♙Fact 2.4 ♙{video}

[heirtostay]

[The datapad shows Tenel Ka in her room, expressionless as she moves to her bedside table and picks up the lightsaber that rests there. A moment passes before she folds her left arm behind her back and thumbs the weapon on with a familiar snap hiss.]

I have few memories of my last hours. I apologise to anyone I may have hurt or injured.

[The feed

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[sand_wormie]

[Lightsaber!]

[He doesn't say anything, just watches, fascinated.]

[heirtostay]

[She continues with her forms for a while before noticing him on the datapad. She pauses for a moment, before disengaging her weapon] Hello.

[sand_wormie]

...Hello. Sorry, I don't want to interrupt.

You look really good. With the lightsaber, I mean.

[heirtostay]

Ah. It is not unwelcome.

[She inclines her head. There's something familiar about this boy, although she can't quite tell what] Years of practice has leant me no small amount of skill, yes. It was not a weapon I preferred, at first.

[sand_wormie]

Okay. I've never seen - [He knows there's no need, but Luke still has this ingrained reluctance to mentioning Jedi on public channels] - anyone practicing with one before. Even over some kind of imager.

It looks like it'd be hard to get used to.

[heirtostay]

Perhaps I will be able to demonstrate in person at some point.

Fact. [She holds out the hilt for him to see, carved out of a rancor tooth] The blade itself has no weight; that is all in the hilt. It can throw your balance off, if you are unused to it. [a beat] I am Tenel Ka. I don't think we've met before.

[sand_wormie]

I'd like that! [He doesn't mention his second thought, that he'd like to have a little distance because lightsabers are dangerous, because his third thought is that she'd be aware that they're dangerous and wouldn't carve up someone who was just watching. ...Luke's almost always willing to believe the best.]

Is that ivory...? I read an account of someone using one, once, and they said it felt more like a tool than a weapon, because of the weight thing.

[And slight reddening.]

Oh! Sorry, I forgot. I'm Luke, Luke Skywalker.

[heirtostay]

I will see what I can do.

It is a rancor tooth. This is not my original lightsaber, although it is very similar. [She pauses, thinking] This is not an inaccurate description, although it goes deeper than that. A Jedi must think of a lightsaber as an extension of themselves - a weapon and a tool, yes, but more than that. A weapon so dangerous cannot be so lightly treated. It is a concept I had difficulty with, when I was younger.

[There's a slight expression of surprise on her face, before he receives a faint smile] I am glad to have met you, Luke.

[sand_wormie]

From a rancor? How did that happen? Did you have to file away the edges, or do they have peg teeth?

Yeah... They look like swords, but they're all 'edge'. It's amazing that you can do all that [he means the forms].

[She kept more composure than some of the others... Luke notices, but he ignores it.] Thanks!

[heirtostay]

My grandmother kept one as a pet, in my home world. When it died, I was able to keep two of the teeth. Some alterations were necessary to make it suitable, but not many.

As I said. Like most things worth learning, it takes time and effort.

[sand_wormie]

...That would be a pretty impressive pet. Don't they get ten meters tall? Where'd you get this one? [Sudden concern.] Not poachers?

I'll bet. I learned the rifle in a few months, but they're pretty different things. How long did you have to practice to get comfortable with it?

[heirtostay]

My maternal grandmother is Dathomiri. It is not unusual, on that planet. [she looks amused at the suggestion] I would not worry. There are no poachers on Dathomir.

Ah. This would depend on your definition of the word comfortable. There was an incident when I first constructed my lightsaber that taught me to view it with respect; I was comfortable with using it after this, but it was a matter of years before I gained true skill with it.

[sand_wormie]

I don't think I've heard of Dathomir. [He hasn't, yet. Luke's the sort to know a lot about other worlds purely because they aren't Tatooine, but of course there are gaps.] Rancors live on other worlds, too. They say Jabba the Hutt keeps one, on Tatooine.

I guess... when you don't have to think about it. When it feels like part of you, like you said earlier. I've felt like that with machines, sometimes...

[heirtostay]

It is not a planet often in the spotlight. [she inclines her head] He did, once. It would seem that you come from a time earlier than myself. [Which...she already knows, but she doesn't want to dump that on him]

Some people have a connection with things other than themselves. Such a thing is not unusual. [She looks at her lightsaber] I do not have quite the same view of this as some other Jedi. A lightsaber is a tool of the Jedi, yes, but it should not be their only tool. Likewise with the Force.

[sand_wormie]

He loses it? Huh... [Shrug.] How far behind do you think I am?

It just makes sense not to get... complacent, I guess. It's a big galaxy.

[heirtostay]

In a manner of speaking. [She tilts her head at him] Something in excess of two decades. That rancor has been dead for some time.

This is a fact.