Jacen has been on Zonama Sekot for a few days now, but he still can't get enough of it: the thousand exotic scents he can't quite place, the pollen drifting about lazily in the air, the knee-high grass swaying in the breeze, all the new species of flora and fauna, the deep blue sky. Even the fronds that had crept up the landing struts of the Jade Shadow, which have been preventing them from leaving, are a wonderment, as well as the constant pressure he can feel in the Force, pressing into his thoughts like what a body might feel if submerged into the depths of the ocean.
Life. Just... so much life.
The Ferroans have been elusive, and the Jedi have been patient. Well, they've had no choice but to be patient, really, having come all the way to the Unknown Regions to seek out the living planet, in the hopes of finding answers and a way to win the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. But while they've been welcomed (sort of) by the planet's native inhabitants, they've been made to wait in a village, housed in mushroomlike habitats with rough and rubbery walls, and doorways and windows that were rounded as though they'd been grown rather than cut.
He's sitting cross-legged in the middle of a clearing shaped like a large bowl, eyes shut as he meditates. He could feel the planet's presence in the Force everywhere — around him, above him, even beneath his feet in the underground chasms. In fact, he could almost swear he's heard something... from the rocks.
The uneti tree was special - to Rey it seemed to have its own gravitational pull, often diverting her path to wherever she was going and drawing her in. The Force was strong all over the island of Ahch-To but inside the ancient tree's trunk where Luke kept his ancient books the energy was like a heartbeat. Rey found it irresistible even when she wasn't training or meditating, being inside the tree had a sense of peace, of belonging that came with it.
Rey lingered at the entryway, squinting in the low light filtering in from outside. Something felt different today, not wrong, or precisely off - but there had been a shift somewhere, and it added a heaviness to the steady pulse of the Force that was undeniable. "What," the question, posed as delicately as a puff of air was asked to no one in particular and about nothing specific - it had begged to be asked all the same.
She had not expected a reply. The air around the tree was always full of the soft, intangible whispers that seemed to hang around it like a haze, but that voice - it was more solid than anything else.
Stepping further into the tree her eyes scanned the small space, seeking out the origin of the sound. A small, varied pile of stones beside the plinth where the sacred texts sat caught her eye and she leaned in closer, her attention caught by one, smooth blue stone in particular. "Hello? Are you - a person?" Rey wanted to ask directly if it was the Force she was speaking to but the question was as ridiculous in her mind as it likely would have been spoken aloud.
Are you a person? Emperor's black bones, what did one even make of that? Voices in the Force were one thing, but he was pretty sure he just heard a distinctly female voice from the rocks, and had just asked him if he was a person. So, yes, whoever she was, she was speaking directly to him. Was she Zonama Sekot? Had the planet come to commune with him?
With the grace of a seasoned Jedi, he pushed himself to his feet and headed towards the cluster of rocks where he'd thought he heard the voice from. "I'm here," he answered, crouching down by them. He stretched out a hand, feeling for which rock in particular — ah, there. A smooth blue stone that looked positively normal and yet felt anything but.
His fingertips came to rest on the rock's surface, and he could almost swear he could sense something from it. A pulse, a heartbeat. Life. It must be the living planet. "Yeah, I'm a person. Are you... who are you?"
When the stones replied she gave a jump, looking around the vacant hollowed out ancient tree as if to verify that she was in fact alone, that this wasn’t Luke or one of the caretakers having a bit of fun at her expense.
“If you’re a person, where are you?” Staring perplexed at the pile of stones Rey leaned in closer to squint at them, skepticism rampant on her face. The disembodied voice pressed on, asking her name and making her tilt her head to the side, as if in debate over whether or not whoever this actual but invisible person needed to know that much about her.
Common sense didn’t win often when Rey was presented with a mystery like this one, and in spite of herself she spoke again. “I’m Rey - who are you? Where are you? I don’t see anyone. Do you see me?” Rapidly fired questions were her favorite means of communication, what she lacked in people skills she made up for in voracious curiousity.
