While that might be interesting I don't see how John could run into them even with the force helping. They operate in the unknown regions which is way out in the boonies galactically. Only if Palpatine still succeeds and does his purge would there be any incentive to go out there.
Using The Force Made Easy
- Thread starter Fencer
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm tossing dynamite in the water. There are at least three ways I could make things happen off the top of my head.
Please be by being kidnapped just to give an interview. Make it so you are not a real force sect until you have had an interview with our MC. Then all the crazy force users will come out of the woodworks to track us down. It would be glorious!
I totally agree, getting an interview with 'That Holonet Force Guy' should be a badge of honor for force sects, and ones who dont get their interviews are considered small time and getting that interview is their ticket to the big leagues.
Hell it could get so big that Palpatine shows up to give an interview about the sith because the other force sects aren't taking him seriously without one
Thors_Alumni
Proud member of Thors Class VII from Liberl
- Location
- Liberl Zemuria.
Is Darth Cray cray Krayts force faction a thing yet? Or that sith sect on that planet that was way way out in the boonies that I know little about other than it exists. they both could do the interview.
really throw the rule of two back in sideous's face.
really throw the rule of two back in sideous's face.
- Location
- Singapore
Not a thing. He's still in the order dressed like a Sand Person. He only falls after being injured during the Clone Wars and somehow ending up on Korriban IIRC.
Yes. He goes there looking for something to defeat Palpatine and hide. I think.... If I remember right....
Kinda like hiding in the sleeping dragons mouth. Because what fucking idiot would hide there so they didn't get eaten?
I have come to kill you teens
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
Omake: I have come to kill you teens. (Using the Force Made Easy/Friday the 13th)
Delia and John were visiting planet Crystal Lake🏞️, an ocean🌊 world known as a vacation world.
They were on a beach🏖️ discussing Force meditation techniques when a masked figure with a machete🔪 came out from the water.
"My name is Jason Voorhees and I have come to kill🔪🩸 you teens👦👧." Jason declared menacingly, exuding an aura of death.
"Fuck you I'm an adult👨 not a teen👦," John said.
"You look like one with that scraggly beard🧔🏻!" Jason retorted.
"Who are you?" Delia asked. "Are you a Sith?
"Nah dawg, I just like killing🔪🩸 people."
Jason then brandished his machete🔪.
Delia pulled out her blaster🔫 and shot at him.
Unfortunately Jason was on top of a hill🗻 so the shot missed.
"I have the high ground!" yelled Jason.
John took his lightsaber🗡️ and epically dueled Voorhees and he killed the evil person by shoving his lightsaber🗡️ through Voorhees's face.
"Oh no!" Jason said and then died.
༒
AN:༄
This omake was brought to y'all by the realization that October 13, 2023 is a Friday. Happy Friday the 13th!
And remember, Jason Voorhees is vulnerable to a lightsaber through the face!
Jason VS John:
☻__
/▌ /▌
/\ /\ ☻
(PS-Thank you to Fencer for providing feedback on my omakes)
·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·
༒
༒
Delia and John were visiting planet Crystal Lake🏞️, an ocean🌊 world known as a vacation world.
They were on a beach🏖️ discussing Force meditation techniques when a masked figure with a machete🔪 came out from the water.
"My name is Jason Voorhees and I have come to kill🔪🩸 you teens👦👧." Jason declared menacingly, exuding an aura of death.
"Fuck you I'm an adult👨 not a teen👦," John said.
"You look like one with that scraggly beard🧔🏻!" Jason retorted.
"Who are you?" Delia asked. "Are you a Sith?
"Nah dawg, I just like killing🔪🩸 people."
Jason then brandished his machete🔪.
Delia pulled out her blaster🔫 and shot at him.
Unfortunately Jason was on top of a hill🗻 so the shot missed.
"I have the high ground!" yelled Jason.
John took his lightsaber🗡️ and epically dueled Voorhees and he killed the evil person by shoving his lightsaber🗡️ through Voorhees's face.
"Oh no!" Jason said and then died.
·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·
༒
AN:༄
This omake was brought to y'all by the realization that October 13, 2023 is a Friday. Happy Friday the 13th!
And remember, Jason Voorhees is vulnerable to a lightsaber through the face!
Jason VS John:
☻__
/▌ /▌
/\ /\ ☻
(PS-Thank you to Fencer for providing feedback on my omakes)
- Location
- United States
I'm most impressed by the effort to insert all those emoji. Well done.
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
Aw, thanks! (づ๑•ᴗ•๑)づ♡
It was pretty fun hunting down the right emojis for this.
- Location
- Mt. Holly, North Carolina
... Questions about sanity aside, why does this read like a third stage fanfic? Almost as bad as my immortal.
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
That's the vibe I was going for. 😇
I disagree. The emojis add a touch of authenticity in my humble opinion. 😀😃😄😁😆
FullNothingness
Mostly DHMO.
I kinda suspected you were just that kind of drunk...
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
I don't drink, I wrote these omakes while in my normal state of mind.
- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
I don't drink, I wrote these omakes while in my normal state of mind.
Which is apparently "hotboxed with a shitload of budweiser".
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
Ch. 20
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
AN: Delia POV! Because our girl needs some character development. I've dropped a few crumbs across the chapters she's shown up in but with my garbage update speed… well crumbs don't stand out so well so it's high time to give her a little more substance, after all she's in this for the long haul. Also because I need to kill some more time while the galaxy spins in the background and she's a good POV for setting the stage a bit.
Thank the beta folks, Functionality does good work when he isn't trolling all of you. Though honestly, I found the trolling fairly amusing on my end.
{}{}{}{} Delia POV
Mornings are the absolute worst. You have to get out of bed, pretend to have energy until your brain catches up and stops telling you to go back to sleep. And then you have to do things. Before that meant school, or chores, or whatever else.
Mornings on a star ship, should by virtue of being on a star ship, be better than regular mornings.
