milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Anakin woke up earlier than normal. He's ... not nervous, not at all. But -- apprehensive, of the mission ahead of him. He and Tahiri are to travel to an alien moon and protect their friend through a metamorphosis.

...he really wishes he had a lightsaber.

He's drinking blue milk at Bar and doodling Massassi symbols on a napkin.

[ tinytag: anakin solo, bodhi rook ]

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Bodhi comes down from the room the bar give him, looking a little less dazed. He comes over to the bar, "Anakin, hello." He waves down a rat and asked for a mug of caf. It seems like all he's consumed since he woke up on the floor of the hanger.

Anakin brightens, relieved to see the man alive and healthy.

"Bodhi! Boy, I'm glad you're okay. How do you feel?"

"I'm not sure I am. But my head doesn't hurt as much now." He sits next to the boy, waiting for his caf. "Thank you, for helping me. I'm still not entirely sure what happened but thank you."

"I don't know, either. No problem, though -- Jedi help everyone."

Anakin sets down his milk and frowns. "Does your head still hurt? I think I have some painkillers..."

(Whatever the SW equivalent of Tylenol is, that's what Anakin has.)

"You're a Jedi?" He looks around urgently, worries someone else might have overheard. It's not a safe thing to admit.

"Well, in training," Anakin admits, then frowns at Bodhi's reaction. "What's wrong?"

"The Jedi were hunted down and killed. When my mother was a child. All of them." He looks around urgently. "You have to be careful. If it gets back to the Empire someone's training Jedi, they'll come after you."

"Oh..." Anakin shakes his head. "No, remember -- this is a neutral place.

"No one's after anyone here. I think..."

"Still. You never know who could be listening. Or who they could be informing to."

Anakin listens, then shakes his head.

"That's not how it works here. Milliways is neutral."

Bodhi wants to argue, to make the boy understand. But some lessons have to be learnt. "Okay. Just... be careful, okay?"

"Um-- okay. Thanks."

Anakin feels awkward.

Bodhi takes a sip of his caf. "So people keep telling this place is an asteroid but no-one can tell me what system we're in."

"Not a system," Anakin says--

--then realises...

"How can we not be in a system?"

"We're not in a system,"

"I don't understand?" He genuinely doesn't.

"Sorry, we're..." Anakin pauses for a moment, thinking how best to explain. It took him a while to understand himself. Then again, the person explaining to him didn't know about different star systems ... or advanced physics.

"We're not in our galaxy. We're -- outside of time, in another dimension. It's a ... a pocket universe, I think. I've watched the Window a lot -- you see it?"

Anakin points to the large Observation Window, with its chaotic ending universe outside.

"It's on a loop. We travel here, and back home, through ... portals. Gaps or, well, doors, in space time."

It's the best he can do. It's also a LOT of talking for this time in the morning. He sips his blue milk nervously.

Bodhi goes over to the window to look. And look. Until to starts to make him feel sick. "Pocket universe. I'm dead. In a pocket universe." He sits down a little heavily, having trouble taking all this in."

...right, this is what Anakin forgot to anticipate. Emotional discomfort.

(He's a little thrown by the "dead" reference, too, but he's heard of this before, in his Milliways experience. People don't always arrive here through doors. Sometimes it's through ... well, starship wrecks. He's never encountered it until now.)

Anakin makes a quick trip to Bar for a hot chocolate, then follows Bodhi and holds it out to him while perching on the edge of an armchair.

Bodhi stares blankly at the mug for a moment before getting the hint it's for him. "Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm not... I'm not dealing with this very well."

"That's okay. You're dead," Anakin says, "You get to deal with this however you want."

He had the best of intentions.

From an adult that might have been harsh but Bodhi knows, even in his shocked state, that the boy means well. "Thank you. I think."

Anakin nods, then frowns and tilts his head. "Um ... sorry, my brother would say that better.

"Do you want anything?"

Bodhi shakes his head. "No thanks. This is-" He looks down at the mug. "What is this? It's really good."

Anakin nods and starts retreating, then pauses at the question. "Hot chocolate. My uncle likes it."

"It's good. Thank you. And thank you for helping me. I'm sorry I'm not- I am grateful."

"Oh-- that's fine."

Anakin smiles at Bodhi, then crouches quickly to hand a rat a pre-scrawled note.

Please put Mr Bodhi's tab on mine thank you

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