Ask On Fire

[Maxims Tionson]

Max had left the collection of Jedi behind him, moving freely despite his lack of a wheelchair. Just proved, to his mind, that the healers' rule about patients always leaving in wheelchairs was a load of old shite. He had taken some pretty heavy karking hits on Sullust and his memory was kind of hazy about the trip back after making sure to evade any pursuit but he still knew well enough that he hadn't taken any hits to his legs.

He might have just been getting frustrated with their continued insistence about the prosthetics, honestly.

Still, using the Force to steady it, Max drew a cigarette out from one of the pockets of his outfit and headed off down to the side hanger he had messaged Talak to meet him in. He didn't care if Talak took his time in getting there or if he only showed up as a way to make sure no one but Max saw him board a ship to leave so he could slip away quietly.

He wanted to talk to the man away from pretty much anyone else half because he wasn't sure how Talak was feeling about crowds of Jedi these days and half because he wasn't sure how everyone would react to what he had to say. Hell, Max wasn't even sure what Talak would do after he'd said his piece; he didn't know the man's past at all but he had picked up from rumors that it hadn't been all light and sunshine. And right now?

Talak was certainly far from sunshine and rainbows but he hadn't stepped as far away from the Light as some others he'd known. No, there were dark clouds in the sky that was Talak's soul, but that didn't mean that night had fallen...

And here he was getting poetic inside his own head. Lighting his cigarette, Max settled down atop a small crate, just watching the jungle through the entrance of the hanger as he waited.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak wasn't excited to make the rounds. There were a lot of people who apparently needed to talk to him, and his patience was about as low as it had ever been. Add to that the fact that his mind was still on Trys, he didn't care to be yelled at and blamed for all the Jedi's problems, and a host of other things on his mind, and he was in a less than favorable mood when he showed up at the hangar.

And yet he showed up to the hangar. Max was one of the people who he probably owed... something to for what had happened. What that something was - an explanation, apology, or something else - he didn't know and he wasn't sure he cared to figure out right now.

He came to a stop just in front of Max, helmet still in place, and said nothing. For a man who was typically quiet and distant, today it seemed to be on some sort of steroids. His eyes swept over the room behind his helmet, his senses on the alert, alarmed. It was instinct.

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max had felt Talak enter the room but it was only barely - the guy was much better at hiding himself in the Force than Max was after all - and he didn't react outside of taking another drag from his cigarette. He felt the need for something to do with his hands. It was infuriating that doing something with his left hand didn't make the phantom feeling of needing to move and use his fingers stop in his right hand.

Thankfully the cast numbed his nerves below the elbow so the remains of his arm weren't doing some kind of twitchy dance as Talak approached. Spotting the other man as he approached, Max stood up from the box he'd been sitting on and took one last drag from the cigarette before tossing it down and stomping it under foot.

Terrible habit he'd picked back up; he'd work on it later.

"Thanks for coming Talak - glad you got out of there." he admitted quietly, eyeing the other man before glancing to the side slightly, "Had something to say, you might hav' guessed."

Hell, even his old accent slipped back in a little there - best to get it over with. He turned back to Talak again fully and straightened as he took a little breath, as deep as he could without irritating his ribs.

"I'm sorry."

Max swallowed a little bit.

"I... I let you down, Talak." he admitted his own thoughts, "You had to get yourself and Trys out of there by yourself because I karked up. I owe you that apology and more."

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak was aware enough to be able to tell that something about Max was different. He was burdened in his own way, as if carrying a weight around that he didn't think had anything to do with his injured arm.

Talak's own robotic hand flexed involuntarily. He'd grown accustomed to it over the years and he knew Max would as well. The fact that he had to was Talak's fault.

He was more than a little caught off guard by what Max said. For a moment he was silent and pondered how to respond.

I don't think you need to apologize. You lost your hand, others were wounded. I left you all in the meat grinder as a distraction. If anyone should apologize it's me, he said. He was far more blunt than normal, but he had left them all to fend for themselves. He was used to being on his own. That was how it had been for years, and it was how it might be going forward. He couldn't drag others into his war... not the way he fought it.

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Yeah he had been expecting that kind of response to be honest but it still made him smile a little bit. He'd been thinking all day, laid up in the medbay bed, and it had sounded strange even to himself to begin with. Max had walked onto the ash of Sullust because Talak asked him to be there for him and he limped away twisted, while Talak himself had taken minimal physical damage.

He didn't think his friend unscathed though.

Max didn't need to see the other man's eyes to tell he had a look in them that not many people were able to shake. It was just a feeling though... not even from the Force but from his time as a cop. Talak had been through a lot even before Sullust and it looked like something else had been piled atop of him.

"You stuck to the mission, to what we agreed." he disagreed, waving his left hand as he did so, "Now some of us didn't exactly get the message that we were a distraction and not some invasion force and brought along politicians of all things... that's on us as a group, Talak. Not you."

He pointed to his friend and very nearly poked him in the chest before he calmed down a little bit and took a step back.

"Can't just refund my apology, Talak." he decided with a little chuckle, weak as it was, before frowning, already itching to flex his fingers again, "Besides... I don't think you got off any easier than me."

Max eyed the other man silently for a moment before speaking.

"What can I do, Talak? Name it."

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak was unconvinced by the man's explanation, but he wasn't going to argue with him about it. It was a nice sentiment, but just that: sentiment. The facts were far uglier.