He blinks at the question, settling back down on the ground as he frowns at the rock. This... isn't the kind of encounter with the consciousness of a living planet that he'd been imagining. Is this a test, perhaps? Like those riddles Vergere used to love throwing at him? He'd been expecting a person, like a Force ghost of sorts, but now all he's getting is a disembodied voice. But it's strangely so vibrant, so alive, that it can't possibly be not real?
His frown deepens some more when the voice continues. She's calling herself Rey, and saying something about not seeing him. Huh. Now she doesn't sound like a planet.
"I'm on Zonama Sekot," he finally answers. "I... don't see you, either. Aren't you the planet?" He really has to ask now, because he's so confused.
“The planet?” Rey looked at the rock and shook her head in confusion not sparing a thought for how anyone was unlikely to see the gesture.
“I’m not a planet, I’m a person. Aren’t you the Force?” One of the uneti tree’s many whispering voices but a bit stronger perhaps, or some conscious wellspring of energy deep within the ground of this island amplified somehow, or some other perfectly reasonable manifestation of the Force’s energy even. Rey wasn’t a scholar but she was fairly certain that there wasn’t much on talking rocks in the ancient lore, there had to be something else at work here than what she thought she was perceiving.
“I’m not even on Zonama Sekot, I’m,” Rey paused, knowing it was classified information, but believing quite strongly that talking rocks were too obscure a ruse for the First Order to entangle themselves with . She decided to press on. “Ahch-To.”
"The Force?" Now it's his turn to frown and shake his head at the rock, because why would anyone even think he's the Force? Unless, of course, whoever's on the other side is experiencing the same thing, only hearing a disembodied voice from a strange blue stone. But there's also the possibility, he muses, that this really is a test. This wouldn't be the first time he's had visions or heard voices, after all, and given that they're supposed to be on a living planet—
Before he could say anything more, the voice — Rey, he corrects himself — gives him a location. Or what he thinks is a location, because it's a name that's unfamiliar to him. Ahch-to. He's never heard of Ahch-to before.
"So... Rey, a person, not a planet. Hello." Because that's the polite thing to do, right? Even if he feels a little ridiculous talking to a rock. (Not that talking to yourself isn any different, really.) "I'm Jacen. Not the Force." But, well, if she knows about the Force, it just begs the next question: "Are you a Jedi?"
Rey - a person, it was as good as any definition she or anyone else had attempted to put on her. Impulsively Rey reached for the rocks, following the sound of a voice that was in retrospect absolutely far too awkwardly spoken to belong to the Force. Nudging a few rough, gray rocks aside Rey's hand fell on a smooth blue stone, brushing her thumb over it for a moment before carefully picking it up.
"Jacen, not the Force," echoing his previous assessment of her end of things she nodded again for no one. "Not a Jedi yet - I'm trying to be but," she frowned and rose back to her feet, trying not to dwell too much on how she was talking to a rock. "I found where your voice was coming from. Am I in a rock for you too? A blue one?" A pause and then - "are you a Jedi?"
He can't help the smile that touches his lips at her acknowledgment, the way she echoes his words. Jacen, not the Force. He's been agonizing about his identity for quite sometime now — who he is, what it truly means to be a Jedi — but for as nondescript as Jacen, not the Force is, it strangely feels... fitting.
"Yes, I'm hearing your voice from a rock. A blue one." He tries to recall if he knows a Jedi apprentice by the name of Rey, but nobody comes to mind. "And yes, I'm a Jedi." He pauses, not sure what else he should or shouldn't say, but something in the Force seems to tell him that it's okay, that he can trust her. "I was apprenticed to my uncle, Luke Skywalker. My full name is Jacen Solo." Maybe his name will ring any bells. He hopes.
