Private When a Rebel Learns to Surf

[Taozi Fuyuan]

How long had Taozi been in the Nether? A day? Two? Either way, it had been too long for the doctor. Her skin felt like it was covered in oil, and her body felt heavier with each step she took through the Eternal Empire's base. It seemed that there was always more for her to do. The medical bay had been set up, as promised, but there was always something else the Imperials needed her to do. A broken leg here, an amputation there, blood transfusions over there. It felt like a war zone here, and she had never even left the base to explore the Nether.

Not like she wanted to, despite the feeling that a certain red-head was wandering around out there.

Pushing that thought away, Taozi sat down in the small office connected to the medical ward. For now, it was hers until the official Empire Medical Officer showed up. Which, judging by how she and her Clan always seemed to be the only medical officers the Empire employed... Who knows how long this "temporary post" will last. Opening up the recent case files, Taozi sighed as she looked them over. Her mood darkened as she read over the reports, though when the scent of vanilla hit her nose, she sat straight in her seat at attention. The feeling of something... Plucking as the air around her was both unnerving, but something told her it wasn't anything malicious?

"What in the world is going on..."

Manu Xextos Raya Najwa Zambrano

 

[Manu Xextos]

Why is it I always get the rageaholic Light Sided students, who constantly need more help and counselling than they admit to until it's inevitably too late? Is there something on my aura which makes that fact inevitable?

‘Whassup, bre’thro?’ Raya munches on a cupcake I don’t bother asking where from, the girl might’ve had it in her pocket for all I know. I sigh, silver eyes darting across the quizzical shift of her head, the straightened hair that can’t help but curl and brows identical to Ahani. From the tilt of her, the quest for reason beyond the lines on my face, I roll my shoulder to push her gently off. She stumbles backward a step too aggressive to be a dancer’s…

And for the seventeen hundredth time, the beating heart in my chest contorts.

‘Bre’thro?’ Another contortion of her body I see with closed eyes, radiant in the Force as I try a very stupid thing, an intensely moronic momentary blip keyed in around Taozi and her current state in the Nether. Why does it have to be the Netherworld? Haven’t people learned some power is not for taking… oooh I just figured out how naive I am as I said it. Yet again, Raya's sunshine smile doesn’t falter but dims into another sort of infantile happiness, as Raya kicks my shoulder lightly with the tip of her right leg.

My hand snaps around her ankle and with a push of my shoulder I lock the joint, spin her to the ground with a quiet ‘oof’ from the flesh and blood daughter of the Force’s most heinous Dark Joke. She spins to her hip and readies another swift but playful kick to my shoulder and stops when I nod to the image in the crystalline matrix of my Temple. Taozi pouring over documents, as spiky and aggro as a Telosian Hardback Prickle Tiger. Wait, that’s what Raya calls it…. hedgehog? Eh. Names are for sonic communication and I have no need of that, when Raya rolls to her feet and gesticulates wildly, rolling up her sleeves (sleeves she does not have on, I might add, as my sister is in fact in a tank top). The prickles need to go.

So idiot Manu, what do I do? Tie a rope around Raya’s waist like some form of spelunking explorer in a dead king’s maze, open the crack into the fabric of the Netherworld I’ve spent days attempting to open, and shove my baby half-sister through.

Taozi Fuyuan

 

[Raya Najwa Zambrano]

Ok so big brother Manu is a wealth of depression so vast not even lemon bars from Naboo’s Theed Market Co. would save him from pout-wrinkles. Might have a cream for that if I check, but lo and behold, said brother is too convinced… convinced, when I just arrived for a family visit like, yesterday, that his Paddie Nun One Nun needs a big heccing rescue.

And gee he was right to send me, honest, girl! This person is full of the grossest spikiest knots her aura is as bad as the lack of laugh lines on dear old Dad. Eeewwwwwww I touched one! It felt like resentment and squid ink! But girl, they’ve got to go. So I pluck another one of the energetic prickle pine needles and realize… this place is rank.

