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

Ariadne knelt down, holding out her hand for Magnet to sniff to his heart's content. Aside from horses, she was pretty good with animals. It was just a matter of knowing the right way to approach them. Palm up was always best. It exposed the veins in the wrist, signaling vulnerability. Which usually signaled no threat.

If only humanoids worked on the same basic instincts. They would be so much easier to understand!

For example, Ariadne wondered if it was polite or rude to ask someone their blood type. She, of course, had nothing to hide. But in some places, it was polite to ask a lady her age whereas in others, it was considered the height of social faux pas.

Humanoids. So odd.

"No," she said, looking up at him with her kind, gray eyes. "I don't think so. I think I'm what they call a 'Warmblood?'"

She nearly laughed and reminded him that trees couldn't talk. But at the last moment, she remembered: Fern could talk to trees. Not in the same way that you would talk to a person. But in a way that...somehow made sense.

To him.

She'd asked him to check in on her trees. They were worried. Worried about her. About her loneliness, about her solitude.

Maybe she should have asked him if trees had names. Then again, he had used the names she'd picked so...probably not?

"I came up with them," she said, folding her hands behind her back. "Since I talk to the so much, I figured it was only fair to call them by names."

Ezra nods.

"I promise I'm not making fun," he tries to figure out how to explain.

"Stop me if someone's told you this already but, Jedi - or any Force sensitive from my galaxy, really - there are some skills most any of us can learn. But are some that individuals have a particular, um, affinity for? I connect pretty easily to animals. They don't usually use actual words to communicate back, but images. Impressions. Feelings."

She tilted her head to one side, smiling slightly as Ezra explained his affinity with animals. "I haven't heard that before," she admitted. But it made a certain kind of sense. Animals were living things, after all.

Why shouldn't the Force be connected with them as well?

Ariadne moved along the perimeter of the orchard, glancing back at Ezra, hoping that he liked her trees. "So what's your Omen, then? Some sort of incredible animal?"

She only gets to keep that palm up for so long before a muzzle is nosing into it with the insistence that the pets commence - Magnet's rather relentless in his need for attention. Manabu gives the dog a slightly pained look before his focus shifts back to the woman, his brow still knit with a little concern as she answers.

"A-aa...so. I mean--are you okay? It's gotta be awfully cold." That's how snow works, right? He has no sense for the temperature shifts this season; he's always cold until he's not, and even then, it's always just fleeting flashes and flushes - little lightning strikes of heat that come and go as his blood dictates.

She was only too happy to pet the Omen. It had been a good, long while since she'd last seen a dog. She'd forgotten how friendly they were. Especially the ones that lived close to humanoids.

So yes, Magnet got plenty of pets.

But Ariadne gave the stranger a kind smile. "Oh, it's freezing," she agreed. "But I trust my grip better without boots, when it comes to keeping balance. And I don't plan to stay outside long enough for frostbite." She bowed her head. "Would you like to come inside?"

"She's, uh, a cat," Ezra admits, a little sheepishly. "White loth cat." He makes a gesture to demonstrate the size, which is a little bigger than most house cats, but not by much.

He shakes his head. "It makes sense. There was a cat like that back on my homeworld that turned up a few times, when I needed to be pointed in the right direction."

Then he glances around. "Introduce me to the rest of the grove? And what's your Omen?"

Well, jeez! Just making small talk while a lady's freezing...way to go, Yuuki!

"Aa, su-sure! Yeah, let's do that!" He's all too eager to move again, hastening to open the door for her, doing a doubletake at his omen.

"Magnet, come on! At least let her not freeze her fingers off!"

What an interesting man. Ariadne really didn't know what to make of him. But she sensed a kindness that she liked.

Then again, Ariadne believed everyone was kind. At least until proven otherwise.

With a small smile and bob of her head, she walked into the shop.

The inside was a giant great room, with smooth and polished hardwood floors. There were a few full-wall windows on the far side. And counters and tables all across the room, covered in dried herbs and potted plants. The whole place smelled of spring. Even in the dead of winter.

"Welcome to the Serenity Garden...herb shop, I guess?" That didn't feel like the right name, but she didn't have anything better yet.

Ariadne thought she could sense some embarrassment. But she smiled warmly. Cats might be domestic animals, but they were much more clever than most humanoids realized. She actually had quite a lot of respect for cats. Felt some kindship, even. The way they could leap from branch to branch. Just like she did as a little girl.

Walking forward, she started pointing around to the different trees. "Well, the plum tree over there is named 'Toby.' And the cinnamon tree is 'Araceli.' That one over there? That's an orange tree. I named it 'Morgan.' The lemon tree is 'Dagmar.' Mostly because lemons are sour fruits and I once knew a courtier named Dagmar who was also kind of sour."

She had the grace to look a little embarrassed about that.

It was...kind of cruel.

Ezra snickers.

"I'm sure a perfect Jedi would say something pithy about revenge here. But it's not exactly like they're here to have their feelings hurt, are they?"

"I'd change the name, if she were here," Ariadne replied, walking over to give her lemon tree a reassuring pat. She wanted it to know that she loved it just as much as all of the others. "But the odds of me ever seeing anyone from home feel...small."

