Faction Remembrance

[Alex StormWolf]

Alex and Seku stood in silence for a long moment after their good natured verbal sparring, the solemn atmosphere of the occasion drawing back in around them.

"I don't think I've ever told you where I was 5 years ago, when Coruscant fell," Seku said at last, catching Alex by surprise.

"No, I don't think you have," Alex replied.

"When Coruscant was sacked, I was off-world, working undercover. Don't really remember the specifics of the mission. What I do remember, is that I didn't even know about the attack until that evening, when I received a Priority One message advising me to rendezvous at the closest SIA safe house for immediate debriefing and extraction. Up until that moment, I'd spent the better part of several years working from within the shadows to protect the best interests of the Republic and its citizens. Suddenly....all that work didn't seem to amount to much."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I and every other agent in the field at that point, never saw the warning signs. And they were so damned obvious!"

Alex didn't say anything, slowly processing what Seku was telling him. Here she was, the young woman he had always thought of as the no nonsense, tough as nails Twi'lek; baring her soul to him and telling him of immense personal regret she had never before mentioned.

"Harani.....we're more alike than I've ever realized," Alex said at last.

"Nah! Last I checked, I don't have some creepy Sith hag crawling around inside my head going BOOGA! BOOGA! at me in the middle of the night," Seku replied with a slight smirk.

"I can set you up with your own Sith creeper, if you'd like."

"Ugh! Let's not and say we did! The mere thought of it makes my skin crawl! Speaking of...now that you know how Venge is able to haunt you anywhere in the galaxy, how do you go about breaking the Force Bond she has with you?"

"I'm not sure. Force Bonds are often notoriously difficult to break. Unwanted bonds formed by a Dark Sider....even more so."

 

[Isla Draellix-Kobitana]

Location: Senate square
Tags: Tiresh Kobitana-Draellix Auteme

Spoiler: Isla's Personal Gear

Admiral's Sabre
Ashlan Rosary
Kaldrweave military uniform
Personal guard of Ashlan Praetorian droids
Overseer Biochip OPBC-01a
Diamond snowflake necklade

Personal Diplomatic Transport -
Bucephalus Class Fast Diplomat

Wearing: this and this in black and made of Kaldrweave

Isla watched the slightly tense interaction between Auteme and Tiresh Kobitana-Draellix . She was a bit suprised by thw statement that the chancellor had assumed one of her senators was dead, in the crusade the intelligence services would have informed Isla of the rescue, but hers was a military leaning organisation, maybe things were different.

"Chancellor, I am pleased to be able to attend this service, it is tragic the circumstances leading to this, but you and your people show a strength to be proud of." she did not discuss Ashlan politics, she felt pride in the stability of the Kaiseriech as a nation, but the return of the Cedric Grayson had caused a level of political turmoil that she would be embarrassed to discuss with a foreign leader. If she was truly honest, she worried for the future of the Crusade.

Over shoulder, Isla did notice the mildest of eyerolls from her fiance, which she rolled into her warm and diplomatic smile for the Chancellor as to not give any visual queues. "It would be good for us to arrange a proper sit down at a more convenient opportunity."
​

​

 

[Hex]

Tag: Iris Arani
Location: Senate Square
Objective: Remember the invasion

Spoiler: Equipment

• Powderpunk armor on loan from Daiya
• Guarderma HE suit metallic pink hex pattern with mag boots
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (1 explosive, 0 gas)
• Dancer repulsor board
• Dervish Knife
• Cheap data pad and communicator

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

The woman, Iris, gave a short response and Hex in turn continued. "I don't know if it was the same everywhere, but the defence was focused on the surface, everything is focused on the surface, it is what it is, maybe one day things will change."

'...It is what it is? That's a new one...'

She couldn't help but smirk at the silent comment from her friend, but also at knowing she was one of those elements who tried to enact change on a very similar planet to this.

"Your name is pretty" she added seemingly out of know where. "Were you on coruscant during the attack too?"

 

[Kirie]

Senate Plaza
Open to interaction
ATTN: Corazona von Ascania | Jasper Kai'el

-

​

"I am Corazona von Ascania."

Kirie gave a small smile at the young Jedi's mannerisms. She picked up on a sort of courtly etiquette, a way the young woman held herself that Kirie recognised from when she had served house of Arenais on Commenor, almost 25 years ago. Kirie wondered if the girl had some sort regal background.

