Private Young and Proud

[Xian Xiao]

Xian was far from feral, but she didn't think she was high society, not after spending so many years on Coruscant and then on her own on Castell. Then she had met Diarch Rellik, and he had brought her to Bastion. Here she had been given her own space and a place to call her own. She had also started rubbing shoulders with some of the Diarchy's workers and found she liked them a lot. What she still hadn't figured out was where she belonged in this mix of things.

So she decided to go for a bit of a walkabout. Where she walked about, she wasn't sure. No matter where it was, it wasn't on Bastion and maybe not even Diarchy territory. As Rellik had said, though, she was free to come and go as she wanted. Xian had every intention of returning, but she also had some thinking to do.

Public transport took her and she sat alone. Staring at the other passengers, she silently wondered where their lives were going. Had they found their place? What would it take for her to find hers? Resting her chin on her hands, she felt a person find a spot next to her, and she turned to face whoever it was.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Hushed conversations were shared quietly throughout the civilian transport ship as it passed through unknown skies. Kyric peered down at the planet below to see the vast ocean and lush green earth. Other ships flew alongside them in a wide sky lane. An explosion of color covered each of the ships alongside broad advertisements for different resorts once visited by famous dignitaries, celebrities, and even Jedi. Few planets far north of the Core boasted such things, which led the kiffar to suspect he was on Ord Cantrell.

“What the feth am I doin’ here?” Kyric mumbled. He shifted his attention from the sky lanes to the other passengers.

Many of them carried suitcases and other paraphernalia that at least confirmed Kyric’s theory of a vacation planet. He sighed inwardly, dropping his head to thunk weakly against the vertical bar he gripped to keep his footing.

You’d think these bastards could afford a little more seating.

Whether by luck or by the good graces of the Force, Kyric noticed one of the passengers nearby get up and move for the exit in preparation to depart. The kiffar did a quick scan of his surroundings to ensure a senior citizen or something didn’t need the seat. Confident he was in the clear, Kyric slid into the seat on Xian’s left.

“Pardon me, ma’am,” Kyric dipped his head in greeting. “I was figurin’ you wouldn’t mind if I snagged this here seat.” He wore an easy smile.

If not for the brutal scar running through where Kyric’s right eye should’ve been, the young man may have appeared quite cheerful. Instead, the gnarly wound, when combined with his unkempt hair, bruised arms, and tattered clothes gave off the impression of someone who’d definitely seen better days.

Probably back when he had two eyes.

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Tags: Xian Xiao

 

[Xian Xiao]

"I don't mind at all. A bit of company and conversation woul..."

Turning to look at him, his scar stopped whatever she was going to say. Any troubles she thought she was having paled in comparison to what this young man had been through.

"What happened? I'm Xian."

Recovering as quickly as she could, her eyes kept staring at the scar.

"I'm sorry."

She hadn't even noticed his arms or clothes.

 

[Kyric]

Unwilling to show even the slightest discomfort at Xian's staring, Kyric maintained his smile. It wasn't the first time his visage garnered such a reaction. In fact, most who glanced his way couldn't mask the emotion elicited at seeing a young man in his state. Such wounds were commonplace among career criminals and military veterans. Not a kid barely past his twentieth life day.

"S'all good, miss Xian," Kyric assured her with a wave. "You can call me Kyric." He ran a hand up through his hair, pushing back dark brown tresses to reveal the scar in full.

It ran from an inch below his hairline to the lower half of his cheek.

"I got this ol' thing two years back on Coruscant, when a Sith Lord launched an attack on the planet with the intention to destroy it. Thankfully, the good guys won and the bad guys were sent packin' but uh..." He paused at that. His gloved hand rose to his face where he gently traced the wound with his finger.

A flash of crimson as fresh as the day Kyric lost his eye played out in his head.

"One of their objectives in the battle involved kidnappin' me and draggin' me back to their master. I got away, but I lost my eye in the process. And I haven't seen someone who was real close with my old man since then, either."

