Populate No Place Like Home for the Wieludays [GA Populate of Wielu]

[Inosuke Ashina]

Prosperity, Present Day
Ishida Ashina | Henna Ashina | Bernard

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"No, I couldn't."

Of course she couldn't. Neither of them were inclined to abandon posts for the sake of the other. It was the response he had anticipated, thus disappointment could hardly manifest. Duty was all too often incompatible with matters of the heart. Perhaps somewhere deep down Inosuke may have held out for a different answer, though at best it would have been a furtive, incomplete feeling. A strict attitude of realism inhibited all idyllic yearnings before they could fully blossom.

"Ashina may be home, but Ashina is here. The legacy is you and her. No matter where you may roam, that doesn't change."

Sharp wind hissed from flared nostrils. "I value your sentiment, fallacious as it may be," he assured before his gaze Henna's gesture toward their peers. "I don't expect you to understand," he continued, speaking with a gaze opposing the direction of his words.

"Ishida, Bernard!"

"Ashina is-"

Inosuke's attempt to slip his point in conversation before the convergence of two pairs meant an inevitable subject change was foiled by Ishida's collision embrace. At the severing of words, the display of affection played out in a rather one-sided fashion. Ishida would have received more laxity and reciprocation by throwing herself around a menhir. Inosuke gave a blank glance to Henna, then Bernard, then down to the blur of white tresses in his peripheral vision.

“I felt you die.”

Hairs on the older Ashina's neck stood up. Involuntary memories returned with a cadaver's chill. All this time, Inosuke had the false impression that she'd known, at least in some vague sense, that he had persisted. Clearly, her reaction wasn't as overripe or unbecoming as the admonishment, stifled and lingering in his throat, nearly proclaimed. A slow hand rose, crept reassuringly over his sibling's shoulder. "I thought you knew," he attested silently.

Another fleeting second, then Inosuke peeled his sister to a respectable distance. "I-" Rare hesitation. "I left you a note." It sounded silly now, inconsiderate, even. "I did not have time to explain anything before were all split up so expeditiously, I apologize." Not even a man as phlegmatic as Inosuke was immune to the awkward twinge that had taken over the collective presence around them. An abortive inclination of a grimace came to life as a twitch of Inosuke's lower right eyelid.

 

[Ishida Ashina]

ABOVE CORUSCANT | PROSPERITY | MAIN GATHERING
Inosuke Ashina | Henna Ashina | Bernard

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"I thought you knew,"

Disorienting dizziness accompanied the words Inosuke delivered, and Ishida felt the unsteadiness blooming outward from her core. His faint half-returned hug barely registered. Suddenly the cluster took on a vaguely dreamlike feel. The room suddenly felt much larger, and everyone around her seemed to grow distant — that, or Ishida was shrinking.

“Your note.” She repeated quietly, feeling the words bounce around within her after being so drained of relief. In its stead, a quiet, shameful rage started to build. She’d been so overwhelmed after Qi’yon, and feeling Inosuke die after Coruscant she’d simply accepted the death as it was. The Force's fact. She'd not pursued answers, only sought increments of revenge and tried to find someone to blame.

“But that was all, you never ——” And there he was, alive and well. And her lack of knowledge had nobody to blame but herself. She felt stupid, suddenly. And the hat just made her sense of foolery even worse, its pom fell forward after the abrasive rush to hug and she waved it from her eyes. “What was I supposed to know?”

So had he been dead? Or had it been a trick of The Force? His unanswering explanation drew out the ache, and Ishida’s emotional expression slowly started to tighten back into listlessness but her eyes stayed sharp and calculating.

“I don’t understand.”

Where had he gone? How had they been so active in the efforts against The Brotherhood, but she hadn’t even felt him alive? Why had she felt him die in the first place?

“How—” it was a mental block she couldn’t get past, and she wanted to cut it down. Words failed and remained unsaid at the base of her throat. The sharpness in her eyes shifted, relenting back to vying emotion that pleaded for some sort of explanation. "Or why?"

 

[Inosuke Ashina]

Ishida Ashina | Henna Ashina | Bernard

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“I don’t understand.” How— Or why?"

"It is complicated," Inosuke asseverated, quickly going two for two with poorly navigated reunions.

Equivocation coupled with the irresoluteness in his tone betrayed his own secret uncertainty about the matter. Rousing from the terminal sleep of death, when a development rather than an intention, wasn't something Inosuke believed anyone could experience entirely free of doubt. Even if it did fall in line with Ashina myth, it was still equally questionable and unnatural. Keeping the truth of his renascence virgin from the barrier of rumor had been thus far successful.

No one was supposed to feel him die, an Ashina sought no mourners. The dual presence of an inamorata and a sibling were equally extemporaneous in their respective advents. Now they complicated the veil over an unwanted truth.

"I did not intend to leave you in the dark. I had little time, and even fewer answers. I thought, at the very least, a missed correspondence would be clue enough." In hindsight, that was ludicrous assumption, though it had sounded far less inane in the moment. Everyone had been scrambling to make decisions, mend new wounds, reassure themselves. Few make flawless calls when blindsided by tragedy.

"I understand that you desire answers, but this is not the place," Inosuke entreated quietly with an uncharacteristic apprehension. "Nor am I certain I have them without ambivalences," he confessed.

"Let us not advertise my supposed revivification."

