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mynamesaplant · 4 months

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When Worlds Collide

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Preface: 100% honest up front, I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars anymore. I enjoy it from time to time, I loved it when I was younger, but I just don't have the same spark for it anymore. However, I put that aside, listened to like five different 20-hour audiobooks to get myself into the Star Wars headspace, and got writing. Also, sososososoooooo many tabs for Wookieepedia open on my computer… Jedi is not my OC and, tried as I might, I just couldn't find much info on him on Blue's socials. I dug through Twitter as best I could, trolled through all the associated Tumblr blogs, and tried to get on other socials to find more while still being stealthy about a secret holiday gift. So, to you Blue, I apologize if Jedi is OOC, I swear I really did try to find something about him and did use your Star Wars blogs, but I couldn't find written content about him so I could write this fic. I will admit that I know the timeline for Jedi is off solely for the fact that you mentioned somewhere that Jedi has Anakin's lightsaber (which in all honesty, I thought Luke had), but I wasn't sure when anything was taking place. I am also notoriously bad about reading fics. Unless its an audiobook, I just find it hard to sit and read, but I took the time to read ABYS to try and get a sense of how Blue writes Emmet and Ingo. I doubt I nailed it. I'm not the best at emulating the styles of others - but I wrote this with a lot of good intentions and as much research as I could muster between school, work, and my life. If you celebrate any holidays around this time of year @ingo-ingoing-ingone, enjoy them, and if you don't, I hope this will be a nice gift nonetheless.

Don't want to read it here? Read it here on AO3.

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Summary: Coruscant still has trains? Yes, for a variety of reasons, it still does. Is it the most efficient means of travel? No, not always, but you certainly meet a lot of different characters on the train.

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Blending in was not exactly Jedi’s style – not when he towered over others. There was a lot about Jedi that stuck out like a sore thumb, but oddly he was right at home in the Uscru District on Coruscant. It was all eccentric outfits and bright lights; his feathers and glowing cyan markings didn’t stick out nearly as much in the loud atmosphere. Even if he was not home amongst the bars and clubs, even if there were dangerous beings to be found lurking around the district, Jedi did not mind. He could see the harmony in the chaos in this place.

His night in this hazy technicolor dream was at its end. He didn’t go to Uscru for leisure, he merely enjoyed roaming the high walkways that overlooked the endless city. Through his observations, he realized it was not too unlike a jungle, and he had always preferred seeing the jungle from the canopy. That was why he enjoyed his short time among the Wookies on Kashyyyk prior to his escort mission for an ambassador on their council.

Jedi was to guard the Wookie Ambassador Drrlysh as they traversed the Great Kashyyyk Branch to Umbara and on the planet’s surface. The Umbarans wanted a neutral party involved – meaning they didn’t want more Wookies than necessary on their planet. Once there, talks would begin about trading wroshite, the hard dark gray crystals woven between the roots of wroshyr, for doonium, one of the hardest metals in the known galaxy. He had been told the details at one point about what the metal was to be used for by the Wookies, perhaps for particularly durable bowcasters but the exact reason escaped him now. Both were hearty materials, and Mee Deechi found a particular interest in the wroshite, which was the only way he was willing to trade Umbaran doonium.

Jedi had spent the days leading up to his mission among the people of Kashyyk, climbing just as nimbly as the planet’s native inhabitants and perching in the tops of the towering conifers, staring into the mist shrouding the surrounds like a thick blanket made of wampa pelts. It was a scene that had been achingly familiar- but also alien to the Jedi. So much like home and yet not. He would return to his quarters each night and meditate on that feeling, reaching out through the Force to find an inner peace he worked to maintain.

It was not always easy, mental disciple was always more of a challenge than physical in some regards – especially for his species. However, Jedi prided himself in his training, allowing the Force to flow through him, not for feats of physical prowess, but for contemplative moments that required him flex his mind and soul like they were the lithe musculature that made him such a formidable opponent.

