context: talking about aroace hcs for both isabela & bruno with a friend that quickly devolved into joking about the entire family betting on which one of pepas kids will be aro and/or gay
In Which There Is A Bit Of A Side Story Involving Jedi Master Heilon, And How He Came To Be At The Tribunal.
(This is the start of a short story detailing how Burdock Heilon came to meet Darth Aranea and a few other Sith, and culminated in him being invited by Aranea to observe the Enclave of the Sith Tribunal. I’m trying not to make it very long, probably only like two or three chapters, but I’m going to write it out in its entirety before posting it on AO3. Here’s the first few bits, because I was entertained and wanted to share).
“The other name was Cinaede?”
The agent nodded. “That is what Master Braga said. The Sith that was holding Master Ikalruq hostage mentioned a Darth Gallus and Darth Cinaede for exchange. When pressed for a single trade, he selected Darth Gallus.” She scrolled through her datapad, scanning for the relevant information. “Darth Gallus is apparently a Rodian Sith that Argent Legion picked up a few months back, Unit Jenth I think. He’s young, mouthy, and stupid, according to his interrogators. Nothing special. Stars know why this... Darth Belus... Sith picked him to return over the other.” She tapped the edge of her datapad. “But it looks like this Darth Cinaede is the same as the Cinaedus that Unit Peth picked up ages ago. Sith Assassin. Only got caught on the job because their target was in a house that caught on fire due to an entirely unrelated arson. Getting them in was ugly, if the report was anything to go by. They kept… ‘shifting around’, report says. They’re some kind of morphing amphibian. Eliminated Unit Osk single-handedly, and half of Unit Peth, before Peth managed to bring them down. I’m surprised they brought them in alive.”
Jedi Master Burdock Heilon leaned back in his chair and motioned for the datapad. “That is the purpose of these acquisitions, Agent Basrel. And one of Argent Legion’s major directives. To collect Sith alive for purging and interrogation.”
“I understand that, sir.” She shrugged as she handed him the datapad. “But if it had been my unit, I would have deemed them too dangerous to hold. Alive, that is. According to our sources, they’re one of the Sith’s best infiltrators and assassins.”
Heilon nodded as he inspected the screen. “We’ve had them in custody for…. How long now?”
“Eighteen Coruscanti months.”
“Have they cracked?”
“Not unless you mean jokes. Hasn’t given even a millimeter to our interrogators. Suggests tea parties and interior décor options instead. They’ve been driving our team mad.”
Heilon snorted and tossed the datapad onto his desk. “I think it’s time we started playing hardball with this one. There has to be a reason this Darth Belus wanted this particular assassin released. We’ll never know why he wanted Gallus, what’s done is done, but perhaps we can figure out why Cinaede is so important. Cinaedus. Whatever.” He slid his chair back and got to his feet, brushing imaginary lint off of his uniform. “Have the assassin transferred to Coruscant immediately, Agent Basrel. I will take over their interrogation personally.”
“Yes, sir.”
* * * * * * * *
The high security transport ship hissed and beeped as its landing thrusters aligned with the docking pad, deep inside the massive spike of a prison tower that functioned as a receiving area for high-risk prisoners. Burdock Heilon stood beside Agent Basrel with his hands clasped behind his back, patiently waiting for the two dozen guards to disembark with their dangerous cargo centered among them. Darth Cinaedus was bound hand and foot within a stasis field upon a repulsorlift, eyes blindfolded, mouth gagged, and ears plugged. Four guards stood at each corner of the lift with blasters trained perpetually on the immobile figure as the others guided the lift down the massive hall that led to the depths of the prison.
Heilon fell into step behind the elaborate escort, and raised an eyebrow down at Agent Basrel. “This Cinaedus is… er…”
She smirked. “Tiny little thing, eh?”
“Certainly not what I expected.”
It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. “Didn’t you study the files?”
