Ask Tatooine Cry Me A River

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc had expected her to do her usual routine of shutting up and quietly leaving. Anytime she was ever confronted with anything, her reaction was to bail. He fully expected to walk right past her to the guest room and for her to be gone by the next time he came out.

All of that went up in the air the same time he did.

The half Sephi was bodily flung across the hallway and against a wall. The force of the throw and over 200 pounds of him slammed right through the cheap Tatooine wall. There was a crack as the wall now had a sizable hole in it with him on the other side. He was on the floor, his legs halfway out into the hallway. Debris fell all around him and pain shot through his body.

Emryc exhaled as he stared up at the ceiling. A hand came up to remove his broken glasses from his face. His fingers curled to pluck a shard of glass out of his cheek, blood running freely down his face. The entire area pulsed with his energy for just a moment as a ripple went through the Force. His eyes were vibrantly yellow for that moment, but he closed them. He plucked another shard of glass out of his face, thankful none had made it into his eyes. His bare legs had cuts on them from grazing through the sides of the walls, one of them a deep wound that also bled.

He simply laid there for a while, breathing slowly as he reeled the beast back in. He took his time before he finally rose to sit up. His hair was messy and his face was bleeding, but he was otherwise perfectly calm.

Emryc reached into his pocket and drew out the box of cigarra, taking one out to place in between his lips. A trick with the Force ignited it as he drew it in, closing his eyes. He looked away, smoke pluming from his nostrils as he let it out. One of his legs were curled up, arm casually folded over the knee as he sat on the ground in the wall opening. His blood slid down his leg and face the entire time as he sat there and smoked.

@GABA

 

[Darth Tiamat]

Not everything requires brute force...
It was difficult to focus through the noise, the shadow tore through her mind seeming satisfied with the outburst, it continued to pull pieces of her, finding its way through any defenses that were left standing. Years of work that crumbled onto itself, all because she let him press her, she let him inside, she opened up, Then you couldn't hold it together, tsk... She felt paralyzed and trapped, to weak to stop any of it as the shadow inside continued its assault. Look at him lay there She felt herself draw on the darkness again Feel it...

There was a pulse in the Force that came from Emryc, it was the Sith Lord himself; his presence distinguishable and it demanded her obedience. She could feel its power focus, but then stop, gone, held at bay as Emryc picked another piece of glass Too weak...let me... The voices continued and Tiamat yelled, letting her emotions wash over her, feeling the pain radiate through her body. "Get up!" she hollered, Make him, he doesn't believe you...

"Get up!" she yelled again, watching him through the hole in the wall, but he didn't move, not for a while, and Tiamat paced, back and forth as she hungered. She wanted the beast in him to return and the shadow hungered for it too as it churned deep inside her, You're having a silly tantrum...so pathetic

Tiamat dug her nails into her fists as tight as she could, her knuckles turning white as she watched him light a cigarra and just sat there, not saying a word, So pathetic...

"Stop sitting there, fight me!" she shouted as her gold eyes kept on him, "Get up! Say something! Tell me what lesson I have failed, tell me what I will never accomplish, or ask me again what do I want from you!"

You're not deserving...you're wasting time...

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc could feel the entire battle she faced in the hallway all on her own. He turned to look at her as he smoked, though he couldn’t make out every little detail thanks to his lack of glasses. As a result, he was blissfully oblivious to all the minute depictions of aggression on Tiamat’s face. Emryc drew in more from the cigarra as she shouted at him, his ears perfectly tuned to hearing.

After a moment, he slowly rose to stand, though he was slightly lopsided from the injury on his leg. With luck, she had thrown him back towards the master suite instead of the guest room. Emryc tilted his head to look at her briefly, cigarra hanging from the corner of his lips.

“I’m not going to entertain you while you're deciding to be a toddler,” He said coolly, “Talk to me without the drama or get the kriff out of here.”

