milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Out by the beach side of the lake, you might find a pre-teen Jedi cross-legged on a rock.

Anakin Solo is attempting to meditate. This isn't a strength of his, so he asked his brother Jacen for advice by Holonet back home. Anakin's not entirely certain that "being around as many animals as possible" is going to help him ... but the Force is stronger around more living beings, right?

Eyes closed, breathing slowed, he can sense the fish in the lake and a few crustaceans in the sand.

He can also sense anyone close by (unless they're psychically-shielded), and might give up for an easy distraction.

(Seriously, meditation is so boring.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

William's finishing off a lovely ride around the lake, the weather's been threatening rain and he slows to a walk when he spots Anakin.

His horse shies at the person on the rock, neighing as William calms her, he doesn't want to startle Anakin.

Anakin barely hears a thing. What he senses is through the Force: an uncomfortable non-sentient being, and a vaguely familiar human.

He blinks himself out of meditation and turns to smile at William.

"Hi! William, right?"

When he's close, William dismounts to pat his horse's neck, "Yes, Anakin?"

Anakin nods. He glances at the horse and attempts to radiate comfort; all he radiates is pretty much 'I can't hurt anything beyond my body weight'.

"Thanks for those cookies on my first day here. Astral midnight snacks."

The horse neighs as that's a weird sense, "Cookies make everything better and Milliways has the worst timin'."

Anakin offers a mental shrug to the creature in response. He's seriously more of a machine/computer person.

"They do," he agrees with a faint smile. "Anyway, I've been at the Academy over a month now. I'm doing -- pretty good, I guess."

(Uncle Luke doesn't do grades, so it's sometimes hard to judge.)

"How've you been?"

"You like your teachers? I'm doin' alright," There's always more to do but he likes knowing about schools.

Anakin nods. "Tionne -- she's the history teacher -- my friend Tahiri and I study with her lots. Not like I like history, just--" He shrugs. "--she's really nice."

(And doesn't follow the rules too closely when it comes to putting preteens in danger...)

"Nice is good. What does she teach you?"

"Well, she teaches us about floating leaves and stuff--"

That sounds lame. Anakin spies a shell that'll do and uses the Force to float that as a demonstration instead. Still lame, but hopefully William understands the basics.

"--and she tells us about old Jedi. Like Nomi Sunrider. Or Yoda."

When Anakin floats the shell, William gazes in wonder, he'll never get tired of what can happen in Milliways, "That's wonderful. What did they both do?"

Anakin grins proudly. That's like, the simplest thing he can do. He's so pleased Will is impressed.

"Well, Yoda taught my Uncle Luke, and Master Ikrit, and lots of Jedi."

To be fair, he's not sure what Yoda's done beyond teaching. Not that teaching isn't great, but...

"...Nomi Sunrider -- well, her husband was a Jedi, and he died. But it turned out she could be a Jedi too, so she took his lightsaber and-- well, she was awesome."

(It's entirely possible Anakin doesn't pay attention during every lecture.)

"That's a fine thing that she did. Can lightsabers be used by anyone like swords or do they stay with a person? Teachin's not an easy job,"

He's seen how tricky it can be to get everyone to listen.

"They can't just be used by anyone," Anakin says, then shakes his head."

"Can only Jedi use them? I don't know a lot about how they work."

"No--"

Anakin shakes his head. He's struggling to explain this.

"No, a lightsaber is just a tool. Like a-- a hydrospanner."

"Do you know how to use one or is that somethin' you learn?"

"Of course I know how to use a--"

Kriff. Anakin sighs.

"I can't use a lightsaber," he admits. "But I can't use a hydrospanner either."

"But you'll learn how? That's part of your school?"

William nods as he knows that feeling of someone not getting how his world works.

"Using a lightsaber is," Anakin admits.

"Do you have to be a certain age to use it?"

"Yeah -- Uncle Luke decided y'have to be fourteen years old."

"That's a good age and best to know what you're doin' when you get a weapon."

There is a boy about 11 summers old nearby drawing in the sand trying to remember the Ohgam of trees. As he drew he recited the knowledge. He doesn't know it yet but one day he will be the most powerful bard in all the land, but for now, he is a boy with a talent for the art.

"Beith the birch, Luis the rowan, Nuinn the ash, Feoran the Alder," he mumbles and draws.

Anakin has no idea what the chant means, as it drifts past his ears to his brain. (He barely knows any of the trees on Yavin 4, let alone anywhere else.)

He opens one eye, just to check the boy's where he sensed (yes! He's totally got 'spatial awareness in the Force' down; too bad that's not a Jedi Academy class), closes it again, then stretches to loosen his muscles after being in the same position for ... okay, it was only about twenty minutes, but still.