"It was a moving ceremony." Kirie replied simply before trailing off. She'd had more to say when she'd opened her mouth, about sacrifice and the importance of remembering, but instead she sighed. "I just hope you don't ever see anything like it, but I'm not so sure-"

Kirie brushed off the heavy thought.

"It's nice to meet you Corazona." Kirie said echoing the girls manners as she bowed her head in greeting. "I'm Kirie, it is always a pleasure to meet another young Jedi. Staying out of trouble, I hope?" Kirie's tone was slightly pointed, she already thought she knew the answer. With the war drawing out and the next generation of the New Jedi coming of age, a Padawan could scarcely avoid being drawn into one conflict or another.

Kirie's hands flashed with movement as she spoke, transferring her spoken words into signs with effortless practice. She turned her attention to the young man next to her, realising far too late that she had interrupted the pair's conversation. Kirie's cheeks grew hot as she apologised hurriedly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to barge in." Kirie said sheepishly. "How are you Jasper? I remember you from that sparring match in the Temple." Kirie smiled at the memory. It was the first day she'd brought Hana to the Temple. Though, she remembered the day hadn't ended as positively for everyone. "Congratulations on your Knighting."

"She's deaf, isn't she?"

"Oh Hana? Yes, she's deaf, but she can understand you perfectly thanks to Princess." Kirie gestured vaguely to the small droid crawling across Hana's shoulder. "I think she's actually just ignoring us." Kirie stepped aside so the pair could address the young Jedi-to-be. "Hana, say hi." Hana, for her part, simply pretended Kirie did not exist.

"Uhm.."

 

[Iris Arani]

"I don't remember where I was. But I don't think I was here." Back home, or Kashyyyk? Iris wasn't sure. The colors long claimed those years of her life. Her gaze lingered on the statue just for a moment longer before turning back to watch the girl. Her colors. And Iris just blinked.

"How many of you are there?"

Hex

 

[Hex]

Tag: Iris Arani
Location: Senate Square
Objective: Remember the invasion

Spoiler: Equipment

• Powderpunk armor on loan from Daiya
• Guarderma HE suit metallic pink hex pattern with mag boots
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (1 explosive, 0 gas)
• Dancer repulsor board
• Dervish Knife
• Cheap data pad and communicator

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

"Well I hope it was somewhere better than here, I was just a kid back then, but if they come back I'm going to make sure they regret it." she laughed at Iris Arani and made a finger gun with her hands as if lining up imaginary mawites, or maybe corpos, there wasnt a lot between the two sometimes.

Iris spoke again, blinking hard at Hex.

"How many of you are there?"

'...That was weird...'
"...yeah?"

"How many of me? Are you alright? How many fingers?" Hex held two fingers up in a V to Iris as if testing her eyesight, it was a strange question but maybe she was seeing double. There was just one of her here, and her friends, but noone else could see or hear them, could they? Her brow furrowed as she wondered.

 

[Iris Arani]

"I was told I was found in a slum. I just don't remember if it was then, or when I was on Kashyyyk." She shrugged indifferently. The years she lost didn't matter at the end of the day. Instead, she was way more curious about the colors around Hex. Hers and.. The others.

Weird.

"No, in you. You've got so many different colors layering on themselves. Different.. People? I've never seen anything like it."

Hex

 

[Corin Trenor]

Despite the similarities to Denon, Corin found himself without any true admiration for Coruscant. He wondered with a wry smirk as to whether the same was to be said of all planets coated in vast and endless cities, drenched in monumental structures and bathed in neon and rooted with networks of underworlds well beneath them; Denon was much the same, even kinder to those that dwelled on it, and yet still Corin harboured no love for the system that demanded itself be known as a symbol for peace and freedom for the Alliance. It was with a casual, carefree lean on the steel railing hundreds of stories above the impossibly distant surface of Coruscant, that Corin then pondered once more as to whether the service to Denon was love or loyalty. Love for what the crime-riddled system may become and be or for what it once was, or dedication wrought through familiarity to all the awful filth that lay down there on the planet he called his own.

He was tired, always tired - maybe it was too big of a question to ask, to devote time to think on, with all those burdens and responsibilities and come with what Corin stressed upon himself. Denon was... better, then what it once was. He could afford time elsewhere, off-world, when it suited, of which it rarely seemed to. Too much left unresolved, a fault of his own inaction and deliberately targeted priorities. He could have been a better friend to those around him, allowed himself to fill the role as the leader Dagon wished him to be, been more than the husk that he became.

