Sing me a song, and I will show you infinity.

[Arage Bao]

"Wake up, bloodshot eyes. I struggle to memorize..."​

feat. [member="Asaak Tey"]

Getting Mastered was a sobering experience for me, always had that shackle around me. The one that reminded me ever so often that I had a responsibility to the Galaxy and the people around me, to do things right. It was the core reason why I founded the Army of Light, when the Republic and the Order didn’t wish to break their peace I knew something had to be done and I did just that. I became a symbol for some, never set out to do that. Never wanted to become some kind of celebrity in the eyes of the public, but I had. With every interview I did my fame grew, it made me uneasy, but my inner circle told me it had to be done. The citizens of the Republic needed to know, and so I relented and kept talking. Eventually the War died out, the Empire fell and with it the constant threat to the borders of the Republic. With the threat gone the Army disbanded portion by portion, and I thought I’d finally get some rest.

All for naught I suppose, because even with everything I had sacrificed the Sith had returned. Stronger, more united and with a clear purpose on their mind. They were beating down the Gates of our Civilization and even now were trying to maintain a high moral ground, Kiskla brought me back. Told me I had to fight and I did, yet again. Without even considering any other option, had that been foolish? Would it have been better if I had just stayed away? Looking back at Teta I can’t get behind that notion, we had lost that battle. But it was not only the battle that had turned into defeat, on Teta I saw how brittle our foundations truly were. Didn’t mean I knew how to mend it though, I am a soldier. Perhaps even a General, but I am not a Mason. Didn’t matter in the end though, I kept to it and eventually they decided to put a Master title on me. No way back now, I was fully committed. I would repair the Order together with the other Jedi Masters, or I would die defending it.

Didn’t mean I had to like it though, so I took a small break from everything. The war effort was still ongoing, but every once in a while you need some time off. Get a drink or two… or three and maybe four, to get your head back into the game.

So that’s what I did, I still had like… a thousand vacation days I think. There I was sitting in some random bar in Lianna, why Lianna? No clue, don’t even remember getting here. Probably started drinking a long, long time ago. But I didn’t really care, the ghosts of my brothers and sisters were with me today and that was all that mattered. Had a lightsabre or two hidden on me, no jedi robes though would be a bit foolish in this part of town. Then again, I wasn’t completely sober anymore, so I probably wasn’t suppressing my Force Signature properly.

Beacon of light for certain individuals and all that.

Oh well.

“Barkeep, ‘nother.”

 

[Aeron Zambrano]

She hadn’t been to Lianna in a while. Months, perhaps as long as a year – and if someone were to question her now she would have no good reason to be there. It was space she hadn’t been sent to and that perhaps she really shouldn’t even have been treading. But she was wandering again.

Since leaving the Republic, Asaak’s life had changed drastically. There had been the kind of hard work she was used to of course, supplemented by the job of development within the Silver Jedi’s holdings. She’d even begun her Knighthood trials and tentatively accepted the praise given to her by Master Sochi that her trial of combat had been among the most creative she’d seen. But there had been…other things. She’d watched the Silver Jedi nearly destroyed by an attack in the middle of the night by Gormak, only narrowly helping the youngest of their group escape to safety. She’d stood in front of a Terentatek’s gaping jaws not once, but twice and lived to tell. As she walked down the narrow streets of a less-walked part of the city she absently pulled a lekku to cover the front of her throat as she sunk into parts of her mind that had – as of late – been plaguing her incessantly. Perhaps it was just the nature of the Silver Jedi’s trials to dredge up the things best left forgotten. But how was she to forget Nemene Talith nearly taking her life, slicing her throat open and leaving her to bleed to death? There were the scars on her hips, the slight tenderness at the tips of her fingers every once in a while, to remind her of Evelynn’s torture…

And there was Moroi.

Or, more accurately, no Moroi. The decision to leave the Republic had not been difficult but for one snag in her plans: Moroi did not plan to come with her to the Silver Jedi. Love would not – of course – dictate her decisions as she wanted to do what was best for the Galaxy. They’d been good about communicating, sharing as much as they could…but he’d disappeared. One night they’d hung up with each other, agreeing on a time to speak again when he returned from a mission. But that day came and went without a word, and a week after that, and another week.

She never heard from him again.

It had been a handful of months and still there was no word. Perhaps that was how she found herself on Lianna, drifting towards any bar. Because yes, sometimes one needed a drink or seven to realign the gears in the head. She dipped down in to the doorway of a place that looked promising – the adjective a loose one, but applicable nonetheless – and swept her eyes around with a subtle twist before moving deeper in to the room.

