Ask Coruscant Friendly Neighborhood Justicar

[Zathria]

Per my new standard OP template, this thread is death enabled​

It seemed Zathria's path had brought her back to Coruscant in secret again. It seemed that missing and former Jedi often had ties to this place, and why not? A planet where Jedi weren't allowed, a place where police rarely patrolled, and enough people who didn't care about you that you could be lost with ease.

Of course, that was probably all coincidence. Neither of the people Zathria had been tracking seemed to have been drawn here for that reason... she didn't think.

Donning comfortable and practical clothes and with a couple of small, non-lightsaber weapons stashed on her person, Zathria set out into the underbelly of Coruscant once more. This time, it wasn't truly to arrest or detain someone as it was to... check up on them. While an ex-Jedi was no longer technically the responsibility of the Jedi, it was prudent for the Justicars to keep an eye on them from time to time. They didn't need a former-Jedi to become a Dark Jedi or any of the myriad of Dark Side sects that plagued the galaxy.

Reports of where Zathria's quarry had gone were... fickle, but some reports of bank withdrawals had pointed toward this area. Zathria set out first for a store where the woman had allegedly been spotted, and really had no idea what she'd find.

An open mind, wide eyes, and a solid grip on the Force, Zath, she told herself as she made her way down the street to the store in question.

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

A young ragged girl leaned against a nearby wall. She stuck out her hand at some strangers. “I’ll perform a trick for some credits. Do you want to see a magic trick?”

It was Jade Hart, the Jedi exile. She was wearing the tattered remains of an old wedding gown, like an upside down white hydrangea that had wilted. Her hair was gray- stained dust. The former Jedi was resting against a noodles shop, a lightsaber hilt duct taped to her wrist. As Zathria neared she brandished chopsticks. “Stay back! I know how to use these.”

@Phoenix

 

[Zathria]

Zathria made her way down the street until she saw the woman she was looking for. She was going to approach and take her up on seeing the magic trick, but before she even managed, the girl had whipped out chopsticks and started waving them at Zathria.

For a moment, the Echani just stared at her, not entirely sure what she was supposed to do. She held up her hands after a moment in a nonconfrontational manner.

I'm not here to hurt you, she said despite the fact that she was mentally considering all the ways to take the other woman down if she was attacked. Some Echani habits never died, but Zathria truly wasn't here for a fight.

I was going to ask to see a magic trick unless you're not doing those anymore, she said.

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

Lowering the chopsticks, she sniffed at this new presence, and smiled. Then, Jade The Exile sat on the ground cross-legged, eyes-shut. A gust of wind pushed along a plastic bag like a tumbleweed. On the rooftop a black bird gawked at Zathria and held her in its gaze. A neon light in the shape of a blaster flickered and buzzed. Jade The Former Jedi opened her eyes.

Right then, she said. I had to warm up. Now pay close attention dear.

Jade stood. A woman was picking up take-out from a plexiglass window. Jade approached her casually. The woman wore ratty blue jeans, a dirty blue sweater, black goggles. 'Scuse me miss. I think you dropped these, Jade said, unpocketing a pair of earrings. The woman stuttered, stupefied, but then Jade handswiped her face (with the non-lightsaber'd hand) and a glow of memory returned to her eyes.

Thank you! Oh, thank you, yes! the woman shouted, hugging Jade and taking the earrings before swiftly leaving with her dinner. Jade turned back to Zathria and flashed her the thumbs up.

@Phoenix

 

[Zathria]

Zathria watched what unfolded, smirking slightly at Jade's performance and clapping slightly at the end of it. She pulled a few credits from her pocket and dropped them in the donations.

She honestly wasn't entirely sure how to go about what she was hoping to do here. Her time with the Justicars was short, and Jade was not technically a member of the Order anymore. She paused a moment in thought. Is it really that much different than anything you do? Or than working with one of your patients? she thought to herself.

Want me to buy you some lunch? she asked. If Jade was as homeless as she appeared, then a free meal would likely be welcome. If she wasn't, then a free meal might still be welcome... or it might be offensive or weird. Who really knew? Honestly, though, if the offer was considered offensive, Zath wouldn't lose sleep over that. After all, who got mad about being offered free food?

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

Jade's face lit up as the stranger dropped some credits into a tin can. She walked back to the stranger and picked up the credit can, looked inside, swirled it around. Her toes poked out from the ends of her boots.

"Ok, lead the way! Who are you anyway?" she asked, glancing up at Zathria. "You're not here to arrest me, are you?"

@Zathria

 

[Zathria]

Zathria smiled slightly as she saw the way Jade's face lit up at the small amount of money. It was a shame how things had turned out, and despite having been removed from the Jedi, Zathria didn't think anyone wanted to see Jade in as destitute as situation as she was in.

