Private Wayfarer’s Shadow

[Braze]

TAGS: Corin Trenor
​

Braze remained silent, watching the exchange unfold as he tucked his hands into the wider openings of his sleeves, keeping them concealed from view. He made no move to address Corin's contact, but his sharp gaze absorbed every detail, taking careful mental notes while staying attuned to his surroundings.

Once they stepped back into the market's chatter-filled chaos, Braze glanced up at the man.


"I need to grab my pack and set the timer. The ship is stationed out that way." He offered smoothly. "I have a speeder bike by the front."

With that assurance, he gestured for Corin to follow. Handing him the keys, Braze swung onto the back of the bike, leaning against the high rear bar where a small bag was secured with a coiled volley attached. He planted his boots against the rear bars for stability, settling in for the ride.

"We just gotta head northwest till we hit the open ridge. From there, we follow the hills west, and we'll be there."

Sure enough, as they followed the snowy-haired boy's directions, the terrain shifted. Dragged, uneven ridges gave way to vast, open fields where tall golden grass rippled like an endless sea beneath the warm valley breeze. The rustling reeds whispered in hypnotic waves, and soon, towering stone monoliths—smooth and egg-shaped—began dotting the landscape, standing sentinel among the sparse trees. The scent of sun-warmed grass mingled with the rich, earthy aroma of freshly churned soil as a structure emerged in the distance.

Soft, glowing lights flickered beneath the towering trees atop a chilled landscape. As they pulled up to the trio of trees, it became clear that a man-made, winding moat encircled the area. The gardens had been freshly tended, the scent of uprooted weeds lingering in the air, piled off to the side. Small critters—loth-cats—scattered into the tall grass, startled by the hum of the speeder's approach.

For a treehouse, the structure was large, spanning between the three massive trees that served as its supports. It held an odd, rustic charm, its wooden framework adorned with a few solar panels and string lights woven between branches, casting a warm, golden glow that melded with the dusky, sunset-painted sky.

Somber tones of wind-chime psalms filled the air as the breeze played with delicate, hanging ornaments. Though the place had a distinctly natural and self-sufficient feel, small traces of technology were integrated seamlessly, providing modest creature comforts.

Further down the slope, nestled in a lower dip of land, sat the freighter known as Linesman 1, its auxiliary lights dimly flickering against the encroaching twilight. Even farther beyond that, looming in the distance, stood a monolith larger than the others—one with intricate carvings etched into its surface. The foliage around its base had been carefully cut back, revealing the silhouette of a Jedi temple shrouded in darkness.

"We're here."

Braze hopped down from the speeder, his movements fluid, and padded up the wooden stairs. As he stepped into the dimly lit interior, he immediately began gathering his things, shifting through his belongings with practiced efficiency.

"Jasper and I came here once upon a time…" he called out to Corin from inside, his voice carrying through the open doorway.

A pause, the rustle of fabric as he secured his pack.

"It was my first time meeting anyone from the Council up close and personal like. I was so nervous…"

The quiet clink of a buckle fastening.

"I'd never been selected for a mission before." Another pause, heavier now, as if the weight of memory settled over him. "He took me to a village where the people had suffered from Sith spawn, and he taught me how to heal their ailments…"

His voice trailed off, lost somewhere between thought and recollection.

A final, steady breath. Then, pack slung over his shoulder, Braze stepped back into the fading light, closing the door behind him as if sealing the past away with it.

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze

A peaceful, quiet isolation, secluded out on the plains.

Corin followed in silence, his gaze sweeping over the dwelling nestled within the embrace of three towering trees. It was a strange sight to him now - a home, rooted and unmoving. A stark contrast to his own existence, where all he owned was carried on his person, where permanence was a distant and foreign concept.

Jasper was a father to Braze, whether bound by blood or something deeper. Corin could hear it in the way Braze spoke of him, the quiet reverence, the aching longing that seeped into every word. A connection Corin could recognize but not truly claim for himself.

"My master never took me on a healing mission," Corin mused aloud, more to himself than in response. "Nothing diplomatic, either."

