A Typically Teenage Competition (Future Titian Hana Closed!)

[Kwiet Ideya]

The garden is empty today. The weather's fine, and it's a perfect day outside. The reason why nobody's out and about, Kwiet supposes, is that the garden has been a whirl of activity since early that morning.

Three people are in the garden. There's Kwiet Jinn, the blonde sixteen year old Padawan with a knack for all things illusory; Titian Snow, a red haired ten year old that could stop a herd of rampaging banthas with Force-Shields, and Hana Forester, a seventeen year old girl with a talent for empathy. These three are the source of the uproar. Well, the two boys are, anyhow.

Hana has barely moved an inch since the boys settled her on a broad, flat stone in the garden. Kwiet tied a large cloth to his knives and pinned them to four trees by the garden's small pond, creating a cool, shaded shelter for her. Titian had moved the stone telekinetically beneath it. And from there, this whole messy business started.

Kwiet had declared in a loud voice with a careless tone, "I wonder how many times I can skip a stone over the pond." Titian immediately stood up, taking a quick glance at Hana, and replied airily "However many it would be, it wouldn't be as many as I could make." Then the two boys, without further commentary, snatched up a small stone and threw it across the water, each counting his skips."Fourteen!" cried the boys at once. There was a slight glare, and more stones were gathered. The sounds of splashing water and stones bouncing off the garden's high duracrete walls echoed like blaster fire through the grounds as each tried to best the other, all for the sake of the pretty pink-haired girl lounging in the shade.

[Hana Forester]

Hana shakes her head and laughs as the pair continue to skip stones faster and more furiously. She's slowly growing more used to them and their..competitiveness.

She's known Kwiet since they were both little, and she first met Titian when he was a baby in this very garden. She hasn't been a Jedi learner for as long as the boys' have - she wasn't even aware of her empathic abilities untill a few years ago.

"You two are going to put holes in the walls if you keep it up. We're going to get into trouble." She leans back, stretching her arms above her head. "Can we please do something else?"

[Titian Snow]

Titian's last stone hits the water with a resounding splash. Kwiet's skips an amazing twenty-five times before pinging off the wall and skipping back five times, sinking next to Titian's.

Titian makes a dismissive sound, but it hurts that Kwiet won. He looks furtively back to Hana, searching her face for the disapproval he expects she'll be showing him, or the approval he suspects she'll show Kwiet. Seeing neither of these (yet) he relaxes, shrugging lightly and lying down beside Hana's rock.

"Meh. Anyone could do better than that." He says it a little louder than he means to. Kwiet turns and walks back, about to speak, when Titian interrupts. "I didn't because I didn't want Hana worried."

[Kwiet Ideya]

"Sure you did," Kwiet answers, sitting down on the rock to lean against Hana. He omits his usual "Whatever helps you sleep at night" so Hana won't think him to be too rude. Besides, he knows Titian can hear it anyway. It shows plain as day on the younger boy's face.

"Anyhow, skipping stones doesn't matter," he continues in a careless tone. "You have to do something useful to impress anybody these days."

[Hana Forester]

"You two don't have to impress anyone." Hana sighs, breathing through pursed lips, trying to blow two stray strands of hair out of her eyes. She puts one arm loosely around Kwiet, and reaches out to ruffle Titians' hair with the other.

"Speaking of doing something "useful", what should we do today? I really don't want to spend the whole day sitting around the gardens."

[Titian Snow]

"Yes I do," thinks Titian glumly to himself, but he quickly pushes the feeling aside (mostly) and tries to think of something else to do. He's eager to begin doing something useful right away, preferably before Kwiet does, but nothing comes to mind.

"I dunno," he admits after a long pause. "Meditating is boring and I'm tired of Force practicing; we just got done doing five days of that. Maybe we can play a game, or something."

[Kwiet Ideya]

"Let's scale the dormitory wall."

Kwiet is comtemplating the huge building with a thoughtful stare and a wild grin.

"C'mon. It'll be easy. We'll both start here at the bottom and the first to sit himself on the edge of the roof wins. Any Force power goes."

[Hana Forester]

Hana rolled her eyes. Boys.

"I guess that leaves me out." Shs stretches out, following Kwiets' lead and gazing up at the dormitory. "Empathic skill won't help me scale any walls."

[Titian Snow]

"That's fine," Titian says, stretching his legs. "You don't have to be able to climb a wall to be a good Jedi." Of course he doesn't realize that this statement also goes for himself and Kwiet; that he can decline the challenge and Hana probably won't think any less of him.

"We're climbing to the top, right?" he asks Kwiet, just to make sure. "And what happens when we get there?"

[Kwiet Ideya]

Kwiet spies the wisdom in Titian's words, but says nothing of it. He has no capacity for wisdom himself, being the type to simply do whatever he thinks of first and lacking the attention span for listening to others. He doesn't want Titian to think he has an advantage.

