darkforcerising | OPEN POST

Obi-Wan was more than ready to settle back into bed by the time they had finished their walk. It had been a long day for both of them (if not in number of hours) and there was still a kind of... tiredness in him that was going to linger.

He was still warmer, more receptive, and wanted to stay close to Anakin though. That that was a side-effect of the Dark Side and using it was possibly the... least expected part of this, for him.

It didn't change things, though and in bed, against pillows, close enough that their shoulders lightly touched was good. The movie he was curious about, too, because it was something from Anakin's other life.

He still shot Anakin an amused, slightly skeptical, look at the music and hopping ... lamp? The skepticism didn't stick around long. About the time there was mention of 'circle of sadness/making sure the sadness stayed in the circle' he was picking up themes and deeper meaning.

And his expression shifted to something softer, and his affection for Anakin grew. "Remedial emotions?" he asked, self-depreciating but not without humor.

Anakin eyed Obi-Wan and then snorted.

"Okay, through the lense of colorfully anthropomorphizing emotions, the movie tells a story about how our brains process emotions to develop memories which shape our personalities. And how all emotions are necessary for mental balance."

Anakin scooted closer and slipped his arm over Obi-Wan's shoulders, to pull him in closer.

"But ya, you could call it remedial lessons in emotions."

Just at that moment, the girl on the screen was introducing herself, there was a fight between her emotions and Joy and Sadness were sucked up a tube.

He was pretty content with his synopsis, especially when it came to keeping sad in its circle, thank you.

But he was dryly amused at himself and at the moment.

He was mildly confused and for a split second passively resisted being pulled in closer to Anakin - but only a split second before Anakin being Anakin registered and he relaxed into him and wrapped his arm around Anakin's waist.

"Strange set of emotions to be in conflict." Or maybe not, as he mulled it over a bit more.

Anakin grinned and dropped his face to Obi-Wan's hair.

"Of course you'd be confused by Joy and Sadness being in conflict." Which was a subtle dig about how, for Obi-Wan, Joy and Sadness were intricately linked.

The parents' emotions were one screen now.

He just shot Anakin a totally confused look at the dig, but backed it up with some humor in the Force, sent directly toward Anakin.

"This reminds me of some of your... therapy talk," he said, eventually, still comfortably cuddled (shhh) up against Anakin.

"Just you wait until we get to the subcon- Or this part."

In the movie, the girl's personality island, Goofball Island, was crumbling into the memory hole, seemingly lost forever.

"You lose your core memories, your personality can... change." And he knew from excruciating experience how that can happen.

He watched curiously, but he was now distracted and processing it as much more than a story. Which meant he was... well, pre-occupied with implications.

"Mm. I can think of some changes that you might prefer. I don't think I'll be giving up the memories, though."

"Hmm, I don't want to change anything about you." Anakin said, and it was the complete truth. He let Obi-Wan feel how earnest he was.

Though, Anakin didn't say anything about memories changing as you self examined them, gaining depth and new meanings. They'd get there.

"You're biased. You might have liked me a lot more a lot sooner if I'd lost some baggage."

He was still mostly watching the movie though. Processing some of it, bits of it kind of sliding over his head. Which was sad since this was a child's movie. He was doing the best he could with what he had.

Anakin considered that, not wanting to just brush off Obi-Wan's concern.

"I think you should focus on the malleability of emotions. And... the part that matters is that right now I want to be with the you that is now."

The emotions in the movie where now dealing with the chamber of Abstract Thought. And if he had to guess, Anakin thought Obi-Wan was doing his own abstract thinking.

He was having his own abstract thoughts, but not about loneliness - not even when it was mentioned in passing.

Mostly he was thinking about the fact that sadness was the voice of reason. There was nothing surprising to him in that part, at least. Or in joy being impulsive and somewhat fool hardy.

He was also - "Of course emotions are malleable," he murmured.

And kept watching.

While Joy kept being... ineffective.

At everything.

Particularly cheering up.

Anakin took to running his fingers through Obi-Wan's hair, enjoying the feel of it and the fact that Obi-Wan let him do this.

He stayed quiet for a while and just let the movie play and be content with this moment they got to share.

"Do you need me to explain the clown?" he asked when Jangles finally showed up.

"Yes," he said, without hesitation.

Because he understood absolutely no part of that scene. He wasn't even entirely sure that the clown was a clown until Anakin had said so. Or what the droid thing with the light was, or -

Yeah, he was lost.

"Do you want me to pause the movie?" Anakin asked.

"...Only if you anticipate needing to explain something else before you've finished explaining this?"

"Goose, pause the movie."

Because yes, clowns needed an explanation.

