revivalproject | won't be made useless

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won't be made useless

WHO: Clarice & Obi-Wan
WHERE: Jedi Temple Renovation Site
WHAT: Catching up & talking babies
WHEN: After the beach party
WARNINGS: Blanket warning so far for possible talk of trauma in either canon - will add if anything specific comes up.

It seemed like forever ago that Clarice and Obi-Wan had sat at the back of the Temba Meeting and exchanged quiet pleasantries before the discussions: adjusting to the ruined city after Coruscant, plans for the future, how to care for infants. She'd promised him some of her time and a cup of tea, and then afterward they had gone their separate ways.

Now, after talking with Ezra and learning that the Jedi Master was keeping to himself, she decided it was time to make good on the promise. She brewed a jug of the loose tea she'd concocted and let it chill overnight in the diner's refrigerator, then brought it out to the soon-to-be Temple, wandering around until she spotted his familiar face.

Holding the jar aloft in greeting, she grinned. "Good mornin'. I seem to remember owin' you a cup of tea."

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"How are they? I saw her at the beach, but understandably she didn't have them with her. I should really go pay them a visit one've these days."

What she really wanted to do was introduce them to ice cream, but they weren't nearly ready for that yet.

"They're growing and developing as babies do, and being a handful. Needless to say I'm glad I brought back that droid, even if its not entirely functioning as well as it had before we left. And Padme, we haven't had much time to talk between taking care of the twins and my work around the temple."

He paused as he thought about that. It was a fact that he should probably change.

"Well, if you want someone else to keep an eye on Luke and Leia so you can have that talk, I'm absolutely game. I'd offered to help Sansa watch over James before she left, too..."

"I think any help would be appreciated. Taking care of one baby will keep you busy, and two, well."

It was a lot for anyone. It's why he tried so hard to help Padme, and he loved those kids too.

"Knocks you right out, I'm sure. Yeah, I'll talk to her. Maybe I can watch 'em at the diner on baking days. No knives out for that, and they can play with the rolling pins."

She grinned. "I lived at a Lutheran orphanage for a long time - got used to having lots of little ones around. All the staff were volunteers, so the older kids got called on to be a helpin' hand more often than not."

"I'm certain she would be grateful for that."

Padme hardly had time to herself anymore it seemed like. But that's how it was being a mother he supposed. Obi-Wan always tried to make sure he was nearby most of the time just in case she needed help.

"So a community care situation. That's not unlike what we Jedi have always done."

"A little bit, yeah, but it was a very small community." She smiled a bit. "Money was pretty tight, so we had a lot of hand-me-downs and peanut butter sandwiches, but ... it was still better than bein' alone. From what I saw, the Jedi took much better care than that of their younglings."

“Well, there were a lot more of us, and we had better resources,” Obi-Wan admitted. It seemed that at the orphanage it was a bit of a struggle, as with many such places even in his own galaxy.

He smiled at her nonetheless. “But even without those things, no youngling would ever be less loved. Some Jedi devoted themselves to the care of our young ones until they were old enough to discover their own path.”

Each person in the order had a role. They were not all warriors or negotiators. There were many professions within the Jedi.

"The more I hear about your Jedi, the more I like 'em." Clarice gave him a warm smile. "It ... sounds a lot like the sort of thing I thought I was gonna be doing when I joined the FBI, honestly. Workin' with other people to make the world safer, better."

That brought a smile to his face, because not everyone liked what they heard about the Jedi. Clarice was was one of more open ones.

"And I'm assuming that didn't meet your expectations?"

"Naw sir." One corner of her mouth twisted a little. "They had good intentions but there were too many politics involved. More and more, I saw people treating the enforcement of the law like a favor that could be traded. It was ugly. Real ugly."

"I've always hated politics," Obi-Wan admitted. "That's a shame. But unfortunately such corruptions seems to abound even in the most well meaning of places."

