April 12, 2012

772. No Place Like Home 1 - Trychon

Trychon watched with a sense of apathy suppressing his sense of wonder as he approached the planet.  It was foreign to him from this distance, as he'd only seen it from space once before; the day he left.  He tried to remember how long it had been.  Six, seven years now?  He couldn't really remember for sure, it'd been so long.  Even just a few years ago, it was a whole different lifetime for him in more way than one.

He tapped his sensors a few times, and did a search to find the small village that had been his 'home' in that other life time.  It wasn't hard to figure out, as he was only able to pick up three of them.  'Home' appeared to be the second largest one, based on the nearby mountain range he remembered.

He set the small shuttle to land via autopilot just outside the settlement, so he could go in on his own terms on foot and not make too much of a fuss.  As the shuttle began to sit down half a klick outside the nearest building, the dust kicked up around the vessel and it struck him as odd that he didn't remember the planet seeming this dry all those years ago.  There was still plenty of seemingly healthy plants around, but there just seemed to be much more dirt as well.

He grabbed his small backpack which he'd prepacked with the gear he would need, and he set down the ramp.  He hadn't traveled far when the irony of him walking into town unannounced and unexpected hit him.  It was eerily similar to how he'd arrived as a child, or so the story had been told to him anyway.  At least he had clothes this time.  He wondered if it was a joke played on himself by his subconscious.  He did have an odd sense of humor, afterall.

He decided not to dwell on the irony of the situation, and simply allowed what was left of his younger self to enjoy the nearly unpolluted air he'd grown up with, and the distinct smell of the planet he grew up on.

The town looked exactly as it was in his mind as he approached.  He realized it was surely worn down since he had left, though there was some signs of the occasional routine maintenance to the buildings.  Perhaps he'd aged it in his mind as time and the village wore on.

Knowing it wouldn't help him blend in at all, he tried to act casually as he entered the bounds of the town.  There was very little activity to blend into, other than a few others simply walking along going about their business as he pretended to be.

Problem being that everyone in this town knew each other as well as they knew that they had not received outside visitors more than a handful of times since his own arrival as a toddler.  He was instantly garnering interested looks, and it was only a matter of time before he was approached.

He had no plan for how to handle that when it happened.  He really was dumbfounded by his Master-in-a-holocron's insistence he visit the planet he grew up on, and had resisted for some time.  Then when Raezyr left to go on one of his errands and had planned on taking some additional time to search for Dianna, Trychon had run out of excuses.  Even his inanimate master knew it.

So he'd come back.  Hours before leaving hyperspace, he'd entreated the holocron one last time for a purpose or general plan to the visit, but was dismissed rather summarily.  He'd already been told that his future and learning depended on it, and that was all he was going to be told it seemed.

He had never even been told if he had a task to do in the town, or if it was the more likely trip to one of the Sith ruins he knew were in the area.  Even those he had searched fairly exhaustively as a teenager without finding much.  Granted, he had known nothing of their meaning or what to look for, just that he was drawn to the occasional artifacts he ran across.

Then again, he thought... he still didn't know what he was looking for, which was why he decided to satiate his curiosity about the state of the town he'd first known before moving into the forests to hopefully satisfy a long-dead Sith Lord.

When someone inevitably challenged his arrival, would they recognize him?  He knew everyone would remember when reminded... he was the oddest thing to happen to the town in generations, and he knew it.  Still, it wasn't just the years since he'd left the planet. It had also been years since he'd left the settlement to live on his own at that point.

All in all, he had not been a regular member of this community in well over a decade.

"Shun?"  Trychon heard someone yell across the road.  He cursed.

Not only was he recognized, but the first to recognize him just had to be one of the idiot boys he had classes with growing up.  If he was forced to bet, Trychon would have bet that this one never did really grow up.

"That is you!  Shun!"

The Sith rolled his eyes and reminded himself to be patient at least for a short while longer, while he figured out what his purpose was here.  He'd have to make up some story explaining his reappearance.  It wouldn't be hard.  In fact, he decided it was probably best to act as though he hadn't changed at all.  At least for a while.

He took a breath and turned around to face the man-boy.  It was Pon, one of the most annoying individuals the Sith had ever known.

"Don, is it?"  Trychon laughed nervously, while half flinching at his own joke.  "Seriously, Pon... that wasn't my real name even when we were kids."

Pon smiled, probably in response to the fake flinch, but it worked well enough for Trychon.  "Fine."  He agreed.  "I'm not calling you by that goof of a name you called yourself when you went to live in the forest."

Trychon nodded in reluctant agreement.  Given a choice, he'd probably strike the man down for being such an intolerable pain when they were younger as well as in the present.  Instead, he would allow him to call him by the name the townsfolk had given him, all those years ago.

"Alright then... Shaan it is.  Want a drink?"  Pon offered.

"Badly."  Trychon admitted.

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