Awkward alliteration allays anxiety

[hisfathersimage]

WHO: Luke Skywalker + OTA
WHERE: TEMBA - Temple and loose in the city
WHAT: Exercise, practice, not knowing what to do with no active war...
WHEN: Within a week of arrival?
WARNINGS: Description of canon injury scars. Will add in comment headers as relevant.



Like most Jedi, Luke is an early riser.

It's more by habit than any desire to be awake. Tatooine hours run from pre dawn to near midday, then start again in the late afternoon. The Rebellion runs on no known clock or cycle known to the Force and Yoda ran on 'will this help push Luke over the edge and make him quit' time. And since the Endor mission, Luke hasn't slept well, plagued by memories dredged up by Palpatine's actions, startling awake several times a night and often with a soft thump of dropping furniture back to the ground.

He's up before dawn to grab water and something light the eat and then takes off for a run, to try and burn off the night's nightmares. It's actually past sun up by the time he finishes, moving to a private-ish area outside and moving into some katas. It's one of the few times he can be found without his tunic and robes hiding him from neck to wrist to ankle, instead barefoot and wearing only an undershirt and pants as he moves through the familiar motions of the different forms.

It's pretty clear why he covers up. He has dark pink scarring covering his chest and shoulders and upper arms, fractal lightning trees that must grow from somewhere around the middle of his chest, under the singlet. He still wears one glove to cover the damage on his right hand that he never quite got around to getting fixed, the metal ring in his forearm the only real hint that there's something abnormal about it. He has a couple of puncture marks in his shoulders that were never treated with bacta and he moves like he's never had an injury in his life, pure, fluid strength and grace.

He practices with the lightsaber a bit longer than usual, to make sure he's top of his game in this place. Then it's a shower, breakfast and get on with the day...

Which is wandering around trying to work out what people who aren't fighting a war do with all this time.

Comments

[holtfinder]

Well, what some people do at this hour of the morning is try to balance three baskets of fresh harvested ingredients for spider-repellent salve while walking from the greenhouse down to the southeast side of the city. It's clearly not working, trying to carry all three baskets at once, but Moonshade has her pride and will absolutely not leave one basket to come back for another trip.

She could probably use some help, or she's going to lose that basket of cyananas real soon.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke senses her before he sees anything. His morning katas are his meditation right now and he's about as disconnected from himself as he can safely be. He can feel the movement of the basket and grabs it into the air before it goes, shutting off his lightsaber and looking out around the building to see her. "Two trips would be easier, you know."

[holtfinder]

Moonshade's reaction to the basket being floated is mild; there's only the briefest moment of surprise before she seems to mentally file Luke as someone who does the floaty thing.

"They'd take more time, though, and I have a lot to get done today if I want to head back out to the other city this evening to bring back some of those vines with the pods we're using for dyes."

[hisfathersimage]

When there's so many Jedi, there's no surprise that telekinesis isn't that shocking to her. Luke's seen the baby (Grogu?) flicking things about with a bit of concentration. "Dropping it all would take more time again." He doesn't gesture with his hand, gaze flicking to the basket and bringing it closer to himself. "Of course, it would be quicker still if there was someone doing nothing that important who could take all of them and let you get on with other things."

The baskets in her arms are tugged lightly. Not pulled free, but the suggestion is clear.

[holtfinder]

Ah, it's not Grogu who's made the floaty thing familiar to her, but other elves. While Moonshade's not gifted with any of the traditional ancestral magics beyond Sending, she's known others who are quite talented with floating objects (and other powers that resemble the Force). So there's very little hesitation as she gives up the baskets to Luke.

"Careful offering things like that, I might take the admission that you have nothing better to do as a reason to put you to work helping make the salve as well."

[heypartner]

“Mornin’, you busy?” Cobb asked in a way that said he already knew the answer. “Great. Follow me.”

Even though he had his speeder Cobb was walking through town. He had a cup caf in one hand and a bag of various pieces of metal scrap in the other.

“Unless you’ve got Jedi business I figured I could put you to work,” he said with easy confidence. “Need an extra set of hands to clear some debris and tear out a few walls in one of the houses I’m working on.”

Cobb wiggled the fingers wrapped out his caf in Luke’s direction. “And I’ve seen how easy you Jedi can move things. Obi-Wan showed it off once.”