Hurtling through hyperspace towards a brand new world and bold new adventure! Important cargo needed to save lives or interesting passengers to talk to! Everyday should be a brand new riveting experience!
The reality… falls short.
I groaned and forced myself out of my bunk to shut off my alarm. Got into a clean pair of clothes and gave my blaster a wary look before checking it over. Safety was still on, still set to stun. The holster didn't feel awkward or uncomfortable. And I'd forget I even had it on pretty quick once I got moving but every morning when I checked it and put it on…
Whatever I was adjusting. I was already used to wearing it. Another few weeks and this would be totally normal.
Making my way to the kitchen I shared a commiserating grumble with Anakin and spared a quick glare for the obnoxiously awake and chipper Obi-Wan. John at least had the decency to look only half awake as he nursed his first cup of caf.
"Anything good for breakfast?" I asked as I poured my own cup of caf.
"Hot cereal, the kind with sweetener, and the last of the fresh fruit." John murmured around his cup.
"You mean those ridiculously sour things Anakin picked up because he wanted to try something new?" My face scrunched just thinking about them.
"Yup." John answered.
"Pass." I declared, taking the bowl of steaming grains Obi-Wan offered me.
John only hummed and went back to communing with his caf.
{}{}{}{} cockpit one hour later
"Aaaand we're done!" I stretched my arms over my head and cracked my back. "Morning system check is all clear!"
"Good work, Delia. You didn't forget any systems this time." John said.
Turning to look at John over my shoulder I pouted.
"Come on. I haven't forgotten any in a week. You can stop teasing me now."
"Hmm, maybe when you've gone a month without forgetting any." John smiled down at me. "Still you're picking it up at a good pace. Go hop in one of the turrets, run a simulation and get some practice in."
I hesitated for a second, then asked the question that had been bothering me.
"John, do you really think… my blaster, and the turret. Will I really need to use them?"
John sighed.
"Still bothering you?"
"Not as much." I shook my head. "Just…" I trailed off not sure how to explain and settled for a shrug.
"Some spacers that stick to the core worlds can get by just fine without a weapon, if they steer clear of any shady business. But even most of those folks are armed just in case. Pirates are uncommon in civilized space, but they're always a possibility. And that's for a normal crew. I told you when you pushed to get on, Delia, my vids make me a target. Sooner or later, something is bound to happen."
Which he had explained, but it had just sounded like one more part of what was going ro be an exciting adventure at the time.
"How long do you think, until something happens." I asked as my hand rose to brush against my blaster.
John hummed and closed his eyes.
"I've never been much good at looking into the future, never managed more than a vague sense honestly. I'm not really getting much of anything now either. There's danger in our future but it's not close, not yet. You want my best logical guess? We haven't hit the mainstream media yet. But we're already getting out there and it won't be long now. There's going to be a bit where anyone that might cause us trouble is going to scramble to figure out how to respond. And then there's what you and your friends have been doing, seeding false flight plans for the ship all over the galaxy."
John shrugged.
"No way to know, a month, three, six? Longer if we're all lucky. But trouble will find us eventually."
Right, right. Oh boy.
"Well, I guess I should go practice then."
{}{}{}{}
Sitting with my legs crossed on my bed I focused all my attention on the candle burning on my desk. No matter how hard I tried this just wasn't working today. Oh I could focus and meditate without emotions, but every time I tried to feed the candle my emotions…. The flame spiked to seven inches and still looked like it was dying. Flickering, fading, gaps opening in the flame like that was a thing that just happens to fire.
I couldn't summon up any other feeling strong enough to push this crap back, and I couldn't get the flame any smaller when normally my control was good enough to keep the flame down to three or four inches. With a sigh I gave up on that part of John's lessons and just focused on what was working. Meditating on the Light Side of the Force at least helped push this crap to the side. It let me think clearly.
This wasn't what I'd expected. That… wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was less exciting than I'd originally hoped, we weren't going around saving people like John was some bootleg Jedi, but that meant things were safer. It wasn't like he didn't stop to help people. It was just a thing he did on the side when needed. Not us jumping headfirst into things like in some of Anakin's crazier stories. And there was a lot of down time so long as nothing on the ship started to act up.
It was… kind of normal actually. Just with John casually saying someone was going to try and kill us at some point for some stupid reasons.
I do not want to kill anyone. Blasting away at someone from a laser canon as we tore through the black of space sounded badass. But that would probably mean someone getting killed. Maybe me, or maybe I'd have to kill someone else. And that… felt shitty even just thinking about it. But I want to be here.
I'm learning to use the Force, learning to be a cool spacer. I was right at the forefront of what was no doubt going to be the biggest cultural revolution to shake the galaxy… maybe ever. Right here, right now I'm helping make galactic history. There was nowhere else in the galaxy that I'd rather be. But.
But… but, but, but.
I needed to talk to someone else. All I'm doing is going round and round in circles. John would just do his whole 'support you no matter what you decide' spiel again. Which, ok, I appreciate that, really, it just doesn't help me make up my mind. Obi-Wan… Nope. Wise old man act or not he's barely any older than John and I didn't need to be preached at. I'd really like to talk to Mom and Dad, but I really wanted to have this conversation now. Not the next time we dropped out of hyperspace long enough to make a call.
Well, Anakin is pretty cool. And he has been in fights before. Nodding I pinched out the candle wick and went looking for him.
I found him reading from a data pad on the couch outside the cockpit. Back very deliberately jammed into a corner and just a little bit flushed. Grinning, I sat down on top of his feet so he couldn't run off.
"Find another gem in ships data logs? Is it a book or a vid?" I asked.
Anakin's whole face went red.
"Book, you'd probably like it." He glanced back at the data pad. "A little more drama than I'd like, but it's pretty good."
"Oh, I'd like it huh?" I asked.
Anakin only hummed.
Sighing I leaned back fully into the couch.
