spncentral | When Sith Beat Jedi To The Prize (Of The Chosen One)

Garth'zel had intended never to go to Tatooine again. The entire experience the first time he was there was hot and miserable. The only good point, so far as he was concerned, was meeting Andronikos. But as luck would have it, his ship ended up deciding to need minor repairs. Nothing too bad, but it did require him to land somewhere to get the parts he needed, because of course, the bit that went was something he didn't have spare parts for. The only planet within reasonable range? Tatooine.

It didn't take long for a Force-sensitive boy to catch his attention. One strong enough that he was surprised the Jedi didn't already find him. Well, their loss was his gain. ...Once he pried him loose from Watto, anyway. He suspects he actually had an easier time of it than a Jedi would, although he's not going to hang around and give one the chance to give it a shot. At least, unlike them, he's willing to come to Tatooine from time to time so Anakin could see his mother. Probably not more than a couple times a year or so, due to it being best to go there when they're at least vaguely in that part of the galaxy anyway, but it's far better than 'sorry kid, we're never bringing you back'.

Of course, there is one tiny problem with this whole thing. He's never had to raise children before and doesn't know what he's doing. With the ship safely in hyperspace and not due to come out of it for a good long while, enabling him to do things that didn't involve sitting in the pilot's seat of the ship, he's in the lounge area. Time to figure out what he's doing. "Have you managed to get any kind of schooling? Like from someone you know, sitting down with you for an hour here and there as time permitted to teach you things like how to write?"

May as well figure out what he needs to teach besides how to use the Force consciously instead of unconsciously drawing on it.

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"Which ones in the Core?" He'd heard of various planets and he was curious about them. And then a question about what Garth'zel had actually been having him do, "The stars that fell dim, are they farther away? Or smaller?"

"Alderaan, mostly. When I visited, there was a war going on. I'd like to see it without that mess happening. It really is a pretty planet." Then, without skipping a beat. "Probably both. Some stars being further away, some being smaller."

"What makes it pretty?" He's heard pilots talking about various planets, what they liked and didn't, he wants to know what it is able Alderaan that makes Garth'zel like it.

"How can you tell?"

"It's probably hard to explain to a child who's seen nothing but a sand-filled wasteland all his life. But there's mountain ranges, various kinds of grass, wildlife you won't have seen before. It's a combination of those things that make it a nice planet."

The next question gives him some pause as he tries to work out exactly what's being asked. "Do you mean how to tell between the stars being small or far away, or how to tell you're even picking up on those options?"

"Not all my life. I wasn't born on Tatooine, we got sold there when I was very little. But I don't really remember much of where we were before. Just the family that owned us, and the house. I think that's what I'm remembering, when I sit and think like you taught me. The sky was different than Tatooine. And the air smells different. Grass comes in different kinds?" He wanted to ask his mom about it, but she really didn't like to talk about were he'd been born.

Anakin chews on his lip a little. "Yes. Both of them."

"I meant plants in general, not grass. Although yes, there's more than one kind of grass." Clearly, his mind got stuck on a specific kind of plant for some reason.

"Mmm, I've never really had reason to figure out the stars thing. The answer, at least in part, is that since you've been sensing stars, some of them being smaller, further away, or both is fairly obvious."

"On one planet, they grow multiple kinds of grass?" That was what he'd meant, asking with something akin to wonder in his voice.

"But I can't tell which is which, so it's not obvious to me." Hence him asking.

"I think working out which of those stars are small and which are further away is something that will come with practice as you learn what the things you're picking up on actually means." Sorry, kid he can't really help you here; this is something else that falls within the lines of 'who even does that?'.

Anakin sighs, accepting the answer but not really liking it. "What else did you want to do?" With his lessons today. Not that he'd getting bored, he just doesn't know what else to do.

"There's seeing if you can manipulate objects using the Force. Providing I'm not trying to move too fast there," Garth'zel says with a shrug before rising from his seat. "Give me a few minutes to bring back a few things to use for this."

Anakin nods and moves out of his way, only returning to his seat when Garth'zel's out of room, mostly feeling odd just standing there alone. But he's sitting still and alert when Garth'zel returns.

Garth'zel sets down the assortment of things from the galley he'd gotten that shouldn't break if they got dropped.

"Try with the fork, first," he says, nodding towards it. "Picture it rising into the air and want it to do so."

