Private Humans

[Tansu Treicolt]

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Retribution delivered as philosophy was not what Tansu had expected. Not when they'd approached the clearing and Tilon's sabre had been resting on his thigh, Not when she saw the expression on his face—one carved from grief and restraint—as he watched the recording. She'd braced herself for justice. The kind she knew. Not this.

And then the threat extended to something more severe when Talsin slipped from her side and bolstered himself pointedly against Jonath. Subtly calling out her own apprehensions, casting a shadow on her choices, her faith. It had been her voice that argued for Jon to face the truth. To stand tall. To be better. To take the chance to make it right because she trusted him to. Especially when an innocent little fox was wholly ready to take responsibility! That ain't right! And plus, avoidance was not a trait cultivated at their homestead. Better to face things head-on, take it on the chin, and grow from it.

Stunned, her mouth fell partway open. Coupled with Talsin's fierce pledge, she felt the roiling disgust flare from her sister. Not a good mix. Nausea haunted the back of her throat, and she clenched her fists to abate it somehow.

For a moment, she thought they might walk away better from this. Imbued with introspective evaluation that could only make them better people, collectively, because how could they slide back any further?

Her hope was tenuously held. The moment felt like a meniscus. Like any second it might spill over.

And then it did. Not just a drop or a splash, but a boil.

"You let her get hurt! Then you go tryin' to steal her away from us?! This just another way to push those plans o' yers?! You ain't better than us!"

Agony, hurt, fear, love— she heard it more than she felt it — sensitive to the pitch because it was a sound so rare it became almost precious. Louder than usual, frayed with sounds that wrapped a fist around Tansu's heart and squeezed.

Was that really what Talin thought? That Talsin—her Talsin—was stealing her away? That he was some kind of sickness, turning Tansu into something unrecognizable? That she'd been taken like something brainwashed?

Did she really not know? Did she not feel it—how impossible it would be for Tansu to ever leave her behind? Tansu didn't just love her sister. Her sister was her other half to the same whole; her laughter woven into Tansu's earliest memories, and her anger had been Tansu's first language.

"Talin!" She should have known. Should have felt the shift in the air. She was Force-sensitive, wasn't she? She had a bond deeper than the core of Coruscant, didn't she? But she hadn't wanted to believe it could get this far. That her sister would throw a punch not out of jest or competition, but from that place deep, aching place of betrayal and fury.

When Talsin fell—blood dark and sudden—her stomach dropped through her spine.

"When you are a hammer, all you see is nails. And you have been surrounding yourself with hammers lately, Talin Treicolt. When did you become one yourself?"

Stiff paralysis seized her. Overwhelmed by the emotional storm she couldn't see, but felt it beating at her from every direction, Tansu felt trapped between two warring bonds.

"Stop puttin' that twisted version in my sisters head. And mind your own business if you know what's good for ya."

Her name again, thrown like a stone between them. Like a reason. Like leverage. And she hated it. Hated being the justification for any action. And her name no longer served as a tether. It was some sort of weaponized word now, a reason for violence. A wedge in the breach.

And that was the unbearable thing.

Because she did love Talsin. Loved his calm and his code, his stubbournness to a fault. He didn't take her away; he helped her stay standing when the ground split beneath her. And she loved him for it.

But Talin saw him as a thief. A manipulator. A wedge. And maybe worst of all, Talin saw Tansu as nearly gone, almost lost, slippery, and changed.

The horror of it cracked through her: To love them both so deeply, and yet feel them tearing away from each other, using her as the fault line.

"Talin, he's not, he'd never, I'd never—" She could barely stammer anything useful out before her hands were slapped over her mouth again in abject shock.

It was one thing to let her sister air out her grievances — so often with Treicolts they just needed to let it out, get it off their chest, and then all would be right as rain. Break bread again!

Jon was something different. It was like at The Drop, a side unseen of him, and he just.kept.going.

"Jon! Stop!" Her shout ripped out too late. The punch landed and Talsin hit the ground. Instinct drove her to dash forward and throw herself across Talsin's body just as the Amaran's Force push crashed through the scene.

"Stop, stop, stop." The words tumbled from her mouth in a breathless loop, as if saying them could rewind the moment, erase the heat and violence and horror.

Her head snapped toward Jon, tears choking her throat. "What did you do?" The fury in her voice cracked mid-sentence and she turned back to Talsin.

"Tal—look at me. Please, c'mon, T—stay with me." There was so much blood. Her hands, slick and shaking, cupped his face. The red soaked through everything, seeped through the spaces in her fingers and down her wrists. She trembled, shaking at the unexpected outcome of the night and drawing in thick, wet gasps.

How had this happened? How could this have devolved from words so poorly? She blinked, her eyes bright with gathering salt.

The blaster.

