Private The Hopeful Jedi

[Tann Po'rah]

The Jedi temple on Kashyyyk was huge! Huge! But nothing at all compared to the vast tree filled planet. The small town Twi'lek was so out of her element. She didn't even look the part of a new Jedi Padawan. She was wearing her favorite outfit: a black long sleeve shirt with rips in the arms to really bring out the green in her skin. The top ended at her midriff and honestly wasn't covering much else of her torso either. Her pants were baggy and stained from oil and grease; her boots much the same only add mud and what was now day-old bug guts on them. Strapped to her back was a vibrobaton for training. Tann Po'rah was still too new to have crafted her saber.

She came to the temple off of a speeder, accompanied by a Jedi master and her new friend Mathieu Brion . The two hadn't gotten to talking to much as they were busy clearing out an old temple on Ossus. The ride back didn't give them much time either for Tann was exhausted from all the energy spent removing the taint of the Dark side. She was pooped. After walking into the temple, Tann would wave goodbye to Mathieu and his Jedi master. As she stood there by the entrance, she thought back to the last time she'd been in the temple just like this.

The room of a thousand fountains as it was called. It was a large meditation room back on the Coruscant temple. It was a lovely place. Full of life and running water, Tann felt like she could take a nap there and never wake up. That's exactly what she planned on doing. But first she had to remember how to get there. She didn't normally have any problems with directions; the was the Force guiding her to where she needed to be. Tann would trust in the Force even now and hope she could find the room on her own. But what she didn't expect was the Force to guide her not to a room, but to a person.

Her eyes would note a young girl ( KinkyPrawn ) staring at her from afar. Tann didn't recognize the girl. She didn't know anyone here save for like two people. Trying to be kind, she would raise her arm and wave at the girl while giving her a friendly smile.

 

[Ara Sheridan]

Ara had just finished up with school and even her homework. She didn't want drama when she got back home and she wanted to spend as much time as possible in the hangars. The mechanical side of her pod racer was done. It was fully assembled and certainly worked perfectly. Now it was a matter of painting it up. She wasn't a professional but she knew what kind of look she wanted to go for.

Walking through the halls, Ara took a shortcut through the lobby as she typed away on her datapad. Thankfully her reading and writing improved remarkably and she didn't need to feel so ashamed of it anymore. She chuckled to herself after reading a message from one of her classmates, but stopped immediately when she felt a strange sensation. As if someone was staring at her. Standing still, she looked around until she spotted a young Twi'lek waving at her.

She blinked in surprise as a frown formed along her brow. She didn't know the kid. And she never liked meeting new people. "You lose something over here, Tailhead?!" she called out, giving a very pronounced shrug as she glared at the girl.

Tann Po'rah

 

[Tann Po'rah]

Tailhead? Well that wasn't very nice. Tann pursed her lips with a friend. The girl must have been having a rough day to be so off standing. Calling back she would say, "Sorry. I was just trying to say hi."

Tann decided that she would make it her mission to cheer the girl up. Skipping over to her she gave the girl a bright smile. "So are you a padawan too? I just started. I'm going to be a Jedi, a silver Jedi I guess. Not sure what makes them different or so special, but hey. Why not right?"

Not really giving the girl a chance to explain or stop her, the Twilek would continue to go on with her questioning. "I'm waiting on my master to come back so I've been killing time. Hoping to meet other padawan like yourself. I just have so many questions. Hey so where are you going? Mind if I join you? I'm still new here -like I said- and don't know my way around. Think you could give me the tour?"

 

[Ara Sheridan]

Ara huffed with annoyance at the girl's answer and kept walking. To her dismay, however, the girl followed her and happily skipped alongside her, continuing to spark up some conversation. Ara tried her best to ignore the annoying tailhead, though it was pretty much impossible to accomplish with that chipper attitude and infuriating voice. She wanted to chase her off, cuss her into oblivion and simply get to work on her pod, but the girl gave her no such chance.

With a loud sigh her head sank into her shoulders as the green motor-mouth continued to ramble on. She finally finished and Ara mustered the courage to try and get a word in. "I'm goin' to the hangars. Got a project I'm working on in there." she answered finally with a defeated tone. She glanced up at the girl next to her with a skeptical look then turned her gaze back down the ground in front of her. "I get the impression I won't be able to chase you off so... yeah, come along. Just... don't touch it. It's my baby. Only my friends can touch it." she grumbled before turning down a hallway. She was quiet for the rest of the way, only speaking to lead the way. When they finally reached the hangars, she made her way to a vehicle covered under a tarp. She dropped her backpack on the ground and yanked off the tarp with a grunt, revealing her pod racer underneath. "It's my dream project. Been working on her for months. All that's left is the paintjob then she's ready to rock." she explained, clearly sounding much happier than before. "Matt helped me build it. The guy you arrived with at the doorway." she commented as she took off her thick, worn jacket and dropped into the cockpit seat.

