Sewer Rats [Asher]

[Asher]

[member="Abaigeal E'ron"] // [member="Pickles"]

Oh gosh. Asher’s eyes went wide as he held the sabre in his hands. Everything else seemed to quiet down as he felt a sheer sense of ecstasy fill his mind. Did Abaigeal have any idea about how many times he had glossed over the pieced-together comics that he himself had assembled from scraps as a kid? The ones with this exact weapon in it? The kind of weapon and tool that was now in his hands? It was hard not to contain himself almost. This was the weapon of the Jedi and Sith. It had toppled the topsider empire time and time again. To see one so far down into the levels…

His inner child came out again as he held it in both his hands with a pose from one of the comics. Granted, it didn’t look very good or stable or like something a grown-up would do. But just this once Asher truly and honestly couldn't care any less about the situation.

“I used to dream about these.” Asher said as he slowly got out of his dumb pose. “Stories of the Jedi and Sith from the, uhhh…” He trailed off and scratched at the back of his head as his eyes diverted away from the others. Mostly in embarrassment. “The, uh, books that I found around the levels as a kid.”

He slowly, and most certainly begrudgingly, held the saber out for Abaigeal to take back again.

“Thank you.”

 

[Abaigeal E'ron]

Pickles stood there amazed at Asher goofing around with the torch, she had no idea why he was waving it around like that. She looked over to Abaigeal, but she did not think it strange, she was watching Asher almost with a critical eye, watching his form as he moved and slowly a smile form on her face. Asher spoke of Jedi and Sith, the later she had heard of since they had been of Coruscant, but not the Jedi, not really because she was not born when they were around.

Asher handed out the saber to Abaigeal to take back and thanked her for allowing him to get a look at it. But she didn’t, in stead she moved around to stand behind him to the side and took his arm by the wrist. “Then you know how to turn it on”, she said and watched at the blade ignited into life once more.

She guided Asher’s arm, making the blade move in all directions close to the body, it sizzled as it contacted with small particles of dust that floated down from the ceiling. “These are the movements of form one, Shii-cho. The first step in training to use a lightsabre”. She looked down his body noticing his stance was wrong, and she reached down to his hip and guided it to stand more squarely with a gentle push. “There that’s better”.

Abaigeal kept repeating the movements, starting from stance and moving in motion again, and before long she let go of his arm and stepped back to all Asher to do it himself. If he knew of them, he would know not to touch his body with it, knowing the consequences. Asher was clever, intelligent so she did not need to give the warning.

[member="Asher"]​

 

[Asher]

[member="Abaigeal E'ron"]

There were few things that truly scared Asher, despite what it might have seemed like. The corridor ghouls were hard to forget once you had seen what they could do with your own eyes. But a lightsaber was something that had felt so strange and alien ever since he had been a child. In his hands was now what had been a beacon of hope for change that was forever out of reach for an abandoned child. It was a symbol of the belief and struggle that there was a better tomorrow that in so many ways would never come in his lifetime.

The lightsaber flicked on under Abaigeal’s gentle instruction and it was hard for Asher not to tense up. What if he dropped it now? What if his arm decided to just magically pull itself into the superheated beam of plasma and immense pain death? What if he would never be like Skye Walker? What if this was the very peak of his life and he hadn’t even passed his mid-thirties yet?

He took a deep breath and nodded at Abaigeal as she carefully demonstrated for him how to move with the sword in his hands. He continued the loop but it felt almost too simple. Was it supposed to be that simple? He looked over at her, questioning whether he was doing that right as she corrected his stance by the hip. A small uncertain grin spread across his lips. Not so much his usual a cocky if not nonchalant smirk that he usually flashed.

The way the saber almost sung and hummed as he gently moved it through the patterns Abaigeal had shown him was terrifying. Beautiful, but terrifying. He kept the motions going until finally it was time to come back down and put his feet on the ground. The saber was flicked off and he stood up straight again to look at the little metallic cylinder unsure what to even make of it anymore.

“So,” He said with an exhaled chuckle. “You’re saying being a Jedi is all super easy, right?”

And there it was again, that mischievous grin. Though before long it turned into a warm smile as he insisted on handing the thing back to its rightful owner. To have had the chance to do that meant more than anything he could care to think of. At least any other experience he had ever experienced or had.

“I-” He exhaled again, not quite sure how to manage the emotion. “I really don’t know what to say.”

“Thank you.”