WHO: Anakin Solo & Tahiri Veila WHEN: 5 December (backdated) WHERE: the Solo apartments/ranch house. SUMMARY: Anakin & Tahiri are decorating a Christmas tree, and there's - strangeness afoot. WARNINGS: None that I can think of?
"Marshmallows?" Anakin asked from the kitchen as he used the Force to get them down off of the top shelf. Aunt Mara would probably scold him for that, but he didn't really care. He was feeling festive and like just enjoying the whole day including using the Force for silly things like marshmallow gathering. "Nico should be home later," he added, as he dumped a hearty amount into both of the cocoas and gave one to Fiver to carry in towards the living room.
The nice thing about the living room in the Coruscant apartment - which was what their Texas Ranch house living room looked like - was that it was tall, and had a lot of space for a Christmas Tree and this year, they seemed to have picked out a really beautiful one.
"Fiver why don't you put on some music?" He told the droid, even if that might be a little bit dangerous. "Where shall we start?" He turned to look at his best friend.
Tahiri had found the movies a nice crash course in Christmas and what to expect. It was a bit hokey. And it was delightful. The tree stood tall and majestic. Tahiri grabbed a box with lights and gently shook it. “Lights, then ornaments, then the top of the tree,” she declared. Mostly because the lights wound in loops. Even using the Force, it felt right.
She looked at the tree. “Don’tcha think?”
"Definitely the top of the tree last," Anakin agreed reaching for the lights as Fiver started Christmas music playing. Rockin' around the Christmas Tree started up, which felt like an auspicious song to begin the process with. "I don't think that Nico will even care if we have mostly started with the lights. I think everyone universally agrees lights are the most challenging, and we do have Jedi powers," he grinned. "So, let's see what we can get done?"
They'd been here long enough, him and Nico, to actually have a few ornaments collected over the years. And unfortunately as he started looking through the box, they were all on top. He made a noise of irritation as he pulled out the ornaments. "Of course I'd have put the lights on the bottom! I think it's going to be the best tree though - way better than last years."
“Use the Force, Anakin!” Tahiri giggled while she suggested it. Even so she started floating the ornaments into the air above the lights. “If we’re going to use it for the lights, we might as well use it to get the lights. And this year, when we bring it down, we can put them on top.” And if future them decided, next year, that ornaments went first, they would still have the Force.
“How’s it better than the previous trees?” Tahiri asked. It was a handsome tree, taller than she was. Its base was hidden beneath low branches and like that, it looked alive. If trees grew indoors and in a room like this one to boot.
“It just will be,” Anakin reached under the ornaments and pulled out lights. “It’s like that every year,” he grinned cheekily at Tahiri. “I learned it from the movies. Every year’s Christmas tree is the best. Tada!” He held up lights and considered the tree.
It was a particularly fine specimen, tall, it was going to take a lot of space in front of the tall windows and Anakin was really alright with that. It’d look fabulous from the outside too. And it was full, lots of branches-except. “Tahiri… does it droopy to you?”
“I suppose that’s always good for this year’s tree,” Tahiri said. Since last year’s was wherever old Christmas trees went. She wanted to imagine a forest of retired trees but knew better. That was how life went, for everything and everyone. She couldn’t prevent trees from dying anymore than she could ignore the fact that one day Anakin would die. Preferably in the far far future.
“Hmm?” Tahiri turned back toward the tree, concerned her thoughts had somehow pulled some of the life out of it. “I have not seen many trees, just the ones where we got it,” she began, but Tahiri frowned, “I do think you’re right.” Not that it was likely to do anything, but she began gliding one hand in along a branch, closer to the trunk that wasn’t even visible from the edge of the tree. Her hand ran along the bark. “You not okay, friend?”
She looked back at Anakin. “Drooping isn’t… a natural tree thing, right?”
Anakin sat back on his heels considering the tree from his angle on the floor. "I don't think so. I mean, eventually, yeah, cause they only last so long cut, but… I feel like this one was fine a moment ago, and now it's… definitely drooping."