"Maybe I'll give it a look later. Right now I need some advice." I said.
"What kind of advice?" Anakin asked as he set the data pad down.
"Life advice." I declared, arms sweeping out to my sides in a dramatic gesture. "I… Look, I love being here. Learning to use the Force, learning about how to take care of the ship. John even promised to teach me to fly her once I prove I've learned enough about maintenance. He's making history and I'm part of it and that's so awesome!"
"But?" Anakin asked. "It sounds like you're building up for a but."
"Yeah, but. John keeps saying sooner or later we're going to end up in a fight. I've never even gotten into a fist fight before, Anakin. Now I own a blaster and I'm learning how to use it." I shrugged. "I don't want to hurt anyone, and I'd really rather not have someone trying to hurt me either if I get a say in it. But I can't have both. Either I stay and accept that some pirate, or Hutt, or just someone who's pissed about all the changes this is going to cause might try to kill us. Or I chicken out, go back home, ditch the adventure before it's even started. I don't know what to do."
"You're asking me?" Anakin's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "Why me?"
"Because you were stupidly little when you decided it was a good idea to hop in a starfighter you didn't know how to pilot and fly right into a war zone." I deadpanned. "Who better to ask? What the heck were you thinking? Why'd you decide to do something so dangerous and crazy? You could have been killed, but you just went for it. Now you're a jedi and you get into slightly less crazy adventures with Obi-Wan. Just… how do you take those risks like they don't even matter?"
For a while Anakin didn't say anything. He'd fidget open his mouth, close it, and start the process all over again.
"Qui Gon Jinn was Obi-Wan's Master. He and Padme, they helped get me out of slavery. Part of it was me, but even then…"
I kept my mouth shut tight and let Anakin work through his words on his own.
"Before that, if I died in a pod race? That would have stunk, but I'd have been free and I'd have gone out having an absolute blast." He didn't look at me, just shrugged his shoulders. "After that? I owed them everything. I knew the basics of piloting, and I had R2. I figured it would be enough and I could at least do something to help. And all those people, Padme's people, they needed all the help they could get. Now?"
Anakin offered me a tiny smile. "The Jedi are all about helping people." He shrugged again but more chipper this time. "I can't just let them suffer. And if I made it through a space battle at nine I figure I can make it through just about anything now."
That isn't really how that works, but I couldn't exactly argue against his logic after he hit me over the head with his trauma.
"I guess," he hesitated looking for the right words, "I guess you just have to decide if you think all of this is important enough to risk your life for. You don't have to kill for John's cause, but you do have to be willing to defend yourself even if that means killing someone."
I frowned and chewed at my lip.
"How is that different? If I decide to stay, and end up killing someone isn't that still killing for his cause? To keep spreading Force knowledge?"
"I mean you could look at it like that if you want to make yourself feel guilty. But if Obi-Wan and I get assigned to bring in a criminal and they decide to fight and end up getting killed, is that our fault for doing our job? The master's fault for sending us? Or his for being a criminal that didn't have the sense to surrender?" Anakin asked.
"All of the above?" Seriously it kind of sounded like everyone had a bit of guilt there.
Anakin obviously disagreed going by his snort. "I'd say it's on the criminal. They chose a life of crime, they chose to fight against arrest instead of going quietly. Yeah, I might get nightmares, those suck. But they chose crime and violence, and if we didn't stop them they'd just hurt more people later. Pretty safe bet anyone trying to hurt you or John are the kind of people that are already used to using violence to get what they want."
I hummed.
"Do you think what John's doing is worth killing for?" He asked. "I mean I'm assuming you would defend yourself, but if you can't separate the idea… You spend most of your free time practicing his lessons, and you were really quick to defend them. You obviously care about this a lot."
Now it was my turn to take a minute to gather my thoughts.
"Feeling the Force, using it. That's been my dream since my parents told me I fell just under the recruitment threshold." I spoke slowly, working my way through my own thoughts. "Part of that's just that every kid wants to be a jedi, but I had potential even without Matukai to strengthen my connection. I could have learned something. I could have learned to sense the Force!" I threw my hands into the air, then scoffed.
"But no, I fell under some arbitrary line, I didn't have enough potential to be worth the time or resources to train, and just for that the option is denied!" I looked Anakin in the eye.
"I know meditation can be boring, but that feeling when you slip into the right frame of mind, where you're suddenly aware of how you are just one part of the universe, tiny, insignificant, but you still matter to the whole." I closed my eyes. "Anakin, even if that was all they could have taught me without the Matukai training, I'd have wanted to learn for that alone. How many others out there do you think feel the same way I do?"
Anakin didn't say anything.
"I know what John's doing is going to screw up the galaxy for a long time. Everything's going to be nuts for years, at least. Maybe even for generations while the galaxy tries to find a new normal. But…"
I trailed off and laughed, it didn't sound quite right.
"I guess I really do believe John's cause is worth killing for." I admitted. "Now if I could just be sure I'm willing to be one of the people who will." I scowled.
"Well, unless making me uncomfortable is somehow going to help you think." Anakin yanked his legs out from under my butt. "Urgh much better. My feet were starting to fall asleep."
I latched onto the potential out and gasped in mock offense.
"Did you just call me fat!"
"What? No!"
"You fiend, how dare you insult a lady's figure!"
I grabbed up a pillow and swung it at his head. Anakin ducked and used the force to rip it out of my hands and smack me in the face with it.
Laughing, Anakin dashed off. I decided to let him go and see what he'd been reading instead.
{}{}{}{} Kitchen, after landing
I cursed for at least the fifth time in as many minutes. Nothing and no one leaving this port was going to Mirial. Which meant I needed to try and make a chain of deliveries and or passenger trips, that would take me a third of the way around the galaxy.
