First Reply Tagging Denon

[Iris Arani]

"No, I don't." No point in lying. Iris didn't know how destressed Denon was. She didn't know what she was here messing with, or what she was getting involved with. But the people here needed help. Her art could help, couldn't it? It did back home in her slum. Made people happy. And now she could try to help people find safe places.

Yet Corin was here telling her to just go away. Maybe she would've, too. If his colors weren't so dim.

"You can't tell me what's better for me. I am a Jedi, and I'm here to help. If what I'm doing isn't going to help, then show me how I can. Or I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing anyway."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

He carried on, in and out of the neon as it often flickered across the backstreets.

"Pfft," Corin huffed with an almost saddened sense of amusement, a smirk shrouded in disbelief crossed his mouth. The colour in his eyes had been traded for the white fabric of the mask that shielded them as he craned his neck to look towards Iris, if she ever chose to follow her fellow Padawan. "It's a little out of your comfort zone."

His ideas were far from her own, Corin believed undoubtedly. She came with art, and he came with fists.

"Remember what Arenais said, about the idea of the Greater Good?" Even from beneath the mask, his features seemed to prompt the question. "Sometimes, it means you hurt people. Bad people. You want to help Denon? You stop the bad people before they have a chance to hurt others. Murderers, thieves, dealers; some set up shop near schools, lowball their first offer and the kid comes back for more - before you know it, he's addicted and couldn't stay away even if he wanted to."

He knew all too many that fell to that vice.

"If you can do that, you can make a difference."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"Okay."

Iris had long accepted that reality. Her desire for peace didn't mean she wasn't up to fight. Didn't mean she couldn't kill someone if she didn't have another choice. "I'm not a Padawan kept hidden in the Temples, you know. I got these scars fighting. Against the Maw, against pirates and slavers. But there are choices not to kill. If killing was what you had to do, why not kill these guys? How do you choose who lives and who dies?"

A genuine question. She wanted nothing more than to understand. She had to understand.

Her home was no different than this. But unlike then, she never saw just how bad it was. If she could help here, maybe she could help her own home.

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

His brow furrowed in focus and all the lessons Corin learned flooded back to him.

"It's all about the choice." He stated with an uncharacteristic seriousness to him, "I could kill them, but what's that worth? Most of them need a second chance, not all of them are lost. I stop them and send off word to the local law enforcement, never that militia. The worst of them, well those ones are sent off to Azrael."

He often wondered of those crooks that earned a beatdown, had some of them been known to a younger Corin? The one that wandered the streets aimlessly, both day and night, one bad decision from becoming just like them and entering that dark and depressing world? He was one of the lucky ones, maybe the luckiest of them all. It was only right that he came back to right what wrongs he saw.

"No one dies if you can help it. Denon has seen enough of that."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

And like that whatever assumptions Iris had on Corin fell flat. She blinked, clearly surprised by the answer. There was more thought than emotion from it. From the guy who says violence is the answer, she expected something.. More violent.

".. Okay." Vigilantism, right? Had to be, if he was going so far as to hide his face. But it was helping people? .. It wasn't helping him, if his colors were any indication. "Then I'll help you."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

Corin often shielded himself behind an abrasive wall. Some sort of defence mechanism, it shoved the rest of his fellows onto the outside and the causation for all those issues Corin so often showcased to them remained concealed beneath the harsh exterior. It was better like that, the Padawan mused, not even his master had known all there was to learn of him.

"No, no." He dismissed with a half-hearted wave, "Them. Not me."

He shoved his hands into the leathers not so disimilar to the standard of the NJO. "You should think on it first, whether this is for you. Just... whatever you do, no mention of this to anyone. Not Bamarri, and especially not Noble."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"I figured this wasn't something you wanted people to know. Or y'know." She motioned to her face. The mask. Asides, if he didn't want her telling people, that just meant he wasn't going to tell people about her tagging. At least that was a worry she didn't have to think about anymore. But she wasn't about to let him slip away.

"I'm going to help you. Not because I think you need it, but for their sake. You're dancing with danger." Yeah, that wasn't the saying, but Iris was still learning those anyway.

"So, what first?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"The whole art bit, too." Corin said with hesitation, "I never saw it. Stays between us."

He slowed down and turned to Iris head on, next. Corin looked over her, examined her. "First, no saber." Corin stated, "Too noticeable and I'm not interested in whatever incident can come from a Jedi on the tear. Then a mask, for obvious reasons. But, uh, how's the unarmed?"

Corin rose a clenched fist for emphasis, "If I threw a punch at your head, how likely are you to avoid that? Since no saber means hands, or maybe even a blunt stick. In any case, the less you can work with the better."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

Unarmed?

She frowned, glancing to her saber. It was, ironically, the most nonlethal weapon she held. No cutting, just knocking people out. Well, with the right crystal active anyway. She slowly clenched one of her hands, the one without it's pinky. She could fight, of course. Or at least defend herself. Knock someone out? Probably not, not easily. "I can dodge a hit easy enough."

That much was true at least.

"But no sabers- My punches aren't that heavy. What about the Force?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"Tell you what, maybe a staff could benefit you." He bit at the inside of his cheek in idle thought, "If that suits you. It's non-lethal but... it can still leave more than a few bruises, should you need it."

