Infinite paths and infinite possibilties

[ezra_of_lothal]

WHO: Ezra and you!
WHERE: The City, anywhere Ezra might run into someone he recognizes
WHAT: Ezra has some concerns and would like some answers
WHEN: May
WARNINGS: None yet


Waking up to a whole new life

When Ezra wakes up with two sets of memories in his head, he has no idea how that happened, but neither does he have immediate doubts about which of them existed first, either. It helps that while his connection to the Force feels...muted and narrowed, it’s not entirely gone.

Or rather, while he’s lying here in his bedroom, he can feel Ben awake, bright and early, as usual, puttering around the kitchen getting breakfast ready. And that’s when uncertainty begins to bubble up. He has an entire lifetime of memories of his big brother- steady and always there for him. His memories of Master Kenobi, while important, are comparatively very few.

It’s the contrast in emotions between his memories of Obi-wan and Ben that resettles the question in his mind. Ben was sad sometimes; who wants to be orphaned and responsible for their baby brother, as a young adult? But there’s no time Ezra can think of that Ben Bridger came close to the staggering grief and self-blame he’d seen Obi-wan Kenobi struggle to keep at bay.

No part of himself could possibly wish that kind of pain onto Ben, of that Ezra is sure. So it can’t be something he’d made up just in his own mind. The Jedi, the Empire, Lothal, everything that followed from that, that was real. With that truth fixed in his mind, Ezra gets up to meet the day.

He needs a lot more information before deciding what to do about whatever this is that’s going on. First things first, test other parts of his connection to the Force. It doesn’t take long to work out that telekinesis is a no-go. Maybe all he can do is sense mental presences a little? Well, it’s something.

But for now, there’s breakfast.

At school and after

His plan at school is mostly to watch and listen. Not so much to pay attention to class but to see if there’s any discrepancy between these ‘new’ memories and what’s actually going on around him. Mr Riley’s the only person he can think of that he’d run across at school that matches up to his memories of the residents of Temba. And that’s weird, because it’s not like he’s ever really had a conversation with either version of the man.

After school, he heads to the city library, keeping his eyes open for familiar faces as he goes. Ostensibly, he’s heading that way to find sources for his senior term paper in history, but really he’s just doing more of the comparing past events to his memories. Some of that is looking at newspaper articles and some of it is checking social media.

He should really figure out how to build a radio scanner while he’s at it. Ooh, and make that count for his science fair project somehow!

Cutting classes/wildcard

Waiting and watching and thinking is just bringing more and more questions, and very few answers. Sticking to the routine of Ezra Bridger, ordinary high school student, isn’t getting him very far.

He has noticed some of the heroes, villains, and other more public figures of the City look familiar. Actually getting himself in the position to talk to some of them may require skipping some classes and otherwise ducking his mundane responsibilities.

He can just picture the worried and disappointed look Ben is going to give him.

Master Kenobi and his other fellow Jedi would understand, he tells himself. There’s too much that’s unknown, too much potential for very real danger, for him to keep playing it safe.

Comments

Cutting class

[mrsklover]

It's been a rough day. Burglaries and long lines at the bank and then a date and then two hours at the DMV? Richie is tired. He's just about ready for the day to end, now, but he still has a laundry list of things to get to. All in the life of the mildly heroic, he supposes.

But first, coffee.

He uses his little paper pad to order himself a frappachino from Starbucks and can't help but look at the name for a bit once he's outside. Starbucks....Starbucks.... Star...ducks? Why did that sound familiar?

He is staring at the label as he walks which is not useful for his thirst nor for his safety as he collides right into a kid on the sidewalk.

"Ack! Sorry," he says before he can help himself. Hopefully that doesn't put the guy into a nap.

After School Special

[kyley_b]

It's really hard to miss Kyle. It's all the red hair - an easy signpost to pick him out of any crowd. The crowd in question this time is the pedestrian flow of traffic; office drones moving from the hive to catch the bus or walk back home. Kyle is dressed much, much nicer than he ever was on Agra 10, carrying a briefcase and looking for all the world like he belongs in this city.

He stops at a red light, checking his phone quickly as he waits.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra shakes himself to both regain his balance and shed the strange wave of drowsiness, before he squints at the guy who just collided with him.

He doesn't really know the man, but Ezra remembers him from town meeting, and knows his name from regularly checking the directory of he rows on the Agrii supplied communicators.

