Max Guevara (seattleangel) wrote in the100, @ 2015-12-01 09:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, jacen solo, max guevara |
Log; Jacen Solo & Max Guevara
Who: Max Guevara & Jacen Solo
When: Sometime in November-ish after this conversation. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey.
Where: Within the 5 mile perimeter.
What: Jacen promised to show her wild animals, so off they go.
Rating: Low
Status: COMPLETE.
Max had added an extra sweater underneath the jacket, and as she stepped outside she was incredibly grateful that she had. It got cold here. Seattle, well, Seattle could be cold. Especially in winter, when the rain would just fall most of the afternoon and if you weren't careful it would start leaking in the cracks of your building, and all you really wanted was a warm bath even if you had to boil up every bucket of water separately, but it didn't freeze. There weren't snow storms, and it wasn't anything like it was here. Of course, there was a lot here that wasn't like home. At home cities existed, and the governments that ran them did too, there were folks that lived mostly like it had been before the pulse despite the great number of people Max knew who didn't live with much at all. But there were ways to travel from place to place, roads and infrastructure existed, even if you'd occasionally come across a washed out and unrepaired bridge. It wasn't as if it was gone entirely. No it was more depressed and difficult to come by. This place, well, if there were cities they weren't anywhere near here. There was technology in the mountain, and the military weapons weren't so dissimilar from those Max had been trained in as an X5, but the mountain itself was at times more sparse than her apartment at home had been, and certainly there weren't roads. It was one of the things she couldn't help but wonder about - were there cities that still existed, and if so how far away? Did Seattle still exist, or was it just a pile of rubble? Was this a future version of the planet she was familiar with? Or something else entirely? Some of her questions had gotten answered, some hadn't, but the most important and pressing one was whether or not she was a prisoner here - and whether or not the government was going to try to use her - and the answer that she had come to settle on was neither was necessarily true. She suspected she could have left if she'd wanted to, and so far the military didn't seem to be so much interested in fighting, as in simply protecting what was within the mountain. Fair enough, she could live with that - for now. The other thing that had helped her settle on it, was that there were other people who seemed to be able to do things even more bizarre than her abilities, and they seemed to be walking free - so either it was a really good trick, or it was the truth. And so she'd settled into the art of trying to make friends, something she'd never been particularly good at. There had always been too many reasons not to. And even the friends she had, she tended to keep secrets from - too many questions to be answered, and too many reasons for them to report her or become afraid of what she could do. Whether that existed in a world where she lived in the same mountain as real live werewolves Max really couldn't say, but maybe she was on her way to finding a few friends. Jacen Solo had been friendly, at least. Friendly enough for her to drop her walls enough to go on this animal adventure with him, because it was a little impressive, she had to admit. Although not to him. She rather got the feeling that he didn't need anyone telling him he was a little impressive. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and gave Jacen a quick grin as she walked towards him. "All right, Mr Awesome," the slight emphasis on the word suggested he had yet to prove he deserved the title. "Where are we going?" Jacen had settled reasonably well into this world and the way people lived here. He’d been given a job working with animals and he’d come from a time where he’d been at somewhat of a turning point. He had wanted to go off after the war was won and explore, learn. And now here he was. A whole world to explore. And his family were here too, all of them. Even Luke, Mara and Ben. They were really just missing Tenel Ka and Tahiri. But they were safe, and that meant enough for now. Besides which he’d kind of accepted he’d never get to be with Tenel Ka. She had to be a Queen. She had to lead 63 worlds and he… Well, he usually brought trouble along for the ride wherever he went. And he wouldn’t do that to her and her people. Besides it was a moot point. He was here, in this odd world and he was even sort of happy. Not that he was admitting that just yet. The only other thing that bothered him was of course his past, and his family's future. Anakin’s death. The toll the war took on Jaina. On himself. All of them. But today wasn’t about that. Today was about getting out, about showing Max the world they’d found themselves in. And it wasn’t actually that far from the mountain. He’d found some creatures, ones he knew would hurt people if they felt threatened but didn’t actually have any intention of coming near the mountain. Jacen had spent a long time getting to know the parents, and the little cubs. Some kind of canine creature so he was told. And they were truly beautiful. Noble in ways he was proud to learn about. And Max had asked to see something interesting. He liked her, she reminded him of Danni in some ways and Tenel Ka in some others. Which was a combination of awesome that made his mind race on occasion. But there it was. And she was fast becoming a friend. Even if he wasn’t sure she appreciated