Before - Legends -Success and Succession- (a response to the 1'st Essential OC Challenge)

For my submission to the first Essential OC Challenge I chose challenge #2: Your OC has been set the task of training someone, (human, humanoid, mongrel, canon or not) to replace him/her temporarily or permanently. Let?s see your OC rise to the challenge. Perhaps they succeed, perhaps not or perhaps they want the trainee to fall flat on their face. You choose.

I perhaps went the cliché way and created a pair of Jedi OC?s for this challenge, but I?ve had ideas for these two characters bouncing around in my head for quite some time, and now seemed as good a time as any to introduce them. I hope you enjoy reading this. As always, comments and constructive criticism are welcome.

Thank you for reading!!


Success and Succession

Enani let her eyes wander from her opponent. She eyed the crowd, taking in their emotions. Her master had taught her that you can use anything as an advantage against an opponent. A crowd can be a very useful tool. Their emotions: disgust, joy, delight, fickleness; all can serve as a distraction to someone young and naïve, and can make them careless.

Her eyes wandered to the floor. Wood. Freshly waxed. She smiled. This added a helpful slippery factor.

The ceiling. There were light fixtures. Glow bulbs could be broken. Who can concentrate on fighting when they have glass raining down on them?

The walls. The new trophy cases? This was obviously not a good thing to have in a dueling arena. Her Master had been one of the few to protest it. It was a waste of time, and resources he had argued. He understood that a trophy could be used as a formidable weapon in a duel. He had taught her such: ?Anything can and should be used in a fight? he had taught her. ?There is no such thing as a ?fair? fight. For what is fair about fighting?? She had a feeling that after this duel the trophy cases would be taken down.

Enani?s Master was not like any other. One strange thing about their relationship was the reason he had chosen her. Rather, the reason he had chosen a Padawan at all.

Her Master had been one of those Knights who did not want a Padawan, did not want to teach a Padawan, and did not think he would ever have a Padawan. But that all changed when he had a vision. The Force allowed him to foresee his own death, and in this death he saw that when he died all of his personal knowledge would die with him. Unless he took on an apprentice.

Many of the other Masters strongly disapproved of her Master?s ?unconventional teaching formulas?. They argued that he was skirting too close to the Dark Side, and was bringing Enani down with him. Whenever someone would approach him with such arguments, he would simply smile, shrug, and say nothing?which wasn?t very convincing. Her Master could be silly that way.

But oftentimes her Master was stern and serious. He was not timid of sharing his views on controversial issues. He could spend hours speaking strongly his opinions on important political matters and controversies. And then he would tell the other side of the story, giving in great detail the opinions of the opposing side. He would then leave her to her thoughts so she could formulate her own opinions. The next day he would ask what thoughts or conclusions she had formulated.

More than once she had impressed him with her ability to formulate rational questions that challenged and even shook his rock-solid convictions.

In this way he taught her to think for herself: not to pessimistically question everything, but to examine everything.

And details. He was obsessed with small details. For example, he encouraged her to keep her Padawan braid very short, no longer then the length of her ear. Why? Because if it was too long it would smack against her face and would become a distraction not only in everyday life, but especially in a duel. He also encouraged her to keep her hair short.

She remembered clearly the day her Master had taken the scissors to

 

Meredith Kenobi's: The Right Recipe for a Great Fic

She remembered clearly the day her Master had taken the scissors to her long, silky brown hair. She had been eleven years old. She had cried, watching her brown curls fall to the ground.

Making little girls cry is what Jedi Masters do best, lol!

A Jedi was supposed to accept defeat with dignity and grace. But, Enani reasoned as she marched towards the Room of a Thousand Fountains, she was not a Jedi yet.

Loopholes, gotta love'em.

And, she rationalized as she thought about this a little longer, in a real fight, how are you supposed to accept defeat with dignity and grace if you're dead? It was ridiculous! The only answer was not to be defeated.

Another good point.

