I'm no Jedi (ahsoka_tano) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-12-20 22:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, ahsoka tano, elizabeth comstock |
Um, hello? Are you real?
Who: Ahsoka Tano and Elizabeth C
What: Randomly at the book store
When: Early December
Where: Bookstore
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13
The day hadn’t started out too well for Ahsoka. She’d relived the dreams about Anakin. Not just realizing he and the Sith were the same person, but everything. Beginning to end, and in hindsight she should have seen it coming. His fall was a long one, and bit by bit it became more obvious as an outside observer. They’d all been so blind.
She’d jogged to clear her mind, meditated a bit, then left her apartment with every intention of finding something to distract her. She’d wound up in a book store, and naturally had gravitated towards the Sci-Fi section.
Unfortunately she’d been so frazzled that she’d left without her glamour, exposing her unique features to anyone who dreamed.
So an alien stood in between the shelves perusing a book about… aliens.
Elizabeth was browsing the bookshelves, humming to herself. She didn’t see Ahsoka at first, being too absorbed by the covers of the books she was browsing. When she looked up she startled, blinking at the strange woman standing before her. “Um, hello? Are you real?”
"Uhm, what?" Ahsoka looked at the woman, then reached up to feel her head. Shit shit. Peace. Calm. Serenity. She exhaled. "Oh. I forgot my glamour today." She dropped her hand to her side. "Yes, I'm real. You can see the real me? Orange and the lekku and everything?" She gestured to the tendrils on either side of her head to indicate what a lekku was.
Elizabeth nodded and recovered her manners. “Yes, but orange looks lovely on you. It’s nice to meet you.” She offered a hand t shae as though this was a normal meeting. It was in every respect that mattered.
Ahsoka smiled ruefully, then took Elizabeth’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you too. First time...meeting someone who’s been changed by their dreams?” It could be a shock. It had been kind of a shock when she’d met Raven. “I usually have a magical glamour that makes me look normal.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “No. I mean the person I met wasn’t changed so much, but he had special powers that he showed off for me.” She grinned a little, pleased to know something before it became important for once. “You look beautiful, it’s a shame that you have to hide.”
“It was worse before, when I was first adjusting.” Ahsoka put the book back and turned fully to Elizabeth. She was taller, even without the horns. An orange flush creeped across her face and she was thrown off. “Thanks. I uhm. Thanks.” She didn’t usually get complimented like that, especially by a pretty girl.
“I can only imagine how disorienting that would be. I don’t think I look any different in my dreams, except I’m missing part of my pinky.” She held up her right pinky to demonstrate. “I wonder if that means I’ll lose it eventually.” That was a somewhat disturbing thought. “Anyway, I’m Elizabeth, what’s your name?”
“That’s...possible,” Ahsoka conceded. She hadn’t really lost any body parts, just had them altered, but some people had claimed scars. “I’m Ahsoka Tano.” She held out her hand, which looked like any other hand except for the coloring.
Elizabeth shook Ahsoka’s hand, smiling brightly. “Do you have any recommendations as far as books go? I’m not normally a fiction reader but someone told me I should give it a try.”
“I’m a huge geek,” Ahsoka said. “Always liked things like Star Trek and science fiction. And Fantasy with sword!” She glanced over at the shelf. There was Star Wars too, but that was still a strange and distressing thing for her. The last thing she wanted to read about was Anakin’s fall and the rise of the Empire.
“Star Trek?” Elizabeth asked, looking at the books curiously. “That sounds like a good one. I love to read about real life travel, so fantastic travel should be even more fun!” She beamed at Ahsoka, pleased to have found someone helpful on her search.
"Yeah." Had Elizabeth never heard of it? "All the series are on Netflix and Amazon if you need to catch up. I've read a couple of books, but my interest kind of shifted after I started to turn into an alien." She gestured at herself. "In my dreams I was part of an Order, like warrior monks. Then this big war happened and they were all wiped out, but I'd left the Order so I ended up surviving."
