A Quiet Stretch of the Beach, Monday Afternoon

[weetuskenraider]

You'd think it looked a lot like Tahiri was just taking every opportunity to practice with her (still relatively) new lightsaber. She'd tell you she had a lot of catchup to do in terms of training with and getting used to it after months of going without, and that was true, but it was also true that there was a certain shiny-new-toy factor at play.

The beach was always a good spot for it, too; for various reasons, she'd come to feel awfully connected with shorelines in a symbolic sense as well as a sentimental one. That she got to get in all that catchup training while enjoying the feel of cool sand beneath her bare feet and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore was only a bonus.

Every now and then, between drills, her thoughts drifted toward future plans, and the inevitable speculation that came with them. There were beaches on Zonama Sekot, she knew, and that was something, at least. That was a vague comfort, and it was easy enough to dispel the more unsettling thoughts by losing herself in the rhythm of her movements and the thrum of her lightsaber's blade again.

[OOC: Open beach is open, indeed.]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben noticed Tahiri's presence on his way back from visiting Karla, so he headed to toward the beach instead of back to the dorms and stood back to watch as Tahiri worked with her new blade.

There was something calming to him about watching a Jedi with a lightsaber.

[weetuskenraider]

That just made him weird, considering that there was nothing particularly calm about the attack sequence Tahiri had just gone through.

. . . luckily she liked him weird, and had sensed him pretty much immediately. She waited until she'd completed the routine before she called for a break, though, and powered the blade down before jogging toward him.

"If I'd known I should have charged admission," she teased.

[momslilassassin]

"I would have paid it," Ben said, grinning. "You looked astral."

[weetuskenraider]

"Thanks," Tahiri said, hiding a smirk as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "But how was my technique?"

[momslilassassin]

"Not bad," Ben said appraisingly. "Watch the follow through on the upward sweeps."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri considered, mentally replaying the sequence in her head, then nodded. "Good catch. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

She reached out to pull him in for a kiss. "How's your day been so far?"

[momslilassassin]

"Busy," Ben said, lingering a little in the kiss. "I'm heading off-island tomorrow."

[weetuskenraider]

"Mission from home, or . . .?" Tahiri pulled back, but not far enough that she couldn't wrap her arms around him. "Or is someone we know in a situation again?"

[momslilassassin]

"Karla has a brilliant plan that she swears won't backfire," Ben said with a very tiny eye roll. "So I'm going to be sure it doesn't."

[weetuskenraider]

"Of course," Tahiri said wryly. "Because what brilliant plan could possibly go wrong with a Skywalker along for the ride?"

[momslilassassin]

"Ri--" Ben began, nodding his head. "HEY!"

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri couldn't quite cover her mouth in time to muffle a snort of laughter. "Just come back in one piece, that's all I ask, and make sure to tell me the details of all the interesting stuff."

[momslilassassin]

"Hopefully it will be extremely boring with absolutely no one trying to kill, maim, or eat us," Ben said.

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

Zayne was making his way around town when he felt a familiar presence on the beach. Yes, he'd actually learned enough that he was starting to be able to feel other Force users in a town with only a few of them. So he started to make his way over.

"Is that new?" he asked from a safe, not gonna get accidentally chopped even if the saber went flying distance.

[weetuskenraider]

"It is," Tahiri called back, quickly deactivating the blade and jogging over to him. "Zayne! I thought I sensed you back in town. I got your message yesterday, but I was all tied up in some calls home and couldn't make it down earlier."

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry about it," Zayne said. "Between Jaina and her grandfather, I was pretty much all storied out by the end of the night. How are you doing, Tahiri?"

[weetuskenraider]

"Pretty astral, actually," she answered, giving him a genuine smile. "And not just because of the new lightsaber. What brings you back to the island now? I mean," she hurried on, "I'm definitely not complaining! You just seemed pretty, um, busy with things back home last time I saw you."

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"I'm much less busy right now," Zayne said, returning the smile. "Things cleared up a lot, and all I needed to do was infiltrate Coruscant and expose a conspiracy trying to overtake the Jedi Order. So I got my freedom the hard way."

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh, is that all?" Tahiri laughed, although a slightly worried look crossed her face, because 'conspiracy trying to overtake the Jedi Order' couldn't sound good. "I'm pretty convinced that none of us do things the easy way at all, anyhow. Why does it always come down to infiltrating Coruscant, though?"

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"Everything's centralized there. It's just the place for would-be conquerors to do their stuff, so it's where people like us need to go," Zayne said. He caught the look, so he decided to give a little bit of information. "But seriously, a lot of things worked out pretty well. The Order survived, the Republic's still around to fight the Mandalorians, my name's cleared, and nobody's trying to kill me and my friends."

[weetuskenraider]

"But it's fun, isn't it?" Tahiri asked with no small amount of irony, although she actually meant it, because she had a bizarre idea of fun. "Infiltrating Coruscant, that is. I've had to do that a few times myself."

. . . it was kind of reassuring to know the Mandalorians had a very long-standing history of being a pain. Again, in a bizarre way.

"I knew you could do it, Zayne -- even though I get the feeling it's actually a much longer story than that. That's fantastic news."

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"Blowing up a ship to help me sneak past a Republic blockade? Using deception to get into a compound of people who want me dead, then having to fight them off? Actually, yeah, that was kind of fun," Zayne said. "That's the basic story, really. There are more twists and turns, though. Like how my old Master's the one who actually helped me the most at the end of everything."

[weetuskenraider]

"Most of my stories about that tend to involve crash-landing in some undignified way, so you certainly did it in style, then," Tahiri decided, chuckling. "And that's an unexpected twist."

It definitely made everything a lot less . . . black and white, really.

"Can I ask how he did that?"

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"His mother's assistant, Haazen, was the guy in charge of the conspiracy and the group of renegade Jedi, and everything," Zayne said. "Haazen was pulling Lucien's stings for years, and brought him right to the edge of giving in completely to the Dark Side. I helped Lucien step back from the edge. He even ended up sacrificing himself to stop Haazen, save the Order, and the Republic."

"The funny part is that what got him was me pointing out that I was strong enough to run from my teacher, so why couldn't he run from his?"

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri listened carefully to what Zayne had to say, a slight smile growing wider as he went on.

"You know," she finally ventured, "it seems like I personally know far too many people who've had experience talking someone back from the Dark Side . . . but considering how impressive that is, it says a lot about all of you. I'm really impressed, Zayne."

Though what she did know about everything Lucien had done without going over to the Dark Side was definitely something to think about later, too.