A place I belong

[Asaraa Vaashe]

“You know how it is,” Asaraa held up a hand, waggling it back and forth before smiling wrly, “You take what you can get. After Yuroic wandered off the other masters picked up the slack to help me out. Mostly though we’ve been so busy with one crisis after another that training really comes in dribs and drabs. I guess these days we’re going with a policy of learning on the job.” If she was totally honest Asaraa knew she was being stretched, an unevenness to her training and skills. Her telekinesis and physical combative skills had received the most attention while the more peaceful or mental skills had fallen by the wayside. It was a sad reflection on the state of the galaxy now that that was seen as a regular occurrence.

“Family…it’s tough to find people you’re willing to open yourself upto like that.” Absently the girl reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, “There are a lot of people who are friendly, and even some who will be perfectly willing to fight near you, like the Mandalorian clans…but,” the pink triangle of her tongue flicked over her lips, “family to me is about more than that, about opening yourself up to people who can see your weaknesses exposed. Finding people worthy of that…isn’t easy is it.”

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

"Oh I do understand. Perhaps I was lucky and learned from my people before they all died. For a short time I had a master here in the Silver's, but then she sent me on a mission to deliver a single package. I didn't return for almost eight months and by then another Jedi had given me my trial to become a Knight. After that, I took some lessons from Jessica."

Not having physical vision Jairdain had never learned about how to keep her face expressionless, so as she spoke, it took on various looks. Some sad, at another point neutral and at the end very happy.
​
"Have you ever taken lessons from Jessica? That woman is so great to work with and learn from. I even taught her a few things, if you can believe it."

She listened to what​ Asa said about what she felt of as the differences between family, friends and people that were friendly. Her face grew thoughtful for a few moments. There was maybe a little sorrow, but it wasn't super strong, just present.

"If I could pick my family, those I feel I could trust completely, you would be in."

[member="Asaraa Vaashe"]

 

[Asaraa Vaashe]

Well, how do you reply to a statement like that? The sentiment expressed by [member="Jairdain"] was not something that Asaraa had found commonplace in her life so far. For a moment she was glad that Jairdain couldn't see her, couldn't see the flush that coloured her features at the woman's words. There was a small catch in her voice, the barest hiccup really, "Thank you...but, I just have to ask it took you 8 months to deliver a package? That musta been a really long journey out or a really really heavy package."

The quip rolled off Asaraa's lips naturally, but if Jairdain had been knighted during the trip then it couldn't have been an easy there and back again trip. A knighthood meant a lot more than that, it was a rite of passage that all padawan's looked forward to.

The hitch in her voice had vanished as she continued speaking, falling back on a more familiar, safer topic. "I've learned a little bit from Jessica," she admitted, "stealth and psychometry mainly. We went hunting down a criminal gang actually and helped out the police while we were there." A small smile lit up the girl's face, "It was actually a lot of fun."

 

[Jairdain]

"I had no idea Jessica knew how to stealth! So do I. It's poor circumstances that I learned it under, but I guess not all learning can be done in a setting that is good. How was it taught to you?"

Going hand in hand with stealth was also the ability to hide Force sensitivity when she learned. The manner in her learning of these skills was at the hands of the Sith while on Bastion. Luckily when it came to living, Jairdain was a quick learner and had not been harmed in her training. Unlike some of the other apprentices that had also been there.

"The delivery itself was easy...but complications came up."

While there was humor involved, it was also a bit serious. She let out a sigh before she spoke again.

"You know how it appears I'm always getting kidnapped? Like seriously, it's happened five times in almost as many years. Well, while on that delivery mission was first one. Got rescued by a government that's now gone and one of the Jedi Masters there put me through some tests over the course of a few months. As my body and mind recovered. He then took me to Ilum for a final test and once I got my lightsaber crystal and put my saber together, he knighted me."

Her hand went down to where her saber would normally be. Since they had run out of the hospital without her belongings, she hoped it was still there. If not...well she dreaded going back to Ilum for another.

"Come on, I'm starving. Let's go get food."

[member="Asaraa Vaashe"]

 

[Asaraa Vaashe]

“Ummm,” Asaraa’s teeth worried her lower lip as she turned a baleful grin onto Jairdain, “Well she and I were practicing and then she kinda got called in to help the police resolve a hostage situation…and I kinda got dragged into it too.” A soft laugh escaped her lips as she shook her head, “it was an interesting way to learn but a little nerve wrecking too.”

She let the woman pull her towards the door as she pondered her revelation. “It was lucky for you that you managed to get yourself rescued like that. It coulda gone waay waay worse, but seems like it worked out for you. I…can’t say I’ve ever done such interesting things. Just you know bounced around a little, took on slaver and gang members, but experience can be the best way to learn right?”

She shook her head, hair waving around her head, "somehow we both ended up here though, and if we take a left here we'll be right on the path to the village. You've never tasted anything as good in...well a few weeks."

