(open log)

[snippycup]

CHARACTERS: Ahsoka Tano and YOU
WHERE: Avera 9
WHEN: Days 161-163
SUMMARY: Several fun filled prompts inside.
WARNINGS: None; will edit if necessary.

(Day 161) First Rule about Fight Club

[Unsurprisingly, where there is trouble brewing, there is Ahsoka lurking nearby. Like others, she too had been given the invitation to find locals to beat up, but that isn't why she's there. In fact, she is there for exactly the opposite. Regardless of the mandates given by the rest of the planet, Ahsoka isn't about to stand idly by when she knows there are people who are potentially walking into an unfair fight.

For a good hour, she's managed to dodge nudging to get into the ring, whether it be by dodging for people who are clearly searching the crowd for her or be it through the suggestion of a mind trick.

She is trying not to rely on that last one. Reaching out to the Force to gather enough strength to get someone to turn away from her makes her head swim, and she's already done it twice. She can't imagine the third will be successful in any way, shape, or form. Unfortunately, even with her hood up, her silhouette stands out -- as do her other alien features whenever they happen to poke outward.

Once she finds a quiet place, she reaches out and relaxes her breathing in order to reach out to see if any other hosts had funny ideas about starting fights.]


(Day 161 - 162) Minte Mixer

[Spending time in Minte is almost nostalgic, in that invokes many memories of every stealth mission she's ever run -- and a few that were less stealth. Being treated like a dangerous animal rather than a friend is hardly a comfortable sentiment and certainly not a welcome one, but it was one she had grown more familiar with over time. Aside from the fact that she was a jedi, she was also an alien -- a carnivorous alien, at that. People giving togruta a wide berth wasn't exactly a new concept.

The presence of slavers and the plentiful amount of shady business going on around her reminds her of many of the Outer Rim ports, and there are a few occasions where she expects to round a corner and bump into a Hutt. More importantly, she is hunting for more supplies from the few people who will still speak to her. The number is not high, and her turn out is low. She has enough to feed herself (or someone else) for the night, so she takes a break from the exhausting (and highly irritating) haggling system to dip into the nearest alleyway in hopes of finding her way back out to somewhere less hostile.

Her connection to the Force is weak, but it'd be impossible not to notice she's being followed by a few of the locals. Avoiding confrontation has been her chief goal, on top of finding something to feed herself with, and she feels them getting closer to her with each passing second. Instinctively, she tries to clumsily reach out to any other hosts in the area.]

( If there's anyone still hanging around here, you might want to reconsider. )


(Day 163) Homeward

[Days have passed for what feels like months to Ahsoka. Exploration and seeing new things were two of the greatest rewards of being a jedi, next to helping the weak stand up on their own two feet -- but such rewards hadn't done anything to put the ramping anxiety out of her mind. Anakin was still, to her knowledge, unconscious. There had hardly been time to see him before they had exited to Avera 9, and the distance had begun to make her itch and squirm. She just needed to see him -- make sure he was still there and alive, even if she could still feel his unresponsive presence on the far reaches of their strange link.

The anxiety only increased upon landing on the Station. She feels something she can't describe that takes the wind from her lungs out of surprise, like someone had snatched something out of her hand -- but the sensation that accompanies it is much more distressing. Something is wrong, something is missing that should be there, something isn't right.

To that end, she breaks into a sprint for the nesting deck, completely heedless of anyone who might block her way. Her acrobatics come in handy for taking tight turns and dodging people who don't see her before she sees them.

Please. Please let me be wrong.]


(Late Day 163) Bedside manner

[The chamber that felt forcibly warm could not soothe the ache in her chest. By now, Ahsoka has discovered that Anakin is still present and alive among them, and while its a definite comfort point for most of her anxiety, it doesn't lift the weight of knowledge off her shoulders. She has also identified that she is unable to reach Anduin, and though she had not known him for long, the absence in addition to Anakin's lack of true presence among them just adds to the heavy cloak of loneliness she feels.

