Private After Hours

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

The job never ended for the Sentinel of Harmony.

Jonyna had spent the last few days working on the massive Kyber Arch, trying her best to restore it to what it once was. Standing under it, the Service Corp had done their best, but still pieces were missing. Sorting through the rubble was a process...

One might scold her for staying up this late. The sun was slowly dipping over the horizon on Coruscant, and yet Jonyna never stopped. Standing under what was left of the arch, Jonyna rubbed her eyes as she stared upward, looking for any imperfections in it.

"...Sweet Sylvar I'm gonna go crazy doing this." She muttered to herself, finally looking away. "I need a snack..."

 

[Rik Perris]

KYBER ARCH MEDITATION ROOM - NJO TEMPLE - CORUSCANT

Rik was still here, in this place, for a few reasons. No matter how low his faith had been brought, this had still been a Temple and Order that figured into a large part of his life, and his conscience had behoved him to lend his strength into setting things back on the road to right. And he couldn't let things lie with Briana Sal-Soren , who had been injured under his protection, until they could talk. He felt he owed her, and other friends, and his family that much for the promises he was breaking.

All that left him restless, not that it was nudging the hour he would turn in for the night. No, that was often late. But it did send him roaming the slowly recovering temple, which had become uncommonly silent even before all the ruin. The rubble cast strange shadows as he walked. Soon enough, he'd meandered his way to the site where his own battle had occurred, and where the smallest measure of guilt nipped at him more fiercely.

There was knowing that it could have turned out worse for his friend, but emotions had a mind of their own, and you could only choose how you reacted to them.

When he arrived at the meditation room that housed the Kyber Arch, he had to do a double take and almost question the presence he felt. He hadn't been expecting anyone here, had he? He'd been expecting that he would be alone, and moreover, he hadn't been expecting to see the Kyber Arch almost entirely as it was before crumbling. Rik stepped up to the room, poking his head inside and seeing a red-haired Cathar woman. She looked vaguely familiar, he'd place her about the temple somewhere, but he was drawing a blank on the name. He hadn't been that much of a social butterfly in all the months since he'd returned; after Ivy had dropped him at the start of the year, he'd stuck to focusing on his work.

"...Sweet Sylvar I'm gonna go crazy doing this." She muttered to herself, finally looking away. "I need a snack..."

"You do that all yourself?" He leaned into a steady section of the entryway, crossed his arms and let out a low whistle. "Sounds like it wasn't easy."

He knew it would've been quite a bit of work. He was there when the Arch collapsed, after all, though he wasn't responsible for it. Though if she'd been searching manually... by the old gods, there were easier ways. Rik glanced at the Arch yet again, compelled by that same small guilt to do something.

"Truth is, I'm indirectly responsible for this," he admitted slowly, waving a hand from the tall arch to the rubble still laying about, "was smackin' around a couple of those Ren, and they brought it down during our fight." He pulled his hand back, scratching idly at his chin. "You sounded like you could use a break. How's about we go and rustle somethin' up, my treat, and I help you finish the job after?"

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

"Not all of it, thank Sylvar." Jonyna groaned, smiling at a friendly face. "We've got Service Corp members helping, they just...all went to bed. But the job is never done!" She gave a half-hearted, shallow smile and hand motion, before slumping. "Yeah, I definitely could. You up for a visit to the kitchen? I could kill a Wark barehanded for a bit of meat right now." Without a thought, she lazily waddled over to the man and offered a slightly punch-drunk smile.

It was then she had to take a moment to adjust her posture, it was moments like this she had to remind herself of her own position. "Sorry, bit tired. I don't think we've met. Jonyna Si." She offered a handshake, and a dumb smirk. "Sentinel of Harmony."

That was still weird to say. She was so used to that being Jasper Kai'el 's moniker. She still felt like she had big shoes to fill, even if Val had assured her she'd earned the position. Maybe it was just the lack of sleep talking.

Focus on the now. The cute guy in front of you, the-

The what?

Her brain took a moment to reboot, as her eyes wandered over the man, instinct moving her body rather than conscious thought.

....yeah, okay. He was cute. Thanks brain.