The Force was of another nature. His time on Denon had seen his connection to the Force shift, for the better in some areas and for worse in others. Beyond most of the basic abilities, Corin was doubtful he could ever find much success but neither had the Jedi cared. He learned to make use of his senses in the dimly lit streets, and enhance his own physical capabilities; move faster, strike harder, endure more. Turned himself into a weapon.

"Just... Use the less overt abilities. Less focus there is on the Force-user side, the better."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

A staff?

She could probably swing a staff. Literally. She still looked somewhat doubtful, especially at the mention of limiting the Force. She could do that, even understood why, but it didn't sit too well with the Padawan. Was that why his colors seemed so off? ".. You did this before you became a Jedi." He said as much, didn't he? But thinking about it, it was no wonder his colors were different from the usual Jedi.

"How long have you been fighting like this in these streets?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

His colours were off since the induction into the Jedi. Beneath the layer of a student that wished to learn and become a fine Jedi, there was a fire no one could put out. He could channel that focus into his studies as a Jedi and for a time Corin had been able to do that, but no matter what the avenue of a Jedi offered Corin the return to Denon was violent yet his mind was so free of a darkness. It was clear, so certain of his beliefs.

"For a while now," was the best answer Corin could offer after an uncomfortable silence filled the air between them. "Before the Jedi, I was another one of those street-rats." One of the common terms for the homeless children that seemed to form communities of their own, "You stole to survive. Food, water, all of it. So I know that crime is never always about a want, but sometimes a need."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"Laws that stop people from surviving aren't laws." Having to steal food, water; it wasn't something Iris agreed with. Not because of the people who stole. But because of the people who would let the city turn to the point children had to to eat. Parents, city officials, the gangs. Didn't matter who, but a child was never to blame.

At least, that's what Iris firmly beleived in.

"Denon is your home, isn't it?" That hadn't been said yet. But it was getting easier to piece together. He wasn't just here playing hero to protect a world similar to his own. It was his world. And he knew what people needed firsthand.

"Why haven't you talked to the council? Asked for their help? The galaxy is huge, too huge for them to see everything. They will help if they know."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"It is." Corin proudly answered. For all the filth that it was, it was his filth in the end. Of all the worlds burdened with crime, this one was his. So it was his self-inflicted role to oversee it, to ensure the deserved punishments met those that wished to hurt others. It was an attachment, as if a piece of himself; to sever it would mean death, or the start of a slow and lethal infection that would corrode his body.

He sighed, "Look, Iris, there's a war. It's a war that threatens all life, and I'm not interested in a half-assed occupation that blankets all of Denon under the banner of criminal and rounds them up. Not while Tithe still runs the senate, his friends are the ones in control here. It's all endless bank accounts to enforce their will, whether in an official capacity or not. The Jedi need to fight the Sith before they can look inwards."

"For now, what I do here can hold the tide."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

"There will always be another war and there will always be something that pulls their eyes away. But we can make them see. Maybe it's a selfish thing, but these people need our help. So many people need our help. Just saying 'there are more important things' is wrong. People thinking they aren't worth helping is wrong." There was a flash of emotion, but it was quickly stamped down as Iris took a breath. She'd been fighting this war as long as she could remember. Ever since she learned how to fight, how to see.

They were her first memories through all the colors.

".. Well. I'll at least help. And see who I can bring along to. You're fighting in that same war. Doing it alone here will just make you too tired."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

His mouth twisted in some sort of a frown at the realisation. It would exhaust him, Corin mused, but neither was the Padawan ever alone in all his efforts on Denon. There was another, one that revealed it all to him. But with his own secret revealed, there was no need to reveal that of another; one that hard far more too lose, too.

In turn, Corin nodded. "It's the other Padawans we need. Tell them, if you can trust them - form some team. I'll admit, I know none of them beyond some lesson I could annoy them in." Some faint smirk settled over his face, "If nothing less, it makes for fine practise before we're off to war again."

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

Vigilante team. It was an interesting idea. And she could already think of a couple to bring along. Though at his smirk she only frowned.

"You should stop acting so hard to be the ass, you know. We're all allies. The least you can do is try to.. I dunno. Be a friend? .. We get hurt. They could die. No reason to make it any harder."

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"Oh, trust me." Corin playfully remarked with the same smirk, if not one that broadened with the comment, as the Padawan started to saunter off once more into the depths of Denon. His hands remained shoved into his pockets, even as he offered a lazy shrug. "It isn't hard."

He was still Corin, after all.

It was the start of something on Denon. Maybe the tides could change after all. But in any case, whether Iris followed him or not, Corin drifted further off and away with a hand removing the mask and placing it in his pocket.

Iris Arani

 

[Iris Arani]

She just stared this time. Watched him as he started to leave. Disbelief that someone could be that kind of ass. Then just grumbled and followed anyway. "Okay, not much of an act. Still, try and be nicer. At least to the younger on- Wait what? Why are you taking off the mask? What was the plan? We're supposed to be fighting crime or something, right?"

Corin Trenor

 

[Corin Trenor]

"Huh," an unmasked Corin turned with a brief hint of hesitation. "You wanted to start now?"

His head tilted to the side with some clear and obvious scepticisim plastered across his youthful features. Bathed in the fluroscent neon of the Denon skyline overhead, his eyes travelled there for a brief moment of consideration. Each of them settled over Iris next and as he spoke there was some apparent uncertainty. "You sure you're up for it?"

Corin placed both hands on his hips, "I don't want Valery on my case if you're coming back all bruised."

Iris Arani