I'm Zathria, she said, heading off down the street and glancing back to see if Jade was following her.

Any recommendations? she asked. Jade had spent far more time here than Zathria, so eve if she didn't each at many restaurants, she surely had at least seen or heard of places that were higher quality or worth a drop in.

As for the last question... that was a more interesting answer. Well, have you done anything illegal? she asked, head tilting to the side. Typically people engaged in illegal activity were the ones that asked if they were going to be arrested as far as Zath was concerned.

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

“Legality is a relative concept. What is illegal under one set of laws may be perfectly permissible under another. I hope I don’t need an attorney when talking with you,” Jade replied, as they walked through the streets.

After a few blocks, the buzzing of a neon green oval sign- Lalaloo’s- caught Jade’s attention. She opened the door for Zathria. After they both entered, Jade walked up and had a seat at the counter. The hiss and stir of oil and pasta meeting an iron skillet rose from the background. Jade passed a menu to Zathria. A waiter came up to them, eyeing Jade skeptically.

“Can I help you?”

“Get me a huge bucket of noodles, a pitcher of ice water, oh and a brownie... please.”

@Phoenix

 

[Zathria]

Zathria was not particularly reassured by the other woman's answer. Not that she was wrong - indeed, even Zathria's presence on Coruscant was, in fact, illegal - but it was still the kind of answer she'd expect from someone who was trying to rationalize some illicit decisions they had made.

Well, best not to jump to conclusions, she told herself.

Not unless you're hurting people, she said with a shrug, trying to be nonchalant. Which it doesn't look like you are.

Thanks, she said as Jade held the door open for her and she made her way inside, eyes flicking around and not being able to help taking a few extra whiffs of the delicious-smelling noodles.

I'll have what she's having, but make mine spicy, she said. She put the menu down and turned her attention back to Jade.

You make your living doing street performances? she asked.

 

[Jade Hart]

Jade waited while her food was cooked. There weren’t a lot of other patrons in the restaurant. She looked at Zathria, swearing she had seen her somewhere before. Perhaps not. But certainly she gave off a familiar aura.

The girl stuck out her free hand. “I’m Jade, Jade Hart, by the way. It’s nice to meet you. And yes, that is sadly my occupation now. A clown.” She shrugged and looked away. The stench from Jade would tell Zathria all else she needed about her state of affairs. It was rotten eggs mixed with taxicab air freshener– pine tree.

 

[Zathria]

Zathria thought about what the girl had gone through and wondered that she couldn't find something better to do with herself and her time than this. But she was young. Maybe she just hadn't found her place.

What Zathria was fairly certain of, however, was that the woman wasn't choosing to follow the dark side. At least, that wasn't the impression that Zathria got.

Have you figured out who I am yet? she asked, quirking an eyebrow and thinking that the woman seemed like she might have become suspicious. Or perhaps it was all in Zathria's head.

 

[Jade Hart]

The waiter brought Jade and Zathria their meals. Large bowls of long squiggly noodles with chopsticks and a very, very tall glass of ice water, plus a huge melt-in-your-mouth brownie. Rather than dig in right away, Jade took the chopsticks and poked at the ice cubes in the glass like they were prey and she the hunter.

“You give off the same vibes as that other guy. Zerath–” she stopped eating –”you’re not stalking me, are you?”

Jade briefly looked into Zathria’s eyes, then she put her face over the bowl and consumed the rest of its contents. Oil dribbled down her chin. In a minute, she had wolfed her whole bowl. Jade held up her hand. The waiter returned startled.

“I’d like another!”

 

[Zathria]

Zathria's attention perked up when Jade mentioned someone named Zerath. She had no idea who that was and it may have been a Jedi, but it also could have been a Sith. Or it could have been neither... no one at all.

No, she chuckled at the question about whether she was stalking Jade. Or was she? Did this qualify as stalking? Well, not exactly anyway, she said. But I was looking for you, she said, taking several bites of her own food and savoring the spicy and quite good flavor.

I'm a Jedi, and I wanted to check in on you, she said, deciding that honesty was the best way forward and more than mentally prepared for the girl to make a scene. If she did... well, Zathria would deal with that and just leave if she had to.

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

Jade shoveled noodles into her mouth as Zathria talked. The waiter had gotten their orders mixed up and her food was all spicy. Jade waved her hand like a fan by her mouth as if to air it out. She grasped the glass of ice water and chugged it. Finally, she burped loudly at Zathria.

"Well, as you can see, I'm not doing well."

Jade shook her head and smirked, staring out the window at the noir-punk glumness of Coruscant's undercity. A light acid-rain was falling changing the gray cityscape to slick-gray.

