Welcome to Edensph- wait, WHAT?!

[npc_kun]

Characters: YOU! Confused new (or old) arrivals and current ES characters alike are all welcome!
Date/Time: Sunday, July 10th, all day
Location: All over the Sphere- if you need a refresher, please consult our handy World Map and the Events Calendar for a description of the current Wilderness! Remember, however, that new arrivals can appear ONLY ON

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[luuke_skywalker]

The galaxy ground on around him, vast and incomprehensible. Where was his Master? Why wasn't he here?

Eventually this longing got past the shock, and he dared to stretch out with the Force. He found minds there, yes, hundreds of them, all around, some very close. All thinking, all feeling, kaleidoscopes of images and sensation that blurred with each other and with him, all completely alien to him, completely unlike his Master's. Even when he pulled back, they were still there. He was awake to them now.

His breathing picked up until he was gasping harshly. He could sense the blood pumping through his veins, quickened by adrenaline, and now the side he was lying on felt tight and pressed. Clumsily, barely understanding what he was doing, he pushed and scrabbled and finally got himself into a sitting position, back against the brick wall, knees up. His cloak, trapped behind and under him, pulled, but he made no move to loosen it. Gradually his heartbeat started to slow.

His cloak - he looked down and realized that it had a color. The color was blue. The cloak was not the same color as his robes. Those were tan. The clone knew, somehow, what colors were, what their names were, and something about knowing about that knowledge was paralyzing. He stared, enraptured.

In time one of the kaleidoscopic minds that he was trying to shut out had a sudden flare, and someone cried out a name. He flinched and turned, transitioning into a wary crouch with fluid speed entirely unlike his earlier struggle to stand, to stare with total lack of recognition at...

Person. Human? Small. The words came to him. The clone knew what they meant. But there was no guidance. He didn't know what to do here.

[andcountry]

Cephiro hesitated. In his own perception he now found himself confronting a medium-sized mammalian predator, whom he had startled. His eyes remained wide, unconsciously, tracking the creature's movement. He was in no danger of becoming food, but he would have to choose his next actions carefully as they would determine whether the creature in front of him would fight, flee, or investigate.

He stood still and breathed until he could remind himself that this was a person in front of him - moreover, one he had thought he recognized. The feeling clearly wasn't mutual, however. Cephiro took another breath, deeper and more slowly this time, and stretched out his perception. There was a sort of quintessential Ben-ness about this person that was undeniable, that much was certain. Yet there was something that was lacking, just something subtle like cinnamon in hot chocolate.

So, this was... not Ben? He couldn't be sure. A person's aura might change over time. To be sure, this wasn't the Ben he knew.

"Hello," he tried, continuing to stand where he was. If this possible-Ben was a person, he should use language so that they could both act like people together. Cephiro would be sort of annoyed if it turned out that possible-Ben did not use language and could not be communicated with as a person nor as a creature.

[luuke_skywalker]

The clone's blue eyes, intense and blank at once, locked on Cephiro's. He could feel the attention on him, teasing at him, but not plunging in, as his Master would, and he studied the other's sense in response. The emotions he felt there were unknown to him.

His feet were under him as he crouched. He stood, slowly, his posture still wary. He looked like Ben, if Ben had never been scarred, his skin never coarsened by too much sun.

The clone had never spoken before, but he found that he knew how. In theory. His mouth opened. Closed. His throat worked, then his mouth opened again and he croaked, "Ah..."

[andcountry]

Just listening to that made Cephiro want to clear his throat, but at least it was a sound made in response to his own sound. That was a good start.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" he asked, taking a cautious step forwards.

[luuke_skywalker]

The clone blinked, his eyes darting briefly down to Cephiro's feet before going back up, as if making a point of noticing that he'd moved.

Then, after another pause, he nodded jerkily.

[andcountry]

You could say something in response, you know, was the first thought to come to his mind. What he said instead was, "Who are you?"

[luuke_skywalker]

That, the clone wasn't sure about. His Master's creature, yes. The good one came to mind too. But if he was really the good one, his Master wouldn't think about getting the rebellious one back, wouldn't he?

Don't think about that. Don't think about that.

His eyes tore away from Cephiro's to glance agonizingly left and right... and just as awkwardly as he'd nodded, he shook his head. The clone knew what these gestures meant, in theory.

[worrybot]

Philosopher was not the kind of droid to frequent dark alleys. In fact, he often went out of his way to avoid them. If you'd have asked, he would not have changed this policy for anything -- but there were a few things which could make him a brave droid, and one of those things was Ben.

So when he thought he saw a familiar face, he paused to look twice. He was correct (or so he thought), and relief flooded through his circuits as he hurried toward the pair, although he didn't have much to say to Cephiro. Not introducing himself was probably rude, but hopefully the boy would forgive him.

