Private I Was Wrong

[Iris Arani]

She was wrong. Everything she hedged her bets on, all her belief, all her determination. It didn't matter. The Senate threw it out. Voted against just a simple investigation. Everything she'd hedged her bets on, everything she stood firmly beside. Even lashed out, told Corin he couldn't be a Jedi and do what he was doing. And yet, he'd been right. The Senate didn't care. Everything she hoped would help was pointless. He probably already knew. She stood outside the hideout, staring at the door knowing he probably already knew.

Why was she even here? Iris knew he'd probably be smug about it. Give her an 'I told you so'. If he even opened the door.

If she even knocked to see if he would. She just stared at the door, her expression mostly blank. She was tired. Exhausted. Everything she'd been working for in between everything else she was doing was just rendered pointless. What was she supposed to feel? Maybe that's why she was here. See if he knew how. Or maybe hope that he might have something else? Tell her it wasn't all a waste?

Who knew. She raised a hand and knocked.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

Denon was a mess, as per usual. The news of Senate intervention on the air, the horizon, caused a sudden increase in criminals with all their desperation - some last minute attempts to make their moves, to settle their scores. Once the Senate let those true colours show and there was to be no action after all, well that mad dash to come out on top continued. It bolstered tenfold, and those same criminals became bold and brazen. For all his bitterness, Corin was once idealistic in some sense of the word; now there was a man beneath the mask that sometimes felt a little more than content to let them kill one another off.

Just meant less work for the Red Mask, less ammunition too.

He sat in a seat with near-countless monitors ahead of him, from information displays to live feeds of cameras. One such revealed a familiar face beside the door. It was a callous huff that followed, vindication swept into Corin next. In the typical leathers with the helmet set aside, Corin rose with a neutral face despite the circumstances. Prideful to a fault, yet all too aware that Iris only ever held the best intent.

Corin opened the door without so much as a word, eyes left to wander. Seconds went by.

"Do something new with the hair?"

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

Iris's gaze stayed down, for once. She didn't want to see his face. Didn't even want to see the colors around him. Shame, pure and simple. For all her talk, that's all it turned out to be. At least he didn't rub it in her face.

"I tie it up now." She half muttered her words before moving to step past him and inside. "Is it bad?" Her hair, the streets, the news. Take your pick on what she could be talking about at this point. She wandered over toward where the kitchen was. Autopilot. When stressed, paint. When unable to paint, cook.

So cooking it was going to have to be. At least to keep from completing breaking down.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"Your hair, no." Corin said with well-muscled arms folded across his torso, left to wander closer once the metal door slid shut behind Iris. It was as neat as somewhere Corin dwelled could be, with strewn about fast food that was somewhere between a three days to a week old, the smell of burned tibanna muted the stench of old food anyhow.

In curious thought, Corin quirked an eyebrow. She entered his kitchen to fumble with his belongings, no matter how sparsely used. He shook his head in dismissal, a soft smirk split his lips. It was some time since Corin had a visitor, even more since said visitor was of that old life. He much preferred that solitude, the lack of contact. It was pleasant, in a way. No one left to judge him, but no one left to reign him in.

"Of what do I owe the pleasure, anyways?" He asked with his share of skepticism.

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

What was supposed to be cooking just turned to cleaning. How he let it build up this much she couldn't fathom. Even her rundown shack was clean- no. No ot wasn't. Life was too busy to keep up all the time. That was the only reason she didn't dive into a lecture like she was his mother or such.

".. I didn't know where else to go. Not after the senate." The core of the issue, so soon. She wether about scrapping one of the plates clean into the trash, her brow knitted together in frustration. "How can they just sit there, ignoring all of this? An investigation was too much to ask for? Why? People are dying and no, investigation is a line they won't cross?" She was rambling now, still scrapping at the same plate. Which shattered in her hands. Too much force, or just the Force reacting to her heightened emotions, didn't matter. She blinked, narrowed her eyes, and threw what remained of the plate into the trash can before walking over to the sink to clean out the cut on her palm.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

There it was. Vindication in the truest form.