His mouth twitched, somewhere between curiosity and irony. He had missed a great many things in his younger years, things he had only come to understand long after they had passed him by.

He turned to Braze then, his tone as even and measured as ever.

"Is your mother not around, either?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Corin Trenor
​

Braze hesitated at the top of the steps, his fingers tightening slightly where they rested at his sides. He let out a slow breath before descending, his gaze shifting toward Corin with something wary, something hesitant.

"Never?" he echoed, latching onto the word like a loose thread. "Who was your master? What kind of man was he?"

He wanted to know. Needed to. Because right now, standing here in the uncertain middle of everything, Braze wasn’t sure if Jasper had been right to take him in. Or if he’d been right to stay.

"Jasper only took me on as a padawan after that first mission," he admitted, stepping down onto solid ground. His voice now, more thoughtful. "He wouldn’t let me fight for a long time. He thought—he felt—that kids should be able to be kids..." Braze exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I kinda felt different. Thought maybe he was wrong, that I was ready... but now..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "Now I’m not so sure."

It was an unsettling thing, uncertainty.

His throat tightened. His hands curled, then flexed open again.

"I was left with the Order when I was young," he went on, but the words came slower, heavier. "By my parents." He almost stopped there, but the quiet between them felt too expectant. His gaze lowered.

"My mother... I don’t know what happened to her. She’s different than I remember. And she—" His jaw worked, his breath unsteady. "She’s been trying to steal me back."

A thin, humorless laugh escaped him.

"She kidnapped Jasper and me. We escaped from some... creepy lab place where they were growing people for war. She’s even sent bounty hunters after me. And she wasn’t like that when I was little. My father—" He exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "He died not long after he dropped me off with the Jedi."

Silence stretched for a few long moments...

Braze looked away, staring past Corin as something twisted deep in his chest.

"I always thought..." He hesitated, his voice smaller now. "That they didn’t want me anymore. That I caused too many problems when I was a kid." His frown deepened, and for a moment, it looked like he wanted to say something more, but he shook his head instead, forcing himself to move past it.

He didn’t know. That was the truth of it.

He didn’t know the dark, tangled reality of it all—that his father, Kaito Starfall , was still alive, that his mother had become something twisted and possessed.

All Braze knew was that she wasn’t the woman he remembered.

And oh, how he missed them both.

His arms wrapped around himself before he realized it, but he let them drop just as quickly.

"I don’t think Jasper and Marissa are married," he murmured, voice raw at the edges. "She’s pregnant right now, though..." He hesitated, glancing at Corin. "I’m not sure how she feels about me. Jasper never asked before he adopted me, so I don’t really know if I fit into her idea of a family. I mean..." His voice faltered, quieting. "She and Jasper had Phy for a while before she ever met me. Sometimes I wonder if he just felt bad for me, so he took me in..."

But even as the words left his mouth, doubt gnawed at them.

No.

No matter how tangled and uncertain the rest of it was, Braze was sure of one thing.

"I love Jasper," he said softly, like he needed to say it out loud. "And I wouldn’t leave him. Not for an unknown fate. Not for anything."

That, at least, was something solid.

Something real.

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze

"Dagon Kaze." The name was spoken with a trace of reverence. "Once a member of the Jedi Council. Before that, the watchman of Denon."

A brief introduction - yet Jedi Council members were rarely, if ever, forgotten.

Corin was left to consider the kind of man Dagon truly was. A kind man - that much was certain, given the admiration that followed his name. Far more than what was ever spoken of Corin. Dagon made friends wherever he went; even his enemies struggled to hold onto their hatred for him. A shining star, a beacon of light, hope - everything a Jedi was meant to be.

That knowledge twisted something rotten in Corin's stomach. A reminder of the truth he could never escape. That no matter how hard he tried, he was no true successor to the man who had raised him. And yet - some prideful part of him still wondered if, as a warrior, he had surpassed him.

"He was..." my brother "a good man."

