"...Getting to the crystal was - natural. Easy."

"But when I picked it up, I - those weren't normal visions."

(A shiver runs through her again.)

"The crystal caves are often- unique."

"No, I - "

"They were real." Squeeze and even more aggressive burying her face in Elesse's robes.

Hug.

"What did you see?"

"...Can you - read my mind for it? I - some of it's. Jumbled up."

"All right."

She reaches out for Anakin's thoughts.

She relaxes into Elesse, opening her shields enough Elesse can see whatever she wants to. Anakin nudges the memory of entering the caves to the front, though. 

(This is... Really, really nice. They haven't done this often before, but feeling Elesse in her mind settles something in Anakin nearly immediately. She can't be nervous about how to word things, how to communicate, whether or not Elesse will judge her if she does say something, because it's all - there. (It feels safe, too, even beyond that ease.))

She can feel it as Elesse prods through her experiences in order.

"Very unusual," she says at length.

Yeah.

(Anakin's not bothering talking. Words are hard, and she hadn't fully realized how hard until her brain noticed letting Elesse just see her thoughts is apparently an option.)

Lots of them were - kinda upsetting. There was - (She pokes the second one, when the her there tore into Anakin's head for an answer. Anakin thinks she understands why, but it hurt, and - that hurt's fading, but she thinks it - might've more than just felt bad.)

But - 

For some reason the ?dark? Elesse was way more upsetting than anything else. Even the very depressed Anakin who's - probably dark side if you can meaningfully be using a side of the Force when your ability to want things has fucked off, and also probably suicidal. Anakin just feels - sadness and empathy for that her.

(The ones who were married were embarrassing but like. That was actually a nice vision. Definitely in the top three.) (...Weirdly depressed dark Anakin is actually probably also in the top three, her situation wasn't very confusing like some of the others, and Anakin actually thinks she was able to help that her some???) (Elesse with baby Anakin was the nicest. Elesse's cute when she's holding a baby. She should join Anakin in the creche more.)

(...Anakin's thoughts are getting a bit off track.)

She's pretty sure visions aren't supposed to contain other versions of you who know you're there, though. Or anyone who knows you're there! She'd also thought 'all things are possible in the Force' didn't actually mean there's - multiple coexisting timelines you can apparently vision-project to???

"It's really not supposed to. I think... I have some research to do when we get back."

Giggle. 

Elesse's cute when she's has things to research. And Anakin wants to help research, too.

And - having Elesse look at her memories is helping her sort them a lot, and helping strip out a lot of the ways her emotions are trying to cloud her memory.

She thinks that second her might've known what was going on? Or... Something close to it. So - maybe there's something useful from the information she was trying to pull? If they know what she was looking for, maybe they can figure out some of the why. 

There's also - two of the worlds (ghost her and married them) felt normal? But the ones with baby her, Evil Elesse, and depressed her had a very weirdly behaving Force in the same way as each other, Anakin thinks, and the mind-reading her felt like - the her was using the Force normally but the world was even weirder?

But she wasn't in most of them long enough to be sure that her senses were getting anything accurate. Still, it's something to research.

"I also think we should each write our impressions down."

That sounds good... Looking at it together helps but there's advantages to thinking separately too...

Even if this way feels nicer.

"And it will also be a record we can review later, when this is less fresh in our minds."

Mmhmm. Anakin uses her diaries for that, too...

"You're familiar with the required technique, then."

She is. 

...It's usually best to write things down right away, but Anakin also doesn't want to stop cuddling or stop having her mind read just yet...

Elesse will use her incredible mastery of the Force to summon the writing implements directly to them.

Giggle. Truly the most talented Jedi Master in the galaxy. 

Anakin does have to twist around to look at what she's writing, but cuddling with her back and side to Elesse's chest is just as good, especially sitting down. She snuggles back into Elesse and starts writing, mind settling properly into a analytical frame. Anakin thinks quickly like this - and demonstrates her own budding mastery by using the Force to move her stylus.

(She writes a lot, and sometimes she gets into moods when it feels like the words are a building geyser she needs to get out, and using the Force to write helps keep her from getting agitated about this, keeps her focused, and dramatically reduces her incidences of carpal tunnel syndrome and assorted repetitive stress injuries. This isn't quite that same kind of geyser, but... She's definitely got a lot to note down, and not a lot of interest into getting into an ergonomic position to write it from.)

Once they've both gotten everything down they want to about the visions, they can take a look at the crystal Anakin grabbed.

It's beautiful, still - though the glimmer in it feels a bit different from when Anakin first picked it up. 

It is very nice. Anakin will have to start getting serious about choosing a saber design to build.

Hm... She'd narrowed it down a lot, but now the main designs she was deciding between both feel wrong for this...

Back to the drawing board, then.

Heh. Design's fun, but she does want to ever finish it... She'll try to focus, though. (Some ideas are bubbling up in her head, but most of them don't bubble very far before drifting off.)