driftfleet | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Herons and visitors!
Broadcast: None.
Action: SS Heron
When: February!

[It's a February mingle! Come visit, stay and do nothing, enjoy the luxury bath suite.]

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Kaworu. That explained a whole lot. "Oh, is that what that is?" Vima said. "No wonder the ship glows like a beacon whenever he visits."

...Which might warrant some explanation on her own end. "That is, I'm a Jedi--I don't know if you've met any of us yet. But we can sense things like that. So I can definitely believe Kaworu could put a shield around the ship."

Shinji wasn't surprised to hear that Vima had noticed Kaworu somehow. At Shinji's request, Kaworu had been hanging out on the Heron almost 24/7. He just didn't want to be without Kaworu for many, many reasons.

"Oh, uhm... I talked to Ahsoka-san. She mentioned the Jedi. She said they were like intergalactic knights."

Blink. Blink blink.

"Wait, you're a Jedi?" he asked incredulously. He had been imagining rugged warriors, all wise and elderly, rather than someone closer to him in age.

"Don't sound so surprised," Vima laughed. "I'm kind of an apprentice, still." It was a little ambiguous, but she certainly wasn't a Master, and she wasn't going to call herself a Knight until she got some experience.

"But that's basically what we are, yes. We use the Force to help people around the Galaxy. You're friends with Ahsoka, too?"

"Yeah, I met her when I was first assigned here," Shinji said, still feeling surprised. And inadequate. And curious. There had been a time when he, too, was tasked with protecting an entire world. It felt like only yesterday, yet it might as well have been forever ago. "She explained hyperdrives to me, and innovations like that. Long-range space travel isn't a thing where I'm from..."

Vima didn't seem like a bad person, so Shinji decided it would be okay to ask more questions. Just a few more.

"What's the Force?"

Vima nodded. It had been just plain weird, at first, to learn that so many people came from pre-space societies, and even moreso that most of them were just from Earth... how could one planet have that much variety? But she'd since learned people like herself were outside the norm. "Seems like it's not a thing for most people--think you're used to it yet?"

As for the Force, well, that was always a tricky one to put into words. "It's an energy field--it comes from life, it surrounds life, it connects life," she said. "All throughout the Galaxy. Some people are born with a strong connection to it. It runs in families."

Shinji, meanwhile, had been disturbed to notice just how many people were not only from Earth, but from Japan. Did the Fleet's audience have a weird fixation on Japanese people? Were they perverts or something? Either way, Shinji was grateful about being rescued from a rapidly decaying world.

"Sometimes it seems like I'm totally out of place... but for the most part, I'm handling it okay. It doesn't feel like I'm dreaming anymore." Rather, it didn't feel like he was hallucinating. The walls weren't closing in and the vents weren't rattling like thunder and he wasn't on the verge of screaming his lungs out. He was actually trying to talk to people of his own volition. Progress.

He listened patiently to Vima's explanation of the Force.

"So everyone's connected to everyone else...?"

"That's good to hear. This place was enough of a shock for me--it must be really tough if you've never been in space, to suddenly be millions of lightyears from everything you're familiar with. And when you do feel out-of-place, just remember you're out of place with everyone else together."

It seemed like it might be a little deeper than that, given how well he'd hidden from the rest of the crew. Still, she was glad that he was seeming a little more comfortable.

"Yes--everything that's alive. I can sense you, the other people on this ship--even some of the Jedi on the other ships, or people with similar powers." She smiled. "It's its own entity, too. Sometimes it gives you visions, or just a warning that you're about to be in danger."

"Yeah, I guess so," Shinji said, which was a bit dismissive. He didn't know how to share his fears with other people. Plus, there was a lot more bothering Shinji than feelings of being a little out of place. He had felt like a pile of crap at home, even before the apocalypse, when he was just another faceless person in the crowd. He never figured out how to deal with his anxiety in a constructive manner.

"But the Force sounds like... well, that's incredible. Being able to see into the future, that's just incredible. It reminds me of... it's like a life force, you're saying? That's a thing where I'm from, too, sort of. Everyone has a soul. A person's soul can exert a special force on other souls, or something..." His guardian had explained metaphysical biology to him once, but he hadn't understood most of it. He smiled sheepishly at Vima. "I'm not explaining it very well."

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