 

[Henna Ashina]

LIFEDAY | PROSPERITY | PRESENT
Inosuke Ashina | Ishida Ashina | Bernard

​

The exchange between the pair of atrisian's brought clarity and understanding to the master's confused expression. Anger and sorrow had taken root in only a few days when she had believed he perished as well- she knew a sibling's grief that had built for so long was likely insuperable in only a few moments. As the tension built, Henna knew the growing crises needed to be extinguished before the emotional volatility and reserved distance clashed. Gingerly, the woman reached for the younger Ashina's hand, clasping the delicate thing in between her own whilst leaning forward.

"There is peace." Henna murmured softly, reminiscent of the words of comfort she gave herself in the aftermath of Coruscant. Yet it was not avoidance she urged for the girl, but acceptance. "There are things in this galaxy that are unfathomable. The mysteries of the force, and the decisions of a distressed mind. What is important is that we are not destined to grieve any longer."

Another hand floated up to clasp the girl's cheek. A smile full of warmth and life bloomed across Henna's face as the force flowed through her fingertips, offering the comfort of Ashla. Only then did she lean back, her hand floating down to rest on Inosuke's knee.

"I have missed you on Tython," She stated lightly, attempting to change the subject. "As I'm sure Bernard has. You must come visit us sometime.

 

[Ishida Ashina]

ABOVE CORUSCANT | PROSPERITY | MAIN GATHERING
Inosuke Ashina | Henna Ashina | Bernard

Ishida receded almost completely. A tightness wound its way through her body, demanding stillness so she didn't bring further shame to her demeanour. It was unbecoming for such ready admission of feeling and confusion, and Inosuke’s unpreparedness to match served as a reminder of how far she’d strayed from Ashina tenets. For better or worse.

She swallowed and forced aside the welling of chagrin that was growing within and replaced it with relief shimmering with joy. It felt more natural, really, to feel happy that her brother was alive. The conflict otherwise were ghosts of her upbringing, with claws that sunk deeply into the coils of her thoughts that were closely tied to ego.

“I understand.” She murmured meekly and nodded against the fingertips of gentle Master Sarrat, who withdrew just as Ishida acknowledged the merit behind Henna’s words.

“What’s not complicated is how happy I am to see that you are alive.”

And then that understanding, about peace and secrets took on another dimension. The hand on the knee, the use of we. More thumping filled Ishida’s ears, and the realization that Inosuke was alive was crushed beneath the connection between Henna and her brother. Had that — her expression drained, only keeping the colour of her face because her body couldn’t decide whether it wanted to blush horribly or go ghost pale.

Not long after she and Bernard had said goodbye over a year ago, she’d sought out some help for calibrating all of her wild emotions. Master Sarrat was known as one of The Order’s most level-headed, benevolent, and well-rooted. She’d helped smooth out much of the unbalance Ishida had felt, by drawing from her own experience with love. Even if it was difficult to admit.

Now Ishida realized those anecdotal references had been about the impressions her brother had on The Warden of Tython.

“Ah..” the breath of comprehension hopped out before she could stop it, and her wide eyes moved once-twice between Henna and Inosuke. Colour flushed to her cheeks and she cleared her throat.

Her hands felt numb when she reached in Bernard’s direction. Henna had done well to acknowledge him and bring Ishida back to her spatial awareness. She’d lost her senses for a few seconds, and truthfully was still missing a good handful, overwhelmed by the facts that hadn’t been real when she’d woken up.

She couldn’t help her gaze falling back to Inosuke, still bewildered by his presence. Then it jumped back to Bernard.

“A visit to Tython might be a good idea in the wake of The Force’s mysteries.” Oh, how that sentence applied to both the men in their quartet.

A breath whooshed through her, another awareness crashing through. “You haven’t met! — Inosuke,” her hand had been seeking Bernard’s for a few seconds before she scramble-met it. Her senses were haywire. It felt foolish to introduce Inosuke as her brother, that seemed apparently enough. He knew well of her grief. Her hand tightened around his. “Bernard.”

As she’d not said brother for Inosuke, she also fell mute on any title for Bernard. She hadn’t realized until this moment that she hadn’t needed to introduce him to anyone, nor his relation to her. Did she have to explain he was on the council? The Sentinel of Harmony? Did she have to say Jedi Knight? "Of Arca."

And to a pair of siblings whose last name resonated so deeply, and meant so much, Bernard's was nonexistent in the first impression. Another thing she noticed and glanced down at nothing. A small smile at the difference ghosted her lips.

 

[Bernard]

The turn of events was more than unexpected.

Inosuke Ashina, brother to Ishida Ashina. The two had an obvious resemblance to each other that went beyond the family heritage if their reunion was anything to go by, despite their separate upbringing. The discomfort with any overt emotion seemed to be a nurtured trait in the family household, not that that came as any surprise.

"I have missed you on Tython, as I'm sure Bernard has," Master Serrat began.

Bernard's years of training in the art a Marshal had once referred to as "poker face" suddenly paid off at that moment.

"You must come visit us sometime," she continued.

Ishida seemed to take to the idea, though something else seemed to keep her preoccupied. A reunion with a man who was raised from the dead couldn't be easy on anyone.

"You haven't met! — Inosuke," Ishida said.

She kept reaching behind her, presumably for his hand, and missing. There was some urgency in her actions, and he obliged her by offering his hand for her to find.

"Bernard," she began.

A pregnant pause followed.

"Of Arca."

Nice save.

"Knight Ashina," Bernard nodded to the unfamiliar face. "You and Master Serrat know each other?" He glanced from one to the other.

Talk of personal matters had always been scarce between the two guardians of Tython, with their duties taking up a majority of the talk they happened to be on the world at the same time.

Henna Ashina Inosuke Ashina Ishida Ashina​