[ Open | Sending Crystal ]

[obi_wanmanshow]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Obi-Wan Kenobi
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: An announcement, and a thought-experiment
WHEN: After having resolved the Leliana/Assassination plot
NOTES: n/a

This is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I apologize for the delay in doing so, but I'd like to make an announcement; I've been appointed as the liason for the Rifter population.

For this reason, if you have a concern about a particular Rifter which cannot be peacefully resolved on your own, or if any Rifter has need of information, or support, please don't hesitate to contact me. I know we may not seem like any kind of cohesive group, but you aren't alone. Please, try to remember that.

[He clears his throat, then and continues.]

As for the rest of you, I have a question. Nothing too serious, just a little... oh, call it a thought-exercise: I first heard this one as a child.

If your house was on fire, what's the first thing you'd take out of it?

Comments

[obi_wanmanshow]

That's very kind of you. I may just take you up on that offer-- as you can likely tell, we need all the help we can get, most days.

[demonicbeauty]

Oh, I know.

It's bad enough that half of the natives still think we're demons of some kind.

[obi_wanmanshow]

Utter nonsense, isn't it? As if there weren't enough real problems to address.

[demonicbeauty]

Nonsense, yes.

[And she'll just leave it at that.]

Speaking of real problems...why are you throwing around hypothetical ones? Are you looking for something in particular?

[obi_wanmanshow]

When I was a youngling-- a beginning trainee, before I even apprenticed, I used to get in trouble sneaking around the temple, after-hours. They'd set me to working in the library as punishment. The head librarian there, Master Jocasta, is a formidable woman; very stubborn, but also very wise.

She would ask me questions like that, and any other young Jedi who happened to come under her authority. She said, they revealed something important about you-- not the answers, but how you answered. She wasn't wrong.

[demonicbeauty]

[Ariadne's silent for a moment. She has to admire his guile. It's a very, very clever way to find out information about the character of another person.

Heavily, she sighs.]

When your home is burning to the ground, you don't have time to worry about things. Things can be replaced. You just have to run.

[obi_wanmanshow]

Nothing is more precious in the world than life. Not to be wasted. Where it exists, so exists infinite possibility, and without it...

[He exhales gustily, and falls silent for some few moments. He doesn't have to ask, whether she's speaking from experience; it's clear she is.]

That's the Jedi way.

[demonicbeauty]

Well, I don't know much about this "Jedi" business. But it seems very important to you.

Are you looking specifically for people with similar attitudes?

[obi_wanmanshow]

I'm not looking for anything. I'm only... scenting the wind, as it were.

[demonicbeauty]

[Now there's an excellent metaphor to use with Ariadne.]

And have you picked up the scent?

[obi_wanmanshow]

Only of what was already here, I'm afraid. But it's always good to stay alert.

[demonicbeauty]

Words to live by, my lord.

[What a curious man...]

[obi_wanmanshow]

Please, I'm no one's Lord, least of all here.

[The title reminds him too much of the Sith, and their pretense of nobility, an inborn betterness that gives them the right to subjugate others. Perhaps this and other worlds still operate on a not-dissimilar principle of fudalism, but for himself, Obi-Wan would prefer not to be conflated.]

My formal title, if you prefer not to use my name outright, is Master Jedi.

[demonicbeauty]

Oh...

[She considers this a moment, before letting out a slow exhale.]

I'm not sure that I could ever call any man "master." I say that with the utmost respect, of course. It's just that, where I come from, that's the word of a slave to the person who owns her and, well...

You don't own me.

[obi_wanmanshow]

Eh, not-- not like that. [His own voice mirrors her distaste.] Not a master of people, but of skills. Where I'm from, the term 'Lord' applies almost exclusively to the kind of... individual, you're describing.

I hope to never own another living being.

[And isn't that fascinating? Even speaking similar languages, the meanings can be so reversed. Infinite possibility, infinite meaning.]

Perhaps, we had better look to names, before titles? I see no reason to stand on formality; I'd prefer to be your friend.

[demonicbeauty]

Oh, I very much agree. I just always default to "my lord" or "my lady." You never know who is or isn't going to take offense. The worst-case-scenario with that is that you flatter someone who might not deserve it.

And most people love to be flattered.

At least...in my experience.

[Babble much, Airy? She clears her throat.]

But I prefer names.

[obi_wanmanshow]

Ariadne it is, then. [his smile is audible.] And please, call me Obi-Wan.

[demonicbeauty]

Obi-Wan.

I must admit, I've never heard a name like that before. And I know several languages.

[All of the languages, in point of fact. But that's neither here nor there.]

Although, I suppose you've never heard the name "Ariadne?"

[obi_wanmanshow]

I'm afraid I have. Though, I doubt it has the same origins as your own name-- with so many hundred of cultures, and languages, the same sounds are bound to be arranged in the same way more than once.

My own name comes from a world known as Stewjon, if you're interested. [His accent shifts, subtly o the name, slightly more gutteral and soft on the j until the name slurs into something more like s-dew-shone.] I was born there.

[demonicbeauty]

Oh, I would love to hear all about it.

[If there's an upside to this whole business of being a Rifter, it's decidedly hearing about the worlds of others. Ariadne's always been curious, an explorer by nature.

Trapped in an ever-decreasing world.]

[obi_wanmanshow]

Oh, well-- I haven't been back there in man years. I was born there, but it's not my home. I can be said to have a permanent home, it would be at the Jedi Temple, on Coruscant.

...which is a more interesting place, regardless. Imagine a city so large, and so populous that it extend beyond the horizon, and its ground-level streets never see daylight for the density of the building. The crown jewel of the Republic, and its capitol: Coruscant Galactic City.

[demonicbeauty]

I can't begin to imagine it.

[Pre-industrial fantasy medieval homeland ftw?

Ariadne frowns a little, pausing a moment.]

Do you not remember your home?

[obi_wanmanshow]

I remember it well.

But my birthplace? No. I was certainly no more than three years old when I left it, and I have very little memory from before that time. Though I have visited Stewjon, since then, it isn't my home.

[demonicbeauty]

That must be very...strange.

[Of course, the humanoid memory is a complicated thing, from what she understands.

They don't even remember being born!]

And your family?

[obi_wanmanshow]

My blood-relatives live there, a whole clan of extant Kenobis, I'm told. But family is more than blood, and my real family lies within the Order.