"Master Ben! Oh, it's so nice to have you back again!" he said fervently.

[luuke_skywalker]

Someone else shuffling into view, a new sprawl of sensation and emotion and thought, though this one flatter, harder to read. The clone's eyes narrowed, and widened again. He did recognize what it was, more or less.

- That was a droid. Gold-colored - why? Why make a droid gold? ...Why not make a droid gold? He frowned, trying to shake free of these new, irrelevant questions to...

He knew what speech was, the purpose to it, but it was so unfamiliar. And yet it was the only... well, the best way he could think of to communicate anything to these creatures.

As if phonetically sounding out words in a language he couldn't speak, his voice like the first words after waking up, when the throat is thick... he made a sound deep in his throat, licked his lips, and said, "What?"

[andcountry]

Cephiro heard a bizarre, metallic shuffling behind him and turned to look. What he saw caused him to squeak in the momentary terror that results when you don't know what the fuck something is but it's heading right towards you. It looked to him like an animate suit of armor with glowing eyes like fire. What little light was available in the alley gleamed off its golden metal body. It was the most frightening thing he had seen in the Sphere since the zombies.

Then he stood there and watched it for five seconds as it walked right by him, flailing around excitedly like someone's very old and prissy butler. It was probably harmless, he concluded.

"Um--" he uttered, unsure of how to talk to a bizarre metal person. "This, um, might not be Ben."

[worrybot]

Poor Ben. He was clearly disoriented. Philosopher was sure he would feel better when they got home, and he was about to suggest this when someone spoke up behind him. Oh, right, the child. Well, he had helped bring Sophy's attention to Ben, so he probably deserved a thank-you, and Philosopher was considering this when the boy made the ridiculous suggestion.

"Pardon me for saying so, but who else could it possibly be, Young Master?"

[luuke_skywalker]

After the small one had recovered some of its composure, the clone glanced down. There was something on the cobblestones near where he'd been lying. It was... what was that? That rectangle thing, simple-looking from here but he could feel that it was made of all these flat things stacked together, with traces of the mind attached but not of.

He had no idea what it was; the intrigue of that, something he didn't know in a distant way (unlike words, colors, what a person was) and had such a curious feel to it, was very powerful. The clone was confused and wary, but he didn't feel threatened. So he stretched out his hand and called, and the closed journal levitated up into it.

There was a mind-color to the ben word each of them kept using, a minor change in their senses. And this other word - it took a moment, but he knew what it meant. Master!

His posture changed, became less tense. They - or the droid, anyway - knew who he was. Who he belonged to. That was important. He looked from one face to another with more confidence now. Less like a cornered animal.

[andcountry]

"I don't know," he replied, casually side-eying not-Ben. There was a twinge, a half-remembered sense of disapproval at seeing magic used for something so trivial as picking up a journal. He raised an eyebrow at that, and at the man's subsequent change in posture before speaking to the droid again.

"But if Ben were a type of person instead of an individual, he would be like... another one." He waved his hands a little vaguely. It still sounded sort of ridiculous.

thanks to Tobu for this metaphor lol

[worrybot]

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Philosopher admitted. "As the saying goes, 'if it looks like a nerf and it brays like a nerf, start herding.' In other words, I see no reason that this could not be Master Ben in need of a rest and perhaps other human concerns. Unless you are some kind of doctor?"

He paused, polite if a bit stiff, as always. While he was waiting for a reply, he looked over at Ben. Why, the man was looking better already, Sophy was pleased to notice.

[luuke_skywalker]

The clone wasn't entirely able to follow the conversation. They were talking too quickly and not addressing him - language was a thing he knew somewhat impersonally.

But he was intelligent, and it showed in his eyes and face. As he was trying to piece things together, he was also calculating. Even with his Master absent, even with this aching void where that perfect mind should veil the world from him, the idea of his Master being connected here, somehow, was heartening.

If he wanted to be picked over the rebellious one, he needed to be... he'd have to think about that. 'Good', yes, but interesting, right? What did those mean? Aside from not staying here.

I uploaded this icon just for you, Sophy.

[andcountry]

Cephiro decided that the gold-plated monstrosity was the most undesirable kind of person. He was not particularly bright, and yet he was condescending. This could only mean that continuing to argue with him would be an exercise in frustration, and Cephiro wasn't interested in that right now.

Besides, the more he argued the more Sophy might be able to convince him that this really was Ben. Then the only option would be to believe that this was just what happened to him when he was reborn. It wasn't comforting, to think that the Jedi had gone off and died all alone without saying anything and then came back like... this.

"No, you're right," he deadpanned, despite himself. There was something about being right and yet surrounded by idiots that made him forget his usual self-consciousness. "I guess my lack of medical qualifications prevents me from accurately identifying people I know. So, now what?"