The Mandalorian and the Princess [Kaleb, Reine, and Ava] (Closed)

[rythmicjea]

Reine — 05/29/2021
Reine watched and listened to Ava's diatribe closely. Far closer than Ava had listened to hers. It went from petulant to rude to ignorant and finally disastrous in a matter of minutes. It was absolutely apparent that Ava was a spoiled child who was used to getting her way no matter how much she said she "lived in the shadow". She was a walking ball of hypocrisy to put it plainly. It was if she had forgotten the words she spoke as soon as she spoke them and changed her tune when challenged even slightly.

When Ava looked at Kaleb, her eyes darted to him as well. The Mandalorian pensive and stoic as always to everyone else. But to Reine he was warm and not as confident as he liked people to believe. But he was well informed and did not make grand sweeping gestures that he demanded that people follow. At least, not that she had seen. She would never ask him to choose a side. He had his own war going on with him and it was far more important than this "squabble" that Ava believes it to be.

Reine wanted to scream. To throw things across the room both physically and with her gifts. She wanted to burn this city to the ground and Ava with it. It took everything she had to not move a single muscle while the girl spoke. She bit her tongue until it almost bled to keep from looking like a caught fish. At last, she wanted to laugh. She could see herself snickering and then giggling until it turned into a full belly guffaw with all the theatrics of bending over at the waist and wiping a tear from her eye. But she did none of it. Instead, she inhaled deeply, resetting herself, after the barrage of words that came at her with no actual substance behind them. And took the few steps to the desk next to her and sat demurely.

It was a power move. She kept her distance from Ava, as they stood, for protection but also to keep them on equal footing. Sitting, unlike kneeling, was not a submissive play. She was making herself comfortable but not terribly so while Ava stood erect in her military pose. Even if Ava would sit on the bed it would take a great amount of effort to match Reine's energy; and, if she tried it would look as if she did not care about the exchange. She might be sitting erect on the edge of the bed but it would not look comfortable and Reine's ease would shine through. If she tried to approach Reine it would be seen as aggressive and threatening. Again, defeating the purpose of this Parlay. Politics, as Reine knew and it was becoming very apparent that Ava did not, was a game of Dejarik. You must always think many moves ahead, even if all of the pieces are still left on the board.

Reine picked up a stylist and tapped it on the desk, thinking of her opening statement. "I want to thank you." She smiled assuredly. And whatever ease Ava might have felt briefly would be taken away swiftly. "For proving my point." She said slowly. There was no evil smirk or mischievous eyes. Just a direct honesty that Ava had failed to show herself. "You... reek of privilege. Privilege that you have not earned but that was freely given to you and it shows. You passively ask for repentance; and, when it is not given, change your story so that you have egg on your face. Which shows that you are not a sincere person. What is most troubling is that you think that this is about some petty squabble. You say that I took joy in inflicting you harm. I took no joy in that. Do I enjoy a healthy debate, but of course! I enjoy the exchange of ideas and theories and discovering the best way that they can be defended. But last night was not that. And, for me, it was over the moment Tesara finished mediating the situation.

Whether I agree with it or not, is of no consequence because it is not a world that I have lived in.

"I apologize, sincerely, if you thought that I took some sick pleasure from watching you squirm. That was never my intent. However, that is not the issue at hand. And the fact that you cannot see it, or refuse to, is the problem between us. And you say that this 'rivalry' is over because you say it is. That is not how negotiations work. That is how a petulant child tries to resolve things. And by you admitting that you 'will not go event by event' just proves that you are willfully ignorant to your surroundings and the situations you involve yourself in. You have chosen to fixate on a small issue instead of the larger one that you have been involved with.

"While it may be true that only you can be effective in the circles of the colonizers did you ever stop to think of why that may be? Your food comes prepackaged with out a care or knowledge of how it was obtained. You shop for clothing without a second thought of the people that made it and the conditions that they live or the environment that it effects. Everything is handed to you on a silver platter, and you do not care why. You have a fancy title that was given to you by your family without regard for what it means. I am a chieftain’s daughter and, by your society’s standards, I am a princess. So, I out rank you. But you cannot handle that someone may be more important than you. So, you took a garment that was hand woven, hand embroidered, hand beaded over countless hours by people you will never know as a symbol of a threat to your way of life. And in your jealousy you had it destroyed. Gleefully so. This morning when we were at the temple and my chain code did not work, you did not once think to yourself ‘Why does this citizen not have a working chain code? How can I help her?’ Instead you, without a single thought for anyone but yourself, labeled me your ‘servant’. You did not once stop to ask me, a citizen of Baklid, how best to proceed with anything. You, instead, thought that you were the arbiter of how things should be and proceeded with your plan. And when we were at the Republic Center, not only did you show that you do not know how to wield that fancy title of yours but you showed you had no regard for anyone of this planet!

“YOU MADE ME A SLAVE!" Reine pounded the table so forcefully that fearing it might break would not be a foreign thought to those in the room. She closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath. She splayed her palm along the wood feeling the smooth grain and slick varnish. Once she had regained her composure she looked at Ava again. Her voice was rough with emotion. “Do you think I like the way I speak? Do you think that I like looking like the colonizers when I am quiet but the moment that I open my mouth and this thick accent comes out anything that I have worked towards has been destroyed? You do not know what it is like to be a foreigner to your own people and to the world around you.” She thought of the kids in school who made fun of her until she couldn’t answer a teacher’s question without a panic attack occurring. Or when she was older and the boys telling her that she was so pretty and her accent was so “exotic” only to find out that it was a prank? “It is the fact that I have to lay this out so plainly for you that is the problem. You only care for others when you do not deem them a risk to your ‘command’.” She used her fingers to indicate a quote on the last word. “That is why you had to proclaim that you do not see me as competition. It was not for my benefit. It was you reassuring yourself. Your privilege has blinded you to the plight of anyone that is not your tribe. It has blinded you to the notion that there are other worlds and cultures outside of your own that should be respected and protected.

“And this ‘choose now’ proclamation? What guarantee do I have, besides your word which has not amounted to much at this point, that you will not back out of this agreement? What collateral do I have from you that you will keep your word? You have had a chain code created for me that asserts that I am less than. I am an ‘animal’.” She sneered at that last description. “You have no motivation to change it. It benefits you to keep it. You have branded me in a manner that you will never be able to fully comprehend.” The tension was so thick in the room that you could swim in it. Reine took a shaky breath through her nose before finishing softly, “and it is hard to believe that you even care.”