With that, Emryc disappeared from sight to open up a medkit, knowing fully well she would run off with her tail between her legs. His first focus was to stop the bleeding on his leg and address his wounds. He was beyond irritated, but Tiamat wouldn’t be the target of it. He always blamed himself for his own mistakes. Her inability to control herself was his failing as a teacher.

With a soft exhale, he took off the hoodie to reveal his bare torso. He looked at himself in the mirror, turning to look at the old welts on his back. He hadn’t felt the need to punish himself in a long time, but this display was a reason for it. With a disappointed look, he walked over to draw out his bag with the fanged whip.

@GABA

 

[Darth Tiamat]

A toddler?
A toddler...

It did not help her to hear the comparison, the shadow took it and played with it, twisting and distorting Emryc's voice in her head. She tried to remember how she reeled it in, but the more she searched, the worst she felt. Anytime she reached, it felt as though she were moving through molasses. There was the easier option, a familiar one demanded for her to chose. He was not going to deal with it, she could leave, You always leave....

"I know!" she yelled out, uncertain if she were answering Emryc or the demon that clawed at her psyche. Her palms were bloodied from her nails piercing her skin and she suddenly realized Emryc was gone, disappearing into the bedroom. He can't stand you...

She followed of course, "No! Stop walking away!" she growled, nearly tripping over the debris on the floor, wondering why she just didn't go through the open door. Pieces flung behind her as she swung her arm, clearing away debris that already caused her annoyance. The woman's eyes followed the trail of blood and foot prints, and finally settling on Emryc as he took off his hoodie, "Emryc." she hissed, Emryc....Emryc...

He stuck with his word though as he continued to look at himself in the mirror, never answering her and Tiamat slowly stalked as she watched him go for another bag. She recognized that bag, she knew what he kept inside and new fire burned inside her, a new anger she had not felt in a long time as the Force wrapped around the whip, drawing to herself. A pain tore through her own wounds as she grasped it, "Stop ignoring me." she softly growled.

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc heard Tiamat enter the room and he had to fight to keep the surprise off his face. He pulled the whip out of his bag and felt the Force threaten to tug it out of his grasp. This time, however, he stepped in to overpower her attempt. The whip remained firmly clutched in his hand, a mere hint of a reminder that ultimately he was significantly more powerful than her. It was a display of measured and methodical control, one he showed only when he pleased.

His patience was wearing thin, but he looked at Tiamat nonetheless. Up close, she would be able to see just how the shards had cut into his face. The face that needed to be on Holo the next few days. He took pride in his appearance and she had seen fit to barge in on his campaign to leave him with this.

There were many things he wanted to do right then and most of them involved causing her great pain. However, he once again recalled his own failings and how Tiamat never learned to control her powers. She saw red just like any other Sith and gave into her anger at once. There was no tranquility, no calmness, nothing that he attempted so many times to uphold and teach.

“I’m listening,” He said calmly as he looked at her. His eyes were as cold as always, face devoid of emotion and demeanor as tranquil as ever.

@GABA

 

[Darth Tiamat]

The whip never came, it kept in his grasp regardless of how hard she pulled. Her teeth gritted, never releasing her grasp as she took a step forward; he remained unmoving, calm, tranquil through this entire ordeal and this boiled a new frustration within her. Perhaps it was jealously that she did not have what he had, or even more so that she was not him, not riddled with the washes of emotion she currently felt, the lies she told herself to make everything seem she had it all figured out.

So pathetic...

She didn't understand why he put up with her, but perhaps now maybe those feelings were lies she told herself too. If she loved him as she said she did, why did it hurt so much... why did she want to make him hurt as much she did. Undeserving...

He looked at her and spoke, but Tiamat did not speak as she looked into his eyes, then his face and his body and back to the whip. She kept pulling, stepping closer and closer as though it were to budge if she brought herself to it; she shared her gaze between the whip and his eyes, "Those don't belong to you." she whispered as she stood in front of him, "You can't, I..." her eyes fell back onto the whip, "I can't let you."

Why not...you can...let him...

