Private a Scion meets Scars of life

[Marigold]

There was a certain feeling of safety present at the temple ever so often, peace and order were at all time high. It is the same order and peace that brought stagnation however, while some enjoyed stability in their life. Plenty were used to have things go wrong every day, hour, and minute of their life. It was too hard to escape habits of the past, and be fully at peace, and although surrounded by nothing but good works and people... Some were unable to take it in and move on.

A girl in a red hood was one of them, wearing distinct padawan robes beneath a bright crimson red cloak, she marched back to back, fiddling with her hands, stimming. No aptitude in the Force was needed to see that she was completely out of her element, sticking out like a sore thumb. There was time between training, rest and socialization. But it's not like the girl had any skills in that department, friends were scarce and rare for someone like her, and always lacking in supply. Thus she simply waited until her master would come back from whatever work he got himself into.

...which, needless to say, would be a long time. Boredom, frustration, and anger mixed and shifted in her expression constantly.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Hey! Do you feel that?

Kyric felt that. How couldn't he? It was rare to experience such a potent source of rage within the heart of the New Jedi Order. At least, he assumed that would be the case. His dad never brought him here. Hell, Kyric never wanted to be here. Temples weren't meant for people like him. He needed to feel the wind on his face as he plodded from one destination to the next.

Those same needs begged him to leave this place.

No. I didn't feel that. It was a lie.

Cut it out. You know as well as I do you aren't about to ignore the problem until it goes away. That's stupid and never works.

With a frustrated sigh, Kyric diverted from his intended course. I don't have time for this. He grumbled to himself even as he moved aimlessly through the halls. He didn't quite know the place, but the inexorable pull of the Force did the hard work for him, and within moments, the kiffar found himself standing outside a room.

I guess I'll knock. He sighed and did just that. His knuckles rapped thrice against the door, alerting the isolated woman within.

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

The knock was sharply riposted by the door swinging open, no question asked. Before Kyric stood a young girl, analyzing the man suspiciously. And taking a deep, disappointed sigh.

"Urgh, you're not them..." She shook her head.

The young padawan crossed her hands, and queried to the man. "What do you want? Usually master comes around himself instead of sending a messanger... Is it another training? Another check up?" She started listing off possible reasons for him being there, and yet she stopped herself half-way through. Perhaps in a rare moment of self-awareness she realized that this is likely the only social interaction she'll be able to get for the day.

"...Who are you?"

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Kyric blinked.

"Urgh, you're not them..."

"Nope," he confirmed not being them, then fell silent to Marigold's string of self-answered questions. More than once he considered interjecting to answer. He didn't. Mostly because he couldn't come up with something on the fly when he genuinely had no basis for why he knocked in the first place. When she stopped speaking, he made his very best attempt at a disarming smile.

"You seem like you're having a bad time, and I've got plenty of time to kill before I meet the head of your Order." Kyric extended a closed fist. "I'm Kyric. You can call me whatever silly configuration of that name you want."

He glanced at the extended fist then back to Marigold. "You mind if I hang around you for a bit? I don't want to stand in a hallway all awkward or something. Maybe there's a big library or scenic fountain?"

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

The girl seemed to be dumbfounded at the man's answers. She tilted her head, as if utterly confused, her tone of voice wasn't much different. "How did you know?" She queried, but once again, it was her only social interaction for the week outside of training.

Beggars can't be choosers.

"I'm Marigold." She answers, a tad bit awkward despite the fact that anger was present in her tone just moments ago along with confusion, she shifted at her feet. "Yeah, I mean..." The red hooded padawan looks around. "I guess we can hang around, library's the place we got to hit up. Lot's of people kill my mood to do anything."

She takes a brave step forward, going out of her room and closing the door behind her, locking it. She seemed to be deep in thought for a few moments, eventually turning back towards Kyric, as they were just about to head out.