He sighs softly. "Even the Jedi got too involved with the government. It seemed like a good thing, but in the end it led to our destruction."

"Ezra told me a little of what happened," she nodded, compassion in her eyes. "I'm sorry. ... Everyone always told me politics were a necessary part of the Bureau, but I never bought it. Never played along. Some of 'em said that was what buried my career, but ... if that's the case, that's fine by me."

She took a sip of her tea, looking around.

"World needs people to be decent to 'em without a goddamn motive, if you ask me. Just for the sake of it."

Obi-Wan just nodded slightly to Clarice’s acknowledgement and briefly wondered what Ezra told her. Either way he decides to not pursue that topic. It’s not one he likes to talk about.

“Don’t we all,” he then says with a soft sigh. “I think… I understand a little bit. After the experience of living in Billy’s imagined version of Earth, I think I can see what you mean. In my galaxy things were really not any better either.”

She graciously leaves the topic where he let it lie, knowing that grief and trauma are things people come to in their own time ... and that theirs collectively, as Jedi, was great.

"I appreciate that you're even tryin' to understand, honestly. So much of what I'm used to must seem so goddamn different to you. Like Coruscant was for me."

“Yes it does,” Obi-Wan admits, though Billy had given him a great deal more understanding. “But I’ve always done my best to understand other cultures. One can not be a good negotiator otherwise.”

He turned a smile towards her as they walks along, up the steps to the main temple building.

“It’s also the least I can do after you strived to understand my people as well.”

"Well, you know I'm happy to help you sort anythin' out. A lot of all that was like where I'm from, minus the super powers and the heroes." She took a sip of her tea, completely at ease in the situation and her present company. She had always felt comfortable around Obi-Wan. Maybe it was the Jedi's training, his compassionate nature, but whatever it was, she never questioned it or tried to pick it apart much.

"I admit I do have a lot to sort out," he says quietly as they walked into the temple building.

"Having the memories of another life having left me unbalanced. I believe it will take me some time to come to terms with it all. But if I have questions, I know who I can turn to." A smile being given to Clarice as he sipped at his own tea.

"We're all in that selfsame boat," she reminded him patiently, though she was a bit preoccupied with her first look at the converted museum, her eyes roaming over every arch and corner and support with open curiosity, making parallels with bits of architecture from Earth as she encountered them.

"It's part of why I'm not terribly stressed out about it: I was lucky enough to know a lot of you before it all happened, so I know who you are, and I trust most of the folks here to know who I am, too."

The memories of other relationships, though: in hindsight she could see how Billy had somehow plucked familiar faces from her memories and assigned them to random people: Hannibal as her SHIELD mentor, Jack Crawford as - oddly - the building's skinny, beleaguered maintenance man, keeping it all from falling apart.

"... Did anyone from your real life show up in the city? Like ... a familiar face as someone else? A neighbor, a co-worker...?"

“That’s true,” Obi-Wan admitted, but it seemed to him they all had different degrees of difficulty with what happened. Many just seemed to shrug it off and forget about it, but Obi-Wan hadn’t been able to do that.

“Yes,” he then admits. “Cobb was a coworker of mine, and Padme was a crush. But Ezra most of all was my biological brother.”

Sighing softly, he takes a moment to look up at the high ceilings of the once museum. Unsure how to explain all of this to her. It wasn’t just a simple matter, and he had dwelled on it probably more than ge should have.

“I actually had a relatively peaceful life. It wasn’t perfect of course, but I could say that I was happy. Content with only simple worries and concerns. An exceedingly normal existence. And yet I am stressed about it.”

Meditation, Clarice thought to herself, could only take you so far before you butted up against the walls of your own limitations. Maybe it was a good thing she'd come and sought him out today. She had nothing but time and patience to listen, to let him talk through his mind.

"Because it was so simple compared to what you knew as a Jedi, or in spite of it?"

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won't be made useless

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Sansa left??? If I knew this I forgot.

She's not on Taken anymore ... :(

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