+20 | +22

[jedimindtrick]

Who: Anakin Skywalker (forcechoke) & Obi-Wan Kenobi (jedimindtrick) | Kylo Ren (outer_space) & Obi-Wan Kenobi (jedimindtrick)
When: March 20th | March 22nd
Where: MERO #006 | MERO #010
What: Obi-Wan Kenobi receives a package containing Kylo Ren's most prized possession. Little good can come of this.
Warnings: Violence, possibly? Spoilers. Denial. Etc.

[ The package is delivered — rather, misdelivered — on the 19th. It sits unopened on Obi-Wan's pod bed throughout the day, probably placed there by one of the girls, and there it remains well into the night.

By morning, when the Jedi Master finally returns to MERO deck, he's far too tired to do more than consider the box tiredly by what little light is occasionally offered by his MID.

He sits in the quiet, in the dark, and listens to the Force and through the Force, to the box perched in his lap over his crossed legs. A slow expansion and contraction is felt beneath his fingers. It has no physical manifestation — nothing is actually moving inside the box — but the more Obi-Wan concentrates on the weighty box in his hands, the more obvious it is to him. Expansion, contraction. Steady. Unceasing. Almost... mechanical.

...hooooooopeeeeeer......hooooooopeeeeeer......hoooooooppeeeeeer... ]

Comments

ANAKIN

[jedimindtrick]

[ Kenobi dreams. They're fitful, the images broken or half-formed:

A cloud churns, roiling darkly against a warm backdrop. Electricity crackles and crawls. It swallows the featureless ground, the everlasting sky, stretching and stretching farther upward. By the time it reaches him the inky mass has reached impossible heights — insurmountable heights.

He braces and the cloud overtakes him. Ripped from the earth, he rolls and pitches against an unrelenting wave. His body threatens to pull apart, the force like nothing he'd experienced before. It swells and his being creaks until he reaches the crest.

He tumbles over the top and plummets back to earth. He spins wildly on re-entry, misplaced cockpit sirens screaming warnings in his ears. When he reaches the bottom, it's a sharp slap and then a enveloping that draws all the warmth from him, pulls all the hope in his heart.

For a moment he's suspended, shocked, drowning. A spark ignites in front of his eyes and he claws toward it through terrain thick and sharp as rock. By the time he reaches the next swell, he can hardly move, hardly breathe. He chokes on fire, on heat, on acrid air that wheezes through his lungs.

A prickle on the periphery suggests his limbs are asleep but no amount of effort moves them. When he looks up, he sees himself against a backdrop of fire, disappointment written starkly on his features.

When he startles awake, there's no waiting to catch his breath, to get his bearings. Flipping on the bright lights inside his pod-shaped bed, Kenobi tears into the packaging of the box with reckless abandon uncommon to him.

What stares back at him is... indescribable — wicked and dark and angry, surely the reason behind his dream with its mangled visage reaching out to him in his sleep.

...hooooooopeeeeeer......hooooooopeeeeeer......hoooooooppeeeeeer...

He shudders and before he can even realize he's done so, Obi-Wan is shoving the box into one of the storage lockers and asking Anakin to come and meet him. He doesn't neglect to press the urgency of the matter, either, hoping such an uncommon occurrence will prompt his friend to make haste. ]

OH MY FUCKING GOD yesssssssssssssss

[ex_forcechoke292]

[Meanwhile, Anakin finds sleep just as fitful, but the images behind his eyelids are too obscure to make out. It's almost as if he's dreaming a feeling and not an image at all, further beyond understanding and impossible to decipher. A low, steady sense of anxiety has not been anything new since arrival on the Moira, but its rise and fall have been more like the wash of a tide. It rises through the night with no sense of stopping, a quiet, acidic burn in his chest that keeps him in an unhealthy, light stage of sleep.

Obi-Wan's message doesn't take much to wake him, and now cognizant, that building dread doesn't dissipate along with its invisible summons. Had he been awake, the message might have been expected. But even now, the timing doesn't strike him as coincidental in the least: something has happened. His instincts have never been that wrong.

He doesn't bother with a returned affirmative. Instead, he heads over to the other residence deck immediately (R-NOT, as the droid has quickly been dubbed, in tow). The only message he sends is when he arrives, with only a curt:]

Here.

[jedimindtrick]

[ Quick to answer the door, Obi-Wan stands aside and silently allows Anakin entry into the room. There's only a brief moment of surprise — a double-take, in fact — as the Jedi Master notes R-NOT rolling along behind Skywalker. ]

When did you—?