"Well, uh. Guess we can go now?" She shrugged, not particularly sure how to keep the conversation alive. A question, however, does graze her mind. "What do you mean. My order? It's our order. No?" She did not know the man was a Force user at a concious level, but Marigold herself was! She used Force passively all the time, hadn't been trained how to control it or how to properly channel it's abilities, she was practically a flaring beacon at all times to the gifted.

And with that gift of her own she could sense something was up, even if she couldn't quite pinpoint why, how, or to what degree.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

"My old man had a knack for force-enhanced empathy. It was sorta his specialty. Every once in a while I find it a bit easier to feel the emotions of other people around me. Especially strong ones." Kyric explained it to the best of his ability to her, though Marigold would be able to tell he wasn't entirely certain on the matter. When she stepped out, he took a step back, affording her ample space.

"What do you mean. My order? It's our order. No?"

He shrugged. "Hard for me to say, really. It doesn't feel like my order. Hell, it doesn't feel like the place my old man described, either." Kyric tucked his hands back into his jacket pockets and fell in step beside her. "S'all a little too philosophical for me. Y'know?"

Marigold's question appeared to hold deeper significance to the kiffar than she may have realized. He considered it for a moment longer. Then he shrugged again. It appeared to be a habit.

"Why were you sittin' in there alone? Shouldn't you be trainin'? Readin'? Eatin'?" Kyric wore an easy smile even as he questioned her.

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"Force-enhanced empathy? Man, can't imagine having to suffer through listening to every single person's whining, well, if that suits you then..." She shrugs.

Marigold's understanding of the Force was minimal, despite the fact that one could sense how strong the force was with her, there was a ton of untapped potential, either subconciously held back by the lack of training, or conciously by the lack of patience from the girl.

"S'not your order?" She tilts her head. "Are there, like... Other orders aside from this one?" The young padawan would ask, confused.

"Oh, and uh... M'master's gone for sometime, the old geezer is always busy with work, reading? Boring, eatin'...? Ehh, no apetite." She lowers her head. "I just kinda walk around and exist until there's something to do, y'know? Not that many people to talk to nowadays."

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

"It's not so bad," Kyric admitted. "Gives me a better idea of who needs help."

That sort of answer sounded like the sort of thing a storybook hero might say in a child's tale, but the kiffar said it with a straight face and absolute certainty.

"Other orders? None as large as the New Jedi Order, but yeah, there are others out there." He padded beside her through the halls as they spoke. "I don't personally belong to any. I'm what's called a Wayseeker. Sorta out and about, doin' my thing wherever the force takes me." A quick look at his clothes would support his claim. His boots were worn and his jacket was scuffed all over. "Most folks wait until they're granted knighthood before makin' that kinda decision, but circumstances are different for everyone."

Her explanation of her current state of living left much to be desired.

"What do you like to do for fun?"

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"Yeah, seein' everyone's problems and hearing them without them shutting up sure does wonders to someone's mental though, doesn't it?"

Marigold asks sarcastically, her voice was rather brash, she did listen to the man's words however. Taking in the information about the different Orders, and that he was a Wayseeker. In the end, she lets out a chuckle, with a smirk on her face she spoke.

"So... What you mean to say is that you're effectively homeless, huh? Sucks to suck... Why not be in the order? Seems a lot better than jogging on your own from place to place or jumping from star to star."

She ponders the question, answering honestly.

"I used to kill people for fun, bad people especially. Spice traders, criminals, serial killers, slavers. Cut em' up and butchered em' in front of their underlings. But right now I can't do that, so..." The padawan shrugs. "I guess I like sightseeing."

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Kyric considered her question. "It doesn't bother me at all, no. I'm pretty good at keepin' myself removed from other's pain, though. That's part of the Jedi thing."

"So... What you mean to say is that you're effectively homeless, huh? Sucks to suck... Why not be in the order? Seems a lot better than jogging on your own from place to place or jumping from star to star."