Worse than allllllllllllallalllalllllllllllllll of my brothers’ bedrooms funk put together into a super concentrated spray bottle and tested for maximum torture by the people who keep smiling at pain near my Dad. I call them grumphlewums, and they live in tiny caves inside my imagination, when they’re not… you know, called whatever it is the non-Echani call things shaped like gothic children, who somehow all were never taught the benefits of kindness and harmony.

Never let it be said Raya Najwa can’t brighten someone’s day! Changing the scent of this place is step two. Step one was Manu push-kicking me in here. I yank a spray can from my hidey bag (tis Fallanassi invisible, shhh), groan at the irli scent which would totally not cover this level of teen emo boy B.O. funk, shove it back in and grab another. Which was glitter. Whoops! Third try and a birthday cake room spray it is!

“HIYA! I’m Raya!” I keep spraying behind me, round the room and now over this woman’s head, “Raya like Hiya, it rhymes.”

More room spray, as the fissure behind me radiates a calming blue light which can only be one sort of calming blue. Manu. “So! Cleansing Aura mask to get rid of the angst in your pores? Well, your auric pores. Lil black flecks, kinda gross, have you been breaking out in blackheads lately? Maybe on your feet? That’s usually where the referred ick-ness comes. The feet.”

Aaaaaannnnndddd not finished spraying yet.

“Gee. I’ve never been in a room that doesn’t at least smell better after an entire can of industrial lifeday cake and sprinkles room spray… oh gosh, I am so sorry… I thought it was the room, I didn't mean to call you out on your personal hyg….” Leaning forward, I sniff at this pale haired woman. “Oh my gooses it’s not you, okay. Fewf! ‘Cause I do not have a body spray that can handle this odiferous nightmare, let me tell you! So, you coming? Where’s your coat?”

Taozi Fuyuan

 

[Taozi Fuyuan]

Taozi jumped up from her seat when she heard Raya Najwa Zambrano introduce herself, just out of Taozi's peripheral vision. Pink eyes watched the pale girl, rope tied around her waist leading back through the portal she had come from, and Taozi listened to the girl babble on about nonsense. Auras? Blackheads on her feet? And why in the world was she spraying the room?!

The only reason Taozi hadn't blown up yet was the sense that a familiar figure was on the other side of that blue portal.

Manu Xextos .

The Echani who had gotten Taozi to sleep again after Taanab and Concord Dawn, and taught her the powers she knows. How did he know this... Child that just insulted Taozi's personal hygiene? As the girl leaned in, Taozi pushed her back with a pink, beskar-clad, hand on her shoulder. Raising an eyebrow at the girl's question about coming with her, presumably through the portal, and asking about her coat, Taozi looked down at the pink beskar'gam she had worn for the past few days.

"The Netherworld isn't quite the place to not wear my beskar'gam, child. Though, if it'll get me out of this Manda damned hellscape I'll go with you."

 

[Raya Najwa Zambrano]

Okay there’s a gigantic black squiggle flicking out of her forehead and if I just… tweeze it between my fingers, I can…. yep… pull on that energetic cord here aaannd with a little bloop noise, it slips from Taozi Fuyuan ’s aura to splat on the floor.

“Sorry, what?” Sure, maybe it’s not completely normal to stand in someone’s personal space picking at energetic ouchies, but… wait… she said something. Wait… “Waaaaaaiiiiiit…”

I scrunch my face, stepping back a couple paces to take in my surroundings for more than odour. Oddly new but dingy place with no bed and clothes on the floor, but a table-desk and files and… “Waaaiiit a minute…”

The smell. The push my shoulder, which I take and give distance with a little half-spin.

“Aawwwwwwwwwwwwww Manu!! Eww! Euch! Seriously, bre’thro!? You send me… awww. Oh eewwww the Netherworld!? My clothes are ruined, how do you wash out the Netherworld!? Oh… oh you owe me! You… Gah!” A tug at the rope on my waist, and I grab the woman’s pink clad hand. “Time to go, Princess Pink!”

