Test Drive Meme

[shadowmods]

Throne of Shadows
TEST DRIVE MEME!!!

New to Throne of Shadows? Long time player thinking of apping a new character? Welcome to our test drive meme! Experiment with active and potential muses! Here is a place where you can test out characters for the setting and accrue samples for your applications! Roll on the scenarios provided below, or come up with your own!

Scenario Builder

You are...

1. Lost in the temple
2. Trapped in a cloak room
3. Stargazing on a balcony
4. In the bathroom
5. In a bedroom
6. Swimming in a courtyard pool

You’re feeling...

1. Inexplicably happy
2. Like you could fall asleep at any moment
3. Angry enough to punch someone
4. Nostalgic or sentimental
5. Like someone stabbed you—oh, hey, they did, fancy that
6. Seriously horny. Must be something in the water.

Somewhat unusually...

1. You can only speak in rhyme
2. You are naked
3. You suddenly cannot verbally communicate
4. There’s a lot of alcohol/drugs here!
5. You are gender swapped
6. You have amnesia

Comments

[neverjoinyou]

The world Anakin knew was so far from the one Luke had grown up in that the unvoiced questions would have made little sense. Even if the older man would be partly responsible for the shape of that future world. But there was no way for him to know that, and no way for Luke to begin to comprehend what he'd been through. Right now, he was contending with the contradictory information he was receiving. There was the evidence of his physical senses, the way the other man's attitude had shifted, the recognition in his eyes, his voice. There was something about that easy shift that reminded Luke of himself, even. Or anyway, the way he'd been, before he'd known.

And then there was the unseen information, the gentle dance of two strong in the Force, something he'd been wholly unaware of until just recently. First with Ben, then Yoda. And now, after Bespin, he'd had trouble turning it off, partly because he wanted so desperately to deny everything. But his senses told him differently. Vader had not lied. It was possible. It was true. And Luke had, even in the extremity of his pain and shock, accepted it. Yoda had been right. He hadn't been ready. He didn't want to know. At least there was Leia, her presence as soothing to him as Vader's was disturbing.

Actually, that was what this man reminded him of more than anything. Leia. There was a presence there, a strength and a fire that was familiar. And something else, too. Something that reminded him forcibly of his father reaching out to him, as he turned his mind away and sought Leia instead. But he didn't want to think about that. He didn't want to think about how right it seemed now, that feeling, how undeniable the connection was no matter how much Luke wanted it to be a lie.

"I know you're a Jedi," he said slowly, to have something to say, to try to get past his rising unease at the familiarity of it all. "I didn't think there were any, except..." His eyes widened slightly, the suggestion worming its way into his conscious mind. No. It was one thing to draw people from different worlds, another to... to...

No. He would not accept it.

[hero_with_no_fear]

“There aren’t any?” Anakin was completely stunned at this very impossible idea – which was decidedly more impossible to him than the idea he had a son. The Order was his life – the Order was that thing he both fought against and fought for, it was a war within him that he both loved and hated and wanted to let go of and cling to all at the same time. He didn’t know anything better – for so long it had been the only secure home in a galaxy of uncertainty. And his closest friends where there (save Padmé) – Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. He couldn’t fathom leaving either one of them behind to live in exile or join a more heretical group of Jedi. But he had thought about it – he had considered it. How many times had he been so frustrated with the blindness of the Council and their unwillingness to bend to what he knew the Force was telling him he must do, that he had considered setting down his lightsaber and walking away. Walking away to Padmé.

His life had always been conflict.

But for there to be no Jedi? Hearing that, it was like a part of him had been removed and he was breathing with one lung. He knew people from the future could arrive – he was from a time after Obi-Wan. But this was their future? To be wiped out? How could the Jedi fail?

“They’re all gone? How? Why?” The strain in his voice belied the feelings he could not hide keep from leaking out into the Force – to be read and felt and shared by anyone around him. “This is why you don’t know me- Luke, I’m your father.” He said it so earnestly, so full of hope that something in this conversation could counter the devastating truth he was hearing.

[neverjoinyou]

Hearing it again, from a different mouth--no, not different, not if it was true, just changed--barely more than a week after hearing it the first time, Luke felt like all the air in the room had suddenly disappeared. It did not help that he'd reached the same conclusion simultaneously. Or that the man--Anakin Skywalker, it had to be, there was no use denying it--said it without a hint of irony or malice. As if he truly expected Luke to greet this news with pleasure. Anakin Skywalker, who Ben had told him had been betrayed and murdered by Vader. But now that he knew, there was no denying that the presence was the same. Less twisted, brighter, but still so, so angry.

"I know," he said tightly. He wanted to throw up. This man. This young, naive-looking person in front of him, was Darth Vader. Scourge of how many planets, how many races? Destroyer of the Jedi. His hand twitched. How was it that this was equally difficult to take from this smiling, whole young man?

