Private Night at the Archives

[Jayce Rotsu]

Location: Jedi Archives, Jedi Temple, Coruscant
Time: Night
Tag: Julien Lucero

This probably wasn't a good idea.

Jayce was known for those. Bad ideas. But this was quite possibly his worst.

Save for the Jedi from nocturnal species, the corridors around the Jedi Archives were emptied out; and Jayce could easily avoid the patrol droids. In his decade living at the Temple, he had learned their every route. Getting into the Archives would not be difficult. Getting into the Bogan Collection on the other hand... well, Padawans were known to do it from time to time; but it was risky.

No risk, no reward, Jayce reminded himself.

He had been obsessed with the idea for weeks. The secrets in the Bogan Collection could make him a strong Jedi, more well-equipped to fight the growing dark in the galaxy. The Order liked to pretend their victory at Exegol meant a reduction in the threat the Sith could bring. Jayce knew better. The Sith were hiding, as they always did, but they would return again. Stronger, more dangerous. The Brotherhood of the Maw would just be another skin they shed. And he wanted to be ready for whatever new skin they adopted.

"Now, remember," Jayce said to the companion he had quite literally roped into his latest scheme. "Voice down, and follow me. The nighttime librarian is lazy. Getting by her won't be the problem. It's the night owl Jedi that are the wild cards." He flashed Julien a confident smirk. "But, if we can get past them? Secrets—all of them, at our fingertips." He turned back to face the direction of the main archive. "Our Masters will have to be proud of our progress after this."
​

 

[Julien Lucero]

Location: Courscant, Jedi Temple, Jedi Archives
With: Jayce Rotsu
Wearing: Brown Tunic, Brown Trousers, Black Boots
​

A week.

All it had taken for him to cause trouble was a week. He'd always had the reputation of being a troublemaker, of course. He loved playing pranks and things back whilst his parents were working. It was probably one of the few things he found joy in, being the only child on the mining facility. Breaking into places wasn't anything new to him either, he was constantly picking locks to get into restricted areas on the facility.

He had however expected it to take longer than a week to be roped into some drama on Courscant.

Ever since the incident on the mining facility, ever since he had met Valery Noble and she'd arranged transport to Courscant for him, everything had changed. He'd gone from being a faily insignificant boy on a gas mining facility loved by his parents to being an orphan on a strange planet being introduced to a whole new group of people he'd never even heard of before.

Being introduced to the space wizards. Being told he was a space wizard. Yes, okay, the official term for them was Jedi but they were definity space wizards. They could move things using a mythical power called the force (a power that Valery Noble had very loosely explained to him before she'd brought him to Courscant) and also do a load more things that he hadn't been taught about yet.

Julien attempted to hide the sadness in his face as his thoughts turned to replaying the incident over and over again.

Blood. Why could he taste blood? Then he realised why. He had been biting his lip, as he did when he was stressed. He was stressed over the incident, stressed over his entire life being uprooted and moved to a fancy temple in Courscant, stressed because he still hadn't sorted any new clothes, stressed because he was apparently some super fancy space wizard and stressed because his new friend had roped him into something stupid.

That was a good distraction. The scheme he had been roped into.

Now Julien had tried to advise that the adventure was stupid. He'd tried multiple times but his companion (his new friend, maybe) hadn't listened. The young boy had only been in the temple for a week and he had already learnt that the archives were off limits to the younger space wizards, the Jedi Padawans. He'd tried explaining this but had been ignored.

"For the record, I still think this is a bad idea"

He spoke to Jayce in barely a whisper before he let the faintest smile creep over his face. His young companion began to run through the plan. The plan, as far as Julien could tell, appeared to be a little bit of sneaking and a lot of following until they got into the archives. Julien hadn't quite figured out what would happen once they were in, he assumed his young companion had a personal mission or something.

"Lead the way cowboy. I'll blow my chances at getting a master in the first week"

 

[Jayce Rotsu]

"For the record," Jayce replied, looking back over his shoulder and cocking a brow at Julien. "My bad ideas are usually my best. Now, come on."

Jayce moved deftly into the Archives, crouched so as not to be seen by the patrol droid or the librarian. The cavernous chamber, usually chalked full of Jedi preparing fo their missions, was eerily empty at this hour. Save for one person.

"Shit," Jayce cursed under his breath, and pushed Julian behind one of the towering holobook shelves. He put a finger to his lip to tell the other boy to keep his voice down. "Looks like we're going to have to be more careful."

Maeve Linahan was sitting at one of the tables towards the back of the Archive, adjacent to the main intake desk. She was lost in a holo-book, unaware of their presence, for now. Jayce had only heard rumors about Maeve, but he had been told she could be scary. The scariest Jedi in the whole temple.

"What's she doing up?" he whispered, then sighed. "It's okay. This is fine. The stairs are right there." He pointed to a spiral of steps that ascended to the second floor of the immense library. "The Bogan Collection is upstairs. She'll never see us up there. If we can just get up the stairs without her noticing, we're home free."

Of course, 'just' was doing a lot of work for him. This was Maeve Linahan after all. She wasn't a Master, but she was a Jedi Shadow. Little got by them.

Julien Lucero​

​

 

[Julien Lucero]

Location: Courscant, Jedi Temple, Jedi Archives
With: Jayce Rotsu & Maeve Linahan
Wearing: Brown Tunic, Brown Trousers, Black Boots​

The archives were stunning, that was his first thought as he was led through them by his companion.

Julien was almost certain that you could and would be able to find pretty much any fact about the known galaxy in the archives. Julien was also pretty sure you'd be able to find facts about the unknown galaxy. The towering collection of holobooks was a sight to behold, more information contained within them than any one person, no matter their species, would be able to absorb.