 

[Jairdain]

"I'll bet you the last good meal I had was on Commenor!"

Though she had heard what​ Asaraa said about learning and how it was good she had arranged the rescue or at least that is how she heard it and she stopped in her walk. Allowing her friend to guide her, she shook her head.

"The Force was taken away from me then too. If I had it, then I could have gotten myself out. Without the Force, I am pretty helpless."

She wanted to be stronger and better. Without the Force though, that just wasn't possible for her. Her being blind physically was a weakness that people could exploit easily. The feeling came to her it would happen again too. ​

"Your life is too just as interesting as mine. Just in different ways. I learned by doing and not so much because I had to. Lessons given in the form a class are different than one the field. Though I have learned things on the fly too."

[member="Asaraa Vaashe"]

 

[Asaraa Vaashe]

"Well, I'd say that the lessons you learn in the field are probably more useful than the ones you learn in the classroom." Asaraa swept out a hand towards the temple, the manicured gardens and peaceful classrooms. "In here, you can't say that you really understand what it is to have someone bearing down on you with nothing on their mind but spilling your blood, seeing your blood stain the floor beneath their feet." The girl's hand tightened on Jairdain's slightly, "It's too peaceful, it's too clinical. We can learn the forms and skills as if we were always going to be playing for points, at first touch, but then put in a real opponent and where do you end up? People get scared, they lose the calm they trained with, some panic, some don't but we don't really prepare people for that in a classroom."

The girl let her blue eyes flick back over her shoulder to stare at Jairdain before she smiled, "I think, I think you're probably a lot stronger, a lot more capable than people here precisely because of what you've been through in your life till now."

 

[Jairdain]

"They can be, but sometimes taking the opportunity to learn in a formal setting allows the lesson to be understood far better. An example would be physchometry. I learned that from Master Jessica along with Yuroic and a couple others. By handling several different items in the class, we were able to take the time to learn the skill."

When she mentioned Yuroic, there was a pain of loss she couldn't hide or keep secret from Asaraa nor did she want to. He was one of her masters and should know how she felt about him.

"You know, I've been on the battle field. Ended up loosing my fight and came out of it with a nasty headache. Luckily, for me, some troops came by and the killing blow couldn't be delivered. Else I wouldn't be wearing your robes and getting taken out to lunch. I know what you mean though and I am hardly prepared to go toe to toe in a physical combat. Mental on the other hand, I think I'm pretty top notch there."

It was ego speaking, but​ one of her first battles had been a mental one against a sith lord. Neither one of them had come out of that unscarred.

"I don't wish to fight, but it happens."

[member="Asaraa Vaashe"]

 

[Asaraa Vaashe]

"It's the galaxy we live in," Asaraa agreed, "It's a little sad, but the galaxy is filled with people who resort to violence first and second and last. In the face of that, I'm not sure that we're ever going to get away from a fight, however much we want to. You know what they say about wishes and riches." Asaraa had been on more battlefields than she'd thought possible when a young girl had stared up into the stars. It was a little bit of a mark against the galaxy that it took the young with their hopes and dreams and threw them into the grind of war.

Nobody seemed to get away from it scot-free, the touch of conflict marked everything, from a little girl's dreams to relationships. It was impossible not to see the touch of pain that danced over Jairdain's features, a wound that Asaraa thought was better left unprobed. She liked both Yuroic and Jairdain, but this was something the two of them needed to sort out for themselves. "I guess all we can do is try to limit how often we have to fight, and the casualties when we do."

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

What Asaraa said was so very true. As they walked, Jairdain did start to relax more. No longer was she trying to escape from that hospital, maybe Kashyyyk could become a home to her. Then she shook her head at that thought, her job was on Commenor to be the advisor to the Prince there. As they walked though, she suddenly got slightly chilled.

The Force spoke to her, one of her visions. Commenor in flames and Jairdain back on Kashyyyk. At a point in her life when things were wretched again and she slowed down in her walking as it happened. When it passed, she looked in the direction of her friend.

"Oh no. Asaraa, Commenor is going to fall. I need to go back as soon as I can. Be there when it happens."

[member="Asaraa Vaashe"]

 

[Asaraa Vaashe]

And just like that, a pleasant day out had turned into something else, a pallor cast over the proceedings as Asaraa turned to face Jairdain, a question dying on her lips. The look of worry, of panic on the woman's face spurring her into action as she span them around.

"Do you need to leave right this minute? Or do you have time to talk to the assembly about what you saw?" While the Padawan had never experienced a vision like that, one that had left her so shaken, but there was no mistaking the shock, the panic in the older woman's eyes. The girl's mind was spinning at a mile a minute, there weren't any flights she knew off headed to Commenor, but if it was going to come under attack that was bound to change quickly. Asaraa gave Jairdain's hand a soft squeeze as she led her back towards the temple, "Don't worry, we'll get you back and a whole lot of people besides you." Commenor wouldn't fall without a fight if she had anything to do about it.

[member="Jairdain"]