A New Home

[hadthehighground]

WHO: Obi-Wan Kenobi and YOU
WHERE: The Museum aka The New Jedi Temple
WHAT: Making a new temple for the Jedi!
WHEN: All of April
WARNINGS: None atm

The first days after they arrived back from Coruscant, Obi-Wan was busy. The Jedi essentially hitting the ground running now that he’s been energized by his vacation back home. The first priority was making sure Padme and the twins were comfortable. Then came the task of finding an appropriate place in Temba for a temple.

Before the impromptu trip to Coruscant someone had suggested the amphitheater. However upon looking it over the Jedi decided it didn’t suit the purposes that were needed. So he kept looking. Though he didn’t have to look far as he came across a cluster of buildings that seemed to be a museum complex. After looking over the overgrown and run down grounds he decided that it would be perfect. It would just need some cleaning up and repurposing.

Thus a call is put out on the network. Asking for help in setting up this new home for the Jedi if anyone is willing. Those with the engineering data points would be especially appreciated, as would the advice of those with agriculture for setting up a garden. But really any free hands would do with the promise of the favor being returned down the road.

The time didn’t matter as Obi-Wan will be working on it all month. Cleaning out the buildings and their exhibits. Pieces of artifacts carefully picked up and put away for later sorting and hopefully reassembly. One of the smaller buildings being converted into a holding place for animals and/or potential vehicles. The other intended for living spaces. The largest building was a grand hall and Obi-Wan intended this to be the main structure for learning, sparring, meeting, and whatever else they could use it for. Last but not least the smallest, yet very tall building with a large platform inside was to be made into a place of meditation.

There is a lot to be done and more hands make light work!

((OOC: Feel free to consider this a mingle thread! Obi-Wan isn’t the only Jedi around but I’ll throw him at anyone unless specified otherwise.))

Comments

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Makes me wonder what else I could do but haven't even thought to try or stumbled into," Ezra admits. "I know we brought a lot back from the Temple Archives, but-"

For one thing, he's used to learning by example or by doing, not by studying. He sighs.

"The first animal I connected to was a lothcat." Which is basically the same as a tooka. "And she's pretty friendly."

Sure enough, the tooka creeps forward to curiously nose Cal's hand.

[out_of_order]

Cal lets the tooka sniff at him, letting her take her time. BD-1 settles beside him, watching.

"Well, maybe we could have gone down different paths, or maybe we would have discovered the same. It's hard to say. But we're still learning, so I don't think it's too late to discover new things, at least."

He'd had to suddenly relearn skills he hadn't made use of in five years, on the move. Maybe he'll be able to polish some of that here.

"She's cute. Maybe about the same size as a bogling. I...may have let one aboard Greez's ship the last time we were on Bogano," he admits.

[ezra_of_lothal]

He's never heard of that planet or a bogling, but he gets the idea.

"Did Greez yell?" he asks, grinning. "Hera would have been so mad if I let something she didn't know about onto the Ghost. That was one stunt I never tried to pull."

The tooka decides Cal is worth the time to brush her cheek along his fingertips.

Ezra just watches while he contemplates names that can said out loud. "Sunbeam? Hmmmm. Dabble?" Which gets him ears perked in his direction. "Sorry, wasn't trying to distract you," he teases the tooka. "You like the sound of that? Dabble."

She pushes her head against Cal's hand against, and picks up into a soft purr. "I think that's a yes," Ezra concludes with a laugh.

[out_of_order]

"I don't think he's realized we've got a stowaway yet," Cal says, smiling crookedly. "Think he's said he's heard something in the vents though."

He lets the tooka do the moving, not wanting to startle her, but he obligingly turns his hand towards her as she purrs in what seems like agreement, giving her a light scratch on the head. "Heh. Dabble, is it?"

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Yeah," Ezra confirms, pleased to have that tiny mystery sorted.

Speaking of mysteries- "So, last time I was in the greenhouse, I ran into someone who said she knows you. Goes by Merrin?"

[out_of_order]

Cal eases himself to sit on the grass, offering Dabble more scratches. He likes animals well enough. Maybe one day he'll coax the bogling out of hiding. They were skittish by nature, but he'd caught their stowaway peeking out from under the navigation console a few times while he was plugging in coordinates.

Mention of the Nightsister has him lift his head to glance at Ezra. "Oh, you've met her?" He nods, a belated confirmation that they're acquaintances. "Yeah. She's actually someone I know from...well, from my point in time. Although according to her, she's from a little ahead of me in the future." He chuckles dryly. "Which is kind of a big difference considering the last time I'd seen her before I got to Temba."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Yeah, I'd picked up that she's from...later." He shakes his head, because he's still not entirely used to the time weirdness.

"I'd never met a living Nightsister before. She perked up one greenhouse plants that wasn't doing so well," he says, with a waggle of her fingers. "And was reasonable when I told her I didn't want to fight."

[out_of_order]

"I'm glad. I don't think she'd really want a fight either. She's been through a lot too," Cal says. "She's probably the last of her sisters alive, so far as she's aware." He's not sure how much Merrin has told Ezra, but he doesn't think that information is a secret, especially given Ezra's implied experience.

"So that's what she was doing in the greenhouse, huh? I hadn't known what exactly could be done with the magick she uses, except for summoning dead sisters and strengthening Nightbrothers." Definitely spoken from experience. "She helped out one of BeeDee's plants back at the workshop though. It's already gotten a lot bigger."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra grimaces and nods, at the confirmation that Merrin thinks she's the last.

"Maul said he was the last of his people - he might have been mistaken, but that I don't think he lied about. And he implied that the Nightsister out by the Empire because their magick was a threat." He shrugs, because he suspects that was assumption, not knowledge, not Maul's part, and the not really ex enough in Exra's book Sith was hardly a reliable source, either way.

