First Reply The Student

[Yula Perl]

\\ University of Denon [Outskirts]
\\ Stunner Café ​

It was one thing for Yula to admit that she needed assistance. Developing a cybernetic eye had proven to be too sophisticated for her skillset, which was geared towards droid engineering and vehicle building. Even the bionic arm she'd built for her sister hadn't been an insurmountable task, which ended up being only a few shades different than a complex droid appendage.

Living on Denon had its perks. Good food, if you knew where to go. Connections got you everywhere, sometimes bad places, sometimes they launched you into the upper levels. Yula's underworld connections had allowed her to purchase a fake student ID, which was an explanation behind the Zeltron sitting at a little café table, typing at her laptop, dressed as a typical University of Denon college student. The ripped jeans were her own, but the shoes and scarf she had to borrow.

Okay, it wasn't exactly a fake ID. It really did belong to a student, a Keshiri girl who'd dropped out and didn't want her parents to know. Nako Visole had sold her ID to Yula in part to keep the façade up while she figured out what to do with her life. Yula wondered for how much longer they could both keep this charade up—a few people had questioned the integrity of her ID, which was thankfully not labeled by species. The image of the purple Keshiri could easily be misconstrued as a pink-skinned Zeltron in poor lighting. Though their facial features were different, fortunately the two women had dark hair, and the picture was small enough that you couldn't make out many details unless you were in close. Yula had managed to either eschew or fool any biometric scanning so far, but for how long?

Well, the cafe was not strictly on University property, but enough of its clientele were students and professors.

"I hate term papers." Were four words Yula never thought she'd grumble, but the Zeltron had missed too many exams and assignments. She'd never been an academic, so the world of finals and 8-10 page papers, APA cited had been foreign to her. Despite her good performance with final projects and lab practicals, they weren't enough to keep her afloat. Academic probation was looming on the horizon, and she still wasn't finished with her personal venture. Pushing up the bridge of her non-prescription lenses—Nako was wearing glasses in her picture—Yula squinted at the screen.

Maybe she should have asked Dagon or Aeris to do this for her. But, they didn't know that she was currently committing fraud.

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl ​

"A pleasure as always, Professor," she said, giving a smile and wave as they parted ways. A more academic break from things was nice. It was like going back to her roots -- her days spent in a library reading anything she could get her hands on, her nights spent talking to her mentor about everything she'd learned. Before the Jedi, the galaxy made things complicated.

She knew it was just her perception of things, but she missed it. She missed the certainty, the stability; nothing felt random. Her closest friend, always by her side. Every corner turned and path taken was filled with opportunity rather than danger. Everything, every book and person had its place -- she could be sure where she'd find what she needed and when.

At that moment she felt like she needed some tea, and she'd been recommended a café on the edge of campus by Professor Dyu. She hadn't been expecting-

"Yula?" Auteme stopped by the woman's table, a touch surprised to find her here -- and struggling to remember things about her.

"Do you live here?" She paused a moment, noticing the academic accessories. "Are you a student?"

She invited herself to sit across from the Zeltron.

 

[Yula Perl]

No matter how hard Yula tried, the words remained jumbled in her head and not forming neat, coherent thoughts on screen. Pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration hadn't worked so far, but she knew something that would.

Retrieving a flask from her jacket, Yula discretely screwed off the top with slow, careful movements, and poured the contents into her caf. Once the flask had slipped back into her pocket, she swirled the cup, took a sip, and—

"Yula?"

—promptly spat half of it back out. "Aut-" She swallowed thickly, reveling in the newly acquired burn of the caf before exclaiming through a gasp. "Auteme?!"

It had been a long while since they'd last interacted, but the soft bob of Auteme's dark hair and gentle features were unmistakable. A little more mature than Yula had recalled, but time does that. Their paths had rarely crossed, and even when they did, they'd never shared much more than a passing glance.

"Yea," She answered with an exhale, wiping dips of caf from the terminal's screen with her sleeve. "I mean, not in this area, but I do live on 'non." She'd settled here for now to support Darkwire's push against the Corpos, before the Alliance had taken interest in the urban world. Gradually, it had become home.

"I'm sitting in on some classes." With one finger, she pushed up the bridge of her slipping spectacles. Auditing, was it called? Not an outright lie, but not the whole truth either. The surprise had worn off, but she took another heavy slug of her caf for good measure. Placing the cup down with a sigh, she appraised the woman sitting across from her.

"You takin' some courses here?"

She was an academic, wasn't she? Yula vaguely recalled Dagon mentioning that. Jedi, academic, politician—you had to be driven to pursue all three, and at such a young age.