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Tags: Xian Xiao

 

[Xian Xiao]

Giving him a nod when he accepted her apology, and he introduced himself, she looked at the scar further as he showed it to her. She was happy he didn't seem offended or bothered by her reaction. It didn't matter what his age was to her; she probably would have reacted the same way to an older person.

"Nice to meet you, Kyric."

She shyly smiled. More embarrassed by how she'd acted. Drawing in a quick breath through her nose as he answered, he did it with a lighthearted sense, but she felt it was heavy.

"I grew up on Coruscant. I guess I'm glad it wasn't destroyed. Nothing good came from there for me."

Listening calmly, she looked past the scar and at the young man under it. He looked to be about her age, maybe a little older, but Xian was okay with that.

"Your old man?"

Her parents had died when she was a toddler, and she hadn't had any older figure to look up to.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

"I grew up on Coruscant. I guess I'm glad it wasn't destroyed. Nothing good came from there for me."

Listening calmly, she looked past the scar and at the young man under it. He looked to be about her age, maybe a little older, but Xian was okay with that.

"Your old man?"

Kyric nodded. "Yes ma'am. He was a Jedi, like me." He pointed at himself with his thumb and beamed; his broad smile reminiscent of a child in a candy store. "He gave his life to defeat Darth Solipsis on Tython even further back." Again Kyric maintained his smile, but the weight behind his words grew heavier.

The kiffar clearly held his father in the highest regard and no part of him appeared angry as he discussed the circumstances of the late Ryv Karis' death. Yet, Kyric abandoned the eye contact he so confidently held before. His remaining eye drifted past Xian to a distant point only he could see, where he replayed the fated clash between the two Masters of the Force in perfect clarity.

A blood-hued blade carved through Ryv's chest and melted both heart and lung. The silver songsteel of Cotan's force-imbued sword sliced the Sith Lord's head clean from his shoulders—neither man so much as flinched in the face of death.

Kyric visibly winced and he shook his head quickly. "Sorry I- er," he scratched faintly at the scar again. "I get lost in thought sometimes."

That was an understatement.

"Coruscant is Coruscant," Kyric shrugged. "I prefer Denon, if I'm bein' honest. It's where I spent most of my life." He reached down to his belt and withdrew a large roll of medical wrapping, which he used to cover up his scar-covered arms and bare feet. "Where you livin' now if you're not much for Galactic City?"

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Tags: Xian Xiao

 

[Xian Xiao]

When he said both he and his father were Jedi, Xian curled her lip slightly but was quiet. While she had asked for clarification about his father, she hadn't expected to hear that word. She had given several years of her life to them, had her hopes raised about being trained, only to be let down. So she had left them and turned her back on them as they had done that to her.

As he started staring past her shoulder, she thought about turning to see what he was looking at. Then it dawned on her that he wasn't looking at anything she would be able to see. Maybe some Force vision had his attention, and Xian did not interrupt whatever was happening.

Eventually, he returned from his thoughts and apologized. He might not have seen her sneer, and it was gone from her expression.

"They're bad, aren't they? Your thoughts."

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

"S'ppose you could say that, yeah," Kyric admitted with a weak shrug. "I've got a perfect memory. I can recall anything I've seen as if it were standin' right in front of me. Most folks hear that and they immediately jump to the benefits."

Kyric shook his head faintly, his lips curling back into a sneer that didn't quite fit the kiffar's face. More images raced indiscriminately through his mind. He took a slow, deliberate breath, and closed his eye.

"I spend most days in a meditative haze, if I'm bein' honest. Whenever I ain't workin', anyway." Kyric finished tying off the last of the bandaging and slipped the remainder of the roll back into a pouch at his belt. Now more mummy-like than Jedi, he began to absentmindedly pick at the cloth.

"Not that I'm the secretive type, but is there a reason yer askin'? Yer not an assassin sent by Solipsis, are ye?"

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Tags: Xian Xiao