With Coffee In Hand

[Gambler]

((OOC: Any complaints about the opening are outweighed by the fact that I had eight minutes to write this.))

During the day, Coruscant was a lovely place. On the upper levels, the more sophisticated people roamed the streets, talking to friends and making business arrangements in broad daylight. On the lower levels, most of the thugs waited patiently for nightfall before hitting the streets. Instead, they were holed up in cantinas or their little shanties drinking themselves blind in anticipation. The air was polluted with the smog of countless airships, but that was to be expected. Even so, the Jedi Temple stood proudly, construction cables and all.

For what felt like years the Jedi Temple had fallen to pieces when the Bogan revealed themselves. Their attack had left many dead or severely wounded, crumbling bits and pieces of the foundation in their wake. So the temple had been abandoned and the Jedi relocated to Ossus for safety purposes. However, with Grandmaster Talzea's rise to power, new life had been breathed into the ruins on Coruscant. Workers had been hired and Jedi based for the reconstruction effort, which placed on particular Jedi in the midst of what must have been the dullest month of her life.

Shayla's long hair swayed in the breeze as she walked away from the construction site, emerald eyes glaring this way and that. Her furious pace took her to a little cafe at the edge of the site, a place she was known to frequent when fits of boredom struck her. It seemed that every day was the same. She would wake up only to watch some ugly, sweaty worker put the pieces into place for the new Jedi Temple, and then live the day out idly while waiting for some new order to come in. It was boring, and nothing could alleviate that.

The worst part was that she was regulated to the upper levels for the duration of the construction. Her orders superseded her authority, preventing her from leaving the confines of the temple grounds. Though, to be honest, it was partially her fault for having a bit of a reputation. Some on the council thought of her as reckless, which led to some heavy restrictions being placed on her time to time. So she sat in her little booth and ordered a coffee, waiting placidly for the next day to roll on by.

 

[Denzein]

Jedi Knight Day. Jedi Knight... Eleanor? Jedi Knight. Jedi. Jedi.

She was a Jedi Knight. She couldn't quite comprehend what that meant just yet, but she assumed enlightenment would follow with time. Things usually did when you had eternity to wait.

The Temple on Coruscant was a mess. Half functional, dusty and full of labouring workmen, it stood today more as a testament to the stubborn nature of the Jedi than anything else. The Bogan had annihilated it, and yet here it was. The statement was clear: We shall endure you just as we have endured all others. Eleanor wasn't completely sure it was warranted, not when she thought of some of the beings she knew to inhabit the galaxy...

She had been helping all day, mucking in with the builders to repair the ruined monument all the faster. She had strengthened them to the task ahead with her powers, subliminally motivating them to greater things in her own anonymous, insidious way. Several interior walls had been completed near where she was working as a direct result of her influence, and she had built two herself, using the force when she couldn't carry the heavy metal sheets and stone blocks. It was thirsty work, and she had decided to take an hour off for some well earned food and a cool, long drink.

The cafe was a sorry little place on the edge of the site, but she didn't much care for the aesthetics. She just wanted water, sweet, cool, water... When the first sip slid its way down her oesophagus she giggled childishly. She asked for a sandwich from the man on duty behind the bar, and proceeded to look about the establishment. She stared at each patron in turn, deciding who was the most interesting.

Her eyes came to rest on a woman, older than herself (in appearance) and beautiful. Eleanor smiled at her, sipping the glass of iced water. Father's drink of choice was the best thing in the world...

The woman had a lightsaber clipped to her belt. She was, like Eleanor, a Jedi helping the reconstruction along. Eleanor felt that was at least enough common ground for idle conversation.

"You're helping out too? I think it's good that they get Jedi to do this stuff... It's character building, no?"

 

[Gambler]

Shayla tried to put on her best smile. "Yeah, I'm a Jedi," she said, leaning back in her seat. She nodded over to the one across the booth. "Go ahead and sit down. I'm sure you're tired after today." Her smile was almost warm, except for the borderline snarl in her eyes. Even this runt of a girl got to do something while she was regulated to playing babysitter. It was absolutely infuriating. The Order put restrictions on her while everyone else got to run around carefree.

The light outside was beginning to fade as the evening rolled on by, but the well-lit cafe compensated for that, filling the corners with a pale mockery of the day's light. Windows were open, allowing a cool breeze to circulate the room, while a steady stream of conversation filled the air. The checkered floor played on the eye, lines streaming down the individual aisles to the main counter. A few waitresses walked along the aisles, hands filled with trays of coffee, tea, and any number of little snacks, but the majority of the people inside were sitting at the counter or in booths.

Shayla's booth was towards the center of the room, a few feet from the window and lit directly by an overhead light. A small cup of coffee rested on a tiny plate, a few cubes of sugar and creamer packets waiting nearby. Her hands were were crossed in her lap, nails creaking against flesh. Her bland expression could have fit any number of occasions, unreadable from eyes to lips. The cast of her eyes and the tilt of her chin made her appear almost to be humming inwardly, though no sound emanated from that swan-like throat.

