Ask Onderon Picking up the Pieces

Maura Starwalk

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"Oh, maybe."

Maura turned around in the vent so that her head was sticking out and she was looking down at the older padawan. There was a mischievous grin on her face - like she had a wonderful idea - but the mention of food wiped it off again. She liked the idea of food more than she liked the idea of scrambling around through the ventilation system playing "catch me if you can!"

So, the kid jumped back down, grabbed her bag, and plopped herself back onto the couch for the time being.

"Are there any of the good kind?" she asked, hoping Hailee had some of the instant ones on hand. Of course, the tack bars didn't taste terrible (and Maura would eat just about anything) but they weren't yummy. "Or just the bars?"

In the meantime, Maura booted up her datapad and began furiously tapping and swiping away at the screen. She was hardly focused though, so after a bit, she asked Hailee and question without looking up.

"Do you think all Sith are evil?"

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Hailee Lightwood

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Hailee kept looking but couldn't yet see it, but she was carefully avoiding stepping back into the direction of the cargo hold. Maura had no business down there anywhere, but who knew...the girl had literally hid in a vent to surprise her on the battlefield, so Hailee knew she was slightly unpredictable.

As soon as she was down again, she immediately found the bag and so Hailee plopped back into the pilot's seat, amusedly watching the bubbly rainbow haired girl for a moment. "Unfortunately just stupid bars...guess we'll have to wait for Yavin to get some actual food" she then replied with a slightly overdramatic sigh before she handed her one and started opening hers right after.

Those bars weren't too bad after all and they were definitely filling, yet they were nothing compared to an actual meal and Hailee couldn't wait for a dinne. However, this also reminded her of Caelian and then it was as if Maura could suddenly read her thoughts. She didn't grimace or anything but chewed the rest of her bar before she faced the young padawan. "No...definitely not. I've met a few who were...quite alright. Their loyalty can be dangerous and I condemn following orders blindly, but they are definitely not pure evil...They've chosen the wrong side and that's a pity" she answered with a sigh, her tone shifting from amusement to thoughtfulness.

Were they about to start such a deep philosophical discussions, too? "How was this Wodan guy? I bet he was intimidated by you after all" she added a playful hint to her serious question, slightly tilting her head to the side.

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Maura Starwalk

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"Mmm... I dunno." Maura finished the level, so she looked up at the ceiling in thought. "I don't think so. I don't think I'm very... entertaining," she shrugged. "He didn't seem like a very nice person." What reason did he have to be so closed-off and standoffish? Maura conveniently ignored the fact that she had, at the time, just almost severed both his legs.

"So you've met Sith, too?" Maura asked, changing the subject. Curisoity quickly covered her features. "Did you talk to the other Sith too? What was he like?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Or did you let him get away?"

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Hailee Lightwood

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Hailee was curious about Maura's reply as her own meeting with the Sith she had fought had drifted into completely unexpected directions. She looked over to the younger padawan, the smirk still on her lips as she peacefully watched her play. She was indeed happy that she had made it out unscathed...the grandmaster would be thankful.

The girl's reply was not exactly unexpected, but Hailee suddenly realized that deep inside her, there had been a slight hole that Maura had made a friend as well. She couldn't quite tell why, but she was almost a little disappointed to her that the acolyte had been a little brick. "I'm...sorry I guess? I hope it was not a waste of time...I mean, you definitely did the right thing with helping him, but I'm sorry he wasn't nice" she answered softly, leaning back in her chair.

Of course the curious padawan returned the question...it was a good thing that Hailee was excellent at deception. "I...talked to him too, yes. We even talked for a while and the conversation was oddly pleasant. It was ironic...we could even establish a common ground". Her answer was completely honest, yet of course she left out certain details that could get her into trouble. She still thought it would be better to change the subject again. "I bet the grandmaster will be proud of you...however, she could also scold you for having landed on Onderon in the first place...