Although his phosphorescent gleam from his stripes grew all the brighter on the dark station platform, Jedi waited for the transport line that would deliver him to the temple in relative peace. A few giggling Czerialan on the opposite side of the platform, holding each other up despite the acute lean. Their diaphanous gowns reeked with the pungent smell of ale, wafting off them in waves which was enough to make Jedi’s acute nose twitch with distaste. Three meters to his left a Volpai and Morseerian were holding a heated debate over a game of Pazaak that the latter insisted their companion had lost their credits to. The Volpai was very clearly intoxicated, belligerent in their belief that it had been the Morseerian who had lost them.

Jedi’s ear flicked toward their voices, the four-armed Volpai slurring their words to their shorter companion, the Morseerian’s icy responses were accompanied by the mechanical hisses and clicks of the ventilator obscuring their face. Although there was clearly some aggravation at their combined loss, he felt no imminent reason to intervene. Nothing indicated that it would come to an exchange of blows or blasters, quite possibly thanks to the prominently displayed lightsaber which Jedi had subtly brought to the duos’ attention when he hissed with a feigned frustration and began to rummage with the pack slung around his torso.

When they quieted, Jedi’s attention returned to in front of him just as the transport rolled in – which was odd in and of itself as not many vehicles rolled on Coruscant. This one was a remnant of earlier times in the Republic. It linked major locations like the Jedi Temple, the Senate Building, the Galactic Museum, and the University of Coruscant that had been on the planet for generations. As the metropolis grew, swallowing up the planet in its entirety, all its outmoded infrastructure came under scrutiny, but the rail lines were kept for various reasons.

Some of the local politicians thought it would be good for the tourist, others thought they could be repurposed for moving supplies, and still others fought for the trains to keep the exactly purpose they were built for, a cheap and efficient way to move the near trillion residents of Coruscant.

Since hovering vehicles clogged the sky and Jedi found that many of the Coruscanti incapable of driving without distraction, this was his preferred mode of transportation. The hypnotic effect of the lights blurring into a simmering rainbow beyond the train’s windows was beautiful and very few people took the trains in the evening. Jedi crossed the platform in a few short strides when the cool automated voice announced for new passengers to board, ducking his head with the feathered crest atop it flattened in anticipation for the ride.

Settling in for his long ride through the canyonlike levels of the planet to return to the temple, Jedi allowed his gaze to become unfocused and the extraneous noises of his fellow passengers to fall into the background. Breath in… Breath out… Use this time to extend his mind and exercise his other senses. What was it that Master Yoda was always telling the padawans and younglings? Concentrate and-

“ALL ABOARD!”

Well, it was hard to concentrate when he had hypersensitive ears attuned to the minute sounds of light footfall in the underbrush. Jedi jolted in his seat, his auditory sense assaulted by two overlapping voices. The call made his ears ring unpleasantly and the flexible cartilage twisted backward and pressed flat against his head, his feathered crest puffing up in response and his pupils shriveling to the thinnest sliver. He took a deep breath, the ruffled plumage settling back. The words were still echoing off the walls as a figure nearly as tall as him strode the length of the platform, scanning for stragglers, which they kindly held the doors for, before entering the car. Four gray eyes taking count of the passengers inside and two mouths, one smiling and one frowning, relaying different information as they moved through the wide aisles.

“Please have your tickets! Tickets!”

“Yep! Tickets out please!”

It was not unusual to see an alien species with multiples of any limb really. There was so much diversity to be had in the galaxy, but Jedi had never seen a human that looked quite like this before. Two torsos erupting from the hips. Two heads. Four arms. Four eyes. Very clearly human though.

He broke his stare, recognizing that it would be rude, and fumbled in his pack for the data pad that contained his ticket information. There was an agreement between the government of Coruscant and the Jedi Council that all who trained at the temple received free passage on all public transport on the planet in exchange for protection that the presence of the Jedi provided simply by being present there at all.

“Thank you!”

The one in black on the right said, pressing a scanner to the data pad and removing it when it beeped. Jedi nodded, cocking his head with curiosity, which seemed to catch the attention of the humans.