Talin's action had been like a permission. Talin, who used to laugh with her under the same twin stars, who would press her lips together to keep from giggling during supper, who'd stood up to a bully when they were just five years old, who said that they had to stick together to defend one another. That girl had always been fire and heart and devotion. That girl would've never drawn a weapon on someone Tansu loved.

"You started this," she whispered, "And you were ready to finish it too." Her throat tightened. "Why?" A breath like a sob. "Why?"

She looked at Talin now and couldn't find the edges of her. The shape was the same, her beautiful face the same, but something was off. Like seeing a reflection where the eyes don't blink back. A nigh-imperceivable Force-shadow loomed, subtle but unmistakable. Even her voice had changed, coloured differently in the Force. This wasn't a sibling scuffle. It wasn't just a flare of Treicolt temper.

"You would'a killed him," Tansu said, voice hollow. "He was tryin' to do the right thing, and you were ready to kill him."
A pause, then something inside her cracked straight down the middle. Talin didn't trust Tansu to continue to love her. To stay with her no matter what — her sister would never hold such flimsy feelings toward her, or hold such self-doubt seeded so deeply that her actions begot violence to someone they'd been friends with. Someone Talin understood Tansu wanted to build a life with.

"Who are you?"

She felt angry, but most of all torn between her past and her present, between the home she'd come from and the life she was building. Her body wanted to cry, wanted to break down the way it was supposed to—like it always had. But the tears didn't fall. She couldn't even cry! The tears were there, swelling, but stuck. Like everything else. Like her words, her love, her fear.

All of it was stuck.

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Jonath Kago | Talin Treicolt | Talsin Lota | Ren | Auteme | Tilon Quill
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[Talsin Lota]

His face hurt. Like it was on fire, not in a specific place, but all over. The pain was drawing inward too, liquid fire seeping into his limbs from the veins onward. He couldn't move and every breath hurt.

The initial hit from Talin had been hard, breaking more than just his nose. But it were the follow-ups from Jonath before Ren got into action that sealed the deal. The first crunch from his fist had snapped his head back. The second smashed him into the floor. He hadn't registered anything after that. Had there been more?

Blood was everywhere, making a grotesque ruin of his face.

He tried to speak.

Only a withered gasp came out. Then Tansu would feel the soft, weak touch at her wrist.

"T-T-Tan, c-careful..." He managed to get out through broken teeth. Blood bubbled up and made him cough violently, almost choking on the bile. "T-T-hey... a-re... d-dang-erous." The pain was laced in his voice, but he couldn't help her now, his limbs weren't responding to his brain.

They were right.

He was weak, soft. He had believed his restraint, his desire for justice, was strength. But now, if those maniacs chose to hurt Tansu, he would not be able to move. He wouldn't be able to help her, just like they said. The realization filled Talsin with rage, burning in his chest. He could do absolutely nothing. And it made him want to cry, except the tears wouldn't come. Or if they did, he couldn't feel them.

He couldn't feel them... that's when Talsin realized.

He could not feel anything at all.

Tansu Treicolt | Jonath Kago | Talin Treicolt | Ren | Auteme | Tilon Quill​

 

[Talin Treicolt]

Talin had moved to pull Jon off only after he got in a couple satisfying hits - but she was too late. Then that little fox took a stand she never woulda pegged him at being able to make. It froze her. The fog of fury and darkness lifted, just barely, when she realized it wasn't only Talsin climbin' up on some crumbling pedestal of righteousness. No, this was different. Quill hadn't dunnit, but another Jedi - an outsider, untouched by the rot of their unraveling bonds had taken a stand so pure it burned. She couldn't stop him from taking Jon. She'd be caught in the fire, too.

Then came Tansu stumblin’ over Tal, a delicate petal picked up and crumbled by vicious winds. The blood of their actions had stained her. The mirror she had always recognized her self in shattered with the force of rage, disgust, and grief that echoed through their bond. Both she and Talsin had both been right. It hadn’t always been this way, had it? One half of the soul ached to comfort the other. Hand raised and tremblin', she took two steps forward, reaching for her sister.

“I- I’m s-“

"Who are you?"

Impact caused Talin to flinch.

“You should know.”

Her voice was hardly more than a breath - meant only for the two of them, born of memory and dust. They had grown up since leaving home, since coming to the Core. One root split in two, each seeking its own light - and now, here they were, fields apart from each other. She could no longer bear to look at Tansu. Tears slid down Talin's cheeks as she turned away from Talsin's fallen body. Only barely did she catch the word dangerous in the void between them. That temper could no longer rise, despite wantin’ to. Desperately, ocean eyes tried to convey something without words to Jon while turnin' - then she started walkin', touchin' Auteme's leg as she passed by.

“Help him.” Those words threatened to make her sick, but she insisted anyways.