Most of the evening is spent pacing. Idle activities include sitting, standing, stretching, and leaning against Anakin's nesting pod. So many questions she can't ask, so much confusion and uncertainty about what has transpired, all wrapped up neatly with a small dose of frustration and betrayal. Anakin has a grandson -- more importantly, he has children. Children that must have a mother that she knows. Children he hasn't told her about, for reasons she can't fathom. She had thought they had moved far beyond not trusting one another, and--there were so many reasons that he should have trusted her with this information specifically.

But her frustration can't eclipse the fact that Anakin is in a coma, the fact that Anduin appears to have entered a similar state only to suddenly become unreachable, the idea that the same could happen to her former master.

She had only just gotten him back, she had only just gotten used to the idea that she could keep going without the rest of the Jedi Order as long as Anakin was still in her life. She can't let that go yet.

And for that reason, too ill to consider slowly watching the last of her support network crumble, she doesn't sleep that night. The sound of someone else entering the nesting chamber doesn't encourage her to stand from her chosen perch beside the occupied nesting pod, nor does she bother to look up from the spot she's chosen to stare vacantly at.

Her concern can no doubt be felt for miles, no matter how hard she tries to focus it inward. She's certain it has been too long -- what if he never woke up?]


(WILDCARD)

[HIT ME WITH ANYTHING. Shuttle shenanigans on Day 163 are also totally acceptable.]


[ooc: For the first two prompts, its totally ok to get scrappy! Ahsoka will refuse to bodily injure any civilians, but she's not above defending herself.]

Comments

DAY 163 BEDSIDE MANNER

[erbier]

[ She gives the girl a curious look as she approaches her brood mate's pod. ]

Hello.

[ She won't make Ahsoka talk to her, but she is curious to know why she's here. ]

[snippycup]

[Ahsoka doesn't look up until Ilde is nearly on top of her and the pod she's been guarding. Even if the exhaustion weren't present in her eyes, her mind is somewhat slow to register the other woman's features and her greeting.

But she is nothing if not polite, so even in spite of everything else she's feeling, Ahsoka forces her spine straight and stands to full height. Stiffling the yawn that wants to come is harder, but she manages it anyway.]

Good evening--were you looking for Anakin?

[erbier]

[ She inclines her head, a motion of agreement. ]

We are of brood.

[ She did not know him so well as the others, it left a weakness in her understanding of their web. ]

[snippycup]

[She doesn't come around from the pod to greet the other woman -- after all, she had already stated her business and made her intentions clear. Ahsoka isn't even sure why she's still there herself, at least not consciously. So her eyes drop down with a small exhale of frustration.

She doesn't know this woman, but she isn't about to try and make judgement calls in her current state.]

Well, you found him. Probably won't be getting much out of him.

[Her eyes slide up again and she forces a smile to chase the lack of humor in her previous joke.]

And I'm Ahsoka Tano.

[erbier]

Hello Ahsoka, my name is Ilde. It is good of you to watch over him.

[ Politeness comes easily to Ilde, it is an easy way to interact while simultaneously disengaging. ]

[snippycup]

Well met. Perhaps better met under different circumstances.

[She looks back down in an attempt to hide her concern. Watching over him was a generous assessment of what was occurring. There was no real danger in the Station, not now and probably not in the near future.

She's just there, hoping he'll wake up instead of divorcing from the Nest as the other two had.]

He would do the same for me.

[erbier]

[ Of her broodmates, she perhaps now knows Anakin the least. It is interesting to contemplate how someone so distant could be considered so loyal. She will have to see it with her own eyes. ]

You know him well, then.

[snippycup]

[Ahsoka nods softly. She is beginning to understand that Anakin had not been open with very many people in the Station. It doesn't surprise her -- there was so much the pair of them couldn't understand.

And things they couldn't understand, they couldn't trust.]

He was my Master.

[erbier]

[ She doesn't know what that is meant to mean, her own association to such a term is a king with a shadow of flame and a hateful wrath. Her was the master of her heart and soul. ]

I do not know what that entails, I apologize.

homeward

[adamance]

[The bond that Lexa shares with her brood is one that isn't quite strong, at least not yet. Though she respects some, she's uncertain about how she feels about others. Still, she's felt their varying emotions from a distance since her arrival, and she's able to tell them apart by now. Ahsoka's way of feeling is so strong, so forceful, that she can't help but find herself recognizing the source. Unaware of where she is in the Station, she settles for a moment to try to cut off that anxiety, wanting nothing more than to not feel it herself.

