Private Born to be Mild

[Tenn Kalos]

Jedi Temple, Coruscant
Lief​

Since his induction to the NJO, Tenn had left much of his old life behind. A net positive, all things considered, given he had never amounted to much more than a pickpocket urchin. But while he didn't admit it aloud, there were some things about life here he struggled to get comfortable with. Tenn was used to the roving nature of his youth; Staying at the temple was inherently sedentary. And given he was just a padawan (without a master, no less) opportunities to leave on assignment were not as common as he'd appreciate.

Thankfully, his speeder bike provided an escape. At least, when it wasn't breaking down from old age and overuse. More and more, Tenn was spending his free time in the temple garage, giving the machine regular tune ups. Not that he minded the work in the end; It gave him something to do that he could be familiar with. An escape of its own, really.

Today was one of those days. Tenn was sat cross-legged, across from a spartan but highly modified speeder. Normally it hovered on its own, but now it was shut down completely, touching the ground. The padawan was cramming a hydrospanner in the engine's guts, trying to pry something loose, only for his apparent success to send a hose flying, and shooting a wad of oil across his face, "Cool." He deadpanned, already pushing back his char hound, Shep, who for whatever reason was compelled to try and lick the substance from Tenn's face.

 

[Lief]

Though Eliphas had finally begun steps toward righting his state, beginning formal physical therapy rather than shying away from it as he'd done since returning to Coruscant, and had thus been able to start attending the odd lesson in the Temple, he still found himself with ample time to do, well, frankly, nothing. No assignments were sent his way, and the more rigorous training sessions which would usually have taken up most of his free time when Temple-side were off limits to him until he further recovered.​

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That left him with a lot of free time. Bright Knight wasn't quite the haven it had once been since Miri and her family had moved in, though he didn't actually mind their presence at all. If anything it was nice to have some life in the ship again. Still he couldn't hole himself up in there and pretend the rest of the Galaxy didn't exist. Probably for the best.​

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While the Room of a Thousand Fountains would always be a good place to escape to, he'd found himself itching for... more. With that came the realization that he still didn't really know his way around the Temple. Sure he knew his way to the more mundane and expected rooms, and those he frequented, but the rest was more of a maze to him. So he'd taken to exploring different wings when pressed for something to do.​

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Thus it was boredom which led him to what he soon discovered to be some sort of mechanical bay. Oil slicks, the sound of tools, parts strewn across wire shelves, and a handful of vehicles made up the place. It definitely wasn't a hangar, it wasn't large enough for a ship, but it did hold a speeder or two. A garage then. Huh, he never thought the Temple would have a garage, but now that he was looking at it he supposed that made sense.​

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It wasn't until he heard the deadpan word uttered, as well as the patter of paws on the duracrete floor, that he realized the space was actually in use. A boy was sat before one of the speeders, and much to Eliphas' surprise he had a four-legged companion with him. As much as the speeder, and indeed the boy, caught his attention, the canine was what drew him further into the garage.​

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"Oh, what a cutie," he said, of the charhound, as he directed his hoverchair forward until he was a few feet from the boy, dog, and speeder. "I didn't know we could have companions..." Pet certainly didn't seem the right word to use for such a majestic beast.​

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Tenn Kalos ​

 

[Tenn Kalos]

The instinctively-jumpy Tenn arched upon hearing another voice, its source not registering to him until the sound had already been made. He dropped his spanner, causing it to hit the duracrete with a resounding clang. Shep, far less perturbed, barked once before bounding over to the new arrival with joyful curiosity. Tenn stood up and studied his fellow padawan a moment, before replacing his suspicion with an easy smile, "Nobody told me I couldn't," He shrugged, "Although nobody told me I could, either," They hadn't kicked out Shep yet. He figured the Jedi didn't care as long as he wasn't a nuisance.

There was an awkward pause, before the Lorrdian remembered to introduce himself, "Uh— Tenn. Kalos. That's Shep." He wiped his forehead, forgetting the smudge of grime and smearing it further. Spotting some of the residue now on his hand, Tenn furrowed his brow.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

The clanking of the spanner led Eliphas to cringe apologetically. He hadn't meant to startle the other Jedi, far from it, but he supposed some things couldn't be helped. Eli was the jumpy sort too, easy to spook.​

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Luckily, dogs didn't scare him. He'd had plenty of experience with them since Miri Nimdok and her fiancé moved in, Cowboy and Samurai had taken an unexpected liking to the Tetan, often curling up in his room while he worked at his desk, or following him around when he hovered between the Bright Knight's various living spaces.​

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"Well, if they haven't said anything yet I doubt they will" was the conclusion Eli came to, going so far as to shrug. Shep was quick to steal his attention, and the Padawan was more than happy for that. He reached out with both hands, gently fussing the pup behind the ears. "Who's a good boy?" he cooed, before he looked back to his fellow Jedi.​

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"Nice to meet you Tenn... I'm Eliphas."​

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The smudge of grease returned his attention back to the speeder bike being worked on.​

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"That's so neat... My mother would never let me learn, said it was too dangerous." There was plenty Ruthe had forbidden him from learning and experiencing, afraid that her baby boy would come out the other side worse for wear.​

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As things would turn out, he wouldn't need fast paced vehicles or dangerous antics to bring that about. Well... He supposed crawling through the vents of some Sith Scientist and being overwhelmed by his flying spider creations was dangerous, but it was for the good of the Galaxy! Surely that made it different?​

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Tenn Kalos ​

 

[Tenn Kalos]

"Sorry," Tenn added, circling back to his sharp initial reaction, "I guess I get a bit too into it sometimes. Wasn't expecting anyone else to pop in," Most Jedi didn't share his affinity for motorworks. For them the garage was a liminal point at best. For him it was a workstation, and a refuge.