He stood up and reached over to the branches, running his fingers along them gently. As he did, it almost seemed as if the tree perked up, and he stopped and stepped back staring at it intently. "Huh."
Tahiri felt the branches rise, pressing slightly against her arm. That definitely happened. That had just happened, when Anakin had… pet the tree. She didn’t simply press her hand against it now, but she stroked the tree with long slow motions, the way she had pet her bantha on Tatooine. “There is so much I don’t know about trees,” Tahiri said.
She looked over at Anakin and mouthed, ‘It’s alive!’ Which, given it was cut, as Anakin had put it, seemed to mean it wouldn’t likely stay that way very long. And while that was fine, generally, with the course of life, most things didn’t stay alive after you cut off a vital part of them. Like roots.
Anakin glanced over and then back at the tree. I mean, of course the tree had been alive but it had also been cut down, so it wasn't alive, alive, was it?
But no, the tree seemed to be responding to their touch, and as the music switched again, perking up, the tree itself seemed to perk up. "Wait a minute…" curiosity settled in and he changed the song back to a rather melancholy version of 'I'll be home for Christmas' only to have the tree's branches seem to visibly droop again. "What in the stars?"
She didn’t know Christmas music, but Tahiri kissed the end of one branch on the tree and murmured song affectionate noises. Then she pressed to skip the song and glanced back at the tree, doing so until it perked up again. “Okay, there, tree,” Tahiri declared.
Looking back at Anakin, Tahiri shrugged. “Maybe this tree is displaced, like us,” she suggested, “From a place where this is… normal.” It was the best she had as one of the least tree experts around. If it wasn’t normal tree behavior, then it wasn’t a normal tree.
That wasn't the most ridiculous idea that Anakin had ever heard. He didn't know of anything like this - no story, or television show that he could think of - but that didn't mean that it didn't exist. "It definitely seems to be like, paying attention to things." He paused. "You're a very pretty tree though, and this is a really cool feature."
He could have sworn that the tree actually lifted its branches at him.
"Do you think it's okay to decorate still? Do you think the other trees are like this?"
Tahiri made her way to the decorations and found a glass red/white hook, something she had seen around the stores but couldn’t remember the name of. Even so, she carried it casually, held out on full display, back toward the tree and waggled it. “What do you think, tree?” Tahiri asked. “Want to get dressed?”
One branch seemed to extend, so Tahiri gently hooked the decoration around it. “I’d say yes, but… still think we should let it decide what it likes and doesn’t,” she said. Then she thought about it. “I don’t know. But we could check. Could easily go either way.” Tahiri wasn’t sure which way she wanted it to be. The trees had all been cut at the place where they’d bought this tree. It felt hard enough to make sure to save one. Tens or hundreds?
"I guess we can ask for each ornament," Anakin suggested, stepping forward and giving the tree a bit of a caress. "Seems like the right thing to do, and if they don't like it, then we can just - not do that one."
And if there were only five ornaments on the tree, that was fine. Even if it was the strangest way he'd ever decorated a tree. "Maybe we should go back after we finish, to check?"
Tahiri nodded. It only seemed fair. The tree was the one that would wear them. And they weren’t helping keep it alive, so it wasn’t like taking care of a toddler and making sure it wore proper clothes in the cold. Though, this one would need… well something like that. Later. “We have a plan,” she agreed.
Not having strong attachments to any of the decorations in the boxes, Tahiri focused more on the Force, on reaching a meditative state, where she could reach out and connect with the tree, as she often did Anakin. They were alive, and so they had much in common. She let her hands float over the choices until one felt right. And smiled.
Anakin pulled one out, and considered it before offering it to the edge of a branch of the tree and feeling as if there was satisfaction there. This would definitely rank at the top of his strange Christmas Tree decorating experiences, but hey - what was Tumbleweed if not occasionally rather strange?