his amazingness entirely. There was totally still time for that. He flashed her a grin people kept telling him was just like his Dad’s and nodded to the west. “Out that way a little bit and then we do some tracking.” he told her. “That is, if you can keep up.” he added, starting off ahead of her. The thing about talking over the network is that you completely missed on all the subtleties of behavior and motion that you got in person. Max had to admit that Jacen was a pretty picture. It was no wonder he thought of himself as awesome, probably no one had ever really told him otherwise. Which mostly made Max think it was probably her duty to help him out in that regard, even if that smile was a little on the dazzling side. And this was from a girl who'd had plenty of dazzling smiles thrown her way. Usually she could tell the bad eggs from the rest - hopefully she wasn't losing her touch. But then the challenge had been issued and she shook her head as she quickly picked up her pace to fall in beside him. Yep. Definitely her duty to check out the veracity of his statements. "I'll have you know I aced tracking," she pointed out easily and she looked up at him. "And I can keep up with most people. In fact with most folks it's me they can't keep up with," she offered him a quick smirk. "So what did you find out here in the woods? A raccoon? A family of squirrels? It had best not be snakes." “Why would it be snakes, what did Jaina…” Dammit she might have just meant that and not talked to Jaina. Who was still not over the whole unfortunate Crystal Snake thing which he maintained was hardly his fault. And it had been perfectly friendly most of the time. Or the amphistaffs, which Jaina was also not over. At all. They were entirely well behaved for sentient bio weapons. It would be fine. But importantly no, they weren’t snakes they were going to see. “Anyway, if I told you what we were going to see it’d ruin it. You’ll like them. Just follow my lead and be polite and respectful. It’s all creatures tend to want. You know why most ‘wild’ animals attack humans. Cause humans come in and wreck their homes, kill them. It’s the same on a lot of worlds but there are some where its harmonious. And on those, it’s beautiful. I met a living world recently. An actual living planet. I can’t even begin to describe it but it’s all this one beautiful world. And there’s the World Brain, it’s...it’s a friend. I guess you could describe it as the birth of a world. It shapes things, creates, forms. It thinks, it learns. You hurt it, it feels pain, you betray it…” Jacen shook his head. “Sorry, it’d been a weird few months before I got here.” After a few minutes he took a sharp turn right, heading into some denser woodland, still well within the 5 mile perimeter. “What was your world like? I mean I still can’t imagine what it’s like to have only known one world, but I’m curious.” Max grinned. Well there was something to ask Jaina about. She'd mostly been teasing with the snakes - well, mostly. She could handle snakes, but she didn't much care for sharing space with them. There'd been one once in the crawl space beside her bed, and - well, she'd gotten used to anything over the years but it didn't mean she would go for it if she was given the option one way or another. "I can handle that," Max said, listening as she stuck her hands in her pocket to keep up. It sounded pretty incredible - a planet that was living, like a creature. It wasn't anything she had any reference to and it was difficult to contemplate how it might change life on a planet. Would it make people more likely to be kind to each other, when the planet itself could feel and present emotion? Or would people be equally likely to mess each other up? It kinda seemed hard to contemplate that kind of harmony. "You can definitely cut harmonious out of the descriptor," she responded with a wry smile as she kept up beside him. . "I mean, what's weird is it's not unlike this one in a lot of ways. We call it Earth, you look at the old maps of this one in the library, and we had similar countries and cities, of course we hadn't really blown each other off the map, or you know have a whole bunch of people living in space. So it's definitely different from this, despite those similarities." But the differences were what made it her home. "We had cities. Actual cities, not settlements or whatever the grounders have here. When I was younger there was an EMP that went off and fried all the electronics, and things got bad. People went crazy, services weren't as easy to come by, a lot of the cities buckled down to try to keep things under control. The smaller towns don't really trust outsiders - and why would they? All the folks in the cities tried to come in and take stuff from them when things were bad. We didn't really do space stuff - like people went to the moon, but nothing like what I'm sure you're used to." The moon. Just that one moon. He didn’t know what to do with that just yet. He was still getting used to being planet bound. But he got what had happened. “Planet fried. Tech falls apart so do the people. It happened back home during the war. People so used to one way of life, some adapt some don’t. And yeah, you see the worst in some of them. Its got to be a hard world to live in all your life. Do you even remember before it?” He wasn’t sure if talking about it was hard for her or if she’d gotten used to it, but either way he didn’t want to push her if she wasn’t. He focused on the path ahead, using his senses to ensure their safety and guiding them to their destination. Walking this far and talking about topics like this were an interesting combination. In a way he’d hoped for lighter conversation