"What do I have to do to return to the Order? I have nowhere else to go."

@Zathria

 

[Zathria]

Zathria kept munching away on her noodles, wondering why they didn't seem to be even remotely spicy. Not that she was complaining, they were still good, but just didn't quite have the kick she was expecting.

When she looked over, however, it looked like Jade had turned bright red and begun to sweat. That was weird. Was the other woman just that much of a wimp when it came to spices?

Honestly, that's not my call to make, she said, more than a bit surprised by the girl's response to the revelation of who she was. She was expecting a scene or a great deal of swearing. She wasn't expecting a request to be taken back, and honestly, she wasn't entirely sure how to respond to it.

It'll be up to the Council, but well... it'll really be up to you and the decisions you make, she said after a moment.

What have you been doing since you left the Order? Surely this isn't everything, she said.

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

“The decisions I make? The hell? Like whether to sleep in an alley or a garage?”

Jade spewed the words out like she were a fire-breathing dragon. Inhaling and exhaling in ha-ha-ha to soothe the burn. She smiled lopsided at Zathria, and then continued slurping up noodles despite the spicy pain. Fighting the urge to eat with her fingers, she wrapped the noodles around her chopsticks like they were wigs of hair, shoving them down her throat.

All of this required a great deal of chewing, and chew Jade did, for a whole minute. During this time she couldn’t talk, so she just stared at Zathria, long and hard. The top of her ears reddened, the tip of her nose pinkened, but Jade stared the Jedi down like she were owed something. Looks of righteousness, pity, sadness, hatred, and scorn might have played across her face, yet the spicyness could have been responsible for a great deal of that– her upper lip lifting, nostrils flaring, eyes tearing.

“Sorry– what you see is what you get. Remember that woman I force tricked? I could have stolen her wallet or something. Instead, I gave her earrings. Steal from the rich, give to the poor. Probably made her week.”

@Phoenix

 

[Zathria]

Zathria didn't appear to be particularly impressed with Jade's response. Granted, the woman had been only a Padawan when she was removed from the Order, but still. Red flags and warnings were going off in Zathria's head nonetheless, but she... wasn't ready to throw in the towel on this so soon.

She almost made comment, but could practically see the wheels turning in Jade's head, so rather than go off of the rather gruff opening statement, she continued to eat her noodles and wait.

The follow-up response was... not that much of an improvement, but it was better. Zathria wasn't entirely sure how to tackle this, so she decided the only way to eat a gundark was one bite at a time.

The first and foremost was understanding and knowledge. She couldn't help Jade through this if she didn't really understand her.

Why do you want to come back to the Order? she asked. It was a simple question on the surface, but had the potential to reach far deeper levels of the psyche than the surface would show.

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

Jade looked down into the slick bowl of devoured noodles. She tried to use the empty bowl to hide her reactions as she slunk over it. The glass of water was almost empty too, but she grabbed it anyway. There was a crumb of brownie floating at the bottom. She shook the glass around and watched it swirl. Looking through the bottom she spied Zathria opposite her, blurred and distorted by the glass. She set the glass down and sat up straight.

“Why? Well–” Jade tugged at her scarf and bit her corner lip –”I have to save someone. The force is the only way to bring them back.”

 

[Zathria]

Zathria watched the other woman. This was perhaps the most important question that Zathria had come here to ask. As terrible as it sounded, the job of a Justicar was to judge members of the Order - or former members - and that was what she was here to do. She was here to judge the woman and her answers... a difficult job.

The answer was... an answer, but not a very detailed one. Zathria frowned for a moment, mulling over precisely what it meant and the potential that it had. It was not the answer she was expecting to say the least.

Bring back? she asked. It was an answer that set all kinds of warning bells off. Imposing your will on the Force, cheating death... they were not the words of a Jedi.

Who are you trying to bring back? And why? she asked. Had this been her intention when she was a member of the Order as well? It brought all sorts of new questions to mind.

@Taygood

 

[Jade Hart]

Jade looked at Zathria, and then looked away. Her eyes drifted around the room, following people as they walked around, like she were following the paths of stars in the night sky. Their waiter was watching them, but on meeting Jade’s gaze he pretended to be busy arranging silverware. She sighed. Why did everyone push her away?

“My mother. I can only find her with the force.”

Jade gripped her collarbone, breathing heavily. Veins pulsed in her temples. She took a moment to steady her breath, in and out, like Master Silex had taught her. She couldn’t meet Zathria’s gaze anymore, staring down at the red carpet. The thumb and forefinger gripping her neck began to twitch.

“Please, it’s essential I learn how to be a Jedi.”

@Phoenix