reached up, pulling her shirt over her nose, and blew it before dropping the shirt back down. She didn't want to move, didn't want to let go of Sarge. Right now he felt like her lifeline. So things like tissues were an afterthought. The sobs stopped for a moment but the tears continued as she paused to catch her breath. Panting, she tried to calm down a little and get her breath back. "Lost my fiance', not long after. A mission gone horribly wrong... Sith." She shivered before the trembling became pure shaking, only getting worse. "I won't ... recount that. It would .. turn the darkest of soul's stomachs."
Leaning her head back down she started to sob again against his body. "Do you .. think you, you .. could hold me ... for a little while?" Something about Sarge had made her feel safe. Safe enough to reveal the things that she just ... never spoke of. Never let others know. It was no small wonder that the darkness had consumed her, even if only for a short while.
Posted 14 September 2013 - 02:00 AM
Sarge knew better than when to talk, so he did he best to avoid talking too much. "Just let it out, Coryth.", he says quietly. His arms wrapped easily around her, and he held her to his chest as she let all her life's pain drain out and onto his shirt. It was the least he could do; she sorely needed it.
She'd cry until she passed out, and he'd put her to bed before going to sleep himself. Such was the plan, but who knew how it'd go. Perhaps they'd fall asleep sitting here. It wasn't really his concern right now.
Letting her cry was.
Just let her cry.