He shifts to a more comfortable position as he opens both eyes to watch the boy thoughtfully. He almost sensed something more, as he listened to the chant ... but it doesn't matter anyway, not in the here and now. He waits until he senses a break in the boy's concentration, then calls, "What are you drawing?"

"I'm practicing the Ohgam," said Tegid looking up at the other boy with a smile, "Were you mediating?"

Anakin smiles back, then adds a rueful twist to it, and shrugs. "I was trying. I'm not very good, I only started practising last month.

"What's the Ohgam?"

"I'm not good at meditation either," explains Tegid, " Oh it is the secret knowledge of things. You know like the names and stuff. I was working on trees, I am still really bad at them. "

The boy stands up and brushes sand from his clothing and hands, " There is a good tree to climb in the forest, wanna go?"

"Trees?" Anakin blinks, then tilts his head as he thinks. All he knows about tr--

"Oh-- yeah, okay, astral!

"I haven't climbed trees a lot," he admits as they head towards the forest. "You'll teach me, right?"

"Sure!" says Tegid, "I'm Tegid."

The boy who will eventually be Penderwydd and perform feats that he can't even imagine now, happily leads his new friend to the forest.

He stops in a clearing and points at a large tree with spreading limbs at the far edge.

"See that one," he says happily.

"Nice t'meet you, Tegid," Anakin says with a smile as they walk. "My name's Anakin."

He looks up at the tree and lets out a breath in admiration. That is a nice tree; his brother would probably love it.

"Um ... it's a bit high."

The lowest branch is a few inches above Anakin's reach. He could probably use the Force, but he'd count that as cheating at this stage.

"That's why it's fun," says Tegid hopping high enough to reach the branch above his head, "See you have to get a hold of a strong branch. Then you swing your legs up and around the branch like so."

He demonstrates this and finally sits on the branch, his legs swinging. He is wearing a pair of rough trousers, a rough brown tunic cinched with a woven belt, and a pair of leather gillie shoes.

"Uh ... huh."

Anakin's probably wearing decent clothes for the job (the smallest of the orange Rebel flightsuits from the first Death Star battle). But his shoes are school shoes, not training shoes.

He's also, y'know, not his brother, who would be way more comfortable here.

"--I can't," he mutters to Tegid.

Tegid grapples the limb with his legs and offers a hand to the other boy.

"Take my hand. I think I can help you up," he says.

Anakin looks up, then glances around.

"Okay," he says quietly, while reaching up with his right arm.

Tegid catches the hand and does his best to pull the other boy up. Hey you gotta help your friends and brothers out when you can.

"Use your legs," he says.

There's someone else medicating by the lake. But a different sort of meditation. Jay works through a series of martial arts katas, moving from one stance to the next. His eyes closed and his mind clear, his moves with the grace of a balanced fighter.

Anakin gives meditation a genuine attempt. (It actually helps that someone nearby is going through a similar process. That flow of energy, though a different kind, aids focus. The Force binds all living things, after all, even if they don't know it.)

But after half an hour, he feels like he's accomplished nothing. He heard chittering crabs, babbling fish, the wax and wane of emotions from the few Milliwaysers that wandered near the lake ... well, and he does feel very calm and relaxed, definitely more prepared to plan with Tahiri later. But, y'know, meditation is totally pointless, right?

He ends up watching Jason, impressed by the katas. He hasn't learnt much fighting himself -- a few strictly-defensive lightsaber katas (with a training blade), a couple of moves in gym class with Kam -- but he's growing more interested as the weeks of his first semester at the Academy go by. If he's going to be a Jedi Knight, he'll need to learn how to fight. This older boy seems to know what he's doing.

"Meditation not doing it for you today?" Jay asks, not opening his eyes or slowing down his smooth katas.

"Uh-- not really."

Anakin shakes his head, cross-legged on his rock.

"--sorry for disturbing you. I'll go back inside."

"You're not disturbing me." Jay assures airily, still moving. "You don't have to go if you don't want to. Have you ever tries meditating during kata?"

"Okay."

Anakin senses genuineness from the older boy, so he stays on his rock.

"--uh, no." He shakes his head. "I've ... not learnt many kata."

"I can teach you, if you like?" He come back to a centred balance and opens his eyes, breathing out.

Anakin smiles, then nods.

"Please. I'd love to learn those kata..."

Jay nods and waves Anakin over. He teaches Anakin a simple, eight move kata. It's less of a combat kata, more of a stretching and muscle strengthening routine but it does help to centre and calm. "Practice these and I'll teach you some more when you're ready."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only