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audio ; un: a.solo

[ There's a faint sound of wind in the background of his broadcast, as if he's sitting somewhere up high. ]

Hello. Again. [ Oof, okay, not the strongest start. ] I'm Anakin Solo, a knight of the Jedi Order, at your service. I sort of remember being here before, and I wanted to thank everyone who helped me out.

They offered me a bed at the orphanage, but I don't want to take it from someone who might need it.
How does housing work here, exactly? I don't mind sleeping outside, but that doesn't seem wise in the long run.

[ A pause. ]

By the way, I don't remember the sky being like this before-- is this normal? As normal as anything is here, I mean.

[ Another pause. He's clearly not in his element. ]

Thanks again.

[ The feed ends. ]

( ooc: let me know if you want to keep his tdm thread! i'm cool either way. )

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Okay, I'll wait here.

[ He's easy to find in the Force-- a steady, surprisingly strong, presence ]

Given the nature of lamp travel, it doesn't take Ezra terribly long to get to Crenshaw. And then, when he casts his senses into the Force, he night immediately pinpoints Anakin's presence in the Force.

There really is something distinctive about people descended from Anakin Skywalker, he thinks - and the elder Anakin himself, of course. Looking back, even submerged in the Dark Side, behind the mask of Vader, that had been true.

A few more minute and he's taking a couple of Force-aided leaps to come up to where Anakin Solo is perched, and flips back the hood of his cloak, as he settles.

"Hey," he says, warm and simple, with a quick smile.

He sits in an easy crossed legged position, close enough they can talk quietly. And then waits, letting Anakin steer the conversation.

Anakin is sitting in the shadow of a chimney, wearing the ink-black robes he'd gotten in his welcome bag. He's quite hard to see, unless someone is looking for him. Or someone is a Force-sensitive. Ezra is both, so he might as well be sitting in a bright spotlight.

Anakin pushes his hood back as well, greeting Ezra with a small but genuine smile. He tries not to look as emotionally wrung-out as he feels.

"Hey. Thanks for coming."

He takes a moment to collect his thoughts and releases some of his anxiety out into the Force.

"I didn't realize having my memories this time around would make things more complicated."

"Of course. You're welcome," Ezra replies, easily, before his expression firms into more solemn and sympathetic.

"I don't think I can say being from a potential future is harder or easier than being one of the one's who can't but help but learn things about the potential future. But, yeah, either way, it can get complicated."

He spreads his gloved hands. "None of my closest family, birth or adopted, that I knew before I was taken out of my native time and place, is here. But there are people I know from home here. And I was...somewhere else for most of a year, before I came here. I met a lot of people who are here, but different version, at slightly different points. Came to care a lot about them. Not being recognized when I got here was...not great."

As in, he ugly cried on an absolute stranger who'd been trying to help him. Thankfully, Vyng was a nice who dealt with it pretty gracefully. And then, more recently, he'd cried again all over Obi-wan when they talked about being family as fellow Jedi.

Ezra explains exactly what's bothering Anakin: not being recognized by someone he cares about is the hardest part so far. And Ezra went through it with multiple people.

Anakin takes a deep breath, glancing away for a moment trying to put it into words.

"Luke and I are close, normally. He's my uncle, but he's also my master. It's..." He casts his mind around for the right word. Anakin isn't sure there is one.

"He's just always been there."

Ezra sucks in a breath hard, feeling like his heart is clenching in empathy.

"Yeah." He rubs at his face. "I'm...gonna ramble a second, but I promise I have a point. You asked about my master, before. My first master was Kanan Jarrus. And if you don't know that name, I'll be sorry to hear it, but not surprised." Maybe he and Kanan are remembered on Lothal. He just hopes, really hopes, the rest of the Specters live well past the fall of the Empire.

"About 18 years into the Empire - a few days before I was taken out of the galaxy as I knew it- Kanan was killed in action."

He's silent for a beat, eyes shining, and swallows, before he presses on. "The place I was for most of a year - Temba - there were several Jedi. One of them was Master Kenobi, from a few months after the rise of the Empire. I'd met him before, and even though it was really only the once, he's still like nearly half the reason I'm a Jedi. So. He's my second master. And then, there in Temba, there was this reality warping spell. It gave us all memories of this whole other life, which I know sounds crazy. Where...he and I weren't Jedi, or even Force sensitive. I was just a regular student. And he was my much older brother, Ben, who had raised me. He was always there."

He looks down. "The truth is - the Empire arrested my parents when I was seven. I was a street kid until I was 14, and Kanan found me. Kanan took me in and gave me an amazing new family, who helped me figure out who I wanted to be. But that's...not the same as always having a family. So when that spell broke, Ben and I decided that it - it was ok to still be brothers. We could choose to make it true. Those memories are a little hazy, but they're there."

He looks back up. "But of course none of that has happened to Master Kenobi here. I get it."