Corin twisted his mouth as to avoid a smirk. He motioned backwards and forwards with those arms still folded. He listened with intent, to the contempt that Iris felt in the moment for the Senate. It burned in the same manner as his own. For whatever reason, the fact of it was a sour taste in his mouth. Corin understood the lot of his life and all that it meant, yet Iris was to be better. In mind and soul.

"You don't want me to say what I think." Corin mentioned with eyes that remained on the floor. Even as the plate shattered, he offered only a brief aversion.

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"I know what you think. You made that clear the last time I was here. .. But I was wrong." She glared. At her hand, at nothing. The water continued to run but she'd long abandoned actually tending to the wound. She was angry. Actually angry in a way she wasn't used to ever feeling.

"Everything I said, everything I've been doing. I'm wrong. It was all pointless."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

He settled onto the back of the couch instead.

"Yeah." Corin said bluntly after seconds of silence. "It was."

That's politics. It's a spectacle, it's theatrical - a display, somewhere for the rich to flaunt their promises of a better tomorrow and funnel more credits into their bloated accounts and fuel their hubris with all their dedicated supporters of like-minded morons. Corin held no love for that scene, that much was abundantly clear.

"Focus on the war. You're a Jedi, stick to the broader threats. It's what the Senate would want anyways."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"I forgot. You're an ass."

There was far more bitterness in her tone as she squeezed her hand. "Would it kill you to try and make me feel better about all this? Say something nice, or encouraging, even if it's a lie. .. I hate this. I absolutely hate this."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

In reflex, Corin huffed in amusement. Bitter as it was, there was a touch of humour in there somewhere.

"There's not a whole lot left to comment on," his tone turned colder, "The Senate fails. It will let you down if you ever rely on it. It's a lesson learned and you can move forwards with this new, maybe better method to it all - whatever it is."

He was silent for all of three seconds, thrown into silent contemplation.

"You did your best, but sometimes you're set to fail before you even have a chance to win. If the system fails you," Corin inclined his eyebrows with an expectant twist to his features, "You do what you can, where you can."

"Just make sure not to buy into all that 'fix it from the inside' nonsense. If it was ever a worthwhile plan, we would see those results with Auteme as Chancellor now."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

She was quiet for a bit, finally wrapping up the next mark added to her canvas of scars at this point. Binding it with some rag she found close by. It wasn't a deep cut, at least. Then she went to the fridge. Pulled it open, glanced around.

"I said make me feel better, not give me the truth like that. .. You got any beer, or something?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"It's in the door," he pointed lazily.

"But, what. You want me to tell that if you try again and try harder it'll work out fine? You'll fix it all up just because you tried extra hard and someone threw you a bone? Pfft." Corin rolled his eyes, "You know better than that. So I can either tell you a fairy tale, or the truth."

Cynical by nature.

"Truth is you wrestled with a big dog with big teeth. And he bit you. If you want to fix Denon, you take issues into your hands."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

She snatched one up, then another before wandering over to the couch. Tossed Corin the extra she got before cracking open the one she had to take a big sip. Real big. "I literally said lie to me. I'm too angry to just.. I'm really angry. I don't want to be angry. And I don't want to be depressed either, y'know." Sure, it was a different feeling, but depression wasn't better than anger.

"Guess drunk will have to do though. You're too straight and narrow for a vigilante."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

In a fluid motion, Corin was able to catch it before the bottle cap was placed on a corner the downward slam of an open palm cleared it off. It skittered across the floor, a problem for latter. He raised the beer towards his mouth, the brown bottled hovered in a moment of hesitance. "Yeah, well. I'm not much of a liar either."

He turned to sips, small and measured.