Not impossible. She couldn't rule it out. And even if she had all the information, she wouldn't.

It just...wasn't something she was going to count on.

"You're lucky, you know," she said, walking back over to him. "There are people from your world here. And whether you like them or dislike the or don't even know them, at least they understand you in a way that no one else could."

"I know I'm lucky," Ezra says, earnestly

"Both here and Temba - where I was for a while before, there were people from my galaxy. Some of them very easy to love. There were even a few Jedi. But I made some good friends with people from other places, and I'll miss them too."

Lucky. But also kind of unlucky. The downside of having a big group of friends--from home or the multiverse--meant that you had many more people to lose when the multiverse...did its multiverse-y thing.

Ariadne, though, wasn't really made to be a pessimist. It fit her funny. Like a gown that had been made for someone else.

"I'd love to hear about them," she said. "If...if it's not too painful or anything."

"The people from my galaxy, or from other places, or?" he checks.

"The thing that hurts the most are the people I know a version of them, but they don't know me. And what's really weird is Kyle, who's from Earth, does remember meeting me in Temba. I think maybe Obi-wan and Luke are from...earlier point in time?"

He slowly nods. "Obi-wan is definitely from earlier. He doesn't look much younger from the last time I saw him, but he feels different."

"He seems like an old man to me," she said. "But that might be because he always seems a little cranky." Probably Anakin's fault. At least, most of the time.

Although there was still that nagging bias, rooted in the back of her mind, that refused to accept his 'no attachments' rule.

It just didn't make sense. As hard as she tried to make sense out of it.

Ariadne shook her head. "That was unkind of me. I shouldn't have said it."

"Well. He can be a little stiff," Ezra admits, but with obvious affection.

"'Something of a relic they don't understand' I think is what...Ben. I'm just gonna call the older versions of Obi-wan I've met Ben. Anyway, he said that about himself, once."

"Well, I certainly don't understand him," she admitted, sucking in some cold air, between her teeth. "And I'm sure he doesn't understand me. So we're the same, in that sense."

Which was a funny thing to admit. To be opposites and yet the same.

Perhaps that's what the Force was really meant to be. She didn't know. She'd asked him for lessons but then...

Well. Then Anakin happened. And Ariadne wasn't sure she could face either of them right now.

"Can I ask?" Ezra tries hesitantly.

"Is it just him being confusing when he's deflecting or talking in circles - which is - that's a thing. Something he did?"

Ariadne shrugged, walking over to the cherry tree. This one was named Sara. In the spring, the cherry blossoms covered the ground like the snow did now. It was the most fragrant of the trees. She loved to sit under it and think. Usually happy memories. The small bits of freedom she tasted in her early life in Valeria.

Maybe Sophia was her favorite-favorite.

But Sara always knew how to make her happy.

"I think it's when he insists that Jedi aren't supposed to form attachments that I get confused. That...doesn't seem like any way to live." A pause. "Also, he does talk in circles a lot. All the time." She smiled a little. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets that treatment!"

He makes a so-so gesture with his hand. "I managed to figure out how to cut through a lot of that with Ben. But Anakin wasn't there. And Ben-"

He sighs unhappily. "He had lost basically everything. For better or for worse, Obi-wan and I won't have quite the same relationship here. Which to me, at least, is most of what is meant by lack of attachments. I could try to cling to the relationship some part of me wants. I could try to force it by telling Obi-wan certain things. Or-"

He makes a fist and then releases it, gesturing out. "I can let that go and try to love him as he is."

"Whoa..."

This place...is really nice. Like, could give the Raccoon Room a run for its money nice! Manabu can't really feel the shift in temperature, but he can smell the softer, springier atmosphere.

He pulls the door closed behind him, lingering at the entrance as he looks around.

"Did you set this all up yourself?"

"But how can you love someone without being attached to them?"

It wasn't a challenge. Ariadne wasn't confrontational and the last thing she needed was to be 'right' all the time. It was...well, it was a genuine question. Because it didn't make sense to her.

Like saying that two plus two somehow equaled three.

Everyone knew it equaled four. But Obi-Wan was always telling her otherwise and it just...boggled the mind.

"Ok. Let's back up. What does being attached to someone mean to you?"

If there's one thing Ezra's learned in the last half year or so, was that even when everyone seems to be magically - maybe literally magically - speaking the same language, that doesn't mean everything translates.

Edited (wrong word) 2022-01-10 02:19 (UTC)

Well that is certainly one way to do things.

Upon approach Raleigh nearly calls out for her to be careful but just before he does a voice in his warns that a sudden noise like that might startle her and she really will fall.

Maybe he shouldn't say anything at all.. but he's lost and the last person he asked had pointed him in this direction. There are trees around so maybe it is the right place? He pulls his coat a little closer around himself, cold regardless of his bloodtype. Just is lot in life.

"Excuse me?" he calls, enough to be heard over the noise of Willful Machine but not designed to scare. He sees the talons and thinks of a scenario where she might flip down like the Witch from that one zombie game he used to play as a kid. Shudder. No thanks, hard pass. Still, needs must.

"I'm looking for the orchard. Is this it?"

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

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