Private Flavortown UKA

[Colette]

The Ukatis temple was on the opposite spectrum of what Colette usually seemed to think of the Jedi and their enclaves. Where others seemed so tastelessly opulent, Ukatis was a surprisingly ascetic home in comparison. As far as vibes went it ruffled far less feathers with her than something like, say, the Naboo enclave did.

Wandering the courtyard she approached a nearby door. There was a knock on the door. Colette allowed herself a cautious peek into the kitchen before she proceeded to step inside. Cora had agreed to meet her here and Colette was beyond ecstatic to finally get the chance to meet her old friend no matter what the locale was.

She held a plate in her hands. Atop of it rested a solid slab of meat. It was red and fatty, and very clearly cut by someone who had sliced their way through tendon and sinew many, many times before. It's purpose: to be eaten. It's current state: inedible.

The plate skidded across the counter with a ceramic hiss. Colette came to a stop and looked over at Cora before she let out a weak laugh and reached out to wrap her arms around the blonde woman's entire being in a firm (but respectful, child bump-friendly) bear hug.

"I've missed you." Colette grunted and squeezed a little firmer before she let her friend go. "There's been so much to do. A lot of good, a lot of bad, and time just kind of slipped away."

Her hand landed on Corazona's shoulder to maintain the closeness.

"You look good! Rounder, but good!"

Corazona von Ascania

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora had been peeling potatoes when the knock came. A wave of her hand pushed the door ajar, and in walked Colette with a thick slab of meat.

The peeler and spud were set down as she was drawn into a familiar embrace. Cora took a moment to brush her hands on her apron before returning the hug.

"I've missed you too, so much," she whispered. One hand came to rest gently atop Colette's head in a fond gesture.

Circumstance had drawn them down different paths. Finally, those paths had converged.

Cora couldn't help her bubbling laughter at her friend's observation. "I'm glad. This little one," she placed a hand on the swell of her abdomen, "refused to let me eat comfortably for much of my first trimester. Fortunately, the Little Miss is less fussy!"

A wave would redirect their attention to the meat. "Oh, that's lovely," she cooed. A rumble from her stomach signaled secondary agreement. "I thought we'd use it to make strew. I never learned to cook growing up, but the caretakers here have been kind enough to teach me how to make a simple meal."

Embedded into the enclave was a general philosophy of self-sufficiency; the grounds were cared for by its inhabitants, and everyone learned basic cooking, cleaning, and mending; skills Cora had only recently begun to develop.

"Could you grab that?" Picking up the peeler, she used it to point to a large black cauldron sitting on the opposite counter. "And fill it with water, please."

Cora looked back to the half-peeled potato as if it were some sort of metaphor for the situation the Jedi had found themselves in. Her fingers moved, resuming the rhythm of her work.

"How have you been? How are the others?"

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

Little miss? Colette's jaw slacked a little. A happy smile curled on her lips as she glanced down at the little bump and the agreeable rumble. A stew was a good idea, and it was simple to make too. Far be it for Colette to assume things about her friend, but Corazona von Ascania wasn't a name she associated much with the more "real" aspects of life. At least not the version of Cora that Colette had known since before they drifted apart.

Cora confirmed as much a second later.

"I've been good." Colette said and grabbed the cauldron. "And bad, I suppose."

She put the cauldron to the tap and began pouring a decent portion of water into it. The hiss drowned out a good part of all other sound until she turned it off.

"Got an apprentice." Colette grumbled. "Lost my apprentice."

"Had faith," Colette grumbled even more. "Lost it and found it again."

"It's been a ride, but I think I made it out on top. How have you been?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"And so the galaxy churns," Cora murmured to the rhythm of soft, earthy scraping as she continued peeling. "I'm just glad that we've made it this far in one piece."

So many others couldn't say the same. Countless lives had been lost during the assaults of Coruscant, Arkania and Atrisia - and Cora would've been lying if she denied her own frustrations over the NJO leaders fleeing Alliance space after Coruscant fell.