Braze continued, speaking of his own past, his own uncertain place in the galaxy. And Corin listened. Their lives, in some ways, mirrored one another. Yet for every strange similarity, Corin's expression remained unreadable. Perhaps he had simply been on his own for too long.

He, too, had been brought to the Jedi as a child - though it was Dagon who had found him. Like Jasper with Braze, he had pulled Corin from the streets of Denon, half-starved, a thief with nothing but hunger and instinct to his name. Thinking back now, it was as if some blaring warning sounded in his mind, urging him to remember. That his childhood was not a tragedy to be mourned, but a cautionary tale. A glimpse into the darkness that still lingered within him, waiting.

Corin had lived on Coruscant for mere months before returning to Denon. The structured halls of the Jedi Temple never suited him; they smothered him. He was too stubborn, too sharp-edged, too proud. But Denon - Denon was different. The apartment there felt more like home, if only because of the people in it. Dagon and Yula. And, in time, Jem.

It had been strange, having what felt like parents again. At first, he resisted the notion, treating them as little more than figures in his periphery. Yet over time, they became something else - siblings, family. He loved them in his own way, though he would never dare say it aloud.

And he had fought as a child, as all Padawans did. He had watched children die, robbed of their chance to live freely - forced to fight for a cause they never chose. Had that old Jedi tradition planted the seeds of friction between him and the Order? Possibly.

His eyes drifted to Braze, and for the first time, he spoke in something closer to honesty.

"Children should be left alone. To live as children." His words carried a certain somber frustration, one that blended seamlessly with his usual tone. "Even now, you're too young. But so were we all. It's not something we can change now."

Then, as if dismissing the weight of his own words, he stirred.

"In any case," he said, shifting the conversation, "the Jasper I know is too soft to be with a woman so heartless as to reject an orphan."

He didn't smile, though the edge of his words almost suggested one.

"You can show your feelings when you save him." His voice was quieter now, firm yet lacking its usual bite. "Even then, Phy will have no choice but to be grateful for that, regardless of what she feels."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Corin Trenor Jasper Kai'el

Braze shiften his attention intently watching Corin. He studied the subtle shifts in his emotional aura, the micro shifts in his body language.

"You can show your feelings when you save him."

Something in him brightened hearing those words. Like a small, ember being reignighted in the dark. The thought of it, the sheer possibility, sent a warmth curling through the cold weight that had settled in his chest.

He rubbed at his eyes and sniffled, as though brushing away the last remnants of grief. For the first time in what felt like forever, the crushing weight of sorrow, and guilt eased just a little. There was a way forward. A way out of this pit of despair, and Corin had just shown him the path.

"I wanted to fight when the Masters told me I should enjoy my childhood," he admitted, voice quieter now. "I just wanted to rush ahead, and now… now I feel like the galaxy is saying 'I told you so' with Jasper gone."

Braze had never pictured this future. By now, he should have been in the Echani military if he'd been born on Eshan and stayed with his family. It was what he had expected of himself, what he had thought was right. But somewhere along the way, between his warrior heritage and his duty as a Jedi, he had settled on fighting for the oppressed as his way forward. His way to reconcile both halves of his identity.

"I feel guilty," he admitted, exhaling sharply. "Ashamed, even. I don't like how I acted back then." He shook his head, as if trying to dislodge the weight of regret pressing down on him. It was in the past. He should just… forgive himself, shouldn't he?

His gaze lifted again as he hopped down and started for the ship. "What does a Watchman do? I think that's what Jasper wanted us to be, once." A soft breath, almost a laugh, but not quite. "I told him once that I wouldn't leave his side." His throat tightened, but he pushed through it.

"I'm sorry you lost your Master too..." Braze said with out having been given much real context. Hearing 'was' sounded an aweful lot like he was lost or dead in some manner of speaking.

​

 

[Big Nick]

Lothal
Tags: Braze , Corin Trenor

GH-PY447 "Pyf"
​

Movement.

