Discipline (Jedi Master Eeth Koth/Padawan Raven Trebeck and others)

[Livia Yoran]

Eeth could tell that this girl had got into the habit of letting her punishments wash over her. Well, that was another thing he was not going to allow.

“Second,” he continued, “if those in authority over you say that there is something wrong with your attitude, then there is something wrong with your attitude. And I am not interested in whether you agree with that assessment.”

He underlined this message with six swats that were possibly even harder than the first half dozen, and they were aimed right at the tops of Jas’ thighs. They were designed to make it impossible even for a Zabrak to pretend to ignore them.

[Raven.]

She heard him but remained tight lipped. Regardless of who was dishing it out, Jas was not stupid enough to argue while being spanked, irrespective of how mad or indignant she was over being punished. Again she expected to be set on her feet, and again she was disappointed. Disappointed was probably the wrong word, yes, it was definitely the wrong word she realised as he popped her bare thigh. Typically Jas was able to grit her teeth and bear it, she had not cried or fussed over a punishment in quite a few years now, but this was something else. The girl managed to restrict her sounds of distress to gasps and muted whimpers, that was until she had counted off another three and Eeth landed a fourth. Fuck, he wasn’t stopping! She let out a yelp at each and by the time he popped her thigh for the sixth time she was kicking and wriggling so much that her trousers had worked their way from her knees to her ankles. Worse still was the fact that her throat was developing a lump, and her eyes were beginning to pool with unshed tears. She swiped angrily at them with her tunic sleeve, furious with herself for letting this get to her.

[Livia Yoran]

“And third,” Eeth continued, entirely unperturbed by her wriggling, “failure is not among my objectives. Never has been, never will be.”

It seemed as if the swats to the backs of her thighs were getting through to Jas. Good. Eeth added another half dozen to the crease where her bottom met her thighs, and they were just as hard as the first dozen had been. Then he stuck the paddle back into his belt, yanked her up from his lap and stood. Without giving her a chance to compose herself, he gripped her chin with a gentle, but firm hand and tilted her head upwards, forcing her to look at him, tears and all.

“Let me be clear about one final thing,” he said in a low voice. “I have been told that you want to become a Jedi. If that is true, you urgently need to learn to submit yourself to some rules. If it is not, you need only say so. I suspect you are just as disinclined to accept failure as I am, though. And in that case, you will just have to put up with me. I will not tolerate disrespect, disobedience or dishonesty. Any amount of that will consistently get you punished - not by lectures or time-outs, but by being put across my knee. So consider yourself warned.”

He released his hold on her chin and said: “And now pack your bag. You have got fifteen minutes.”

[Raven.]

And third? No, he couldn’t be serious. Unfortunately for her another hard smack landed and answered that question for her, yes, he was serious. Jas yelped, kicked and wriggled with increasing gusto at each smack, and by the time she was lifted to her feet her entire back end was ablaze like never before and she was sniffling quietly. When he gripped her chin between his fingers, she let him, haughty she might be but the girl was obedient, mostly…. if only out of sheer stubbornness. She did her best to stand tall as he spoke, crossing her arms about her chest loosely in an effort to appear unfazed and not complete her shame with the entirely childish act of rubbing her bottom.

She had heard this sort of lecture before, however not once had anyone asked her if being a Jedi was what she wanted. Did she have a choice? And more to the point, did she want the freedom to make that choice on her own? She blinked as he released her chin, the action sending yet more traitorous tears down both cheeks which she quickly swiped away while pulling up her trousers. She said nothing in response and simply turned on her heel and strode towards her crèche dormitory.

It was impossible to hide the fact that she’d been crying, nor could she walk with her usual grace, thus when she entered her crèche dormitory several of her fellow initiates noticed. Fortunately for her they were all meant to be meditating and could not ask questions. Jas didn’t want to answer questions about this so she quickly ran to her drawer, shoved everything that would fit into her pack and left. She didn’t have anything against her crèche friends, not really, but neither had she ever been able to relate to them, it had always felt strained.

It took her less than five minutes to reappear at the door where Eeth was, and to her disappointment, he was still there.

[Livia Yoran]

Ultimately, anyone had a choice. It was not usually put plainly to creche children because they were not old enough to be faced with such a serious decision; but if a child decided to consistently act against anything the Jedi had to teach them, there was no disciplinarian in the world who could force that child to become a Jedi knight. Eeth was fairly certain that Jas was no such case, however. For one thing, his sense of the Force told him the child was meant to be a Jedi. For another thing, she was stubborn and she was going to persevere. She was clearly also intelligent, and as such, she was able to understand the consequences of her choices and make up her mind about what she wanted. Eeth’s job would be all the easier if she managed to do so. If she didn’t, well, he was prepared to invest all the time it took to get her to that point.

He nodded in acknowledgment of her fast return and motioned for her to follow him.
While they walked, he gazed down upon her; she was clearly trying hard not to reveal any of the considerable discomfort she was in. Her creche masters had reported that she was tenacious and had a lot of courage and willpower. That much was obvious, and it reminded Eeth of himself at that age. He had been a lot more respectful, though; his manners had been so formal it must have been nearly painful for everyone who interacted with him. He realised that even a few years ago, he would have made the trip to the hangar in silence, something that he would then have considered dignified and only now recognised as a form of insecurity.

