Private Adventures in Multitasking

[Jalen Kai'el]

Adventures in Multitasking
Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

It seemed like a lot of the same these days. Studying, practicing his fencing, and then waiting for Jasper to return from whatever it was he was doing this week. It was the highlight of his week and the only real good thing that Jalen had to look forward to. Unfortunately, his older brother spent a lot of time away with the war becoming so complicated, leaving the boy alone at the Temple. Jasper had insisted he start to make friends, but he couldn't work up the courage. It was easier to sulk and listen to music or study. Nobody would want to hang out with some weird blind kid anyways.

Jalen was letting the force guide him through the halls of the temple, as he often did. A Holocron was clutched in his hand, one filled with basics on healing and other force techniques of the like. The young padawan found that he had an affinity for it far more than anything else really, even basic things like telekinesis. Dedicating his studies to that seemed the most beneficial, or at least he had convinced himself that it would be. Boredom quickly kicked in as he walked. Maybe he would let his mind wonder the Holocron for a moment. Jalen opened his thoughts to the archive, letting the information within begin to fill his head. Basics on healing, the principles of transferring energy... all stuff that seemed important. There was even a section on the use of force sight. That was the only way Jalen could see the world. Perhaps he-

The boys thoughts cut off as he tumbled forward. His legs had hit something in the hall. Jalen went down face first into the tiled floor of the hallway, not even making an effort to save himself. He didn't have time to process it till he was on the floor. The Holocron slipped out of his hands, skidding a few inches out across the tile. Using the force to perceive his surroundings again, Jalen realized what it was: a girl, maybe close to his age. He had tripped over a fellow student and had likely made a complete fool of himself.

"...Sorry," Jalen muttered in a defeated tone.

He had avoided interaction up until this point and now he had ruined anything further. It was shaping up to be a great day.

 

[Maran]

Everything was pretty chill thus far. The temple, all shiny and new. Calming to some. Kinda calming to her. She was never a fan of the older scent of.. Well older places. The reason why it was new was less calming. How many times had this temple been destroyed? By the accounts she could read on, many. Too many. She frowned, flicking through the reports curiously.

At least until she felt a bump on her feet as someone tumbled over them. Why? She was literally out in the middle, laid back in plain sight. Just so people wouldn't trip over her.

"Oi oi. What's your problem? I'm reading." She huffed, pushing herself to her feet. Staring at the boy who.. Hadn't stood up yet. And looked miserable. Too miserable for her to stay annoyed at. She sighed, reaching out a hand. "Just.. Keep an eye out, y'know?"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

"Just.. Keep an eye out, y'know?"

Now he had done it. Not only had the girl become frustrated with him, but she had told him to watch where he was going. Jalen's stomach began to swirl ever so slightly. Now he was gonna turn, she would see that he was blind, and the whole thing would become super awkward. Rather reluctantly, the padawan rotated himself, studying the image of the padawan looming over him. Her figure was humanoid from the looks of her aura, but he hadn't figured out how to tell species apart from there. His eyes had seen when he was younger. Jalen wished he had a fraction of that ability right about now.

Jalen hesitated for a moment when the girl held out her hand. He needed to look for a moment to see how close her aura really was. Depth perception was difficult when you only saw the world in energy. Slowly, and a bit unsure, he took her hand. allowing her the leverage to help him to his feet.

"Sorry..." he apologized again, just as miserable as he had sounded before. "I'll... try to pay more attention."

He wanted so badly to sink into the floor and vanish.

 

[Maran]

"Oh shit you're blind."

She blurted it out without a second thought. But still tugged him to his feet. Then glanced away awkwardly. Cleared her throat. Ah she really was a jerk, then, huh? "Sorry, uh. I'm uhhhhhhhhhh." For a moment the Mirialan just trailed off to try and find something new to speak about. Anything. Literally anything.

"You read about th- Uh. .. Right I'm Maran. Nice to meet you?"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

Jalen sighed, his shoulders dropping ever so slightly. He was very much blind.

"Yeah..." the padawan affirmed. "...I am."

He didn't need to be able to see the girl's face to hear the awkward tone in her voice. Jalen saw that one coming from a mile away. The boy wished that he could be somewhere else right now. Off with his brother, perhaps, something to forget about this entire scenario he had found himself in. With a gentle hand, Jalen pulled the dropped Holocron up into his grasp, taking hold of it with both hands as to not wind up awkwardly finding a place for them to be. The girl stumbled over her words for a bit, but managed to get out her name.