[hero_with_no_fear]

Like a wounded animal Anakin stared at Luke. The feelings he was picking up from his son- there was none of the joy he’d expected. Revolution, displeasure, as if the other man felt sick to his stomach to hear it. And fear. Anakin inspired a diverse range of reactions from people. Some people liked him, most wanted little to do with him. The Order at best tolerated him, the Council would be rid of him if they could find a way to justify ignoring the promptings of the Force. For the most part he was used to it. He’d had training since childhood to deal with it. Slavery did that to a person.

But his own son – repulsed by him?

“You don’t want it to be true,” he stated, lowly. Still too stunned to feel anything but loneliness and hurt.

“Why?” he choked out. He had to know. Clearly, somewhere between his time and Luke’s time he had failed his son. Obi-Wan did not wanted to know anything about the two years that spanned between them. But Anakin was different – he had to know things, he had to understand. Maybe he could fix this. He could go back and change this dark future. But he had to know what he was fixing first.

[neverjoinyou]

Perhaps in the future, Luke would come to some understanding. Perhaps when he'd been through more himself, been tempted himself. Perhaps when some time had passed, and he'd gained perspective. The future was not yet now, however, and Luke still hated Vader. Hated him for his betrayal of everything he and the Force stood for. Hated him for murdering Ben. And hated him for leaving him all those years ago, for turning away from his son and family to serve the Emperor. Even now, with the kicked Wookie expression Anakin was giving him, Luke half expected an attack. His skin fairly buzzed with the need to be alert, to sharpen all his senses in readiness.

"Because," he snapped, "you ruined my life. You cut off my hand. You killed the greatest man I've ever known. You're the reason my friends and all the decent people of the Republic are in hiding. You're the reason I grew up not knowing who I was or what I could do. You. Changed. Everything."

Angrily, he spun and went to the edge of the balcony, turning in profile to Anakin and leaning his hands on the rail. He didn't like looking away, but he couldn't look any longer. The anger was rising within him, the hatred, and for the first time he knew just what Obi Wan had been afraid of. What Uncle Ben had known. What Yoda feared. The dark side was strong in him, he only had to reach out, he knew, and his father would be no match for him. Not now, before it all happened. Not now, while he was stunned and pathetically hurt by Luke's rejection. As if he could feel anything but!

Even so. He had to control himself. He had to stem the tide of anger. It wouldn't solve anything.

[hero_with_no_fear]

Anakin was indeed hurt even more by what Luke said, but that hardly meant he was vulnerable to attack. Long trained in the Temple and honed in the field. It could also be argued, because he insisted emotions should not to be excised completely from the Jedi way of life (contrary to the Code), and therefore had extensive practice, he was the only Jedi who could enter a duel with his emotions roiling just under the surface and come out victorious.

But dueling was the furthest thing from Anakin’s mind.

Luke’s answer raised so many more questions than it answered. The only truly comprehensible part of that was Luke’s hand, which Anakin could easily verify in the Force. He hadn’t noticed before, but now that his attention had been drawn to it, the young man did have a mechanical hand.

He still didn’t understand why, but he could focus on nothing but one immutable truth – Luke hated him. As bright and searing as Tatooine’s twin suns, there was no ignoring the intensity of that emotion radiating off in waves from Luke. Whatever the reality behind those accusations Anakin was desperate to know, he couldn’t deny just sharing the same space angered Luke beyond belief, which not only emotionally wounding for Luke, but was dangerous as well.

It took Anakin mere seconds to decide to care for someone – this was his son, and Padmé’s son. There was no question what he already felt for him despite only learning of Luke’s existence mere moments before. He didn’t want to cause the young man more undue pain or turmoil than he’d clearly already caused. And he wanted that more than he wanted to know the reasons for Luke’s ire.

“I apologize,” Anakin managed. “I will not bother you further.” He tipped his head in the customary Jedi bow and turned to leave.

[neverjoinyou]

Luke's head tipped down, between his bowed shoulders.

"That's right," he said, almost under his breath. "Walk away. Is that how it happened before? It was too much for you, and you chose power and destruction?"

He didn't expect an answer. He didn't expect anything from Anakin Skywalker. Not anymore.

[hero_with_no_fear]

Anakin had made it to the balcony exit when Luke spoke. He heard what his son said, the benefit of Jedi enhanced senses. He paused and looked back over his shoulder.

“I,” he was shaking his head. Power? Destruction? These were not things Anakin sought for, though they often came to him and were left in his wake. The taxes of war, all generals paid their dues. “I don’t know what happened. You don’t exist yet back home in my time. But I can fathom no reason I would willingly leave you unless it was at the behest of your mother or yourself.”

[neverjoinyou]

Luke shook his head again, letting out a long breath before speaking again.

"I never met you. She was dead, too, before I... No one asked you to leave, Father. You had a choice. Us, or the dark side. Us, or the Emperor. I can't think of any reason that should have been a difficult one to make."