"Luke Skywalker? But you can't be." Staring at the rock as though it had just called her a rude name Rey's head tilted to the side, considering what this might mean. "You're a Solo? Who are your parents?" She only knew of one Solo offspring and he was highly unpleasant.
"I'm with Luke Skywalker and he won't train me," she had spent the last few days trying to get him to change his mind with very limited success, that this talking rock was claiming otherwise - and in the most outlandish way possible was beyond comprehension.
Something in her tone makes him hesitate for a moment. Is she offended that he's a Solo? It kind of sounded like it... but it's not like he can actually confirm that just from a disembodied voice coming out of a blue rock, so he decides to press on, and the way to do so is to answer her questions. "Yeah, I am. I'm the eldest son of Han Solo and Leia Organa." And, well, the only son left now. "I have a twin sister, Jaina, and we had a younger brother, Anakin."
It's her next statement that makes him frown. "By train, do you mean you're speaking to him through a rock too? Because he's here with me. Well, not right now, but I mean we came to this planet together."
Everything he has to say about who he is and where he came from is mind-boggling to Rey. Eldest son? Sister? Every detail is filed away in her already puzzled mind to turn over at a later time, and - should the voice in the rock persist, perhaps ask him about when things were less of a complete puzzlement. His question about Luke however - that couldn't wait a moment longer, and a response tumbled out of her before Rey had had time to think too long about it.
"No?" She sounded uncertain, casting a glance over the other rocks in the pile where she had found the blue one now resting on the palm of her hand. "Yours is the only talking rock I've ever found." Rey tried to picture him on the other side of things, as confused as she was and an actual person - not a manifestation of the Force or of a planet's consciousness.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rock friend has finally arrived :D
Date: 2020-03-18 10:24 am (UTC)Life. Just... so much life.
The Ferroans have been elusive, and the Jedi have been patient. Well, they've had no choice but to be patient, really, having come all the way to the Unknown Regions to seek out the living planet, in the hopes of finding answers and a way to win the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. But while they've been welcomed (sort of) by the planet's native inhabitants, they've been made to wait in a village, housed in mushroomlike habitats with rough and rubbery walls, and doorways and windows that were rounded as though they'd been grown rather than cut.
He's sitting cross-legged in the middle of a clearing shaped like a large bowl, eyes shut as he meditates. He could feel the planet's presence in the Force everywhere — around him, above him, even beneath his feet in the underground chasms. In fact, he could almost swear he's heard something... from the rocks.
He cracks an eye open. Hello?
CAN'T STOP THE ROCK
Date: 2020-03-22 07:54 pm (UTC)Rey lingered at the entryway, squinting in the low light filtering in from outside. Something felt different today, not wrong, or precisely off - but there had been a shift somewhere, and it added a heaviness to the steady pulse of the Force that was undeniable. "What," the question, posed as delicately as a puff of air was asked to no one in particular and about nothing specific - it had begged to be asked all the same.
She had not expected a reply. The air around the tree was always full of the soft, intangible whispers that seemed to hang around it like a haze, but that voice - it was more solid than anything else.
Stepping further into the tree her eyes scanned the small space, seeking out the origin of the sound. A small, varied pile of stones beside the plinth where the sacred texts sat caught her eye and she leaned in closer, her attention caught by one, smooth blue stone in particular. "Hello? Are you - a person?" Rey wanted to ask directly if it was the Force she was speaking to but the question was as ridiculous in her mind as it likely would have been spoken aloud.
"Is someone there?"
time for a ROCK PARTY :D
Date: 2020-04-06 01:59 pm (UTC)With the grace of a seasoned Jedi, he pushed himself to his feet and headed towards the cluster of rocks where he'd thought he heard the voice from. "I'm here," he answered, crouching down by them. He stretched out a hand, feeling for which rock in particular — ah, there. A smooth blue stone that looked positively normal and yet felt anything but.