The fissure closes around us, a crackle-zap of calm blue ocean energy, and I’m stumbling into the crystalline altar of Manu’s Force Temple, its’ waters lapping against the natural cavern shaped just so by his powers. And there’s Manu on his knees, palms flat against his white-linen clad thighs, heavy enough in concentration even I have an inkling not to bug him.

“Blech! Seriously, Princess Pinkness? What in the googly-moogles were you doing in the Dead place of the Force!? Aw for the… I just…” I fling out my hands and stop short. Wait… my hair… did it take on the smells!? “Oh… ooooooh no…. oohhh noooo Manu why…”

I bring a thick bundle of waves to my nose, and sniff… “Oh my gooses the hair can be saved. It’s alright! No more panic needed! My hair is salvageable! Fewf! HOH man! Gawsh, I… haha! Whooooo! I was worried for a second…”

Patting the beskar’gam lady with a hand, oh wait… she was there longer, maybe I should… ah… ooh I should wash that hand…

“Raya.” My brother’s voice strokes all the nerves out of my brain, until there’s nothing left but the calm of Manu Xextos. I stop shuddering and dancing around trying to clean my hand with a corner of my shirt, “The waves are choice. Go on, get changed, grab your board.”

“Okay, thanks Manu. Catch you later, I hope you found what you wanted in the Nether, although, I also hope you never do and never go back. Nice meeting you.” His nod to the direction of my room in the Temple, and I feel like I can breathe. I trot off, feeling the calm and nothing else can harm me, not the Netherworld, not my sense of time and place. I get the feeling I’ve been here for a while, but part of me wonders if I only got here yesterday. Huh… Fancy that.

 

[Manu Xextos]

Little Raya, so eager to please, never capable of a larger picture than the snaps in her head. I shake mine, and rise from my meditation once the fissure is sealed, and Netherworldly energy can no longer tug at me, or Sabarene. Anywhere other than the altar of my Temple probably would kill me, and I don’t think Taozi Fuyuan needs to know. Maybe she’ll see it with her doctor’s eyes.

If I or Ahani ever venture to the Netherworld, we’re never coming back. Letting out a deep exhale, I stretch my neck from side to side and stare at Taozi. The anger in her, the malice and rage is so potent I don’t see how healing can flow from those hands.

Makes me sad, grieve for the moments Taozi should have had, if only she’d let go of the uncontrollable past and searched forward.

“Raya is my sister. Half-sister, my father’s been dead a decade short of a thousand years. She’s a sweet kid, bit dull, though.” My lips quirk, and I take another series of seconds to do nothing but breathe. I don’t bother asking what Taozi was doing in the Nether, I ask nothing of her at all. Instead, I wait for her.

 

[Taozi Fuyuan]

Taozi looked at Raya Najwa Zambrano with mild disinterest as the girl complained about being in the Netherworld. The fact she had no qualms invading Taozi's personal space was annoying, but seemingly harmless. What did she even pick at in the air? Did she think Taozi was here for something that didn't involve credits? The thought admittedly was amusing, as she waited for the girl to calm down. Pink eyes widened in surprise as the girl grabbed Taozi's hand, and pulled her through the portal unceremoniously.

The feeling of oil was still there, and her body still felt tired, but... Now, at least, she didn't feel like she was in a place she shouldn't be. Or, at least, somewhere she wasn't welcome. It had been a few years, but somehow Manu Xextos ' presence was... Comforting. Like seeing an old friend. Taozi's attention was pulled from Raya's shenaniganry, to the worn look on Manu's face. He looked... Tired. Had pulling her out of the Nether been too taxing for him?

As Raya left, Taozi visibly relaxed. She wasn't good with energetic people, and Raya was... Just straddling the line on being too much for the doctor. With a sigh, Taozi placed her hands on her lips and looked at Manu like a disappointed yet concerned mother.

