OH, HE’S NOT KEEN ON THINKING about his captors kindly. if they didn’t grant him his abilities and equipment back in nice and pretty shape, he’d have much WORSE to say. but there’s a sense of leeway, that barret would take any opportunity he could get if given an inch. and they’ve given him not JUST an inch, but a good yard or so.
❝yeah, ain’t it a FUNNY thing to say?❞ he says, laughing at the suggestion. ❝having to pick the lesser of two evils and all that. from my understanding, they sought to get rid of us outright. none of this shit where ya come back if ya die. i’d say that’s worse … especially if ya still got HOPE.❞
hope that you escape or hope that the stars will let you go. there’s no chance in either thought kindling and blossoming if you’re DEAD.
and it seems like this guy still has hope in spades. good. a half smile brushes against his lips. ❝the problem is, we can’t VENTURE too far from the city’s borders. if we were taken by conventional means, whatever ‘port’ they’d have is far off from here. we haven’t even seen the ENTIRE island.❞
and truth be told, he’s ITCHING to explore what they are open to. leaving is his top priority, but barret has always been bold of heart. from back when he was a child, digging around corel’s mines at far too young an age - how dyne and myrna put up with him is a miracle and a half - to his decision to face the corrupt shinra corp head on. there’s always a way, an opportunity for something beyond the SCOPE of human comfort, and for the most part, he was eager to take it head on.
❝have ya explored BEYOND the main city? there’s a lot of … ❞ he trails off. almost calls the outer limits FUN, but the biggest part of his gut instinct suggests that it would take very few people to get this guy to have fun. he’s prickly, that’s for sure. ❝well, there’s interestin’ things out there. unusual sights. the mistwood oughta reminds me of my hometown, but every time i venture in, it feels so … WRONG.❞
This is the first time Anakin has heard that.
❝ What do you mean, you come back if you die? ❞ His eyes narrow to skeptical slits, openly dubious – but still sharp, interested. The very concept that this guy seems to be suggesting is enough to make him question whether or not he heard him right. It sounds almost like he’s implying that people… don’t truly die while imprisoned by the Stars? Anakin cannot even begin to grasp what that’s supposed to mean. Death is not simply a line drawn in the dirt that one can hop over, back and forth, on a whim.
Of course, people coming back after they supposedly die is not something unheard of; Darth Maul is a prime example. But Maul wasn’t actually dead – his death was simply assumed, which is a completely different story than what this man seems to be talking about.
In the back of his mind, a thought emerges, like an object bobbing to the surface of a lake – Ahsoka died. On Mortis, Ahsoka died. But no sooner has the thought entered his mind than he stubbornly brushes it aside. No. Ahsoka is fine. And on a place like Mortis… that was an entirely different set of circumstances.
Although Anakin is vaguely familiar with some of what lies beyond the main city, he hasn’t attempted to breach the borders. He hadn’t even known borders existed, actually, because wandering aimlessly into the wilderness beyond seemed rather counterintuitive; if a way off the planet did exist, it probably wouldn’t be in the middle of nowhere, and he’d seen no need to abandon civilization.
But the other’s words raise an interesting question – how far can people go? The fact that there’s a restriction makes the place seem even more like a prison – a fenced off area specifically for the people the Stars have uprooted from their homes. ❝ You can’t venture too far? ❞ he echoes, frowning a little. ❝ What, like it’s ray shielded or something? ❞ It’d be a rather large area to encompass within a ray shield, but presumably there’s some sort of barrier.