Then again, after being crushed on Arkania, she'd made hard decisions of her own.

"Up and down," she admitted, setting the peeler to the side and reaching for a knife. "Ukatis pulled out of the Alliance. Now we're working with the Republic to house refugees and bolster our crop outputs."

She motioned for Colette to place the pot onto the nearest burner. The cadence of her chopping wasn't as smooth as her peeling. It was still awkward and unrefined, as much as developing any new skill was.

"Where do you call home now?" Cora asked, halving the potato and turning it sideways before beginning to roughly cube the root vegetable. "Or back to the nomad lifestyle?"

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

"Nomad for now. So, nowhere, I guess." Colette admitted and shrugged before she put the pot down on the indicated burner. "I visited Naboo but wasn't very impressed. Still decided to join the cause. Can't say I feel like the 'Path' is for me."

"Guess I also figured, you know… Maybe Ukatis could be home for a bit." She shrugged again with a self-conscious grin. "I was deep in the forests of Tython when Coruscant fell. Just kept on walking once I was picked up by the last ride out of there. Ukatis is as close to home as anything else. And you live there,so…"

Colette grabbed one of the vegetables by Corazona, a ripe and red tomato of quite the size. She then withdrew her knife from her belt and began to slice the tomato along the core and then once more before she began dicing it.

"The apprentice I mentioned?" She asked and wiped tomato juice from her thumb. "Reina."

She finished dicing the first tomato and went for another.

"Pretty sure she slept with the person that nearly killed me, or wants to."

The onion looked pretty good. Colette picked it up and cut it in half with trained precision.

"And I mean, Quinn? What's the point? Wanted to have her see justice, but people like her are the scum of the earth. No way anything would happen to her as long as her parents are still alive."

The smell of onion and tomato began to fill the area around them. Colette looked up at Corazona, and despite the heaviness of the topic she couldn't help but smile.

"I guess what I mean is that the galaxy is dark and cruel, but kind and beautiful too. And I'm going to focus on the latter."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora tilted her head in a silent gesture of acknowledgment; she could empathize with having lost one's home. Both she and Makko had taken up residence on Coruscant, and after the Alliance fell, struggled to find the next path. "Ukatis welcomes you for as long as you need," she said, trying not to sound overly eager at the prospect of having Colette nearby.

"This enclave is close to a few villages. They were wary at first, but after we've proven ourselves to be helpful without being too meddling, they've seem to accept us." As she spoke, Cora waved a hand vaguely in the air. "We give our surplus crops to them, and they help with trading goods."

Then, she fell back into the awkward rhythm of chopping. A rhythm that was soon interrupted by a prolonged pause of surprise.

"Reina?" Frowning, she started down at the quartered slices of potato before her gaze found its way to Colette. "With Quinn? Quinn Varanin?"

That came out of left field for her, but Cora wasn't yet aware that the Republic was entertaining talks with the Sith princess. "I suppose I've heard stranger things," she sighed. Placing the knife down, Cora admired Colette's precision chopping while gathering chunks of potato into the boiling water. "Quinn is influential, and from what I hear, charismatic in a certain light. I once found myself in the arms of a Sith Lord, when I was young and hurting."

But to seek the company of someone who'd hurt Colette?

"I always squish those when I try to cut them," she murmured absently, gesturing toward the tomato with her chin.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

"Charismatic is one word for it…" Colette grumbled with a trailing breath. The blade of her knife chipped away at the onion with a rhythmic hack. "I don't think it was on purpose. Reina is stubborn, not cruel. Odds are she didn't even know."

There was a brief moment of silence where Colette went over the situation over yet again. She tried to twist and turn it like a ball to see if anything new would show itself, but it didn't. The old questions were all the same as they always were when things got quiet.

