driftfleet | V. Important Requests

Entry tags:

V. Important Requests

Who: Katie and anyone
Broadcast: Fleet
Action: The Vanquish if you want
When: 10 Feb

Dear Atrama, Can we please visit a planet with beaches next? I keep meeting people who haven't seen one and that's terrible. It's actually a crime where I come from. Please don't let anyone get arrested. I believe in you. Also if you take requests can I have my cat please. And some chalk and I was meant to have a sword I think I could be wrong. It's a short silver gold magical IT'S A LIGHTSABER A RED ONE Either that or just give me Mihawks.

[GO BIG OR GO HOME]

Please thank you love Dorothy.

[This has been a totally efficient use of your communicator, Katie, gj.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Ah. He knows what she's referring to. ]

Not yet. Though I imagine I will at some point.

[She opens her mouth for a second. Closes it. Does it again. It's-- questions. She wants to ask so many questions. He could be lying! But he sounds the same. (Sort of.) And Han is already here. And then she keeps shutting up again because it's probably not very nice to ask him if Darth Vader is Darth Vader yet, all things considered.

Though she really does want to know. Um. And Katie will take people at face value in most cases.] So where do you live now? How old are you now? Are you fighting lots of bad guys?

[ His lips twitch before it gives way for a smile. ]

I . . . live on Coruscant, so to speak, at the Jedi Temple. I am thirty-eight years old and I still fight lots of bad guys. Whole armies of them, in fact.

[She's never heard of Coruscant, but her eyes light up at the thought of an actual Jedi Temple.]

All by yourself? [Jedi really ARE powerful.] Oh, but you have other Jedi, right? Are you winning?

[She can't remember much about what's meant to have happened before the movies. But there had to be a war in there somewhere.]

Well, with a few others. My clone squadron, for example. Anakin tends to tag along as well.

[ "Are you winning?" makes his confident smile flicker, but it's barely noticeable. ]

We will. Eventually.

[She's about to ask what the heck a clone squadron is when he says the magic word.]

Anakin-!

[O-oh. She shuts up for a moment, then asks more tentatively:] What's he like?

[It's hard to go from idolising movie characters to meeting real people when she's nine. She's trying.]

[ Now that's an interesting question. He takes his time with it, folding his arms. ]

Well, he is a superlative Jedi. Compassionate, strong. Determined to do the right thing, even when the scales are against him.

[ Tormented, hurt, struggling with the weight of his destiny, the weight of it all. ]

I'm proud to know him and to have taught him.

[She's not sure what superlative means, but the rest is clear enough. Katie wrinkles her nose in thought. She does know how easy it can be to twist someone around completely, but even so.]

He sounds very nice. [And she sounds very uncertain because she's beating down the urge to ask do you know what happens to him? It's very rude, and she wouldn't be able to explain anyway. ...although.] I know someone just like him at home.

[ If he notices her hesitation, he doesn't comment on it. ]

Oh? Do tell.

He's very tall and he wears a lot of black. And he's not well. He makes lots of mistakes, but he always does the right thing in the end.

[ That paints an interesting figure. . . . In fact, it sounded a lot like Kanan's "Darth Vader". ]

He certainly sounds like someone who could use a little help to put himself back on the right path.

Everyone needs help sometimes! Even if you do very mean things. You should say you're sorry and try to fix it.

Saying sorry never hurts, especially when you've made a mistake.

Do you think your friend will be all right?

[Good question. Or a terrible one.]

I think he'll be all right at the very, very end. He gets to see you again.

-- me again. [SOMEONE DEFINITELY NOT YOU.]

[ His expression softens and he looks like just a man, who's barely holding it up together, but still finds time to reward kindness with kindness. ]

That's more than I could ever dream of.

[She doesn't quite know what to make of that expression, but it's one she doesn't like at all. He's not meant to be sad. She's only talking about her own supposed fr--

Oh. Unless. She can't help herself, peering at him worriedly across the feed.]

You already know, don't you?

[ Just to be safe, he locks it. It's one thing for Anakin to guess that he helps Palpatine. It's another to learn he has fallen into the Dark. ]

Yes. To some extent, though I don't know everything. But thank you. I do appreciate your kind efforts.

[That has to be horrid, knowing things are going to go all wrong and not being able to stop it. Well, he might--]

Do you think knowing more means you could fix things? [She loves the movies, but real people are real people. This isn't the first time she's met supposed works of fiction. (Though meeting a Thundercat was far less sad.)]

I don't know.

[ He rubs his beard, mulling it over. ] I don't know if there's a reason that I learned the truth. The Force tends to work in mysterious ways and I'm not one to presume.

I do know that I have learned from it. And perhaps, learning from it will pave the way to a better future.

It would be nice if you all got to live much happier lives, wouldn't it? [She phrases many things as a question, really, which is really just skirting by the whole truth-telling thing.]

You could tell Anakin when you go home! I bet he wouldn't turn to the dark side if he wasn't taken by surprise.

[Because that's totally how it works. She also has no clue she's already talking to Anakin, whoops.]

It would be nice.

[ But not particularly believable. Even without the war, Jedi lives are often tied with life and death. Tragedies are not common, but also not unexpected. ]

Do you think that's how it happened?

[ Or were the seeds simply there and Obi-Wan was too blind to notice. ]

I see it a little differently. My love is many things, and it takes many forms. But I don't think it has ever saved a life.

[She doesn't know how Anakin turned. All she has to go on is the line by a ghostly Jedi about how he technically wasn't lying when he said Darth Vader murdered Luke's father (good going, Obi-Wan, pooka everywhere would be proud).

So the question makes her bite her lip, chewing that over for a moment, until he distracts her entirely with that last part. No. Love is very important.]

Do you think so? There's a lot of different ways to save a life. What if nobody ever had any of your love at all?

[A little heavier topic than your average small child.]

[ That was a blow he was not expecting and he barely manages to suppress the wince.

What if nobody ever had any of your love at all?

Surely they knew. Surely he didn't keep it a secret. Surely, all of them knew, deep down that he . . .

It takes him a few minutes to reply. ]

That can't be true.

[That's not the answer she was expecting. She wasn't accusing him of anything-- hmm. Katie frowns. She's not really aware his thoughts have gone down a different path, so she wonders if she were just confusing. It's hard to explain these things.]

No, I mean-- don't you love the people around you? They're your friends, aren't they? They like that you're there, don't they? That can make a lot of difference.

[You can save someone just by being there for them, sometimes. Or maybe Jedi aren't allowed.]

Perhaps.

[ He smiles faintly, realizing that his thoughts have slipped in morose territory. ]

I can't say for sure if I have helped them much by being here. I suppose I'll only know when we've finally changed things around for the future.

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