"Anyhow, Hana can still set us on our way. On your mark, get set...all that sort of thing." Kwiet loosens up his shoulders and gets ready. "Anytime, girlfriend."

[Hana Forester]

"Okay."

She gets up from her seat, stretching and dusting herself off. She's gotten used to the two of them being so competitive, it's something they've been doing for years. In the past, though, their stunts were less...dangerous. Even with their Jedi training, they were still kids.

"Are you both ready?"

[Titian Snow]

Titian shivers as a thrill runs though his spine. He tells himself it's just adrenaline, getting him psyched up about competing. In reality, it's a shiver of fear; he's scared to lose.

"Yeah. Let's go," he says aloud, masking the nervousness as best he can.

[Kwiet Ideya]

"Sure," Kwiet says, not bothering to take a ready stance. "Call it whenever you like, Hana."

[Hana Forester]

Hana stands between the two boys, her arms slightly stretched out at her sides. She gives each of them a look of corcern before giving them the go signal.

"Ready...set...go!"

[Titian Snow]

Titian doesn't even run the distance to the wall. Rather, he pulls himself to the second story with telekinesis, catching onto a windowsill before pulling himself to a balcony on the third story. A brief look over his shoulder shows Kwiet making his way to the building.

"I'm in the lead!" he thinks proudly, jumping up to catch the balcony above him.

[Kwiet Ideya]

Kwiet fairly saunters up to the wall, looking up at it as if contemplating it. Titian, with his three story lead, no doubt thinks himself the victor already. And he would be, but Kwiet's got an advantage. The older boy finds himself a foothold on a few loose parts of the wall and starts to climb spider-like up it to where Titian hangs from the balcony.

"Need a boost, shorty?" he jeers, pushing Titian onto the balcony.

[Hana Forester]

Hana held a hand over her eyes, shielding them from the sun. She watched as Titian made it up three stories, and Kwiet quickly catching up to him. She sighed -- Titian always tried so hard, but Kwiet had always been able to match (or beat) him in whatever contest they had.

Part of her felt bad for the younger boy; another part of her wanted to cheer Kwiet on...She continued to watch the pair climb higher and higher up the building.

[Titian Snow]

Titian falls awkwardly on the balcony, pushing himself up with a groan.

"I'm not shorty!" he growls quietly, ever-aware of Hana down below. He places his hands on the wall, not bothering with hand-holds, and pulls himself up the wall a bit. Once his feet are off the balcony he puts them to the wall, sticking his body to it with telekinesis. "Let's see you push me onto balconies now!" he challenges, getting on his way again. Without the need for hand-holds or foot-holds he should easily beat Kwiet. That'd show him.

[Kwiet Ideya]

Well, this isn't really surprising. Titian's decided to ignore the balconies, but Kwiet hadn't expected him to come up with a new way to use his telekinetics. Now he'll be faster and win for sure, unless Kwiet can figure something else out. The elder boy takes Titian's old route, jumping from one balcony to the next straight up the side of the wall. It's dangerous; if he misses when he tries to catch a ledge, he'll fall to the ground. The Force is guiding him though, so he's sure he'll be alright. In this manner he can at least match Titian's speed.

[Hana Forester]

Hana continued to watch the race. Titian had taken the lead, climbing the walls like a spider, with Kwiet climbing from balcony to balcony. She waved her arms, making cat-calls to cheer them on.

[Titian Snow]

Titian pauses, just for a moment, and looks down at Hana with a confident smile. It's a rare expression; he's got Kwiet beaten for certain, and Hana's admiration is his! He sprints up the wall, feet and hands flying, and catches onto the ledge with one hand.

"HAH! I made it!"

[Kwiet Ideya]

"Too bad you're late."

The tiny pause had been Kwiet's opportunity to make the ledge ahead of Titian. Kwiet hauls Titian up to sit on the ledge, looking down at Hana below. "So, now what happens?" he calls.

[Hana Forester]

"I don't know. You two climb down?"

She stared at them. If Kwiet hadn't pulled Titian up onto the ledge, he would've seen the disappointed look on her face. She had been hoping that just this once, maybe, Kwiet would give Titian a break.

[Titian Snow]

Titian's proud smile was wiped clean of his face when Kwiet appeared over the ledge. The younger boy allowed himself to be pulled up to sit, but kept his face hidden from his friends.

This isn't right! He had won it this time, won it for sure! Kwiet foiled him again though, just like all the other times. Is there no justice?

"I don't know. You two climb down?"

Hana's voice brings Titian back to reality. He looks down the building at the ground far below, then simply jumps off, falling free until the last moment. A telekinetic push kills all his momentum, blowing up loose soil from the garden path as he lands.