[hisfathersimage]

Showered, dressed, and ready to face the day, this is still not how Luke anticipated it going.

"Um, okay. I'm good at destroying stuff." Exceptional at it, as it happens. "And I think I'm fairly good at the whole moving things."

[heypartner]

Cobb took a sip of his caf and then held it out to Luke if he wanted any. Like any decent native born Tatooine he was happy to share when he had some and someone else had none.

"I figure you know how to work with your hands. That's mostly what this is," Cobb explained whether he took the caf or not. "Just clear out the junk and make somethin' new from it. Unlike back home, we can work through the whole day."

It was amazing how much can get done with only one sun in the sky.

[hisfathersimage]

"You're a saviour." Luke is awake and doesn't need the caf, but he still loves the stuff. He only takes a small sip, mostly to savour the taste more than anything. "Thanks. And yeah, my first time on a world in a single star system was so strange. The rain was weirder."

Luke is very good with telekinesis and hopes he can help Cobb make significant progress.

[out_of_order]

While Cal hasn't completely moved into the temple yet he's been coming over to make use of the grounds more often. Even with no shortage of unoccupied space to practice in, it was nice to actually have a place to come to.

It may be early out but the padawan's not surprised to sense someone up and about, especially around the former museum grounds. He'd heard something of a new arrival but had yet to meet them. There's no real difficulty in figuring out who's new in Temba with only so many people.

Cal's dressed casually for a change, a dark blue, long-sleeved shirt over pants and his sturdy rigger's boots. His lightsaber hangs from his belt, an unusually long hilt just a bit longer than his forearm. The harness he wears over his shoulders seems to serve solely as something to grab onto for the little droid that hangs about on his back. The two watch as Luke goes through the familiar motions in his lightsaber practice, not wanting to interrupt him.

[hisfathersimage]

For most Force sensitives, Luke is hard to miss.

He blazes in the Force, a brilliant, powerful presence in the Force that makes no attempt to conceal, hide or shield away. His eyes are closed, his awareness completely around him and unworried about hitting anything around him. He comes to the end of the current form (Fourth form, modified Ataru, suited for someone smaller and faster) and he holds his pose, drawing in his breath and his Force awareness with it.

Then relaxes and shuts off the blade, snapping it to his belt and looking back over one shoulder. "You must be Cal and Beedee. I'm Luke."

[out_of_order]

It's definitely something to watch. He can't remember ever sensing someone so strongly, even since their visit to the Jedi Temple of a Coruscant so many centuries their past.

Cal hardly seems surprised to be identified so easily. Someone's obviously given the Jedi the rundown. He smiles faintly, nodding. "That's us," he acknowledges, BD-1 borbling a greeting from where he peers over his shoulder. There's just a brief pause in consideration at the name. "Nice to meet you, Luke."

[hisfathersimage]

Luke smiles at the sight of the little droid. It's pretty clear that he has a soft spot. "Obi-Wan spoke fondly of you. He told me he had three padawans and I've met the other two so..."

Process of elimination.

And yes, looking close, those big, blue eyes might seem somewhat familiar.

"He's going to make me miss my astromech even more. Exploration series, isn't he?"

[on_repeat]

Patrolling. Mostly to be sure everything is in order. Partly to fill the time when nothing important is going on.

And today Echo's route has him dropping by the temple - just to see who's in, maybe even lend a hand if needed since that kind of thing comes up often. Apparently he also needs to catch up on the roster of new faces Temba has gained in the past two weeks because he doesn't recognize Luke among the folks that have been residing here.

ARC Trooper in his personalized armor kit greeting a newcomer. It's become a litmus test of its own as he nods at the man, slowing his pace. "Morning."

[hisfathersimage]

And Luke, who has spent years being shot at by stormtroopers, freezes.

He isn't getting any danger signals through the Force, which is good, but it's fairly clear that he's gone from relaxing about the place to tense and ready for trouble. He hasn't reached for his lightsaber, but that means very little.

"Morning... Trooper?"

[on_repeat]

Echo observes the reaction closely, noting the tension in the way Luke pauses. Although he should have expected as much, he'll take being called 'trooper' over 'imp' any day.

He raises his hands, palms open to show he's not wanting to harm him. "Easy. My name's Echo," he says, his tone casual. "I take it you're new here."

