That one warehouse- Friday afternoon

[thatwaslucky]

All right, take two.

Last week Anakin had been ten, so the first week of training with a new teacher hadn't exactly worked out, enlightening as it was. So it was back to the warehouse today, where Rey didn't have much to do except pull out a crate she could sit on to wait, hoping that the weird weekends took this week off and today would be normal.

It was probably a 50/50 chance at it, she figured.


[Expecting one, but open!]

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[sith_happened]

"Rey?" Anakin called, striding into the warehouse, cloak swirling around his boots.

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm here," she called, standing up and apparently feeling a little nervous all of a sudden. "Hi."

[sith_happened]

Anakin gave her a little smile. "I'm back to being myself again," he said dryly.

[thatwaslucky]

"I noticed," Rey said with a little smile in return. "You've gotten much taller."

[sith_happened]

"And ditched the terrible Padwan haircut again," Anakin said with a grin.

[thatwaslucky]

"You say that like it was standard," Rey said.

[sith_happened]

"It was," Anakin said, "at least for species that grow hair in that manner."

[thatwaslucky]

"...Why?"

Rey was also privately a little weird about her hair. She'd spent fourteen years wearing it one certain way so her parents would recognize her when they came back, so this was a wild idea.

[sith_happened]

"Teach us humility, I imagine," Anakin muttered. "The braid itself--or beads if your species doesn't grow hair--denoted how long you'd spent as a Padawan. When you passed the trials, you could remove it." He smiled. "One of the few things a Jedi was allowed to possess."

[thatwaslucky]

"There were trials?" Rey asked. "Like... a Jedi exam?"

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "There were formalized processes, but I became a knight through practical demonstrations of the qualities they were looking for: the Trial of Skill, the Trial of Courage, the Trial of the Flesh, the Trial of Spirit, and the Trial of Insight. My Master became a knight the same way I did."

[thatwaslucky]

"What if you didn't pass?"

Of course she would focus on that.

[sith_happened]

"Then you try again," Anakin said with a smile. "The whole point was to learn and get stronger. I failed many, many, many times."

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't know if that makes me feel better or not," she admitted. "You were good as a kid."

[sith_happened]

"I was," Anakin said, "which made me arrogant and almost impossible to correct. Those are not good traits in a Jedi."

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh. So you just... thought you could do it on the first try?"

He didn't seem that arrogant now, but then, he'd been through some kings since then.

[sith_happened]

"Yes," Anakin said, nodding. "I thought I should be able to do...pretty much anything on the first try. Maybe second. Definitely not third."

[thatwaslucky]

"You and I are very different," she realized.

[sith_happened]

"How so?" Anakin asked.

[thatwaslucky]

"Some things I can do without trying," she said, "and others I don't expect to get right until the fiftieth try."

In short, her confidence in it wasn't great, no matter how much freakish natural talent she had.

[sith_happened]

Anakin found a spot to sit, nodding. "What sorts of things come easily?" he asked.

[thatwaslucky]

"Telekinesis is easy," Rey said, taking her seat on the crate again. "I don't think I've had too hard a time making... connections, I guess. If I can figure out the mechanics behind it I can usually figure it out so far."

[sith_happened]

"Those are good," Anakin said. "Did you get the 'size matters not' discussion when it comes to telekinesis?"

Yes. Everyone learned it the Yoda way. No one ever said "size doesn't matter."

[thatwaslucky]

"No," she said slowly.

She could probably guess, but maybe there was more to it?

[sith_happened]

"That when it comes to the Force, there's no difference between lifting a rock and shifting a Star Destroyer a little to the left," Anakin said. "It's our human brain that sets the limitation."