I got out, he said. That was what mattered. If he'd died inside then Max might have something to feel guilty over.

He bristled and said nothing as Max said that Talak had come out worse. He'd not told anyone about Trys's condition, in large part because there was still so much uncertainty. He didn't know how much of Trys would come back if any at all.

Fight the Sith, he said. He knew that wasn't what Max meant, but it was the only answer he had. There was nothing anyone could do for him right now, and he was quickly retreating into himself once again. The Arcanist was self-reliant, a loner. With the dangers he'd put everyone in, he thought it better that he remain that way for the moment.

 

[Maxims Tionson]

It was like a durasteel door slammed shut right in his face.

He wasn't trying to read Talak or his emotions through the Force and he was glad he wasn't; he probably would have been mentally shoved onto his backside quick. Eyeing Talak with his singular eye for a few seconds, Max took a step back from the man. There was a change to Talak that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Just like that huh?" He asked with his eyebrow raised, "Fight the Sith and nothing else?"

Max chewed at his tongue for a moment before speaking again.

"I didn't go to Sullust to fight Sith." he told Talak with his head tilted to one side slightly, "And neither did you. I went because you asked and I didn't ask why you were so desperate to go because I didn't need to know. Still don't - it was enough that you wanted me there to help."

He drew a cigarette out of his jacket and stuck it in his mouth. The itch to move his fingers was getting too bad to ignore without something and the cigarette was as good as he could do right now. Lighting it with one hand took a second or two but he managed it, taking a pull before blowing the smoke out to one side as he looked at Talak.

"Don't know what you need right now Talak - reckon you'll tell me if you thinkin' I can help. Do me a favor? Call me whenever you figure out wha' it is you need an' I'll come runnin'." he promised the other man, "Promis' me that if you need help wit' somethin' more specific than 'fightin sith...? Call."

Max wasn't going to try and 'fix' Talak - he had fixing of his own to tend to and he trusted the other man well enough to fix himself up. Trouble was he didn't trust him not to try and solo it.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

He didn't have to be a Force user to tell that Max was unsatisfied with Talak's answer. The problem was that he didn't know what answer to give.

He listened to Max, though the helmet didn't betray much about what was going on behind it. Max was making an attempt to help, and he had risked life and limb on Sullust. Talak owed him... something.

But what did he want to tell him? His relationship with Trys wasn't exactly public knowledge, but Max wasn't really "the public." Plus after that whole debacle it wasn't exactly a secret among the Jedi. Moreover, Talak had no idea what Trys's condition even was.

Trys isn't doing well. No one can fix that right now, he said after a moment. No need to mention the confrontation with Ana, nearly killing her, nearly falling to the Dark Side, or anything else that had happened, right?

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Ah.

That explained... a lot.

Talak had never been a chatty kind of guy even before Sullust and now Trys was suffering and there wasn't anything Talak could do about it? Yeah. Yeah a lot of things made a lot more sense now and Max couldn't say he blamed Talak for his current mood. Max didn't think he'd be any better if something like that happened to someone he loved either. Without really thinking about it, Max let the cigarette fall from his mouth to the floor and reached out, placing his hand lightly on Talak's shoulder for just a second.

"I'm not going to give you a lecture about 'letting go' because honestly?" he lifted his hand off and shook his head, "Some things are worth holding onto and I think you get that."

Max was suddenly in a position where he knew more about Talak's motivations than he ever had done before and he found himself not wanting to give any of the usual Jedi talk to the other man. They both knew that attachments could be dangerous but Talak had come to the Jedi with that attachment already firmly in place.

He didn't know about the specifics of what Talak had done before he joined the Jedi but he had enough of a general idea to know that the attachment had inspired changes in the man that were for the better. If that change had been Trys? Well then he wished the two of them the best.

"I'll keep an eye out." he told Talak with a nod, "And if you find something, give me a call and I'm there to help. I won't keep ya Talak - just don't lose my com."

Nodding, Max would move to leave. If Talak wanted to talk more, he'd stay but he didn't want to crowd the guy. He had enough going on right now without even well-meaning people butting their noses into his business. Besides, he probably had another scan or something due in the medbay and it would keep him from another cigarette.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak tensed involuntarily at the touch, not because he thought the Jedi Master was going to try something, but because he had slipped back into an old mental state that told him that being touched was being vulnerable. It had taken years to readjust, and even then it was still difficult. In his current state, it was all flooding back.

But Max's words meant more to Talak than might be readily apparent. He wasn't here to try to lecture the former-Sith or probe into things that Talak would have rather left closed. He was just... there. To help and be a friend, something Talak had terribly few of in this galaxy.

He was quiet for a long moment, but didn't walk away immediately.

Thank you, Max, he said. The truth was that Talak was exhausted, but he couldn't quit now. There was far too much yet to be done.

Thank you for everything, and I'm sorry about your arm, he said. He knew all too well what that was like.

I won't, he said in reference to not losing his com. And you take care of yourself. Someone needs to keep Hannibal in line, he said, the closest thing he could manage to a joke at this point.

Be careful, Max, he said as he turned to leave. It was a strange place that he found himself in. The Jedi were more a family to him than the Sith had ever been, and yet he still felt out of place. War was coming, and Talak knew he'd be in the front of it, it was just a question of how much longer his luck would last.