That was somehow less painful to say than she'd expected.
Elizabeth’s eyes went wide and she looked Ahsoka over again. “So you know space kung fu or something? That’s really neat! Um, oh, but I’m sorry it turned out badly. I think that might be a theme for the dreams after reading the network.”
She smiled, ducking her head a little. "I know how to fight hand to hand. And with a laser sword. I'm also a hot shot pilot but not quite as good as my master was. I was a General at fifteen, though. I don't recommend that part." Part of her wanted to show off, and she casually floated a little plastic space ship over to Elizabeth. "And then there's that too."
Elizabeth was all kinds of impressed, especially by the floating spaceship. “That’s so neat! How do you do it?” She wondered if some people had talents that could be taught. If she was going to be a in a city full of powered people she ought to try to take advantage of it.
“There’s this force that flows through all living things. Some people are more sensitive to it than others and can learn to work with it. That’s what my order did, worked with this force. Only they kind of lost their way.” She set the space ship back down. “The Living Force is neither good nor evil, but there are those who would turn it to evil purposes, and you can literally feel the darkness dripping off of them.”
Elizabeth nodded. That sounded a lot like certain Eastern religions. “That kind of makes sense. How strange that someone would choose to use it for evil.” She couldn’t really understand the draw to do bad things. Who would willingly choose to hurt others?
"Sometimes it starts with you wanting to do good," Ahsoka explained. It wasn't so much excusing actions as clarification. "And you can take the easy path, the path to more power. And then it makes you want more power. Or you start doing terrible things because you can excuse your actions, say it's for the greater good, only your view of what's good has become twisted. It can start with fear, which then makes you angry. You start hating the things you fight against and the Dark Side feeds on that. Dark Side users often believe that they're actually the good guys. But you can come back from it."
She thought about Asajj, who had never really become a pious symbol of the light she'd still walked a grayer path instead of a dark one. " Redemption is never impossible. It's just a... long and difficult path. Its why the Order is forbidden from having attachments. But a lot of them just cut off their emotions entirely. I don't entirely agree. How can you have compassion and help people if you don't let yourself feel emotions for them?"
Elizabeth wasn’t sure what to make of all that. Didn’t good intentions count for anything? Then again, the path to Hell was supposed to be paved with them, so maybe that made sense. “It sounds like a difficult line to stay on the correct side of things. Losing your emotions can only make you less. . .human.” Or whatever Ahsoka was.
"It can be difficult to stay the line." Ahsoka chuckled, and ran a hand down one lekku. "But rewarding. Good friendships, people who become family. Even if they did frown upon things like love and companionship. Maybe things would have gone differently if they'd been more open minded." She shifted her tone deeper and mocked. "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Ahsoka snorted. "Maybe the Jedi should have listened to their own advice."
She sighed. "I didn't mean to start ranting. I don't even know why I'm here today. I think books make things less lonely. What other things do you like to read? Maybe I can recommend a few things."
“Books do make things less lonely.” Elizabeth said with a nod. “I like to read documentaries and books about how things work. Maybe a book about fictional worlds would suit me better than a regular storybook.” She liked stories, but she liked to learn even more.
“Some books are a little of both. Authors who build whole worlds and try to make them work.” Ahsoka shrugged. “Like those Game of Throne books. But they’re pretty hard to read.”
“What makes them hard to read? Are they written poorly?” Elizabeth had more than one book to her name that was difficult to slog through because the writer understood their subject better than they understood how to write.
“They’re written really well, but they’re very heavy with facts and details and stuff about the world at large so it can be a little dry in places. Kind of like The Lord of the Rings. And some of the content can be really hard to read through for some people. Rape and a lot of violence.”
Elizabeth made a face. “No, I don’t think I’m up for that. The real world is scary enough without adding a scary fake world to the attic of my brain.” She worried that she would never be used to having her freedom or the challenges that came with having it. Worrying about being victimized wasn’t going to help her in the long run.
