faderift | Restless future burning bright

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Restless future burning bright

WHO: Obi-Wan, Rey, a few others, and open (grab me on plurk if you want your own prompt)
WHAT: catch-all for Kingsway, semi-open
WHEN: September/Kingsway
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Content warnings, OOC notes, links to other relevant posts, etc.

When Obi-Wan had returned to Skyhold in the month of Solace, he'd intended the stay to be relatively short. A new influx of Rifters demanded that he at least make himself available, naturally, but then-- well, then he'd met Rey. He'd met what could easily represent in one body, the first of a new generation of young Jedi.

The full context of that harrowing fact was like a sleeping dragon: best approached slowly, and with great care.

Obi-Wan makes his rounds each day like broken clockwork, the habit simple and oft-repeated, but the timing irregular. He spends time in the undercroft, looking for the best materials to shore up the damage Rey's lightsaber had taken, and time aboveground discussing strategies for the same. He trained in the formal forms, and had begun making preparations for more basic lessons with his new student. He spent time in the gardens, and the library, and made himself available to the Rifters, should they or anyone else approach him. And of course, all of it accompanied by his faithful hound, an enormous white mabari more like a puppy than the carthorse she resembles.

Peaceful enough; but hopefully temporary. A man has his limits.

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His own training began somewhere in the murky past, shrouded in the fog of a child's amnesia. Obi-Wan had been no more than four, the first time he'd held a lightsaber, but by the time of his earliest memories, he was already familiar with the heat of a blade, and the hum that even a low-powered practice saber made, a sound that you felt in your bones as much as heard with your ears. He has no idea how to begin.

But, begin they must; it's not the first step that makes the journey, but all the many thousands that come after.

"Come, sit," Obi-Wan has invited Rey here, to the topmost level of a broken tower in a section of Skyhold that isn't scheduled to begin repairs for some weeks or months yet, not out of a desire for privacy, precisely, but looking for a place they can speak without distraction, "If you're ready, we can begin your training. But before we start, I'd like to know, what you already know, or have been told, about the Force."

Rey isn't sure if she should be nervous or not. She's somewhat aware that her situation is definitely a unique one, and when Obi-Wan asks her about what she knows she presses her lips together for a moment, not sure where to start, herself.

"Maz Kanata told me the Force moves through and surrounds every living thing. I... used that, after I learned I could. I've heard dozens of stories about Jedi, their abilities. Once I knew it was all real..." She lets out a breath, trying to think of everything that happened to her in a very short time. "I was able to convince a First Order stormtrooper to free me when I was captured by Kylo Ren. I also blocked him out when he tried to pry into my mind. I saw... bits of things in his own mind. I fought him, too. He was injured otherwise I don't think I would have won, but..." It's a little strange, listing all these things off that she'd before been unsure how to even articulate. The fact that she'd spent a great deal of time thinking about it was probably the only reason she was able to, now.

"I didn't really know what I was doing, but I could... feel it. Does that make sense?"

"Kylo Ren?" The reply is quick, not recognition of the name, but recognition of the danger it implied. There was something formal about that name that plucked his mind, something like a title, like the shadow of the Sith, "You must be a very quick learner, if you were able to push off a mental invasion that easily. Those kinds of intervention are a tool of the the Dark Side of the Force."

Maz Kanata, again that name-- and again he felt, somehow, that he'd heard it somewhere before. Only a feeling, however, but so were Rey's. He smiled, at that.

"Yes, it makes perfect sense. Those feelings, that's the Force, telling you what you're capable of. Learning to trust them, to trust in the Force, and to interpret it, is a key part of any Jedi's training. As for the rest... we'll work on saber technique as we go."

"I know how to fight. I had to, to survive on Jakku." She had wielded the lightsaber only in the way someone who grew up fighting had, of course. There had been little elegance in her fight with Kylo Ren. Where he had the training and poise, she'd been all anger, fear, and blunt force.

A thought occurs to her and she frowns a little, her hand going for the lightsaber by her side.

"Are visions common? When I first touched this I... saw things. I still don't really know what they mean."

"They're not uncommon, but strong vision are rare, and often take great discipline to seek out," He said, thinking of the frequency of Anakin's visions, their strength and volatility, "For the vision to jump out at you like that... either the Force is very strong with you, indeed, or the vision itself had great significance. Or both."

It wasn't Obi-Wan's area of expertise, to be sure. Not for the first time, he wished for the guiding words of Master Yoda. He has no idea what he's doing.

"Knowing how to fight, and knowing how to use a lightsaber are very different things. But regardless, it'll take some time to get the materials you'll need to repair it. In the meantime," Obi-Wan unclipped the saber hilt from his belt and held it out, carefully, to Rey, blade-emitter perpendicular to either of them, "That lightsaber was built by my former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. This one is my own design. One day, you might create one of your own-- but for now, we'll practice, using mine."

Rey looks a little disappointed that he doesn't have any major insight on the vision that had struck her when she'd first become aware of her Force sensitivity. It was something she was still trying to piece together, even now. She'd rejected it, initially, but some nights she dreamed of the things she saw, the Knights of Ren and being left behind on Jakku.