"Homeless? No, no. I'm lucky enough to have a pretty big family spread throughout the stars. Plenty o' places to call home." He nodded to random passersby as he spoke, hoping to look the part of any other jacket-clad Jedi. "I just prefer travelin'."

Marigold's explanation of her past exploits left him somewhat stymied. That wasn't at all what he expected. But he knew from the stories she wasn't the first killer brought into the New Jedi ranks. His father dreamed for it to be a haven of second chances. Her being here was something like his legacy in action, or so the boy thought.

"Sightseein'? We can go see some sights if you want. The temple is pretty borin'."

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"Pfth, same... Except for the family, I love travelling, you know? There's not many places I could call home until recently, feels almost weird to have my own room after so long...." She pauses. "Wonder how long that'll last." A sigh escapes her.

It was rare that Marigold got to talk to someone for longer than a few minutes, even rarer were the moments where she could feel that the other person was a kindred spirit, they were different, make no msitake. But their experiences, however different they are, shared some similarities. That much she could feel. That made it much more easier to open up to someone, a lot more than she usually did.

"Yeah, temple can get a bit repetitive after you walked around it a bunch of times. Just promise me that we aren't goin' too far, don't want to explain that one to them, Kahlil will understand probably, but Valery Noble ? Sheesh, no chance mate, she'll kill me with her gaze alone."

She lifts her hands, as if in surrender, acceptance.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Kyric chuckled at that. "I hate to tell you, Mari," he pronounced it mar - ee, "but Coruscant ain't the most commuter-friendly city in the galaxy. Not like we can take a stroll down the road to the park." The kiffar passed from one hallway into the grand entrance of the Jedi Temple. Dozens of other cloaked and jacketed figures moved through the space.

It was a hub of Jedi activity–-the liveliest place of its kind.

"Valery the type to take issue with you guys runnin' free around here?" Kyric asked the question even though he could guess the answer.

Marigold was a self-professed murderer. Any Jedi Master worth their salt would keep her in a place where she couldn't revert to such violent tendencies. While his father would've gone the approach of honing her killing intent into a weapon against the Dark Side, that was the kind of gamble Kyric expressly avoided without proper preparations.

"How bout this, then," the kiffar revealed his speeder keys from his jacket pocket. "I know a pretty dope diner down in CoCo Town we can stop by. I'm talking two to three hours. No point in bein' on Coruscant if you ain't gonna experience everything Galactic City has to offer ye'."

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"Most of outer rim ain't friendly to travelers, can guess as much. But why Coruscant? Don't go to the lower levels and you probably won't get the piss, ain't that how it works?" Marigold queries to him while they passed by the hallway, it wasn't as much noticeable but the young padawan took great care in avoiding hitting or even going as much as brushing shoulders with any one of them, as if they all had the plague.

She didn't feel like she belonged here. It wasn't a long time ever since she got caught and put here after all, only right that it would all feel ailen to her, especially the ideology of peace, minimum violence. Her gloomy expression is slowly replaced with a smile that is visible even through the hood- a hood she wore even while inside. Seemingly rather insistant on keeping it up.

"Pfsh, well... I dunno? She's kinda person who means well, can tell as much. We do tend to clash a whole lot tho'.." The smile turns into a grin as Kyric flashes his keys. "Weellll..." Marigold clicks her tongue. "I'm suuuuure they won't mind if I disappear for a few hours! They'll probably think I'm sleeping, or something to that extent." With a chuckle, she appears to be much more high-spirited, though she still felt a tad bit confused.

"Suppose you can lead the way, but... Why ya' doin' this? I mean, it's not like you're getting anything out of it, except making some person you just met happier for a few days."

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

"The Outer Rim is definitely more dangerous compared to the Core worlds, sure. I wouldn't call it an unkind destination. You just gotta keep your head on a swivel the same way you would in a bad part of town." Kyric wasn't an expert on Coruscant. He grew up hearing stories about it from his dad and the rest of their family, but the boy's experiences with city planets predominantly came from his home world of Denon.

