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[No need to feel awkward, bud. Vyng appreciates the added context. At the same time, he feels weird prying into Obi-Wan's potential future-past trauma when the man isn't even conscious for it. So for now, he chooses to focus on what they can control.]

If you start running low on food or supplies, just give me a shout. I'll do what I can.

[Which might not amount to much. But he considers Ezra a friend, and he knows how much the guy cares about his family. So the offer stands.]

You know, existential crises don't need corruption to suck. They do that fine on their own.

Does yours have to do with, with...like, the scope of all these timelines you're untangling here? Or are you more worried about what'll happen once Obi-Wan wakes up?

Thanks, Vyng. [Help with dealing with that they can control is absolutely appreciated.]

So. Uh. Both, I think? Temba, there was a bunch of people from my galaxy, but I only knew Obi-wan, personally, and a lot of did know about him was through...other family.

I know so much more about all the interpersonal stuff.

Anytime, pal.

[The reassurance is spoken warmly because he means it. There is one thing he's curious about, though, and he can't help but ask:]

Does Obes know you know all this stuff?

[He sighs.]

Sort of. He knows when I'm from, relative to him, and why I wasn't temple raised. And things like...I recognized a drawing of his master, and explained that I'd seen him in a memory. And he was ok enough with that to tell me about a nicer memory of Master Jinn.

But I have to keep balancing not actively hiding I know things if they come up, keeping the real secrets secret, and not dumping horrifying future knowledge on people. Or poking older trauma.

And I've told him that I'd answer nearly any question he has. I meant it. He said he wanted to stay focused on the present.

[A lesson he learned from his old master, it sounds like.]

Makes sense. I'd do the same.

[Probably even more aggressively so than Obi-Wan, for better or worse. It's not like Sleepers can do anything about alternate timelines. Still, though. Concern edges into his voice when he adds:]

Man. That's a lot for one person to carry. Are you feeling like all this extra knowledge makes you responsible for helping him navigate this?

[Reluctantly-] I'm pretty sure he'd say it's not my responsibility. That I should be careful not to take on too much.

[Another, more exasperated sigh.] But in my experience, he's not great at applying those guidelines to himself.

The honest answer is – even if it's not my responsibility, I want help, anyway. And I do think I'm in a better position than some of the people who know him best. Because of what I know and because I'm not directly associated with most of the worst of it.

And also....I'm proof there will be Jedi, still. It's - it's not enough. It doesn't fix-

[He breaks off, torn between feeling like he's making too much of himself, and the heavy feeling that he can never, ever learn enough and do enough to make up for thousands of dead Jedi. Or the main Temple, the Archives, and all it's history.]

You are enough, Ezra.

[The response is immediate. Because Vyng knows this, as surely as there are clouds above them.]

Look. I know you're worried about him. And that's sweet of you. But it also sounds like you feel like you've got something to prove. Like you're worried about your place in this family, and that you've gotta compensate for it by overextending yourself.

Am I wrong?

I-

[This is the other reason he called Vyng, he realizes. Vyng may not be a Jedi Master, but he's slotted somewhere adjacent, in Ezra's head - closer than any other adult he's spent much time with in Trench.

(Luke and Anakin Solo, Jedi Knights, feel more like peers, with all the possible lack of objectivity for similarities that could entail.)

Ezra's shoulders slump, his gaze dropping away from the screen.]

You're not wrong.

Edited 2022-05-31 06:40 (UTC)

[Vyng prefers in-person conversations, partly because it's easier to read people's true feelings when they're standing face-to-face. But Ezra's heavy body language is unmistakable.]

You live with Obi-Wan now, right? It sounded like you'd been accepted into the fold with open arms.

[Even if their shared history is largely one-sided on Ezra's end, those two can still cultivate something meaningful in Trench. Their Jedi connection is just one of many avenues for that, he's sure. Still...]

Did something happen that made you feel unwelcome? Or were you guys still feeling things out when, you know...

[He motions around himself in a general "everything caught on fire" gesture.]

[He rubs at his face.]

Obi-wan's been great. He offered me a place at his house immediately. I...said not yet, partly because I was pretty sure Anakin would freak out.

Anakin's definition of family is...well, I'm not it. He told me so. I wasn't even trying to get him to - I'd only brought up my own family, and that I get that it can hard to, um, let people in.

[He shrugs.] And some of it is on me. I have- [He hesitates, and then plunges on.] There was this - this thing, in Temba, that happened. It gave us all fake memories of a life on Earth. An entire lifetime, and the spell stuck our life stories together in ways that...made emotional sense.

In Temba it was sort of ok, because we could decide together what we wanted to keep. Does that make sense?

Anakin feels like an outsider, too, I'm pretty sure — maybe as much as you do, in some ways. But you two have learned different ways of dealing with it. What he said is...probably more about himself than you.

I get it, though. You and Obi-Wan had a shared history, and then you decided to define the relationship on your terms. But he doesn't have those memories here. So now you feel like you're saddling him with all this baggage he never asked for.

[Quieter:]

It's not true. But I know it still hurts.

Edited 2022-06-06 01:58 (UTC)

[Dry and very tired sounding-] I like to think I manage to not take Anakin's issues personally about, oh, 75% of the time. More than 50%, at least?

...not feeling hurt about not sharing certain memories with Obi-wan is harder. Because - because of how long I didn't have anyone. But in that life...Ben was always there. Always.

[More than 50% is pretty good. Vyng won't belabor that point.]

Ben?

[He hasn't heard that name yet.]

Oh. Hmm. Well, in the context of the life created by the spell, his name was and always had been Ben Bridger. Kenobi was our mother's family name.

But that was the thing about the spell; it took things from our original memories and stitched them together in ways that made sense if you squint. That...resonated.

Ben is the name Master Kenobi chose to hide under the Empire.

Oh, like an alias? That's...also the name of the brother you shared a life with.

Yeah. All that.

Your love for Ben motivates you to care for Obi-Wan. I don't think there's any harm in that, as long as you acknowledge and respect him as his own man. But I get how burdensome it can be to keep stuff from your family.

We'd said we were family before the spell happened. [His theory is that's why the spell put them together like that.]

But yes, it's extra motivation and there's...overlap between them, but they aren't the same. Ben didn't have rare training or abilities. He was a good man, and thoughtful, but his life wasn't wrapped up in duty to the greater good.

You've got a solid foundation. Now you're building a history together, here. With enough time, I think you'll create lots of new memories you wouldn't trade for all the gold in the world.

[Vyng certainly didn't think of Tuck or Billie as close friends — let alone family — in the beginning. But Obi-Wan and Ezra already have a solid, common thread between them.]

Try not to spread yourself too thin, especially now. If not for your own sake, then for your family's. Hard to stay present when your mind's running in 40 directions at once, you know?

..I hope so.

Yeah, I'll be careful about taking on new stuff, for the time being.

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