Shatter

can't say I have. looks a bit like the Reckoners.

Ryn watched her leave. I never knew how lucky I was... He didn’t follow her. There was nothing he could fix by doing that. Instead, he stood up and moved back to the pilot’s seat, lowering himself into it with a slow exhale. He leaned back, staring into the dim interior of the ship, hands resting loosely as the weight of what had just happened sat with him. He felt terrible for bringing up Aerith's past. He wasn’t good at this. Never had been. People weren’t something he handled well. He let out a quiet breath and pulled his dataslate from his jacket. May as well read. He opened the second book in the Metalweaver series and let his attention drift away from the moment, settling into something simpler, something distant enough to keep his thoughts from circling back. “Brando San-Der,” he muttered. “Good writer.”

*blinks* mmm not particularly something that interests me at the current moment. I shall keep it on the backburner.

Ryn didn’t speak for a moment after she finished. The weight of it hung there, not something to argue with, just something to sit beside. He stood up and rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment. A beat passed. Then he exhaled slowly and sat back down in his seat. “I should probably explain my side properly,” he said. His gaze drifted for a moment before settling back on her. “As I said, I wasn’t a frontline Jedi,” he said. “Not during the war. I flew courier runs. Intelligence transfers. Sometimes personnel, but mostly messages that couldn’t risk interception.” He gave a faint, humourless breath. “You don’t really think of yourself as part of the war like that. You just think you’re moving things between people who matter more than you do. In any case, I saw it in fragments. The war, I mean. Brief stops, ship-to-ship transfers, half conversations in war rooms I wasn’t really part of. Enough to know what it was costing people. Not enough to ever feel like I belonged in it. Regardless, it only lasted for a year before Chancellor Palpatine took full power over the Republic and turned it into his Empire.” He leaned back against his seat, expression distant but steady while he thought. “After the Betrayal, that didn’t really change,” he continued. “I just stopped carrying Jedi messages and started carrying anything that kept me off Imperial attention. Freight, contracts, odd jobs. Same ship. Same routes.” He reached under his coat without really thinking about it and drew out his lightsaber. It stayed unlit in his hand as he turned it slowly, thumb brushing along the worn metal near the emitter. The hilt was long and cylindrical, made of darkened silver-grey metal with a matte, weathered finish. Thin gold inlays ran along its body in clean geometric lines, understated rather than decorative, giving it a restrained, traditional elegance. The grip section was smooth, showing faint scuffing and worn edges from long use, especially near the emitter and activation stud. None of the wear looked careless; it had the feel of something maintained through habit rather than neglect. Near the emitter, angular guard-like projections extended outward, forming a crown-like silhouette around the blade housing. “I don’t really use it,” he said. “Not anymore.” He put it back onto his belt and looked back up at Aerith. “I know I'm not a very emotional person, but I do understand what you've gone through. It sounds so much worse than what I had to do. I'm so, so sorry.”

you, my girl, need to get to bed. you're typing in Hawksian.

it's got fiction too. it's not hard scifi. just the dragons are sorta realistic

*BONK* there you go

Ryn shrugged. "Who are you? What's your story? What are you?" He gestured to the rest of the ship. "I assume you told them your story. Most of them don't seem like typical Jedi, unlike you or me. Let me go first. I would consider myself a normal Jedi. I was a Padawan during the Clone Wars, and I was knighted in '15. I mainly flew a courier ship, moving messages that couldn't be broadcast over the HoloNet. When Order 66 occurred, I received Master Kenobi's message telling me to run. So I ran. I made a life for myself hauling stuff. A life that is now ruined." He sighed. "It was inevitable, but I had hoped to get a few more years out of that."

uhhh do you need a hug?

Ryn sat down. "So. Who are you? I assume everyone else knows, but I don't."