synthneon | · CALL ME OUT (WINTER) ·

[ Snap-hiss. Green lightsaber bright against the dark silhouette of the Jedi temple, Jane slashes at the air; tentatively at first, but soon the moves just spill out of her, flowing into a sequence she's practiced for years with her eyes closed. For a moment it feels as though she and the blade are one, that the weapon's an extension of herself, power channeling through the Corusca gem she's used as a focusing crystal instead of kyber... until she remembers how that same shaft of searing emerald light passed clean through Tenel Ka's arm, severing it above the elbow.

She stumbles as though she'd been shot, and for a few seconds she merely stands there, still as a statue, her heart racing with fear and dread, her mind with accusatory thoughts of what have you done, Jane? It had been an accident, of course, but it remained that she hadn't been fast enough, that she wasn't as good a duelist as people said she was, that she would make a terrible Jedi.

She straightens and deactivates her saber, the world around her growing dark as she sinks into it as though she could disappear. At 16 she's already taller than most of the girls in the academy, which has made it a little difficult to find a suitable sparring partner for her — and with her having just dismembered her most recent one, who would want to hang around her now? She's already said she's sorry, and she's spent the last several hours cycling through her guilt and self-loathing, but it doesn't seem to matter, no. ]

[ Ben stays back towards the entrance of the temple. Uncle Luke was doing as he would, training the younglings, or whoever he felt needed more attention. It usually left the two Skywalker-Solo's to their own devices. Both had inherited traits of their father as well as the strong connection to the Force that their mother had. It makes for... interesting things.

He rolls his lightsaber in his hand. ]

Having a hard time seeing things, Jane?

Leave me alone.

[ It's not her usual quip, and it's not her usual tone of voice. It's also not usual for her to be alone, because she's either joined at the hip with Jaina or telling some dumb joke to their circle of friends. But there she is.

She sniffs. Stars, she's such a baby. ]

So, you are.

[ He remains where he is and quiets his hand. Jaina must have been off with their little possie as well. The Solo Kids, always causing an issue for Uncle Luke.

Even if Ben felt like was always overshadowed by the twins.

Ben takes a few steps forward after a moment and comes to stand beside her. ~~Ben can be a baby too~~ ]

Did they call your lightsaber ugly?

[ Ben, overshadowed? Jane has the middle child syndrome, and she thinks all her siblings are better than her in some way — Ben with the Force, Jaina with piloting and at attracting all the boys' attention, Anakin with machines. She's just the weird kid who talks to animals.

She frowns at him, trying to look indignant but not really succeeding. ] It's not ugly. It's— it's just a lightsaber.

[ The very one that's just sliced someone's arm off, yeah. ]

Then what is worth crying over it?

[ He holds his hand out to see her lightsaber. It is probably crafted perfectly. No flaws, no issues with the crystal cracking. Unlike him--who can't seem to contain anything in the proper way. ]

Unless they called you ugly.

[ She makes a face at him for the question, but hands over her lightsaber with only a little reluctance. Oh, it wasn't her weapon that had an issue, but she feels like it's her fault, anyway. ]

Haven't you heard? I hurt my friend with that. I cut off her arm with that.

[ She sounds angry, but that anger is only at herself. ]

[ Ah... well. It's certainly worth crying over. He rolls it over in his hand before looking back to her. ]

A lightsaber is a weapon, Jaisyn. It's meant to kill. If you're not prepared for that fact... then maybe it's a good thing you don't want to touch it.

[ She... doesn't respond to that right away because she's just realized that she's not actually prepared for that. ]

I know it's a weapon. I just—

[ Yeah, he'll feel her deflate right then and there. ]

Must a weapon only be for killing?

[It was easy enough to see that for most of the people of the Order, their ideas and visions of a Sith Lord, and especially of the powerful Sith of old, absolutely didn't match up to the small, almost fragile looking little alien girl that had come tumbling out of the carbonite slab they'd dug up on that backwater, overgrown jungle of a planet that had once been the famed home of the great Sith Empire. Sickly pale, garishly tattooed and screaming out millennia of rage and grief, the once powerful and feared Darth Nox looked, in the end, like nothing more than a frightened child. That she didn't quite live up to the expectations people may have had, at first glance, was a given.]

[And that suits her just fine. After all, this First Order, this hollow, dead shell of the empire she once called her home... Well, they certainly failed to live up to her own expectations so far, so perhaps they're even in that regard.]

[But...it's not like she has anywhere else to go, does she? Home, and everyone she'd ever known and cared for, were long lost to time. And the First Order, while a shallow imitation at best of her beloved Empire, was the only remote bit of familiarity in a now unfamiliar universe. Infuriating as it was to be revived...are they not still, in some small way, her people? Is it not her duty as a lord of the Sith, even now, to aid and protect them as she can?]

[It's why Vasja's here now, weeks after carefully picking up the pieces of grief and fury, in the empty compartment that served as a training room. Dressed in comfortable robes, a heavy hood once more concealing her more alien features, as her blood red eyes stared impassively at the young man that Snoke, the Order's strange and enigmatic "leader", had requested she help mentor.]

[No. She's absolutely not impressed.]

My last apprentice was bigger.

Edited 2020-03-14 03:41 (UTC)

Bigger hardly means more power or size. In fact, it can mean a larger target to hit.

[ Kylo was used to being judged. He was used to their eyes peering into him, from the military, from the nonbelievers. He was used to it from his own parents. Uncle Luke. No one ever really believed in him or what he was capable of. Perhaps the sheer anger of it all is what broke the crystal in his saber. ]

Do you always start every conversation with degrading someone?

[A snort.] If you believe that is degrading, the Sith of my time would have eaten you alive.

How you react tells a lot about the sort of person you are, I've found, and I need to know exactly what I'm working with before I bother wasting my time.

[Though the fact that there's nothing in the way of "yes master" and "no master" and "my deepest apologies master" is a nice start, as far as she's concerned. At least it means Kylo has a spine. Regardless of Snoke's praise of the man, it doesn't hurt her to make sure he's as capable as she's been told.]

Perhaps. Most of the Empire lost its backbone when Skywalker destroyed the Emperor.

[ Most people say he is over emotional (he is), unhinged (he is), and lacking in discipline (probably). Hearing it from an ancient Sith is none too surprising at this rate. He's been meditating. Trying to focus on numbing anything other than his seething rage. ]

I wonder if it truly would be a waste of your time. After all, you've spent so much of it already in the ice. Simply moving must be valuable enough for your time.

· CALL ME OUT (WINTER) ·

STAR WARS < kylo ren / ben solo >

sup bro, idk but this is what came to mind sooo

then we roll with it!

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slides in a tiny sith

returns that electric slide

<3

Now two Sith gripe