Pyf blinked to life, the little droid's green eye beginning to shine as he began to run routine system diagnostics. What was that sound? He had made himself dormant since the sudden capture of Jasper, perhaps the droid's own way of grieving. What was going on? The vibrations of the Lonestar 1 seemed to indicate that the entry ramp had been lowered. Was it the astromech? The SPARK droid lifted up into the air and drifted out to the cargobay ramp, quick to spot Braze. Poor lad. Surely he had been having a rough time with his Master missing in action. His eyes were quick to observe the plains of Lothal.

"Braze? Is it wise to be here?" the droid asked. "Last I recall this was imperial territory..."

Oh? And who was this? The spark droid was quick to perform a scan on the man with Braze and...

Like a fiery mother, Corin turned with an accusatory finger aimed at Jasper.

"Put on the jacket," he said sternly. "Or else you'll freeze to death."

“Alright,” Jasper frowned, picking up the coat. “You got it, boss.”

"Corin Trenor," the droid identified. He hadn't seen the young Jedi since Ilum, having accompanied Jasper to that ill-fated mission. He certainly wasn't that young anymore. "I'm pleased to see that you're still alive. Last I had heard you had vanished without a trace. Does Iris Arani know you're well?"

The droid paused, his photoreceptor shifting between the two.

"Braze, why have you come here?"

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze Big Nick

"You can only move forwards," said Corin, someone that needed to heed his own advice. "Bothering about the would and should, will only lead to torment."

Of that, Corin had known far too well. He should not have allowed Dagon to venture off into Wild Space alone, would have followed him if he had the right senses to leave Denon. That was in the past now, an unchangeable fate. Yet, one that never sat quite right with Corin, regardless of his believed acceptance of that reality.

He tread alongside Braze, "A watchman is a Jedi appointed to a planet, system or sector. The watchman oversees these areas and ensures it is safe and protects it from those would seek to harm the people within. These places would be those of importance, or be identified as unstable. Denon was one such place."

A horrible planet, rampant with crime and corruption.

Corin offered little more than the flash of acknowledgement to form at Braze's condolences. Lost once, but surely dead now. Perhaps dead the entire time.

Though whatever thoughts he had, they were stolen from him once the droid whirred into view. A strange, forgotten memory. It followed Jasper everywhere, once, as young children and and into their teenage years. Into adulthood now, too. Pyf, that was it's name.

"No," he grumbled, as if that was some source of shame. "Not just yet."

Corin had grown taller in the years since Pyf had last seen him. His demeanor was something colder, more subtle and somber than the brash child that he was. His expressions were measured, calm, almost flatly neutral. Though his eyes had undergone the largest change, with their strange runic patterns in place of those blue, child-like eyes.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Big Nick Corin Trenor

"Yeah... it's fine," Braze reassured Pyf, his voice calm but absentminded as he double-checked the controls. "The Imps don't hold ground here anymore."

He exhaled, fingers drumming lightly against the console. "I had to come here to find Mister Corin. I asked him nicely, and he agreed to help me track down Jasper." His tone wavered slightly on the last name, but he pressed on. "He's going to help us."

Braze glanced toward the ship's systems as they flickered to life, adjusting a few settings as he continued. "But first, I think we should head back to Coruscant—check in and report the EotL's departures, then refuel, and prep for a longer journey. Corin thinks we should return to Ord Providence to investigate..."

He trailed off, already moving through the pre-flight sequence, his focus shifting back to the task at hand.
Braze leaned back in the co-pilot's chair, feet just barely reaching the floor. One of his knees bounced slightly, restless, as he waited for the ship's systems to boot up. The hum of machinery filled the space, a familiar almost comforting sound.

His fingers found a screwdriver left near the console, and without much thought, he pressed the tip against the plastic dash panel, dragging it down in a slow, deliberate stroke. A new mark. Another tally among the set of shallow scratches already there. Each one a passed day with out Jasper.

He let his jade green eyes settle on Corin staring at him with an odd un abashed intensity.

"You're different than I expected."

 

[Big Nick]

Lothal
Tags: Corin Trenor , Braze

GH-PY447 "Pyf"
​

"But first, I think we should head back to Coruscant—check in and report the EotL's departures, then refuel, and prep for a longer journey. Corin thinks we should return to Ord Providence to investigate..."

