Private He Did What?

[Iris Arani]

"Rainbow and more. There are colors I see I can't actually describe. There's no known word for them. Then again, Keshian can see way more colors than normal people anyway." There was a change in him, in the colors. Excitement? Curiosity for sure. Focus, definitely. There was little chance Iris wasn't going to latch on to that given his generally dismissive attitude thus far.

Rhythm and beat, huh? Part of her now wondered just what her own rhythm was if everyone had their own, but she refrained from asking. At least for the moment. Focus on the paper. She did her best not to laugh at his dance, instead just smiling. Focusing instead on what he was saying.

"No weirder than seeing peoples emotions as colors around them." She snickered this time, shaking her head. "The Force isn't the same to everyone. Like snowflakes, no two people are the same. I've never met someone who sees the Force like I do, and you might not ever meet someone who can hear it like you can. But it doesn't make you weird." She hummed for a moment before lifting her hand again. Once more lifting a sheet of the paper up in the air around him. Slowly swaying in the colors she saw around them.

"The hardest part, for me, was learning how to see the different colors. They're everywhere, all the time. Always moving, running, blending together and splitting. It's as deafening as it is blinding. But when I figured it out, everything opened up for me. So.. Listen. Close your eyes and find the rhythm of the paper. Feel that. Find the rhythm of what I'm doing to them. Separate the two, and then play your own song."

Zak Dymo

 

[BB-4001A]

Wait, this actually sounded cool.

WHERE WAS THIS SIDE OF THE FORCE HIS WHOLE TIME AT THE JEDI ACADEMY?

Some of what she said, he didn't understand but Zak actually listened to every word. "Like, colors that no one knows exist?" the boy asked, picking up on her commentary about the indescribable nature of what she saw. "ASTRAL!"

He actually moved closer as she described seeing emotions as color around people. "Wait. Really?" the Nautolan chirped, immediately curious at what that would be like. "What color am I? Am I green? Please, say I'm green!"

Honestly, if he couldn't be green then he'd settle for anything that wasn't blue. Blue Nautolans were just a no.

Blue Zak's were a no-er no.

"The hardest part, for me, was learning how to see the different colors. They're everywhere, all the time. Always moving, running, blending together and splitting. It's as deafening as it is blinding. But when I figured it out, everything opened up for me. So.. Listen. Close your eyes and find the rhythm of the paper. Feel that. Find the rhythm of what I'm doing to them. Separate the two, and then play your own song."

Arms outstretched, the Nautolan boy looked down at the toilet paper draping his skinny form and tried to wrap his brain around what she'd said.

Separate the two..? What was he separating?

Were they like different notes? Or chords

Closing his eyes, the boy listened to the music. Swaying to the beat, the boy watched as Iris manipulated the toilet paper, trying to find the rhythm. "There's so much noise," the boy noted.

The Force ran through the planet. Through Zak. Through Iris. Into the air. A constantly moving ebb and flow. Trying to isolate what Iris was doing was...

...well, like listening to a power ballard and trying to figure out what note the bassist was playing, with drums and guitar and a keyboardist and a vocalist all clamoring notes on top of what you were hearing.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

​

"Green, blue, red, all the colors really. Your emotions, your intentions, that's what changes the colors. Also lets me see when people lie. Most people feel guilt when they do." She winked as if she revealed some crazy secret. In a way it was. Part of the reason she was even going to end up a Shadow was the fact she could see emotion like this. Knowing what the target's intentions or emotional state was literally half the battle.

Ah, right. Iris smiled just a little as she nodded. The mess of noise, or color in her case, with so many different sources around to interfere and cloud it all. "There is. So much noise. You can probably hear everything. It's a burden, but it's a gift all the same. Breath, trust your instincts. Trust the Force. Find my rhythm through the noise, and you'll be able to make a harmony out of anything."

Zak Dymo

 

[BB-4001A]

Find my rhythm through the noise, and you'll be able to make a harmony out of anything."

"Find the rhythm through the noise?" the boy echoed, his head going back as he looked at the woman with a healthy dose of skepticism.

"It's noise," Zak uttered. Noise didn't have rhythm. It was just... noise. How was he supposed to find the rhythm in the noise?

To her credit, this chick wasn't making any sense. But she was at least making more sense than most people.

Plus, she was the first person he could recall who didn't approach the Force like it was a one size fits some kind of thing where everybody was treated the same.

Closing his eyes, the Nautolan swayed from side to side. His head bopped along as he listened the music. Tried to follow the rhythm as it flowed around the toilet paper. Tried to guide the way the music flowed.

A featherpush extended out from the boy's palm, pushing the toilet paper strand upward.

Then the beat dropped, as a pull snapped the toilet paper backward toward the Nautolan.

Eyes fluttering open, the boy just stared at the toilet paper as though awestruck.

"Oh."

 

[Iris Arani]

"It.. Could be. You know best what has and doesn't have rhythm. If it even does." Rhythm was the only way she could think to translate how her own perception of the Force worked. The colors she saw had their own rhythms.

Or so she guessed. Maybe that's not how it worked for hi- Oh he did it. She blinked. "Oh."

Then laughed. "Well look at that. You figured something out. Quick, keep at it. Focus on that feeling, sound, rhythm, whatever it was. Pick up the rest."

