Fandom High School

"Hey," Ben said with a quick smile. "I know we've done a lot of talking at you over this summer, so I'm interested to know if there's anything you think you've learned about the weirdness of the island--if you're up to sharing of course, no pressure--or anything you're worried about with the newcomers showing up on Saturday. Who would you love to see? Who would make life complicated?"

"Is there any particular situation we haven't discussed yet that you'd like us to speak about?" Obi-Wan asked, spreading his arms. "There are rather a lot of them, I must say. Unfortunately."

Ben smiled ruefully. "The perils of the multiverse," he agreed. "For me, knowing my mother's here has made my life more complicated, so I can't imagine anyone else showing up that would make it worse."

"Your moth--" No, asking would probably be a terrible idea. "My own 'worst case' was here when I arrived," he said. "My old apprentice Anakin. We... had had our differences last time I saw him. It took time."

Ben smiled at Ahsoka if she was there. "Yeah, I can imagine."

"Please," said Obi-Wan, spreading his arms. "Discuss."

"Some of you have had this lesson before," Obi-Wan warned up front, "But as the new semester is approaching once more, it seems relevant to bring it up again for the rest of you. See, not all familiar faces who make it to these shores are actually familiar. This school has a lively history of what is commonly referred to as doppelgangers. People who share the same face as a friend or a relative, yet have no connection to them whatsoever."

"My first summer here as a student there was another student who looked just like my older cousin," Ben said. "It was extremely disconcerting."

"It creates a uniquely complicated situation," Obi-Wan said. "It is easy to simply try and ignore them, though circumstances may occasionally make this difficult. A different path would be to befriend them, so eventually whatever unique features they may have begin to pave over the memories one has of the person they most resemble."

He gave a vague wave at the class. "Of course, that may not be emotionally feasible, especially if that person is tied to... traumatic occurrences. They may resemble an old enemy, or a relative who betrayed you... or died."

Ben nodded hard. "I spent a lot of the summer camped out on the beach, which is really not the healthiest choice."

"Whatever feelings you may have about it when it happens," Obi-Wan said, smiling faintly, "They are valid. It is not an easy situation to find yourself in. Still, it is best to consider how one would handle it: there must be more strategies than simply hiding, running away, or trying to pretend as if nothing is wrong. And, for that matter... Can you think of someone whose very face may cause you anguish to the point of self-banishment?"

"We'll end this session's class with one of my favorite stories about Fandom," Ben said with a little grin. "You see, my dad is a twin, and he and his sister were separated at birth for their own safety because there was a huge war and they'd be great pawns, et cetera, et cetera." His eyes twinkled at Obi-Wan. "So there was this huge adventure when my dad was a teenager, got off the isolated sand dune of a planet he'd been living on...and met his twin sister. But no one told him it was his twin. So after this first adventure, he got sent here to get off of the Emperor's radar and ran into a bout of Fandom weirdness. Boys turned into girls for the weekend, and Dad's body turned into that of this girl Leia that he knew."

Ben snickered. "Sorry. Trying to imagine Dad attempting Aunt Leia's hair. It's...elaborate, and he's basically had the same bowl cut for 70 years."

"He clearly did not get his hair care regimen from his father, then," Obi-Wan said wryly. "Did I ever mention the time he shaved his entire head as a teenager--? No matter."

He cleared his throat. "Fandom has many surprises in store for you all," he said. "This may well be one of them. So the question we end this class on is: just how well do you know your family-- and how badly can they come and mess things up for you?"

"Welcome back, everyone," Ben said with an easy grin. "Hopefully your weeks were less eventful than the weekend, though my daughter certainly enjoyed streaking around our room." Ben paused. "She's a year old, so it wasn't weird."

Obi-Wan repressed a smile. "The most straightforward unexpected family event you may suffer on Fandom is the appearance of a relative at the Welcome Picnic," he said. "If you are lucky - or depending on the circumstances, not so - it will be the relative you know, from the same time that you came in on, and the same place."

Ben nodded. "If you're not so lucky--and trust me on this one because it happened to me--you meet one who doesn't know the trauma they're going to hit a few months or years down the road."

"How does one deal with that?" Obi-Wan said. "Say, you know a relative will perish within the next two years - and there they are, alive and well, unknowing of what fate might befall them. Or perhaps they'll fall ill, or have some terrible brush with danger. Do you tell them? How?"

"And how do you deal with it if nothing changes, either if you tell them or keep it to yourself?" Ben added. "You know, the easy questions."

"It is best to be prepared, just in case," Obi-Wan said. "We would like you to discuss this in the hypothetical, and consider if there is anyone you know who might put you in such a situation."