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."

[hisfathersimage]

"You might want me to have a shower before I start working in an enclosed space." He's sweaty from his run and his katas and frankly, he doesn't fancy working like that without cleaning up and putting on actual clothes. And shoes. "But if you can wait until I bathe and dress, I'll happily help out."

[holtfinder]

"Excellent. The more hands, the quicker the work." She nods. "Let's get the baskets to the factory, and then you can shower and come back when you're ready. I can have you chop the ingredients while I cook them down for the salve. You can even use the fancy glowy knife, if you want."

That's...probably a joke. Probably.

[hisfathersimage]

"It would singe the edges of the ingredients. Great for cauterising injuries, much less great for chopping plants." He takes a second basket if allowed, with his actual hands, saber hilt clipped to his belt. "My first lightsaber actually had an adjustable blade. Very fancy stuff. I inherited it, I couldn't have done anything like that for my first handmade one."

[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."

[holtfinder]

"I have a proper knife, but you have to promise to give it back." There's a certain wry amusement to that comment. Perhaps because she was lent the knife and decided to keep it, herself.

That's how things work around here, sometimes.

[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.

[hisfathersimage]

"Of course." He wouldn't just keep something belonging to someone else. "Does cut or torn make a different? I know with some plants, it does."

[heypartner]

"Catch me on a good morning and I'll brew you a cup too." Cobb needs at least one cup of caf before he's truly functional. In the right mood he'll brew up a whole pot for anyone who comes by the diner when he's making breakfast.

Cobb looks up at the sky, considering the single sun and clouds. "Never left Tatooine until coming here and I can't believe all the water. Could sustain five or six towns back home with this water."

He sighs. No use thinking about things he can't bring home. "I like the rain though. It's nice."

[hisfathersimage]

Luke used to run on caf in the rebellion. Then he went to a swamp and trained with an ancient gremlin who made him kick the habit.

"The first planet I landed on, well, not planet, it was a moon of a gas giant. A jungle. And there was just water everywhere. Rivers and creeks and daily downpours every afternoon that soaked through everything. Even the air you breathed felt wet."

[heypartner]

Cobb can't imagine it. Even after months on this place, he can't imagine that much green or that much water. That much rain is something that has to be experienced, probably.

"How long since you've been home?" he asks, a little curious. He knows Luke saved the whole damn galaxy from the Empire but he's young. Tatooine makes age irrelevant in some ways but Cobb feels real old standing next to him.

[hisfathersimage]

"For me? About... quarter of a year? We had to go and retrieve someone from Jabba the Hutt. He didn't survive the experience, but that's what happens when you cross Leia."

The sheer pride and adoration in his voice is boyish. He is so proud of Leia killing the supposedly unkillable.

[heypartner]

"Yeah, I heard all those stories. Folks call her The Huttslayer." Cobb thinks about how much chaos, how much death Jabba's absence caused but he doesn't want to ruin the moment for Luke. He's clearly carrying enough on his shoulders.

Tatooine would pull itself together eventually. It always did.

"We get a little holonet out in Mos Pelgo. Enough to keep up with the bigger picture of the galaxy but the details sometimes get lost in the static." Some of those details just aren't important either, not on Tatooine.

[hisfathersimage]

"Oh, she'd love that."

Luke knows it had to have caused upheaval. Jabba had ruled Tatooine for a long time. All his lifetime. But the Hutt was also a monster and he had no qualms about removing someone who squandered water while his 'tax collectors' literally left families to die of dehydration.

"And a lot of not really caring thrown in."

[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."

[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?"