oratorical | IC Contact

Congratulations, fellow royal! You have been invited to the home of Sonia Nevermind on the 13th of Penta. Nothing is required but your illustrious presence. And perhaps some stories of your homeworld.

Refreshments will be provided.

I look forward to seeing you there.

~ Sonia Nevermind

[Wandering the streets of Verens in the evening is a completely normal thing to find Anakin doing. Granted, it's usually with more purpose and awareness than he's currently showing, but nothing about it too unusual.

Until he almost walks into a woman due to how distracted he is, of course.

He yanks himself back instinctually, wild-eyed and startled at how close he'd come to walking right into someone. It's insanely out of character for him, and he scrambles to apologize before he catches sight of Leia properly.]

...Oh.

["It's you" runs through his head, but stating the obvious is beyond his energy level right now. He can only stand there, out of her way to allow her to inevitably leave, as she always wants to.

He looks like he went a few rounds with a Gundark and barely walked away. He hasn't eaten today, and he's slept very little in the past few weeks. A decent shove would probably knock him over, if only he doesn't have his guard up enough to see it coming.]

Hello, Leia.

[Wide-eyed and startled is about the same reaction Leia has after seeing just who it is that almost ran into her. She visibly tenses, her breath catching as she eyes him warily. It's no surprise to her that Anakin looks far worse off than the last time she'd seen him. She spoke with Obi-Wan, she knows how Anakin was and still seemed to be taking Padme's disappearance.

Rather than leaving immediately, Leia remains rooted to the spot, looking him over for any signs of him turning toward Darth Vader. Not that she knows what she should be looking for. Obi-Wan may have tried to assure her that he wouldn't let that happen, but her default state of being is basically not trusting Anakin to not be Darth Vader.

After a few long moments of warily staring him down, Leia finally replies. She would otherwise just leave, but the guilt of her last actual conversation with Padme being a fight about Anakin still weighs pretty heavily on her. She's not about to apologize for what she said or forgive Anakin for things he hasn't personally done yet, but the least she can do is something she thinks Padme might want.]

I'm sorry she's gone. [no "hello, how are you doing (obviously not well, since you look like shit)," because that's too friendly for him. But she can express her condolences.]

[Leia is being sympathetic to him, of all people? Did he just walk into another alternate reality? For a moment, Anakin looks less surprised and more like someone hit him in the face with a blunt object. Her words aren't unwelcome, but they do take a few seconds to sink in properly.]

Thank you.

[His mouth opens and closes twice as he tries to figure out where to go from there. He should say something, he knows that much, but he's not sure what. Padmé is Leia's mother, and in spite of Leia rejecting him, she still lost someone important for a second time.]

...I'm sorry you didn't get more time with her. She was happy to know you while she was here.

[That was weak, but he hopes it lets her know he's not completely blind to her feelings. It hasn't occurred to him how badly that could be taken, but hey. A man can dream, right?]

Edited 2016-09-07 04:09 (UTC)

[as far as Leia is concerned, his sympathies aren't wanted or needed, and her expression remains as wary as ever. Were it Luke telling her this, Leia might give a small sardonic smile and mention how she's fairly certain Padme wasn't too impressed with her behavior half the time. But this is Anakin, and he doesn't get to know these things about her. Not her likes, dislikes, insecurities, any of it. So, she says nothing, seemingly ignoring his attempts at comfort.

She wants to leave, to stop talking to him and pretend they never ran into each other, but she isn't fully convinced he's not in danger of becoming Darth Vader. She may have no interest in his Skywalker manpain, or the specifics of his mental state, but making sure she wouldn't have to deal with Vader is more important than her impulse to flee. So, after looking him over once more, she finally replies with--]

You look like something a Hutt left behind. [it's purely an observation, and there's no real hint of softness behind her words. It's more to see how he reacts, and if she should be alarmed or not.]

[When she says the word "Hutt", his face twists with something almost on the level of hatred before he shoves it back. He knows he looks bad, but still, that's still a foul word to him. He needs to get it together, if he's getting comments like that, but it's so difficult to muster the energy to care.

This is one of the few times she's actually spoken to him without being trapped in a room with him, though. Or is it actually the first? It's too good of an opportunity to pass up, so he lets the comment slide without flinching.]

Smeeleeya whao toupee upee, Leia. I can't argue with that, this time.

[He shrugs and tries for a smile, but it only manages to hit "grimace" levels.]

I haven't been back to the apartment in a while, that's all.

[He avoids going to their apartment whenever he can get away with it, sleeping in short bursts on Takashi and Obi-Wan's couches. It's definitely showing after a few weeks of it.]

[While she notices that brief flash of hatred, she's distracted enough by his sudden use of Huttese that it doesn't fully register. Instead, a similar look of extreme contempt crosses Leia's own features. Huttese may not be a language she's all that fluent in, but by now she's picked up a few words, and "smile" is almost certainly one of them.]

You almost ran right into me. Who knows what you could do next?

[which is to say, she doesn't quite believe that explanation is the whole story here.]

