Private Crazy Rich Jedi

[Xian Xiao]

Xian looked at Noriko, then down at herself, and finally back at her Master as though another inspection might somehow reveal the resemblance Noriko was describing. Petite, she would concede. Cute was apparently being decided for her. Atrisian was more complicated considering she hadn't grown up here, but Xian was beginning to understand that being Noriko's Padawan meant occasionally accepting things that made considerably more sense to Noriko than they did to her.

"But my hair is red," she pointed out, reaching up to catch a strand between her fingers as evidence. "And yours is black. I think people are going to notice that before they decide we're the same person." Xian paused, considering Noriko's argument about everyone in the galaxy thinking Atrisians looked alike. "Also, if everyone thinks Atrisians look the same, wouldn't they just think I'm Atrisian? That doesn't mean they'll think I'm specifically you." There was enough genuine curiosity in the question that she seemed to be trying to understand the logic despite suspecting there might not actually be any.

The last part quieted her, though. Beneath all the talk about being awesome, pretty, cool, and somehow sharing Noriko's praise by resemblance, Xian understood much better. Noriko was telling her that if someone came for her, she wouldn't have to face them alone. Xian wasn't accustomed to assuming someone would be there when she needed them, and she still wasn't entirely sure how to respond whenever Noriko said something that made it sound so simple. A small smile eventually appeared. "I don't think looking like you is necessary for you to send somebody to the moon if they come after me, Master." She reached for another water balloon, then added a little more softly, "But I like that part anyway."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"It is just a saying Xian, when someone is driving you crazy say you will send them to the moon with a closed fist. Totally funny, amazingly catchy and it makes everyone think twice." She said it though but was looking aat Xian and she shrugged. "And people see what they want to see, they will look at us and see aa face before they pay attention to hair ninety percent of the time." She said it while she was walking and there were no more balloons to toss as she looked down. "Well we are out of ammo so now we can head back in."

 

[Xian Xiao]

"Oh." Xian's expression shifted as she realized she'd taken Noriko's threat considerably more literally than intended. She curled one hand into a fist and looked at it for a moment, apparently testing the saying in her head. "I'll send you to the moon." It didn't sound particularly threatening coming from the thirteen-year-old, and the doubtful look she gave her own fist suggested she knew it. "I think I'd rather just use the Force. I could probably actually send someone pretty far that way."

She still wasn't convinced about the resemblance either, but Noriko seemed very certain about the way people noticed faces before anything else. Xian reached up once more to touch her red hair before giving a small shrug. "I guess I'll have to believe you about that, Master. But if somebody mistakes me for you and expects me to know something you know, I'm telling them immediately that I'm Xian." There were already enough things about being a Jedi that she didn't understand without accidentally inheriting Noriko's responsibilities too.

Finding the supply of balloons empty, Xian peered down into it as though one might have somehow escaped notice at the bottom. "We went through all of those?" Considering how many they'd sent sailing over the palace walls, she probably shouldn't have been surprised. She fell into step beside Noriko as they headed back inside, casting one last glance toward the edge. "Do you think anyone figured out where they were coming from?" A moment later, she reconsidered. "Actually, maybe I don't want to know."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"Are you working under the impression that I give people my real name? Now there are three of them. Xian one, Xian two and Xian three... Xianception." She said it with a look while she was thinking about it. " Noriko was moving now and she had a grin. "ANd they might or might not.. I wouldn't want to be around here when they come looking. I'd run away." She said it with a wink and started jogging with a laugh and a cackle for a moment before she was moving off. "Come on running time, to work off the stiffness and standing around."

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian stopped for half a second as she tried to follow that explanation. Apparently, Noriko wasn't Noriko, Xian might not be Xian, and there were now three separate Xians wandering around somewhere. Her expression settled into the familiar look she tended to develop whenever her Master's reasoning had gone somewhere she wasn't entirely prepared to follow. "Xianception..." she repeated under her breath. "I'm not sure I want to know which Xian I am anymore."

The suggestion that they probably shouldn't be around when their victims came looking made considerably more sense. Xian glanced back toward the wall and the direction from which any particularly determined, soaking-wet Atrisian might eventually appear. "You know, running away right after throwing water balloons at people makes this feel a lot less like training and a lot more like we're escaping before we get caught." She wasn't entirely convinced that it hadn't been Noriko's plan from the beginning.

Noriko was already jogging away before Xian could get an answer. With a small sigh that didn't quite hide her amusement, Xian took off after her. At least running was something she understood without needing to decipher any strange explanations. "I'm still telling them it was your idea, Master!" she called after Noriko as she picked up her pace. "Even if you're pretending to be Xian when they find us!"

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"Am I pretending or have I always been and you have just emulated me?" She said it while she was going with a laugh. "See the best training, exercise, water balloons and the greatest part that we are able to do was work off those calories and now we got to go and work off some more... maybe do some inclined stairs and laps around the courtyard." SHe was laughing to herself with a moment later before going back inside she was able to see many of their cousins who were there before clearing the way to allow them to get in and around.

