epidemiology | EVENT ★ EXPLORATION

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EVENT ★ EXPLORATION

With the storm gone, the water surrounding Komo has calmed considerably. Much of the affected area is in ruins, but thanks to ALASTAIR, a large contingent of Komo survived the disaster. However, with parts of Komo uninhabitable, they need to be able to reach Nalawi’s other islands. With their technology so limited due to dependence on their Gifts, it’s all they can do to build a few tiny, shoddy canoes, powered solely by elbow grease. They only fit two regular-sized people (but four Nalawi), and the wait time is long, but they do the trick. If you aren't willing to wait, you can always try to get creative.

Strangely, though, anyone trying to use their magic to cross the waters will find that their powers are beginning to dampen. Similarly, anyone with superhuman abilities at all will find them waning, albeit at different rates. Those without any special powers at all will be completely unaffected.

But that's nothing to worry about, right? It’s time to see the rest of Nalawi.

PU’ULAI

PU’ULAI is the centermost island of the archipelago and by far the largest. Most of the travel between islands is to and from Pu’ulai, as it’s the cultural hub of Nalawi and the location of Nalanni’s largest temple. It’s very populated during the day, but isn’t a residential area and clears out once the sun goes down.

The first thing you'll notice is that the deer hate cats. The citizens of Komo are far more likely to let it go, but if you have anything slightly cat-looking with you here, at best, you'll be yelled at. Some Nalawi try to start fights, and no one but Komoans will allow cats anywhere near their homes or inns. Recruits might notice children running away from cats, screaming, "Dakal!"

THE TEMPLE, referred to as Nalanni’s Garden, is closest to the Nalalona volcano on a neighboring island. The regular ash from it was viewed as a good omen from Nalanni, who’s rumored to live within the volcano, but it’s been months since anyone has seen any activity from it. The temple is dark as obsidian, which is coincidentally what it’s made of. There’s a copious amount of brightly colored flowers around the temple, hence the name. The gardens are free for anyone to walk through, as is the temple. One image is constant throughout the temple: an inhumanly large, vaguely feminine being made in stone and fire, a walking volcano. It would be easy for such a woman to look frightening, but she looks welcoming and caring, arms outstretched to embrace her children.

Inside the temple are more murals of Nalanni, but also some curiously unrelated to her. They depict the Nalawi fighting against large, predatory cat-creatures, finally culminating in their enemies attacking Nalalona. This is when Nalanni reappears, striking them down. The temple is tended to by several Nalawi of varying ages, all very welcoming to strangers, especially those they’ve heard heroic tales of. News traveled fast once the Komo villagers crossed the waters and spread the news of their timely rescuers. There are plenty of Nalawi in the temple, making offerings and asking Nalanni to return to them -- some are hopeful, but others appear desolate.

CITY HALL is where the ten members of the Council convene. No one is allowed in, as they’ve been discussing the changing state of Nalawi nonstop for days. There’s a group gathered around the hall each day, hoping their leaders will emerge and announce their plans, but nothing has happened yet. It’s a good chance to sit around and listen, though -- you’ll quickly find out that Nalawi is a meritocracy; the Council have the strongest Gifts of anyone in Nalawi, determined by a nationwide competition to prove their worth every time a seat opens. Some of the more disgruntled deer whisper that some must have lost their powers by now and no longer deserve to sit on the Council.

A few arguments are beginning to break out around the city hall, and even a few scuffles. Luckily, their weakened powers have also dampened the damage they’re able to deal, and no one has been injured too badly. Just try to be respectful -- otherwise, you might upset the wrong person. Those hooves can hurt.

ELSEWHERE, there's a marketplace where traditional Nalawi clothing can be bought, among other things, inactive spas shut down due to dormant volcanoes, and maybe -- if you’re very lucky -- you’ll stumble upon a ferry that still works. It’s unlikely, though, and haggling with its owner will be difficult. You could always steal it, but you wouldn’t do that, would you?

You can always explore the SURROUNDING ISLANDS, which are mostly residential areas, similar in theme to the parts of Komo that haven't been destroyed.

Oh, and if you're disrespectful to the islanders or were at any point rude to the people in Komo, you might wake up to find a bunch of tiny, adorable Nalawi around your bed, swinging around bars of soap in socks. Don't worry, they won't actually do anything but threaten you for a minute before storming out. ...Yet. The moral of the story is 'don't mess with the Nalawi.'

OOC INFO

The entire map of Nalawi is now available to characters. Updated location information can be found here.

