morally_cryptic | [fic/rp] across the galaxy

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[fic/rp] across the galaxy

[ooc: Just prompted by a little mental image of Anakin "stargazing" that popped to mind earlier.]

On Coruscant, it was impossible to see the stars, even if one was looking out from the Council room at the top of the Jedi Temple. An unfortunate side effect of so much light from so many buildings and various forms of transport speeding around the airways. Not to mention that there was simply so much starship traffic, one likely wouldn't be able to tell the lights of ships from the field of stars behind them anyway.

Anakin had discovered this unfortunate fact not long after he came to live at the Jedi temple. He'd thought that, surely, so close to the center of the galaxy, the sky would be full of stars to see that he'd never been able to see before on Tatooine. Instead it turned out that perhaps the only thing that was better about Tatooine than Coruscant was that the desert planet was so sparsely inhabited and that the skies were so clear. Even out on the Rim, the sky was full of stars and the spiral arm of the galaxy could be clearly seen arcing across it.

He didn't try to watch the night sky on Coruscant anymore, but he still kept up the habit of at least looking for a moment whenever he found himself on a new planet. At the center of the Republic, however, he has to content himself with substitutes.

Which is why he can be found in an empty classroom surrounded by a holographic rendering of the galaxy. He's been spending all afternoon, so far, carefully marking off different star systems in various designated colors. Technically the entire exercise could be done by a computer but that wasn't Anakin's purpose in doing it. It requires concentration, but it doesn't require him to spend much effort in actually thinking so the whole activity is almost meditative.

The first batch of colored systems is simple: yellow for those that Anakin has already been to. Naboo might possibly be a subtly brighter yellow than all the rest, as if he'd lingered on that one for a moment longer than the others. He'd once told Qui-Gon he was going to see them all and certainly he had a better start on most other inhabitants of the galaxy, but it was still extraordinarily minute compared to the sheer number of systems represented on the map.

The second batch are green, signifying systems where battles of the Clone War have been fought and the Republic retained (or gained) control. Another group are blue, for the Separatist-won battles.

And finally, there's a sprinkling of red dots across the galaxy, mostly concentrated Rimward, and these are for those systems where battles are currently raging. Places he should be where he could be doing some good and making a difference. Staring at those flashes of red, it was almost enough to have him just commandeering a starfighter and heading out somewhere...anywhere. After making sure orders somehow just happened to make it through the system so that Rex and the 501st would be meeting him, of course.

But it wasn't, quite, enough. Contrary to some people's beliefs, he did have enough self-awareness to recognize that any action along those lines would likely not end well. That didn't mean he didn't still feel the temptation and it's that thought that has him swiping a hand through the starfield and systematically clearing everything out again until only dots of yellow remain on the map. He stares at those longest before they're wiped clean as well.

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It's so rare to see Obi-Wan discomfited quite like this. Anakin has to enjoy it when it happens.

"She misses you terribly, I'm sure," he says oh-so-helpfully. "You wouldn't want her thinking you'd left her after all."

Though if they, by some miracle, actually let Obi-Wan make the call, they were going to have to think fast as to where to send it.

"Oh, I'm sure she does," he replies. "And why would I ever leave her? You're right, she must be worried sick." A beat later, as he draws closer to Anakin so he can speak quietly, "You sure you wouldn't sell this whole married thing better? No kids need be involved, after all? Newly weds recently parted for this job and now you're just itching to get back, and your wife can't bear to be without you for too long?"

Anakin can't quite repress the way he tenses at the suggestion. It doesn't help that Padme has been on his mind. Of course, she's really never far away from his thoughts.

"I...think you're the better actor, truly."

Which isn't entirely a lie.

Obi-Wan notes the tension, but knows better than to pursue it now. It's irrelevant to the mission, and unless or until it becomes a problem, he's letting it slide.

"I'm glad one of us has confidence in me."

"Come on, you think the Negotiator isn't up to this? I have every confidence in you."

And he's about to be 'on' anyway, as they're approaching the comm center. So louder, he says, "Owen, I'm sure she's fine. You're worrying over nothing."

