Private Before the Plunge

[Jayce Rotsu]

Location: Lower Levels, Coruscant
Time: 1 Day Before Induction Point
Tag: Capris Halcyon

Jayce Rotsu received two messages before departing the Jedi Temple for Coruscant's lower levels.

The first was the more mundane. An assignment to patrol for gang activity alongside fellow Padawan Capris Halcyon. Jayce had taken on a number of these missions since his promotion to Padawan. He supposed they were to refine his skills until someone could be assigned his Master; which brought him to the second message.

Padawan Rotsu—

You are to report to the Room of a Thousand Fountains tomorrow morning. Jedi Knight Amani Serys has been assigned to take over your training. You are her Padawan now. Congratulations.​

The brief moment of elation was brought crashing down by the crippling fear that he would managed to fuck this up like he did everything else. The 'Eternal Padawan' they called him. The 'Padawan Who Was Too Old'. Jayce had always been somewhat of a late-bloomer, but he got the feeling this was his last shot. His clan on Haruun Kal had sent him to the Jedi for failing to meet their expectations. Where would the Jedi send him if he failed to meet theirs?

He tried not to dwell on these anxieties as he and Capris made their rounds. The Undercity was dirty and the unhoused crowded back alleys, but outside the occassional death stick deal, he didn't see any signs of gang activity. So, his frustrations surfaced in other ways.

"Why do they send us on these patrols?" he mused both to himself aloud, and to Capris next to him. "The gangs have always controlled the lower levels. It doesn't seem the Order's ventures here help anything."

Not even the nerves of an anxious Padawan.
​

 

[Capris Halcyon]

TAGS: Jayce Rotsu

​

Capris couldn't help but blink. From the very beginning of their assignment it'd been obvious something had Jayce occupied. Beyond the erasure of scum and villainy from Coruscant's sublevels that is.

But despite his tightly-strung nerves, she hadn't pushed. So long as it didn't interfere with the mission she was happy to leave it unaddressed. It was the kind of self-imposed distance her social skills were best suited for.

But Jayce was frustrated. Nervous even.

So in some attempt to engage him, she shrugged. Snorting at his pointed remarks, glad she wasn't the only one who shared in them. "Probably to feed our raging superiority complex." She mused with a smirk. "Y'know, make-believe we have any real stakes here."

It was a joke. Maybe.

She'd liked to think their presence amounted to anything, but first hand experience had taught her the true depth of Coruscant's depravity. The Jedi were a bandaid slapped on a bullet wound. Anyone could see they'd never come close to stopping the bleeding.

"Would you rather be somewhere else?" She then asked. A bit pointedly. "Just speculating, but you seem to have more on your mind than the Order's infinite shortcomings."

 

[Jayce Rotsu]

Jayce flushed at Carpis' question. He hated that he was so obvious, but he was quite literally vibrating out of his own skin at this point. He sighed, "No, sorry. It's just—"

Don't overshare, Jayce, he warned himself. People don't like it when you overshare.

"I get to meet my Master tomorrow," he explained. "I've lived at the Temple for ten years. I've been a Padawan for three. But beyond the temple instructors, no one has trained me. Not outside the basics. I suppose I'm just... I really don't want to kark this up."

There. He'd done it. He'd overshared.

Jayce tried to play off his predicament by taking a sweep of their surroundings; but, thus far, there was nothing for them to see. The streets were unsettlingly quiet that evening.

"It's just weird the Council would have me on patrol duty tonight, you know?" he continued, because at this point, he could not shut up. The awkward silence was too much for his rattled nerves. "Shouldn't I be back at the Temple preparing or something? It feels like a waste of time."

Capris Halcyon​

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[Capris Halcyon]

"No offense but it looks like you could use the distraction." With a side of amusement the girl let Jayce ramble unimpeded.

So he'd just landed himself a Master? Yeah, that was a solid reason to be ridden with anxiety. One she could absolutely empathize with.

"But I get it. The not wanting to kark up part." She crossed her arms, casting a dismissive glance towards the dead alleys on either side. Idle chit-chat aside, they were still on the clock. "Didn't think I'd ever have a Master in any official capacity. Wasn't exactly a strong candidate for one if I'm being honest." Shoulders shrugging in unison the girl gave into a small, self-deprecating grin. "I joined the Order late, kinda aimlessly. Not sure exactly what I did to deserve a full-fledged apprenticeship now that I mention it, but- " Shiting her gaze back to Jayce she canted her head "I think you'll find things have a way of panning out."

She liked to think they had in her case anyway.

With another glance towards their surroundings and their suspicious lack of anything stimulating the girl pushed on, "Who are you getting assigned to anyway?"

Jayce Rotsu

 

[Jayce Rotsu]

Jayce supposed she was right. He did need a distraction.

"Master Serys-Organa," he replied, though he wasn't entirely sure he was pronouncing her name correctly. "I've never met her before, so I guess I'm kinda hoping we 'fit', you know?"

Master and Padawan relationships were all about the bond and the teamwork it produced. He had heard of several gone wrong. Several more where the Master in question had relinquished their Padawan. He did not want to be one of those.

He opened his mouth to say more — because he had more to get off his chest; the more he said, the more he felt better — but paused. He squinted around at their surroundings, opening himself up to the Force as he should have been doing from the beginning.

"Where is everyone?" Jayce asked. "The streets are never this quiet this late at night."

Capris Halcyon​

​

 

[Capris Halcyon]

“Chief Healer Serys-Organa?” She repeated, eyebrows raised in unison, “Shit- not bad. You must’ve done something right.” But yeah, a stressful assignment. She was all too familiar with wanting to prove her worth when it came to Kahlil Noble . To not feel entirely dwarfed by the legacy and expectations he’d already forged as Shield.

“Met her once actually.” The girl continued with a faint incline of her head,“ She helped me out of a bind a while back, patched me up. You’re in good hands.”

Jayce was quick to bring them back to the objective at hand, to which she regarded the surrounding area with similar skepticism, shifting her weight off the pole she’d been leaning on.“Yeah your right, somethings off-”

As if fate itself were listening, the cock of a gun sounded from behind them, its barrel soon pressed to the back of her head. Chit.

“That would be the two Jedi Scum sticking their noses where they don’t belong.” A gravelly voice mused, two other aliens flanking either side of him, both armed. “Long way from the temple, aren’t we?”

Jayce Rotsu