Office hours- Monday

[solo_sword]

Jaina could not be more relieved to wake up this morning feeling more normal than she had in a week. It was just a normal day, complete with training and not wanting to jump on anyone before heading into the office. It was a good thing, too; checking her messages meant she got the one from Luke asking her to come back for a mission. She couldn't imagine having to work like that, around Zekk, of all people. She was kind of excited to go back. It had been a long time, and if she was being asked onto assignments again, maybe it meant everyone was at least slightly less wary of/pissed at her.

This all meant that office hours today was spent not only working on class, but making a couple calls and trying to figure out if there was anything she needed to take care of before leaving tomorrow.

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben loitered at the doorway. "Hey," he said. "Got a minute?"

[solo_sword]

"Yeah," Jaina said, putting down her phone and waving him in. "What's up?"

[momslilassassin]

"Not much," Ben said a little evasively. "Just wanted to say hi somewhere that wasn't the flight sim."

[solo_sword]

"Hi." And because that struck her as a little weird since they hadn't talked outside the flight sim since she'd gotten back, she asked again, "So what's up?"

[momslilassassin]

He leaned into the doorjamb. "I went to Karla's home dimension and things got a little...messy," he said. "Her best friend blowing up 6,000 enemy soldiers in an eyeblink with her mind messy."

[solo_sword]

She raised an eyebrow, making the 'come in' gesture. "I'd call that a little more than messy." Really really effective, maybe.

[momslilassassin]

Ben found himself a chair and dropped into it. "Yeah, I'm kind of off popcorn for a while," he said. "The sound's too similar."

[solo_sword]

That was a little scary.and it didn't help that she was trying to imagine what she would have thought that would sound like instead. "So what happened?" she wondered.

[momslilassassin]

"Karla's dimension is kriffed up in a way that ours could only hope to attain," Ben said, "so when she went home and didn't come back or check in for a few days, people here assumed her no-good uncle'd had her kidnapped and we went to go find her." He took a deep breath. "Turns out he had nothing to do with it but we all walked into an ambush run by a different group. A species called the Jhinka had all but exterminated a village in order to get the attention of one of Karla's friends and try to draw him to his death. It very nearly worked."

Reports on events, Ben could do.

[solo_sword]

"So you guys walked into a trap that didn't even have anything to do with Karla?" she checked, trying to make sure she had the story straight.ta

[momslilassassin]

"Right," Ben said, "other than she was there and stuck in the village."

[solo_sword]

Jaina being Jaina, she always had to get what information she could about a situation like this. "Why was her friend so important that anyone would kill off an entire village?"

[momslilassassin]

And as long as Ben could deal with tactics and not emotional reactions to what had happen, he was good.

"They get ranked by jewels for how strong they are in the Force--Craft, whatever," he said. "Lucivar's pretty much the third strongest person in the whole world, plus he's the son of the guy who's the second strongest and the brother of Little Miss Blows Everyone Up With Her Head. Strategically, he's a good point to take out."

[solo_sword]

"But why take him out?" she asked, keeping in mind that if the guy was that strong, there might be a good reason to want him dead. "Just because he was too dangerous to have around, or did they have an actual reason to want him gone?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben shrugged. "That part I haven't figured out yet. He's also really old, so I imagine he's pissed a few people off in his time, too. But not enough to have thousands of sentient beings voluntarily run into a shield and die before Jaenelle did her little party trick."

[solo_sword]

She frowned. "Okay, that requires some further explanation."

[momslilassassin]

"The whole thing didn't make any sense," Ben admitted. "When we arrived in the village, everyone who was still alive--and it wasn't a lot of them--were in this one building being protected by the personal shield Lucivar could generate. And thousands of Jhinka were just charging the shield, that desperate to get in and kill him."

[solo_sword]

"Is that why they got themselves blown up?" she asked.

[momslilassassin]

Ben waggled his hand. "Sort of," he said. "Lucivar was running out of juice to power the shields any more, so there was work being done on an escape plan. As far as I know, Jaenelle wasn't consulted on that. One of the patients she'd been working with died and she just...lost it. And that was the end of the Jhinka. It was like Centerpoint firing."

[solo_sword]

Uh. "I can't say I don't know what it's like to snap like that," Jaina admitted. She'd done it fairly recently, in fact, just on a much, much smaller scale.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's blue eyes went a little wide. "Really?"

There was a lot about the Swarm Wars that he'd been sheltered from.

[solo_sword]

She shrugged one shoulder and said, "It's how I really got to turning during the Vong war. All these bad things happen, the pressure starts to build, and then at some point, something happens and that's it." She hadn't gotten around to talking about her latest issues at all, but she thought her trying to fall to the dark side was well-known enough to be okay.

[momslilassassin]

"So what she did was dark side-y," he said quietly. "I thought so, but sometimes I need my instincts calibrated."

[solo_sword]

"I don't know that it's definitely dark side-y, what she did," Jaina told him. "When I did it, I wanted to cause harm, I knew what would happen if I followed through with my actions, and that was what was important in that moment. I think it all depends on whether she just exploded and didn't know what the consequences would be, or if she knew and did it anyway."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "I didn't ask," he said. "I wanted to stay as far away from her as possible."

[solo_sword]

"I can't blame you." She'd have trouble dealing with it, she could only imagine how Ben took it. "But I wouldn't write her off completely. What she did isn't good by any means, but I'd think it's all about intent on this one. If she didn't mean to do it, she could be more freaked out than anyone."

[momslilassassin]

"Karla said that she was really upset by the whole thing and wasn't, you know, stocking up on black cloaks and talking about consolidating world power," Ben replied, "and I don't want to write anyone off, but she had the kind of power that makes Dad look like an amateur."

[solo_sword]

"Yeah. It's scary to know anyone can do that." Especially since she didn't know where this girl was ranked in the most powerful scale. "How are you doing with the whole thing?"

[momslilassassin]

"Trying not to think about it," he admitted.

[solo_sword]

She tilted her head at him. "So you came here?"

[momslilassassin]

"Figured you wouldn't let me get away with it," Ben replied with a small smile.

[solo_sword]

"Well, not letting anyone get away with anything is sort of my job," Jaina pointed out.

[momslilassassin]

"And you excel at it," Ben said, giving her a tiny smile.

[solo_sword]

"It gets easier, dealing with this sort of thing," Jaina assured him. "It might take some time, but it does."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm not sure if I should be grateful to hear that or not," Ben replied.

[solo_sword]

"Grateful," she said immediately. "Because that means it'll suck less."

[momslilassassin]

"Good," Ben said. "If I visit her many more times, I might run out of foods to eat."

[solo_sword]

"Does that mean you've moved on from ice cream?" That'd be the day.

[momslilassassin]

He smiled. "She hasn't taken that from me, thank goodness. Or caf."

[solo_sword]

"So you still have the important things in life, then." She truly did believe caf could be a necessity sometimes.

[momslilassassin]

"If you ask Tahiri and Ender, that's all I ever eat," he replied.

[solo_sword]

"Please tell me it's not." It seemed like a valid question.

[momslilassassin]

"There are sandwiches too," Ben said. "Sometimes even Thai food!"

[solo_sword]

Jaina teasingly met that with a little soundless clap.

[momslilassassin]

"It's better than field rations," Ben said, sticking his tongue out, "and much better than me cooking."

[solo_sword]

"Cooking's overrated. That's what microwaves are for." Oh Jaina.

[momslilassassin]

"Dad pretty much lets me make salad and reheat stuff," Ben replied with a quick smile.