"Um, since you said 'too,' I take it that you're also a Jedi?" she asked, eyes roaming the young woman in front of her. "If that's so then you might want to go find some other padawans or something. Someone more your level." Her eyes sparkled with amusement. She was, after all, a Jedi Master, if not a very proper one. It didn't show very well most of the time, especially when she had her hands on a cigarette--the kriffing council and their kriffing regulations were infuriating!--and was smoking in the dormitories.

 

[Denzein]

"Oh I'm not a padawan, I'm a Knight. I was promoted about a week back. I'm Eleanor Day, what's your name?"

She appeared to have not noticed the unsubtle undertones to Shayla's body language and tone. It was her understanding that if you disregarded something completely it would go away, she knew the theory had worked for her in the past. it worked for Father every time he blessed something... Or someone.

She sat at the woman's reluctant invitation and proceeded to stare at her. It wasn't awe. A seventy-two year old hardly ever finds something to be awed at, even if they have the body and hormonal activity of a 16-year old. She stared because she was curious as to why a Jedi who was so obviously a competent and dangerous field agent was confined to helping rebuild the temple. She was curious as to why the Jedi before her was so different from the others. She reminded Eleanor of someone... Although who escaped her for the moment.

She sipped her water again, wondering when her sandwich would arrive. There was so much more still to do, the architects had been trying to hurry them all along recently. She hoped her break wouldn't be too much of an annoyance.

"Why are you so... different?"

 

[Gambler]

"Huh?" Shayla asked, eyebrows raising slightly. "What do you mean by 'different?'" She swirled her coffee around a bit, looking from the young Jedi to her dark drink and back again. That porcelain face was a blank canvas, but confusion swam in the depths of her eyes. She paused for a moment to lift the coffee to her lips, taking a small sip. "Do you mean different compared to the other Jedi here, or different as in you're calling me a freak? Cause if it's the second, well, I'm going to have to kick your ass," she said with a smile to bely the jest.

 

[Denzein]

"You're not the same, you're less... Regulated. You have an odd air about you. I mean strange in both ways."

The woman was smiling, which was a step up from the brush off she had been attempting not ten seconds earlier. Eleanor wasn't so alien that she misunderstood the joke for seriousness, having been around her Father for so long that she considered herself one of the strange creatures that called themselves human. They were so funny with their tiny life-spans and their infamously short tempers... Most of them, at least. A few of them were terrifying, one in particular springing to mind.

"Are you overseeing here? You're not that dirty..."

 

[Gambler]

"Well, not exactly," Shayla said, clearing her throat. "I'm more of a babysitter than anything else, except with less authority. If you think I'm less 'regulated' than anyone else around here than you'd be off by a mile." She sighed. "I get to stand around all day watching sweaty workers put the pieces of the temple back together, hardly able to twiddle my thumbs without someone coming by to remind me about what the Council's orders were!" Rolling her eyes, it was hard to keep her expression serenely blank.

"Basically, I have to sit put and watch with baited breath while everyone else gets to have fun. I can't leave the excavation site to go into any part of the city. The Council's too afraid that I'll get into trouble again and piss off some crime boss or another. Pricks," she all but spat.

 

[Denzein]

Eleanor laughed at the woman's delicious dislike of the Order's worthies. She clearly had resentment for them all in spades, the change of opinion was refreshing for the young knight. She had spent most of her time among the Jedi around Aden, and he was as puritanical as they came. She was taking a liking to her already.

"That doesn't sound fun... And isn't what I'd expect of them, either. Surely if you're rooting out crime in the city you're doing more good than if you're "babysitting" the reconstruction? It doesn't sound they've thought that through."

 

[Gambler]

It was clear that Shayla was beginning to warm to the young Knight. Her eyes brightened a trifle, the smile on her lips warming. "It isn't entirely undeserved," she admitted. "I've had a few run-ins with crime bosses and the like over the past few months, usually getting in over my head. In fact... the last time I went hunting for criminals I ended up tied and roped in a little room while some creep tried to get information out of me." She took another quick sip of coffee.

"I'm Shayla, by the way. Shayla Kiani, Jedi Master extraordinaire... and baby sitter on the side. I think I forgot to mention that part when you walked in. Anyway, why are you helping out with the temple? If I didn't have to there is no way I'd be here."

 

[Denzein]

"Pleased to meet you, Shayla Kiani. I don't really know why I'm helping out here... It's not like I was ordered to. I think I was just curious to experience building, although it's certainly less glamorous than I had made it out to be in my mind. Too many builders who think belts are accessories..."

They were chatting, Eleanor noticed pleasantly as she drank her Father's drink. Shayla was a fascinating person, there was no two ways about it. She had a roguish air about her which jarred with the majority of Jedi around and about. She felt pent up, as if she was dying to be unleashed on some adventure or another, which, of course, she was.

It was truly a shame that the council had decided enthusiasm was unseemly. A mistake.

"At least I'm not stuck here. If I was, Father would probably just hoik me straight out of here to some place more engaging."