Room 223, Tuesday Afternoon

[life_inshadow]

With no classes and Fiona a cat, Tara's last few days had been quiet. She wished she could say she'd done something useful with them, but it had mostly been reading -- there was a new Juanita Drake, Werewolf Killer novel out -- and trying to drive the non-Fiona cats insane with string and catnip.

Finally done with the book, she turned on her computer and logged onto a Wiccan website. Most of it was henna-and-spice-rack stuff, but one or two of the people on it knew what they were talking about and could spell, which made it the least depressing message board she knew of.

Her room door was open even though she wasn't expecting company.

[OOC: Open post! I just realized she hasn't been around in a while.]

Comments

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri had guessed before the break week started that she'd either enjoy having nothing to do for a week or go crazy (crazier?) from the lack of things to do. Her restlessness seemed to hint toward the latter, which explained why she was taking the slow detour through all the dorm hallways on her way out of the building.

"Hey. Tara, right?" she asked, pausing in the open doorway when she spotted the girl she'd met at the campfire a few weeks ago.

[life_inshadow]

Tara glanced up from the computer screen and was surprised to see the girl with the extra piece in her aura. She blinked twice -- yep, the aura thing was still there -- before smiling.

"Tahiri?" she asked, tentative. "If you're looking for Fiona I think she's a cat this week."

[weetuskenraider]

"That's me." Tahiri returned the smile and shrugged. "I wasn't, actually. I wasn't looking for anyone, particularly. I just wandered by, thought I'd say hello. A cat, huh? That happened to me a few weeks ago."

[life_inshadow]

"I was a potted plant," Tara shared. "I th-think Fiona's boyfriend, or whatever Griff is, is taking care of her. How was the cat thing?"

"Hello," he added, and waved Tahiri inside. "You can come in. I'm not doing anything that interesting."

[weetuskenraider]

"A potted plant," Tahiri echoed as she wandered in and took a seat cross-legged on the floor. "That's probably less embarrassing. There's pictures of me with ice cream all over my whiskers . . . and boy, does that ever not get less weird to say."

She eyed the computer speculatively. "Nothing fun to do online?"

[life_inshadow]

"Going online depresses me," Tara admitted. "You realize that no one can spell, and this one girl keeps typing per s-a-y instead of per s-e, but if I correct it I'll be, like, the grammar Nazi for the day."

"The plant thing was quiet," she added. "B-but no ice cream, which is a little sad."

[weetuskenraider]

"No ice cream is always sad," Tahiri agreed. Someone was a bad influence on her that way. "I don't get online much, either. Not because of that -- it's just not something I do all that often, so I've never noticed the spelling thing. I can see how that would drive you crazy, though. Do they really get mad if you correct them?"

[life_inshadow]

"Oh my god," Tara said, widening her eyes. "They go nuts. and then sometimes they say you're, like, insulting their creativity and playing into male dominance. Wiccans are weird."

[weetuskenraider]

"Creative spelling?" Tahiri asked incredulously; could you tell she hadn't spent a whole lot of time on the Internet? "Do I even want to ask how that plays into male dominance?"

She chuckled lightly. "A lot of beings are weird. It's just that you keep discovering more ways that they are."

[life_inshadow]

"So like apparently the word manifesto is sexist and I should write womynifesto or personifesto. because that will totally make spells work," Tara explained. "And yeah. People are really, really weird. What's your latest discovery?""

[weetuskenraider]

"I think I've lost track." Tahiri was gawking a bit, now, at that line of reasoning. "I find new reasons all the time. It wouldn't really make a difference in if they work, would it?"

[life_inshadow]

"Um, since anybody casting it would have to talk in Latin and I don't think 'personifesto' is a word in Latin -- no," Tara decided. "But people get attached to their ideas."

[weetuskenraider]

"Boy, do they ever. Like a hungry mynock on a ship's hull," Tahiri muttered before she realized Tara wouldn't get the reference.

[life_inshadow]

"Right!" Tara said. "Except I don't know what a mynock is...?"

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri gave her a sheepish smile. "And this is one of the ways I'm weird. Sorry. They're parasites who live in space and feed off energy from ships and . . . I did mention I'm from another galaxy, right?"

[life_inshadow]

"I don't think it came up," Tara said sheepishly. "I'm, um, from California. What galaxy?"

[weetuskenraider]

"It might not have. Sorry about that," Tahiri told her. "It doesn't have a name that I know of because canon names everything else but not that, but it's pretty far from here. California's on the other side of the country, right?"

[life_inshadow]

"Yeah," Tara said. "Not as far away as another galaxy, but sometimes it kind of feels like one."

She gave the girl a speculative look. Maybe the alien thing and the weird aura thing were related. Was it too soon to ask? she'd probably just sound like a freak.

[weetuskenraider]

"Really different from this place, then," Tahiri guessed. "In a good or bad way?"

[life_inshadow]

"Both?" Tara frowned. "There's magic and vampires and everything there, it's just a lot more h-hidden. And we don't have, y'know, no offense, aliens." That Tara knew about, anyhow. "What about your galaxy?"