"Oh, these?" She asked absent-mindedly, snapped back to it by Corazona's voice. Her eyes trailed around the kitchen for a moment before she noticed the tomatoes. "Oh, yeah, those."

"The key is to let the blade do the work. You only have to press down on it if your blade is dull." Colette picked a piece of the tomato up and showed exactly what she meant.

Another moment passed, Colette kept herself from fading back into herself again.

"... I don't hate Quinn for being Sith, you know." She said and reached up to rub at the back of her neck. "It's the fact that I've lost faith that she will ever be held responsible for anything in any meaningful way to those she hurt."

"Woostri, that's old news. Nobody cares. Associating with criminals, crooks, and the corrupt? Nobody cares." Colette raised her knife towards Cora with a leisurely twist of her hand. "She could be standing right where you are now, and I could cut her down, but nothing would change."

"Reina would say, we took out a problem. A murderer less, some justice served for the victims…" Colette shrugged and put the knife down. "I say we just cut a hole that some other Sith will rush to fill."

"I mean, we're fighting things that are so large it's easy to lose track of all the things that isn't that thing."

"I mean, life continues. Children will be born. Love will be spread. I'm going to focus on that for a while."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora's hand found the curve of her stomach at the mention of children being born. There was a time, early on in the pregnancy, where she wondered if she was being selfish in bringing a child into the galaxy. Both to the galaxy, who needed the Jedi to fight for it – and for the child, who'd most certainly be affected by the coming wars, if by proxy.

"Life does continue," she affirmed in an almost absent murmur. "I used to tell my students that the Light was the natural course of life itself. In any case," she gave her stomach a pat, tone of voice returning to the present, "this one will need her Auntie Colette."

Cora picked up a wooden spoon and gave the roiling water a stir. "Not just Sith, but criminals, too. With the Alliance gone, we're already seeing new dark elements rise. With any luck, some of them might clash with the Empire and burn themselves out."

A pause had her staring down into the bubbling pot. Steam curled around her chin, softening the cut of her jaw. "Do you think the Jedi will find unification again? Not every single soul, of course, but something on the scale of the New Jedi?"

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

Light as a natural course of life made sense in a way. More often than not it was convenient to focus on the good aspects of life, and few things symbolized that like the so-called Light did. But light couldn't really exist without dark. Colette gave a thoughtful frown and a chuckle at Cora calling her an aunt.

Jedi unification? Colette covered her mouth with a hand for a second before she lowered it again. She shook her head and shrugged.

"Maybe the question is if it will," Colette said and deposited her vegetables in the stew. "Maybe the question is if it should."

"The bigger a group gets, the less people get to have a say in it. Maybe the strength of the Jedi is that we follow the same creed despite our differences. And if we want to get even more philosophical…"

"We've been fighting a war we didn't even start, over religions that should have died with the plague. Our beliefs are from a time when they made more sense, but things aren't really that cut and dry anymore."

"We are light, they are dark. We are a candle, they are the shadow. Maybe the reason we'll never stop the fight is because we literally can't exist without the other. And that begs the question: why?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Why?

Maybe the light and dark wasn't so much a dichotomy as it was a spectrum. There was a weight to Cora's shoulders as she shrugged.

"If I had to guess, I'd say human nature. Or near-human."

She glanced to the knife, discarded atop the cutting board. The silver sheen of its edge caught the light from the window. "The light exists in compassion and love, while the dark lives in fear and anger. Who among us hasn't felt those things?"

The trick was, as they knew, not to let the negative feelings run wild with abandon. At the same time, culling your psyche to remain only in the light made it harder to understand the average galactic citizen.

“If you ask me, it’s inhuman not to experience negative things like greed and anger. They shouldn’t dictate our actions, but ignoring them outright only brings us further away from the galaxy we’re trying to protect.”

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania
Exactly.

"I think that's what a lot of people get wrong. We're not supposed to ignore it or forbid ourselves from feeling these things. I rely a lot on my anger when I fight or spar."