"At least I can get down faster than him..." he grumbles to himself.

[Kwiet Ideya]

Kwiet picks his way down the wall by jumping down to the balconies below, taking them one floor at a time. Titian's upset it seems, but Kwiet's not too worried. He'll get over it, just like he always does. He lands safely on the ground and joins his friends, scratching his head and trying to think.

[Hana Forester]

Hana meets Titian as his feet hit the ground. She gives the boy a tight hug as Kwiet joins the group. "What do you guys want to do now? Maybe we can get out of the complex and do something?"

[Titian Snow]

"I guess we can go out to the mall or something. They've got an arcade out there we could go to. Besides, I've got a little bit of extra money I can spend."

[Kwiet Ideya]

"Sure, it sounds good to me."

Actually, the only part of that that Kwiet likes is the arcade bit. It means he gets to show off some more, if he can just rope Titian into spending some credits on a few of the machines.

[Hana Forester]

Hana grinned from ear to ear. She might not be the best at Jedi combat skills, telekinesis or saber styles, but shopping was her strong suit. She grabbed each boy by the hand, walking between them as they left the gardens. "Yay, I love getting out of this place!"

[Titian Snow]

"It's not all that bad, but I like getting out every now and then, too. There's only so much you can do at the dormitories without getting told that you ought to be practicing, or something."

He feels very aware of himself as Hana takes his hand. Suddenly he feels self-concious about everything he's doing and saying, so he fixes his eyes on the ground, laughing quietly to himself. It's amazing. He's always thought that Hana's the most beautiful girl he's ever met, yet he spends so much time looking away from her.

[Kwiet Ideya]

"Like nothing," Kwiet says, squeezing Hana's hand gently. "If they had their way we'd do nothing but Force practice. That'd be boring. A guy's got to have some time for what he loves, like pretty pink-haired girls who like shopping."

[Hana Forester]

Hana feels her cheeks flush at Kwiets' comment, giving him a shy glance before turning her eyes away. She squeezes his hand back, hoping Titian doesn't notice.

The three young Jedis started down the halls of the Order. "I know. At least you two have interesting things to practice. All they let me do is mediate."

[Titian Snow]

Titian's too busy clenching his free hand into a fist to notice Hana's reaction. Will Kwiet never stop?

"I'll bet meditation beats having things thrown at you all day. It's all they ever do to me. They test the strength of the shields I can make, how long I can hold them, how quickly I can make them..." He sighs heavily. "Right now they're trying to get me to create an 'ever-shifting' shield. It's the hardest thing ever, and mom won't let me take any headache medicine for the migraines it creates."

[Kwiet Ideya]

"You're only saying that because they let me do all the throwing. I'd personally die if I had to do meditation for more than an hour. I think the teachers have given up trying to push me past that. They make me do more PT instead, to the point where it hurts to walk sometimes."

He deserves it, of course, but he's not sure if the other two know it yet. Hana would be disappointed and/or shocked, and Titian...well, it'd be preciously rare ammo for him to use.

[Hana Forester]

"Aww, my poor baby boys." She lets go of their hands, reaching up and hugging each of them around the waist. "So much hard work - just think, though. Someday soon, we'll all be able to train and torture our own padawans."

[Titian Snow]

"I doubt that. Kwiet wouldn't have the patience. I doubt if I could teach a Padawan either, though. All I know are shields and telekinetics, and I hear being able to generate Force sheilds isn't exactly the most common skill in the universe."

[Kwiet Ideya]

"We're ALL too specialized," Kwiet agrees. "Illusions, shields, empathy...they aren't really common skills, and we have so little of the basics it'd probably take all 3 of us just to make noteworthy examples of them. It's wierd, I feel as if I learned to run before I could even crawl sometimes."

[Hana Forester]

"Yeah, well...the Order needs as many people as they can get to train the new recruits. There have to be other people out there who have similar abilities."

[Titian Snow]

"Yeah, but how many people are gonna be able to do exactly what we do? And how many of them are even gonna come to the Order in the first place?"

Titian sighs, kicking a chunk of durracrete along as they get out into Coruscant.

"I'm the only barrier-maker here, and there's more than enough other Jedi with telekinetic specialties. Mom could teach it really good, if only they'd promote her to Knight."

[Kwiet Ideya]

"My mom'd have it by now, too, but I take precedence over Force training! A-HA!"

Kwiet makes a mock-flex, speaking in an exaggeratedly dramatic voice.

"Kwiet Ideya, young'un of ossum, out-prioritizing The Force since the age of 6!"

He wraps one arm around Hana's shoulders, pulling her close to his side, but speaking to Titian.

"Your mom's been busy taking care of you, too, so that's probably why she's not a knight yet, either."