Private Adventures in Multitasking

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

"I thought you said you could still see?"

"I said I could sense people, not see," Jalen defended.

He was very red in the face now. He looked stupid, he couldn't get his thoughts across right, and everything was awful. It didn't help that she had laughed at him. Jalen overwhelmingly had the desire to sink into the floor and vanish. Maybe he should've just gone back to his room. The blind padawan stood, gently laying the guitar against the wall.

"I... should probably just go..." he muttered.

Jalen didn't need to embarrass himself any more.

 

[Maran]

"Wha- I- Huh? You just wanna leave?"

She blinked, mostly in surprise that he was just going to leave. Why? Cause she laughed? Maran frowned after a moment, staring down at herself. Frowned deeper and deeper until just throwing up her hands.

"Wait, don't just go! .. I'm sorry. I figured you didn't want me to y'know, tip toe or something around you. I'm just trying to treat you like I would anyone else. Just- C'mon I wanna hear you play."

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

Now he felt bad. Maybe all of this had been self inflicted. Jalen was poor at getting his thoughts across. It was no wonder there had been such confusion between them. He didn't say anything. That seemed to be getting him nowhere. Jalen simply picked up the guitar again, running his fingers along the strings and getting a feel for the instrument.

Then, with a slight moment of hesitation, mainly to catch his breath, Jalen began to play the cords of a song he had heard before.

There were many like it that he had heard back on Lothal. Playing brought Jalen back to the more peaceful time of his youth, sitting around a fire in an open field with the locals who had raised him, singing songs as the stars began to fill the night sky above the distant ruins of the temple. The moments he imagined always felt so real, like none of it had ever truly left. He was still there, with full sight and straw hat planted on his head, tucked away in the back of a speeder bound for the fields to aid in that years harvest, his pockets filled with dried fruit and a single credit he had found in the soft morning soil.

These memories never lasted. As he played the final cord, the darkness of the present filled back in around him...

But he was smiling.

 

[Maran]

She listened in silence, for once. Let him play without her snide remarks or general jerkishness. And.. He played well. Much better than her, not that she'd ever say that. And.. He smiled. That's what caught her attention the most. He smiled. She smiled in turn, eventually bobbing her head with his tune until he finally finished playing.

"That was good."

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

"Th-thank you."

Jalen gently set the guitar against the wall, with care that one might expect from a nurse giving a meal to a patient, or a parent laying an infant down to sleep. There were a mix of reasons he was always like this. It was partially just his genuine concern for the people around him. A gentle hand did less damage. The other was fear. It was easier to preserve your dignity when you don't fully commit to an action. If he had no idea where the wall was, there would be no concern that he may break the guitar and ruin Maran's day.

"I-I'm sorry," he finally apologized. "I'm not very good at talking to people. M-my brother told me I should start making friends, but... I've been afraid to."

His face was directed at nothing in particular. After all, what was there for him to see. That was the true factor that made him like this. There was so much that he simply couldn't use to tell what a person was thinking, save for a faint glimmer of something in their presence.

"It's hard to talk to people when you can't see their faces."

 

[Maran]

"If you don't know how to talk to people, why not just.. Learn how? For better or worse this is kinda your life now, right? Hiding away, not talking to people cause you dunno how, you're never gonna just.. Learn. You gotta do to get it, y'know?"

She shrugged. Leaned back on her bed. She didn't get it. Didn't get why it was difficult. Didn't really care that it was difficult. All she saw was someone who didn't want to put in the work.

Hypocrisy was always her finest point.

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Maran

​

"It isn't your fault," Jalen concluded out loud. "You still have your eyes."

There was no point in holding her at fault for her comments. They came from a lack of understanding, nothing more. Jalen couldn't change that in a day, and chances are he may not even be able to change it at all.

"It isn't that easy," he told her. "You'd see it if you couldn't."

It was time for him to go. There were things he had to get done today, and of course a holocron to return to the library. They'd likely meet again, which Jalen wasn't opposed to. Jasper wanted him to make friends after all. Maybe he could start with her. It was a thought, anyways.

"I gotta go," the blind padawan concluded. "Let's... meet up again sometime."

With that, he gave a half wave and turned, walking head first into the frame of her door. In embarrassment, he readjusted himself and got through the doorway proper this time, setting off down the hall.