Obi-Wan offers a tiny smile. "Well, when you put it that way. Hopefully we won't have to grease the wheels a bit." And by grease the wheels he means Jedi trickery. "Then again, we could end up with a comm center crew that's immune."

And then Anakin's starting his play-acting and Obi-Wan shifts gears. "It may be nothing to you," he replies. "But I worry. You know she begged me not to go on this mission. The least I could do is reassure her I'm fine."

"She begs you not to go on every mission. I don't know what she expected, marrying a merchant."

As they actually get to the entrance, one of the comm center crewmembers looks up, "hey, shouldn't you have somewhere else to be?"

Obi-Wan has his very best Worried-Yet_Hopeful expression on his face. "Probably," he replies to the crewmember, "but before I go, I was wondering if I could send a quick message to my wife? Nothing fancy, just a still alive, be home soon sort of thing?"

Anakin slid more-or-less unobtrusively to the side, backed up against one of the consoles in order to give everyone else room, of course.

The crewmember looks from Obi-Wan to Anakin and back again, skepticism writ clearly on his face. "If we did that, we'd have to let everyone here do it and we'd never get a kriffing thing done."

Obi-Wan smiles wryly. "Understandable. I suppose I'll just have to wait until she shows up and tell her in person. She tends to get anxious if I don't check in with her, you know, and when that happens, she usually comes looking for me. She's never failed yet." He shrugs as if it's no big deal.

He looks over his shoulder, as if searching for someone. "I guess I'll have to find Jade and ask her for a room that can accommodate my wife, as well as the two of us."

A couple of the techs looked at each other, one of them shrugs like eh, what harm is one time?. The first tech sighs loudly, "one call. make it short."

Obi-Wan can likely hear Anakin smirking at his back. Which is better than anyone hearing him surreptitiously sliding a small device into one of the console's dataports.

For a split second he has no idea who to address the message to; oh, they have a Thyferra-based comm signal to send transmissions to, which are then manually rerouted on a different comm-board to the appropriate parties under proper encryption. But he can't very well send a standard, encoded message the way he would have had this been, say, the comm on their ship.

Only one person comes to mind, and she will utterly and completely hate him for it for the next forty years, and then tease him mercilessly for the forty after that.

Regardless, he makes a show of trying to contact his "wife" but getting no immediate reply. So he gives a helpless shrug and a wry smile to the techs, and begins to type out a brief text-based message - no need to go asking for full-blown, recorded holo privileges, after all - taking his time until he can sense an all-clear signal from Anakin.

Of course, his minor lingering gets the techs a little antsy, and one of them snaps, "Oy, we said make it short."

Edited 2015-05-12 23:59 (UTC)

He's not quite ready yet so Anakin sends a rather negative vibe through the Force at Obi-Wan. He'll just have to stall somehow since Anakin himself isn't exactly wanting to draw any attention lest someone notice what he's doing. Just a few more seconds...

One of the other techs chimes in, standing up, "yeah, you type slower than my grandmother." Which obviously, in his eyes, was something to be suspicious of.

HE gets Anakin's message loud and clear, so holds up his hand in a placating gesture. "One moment more; I'm almost done. ...There, see? You can make sure I didn't say anything inappropriate."

The tech that's now standing comes over and glances at Obi-Wan's message. Obviously whatever the Jedi wrote seems amusing, as it gets a snort and a shake of the head. "If your wife will chase you half-way across the galaxy for not sending her that, you need a new wife."

Another tech glances over to read, then barks a short laugh, "Naw, she's gotta have something else 'bout her that makes her worth keeping. I can think of a few things I'd write that drivel for, to make sure I could still go home and enjoy."

Obi-Wan tries not to roll his eyes at the crude remark, and is infinitely grateful that the message's recipient isn't present to hear it. Instead he smiles sheepishly. "It's okay to send, then?"

"Yeah, go ahead. You got nuthin' wrong with it."

So he sends his message and prays he gave Anakin enough time.

Anakin's curiosity is, of course, thoroughly piqued, but as the techs are looking over Obi-Wan's message, he eases the device out of the dataport and slips it into a pocket, doing his best not to draw any attention to himself.