Edited (editing in a missing word) 2022-04-05 04:05 (UTC)

Anakin leans forward and rests his forearms on his knees. Ezra can talk as much as he needs to-- Anakin is more than willing to listen to "rambling."

He turns the name "Kanan Jarrus" over in his head, but nothing comes up. It's not surprising, given how thorough the Empire was at rewriting the narrative around the Jedi while simultaneously erasing as much as they could. Still, it's sad how many of the fallen Jedi have no one to remember them. Anakin feels a sharp sting when Ezra mentions his Master being killed in action. Ikrit died only months ago. There's a part of him that won't ever heal right, and he wonders if Ezra has that same feeling. Sympathy rolls from him into the Force, a brief spark, before he's quiet again.

It takes Anakin several seconds to respond. Ezra has lost his family over and over. To the Empire. To death. To tragedies that Anakin never would have imagined before he got here.

"But you can't help but want the person you know to be here. And it feels selfish and unfair to the person who's already here."

That's what he got from it, anyway.

"The feeling won't really go away, will it?"

Ezra sends a wave of gratitude/grief back through the Force towards Anakin, trying to modulate it so it's there, but not overwhelming.

"Yeah. All of that, exactly." He sighs.

"It's gotten better. I ran to Obi-wan after a rough battle, except I guess I was obvious enough about being conflicted, that he came straight out with 'We're Jedi, so we're already family'. And then for unrelated reasons I moved in with him, and we've talked about him teaching me. But it's not the same and never will be. He knows the version of him taught me, but I haven't told him about the memory spell and being brothers. And I don't plan to."

Anakin hadn't been planning on telling anyone about this conversation; still, he looks Ezra in the eye and nods minutely. I won't tell anyone.

"We are family."

And sometimes the Jedi can only rely on each other, especially when politics get mixed into everything.

"You don't have to tell me, but why did you move in with him?"

Ezra shoulders slump, in relief - at the flicker of the thought that he caught, and the words said outloud.

"We are," he vows, in return.

"Well, Obi-wan invited me to move in the first time I visited his house. But your namesake was living there; we didn't hit it off. So I said I didn't think it was good idea, unless both of them agreed."

He presses his lips together, unhappily. "Anakin Skywalker...hasn't been doing well. I think he was treading towards the Dark Side before he got here, and the native form of corruption seems to work a lot like spiraling in the Dark. And then - have you run across Maul, yet?"

Edited (typo) 2022-04-07 03:53 (UTC)

After everything he's heard so far, Anakin's not surprised that his namesake hasn't really hit it off with other people. He's reserving judgement as best as he can, for now.

At Ezra's mention of corruption and the Dark, Anakin feels a stab of anxiety. He's been worried about it since he first got here, and, if the other Anakin was well on his way to becoming Vader, he can imagine that it's only accelerated. Anakin Skywalker's mild annoyance toward him seems almost friendly from that perspective.

He frowns thoughtfully.

"I've met him. I'm not sure what to make of him."

He makes an equivocating gesture, and grumpy face to go with it.

"I'm both biased, and trying hard not to be, because the version of him I knew back home was like 20 years older. But he kinda killed my desire to go against my instincts when he - there's blood magic here that bonds people spiritually in different ways. I'm not part of one, so I couldn't tell you how similar it is or isn't to a Force bond - although those all unique, anyway. But Maul forced one onto your namesake. To steal some of his power in the Force, I think. I'm still looking for a way to undo it."

He shakes his head. "I tell how much of it is Anakin's own fear and anger intensified, or it's Maul directly impacting him. But it's bad, and Anakin's response just...leave the house and he hasn't come back yet. It's been weeks and weeks. So yeah, I moved in. No reason for Obi-wan to be more isolated."

Anakin's face goes white with fury, his jaw clenches shut, and he makes a fist so tight that his knuckles are white. White-hot anger ripples through the Force. Adrenaline rushes through him and his first instinct is to get up and fight. Any thought of bias or fairness is gone-- if it had been accidental, that's one thing. But this? Stealing someone's power, taking away their will, dragging them into the Dark?

The more he thinks, the angrier he gets. So he stops thinking. It takes every bit of training and practice he's gone through just to calm down. He lets out a few deep breaths until his jaw unclenches and his muscles relax again. He hasn't lost his temper like that in awhile.

"He's in pain."

Ezra's not judging; he'd had a similar reaction that he'd had to wrestle down, before he let himself response to Anakin's distressed message on the network. His own anger at the thought of what Maul did to Anakin Skywalker lurks, even now. He's trying not to cling to it, but while the violation is still ongoing, he hasn't found a way to let it go yet, either.

On the other hand, that much anger bright in the Force isn't comfortable to him, so he takes a deep breath in, and breathes out. And then again, slower, focusing on that rhythm while he watches Anakin, and waits, holding himself as steady and calm in the Force as he can, as much for Anakin to 'lean on' as anything else.