"I appreciate the opportunity to get out of the Netherworld, but you look like you're about to be sent to a hospice, Manu. You didn't need to strain yourself for me like this. I imagine you sent your sister to get me since you couldn't go through that portal for some reason, yes?"

 

[Manu Xextos]

For a while, there’s nothing but her severe face. Maybe if I were a younger man I’d see the beauty in it, but romance belongs to my life-mate and she is gone.


“I’ve been palliative for nine hundred years, but thanks.” The creases around my eyes don’t betray the nine centuries of my life, their mirth a bit dimmed for the effort of the Netherworld portal. “Life does not tolerate death, and the Netherworld is no place for the living. Those who seek its’ power are nucking futs. What were you doing there?”

A shake of my head, and I groan to my knees in front of the crystalline altar. The feelers of rage and distraught energy I sense in her are older than her tenure in the Nether, and it rips at my ribcage. How can I fail another student? Let another one turn? Have I been that self-absorbed? Seeking outward to the point the individual meant nothing? Without word, the motion is clear enough for those of Echani heritage. Come and sit.


Then I remember, maybe that too is something we used to do, and many more people in the Galaxy require words?


“Take that armour off, you’re in a Temple not a battlefield. The stench of death on you is unbecoming of a Healer. There are fresh robes in the annex, right through that door. Sorry though, none of them are… pink.” My shoulder quivers, and I can’t help plucking at one of the oily strands, pulling it away from her body with a satisfying mental ‘pop’. It dashes on the altar and dissipates in a froth of visible smoke. “So, I should have let you rot in this discontent, because you were a bit far away? What kind of Teacher and Healer would I be if I decided, eh, that patient is across one too many roads. Let them wilt. You don’t get to trade your life in supposed self-sacrifice if I don’t get to help you. Same goes for me, and my half-dead problem. Deal?”

Taozi Fuyuan

 

[Taozi Fuyuan]

"Working the medical center for the Eternal Empire until their official medical officer could arrive. The credits for setting up the center were good, and when they offered me more to stay... Well. It takes money to run a hospital, a humanitarian fleet, a university, and soon even a greenhouse park. I never left their base, thankfully, so I never encountered anything or anyone hostile."

Taozi sighed and rubbed the back her neck to soothe the knots she was feeling in it. She was well aware the Netherworld was no place for the living, but as her Clan grew over the years, so too did expenses. She was considered only a civilian, so she wasn't getting the big numbers those that could vote received, but it got her by. At the wordless motion Manu Xextos made, however, Taozi tilted her head in confusion.

"What a shame. You pull me out of the land of the dead and don't even have anything in my favorite color? I'm hurt!"

A small, teasing, smile pulled Taozi's lips upwards, before her face twisted in confusion at the smoke coming off the altar. Just what were Manu and Raya pulling at? And was it coming off of her? Concern mixed with confusion as Taozi merely nodded in agreement, Manu's words not really processing entirely as she walked off to get changed.

Coming back in white robes, Taozi carried her armor back with her, careful not to sully the clean cloth. Setting it down on the floor nearby, she frowned as she approached Manu again.

"You and your sister keep plucking at things around me, what are you seeing that I'm not?"

 

[Manu Xextos]

"So you potentially damned yourself for coin? Must be some line of credit." Do I remember those days? Yes. Yes I do. Not that I'll tell her that story anytime soon. One bite of the bantha at a time, and I get the feeling this day will involve one too many bites already. “You are supremely lucky. Who do you have in your command structure who can take off a lot of that load? Mine was a brilliant logistician named Livia. Naboo Captain, turned well… heh… she married a pirate. Trust me, as someone who was that person for entire planets of people, you cannot allow yourself to become indispensable without outside income streams. The Force only knows what can happen if that is the case.”

I breathe deep, feel the rattle in my ribcage of lungs which long to breathe unimpeded by the… guilt I feel.