 

[Rik Perris]

KYBER ARCH MEDITATION ROOM - NJO TEMPLE - CORUSCANT

"I could kill a Wark barehanded for a bit of meat right now."

Rik couldn’t help but crack a small grin bordering on a laugh, at that comment… what with her ears, tail, and markings, he wasn’t able to rightly tell if that was a turn of phrase or if she was serious - he’d never been acquainted with a Cathar before, he was sure he’d have remembered it - but that hardly mattered: hungry was hungry.

“Alright, kitchen it is,” he chuckled. Watching her then mosey on up to him all bereft of composure, he assumed, because of the tiring long work of putting that arch back together, was a change of perspective, and then she was right in front of him, adjusting herself as if she was remembering the need for it.

"Sorry, bit tired. I don't think we've met. Jonyna Si." She offered a handshake, and a dumb smirk. "Sentinel of Harmony."

His grin mellowed to a firm smile with those words, and moreso because of what else was now so very plain to see: the flaming mane of hair, bright blue eyes, and angular, defined features of her face that, together, painted an image of beauty anyone would have to be blind to not see. ‘Least in his opinion... though experiences over the change from this previous year to the next had left him a mite cautious about beautiful women.

“No worries,” he replied, enveloping her hand with one of his own and giving it a firm shake, “ah, so, you’re the one taking his place,” he stated more for himself, nodding slowly as he let go of her hand and slipped it into a pocket. He hadn’t known the previous Sentinel personally, but had known of him. “Rik Perris.”

But his reservations weren't meant to stop anyone else, not that he could without drawing a line in the sand... and when it became clear that she wasn't so much blatantly, but rather helplessly checking him out, he chose to let it happen. Meanwhile, his smile softened a touch as he pushed off of the threshold to the room and continued to watch her be at the whim of her impulses.

"Need caf with that Wark?" Rik needled softly with that smile turning into a faint smirk of his own, then he went on to point up towards his face, and say deadpan in that same low voice: "My eyes are up here, Councilwoman Si."

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

"Huh?!" She shook herself awake, her long orange hair flying around slightly. "Sorry, just...tired."

The shaking of the hair was mostly to hide her blush. She couldn't help herself when she was like this, half awake and hormones acting up. "So..." She let out a cough, adjusting her long locks. "What'cha thinking food wise?"

Also hungry. Sylvar, get yourself together Jonyna. "I think I might grab a burger or something. Make something myself. You cook?"

Cool. Change the subject and avoid talking about how you were looking at his biceps. Cool cool cool.

 

[Rik Perris]

KYBER ARCH MEDITATION ROOM -> THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

He fell into step with her as they left the room containing the Arch behind, and made their way to the kitchens. Her flustered state didn't go unnoticed, but he wouldn't tease Jonyna about her tiredly impulsive state much further than he already had. He'd only just met the woman, after all, and he wasn't prone to taking things too far or being malicious.

That wasn't to say it hadn't been amusing to watch, though.

Rik shrugged; he hadn't been thinking of any food in particular, and he'd eat most anything. "Burger sounds good," he decided, "when I can," he admitted about his cooking, "something to be said for self-sufficiency... or in the event the unit cook isn't great." That statement came with a little grin. "That's one of the things my master taught me early as he could. Was a practical way to start learning to control a flame."

And an easy way to assuage the fear he used to have around it, from how his affinity for pyrokinetics had become known. Years now since Master Edic Nurown had passed, and still the reach of his lessons wasn't forgotten by this, his last student.

"And I learned quickly," he said with a deep laugh, "no choice, 'less I wanted to eat burnt food."

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

"Lucky you. Had someone to actually teach you." Jonyna joked, holding a finger out and showing off her own pyrokinesis. "I had to learn on the fly. First time I did it, I ended up rocketing myself 30 feet into the air at an airspeeder that I was trying to catch. Did catch it, so ya know, wins and loses." She let out a chuckle. "How much you know about jedi history?"

As they walked, Jonyna found a bit of skip in her step. She enjoyed talking to someone who shared in her own expertise in the Force. Part of why she found herself enjoying time with someone like Valery.