Ahsoka nodded. “I get that. I can probably give you a few other books that don’t have stuff like that.” Elizabeth seemed like someone who could use something that was fun with an undercurrent of depth. She pulled out a Discworld book. “You might like this.”
The book was curious. The picture on the front was unlike those of the volumes surrounding the pair. Elizabeth smiled, reading the back of the book. “Thank you. I’m sure I will.” She put the book under her arm and smiled at Ahsoka. “What do you do with your spare time beside shepard lost girls in the bookstore?”
Smiling back (not that it was hard to smile at a pretty girl), Ahsoka shrugged a shoulder. "I do a lot of gaming and reading. Sometimes I'll meditate. I like to jog." She lifted an arm and flexed. "Gotta keep fit! I train a lot too."
“You do look very fit,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “What sort of games did you play? My grandfather taught me poker but I’m not very good at it.” She giggled a little, remembering how badly she’d lost to him the last time they played. “I don’t have much of a poker face.”
"Video games." Ahsoka laughed and rubbed her rear lekku. "But I think I'm pretty good at like chess and stuff like that. I'd probably be really good at poker though. That Force thing, helps me read people and what they might be thinking or planning. Really useful for some things."
“Wow, that’s pretty neat! I wish I could read what people are thinking. I kind of feel awkward sometimes.” Well, a lot of the time really. “I’ve never played video games. I do know about them, though. I admire the amount of programming that goes into making them.”
"Well you don't want to go around reading people's minds against their will. It's a power that requires a lot of responsibility." Ahsoka tapped her fingers against a shelf. "Want to try some sometime?"
Elizabeth nodded eagerly. “I really would. I’m not sure I’d do it well but I’ll never learn if I never do it, right?” She was eager to learn anything anyone wanted to teach her.
"Do or do not, there is no try." Ahsoka flashed a toothy smile - her teeth were a little pointed, especially her canines. "An old ... friend used to say that a lot. Basically, if you only try, if you don't think you'll succeed, you'll fail. But if you think that you'll do it, you'll succeed. It's all in the mind."
“I’d rather go in with no expectations and just see what happens.” Elizabeth said with a small, sheepish shrug. “Sometimes I can control things, sometimes I can’t. There’s no point in getting upset about what I can’t change.”
"That sounds like something someone I used to know would say." Just see what happens sounded like something Anakin would do. Ahsoka smirked. "No, you shouldn't get upset about what you can't change. Doesn't mean you should just give up either."
“No, that’s true.” Elizabeth nodded. “I thought I would never go to Paris, but I’ll be going there soon. SO maybe nothing’s impossible if you want it enough.” She didn’t think she’d necessarily trade her grandfather’s life for the trip, but she wasn’t asked to make that decision.
Ahsoka nodded. "Not everyone has the luxury of listening to the force. But even those that don't, sometimes the force'll lead them where they need to go. Or sometimes it's just a coincidence." But Ahsoka didn't generally believe in coincidences.
“I don’t know if it’s the Force or something else, but I’m glad to be truly free.” Elizabeth smiled, trying not to think of the price of that freedom. She refused to be caught between mourning her grandfather and enjoying her freedom. “Here, let me give you my number so we can figure out when to meet up.”
"Sure, that sounds good." Ahsoka fished her phone out of her pocket. She brought up a note app and held it out to Elizabeth. "It'll be fun. Promise!"
Elizabeth typed her number in and handed the phone back. “I believe you. What game will we play? I’ll read up on it in the interim.”
"We'll start you with something not too bloody. Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart. Maybe if you're feeling up for it we can try out something else. I don't know what you'd like so we should try a lot of different ones." A good variety from cartoony to realistic couldn't hurt, and Ahsoka could show her some RPGs while they were at it. Not that Ahsoka really had time for RPGs anymore.
Elizabeth nodded and grinned widely. “I can’t wait!” This sounded like it was going to be so much fun.