Private How the choices we make change us

[Solan Charr]

Thyferra,
Gardens outside of the 10th Fleet's Headquarters.​

Solan sat, his mind wandering over the many souls that he had snuffed out over the years, his hand running over the petals of the flower before him. The bright glowing blue flower that sat before him one of thousands that Solan had begun to grow in the aftermath of his recent battles, of his recent campaigns. The man who was living his second life barely still human as far as he could even look at himself, more a spirit simply puppeting a body, an incomplete union of souls and form due to several circumstance when he had been revived. It was all that led him to look down at his hand while he sat there, the gentle touch he granted the flower that represented the souls that had been lost around him all too clear a scar that he refused to show.

They were his creation after all, a flower that his mother had left for him that he had brought to an existence beyond simply a piece of flora. Eternal Mourners he called them, the first three having been planted for those who he had treasured so deeply. Of Phaera, of Trystain, and of Kira, his parents and wife who he had lost more than a lifetime ago. Killed by a Sith, killed by Huttese Mercs and Slaver each. He could only the souls of those he had failed to properly torment for their actions, only wish that he could retrieve their souls so that he might torture and torment them until the end of time.

But as he let his hand run over the flowers grown through the force, the flowers that could not die unless destroyed by the hand of those seeking such an outcome. They existed in even the vacuum of space unless the force itself was stolen away from their forms.

He sighed, letting that hate and anger leave him while he sat there, while he remained powerless to correct the mistakes of his past. The choices he had made that led him into the trappings of the Darkside and the anger that festered deep within him while the Hunger pushed him to do cull and drain the life from his enemies. A sickening need for death that he pushed deep down and away, forced himself to ensure he did not forget what was important, that his dear Kira had given him this chance for him to atone for his past.

She had been there to keep him from truly falling into despair and darkness in the wake of the Netherworld being opened to the Galaxy. She had been there to keep him from throwing away what good he could do and instead that his power could be used to bring a better future. He had done such in her memory, devoted to it and greedily holding onto the words she had left him with.

His thoughts so absorbed in that moment that he missed the approaching form of Wuxia Wukong , his gaze shaking slightly as he looked down at the flowers before him.

 

[Wuxia Wukong]

Wu was enjoying himself on Thyferra, he was content. The only other place had found such an amazing abundance of plants would be Kashyyk. Wu loved Kashyyk, he enjoyed swinging from tree top to tree top of the great Worshyr trees, the platforms that the Wookiee's built were great fun as well. Using the force to jump from one to the next while going for a morning run, but in a way Thyferra was just as good. Perhaps not better, but perhaps more healing. For Thyferra produced one of the greatest healing substances in the galaxy. Bacta.

Wu was pleased by that fact as he looked around the gardens and examples of botany. Although by no means a professional botanist Wu did like to keep a small personal garden from which he could meditate or perhaps just be alone with his thoughts.

Wu was interrupted in his peace, by sensing a dark side presence. Wu crouched low going on all fours in a simian crouch, smoothly reaching for his Lightstaff. Wu searched with his senses identifying the presence. He felt all the usual dark side emotions pain, anger but also… sorrow or perhaps grief.

A grieving Sith? Wu was perplexed despite himself.

He supposed even Sith must grieve. The Dark Side did not turn ones emotions off after all if anything they turned them up. Wu also knew that grief was a powerful emotion that had turned many Jedi to the dark side.

Was this such a one?

Wu chewed on the twig he was chewing on as he considered carefully what to do. The dark sider had done him no harm as of yet. Nor was he harming the garden. Wu could never attack someone who was doing him or others no harm. Besides Wu had never talked to a dark sider for any length of time. It should be an interesting conversation. If he attacked Wu would merely defend himself.

Wu nodded firmly with that decision.

"Hello." Wu greeted leaning on his lightstaff casually. "I am Wu. What brings you to these fine gardens this fine day?"

Wu noticed the flower the man was attending to. Felt the presence of it.

"Oooh is that flower filled with the force?" Wu asked "I should very much like to have such a specimen for my garden."

Wu grunted in a simian fashion of satisfaction. Wu smiled at the man.