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Maura Starwalk

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"Common ground with Sith?" Maura's head tilted a bit to the side as she wondered what sort of common ground Jedi would be able to find with the Sith. Favorite colors? Best planet to vacation on? (That was adult small talk, right?) Before she could question further, Hailee brought up her master.

"I bet she'll be proud of me too!" Maura chimed in with a proud smile. She'd beaten a Sith all on her own, without her master's supervision! That was awesome! As for getting scolded... "Well, ask for forgiveness, not permission right?" she giggled. Maybe Alex wouldn't be so mad if she showed her Wodan's lightsaber... I could get her to help me purify it!"

Maura went back to playing her game, chewing on her lip while she concentrated on completing the game. A little jingle sounded off when she completed the level, and she did an excited victory wiggle.

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Hailee Lightwood

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Hailee still studied Maura attentively, trying to figure out whether this Wodan guy had affected her in any negative ways, but she seemed to be exactly the person she had met this morning after their landing. "Yes..." she had only replied with a smirk, not wanting to trouble the girl with the deep philosophical conflicts that were dealt with in their conversations.

Luckily, their talk changed subjects anyway. "I really hope she's proud and not mad" she mentioned with a grin, slightly fiddling around with an unused joystick that was not involved in the ships controls right now.

"That's a great motto though. I've always done the exact same thing but it can definitely bring you into trouble" Hailee then admitted with a slighlty sheepish grin, not wanting to preach fake morals right now. Her thoughts then kept drifting off back to the conversation she had with Caelian before Maura pulled her out of that spiral. "What are you playing by the way? I'm not up to date with that stuff" there was a genuine curiosity in the blonde Jedi, perhaps she was sometimes yearning for that carefree lightheartedness Maura carried around.

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Maura Starwalk

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"Well, this one's called Crush the Sweets and you basically have to match the different colored candies in a line so that they disappear and you get points! You only get so many moves though so you have to make sure not to make a bunch of little moves. It can get kinda hard sometimes," Maura immediately answered, flipping around her datapad to show Hailee as she did so. What the woman would see was a very colorful game consisting of a grid covered in candy-shaped icons and a score tracker, among other things. "I have other games too!"

The padawan would then proceed to show Hailee her other favorites games, Cupcake Run, Jumpy Porg, Geometry Dart, and Temple Escape. All of them were full of bright or flashing colors and were either covered in intrusive ads or had questionably-designed interfaces. She tapped back to the first one, Cupcake Run.

"I've been playing Cupcake Run since I was 10! I have like, all the cool cupcakes and I've almost completed the codex without spending a single credit on the game!" Now, if Maura had access to a card as a kid, she would have totally spent all her allowances on games like the one she was showing Hailee. Nowadays, she didn't have a huge interest in microtransactions. She'd spent so many years grinding, so why take shortcuts now? "I bought the ad-free version of Geometry Dart last year though, 'cause I got all the locked levels with it too." In her opinion though, that was well worth the purchase. It was only like five credits anyways.

Maura closed the app, then reached out to hand her datapad to Hailee. "Do you wanna try one of the games? Temple Escape is fun! It's really easy too so even old people can play it. It's about escaping an ancient Jedi temple with a holocron while being chased by Sith monsters!"

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Hailee Lightwood

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Hailee had expected her to show her a game, but she was not prepared for that detailed five minutes speech of hers. As if Maura was a game promoter, she enthusiastically explained the games' principles and mechanics and Hailee attentively listened while softly chuckling along. Hailee had left her chair and had moved next to her, her gaze directed at the bright screen.

Even in her childhood she had never played such games...she never had a gaming console and had always been to busy to play, but she had to admit that some games sounded fun. They looked like the perfect late night activity that didn't require to much thinking. "Mhmm...it looks delicious, too and those colors are so...vibrant" she amusedly remarked about the first game, but the girl was far from being done.

