( closed ) imperial march plays?

[facultative]

Who: Anakin Skywalker (facultative) and various
What: Anakin wakes up from his month long nap
When: Throughout October
Where: Around

Content Warnings: n/a

[Closed starters in the comments. Feel free to hit me up if you want to do something.]

Comments

obi-wan

[facultative]

[There's no great fanfare when Anakin comes to, no shift in the Force. One moment the cocoon is still, the next a gloved hand punches through and he drags himself out of the quickly drying membrane. But once free he continues to lay on the floor seemingly regretting waking up in the first place.

He should get up, but he doesn't.]

ezra

[facultative]

[Anakin's emotions are almost palpable as he fails to hold in the sudden pain that lances through him. Where he'd normally shove his fear and anger down as far as he could get it, it now lingers as he curls into himself. He doesn't know what brought this on, only that he's imagining this is what it might feel to be burned alive.

It's what he deserved after all.

The weight of his emotions quickly grow oppressive as it's left to fester unchecked and from there it starts to expand out from his room and then to the rest of the house.]

[jedies]

[ obi-wan had been close by, obviously. he wanted to be there, not because he feared the worse, but because he knew anakin would have wanted him there. and obi-wan has had enough cocoon experiences now to understand how disorienting and confusing it may seem at first.

gently, he drapes his cloak over anakin's shoulders. ]

[facultative]

[He doesn't look up as Obi-Wan makes his presence known.]

You're not worried I've become him?

[jedies]

[ ah. gently, obi-wan lays his hand on top of anakin's head. ]

No. I already know in my heart that you've surpassed him.

[facultative]

[They know each other well enough that Anakin can immediately note the difference in his voice. He sits up and realises something has changed. It's not just in the increasing grey in his hair or the deepening lines in his face, it's also in the slope of his shoulders lacking the weight of his prior grief.]

How long...?

[Obi-Wan was always the best Jedi, he shouldn't have been surprised that he's been able to move on. Not at all like Anakin who still quakes in remembrance that the one person he had always believed would be there for him had taken a weapon to him and left him to burn.]

[jedies]

[ obi-wan pauses momentarily. ]

Ten years.

[facultative]

Oh.

[Ten years is a long time. It's almost the same number of years he's known Obi-Wan for. He's barely been in Obi-Wan's life.]

Is... [He wants to ask about Padmé and even knowing that Obi-Wan probably doesn't care any more isn't enough to make him bring up the topic.

Instead he looks down and clenches the blanket.]

...That's a long time.

[jedies]

[ gently. ]

It does not feel very long to me. I was lucky to wake up before you.

[facultative]

[Sometimes it feels like his life is nothing but upheavals.]

What do you mean?

[jedies]

I was in a cocoon a little while after you went. For me, ten years passed for me before I woke here, three days later.

[facultative]

[His eyes sting in relief that he hasn't in fact been forced to watch the world move on while he stands by the sidelines even though the ache that Obi-Wan did remains.]

I thought-- [He brings a hand to cover his face while he tries to keep his composure.]

But why did you?

[jedies]

Why did I what, Anakin?

[facultative]

Everything! You keep leaving me behind and I'm stuck here. I can't move on-- I can't do anything.

I don't want to become like Qui-Gon to you.

[jedies]

[ ah. obi-wan sighs for a moment. ]

I haven't left you behind, Anakin. I'm here because I still believe you can.

[facultative]

Then why have you already replaced me?

[jedies]

[ what. ]

Replaced you?

[facultative]

You said it's been ten years, how could you have not? You're happier now and even back then other people were helping more.

All I ever did was cause you more pain. [He drops his voice to a whisper.] So much you left me to die.

[The worst part is knowing Obi-Wan was right to do that.]

[jedies]

[ ah. there's a lengthy pause at first before obi-wan speaks up. ]

Anakin, we are both here because we're not simply the people we were in the past. I am not just that Obi-Wan just like you're no longer that Anakin. We've come far and made different decisions as well.

Do you want to cause me pain?

kylo ren

[facultative]

[His wife was gone. Anakin feels numb to the realisation, he thinks he should feel something, but his emotions feel like they're carefully pressed into stasis just like his entire existence in Trench. He goes through the movements of his day to day life, focusing solely on the minutiae.

It's at least a week of this before he thinks about who else knows. He thinks they all should, the rest of his family were better at keeping in touch than he was except his mind snags on one face. The grandchild who took after him far too much.

He doesn't know where Kylo lives, but Anakin's a vergence in the Force and his descendents all had his power. If he focuses he can somewhat locate each of them, from Luke's bright warmth to Anakin Jr's peaceful signature. He looks for the dark instead, shaking off the temptation that will likely never leave him, but what he finds is surprising. The dark layers over everything, but still beneath it there's a light that refuses to be extinguished. Not too much like him then and for that Anakin is grateful.]

There's something you need to know.

[When he finally manages to track him down, he's direct. Small talk has never been his forte.]

[facultative]

I've never wanted to.

[It was true even at his worst.]

[jedies]

I know. And I believe you.

Re: ezra

[ezra_of_lothal]

[He wasn't there when Anakin first awoke from the cacoon. When he'd come home to Anakin up and, well, not in a black life support suite or feeling like the ice cold of the Dark...

He's simply slowly sighed out in relief and tried to let go of all those worries that had lived in his chest for weeks.

But he has been keeping a tendril of his attention on how Anakin feels, in the Force, too long to entirely miss that lance of pain, tangled up in emotion.

A few quick steps from his own room, and he calls out, from the hallway-]

Anakin? What's wrong?

[facultative]

But it doesn't change that I have.

And I'm only here because I thought I could find something that could change things.

[Even when he had good intentions it didn't work out and now that he chose this due to his selfishness... it felt pointless.]

[jedies]

You can still change things for yourself here. And there still may be hope for that.