"So clowns... are a weirdly paradoxical."

He had to think for a moment before coming up with an answer.

"They are supposed to be a fun thing. An actor puts on makeup that's meant to... diminish the details of the human face, but in a comical way. And they put on a ridiculous, colorful costume, and then perform for people in exaggerated, comic ways... Usually for kids... Weird, now that I think about it... Unfortunately, about half the people who experience clowns come away with an irrational fear of them- I guess it makes sense, the erasure of non-verbal communication cues can leave you feeling uncertain about their motives. Their performances can feel invasive because they often utilize the concept of crossing social boundaries as props for laughter. They're subversive in a way that is hard to process. And most people first experience them as young children, when they don't have the knowledge and language to verbalize why they don't like the clown."

He nodded, slightly. "They're creepy."

Which was a really overly simplistic summation, but he thought it was a pretty good summation. Though he wondered how people from that reality would respond to the number of entirely alien sentient beings that existed in this galaxy. Then again they weren't... subtly off, they just were what they were and known as their own thing.

"...and the laughter makes it worse." For him, anyway.

"I agree, though they don't bother me like they do other people." He thought it was best not to bring up Pennywise right now.

"Goose, continue the movie."

They were getting to a good part, on the Train of Thought, where the first hints of the concept that memories were more complex than one emotion were revealed in the memory of Riley's failure at the play-offs. Followed by Riley planning to run away.

He actually watched quietly not just through the Train of Thought and Riley planning to run away, but the collapse of Honesty Island and her leaving for school with her mother's credit-card.

All the way through to Joy getting into the recall tube without Sadness. Then smiled, faintly and if he was thinking about Anakin in a past life (for Anakin) or himself, then it wasn't too direct or apparent, but.

"That's going to end terribly."

Edited 2020-04-03 04:17 (UTC)

"This is the best and worst part of the whole movie... which, I guess, is kind of the point," Anakin said. He already might be misting up, knowing what Bingbong was going to sacrifice to make Riley whole again.

But first, Joy and Bingbong had to fall down into the pit. And Joy had to stop her panic and cry and slow down and obsess over the weight of their problem. And then realize the importance of Sadness in Riley's life.

He watched and he did not mist up or get teary eyed, because....

He'd gotten a lot of things out of this movie, but this specific thing? This he knew. This he maybe knew a little too well, even if he didn't want to.

Though he did sort of ache for the person Anakin was and had been once, because he remembered that bright, happy, optimistic, little boy all too clearly. That. That made him sad.

...Still wasn't going to cry.

Anakin could tell the emotions he could feel from Obi-Wan weren't entirely connected to the events of the movie, even if Anakin's feelings were about Bingbong's sacrifice. But that's what these movies like this were meant to do. In their simplicity they were relatable. They were like miniature exercises in experiencing intense emotions in a controlled way.

Anakin did shed a few tears for Bingbong, but got swept up in the next swell of the movie.

He was also kind of a little more than bit interested to see how Obi-Wan would process the image of the emotions console turning black. Because Anakin had felt that before - it was probably the best way to describe what it felt like on the Dark Side.

He probably should have associated the console turning dark with The Dark Side. It was his most recent experience, after all, and the metaphor (or just visual) was a good one.

Yet, because of where his mind had already been he was still thinking about... Mustafar and the events around it - or more accurately his absolute despair at that point and how Yoda had prodded him out of that, reminding him that despair also led to the dark side.

Then that feeling of ... emptiness. Of not really existing.

It was strange that he'd only thought of that now, really, or even realized that he'd still been in that state when Anakin had shown up in his living room. He didn't cry but he rubbed a hand over his face, though he wasn't crying, stroked Anakin's side with his thumb and both watched the movie and was a million miles away.

Anakin didn't need Obi-Wan to say anything, and he didn't need to say anything to him either.

It was beautiful just to watch the moment when Sadness and Joy made it back into the control tower - he hoped Obi-Wan saw the humor in Disgust using Anger as an effective tool.

And then Joy encouraged Sadness to fix the console, and Sadness does. And Joy gives Sadness the core memories to hold and change. Because that was the emotion Riley had been needed to feel most since the conflict of this movie started. So that Riley could cry and mourn the loss of the life she used to have with the help of her family.

The complexity of mingled emotions - the joy of what had once been, the sadness of the present circumstances - culminating in finding hope and reassurance for the future with the support of people you loved.

How could Anakin not like this movie?

The movie as a whole contained a lot of complexity, and a lot of things that were amusing, and touching and a nice lesson buried within it.

He quirked a faint smile.

"If there was still a Jedi Order, I'd be showing that three times a day until everyone had seen it. Particularly the children."

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