"...Tozier?" he tests.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Kyle is indeed easy to spot and Ezra cuts through the foot traffic to slide up next to the familiar face and lean to give him a closer once over.

"Please tell me your name is Kyle," he says, in a rush.

Obi-wan is, after all, Ben here, so clearly there are other options, name wise.

[mrsklover]

Richie pauses and looks at the kid with a suspicious expression. He nods instead of risking more words and making him pass out. How did he know his last name? Richie was sure they hadn't met before, right?

He pulls out his pad of paper and pen, scribbling something down.

Do you know me?

[ezra_of_lothal]

Huh. Why write it down? Well, Ezra just rolls with it for the moment.

"Kinda?" he offers. "You came to the community meeting I called." After a beat of silence he adds, to check for a reaction. "In Temba."

Cutter cutter peanut butter (le~t's go midmay for this)

[deal_me_in]

After his stunt with the fiery 'HE ROW' message Cayde had laid low for a little. Wouldn't do him much good to get arrested or something when he was trying to find people, and it wasn't like robots were very common around here, aside from anything Stark-made. It isn't a routine he sticks with for long, as the Exo was never one for waiting on the sidelines. Sitting at Echo's apartment only gave him more time to think about things, and obviously it wasn't solving anything.

So how often does one see a robot in a hooded jacket walking along with a box of donuts under one arm? Cayde heads along towards the edge of a park, commandeering one of the little spring-mounted horses in the playground so he can munch on his freshly glazed acquisition while perusing a newspaper.

excellent

[ezra_of_lothal]

Cayde is another being Ezra hasn't had a chance to spend much time with yet, but he sure is distinctive. The teen doesn't waste time crossing the park to walk right up to him.

"...Cayde?" he asks.

[deal_me_in]

The Exo's head jerks up at that, glowing optics blinking. He knows the face. He popped up on the network. He's sure Obi-Wan mentioned him. What was his name? Ephraim? Edward?

The springy horse goes bouncing around a bit as he quickly dismounts, nearly dropping his box of donuts in the process. He tosses it on a nearby bench along with the newspaper as he closes the distance between himself and the teenager, dropping metal hands onto his shoulders.

"-oh man I'm having a Banshee moment, is it Ethan? Just- never mind, but please tell me you remember Temba."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"It's Ezra. Both Temba and here, Ezra Bridger," he says, spreading his hands and talking rapidly.

"And no, not everyone does have the same name here. My brother's name is Ben Bridger. Except that's not his name; he's Obi-wan Kenobi." He gestures downward, definitively. "I know it is. I knew him before I even got to Temba. But I remember him being my brother Ben who I've known my whole life, too."

He sighs out, heavily, slumping against Cayde's hands a little in relief that finally, someone one else actually remembers. "It's pretty confusing."

[deal_me_in]

"Ezra! I was close!" No, not really, but he doesn't care because he's finally found another person operating on the same wavelength aside from Lark.

"Yeah, kinda noticed with the name things- wait, your brother? That's not...that wasn't thing before all this?" He shakes his head. Confusing is an understatement. Someone had went through a lot of trouble to piece everything together like this. "You remember a whole different life...but can you remember the name of this city?"

Not that it's important, not when Ezra clearly is aware of Temba. That much is a relief in itself. The Exo's been getting a little antsier the longer things have stretched, so he can't help himself as he suddenly moves to wrap Ezra up in a hug.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ok, hugs. He very much does not mind a hug, at this point. Even the robot part doesn't feel particularly strange to him, because he's hugged people in armor before.

"Obi-wan and I agreed that we're family, but it's not - I've never had a brother before," he tries to explain, without backing out of the hug quite yet. "In any sense." He can't imagine Obi-wan is eager to call anyone his brother again, not after that Ezra saw of the horrible duel with Anakin on Mustafar.

But something about this place had picked up on the family part and woven in into the narrative.

"Before being here, in the City." He pauses and pulls back. "That is weird, isn't it? And that in this life memories, I can't remember ever leaving it, or what's beyond it?"

[deal_me_in]

No one usually takes him seriously when he offers hugs. At this particular moment he's not sure whether it's because he needs it or Ezra seems to, but the kid doesn't break away immediately so he feels better for it.

Cayde lets him go when Ezra finally does pull away, frowning thoughtfully. "It's like someone's done a complete rewrite of things, fitting everyone into a part. Some of it works out better than others, and it passes at a glance but when you really try to scrutinize some parts you can see the edges unraveling." He doesn't like it one bit.