It was entirely possible he was sending out subtle nothing to see over here thoughts through the Force. Just in case.

Of course, just as he does so, Kista appears in the doorway and her smile turns sharp and bright as she sees the Jedi. "Oh, there you are, gentlemen. And I'd thought you'd gotten lost..."

The techs, for their part, immediately make like they were totally working, ma'am.

As Kista enters the room, Obi-Wan looks appropriately abashed. "No, not lost. We just came to see if I could send a message to my over-protective wife. She's get worried when she doesn't hear from me."

Kista's eyebrows go up, "of course," she says dryly, "wouldn't want her to worry. If you're quite done, I think we've got some business to discuss."

Anakin makes a show of stretching and rolling his neck to get the cricks out, "oh please. It's got to be better than waiting for Owen to tell his wife how much he misses her."

"Yes, of course," he says to Kista. More for show, than anything, he flashes Anakin an irritated look and says, with the perfect air of a man who loves his wife deeply, but is slightly terrified of ever letting her down or upsetting her, "I could always let her deal with you, you know; next time we go out on a mission together I won't send her any sort of note and then tell her it was your fault that I didn't."

"....on second thought, let's not do that." Because of course he wasn't exactly unafraid of Obi-Wan's hypothetical wife either.

Kista just laughs and leads the way out to someplace they can talk.

Once they arrive at their destination, Kista surreptitiously sweeps the immediate area for listening and recording devices. Satisfied that they're out of sight and earshot, she gives Obi-Wan a look.

"You wanna tell me what that was all about?" she asks.

Obi-Wan shrugs. "I just wanted to send a message to my wife," he maintains. "I didn't give anything away, don't worry."

Kista raises a brow at that. "What could you have possibly sent? And what wife?"

The Jedi looks slightly abashed. "Hi Darling, I just wanted to let you know that our trip is taking a little longer than we thought it would. Don't worry, I'll be home soon. I love you," he recites. He clears his throat delicately, ignoring her second question.

Edited 2015-05-14 01:28 (UTC)

Anakin pitches his voice confidingly, "they're very much in love but they try not to advertise. Most of the time." Because everybody knows Jedi don't have attachments. Supposedly.

Kista doesn't appear convinced of a word of that, though she does at least appear a little amused. "I never would have guessed."

Before they go too much farther down that line of conversation, Anakin steers them away from the subject of Obi-Wan's supposed wife. "You said you had business to discuss? Or did you just want to get us out of there?"

"Yes," she replies.

Obi-Wan smiles. "So now that you've accomplished the latter, why don't you get on with the former."

Kista wrinkles her nose at the elder Jedi, but she nods. "I think I finally have some information for you."

Obi-Wan's automatically recalling his mental list of potential threats, ready to add Kista's information to it so he can hopefully really narrow it down. "Oh?"

Kista nods and reaches into a pocket for a datapad, though whatever she's about to say is forestalled by Anakin raising a hand.

"Someone's-"

Cue the door being thrown open by Anakin and Obi-Wan's erstwhile guard detail, brandishing blasters.

"-...coming."

Now, he thinks, would be a good time to have that lightsaber built into his hand.

Obi-Wan really hates being right, sometimes, but at least he's never surprised. Usually. He, too, senses the impending invasion, a split second after Anakin does.

His hands are up in a non-threatening gesture as he eyes the two guards.

"Let me guess, my wife called back and she wants you to bring me home right this instant?"

One of the guards rolls his eyes but keeps his blaster trained on Kista while the other keeps his on Anakin, "somethin' like that." Apparently Obi-Wan has successfully given them the impression he's not the one that's a threat.

Kista's eyes are wide, as she straightens, staring at them. "What the hell are you two doing?"

"I think," Anakin says dryly, "they're not taking orders from you anymore."

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Making an Executive Decision on one detail... :D

o7 (it occurs to me it would've been funny if one of his fingers had a dataport interface but no)

(like I said, he coulda had a flamethrowe installed, but nooooo.)

swiss army hand :D

YES.

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maybe she's bringing them some intel on whoever she thinks the spy is?

That could be an idea

Re: That could be an idea

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