but maybe he just wasn’t good at that anymore. “So, okay, it’s not far now, half a mile more maybe. And if they’ve nested for the winter they’ll be around there.” They were there, he could feel it, and he nudged the father of the little pack with the Force. He was here just to visit. He wasn’t a threat and neither was his friend. It was safe. They were safe. He let himself smile, excited at seeing them again, showing them off. “Come on!” he said enthused, grabbing her by the hand for the last stretch of distance. What happened before was of course a more tricky question. Did Max remember before the pulse? Yeah, sure. But what she remembered and what most people remembered of life before the pulse weren't really things that could match up. And Manticore, well, it wasn't something she easily talked to anyone about. Who she was, all the little pieces of DNA that had been stirred together to make up Max Guevara X5-452, they were complicated things for most people to understand and most people treated her differently. Sometimes people surprised her. Like Original Cindy, and Logan… but she didn't yet know if Jacen was one of those people who wouldn't look at her like she was a freak. Then again… he was sitting here talking about a living planet as if it were normal. She glanced over at him. Maybe… "Yeah, I remember it a bit," she offered. "And I mean, the thing is, you get to see some good folks too. My roommate, my best friend," Logan, "there are bright spots, and at this point, you know, when I'm from - ten years out or whatever, most people just want to live and are doing what they can to get by and get the stuff they need. We all do a little bit of whatever it takes. And hey, I've got wheels, which makes it decidedly better than here,' she laughed. She missed her motorcycle almost as much as she missed her friends. But she stopped when he reached for her hand, and despite the fact that she didn't know him that well she let the action stay - he seemed genuinely excited about whatever it is they were going to go find and the enthusiasm was somewhat contagious. She really hoped that whatever it was they were going to find, it wasn't going to kill them. But she could do polite, and she could do respectful, and hey, she was part various animals in her DNA so it wasn't as if this wasn't remotely familiar, right? Sure. "Do I need to be quiet?" She asked, doubling her step once, and tightening her hand around his just briefly. "Or are they going to be okay with words and talking?" She and those people, they were building a new world, and it was something to be proud of. He’d even tell her so once they were on their way back. But right now they were just so close. And he couldn’t wait to show her his friends. “You don’t need to be quiet. They’ll understand, because I will.” he told her “Just talk to them like you would anyone else. It’s just the same, you just don’t know their language.” He told her to slow slightly and finally ducked low as they came to a glade, there was a cave structure nearby but that was home, and he wouldn’t intrude there. They were here to visit.He sat down, beckoning Max to sit beside him and waited a few moments, stretching out in the Force, letting them know there was no threat here, only friends. Reminding them that they knew him. And slowly, they came to see him. A wolf pack. Father, mother, cubs. Beta wolf a little further back, some mutated, some marred by radiation but still thriving and still magnificent. And still, in the wrong circumstances, very very dangerous. A cub scampered across to Jacen who simply let it sniff around him, sensing it’s young curiosity. His eyes met that of the pack mother. She knew he wasn’t threat. But the other, there was much in her the mother did not understand. Jacen reiterated that Max was friend, she was with him. “She doesn’t know what you are.” he said simply, there was no judgement in his eyes. Nothing but curiosity. “She knows you’re with me and she trusts me. But she said there’s something about you she can sense. But we’re all safe here, I promise.” he added turning his eyes to the pack Alpha with a respectful nod. He also knew he wasn’t in charge here. Not unless he had to be, and he really had no intention of disrupting their hierarchy. Max glanced over at him wondering for a minute if he could actually understand them, and make them understand her, but then there was a wolf cub with grey white fur who was sniffing around Jacen, and Max couldn't help a small smile of wonder. She glanced over at the other animals, keeping her head lowered even as her eyes checked them out. Oddly enough, she could understand pack behavior - it wasn't so dissimilar in some ways to how the X-5's had been trained. There were times that bothered her, the idea that she'd been treated and trained as little more than an animal, and with as much freedom as a domesticated one might have, but there were moments when it came in handy. Normally it was because Max needed to show strength and dominance, but right now she could step back. They weren't all what she would have considered picture perfect, and even with the smile the cub brought, there was some difficulty not cringing when she saw some of the imperfections. They were in a world that had attempted to destroy itself, but despite that - it had still managed to survive. These animals had still managed to survive, and probably there was a lesson in there, right now, there were just these wolves. "You can really understand them?" she looked over at him, gently putting a hand out so the young one could sniff her if it wished. Ever the endless skeptic, Max had seen some wild claims in her life, but she didn't sense any dishonesty in