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In many ways Shaak Ti was a most singular individual. As a Togrutan she should have been social and outgoing, but Shaak Ti liked solitude, setting aside an hour every day for individual mediation while also being available and even going out of her way to help others when in the temple. She was humble and a devoted Consular, yet one of the better lightsaber duelists in the Order. She was also a decent teacher, yet had refused to take a padawan yet even from Clan Saa. She could be caring, yet also aloof in many ways.
As the Togrutan gently began to chivvy the paused group forward, images flashed through Harry's mind as he looked at Shaak, and not all of them were his own. Indeed, the two most prominent ones came from Aayla as she remembered two moments when Shaak had helped her after Clan Saa had arrived at the temple.
Flashback:
Aayla looked into a mirror as Shaak slowly wiped her mouth with a cloth. "In lipstick, much like in most beauty products less is more. You of all individuals need not worry about primping yourself up to feel pretty my dear, even if it was not against the Jedi Code to do so."
"If it's against the rules, then why are we allowed cosmetics at all?" Aayla asked, leaning away slightly from the older woman's touch, though Shaak's hand followed her easily.
"I have often thought of that, and I think it is perhaps one of very few nods towards the fact that even though we are Jedi, we are also women. I do not know if there is an equivalent right for the menfolk; perhaps there is not. The Jedi Order tends to think in terms of gender neutrality with a slight bias towards the masculine side for some reason. Which is truly bizarre when you think about it, considering that as far as we know the modern interpretation of the Jedi Order was founded by a woman."
"Nomi Sunrider, right?" Aayla said, her mouth still obscured by the cloth Shaak was using to wipe her mouth. "I looked her up a few years back when Mother Lily wanted to know about them and if she really looked like she was from the Sunrider clan."
"Yes, Lily does look like one of the Sunrider clan, though as far as I am aware there is no longer any Sunrider among the Jedi Order. Considering the Ruusan Reformation and what it did to the Jedi clans, that is all too obvious." Shaak's expressive mouth twitched at that, and she turned slightly to bring up a small mirror, holding it up to Aayla's face. "There. I don't think that color is you, but you can see how I put it on, anyway…"
The lime green might have stood out, but Aayla had to admit that it really did not look good on her at all. Indeed, it made Aayla look funny, and she broke out into a peal of giggles at her image, which also nearly set Harry off in the present day.
End Flashback
The next memory however was much more serious, and wiped the desire to smile off Harry's face.
Flashback:
Aayla stood in one of the Temple's numerous training centers, hurling her body around wildly. No lightsaber was in her hands, but she was moving through a few of the starting movements that all padawans learned in order to build muscle memory and general fitness. But right now Aayla was using it to blow off some steam, her attempts to try to get to grip with the number of emotions going through her via centering herself in the Force having failed miserably.
She had been here in the Temple for half a year now, and even if you set aside the feeling of being away from Harry, which was always at the back of her mind, it had been one of the worst times in her life. And Aayla had been a slave before she met Harry, not a mistreated one, admittedly, but still a slave, so that said something.
Aayla was unused to the stares, the looks of concern, censure, and condemnation that she saw from all too many Masters here. Masters, knights, even some padawans and younglings seemed to look at her and the rest of the clan askance. But Aayla, as the best of them when it came to teaching their abilities to others, seemed to gather a lot more of these looks than the rest of the clan. Is it my fault that I'm trying to teach them things? Is it my fault that I'm showing them up so often by doing things they can't? How dare they say I'm arrogant! How dare they say that my abilities border on the dark! I thought we were Jedi! I thought we were supposed to be above petty rumor-mongering and such like!
She remembered the words of Master Yoda telling them all that change came slowly to the Jedi Order, that there would be some who distrusted the clan for their differences, and that there would be others who looked askance at their abilities. Aayla had heard these words, but she really hadn't understood the import of them before this. Nor had she anticipated how the constant judgmental glances would slowly erode her self-control.
Her furious movements were interrupted by a calm voice asking, "Is that actually helping, youngling? Or are your thoughts simply going around in circles?"
Aayla stopped her movements, turning in the direction of the voice to see Master Ti standing there. She was dressed as if she too had been intent on getting some training,no lightsaber or robe in view. Instead she wore the sports bra and short skirt all female Jedi wore for training and sometimes even actual combat, despite the sight it made of them, or, Aayla sometimes thought, perhaps because of it. After all, enemies who were too busy trying to stare at your body were ignoring your lightsaber.
At that sight Aayla once more had to fight back a bit of un-Jedi-like jealousy at the way the older woman looked. Shaak was so pretty! Her red skin, even with the white flashes of old wounds here and there, stood out so amazingly, and she had a great chest too.
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