fandomhigh | Summer Shenanigans, Wednesday mid-morning

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Summer Shenanigans, Wednesday mid-morning

Worrisomely, the park was empty today aside from a sign that directed everyone to the beach. When they arrived, they would find a huge wooden scaffolding at least 30 feet high (somewhere, an Olypmic platform diving squad was wondering where their stuff had gone) next to the water. In the water was a blue and gold inflatable as long as the scaffolding was high. Further out were ropes marking distance from the inflatable blob.

Everyone have a horrifying mental image of what was going to happen here? Good!

"I have returned after foraging for parts last week," Anakin lied through the megaphone. He'd been a cat. "And we are trying out an all new event! You will climb to the top of the scaffolding and jump down onto the inflatable! This will launch the person at the other end of it into the air! Whoever launches someone the furthest wins! The launchee will also receive points for style before hitting the water."

The points get you nothing. You win nothing. "After you have launched your island mate, you crawl to the launch zone and you get launched by the person behind you. This will be fun."

Possibly only for spectators.

"Come get your rash guards and life jackets, if necessary. Listen for your names!"

Belle
Hannibal
Stark
Henry
Steve M
Thor
Jon
Jaina
Lydia
Flint
Eleanor
Luma
Steve R
Raiden
Harley
Rey

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Jack's face made an entire journey as he tried, and succeeded, to repress 1) the urge to argue back that that was an incredibly stupid argument, 2) the desire to say 'whatever hatchet is making you talk like a 75-year-old nun teaching school children', 3) his immediate instinct to throw up his hands and just walk away in the face of how he suddenly couldn't remember why this was even worth doing in the first place.

"You know, I remember us being able to have a decent conversation that didn't involve either of us stomping off in a huff at the end of it," he said mildly, once his expression settled. "So whatever hatchet made that untenable, basically."

Edited 2025-08-13 18:15 (UTC)

Anakin decided replying with "you started it" would be supremely unhelpful and not entirely true. "Using my past to try to win an argument in front of my children and potentially listening squirrels--" he paused, trying to come up with the correct word, "--was a bridge too far."

"And I'm sorry about that," Jack said. "You upset me, I lashed out. I shouldn't have."

Ignore the voice of 21-year-old Atton Rand bellowing 'BUT YOU DESERVED IT' in the back of his head.

"Very few people even know of that part of my life," Anakin said, "and in that moment, I regretted sharing it with you very much."

"Always dangerous, sharing anything with--" a Sith, "--the kind of people who used to be the kind of people we used to be," Jack said. A little wry, maybe.

He looked out at whatever poor sod was bouncing up into the air this time. "You made me regret sharing anything of my own life with you," he said. "I think a part of me wanted to throw it back in your face."

"Well, that part won and you did," Anakin said. "After that, I didn't think you'd care about my opinion on anything."

"Well, I'm probably not going to ask you for your advice on how to talk to the people I love again any time soon," Jack said, eyes darting up to Anakin's face. "But I'm talking to your latest protege tomorrow and it's bringing up a lot of stuff for me, including how it was good to talk to you back in the day."

He fiddled with the edge of his glove. "I'd also personally like to be able to see you in class without, I don't know, immediately feeling resentful about how well you're fitting into the whole Jedi island sage thing. So. I'm sorry for throwing all of that in your face. And getting in your face again in class that one time."

"I haven't moved out into a hermit shack in the woods yet, which I'm told is the final form for Jedi," Anakin said. "You're talking with Rey?"

"Figure I do have a little first-hand 'rebuilding the Jedi Order' experience that might help," Jack said lightly. "Even if the most I wind up doing is telling her to hire a Jedi therapist."

Anakin snickered. "Are there Jedi therapists?"

"There should be," Jack said.

He didn't sound like he was laughing about it.

Anakin side-eyed him. "We come from vastly different eras," he finally said.

And Jack looked up at him to meet his gaze. "Did I ever tell you I spent a year in the loony bin after Sparkle disappeared?" he said. "No, wait, I don't know why I made that a question. I didn't. I haven't told anyone that."

Consider it sensitive information to make up for using Anakin's sensitive info, or something.

"'Complex post-traumatic stress disorder', is what they call it," he said. "And I got pushed into going by someone from Sia's time, so your era can't have been that different."

Anakin thought of Yoda's "let go of everything you fear losing" advice, tried to square that with "but yes, therapy" and stopped trying before his brain exploded.

"Well, there was a galactic-wide war and Sith takeover, so everyone had trauma," Anakin said. He'd been the one inflicting it, even. "At the time I wasn't interested in mitigating the pain."

He turned his attention from the flying bodies (one of the Steves, perhaps?) and to Atton. "I am sorry you went through that, though."

He was not going to point out that 'galactic-wide war and Sith takeover' basically summed up his own time, too.

"And I refused to do it for years until my legs gave out under me, because I didn't think I deserved help, and I distrusted anyone who'd go near my head anyway," Jack said. "I'm not telling you you should go, or anything. You seem to have everything more or less figured out."

He was the one looking at the water now.

"I think I'm starting to, though," he said. "Get it figured out, I mean. I just had to walk away from our galaxy to do it."

Edited 2025-08-14 16:58 (UTC)

Anakin nodded. "But you're still talking to Rey?"

"Sure."

He glanced up at Anakin again.

"I lost my shit in class because I wish I had your clarity on where I stand with the Jedi stuff," he admitted. "I'm not running around bashing bad guys with lightsabers anymore, but I spend more time with the Force than I ever did before."

"It takes time," Anakin said. "It took me decades. The Force is the Force. It doesn't choose a side. How we use it makes us choose one." He smiled softly. "Luke has the clarity, I took cues from him."

"Your kid's also a Jedi-Jedi, if I'm not mistaken," Jack said wryly. "Not sure it's my kind of clarity."

"He is," Anakin said with a proud smile. "He struggles with different things, but his relationship with the Force isn't really one of them."

Jack snorted. "For me the struggle is with the stuff the Force used to get me into," he said, "And to what extent you can call yourself a Jedi when you're living on a backwards mudball making music for a living."

Well, not all of his living. Not in this economy. But you got the point.

"They don't take back the membership card," Anakin said. "I don't think they issue them to begin with. If you still resonate with the basic tenets of the Order, searching for knowledge and justice and avoiding revenge and murder--"

"Haven't killed anyone in over a year," Jack said. He held his hand up only half-sarcastically. "I swear."

Then he eyed his arm, sighed, and reached for the edge of his glove. "I did put one piece of clarity on my skin. Hoping I won't regret it," he said, pushing the glove up all the way to his wrist.

The tattoo read 'I will stand in the darkness and laugh with my heel on its throat'.

"Song lyrics?" Anakin guessed.

"Boyfriend," still weird to say on the island, "Thought I listened to too much angry music," Jack said, rolling his glove down. "So he gave me a less angry record, and the irritating thing is, it worked."

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