Deliveries for a ship our size were the most random things in the galaxy. Any kind of bulk goods is solely the province of the trade federation. No one else has the hauling capacity for that kind of regular bulk trade. Which means tramp freighters pick up everything else. Small batches of luxury goods. Emergency shipments of specialty parts or tools. Or occasionally excess product the trade federation didn't have room for but that was uncommon according to John. All of which could take you halfway across the galaxy or farther depending on what you were hauling.
Or the job could just be taking an assorted bunch of regular goods a few days, with a low end hyperdrive, away from where they started. John said that happened sometimes if nearby planets did a lot of regular trade.
Charters could take anyone anywhere, because if someone's got the money to move to or visit another planet, well then they have enough money to take their pick from a good chunk of the galaxy don't they?
All of this together means that I finally understood why John didn't ever bother charting any kind of long term course. It was downright migraine inducing.
Jobs are posted as they come up and snatched up by whatever freighter pilot is on hand to accept. You could reserve a job if it was posted ahead of time and your estimated time of arrival made the client happy, but if you were late and they had to give the job to someone else not only did you not get the job or get paid, you could also be fined if the company felt they lost money do to any delays.
Then there was the fact that most people were unwilling to hold a job in advance at all. Maybe if the portmaster or client knew that Captain would be good to their word, but that kind of trust was something you really needed to build.
So here I was sitting at my data pad contemplating even trying to find a chain of deliveries that would take me home. Because odds were anything farther that two trips would be impossible in the first place and I'd need to check every job leaving twenty six different worlds based on our estimated time of arrival for each world.
"You alright, Delia?" John asked as he walked into the kitchen.
I grunted, dropped the data pad on the table, placed my arms on the table, then buried my head in my arms.
"That bad?"
"I wanted to visit Mirial." I said to the table.
"Ah, and nothing leaving port is headed there I take it?"
I grunted again.
"... Does this mean you've decided to leave, or did you finally get serious about picking up your computer setup? You've mentioned doing that often enough."
"... Is it bad if I say I'm not sure which?" I asked, looking up.
John shook his head.
"No." John poured a glass of water then slid into the seat opposite me. "Going to talk it over with your parents when we get there?"
"Maybe." I glared at the data pad as an alert showing a new job had just been posted and another was accepted by some other crew. "Or maybe getting there will take so long I'll have already made up my mind. I want to be here, I want to be part of this… I'm just-"
"You know," John cut me off, "One of the reasons I try to avoid trouble is that I'm not a fan of fighting."
"Yeah?"
"Oh yeah. There's a video I'll have to make eventually, but I'm not exactly in a hurry to make this one, want to be my sounding board for it?" He asked.
I nodded, not quite sure where he was going with that change of topic.
"A real fight is one of the most emotional things that can happen to a person." John took a sip of his water. "And like I keep saying, Force enhanced emotions are dangerous. So if you get into a fight, be very careful, Delia. More careful than you've ever been in your life. I was trained exclusively with the Light side of the Force my whole childhood and the first time a ship I worked for came under fire… You don't think clearly the first time you're in a real fight. It takes experience to get to the point where you can think at all. I think that's part of why Jedi spar so much. Get that discipline in early, get you used to combat, at least in a controlled setting. Makes the real thing a little easier to handle."
John shrugged.
"But in my first fight, I didn't have a Master around to keep me steady. I was panicking. I reached for the Force because that's a Jedi's answer for everything, and I could have slipped and started drawing on the Dark Side. It wasn't a huge risk. I hadn't even considered dabbling in the Dark Side of the Force at that point. Keeping my emotions out of the Force was the only way I'd ever done it, but in those first few moments I was rattled and panicked and I could have slipped."
John pointed a finger at me.
"You don't have that much practice, and you've been practicing with the Dark side. If you find yourself in a fight? Slipping would be much easier for you. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, if you stayed in control. But I'd say you've got a long way to go yet before you're ready to risk drawing on the Dark Side in a fight. So be very careful if we do get in a fight, Delia."
"Is that the only reason you don't like fighting?" I asked. "Because you risk slipping into a spiral?"
"No, I'm experienced enough now that it's pretty unlikely. Though if I draw on the Dark Side in a fight intentionally… well that's a whole different lecture. No, that was just a warning I wanted you to hear while we were on the subject of fights. No, I hate fights because I'd rather not risk my neck for just anything. And because if you have to kill someone, you can feel it, in the Force."
"What?" I asked.
John smiled sadly. "Imagine one second you can feel a living being in the Force. And the next you can't. It doesn't hurt. It's just… it's unsettling. Especially if I know I'm the reason why that presence is gone. I froze up for a second the first few times it happened, but in a fight you might not have a second or two to freeze up. I had to learn to put that aside too."
"That sounds horrible, John."
"Yeah, well, even if I'd made it as a Jedi I'd still have needed to get used to that."
And if they had recruited me I would have had to get used to it too. And it wouldn't just be fights would it. If anyone near me died I'd be able to feel them passing.
"I swear you're trying to get rid of me." I glared at John.
"And the fact that it's starting to work means you're a lot smarter than the average teenager. The fact that you're still holding out says you really want to be here." John offered me a small smile. "Besides, you know me, I've got to make sure people have all the information they need to make an informed decision."
"You just like giving people so much forbidden knowledge that the whole galaxy flips."
John grinned like a shark. "That too!"
"Ok whatever. Enough with the heavy topics. Is there any way to get a flight plan to Mirial without frying my brain and checking every posted job for all of our possible destinations?" I asked.
"Well, there's one method I know that you can try. But it's not guaranteed to be quick, or to work at all for that matter. Could be a total flop, or we could end up tearing back and forth across the galaxy, maybe run an errand or two for the Force even."
I looked at John dubiously.
"How could whatever you're talking about be that unreliable?" I asked.
"Close your eyes, open yourself to the Force, think about where you're trying to go, and how much you want to be there, then let the Force choose from that list of jobs you have. It might not work if you can't sense the response properly. Or the course charted for us could involve a lot of stops between here and there with you needing to pick up on each step correctly one after another. Or the Force could decide it wants us to go somewhere else and hijack your trip for something completely different."
