Office hours [all day]

[sith_happened]

After his weekly spar with Ben, Anakin made his way to his office and began reading up on babies going through teething.

After a few minutes, he began making notes about stocking up on coffee. It was going to be a very long few months.

The door was open.

[OOC: For SP of great justice!]

Comments

[trigons_child]

What Juliet needed was an empath to take away the teething pain. Technically it was cheating, but still!

"Good morning, Professor Skywalker," Raven said, arriving at his office at her usual time.

[sith_happened]

"Hello, Raven," Anakin said, glancing up. "Thank you for your message."

[trigons_child]

"You are welcome," Raven said, inclining her head. "We were only gone from Fandom for at most half an hour. We returned safely." Not entirely the same way they'd traveled to Azarath, though.

[sith_happened]

"So tell me about the trip," Anakin replied. "Your message was a bit sparce on details."

[trigons_child]

"We found the information that we sought," Raven said, sitting down. "Azarath's records confirmed what Alligorr had told me -- that he and his companions have long sought to stop my father, ever since he destroyed their own world. They have never had enough power to succeed in the past, however." That was the good part -- now for the bad. "Dinah and I were seen there, however. By...my mother."

[sith_happened]

Anakin hissed in a breath. "How bad did it get?" he asked.

[trigons_child]

Raven shrugged her shoulders slightly, trying to dismiss her conflicted emotions. "She told us we were not welcomed there, which I already knew to be true," she said. "I knew when I left Azarath, even if it was for my home's protection, that I would not be allowed back. She also said that if Trigon destroyed the Earth, that was as it had been willed, and Azarath would not interfere."

[sith_happened]

"Well that second part is incredibly unhelpful," Anakin retorted. "I wouldn't return the favor to her planet if the situation was reversed."

Anakin had never had a lot of patience for pacifists.

He smiled a bit wryly at Raven. "Your feelings betray you," he said quietly. "How are you doing, really?"

[trigons_child]

"I was not expecting to see her, and it was difficult," Raven admitted. "She was displeased that I have learned to experience my own emotions, but...for the first time in my life, I heard her say that she loved me. She did not say it to me directly -- she told Dinah."

[sith_happened]

Anakin sighed heavily. "Why would she tell someone who wasn't you?"

[trigons_child]

"I do not know," Raven said, shaking her head. "But Dinah was much more...aggressive in confronting her about refusing to do anything to stop my father. She said 'love my daughter, how else would I know she was here? I felt her presence.' It made me feel some hope that she would help us, but she banished us back to Fandom."

[sith_happened]

Anakin had a sudden mental image of Dinah as a blind ronto rampaging through the Cathedral of Winds.

"Some things need to be handled delicately," he said finally.

He paused.

"Not that I am terribly adept at such matters," he admitted, "but I know when it must be done."

[trigons_child]

Raven had a feeling Dinah wouldn't exactly disagree with that description.

"I fear I was not delicate, either," Raven said. "I was upset that she would turn her back on the world of her birth...turn her back on me. But I would not expect otherwise. My mother fully embraced the ways of Azarath after Azar stopped her from taking her own life while she was pregnant with me. She would offer me some comfort when I dreamed of my father, but never the true love of a mother. That was forbidden."

[sith_happened]

"I understand that feeling," Anakin said, nodding sympathetically. "I wasn't allowed to see my mother at all once I chose to become Jedi. And Obi-Wan was...distant, as the Order required."

[trigons_child]

"But you knew that she loved you, did you not?" Raven said wistfully. "You had that memory to treasure?"

[sith_happened]

"Yes," Anakin admitted. Which led to anger, pain, and slaughtering a Tusken village when she'd died, so it wasn't exactly a happy memory these days.

"But it was the only bright spot in a generally harsh childhood," he added.

[trigons_child]

"I envy you that then," Raven said softly. Well, not where it had led, of course. "I think hearing her say that she loved me now made me realize how much I wished she would have said it when I was younger."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded again, eyes sad. "Take what you get now," he advised, "and try not to dwell on what might have been. That only leads to bitterness."

And he was beyond an expert on bitterness.

[trigons_child]

"That is almost that same as what I told a friend last night," Raven said, thinking of her conversation with Jennifer. "She was dwelling on bad things that might have happened during the weekend when people were not themselves. I told her that she should focus instead on the fact that she was safe and well, as were her friends who were changed."

She couldn't miss the sadness. "I am sorry, I did not mean to bring up any unpleasant memories," she said.

[sith_happened]

"It was a long time ago," Anakin said. "I don't think about it much. Childhood wasn't a happy time for me."

Nor was adolescence, early adulthood, or most of his thirties. Details.

[trigons_child]

"Then I will follow your example and try not to dwell on it," Raven said, managing a small smile. "Not when there are more pleasant emotions to focus on now."

[sith_happened]

"Such as..." he prompted with a small smile.

[trigons_child]

"Friendship and affection," Raven said. "Even if I were allowed to return to Azarath, I could not if it meant giving those up. It was not fair that I was denied them all my life."

[sith_happened]

"Fair doesn't tend to factor into life," Anakin replied. "If you wait for everything to balance out, you will be waiting a very long time."

[trigons_child]

"I am not waiting," Raven said. "I have learned so much here that it has almost balanced the first 16 years of my life already."

[sith_happened]

Anakin smiled. "Then you have already used your time more wisely than I had learned how to at your age."

[trigons_child]

"That is because I had you to guide me," Raven said.

She'd never realize what a gift for shameless flattery she had. Never.

[sith_happened]

"Flatterer," Anakin said with a wry smile.

[trigons_child]

"I do not lie, you know that," Raven pointed out. Well, she was learning to leave details out from time to time, but outright lying wasn't something she really knew how to do.

[sith_happened]

"Biased, then," Anakin demurred.

[trigons_child]

"Perhaps just a little bit," Raven conceded, smiling. "I cannot help it."

[sith_happened]

"Oh, you could, but I like being flattered, so I won't make you," Anakin teased.