It's not that Lexa has never felt anxiety. But it's pretty high on her list of things that she prefers to not experience.

Of course, as Ahsoka draws closer, it becomes all the easier, and she trots out to see her fleeing the scene in a certain direction. Judgment passes through her mind at first, and then worry—though she doesn't know if the worry is her own, or a side effect of that anxiety. She'll find out soon enough.

Lexa's features are cool as she follows Ahsoka, sending out a firm thought:]

( Tell me what you want to be wrong about. )

[She can't catch up with her, not with her increased speed and agility, but Lexa is still moving as she awaits Ahsoka's answer.]

[snippycup]

[Ahsoka bounds off the wall of the station to make tight turns, and for a second it almost seems like she doesn't hear Lexa reaching out to her. The wall of anxiety closes her mind briefly, until it abruptly doesn't.

And then the sound of Ahsoka skidding to a halt will echo down the hall. Her breathing, rapid. Her heart pounds like a rabbit's. The firmness of the thought almost has her snapping back, but she had been trained better than that. Something about ignorance and serenity.]

( You must have felt it. )

[That strange feeling, the pop and the connection among the web that simply was no longer.]

[adamance]

( I felt something. I haven't been so rash as to draw any conclusions. )

[There's a certain level of chastising in her voice. Lexa is no Jedi, but she still denies her anxieties and emotions with the best of them. She continues her movement toward Ahsoka, until she comes up behind her.

When she does, she speaks out loud:]

What is it that you fear? Are you so connected to our brood already that you're afraid one of us may be lost? [Lexa can feel that loss as much as Ahsoka can, both in their brood and apart from them, but she isn't bonded to any of their broodmates yet. Not in the way that might be required of that sentiment.

It's an odd feeling, one that she hasn't made up her mind about just yet.]

[snippycup]

Lexa.

[She rounds on the other woman, and only just manages to catch herself in her anger and frustration. It had been getting worse as the days went on, but she dares not acknowledge it other than to calmly breathe beyond it. Its harder to do when she is already so anxious.]

I am not going to stand here and be patronized for empathy.

[She was done with that life. The Council had spent years grilling it into her, that emotion was the enemy, that calmer minds always prevailed. But she is done with that life -- they've made certain to divorce her from it.

And without their leash, their teachings have no place in present context. Her heart doesn't stop pounding.]

So go ahead and give me whatever wisdom you want to give me, so I can be on my way. Please.

[If there is still something she can do, there won't be much time to do it. And even if there's nothing to be done, she has to know.]

[adamance]

[Empathy isn't her strong suit, nor will it ever be. Though she feels the pain of her people lost, she has also left her people to die because she believed it to be necessary. She would do it again, and is able to emotionally detach herself from it.

Lexa looks at Ahsoka but does her best not to match her emotions. Given that they're broodmates, it's difficult. She feels the agitation almost immediately. The feedback is agitating, and it emphasizes it—briefly.

She swallows after a moment.]

I wasn't asking to patronize you. I wanted to know what you feared. You must know something that I don't. [There's a beat, where she motions ahead.] We can move while you explain.

[snippycup]

[Ahsoka feels guilty almost immediately when Lexa tries to clarify -- she knows better than to let her emotions or her fear get the better of her. Briefly, she opens her mouth to apologize before remembering that she had been headed in this direction for a very urgent reason.]

I don't know anything--that's what worries me.

[She nods to Lexa in silent permission before turning to head toward the nesting decks, slower so she can keep up.]

Anakin--he's been missing since we landed.

[adamance]

[It takes her a moment to put it together, recalling their previous interactions and what she's felt through the bond since. There's enough information available, even with how cagey Lexa happens to be, to provide what she needs.]

Your master. [That's recognition and understanding, even if the word "master" is strange on her tongue. She would have never called Anya that.]

So, it's not someone in our brood you fear for. Have you asked after him in his own?

[snippycup]

I need to see for myself.