“Hah. Next time I’ll custom dye you rescue jammies, how about that?” Strikes me here, as I watch Taozi Fuyuan from the corner of my vision it’s guilt that hits me in the chest, cripples the body my mother had no trouble maintaining with her will alone. Huh.

"Empaths, Najwa family trait. Less pronounced in my sister, but for me? I can feel the complex emotional states of an entire planet full of people, thus, I tend to stay away or keep myself mentally fixed on a single task or point." I glance at the white robes, how they fit her in their ambiguity and restraint. "Otherwise someone else's bad day makes mine ten times worse. Compound that by say, a planet at war, and certain… dark interests get very interested in what an unhinged Manu could do."

Sighing deeply, the past and its Sithly horrors shudder along my skin, then melt away. "We can't shut our negative emotions up in a compartment and expect they won't act like vigorous cancer cells, Taozi. Raya could see past her mental fog to view some of them, and if the princess of unicorns and rainbows could, you don't stand a chance hiding them from me."

A wave of my hand, and the toxic wisps present in the crystalline scope of a large part of the altar. Tendril-like bastions of hate, fear and guilt, of shame? No, dis-ease, a woman living multiple truths to salvage a shattered loss. “I receive no context for the emotions I feel from you, or anyone. I only feel them as if they live in these veins and blast at my nerve endings. You’re so rife with hate and sadness I’m desperately surprised you haven’t become one of the demonic dark, yet. There’s no one else here, Taozi. No one but you, me and the Living Force. No judgement, no despair. You cannot impress me, you cannot shame me. Talk.”

An emphatic single syllable to open the flood gates, one small word.

Talk.

 

[Taozi Fuyuan]

An eyebrow raised in interest at the mention of Livia. Taozi had only had one interaction with her so far, and that was when Livia kidnapped her to bring her to Manu the first time. If she recalled correctly, Livia was also there defending Tanaab from the Confederacy, so long ago. The pirate Manu Xextos spoke of must have been Aedan Miles, then.

Thinking of those, admittedly, simpler times and her old idealist mentality made her heart heavy with grief.

Life was easier, back then.

Taozi listened quietly as Manu explained his empath abilities, and tensed when he spoke of compartmentalizing her feelings. At first, she opened her mouth to tell him off, before the wave of his hand and a sudden blackness in her peripheral caught her attention. Turning her gaze to the crystal, Taozi felt frozen in place.

Manu's words sounded so far away as Taozi raised a hand and stepped towards the crystal, looking at the web-like tendrils coming off of her. Her lip trembled as she was forced to come to reality: she was not okay. For the first time since that fateful first meeting between them, Taozi's heart felt as heavy as it did when Tanaab burned, and Concord Dawn screamed.

"I..."

Like a mirror, Taozi's façade shattered, and she fell to her knees on the floor. Tears welled in her eyes, then fell down her face like rain as she looked at herself in the crystal. If she wasn't okay, then what was she? She had to be okay, or she couldn't take care of other people. She had to be okay so she could show the galaxy what mercy truly was.

If she wasn't okay, then what was she?

"I have to be okay... I have to be okay... I can't not be okay..."

Taozi repeated these words quietly to herself like a prayer, despite the truth of the matter staring her in the face. Her throat felt tight, and her heart felt heavy as her eyes traced the black tendrils in the crystal, before she lowered her head. Curling her fingers into fists on the floor, Taozi felt her breathing become harder, as she began to sob quietly. Her body shook with each breath, as everything she had built up to keep herself composed and functional, crumbled down around her in pieces.

 

[Manu Xextos]

“No, you don’t. The universe doesn’t split in two because Taozi Fuyuan isn’t okay. The Universe, heck, the entirety of the Living Force called me to risk my soul to find and bring you here, right here, so you don’t have to be okay. Cause you might fool some… woeful idiots into thinking you’re just that put together, but you are not fooling me, and you are not fooling yourself.” Tough love. Words I wish I’d said earlier, to the women in my life who pretended to be ‘okay’ at all times lest their jobs as nurturers or providers crumbled like their resolve. “By the end of this, you will be okay I promise. If you do the work.”

