Private Getting back to lost lessons

[Bettany Sal-Soren]

Location: Jedi temple
Objective: Meet with Aiden
Tags: Aiden Porte

Wearing this

The teenager walked through the temple toward the place she had arranged to meet with her new instructor, master? The word didnt really feel right on the tongue. But he was a family friend so if she was going to feel awkward it might as well be someone who knew the eccentricities of her family. She wasnt really dressed like most of the jedi here, but that wasnt really important, at least her look being her own would relax that part of brain.

She leaned through the opening and saw all manner of training equiptment, how long had it been? Two years since she had set foot in a force dojo? Well it wasn't her fault that acting took up so much of her time and that it was just so much fun. She smirked, she should probably warn him to try and make this a fun version of whatever jedi training entailed or this "intervention" as Bastila Sal-Soren had called it, would not last long at all.

"Aiden?... oh Jedi Knight Porte..." she tapped on the archway and stretched her neck around to see if she would spot him. "This is the right time, right?" she added. One thing she was good at was keeping to a schedule, directors would not abide any lateness on set.
​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Bettany Sal-Soren​

Aiden heard her before he saw her.

Her voice carried lightly through the training hall, uncertain at the edges, but confident enough that it didn't belong to someone who feared this place. He was finishing the last adjustments to one of the balance platforms when her footsteps paused at the archway. The soft tap on the stone made him glance up. There she was, leaning in, half-curious, half-wary, dressed nothing like the young Jedi who usually filtered through this room. And Force bless her, she looked like she'd walked straight off a holoset and wandered into the wrong building.

"Aiden is fine," he said, voice steady, friendly, amused. "If you call me 'Master Porte,' I'm going to assume Bastila put you up to it."

He stepped forward a few paces, meeting her at the threshold rather than making her come to him. It was a small courtesy, but one he knew mattered, especially for someone walking back into training after so long, and especially when said training had been labeled an intervention by her mother.

"You're right on time," he added with a nod that was both approving and lightly teasing. "Impressively so. If you can handle a film shoot, I think a Jedi schedule won't scare you off." His gaze drifted, taking in the room, the equipment, then her posture. Not judging. Just observing, reading her the way he read every student: where the tension sat, where the confidence sat, where the spirit lived.

"You look...unsure if you should be here," he said gently, not unkindly. "But also like you're already planning how to negotiate your way out of this."

"Thank you for showing up. That part matters more than you think."

Aiden showed a small smile and crossed his arms. "So tell me, what really and truly brings you here today?"

 

[Bettany Sal-Soren]

Location: Jedi temple
Objective: Meet with Aiden
Tags: Aiden Porte

Wearing this

She smirked, she would have to note that Master Porte was a potential button she could push later.


"Honestly?" she let out in a bit of a sigh. "You are right. I don't think I'm supposed to be here. Dont worry, I'm not gonna be a pain in your ass. Its just hmm." she couldnt think how to put it into words, there was no sense in lying and saying how thrilled she was about having to take time out to do this. But Aiden wasnt some random dude in a cloak, so she would rather not be rude. She was young, pretty, talented and was in demand right now, she didnt want to waste focus and find her self 23 years old and left on the heap having missed her next big break.


"Let's just say it was probably good they recommended a friend of the family." she laughed and lifted and eyebrow. She didnt expect to be asked why she was here? Had he not been told?

"Thats a good question. Discipline maybe? Future proof myself. I think everyone thinks i'm about to run off and join some celebrity cult or something." she gave that comment the addition of a bemused look, she felt she was stronger than those petty temptations but what teenager didnt.

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Bettany Sal-Soren​

Aiden didn't interrupt her. He let the pauses sit where they fell, listening more to what she wasn't saying than what she was. When she finished, he gave a small, understanding breath, half a nod, half a smile that carried no judgment in it.

"Honestly," he said, echoing her word gently, "that makes sense."

He shifted his weight, folding his arms loosely rather than letting the silence harden into something formal. "You weren't sent here because anyone thinks you're weak. Or reckless. Or about to lose yourself." His gaze stayed steady, open. "You were sent here because people see how fast your world is moving, and they're afraid of what it does to people who never get taught how to stand still."

At the mention of a friend of the family, the corner of his mouth twitched. "For what it's worth," he added dryly, "that usually means they trust you enough not to break you by accident."

He considered her for a moment longer, then spoke more quietly. "Discipline isn't about chains. And it's not about killing ambition, either. It's about learning where your center is before everyone else starts pulling at it."

He paused for a moment, voice a bit softer now.

"You don't have to prove anything to me. Just know your heart has to be in this, otherwise you won't give this a full chance." His shoulders relaxed. "All I care about is whether, five or ten years from now, you recognize yourself when you look back."

A faint, almost wry smile surfaced. "And if it helps, celebrity cults tend to have worse attendance than people think."

He tipped his head slightly, inviting rather than pressing. "So. You don't have to belong here forever. Just long enough to decide what future-proof actually means to you."

