[video;] un: gen.skywalker

[ex_forcechoke292]

First off, whoever built these buckets of bolts in the hangar bay need to be let go. This is what happens when you let factories churn out garbage in large numbers: who's quality checking?

[He is. He's been here all of a few days, and he's already sequestered in the hangar, lamenting (loudly) over the sad state of automated affairs. This is where the video starts: he has the communicator propped up a short distance away as he's digging into the mechanics of one of the robots that had glitched out and come to a jerking halt with a wrench still clenched in its hand.

He mutters something about matrices before finally looking back up. This isn't the real point behind the message, regardless of how distracted he currently seems.]

Sad state of mechanical affairs aside, I have a question. [He sounds suddenly hesitant, as if he honestly doesn't want to ask it at all. He even rolls his shoulders back uncomfortably, before taking a long, deliberate breath.] I'm looking for a sparring partner. Swordsmanship proficiency if I can find it.

[Hoping against hope, but he doesn't sound too hopeful at all. As far as he knows, those who can really challenge him in this area are all back home, and neither side of that equation has a way to get back to the other... yet.]

Might as well make the most of being stuck out here, anyway.

Comments

video; un: capt andor

[ouzel]

Those droids might belong to someone, you know.

[ Cassian's accent is thick and his squinting ability is mighty. ]

Sparring, however, I can do. Haven't had much chance to work with swords, though.

[ex_forcechoke292]

If they're broken, they're not doing anyone any good, are they?

[It's a fair question. As far as he can tell, they're simply part of the crew, in which case it's absolutely a favor. And it makes more sense than anything else does.]

I'm not sure I've ever seen droids this mindless. Even the Seps had better taste.

[He shrugs, however, and the droid--or whatever this excuse for one is--it pushed out of sight, and (for the moment) out of mind.]

It did feel like a longshot. Expertise?

[Anakin, not everyone in the galaxy is classically trained in multiple forms of combat.]

video; un: rogue leader

[taggingwomprats]

[ OK, your video is great and everything, but Luke zeroes in on the username. There's something tugging at the edge of his perception, but he can't quite place it. ]

Your name is Skywalker?

[ex_forcechoke292]

General, technically.

[It's said so flippantly that he hardly sounds like one. But the recognition is nothing new, and despite the undercurrent of strange feeling--this whole situation is strange, this isn't any different--any inkling that this is anything otherwise is brushed completely aside. The only thing he understands from the exchange is that someone comes from his general galactic vicinity.

There's a smirk that follows.]

But between you and me, just Anakin is fine.

[taggingwomprats]

[ Luke's reaction is almost instant. His eyes widen and he looks for all the world like someone trying to contain something that's already broken free. There's a frantic energy to him that seems barely contained as he stares hard at the xommunicator. Shock, disbelief, exuberance. ]

Anakin Skywalker. The Anakin Skywalker. No, that's - this is impossible. Did you - you studied under Ben Kenobi, right?

[ouzel]

[ "Even the Seps had better taste" has Cassian raising his eyebrows slightly but ok.

Okay. ]

Sharpshooting, actually.

But, I have been gently [ His eyes cut to someone off-screen. ] Reminded that I am recovering from a concussion and I shouldn't be taking on new sparring partners just yet.

Welcome to Eluvio anyway. Where did you study?

[ex_forcechoke292]

[And honestly? It's not the first time he's gotten that reaction. Or at least something similar. There should be red flags here. The Force screaming for attention. Anything. But where everything is baseline alarming, nothing stands out as special.

Well, almost nothing. This is all seemingly a normal reaction, at least in his time where peacekeepers turned into military leaders and heroes. Right up until Luke gets to that name.]

Ben Kenobi?

[What kind of backwater tabloid...]

You're half right. I think.

[taggingwomprats]

Yeah, Old Ben-

[ Luke cuts himself off and takes a rreath. His father is supposed to be dead. How is he supposes to know who he is? Maybe Ben still went by Obi-Wan. ]

Uh, I guess he still used Obi-Wan, right?

[ This guy can't be that much older than Lyle himself. How does he even talk to him about having a son, let alone the fact that he is that son?

There are alarm bells starting to scream in his head.

Luke takes a deep breath. ]

He told me a little bit about you.

[ex_forcechoke292]

The Temple on Coruscant.