The kitchen felt light still, at least to Colette as she deposited most of her cut vegetables into the boiling pot of water and gave it a gentle stir. It had always been easier for her to breathe in places like this. Not kitchens necessarily as much as places built from nature. Stone, wood, mud, things that didn't need an industrial oven to build with. It was a welcome change after months in concrete jungles.

"Like I said, pain and relief." Colette shrugged and grabbed a garlic from their basket of cuttables. "I think in some ways I'm jealous of your experience with the Sith."

"I only know what it feels like to be targeted by them, and hurt. You know this… Whole other side to who they are."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"Ignoring those feelings only feeds them," she agreed. "It helps to feel them, to understand them, and to acknowledge them as natural. They can't be managed otherwise."

What Colette said next had Cora pausing mid-stir. She was jealous of her experience with the Sith? Her brow scrunched, trying to parse out exactly what was meant by that when Colette clarified.

"Oh," she said softly. Her wrist moved, slow and rhythmic as she dragged the wooden spoon through the simmering stew. "I suppose my experiences with them have taught me a lot. In a way, it helped to see the sort of person I didn't want to become."

It would've been so easy, after Horace had died, to go scorched earth. To let her pain out in a display of revenge, to soothe the hurt with hurting others.

"Nwul was kind to me. Loving, even. But it took me a while to realize that he'd taken advantage of me when I was vulnerable." Cora lifted the spoon to her lips, sipping at the ladled broth. She hummed once. "They're more similar to us than different, I think. We all feel many of the same things, and sometimes even start down similar paths. I won't deny that it's been tempting, but…

"I finally had the choice of who I wanted to be. I was lucky."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

Funny how they could just reconnect like time had barely passed. Colette listened when Cora spoke, took care to weigh her words, and then slowly nodded.

"We always have a choice who we want to be." Colette said and slowly shifted her attention to the stew as it puttered and sputtered and muttered from the stove's heat. "Maybe… That person was also who you needed to be?"

But time also meant that they were very different people. The old Colette might as well have died where the current one was born: in a pool of blood on Woostri. Death had a way of putting life in perspective and force you to slow down.

"Not that I needed to be the person that I was to Reina," Colette bobbed her head as she played her own devil's advocate. "but I also suppose that I needed to learn what I did from making that kind of mistake."

A frustrated sigh escaped from Colette's lips.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Colette might've sighed in frustration, but Cora's lips pulled into a fond little smile.

"You know, I don't think you would've shown this type of introspection when we were kids." It was spoken with an air of fondness, and perhaps, reminiscence. Colette had always been a little rough around the edges. Blunt. That wasn't a bad thing – but she'd learned to balance that bluntness with tact.

"You might've made a mistake," she agreed. As an afterthought, she turned the burner's strength down before the stew could bubble over. "But Reina also had the agency to make her own choice. I made a similar one once." The one they'd alluded to. "The galaxy expects us to be perfect. Or maybe, we've put that expectation on ourselves. It can make the path of a Jedi feel all the more daunting. It chases people away. People like Reina and Lysander, who don't feel like this is their calling."

A pause, during which thoughtful silence reigned.

"But we...keep the light on for them."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

Were kids?

Colette caught the warmth in those words. It'd be a lie if Colette herself hadn't noticed this change in who she was. There was a certain pride to be had in being the one to slap sense into a conversation, but that was immeasurably worse than waiting for the right time to do it.

While Cora's words wouldn't absolve Colette of her wrongdoing, she still mentioned the part that resonated the most: keeping the lights on.

"We do…" Colette trailed off in thought for a moment before reaching out to put her hand on Cora's shoulder. "Thank you."

With that she pulled her sister into another tight hug.

"Come on, let's go outside and wait for this to cook up. I'll tell you about Valery and the kids."

That was, however, a story for another time. For now, the two would simply talk, eat, and have a good time together. Like they did before the Alliance's fracture, like sisters.