Jaina Solo Fel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solo_sword) wrote2017-09-09 05:40 am
solo_sword) wrote2017-09-09 05:40 am
Coruscant- Saturday
Today Jaina and Tahiri had gone to the Council to ask for the okay to open a Jedi school in the Empire. Things were still a little fraught there, but this couldn't be done without the Council's okay. Gone were the days where she could just ask Luke. It'd been a long discussion, with a decent amount of arguing- Jaina suspected certain members were genuinely trying to give her a hard time- and then… they agreed.
Jaina hadn't really expected they would say yes, and she wasn't prepared for how relieved she felt about it. So after calling Jag to set up a plan for taking care of the boys, Jaina took Tahiri out to a total dive bar she knew of, someplace where no one would even notice that an empress was hanging out there. It was a place befitting a Solo.
"This is on me," Jaina said, calling the bartender over for the first round. "We should celebrate before reality crashes down."
"As it always does," agreed Tahiri. She cast an amused look around the bar, unable to help recalling all of Luke's descriptions of the cantina in Mos Eisley, because this definitely did seem like the right kind of atmosphere. "This all feels kind of nostalgic, to tell the truth."
"I'd say we should find a place like this on Bastion, but that'd probably be much harder to do," Jaina said wryly. And as she bartender sent over their drinks- quiet nights were good for quick service- she said, "I really didn't think they'd say yes."
Tahiri chuckled as she reached for her drink. "Neither did I. At least, not without a much longer fight. Say, five or six standard years. But here we are, and this is really going to happen." She took a sip, set the glass down, turned it around three times on the table. "Definitely not something I would've expected to see myself doing twenty years ago, and I'm willing to bet you really wouldn't have."
"Definitely not," Jaina agreed. She'd really always figured she'd be in the field until she died doing something stupid/heroic, and never really thought she'd get to teaching. "We have so much to do."
"And --" Tahiri bit her lip, because she kind of felt bad saying this, but -- "I have a feeling we're going to need to do more in the way of planning than asking Luke for advice."
Because, well. He had kind of had several students go Dark Side on him, herself included.
"Though whatever he's willing or able to give us would be good."
"And there's Kam and Tionne, too," Jaina added. "The setup on Ossus is good, though I'd like to have more teachers involved. You know, if anyone actually wants to come." Not that she worried about that or anything.
Not at all, no.
"I didn't get to see much of it, but what I remember was pretty impressive," agreed Tahiri. Mostly she'd been too self-conscious about getting stared at
"Jag and I were there for a little while a few years ago." They'd actually been hostages, but it wasn't like Jaina went out of her way to talk about the horrible stuff Jacen had done so she'd phrase it as vaguely as possible. "Not the most ideal circumstances, but it felt to me like a more fine-tuned version of when we were at the Academy. More time to get things organized, probably fewer students running into trouble twice a week."
"Though I think we should definitely make sure to leave enough room in the schedule for that," Tahiri said, deadpan. "So we don't run the risk of leaving the school short-staffed when it's time for the inevitable rescue mission of the week."
Because there would totally be one. A week. At least.
"I have to admit, I really do like that eventually the twins will be able to go to school here," Jaina admitted. "So I can watch them. And be the one going on rescue missions for them because of course it'd be them." She knew that she'd earned that karma.
"Family traditions are important." Tahiri said, and nodded solemnly. Though maybe they could skip the walk on the Dark Side this generation.
Supposedly they were good for a few! Cross your fingers! "We'll need to find a place, too, closer to the palace than not. What do you think Imperial real estate brokers are like…?"
Tahiri shot her a look, the kind that said Really?, but in an amused way. "No idea, but aren't you excited to find out?"
"Not at allll," Jaina said, taking a drink. "Maybe Jag has an idea. He's wanted this to happen for years."
"Huh." With her sleeve, Tahiri absently wiped at the ring of moisture her glass had left on the table. "Like, since before we started seriously thinking about it?"
"He was making a push for it back when he was still Head of State," Jaina replied. "He always wanted more of a Jedi presence, to smooth things over between us and the Empire. Things didn't line up politically, though. Also, I wasn't really into the idea then."
"I can see why. A few years ago I might have had a lot of doubts, too. Was there a specific point you can think of that changed your mind?" Tahiri asked. "Or was it more of a gradual thing?"
Jaina paused, and tried to figure out how best to phrase it. "It feels like things are finally clicking into place to be how they should. A few years ago it wouldn't have worked out, neither of us were in the position to do it, the political situation between the Empire and GA was in flux… Things have settled. Now it makes sense."
"The idea of it, in general, always made sense, I suppose," Tahiri said after a moment. "And in fact . . . since we'd be effectively starting a similar but separate order . . . I've wondered for a while if it isn't worth taking a fresh look at some of the ways we approach things."
"Like what?" Jaina asked.
