Rey Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatwaslucky) wrote2020-05-04 01:06 pm
thatwaslucky) wrote2020-05-04 01:06 pm
Entry tags:
Anoat- Monday
On the third time she screwed up a simple task, Rey sighed and said, "I'm sorry."
"What for?" Leia asked from where she was sitting on a crate. The base didn't have much in the way of furniture, and the small room that shed commandeered for training purposes didn't have much at all to it. Still, it was always a little weird for Rey to see someone like Leia, stately general and princess, on a box.
"Messing up," Rey said, feeling like that should have been obvious.
"No need to apologize, Rey. You're the only one who ever gets mad about it," Leia pointed out.
"I know," she said with a sigh. "I just don't know why I can do some things and not others, and why other things take so long to figure out when they should be easy."
"You get in your own head about it," Leia said, and smiled wryly. "You know that, too."
She did. "I thought I would have gotten over that by now, too," Rey admitted, taking a seat on one of the other crates.
"Do you know why you haven't?" Leia said, sounding like she had an answer in mind.
Rey paused, and guessed, "Because I'm in my own head about it?"
Leia just smiled.
"Did you ever have anything like this?" Rey wondered. "Where you just get stuck on something?"
"I don't know that I ever got stuck…" Seeing Rey's face at that, she added, "I approached it differently. And Luke let me."
"What do you mean?"
"When Luke trainee me, he was good, but… he was definitely a brother about it," Leia said with a little, wistful smile. She hadn't actually talked about Luke that much to Rey. "He would try to goad me into a reaction, teach me about patience, because that was what he'd had to work on. He didn't realize there wasn't anything he could try and teach me about patience that I hadn't had trained into me years before. And I think sometimes he just wanted to be annoying on purpose."
Rey smiled.
"Once he had me doing a handstand, I don't even know why," she continued. "We'd just been sparring, I was exhausted. I was having trouble. He'd tell me 'when I did this, Yoda was on my feet,' or 'when I did this, it was one-handed.' I finally had it with him."
"What did you do?" Rey wondered.
"I showed him up," Leia said simply. "I used that patience. Focused on the things around me. Living things that didn't care about whether they failed or succeeded, and then I was in the air. He couldn't do that. But he realized that there were things I wouldn't be great at, and things I would be exceptional at, and that our approaches were going to be different."
Rey considered that, and asked, "Did he ever learn to do what you did?"
"Not that i know of. I don't think it mattered if he did. If he didn't, he had plenty of other tools to use in his personal arsenal."
This made sense. Rey knew it made sense. "I just feel like I need to get good at everything. I hear all the stories. How do I do whatever I need to do if I can't match that?"
"Who says you have to match that? You can be better than that," Leia said.
Rey blinked. She'd never considered that. It was beyond strange to hear about herself.
"Let's end there for today," Leia said, starting to get up.
"I can try again," Rey offered.
"No, you need to sit with that thought," Leia told her. "We'll meet again before you leave tomorrow."
[Story borrowed from Rae Carson's The Rise of Skywalker novelization. Today's as good a day as any!]
"What for?" Leia asked from where she was sitting on a crate. The base didn't have much in the way of furniture, and the small room that shed commandeered for training purposes didn't have much at all to it. Still, it was always a little weird for Rey to see someone like Leia, stately general and princess, on a box.
"Messing up," Rey said, feeling like that should have been obvious.
"No need to apologize, Rey. You're the only one who ever gets mad about it," Leia pointed out.
"I know," she said with a sigh. "I just don't know why I can do some things and not others, and why other things take so long to figure out when they should be easy."
"You get in your own head about it," Leia said, and smiled wryly. "You know that, too."
She did. "I thought I would have gotten over that by now, too," Rey admitted, taking a seat on one of the other crates.
"Do you know why you haven't?" Leia said, sounding like she had an answer in mind.
Rey paused, and guessed, "Because I'm in my own head about it?"
Leia just smiled.
"Did you ever have anything like this?" Rey wondered. "Where you just get stuck on something?"
"I don't know that I ever got stuck…" Seeing Rey's face at that, she added, "I approached it differently. And Luke let me."
"What do you mean?"
"When Luke trainee me, he was good, but… he was definitely a brother about it," Leia said with a little, wistful smile. She hadn't actually talked about Luke that much to Rey. "He would try to goad me into a reaction, teach me about patience, because that was what he'd had to work on. He didn't realize there wasn't anything he could try and teach me about patience that I hadn't had trained into me years before. And I think sometimes he just wanted to be annoying on purpose."
Rey smiled.
"Once he had me doing a handstand, I don't even know why," she continued. "We'd just been sparring, I was exhausted. I was having trouble. He'd tell me 'when I did this, Yoda was on my feet,' or 'when I did this, it was one-handed.' I finally had it with him."
"What did you do?" Rey wondered.
"I showed him up," Leia said simply. "I used that patience. Focused on the things around me. Living things that didn't care about whether they failed or succeeded, and then I was in the air. He couldn't do that. But he realized that there were things I wouldn't be great at, and things I would be exceptional at, and that our approaches were going to be different."
Rey considered that, and asked, "Did he ever learn to do what you did?"
"Not that i know of. I don't think it mattered if he did. If he didn't, he had plenty of other tools to use in his personal arsenal."
This made sense. Rey knew it made sense. "I just feel like I need to get good at everything. I hear all the stories. How do I do whatever I need to do if I can't match that?"
"Who says you have to match that? You can be better than that," Leia said.
Rey blinked. She'd never considered that. It was beyond strange to hear about herself.
"Let's end there for today," Leia said, starting to get up.
"I can try again," Rey offered.
"No, you need to sit with that thought," Leia told her. "We'll meet again before you leave tomorrow."
[Story borrowed from Rae Carson's The Rise of Skywalker novelization. Today's as good a day as any!]