As she started off with the rest, Hailee tried to follow, but all those colors, sounds and interfaces were slightly overwhelming or at least a pain in her tired eyes and her exhausted brain. All of a sudden she felt quite grateful that she hadn't had any sweet aboard...Maura high on sugar would have truly been an interesting sight to see.

After the younger padawan had introduced her to Cupcake Race...eh Run, she suddenly handed her the pad and Hailee stared at it for a second, her brain still processing the explanation. "Ancient temple...Sith monster...wait old? How old do you think I am?" she asked her amusedly, but there was indeed the slightest hint of irritation in her voice.

With the data pad, she still got back to her seat, letting out a contemplative "Hmm" before she pressed play. She focused on the game, not exactly knowing how to play but it was fairly easy as you only had to evade a few obstacles on the hectic escape. "Ohh look, I'm getting the hang of it!" she almost proudly and half excitedly exclaimed as the score points kept climbing and climbing for now...she also saw her highscore and was convinced that she would not break it, but playing this running Jedi was indeed fun...

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Maura Starwalk

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"Mmm..." Maura looked up at Hailee for a couple seconds before delivering her answer. "Twenty...fi-six?" She was pretty bad at telling ages, but she knew that padawans could be old too. Laenoas was like, thirty! That was super old. "Not compared to Master Voran though." She was like, hundreds of years old! Hailee though... definitely wasn't as old as Laeonas. "No! Twenty-four!" Twenty-four seemed like a good number.

Hailee took the datapad, and Maura eagerly peered over her shoulder to watch the woman play the game. "Go left! Always go left!" she chimed in when Hailee was faced with a choice between going left or right. "I always go left 'cause it's the easiest way to swipe!"

Maura continued to peer over Hailee's shoulder while bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "You're doing really good!" The teen didn't expect her to do very well. Most adults were pretty bad at games like these. "Oh! Oh! Get the power up!" She pointed the token out with an eager finger. "Then press that! It makes you invincible for a bit!"

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Hailee Lightwood

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Now she was super curious about her answer. She had met a young child on Corellia once who had assumed she was close to her mid fourties...but to the child's excuse, it had been three. She was assuming that Maura wouldn't misjudge her so strongly, especially because there couldn't have been too many years between them, but this still hadn't stopped her from implying she was old...

As she started with twenty six she opened her mouth as an overdramatic expression of her disbelief and slight dismay. Was she looking that old?? Maura did correct herself and she started chuckling amusedly when it came to her next claim. "Close...twenty two, but I'll take that as a compliment...two years ago they still kept checking my ID when I wanted to buy booze, and -" she stopped herself, immediately remembering that she shouldn't advertise alcohol....right? "Well now everyone knows I'm an adult" she added with a sheepish grin before she turned her attention towards the game.

She squinted, trying to concentrate while the virtual landscape zoomed past her running character. As she mentioned to go left, she immediately did so, trying her best to keep avoiding the obstacles. "That's super clever!" she excitedly exclaimed as she realized that this was indeed easy.

Her little character kept running and running, the crazy Sith following close behind. There was a weird hint adrenaline rushing through her as the score kept climbing up. As she excitedly mentioned the power up she tried to reach it, but unfortunately she was too slow for that and right after, she literally began to panic as the game just started becoming way too fast. "Ahh what do I do? What do I dooo?" she hectically asked her, but not a few seconds later she collided with a tree stump. "Oh dann...that was fun though...perhaps I should download that" she amusedly quipped, but actually that wasn't such a bad idea, right? "Okay now you show me how it's done!".

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Maura Starwalk

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"You're twenty-two? I'll be twenty-two in..." Maura began counting on her fingers while adding up the years in her head. "Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two!" "...seven years!"

The girl went back to watching Hailee play her game, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet the more and more excited she got seeing Hailee do better and better. "Go go go! You can do it! Left! LEFT! Nooooo!" Her features fell when Hailee died, and she threw her hands up in the air to express her playful mourning. "Nooo!"