"I'm back soon anyways," Corin said into the commlink all the same. "He can handle himself until then. Yeah-uh, mhmm. Quick final stop."

Still a victim of old patterns and behaviours, bound by familiarity. Corin was never too sure if he could stick around, even if he wanted to; the draw and pull of immediate action to be taken elsewhere was sometimes too much, even in the distant shadow of the memorial held to those that fell and fought in this war. Had it even been his war, when did it end for him? Had Corin allowed it to ever start, what passion to continue it was there, to see it end? He lost people, but never because of this war - because of himself. Dagon, Yula, Jem. Phantoms of his youth, the kind he strayed from now because it was too difficult to keep up with. The entire class of other Jedi, children made men and women - of what did those lot think of him, if at all, an old friend fallen to the wayside or a distant ghost of their youth with a face to feature in the crowd every once in a while. Iris was all Corin remained in touch with, scarce as that contact was. Mistake or not, who was to say.

He sighed with hands then stowed in those typically worn leathers, as if a uniform for those that frequented Denon all too much. He watched the crowds, their faces, their smiles and their sadness, allowed it to be their own and find himself somewhat content in that even as Corin removed himself from them all, each of them had one another. It was better that way, he thought wistfully.

 

[Auteme]

Tiresh Kobitana-Draellix Isla Draellix-Kobitana ​

Auteme bit the inside of her cheek, not content to just leave things as they were.

"I asked that because it honestly sounded very strange coming out of your mouth, and I wasn't a big fan. To me, 'my dear' is reserved for beloved seniors and Sith Lords. Just sounded infantilizing to me, and I've found setting boundaries with people to be a good thing." She shrugged.

Misunderstood as she may have been, she still found herself a little hurt by the jab. Did Tiresh really think so low of her? Auteme had nothing to prove, yet the words still stung a little. If her character was not enough, no title or achievement could make up for it, no matter how high up the ladder she might reach. Demanding respect purely by authority was best left to the Empire and the Sith. Not being respected -- well, for all of her accrued persuasive powers, she doubted she could change Tiresh's mind in one go.

She turned to Isla and returned the smile, adding a bit more warmth. "Of course. I'll have my staff reach out to yours."

She took a half step away. "I'm going to head off, now. A day of remembrance -- well, that requires contemplation. Please, enjoy your day. A pleasure as always, Senator, Prime Minister." She gave a small wave goodbye, then put her hands in her pockets and strolled off among the statues.

 

[Hex]

Tag: Iris Arani
Location: Senate Square
Objective: Remember the invasion

Spoiler: Equipment

• Powderpunk armor on loan from Daiya
• Guarderma HE suit metallic pink hex pattern with mag boots
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (1 explosive, 0 gas)
• Dancer repulsor board
• Dervish Knife
• Cheap data pad and communicator

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

She laughed, not at the slum comment, that would be rude, but at the strange comment about colours. But who knew with Hex.

'...Is she talking about us?...'

She gave a raised eyebrows with mild disbelief in the idea that someone else could perceive the swirling mess in her brain.

"I do like colourful things, but not going to lie, I'm quite confused. But it's always fun to run into the wonderfully weird"

She gave Iris Arani a playful poke in the arm. "Sucks you don't remember, I get that, before I turned eight or nine it's all...poof... gone" she waved her fingers in the air simulating the birds of her memories flying away. She had never been to Kashykk before, the land of trees and swamps, basically the opposite the the world's she called home.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"Of course not," Jasper answered. "It's just human... but I can't guarantee that you won't. I think you're already aware of that."

"Ah…"

Cora tried to keep from frowning. There wasn't a specific answer she was looking for, and Jasper's response inspired both ease and anxiety. Yes, it was normal to feel this way. But, it was still an inevitability. Some days the Padawan felt as if she were staring down the barrel of a blaster rifle

"I'm Kirie, it is always a pleasure to meet another young Jedi. Staying out of trouble, I hope?"

"And you, Miss Kirie." Her lips pulled into an uneasy smile at the mention of trouble. Even an apple-polisher like Cora hadn't been able to keep from messy situations; she was still a sheltered teenager who'd only been recently unleashed upon the galaxy. "I do my best." She answered carefully, not keen on lying but not exactly wanting to give away the whole truth.

Deaf?