[ As if the pitch of his voice doesn't betray him enough — always a higher, near yelp when he's caught off-guard — Kenobi is disjointed far beyond the appearance of a familiar-looking astromech. Obi-Wan mutters a dismissal — he doesn't feel he really needs an answer — and waits for the droid to clear the threshold.

When he glances out the door, he almost expects to see a dark and looming figure hoping to reclaim its properly. An empty hall greets him, mercifully. Kenobi's never been so glad his roommates tend to keep hours just as odd as his. He closes the door to protect their privacy. ]

Anakin, I'm— [ —relieved to see you. —in need of your assistance. —in over my head.. That much is obvious. All of it. Particularly to Skywalker, if Obi-Wan knows anything about the younger man.

His eyes dip away as he finds them drawn to the place where the mask remains hidden away. The spike of fear, of upset it inspires in him, is as sharp as a blade to the chest, and he knows there's no hiding either.

Kenobi swallows, breaths, tries to center himself. ] Thank you for coming... [ At least that inspires some relief in him, although he'll likely find a reason later to be disappointed in how quickly he's fallen back on support he shouldn't rightfully need. ]

[ex_forcechoke292]

Special delivery of a droid that isn't mine. [He says it with a tired shrug, and the droid beeps indignantly; it is Anakin's--now, anyway--just not the one he expected. Moreover, Artoo isn't even his except by practicality of use, but that's beyond the point.] Someone has a sense of humour.

[But they both know that's not why he's here at an ungodly hour, summoned with clipped concern that still sits unspoken between them. But Anakin being Anakin can't let that go unsaid.]

Master, what's wrong?

[It's a slip he doesn't intend, doesn't catch, and once it's out, he just lets it stay. It's a habit, especially when it comes to situations he doesn't initiate and doesn't know how to field, and maybe it will break with time, but there's an indecipherable heavy weight in the room that stops him from trying to "correct" himself.]

[jedimindtrick]

[ Kenobi resists the urge to spit out the first thing that comes to mind. Can't you hear it? Can't you feel it? His own upset is likely overshadowing the disquiet radiating from the locker. He can't be the only one affected. ]

A dream. Images that portend a— a great darkness. I'm left—

[ Lost. Confused. Concerned. Obi-Wan is rarely so disjointed, so at a loss for adequate words. He imagines himself in a vise; at least that explains the tightness in his chest. ]

You've always been more skilled at interpretation, Anakin.

[ It's a silent plea to share the burden as they always have, to overlook the future facing the same direction, no matter its meaning to either of them, no matter the odds. To keep no secrets, even if sharing in this moment is a selfish attempt at relief.

Obi-Wan very nearly backs into the droid in his fidgeting, cursing quietly in surprise. Blasted thing. ]

[ex_forcechoke292]

[The droid is doing its best at being an approximation of the one from home, don't be rude, Obi-Wan.]

That's me, skilled in bad dreams.

[Even despite the sigh that comes with that quiet sardonic utterance, he places his left hand--the still-real one--on Obi-Wan's shoulder and squeezes gently, a just as silent acquiescence to that plea.

The heavy air in the room is palpable, almost cloying, and he finds it difficult to breathe in anything but an irregular rhythm, slow and more labored than it should be. He assumes, however, that this suffocating weight is just a passing remnant of his friend's anxiety, a vestige left over from a vision neither of them may want an answer to.]

Alright, lay it on me.

[jedimindtrick]

[ The contact helps to ground him in degrees, cranking down on the expansion of uncontrolled emotions, bringing him back to this moment so that he can be as accurate as possible in passing on the information. ]

First I'll tell you the vision, then I'll show you the cause of it.

No single part was as clear to me as the breathing...

[ He begins recounting the images, reflecting back as he paces the room. Ava's out. Zatanna too, which is fortunate for Obi-Wan; he doesn't believe either of them would like to hear such dark thoughts from their relatively peaceful and quiet roommate.

Kenobi makes no effort to pause in his recitation, half-desperate to get the words out as if it might relieve him of the bad taste they leave behind. He can answer questions later. ]

—And through all of it, still the breathing. This steady, labored... noise — a sound like I've never heard before today.