Why did everyone forget he was so small? That was his next thought.

He was pushed behind one of the holobook towers by Jayce. The young boy probably wasn't even pushed with much force, but because he was so small (and because he nearly tripped, though he chose to blame his lack of vertical growth over the years) he nearly ended up going backwards. He steadied himself as he heard his friend curse under his breath.

Slowly, the young boy looked out. He spotted what his friend must have seen quite easily. A lone Jedi was sat working away at the late hour. He heard Jayce ask what she was doing up so late and he assumed that meant Jayce's flawless plan had gone wrong. Julien assumed this meant that improvisation was in order, that they'd have to come up with a new plan.

"I can distract her, act like I'm lost. It's believable, I'm new here. It'll give you time to get upstairs and get what you want"

It wasn't his finest plan, but he had to admit it would work. He was the new face, being lost would make sense. He'd have to come up with some explaination for why he was up and out so late but he was sure he could come up with something, probably. Hopefully he'd be able to come up with something anyway, provided his companion was willing to go along with his plan.

"Unless you have a better idea"

 

[Jayce Rotsu]

Jayce glanced across the Archive floor at Maeve, ensuring that she hadn't looked their way, then backed Julien into a corner, his hands squarely on his fellow Padawan's shoulders.

"Have you lost your mind?" he asked, incredulous. "Do you know who that is? That's Maeve Linahan. She may not be a Master, but she scares the hell out of several who are. She's a Jedi Shadow, and if she catches the faintest whiff of us here, she'll hang us upside down from the Council Spire."

He was exaggerating, of course.

Maeve could be scary. About that, her reputation was clear. But Jayce had hardly heard tales of her being cruel. Still, that didn't mean she wasn't, and he wasn't about to take a chance.

"No! No distractions," he hissed. "We have to be quiet. Sneak by slowly. She's really wrapped up in that book of hers." He checked again, just to make sure had not moved. "Just follow me, and we should make it out of this intact."

Jayce let go of Julien, crouched, and began to creep towards the landing of the spiral stairs. The edge of the bookshelf obfuscated the landing, but that would not be the case as they got further up. They had to be absolutely slow and silent if they stood a chance of avoiding her notice.

Tags: Julien Lucero | Maeve Linahan​

​

 

[Julien Lucero]

Location: Courscant, Jedi Temple, Jedi Archives
With: Jayce Rotsu | Maeve Linahan
​

He hadn't got the foggiest idea what a Jedi Shadow was.

It was likely to come up in his studies, sure, but it hadn't come up yet. It meant nothing to him, although from how Jayce was saying it he assumed a Jedi Shadow was some form of elite Jedi of some description. Jayce definitely assumed that she was worth being worried about and he was willing to trust his friend, even though they hadn't know each other long.

Distractions were out of the question, that had been made clear to him. The plan appeared to be sneaking behind the Jedi and up to the stairs to their goal. He'd heard rumours that the force amplified the hearing of a Jedi, so he wasn't quite sure how they were going to be able to get behind the female and upsairs to their prize. It seemed quite a difficult task.

Julien followed Jayce slowly. Both boys were crouched, moving as slow as possible as to not disturb the Jedi Shadow. The stairs seemed both quite close and very far away. Every step Julien took, he looked towards the woman at the desk to ensure that he wasn't disturbing her. If they got caught, he wasn't quite sure what would happen, but he didn't want to find out.

The stairs were right there. Just a few more steps to go.

 

[Jayce Rotsu]

Jayce followed up the rear; but, unlike Julien, he did not keep much of an eye on Maeve. He couldn't. If he did, he was terrified she would sense his stare and he would have given them away. Better to focus on the task at hand, that way he could be more careful.

The young Padawan sucked a breath in and pulled the Force to them. Nearly a decade as the temple troublemaker had taught him how to use the Force to muffle the sounds of footfalls. So, he wrapped the Force around his and Julien's feet. Maeve was no ordinary Human. She belonged to a Near-Human race that had enhanced hearing on top of what the Force could provide. Without this technique, they would not succeed.

One step. Two.

A third, fourth.

Then they were finally on the top landing without incident. Jayce was almost tempted to glance downstairs and see if Maeve had moved, but decided against it. Why tempt fate now?

He pulled Julien out of the Shadow's sight and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I see the Collection door over there," he pointed to a large vault behind a row of shelves. "Do you think you can take point? Watch our backs for droids and... Maeve? Alert me if you see anything?"

He wasn't sure how Julien was going to do that without alerting the whole temple to the fact they were up; but he was also fairly certain they wouldn't be caught at this point.

Tags: Julien Lucero | Maeve Linahan​

​

 

[Julien Lucero]

Location: Courscant, Jedi Temple, Jedi Archives
With: Jayce Rotsu | Maeve Linahan ​

Watch for droids.

That he could do. That didn't require any fancy powers or any fancy tools that he didn't have yet, that just required a pair of eyes. His eyes were pretty good, they had recently been tested whilst on the mining facility above Bespin and apparently he'd done pretty well. Looking out for droids was definitely something he could manage, something more his speed.

"Go get what you need"

He watched as his friend went over to the Collection door, and he spun to keep his eyes on the rest of the archives. He seemed fairly certain they were in the home straight now, until they needed to get back down and back out anyway. Everything seemed fairly calm, with the exception of the Jedi Shadow still sat downstairs doing whatever she was doing.

Whilst he waited, he let out a slight sigh. It almost felt good to be causing trouble again, especially after everything that had happened. It felt good to just be a regular kid once again, do something he enjoyed doing. It felt good to be breaking the rules, to be hanging out with a friend. He'd witnessed so much hurt in the last week, being able to just let go was nice.

Julien looked around, keeping an eye out like he was asked. And he waited.