“Is something wrong?”

The one in white on the left asked, mimicking Jedi’s motion unintentionally. He shook his head.

“I take this transport often and I have never seen you before. That is all.”

Basic had always presented a little trouble to him. It was often pointed out to Jedi that his speech was heavily accented, some of the grammar and syntax a little off from time to time. He had learned to speak Basic slowly for the sake of others on Coruscant just to avoid the reaction of polite annoyance - the rolling eyes when his gaze shifted, and they thought he didn’t see. Didn’t they understand that it was just as tedious as it was for him as it was for them? He at least bothered to try Basic for their sake, he was rarely offered the same courtesy. Around the temple, everyone seemed indifferent to his less than perfect Basic, taking most of his conversational cues from his expression rather than speech.

“Ah, that is because we were new to this route and shift! A last-minute schedule change that we are perfectly happy to cover for a fellow conductor who has fallen ill. A rather nasty case of Knytix Pox on a trip to Thyferra.”

“Yep. Covering a shift. Those pox are verrrrry contagious.”

Jedi replied with a wordless nod, looking them over with a casual eye and listening with a polite half-smile. Their clothes were what caught his notice. Tailored with extreme care and consideration for their condition. He admired the coats idly while stowing away the pad, only to find them still standing before him with looks of equal part curiosity and awe on their faces.

“Is something wrong?” “No – We’ve just never had the honor of running into a Jedi before. That is all.” Jedi blinked but beyond that did not permit his confusion to show. His lightsaber was out of sight, how had they – The man in black raised left hand as if to stop Jedi even before he said a word. “We overheard the gentlemen over there mumbling something about a lightsaber and looking your way.” “Mhm,” the white one hummed, grin widening into something bordering on mischievous, “They seemed concerned.”

“I see. I did not mean to cause a problem.”

Jedi trailed off, his ears twisting on top of his head as if to hone into the hushed conversation that the two aliens across the car seemed to be having about him, before falling silent when they were caught giving him furtive glimpses, and his glowing eyes connected with theirs with a hint of withering distain.

“You have not caused any problems at all! My brother and I are relatively new to Coruscant, there are not many Jedi roaming around Unova. We just moved from the mid-rim at the request of our employer.”

Jedi’s eyes returned to the humans in front of them with another faint smile. He liked their combined enthusiasm for their work.

“Cor-Union, right?”

“Yep! We worked on the trains in Nimbasa City.”

Jedi had never heard of Unova before, but there were countless planets in the mid-trim, far too numerous to be familiar with each and every one of them. He tilts his head, still offering them a cat-like smile – he considers asking about it simply because their enthusiasm is infectious, but he did not wish to interrupt their work.

“I wish you luck here on Coruscant. It can be quite the adjustment for some.” “Ah, yes. Our friend Elesa said the same thing!”

Jedi was delighted to see the man in black mirror his own expression. It was not quite a smile because it didn’t seem as though the man could smile – a sort of paralysis? – but it was the same smile that Jedi could manage that didn’t involve teeth. Others usually found his maw of teeth quite frightening. The humans’ gray eyes crinkled fondly with the mention of their friend, the man in white bearing a similar tenderness at the name.

They bid farewell with a synchronized tip of their hats and made their way down the car, asking for tickets to scan. Jedi would have just returned to watching the scenery, but one of the Czerialan – the one that smelt most heavily of alcohol from what his nose told him – decided that, instead of producing her ticket, she asked with a shrill cackle,

“What’re you? Half Troig or something?”

She clearly thought she was being hilarious, only strengthened by the fact that her companions also laughed.

“No.”

The one in white hissed, his smile not betraying just how he felt about the situation, but his tone was.

“Ticket, please.”

The other man said, whatever warmth in his voice from his conversation with Jedi turning ice cold and jagged with impatience that bordered on snarl. This was something they clearly were asked a lot, and something, Jedi had to suspect, that became more tedious to answer over time. He did not always understand humans, many of the knights or members of the High Council were human, like Masters Windu, and Kenobi – but human Jedi were not like other humans. Not all humans could tap into the Force, so what little reference that he had also intersected with something they were all intimately aware of and felt on a cellular level.

