From the Lady's Retreat
She had considered only visiting her personal retreat on Lordran if the war was over and Sidious taken care off, but even the great Lady Ciaran had to admit weakness once in a while. Everyone may be convinced that she had unlimited energy reserves for both amusing herself through the embarrasment of others and her constant plans, but that is only the case due to her efforts to hide her moments of weakness and melancholy.
It is for that reason that she took one of her smallest and least luxurious ships to head to her retreat. The whole island was designed to be as archaic and peacefull as possible. The clockhouse uses gears and is no way digital, the generators below the island are of a design hailing from the ages before the various races reached space, the library contains books made out of paper and bound in cloth or leather. The living room and beds were also archaic, mostly made out of wood and stone with a simple style.... It would be easier to say what is NOT archaic. Namely a single communication console which allows her to be reached in emergencies and even that device looks archaic. All in all, it serves to disconnect her from the rest of the galaxy as nothing reminds one of the wider galaxy and even the Force is calm.
Now, what does a insanely rich and devious Lady like Ciaran do on such an island? Gardening, reading books, stargazing, cooking, thinking... admiting to herself that this simplicity is quite nice as here she doesn't have to keep up appearances, flee herself into some persona or overact to mask herself. Its true that she enjoys what she is doing, but no living being... or few if one does not take into account such sadistic CREATURES like Sidious... is so simple as to have such narrow interests.
The simplicity of the island, the charities she runs and the immersion into the roles of bartender or poor person when she visits the slums of various planets she visits also help her to keep her ego in check. She remembers the feelings of pain, the feelings of hopelessness, despair, misery, fear, sadness. The memory of death, the gas eating away at her body, the knife that pierced her throat in the death that never was, the many many deaths she could and perhaps should've experienced. She may be rich, she may be powerful, she may be peeking at the Dark Side every once in a while, but she was not blind to how the galaxy works. She knows, the rich, she knows the poor, she knows the righteous, she knows the corrupt.... the naive, the idealists, the fools, the wise, blind and the knowing, the good and the evil.
If one were accuse her of being a bad person, she would likely wholeheartedly agree if she weren't forced to keep up appearances. She may be a bad person, doing good things and having an interest in preserving peace while prefering to earn her fortune on the back of the prosperity of others instead of their misery but even she had to admit that she has commited countless crimes.
At least she knows that if one were to accuse her she could easily and happily ask them what THEY have been doing to improve the galaxy recently... and be found wanting in comparision to her efforts while she in the same breath probably saves a hundred peoples life five minutes later.
A thought that was abruptly interrupted as her cooking pot overcooked and splashed hot water on her hand, more or less signaling her that for all the self-awareness she has she was once again getting caught up in her self-righteonus. Who would've thought that getting addicted to feeling of doing good and basking in the gratitude of others would get as addictive and be as blinding as it is. Food for thought... really.
Thats why she is friends with people like Padme, whose righteousness and idealism is genuine... or Asajj who through her cynism does her best to keep her ego in check, even if she has to resort to physical beatings.
At that point her communicator chimed, indicating a message from off-planet. Quickly the blue visage of Thrawn appeared. "Lady Ciaran. Do you have a moment?"
The confidence and ever present smirk of Ciaran quickly reasserted itself as she focused on Thrawn and nooded. "Certainly and I can guess quite well why you are calling. How is Ahsoka doing? The aftermath of the disaster with the bombing and the conspiracy behind it must still be taking quite a toll on her..." At least she knew that this discussion would only take a few moments before she could indulge in simplicity again... and her fight against the stove. She HAS to learn how to cook at some point!
((You can't tell me that Ciaran is CONSTANTLY the hyperactive, eternaly trolling, smirking excentric she is nonstop for decades! Not after all the shit has been through, the things she has seen in person and through the Force and being faced with a Sith Conspiracy that has been building up to this moment ofr a thousand years.))