"...Jalen," he introduced, though not very enthusiastically. "You don't need to apologize. I probably would've tripped if there was nothing there..."

 

[Maran]

She stared for a moment. The original bit of embarrassment and pity for him being blind and her making fun of it without realizing it was gone now. Instead, now she was annoyed. "Holy chit you're depressing." Maran stood up straighter, rubbing at the back of her head as she turned her gaze off, glancing down the halls. Humming.

"Mmnope. No more depressing. What do you do for fun around here? You better have something you do for fun."

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

Jalen wasn't expecting to be so suddenly put on the spot. Fun? He did all kinds of thing for fun.

"W-well," he began with a frown. "I like to tinker sometimes... and every now and then I try to make music, but I never really end up liking what I make... I used to sneak out and explore, but I was told to stop doing that..."

So it turned out that he actually didn't do as much fun as he thought. Jalen always had his head in something. Anything to forget, well, everything. Lothal in particular. He tried to think of what his brother would do in a situation like this. Jasper seemed so well put together, even when things blew up in his face. How did he handle situations like this so easily?

Oh, he hadn't given his name yet. He figured it would be best to do that. Not giving his name would be rather rude.

"Right... I'm Jalen," he introduced.

And that was that. Jalen saw no need to draw it out.

 

[Maran]

"Wo, alright. You already introduced yourself so just.. Take a breath? Relax?" She raised a brow, watching him. Was it the blind thing? Maybe it was the blind thing. She wasn't sure how to help with that, or if she even should so.. Focus on the other thing. He listed a couple things, but one stood out. One that made her grin.

"Wait wait, you play? Music? What do you play?"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

Jalen became red with embarrassment. Had he already introduced himself? That definitely didn't help him.

"I-I did?" he asked, still rather reserved.

He was happy to let the subject change. Jalen was glad that music was the thing that his fellow padawan had decided to hone in on. Music was something that he was very comfortable with, even if he wasn't as practiced as he would like to be.

"Hallikset mostly," Jalen explained, "But I can play most instruments with strings."

 

[Maran]

"No shit, Hallikset? That's awesome! I uh- I play just a base guitar. It's not as fancy, but I'm really good!" Better than good, but she was dialing back the confidence for his sake. And trying to get him to focus on the whole music topic rather than beat himself up about something else. Bad vibes that.

"How long you been playing for?"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

"Since I was a really young," Jalen answered. "I-I mean, it's more of a hobby. I'm okay. I've been a bit out of practice since I... lost my hallikset."

It had been in the fire. Jalen had lost more than his eyes that day. He had been borrowing his brother's to play recently, and had used his roommate's (Zak Dymo 's) a few times, but it wasn't the same as owning his own. He would need to fix this, but there was a time and a place for such things.

"It's okay," he assured. "I'm just gonna save up my credits to get a new one. I'll... have enough eventually."

Jalen, in fact, only had a few credits to his name. Jasper had given them to him. He was gonna use the money to get snacks as Jasper had suggested, but when he found out that it was all the money that his brother had, Jalen couldn't bring himself to spend it. It felt so valuable, like converting all of his big bro's life savings into perishable confections. He couldn't do that, not with a good conscious. So getting a hallikset seemed far more valuable. He just needed a few hundred more. Realistically, he knew it was never going to happen.

"Yeah," Jalen nodded, noticeably not confident in his affirmation. "Eventually."

 

[Maran]

Not enough money to get a new one? What? Didn't he get an allowance here at the temple? .. Or was that just back at her own? Well, crap, now she wasn't sure what to say. He seemed all fine and dandy being all depressed about it. About something. Did he always need to look so damn glum?

"Dude, stop being so sad. I'm sure you'll get one."

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

"I'm not... sad..." Jalen frowned, but he really couldn't put in the effort to lie. He was terrible at it.

The boy sighed, hanging his head. He was a wreck. Truly in every sense of the word. He wanted to think that he had an excuse. His home went down in flames, people constantly act like he's less capable because he's blind... It seemed like everything was stacked up against him. Why shouldn't he be miserable? Jalen knew better than that. He didn't want to be miserable. Nobody truly did. It just seemed like such a tall task to get over all that. Proving how capable he was blind had already been difficult, and tripping over people didn't help his case.