She presses her lips together Obi-Wan holds his lightsaber out to her, tentatively holding her hand out.

"Thank you for this. For helping me." She still isn't used to people wanting to help her.

"Patience," He says, with a quiet and uncommon warmth. For a moment, she'd looked so crestfallen that he can't help but let the admonition slip out; and the feeling is so familiar that he has to smile, "It may become apparent over time, what your vision means. Later, I'll help you learn how to meditate, to focus your mind on your connection to the Force. That should help, I think."

Ah, just like old times. He puts the weapon into her waiting hand, hilt still warm, as if the metal were itself alive. Obi-Wan's lightsaber is well-used, and yet very clean, and very well-maintained. It is only the third he has ever built, and the care with which he treats it is obvious to anyone who cares to examine it closely.

"As a Jedi, your lightsaber is your life. Lose one, and you may also lose the other. Take good care of it, and it will take good care of you in return-- please do be careful with mine, will you?"

Her face relaxes a little at the thought that meditation might help, and she nods her head. She'd tried something similar once, while fighting Kylo Ren. Of course focus in the heat of battle isn't exactly the same thing as quiet focus alone and uninterrupted. She'd only had a moment, then.

She smiles a little as he relenquishes his lightsaber to her, carefully turning it over in her hands. It's different than Luke's lightsaber, of course. The weight is different and it's clear that this is not her lightsaber.

"I'll be careful, I promise. I'd... say I could fix anything that happened to it, but I've never worked with a lightsaber before. They don't end up on Jakku. The few remaining in the galaxy are collector's items and go for millions."

He winces at that, very slightly, making a glancing blow past a grief so profound, and so nebulous, that he doesn't yet understand whether or not he wants to acknowledge it, or how. For a moment, just a moment, Obi-Wan looks old, and then it's gone.

"It takes a Jedi's skill with the Force to create, or repair, a lightsaber," He says continues smoothly, as if the moment had never happened, "There are others, of course, the Sith, but their methods and their preferred materials are inferior-- the blades, in particular, tend to be unstable, and poorly balanced."

It's a parable, you see.

"I'll be showing you the proper technique-- as you can see, we have quite the list. No education is ever complete."

She notices that moment, regrets saying what she had out loud. It's hard to remember sometimes, that Obi-Wan doesn't know about what happened to the Jedi, really. She doesn't address it, nodding her head as she talks about the Sith.

"I'd noticed. The... sith I fought, his blade crackled." It had been information she'd filed away at the time, but maybe that was another reason she'd managed to overpower him. Her lightsaber had been in better shape.

"Then perhaps we should start with something you know. I noticed your hands," They're good hands, strong, callused, and stained, "You were either a mechanic, or a scavenger. Jakku doesn't offer much else, to a young woman on her own."

And someone selling less intensive labors wouldn't have rough hands, or at least not like that. Calm as a windless sea, Obi-Wan lifts a hand towards a half-crumbled crenelation and a fist-sized bit of masonry sails through the air to meet it.

"You know machines," This much, is not speculation, or at least, he says it with certainty, lifting the stone with effortless precision, so that it hung in the air between them, "If you're going to repair that lightsaber, you'll need to know the Force as well; we'll begin there. Now."

The stone dropped, clack to the flagstones between them.

"Can you move that?"

Living the life she had, it's fairly plain what she's done to get by. From the tiny scars on her hands and face from electrical shorts and jagged metal pieces not properly handled, to the rough surface of her skin. She hasn't lived easily, though most on Jakku didn't. Even Unkar Plutt had his struggles, though they were wholly different from her own.

Maybe one day she'll be more in peoples eyes than The Scavenger. Today is probably not that day.

She looks down at the stone Obi-Wan dropped, her lips pressed together for a moment as her eyes flicked between him and it.

"I've only done this once before," she replies, before letting out a slow breath, focusing. Several moments pass and the rock doesn't so much as budge, before all of a sudden it shakes and flies up into the air, Rey instinctively reaching out to grab it. Her eyes are a little wide as she sets it back down. She still can't quite believe she's capable of moving things with her mind.

"How was that?" She asks, a little hesitantly.

Edited 2016-09-27 05:02 (UTC)

"Believe it or not... Impressive," He said, honestly as surprised as she had been, "Most young Jedi take longer to believe they can do that, which is usually the greatest barrier to actually doing it."

The kind of young person with a family who didn't mind sending them off to the life of a Jedi, rarely felt comfortable in their own skin. Only part of that was The Force nudging them down a different path; people always fear what they cannot contextualize, and future younglings were often a little uncanny.

"What we'll need to work on, then, is control, and precision. Let's see you do it again... a little more gently, this time."

"I had nineteen years thinking I wasn't anything special, wishing I could do things like they did in the stories I heard about jedi." When she'd been younger she'd thought that maybe, if she'd been a Jedi, or a Rebel pilot, maybe she wouldn't have been left alone for so long.

