Star Wars: A Thing Of Beauty

Who Is He?

After the Republic decimated the Harrowers' base on Rutanda, the Pantoran humanitarian aid workers had to take their work into safer Republic territories in their home Pantoran system. Too many of them died then, and so they called it quits with the Izanami corporation. And the Twi'lek aid workers returned to Ryloth to focus their efforts there. Takemura Izanami wanted to spread humanitarian aid all around, especially in the places where the fighting effects the innocents the most, but the Republic really put a stop these operations, which he will soon seek justice for... Jinang is also wanting some justice for what happened as well. The Republic committed a serious war crime and killed his lover, completely ruining the future he sought after. He would like to kill every clone trooper that took part in that raid, and make sure the Galaxy knows exactly what happened on Rutanda... He wants revenge, and that's what drives him now...

Jugo, the moon of Dromund Kaas, is a planet covered in jungles, swamps, wetlands and lakes, with no oceans. Uniquely, there are strange slimes and oozes of varying qualities and colors all over the mucky world. They grow up out of the ground and spread like weeds, and consume bacteria out of the air and water, making the air very clean, actually. Because of the ooze, any buildings and settlements on Jugo have to be built on stilts, or else the strange slime will seep through the walls and floors. The Harrowers have a pretty decent sized base built in and above short, but stout and strong trees growing in a swamp with dull blue leaves. The base is set on multiple octagonal platforms connected together with small little buildings, huts and tents on them. There isn't a lot of space, but there was just enough room to squeeze in all of the ships they needed to. Jugo is also cloudy and rains a whole lot, making it very humid and never too hot. The natives of this planet don't even have technology, but they are small, harmless and friendly. They have also started to like living under the stilts because the presence of the Harrowers is natural deterrent of enormous mega-frogs that hunt the Jugo people. Jinang is under one of the stilts himself. He prefers to be alone mostly, as he can't shake this odd guilt he feels around the Harrowers... He feels responsible for their struggles, he feels like he mistreats them, he feels like Koga was a bad leader, and now he carries that burden... He is sitting on a mostly dry tree stump, surrounded by the little Jugo natives. They range from 7 to 10 inches tall, with slimy, pumpy, green bodies, wearing clothes made of leaves and odd, white masks - and no two masks are alike. They seem to like Jinang, and he likes being way bigger than the people he's around for once. The Jugo people are largely undocumented, but there are some who call them "Kodama." They poke Jinang with sticks and give him leaves and pebbles, and he just sits and observes, accepting their gifts. Very simple people. But suddenly, they all scurry away, hiding in the exposed roots of a tree, and Jinang turns around and is startled to see a very tall, purple Togruta woman with white montrals wearing black clothes. Jinang knows her, very, very intimately, and it makes him feel incredibly anxious. This was Koga's lover, Gyara Stalmic... She sits next to Jinang on the stump, and the dead tree's remains are big enough so she doesn't have to sit too close. Jinang just stares at her, going pale, with a haunted look on his face. Knowing things about a woman he has no right knowing. It feels like a violation...
"I've been avoiding you for a while..." The woman says, feeling very awkward herself. "But it's time I faced you..."

Hearing her voice was too much to handle and Jinang puked in the grass. Then he started feeling a very bad migraine, followed by a bleeding nose. He groans in pain, getting horribly overwhelmed by excruciating pasin waves of emotions...
"Shhh... It's alright..." The woman, Gyara, says, rubbing his back, trying to comfort the Jinang part of him. "Just let it pass and try to relax..."

Jinang squeezes the sides of his head, tears streaming down his cheeks as he cries from the pain, sweating and gasping. This is the worst that this sort of episode has ever been, feeling like his head is going to explode. The pain is so intense he might just pass out...
"Look at this photo." The Togruta says, holding a little plastic photograph in front of Jinang. "Just look at this. Tell me who it is. Can you do that?"

"Wha... I don't know who this is..." Jinang says, looking at a picture of a completely unfamiliar Kitonak person. "I've never seen him before."

"Keep looking." She says, getting Jinang to take the picture in his hand. "Just think about him. Who he might be. What does he do? Where does he go? Where is he in that picture?"

"I don't fucking know who it is!" Jinang said, getting angry, looking back up at the Togruta. "He's just a farmer or something - wh-why's it matter?"

"You're not having a migraine now though, are you?" She says, smirking.

And she is right. He looks back at the picture and tries to examine it for some kind of medicine the woman tricked him into taking but it's just a plain photograph. A photograph of a total stranger.
"What'd you do??"

"You have a condition." She says, but Jinang already knows that. "The cure is simple. When your mind is racing, fighting between Jinang and Koga's memories, pull out a picture of someone you don't know and think about as many facts about their life as you can."

"What the fuck..." Jinang says, confused, looking at the picture again. "That doesn't make sense!"

"Uh - yes it does!" The Togruta snaps back, chuckling. "I talked to Ahsoka and it's obvious that you need help. So I looked at Dr. Shae's files and realized that your problem is you can't stop thinking about everything all the time - you have way too many memories for your physically young brain and your neurons are literally fighting each other - so you need something to distract yourself. Tanner was a distraction, he helped, right? With his big 'ol di-"

"Stop right there!" Jinang says, blushing red like an apple. "That's none of your business!"

"Right. Sorry." She says. And then she suddenly looks away from Jinang, frowning, sighing deeply. "Koga and I had moments like this..."

"Don't remind me..." Jinang says, with a mixture of anger and sadness, getting worked up. "I hate having all of his memories... Experiences and emotions. It's miserable! I recognize so many people here but I'm treated like a stranger... Not to mention that I can't physically handle ANY of this! DAMMIT! And I feel love and affection for so many of you... I feel his guilt over so much... But it's not mine..."

After Jinang's little vent, there was silence. What Jinang just said to the Gyara really seemed to get to her, somehow. She is holding back tears.
"I'm sorry..." Jinang says genuinely, calming himself down. "I'm going through so much... It's so hard to control my emotions..."

"Jinang, I'm not hurt..." She says to Jinang's surprise. "I'm touched... Before Koga died... He had been pushing us all away, and I don't know why. I thought that he didn't care about us anymore but... I can see that he still did... I see it through you. You're hurting so much because he still loved us all..."

"I don't know what to say..." Jinang says, feeling exhausted by all of this. Confused, most of all. "Could... Could I just be alone? Please...?"

"Of course." The woman answered. She stands up and hands Jinang a handkerchief for his bloody nose. "I know you're hurting, Jinang... But thank you... This went better than I hoped."

"Thank you..." Jinang says, looking at the Kodama, who are starting to come back. "You um, you helped me out..."

Gyara places her hand on Jinang's head affectionately, smiling at him, and then she walks away to give him some space.
Koga was a legendary assassin who was feared by everyone in the criminal underworld, where he had a 100% success rate for a solid 9 years leading up to his "death." Nobody knows where he came from, Jinang's memories of that life don't actually go far back enough to know. He only really has Koga's memories as a Harrower. That's over 40 years of life, though, and Jinang knows that Koga was way older than that. His life was greatly prolonged by his cyborg body, which was highly advanced, Izanami technology. Koga did a lot of things he regretted, and those emotional burdens have carried over into Jinang's life. But he is going to right all of those wrongs. Jinang inhales deeply and then exhales, relaxing a bit. One of his two minds hurts, but the other side feels better, and he'll need to learn how to cope with this emotional conflict. If he is going to get revenge on the Republic, he'll need to get stronger...