[D7 LM] Short and sweet (Manka Cat Rules)

[Sholua Tempes]

"I do what I can. For ten years I've been running and hiding, thinking I was alone. But now I've found others and . . . the resistance. The Empire are bad, Honey, real evil bad. The Order might not have been as good as they thought they were, but the Empire is far far worse. . . . Okay I'm going about this back to front."

She sat down.

"I was born on Mirial. The Jedi Order detected I could manipulate the Force when I was tiny. I went to Coruscant at about five or six years old. Spent my time a Youngling, learning and then the Clone Wars started. Master N'Tresni wanted a fighting padawan, as he was a General and he picked me because I was a adept at the same saber technique as he was. We came here, a Separatist world and we invaded. I tried my best to only kill the clankers but sometimes CIS troops were flesh and blood and they defended their homeworld. Liberating, we called it. Maybe it would have turned out better if not for that day."

She took a deep breath.

"I was in the Lower City with a team of Clone Troopers. I was in command. Yes, a thirteen year old green girl in charge, because I had the lightsaber. We were hunting an assassin droid that was loose down there. We were pretty deep into the old stuff when Master N'Tresni sent me a vision. A warning. I just had enough time to twist to the side before the clones shot me in the back. I fell, lost my first one of those . . ." She pointed at the saber. ". . . and they must have assumed I was dead as they didn't come after me. Took me a while to crawl to safety and heal. By the time I got back to the city the Empire had taken charge."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

She nods to the first and listens, slowly relaxing as her heart settles. "And you started dancing...surviving?

"The Empire finished off one and a half of my fosters, so...no love lost there either. Only ones in that mess I don't have a personal gripe with is the CIS, and they lost. I guess some of them are resistance now?" Dhel reaches for her cooling caf again, cradling it in her hands. 'So now you're on your own with that, and...I guess whoever you stand with? No more Orders. No more kids fighting like that?"

[Sholua Tempes]

"I'm not alone any more, but no more Order as far as I am concerned. Their time is past. Empire first, then we'll see what happens."

She picked up her saber again, staring at the circuitry visible on the outer casing.

"The dancing started at Madame Saphs'. She used to take in girls like me. Poor lost and helpless girls and . . well let's not go into that now. Another problem for after the Empire. Dancing became a way of life, between the running and hiding."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Heard a bit about that place, but I don't get to the Lower much." She sips her caf thoughtfully. "Kinda sheltered, really. Things in the Middle are just comfortable enough to avoid everyone clamoring for better, also just iffy enough to always fear falling into the Lower for good."

'So...this," she gestures generally at the ship, "and that," nods to the weapon on the table, "mean not running and hiding now? Is that where all that's been going on is leading?"

She pulls her knees up. "Because the Empire is bad, but...I've been thinking...how do we make sure that what moves into its place isn't just as bad? I wasn't really there for the good days that people say they want to go back to. But, they had you fighting and almost dying as a kid for those times too."

[Sholua Tempes]

She nodded.

"Yes we can't just dismantle one thing and leave an opening to everyone. Tschad, even the Hutts could take charge that way. But . . . this thing is spreading. First Kamda, now here. Things are coming together, organising. Eventually it's going to reach a size that politics are going to take hold, and that's when we need to decide on an 'after'."

She turned the saber around in her palm and let go, it immediately rotated to point at the engine room.

"Now that . . . is weird . . . "

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel leans forward a bit, "does it like...sense horrible decisions being made if Manny's in there?"

[Sholua Tempes]

"See how it moves . . . "

She tipped it away and watched it swing back.

"I'm going to ignite it again . . . ok?"

Happy that the Bothan was ready this time, she pressed the toggle with the now familiar, snap hiss, and waved it around slowly.

"See how much more . . . active, crackly it gets when I point it at the engine room . . . ?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel nods at the question and stares into the crackling energy with obvious fascination. "Is that good...or bad?" Her eyes travel back toward the engine room.

She stands, setting her caf on the table again, mostly finished now. "Should we check?"

[Sholua Tempes]

She waved it back again, it crackled and reacted in a different direction as well.

"And that is north. I checked on the ships systems earlier. Is it reacting to magnetic fields . . . ?"

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel watches it crackle and hum. "Is there a magnetic field in there?" She's really never had any reason to learn what's going on in the inside of a ship engine. "Is it in like...a particular spot that you could check or test?"

[Sholua Tempes]

"Any power supply creates a magnetic field of some kind. Biggest one around is in our engine room."

