from way up high, you and i.

obi-wan wondered if he should be suspicious of woodshore. by all counts, one should be. it wasn’t exactly a seamlessly perfect town and maybe that’s why there was something normal about it in the abnormal. he’d long since found peace in the fact that he would live alone, many friends dead and his penance for his hand or lack of hand in stopping it making it so, but he wondered if it was too careless to find peace in woodshore.

woodshore made it easy considering where he made his home and the beach he now stood on, looking out to the ocean. the people here seemed more keen to simply enjoy their time and not exist in pure upset in their daily lives. there was practically anything the earth could give that could be asked for here. it was the closest anyone could get to a utopia and it looked effortless.

“they told me they’d be here,” gamora said, stepping to the side to stop someone she passed by on the sidewalk. she knew better than to just believe mysterious promises from an unknown source, but she also wanted to believe that the rest of the guardians were here. it was simple that a place like this - and a place not like this - wouldn’t be home until the seven of them were reunited. especially not after everything that happened.

“one is either this tall,” she held out her hands in front of her, apart only about six inches, “or this tall,” she held her hand up at shoulder height, “or this tall,” she jumped once as she held her hand as high as it could go, “and he goes by groot.” which was really hard to miss. “he’s nearly always with rocket who hates being called a raccoon.”

“there’s mantis and she has antennae that help her sense what you’re feeling and change your emotions.” and mantis was friendly enough to probably have made it around town to most people. “and drax is a kylosian. has a lot of muscles and doesn’t understand sarcasm.” even after being a part of the guardians for so long. “he’s easy to find even when he thinks he’s invisible.”

“peter is terran… human and he’s always listening to music. he wears his emotions in his eyes and usually doesn’t even try to hide it.” she felt like she could always tell what he was thinking. “and my sister nebula. she’s a luphomoid, but she has cybernetic enhancements. she might not be with any of the others, but she’s family.”

The Fire Pits interested Triss. Fire was basically her friend, so it was simple as to throw a simple fireball in the pit to light it up. “Huh,” she looked up and saw the stars, her lips tugging into a small smile. “Never thought the stars up here would be beautiful like the ones back home.” she said to no one in particular.

at the mention of the stars from the woman nearby, gamora looked up too. it seemed strange to be sitting here on earth now with her memories and not be experiencing it with peter. or really, any of the others. she shook her head, glancing at the stranger once more before she looked at the fire in front of them before speaking, “they’re beautiful here, but i have enough experience to know it’s not the same as when you’re in space and they surround you.”

        she hardly notices the other woman until a handful of napkins are being offered to her. emerald eyes lift and fix upon hers, fleeting smile of gratitude tugging across her lips. “thanks-” she drops her gaze, eyes glassy. lydia you will not cry here. it’s no use crying over spilled coffee. blinking quickly, she dabs at the mess, hoping to salvage something. “you don’t have to help, i’m sure you were busy-” the redhead adds, as the woman starts mopping up her mess alongside her.

           while he is most definitely not the person she’s looking for ( handsome, older men didn’t really tend to match the missing daughter description ) at least he doesn’t make her feel like the world is spinning. not like others have. if she can’t get drunk, maybe she can find some decent company to distract her from this nowhere town. “want to rack ‘em up ??” hayley follows him over, chucking in a coin to the side of the table to trigger the release of the balls. peering over the end of the table, she raises a brow, teasing smile curving across her lips. “or has it been that long you’ve forgotten how ??” 

 A haze of boredom had started to overtake Eve, but the sudden comment broke through. Surprised, Eve turned to her left. Someone must have walked up to view the art she was in front of while she was… thinking. Eve blinked at the speaker, but they didn’t meet her eyes; Eyebrows raised in amusement, she looked back to what they were curiously observing. Unsurprisingly, it was the same thing she’d been ‘observing’ moments before. (Eve hadn’t really been taking it in, but she wasn’t planning to let that on.)

It was a painting, hung neatly on the wall of the Woodshore museum. Eternal peace, Eve mused, eyes roving the details. A woman lay comfortably, eyes closed, in a small boat drifting downriver. It was quite pretty, Eve could admit, although she was no art critic. She almost felt bad for nearly falling asleep at it earlier. One of the woman’s hands trailed delicately in the water, parting lilypads as she went. 

Eve tries to allow a thoughtful silence, but it only lasts a few seconds before she’s itching to speak.

“I think she’s dead,” Eve asserts, arms crossed decisively. The look she spares Artoo borders on pitying, but there’s a spark of challenge in her eyes that isn’t unkind. “So yeah, probably overrated.”

artoo nodded slowly at her statement, biting on his bottom lip. it was a bit of a dark subject for a painting, but he’d experienced all types of subjects for art around alderaan and naboo ( and even coruscant ) before. and it was hard to deny sadness and something as sober as death were something people used for art either. all the same, not something he would keep in his house or spend too much time wondering about in a museum.

“in my experience death isn’t peaceful,” he said simply before he shrugged. he’d known many that greeted it like peace, but even the jedi he’d known that became one with the force, they weren’t at peace as eternal guardians of the force. he was easily discredited as misunderstanding because he was a droid, but he knew enough.

Blathers shook his head slightly as he glanced down at the ground with a slight sigh. “It’s complicated, but at the moment I feel… I feel like I’ve been more or less hit by a truck. I might have been exaggerating a bit when I said that you looked worse than that but it just slipped out.” He took a breath and shrugged his shoulders. “I must admit that worrying about if the new exhibits will do well or not and worrying about my little sister has made things a tad bit difficult but give it time and I’m sure things will be just fine.”

“and if i don’t love music?” she had never given it much thought before. most of her memories with any sort of music involved the eden club, and the chapter of her past that was better left buried. and after she ran away, well – the revolution was more important than listening to whatever was on the radio. even in her fake life, north had never really given it much thought. letting out a sigh, she lifted her shoulders in a half-shrug. “i guess i’ll bite. feel free to enlighten me.”

karolina let out a humorless laugh, curling a strand of hair behind her ear. “yeah, that checks out.” she agreed with a sigh. so much of her life had been shrouded in that glow, that white light of perfection. the church of gibborum, her childhood… it was all happy, but it was a lie. “i think perfection’s just a lie people tell themselves to be happy.” maybe nico really had rubbed off on her, but it felt true.

octavia really couldn’t blame loki for a lot of the discontent that happened that night, but he really hadn’t help to dissuade it either. that’s just who he was, and they really liked loki as they were. “i hadn’t expected there to be so many topics at once, and to get so off topic about woodshore.” she agrees, lazily pulling herself up to sit on his table. “there really was no agenda in the first place, i guess i should have to. What do you really think is happening?”

‘ i mean , it must be scary . terrifying , really . to discover that you can do something that you never thought you could do . ’