(no subject)

[luuke]

...

[Yeah, Luuke's not too sure of this. The new icons - icons of his template, because what, there aren't enough images of this one clone? No?]

[And a game with... daemons? Why is he going anywhere without C'baoth? He's struggling to match up flash-learning on speech with the real thing now. It's a little difficult... more than a little, his flash-learning isn't entirely integrated and C'baoth does not need him to speak.]


...why?

Comments

[skyguy]

[hey it's your dad. ....sort of. Either way he can feel some sort of connection, but he can't really identify it and it's making him curious.]

There are worse places, believe me.

[luuke]

[Being a clone makes all blood relationships tricky to figure out.]

[Luuke feels it too. He doesn't know what it means, doesn't know how to start finding out. He's a little smaller than Anakin, and looks him up and down with confused interest.]

[...wait, wait, he said something. Have to respond, rather laboriously.]

It's... bad enough. My Master - won't be there.

[skyguy]

Your master? [man, what is it with guys named Luke and their Masters...is what he'd probably say if he heard this man's name. But for now?]

You'll be able to go back, if you need to. Or you should be able to. [it's all up to fate...he folds his arms across his chest. The labored way of speaking is interesting, but not as interesting as...]

So, have we met before? You seem familiar.

[luuke]

Master... C'baoth. [Whose template met a fourteen-year-old Anakin and liked him. Mmm, power...]

No. I'm... not...

...Clone. I'm a clone.

[skyguy]

Master C'baoth? [his eyebrows go up in surprise, with concern and interest.] But he's gone...there's been no word of him or Outbound Flight in years.

[wait a minute.] You're a clone? Why would he have a clone as his apprentice?

[luuke]

Yes. ...He lived. Does not - remember how.

[It's strange. Are faces just this lively and he didn't notice that before?]

He wanted my - template. But my template wouldn't... stay. So. I'm... I'm good. [Though C'baoth still wants Luke, and... Luuke shies away from thinking about that.]

[skyguy]

[he frowns. While he's happy to hear of the Jedi Master's survival, what of the others on the mission? And cloning a Force-sensitive...he must be, if C'baoth wanted an apprentice. But it seems so roundabout and unnecessary.]

[that unshakable sense of familiarity is still bugging him, too.]

The template...who was he?

[luuke]

Is. Still alive. My Master... plans to, to get him back. [Even a brief conversation like this is advancing his language skills, though it's still not exactly easy.]

L-Luke Sky-wal-ker. ...Skywalker. [The extra emphasis is because he wants it said right. 'Luuke' is more elongated, it has to be made clear.]

[skyguy]

You can't force someone to learn from you, if they don't want it. [surely a Master knew something as simple as that.]

[the name makes him pause, however. It's the same name Collette had mentioned when he'd told her his own.]

Luke Skywalker? Is this guy famous or something? Because I'd never heard of him until recently.

[luuke]

He... wanted it. Master believes - he still does.

Yes. Very. [Luuke's eyes sort of glaze over as he pulls up what the flash-learning has on his template. It's all pretty abstract to him.] Rebel terrorist. Last... active Jedi. -Except for my Master. Fights the Empire. Fights - Sith. Killed Darth Vader.

[yeah whoever wrote that data didn't know the whole story.]

[Oh, idea! Luuke reaches to his belt, unclips something that was more or less hidden beneath an outer robe, holds it up in open hands. It may look familiar.] His lightsaber. ...Mine, now.

[skyguy]

What?

[what he's saying makes little sense to Anakin, and it's not the broken sentences. He shakes his head.]

Terrorist? Jedi? The last? That's not possible, there are thousands of Jedi. [but the Sith...that's the most troubling part.]

[the sight of the lightsaber distracts him, because it's the splitting image of the one hanging at his own belt. He holds it out to compare.]

That's mine. Or a pretty good...imitation. What's going on here?

[luuke]

No more. Master - [His entire demeanor changes for a moment, reflecting someone else's supreme self-confidence edged with paranoia. For a moment Luuke speaks with more ease and inflection.] They turn against us, you know. Lesser beings that they are, without the will of the Force to guide them, they are jealous.

[and moment's over. Luuke shakes his head, disoriented.]

[...that does look the same. Curiosity overcomes uncertainty, and he comes closer, glazing again as he goes for the flash-learning again.]

Maybe...

[He stops.]

[skyguy]

[at the sudden change in demeanor, Anakin leans back a little, not frightened but definitely unsettled. This clone isn't like Rex or any of his men at all. Is it because he's young, or because of some mistake his creator made?]

Maybe what? It can't just be a coincidence we have the same last name. Are you from the past, too? Like that woman claiming to be Master Revan?

[he was still skeptical; he'd learned the stories of the old days of the Republic, and Revan, the one who returned to the Order and turned their back on the Sith, had definitely been recorded as a man. Yet the woman had held such a presence in the Force that he had a hard time contradicting her.]

[luuke]

[It's one of Luuke's features. Carry on his Master's way of thinking in C'baoth's absence. Fortunately, C'baoth never got the chance to perfect it, so... Luuke is just a really good mimic when it comes to thinks C'baoth believes.]

...Same? Who are you?

Year is - forty-four GrS. [The Great ReSynchronization, a system of dates. The Clone Wars started in 13 or 14 GrS.]

[skyguy]

Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.

[well, that's new.]

Forty--the future? That's almost thirty years-- [he's visibly agitated now, shifting from one foot to the other. If he thought hard enough, he could put it all together, but his highly developed sense of denial is blocking him. The Jedi dwindled to nothing, Masters making clones for apprentices...what next?]

[luuke]

[Someone else's memories bubble up, fuzzy-edged and with that particular sense that all that C'baoth imparted to him has. Luuke squints, stares, compares this man to the image, and - yes. Yes.]

[When he's surprised or carried along by an idea, Luuke speaks quietly and with odd inflections, almost in a monotone - but more easily than usual. The usual confusion and uncertainty are replaced by a weird excitement - he's making connections, figuring something out, and he's just finding out that he likes that. He'd have noticed that agitation, otherwise.]

- He knows you. You were a Padawan. He knew you would make Knight young.

[Something flickers in Luuke's eyes as he calls on more of the flash-learning. Thanks to C'baoth interfering it never properly integrated; it doesn't feel like anything he himself learned and knows, more like the database it really is. Which contributes to his usual hesitancy and how overwhelming everything is- but it also has a couple upsides.]

[The lightsaber.]

This was yours. It passed to my template. He lost it fighting Sith. I decanted. It passed to me.

[This is awesome. There's a strange sensation in Luuke's face. He touches it with one hand. - Is he smiling?]

haha he's strangely cute

[skyguy]

Master C'baoth did, yes-- [he can feel enough emotion from the other that it confuses him. Just what was going on? Part of him feels a swell of pride--he knew you would make Knight young--but it's overshadowed by confusion. A man with his name, his lightsaber, from the future...]

[Anakin returns his weapon to his belt, his posture wary.]

Then the Sith are still a danger that far ahead. What happens when your "template" comes back? If you were supposed to replace him, what happens to you?

[luuke]

He was right. You did. [This seems to call for something else, some other comment - Luuke falters, searching for it, the confusion coming back.]

[At last, almost shyly:] I'm... glad. [Is that right? Is it appropriate? That's an opinion, would his Master approve?]

[Anyway. Luuke mirrors that, putting his own version of the lightsaber away. He's belatedly noticing the tension. What does it mean he should do... Be ready, maybe?]

He... Master will - choose. One of us.