"This sounds like a terrible way to do things." I said.
"You would be right." John nodded.
"I could write a program to help me try and find a possible route?" I suggested.
"Do you think it would help?" John asked.
"Probably not a lot." I admitted. I mean I could totally write a program for this but unless I got really lucky and found a two step trip with someone willing to take a chance on us being punctual… It just wasn't likely to work, and checking all the jobs available on whatever world we visited really didn't need a program.
"Want to try asking the Force then?" John asked.
"Don't you want to pick our job? I mean some of these definitely pay better than others…"
"True, but the ad revenue coming in from the videos is starting to add up faster and faster. More than enough to cover the difference from a few low paying jobs. And it can only go up so long as no one tries to get them taken down."
Well if he was sure.
I picked up the data pad, opened up to the Force as best I could and thought about home, then I started scrolling.
Nothing happened. No undefinable nudges, no hairs rising on the back of my neck, no inexplicable certainty of my course… Nothing. I told John that. He shrugged.
"Told you it might not work."
"Right, very helpful, so what do I do?" I snapped.
"Keep trying, keep checking jobs when we hit a new world, and try to make up your mind one way or another."
"So, what I was already doing?"
"Yup."
"Damn it, John…" Groaning, I tossed him the datapad and headed for my bunk. If all anyone could offer me was brain frying advice that made me less sure about what I wanted I was taking a freaking nap. I'd make it home eventually. And until then, this is still where I want to be.
As my head hit the pillow a couple of nasty thoughts floated up from the back of my mind.
If John's lessons really do throw the Galaxy into chaos like Obi-Wan keeps saying, it might be a good thing to know how to defend myself. And if someone really did want to give John trouble, my face was already out there… I might already be a target.
Groaning again I slammed a second pillow down over my head. Nap. Nap now. Thoughts later. Shut up and leave me alone brain.
It took me a while to finally fall asleep.
Thank the beta folks, Functionality does good work when he isn't trolling all of you. Though honestly, I found the trolling fairly amusing on my end.
{}{}{}{} Delia POV
Mornings are the absolute worst. You have to get out of bed, pretend to have energy until your brain catches up and stops telling you to go back to sleep. And then you have to do things. Before that meant school, or chores, or whatever else.
Mornings on a star ship, should by virtue of being on a star ship, be better than regular mornings.
Hurtling through hyperspace towards a brand new world and bold new adventure! Important cargo needed to save lives or interesting passengers to talk to! Everyday should be a brand new riveting experience!
The reality… falls short.
I groaned and forced myself out of my bunk to shut off my alarm. Got into a clean pair of clothes and gave my blaster a wary look before checking it over. Safety was still on, still set to stun. The holster didn't feel awkward or uncomfortable. And I'd forget I even had it on pretty quick once I got moving but every morning when I checked it and put it on…
Whatever I was adjusting. I was already used to wearing it. Another few weeks and this would be totally normal.
Making my way to the kitchen I shared a commiserating grumble with Anakin and spared a quick glare for the obnoxiously awake and chipper Obi-Wan. John at least had the decency to look only half awake as he nursed his first cup of caf.
"Anything good for breakfast?" I asked as I poured my own cup of caf.
"Hot cereal, the kind with sweetener, and the last of the fresh fruit." John murmured around his cup.
"You mean those ridiculously sour things Anakin picked up because he wanted to try something new?" My face scrunched just thinking about them.
"Yup." John answered.
"Pass." I declared, taking the bowl of steaming grains Obi-Wan offered me.
John only hummed and went back to communing with his caf.
{}{}{}{} cockpit one hour later
"Aaaand we're done!" I stretched my arms over my head and cracked my back. "Morning system check is all clear!"
"Good work, Delia. You didn't forget any systems this time." John said.
Turning to look at John over my shoulder I pouted.
"Come on. I haven't forgotten any in a week. You can stop teasing me now."
"Hmm, maybe when you've gone a month without forgetting any." John smiled down at me. "Still you're picking it up at a good pace. Go hop in one of the turrets, run a simulation and get some practice in."
I hesitated for a second, then asked the question that had been bothering me.
"John, do you really think… my blaster, and the turret. Will I really need to use them?"
John sighed.
"Still bothering you?"
"Not as much." I shook my head. "Just…" I trailed off not sure how to explain and settled for a shrug.
"Some spacers that stick to the core worlds can get by just fine without a weapon, if they steer clear of any shady business. But even most of those folks are armed just in case. Pirates are uncommon in civilized space, but they're always a possibility. And that's for a normal crew. I told you when you pushed to get on, Delia, my vids make me a target. Sooner or later, something is bound to happen."
Which he had explained, but it had just sounded like one more part of what was going ro be an exciting adventure at the time.
"How long do you think, until something happens." I asked as my hand rose to brush against my blaster.
John hummed and closed his eyes.
"I've never been much good at looking into the future, never managed more than a vague sense honestly. I'm not really getting much of anything now either. There's danger in our future but it's not close, not yet. You want my best logical guess? We haven't hit the mainstream media yet. But we're already getting out there and it won't be long now. There's going to be a bit where anyone that might cause us trouble is going to scramble to figure out how to respond. And then there's what you and your friends have been doing, seeding false flight plans for the ship all over the galaxy."
John shrugged.
"No way to know, a month, three, six? Longer if we're all lucky. But trouble will find us eventually."
Right, right. Oh boy.
"Well, I guess I should go practice then."
{}{}{}{}
Sitting with my legs crossed on my bed I focused all my attention on the candle burning on my desk. No matter how hard I tried this just wasn't working today. Oh I could focus and meditate without emotions, but every time I tried to feed the candle my emotions…. The flame spiked to seven inches and still looked like it was dying. Flickering, fading, gaps opening in the flame like that was a thing that just happens to fire.