Her grief hits in compression waves that could down even my inward ship into a spiral or fracturing vector. I breathe through it, tears stinging my own eyes. I let them sting. I let the tears come, even though I know they’re not mine. These tears belong to Taozi, and hands on knees, I shudder. A wave of a finger, and a box of tissues sidles to Taozi’s fist, bumping into it with a soft push.

“First, you have to accept that this? This darkness? It is your own invention. It’s not the poisons of some Sithly plot, although the Sith do use such tactics when the potential is present. While parasitic energies can connect to us, first they need a compatible space to latch ahold of. Dig into yourself. The past happened, it’s done. We cannot return to it, but in our own refusal to let go.” I see a history of my own trauma in her shaken sobs. The Echani people fragmented and torn by Palpatine, while my parents ran frightened, with an empathic toddler in their arms. Decades growing on ships, never making planetfall lest their little tragic disappointment let the wrong person know he could feel it. Of being thrown from the ship onto Naboo because it was ‘peaceful enough’ and being immediately discovered by Jedi, who took control of my future in the palm of their well-meaning hands.

Then, HIM. The dark soul, who needed to turn me to prove his own transformation. Or maybe because it was a weekday. And yet I know these are not memories I need right now, so I hiss them out until they belong to the aether of the crystalline altar. It’s amazing how pain can translate so vividly.

“Go back. Where did this pain and grief start? What happened? How did it make you feel, or change the way you view the Galaxy?” I sit beside her, stalwart in my inner calm despite her emotions pouring out my eyes. “I will not let you get lost, you’re safe here, go back. Find the origin point.”

 

[Taozi Fuyuan]

Part of her wanted to be hurt, to be angry, to scream at Manu Xextos that he was wrong, but as she looked at him between sobs, she couldn't find the strength to do so. Deep down, she knew he was right. As she looked into Manu's own teary eyes, Taozi's sobs quieted as he spoke. The truth hurt, of course, and her heart felt like beskar in her chest, but she had to listen.

She had to get better. Do better. Be better.

Taking a tissue gingerly in her hand, Taozi blew her nose and wiped away the snot from her face, before wrapping the dirty tissue with a clean one. Breathing deeply, slowly, Taozi slowed the sobs to not be as intrusive. She thought over the Living Force calling Manu to save her from herself, and all she could think of was the Green Planet. Had her time there affected her connection to the Force so much that it itself found her worth saving? Did it have a plan for her, then?

Looking back into her reflection, Taozi sat there quietly, as she mulled over where her trauma had begun. Bakura? No, before that, long before that. Concord Dawn? It was closer, but not quite.

"Tanaab... The day it burned, and I became aware of my connection to the Force... That... That awful, horrible day was when it started... Watching my home be burned, Clan Mortui devastated, and Beth... Oh Beth... I couldn't even save Beth... I felt like a failure..."

 

[Manu Xextos]

Focus on Taozi Fuyuan alone, do not lose myself in her emotions, as much as even now my soul wants to dig into a well of emotion and linger. I take a breath, and with a sob from Taozi, the admission of losing the Infernal’s daughter, I grip the fabric at my knees until it creases.

Oh. Oh, Light did you… a sorrowful, but melodious sound rocks the altar space. My laughter soft and deep. “I see how it is, she needs it, I need it… absolution.”

“I keep seeing her in Raya’s eyes, identical genetic eyes, but for their nurtures. The nature of Dalia’s Force Dead state. But Dalia was a dancer, and Raya’s father never taught her the knack. Now I’m seeing another woman break down, like my sister who never made it, despite being incredibly brave.” I recognize the words might be enigmatic, given Taozi’s lack of context. “Dalia…”

A deep breath, and the facets of crystal shift to cascade with living pictures of a woman, who looks identical of face to the sister Taozi just met. But Dalia curled her hair, she held none of the inner effervescence Raya possesses. There’s an emptiness, even now, as if the spark of the Force were too afraid to touch her. A snarky smirk, many an easy thrown punch. One too many bottles of something either used to peel paint or destroy the liver. Not all memories with Dalia were sweet, or good and I can but speak truth through these memories here, as I cannot lie.