Tahiri chewed on her lip for a few seconds, a faint hint of nervousness emanating from her Force presence. "I was a Jedi," she said, less because Jaina needed the reminder than because hearing her thoughts out loud was helping her think. "And then a Sith, and now… well, you've been there, too, and Kyp, and an uncomfortably large number of others."
The ones who had come back from the Dark Side, and those who, well, hadn't.
"And with this order, especially," Tahiri continued, "it's going to be especially important to avoid that risk as much as possible. I think we really need to take a good, hard look at the reasons we fell, and see how we can address those vulnerabilities in our training methods."
"You don't want us to have a track record of students falling to the dark side," Jaina nodded. "Agreed. There'll be a Jedi on the throne from now on, and my family line hasn't exactly been great in this area."
Tahiri hadn't planned on mentioning that; there really wasn't any need to. Still, she tapped the tabletop with one finger and made a wordless noise of agreement. "Twice as important to take precautions, factoring that in, though that will require a lot more in-depth thought than we have time for tonight. But -- transparency is another thing to consider, I think. The . . . let's just say mystique of being a Force user can be useful sometimes, but it can just as easily be used to turn public perception against us. My trial was a pretty clear illustration of that. People, Imperial citizens or not, shouldn't be given any reason to fear us."
"Also agreed. Though I hadn't really thought about how to fix that particular problem." And to be completely honest, until she'd seen Imperial reaction to her new role, Jaina hadn't considered it her job. Her assigned job for half her life had been to defend or kill, depending on the situation. "What kind of transparency are you thinking?"
Tahiri nodded. "Something else that will take more time than we have tonight to really work out, but --" She grinned sheepishly. "In general I just think we don't want to become the scary monsters with mysterious unlimited powers who lurk under the bed in cautionary tales, you know? People ought to have a clear idea of who we are and what we do."
"I'm sure there's still footage floating around from the Jedi observer days," Jaina said dryly. Those had been bad days. Except for Darkmeld. Darkmeld was great. "We'll have a harder time convincing people of that out here, but I think we can do it."
"Ugh. Don't remind me." Tahiri made a face; it didn't hurt her the way it used to any more, but thinking about how they'd used Dab Hantaq as a psychological tool against both her and Jaina still made her mad. (Also that whole awkward part where he had a crush on her. Darkmeld had been awesome, though.) "It will definitely be harder out here, but I do think we can definitely do it. It may take time, and we'll likely have to work closely with Jag on it --" not that this would be difficult -- "but I have a pretty good feeling about it."
"And no matter what, we'll probably have people on all sides yelling at us about it for a while," Jaina said, almost cheerily. Look, she didn't know how to deal with life without conflict. Getting yelled at felt normal.
Tahiri snickered. "Yes, well. That, we have lots of practice with."
[NFB, NFI, do we even do OOC anymore? Thanks to the amazingweetuskenraider for being my Tahiri!]
Jaina hadn't really expected they would say yes, and she wasn't prepared for how relieved she felt about it. So after calling Jag to set up a plan for taking care of the boys, Jaina took Tahiri out to a total dive bar she knew of, someplace where no one would even notice that an empress was hanging out there. It was a place befitting a Solo.
"This is on me," Jaina said, calling the bartender over for the first round. "We should celebrate before reality crashes down."
"As it always does," agreed Tahiri. She cast an amused look around the bar, unable to help recalling all of Luke's descriptions of the cantina in Mos Eisley, because this definitely did seem like the right kind of atmosphere. "This all feels kind of nostalgic, to tell the truth."
"I'd say we should find a place like this on Bastion, but that'd probably be much harder to do," Jaina said wryly. And as she bartender sent over their drinks- quiet nights were good for quick service- she said, "I really didn't think they'd say yes."
Tahiri chuckled as she reached for her drink. "Neither did I. At least, not without a much longer fight. Say, five or six standard years. But here we are, and this is really going to happen." She took a sip, set the glass down, turned it around three times on the table. "Definitely not something I would've expected to see myself doing twenty years ago, and I'm willing to bet you really wouldn't have."
"Definitely not," Jaina agreed. She'd really always figured she'd be in the field until she died doing something stupid/heroic, and never really thought she'd get to teaching. "We have so much to do."
"And --" Tahiri bit her lip, because she kind of felt bad saying this, but -- "I have a feeling we're going to need to do more in the way of planning than asking Luke for advice."
Because, well. He had kind of had several students go Dark Side on him, herself included.
"Though whatever he's willing or able to give us would be good."
"And there's Kam and Tionne, too," Jaina added. "The setup on Ossus is good, though I'd like to have more teachers involved. You know, if anyone actually wants to come." Not that she worried about that or anything.
Not at all, no.
"I didn't get to see much of it, but what I remember was pretty impressive," agreed Tahiri. Mostly she'd been too self-conscious about getting stared at
"Jag and I were there for a little while a few years ago." They'd actually been hostages, but it wasn't like Jaina went out of her way to talk about the horrible stuff Jacen had done so she'd phrase it as vaguely as possible. "Not the most ideal circumstances, but it felt to me like a more fine-tuned version of when we were at the Academy. More time to get things organized, probably fewer students running into trouble twice a week."