"I like it here. It reminds me of Kashyyk. A planet filled with unique flora." Wu continued on, hoping to display he meant no threat, even while he kept his staff handy.

Wu waited for the man to respond, relaxed yet ready. Wu hoped he wouldn't attack. Wu deplored violence however necessary, he had no wish to harm the man.

Or to be harmed. Wu reminded himself with gentle amusement.

Hubris was a dangerous trait to have, particularly in martial arts. It was also an annoying one socially.

It was also true that Wu would much rather converse with someone on a dark path then fight with them, he had however never had the opportunity. Wu had the thought that perhaps they might enter into a diatribe of the Sith Code or of pain and suffering. That would be a disappointment, but he tried not to come into meeting a new conversation with expectations of disappointment.

Solan Charr

 

[Solan Charr]

Solan was surprised by the arrival of the new individual. They were not someone he knew but a single glance their way told Solan more than he needed to know about the individual. They were a part of the lightside, perhaps a Jedi? He would appreciate having someone like one of his old friends at his side to talk to after everything that had happened, it would be welcoming to have them at his side and helping to talk through things.

Of course, few of those friends were still around these days.

Instead he would smile towards this new one, waving for them to take a seat before speaking in return.

"Thyferra has long been an important planet for the production and distribution of Bacta. Such a truly beautiful world being a example of the ways in which the lives can be bettered around us." He stated, running his fingers over the petals of the flower once more.

"In regards to the flowers, they are called Eternal Mourners. They cannot dies though natural means, and can only be killed if one removes the force from them or if one is to take unnatural means to end the life of the flowers." He explained, looking over the field that he still continued to fill with more and more of the flowers, hoping to one day no longer need to plant any of these flowers ever again himself.

"My name is Solan, and I am the one who has planted all of these flowers in this field. I hope to continue and to leave a flower for everyone that we have lost in this war, and any who I have needed to take the life of in order to do so." He shifted again for a moment, thinking it over again before sighing.

"So, Wu was it? I am surprised by your rather quick approach, at the least, without a saber drawn. I doubt you haven't noticed what kind of person I am."

Wuxia Wukong

 

[Wuxia Wukong]

Wu relaxed his posture even further, and smiled in satisfaction. The man was talking as a Jedi would, without irony or malice or ill intent. The dark side still swirled around him and yet Wu did not sense any intent to attack. Though he supposed that could change in but a moment. Wu shrugged to himself. If he attacked, they would fight, perhaps he would lose, perhaps he would win. The latter was only slightly less sad then the former. Though Feng would miss him if it were the former.

No point in constant worry when a threat has yet to be presented. This should be an interesting discussion.

"May I have one?" Wu asked politely bending down to admire the flowers. "Or one like them if you cannot bear to part with them or disturb your lovely garden?"

"I enjoy collecting planets for my garden to meditate in. I imagine having a force imbued flower would be of great assistance to my balance." Wu explained imagining the scenario with satisfaction.

"Or perhaps you would like to teach me how to grow one of my own? Are such flowers sacred? Only to be force bonded with their grower?"

Wu lost his good cheer at the mention of the war. He sighed and shook his head.

"So much loss. You will be at this garden for quite some time I think" Wu said softly. "It is an admirable pursuit."

Wu bowed, fist in open palm in an Aakaashian salute.

"I am Master Wuxia Wukong of the Kattadan Enclave. It means Martial Arts and Chivalry, Awakened to Emptiness." Wu grinned. "Another translation is Aware of Vacuity"

"Perhaps that is why I approached as I did without saber drawn." Wu grinned mischievously "Vacuity is in my nature"

"Or perhaps it is because too many Jedi rush in saber drawn."

"Or perhaps it is because I have no saber to draw."

"Or perhaps it is simply because you were causing no harm to myself or others and seemed lonely and in pain."

Wu smiled softly and bowed his head in a fencers touch.

"Though if you would rather not speak of pain I understand. I merely offer not press"

Solan Charr

 

[Solan Charr]

"I would be honored to offer seeds to you, and to show you how to grow them, though the process will be a slow one. Even now with the thousands I have grown over the years, I can only complete one properly in an hour, or rather a selection of the seeds at this point. But the speed of the growth still will take a great deal of time." His voice would be steady, calm as he ran his hand over the petal once more.

