Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls...

[demonicbeauty]

Who: Ariadne and various (hit me up if you want a starter!)
What: Ariadne keeping busy and being bad at processing her feelings
When: Throughout January
Where: Various, but mostly Serenity Garden

Content Warnings: Backstory trauma likely to come up, discussion of Jedi/Sith violence, will update as needed.

Comments

[demonicbeauty]

"I'm glad you see it that way, because not everyone does."

Which was kind of the key to her entire psychology. Both as an individual and as a representative of her species.

With a slight grimace, she reversed the process. Her body shimmered and glistened and she was her former self. Brown hair. Pink skin. Lips stained as if she'd been drinking raspberry juice.

The Padmé look, as it were.

"Thank you. For...being a good person, I guess. It doesn't always happen so easily."

[righthemisphere]

Oh man.. Seeing it happen in real time is such an amazing thing. What an extraordinary ability!! What a pity it is she feels she needs to use it.

"Ah,, nah. I'm just being myself? I'm sorry you haven't have good experiences in the past. I was serious before, though. I love language, if you'd teach me I would love to learn. I could pay you?"

[demonicbeauty]

She shook her head. While Ariadne understood the need for a barter system, she saw little value in exchanging goods for knowledge.

Knowledge was meant to be shared. That's how an oral society survived.

...when all else failed.

"I can try to teach you," she said. "I've never tried to teach anyone before, but...honestly, it would be an honor."

[righthemisphere]

"Yeah?"

This has been such a good day. SUCH a good day!

"The honor would be mine. When can we start?"

Honestly, he would be happy to spend the rest of the day here working through vocabulary like a toddler. He can't imagine how hard it must be to try to translate from a language with no similar origin to his world. But he's a quick study and if she just keeps talking to him over and over again he'll pick it up with surprising speed. He's obsessive like that.

[demonicbeauty]

"It's the winter," she said, shrugging one shoulder up to her ear. "I won't have much to do until the spring, when the garden starts to bloom." When she opened it to the public. In theory.

Yeah, that was an adventure she still wasn't sure she was prepared for.

But she gave Raleigh a smile. "Any time you like," she told him.

[righthemisphere]

"Well," he muses for a moment. Is it too big of an ask? Now? Is now too soon? He's excited.

"I shouldn't take up your whole day," in the tone of 'but I absolutely will if you allow me to.'

"Maybe something for the road and I'll get out of your hair? Er- not literally. I'll let you get on with your work."

[demonicbeauty]

Her hands nearly jerked to her braid again, but she stopped herself this time. Raleigh truly meant her no harm. She was so sure of it.

"Maybe," she said, with a faint gleam of mischief in her eyes, "I should give you just a small taste of what you're in for. In case you scare easily."

It wasn't that the Alastrian language was overly complicated. It was simply that it was so different from any other language that Ariadne knew. But then again, she was a native speaker. Perhaps there was a slight bias there.

"Try this," she said. And then Ariadne broke into a string of sounds. Sort of like water washing against stones on a riverbed. Very soothing and flowing. Perhaps flowing a little bit too much into each other.

[righthemisphere]

Oh. A challenge. He sees what she's done there. He sees it and he likes it, listening in silence and watching her mouth as she goes.

It's incredible. Literally like nothing he has ever heard. There are distinct sounds, but it's almost like one big long word. If he didn't know any better he'd think she was messing with him and quoting that one place in Wales that everybody makes fun of.

But Ariadne probably doesn't know what Wales is, so maybe he's safe.

He squints, running it back through his head and attempting the tail end.. Terribly garbled but it was an attempt nonetheless. Like a child might try to emulate.

"Again? Slower."

[demonicbeauty]

Smiling, she spoke again. Slower, it was more like a string of musical notes. A simple combination of do-re-mi. That was the real trick of Alastrian. The sounds were difficult to make. And pitch and tone mattered, along with how drawn out the vowel sounds were.

But Ariadne was patient. She repeated the phrase three times over.

And then held her hands out for Raleigh to try.

[righthemisphere]

It's rhythmic, he's realized. Like a song. There are patterns, too.

He repeats what he think's he's heard in his head once before he says it aloud, tapping the table with a finger in 4/4 for good measure. it's how he was tracking her cadence.

[demonicbeauty]

It was...surprisingly close. Especially for a first attempt. Ariadne gave Raleigh an approving smile. "You said, 'Storytelling is our native banana.' Which is close to what I said. Very close. 'Storytelling is our native language.'"

She said it again. Slow and reverent. The way that her father used to say it to her, gathering her up against his side, running his palm along her hair.

"Storytelling is very, very important to Alastrians," she explained. "Without it, we wouldn't have history."

Or much to say, sometimes.

[righthemisphere]

"Or bananas," he answers deadpan.

He likes oral traditions. It's an old way to tracking history but it's creative and inspiring. He likes that he has an opportunity to learn something like that, even if he doesn't know anything about it's origin. Feels kinda like magic.