Cora's focus drifted between Jaspser and Kirie as they spoke, picking up on the thread of familiarity between the two. The little bot perched on Hana's shoulder garnered her interest, and Cora leaned in a little closer to inspect it. She couldn't help a small giggle, covered by her hand, at Hana's insistence on ignoring them.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Hana." With a hand now crossed over her chest, she dipped her head in another bow. "And you, Princess."

The eldest of eight children, Cora was particularly used to dealing with their little idiosyncrasies. Despite Hana's reluctance to engage, she found the girl somewhat charming.

"That sandwich looks good. Is it your favorite?"

Her smile was genuine now, and she could feel herself beginning to loosen a bit.

Jasper Kai'el Kirie

 

[Tiresh Kobitana-Draellix]

Her smile slowly contorted into a bit of a pained wince as Auteme chose to double down on her rebuke instead of washing over it like she herself had attempted to do, and in the process, she only further helped to underline Tiresh's own remarks. Tiresh had merely sought to pull on her personal connection with the woman due to their history together, beyond the political chaos that they had been involved in. It was apparent that such an attempt had been a mistake, that much was painfully clear.

But surely, Auteme did not need to beat such a minor point of contention in with such pointed force unless there was something else at play? Why, only seconds after learning that she was alive, did she find it necessary to try to put Tiresh in her place by establishing "boundaries" with her? Unless it was simply a power move, but that made little sense… she wasn't even a senator at the moment. Could it be that Auteme felt somehow threatened by Tiresh? Even as Auteme now held the highest seat of authority in the land, was Tiresh's mere presence enough to cause her to squirm?

The expression on her face finally settled into one of pity. She could try to point out that the context of Auteme's statement was in rather poor taste, being that just moments prior she had believed Tiresh to be Dead. But Tiresh had learned from her previous attempts that trying to reason with Auteme could prove in and of itself to be very unfruitful. However, if this was some odd attempt to push her down into her place, she would not allow such an occurrence to transpire either. No, she would not give Auteme the pleasure of squishing Tiresh under her thumb.

"Often our suspicions are our own insecurities rearing their ugly head again, Chancellor."

As Isla and Tiresh walked away, she would process the very odd interaction in hushed whispers with Isla.

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant
Tags: Corazona von Ascania , Kirie

"How are you Jasper? I remember you from that sparring match in the Temple." Kirie smiled at the memory. It was the first day she'd brought Hana to the Temple. Though, she remembered the day hadn't ended as positively for everyone. "Congratulations on your Knighting."

"Thank you," Jasper responded in a respectful tone. "I had a feeling I had seen you somewhere."

Kirie confirmed that Hana was indeed deaf, but capable of receiving speech via droid, a companion called Princess. It was rather amusing that she was just ignoring them. He didn't blame her. Most kids didn't typically enjoy events like this.

Don't wanna be here? Jasper asked in sign to the young girl. It was a skill he had picked up in his self-imposed exile. Me too, but don't tell anyone.

He chuckled a little before turning back to Kirie and Cora.

"I don't know how long I'll be here," the knight shrugged. "I can't say public events have ever really been my scene. But..."

Jasper tilted his head ever so slightly to Cora. She was young, and not exposed to the same things he had been. There was surely more on her mind.

"I can stay if you need to talk," he continued. "Y'know, get all the anxiety out of your system. There's a lot of that nowadays. Best to not hold onto it."

If only he could practice what he preached.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT, SENATE PLAZA
OPEN ( Auteme possibly) | HOSTILE​

[WHO DARES TO COME AND GET ME?]​

---

Remembrance, how inane.

Yet another posture, another hollow assertion that hope and virtue will triumph in spite of the horrors they continually fail to prevent. This vain, untempered optimism was almost nauseating. Zaavik caught himself sneering while Auteme gave her speech, though he didn't bother to smother his countenance beneath something misleading. There were very few efforts made to obfuscate his identity. It had been years since he'd fled the Jedi Order and the Galatic Alliance. Age, public memory, facial injury, and a veil of black hair where once had been a striking violet, were all factors in his ability to serpentinely weave amongst the crowd whilst leaving no one the wiser for it. He was cancer hidden amongst leukocytes, and they had been the ones to teach him such subtlety.

To think that a former Councilor, the Order's former Shadow of Knowledge, would one day become such a bleak augur of their ruination. All that they kept secret now turned against them insidiously. So baleful, so ironic, it nearly made him guffaw in the middle of the crowd. Malice was now Zaavik's sole source of jubilation, dark proclivities willing. That sneer had contorted into a sardonic grin, far from clandestine, but most were too enamored by the Chancellor's drivel to notice.