I couldn't summon up any other feeling strong enough to push this crap back, and I couldn't get the flame any smaller when normally my control was good enough to keep the flame down to three or four inches. With a sigh I gave up on that part of John's lessons and just focused on what was working. Meditating on the Light Side of the Force at least helped push this crap to the side. It let me think clearly.
This wasn't what I'd expected. That… wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was less exciting than I'd originally hoped, we weren't going around saving people like John was some bootleg Jedi, but that meant things were safer. It wasn't like he didn't stop to help people. It was just a thing he did on the side when needed. Not us jumping headfirst into things like in some of Anakin's crazier stories. And there was a lot of down time so long as nothing on the ship started to act up.
It was… kind of normal actually. Just with John casually saying someone was going to try and kill us at some point for some stupid reasons.
I do not want to kill anyone. Blasting away at someone from a laser canon as we tore through the black of space sounded badass. But that would probably mean someone getting killed. Maybe me, or maybe I'd have to kill someone else. And that… felt shitty even just thinking about it. But I want to be here.
I'm learning to use the Force, learning to be a cool spacer. I was right at the forefront of what was no doubt going to be the biggest cultural revolution to shake the galaxy… maybe ever. Right here, right now I'm helping make galactic history. There was nowhere else in the galaxy that I'd rather be. But.
But… but, but, but.
I needed to talk to someone else. All I'm doing is going round and round in circles. John would just do his whole 'support you no matter what you decide' spiel again. Which, ok, I appreciate that, really, it just doesn't help me make up my mind. Obi-Wan… Nope. Wise old man act or not he's barely any older than John and I didn't need to be preached at. I'd really like to talk to Mom and Dad, but I really wanted to have this conversation now. Not the next time we dropped out of hyperspace long enough to make a call.
Well, Anakin is pretty cool. And he has been in fights before. Nodding I pinched out the candle wick and went looking for him.
I found him reading from a data pad on the couch outside the cockpit. Back very deliberately jammed into a corner and just a little bit flushed. Grinning, I sat down on top of his feet so he couldn't run off.
"Find another gem in ships data logs? Is it a book or a vid?" I asked.
Anakin's whole face went red.
"Book, you'd probably like it." He glanced back at the data pad. "A little more drama than I'd like, but it's pretty good."
"Oh, I'd like it huh?" I asked.
Anakin only hummed.
Sighing I leaned back fully into the couch.
"Maybe I'll give it a look later. Right now I need some advice." I said.
"What kind of advice?" Anakin asked as he set the data pad down.
"Life advice." I declared, arms sweeping out to my sides in a dramatic gesture. "I… Look, I love being here. Learning to use the Force, learning about how to take care of the ship. John even promised to teach me to fly her once I prove I've learned enough about maintenance. He's making history and I'm part of it and that's so awesome!"
"But?" Anakin asked. "It sounds like you're building up for a but."
"Yeah, but. John keeps saying sooner or later we're going to end up in a fight. I've never even gotten into a fist fight before, Anakin. Now I own a blaster and I'm learning how to use it." I shrugged. "I don't want to hurt anyone, and I'd really rather not have someone trying to hurt me either if I get a say in it. But I can't have both. Either I stay and accept that some pirate, or Hutt, or just someone who's pissed about all the changes this is going to cause might try to kill us. Or I chicken out, go back home, ditch the adventure before it's even started. I don't know what to do."
"You're asking me?" Anakin's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "Why me?"
"Because you were stupidly little when you decided it was a good idea to hop in a starfighter you didn't know how to pilot and fly right into a war zone." I deadpanned. "Who better to ask? What the heck were you thinking? Why'd you decide to do something so dangerous and crazy? You could have been killed, but you just went for it. Now you're a jedi and you get into slightly less crazy adventures with Obi-Wan. Just… how do you take those risks like they don't even matter?"
For a while Anakin didn't say anything. He'd fidget open his mouth, close it, and start the process all over again.
"Qui Gon Jinn was Obi-Wan's Master. He and Padme, they helped get me out of slavery. Part of it was me, but even then…"
I kept my mouth shut tight and let Anakin work through his words on his own.
"Before that, if I died in a pod race? That would have stunk, but I'd have been free and I'd have gone out having an absolute blast." He didn't look at me, just shrugged his shoulders. "After that? I owed them everything. I knew the basics of piloting, and I had R2. I figured it would be enough and I could at least do something to help. And all those people, Padme's people, they needed all the help they could get. Now?"
Anakin offered me a tiny smile. "The Jedi are all about helping people." He shrugged again but more chipper this time. "I can't just let them suffer. And if I made it through a space battle at nine I figure I can make it through just about anything now."
That isn't really how that works, but I couldn't exactly argue against his logic after he hit me over the head with his trauma.
"I guess," he hesitated looking for the right words, "I guess you just have to decide if you think all of this is important enough to risk your life for. You don't have to kill for John's cause, but you do have to be willing to defend yourself even if that means killing someone."
I frowned and chewed at my lip.
"How is that different? If I decide to stay, and end up killing someone isn't that still killing for his cause? To keep spreading Force knowledge?"
"I mean you could look at it like that if you want to make yourself feel guilty. But if Obi-Wan and I get assigned to bring in a criminal and they decide to fight and end up getting killed, is that our fault for doing our job? The master's fault for sending us? Or his for being a criminal that didn't have the sense to surrender?" Anakin asked.
"All of the above?" Seriously it kind of sounded like everyone had a bit of guilt there.
Anakin obviously disagreed going by his snort. "I'd say it's on the criminal. They chose a life of crime, they chose to fight against arrest instead of going quietly. Yeah, I might get nightmares, those suck. But they chose crime and violence, and if we didn't stop them they'd just hurt more people later. Pretty safe bet anyone trying to hurt you or John are the kind of people that are already used to using violence to get what they want."
I hummed.