"I also know you took on that duel because you were trying to please or impress me. I am the teacher. You are the student. What you are working up to is your own success. Your learning and your progress should have nothing to do with me, and everything to do with yourself."

Nice bit of wisdom added in there for seasoning.

"I've learned," she said at last. "That it is pointless to try to be alone to think when my Master wants to speak with me."

And the garnishing bit of humor at the end. Hail to the chef.

Really good work, and tasty too.

 

You've got some wonderful OCs here!


And so she began to contemplate her loss.

But what had she lost? The duel, certainly.

But had she also lost her Master?s trust? Perhaps. Had she lost his faith in her abilities? Maybe.

Had she lost her Master?

She didn?t want to think about it, didn?t want to face it. Which was why, when she felt her Master sit down beside her, she closed her eyes.

?Enani.?

She didn?t answer and didn?t even show that she?d heard him.

?Enani!? This time he yelled it, sharply and impatiently. He was letting her know he wanted her attention now. She could not keep hiding.

So she looked at him. He looked back. He was not smiling, but he did not look angry either.

?I am sorry Master,? Enani said at last.

Her Master shook his head. ?You do not apologize for defeat; you do not feel guilty about it either, no matter the circumstances. Have I not taught you better than this?? Now he looked angry. ?You learn from defeat. You learn from it.

Bravo!

 

Great story and very good lesson. You have made some very good OC's nd it is a very good response to the challenge.

 

I do love a good Master/Padawan story and you have a great one!

Very nice job on this

 

This was really a great little story.
The OCs are simply brilliant.
In such a short space you've created two really dynamic characters.

This was great:

?When you?re riding a speeder bike, and you come upon a sharp turn in the road, what do you do??

?Slow down.? Enani said.

?Precisely. Otherwise you?ll go off the road. Say someone was riding behind you on this same road, and you wanted to impress them. You don?t slow down and you try to tackle the turn full speed ahead. What would happen??

?You would probably go off the road.?

?You would go off the road. Just to impress someone. Do you understand what I?m trying to tell you??

Bravo!

 

Wonderful answer to the challenge. Your OCs are very well written. Love Enani, such a solid character. I'd love to see more of her and her Master.

 

That was fantastic. Truly. Color me impressed.

 

Bravo Mere_K!

Favorite Quote of the story:
And, she rationalized as she thought about this a little longer, in a real fight, how are you supposed to accept defeat with dignity and grace if you?re dead? It was ridiculous! The only answer was not to be defeated.


And I loved how it tied in together here:
?You do not apologize for defeat; you do not feel guilty about it either, no matter the circumstances. Have I not taught you better than this??..."You learn from defeat. You learn from it.



Very powerful characters! And did I miss it, but the "master" didn't have a name did he?

 

BrentusofGath: *blushes to her toes* Look. See? Even my toes are blushing
Thanks for reading?and for the blush-a-licious review.

VaderLVR64: Thank you! I too like these OC?s. I hope to develop very deep personalities for them. More of them shall be seen.
Thank you for reading!!!!!!

Healer_Leona: Thank you for the delightful review!!!!! and for reading!!

CodyMonKenobi: Thank you very very much!!!!

Alley_Skywalker: Many many thank yous!!

oqidaun: Wow, thank you!! I am very glad to hear that I managed to create at least some-what dynamic characters?as that is exactly what I was trying to accomplish!!!

PadwanKayla: Thank you!! And so you shall see more of them. My goal is to develop these characters as much as possible.

emeraldshadow: *blush* thank you very much!!

corellian_ale: Thank you so much c_ale!! You quoted both my favorite lines?and declared exactly what I was trying to accomplish. *laugh*
And yes, Enani?s Master was never named. I did this on purpose to see if I could manage to create a powerful and colorful character without him ever being named!

Thank you again, everyone, for the wonderful reviews. I am ashamed for taking so long to respond to them, as they all made me so happy.

 

another lovely piece - enjoyed finding out more about Enani and her Master. A really interesting and diverse couple you have here! Please let me know if you write any more stories using them!


Fantastic