Happy New All Skate!

[raptorcanaria]

"You know what, let's have a party."

Dinah threw her platinum card (thanks, Oracle) on the Bar and as a result there is free flowing champagne for everyone whose culture, age and religion permits champagne - and top quality soft alternatives for the rest. There are bar snacks doing the rounds around the tables, and delicate winter flower arrangements on each surface.

And most importantly, on the TV screen is a lot of dancing, a giant countdown, and a big ball ready to drop.

...and when the ball drops, something happens.



Welcome to another Milliways All-Skate!
All welcome - yes, that means all. Whether they're retired, deleted, AU, original or already being played by someone else, bring 'em along.

Usual all-skate rules apply:
1. Everyone's stressed out of their mind right now, so have fun!
2. Communication is key.
3. Gratuitous behaviour (either of a violent or sexual nature) will not be tolerated in the bar proper. Take that to an OOM, and then Content Warning the hell out of it before you link it.
4. Much like Vegas, what happens in All Skates, stays in All Skates (in most cases)
5. Please don't be a dick.

Comments

[52_dropoff]

"We sometimes call that the chi. Though some scientists on occasion call it the quantum force." It's a bit odd that he actually read a paper on the subject, but it goes with his curiosity. "The best martial artists say they can sense it, but I can't say I have."

[twoforce]

"It definitely helps on a battlefield," Warlock admits.

"Which is one of the reasons it's illegal to practice these days. Can't have anyone using it against the Emperor."

[52_dropoff]

He shakes his head sadly at this news.

"But I suspect you still use it. And that you can't just turn it off."

[twoforce]

"Right on both counts," he says ruefully. "Not that he has much to fear from me."

There's not point in joining a rebellion that just wants to restore the Republic.

[52_dropoff]

"You just stay out of the way, doing bits of good here and there, trying to stay off the radar...hidden, that is." Does everyone know what radar is? "That almost counts as a super-hero."

[twoforce]

His rueful tone is matched with a rueful grin. "I suppose so. But maybe less of the heroing than you imagine. And no gaudy costume."

[52_dropoff]

"That hood would count as a costume, if not gaudy." The guy in the faceless mask and a trenchcoat should know.

[twoforce]

"It's not just the hood."

He smirks, and lifts the hood up over his head, pulling it down over his face, then holds a hand up to wave in front of the shroud.

It's not something you can do on demand, so he's not demonstrating, just illustrating.

"The Force can have a powerful effect on the weak minded. Let's just say you're not the only faceless man in the universe."

[52_dropoff]

Charlie looks quite impressed. "That would could in very handy. The original model of the mask wasn't safe, in fact. Being able to do without would have saved my life."

[twoforce]

"Would have?"

Warlock puts the hood down again, and looks Charlie over. "You're not dead."

The Milliways Dead have a feel in the Force. Tybalt has that feel. This man does not.

[52_dropoff]

"OK, here is the very short form. I died of cancer. I came here and spent many years as one of the Milliways dead. There was a massive and unexplained collapse of the Bar's reality, during which I sheltered in place in a convenient corner." Actually in a box of holding behind the Bar. "When the Bar's reality was reset, my personal clock rewound to three years before my death. So I was somehow alive again, and also able to use the advanced medicine here to prevent my cancer.

"And then at some point, I can't really say when, my own original reality shifted and I was able to go home and start over, only the world is not quite what I remember.

"And I realize that wasn't very short. Sorry."

[twoforce]

"It's shorter than my life story would probably be," Warlock counters cheerfully, although he admits that's just a death story. "We all take complicated routes to where we end up."

[52_dropoff]

"Any highlights you want to share?" Seems only fair, but Charlie isn't going to press too hard. He hasn't even asked the man his name!

[twoforce]

"Okay."

He pauses to look out of the window, taking stock of everyone in the bar through their Force presences, working out where to start.

"Do you know what a clone is?"

[52_dropoff]

"Of course. A virtual genetic duplicate of a previously living organism. The technology for such a thing's existed for years, but it's illegal to clone humans." Rumor has long had it, though, that it has been done.

[twoforce]

"It is under the Empire," Warlock confirms. "But it wasn't under the Old Republic, which cloned millions of copies of a specific human to fill the ranks of their armies when they went to war with the Separatists.

"There was no indication then that any of their copies could end up being strong with the Force."

[52_dropoff]

He would say that making clones, endless human clones, to fill an army is beyond ghastly. But he doesn't want to insult this specific clone. Who is, of course, a living being.

"But you are apparently the exception. Did the army know?"

[twoforce]

If any of that reflection comes out as an emotion, Warlock agrees, and he gives him a sideways look to confirm that.

"Pulled me out when I was just a cadet," he says. "Took me away from my brothers, trained me in the ways of the Force, and put me back in the war as an officer, rather than droid fodder.

"If you're wondering, yes, they did that with all the apprentices. The Masters were generals, the students were by their side."

[52_dropoff]

"So a vast army of clones led by an order of monks with special powers. Against...droids?" He could guess but would rather not.

[twoforce]

"Androids?" Warlock offers. "Artificial killing machines that filled our enemies' ranks - two sides packing their armies with disposable soldiers, it was as devastating a war as I guess you're imagining.

"And it turned out to have all been staged. The Chancellor of the Republic, the Leaders of the Separatists, both worked together to lead the galaxy into a war just to cement their own power."

[52_dropoff]

Charlie stares for a few minutes as he absorbs this. He's heard some outlandish conspiracy theories over the years, some he was able to prove and many he could reject. But he's never really heard of a war that fought on so vast a scale and was all a fraud.

"My god. How many died just so this conspiracy could form the Empire."

[twoforce]

"Millions of civilians," Warlock says, "tens of millions of clones, and ten thousand Jedi, at the end."

He is of course not finished. He reaches up to his head, fingers burrowing into the two centimeters of hair growing evenly across his scalp, and fingers a scar that not even bacta could heal.

And decides not to mention that.

[52_dropoff]

Charlie wonders what that is about, but respects the man's privacy.

"I am sorry. For your civilization and your brothers in the Jedi and the clone army."

[twoforce]

"Thank you," Warlock says.

Honestly the whole thing about the chip - when it comes down to it it just adds extra layers of utter shit to an already awful story.

He takes a second, lets the pain go and offers a faint smile. "Told you it was a story."

[52_dropoff]

"I would be disappointed if it weren't a story. That's the wild thing about Milliways. Everyone has a story." Almost makes up for how little success he's had at answering the questions here.