Private Resh and Eloise Take a Walk

[Eloise Dinn]

Shirayan Jedi Temple, Naboo
Immediately after the events of "Fork in the Road"...​

Eloise hadn't changed much physically; she was still a musclebound giantess who could lift a grown man with one arm. Her purple hair hung long and loose down her back rather than in her usual braids, and her face had thinned out, losing its baby fat as she left adolescence behind.

Her style of dress, on the other hand, was different. She had been fairly tomboyish in her youth, refusing to wear makeup and tramping around in combat boots. Now her appearance seemed deliberately femininized - well, as much as she could tolerate, anyway. Sparkly eye shadow, sweet-smelling perfume, and a pink and lacey top were the most notable changes. There was an undercurrent of anxious overcompensation to it all, as if she felt a need to remind everyone that despite her height and physique, she was still a woman.

The pureblood cleared his throat awkwardly, and tried to circle back to her original question, "Anyway—Yes, I was touring the Jedi facilities here on Naboo. Thinking about continuing my training here. What brings you here?" As evidenced by those previous interactions, Eloise didn't exactly seem the type for the prim and proper Shirayans.

"Nice. What do you think of it so far?" Eloise asked, then answered his question. "I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. Amani is busy being Queen of Alderaan and can't train me. I'm exploring my options." She pursed her lips and threw up her hands, the bangles on her wrists jangling. "What little of them are available, anyway."

Things had been weird ever since the GA collapsed. In some ways she was glad to be rid of the old NJO, but in others it was nothing short of a catastrophe. Effectively losing her master was particularly difficult for Eloise. It had left her feeling unmoored, uncertain of her future within the Order. At least now she didn't have to feel that way, for a few minutes or hours or however long Resh would be around.

Resh​

 

[Resh]

"It's… nice," Resh seemed unsure of how to answer. There was a natural beauty to Naboo that appealed to him, but its complex aristocratic history he found quite alien. He'd already done the fish-out-of-water routine when he first joined the Jedi on Coruscant. Coming the High Republic would be a whole other story. Perhaps it was unwarranted, but it made Resh feel vulnerable. He was comfortable around animals. They didn't judge. People, on the other hand? Well, some of them were alright. "Gonna take some getting used to though."

"Sorry to hear about your master. Sounds like she's got her plate full." He stalled for a moment, mulling over how to carry on the conversation, "What do you think of it so far?"

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Gonna take some etting used to. Eloise nodded soberly at his words, finding them in line with her thinking. The GA had its faults, and she'd never been shy about airing them out. But the Republic was...

"This place is a downgrade compared to the NJO," she answered his question bluntly. "Don't get me wrong, I just got here and I haven't seen everything. But the impression I'm getting so far is that the Republic doesn't care that much about the Jedi. They have a temple on Naboo, but its just a formality. Something they have for show, because they're the only good guy faction left in the galaxy. It's not as... I dunno, robust? Lively? It's functional, but that's it."

She shrugged. "But maybe that's a good thing. The next generation of Jedi Knights gets to be the ones strengthening and expanding the Order, shaping it according to their wants and needs." Pausing, she smirked. "Holy shit, I actually sound optimistic for once."

As much as not having a master anymore to guide her sucked, maybe she needed the independence. She was an adult now, after all. She had to leave the nest eventually.

"Hey, now that you're here, I was wondering if you'd like to—" She broke off abruptly. Her feet kept moving for a step or two, her body not quite catching up to her brain, before she stopped in the middle of the hallway. For several long moments, she stood very still, her expression blank, her gaze distant. Then her brow furrowed in confusion and disbelief.

"What... ?" she whispered. "I... I think my brother just died."

Resh​

 

[Resh]

"Hm. Maybe," Resh mused on Eloise's assessment, and in it found a silver lining, "Perhaps that would make these Jedi more free to operate without government intervention. That would be worth something, right?" Eloise seemed to come to a similar conclusion. She was about to ask him something else, but stopped in her tracks with a most ominous portent.

"What... ?" she whispered. "I... I think my brother just died."

Resh shook his head like he had just been slapped, "I.. What? Like seriously?" He tried to glean her face for some verification, "Are you... are you okay?"

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Eloise had never felt someone close to her die. For a long, sickening moment, it seemed as if her body might also cease to function, dragging her to death right along with him.

Marcus was her twin. He had been with her since conception. Since she had left Zaathru, her contact with him had been limited. A chance encounter with Lossa Aureus had led to her finding out that he'd enrolled himself in one of the Sith academies. Those places were cutthroat, and she had doubted his ability to succeed there. But she never dreamed that he would just... die. Suddenly, randomly, pointlessly.

She opened her eyes - she hadn't realized she had closed them - to find Resh standing before her. His expression was pinched with concern, his voice gently inquiring.

"Are you... are you okay?"

"No. Not really..." She took a deep breath, then covered her face with her hands. Shouldn't she have been crying? Why wasn't she crying? "Let's go somewhere else. I don't care where, just get me out of here." She needed air.

Resh​

 

[Resh]

"A-alright. Yeah, sure, let's go." Resh placed a hand on her shoulder and helped walk her out of the area. He wasn't sure how to address such a sudden turn of events, so he stayed silent as they found their way to an isolated garden. He took her to one of the stone benches to sit down, but he remained standing up for now.

"So… What happened?"

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Eloise was silent as they walked. Resh led the way, bringing them to a quiet garden away from the hustle and bustle of the Temple. It was a lovely spring day on one of the most beautiful planets in the galaxy; the air was warm, with a pleasant breeze that carried the smell of fruit and flowers. But Eloise was numb to the aesthetically pleasing surroundings. She sank down on the stone bench, her mind reeling.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “I just felt it happen. He was afraid, struggling, and then… nothing. My connection to him was cut off.” At least it happened fast. What a wonderful thought.