 

[Bettany Sal-Soren]

Location: Jedi temple
Objective: Meet with Aiden
Tags: Aiden Porte

Wearing this

"Thanks, I think?" she laughed a little and looked around. She was pleased that he didnt automatically see her as some wastrel ready to cause problems for him. She gave a little playful shrug "Depends what you class as a cult" she knew many people she would put under that label for one reason or another.

"Anyway, I will do my best to focus on all... this." she gestured around. She had done roles she wasn't that keen on but that were necessary for her career and she always tried, complained, but tried. "So where do we start? I can do some of the mental stuff, like mind resistance, my family taught me so noone could screw with my head. I am also a pretty good Nabooian fencer, but I havent touched a lightsaber in ages.

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Bettany Sal-Soren​

Aiden let out a quiet chuckle at that, the sound easy and unforced. "Fair point," he admitted. "The definition does get…flexible." He followed her gesture with his eyes, taking in the space as if seeing it fresh through her uncertainty. When he looked back to her, there was something steadier there now, less reassurance, more direction, but still without pressure.

A small nod of approval followed. "If your family taught you that, it tells me two things. One: they care. Two: they expect you to be in rooms where power isn't always honest."

At the mention of fencing, his attention sharpened. "Nabooian fencing will serve you well. Footwork, timing, reading intent, that translates cleanly." He tilted his head slightly. "A lightsaber isn't a sword, but it listens the way one does. You don't force it. You negotiate."

He stepped aside, gesturing toward the open practice circle. "We will get to fencing, but first let's test your mental capacities. Focus and clear your mind, raised the shields as I attempt to breach those walls. I will start when you are ready."

 

[Bettany Sal-Soren]

Location: Jedi temple
Objective: Meet with Aiden
Tags: Aiden Porte

Wearing this

She nodded knowingly, there was some creeps in the industry, they didnt always have her best interests at heart. She was pleased that her fencing would prove useful, it had been fun learning and she liked to think that that, along with her gymnastic training gave her a fairly decent core strength.

"Alright then...." she focused on the wall within her mind. Her skull was no longer bone, it was a maze and none should pass through without her consent. "I guess its up?" She said questioning.

As he proved he would find that she did not meet strength with strength but had been taught to utilise her own strengths. Navigating her mind was metaphorically like walking through a film production studio. And behind each door that was tried you would find Bettany, but not Bettany. The first might be Bettany as the young Corazona von Ascania the next might be her playing the role of a junior aide to a senator. Then in the background of a Tatooine gunfight, so many personalities that an untrained visitor would easily get lost and distracted from their genuine task.

Except the visitor today wasnt untrained and with everything he might encounter he would be very aware that this was all just smoke and mirrors and set dressing, that the fake personalities he encountered were just shallow one page facsimiles of real people. She wouldnt make it easy, but if he pushed hard enough he would break through.

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Bettany Sal-Soren
​

Aiden let Bettany's "wall" rise, felt it settle into place like a vaulted door locking from the inside.

"Alright," he murmured, calm. "I'm going to test the seams. You tell me when it's too much, and I will stop immediately."

He stepped in.

The studio snapped around him: bright lights, painted corridors, doors dressed like invitations. A Corazona appeared first, poised, sharp, perfect. Then a junior aide with a datapad, then the flash of a Tatooine gunfight in the next hall. Each one tried to catch his attention, to make him choose the story.

Aiden didn't fight the illusions. He ignored them.

Instead, he reached with the Force for what was real, the emotional weight underneath the set dressing. He brushed each "door" with light pressure, like testing a lock with a pick: not to break it, but to learn how it was made.

He found the first weak point, an over-polished memory, too smooth to be lived. He pressed gently.

The corridor shivered. A backdrop fluttered.

"Good," he said, voice steady in her mind. "You're redirecting. But you're leaving anchors behind."

He shifted tactics, narrowed his presence into a single, focused line and followed the faintest thread of fear that didn't belong to any character she'd staged. It led to a plain door, unmarked, untheatrical, honest.

He stopped an inch from it.

"Here," Aiden said softly. "This is where you actually care if I get through."

He didn't force it open. He tapped it with his intent, one firm knock, then released the pressure.

"Rebuild this lock," he instructed. "No costumes. No roles. Just you, permission, boundaries, and a clear 'no.'"

 

[Bettany Sal-Soren]

Location: Jedi temple
Objective: Meet with Aiden
Tags: Aiden Porte

Wearing this

Her brow furrowed as she felt her defences very nearly break to his advances, if he had wanted in he would have, they both knew that. Though she wasnt entirely suprised he backed off from entirely breaking in, his family trusted him.

"I actually find the walls up thing quite counter intuitive to how I normally approach things. I think its an actor thing. To get into character you kind of have to be a bit mentally porous?" he inflection asked if that made sense to him. She gave a little shrug and shook her head to clear it out a little bit.

"Ok, here's a question. When I was preparing for one of, someone told me that actually practicing this stuff invites falling to the dark side because being weak means nobody bothers with you. That true?" she did not want to fall to the dark side, as much as she didnt really think about it a lot, enough of her family we Jedi that she would be utterly embarrassed to be the one to let down the side.

