darkforcerising | OPEN POST

Anakin wasn't put off, he'd dealt with Obi-Wan enough to know when he was being dismissive. This wasn't it.

"I guess the easiest to explain is the thermal detonators."

As he talked he worried a finger - from his right hand this time - over the lines on Obi-Wan's palm. Fleetingly, he wondered if Obi-Wan would get a kick out of the idea of telling fortunes from the lines on your palm.

"It's just a mix of telekinesis and the connection I have with machines and electronics. With enough practice, I just got better at controlling more things at once more intricately."

"Yes, once you told me what you'd done, I assumed that was the case." He could even have done it, had he understood they were there well enough to find them with the Force. Not as well or as dramatically (not with that many), he may not have been able to follow through - depending - but he could have done the action.

He curled his fingers a little when metal slid against his skin and - actually really enjoyed the trust and the contrast in sensation.

Anakin absolutely believed Obi-Wan could do it. It just took practice to find the familiar feeling of the detonators, and keep track of every switch all at once in your mind. But yes, you had to know they were there first, and be willing to do it. To take the deadly option against a foe. Before, the goal had always been to find the least harmful way possible to win... but they had numbers on their side then. Now it was just them. That’s what Anakin needed to work out here, the why it was okay now to do it.

“The other skill...” Done tracing lines, he dragged his finger down one of Obi-Wan’s fingers.

“It’s hard to explain the difference between just telekinesis and... the sheer force of will involved with the other.”

And given how that had been a problem for him before - the tendency to exert his will instead of going with the will of the Force, that’s where his discomfort lie.

He really just wanted to hear from Obi-Wan that he wasn’t slipping.

He is fairly certain that he understands what Anakin means, possibly even better than Anakin does. He'd had access to vaults and information not just as a Master, but a member of the Council, that Anakin had never had.

Or, rather, hadn't had until he'd destroyed the temple and after then who knew what he'd bothered with.

"There is a very, very old skill amongst the Jedi - and the Sith - that was all but lost when Jedi stopped participating in any sort of large scale conflict and fully embraced their status as peace keepers." He stroked his thumb over the side of Anakin's hand. "There wasn't much detail, even within the vaults, but it's called Battle Meditation. The general idea of the thing is that your partner, your troops, or your entire battalion - or your enemy - become part of a single organism and subjected to the will of person or people at the center. It can control movement, lead to absolute conviction of success or just hope, or absolutely convince the enemy of their defeat so thoroughly that the conviction becomes reality. It isn't fast communication or directly moving them. It is literally the act of turning the subjects into an extension of your body; an act of will. I imagine, as with most things, where it falls on the scale of acceptability is down to who, and what, and why, and a dozen other things. But Vader and I used a very small scale version of it between each other for years in practice and combat. It isn't inherently wrong."

Edited 2020-02-03 18:24 (UTC)

“Winning because we want to.” He smiled, liking the sound of that. Listening to Obi-Wan relaxed him. Obi-Wan hadn’t scolded him. They were okay.

“Do we need to get into the vaults or do you remember enough from what you read to teach me?”

"If it were a matter of walking down the hall, visiting the vaults would be a good idea. Given what it actually entails, and that there is far more reference to the technique than instruction there." He kept stroking the side of Anakin's hand, quiet and thoughtful. "I think I can more or less teach you, but suspect there's going to be some... experimentation necessary, regardless." Don't expect perfection from him, Anakin.

"What's the cost of experimenting?" He moved onto tracing other fingers, not sure why, but Obi-Wan seemed to like it, so why stop?

"Is it just our own wellbeing or will it hurt others?"

"It shouldn't hurt others if we are cautious in how we experiment and at what, at least at these stages. At some point, that will no longer be true. Neither will the decisions be clear, or easy."

They're... not gods. They're two men trying to save an entire galaxy, and the question of how many-

"The questions of which and how many lines we cross isn't going to get easier, for either of us."

"No, it won't," Anakin agreed.

"But this conversation helped." And he would try to initiate these conversations rather than keep it inside. "I trust you. When do we start?"

He smiles at Anakin, slightly, and stands from his place at the table. "Tomorrow." Should be good enough and make use of the time until his stamina has returned. He walks around the table and kisses Anakin's forehead. "Tonight, I think I will take a walk."

"Take your comm." As if Anakin was the responsible one that had to remind Obi-Wan to be safe- he wasn't. But he still worried.