[ A frown as he finishes; he's hoping after this he'll never have to hear it again. ]

[ex_forcechoke292]

I can feel it. [He doesn't let this slip until Obi-Wan is finished: he has no inkling what the images could mean aside from something impending--something is always impending--and that gnaws at his insides while they simultaneously still feel tight and strained from the heavy force that he's still struggling to breathe through.

That's the worrying thing:] The breathing.

[It's a quiet admission, one he's not comfortable in making, if there's any comfort to be had in this at all. The anxiety continues to creep in with every slow, heavy breath, settling into the bottom of his lungs like it had claws. It's dizzying, strange, wrong in every sense of the word.]

I haven't had a bad feeling like this since...

[No. No, this is painful enough without thinking of Tatooine, on all that loss he's never admitted to his former master aloud, despite every inkling that he should have. This isn't the time.

This is worse.]

Show me.

[jedimindtrick]

[ Thoroughly overwrought, Kenobi can't help but feel the twisting and the churning, the bubbling manifestation of a disturbance shuddering behind a closed door. The helmet. It's suffocating, isn't it? It's wheezing behind that barrier, and behind another one, begging from inside the box inside another box to be set free.

Through its influence, someone else is suffocating, too, although it's most certainly not Obi-Wan.

He sets his jaw and opens the door. The box is closed. ...hooooooopeeeeeer... His fingers curl around the edges. ...hooooooopeeeeeer... Turning, he presents it to his best friend. ...hooooooopeeeeeer... And already he knows what a terrible idea it is. ...hoooooooppeeeeeer...

But there's certainly no going back now. ]

[ex_forcechoke292]

[The dread catching fire in his chest only seems to flare brighter as his fingers close around the box Obi-Wan presents. He thinks to quip about it, a half-hearted attempt at "admonishing" at the concept of a gift, but the words get lost in his throat. His brow furrows instead, his concentration and confusion silent but obvious as his emotions ever are.

He pries the unassuming box open with little fanfare, and what stares back at him actually arrests the breath in his lungs altogether. It's a twisted, mangled visage, skull-like and yet entirely mechanical. It's aged poorly, licked by flame either desperate or mournful and Anakin can't even begin to tell which.

He forces a long inhale when the metaphoric burning in his chest becomes real, and fingers--real ones, still--brush against the surface of the hollowed out face, a mask.

The images that flow from it roll over in a flash, jumbled, painful, and horrifying. Electricity cracks behind his eyes, tears up his spine with a roar and a laugh. A scarred face, marred beyond recognition save for the unadulterated pain in those blood-red eyes. Fire and ash rise, and he feels himself falling. A wailing scream in the distance and a plea he can't seem to fit into words. And the rest is silence.

Anakin isn't sure when he's slid to his knees, or when his panicked breathing has lined up in tandem with that pained wheezing just outside of his understanding. But when his vision focuses on the present, he takes no time in sharply flinging said box across the room. The mask collides loudly with the wall, but the warped plastisteel remains otherwise unaffected by the rough treatment.]

[jedimindtrick]

Anakin!

[ Regret. Instant regret. I'm sorry, I'm sorry... A litany in his head. Unexpected consequences. This wasn't his intention.

Wide eyes betray everything Kenobi hopes to hide. He wasn't looking for such a visceral, reactionary response, or the swell of intense emotions he feels from his long-time companion. It's blindsides him. Echoing back waves of discomforted concern laced darkly with terror, he knows to be cautious as he steps in closer.

What has he done?

The universe shrinks. He hadn't he anticipated this at all. Why hadn't he? In his confusion, in his despair, he fear he's misstepped. The lack of foresight and good judgement, while understandable in some circumstances (and for some people), is absolutely uncharacteristic of a Jedi Master. Particularly this Jedi Master.

There are darker circumstances at play here, he realizes, perhaps too late. There's no hiding from that, only standing to meet it's truth. And standing to meet this challenge (because they certainly have no other choice now). ]

Anakin... [ It's sighed out like an apology this second time, although he's certain it isn't necessary. They knew there would be risks, they know now there are risks, that there will always be risks, and yet he still feels sickeningly underrepresented in his remorse. ] Walk with me.

[ Impulsive, but they can leave. They have to leave to gain a modicum of clarity. And Obi-Wan can deal with the package later. It's preferable to standing around haunted by that breathing, by visions, by the Dark Side. ]

It will help.

[ex_forcechoke292]

[No longer touching the offending thing, he's able to find air again, albeit still heavy, the presence alone of that cursed--and oh, it has to be--mask pressing still despite the broken connection.