These men looked different than most humans, in some regards, as the Czerialan woman had said, they looked a lot like the Pollillus natives. Not the exact same orientation, but that hardly mattered to the intoxicated mind. They had just told him that they were from Unova. They clearly didn’t act, look, or speak like Troig would, so this woman seemed to be asking out of cruelty or at the very least insincerity.

It was easy to pick on outsiders.

Jedi knew that.

And he promised himself a long time ago that he would come to the aid of those experiencing such cruelties. The Jedi Order was supposed to protect and serve the people of the republic and the galaxy at large, but these were macro problems. There were many little problems in the galaxy. So much suffering and screaming that his satellite dish ears were able to pick up – All of it he just wanted to solve!

Master Yoda always warned about allowing emotion to override all else. Emotions were not inherently a good or bad thing, but they were delicate and could lead to irreversible consequences. Master Fisto, although distant with the younglings and padawans, had spoken to Jedi at length when he noticed how he teetered between his principles and the adherence to the code all the order were meant to follow.

When Jedi was offered private training with the Jedi Master, he jumped on the opportunity. Kit Fisto was a superior swordman within the order, some even rumored that he rivaled that of Master Yoda in terms of technical proficiency. The training was invigorating and exhausting all at the same time. It was not only training with the blade and of the body, but also of the mind and the Force.

“Injustice is injustice, no matter the size of the conflict – we can all acknowledge that. It is admirable how passionately you feel about these injustices and to what lengths you will go to aid those who face them.”

Jedi barely had time to parry the blazing green blade of Master Fisto, the heat of the plasma from the kyber-crystal nearly singeing his white fur and uncomfortably radiating up the metal that was his right arm. In this moment of distraction, his body was pushed back, his own lightsaber was knocked from his paws, and he landed flat on his back. Utterly defenseless even with his own natural weapons at his disposal.

“Emotion is a wonderful thing, but it can cloud the mind. It can interfere with your connection to the Force and leaves room for the Dark side to seize hold. Never stop your crusade of justice, young one. Let that fire inside you burn hot and bright, but never allow it to overwhelm and strip all else away… Do you understand?”

At the time, Jedi could not say he understood Master Fisto in his entirety, but he did now. Take control of those emotions, use them for good, and do not let them get out of control. Be passionate but balance it with perspective and reason. That was why he was told to discipline his mind.

Jedi took a slow breath through his nose; he did not think it was appropriate for him to step on their toes in this situation. Some people didn’t like the Jedi butting into their business, so he watched and waited for the appropriate moment where he might have to step in. The Czerialans continued to laugh, their tickets not out, and digging into the two conductors mercilessly with questions that would make anyone uncomfortable. It appeared as though the two men were attempting to ignore the questions, the one in black loudly exclaiming for their tickets over and over again only to be blatantly ignored.

“I am Emmet. You will have to get off.”

“He is right. If you have no valid tickets, we must ask you to get off at the next station or have a security droid remove you. Now, tickets, please.”

Jedi’s ears pinned back. How unfortunate that unruly and rude people were making their jobs so much harder. Soundlessly, he rose to his feet and approached the group, watching as, one-by-one, the Czerialans fell silent. He stood to his full height, his fur and crest fluffed out in a not-so-subtle intimidation tactic. A threat with no words.

“My apologies,” he managed to say in his silkiest Basic, “is there a problem, conductors?”

The two men shot him quick looks out of the corner of their eyes, Jedi noticed their eyes glowed like his. A wordless exchange passed between the three of them in the space of a heartbeat. Jedi recognized it as thanks for stepping in on their behalf as a sort of moderator before things had to get ugly.

“These passengers will not produce their tickets.”

The one in black said, his gaze moving back to the group of women seated before them.

“No ticket, no passage.”

Jedi nodded at the one who referred to himself as ‘Emmet,’ before addressing the Czerialan.