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl
​

A grin spread across Auteme's face. "Sorry, I'm just- if I'm being honest, I don't think I know any Jedi who have actually pursued a formal education, especially a post-secondary. Well, I guess I didn't really have a secondary..."

Galactic education standardization was atrocious, given the ever-changing nature of broader politics, so most institutions of any rapport had entrance exams in addition to taking a look at the student's application and previous marks. Definitely a good thing, since it opened doors for gifted and driven students from less-developed worlds. Auteme's own road to getting into University of Coruscant was a touch tainted by her then-role as a Jedi and liaison to the Senate. The prospect of such a potentially high-profile alumnus probably influenced her acceptance, but she took her education seriously, so she didn't mind too much.

"Anyways," she said, waving her hand, "I'm not actually taking any courses here. Mostly just visiting for a few days. I just left, ah, Professor Dyu- I'm not sure if you know him, he's running a class on Force Studies. I actually got the chance to do a lecture for his class a few years ago. Probably because I'm- I was a Jedi, so that got me in the door, but I like to think my lecture was alright.

"What about you? What are you studying?" The very fact that she'd found someone she could talk about both Jedi and school stuff was extremely exciting.

 

[Yula Perl]

Formal education. Post-secondary? Yula smiled politely in response. While there were good schools to be found on Zeltros, the eldest Perl had lacked enthusiasm in the classroom and was consequently a poor student. Her passion for building droids had been discovered in the Outer Rim, nurtured by self-taught mechanics and spacers rather than professors. Other than the few supplementary courses aboard a floating community college in the 'rim, she hadn't pursued any type of higher education.

"I'm, uh, not familiar." She shook her head in response, both to the professor and the idea of Force Studies. They had classes in the Force…?

"I actually got the chance to do a lecture for his class a few years ago. Probably because I'm- I was a Jedi, so that got me in the door, but I like to think my lecture was alright."

Yula hid her wince behind another long drink of the potent caf-liquor mixture. Would you look at that, it was almost gone! Dagon had relayed the aftermath of Coruscant to her, including Auteme's choice. Jedi, Politician—couldn't be both, he'd said. Where did student fit into the mix?

"Me?" She splayed a hand against her chest, the other preoccupied with spinning her cup where it rested. "Cybernetics and Bionics. I've always been an engineer by trade, figured I should keep up with the galaxy's latest." A beat passed. Did Nako have real-galaxy experience before enrolling at the University? She guessed not, but who knew.

"Force Studies, huh? Is that like…learning to use the Force, or learning about the Force?"

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl
​

"Oh, no, just about the Force. I think it's good, like, the galaxy needs more people who understand the Force. I mean, the fact that so many people think the Jedi and Sith are two sides of the same coin- it's like we haven't advanced our philosophy since Kreia's time, since so few people study it in earnest these days. Limiting knowledge about the Force to those sensitive to it is..." She pursed her lips. "Pretty dumb. So, I was happy to help."

 

[Yula Perl]

The decorative lenses were beginning to strain Yula's eyes, and so she removed them, carefully folding one arm of the frame over the other. "Power to the people an' all." She nodded once. "I can get behind that." The glasses were placed neatly beside her datapad. Just in time, too—her temples were beginning to pulse from the way they squeezed around her head. "To some folks though, I guess even the differences between Jedi and Sith 'aint really…differences, you know?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose and winced. "Ah, sorry. Just a bit of a headache, I'm not used to wearing glasses 'an all. Or term papers, for that matter."

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl
​

"Ah, no, it's fine, I-" Her eyes dropped for a moment to the glasses, then to the datapad, then back to Yula. A touch of suspicion bubbled in the back of her brain. She fought to keep it down.

"I didn't know you needed glasses," she said, tilting her head. Not that she knew too much about Yula anyways. "But I'm sure you've gotten better at papers at this point in the term, haven't you?"

 

[Yula Perl]

Ope.

A pang of anxiety surged through her. "Recent addition." Yula smiled politely through it. "'fraid I ain't quite use to em, not yet." Not an outright lie, more of a dance around the truth.

"Papers are not my specialty." She admitted while leafing through the stack of academic documents resting beside her laptop. "I could never write anything like these." As she flipped through the files, her student ID—or rather, Nako's ID—hit the table with a plastoid clatter. Either Yula didn't notice the loss of her temporary bookmark, or she didn't care.

"I'm good with the hands-on stuff, but writing? Just can't make it flow."