Everything she spat into that holomic was mimetic of the hundreds of despairing reassurances that came before. Yet, everyone ate it up as if they'd been starved. Zaavik was there, opposite the Jedi Order when the Maw brought their own frivolous fury down upon Coruscant. Anyone with even a spec of functioning gray-matter who had seen what he had seen, regardless of allegiance, should have seen how valueless this all truly was. Alas, they all allowed themselves to believe easily. Fooling themselves as they were unwilling to face the blood-starved beast named 'Reality'.

Zaavik was here at the beast's very behest.

With the conclusion of the speech, the crowd began to scatter. Zaavik followed a stream of attendees, his attire blending in amongst the rabble. All the while, he scanned, searching for an opportunity, a predatory inclination to make something happen. All to remind them that the beast never sleeps, no matter how hard they hope.

 

[Auteme]

Zaavik Perl ​

Even now, the sparkling skyline felt hollow.

At the time of the attack, Auteme had been so focused on her task -- taking on Kaigann Fossk -- that she'd lost sight of all else. She'd led Jedi to fight a terrible evil. Some lost their lives. The ones she'd thought safe, stuffed away in the Temple as a compromise and ruse, turned out to be at the heart of the danger. And then, when the Senate Dome was split open, and she saw the destruction the Maw wrought-

Yet, it was all hers. That burning sky was her fault. Had she been faster, brought more allies, told people in the first place- if had she succeeded in capturing Fossk, would this pain be lessened?

Fossk. Even now that still stung. Someone she'd put her trust in, learned from, only to be revealed as the Dark Lord of the Sith. There was something about learning from history here, but even now, there was still pain.

Her gaze was brought down very suddenly as she almost ran into one of the many statues scattered about the plaza. She'd asked her security to lead her a bit away from the crowd that had gathered to listen to her speak, at least for a short time. As such, the statues she was surrounded by were at the moment untouched.

Despite the heroics of the people of Coruscant, she'd mostly seen the destruction at a distance. Her own recovery from the attack had, for once, taken precedent. That recovery had involved quite a lot of weeping and sleeping. Surely, her words would have been more impactful if she had done more in those troubled days.

Enough regrets. So many had answered the call to action that had been forced upon them; she might not know them all, but she could still admire them, distant in time they may be.

Careful hands rose to the statue's head, weaving a crown of dark dreadlocks and pointed ears from ethereal threads. With a swipe of her hand she painted the statue green, gave it robes to match. Perhaps the Master of the Saber was never so tall in stature, but in the brief glimpse she'd had of him, he had been great in spirit. Her regrets had long since piled high. This was, she hoped, something small and tasteful for that old, green Jedi.

One of her guards approached.

"Ma'am, it's time."

"Okay." She nodded to them, as the small procession started to loop back towards the main group of citizens dispersing from the plaza's centre. While this was a rather dangerous public place, given the newly-minted myriad pieces of cover they'd just placed, Auteme wanted to make sure the people of the Alliance knew she was still accessible, still a person, in times as dangerous as these. Her security had assured her that all of the attendees had been searched. Safe as one could be, on Coruscant.

She started over to a group of people who were headed vaguely back towards the plaza's entrance; a few people saw her and exclaimed, waved, whatnot. Auteme put on a bright smile as she approached. Her cadre of Senate guards moved slightly ahead of her and began to filter the people who wanted to approach-

The hairs on the back of her neck shot up. Something- someone- familiar was nearby, and she very suddenly felt tired. Her eyes scanned the crowd. Though she kept on her smile, an unease crept up the back of her mind.

 

[Alex StormWolf]

As they were preparing to leave the plaza, Alex suddenly placed a hand on Seku's shoulder in warning. Something, or someone, was triggering his Danger Sense.

"Hold up a minute...."

"Alex, what's wrong," Seku asked, puzzled by the sudden shift in his demeanor.

Alex's eyes were rapidly scanning the crowd, and Seku noticed his right hand dropping towards the lightsaber hanging from his right hip.

"Something doesn't feel right all of a sudden," Alex answered. "You got your hand cannon on ya?"

"Never leave home without it," Seku replied.

"Don't pull it yet. Just be ready."

"Alex, what's going on?"

"I don't know yet, but I've got a really bad feeling about it."