"I'm sure if you told someone at the temple I was straight and narrow it may well cause an aneurysm." He smiled faintly, it almost felt more akin to distant memories - the time on Coruscant, far from the issues Denon and yet where all these same issues were allowed to continue. It was months since he was there. Months since anyone spoke to Corin, no matter what messages came his way.

"Sure some of them think I'm dead, even." He chuckled.

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"That's suggesting they even think of you."

Ah, yeah. She meant it as a joke, but it came out far too solemnly for her to even try to smile. Instead, she just took another, longer drink. Just about finished off the bottle at that. ".. They do. Some do. Not sure how many actually miss you. .. I miss you." She muttered the last bit, frowning at her bottle. "It's not the same without you there. And y'know, being the only one of us all to be a Knight makes it weird. You suck for leaving that on my shoulders alone."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

It was an easier life to leave behind. He suited it for a time, but the youth often moved on from their motivation once into adulthood. It was all about twisted views, those that become far too different to continue as if there was no sudden realisation. Corin had to leave them behind, leave that life and those people. It never was his crowd, anyways. Too much moral posture.

"I'm sure it's less problematic without me there," he remarked with eyes then tossed onto Iris, "You were always much better suited to the role than I was anyways."

Corin took another sip. He sloshed it around in the bottom of the bottle.

"But I missed you too. You're the first person from... back then, that I've talked to in months."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"Being here has you too pessimistic. You're a great Jedi. You're just too stubborn to see it yourself." Nope, she wasn't giving up on trying to get him back to the Order. If she could, anyway. Not that she held out any hope. One last sip and her bottle was sadly empty, which just prompted her to curl up more on the couch. Stare at the bottle more. "People suck at keeping up with others. .. I'm sorry. About what I said before. You're an ass, but you don't lie. We need people like that."

Nope. She needed more booze. She raised a hand, casually opening the door to the fridge to pull over another bottle without getting up. Flicked off the lid too in the process.

"Drunk is better. Yeah."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

A brief spark of laughter fled from his lips with the subtle touch of sadness that stretched across them. It was in his eyes, the same mournful look. To wallow in the death of a life fought so desperately to maintain, abandoned of his own volition, sent spiralling into another one so full of harsh lessons and even harsher punishments. Of what was there to be sad of, Corin protested with futility, it was all a concious choice. His choice, and no one else's. Yet the chasm in his gut only grew deeper with each passing day of solitude.

"Let's not start lying now," Corin teased with a playful smirk between sips, "I was horrible at all that. Here never made me bitter, only more realistic. The Jedi love to have their heads in the clouds, with your head up there sometimes you don't see that you step on something else below."

He set the bottle aside, the clink came as it wobbled briefly. The once-Jedi wandered across towards the fridge instead, some touches were foreign and almost lost to him in some sense. "You say I'm an ass a lot for someone that keeps finding ways to reunite with me somehow," the Denon local teased even more, "One would you think you don't really believe what you say."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"I don't lie either. That's what makes you a great Jedi. Someone who can see the world under all the colors n' clouds n' stuff." She muttered just a bit between sips of the new bottle. Smaller sips. Much smaller sips.

"No no. You're definitely an ass. You try to hard to be to.. Not be. But- yeah. I like it when you're not." Iris lifted up the bottle, motioning to him. Around him. "I like how you look. Bright, warm."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

In a suspicious tilt Corin tensed his brow with pursed lips, "That's a new one."

The notion of warmth afforded to himself was odd, and often times felt so far from the truth; the vigilante was adamant of it, almost beyond certain even - there was to be no more than a dark cloud that loomed over the one that donned the persona of the Red Mask and threw fists in fury in the twilit streets of Denon, all but abandoned the saber and order that ensured it was to be his own. Of what nature was that bright warmth, Corin mused between slow and shuffling steps.

"It sounds like you need to decide whether I'm an ass or not," he dryly remarked as Corin closed the distance. "But that bright warmth? That's something you feel, nothing to do with me."

Iris Arani