Hearing Marigold and her Grandmaster clashed at times didn't seem to surprise him at all. "I figure a place with so many willful types is bound to get a bit heated."

"Suppose you can lead the way, but... Why ya' doin' this? I mean, it's not like you're getting anything out of it, except making some person you just met happier for a few days."

Ah, of course. A classic conundrum for those who've yet to experience kindness on the scale that the kiffar prided himself. Rather than jump into some overdone explanation Marigold may have heard 100 times over, Kyric manifested the biggest, most silly smile he could.

"I fight for kindness, Mari. That's why I pick up my lightsaber and do, frankly, stupid things for people I've never met before. I pay kindness forward in hopes that others will do the same." Kyric turned out the temple completely and strode towards where he parked his bike. "Lots of bad folks will tell you there ain't goodness in the galaxy anymore. That they do bad cause if they don't, someone else will." He rolled his eyes. "That's dumb."

A vintage white speeder bike, worn down from decades of use, poked out from behind a much larger communal transport vessel. Dozens of little scrapes and dents decorated it. Kyric looked out of place next to the old thing, but when he clicked to activate the vehicle, the engines purred to live real nice. It began hovering a foot off the ground.

"So long as I exist," he continued as he threw his leg over the bike. "No one can tell you there's no kindness left in the galaxy."

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"Yeah, I getcha. Tend to keep to myself. Unfortunately can't carry weapons with m'self so if anything happens, don't mind me taking cover, yea?" Marigold chuckles.

"It gets heated all the damn time, now I'd be lyin' if I didn't say that most of it was my fault, in fact, it probably is." She seemed look aside for a few moments, a pout visible on her expression. "Words are hard, though, so never got around to apologizing. S'a shame."

Marigold listened to Kyric's explanation, while it was certain she didn't agree with much of what he said. She did listen, it was much easier for her to learn by observing and listening to people than having a conversation with them, yet conversation is what she needed at the moment.

"Eh, I put it that way, goodness and badness are subjective, some things you would find unacceptable are a norm for another culture. And vice versa. I'll say though that it'd be kind of silly and dumb to hear someone talk about how they're doing bad stuff because no one else will, what kinda excuse is that?"

The young padawan shrugged. "People do horrible things on a daily basis, some people hide behind excuses, others don't... Most just have to make a living somehow, and with how galaxy is... Certain gigs tend to stick out more than the others. Like bounty hunting, y'know?"

By the time they reached the bike, Marigold stretched, and climbed onto it as well. Outside of temple was pretty lively too, with vehicles coming in and out, as well as people... A touch bit more chaotic than the peace and order that ruled within the place itself. Something which did trouble Mari, but by the time of her travels in the Galaxy she could get used to the noise.

A chuckle escapes her, as she speaks up in her usual joking tone. "Now, I'd say you don't look like one, but I really hope you're not one of the adrenaline junkies that got their speeder modded to have maximum acceleration."

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

"Eh, I put it that way, goodness and badness are subjective, some things you would find unacceptable are a norm for another culture..."

Kyric completely disagreed with that.

The Force itself existed in a constantly fluctuating state of balance. It directly manifested moral phenomena in measurable states of good and evil, much like how one could track the passage of light or the decay of an animal's carcass. But he didn't feel the need to push the issue. Marigold was young, like him, but her path clearly did not grace her with such blessings as formal education.

Besides, fresh viewpoints made life all the more exciting.

"No ma'am," Kyric chuckled. "No modifications necessary. Cel flies fast enough all on 'er own." He slowly padded back, reversing the speeder out of the space, before he changed gears, pulled back on the throttle, and the engine kicked in. His father's old speeder still flew as smoothly as the day the Sword of the Jedi assaulted Muunilist. It zoomed skyward, weaving in and out of speeder traffic as Kyric howled a free-spirited laugh. He leveled out the bike once they were over the Jedi Temple proper and he allowed himself a nostalgic moment to view it as his father once did.