A few more waves of the crackling blade and there was no disputing it reacted to due north and the engine room, or at least the direction of the engine room. So she started to head that way.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Uncoiling from the chair, Dhel follows, leaving dishes behind to clear later if she remembers. One hand tapping against the datapad in her pocket, thinking it must be too small a power supply when there's a whole ship engine nearby.

[Sholua Tempes]

Once in the engine room it's apparent that they're too close to the power supply for any fine searching. The blade is just a crackling storm no matter which way it's pointed.

"All right, this is a strange side effect, but I think I like it if it means I can always find a power source."

The crackling ends as she douses the blade.

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

"Seeing as you can't really use it for anything public, it's nice that it has some other uses?"

There are other realizations slowly arriving. "Is this more likely to get you discovered by the Empire's hunters? Even I know that you...well, anyone like you, not you in particular, are on their most-wanted list, and everyone here's in the blast zone then, yeah?"

A few weeks ago, that realization would have had her packing to find a new place before the day was out. She does consider it, but doesn't want to go...well, they've been performing together enough now that it wouldn't even matter. If they pick Sholua up, they're going to grab her as well, just on principle. That'll do as a rationalization for today, at least.

[Sholua Tempes]

"Only someone else like me could pick up on the crystal within it, and they'd have to be close or trusting on the Force to lead them to it."

She considered mentioning Inquisitors, but decided there had been enough Space Wizard related bombshells for one day.

"Yes the Empire would hunt me if they knew I was here, but they think the padawan Mirialan that was part of the Republic strike team here is dead. I never made it to the Trials. Never even practised for them never mind took them, so I am not a Jedi. Just someone who can feel the flow of the Force and hopefully do good with it."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel nods. "Good, that's...wouldn't want something happening to Manny...or you." She pauses a moment. "I think Phroth can kind of take care of himself pretty well."

She continues along beside Sholua, curiosity filling in where fear fades. "So there's a crystal? And you have to learn when you're little to mess with it? What were the tests...ah Trials, like? Were there a lot of kids training with you?"

[Sholua Tempes]

She'd started it by lighting the saber and Cartess would have been upset if she didn't at least answer some of the questions. Also it might help mitigate the Imperial propaganda that coloured everyone's opinion of the Jedi.

"Every lightsaber needs a crystal to focus the plasma beam into the coherent blade you see. Otherwise it just spews out the energy in spurts and . . . and it's not good and usually fatal for everyone around. Part of becoming a padawan is constructing and learning to use your first saber. You get practise sabers when you're a Youngling but they're pre made. When a Knight accepts . . . . accepted a Youngling as a Padawan they are expected to figure out how to do it. Every one is different, sometimes even different parts. Mine is called a shoto. A smaller, shorter blade designed to match with my fighting style. The Trials are the final tests a Padawan undergoes to become a Knight. To make sure they are worthy of the title and the pressures that go with it. When I was a Youngling at the Temple on Coruscant there were lots of us. My own class was at least twenty strong most of the time. Once you became a Padawan though, then it was usually just you and your Master."

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

That was a lot, including a sprinkling of new words and ones used in new ways. Attention devoted to absorbing it all, at least a bit, Dhel bumps into a doorframe as they walk. Rubbing her arm absently, she has at least one word that keeps showing up to ask about. "Hrmm...what's a padawan? like..student? Wait..and you've been on Coruscant? It is really all one enormous city? Are there no trees even?"

[Sholua Tempes]

"Padawan. It literally means learner, or so I was told. It's the last step of training before you can call yourself a Jedi."

They get back to the common room and Sholua sits right back where she was at the start of all this.

"Coruscant is built so far up there aren't any mountains left never mind trees. Well, there's trees in the rooftop gardens, but I don't think that's what you meant. It is literally one huge planetwide cityscape. Or it was a decade ago, but I can't really see the Empire bulldozing city blocks for environmental parks . . . "

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Dhel nods. "So yeah, 'student.' Though I guess not all students want to learn." The wry lift of her lip says she may not have been the best student in her day...which was relatively recently. She picks up her cooling caff, giving a swirl while staring into the cup before shrugging and drinking it anyway.

"Coruscant sounds ugly, for all that it looks so glam on vids." It's hard to imagine the pragmatic woman as a tiny green girl in all that city, though Dhel tries for a moment. "Did you like it there? I mean...you said all of that's gone now, and they were training kids to fight, which doesn't sound good. But, kids are still going to be born who are...like you, yeah? What happens to them now?" What's been happening to them for the last decade, really. "Is it the kind of thing where they'll just never know without all that training?"