[Which was really a nice way of saying that she didn't trust anyone else to comment on his state properly. And Lexa's summation wasn't entirely correct. There was still that...hole that she couldn't describe or pinpoint. It was just there, like a piece of skin had suddenly been carved from her and made some piece of her feel numb.

But without knowing its origin, she can't draw the line to someone in her brood. Or anyone else for that matter.]

DAY 163 BEDSIDE MANNER (LATER LATER)

[decommission]

[ After the losses that shook the other two broods earlier in the day, Steve makes time to visit the Nesting Deck to confirm the Prince's assurances that the man he'd met in the hangar on that first day is still alive and well, if not conscious.

When he first approaches he spots Ahsoka immediately. There's a heaviness in the air. He decides not to interrupt.

The second time he comes around, about an hour later, he leaves again before taking more than a step inside.

On the third try, he's got a cup of water with him and rations in his pocket when he enters the Nesting Deck and walks toward the pod. ]

Here. [ Offering the cup, concern flickering across his features. It's hard to tell whether she's awake or not, just by looking at her. He doesn't know her well at all, only that she'd agreed to help work on the Card back on Avera. She seemed to know about ships too. ]

[snippycup]

[Her exhaustion has gotten to her, but the will to move is still lacking. Steve's presence is acknowledged only when he speaks to her, a slow turn of her head and then an upward tilt. There's a light in her bright blue eyes that seems to have dimmed.

She remembers him. The work on the ship had been a coping mechanism, and she hadn't done much talking to anyone when she was doing it. After she and Kylo Ren had shared their connection, there was -- something in her chest that she didn't want to acknowledge, let alone consider with the other man in the same vicinity as her. So rather than confront the issue, she had just stayed silent.

But she remembers faces vividly, regardless of how long she had interacted with them. Her eyes drop to the offered cup, which prompts a grateful exhale from her nose. She doesn't want it, but the concern she feels flicker across their shared link has her reaching out for it anyway.]

Thank you.

[And she takes a sip from it to be polite.]

[decommission]

[ A half nod is given when she accepts the cup, his gaze shifting to the pod and its silent occupant. ]

You know each other?

[ To him, it seems like her concern goes beyond whatever Nest-link is shared between them. His own worry is there too, in the lines of his face and a slight humming on his end of the link. They've already lost two people. But it's not the same as hers, not by a long shot. ]

[snippycup]

[She nods in response to his question, following his eyes back to Anakin's slumbering self. Her voice is still quiet, but Steve's mind feels different than the others she had interacted with. His concern is true, lacks the divorced emotion that seems to plague so many in the Station.]

He was my Master. Its not like him.

[Its a greater issue, she knows. Whether its the same thing that had claimed Anduin, she can't say.]

[decommission]

[ His lips form a thin line, pushing back thoughts of hospital beds. There's no physical sign of illness from his broodmate, none of the deterioration that he'd expect from someone bedridden for so long. ]

I've watched him work in the hangar. [ He tears his eyes from Anakin's form, eyebrows raising at her. ] You learned from him?

[snippycup]

[Ahsoka doesn't look up right away. She only catches his thoughts about the beds and about Anakin briefly, and doesn't bother to linger on the thought. She starts to nod, but decides it would be more polite to speak -- maybe it'll distract her.]

For two years and a few months, during the Clone Wars. We were still fighting before we were...taken here.

[A war that she knows will mean nothing to Steve, like it had meant nothing to anyone else not from their galaxy. So she elaborates.]

I wouldn't have called it a civil war when it started, because it started on a galactic scale but--the longer it went on, the more I understood.

[decommission]

He mentioned something about that. [ A war. Something they had in common, for better or worse. He thought the world at war for a second time was bad enough - it's still hard for him to imagine one spanning worlds. ]

Understood what?

[snippycup]

[Listen to her, rambling about the Clone Wars like one of the senators. Steve lacks any real context for what she and Anakin had been dealing with, and the fact of the matter was that the war was lightyears and several million parsects away from them.

She exhales out of her nose and shakes her head.]

Its not important.

[Ahsoka looks back up at Steve and forces herself to smile.]

Sorry for being so distracted on Avera 9. I kind of zone out when I'm doing repairs.