"Alright, I'm sorry." He led the speeder into a much slower descent toward the lower levels. "Nothin' beats flyin'. It's the most free feelin' in the world."

The speeder bike wove through aerial traffic as if the other vehicles weren't even there. Kyric's focus moved in line with his joy, resolute at their journey through the skies.

"You ever think about getting a personal speeder?" The kiffar asked as the bike descended toward a small garage built beside a little diner. "They can be expensive, but I know a couple lots where folks just abandon all kinds of tech you can scavenge. I bet you could build one if you wanted to." He deactivated the speeder, allowing Marigold to climb off first, then he followed suit.

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

Marigold wasn't the smartest kid around. Crude mannerisms and words, inability to get point across with words in the first place. Philosophical debates were entirely out of her league. "Y'know I'm young, right? Don't gotta call me ma'am..." Granted, it was her fault for always wearing this hood, it obscured most of her facial features.

While she wasn't academically smart, she did know something, mechanics! Not a whole lot, but it seemed like enough to get her through the day and basic knowledge of the trivia. "Not modded, eh? Honestly this kind of speeder looks military-grade, bet it doesn't need much modifications to..." Before she could finish her sentence, the speeder zoomed out. "AAAAH!"

At first, the young girl was overwhelmed by the speed and flying colors of the city. It felt like a lucid dream, she firmly held onto her hood in order to keep it from revealing much of her face though golden locks of hair were still flowing out of the hood, her cloak swinged side to side in waving patterns quite the upside and downside of having clothing that flows in the wind!

It wasn't long before she got used to it though, the young padawan let out a snort, followed by a childlike laughter of unrestrained joy, something which one could sense was a rare emotion to get out of her, it's almost as if she was remembering how to have fun.

"Ahh, ahah... Don't worry bout' it, feels great." She murmurs, letting herself feel the wind as they traveled to their destination, and once they were settling down, the red cloaked girl pondered upon the question. "Huuh... Well, speeders are pretty expensive. Couldn't afford one while I was some low-life bounty hunter, not too sure I'll be able to afford it now that I'm not allowed to do that kind of gigs."

"Honestly? Would be great to have one. I'm not a good builder though, it'll take a lotta time to learn." Marigold concludes with a final sigh, letting the adrenaline slowly leave her body as she dismounts the speeder.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

"Y'know I'm young, right? Don't gotta call me ma'am..."

"It's just good manners," Kyric stated after they'd dismounted the bike. "You call a lady miss or ma'am unless they say otherwise. But if you're sayin' you prefer Mari over ma'am? I'll oblige ye'."

Three people exited the diner as the teenagers walked up. One held open the door long enough for Kyric to take it and motion Marigold inside. "After grub, do you wanna stop by one of those scrap lots I mentioned? There's one pretty close to my dad's apartment. We can stop by the lot? Maybe go diggin' for some parts?" Excitement twinkled in the boy's eyes. It was overabundantly clear he considered the trip worthwhile for the both of them.

A tentacle waved them over to the host stand before she could answer. A Parwan greeted them, its three eyes zeroing in on each of the two teens. "Table or the counter?"

"Booth, please," Kyric answered.

"This way."

Gliding through the semi-busy establishment on three writhing tentacles, the Parwan led them to a booth tucked into the corner. Their being profiled did not go unnoticed by the kiffar. It just so happened to be funny enough to pass the vibe check, so he grinned and sat across from Marigold. Tiny devices built into the table projected little hologram menus displaying delicious meals and their cost.

"Anyway- parts," Kyric deactivated his menu and looked through Marigold's menu at her. "No pressure or nothin'. It just doesn't sit right with me, droppin' you off at the temple with no way to get gone."

Marigold