"Yes, dear," he said, with an eye-roll but a brush of warmth, affection, reassurance. "I'll wear a cloak, too."

A pause and - "I'm not seeking distance from you. Put on a cloak yourself and come with me."

Oh- Anakin had thought Obi-Wan wanted to think about some things on his own. He would take this chance, he stood up and grabbed his cloak.

"You know what is worse than sand?"

"Cold sand?" he smiles, slightly, and once Anakin has wrapped himself in his cloak, Obi-Wan heads out the door. "You know what's nearly as good as clarity?"

Anakin shot Obi-Wan a hurt look for taking his answer from him. But it was playful, he wasn't really upset.

"Cold clarity?" he asks at Obi-Wan's side, mimicking the other man's answer.

He laughed at the look - and the answer. "No, just cold. It isn't the same thing, but the sort of cold that hurts to breathe, and cuts all the way through you, can almost be a substitute if you let it."

It was some vague, feeling, almost romantic thing but he meant it.

"Like having every non-essential part of you blown away."

Obi-Wan was not wrong. Anakin understood how sometimes a bracing wind could help shock the system, and then he could think more clearly.

Once outside, Anakin asked, "What are you hoping is blown away on this walk?"

He looked at Anakin with a faint, crooked, and sweet but oddly sad smile.

"Cobwebs - and shadows." He took a deep breath, and released it slowly, watching his breath freeze into a cloud in the bitterly cold air as he walked. "It feels like we're approaching a point where you become the voice of reason and morality."

"Obi-Wan," Anakin said gently. "If it seems that way, it's only because of the terrible choices I made before. You... you've always just known what was right without having to-" he almost said 'get burned first' but he stopped himself.

"I've always had to have the lesson slam me in the face, sometimes multiple times before I understood."

"I could engage you in a long recitation of all the times I had not the first idea what was right, but feigned confidence anyway, and the points Vader had far more compassion than I. It isn't really my point." That was partially tease, and partially not. "I am neither using you as a low bar nor a hide one. I am quite literally telling you that I am rapidly reaching a point where I want this done more than I care if the method of achieving it is right. Had you not stopped to ask me to check your thoughts tonight, I'm not sure it would have occurred to me to even question the ethics or morality of imposing will on others as a means of winning. That is... a horrible sigh."

Edited 2020-02-04 05:34 (UTC)

Anakin listened. He wanted to say something to the effect of 'Nothing Obi-Wan had ever compromised or got wrong had come close to what he'd done in the name of justifying the ends. But he listened.

"This is called burnout. No one person has the ability to fight constantly."

Though it was cold, Anakin reached for Obi-Wan's hand as they walked.

"Maybe we take a break from missions for a while. We can ask the other Jedi we've saved if they will bridge the gap. We let Bail build his network. Maybe the next mission we do is finally talking to Bail and Galen Erso about the need to keep the Death Star weapon project going for our own needs. And then maybe we just hide here for a while."

He squeezed Obi-Wan's hand. "I'll stay here on Tatooine with you."

He threaded his fingers through Anakin's, without missing a single stride. It didn't matter that it was cold. He'd come to very much appreciate touch and physical connection.

With Anakin.

"I can't decide if my feeling that it's an enormous waste of time and delays the ultimate goal for very little benefit is just a sign that I am really desperate to be finished, or an actual objection."

“Why not both?” Anakin offered. You stubborn old man. But Anakin thought it with great affection.

But he tried to find another angle. “The weapon won’t be near enough ready for us to use for years. We can’t rush that. If we take a break for a few weeks, we won’t change anything but maybe your mental well-being. And... it’s been days since we’ve had sex.” Because obviously Obi-Wan needed to recuperate, and that couldn’t be rushed. But Anakin had noticed that Obi-Wan was... a bit more... present if they used sex to unwind after missions.

"I did say you were going to need to be the voice of reason," he said, just a touch try.

He knows. The cold helps make admitting that Anakin is right easier, and him to be more rational about the whole thing.

"Though I think the fact that you're linking sex to my mental health is probably a testament to... something." It's a fair link. It got him out of his head and into something physical that wasn't fighting. Just -

That he seemed to have reached a point where it was good for him felt... unfair to Anakin.

“Do you need me to do some research that shows sex has health benefits?” He was pretty sure those existed somewhere in this galaxy.

It was just silly to think Anakin didn’t get as much benefit from the sex they had as Obi-Wan did.

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