“Do you have tickets?” “Y-Yes!”

One of them squeaked, the ringleader, shrinking in her seat when all Jedi did was offer another nod and said coolly,

“Give the conductors your tickets, please.”

A moment later, the tickets were out and promptly scanned. Jedi returned to his seat without another word and the conductors took their leave toward the head of the train, only offering a silent double tip of their hats to him before the car door closed behind them.

It was about an hour later and the train was only a few stops away from the temple. He was alone in the car, all the other passengers having disembarked long ago, and Jedi was staring past his reflection to the skyline. The sky would have been a velvety black had it not been for the light pollution. The fused urban areas and megalopolises that made up the whole of Coruscant did not offer much of a view of its nighttime sky, just the bellies of looming ships that hung above the planet. The closest facsimile to stars and comets that the Coruscant natives ever saw were the twinkling flashes from orbiting satellites and the red and white streaks of landing lights through the air.

His mind was fuzzed out by the steady rhythm of the train gliding over the tracks, clacking with the same consistency of a metronome. It was mesmerizing. Listening to sounds from inside of the snaking metal beast, Jedi had the luxury to just allow his muscles to relax one by one and all his thoughts go quiet.

The car door opened, and his silence was instantly shattered.

“Master Jedi!”

His ears, already twisted to the new sound, flattened against his head and he inadvertently gnashed his teeth. Jedi knew they did not mean any harm, but conductor in black was so loud.

“The temple is the next stop.”

The one in white, Emmet, he had called himself, informed him with a pleasant smile. Jedi nodded acknowledgment.

“I am not a master but thank you for letting me know about my stop.”

He was quite aware his stop was fast approaching, but it was part of their job to make the passengers aware as they had done with the previous passengers in the car. He rose to his feet, expecting them to head back the way they came, but they remained where they were, looking a bit sheepish as they shifted on their joint feet. Jedi’s brow rose in question, waiting for them to volunteer, and Emmet cleared his throat,

“Thank you.”

“Yes, we wanted to thank you for intervening. The transition to Coruscant – ah…. It has its upsides and downsides. Most cannot wrap their head around our condition. Cor-Union usually keeps us on the dayshift to avoid situations such as this. Regardless, we appreciate your assistance.” “Of course.” Jedi said, understanding more than they could know. “It is my duty to help those in need.”

He was inexplicably charmed by the two, the small smile on his face genuine, as the train slows with its approach to the platform. Jedi easily remains upright, his tail acting as a counterbalance, as do the conductors, probably used to it from years of riding the rails.

“I am Emmet. Thank you for riding with us tonight!”

“We hope to see you again soon. Please, enjoy your evening.” “Likewise…”

Jedi pauses, waiting for the man in black to supply his name in the hanging silence.

“Ingo! Ingo Grey! This is my brother-”

“Full stop! Allow me to introduce myself, Ingo.” Emmet says with a furrowed brow, nudging his brother lightly in the rib which makes Ingo’s mouth twist up at the ends, a snort almost making it past his lips until he slapped a gloved hand other his mouth. “I am Emmet!” “Jedi.”

He replies with a little nod, which only earns him two slightly perplexed looks. Emmet and Ingo looked at each other briefly, their glowing eyes falling back on Jedi while they ushered him out to the platform. The temple rises beyond them, a mesa that stood tall around the neighboring buildings.

“What do you know, a Jedi named Jedi. Never seen that anywhere in the galaxy before.”

Ingo said, scratching his head under his hat. Emmet nodded. It was a long story and Jedi did not have it in him to explain at the moment, so he raised a paw in farewell.

“Emmet and Ingo Grey… It has been a pleasure to meet you both. May the Force be with you, good conductors.”

They offered a simultaneous nod and tip of their hats. Thanking him once more for the assistance, they look up and down the platform for any other passengers, call their signature, ‘All aboard!’, and clamber back into the car. The train whistles once and it hums with energy, but it darts off and out of the station.

#pokemon #submas #star wars #sw #jedi oc #not my character #secret santa

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