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Moment of Respite

Summary:

Charlotte Jensaarai takes time to stretch her abilities and recover from her force trauma. Her wife Kaphar’ti comes with support, comfort, and food.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

     Former dark council member Charlotte Jensaarai sits in silent focus. It is at this time she stretches- her force may have stayed with her, but only barely. It held onto her source by a thread. During these moments, she weaves around the thread more and more to strengthen it. These are the moments she needs to work the hardest at.

     She pulls- not the thread, but past it- gathering strength from beyond her own source. Like a spider she pulls the strands into a web, convalescing around the first like a braid. She feels the numbness in her neck, where the collar sat before, the electric rods that were inserted into her vertebrae like a plug. She feels the tingling in her hands- a mere remnant of the lightning storms she had been so famous for. 

     While she focuses, she tries to understand how her sight has changed. Before the force all around her was colorful, clear and defined, but flowing continuously without end. Now? Now it was washed out, the edges were blurred. She can’t count how many breaths a person uses anymore unless she places her hands directly on their chest. But somehow, it was still beautiful. 

     Everything is always beautiful when compared to nothing at all, and she has more than some.

     Behind her, she senses the entry slide open, and takes a breath. As she releases the threads, she watches as some slip back into the void. Still, the tether is now stronger than before. She is satisfied.

     “Hey there, sweet pea. Day goin’ alright?” Charlotte smiles. As she passively observes, she noticed the tether glow ever faintly brighter. Her wife has always made her stronger. “I brought some of those rolls you liked from the cantina for you. I figured you’d be hungry by now.”

     Charlotte huffs, “Ah, you know me so well Kat. Thank you.” She takes one. Mm, alderaanian berry filling. Lovely. “My day has been quiet. I did have a holo from Margie earlier- evidently Ashara has been busy.”

     “Oh yeah, I heard about that! Apparently she teamed up with Naasa’s apprentice- girl named Nadia I think. Good kids. I’m glad they’re alright.” Kaphar’ti sits against Charlotte’s petite frame with a content sigh. “Lots goin’ on down there, sounds like. ...Bit worryin’, ain’t it?”

     “Hmm.” Charlotte swallows the last bite of the first roll, wiping her hands on the mat beneath them. “...Perhaps. But I believe we can weather it. We’ve lived through war before. This time we just aren’t the ones in charge of it.”

     “I guess. It gives us a break, at least. We need to regroup, maybe figure out a new system. The council thing we’ve been usin’ works well enough, but after the whole Nathema situation with the gravestone blown to bits... We need to reorganize, cus that took out a lot of our strength.”

She lays back with a huff. Charlotte laughs.

     “Dear, are you sure you weren’t meant for strategy?”

     “Oh shush, you! You know I can think of the big picture, but I’m lost when it comes to the nitty gritty. And that’s ninety nine percent of that sort of thing! Leave it to Håskian, that’s her expertise.”

     “And Malavai’s, I suppose. Hm.” Her older sister and brother in law were made for each other, it seemed. 

     Charlotte lays back, joining her own wife on the mat. Even if most of the color has been bleached from her vision, Kaphar’ti‘ soul is as bright and teal as ever. Not even her own soul was so vibrant to her source. Perhaps Margie’s, but they’ve known each other since the moment they were born. With Kat, the connection was different. It grew over time, ever since they met that fateful day on Manaan. She sighs happily.

     Her wife giggles. “What’re you so pleased about? You look like you just found a mouse droid to adopt.”

     “Hm-hm. Just you.”

     “Just me, huh? You sure it ain’t those rolls you just tore into?”

     “Well, you were the one who bought them for me.”

     “Well it wasn’t exactly like I bought them, I-“

     “Stole them?”

     “No!! No, they gave them to me! Being a famous jedi knight has its perks yknow? I can’t go one parsec without someone offerin’ me presents!”

     Charlotte laughs. “I know, dear. I’m teasing you.”

     “Sheesh.”

     “...You’d’ve gotten more if you’d stolen them.”

     “HEY.”

     Charlotte laughs even harder, rising from the floor. Turning, she offers Kaphar’ti a hand up as well.

     Even without seeing exactly the silhouette of her irises, she can tell she rolled her eyes by the huff she gave. Following her up, she kept hold of her hand with a squeeze.

     “You know I love you dear.”

     “Yeah, and you also love harping on my board game strategies.”

     “It wasn’t the best choice for a honeymoon activity, Kat.”

     “Yeah, yeah. Now, do you wanna come to the courtyard with me? I think the mystics were going to have their weekly sparring sessions soon. Might be fun!”

     “Of course.” Hand in hand, Darth Taciturnus and the former battle master of the Jedi Order leave their quiet room.

Notes:

i headcanon that slave collars in the star wars universe are a lot more intrusive than the shock collars a dog might wear. The one I described here is how I think they work- the collar doesn’t lock around the victims neck. instead it has metal prongs that protrude in from the back of the collar itself that are then inserted into the vertebrae at the back of the neck. usually the prongs aren’t too big, but they’re very conductive to electricity. in my head this explains why they’re so powerful when they’re used in the game. charlotte was given a higher dose of electricity than is normally survivable, but miraculously survived due to her will and strong control of the force. however she still lost a lot of her power afterwards, as well as a lot of muscle strength. it also washed out her vision, since miralukans use the force to see.