 

[Rik Perris]

KYBER ARCH MEDITATION ROOM -> THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

Rik glanced sidelong at Jonyna when she spoke about her own shared experience. It wasn't that common to be in command of the elements at all, but the whole look of her made the fact that she had control of pyrokinesis in particular seem... fitting. The chances of them both having that same skill were even less. It was unexpected, but he liked that.

"Can't say I ever thought of using it that way," he quipped with a small chuckle, imagining her flying through the air like that; he was both amused and mildly impressed with the outcome, "Only bits and pieces, beyond what other history I was made to learn growing up," he replied to her question, turning his attention ahead for a moment as they entered a corridor that would take them by the kitchens; he didn't spend too, too much time studying the past, "one of my younger brothers is the history buff. Kid rubs off on me, sometimes, and I do a bit of reading."

Rik turned his gaze back to the redhead, curious, with a small smile. He didn't see the connection through to history in what little they talked about so far, so it felt a little out of nowhere, but... that was all part of getting to know someone.

"Why?"

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

Jonyna rolled her eyes. He must not know. She figured by now, a lot of people should know her story. New Council member and all. Then again, that was still a recently new development. "I'm 930. Don't look it, but that's thanks to an ice witch who put me in stasis since the beginning of the Fall of the Empire."

She could call it a lot of things. The Original Empire. The First Empire.

No. It was all the same one. All the same white plastoid.

And now it was dead.

"I always wonder if someone I'll run across one day will know the name Jonyna Si, Rebel Knight and Leader of the Tenacity Crew. You ever think about that? How you'll be remembered?"

 

[Rik Perris]

KYBER ARCH MEDITATION ROOM -> THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

He knew of this kind of thing. He'd known of others, before, that one way or another were transplanted from the past, or had lived through it until now, but it never ceased to surprise him... only a little less each time. The Force really did defy understanding in some of those cases... but when she rolled her eyes when filling in the context behind her question, he got the sense that she'd talked about this before many times, to the point of having tired of it.

"Hey," he injected, calm as he could, raising his hands, "hey now, being fair, I'm still comin' to grips with how much I've missed." He grimaced. "Haven't exactly been around for... a long while." But his 'long while' undoubtedly paled in comparison. The obvious questions came through in his thoughts, but he let them lie, getting the sense well enough her background wasn't really the reason for the ask about the past of the Jedi, "So pardon my ignorance."

Rik's hands dropped, and he sighed. Well, this felt awkward.

"Sorry... sorry. I just... what are you getting at?" Then she got to the point of it all, going straight for depth. He blinked, and looked ahead. "Oh." Well, that could pull the wind out of his metaphorical sails. That subject was so intertwined with everything that troubled him, kept him rooted in place, here. Rik considered with a little difficulty what kind of answer he would give, but soon enough he relented, settling for as honest as he could manage to give, without getting into too many specifics, "I, you know..." he scratched a hand at the back of his neck. "...the older I get, the more I think about it."

He looked at Jonyna out the corners of his eyes. Might be she'd understand this, might not.

"What I come from, where I come from," his mouth became a line, "well... the history of my family is rife with service, in the military, to upholding the law... and Corellian culture celebrates the accomplishments of its sons and daughters." His brow took on a deep crease as he pushed open the door to the kitchens, and held it open for her; that was just the way he was, "And to add to that, being a Green Jedi is another further level entirely. It's... it's a lot of pressure. I wonder if I'll be able to look back on my life, and find I measure up to it all to any extent."

He leaned against the door. He tried to do right, but self-doubt was far from absent when he held up a light to his actions over the years.

"I got time, I know I do, but... yeah."

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

Jonyna just let out a chuckle and a nod. She understood better than most. The idea of struggling with legacy.

"When I came out of the ice, they already had murals on my home-tree of me. In my culture, that's one of the highest honors one can achieve and yet...it was for things I did without really thinking about it. Stuff I did in the moment. Helped take down a star destroyer, stabbed a moff. Didn't really think much of it at the time. Figured I'd be remembered as the girl who helped take down the Empire and restarted the jedi order. Instead, that honor went to some farmboy from Tatooine who's dad turned into a monster. Good story, but..." She paused as they entered the kitchen, Jonyna instinctively walking over and grabbing a pan. She knew what she wanted.