She shakes it off, trying again with the rock. It takes her several more tries and adjustments, but eventually she's not just flinging the rock into the air, but lifting it and gently setting it in her outstretched palm.

"Have you ever done something, not for a reason you could understand, but just... because? Maybe you were searching for something, or piloting a craft, and acted on instinct in a way that later defied reason. But it worked out, so you forgot about it, and moved on."

Nineteen years in a poverty-choked backwater world, a little blip of nothingness, not worth noticing with so many richer Core worlds adjacent. A stellar slum, if such a thing could exist-- no garden world, Jakku. It's no wonder she dreamed, with the Force living in her blood and bone, and no one to teach her, or hear her crying out through the void.

No longer, at least; someone had found her now, in the unlikeliest of places.

"Those are the things Jedi do, in all the stories, nothing more remarkable than listening to that feeling. That's the Force, and it's always been with you," He says it with such calm finality that it cannot help but be true. But, then he holds up a hand, once he's seen she's mastered at least the most basic skill, "Now, let's try and see how long you can hold that up, without dropping it."

Yes, she definitely had had moments like that. She'd chalked a lot of it up to luck, or having spent hundreds of hours in training simulators.

"I didn't realize... I-- I flew a Corellian YT-1300f after only ever piloting one like it in simulators but that's what those programs are for, I thought." She knows wishing doesn't change much, but she wished she'd known sooner. Maybe she would have had the courage to leave Jakku, if she'd known the Force was with her.

At her next task she tries to ignore the knowledge that none of this is new, really, except now it is. Her life looks very different from the perspective that she had this power within her the whole time. As a result of her distraction the rock doesn't stay aloft long, and once it accidentally spins off across the roof, but she's able to pull it back before it falls off the edge (not that they're having a rock deficit around here).

After that she focuses a little better, managing to stretch the seconds the rock is floating in front of her, bit by bit.

Edited 2016-09-28 04:20 (UTC)

And so it goes, as the conversation wanes and Obi-Wan focuses on the lesson at hand. It's not a particularly exciting one, but difficult, testing both stamina and focus, as well as patience. The sun creeps across the sky-- in the valleys below Skyhold, sunset is already beginning, but days run long on the mountaintops, as if to compensate for the truncated light down below.

Eventually, seeing the inevitable fraying of his student's temper, Obi-Wan calls a halt.

"That's enough for now. Rest well tonight, and we'll pick up here tomorrow. I know it's tedious, but don't give up. Eventually-- well," He indictes his own lightsaber, still sitting next to Rey, "Perhaps I could demonstrate. If you'd like?"

She is definitely feeling a little frustrated, but she knows it's for the best. It's just unusual, training with someone. So much of what she knows she's learned on her own. Even the things she'd tried, when getting free of Kylo Ren, those she'd just figured out without direction beyond what she'd heard from stories.

When Obi-Wan offers to demonstrate Rey's eyes light up and she nods her head, trying not to look too eager.

"Yes, please. Stories are one thing, but I've never seen a real jedi in motion."

"Well, a little less motion, in this demonstration, but--"

Legs folded, arms loose, hands palm-down and relaxed, and yet the lightsaber lifts between them as smoothly as if mounted on rails. It rotates gently, end-over-end, until it is perfectly perpendicular to the ground, then hangs there, motionless, poised. And then it explodes.

Or rather, it expands, each component coming apart in perfect synchronicity with the others. It's a precise, beautiful ballet, each piece as delicately arranged as if it were a holographic diagram rather than a real and functional device. At the heart, the kyber crystal, a regular shape, each facet seeming to glow rather than reflect the light. Obi-Wan lets the lightsaber hang in the air between them for a few silent breaths, unmoving, then opens his eyes. His voice is soft, but calm.

"Only someone with the stamina and precision in the Force to do this, can create a lightsaber like the one you carry. It is an elegant weapon, meant for a more civilized form of combat than the more random blasters. A Jedi's weapon. Your weapon, Rey."

Slowly, with great care, the lightsaber components folded up and down, closing protectively around the crystal like a sleepy flower, closing for the night. Beyond them both, the sun kissed one edge of the jagged, mountain-toothed horizon.

Edited 2016-09-28 05:14 (UTC)

She had, granted, been hoping for something a little more showy. This is no less impressive, however. She'd gotten some of the components of the lightsaber apart on her own, when she'd been trying to fix it before she'd met Obi-Wan, but to watch how he could pull the entire thing apart with the Force alone...

She's quiet as the lightsaber components join together once again, smooth and perfect, elegant and unlike any other weapon. She draws in a breath before giving Obi-Wan a smile.

"Thank you. I realize how important this weapon is to the Jedi way. It's more than just important to me because it helped me realize what I'm capable of. That's the reason it could." Before in the stories it had just been some bit of tech that was lost to time and ability with the slaughter of most of the Jedi. Now she really does know better.

[training montage? idk]

Ellana in library (with candlestick gasp clue referens oh shit)

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Restless future burning bright

For Rey

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Placeholder: Korrin

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