Skywalker Apartment [Georgetown, Monday afternoon]

[sith_happened]

Anakin was sprawled out on the floor of the apartment's living room, surrounded by pieces of what used to be the garbage disposal.

That would teach something electronic to fail in his new house. Maybe he'd keep out a couple pieces as a warning to the others.

80s pop music was playing (shhh, somewhere along the way his wife's taste had rubbed off on him), but not so loudly that he wouldn't be able to hear the phone.

[OOC: Open for phone calls & visitors! Still no baby. Am bored like a bored thing.]

Comments

[sith_happened]

"Maybe they figure that if you don't know them, you're not going to make it to the trials to become a Knight," Anakin mused.

[solo_sword]

"They're good teachings," she said. "Just a little... repetetive."

[sith_happened]

"He used to teach the youngling classes. I think he just got used to sounding like a fortune cookie," Anakin said. "Though it certainly didn't stop him from making himself very, very clear in Council meetings."

[solo_sword]

"You were on the Council?" Somehow she'd never known that.

[sith_happened]

There was a slight pause. "Yes," he said, "but not as a Master. I was placed there by the Chancellor. The Council was...not pleased, and so they denied me the promotion."

Anakin had a talent for understatement.

[solo_sword]

"Oh. Politics," she said, and then it clicked who the Chancellor was back then. "Oh. Sorry."

[sith_happened]

"I was being played," and even twenty years later, the bitterness was still in his voice. "I didn't give a damn about being on the Council. I just wanted to be a Master."

[solo_sword]

"What was the big deal of being a Master?" Jaina wondered. Then again, she'd never had that sort of aspiration.

[sith_happened]

"Knowledge that the rest of Jedi weren't allowed access to," Anakin said quietly. "There were archives that were only for those who had achieved that kind of mastery over the Force, and I wanted to know what they said."

[solo_sword]

"Just out of curiosity?" she asked. So this was where Jacen got it.

[sith_happened]

A long pause. "I was looking for something to save Padme," he finally admitted.

[solo_sword]

"...Could you maybe just have broken in?" she asked quietly, not sure what else to say.

[sith_happened]

"Not when the archives was still run by the Jedi," he said. "They'd been working for thousands of generations to keep the curious out. Afterwards...well, it didn't matter so much any more."

[solo_sword]

It was probably wrong that her first thought was that she would have found a way in. "Why not ask someone?" she wondered. "I mean, Obi-wan...?"

[sith_happened]

Anakin snorted. "No," he said firmly. "Obi-Wan never broke the rules. Not for anyone."

[solo_sword]

"But in that sort of situation, how could he not?" Jaina wondered. Potentially saving someone > the rules, to her.

[sith_happened]

Ah, Skywalker stubbornness. "Because I didn't want to ask him," he finally admitted. "If he'd known about Padme and me, he would have had to report it to the Council."

[solo_sword]

She sighed, getting that much then. "Those rules were stupid," she decided.

[sith_happened]

"I always thought so," Anakin agreed. "And Jolee said it wasn't always that way."

[solo_sword]

"I have to wonder what changed," Jaina said. "I mean, a few of the Masters now are married, some to each other, or have children, and it hasn't ruined everything."

[sith_happened]

Anakin shrugged. "I was never all that interested in finding out the particular why on that issue. I thought if I looked too curious, they might start looking back."

[solo_sword]

"What would have happened if they found out?" she asked.

[sith_happened]

"I would have been expelled from the Order," Anakin said. "I didn't care that much, really, but I'd become a bit of a symbol of the Jedi during the war, and Padme thought my leaving would hurt the morale of the Republic or something."

[solo_sword]

"Yeah, I don't really see that as a punishment befitting the crime," she said, though by her tone it should be clear she didn't think it was a big enough deal to be considered one.

[sith_happened]

"That's because George Lucas can't plot, yo. It didn't stop me from getting married a second time," Anakin said. "I know how to make difficult decisions now. I wasn't ready to at 23."