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[ no, the last time he saw his wife had been in their — her — apartments. they had bid each other goodbye, holding one another as if they could somehow prevent another separation. his last memory was of padmé's smile, still the most radiant thing in the galaxy, still able to make his heart jump like an infatuated boy again, bracketed by worry. her hands had been folded over a flat belly.

no. if his son had been there then, anakin would not be here. he would have demanded to be returned immediately. he would have refused to go. if she were pregnant, any hope of keeping their union a secret vanished. her robes, he thinks with some measure of relief, would never disguise a pregnancy until term. he would have, proudly, informed the council, and taken whatever they threw at him. they could not hurt him. unlike the jedi, anakin knew what family meant. he has one in padmé…and he has one in this boy.

every minute separated from padmé is torture; he would not have tolerated a second away from their child. ]

I don't know. [ the truth, captured in bittersweet longing. ] Obi-Wan and I were called to the Outer Rim Sieges. We were there five months…then I was here.

[ a humorless smile. ]

I barely had time to land on Coruscant.

Edited 2016-04-10 01:29 (UTC)

Oh.

[ Luke's face noticeably falls at that. ]

It's just... Well, Ben never told me, and I don't think Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru even knew, so I was hoping...

[ Hoping for what? That connection still, the knowledge that, even if he couldn't remember it now, they had met. It's more than a hope really. It's a need. The bone-deep desire of the orphan to feel wanted, needed, intentional. The fact that he is as much of a stranger to his father as his father is to him is disheartening to say the least.

It isn't at all the sort of reunion he dreamed of when he was young. (Anakin would swoop down and land near the homestead (never in a spice freighter no matter what Uncle Owen said), he would stride over the sand -commanding and cosmopolitan- would see Luke there and would recognize him immediately. Isn't that my son, Luke, the youngest and best pilot on Tatooine? Then they would leave, flying off to some bigger and better future.)

But at least it's a reunion. ]

[ obi-wan again. "ben." a name he had heard but rarely in the most casual of settings with one who knew his master well.

anakin knows he should be grateful. obi-wan is a great jedi and a good man. skilled and wise, a model of everything a jedi was and everything a jedi should be. that he would look after luke — living proof of anakin's indiscretion and all the reson the council would need to ostracize him as they had his padawan — is more than anakin could have asked. for obi-wan to have done so meant choosing anakin in the end.

hadn't he wondered what obi-wan's reaction would be? what would he do—? what would he say to anakin's flagrant defiance of the jedi and their suffocating edicts? he has his answer. more than I would have dared hope. but he can summon no gratitude. it should have been he telling luke old stories. it should have been he who passed on his own lightsaber. obi-wan filled the role that anakin should have had. it's unfair.

as unfair as what followed proved confusing. ] Why were you on Tatooine?

[ his stepbrother. his stepfamily as they did, apparently, marry. anakin considers them family as much as he thinks of tatooine as home. they were good, simple people. they had returned c-3po to him. they had shared their roof and food with him and padmé. and they had not been able to help his mother.

anakin would be glad never to set foot on tatooine again. if his son, his children if that part of ren's story holds true, were to recognize any family, it would be padmé's family on naboo. an ill suspicion takes root in his heart like poison.

his mother. luke hasn't said a word about his mother. ]

Did your mother take you to meet them?

I... I've always lived on Tatooine. Until recently anyway.

[ Luke's earlier near-boundless excitement over the reunion is gone entirely, replaced by the usual rush of emotions that accompany thoughts of his late family and home. He isn't Leia, he doesn't have a planet-sized void in his life, he isn't haunted by millions of the dead. But his losses are still recent and raw nonetheless, no matter how small they might be in comparison. The memories may not be perfect and they may not always be pleasant, but they made him what he is. They're all that he has left.

His uncle and aunt and Ben are equal parts sadness over their absence, guilt that he couldn't save them and a simmering, steady rage at the forces that took them from him. His mother is a distant ache, a cipher, a vague concept without a name, a personality or a face. He knows more about his grandmother than he does about her.

And his father doesn't know that any of them are dead. How can he possibly tell him? How is he supposed to explain that in the end all that's left is him, a son with stories and outright lies where there ought to be some sort of shared familial past? ]

Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru raised me. They are-- were the only family I've ever known. My mother... My mother died around the same time that you did.