She started giggling and took the datapad from Hailee. "I'll show you how it's done!" she repeated as she hopped up onto the bench. After starting up a new game, Maura immediately began racing along the randomly-generated paths, taking the left turn each time as she'd instructed Hailee before.

"This is what the powerup does!" she said to her as she swiped her character to the right to nab the item. Immediately her character began running super fast and through any and all obstactles - she was invincible. The score kept growing higher and higher, and Maura grew more and more focused on the game.

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Hailee Lightwood

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Now the blonde Jedi was indeed curious. She had estimated that Maura was around 14 and when she suddenly revealed it, she was a little proud of herself for having been so close. "I don't want to frighten you...but inguess those years will pass by quickly" she replied with a smirk, remembering far too well that she had been fifteen not long ago.

But this was not about nostalgia now...she had a game to win. Or well, to fail as it soon turned out. "Perhaps a stupid question...but can you win this game? Or does the score just keep climbing?" she curiosly wondered before Maura took it in her hands herself.

Would Hailee actually end up downloading those games? Hmm...maybe. They did seem like an easy way to let time pass while flying, so why not? Would she openly reveal that to anyone? Probably not. She still excitedly watched the younger padawan play and especially after she had ran through that power up, her eyes widened.

"Uh oh...ahhh branch! Oh watch out". Those utterances just escaped her as she tensely watched her play, however she soon shut up as she remembered that she was apparently talking to a pro player.

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Maura Starwalk

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"Mm... I guess. Seven years is a long time though," Maura mused, speaking slowly and in bits between particularly busy parts of her run. "Master Voran is like, hundreds of years old though! That's old." The padawan couldn't remember exactly how old her master was, and although she certainly wasn't hundreds of years old, the woman probably only had a few decades before she could be considered so. "I guess Morellians just get to get old and look young."

"Uhh... there's no end to the game if that's what'cha mean," she answered next. Her eyes darted across the screen as she furiously swiped; the game had increased in speed quite a bit. "I think I win if I beat my last highscore though."

Maura continued to play for a while - maybe six or seven minutes - before she blinked and swiped left a moment too late. "NOOO!" She dropped the datapad onto her lap and placed her face in her hands, publicly displaying her grief at losing. "I was-" Yawn. "-so close to beating my-" Yawn. "-highscore!"

It'd been a long day, and Maura was just now hit with the truck of fatigue from the battle. She'd been pushing herself further and further all day. First, it was the fight. That took a lot out of her physically. Then, it was her conversation with Wodan. That took a lot out of her emotionally. So now, even just relaxing and playing games with Hailee, Maura could barely fight the onslaught of yawns that interrupted her every sentence.

"Sowwy," she apologized as she yawned once again. "I'm sleepy."

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Hailee Lightwood

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Hailee chuckled amusedly as Maura mentioned that those 7 years would be a long time. For Hailee, it always felt like time was running and so seven years were almost nothing, but yes...she had a good point with the grandmaster after all. "Oh true...I'd say living for so many years is a blessing and a curse, both...however still looking young is rather helpful I guess" she replied with a big grin, having huge respect for the grandmaster one way or another though.

She could have asked Maura a thousand questions about her training, but instead she let her focus on the game while attentively observing what she did. The explanation made sense, though she wondered whether this wouldn't get to boring after a while, because if there was no end in sight, how long was this little Jedi running?!

Maura's Jedi ran and ran with increased speed until finally, she failed. Hailee had stared at the screen for the whole time, wondering how the hell Maura had even managed to make out obstacles in that speed. The yawn immediately infected her and so she involuntarily joined in.

"Don't be sorry" she replied with a grin as she stretched her own tired muscles, "So am I...this day was draining. You can take a cabin and get some sleep. I'll stay in the cockpit just to make sure we stay on course and nap in the seat or something" she then added while she was already busy looking for a comfortable position. She ended up sprawled across the seat, head over one armrest and her legs over the other side. It wasn't too bad after all and it woukd suffice for dozing.

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