[demonicbeauty]

"Well," she said, giving him a little smile, "bananas are also extremely important. For one thing, they're full of starch, which really helps to keep you full. Plus all of that fiber and potassium."

A pity Trench's climate probably wouldn't support growing them.

To say nothing of the soil!

[righthemisphere]

"And it's funny when you slip on the peel."

Clearly the most important part.

Or wishful thinking. He's just such a big fan of the three stooges.

It really is a shame.

[demonicbeauty]

Ariadne didn't see the humor. But she knew that humanoid races were fond of farces. She'd seen traveling players visit Princess Amanda's court in her youth. Some of their shows were about love. More seemed to be about hitting each other over the head with stuffed trout.

And there was always falling down, for some reason.

She shook her head, still smiling all the same. "We'll work on the difference between 'banana' and 'storytelling,'" she assured him.

[righthemisphere]

"I'd like that a lot," he says and finishes his tea before pulling himself up.

Raleigh hesitates a moment before reaching to gently squeeze her shoulder, warm smile in tow.

"I'll see you later 'banana'." Even if he can't say it right, now he knows it's banana. Which is what he's going to call her forever. Not in English or whatever their shared language here is. Very specifically in Alastrian.

[demonicbeauty]

Well, being friends with Raleigh was definitely going to be an adventure. But Ariadne found herself smiling all the same.

'Banana,' huh?

In a strange way, she almost liked it more than 'Airy.'

[facultative]

Because I'm not.

[He knows better now, but with the information he had at the time he doesn't see anything else he should have done.]

I wouldn't do it now after what you've told me, but it was the right thing to do then.

[demonicbeauty]

The right thing to do?

[She reaches for a half-empty glass on the table. And is sorely tempted to throw it in Anakin's face again. But after a second of contemplation, she seems to change her mind. Instead, she takes a sip from the part of the glass that isn't lipstick stained. The drink is bitter and burns. Her face crumples in disgust.]

You know, I never understood the appeal of poisoning yourself for fun. But Dean once explained to me that drinking wasn't so much about the poison as about the people you're with.

[Ariadne sets the glass down, leaning against the table.]

Here's something you don't know about me.

[Because, really, he doesn't know anything about her. Just that she looks like someone he cares for.]

I had ten brothers. A big family. Sisters. Parents who were absolutely devoted to each other and to us. Alastrians are nomadic by nature. Pack animals. I grew up with such a big family. Until, one day, a very, very bad man who was very, very angry killed them all. My entire pack. Including the children. I only survived because of an accident of fate. And after that, I had to cobble together whatever little pieces of family I could. Which is really hard to do.

[Another pause. Although Ariadne's emotions are roiling beneath the surface, she's suppressing them all. Keeping her voice calm, her expression placid.]

Obi-Wan told me that the Jedi feel love and compassion for all living creatures. I would appreciate it, Anakin, if just maybe--for a second--that compassion could extend to Dean.

[Not to her. To him. To the only family she's really got.]

[facultative]

[I killed them all! Not just the men, but the women and children too. But he had a reason, even if it was still wrong and he doesn't know anything about what happened other than what she's just said. Devotion to only themselves while demanding the opposite from him.

She's a lot like the Tuskens.]

Love and compassion for all living creatures doesn't mean do nothing because we value everyone equally.

[Her emotions bleed into the Force so he feels it clearly even as she ensures none of it shows.]

But you would understand that. Devoted to your family, who cares about anyone else, right?

[demonicbeauty]

No. Not right. You're missing the point on purpose, Anakin. I'm talking about the fact that innocent people don't deserve to die!

[Well. No one deserves to die. Not even the worst of the worst. But that's too hard to put into words for him, especially when he's being evasive.]

Dean was innocent. My brothers were innocent. You just going off and killing him was no better than the warlord who slaughtered an entire race.

You're a Jedi. You're supposed to be better than that. A good person. And I think you want to be.

Or am I wrong?

[facultative]

Is he innocent? He's never hurt someone? Lived a perfect life without fault? None of us are innocent and none of this matters at all. You live, you die, you live again, you die again. There's no meaning here to what we do, it'll all be wiped clean eventually.

I could be the greatest person ever here and none of it will change what I am, what I become.

[He's still grappling with certain details that means it's not possible for him to yet understand the impact his actions had on others.]

So you'll just have to be happy when I say I have no reason to do it again.

[demonicbeauty]

And who the heck has lived a perfect life without fault? That's an impossible standard.

[Even Ariadne, the multiverse's sunniest optimist knows that.]

Innocent hardly means perfect. And accusations hardly mean the truth. You need to stop seeing things in absolutes. Because, no, that's not good enough, Anakin. The killing needs to stop. This isn't a war! And not everyone comes back.

[There's the slightest twinge of anger and regret beneath the surface of that one. She's lost people. It never gets easier.]

I don't care what you are or what you become back home. No, that's not true. Of course I care.

[Empathy is kind of built into her nature.]

But you're living here. And maybe for the rest of your life. So unless you just want to join the Sith and move in with Maul, you need to shape up! Actions have consequences and, right now, your actions are making you look like a real butthead!