She had been planning to head for the bar anyway but she felt the slight tug of someone else’s signature and let her amber eyes sweep to a man seated with his back to her. Though her lightsaber was hidden within the folds of her clothes, she looked like no Jedi. More a native of her homeplanet Shili than anything else, typically bare feet and rolls of cloth wrapped artfully over her skin. But she could sense him and for whatever reason, drifted that way, hearing his call for another round.

“Make it two,” she added, not particularly caring what was handed to her, seating herself delicately next to him and just offering him a little smile before occupying herself with the bottles lining the wall behind the bar.

[member="Michael Sardun"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Asaak Tey"]

Wasn’t so much drunk as much as tired of war, blood and death. Wore on my soul, every time I had to kill for the good of the Galaxy. It was what made me a Guardian, to know when to draw the saber and when to try and talk it through. Sadly Form Zero was becoming more and more unused, rust was starting to grow over the once shiny surface, which had always projected an aura of calmness to me. Blood was on my hands, blood of my friends who had turned from the light because of me, blood of the innocents I had failed to protect, and blood from the monsters I had to kill.

As I took my drink, someone sat next to me. First I didn’t reply, could have been anything, maybe there weren’t any other spots left. ‘Twas an honest possibility, but the moment a feminine voice spoke about having the same as me… well I realized it was one of those days. I looked at my new companion, and the words were stuck in my throat. I blinked, as my eyes studied her face. Memories sprang up then and there, memories I had wanted to forget desperately.

Had been a mission in the early days of the Army of Light, we were still young back then. Still naive and full of hope, that we would change the fate of the world with a single word and a wave of our lightning stick. Things changed though, we had changed. But it all started with that village… the Empire had been ruthless, killed everyone and-- no, too much. It was terrible and the imagery of a crucified Torguta girl, it had permanently fixed itself on my retina. Had been the first of many… missions, but she had been my trigger. My drive to weed out the Empire.

This girl, she looked so much like her. I blinked again, a single tear finding its way from my eye and into my drink. Gulping, I ripped my eyes from her and stared back into my drink. My voice came from a distance, and I rubbed at my eye in cadence.

“Sorry… eh… something in my eye. You reminded me of someone. Can I help you?”

Soul was in turmoil, I took another hit from my drink. The Force thrummed in rhyme with my disturbance, I had to calm down. This was too much.

 

[Aeron Zambrano]

Asaak had always had a knack for people – she was gregarious and friendly and even in the days she’d spent living in the Coruscant Underworld before she’d been discovered by a group of passing Jedi she’d done all she could to brighten someone’s day. It had been hard down there but she’d discovered that doing good had bettered the darkness she’d started out in. Compassion came easy and even more – she could understand those that did not have it because she could see how the wrong circumstances could break and ruin someone. Easily. She wasn’t sickening in her sweetness or in any way overeager – she was just sincerely good.

So it was for that reason that she sat directly next to the man without much thought as to whether that might be strange. She hadn’t meant much by it and in truth hadn’t been trying to infringe on his space or even really start a conversation with him. It just felt natural to be close to others, to find comfort in their proximity.

Then again, Togruta were a naturally communal species. She may have tried to escape much of her species culture but some of it was just ingrained too deeply.

It seemed however that regardless of her intentions she had infringed, turning her head as she felt the man’s gaze on her. She was more than a little surprised to see a tear dragging down his face, wiped away with a quiet excuse. Something in his eye? Wasn’t that the oldest excuse in the book? And then another excuse immediately following the first. Asaak didn’t need to be socially intuitive to know something had unsettled him and she immediately felt badly for disturbing him. Her first instinct was to excuse herself and leave the man to his drink, let him go back to the relative quiet he’d found before she so rudely interjected herself. But then…her drink came, cold under fingertips that had always been more sensitive since she’d had her fingernails torn off, even now when all the damage was gone.

And then she thought it’d be better to stay.

“Not unless you can work miracles,” she said, smiling softly. “Can I help YOU?”

She took a sip of her drink, warmth pouring over her. It had been a while since she’d had anything to drink and she’d have to take it easy. Hell, another sip before speaking up again: “I’m Asaak.” She didn’t share her last name, too wary. The tension around him in the Force didn’t feel like a threat to her, though she wished she could ease his pain with a word. But she could never be too sure. Nemene Talith had worn a disguise so thick her true intentions had not been clear to Asaak until the last minute, until she’d knocked the Togruta out and taken her away to torture her. This man could be doing the same.

It was hard living in a world where she could not relax.

[member="Michael Sardun"]​