Zaavik Perl
Auteme

 

[Sion Lorray]

Osarla Ridor

Sion did not clap.

He did not believe there was anything to celebrate here.

Yes, respect the sacrifice of the fallen and be in awe of the inspiration they provide to those that moved beyond them. But clapping? No, Sion didn't believe that was appropriate. He settled there next to Master Ridor and studied the empty expressions of the statue. All the while his shoulders shrunk and rose again.

As if he hunched to brace against a tide, before squaring off once more.

"I am okay." The Jedi would murmur as he suppressed the urge to shy away from her touch. Usually Sion would appreciate the gesture, because he was a touchy-feely person himself.

But he already felt overloaded by the crowd. Her touch was only adding to it.

"They are loud." Osarla would know he didn't mean their applause nor their cries. "But I am weathering it. I think this is a good exercise." Even if it hadn't been meant that way. This was simply one of the duties they ought to have. To stand in attention to the valor of those who sacrificed themselves for the Greater Good.

"I can't help but think that a five minute silence would be more appropriate."

Sion let that slip and immediately grimaced. "I apologize, it's not my place to say which ritual is appropriate." Apologetically and quickly to squash any offence that might have been created.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

CORUSCANT, SENATE PLAZA
CLOSED (Reopening in a post or two)| HIDDEN​

[WHO DARES TO COME AND GET ME?]​

---

Hidden amongst the gallery of faces, a leering pair of eyes would meet Auteme's sweeping gaze. Those sinister, golden eyes were hard to miss when on the receiving end of their scrutiny. Zaavik's lips parted once their eyes firmly locked and recognition set in, revealing a mocking flash of teeth behind them. A figure passing between them obscured the horrific magnetism they'd been caught in for a split second, an opportunity that Zaavik would use almost instinctually to disappear. Not only from Auteme's view but from perceptible space altogether as light bent around him at the behest of the force. Not even a shimmer was left in his wake as he vanished from a spot in the crowd, his absence hardly noticed by those who once stood around him.

Lightfooted steps weaved through the crowd, slipped past the cadre and allowed him to maneuver under the cover of ignorance. Unseen, he'd slither through Auteme's personal bubble and situate himself directly behind her, close enough that his breath would agitate hanging locks. Against the small of her back, the unignited hilt of a lightsaber would press suddenly and emphatically. It got much of the point across on its own; one wrong move would herald a killing candescence. Following the hilt came the insidious wrapping of metallic fingers around a bicep. A phantom seizure, as of yet unknown to any but the Chancellor herself.

"How does it feel?" inquired a seemingly disembodied whisper into the Chancellor's left ear. It sounded different than remembered; older, less accented, yet the nuance was distinctly how she would have recalled. Distinctly Zaavik. If there were any left, it should have dispelled all doubts. "I always knew you'd be the big cheese one day," he mused, a grimly sardonic undertone within every syllable. The grip on her arm tightened slowly, ceasing just beneath the threshold of pain.

An amused hum sounded into that same ear, its humor deriding and malicious. He was clearly frivoling as if it were a game.

Auteme

 

[Iris Arani]

"I can't understand you, but.. I can feel you, yes."

Her eyes moved. Looking around Hex, but never at her. Her world of colors was a world of it's own. The poke to her arm pulled her out of it though. She blinked, glancing actually towards the girl before slowly nodding her head.

"It's difficult to loose out on memories. But.. It's also hard to miss something you don't."

Hex

 

[Ishida Ashina]

THE DAUGHTER OF DUTY
CORUSCANT | SENATE DISTRICT
Mercy | CLOSED

​

Master Sardun would have hated this. Which was why she left the token that felt still connected to him far from the proceedings. And Ishida, for the most part, was growing to not like these events either.

Coruscant had been a brutal reminder on how fractured her family was. How broken the Ashina Clan's foundation had become through Genichero's brutality. And for all that Coruscant had rebuilt, the fissures of her family still remained unaddressed. Unsolved.

But she still held on to the pieces that were broken. Maybe thinking the drawn of the Ashina steel blade would eventually lure Qi'Yon back to reason.

"Keep...It."

Today was the first time since that battle that she'd secured his katana to her person. Keeping it strapped to her back on the off chance that...

To bring herself back to the present, she took another sip of tea and walked along the set table spread. Foods of varying nutritional value were out on display for those gathered to commemorate the fallen. None of it looked appealing. And she wasn't sure how anyone could have an appetite with all the glumness in the air.

---