"An appropriate measure," Pyf deduced, trailing after the young Echani. "Shall... I send word to the Temple in advance?"

Pyf then paused, his photoreceptor eye blinking in rapid succession. The droid let out a series of droid-speak beeps, almost as though he were carrying on an entirely different conversation.

"I see..."

He had been off-line for some time now. A lot seemed to have occurred following Jasper's departure. Certainly a worthy update. Pyf was quick to reason that he would need a better understanding of what was at play in the galaxy at large if he was to be any assistance. After his brief period of bizarre activity he returned to his original state.

"Miss Phy noticed me go online and made contact," he informed Braze. "I was unaware that the Dark Empire had also collapsed. The matter of your whereabouts seem to be of great concern to her, so she's rather relieved that you're with the Lonestar 1..."

The SPARK droid let out a mechanical whirring not unlike a sigh. Braze was far too much like Jasper in his youth, at least in regards to running around without informing anyone of his whereabouts. It was the sort of thing that left Jasper without an arm. All Pyf could reasonably do is ensure that he took the necessary measures to assist the young Jedi and prevent him from making those same mistakes. Luckily the presence of a seasoned Knight was an extra safety net in a pinch.

He watched as Braze etched a tally-mark into the dashboard of the ship.

"I... will do a routine sweep of the ship's systems." the droid decided.

Pyf wasn't equipped to talk to Braze in the way he needed. It wasn't in his perimeters, a fact he very much recognized. So off he went, vanishing back into the depths of the vessel.

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze Big Nick

​

He settled into the seat, giving the control panel a quick once-over—just enough to determine the essential systems. The rest, he could pick up along the way, if it came to that.

Then, Corin turned to Braze. Part of him was curious about the expectations that might exist; another part preferred not to know. His expression remained neutral, offering little in the way of response. He lingered on the thought, considering it. Then, he relented.

"I don't know what you mean."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Big Nick Corin Trenor

"That would be best. Thank you, Pyf." Braze chirped, his jade green eyes flickering with gratitude before narrowing slightly at the droid's follow-up.

He frowned, shoulders squaring just a bit. "I brought Aether with me too, you know. I'm not entirely helpless..." The words came out with a touch of indignant squeak, his tone trying to hold firm but ultimately betraying his youth. It wasn't that he didn't understand their concern—he gave them plenty of reasons to be worried—but still.

Pyf's whirring hum echoed in the space between them, and Braze let the moment settle before shifting his focus to Corin.

"I thought you might be scarier," he admitted plainly, silver brows rising in a fleeting, self-conscious twitch. "Or meaner, maybe... I'm glad I was wrong."

His assessment carried no hesitation, just an honest note of relief. Apparently, Corin had loomed far more intimidating in his mind, perhaps as some grim sentinel of authority, another looming figure ready to shoot down his choices, or tell him to get lost. But reality had softened that image quite quickly. Corin wasn't what he expected, and that seemed to put the young Echani at ease.

Almost as an afterthought, Braze's brows furrowed briefly. A fleeting look of consideration passed over his expression before he tilted his head toward Corin again.

"You're not, like... afraid of droids or Shards, are you?"

There was no accusation in his voice, just a childish curiosity, a passing question that, for whatever reason, had lodged itself in his mind. That reason being that Aether was by all means an intimidating Droid frame most fo the time. He move dto buckle his seat belt and strap in as the pre flight checks were done.

​

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze Big Nick

His reserved stoicism was a commonplace feature, a man with no name beyond the quiet burden that he carried with him. From one system to the next, Corin travelled to lawless wastes to see some semblance of it laid down. There was no compassion in his methods, devoid of inherent kindness and instead a practical act rife with reason. It was a duty, a responsibility, a mission and a purpose. It was his role, a part of who he was.

His way to atone. For all he had done.