"So far I've only found one other person who wasn't drawn into things. She claims it's some kind of magic doing all this, and her own magic's what kept her from buying into it. Me, I dunno, maybe I'm just complicated, but there are times when I can just feel like something's trying to settle me in, I remember...terms and how to use things that pff, I shouldn't know at all but they're commonplace here."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"I don't know why I remember and Ben seems to only remember being Ben," Ezra admits. "I'd expect Master Kenobi would be way better than me at defending his mind against something trying to alter it."

He hesitates. "I've had the thought that there might be an element of wanting to forget or be someone else? Oh! Other thing - what little bit of my abilities with the Force I can still use...uh, to me just about all of this place feels like Billy and his magic. Most of the people, even. They feel like a less sad version of that storm he accidentally made when got back from Coruscant and his fiancé didn't come back with us."

[kyley_b]

Kyle blinks. "Uh, yeah," he says. "Broflovski." He searches his memory for any idea who this young man might be and comes up short. Still, he smiles. "I'm sorry, are you one of the interns? Oh shit, did I forget to get that send the files for that intellectual property suit?" He's already half turning from the sidewalk, apparently ready to jog back to the office

[deal_me_in]

"Wanting to forget, huh..." the Exo muses. That's exactly what he doesn't want to do. For better or worse, his experiences are his. It's the loss that he doesn't want to deal with, and it's been eating at him in a new way here, what with his people still around but having no idea who he is.

"Wait, Billy? You can feel that?" He frowns again. "I...I ran into Billy pretty early on when all this came up. He had absolutely no idea who I was and was going off like he's been here forever too."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"It feels like Billy to me," he repeats. He's willing to listen to other ideas.

"Maybe someone is using him, somehow? Or - he and I talked about Teddy a little, but I don't exactly know Billy well. Has he been, um, spiraling since we got back to Temba? Maybe he's unhappy enough he did this without meaning to?"

[ezra_of_lothal]

Last name sound right, too. That seems like a good sign. On the other hand -

"You don't recognize me," Ezra says with a sigh. "No, I'm in high school. Not an intern. I'm Ezra Bridger and...you said you'd teach me basketball."

It's worth a try he figures, to see if he jobs anything at all.

[deal_me_in]

Cayde winces a little a mention of Teddy. He'd liked the kid. And while he knew that some of the people around Temba were closer to each other than others, he hadn't known just how close Billy and Teddy were.

"I'm not saying you're wrong- I'm just...not sure where to go with that. But if someone's using him, who could..." He shakes his head. "I mean, we have an obvious go-to if we want to bring Atroma into the mess but from what I've heard they prefer watching and seeing what happens. Circling back to Billy though..."

He folds his arms, drumming his fingers on them as he thinks. "Kid's got some weird sort of magic, right? I don't know him that well either, but he's done some crazy things with it before. You know he made an entire space for a spring festival back over in Temba once? Long before a lotta you were here, but just one day, bam, there's like...groves of trees with puffy pink flowers everywhere and an entire carnival ground! Wasn't there forever but you don't just casually snap your fingers and make stuff like that happen, you know?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle stops, looking at Ezra curiously. "Oh. I did?" He tries to remember the last time he'd have been anywhere a high schooler might have frequented and can only come up with the YMCA - he has a gym membership there. Maybe they'd shot a few baskets together?

"Jeez, I'm awful sorry, I don't really remember," he admits. "But I mean, if you're gonna be at the Y tomorrow I could take a bit of time."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"Yeah, I don't know a lot about his powers. But if he made an entire fair grounds just for fun, and a storm without consciously trying - making a city because he was forced to, or desperate, or thought he had some other really good reason...doesn't seem like that much of a stretch?"

He rubs his jaw. "Can you tell if he has any kinds of powers here?"

[mrsklover]

Temba. That's the second time he's heard that. Which means this kid is either in on a pretty elaborate prank with Cayde or it's all true and he just found another kidnapped person.

You remember Temba? And the ruined planet place?

He forgot the name. Something with numbers.

[deal_me_in]

"Not really. Last time I saw him I was grabbing him out of the path of a car," Cayde says. "And after he started looking at me funny when I said I knew him I decided to back off."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra lights up. "Agra-10. Yes! You do rememeber?"

[ezra_of_lothal]

That sounds like a way better venue for trying to figure what Kyle does and doesn't remember than a street corner, actually.

"That...would be perfect, actually. If you don't mind?" He gives Kyle a sunny smile.