fandomhigh | Laying Low for Beginners, Thursday, Period 1

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laying low

Laying Low for Beginners, Thursday, Period 1

The kid at the front of the room today, for better or for worse, was definitely the teacher of this class, yes. He was a bit on the short side, being only fifteen and not having quite hit a growth spurt just yet, with a brown robe over his too-practical-to-be-fashionable tunic and pants, all of which were in shades of white, black, or brown.

Oh, and he had the same stupid hair as Anakin. It was a whole thing.

He probably felt about as out of place as he looked, if that was any consolation.

"Uh, hi," he said, awkwardly. "I'm Caleb. And I guess I'm a teacher today." It would be good practice for when he was a Master himself, someday. Right? "I'm supposed to be teaching about laying low, but that's a little bit out of my area of expertise, but I think I've figured out a lesson that can benefit everyone in the room anyway. It's actually pretty simple. The whole lesson? Ask questions."

If Master Kenobi or Master Windu had been in the room to hear him tell that to a whole class full of students, they probably would have groaned and buried their faces in their hands. Caleb had a bit of a reputation at the Temple as the one who did entirely too much of that.

"The thing is, you can't really lay low unless you know what kind of situation you're in and what you can use to your advantage. And maybe you'll find yourself on a planet you don't know, or in a situation you haven't encountered before, and simply observing might not be enough. But maybe somebody else will know that one thing you need that can get you through." He ran a hand through his hair, embracing that awkward tell he'd mentioned he once had in a class he couldn't remember teaching, now. "You do need to be careful about who you're talking to and what questions you're asking, I think. I mean, if you ask the wrong person something that immediately identifies you as someone that should be in a lot of trouble, at best they'll try to distance themselves from you, and at worst they'll try to kill you. But if you ask the right questions, if you work your way toward the answer you're trying to get to maybe a little sideways, so that they answer it without even realizing that's what you were looking for, then that's even better, right?"

Yeah, he needed a lot of work before he could ever even think of teaching a Padawan of his own someday. This was way too awkward.

"So, today, we're going to ask questions. That's the whole assignment. There's this game that's entirely about doing that, where one person asks questions and the person answering them can only say yes or no. The one asking the question gets twenty attempts, and if they can't guess what the first person is thinking about in those twenty turns, they lose. So, everybody team up. One of you pick something on the island that your partner is likely to be at least sort of familiar with, and give that a try."

Yes, Caleb was assigning a game of Twenty Questions today. Which was probably at least slightly more fun than Kanan's planned lesson of self-evaluation and trying to figure out your own weaknesses, so enjoy this, guys. This, and snickering at his hair.

[OOC: Have at!]

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"Do you ever study with any of the other masters?" Tip asked. She was used to school involving lots of different teachers -- just having one for everything seemed pretty weird. "Like, trade off for the day to learn a different meditation technique or something?"

"I used to," Caleb offered, shrugging. "When I was an initiate, before I was taken as Master Billaba's Padawan, the Masters would all be responsible for our education. Lightsaber techniques, meditation, history..."

He smiled a little.

"Not as much now. My Master will teach me everything I need to learn that they haven't taught me already."

And gleefully snark about half of the rest of it. Seriously, she was great.

"Huh," Tip said. "So it really is like an old-timey apprenticeship. Do you follow your master around on jobs and stuff to see how she does things? Or -- okay, battles, I guess."

Caleb nodded his confirmation to that.

"Yeah," he replied. "I've come with her to Kardoa and to Mygeeto, now. It's been..." He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to come up with the words for it. "It's been educational."

Yeah. That.

"You can say it sucked," Tip told him. "I won't tell anyone."

"But it didn't... suck?" That was an interesting word. Caleb was filing that one away for later. "... Not at first, anyway. At first it was just... good. I had a place, and the battles were going well. I made friends with the troopers, and we tore through a bunch of clankers, and even getting shot wasn't so bad."

... Okay, no, that part had sucked. A lot.

"I mean, I'm still here. And I'm fine. The bacta did its job, you know? And I learned a lot on Kardoa, and..."

And then Mygeeto had happened. Caleb pulled in a little breath and looked down at his feet.

Tip just opened a giant can of worms, didn't she. She grimaced sympathetically.

"You don't have to talk about it at all if you don't want," she offered. "Though -- if 'clankers' is a slur for droids I'm going to have to judge you."

Caleb blinked up and tilted his head at her at that. It was confusing, but it was better than the direction the conversation had been headed otherwise.

"... Only for the ones the Separatists are trying to kill us with. It's something the clones say."

Yeah, it wasn't great. His whole galaxy had a pretty bad track record when it came to droids, overall. And clones, for that matter.

"Oh, so only the bad guy droids," Tip said, unimpressed. "Well. That's okay, then."

Caleb was just kind of giving her the most confused look he'd given anybody since yesterday.

"... Should I stop?"

Because he could. It wasn't hard.

"I can call them B1s, instead, if that's... better?"

"Depends," Tip said. "What does 'B1' mean?"

If it was another slur, but, like, gentler, then no, it wouldn't be better.

"It's their model designation," Caleb explained. "Like how there are R3 astromechs, B1s are B1 battle droids. The roger-roger ones that'll shoot at you."

He couldn't even say 'badly.' They'd gotten him twice, after all.

"Okay, then yeah. That's just a description, instead of a derogatory reference to something they might or might not do."

Caleb ran his hand through his hair again, and then nodded. Okay. He could do that.

"I never thought of it that way," he admitted. "I've only ever really known them as the other side of the fight. But... I guess they probably are just as capable of sentient thought as most droids I've met."

Even if they sure acted really dumb.

He stood there awkwardly for a moment, and then added, "I'll remember that."

"Good. I'd hate to have to think you weren't capable of sentient thought."

Caleb wrinkled his nose a little at that, but didn't argue. Droids rights weren't something he heard about often, but every now and again somebody would bring it up anyway. Since most of his experience with droids had been with the B1s, it hadn't been on his radar.

"I mean," he said, after a pause, "if someone brings something I do up as a problem, I do try to get better. That's kind of the point, isn't it?"

What good was a Jedi who didn't check themselves from time to time?

"Yeah, but a lot of people aren't that smart." Not to put too fine a point on it. "Usually people just get defensive and yell a lot."

Caleb shrugged.

"Those people are missing out, then."

"I'm not going to argue with you there."

Caleb was quiet for a few long, awkward moments before adding, "Thank you for correcting me, uh..."

It occurred to him that he hadn't caught this girl's name.

"Tip," she said. "Any time."

"Tip."

Caleb had no idea why getting this girl's name felt like such an achievement. It was a name.

"It's good to meet you, Tip."

Because Tip was awesome and it was an honor to meet her (and find out her nickname first thing), that's why.

"You too, Caleb. I feel like I know a lot more about the Jedi already."

"If you ever have any questions..." Caleb shrugged a little. "I mean, I don't know everything. I'm only a Padawan. But I don't mind talking."

"I may totally take you up on that," Tip said. "Oh, if you're still around tomorrow, I usually practice sword-work in the park. You're welcome to join me."

Since if he was here, her usually teacher really probably wouldn't be.

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