Corin accepted the request in part due to those responsibilities. In part due to an understanding, to have seen a version of himself in Braze. The idea of that, however, discomforted him. Perhaps Braze's perception of him would change once confronted by someone beyond a child in need.

"I see," was his answer.

Though his discerning eye fell upon Braze at his follow-up question. "No, I'm not. Why, were there droids involved in taking Jasper?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Corin Trenor

The familiar hum of the engines filled the cockpit as the ship entered hyperspace, the stars outside stretching into streaks of light. Braze watched the swirling colors with a touch of unease. He had always felt a certain trepidation when leaving 'home', particularly now that he was leaving the safety of his tree house unattended. It was a sanctuary for him, a place filled with memories . He had hoped that oneday he might get to just shre it with Loomi Ko Vuto and Aliris Tremiru .

He glanced at the navicomputer, where the coordinates for Coruscant glowed steadily. "Aether and Phy…" he murmured softly, "Are Shards in droid chassis. Aether is a bit... uh... intimidating. " Braze said considering the towering Frame of what was typically at first glance a towering masked man. It woud certainly startle most people if they didn't know such a being was aboard. Aetehr didn't need a bedroom to rest and would often 'park' himself in a utility closet. That... wasn't a fun surpise for any one Braze would imagin.

As he settled further into his seat he pulled up a soft fuzzy blanket and wrapped it snugly around himself. Braze felt his eyelids growing heavier. The ship's gentle vibrations were soothing, lulling him into a state of relaxation.

With a resigned sigh, he let himself lean back, attempting to push the worry aside. There was solace in the fact that Corin would be there. Braze had seemed to have developed a sense of safety around him as if by just proximity he felt the weight lift even a little to finally allow himself to be at ease.

He took out his Slate Blue and Green charm and pressed it gently seeing it light up and glow warm to the touch before offering it to Corin. " He's still alive. The other person who has the charm can see and feel it warm up and glow when you touch them... they don't glow if you dont have them any mor eor when you.. pass on. "

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze Big Nick

He remembered his first shard. His lightsaber, then a brightly beaming blue, swung about in a flurry of blows. To no avail, none connected with the chassis. It must have been programmed better, was what he thought. He continued, each attack deflected and parried. Much better, even. It pushed against him with the Force and his understanding of the wider world had grown that much deeper.

"I've met shards before," Corin admitted, the limits of his experience left unsaid. "Just... people of another kind."

Corin watched the charm in use, although he did not deign to take it. It was not his to take, especially not an item so intimate. As if some stain of him could get on it, even.

"Is there no way to track him through that?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Corin Trenor

"I don't think so... if there is, I wouldn't know," he admitted. "You can hold it if you want." He offered the charm, his grip loose, an unspoken invitation.

"They're from Eshan," he added, quieter this time.

"I don't have that level of experience with making artifacts," he admitted, a faint wryness in his voice. "I wouldn't even know how to reverse-engineer it for that kind of use..." Still, he held the charm out, fingers steady.

"I have others—for some of my best friends..." His voice trailed, uncertain. He wasn't sure if Loomi saw him as more than that. "I've made... a vast many number of weapons.... but not much else. "

​

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze

​

"No," the ends of his fingers twitched with the faintest wave, "It's fine."

He pondered on that for a moment longer, however. The Force was a mysterious, nebulous thing. Perhaps these artifacts were connected through it, tethering one's connection to another's, as a linked pair with their own broadcasting signal. His expertise was not in this area, though there might be those that are skilled in that particular front.

"There might be someone at the temple that can make sense of them," Corin seemingly thought aloud. "It may point you in the right direction."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Corin Trenor

Braze tucked the charm away with care, stifling a small, squeaky yawn that was quickly followed by a weary sigh.


"Maybe..." he murmured in response, his voice soft and thoughtful. Then, after a brief pause, "What did you like to do when you were my age?" His curiosity was genuine, open.

A beat passed before he added, "Sorry if I seem nosy... I just want to learn more about you—if that's okay."