It continues to pull at him with vacant whispers he doesn't stop to decipher and so much hatred. The kind he's only ever once come close to understanding, and it frightens him beyond describing.

He has to will himself to focus, his friend's voice a grounding he knows he shouldn't still have to depend on, but does regardless, a lifeline he's unsure what he'll ever do without. He can only nod and stumble back to his feet, the prospect of a reprieve all too welcome.

It's only outside the door, where he's not tempted to keep looking back, to give into that pull that connects with something too deep to really comprehend, that he's able to take a deep breath and right his breathing again, even if it doesn't change the suddenly sickly pale color he's taken on. Even out here in the harsh light of the corridor, he wants to vomit and scream all at once.]

I'm sorry.

[It's all he can manage right away, and for once, the statement doesn't come coerced, or with attached caveats. He'd asked for this, hadn't he? Taken that foreboding instinct and ignored it altogether for the sake of curiosity.]

[jedimindtrick]

[ The apology forces his heart down and his head follows it, dipping down toward his chest. ]

No. [ He shakes his head. ] No, I'm sorry. I should have better prepared you for that. I—

[ Obi-Wan hesitates. He can't apologize enough. It's been a long time since he's been directly responsible for Skywalker's well being, but nothing's stopped him from maintaining that concern even after they'd long since decided he could take care of himself. ]

I don't like this, Anakin. [ Unlike most other times, the worry leaves him without any proctoring or censorship. He has no other council members to consult, only his friend and former student. It should be enough. It should and yet... ] Darkness is afoot and someone's seen fit to deliver it to us directly. We must be cautious.

[ex_forcechoke292]

Cautious? It's evil.

[You have to get rid of it. Obi-Wan, please get rid of it is all that cycles through his mind for a moment, that anxiety giving way to palpable concern. What other question could there possibly be?

The insistence is there, in the press of his gaze, the sudden grip on his mentor's arm. But the words don't continue to come out with the same force behind those frantic eyes, but instead in a quiet candor that only seems to follow grief...or guilt.]

There is no preparing for it.

[It's said softly--far softer than is certainly typical for Anakin's tendency for action-first--and with a measure of resignation that follows the slow shake of his head. It's like preparing for a nightmare: anxiety can only act as a warning, not a buffer. And no amount of shielding could have protected him from...that.]

[jedimindtrick]

[ For as much sense as Anakin's making, Obi-Wan finds himself wondering if he's being entirely objective or if he's just trying to comfort them both. Had he thought on it — really meditated and channeled his connection to the Force — a far clearer answer would have been much more apparent. He's certain of it. Better answers facilitate better reactions. Perhaps none of this would have happened at all had he had waited another few hours to contact Skywalker.

In any case, there's no changing the past. Where they stand now, subjected to knowledge of the future, that much is obvious. ]

We must prepare for it now. [ It's stressed differently than the rest. He knows now that they can't let something like this happen again. If there's truly a darkness lingering on the Moira, particularly one that speaks so strongly of the Force, then it's their duty to seek it out. The fact that they'd gone this long without a clear indication is worrisome enough.

Obi-Wan pushes his hand through his hair. ] What I felt... There was so much anger. I'm not sure I want to meet whatever wore that mask, but it was familiar. You felt it too, didn't you?

[ex_forcechoke292]

[A shiver creeps back up his spine at the reminder, and all he can do is nod. Too familiar. The only thing he can think of is that unhinged man who'd claimed to be his grandson: something utterly unfathomable in the moment, and he'd said as much, but...is it?

Has to be. He's not about to give credence to something that still sounds like a half-baked excuse when caught red-handed. The man could have easily gotten his name from anywhere, really, and had been following him for some time at least. There's nothing saying it's true. Not even a feeling.

A push, perhaps, true enough, sometimes faint, sometimes undeniably forceful. But a push toward...what? If the mask is trying to tell them something, lead them somewhere, that's a better place to start than nowhere at all.

Or worse, in his own head instead.]

There is...something else. [A tentative start, see how he's trying very hard not to make assumptions when they could easily implicate him? But the explanation falls out in a jumble afterward, the composure slowly wearing down.] Another passenger on board. We...ran into each other a few days after arrival, and I don't think he intended it. He'd been following me. I didn't think anything of it, and maybe it's still nothing, but I--

[How is he supposed to explain something he honestly has no words for?]

I felt something.

