The park- Sunday afternoon

[solo_sword]

It was hot, but the twins had basically bugged Jaina to go to the park all morning so she figured they'd tire themselves out at the playground quickly and then that'd be that.

Of course Daniel stopped at the pond first, told her there were fish, then cried when she told him the fish were gone.

And now with that done and forgotten about, she was with them on the playground, trying to help them on the equipment. Wow did her life get different.


[Open!]

Comments

[solo_sword]

"They're usually traveling too much to actually visit," Jaina told him. "But we still have to travel with the guards, and then we can get them to leave us alone. If I go on my own, or if we come here because we don't want it getting out how insane this place is, I can get out without a detail."

[sith_happened]

"Since you aren't the Emperor," Anakin said. "That's still very weird to say."

[solo_sword]

"He thinks so, too," Jaina nodded. "I can get away with saying I'm on Jedi-Imperial Knight business, which is even weirder to say."

[sith_happened]

"That still makes my brain kind of hiccup," Aankin admitted.

[solo_sword]

"Me too," Jaina sighed. Being an empress is fine. I don't like the title but being a goddess was more impressive. The Imperial Knight thing I don't think I'll ever get used to."

Which was why she was never giving up the Jedi thing.

[sith_happened]

"I can see that," Anakin agreed. "I have trouble putting Imperial and Knight together myself."

[solo_sword]

"Is it easier to know Tahiri came up with the name?" Jaina asked.

[sith_happened]

"A little bit, yes," Anakin said.

[solo_sword]

"I was kind of prepared for the name thanks to Sia, but knowing Tahiri's the one who's basically been spearheading it all helps me not have a crisis."

Except a personal crisis. No one could stop that.

[sith_happened]

"Did it?" Anakin asked, smiling softly.

[solo_sword]

Jaina tilted her hand in the so-so gesture.

"I won't give up the title I more than earned, but I'm not welcome in the Order I dedicated my entire life to, while we form something new. It's not fun," she said.

[sith_happened]

"It sounds awful," Anakin said sympathetically.

[solo_sword]

"It is. I don't know if it's getting better, but it could be worse," she said.

[sith_happened]

"It can always get worse," was Anakin's cheerful contribution. "The Jedi Council, historically, makes at least one incredibly stupid call every generation."

[solo_sword]

"I don't even know if this was that one stupid call," Jaina said. "Maybe a symptom of a bigger problem."

[sith_happened]

"What do you see as the bigger problem?" Anakin asked, making himself comfortable on a bench.

[solo_sword]

"They're a mess without Luke, for one. Without him to rein it in there's a lot of infighting. To get anything done I'd have to slip out and do it anyway, which was the same thing I had to do before I was a Master. And politics affects them way too much," Jaina said. "They got screwed by the Galactic Alliance and now they're so worried about being neutral and staying out of it that I think it's actually backfiring. Because if Bastion got attacked by the Sith and we couldn't take care of it and they didn't help, that gets political real fast."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "It's an impossible line to walk--to be part of the galaxy but also above politics. It can't be done."

[solo_sword]

"Yeah." She nodded. "Which is why we have to play into it instead."

She had mixed feelings on that.

[sith_happened]

"And then we pick sides," Anakin said. "And sometimes it's the wrong side, and people remember."

[solo_sword]

"I try not to think about that too much," Jaina said. "I think that keeps people from actually trying to do the right thing."

[sith_happened]

"Decision paralysis," Anakin agreed. "I saw that during the war."

[solo_sword]

"Which is exactly the dirt of time you can't afford to have it," she said.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "And you don't learn if you freeze until you're under pressure."

[solo_sword]

"Never something I've had a problem with," Jaina said with a quick flash of a grin. "But it makes it more frustrating when other people do it."