He shrugged. “I read them, yes. End to end. Several times. But once you’ve seen one Sith, you’ve seen them all. Species doesn’t matter much once they are tainted by the Dark Side. I didn’t bother looking at their picture.”
Agent Basrel pursed her lips. “Oh, well then. You’re in for a few surprises then, I guess. I have some red tape to wrap up about finalizing the transfer, so I’ll check in later. Enjoy meeting your new Sith, Master Heilon. This one is… this one’s an interesting one.” She steepled her fingers to her chest before veering to the side and down a hall branching off of the main walkway.
Heilon shook his head at her retreating form and chuckled to himself. “Just one Sith. How interesting can they be?”
* * * * * * * *
The interrogation room was like any other. No windows and black floors, ceiling, and walls, with garish lighting and an ambient temperature just a few degrees too cool for whatever species it was trying to currently contain. A single bench in the same matte black ran the length of the back wall, just a little too narrow for an average-sized humanoid to be comfortable. On that bench the guards had placed Darth Cinaede – or Cinaedus, honestly Master Heilon still had no idea which one was the typo and which one was the actual name – and now those guards had just removed the blindfold, ear plugs, and gag. They took a step back to give Heilon some room, and he pulled up a rolling chair he had swiped from the receiving desk outside. “Greetings, Sith. I am Jedi Master Burdock Heilon. I will be functioning as your new interrogator.”
The strange amphibious Sith sitting before him flicked narrowed eyes up and down his form before breaking out into a wide smile. A gravely voice echoed his name in peppy tones. “Good morning, Jedi Master Burdock Heilon.”
Heilon smirked. “And how would you know whether it is morning or not? You have had no shred of contact with the outside world for the entire length of time you have been in custody.”
The narrowed eyes widened slowly to take up nearly half of the Sith’s face. “Oh, it’s always morning here on the Republic’s sunny and glorious capital world, the crown jewel of the galaxy, the beautiful and illustrious Coruscant. The suns never set on the grandeur of the Republic, after all.” Their voice rose into a higher, musical chirp. “Pleasure to meet you, Jedi Master Burdock Heilon, member of the Jedi Council, patron of Argent Legion. I’m Darth Cinaede. I suppose I have you to thank for having your division kidnap me in the first place.”
Heilon scoffed. “You were hardly kidnapped. You were apprehended on a botched assassination attempt, and have remained our prisoner ever since.”
“Successful.”
“What?”
Cinaede shrugged. “A successful assassination attempt. I killed my target, thank you very much. It was Senator Garrumn’s house catching on fire that was the botched attempt. I guess her constituents weren’t too happy with her either, if they were willing to resort to arson. I thought Jedi weren’t supposed to play politics, anyway. Why was a Jedi playing senator in the first place?”
A swift flick of Heilon’s hand and Cinaede flinched as though hit. He scowled and leaned forward in his chair. “That is enough out of you. I am your interrogator, not the other way around.”
He only received a lopsided grin in return. “Whatever you say, Jedi Master Burdock Heilon. You know, that’s really long. I’m gonna have to give you a nickname.”
Heilon ignored their jaunty words. “You say your name is Cinaede?” He waved over one of the guards. “Make sure we correct that in the records. There is an error regarding the name of this Sith.”
Cinaede’s head tilted to one side. “You got my name wrong? Seriously?”
Heilon again made a flick with his hand and clapped Cinaede’s mouth shut with the Force. “You appear as both Cinaede and Cinaedus in our records.”
“Mm-hmph.”
Heilon sighed and released his hold in the Force on their jaw. “What?”
“I said, that’s right.”
“…What?”
An enormous eye roll. “Cinaede is my name.” Those eyes suddenly narrowed as Cinaede’s jaw thickened and squared, and once again a gravely voice reached Heilon’s ears. “So is Cinaedus. They’re both me.”