Jacen's claim here, as unlike anything she'd ever seen before it might be. "How?" How he understood them was a whole list of reasons most easily summed up with the Force. But he knew how annoying that could be to non Force users as a reason a lot of the time. “It’s a lot of things.” he explained. “Partly it’s being a Jedi. Partly it’s empathic. Partly I just...I’ve always understood them. And I don’t speak basic to them or anything. It’s...communication by concept, by feeling, if that makes sense. They know me as someone to trust. I talk to them and they understand.” He watched her with the little cub and watched the mother realise that yes, her child was safe here. She eased off a little, padding over to Jacen herself while Max played with the little one. “She knows me. I’ve been here before and they see me as a friend. So now they’re seeing you, being with me is helping your case, how you are with the cub is helping. It’s making them see you’re a good person. Or well, no, you don’t have to be good just, good to them. Good in their eyes, they don’t share the same morality most beings do. It’s a lot more clean cut and in some ways that’s better. It's what this world needs to do right now. It’s burned, and twisted and broken but it’s not dead yet. It’s like a garden, everything’s part of it but weeds have grown all over the place because no one cared about it, but now the weeds hurt them. So you pear those back bit by bit and what’s left, what grows after is stronger. That’s what this world is doing. It’s fighting back, just like these wolves are. It’s amazing to watch them. The life they’ve made here. That one, he had to fight for his place” he told her looking over at the Alpha. “He earned it. And he trusts me because I respect that, because I’m not here to challenge him. You see?” Max wasn't entirely certain that any of those things entirely made sense. She guessed she understood being able to read people, so maybe this was being able to read animals. It was a similar sort of thing, just with furry creatures that didn't speak languages rather than two legged creatures who did. The Jedi thing too, well, it was one of those things Max felt like she ought to know more about - she'd heard of the idea after all. It was a Star Wars thing, and people liked to talk about those and make references she didn't understand because she hadn't seen them as a kid, and after the pulse she really had been more focused on surviving and staying out of Manticore's way. For now though she couldn't help a grin as the little cub's nose hit up against her hand. He was pretty cute, even if Max was certain that his mom could probably tear her apart if she wanted too. Well, she'd just have to make certain the mom didn't want too, especially cause Max was pretty certain it'd ruin whatever it was Jacen was doing with them. "You know, only half of that made any sense to me," she tilted her head up and gave him a look. "But it kinda sounded like you wanted us to be wolves. Just a little." There was a certain amount of it that made sense maybe. In a way she thought it sounded like something she could understand. Respect, earning it, not letting people get away with shit or take things from you that you'd worked hard for. Most of her life had been some variation of that, with the addition of running from the thing larger than you that you were never going to win against. Although recently even that had seemed more difficult to do. Understanding half of it was more than he’d known at the start. Max though, she understood in a way he didn’t think many would. There was something about her, something the wolves sensed that made it more likely. He wasn’t quite sure what that something was but it gave her a view on the world he didn’t often see. “I’m not sure it’d be so bad to be a wolf. They live hard lives but they’re strong and they’re together no matter what the world throws at them. A bit like my family actually.” he grinned looking at the cub fussing at her. “That one’s Anakin. Wants to be listened to. Wants to go all out and independant, so long as he knows where the rest of us are. And that one,” he added pointing to a cub basically attached to the Alpha, trying to drag it over to see something it found. “That one is Jaina.” He didn’t assign a cub to himself. He had decided he was something else a while ago, maybe some Omega wolf off on its own. He probably shouldn’t have read so much about wolves. Ultimately though, the analogy held true. This world was a garden. And maybe they were all here to be the gardeners. It was a dangerous thought if it was true. And not a responsibility he wanted. “I think it’d be freeing to just have to worry about surviving. I mean, you wouldn’t have to work, or think about impressing people who don’t even believe you when you tell them you’re awesome. Imagine it.” he told her with another of the smirks he’d inherited from Han. Max raised an eyebrow at him. "Hey, when most people tell me they're awesome, they just aren't and I've had a lot of people try to convince me of it when there was no way. You can't blame a girl for being cautious with such self-proclamations." She shrugged easily. Max had known that his family was here, but she didn't know them well. She'd talked to Jaina a bit, and she had watched Anakin during Capture the Flag games, but it was interesting to hear their brother's descriptions of them nonetheless. It made her wonder about the other X5's - her family more or less. She knew what had happened to some of them, but some she still didn't know. The description of his family though - it sounded like hers. They'd all made their way in a world that was harsh, against odds that should have been enough to