#cerasi

@jedijune

week 1: a choice not taken

For starters, he didn’t dress like a politician. Instead of the bright colors and heavy layers favored by Senators, Kenobi himself seemed to prefer lighter, muted clothing that drew less attention and allowed for better maneuverability. If Fox hadn’t known any better, he would have guessed that Kenobi was a military officer, not a politician. Strange for a planet that was so determined to stay neutral that they refused to join even the Neutral Systems Alliance.

Second- he hadn’t requested an escort to Coruscant, nor did he request any guards once he arrived, despite the Chancellor himself asking him. He seemed completely unconcerned about any possibility of an attack or assassination attempt. Was it because of his neutrality? Did he believe that having a member of the GAR as a bodyguard would make it seem like he’d joined their side? Or was he simply too arrogant to think he’d need one?

But his demeanor wasn’t arrogant. Nor did it match the way he dressed. And the way he spoke- his voice was elegant, with an accent that fit right in with the Coruscanti upper class, and yet he didn’t smile like them. His smile - when aimed at the Corries - was soft and gentle. Kind.

The Generals of the Young: Cerasi, Nield, and Obi-wan “Ben” Kenobi, 44BBY, Melida/Daan.

I CANNOT BE THE ONLY ONE WHO WATCHED THE LATEST SKELETON CREW EPISODE AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT, MELIDA|DAAN

I mean, come on. A planet in the midst of a war, two sides battling over control. One side employs children, and the children act like soldiers.

The daughter of one of the leaders meets an outsider, and decides she wants to work for peace. Cerasi, anyone?

Work sticky note doodle done in like 5 seconds you’re welcome

Obi wan, 2 months later: *sticks peices of shattered cyber in his hair*

Ben is among the oldest of all the young at 13.

At 13 he soothes the fevers of the littlest who have never had enough strength or food or love, he holds up buildings that should collapse and kill them all (yet he does not do so with his strength for he is scrawny like them, weak like them. He doesn’t even touch the wood) finds water sources that are impossible to see, shoots steady even when his hands shake (as if guided by something, as if he is not entirely himself but something other, something more).

He calls it the force, they call it Ben.

At 13 he becomes a legend.

Legends aren’t born, but made in the desperate tunnels full of dying children. They say he appeared one day from the sky, that when his elders left, he refused to. That he was not born on the bloody battlefields of hate, but that he stayed because he saw them, felt with them, heard their song. He stayed when the Jedi left.

The children see how he balanced Cersai and Nield (love and hate, peace and war, water and fire). They see how the three click into place, Melida and Daan and Other. They wonder if maybe there was always an empty spot between them, waiting to be filled. Wonder if that is how this war started. Wonder if between every Melida and every Daan there is a space for something Other.

No one remembers how the war started, only that it did. Maybe there used to be a third faction, maybe something other (something more, something Ben) and when it died or left there was nothing left to bridge the Melida and the Daan.

Ben is sure as the earth, light as the air (only because they cannot hear him cry at night). He is a contradiction. He says strange things and does the impossible. Sometimes he glows with something else (something more).

He is remembered as the one who stayed (no one will say where he went). He is remembered as the Other between all Melida and all Daan.

There is an empty seat in every house. An empty seat in the Trivumate, waiting to be filled. Outside historians call it the Absent Third Phenomena— they are not sure why it is (they do not want to dig deeper, dig into the bloody history, tear their secrets and traditions and culture from the rotting bodies of child soldiers. they do not want to know). In Melida/Daan there is a word that is untranslatable that describes it, A’Benui. It is sacred. It is told to every child too young to remember the sewers, told by every Young that was touched by Ben (his something other).