sith_happened | Office hours [all day]

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Office hours [all day]

Anakin opened his office door.

And stared.

Someone had redecorated.

Anakin stomped around the office examining streamers on the ceiling and paint on the wall, then the glitter-bestrewned Farrah Fawcett poster, and finally flounced over to sit in his chair.

With its pink boa.

He waved a hand and started up his little galaxy of stars, then picked up a pen that had been decorated with feathers--all of his pens had been decorated with feathers, what the hell?--and hoped no one visited today.

Though that didn't seem very likely.

[OOC: Door's closed, post is open!]

I Am What I Am - John Barrowman

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"I'm fresh out of both," Anakin said with a faint smile, "but I have a charming pink boa..." He shrugged. "Gripping the chair helps, too. It reminds you where you are." He met Dean's eyes. "And where you're not. I won't do anything to hurt you."

"I know," Dean said immediately. "I wouldn't have asked for your help if I wasn't absolutely sure of that." He considered Anakin's advice. He'd been gripping the chair he'd been tied in when the Manticore psychic had taken a stroll through his mind so he suspected that wouldn't help much at all. But...

Dean reached up and closed a hand around his amulet, feeling its edges pressing into his palm. Yeah. That'll do.

Anakin watched him. "Are you ready to try again?" he asked quietly.

"No," Dean answered honestly. "But I don't know if I ever will be so let's give it a try."

"All right," Anakin said, blowing out a breath and reaching back towards Dean's memories, carefully reading the Force for any signs of the panic Dean has shown the last time.

Dean clutched at his amulet harder and the wall he was trying to envision was more like wavery smoke than a wall, but he managed not to freak out this time.

"Better," Anakin said soothingly. "I'm here," he said, nudging at a memory. "Build that wall up."

Dean frowned in concentration and focused on making the wall more solid. Steel, he thought. Tantanium. Stuff that you couldn't even burn through.

"Good," Anakin praised. "I'm going to push a little harder now," he said.

He hadn't really been putting much effort behind it to start. He'd wanted Dean to feel as comfortable as it was possible to, given the situation.

The wall held for a few seconds this time before it started to bend inward under Anakin's attack, seeming to stretch like plastic wrap before ripping altogether. Dean felt another surge of fear at that, but tightened his grip on his amulet in response and managed to keep from outright panicking this time.

Anakin backed up again. "Good," he said, smiling softly. "It'll come easier, and in a few months you won't even think about it."

Dean took a deep breath and let it out. "That's what I want," he said. "Do we keep going?"

"Sure," Anakin said. "Tell me when this gets to be too tiring. You're not really moving, but you're expending a lot of energy."

"I don't have anything else to do today so I can always go back to my room and crash after this if I need to," Dean said. He closed his eyes and carefully rebuilt the wall in his mind's eye. The way it had felt like it was stretching had given him an idea and this time he envisioned something more like rubber. Something that would move with an attack and, hopefully rebound back.

At least that was the theory. Though he wondered if maybe he was putting too much thought into this now.

"I'm going to put a little more push behind this," Anakin warned, then gave Dean's mind a not-so-gentle nudge.

Dean gritted his teeth as Anakin's attack bent the wall inward much easier this time, but he held firm to the image of elastic, rubber. So while Anakin kept pushing the wall inward, it didn't actually break this time.

"Very good," Anakin said, smiling. "I'm going to try a little faster, okay? Tell me when this gets too hard to keep up with."

"Okay," Dean said, feeling a little surge of satisfaction that he'd manage to successfully hold Anakin out this time, even though he knew Anakin was taking it easy on him. "Ready when you are."

This time Anakin picked a different spot of Dean's mind to hit, and he moved about twice as fast as he had before.

Which still wasn't his normal speed, but he wasn't going to go all Jedi on the guy on his first day trying.

The attack, even with the warning, took Dean a little by surprise and the wall stretched so far under it that Dean thought for sure it was going to break. This sent a little extra adrenaline through his system, which when combined with the heartdeep desire to keep others out! not only strengthened the wall to the point where it held, but actually had it snap back into its original shape, flinging Anakin's presence back.

Anakin opened his eyes and beamed at Dean. "Perfect," he said. "How are you holding up?"

Dean took inner stock before answering. "Okay, but tired," he finally said. "Not exactly muscles I've worked before."

"One more try and I'll let you off to nap away the afternoon," Anakin promised. "You've done very, very well. Now block me."

Anakin poked at a new section of Dean's mind.

Dean was tired and hadn't been quite ready so while he got the wall up in time, it stretched to the breaking point then shattered.

Anakin pulled back quickly, but not before getting an impression of pain...and Alec.

His eyes flew open.

"Are you all right?"

He meant now. Clearly he hadn't been during that memory.

Office hours [all day]

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