Shep lapped up any and all attention Eliphas was willing to give. In Tenn's concentration, he had dared to neglect the hound for more than five minutes. His coat was short and stiff, and had a noticeable, natural warmth to it. His underbelly seemed have a faint orange glow to it, as if there were a fire churning inside.

"Never?" Tenn repeated, glancing back at the bike, then down at the boy's hoverchair. The disconnect in their upbringings was immediately recognized in a single sentence, though he said nothing on the matter. "Never even ridden as a passenger on one before?" He asked curiously.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"No apology necessary" he assured his fellow Padawan, "If anything it is I who should be sorry. I've been trying to branch out a little, find new haunts and hobbies. I didn't even realize what lay over this way." But now that he'd discovered the garage he was certainly intrigued and impressed. His gaze flitted this way and that as he observed the various tools and vehicles and other such miscellanea which made up the shelves and floorspace.​

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Eliphas continued to fuss the pup, before the query was posed. "I think maybe once, with my Master... Before he was my Master." A memory was drawn up of them on Alderaan, had they used a speeder to get to the top of the mountain? He couldn't really remember. Much of what came before his coma was fuzzy. "But I've certainly never driven." ​

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He could see the other boy glancing at his chair, and offered a small smile. "It's not permanent, at least I hope. Just while my muscles rebuild."​

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Directing his chair a little closer, all while encouraging Shep to follow should he wish, he glanced over Tenn's speeder. "She's a beauty, isn't she? How'd you know what to do, what to fix or tweak?"​

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Tenn Kalos ​

 

[Tenn Kalos]

Tenn waved dismissively, "It's fine, really," Lest they fall into a game of seeing who can apologize more, the subject changed. He flicked his gaze away a bit guiltily, as Eliphas caught him staring at his chair. "Well… That's good at least," He offered, unsure of how else to approach the subject. Talking about speeders was much simpler.

"I guess I just… learned over time?" Tenn shrugged, "Thing's probably almost as old as I am. Found it in a junk heap one day, figured I'd scrap it for parts. But the more I tinkered with it the more I got interested in the bike itself. Been keeping in as in-shape as I can ever since. Lots of trial and error," He managed a slight smirk at the thought of many, many errors. It was evidently built for efficiency over luxury. The chassis was largely bare, other than some old leather seating. Much of its flair had been stripped away over time, intentionally or otherwise. But it still drove, and it drove fast. That's really all he was looking for.

"If you don't mind my asking… How'd you end up in that?" Tenn dared to ask, unable to help his curiosity. He quickly added, "Not that it's— Any of my business, if you don't wanna say…"

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Eliphas was the King of cyclical sorries, it was true that they could be there all day if they wished. Thankfully it was stopped in its tracks before it even remotely began to spin out of control, and in its stead talks briefly shifted to his hoverchair. Eliphas offered an out by drawing attention back to the speeder, and thankfully Tenn took it.​

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No more awkwardness, no more worries, just simple facts regarding automobiles.​

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"That's really impressive, I know a thing or two about starships but everything else boggles my mind. So you learnt through doing?" Yes, very impressive. Eliphas looked to be in awe quite frankly. "It's good to have a productive hobby... I didn't know the Jedi had bays for working on things like this."​

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Despite being of noble birth, Eliphas could definitely appreciate when something was built for practicality, efficiency, as opposed to flashy aesthetics. From the looks of things the speeder was definitely tricked out but in a pragmatic way.​

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Then they switched back to the hoverchair, or more his place within it. Eliphas raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, feeling one of many scars lingering there beneath his curls.​

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"Copero happened" he mused aloud, with a very soft frown, "My Master and I were infiltrating a laboratory, and the Sith working inside loosed some weird mutant flying-spider things... I don't know what happened exactly, but next thing I know I'm waking on Prosperity hooked up to all these.. machines." That frown deepened, and he shivered slightly. "Master Rand tells me I was gone for months."​

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With a shake of his head he tried to dismiss it, or more the other thoughts which arose. Of his home and his family, the invasion which had gripped Empress Teta while he was comatose. It didn't bear thinking about.​

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"Do you get to ride her much?" he asked of the bike, more than glad for another distraction however temporary it might prove.​

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Tenn Kalos ​

 

[Tenn Kalos]

"Pretty much, yeah," Tenn shrugged, "I didn't think they would, either, when I first joined. Jedi aren't quite as… weird, as I expected them to be," There were still some concepts that felt foreign to him, but he had largely grown accustomed to Jedi life. Even if he still sometimes spoke as if he were independent of them, "Uh, no offense."

What Tenn was more concerned about, was his question that followed. They'd just met, so he didn't want to say the wrong thing, but the young padawan's curiosity just couldn't be helped. And he had a tendency to be a bit… forward.

If nothing else, Eli was willing to entertain the subject for a little bit. Tenn frowned, "Wow. That… sucks. A lot. Sorry, man," He rubbed the nape of his neck, at a loss for what else he was supposed to say when presented with information like this. Thankfully for them both, Eli was quick to switch the subject again.

"Not as much as I used to, but I try to any chance I get," He looked back and forth between Eli and the bike, "…Would you uh, wanna see it for yourself?" Maybe it would lighten Eli's spirits. Tenn was feeling a bit bad about his question anyway. Shep saw the repeated glances, and barked in approval, apparently thinking the offer was for him.

Lief​