[Said as if that is completely normal. Meanwhile he's peering at the feed, watching that reaction. It feels like something he'd say at Padmé's behest, or similarly "gentle" correction. Familiar enough, at least, that he doesn't question it. The story behind it, however--]

How did it happen? The concussion.

[ouzel]

The Jedi Temple?

[ So this is another one of those maybe from the past, maybe from the future sort of arrangements? Cassian squints even more. ]

There was a mission on an orbiting planet.

[ex_forcechoke292]

["Still used"? Anakin brow furrows and he gives out a short laugh borne purely of awkward tension. Alright, so maybe this isn't a standard reaction after all.]

He's only ever used Obi-Wan. "Master Kenobi" if he's feeling particularly cross, perhaps. [Which in Anakin's case is frequently, but he gives the title more often than it's asked for anymore, so while that may have once been the case, it's all Anakin's own doing now that the title is only necessary upon formal occasion. He honestly isn't even sure where "Ben" comes from. Obi-Wan has never been the type for nicknames, not in the 13 years he's known him.

But that last part has him even more confused than the foreign name.]

He did, did he?

[It's not that it's entirely implausible. Obi-Wan talks about him to quite a few people--too many to properly trust when it's never reciprocated--but details are rarely left to acquaintances, and he knows he's never met this man before.

In short: he has a bad feeling about this.]

[taggingwomprats]

[ There are far too many emotions swirling around inside his head right now. Hope, excitement, dread, disbelief. He's never even seen a hologram of his father. How does he know this is the right man? Then again, how common is the name "Anakin Skywalker"? Luke glances away from the communicator, brow furrowed, then back. ]

He said you were a great pilot. A powerful warrior. That you'd fought with him in the Clone Wars.

[ Which wasn't much to go on, but better than a navigator on a spice freighter. ]

Ah -- I'm Luke. Luke Skywalker.

[ex_forcechoke292]

The same. Is there another I should know about? [The question solidifies that "Captain Andor" here is definitely from home, but beyond that, he's drawing a blank on specifics. It's not particularly salient: there's a whole galaxy back there that he's still never seen, and people he'll never meet. But here in this situation? The "coincidence," if it can be called that, is strange. Did these anomalies favor their neck of the universe somehow?

Somehow, he feels that isn't a question for here and now. Especially not with a concussed man he's spent the better part of a conversation inadvertently antagonizing.]

That's quite the detailed field report, Captain Andor.

video | un: kaytuesso

[k_2so]

[... excuse you. Are you cleared to dissemble the robotics around here? Kay stares at the screen for a long moment before speaking, in a mildly offended tone:]

Is the sad state of mechanical affairs part of your assigned job here? Not that you are wrong. Nothing here in the hanger appears to be worth ones time.

[ouzel]

There were several, as far I know, but we are far from home.

[ Well. That doesn't go far to de-antagonize and Cassian is half a second from saying 'you're not my general, excuse you' only more polite when he decides it's not worth it.

Besides, these newcomers need to know what they were getting into. ]

There was a request for volunteers to obtain a Relic while the planet Oros was in the middle of a civil war. We did what we were tasked with, and as a result, left the planet open to destruction.

Both species that called it home have been wiped out, with the exception of those that were evacuated here.

[ex_forcechoke292]

[He wants to ask why all of these details are in the past tense. Or why Obi-Wan Kenobi is openly admitting he's a great pilot--and he is, thank you--when all he ever hears are endless lectures to the contrary, however pedantic. He wants to press upon the most important point that the Clone Wars aren't over, and sometimes it feels like they never will be, but...

Suddenly it's nowhere near the most important or pressing question on his mind.

For a long moment, he simply stares at the feed, blinking in disbelief, like he's trying to play back a holo in his mind that shouldn't exist. The shocking sort that reveals too much too quickly, and settles uncomfortably in the stomach until nothing is settled at all. Then follows the several half starts at a question, some kind of rebuttal--hells, he'd settle for a response at all, if the words would form.]

Skywalker.

[His own name has never felt so strange rolling off of his tongue; it's as if he's learning how to say it all over again. It's not a common name. He knows it isn't. His mother never talked of other family, only giving him pained glances when he'd asked on the two whole occasions he'd postured it (the first time had been unthinking, and she'd looked so sad that it took years to even try broaching it again). But she had always been adamant on the name. She could have taken it for herself--an act not uncommon for people of their former station--and he wouldn't have known better.