Ezra's still not exactly sure how old the other young Jedi is, but he's pretty sure Anakin has better control than he himself did, even a few years ago. So on the whole, he finds himself impressed.

"Yes. I'm worried. But the only people he's seemed to listen to or let comfort him is Obi-wan, and Padme."

Anakin is too distracted to notice Ezra's discomfort, but he does feel the assurance through the Force. He burns bright in the Force, which is a double-edged sword for anyone around him.

His expression is serious, but most of the anger seems to have drained from him in favor of concern. For now.

"Considering how our meeting went, I don't think I can get through to him either." Granted, that's not surprising.

"If it can be made, it can be broken." He says this with the finality of someone taking on a mission.

Everything else is unimportant-- his own worries or feelings-- because now there's a mission.

"Seems reasonable, right? I promised him that if there was a way, I'd find it. I've been scouring the Archives, talking to Scholars and Disciples. If anyone knows, they aren't telling. And I haven't gotten Doorway themselves to turn up to weigh in, yet," he says, with a sigh.

"With enough information, I should be able to create an algorithm to consolidate the most relevant information into one source. Save you a little time."

He's done it before, though the biggest takeaway had nothing to do with the algorithm's actual function. Still, it's worth a shot. Surely these are digital archives. Right?

Oh boy. He winces.

"Most of the Archives are hard copies." He sighs. "And there's no index and....have you ever been in a temple ruin that seems bigger on the inside, and like it changes, and the only way to get anywhere is to let the Force guide you?"

Surely the temple at Lothal wasn't the only one like that. Ahsoka had implied she'd seen that sort of trickiness before.

Anakin winces as well. There goes that plan.

"The Temple I grew up in was some modified ruins on Yavin-4. There were secret passages, but it didn't change around."

It's gone now. Not even ashes remain. He gets a distant look in his eyes, just for a moment, before returning to the present.

He sighs.

"If the Archives here are like that, it makes me wonder if they're hiding something. Protecting something powerful... or dangerous."

Ezra blinks. "I know Yavin. That was main base to the Alliance when I was last in my native time. I never really had the down time to explore the ruins beyond the central camp, though."

He shakes his head. "And hiding something dangerous and powerful would track with my experience with the temple on Lothal. Here, it might simply be the School of Mutter the associated Archives are the domain of the Pthumerian called Never Mind."

"My friend and I used to explore the ruins when I studied there. They're fascinating."

For a moment, his gaze is distant and a sadness creeps into his eyes. So many people and places are gone from him forever now. He feels the ache of his severed Force bonds like a phantom limb. 'Eyes up, Solo,' he thinks to himself. 'Keep moving forward or you won't make it.'

His expression clears, but a shadow lingers.

"Never Mind? Interesting name for a patron of knowledge. At least, I assume that's what they are."

Ezra knows that expression - or at least, it reminds him of expressions he's seen on other Jedi. He tries to add a little more warmth to the sense of steady/here that he's holding out into the Force.

Out loud, he merrily moves right along, "Yes! He is. And of the month of September and people who's Blessed Day is in that month. Never Mind is one of the more findable and accessible patrons."

He shrugs. "I've been trying to get a few words in with Doorway, since they're my patron, and they govern blood bonds, in the hope they'd tell me how to break one, but no luck so far. They gave me a sword back on my Blessed day, back before Maul forced a bond with your namesake, but I not sure what it's purpose is."

A tinge of embarrassment comes from Anakin before he replies with a sense of appreciation/comfort in the Force.

"He might not be able to answer our questions outright, but maybe he can help us navigate the Archives."

Anakin frowns thoughtfully. "They govern blood bonds but gave you a sword? Do the gifts usually have a direct connection to the realm the Patron governs?"

A sword is an odd choice for a patron of bonds. Unless it's meant to shed blood to break a bond in both the physical and spiritual realms.

"Hmmm." Anakin makes a good point.

"They're often depicted as holding a sword with bloody hands. Something to do with honesty, promises, and resoluteness, I think?" Hence why Ezra hadn't questioned it too much.

"And yeah, there seems to be at least some manner of connection between the nature of the Patron and the gifts."

A sword and bloody hands. The connotations of that are rather grim, but he gets the feeling there's something to it.

"I don't think killing Maul is the answer. A 'soul bond' suggests it would persist even after the death of one or both of the people bonded."

He's sure Ezra has already thought of that, but he's thinking aloud at this point.

"Maybe it involves blood or a blood sacrifice from one or both of them. A way to metaphorically 'cut' their bond. Kind of weird that Doorway would allow for a bond like this if they focus on honesty and promises."

Then again, who's to say that Doorway pays attention to every bond formed in the Trench.

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ezra_of_lothal - 2022-04-29 02:33 (UTC) - Expand

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hopesparks - 2022-05-03 00:37 (UTC) - Expand

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audio ; un: a.solo

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