Anakin 8
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It lies on the table before you, silent as the grave, and sleek as the J-type 327 Nubian Royal Starship you flew in on. Cords functioning as tendons keep it flexible, yet stable. The ball socket attachment allows for 360 degree mobility, and the armored plasteel exterior keeps it light, durable, airtight and watertight. It can record and transmit holo images and information, it can access the HoloNet, it has a 2D and 3D holographic emitter on the forearm for easy access, and the first knuckle of the first finger is a communications uplink of your own design.
Smarter than the average protocol droid, the bicep houses six small drones ranging from the just 3 cm long to nearly 20 cm long, and each are controlled by the central intelligence housed in the shoulder of the arm; they are indirectly controlled via the communication system housed within the arm, and between them they have the tools to hack datapads and starship control panels alike. That said, since you don't know how to do that, you couldn't program the arm to know how to do it… but you could program it to be able to have new protocols installed, so it would be able to learn whatever Mom could find the data chit for.
"I must admit, my skilled apprentice," Dooku says from your side, "I… am impressed."
Your face is stoic, but on the inside, you're practically delirious with excitement. Five months of work… you had neglected your droids, your speeder, and countless other projects that had popped into your mind and fled in the face of your determination to see this through.
And now it was done. You almost imperceptibly begin hyperventilating-
You vomit on the floor as Master forcibly obliterates your delirium. "Don't let it get to your head. You're still just an apprentice to a former Jedi with nothing to your name. Snap out of it."
You roll your eyes. It had been a while since Master had had to do that, but it still felt almost routine as you clean up. "Master, is it normal for Jedi to throw up this much?"
"No, but you're not a Jedi, are you?"
"Psh. Maybe if- Threepio, why is your recording light blinking again? I thought I fixed that ages ago!"
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"Hey Mom, can you come here for a moment?"
Mom comes into the meditation room, wiping her hand on her apron, and stops dead in her tracks in the doorway.
"Ta-da! It uses cords because they're flexible enough to move whatever way you need without having to sacrifice speed or stability and it's got a comm in the finger so we'll always just be a wave of the hand away if we're not around! There's an intelligence installed in the shoulder…"
Mom doesn't appear to be listening as she stares at the gleaming black arm, held in your hands facing upward as though an offering to a god.
"Um, technically it's a protocol droid because it handles protocols, but it also is an arm and can learn new things, and it can connect you to the HoloNet…"
Mom walks closer and skims the cool plasteel with her fingers. As soon as she touches it the the joints light up with color, fading from blue to green to yellow to red, before settling on a neutral off-white tone. Sweat begins trickling down the back of your neck; you desperately want Mom to like it, and although it's not as heavy as it could be, it's still nearly twenty kilos including the torsal processing centers and attachment nodes, and you've been holding it out for a while.
"And, uh, because there are drones in it, and because it's an arm, its designation is the ARM-3, as a, um, play on words, you know…"
At the sound of its designation, the ARM-3 lets out a soft, soothingly feminine-sounding hum.
"Can it talk?" Mom asks.
"Well, technically, yes, but you'd have to install the language protocols for that. I have them upstairs, if you want."
"No, no, it's fine. I love it, Anakin. Help me put it on?"
With relief, you allow your arms to relax, placing ARM-3 on the meditating pad and focusing on helping your mom take out the central attachment nodes for the junk arm that she'd had for half a year.
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On a Zhellday, Dooku has to go off-planet for some "meeting with like-minded people", and you're left in Theed. You consider visiting Padme, but for all that she likes seeing you, she doesn't like when you drop by unannounced. And considering how you finally managed to see her emotions for the first time with the Force, well… you felt a little unappreciated.
Her emotions for you were nice. Nice in the context of "Oh puppies are so nice and cute" or "My kid brother is nice". Her emotions for Captain Panaka, on the other hand, were something else entirely.
The waves of sheer
want, and some strange bastardized form of
hunger that was centralized a few inches below and behind her naval, were both overwhelming and extremely disorienting. After a few minutes of stumbling around desperately trying to purge the sensations into the Force, Padme scowled and demanded to know who had given you wine.
Then she had gone back to staring at Panaka, blinking weirdly deliberately and biting her lip at him. All you could feel coming off of him was extreme discomfort and a desire to run away, so there were no clues there as to what Padme was feeling. Later you had brought up the matter at dinner with Master and Mom, telling them about your theory that she was a cannibal, and that you needed to warn Captain Panaka before it was too late.
To make a long story short, she is not a cannibal, and your crush on Padme took a minor hit when you found out exactly how thoroughly disinterested in you she was. At least in terms of how you're interested in her.
Therefore, you don't want to go see Padme today.
After some deliberating, you decide to walk around the market near your house. It's not the Grand Market of Theed, but it's got some interesting stuff.
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A few hours of walking around later, and you've got some power converters for Threepio. '
Maybe with these he'll finally catch the eye of that astromech droid he's so obsessed with.'
Suddenly, something hard hits you in the back of the head, and you momentarily black out. You come to just in time to smash into the ground with the power converters under you, crushing one and denting the other.