[Trying to make Leia laugh is not something he's going to manage, clearly, so he decides to take her silence on the matter as a hint he should stop trying. That look is enough to sour milk, and he'd rather not have to face it twice in one conversation.]

Are you expecting me to collapse in the street? I'm not that far gone.

[He might be holding himself up partially with the Force, but he's dealt with worse. You get used to that sort of non-stop fatigue after a while, when you're in a war.

Besides, he's trying his best to ignore the implication that he could fly off the handle just because he's looking worse for wear, no matter how true it might be.]

[If non-stop fatigue in war time is something you want to talk about, Leia is probably one of the galaxy's leading experts. Having that familiarity and knowing full well how to mask it and seem less exhausted than you really are, Leia can guess Anakin is either truly that exhausted or is faking it for sympathy points. She's not sure which would be worse, especially when that implication he's trying to ignore is the main thing she's worried about.

She gives a small, noncommittal shrug at his question, before she sighs, closing her eyes and pursing her lips as she decides just what she wants to say to that. In any other situation, she absolutely would hit him with the Darth Vader comment, knowing what she knows now, but the whole reason she's speaking to him this one time is because she figures she owes it to Padme this once.]

What I mean is, for whatever reason, Padme cared a great deal about you. [something she made sure Leia knew, hence their last fight.]

If you weren't so self-absorbed and intent upon wallowing in your own misery, you would realize she wouldn't want you behaving like this.

[or at least, she assumes. She may not be nice, but it's nicer than calling him a Sith Lord at least. Anakin's mood is the last thing she cares about, and he can mope around all he likes for all she cares, but if there's any risk of Vader, she would rather him cut it out. Which is why she's trying this, hoping it will be like a slap to the face and get him to stop.]

[Wow. Anakin Skywalker came out to wallow in his personal misery, and he is feeling so attacked right now.

Honestly, he does feel a bit like she slapped him in the face, shocked and a little hurt by it. In fact, he might be more than a "little" hurt, once he lets it sink in. For now, it's hiding beneath a layer of disbelief and anger that she would be so callous.

He stands taller, looking less likely to be shoved over with a strong push and more like a proper Knight, but the anger on his face is nothing like what a Jedi should wear.]

Even if she wouldn't want it, she's not here to tell me to stop, is she? She's gone, and for all anyone knows, she might be--!

[He can't say "dead", and he clamps his teeth down in a snarl over the words. Saying it out loud is acknowledging it as a real possibility, and he refuses to allow that to happen. She can't be dead, he would never allow it, and he has to keep telling himself that so he doesn't fly over the edge into the dark side. It's a twisted kind of logic, where the only way he can do what she needed him to is to stagnate himself and suffer in a way she'd never approve of.

Sometimes, it's surprises even him how broken he is inside.]

I love her more than anything. It's not that easy to just stop feeling for her! If I could, I would have done it long before we got this far!

[That's a scary face, Anakin, and it's one Leia doesn't like seeing. Not that she likes seeing his face on the best of days anyway, but this look in particular is not one she ever wants to see. But aside from a dip in the temperature, Leia's initial flash of fear from his reaction doesn't show outwardly at all. Instead, she looks angrier than before (before, she had only been irritated by his wallowing), her voice raised to match his.]

I didn't say stop feeling for her! You aren't the only one here who cares for her, or that she cares about!

[Ah. Leia lecturing someone on how to deal with their feelings. That's a funny coincidence. But at least bottling your feelings is healthier than turning into a Sith Lord.]

You, at least, get to see her when you return home.

[Leia has a point; of course she does. But that's only twisting the knife further, and the air heats and dries out like the deserts of Tatooine. A breeze picks up from nowhere, but it's hard and does nothing to ease the heat.

He's raging, but it's a pathetic kind of anger, aimless and confused because it isn't aimed at someone or something in particular. It's just a hair's breadth away from being despair, if Anakin were being more honest, but denial is his final weapon, and he'll use it long past the point where it's useful.]

I wasn't planning on going home!

[On the other hand, he can be honest about this, because it's unfair. If he can focus on the unfairness of it, then he can keep some part of his heart from completely breaking.]

We were supposed to stay here, where she could be live! Where we could be happy, away from the war and the Jedi and everything else that's gone wrong back there!

[His voice cracks, like he's used up all the volume he has in him, and now all he has left is barely enough to make it heard.]

And when I go back now, it might not even change anything. She might be lost, all over again.

Even you can't be so deluded as to think you can control something like that. You can't plan whether you stay any more than you can plan when you leave.

[If they could, she has no doubt she would have returned home by now, as would Han probably. There were benefits to being here, things she didn't dislike, getting to know Padme being one of those benefits. But even with her determination to learn more about the future she doesn't want to happen, to get to know more about her son, and spend time with Han and Luke without any of them having their lives in danger, Leia still wants to go home.

As for that last comment, that possibility that nothing will change hits too close to home. And of course, since this is Anakin she's talking with, she doesn't allow any indication of those feelings to show. Instead, she crosses her arms and stares at him, as if daring him to argue with that point.]