Zak Dymo

 

[BB-4001A]

Reaching out, the boy tried to repeat what he'd done.

The ribbon of toilet paper flew through the air toward him. Giving a giggle, the Nautolan repeated it a third and then a fourth time. Then tried for something different as he pulled two ribbons to him at once.

"I'm doing it!" the boy uttered cheerfully, as he continued picking up the toilet paper.

When he'd finished, the aquatic proudly help up an armful of toilet paper.

"You're a really good teacher," Zak declared with a large smile.

"For a girl, that is."

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But it is what it is.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

Huh. Maybe she could actually teach people. Iris watched in a silent kind of joy as Zak seemed to express his own and.. Clean up her ship. Given the fuss he made not too long ago about it she did find it all too funny how excited he was now that he had. A brow raised, though.

"Are girls not normally good teachers?" In her entire life she'd never actually dealt with the whole boys versus girls. Didn't help that when she would've been at the age that happened she was still living in the slums with her heads deep in the clouds to notice.

"Who is your master, anyway?"

Zak Dymo

 

[BB-4001A]

"Are girls not normally good teachers?"

"Maybe, I dunno," the boy answered with a shrug. "They just always seem preoccupied with dresses or hair or hand lotion," Zak remarked candidly. Iris was a girl. Maybe she could explain something to him.

"Which, why does hand lotion have to smell like fruit?" the Nautolan inquired. Because it was like apple or berry or whatever shea butter was supposed to be. Who rubbed butter into their hands anyway? Butter belonged on rolls. "Who wants to smell like an apple?"

"Who is your master, anyway?"

"I had a master, but she disappeared," Zak remarked, giving another shrug. "I've kinda bounced around Jedi Temples since then. Followed Coren Starchaser into some invasions. Got dragged along by Matsu Ike to some ruins or whatever. But Master Nef pretty much noped out on me."

 

[Iris Arani]

"I.. Don't use hand lotion." Or messed with her hair much. Though dresses, that she'd recently gotten into. She did agree though. Who put butter on their hands? Were they a baker? .. Were girls supposed to be baking all the time?

A question to ask Valery Noble now, for sure.

"Your master.. Left? .. Well that's no good." She hummed in thought, thinking for a moment. Really thinking. She knew a couple of Padawan's without Masters and things.. Never went the best for them. Some of them. Jasper was fine, at least. But not everyone.

"Why don't you be my Padawan?"

Zak Dymo

 

[BB-4001A]

"Your master.. Left? .. Well that's no good."

"Yeah..." the boy said. For a moment, the mask slipped. His shoulders slumped and she got a peek at how he really felt.

Then, he seemed to take a breath. The smile was back. Self-deprecating humor forced a laugh as the boy admitted, "I have that effect on people, I guess. They call me the Padawan Menace."

No, wait, that wasn't entirely accurate. "Well, except for Lugus Porkins , he calls me Shrimp," Zak recalled. But the Republic starfighter pilot was the only person Zak could recall who ever called him that.

"Which, honestly, I never understood," the boy admitted, as he looked back up at Iris. Reaching back behind his head, he used both hands to flare the head-tails out so that he was displaying all fourteen of them. "I mean, look at these tentacles. Definitely not shrimp-like."

Then Iris asked about his becoming her padawan.

That caught the boy by surprise. Hadn't they just met?

Hadn't he just toilet papered her starfighter?

"Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but be my Jedi master maybe?" the boy joked. Because she was joking. Right?

Right?

"Oh, chit, you're serious," the Nautolan uttered, when the truth sank in. His large black eyes just blinked.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

Padawan menace?

Iris glanced to her ship, fondly remembering five minutes ago when it was covered in toilet paper. She could see that, yeah. It actually brought a bit of a laugh, though the seriousness behind it stifled it just a bit. The joke was completely lost to her, but she nodded.

"Should I not be?"

Zak Dymo

 

[BB-4001A]

"I dunno," Zak replied with a shrug.

Just what did Jedi look for in padawans? How did Jedi pick padawans? Because it just seemed random AF. On that note, "My last master picked me out after this lightsaber tournament," Zak recalled aloud, before glancing at Iris' starfighter.

When he'd looked back, he said, "Toilet papering a starfighter just seems..." He stopped there, unable to find the word he was looking for.

"Well, I guess, that's pretty much me in a nutshell. So if you like that, then I guess you'll like me," he offered with a large grin.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

"Master Valery picked me up after I tagged a slaver compound and almost got sold myself. And I continued to tag. Mostly the temple. I think a couple of my tags are still up on the Kashyyk temple, now that I think about it. Probably should go back to clean them but.." She shrugged nonchalantly. All things considered Zak's go to was at least not property damage. And far easier to clean up.

Oh, that was something to think about. Oh no. How much did Valery Noble have to do to clean up after her? Yeah, she'd have to apologize for that, later.

"But.. It's your choice. I think I can teach you. In a way most people probably couldn't. It's not the same, but.. I get it. When you see, or hear, the Force in a way no one else does. It's difficult. People don't get how difficult it is to pick up on what they're saying. So.. I'll give it a shot, if you will. Grant it I've never actually trained anyone before more than like, side missions and even now I'm rambling so I'll probably mess some stuff up." She laughed. Nervously.

"But.. I'll keep you safe. As much as I can I'll keep you safe."

Zak Dymo