know the danger of stunting.

[quigonejinn]

There were no formal days of thanksgiving or holiday. Jedi who had been raised in a particular culture might have their own ethnic holidays, but the Temple itself did not recognize any ceremonies beyond that of a youngling becoming a Padawan, a Padawan becoming a Knight, and a Knight becoming a Master. Even funeral honors were not part of the canon -- if a Knight or Master had a particular wish, he would communicate it to his Padwan or leave it on file at the Temple. It was utterly informal and subject to change.

For example, Qui-Gon had originally made no specific request -- "whatever is convenient" -- but shortly before he died, he changed his mind and asked for cremation in the old Jedi style as soon as possible after death. It had been difficult to find a cremation chamber on a water planet like Naboo, and Obi-Wan had never understood why Qui-Gon made the change. His master never been particularly fond of either tradition or fire, but Obi-Wan had carried through.

Ten year old Anakin, when told this as part of a facts-of-life discussion before his first field mission, had made a face and said, in his vaguely charming, utterly un-Jedi way, that he had no intention of ever having to bury his Master.

...

Entombment on his birth planet was the what this particular Jedi had asked, and since Obi-Wan and Anakin had been headed there to coordinate with the Alderaan dockyards, Obi-Wan volunteered them for the job of seeing Faran Gerdo's body to the planet. Anakin had fidgeted with the notion of sharing their cabin with a corpse no matter how neatly and unobtrusively packaged in a high-tech, hermetically sealed, temperature-controlled coffin; he had similarly been uncomfortable with the notion of putting the statis chamber into the hold with the cargo.

In the end, he fell asleep in an armchair instead of his bed because the armchair was the point of the room farthest away from the coffin, and it was with something of a thump of panic when he woke and he was alone in their cabin with that thing. The overhead lights were off. Anakin's remaining flesh arm had gone entirely to pins-and-needles because he'd fallen asleep on it, and he had use the Force to call his lightsaber to him from the bed, where he'd left it along with his outer robe and boots.

The only light in the cabin was from the stars in the window and the cool, blue glow of the coffin's internal climate control system. From where he sat, Anakin could see the out of Faran's face, perfectly still and composed under the anti-microbial lights.

...

Obi-Wan wanted to be returned to the Temple, if possible, and then have his body destroyed. Anakin, on the hand, had asked to be put in his fighter and shot into space. He had not been particularly willing to think about it, but Obi-Wan had pressed him about it, and it had been flattering to be asked about it even when he was a Padawan. Perhaps being shot into space in his fighter was a little immature -- after all, if he was dead, the fighter would likely bemore useful in the hands of a pilot than driftingin space -- but Anakin had made up his mind as a sixteen year old and had refused to revisit the topic.

His fighter. His lightsaber. The whole idea of death made him nervous, and he prefered not to think about it any sort of context at all. If he were going to die, he wanted it to be as close to being alive as possible.

...

"Did you know Master Faran? Is that why we're doing this?"

Obi-Wan shook his head and continued to sit by the port window. Anakin could pick out a red giant behind Obi-Wan's right shoulder, a nebula by the left cheekbone, and he'd had to come up and had to find Obi-Wan in one of the deserted cargo bays. There was something hypocritical about Obi-Wan lecturing him about being uncomfortable with death, then coming up here to hide because from the corpse.

It must have shown on his face, though, because Obi-Wan pressed his lips together. Instead of saying something, Obi-Wan pressed his lips together and went back to looking at the stars.

After a while, Anakin left.

...

"Qui-Gon had wanted to do this, but he could never remember to do it regularly."

Obi-Wan had called the Living Force into his palm until it glowed blue. The coffin was gone with Gedro's family, but the color was almost the same shade as the lights in his coffin, so intensity aside, it was uncomfortable to look at it. Anakin could imagine how it must prickle, how uncomfortable it would be for Obi-Wan to open himself up like that. All of the lights were turned off in the room; the blinds were drawn, and Anakin rather thought he saw faces in the Force, heard voices.

And then he realized it was just Obi-Wan, giving quiet, intense thanks for the fact that he had been born Force Sensitive, that he had been accepted by the Order and had been trained by Qui-Gon.

Most surprisingly, given how much they had been fighting recently, Obi-Wan even gave thanks for Anakin.