break them. And to be fair, with some - it had. She frowned slightly as she thought of Tinga, her husband and her son - hopefully they'd keep being strong. "What about you?" She shook the thoughts of her own family off and instead turned to look over at him. He had nice eyes over that ridiculous smirk. "Which one's you?" Of course she’d asked it. He should have been expecting it and thought more. He could have said he was the Alpha. Gotten all bravado about it. Probably should have. But he knew there was no world in which he was the Alpha. It wasn’t a role he’d ever take willingly. But equally he wasn’t the Beta. He was no one’s second choice. He had not lost any fight and given up. Which left the one he really was, that lone Omega. In the end he shrugged, “I don’t think I’m any of the ones here. But that’s okay, neither are you. I’m not sure you’re a wolf. You’re more, I don’t know. I could see you being like, a tiger or something?” Which now he’d said it sounded like the most ridiculous thing he’d ever said in his life. Because he was an idiot. And was trying to distract her from the whole him as a wolf thing. He should have said he was the Alpha and been all suave about it and moved on. He’d bet his Dad would have said he was the Alpha. Kriff the Alpha was judging him. He could even tell. The Alpha was a jerk and was amused. He would not be mocked by a wolf even if it was the biggest baddest one. He needed to fix this. And he didn’t know why it came to his mind, he really didn’t. But he’d said it before he could stop himself. “...Hey, what do you call a lost wolf?” Max froze a little at his suggestion, her hand stayed out towards the cub, and she half wished she were looking elsewhere. Her rational mind told her that he was just joking, and she shouldn't take any of it seriously, but then part of her wondered if he could tell somehow. He could communicate with animals, and could he tell she wasn't entirely human? I mean, she was human, of course she was human, but all of the other things that were mixed in there - and feline DNA, well it was the DNA that caused her the most difficulties, about once every year. Her cheeks heated as she was suddenly really glad that Jacen hadn't been around her when she'd first arrived. Thank goodness Katniss had helped her out and not Jacen, because probably - well, that train of thought was going to go nowhere good at all. She shook her head and pulled herself back to his question which had startled her almost as much as the tiger suggestion. Somewhere in the past minute or two this conversation had spiraled into something dangerously close to uncomfortable, and she couldn't even say how it had, so she pulled her focus back and forced herself to breathe and looked up at him. "What do you call a lost wolf?" She repeated back at him. "Not 'lost wolf'?" “A where-wolf” he said back. Still mostly stuck more on what he’d said and her reaction than the joke itself. Even though it was hilarious and he was still a comedian. Something in what he’d said had gotten to her and he wasn’t quite sure what it was. He fussed the little cubs for a minute or two more before turning back to Max. “Should we start heading back now maybe. I don’t want to be gone too long, and these guys need to start hunting for the night.” he told her, eyes locking with the mother wolf as the little cubs scarpered back to her. “It’s still good time for us to maybe see some birds on the way back?” Birds were boring. But it was conversational. And maybe they’d see a vulture? Who were creepy but at least interesting. He’d totally messed this up. It took Max a minute to figure out what he was saying and when she did she couldn't help the shaking of her head and the short laugh. "A 'where wolf'," she repeated again. When was the last time someone had joked in front of her? They were sitting on a planet that demonstrably more depressed than her own planet, and there were still jokes to be had. She wasn't certain that she wanted to go. She'd honestly forgotten about the cold even though they were sitting still, and she'd liked meeting the wolves even if she didn't really understand what it was Jacen was able to do to keep them so calm. But he could, and there was something impressive about that. She wasn't certain how you could use it - and then she cursed herself for trying to come up with a purpose for it. Maybe not everything needed to be a tool or skill one took into a battlefield. There were times where even now it felt like the training she'd gotten at Manticore seemed to override everything else and she couldn't quite stop thinking like a soldier. But she stepped back anyway and nodded at Jacen. "Sure," she agreed. "I mean, if you still have evidence to present in the case for your awesomeness, we can check out some birds before the jury goes to deliberate." Okay so that hadn’t gone as awfully as he thought. And she seemed to be having fun. Maybe she didn’t want to go yet but now he’d said it. And really the pack did have to hunt soon. And they did have to be back at the stupid mountain. So it made sense to leave now. And she had sort of even laughed at his joke. So she appreciated his genius. Maybe there was hope for this day yet. Being with her was freeing in a lot of ways, being out in the open like this, being free. It mattered so much that he was still able to do this, and be this Jacen after so long being someone...else. “The jury needs to take into account the levels of awesomeness inherent in the creator of such an exceptional joke.” he added amused. “But if the jury is ready to go, the defendant can remind the jury that he might just have brought a snack which he is happy to share if the jury admits he is awesome.” |