Her eyes met his as she tried to look for anything that would give her a hint as to what he was thinking or felt, "I can't let him..." she spoke more softly, her words rung through the Force, as she focused on the cuts on his face, tears begun to swell in her eyes, "I just wanted you to love me back someday." she released her grasp on the whip, but instead would wrap her fingers around his fingers that clutched the whip, "I just don't believe I can let anyone do that because it hurts too much."

She kept her hand on his, "But you can't do this. I...need to repent."

@Sreeya

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc saw her eyes fill with tears and he didn’t move back when she initially stepped forth. He heard her out, picking up on the strange way she spoke as she addressed the darkness within her. He had done that multiple times when he was younger - back when that side of him manifested as a separate entity. Now he learned to compartmentalize it and only allow it out when he was Raze.

He felt her grasp his hand and for a moment he simply stood there staring at her. He wouldn’t allow her the mercy of crying without his searing gaze on her. Emryc weighed her words for a while before his hand slipped out of her grasp, still clutching the whip.

“Your inability to temper yourself is my failing as your teacher,” He said curtly, drawing the whip closer to himself. She didn’t get to simply decide to repent out of guilt of seeing him do it. It had to come from deep within her. It was not genuine otherwise.

“I will never love someone that constantly expects me to change,” Emryc said flatly, offering far more in words than he normally would. He walked over and opened up the medkit first, taking out the bacta patches to apply to his leg.

“You, like most Sith, are a leech,” He said matter of factly, “You have been taught the ways of the Sith and you have been afforded the luxuries and comforts that come from being my apprentice,” He briefly gestured to the room they stood in - the room he had offered her when he never had to. The room she had since wrecked.

“When have you ever called upon me outside of needing something?” He blankly stared at her. The hypergates had been to further her agenda, “You came here once again hoping to take something and when you couldn’t have it, you lashed out like a child. You made everything about yourself just as any run of the mill Sith out there would.”

Emryc looked away as he continued to bandage up the leg, “So tell me, Tiamat, why I should ever believe there is anything remotely special about you to warrant my interests when you are about as classically textbook as it gets?”

He turned to look at her again with a steely gaze, “Try listening to that voice inside your head sometimes. It is correct more often than not.”

Emryc would block off any attack attempts his words prompted. His words may have been searing, but she would know he simply stated his thoughts aloud. It wasn’t in his nature to antagonize or jab for the sake of it.

@GABA

 

[Darth Tiamat]

His silence lingered far too long than she would have liked, she was almost certain he was not going to respond to her.

Undeserving of a response...

However, he retracted his hand from her own, he took responsibility for her failing and somehow that stung more. His disappointment burned through her chest and he continued, speaking what she feared and dreaded the most. It was honesty and it hurt, the pain never really subsiding within her. Instead it grew so great it became numbing and she felt nothing. The last bit of herself locking away deep in the crevasses of her psyche, to hang on just a little longer until she could retreat and recover what was left. Her eyes kept on him, never breaking, the yellow was fading, but the blue of her irises were dull and empty.

Leech...

The shadow continued, seeming to listen to Emryc as Tiamat did. He spoke her name and she winced, she did not deserve that name. She didn't deserve anything she had, or anything she wanted, but most of all, Emryc did not deserve this from her.

Her gaze fell from him, what she created felt irreparable and she had made sure of it. It felt like he had physically stuck a knife in the center of chest. It burned and then cooled, the sensation trickled across her body. She reached up to rub her chest, just to make sure, but the blood was of her own from her palm. She had nothing to say in return, nothing to throw back at him, she had hurt him, but the damage was also reflected within herself.

She did this every time, yet she came back for more, believing she can do better and then she doesn't.

Run and hide, it is what you do...

Tiamat felt herself step backwards, there was nothing she felt she could say that would fix any of this now or possibly ever. The darkness roiled in her hesitation, Go...

"Ok"

Her voice just barely above a whisper as though she were trying not to disturb the beasts inside. She nearly stumbled over the debris again as she retreated, the trust in own self was gone and soon she would leave Emryc alone to contend with the damage.

@Sreeya