Anakin watches, eyeing each item. At Garth'zel's prompting, he focuses his attention on the fork, picturing, imagining it rising from the others and tries to will it up. But it couldn't be that simple, he thinks, and for a while nothing happens. He tilts his head a little, looking at Garth'zel. "Am I doing something wrong?"

"It's normal to fail at first, since you don't know what you're doing," Garth'zel assures him. "I just didn't say so, because then you would have gone in expecting to fail. And that's fun for no one."

Along with removing the possibility the person trying may actually succeed on the first try. After all, if they're just going to fail, why bother trying?

"On that note, don't forget to draw on the Force. Wanting it to move does no good if you aren't using the Force."

While one could say him never having finished a pod race, much less having won one could count as a failure, given no other human was supposed to be able to do it, he didn't count those as failures. He wasn't used to failing. He might not have full success, but failure was new.

He isn't going to fail at this, so he listens, jaw set stubbornly. Attempt two, he imagines the fork rising into the air, wills it to do so, and reaches inside himself for that star inside him. The fork rises, wobbling but it does rise.

A couple inches. Until Anakin realizes what he's doing and gasps excitedly which breaks his focus, leading to it dropping loudly back down. "Dammit."

"Don't swear," Garth'zel admonishes without any real heat.

"Not bad for your first successful attempt. Try again with a little less wobble. Although I'll settle for more height if you can't manage to avoid that wobble yet."

Guess who is just giving you a very strange look Garth'zel. Guess. Because what?

Anakin swallows but he did it once, he can do it again, willing the fork in the air, steady, he tells it, steady but it still wobbles some between periods of stillness. Anakin isn't surprised by his own actions however so he doesn't drop it again, but when he unthinkingly reaches his hand out to motion 'stop' at a wobble, he sends it flying as if thrown sideways, to have it clatter to the floor some ten feet away. "I didn't mean to do that." He starts to rise to go get it.

Garth'zel just ignores the look.

"I didn't think you did," he says, stretching out one hand and calling the fork to it, putting it back on the table after. "Again. Hopefully without flinging it across the room this time. Or at me."

Despite having just tossed it, it didn't occur to Anakin to try to pull it back the same way. But that would be helpful when he was working on things. He focuses again, putting his hands on his thighs to remind himself not to reach, finally gets the fork a good distance off the table. It still wobbles just a little from time to time however.

"All right, that's better," Garth'zel notes. "Set it back down the same way you picked it up."

As opposed to just letting it fall back to the table.

Anakin tries to lower it, making it more wobbly, so he stops were he has it until he make it stop doing that. Once he has the fork steady again, he starts to lower it again slower but more smoothly until it thunks a little hard on the tabletop.

"You'll improve with practice," Garth'zel says before nodding at the bowl. "The bowl next."

Time to work upwards in terms of size.

Anakin exhales. Not a success, not in his mind. But not a failure either, even if there had been a false start. Failure would have been not being able to manage in his task at all during this lesson.

The bowl is larger, but he's sure now he can in fact lift it, and he focuses less on if he can lift it and more on trying to lift it steadily, smoothly, without it wobbling. He doesn't quite manage it would any wobble, but it's better.

"The same principle of what you're doing applies to whatever you're lifting, no matter the size," Garth'zel says, falling into his 'instructor' voice without really noticing it. "Now that you understand how to do this, you'll be able to lift larger things such as boulders with about the same amount of effort. That said, something large enough is likely to need to be a group effort."

"I once lifted a large starship from the swamp it had been rusting in for centuries with a couple of other people. It took all three of us. Once it was in the air, someone else kept it there, since he was waiting in the cockpit for us to pull it free from the ground to make sure the muck had time to get out of places it wasn't helpful to be in." Of course, then they had an interesting time getting in the ship, given its distance from the ground.

Anakin hears the change in voice but he doesn't understand the meaning behind it. And what Garth'zel is saying is very neat but he doesn't see much use in just being able to lift things up and down.

Instead, remember his accidental throw, he tries to push the bowl to one side, being partly successful, but also tumbling it over so it's upside down. Anakin glares at the bowl as if it is the bowl's fault, not his, for a long moment before managing to flip it back over and pull it back to were it had been, then puts it down. Smoother. Less hard.

"Why did you need to get the ship?" Talking now that he's not concentrating.