Smile
Ideal 4. Leader.
She never really fit any expectations.
The Temple in which she lived was a quiet place, elegant with age and stately with its' own importance. The children that were raised there were taught to fill themselves with similar attributes. They spent their days learning, strengthening their minds and their bodies for the rigors of the lives laid out before them, heard stories of how they would be servants of the people, but whispered to each other at night that they would really grow up to be heroes. They were taught that they were special, and knew that though the other initiates around them were not their siblings by blood, they were made brothers and sisters in their gifts and their goals.
All the children were unique, and she was no different. Everyone was singular, whether it be in face or homeworld, manner or culture, race or class, and it was this wealth of differences that fed the richness of their home. They shared accents and games and attitudes, and were praised and patted and encouraged to develop what special skills they had, to weld them to the greater good of them all.
No one knew what to make of her; she was a precocious child, a little devil when she wasn't a little angel. She was brilliant and she was careless, prone to wandering off and hiding in places it would be hard to be found. She was loud when she was not quiet, attentive when she was not staring at the sky through the wide, sunlit windows of the training halls. She was terrible at meditating and excellent at dueling. She was the one to speak out, to question, to challenge. She always stood out, for one reason or another, and resisted most attempts to mold her into something more recognizably one of them.
She did not tie herself down with the expectations of others.
Below her, she could see the formation of troopers moving around the rocky protrusions in the sand. It shifted around them, obscuring their white armor as it blew and dusted everything in ochre. The river of blue light pouring forward from their blasters cut through the dullness of the ground and lit them up in a fierce blaze.
He was moving at the front, a bit of dull blue hemming in the white of his armor, brightened by the glow of the blasters and the harsh sun. The others followed him perfectly, all moving in unison, efficient, deadly, swift and resolute. He followed her, and they followed him, even when they weren't supposed to.
But she knew where she was needed, and she worried more for those she wanted to protect than for the consequences that may be drawn from her actions.
She envied the men on the ground, for their unity and their solidity and the reliability that accompanied them. She envied him the most because he was their leader and he was unyielding and strong and unshakeable, and did not fear making mistakes in the process of learning to lead. He already knew.
He was already the leader she struggled to become.
Reaching the earth, Ahsoka swept forward into the fight.
This is a companion piece to Rebel.
~Queen