His fingertips came to rest on the rock's surface, and he could almost swear he could sense something from it. A pulse, a heartbeat. Life. It must be the living planet. "Yeah, I'm a person. Are you... who are you?"
no subject
Date: 2020-04-16 09:47 pm (UTC)“If you’re a person, where are you?” Staring perplexed at the pile of stones Rey leaned in closer to squint at them, skepticism rampant on her face. The disembodied voice pressed on, asking her name and making her tilt her head to the side, as if in debate over whether or not whoever this actual but invisible person needed to know that much about her.
Common sense didn’t win often when Rey was presented with a mystery like this one, and in spite of herself she spoke again. “I’m Rey - who are you? Where are you? I don’t see anyone. Do you see me?” Rapidly fired questions were her favorite means of communication, what she lacked in people skills she made up for in voracious curiousity.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-25 12:38 pm (UTC)His frown deepens some more when the voice continues. She's calling herself Rey, and saying something about not seeing him. Huh. Now she doesn't sound like a planet.
"I'm on Zonama Sekot," he finally answers. "I... don't see you, either. Aren't you the planet?" He really has to ask now, because he's so confused.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-04 02:58 am (UTC)“I’m not a planet, I’m a person. Aren’t you the Force?” One of the uneti tree’s many whispering voices but a bit stronger perhaps, or some conscious wellspring of energy deep within the ground of this island amplified somehow, or some other perfectly reasonable manifestation of the Force’s energy even. Rey wasn’t a scholar but she was fairly certain that there wasn’t much on talking rocks in the ancient lore, there had to be something else at work here than what she thought she was perceiving.
“I’m not even on Zonama Sekot, I’m,” Rey paused, knowing it was classified information, but believing quite strongly that talking rocks were too obscure a ruse for the First Order to entangle themselves with . She decided to press on. “Ahch-To.”
no subject
Date: 2020-05-13 01:05 pm (UTC)Before he could say anything more, the voice — Rey, he corrects himself — gives him a location. Or what he thinks is a location, because it's a name that's unfamiliar to him. Ahch-to. He's never heard of Ahch-to before.
"So... Rey, a person, not a planet. Hello." Because that's the polite thing to do, right? Even if he feels a little ridiculous talking to a rock. (Not that talking to yourself isn any different, really.) "I'm Jacen. Not the Force." But, well, if she knows about the Force, it just begs the next question: "Are you a Jedi?"
no subject
Date: 2020-05-25 06:54 am (UTC)"Jacen, not the Force," echoing his previous assessment of her end of things she nodded again for no one. "Not a Jedi yet - I'm trying to be but," she frowned and rose back to her feet, trying not to dwell too much on how she was talking to a rock. "I found where your voice was coming from. Am I in a rock for you too? A blue one?" A pause and then - "are you a Jedi?"
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 01:18 pm (UTC)"Yes, I'm hearing your voice from a rock. A blue one." He tries to recall if he knows a Jedi apprentice by the name of Rey, but nobody comes to mind. "And yes, I'm a Jedi." He pauses, not sure what else he should or shouldn't say, but something in the Force seems to tell him that it's okay, that he can trust her. "I was apprenticed to my uncle, Luke Skywalker. My full name is Jacen Solo." Maybe his name will ring any bells. He hopes.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 07:30 pm (UTC)"I'm with Luke Skywalker and he won't train me," she had spent the last few days trying to get him to change his mind with very limited success, that this talking rock was claiming otherwise - and in the most outlandish way possible was beyond comprehension.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-12 06:21 am (UTC)It's her next statement that makes him frown. "By train, do you mean you're speaking to him through a rock too? Because he's here with me. Well, not right now, but I mean we came to this planet together."
no subject
Date: 2020-09-13 12:56 am (UTC)"No?" She sounded uncertain, casting a glance over the other rocks in the pile where she had found the blue one now resting on the palm of her hand. "Yours is the only talking rock I've ever found." Rey tried to picture him on the other side of things, as confused as she was and an actual person - not a manifestation of the Force or of a planet's consciousness.