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl
​

Auteme's eyes dropped to the ID as it clattered to the table. She reached over and picked it up; only a glance and it seemed like her suspicions were confirmed. The difference in shade between the picture and Yula herself was... well, Auteme wasn't convinced. At the very least she hoped Nako Visole was alright.

"Financial trouble?" She turned the card in her hand, before putting it out to Yula. "Or something else?"

 

[Yula Perl]

"Dropped out."

Yula flipped the plastoid card over between two fingers while chewing the inside of her cheek. Why lie? Auteme was perceptive, and keeping the charade up wouldn't help. "Needed someone to fill her seat, keeps her account active and the parents from noticing. Who are loaded, by the way."

She tapped the card against the table thoughtfully. "And I have a personal project to do, so it all worked out."

Except for the parents. And Nako, in another way. Last she heard, the kid was touring the colonies in an attempt to "find herself".

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl
​

Part of her wanted to tell Yula off, but instead she fell silent. Honesty was important. Yet, who was she to judge? It wasn't as though Yula was hurting anyone.

"Is it... is it easy?" she asked, before waving around, mostly at the card. "Lying, I mean. I don't- I don't know what I'm trying to say. I guess- how do you, like, justify it to yourself?" A phantom pain pulled at her mind.

She'd lied before. Harmless things, jokes, deceptions for Sith. It wasn't the same. Yula's situation wasn't the same either, but she needed to know.

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula blinked. No one had ever asked how she'd justified her position.

Well…no one else really knew what she was doing, to her knowledge. Not even Dagon.

(Not yet, anyway.)

Sweeping a hand over her forehead, Yula pushed dark locks of hair back and away from her face, revealing a patch against her left eye socket. The bandage was pink-toned to match her skin, fixed in place with an adhesive. A more subtle, less bulky option than the garish dressings she'd been forced to wear during her recovery.

"I lost my eye in the battle of Krayiss II. I came here to build a replacement."

There was no malice in her tone, no snide curl of her upper lip to accompany her reasoning. Just a plain explanation.

Yula's hand fell away from her face, and the dark curtain fell back into place over the patch. One hand raked through the loose waves and fluffed some volume back into them at the crown.

"I've dabbled in cybernetics before, but eyeballs are trickier than I'd anticipated. Sophisticated little things, never realized how much work went into them until I'd tried it on my own, right?"

Her tone shifted into something more conversational, as if she were unbothered by the lie.

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl
​

"Oh." Auteme sobered, any internal conflict wiped away by the simple nature of Yula's condition. All for an eye. Seemed easy enough.

Still, she frowned. "You know, if you want, I could- er, you could just get a new eye. Organic, lab-grown -- I have a few friends at the University of Coruscant who have access to the best equipment. Or you could... buy one. Even if you want to make your own later, I just think it might be good to have one until you figure out how to make them. Or just as a spare. I can spot you the money, if you need it.

"But, ah- I understand the pursuit of knowledge." Even if she wasn't especially keen on the minor lies it took to pursue it.

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula smiled faintly. Instead of scolding her, Auteme's first instinct was to help, even going so far as to offer her financial assistance.

"This is something I've got to do on my own." Her tone was thoughtful, appreciative even. The loss of her eye had a profound effect on Yula, far deeper than the surface trauma. It was a symbol of her failure to protect her family- first Nida, then Kyra, the Zaavik. She wouldn't exactly call living with only one eye her path of atonement, but it had caused her to seriously consider the ramifications of her selfish behavior. Yula wasn't there when her sisters had needed her, and when she'd reached out to her fallen cousin, a lightsaber to the eye had been the galaxy's response. She'd have to figure this one out by herself, or else she'd never learn.

At least, that was how Yula saw it.

"That's awful nice of you to offer, though. We could use a lot more nice in the galaxy these days."

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Yula Perl
​

"I see." The trauma was clear, but so was Yula's determination. Auteme didn't need to do anything. Even so, the small gratitude offered was enough to make her smile. "I couldn't agree more.

"This has been, ah, nice- but I actually have a flight to catch. But," she reached first into her bag, before a slight look of excitement crossed her face. She produced a small, tastefully off-white card, then offered it to Yula. "Let me know if you need any help with the paper, I'd be happy to take a look."

It was a business card. Nothing especially fancy, but Auteme was inordinately excited, given it was her first time giving it to someone. Better to get all that excitement out on someone more relaxed than in a more serious environment.

She rose from her seat.

"See you around."

She left.

Then she came back and went inside the cafe, after realizing she hadn't ordered anything, and got a large tea.