Dalia was a beautiful monster, a wicked but loyal sister confused and tainted by her times. The upheaval of Palpatine’s crash and the First Order’s rise.

“Force, it’s been 800 years since I spoke her name…” The images recede with sight of our mother Ahani and Dalia on a ship full of people, fellow Echani, under attack. But Dalia was under another pain. She was in labour. “The enemy, it rounded my fleet off, pushed us back. I tried every tactic, fired every gun until our munitions were exhausted… the hopelessness of it.”

“Did they not realize? Did their supposed nobility preclude them from seeing the dangers they caused? What good did razing a hospital ship to stardust do? They swaggered, the careening champions liberating… liberating as if the destruction of lives was a liberation. And then they expect us to be grateful, to say thank you for the elimination of a supposed slight. I understand these emotions, Taozi. In this case, I’ve felt them myself.” An even sadder sound.

“There is… one person I know, who discovered her connection in the Force in such a way as you… but I would not introduce you, until you are absolutely ready.” I take a deep breath and the images end, washed onward to the bastion of the Light. No, if I introduced Taozi to the Starmother, to my mother… unless she’s ready, @Ahani Najwa would eat her soul alive.

“The Force is as capricious as the people who make up this universe. I wish I had better balms to rub on those wounds, but I have only this: Your intention to save Beth’s life, your fear and your anguish over the razing of Tanaab shows you are a being of amazing Light, Taozi…” The images on the crystal facets change, moments in my own life, of my path where Raien Keth and other Darklings tried to defeat me, to turn me from my path.

“Put your ire in its’ place. The only one which can benefit from even a mote of it is one you despise most. Projecting our trauma on every force-danged darkling isn’t curing the universe of the evil we perceive. It causes it. We must learn to let these angers and these horrors linger on the waters of the Living Force, to be transmuted into good. If we hold them too tightly, we become the Darkness we despise.”

I stand, offer a hand. “We both need to grieve, to accept motivation is only half of nobility, and goodness is not a political tool, but concerned more with how we view even the smallest of individuals and treat them with care and respect. Our path is not to cling to the horrors, but to experience and transmute them, to turn the sorrows into something the Light can cling to, and the Light can serve. Darkness, anger, they are the easier road, but empty as a sugar pill in the hands of an ill patient.

Come. I do have a pink wet suit, and a board. Ready to start letting some of it go? And by go I mean surf. I’m going to teach you to surf. Surfing, it… c’mon. I’ll show you.”

 

[Taozi Fuyuan]

Tear filled eyes looked at Manu Xextos as he laughed quietly. It was clear that he wasn't laugh her at her, of course, he was here to teach her. To raise her up, not drag her down further into the mud. Confusion washed over Taozi's face, until Manu directed her attention to the crystal images once more. She listened and watched in silence, and she quickly understood.

They shared the same trauma. The same pain. The only difference? Manu at least seemed better adjusted to it. He could understand her pain like no one else could, which meant that Taozi could not muster up the energy to yell. To scream. To throw a fit like a child that wasn't being listened to. She took a shaky breath as the sobs stopped, and she turned her attention to Manu fully. She knew that not every Dark-aligned person in the galaxy was evil. A blight. Cursed.

Darlyn. Adara. Debatably Aeden. All three of them examples of (mostly) good people that were of the Dark.

But now was not the time to get into a debate, as Manu suggested surfing.

"All right... I'll trust you on this, though I find it interesting you have a pink wetsuit and surfboard already prepared, but no pink robes. How unfair!"

A small, weak, laugh came from Taozi as she stood up, and pressed the tissues in her hand into a tight little ball.

"Just as a warning though... It's been a while since I've even taken a swim."