Agri Corps
An explanation leaves Anakin troubled and Obi-Wan amused. Innocent and fairly happy, post TPM.
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It's hard to remember the things Anakin doesn't know, things the youngest crechling takes for granted.
It isn't hard to remember his inevitable reaction when he finds out.
"That's terrible!" Anakin cries, waves of anger bursting out from him as loudly as his voice in the hushed gardens of the Temple. A few birds flutter, startled, from the trees, and Obi-Wan hopes none of the Jedi Council are taking a noon-time walk in the gardens. Especially not Master Yoda.
"Anakin..." he says warningly, looking down at his young padawan.
It has the predictable result. Anakin says no more. He simply pouts, and emotion continues to bristle from him as fiercely as the stubble of his padawan hair cut. There is a very, very long silence, entirely different to the tranquillity of the rest of the gardens, in which it seems to Obi-Wan that every noise is Master Yoda coming around the corner to find young Kenobi once again struggling with his padawan. And then, finally, Anakin subsides. He puts his hands into his sleeves in imitation of Obi-Wan, takes a deep breath and looks back up.
"That doesn't seem … fair." A pause. "Master?" he adds, as if the magic word he so frequently forgets might change the matter.
The matter, this time, is the Agri Corps. An older Youngling, one whom Anakin had managed, if not quite to become friends with, but at least become acquainted with by constantly beating him at basic light saber training exercises, has not been assigned a Master. When his duelling partner was not to be found, Anakin asked for him, and the answer he received did not make sense to him. Obi-Wan's contemplative walk in the gardens was abruptly interrupted by a puzzled padawan – and then, the outburst.
Obi-Wan's explanation of what "gone to Agri Corps" meant sounds, to Anakin's ears, like slavery.
"Not everyone serves in the same way," Obi-Wan reasons patiently. "Does Jocasta Nu in the library do the same thing as Master Windu? Or the Healers?"
Anakin's pout threatens to return. He is making an effort – a rather obvious effort – to block a little of his outraged and unchanged opinions on the matter, but Obi-Wan can still see what the major problem is. The Agri Corps do not carry Anakin's dream of a light-sabre on their belts.
"The Agri Corps serves by growing our food," Obi-Wan urges. "Without them, we would all be hungry." He sighs, and changes course. Sometimes people convince Anakin, where logic and even dinner do not. "I was once Agri Corps, you know."
Another thing Anakin did not know. Another wave of emotion rolls through the peace of the gardens, and Anakin's blue eyes grow huge with surprise and concern. "You were?"
It wasn't quite the result he wanted, but Obi-Wan accepts the best of it and nods. "Before Master Qui-Gon accepted me, I was Agri Corps," he says. A more detailed explanation can wait for a later date – or should, but Anakin cannot, apparently, ever help asking another question.
"Qui-Gon didn't want you at once?"
"He..." No. Obi-Wan stops. A more detailed explanation really can wait for a later date. "Not immediately," he says simply.
Master and padawan stand in silent thought for a moment, staring at the flowering shrub before them. It is a … Obi-Wan cannot remember. He hopes Anakin is not going to ask, although greenery has been quite an interest of his. It is an interest he would have shared with Qui-Gon, although Obi-Wan suspects it is only brought on by contrast to the barren desert of Tatooine, rather than through an affinity to the Living Force. In this un-affinity, he and Anakin are much alike. How many hours did Qui-Gon spend, trying to get his padawan even to remember the names of plants?
Suddenly, Obi-Wan chuckles. He had buried the hurt of being un-assigned in the joy of Qui-Gon's acceptance of him, but he has never before appreciated the humour of the situation.
"For a while, I was afraid Qui-Gon took me out of sympathy," he says, gesturing Anakin forwards that they might resume his contemplative walk together. "Now I see he probably did – sympathy for the plants!"
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