Soon though, Wu would watch as Solan's hand moved to his side, and with the force he would pull a few seeds from a pouch on his belt. Letting the seeds flow over to his hand and rest in them before then holding out his hand to Wu. The man just smiled, letting Wu take them at his own speed before returning his gaze to the flower infront of him. Solan never seemed to really set on something for a long time, even now his eyes going from flower to flower from behind the lens of his glasses. He was looking, searching to make sure none of them had been rushed, that there was no deformities or harm to them.

"The flowers are sacred, to a degree. My mother had developed them, and I had finished her work. They will not die in a vacuum, will not wilt with the change of the seasons. Natural heat and cold will bring them no harm either, it is only through removal of the Force, or through a unnatural act that their lives would end. They are here to remember the man who have died, a flower for each soul I have witnessed." He paused and looked up over the field that spread out before them.

"On Kesh, if you ever visit my home. There is a sea of these flowers, decades spent atoning for what lives have been taken around me." He sadly smiled as he thought on the matter.

"A vast sea of blue that sits over the land." He sighed before giving that smile to Wu instead when they introduced themselves.

"Wuxia, a name that is quite new for me. I would have thought it Atrisian given how it sounds, but you aren't quite what an Atrisian normally looks like." He laughed a little and nodded towards the features of the man for reference. "Bit more hairy than a atrisian." He would then pause, looking back down and away again as he considered his next words.

"Lonely and in pain is accurate. I have been for many years. It is the reason even now I barely cling to life though, to find what reason I still exist in this galaxy. Tell me, have you noticed it?" He wondered, curious if Wu had noticed that his soul was barely tethered to the body it inhabited. That the revival and essence transfer had been incomplete, had not been seen through and now Solan's soul hungered for more to make it complete.

Wuxia Wukong

 

[Wuxia Wukong]

"I would be honoured and grateful, should you teach me this art of growing such beauty in the force." Wu nodded smiling in satisfaction and bowed once again.

Oh that's enough bowing. You really do behave too much like a secluded monk sometimes Master Wu.

Wu stifled a smile at Feng's voice in his mind.

"It sounds like a worthy exercise of the force. It would be nice to use my affinity to create instead of the too much destroying I have been forced to act upon recently." Wu grimaced slightly at the self brief reminder of the battles he had taken apart in.

Wu felt at peace with himself that he had done it for the right reasons, had done his best to preserve the lives of those he fought, that it had not only been necessary but right to do so. To protect and preserve life.

Wu focused on the moment, back to the much more appealing thought of adding a fascinating benefit to his garden.

"Nothing worth doing should be done carelessly. I do not mind spending time in the garden helping new plants grow. In fact it sounds like a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I can work on my poetry while I do so."

Wu smiled, nodded in satisfaction at the thought.

Wu was glad he had decided to approach the darkened stranger. It had proved a very fruitful conversation. The thought of fruit made him hungry. Wu soon lost his appetite at being informed of the flowers purpose to mark a soul passed on to being reunited with the force. He grew saddened and sighed.

"Such a flower for such a purpose would be sacred even were it a weeded dandelion found poking through the gaps of the sidewalk. Though I am sure yours come with considerably more care and forethought."

"There has been too much death. I sometimes despair of it ever ending, but… that is not my purpose I think. To end the fight. I would imagine that would require great power of which I have no desire or ambition to hold. I would also imagine that any who sought such power however noble intention would walk a perilous path."

Wu sighed, shook his head slowly, leaning on his staff.

"I have yet to visit Kesh. If it is as you describe I think I should like to. I enjoy visiting planets at peace."

"Me? Hairy?" Wu grinned and scratched behind the ear in a farce of being a cat or dog. "It is an Aakaashian name. My Master who raised me was from that system, he taught me their language and some of their ways as applied to the Force."

Wu smiled sadly.

"I did not wish to pry old wounds." Wu admitting that he had noticed. "It remains me of those with terminal illness, there soul not quite ready to depart both clinging to the body and ready to journey on."

Solan Charr