"It's weird to see what you're remembered for. Nowadays, I don't think about it as much. I made it on the Council, further than my mom or even the jedi that my people often see in a sense of worship did. A Jedi Master. It still doesn't feel right on my tongue. But...I'm learning to accept it."

She grabbed a steak out of the fridge, one that seemed to be marked with her name on it, and began tearing it out of the packaging. "What's something dumb you think you'll be remembered for? I'm sure historians are gonna be talking about how much of a party animal I am."

 

[Rik Perris]

THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

Rik nodded at her comment around accepting what she'd accomplished. Even when he'd been knighted as a young adult, it'd taken some getting used to. He waited for her to go about getting started on making her food, before he slipped away from the door and let it shut behind him to do the same, but didn't enter further into the room just yet.

"I hear that."

Boy, did he ever, as suggested by his emphatic tone. Pride at one's own accomplishments was an awkward thing: too much was a different problem than too little, but both problems nonetheless. He stood in place, watching her tear into the steak's packaging, with her next question. Her quip about being remembered as a party animal managed to bring half a smile, almost a smirk to his face; confessing sins was a much lighter subject, and he was thankful for it.

"I'm... not sure how many people will remember Padawan R. Perris rewiring the temple lighting into a disco," he admitted, "but no matter how much crap I got for that, that's still better than giving my mother a heart attack," that near-smirk became a grin, before he gave context, humour starting to infect his voice, "she didn't appreciate five-year-old me pilfering the nanny droid for parts to build a bomb," he headed over to the fridge himself, and opened the door, but glanced back at Jonyna before removing anything from it; he shrugged, his gaze alight with the dregs of that mischievous memory, "It never had the chance to go off, but can you really blame a kid for finding explosions cool?"

With a quiet snicker, he turned back to the fridge and took a look at what he'd left in it himself, quickly deciding to pull out a spicy nerf steak wrap that he could just heat through and crisp the outside of. Not having too full of a schedule and a consistent place to lay his head allowed him to prep fairly simple things like this in advance without spending too much time on it. Almost anything wrapped up in some sort of flatbread was good, in his opinion.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

Jonyna let out a rather uncouth snort at the story. A bomb?

"Sounds like you were quite the firestarter yourself. Disco though?" Jonyna inquired. "Didn't know people were still fans of it. Was really big back from when I was from. That and Jizz, but...I was never really into that." She eyed the man, clearly meaning that to have a double meaning. "I was more into the sort of, rock music. Learned guitar just to play some of those songs. You play anything?"

The sound of sizzling meat filled the air, as Jonyna telekinetically began opening drawers and pulling out spices and butter. "You get out much? I don't mean for missions, I mean more like...ya know, just to enjoy yourself. There's a club that I used to frequent before the Imps blew it up. Helping rebuild it though. Sentinel of Harmony and all."

 

[Rik Perris]

THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

He shut the fridge door.

"Not disco music," he grinned, pausing, watching her while she continued on; the look she gave him when she mentioned Jizz music, however, made that particular moment stretch out juuust overly long. Not too subtle, that... less obvious was the ideas it put into his head. Rik cleared his throat, feeling a smidge self-conscious - gods-damn, hadn't he just met this woman? - which broke that sliver of silence as he swallowed his grin. "Just the lighting," he continued finally, giving the fume hood switch over where she cooked a quick telekinetic flick to turn it on, but saying nothing about it.

"Yeah, Rock," he agreed when she brought that up, "and Metal," he added - those kinds of music were important to him and his relationship with at least one of his brothers. He went to get the flame going under the grill station, then turned the fume hood on over there. When she asked if he played anything instrument-wise, his eyes pulled back to her. "Can't say I ever have."

Not that he was disinterested in it, he'd just had other priorities... and some of those priorities had, in a way, sometimes went hand in hand with what she asked next. He unwrapped the wrap once the grill was hot enough, and placed it on the grill.

"Not lately." For reasons that hurt a little, but with the ease that had settled into their conversation, that hurt was a little easier to ignore. He'd have no problem letting the hours wind on. He noted what she said about rebuilding a club, then turned the wrap to grillmark another side, as he went and divulged a little more. "Last time I went to a club was a few years back," which was a very good memory, "time was at a premium up until about ten, eleven months ago." Rik glanced from the wrap, to her, then back to the wrap, giving it a second turn. "Bit more recently I got roped into not just one, but two galas in a row. Not my scene."