She pulled out a pair of small metal atrisian meditation balls from her pocket and held them in her hand causing them to float up and rotate around each other. It was a children's exercise but it was one that calmed her when she was anxious, although in this case she got them out to emphasise her point as the black and white balls were each marked according to either the light or the dark.

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Bettany Sal-Soren​

Aiden let the pressure in the shared space fade until it was only his steady presence, like a hand lowered from a raised guard.

"That makes sense," he said gently. "Actors learn controlled openness. You let things in on purpose to become someone else. What we are practicing is the opposite skill: controlled closure. Not forever, not rigid, but on command."

His gaze flicked to the meditation balls as they rose and circled. He watched the black and white orbit, calm and precise.

"And no," he added, firm but kind. "Practicing this does not invite the dark side. The dark side is not a reward for weakness, and protection is not aggression. The danger is not 'being defended.' The danger is fear, anger, and the hunger to control."

He stepped closer, just enough to be present, not looming.

"You are not building walls to hide from life," Aiden continued. "You are learning boundaries so you can choose when to be porous and when to be private. A shield you can raise and lower without panic."

He nodded toward the meditation balls. "Keep them moving. Slow your breathing. Now tell me what you felt when I touched that plain door, what emotion spiked first. Name it. That is the thread the dark side tries to pull."

 

[Bettany Sal-Soren]

Location: Jedi temple
Objective: Meet with Aiden
Tags: Aiden Porte

Wearing this

She followed his instructions and breathed as she turned the balls around in the air above her hand. What did she feel when he knocked on her inner door? "Privacy" she said, the word coming to her as if someone else had spoken through her mouth. "All my secrets, my personal thoughts, like exposing my private journal to the world."

It seemed like a silly answer but it was the answer she gave truthfully. She had a world of secrets, and it felt like right behind that door was every boy she had made eyes at. Nasty things she had privately said about friends, the fear that emancipating herself from her parents made her the bad person. Her face dropped a little. "I feel like were someone to open that door and see the real me, they might not like her.". Why did she just say that? She sounded so vain, like the spoiled teenager she was. She felt no manipulation from him, and she felt comfortable he had withdrawn from her mind. The two balls dropped into her hands and she grabbed them tightly. Aiden would would feel her emotional state change, she was cross with herself. "Sorry, but there it is." she said, in a tone that was a little more sarcastic than she might have hoped.

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Bettany Sal-Soren​

"Do not apologize," he said quietly. "That was honest. That is the point."

He nodded once, slow. "Privacy is not darkness. Wanting parts of yourself to remain yours is healthy. Even the fear behind it, the worry that you will be judged, does not make you vain. It makes you human."

He let that settle before continuing.

"The dark side would take that feeling and twist it into shame," Aiden said. "It would whisper that you have to hide because you are unworthy. Or it would push you to control others before they can judge you."

His voice stayed calm, practical. "We are doing neither."

He glanced at the balls in her clenched hands. "Unclench them. Breathe. Let them rest."

Then he met her eyes. "Here is the lesson: you can have a door and still 'be you.' The goal is not to erase the journal. The goal is to choose who reads it, and when."

Aiden softened slightly. "You can be private and still always, be worthy of the light."

 

[Bettany Sal-Soren]

Location: Jedi temple
Objective: Meet with Aiden
Tags: Aiden Porte

Wearing this

She nodded and opened her hand to allow the balls to escape again into the air. "I will bear that in mind. It can be frustrating really. With work you have to be so careful because people will just jump on your private life so hard, get seen with a male friend, its a "mystery man" have a couple of drinks, "shes gone off the rails" spark out a photographer... that wasnt me by the way." she quickly added to interrupt herself befire she incriminate herself in anything unbecoming of a Jedi.

"Do you have any preference how I dress for our training? I really dont like the robes, so would rather not. But you are the teacher, so." she shrugged. Briana Sal-Soren always looked hot in her jedi gear, a little more toned than Bettany would like for herself but it would be a worthwhile goal to look like her when she too was old.

A couple of other padawans walked past in their plain brown robes. Bettany watched them and raised an eyebrow. "Yeaaah... I dont wanna wear that if I dont have to."

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Bettany Sal-Soren​

Aiden's expression softened, and for a moment there was an ease to him that made the whole conversation feel less like instruction and more like reassurance.

"I know public attention can feel like a constant hand trying to pry at your life," he said with good-natured honesty. "That is exactly why boundaries matter."

Her look toward the passing Padawans and their plain brown robes pulled a quiet chuckle from him, brief and warm.

"No," Aiden added, shaking his head slightly. "You do not have to wear those if you do not want to."

He shifted his stance, practical again without losing that gentle tone. "Wear something comfortable, but also appropriate. Something you can move in without distraction. Nothing that will snag, trip you, or turn into a hazard if we are sparring."

His gaze flicked to the meditation balls, then back to her, calm and encouraging. "This is training, not a performance. If you are comfortable, you learn faster."