As far as he's ever known, there have been two.

Padmé is a distant consideration first, until the implication clicks, and it's then that Anakin actually gapes. She would have told him. Said something. They'd agreed to hide their relationship from the galaxy, but never from one another.

"Impossible" now sounds so much closer to logical.]

...How?

[It's the only other word he can find. The only one that makes sense to ask when the implication facing him makes...honestly less sense than an anomaly in the stars that keeps them all from finding their way back home.]

[ex_forcechoke292]

I work in the hangar.

[Not technically, Kay, no. But that technicality is conveniently brushed aside. If he's going to be down here dealing with cargo, it can't hurt to run simple routine maintenance when...honestly, he hasn't seen machines in shape this poor in years.]

It's not like I'm giving them weapons and half a brain. And no one else seems to be too worried about them.

[k_2so]

[...]

[Going to be honest here. That answer was vague and unconvincing, but also good enough for him. Mostly because he didn't care so much about the mindless robots that do so little compared to him.]

Maybe you should. They could use half a brain at least...

[ex_forcechoke292]

[For a moment, he isn't sure what to say. To say he'd expected something far more lighthearted would be accurate, yes, but he does maintain enough decorum that the mood and attitude drop quickly. (He's young and reckless, but he isn't cruel enough to keep pushing a sore point like this).

The news settles with obvious discomfort.]

...By us, or each other?

[He knows he could parse through the network's backlogs to try to piece some semblance of events together, but a first-hand account is far more direct.]

[ouzel]

By a so-far unknown fourth party.

Or if they are known, then those who run this ship aren't telling. Which seems to be a theme.

[ex_forcechoke292]

[Did that excuse honestly just work?]

Droid personalities are tricky if they're not installed at the right time...and I'm not sure I have the parts to--

[He pauses. It's an intriguing idea, but one where the luster has worn off with years of bad experience. A single droid as a pet project is one thing. Routine maintenance doesn't even register real consideration. But adding a personality after the fact?]

I'm not sure I'm ready for whatever stimulating conversations these things would strike up.

[k_2so]

[It worked in a way. Mostly because his give-a-damn is very small]

Oh yes. That's what we need around here. More tricky droid personalities. Turn off a few behavioral inhibitors and let's see where that gets us. Not that I think the technology here would have behavioral inhibitors or even self learning programming, but it would be something to do when you're bored.

[..... there is a lot of flat toned sass there. Mostly because he thinks it's a TERRIBLE idea. Well, mostly. He's never really gotten along with other droids well. He finds them all dull and single minded.]

[ex_forcechoke292]

Sounds more like back home by the minute.

[Even an in with the Chancellor doesn't get him half as much information as he'd like. Politicians make backroom deals almost constantly anymore, and they're always left to clean the mess up. The Jedi Council gives marching orders, and he follows in some kind of desperate hope that someday they'll figure out they actually need him. However uncomfortable the explanation is, the hidden pulled strings don't seem to change, even if the setting and the players have.

He grimaces.]

Let me guess. Not many survived?

["Wiped out" sounds as conclusive as it gets, but it begs to be asked anyway.]

[ex_forcechoke292]

[Anakin laughs. It's a rare sound anymore, but even he can't stay stoic in the face of that much sarcasm.]

No, they're definitely not that smart. Nothing compared to you, huh?

[It's not the first time he's seen egoism in a droid. But even Artoo with filters off isn't that cutting.]

What are you programmed for, anyway? Somehow, I assume it's not diplomacy.

[k_2so]

[He laughed. Interesting. Half the time he's faced with a scowl at least. Also, was the comment of being 'smart as you' sarcasm or compliment. He's take it as both. It was easier that way.]

[His head drew back and up, as if standing taller as he spoke.]

If I were built for diplomacy we would no doubt be in the middle of a war. I am programmed for... other duties as assigned. [vague...] I am a KX-series security droid originally built for the Galactic Empire. I have been reprogrammed to serve my Captain and the Alliance however, so if you are Imperial in nature, please keep in mind I will not answer to any commands given.

[a pause] And if you are not, please do not attempt to get into my systems like you appear to have done with those before you. It does not seem... effective.