[jedimindtrick]

"Something?"

[ Can't Anakin be any more specific than that? Obi-Wan very nearly demands a better explanation, but then remembers that he doesn't have much more than something himself. They so rarely do. ]

Why was he following you?

[ And why hadn't he mentioned it before? It makes him wonder if maybe it had been the source of the confrontation Anakin had engaged in not long after arriving. Even if that were the case, the fact that he'd felt something but decided to think nothing of it makes Obi-Wan wonder if there isn't some further influence of the Dark Side at play there, too. Something they not noticed, or decided not to notice. ]

What did you feel?

[ex_forcechoke292]

Why isn't important. He didn't give me a reliable answer; would you believe whatever excuse I gave you immediately upon being caught?

[Ignoring, of course, that a lot of his denial hinges on whether or not Obi-Wan does, in fact, buy it or not. (Or even "buy it" and move on). Even if the explanation weren't hard to believe even if true, he'd still be reluctant to do so.

People are rarely so honest. Not the sort that skulk in the shadows and stalk, at any rate. It had taken Zam losing a hand in the Coruscant underground to start talking. Dooku's probably never given them a legitimate explanation in their entire history of interaction. Thus it follows that the mysterious "grandson" wouldn't be giving a whole lot to really work on either.

(Also ignoring the fact that any lie Anakin could and might give would be more transparent than glass.)]

I couldn't feel much of anything. A pull? Not much more than that. "Something."

[jedimindtrick]

[ It doesn't quite feel like enough, but Obi-Wan can't create information where none exists, and he shouldn't expect that Anakin can do the same.

Having stalled their steps to put the question to Anakin, he moves again, this time toward the observation deck. It's been something of a steady middle-ground for Obi-Wan when the chaos aboard the rest of the ship is taken into account. It may not present the same comfort to Skywalker, but anything's worth a try in the shadow of such cold feelings. ]

If you think this person has something to do with what we saw, then it's worth looking into.

[ He wouldn't ask Anakin to do it, though. He'll take those steps himself when the time is right, when he's had a little time to contemplate the mask and decide what he'll ask and say when he finally does track down its owner. ]

For now, tell me what you need?

[ A question, because he can't guess. Obi-Wan will do anything he can to relieve his friend of the upset this has caused him, but taking blind shots in the dark probably won't help either of them. ]

[ex_forcechoke292]

[He'd prefer machinery to all else, and ends up in the hanger more often than not, but the observation deck is a familiar middle-ground. Often empty, and the stars are comforting, even if not their own. It's the closest to home either of them have; it's second nature enough that he doesn't question it.

He ponders the question for a long moment, waiting until they've reached the empty deck before he pulls Obi-Wan into a hug. It's only in that moment that he allows a heavy, pent-up exhale, and the words "you" and "here" remain unsaid, but unnecessary. Maybe this is a point of weakness. Maybe his pride should be dictating that he repress this instead.

Maybe. But without fear of judgment or reproach, it feels right. It might just be the only thing here that does.]

[jedimindtrick]

[ As he has been hundreds of times before, Obi-Wan is surprised by the contact. It's been a long time since Anakin's situation has demanded a hug — long enough that Kenobi can't pinpoint a day or month or even a year when it's felt this desperate — but it's never so much the initiation that throws him off balance has how much obvious relief such a simple act can create in either (or both) of them.

It takes a moment, it always does, but he's there to wrap his arms tightly around Anakin — his best friend, his bother, the other half of a celebrated duo that only pretends to be invincible, together or apart. The turmoil is so obvious, it's like trying to hold on to a mast during a full force gale. The easy answer is to let go — that prevents all the splinters and worn muscles that holding on guarantees — but for Kenobi there's no other option here. He'll fight the storm if it means here's here to keep Skywalker from tumbling off the deck.

He doesn't say anything. He knows he doesn't have to, because everything he needs to say is written in the Force: He's sorry. He'll do better. They'll do better. This, too, shall pass.

It's what Anakin needs — some of what he needs, at least — and Obi-Wan knows that or he wouldn't return the gesture. In another place and time such things would mean admonishment, but even someone as dedicated to the code as Obi-Wan Kenobi will occasionally indulge in a moment without fear of judgement or reproach. Particularly for Anakin, who has done so much for him that not another living person compares.

On an ever changing landscape, this is who they are and what they've become. It would take something as strong (or stronger) than the will of the Force to change them of that now. ]