Heilon blinked. “…Ah.” He turned to the guard and raised a finger as if to correct what he had just told her, but turned back to his prisoner instead. “Are you…”
Cin’s head tilted to the other side this time. “Seriously? Pixies of Patitite Pattuna, did I seriously get stuck with the one Jedi in the entire galaxy who’s never met an id-shifter?”
Heilon shook his head rapidly. “Of course I have, I just – ” he pinched the bridge of his nose and took in a slow breath. “Alright. So you’re an id-shifter. And obviously of one of the few species that is actually able to physically morph as well.”
“I’m lucky like that.” Cin’s bright smile returned. “And depending on which records you’re looking at, my species is called Lowen or Shaull. Look us up sometime. That’s about all the info you’ve got floating around on us. Homeworld’s labeled wrong too. Guess mucking up names runs in the fam.” They leaned back against the stark wall behind them. “I’ll make it easy on you, though, at least regarding me. You’ll know when I’m Cinaede and when I’m Cinaedus. I’m usually Cinaede, but I’m really not picky about pronouns. You can call me Cin for short regardless, it’s much easier that way. Just don’t call me Cinny. Classmates tried that when I was a wee acolyte. Didn’t work out for them. Pity, I was the only one who survived graduation that year.”
Heilon nodded as he pinched the skin between his eyes harder. “…Right.”
Cin’s smile turned into a shit-eating grin. “I am going to make your life so, so much harder, HeiHei. Can I call you HeiHei? Thanks. This is the blossoming of a beautiful friendship, HeiHei, I can tell.”
Heilon’s only response was an already-weary glance up at the guard, who he swore was trying very hard not to laugh behind her helmet.
- in canon mostly because i really like the theory that he's an ex-ua student who used to be friendly with aizawa and yamada before his quirk pretty much failed him during a battle and instilled the thought of "never let someone chase an unachievable dream" in aizawa afterwards. he was in a vulnerable position during that time and afo, who seems to watch the ua tournaments and realized kurogiri's quirk had the potential to be incredibly useful to his organization, swooped in similar to how it was with shigaraki and with careful manipulation pretty much became in kurogiri's eyes his savior who helped him realize how horrible the hero society is and gave him a second chance at redemption via villainy. because of this he feels a strong sense of debt towards afo
- since he hasnt seen what an ass afo is yet he'd do almost anything afo would ask of him without question.
- to add onto the above of being an ex-ua student thats also one of the reasons he constantly has his mist on. i personally believe he does have a normal human form underneath going off how 1-a pinned him down during the ua rescue center scene. having his mist contantly at the ready helps be more prepared for all the sudden unexpected situations villains can fall into as well as disguise him from both media attention and anyone who might recognize him (old friends-) given the fact he's considered legally dead.
- the only people aware of his well. origin story is afo and some of his trusted higher ups who assisted in readjusting kurogiri to their group and pushing him to further his quirk abilities to do what he can do now
- kurogiri never really thought of telling shigiraki about since to him that backstory doesn't matter as much as helping him grow as afo's heir and as kurogiri's adopted son
- the reason kurogiri got into bartending was because when he first joined and he and afo were trying to figure out when he;d fit best kurogiri just sort of realize afo tends to drink A Lot. with all his quirks, its hard for afo to be killed by more normal means like alcohol poisoning and some of them had the side effect of needing a Shit Ton before afo could really get drunk
- so kurogiri just ended up helping fix afo's drinks and over time it morphed into learning how to bartend
- his loyalty to afo s pretty much the only reason kurogiri originally started taking care of shigaraki. afo knew how loyal and steadfast to him and took advantage of it to give him the job of raising/babysitting shigaraki. tbh i don't think kurogiri was fond of shigaraki since the beginning and probably acted more like a butler/robotic towards him at first before the unrelenting Parental Instincts tm kicked in one day after almost a year of looking after him and suddenly realized "oh fuck this is my son"
- during the year of lowkey awkward parenting he was internally having a crisis since in my mind he never really ever thought of having kids during his time as a hero in training so suddenly having the responsibilty of looking after one you know nothing about and is already pretty grown vs wanting to please afo who trusted him enough with the task made him p conflicted during the time