“My apprentice is already preparing the ship for take-off,” he told Jas. “We are leaving from bay twelve. The trip to Borleias is short; we will be there by dinnertime. We will have to take care of our meals and laundry ourselves there. I believe the Council ordered for some provisions to be delivered to the ship; we will have to procure what else we need once we are there. Have you ever been off-planet since you were brought to the Temple?”

[Raven.]

Jas didn’t know hanger three from her ass, nor did she particularly care what his apprentice was doing, still when he asked if she’d been off planet her reply was respectful. “Once,” she told him, her chin raised and eyes locked ahead as they walked; that particular excursion had cost her a month of privileges and, up until today, was the most painful punishment she had ever endured. It didn’t bother her to hear they would be fending for themselves on Borleias, in fact it sounded interesting. Nothing much interested Jas at the temple any more, it was all boring, mundane, that this had piqued her interest was a new development.

Raven sensed Eeth’s approach seconds before he entered the hanger, and stepped from the hatch to greet them, swiping a man-sized handkerchief that she had obviously taken from Eeth’s pack across her face. “We're good to go,” she told him, then frowned slightly upon seeing their ward. If her stiff gait was anything to go by she had apparently already made herself unpopular, not that she said as much.

[Livia Yoran]

As a matter of fact, Eeth had no hard feelings towards Jas whatsoever. Which did not mean that he was going to let her get away with anything!

“Thank you, padawan,” he said. “This is initiate Jas Gaan. Initiate, this is my padawan, Raven Trebeck. Just for the record, she is in authority over you, so I expect you to obey her instructions. Now, let us get going. ”

This spaceship did not have cabins; it was not designed for long flights and thus only held a number of seats in the cockpit and a few emergency bunks that they would have no use for today. Eeth showed Jas where to put her bag and pointed her at the seat behind Raven, then sat down next to Raven and took over the co-pilot’s position. He knew his padawan loved piloting, and besides, he was going to try and provide her with all the experience she could get - not that this flight was going to constitute a great learning experience. Raven had performed hundreds of the kind.

[Raven.]

She had, and this flight provided zero challenge for the padawan. Still….
“Nice to meet you, Initiate Jas, take your seat, the astromesh droid is keen to get us out of here,” Raven said, a slight smile on her face as she began punching in a complex sequence of coordinates.

Jas placed her pack where instructed, and remained impassive as Eeth spoke, nothing he had said was new to her and so she sat down, carefully, where they had indicated and watched curiously as the padawan started jabbing at buttons and rolling dials.

A moment later they were in the stratosphere, their jump to hyperspace executed. Their small ship shuttered slightly and the stars outside turned to stripes. “Two hours,” she told Eeth, switching on the autopilot and getting to her feet and intent on escaping to read; she didn’t want to be saddled with babysitting duty.

[Livia Yoran]

"Padawan," Eeth said to Raven through their bond, "you are not leaving. It is just as important for you to get to know our guest as it is for me. Sit back down."

His face did not show any of this; he was not going to embarrass Raven in front of Jas.

Turning around in his chair, he said: "Since it will be my task to continue your instruction, tell me about it - which parts you enjoy, which parts you think you are good at and not so good at. And where you are with your saber training."

[Raven.]

The padawan’s brow furrowed at receiving that order, but like Eeth, she didn’t want to embarrass herself by having him verbalise it, or worse… Eeth did not like giving orders more than once she knew. Resigned, Raven made like she had stood to stretch, fiddled with the climate controls which were conveniently located on the rear panel and sat back down in the pilot’s seat. Any and all hopes that she was going to leave this babysitting assignment up to Eeth out the waste hatch.

Jas paid Raven no mind, she was entirely focused on the stars streaking by outside. It was the first time she had actually seen this, as her single foray off planet had been as a stowaway hence her view was limited to the inside of a cargo bay. Everything was happening too quickly, one minute she was trudging through her normal daily routine at the temple and the next, well, the next she was on a starship with two complete strangers. When Eeth spoke Jas shifted her attention from the window to face him and it was quite possibly the first time since meeting the man that she had really taken in his appearance. He was very tidy looking, she observed, noting his neatly tied braids and hairless face. He also had more horns than she did, and apparently, his right hand was hard as a board. She glanced at it briefly, frowned, shifted in her seat and looked up at him again. “I’m good at everything.” Everything accept getting along with her teachers that was, but she left that part out. “I don’t like classwork, sparring is sometimes fun as long as you don’t get stuck with one of the dweebs,” she shrugged, and looked over at Raven who was watching her quietly then back to Eeth. Again the kid shifted in her seat, although stilled the moment she became aware of doing so, she didn’t want him to know it had hurt after all. “Why are you taking me off planet, surely I’m not so bad that my crèche master wanted max distance?” she asked.