As he spoke, he shifted, kicking off his boots before curling his sock clad feet onto the chair, tucking them beneath the warmth of the fluffy blanket. His head dipped forward slightly, eyes growing heavy, half-lidded. The gentle hum of the ship seemed to lull him, pulling him toward sleep, though he fought against it.

​

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
LOTHAL
TAG: Braze

His chest tightened, forcing out a weary sigh. Corin knew, despite his best efforts to conceal it, that his face must have betrayed some form of melancholic nonsense. To face Braze was like having a blade held to his heart, leading him down a path of memories, memories he wished he could relive, do-over, and those he longed to forget, left to rot upon the vine of their creation.

Corin asked himself, what did he enjoy at that tender age? He knew what he liked, though he loathed how simple and foolish those things were. He liked to fight, to win. He liked to claim battlefields as his own, swinging his lightsaber with reckless abandon, convinced that somehow, it would bring him victory. He liked to wield the Force as a weapon. He liked playing the role of a vigilante, swinging fists under the neon glow of Denon, exerting his will on those who would harm others, blind to the childishness of those pursuits. But, more than anything, Corin loved his family. He loved his brother, his sisters. He would whine and complain about Dagon's constant training, but he loved training with Dagon. He'd refuse to help Yula with her latest inventions, yet would eagerly step into whatever blast radius she'd unwittingly created. He claimed to find Jem annoying, saying he only liked to bother her, but deep down, he knew it was just an excuse to be close to her.

He liked many things, but now they were gone. Only hatred remained; dull, aching, and throbbing in rhythm with his still heart. But even that had faded, giving way to a cold nothingness. What he had now, he didn't know. His burden was all that was left.

Corin peered out from beneath his red-patterned eye, his voice low.

"It's time to sleep."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Corin Trenor

Braze took that in stride, deciding that perhaps he'd pressed enough. Corin already seemed uneasy, and whatever weighed on him, Braze supposed it wasn't his place to pry.

With a quiet exhale, he unbuckled his seatbelt and rose, stretching out the stiffness in hsi body. "You can rest in Jasper's room if you want," he murmured, voice kept low in the hush of the cabin.

Then, without waiting for an answer, he padded deeper into the ship, seeking his own place to rest.

For now, Braze had seemingly claimed the room space in the ship's 'basement,' a tucked-away corner that suited him well enough. He didn't seem to mind curling up there.

The ship had settled into the kind of hush that came only in the deep hours of transit, when the hum of the hyperdrive became more lullaby than machinery, thrumming through the metal like the steady pulse of some great sleeping beast. The occasional creak of the hull, expanded and contracted with the shifting temperatures of space, added to the illusion of breath against the void.

Inside, the air held the faint scent of warmed durasteel and old leather, the lingering traces of engine grease and caf long since gone cold. A low-frequency buzz from the control panels formed a background murmur, their soft blinking lights the only restless things aboard. Somewhere, tucked away in the ship's unseen corners, the vents gave a quiet rattle, an offbeat rhythm in the stillness. It wasn't silence...just a kind of settled quiet.

​

 

[Corin Trenor]

CORIN
HYPERSPACE
TAG: Braze

His wordless response was merely a breath of air.

Corin tread about the ship with a careful grace. His eyes wandered, to drink in the scene. It was a lived-in ship, somewhere that someone had made into their home and left their mark upon. To see it felt like an intrusion, as if the ghost of Jasper lingered on every inch and around every bend. To see his bedroom, however, was the strangest feeling of all.

Braze had seemingly left it as it was once Jasper went missing.

Covered in the dust, dirt and grime from the road, Corin needed to cleanse himself before ever daring to take his rest. He bathed himself with spared credits and cold water for months, roaming beneath the burning sun or the freezing cold in equal measure, off from one planet to the next. To stand beneath hot water and watch the filth pool at his feet, and swirl down the drain, well... it was refreshing in it's own right.

For the meantime, he stole a set of Jasper's clothes. He looked at the bed in consideration, though no more than that. He abandoned the idea of sleeping there, and instead opted for a chair. Hardly as comfortable as a bed, but Corin had grown accustomed to the ground.