“I don’t remember if I ever told you this. You know how my family are Sith, but they’re not really affiliated with any particular faction? Well, a few years ago Marcus joined a Sith faction. Lossa Aureus was the one who told me. She said she fought him on some planet I don’t remember the name of. I do remember that I called him after I found out. I asked him if he had learned nothing from our parents. He said ‘It’s my life, I get to decide what I do with it, not you. So feth off.’ Then he hung up. And that was the last time I talked to him.” She groaned, holding her head in her hands. “I was so angry at him. And now that he’s… I just… I don’t know. I wish I had done things differently.”

Sith Acolytes died all the time. Training was brutal, competition was cutthroat, and the masters saw it as a means of weeding out the weak. Eloise knew this, yet she never thought her brother would be among the casualties.

But that was just it, wasn’t it? They weren’t part of some ultra-powerful bloodline. Their family was average. Her parents had survived to knighthood through a mix of teamwork—which was not a Sith tenet—and pure chance. Marcus wasn’t so lucky.

“I hate to say it, but part of me feels a little relieved,” she mumbled, sniffling. “I was afraid I was going to have to kill him one day. I mean, it’s bad enough that I’ve already vowed to kill my parents—”

She broke off, her voice cracking as tears filled her eyes. She hid her face in her hands, sobbing quietly.

Resh​

 

[Resh]

Eloise unloaded about her relationship with her brother, and family at large. He had decided to pursue the path of darkness like his parents, and now he had paid the price of that affiliation. Eloise expressed a complicated mix of regret and relief, although the latter seemed like a desperate search for a silver lining at best. Resh hardly knew where to start with it all. Her family was all kinds of messed up. But he'd go ahead and not say that part out loud.

"I'm sorry Eloise," Was all he could think to say at first. She had started crying. He was pretty sure he hadn't seen that before. Resh laid a stiff hand on her shoulder, "I've never had a connection with another living person like that. Feeling what they feel.

What was he like?"

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

What a question. Eloise raised her head, tears dark with mascara streaked down her freckled cheeks. "He..." she began, voice a choked whimper, then hesitated.

It occurred to her that Resh didn't have a frame of reference to understand what Marcus was to her. He was a clone, with no parents or siblings of his own. No fucked up family to speak of. Lucky guy.

"He liked to draw," she said, sniffling. "He was good at it. One time he had us sit while he painted portraits of us. My parents and all my siblings, we each got a painting. Mine is probably at the house on Eliad somewhere. I think I still have a picture of it on my datapad..."

She took out the device and flicked through the screen for a few moments, bringing up the image. Painted on a canvas was a portrait of a much younger Eloise, her hair its natural ginger, wearing a white dress and surrounded by moonlit leaves, flowers, and... a bat? "If you asked him to put something in it, he would. Usually. I asked for a bat in the background of mine. I don't remember why. I guess I just liked bats when I was twelve."

She found herself chuckling through her tears, the humor sharper because of her grief. "I still think bats are pretty cool."

Resh​

 

[Resh]

Resh craned down to examine the data pad. Sure enough, the image was still saved. His attention flicked back and forth between the picture and Eloise with genuine perplexing, then a tinge of embarrassment, "Eloise... Which hair color is your natural?" He chuckled, "I just thought it was always purple!" Even know, Resh felt like he was always learning new things about people and the world. Things he had just never considered to question, even simple things like the color of his friend's hair.

"I like bats too," Resh agreed, "Did your brother like bats?"

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Eloise snorted at his question. "I'm a natural redhead. So is most of my family. I started dyeing my hair when I was twelve because I wanted to look different from all my siblings." She reached up to touch her hair as she spoke, running her fingers through untamed locks. "I dyed it black first. That was all that was available on Zaathru. Then when I left, I changed it to avoid being recognized. Purple seemed like it would look the least stupid."

For a few moments, she wasn't thinking about Marcus being dead. She could smile and laugh over something silly and benign as her changing her hair. But when Resh asked if her brother liked bats, it all came rushing back again. "I dunno," she replied, her tone considerably more subdued. "He liked samaras. They're these little squirrel looking creatures with big ears. They climb up trees and then jump down, and their ears spread out and cause them to spin to slow their fall..." What a delight those had been to them when they were kids. She remembered watching them from the window with Marcus, climbing trees and then floating down to earth.

She was beginning to tear up again. "I'm afraid that my parents might try to bring him back from the Netherworld," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "My mom's done it before. Daddy goes there all the time." Hunched over, she rocked back and forth a bit on the bench in a vain attempt at self-soothing. "Another part of me almost wants them to. But if they do that, he won't come back right." Her mother certainly hadn't, growing more and more deranged with each resurrection.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, remembering who she was talking to. Resh, who was supposed to be the reincarnation of a Sith. "I know that probably sounds fucked up. It's just... really hard to accept this. That he's dead. We're the same age, y'know? He was only eighteen."

Resh​

 

[Resh]

"Funny how I am still learning new things about you," Resh rubbed the back of his head. He had grown up, but underneath his towering stature was the same wide-eyed boy that came to the Jedi years ago. He had thought bringing to mind good memories of Eloise's brother might help, but the results seemed mixed. Perhaps the wound was just too fresh for such reminiscing. Nonetheless, she continued. "I've never heard of those," Resh said with genuine curiosity. There were many creatures in the galaxy, and Resh had learned much about them, but there were always more to find, "They sound wonderful."

Eloise's thoughts inevitably returned her to the consequences of her brother's death. Ironically, it was the possibility of his return that seemed the most concerning. "The galaxy is far from a fair place. And the path of the Sith even less so." Resh knelt down beside her, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but, you said they could resurrect him? And what do you mean he won't 'come back right'?"

Eloise Dinn​