Never was in the first place, and he was only more reluctant to attend events like those since little more than half a year past, when those two galas had occurred. Turning the wrap to its final side, Rik let his gaze drift back to Jonyna, figuring on some freshly inspired honesty. New acquaintance be damned.

"Y'know, thinking on it... if that club was finished, I'd be asking if you wanted to get out of here." He had the time, so why not? "After eating, of course."

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

"Oh, ew. I don't do formal events. Part of the reason I avoid dealing with stuff for my company." She paused, looking to Rik with a small smirk. "Are you asking me out, handsome?"

And there it was. Jonyna was always a bit of a flirt, but she knew something was brewing here. "If you're gonna tug on a tiger's tail, better pull her somewhere interesting."

 

[Rik Perris]

THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

"Are you asking me out, handsome?"

He'd just been thinking he should take his wrap off the grill, when she came back at him with that question. It shouldn't have caught him off guard, but being confronted with how she'd taken his admission of intent put him into some moments of reflection, responding to her smirk with a smile before he turned to take care of his food.

"If you're gonna tug on a tiger's tail, better pull her somewhere interesting."

The wrap was put on a plate, and he had just switched off the grill and left the fume hood to run a little while longer while her flirting continued. To be tempted by it would be so, so easy, but... he sighed lightly, looking at her and smiling apologetically. No, it still hurt.

"It'd be unfair to you if I was," that was painfully honest, "there's... a lot I still need to figure out." His hands slipped into the pockets of his trousers. "But I'm enjoying your company, Jonyna, and I still want to know you better. Starting to do that over a drink or two," a corner of his mouth picked up a little higher, "seemed a good idea. Normal, even if I don't know what's good around here, yet."

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

"I could go for a drink." She said with a simple smile. Clearly, the man had some issues. That was nothing new to her. Sylvar knows how many issues Giran had. "Let's finish our food first though." She chuckled, flipping her steak and seasoning it. "What kinda stuff you prefer drink wise? I'm always a fruity nut myself."

It was nice. Nice to talk to someone again on an honest level. She hadn't gotten the chance to do that in a long while...

 

[Rik Perris]

THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

“Heard.”

Rik was glad she was on the same page - drinking on an empty stomach was a bad practice, but with food was the best way to have a drink, in his mind.

“Beer and hard liquor,” he replied, watching her finish cooking before he would take a single bite of his own food, “I’ve been convinced to try the fruity stuff here and there,” he smiled knowingly, “those things can be dangerous.”

Some of those mixtures, you couldn’t taste the alcohol at all; you’d have no idea what you were getting yourself into… but he was no lightweight. Rik cracked a half a grin as he picked up his wrap, leveraging it at her as if he were making a point.

“But… nothing knocks you on your ass quite like whatever firewater your squadmates could cook up when out of options.” Rik lowered the wrap, considering it before taking a bite, “Usually tastes awful, always works.”

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Rik Perris

Munching idly on her steak, Jonyna raised an eyebrow. "You were a soldier?"

It was a simple question, but one Jonyna wanted an answer to. She never had been, not in the traditional sense. She led a group of ragtag rebels, not fought on frontlines.

 

[Rik Perris]

THE KITCHENS
NJO TEMPLE
CORUSCANT

Rik chewed, thinking over the past many years, why he had stepped away from the Order, and where he had ended up.

"S'why we just met," he started after swallowing, "Spent much of the past ten years in former Imperial space, dismantling pockets of Imperial oppression that were still ongoing," that was the short of it, "well, running with a paramilitary outfit operating in that region, supporting local populations in securing their freedom from that oppression, more like. I... left the Order not too long after my knighting, took to wayseeking. Truth is, I couldn't in good conscience remain here."

He went to take another bite, but paused, realising what he'd just said might need a little more context. The Order now was vastly different from the one that had made a Jedi of him.

"You ever witness something, or come to know something that... didn't sit right with you? Something that conflicted with your principles or beliefs so much that you couldn't stand it?"

Jonyna Si​