It didn't matter how the endin' unfolded. It wouldn't undo what had been done tonight. So Talin just kept movin', tryin' to get away as far as she possibly could.

 

[Auteme]

Things moved quickly -- there was no moment where it was out of control, until it always had been, and she was too late. And she was back on Jakku, across from Jend-Ro, trying to convince him less than she was herself. What kind of person turned their back on their friends? Ah, but that was the wrong question. That act was not the one at the root.

She watched the whole way through, tracking the bonds and breaks, yet still finding her knowledge incomplete -- something, someone, was missing, a shot fired from off-screen. It dawned on her that she did not know these people, and they did not know her; the girls were closest, but they had grown too much to be the same. Now, it seemed they did not know each other.

A hand from Talin -- no, there was no prior point she could have interfered. It was only now.

A hand on the Amaran's shoulder. "Slow down," she said softly. She heeded her own advice, each step measured as she strode to the fallen Tetan.

A hand for Tansu, a soothing presence. "Deep breaths."

Her gaze went to Talsin. A hand to his sternum, then one under his neck, and a quick push to set things in place. That was as painful as it got for him for the rest of the night -- from then, her hands glowed a dull green, mending everything she could reach, and the grass felt softer underneath them. She drew the blood from his mouth and nose, and set it all right, but any wound leaves its scars, as even the most skilled healers would admit. Frayed nerves, the little bump on the nose after a break; something would stay with him, physical or not.

She rose, wiping the blood off her hands on her sleeves, then turned to Jonath, took a step towards him. She was much smaller than him, and had hardly his capacity for violence -- and yet, she sensed something about her scared him, the same way Talsin had, enough to strike him for it. Her gaze was neutral, passive, even, when she asked:

"Did you do anything wrong?"

Tansu Treicolt | Talin Treicolt | Talsin Lota | Tilon Quill | Jonath Kago | Ren ​

 

[Jonath Kago]

Bav’csah

Even before throwing the first punch there was a chitter of foreign words recited inside his mind. With his focus intensified on Talsin, so did this sequence of random words commanding him in a voice that was not his.

Birceun

His arm and fist chambered to throw another punch at the defenseless Jedi. Hidden wires and micro-cogs underneath his skin surged power to augment his strength.

Rast’an’t

Jon’s face now had little spots of red after his fist pummeled Talsin’s into the ground, teeth breaking and tissue tearing. He could hear Tansu’s pleas for him to stop; he could feel Talin desperately pulling him away from the Tetan though her efforts could not contest with his determination. Anything that served as a distraction was moot since he was so concentrated on his target. That’s what Talsin was reduced to Jon, a target he needed to eliminate. Not for a personal vendetta, but to satisfy a mission.

His arm chambered for a third punch, but was stopped abruptly and pulled away from Talsin’s body. It was fortunate for all that Ren acted as it was enough to bring back Jon from that altered state and the words fell silent. His eyes widened from confusion and then panic, trying to find something to say or react. Why was he on the ground? And what was that on his hand?

Shit

A small hint of horror on his face when he saw blood on his hand. He was wondering how that’d happen when his own question was answered to seeing Tansu over a maimed Talsin.

"What did you do?"

The way she saw him pierced him, stunning him where he was. Jon had never seen her this way or speak to him in that manner. The fury in her voice twisted his stomach. He did this? But he could never…

Jon ignored the Amaran’s declaration of his arrest, staring at verbal altercation between the two sisters. It didn’t take the talent of a Force Sensitive to feel the splinter between the twins. His eyes bridged with Talin’s, the two were the only ones that had each other in this situation. He could see how hurt she was with soft tears sliding down her cheeks, before she walked away to find space from this mess. So, too, she could see how frightened he was; an uncommon thing to see from Jonath.

He also had to get away from here, even if Ren was committed to arresting him. He finally picked himself, looking to go in the same direction as Talin before being approached by Auteme. She was also slightly familiar to him when he observed her face.

“…I want confirmed deaths in thirty hours…”

A faint whisper in his mind, and his hand itched to curl up in a fist yet again. What was wrong with him?

Stop

"Did you do anything wrong?"

He mustered the courage to find his voice to answer her question. “I- I don’t know. I just- I just wanted to keep them safe,” he meant honest with his words, still believing what he did in the Drop was to protect the group he was with. He started to back away from Auteme, looking again at Tansu. He wanted to say something, but what?

I’m sorry

Still backing away, before turning around and walking with haste. He needed to get out of here, before becoming a danger to others.

"You are not just a murderer, you are scum.”

Maybe he was right. What kind of person would bring harm to his friends? That was worse than scum.

Auteme | Talin Treicolt | Tansu Treicolt | Talsin Lota | Ren | Tilon Quill​