"So how do you know Matt?" she asked as she pulled out her datapad and a wireless headset. Connecting it, she slipped it on with one ear exposed to listen to what the girl had to say. "He's my best friend in the temple. So I'd really like to know what the kriff you've got to do with him." she continued, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

Tann Po'rah

 

[Tann Po'rah]

"Ohh! I wanna see. I grew up in garages so I know all sorts of handy tricks and stuff. You have to tell me what you're working on. Please please please!"

Ara would tell her that she was not allowed to touch the project so Tann made a visual sign of putting her hands in her pockets to show that she understood the rules. "No touching. Shiny."

Tann would hum a little as she walked with the child a little tune in her head, some pop song that was playing on all the music stations. In the hangar, she looked around in wonder. She'd yet to set foot in this part of the temple; up until now she was always dropped off at the main entrance to the temple. Her eyes lit up seeing all of the ships docked. She would love to pick one of them apart and see what made them tick. That was the sort of mind the Twi'lek had. She'd gotten it from her aunt. She was the one who worked the garage mostly and got Tann hooked on machines. Something she would be forever grateful for.

The big unveil made Tann squeal with delight. A pod racer?! How cool. Tann had never seen one in person. She had to physically shove her hands back in her pockets again so as not to touch. The urge was fierce though. "This is so shiny! It's incredible. It's amazing. I've never seen a podracer before. I mean I've seen the races but this! Oh wow this!"

Squealing again she would walk around the podracer and take it all in. She bent over under the engine to get a good look at the underside. "This is so shiny. I am so jealous right now. What did you use for the parts? If you don't mind my asking. It had to have taken some serious hauling from a scrap heap no? Or did you buy all the parts outright? That would be supes expensive. Oh! I didn't mean to say it was trash. That's not at all what I meant."

Tann covered her mouth apologetically and her cheeks turned a little red. "I'm so sorry. I have a problem of putting my foot in my mouth half the time."

Ara would sit herself down into the drivers seat leaving Tann to stand by her side. Her arms crossed behind her and she held her hands together to resist that even more powerful urge to touch everything and inspect the racer. She mentioned Matt, and it took the Twi'lek a moment to remember who that was. "Oh Padawan Brion! Mathieu right? Yeah we went on a mission together. He and I went to some dark temple on Ossus to rid it of the Dark side. That's a Jedi thing. By the way you never said if you were a Jedi too? You are a Padawan right? You're much too younbg to be a master or anything."

Again she blushed and looked to the side. "Oops. There I go again. Sorry. Me assuming things and talking out of turn. I mean place. Place."

Ara Sheridan

 

[Ara Sheridan]

As much as Ara didn't want to talk to the girl, she couldn't deny that the compliments about her machine felt good. A slight smile formed on her lips as she looked it over then glanced back to her. Tann went on to ask about the parts but almost didn't give her any chance to speak, wearing a little on the Zabrak's patience. "You seriously need to take a chill pill. I know a bunch of spice dealers if you're that desperate. As for the parts, it's a bit of everything. Mostly starfighter parts from the junk pile of Kuat. The rest were parts my mom hooked me up with. Ion engines from TIE fighters, though they need to be charged beforehand given the lack of solar panels. The enclosed cockpit's also got a few neat features, like fire suppression systems, the roll cage and blast... sorry." she quickly feel quiet as she started to ramble herself. Despite them both likely being abslute geeks over this sort of thing, she was still hesitant about opening up to the girl.

As she sat in the cockpit, Tann explained how she knew Matt. There was a pang of jealousy as she glanced up at the girl, but she tried to keep it shoved down. A monumental task when the girl asked if she was a padawan as well. "No I'm not some stuckup paddycake. I work with my mom in the hangars when I'm not busy with school. I don't need to be some lightsaber swinging freak." she spoke with a venomous hiss as she folded her arms and withdrew into herself. She was starting to hate the girl more and more. Not only could she help Matt out with missions, but she was a Padawan too. She felt threatened in a sense. It was such a petty feeling but she felt it regardless. Glancing up at the girl again, she struggled to find anything good to say to her.

A thought finally came to mind. "Tell you what. You wanna help me stress test the thing a bit? I haven't been able to do a good run and there's some great spaces towards the surface of the planet." she asked her with embarrassment in her voice. She tried to focus on positive stuff with the girl, like Matt and her mom taught her. A hard thing to do but she wasn't one to simply give up on a challenge.

Tann Po'rah

 

[Tann Po'rah]

"Oh I don't smoke," Tann said about her recommending a spice trader to her. But since Ara kept on talking her words got cut off. She went on to explain where the parts came from to which Tann would nod her head in agreement. Ara thought she had gone on too far with her ramblings but Tann was right there invested with her. "No no. Please. Continue."

Alas, she went on to talk about Tann's other question: whether or not she was a Jedi too. It was quite apparent how she felt about that situation. Tann almost felt bad for asking. Almost. Thankfully the little girl decided not to continue to be venomous. She cooled her temper and would ask the Twi'lek to help her out with the racer. Tann was more than happy to do so. She let the previous comment slide right off her shoulders so as not to bother her.

"I'd love to. What do you need from me? I should probably grab a bike, no? Something to ride in case the engine gives out. I'd hate to be stranded out there. That would be terrible. Hilarious, but terrible."

Ara Sheridan