[weetuskenraider]

"No offense taken," Tahiri assured her quickly. "No magic or vampires there -- well, some people think what we do is magic. But there's hundreds, maybe thousands, of sentient species. And some coming from outside it," she added with a slightly darker expression.

[life_inshadow]

Tara nodded slowly. "What do you do that's magic but not?" she asked slowly.

[weetuskenraider]

"The telekinesis, with the smoke?" It still hadn't clicked for Tahiri that what they did could very much be considered magic by most other worlds' standards. "There's other stuff, too. I have some telepathy, but mostly with other Jedi."

She explained, briefly, about the Jedi and their relationship with the Force. "Healing trances -- I'm not too good at those yet -- and a lot of other things some of them really ridiculous that not all of us can master."

[life_inshadow]

"Oh!" Tara flushed a little. "The whole first few weeks of summer are kind of a blur."

She nodded carefully through Tahiri's explanation. "This might sound kind of goofy, but w-would those powers make your energy different from most people?"

[weetuskenraider]

"It's okay. The cabin thing was pretty hectic, I know." Tahiri chewed on her lip, considering the question. "Maybe. I know it's easier for me to sense the other Jedi than it is to sense anyone else. I can get a general sense of most beings on the island, but Ben, Jaina, Zayne, Master Skywalker, they're like brighter spots on the map for me. Huh. There's another Jedi now, too," she realized.

"Anyway. It might, I suppose."

[life_inshadow]

Tara wrapped her arms around her legs. "Hmmm." She was trying to remember if she'd met the others more than in passing; she didn't think so. "Yours is kind of -- usually when I look at an aura I see a flow, like somebody's energy is just all one color? But yours is like somebody jammed in a piece. Like ... dark static. That's why I asked."

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh." A more experienced Jedi would have been able to hide that reaction better, but Tahiri's voice went quiet, and she looked like she wanted to draw in on herself. Feeling like she was getting too much use out of the word but unable to think of a better one she went on, "Maybe. I'm not sure. I mean, I don't see auras the way you do, so I can't say."

She was talking a touch faster than usual, if anything.

[life_inshadow]

It did not take any powers at all to see that she'd touched a sore spot.

"Sorry, sorry," Tara said, flailing a little. "I, um, it's just" -- it looked evil. No, Tara, bad thing to say. "It's unusual. Unusual isn't bad, right?"

[weetuskenraider]

"Not most of the time." Tahiri felt bad about upsetting Tara, and tentatively extended a wave of calm toward her -- how well that would work when she was caught off guard, she had no idea. "At least, I like to hope not."

Even though that reading was . . . very accurate.

[life_inshadow]

And Tara felt bad about having upset Tahiri. They were quite a pair.

Under the influence of the wave of calm, she started to relax but stopped short when she realized it felt -- external. "Did you just try to use powers on me?" Her tone was level, but she clearly wasn't relaxing.

[weetuskenraider]

Using the Force like that was instinctive to Tahiri. A little too instinctive, unfortunately; Corran'd yelled at Anakin more than once for the way his casual Force use was a bad influence, especially on Tahiri. It hadn't even occurred to her until after Tara asked, honestly, that it could be a problem.

"I --" No sense in lying. She wasn't very good at it anyway. "Yeah," Tahiri admitted, faltering. "I didn't mean to upset you, so I just . . . sorry."

[life_inshadow]

"And I didn't mean to upset you by asking about the aura thing," Tara said, though she still looked wary. "It's okay. It -- it didn't feel like anything bad."

She still didn't like magic being used on her that casually, but she could accept what seemed to be a real apology. (Whatever Tahiri's aura said, Tara liked her.) Besides, she was curious.

"That was a Force thing?"

[weetuskenraider]

For all that they put so much emphasis on morality, the Jedi had some strange blind spots, sometimes.

"Yeah." Tahiri fiddled with the hem of her robe. Boy, could she see Master Skywalker glaring at her right now. "That wasn't one of my better ideas. I'm really sorry. I just . . . didn't realize you could see that."

[life_inshadow]

"I don't talk about it a lot?" Tara offered. "Most people aren't really that interesting, it's just like ... a little warning on their personality. If somebody's aura is black I'll stay away."

"We both kind of freaked the other person out a little."

[weetuskenraider]

A little of the tension in Tahiri's shoulders eased up, and she nodded. "It's okay. You didn't throw me out or anything, so you can't have seen anything that bad, right?" Her laugh was a tiny bit forced, out of lingering awkwardness, but she was trying. "And I won't do that again, if you don't want me to."

[life_inshadow]

"Definitely nothing scary," Tara said, trying to be reassuring. "And yeah, ask first. I mean, if I'm wigged out for no reason that would probably be -- nice."

[weetuskenraider]

"I'll remember that," Tahiri said, her chin jutting out slightly with determination. "But if you think you need it, you can always ask. I'm happy to help. It's sort of what we do."