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian decided somewhere between always been Noriko and emulating Noriko that trying to untangle the conversation would only make her head hurt. Noriko could apparently win arguments by making them too confusing to argue against, which Xian was beginning to suspect might actually be one of her Master's more effective techniques. "Yes, Master," she answered, surrendering to whatever version of reality Noriko had settled on. "I've secretly been copying you this entire time."

She followed Noriko back inside, no longer bothering to point out that throwing water balloons over a wall hadn't seemed particularly strenuous until it had somehow become running, stairs, and laps around the courtyard. At least movement was familiar. Xian could run until Noriko decided they'd worked off whatever mysterious number of calories she believed they'd accumulated, and there wasn't much point in asking how many laps that would require. The answer would probably involve another lesson she hadn't known they were having.

As their cousins cleared enough space for them to pass, Xian offered a few quiet greetings while keeping pace with Noriko. The sheer number of relatives still felt strange, but she was getting better at simply accepting their presence instead of wondering how she'd gone from an orphanage to a family large enough that cousins seemed to appear everywhere she went. "Stairs and courtyard laps," she repeated with a small nod. "Okay." Then, after a moment, she added with the faintest hint of resignation, "I'm not asking what comes after that. I think it's safer if I don't know."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

SHe only gave the nod to her about that and now Xian had seen and accepted the truth... the first step into a larger world. She was so proud of her she was like the cousin she had always wanted and had many and she was the best padawan... a perrfect mound of clay she could mold into her image and make awesome through the powerful secret trraining processes she had developed within the last ten minutes. "Good, now that you are being retrained out of bad habits, taught to be a padawan learner we can do the important parts.. we can make you awesome. After alps we will practice your mucis number and when it is proper to break out into song."

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian had accepted the running. She had accepted the stairs, the laps, the water balloons, and even the increasingly questionable claim that she had somehow been emulating Noriko all along. There were limits, however, and the mention of a musical number made her turn her head toward her Master with an expression of immediate concern.

"A musical number?" she repeated. "Master, I don't have a musical number." She was fairly certain Jedi training had never included one, although after everything Noriko had introduced her to since coming to Atrisia, Xian was becoming less confident about what Jedi training was actually supposed to contain. "And when is it ever proper to break out into song?"

Still, she kept moving with Noriko rather than resisting whatever bizarre lesson had apparently been invented for her within the last few minutes. At this point, going with the flow was easier than trying to understand where the flow was taking her. "Fine. I'll do the laps, and then you can explain the singing." A hint of resignation entered her voice before she added, "But I'm not singing in front of all our cousins unless you go first."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"Ah when is it not? THink about it a musical number is physical and helps you work out, it uses your mind for recalling the lyrics, your confidence and ability to talk with people. It is all about the multi-tasking Xian, once you can do that there is a lot more talent and skill... also we look cool and rule of cool trumps a whole lot more." Noriko said it with a laugh while she was moving and went towards a room where she could get some more food. "Now come on, we have more training your skills and food and then we will be ifnished with out warm up for the midday and we can do afternoon warm ups before night."

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian listened to the explanation with the increasingly familiar realization that Noriko could make almost anything sound like legitimate Jedi training if given enough time. Singing apparently trained the body, memory, confidence, social skills, multitasking, and, most importantly, whatever the rule of cool was supposed to accomplish. At thirteen, Xian wasn't entirely sure she possessed enough experience to argue against any of it. "So if I sing while running up the stairs, I get twice as much training done at once?" she asked, trying to apply Noriko's logic as faithfully as possible. "Because if that's true, I think I'm starting to understand how your training works."

She followed Noriko toward the room with the food, considerably more interested in that portion of the schedule. After everything they'd already done, eating sounded like a perfectly reasonable conclusion to the morning. Unfortunately, Noriko's explanation of the rest of the day suggested they were nowhere near a conclusion. Xian slowed slightly as the words of our warm-up registered. "Wait. All of that was the warm-up?" She stared at her Master. "The wall, the water balloons, running, and the stairs were just the warm-up?"

For a moment, Xian seemed prepared to question what exactly afternoon warm-ups were meant to prepare them for if they came after an entire morning of training. Then she remembered her recent decision to stop trying to understand everything Noriko said and simply go along with it. "Okay, Master," she conceded, following her toward the food. "Morning warm-up, food, afternoon warm-up, and then night." A small pause followed. "I'm going to eat a lot. I think I'm going to need it."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"Exactly see now you are getting it, multi-task your training and then you can work out your mind and your body... be the full package Xian, be the change you want to be and when you get older and start getting those grey hairs in like seven years you will be more the physically fit enough to compensate for being older then all of the others. A seasoned and experienced jedi and force users, maybe even a blade master or at least the cool one everyone likes hanging out with at lunch."