"Do you think what John's doing is worth killing for?" He asked. "I mean I'm assuming you would defend yourself, but if you can't separate the idea… You spend most of your free time practicing his lessons, and you were really quick to defend them. You obviously care about this a lot."
Now it was my turn to take a minute to gather my thoughts.
"Feeling the Force, using it. That's been my dream since my parents told me I fell just under the recruitment threshold." I spoke slowly, working my way through my own thoughts. "Part of that's just that every kid wants to be a jedi, but I had potential even without Matukai to strengthen my connection. I could have learned something. I could have learned to sense the Force!" I threw my hands into the air, then scoffed.
"But no, I fell under some arbitrary line, I didn't have enough potential to be worth the time or resources to train, and just for that the option is denied!" I looked Anakin in the eye.
"I know meditation can be boring, but that feeling when you slip into the right frame of mind, where you're suddenly aware of how you are just one part of the universe, tiny, insignificant, but you still matter to the whole." I closed my eyes. "Anakin, even if that was all they could have taught me without the Matukai training, I'd have wanted to learn for that alone. How many others out there do you think feel the same way I do?"
Anakin didn't say anything.
"I know what John's doing is going to screw up the galaxy for a long time. Everything's going to be nuts for years, at least. Maybe even for generations while the galaxy tries to find a new normal. But…"
I trailed off and laughed, it didn't sound quite right.
"I guess I really do believe John's cause is worth killing for." I admitted. "Now if I could just be sure I'm willing to be one of the people who will." I scowled.
"Well, unless making me uncomfortable is somehow going to help you think." Anakin yanked his legs out from under my butt. "Urgh much better. My feet were starting to fall asleep."
I latched onto the potential out and gasped in mock offense.
"Did you just call me fat!"
"What? No!"
"You fiend, how dare you insult a lady's figure!"
I grabbed up a pillow and swung it at his head. Anakin ducked and used the force to rip it out of my hands and smack me in the face with it.
Laughing, Anakin dashed off. I decided to let him go and see what he'd been reading instead.
{}{}{}{} Kitchen, after landing
I cursed for at least the fifth time in as many minutes. Nothing and no one leaving this port was going to Mirial. Which meant I needed to try and make a chain of deliveries and or passenger trips, that would take me a third of the way around the galaxy.
Deliveries for a ship our size were the most random things in the galaxy. Any kind of bulk goods is solely the province of the trade federation. No one else has the hauling capacity for that kind of regular bulk trade. Which means tramp freighters pick up everything else. Small batches of luxury goods. Emergency shipments of specialty parts or tools. Or occasionally excess product the trade federation didn't have room for but that was uncommon according to John. All of which could take you halfway across the galaxy or farther depending on what you were hauling.
Or the job could just be taking an assorted bunch of regular goods a few days, with a low end hyperdrive, away from where they started. John said that happened sometimes if nearby planets did a lot of regular trade.
Charters could take anyone anywhere, because if someone's got the money to move to or visit another planet, well then they have enough money to take their pick from a good chunk of the galaxy don't they?
All of this together means that I finally understood why John didn't ever bother charting any kind of long term course. It was downright migraine inducing.
Jobs are posted as they come up and snatched up by whatever freighter pilot is on hand to accept. You could reserve a job if it was posted ahead of time and your estimated time of arrival made the client happy, but if you were late and they had to give the job to someone else not only did you not get the job or get paid, you could also be fined if the company felt they lost money do to any delays.
Then there was the fact that most people were unwilling to hold a job in advance at all. Maybe if the portmaster or client knew that Captain would be good to their word, but that kind of trust was something you really needed to build.
So here I was sitting at my data pad contemplating even trying to find a chain of deliveries that would take me home. Because odds were anything farther that two trips would be impossible in the first place and I'd need to check every job leaving twenty six different worlds based on our estimated time of arrival for each world.
"You alright, Delia?" John asked as he walked into the kitchen.
I grunted, dropped the data pad on the table, placed my arms on the table, then buried my head in my arms.
"That bad?"
"I wanted to visit Mirial." I said to the table.
"Ah, and nothing leaving port is headed there I take it?"
I grunted again.
"... Does this mean you've decided to leave, or did you finally get serious about picking up your computer setup? You've mentioned doing that often enough."
"... Is it bad if I say I'm not sure which?" I asked, looking up.
John shook his head.
"No." John poured a glass of water then slid into the seat opposite me. "Going to talk it over with your parents when we get there?"
"Maybe." I glared at the data pad as an alert showing a new job had just been posted and another was accepted by some other crew. "Or maybe getting there will take so long I'll have already made up my mind. I want to be here, I want to be part of this… I'm just-"
"You know," John cut me off, "One of the reasons I try to avoid trouble is that I'm not a fan of fighting."
"Yeah?"
"Oh yeah. There's a video I'll have to make eventually, but I'm not exactly in a hurry to make this one, want to be my sounding board for it?" He asked.
I nodded, not quite sure where he was going with that change of topic.
"A real fight is one of the most emotional things that can happen to a person." John took a sip of his water. "And like I keep saying, Force enhanced emotions are dangerous. So if you get into a fight, be very careful, Delia. More careful than you've ever been in your life. I was trained exclusively with the Light side of the Force my whole childhood and the first time a ship I worked for came under fire… You don't think clearly the first time you're in a real fight. It takes experience to get to the point where you can think at all. I think that's part of why Jedi spar so much. Get that discipline in early, get you used to combat, at least in a controlled setting. Makes the real thing a little easier to handle."
John shrugged.
"But in my first fight, I didn't have a Master around to keep me steady. I was panicking. I reached for the Force because that's a Jedi's answer for everything, and I could have slipped and started drawing on the Dark Side. It wasn't a huge risk. I hadn't even considered dabbling in the Dark Side of the Force at that point. Keeping my emotions out of the Force was the only way I'd ever done it, but in those first few moments I was rattled and panicked and I could have slipped."
John pointed a finger at me.