Instead of moping, do something. I'm sure Luke wouldn't mind talking with you.

[His problems aren't anything she cares about, it's true. But at least finishing this, seeing if he actually is any danger the way he is now (she's leaning toward yes, but she always does) is something she feels she owes Padme.]

[Qui-Gon's still not entirely used to communicating with relative strangers through his thoughts--such abilities through the Force required a strong bond to fully actualize.]

[But he still manages to keep a polite air in his words, relying on his political savvy to cover any misgivings he may have.]

Leia?

This is Qui-Gon. If you have a moment, I would like to speak with you.

[Though she recognizes its usefulness, between disliking the feeling of someone else's voice in her head and the ease with which extreme emotions are transmitted through the connection, Leia has never really been much of a fan of using the crystals when not necessary. This, combined with Ben telepathically forcing memories of what he had done to Han into her mind, causes Leia to tense the instant she feels the telltale tingling of someone trying to contact her through the device. It doesn't last long, not until she registers it's the crystal and presumably not someone trying to do what Ben did. When she responds, though her voice is calm and pleasant, there's a bit of lingering tension that can be felt through the connection.]

It's good to hear from you again. I hope you haven't had trouble settling in. Did you want to speak through this, or would you rather meet in person?

Edited (Changed my mind) 2016-09-29 17:40 (UTC)

[Although he can feel the tension coming from Lea's thoughts, Qui-Gon does what he can to mask the fact that he noticed. Instead, he focuses on injecting his overabundance of calm into his own thoughts.]

If it's no inconvenience to you, I would prefer to meet in person.

I'm more than happy to offer my and Obi-Wan's home.

It's not an inconvenience, but if it's the same to you, I'd prefer to meet elsewhere. You're welcome to visit my home, if you'd like, or we can pick a different location.

[Because while she doesn't know for certain where Obi-Wan lives, she knows it's close enough to and likely visited often by Anakin, and Leia has been doing what she can to avoid running into him when at all possible. Visiting Obi-Wan's home would be like stepping right into his path, and she does not want that.]

Wherever you are most comfortable is fine with me. If your home is that place, then we can meet there.

What time would be best for you?

[There's also the added benefit of being able to gracefully duck out in case there's a scene. Because dealing with that stuff in public is nobody's idea of a good time.]

I can be there in an hour from now, if that's fine. I assume you want to meet sooner rather than later.

[and with that, she sends directions to the apartment (which no longer explodes as often as it used to) she shares with Luke and Han.]

Thank you very much for your accommodation. I will see you soon.

[It gives Qui-Gon enough time to pick up a little something as thanks for Leia's hospitality.]

[Just a little bit past an hour later, he arrives at her door and gives it a polite knock.]

[As promised, Leia is home, and upon hearing the knock, opens the door for Qui-Gon. She ushers him inside, and the apartment is thankfully much cleaner than it typically is. (largely because instead of leaving Han's pile of miscellaneous junk literally a pile, she's found a box for it, at least for now. It's compromise.) She gestures for him to sit wherever catches his eye--she'll sit as soon as he makes his choice.]

What was it you wanted to discuss?

[She'd start with small talk, but since they spoke only an hour ago to arrange this get-together, she doesn't see too much of a need for it, especially since Qui-Gon clearly had something in mind when he reached out to her. But it's not as if all her manners are forgotten, considering she prepared and brought out a pot of tea (which is currently sitting on a nearby table) before he arrived.]

[He's not offended in the slightest by Leia cutting to the chase and places a small box of pastries onto a table. It's the least he could do in return for intruding.]

[Qui-Gon seats himself in the chair closest to the table, settling in before he answers her question.]

I had a conversation with Obi-Wan the other day in regards to some of the events I'd missed.

[You know. While he was dead AF.]

I was hoping to gain some more perspective outside of what he was able to share.

[Once she takes a seat, she opts to ignore the box of pastries and instead focus on his request. It's the comment about talking with Obi-Wan about "some of the events" that does it. Her lips tighten into a thin line, and she gives Qui-Gon a pointed look, because while she's sure there's more he might want to know, talking with Obi-Wan leads her to assume he's interested in one topic in particular. Since, you know, she's not sure what else Obi-Wan knows about the future.]

Do these events happen to go by the name of Darth Vader?

[Welp that sure was a bad way to start off their conversation. Good job, Qui-Gon. Really working that charm, there.]

[He takes Leia's Look in stride and doesn't respond to it outside of making some placid eye contact and keeping a gentle tone to his voice.]

Not directly, no.

But perhaps that is a good place to start.

[Despite his gentle tone and calm demeanor, Leia's posture remains rigid and her expression is guarded and unreadable. Obi-Wan may speak highly of Qui-Gon, but Leia doesn't know him much at all, and this conversation is one she doesn't like having with anyone.]

We can start with what Obi-Wan already told you.

[It's not a promise of actually giving him information, it's more to see what he already knows and where they stand in this conversation.]

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Letter, 10th of Penta

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