"Look," he began, "I'm sorry I'm miserable. Just... please don't feel sorry for me." Jalen turned his head, adverting his face. His eyes, or course, did nothing. "Everyone feels sorry for me."

 

[Maran]

"If you're gonna keep feeling sorry for yourself of course everyone else is gonna feel sorry for you. Bein' blind n' chit is like, top reason people feel sympathy. 'Poor kid, being blind. He looks soooo sad.'" She shrugged her shoulders before hopping forward, past him. Paused for a moment once she remembered the whole blind thing and that he probably didn't actually see her start to walk off.

"C'mon. Let's not be sorry for a bit. I got a couple instruments in my room. Let's plaaay. I figure you still can since you were talkin' about it. Right?"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

She was right. It was hard for people not to feel sorry for him when he was so down and out all the time. It was easy for people to feel sorry for him. Maybe he needed a change of attitude. Easier said than done, obviously. There were tons of things plaguing Jalen's mind that weren't easily purged. Perhaps he just needed to start small...

"C'mon. Let's not be sorry for a bit. I got a couple instruments in my room. Let's plaaay. I figure you still can since you were talkin' about it. Right?"

That would work.

"Yeah," he agreed. "S-sure. I can play."

He went to follow her, noticing the pause she had taken. Likely because she knew he was blind.

"You don't need to slow down, by the way," he informed her. "I can sense where people are kinda. W-well, I need some practice, but I know generally where you are."

 

[Maran]

"You can.. See, without eyes." By the way she was speaking, it was obvious she didn't believe him, or something similar. She just raised a brow. Put her hands on her hips.

"So then what, you tripped on me to try and make friends or something? Coulda just talked to me." And there it was. Teasing. She was teasing him. She snickered, dropping the whole disbelief act to turn and lead the way through the hall.

"C'mon."

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

"So then what, you tripped on me to try and make friends or something? Coulda just talked to me."

"I-It doesn't work like that," Jalen defended, now flush red with embarrassment. "I..."

Wait. Was she making fun of him? How could her tone go from disbelief to... She was teasing him. That was it. A soft frown formed on Jalen's face as he followed Maran down the halls of the temple. What she had said about just talking to her remained in his head. Could he have just talked to her had he noticed she was there? It was hard to say. He was always so worried about being talked down to or treated like a wounded puppy that he never really went out of his way to try.

"I could've made friends the normal way," he stated. "Y-yeah... yeah."

There was no confidence in that statement.

 

[Maran]

"Man if you don't lighten up with at least an instrument in your hands I swear you'll end up the poster boy for 'edgy' in the dictionary." She paused just enough to wait for him to step beside her, then slapped him right in the center of his spine. Not to gently at that, with an all too big grin. "People look at you like you're weak or broken, right? And you don't like it? Stop acting the part then, bruh."

Then it was back to leading the way. Round a corner, open a door, and bam. Her room.

It was as messy and chaotic as she seemed to be. Robes haphazardly tossed around, probably in need of a wash she didn't care to do. And, instruments. Just a couple. Guitar, bass, back in the corner. She picked up the guitar, glanced it over for a moment. Then tossed it his way like she was expecting him to catch it.

"C'mon, play!"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

She went on to tell him not to act so 'broken and weak,' which seemed to be a reoccurring point that the mirialan kept bringing up. That was easier said than done. Jalen couldn't immediately develop social skills out of the blue. It didn't work like that. Suddenly, the boy's instincts kicked in. Something was moving towards him, and quickly. It was coming from Maran's direction. Was it an instrument. Immediately, a wave of pressure flooded over Jalen. He needed to catch it.

With his arms outstretched, the blonde padawan prepared to intercept the guitar... unfortunately, his reflexes provided no more information aside from where it was coming from, and there was nothing on the instrument for his force sight to pick up. As he stood ready to catch it, the guitar sailed slightly higher then his arms were positioned, the backside hitting him square in the forehead. As he fell backwards, the guitar slid down his face into his grasp, allowing him to cradle the instrument as he went down. A rather comedically loud thud later and Jalen was on the floor.

"I got it."

 

[Maran]

She tried to hide her laugh.

.. No, no she didn't. Maran let out a giggle, shaking her head. At least he didn't let it hit the ground. that might've annoyed her. Maybe. She probably shouldn't of tossed it at him.

"I thought you said you could still see?"

Jalen Kai'el