- thankfully(?) afo was the most active in shigarakis life during the beginning years so kurogiri didn't have to have his crisis while being a single dad as well. as shigaraki got older afo just started to withdraw more when he thought shigaraki and kurogiri were getting along well enough and weren't about to fight/betray him any time soon
- if the lov ever decided to break their assosiation with afo, kurogiri would likely still go with lov to make sure shigaraki and crew stay safe and that none of them get too hurt. despite that, he'd still retain quiet loyalty to afo due to his blind faith in him and would probably keep him updated if asked, thinking of it as a "father knows best situation"
- for the lov to be able to have his Total Loyalty, really the only person who could sway him would be shigaraki himself. as much as he feels like he has a debt to afo, shigaraki has pretty much become his own son in kurogiri's eyes (which he likely wouldnt outright admit-) and anything he'd tell him about afo would pretty much be the only stories kurogiri couldn't bring himself to cast doubt onto
- honestly in general shigiraki is pretty much the only one besides afo that he's willing to listen and consider anything he says. everyone else he might listen to but internally there's a possibility hes not really listening depending on the topic. like above, sometimes he thinks he just knows better though he is willing to admit whenever he's wrong
- mild projecting but besides shigaraki his favorite that he won't outright say is his favorite is toga. besides yknow the murdering which tbh doesn;t really bother him, he pretty much sees her as a a+ daughter and is just "lmao your lost" at her family. the only thing he doesn't like about her is when she goes out of her way to aggravate shigaraki or when she starts killing people suddenly and it throws off lov's plan
- he takes great pride in looking nice and presentable and while he might be willing to wear more casual clothes in his rare free time, he refuses to wear clothes like those free tshirts you get at events or his pjs outside his room.
- lowkey passive agressive about s o m e people not wearing socks t o m u r a. or not wearing long enough pants like arent your fucking ankles cold?
- kurogiri does also enjoy being a gentleman to go along with his professional aesthetic since like. just cause youre a villain doesnt mean you gotta be a dick yknow? too many heroes do that anyways (@ endeavor then perish)
- can swear but unable to around children
- (shigaraki once heard him say fuck when he thought he was alone and its haunted them both ever since. neither of them talk about it)
- he's a villain so like. he doesnt feel bad about killing people or watching them get killed. he was literally willing to murder 13, all might, and 1-a and only didn't because renforments arrived. during their first meeting with toga and dabi, his concern was less about shigaraki killing someone but the concept of shigaraki killing someone who could be useful to their cause. if shigaraki had weighed the options and told kurogiri "yeah im gonna kill them theyre useless", kurogiri wouldnt have seen anything wrong with not stepping in again when shigaraki does so.
- the only people he would feel bad for killing would be very young children since they remind him too much of how shigaraki used to be. parents of said children have a 50/50 chance depending on how they act
- kurogiri does try to let shigaraki be a grownup tm since hes like. 21 and make his own decisions but he really does have a habit of babying him since hes seen all the stupid shit hes done and said since he was like 5-6 and it all flashes in front of his eys sometimes
- for all the members who Can drink legally hes memorized their usual drinks by now. some of them (magne, twice, spinner-) probably use this to look cooler to recruits but everyone else Knows
- purposely says things like “the pokemens" in front of the younger members to set their fight or flight reflexes off
- video games are basically the only thing he really keeps up to date with pop culture wise tbh. whenever someone pulls him into playing one with them, he just acts like an old man who doesnt understand how to use controllers and lets them win to be nice. if he wanted he Could Destroy Them
- kurogiri doesn't dad anyone who doesn't want a dad figure showing up. he'll still do things like make sure they're being as safe as a villain can be and act as a mediator but otherwise they won't get much witness much dading unless its directed towards someone else
