Rey's warehouse- Friday afternoon

[thatwaslucky]

With the trip next week, Rey knew she probably wouldn't be able to get anything like her usual training in, so she was trying to go harder this week to make up for it. That wasn't how it worked, but it made her feel better.

One woodchuck was "helping out" with his usual wood chucking, but after the third time he completely whiffed while she was running the course, Rey stopped, turned off her lightsaber, and called, "Everything all right?"

And that was how she ended up jumping down and crouching by him for a good long time as he prattled something in woodchuck that she didn't understand, but occasionally she'd add in a "I get it" or "that's so unfair to you" and these seemed to be the right things to say.


[Open!]

Comments

[sith_happened]

"I miss one week and you're a woodchuck therapist now?" Anakin teased.

[thatwaslucky]

"Maybe it was that weird a week," she said.

She looked at the woodchuck, asked, "You all right?" and watched him scurry off somewhere.

[sith_happened]

"Guess he doesn't want me to know his problems," Anakin said.

[thatwaslucky]

"Did you want to?" she asked, standing.

[sith_happened]

"Not at all," Anakin answered.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey smiled. "Better week?" she asked, ignoring that last week for him was much different than it was for her.

[sith_happened]

"Definitely less distracting," Anakin said.

[thatwaslucky]

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "Shielding worked really well this year."

So she'd only had to worry about herself! Sigh.

[sith_happened]

"I'm glad to hear that," Anakin said.

[thatwaslucky]

"Me too. Since I feel like I'm the only Force user who ever has a problem with it," she said.

[sith_happened]

"You are not the only Force user," Anakin said. "We just have a very small sample of Force users here to learn from."

[thatwaslucky]

She nodded a little, conceding that. "And it's not like I'm going around asking how they deal either."

[sith_happened]

Anakin snickered. "I'd love to see their reactions."

[thatwaslucky]

"Remind me next year, I might shake them down to find out how they do it."

Seriously, she might.

"Does shielding get easier for you the longer you do it at a time?"

[sith_happened]

"I hardly think about it any more," Anakin admitted. "It's just part of me, almost like breathing."

[thatwaslucky]

"I feel the opposite. Like shutting any part of it out is... off," she said. "I think about Luke cutting himself off from the Force and don't think I could do it."

[sith_happened]

"That makes sense," Anakin agreed. "For me it was self-preservation. I couldn't do what I needed to as a general if I was overwhelmed by my soldiers' emotions."

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't even think about it most of the time unless it's overwhelming," she said. "I guess war would do it."

[sith_happened]

"The Troopers were extremely professional, but when you can feel their emotions--" Anakin trailed off. "And Obi-Wan and I were never given the easy assignments."

[thatwaslucky]

"I never did anything like that." She had entirely different traumas. "I can only imagine."

[sith_happened]

"Well, as you read through those training books," Anakin said, "remembering that many of the lessons were dealing with the problems of their time."

[thatwaslucky]

"There are some things where, if I'm translating them right, do sound a little dated," she allowed.

[sith_happened]

"The Force is an energy field that surrounds us and binds us, and we harness it in different ways depending on our needs at the moment," Anakin said. "That's why we learn all through our lives."