"Anyway - your good opinion clearly matters to her." No pressure, Cal.

[out_of_order]

"That former Jedi I met on Dathomir, he'd told her that it was the Jedi that wiped out her sisters. That's probably why she wasn't too thrilled about seeing me running around there."

Cal blinks at the last. Maybe he's not entirely surprised to hear it. He's the only one she knows here, and he's glad that his gut reaction when he'd first come upon her in Temba wasn't to greet her with a lightsaber. "She's a good person. I don't know what happened since we'd last met, but we've been able to talk about other things, and I have no reason not to trust her."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra blinks back. "Oh. She didn't go throwing around accusations, but yeah, if she ever believed Jedi were responsible, that explains a few things."

He blinks again and nods slowly. "I...made an educated guess and warned her that Master Kenobi might be the most wary of us here at first, but that he's a good man, too. Hopefully we can figure out how to be at least neighbors from there."

[out_of_order]

That gets a little bit of a wince from the red-haired padawan.

"Right. I spoke to Master Kenobi to ask if it'd be okay for other people aside from Jedi to stay at the temple grounds once it was done, but I didn't really specify..." he admits. "I just wanted to know if the option was open for her, if she wanted to. But they should definitely meet first."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"I have to think her feeling welcome instead of shut out would be a good thing," Ezra replies. "Obviously there's Grogu and the twins' to consider too." They're more vulnerable. Will Master Kenobi see Merrin as some sort of...inherent risk because of her origins?

"Dathomir felt...heavy and Dark," he says slowly. "But then, I don't know what it felt like before most of its inhabitants were killed." Because just about all sentient life being massacred by darksiders would probably make a planet feel that way right?

"I also don't see how helping plants grow could really be dark."

[out_of_order]

"That's why I wanted to find out if it'd be okay for her. After everything, and even being here with fewer people, I just want her to know she doesn't have to be alone." At least Merrin seems to be doing all right with getting to know the layout of the city and those in it.

"I think Dathomir's always been like that," Cal says. "Even BeeDee's previous owner, Master Eno Cordova, mentioned it being a dark place. It definitely isn't a very friendly environment. But...so long as people can find a way to survive in a place, they make it home, right?" He shrugs. "I can't say I understand the magick that the Nightsisters use, if it's some other aspect of the Force or something else. But she only used it to protect what she had left. Taron Malicos wanted to learn more about her magick for its power."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"As long as the storms are around, here's not the friendliest environment, either," Ezra points out. "Maybe she'll have some fresh insight."

He shrugs again. "I'll admit I'm curious about how her magick works, but if not being used to harm anyone, I don't see much reason to get tied up in knots about...theory."

[out_of_order]

Cal's half-smile is humorless as he nods to concede that point. "True." But then the storms bring their own set of problems and while he'd very much like to get to the bottom of what's causing them, he's not looking forward to the next time one decides to strike.

He has no arguments regarding Ezra's thoughts on magick. "I agree. That was just part of my being curious. But I don't think there are many things she knows to explain it either, since for her, it's just been something that's always been there."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra nods.

"Yeah, I talked to Jon a little about things that he can do, and that was hard enough trying to figure out the words to use to. And to explain why I thought the Temple Jedi recommending meditation wasn't just them, uh, blowing him off. Things that she's basically always been able to do it probably even harder to explain."

[out_of_order]

His curiosity is perked at mention of Jon, marked by the arch of a brow. Cal however nods as Ezra goes on. Explaining things that you never really felt the need to because the context was just always there, it's tricky without delving into a whole lot of details. Sometimes you don't even know the details for the reasons.

"Yeah, exactly," Cal nods. "Heh. I know I have trouble sometimes just trying to explain the Jedi lifestyle. Sometimes trying to explain it makes less sense than you thought it did."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra mulls that last statement over a little. "Well, having spent some time at a temple now and seeing how peaceful it was there, but also the lots of unspoken....layers to it? I bet it does mostly make sense, when you're, hmmm. Entirely inside it?" he offers.

"But we're not. Even with our little temple, we can't be. Not enough people. Structure. Resources."

[out_of_order]

"Not that we need to," Cal says. "Some things just wouldn't apply, especially since we're opening it to other people. I think that's the key thing, really. To be open to others."

He leans back on his hands, hoping Dabble will forgive him for not indulging her with more scratches for a moment.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Gotta be," Ezra agrees. "And we can figure out what else makes sense from there."

Well, he's optimistic, at any rate.

Dabble flops onto her side, as if this changed angle may be more inviting.

"Dabble, I don't trust that stance," Ezra teases her.

[out_of_order]

The other padawan nods. They're pretty much in agreement about the direction things might best be taken, but first things first, they've got to actually get things fixed up. Cal leaves it at that, looking down at the tooka with a lopsided smile.

"Haven't had enough attention yet?" he asks, a brow arching, but he chuckles at Ezra's words. Deciding to indulge Dabble, he carefully brings up his gloved hand as he shifts his weight, reaching out towards her.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Dabble bats at Cal's hand, although not with claws fully extended or ears laid back.

"That's what I thought," Ezra comments, amused. He shifts to digging through his pack of tools and bits and bobs to find something for her to play with.

[out_of_order]

Cal lets out a laugh as the tooka reacts predictably. That's exactly why he'd used his gloved hand instead of his bare one. He wiggles his fingers and twists his wrist a bit to give Dabble something more of a challenge.

"So, you looking forward to seeing this place finished?"

[ezra_of_lothal]

Dabble seems pretty enthused about chasing the finger waggles, but still, Ezra pulls out a piece of rope and tosses it to Cal.

"I am, yeah! I know it's not any less temporary than the bases I've help build but...feels different."