[hisfathersimage]

The helmet is wrong, for a stormtrooper, but not entirely wrong. But the Force is still quiet and unprotesting and it helps Luke ease a bit more when the hands come up. "Yeah. Couple of days? You don't look like any stormtrooper I've seen."

[happybeeps]

BB-8 spots him first. The droid gives him a long, curious look, and trills with excitement. He's traded enough stories about their masters with R2 to recognize Luke Skywalker! The astromech circles eagerly around the Jedi to make sure he doesn't run off, babbling eagerly about all the tales he's heard from R2, and Poe's ready to scold him when he finally catches up, but he stops short when he sees who it is he's accosting.

"...Skywalker?"

Not the older version he'd left back home, but the one straight out of war stories from his parents, how could he not recognize him after growing up on a healthy diet of those stories. And Poe is quite obviously his parents' son, the splitting image of the both of them, but full grown now instead of the toddler Shara Bey would have spoken of so fondly.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke pauses at the sound of a droid chattering in binary. He pauses mid-kata and straightens up slowly, head tilted to look down at the little thing. It's not a droid he knows, personally or as a series.

His name makes him look up, blowing his sweaty hair from his eyes. It takes a moment of looking to put it together, what Obi-Wan had said, the familiarity and yet not... "You must be Poe Dameron. I flew with your mother shortly before I came here."

He isn't sure what else to say. This must be sort of what Obi-Wan felt like when he called his name.

[happybeeps]

A faint look of surprise overtook Poe, and he smiled, swallowing a bit thickly and nodding.

It was strange to think his mother was a recent memory for someone, when Poe found sometimes he struggled to recall her voice properly, the years blurring his memories.

"...She always spoke very highly of you," he acknowledged, "...Planted the tree like you asked."

[hisfathersimage]

"I know she did." He had felt the echo of it in the sibling plant when it went into the ground. "Planted it. I didn't realise I'd made such an impression on her."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra does in fact wake up early too, but since he's gotten here, he's slid into more likely to rise with the dawn than before it. He stretches out his senses into the Force, as he usually does once he's fully awake, very lightly checking on the presence of the other inhabitants of the temple.

He can't really tell what Luke is doing, just that he's awake and up and concentrating on something. And he's curious, so he puts together a pot of tea, two cups in case Luke wants one, some breakfast for himself, and carries it all out towards where Luke is. A brown spotted tooka trails out with him, dancing around his feet; she's curious about the new person too, but Ezra manages to coax her to settling near him to watch rather than getting under Luke's feet.

"I can tell it's Ataru," Ezra says, after a moment, about the kata set. "But not exactly the version I've learned."

[hisfathersimage]

Luke is aware of Ezra and a tooka's presence but he can also tell Ezra's prepared to wait for him to finish his current set and the animal won't be getting in the way.

He finishes the current kata and pulls into a duelling stance, coiled and waiting and precariously balanced on his toes for a long inhale and exhale before turning off the blade and shaking himself out. "Master Yoda taught me Ataru with modifications to combat Vader. His blows are strong enough to literally knock the hilt out of your grip; before I got the mechanical hand, it was a genuine concern when fighting him. A parry that buckles because of his sheer strength and size." He pads over, feet nearly silent on the ground and drops to sit in the dirt, holding out his left hand to the cat. "Hello, little one."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Vader did exactly that to my first lightsaber, shattered the hilt hard enough to damage the kyber crystal," Ezra agrees, letting out a huff of air, rather than letting himself shiver at the chill of that memory.

"And most of the Ataru I know is from recordings of Anakin's demonstrations," he adds, his expression going funny as he contemplates all the strange ways Anakin Skywalker, a man he can't really say he's ever properly met, and all the man's friends and family, have looped through his life.

As the tooka edges closer to nose Luke's hand, he says, "That's Dabble."

[hisfathersimage]

Luke doesn't have particularly good telepathy, but he does have the Jedi knack that animals tend to find him acceptable. He doesn't look at the took still, letting her investigate his flesh and bone hand for now.

"Yeah. He's a brutal combatant. The rage and fury gives him inhuman strength and that's even before the cybernetics." Despite defeating Vader, Luke would not want to fight him again. He isn't sure how much of his victory was him and how much was Anakin reaching out through Vader. "I've only seen Anakin Skywalker briefly. When he died. And I've seen his Force ghost twice." He's never actually seen a holo of the man. Vader and Palpatine had pretty thoroughly erased him.