Edited (edits, edits, pointless edits (i'm going to sleep now before it can get any worse)) 2016-04-15 05:28 (UTC)

[ the correction slips him by. the implication that two people whom he briefly knew, who raised his son, had passed. another time he will ask: what happened? were they good to you? were you happy? anakin's world, however, begins and ends with one person. for a brief, merciful second, his mind is blank. in that second before ground crumbles underneath him, all he can think of is the sensation of ice spreading across the pads of his fingers, seeping down his spine.

she dies. like one of his many nightmares concerning his mother's fate. the future stares at him, and anakin, dry mouthed, throat tight, cannot respond. luke could not have more accurately gutted him than by plunging anakin’s own lightsaber through him.

she died. it is the only thing that makes sense. padmé who so loved and doted on her nieces, who kept her room in her parent’s house, preferring their company to servants and guards— she died. she had to. nothing in the galaxy, no secret, would have been enough for her to surrender their child to anyone.

anakin stumbles. his chest heaves, his heart pounds, his lungs seize. sand digs into his palm when he closes his fist and he realizes he is on his knees and he has no memory of falling. his voice is unrecognizable to him, rough and thick when he asks— ] What happened? [ and when he lifts his head, pupils wide and eating at the blue irises, he searches for something he knows will not be found. hope is a faint moth drawn to light to collapse in an effervescent apoptosis of ash and dust and memory. ]

[ The lack of a mother has never really struck Luke, not like the absence of a father. Anakin at least had a name, a vague personality, a shared origin point. He'd learned early on that no such stories existed about his mother. How could he properly miss something that he knew nothing about?

Perhaps it's due to that lack that Anakin's reaction to the news is all the more jarring, coming as a physical shock, driving into him with the force of a hammer. The grief surrounding his father is a nearly palpable thing. It's enough to make him gasp, but his own secondhand reaction is easily put aside when he sees Anakin collapse into the sand. Almost immediately he's kneeling there next to him. ]

I don't know. If anyone knows they never told me. [ Without pausing to think, he reaches out to place a hand on his shoulder. It's meant to comfort, though the attempt seems futile in the face of so much pain. But Luke can't just do nothing. He has to try to help. The gesture may be useless, or even entirely unwelcome, but he knows in his bones that it is the right thing to do. ] I'm sorry.

Edited 2016-04-16 02:24 (UTC)

[ the gesture elicits not rejection but surprise. enough so to briefly cut through the swell of loss threatening to engulf him. comfort was not something to be found in the temple. every child brought to the temple learned not to seek it; it was not there to be found. anakin learned to keep his need for it quiet, consoling himself with the memory of his mother. how proud she would be. how she would smile when he returned to tatooine to free her and find her a better home.

anakin's eyes fall on luke's hand. the thought of losing padmé is a serrated knife slipped between his ribs. padmé, who crouched beside him once following an occasion like this. padmé, who placed her hand on his shoulder, and remained with him without censure and without reminder that he must let go. his eyes lift from luke's hand to his face.

at first glance, anakin found more of himself. looking again, all he sees is padmé. the resemblance steals his breath away.

any shred of credibility kylo ren may have gained has been erased. a sensible part of him continues to suggest caution. anakin ignores it as his wont. he believes luke. believes him as believes so few. somehow, he will discover what happened. he will put a stop to it. padmé's life means more to him than his own, more to him than that of anyone else in the galaxy…except this boy's. a boy deserves his mother. for padmé, for luke…he will make this right.

she won't die. she won't die. ]

Obi-Wan would know. [ exhaling through his nose, anakin looks away. what the hell was obi-wan's game? it's easy, too easy, to be angry at his former master. to shift some of the blame on him. if there was one time to be truthful…

breathing in, anakin forces his features into something resembling calm. a brittleness brackets his eyes, the corners of his mouth. his throat aches. but anakin vows again to protect his wife, and he is able to get through the next few seconds.

his hand, warm and living, covers luke's. ] It's not your fault.

[ the image leaps again to the forefront of his mind: padmé dressed in blue, caught in profile with the roundness of her belly obvious. now more than ever, anakin believes it a vision given him by the force. she does become pregnant. they do have a child. their joy will be perfect —

all anakin needs to do is keep her safe. and he will. as he will protect his son. ]

Are you... Will you be all right? [ There's honest concern in Luke's voice as he speaks, that same desire to help, to make things right in some small way. His father, this man he has just met, needs him. He knows it deep inside of him, in the thrill that shoots through him when Anakin's hand covers his own, the way that his heart aches, the way that he's near to tears on account of a woman he has never met.

They are both alone now, they're both adrift. They're both all that the other has left. He couldn't leave even if he wanted to.

When he was twelve or so, news came from Anchorhead that Aunt Beru's brother had died in an accident. Luke can still remember the day in flashes: the way the bowl she had been carrying rolled along the ground, making cup after cup of tea in the hope that it was at least something, standing there silent while she clung to him and sobbed. Even as a child he'd felt it wasn't enough. Somehow he should be able to do more, to take some of that pain onto himself. In the end, all that he could do was stay.