"[Jedi
freak!]" someone shouted in Huttese, "[Go back to Coruscant!]"
A worried grumble made its way through the crowd, and people moved away from you.
"A Jedi? But it's just a child…"
"He's an apprentice to the old wizard living near the palace…"
"Fucking mind raping bastards…"
"Quiet! Do you want the Jedi Order to pay us a visit? Leave him be…"
"Republic's gone to shit with the fucking Jedi running the place…"
"The Jedi are great and mighty! You will regret your words, heathen!"
As you get to your feet, blood dripping down the back of your head, pumping your anger into the Force, the words of the people around you seep into your brain and worry you. Pausing to reach out with your senses, you almost immediately stop in shock. From the ones proclaiming Jedi to be gods, to the ones that decry them as mind rapists, every one of them was filled with fear. Fear of
you.
'Is this what the Jedi are?'
You feel unwell, and you run home as quickly as possible.
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"[There, I did it. Money?]" The desperate Twi'lek muttered.
"One hundred credits, as promised..."
"[Wait a minute... I know you! Damn, what's someone like you doing- AIIEE!]" He screamed as his montrals were grabbed, a foot was placed in his face, and the two were pulled apart with a wet ripping noise.
Dropping the body on the ground, the hooded figure walked two blocks over, mounted a speeder, and sped away.
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Several days later, you're eating dinner with Mom after a long day meditating. You plan to try and get in touch with Palpatine when you're done and ask if he's heard from Jar Jar at all, because his silence is troubling you, and by this point you're pretty sure it's a Force related problem; normally you would've given up by now, if not for a lingering and deep sense of unease.
These plans are thoroughly dashed when Dooku comes inside, back from his trip off-world at last, looking very serious. "We may have to leave Naboo sooner than anticipated."
Everything else is swept from your mind, and you double-check to make sure there's a running tap from your emotions to the force in case you get a bit too emotional. You don't want to vomit all over Mom's new arm.
"I received a transmission from my home planet of Serenno. Because I have left the Jedi, I'm eligible for my inheritance there."
"Oh. So what does that entail?"
"I would be Count of Serenno, a position similar to Queen of Naboo, and take my place as ruler of Serenno."
Shock rolls through you before you quickly push it into the Force. "You never told me you were royalty."
"I wasn't. I renounced my claim when I joined the Jedi Order."
"Huh. So why do they want you back? Aren't there others? And you did renounce your claim."
"Yes. I believe this is a political move by allies of the Trade Federation-"
"The ones who invaded Naboo?"
"Yes, now quiet. It's a political move by allies of the Trade Federation to move someone they believe may be sympathetic to their cause into power, rather than stand by and watch someone opposed to their cause take office. They've been stalling the coronation and selection of the next Count for weeks now, most likely hoping to curry my favor and get me installed before their opponent could."
"Are you sympathetic to their cause? What is their cause? Who's their opponent?"
"I can understand their cause, and with my help they might even be successful at it, but I don't want to dedicate my life to it like they do." Master sits down at the table next to Mom. "There are whispers of secession from the Republic. The gross incompetence and corruption of the Republic's leadership has become too much to bear for many, myself included. The problem, however, lies in the fact that it's those like the Trade Federation who want to secede; those who revel in corruption, but are upset that it's just not working for them."
"But what would that mean for the people who flee the Republic? How many worlds are considering this?" Mom asked quietly. "How many would die in such an enormous change?"
"Many." Dooku said grimly. "From the whispers I've heard, thousands of systems are considering secession."
Your eyes widen and you nearly choke. 'Thousands!'
"And as for how many will die… Billions. Maybe more. If a large contingent of systems push for secession, the Republic, even as grotesque as it is in its current form, will not stand for it. If they push for secession, there will be war." Dooku turns to you. "Anakin, I have delayed until I can delay no longer. I must answer their requests, but you are my responsibility, and I will not abandon you to go running off on a quest to split the galaxy."
He took a breath, and stood up. "Anakin, meditate with me."
Minutes later, you meditate with him in the meditation room. The Force around you, your Master in front of you, Mom nearby. You feel about as calm as you can get, under the circumstances.
"Anakin, whatever decision we make, it will be our decision. I will not unilaterally decide something, and neither will you. Meditate on these questions with me; shall we go to Serenno? Shall we assist the Federation? You have friends and family in the Republic, what of them? Meditate, Anakin, and when you are ready, answer these questions."
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[ ] Go to Serenno, support the TF (gain lots of resources, lots of backing, make an enemy of Republic eventually, make a friend of TF)
-[ ] Bring Mom, she'll be safest with you.
-[ ] Don't bring Mom; you're going to war!
[ ] Go to Serenno, don't support the TF (gain some resources, some backing, make an enemy of TF immediately)
-[ ] Bring Mom
-[ ] Don't Bring Mom
[ ] Stay on Naboo (gain no resources, backing, make no enemies, make no friends)
[ ] Warn Republic (warmer relations with Republic, enemy of TF, gain some backing and resources)
[ ] Write in
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A/N:
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