"Though I think we should definitely make sure to leave enough room in the schedule for that," Tahiri said, deadpan. "So we don't run the risk of leaving the school short-staffed when it's time for the inevitable rescue mission of the week."
Because there would totally be one. A week. At least.
"I have to admit, I really do like that eventually the twins will be able to go to school here," Jaina admitted. "So I can watch them. And be the one going on rescue missions for them because of course it'd be them." She knew that she'd earned that karma.
"Family traditions are important." Tahiri said, and nodded solemnly. Though maybe they could skip the walk on the Dark Side this generation.
Supposedly they were good for a few! Cross your fingers! "We'll need to find a place, too, closer to the palace than not. What do you think Imperial real estate brokers are like…?"
Tahiri shot her a look, the kind that said Really?, but in an amused way. "No idea, but aren't you excited to find out?"
"Not at allll," Jaina said, taking a drink. "Maybe Jag has an idea. He's wanted this to happen for years."
"Huh." With her sleeve, Tahiri absently wiped at the ring of moisture her glass had left on the table. "Like, since before we started seriously thinking about it?"
"He was making a push for it back when he was still Head of State," Jaina replied. "He always wanted more of a Jedi presence, to smooth things over between us and the Empire. Things didn't line up politically, though. Also, I wasn't really into the idea then."
"I can see why. A few years ago I might have had a lot of doubts, too. Was there a specific point you can think of that changed your mind?" Tahiri asked. "Or was it more of a gradual thing?"
Jaina paused, and tried to figure out how best to phrase it. "It feels like things are finally clicking into place to be how they should. A few years ago it wouldn't have worked out, neither of us were in the position to do it, the political situation between the Empire and GA was in flux… Things have settled. Now it makes sense."
"The idea of it, in general, always made sense, I suppose," Tahiri said after a moment. "And in fact . . . since we'd be effectively starting a similar but separate order . . . I've wondered for a while if it isn't worth taking a fresh look at some of the ways we approach things."
"Like what?" Jaina asked.
Tahiri chewed on her lip for a few seconds, a faint hint of nervousness emanating from her Force presence. "I was a Jedi," she said, less because Jaina needed the reminder than because hearing her thoughts out loud was helping her think. "And then a Sith, and now… well, you've been there, too, and Kyp, and an uncomfortably large number of others."
The ones who had come back from the Dark Side, and those who, well, hadn't.
"And with this order, especially," Tahiri continued, "it's going to be especially important to avoid that risk as much as possible. I think we really need to take a good, hard look at the reasons we fell, and see how we can address those vulnerabilities in our training methods."
"You don't want us to have a track record of students falling to the dark side," Jaina nodded. "Agreed. There'll be a Jedi on the throne from now on, and my family line hasn't exactly been great in this area."
Tahiri hadn't planned on mentioning that; there really wasn't any need to. Still, she tapped the tabletop with one finger and made a wordless noise of agreement. "Twice as important to take precautions, factoring that in, though that will require a lot more in-depth thought than we have time for tonight. But -- transparency is another thing to consider, I think. The . . . let's just say mystique of being a Force user can be useful sometimes, but it can just as easily be used to turn public perception against us. My trial was a pretty clear illustration of that. People, Imperial citizens or not, shouldn't be given any reason to fear us."
"Also agreed. Though I hadn't really thought about how to fix that particular problem." And to be completely honest, until she'd seen Imperial reaction to her new role, Jaina hadn't considered it her job. Her assigned job for half her life had been to defend or kill, depending on the situation. "What kind of transparency are you thinking?"
Tahiri nodded. "Something else that will take more time than we have tonight to really work out, but --" She grinned sheepishly. "In general I just think we don't want to become the scary monsters with mysterious unlimited powers who lurk under the bed in cautionary tales, you know? People ought to have a clear idea of who we are and what we do."
"I'm sure there's still footage floating around from the Jedi observer days," Jaina said dryly. Those had been bad days. Except for Darkmeld. Darkmeld was great. "We'll have a harder time convincing people of that out here, but I think we can do it."
"Ugh. Don't remind me." Tahiri made a face; it didn't hurt her the way it used to any more, but thinking about how they'd used Dab Hantaq as a psychological tool against both her and Jaina still made her mad. (Also that whole awkward part where he had a crush on her. Darkmeld had been awesome, though.) "It will definitely be harder out here, but I do think we can definitely do it. It may take time, and we'll likely have to work closely with Jag on it --" not that this would be difficult -- "but I have a pretty good feeling about it."
"And no matter what, we'll probably have people on all sides yelling at us about it for a while," Jaina said, almost cheerily. Look, she didn't know how to deal with life without conflict. Getting yelled at felt normal.
Tahiri snickered. "Yes, well. That, we have lots of practice with."
[NFB, NFI, do we even do OOC anymore? Thanks to the amazing
weetuskenraider for being my Tahiri!]
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