He'll do as much for his father now, even if it still isn't enough. It may never be enough, but that won't stop him. ]

Please. If there's anything I can do or anything that I can tell you...

[ His news caused this grief. Now it's up to him to try and fix it as best as he can. ]

[ no, he's not all right. he has not been that for a long time. the war, his losses, they took that away. three years of it. long enough to forget there had been a "before." long enough to adopt a steady creeping of dread as his new baseline. it isn't something that can be fixed.

things can be. he knows that better than most, better than anyone — he who can fix anything given to him. it led to his purchase when he was still too young to really remember having had a previous owner. it led to his freedom with a podracer he built himself. anakin can fix anything…except people. those he does not yet know how. and he won't be all right. not until he does.

but the expression he settles on luke is kind. curiosity almost eases the flatness of his eyes. ( almost. ) his anger, his grief, his suffocating sensation of dread— those are forcefully set aside. it is the most enduring lesson the jedi taught him.

( around his chest, the bands between his ribs slip tighter, and tighter. ) ]

We should get you settled. Where have you been staying? [ anakin pauses, unsure how to continue. he cannot order luke to remain with him. they will map out their relationship eventually, but for the moment, not knowing where the limits lie…it's awkward. ]

[ Anakin doesn't want to talk about it. So they won't talk about it. Luke isn't disappointed really, if anything he's feeling something closer to jealousy. Some part of him can't help wishing that he could recover from things so easily, or at least act like it. After Ben Kenobi -someone he'd only known for a few days- had died he'd been so devastated that Leia had comforted him. Leia. The woman who had lost her entire family and planet not long before. It's embarrassing when he thinks about it in hindsight, but that's the thing. At the time he wasn't thinking, only feeling. So he can't help but be a little impressed by Anakin's apparent ability to turn inconvenient emotions off entirely.

It's probably the wrong thing to be taking away from all of this.

Mistakes happen. ]

I just arrived today, so nowhere yet. But somebody said something about an inn?

[ Luke stands, brushing sand off of his knees before extending a hand to help his father up. If he wants it. ]

[ more terrible examples will follow. for the moment, anakin takes the proffered hand and allows luke to pull him up. on their feet, he has almost a head over luke. he and padmé met halfway. it's funny; it hurts. ]

There's one or two around. They're a little on the small side; you've seen the Nalawi.

[ and there are many of them, the most recent visitors to the islands. long used to making do without a bed for long stretches if need be, anakin had not bothered with a room. he worked, slept when sleep overcame him, stood for food, to watch or to meditate — and repeated it all over again. ]

If you want a room, I'll walk you to the closest inn.

Is that where you're staying?

[ If anything, it's possible that Luke's voice is a bit too hopeful. It can't be helped though. Because, now that he's found Anakin, Luke can't imagine staying anywhere else. Abstractly he knows that the other man probably needs his own time and space to come to grips with ~~a dead wife and a sudden nineteen year old son~~ everything. And that's well and good. But at the same time, Luke doesn't want even that relatively brief separation. It's been nineteen years and he still has too many questions, too many pent up feelings that have finally found a place to turn.

You're never getting rid of him now, Anakin. ]

[ this is the boy supposed to destroy him? earnest in every action, as bright as double suns, untouched by war and the dark? this boy, eyeing him as one would a hero stepped out of the holonet?

anakin ducks his head in self-conscious gesture. he isn't the man luke thinks he is. not near as good as he must believe. but it's a warm feeling, nonetheless. sweet and poignant and, above all, humbling. padmé would love him, and it feels right. ]

I find my own space. I'm used to sleeping outside. [ a little pause. ] If you don't mind it…

I don't!

[ The words are out in a rush before Luke can stop to think. Too hopeful again, too eager. Dial it down, Skywalker, dial it down. But it's so hard not to be, no matter the impression that he might want to make. He's well aware of how he must look to his father -a man who can't be that much older than he is, but seems to have decades more of experience- and he couldn't help it if he tried. ]

I mean, I've slept in worse places before. Trust me.

[ anakin holds up his hands as if to ward off a blow, but he's smiling. then before he's aware of it, he's laughing. not at luke — anakin wouldn't be so unkind with him — but it's funny.

for a moment, he thinks he understands obi-wan's old gripes when anakin had still been a young and overeager padawan. ]

Okay. I believe you. [ his laugh relaxes into a smile. ] I'll show you around. You can tell me about those places.

[ and father and son had a great life, good neighbor finn could raid their pantry for food, and kylo ren got eaten by sharks. the end. ]

Edited 2016-04-23 03:22 (UTC)

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EVENT ★ EXPLORATION

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