"You don't have that much practice, and you've been practicing with the Dark side. If you find yourself in a fight? Slipping would be much easier for you. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, if you stayed in control. But I'd say you've got a long way to go yet before you're ready to risk drawing on the Dark Side in a fight. So be very careful if we do get in a fight, Delia."
"Is that the only reason you don't like fighting?" I asked. "Because you risk slipping into a spiral?"
"No, I'm experienced enough now that it's pretty unlikely. Though if I draw on the Dark Side in a fight intentionally… well that's a whole different lecture. No, that was just a warning I wanted you to hear while we were on the subject of fights. No, I hate fights because I'd rather not risk my neck for just anything. And because if you have to kill someone, you can feel it, in the Force."
"What?" I asked.
John smiled sadly. "Imagine one second you can feel a living being in the Force. And the next you can't. It doesn't hurt. It's just… it's unsettling. Especially if I know I'm the reason why that presence is gone. I froze up for a second the first few times it happened, but in a fight you might not have a second or two to freeze up. I had to learn to put that aside too."
"That sounds horrible, John."
"Yeah, well, even if I'd made it as a Jedi I'd still have needed to get used to that."
And if they had recruited me I would have had to get used to it too. And it wouldn't just be fights would it. If anyone near me died I'd be able to feel them passing.
"I swear you're trying to get rid of me." I glared at John.
"And the fact that it's starting to work means you're a lot smarter than the average teenager. The fact that you're still holding out says you really want to be here." John offered me a small smile. "Besides, you know me, I've got to make sure people have all the information they need to make an informed decision."
"You just like giving people so much forbidden knowledge that the whole galaxy flips."
John grinned like a shark. "That too!"
"Ok whatever. Enough with the heavy topics. Is there any way to get a flight plan to Mirial without frying my brain and checking every posted job for all of our possible destinations?" I asked.
"Well, there's one method I know that you can try. But it's not guaranteed to be quick, or to work at all for that matter. Could be a total flop, or we could end up tearing back and forth across the galaxy, maybe run an errand or two for the Force even."
I looked at John dubiously.
"How could whatever you're talking about be that unreliable?" I asked.
"Close your eyes, open yourself to the Force, think about where you're trying to go, and how much you want to be there, then let the Force choose from that list of jobs you have. It might not work if you can't sense the response properly. Or the course charted for us could involve a lot of stops between here and there with you needing to pick up on each step correctly one after another. Or the Force could decide it wants us to go somewhere else and hijack your trip for something completely different."
"This sounds like a terrible way to do things." I said.
"You would be right." John nodded.
"I could write a program to help me try and find a possible route?" I suggested.
"Do you think it would help?" John asked.
"Probably not a lot." I admitted. I mean I could totally write a program for this but unless I got really lucky and found a two step trip with someone willing to take a chance on us being punctual… It just wasn't likely to work, and checking all the jobs available on whatever world we visited really didn't need a program.
"Want to try asking the Force then?" John asked.
"Don't you want to pick our job? I mean some of these definitely pay better than others…"
"True, but the ad revenue coming in from the videos is starting to add up faster and faster. More than enough to cover the difference from a few low paying jobs. And it can only go up so long as no one tries to get them taken down."
Well if he was sure.
I picked up the data pad, opened up to the Force as best I could and thought about home, then I started scrolling.
Nothing happened. No undefinable nudges, no hairs rising on the back of my neck, no inexplicable certainty of my course… Nothing. I told John that. He shrugged.
"Told you it might not work."
"Right, very helpful, so what do I do?" I snapped.
"Keep trying, keep checking jobs when we hit a new world, and try to make up your mind one way or another."
"So, what I was already doing?"
"Yup."
"Damn it, John…" Groaning, I tossed him the datapad and headed for my bunk. If all anyone could offer me was brain frying advice that made me less sure about what I wanted I was taking a freaking nap. I'd make it home eventually. And until then, this is still where I want to be.
As my head hit the pillow a couple of nasty thoughts floated up from the back of my mind.
If John's lessons really do throw the Galaxy into chaos like Obi-Wan keeps saying, it might be a good thing to know how to defend myself. And if someone really did want to give John trouble, my face was already out there… I might already be a target.
Groaning again I slammed a second pillow down over my head. Nap. Nap now. Thoughts later. Shut up and leave me alone brain.
It took me a while to finally fall asleep.
Functionality
The Scholar
- Location
- At the Library
- Pronouns
- He
First post!
Delia is throwing out kill flags this chapter, I really hope she isn't killed off for the sake of drama.
thnx for the chapteR!
Delia is throwing out kill flags this chapter, I really hope she isn't killed off for the sake of drama.
thnx for the chapteR!
- Location
- The City of Tears, Hallownest
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Trauma flags aren't the same as death flags. Delia's a major character in this story, on the same level as Anakin and Obi-won, I sincerely doubt she'll die anytime soon, but that doesn't mean she won't end up in a fight where she freezes up or gets stuck in the dark side in a panic way before she's ready, and has to be saved by john/obi/anakin and that traumatic experience provides freshly watered fields of character development and purpose. Right now Delia is after the Force training (which she doesn't technically need to be with john for) and the adventure. We'll see what happens when that adventure she gets isn't all it's cracked up to be.
- Location
- Vancouver
It's easy to forget how young they still are. Anakin feels much more carefree here than we see him in the movies (which is fair; they're high stakes war situations for the most part).
Ah, that explains a lot, like why the Exile became a Void in the force after wiping out a planet or why so many Jedi fall/make bad choices in the clone wars. They're trained at most for taking down random criminals, not fighting in huge wars.
FullNothingness
Mostly DHMO.
I wonder how long Anakin and Obi-wan plan on sticking around. There is always a need for Jedi to do missions. Evaluating John made sense but by that is probably done as far as that goes. So unless this is a Jedi plot to use John as darksider bait they will probably be asked to move on sooner or later.